282 



THE STANDARD DICTIONARY OF FACTS 



of a prophet Mohammed <>r Mohamet. The 

 rrine taught by Mohammed i> railed " Islam " 

 or 'Mohammedanism." Its fundamental prin- 

 ciples are contained in two articles of belief: 

 "There is no God but God; and Mohamet is 

 God's apostle." The Koran is the name of the 

 volume containing the doctrines and precepts 

 of Mohammed, in which his followers place im- 

 plicit confidence. The aim of the Koran, as 

 stated, is to bring all to the obedience of Mo- 

 bammed as the prophet and ambassador of God, 

 who was to establish the true religion on earth. 

 With sword and pen Mohammed's disciples went 

 out to their task of conquering the world. The 

 story <>f their wars has been written in history, 

 but 'their intellectual conquests were as great, 

 ry department of thought there was new 

 life, and for centuries Arabian scholars became 

 chers. They expounded the Koran and 

 their schools became the centers of learning, 

 where science and literature were encouraged. 



The Seventh and Eighth Centuries, during the 

 reigns of Haroun Al-Raschid and Al-Mamur, 

 are counted as the golden age of Arabian letters. 

 During these centuries universities were estab- 

 lished at Bagdad, Bokhara, Bussora, and a little 

 later in Spain and Italy. Great libraries were 

 also established. These universities contributed 

 greatly to the spread of knowledge. They en- 

 couraged the literature of geography and travel, 

 and developed a clear, direct, and concise style 

 of writing history. They encouraged arts and 

 sciences, and in medicine, astronomy, geometry, 

 arithmetic, Arabic scholars became the teachers 

 of the world. During the Tenth and Eleventh 

 Centuries, sometimes known as the "dark ages" 

 of European learning, the University of Cordova 

 became a refuge for scholars. 



The influence of Arabian literature on modern 

 thought is very great, we cannot estimate it. 

 The study of Arabic is engaging the attention 

 of scholars, not only for its historic value but 

 for its literary worth. 



EGYPTIAN LITERATURE 



The literary remains of ancient Egypt relate 

 chiefly to its history or its religion. Such re- 

 mains consist of papyrus manuscripts, sculp- 

 tures, inscriptions and tablets found in the 

 tombs, temples, and in the ruins. The earliest 



characters used in writing are the hieroglyphic 

 inscriptions. The earliest of these date' as far 

 back as twenty-five centuries B. C., and the 

 latest as recent as 250 A. D. Two other simpler 

 forms of writing, the hieratic and the demotic, 

 succeeded the hieroglyphic. The difficulty of 

 reading those ancient symbols made it impossible 

 for modern scholars to study the literature of 

 ancient Egypt, but the discovery of the Rosetta 

 stone in 1799, furnished a key for the unlocking 

 of these treasures. 



Many inscriptions have been deciphered by 

 aid of the Rosetta stone, but from a literary 

 point of view they have disappointed expec- 

 tations. The variations are meager and broken, 

 and, with a few exceptions, there is very 

 little beauty of language or color to the imagina- 

 tion. There is no progressive development, 

 but a sameness of style pervades all periods up 

 to the Fifteenth Century B. C. the age of Ra- 

 mesis II., at whose court Moses was brought up 

 " in all the learning of the Egyptians." 



The ancient Egyptians are spoken of by He- 

 rodotus as "surpassing all others in the rever- 

 ence they paid their gods." The most important 

 religious work is the funeral ritual or Book of 

 the Dead, one of the many sacred books some- 

 times called the Hermetic Books. The Book 

 of the Dead contains a collection of prayers of 

 a magical character and refers to the future con- 

 dition of the disembodied soul. Similar to the 

 Book of the Dead is the Book of the Lower 

 Hemisphere. The Book of the Breath of Life 

 treats of the resurrection and the subsequent , 

 existence of the soul. 



One of the most ancient inscriptions, Ptah- 

 Hotephs' famous treatise on piety and filial obedi- 

 ence, recalls the proverbs of Solomon. A few 

 hymns to Egyptian deities have been preserved. 

 These are inferior to the Arabic, but have some 

 beauty. There are extant copies of an epic 

 poem by Pentaour, a writer of the age of Ramesis 

 II., a papyrus on geometry dates about 1100 

 B. C., and a few papyri containing medical trea- 

 tises. "The Tale of Two Brothers," by Enna, 

 dates more than four thousand years ago. It is 

 perhaps the oldest fairy story in the world. 

 Legal documents, letters, histories, biographical 

 sketches, travels, fables, parables, are all found 

 in these fragments of ancient Egyptian literature. 



GREEK LITERATURE 



