saints in pictorial form, favored ecclesiastical art, until it broadened
in the Renaissance into the various arts of modern times. Similarly, the
predominance of mysticism over reason, of the emotions over the intellect
in the Church, gave rise to its wonderful creation of music, endowing the
soul with new powers to soar aloft to undreamed-of heights of emotion, to
be carried along as upon Seraph's wings to realms where human language
falters and grows faint. Beyond dispute Christianity deserves great credit
for having among all religions opened wide the flood gates of the soul by
cultivating the emotions through works of art and the development of
music, thereby enriching human life in all directions.

11. Islam, the other daughter of Judaism, for its part, fostered the
intellectual side of humanity, so contemptuously neglected by the Church.
The cultivation of philosophy and science was the historical task assigned
to the Mohammedan religion. From the sources of information we have about
the life and revelation of Mohammed, we learn that the origin of the
belief in Allah, the God of Abraham, goes back to an earlier period when
Jewish tribes settled in south Arabia. Among these Jews were traders,
goldsmiths, famous warriors, and knights endowed with the gift of song,
who disseminated Jewish legends concerning Biblical heroes.(1415) Amid
hallucinations and mighty emotional outbursts this belief in Allah took
root in the fiery soul of Mohammed, who thus received sublime conceptions
of the one God and His creation, and of the world's Judge and His future
Day of Judgment. The sight of idolatry, cruelty, and vice among his
countrymen filled him with boundless indignation, so that he began his
career as a God-sent preacher of repentance, modeling his life after the
great prophets of yore. With drastic threats of the last Judgment he tried
to force the idolaters to return to Allah in true repentance. But few of
his hearers believed in his prophetic mission, and the leading men of the
city of Mecca, who derived a large income from the heathen sanctuary
there, opposed him with fierce and violent measures.

Thus he was forced to flee to the Jewish colony of Yathrib, afterwards
called Medina, "the city" of the prophet. He hoped for recognition there,
especially after he had made certain concessions, such as turning the face
toward Jerusalem in prayer, and keeping the Day of Atonement on the tenth
of Tishri. In addition, he emphas