705-715), were the most
distinguished.

During the period of their Khalifate there were not only male, but
also some female poets. All their poems are mostly short, and confined
to amatory, laudatory, or vituperative compositions, called forth by
the momentary circumstances in which the authors happened to be
placed. These pieces do not represent either deep thought or profound
wisdom, but they show the feelings of the people, and their state of
civilization at the time in question.

During this Khalifate were also produced the earliest germs of
stylistics, epistolography and mysticism, all of which were more fully
developed under the Abbasides. The originator of the first two was the
Katib Abd Al-Hamid, secretary to the last Omaiyide Khalif, and he is
designated in an old Arabic rhyme as 'the father of all secretaries.'
Epistolary writing, it was said, began with Abd Al-Hamid, and finished
with Ibn Al-Amid. As regards mysticism, the origin of its doctrines is
sometimes assigned to Oweis Al-Kareni, the Prophet's companion, who
disappeared mysteriously in A.D. 658. But mysticism and Sufism were
subsequently much developed by Muhi-uddin Muhammad, surnamed Ibn
Al-Arabi, a most voluminous writer on these subjects. He was born at
Murcia, in Spain, A.D. 1165, and after studying in that country, went
to the East, made the pilgrimage, visited Cairo and other cities, and
died at Damascus A.D. 1240. He is the author of many works, but the
most remarkable of them are 'Revelations obtained at Mecca' and
'Maxims of Wisdom set as Jewels.' Both Makkari the historian, and Von
Hammer Purgstall, in his history of Arabian literature from the
earliest times, give a long account of him.

Of the Khalifs of the house of Abbas, the second, third, fifth and
seventh, viz., Al-Mansur (A.D. 754-775), Al-Mahdi (A.D. 775-785),
Harun-ar-Rashid (A.D. 786-809), and Al-Mamun (A.D. 812-833) were the
most distinguished as patrons of art, science and literature. But
after the translation of the 'Arabian Nights' into European languages,
the name of Harun-ar-Rashid became the best known in Europe as the
representative of the most brilliant period of the Eastern Khalifate,
and as the great protector of Arabic literature.

Baghdad, the capital of the Abbasides, was founded by their second
Khalif, Al-Mansur, in A.D. 760, finished in four years, and raised to
a high degree of splendour by Harun-ar-Rashid. Originally it was
considered only as a great strate