56 HISTORY OF SCIENCE. 



read, and sick people had no other hope than miracle-cures. A long 

 list also might be made of important inventions and improvements in 

 the arts, for which w_g nr^ inrtebterl j^jJTf^Arnj^c; Improved prepara- 

 tion of gunpowder ; cultivation of silk ; weaving of silk ; fabrication 

 of finely-tempered weapons, as in the famous Toledo blades ; prepara- 

 tion of the best kind of leather, still called morocco and cordovan ; 

 training of the horse, so that the world obtained a variety of that noble 

 animal possessing the highest development of its finest qualities ; use 

 of the mariner's compass : these are but a few of the advances in the 

 arts of civilized life which we owe to the Arabs. We must not omit 

 to mention another invention of theirs which has in no slight degree 

 contributed to the diffusion of learning, and that is paper made from 

 linen, to take the place of the far more costly parchment. 



Among the various literary, philosophical, and scientific studies 

 which were zea^usly pursued at Baghdad under the Khalif ABN 

 JAAFAR AL MANSUR (reign: 754 775), mathematics, astronomy, and 

 medicine occupied a prominent place. In all these subjects the Arabs 

 profited by the works of the great Greek writers, whose treatises they 

 translated and published in the Arabian language. The regular study 

 of medicine, which was a great feature in Arabian science, appears to 

 have been introduced by Al Mansur. From the circumstance of this 

 ruler engaging a Christian physician at a princely remuneration to in- 

 struct his people, it may be inferred that among the Arabs theological 

 intolerance was soon subordinated to the love of knowledge. In- 

 cidents of this kind abound, and they contrast strangely with the 

 ignorance and bigotry which then and long afterwards prevailed in 

 other quarters. Haroun al Raschid (a name familiar to every one 

 whose imagination has been charmed with the wondrous stories of 

 the "Arabian Nights' Entertainments"), enacted, as we are assured by 

 grave historians, that every mosque in his dominions should have a 

 school attached to it, and what is still more noteworthy he en- 

 trusted the general superintendence of all the schools to a Christian. 

 In Spain we read of learned Jews occupying positions at the head of 

 the great schools or universities which the Moors had established in 

 that land. A man's intellectual fitness, and not his religious opinions, 

 was exclusively regarded by these enlightened Arabs as his proper 

 qualification for teaching science or learning. 



The golden age of Arabian learning in the East was attained under 

 the KHALIF AL MAMUN, who ruled at Baghdad from A.D. 813 to 833, 

 and to whose court resorted the best poets, philosophers, and mathe- 

 maticians of the time. He sent learned men to all parts of the world 

 to collect ancient manuscripts, and during his reign it was not un- 

 common for trains of camels to enter Baghdad laden with nothing but 

 the precious volumes which held the literary treasures of the past. 

 This khalif greatly encouraged the study of mathematics and astro- 

 nomy. But there were not wanting some Mahometan theologians 



