Ibn Khallikan's Biographical Dictionary, Vol. 2: Translated from the Arabic (Classic Reprint)

Excerpt from Ibn Khallikan's Biographical Dictionary, Vol. 2: Translated From the Arabic

The Arabs who were contemporary with this state of civilisation pre ferred the customs of nomadic life: under the Abbasides, the exercise of military command and their occupations in'the service of government diverted their attention from learning and study; attached to the state in the quality of protectors and (subordinate) rulers, they were withheld by pride from engaging in literary avocations, which, as we have just remarked, had assumed the rank of arts; and we know that persons accustomed to command others look upon the arts with scorn. They, in consequence, left such studies to the Persians and the mixed race (sprung from the inter marriage of the rontrors with the conquered), fully acknowledging their ser vicesin the cultivation of science. The influence of the same principle by which lbn Khalduu was guided throughout his Prologomma is strongly marked in this passage; led away by his passion for generalizing, he examined every question in the abstract.

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