The Sun.
London, England, 1834-10-18 00:00:00

iF SUGAR.
Muscovado Sugar, cc mputed from
ing the 14th day of October, 1834, is
xclusive of the Duties of Customs
prtatton thereof into Great Britain.

EDS.—Oct. 17.
Per Quarter.

St. Foin
Rye Grass —s. 40s. 4fs.
Facey Grass —s 440 48s.
Linseed, for feeding —s. 50s. Ms,
Ditto, for sowing —s. —s. —O.
Ditto, for crushing —s 445. 4Ss.
Canary —s. Ms (Os.
Hemp —6,38 s 445.
Per Bushel.

White Mustard 6s. 01. 7s. 6d.
I'Brown Ditto los Od. 12s. Od.
IWinter Tares 7s Pd. 9s. Od.
30/. :t 3,

The library of the Escurial is divided into three
parts ; the lower library, the upper library, and the
manuscript library. The principal one, which is the
lower, consists of three rooms, one of which is 197 feet
long and 32 wide. The bookcases are magnificnt, and
composed of the choicest woods. The number of
volumes which they contain are 18,000, among which
there are about 700 Spanish, Latin, and Greek manu-
scripts. Amongst this number are to be seen several
books written in the seventh and eighth centuries ;
there is also a copy made at the beginning of the four-
teenth century, of the famous book called " La His-
toria del Conde Ferran Gonzalez," one of the oldest
monuments of Spanish literature, which is a history of
Spain from the invasion of the Goths to the year 967.
Another book of the poems of a Rabbi, called Don
Santos Carrion, and a great number of old chronicles ;
but as there is not a printed catalogue of the books, it
is difficult to estimate the value of the whole. The
upper library occupies the same number of rooms as
the lower one, and was built several years after the
principal one, when it was perceived that it would not
hold all the books. The number and general descrip-
tion of its contents are nearly the same as those of the
other. The books which are generally shown to stran-
gers who visit these two libraries are some old MS.
Bibles, richly painted and illuminated.
,When the
visitors are known to be Spanish, and are supposed to
have no concealed heresy in their bosom, as happened
(says the writer of the article) with myself, who am a
Catolico Apostolico Romano, they venture to show
what they think is worth more than all the books of
the world together. I was, therefore, no little sur-
prised to see one of the fathers, who, giving me an
expressive look, made me a sign to follow him, and
having conducted me to a kind of chapel, in the same
library, where, covered with a curtain and glass, is a
book written, as they say, by the hand of Saint Augus-
tine ; he took it out, kissed it, passed it to me, in order
that I should do the same, and proceeded to call my
attention to the circumstances of the book. Its title
is " De Baptismo Parvulorum ;" and all that I can
say is, that if it really is his own hand-writing, the
saint must have been a very clever penman. He then
shewed me eight more books attributed to saints.
There is one written in Greek by St. Chrysostom, and
several others by Santa Ferera de Semo, besides an-
other book called " El Codice Aureo," the Golden
Book, which contains the four gospels, written by the
Emperor Conrad, of Germany, and his son Henry 11.,
with gold letters, of an admirable beauty and clearness.
It is said that Queen Mary, the sister of Charles V.,
and aunt of Philip 11., made a present of it to her
nephew, when she heard of his collecting books for the
library of the Escurial. But as I did not come to the
Escurial to see books of saints (not that I do by any
means deny their merit), I begged the father to take
me to the MSS. library. The room in which they are
kept is very spacious, and the book-cases are also of
great beauty. But I do not think that they are all
filled with Arabic MSS., as these are in small number
in proportion to the size of the room, which might hold
many thousands of volumes. They told me that among
them were some Greek and Spanish MSS. What
they generally show in this room is a Koran, written
in the middle of the ninth century, for the use of one
of the first kings -of Cordova, upon papyrus, with
coloured letters. The father who had the care of this
department, seeing that I made him a great many more
questions than he could well answer, told me to take
the keys and open the bookcases, to search at hazard
for what pleased me best. So I proceeded, after such a
kind invitation, to examine the Arabic MSS. The first
book upon which my eyes fell was a magnificent copy of
the seven " Moallakats," with a commentary by Abon
Abu-Allah Mohammed al-Ansari of Cordova. It is
a volume in folio of 200 pages, written in a very small
hand, and which is not known in Europe. Ibu al-
Khatib, and Al-Kodiii, Spanish biographers, both
praise this work, and say that the commentaries are
much superior to those written in the East. I saw
too a commentary on the poem of Shanfar,' by Abou'l-
Kasim Mohammed ben Omar az-Zamaskhari, which
does not exist in any of the public libraries in Europe.
If the learned French orientalist the Baron Sylvestre
de Sacy, could have consulted it for his translation of
that poem, published in the second volume of his
" Chrestomathie Arabe," there is no doubt that with
its assistance many obscure passages might have been
satisfactorily explained. There is also another work,
called " Delight of Conversation, and Companionship
of BrOthers,' by Omar ben Abu-Allah Razi, a Per-
sian, which contains a hundred narrations, and pictures
of the manners and customs of the East, besides a
great number of fables, songs, wise sentences and pro-
verbs, which appear to be worthy of the greatest at-
tention : as also another, with the title of " Fruit of
Princes,: and Delight of Elegant Men," by the Hane-
phite doctor. Ahmed ben Mohammed ben Arbasha of
Damascus, which contains fabulous narratives, written
with the greatest elegance, in prose and verse, in which
are introduced some ingenious allegories, such as
relation of " The Battle between Abou'l-Abtal and
the King of the Elephants," " Thoughts of a Soli-
tary Lion, and Sayings of a Wandering Camel."
These two works, with others of this library, bear
the marks of having belonged to one of the kings of
Grenada. I discovered there, also, a very rare and extra-
ordinary book, which I think has not its equal in Arabic
literature ; or at all events, compositions of this kind
are sorare, that itmay pass for unique. It is called " Wit
and Novelty, in Dialogues between the Professors of dif-
ferent Arts of Life," and written by Mohammed ben
Mohammed ben Ali al Balasi (or born in the town of
Velez) in the year of the Hegira 746, A. D. 1345).
Casiri, in his Biblioteca Esculiarense,' vol. ii. sec.
144, calls this work a comedy. I should not venture
to say as much ; but I must own that the little I have
perused of it extremely excited my attention. Fifty
interlocutors of the different professions of life, such
as a teacher of grammar, a cadhi, a cook, a lawyer, a
singer, a musician, a butcher, a confectioner, a pastry-
cook, a baker, a money-changer, a collector of taxes,
a perfumer, a poulterer, a clothesman, a blind man, a
copyist, a shepherd, a huntsman, a seaman, a gold-
smith, a builder, an engineer, a scribe, an innkeeper, a-
tailor, an incense seller, a carpenter, &c., criticise and
joke with each other upon their different professions,
making the wit of converation sparkle at every moment.
The translation of a work of this kind, although ex-
tremely difficult, both by its nature, and from its con-
taining a great number of terms relating to the arts
and professions of life which are not to be found in
dictionaries, would amply compensate for the trouble,
by the light it would throw upon the manners and cus-
toms of the Arabs when they were in this country ; a
point which is very difficult to be ascertained. For
among so many thousands of volumes consecrated to
history, to grammar, to mathematics, or medicine, it
may be said there is scarcely one which contains a
sketch, however imperfect it may be, of their manners
and domestic life. To this is owing the complete ig-
norance in which we are of their ways and customs ;
and Florian and other writers, who have attempted to
give an idea of the court of Grenada, have only pic-
tured the hacknied scenes of the East. But this
is an error ; there was a great difference in those
times between the Moorish inhabitant of Cordova
and Grenada, and the Arab of Damascus or Bag-
dad. The Arabic population of Spain was composed
of different families or tribes ; it was Asia and Africa
mixed together ; the ardour and simplicity of the proud
inhabitant of the desert, united to the indolence and
sagacity of the possessor of the fertile and smiling
valleys of Macedonia. Such a mixture must have
necessarily created new customs, different manners, and
even, it may be said, opposite impressions. The dif-
ference of climate, the continual communication with
the Spaniards, from whom they borrowed the ideas of
chivalry which distinguished them in the latter period
of their domination, must have augmented in their cha-

_dose religious precepts, which, as they form the
coundation of Islamism, are never trifled with by any
true Moslem ; such as the prohibition of wine and
images. As to the first, various kinds of fermented
liquors were drunk in Spain ; and I have in my col-
lection an old Arabic manuscript in the Cufic charac-
ter, which treats of the different of kinds of wines, and
liquors of other kinds from dates, sugar-cane, the
palm-tree, wheat and barley, &c., praising their good
qualities, without mentioning a single word about the
prohibition. The lions of the Al-Hamra, the por-
traits of the Generalife, and the beautiful statues and
bas-reliefs which adorned the delightful gardens of Me-
dina Zahara, the gold, silver, and copper coins with
the busts of the kings, and many books in which may
be discovered the portraits of the heroes or of the
author, will prove sufficiently that the 'Arabs of Spain
were not so strict and rigid as they have been generally
thought in Europe. There are also two MSS. by no
means undeserving of notice, one of them with the
title of " Notices, by a Noble Author," written by
Shahab-ad-Din Abou'l-Abis Ahmed ben Fadh-Allah
al-Omari, and the other called " Treatise on the Per-
sons and acquirements of the Inhabitants of Spain,"'
by Ali be Abu-ar-Rahman ben Hazil, of Grenade,
Both speak of gunpowder, of the time of its discovery,
and of the nations which first employed it against their
enemies. They represent it as not of European in-
vention. Brought from China by the Persians, they
say it was adopted by the Arabs, who used it in the
year '7l of the Hegyra (A. D. 69), at the siege of
Mecca, by Hajaz.
" I should never finish, if I were to mention one by
one all the precious works, which at every moment
called my attention. Besides the poets famous in
Europe, such as Al-Montenabbi, Albousiri, Abou'l
At-Togrili, Amrom'l-Kais, Cab ben Zoheir,
Abou Nawas, Ibu Malik, there a great number of
natives of Spain not inferior to them, and whose
poems may be placed without fear by the side of the
best ditch/a, such as Abou Zeid Abdar-Rahmaan al-
Jayfideni of Cordova, who wrote a poem with the title
of Spectator of the Times ;' Schems-ad-Din Abou
Abu-Allah Mohammed ben Jiibir, author of a poem
called' Rarities for the Blind, and for him that can
see ;' Dhia-ad-Din Abou Mohammed Abu-Allah al=
Khazaraji, Ismail ben Mohammed ben °matt al-Cor-
dobi, and Abou Mohammed Abu-al-Majid ben Ab"-
doum, a celebrated poet, who, under the title of Pole-
star of the Times,' wrote a poem, in which he describes
the adventures, wars, and private life of the Prince of
a dynasty called Beni l'Attas, who reigned for several
years in the town of Badajoz. Models might be pointed
Out in every science, for there is scarcely a branch of
human learning which the Arabs have not cultivated
with the greatest success—rhetoric, mathematics,
astronomy, medicine, botany, music, history, geo-
graphy—each in their turn having been explored and
adorned by their labours. --Westminster Review.