arisome and ignorant fathers of
the Church.

If fiction was prized among the Spanish Arabs, history was held in not
less esteem. Every khalif had his own historian. The instincts of the
race are perpetually peeping out; not only were there historians of the
Commanders of the Faithful, but also of celebrated horses and
illustrious camels. In connexion with history, statistics were
cultivated; this having been, it may be said, a necessary study, from
the first enforced on the Saracen officers in their assessment of
tribute on conquered misbelievers, and subsequently continued as an
object of taste. [Sidenote: Their taste for practical science.] It was,
doubtless, a similar necessity, arising from their position, that
stamped such a remarkably practical aspect on the science of the Arabs
generally. Many of their learned men were travellers and voyagers,
constantly moving about for the acquisition or diffusion of knowledge,
their acquirements being a passport to them wherever they went, and a
sufficient introduction to any of the African or Asiatic courts. They
were thus continually brought in contact with men of affairs, soldiers
of fortune, statesmen, and became imbued with much of their practical
spirit; and hence the singularly romantic character which the
biographies of many of these men display, wonderful turns of prosperity,
violent deaths. The scope of their literary labours offers a subject
well worthy of meditation; it contrasts with the contemporary ignorance
of Europe. Some wrote on chronology; some on numismatics; some, now that
military eloquence had become objectless, wrote on pulpit oratory; some
on agriculture and its allied branches, as the art of irrigation. Not
one of the purely mathematical, or mixed, or practical sciences was
omitted. [Sidenote: Their continued inclination to the study of
medicine.] Out of a list too long for detailed quotation, I may recall a
few names. Assamh, who wrote on topography and statistics, a brave
soldier, who was killed in the invasion of France, A.D. 720; Avicenna,
the great physician and philosopher, who died A.D. 1037; Averroes, of
Cordova, the chief commentator on Aristotle, A.D. 1198. It was his
intention to unite the doctrines of Aristotle with those of the Koran.
To him is imputed the discovery of spots upon the sun. The leading idea
of his philosophy was the numerical unity of the souls of mankind,
though parted among millions of living individuals. He died at Moro