religion were respected, charitable bequests flowed freely ... and the frontiers were bravely kept."—Al-Fakhri (historian of fame of the XIIIth Century) on the Abbasid Dynasty.

his excellent work on Islam,[2] "everything followed its accustomed course in the Byzantine as in the Persian Empire. These two states continued always to dispute the possession of western Asia; they were, to all outward appearance, flourishing; the taxes which poured into the treasuries of their Kings reached considerable sums, and the magnificence, as well as the luxury of their capitals had become proverbial. But all this was but in appearance, for secret disease consumed both empires; they were burdened by a crushing despotism; on either hand the history of the dynasties formed a concatenation of horrors, that of the state a series of persecutions born of dissensions in religious matters. At this juncture it was that, all of a sudden, there emerged from deserts hardly known and appeared on the scene of the world a new people, hitherto divided into innumerable nomad tribes, who, for the most part, had been at war with one another, now for the first time united. It was this people, passionately attached to liberty, simple in their food and dress, noble and hospitable, gay and witty, but at the same time proud, irascible, and, once their passions were aroused, vindictive, irreconcilable and cruel, who overthrew in an instant the venerable but rotten empire of the Persians, snatched from the successors of Constantine their fairest provinces, trampled under their feet a Germanic kingdom but lately founded, and menaced the rest of Europe, while at the same time, at the other end of the world, its victorious armies penetrated to the Himalayas. Yet it was not like so many other conquering peoples, for it preached at the same time a new religion. In opposition to the dualism of the Persians and a degenerate Christianity, it announced a pure monotheism which was accepted by millions of men, and which, even in our own time, constitutes the religion of a tenth part of the human race."

The teachings of Muhammad were not of a nature to arouse

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intolerance.[3] History does not record the practice of compulsory conversion in the scheme of conquest of early converts. "It is often supposed," says Professor Browne, "that the choice offered by the warriors of Islam was between the Qur'an and the Sword; this, however, is not the fact." There are innumerable evidences to the contrary which history records.[4] It appears that the exemplary behavior of the Arabs, under their newly acquired faith, was the main factor not only in the success of their scheme of conquest, but also in the impression which it made on the defeated in determining them to adopt the faith which produced such upright warriors.

The tremendous political upheaval that the evolution of Islam brought in its train to the affairs of the world does not fall within the scope of this paper. A highly important fact, however, must not be lost sight of, that by consolidating and unifying the tottering states a new civilization was founded which knew how to turn to account the culture of the ancient states conquered. In this overwhelming transformation Persia came in, from the outset, to play the most conspicuous and important part. The

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artistic productions of the Muhammadan world that have come down to us as living monuments, substantiate this statement without a shadow of doubt, which makes it unnecessary to resort to recorded history, although its pages abound with incontestable evidences.[5]

It would be difficult to offer an explanation for the underlying unity and integrity of character manifest in the artistic expression of the Muhammadan countries, of vast geographical range, without a clear understanding of the vital force contained in the teachings of the Arabian Apostle, and the characteristics of his people, destined to carry those teachings from one end of the earth to the other. For this reason the foregoing brief survey has been ventured.

There can be no doubt that the pivot around which the artistic activities of Muhammadan countries revolved, was Persia.[6] She was to attain the function of the Sun, element