THE PATH OF EVOLUTION 



lighted up the funeral pyres to precipitate therein 

 both masters and pupils." * 



THE ARABIAN PHILOSOPHY. 



While Europe, from the beginning of the seventh 

 century until nearly the middle of the ninth, sank 

 deeper and deeper in the mire of ignorance and dark- 

 ness, a new power arose in Arabia, that for two or 

 three generations seemed as if it could only serve to 

 increase the gloom. In the year 571 Mohammed 

 was born in Mecca. He died in 632, after having 

 established by the sword his dominion and his faith 

 over the people of his own land, and attacked, at first 

 unsuccessfully, the Byzantine Empire. His death 

 occurred when lie was preparing to renew the attack. 

 This war his successors carried on against the Greeks 

 and against all the border lands of Arabia, driving 

 back upon themselves alike Pagans, Jews and 

 Christians. Many of the believers in Islam, the Bed- 

 ouins and other Nomads, were as ignorant and wild 

 as the northern hordes that had swept over and pos- 

 sessed the Western Empire. It might, therefore, 

 with reason be expected that the new faith would 

 destroy with its advance all existing knowledge in 

 the lands it conquered. 



With Mohammedanism, as with Christianity, many 



* Haureau : Philosophic Scholastique. T. 1, p. 15. 



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