THE ARABS. 583 



generations. Attention has been justly drawn to the great 

 difference existing in the relations of civilization between im- 

 migrating Germanic and Arabian races.* The former became 

 cultivated after their immigration, the latter brought with 

 them from their native country, not only their religion but a 

 highly polished language, and the graceful blossoms of a 

 poetry, which has not been wholly devoid of influence on the 

 Proven9als and Minnesingers. 



The Arabs possessed remarkable qualifications, alike for 

 appropriating to themselves, and again diffusing abroad, 

 the seeds of knowledge and general intercourse, from the 

 Euphrates to the Guadalquiver, and to the south of Central 

 Africa. They exhibited an unparalleled mobility of cha- 

 racter, and a tendency to amalgamate with the nations whom 

 they conquered, wholly at variance with the repelling spirit of 

 the Israelitish castes, while, at the same time, they adhered 

 to their national character, and the traditional recollections 

 of their original home, notwithstanding their constant change 

 of abode. No other race presents us with more striking ex- 

 amples of extensive land journeys, undertaken by private 

 individuals, not only for purposes of trade but also with the 

 view of collecting information, surpassing in these respects 

 the travels of the Buddhist priests of Thibet and China, 

 Marco Polo, and the Christian Missionaries, who were sent 

 on an embassy to the Mongolian princes. Important ele- 

 ments of Asiatic knowledge reached Europe, through the 

 intimate relations existing between the Arabs and the natives 

 of India and China, (for at the close of the seventh century, 

 under the Caliphate of the Ommajades, the Arabs had already 

 extended their conquests to Kaschgar, Kabul, and the Pun- 

 jaub.)f The acute investigations of Reinaud have taught us 



* Heinrich Ritter, Gescli. der christlichen Philosophic, th. iii. 1844, 

 s. 669-676. 



t Reinaud, in three late writings, which show how much may still 

 be derived from Arabic and Persian, as well as Chinese sources ; 

 Fragments Arabes et Per sans inedits relatifs a TInde anterieure- 

 ment au Xle siecle de Tere chretienne, 1845, pp. xx.--xxxiii. ; Rela- 

 tion des Voyages f aits par les Arabes et les Per sans dans llnde et a 

 la Chine dans le IXe siecle de notre ere, 1845, t. i. p. xlvi. ; Memoire 

 geog. et hist, sur I'Indc d'apres les ecrivains Arabes, Persans, et 

 Chinois, anterieurement. au milieu du onzieme siecle de I ere dire- 

 tienne, 1846, p. 6. The second of these memoirs of the learned 



