Part 7 (1/2)
CHAPTER IV.
THE RESTORATION OF SCIENCE IN THE SOUTH.
By the influence of the Nestorians and Jews, the Arabians are turned to the cultivation of Science.--They modify their views as to the destiny of man, and obtain true conceptions respecting the structure of the world.--They ascertain the size of the earth, and determine its shape.-- Their khalifs collect great libraries, patronize every department of science and literature, establish astronomical observatories.--They develop the mathematical sciences, invent algebra, and improve geometry and trigonometry.--They collect and translate the old Greek mathematical and astronomical works, and adopt the inductive method of Aristotle.--They establish many colleges, and, with the aid of the Nestorians, organize a public-school system.--They introduce the Arabic numerals and arithmetic, and catalogue and give names to the stars.--They lay the foundation of modern astronomy, chemistry, and physics, and introduce great improvements in agriculture and manufactures.
”IN the course of my long life,” said the Khalif Ali, ”I have often observed that men are more like the times they live in than they are like their fathers.” This profoundly philosophical remark of the son-in-law of Mohammed is strictly true; for, though the personal, the bodily lineaments of a man may indicate his parentage, the const.i.tution of his mind, and therefore the direction of his thoughts, is determined by the environment in which he lives.
When Amrou, the lieutenant of the Khalif Omar, conquered Egypt, and annexed it to the Saracenic Empire, he found in Alexandria a Greek grammarian, John surnamed Philoponus, or the Labor-lover. Presuming on the friends.h.i.+p which had arisen between them, the Greek solicited as a gift the remnant of the great library--a remnant which war and time and bigotry had spared. Amrou, therefore, sent to the khalif to ascertain his pleasure. ”If,” replied the khalif, ”the books agree with the Koran, the Word of G.o.d, they are useless, and need not be preserved; if they disagree with it, they are pernicious. Let them be destroyed.”
Accordingly, they were distributed among the baths of Alexandria, and it is said that six months were barely sufficient to consume them.
Although the fact has been denied, there can be little doubt that Omar gave this order. The khalif was an illiterate man; his environment was an environment of fanaticism and ignorance. Omar's act was an ill.u.s.tration of Ali's remark.
THE ALEXANDRIAN LIBRARY BURNT. But it must not be supposed that the books which John the Labor-lover coveted were those which const.i.tuted the great library of the Ptolemies, and that of Eumenes, King of Pergamus. Nearly a thousand years had elapsed since Philadelphus began his collection. Julius Caesar had burnt more than half; the Patriarchs of Alexandria had not only permitted but superintended the dispersion of almost all the rest. Orosius expressly states that he saw the empty cases or shelves of the library twenty years after Theophilus, the uncle of St. Cyril, had procured from the Emperor Theodosius a rescript for its destruction. Even had this once n.o.ble collection never endured such acts of violence, the mere wear and tear, and perhaps, I may add, the pilfering of a thousand years, would have diminished it sadly.
Though John, as the surname he received indicates, might rejoice in a superfluity of occupation, we may be certain that the care of a library of half a million books would transcend even his well-tried powers; and the cost of preserving and supporting it, that had demanded the ample resources of the Ptolemies and the Caesars, was beyond the means of a grammarian. Nor is the time required for its combustion or destruction any indication of the extent of the collection. Of all articles of fuel, parchment is, perhaps, the most wretched. Paper and papyrus do excellently well as kindling-materials, but we may be sure that the bath-men of Alexandria did not resort to parchment so long as they could find any thing else, and of parchment a very large portion of these books was composed.
There can, then, be no more doubt that Omar did order the destruction of this library, under an impression of its uselessness or its irreligious tendency, than that the Crusaders burnt the library of Tripoli, fancifully said to have consisted of three million volumes. The first apartment entered being found to contain nothing but the Koran, all the other books were supposed to be the works of the Arabian impostor, and were consequently committed to the flames. In both cases the story contains some truth and much exaggeration. Bigotry, however, has often distinguished itself by such exploits. The Spaniards burnt in Mexico vast piles of American picture-writings, an irretrievable loss; and Cardinal Ximenes delivered to the flames, in the squares of Granada, eighty thousand Arabic ma.n.u.scripts, many of them translations of cla.s.sical authors.
We have seen how engineering talent, stimulated by Alexander's Persian campaign, led to a wonderful development of pure science under the Ptolemies; a similar effect may be noted as the result of the Saracenic military operations.
The friends.h.i.+p contracted by Amrou, the conqueror of Egypt, with John the Grammarian, indicates how much the Arabian mind was predisposed to liberal ideas. Its step from the idolatry of the Caaba to the monotheism of Mohammed prepared it to expatiate in the wide and pleasing fields of literature and philosophy. There were two influences to which it was continually exposed. They conspired in determining its path. These were--1. That of the Nestorians in Syria; 2. That of the Jews in Egypt.
INFLUENCE OF THE NESTORIANS AND JEWS. In the last chapter I have briefly related the persecution of Nestor and his disciples. They bore testimony to the oneness of G.o.d, through many sufferings and martyrdoms. They utterly repudiated an Olympus filled with G.o.ds and G.o.ddesses. ”Away from us a queen of heaven!”
Such being their special views, the Nestorians found no difficulty in affiliating with their Saracen conquerors, by whom they were treated not only with the highest respect, but intrusted with some of the most important offices of the state. Mohammed, in the strongest manner, prohibited his followers from committing any injuries against them.
Jesuiabbas, their pontiff, concluded treaties both with the Prophet and with Omar, and subsequently the Khalif Haroun-al-Raschid placed all his public schools under the superintendence of John Masue, a Nestorian.
To the influence of the Nestorians that of the Jews was added. When Christianity displayed a tendency to unite itself with paganism, the conversion of the Jews was arrested; it totally ceased when Trinitarian ideas were introduced. The cities of Syria and Egypt were full of Jews.
In Alexandria alone, at the time of its capture by Amrou, there were forty thousand who paid tribute. Centuries of misfortune and persecution had served only to confirm them in their monotheism, and to strengthen that implacable hatred of idolatry which they had cherished ever since the Babylonian captivity. a.s.sociated with the Nestorians, they translated into Syriac many Greek and Latin philosophical works, which were retranslated into Arabic. While the Nestorian was occupied with the education of the children of the great Mohammedan families, the Jew found his way into them in the character of a physician.
FATALISM OF THE ARABIANS. Under these influences the ferocious fanaticism of the Saracens abated, their manners were polished, their thoughts elevated. They overran the realms of Philosophy and Science as quickly as they had overrun the provinces of the Roman Empire. They abandoned the fallacies of vulgar Mohammedanism, accepting in their stead scientific truth.
In a world devoted to idolatry, the sword of the Saracen had vindicated the majesty of G.o.d. The doctrine of fatalism, inculcated by the Koran, had powerfully contributed to that result. ”No man can antic.i.p.ate or postpone his predetermined end. Death will overtake us even in lofty towers. From the beginning G.o.d hath settled the place in which each man shall die.” In his figurative language the Arab said: ”No man can by flight escape his fate. The Destinies ride their horses by night....
Whether asleep in bed or in the storm of battle, the angel of death will find thee.” ”I am convinced,” said Ali, to whose wisdom we have already referred--”I am convinced that the affairs of men go by divine decree, and not by our administration.” The Mussulmen are those who submissively resign themselves to the will of G.o.d. They reconciled fate and free-will by saying, ”The outline is given us, we color the picture of life as we will.” They said that, if we would overcome the laws of Nature, we must not resist, we must balance them against each other.
This dark doctrine prepared its devotees for the accomplishment of great things--things such as the Saracens did accomplish. It converted despair into resignation, and taught men to disdain hope. There was a proverb among them that ”Despair is a freeman, Hope is a slave.”
But many of the incidents of war showed plainly that medicines may a.s.suage pain, that skill may close wounds, that those who are incontestably dying may be s.n.a.t.c.hed from the grave. The Jewish physician became a living, an accepted protest against the fatalism of the Koran.
By degrees the sternness of predestination was mitigated, and it was admitted that in individual life there is an effect due to free-will; that by his voluntary acts man may within certain limits determine his own course. But, so far as nations are concerned, since they can yield no personal accountability to G.o.d, they are placed under the control of immutable law.
In this respect the contrast between the Christian and the Mohammedan nations was very striking: The Christian was convinced of incessant providential interventions; he believed that there was no such thing as law in the government of the world. By prayers and entreaties he might prevail with G.o.d to change the current of affairs, or, if that failed, he might succeed with Christ, or perhaps with the Virgin Mary, or through the intercession of the saints, or by the influence of their relics or bones. If his own supplications were unavailing, he might obtain his desire through the intervention of his priest, or through that of the holy men of the Church, and especially if oblations or gifts of money were added. Christendom believed that she could change the course of affairs by influencing the conduct of superior beings. Islam rested in a pious resignation to the unchangeable will of G.o.d. The prayer of the Christian was mainly an earnest intercession for benefits hoped for, that of the Saracen a devout expression of grat.i.tude for the past. Both subst.i.tuted prayer for the ecstatic meditation of India.
To the Christian the progress of the world was an exhibition of disconnected impulses, of sudden surprises. To the Mohammedan that progress presented a very different aspect. Every corporeal motion was due to some preceding motion; every thought to some preceding thought; every historical event was the offspring of some preceding event; every human action was the result of some foregone and accomplished action. In the long annals of our race, nothing has ever been abruptly introduced.
There has been an orderly, an inevitable sequence from event to event.
There is an iron chain of destiny, of which the links are facts; each stands in its preordained place--not one has ever been disturbed, not one has ever been removed. Every man came into the world without his own knowledge, he is to depart from it perhaps against his own wishes. Then let him calmly fold his hands, and expect the issues of fate.
Coincidently with this change of opinion as to the government of individual life, there came a change as respects the mechanical construction of the world. According to the Koran, the earth is a square plane, edged with vast mountains, which serve the double purpose of balancing it in its seat, and of sustaining the dome of the sky. Our devout admiration of the power and wisdom of G.o.d should be excited by the spectacle of this vast crystalline brittle expanse, which has been safely set in its position without so much as a crack or any other injury. Above the sky, and resting on it, is heaven, built in seven stories, the uppermost being the habitation of G.o.d, who, under the form of a gigantic man, sits on a throne, having on either side winged bulls, like those in the palaces of old a.s.syrian kings.
THEY MEASURE THE EARTH. These ideas, which indeed are not peculiar to Mohammedanism, but are entertained by all men in a certain stage of their intellectual development as religious revelations, were very quickly exchanged by the more advanced Mohammedans for others scientifically correct. Yet, as has been the case in Christian countries, the advance was not made without resistance on the part of the defenders of revealed truth. Thus when Al-Mamun, having become acquainted with the globular form of the earth, gave orders to his mathematicians and astronomers to measure a degree of a great circle upon it, Takyuddin, one of the most celebrated doctors of divinity of that time, denounced the wicked khalif, declaring that G.o.d would a.s.suredly punish him for presumptuously interrupting the devotions of the faithful by encouraging and diffusing a false and atheistical philosophy among them. Al-Mamun, however, persisted. On the sh.o.r.es of the Red Sea, in the plains of s.h.i.+nar, by the aid of an astrolabe, the elevation of the pole above the horizon was determined at two stations on the same meridian, exactly one degree apart. The distance between the two stations was then measured, and found to be two hundred thousand Hashemite cubits; this gave for the entire circ.u.mference of the earth about twenty-four thousand of our miles, a determination not far from the truth. But, since the spherical form could not be positively a.s.serted from one such measurement, the khalif caused another to be made near Cufa in Mesopotamia. His astronomers divided themselves into two parties, and, starting from a given point, each party measured an arc of one degree, the one northward, the other southward. Their result is given in cubits. If the cubit employed was that known as the royal cubit, the length of a degree was ascertained within one-third of a mile of its true value. From these measures the khalif concluded that the globular form was established.