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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[APRIL, 1884.
assumed. 'Amrú ibna'l-'s' conqueror and governor of Egypt,' was an orator and poet, a lover of learning and of learned men. His literary gifts had been displayed in his earlier days, when he (like so many of his fellowcountrymen) wrote lampoons on Muhammad." This conduct he afterwards came to regret, and embraced The Faith. He was fond of the society of the learned ; and he sought to make up, by assoeiation with them, for the deficiencies of his early education. He found a congenial companion in a native of Alexandria, the celebrated John the Grammarian,--the last disciple of Ammonius. This man was a Christian, of the sect of the Jacobites, and was surnamed Philoponus, a lover of labour,'—John the Industrious. He had attained to eminence for his laborious treatises of various kinds,-Buch as works on Grammar and Philology, and Commentaries on Moses and Aristotle.' The Arabian conqueror and chief, being naturally of a more inguiring and liberal spirit than his Muslim coreligionists, interested himself during his leisure hours in conversation with this Christian scholar, and an intimacy was soon formed between them.
Now, after the capture of Alexandria, an account was taken of all the public property; but the collection of books and manuscripts which constituted the Alexandrian library was omitted. It is alleged that, in an unlucky moment, John gave information to 'Amrů of this undoticed treasure; and that, emboldened
by the terms of familiar intercourse which bad sprung up between them, the loving student went so far as to ask that the collection might be given to him. In his opinion the treasure was inestimable, however contemptible,' to use Gibbon's term, it may bave been in the estimation of the barbarians.' 'Amrû, it is said, was inclined to gratify the wish of his friend, but could not give effect to his inclinations without first referring the matter to the Khalifa, his master. To this came the famous answer of 'Umar,-an answer embodying a sophism that might have weight with an ignorant fanatic, but which could only excite the astonishment and regret of a philosopher, -If these writings of the Greeks agree with the Qur'an-the Book of God-they are superfluous, and need not be preserved ; but if they disagree, they are pernicious and ought to be destroyed In The sentence was carried out with blind obedience; and the volumes of parchment were distributed to the four thousand baths of the city,--not necessarily to heat them, perhaps, but probably rather to kindle them. Rollin, however, says they were used for fuel instead of wood. However this may be, such was the almost incredible quantity of literature that six months were barely sufficient for the consumption of this precious fuel." The story is given by Abu'lFaragius;" it is doubted, as every one knows, by Gibbon, but received by many scholars,
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Also spelt 'Aas, Aasi,' and 'Aage ;' but not 'Dass, as Mr. Lake's printer (Islam, ita Origin, Genius, and Mission, p. 96) has it. The form 'Amru is also spelt Amr.tho a being added merely to prevent the word from being confounded with the name of 'Umar. The letters in Arabic are exactly the same in each case, s -the vowel of the initial consonant boing omitted. Conf. Burckhardt, Arabia, vol. II, p. 416.
Elmacinus, Historia Saracenica, vol. I, pp. 23-4; Ockley, History of the Saracens, vol. I, p. 314 seqq. Abu'l-Faragius, Historia Dynastiarum, p. 9; Pocock, Specimen, p. 112.
Ookley, History of the Saracens, vol. I, p. 312; Forster, Mahometanism Unveiled, vol. I, p. 46.
• Muir, Life of Mahomet, vol. IV, p. 90, Irving, Life of Mahomet, p. 48.
. This man was the son of a courtesan of Makka, who seems to havo rivalled in fascination the Phrynes and Aspasias of Greece, and to have numbered some of the nobles of the land among her lovers. Who may have been his real father is not known. When his mother gave bitth to him, she mentioned several of the tribe of the Bant Quraish who had equal claims to the paternity. The oldest of her admirers was a man named As (As ibni WAyil, of the Sahm family) and to him the infant was declared to have most resemblance; and from this frat he came to receive, in addition to his own name of "'Amra,' the patronymio Ibna'l-'Assion of As.' As if to stone for the blemish of his birth, Nature had lavished apon this child some of the choicest of her gifts;
and while yet young, he came to be one of the most popular poeta of Arabin,-being distinguished no less for the pungency of his satirical allusions than for the captivating sweetness of his more serious lays. When Muhammad first announced himself a prophet, this youth assailed him with lampoons and humorous madrigala and those, being, as they were, exactly the kind of thing to fall in with the taste of the Arabs in respect of poetry, obtained a wide circulation, and proved kreator impediments to the growth of tha new religion than the bittorost persecution. Thus was 'Amra, who afterwards made such a distinguished figure in the history of The Faith, one of the most redoubtable and effective of the assailants of its founder.-Conf. Irving, Life of Maho. met, p. 49.
• OLXómovos ;-not' Philopomas,' as Mr. Lake's printer (p. 96) calls him.
The reader who is interested in the achievements of this man in the realm of philosophy may consult Sir Wm. Hamilton's Lecturer on Metaphysics, vol. I. PP. 114. 200, 250; and vol. II, pp. 7, 39, 155 (ed. Edinb, and Lond. 1861).
• Newton, Dissertations on the Prophecies, p. 197. • Newton, Dissertations on the Prophecies, p. 197. 20 Crichton, History of Arabia, vol. I, p. 393.
1 Conf. Ockley, History of the Saracens, pp. 293-4 (edn. Lond. 1870), Prideaux, Connection of the Old and New Testamente, pt. II, bk. I, anno 284.
Abu'l-Faragius, Historia Dynastiarum, p. 180 (p. 114 of ed. Oxon. 1663).
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