Arabic Authors: A Manual of Arabian History and LiteratureArbuthnot, F. F.
History
Arabic Authors: A Manual of Arabian History and Literature
Arbuthnot, F. F.
Arabian Peninsula -- History; Arabic literature -- History and criticism
Of the Spanish Khalifs, mention only will be made of the ninth
sovereign of the Benou Omaiyide dynasty in Andalusia, viz., Hakim II.,
who died A.D. 976. Among the five Arab rulers of Spain--viz., three
Abd-ar-Rahmans and two Hakims--who have acquired everlasting fame in
history as special friends of science and patrons of learned men,
Abd-ar-Rahman III. and Hakim II. are the greatest and most prominent.
They stand in the Arab literary history of the West as high as Harun
and his son Mamun do in the history of the literature of the East. As
Mamun was the greatest of the Benou Abbas Khalifs of Baghdad who
promoted science and art, so Hakim II. was the greatest of the Benou
Omaiyides in Cordova. From his earliest youth he had received a most
careful scientific education, and applied his energies to study, as he
could not devote them to public affairs on account of the long
duration of his father's reign, from A.D. 912 to 961. Hakim's father,
Abd-ar-Rahman III., invited the learned Abu Ali Ismail Al Kali, the
philologist and author, from the court of Baghdad, where he enjoyed
the greatest consideration with the Khalif Mutwakkil, to Cordova, and
entrusted him with the education of his son, who, later on, composed a
Diwan (collection of poems), divided into twenty parts, bearing, like
the Surahs, or Chapters of the Koran, the most sublime objects of
nature as titles, such as 'Heaven,' 'the Stars,' 'the Dawn,' 'the
Night,' etc. Hakim pursued his studies under Kali for twenty years,
with as much pleasure as advantage, and after ascending the throne,
science and art still remained his companions. When his father died,
and he assumed the Government, he led the funeral procession,
surrounded by his Andalusian, Slavonic, and Mograbin body-guard, and
interred the corpse with the greatest pomp in the mausoleum of Rozafa,
and after that accepted the homage of his Viziers, Amirs, Kayids, and
Kadis. Astrologers and poets heralded at Cordova and in the whole of
Andalusia the continuation of the father's prosperous reign by his
son, and spoke the truth this time.
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