Hamann’s works resemble his life and character. They are entirely unsystematic so far as matter is concerned, chaotic and disjointed in style. To a reader not acquainted with the peculiar nature of the man, which led him to regard what commended itself to him as therefore objectively true, they must be moreover entirely unintelligible and, from their peculiar pietistic tone and scriptural jargon, probably offensive. A place in the history of philosophy can be yielded to Hamann only because he expresses in uncouth, barbarous fashion an idea to which other writers have given more effective shape. The fundamental thought is with him the unsatisfactoriness of abstraction or onesidedness. The Aufklärung, with its rational theology, was to him the type of abstraction. Even Epicureanism, which might appear concrete, was by him rightly designated abstract. Quite naturally, then, Hamann is led to object strongly to much of the Kantian philosophy. The separation of sense and understanding is for him unjustifiable, and only paralleled by the extraordinary blunder of severing matter and form. Concreteness, therefore, is the one demand which Hamann expresses, and as representing his own thought he used to refer to Giordano Bruno’s conception of the identity of contraries. The demand, however, remains but a demand. Nothing that Hamann has given can be regarded as in the slightest degree a response to it. His hatred of system, incapacity for abstract thinking, and intense personality rendered it impossible for him to do more than utter the disjointed, oracular, obscure dicta which gained for him among his friends the name of “Magus of the North.” Two results only appear throughout his writings,—first, the accentuation of belief, and, secondly, the transference of many philosophical difficulties to language. Belief is, according to Hamann, the groundwork of knowledge, and he accepts in all sincerity Hume’s analysis of experience as being most helpful in constructing a theological view. In language, which he appears to regard as somehow acquired, he finds a solution for the problems of reason which Kant had discussed in the Critique. On the application of these thoughts to the Christian theology one need not enter.

None of Hamann’s writings are of great bulk; most are mere pamphlets of some thirty or forty pages. A complete collection has been published by Roth {Schriften, 8vo, 1821-42), and by Gildemeister {Leben und Schriften, 6 vols., 1851-73). See also Petri, Hamann's Schriften u. Ar⅛∕c, 4 vols. ,1872-3; Poel, Hamann, der Magus im Norden, sein Leben u. Mittheilungen aus seinen Schriften, 2 vols., 1874-76. A very comprehensive essay on Hamann is to be found in Hegel’s Vermischte Schriften, ii. (Werke, bd. xvii. ).

H AM AS AH (more correctly Hamâseh), the name of a famous Arabian anthology compiled by Habib ibn Aus et-Tâî, surnamed Abû Temmâm (corruptly Abu-Teman, q.vj). The collection is so-called from the title Df its first book, containing poems descriptive of constancy and valour in battle, patient endurance of calamity, steadfastness in seeking vengeance, manfulness under reproach and temptation, all which qualities make up the attribute called by the Arabs hamaseh (briefly paraphrased by Et-Tebrizi as esh-shiddeh fi-l-arnr'). It consists of ten books or parts, containing in all 881 poems or fragments of poems, and named respectively—(1) El-Hamâseh, 261 pieces; (2) El-Marathi, “Dirges,” 169 pieces; (3) El-Adab, “ Manners,” 54 pieces; (4) En-Nesib, “The Beauty and Love of Women,” 139 pieces; (5) El-Hija, “Satires,” 80 pieces; (6) El-Adyaf U'ad-Medîh, “Hospitality and Panegyric,” 143 pieces;

(7) Es-Sifat, “Miscellaneous Descriptions,” 3 pieces;

(8) Es-Seyr wa-n-Ndas, “Journeying and Drowsiness,” 9 pieces; (9) El-Mulah, “Pleasantries,” 38 pieces; and (10) Medhemmet-en-nisa, “Dispraise of Women,” 18 pieces. Of these books the first is by far the longest, both in the number and extent of its poems, and the first two together make up more than half the bulk of the work. The poems are for the most part fragments selected from longer compositions, though a considerable number are probably entire. They are taken from the works of Arab poets of all periods down to that of Abû Temmâm himself (the latest ascertainable date being 832 a.d.), but chiefly of the poets of the Ante-Islamic time (<7αΛ⅛7⅛yyi2re), those of the early days of El-Islâm {Mulchadrimûn), and those who flourished during the reigns of the Umawι caliphs, 660-749 a.d. {Lslamiyyum). Perhaps the oldest in the collection are those relating to the war of Basûs, a famous legendary strife which arose out of the murder of Kuleyb, chief of the combined clans of Bekr and Teghlib, and lasted for forty years, ending with the peace of Dhu-1-Mejâz, about 534 a.d. Of the period of the 'Abbâsî caliphs, under whom Abû Temmâm himself lived, there are probably not more than sixteen fragments.

Most of the poems belong to the class of extempore or occasional utterances, as distinguished from qasîdehs, or elaborately finished odes. While the latter abound with comparisons and long descriptions, in which the skill of the poet is exhibited with much art and ingenuity, the poem3 of the Hamaseh are short, direct, and for the most part free from comparisons: the transitions are easy, the metaphors simple, and the purpose of the poem clearly indicated. It is due probably to the fact that this style of composition was chiefly sought by Abû Temmâm in compiling his collection that he has chosen hardly anything from the works of the most famous poets of antiquity. Not a single piece from Imra’el-Qeys occurs in the Hamaseh, nor are there any from 'Alqameh, Zuheyr, or El-A'shà; En-Nâbighah is represented only by two pieces (pp. 408 and 742 of Freytag’s edition) of four aud three verses respectively, , Antarah by two pieces of four verses each {Id., pp. 206, 209), Tarafeh by one piece of five verses {Id., p. 632), Lebid by one piece of three verses {Id·, p. 468), and 'Amr son of Kulthûm by one piece of four verses {I<L, p. 236). The compilation is thus essentially an anthology of minor poets, and exhibits (so far at least as the more ancient poems are concerned) the general average of poetic utterance at a time when to speak in verse was the daily habit of every warrior of the desert.

To this description, however, there is an important exception in the book entitled En-Nesîb, containing verses relating to women and love. In the classical age of Arab poetry it was the established rule that all qasîdehs, or finished odes, must begin with the mention of women and their chirms {teshbιb), in order, as the old critics said, that the hearts of the heιrers might be softened and inclined to regard kindly the theme which the poet proposed to unfold. The fragments included in this part of the work are therefore generally taken from the opening verses of qasîdehs ; where this is not the case, they are chiefly compositions of the early Islamic period, when the school of exclusively erotic poetry (of which the greatest representative was 'Omar son of Abû Rabî'ah) arose.

The compiler was himself a distinguished poet in the style of his day, and wandered through many provinces of the Muslim empire earning money and fame by his skill in panegyric. About 220 a.h. he betook himself to Khurâsân, then ruled by 'Abd-allâh son of Tâhir, whom he praised and by whom he was rewarded; on his journey home to El-'Irâq he passed through Hamadân, and was there detained for many months a guest of Abu-1-Wafâ son of Selemeh, the road onward being blocked by heavy falls of snow. During his residence at Hamadân Abû Temmâm is said to have compiled or composed, from the materials which he found in Abu-1-Wafâ’s library, five poetical works, of which one was the Hamäseh. This collection remained as a precious heirloom in the family of Abu-1- Wafâ until their fortunes decayed, when it fell into the hands of a man of Dinawar named Abu-l-'Awâdhil, who carried it to Isfahân and made it known to the learned of that city.

The worth of the Hamaseh as a store-house of ancient legend, of faithful detail regarding the usages of the pagan time and early simplicity of the Arab race, can hardly be exaggerated. The high level of excellence which is found in its selections, both as to form and matter, is remarkable, and caused it to be said that Abû Temmâm displayed higher qualities as a poet in his choice of extracts from the ancients than in his own compositions. What strikes us chiefly in the class of poetry of which the Hamäseh is a specimen, is its exceeding truth and reality, its freedom from artificiality and hearsay, the evident firsthand experience which the singers possessed of all of which they sang. For historical purposes the value of the collection is not small; but most of all there shines forth from it a complete portraiture of the hardy and manful nature, the strenuous life of passion and battle, the lofty contempt of cowardice, niggardliness, and servility, which marked the valiant stock who bore El-Islâm abroad in a flood of new life over the out-worn civilizations of Persia, Egypt, and Byzantium. It has the true stamp of the heroic time, of its -weaknesses and crime as of its strength and beauty.

No less than twenty commentaries on it are enumerated by Haji Khalifeh. Of these the earliest was by Abû Riyâsli (otherwise Er-Riyâshî), who died in 257 A.H.; excerpts from it, chiefly in elucidation of the circumstances in which the poems were composed, are frequently given by Et-Tebrizi. He was followed by the famous grammarian Abu-l-Fath ibn el-Jinni (died 392 a.h.), and later by Shihâb ed-Din Ahmed el-Marzûqî of Isfahân (died 421 a.h.). Upon El-Marzûqî’s commentary is chiefly founded that of Abû Zekerîyâ Yahyà. et-Tebrizi (born 421 a.h., died 502), which has been published by the late Professor G. W. Freytag of Bonn, together with a Latin translation aud notes (1828-1851). This monumental work, the labour of a life, is a treasure of information regarding the classical age of Arab literature which has not perhaps its equal for extent, accuracy, and minuteness of detail, in Europe. No other complete edition of the ΗαmAsch has been printed in the West; but in 1856 one appeared at Calcutta under the names of Maulavî Ghulâm Rabbani and Kabiru-d-din Ahmad. Though no acknowledgment of the fact is contained in this edition, it is a simple reprint of Professor Freytag’s text (without Et-Tebrizi’s commentary), and follows its original even in the misprints (corrected by Freytag at the end of the second volume, which being in Latin the Calcutta editors do not seem to have consulted). It is thus worthless as a fresh critical authority, and, owing to the absence of a commentary, of little use to the student; its only merit is that it contains in an appendix of 12 pages a collection of verses (and some entire fragments) not found in Et-Tebrizi’s recension, but stated to exist in some copies consulted by the editors; these are, however, very carelessly edited and printed, and in many places .unintelligible.

The Hamäseh has been rendered with the utmost skill and spirit into German verse by the illustrious Friedrich Rückert (Stuttgart, 1846), who has not only given translations of almost all the poems proper to the work, but has added numerous fragments drawn from other sources, especially those occurring in the Scholia of Et-Tebrizi, as well as the Λfdallaqahs of Zuheyr and ’ Antarah, the Lâmiyyeh of Esh-Shenferà, and the Baηet So'act of Ka'b son of Zuheyr. No such faithful interpretation of the ways and thoughts of the ancient Arabs exists to our knowledge in any modern European language; it is comparable, for fidelity, spirit, and fluency, only to Lane’s translation of the Thousand and One Nights.

When the Hamäseh is spoken of, that of Abû Temmâm, as the first and most famous of the name, is meant; but several collections of a similar kind, also called Hamäseh, exist. The best known and earliest of these is the Hamäseh of El-Bohturi (died 284 a.h.), of which some fragments were published by Theo. Noldeke in his Beiträge zur Kenntniss der Poesie der alten Araber (Hanover, 1864). Four other works of the same name, formed on the model of Abû Temmâm’s compilation, are mentioned by Hâjî Khalifeh. Besides these, a work entitled Hamäset er-Räh (the Hamäseh of wine), was composed by Abu-1-’Alâel-Ma'arrî (died 449 a.h.).