Thomas Chenery eBooks
eBooks di Thomas Chenery
The Arabic Language: A Lecture Given on December 3, 1868. E-book. Formato PDF Thomas Chenery - Forgotten Books, 2017 -
IT would ill become me, in addressing Members of the Uni versity of Oxford, to begin by urging the importance of a study of the Arabic language. Such a preface might be in place before a popular assembly with narrow notions not only of language but even of what constitutes utility. A learned body which cultivates with activity and success every branch of knowledge does not need to be persuaded that one of the most perfect and beautiful forms of human speech, one of the most widely extended, most enduring, and most in?uential languages of the world is worthy of the attention of its students. And if there were any tendency to overlook its importance (for there is a fashion in studies as in other things, and the curiosity which attracts to new subjects sometimes causes whole depart ments of learning to be neglected for a time), I should be forbidden to recognise it by the very conditions under which I address you. The merit of the Arabic language, literature, and history, as a study for Europeans, is the very reason of my own professorial existence. I am bound to assume that when the successive Sovereigns of this kingdom have for more than a century and a half maintained a Professorship of Arabic in either University, there is a sufficient reason for their bounty and since the Lord Almoner has done me the honour to appoint me to the office, and the University to admit me to it, I will not enter on an argument °which would seem to assume that the acts of such high authorities need a justification. I am also bound to recollect that the University maintains the Laudian Professorship, which has been distinguished by the names of several eminent scholars, the first of Whom, the illustrious Pocock, will always be had in remembrance wherever Eastern.
The Assemblies of Al Hariri: Translated From the Arabic, With an Introduction and Notes, Historical and Grammatical. E-book. Formato PDF Thomas Chenery - Forgotten Books, 2017 -
In giving to the world, at the cost of much time and labour, this, the first volume of a complete translation of the Makamat of Al Harîri, it is necessary that I should say a few words on the objects of the work, and the principles on which it has been executed. The inestimable value of the Arabic language is admitted by every scholar and by every practical Oriental linguist. It is the most perfect and elaborate speech of the family to which it belongs; its copiousness, its varied and delicate inflexion, the learned and abtruse grammar that has been built upon it, give it the highest importance in the scientific study of language. It is, moreover, the sacred and classic tongue of all the Mohammedan peoples, and the study of it is the key to a knowledge of the thoughts, habits, and tendencies of this great section of the human race. A vast and comprehensive literature rewards the pains of any one who perseveringly applies himself to it.