11. Muhammad II. (Al-Mahdi-billah) 1009-1009
12. Sulaiman 1009-1010
Hisham II. for the second time 1010-1013
Sulaiman for the second time 1013-1016
(1) Ali bin Hammud, a Berber chief 1016-1018
13. Abd-ar-Rahman IV. 1018-1019
(2) Al Kasim bin Hammud 1019-1023
14. Abd-ar-Rahman V. 1023-1024
15. Muhammad III. 1024-1025
(3) Yabya bin Ali bin Hammud 1025-1027
16. Hisham III. 1027-1031

A complete list of all the Muhammadan rulers in Spain will be found in
Makkari's history of these dynasties, translated by Gayangos.

CHAPTER II.

LITERARY.

The oral communications of the ancient Egyptians, Medes and Persians,
the two classic tongues of Europe, the Sanscrit of the Hindus and the
Hebrew of the Jews, have long since ceased to be living languages. For
the last twelve centuries no Western language has preserved its
grammar, its style, or its literature intact and intelligible to the
people of the present day. But two Eastern tongues have come down from
ages past to our own times, and continue to exist unchanged in books,
and, to a certain extent, also unchanged in language, and these are
Chinese and Arabic. In China, though the dialects differ in the
various provinces of the empire, still the written language has
remained the same for centuries. In Arabia the Arabic language has
retained its originality without very much dialectical alteration.

The unchangeable character of the Arabic language is chiefly to be
attributed to the Koran, which has, from its promulgation to the
present time, been regarded by all Muhammadans as the standard of
religion and of literary composition. Strictly speaking, not only the
history, but also the literature of the Arabs begins with Muhammad.
Excepting the Mua'llakat, and other pre-Islamitic poems collected in
the Hamasas of Abu Tammam and Al-Bohtori, in Ibn Kutaiba and in the
Mofaddhaliat, no literary monuments that preceded his time are in
existence. The Koran became, not only the code of religious and of
civil law, but also the model of the Arabic language, and the standard
of diction and eloquence. Muhammad himself scorned metrical rules; he
claimed as an apostle and lawgiver a title higher than that of
soothsayer and poet. Still, his poetic talent is manifest in numerous
passage