30 PROGRESS OF SCIENCE. 



either academies, or colleges, or universities. Bagdad ex- 

 hibited every kind of magnificence. One of its palaces was 

 furnished with 38,500 pieces of carpet, 12,500 of which were 

 of gold brocade. Cordova, which almost rivalled Bagdad, 

 counted two hundred thousand houses, one million of in- 

 habitants, a hundred public baths, nearly as many HOSPITALS ; 

 a man could walk for ten miles of streets in a straight line ; 

 the streets were PAVED, AND LIGHTED throughout the night 

 by lamps. In Europe, there was not a city, properly so- 

 called, except Constantinople, which was not vastly inferior 

 in every respect ; towns were pestilential gatherings of hovels, 

 huts, and thatched houses, built of timber and mud. Paris 

 was left unpaved until Louis XI. (1461 1483) ; London had 

 not one public lamp until Henry VIII. (1509 1547). Our 

 colleges and universities were, only hundreds of years after- 

 wards, instituted in imitation of the Arabian, and to this day 

 our university practices, examinations, honours, and degrees 

 have descended from them. 



The HOUSES of the great, and the palaces of the Emirs 

 especially, were enchanting abodes with which the Roman 

 emperors' palaces of previous ages could alone have been 

 compared. But the BEAUTY AND LUXURY of their interior 

 surpassed anything the world had as yet seen. They had 

 walls of alabaster and adorned with coloured designs fretted 

 with gold; halls supported by Spanish, African, Italian, 

 Greek marble columns, surrounded by balconies, and 

 ornamented with perfumed fountains ; towers for ventilation, 

 and caleducts for warm and scented air ; mosaic pavements 

 and ceilings of unique workmanship ; rooms with conservatories 

 and odorous cascades ; stained-glass windows of iridescent 

 hues; marble baths; furniture of citron and sandal-wood 

 incrusted with silver and mother-of-pearl ; Persian carpets 

 and rich tapestries ; Chinese porcelain and rock-crystal vases; 

 everything which industry and art, luxury and comfort could 

 devise to charm the mind and cheer the heart. Abderrahman 

 III.'s palace had no less than 1,200 COLUMNS. The Audience 

 Hall was incrusted with gold and precious stones. It con- 

 tained over 6,000 attendants. And this sovereign (912 961) 

 was not a mere sensual ruler, for, like most Khalifs, he ex- 



