iors of the beautiful celestial houris who awaited the
heroes slain in battle at the gates of Paradise.

The first efforts having been crowned with success, the Moslems soon
became convinced of the fulfilment of the prophecy that Allah had given
them the world and wished them to subdue all unbelievers. Under the
Caliph Omar, the Arabs had become a religious-political community of
warriors, whose mission it was to conquer and plunder all civilised and
cultured lands and to unfurl the banner of the crescent. They believed
that "Paradise is under the shadow of the sword." In this belief the
followers of Muhammed engaged in battle without fear or anxiety, spurred
to great deeds, reckless in the face of danger, happy to die and pass
to the delights of Paradise. The "holy war" became an armed propaganda
pleasing to Allah. It was, however, a form of propaganda quite unknown
and amazing to Christendom. In the course of two centuries the crescent
had supplanted the cross. Of what avail was the peaceful missionary's
preaching if province after province and country after country were
taken possession of by the new religion that forced its way by means of
fire and sword?

Was it not natural that Christian Europe should conceive the idea
of doing for their religion what the Moslems did for Islam! and that,
following the example of Moslems in their "holy war," Christians should
emulate them in the Crusades?

It must not be forgotten also that the Arabs, almost from the first
appearance of Muhammedanism, were under the refining and elevating
influences of art and science. While the rest of Europe was in the
midnight of the Dark Ages, the Moorish universities of Spain were the
beacon of the revival of learning. The Christian teacher was still
manipulating the bones of the saints when the Arab physician was
practising surgery. The monachal schools and monasteries in Italy,
France, and Germany were still grappling with poor scholastic knowledge
when Arab scholars were well advanced in the study of Aristotle and
Plato. Stimulated by their acquaintance with the works of Ptolemy and
Euclid, Galenus and Hippocrates, they extended their researches into the
dominions of astronomy, mathematics, and medicine.

[Illustration: 007.jpg ARABIC DECORATIVE PAINTING]

The religious orders of the knights, a product of the Crusades, found
their antitype in similar organisations of the Moslems, orders that had
exactly the same tendencies and regulati