Ourselves except and Actoris, my own The foamy flood, and swimming reach the land, All rough, but oh, how glad to climb the coast; URING the Christian Era no episode has been more dramatic than the swift and brilliant rise and development of the Arabian power and genius. When the Western Roman Empire collapsed in 476 A.D., language and learning were left in a chaotic state. The elegant Latin tongue was corrupted by contact with that of the Teutonic conquerors, while the latter failed to establish itself; and many centuries were to pass before the twain could be wrought into one. In the degenerate Byzantine Empire classical Greek suffered a similar fate. The Christian priesthood discouraged science and philosophy, as imbued with Paganism; social and political order were radically disturbed throughout Europe, and all signs pointed to a period of barbarism in the hitherto civilized countries of the world. Indeed, it was not until the close of the eighth century that Charlemagne, king of the Franks, established schools and encouraged the revival of letters; and three more centuries were to elapse before the conflicting elements of nationality and language were so far assimilated as to admit of the existence of what might properly be called literature. It was during this interval of the so-called Dark Ages that the Arabians stepped into the breach, and filled it with their splendid martial and intellectual achievements. Descendants of Ishmael, they belonged to the Semitic family, and had hitherto borne no part in the progress of the world. With the exception of some rude but impassioned songs of love and war, they had contributed nothing to literature; their religion was idolatrous, and so loose was the cohesion between the various wandering tribes that they could scarcely be termed a nation. Nothing in the general scheme of things more useless than the Arabs, or less likely to become useful, could be imagined. Yet during the unknown ages of their unwritten history, there had been latent in them certain faculties and energies; and the day of their destiny was to come. Its brightness illumined the world. At the time of the death of their prophet Mohammed the Arabs were still barbarians; during the reign of Al Mamoun, a century and a half later, their glory was at its height. Until the fourteenth century they maintained their intellectual supremacy, and then their work was done. The Arabs of to-day are little if at all superior to the barbarians of the year 63.5. It is impossible to overestimate the importance of this Arabian episode to the culture and character of the Europe that we know. And it all grew from a subjective hallucination in the brain of an otherwise obscure inhabitant of Mecca, in the Arabian desert, some six hundred years after Christ. But for Mohammed and his Koran, modern civilization would be immeasurably less rich and powerful than it is. Every æsthetic pleasure that we enjoy, every branch of knowledge that we cultivate, is directly or obliquely debtor to the movement begun by him more than twelve hundred years ago. Mohammed was born of a noble stock, but his bringing up was rough and haphazard; he herded sheep in the pastures, journeyed with caravans, dwelt in tents, and fought in the tribal wars. In his youth he was of a solitary tendency, and given to brooding over matters of faith and religion. He longed for light in dark places, and hoped for some prophet who should by divine enlightenment explain man's duty and his destiny. By degrees he began to think that possibly this prophet might turn out to be himself. Then, in a dream or vision, he saw the angel Gabriel with an unfolded scroll, and knew that he was the prophet indeed. Other visions followed; he remembered the divine words, and preached them to others; and thus the revelations which were afterwards written down and called the Koran (the Book)-from the Arabic word qârâ, to read—came into existence. The Koran was of necessity based upon information gathered from Jews and Christians with whom the young Mohammed had been brought in contact, and from collateral study. There is nothing fundamentally original in it. Apart from the didactic and theologic portions, it is the expression of the prophet's ardent imagination, which pictured the joys of heaven and the terrors of hell. There is no regular development of the theme, and no coherency is attempted between the constituent parts. The book contains 114 suras, or chapters, some referring to religious dogmas, others to social laws and personal observances. It is written in a sort of measure, and is full of sonorous phrases and emphatic exclamation; but it seems to outsiders dull and unprofitable reading, and we marvel at the stupendous influence which it exerted and still maintains over millions of highly intelligent minds. To Mohammedans, it is the most sacred of books, and the source of all knowledge and religion on earth. It was the stimulus which led to the conquest of the richest countries in the world, and to the establishment of the most gorgeous of modern empires. Mohammed himself, in his most unrestrained imaginings, could never have figured so mighty an issue to his comparatively modest initiative. The Arabian conquests not only swept over Egypt and northern Africa, and gave the Saracens a solid foothold in Spain, but put them in possession of the chief sources of wealth and learning in the world. Instead of making themselves agents of destruction, as might have been expected from their previous record, they conserved, administered and profited by all they touched, and soon became the central and supreme source of culture and enlightenment, as well as of luxury and wealth. Schools accompanied mosques and palaces throughout all the countries that owned their sway. Their universities collected scholars and created them; their attainments in science and mathematics were swift and broad beyond precedent; their architecture was the most magnificent known, and countless arts and inventions, the benefit of which we enjoy, but whose origin we have forgotten, are due to this extraordinary people. Al Mamoun was the first to conceive and carry out the gigantic enterprise of measuring the globe; the so-called Arabic numerals, invented by the Hindus, were by the Arabians introduced into Europe in the ninth century. They read the stars, which they had formerly worshiped, and sounded the depths of occult knowledge. The institution of chivalry, which did so much to soften manners and increase respect for women, was powerfully supported by them; and the tournament is said to have been introduced through their means. For near eight hundred years the Crescent shone more brightly than the Cross. The Koran is the leading fact in Arabian literature; but in addition to works in science and criticism, which were of vast extent and importance, the Arabs produced more poetry than any other nation. Poetry, indeed, had been their favorite avocation long before the time of the Prophet; at the regular meeting-place of the tribes, in the great annual fair, the bards sang in rivalry, and it is said that to the victor was given the honor of having his lyric hung on the door of the Kaaba in Mecca. But this implies that the poems were written, which is improbable. Fertile though the Arabs were in this species of composition, and stirring though were the passion and picturesqueness which they displayed in it, they never cultivated the sublimer and more imposing forms of verse. There is not a native epic in the language, nor any considerable poem other than the amatory and didac tic. The artistic restraint of the Greek was distasteful to them; they sought beauty in hyperbole and extravagance, and in the heaping of one splendid epithet upon another. They contrasted the sternness and loneliness of the desert and the stars with the tenderness and devotion of love and the fire and terror of battle; after conquering other races, they drew upon rich mines of mythology and fairyland, and so created conceptions which, whatever their faults to a colder taste, are unequalled for vigor and glowing intensity. Besides the Koran and lyric poetry, one other, and that not the least precious chapter, must be credited to the followers of Islam. It is to them that we owe that unique and immortal body of literature known as the Thousand-and-One |