72 



LITERATURE OF THE ARABS. 



to satiate even the most unmeasured ambition. 

 But, great and splendid as were the events we 

 have just detailed, we shall turn with pleasure from 

 fields of blood, from scenes of misery and vice, to 

 contemplate the more gentle and useful progress of 

 the Arabs in the cultivation of learning. The first 

 Mussulmans knew, or at least esteemed, no other 

 book than the Koran. But this aversion to in- 

 tellectual pursuits gradually relaxed, in proportion 

 as their faith and their empire extended. The 

 possession of those happy countries, so long the 

 seats of ancient taste and splendour, naturally in- 

 troduced among them a spirit of refinement j and 

 here their career was as rapid and surprising as it 

 had been in the field. The literature of Greece, 

 such as it was in the days of Pericles, required the 

 slow growth of nearly eight centuries of progres- 

 sive cultivation. The same period elapsed between 

 the foundation of Rome and the age of Augustus. 

 In France, the reign of Louis XIV., the brilliant 

 era of wit and genius, was 1200 years subsequent 

 to that of Clovis. But among the Saracens, such 

 was their enthusiasm for learning, that little more 

 than a single century elapsed from the period of 

 their deepest barbarism to the universal diffusion 

 of science over the vast extent of their dominions. 

 It was in the year 641 that Omar committed the 

 Alexandrian library to the flames, and in 750 the 

 house of Abbas, the munificent patrons of letters, 

 mounted the throne. 



Under the first of the Ommiadan caliphs, the ge- 

 nius of Greece had begun to obtain an influence over 

 the Arabs. But it was not till the great and final 

 division of the empire, till Bagdad arose, a fai 



