Ikẖwanu-ṣ-ṣafā / tr. from the Arabic into Hindūstānī by Maulavī Ikrām ʼAlī.

  • Ikhwān al-Ṣafāʼ.
Date:
1873
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Ikẖwanu-ṣ-ṣafā / tr. from the Arabic into Hindūstānī by Maulavī Ikrām ʼAlī. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    most elegant and entertaining of the works hitherto com¬ posed in the High Urdu or Court language of the Musalmans of India. The original Arabic was published at Calcutta in 1812, in the preface to which appeared the following excellent outline of the contents of the work, which, for the benefit of the student, we here reproduce:— “The animals and men are here supposed to bring their mutual complaints against each other before the King of the Genii. The former complain of men’s injustice and cruelty. The latter of the animals’ insubordination and dereliction of duty. The point to be determined is whether the men possess the right of dominion over the animals. The animals assert that they are by nature free, and that man’s pretensions to lordship are unjust. The men, on the contrary, maintain that they possess a natural superiority over tho animals, whom they accuse of having relinquished their service, and whom they therefore claim as their property. “The King having summoned a council, the cause is opened. The claims of the men are first brought forward, to which the animals reply ; and the arguments appear to the monarch so nicely balanced, that he determines on taking the advice of his most able judges and lawyers. The animals are alarmed; and, considering how much depends in all lawsuits upon the skill and eloquence of the pleaders,—knowing, too, their own inferiority in these respects to their opponents,—they resolve on summoning the tribes of animals to their aid. “Accordingly messengers are despatched for this purpose to tho six different classes of animals,—the wild beasts, the birds, the birds of prey, the insects, the reptiles, and the fishes. The account of these embassies will be thought, perhaps, by far the most engaging part of the work. The embassy to the birds in particular is full of life and interest: not only on account of its beautiful descriptions,