Identifier: cu31924027778640 (find matches)
Title: History of Europe, ancient and medieval: Earliest man, the Orient, Greece and Rome
Year: 1920 (1920s)
Authors: Breasted, James Henry, 1865-1935 Robinson, James Harvey, 1863-1936
Subjects:
Publisher: Boston, New York (etc.) Ginn and Company
Contributing Library: Cornell University Library
Digitizing Sponsor: MSN

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ly thegreeting, Peace, peace. The Monks and their Missionary Work 32s The religion of Moham-med was much simpler thanthat of the medieval Chris-tian Church; it did ijot pro-vide for a priesthood or forany great number of cere-monies. The Mohammedanmosque, or temple, is ahouse of prayer and a placefor reading the Koran; noaltars or images or picturesof any kind are permittedin it. The mosques are oftenvery beautiful buildings,•especially in great Moham-medan cities such as Jeru-salem, Damascus, Cairo, and■Constantinople. They have^reat courts surrounded bycovered colonnades and areadorned with beautifulmarbles and mosaics and de-lightful windows with brightstained glass. The walls areadorned with passages fromthe Koran, and the floorscovered with rich rugs. Theyhave one or more minarets,from which the call to prayeris heard five times a day. 500. Rise of the OrientalEmpire of the Moslems.The Moslem leaders whosucceeded to Mohammedspower were called caliphs.As rulers, they proved to
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Fig. 82. A Page of a Manuscript Copy of the Koran, the Bible of THE Moslems This writing has descended from theancient alphabet of the Phoenicians(§ 140), and, like the Phoenician writing,it is still written and read from right toleft. The Arab writers love to give theirletters decorative flourishes, producinga handsome page. The rich, decorativeborder is a good example of Moslem art.The whole page was done by hand. Insuch hand-written books as these theeducated Moslems wrote out translationsof the books of the great Greek phi-losophers and scientists, like Aristotle.At the same time the Moslems wrotetheir own treatises on algebra, astron-omy, grammar, and other sciences insimilar books. These books later cameto the knowledge of Western Christianscholars, who learned much from them 326 History of Europe

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