he
world-religions, and we propose to devote our attention more
particularly to the influences which Christianity and Islam exerted
directly upon one another. While Muhammedanism has borrowed from its
hereditary foe, it has also repaid part of the debt. By the very fact
of its historical position Islam was at first indebted to
Christianity; but in the department of Christian philosophy, it has
also exerted its own influence. This influence cannot be compared with
that of Greek or Jewish thought upon Christian speculation: Christian
philosophy, as a metaphysical theory of existence, was however
strongly influenced by Arabian thought before the outset of the
Reformation. On the other hand the influence of Christianity upon
Islam--and also upon Muhammed, though he owed more to Jewish
thought--was so extensive that the coincidence of ideas upon the most
important metaphysical questions is positively amazing.

There is a widespread belief even at the present day that Islam was a
complete novelty and that the religion and culture of the Muhammedan
world were wholly alien to Western medievalism. Such views are
entirely false; during the Middle Ages Muhammedanism and Western
culture were inspired by the same spirit. The fact has been obscured
by the contrast between the two religions whose differences have been
constantly exaggerated and by dissimilarities of language and
nationality. To retrace in full detail the close connection which
unites Christianity and Islam would be the work of years. Within the
scope of the present volume, all that can be done is to explain the
points of contact between Christian and Muhammedan theories of life
and religion. Such is the object of the following pages. We shall
first treat of Muhammed personally, because his rise as a religious
force will explain the possibility of later developments.

This statement also explains the sense in which we shall use the term
Christianity. Muhammedanism has no connection with post-Reformation
Christianity and meets it only in the mission field. Practical
questions there arise which lie beyond the limits of our subject, as
we have already indicated. Our interests are concerned with the
mediaeval Church, when Christianity first imposed its ideas upon
Muhammedanism at the time of its rise in the East, and afterwards
received a material extension of its own horizon through the rapid
progress of its protege. Our task is to analyse and explain these
special rel