PROGRESS AMONG THE ARABS. 29 



needed in the case of the Greeks, because we all know by 

 what our training, books, museums bring every day to our 

 minds, that our civilisation is partly Greek. The monuments 

 of art, literature, and philosophy which we possess make the 

 Greek world familiar to us. It is not so with regard to the 

 Arabs. Very few people are aware of the grandeur and 

 beautyof their social state in the six centuries duringwhich they 

 stood in advance of the whole world. Our European historians, 

 actuated no doubt by national pride and religious prejudice, 

 have systematically kept out of sight both their magnificent 

 civilisation, and our immense obligations to them. A few 

 writers only, especially Sismondi, Pouchet, Draper, and 

 Renan, have done them justice. It is therefore needful to 

 sketch out what is unfamiliar to most readers. 



The Arabian race is gifted with an INTELLECT which, 

 under proper direction and cultivation, yields the most 

 admirable effects. A general fact shows this very forcibly. 

 It took the Greeks six centuries, the Romans seven, ourselves 

 ten, to emerge from barbarism into civilisation ; the Arabs' 

 transition did not exceed one hundred years a phenomenon 

 which speaks volumes with respect to their natural gifts. 



The POLICY of the Khalifs and Emirs of Islam was in- 

 spired by the two fine maxims of All, Mohammed's son-in- 

 law : (f Eminence in science is the highest of honours ; " " He 

 dies not who gives life to learning ; " and this liberal policy 

 prevailed for centuries from the Oxus to the Pyrenees. To 

 speak of one instance, AL MANSOR had no less than six 

 thousand learned men at his court. In contrast with this, and 

 during the best part of a thousand years, Christendom was 

 more or less overshadowed by monkish theology, and the 

 Church persecuted learning, regarding it as the work of 

 Satan. 



The CITIES which flourished throughout Islam were towns 

 comparable in almost every point with our own in the present 

 day. Samarcand, BAGDAD, Ispahan, Damascus, Bassora, 

 Morocco, Fez, Seville, GRANADA, Toledo, CORDOVA, as well 

 as the towns in Sicily, were, outside the Arabian empire, un- 

 rivalled for beauty, luxury, and comfort. To every mosque 

 a school was attached, and in each town besides there were 



