The languages of the Eastern Archipelago, the Javanese, the Bugis, and others, and the omnipresent Malay, present points of interest ; and since the time when Sir Stamford Rallies as governor of Java mado such vigorous inroads into the realm of ignorance, the Dutch have awakened to wipe away that reproach which was formerly made to them of neglecting studies to which they alone had easy access. Within the last twenty years the Dutch scholars have cultivated the languages of the Archipelago with equal zeal and success, and deserve for their exertions in this matter, the thanks of literary Europe. Of course it is in the Dutch libraries that manuscripts of them are to be found in the greatest abundance ; but in the British Museum there is an admirable collection, made by Mr. Crawford, amounting to about 150, and there are also the collections of Marsden at King's College, and of Leyden at the East India House.
All the Mohammedan world, however, in India, in the Eastern Archipelago and elsewhere, looks for its treasures of literature to one of what are emphatically called "the three languages"—the three great idioms of Western Asia and of Northern Africa—the Arabic, Persian, and Turkish. The literature of the Arabic—of the language which was once not only that of Mecca and Cairo and Fez, but of Cordova and Granada, is now fallen from its high estate. The Mohammedans are paying the penalty of that obstinate aversion to printing, which might almost be considered a part of their religion. The process as practised in China, was described by a Persian historian, who was contemporary with the Crusades; but the description of printing by Rashid ed-din, remained itself in manuscript till printed at Paris in the 19th century. The art was introduced into Spain more than twenty years before Boabdil was driven forth from Granada; but the first book printed in that city was two years after his expulsion. For centuries after, in Mohammedan countries, the art was contemptuously left to Jews and Christians. The increasing preponderance of the Franks has at last brought about some change, and Arabic books are now printed at Constantinople, at Boulak, near Cairo, at Algiers, and in India. While the French at Algiers print much of the old Arabic literature, the Mohammedans at Boulak chiefly issue translations from the French, of treatises on tactics, mathematics, and medicine. Of Arabic libraries the chief are in Cairo ; but there and elsewhere the Arabic libraries of the present day represent the literature of classic Arabic, as the monastic libraries of the middle ages represented the classic literature of Greece and Rome. The Arabic historian, Ibn Aby Tay, affirms, as M. Quatremere tells us, that in the old library
of Cairo there were 1200 copies of the history of El-Tabari, a statement that reminds the modern English reader of the 2000 or 3000 copies of Macaulay's History, and M'Clintock's Voyage, in Mudie's circulating library. Every copy of the Arabic of El-Tabari had disappeared and the book was only known in its Persian translation, till a portion of the Arabic was recently discovered in Europe. A similar history will have to be told of many an Arabic classic, which now probably only exists in the great libraries of the Franks. At Paris, at Leyden, at Oxford, at St. Petersburg, and at Vienna, there are large collections, and that at the British Museum is of considerable importance. Sims's useful Handbook to the Museum' gives the number of manuscripts as 1060.
While Arabic is to the Mohammedan what Latin is to the Catholic nations, the more easy and familiar Persian takes rather the place of French, and was long to India what the French was to Germany. In the library of Tippoo Sahib, which was chiefly composed of that taken by his father Hyder Ali by force of arms from the Nabob of Cheetore, it was found upon its transference to the East India House, after the fall of Seringapatam that the number of Arabic and Persian works was nearly 2000, and a few works in Hindustanee and other languages completed the library. Stewart, who published the catalogue, expressed his surprise at the number of the volumes; but the library of the king of Oude, which was catalogued by Dr. Sprenger in 1848 at Lucknow, was far superior in numbers though inferior in condition, being devoured by rats and white ants. At Lueknow, the invention of Senefelder had found more favour in Oriental eyes than the invention of Gutenberg. Twelve lithographic presses were at work iu the town before some arbitrary caprice of the king of Oude put a check on their activity. More Persian books have been printed and lithographed in India than in Persia itself, where a printing press has however been established in Teheran, which issues a newspaper. Of the three editions of the greatest of Persian poets, Ferdusi, two were printed at Calcutta by Englishmen, and the other at Paris by a German ; but most of the treasures of Persian literature are still to be sought in manuscript. Fine libraries of Persian are to be found at Paris, at St. Petersburg (where the collection of oriental manuscripts in the library of the Academy is supposed to be the finest in Europe out of Paris), and at Leyden, Oxford, and London. Tippoo Sahib's library is now in the East India House, and the number of Persian manuscripts at the Museum is given as 1082.