ogmatic points had been changed, the
general religious theory remained unaltered throughout the nearer
East. Thus the rising power of Islam, which had high faculties of
self-accommodation to environment, was able to enter upon the heritage
of the mixed Graeco-Oriental civilisation existing in the East; in
consequence it gained an immediate advantage over the West, where
Eastern ideas were acclimatised with difficulty.

The preponderance of Muhammedan influence was increased by the fact
that Islam became the point of amalgamation for ancient Eastern
cultures, in particular for those of Greece and Persia: in previous
centuries preparation had been made for this process by the steady
transformation of Hellenism to Orientalism. Persia, however, had been
the main source of Eastern civilisation, at any rate since the
Sassanid period: the debt of Byzantine culture to Persia is well
known. Unfortunately no thorough investigation has been made of these
various and important changes, but it is clear that Persian
civilisation sent its influence far westward, at first directly and
later through the medium of Muhammedanism. The same facts hold good
with regard to the diffusion of intellectual culture from Persia. How
far Persian ideas may have influenced the development of Muhammedan
and even of Christian eschatology, we need not here discuss: but the
influence of the great Graeco-Christian schools of Persia was
enormous: they made the Arabs acquainted with the most important works
in Greek and Persian literature. To this fact was due the wide
influence of Islam upon Christian civilisation, which is evidenced
even to-day by the numerous words of Arab origin to be found in modern
European languages; it is in fact an influence the strength of which
can hardly be exaggerated. Not only the commercial products of the
East, but important economic methods, the ideals of our so-called
European chivalry and of its love poetry, the foundations of our
natural sciences, even theological and philosophical ideas of high
value were then sent to us from the East. The consequences of the
crusades are the best proof of the enormous superiority of the
Muhammedan world, a fact which is daily becoming more obvious. Here we
are concerned only with the influence exerted by Muhammedan
philosophy. It would be more correct to speak of post-classical than
of Muhammedan philosophy. But as above, the influence of Christianity
upon Islam was considered, so now