You already know many curious facts about the people of Topsy-turvy Land.
Would you like to hear something about their language and their writing?
The language of this land is very old, almost as old as its camels or its
desert sands. The Moslems even go so far as to say that Adam and Eve spoke
Arabic in Paradise and they say it is called the language of the angels.
It is written from right to left just in the opposite way of this page of
English writing. The Arabic alphabet has twenty-eight letters, all of
which are considered consonants. There are marks put above and below the
line to show the sounds of the vowels; just as we wrote the word _potato_
in our first chapter.
Arabic grammar is much more difficult than English grammar, and even the
boys who attend the big Arabic college of El Azhar in Cairo, Egypt, must
find its study a bugbear. Just think of learning _fifteen_ conjugations
instead of the much smaller number in Latin or Greek! The books used in
Moslem schools would look very crude and dull to you who learnt your A, B,
C, from an illustrated primer perhaps with coloured pictures.
Strict Mohammedans do not allow their boys and girls to have pictures in
their books, because they say all pictures are idols. And yet the love for
beauty and the desire for ornament on the written or printed page was so
strong with the Arabs that they began from the earliest times to use
their alphabet to make arabesques. Arabesque is a big word and it really
means an Arab picture. But these pictures of the Arabs (which you find on
the arches of old mosques, in books and on tombstones) are ornaments or
designs made out of the beautifully curved letters of the alphabet. The
old Arab copyists and their sculptors wrote and carved the words of the
Koran, or the names of God, etc., in all sorts of ways to make pictures
_out of words only_, lest they break the law of their prophet. Here are
two examples of how pictures can be made out of letters. You have all
doubtless heard of a "wordless book"; and some of you have books without
words and full of pictures. Here is a picture made out of the Arabic
alphabet, and every curve and dot belongs to the words so curiously
written. I copied them out of an Arabic treatise on penmanship, for you.
The face is not at all pretty, and yet Moslem lads think it is very clever
to bring this likeness of man out of the four names, _Allah, Mohammed,
Ali_ and _Hassan_. These words you notice are written twice, both to the
left and to the right. What a disgrace to the holy name of God to put that
of three Arabs with it in a monograph! It is very sad to hear some Moslems
say that they trust in _these_ people to intercede for them with God. If
you have read what sinful lives these people led when they were the chief
rulers in Arabia, you will almost agree with me in calling this first
picture a Moslem idol.
[Illustration: DESIGNS MADE OUT OF ARABIC WRITING.]
There are many Moslems in Bahrein who have hanging up in their rooms these
monograms or designs. One favourite I have often seen contains only five
names: _Allah, Mohammed, Ali, Hassan and Hussein_. The people who make so
much of these descendants of Mohammed are called _Shiahs_; the other
Moslems who think they are more orthodox are called _Sunnites_.
What do you think of our second picture? Is not the design very pretty for
an embroidery pattern? The motto is written twice; once from the right and
once _backward_ from the left, the same as in the other picture. The words
are taken from the Koran and are as true as they are beautiful. _Man
yattawakil ala Allah fa hooa hasbahoo_; which means, "Whoever trusts in
God will find Him sufficient." That surely contradicts the other picture,
does it not? And yet they are both from the same copy-book. There are many
contradictions in the religion of Mohammed. I only hope that when Christ's
gospel has conquered Arabia, the name of Jesus will be written on every
mosque and in every heart; then contradiction will give way to the truth,
and whoever trusts in Christ will find Him sufficient.
Would it not be nice to make something pretty for use in the home or in
the Sunday-school, and embroider the Arabic words on it? It would be a
constant reminder of Arabia and of the beautiful motto--only an Arabic
version of Paul's words, _Our sufficiency is of God._
Our last illustration to close this chapter is an example of Arabic
every-day penmanship. It was written in the mountains of Oman, and is a
letter from a poor cripple asking for a copy of the Psalms and other
books. It was sent to our brother Peter J. Zwemer a year before he died,
when he was on a missionary journey in Oman.
[Illustration: ARABIC LETTER FROM A POOR CRIPPLE.]