534 MOHAMMEDISM 



passing. The lamented Dozy first compared, in an historical spirit, 

 medieval European chronicles and charters with Arabic texts. 

 Now there is a growing body of Spanish Arabists who are following 

 in his steps. For them there is the advantage that they are all the 

 time on their own soil, and studying their own history. The time 

 must come when all the historians of medieval Europe will of necessity 

 be Arabists, or at least collaborate with Arabists. And I venture to 

 state the thesis sharply, that the next labor for these historians 

 will be to reinterpret the civilization of Europe in the light of that 

 of Islam. Ignorant depreciation and extravagant worship must 

 yield to patient appreciation, and that can be reached only by the 

 students of Europe and of Islam recognizing their mutual depend- 

 ence and joining their forces. I hail this Congress, then, with its 

 ample recognition of the correlation of sciences and the necessary 

 contact of kindred fields, as a weighty acceptance of that principle 

 and a long step towards carrying it out. 



