SUMMARY 



OF THE 



Delivered since the last Anntial General Meeting. 



1^29— September 20, — The Rev, J, Quin delivered a Lee 

 ture on the Rise and Progress of the Saracen Empire. 



The Lecturer noticed the commencement of the Saracen 

 Empire in the 7th Century, and took a brief survey of the 

 Country of Arabia, and of the character of the person 

 through whose instrumentality a revolution was effected in 

 the manners, customs, religion, and even language, of 

 nearly a third of the then known world — He then mentioned 

 several particulars in the political and social economy, and 

 the civil and religious institutions of the Arabs and their 

 neighbouring States ; traced the promulgation of their re- 

 ligious doctrines and opinions ; the rapidity and extent of 

 the Conquests of Mahommed and his Successors ; and 

 touched upon the division of the Saracen Empire into several 

 Independent States. 



The Rev. Gentleman then inquired into the causes which 

 facilitated the progress of that astonishing people, history 

 presenting no parallel in grandeur and magnificence to the 

 rise and rapid advancement of the Saracen power and 

 opinion. He drew a comparison between the Saracen, Ma- 

 cedonian, and Roman Empires, — The power of the Arabs 

 in one Century was acknowledged from the Pyrennean 

 Mountains to the Shores of the Indies, and a complete change 

 Was effected in the laws, the customs, the religion, and even 

 the language of that extensive tract of the Globe. Amongst 

 the causes which led to this sudden and unparalleled revo- 

 lution, he particularized, the partial dissolution of the Ro- 

 man Empire, — the conquest of the Western World by the 

 barbarous nations of the North, — whilst the Emperors of 

 the Eastern Division of the Empire were lost to the hono- 

 rable ambition of preserving their political ascendency, 

 being sunk in sloth and indolence, and abandoning all politi- 

 cal and civil cares to controversial disputes on the christian 



