THE ORIENT AGAINST THE OCCIDENT: RISE AND SPREAD OF ISLAM, 622-1058 A.D. [1]

130. ARABIA AND THE ARABS

THE ARABIAN PENINSULA

Arabia, a vast peninsula between the Persian Gulf, the Indian Ocean, and the Red Sea, forms the link between Asia and Africa. It is connected with Asia by the arid plains extending northward to the Euphrates; with Africa, by the equally arid isthmus of Suez. Though the country is more than one- third the size of the United States (excluding Alaska), it has never supported a large population. The interior, except for occasional oases, is a desert, inhabited only by wandering tribes. Along the southern and western coasts, between the mountains and the sea, the soil is generally fertile, the climate temperate, and the rainfall sufficient. Here the chief cities and towns are located.

INHABITANTS OF ARABIA

The original home of the Semites is believed to have been Arabia. Some Semitic peoples appear to have migrated northward to Babylonia and Syria, while others crossed the Red Sea to Abyssinia. Physically, the Arabs are an attractive people, with well-shaped, muscular figures, handsome, bronzed faces, brilliant, black eyes, and all the organs of sense exquisitely acute. Simple and abstemious in their habits, they lead healthy lives and often reach an extreme yet vigorous old age.

THE BEDOUINS OF THE DESERT

The Bedouin Arabs, by which name the nomadic inhabitants of the desert are known, claim Ishmael, the son of Abraham and half-brother of Isaac, as their ancestor. The life which they lead in the Arabian wilderness closely resembles that of the Hebrew patriarchs, as described in the Old Testament. The Bedouins are shepherds and herdsmen, continually moving with their sheep and camels from one pasturage and water-hole to another. Their virtues—hospitality to the stranger, generosity, faithfulness to the ties of kinship—are those of a nomadic, barbarian people. Such also are their vices—love of fighting and plunder, revengefulness, and impatience of restraint. Nothing like a settled government is known to them. The only tribal authority is that of the chief, or "sheik," who, because of his birth, courage, or wealth, has been chosen to the leadership. This description of the Bedouins to-day applies equally well to them in the age of Mohammed, during the sixth century.

[Illustration: MECCA The chief sanctuary of Mecca is the building called the Kaaba, which lies in the center of a vast courtyard surrounded by a colonnade. The Kaaba is here seen covered with a heavy black cloth renewed each year. Pilgrims enter the courtyard, walk slowly around the Kaaba seven times—seven is a holy number in Islam—and kiss the sacred black stone fixed in the walls of the structure. The stone is now broken into pieces, which are kept together by a silver setting. The Kaaba has been rebuilt several times since the days of Mohammed, but it still preserves the old form of a heathen temple.]

THE SEDENTARY ARABS

The Arabs who settled along the southern and western coasts of the peninsula had reached in the sixth century a considerable degree of civilization. They practiced agriculture and carried on a flourishing trade across the Red Sea and even to distant India. Between these sedentary Arabs and the Bedouins raged constant feuds, leading to much petty warfare. Nevertheless the hundreds of tribes throughout the peninsula preserved a feeling of national unity, which was greatly strengthened by Mohammed's appearance on the scene.

ARABIAN HEATHENISM

The city of Mecca, located about fifty miles from the Red Sea, was a commercial metropolis and the center of Arabian heathenism. Every year the Arab tribes ceased fighting for four months, and went up to Mecca to buy and sell and visit the famous sanctuary called the Kaaba. Here were three hundred and sixty idols and a small, black stone (probably a meteorite), which legend declared had been brought from heaven. The stone was originally white, but the sins of the people who touched it had blackened it. Although most of the Arabs were idolaters, yet some of them recognized the "Unknown God" of the Semites, Allah, the Creator of all things. Arabia at this time contained many Jews, Zoroastrians, and Christians, who helped to spread abroad the conception of one God and thus to prepare the way for a prophet of a new religion.

131. MOHAMMED: PROPHET AND STATESMAN, 622-632 A.D.

EARLY LIFE OF MOHAMMED

Mohammed, [2] born at Mecca about 570 A.D., belonged to the tribe of the Koreish, who had long been guardians of the sacred Kaaba. Left an orphan at an early age, the future prophet was obliged to earn his own living. He served first as a shepherd on the hillsides of Mecca. This occupation, though lowly, gave him the love of solitude, and helped to nourish in his soul that appreciation of nature which later found expression in so many of his utterances. While still a youth he became a camel-driver and twice crossed the deserts with caravans to Syria. Doubtless he made many acquaintances on these journeys and picked up much useful information. Mohammed, however, did not receive a regular education; it is doubtful whether he could read or write. His marriage, when about twenty-five years of age, to a rich widow, named Khadija, brought him wealth and consideration. For some time, henceforth, he led the life of a prosperous merchant of Mecca.

[Illustration: A LETTER OF MOHAMMED A letter, probably in the handwriting of Mohammed's secretary, addressed to the governor of Alexandria. The seal is inscribed "Mohammed, the prophet of God."]

MOHAMMED'S VISIONS

Mohammed seems always to have been a deeply religious man. As he grew older, his thoughts more and more centered on spiritual themes. He could not reconcile the gross idolatry of the Arabs with that belief in the unity of God which he himself had reached. In his distress he would withdraw into the wilderness, where he spent much time in fasting and solitary vigils, practices perhaps suggested to him by the example of Christian hermits. [3] During these lonely hours in the desert strange scenes passed before his eyes and strange voices sounded in his ears. At first Mohammed thought that evil spirits possessed him, but Khadija encouraged him to believe that his visions were a revelation from another world. One day, so he declared, God's messenger, the archangel Gabriel, appeared to him and bade him preach a new religion to the Arabs. It was very simple, but in its simplicity lay its strength: "There is no god but God, and Mohammed is the prophet of God."

THE HEGIRA, 622 A.D.

The prophet made his first converts in his wife, his children, and the friends who knew him best. Then, becoming bolder, he began to preach publicly in Mecca. In spite of Mohammed's eloquence, obvious sincerity, and attractive personality, he met a discouraging reception. A few slaves and poor freemen became his followers, but most of the citizens of Mecca regarded him as a madman. Mohammed's disciples, called Moslems, [4] were bitterly persecuted by the Koreish, who resented the prophet's attacks on idolatry and feared the loss of their privileges at the Kaaba. Finally Mohammed and his converts took refuge in Medina, where some of the inhabitants had already accepted his teachings. This was the famous Hegira (Flight of the prophet). [5]

LATER LIFE OF MOHAMMED

At Medina Mohammed occupied a position of high honor and influence. The people welcomed him gladly and made him their chief magistrate. As his adherents increased in number, Mohammed began to combine fighting with preaching. His military expeditions against the Arab tribes proved to be very successful. Many of the conquered Bedouins enlisted under his banner and in 630 A.D. captured Mecca for the prophet. He treated its inhabitants leniently, but threw down all the idols in the Kaaba, After the submission of Mecca most of the Arabs abandoned idolatry and accepted the new religion.

DEATH OF MOHAMMED, 632 A.D.

Mohammed did not long enjoy his position as uncrowned king of Arabia. He died in 632 A.D., at Medina, where he was buried and where his tomb is still visited by pious Moslems. His followers could scarcely believe that their great prophet had gone away from them forever. They were ready to worship him as a god, until old Abu Bekr, Mohammed's father-in-law, rebuked them with the memorable words: "Whoso worshipeth Mohammed, let him know that Mohammed is dead; but whoso worshipeth God, let him know that God liveth and dieth not."

MOHAMMED'S CHARACTER

The character of Mohammed has been variously estimated. Moslem writers make him a saint; Christian writers, until Mohammed's recent times, have called him an "impostor." We know that he was a man of simple habits, who, even in the days of his prosperity, lived on dates, barley bread, and water, mended his woolen garments, and attended to his own wants. He was mild and gentle, a lover of children, devoted to his friends, and forgiving toward his foes. He seems to have won the admiration of all with whom he came in contact. We know, too, that Mohammed was so deeply impressed with the consciousness of his religious mission that he was ready to give up wealth and an honorable position and face for years the ridicule and hatred of the people of Mecca. His faults—deceitfulness, superstitiousness, sensuality—were those of the Arabs of his time. Their existence in Mohammed's character should not prevent our recognition of his real greatness as a prophet and as a statesman.

132. ISLAM AND THE KORAN

FORMATION OF THE KORAN

The religion which Mohammed preached is called Islam, an Arabic word meaning "surrender," or "resignation." This religion has its sacred book, the Koran ("thing read" or "thing recited"). It contains the speeches, prayers, and other utterances of Mohammed at various times during his career. Some parts of the Koran were dictated by the prophet to his disciples and by them were written out on skins, leaves of palm trees, bones, and bits of parchment. Many other parts remained at first only in the memory of Mohammed's followers. Soon after his death all the scattered passages were collected into one book. Since the middle of the seventh century the Koran, every word of which the Moslems consider holy, has remained unchanged.

[Illustration: A PASSAGE FROM THE KORAN
From a manuscript in the Bodleian Library, Oxford.]

RELIGIOUS TEACHINGS OF THE KORAN

The doctrines found in the Koran show many adaptations from the Jewish and Christian religions. Like them Islam emphasizes the unity of God. The Moslem cry—"Allah Akbar!" "God is Great!"—forms its cardinal principle. Like them, also, Islam recognizes the existence of prophets, including Abraham, Moses, and Jesus, but insists that Mohammed was the last and greatest of the prophets. The existence of angels and demons is recognized. The chief of the demons, Iblis, bears some resemblance to the Jewish Satan and the Christian Devil. The account of the creation and fall of man is taken, with variations, from the Old Testament. The description of the resurrection of the dead, the last judgment, and the division of the future world into paradise and hell, the former for believers in Islam, the latter for those who have refused to accept it, seems to have been based on Persian and Jewish ideas. These borrowings from other religions facilitated the spread of Islam among eastern peoples.

OBSERVANCES OF ISLAM

The Koran imposes on the faithful Moslem five great obligations. First, he must recite, at least once in his life, aloud, correctly, and with full understanding, the short creed: "There is no god but God, and Mohammed is the prophet of God." Second, he must pray five times a day: at dawn, just after noon, before sunset, just after sunset, and at the end of the day. In every Mohammedan city the hour of prayer is announced from the tall minaret of the mosque by a crier (muezzin). Before engaging in prayer the worshiper washes face, hands, and feet; during the prayer he turns toward Mecca and bows his head to the ground. Third, he must observe a strict fast, from morning to night, during every day of Ramadan, the ninth month of the Mohammedan year. [6] In this month God presented the Koran to Gabriel for revelation to the prophet. Fourth, he must give alms to the poor. Fifth, he must, "if he is able," undertake at least one pilgrimage to Mecca. The annual visit of thousands of pilgrims to the holy city helps to preserve the feeling of brotherhood among Moslems all over the world. These five obligations are the "pillars" of Islam.

ORGANIZATION OF ISLAM

As a religious system Islam is exceedingly simple. It does not provide any elaborate ceremonies of worship and permits no altars, pictures, or images in the mosque. Islam even lacks a priesthood. Every Moslem acts as his own priest. There is, however, an official, who on Friday, the Mohammedan Sabbath, offers up public prayers in the mosque and delivers a sermon to the assembled worshipers. All work is suspended during this service, but at its close secular activities are resumed.

MORAL TEACHINGS OF THE KORAN

The Koran furnishes a moral code for the adherents of Islam. It contains a few important prohibitions. The Moslem is not to make images, to engage in games of chance, to eat pork, or to drink wine. This last prohibition has saved the Mohammedan world from the degradation and misery which alcohol has introduced into Christian lands. To Mohammed strong drink was "the mother of all evil," and drunkenness, a sin. The Koran also inculcates many active virtues, including reverence toward parents, protection of widows and orphans, charity toward the poor, kindness to slaves, and gentle treatment of the lower animals. On the whole it must be admitted that the laws of the Koran did much to restrain the vices of the Arabs and to provide them with higher standards of right and wrong. Islam marked a great advance over Arabian heathenism.

133. EXPANSION OF ISLAM IN ASIA AND EGYPT

ISLAM SPREAD BY THE SWORD

Mohammed, as we have learned, did not scruple to use the sword as a means of spreading his new religion among the idolatrous Arab tribes. By thus following up preaching with force, he subdued the greater part of Arabia. The prophet's methods were adopted by his successors. Within a century after Mohammed's death, they carried the doctrines of Islam over a large part of the civilized world and founded an Arabian Empire.

ISLAM AS A RELIGION OF CONQUEST

Islam was a religion of conquest. It proclaimed the righteousness of a "holy war," or jihad, against unbelievers. It promised rich booty for those who fought and won, and paradise for those who fell. The Arab soldier, dying on the battlefield, expected to be carried away by bright- eyed maidens to a garden of delight, where, reclining on soft cushions and rugs, he was to enjoy forever an existence of sensual ease. "Whosoever falls in battle," so runs a passage in the Koran, "his sins are forgiven, and at the day of judgment his limbs shall be supplied by the wings of angels and cherubim."

ISLAM AS A POLITICAL FORCE

The sudden creation of the Arabian power must not be understood, however, as solely a religious movement. Pride and greed, as well as fanaticism, drove the Arabs forward on their conquering career. Long before Mohammed's time Arabia had been in a state of unrest. Its warlike tribes, feeling a sense of their superiority to other peoples, were eager to overrun the rich districts of western Asia, much as the Germans had overrun western Europe. Islam strengthened the racial pride of the Arabs, united them into one nation, and gave them an effective organization for world-wide rule.

ARAB CONQUESTS IN THE EAST, 632-642 A.D.

The most extensive conquests of the Arabs were made within ten years after Mohammed's death. During this time the Moslem warriors, though poorly armed, ill-disciplined, and in every battle greatly outnumbered, attacked with success the two strongest military powers then in the world—Rome and Persia. From the Roman Empire in the East they seized the provinces of Syria and Palestine, with the famous cities of Damascus, Antioch, and Jerusalem. [7] They took Mesopotamia from the Persians and then, invading Iran, overthrew the Persian power. [8] Egypt also was subjugated by these irresistible soldiers of the Crescent.

TREATMENT OF THE CONQUERED PEOPLES

According to the strict teaching of the Koran, those who refused to accept Islam were either to be killed or to be reduced to slavery. As a matter of fact, the Arabs treated their new subjects with marked liberality. No massacres and no persecutions occurred. The conquered peoples were allowed to retain their own religions, on condition of paying ample tribute. In course of time, however, many of the Christians in Syria and Egypt and most of the Zoroastrians [9] in Persia adopted Islam, in order that they might acquire the rights and privileges of Moslem citizens.

LATER ARAB CONQUESTS

The sweeping conquests of the decade 632-642 A.D. were followed in later years by a further extension of the boundaries of the Arabian Empire. In the remote East the Arabs sent their victorious armies beyond the Oxus and Indus rivers to central Asia and India. They captured the island of Cyprus, annexed parts of Armenia and Asia Minor, and at length threatened to take Constantinople. Had that city fallen, all eastern Europe would have been laid open to invasion.

[Illustration: Map, EXPANSION OF ISLAM]

SIEGE OF CONSTANTINOPLE, 716-717 A.D.

The first attempts on Constantinople were made by sea and were repulsed, but during the years 716-717 A.D. the city had to face a combined attack by a Moslem navy and army. The eastern emperor, Leo the Isaurian, conducted a heroic defense, using with much effectiveness the celebrated mixture known as "Greek fire." This combustible, probably composed of sulphur, naphtha, and quicklime, was poured or hurled on the enemy's ships in order to burn them. "Greek fire," the rigors of an uncommonly severe winter, and timely aid from the Bulgarians at length compelled the Arabs to beat a retreat. Their failure to take Constantinople gave the Roman Empire in the East another long lease of life.

[Illustration: NAVAL BATTLE SHOWING USE OF "GREEK FIRE" From a Byzantine manuscript of the fourteenth century at Madrid. "Greek fire" in marine warfare was most commonly propelled through long tubes of copper which were placed on the prow of a ship and managed by a gunner. Combustibles might also be kept in tubes flung by hand and exploded on board the enemy's vessel.]

134. EXPANSION OF ISLAM IN NORTH AFRICA AND SPAIN

NORTH AFRICA SUBDUED

Though repulsed before the impregnable walls of Constantinople, the Arabs continued to win new dominions in other North Africa parts of the Christian world. After their occupation of Egypt, they began to overrun North Africa, which Justinian, little more than a century earlier, had reconquered from the Vandals. [10] The Romanized provincials, groaning under the burdensome taxes imposed on them by the eastern emperors, made only a slight resistance to the Moslem armies. A few of the great cities held out for a time, but after the capture and destruction of Carthage [11] in 698 A.D., Arab rule was soon established over the whole extent of the Mediterranean coast from Egypt to the Atlantic.

ARABS AND BERBERS

Islam made in North Africa one of its most permanent conquests. After the coming of the Arabs many of the Christian inhabitants appear to have withdrawn to Spain and Sicily, leaving the field clear for the introduction of Arabian civilization. The Arabs who settled in North Africa gave their religion and government to the Berbers, as the natives of the country were called, and to some extent intermingled with them. Arabs and Berbers still comprise the population of North Africa, though their once independent states have now been absorbed by European powers. [12]

SUBJUGATION OF SPAIN BEGUN, 711 A.D.

With North Africa in their hands the Moslems did not long delay the invasion of Spain. In 711 A.D. an army of Arabs and Berbers, under their leader Tarik, crossed the strait which still bears his name [13] and for the first time confronted the Germans. The Visigothic kingdom, [14] already much enfeebled, proved to be an easy prey. A single battle made the invaders masters of half of Spain. Within a few years their hosts swept northward to the Pyrenees. Only small districts in the northern part of the Spanish peninsula remained unconquered.

THE MOSLEM ADVANCE IN GAUL

The Moslems were not stopped by the Pyrenees. Crossing these mountains, they captured many of the old Roman cities in the south of Gaul and then advanced to the north, attracted, apparently, by the booty to be found in Christian monasteries and churches. In the vicinity of Tours they encountered the great army which Charles Martel, the chief minister of the Frankish king, [15] had collected to oppose their advance.

BATTLE OF TOURS, 732 A.D.

The battle of Tours seems to have continued for several days. Of its details we know nothing, though a Spanish chronicler tells us that the heavy infantry of the Franks stood "immovable as a wall, inflexible as a block of ice" against the desperate assaults of the Moslem horsemen. When the Franks, after the last day's fighting, wished to renew the struggle, they found that the enemy had fled, leaving a camp filled with the spoils of war. This engagement, though famous in history, was scarcely decisive. For some time afterward the Moslems maintained themselves in southern Gaul. It was the Frankish ruler, Pepin the Short, who annexed their possessions there and drove them back across the Pyrenees to Spain. [16]

135. THE CALIPHATE AND ITS DISRUPTION, 632-1058 A.D.

THE FOUR "ORTHODOX" CALIPHS, 632-661 A.D.

Only eighteen years after the battle of Tours, the Arabian Empire was divided into two rival and more or less hostile parts, which came to be called the Eastern and Western caliphates. The title of caliph, meaning "successor" or "representative," had first been assumed by Mohammed's father-in-law, Abu Bekr, who was chosen to succeed the prophet as the civil and religious head of the Moslem world. After him followed Omar, who had been one of Mohammed's most faithful adherents, and then Othman and Ali, both sons-in-law of Mohammed. These four rulers are sometimes known as the "Orthodox" caliphs, because their right to the succession was universally acknowledged by Moslems.

OMMIAD CALIPHS AT DAMASCUS, 661-750 A.D.

After Ali's death the governor of Syria, Moawiya by name, succeeded in making himself caliph of the Moslem world. This usurper converted the caliphate into a hereditary, instead of an elective, office, and established the dynasty of the Ommiads. [17] Their capital was no longer Medina in Arabia, but the Syrian city of Damascus. The descendants of Mohammed's family refused, however, to recognize the Ommiads as legitimate caliphs. In 750 A.D. a sudden revolt, headed by the party of the Abbasids, [18] established a new dynasty. The Abbasids treacherously murdered nearly all the members of the Ommiad family, but one survivor escaped to Spain, where he founded at Cordova an independent Ommiad dynasty. [19] North Africa, also, before long separated itself from Abbasid rule. Thus the once united caliphate, like the old Roman Empire, split in twain.

THE ABBASID CALIPHS, 750-1058 A.D.

The Abbasids continued to reign over the Moslems in Asia for more than three hundred years. The most celebrated of Abbasid caliphs was Harun-al- Rashid (Aaron the Just), a contemporary of Charlemagne, to whom the Arab ruler sent several presents, including an elephant and a water-clock which struck the hours. The tales of Harun-al-Rashid's magnificence, his gold and silver, his silks and gems, his rugs and tapestries, reflect the luxurious life of the Abbasid rulers. Gradually, however, their power declined, and in 1058 A.D. the Seljuk Turks, [20] recent converts to Islam, deprived them of their power. A Turkish chieftain, with the title of "King of the East and West," then took the place of the Arabian caliph, though the latter remained the religious head of Islam. He lost even this spiritual authority, just two centuries later, when the Mongols from central Asia overran the Turkish dominions. [21]

BAGDAD

The Abbasids removed their capital from Damascus to Bagdad on the banks of the middle Euphrates. The new city, under the fostering care of the caliphs, grew with great rapidity. Its population in the ninth century is said to have reached two millions. For a time it was the largest and richest city in the Moslem world. How its splendor impressed the imagination may be seen from the stories of the Thousand and One Nights. [22] After the extinction of the Abbasid caliphate, its importance as the religious and political center of Islam declined. But memories of the former grandeur of Bagdad still cling to it, and even to-day it is referred to in Turkish official documents as the "glorious city."

EXTINCTION OF THE ARABIAN EMPIRE A MISFORTUNE

It was a very great misfortune for the eastern world when the Arabian Empire passed under the control of rude Asiatic peoples. The Turks accepted Islam, but they did little to preserve and extend Arabian civilization. The stagnant, non-progressive condition of the East at the present time is largely due to the misgovernment of its Turkish conquerors.

136. ARABIAN CIVILIZATION

THE ARABS AS ABSORBERS OF CIVILIZATION

The great Moslem cities of Bagdad, Damascus, Cairo, and Cordova were not only seats of government for the different divisions of the Arabian Empire; they were also the centers of Arabian civilization. The conquests of the Arabs had brought them into contact with highly developed peoples whose culture they absorbed and to some extent improved. They owed most to Persia and, after Persia, to Greece, through the empire at Constantinople, In their hands there was somewhat the same fusion of East and West as Alexander the Great had sought to accomplish. [23] Greek science and philosophy mingled with the arts of Persia and other Oriental lands. Arabian civilization, for about four centuries under the Ommiad and Abbasid caliphs, far surpassed anything to be found in western Europe.

AGRICULTURE

Many improvements in agriculture were due to the Arabs. They had a good system of irrigation, practiced rotation of crops, employed fertilizers, and understood how to graft and produce new varieties of plants and fruits. From the Arabs we have received cotton, flax, hemp, buckwheat, rice, sugar cane, and coffee, various vegetables, including asparagus, artichokes, and beans, and such fruits as melons, oranges, lemons, apricots, and plums.

MANUFACTURING

The Arabs excelled in various manufactures. Damascus was famous for its brocades, tapestries, and blades of tempered steel. The Moorish cities in Spain had also their special productions: Cordova, leather; Toledo, armor; and Granada, rich silks. Arab craftsmen taught the Venetians to make crystal and plate glass. The work of Arab potters and weavers was at once the admiration and despair of its imitators in western Europe. The Arabs knew the secrets of dyeing and they made a kind of paper. Their textile fabrics and articles of metal were distinguished for beauty of design and perfection of workmanship. European peoples during the early Middle Ages received the greater part of their manufactured articles of luxury through the Arabs. [24]

COMMERCE

The products of Arab farms and workshops were carried far and wide throughout medieval lands. The Arabs were keen merchants, and Mohammed had expressly encouraged commerce by declaring it agreeable to God. The Arabs traded with India, China, the East Indies (Java and Sumatra), the interior of Africa, Russia, and even with the Baltic lands. Bagdad, which commanded both land and water routes, was the chief center of this commerce, but other cities of western Asia, North Africa, and Spain shared in its advantages. The bazaar, or merchants' quarter, was found in every Moslem city.

GEOGRAPHICAL KNOWLEDGE

The trade of the Arabs, their wide conquests, and their religious pilgrimages to Mecca vastly increased their knowledge of the world. They were the best geographers of the Middle Ages. An Abbasid caliph, the son of Harun-al-Rashid, had the Greek Geography of Ptolemy [25] translated into Arabic and enriched the work with illuminated maps. Arab scholars compiled encyclopedias describing foreign countries and peoples, constructed celestial spheres, and measured closely the arc of the meridian in order to calculate the size of the earth. There is some reason to believe that the mariner's compass was first introduced into Europe by the Arabs. The geographical knowledge of Christian peoples during the Middle Ages owed much, indeed, to their Moslem forerunners.

EDUCATION

Schools and universities flourished in Moslem lands when Christian Europe was still in the "Dark Ages." The largest institution of learning was at Cairo, where the lectures of the professors were attended by thousands of students. Famous universities also existed in Bagdad and Cordova. Moslem scholars especially delighted in the study of philosophy. Arabic translations of Aristotle's [26] writings made the ideas of that great thinker familiar to the students of western Europe, where the knowledge of Greek had all but died out. The Arabs also formed extensive libraries of many thousands of manuscripts, all carefully arranged and catalogued. Their libraries and universities, especially in Spain, were visited by many Christians, who thus became acquainted with Moslem learning and helped to introduce it into Europe.

CHEMISTRY AND MEDICINE

The Arabs have been considered to be the founders of modern experimental science. They were relatively skillful chemists, for they discovered a number of new compounds (such as alcohol, aqua regia, nitric acid, and corrosive sublimate) and understood the preparation of mercury and of various oxides of metals. In medicine the Arabs based their investigations on those of the Greeks, [27] but made many additional contributions to the art of healing. They studied physiology and hygiene, dissected the human body, performed difficult surgical operations, used anaesthetics, and wrote treatises on such diseases as measles and smallpox. Arab medicine and surgery were studied by the Christian peoples of Europe throughout the later period of the Middle Ages.

[Illustration: INTERIOR OF THE MOSQUE OF CORDOVA The great mosque of Cordova, begun in the eighth century, was gradually enlarged during the following centuries to its present dimensions, 570 by 425 feet. The building, one of the largest in the world, has now been turned into a cathedral. The most striking feature of the interior is the forest of porphyry, jasper, and marble pillars supporting open Moorish arches. Originally there were 1200 of these pillars, but many have been destroyed.]

MATHEMATICS AND ASTRONOMY

The Arabs had a strong taste for mathematics. Here again they carried further the old Greek investigations. In arithmetic they used the so- called "Arabic" figures, which were probably borrowed from India. The Arabic numerals gradually supplanted in western Europe the awkward Roman numerals. In geometry the Arabs added little to Euclid, but algebra is practically their creation. An Arabic treatise on algebra long formed the textbook of the subject in the universities of Christian Europe. Spherical trigonometry and conic sections are Arabic inventions. This mathematical knowledge enabled the Arabs to make considerable progress in astronomy. Observatories at Bagdad and Damascus were erected as early as the ninth century. Some of the astronomical instruments which they constructed, including the sextant and the gnomon, are still in use. [28]

ROMANCE AND POETRY

In prose and verse there are two Moslem productions which have attained wide popularity in European lands. The first work is the Thousand and One Nights, a collection of tales written in Arabic and describing life and manners at the court of the Abbasids. The book, as we now have it, seems to have been composed as late as the fifteenth century, but it borrows much from earlier Arabic sources. Many of the tales are of Indian or Persian origin, but all have a thoroughly Moslem coloring. The second work is the RubÁiyÁt of the astronomer-poet of Persia, Omar Khayyam, who wrote about the beginning of the twelfth century. His RubÁiyÁt is a little volume of quatrains, about five hundred in all, distinguished for wit, satirical power, and a vein of melancholy, sometimes pensive, sometimes passionate. These characteristics of Omar's poetry have made it widely known in the western world. [29]

ARCHITECTURE

Painting and sculpture owe little to the Arabs, but their architecture, based in part on Byzantine and Persian models, reached a high level of excellence. Swelling domes, vaulted roofs, arched porches, tall and graceful minarets, and the exquisite decorative patterns known as "arabesques" make many Arab buildings miracles of beauty. Glazed tiles, mosaics, and jeweled glass were extensively used for ornamentation. From the first the Arab builders adopted the pointed arch; they introduced it into western Europe; and it became a characteristic feature of Gothic cathedrals. [30] Among the best-known of Arab buildings are the so-called "Mosque of Omar" at Jerusalem, [31] the Great Mosque of Cordova, and that architectural gem, the Alhambra at Granada. Many features of Moorish art were taken over by the Spaniards, who reproduced them in the cathedrals and missions of Mexico and California.

[Illustration: CAPITALS AND ARABESQUES FROM THE ALHAMBRA One of Mohammed's laws forbidding the use of idols was subsequently expanded by religious teachers into a prohibition of all imitations of human or animal forms in art. Sculptors who observed this prohibition relied for ornamentation on intricate geometrical designs known as arabesques. These were carved in stone or molded in plaster.]

137. THE INFLUENCE OF ISLAM

GROWTH OF ISLAM

The division of the Arabian Empire into rival caliphates did not check the spread of Islam. The Turks and Mongols during the Middle Ages carried it to the uttermost regions of Asia and throughout southeastern Europe. Some parts of the territory thus gained by it have since been lost. Spain and the Balkan peninsula are once more Christian lands. In other parts of the world, and notably in Africa and India, the religion of Mohammed is spreading faster than any other creed. Islam to-day claims about two hundred million adherents.

[Illustration: THE FOUNTAIN OF THE LIONS IN THE ALHAMBRA The most remarkable feature of the Alhambra is the Court of the Lions. It measures 116 feet in length by 66 feet in breadth. A gallery supported on marble columns surrounds the court. In the center is the Fountain of Lions, an alabaster basin resting on the backs of 12 marble lions.]

THE BENEFITS OF ISLAM

The growth of Islam is evidence that it meets the needs of Asiatic and African peoples. Its simple creed—the unity of God, man's immortal soul, and material rewards and penalties in a future life—adapt it to the understanding of half-civilized peoples. As a religion it is immeasurably superior to the rude nature worship and idolatry which it has supplanted. The same is true of Islam as a system of morality. The practice of the virtues recommended by the Koran and the avoidance of the vices which that book condemns tend to raise its adherents in the moral scale.

TREATMENT OF WOMEN

From the moral standpoint one of the least satisfactory features of Islam is its attitude toward women. The ancient Arabs, like many other peoples, seem to have set no limit to the number of wives a man might possess. Women were regarded by them as mere chattels, and female infants were frequently put to death. Mohammed recognized polygamy, but limited the number of legitimate wives to four. At the same time Mohammed sought to improve the condition of women by forbidding female infanticide, by restricting the facilities for divorce, and by insisting on kind treatment of wives by their husbands. "The best of you," he said, "is he who behaves best to his wives." According to eastern custom Moslem women are secluded in a separate part of the house, called the harem. [32] They never appear in public, except when closely veiled from the eyes of strangers. Their education is also much neglected.

SLAVERY

Slavery, like polygamy, was a custom which Mohammed found fully established among the Arabs. He disliked slavery and tried in several ways to lessen its evils. He declared that the emancipation of Moslem slaves was an act of special merit, and ordered that in a war between Moslems the prisoners were not to be enslaved. Mohammed also insisted on kind treatment of slaves by their masters. "Feed your slaves," he directed, "with food of that which you eat and clothe them with such clothing as you wear, and command them not to do that which they are unable to do." The condition of Moslem slaves does not appear to be intolerable, though the slave traffic which still exists in some parts of Africa is a disgrace to Islam.

STUDIES

1. On an outline map indicate the Arabian Empire at its widest extent. Locate the more important cities, including Mecca, Medina, Jerusalem, Damascus, Bagdad, Cairo, Alexandria, Granada, Cordova, and Seville.

2. Define the following: Kaaba; Islam; Koran; and caliph.

3. How did the geographical situation of Arabia preserve it from being conquered by Persians, Macedonians, or Romans?

4. Why had the Arabs, until the time of Mohammed, played so inconspicuous a part in the history of the world?

5. Mohammed "began as a mule driver and ended as both a pope and a king." Explain this statement.

6. How does Mohammed's career in Mecca illustrate the saying that "a prophet is not without honor save in his own country"?

7. What resemblances may be traced between Islam on the one side and Judaism and Christianity on the other side?

8. Did religion have anything to do with the migrations of the Germans? How was it with the Arabs?

9. Contrast the methods of propagating Christianity in Europe with those of spreading Islam in Asia.

10. Why is the defeat of the Moslems before Constantinople regarded as more significant than their defeat at the battle of Tours?

11. Compare the eastern limits of the Arabian Empire with those of Alexander's empire (maps facing pages 124, 376).

12. Show that the Arabian Empire, because of its geographical position, was less easily defended than the Roman Empire.

13. Locate on the map facing page 376 the following commercial cities in the Arabian Empire: Samarkand; Cabul; Bokhara; Mosul; Kairwan; Fez; Seville; and Toledo.

14. Can you suggest any reason why the Arabs did little in painting and sculpture?

15. What are some of the best-known stories in the Thousand and One Nights?

16. Discuss the justice of this statement: "If our ideas and our arts go back to antiquity, all the inventions which make life easy and agreeable come to us from the Arabs."

17. "From the eighth to the twelfth century the world knew but two civilizations, that of Byzantium and that of the Arabs." Comment on this statement.

18. Show that Islam was an heir to the Graeco-Oriental civilization.

19. Can you suggest any reasons why Islam to-day spreads among the African negroes more rapidly than Christianity?

20. How does Islam, by sanctioning polygamy and slavery, hinder the rise of women and of the working classes?

FOOTNOTES

[1] Webster, Readings in Medieval and Modern History, chapter vi, "The Teachings of Mohammed."

[2] The earlier spelling was Mahomet.

[3] See page 352. [4] From the Arabic muslim, "one who surrenders himself" (to God's will). During the Middle Ages the Moslems to their Christian enemies were commonly known as Saracens, a term which is still in use.

[5] The year 622 A.D., in which the Hegira occurred, marks the beginning of the Mohammedan era. The Christian year 1917 A.D. nearly corresponds to the Mohammedan year 1336 A.H. (Anno Hegirae).

[6] Feasting during the nights of this month is allowable.

[7] See page 333.

[8] See page 219, 332.

[9] See page 54, note 1.

[10] See page 330.

[11] See page 245.

[12] Morocco, Algeria, and Tunis belong to France; Tripoli, to Italy.

[13] Gibraltar = Gibal al Tarik, "the mountain of Tarik."

[14] See pages 244-245.

[15] See page 306.

[16] For Charlemagne's Spanish conquests, see page 309.

[17] So called from a leading family of Mecca, to which Moawiya belonged.

[18] So called from Abbas, an uncle of Mohammed.

[19] This was at first known as the emirate of Cordova, but in 929 A.D. it became the caliphate of Cordova. See the map facing page 308.

[20] See page 333.

[21] See page 485. Descendants of the Abbasids subsequently took up their abode in Egypt. Through them the claim to the caliphate passed in 1538 A.D. to the Ottoman Turks. The Sultan at Constantinople still calls himself caliph of the Moslem world. However, in 1916 A.D. the Grand Sherif of Mecca, a descendant of Mohammed, led a revolt against the Turks, captured Mecca and Medina, and proclaimed Arab independence. Should the European war end in favor of the Allies, the caliphate will undoubtedly go back to the Arabs.

[22] Popularly called the Arabian Nights.

[23] See page 126.

[24] The European names of some common articles reveal the Arabic sources from which they were first derived. Thus, damask comes from Damascus, muslin from Mosul, gauze from Gaza, cordovan (a kind of leather) from Cordova, and morocco leather from North Africa.

[25] See page 133.

[26] See page 275.

[27] See page 131.

[28] Many words in European languages beginning with the prefix al (the definite article in Arabic) show how indebted was Europe to the Arabs for scientific knowledge. In English these words include alchemy (whence chemistry), alcohol, alembic, algebra, alkali, almanac, Aldebaran (the star), etc.

[29] The translation of the RubÁiyÁt by Edward Fitzgerald is almost an English classic.

[30] See page 564.

[31] See the illustration, page 471.

[32] The Athenians had a similar practice. See page 257.