A treatise of religion & learning and of religious and learned men consisting of six books, the two first treating of religion & learning, the four last of religious or learned men in an alphabetical order ... / by Edward Leigh ...

Of the Arabick.

It is 1. a very ancient Language,* 1.1 as Jerom shews in his Commentaries upon the Prophet Esay, and in his Preface to Daniel and Job; and Erpenius in his first Orat. De ling. Arab.

2. It is of larger extent now then any other Language, almost the third part of the habitable world acknowledgeth it.

Although I be farre from their opinion, which write (too overlashingly) that the Arabian tongue is in use in two third parts of the inhabited world, or in more, yet I finde that it extendeth very farre, and specially where the Religion of Mahu∣med is professed. Brerew. Enquir. ch. 8.

Ejus beneficio valebimus sine interprete conversari cum Mauro, Aegyptio, Syro,

Persa, Turcho, Tartaro, Indo, & ut semel dicam, ferè in toto terrarum orbe. Postellus.

3. It is an elegant Language whether we consider the plentie of words, and the force of signification, or the sweetnesse of the phraseology, or the facility and gravity of the whole Language. All these particulars Erpenius proves in his first Oration. De Ling. Arab. and M^r Greaves saith, it exceeds both the Greek and Latine in number of words.

* 1.24. It is a profitable Language. He that hath the knowledge of this Language, may travell without an Interpreter almost all over Africa and Asia. There are many words in the Hebrew Bible, and the most ancient and profitable Chaldee Translation of it, and many manners of speaking whose signification and sense cannot be had but out of this Language. Without the knowledge of this Lan∣guage, how shall the impious opinion of Mahomet be either fully known or refuted?

It gives great light to the Syriack, Aethiopick, Persian, and other Languages, to the Mathematicks,* 1.3 they having invented the Algebra, and having Mathemati∣cians more acurate then Ptolomy, to Physick, Avicenna, Mesua, Serapio, Rasis were famous Physicians. Averroes, Avicenna and others much adorned Philoso∣phy. They have very many famous Poets, Historians. Ingentes Historiarum co∣pias habent, obscurae & sepultae jam antiquitati lucem vitamque allaturas. Poetarum illis seges densissima est, ut nullibi terrarum major ingeniorum messis provenerit, saith M^r Greaves in his Oration.

He commends it also for its facility, for here are no dialects at all, no turnings of flexions, no anomalies.

Mercer, Joseph Scaliger, Francis Rophelengius, Isaac Casanbone, Emanuel Tremelius, and Francis Junius, Clenard, Golius, and our Pocock and Graves highly prized this Language, and promoted the study of it.

The Arabians (saith Bedwell) translated the Syriack Testament not the Greek, as it will appear by many places to him that shall compare them, whence those things which are very well rendred by the Syriack, are also rendred ad verba by the Arabick, where the Syriack hath erred, there also the Arabick hath much more missed the mark.

Notes

• * 1.1

  Si ut homini∣bus, ita linguis etiam genus & prosapia nobilitatem addat, nostra uni cedit He∣braeae, primae huic (nec longo sane intervallo proxima) & divinae parentis germanissima filia. Greav. Orat. De Linguae Arab. util. & praestant. Sive autem Hagarenos & Saracenos, sive Arabes dixeris uno nomine, lingua usi sunt, hodiéque utuntur eâ, quae praeter Hebraeam & Chaldaeam omnibus caeteris prior & antiquior est, & quasi mater earum censetur, in Africa, Asiaque ita vigens, ut eam infantes à matribus suis haurire possint. Crines. De confus. Ling. c. 6. Vide plura ibid. Hinc usum ejus obtinere & in pretio esse videmus, non apud Arabes tantum, sed & Mauros, Poenos, Nubios, Aegyptios, Syros, Chaldaeos, Turcas, Armenos, Persas, ••artaros, Indos; item Graecos, Macedones, Thraces, Ungaros, & alios Europae populos; ne multis, apud majorem earum gentium partem, quae orbem antiquis cognitum incolunt. Erpen. Orat. De Ling. Arab. Namque in ipsa Heberi familia primum nata Arabica lingua, cum gente sua & longe diffusa, & in proprio semper conservata solo, tandem quoque extra illud ita propagata fuit, ut hodiè extremos orientis & occidentis terminos conjungat; per tanta terrae lati∣fundia sacri & profani doctarumque mentium jam per multa saecula interpres. Golii Paefat. ad Lexicon Arabico Latin. Illud enim inter eruditos pridem convenit, Nullam unquam ab orbe condito linguam latè adecò diffusam, aut plus terrarum occupasse. Non enim in Arabia modo, amplissima quidem regione tanquam privato lare habitavit, sed Asiam penè universam, maximam Africae, haud mediocrem Europae partem peruaga••a est. Greav Orat. De Ling. Arab. util. & praestant. Nulla Lingua hodiè, nec usquam olim in tot partibus orbis locum habuit. Postellus.
• * 1.2

  Vide Pocock. Not. Miscel. in portam Mosis.
• * 1.3

  Nulla, mi Lector, lingua est (Graecam & Latinam excipio) quae plura solidae eruditionis & encyclopaediae monumenta continet. In Theologia multos ea & graves scripto∣res habet. In re medica, bone Deus, quanta è scriptorum Caterva memorabo, Rhasin, Abin Sennam, Mesuem, Serapionem? Quam bonos, quam serios scriptores: Mathemeticis omnium charissimi Arabes: quia Mathematica illis. Hac enim artes hi prae caeteris na∣tionibus invenerunt, coluerunt, perfecerunt. Testes mihi Geber, Haly, Thebit, Alphraganus, Albumasar, & alii multi graves & actri ingenii authores, quorum inventa in his artibus valdè celebrantur. Bedw. Praef. ad Joh. Apost. Epist. Cathol. Arab. Vide Erpenii Orat. 2. De Lingua Arabica. Ad medicinam & humani corporis salutem nati planè videntur, neque ulli artem hanc meliore Phoebo, aut dextro magis numine aggressi sunt. Greav. De Linguae Arab. util. & praestant. Quos inter classem ducit naturae nostrae miraculum poenè Avicenna, in Philosophia vix Stagiri••â minor, medendi arte nihil Galen cedens, idem cum maximis oratoribus facundiae gloria conferendus. Id. ibid.