Stanley Lane-Poole > Quotes

“ومما يلاحظ على المرأة المصرية , أنها في العادة - أو على الأقل حين تظهر في المجتمعات - متواضعة إلى حد كبير , فهي تختلس نظرة الغريب في سرعة سحرية حتى ولو بدا للجميع أنها تنظر إلى الناحية الآخرى من الطريق , وفي الحال نجدها تحكم وضع النقاب على فمها ورأسها , وإذا ما أتيح لها أن تلقاك وجهًا لوجه , فإنها لا تسبل عينيها الواسعتين كما تفعل الغربيات , وإنما تحولهما عنك في بطء يأخذ بمجامع القلوب.”
― Stanley Lane-Poole, سيرة القاهرة

“There is no greater mistake than to imagine that the Arabs, who spread with such astonishing rapidity over half the civilized world, were in any real sense a united people. So far was this from being the truth, that it demanded all Mohammed's diplomatic skill, and all his marvellous personal prestige, to keep up a semblance of unity even while he was alive. The Arabs were made up of a number of hostile tribes or clans, many of whom had been engaged in deadly blood-feuds for several generations, and all of whom were moved by a spirit of tribal jealousy which was never entirely extinguished. Had the newly-founded Mohammedan State been restrained within the borders of Arabia, there can be no doubt that it would speedily have collapsed in the rivalry of the several clans;”
― Stanley Lane-Poole, The Moors in Spain

“The island of Lesbos has given many gifts to the world—Lesbian wine and Lesbian verse, the seven-stringed lyre, and the poems of Sappho; but of all its products the latest was assuredly the most questionable, for the last great Lesbians were the brothers Barbarossa.”
― Stanley Lane-Poole, The Story of the Barbary Corsairs

“For nearly eight centuries, under her Mohammedan rulers, Spain set to all Europe a shining example of a civilized and enlightened State. Her fertile provinces, rendered doubly prolific by the industry and engineering skill of her conquerors, bore fruit an hundredfold. Cities innumerable sprang up in the rich valleys of the Guadelquivir and the Guadiana, whose names, and names only, still commemorate the vanished glories of their past. Art, literature, and science prospered, as they then prospered nowhere else in Europe. Students flocked from France and Germany and England to drink from the fountain of learning which flowed only in the cities of the Moors. The surgeons and doctors of Andalusia were in the van of science: women were encouraged to devote themselves to serious study, and the lady doctor was not unknown among the people of Cordova. Mathematics, astronomy and botany, history, philosophy and jurisprudence were to be mastered in Spain, and Spain alone. The practical work of the field, the scientific methods of irrigation, the arts of fortification and shipbuilding, the highest and most elaborate products of the loom, the graver and the hammer, the potter's wheel and the mason's trowel, were brought to perfection by the Spanish Moors. In the practice of war no less than in the arts of peace they long stood supreme.”
― Stanley Lane-Poole, The Story of the Moors in Spain (1886) [Illustrated]

“the empire that is won by the sword must be sustained by the same weapon. Honest”
― Stanley Lane-Poole, The Story of the Moors in Spain (1886) [Illustrated]

“There is no greater mistake than to imagine that the Arabs, who spread with such astonishing rapidity over half the civilized world, were in any real sense a united people. So far was this from being the truth, that it demanded all Mohammed’s diplomatic skill, and all his marvellous personal prestige, to keep up a semblance of unity even while he was alive.”
― Stanley Lane-Poole, The Story of the Moors in Spain

“Nothing succeeds like success.”
― Stanley Lane-Poole, Rulers of India: Aurangzeb, Emperor of Hindustan, 1618-1707

“وأخذ النصارى يبغضون لغتهم اللاتينية القديمة ويصدفون عن آدابها، فتعلموا العربية واستطاعوا بعد حين أن يكتبوا بها كما يكتب العرب أنفسهم، وقد ندد يولوجيوس نفسه بهذه الحال؛ إذ يقول: «إن النصارى يولعون بقصائد الشعر العربي وقصصه، ويهجرون الكتاب المقدس وآثار القديسين، ومما يوجب الحزن والأسى أن الجيل الناشئ لا يعرف غير العربية، فهو يقرأ كتب المسلمين بشغف وينشئ لها الخزائن ويراها جديرة بالإعجاب، في حين أنه يبخل بنظرة إلى كتاب مسيحي.» ثم يقول: «لقد نسي النصارى لغتهم، ومن العسير أن نجد واحدًا منهم في كل ألف يكتب حرفًا لاتينيًّا كتابة سائغة، وهم مع هذا يستطيعون أن ينظموا شعرًا عربيًّا رائعًا.»”
― Stanley Lane-Poole, ‫قصة العرب في إسبانيا‬

“وترقب العرب عبثًا وصول ما كانوا يؤملون من النجدات من مصر أو من سلاطين تركيا فلم تأتِ،”
― Stanley Lane-Poole, ‫قصة العرب في إسبانيا‬

“وإذا حكمت الأقدار على ملك بالسقوط أخذت تملي له، وتملأ رأسه بالسخف والغرور.”
― Stanley Lane-Poole, ‫قصة العرب في إسبانيا‬

“This young man was the new ruler whom Charlemagne had so unsuccessfully come to expel, and his name was Abd-er-Rahmān the Omeyyad.”
― Stanley Lane-Poole, The Moors in Spain: History of the Conquest, 800 year Rule & The Final Fall of Granada

“This is doubtless the young Abd-er-Rahmān, before opposition and conspiracy had made him suspicious and cruel. Power has often a terrible manner of punishing its possessors.”
― Stanley Lane-Poole, The Moors in Spain: History of the Conquest, 800 year Rule & The Final Fall of Granada

“There was nothing for it but to hurry back and defend his dominions. He rapidly retraced his steps, and the main part of his army had already crossed the mountains when disaster overtook the rear in the Pass of Roncesvalles.”
― Stanley Lane-Poole, The Moors in Spain: History of the Conquest, 800 year Rule & The Final Fall of Granada

“فعجِّلْ أيها الموت المُرجَّى فما لي اليوم في الدنيا حبيب”
― Stanley Lane-Poole, ‫قصة العرب في إسبانيا‬

“وتاريخ الأندلس كله عراك ونضال وصخب، لا تكاد تقلب صفحة من صفحاته حتى تسمع قعقعة السيوف، وصليل الرماح: صراع بين ملوك المسلمين، وصراع بينهم وبين نصارى الشمال، وصراع بين الأجناس والقبائل، وصراع بين العقائد والمذاهب، ثم صراع أخير بين الحياة والموت، وبين الأذان والناقوس.”
― Stanley Lane-Poole, ‫قصة العرب في إسبانيا‬