MEDLEVAL HISTORY. 



[PART V. 



over the policy and literature of the East. Scarcely 

 twenty years elapsed in the interval between his death 

 and the birth of Mahomet and during the two centuries 

 that ensued, so electric was the influence of Islam, that 

 its supremacy was established with a rapidity beyond 

 parallel, from the sierras of Spain to the borders of China. 

 The dominions of the Khalifs exceeded in extent the 

 utmost empire of the Kornans ; and so undisputed was 

 the sway of the new religion, that a follower of the 

 Prophet could travel amidst believers of his own faith, 

 from the Atlantic to the Indian Ocean, and from the 

 chain of the Atlas to the mountains of Tartary. 



Syria and Egypt were amongst its earliest con- 

 quests ; and the power thus interposed between the 

 Greeks and their former channels of trade, effectually 

 excluded them from the commerce of India. The 

 Persians and the Arabs became its undisputed masters, 

 and Alexandria and Seleucia declined in importance 

 as Bassora and Bagdad rose to the rank of Oriental 

 emporiums. 1 



Early in the sixth century, the Persians under Chosroes 

 JSTouschirvan held a distinguished position in the East, 

 their ships frequented the harbours of India, and their 

 fleet was successful in an expedition against Ceylon 

 to redress the wrongs done to some of their fellow- 

 countrymen who had settled there for purposes of 

 trade. 2 



The Arabs, who had been familiar with India before 

 it was known to the Greeks 3 , and who had probably 

 availed themselves of the monsoons long before Hippalus 



1 ROBERTSON was of opinion, that 

 such was the aversion of the Persians 

 to the sea, that " no commercial inter- 

 course took place between Persia and 

 India." India, s. i. p. 9. But this 

 is at variance with the testimony of 

 COSMAS INDICO-PLEUSTES, as well as 

 of HAMZA of Ispahan and others. 



2 HAMZA IspAnANENSis ; ^4na/. vol. 



ii. c. 2. p. 43. Petropol, 1848, 8vo. 

 REINAUD, Memoire sur FInde, p. 124. 

 3 There is an obscure sentence in 

 PLINY which would seem to imply 

 that the Arabs had settled in Ceylon 

 before the first century of our Chris- 

 tian era : " Regi cultum Liberi 

 patris, ca ten's Arabum." Lib. vi. 

 c. 22. 



