purification by ablutions. The man who has a sweet smell will be
worthier and better able to safeguard his honour than he whose bodily
odour is disgusting. Mohammad scented himself with musk and he liked
sandal-wood, camphor and ambergris to be burnt. He used pomade for his
hair, and four plaits hung down over his ears, two on each side. He
clipped beard and moustache with scissors, keeping all in order by
means of an ivory, or tortoise-shell comb. He blackened his eyelids
with "Kuhl," which brightens the eye and strengthens the lashes. He
took care of his teeth by rubbing them often with the "Miswak,"
(fragment of soft "Araq" wood), of which the fibre, when the end is
chewed, has the same effect as a brush.
His apparel consisted generally of a tunic of cotton cloth,
short-sleeved, and not too long; together with a cloak, four cubits
long and two wide, woven in the Uman region. He also had a Yamanite
mantle, six cubits long and three wide, which he wore on Fridays and
holydays. Then, last of all, came his green mantle, inherited by the
Caliphs; and a turban known as "As-Sahab," bequeathed to his
son-in-law, Ali.
The Prophet took the greatest care of his personal appearance and
reached as far as simple, although very refined elegance. He was wont
to look at himself in a mirror, or if that was lacking, in a jar full
of water, to comb his hair, or adjust the folds of his turban, letting
one end hang down behind his back. He used to say: 'By attending to
our exterior, we please Him of whom we are the servants.'
To make amends, he severely condemned extravagance in clothing;
particularly the use of silk, which for rich people furnishes an
opportunity for a display of pride belittling the needy; but he
permitted it for those to whom it was necessary for reasons of bodily
health.
His love of justice and charity extended to animals. It was he who
told how "a man saw a dog so thirsty that it lapped up mud. Taking off
one of his slippers, the man filled it with water which he offered to
the dog; keeping on in the same way until the animal had quenched its
thirst. Allah was pleased at what the man did and welcomed him to
Paradise."
This kindness and the mysterious radiation emanating from Mohammad's
personality made an impression on animals; and even on inanimate
objects, as well as on human beings. When he went up the steps of a
pulpit newly constructed in the Mosque of Al-Madinah, the humble
palm-tree trunk on which he habitually stood when preaching, began to
groan and was only quieted when he laid his blessed fingers on it.
The Prophet worked with his own hands. He milked his ewes, cobbled his
shoes, mended his clothes, fed his camels, pitched his tent, etc.,
without accepting the assistance of anyone. He carried home his own
purchases from the market, and replied to one of the Faithful who
wished to do so for him: 'It is incumbent on the buyer to take away
what he buyeth.' Thus, by his example, he condemned the practice of
wealthy people who bought largely, and without troubling about the
weight of their purchases, forced their servants to carry the goods.
His disdain for the riches of this world reached to the highest pitch.
According to Ayishah, this is what he said on this head:
"Allah offered to change all the pebbles round Makkah, into pure gold
for me and I answered: 'O Allah! all I ask is to be hungry one day and
satisfied the next. The day I am hungry, I will implore Thee and the
day I am satisfied, I will thank Thee.' What have I to do with worldly
wealth? I am like the traveller who lieth down in the shade of a tree;
the sun, as it turneth, beateth down upon him and he goeth away from
that tree never to return. O Allah! let me die poor and resuscitate me
in the ranks of the poor!"
The Prophet's sobriety was extreme; he never would have several kinds
of food served at the same repast. If he ate meat, he went without
dates; and if he ate dates, he deprived himself of meat. He showed a
predilection for milk which appeases thirst and hunger at one and the
same time.
Many months often passed without a fire being kindled in any of the
Prophet's houses for baking bread or preparing other kinds of food.
All this time, he and his family lived on dried dates only and his
sole beverage was plain water. When hunger-pains gnawed his entrails
too cruelly, he placed a stone on his belly and bound it there with a
girdle. He departed this life without having a surfeit of any sort of
victuals, not even of barley cake.
He never troubled about his body, so far as comfort went, although he
kept it in a state of perfect purity by dint of continual ablutions.
He frequently slept on a rugged mat, the rough bristles deeply marking
his flesh. His pillow was made of palm-fibre and his bed was a mantle
folded in two. One night, when Ayishah had folded it in four, the
Prophet lost his temper, found his couch too soft and ordered it to be
restored to its usual state.
Before dying, he freed all his slaves and distributed the small amount
of property he still possessed. He deemed it unseemly to appear before
the Lord with gold in his possession. In his dwelling, but thirty
measures of barley were found; and to buy them, he had been forced to
leave his breastplate at a usurer's as security for a loan.
[Illustration: (Calligraphy) _There is no God but Allah, and Mohammad
is the Prophet of Allah._]
[Illustration: (Ornamental page) CHAPTER THE TENTH]
[Illustration: _A Writing-lesson at a village school devoted to the
Teaching of the Qur'an._]
[Illustration: (Calligraphy) _Say: O my people! Act as ye best can: I
verily will act my part, and hereafter shall ye know!_]
CHAPTER THE TENTH
[Sidenote: THE MARCH OF ISLAM]
At the very moment when fate had deprived Islam of its genial founder,
the organisation of this new religion was definitively and
meticulously arranged even in its most humble practices.
The soldiers of Allah had already conquered the whole of Arabia and
the attack on the colossal empire of the Cæsars in Syria was begun. A
short period of unrest, inevitable after the disappearance of the
inspired guide, caused a few rebellions; but Islam was so strongly
constituted, overflowing with such enthusiasm that it was about to
astonish the world by its impressive forward march, unique perhaps in
the annals of history.
For the first time, rushing forth from their country forsaken by
Nature, the proud Arabs, stirred by the miracle of Faith, were about
to become masters in less than a century of the best part of the old
civilised world from India to Andalusia, and that despite their
extreme numerical inferiority.
This marvellous épopée engrossed the mind of the most wonderful man of
our time, Napoleon, who always manifested the most sympathetic
interest in favour of Islam. During the Egyptian campaign, he declared
that he was: "Muslimun Muwahhidun," _i.e._ Unitarian Mussulman.
(_Bonaparte el l'Islam_, by Ch. Cherfils.) Towards the end of his
life, he returned to the subject: 'He thought that apart from
fortuitous circumstances, giving rise to miracles, there must have
been something more than we know in the establishing of Islam; that
the Christian world had been so remarkably cut into by the results of
some first cause still hidden; that these peoples, perhaps, suddenly
emerging from the desert depths, had endured long periods of civil war
in their midst, during which great characters and talents had been
formed, as well as irresistible impulses, or some other cause of the
same kind.' (Las Casas, _Mémorial de Sainte-Hélène_, iii, p. 183.)
Guessing, therefore, that beneath the slumber of Islam in decadence,
there were incomparable reserves of energy, he tried, not once but
often, to win it over by an alliance. If he succeeded, he deemed
himself capable of awakening it and, by its aid, changing the face of
the world.
Napoleon was not mistaken; civil wars had indeed exalted the heroic
qualities of the Arabs, but they had made all organisation and
progress impossible. Had it not been for the advent of Mohammad, these
intrepid soldiers would have remained eternally in their deserts,
solely absorbed by the obsession of hereditary feuds.
When Islam, abolishing pride of caste, birth, or race, made all
Believers really brothers and endowed them with religious and poetical
souls, based on equality, there was no exploit that these fiery-minded
men, their hearts untamable, were incapable of performing. These
treasures of combative energy, accumulated during centuries of civil
war, were not the only means by which they overthrew so many peoples,
all different and superior to them in culture at that epoch. The
Arabs, likewise, had stored dream-treasures in their deserts, and
these visions of an unpolished, though young people were about to be
imposed on those peoples who, although educated, were old and
worn-out.
We advise all those who may have doubts about the genius of the Arabs
to look through a collection of photographs showing the edifices
erected in every part of the countries they held in subjection. There
is nothing more striking than the unity of type distinguishing these
monuments from all other monuments in the world; and these buildings,
with their remarkable family likeness, were set up in India,
Turkestan, Persia, Syria, Turkey, Egypt, Barbary, Spain, etc., all
countries essentially different and so peculiar, by reason of their
characteristic genius, that the genius of Greece or Rome was never
able to be grafted successfully.
The Arabs borrowed largely from those they conquered, often utilising
their talent and even their muscles in order to build palaces and
mosques; but Arabic dreams were thus always realised.
The exceptional originality of the Arab style resided in the fact that
it was always imperiously guided by an art that was born at the same
time as Islam. This art had no predecessors and offers us, as it were,
the materialness of the Arabs' ideal. It is the art of calligraphic
decoration, applied to the glorification of the word of Allah,
otherwise the verses of the Qur'an.
Even reduced to its own resources, this art of Arabic calligraphy is
one of the most marvellous forms of decorative skill that has ever
sprung from human imagination. It is perhaps the only science of
ornament of which it may be said without exaggeration that it
possesses a soul, for like the voice, it expresses thought. Owing
nothing even to the most cultured parts of the outer world, its
independence resembles that of music and seems like the stenography of
the innermost beatings of the heart.
Look at the letters which spring swiftly and horizontally from right
to left as if acting under the impulse of inward life. Then they whirl
on their own axis in discreet or impassioned curves, and are next
erect, coming to a sudden halt, fixed in perpendicular pride.... They
soon start off again in their frenzied gallop, unrolling their
flourishes, bestriding each other in delicious fantasy and causing the
imagination to soar in wild dreams.
To follow the impulses of the reed-pen having traced these letters;
and in order to enjoy the pure eminence of their form or the intense
emotion of their curve, one need not be a past master of Arabic, or a
subtile graphologist; any artistic mind can penetrate without any
effort the secrets of their soul.
After having expressed the ideal of his nation with such
perfection, the Arab calligrapher bent beneath his yoke--almost
religious--everything that was destined to support or enframe it:
architecture and other systems of embellishment, forcing them to yield
to the sway of his shaping skill. Under this yoke, the heavy,
hemispherical dome of Byzantium was improved by adopting the pure
outline of the Saracen helmet. The curves of the commonplace arcade
became those of the graceful ogive, or of the proud, far-extending
arch. The vulgar towers were metamorphosed into elegant minarets,
leaping towards the peaks of ecstasy.
[Illustration: _Theological Students, in the Courtyard of Al-Azhar,
the great Cairo Moslem University._]
In short, the only system of decoration which, with the exception of
Calligraphy, borrows nothing from Nature: geometrical ornament--from
which the Greek and Latin races merely derived poor and frigid
effects--became endowed with real life. Henceforward this decoration
was significantly labelled as Arabesque and, following the example of
its model, it tried skilfully to astonish the mind by straying in the
midst of the most inextricable entanglements and unexpected
transformations....
How precious are the creations of Moslem art! European amateurs nowadays
outbid each other in golden offers for its vestiges, hoping through them
to introduce into their homes a few gleams of the mirages that inspired
their authors. Radiant stained-glass, variegated glassware, stuffs
worked with gold or silver wire, sparkling silks, damaskeened, inlaid
bronzes, exquisite miniatures in the dwellings of the West, do they not
all sing the glory of Islam? Among all these treasures, connoisseurs
already begin to prefer those of Calligraphy which animates the
transcription of the divine verses by the delicate colouring of copies
of the Qur'an, or of the thick enamel of earthware. By so doing, the
buyers of Europe follow the example of Mussulman princes of the best
epoch who, to possess a page of calligraphy by a celebrated artist,
lavished madly as much money as is given in our time for masterpieces of
painters. May not these sacred inscriptions, causing their new
possessors to be thrilled with admiration by reason of the refined
elegance of their form, reveal one day to their purchasers the sublime
beauty of the Islamic soul lurking in these writings?
[Sidenote: INFLUENCE OF MOSLEM CIVILISATION IN EUROPE DURING THE
MIDDLE AGES AND THE RENAISSANCE]
Even at a period when Europe was not inimically inclined towards
Islam, it was dazzled by all its marvels and borrowed largely from the
decorative and architectural genius of the Arabs. Deep research would
soon prove that it owes much more to it than to Greek or Latin
antiquity. Such a study would take us too far from our subject. We
may, however, point out as a curious fact that, according to the
historian Dulaure, Arab architects were employed in the work of
building the Parisian cathedral of Notre Dame.
In the domain of science, the influence of the Moslems was just as
fertile. To give an idea thereof, we cannot do better than summarise
the opinion vouchsafed by Doctor Gustave Le Bon, in his remarkable
work: _La Civilisation des Arabes_. (_The Civilisation of the Arabs._)
"First of all, it must be acknowledged that it is to the Arabs that we
owe entirely the idea of experiment and observation, the basis of
modern scientific methods, overriding the authority of a master. This
substitution is therefore not the work of Bacon, to whom it is
generally attributed.
"After having established that the highest degree of science consists
in giving rise to phenomena oneself and at will, the celebrated
scientist Humboldt adds: "The Arabs reached to this height, which was
almost unknown to the ancients."
"The study of mathematics enjoyed overspread favour among the Arabs,
and the progress accomplished in algebra metamorphosed that science to
such an extent that its invention has been attributed to them. To them
also are due the first application of algebra to geometry, and the
introduction of tangents into trigonometry.
"Astronomy was passionately studied in their schools of Bagdad,
Damascus, Samarcand, Cairo, Fez, Toledo, Cordova, etc., and their
discoveries may be summed up in the following enumeration:
introduction of tangents into astronomical calculation; construction
of tables of planetary movement; strict determination of the obliquity
of the ecliptic and of its gradual diminution; exact estimation of
the procession of the equinoxes; and the first precise determination
of the year's duration. To them also we owe the ascertainment of the
irregularities of the greatest latitude of the moon, and the discovery
of the third lunar inequality, now called variation.
"In geography, the contribution of these bold travellers is most
remarkable from a scientific viewpoint. They made those exact
astronomical determinations which form the first foundation of
cartography, and rectified the enormous errors of position committed
by the Greeks.
"From the standpoint of exploration, they published accounts of travel
which caused different parts of the world, scarcely suspected before
them, to be known, and where no European had ever set foot. The
sources of the Nile, running through the great equatorial lakes, are
exactly set out on a map by Al-Idrisi, dating from the year 1160, and
which were only discovered by Europeans during the second half of the
nineteenth century.
"In physical sciences, the sum total of their discoveries is still
more considerable. The following enumeration proves their importance:
high attainment of knowledge in theoretical physics, especially in
optics and in the creation of the most ingenious mechanical apparatus;
discovery of the most fundamental bodies of chemistry, such as
alcohol, nitric acid, sulphuric acid; and the most essential
operation, such as distillation; application of chemistry to pharmacy
and commerce, especially as regards the extraction of metals, the
manufacturing of paper from rags, which they caused to take the place
of parchment, papyrus, or Chinese silk-paper.
"They were probably the first to use the compass in navigation; at any
rate, they certainly introduced this fundamental invention to Europe.
"To conclude: the discovery of firearms. In 1205, the Emir Yaqub
resorted already to artillery at the siege of Mahdiyya; in 1273, the
Sultan Abu Yusuf used cannons at the siege of Sijilmasa. In 1342, two
Englishmen, Lord Derby and Lord Salisbury, were present at the siege
of Algeciras, defended by the Arabs in the same way. These travellers,
having witnessed the effect of gunpowder, took this discovery back to
their country. It was through them that the English made use of it,
four years later, at Cressy.
"In medical science, the Moslems followed Greek writers, and
afterwards made most important progress. Nearly all the medical
knowledge of Europe, at the epoch of the Renaissance, was borrowed
from them. The remarkable progress they made in medicine, was in
surgery; the description of maladies; _materia medica_; and pharmacy.
They found out a quantity of methods, of which many--the use of cold
water in typhoid fever, for instance--crop up again in modern times,
after having been forgotten for centuries.
"_Materia medica_ owes them numerous medicines, such as: cassia,
senna, rhubarb, tamarinds, camphor, alcohol, ammonia, etc. They were
the true creators of pharmacy. Most of the preparations still in use
nowadays are due to them: syrups, emulsions, pomades, ointments,
distilled water, etc.
"Surgery also owes fundamental progress to the Arabs. Their work
served as a basis for the teaching of Faculties of Medecine until
quite recently. In the eleventh century of our era, they knew the
treatment of cataract by the lowering or the extraction of the
crystalline; lithotrity; the treatment of hemorrhage by irrigations of
cold water; the use of caustics; setons; and cauterization by fire.
Anesthesia, of which the principal discovery is supposed to be modern,
seems to have been known to them. As a matter of fact, they speak
favourably of the use of tare before undertaking painful operations,
so that the patient may be put to sleep until "loss of consciousness
and feeling" supervenes.
"They had, likewise, implicit confidence in hygiene in medical
treatment, and placed great reliance on the resources of Nature.
Expectant medecine, which, at the present time, seems the last word of
modern science, reasons exactly in the same way." (Dr. G. Le Bon, _La
Civilisation des Arabes._)
In the domain of ideas, the influence of the Moslems had perhaps still
more valuable consequences. Jesus preached equality and fraternity,
but Mohammad was lucky enough to realise both among the Believers
during his lifetime.
It would be absurd to maintain that his direct example served to guide
the French Revolution which was not inspired by much of his levelling
works. Nevertheless, the first attempts of this enfranchisement of
ideas and the organisation of modern society on a new basis--and of
this there is ample proof--resulted logically from his doctrines.
Honour is due to a Mussulman philosopher, Ibn Rushd, or Averroes, who
lived in Spain from 1120 to 1198, for being the first to introduce
freethought--not to be confused with atheism--into Europe.
Averroes opposed the pure deism of Islam to mythological pantheism and
Christian anthromorphism, and his 'Commentaries of Aristotle,'
although vividly coloured with Mussulman tints, impassioned all
independent minds in medieval Europe. Averroism, born of this
enthusiasm, may be justly considered not only the precursor of Reform,
but also the father of modern Rationalism.
The influence exercised by Mussulman customs over those of Europe was
equally healthful. The Arabs joined most chivalrous manners to extreme
religious tolerance.
"It was among the Arabs of Spain that the knightly spirit arose, and
which was afterwards appropriated by the warriors of the North, as if
it was a quality inherent in Christian nations," declares the
celebrated Spanish writer Blasco Ibanez, in his novel: _Dans L'Ombre
de la Cathédrale_. (_In the Shadow Of the Cathedral._)
In this connection, we can again quote Dr. Le Bon:
"Like Christian chivalry, which came later, Arab chivalry had a code
of its own. No man was worthy to be a knight unless he possessed the
following qualities: kindness, valour, amability, poetical talent,
eloquence, bodily strength, skill in horsemanship, and cleverness in
handling spear, sword and bow....
"In 1139, the Wali of Cordova having laid siege to Toledo, belonging
to the Christians, Queen Berengaria, shut up in the city, sent him a
herald to bid him take notice that it was unworthy of a brave, gallant
and generous knight to attack a woman. The Arab general retired
forthwith, asking as sole favour, to be allowed the honour of saluting
the Queen....
"The Arab chronicles of Spain are full of stories of the same kind,
proving how wide-spread were these knight-errant-like qualities; and a
very religious learned man, Barthélemy St. Hilaire, admits most
loyally how greatly European customs are indebted to them. In his book
on the Qur'an, he says: "Through having intercourse with the Arabs and
copying them, the boorish barons of the Middle Ages toned down their
rough habits; and the knights, without lessening their bravery, became
cognisant of more delicate, noble and humane sentiments. It is
doubtful whether Christianism alone, despite its benevolence, would
have inspired them with these feelings."
"The reader may perhaps ask why, under these conditions, the influence
of the Arabs is so unappreciated in our day by learned men who, by
their intellect, seem far above all religious prejudice. That is
because independence of opinion is more apparent than real, and we are
not at all free to think as we like about certain subjects. The
hereditary prejudices professed by us against Islamism and its
disciples have accumulated during too many centuries not to have
become part and parcel of our organism....
"If we join thereto other prejudices also hereditary, and increased in
each generation by our detestable classic education: that all sciences
and literature of the past spring solely from Greeks and Romans, we
can easily understand that the great influence of the Arabs in the
history of European civilisation is generally slighted.
"In certain minds, it will always seem humiliating that it is owing to
the Moslems that Christian Europe shook off barbarism...." (Dr.
Gustave Le Bon, _La Civilisation des Arabes_.)