Mr. Rihani has rendered valuable service to Literature in making the career of "The Lucretius of Islam," as he happily calls him, known to the general reader in the English-speaking world.... The similarity of the Luzumiyat to Omar Khayyam under certain aspects, should win for Rihani's brilliant rendering a generous measure of recognition. As it is, the rare merits of the book, the critical power of the preface, the skill and sincere feeling exhibited in the verse, and the wide knowledge of English Literature shown in the notes, make it, to my mind, a little masterpiece.--Percy White. The similarity in some parts of the Luzumiyat to Omar Khayyam is striking. But Abu'l-Ala, to my mind, is a greater poet, and he is at times so remarkably modern. I am glad to make his acquaintance through your excellent translation.--R. B. Cunninghame Graham. There is a compelling power in his attack on hypocrisy and quackery, in his recognition of the supremacy of reason and the human soul. Those who still fondly turn to the "Rubaiyat" for enjoyment will surely find stimulus, too, and pleasure in these ruthless rhymes.--Asia. NOTES [1] My learned friend, Count E. de Mulinen, called my attention to the work of Von Kremer on Abu'l-Ala. And I have seen copies of a certain German Asiatic Review in which were published translations, made by that eminent Orientalist, of many poems from the Luzumiyat. He speaks of Abu'l-Ala as one of the greatest moralists of all times, whose profound genius anticipated much that is commonly attributed to the so-called modern spirit of enlightenment. Professor D. S. Margoliouth has also translated into English the Letters of Abu'l-Ala, which were published with the Arabic Text at the Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1898. Also Professor Raynold A. Nicholson, in his work, "A Literary History of the Arabs," discusses the poet at length and renders into English some poems from the Luzumiyat. A work was published by Charles Carrington, Paris, 1904, under the title, "Un Précurseur d'Omar Khayyam, Le Poéte Aveugle: Extraits de Poémes et de Lettres d'Abu'l-Ala al-Ma'arri." And another, "The Diwan of Abu'l-Ala," done into English by Henry Baerlein, who must have helped himself freely to the Quatrains of Von Kremer. [2] For a picturesque description of the squalidness and sordidness of Ma'arrah and its people, see Letter XX of "The Letters of Abu'l-Ala," Oxford Edition. [3] When he visited Baghdad he was about thirty-seven years of age. And when he went to attend a lecture there by one of the leading scholars, he was called by the lecturer, istabl, which is Syrian slang for blind.