202 THE RELIGION OF THE CRESCENT.

imitators.1 The Muslims disdained to study foreign languages, and were therefore dependent for their knowledge of Greek science and philosophy upon translations made for them by their Christian 2 subjects. Gibbon 3 confesses that in geometry the Arabs made no advance beyond what they learnt from Euclid, and points out that they themselves confess that they are indebted to the Greek Diophantus for even the science of Algebra, in spite of the Arabic name it bears. The "Arabic" numerals, as we still call them, were borrowed from the people of India. In Astronomy they did not dare to renounce the Ptolemaic theory, and never advanced a

Transient Glory
of Arabic Learning
not due to Islam.

single step towards the discovery of the Solar System.4 

Nor were the transient glories of Arabic learning and Science in any sense 5 due to Islam as a religion. On the contrary, orthodox Muhammadanism has always in every land shown itself to

1 Prof. Uberweg in his "History of Philosophy" truly says that the whole of the philosophy of the Arabs was a form of Aristotelianism, to some degree tinged and mingled with ideas drawn from the Neo-Platonists.
2 Renan, "Histoire Generale des Langues Semitiques," vol. i., pp. 298, 378, 379
3 "Decline and Fall" (Chandos ed., pp. 127-129).
4 Gibbon, ibidem.
5 See on this subject Major Durie Osborne, "Islam under the Khalifs of Bagdad," Pref., pp. v.-viii., and pp. 24-25, 135-6, 265-6, &c.
THE INFLUENCE OF ISLAM. 203

be essentially the foe of all forms of Progress. Its real attitude to all learning not in exact accord with the Qur'an is clearly shown by the fate of the Alexandrian library, upon which Gibbon has in vain endeavoured to cast doubt. Abu'l Faraj, the Arabian historian, tells us that, on the conquest of Egypt by 'Amr Ibnu'l 'As (A.D. 640), John Philoponus the philosopher begged that this world-renowned library should be spared. 'Umr, the "Vicegerent of the Apostle of GOD,"

'Umr and the
Alexandrian
Library.

was consulted on the subject. "If these writings of the Greeks agree with the Book of GOD" (the Qur'an), he replied, "they are useless and need not be preserved. If they disagree with it, they are pernicious and ought to be destroyed." The barbarous order was duly executed. Nor is this a solitary instance of the spirit which animated the recognized leaders of the Faithful, for in the Muhammadan work entitled "Kashfu'z Zunun" we read1 that when Sa'd ibn Abi Waqqas conquered Persia, he wrote to ask this same Khalif what he ought to do with the works of the Persian philosophers which had fallen into his hands, suggesting that they should either be kept

'Umr and the
Libraries
of Persia.

where they were in the libraries or sent to Mecca. But neither course met with the approval of the Commander of the Faithful, for 'Umr replied, "Cast them into the rivers: for if in these books there is guidance, then we have still better guidance in the Book of GOD. If, on the

1 Kashfu'z Zunun, p. 341.