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of the Value of the Oriental Movement in German Literature. 79 TRANSCRIPTION. For the transcription of Sanskrit words the system of the _Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenlaendischen Gesellschaft_ has been followed; for that of Persian words the system of the Grundriss der iranischen Philologie has been adopted, with some variations however, e.g. [Arabic] is indicated by '. To be consistent, such familiar names as Hafiz and Nizami appear as Hafid and Nidami; Omar Khayyam as 'Umar Xayyam; and the word ghazal, the German _Ghasele_, is written _gazal_. CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION. Information of Mediaeval Europe Concerning India and Persia--Travellers--India and Persia in Mediaeval German Poetry. The knowledge which mediaeval Europe had of India and Persia was mostly indirect, and, as might be expected, deficient both in correctness and extent, resting, as it did, on the statements of classical and patristic writers, on hearsay and on oral communication. In the accounts of the classic writers, especially in those of Pliny, Strabo, Ptolemy, truth and fiction were already strangely blended. Still more was this the case with such compilers and encyclopaedists as Solinus, Cassiodorus and Isidorus of Sevilla, on whom the mediaeval scholar depended largely for information. All these writers, in so far as they speak of India, deal almost entirely with its physical description, its cities and rivers, its wealth of precious stones and metals, its spices and silks, and in particular its marvels and wonders. Of its religion we hear but little, and as to its literature we have only a few vague statements of Arrian,[1] Aelian[2] and Dio Chrysostomus.[3] When the last mentioned author tells us that the ancient Hindus sang in their own language the poems of Homer, it shows that he had no idea of the fact that the great Sanskrit epics, to which the passage undoubtedly alludes, were independent poems. To him they appeared to be nothing more than versions of Homer. Aelian makes a similar statement, but cautiously adds [Greek]. Philostratus represents the Hindu sage Iarchas as well acquainted with the Homeric poems, but nowhere does his hero Apollonius of Tyana show the slightest knowledge of Sanskrit literature.[4] Nor do the classic authors give us any more information about the literature of Persia, though the Iranian religion received some attention. Aristotle and Theopompus w
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