læsa Majestas of the State
is ever ready to treat an attack on Islam as high
treason of an unpardonable stamp. But the evidence of Al
Bîrûni shows that, having survived, our Apology was
actually in circulation, in a Mahometan country, a
century and a half after the time, it which it first
appeared. This is almost a greater marvel than that it
should even have been written in the first instance;
for, under the tolerant sway of the free-thinking Al
Mâmûn, that was possible, which a few years later would
have been utterly impossible. And one may be very
certain that, when orthodox views again prevailed, every
effort would be made to suppress and exterminate an
Apology, obnoxious not only for its attack on the
religion of the State, but also for the political
sentiments therein advocated as to the divine right of
Ali, the usurpation of Abu Bekr, and the manner in which
the Coran was compiled. But the work had in all
likelihood, from its intrinsic excellence, already so
spread during the reign of Al Mâmûn and his immediate
successors (who shared his Motázelite views), that its
entire suppression became, no doubt on that account,
impossible. And so copies survived, although stealthily,
here and there in Mahometan countries. But why this
remarkable book was not better known and valued in
Christian countries, is very strange,—indeed, to my
mind, altogether unaccountable.
Admitting all that has been advanced,
it will still remain a question of rare interest who
this unknown "Al Kindy, the Christian," was. In a letter
from
