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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/11198-0.txt b/11198-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..c52eec7 --- /dev/null +++ b/11198-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1814 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 11198 *** + +CHRISTIANITY + +AND + +ISLAM + + +BY + +C.H. BECKER, PH.D. + +PROFESSOR OF ORIENTAL HISTORY IN +THE COLONIAL INSTITUTE OF HAMBURG + +TRANSLATED BY +REV. H.J. CHAYTOR, M.A. + +HEADMASTER OF PLYMOUTH COLLEGE + + + +1909 + + + + +TABLE OF CONTENTS + + +The subject from different points of view: limits of treatment + +The nature of the subject: the historical points of connection between +Christianity and Islam + + A. Christianity and the rise of Islam: + + 1. Muhammed and his contemporaries + + 2. The influence of Christianity upon the development of Muhammed + + 3. Muhammed's knowledge of Christianity + + 4. The position of Christians under Muhammedanism + + B. The similarity of Christian and Muhammedan metaphysics during the + middle ages: + + 1. The means and direction by which Christian influence affected + Islam + + 2. The penetration of daily life by the spirit of religion; + asceticism, contradictions and influences affecting the + development of a clerical class and the theory of + marriage + + 3. The theory of life in general with reference to the doctrine + of immortality + + 4. The attitude of religion towards the State, economic life, + society, etc. + + 5. The permanent importance to Islam of these influences: the + doctrine of duties + + 6. Ritual + + 7. Mysticism and the worship of saints + + 8. Dogma and the development of scholasticism + + C. The influence of Islam upon Christianity: + + The manner in which this influence operated, and the explanation + of the superiority of Islam + + The influence of Muhammedan philosophy + + The new world of European Christendom and the modern East + + Conclusion. The historical growth of religion + +Bibliography + + + + + +CHRISTIANITY AND ISLAM + + +A comparison of Christianity with Muhammedanism or with any other +religion must be preceded by a statement of the objects with which +such comparison is undertaken, for the possibilities which lie in this +direction are numerous. The missionary, for instance, may consider +that a knowledge of the similarities of these religions would increase +the efficacy of his proselytising work: his purpose would thus be +wholly practical. The ecclesiastically minded Christian, already +convinced of the superiority of his own religion, will be chiefly +anxious to secure scientific proof of the fact: the study of +comparative religion from this point of view was once a popular branch +of apologetics and is by no means out of favour at the present day. +Again, the inquirer whose historical perspective is undisturbed by +ecclesiastical considerations, will approach the subject with somewhat +different interests. He will expect the comparison to provide him with +a clear view of the influence which Christianity has exerted upon +other religions or has itself received from them: or he may hope by +comparing the general development of special religious systems to gain +a clearer insight into the growth of Christianity. Hence the object of +such comparisons is to trace the course of analogous developments and +the interaction of influence and so to increase the knowledge of +religion in general or of our own religion in particular. + +A world-religion, such as Christianity, is a highly complex structure +and the evolution of such a system of belief is best understood by +examining a religion to which we have not been bound by a thousand +ties from the earliest days of our lives. If we take an alien religion +as our subject of investigation, we shall not shrink from the +consequences of the historical method: whereas, when we criticise +Christianity, we are often unable to see the falsity of the +pre-suppositions which we necessarily bring to the task of inquiry: +our minds follow the doctrines of Christianity, even as our bodies +perform their functions--in complete unconsciousness. At the same time +we possess a very considerable knowledge of the development of +Christianity, and this we owe largely to the help of analogy. +Especially instructive is the comparison between Christianity and +Buddhism. No less interesting are the discoveries to be attained by an +inquiry into the development of Muhammedanism: here we can see the +growth of tradition proceeding in the full light of historical +criticism. We see the plain man, Muhammed, expressly declaring in the +Qoran that he cannot perform miracles, yet gradually becoming a +miracle worker and indeed the greatest of his class: he professes to +be nothing more than a mortal man: he becomes the chief mediator +between man and God. The scanty memorials of the man become voluminous +biographies of the saint and increase from generation to generation. + +Yet more remarkable is the fact that his utterances, his _logia_, if +we may use the term, some few of which are certainly genuine, increase +from year to year and form a large collection which is critically +sifted and expounded. The aspirations of mankind attribute to him such +words of the New Testament and of Greek philosophers as were +especially popular or seemed worthy of Muhammed; the teaching also of +the new ecclesiastical schools was invariably expressed in the form of +proverbial utterances attributed to Muhammed, and these are now +without exception regarded as authentic by the modern Moslem. In this +way opinions often contradictory are covered by Muhummed's authority. + +The traditions concerning Jesus offer an analogy. Our Gospels, for +instance, relate the beautiful story of the plucking of the ears of +corn on the Sabbath, with its famous moral application, "The Sabbath +was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath." A Christian papyrus +has been discovered which represents Jesus as explaining the sanctity +of the Sabbath from the Judaeo-Christian point of view. "If ye keep +not the Sabbath holy, ye shall not see the Father," is the statement +in an uncanonical Gospel. In early Christian literature, contradictory +sayings of Jesus are also to be found. Doubtless here, as in +Muhammedan tradition, the problem originally was, what is to be my +action in this or that question of practical life: answer is given in +accordance with the religious attitude of the inquirer and Jesus and +Muhammed are made to lend their authority to the teaching. Traditional +literary form is then regarded as historical by later believers. + +Examples of this kind might be multiplied, but enough has been said to +show that much and, to some extent, new light may be thrown upon the +development of Christian tradition, by an examination of Muhammedanism +which rose from similar soil but a few centuries later, while its +traditional developments have been much more completely preserved. + +Such analogies as these can be found, however, in any of the +world-religions, and we propose to devote our attention more +particularly to the influences which Christianity and Islam exerted +directly upon one another. While Muhammedanism has borrowed from its +hereditary foe, it has also repaid part of the debt. By the very fact +of its historical position Islam was at first indebted to +Christianity; but in the department of Christian philosophy, it has +also exerted its own influence. This influence cannot be compared with +that of Greek or Jewish thought upon Christian speculation: Christian +philosophy, as a metaphysical theory of existence, was however +strongly influenced by Arabian thought before the outset of the +Reformation. On the other hand the influence of Christianity upon +Islam--and also upon Muhammed, though he owed more to Jewish +thought--was so extensive that the coincidence of ideas upon the most +important metaphysical questions is positively amazing. + +There is a widespread belief even at the present day that Islam was a +complete novelty and that the religion and culture of the Muhammedan +world were wholly alien to Western medievalism. Such views are +entirely false; during the Middle Ages Muhammedanism and Western +culture were inspired by the same spirit. The fact has been obscured +by the contrast between the two religions whose differences have been +constantly exaggerated and by dissimilarities of language and +nationality. To retrace in full detail the close connection which +unites Christianity and Islam would be the work of years. Within the +scope of the present volume, all that can be done is to explain the +points of contact between Christian and Muhammedan theories of life +and religion. Such is the object of the following pages. We shall +first treat of Muhammed personally, because his rise as a religious +force will explain the possibility of later developments. + +This statement also explains the sense in which we shall use the term +Christianity. Muhammedanism has no connection with post-Reformation +Christianity and meets it only in the mission field. Practical +questions there arise which lie beyond the limits of our subject, as +we have already indicated. Our interests are concerned with the +mediaeval Church, when Christianity first imposed its ideas upon +Muhammedanism at the time of its rise in the East, and afterwards +received a material extension of its own horizon through the rapid +progress of its protégé. Our task is to analyse and explain these +special relations between the two systems of thought. + +The religion now known as Islam is as near to the preaching of +Muhammed or as remote from it, as modern Catholicism or Protestant +Christianity is at variance or in harmony with the teaching of Jesus. +The simple beliefs of the prophet and his contemporaries are separated +by a long course of development from the complicated religious system +in its unity and diversity which Islam now presents to us. The course +of this development was greatly influenced by Christianity, but +Christian ideas had been operative upon Muhammed's eager intellectual +life at an even earlier date. We must attempt to realise the working +of his mind, if we are to gain a comprehension of the original +position of Islam with regard to Christianity. The task is not so +difficult in Muhammed's case as in that of others who have founded +religious systems: we have records of his philosophical views, +important even though fragmentary, while vivid descriptions of his +experiences have been transmitted to us in his own words, which have +escaped the modifying influence of tradition at second hand. Muhammed +had an indefinite idea of the word of God as known to him from other +religions. He was unable to realise this idea effectively except as an +immediate revelation; hence throughout the Qoran he represents God as +speaking in the first person and himself appears as the interlocutor. +Even direct commands to the congregation are introduced by the +stereotyped "speak"; it was of primary importance that the Qoran +should be regarded as God's word and not as man's. This fact largely +contributed to secure an uncontaminated transmission of the text, +which seems also to have been left by Muhammed himself in definite +form. Its intentional obscurity of expression does not facilitate the +task of the inquirer, but it provides, none the less, considerable +information concerning the religious progress of its author. Here we +are upon firmer ground than when we attempt to describe Muhammed's +outward life, the first half of which is wrapped in obscurity no less +profound than that which veils the youth of the Founder of +Christianity. + +Muhammed's contemporaries lived amid religious indifference. The +majority of the Arabs were heathen and their religious aspirations +were satisfied by local cults of the Old Semitic character. They may +have preserved the religious institutions of the great South Arabian +civilisation, which was then in a state of decadence; the beginnings +of Islam may also have been influenced by the ideas of this +civilisation, which research is only now revealing to us: but these +points must remain undecided for the time being. South Arabian +civilisation was certainly not confined to the South, nor could an +organised township such as Mecca remain outside its sphere of +influence: but the scanty information which has reached us concerning +the religious life of the Arabs anterior to Islam might also be +explained by supposing them to have followed a similar course of +development. In any case, it is advisable to reserve judgment until +documentary proof can replace ingenious conjecture. The difficulty of +the problem is increased by the fact that Jewish and especially +Christian ideas penetrated from the South and that their influence +cannot be estimated. The important point for us to consider is the +existence of Christianity in Southern Arabia before the Muhammedan +period. Nor was the South its only starting-point: Christian doctrine +came to Arabia from the North, from Syria and Babylonia, and numerous +conversions, for the most part of whole tribes, were made. On the +frontiers also Arabian merchants came into continual contact with +Christianity and foreign merchants of the Christian faith could be +found throughout Arabia. But for the Arabian migration and the +simultaneous foundation of a new Arabian religion, there is no doubt +that the whole peninsula would have been speedily converted to +Christianity. + +The chief rival of Christianity was Judaism, which was represented in +Northern as in Southern Arabia by strong colonies of Jews, who made +proselytes, although their strict ritualism was uncongenial to the +Arab temperament which preferred conversion to Christianity (naturally +only as a matter of form). In addition to Jewish, Christian, and Old +Semitic influences, Zoroastrian ideas and customs were also known in +Arabia, as is likely enough in view of the proximity of the Persian +empire. + +These various elements aroused in Muhammed's mind a vague idea of +religion. His experience was that of the eighteenth-century +theologians who suddenly observed that Christianity was but one of +many very similar and intelligible religions, and thus inevitably +conceived the idea of a pure and natural religious system fundamental +to all others. Judaism and Christianity were the only religions which +forced themselves upon Muhammed's consciousness and with the general +characteristics of which he was acquainted. He never read any part of +the Old or New Testament: his references to Christianity show that his +knowledge of the Bible was derived from hearsay and that his +informants were not representative of the great religious sects: +Muhammed's account of Jesus and His work, as given in the Qoran, is +based upon the apocryphal accretions which grew round the Christian +doctrine. + +When Muhammed proceeded to compare the great religions of the Old and +New Testaments with the superficial pietism of his own compatriots, he +was especially impressed with the seriousness of the Hebrews and +Christians which contrasted strongly with the indifference of the +heathen Arabs. The Arab was familiar with the conception of an +almighty God, and this idea had not been obscured by the worship of +trees, stones, fire and the heavenly bodies: but his reverence for +this God was somewhat impersonal and he felt no instinct to approach +Him, unless he had some hopes or fears to satisfy. The idea of a +reckoning between man and God was alien to the Arab mind. Christian +and Jewish influence became operative upon Muhammed with reference +to this special point. The idea of the day of judgment, when an +account of earthly deeds and misdeeds will be required, when the joys +of Paradise will be opened to the good and the bad will be cast into +the fiery abyss, such was the great idea, which suddenly filled +Muhammed's mind and dispelled the indifference begotten of routine and +stirred his mental powers. + +Polytheism was incompatible with the idea of God as a judge supreme +and righteous, but yet merciful. Thus monotheism was indissolubly +connected with Muhammed's first religious impulses, though the dogma +had not assumed the polemical form in which it afterwards confronted +the old Arabian and Christian beliefs. But a mind stirred by religious +emotion only rose to the height of prophetic power after a long course +of development which human knowledge can but dimly surmise. +Christianity and Judaism had their sacred books which the founders of +these religions had produced. In them were the words of God, +transmitted through Moses to the Jews and through Jesus to the +Christians. Jesus and Moses had been God's ambassadors to their +peoples. Who then could bring to the Arabs the glad tidings which +should guide them to the happy fields of Paradise? Among primitive +peoples God is regarded as very near to man. The Arabs had, their +fortune-tellers and augurs who cast lots before God and explained His +will in mysterious rhythmical utterances. Muhammed was at first more +intimately connected with this class of Arab fortune-tellers than is +usually supposed. The best proof of the fact is the vehemence with +which he repudiates all comparison between these fortune-tellers and +himself, even as early Christian apologetics and polemics attacked the +rival cults of the later classical world, which possessed forms of +ritual akin to those observed by Christianity. The existence of a +fortune-telling class among the Arabs shows that Muhammed may well +have been endowed with psychological tendencies which only awaited the +vivifying influence of Judaism and Christianity to emerge as the +prophetic impulse forcing him to stand forth in public and to stir the +people from their indifference: "Be ye converted, for the day of +judgment is at hand: God has declared it unto me, as he declared it +unto Moses and Jesus. I am the apostle of God to you, Arabs. Salvation +is yours only if ye submit to the will of God preached by me." This +act of submission Muhammed calls Islam. Thus at the hour of Islam's +birth, before its founder had proclaimed his ideas, the influence of +Christianity is indisputable. It was this influence which made of the +Arab seer and inspired prophet, the apostle of God. + +Muhammed regarded Judaism and Christianity as religious movements +purely national in character. God in His mercy had announced His will +to different nations through His prophets. As God's word had been +interpreted for the Jews and for the Christians, so there was to be a +special interpretation for the benefit of the Arabs. These +interpretations were naturally identical in manner and differed only +as regards place and time. Muhammed had heard of the Jewish Messiah +and of the Christian Paraclete, whom, however, he failed to identify +with the Holy Ghost and he applied to himself the allusions to one who +should come after Moses and Jesus. Thus in the Qoran 61.6 we read, +"Jesus, the Son of Mary, said: Children of Israel, I am God's apostle +to you. I confirm in your hands the Thora (the law) and I announce the +coming of another apostle after me whose name is Ahmed." Ahmed is the +equivalent of Muhammed. The verse has been variously interpreted and +even rejected as an interpolation: but its authenticity is attested by +its perfect correspondence with what we know of Muhammed's +pretensions. + +To trace in detail the development of his attitude towards +Christianity is a more difficult task than to discover the growth of +his views upon Judaism; probably he pursued a similar course in either +case. At first he assumed the identity of the two religions with one +another and with his own doctrine; afterwards he regarded them as +advancing by gradations. Adam, Abraham, Moses, Jesus, and Muhammed, +these in his opinion were the chief stages in the divine scheme of +salvation. Each was respectively confirmed or abolished by the +revelation which followed it, nor is this theory of Muhammed's shaken +by the fact that each revelation was given to a different nation. He +regards all preceding prophets in the light of his own personality. +They were all sent to people who refused them a hearing at the moment. +Punishment follows and the prophet finds a body of believers +elsewhere. These temporary punishments are confused with the final +Judgment; in fact Muhammed's system was not clearly thought out. The +several prophets were but men, whose earthly careers were necessarily +crowned with triumph: hence the crucifixion of Jesus is a malicious +invention of the Jews, who in reality crucified some other sufferer, +while Jesus entered the divine glory. Thus Muhammed has no idea of the +importance of the Crucifixion to the Christian Church, as is shown by +his treatment of it as a Jewish falsehood. In fact, he develops the +habit of characterising as false any statement in contradiction with +his ideas, and this tendency is especially obvious in his dealings +with Judaism, of which he gained a more intimate knowledge. At first +he would refer sceptics to Christian and Jewish doctrine for +confirmation of his own teaching. The fact that with no knowledge of +the Old or New Testament, he had proclaimed doctrines materially +similar and the fact that these Scriptures referred to himself, were +proofs of his inspired power, let doubters say what they would. A +closer acquaintance with these Scriptures showed him that the +divergencies which he stigmatised as falsifications denoted in reality +vast doctrinal differences. + +In order to understand Muhammed's attitude towards Christianity, we +will examine in greater detail his view of this religion, the portions +of it which he accepted or which he rejected as unauthentic. In the +first place he must have regarded the Trinity as repugnant to reason: +he considered the Christian Trinity as consisting of God the Father, +Mary the Mother of God, and Jesus the Son of God. In the Qoran, God +says, "Hast thou, Jesus, said to men, Regard me and my mother as Gods +by the side of God?" Jesus replies, "I will say nothing but the truth. +I have but preached, Pray to God, who is my Lord and your Lord" +(5.116, f). Hence it has been inferred that Muhammed's knowledge of +Christianity was derived from some particular Christian sect, such as +the Tritheists or the Arab female sect of the Collyridians who +worshipped the Virgin Mary with exaggerated reverence and assigned +divine honours to her. It is also possible that we have here a +development of some Gnostic conception which regarded the Holy Ghost +as of feminine gender, as Semites would do;[A] instances of this +change are to be found in the well-known Hymn of the Soul in the Acts +of Thomas, in the Gospel to the Egyptians and elsewhere. I am +inclined, however, to think it more probable that Muhammed had heard +of Mariolatry and of the "mother of God," a title which then was a +highly popular catchword, and that the apotheosis of Jesus was known +to him and also the doctrine of the Trinity by name. Further than this +his knowledge did not extend; although he knows the Holy Ghost and +identifies him with Jesus, none the less his primitive reasoning, +under the influence of many old beliefs, explained the mysterious +triad of the Trinity as husband, wife, and son. This fact is enough to +prove that his theory of Christianity was formed by combining isolated +scraps of information and that he cannot have had any direct +instruction from a Christian knowing the outlines of his faith. + +[Footnote A: The word for "Spirit" is of the feminine gender in the +Semitic languages.] + +Muhammed must also have denied the divinity of Christ: this is an +obvious result of the course of mental development which we have +described and of his characteristically Semitic theory of the nature +of God. To him, God is one, never begetting and never begotten. +Denying the divinity of Jesus, Muhammed naturally denies the +redemption through the Cross and also the fact of the Crucifixion. +Yet, strangely enough he accepted the miraculous birth; nor did he +hesitate to provide this purely human Jesus with all miraculous +attributes; these were a proof of his divine commission, and +marvellous details of this nature aroused the interest of his hearers. + +Mary the sister of Ahron--an obvious confusion with the Old Testament +Miriam--had been devoted to the service of God by her mother's vow, and +lives in the temple under the guardianship of Zacharias, to whom a +later heir is born in answer to his prayers, namely John, the +forerunner of the Holy Ghost. The birth is announced to Mary and she +brings forth Jesus under a palm-tree, near which is a running spring +and by the dates of which she is fed. On her return home she is +received with reproaches by her family but merely points in reply to +the new-born babe, who suddenly speaks from his cradle, asserting that +he is the prophet of God. Afterwards Jesus performs all kinds of +miracles, forms birds out of clay and makes them fly, heals the blind +and lepers, raises the dead, etc., and even brings down from heaven a +table ready spread. The Jews will not believe him, but the youth +follow him. He is not killed, but translated to God. Christians are +not agreed upon the manner of his death and the Jews have invented the +story of the Crucifixion. + +Muhammed's knowledge of Christianity thus consists of certain isolated +details, partly apocryphal, partly canonical, together with a hazy +idea of the fundamental dogmas. Thus the influence of Christianity +upon him was entirely indirect. The Muhammedan movement at its outset +was influenced not by the real Christianity of the time but by a +Christianity which Muhammed criticised in certain details and forced +into harmony with his preconceived ideas. His imagination was +profoundly impressed by the existence of Christianity as a revealed +religion with a founder of its own. Certain features of Christianity +and of Judaism, prayer, purification, solemn festivals, scriptures, +prophets and so forth were regarded by him as essential to any +religious community, because they happened to belong both to Judaism +and to Christianity. He therefore adopted or wished to adopt these +institutions. + +During the period of his life at Medina, Muhammed abandoned his +original idea of preaching the doctrines which Moses and Jesus had +proclaimed. This new development was the outcome of a struggle with +Judaism following upon an unsuccessful attempt at compromise. In point +of fact Judaism and Christianity were as widely different from one +another as they were from his own teaching and he was more than ever +inclined to regard as his special forerunner, Abraham, who had +preceded both Moses and Jesus, and was revered by both religions as +the man of God. He then brought Abraham into connection with the +ancient Meccan Ka'ba worship: the Ka'ba or die was a sacred stone +edifice, in one corner of which the "black stone" had been built in: +this stone was an object of reverence to the ancient Arabs, as it +still is to the Muhammedans. Thus Islam gradually assumed the form of +an Arab religion, developing universalist tendencies in the ultimate +course of events. Muhammed, therefore, as he was the last in the ranks +of the prophets, must also be the greatest. He epitomised all prophecy +and Islam superseded every revealed religion of earlier date. + +Muhammed's original view that earlier religions had been founded by +God's will and through divine revelation, led both him and his +successors to make an important concession: adherents of other +religions were not compelled to adopt Islam. They were allowed to +observe their own faith unhindered, if they surrendered without +fighting, and were even protected against their enemies, in return for +which they had to pay tribute to their Muslim masters; this was levied +as a kind of poll-tax. Thus we read in the Qoran (ix. 29) that "those +who possess Scriptures," i.e. the Jews and Christians, who did not +accept Islam were to be attacked until they paid the _gizja_ or +tribute. Thus the object of a religious war upon the Christians is not +expressed by the cry "Death or Islam"; such attacks were intended +merely to extort an acknowledgment of Muhammedan supremacy, not to +abolish freedom of religious observance. It would be incorrect for the +most part to regard the warrior bands which started from Arabia as +inspired by religious enthusiasm or to attribute to them the +fanaticism which was first aroused by the crusades and in an even +greater degree by the later Turkish wars. The Muhammedan fanatics of +the wars of conquest, whose reputation was famous among later +generations, felt but a very scanty interest in religion and +occasionally displayed an ignorance of its fundamental tenets which we +can hardly exaggerate. The fact is fully consistent with the impulses +to which the Arab migrations were due. These impulses were economic +and the new religion was nothing more than a party cry of unifying +power, though there is no reason to suppose that it was not a real +moral force in the life of Muhammed and his immediate contemporaries. + +Anti-Christian fanaticism there was therefore none. Even in early +years Muhammedans never refused to worship in the same buildings as +Christians. The various insulting regulations which tradition +represents Christians as forced to endure were directed not so much +against the adherents of another faith as against the barely tolerated +inhabitants of a subjugated state. It is true that the distinction is +often difficult to observe, as religion and nationality were one and +the same thing to Muhammedans. In any case religious animosity was a +very subordinate phenomenon. It was a gradual development and seems to +me to have made a spasmodic beginning in the first century under the +influence of ideas adopted from Christianity. It may seem paradoxical +to assert that it was Christian influence which first stirred Islam to +religious animosity and armed it with the sword against Christianity, +but the hypothesis becomes highly probable when we have realised the +indifferentism of the Muhammedan conquerors. + +We shall constantly see hereafter how much they owed in every +department of intellectual life to the teaching of the races which +they subjugated. Their attitude towards other beliefs was never so +intolerant as was that of Christendom at that period. Christianity may +well have been the teaching influence in this department of life as in +others. Moreover at all times and especially in the first century the +position of Christians has been very tolerable, even though the +Muslims regarded them as an inferior class, Christians were able to +rise to the highest offices of state, even to the post of vizier, +without any compulsion to renounce their faith. Even during the period +of the crusades when the religious opposition was greatly intensified, +again through Christian policy, Christian officials cannot have been +uncommon: otherwise Muslim theorists would never have uttered their +constant invectives against the employment of Christians in +administrative duties. Naturally zealots appeared at all times on the +Muhammedan as well as on the Christian side and occasionally isolated +acts of oppression took place: these were, however, exceptional. So +late as the eleventh century, church funeral processions were able to +pass through the streets of Bagdad with all the emblems of +Christianity and disturbances were recorded by the chroniclers as +exceptional. In Egypt, Christian festivals were also regarded to some +extent as holidays by the Muhammedan population. We have but to +imagine these conditions reversed in a Christian kingdom of the early +middle ages and the probability of my theory will become obvious. + +The Christians of the East, who had broken for the most part with the +orthodox Church, also regarded Islam as a lesser evil than the +Byzantine established Church. Moreover Islam, as being both a +political and ecclesiastical organisation, regarded the Christian +church as a state within a state and permitted it to preserve its own +juridical and at first its own governmental rights. Application was +made to the bishops when anything was required from the community and +the churches were used as taxation offices. This was all in the +interests of the clergy who thus found their traditional claims +realised. These relations were naturally modified in the course of +centuries; the crusades, the Turkish wars and the great expansion of +Europe widened the breach between Christianity and Islam, while as the +East was gradually brought under ecclesiastical influence, the +contrast grew deeper: the theory, however, that the Muhammedan +conquerors and their successors were inspired by a fanatical hatred of +Christianity is a fiction invented by Christians. + +We have now to examine this early development of Islam in somewhat +greater detail: indeed, to secure a more general appreciation of this +point is the object of the present work. + +The relationship of the Qoran to Christianity has been already noted: +it was a book which preached rather than taught and enounced isolated +laws but no connected system. Islam was a clear and simple war-cry +betokening merely a recognition of Arab supremacy, of the unity of God +and of Muhammed's prophetic mission. But in a few centuries Islam +became a complex religious structure, a confusion of Greek philosophy +and Roman law, accurately regulating every department of human life +from the deepest problems of morality to the daily use of the +toothpick, and the fashions of dress and hair. This change from the +simplicity of the founder's religious teaching to a system of +practical morality often wholly divergent from primitive doctrine, is +a transformation which all the great religions of the world have +undergone. Religious founders have succeeded in rousing the sense of +true religion in the human heart. Religious systems result from the +interaction of this impulse with pre-existing capacities for +civilisation. The highest attainments of human life are dependent upon +circumstances of time and place, and environment often exerts a more +powerful influence than creative power. The teaching of Jesus was +almost overpowered by the Graeco-Oriental culture of later Hellenism. +Dissensions persist even now because millions of people are unable to +distinguish pure religion from the forms of expression belonging to an +extinct civilisation. Islam went through a similar course of +development and assumed the spiritual panoply which was ready to hand. +Here, as elsewhere, this defence was a necessity during the period of +struggle, but became a crushing burden during the peace which followed +victory, for the reason that it was regarded as inseparable from the +wearer of it. From this point of view the analogy with Christianity +will appear extremely striking, but it is something more than an +analogy: the Oriental Hellenism of antiquity was to Christianity that +which the Christian Oriental Hellenism of a few centuries later was to +Islam. + +We must now attempt to realise the nature of this event so important +in the history of the world. A nomadic people, recently united, not +devoid of culture, but with a very limited range of ideas, suddenly +gains supremacy over a wide and populous district with an ancient +civilisation. These nomads are as yet hardly conscious of their +political unity and the individualism of the several tribes composing +it is still a disruptive force: yet they can secure domination over +countries such as Egypt and Babylonia, with complex constitutional +systems, where climatic conditions, the nature of the soil and +centuries of work have combined to develop an intricate administrative +system, which newcomers could not be expected to understand, much less +to recreate or to remodel. Yet the theory has long been held that the +Arabs entirely reorganised the constitutions of these countries. +Excessive importance has been attached to the statements of Arab +authors, who naturally regarded Islam as the beginning of all things. +In every detail of practical life they regarded the prophet and his +contemporaries as their ruling ideal, and therefore naturally assumed +that the constitutional practices of the prophet were his own +invention. The organisation of the conquering race with its tribal +subordination was certainly purely Arab in origin. In fact the +conquerors seemed so unable to adapt themselves to the conditions with +which they met, that foreigners who joined their ranks were admitted +to the Muhammedan confederacy only as clients of the various Arab +tribes. This was, however, a mere question of outward form: the +internal organisation continued unchanged, as it was bound to continue +unless chaos were to be the consequence. In fact, pre-existing +administrative regulations were so far retained that the old customs +duties on the former frontiers were levied as before, though they +represented an institution wholly alien to the spirit of the +Muhammedan empire. Those Muhammedan authors, who describe the +administrative organisation, recognise only the taxes which Islam +regarded as lawful and characterise others as malpractices which had +crept in at a later date. It is remarkable that these so-called +subsequent malpractices correspond with Byzantine and Persian usage +before the conquest: but tradition will not admit the fact that these +remained unchanged. The same fact is obvious when we consider the +progress of civilisation in general. In every case the Arabs merely +develop the social and economic achievements of the conquered races to +further issues. Such progress could indeed only be modified by a +general upheaval of existing conditions and no such movement ever took +place. The Germanic tribes destroyed the civilisations with which they +met; they adopted many of the institutions of Christian antiquity, but +found them an impediment to the development of their own genius. The +Arabs simply continued to develop the civilisation of post-classical +antiquity, with which they had come in contact. + +This procedure may seem entirely natural in the department of economic +life, but by no means inevitable where intellectual progress is +concerned. Yet a similar course was followed in either case, as may be +proved by dispassionate examination. Islam was a rising force, a faith +rather of experience than of theory or dogma, when it raised its +claims against Christianity, which represented all pre-existing +intellectual culture. A settlement of these claims was necessary and +the military triumphs are but the prelude to a great accommodation of +intellectual interests. In this Christianity played the chief part, +though Judaism is also represented: I am inclined, however, to think +that Jewish ideas as they are expressed in the Qoran were often +transmitted through the medium of Christianity. There is no doubt that +in Medina Muhammed was under direct Jewish influence of extraordinary +power. Even at that time Jewish ideas may have been in circulation, +not only in the Qoran but also in oral tradition, which afterwards +became stereotyped: at the same time Muhammed's utterances against the +Jews eventually became so strong during the Medina period, for +political reasons, that I can hardly imagine the traditions in their +final form to have been adopted directly from the Jews. The case of +Jewish converts is a different matter. But in Christianity also much +Jewish wisdom was to be found at that time and it is well known that +even the Eastern churches regarded numerous precepts of the Old +Testament, including those that dealt with ritual, as binding upon +them. In any case the spirit of Judaism is present, either directly or +working through Christianity, as an influence wherever Islam +accommodated itself to the new intellectual and spiritual life which +it had encountered. It was a compromise which affected the most +trivial details of life, and in these matters religious scrupulosity +was carried to a ridiculous point: here we may see the outcome of that +Judaism which, as has been said, was then a definite element in +Eastern Christianity. Together with Jewish, Greek and classical ideas +were also naturally operative, while Persian and other ancient +Oriental conceptions were transmitted to Islam by Christianity: these +instances I have collectively termed Christian because Christianity +then represented the whole of later classical intellectualism, which +influenced Islam for the most part through Christianity. + +It seems that the communication of these ideas to Muhammedanism was +impeded by the necessity of translating them not only into a kindred +language, but into one of wholly different linguistic structure. For +Muhammedanism the difficulty was lessened by the fact that it had +learned Christianity in Syria and Persia through the Semitic dialect +known as Aramaic, by which Greek and Persian culture had been +transmitted to the Arabs before the rise of Islam. In this case, as in +many others, the history of language runs on parallel lines with the +history of civilisation. The necessities of increasing civilisation +had introduced many Aramaic words to the Arabic vocabulary before +Muhammed's day: these importations increased considerably when the +Arabs entered a wider and more complex civilisation and were +especially considerable where intellectual culture was concerned. Even +Greek terms made their way into Arabic through Aramaic. This natural +dependency of Arabic upon Aramaic, which in turn was connected with +Greek as the rival Christian vernacular in these regions, is alone +sufficient evidence that Christianity exerted a direct influence upon +Muhammedanism. Moreover, as we have seen, the Qoran itself regarded +Christians as being in possession of divine wisdom, and some reference +both to Christianity and to Judaism was necessary to explain the many +unintelligible passages of the Qoran. Allusions were made to texts and +statements in the Thora and the Gospels, and God was represented as +constantly appealing to earlier revelations of Himself. Thus it was +only natural that interpreters should study these scriptures and ask +counsel of their possessors. Of primary importance was the fact that +both Christians and Jews, and the former in particular, accepted +Muhammedanism by thousands, and formed a new intellectual class of +ability infinitely superior to that of the original Muslims and able +to attract the best elements of the Arab nationality to their +teaching. It was as impossible for these apostate Christians to +abandon their old habits of thought as it was hopeless to expect any +sudden change in the economic conditions under which they lived. +Christian theories of God and the world naturally assumed a Muhammedan +colouring and thus the great process of accommodating Christianity to +Muhammedanism was achieved. The Christian contribution to this end was +made partly directly and partly by teaching, and in the intellectual +as well as in the economic sphere the ultimate ideal was inevitably +dictated by the superior culture of Christianity. The Muhammedans were +thus obliged to accept Christian hypotheses on theological points and +the fundaments of Christian and Muhammedan culture thus become +identical. + +I use the term hypotheses, for the reason that the final determination +of the points at issue was by no means identical, wherever the Qoran +definitely contradicted Christian views of morality or social laws. +But in these cases also, Christian ideas were able to impose +themselves upon tradition and to issue in practice, even when opposed +by the actual text of the Qoran. They did not always pass unquestioned +and even on trivial points were obliged to encounter some resistance. +The theory of the Sunday was accepted, but that day was not chosen and +Friday was preferred: meetings for worship were held in imitation of +Christian practice, but attempts to sanctify the day and to proclaim +it a day of rest were forbidden: except for the performance of divine +service, Friday was an ordinary week-day. When, however, the Qoran was +in any sort of harmony with Christianity, the Christian ideas of the +age were textually accepted in any further development of the +question. The fact is obvious, not only as regards details, but also +in the general theory of man's position upon earth. + + * * * * * + +Muhammed, the preacher of repentance, had become a temporal prince in +Medina; his civil and political administration was ecclesiastical in +character, an inevitable result of his position as the apostle of God, +whose congregation was at the same time a state. This theory of the +state led later theorists unconsciously to follow the lead of +Christianity, which regarded the church as supreme in every department +of life, and so induced Muhammedanism to adopt views of life and +social order which are now styled mediaeval. The theological +development of this system is to be attributed chiefly to groups of +pious thinkers in Medina: they were excluded from political life when +the capital was transferred from Medina to Damascus and were left in +peace to elaborate their theory of the Muhammedan divine polity. The +influence of these groups was paramount: but of almost equal +importance was the influence of the proselytes in the conquered lands +who were Christians for the most part and for that reason far above +their Arab contemporaries in respect of intellectual training and +culture. We find that the details of jurisprudence, dogma, and +mysticism can only be explained by reference to Christian stimulus, +nor is it any exaggeration to ascribe the further development of +Muhammed's views to the influence of thinkers who regarded the +religious polity of Islam as the realisation of an ideal which +Christianity had hitherto vainly striven to attain. This ideal was the +supremacy of religion over life and all its activities, over the state +and the individual alike. But it was a religion primarily concerned +with the next world, where alone real worth was to be found. Earthly +life was a pilgrimage to be performed and earthly intentions had no +place with heavenly. The joy of life which the ancient world had +known, art, music and culture, all were rejected or valued only as +aids to religion. Human action was judged with reference only to its +appraisement in the life to come. That ascetic spirit was paramount, +which had enchained the Christian world, that renunciation of secular +affairs which explains the peculiar methods by which mediaeval views +of life found expression. + +Asceticism did not disturb the course of life as a whole. It might +condemn but it could not suppress the natural impulse of man to +propagate his race: it might hamper economic forces, but it could not +destroy them. It eventually led to a compromise in every department of +life, but for centuries it retained its domination over men's minds +and to some material extent over their actions. + +Such was the environment in which Islam was planted: its deepest roots +had been fertilised with Christian theory, and in spite of Muhammed's +call to repentance, its most characteristic manifestations were +somewhat worldly and non-ascetic. "Islam knows not monasticism" says +the tradition which this tendency produced. The most important +compromise of all, that with life, which Christianity only secured by +gradual steps, had been already attained for Islam by Muhammed himself +and was included in the course of his development. As Islam now +entered the Christian world, it was forced to pass through this +process of development once more. At the outset it was permeated with +the idea of Christian asceticism, to which an inevitable opposition +arose, and found expression in such statements as that already quoted. +But Muhammed's preaching had obviously striven to honour the future +life by painting the actual world in the gloomiest colours, and the +material optimism of the secular-minded was unable to check the +advance of Christian asceticism among the classes which felt a real +interest in religion. Hence that surprising similarity of views upon +the problem of existence, which we have now to outline. In details of +outward form great divergency is apparent. Christianity possessed a +clergy while Islam did not: yet the force of Christian influence +produced a priestly class in Islam. It was a class acting not as +mediator between God and man through sacraments and mysteries, but as +moral leaders and legal experts; as such it was no less important than +the scribes under Judaism. Unanimity among these scholars could +produce decisions no less binding than those of the Christian clergy +assembled in church councils. They are representatives of the +congregation which "has no unanimity, for such would be an error." +Islam naturally preferred to adopt unanimous conclusions in silence +rather than to vote in assemblies. As a matter of fact a body of +orthodox opinion was developed by this means with no less success than +in Christendom. Any agreement which the quiet work of the scholars had +secured upon any question was ratified by God and was thus irrevocably +and eternally binding. For instance, the proclamation to the faithful +of new ideas upon the exposition of the Qoran or of tradition was +absolutely forbidden; the scholars, in other words the clergy, had +convinced themselves, by the fact of their unanimity upon the point, +that the customary and traditional mode of exposition was the one +pleasing to God. Ideas of this kind naturally remind us of Roman +Catholic practice. The influence of Eastern Christianity upon Islam is +undoubtedly visible here. This influence could not in the face of +Muhammedan tradition and custom, create an organised clergy, but it +produced a clerical class to guard religious thought, and as religion +spread, to supervise thought of every kind. + +Christianity again condemned marriage, though it eventually agreed to +a compromise sanctifying this tie; Islam, on the contrary, found in +the Qoran the text "Ye that are unmarried shall marry" (24, 32). In +the face of so clear a statement, the condemnation of marriage, which +in any case was contrary to the whole spirit of the Qoran, could not +be maintained. Thus the Muhammedan tradition contains numerous sayings +in support of marriage. "A childless house contains no blessing": "the +breath of a son is as the breath of Paradise"; "when a man looks upon +his wife (in love) and she upon him, God looks down in mercy upon them +both." "Two prayers of a married man are more precious in the sight of +God than seventy of a bachelor." With many similar variations upon the +theme, Muhammed is said to have urged marriage upon his followers. On +the other hand an almost equally numerous body of warnings against +marriage exists, also issued by Muhammed. I know no instance of direct +prohibition, but serious admonitions are found which usually take the +form of denunciation of the female sex and were early interpreted as +warnings by tradition. "Fear the world and women": "thy worst enemies +are the wife at thy side and thy concubine": "the least in Paradise +are the women": "women are the faggots of hell"; "pious women are rare +as ravens with white or red legs and white beaks"; "but for women men +might enter Paradise." Here we come upon a strain of thought +especially Christian. Muhammed regarded the satisfaction of the sexual +instincts as natural and right and made no attempt to put restraint +upon it: Christian asceticism regarded this impulse as the greatest +danger which could threaten the spiritual life of its adherents, and +the sentences above quoted may be regarded as the expression of this +view. Naturally the social position of the woman suffered in +consequence and is so much worse in the traditional Muhammedanism as +compared with the Qoran that the change can only be ascribed to the +influence of the civilisation which the Muhammedans encountered. The +idea of woman as a creature of no account is certainly rooted in the +ancient East, but it reached Islam in Christian dress and with the +authority of Christian hostility to marriage. + +With this hostility to marriage are probably connected the regulations +concerning the covering of the body: in the ancient church only the +face, the hands and the feet were to be exposed to view, the object +being to prevent the suggestion of sinful thoughts: it is also likely +that objections to the ancient habit of leaving the body uncovered +found expression in this ordinance. Similar objections may be found in +Muhammedan tradition; we may regard these as further developments of +commands given in the Qoran, but it is also likely that Muhammed's +apocryphal statements upon the point were dictated by Christian +religious theory. They often appear in connection with warnings +against frequenting the public baths, which fact is strong evidence of +their Christian origin. "A bad house is the bath: much turmoil is +therein and men show their nakedness." "Fear that house that is called +the bathhouse and if any enter therein, let him veil himself." "He who +believes in God and the last Judgment, let him enter the bath only in +bathing dress." "Nakedness is forbidden to us." There is a story of +the prophet, to the effect that he was at work unclothed when a voice +from heaven ordered him to cover his nakedness! + + * * * * * + +We thus see, that an astonishing similarity is apparent in the +treatment even of questions where divergency is fundamental. +Divergency, it is true, existed, but pales before the general affinity +of the two theories of life. Our judgment upon Christian medievalism +in this respect can be applied directly and literally to +Muhammedanism. Either religion regards man as no more than a sojourner +in this world. It is not worth while to arrange for a permanent +habitation, and luxurious living is but pride. Hence the simplicity of +private dwellings in mediaeval times both in the East and West. +Architectural expense is confined to churches and mosques, which were +intended for the service of God. These Christian ideas are reflected +in the inexhaustible storehouse of Muhammedan theory, the great +collections of tradition, as follows. "The worst use which a believer +can make of his money is to build." "Every building, except a mosque, +will stand to the discredit of its architect on the day of +resurrection." These polemics which Islam inherited from Christianity +are directed not only against building in general, but also against +the erection and decoration of lofty edifices: "Should a man build a +house nine ells high, a voice will call to him from heaven, Whither +wilt thou rise, most profane of the profane?" "No prophet enters a +house adorned with fair decoration." With these prohibitions should be +connected the somewhat unintelligible fact that the most pious Caliphs +sat upon thrones (_mimbar_, "president's chair") of clay. The simplest +and most transitory material thus serves to form the symbol of +temporal power. A house is adorned not by outward show, but by the +fact that prayer is offered and the Qoran recited within its walls. +These theories were out of harmony with the worldly tendencies of the +conquerors, who built themselves castles, such as Qusair Amra: they +belong to the spirit of Christianity rather than to Islam. + +Upon similar principles we may explain the demand for the utmost +simplicity and reserve in regard to the other enjoyments of life. To +eat whenever one may wish is excess and two meals a day are more than +enough. The portion set apart for one may also suffice for two. Ideas +of this kind are of constant recurrence in the Muhammedan traditions: +indispensable needs alone are to be satisfied, as indeed Thomas +Aquinas teaches. Similar observations apply to dress: "he who walks in +costly garments to be seen of men is not seen of the Lord." Gold and +silver ornaments, and garments of purple and silk are forbidden by +both religions. Princes live as simply as beggars and possess only one +garment, so that they are unable to appear in public when it is being +washed: they live upon a handful of dates and are careful to save +paper and artificial light. Such incidents are common in the oldest +records of the first Caliphs. These princes did not, of course, live +in such beggary, and the fact is correspondingly important that after +the lapse of one or two generations the Muhammedan historians should +describe their heroes as possessing only the typical garment of the +Christian saint. This one fact speaks volumes. + +Every action was performed in God or with reference to God--an +oft-repeated idea in either religion. There is a continual hatred of +the world and a continual fear that it may imperil a man's soul. Hence +the sense of vast responsibility felt by the officials, a sense which +finds expression even in the ordinary official correspondence of the +authorities which papyri have preserved for us. The phraseology is +often stereotyped, but as such, expresses a special theory of life. +This responsibility is represented as weighing with especial severity +upon a pious Caliph. Upon election to the throne he accepts office +with great reluctance protesting his unworthiness with tears. The West +can relate similar stories of Gregory the Great and of Justinian. + +Exhortations are frequent ever to remember the fact of death and to +repent and bewail past sins. When a mention of the last Judgment +occurs in the reading of passages from the Bible or Qoran, the +auditors burst into tears. Upon one occasion a man was praying upon +the roof of his house and wept so bitterly over his sins, that the +tears ran down the waterspout and flooded the rooms below. This +hyperbolical statement in a typical life of a saint shows the high +value attributed to tears in the East. It is, however, equally a +Christian characteristic. The gracious gift of tears was regarded by +mediaeval Christianity as the sign of a deeply religious nature. +Gregory VII is said to have wept daily at the sacrifice of the Mass +and similar accounts are given to the credit of other famous +Christians. + +While a man should weep for his own sins, he is not to bewail any +misfortune or misery which may befall him. In the latter case it is +his duty to collect his strength, to resign himself and to praise God +even amid his sufferings. Should he lose a dear relative by death, he +is not to break out with cries and lamentations like the heathen. +Lamentation for the dead is most strictly forbidden in Islam. "We are +God's people and to God we return" says the pious Muslim on receiving +the unexpected news of a death. Resignation and patience in these +matters is certainly made the subject of eloquent exhortation in the +Qoran, but the special developments of tradition betray Christian +influence. + +Generally speaking, the whole ethical system of the two religions is +based upon the contrast between God and the world, though Muhammedan +philosophy will recognize no principle beside that of God. As a +typical example we may take a sentence from the Spanish bishop Isidor +who died in 636: "Good are the intentions directed towards God and bad +are those directed to earthly gain or transitory fame." Any Muhammedan +theologian would have subscribed to this statement. On the one hand +stress is laid upon motive as giving its value to action. The first +sentence in the most famous collection of traditions runs, "Deeds +shall be judged by their intentions." On the other hand is the +contrast between God and the world, or as Islam puts it, between the +present and the future life. The Christian gains eternal life by +following Christ. Imitation of the Master in all things even to the +stigmata, is the characteristic feature of mediaeval Christianity. Nor +is the whole of the so-called Sunna obedience anything more than the +imitation of Muhammed which seeks to repeat the smallest details of +his life. The infinite importance attached by Islam to the Sunna seems +to me to have originated in Christian influence. The development of it +betrays original features, but the fundamental principle is Christian, +as all the leading ideas of Islam are Christian, in the sense of the +term as paraphrased above. Imitation of Christ in the first instance, +attempts to repeat his poverty and renunciation of personal property: +this is the great Christian ideal. Muhammed was neither poor nor +without possessions: at the end of his life he had become a prince and +had directly stated that property was a gift from God. In spite of +that his successors praise poverty and their praises were the best of +evidence that they were influenced not by the prophet himself but by +Christianity. While the traditions are full of the praises of poverty +and the dangers of wealth, assertions in praise of wealth also +occur, for the reason that the pure Muhammedan ideas opposed to +Christianity retained a certain influence. J. Goldziher has published +an interesting study showing how many words borrowed from this source +occur in the written Muhammedan traditions: an almost complete +version of the Lord's Prayer is quoted. Even the idea of love towards +enemies, which would have been unintelligible to Muhammed, made its +way into the traditions: "the most virtuous of acts is to seek out him +who rejects thee, to give to him that despises thee and to pardon him +that oppresses thee." The Gospel precept to do unto others as we would +they should do unto us (Matt. vii. 12, Luke vi. 31) is to be found in +the Arab traditions, and many similar points of contact may be +noticed. A man's "neighbour" has ever been, despite the teaching of +Jesus, to the Christian and to the Muhammedan, his co-religionist. The +whole department of Muhammedan ethics has thus been subjected to +strong Christian influence. + +Naturally this ecclesiasticism which dominated the whole of life, was +bound to assert itself in state organisation. An abhorrence of the +state, so far as it was independent of religion, a feeling unknown in +the ancient world, pervades both Christianity and Muhammedanism, +Christianity first struggled to secure recognition in the state and +afterwards fought with the state for predominance. Islam and the state +were at first identical: in its spiritual leaders it was soon +separated from the state. Its idea of a divine polity was elaborated +to the smallest details, but remained a theory which never became +practice. Yet this ideal retained such strength that every Muhammedan +usurper was careful to secure his investiture by the Caliph, the +nominal leader of this ecclesiastical state, even if force were +necessary to attain his object. For instance, Saladin was absolutely +independent of the nominal Caliph in Bagdad, but could not feel that +his position was secure until he had obtained his sultan's patent from +the Caliph. Only then did his supremacy rest upon a religious basis +and he was not regarded by popular opinion as a legitimate monarch +until this ceremony had been performed. This theory corresponds with +constitutional ideals essentially Christian. "The tyranny," wrote +Innocent IV to the Emperor Frederick II, "which was once generally +exercised throughout the world, was resigned into the hands of the +Church by Constantine, who then received as an honourable gift from +the proper source that which he had formerly held and exercised +unrighteously." The long struggle between Church and State in this +matter is well known. In this struggle the rising power of Islam had +adopted a similar attitude. The great abhorrence of a secular +"monarchy" in opposition to a religious caliphate, as expressed both +by the dicta of tradition and by the Abbassid historians, was +inspired, in my opinion, by Christian dislike of a divorce between +Church and State. The phenomenon might be explained without reference +to external influence, but if the whole process be considered in +connection, Christian influence seems more than probable. + +A similar attitude was also assumed by either religion towards the +facts of economic life. In either case the religious point of view is +characteristic. The reaction against the tendency to condemn secular +life is certainly stronger in Islam, but is also apparent in +Christianity. Thomas Aquinas directly stigmatises trade as a +disgraceful means of gain, because the exchange of wares does not +necessitate labour or the satisfaction of necessary wants: Muhammedan +tradition says, "The pious merchant is a pioneer on the road of God." +"The first to enter Paradise is the honourable merchant." Here the +solution given to the problem differs in either case, but in Christian +practice, opposition was also obvious. Common to both religions is the +condemnation of the exaction of interest and monetary speculation, +which the middle ages regarded as usury. Islam, as usual, gives this +Christian idea the form of a saying enounced by Muhammed: "He who +speculates in grain for forty days, grinds and bakes it and gives it +to the poor, makes an offering unacceptable to God." "He who raises +prices to Muslims (by speculation) will be cast head downwards by God +into the hottest fire of hell." Many similar traditions fulminate +against usury in the widest sense of the word. These prohibitions were +circumvented in practice by deed of gift and exchange, but none the +less the free development of commercial enterprise was hampered by +these fetters which modern civilisation first broke. Enterprise was +thus confined to agriculture under these circumstances both for +Christianity and Islam, and economic life in either case became +"mediaeval" in outward appearance. + +Methods of making profit without a proportional expenditure of labour +were the particular objects of this aversion. Manual labour was highly +esteemed both in the East and West. A man's first duty was to support +himself by the work of his own hands, a duty proclaimed, as we know, +from the apostolic age onwards. So far as Islam is concerned, this +view may be illustrated by the following utterances: "The best of +deeds is the gain of that which is lawful": "the best gain is made by +sale within lawful limits and by manual labour." "The most precious +gain is that made by manual labour; that which a man thus earns and +gives to himself, his people, his sons and his servants, is as +meritorious as alms." Thus practical work is made incumbent upon the +believer, and the extent to which manufacture flourished in East and +West during the middle ages is well known. + +A similar affinity is apparent as regards ideas upon social position +and occupation. Before God man is but a slave: even the mighty Caliphs +themselves, even those who were stigmatised by posterity as secular +monarchs, included in their official titles the designation, "slave of +God." This theory was carried out into the smallest details of life, +even into those which modern observers would consider as unconcerned +with religion. Thus at meals the Muslim was not allowed to recline at +table, an ancient custom which the upper classes had followed for +centuries: he must sit, "as a slave," according to the letter of the +law. All are alike slaves, for the reason that they are believers: +hence the humiliation of those whom chance has exalted is thought +desirable. This idealism is undoubtedly more deeply rooted in the +popular consciousness of the East than of the West. In the East great +social distinctions occur; but while religion recognises them, it +forbids insistence upon them. + +As especially distinctive of social work in either religion we might +be inclined to regard the unparalleled extent of organizations for the +care of the poor, for widows and orphans, for the old, infirm and +sick, the public hospitals and almshouses and religious foundations in +the widest sense of the term; but the object of these activities was +not primarily social nor were they undertaken to make life easier for +the poor: religious selfishness was the leading motive, the desire to +purify self by good works and to secure the right to pre-eminence in +heaven. "For the salvation of my soul and for everlasting reward" is +the formula of many a Christian foundation deed. Very similar +expressions of hope for eternal reward occur in Muhammedan deeds of +gift. A foundation inscription on a mosque, published by E. Littmann, +is stated in terms the purport of which is unmistakable. "This has +been built by N or M: may a house be built for him in Paradise (in +return)." Here again, the idea of the house in Paradise is borrowed +from Christian ideas. + +We have already observed that in Islam the smallest trivialities of +daily life become matters of religious import. The fact is especially +apparent in a wide department of personal conduct. Islam certainly +went to further extremes than Christianity in this matter, but these +customs are clearly only further developments of Christian +regulations. The call to simplicity of food and dress has already been +mentioned. But even the simplest food was never to be taken before +thanks had been given to God: grace was never to be omitted either +before or after meals. Divine ordinances also regulated the manner of +eating. The prophet said, "With one finger the devils eat, with two +the Titans of antiquity and with three fingers the prophets." The +application of the saying is obvious. Similar sayings prescribe the +mode of handling dishes and behaviour at a common meal, if the +blessing of God is to be secured. There seems to be a Christian touch +in one of these rules which runs, in the words of the prophet: "He who +picks up the crumbs fallen from the table and eats them, will be +forgiven by God." "He who licks the empty dishes and his fingers will +be filled by God here and in the world to come." "When a man licks the +dish from which he has eaten, the dish will plead for him before God." +I regard these words as practical applications of the text, "Gather up +the pieces that remain, that nothing be lost" (Matt. xiv. 10: John vi. +12). Even to-day South Italians kiss bread that has fallen to the +ground, in order to make apology to the gift of God. Volumes might be +filled with rules of polite manners in this style: hardly any detail +is to be found in the whole business of daily life, even including +occupations regarded as unclean, which was not invested with some +religious significance. These rules are almost entirely dictated by +the spirit of early Christianity and it is possible to reconstruct the +details of life in those dark ages from these literary records which +are now the only source of evidence upon such points. However, we must +here content ourselves with establishing the fact that Islam adopted +Christian practice in this as in other departments of life. + +The state, society, the individual, economics and morality were thus +collectively under Christian influence during the early period of +Muhammedanism. Conditions very similar in general, affected those +conceptions which we explain upon scientific grounds but which were +invariably regarded by ancient and mediaeval thought as supernatural, +conceptions deduced from the phenomena of illness and dreams. Islam +was no less opposed than Christianity to the practice of magic in any +form, but only so far as these practices seemed to preserve remnants +of heathen beliefs. Such beliefs were, however, continued in both +religions in modified form. There is no doubt that ideas of high +antiquity, doubtless of Babylonian origin, can be traced as +contributing to the formation of these beliefs, while scientific +medicine is connected with the earlier discoveries of Greece. Common +to both religions was the belief in the reality of dreams, especially +when these seemed to harmonise with religious ideas: dreams were +regarded as revelations from God or from his apostles or from the +pious dead. The fact that man could dream and that he could appear to +other men in dreams after his death was regarded as a sign of divine +favour and the biographies of the saints often contain chapters +devoted to this faculty. These are natural ideas which lie in the +national consciousness of any people, but owe their development in the +case of Islam to Christian influence. The same may be said of the +belief that the prayers of particular saints were of special efficacy, +and of attempts by prayer, forms of worship and the like to procure +rain, avert plague and so forth: such ideas are common throughout the +middle ages. Thus in every department we meet with that particular +type of Christian theory which existed in the East during the seventh +and eighth centuries. + +This mediaeval theory of life was subjected, as is well known, to many +compromises in the West, and was materially modified by Teutonic +influence and the revival of classicism. It might therefore be +supposed that in Islam Christian theory underwent similar modification +or disappeared entirely. But the fact is not so. At the outset, we +stated, as will be remembered, that Muhammedan scholars were +accustomed to propound their dicta as utterances given by Muhammed +himself, and in this form Christian ideas also came into circulation +among Muhammedans. When attempts were made to systematise these +sayings, all were treated as alike authentic, and, as traditional, +exerted their share of influence upon the formation of canon law. Thus +questions of temporary importance to mediaeval Christianity became +permanent elements in Muhammedan theology. + +One highly instructive instance may be given. During the century which +preceded the Byzantine iconoclastic controversy, the whole of nearer +Asia was disturbed by the question whether the erection and veneration +of images was permissible. That Constantinople attempted to prohibit +such veneration is well known: but after a long struggle the church +gained its wishes. Islam was confronted with the problem and decided +for prohibition, doubtless under Jewish influence. Sayings of Muhammed +forbid the erection of images. This prohibition became part of canon +law and therefore binding for all time: it remains obligatory at the +present day, though in practice it is often transgressed. Thus the +process of development which was continued in Christendom, came to a +standstill in Islam, and many similar cases might be quoted. + +Here begins the development of Muhammedan jurisprudence or, more +exactly, of the doctrine of duty, which includes every kind of human +activity, duties to God and man, religion, civil law, the penal code, +social morality and economics. This extraordinary system of moral +obligations, as developed in Islam, though its origin is obscure, is +doubtless rooted in the ecclesiastical law of Christendom which was +then first evolved. I have no doubt that the development of Muhammedan +tradition, which precedes the code proper, was dependent upon the +growth of canon law in the old Church, and that this again, or at +least the purely legal part of it, is closely connected with the +pre-Justinian legislation. Roman law does not seem to me to have +influenced Islam immediately in the form of Justinian's _Corpus +Juris_, but indirectly from such ecclesiastical sources as the +Romano-Syrian code. This view, however, I would distinctly state, is +merely my conjecture. For our present purpose it is more important to +establish the fact that the doctrine of duty canonised the manifold +expressions of the theory that life is a religion, with which we have +met throughout the traditional literature: all human acts are thus +legally considered as obligatory or forbidden when corresponding with +religious commands or prohibitions, as congenial or obnoxious to the +law or as matters legally indifferent and therefore permissible. The +arrangement of the work of daily life in correspondence with these +religious points of view is the most important outcome of the +Muhammedan doctrine of duties. The religious utterances which also +cover the whole business of life were first made duties by this +doctrine: in practice their fulfilment is impossible, but the theory +of their obligatory nature is a fundamental element in Muhammedanism. + +Where the doctrine of duties deals with legal rights, its application +was in practice confined to marriage and the affairs of family life: +the theoretical demands of its penal clauses, for instance, raise +impossible difficulties. At the same time, it has been of great +importance to the whole spiritual life of Islam down to the present +day, because it reflects Muhammedan ideals of life and of man's place +in the world. Even to-day it remains the daily bread of the soul that +desires instruction, to quote the words of the greatest father of the +Muhammedan church. It will thus be immediately obvious to what a vast +extent Christian theory of the seventh and eighth centuries still +remains operative upon Muhammedan thought throughout the world. + +Considerable parts of the doctrine of duties are concerned with the +forms of Muhammedan worship. It is becoming ever clearer that only +slight tendencies to a form of worship were apparent under Muhammed. +The mosque, the building erected for the special purpose of divine +service, was unknown during the prophet's lifetime; nor was there any +definite church organisation, of which the most important parts are +the common ritual and the preaching. Tendencies existed but no system, +was to be found: there was no clerical class to take an interest in +the development of an order of divine service. The Caliphs prayed +before the faithful in the capital, as did the governors in the +provinces. The military commanders also led a simple service in their +own stations. + +It was contact with foreign influence which first provided the impulse +to a systematic form of worship. Both Christians and Jews possessed +such forms. Their example was followed and a ritual was evolved, at +first of the very simplest kind. No detailed organisation, however, +was attempted, until Christian influence led to the formation of the +class which naturally took an interest in the matter, the professional +theologians. These soon replaced the military service leaders. This +change denoted the final stage in the development of ritual. The +object of the theologians was to subject the various occupations of +life to ritual as well as to religion. The mediatorial or sacramental +theories of the priestly office were unknown to Islam, but ritual +customs of similar character were gradually evolved, and are +especially pronounced in the ceremonies of marriage and burial. + +More important, however, was the development of the official service, +the arrangement of the day and the hour of obligatory attendance and +the introduction of preaching: under Muhammed and his early followers, +and until late in the Omajjad period, preaching was confined to +addresses, given as occasion demanded, but by degrees it became part +of the regular ritual. With it was afterwards connected the +intercession for the Caliphs, which became a highly significant part +of the service, as symbolising their sovereignty. It seems to me very +probable that this practice was an adoption, at any rate in theory, of +the Christian custom of praying for the emperor. The pulpit was then +introduced under Christian influence, which thus completely +transformed the chair (_mimbar_) of the ancient Arab judges and rulers +and made it a piece of church furniture; the Christian _cancelli_ or +choir screens were adopted and the mosque was thus developed. Before +the age of mosques, a lance had been planted in the ground and prayer +offered behind it: so in the mosque a prayer niche was made, a +survival of the pre-existing custom. There are many obscure points in +the development of the worship, but one fact may be asserted with +confidence: the developments of ritual were derived from pre-existing +practices, which were for the most part Christian. + +But the religious energy of Islam was not exclusively devoted to the +development and practice of the doctrine of duties; at the same time +this ethical department, in spite of its dependency upon Christian and +Jewish ideas, remains its most original achievement: we have pursued +the subject at some length, because its importance is often overlooked +in the course of attempts to estimate the connection between +Christianity and Islam. On the other hand, affinities in the regions +of mysticism and dogma have long been matter of common knowledge and a +brief sketch of them will therefore suffice. If not essential to our +purpose within the limits of this book, they are none the less +necessary to complete our treatment of the subject. + +By mysticism we understand the expression of religious emotion, as +contrasted with efforts to attain righteousness by full obedience to +the ethical doctrine of duties, and also in contrast to the +hair-splitting of dogmatic speculation: mysticism strove to reach +immediate emotional unity with the Godhead. No trace of any such +tendency was to be found in the Qoran: it entered Islam as a complete +novelty, and the affinities which enabled it to gain a footing have +been difficult to trace. + +Muhammedan mysticism is certainly not exclusively Christian: its +origins, like those of Christian mysticism, are to be found in the +pantheistic writings of the Neoplatonist school of Dionysius the +Areopagite: but Islam apparently derived its mysticism from Christian +sources. In it originated the idea, with all its capacity for +development, of the mystical love of God: to this was added the theory +and practice of asceticism which was especially developed by +Christianity, and, in later times, the influence of Indian philosophy, +which is unmistakable. Such are the fundamental elements of this +tendency. When the idea of the Nirwana, the Arab _fan[=a]_, is +attained, Muhammedanism proper comes to an end. But orthodoxy controls +the divergent elements: it opposes any open avowal of the logical +conclusion, which would identify "God" and the "ego," but in practice +this group of ideas, pantheistic in all but name, has been received +and given a place side by side with the strict monotheism of the Qoran +and with the dogmatic theology. Any form of mysticism which is pushed +to its logical consequences must overthrow positive religion. By +incorporating this dangerous tendency within itself, Islam has averted +the peril which it threatens. Creed is no longer endangered, and this +purpose being secured, thought is free. + +Union with God is gained by ecstasy and leads to enthusiasm. These +terms will therefore show us in what quarter we must seek the +strongest impulses to mysticism. The concepts, if not the actual +terms, are to be found in Islam: they were undoubtedly transmitted by +Christianity and undergo the wide extension which results in the +dervish and fakir developments. _Dervish_ and _fakir_ are the Persian +and Arabic words for "beggar": the word _sufi_, a man in a woollen +shirt, is also used in the same sense. The terms show that asceticism +is a fundamental element in mysticism; asceticism was itself an +importation to Islam. Dervishes are divided into different classes or +orders, according to the methods by which they severally prefer to +attain ecstasy: dancing and recitation are practised by the dancing +and howling dervishes and other methods are in vogue. It is an +institution very different from monasticism but the result of a course +of development undoubtedly similar to that which produced the monk: +dervishism and monasticism are independent developments of the same +original idea. + +Among these Muhammedan companies attempts to reach the point of +ecstasy have developed to a rigid discipline of the soul; the believer +must subject himself to his master, resigning all power of will, and +so gradually reaches higher stages of knowledge until he is eventually +led to the consciousness of his absolute identity with God. It seems +to me beyond question that this method is reflected in the _exercitiis +spiritualibus_ of Ignatius Loyola, the chief instrument by which the +Jesuits secured dominion over souls. Any one who has realised the +enormous influence which Arab thought exerted upon Spanish +Christianity so late as the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, will +not regard the conjecture as unfounded. + +When a man's profession or position prevented him from practising +these mystical exercises, he satisfied his religious needs by +venerating persons who were nearer to the deity and whose intercession +was effectual even after their death and sometimes not until they were +dead: hence arose the veneration of saints, a practice as alien as +pantheistic dogma to primitive Islam. The adoption of Christian saint +worship was not possible until the person of Muhammed himself had been +exalted above the ordinary level of humanity. Early Muhammedans +observed that the founder of Christianity was regarded by popular +opinion as a miracle worker of unrivalled power: it was impossible for +the founder of Islam to remain inferior in this respect. Thus the +early biographies of the prophet, which appeared in the first century +of Muhammedanism, recount the typical miracles of the Gospels, the +feeding of multitudes, healing the sick, raising the dead and so +forth. Two methods of adoption may be distinguished. Special features +are directly borrowed, or the line of advance is followed which had +introduced the worship of saints and relics to Christianity a short +time before. The religious emotions natural to any people produced a +series of ideas which pass from one religion to another. Outward form +and purport may be changed, but the essential points remain unaltered +and are the living expression of that relation to God in which a +people conceives itself to stand. Higher forms of religion--a fact as +sad as it is true--require a certain degree not only of moral but of +intellectual capacity. + +Thus we have traversed practically the whole circle of religious life +and have everywhere found Islam following in the path of Christian +thought. One department remains to be examined, which might be +expected to offer but scanty opportunity for borrowings of this kind; +this is dogma. Here, if anywhere, the contrast between the two +religions should be obvious. The initial divergencies were so +pronounced, that any adoption of Christian ideas would seem +impossible. Yet in those centuries, Christianity was chiefly agitated +by dogmatic questions, which occupied men's minds as greatly as social +problems at the present day. Here we can observe most distinctly, how +the problems at least were taken over by Islam. + +Muhammedan dogmatic theology is concerned only with three main +questions, the problem of free-will, the being and attributes of God, +and the eternal uncreated nature of God's word. The mere mention of +these problems will recall the great dogmatic struggles of early +Christianity. At no time have the problems of free-will and the nature +of God, been subjects of fiercer dispute than during the +Christological and subsequent discussions. Upholders of freedom or of +determinism could alike find much to support their theories in the +Qoran: Muhammed was no dogmatist and for him the ideas of man's +responsibility and of God's almighty and universal power were not +mutually exclusive. The statement of the problem was adopted from +Christianity as also was the dialectical subtlety by which a solution +was reached, and which, while admitting the almighty power of God, +left man responsible for his deeds by regarding him as free to accept +or refuse the admonitions of God. Thus the thinkers and their demands +for justice and righteous dealing were reconciled to the blind +fatalism of the masses, which again was not a native Muhammedan +product, but is the outcome of the religious spirit of the East. + +The problem of reconciling the attributes of God with the dogma of His +unity was solved with no less subtlety. The mere idea that a +multiplicity of attributes was incompatible with absolute unity was +only possible in a school which had spent centuries in the desperate +attempt to reconcile the inference of a divine Trinity with the +conception of absolute divine unity. + +Finally, the third question, "Was the Qoran, the word of God, created +or not?" is an obvious counterpart of the Logos problem, of the +struggle to secure recognition of the Logos as eternal and uncreated +together with God. Islam solved the question by distinguishing the +eternal and uncreated Qoran from the revealed and created. The eternal +nature of the Qoran was a dogma entirely alien to the strict +monotheism of Islam: but this fact was never realised, any more than +the fact that the acceptance of the dogma was a triumph for +Graeco-Christian dialectic. There can be no more striking proof of the +strength of Christian influence: it was able to undermine the +fundamental dogma of Islam, and the Muhammedans never realised the +fact. + +In our review of these dogmatic questions, we have met with a novel +tendency, that to metaphysical speculation and dialectic. It was from +Christendom, not directly from the Greek world, that this spirit +reached Islam: the first attitude of Muhammedanism towards it was that +which Christianity adopted towards all non-religious systems of +thought. Islam took it up as a useful weapon for the struggle against +heresy. But it soon became a favourite and trusted implement and +eventually its influence upon Muhammedan philosophy became paramount. +Here we meet with a further Christian influence, which, when once +accepted, very largely contributed to secure a similar development of +mediaeval Christian and Muhammedan thought. This was Scholasticism, +which was the natural and inevitable consequence of the study of Greek +dialectic and philosophy. It is not necessary to sketch the growth of +scholasticism, with its barrenness of results in spite of its keen +intellectual power, upon ground already fertilised by ecclesiastical +pioneers. It will suffice to state the fact that these developments of +the Greek spirit were predominant here as in the West: in either case +important philosophies rise upon this basis, for the most part +professedly ecclesiastical, even when they occasionally struck at the +roots of the religious system to which they belonged. In this +department, Islam repaid part of its debt to Christianity, for the +Arabs became the intellectual leaders of the middle ages. + +Thus we come to the concluding section of this treatise; before we +enter upon it, two preliminary questions remain for consideration. If +Islam was ready to learn from Christianity in every department of +religious life, what was the cause of the sudden superiority of +Muhammedanism to the rising force of Christianity a few centuries +later? And secondly, in view of the traditional antagonism between the +Christian and Muhammedan worlds, how was Christianity able to adopt so +large and essential a portion of Muhammedan thought? + +The answer in the second case will be clear to any one who has +followed our argument with attention. The intellectual and religious +outlook was so similar in both religions and the problem requiring +solution so far identical that nothing existed to impede the adoption +of ideas originally Christian which had been developed in the East. +The fact that the West could accept philosophical and theological +ideas from Islam and that an actual interchange of thought could +proceed in this direction, is the best of proofs for the soundness of +our argument that the roots of Muhammedanism are to be sought in +Christianity. Islam was able to borrow from Christianity for the +reason that Muhammed's ideas were derived from that source: similarly +Christianity was able to turn Arab thought to its own purposes because +that thought was founded upon Christian principles. The sources of +both religions lie in the East and in Oriental thought. + +No less is true of Judaism, a scholastic system which was excellently +adapted by its international character, to become a medium of +communication between Christianity and Muhammedanism during those +centuries. In this connection special mention must be made of the +Spanish Jews; to their work, not only as transmitting but also as +originating ideas a bare reference must here suffice. But of greater +importance was the direct exchange of thought, which proceeded through +literary channels, by means of translations, especially by word of +mouth among the Christians and Muhammedans who were living together in +Southern Italy, Sicily, and Spain, and by commercial intercourse. + +The other question concerns the fundamental problem of European +medievalism. We see that the problems with which the middle ages in +Europe were confronted and also that European ethics and metaphysics +were identical with the Muhammedan system: we are moreover assured +that the acceptance of Christian ideas by Islam can only have taken +place in the East: and the conclusion is obvious that mediaeval +Christianity was also primarily rooted in the East. The transmission +of this religious philosophy to the non-Oriental peoples of the West +at first produced a cessation of progress but opened a new +intellectual world when these peoples awoke to life in the thirteenth +and fourteenth centuries. But throughout the intermediate period +between the seventh and thirteenth centuries the East was gaining +political strength and was naturally superior to the West where +political organisation and culture had been shattered by the Germanic +invasions; in the East again there was an organic unity of national +strength and intellectual ideals, as the course of development had not +been interrupted. Though special dogmatic points had been changed, the +general religious theory remained unaltered throughout the nearer +East. Thus the rising power of Islam, which had high faculties of +self-accommodation to environment, was able to enter upon the heritage +of the mixed Graeco-Oriental civilisation existing in the East; in +consequence it gained an immediate advantage over the West, where +Eastern ideas were acclimatised with difficulty. + +The preponderance of Muhammedan influence was increased by the fact +that Islam became the point of amalgamation for ancient Eastern +cultures, in particular for those of Greece and Persia: in previous +centuries preparation had been made for this process by the steady +transformation of Hellenism to Orientalism. Persia, however, had been +the main source of Eastern civilisation, at any rate since the +Sassanid period: the debt of Byzantine culture to Persia is well +known. Unfortunately no thorough investigation has been made of these +various and important changes, but it is clear that Persian +civilisation sent its influence far westward, at first directly and +later through the medium of Muhammedanism. The same facts hold good +with regard to the diffusion of intellectual culture from Persia. How +far Persian ideas may have influenced the development of Muhammedan +and even of Christian eschatology, we need not here discuss: but the +influence of the great Graeco-Christian schools of Persia was +enormous: they made the Arabs acquainted with the most important works +in Greek and Persian literature. To this fact was due the wide +influence of Islam upon Christian civilisation, which is evidenced +even to-day by the numerous words of Arab origin to be found in modern +European languages; it is in fact an influence the strength of which +can hardly be exaggerated. Not only the commercial products of the +East, but important economic methods, the ideals of our so-called +European chivalry and of its love poetry, the foundations of our +natural sciences, even theological and philosophical ideas of high +value were then sent to us from the East. The consequences of the +crusades are the best proof of the enormous superiority of the +Muhammedan world, a fact which is daily becoming more obvious. Here we +are concerned only with the influence exerted by Muhammedan +philosophy. It would be more correct to speak of post-classical than +of Muhammedan philosophy. But as above, the influence of Christianity +upon Islam was considered, so now the reverse process must be +outlined. In either case it was the heir to the late classical age, to +the mixed Graeco-Oriental culture, which influenced Islam at first in +Christian guise. Islam is often able to supplement its borrowings from +Christianity at the original sources, and when they have thus been +deepened and purified, these adaptations are returned to Christianity +in Muhammedan form. + +Christian scholasticism was first based upon fragments of Aristotle +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). + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Christianity and Islam, by C.H. Becker + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 11198 *** diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..8079d73 --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #11198 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/11198) diff --git a/old/11198-8.txt b/old/11198-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..1e72619 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/11198-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,2232 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Christianity and Islam, by C.H. Becker + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Christianity and Islam + +Author: C.H. Becker + +Release Date: February 20, 2004 [EBook #11198] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CHRISTIANITY AND ISLAM *** + + + + +Produced by Luiz Antonio de Souza and PG Distributed Proofreaders + + + + +CHRISTIANITY + +AND + +ISLAM + + +BY + +C.H. BECKER, PH.D. + +PROFESSOR OF ORIENTAL HISTORY IN +THE COLONIAL INSTITUTE OF HAMBURG + +TRANSLATED BY +REV. H.J. CHAYTOR, M.A. + +HEADMASTER OF PLYMOUTH COLLEGE + + + +1909 + + + + +TABLE OF CONTENTS + + +The subject from different points of view: limits of treatment + +The nature of the subject: the historical points of connection between +Christianity and Islam + + A. Christianity and the rise of Islam: + + 1. Muhammed and his contemporaries + + 2. The influence of Christianity upon the development of Muhammed + + 3. Muhammed's knowledge of Christianity + + 4. The position of Christians under Muhammedanism + + B. The similarity of Christian and Muhammedan metaphysics during the + middle ages: + + 1. The means and direction by which Christian influence affected + Islam + + 2. The penetration of daily life by the spirit of religion; + asceticism, contradictions and influences affecting the + development of a clerical class and the theory of + marriage + + 3. The theory of life in general with reference to the doctrine + of immortality + + 4. The attitude of religion towards the State, economic life, + society, etc. + + 5. The permanent importance to Islam of these influences: the + doctrine of duties + + 6. Ritual + + 7. Mysticism and the worship of saints + + 8. Dogma and the development of scholasticism + + C. The influence of Islam upon Christianity: + + The manner in which this influence operated, and the explanation + of the superiority of Islam + + The influence of Muhammedan philosophy + + The new world of European Christendom and the modern East + + Conclusion. The historical growth of religion + +Bibliography + + + + + +CHRISTIANITY AND ISLAM + + +A comparison of Christianity with Muhammedanism or with any other +religion must be preceded by a statement of the objects with which +such comparison is undertaken, for the possibilities which lie in this +direction are numerous. The missionary, for instance, may consider +that a knowledge of the similarities of these religions would increase +the efficacy of his proselytising work: his purpose would thus be +wholly practical. The ecclesiastically minded Christian, already +convinced of the superiority of his own religion, will be chiefly +anxious to secure scientific proof of the fact: the study of +comparative religion from this point of view was once a popular branch +of apologetics and is by no means out of favour at the present day. +Again, the inquirer whose historical perspective is undisturbed by +ecclesiastical considerations, will approach the subject with somewhat +different interests. He will expect the comparison to provide him with +a clear view of the influence which Christianity has exerted upon +other religions or has itself received from them: or he may hope by +comparing the general development of special religious systems to gain +a clearer insight into the growth of Christianity. Hence the object of +such comparisons is to trace the course of analogous developments and +the interaction of influence and so to increase the knowledge of +religion in general or of our own religion in particular. + +A world-religion, such as Christianity, is a highly complex structure +and the evolution of such a system of belief is best understood by +examining a religion to which we have not been bound by a thousand +ties from the earliest days of our lives. If we take an alien religion +as our subject of investigation, we shall not shrink from the +consequences of the historical method: whereas, when we criticise +Christianity, we are often unable to see the falsity of the +pre-suppositions which we necessarily bring to the task of inquiry: +our minds follow the doctrines of Christianity, even as our bodies +perform their functions--in complete unconsciousness. At the same time +we possess a very considerable knowledge of the development of +Christianity, and this we owe largely to the help of analogy. +Especially instructive is the comparison between Christianity and +Buddhism. No less interesting are the discoveries to be attained by an +inquiry into the development of Muhammedanism: here we can see the +growth of tradition proceeding in the full light of historical +criticism. We see the plain man, Muhammed, expressly declaring in the +Qoran that he cannot perform miracles, yet gradually becoming a +miracle worker and indeed the greatest of his class: he professes to +be nothing more than a mortal man: he becomes the chief mediator +between man and God. The scanty memorials of the man become voluminous +biographies of the saint and increase from generation to generation. + +Yet more remarkable is the fact that his utterances, his _logia_, if +we may use the term, some few of which are certainly genuine, increase +from year to year and form a large collection which is critically +sifted and expounded. The aspirations of mankind attribute to him such +words of the New Testament and of Greek philosophers as were +especially popular or seemed worthy of Muhammed; the teaching also of +the new ecclesiastical schools was invariably expressed in the form of +proverbial utterances attributed to Muhammed, and these are now +without exception regarded as authentic by the modern Moslem. In this +way opinions often contradictory are covered by Muhummed's authority. + +The traditions concerning Jesus offer an analogy. Our Gospels, for +instance, relate the beautiful story of the plucking of the ears of +corn on the Sabbath, with its famous moral application, "The Sabbath +was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath." A Christian papyrus +has been discovered which represents Jesus as explaining the sanctity +of the Sabbath from the Judaeo-Christian point of view. "If ye keep +not the Sabbath holy, ye shall not see the Father," is the statement +in an uncanonical Gospel. In early Christian literature, contradictory +sayings of Jesus are also to be found. Doubtless here, as in +Muhammedan tradition, the problem originally was, what is to be my +action in this or that question of practical life: answer is given in +accordance with the religious attitude of the inquirer and Jesus and +Muhammed are made to lend their authority to the teaching. Traditional +literary form is then regarded as historical by later believers. + +Examples of this kind might be multiplied, but enough has been said to +show that much and, to some extent, new light may be thrown upon the +development of Christian tradition, by an examination of Muhammedanism +which rose from similar soil but a few centuries later, while its +traditional developments have been much more completely preserved. + +Such analogies as these can be found, however, in any of the +world-religions, and we propose to devote our attention more +particularly to the influences which Christianity and Islam exerted +directly upon one another. While Muhammedanism has borrowed from its +hereditary foe, it has also repaid part of the debt. By the very fact +of its historical position Islam was at first indebted to +Christianity; but in the department of Christian philosophy, it has +also exerted its own influence. This influence cannot be compared with +that of Greek or Jewish thought upon Christian speculation: Christian +philosophy, as a metaphysical theory of existence, was however +strongly influenced by Arabian thought before the outset of the +Reformation. On the other hand the influence of Christianity upon +Islam--and also upon Muhammed, though he owed more to Jewish +thought--was so extensive that the coincidence of ideas upon the most +important metaphysical questions is positively amazing. + +There is a widespread belief even at the present day that Islam was a +complete novelty and that the religion and culture of the Muhammedan +world were wholly alien to Western medievalism. Such views are +entirely false; during the Middle Ages Muhammedanism and Western +culture were inspired by the same spirit. The fact has been obscured +by the contrast between the two religions whose differences have been +constantly exaggerated and by dissimilarities of language and +nationality. To retrace in full detail the close connection which +unites Christianity and Islam would be the work of years. Within the +scope of the present volume, all that can be done is to explain the +points of contact between Christian and Muhammedan theories of life +and religion. Such is the object of the following pages. We shall +first treat of Muhammed personally, because his rise as a religious +force will explain the possibility of later developments. + +This statement also explains the sense in which we shall use the term +Christianity. Muhammedanism has no connection with post-Reformation +Christianity and meets it only in the mission field. Practical +questions there arise which lie beyond the limits of our subject, as +we have already indicated. Our interests are concerned with the +mediaeval Church, when Christianity first imposed its ideas upon +Muhammedanism at the time of its rise in the East, and afterwards +received a material extension of its own horizon through the rapid +progress of its protégé. Our task is to analyse and explain these +special relations between the two systems of thought. + +The religion now known as Islam is as near to the preaching of +Muhammed or as remote from it, as modern Catholicism or Protestant +Christianity is at variance or in harmony with the teaching of Jesus. +The simple beliefs of the prophet and his contemporaries are separated +by a long course of development from the complicated religious system +in its unity and diversity which Islam now presents to us. The course +of this development was greatly influenced by Christianity, but +Christian ideas had been operative upon Muhammed's eager intellectual +life at an even earlier date. We must attempt to realise the working +of his mind, if we are to gain a comprehension of the original +position of Islam with regard to Christianity. The task is not so +difficult in Muhammed's case as in that of others who have founded +religious systems: we have records of his philosophical views, +important even though fragmentary, while vivid descriptions of his +experiences have been transmitted to us in his own words, which have +escaped the modifying influence of tradition at second hand. Muhammed +had an indefinite idea of the word of God as known to him from other +religions. He was unable to realise this idea effectively except as an +immediate revelation; hence throughout the Qoran he represents God as +speaking in the first person and himself appears as the interlocutor. +Even direct commands to the congregation are introduced by the +stereotyped "speak"; it was of primary importance that the Qoran +should be regarded as God's word and not as man's. This fact largely +contributed to secure an uncontaminated transmission of the text, +which seems also to have been left by Muhammed himself in definite +form. Its intentional obscurity of expression does not facilitate the +task of the inquirer, but it provides, none the less, considerable +information concerning the religious progress of its author. Here we +are upon firmer ground than when we attempt to describe Muhammed's +outward life, the first half of which is wrapped in obscurity no less +profound than that which veils the youth of the Founder of +Christianity. + +Muhammed's contemporaries lived amid religious indifference. The +majority of the Arabs were heathen and their religious aspirations +were satisfied by local cults of the Old Semitic character. They may +have preserved the religious institutions of the great South Arabian +civilisation, which was then in a state of decadence; the beginnings +of Islam may also have been influenced by the ideas of this +civilisation, which research is only now revealing to us: but these +points must remain undecided for the time being. South Arabian +civilisation was certainly not confined to the South, nor could an +organised township such as Mecca remain outside its sphere of +influence: but the scanty information which has reached us concerning +the religious life of the Arabs anterior to Islam might also be +explained by supposing them to have followed a similar course of +development. In any case, it is advisable to reserve judgment until +documentary proof can replace ingenious conjecture. The difficulty of +the problem is increased by the fact that Jewish and especially +Christian ideas penetrated from the South and that their influence +cannot be estimated. The important point for us to consider is the +existence of Christianity in Southern Arabia before the Muhammedan +period. Nor was the South its only starting-point: Christian doctrine +came to Arabia from the North, from Syria and Babylonia, and numerous +conversions, for the most part of whole tribes, were made. On the +frontiers also Arabian merchants came into continual contact with +Christianity and foreign merchants of the Christian faith could be +found throughout Arabia. But for the Arabian migration and the +simultaneous foundation of a new Arabian religion, there is no doubt +that the whole peninsula would have been speedily converted to +Christianity. + +The chief rival of Christianity was Judaism, which was represented in +Northern as in Southern Arabia by strong colonies of Jews, who made +proselytes, although their strict ritualism was uncongenial to the +Arab temperament which preferred conversion to Christianity (naturally +only as a matter of form). In addition to Jewish, Christian, and Old +Semitic influences, Zoroastrian ideas and customs were also known in +Arabia, as is likely enough in view of the proximity of the Persian +empire. + +These various elements aroused in Muhammed's mind a vague idea of +religion. His experience was that of the eighteenth-century +theologians who suddenly observed that Christianity was but one of +many very similar and intelligible religions, and thus inevitably +conceived the idea of a pure and natural religious system fundamental +to all others. Judaism and Christianity were the only religions which +forced themselves upon Muhammed's consciousness and with the general +characteristics of which he was acquainted. He never read any part of +the Old or New Testament: his references to Christianity show that his +knowledge of the Bible was derived from hearsay and that his +informants were not representative of the great religious sects: +Muhammed's account of Jesus and His work, as given in the Qoran, is +based upon the apocryphal accretions which grew round the Christian +doctrine. + +When Muhammed proceeded to compare the great religions of the Old and +New Testaments with the superficial pietism of his own compatriots, he +was especially impressed with the seriousness of the Hebrews and +Christians which contrasted strongly with the indifference of the +heathen Arabs. The Arab was familiar with the conception of an +almighty God, and this idea had not been obscured by the worship of +trees, stones, fire and the heavenly bodies: but his reverence for +this God was somewhat impersonal and he felt no instinct to approach +Him, unless he had some hopes or fears to satisfy. The idea of a +reckoning between man and God was alien to the Arab mind. Christian +and Jewish influence became operative upon Muhammed with reference +to this special point. The idea of the day of judgment, when an +account of earthly deeds and misdeeds will be required, when the joys +of Paradise will be opened to the good and the bad will be cast into +the fiery abyss, such was the great idea, which suddenly filled +Muhammed's mind and dispelled the indifference begotten of routine and +stirred his mental powers. + +Polytheism was incompatible with the idea of God as a judge supreme +and righteous, but yet merciful. Thus monotheism was indissolubly +connected with Muhammed's first religious impulses, though the dogma +had not assumed the polemical form in which it afterwards confronted +the old Arabian and Christian beliefs. But a mind stirred by religious +emotion only rose to the height of prophetic power after a long course +of development which human knowledge can but dimly surmise. +Christianity and Judaism had their sacred books which the founders of +these religions had produced. In them were the words of God, +transmitted through Moses to the Jews and through Jesus to the +Christians. Jesus and Moses had been God's ambassadors to their +peoples. Who then could bring to the Arabs the glad tidings which +should guide them to the happy fields of Paradise? Among primitive +peoples God is regarded as very near to man. The Arabs had, their +fortune-tellers and augurs who cast lots before God and explained His +will in mysterious rhythmical utterances. Muhammed was at first more +intimately connected with this class of Arab fortune-tellers than is +usually supposed. The best proof of the fact is the vehemence with +which he repudiates all comparison between these fortune-tellers and +himself, even as early Christian apologetics and polemics attacked the +rival cults of the later classical world, which possessed forms of +ritual akin to those observed by Christianity. The existence of a +fortune-telling class among the Arabs shows that Muhammed may well +have been endowed with psychological tendencies which only awaited the +vivifying influence of Judaism and Christianity to emerge as the +prophetic impulse forcing him to stand forth in public and to stir the +people from their indifference: "Be ye converted, for the day of +judgment is at hand: God has declared it unto me, as he declared it +unto Moses and Jesus. I am the apostle of God to you, Arabs. Salvation +is yours only if ye submit to the will of God preached by me." This +act of submission Muhammed calls Islam. Thus at the hour of Islam's +birth, before its founder had proclaimed his ideas, the influence of +Christianity is indisputable. It was this influence which made of the +Arab seer and inspired prophet, the apostle of God. + +Muhammed regarded Judaism and Christianity as religious movements +purely national in character. God in His mercy had announced His will +to different nations through His prophets. As God's word had been +interpreted for the Jews and for the Christians, so there was to be a +special interpretation for the benefit of the Arabs. These +interpretations were naturally identical in manner and differed only +as regards place and time. Muhammed had heard of the Jewish Messiah +and of the Christian Paraclete, whom, however, he failed to identify +with the Holy Ghost and he applied to himself the allusions to one who +should come after Moses and Jesus. Thus in the Qoran 61.6 we read, +"Jesus, the Son of Mary, said: Children of Israel, I am God's apostle +to you. I confirm in your hands the Thora (the law) and I announce the +coming of another apostle after me whose name is Ahmed." Ahmed is the +equivalent of Muhammed. The verse has been variously interpreted and +even rejected as an interpolation: but its authenticity is attested by +its perfect correspondence with what we know of Muhammed's +pretensions. + +To trace in detail the development of his attitude towards +Christianity is a more difficult task than to discover the growth of +his views upon Judaism; probably he pursued a similar course in either +case. At first he assumed the identity of the two religions with one +another and with his own doctrine; afterwards he regarded them as +advancing by gradations. Adam, Abraham, Moses, Jesus, and Muhammed, +these in his opinion were the chief stages in the divine scheme of +salvation. Each was respectively confirmed or abolished by the +revelation which followed it, nor is this theory of Muhammed's shaken +by the fact that each revelation was given to a different nation. He +regards all preceding prophets in the light of his own personality. +They were all sent to people who refused them a hearing at the moment. +Punishment follows and the prophet finds a body of believers +elsewhere. These temporary punishments are confused with the final +Judgment; in fact Muhammed's system was not clearly thought out. The +several prophets were but men, whose earthly careers were necessarily +crowned with triumph: hence the crucifixion of Jesus is a malicious +invention of the Jews, who in reality crucified some other sufferer, +while Jesus entered the divine glory. Thus Muhammed has no idea of the +importance of the Crucifixion to the Christian Church, as is shown by +his treatment of it as a Jewish falsehood. In fact, he develops the +habit of characterising as false any statement in contradiction with +his ideas, and this tendency is especially obvious in his dealings +with Judaism, of which he gained a more intimate knowledge. At first +he would refer sceptics to Christian and Jewish doctrine for +confirmation of his own teaching. The fact that with no knowledge of +the Old or New Testament, he had proclaimed doctrines materially +similar and the fact that these Scriptures referred to himself, were +proofs of his inspired power, let doubters say what they would. A +closer acquaintance with these Scriptures showed him that the +divergencies which he stigmatised as falsifications denoted in reality +vast doctrinal differences. + +In order to understand Muhammed's attitude towards Christianity, we +will examine in greater detail his view of this religion, the portions +of it which he accepted or which he rejected as unauthentic. In the +first place he must have regarded the Trinity as repugnant to reason: +he considered the Christian Trinity as consisting of God the Father, +Mary the Mother of God, and Jesus the Son of God. In the Qoran, God +says, "Hast thou, Jesus, said to men, Regard me and my mother as Gods +by the side of God?" Jesus replies, "I will say nothing but the truth. +I have but preached, Pray to God, who is my Lord and your Lord" +(5.116, f). Hence it has been inferred that Muhammed's knowledge of +Christianity was derived from some particular Christian sect, such as +the Tritheists or the Arab female sect of the Collyridians who +worshipped the Virgin Mary with exaggerated reverence and assigned +divine honours to her. It is also possible that we have here a +development of some Gnostic conception which regarded the Holy Ghost +as of feminine gender, as Semites would do;[A] instances of this +change are to be found in the well-known Hymn of the Soul in the Acts +of Thomas, in the Gospel to the Egyptians and elsewhere. I am +inclined, however, to think it more probable that Muhammed had heard +of Mariolatry and of the "mother of God," a title which then was a +highly popular catchword, and that the apotheosis of Jesus was known +to him and also the doctrine of the Trinity by name. Further than this +his knowledge did not extend; although he knows the Holy Ghost and +identifies him with Jesus, none the less his primitive reasoning, +under the influence of many old beliefs, explained the mysterious +triad of the Trinity as husband, wife, and son. This fact is enough to +prove that his theory of Christianity was formed by combining isolated +scraps of information and that he cannot have had any direct +instruction from a Christian knowing the outlines of his faith. + +[Footnote A: The word for "Spirit" is of the feminine gender in the +Semitic languages.] + +Muhammed must also have denied the divinity of Christ: this is an +obvious result of the course of mental development which we have +described and of his characteristically Semitic theory of the nature +of God. To him, God is one, never begetting and never begotten. +Denying the divinity of Jesus, Muhammed naturally denies the +redemption through the Cross and also the fact of the Crucifixion. +Yet, strangely enough he accepted the miraculous birth; nor did he +hesitate to provide this purely human Jesus with all miraculous +attributes; these were a proof of his divine commission, and +marvellous details of this nature aroused the interest of his hearers. + +Mary the sister of Ahron--an obvious confusion with the Old Testament +Miriam--had been devoted to the service of God by her mother's vow, and +lives in the temple under the guardianship of Zacharias, to whom a +later heir is born in answer to his prayers, namely John, the +forerunner of the Holy Ghost. The birth is announced to Mary and she +brings forth Jesus under a palm-tree, near which is a running spring +and by the dates of which she is fed. On her return home she is +received with reproaches by her family but merely points in reply to +the new-born babe, who suddenly speaks from his cradle, asserting that +he is the prophet of God. Afterwards Jesus performs all kinds of +miracles, forms birds out of clay and makes them fly, heals the blind +and lepers, raises the dead, etc., and even brings down from heaven a +table ready spread. The Jews will not believe him, but the youth +follow him. He is not killed, but translated to God. Christians are +not agreed upon the manner of his death and the Jews have invented the +story of the Crucifixion. + +Muhammed's knowledge of Christianity thus consists of certain isolated +details, partly apocryphal, partly canonical, together with a hazy +idea of the fundamental dogmas. Thus the influence of Christianity +upon him was entirely indirect. The Muhammedan movement at its outset +was influenced not by the real Christianity of the time but by a +Christianity which Muhammed criticised in certain details and forced +into harmony with his preconceived ideas. His imagination was +profoundly impressed by the existence of Christianity as a revealed +religion with a founder of its own. Certain features of Christianity +and of Judaism, prayer, purification, solemn festivals, scriptures, +prophets and so forth were regarded by him as essential to any +religious community, because they happened to belong both to Judaism +and to Christianity. He therefore adopted or wished to adopt these +institutions. + +During the period of his life at Medina, Muhammed abandoned his +original idea of preaching the doctrines which Moses and Jesus had +proclaimed. This new development was the outcome of a struggle with +Judaism following upon an unsuccessful attempt at compromise. In point +of fact Judaism and Christianity were as widely different from one +another as they were from his own teaching and he was more than ever +inclined to regard as his special forerunner, Abraham, who had +preceded both Moses and Jesus, and was revered by both religions as +the man of God. He then brought Abraham into connection with the +ancient Meccan Ka'ba worship: the Ka'ba or die was a sacred stone +edifice, in one corner of which the "black stone" had been built in: +this stone was an object of reverence to the ancient Arabs, as it +still is to the Muhammedans. Thus Islam gradually assumed the form of +an Arab religion, developing universalist tendencies in the ultimate +course of events. Muhammed, therefore, as he was the last in the ranks +of the prophets, must also be the greatest. He epitomised all prophecy +and Islam superseded every revealed religion of earlier date. + +Muhammed's original view that earlier religions had been founded by +God's will and through divine revelation, led both him and his +successors to make an important concession: adherents of other +religions were not compelled to adopt Islam. They were allowed to +observe their own faith unhindered, if they surrendered without +fighting, and were even protected against their enemies, in return for +which they had to pay tribute to their Muslim masters; this was levied +as a kind of poll-tax. Thus we read in the Qoran (ix. 29) that "those +who possess Scriptures," i.e. the Jews and Christians, who did not +accept Islam were to be attacked until they paid the _gizja_ or +tribute. Thus the object of a religious war upon the Christians is not +expressed by the cry "Death or Islam"; such attacks were intended +merely to extort an acknowledgment of Muhammedan supremacy, not to +abolish freedom of religious observance. It would be incorrect for the +most part to regard the warrior bands which started from Arabia as +inspired by religious enthusiasm or to attribute to them the +fanaticism which was first aroused by the crusades and in an even +greater degree by the later Turkish wars. The Muhammedan fanatics of +the wars of conquest, whose reputation was famous among later +generations, felt but a very scanty interest in religion and +occasionally displayed an ignorance of its fundamental tenets which we +can hardly exaggerate. The fact is fully consistent with the impulses +to which the Arab migrations were due. These impulses were economic +and the new religion was nothing more than a party cry of unifying +power, though there is no reason to suppose that it was not a real +moral force in the life of Muhammed and his immediate contemporaries. + +Anti-Christian fanaticism there was therefore none. Even in early +years Muhammedans never refused to worship in the same buildings as +Christians. The various insulting regulations which tradition +represents Christians as forced to endure were directed not so much +against the adherents of another faith as against the barely tolerated +inhabitants of a subjugated state. It is true that the distinction is +often difficult to observe, as religion and nationality were one and +the same thing to Muhammedans. In any case religious animosity was a +very subordinate phenomenon. It was a gradual development and seems to +me to have made a spasmodic beginning in the first century under the +influence of ideas adopted from Christianity. It may seem paradoxical +to assert that it was Christian influence which first stirred Islam to +religious animosity and armed it with the sword against Christianity, +but the hypothesis becomes highly probable when we have realised the +indifferentism of the Muhammedan conquerors. + +We shall constantly see hereafter how much they owed in every +department of intellectual life to the teaching of the races which +they subjugated. Their attitude towards other beliefs was never so +intolerant as was that of Christendom at that period. Christianity may +well have been the teaching influence in this department of life as in +others. Moreover at all times and especially in the first century the +position of Christians has been very tolerable, even though the +Muslims regarded them as an inferior class, Christians were able to +rise to the highest offices of state, even to the post of vizier, +without any compulsion to renounce their faith. Even during the period +of the crusades when the religious opposition was greatly intensified, +again through Christian policy, Christian officials cannot have been +uncommon: otherwise Muslim theorists would never have uttered their +constant invectives against the employment of Christians in +administrative duties. Naturally zealots appeared at all times on the +Muhammedan as well as on the Christian side and occasionally isolated +acts of oppression took place: these were, however, exceptional. So +late as the eleventh century, church funeral processions were able to +pass through the streets of Bagdad with all the emblems of +Christianity and disturbances were recorded by the chroniclers as +exceptional. In Egypt, Christian festivals were also regarded to some +extent as holidays by the Muhammedan population. We have but to +imagine these conditions reversed in a Christian kingdom of the early +middle ages and the probability of my theory will become obvious. + +The Christians of the East, who had broken for the most part with the +orthodox Church, also regarded Islam as a lesser evil than the +Byzantine established Church. Moreover Islam, as being both a +political and ecclesiastical organisation, regarded the Christian +church as a state within a state and permitted it to preserve its own +juridical and at first its own governmental rights. Application was +made to the bishops when anything was required from the community and +the churches were used as taxation offices. This was all in the +interests of the clergy who thus found their traditional claims +realised. These relations were naturally modified in the course of +centuries; the crusades, the Turkish wars and the great expansion of +Europe widened the breach between Christianity and Islam, while as the +East was gradually brought under ecclesiastical influence, the +contrast grew deeper: the theory, however, that the Muhammedan +conquerors and their successors were inspired by a fanatical hatred of +Christianity is a fiction invented by Christians. + +We have now to examine this early development of Islam in somewhat +greater detail: indeed, to secure a more general appreciation of this +point is the object of the present work. + +The relationship of the Qoran to Christianity has been already noted: +it was a book which preached rather than taught and enounced isolated +laws but no connected system. Islam was a clear and simple war-cry +betokening merely a recognition of Arab supremacy, of the unity of God +and of Muhammed's prophetic mission. But in a few centuries Islam +became a complex religious structure, a confusion of Greek philosophy +and Roman law, accurately regulating every department of human life +from the deepest problems of morality to the daily use of the +toothpick, and the fashions of dress and hair. This change from the +simplicity of the founder's religious teaching to a system of +practical morality often wholly divergent from primitive doctrine, is +a transformation which all the great religions of the world have +undergone. Religious founders have succeeded in rousing the sense of +true religion in the human heart. Religious systems result from the +interaction of this impulse with pre-existing capacities for +civilisation. The highest attainments of human life are dependent upon +circumstances of time and place, and environment often exerts a more +powerful influence than creative power. The teaching of Jesus was +almost overpowered by the Graeco-Oriental culture of later Hellenism. +Dissensions persist even now because millions of people are unable to +distinguish pure religion from the forms of expression belonging to an +extinct civilisation. Islam went through a similar course of +development and assumed the spiritual panoply which was ready to hand. +Here, as elsewhere, this defence was a necessity during the period of +struggle, but became a crushing burden during the peace which followed +victory, for the reason that it was regarded as inseparable from the +wearer of it. From this point of view the analogy with Christianity +will appear extremely striking, but it is something more than an +analogy: the Oriental Hellenism of antiquity was to Christianity that +which the Christian Oriental Hellenism of a few centuries later was to +Islam. + +We must now attempt to realise the nature of this event so important +in the history of the world. A nomadic people, recently united, not +devoid of culture, but with a very limited range of ideas, suddenly +gains supremacy over a wide and populous district with an ancient +civilisation. These nomads are as yet hardly conscious of their +political unity and the individualism of the several tribes composing +it is still a disruptive force: yet they can secure domination over +countries such as Egypt and Babylonia, with complex constitutional +systems, where climatic conditions, the nature of the soil and +centuries of work have combined to develop an intricate administrative +system, which newcomers could not be expected to understand, much less +to recreate or to remodel. Yet the theory has long been held that the +Arabs entirely reorganised the constitutions of these countries. +Excessive importance has been attached to the statements of Arab +authors, who naturally regarded Islam as the beginning of all things. +In every detail of practical life they regarded the prophet and his +contemporaries as their ruling ideal, and therefore naturally assumed +that the constitutional practices of the prophet were his own +invention. The organisation of the conquering race with its tribal +subordination was certainly purely Arab in origin. In fact the +conquerors seemed so unable to adapt themselves to the conditions with +which they met, that foreigners who joined their ranks were admitted +to the Muhammedan confederacy only as clients of the various Arab +tribes. This was, however, a mere question of outward form: the +internal organisation continued unchanged, as it was bound to continue +unless chaos were to be the consequence. In fact, pre-existing +administrative regulations were so far retained that the old customs +duties on the former frontiers were levied as before, though they +represented an institution wholly alien to the spirit of the +Muhammedan empire. Those Muhammedan authors, who describe the +administrative organisation, recognise only the taxes which Islam +regarded as lawful and characterise others as malpractices which had +crept in at a later date. It is remarkable that these so-called +subsequent malpractices correspond with Byzantine and Persian usage +before the conquest: but tradition will not admit the fact that these +remained unchanged. The same fact is obvious when we consider the +progress of civilisation in general. In every case the Arabs merely +develop the social and economic achievements of the conquered races to +further issues. Such progress could indeed only be modified by a +general upheaval of existing conditions and no such movement ever took +place. The Germanic tribes destroyed the civilisations with which they +met; they adopted many of the institutions of Christian antiquity, but +found them an impediment to the development of their own genius. The +Arabs simply continued to develop the civilisation of post-classical +antiquity, with which they had come in contact. + +This procedure may seem entirely natural in the department of economic +life, but by no means inevitable where intellectual progress is +concerned. Yet a similar course was followed in either case, as may be +proved by dispassionate examination. Islam was a rising force, a faith +rather of experience than of theory or dogma, when it raised its +claims against Christianity, which represented all pre-existing +intellectual culture. A settlement of these claims was necessary and +the military triumphs are but the prelude to a great accommodation of +intellectual interests. In this Christianity played the chief part, +though Judaism is also represented: I am inclined, however, to think +that Jewish ideas as they are expressed in the Qoran were often +transmitted through the medium of Christianity. There is no doubt that +in Medina Muhammed was under direct Jewish influence of extraordinary +power. Even at that time Jewish ideas may have been in circulation, +not only in the Qoran but also in oral tradition, which afterwards +became stereotyped: at the same time Muhammed's utterances against the +Jews eventually became so strong during the Medina period, for +political reasons, that I can hardly imagine the traditions in their +final form to have been adopted directly from the Jews. The case of +Jewish converts is a different matter. But in Christianity also much +Jewish wisdom was to be found at that time and it is well known that +even the Eastern churches regarded numerous precepts of the Old +Testament, including those that dealt with ritual, as binding upon +them. In any case the spirit of Judaism is present, either directly or +working through Christianity, as an influence wherever Islam +accommodated itself to the new intellectual and spiritual life which +it had encountered. It was a compromise which affected the most +trivial details of life, and in these matters religious scrupulosity +was carried to a ridiculous point: here we may see the outcome of that +Judaism which, as has been said, was then a definite element in +Eastern Christianity. Together with Jewish, Greek and classical ideas +were also naturally operative, while Persian and other ancient +Oriental conceptions were transmitted to Islam by Christianity: these +instances I have collectively termed Christian because Christianity +then represented the whole of later classical intellectualism, which +influenced Islam for the most part through Christianity. + +It seems that the communication of these ideas to Muhammedanism was +impeded by the necessity of translating them not only into a kindred +language, but into one of wholly different linguistic structure. For +Muhammedanism the difficulty was lessened by the fact that it had +learned Christianity in Syria and Persia through the Semitic dialect +known as Aramaic, by which Greek and Persian culture had been +transmitted to the Arabs before the rise of Islam. In this case, as in +many others, the history of language runs on parallel lines with the +history of civilisation. The necessities of increasing civilisation +had introduced many Aramaic words to the Arabic vocabulary before +Muhammed's day: these importations increased considerably when the +Arabs entered a wider and more complex civilisation and were +especially considerable where intellectual culture was concerned. Even +Greek terms made their way into Arabic through Aramaic. This natural +dependency of Arabic upon Aramaic, which in turn was connected with +Greek as the rival Christian vernacular in these regions, is alone +sufficient evidence that Christianity exerted a direct influence upon +Muhammedanism. Moreover, as we have seen, the Qoran itself regarded +Christians as being in possession of divine wisdom, and some reference +both to Christianity and to Judaism was necessary to explain the many +unintelligible passages of the Qoran. Allusions were made to texts and +statements in the Thora and the Gospels, and God was represented as +constantly appealing to earlier revelations of Himself. Thus it was +only natural that interpreters should study these scriptures and ask +counsel of their possessors. Of primary importance was the fact that +both Christians and Jews, and the former in particular, accepted +Muhammedanism by thousands, and formed a new intellectual class of +ability infinitely superior to that of the original Muslims and able +to attract the best elements of the Arab nationality to their +teaching. It was as impossible for these apostate Christians to +abandon their old habits of thought as it was hopeless to expect any +sudden change in the economic conditions under which they lived. +Christian theories of God and the world naturally assumed a Muhammedan +colouring and thus the great process of accommodating Christianity to +Muhammedanism was achieved. The Christian contribution to this end was +made partly directly and partly by teaching, and in the intellectual +as well as in the economic sphere the ultimate ideal was inevitably +dictated by the superior culture of Christianity. The Muhammedans were +thus obliged to accept Christian hypotheses on theological points and +the fundaments of Christian and Muhammedan culture thus become +identical. + +I use the term hypotheses, for the reason that the final determination +of the points at issue was by no means identical, wherever the Qoran +definitely contradicted Christian views of morality or social laws. +But in these cases also, Christian ideas were able to impose +themselves upon tradition and to issue in practice, even when opposed +by the actual text of the Qoran. They did not always pass unquestioned +and even on trivial points were obliged to encounter some resistance. +The theory of the Sunday was accepted, but that day was not chosen and +Friday was preferred: meetings for worship were held in imitation of +Christian practice, but attempts to sanctify the day and to proclaim +it a day of rest were forbidden: except for the performance of divine +service, Friday was an ordinary week-day. When, however, the Qoran was +in any sort of harmony with Christianity, the Christian ideas of the +age were textually accepted in any further development of the +question. The fact is obvious, not only as regards details, but also +in the general theory of man's position upon earth. + + * * * * * + +Muhammed, the preacher of repentance, had become a temporal prince in +Medina; his civil and political administration was ecclesiastical in +character, an inevitable result of his position as the apostle of God, +whose congregation was at the same time a state. This theory of the +state led later theorists unconsciously to follow the lead of +Christianity, which regarded the church as supreme in every department +of life, and so induced Muhammedanism to adopt views of life and +social order which are now styled mediaeval. The theological +development of this system is to be attributed chiefly to groups of +pious thinkers in Medina: they were excluded from political life when +the capital was transferred from Medina to Damascus and were left in +peace to elaborate their theory of the Muhammedan divine polity. The +influence of these groups was paramount: but of almost equal +importance was the influence of the proselytes in the conquered lands +who were Christians for the most part and for that reason far above +their Arab contemporaries in respect of intellectual training and +culture. We find that the details of jurisprudence, dogma, and +mysticism can only be explained by reference to Christian stimulus, +nor is it any exaggeration to ascribe the further development of +Muhammed's views to the influence of thinkers who regarded the +religious polity of Islam as the realisation of an ideal which +Christianity had hitherto vainly striven to attain. This ideal was the +supremacy of religion over life and all its activities, over the state +and the individual alike. But it was a religion primarily concerned +with the next world, where alone real worth was to be found. Earthly +life was a pilgrimage to be performed and earthly intentions had no +place with heavenly. The joy of life which the ancient world had +known, art, music and culture, all were rejected or valued only as +aids to religion. Human action was judged with reference only to its +appraisement in the life to come. That ascetic spirit was paramount, +which had enchained the Christian world, that renunciation of secular +affairs which explains the peculiar methods by which mediaeval views +of life found expression. + +Asceticism did not disturb the course of life as a whole. It might +condemn but it could not suppress the natural impulse of man to +propagate his race: it might hamper economic forces, but it could not +destroy them. It eventually led to a compromise in every department of +life, but for centuries it retained its domination over men's minds +and to some material extent over their actions. + +Such was the environment in which Islam was planted: its deepest roots +had been fertilised with Christian theory, and in spite of Muhammed's +call to repentance, its most characteristic manifestations were +somewhat worldly and non-ascetic. "Islam knows not monasticism" says +the tradition which this tendency produced. The most important +compromise of all, that with life, which Christianity only secured by +gradual steps, had been already attained for Islam by Muhammed himself +and was included in the course of his development. As Islam now +entered the Christian world, it was forced to pass through this +process of development once more. At the outset it was permeated with +the idea of Christian asceticism, to which an inevitable opposition +arose, and found expression in such statements as that already quoted. +But Muhammed's preaching had obviously striven to honour the future +life by painting the actual world in the gloomiest colours, and the +material optimism of the secular-minded was unable to check the +advance of Christian asceticism among the classes which felt a real +interest in religion. Hence that surprising similarity of views upon +the problem of existence, which we have now to outline. In details of +outward form great divergency is apparent. Christianity possessed a +clergy while Islam did not: yet the force of Christian influence +produced a priestly class in Islam. It was a class acting not as +mediator between God and man through sacraments and mysteries, but as +moral leaders and legal experts; as such it was no less important than +the scribes under Judaism. Unanimity among these scholars could +produce decisions no less binding than those of the Christian clergy +assembled in church councils. They are representatives of the +congregation which "has no unanimity, for such would be an error." +Islam naturally preferred to adopt unanimous conclusions in silence +rather than to vote in assemblies. As a matter of fact a body of +orthodox opinion was developed by this means with no less success than +in Christendom. Any agreement which the quiet work of the scholars had +secured upon any question was ratified by God and was thus irrevocably +and eternally binding. For instance, the proclamation to the faithful +of new ideas upon the exposition of the Qoran or of tradition was +absolutely forbidden; the scholars, in other words the clergy, had +convinced themselves, by the fact of their unanimity upon the point, +that the customary and traditional mode of exposition was the one +pleasing to God. Ideas of this kind naturally remind us of Roman +Catholic practice. The influence of Eastern Christianity upon Islam is +undoubtedly visible here. This influence could not in the face of +Muhammedan tradition and custom, create an organised clergy, but it +produced a clerical class to guard religious thought, and as religion +spread, to supervise thought of every kind. + +Christianity again condemned marriage, though it eventually agreed to +a compromise sanctifying this tie; Islam, on the contrary, found in +the Qoran the text "Ye that are unmarried shall marry" (24, 32). In +the face of so clear a statement, the condemnation of marriage, which +in any case was contrary to the whole spirit of the Qoran, could not +be maintained. Thus the Muhammedan tradition contains numerous sayings +in support of marriage. "A childless house contains no blessing": "the +breath of a son is as the breath of Paradise"; "when a man looks upon +his wife (in love) and she upon him, God looks down in mercy upon them +both." "Two prayers of a married man are more precious in the sight of +God than seventy of a bachelor." With many similar variations upon the +theme, Muhammed is said to have urged marriage upon his followers. On +the other hand an almost equally numerous body of warnings against +marriage exists, also issued by Muhammed. I know no instance of direct +prohibition, but serious admonitions are found which usually take the +form of denunciation of the female sex and were early interpreted as +warnings by tradition. "Fear the world and women": "thy worst enemies +are the wife at thy side and thy concubine": "the least in Paradise +are the women": "women are the faggots of hell"; "pious women are rare +as ravens with white or red legs and white beaks"; "but for women men +might enter Paradise." Here we come upon a strain of thought +especially Christian. Muhammed regarded the satisfaction of the sexual +instincts as natural and right and made no attempt to put restraint +upon it: Christian asceticism regarded this impulse as the greatest +danger which could threaten the spiritual life of its adherents, and +the sentences above quoted may be regarded as the expression of this +view. Naturally the social position of the woman suffered in +consequence and is so much worse in the traditional Muhammedanism as +compared with the Qoran that the change can only be ascribed to the +influence of the civilisation which the Muhammedans encountered. The +idea of woman as a creature of no account is certainly rooted in the +ancient East, but it reached Islam in Christian dress and with the +authority of Christian hostility to marriage. + +With this hostility to marriage are probably connected the regulations +concerning the covering of the body: in the ancient church only the +face, the hands and the feet were to be exposed to view, the object +being to prevent the suggestion of sinful thoughts: it is also likely +that objections to the ancient habit of leaving the body uncovered +found expression in this ordinance. Similar objections may be found in +Muhammedan tradition; we may regard these as further developments of +commands given in the Qoran, but it is also likely that Muhammed's +apocryphal statements upon the point were dictated by Christian +religious theory. They often appear in connection with warnings +against frequenting the public baths, which fact is strong evidence of +their Christian origin. "A bad house is the bath: much turmoil is +therein and men show their nakedness." "Fear that house that is called +the bathhouse and if any enter therein, let him veil himself." "He who +believes in God and the last Judgment, let him enter the bath only in +bathing dress." "Nakedness is forbidden to us." There is a story of +the prophet, to the effect that he was at work unclothed when a voice +from heaven ordered him to cover his nakedness! + + * * * * * + +We thus see, that an astonishing similarity is apparent in the +treatment even of questions where divergency is fundamental. +Divergency, it is true, existed, but pales before the general affinity +of the two theories of life. Our judgment upon Christian medievalism +in this respect can be applied directly and literally to +Muhammedanism. Either religion regards man as no more than a sojourner +in this world. It is not worth while to arrange for a permanent +habitation, and luxurious living is but pride. Hence the simplicity of +private dwellings in mediaeval times both in the East and West. +Architectural expense is confined to churches and mosques, which were +intended for the service of God. These Christian ideas are reflected +in the inexhaustible storehouse of Muhammedan theory, the great +collections of tradition, as follows. "The worst use which a believer +can make of his money is to build." "Every building, except a mosque, +will stand to the discredit of its architect on the day of +resurrection." These polemics which Islam inherited from Christianity +are directed not only against building in general, but also against +the erection and decoration of lofty edifices: "Should a man build a +house nine ells high, a voice will call to him from heaven, Whither +wilt thou rise, most profane of the profane?" "No prophet enters a +house adorned with fair decoration." With these prohibitions should be +connected the somewhat unintelligible fact that the most pious Caliphs +sat upon thrones (_mimbar_, "president's chair") of clay. The simplest +and most transitory material thus serves to form the symbol of +temporal power. A house is adorned not by outward show, but by the +fact that prayer is offered and the Qoran recited within its walls. +These theories were out of harmony with the worldly tendencies of the +conquerors, who built themselves castles, such as Qusair Amra: they +belong to the spirit of Christianity rather than to Islam. + +Upon similar principles we may explain the demand for the utmost +simplicity and reserve in regard to the other enjoyments of life. To +eat whenever one may wish is excess and two meals a day are more than +enough. The portion set apart for one may also suffice for two. Ideas +of this kind are of constant recurrence in the Muhammedan traditions: +indispensable needs alone are to be satisfied, as indeed Thomas +Aquinas teaches. Similar observations apply to dress: "he who walks in +costly garments to be seen of men is not seen of the Lord." Gold and +silver ornaments, and garments of purple and silk are forbidden by +both religions. Princes live as simply as beggars and possess only one +garment, so that they are unable to appear in public when it is being +washed: they live upon a handful of dates and are careful to save +paper and artificial light. Such incidents are common in the oldest +records of the first Caliphs. These princes did not, of course, live +in such beggary, and the fact is correspondingly important that after +the lapse of one or two generations the Muhammedan historians should +describe their heroes as possessing only the typical garment of the +Christian saint. This one fact speaks volumes. + +Every action was performed in God or with reference to God--an +oft-repeated idea in either religion. There is a continual hatred of +the world and a continual fear that it may imperil a man's soul. Hence +the sense of vast responsibility felt by the officials, a sense which +finds expression even in the ordinary official correspondence of the +authorities which papyri have preserved for us. The phraseology is +often stereotyped, but as such, expresses a special theory of life. +This responsibility is represented as weighing with especial severity +upon a pious Caliph. Upon election to the throne he accepts office +with great reluctance protesting his unworthiness with tears. The West +can relate similar stories of Gregory the Great and of Justinian. + +Exhortations are frequent ever to remember the fact of death and to +repent and bewail past sins. When a mention of the last Judgment +occurs in the reading of passages from the Bible or Qoran, the +auditors burst into tears. Upon one occasion a man was praying upon +the roof of his house and wept so bitterly over his sins, that the +tears ran down the waterspout and flooded the rooms below. This +hyperbolical statement in a typical life of a saint shows the high +value attributed to tears in the East. It is, however, equally a +Christian characteristic. The gracious gift of tears was regarded by +mediaeval Christianity as the sign of a deeply religious nature. +Gregory VII is said to have wept daily at the sacrifice of the Mass +and similar accounts are given to the credit of other famous +Christians. + +While a man should weep for his own sins, he is not to bewail any +misfortune or misery which may befall him. In the latter case it is +his duty to collect his strength, to resign himself and to praise God +even amid his sufferings. Should he lose a dear relative by death, he +is not to break out with cries and lamentations like the heathen. +Lamentation for the dead is most strictly forbidden in Islam. "We are +God's people and to God we return" says the pious Muslim on receiving +the unexpected news of a death. Resignation and patience in these +matters is certainly made the subject of eloquent exhortation in the +Qoran, but the special developments of tradition betray Christian +influence. + +Generally speaking, the whole ethical system of the two religions is +based upon the contrast between God and the world, though Muhammedan +philosophy will recognize no principle beside that of God. As a +typical example we may take a sentence from the Spanish bishop Isidor +who died in 636: "Good are the intentions directed towards God and bad +are those directed to earthly gain or transitory fame." Any Muhammedan +theologian would have subscribed to this statement. On the one hand +stress is laid upon motive as giving its value to action. The first +sentence in the most famous collection of traditions runs, "Deeds +shall be judged by their intentions." On the other hand is the +contrast between God and the world, or as Islam puts it, between the +present and the future life. The Christian gains eternal life by +following Christ. Imitation of the Master in all things even to the +stigmata, is the characteristic feature of mediaeval Christianity. Nor +is the whole of the so-called Sunna obedience anything more than the +imitation of Muhammed which seeks to repeat the smallest details of +his life. The infinite importance attached by Islam to the Sunna seems +to me to have originated in Christian influence. The development of it +betrays original features, but the fundamental principle is Christian, +as all the leading ideas of Islam are Christian, in the sense of the +term as paraphrased above. Imitation of Christ in the first instance, +attempts to repeat his poverty and renunciation of personal property: +this is the great Christian ideal. Muhammed was neither poor nor +without possessions: at the end of his life he had become a prince and +had directly stated that property was a gift from God. In spite of +that his successors praise poverty and their praises were the best of +evidence that they were influenced not by the prophet himself but by +Christianity. While the traditions are full of the praises of poverty +and the dangers of wealth, assertions in praise of wealth also +occur, for the reason that the pure Muhammedan ideas opposed to +Christianity retained a certain influence. J. Goldziher has published +an interesting study showing how many words borrowed from this source +occur in the written Muhammedan traditions: an almost complete +version of the Lord's Prayer is quoted. Even the idea of love towards +enemies, which would have been unintelligible to Muhammed, made its +way into the traditions: "the most virtuous of acts is to seek out him +who rejects thee, to give to him that despises thee and to pardon him +that oppresses thee." The Gospel precept to do unto others as we would +they should do unto us (Matt. vii. 12, Luke vi. 31) is to be found in +the Arab traditions, and many similar points of contact may be +noticed. A man's "neighbour" has ever been, despite the teaching of +Jesus, to the Christian and to the Muhammedan, his co-religionist. The +whole department of Muhammedan ethics has thus been subjected to +strong Christian influence. + +Naturally this ecclesiasticism which dominated the whole of life, was +bound to assert itself in state organisation. An abhorrence of the +state, so far as it was independent of religion, a feeling unknown in +the ancient world, pervades both Christianity and Muhammedanism, +Christianity first struggled to secure recognition in the state and +afterwards fought with the state for predominance. Islam and the state +were at first identical: in its spiritual leaders it was soon +separated from the state. Its idea of a divine polity was elaborated +to the smallest details, but remained a theory which never became +practice. Yet this ideal retained such strength that every Muhammedan +usurper was careful to secure his investiture by the Caliph, the +nominal leader of this ecclesiastical state, even if force were +necessary to attain his object. For instance, Saladin was absolutely +independent of the nominal Caliph in Bagdad, but could not feel that +his position was secure until he had obtained his sultan's patent from +the Caliph. Only then did his supremacy rest upon a religious basis +and he was not regarded by popular opinion as a legitimate monarch +until this ceremony had been performed. This theory corresponds with +constitutional ideals essentially Christian. "The tyranny," wrote +Innocent IV to the Emperor Frederick II, "which was once generally +exercised throughout the world, was resigned into the hands of the +Church by Constantine, who then received as an honourable gift from +the proper source that which he had formerly held and exercised +unrighteously." The long struggle between Church and State in this +matter is well known. In this struggle the rising power of Islam had +adopted a similar attitude. The great abhorrence of a secular +"monarchy" in opposition to a religious caliphate, as expressed both +by the dicta of tradition and by the Abbassid historians, was +inspired, in my opinion, by Christian dislike of a divorce between +Church and State. The phenomenon might be explained without reference +to external influence, but if the whole process be considered in +connection, Christian influence seems more than probable. + +A similar attitude was also assumed by either religion towards the +facts of economic life. In either case the religious point of view is +characteristic. The reaction against the tendency to condemn secular +life is certainly stronger in Islam, but is also apparent in +Christianity. Thomas Aquinas directly stigmatises trade as a +disgraceful means of gain, because the exchange of wares does not +necessitate labour or the satisfaction of necessary wants: Muhammedan +tradition says, "The pious merchant is a pioneer on the road of God." +"The first to enter Paradise is the honourable merchant." Here the +solution given to the problem differs in either case, but in Christian +practice, opposition was also obvious. Common to both religions is the +condemnation of the exaction of interest and monetary speculation, +which the middle ages regarded as usury. Islam, as usual, gives this +Christian idea the form of a saying enounced by Muhammed: "He who +speculates in grain for forty days, grinds and bakes it and gives it +to the poor, makes an offering unacceptable to God." "He who raises +prices to Muslims (by speculation) will be cast head downwards by God +into the hottest fire of hell." Many similar traditions fulminate +against usury in the widest sense of the word. These prohibitions were +circumvented in practice by deed of gift and exchange, but none the +less the free development of commercial enterprise was hampered by +these fetters which modern civilisation first broke. Enterprise was +thus confined to agriculture under these circumstances both for +Christianity and Islam, and economic life in either case became +"mediaeval" in outward appearance. + +Methods of making profit without a proportional expenditure of labour +were the particular objects of this aversion. Manual labour was highly +esteemed both in the East and West. A man's first duty was to support +himself by the work of his own hands, a duty proclaimed, as we know, +from the apostolic age onwards. So far as Islam is concerned, this +view may be illustrated by the following utterances: "The best of +deeds is the gain of that which is lawful": "the best gain is made by +sale within lawful limits and by manual labour." "The most precious +gain is that made by manual labour; that which a man thus earns and +gives to himself, his people, his sons and his servants, is as +meritorious as alms." Thus practical work is made incumbent upon the +believer, and the extent to which manufacture flourished in East and +West during the middle ages is well known. + +A similar affinity is apparent as regards ideas upon social position +and occupation. Before God man is but a slave: even the mighty Caliphs +themselves, even those who were stigmatised by posterity as secular +monarchs, included in their official titles the designation, "slave of +God." This theory was carried out into the smallest details of life, +even into those which modern observers would consider as unconcerned +with religion. Thus at meals the Muslim was not allowed to recline at +table, an ancient custom which the upper classes had followed for +centuries: he must sit, "as a slave," according to the letter of the +law. All are alike slaves, for the reason that they are believers: +hence the humiliation of those whom chance has exalted is thought +desirable. This idealism is undoubtedly more deeply rooted in the +popular consciousness of the East than of the West. In the East great +social distinctions occur; but while religion recognises them, it +forbids insistence upon them. + +As especially distinctive of social work in either religion we might +be inclined to regard the unparalleled extent of organizations for the +care of the poor, for widows and orphans, for the old, infirm and +sick, the public hospitals and almshouses and religious foundations in +the widest sense of the term; but the object of these activities was +not primarily social nor were they undertaken to make life easier for +the poor: religious selfishness was the leading motive, the desire to +purify self by good works and to secure the right to pre-eminence in +heaven. "For the salvation of my soul and for everlasting reward" is +the formula of many a Christian foundation deed. Very similar +expressions of hope for eternal reward occur in Muhammedan deeds of +gift. A foundation inscription on a mosque, published by E. Littmann, +is stated in terms the purport of which is unmistakable. "This has +been built by N or M: may a house be built for him in Paradise (in +return)." Here again, the idea of the house in Paradise is borrowed +from Christian ideas. + +We have already observed that in Islam the smallest trivialities of +daily life become matters of religious import. The fact is especially +apparent in a wide department of personal conduct. Islam certainly +went to further extremes than Christianity in this matter, but these +customs are clearly only further developments of Christian +regulations. The call to simplicity of food and dress has already been +mentioned. But even the simplest food was never to be taken before +thanks had been given to God: grace was never to be omitted either +before or after meals. Divine ordinances also regulated the manner of +eating. The prophet said, "With one finger the devils eat, with two +the Titans of antiquity and with three fingers the prophets." The +application of the saying is obvious. Similar sayings prescribe the +mode of handling dishes and behaviour at a common meal, if the +blessing of God is to be secured. There seems to be a Christian touch +in one of these rules which runs, in the words of the prophet: "He who +picks up the crumbs fallen from the table and eats them, will be +forgiven by God." "He who licks the empty dishes and his fingers will +be filled by God here and in the world to come." "When a man licks the +dish from which he has eaten, the dish will plead for him before God." +I regard these words as practical applications of the text, "Gather up +the pieces that remain, that nothing be lost" (Matt. xiv. 10: John vi. +12). Even to-day South Italians kiss bread that has fallen to the +ground, in order to make apology to the gift of God. Volumes might be +filled with rules of polite manners in this style: hardly any detail +is to be found in the whole business of daily life, even including +occupations regarded as unclean, which was not invested with some +religious significance. These rules are almost entirely dictated by +the spirit of early Christianity and it is possible to reconstruct the +details of life in those dark ages from these literary records which +are now the only source of evidence upon such points. However, we must +here content ourselves with establishing the fact that Islam adopted +Christian practice in this as in other departments of life. + +The state, society, the individual, economics and morality were thus +collectively under Christian influence during the early period of +Muhammedanism. Conditions very similar in general, affected those +conceptions which we explain upon scientific grounds but which were +invariably regarded by ancient and mediaeval thought as supernatural, +conceptions deduced from the phenomena of illness and dreams. Islam +was no less opposed than Christianity to the practice of magic in any +form, but only so far as these practices seemed to preserve remnants +of heathen beliefs. Such beliefs were, however, continued in both +religions in modified form. There is no doubt that ideas of high +antiquity, doubtless of Babylonian origin, can be traced as +contributing to the formation of these beliefs, while scientific +medicine is connected with the earlier discoveries of Greece. Common +to both religions was the belief in the reality of dreams, especially +when these seemed to harmonise with religious ideas: dreams were +regarded as revelations from God or from his apostles or from the +pious dead. The fact that man could dream and that he could appear to +other men in dreams after his death was regarded as a sign of divine +favour and the biographies of the saints often contain chapters +devoted to this faculty. These are natural ideas which lie in the +national consciousness of any people, but owe their development in the +case of Islam to Christian influence. The same may be said of the +belief that the prayers of particular saints were of special efficacy, +and of attempts by prayer, forms of worship and the like to procure +rain, avert plague and so forth: such ideas are common throughout the +middle ages. Thus in every department we meet with that particular +type of Christian theory which existed in the East during the seventh +and eighth centuries. + +This mediaeval theory of life was subjected, as is well known, to many +compromises in the West, and was materially modified by Teutonic +influence and the revival of classicism. It might therefore be +supposed that in Islam Christian theory underwent similar modification +or disappeared entirely. But the fact is not so. At the outset, we +stated, as will be remembered, that Muhammedan scholars were +accustomed to propound their dicta as utterances given by Muhammed +himself, and in this form Christian ideas also came into circulation +among Muhammedans. When attempts were made to systematise these +sayings, all were treated as alike authentic, and, as traditional, +exerted their share of influence upon the formation of canon law. Thus +questions of temporary importance to mediaeval Christianity became +permanent elements in Muhammedan theology. + +One highly instructive instance may be given. During the century which +preceded the Byzantine iconoclastic controversy, the whole of nearer +Asia was disturbed by the question whether the erection and veneration +of images was permissible. That Constantinople attempted to prohibit +such veneration is well known: but after a long struggle the church +gained its wishes. Islam was confronted with the problem and decided +for prohibition, doubtless under Jewish influence. Sayings of Muhammed +forbid the erection of images. This prohibition became part of canon +law and therefore binding for all time: it remains obligatory at the +present day, though in practice it is often transgressed. Thus the +process of development which was continued in Christendom, came to a +standstill in Islam, and many similar cases might be quoted. + +Here begins the development of Muhammedan jurisprudence or, more +exactly, of the doctrine of duty, which includes every kind of human +activity, duties to God and man, religion, civil law, the penal code, +social morality and economics. This extraordinary system of moral +obligations, as developed in Islam, though its origin is obscure, is +doubtless rooted in the ecclesiastical law of Christendom which was +then first evolved. I have no doubt that the development of Muhammedan +tradition, which precedes the code proper, was dependent upon the +growth of canon law in the old Church, and that this again, or at +least the purely legal part of it, is closely connected with the +pre-Justinian legislation. Roman law does not seem to me to have +influenced Islam immediately in the form of Justinian's _Corpus +Juris_, but indirectly from such ecclesiastical sources as the +Romano-Syrian code. This view, however, I would distinctly state, is +merely my conjecture. For our present purpose it is more important to +establish the fact that the doctrine of duty canonised the manifold +expressions of the theory that life is a religion, with which we have +met throughout the traditional literature: all human acts are thus +legally considered as obligatory or forbidden when corresponding with +religious commands or prohibitions, as congenial or obnoxious to the +law or as matters legally indifferent and therefore permissible. The +arrangement of the work of daily life in correspondence with these +religious points of view is the most important outcome of the +Muhammedan doctrine of duties. The religious utterances which also +cover the whole business of life were first made duties by this +doctrine: in practice their fulfilment is impossible, but the theory +of their obligatory nature is a fundamental element in Muhammedanism. + +Where the doctrine of duties deals with legal rights, its application +was in practice confined to marriage and the affairs of family life: +the theoretical demands of its penal clauses, for instance, raise +impossible difficulties. At the same time, it has been of great +importance to the whole spiritual life of Islam down to the present +day, because it reflects Muhammedan ideals of life and of man's place +in the world. Even to-day it remains the daily bread of the soul that +desires instruction, to quote the words of the greatest father of the +Muhammedan church. It will thus be immediately obvious to what a vast +extent Christian theory of the seventh and eighth centuries still +remains operative upon Muhammedan thought throughout the world. + +Considerable parts of the doctrine of duties are concerned with the +forms of Muhammedan worship. It is becoming ever clearer that only +slight tendencies to a form of worship were apparent under Muhammed. +The mosque, the building erected for the special purpose of divine +service, was unknown during the prophet's lifetime; nor was there any +definite church organisation, of which the most important parts are +the common ritual and the preaching. Tendencies existed but no system, +was to be found: there was no clerical class to take an interest in +the development of an order of divine service. The Caliphs prayed +before the faithful in the capital, as did the governors in the +provinces. The military commanders also led a simple service in their +own stations. + +It was contact with foreign influence which first provided the impulse +to a systematic form of worship. Both Christians and Jews possessed +such forms. Their example was followed and a ritual was evolved, at +first of the very simplest kind. No detailed organisation, however, +was attempted, until Christian influence led to the formation of the +class which naturally took an interest in the matter, the professional +theologians. These soon replaced the military service leaders. This +change denoted the final stage in the development of ritual. The +object of the theologians was to subject the various occupations of +life to ritual as well as to religion. The mediatorial or sacramental +theories of the priestly office were unknown to Islam, but ritual +customs of similar character were gradually evolved, and are +especially pronounced in the ceremonies of marriage and burial. + +More important, however, was the development of the official service, +the arrangement of the day and the hour of obligatory attendance and +the introduction of preaching: under Muhammed and his early followers, +and until late in the Omajjad period, preaching was confined to +addresses, given as occasion demanded, but by degrees it became part +of the regular ritual. With it was afterwards connected the +intercession for the Caliphs, which became a highly significant part +of the service, as symbolising their sovereignty. It seems to me very +probable that this practice was an adoption, at any rate in theory, of +the Christian custom of praying for the emperor. The pulpit was then +introduced under Christian influence, which thus completely +transformed the chair (_mimbar_) of the ancient Arab judges and rulers +and made it a piece of church furniture; the Christian _cancelli_ or +choir screens were adopted and the mosque was thus developed. Before +the age of mosques, a lance had been planted in the ground and prayer +offered behind it: so in the mosque a prayer niche was made, a +survival of the pre-existing custom. There are many obscure points in +the development of the worship, but one fact may be asserted with +confidence: the developments of ritual were derived from pre-existing +practices, which were for the most part Christian. + +But the religious energy of Islam was not exclusively devoted to the +development and practice of the doctrine of duties; at the same time +this ethical department, in spite of its dependency upon Christian and +Jewish ideas, remains its most original achievement: we have pursued +the subject at some length, because its importance is often overlooked +in the course of attempts to estimate the connection between +Christianity and Islam. On the other hand, affinities in the regions +of mysticism and dogma have long been matter of common knowledge and a +brief sketch of them will therefore suffice. If not essential to our +purpose within the limits of this book, they are none the less +necessary to complete our treatment of the subject. + +By mysticism we understand the expression of religious emotion, as +contrasted with efforts to attain righteousness by full obedience to +the ethical doctrine of duties, and also in contrast to the +hair-splitting of dogmatic speculation: mysticism strove to reach +immediate emotional unity with the Godhead. No trace of any such +tendency was to be found in the Qoran: it entered Islam as a complete +novelty, and the affinities which enabled it to gain a footing have +been difficult to trace. + +Muhammedan mysticism is certainly not exclusively Christian: its +origins, like those of Christian mysticism, are to be found in the +pantheistic writings of the Neoplatonist school of Dionysius the +Areopagite: but Islam apparently derived its mysticism from Christian +sources. In it originated the idea, with all its capacity for +development, of the mystical love of God: to this was added the theory +and practice of asceticism which was especially developed by +Christianity, and, in later times, the influence of Indian philosophy, +which is unmistakable. Such are the fundamental elements of this +tendency. When the idea of the Nirwana, the Arab _fan[=a]_, is +attained, Muhammedanism proper comes to an end. But orthodoxy controls +the divergent elements: it opposes any open avowal of the logical +conclusion, which would identify "God" and the "ego," but in practice +this group of ideas, pantheistic in all but name, has been received +and given a place side by side with the strict monotheism of the Qoran +and with the dogmatic theology. Any form of mysticism which is pushed +to its logical consequences must overthrow positive religion. By +incorporating this dangerous tendency within itself, Islam has averted +the peril which it threatens. Creed is no longer endangered, and this +purpose being secured, thought is free. + +Union with God is gained by ecstasy and leads to enthusiasm. These +terms will therefore show us in what quarter we must seek the +strongest impulses to mysticism. The concepts, if not the actual +terms, are to be found in Islam: they were undoubtedly transmitted by +Christianity and undergo the wide extension which results in the +dervish and fakir developments. _Dervish_ and _fakir_ are the Persian +and Arabic words for "beggar": the word _sufi_, a man in a woollen +shirt, is also used in the same sense. The terms show that asceticism +is a fundamental element in mysticism; asceticism was itself an +importation to Islam. Dervishes are divided into different classes or +orders, according to the methods by which they severally prefer to +attain ecstasy: dancing and recitation are practised by the dancing +and howling dervishes and other methods are in vogue. It is an +institution very different from monasticism but the result of a course +of development undoubtedly similar to that which produced the monk: +dervishism and monasticism are independent developments of the same +original idea. + +Among these Muhammedan companies attempts to reach the point of +ecstasy have developed to a rigid discipline of the soul; the believer +must subject himself to his master, resigning all power of will, and +so gradually reaches higher stages of knowledge until he is eventually +led to the consciousness of his absolute identity with God. It seems +to me beyond question that this method is reflected in the _exercitiis +spiritualibus_ of Ignatius Loyola, the chief instrument by which the +Jesuits secured dominion over souls. Any one who has realised the +enormous influence which Arab thought exerted upon Spanish +Christianity so late as the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, will +not regard the conjecture as unfounded. + +When a man's profession or position prevented him from practising +these mystical exercises, he satisfied his religious needs by +venerating persons who were nearer to the deity and whose intercession +was effectual even after their death and sometimes not until they were +dead: hence arose the veneration of saints, a practice as alien as +pantheistic dogma to primitive Islam. The adoption of Christian saint +worship was not possible until the person of Muhammed himself had been +exalted above the ordinary level of humanity. Early Muhammedans +observed that the founder of Christianity was regarded by popular +opinion as a miracle worker of unrivalled power: it was impossible for +the founder of Islam to remain inferior in this respect. Thus the +early biographies of the prophet, which appeared in the first century +of Muhammedanism, recount the typical miracles of the Gospels, the +feeding of multitudes, healing the sick, raising the dead and so +forth. Two methods of adoption may be distinguished. Special features +are directly borrowed, or the line of advance is followed which had +introduced the worship of saints and relics to Christianity a short +time before. The religious emotions natural to any people produced a +series of ideas which pass from one religion to another. Outward form +and purport may be changed, but the essential points remain unaltered +and are the living expression of that relation to God in which a +people conceives itself to stand. Higher forms of religion--a fact as +sad as it is true--require a certain degree not only of moral but of +intellectual capacity. + +Thus we have traversed practically the whole circle of religious life +and have everywhere found Islam following in the path of Christian +thought. One department remains to be examined, which might be +expected to offer but scanty opportunity for borrowings of this kind; +this is dogma. Here, if anywhere, the contrast between the two +religions should be obvious. The initial divergencies were so +pronounced, that any adoption of Christian ideas would seem +impossible. Yet in those centuries, Christianity was chiefly agitated +by dogmatic questions, which occupied men's minds as greatly as social +problems at the present day. Here we can observe most distinctly, how +the problems at least were taken over by Islam. + +Muhammedan dogmatic theology is concerned only with three main +questions, the problem of free-will, the being and attributes of God, +and the eternal uncreated nature of God's word. The mere mention of +these problems will recall the great dogmatic struggles of early +Christianity. At no time have the problems of free-will and the nature +of God, been subjects of fiercer dispute than during the +Christological and subsequent discussions. Upholders of freedom or of +determinism could alike find much to support their theories in the +Qoran: Muhammed was no dogmatist and for him the ideas of man's +responsibility and of God's almighty and universal power were not +mutually exclusive. The statement of the problem was adopted from +Christianity as also was the dialectical subtlety by which a solution +was reached, and which, while admitting the almighty power of God, +left man responsible for his deeds by regarding him as free to accept +or refuse the admonitions of God. Thus the thinkers and their demands +for justice and righteous dealing were reconciled to the blind +fatalism of the masses, which again was not a native Muhammedan +product, but is the outcome of the religious spirit of the East. + +The problem of reconciling the attributes of God with the dogma of His +unity was solved with no less subtlety. The mere idea that a +multiplicity of attributes was incompatible with absolute unity was +only possible in a school which had spent centuries in the desperate +attempt to reconcile the inference of a divine Trinity with the +conception of absolute divine unity. + +Finally, the third question, "Was the Qoran, the word of God, created +or not?" is an obvious counterpart of the Logos problem, of the +struggle to secure recognition of the Logos as eternal and uncreated +together with God. Islam solved the question by distinguishing the +eternal and uncreated Qoran from the revealed and created. The eternal +nature of the Qoran was a dogma entirely alien to the strict +monotheism of Islam: but this fact was never realised, any more than +the fact that the acceptance of the dogma was a triumph for +Graeco-Christian dialectic. There can be no more striking proof of the +strength of Christian influence: it was able to undermine the +fundamental dogma of Islam, and the Muhammedans never realised the +fact. + +In our review of these dogmatic questions, we have met with a novel +tendency, that to metaphysical speculation and dialectic. It was from +Christendom, not directly from the Greek world, that this spirit +reached Islam: the first attitude of Muhammedanism towards it was that +which Christianity adopted towards all non-religious systems of +thought. Islam took it up as a useful weapon for the struggle against +heresy. But it soon became a favourite and trusted implement and +eventually its influence upon Muhammedan philosophy became paramount. +Here we meet with a further Christian influence, which, when once +accepted, very largely contributed to secure a similar development of +mediaeval Christian and Muhammedan thought. This was Scholasticism, +which was the natural and inevitable consequence of the study of Greek +dialectic and philosophy. It is not necessary to sketch the growth of +scholasticism, with its barrenness of results in spite of its keen +intellectual power, upon ground already fertilised by ecclesiastical +pioneers. It will suffice to state the fact that these developments of +the Greek spirit were predominant here as in the West: in either case +important philosophies rise upon this basis, for the most part +professedly ecclesiastical, even when they occasionally struck at the +roots of the religious system to which they belonged. In this +department, Islam repaid part of its debt to Christianity, for the +Arabs became the intellectual leaders of the middle ages. + +Thus we come to the concluding section of this treatise; before we +enter upon it, two preliminary questions remain for consideration. If +Islam was ready to learn from Christianity in every department of +religious life, what was the cause of the sudden superiority of +Muhammedanism to the rising force of Christianity a few centuries +later? And secondly, in view of the traditional antagonism between the +Christian and Muhammedan worlds, how was Christianity able to adopt so +large and essential a portion of Muhammedan thought? + +The answer in the second case will be clear to any one who has +followed our argument with attention. The intellectual and religious +outlook was so similar in both religions and the problem requiring +solution so far identical that nothing existed to impede the adoption +of ideas originally Christian which had been developed in the East. +The fact that the West could accept philosophical and theological +ideas from Islam and that an actual interchange of thought could +proceed in this direction, is the best of proofs for the soundness of +our argument that the roots of Muhammedanism are to be sought in +Christianity. Islam was able to borrow from Christianity for the +reason that Muhammed's ideas were derived from that source: similarly +Christianity was able to turn Arab thought to its own purposes because +that thought was founded upon Christian principles. The sources of +both religions lie in the East and in Oriental thought. + +No less is true of Judaism, a scholastic system which was excellently +adapted by its international character, to become a medium of +communication between Christianity and Muhammedanism during those +centuries. In this connection special mention must be made of the +Spanish Jews; to their work, not only as transmitting but also as +originating ideas a bare reference must here suffice. But of greater +importance was the direct exchange of thought, which proceeded through +literary channels, by means of translations, especially by word of +mouth among the Christians and Muhammedans who were living together in +Southern Italy, Sicily, and Spain, and by commercial intercourse. + +The other question concerns the fundamental problem of European +medievalism. We see that the problems with which the middle ages in +Europe were confronted and also that European ethics and metaphysics +were identical with the Muhammedan system: we are moreover assured +that the acceptance of Christian ideas by Islam can only have taken +place in the East: and the conclusion is obvious that mediaeval +Christianity was also primarily rooted in the East. The transmission +of this religious philosophy to the non-Oriental peoples of the West +at first produced a cessation of progress but opened a new +intellectual world when these peoples awoke to life in the thirteenth +and fourteenth centuries. But throughout the intermediate period +between the seventh and thirteenth centuries the East was gaining +political strength and was naturally superior to the West where +political organisation and culture had been shattered by the Germanic +invasions; in the East again there was an organic unity of national +strength and intellectual ideals, as the course of development had not +been interrupted. Though special dogmatic points had been changed, the +general religious theory remained unaltered throughout the nearer +East. Thus the rising power of Islam, which had high faculties of +self-accommodation to environment, was able to enter upon the heritage +of the mixed Graeco-Oriental civilisation existing in the East; in +consequence it gained an immediate advantage over the West, where +Eastern ideas were acclimatised with difficulty. + +The preponderance of Muhammedan influence was increased by the fact +that Islam became the point of amalgamation for ancient Eastern +cultures, in particular for those of Greece and Persia: in previous +centuries preparation had been made for this process by the steady +transformation of Hellenism to Orientalism. Persia, however, had been +the main source of Eastern civilisation, at any rate since the +Sassanid period: the debt of Byzantine culture to Persia is well +known. Unfortunately no thorough investigation has been made of these +various and important changes, but it is clear that Persian +civilisation sent its influence far westward, at first directly and +later through the medium of Muhammedanism. The same facts hold good +with regard to the diffusion of intellectual culture from Persia. How +far Persian ideas may have influenced the development of Muhammedan +and even of Christian eschatology, we need not here discuss: but the +influence of the great Graeco-Christian schools of Persia was +enormous: they made the Arabs acquainted with the most important works +in Greek and Persian literature. To this fact was due the wide +influence of Islam upon Christian civilisation, which is evidenced +even to-day by the numerous words of Arab origin to be found in modern +European languages; it is in fact an influence the strength of which +can hardly be exaggerated. Not only the commercial products of the +East, but important economic methods, the ideals of our so-called +European chivalry and of its love poetry, the foundations of our +natural sciences, even theological and philosophical ideas of high +value were then sent to us from the East. The consequences of the +crusades are the best proof of the enormous superiority of the +Muhammedan world, a fact which is daily becoming more obvious. Here we +are concerned only with the influence exerted by Muhammedan +philosophy. It would be more correct to speak of post-classical than +of Muhammedan philosophy. But as above, the influence of Christianity +upon Islam was considered, so now the reverse process must be +outlined. In either case it was the heir to the late classical age, to +the mixed Graeco-Oriental culture, which influenced Islam at first in +Christian guise. Islam is often able to supplement its borrowings from +Christianity at the original sources, and when they have thus been +deepened and purified, these adaptations are returned to Christianity +in Muhammedan form. + +Christian scholasticism was first based upon fragments of Aristotle +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). + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Christianity and Islam, by C.H. 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Becker + +Release Date: February 20, 2004 [EBook #11198] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CHRISTIANITY AND ISLAM *** + + + + +Produced by Luiz Antonio de Souza and PG Distributed Proofreaders + + + + +CHRISTIANITY + +AND + +ISLAM + + +BY + +C.H. BECKER, PH.D. + +PROFESSOR OF ORIENTAL HISTORY IN +THE COLONIAL INSTITUTE OF HAMBURG + +TRANSLATED BY +REV. H.J. CHAYTOR, M.A. + +HEADMASTER OF PLYMOUTH COLLEGE + + + +1909 + + + + +TABLE OF CONTENTS + + +The subject from different points of view: limits of treatment + +The nature of the subject: the historical points of connection between +Christianity and Islam + + A. Christianity and the rise of Islam: + + 1. Muhammed and his contemporaries + + 2. The influence of Christianity upon the development of Muhammed + + 3. Muhammed's knowledge of Christianity + + 4. The position of Christians under Muhammedanism + + B. The similarity of Christian and Muhammedan metaphysics during the + middle ages: + + 1. The means and direction by which Christian influence affected + Islam + + 2. The penetration of daily life by the spirit of religion; + asceticism, contradictions and influences affecting the + development of a clerical class and the theory of + marriage + + 3. The theory of life in general with reference to the doctrine + of immortality + + 4. The attitude of religion towards the State, economic life, + society, etc. + + 5. The permanent importance to Islam of these influences: the + doctrine of duties + + 6. Ritual + + 7. Mysticism and the worship of saints + + 8. Dogma and the development of scholasticism + + C. The influence of Islam upon Christianity: + + The manner in which this influence operated, and the explanation + of the superiority of Islam + + The influence of Muhammedan philosophy + + The new world of European Christendom and the modern East + + Conclusion. The historical growth of religion + +Bibliography + + + + + +CHRISTIANITY AND ISLAM + + +A comparison of Christianity with Muhammedanism or with any other +religion must be preceded by a statement of the objects with which +such comparison is undertaken, for the possibilities which lie in this +direction are numerous. The missionary, for instance, may consider +that a knowledge of the similarities of these religions would increase +the efficacy of his proselytising work: his purpose would thus be +wholly practical. The ecclesiastically minded Christian, already +convinced of the superiority of his own religion, will be chiefly +anxious to secure scientific proof of the fact: the study of +comparative religion from this point of view was once a popular branch +of apologetics and is by no means out of favour at the present day. +Again, the inquirer whose historical perspective is undisturbed by +ecclesiastical considerations, will approach the subject with somewhat +different interests. He will expect the comparison to provide him with +a clear view of the influence which Christianity has exerted upon +other religions or has itself received from them: or he may hope by +comparing the general development of special religious systems to gain +a clearer insight into the growth of Christianity. Hence the object of +such comparisons is to trace the course of analogous developments and +the interaction of influence and so to increase the knowledge of +religion in general or of our own religion in particular. + +A world-religion, such as Christianity, is a highly complex structure +and the evolution of such a system of belief is best understood by +examining a religion to which we have not been bound by a thousand +ties from the earliest days of our lives. If we take an alien religion +as our subject of investigation, we shall not shrink from the +consequences of the historical method: whereas, when we criticise +Christianity, we are often unable to see the falsity of the +pre-suppositions which we necessarily bring to the task of inquiry: +our minds follow the doctrines of Christianity, even as our bodies +perform their functions--in complete unconsciousness. At the same time +we possess a very considerable knowledge of the development of +Christianity, and this we owe largely to the help of analogy. +Especially instructive is the comparison between Christianity and +Buddhism. No less interesting are the discoveries to be attained by an +inquiry into the development of Muhammedanism: here we can see the +growth of tradition proceeding in the full light of historical +criticism. We see the plain man, Muhammed, expressly declaring in the +Qoran that he cannot perform miracles, yet gradually becoming a +miracle worker and indeed the greatest of his class: he professes to +be nothing more than a mortal man: he becomes the chief mediator +between man and God. The scanty memorials of the man become voluminous +biographies of the saint and increase from generation to generation. + +Yet more remarkable is the fact that his utterances, his _logia_, if +we may use the term, some few of which are certainly genuine, increase +from year to year and form a large collection which is critically +sifted and expounded. The aspirations of mankind attribute to him such +words of the New Testament and of Greek philosophers as were +especially popular or seemed worthy of Muhammed; the teaching also of +the new ecclesiastical schools was invariably expressed in the form of +proverbial utterances attributed to Muhammed, and these are now +without exception regarded as authentic by the modern Moslem. In this +way opinions often contradictory are covered by Muhummed's authority. + +The traditions concerning Jesus offer an analogy. Our Gospels, for +instance, relate the beautiful story of the plucking of the ears of +corn on the Sabbath, with its famous moral application, "The Sabbath +was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath." A Christian papyrus +has been discovered which represents Jesus as explaining the sanctity +of the Sabbath from the Judaeo-Christian point of view. "If ye keep +not the Sabbath holy, ye shall not see the Father," is the statement +in an uncanonical Gospel. In early Christian literature, contradictory +sayings of Jesus are also to be found. Doubtless here, as in +Muhammedan tradition, the problem originally was, what is to be my +action in this or that question of practical life: answer is given in +accordance with the religious attitude of the inquirer and Jesus and +Muhammed are made to lend their authority to the teaching. Traditional +literary form is then regarded as historical by later believers. + +Examples of this kind might be multiplied, but enough has been said to +show that much and, to some extent, new light may be thrown upon the +development of Christian tradition, by an examination of Muhammedanism +which rose from similar soil but a few centuries later, while its +traditional developments have been much more completely preserved. + +Such analogies as these can be found, however, in any of the +world-religions, and we propose to devote our attention more +particularly to the influences which Christianity and Islam exerted +directly upon one another. While Muhammedanism has borrowed from its +hereditary foe, it has also repaid part of the debt. By the very fact +of its historical position Islam was at first indebted to +Christianity; but in the department of Christian philosophy, it has +also exerted its own influence. This influence cannot be compared with +that of Greek or Jewish thought upon Christian speculation: Christian +philosophy, as a metaphysical theory of existence, was however +strongly influenced by Arabian thought before the outset of the +Reformation. On the other hand the influence of Christianity upon +Islam--and also upon Muhammed, though he owed more to Jewish +thought--was so extensive that the coincidence of ideas upon the most +important metaphysical questions is positively amazing. + +There is a widespread belief even at the present day that Islam was a +complete novelty and that the religion and culture of the Muhammedan +world were wholly alien to Western medievalism. Such views are +entirely false; during the Middle Ages Muhammedanism and Western +culture were inspired by the same spirit. The fact has been obscured +by the contrast between the two religions whose differences have been +constantly exaggerated and by dissimilarities of language and +nationality. To retrace in full detail the close connection which +unites Christianity and Islam would be the work of years. Within the +scope of the present volume, all that can be done is to explain the +points of contact between Christian and Muhammedan theories of life +and religion. Such is the object of the following pages. We shall +first treat of Muhammed personally, because his rise as a religious +force will explain the possibility of later developments. + +This statement also explains the sense in which we shall use the term +Christianity. Muhammedanism has no connection with post-Reformation +Christianity and meets it only in the mission field. Practical +questions there arise which lie beyond the limits of our subject, as +we have already indicated. Our interests are concerned with the +mediaeval Church, when Christianity first imposed its ideas upon +Muhammedanism at the time of its rise in the East, and afterwards +received a material extension of its own horizon through the rapid +progress of its protege. Our task is to analyse and explain these +special relations between the two systems of thought. + +The religion now known as Islam is as near to the preaching of +Muhammed or as remote from it, as modern Catholicism or Protestant +Christianity is at variance or in harmony with the teaching of Jesus. +The simple beliefs of the prophet and his contemporaries are separated +by a long course of development from the complicated religious system +in its unity and diversity which Islam now presents to us. The course +of this development was greatly influenced by Christianity, but +Christian ideas had been operative upon Muhammed's eager intellectual +life at an even earlier date. We must attempt to realise the working +of his mind, if we are to gain a comprehension of the original +position of Islam with regard to Christianity. The task is not so +difficult in Muhammed's case as in that of others who have founded +religious systems: we have records of his philosophical views, +important even though fragmentary, while vivid descriptions of his +experiences have been transmitted to us in his own words, which have +escaped the modifying influence of tradition at second hand. Muhammed +had an indefinite idea of the word of God as known to him from other +religions. He was unable to realise this idea effectively except as an +immediate revelation; hence throughout the Qoran he represents God as +speaking in the first person and himself appears as the interlocutor. +Even direct commands to the congregation are introduced by the +stereotyped "speak"; it was of primary importance that the Qoran +should be regarded as God's word and not as man's. This fact largely +contributed to secure an uncontaminated transmission of the text, +which seems also to have been left by Muhammed himself in definite +form. Its intentional obscurity of expression does not facilitate the +task of the inquirer, but it provides, none the less, considerable +information concerning the religious progress of its author. Here we +are upon firmer ground than when we attempt to describe Muhammed's +outward life, the first half of which is wrapped in obscurity no less +profound than that which veils the youth of the Founder of +Christianity. + +Muhammed's contemporaries lived amid religious indifference. The +majority of the Arabs were heathen and their religious aspirations +were satisfied by local cults of the Old Semitic character. They may +have preserved the religious institutions of the great South Arabian +civilisation, which was then in a state of decadence; the beginnings +of Islam may also have been influenced by the ideas of this +civilisation, which research is only now revealing to us: but these +points must remain undecided for the time being. South Arabian +civilisation was certainly not confined to the South, nor could an +organised township such as Mecca remain outside its sphere of +influence: but the scanty information which has reached us concerning +the religious life of the Arabs anterior to Islam might also be +explained by supposing them to have followed a similar course of +development. In any case, it is advisable to reserve judgment until +documentary proof can replace ingenious conjecture. The difficulty of +the problem is increased by the fact that Jewish and especially +Christian ideas penetrated from the South and that their influence +cannot be estimated. The important point for us to consider is the +existence of Christianity in Southern Arabia before the Muhammedan +period. Nor was the South its only starting-point: Christian doctrine +came to Arabia from the North, from Syria and Babylonia, and numerous +conversions, for the most part of whole tribes, were made. On the +frontiers also Arabian merchants came into continual contact with +Christianity and foreign merchants of the Christian faith could be +found throughout Arabia. But for the Arabian migration and the +simultaneous foundation of a new Arabian religion, there is no doubt +that the whole peninsula would have been speedily converted to +Christianity. + +The chief rival of Christianity was Judaism, which was represented in +Northern as in Southern Arabia by strong colonies of Jews, who made +proselytes, although their strict ritualism was uncongenial to the +Arab temperament which preferred conversion to Christianity (naturally +only as a matter of form). In addition to Jewish, Christian, and Old +Semitic influences, Zoroastrian ideas and customs were also known in +Arabia, as is likely enough in view of the proximity of the Persian +empire. + +These various elements aroused in Muhammed's mind a vague idea of +religion. His experience was that of the eighteenth-century +theologians who suddenly observed that Christianity was but one of +many very similar and intelligible religions, and thus inevitably +conceived the idea of a pure and natural religious system fundamental +to all others. Judaism and Christianity were the only religions which +forced themselves upon Muhammed's consciousness and with the general +characteristics of which he was acquainted. He never read any part of +the Old or New Testament: his references to Christianity show that his +knowledge of the Bible was derived from hearsay and that his +informants were not representative of the great religious sects: +Muhammed's account of Jesus and His work, as given in the Qoran, is +based upon the apocryphal accretions which grew round the Christian +doctrine. + +When Muhammed proceeded to compare the great religions of the Old and +New Testaments with the superficial pietism of his own compatriots, he +was especially impressed with the seriousness of the Hebrews and +Christians which contrasted strongly with the indifference of the +heathen Arabs. The Arab was familiar with the conception of an +almighty God, and this idea had not been obscured by the worship of +trees, stones, fire and the heavenly bodies: but his reverence for +this God was somewhat impersonal and he felt no instinct to approach +Him, unless he had some hopes or fears to satisfy. The idea of a +reckoning between man and God was alien to the Arab mind. Christian +and Jewish influence became operative upon Muhammed with reference +to this special point. The idea of the day of judgment, when an +account of earthly deeds and misdeeds will be required, when the joys +of Paradise will be opened to the good and the bad will be cast into +the fiery abyss, such was the great idea, which suddenly filled +Muhammed's mind and dispelled the indifference begotten of routine and +stirred his mental powers. + +Polytheism was incompatible with the idea of God as a judge supreme +and righteous, but yet merciful. Thus monotheism was indissolubly +connected with Muhammed's first religious impulses, though the dogma +had not assumed the polemical form in which it afterwards confronted +the old Arabian and Christian beliefs. But a mind stirred by religious +emotion only rose to the height of prophetic power after a long course +of development which human knowledge can but dimly surmise. +Christianity and Judaism had their sacred books which the founders of +these religions had produced. In them were the words of God, +transmitted through Moses to the Jews and through Jesus to the +Christians. Jesus and Moses had been God's ambassadors to their +peoples. Who then could bring to the Arabs the glad tidings which +should guide them to the happy fields of Paradise? Among primitive +peoples God is regarded as very near to man. The Arabs had, their +fortune-tellers and augurs who cast lots before God and explained His +will in mysterious rhythmical utterances. Muhammed was at first more +intimately connected with this class of Arab fortune-tellers than is +usually supposed. The best proof of the fact is the vehemence with +which he repudiates all comparison between these fortune-tellers and +himself, even as early Christian apologetics and polemics attacked the +rival cults of the later classical world, which possessed forms of +ritual akin to those observed by Christianity. The existence of a +fortune-telling class among the Arabs shows that Muhammed may well +have been endowed with psychological tendencies which only awaited the +vivifying influence of Judaism and Christianity to emerge as the +prophetic impulse forcing him to stand forth in public and to stir the +people from their indifference: "Be ye converted, for the day of +judgment is at hand: God has declared it unto me, as he declared it +unto Moses and Jesus. I am the apostle of God to you, Arabs. Salvation +is yours only if ye submit to the will of God preached by me." This +act of submission Muhammed calls Islam. Thus at the hour of Islam's +birth, before its founder had proclaimed his ideas, the influence of +Christianity is indisputable. It was this influence which made of the +Arab seer and inspired prophet, the apostle of God. + +Muhammed regarded Judaism and Christianity as religious movements +purely national in character. God in His mercy had announced His will +to different nations through His prophets. As God's word had been +interpreted for the Jews and for the Christians, so there was to be a +special interpretation for the benefit of the Arabs. These +interpretations were naturally identical in manner and differed only +as regards place and time. Muhammed had heard of the Jewish Messiah +and of the Christian Paraclete, whom, however, he failed to identify +with the Holy Ghost and he applied to himself the allusions to one who +should come after Moses and Jesus. Thus in the Qoran 61.6 we read, +"Jesus, the Son of Mary, said: Children of Israel, I am God's apostle +to you. I confirm in your hands the Thora (the law) and I announce the +coming of another apostle after me whose name is Ahmed." Ahmed is the +equivalent of Muhammed. The verse has been variously interpreted and +even rejected as an interpolation: but its authenticity is attested by +its perfect correspondence with what we know of Muhammed's +pretensions. + +To trace in detail the development of his attitude towards +Christianity is a more difficult task than to discover the growth of +his views upon Judaism; probably he pursued a similar course in either +case. At first he assumed the identity of the two religions with one +another and with his own doctrine; afterwards he regarded them as +advancing by gradations. Adam, Abraham, Moses, Jesus, and Muhammed, +these in his opinion were the chief stages in the divine scheme of +salvation. Each was respectively confirmed or abolished by the +revelation which followed it, nor is this theory of Muhammed's shaken +by the fact that each revelation was given to a different nation. He +regards all preceding prophets in the light of his own personality. +They were all sent to people who refused them a hearing at the moment. +Punishment follows and the prophet finds a body of believers +elsewhere. These temporary punishments are confused with the final +Judgment; in fact Muhammed's system was not clearly thought out. The +several prophets were but men, whose earthly careers were necessarily +crowned with triumph: hence the crucifixion of Jesus is a malicious +invention of the Jews, who in reality crucified some other sufferer, +while Jesus entered the divine glory. Thus Muhammed has no idea of the +importance of the Crucifixion to the Christian Church, as is shown by +his treatment of it as a Jewish falsehood. In fact, he develops the +habit of characterising as false any statement in contradiction with +his ideas, and this tendency is especially obvious in his dealings +with Judaism, of which he gained a more intimate knowledge. At first +he would refer sceptics to Christian and Jewish doctrine for +confirmation of his own teaching. The fact that with no knowledge of +the Old or New Testament, he had proclaimed doctrines materially +similar and the fact that these Scriptures referred to himself, were +proofs of his inspired power, let doubters say what they would. A +closer acquaintance with these Scriptures showed him that the +divergencies which he stigmatised as falsifications denoted in reality +vast doctrinal differences. + +In order to understand Muhammed's attitude towards Christianity, we +will examine in greater detail his view of this religion, the portions +of it which he accepted or which he rejected as unauthentic. In the +first place he must have regarded the Trinity as repugnant to reason: +he considered the Christian Trinity as consisting of God the Father, +Mary the Mother of God, and Jesus the Son of God. In the Qoran, God +says, "Hast thou, Jesus, said to men, Regard me and my mother as Gods +by the side of God?" Jesus replies, "I will say nothing but the truth. +I have but preached, Pray to God, who is my Lord and your Lord" +(5.116, f). Hence it has been inferred that Muhammed's knowledge of +Christianity was derived from some particular Christian sect, such as +the Tritheists or the Arab female sect of the Collyridians who +worshipped the Virgin Mary with exaggerated reverence and assigned +divine honours to her. It is also possible that we have here a +development of some Gnostic conception which regarded the Holy Ghost +as of feminine gender, as Semites would do;[A] instances of this +change are to be found in the well-known Hymn of the Soul in the Acts +of Thomas, in the Gospel to the Egyptians and elsewhere. I am +inclined, however, to think it more probable that Muhammed had heard +of Mariolatry and of the "mother of God," a title which then was a +highly popular catchword, and that the apotheosis of Jesus was known +to him and also the doctrine of the Trinity by name. Further than this +his knowledge did not extend; although he knows the Holy Ghost and +identifies him with Jesus, none the less his primitive reasoning, +under the influence of many old beliefs, explained the mysterious +triad of the Trinity as husband, wife, and son. This fact is enough to +prove that his theory of Christianity was formed by combining isolated +scraps of information and that he cannot have had any direct +instruction from a Christian knowing the outlines of his faith. + +[Footnote A: The word for "Spirit" is of the feminine gender in the +Semitic languages.] + +Muhammed must also have denied the divinity of Christ: this is an +obvious result of the course of mental development which we have +described and of his characteristically Semitic theory of the nature +of God. To him, God is one, never begetting and never begotten. +Denying the divinity of Jesus, Muhammed naturally denies the +redemption through the Cross and also the fact of the Crucifixion. +Yet, strangely enough he accepted the miraculous birth; nor did he +hesitate to provide this purely human Jesus with all miraculous +attributes; these were a proof of his divine commission, and +marvellous details of this nature aroused the interest of his hearers. + +Mary the sister of Ahron--an obvious confusion with the Old Testament +Miriam--had been devoted to the service of God by her mother's vow, and +lives in the temple under the guardianship of Zacharias, to whom a +later heir is born in answer to his prayers, namely John, the +forerunner of the Holy Ghost. The birth is announced to Mary and she +brings forth Jesus under a palm-tree, near which is a running spring +and by the dates of which she is fed. On her return home she is +received with reproaches by her family but merely points in reply to +the new-born babe, who suddenly speaks from his cradle, asserting that +he is the prophet of God. Afterwards Jesus performs all kinds of +miracles, forms birds out of clay and makes them fly, heals the blind +and lepers, raises the dead, etc., and even brings down from heaven a +table ready spread. The Jews will not believe him, but the youth +follow him. He is not killed, but translated to God. Christians are +not agreed upon the manner of his death and the Jews have invented the +story of the Crucifixion. + +Muhammed's knowledge of Christianity thus consists of certain isolated +details, partly apocryphal, partly canonical, together with a hazy +idea of the fundamental dogmas. Thus the influence of Christianity +upon him was entirely indirect. The Muhammedan movement at its outset +was influenced not by the real Christianity of the time but by a +Christianity which Muhammed criticised in certain details and forced +into harmony with his preconceived ideas. His imagination was +profoundly impressed by the existence of Christianity as a revealed +religion with a founder of its own. Certain features of Christianity +and of Judaism, prayer, purification, solemn festivals, scriptures, +prophets and so forth were regarded by him as essential to any +religious community, because they happened to belong both to Judaism +and to Christianity. He therefore adopted or wished to adopt these +institutions. + +During the period of his life at Medina, Muhammed abandoned his +original idea of preaching the doctrines which Moses and Jesus had +proclaimed. This new development was the outcome of a struggle with +Judaism following upon an unsuccessful attempt at compromise. In point +of fact Judaism and Christianity were as widely different from one +another as they were from his own teaching and he was more than ever +inclined to regard as his special forerunner, Abraham, who had +preceded both Moses and Jesus, and was revered by both religions as +the man of God. He then brought Abraham into connection with the +ancient Meccan Ka'ba worship: the Ka'ba or die was a sacred stone +edifice, in one corner of which the "black stone" had been built in: +this stone was an object of reverence to the ancient Arabs, as it +still is to the Muhammedans. Thus Islam gradually assumed the form of +an Arab religion, developing universalist tendencies in the ultimate +course of events. Muhammed, therefore, as he was the last in the ranks +of the prophets, must also be the greatest. He epitomised all prophecy +and Islam superseded every revealed religion of earlier date. + +Muhammed's original view that earlier religions had been founded by +God's will and through divine revelation, led both him and his +successors to make an important concession: adherents of other +religions were not compelled to adopt Islam. They were allowed to +observe their own faith unhindered, if they surrendered without +fighting, and were even protected against their enemies, in return for +which they had to pay tribute to their Muslim masters; this was levied +as a kind of poll-tax. Thus we read in the Qoran (ix. 29) that "those +who possess Scriptures," i.e. the Jews and Christians, who did not +accept Islam were to be attacked until they paid the _gizja_ or +tribute. Thus the object of a religious war upon the Christians is not +expressed by the cry "Death or Islam"; such attacks were intended +merely to extort an acknowledgment of Muhammedan supremacy, not to +abolish freedom of religious observance. It would be incorrect for the +most part to regard the warrior bands which started from Arabia as +inspired by religious enthusiasm or to attribute to them the +fanaticism which was first aroused by the crusades and in an even +greater degree by the later Turkish wars. The Muhammedan fanatics of +the wars of conquest, whose reputation was famous among later +generations, felt but a very scanty interest in religion and +occasionally displayed an ignorance of its fundamental tenets which we +can hardly exaggerate. The fact is fully consistent with the impulses +to which the Arab migrations were due. These impulses were economic +and the new religion was nothing more than a party cry of unifying +power, though there is no reason to suppose that it was not a real +moral force in the life of Muhammed and his immediate contemporaries. + +Anti-Christian fanaticism there was therefore none. Even in early +years Muhammedans never refused to worship in the same buildings as +Christians. The various insulting regulations which tradition +represents Christians as forced to endure were directed not so much +against the adherents of another faith as against the barely tolerated +inhabitants of a subjugated state. It is true that the distinction is +often difficult to observe, as religion and nationality were one and +the same thing to Muhammedans. In any case religious animosity was a +very subordinate phenomenon. It was a gradual development and seems to +me to have made a spasmodic beginning in the first century under the +influence of ideas adopted from Christianity. It may seem paradoxical +to assert that it was Christian influence which first stirred Islam to +religious animosity and armed it with the sword against Christianity, +but the hypothesis becomes highly probable when we have realised the +indifferentism of the Muhammedan conquerors. + +We shall constantly see hereafter how much they owed in every +department of intellectual life to the teaching of the races which +they subjugated. Their attitude towards other beliefs was never so +intolerant as was that of Christendom at that period. Christianity may +well have been the teaching influence in this department of life as in +others. Moreover at all times and especially in the first century the +position of Christians has been very tolerable, even though the +Muslims regarded them as an inferior class, Christians were able to +rise to the highest offices of state, even to the post of vizier, +without any compulsion to renounce their faith. Even during the period +of the crusades when the religious opposition was greatly intensified, +again through Christian policy, Christian officials cannot have been +uncommon: otherwise Muslim theorists would never have uttered their +constant invectives against the employment of Christians in +administrative duties. Naturally zealots appeared at all times on the +Muhammedan as well as on the Christian side and occasionally isolated +acts of oppression took place: these were, however, exceptional. So +late as the eleventh century, church funeral processions were able to +pass through the streets of Bagdad with all the emblems of +Christianity and disturbances were recorded by the chroniclers as +exceptional. In Egypt, Christian festivals were also regarded to some +extent as holidays by the Muhammedan population. We have but to +imagine these conditions reversed in a Christian kingdom of the early +middle ages and the probability of my theory will become obvious. + +The Christians of the East, who had broken for the most part with the +orthodox Church, also regarded Islam as a lesser evil than the +Byzantine established Church. Moreover Islam, as being both a +political and ecclesiastical organisation, regarded the Christian +church as a state within a state and permitted it to preserve its own +juridical and at first its own governmental rights. Application was +made to the bishops when anything was required from the community and +the churches were used as taxation offices. This was all in the +interests of the clergy who thus found their traditional claims +realised. These relations were naturally modified in the course of +centuries; the crusades, the Turkish wars and the great expansion of +Europe widened the breach between Christianity and Islam, while as the +East was gradually brought under ecclesiastical influence, the +contrast grew deeper: the theory, however, that the Muhammedan +conquerors and their successors were inspired by a fanatical hatred of +Christianity is a fiction invented by Christians. + +We have now to examine this early development of Islam in somewhat +greater detail: indeed, to secure a more general appreciation of this +point is the object of the present work. + +The relationship of the Qoran to Christianity has been already noted: +it was a book which preached rather than taught and enounced isolated +laws but no connected system. Islam was a clear and simple war-cry +betokening merely a recognition of Arab supremacy, of the unity of God +and of Muhammed's prophetic mission. But in a few centuries Islam +became a complex religious structure, a confusion of Greek philosophy +and Roman law, accurately regulating every department of human life +from the deepest problems of morality to the daily use of the +toothpick, and the fashions of dress and hair. This change from the +simplicity of the founder's religious teaching to a system of +practical morality often wholly divergent from primitive doctrine, is +a transformation which all the great religions of the world have +undergone. Religious founders have succeeded in rousing the sense of +true religion in the human heart. Religious systems result from the +interaction of this impulse with pre-existing capacities for +civilisation. The highest attainments of human life are dependent upon +circumstances of time and place, and environment often exerts a more +powerful influence than creative power. The teaching of Jesus was +almost overpowered by the Graeco-Oriental culture of later Hellenism. +Dissensions persist even now because millions of people are unable to +distinguish pure religion from the forms of expression belonging to an +extinct civilisation. Islam went through a similar course of +development and assumed the spiritual panoply which was ready to hand. +Here, as elsewhere, this defence was a necessity during the period of +struggle, but became a crushing burden during the peace which followed +victory, for the reason that it was regarded as inseparable from the +wearer of it. From this point of view the analogy with Christianity +will appear extremely striking, but it is something more than an +analogy: the Oriental Hellenism of antiquity was to Christianity that +which the Christian Oriental Hellenism of a few centuries later was to +Islam. + +We must now attempt to realise the nature of this event so important +in the history of the world. A nomadic people, recently united, not +devoid of culture, but with a very limited range of ideas, suddenly +gains supremacy over a wide and populous district with an ancient +civilisation. These nomads are as yet hardly conscious of their +political unity and the individualism of the several tribes composing +it is still a disruptive force: yet they can secure domination over +countries such as Egypt and Babylonia, with complex constitutional +systems, where climatic conditions, the nature of the soil and +centuries of work have combined to develop an intricate administrative +system, which newcomers could not be expected to understand, much less +to recreate or to remodel. Yet the theory has long been held that the +Arabs entirely reorganised the constitutions of these countries. +Excessive importance has been attached to the statements of Arab +authors, who naturally regarded Islam as the beginning of all things. +In every detail of practical life they regarded the prophet and his +contemporaries as their ruling ideal, and therefore naturally assumed +that the constitutional practices of the prophet were his own +invention. The organisation of the conquering race with its tribal +subordination was certainly purely Arab in origin. In fact the +conquerors seemed so unable to adapt themselves to the conditions with +which they met, that foreigners who joined their ranks were admitted +to the Muhammedan confederacy only as clients of the various Arab +tribes. This was, however, a mere question of outward form: the +internal organisation continued unchanged, as it was bound to continue +unless chaos were to be the consequence. In fact, pre-existing +administrative regulations were so far retained that the old customs +duties on the former frontiers were levied as before, though they +represented an institution wholly alien to the spirit of the +Muhammedan empire. Those Muhammedan authors, who describe the +administrative organisation, recognise only the taxes which Islam +regarded as lawful and characterise others as malpractices which had +crept in at a later date. It is remarkable that these so-called +subsequent malpractices correspond with Byzantine and Persian usage +before the conquest: but tradition will not admit the fact that these +remained unchanged. The same fact is obvious when we consider the +progress of civilisation in general. In every case the Arabs merely +develop the social and economic achievements of the conquered races to +further issues. Such progress could indeed only be modified by a +general upheaval of existing conditions and no such movement ever took +place. The Germanic tribes destroyed the civilisations with which they +met; they adopted many of the institutions of Christian antiquity, but +found them an impediment to the development of their own genius. The +Arabs simply continued to develop the civilisation of post-classical +antiquity, with which they had come in contact. + +This procedure may seem entirely natural in the department of economic +life, but by no means inevitable where intellectual progress is +concerned. Yet a similar course was followed in either case, as may be +proved by dispassionate examination. Islam was a rising force, a faith +rather of experience than of theory or dogma, when it raised its +claims against Christianity, which represented all pre-existing +intellectual culture. A settlement of these claims was necessary and +the military triumphs are but the prelude to a great accommodation of +intellectual interests. In this Christianity played the chief part, +though Judaism is also represented: I am inclined, however, to think +that Jewish ideas as they are expressed in the Qoran were often +transmitted through the medium of Christianity. There is no doubt that +in Medina Muhammed was under direct Jewish influence of extraordinary +power. Even at that time Jewish ideas may have been in circulation, +not only in the Qoran but also in oral tradition, which afterwards +became stereotyped: at the same time Muhammed's utterances against the +Jews eventually became so strong during the Medina period, for +political reasons, that I can hardly imagine the traditions in their +final form to have been adopted directly from the Jews. The case of +Jewish converts is a different matter. But in Christianity also much +Jewish wisdom was to be found at that time and it is well known that +even the Eastern churches regarded numerous precepts of the Old +Testament, including those that dealt with ritual, as binding upon +them. In any case the spirit of Judaism is present, either directly or +working through Christianity, as an influence wherever Islam +accommodated itself to the new intellectual and spiritual life which +it had encountered. It was a compromise which affected the most +trivial details of life, and in these matters religious scrupulosity +was carried to a ridiculous point: here we may see the outcome of that +Judaism which, as has been said, was then a definite element in +Eastern Christianity. Together with Jewish, Greek and classical ideas +were also naturally operative, while Persian and other ancient +Oriental conceptions were transmitted to Islam by Christianity: these +instances I have collectively termed Christian because Christianity +then represented the whole of later classical intellectualism, which +influenced Islam for the most part through Christianity. + +It seems that the communication of these ideas to Muhammedanism was +impeded by the necessity of translating them not only into a kindred +language, but into one of wholly different linguistic structure. For +Muhammedanism the difficulty was lessened by the fact that it had +learned Christianity in Syria and Persia through the Semitic dialect +known as Aramaic, by which Greek and Persian culture had been +transmitted to the Arabs before the rise of Islam. In this case, as in +many others, the history of language runs on parallel lines with the +history of civilisation. The necessities of increasing civilisation +had introduced many Aramaic words to the Arabic vocabulary before +Muhammed's day: these importations increased considerably when the +Arabs entered a wider and more complex civilisation and were +especially considerable where intellectual culture was concerned. Even +Greek terms made their way into Arabic through Aramaic. This natural +dependency of Arabic upon Aramaic, which in turn was connected with +Greek as the rival Christian vernacular in these regions, is alone +sufficient evidence that Christianity exerted a direct influence upon +Muhammedanism. Moreover, as we have seen, the Qoran itself regarded +Christians as being in possession of divine wisdom, and some reference +both to Christianity and to Judaism was necessary to explain the many +unintelligible passages of the Qoran. Allusions were made to texts and +statements in the Thora and the Gospels, and God was represented as +constantly appealing to earlier revelations of Himself. Thus it was +only natural that interpreters should study these scriptures and ask +counsel of their possessors. Of primary importance was the fact that +both Christians and Jews, and the former in particular, accepted +Muhammedanism by thousands, and formed a new intellectual class of +ability infinitely superior to that of the original Muslims and able +to attract the best elements of the Arab nationality to their +teaching. It was as impossible for these apostate Christians to +abandon their old habits of thought as it was hopeless to expect any +sudden change in the economic conditions under which they lived. +Christian theories of God and the world naturally assumed a Muhammedan +colouring and thus the great process of accommodating Christianity to +Muhammedanism was achieved. The Christian contribution to this end was +made partly directly and partly by teaching, and in the intellectual +as well as in the economic sphere the ultimate ideal was inevitably +dictated by the superior culture of Christianity. The Muhammedans were +thus obliged to accept Christian hypotheses on theological points and +the fundaments of Christian and Muhammedan culture thus become +identical. + +I use the term hypotheses, for the reason that the final determination +of the points at issue was by no means identical, wherever the Qoran +definitely contradicted Christian views of morality or social laws. +But in these cases also, Christian ideas were able to impose +themselves upon tradition and to issue in practice, even when opposed +by the actual text of the Qoran. They did not always pass unquestioned +and even on trivial points were obliged to encounter some resistance. +The theory of the Sunday was accepted, but that day was not chosen and +Friday was preferred: meetings for worship were held in imitation of +Christian practice, but attempts to sanctify the day and to proclaim +it a day of rest were forbidden: except for the performance of divine +service, Friday was an ordinary week-day. When, however, the Qoran was +in any sort of harmony with Christianity, the Christian ideas of the +age were textually accepted in any further development of the +question. The fact is obvious, not only as regards details, but also +in the general theory of man's position upon earth. + + * * * * * + +Muhammed, the preacher of repentance, had become a temporal prince in +Medina; his civil and political administration was ecclesiastical in +character, an inevitable result of his position as the apostle of God, +whose congregation was at the same time a state. This theory of the +state led later theorists unconsciously to follow the lead of +Christianity, which regarded the church as supreme in every department +of life, and so induced Muhammedanism to adopt views of life and +social order which are now styled mediaeval. The theological +development of this system is to be attributed chiefly to groups of +pious thinkers in Medina: they were excluded from political life when +the capital was transferred from Medina to Damascus and were left in +peace to elaborate their theory of the Muhammedan divine polity. The +influence of these groups was paramount: but of almost equal +importance was the influence of the proselytes in the conquered lands +who were Christians for the most part and for that reason far above +their Arab contemporaries in respect of intellectual training and +culture. We find that the details of jurisprudence, dogma, and +mysticism can only be explained by reference to Christian stimulus, +nor is it any exaggeration to ascribe the further development of +Muhammed's views to the influence of thinkers who regarded the +religious polity of Islam as the realisation of an ideal which +Christianity had hitherto vainly striven to attain. This ideal was the +supremacy of religion over life and all its activities, over the state +and the individual alike. But it was a religion primarily concerned +with the next world, where alone real worth was to be found. Earthly +life was a pilgrimage to be performed and earthly intentions had no +place with heavenly. The joy of life which the ancient world had +known, art, music and culture, all were rejected or valued only as +aids to religion. Human action was judged with reference only to its +appraisement in the life to come. That ascetic spirit was paramount, +which had enchained the Christian world, that renunciation of secular +affairs which explains the peculiar methods by which mediaeval views +of life found expression. + +Asceticism did not disturb the course of life as a whole. It might +condemn but it could not suppress the natural impulse of man to +propagate his race: it might hamper economic forces, but it could not +destroy them. It eventually led to a compromise in every department of +life, but for centuries it retained its domination over men's minds +and to some material extent over their actions. + +Such was the environment in which Islam was planted: its deepest roots +had been fertilised with Christian theory, and in spite of Muhammed's +call to repentance, its most characteristic manifestations were +somewhat worldly and non-ascetic. "Islam knows not monasticism" says +the tradition which this tendency produced. The most important +compromise of all, that with life, which Christianity only secured by +gradual steps, had been already attained for Islam by Muhammed himself +and was included in the course of his development. As Islam now +entered the Christian world, it was forced to pass through this +process of development once more. At the outset it was permeated with +the idea of Christian asceticism, to which an inevitable opposition +arose, and found expression in such statements as that already quoted. +But Muhammed's preaching had obviously striven to honour the future +life by painting the actual world in the gloomiest colours, and the +material optimism of the secular-minded was unable to check the +advance of Christian asceticism among the classes which felt a real +interest in religion. Hence that surprising similarity of views upon +the problem of existence, which we have now to outline. In details of +outward form great divergency is apparent. Christianity possessed a +clergy while Islam did not: yet the force of Christian influence +produced a priestly class in Islam. It was a class acting not as +mediator between God and man through sacraments and mysteries, but as +moral leaders and legal experts; as such it was no less important than +the scribes under Judaism. Unanimity among these scholars could +produce decisions no less binding than those of the Christian clergy +assembled in church councils. They are representatives of the +congregation which "has no unanimity, for such would be an error." +Islam naturally preferred to adopt unanimous conclusions in silence +rather than to vote in assemblies. As a matter of fact a body of +orthodox opinion was developed by this means with no less success than +in Christendom. Any agreement which the quiet work of the scholars had +secured upon any question was ratified by God and was thus irrevocably +and eternally binding. For instance, the proclamation to the faithful +of new ideas upon the exposition of the Qoran or of tradition was +absolutely forbidden; the scholars, in other words the clergy, had +convinced themselves, by the fact of their unanimity upon the point, +that the customary and traditional mode of exposition was the one +pleasing to God. Ideas of this kind naturally remind us of Roman +Catholic practice. The influence of Eastern Christianity upon Islam is +undoubtedly visible here. This influence could not in the face of +Muhammedan tradition and custom, create an organised clergy, but it +produced a clerical class to guard religious thought, and as religion +spread, to supervise thought of every kind. + +Christianity again condemned marriage, though it eventually agreed to +a compromise sanctifying this tie; Islam, on the contrary, found in +the Qoran the text "Ye that are unmarried shall marry" (24, 32). In +the face of so clear a statement, the condemnation of marriage, which +in any case was contrary to the whole spirit of the Qoran, could not +be maintained. Thus the Muhammedan tradition contains numerous sayings +in support of marriage. "A childless house contains no blessing": "the +breath of a son is as the breath of Paradise"; "when a man looks upon +his wife (in love) and she upon him, God looks down in mercy upon them +both." "Two prayers of a married man are more precious in the sight of +God than seventy of a bachelor." With many similar variations upon the +theme, Muhammed is said to have urged marriage upon his followers. On +the other hand an almost equally numerous body of warnings against +marriage exists, also issued by Muhammed. I know no instance of direct +prohibition, but serious admonitions are found which usually take the +form of denunciation of the female sex and were early interpreted as +warnings by tradition. "Fear the world and women": "thy worst enemies +are the wife at thy side and thy concubine": "the least in Paradise +are the women": "women are the faggots of hell"; "pious women are rare +as ravens with white or red legs and white beaks"; "but for women men +might enter Paradise." Here we come upon a strain of thought +especially Christian. Muhammed regarded the satisfaction of the sexual +instincts as natural and right and made no attempt to put restraint +upon it: Christian asceticism regarded this impulse as the greatest +danger which could threaten the spiritual life of its adherents, and +the sentences above quoted may be regarded as the expression of this +view. Naturally the social position of the woman suffered in +consequence and is so much worse in the traditional Muhammedanism as +compared with the Qoran that the change can only be ascribed to the +influence of the civilisation which the Muhammedans encountered. The +idea of woman as a creature of no account is certainly rooted in the +ancient East, but it reached Islam in Christian dress and with the +authority of Christian hostility to marriage. + +With this hostility to marriage are probably connected the regulations +concerning the covering of the body: in the ancient church only the +face, the hands and the feet were to be exposed to view, the object +being to prevent the suggestion of sinful thoughts: it is also likely +that objections to the ancient habit of leaving the body uncovered +found expression in this ordinance. Similar objections may be found in +Muhammedan tradition; we may regard these as further developments of +commands given in the Qoran, but it is also likely that Muhammed's +apocryphal statements upon the point were dictated by Christian +religious theory. They often appear in connection with warnings +against frequenting the public baths, which fact is strong evidence of +their Christian origin. "A bad house is the bath: much turmoil is +therein and men show their nakedness." "Fear that house that is called +the bathhouse and if any enter therein, let him veil himself." "He who +believes in God and the last Judgment, let him enter the bath only in +bathing dress." "Nakedness is forbidden to us." There is a story of +the prophet, to the effect that he was at work unclothed when a voice +from heaven ordered him to cover his nakedness! + + * * * * * + +We thus see, that an astonishing similarity is apparent in the +treatment even of questions where divergency is fundamental. +Divergency, it is true, existed, but pales before the general affinity +of the two theories of life. Our judgment upon Christian medievalism +in this respect can be applied directly and literally to +Muhammedanism. Either religion regards man as no more than a sojourner +in this world. It is not worth while to arrange for a permanent +habitation, and luxurious living is but pride. Hence the simplicity of +private dwellings in mediaeval times both in the East and West. +Architectural expense is confined to churches and mosques, which were +intended for the service of God. These Christian ideas are reflected +in the inexhaustible storehouse of Muhammedan theory, the great +collections of tradition, as follows. "The worst use which a believer +can make of his money is to build." "Every building, except a mosque, +will stand to the discredit of its architect on the day of +resurrection." These polemics which Islam inherited from Christianity +are directed not only against building in general, but also against +the erection and decoration of lofty edifices: "Should a man build a +house nine ells high, a voice will call to him from heaven, Whither +wilt thou rise, most profane of the profane?" "No prophet enters a +house adorned with fair decoration." With these prohibitions should be +connected the somewhat unintelligible fact that the most pious Caliphs +sat upon thrones (_mimbar_, "president's chair") of clay. The simplest +and most transitory material thus serves to form the symbol of +temporal power. A house is adorned not by outward show, but by the +fact that prayer is offered and the Qoran recited within its walls. +These theories were out of harmony with the worldly tendencies of the +conquerors, who built themselves castles, such as Qusair Amra: they +belong to the spirit of Christianity rather than to Islam. + +Upon similar principles we may explain the demand for the utmost +simplicity and reserve in regard to the other enjoyments of life. To +eat whenever one may wish is excess and two meals a day are more than +enough. The portion set apart for one may also suffice for two. Ideas +of this kind are of constant recurrence in the Muhammedan traditions: +indispensable needs alone are to be satisfied, as indeed Thomas +Aquinas teaches. Similar observations apply to dress: "he who walks in +costly garments to be seen of men is not seen of the Lord." Gold and +silver ornaments, and garments of purple and silk are forbidden by +both religions. Princes live as simply as beggars and possess only one +garment, so that they are unable to appear in public when it is being +washed: they live upon a handful of dates and are careful to save +paper and artificial light. Such incidents are common in the oldest +records of the first Caliphs. These princes did not, of course, live +in such beggary, and the fact is correspondingly important that after +the lapse of one or two generations the Muhammedan historians should +describe their heroes as possessing only the typical garment of the +Christian saint. This one fact speaks volumes. + +Every action was performed in God or with reference to God--an +oft-repeated idea in either religion. There is a continual hatred of +the world and a continual fear that it may imperil a man's soul. Hence +the sense of vast responsibility felt by the officials, a sense which +finds expression even in the ordinary official correspondence of the +authorities which papyri have preserved for us. The phraseology is +often stereotyped, but as such, expresses a special theory of life. +This responsibility is represented as weighing with especial severity +upon a pious Caliph. Upon election to the throne he accepts office +with great reluctance protesting his unworthiness with tears. The West +can relate similar stories of Gregory the Great and of Justinian. + +Exhortations are frequent ever to remember the fact of death and to +repent and bewail past sins. When a mention of the last Judgment +occurs in the reading of passages from the Bible or Qoran, the +auditors burst into tears. Upon one occasion a man was praying upon +the roof of his house and wept so bitterly over his sins, that the +tears ran down the waterspout and flooded the rooms below. This +hyperbolical statement in a typical life of a saint shows the high +value attributed to tears in the East. It is, however, equally a +Christian characteristic. The gracious gift of tears was regarded by +mediaeval Christianity as the sign of a deeply religious nature. +Gregory VII is said to have wept daily at the sacrifice of the Mass +and similar accounts are given to the credit of other famous +Christians. + +While a man should weep for his own sins, he is not to bewail any +misfortune or misery which may befall him. In the latter case it is +his duty to collect his strength, to resign himself and to praise God +even amid his sufferings. Should he lose a dear relative by death, he +is not to break out with cries and lamentations like the heathen. +Lamentation for the dead is most strictly forbidden in Islam. "We are +God's people and to God we return" says the pious Muslim on receiving +the unexpected news of a death. Resignation and patience in these +matters is certainly made the subject of eloquent exhortation in the +Qoran, but the special developments of tradition betray Christian +influence. + +Generally speaking, the whole ethical system of the two religions is +based upon the contrast between God and the world, though Muhammedan +philosophy will recognize no principle beside that of God. As a +typical example we may take a sentence from the Spanish bishop Isidor +who died in 636: "Good are the intentions directed towards God and bad +are those directed to earthly gain or transitory fame." Any Muhammedan +theologian would have subscribed to this statement. On the one hand +stress is laid upon motive as giving its value to action. The first +sentence in the most famous collection of traditions runs, "Deeds +shall be judged by their intentions." On the other hand is the +contrast between God and the world, or as Islam puts it, between the +present and the future life. The Christian gains eternal life by +following Christ. Imitation of the Master in all things even to the +stigmata, is the characteristic feature of mediaeval Christianity. Nor +is the whole of the so-called Sunna obedience anything more than the +imitation of Muhammed which seeks to repeat the smallest details of +his life. The infinite importance attached by Islam to the Sunna seems +to me to have originated in Christian influence. The development of it +betrays original features, but the fundamental principle is Christian, +as all the leading ideas of Islam are Christian, in the sense of the +term as paraphrased above. Imitation of Christ in the first instance, +attempts to repeat his poverty and renunciation of personal property: +this is the great Christian ideal. Muhammed was neither poor nor +without possessions: at the end of his life he had become a prince and +had directly stated that property was a gift from God. In spite of +that his successors praise poverty and their praises were the best of +evidence that they were influenced not by the prophet himself but by +Christianity. While the traditions are full of the praises of poverty +and the dangers of wealth, assertions in praise of wealth also +occur, for the reason that the pure Muhammedan ideas opposed to +Christianity retained a certain influence. J. Goldziher has published +an interesting study showing how many words borrowed from this source +occur in the written Muhammedan traditions: an almost complete +version of the Lord's Prayer is quoted. Even the idea of love towards +enemies, which would have been unintelligible to Muhammed, made its +way into the traditions: "the most virtuous of acts is to seek out him +who rejects thee, to give to him that despises thee and to pardon him +that oppresses thee." The Gospel precept to do unto others as we would +they should do unto us (Matt. vii. 12, Luke vi. 31) is to be found in +the Arab traditions, and many similar points of contact may be +noticed. A man's "neighbour" has ever been, despite the teaching of +Jesus, to the Christian and to the Muhammedan, his co-religionist. The +whole department of Muhammedan ethics has thus been subjected to +strong Christian influence. + +Naturally this ecclesiasticism which dominated the whole of life, was +bound to assert itself in state organisation. An abhorrence of the +state, so far as it was independent of religion, a feeling unknown in +the ancient world, pervades both Christianity and Muhammedanism, +Christianity first struggled to secure recognition in the state and +afterwards fought with the state for predominance. Islam and the state +were at first identical: in its spiritual leaders it was soon +separated from the state. Its idea of a divine polity was elaborated +to the smallest details, but remained a theory which never became +practice. Yet this ideal retained such strength that every Muhammedan +usurper was careful to secure his investiture by the Caliph, the +nominal leader of this ecclesiastical state, even if force were +necessary to attain his object. For instance, Saladin was absolutely +independent of the nominal Caliph in Bagdad, but could not feel that +his position was secure until he had obtained his sultan's patent from +the Caliph. Only then did his supremacy rest upon a religious basis +and he was not regarded by popular opinion as a legitimate monarch +until this ceremony had been performed. This theory corresponds with +constitutional ideals essentially Christian. "The tyranny," wrote +Innocent IV to the Emperor Frederick II, "which was once generally +exercised throughout the world, was resigned into the hands of the +Church by Constantine, who then received as an honourable gift from +the proper source that which he had formerly held and exercised +unrighteously." The long struggle between Church and State in this +matter is well known. In this struggle the rising power of Islam had +adopted a similar attitude. The great abhorrence of a secular +"monarchy" in opposition to a religious caliphate, as expressed both +by the dicta of tradition and by the Abbassid historians, was +inspired, in my opinion, by Christian dislike of a divorce between +Church and State. The phenomenon might be explained without reference +to external influence, but if the whole process be considered in +connection, Christian influence seems more than probable. + +A similar attitude was also assumed by either religion towards the +facts of economic life. In either case the religious point of view is +characteristic. The reaction against the tendency to condemn secular +life is certainly stronger in Islam, but is also apparent in +Christianity. Thomas Aquinas directly stigmatises trade as a +disgraceful means of gain, because the exchange of wares does not +necessitate labour or the satisfaction of necessary wants: Muhammedan +tradition says, "The pious merchant is a pioneer on the road of God." +"The first to enter Paradise is the honourable merchant." Here the +solution given to the problem differs in either case, but in Christian +practice, opposition was also obvious. Common to both religions is the +condemnation of the exaction of interest and monetary speculation, +which the middle ages regarded as usury. Islam, as usual, gives this +Christian idea the form of a saying enounced by Muhammed: "He who +speculates in grain for forty days, grinds and bakes it and gives it +to the poor, makes an offering unacceptable to God." "He who raises +prices to Muslims (by speculation) will be cast head downwards by God +into the hottest fire of hell." Many similar traditions fulminate +against usury in the widest sense of the word. These prohibitions were +circumvented in practice by deed of gift and exchange, but none the +less the free development of commercial enterprise was hampered by +these fetters which modern civilisation first broke. Enterprise was +thus confined to agriculture under these circumstances both for +Christianity and Islam, and economic life in either case became +"mediaeval" in outward appearance. + +Methods of making profit without a proportional expenditure of labour +were the particular objects of this aversion. Manual labour was highly +esteemed both in the East and West. A man's first duty was to support +himself by the work of his own hands, a duty proclaimed, as we know, +from the apostolic age onwards. So far as Islam is concerned, this +view may be illustrated by the following utterances: "The best of +deeds is the gain of that which is lawful": "the best gain is made by +sale within lawful limits and by manual labour." "The most precious +gain is that made by manual labour; that which a man thus earns and +gives to himself, his people, his sons and his servants, is as +meritorious as alms." Thus practical work is made incumbent upon the +believer, and the extent to which manufacture flourished in East and +West during the middle ages is well known. + +A similar affinity is apparent as regards ideas upon social position +and occupation. Before God man is but a slave: even the mighty Caliphs +themselves, even those who were stigmatised by posterity as secular +monarchs, included in their official titles the designation, "slave of +God." This theory was carried out into the smallest details of life, +even into those which modern observers would consider as unconcerned +with religion. Thus at meals the Muslim was not allowed to recline at +table, an ancient custom which the upper classes had followed for +centuries: he must sit, "as a slave," according to the letter of the +law. All are alike slaves, for the reason that they are believers: +hence the humiliation of those whom chance has exalted is thought +desirable. This idealism is undoubtedly more deeply rooted in the +popular consciousness of the East than of the West. In the East great +social distinctions occur; but while religion recognises them, it +forbids insistence upon them. + +As especially distinctive of social work in either religion we might +be inclined to regard the unparalleled extent of organizations for the +care of the poor, for widows and orphans, for the old, infirm and +sick, the public hospitals and almshouses and religious foundations in +the widest sense of the term; but the object of these activities was +not primarily social nor were they undertaken to make life easier for +the poor: religious selfishness was the leading motive, the desire to +purify self by good works and to secure the right to pre-eminence in +heaven. "For the salvation of my soul and for everlasting reward" is +the formula of many a Christian foundation deed. Very similar +expressions of hope for eternal reward occur in Muhammedan deeds of +gift. A foundation inscription on a mosque, published by E. Littmann, +is stated in terms the purport of which is unmistakable. "This has +been built by N or M: may a house be built for him in Paradise (in +return)." Here again, the idea of the house in Paradise is borrowed +from Christian ideas. + +We have already observed that in Islam the smallest trivialities of +daily life become matters of religious import. The fact is especially +apparent in a wide department of personal conduct. Islam certainly +went to further extremes than Christianity in this matter, but these +customs are clearly only further developments of Christian +regulations. The call to simplicity of food and dress has already been +mentioned. But even the simplest food was never to be taken before +thanks had been given to God: grace was never to be omitted either +before or after meals. Divine ordinances also regulated the manner of +eating. The prophet said, "With one finger the devils eat, with two +the Titans of antiquity and with three fingers the prophets." The +application of the saying is obvious. Similar sayings prescribe the +mode of handling dishes and behaviour at a common meal, if the +blessing of God is to be secured. There seems to be a Christian touch +in one of these rules which runs, in the words of the prophet: "He who +picks up the crumbs fallen from the table and eats them, will be +forgiven by God." "He who licks the empty dishes and his fingers will +be filled by God here and in the world to come." "When a man licks the +dish from which he has eaten, the dish will plead for him before God." +I regard these words as practical applications of the text, "Gather up +the pieces that remain, that nothing be lost" (Matt. xiv. 10: John vi. +12). Even to-day South Italians kiss bread that has fallen to the +ground, in order to make apology to the gift of God. Volumes might be +filled with rules of polite manners in this style: hardly any detail +is to be found in the whole business of daily life, even including +occupations regarded as unclean, which was not invested with some +religious significance. These rules are almost entirely dictated by +the spirit of early Christianity and it is possible to reconstruct the +details of life in those dark ages from these literary records which +are now the only source of evidence upon such points. However, we must +here content ourselves with establishing the fact that Islam adopted +Christian practice in this as in other departments of life. + +The state, society, the individual, economics and morality were thus +collectively under Christian influence during the early period of +Muhammedanism. Conditions very similar in general, affected those +conceptions which we explain upon scientific grounds but which were +invariably regarded by ancient and mediaeval thought as supernatural, +conceptions deduced from the phenomena of illness and dreams. Islam +was no less opposed than Christianity to the practice of magic in any +form, but only so far as these practices seemed to preserve remnants +of heathen beliefs. Such beliefs were, however, continued in both +religions in modified form. There is no doubt that ideas of high +antiquity, doubtless of Babylonian origin, can be traced as +contributing to the formation of these beliefs, while scientific +medicine is connected with the earlier discoveries of Greece. Common +to both religions was the belief in the reality of dreams, especially +when these seemed to harmonise with religious ideas: dreams were +regarded as revelations from God or from his apostles or from the +pious dead. The fact that man could dream and that he could appear to +other men in dreams after his death was regarded as a sign of divine +favour and the biographies of the saints often contain chapters +devoted to this faculty. These are natural ideas which lie in the +national consciousness of any people, but owe their development in the +case of Islam to Christian influence. The same may be said of the +belief that the prayers of particular saints were of special efficacy, +and of attempts by prayer, forms of worship and the like to procure +rain, avert plague and so forth: such ideas are common throughout the +middle ages. Thus in every department we meet with that particular +type of Christian theory which existed in the East during the seventh +and eighth centuries. + +This mediaeval theory of life was subjected, as is well known, to many +compromises in the West, and was materially modified by Teutonic +influence and the revival of classicism. It might therefore be +supposed that in Islam Christian theory underwent similar modification +or disappeared entirely. But the fact is not so. At the outset, we +stated, as will be remembered, that Muhammedan scholars were +accustomed to propound their dicta as utterances given by Muhammed +himself, and in this form Christian ideas also came into circulation +among Muhammedans. When attempts were made to systematise these +sayings, all were treated as alike authentic, and, as traditional, +exerted their share of influence upon the formation of canon law. Thus +questions of temporary importance to mediaeval Christianity became +permanent elements in Muhammedan theology. + +One highly instructive instance may be given. During the century which +preceded the Byzantine iconoclastic controversy, the whole of nearer +Asia was disturbed by the question whether the erection and veneration +of images was permissible. That Constantinople attempted to prohibit +such veneration is well known: but after a long struggle the church +gained its wishes. Islam was confronted with the problem and decided +for prohibition, doubtless under Jewish influence. Sayings of Muhammed +forbid the erection of images. This prohibition became part of canon +law and therefore binding for all time: it remains obligatory at the +present day, though in practice it is often transgressed. Thus the +process of development which was continued in Christendom, came to a +standstill in Islam, and many similar cases might be quoted. + +Here begins the development of Muhammedan jurisprudence or, more +exactly, of the doctrine of duty, which includes every kind of human +activity, duties to God and man, religion, civil law, the penal code, +social morality and economics. This extraordinary system of moral +obligations, as developed in Islam, though its origin is obscure, is +doubtless rooted in the ecclesiastical law of Christendom which was +then first evolved. I have no doubt that the development of Muhammedan +tradition, which precedes the code proper, was dependent upon the +growth of canon law in the old Church, and that this again, or at +least the purely legal part of it, is closely connected with the +pre-Justinian legislation. Roman law does not seem to me to have +influenced Islam immediately in the form of Justinian's _Corpus +Juris_, but indirectly from such ecclesiastical sources as the +Romano-Syrian code. This view, however, I would distinctly state, is +merely my conjecture. For our present purpose it is more important to +establish the fact that the doctrine of duty canonised the manifold +expressions of the theory that life is a religion, with which we have +met throughout the traditional literature: all human acts are thus +legally considered as obligatory or forbidden when corresponding with +religious commands or prohibitions, as congenial or obnoxious to the +law or as matters legally indifferent and therefore permissible. The +arrangement of the work of daily life in correspondence with these +religious points of view is the most important outcome of the +Muhammedan doctrine of duties. The religious utterances which also +cover the whole business of life were first made duties by this +doctrine: in practice their fulfilment is impossible, but the theory +of their obligatory nature is a fundamental element in Muhammedanism. + +Where the doctrine of duties deals with legal rights, its application +was in practice confined to marriage and the affairs of family life: +the theoretical demands of its penal clauses, for instance, raise +impossible difficulties. At the same time, it has been of great +importance to the whole spiritual life of Islam down to the present +day, because it reflects Muhammedan ideals of life and of man's place +in the world. Even to-day it remains the daily bread of the soul that +desires instruction, to quote the words of the greatest father of the +Muhammedan church. It will thus be immediately obvious to what a vast +extent Christian theory of the seventh and eighth centuries still +remains operative upon Muhammedan thought throughout the world. + +Considerable parts of the doctrine of duties are concerned with the +forms of Muhammedan worship. It is becoming ever clearer that only +slight tendencies to a form of worship were apparent under Muhammed. +The mosque, the building erected for the special purpose of divine +service, was unknown during the prophet's lifetime; nor was there any +definite church organisation, of which the most important parts are +the common ritual and the preaching. Tendencies existed but no system, +was to be found: there was no clerical class to take an interest in +the development of an order of divine service. The Caliphs prayed +before the faithful in the capital, as did the governors in the +provinces. The military commanders also led a simple service in their +own stations. + +It was contact with foreign influence which first provided the impulse +to a systematic form of worship. Both Christians and Jews possessed +such forms. Their example was followed and a ritual was evolved, at +first of the very simplest kind. No detailed organisation, however, +was attempted, until Christian influence led to the formation of the +class which naturally took an interest in the matter, the professional +theologians. These soon replaced the military service leaders. This +change denoted the final stage in the development of ritual. The +object of the theologians was to subject the various occupations of +life to ritual as well as to religion. The mediatorial or sacramental +theories of the priestly office were unknown to Islam, but ritual +customs of similar character were gradually evolved, and are +especially pronounced in the ceremonies of marriage and burial. + +More important, however, was the development of the official service, +the arrangement of the day and the hour of obligatory attendance and +the introduction of preaching: under Muhammed and his early followers, +and until late in the Omajjad period, preaching was confined to +addresses, given as occasion demanded, but by degrees it became part +of the regular ritual. With it was afterwards connected the +intercession for the Caliphs, which became a highly significant part +of the service, as symbolising their sovereignty. It seems to me very +probable that this practice was an adoption, at any rate in theory, of +the Christian custom of praying for the emperor. The pulpit was then +introduced under Christian influence, which thus completely +transformed the chair (_mimbar_) of the ancient Arab judges and rulers +and made it a piece of church furniture; the Christian _cancelli_ or +choir screens were adopted and the mosque was thus developed. Before +the age of mosques, a lance had been planted in the ground and prayer +offered behind it: so in the mosque a prayer niche was made, a +survival of the pre-existing custom. There are many obscure points in +the development of the worship, but one fact may be asserted with +confidence: the developments of ritual were derived from pre-existing +practices, which were for the most part Christian. + +But the religious energy of Islam was not exclusively devoted to the +development and practice of the doctrine of duties; at the same time +this ethical department, in spite of its dependency upon Christian and +Jewish ideas, remains its most original achievement: we have pursued +the subject at some length, because its importance is often overlooked +in the course of attempts to estimate the connection between +Christianity and Islam. On the other hand, affinities in the regions +of mysticism and dogma have long been matter of common knowledge and a +brief sketch of them will therefore suffice. If not essential to our +purpose within the limits of this book, they are none the less +necessary to complete our treatment of the subject. + +By mysticism we understand the expression of religious emotion, as +contrasted with efforts to attain righteousness by full obedience to +the ethical doctrine of duties, and also in contrast to the +hair-splitting of dogmatic speculation: mysticism strove to reach +immediate emotional unity with the Godhead. No trace of any such +tendency was to be found in the Qoran: it entered Islam as a complete +novelty, and the affinities which enabled it to gain a footing have +been difficult to trace. + +Muhammedan mysticism is certainly not exclusively Christian: its +origins, like those of Christian mysticism, are to be found in the +pantheistic writings of the Neoplatonist school of Dionysius the +Areopagite: but Islam apparently derived its mysticism from Christian +sources. In it originated the idea, with all its capacity for +development, of the mystical love of God: to this was added the theory +and practice of asceticism which was especially developed by +Christianity, and, in later times, the influence of Indian philosophy, +which is unmistakable. Such are the fundamental elements of this +tendency. When the idea of the Nirwana, the Arab _fan[=a]_, is +attained, Muhammedanism proper comes to an end. But orthodoxy controls +the divergent elements: it opposes any open avowal of the logical +conclusion, which would identify "God" and the "ego," but in practice +this group of ideas, pantheistic in all but name, has been received +and given a place side by side with the strict monotheism of the Qoran +and with the dogmatic theology. Any form of mysticism which is pushed +to its logical consequences must overthrow positive religion. By +incorporating this dangerous tendency within itself, Islam has averted +the peril which it threatens. Creed is no longer endangered, and this +purpose being secured, thought is free. + +Union with God is gained by ecstasy and leads to enthusiasm. These +terms will therefore show us in what quarter we must seek the +strongest impulses to mysticism. The concepts, if not the actual +terms, are to be found in Islam: they were undoubtedly transmitted by +Christianity and undergo the wide extension which results in the +dervish and fakir developments. _Dervish_ and _fakir_ are the Persian +and Arabic words for "beggar": the word _sufi_, a man in a woollen +shirt, is also used in the same sense. The terms show that asceticism +is a fundamental element in mysticism; asceticism was itself an +importation to Islam. Dervishes are divided into different classes or +orders, according to the methods by which they severally prefer to +attain ecstasy: dancing and recitation are practised by the dancing +and howling dervishes and other methods are in vogue. It is an +institution very different from monasticism but the result of a course +of development undoubtedly similar to that which produced the monk: +dervishism and monasticism are independent developments of the same +original idea. + +Among these Muhammedan companies attempts to reach the point of +ecstasy have developed to a rigid discipline of the soul; the believer +must subject himself to his master, resigning all power of will, and +so gradually reaches higher stages of knowledge until he is eventually +led to the consciousness of his absolute identity with God. It seems +to me beyond question that this method is reflected in the _exercitiis +spiritualibus_ of Ignatius Loyola, the chief instrument by which the +Jesuits secured dominion over souls. Any one who has realised the +enormous influence which Arab thought exerted upon Spanish +Christianity so late as the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, will +not regard the conjecture as unfounded. + +When a man's profession or position prevented him from practising +these mystical exercises, he satisfied his religious needs by +venerating persons who were nearer to the deity and whose intercession +was effectual even after their death and sometimes not until they were +dead: hence arose the veneration of saints, a practice as alien as +pantheistic dogma to primitive Islam. The adoption of Christian saint +worship was not possible until the person of Muhammed himself had been +exalted above the ordinary level of humanity. Early Muhammedans +observed that the founder of Christianity was regarded by popular +opinion as a miracle worker of unrivalled power: it was impossible for +the founder of Islam to remain inferior in this respect. Thus the +early biographies of the prophet, which appeared in the first century +of Muhammedanism, recount the typical miracles of the Gospels, the +feeding of multitudes, healing the sick, raising the dead and so +forth. Two methods of adoption may be distinguished. Special features +are directly borrowed, or the line of advance is followed which had +introduced the worship of saints and relics to Christianity a short +time before. The religious emotions natural to any people produced a +series of ideas which pass from one religion to another. Outward form +and purport may be changed, but the essential points remain unaltered +and are the living expression of that relation to God in which a +people conceives itself to stand. Higher forms of religion--a fact as +sad as it is true--require a certain degree not only of moral but of +intellectual capacity. + +Thus we have traversed practically the whole circle of religious life +and have everywhere found Islam following in the path of Christian +thought. One department remains to be examined, which might be +expected to offer but scanty opportunity for borrowings of this kind; +this is dogma. Here, if anywhere, the contrast between the two +religions should be obvious. The initial divergencies were so +pronounced, that any adoption of Christian ideas would seem +impossible. Yet in those centuries, Christianity was chiefly agitated +by dogmatic questions, which occupied men's minds as greatly as social +problems at the present day. Here we can observe most distinctly, how +the problems at least were taken over by Islam. + +Muhammedan dogmatic theology is concerned only with three main +questions, the problem of free-will, the being and attributes of God, +and the eternal uncreated nature of God's word. The mere mention of +these problems will recall the great dogmatic struggles of early +Christianity. At no time have the problems of free-will and the nature +of God, been subjects of fiercer dispute than during the +Christological and subsequent discussions. Upholders of freedom or of +determinism could alike find much to support their theories in the +Qoran: Muhammed was no dogmatist and for him the ideas of man's +responsibility and of God's almighty and universal power were not +mutually exclusive. The statement of the problem was adopted from +Christianity as also was the dialectical subtlety by which a solution +was reached, and which, while admitting the almighty power of God, +left man responsible for his deeds by regarding him as free to accept +or refuse the admonitions of God. Thus the thinkers and their demands +for justice and righteous dealing were reconciled to the blind +fatalism of the masses, which again was not a native Muhammedan +product, but is the outcome of the religious spirit of the East. + +The problem of reconciling the attributes of God with the dogma of His +unity was solved with no less subtlety. The mere idea that a +multiplicity of attributes was incompatible with absolute unity was +only possible in a school which had spent centuries in the desperate +attempt to reconcile the inference of a divine Trinity with the +conception of absolute divine unity. + +Finally, the third question, "Was the Qoran, the word of God, created +or not?" is an obvious counterpart of the Logos problem, of the +struggle to secure recognition of the Logos as eternal and uncreated +together with God. Islam solved the question by distinguishing the +eternal and uncreated Qoran from the revealed and created. The eternal +nature of the Qoran was a dogma entirely alien to the strict +monotheism of Islam: but this fact was never realised, any more than +the fact that the acceptance of the dogma was a triumph for +Graeco-Christian dialectic. There can be no more striking proof of the +strength of Christian influence: it was able to undermine the +fundamental dogma of Islam, and the Muhammedans never realised the +fact. + +In our review of these dogmatic questions, we have met with a novel +tendency, that to metaphysical speculation and dialectic. It was from +Christendom, not directly from the Greek world, that this spirit +reached Islam: the first attitude of Muhammedanism towards it was that +which Christianity adopted towards all non-religious systems of +thought. Islam took it up as a useful weapon for the struggle against +heresy. But it soon became a favourite and trusted implement and +eventually its influence upon Muhammedan philosophy became paramount. +Here we meet with a further Christian influence, which, when once +accepted, very largely contributed to secure a similar development of +mediaeval Christian and Muhammedan thought. This was Scholasticism, +which was the natural and inevitable consequence of the study of Greek +dialectic and philosophy. It is not necessary to sketch the growth of +scholasticism, with its barrenness of results in spite of its keen +intellectual power, upon ground already fertilised by ecclesiastical +pioneers. It will suffice to state the fact that these developments of +the Greek spirit were predominant here as in the West: in either case +important philosophies rise upon this basis, for the most part +professedly ecclesiastical, even when they occasionally struck at the +roots of the religious system to which they belonged. In this +department, Islam repaid part of its debt to Christianity, for the +Arabs became the intellectual leaders of the middle ages. + +Thus we come to the concluding section of this treatise; before we +enter upon it, two preliminary questions remain for consideration. If +Islam was ready to learn from Christianity in every department of +religious life, what was the cause of the sudden superiority of +Muhammedanism to the rising force of Christianity a few centuries +later? And secondly, in view of the traditional antagonism between the +Christian and Muhammedan worlds, how was Christianity able to adopt so +large and essential a portion of Muhammedan thought? + +The answer in the second case will be clear to any one who has +followed our argument with attention. The intellectual and religious +outlook was so similar in both religions and the problem requiring +solution so far identical that nothing existed to impede the adoption +of ideas originally Christian which had been developed in the East. +The fact that the West could accept philosophical and theological +ideas from Islam and that an actual interchange of thought could +proceed in this direction, is the best of proofs for the soundness of +our argument that the roots of Muhammedanism are to be sought in +Christianity. Islam was able to borrow from Christianity for the +reason that Muhammed's ideas were derived from that source: similarly +Christianity was able to turn Arab thought to its own purposes because +that thought was founded upon Christian principles. The sources of +both religions lie in the East and in Oriental thought. + +No less is true of Judaism, a scholastic system which was excellently +adapted by its international character, to become a medium of +communication between Christianity and Muhammedanism during those +centuries. In this connection special mention must be made of the +Spanish Jews; to their work, not only as transmitting but also as +originating ideas a bare reference must here suffice. But of greater +importance was the direct exchange of thought, which proceeded through +literary channels, by means of translations, especially by word of +mouth among the Christians and Muhammedans who were living together in +Southern Italy, Sicily, and Spain, and by commercial intercourse. + +The other question concerns the fundamental problem of European +medievalism. We see that the problems with which the middle ages in +Europe were confronted and also that European ethics and metaphysics +were identical with the Muhammedan system: we are moreover assured +that the acceptance of Christian ideas by Islam can only have taken +place in the East: and the conclusion is obvious that mediaeval +Christianity was also primarily rooted in the East. The transmission +of this religious philosophy to the non-Oriental peoples of the West +at first produced a cessation of progress but opened a new +intellectual world when these peoples awoke to life in the thirteenth +and fourteenth centuries. But throughout the intermediate period +between the seventh and thirteenth centuries the East was gaining +political strength and was naturally superior to the West where +political organisation and culture had been shattered by the Germanic +invasions; in the East again there was an organic unity of national +strength and intellectual ideals, as the course of development had not +been interrupted. Though special dogmatic points had been changed, the +general religious theory remained unaltered throughout the nearer +East. Thus the rising power of Islam, which had high faculties of +self-accommodation to environment, was able to enter upon the heritage +of the mixed Graeco-Oriental civilisation existing in the East; in +consequence it gained an immediate advantage over the West, where +Eastern ideas were acclimatised with difficulty. + +The preponderance of Muhammedan influence was increased by the fact +that Islam became the point of amalgamation for ancient Eastern +cultures, in particular for those of Greece and Persia: in previous +centuries preparation had been made for this process by the steady +transformation of Hellenism to Orientalism. Persia, however, had been +the main source of Eastern civilisation, at any rate since the +Sassanid period: the debt of Byzantine culture to Persia is well +known. Unfortunately no thorough investigation has been made of these +various and important changes, but it is clear that Persian +civilisation sent its influence far westward, at first directly and +later through the medium of Muhammedanism. The same facts hold good +with regard to the diffusion of intellectual culture from Persia. How +far Persian ideas may have influenced the development of Muhammedan +and even of Christian eschatology, we need not here discuss: but the +influence of the great Graeco-Christian schools of Persia was +enormous: they made the Arabs acquainted with the most important works +in Greek and Persian literature. To this fact was due the wide +influence of Islam upon Christian civilisation, which is evidenced +even to-day by the numerous words of Arab origin to be found in modern +European languages; it is in fact an influence the strength of which +can hardly be exaggerated. Not only the commercial products of the +East, but important economic methods, the ideals of our so-called +European chivalry and of its love poetry, the foundations of our +natural sciences, even theological and philosophical ideas of high +value were then sent to us from the East. The consequences of the +crusades are the best proof of the enormous superiority of the +Muhammedan world, a fact which is daily becoming more obvious. Here we +are concerned only with the influence exerted by Muhammedan +philosophy. It would be more correct to speak of post-classical than +of Muhammedan philosophy. But as above, the influence of Christianity +upon Islam was considered, so now the reverse process must be +outlined. In either case it was the heir to the late classical age, to +the mixed Graeco-Oriental culture, which influenced Islam at first in +Christian guise. Islam is often able to supplement its borrowings from +Christianity at the original sources, and when they have thus been +deepened and purified, these adaptations are returned to Christianity +in Muhammedan form. + +Christian scholasticism was first based upon fragments of Aristotle +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 Averroes, 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-Bokahri, les traditions +islamiques traduites ... par_ O. Houdas and W. Marcais. 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. Noeldeke. Geschichte des Qoraens. 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. Mueller. Der Islam im Morgen- und Abendland (Oncken's collection). + + W. Riedel. Die Kirchenrechtsquellen des Patriarchats Alexandrien. + Leipsic, 1900. + + G. Bruns and E. Sachau. Syrisch-roemisches Rechtsbuch. Leipsic, 1880. + + E. Sachau. Syrische Rechtsbuecher, I. Berlin, 1907. + + E. Zachariae v. Lingenthal. Geschichte des griechisch-roemischen + 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., + Tuebingen, 1907. + + C. Baeumker und G. v. Hertling. Beitraege 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). + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Christianity and Islam, by C.H. 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