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.