Tahtawi

Rereading the collected works of Tahtawi: Visiting Paris in the early part of the 19th century, Tahtawi made many comments of contrast between Arab and French culture.  1) What amused me is that he praises the French because, unlike in Arabic literature, they never have love poetry or flirtation about a member of the same sex.  He says that when a French person wants to translate an Arabic poem in which the poet is showing love for a ghulam (boy), they change the word to refer to a girl. (p. 78 of the Collected Works, volume 2).  2) But my favorite reference was to the Orientalist, Silvestre de Sacy, who he know and with whom he corresponded.  Tahtawi was shocked that this one of the "greatest" Orientalist who translated many works from Arabic into French could "not speak Arabic except with great difficulty".  (p. 86).  I guess some things don't change.  3) The members of the Egyptian delegation in France were horrified at the way in which an ox was killed by butchers in France: hitting him on the head repeatedly before slitting his throat. (p. 113)  4) He marveled that the French (unlike Arabs and Persians) never wrote poetry in praise of wine.  That is quite ironic, I thought but true.  5) Arabs used to refer to America as "the wonders of creatures" or the "bizarre of creatures".  (p. 27).