THE PROBLEMS OF MUHAMMADANISM 527 



Persians, Turks, and Kurds. Their men of science were Syrians, 

 Persians, and Egyptians. Their greatest Arabic scholars and the 

 founders of Arabic grammar and of the science of the Arabic language 

 were not Arabians. The same holds of many great masters of the 

 interpretation of the Qur'an, of theology, traditions, and jurisprud- 

 ence. It is really impossible to find a side of the intellectual life in 

 which the Arabs continued to hold their own. 



What can we say, then, of the state of these lands and people before 

 the Arabs came? Did this civilization exist then, and was it simply 

 passed on in a new language and with somewhat changed environ- 

 ment? There is nothing to suggest anything of the kind. Some study 

 of science, philosophy, and medicine existed in Persia; some in the 

 Christian monasteries scattered from the Mediterranean to the Per- 

 sian Gulf; some, too, among the Syrian heathen who had survived, 

 especially at Harran. But that study was all, as it were, cloistered in 

 the cells and laboratories of the learned; it had no free course among 

 the people, and no one will venture to say that a period of culture and 

 awakening was then in progress. Intellectually, these people were 

 really asleep or worse. Only by grasping this can it be understood 

 how the great Arab raid swept over such tracts and met so little real 

 resistance. It is significant,, on the other side, to observe for how many 

 centuries the Muslims were baffled by the passes of the Taurus and the 

 supposed decadent forces of Byzantium. There, and there only, did 

 they meet a people which did not exist simply in the past, but which 

 had a living present and future. . 



Nor, if we look more narrowly at the Qur'an itself, at the influence 

 of the character of Muhammad, and of the essential ideas of Islam, can 

 we find a clue to our problem. There is nothing there to spur to 

 intellectual exertion or to pondering over the problems of life and 

 of nature. Rather the opposite. Natural science and independent 

 thought, curiosity as to the how and why of things, have ever had to 

 fight a long and losing battle with simple Islam and the form of life 

 which it fosters. Not the contemplative life in Christendom nor the 

 stiffly held dogmas of the Roman and Reformation churches have 

 shown a tithe of this dragging and repressing influence. It is not 

 merely that Islam holds an absolute doctrine of predestination. 

 Rather, it is that for it the map of life is fixed, the scheme of existence 

 all arranged and for the best. Man needs only to accept and enjoy 

 what the bounty of Allah has prepared. Nothing is left to seek or to 

 improve. The bounds of this fleeting world and of man's knowledge 

 therein are appointed. And the world, if it is sought over-keenly, 

 reckoned over-highly, becomes a sedueing temptress, turning man 

 from the only thing of any importance, the consideration of Allah 

 Himself. Man's chief end is to glorify and enjoy Allah forever; but 

 he must not in doing that consider too closely or curiously the works 



