Page:History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Vol. I.djvu/443

THE SPANISH ARABS. 299 exerted by the Spanish Arabs on European civil- chapter ization. ^"^- Notwithstanding the hi2;h advances made by the Literature . ^ "^ of the Span- Arabians in ahuost every branch of learning, and i^>» Arabs. the liberal import of certain sayings ascribed to Mahomet, the spirit of his religion was eminently unfavorable to letters. The Koran, whatever be the merit of its literary execution, does not, we believe, contain a single precept in favor of general science. ^^ Indeed during the first century after its promulgation, almost as little attention was bestow- ed upon this by the Saracens, as in their " days of ignorance," as the period is stigmatized which preceded the advent of their apostle. ^^ But, after the nation had reposed from its tumultuous military career, the taste for elegant pleasures, which natu- rally results from opulence and leisure, began to flow in upon it. It entered upon this new field with all its characteristic enthusiasm, and seemed ambitious of attaining the same preeminence in science, that it had already reached in arms. It was at the commencement of this period of intellectual fermentation, that the last of the 36 D'Herbelot, (Bib. Orientale, rejected as apocryphal by the torn. i. p. 630,) among- other au- Persians and the whole sect of the thentic traditions of Mahomet, Shiites, and are entitled to little quotes one as indicating hisencour- weight with a European, agement of letters, viz. " That ^ When the caliph Al Mamon the ink of the doctors and the encouraged, by his example as well blood of the martyrs are of equal as patronage, a more enlightened price." M. CElsner (Des Ef- policy, he was accused by the lets de la Religion de Mohammed, more orthodox Mussulmans of at- Paris, 1810,) has cited several tempting to subvert the principles others of the same liberal import, of their religion. See Pococke, But such traditions cannot be re- Spec. Hist. Arabum, (Oxon. 1650,) ceived in evidence of the original p. 166. doctrine of the prophet. They are