[Footnote 220: The Arabic of the Koran is taught as a dead
language in the college of Mecca. By the Danish traveller,
this ancient idiom is compared to the Latin; the vulgar
tongue of Hejaz and Yemen to the Italian; and the Arabian
dialects of Syria, Egypt, Africa, &c., to the Provencal,
Spanish, and Portuguese, (Niebuhr, Description de l'Arabie,
p. 74, &c.)]