and chiefly inspired by Neo-Platonism: through the Arabs it became
acquainted with almost the whole of Aristotle and also with the
special methods by which the Arabs approach the problem of this
philosophy. To give any detailed account of this influence would be to
write a history of mediaeval philosophy in its relation to
ecclesiastical doctrine, a task which I feel to be beyond my powers. I
shall therefore confine myself to an abstract of the material points
selected from the considerable detail which specialists upon the
subject have collected: I consider that Arab influence during the
first period is best explained by the new wealth of Greek thought
which the Arabs appropriated and transmitted to Europe. These new
discoveries were the attainments of Greece in the natural sciences and
in logic: they extended the scope of dialectic and stimulated the rise
of metaphysical theory: the latter, in combination with ecclesiastical
dogma and Greek science, became such a system of thought as that
expounded in the Summa of Thomas Aquinas. Philosophy remained the
handmaid of religion and Arab influence first served only to complete
the ecclesiastical philosophy of life.
Eventually, however, the methods of interpretation and criticism,
peculiar to the Arabs when dealing with Aristotle became of no less
importance than the subject matter of their inquiries. This form of
criticism was developed from the emphasis which Islam had long laid
upon the value of wisdom, or recognition of the claims of reason.
Muhammedan tradition is full of the praises of wisdom, which it also
originally regarded as the basis of religion. Reason, however,
gradually became an independent power: orthodoxy did not reject reason
when it coincided with tradition, but under the influence of
Aristotelianism, especially as developed by Averroës, reason became a
power opposed to faith. The essential point of the doctrine was that
truth was twofold, according to faith and according to reason. Any one
who was subtle enough to recognise both kinds of truth could preserve
his orthodoxy: but the theory contained one great danger, which was
immediately obvious to the Christian church. The consequent struggle
is marked by the constant connection of Arab ideas with the
characteristic expressions of Christian feeling; these again are
connected with the outset of a new period, when the pioneers of the
Renaissance liberate the West from the chains of Greek ecclesiastical
classicism, from Oriental metaphysical religion and slowly pave the
way for the introduction of Germanic ideals directly derived from true
classicism. Not until that period does the West burst the bonds in
which Orientalism had confined it.
Christianity and Islam then stand upon an equal footing in respect
both of intellectual progress and material wealth. But as the West
emerges from the shadow-land of the middle ages the more definite
becomes its superiority over the East. Western nations become
convinced that the fetters which bind them were forged in the East,
and when they have shaken off their chains, they discover their own
physical and intellectual power. They go forth and create a new world,
in which Orientalism finds but scanty room.
The East, however, cannot break away from the theories of life and
mind which grew in it and around it. Even at the present day the
Oriental is swathed in mediaevalism. A journalist, for instance,
however European his mode of life, will write leaders supported by
arguments drawn from tradition and will reason after the manner of the
old scholasticism. But a change may well take place. Islam may
gradually acquire the spirit as well as the form of modern Europe.
Centuries were needed before mediaeval Christianity learned the need
for submission to the new spirit. Within Christendom itself, it was
non-Christian ideas which created the new movement, but these were
completely amalgamated with pre-existing Christianity. Thus, too, a
Renaissance is possible in the East, not merely by the importation and
imitation of European progress, but primarily by intellectual
advancement at home even within the sphere of religion.
Our task is drawing to its close. We have passed in review the
interaction of Christianity and Islam, so far as the two religions are
concerned. It has also been necessary to refer to the history of the
two civilisations, for the reason that the two religions penetrate
national life, a feature characteristic both of their nature and of
the course of development which they respectively followed. This
method of inquiry has enabled us to gain an idea of the rise and
progress of Muhammedanism as such.
An attempt to explain the points of contact and resemblance between
the two religions naturally tends to obscure the differences between
them. Had we devoted our attention to Islam alone, without special
reference to Christianity, these differences, especially in the region
of dogmatic theology, would have been more obvious. They are, however,
generally well known. The points of connection are much more usually
disregarded: yet they alone can explain the interchange of thought
between the two mediaeval civilisations. The surprising fact is the
amount of general similarity in religious theory between religions so
fundamentally divergent upon points of dogma. Nor is the similarity
confined to religious theory: when we realise that material
civilisation, especially when European medievalism was at its height,
was practically identical in the Christian West and the Muhammedan
East, we are justified in any reference to the unity of Eastern and
Western civilisation.
My statements may tend to represent Islam as a religion of no special
originality; at the same time, Christianity was but one of other
influences operative upon it; early Arabic, Zoroastrian, and Jewish
beliefs in particular have left traces on its development. May not as
much be said of Christianity? Inquirers have seriously attempted to
distinguish Greek and Jewish influences as the component elements of
Christianity: in any case, the extent of the elements original to the
final orthodox system remains a matter of dispute. As we learn to
appreciate historical connection and to probe beneath the surface of
religions in course of development, we discover points of relationship
and interdependency of which the simple believer never even dreams.
The object of all this investigation is, in my opinion, one only: to
discover how the religious experience of the founder of a faith
accommodates itself to pre-existing civilisation, in the effort to
make its influence operative. The eventual triumph of the new religion
is in every case and at every time nothing more than a compromise: nor
can more be expected, inasmuch as the religious instinct, though one
of the most important influences in man, is not the sole determining
influence upon his nature.
Recognition of this fact can only be obtained at the price of a breach
with ecclesiastical mode of thought. Premonitions of some such breach
are apparent in modern Muhammedanism: for ourselves, they are
accomplished facts. If I correctly interpret the signs of the times, a
retrograde movement in religious development has now begun. The
religion inspiring a single personality, has secured domination over
the whole of life: family, society, and state have bowed beneath its
power. Then the reaction begins: slowly religion loses its
comprehensive force and as its history is learned, even at the price
of sorrow, it slowly recedes within the true limits of its operation,
the individual, the personality, in which it is naturally rooted.
CONCLUSION AND BIBLIOGRAPHY
The purpose of the present work has been to show not so much the
identity of Christian and Muhammedan theories of life during the
middle ages, as the parallel course of development common to both, and
to demonstrate the fact that ideas could be transferred from one
system to the other. Detail has been sacrificed to this general
purpose. The brief outline of Muhammedan dogmatics and mysticism was
necessary to complete the general survey of the question. Any one of
these subjects, and the same is true as regards a detailed life of
Muhammed, would require at least another volume of equal size for
satisfactory treatment.
The Oriental scholar will easily see where I base my statements upon
my own researches and where I have followed Goldziher and Snouck. My
chief source of information, apart from the six great books of
tradition, has been the invaluable compilation of Soj[=u]t[=i], the
great Kanz el-'Umm[=a]l (Hyderabad, 1314). To those who do not read
Arabic may be recommended the French translation of the Boch[=a]r[=i],
of which two volumes are now published: _El-Bokâhri, les traditions
islamiques traduites ... par_ O. Houdas and W. Marçais. Paris,
1906.
Of general works dealing with the questions I have touched, the
following, to which I owe a considerable debt, may be recommended:--
J. Goldziher. Muhammedanische Studien, Halle, 1889 and following
year.
Die Religion des Islams (Kult. d. Gegenw., I, iii. 1).
C. Snouck Hurgronje. De Islam (de Gids, 1886, us. 5 f.).
Mekka. The Hague, 1888.
Une nouvelle biographie de Mohammed (Rev. Hist. Relig., 1894).
Leone Caetani di Teano. Annali dell' Islam. Milan, 1905 and
following years.
F. Buhl. Muhammed's Liv. Copenhagen, 1903.
H. Grimme. Muhammed. Munich, 1904.
J. Wellhausen. Das arabische Reich und sein Sturz. Berlin, 1902.
Th. Nöldeke. Geschichte des Qoräns. Gottingen, 1860. (New edition by
F. Schwally in the press.)
C.H. Becker. Die Kanzel im Kultus des alten Islam. Giessen, 1906.
Papyri. Schott-Reinhardt, I. Heidelberg, 1906.
Th. W. Juynboll. Handleidung tot de kennis van de Mohammedaansche
Wet. Leyden, 1903.
T.J. de Boer. Geschichte der Philosophie in Islam. Stuttgart, 1901
(also an English edition).
D.B. Macdonald. Development of Muslim Theology, Jurisprudence and
Constitutional Theory. New York, 1903.
A. Merx. Idee und Grundlinien einer allgemeinen Geschichte der
Mystik. Heidelberg, 1893.
A. Müller. Der Islam im Morgen- und Abendland (Oncken's collection).
W. Riedel. Die Kirchenrechtsquellen des Patriarchats Alexandrien.
Leipsic, 1900.
G. Bruns and E. Sachau. Syrisch-römisches Rechtsbuch. Leipsic, 1880.
E. Sachau. Syrische Rechtsbücher, I. Berlin, 1907.
E. Zachariae v. Lingenthal. Geschichte des griechisch-römischen
Rechts. 3rd ed., Berlin, 1892.
H. v. Eicken. Geschichte und System der mittelalterlichen
Weltanschauung. Stuttgart, 1886.
W. Windelband. Lehrbuck der Geschichte der Philosophie. 4th ed.,
Tübingen, 1907.
C. Baeumker und G. v. Hertling. Beiträge zur Geschichte der
Philosophie des Mittelalters (collected papers).
G. Gothein. Ignatius von Loyola und die Gegenreformation. Halle,
1895.
In conclusion, I may mention two works, which deal with the subject of
this volume, but from a different standpoint:--
H.P. Smith. The Bible and Islam (The Ely Lectures for 1897).
W.A. Shedd. Islam and the Oriental Churches (Philadelphia, 1904).