ABSTRACT

That sensual passion is very prevalent among the Arabs cannot be doubted; but I think it unjust to suppose them generally incapable of a purer feeling, worthy, if constancy be a sufficient test, of being termed true love. That they are not so, appears evident to almost every person who mixes with them in familiar society; for such a person must have opportunities of being acquainted with many Arabs sincerely attached to wives whose personal charms have long vanished, and who have neither wealth nor influence of their own, nor wealthy or influential relations, to induce their husbands to refrain from divorcing them. It very often happens, too, that an Arab is sincerely attached to a wife possessed, even in the best portion of her age, of few charms, and that the lasting favourite among two or more wives is not the most handsome. This opinion, I am sorry to observe, is at variance, as far as the Arabs of the towns are concerned, with that entertained by one of the most intelligent and experienced of modern travellers who long resided among this people,—the justly celebrated Burckhardt: 1 but it is confirmed by numerous facts related by respectable Arab authors (and therefore not regarded by them as of an incredible nature), as well as by cases which have fallen under my own observation. The tale of Leylà and Mejnoon, the Juliet and Romeo of Arabia, is too well known to be here repeated; but among many other anecdotes of strong and constant love, the following may be inserted.