THE PATH OF EVOLUTION 



God attributes distinct from his essence; and thus 

 avoided everything that seemed able to injure the 

 dogma of the unity of God. "They accorded to 

 man free will in his actions, and maintained the 

 justice of God, in that man chose for himself good 

 or evil ; therefore the merit, or demerit, was his alone. 

 They said : All that is necessary for salvation is 

 within the province of reason, and could have been 

 acquired by its sole light before the existence of law 

 or before revelation. It is thus an obligation upon 

 man so to acqure it in all times and all places." 



"This heresy, in opposing orthodoxy and all other 

 heresies, had especial need of dialectics, and its advo- 

 cates became well skilled in their use. It is probable 

 that the contact of the Arabs with the Christians of 

 Syria and Chaldaea, where Greek literature was culti- 

 vated, had introduced the language of philosophy, as 

 well as assisted in the origin of the schisms." * 



With the downfall of the Omayyad dynasty in 750 

 began the reign of the Abassides. A few years later 

 Baghdad was founded, the capital of the Empire of 

 the Caliphs. While Western Europe was in the 

 deepest sleep of the Dark Ages, Al Massur, the 

 builder of Baghdad, drew around him men learned in 

 the knowledge of Greek literature. His successors, 

 particularly Al Mamoun, made noble efforts to dis- 

 seminate the learning of ancient times among the 

 * Solomon Munk: Philosophic Juive et Arabe. 



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