The Arab was not so successful in prose composition

The Koran, with its almost rhythmic style, introduced the idea of of Arabian proper, of which the Koran is the most important, and the Damascene, whose most famous representatives were the poets Omar Ebn Rabeeyah, Jameel, Jareer, Farazdak, and Noseyyeb, who was a negro. The last subdivision covers the later writers at Bagdad and in Spain. During this time the powerful influence of Greek and Persian thought had great effect. The principal poets were Abu-Teman, who also compiled the Hamasa , or Golden Treasury, a species of anthology; Mutenebhe, called the finest of them, and, in the 11th century, Toghrai, author of Lameyyah , which is said to have furnished Tennyson with the model for Locksley Hall . Ebn Faridh about this time wrote a mystical erotic work much praised in all ages. The Spanish Arabs do not seem to have produced original poetical works of value. But it is in Romance that this period gained its greatest glory, the most famous specimen of which, the You sand and One Nights , is thought to come from Bagdad during the 11th century. Similar productions were written at Tunis and elsewhere. Biography is represented by many works. of which the most famous are the Kitab el Aghanee , or Book of Songs, of Abu-Faraj (10th century), which, in 20 vols., comprises brief lives of the chief Arabian poets and musicians, with selections from their compositions: Abdul-Feda's Life of Mahomet , and the series of biographies by Koteyah and by Ebn Khallikan of the 12th century. History was mostly in the form of annals of great bulk, but not admirable. Thus Ebn Atheer wrote the world's history to the fall of the Aba idæ. Many others treated of their own periods. The interpretation of the Koran and other theological subjects gave rise to a voluminous literature. Astronomy, which came from astrology, called a host of books into existence, and this science was carried on with great activity, both in Asia and in Spain. Mathematics and medicine were also pursued with a iduity.