DEVELOPMENT OF MIDDLE-EASTERN CIVILIZATION

POLITICS	IDEAS	ARTS	RELIGION
Persian empire 500 B.C.E.     Cyrus           Greek rule           Roman rule 1 C.E.			Zoroaster Judaism    formulated Jesus
Zenobia           Byzantine empire 500		Byzantine art, Antara	Mani
Arab caliphate                     Harun al-Rashid 1000                     Crusades begin                     Mongol invasions	Algebra al-Razi Avicenna Averroes &  Maimonides	Cordova mosque Mu'tamid, Omar Khayyam Arabian Nights, Sa'di Alhambra, Hafiz	Muhammad
Timurlane           Turkish empire 1500            Babar, Spain lost                     Sulieman, Akbar                     India lost                     Arab revolts 2000		Mosque of the Shah Taj Mahal

50.  ZOROASTER: THE BATTLE BETWEEN GOOD AND EVIL

    Perhaps the biggest problem with Arabic civilization is deciding when it
began.  Since the beginning of Egyptian times, desert nations rose and fell: the
Sumerians, the Babylonians, the Assyrians, the Chaldeans.  They built mud
cities, usually with a huge religious mound called a ziggurat at the center.  They
used a number system based on twelve and sixty--the system still used in our
clocks.  They did a lot of astrology.  They left a few stiff statues, and a bit of
religious poetry.

    Do these fragments of the past fit together into an ancient civilization as
great as Egypt?  Or are they just the comings and goings of scattered desert
tribes?  And do they have anything to do with the Arabs, who came centuries
later?  About 500 B.C.E., the great king Cyrus (SIGH-rus) united the whole
region into the Persian empire.  Was that the final stage of a great civilization?
Or was it the beginning of a new Arabic civilization?  Historians disagree sharply
over these questions.

    Perhaps the best clue comes from the importance of Zoroaster (ZO-ro-
AS-ter), who lived a little before Cyrus.  All of the great Middle Eastern
religions--Judaism, Christianity, Islam--trace back to Zoroaster's influence.  He
seems to be the religious founder.  Before Zoroaster, people believed in many
gods who fought bitter wars among themselves.  Zoroaster taught that there
are two forces in the universe: the good god and the bad god, These two forces
of good and evil constantly struggle to see which will control the world.  The
two sides are so evenly matched that man can tip the balance either way.  It
becomes man's important duty to help the good and destroy the evil,

    Almost all of the world's major religions came from just two places--
India and the Middle East.  This is more than coincidence.  For several centuries
earlier, the Aryan tribe of Central Asia split in half--part of them invading India
(See Chapter 13), and the rest drifting into the Middle East.  The two branches
started religions of two very different types.  The Indian religions were unitary;
they recognized one supernatural force--the force of goodness.  The Middle
Eastern religions were dualistic: they recognized two mighty forces--the forces
of good and of evil.  Indian religions promised union with god after a good life.
Middle Eastern religions promised a sorting out into two groups: the good
would go to a good place called heaven, and the evil would go to a bad place
called hell.

    Zoroastrianism flourished as one of the world's largest religions for over
a thousand years.  When Muslim persecution finally grew too strong, many
Zoroastrians fled to India.  There, the Untouchables became interested in this
idea that each person has a choice about how to live his life.  But to keep their
religion pure from idolatry, the Zoroastrians in India restricted their
membership.  The Zoroastrian religion today remains tiny but strong.
 
Selections from THE AVESTA by ZOROASTER

    Hear ye then with your ears: see ye the bright flames with the
eyes of the Better Mind.  It is for a decision as to religions, man and
man, each individually for himself.  Before the great effort of the
cause, awake ye all to our teaching!  Thus Are the primeval spirits...a
pair...a better...and a worse....  And between these two let the wisely,
acting choose aright.  Choose ye not as the evildoers!

    0 Ahura Mazda,* I ask thee concerning the present and the
future,
How shall the righteous man be dealt with,
And how the wicked,
At the time of the Final Judgement?

          I ask thee, 0 Ahura, what shall be the punishments
Of them that serve the Evil One,
Of them that cannot make their living
Save+ through violence to cattle and herdsmen.
          0 Ahura Mazda, I ask thee whether the well-disposed,#    
The one who strives to improve the houses,
The villages,
The clans and provinces,
Through Justice,
Can he become at all like thee?
And when?
And by what deeds?
    Tell me, 0 Lord, that I may no longer be deluded,@     
Be thou to us an instructor of Good Disposition*?

          (And Ahura Mazda answered:) 0 well-disposed believers
Hearken+ not to the followers of the Evil One,
For these seek to wreck houses,
Raze# villages,
Despoil clans and provinces;
They can cause only disaster and death.
So fight them with all your weapons!

    The righteous alone shall be saved
From destruction and eternal darkness,
From foul food and the worst curses,
At the time of the End of Days.
But ye wicked ones, beware,
For to these will ye be delivered,
Because of your evil spirit!

    He who serveth Ahura Mazda in mind and deed,
To him shall be granted the bliss of divine fellowship,
And fullness of Health,
Immortality,
Justice and Power,
And a Good Disposition.

*god
+except
#inclined
@confused
*inclination
+listen
#destroy

------------------------------------------------------------
DIAGRAM: ORIGINS OF MIDDLE-EASTERN RELIGIONS
------------------------------------------------------------

51.  THE JEWISH AND CHRISTIAN HERITAGE

    As tribes unite into nations, they have to decide what to do with all of the
extra tribal gods.  The Egyptians and Greeks gave each god a special job.  The
people of India decided that all of the gods were really the same.  The Chinese
concluded that the primitive gods disagreed with each other, and should all be
ignored.  People of the Middle East felt that only one god could be right, and
that all others must be wrong.

    The Jewish tribe believed that their god, Jehovah, was the only right one.
Their Old Testament remains a remarkable collection of history, stories, census
records, hymns, love songs, wisdom, warnings, and laws.  Bible scholars
generally agree that the last books were written first.  The earlier parts had
traveled down through the generations by word-of-mouth.  Many of these
finally got written down while the Jews lived in Babylon.

    At Babylon, Zoroastrian ideas slipped into the writing.  The story of Adam
and Eve developed into a struggle between Jehovah and Satan.  Likewise, the
story of Job represents a contest between Jehovah and Satan.  Scholars believe
that Job may have appeared as a Babylonian drama before it became part of the
Bible.

     Because the Bible was such a hodgepodge of things written by different
people at different times for different reasons, it became the duty of every
Jewish man to become a Bible scholar.  Each must join the discussion of what
the scriptures mean for people of his lifetime.  Yet at the heart of the Jewish
religion remains the law--the simple ten commandments, unchanged since the
time of Moses:

THE TEN COMMANDMENTS (Exodus 20: 2-17)

    2.  I am the Lord thy God, which have brought thee out of the
land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.
    3.  Thou shalt have no other gods before me.
    4.  Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any
likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth
beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.
    5.  Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them;
for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the
fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them
that hate me;
    6.  And showing mercy unto thousands of them that love me,
and keep my commandments.
    7.  Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain.
for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.
    8.  Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.
    9.  Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work:
    10.  But the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God:
in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter,
thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor any stranger
that is within thy gates:
    11.  For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the
sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore
the Lord blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it.
    12.  Honor thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be
long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee.
    13.  Thou shalt not kill.
    14.  Thou shalt not commit adultery.
    15.  Thou shalt not steal.
    16.   Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.
    17.   Thou shalt not covet* thy neighbor's house, thou shalt
not covet thy neighbors wife, nor his manservant, nor his
maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass,+ nor any thing that is thy
neighbor's.

*desire
+donkey

     One of the problems with any system of laws is that sleazy operators can
stay just within the limits of the law, while doing violence to its purpose.  The
prophet Amos warned against such respectable fraud:

A WARNING TO HYPOCRITES (Amos 5:2l-24)

3. For thus says the Lord God ...
21.  "I hate, I despise your feasts,*                   
          and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies.
22. Even though you offer me your burnt offerings and cereal     
    offerings,
          I will not accept them,
          And the peace offerings of your fatted beasts
          I will not look upon.
23.  Take away from me the noise of your songs;
          to the melody of your harps I will not listen.
24.    But let justice roll down like waters,
          and righteousness like an everflowing stream."

*religious festivals

    The Jewish nation enjoyed prosperity under their multi-talented King
David and his wise son, Solomon.  Then they split.  The northern kingdom of
Israel eventually became absorbed into the Assyrian empire.  Those "lost ten
tribes" did not wander off anywhere; they simply forgot their history as they
blended into the larger society.  The lesson here is that when you forget who
you are, you become nobody.  The smaller southern kingdom of Judah gave us
the Jewish Bible (which Christians call the Old Testament).

                            ----------

     Christianity grew out of the Jewish religion.  Christians accept the Old
Testament as part of their Bible.  By the time of Jesus, Zoroastrianism had
grown quite popular in the Roman empire.  Early Christians wrote that
Zoroastrian stargazers came from Persia to worship Jesus at his birth.  They
wrote that Jesus met Satan, who tempted him.  And the book of Revelation goes
into a description of the final judgement of good and evil, which Zoroaster had
promised.

    Jesus was a simple man who taught that love is more important than
obeying the letter of the law.  This offended the Jewish priests, and worried the
Roman conquerors who were trying to control the area.  Together, they had
Jesus executed as a common criminal.  A few days later, his followers
announced that Jesus had risen from the dead and had gone to heaven to join
God, who was his father.  Christians ever since have put much emphasis on the
promise of heaven for those who believe in Jesus, try to be good, and ask
forgiveness for the bad things they have done.

    500 years later, Christian leaders started dating events as so many years
before or after Jesus' birth. (Actually, they miscalculated by about four years.)
For business purposes, most of the world has adopted this standard dating
system--though two-thirds of the world's people are not Christians.

from THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT
(Matthew 5: 38-45 and 6: 21-30)

    38.  Ye have heard that it hath been said, An eye for an eye,
and a tooth for a tooth:
    39.  But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil: but whosoever
shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also.
    40.  And if any man will sue thee at the law, and take away thy
coat, let him have thy cloak also.
    41.  And whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with
him twain.*
    42.  Give to him that asketh thee, and from him that would
borrow of thee turn not thou away.
    43.  Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love    
thy neighbor, and hate thine enemy.
    44. But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that    
curse you, do good to then that hate you,, and pray for them which
despitefully use you, and persecute you;
    45. That ye may be the children of your Father which is in
heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good,
and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.

                            ----------

    24.  No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the
one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise
the other. ye cannot serve God and mammon.+
    25.  Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life,
what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what
ye shall put on.  Is not the life more than meat, and the body than
raiment?#
          26. Behold the fowls of the air; for they sow not, neither
do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth
them.  Are ye not much better than they?
    27 Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his
stature?@
    28. And why take ye thought for raiment?  Consider the lilies
of the fields how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin:
    29.  And yet I say unto you, that even Solomon in all his glory
was not arrayed like one of these.
    30.  Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the fields which
today is, and tomorrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more
clothe you, 0 ye of little faith?

*two
+getting rich
#clothes
@increase his height

----------------------------------------------------------

52. QUEEN ZENOBIA, AND THE PROPHET MANI

    If Arabic civilization had followed the pattern of most civilizations, the
religious age would have been followed by an artistic age.  But nothing
happened.  For the Arab lands had been swallowed up into the dying Roman
empire.  For the next five hundred years, the Arabic people were not masters of
their own development.  In the middle of that long dry spell, a queen and a
prophet appeared.

    Queen Zenobia (zee-NO-be-a) and her husband, Odenathus (odd-ee-
NAY-thus), ruled the oasis city of Palmyra.  When nearby Roman soldiers
proclaimed their commander as the new emperor, Odenathus crushed their
forces.  The real emperor in Rome felt so grateful that he made Odenathus ruler
over the eastern half of the empire.  This was the first time that the empire had
been divided between two emperors ruling in partnership.

    Odenathus' nephew assassinated him, and took his place.  But Queen
Zenobia led the army against the murderer, and defeated him.  The soldiers
would do anything for Zenobia.  For she had always marched at the head of her
husband's army--whether crossing the desert on foot, or in white armor riding
her white horse into the middle of battle.  She took over Odenathus' lands,
broke away from Rome, and called herself Queen of the East.  For six years, the
Arabic people enjoyed freedom under their own queen.  She was an educated
woman, who spoke four languages and wrote a history book.

       She defeated the first Roman army sent against her.  Then the new
emperor came, himself, with a new army.  Zenobia found herself trapped inside
Palmyra.  She leaped on a camel and fled across the desert.  As she scrambled
into a boat to sail for help, the Roman soldiers caught up with her.  They
carried her back to Rome, where they marched her through the streets in sixty
pounds of her jewels and bound in heavy golden chains.  They gave her a villa,
and she lived quietly in the suburbs of Rome with her family for the rest of her
life.  For three more centuries, no Arab ruler found the courage to try what
Zenobia had dared,

    At about the same time, a man named Mani (MAH-nee) announced a new
religion called Manichaeism (MAH-ni-kee-izm).  He preached that the world
was divided between the forces of light and the forces of darkness.  He
declared that God had sent several messengers of light: Zoroaster, the Buddha,
Jesus, and now Mani.  He did not contradict the earlier religions he added to
them--and even threw in a little Indian, Greek, and Egyptian mythology.

    Mani traveled, preaching his message in India, and even on the borders
of China.  When Mani returned to Persia, the Zoroastrian priests had him
executed.  For the next thousand years, Manichaeism was probably the most
widespread religion in the world.  It grew strong in France, north Africa, Persia,
and China--from Atlantic to Pacific, Even the famous St, Augustine was a
Manichaen before he switched to Christianity.  Eventually, the Christian,
Muslim, and Zoroastrian church leaders succeeded in stamping it out.  The
Manichaen churches were banned in China for meddling in political revolutions.
Today, the Manichaen religion no longer exists.

    Mani wrote seven books.  The Christians and Muslims destroyed all but a
few fragments.  In recent years, enough copies have been found in China to
piece the scriptures back together again.

from THE GOSPEL OF THE PROPHET MANI
(quoted without ellipses)

Part 1. The Two Sources
    1. There are two sources unborn and everlasting, God and
Matter, Light and Darkness, Good and Evil--in all ways quite
opposite, for the one shares nothing with the other, God being good
and having nothing in common with Evil.  For while the Light is a
good Tree full of good fruits, Matter is an evil Tree bearing fruits
consistent with the root.  Now the fruits of that evil root are
fornications, adulteries, murders, avarice* and all evil deeds, which
God has not planned.  It is as when two Kings are fighting against
each other, being enemies from the first, and having each his own
property.
    2.  Now the Good Source dwelt in the Region of Light, and he
was named the "Father of Greatness," and His Five Glories were
dwelling with Him: Mind, Knowledge, Reason, Memory, Will; And
there is no limit to the Light from above, nor to right nor left.  And
lined up with God there are other Powers, just like handmaids, all
good: the Bright and the Light and the Above--all these are with God.
    3.  But the Evil Source, named the "King of Darkness," he was
dwelling in his Dark Earth, in its five worlds: Smoke and Fire and Hot
Wind and Danger-Water and Gloom; nor is there limit to the
Darkness from below, either to right or to left.  And with Matter are
the Dim and the Dark and the Below and others like them, all evil.

Part 30.  Earlier Messengers
          1. From time to time Wisdom and Good Deeds have always
been brought to mankind by Messengers of God; in age after age
have Messengers been sent by the Eternal King of Light--Seth,+
Zoroaster, the Buddha and the Christ.
    2.  The Messenger of the Light# the shining Luminary came to
Persia to Gushtasp the King; he chose out righteous and truthful
disciples and preached his Hope in Persia.  But Zoroaster, the
famous Master and Leader of Mazdean religion, wrote no books; his
disciples who came after him remembered and wrote the teachings
of the books which they read today; he revealed the Two Natures
which fight with one another.  They honored him more than all other
Messengers; Zoroaster was even buried in the tombs of the Kings,
they made a royal garment and honorably laid him in a tomb in the
land of the Hindus.
    3.  When the Buddha came in his turn to India, and
Aurentes@ and the others who have been sent to the East, the
disciples have reported of him that he too preached his Hope and
taught much wisdom.  He chose out and completed his churches and
revealed to them his Message.  But there is only this fact that he did
not write his wisdom In books; his disciples who came after him, it
was they who recalled something of the wisdom they had heard from
the Buddha and recorded it in the Scriptures.
    4.  In another age they* were taught by Jesus to the West;
and the earlier religions were true so long as pure Leaders were in
them.  After which the present Revelation, this Prophecy in this latest
age, has come down to Babylonia through me, Mani the Messenger
of the True God to the other Sects and the other Heresies.  To each
one of them I have made known that his own wisdom and his
scripture is the truth which I have unveiled and shown to the world.  I
have written them in my Light-books; but what I have not written,,
remember it according to your ability and so far as you know it, and
then write a fragment of the plentiful wisdom you have heard from
me, so that it may not be corrupted.  If you write it and admire it, then
shall you be very greatly enlightened and gain profit, and be freed
through the power of the Truth.

Part 62. Sincerity of Heart

    1. Blessed is    the man those heart does not condemn him; the
faithful man of God judges himself willingly.  If perchance thou
wouldst give a lesson to others, do it thyself before thou hast given it.
Do not adorn thyself outwardly and be found rotten in thy inward
parts; do not strive after pleasing men and then become an enemy to
God; do not give rest to thy body and then pay the penalty with thy
Soul....

Part 82.  The End is Near
    The time draws near when the Light-body shall be freed from
its fetters, the forces of Light and Darkness will be separated
evermore, and so will the doers of good and their evil foes.  The
universe--heaven and earth, and the countless dense and close
things--will be properly dissolved and freed by the pitiful+ Adorable
One; the demon races will be put into the dark prison for ever, and
the Race of the Illumined will leap for joy and return to the Realm of
Light.  Then shall the light go to the Light, while darkness shall fall
and henceforward never rise again; it shall be blotted from its place.

*greed
+Adam's son
#Zoroaster
@Mahavira?
*teachings
*full of pity

    Three other developments of this time deserve notice: Historians have
found jars containing copper coils around a metal rod--the way a battery is
constructed.  Is it possible that people in the Middle East used batteries to
electroplate jewelry?  The mystery remains unsolved.

    In Egypt, Mary the Jewess began the first careful study of chemistry.

    About a hundred years later, another Egyptian woman, the beautiful
Hypatia (hi-PAY-she-a), became famous as a philosopher.  She brought new life
to Plato's teachings, and she wrote books on mathematics, geometry, and
astronomy.  A mob of Christians stripped and brutally murdered her,

-----------------------------------------------------
FILMSTRIP:  BYZANTINE ART  (how long?)
------------------------------------------------------

53.  ANTARA, THE BLACK KNIGHT OF ARABIA

    Around 500 C.E., the long-postponed artistic age suddenly sprang into
bloom.  The arch, the dome, and glass had all been Middle-Eastern inventions.
Byzantine artists put them to magnificent use in the Eastern Orthodox Christian
churches.

    At the same time, great poetry began--not in the Romanized cities–but in
the Arabian desert.  For in the silence of the desert, poets spent long hours
alone with their thoughts and their camels. Dozens of poets composed verses
as they rode.  This Classic Arab Poetry rambles on in the swaying rhythm of the
camel.

    Of all these poets, Antara (ahn-tah-RAH) became the most popular.  He
was the son of a tribal chief and a black slave girl from Ethiopia.  He fell in love
with his white cousin, Abla.  But her parents objected until he proved himself
the greatest warrior of the tribe.  Eventually, they did marry, and Antara became
chief of his tribe.  The proud old warrior finally died in battle,

    Hundreds of stories sprang up about the adventures of Antara.  They fill a
book thirty-two volumes long, and are still the most popular stories in Arab
lands.  For Antara was the ideal knight--ferocious in battle, but protecting
women and children.  Some historians believe that the European knights of later
centuries learned their ideals of chivalry from the stories about Antara.

    Antara wrote the following poem while he was still courting Abla.  He
arrives at her family's pastureland, only to find that they have moved on during
the night, He describes Abla, his horse, and his camel.  As he rides on toward
the new pastureland, he thinks of what he will say to her: about himself and his
bravery in battle.

from ODE by ANTARA

0 abode* of Abla at El-Jawá, let me hear you speak;
I give you good morning, abode of Abla, and greetings to you!
For there I halted my she-camel, huge-bodied as a castle,
That I might satisfy the hankering of a lingerer;
While Abla lodged at El-Jawá, and our folk dwelt
at El-Hazn and Es-Sammán and El-Mutathallim.
All hail to you, ruins of a time long since gone by,
empty and desolate since the day Umm el-Haitham parted,
She alighted in the land of the bellowers; and it has become
very hard for me to seek you out, daughter of Makhram.
Casually I fell in love with her, as I slew her folk
(by your father's life, such a declaration is scarce opportune),+
and you have occupied in my heart, make no doubt of it,
the place of one dearly beloved and highly honored.
But how to visit her, now her people are in spring-quarters
at Unaizatan, while ours are dwelling in El-Ghailam?

If you were resolved upon departing,# assuredly
it was a dark night your camels were bridled on;
nothing disquieted@ me, but that her people's burden-beasts
were champing khimkhim-berries amid their habitations,*
two and forty milk-camels among them, all black
as the inner wing-feathers of the sable+ raven.
When she captures you with that mouthful of sharp white teeth,
sweet indeed the kiss of it, delicious to taste,
you might think a merchant's musk-bag# borne in its basket
     has outstripped the press of her side-teeth, wafted@from her mouth
     to you...
She lolls evening and morning lazily upon a pillow
while I ride through the night on a black, well-bridled-mare,*
with a saddle for my cushion, laid on a stout-legged beast
very large in the flanks, generous in the girth.+
Would I indeed be brought to her dwelling by a Shadani she-camel
cursed by an udder barren of milk and withered up,
lashing her tail after all night traveling, still a-swagger,
stamping the sand-mounds with pads heavily tramping?
Long journeying has left her# with a strong-built back,
high-hoisted, supported on props like a tent-pitcher's.
She knelt down at the waters of Er-Ridá, and you might have said@
it was upon crackling cleft* reeds that she knelt down,
and it was like as if thick butterfat or molten pitch
that is used to kindle a blaze about a boiler
welled out from the back of the neck of an angry, spirited
proud-stepping she, the match of a well-bitten stallion.+

If you should lower your veil before me, what then?  Why,
I am a man skilled to seize the well-armored knight.
Praise me therefore for the things you know of me; for I
am easy to get on with, provided I'm not wronged;
but if I am wronged, then the wrong I do is harsh indeed,
bitter to the palate as the tang of the colocynth....#
And many the good wife's spouse I have left on the floor
the blood whistling from his ribs like a harelip hissing,
my fists having beaten him to it with a hasty blow
and the spray of a deep thrust, dyed like dragon's blood....

When I beheld@ the people advancing in solid mass
urging each other on, I wheeled on them blamelessly;
"Antara!" they were calling, and the lances were like
well-ropes sinking into the breast of my black steed.*
Continuously I charged them with his white-blazoned face
and his breast, until his body was caparisoned+ in blood,
and he twisted round to the spear's impact upon his breast
and complained to me, sobbing and whimpering;
had he known the art of conversation, he would have protested,
     and had he been acquainted with speech he would have spoken to
     me.
The horses frowning terribly plunged into the crumbling soil,
long-bodied mare along with short-haired, long-bodied stallion,
and oh, my soul was cured, and its faint sickness was healed
by the horsemen's cry,# "Ha, Antara, on with you!"

*home
+hardly appropriate
#determined to go
@alerted
*tents
+black
#perfume
@breathed
*horse
+with a large stomach
#the camel he is imagining
@because her joints creak
*broken
+war horse
#a fruit
@saw
*horse
+curtained
#challenge

     While the Arabs lived in the desert, men and women worked side-by-side
and enjoyed equal respect.  But when tribesmen settled in the cities, they shut
their wives up in the luxury of the harem.  Several of the early poets were
women.  Al-Khansa (ahl-hhan-SAH) came from a family of writers.  Her father
was one of the most famous poets.  Her grandfather, her aunt, and her brother
also wrote.  She wrote sad poems as her father and each of her brothers died in
battle.

LAMENT FOR A BROTHER by AL-KHANSA

What have we done to you, death
that you treat us so,
with always another catch
one day a warrior
the next a head of state;
charmed by the loyal
you choose the best.
Iniquitous,* unequaling death
I would not complain
if you were just
but you take the worthy
leaving fools for us.

Fifty years among us
upholding rights
annulling wrongs,
impatient death
could you not wait
          a little longer.
He still would be here
and mine, a brother
without a flaw.  Peace
be upon him and Spring
rains water his tomb
        but
could you not wait
    a little longer
    a little longer,
you came too soon.

*evil

    An interesting footnote to history: Jewish states sprang up in three
unexpected places.  In Yemen, around 500, King Dthoo Nuwas of the
Himyarites converted to Judaism.  But he persecuted Christians so cruelly that
the Christian army of Ethiopia invaded and overthrew him.  A Berber group in
north Africa also converted to Judiasm.

    The Khazar tribe lived between the Black and Caspian seas.  When Islamic
and Christian empires began scrambling for land, the Khazars wanted to stay
neutral.  So around 740, they abandoned their tribal gods and became a Jewish
nation.  For more than two hundred years, the Jewish merchants of Khazaria
masterminded a thriving trade between Europe and Asia.   Eventually, they were
attacked from the rear, and fell to the Russians.

------------------------------------------------------

54.  MUHAMMAD, WHO WELDED THE RELIGIOUS IDEAS INTO ONE

    A strange thing happened in Middle-Eastern history.  The artistic age
came late.  But the philosophical age came right on schedule, so that both were
happening at the same time.

    As in India, the people of the Middle East valued religion above all else.
Their art tended to be religious art, their philosophy tended to be religious
philosophy. and their empire tended to be a religious empire.  In most
civilizations, it is the philosophers who pull together the important ideas that
make up that society.  But in the Middle-Eastern civilization, it was Muhammad
(moo-HAH--mad) who pulled together the most important ideas:
Zoroastrianism, Judaism, and Christianity.

    Muhammad was a merchant.  He married a rich widow who also engaged
in business.  Then he began announcing that he kept seeing visions.  A few
people believed, but most laughed at him.  His followers suffered from
economic boycotts and harassment.  In 622 C.E., Jews in the city of Medina
wondered if Muhammad might be their long-awaited Messiah, so they invited
him to come and preach.  Muhammad left his home town of Mecca and went to
Medina.  That year marks the beginning of the Islamic religion and of the
Islamic calendar.

    Like Zoroaster, Muhammad divided the world into good and evil.  He
preached that it was a duty to either convert or destroy those who did not
believe in the One God, Allah.  Islamic armies conquered their neighbors,
granting special privileges to those who became Muslims.  On the average, they
gained another 150 square miles each day for nearly a century.  Islam spread
throughout the Middle East, clear across north Africa, and on up through Spain.

    Throughout those lands, the faithful were called to prayer five times each
day by a human voice calling out:
          "God is most great
          I testify there is no god but Allah
          I testify that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah
          Come to prayer;
          Come to salvation,
          God is most great!
          There is no god but Allah."

    The following two selections come from Muhammad's sermons.  The first
one shows the relationship between Judaism and Islam.  According to the Old
Testament, Abraham had two sons--Ishmael, father of the Arabs; and Isaac,
father of the Jews.  Muslims accept many of the Jewish prophets.  The second
selection shows the relation of Christianity to Islam.  Muslims accept John the
Baptist and Jesus as prophets.

from THE KORAN

    Abraham and Ishmael built the House and dedicated it,
saying: "Accept this from us, Lord, You hear all and You know all.
Make us submissive* to You; make of our descendants a nation that
will submit to You.  Teach us our rites of worship and turn to us
mercifully; You are forgiving and merciful.  Send forth to them an
apostle of their own who shall declare to them Your revelations and
instruct them in the Scriptures and in wisdom and purify them of sin,
You are the Mighty, the Wise One."
    Who but a foolish man would renounce the faith of Abraham?
We+ chose him in this world, and in the world to come he shall dwell
among the righteous.  When his Lord said to him: "Submit," he
answered: "I have submitted to the Lord of the Creation."
    Abraham enjoined# the faith on his children, and so did
Jacob, saying: "My Children, Allah has chosen for you the true faith.
Do not depart this life except as men who have submitted to Him."
    Were you present when death came to Jacob?  He said to his
children: "What will you worship when I am gone?"  They replied:
"We will worship your God and the God of your forefathers Abraham
and Ishmael and Isaac: the One God.  To Him we will surrender
ourselves."
    That nation have passed away.  Theirs is what they did, and
yours what you have done.  You shall not be questioned about their
actions.
    They say: "Accept the Jewish or the Christian faith and you
shall be rightly guided."  Say: "By no means!  We believe in the faith
of Abraham, the upright one.  He was no idolater."
    Say: "We believe in Allah and that which is revealed to us; we
believe in what was revealed to Abraham, Ishmael, Isaac, Jacob,
and the tribes; to Moses and Jesus and the other prophets.  We
make no distinction between any of them, and to Allah we have
surrendered ourselves."

                          -------------

    Unbelievers are those that say: "Allah is the Messiah, the son
of Mary." For the Messiah himself said: "Children of Israel, serve
Allah, my Lord and your Lord."  He that worships other gods besides
Allah shall be forbidden Paradise and shall be cast into the fire of
Hell.  None shall help the evildoers.

    Unbelievers are those that say: "Allah is one of three."@
There is but one God.  If they do not desist* from so saying, those of
them that disbelieve shall be sternly punished.

    Will they not turn to Allah in repentance and seek forgiveness
of Him?  He is forgiving and merciful.
    The Messiah, the son of Mary, was no more than an apostle:
other apostles passed away before him.  His mother was a saintly
woman.  They both ate earthly food.
    See how We+ make plain to them Our revelations.  See how
they ignore the truth.

*obedient
+Allah
#commanded
@father, son, and holy ghost
*stop
+Allah

-----------------------------------------------------

55.  TALES OF THE COURT OF HARUN AL-RASHID

    The rulers of the Arab world after Muhammad took the title of caliph
(kah-LEEF).  The one caliph who has lived on in people's imagination was Harun
al-Rashid (ha-ROON ar-ra-SHEED).  As a political leader, he was slightly below
average.  But he gathered together at his court all of the outstanding poets and
story-tellers he could find.

    Several books of short stories appeared around this time.  Most popular
were the stories about Antara.

    Another collection was The Arabian Nights.  It began with the story of a
king who found his wife unfaithful.  He decided that the only way to have a
faithful wife was to marry her in the evening and have her head chopped off in
the morning.  He did this many times.  Finally, the prime minister's daughter,
Scheherezade (sheh-hair-a-ZAHD), volunteered to marry the king.  That night
her sister came to the royal bedroom door and asked for a bedtime story.
Scheherezade told it right up to the most exciting part, and said she was too
sleepy to finish it.  The king was so curious to hear the ending that he let her
live one more day.  That night she finished her first story and started a second.
She did this every night for three years--a thousand and one nights.  By that
time the king had grown so fond of her, that he promised to keep her always.

    The stories in The Arabian Nights include "Aladdin and His Wonderful
Lamp," "Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves," and six different "Adventures of Sinbad
the Sailor."  Other stories told the adventures of Harun al-Rashid, who would
walk disguised through Baghdad at night to find out what his people really
thought.  These stories pulse with the very life of the bazaar.

    This story comes from yet another collection.  A Sufi (a mystical religious
teacher) told it to Harun al-Rashid.
 
WHEN DEATH CAME TO BAGHDAD

    The disciple of a Sufi of Baghdad was sitting in the corner of
an inn one day when he heard two figures talking.  From what they
said he realized that one of them was the Angel of Death.
    "I have several calls to make in this city during the next three
weeks," the Angel was saying to his companion.
    Terrified, the disciple concealed himself until the two had left.
Then, applying his intelligence to the problem of how to cheat a
possible call from death, be decided that if he kept away from
Baghdad he would not be touched.  From this reasoning it was but a
short step to hiring the fastest horse available and spurring it night
and day towards the distant town of Samarkand.
    Meanwhile Death met the Sufi teacher and they talked about
various people.  "And where is your disciple so-and-so?" asked
Death.
    "He should be somewhere in this city, spending his time in
contemplation, perhaps in a caravanserai,*" said the teacher.
    "Surprising," said the Angel; "because he is on my list.  Yes,
here it is: I have to collect him in four weeks' time at Samarkand, of
all places."

*inn

----------------------------------------
FILMSTRIP:  EARLY ISLAMIC ART  (how long?)
-----------------------------------------

56.  A BOOK OF VERSES UNDERNEATH THE BOUGH

    The Spanish Arabs were called Moors.  They were of mixed Arab and
African blood.  The Muslim religion spread to every racial group.  There seems
to have been almost no racial prejudice in their lands.

    One black Moor, Ziryab (                ) influenced music for hundreds of
years.  Besides setting new fashions in hairstyles, dress, and cleanliness, he
started a new tradition of writing love songs.  Several of his ten children also
wrote songs.  The musical style which Ziryab started would later influence the
troubadour songs of medieval Europe.  He sent all the way to India for
astronomers, who also taught Europeans to play chess.  In addition, Ziryab set
the pattern for formal dining which spread across Europe for the next thousand
years.  The menu went from soup to nuts: first soup and appetizers, then
seafood (optional), then meat and vegetables, then poultry and salad, then
dessert--which might proceed from sweets to cheese to fruit to nuts.  (Notice
that many restaurants do it wrong: they often serve the salad while the other
food is cooking.)

    Spain developed into a center of Islamic art.  In addition to beautiful
buildings, the land teemed with poets, One was Mu'tamid (MOO-ta-mid), King
of Seville (say-VEE-ya).  Mu'tamid kept his father's old prime minister, Ibn
Zaydun (ibn zī-DOON), the greatest poet of Islamic Spain.  When the old poet
died, Mu'tamid appointed another poet as prime minister: his best friend Ibn
Ammar (                  ).  When a Christian army invaded, Ibn Ammar saved
thousands of lives by turning the contest into a chess match between himself
and the Christian king.  Ibn Ammar won, and the Christian army left.  Then Ibn
Ammar grew ambitious, and revolted against the king.  Loyal citizens
imprisoned him, but Mu'tamid kept delaying his execution as long as he could.
Finally, the Christians prepared to invade again.  It became necessary for the
Muslims to unite; and Mu'tamid realized this could not happen as long as his
old friend remained alive.  Reluctantly, he gave the order for execution,

    But the Muslim armies still were not strong enough.  So they invited the
Muslim king of Morocco to bring his armies over from north Africa to help
them.  After defeating the Christians, the Moroccan king turned on the Spanish
kingdoms.

    Mu'tamid had fallen in love with a slave girl, and made her his queen.
Their daughter, Princess Buthayna (               ), became another famous poet.
The Moroccans captured King Mu'tamid and his wife, and kept them imprisoned
in Africa for the rest of their lives.  The Moroccans did not recognize Princess
Buthayna, and sold her as a slave to a wealthy merchant.  After falling in love
with the merchant's son, she told them who she was, and sent the young man
to her overjoyed parents to ask their permission to marry.

    Mu'tamid, like most Moorish poets, specialized in short verses with vivid
imagery.

POEMS BY MU'TAMID, KING OF SEVILLE


THE FOUNTAIN

The sea hath tempered it; the mighty sun
          Polished the blade,
And from the limpid sheath the sword leaps forth;
          Man hath not made
A better in Damascus--though for slaughter
Hath steel somewhat advantage over water.


WOO NOT THE WORLD

Woo not the world too rashly, for behold,
Beneath the painted silk and broidering,
It is a faithless and inconstant thing.
(Listen to me, Mu'tamid, growing old.)

And we--that dreamed youth's blade would never rust,
Hoped wells from the mirage, roses from the sand--
The riddle of the world shall understand
And put on wisdom with the robe of dust.

     At the opposite end of the Arab world, in Persia, lived the brilliant
mathematician, chemist, and astronomer, Omar Khayyam (OH-mar kī-YAHM).
It took European mathematicians another five hundred years to reach the same
discoveries that Omar Khayyam had.  He developed a calendar more accurate
than the one used today.

    Sometimes, in his spare moments, Omar Khayyam scribbled down little
verses, called Rubaiyat (roo-bī-YAHT).  Here are a few:

from THE RUBAIYAT by OMAR KHAYYAM

Come, fill the Cup, and in the fire of Spring
Your Winter-Garment of Repentance fling;
          The Bird of Time has but a little way
To flutter--and the Bird is on the Wing....

A Book of Verses underneath the Bough,
A Jug of Wine, a Loaf of Bread--and Thou
    Beside me singing In the Wilderness--
Oh, Wilderness were Paradise enow!*

Some for the Glories of This World; and some
Sigh for the Prophet's Paradise to come;
          Ah, take the Cash, and let the Credit go,
Nor heed the rumble of a distant Drum! ...

Ah, but my Computations, People say,
Reduced the Year to better reckoning?--Nay,
    'Twas only striking from the Calendar
Unborn To-morrow, and dead yesterday....

Ah, my Beloved, fill the Cup that clears
Today of past Regrets and future Fears;
          Tomorrow!--Why Tomorrow I may be
Myself with Yesterday's Seven Thousand Years.

For some we loved, the loveliest and the best
That from his Vintage+ rolling Time hath pressed,
Have drunk their Cup a Round or two before,
And one by one crept silently to rest.

And we that now make merry in the Room
They left, and Summer dresses in new bloom,
          Ourselves must be beneath the Couch of Earth
Descend--ourselves to make a Couch--for whom?

Ah, make the most of what we yet may spend,
Before we too into the Dust descend;
          Dust into Dust, and under Dust to lie,
Sans# Wine, sans Song, sans Singer, and--sans End!

*enough
+wine-press
#without

-----------------------------------------------------------

57.  ARAB SCIENCE AND MATHEMATICS

    The early civilizations had almost no contact with each other.  So each
civilization had to make the same scientific discoveries.  Knowledge advanced
almost by accident--as the inspirations of brilliant men.

    But the Arabs began a new kind of science--a science of careful study.
They searched for and translated the discoveries of Greece and India--also a bit
of Chinese, Egyptian, and ancient Babylonian knowledge.  Gradually, they piled
up whole encyclopedias of science.  And they added improvements everywhere.
It is sometimes difficult to tell who made the improvements--new information
simply appeared in the next encyclopedia.  Many Arab technical terms now form
part of our language: alchemy, alcohol, algebra, alkali, almanac, azimuth,
caliber, cipher, elixir, zenith.

    There were many Arab scientists--too many to remember.  Here is a
sampling of outstanding men in several fields:

    Al-Khwarizmi (ahl-KWAH-riz-mee) led groups of Arab scientists to India
and to Byzantium.  He introduced Indian numerals and the decimal system to
the West.  He combined Indian and Greek mathematics into a new field of
study: algebra.  Perhaps algebra symbolizes the Middle-Eastern scientific
attitude--separating the known from the unknown (just as they saw God and
man as separate beings in some sort of relationship).  They were used to
searching for the unknown by examining that which is known.  We get the word
"algorithm" from al-Khwarizmi's name,

    An obscure astronomer named al-Uqlidisi (                 ) then extended the
new numbers beyond the decimal point to express fractional amounts.

    Jabir (JAH-beer) studied chemistry.  He discovered the formulas for
manufacturing oxides, sulfides, and acids.  He also studied geology and the
formation of minerals.

    Al-Biruni (ahl-be-ROO-nee) figured out the relative densities of several
metals and precious stones.  He explained why artesian wells flow.  And he
understood the way land is formed from layers of fossils from the beds of
ancient seas.  He did complex mathematical problems, and wrote an
encyclopedia of mathematics, religion, philosophy, literature, geography, and
astronomy.

    Al-Masudi (ahl-mah-SOO-dee) wrote an encyclopedia which mentions
evolution through minerals, plants, animals, on up to man.

    Al-Tusi (ahl-TOO-see) ran a large astronomical observatory.  He
combined and published the astronomical knowledge of the Greeks, Chinese,
and Persians.  He also wrote the first book on trigonometry.

    Omar Khayyam was more famous for his astronomy than for his poetry.

    Alhazen (ahl-ha-ZEN) studied optics--especially lenses and refraction.
Arab doctors developed a very thorough knowledge of eye diseases, and the
way the eye sees.

    Abu'l-Qasim (ah-BOOL KAH-sim)--sometimes spelled Abulcasis–-was a
Spanish surgeon.  He invented many surgical instruments, including tweezers,
syringe, nose dropper, tongue depressor, and dental forceps.  There were many
great Spanish doctors.

    Al-Razi (ahl-RAH-zee) wrote the medical encyclopedia and pamphlets
that made Arab medicine the best in the world at that time.  He specialized in
the treatment of measles and smallpox.

    Avicenna (ah-vi-SEN-a) is respected as the greatest of all Arab scientists.
He wrote an encyclopedia of philosophy, but his own special field was
medicine--especially skin diseases.

    It is probably not important to remember all of these names; what
matters is that there was a tremendous lot of scientific activity going on in the
Arab world.

-------------------------------------------------------

58.  TWO BOYS FROM THE SAME NEIGHBORHOOD: AVERROES AND MAIMONIDES

    Averroes (a-VAIR-ro-eez) and Moses Maimonides (my-MON-i-deez)
grew up just a few blocks apart in Cordova (KOR-do-va), Spain.  Averroes was
nine years older.  Both became doctors.  Both studied Aristotle.  Both wrote
philosophy books on how scientific truth fits in with religious truth, There was
one differences Averroes was Muslim, and Maimonides was Jewish.

    Because of his wisdom, Averroes received appointment as a judge.  But in
his old age, political leaders grew suspicious of this man who thought for
himself, and they kept him a prisoner in his house.  He wrote several books--
some of them about Aristotle.  The Arabs already knew about the Greek
philosophers, but to the Christians of Europe this was exciting news.  They
eagerly read what Averroes wrote:

from COMMENTARY ON ARISTOTLE by AVERROES

    Aristotle was the wisest of the Greeks and constituted* and
completed logic, physics, and metaphysics.  I say that he constituted
these sciences, because all the works on the subjects previous to
him do not deserve to be mentioned and were completely eclipsed
by his writings.  I say that he put the finishing touches on these
sciences, because none of those who have succeeded him up to our
time, to wit, during nearly fifteen hundred years, have been able to
add anything to his writings or find in them any error of any
importance.  Now that all this should be found In one man is a
strange and miraculous thing, and this privileged being deserves to
be called divine+ rather than human.

*founded
+godlike

     Averroes taught that scientific truth is just as important as religious truth.
He noticed that religion did not always agree with observable facts, but he
argued that both explanations could be true in their own way.  The Christian
church outlawed the study of his writings.  But the universities of Europe
continued to offer courses on Averroism, and students continued to flock to
them.  Averroes formed the bridge by which Greek knowledge reached Europe,

    Moses Maimonides was one of many Jews living in Islamic Spain.  For,
unlike the Arabs of Arabia, the Spanish Arabs practiced tolerance--far more
tolerance than the Christians showed.  Jewish historians refer to this period as
their "golden age" when the poet Judah ha-Levi spoke for his people.  Then the
strict Moroccans captured Spain (see Chapter 56), and the Jews had to flee.
Maimonides eventually reached Egypt.  There, he became physician to the
famous king Saladin, and also became Rabbi of Cairo.

    Maimonides wrote several books for Jews who did not know what to think
of all the Islamic, Christian, and Greek ideas that everyone seemed to be
discussing.  Bewildered Christians and Muslims also found meaning in his clear
explanations.  Here is what he said about success:

from GUIDE FOR THE PERPLEXED by MOSES MAIMONIDES

    The ancient and modern philosophers have shown that man
can acquire four kinds of perfection.  The first kind, the lowest, in
acquisition* of which people spend their days, is perfection as
regards property; the possession of money, garments, furniture,
servants, land, and the like; the possession of the title of a great king
belongs to this class.  There is no close connection between his
possession and its possessor; it is a perfect imaginary relation.
When on account of the great advantage a person derives from
these possessions, he says, "This is my house, this is my servant,
this is my money, and these are my hosts and armies."  For when he
examines himself, he will find that all these things are external, and
their qualities are entirely independent of the possessor.  When,
therefore, that relation ceases, he that has been a great king may
one morning find that there is no difference between him and the
lowest person, and yet no change has taken place in the things
which were ascribed to him.  The philosophers have shown that he
whose sole aim in all his exertions and endeavors is the possession
of this kind of perfection, only seeks perfectly imaginary and
transient+ things; and even if these remain his property all his
lifetime, they do not give him any perfection.

    The second kind is more closely related to man's body than
the first.  It includes the perfection of the shape, constitution, and
form of man's body; the utmost evenness of temperament, and the
proper order and strength of his limbs.  This kind of perfection must
likewise be excluded from forming our chief aim; because it is a
perfection of the body, and man does not possess it as man, but as
a living being; he has this property besides in common with the
lowest animal; and even if a person possesses the greatest possible
strength, he could not be as strong as a mule, much less can he be
as strong as a lion or an elephant....  The soul derives no profit
whatever from this kind of perfection.

    The third kind of perfection is more closely connected with
man himself than the second perfection.  It includes moral perfection;
the highest degree of excellency in man's character.  Most of the
precepts# aim at producing this perfection; but even this kind is only
a preparation for another perfection, and is not sought for its own
sake.  For all moral principles concern the relation of man to his
neighbor; the perfection of man's moral principles is, as it were, given
to man for the benefit of mankind.  Imagine a person being alone,
and having no connection whatever with any other person, all his
good moral principles are at rest, they are not required, and give man
no perfection whatever. These principles are only necessary and
useful when man comes in contact with others.

    The fourth kind of perfection is the true perfection of man; the
possession of the highest intellectual faculties;@ the possession of
such notions which lead to true metaphysical* opinions as regards
God.  With this perfection man has obtained his final object; it gives
him true human perfection; it remains to him alone; it gives him
immortality, and on its account he is called man.  Examine the first
three kinds of perfection, you will find that, if you possess them, they
are not your property, but the property of others, although, according
to the ordinary view, they belong to you and to others.  But the last
kind of perfection is exclusively yours; no one else owns any part of
it....  Your aim must therefore be to attain this (fourth) perfection that
is exclusively yours, and you ought not to continue to work and weary
yourself for that which belongs to others, whilst neglecting your soul
till it has lost entirely its original purity through the dominion of the
bodily powers over it.

*getting
+passing
#teachings
@thinking abilities
*beyond physical

-------------------------------------------------

59. SA'DI AND HAFIZ: THE LAST SONGS OF AUTUMN

    Arab civilization had ripened and begun to rot at the center of its belief.
Yet in these last autumn days, two Persians wrote undying literature.

    The first was Sa'di (sah-DEE).  At age eighteen, he decided to spend the
next thirty years on education, the following thirty on travel, and thirty more in
retirement.  He lived through his whole plan, dying at age 108.  He wrote little
stories--partly in verse, and partly in prose.  He married three times; the wife
mentioned in this selection was his second.

from THE GULISTAN by SA'DI

    Having become tired of my friends in Damascus, I went into
the desert of Jerusalem and associated with animals till the time
when I became a prisoner of the Franks,* who put me to work with
infidels+ in digging the earth of a moat in Tarapolis, when one of the
chiefs of Aleppo, with whom I had formerly been acquainted,
recognized me and said: "What state# is this?" I recited:

    "I fled from men to mountain and desert
    Wishing to attend upon no one but God,
    Imagine what my state at present is
    When I must be satisfied In a stable of wretches.

    The feet in chains with friends
    Is better than to be with strangers in a garden."

    He took pity on my state and ransomed me for ten dinars@
from the captivity of the Franks, taking me to Aleppo where he had a
daughter and married me to her with a dowry of one hundred dinars.
After some time had elapsed, she turned out to be ill-humored,
quarrelsome, disobedient, abusive in her tongue and embittering my
life:

    A bad wife in a good man's house
    Is his hell in this world already.
    Alas for a bad consort,* alas!
    Preserve us, 0 Lord, from the punishment of fire.

          Once she lengthened her tongue of reproach+ and said:
"Art thou not the man whom my father purchased from the Franks for
ten dinars?"  I replied: "Yes, he bought me for ten dinars and sold me
into thy hands for one hundred dinars."

                            ----------

    I never complained of the vicissitudes# of fortune, nor
murmured at the ordinances of heaven,@ excepting once, when my
feet were  bare and I had not the means of procuring* myself shoes.
I entered the great mosque at Cufah with a heavy heart, when I
behold+ a man who had no feet.  I offered up praise and
thanksgiving to God for His bounty, and bore with patience the want
of shoes.

*Christian crusaders
+Jews
#condition
@gold coins
*mate
+she nagged
#changes
@fate
*could not afford
+saw

    Shortly after Sa'di died, Hafiz (hah-FIZ) was born in the same town.  But
Hafiz did not like to travel.  He died there in his eighties.  Not much else is
known about his life, except that he wrote some of the world's finest love
poems.
 
TWO LOVE POEMS by HAFIZ


ODE

The rose is not the rose unless thou see;
Without good wines spring is not spring for me.

Without thy tulip cheeks the gracious air
Of gardens and meadows is not fair.

Thy rosy limbs, unless I may embrace,
Lose for my longing eyes full half their grace;

Nor does thy scarlet mouth with honey drip
Unless I taste its honey, lip to lip.

Vainly* the cypress in the zephyr+ sways
Unless the nightingale be there to praise.

Nothing the mind imagines can be fair
Except the picture that it makes of her.

Surely good wine is good, and green the end
Of gardens old--but not without the Friend.

HAFIZ, the metal of thy soul is base:#
Stamp not upon it the Beloved's face.


QUATRAIN

0 great of soul!  How gladly would I give
All that I am to thee by whom I live!
If thou wouldst know the bitterness of hell
Pour friendship's water through an empty sieve.@

*in vain
+breeze
#low quality
@strainer

---------------------------------------------------------

60.  CONQUERORS OF THE SHIFTING SANDS

    The caliphs gave too much power to their Turkish bodyguards.  Soon they
found themselves prisoners in their own palace.  A band of cutthroats called
The Assassins roamed through Arab lands. (They got their name because their
leader drugged them on hashish and placed them in a garden of tender
maidens and rivers flowing with milk and wine and honey.  After this glimpse of
"Paradise," they had no more fear of risking their lives.)

    Then came three invasions from even less civilized people.  First the
Christian crusaders invaded.  They raped and looted their way down to
Jerusalem, where they spent a whole week hacking up every man, woman, and
child they could find in the city.

    The man who stopped the crusaders was Saladin (SAL-a- din).  He had
studied to become a religious leader.  But he was forced into several wars, and
ended up king of Egypt.  Being a man of peace, Saladin tried to negotiate with
the Christians.  They made many agreements.  Each time Saladin kept his word,
and each time the Christians broke theirs.  Finally, he led his armies to
reconquer Jerusalem.  Not a single Christian in the city suffered harm.

    A new batch of crusaders came, led by King Richard the Lionhearted of
England.  The two leaders respected each other, even though Richard could be
cruel.  When Richard fell ill with fever, Saladin sent him peaches and snow from
the mountaintop to cool his drinks.  They finally negotiated a truce.  The
Christians continued to hold some cities, but the invasion had ended.

    One of the last kings of Saladin's family married a Turkish slave girl
named Shajar al-Durr (                 ).  After her husband's death, she made
herself queen of Egypt.  Soldiers felt embarrassed at having a woman for a
leader, so they named another slave as their king.  Without hesitation, Shajar
married him.  And when he began to grow too powerful, she had him
murdered.  His slaves then murdered her, Shajar al-Durr founded the first slave
dynasty.  Only slaves could become king.  Power did not go to the dead ruler's
son, but to his most talented slave.  The slave-kings gave Egypt good
leadership.  Slave dynasties later sprang up in the Islamic part of India.

    The Egyptian slave-king Baybars (by-BARCE) drove the last Christians out
of Palestine.  And he stopped the next invasion by the Mongols.  The Arabs
count him as one of their great heroes.

    Before the Christian invasion had ended in the west, Genghis Khan led his
Mongols in from the east.  His son destroyed Baghdad, and murdered the last
caliph.  Mongol armies used the great mosques and libraries to stable their
horses.  Kublai Khan's empire included almost all of the Arab lands except
Africa.  (See Chapter 36.)  After that, the Mongols fell to quarreling among
themselves.  Their empire crumbled away.

    Then came Timurlane (TIM-oor-lane), the most savage conqueror of
them all.  Tall, white-haired, and crippled, he claimed to be a descendent of
Genghis Khan.  Whenever he captured a city, he had the bloody heads of its
inhabitants stacked into a huge pyramid.  He raided north to Moscow; south to
Delhi, India; and west to Damascus.  He was marching to invade China when he
died.  On his black tombstone, he had the words carved, "Were I alive today,
mankind would tremble." Someone had told Timurlane that unboiled water was
not safe, so he ordered his soldiers to boil theirs.  This spread tea drinking
throughout Asia,

    Timurlane's grandson, Ulug Beg (OO-loog BEG), built the best
astronomical observatory in the world at that time.

-------------------------------------------------------------------
MAP OF ARAB LANDS BEFORE 1500
MAP OF ARAB LANDS AFTER 1500
-------------------------------------------------------------------

    About 1500, three big conquests changed the shape of the Arab world.
King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella drove the last of the Moors out of Spain.
The Moors left Spain the same year Columbus did.  So it is not surprising that a
few Arab ideas showed up in Spanish-American architecture-for instance the
patio with its flowers and fountains.

    About the same time, northern India was conquered by a descendent of
Timurlane named Babar (BOB-ber) (not to be confused with Baybars).  Babar's
grandson, Akbar (AHK-bar), became one of the most outstanding Muslim
rulers.  He grew interested in comparing religions.  He established complete
toleration and invited religious teachers from all over the world to come and
explain their beliefs at his court.  Akbar's son, Jehangir (jay-hahn-GEER), built
fabulous gardens in the Himalayas, and presided over the Golden Age of Indian
miniature painting before he became a drug addict.  Jehangir's son, Shah Jehan
(SHAH zheh-HAHN), built the Taj Mahal as a tomb for his beloved wife.

    In the third big conquest, the Turks captured Constantinople--that
leftover half of the old Roman empire.  The Turks--who had originally come
from the neighborhood of China--now ruled the Arab world.  They controlled
their empire with an efficient army of hired soldiers (mostly former Christians)
equipped with the latest guns and cannons.


    After that, nothing much happened.  The Turkish sultans stayed in their
harems, producing hundreds of sons.  When  the sultan died, all but one son
would be killed off to make sure no one could start a revolution, Young sultans
grew up in the palace with no idea of what the outside world was like.

    In the 1800's, France lopped off north Africa, and England wiggled into
control of India and Egypt.  Arab chiefs began to agitate for independence from
Turkey.  When Turkey entered World War I on the losing side, the Arab chiefs
got their chance with English and French help.  In 1922, the last sultan fell from
power.  The empire was no more.

FILMSTRIP: LATE ISLAMIC ART  (how long?)


Return to the main storage page.