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and, in their subsequent attempts to improve the erroneous system conferred upon them, would only make further deviations from true principles.

The eminent scholars whom, by its cherishing patronage, and in its distinguished service, that powerful promoter of sound learning and useful institutions, the Honourable East-India Company, has so bountifully multiplied within the last half century, having witnessed the facility with which the Nagari and other Indian characters, being similar in the squareness of their figure to the Hebrew and Roman letters, have been marshalled for the press, and faultlessly displayed in the printed page, could not but accede to the hope and project of reducing the Arabic to the same terms. But their venerable chief, to whose ingenuity in the invention and improvement of type the Eastern and Western world are both so much indebted, had his more important avocations permitted him the leisure to inspect, with his wonted acuteness, the peculiar nature of the Arabic character, and with the same nice accuracy which he has employed upon the Nagari, to mark the precise point at which each letter begins, he would have discouraged the ill-conceived design, and have prevented the loss of time and much costly labour.

The Honourable Company's press in India, directed by the masterly natives or denizen Arabs, whose taste is as correct as their knowledge is accurate, has indeed shewn itself entirely free from the errors here alluded to, and but for the unsuitable employment of our ink and paper,-neither of them adapted to printing for the Eastern climes, the former, from its deficiency in shade and lustre, being faint to the eye, and from the oily composition of its materials, proving liable in a warm atmosphere to spread and exhale; the latter, from the unevenness of its surface, feeling unpleasant to the hand that is used to the polished margin of the Eastern manuscript, and being apt to imbibe the moisture of the heated finger ;—but for these circumstances, the books printed at Calcutta would be specimens of perfect workmanship, and ere this would have been deservedly adopted as the models of our European typography. In the mean time, it is painful to behold the quantity of dearly-paid labour that is bestowed to little purpose.

Whoever has travelled in the countries of the Levant, and has directed his pursuits to the acquisition of their languages and history, must, in late years, have experienced that, without the spreading stores of that admirable institu¬ tion, which has undertaken the beneficial and stupendous task of distributing the best of books over the whole surface of the habitable world, and has already extended its benign influence and active operations to the remotest parts of the globe, he would every where range in a desert of literature, and unless previously provided, as a traveller can seldom be, would in vain seek to procure himself a rational page for his perusal. Should he ask in the bazaars for Turkish books, he would be received with scorn by the indignant Moslem; and, if allowed to bargain for a squalid manuscript, he would find that his difficult purchase was only a vapid commentary on the rhapsodies of the false prophet, or some paltry tale for the coffee-house or nursery. His refuge, in such literary distress, is the foreign ministry of this world-embracing society, his resource their ample magazines, established in every town. From this society he finds a delegate, whose friendship is held out to the assistance of learning and scientific research; and from their stores, at a moderate price, he can every where furnish himself with the oldest and most authentic history of the regions he is visiting; and if he wish for a more elevated style, he finds the sublimest compositions of eastern poetry, translated into every language he may be desirous to cultivate. Would that the copies in the Arabo-oriental

tongues were as correct and beautiful in their type, as they are in style, and that their pleasing resemblance to his wonted manuscript could allure the fastidious Saracen into an attentive perusal of their sacred pages! In the hope that my humble endeavours may contribute to the accomplishment of this perfection in the Arabic press, I will briefly discourse upon some of the principles and peculiarities of the Arabic orthography.

And first, with regard to the materials: it is evident, that under the vivid rays of the tropical sun, a perfectly white paper must produce a painful effect upon the dazzled eye. Hence various shades are employed to darken the ground of the oriental manuscript, the ink used for which is consequently required to be of the deepest tint, and most shining lustre. By this means is also avoided the distasteful and lugubrious contrast of pure white and black. Secondly, as the horizontal, but somewhat pending, lines of the Arabic writing are not drawn, as ours are, from left to right, but driven in the opposite direction, it is necessary that the ground be smooth and even, or the pen will bound and spirt at every inequality. This hue and smoothness should be imitated in the printed copy. Thirdly, with regard to the writing, it is to be observed, that the Arabic alphabet, in composition, is not susceptible of being written as the Roman and Hebrew are, in one undeviating horizontal line. Its syllabation partakes of the columnal system of the extreme Orientals, the Chinese; and the varied nature of its characters demands the width of at least three parallel lines for their co-arrangement. So far has this genius of Arabic delineation been humoured by the Persians, who have carried this system of writing to its utmost perfection, that by them whole words, not merely letters, are ranged and doubled above each other.

This peculiarity is thus explained. The Arabic alphabet consists of sixteen characters; the majority, that is, three-fourths, or, excluding the perpendicular aliph, eleven of which are driven by the pen in the same horizontal line, from right to left, and, were they alone, would afford perfect facility to the typographic art. But the accompanying other four, instead of being carried with their fronts to the left, as the rest are, face the contrary way, and are drawn back towards the right hand. These are jim, & ain, ↑ mim, and Sye. In the arrangement of one of these, namely, & ain, no deviation is occasioned from the middle, or main line, unless it stand first, or unconnected with the preceding letters, and principally at the end of a word. In this case it is the rule for the ain, as it is equally for all the four letters, that it be situated in the uppermost of the three lines. In the middle, or at the end of a word, when connected with the preceding letters, it exhibits no variation from the general rule, that is, it follows in the middle line with the majority of the characters. Yes, connected at the end of a word, mostly fulls into the lowest line; unconnected, it ranges in the uppermost.'! *, satu gd! to awat wil It is with the remaining two characters, fim and mim, that the principal variations occur; and it must be considered that these two letters give its main features to the Arabic writing, which, by their influence, is thrown into a graduated scale, resembling an ascent of notes in a stave of music, and by the skilful writer is maozoon, or balanced, with the nicest scrupulosity. Richardson says, speaking of the jim, and its sister-letters, hha and kha, the facility of writing requires that the characters which precede these should be joined to their upper limb; which, when several of them happen to meet

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together, makes a very whimsical appearance, as in

mukhajkhijon,

contracting or shrinking with fear, &c." Speaking of mim, he observes: "the connecting letters, when preceding mim, are frequently joined to it in a peculiar manner, as 2, 8, 7, &c." Had Richardson more deeply

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studied the nature of these two characters, he would have remarked that cor rectness of writing absolutely requires the characters preceding jim, if capable of connection, to be joined to its upper limb, and that the connecting letters, when preceding mim, are, or should be, always joined to it in a peculiar manner. These letters are, indeed, of a singular character, and whether from their erect and manly figure, you regard them as commanders, who, placed in a prominent station, cast their eye along the line of their marshalled troops, and regulate each movement by their own position; or whether you consider them as animals of superior strength and sagacity, which control the waving motion of the inferior flock, they must always be allowed an open space before them, and be treated with that propriety of distinction which their peculiar character demands. It is the attempt to reduce them to the vulgar level, and to create an equality in the Arabic alphabet similar to that of the Hebrew and Roman, which has led to the ruin of the Arabic press, and rendered the books which, latterly at least, in our country have issued from it, disgustful and almost illegible to the native oriental.

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The point where all the other letters begin, including also the ain and the ye, is at their right extremity: whereas, the initial point of these letters is, for the jim at the left apex of what Richardson calls the upper limb, or at the sinister extremity of the crest of this tufted bird; for the mim it is likewise on the left, at the back of the head, and the preceding letter, if connected with it, must be borne, as it were, on its pointed horn. To facilitate the printer's art, it has been attempted to bring down the uplifted letter, and place it on a level in front of the mim or jim ; and for this purpose, the connecting link has been carried up and bent, so as to join to the back of the mim or jim In doing this, it has not been attended to that an angle is formed which, whether in the Arabic, or any other possible alphabet, must necessarily make a letter, or a characteristic part of a letter. A straight line may, or may not, have its character or meaning; but an angle cannot disown it. By this ill-fated artifice they have unwittingly multiplied letters and syllables, and for hammam, cx. gr. have printed (pa>)'pi hanamnam, for shems, shenemes, or a dozen other words of sister-consonants and conjectural vowels. Sometimes, suspecting, may-be, something of this awkward multiplication, they have endeavoured to avoid it by depressing the head of the mim in order to make its horn more accessible, and disregarding the gracious privilege conferred upon it by its Cadmus, who, to this distinguished letter

Os sublime dedit: cœlumque tueri

خمنم (خمم

Jussit, et erectos ad sidera tollere vultus;

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make it look down and hoodwinked from its mates in an altered character, hardly recognizable by its wondering beholders.

When of a large size, this letter, which should always be unobstructed in front, and open to the hand which may be applied to it, is distinctly made in the shape of a key. Its position must always be that of a key in a gate, and

if its effects upon the system be well-considered, it will be found that it truly is the master-key which unlocks the door to the mysteries of Arabic penmanship. The disposal of the letters in staves of several lines, occasioned by their various shape and quality, leads to numerous minor arrangements of the syllables of any word, much at the wild and as and taste of the writer. But as in printing, these may mostly be neglected, and as in every art a multiplicity of rules tends but to confusion of theory and practice, I will refer to the study and observation of Arabic manuscripts. (8 57 Call B tol gi onas oddaj In commenting upon the founts of type which have hitherto been used in England and on the Continent, I have been happy to bestow upon some of them the praise which is their due, inasmuch as they have been correctly modelled after the well-written letter; but I may affirm of them, as of the type used in the several countries of the East, such as that employed by the Pasha of Egypt, by the convents on Mount Lebanon, and in the newly-established press Teheran, the capital of Persia, that they have none of them been so executed and employed as to produce the perfect imitation of the Oriental manuscript, without which the Arabic press will never begin to flourish. 3 In process of time it may gain the liberty, as the Greek has done, of being regulated on plainer and less complex principles; but until its productions, by their sisterlike appearance and rival beauty, can compete with, and finally drive from the market, the monogonous offspring of the copyist, whose pen lavishes its concentred blandishments on his single progeny, the Eastern book-collector will prefer the splendid poverty of his manuscript library to its more copious furniture with coarser materials. As far, indeed, as lithography can promote the propagation of Oriental books, we have lately seen its powerful aid called forth with admirable judgment by Sir John Malcolm. His splendid gift to the Persian scholar of the Anvari Soheili from the lithographic press, executed, as it is, with consummate skill and the most refined taste, cannot but afford the highest gratification to the connoisseur; and it is to be hoped, that this is only the first of many equally valuable presents. The infinitely superior productiveness, however, of the moveable type, makes it greatly desirable that its powers should be brought to bear upon this important object, especially amid the growing prosperity and the augmented ability to spread true knowledge and religion, which we behold in the society I have alluded to. E sht

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Still more desirable has it become at the present moment, when Colonel Fitzclarence, whose active and judicious exertions in the cause of science it would be presumptuous in me to eulogize, has conceived the magnificent design of reflecting back to the East the guiding light of knowledge which thence has shone upon us. Eager to embrace the favourable opportunity, which the enlightened policy of Mohammed Ali affords, of advancing the civilization already carried forward by that prince in the country which he rules, and, through that channel, desirous ere long of dispelling the blightful mist of igno rance now so darkly spread over the finest regions of the East, the Colonel will lead our nation to the generous enterprize of gratefully repaying at least the interest of the mental treasures Egypt formerly lent us. Placed in t centre of our terrestrial world, and forming the bridge of communication between its two hemispheres, Egypt, the birth-place of the arts and sciences, appears the natural point whence they should again swarm over the whole surface of the globe. In promoting this purpose, the first effort must be to prepare an effective and successful press; and it is pleasing to feel assured that, under the directions of so skilful a leader, this preliminary step will speedily be laid, and the long-closed gate be widely opened to useful learning in the East.

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To the recent discussion in Parliament of a measure for emancipating (as it is termed) the Jews resident in the British dominions, which excited public curiosity for a time, we may probably attribute the appearance of a work, originally written in the Polish language, exhibiting a picture of the character, manners, and opinions of the Jews of Poland.* It is a tale, consisting of the love-adventures of two young Israelites, intrinsically of little interest; but the fable is avowedly employed merely as "a vehicle for. conveying to the public a view of the manners, morals, prejudices, and superstitions of the people to which it relates."

If this work had made its entry into the world under less imposing circumstances as respects its original author and its present publisher-it would probably have been consigned speedily to neglect and oblivion, as an extravagant, improbable, and even incredible satire upon the Jewish nation. Its authenticity, however, as a picture of the manners of the Polish Jews, seems to be well vouched.

1

The original author, Niemcewicz, described by Dr. Bowring, in his Polish Anthology, as one of the most celebrated and popular of the living writers of Poland, a poet, an historian, a tragedian, and a translator,is moreover a patriot of renown, one of the companions of Kosciuszko, and now perpetual secretary of the senate.

The editor and translator of this piece (whom we should have surmised to be Dr. Bowring, had he not confessed his ignorance of the Polish tongue) tells us, that in his journey through Poland, a few years back, he was struck with the numbers and appearance of the Jews in that country. "He had been aware that they were a numerous body, but did not expect to see the difference betwixt them and the other inhabitants to be so strongly marked as he found them." They formed a very large proportion of the population in the towns and cities; and though the lower classes appeared poor, dirty, and depressed, the females were decorated with jewels and ornaments, much more expensive than were to be seen amongst the inhabitants of the same class in the neighbouring Prussian provinces. He adds: "they have in their hands all the intermediate operations of the commerce of the country, to such an extent, that every one, who wants either to buy or sell any commodity, performs the operation, however minute, through the instrumentality of his Jew."

Here, then, it would seem, is to be found the object which has been eagerly sought by those who have plunged into speculations respecting Jewish emancipation a large community of Jews, where the influence of their peculiar institutions and opinions on the bulk of their society can be accurately measured. We want only a sure guarantee that the repre

• Levi and Sarah, or the Jewish Lovers; a Polish Tale. By JULIUS URSINUS NIEMCEWICZ. Translated from the German Edition, with a Preface and Notes, by the Editor. London, 1830. Murray.

Asiat. Jour. N.S. VOL. 2. No. 8.

2 N

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