every commandment, whether of God or man, in order to accomplish his purpose of placing Great Britain at the head of the Powers of the world.”—_Times_ of India, 1899. [83] He speaks of it as follows in his Histoire des Langues Semitques, p. 342 “Cette langue, auparavant inconnue, se montre à nous soudainement dans toute sa perfection, avec sa flexibilite, sa richesse infinie, tellemen-complete, en un mot, que depnis ce temps jusqu’a nos jours elle n’a subi ancune modification importante. Il n’y a pour elle ni enfance, ni vieillesse; une fois qu’on a signalé son apparition et ses prodijieuses cont quêtes, tout est dit sur son compte. Je ne sais si l’on trouverait un autre exemple d’un idiome entrant dans le monde comme celui-ci, sans état archaïque, sans degrés intermediaires ni tatonnements.” [84] Von Kremer, Guidi, Hommel. [85] Sayce, Sprenger, Schrader, De Goeje, Wright. [86] Assyrian Grammar, p. 13. [87] An account of this language or dialect was given by Surgeon H. J. Carter in Journal Roy. Asiat. Soc., July, 1847. [88] Lansing. [89] Found in the _Edinburgh Review_ for July, 1866, article “Mohammed.” [90] “It would take a long list to exhaust the religious, literary and scientific contributions to the Arabic language from the missionaries in Syria. They include the translation of the Scriptures and the stereotyping of the same in numerous styles; the preparation of a Scripture guide, commentaries, a concordance, and a complete hymn and tune book; text-books in history, algebra, geometry, trigonometry, logarithms, astronomy, meteorology, botany, zoölogy, physics, chemistry, anatomy, physiology, hygiene, materia medica, practice of physic, surgery, and a periodical literature which has proved the stimulus to a very extensive native journalism. The Protestant converts of the mission, educated by the missionaries, have written elaborate works on history, poetry, grammar, arithmetic, natural science, and the standard dictionary of the language, and a cyclopædia which will make a library by itself, consisting of about twenty volumes of from six hundred to eight hundred pages each.”—_Dr. G. E. Post, in New York Evangelist_. [91] Gen. xxv. 16. [92] In the _Edinburgh Review_, July, 1866. [93] International Routes of Asia, by Elisée Reclus, in New York _Independent_, May 4, 1899. [94] Smith’s Kinship and Marriage in Early Arabia, pp. 9, 17, 131. [95] What the boys and girls of the towns can study we have described in our chapter on Mecca. [96] This is the testimony of Burckhardt and Doughty. [97] Arabia Deserta, Vol. I., p. 238. [98] Translation from Mekka, Vol. II., p. 187. [99] See Burckhardt’s book for further particulars. [100] Signifying “Allah.” [101] Baidhawi’s Commentary _in loco_.