The Antar of the romance is constantly breaking into verse which is passionately admired by his followers.  None of its beauties of form are preserved in the translation; and indeed, this is true of the prose forms also.  It speaks volumes for the manly vigor of the original that it can be transferred to an alien tongue and yet preserve great qualities.  To the Arab the work is a masterpiece both in form and content.  Its prose is in balanced, rhythmic sentences ending in full or partial rhymes.  This “cadence of the cooing dove” is pure music to an Eastern ear.  If any reader is interested in Arabic verse, he can readily satisfy his curiosity.  An introduction to the subject is given in the Terminal Essay of Sir Richard Burton’s ‘Arabian Nights’ (Lady Burton’s edition, Vol. vi., page 340).  The same subject is treated briefly and very clearly in the introduction to Lyall’s ’Ancient Arabian Poetry’—­a book well worth consulting on other accounts.

The story itself appeals to the Oriental’s deepest feelings, passions, ideals:—­

“To realize the impetuous feelings of the Arab,” says Von Hammer, “you must have heard these tales narrated to a circle of Bedouins crowded about the orator of the desert....  It is a veritable drama, in which the spectators are the actors as well.  If the hero is threatened with imminent danger, they shudder and cry aloud, ’No, no, no; Allah forbid! that cannot be!’ If he is in the midst of tumult and battle, mowing down rank after rank of the enemy with his sword, they seize their own weapons and rise to fly to his rescue.  If he falls into the snares of treachery, their foreheads contract with angry indignation and they exclaim, ’The curse of Allah be on the traitor!’ If the hero at last sinks under the superior forces of the enemy, a long and ardent sigh escapes from their breasts, with the farewell blessing, ’Allah’s compassion be with him—­may he rest in peace.’...  Descriptions of the beauties of nature, especially of the spring, are received with exclamations.  Nothing equals the delight which sparkles in every eye when the narrator draws a picture of feminine beauty.”

The question as to the exact relation of the chivalry of Europe to the earlier chivalry of Arabia and of the East is a large one, and one which must be left to scholars.  It is certain that Spenser and Sir Philip Sidney owe far more to Saladin than we commonly suppose.  The tales of Boccaccio (1350) show that the Italians of that day still held the Arabs to be their teachers in chivalry, and at least their equals in art, science, and civilization; and the Italy of 1300 was a century in advance of the rest of Europe.  In 1268 two brothers of the King of Castile, with 800 other Spanish gentlemen, were serving under the banners of the Muslim in Tunis.  The knightly ideal of both Moors and Spaniards was to be

     “Like steel among swords,
     Like wax among ladies.”

Hospitality, generosity, magnanimity, the protection of the weak, punctilious observance of the plighted faith, pride of birth and lineage, glory in personal valor—­these were the knightly virtues common to Arab and Christian warriors.  Antar and his knights, Ibla and her maidens, are the Oriental counterparts of Launcelot and Arthur, of Guinevere and Iseult.