on with their lives, and a few of these stories are now
given below.

I.

Ibn Abbas, son of Abbas, uncle of Muhammad, was one of the ablest
interpreters of the Koran. It was owing to his efforts that the study
of the poems, composed before the introduction of Islamism, became of
such importance to the Muslims, for he frequently quoted verses of the
ancient poets in proof of the explanation he gave of different
passages of the Koran, and he used to say: 'When you meet with a
difficulty in the Koran look for its solution in the poems of the
Arabs, for these are the registers of the Arabic nation.' On being
asked how he had acquired his extensive knowledge, he replied: 'By
means of an inquiring tongue and an intelligent heart.'

It may here perhaps be stated that the Koran, composed avowedly in the
purest Arabic, offered many difficulties to those who were not
acquainted with the idiom of the desert Arabs, a race who alone spoke
the language in its perfection. The study of the ancient poets was
therefore considered as necessary for the intelligence of the Koran,
and their poems, often obscure from the intricacy of their
construction and their obsolete terms, required the assistance of
grammatical analysis and philology to render them comprehensible.

II.

Ibn Faris Ar-Razi, the Philologist, is the author of these verses:

'Well, some things succeed and some fail: when my heart is filled with
cares I say: "One day perhaps they may be dispelled." A cat is my
companion; books the friends of my heart; and a lamp my beloved
consort.'

III.

Badi Az-Zaman al-Hamadani, the author of some beautiful epistles and
excellent essays, which last Hariri took as a model in the composition
of his, wrote as follows about death: 'Death is awful till it comes,
and then it is found light; its touch seems grating till felt, and
then it is smooth; the world is so hostile and its injustice so great
that death is the lightest of its inflictions, the least of its
wrongs. Look, then, to the right; do you see aught but affliction?
Look to the left; do you see aught but woe?'

IV.

Abu Wathila Iyas Al-Kadi was renowned for his excessive acuteness of
mind, observation, and penetration. Many stories are told about him in
connection with these qualities, which are really astonishing. It is
related of him that he said: 'I was never worsted in penetration but
by one man: I had taken my seat in the court of judgment at Busra,