ABSTRACT
We rely for our more intimate knowledge of Ancient Arabian civilisation upon two main sources, the traditions of the prophet collected by a host of men who made it their special profession, and in a higher degree the poems of the poets who flourished before the time of Muhammed and for about a century later. The interest in the latter died away at a fairly early date and became the field of labour for a rather limited number of philologists who collected and commented the poems. These commentaries together with the biographical literature connected with the life of the Prophet and the traditionists form the second basis for our knowledge of this civilisation which finally played such an important part in the history of the human race.
