e

[CONTINUED ON PAGE NINE]

* * * * *

[Illustration: ROYAL IVORY BOX, WITH METAL MOUNTING. HISPANO-ARABIAN
ART, XIITH-XIIITH CENTURY DECORATED IN ENAMEL AND GOLD, DEPICTING
INSIGNIA OF SUCCESSORS OF UMAYYAD CALIPHS OF SPAIN, AND QUR'ANIC
ROSETTES AND KUFIC CALLIGRAPHY OF THE HIGHEST DISTINCTION]

[Illustration: FAIENCE CYLINDRICAL VASE, WITH RELIEF AND LUSTRE
DECORATION. FROM FOSTAT (ANCIENT CAIRO), DYNASTY OF FATIMID
ANTI-CALIPHS (A.D. 974-1171)]

[Illustration: AN EARLY SAFAWID PAINTING (CIRCA A.D. 1525) OF
EXQUISITE RHYTHM, DEPTH AND DIGNITY]

* * * * *

[PAGE 9]

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]

[Footnote 5: "Thus it is by no means correct to imply that the two or
three centuries immediately following the MUHAMMADAN conquest of
Persia were a blank page in the intellectual life of its people. It
is, on the contrary, a period of immense and unique interest, of
fusion between the old and the new, of transformation of forms and
transmigration of ideas, but in no wise of stagnation or death.
Politically, it is true, Persia ceased for a while to enjoy a separate
national existence, being merged in that great MUHAMMADAN EMPIRE which
stretched from GIBRALTAR to the JAXARTES; but in the intellectual
domain she soon began to assert the supremacy to which the ability and
subtlety of her people entitled her. Even the forms of State
organization were largely adapted from Persian models."--AL-FAKHRI
(ed. AHLWARDT, page 101), on the organization of the DIWANS or
Government offices.

"In the finance department not only was the Persian system adopted, but
the Persian language and notation continued to be used till the time
of AL-HAJJAJ B. YUSUF (about A.D. 700)."--EDWARD G. BROWNE, "Literary
History of Persia", Vol. I, page 204.]

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.