"It was decided by common consent," says Mr. Edward William Lane, in his Arabic-English Lexicon (Preface, pp. viii and ix), "that no poet, nor any other person, should be taken as an absolute and unquestionable authority with respect to the words or their significations, the grammar, or the prosody of the classical language, unless he were one who had died before the promulgation of El-Islam, or who had lived partly before and partly after that event; or, as they term it, unless he were a 'Jahilee' or a 'Mukhadram,' or (as some pronounce it) 'Mukhadrim,' or 'Muhadram' or 'Muhadrim.' A poet of the class next after the Mukhadrams is termed an 'Islamee:' and as the corruption of the language had become considerable in his time, even among those who aimed at chasteness of speech, he is not cited as an authority absolutely and unquestionably like the two preceding classes. A poet of the next class, which is the last, is termed 'Muwelled;' he is absolutely post-classical; and is cited as an unquestionable authority with respect only to the rhetorical sciences. The commencement of the period of the Muwelleds is not distinctly stated: but it must have preceded the middle of the second century of the Flight; for the classical age may be correctly defined as having nearly ended with the first century, when very few persons born before the establishment of El-Islam through Arabia were living. Thus the best of the Islami poets may be regarded, and are generally regarded, as holding classical rank, though not as being absolute authorities with respect to the words and the significations, the grammar, and the prosody of the classical language." Mr. Thomas Chenry, M.A., writes:[327]-- "Within a century of Mohammad's flight from Mecca, the Moslem empire stretched from Kashgar and Mooltan to Morocco and the Pyrenees, and the Arab man of letters was exposed to the corrupting propinquity of men of very different races. Only a poet of Ignorance, that is, one who died before the preaching of Islam, or a Mokhadram, that is, who was contemporary with it, was looked upon as of paramount and unquestionable authority. An Islami, that is, one who was born after the rise of Islam, was of least consideration, and after the first century, the poets are called Muwalladun and are only quoted for their literary beauties, and not as authorities for the Arab tongue." [Sidenote: Mohammadan commentators, &c., quoted.]