Practical Philosophy of the Muhammadan People

Front matter

PRACTICAL PHILOSOPHY

OP THE

MUHAMMADAN PEOPLE,

Preface

The present production is not offered to the world as a full discharge of the ample promise of inquiry which the title-page exhibits, but only as that in¬ stalment of it, than which no writer seems disposed to offer, and few readers prepared to welcome, a fuller. The classical and the oriental scholar will each complain that much has been omitted in his own department, the want of which he may per¬ haps be ready to excuse, in consideration of the ready insight he obtains into the other: and if either should feel that what to him is the foreign ingredient could not be more plentifully scattered without overpowering his willingness to deal with it, he will perceive at the same time, that what to him is the congenial one could not be augmented without carrying proportionate disadvantage to many of the opposite faction. The literatures here

VI

PREFACE.

exhibited in friendly juxtaposition have heretofore been cultivated with such hostile views, that a work which should propound in order to reconcile the highest mysteries of both, it is a question, not only who should execute, but how many would be found to comprehend.

Let it not however from this be understood that the Translator lays claim to any profounder erudition than he has here put forth, or indeed to any greater acquirement than his professional education and pursuits will readily explain. The work has rather executed itself than been executed by him; every department has grown up from sug¬ gestions which some other department supplied; and for this very reason it is, that the result is presented with greater confidence, as the aggregate of parts indispensable became mutually dependent. When the Writer undertook to occupy his leisure residence in England by translating a curious, and, in the East, a celebrated work, he little knew the magnitude of the task before him, or he should have shrunk alike from the labour and the pre¬ tension it involved. The first is now over; and will never be regretted by him, if he is here suc¬ cessful in deprecating all imputations of the last.

PREFACE.

VII

In the text of the version, at least, no respon¬ sibility has been incurred; not even that of selection : omission, however desirable in particular instances, has been carefully avoided, as tending to lower the authority of the whole ; a few sentences of vague panegyric have been curtailed, as the aste¬ risks denote; names and titles have been shortened and compressed; and benedictions which, by one of the most pleasing of oriental usages, invariably follow the names of distinguished persons, have

been limited to the few occasions where the reader

•

can sympathize with their expression. In the con¬ clusion or epilogue of the work, which, for reasons, as there stated, applicable only to the people for whom it was composed, is of a fanciful and ro¬ mantic cast, a few indifferent passages have been omitted, in order to relieve the tedium of that in¬ congruous portion. With these trifling exceptions, the paraphrase is an exact counterpart of the original, even to the imitation of peculiarities, obscurities, and defects in style,—a fact which the reader is requested to bear in mind, as often as these present themselves to his remark.

The Notes have generally been drawn from direct reference to the originals referred to or transcribed ;

Vlll

PREFACE.

except in the case of an author, “ quem fallere et effugere optimus est triumphus.” The quotations from Aristotle are taken only from Dr. Gillie’s translation of the Ethics. Much valuable infor¬ mation has been gained from other parts of the same work. Davis’s annotations on the Tusculan Disputations (Oxford, 1805,) have also afforded two or three important parallels. For the residue there is no boast in saying that the Writer is indebted solely to his own reading. Many of the most interesting references, (those to Galen and Hippocrates for instance,) after making several fruitless efforts to obtain access to the originals in the library of the British Museum, he laments to say he has been obliged to leave unauthenticated. But enough has been done to show how much more may be done by those who possess greater facilities for doing it.

A natural desire to cover the salient points of a literature that is little understood, and to enliven the course of discussions more addressed to the judgment than the taste, has led the Translator, in some instances, to enter upon debateable topics to a greater extent or a greater frequency than may prove agreeable to persons prepossessed with

PREFACE.

IX opinions of a different bent;—and if it should appear to these that the scale is sometimes inclined in favour of the absent party, when the evidence adduced is not decisive, let it be considered rather as a feint to promote inquiry, than as any deliberate defiance of received opinion. In most of these cases it will be found that, though judgment has been given, the issues were never fairly drawn; and to the advocates of a neglected cause it may be permitted to claim more than their due, where that is the only condition on which they will obtain as much.

It is to the Dissertation as well as to the Notes that these remarks are intended to apply. The questions opened in these speculative pleadings are often of vast and universal application. The fami¬ liarity with which they are approached need not be considered unbecoming in one of the 61evds of Malthus and Mackintosh—the member of a pro¬ fession, conversant, beyond all others, with first principles, because having little else to go by. The slenderness of the materials from which they are sometimes raised need not be objected to in the present state of Eastern knowledge, the interests of which, for many years to come, boldness will more

a

X

PREFACE.

promote than caution. In the ruin of Empires we dig for treasures concealed. The first step is to mark every spot where search may be feasibly conducted: to prosecute the mass of inquiry, and determine how far the hastiness of all the sup¬ positions may be excused by the soundness of many, is the work of another and a later period.

Table Of Contents

PROLEGOMENA.

I. Depreciation of Mohammedan systems—should now be at an end—II. Literary and political condition of Western Asia at the period when this work was produced—III. Derivation and growth of its materials—IV. Its bearings on the question of education in the East—V. Its general value as a piece of his¬ torical evidence—VI. Its power of illustrating Greek writers, and particularly those of the lower empire—VII. Its resemblance to the scholastic treatises of the middle ages—VIII. Importance of the moral canon it applies throughout—IX. Its subservience to religious objects—X. Its illustrations of Pantheism—sources of moral obligation—sketch of the Sufy metaphysics and their tendencies—indigenous to Asia—Muhammedan politics—their pressure upon the scientific classes .... xv—Ixiv

EXORDIUM.

Contents

the post—beyond those of other beings—even of the angels— to be realized by knowledge and practice—necessity of combining the two—the rule and method of pursuing them—it is the object of morals to set forth—consequent importance of the science— chief objection to it the immutability of character—discussed and overruled.12—51

Book I. The Individual 8tate

Sect. I. Sources of action—reason, desire, and resentment— proper adjustment of the three—virtues belonging to each—■ wisdom, equity, temperance, courage,—equity the paramount virtue—whether an element or a product ? . . 52—64

Sect. II. Definitions of the generic virtues—must be realized in act—species of wisdom, of courage, of temperance, of equity

65—87

Sect. III. Counterfeit virtues under each of the four genera

88—98

Sect. IV. The vices—extremes of excess and deficiency— the mean of virtue, real and approximate—the generic vices— flightiness and stupidity, rashness and cowardice, lasciviousness and indifference, tyranny and servility . 99—111

Sect. V. The divine nature a unity in distribution—proportion a recurrence of it—the rule of all excellence—proportions of equity—three preservatives of—three infractions of—anecdote of Malik Shah—equity embodies all the virtues—its divisions— affection held to supersede equity . . 112—145

Sect. VI. Art an approach to nature—the order in which the powers are produced—should be that in which they are culti¬ vated .146—154

Sect. VII. Natural proneness to evil—to be resisted—by avoiding temptation—practising blameless pursuits—and con¬ sulting others on the subject of our own defects . 155—168

Sect. VIII. Genera of mental disease—excess, deficiency, and perversion of state in each of the three powers—influence of the body—methods of cure—application to instances—in the power

CONTENTS.

XU1 of reason—perplexity—ignorance simple and compound—in the power of resentment—anger and its ten causes—faint-heartedness —fear, and especially fear of death—in the power of appetite —gluttony—lasciviousness—love—sorrow—envy . 169—244

BOOK IU THB DOMESTIC STATE.

Sect. I. Preparation and accumulation of food—requires the assistance of a partner—wife—children—servants—the five con¬ stituents of home—with home itself—how to be regulated

245—250

Sect. II. Variety of stores—money—income, its three sources —farming, trade, profession—compared—professions, how cha¬ racterized—preservation of property—expenditure—its three divisions ........ 251—261

Sect. III. Object of matrimony—rules for the choice of wives —for the management of them—plurality of wives indefensible— rules for the conduct of wives—divorce—Arab proverbs 262—274 Sect. IV. Suckling of children—naming them—training them —choice of an instructor—choice of a profession—cultivation of it—settlement of sons—education of daughters—manners—con¬ versation—motion—meals. 275—298

Sect. V. Rights of parents—how to be discharged—of paren¬ tal friends ........ 299—303

Sect. VI. Utility of menials—rules for selecting them—em¬ ploying them — attaching them — dismissing them — slaves — national characteristics of ..... 304—311

BOOK HI. THE POLITICAL STATE.

Sect. I. Perfection—instantaneous and progressive—means of effecting the latter—subserviency of other things to man—of men to each other—division of labour—diversity of qualification— inequality of property—generate dissension—Law and the Law¬ giver—the Executive—his functions—his art an aggregate of all

Sect. II. Affection perfects civilization—its analogy with at-

XIV

CONTENTS.

traction—natural or arbitrary—modes of the latter—between the young—between the virtuous—promoted by the Institute—be¬ tween parties differently actuated—lover and loved—high and low—king and subject—father and son—orders of affection— between patron and patronized—Creator and created—the proper aim of intellect—creation an operation of intellect—predestination —Muhammedan Trinity—circuitous transition . 329—364

Sect. III. Good and bad civilization — orders among the governed—degrees and process of perception—the treatment to be regulated accordingly—corrupt classes . . 365—376

Sect. IV. Grandeur of sovereignty—good and bad govern¬ ment—spirit of the age—qualifications for reigning—political harmony—empire of opinion—dissensions among adversaries— classes of the state—the learned—the martial—the mercantile— the agricultural, &c.—prevention the end of punishment—species of—rights and benefits—public and private wrongs—access to the sovereign—anecdotes of Pharaoh—rules for the sovereign—inter¬ nal relations—external relations—how to prevent war—how to carry it on—sanctity of mercy .... 377—416

Sect. V. Rules for behaviour to those in authority 417—426 Sect. VI. Friendship ensures affection and its results—nature and value of—rules for commencing and conducting 427—438

Sect. VII. Intercourse with the remaining classes—enemies, secret and declared—moderation—indifferent parties—conciliation —inferiors—kindness ...... 439—449

CONCLUSION OR EPILOGUE.