The Mufaddaliyat - An Anthology of Ancient Arabian Odes #232354

In offering to the public the second volume of the Anthology compiled by al-Mufaddal, containing the translation and English commentary, I should explain that the printing of the first volume was interrupted in 1914 by the outbreak of the European War, and that the work of translation had to be completed before the Arabic text was fully in type. This, however, applies only to the portion from p. 335 of this volume onwards to the end, and I believe that no important discrepancies, if any, will be found between the translation and the text.<br><br>The whole of the second volume has been read in proof by my friend Prof. A. A. Bevan, to whose valuable criticism and suggestions I owe much. The Subject Index, compiled after the matter of the volume was in type, has been enriched by many observations dealing with the plants and trees mentioned in the poems, supplied by Prof. J. J. Hess of Zurich, whose high authority on this subject is generally recognized by European scholars, and to whom my grateful thanks are due. It will be seen that the entries in the Index do not always agree with the conclusions provisionally adopted in the text, and it will be understood that the identifications in the former supersede those in the latter.<br><br>In the Introduction the history of the Collection, and its character as a trustworthy compilation of genuine specimens of ancient Arabian poetic art, are explained; and it remains only to commend its study to those interested in the development of civilization, and especially in the far-reaching influence which the victories of Islam, with Arab thought and culture behind them, exercised in the three Continents from the seventh century onwards. No race has ever expressed itself more completely, or with greater faithfulness, in its national literature, an appreciation of which is therefore indispensable to any adequate view of the part played by the Arabs in the history of Mankind.