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Reviews of Books 65
Reviews of Books 65
In the original edition the extracts from Arabic sources for the
years 857 to 969 formed an appendix to Volume II. Monsieur Canard,
whose long series of studies and translations relating to this period
have furnished him with exceptional qualifications for the task of
revising them, has added as much again. More especially, by
drawing on the geographers and the poets he has enabled the
historian to penetrate more deeply into the stuff and spirit of the
age than can be gathered from the bare reports of the chroniclers—
the former by denning more precisely what the Arabs knew and
thought about the Rum and their empire, the latter by illustrating
the psychology of the campaigns. Some of the new texts are by no
means uniformly clear, but confused and even dubious in places;
so far, however, as can be judged from a number of samples, Monsieur
Canard has succeeded in giving even in these passages an intelligible
and convincing interpretation, and his notes, though wisely sparing,
are often exceedingly valuable. Only Mutanabbi, with his varied
emphasis, subtle transitions, and overtones, sets (as always) an
almost impossible problem for the translator.
H. A. E. GIBB.