s
ideal mistress, Djehama, he says:--

"O thou, to whom my prayers are given,
Compassionate and gentle be
To my poor soul, so roughly driven,
To fly from me to thee.

"I call thy name, my vows outpouring,
I see thine eyes with tear-drops shine:
No monk, his imaged saint adoring,
Knows rapture like to mine!"

Of these words Dozy[2] says:--"They might be those of a Provencal
troubadour. They breathe the delicateness of Christian chivalry."

This Christianising of the feeling of love is even more clearly seen in
a passage from a treatise on Love by Ali ibn Hazm, who was prime
minister to Abdurrahman V. (Dec. 1023-Mar. 1024). He calls Love[3] a
mixture of moral affection, delicate gallantry, enthusiasm, and a calm
modest beauty, full of sweet dignity. Being the great grandson of
Christian parents, perhaps some of their inherited characteristics
reappeared in him:--"Something pure, something delicate, something
spiritual which was not Arab."[4]

[1] Killed, 897.

[2] II. 229.

[3] Quoted by Dozy, iii. 350.

[4] Dozy, 1.1.

CHAPTER XI.

INFLUENCE OF ISLAM ON CHRISTIANITY.

We have so far investigated the influence of Christianity on the social
and intellectual character of Mohammedanism; let us now turn to the
analogous influence of Mohammedanism on Christianity under the same
aspects. This, as was to be expected, is by no means so marked as in the
reverse case. One striking instance, however, there is, in which such an
influence was shewn, and where we should least have thought to find it.
We have indisputable evidence that many Christians submitted to be
circumcised. Whether this was for the sake of passing themselves off on
occasion as Mussulmans, or for some other reason, we cannot be certain:
but the fact remains.[1] "Have we not," says Alvar,[2] "the mark of the
beast, when setting at nought the customs of the fathers, we follow the
pestilent ways of the Gentiles; when, neglecting the circumcision of the
heart,[3] which is chiefly commanded us, we submit to the corporeal
rite, which ought to be avoided for its ignominy, and which can only be
complied with at the cost of no small pain to ourselves."

Even bishops did not shrink from conforming to this Semitic rite,[4]
whether voluntarily, or under compulsion, we cannot say; but we know
that the Mohammedan king, under whom this occurred, had at one time the
intention of forc