The New World of Islam

Once the disciplined strength of the East Roman legions and the Persian cuirassiers had broken before the fiery onslaught of the fanatic sons of the desert it was all over. [...] Studded with splendid cities gracious mosques and quiet universities where the wisdom of the ancient world was preserved and appreciated the Moslem East offered a striking contrast to the Christian West then sunk in the night of the Dark Ages.4 THE NEW WORLD OF ISLAM However by the tenth century the Saracenic civilzation began to display unmistakable symptoms of decline. [...] The upshot was that the caliphs turned more and more toward the conservative theologians as against the liberals just as they favoured the monarchist NeArabs in preference to the intractable pure-blooded Arabs of the desert. [...] In their palmy days the Turks had the best artillery and the steadiest infantry in the world and were the terror of Europe. [...] What are those forces moulding the Islam of the future ? To their analysis and appraisal the body of this book is devoted." CHAPTER I THE MOHAMMEDAN REVIVAL BY the eighteenth century the Moslem world had sunk to the lowest depth of its decrepitude.