ARABIAN AND MEDIEVAL SCIENCE. 55 



when the rest of the world was steeped in ignorance and barbarism, 

 literature, philosophy, and science found a home with the Arabs. 

 ALT, the fourth in succession from Mahomet and son-in-law of the 

 Prophet, was already a great patron of literature, and even himself an 

 author. Some of his sayings are still extant, such as " A man's learn- 

 ing is more valuable than his gold ; " " Eminence in science is the 

 highest of honours ; " " To the dominion of science there is no end ;" 

 " He dies not who gives his life for science." 



In the tenth century of our era circumstances led to a threefold 

 division of the sovereign power amongst the Arabians. From that 

 period one series of Khalifs governed the Eastern Arabs at Baghdad, 

 another held rule in Egypt, and a third presided over the Saracenic 

 empire in Spain. The cities at which the seats of government of 

 these several monarchies were established became the most populous 

 in the world. Such was Baghdad on the Tigris, and such was Cordova 

 on the Guadalquiver, The latter city, according to its Moorish his- 

 torians, contained at the height of its prosperity a million of inhabi- 

 tants, and more than 200,000 houses. "After sunset," says Dr. Draper 

 in his " History of the Intellectual Development of Europe," " a man 

 might walk through Cordova in a straight line for ten miles by the 

 light of the public lamps : seven hundred years after this there was 

 not so much as one public lamp in London. The streets of Cordova 

 were solidly paved : in Paris, centuries afterwards, whoever stepped 

 over his threshold on a rainy day stepped up to the ankles in mud." 

 Probably by drawings or descriptions the reader knows something of 

 the beautiful residence of the Moorish princes of Granada, or has 

 at least seen its glories shadowed forth in the elegant "Alhambra 

 Court " of the Crystal Palace. Let him compare that one Moorish 

 palace with the dwellings of the contemporary monarchs of France, 

 Germany, and England, which are described as mere hovels without 

 windows or chimneys, and with mere holes in the roof for the smoke 

 to escape. The contrast here suggested can hardly fail to show the 

 great mental and material advance which the descendants of the 

 desert tribes had made in comparison with our European ancestors. 



Everywhere in the Arab dominionSj schools, colleges, universities 

 were established when these strangers had settled in their new con- 

 quests. In Spain alone seventy libraries were open for public use, 

 and the library of the Spanish Khalifs comprised 600,000 volumes. 

 The library at Cairo contained a vast collection, and also boasted of 

 the possession of the great brazen globe which Ptolemy Claudius had 

 used for his astronomical observations, besides another globe made 

 of silver, valued at a fabulous sum. Cairo was the seat of a great 

 medical school, in which students were required to pass regular ex- 

 aminations before they were permitted to practise. Compare this 

 with the condition during the same period of Christian Europe, where 

 even the kings could not sign their own names, priests could hardly 



