George Sale, The Koran, commonly called the Alcoran of Mohammed, translated into English immediately from the original Arabic; with Explanatory Notes, taken from the most approved Commentators. To which is prefixed A Preliminary Discource (1734)

to its present form, was Yakût al Mostásemi, secretary to al Mostásem, the last of the Khalîfs of the family of Abbâs, for which reason, he was surnamed al Khattât, or the scribe.

The accomplishments the Arabs valued themselves chiefly on, were, 1. Eloquence, and a perfect skill in their own tongue; 2. Expertness in the use of arms, and horsemanship; and, 3. Hospitality ³: The first they exercised themselves in, by composing of orations, and poems. Their orations were of two sorts, metrical, or prosaic, the one being compared to pearls strung, and the other to loose ones. They endeavour’d to excel in both, and whoever was able, in an assembly, to persuade the people to a great enterprize, or dissuade them from a dangerous one, or gave them other wholesome advice, was honoured with the title of Khâteb, or orator, which is now given to the Mohammedan preachers. They pursued a method very different from that of the Greek and Roman orators; their sentences being like loose gems, without connection, so that this sort of composition struck the audience chiefly by the fulness of the periods, the elegance of the expression, and the acuteness of the proverbial sayings; and so persuaded were they of their excelling in this way, that they would not allow any nation to understand the art of speaking in public, except themselves, and the Persians; which last were reckoned much inferiour in that respect to the Arabians ². Poetry was in so great esteem among them, that it was a great accomplishment, and a proof of ingenuous extraction, to be able to express one’s self in verse with ease and elegance, on any extraordinary occurrence, and even in their common discourse, they made frequent applications of celebrated passages of their famous poets. In their poems were preserved the distinction of descents, the rights of tribes, the memory of great actions, and the propriety of their language; for which reasons an excellent poet reflected an honour on his tribe, so that as soon as any one began to be admired for his performances of this kind in a tribe, the other tribes sent publickly to congratulate them on the occasion, and themselves made entertainments, at which the women assisted, drest in their nuptial ornaments, singing to the found of timbrels the happiness of their tribe, who had now one to protect their honour, to preserve their genealogies and the purity of their language, and to transmit their actions to posterity ³; for this was all performed by their poems, to which they were solely obliged for their knowledge and instructions, moral and æconomical, and to which