THE ARREST OF INQUIRY. 79 



renaissance of knowledge, was as wholly accidental 

 as the story of it is interesting. 



Under the Sassanian kings, Persia had become an 

 active centre of intellectual life, reaching the climax 

 of its Augustan age in the reign of Chosroes. Jew, 

 Greek, and Christian alike had welcome at his court, 

 and translations of the writings of the Indian sages 

 completed the eclecticism of that enlightened mon- 

 arch. Then came the ruthless Arab, and philosophy 

 and science were eclipsed. But with the advent of 

 the Abbaside Khalifs, who number the famous 

 Haroun al-Raschid among them, there came revival 

 of the widest toleration, and consequent return of 

 intellectual activity. Baghdad arose as the seat of 

 empire. Situated on the high road of Oriental com- 

 merce, along which travelled foreign ideas and for- 

 eign culture, that city became also the Oxford of her 

 time. Arabic was the language of the conquerors, 

 and into that poetic, but unphilosophic, tongue, 

 Greek philosophy and science were rendered. Under 

 the rule of those Khalifs, says Renan, " nontolerant, 

 nonreluctant persecutors," free thought developed; 

 the Motecallenim or " disputants " held debates, where 

 all religions were examined in the light of reason. 

 Aristotle, Euclid, Galen, and Ptolemy were text- 

 books in the colleges, the repute of whose teachers 

 brought to Baghdad and Naishapur (dear to lovers 

 of " old " Khayyam) students westward from Spain, 

 and eastward from Transoxiana. 



"Arab" philosophy, therefore, is only a name. 



