24 INTRODVCTION. 



for its brilliancy than for the gigantic height to 

 which it rose. Nor can we account, except from 

 the strength and versatiUty of their mental capaci- 

 ties, for this sudden blaze of genius which burst 

 forth in every corner of their empire, and spread its 

 influence as far as their arms extended. Many of 

 the caliphs were protectors of learning. They lived 

 surromided with poets and orators, and assembled 

 in their palaces men of the most distinguished ac- 

 quirements from every quarter of the world. The 

 name of Haroun-al-Raschid, the hero of the Thou- 

 sand and one Nights, stands associated with those 

 enchanting fictions which have made Bagdad a fairy 

 land, and will continue to diffuse a charm until taste 

 and imagination shall become extmct. 



Under his successors, learning of all kmds was 

 cultivated and propa^rated with equal zeal. In every 

 town, from the banks of the Tigris to the Atlantic, 

 schools and coUeares were established. The smi 

 of science and philosophy diffused its humanizing 

 influence over the fierce spirits and savage manners 

 of Africa. A chain of academies stretched along 

 the whole Mediterranean shore ; and in the cities 

 of Cairo, Fez, and Morocco, the most magmficent 

 buildings were appropriated to pubhc mstruction. 



Spain was one of the most celebrated seats ot 

 Arabian learning. A vast number of eminent names 

 in poetry, medicine, mathematics, and every depart- 

 ment of study, adorned its annals even in the dreary 

 night of the twelfth century. In its schools and 

 libraries the sacred fires of oriental knowledge 

 continued to burn with more than their ancient 

 splendour, when the rest of the world was sunk m 

 Gothic ignorance. . 



This ascendency of the Arabs in the empire ol 

 letters had followed exactly the progress of their 

 arms ; but, like their other conquests, it rested on an 

 insecure basis, and proved quite as transitory in its 

 duration It did not vanish, ho^veVer, without leav- 



