The character of Hatem is the perfect model of Arabian virtue: [43] he was brave and liberal, an eloquent poet, and a successful robber; forty camels were roasted at his hospitable feast; and at the prayer of a suppliant enemy he restored both the captives and the spoil. The freedom of his countrymen disdained the laws of justice; they proudly indulged the spontaneous impulse of pity and benevolence.
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[ Arrian, in the second century, remarks (in Periplo Maris Erythraei, p. 12) the partial or total difference of the dialects of the Arabs. Their language and letters are copiously treated by Pocock, (Specimen, p. 150-154,) Casiri, (Bibliot. Hispano-Arabica, tom. i. p. 1, 83, 292, tom. ii. p. 25, &c.,) and Niebuhr, (Description de l’Arabie, p. 72-36) I pass slightly; I am not fond of repeating words like a parrot.]
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[ A familiar tale in Voltaire’s Zadig (le Chien et le Cheval) is related, to prove the natural sagacity of the Arabs, (D’Herbelot, Bibliot. Orient. p. 120, 121. Gagnier, Vie de Mahomet, tom. i. p. 37-46: ) but D’Arvieux, or rather La Roque, (Voyage de Palestine, p. 92,) denies the boasted superiority of the Bedoweens. The one hundred and sixty-nine sentences of Ali (translated by Ockley, London, 1718) afford a just and favorable specimen of Arabian wit. * Note: Compare the Arabic proverbs translated by Burckhardt. London. 1830—M.]
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[ Pocock (Specimen, p. 158-161) and Casiri (Bibliot. Hispano-Arabica, tom. i. p. 48, 84, &c., 119, tom. ii. p. 17, &c.) speak of the Arabian poets before Mahomet; the seven poems of the Caaba have been published in English by Sir William Jones; but his honorable mission to India has deprived us of his own notes, far more interesting than the obscure and obsolete text.]
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[ Sale’s Preliminary Discourse, p. 29, 30]