SARACENIC ARCHITECTURE.
As the patriarchs of the Old Testament had led nomadic lives long after other peoples had become settled, so the Arabians, who traced their descent from these patriarchs, continued their wandering lives nearly two thousand years later—not without culture, but with one the direction of which precluded the erection of any monumental works. Each family to a certain extent formed a state, which, however small it might be, main tained its independence, while its chief held all power in his hands; so that the individuals as well as the property of the family were absolutely dependent upon him. It was for poetry that they showed most suscepti bility, and among a perpetually-wandering people who exhibited neither an agricultural or an industrial activity poetry would naturally be fostered and ennobled.
As this life of independence prevented the formation of states such as had been founded by the surrounding peoples, so did it also prevent the formation of religious communities which in the sense of a Church would unite all the families in a common belief and in a common worship. As each family was its own state, so each followed the religion which it had chosen ; and in the fifth century of our era Judaism and Christianity, the lore of the Magi and of the Chaldans, sun-worship, fire-worship, and idolatry of every species, even in its crudest form, were spread abroad in Arabia.
None of these religions was sufficiently suited to the nature of the peo ple to become generally followed, and yet deep piety formed one of their most characteristic traits; so that they listened greedily to every prophet: the more his teaching savored of the imaginative, the more inspired they believed him; and the more he claimed to be inspired, the more enthusi asm they evinced. Among this people Mohammed appeared as a prophet whose mission it was to promulgate a new religion which included in itself all that was consonant with the Arabian nature, and after a comparatively short struggle lie succeeded in persuading all Arabia to follow his teaching, and all to take sword in hand to conquer the world for this creed, the onset of which was like that of an ever-increasing tide, sweeping through every land. Persia was the first country overrun; the Sasanian, the first dynasty
overthrown (649 A. D.). But when the Arabians conquered Persia and made this flourishing land a portion of their caliphate, they embraced the culture of the subjugated people, and we may consider Saszinian art, in connection with the few remains of the ancient Persian, as one of the main sources from which the elements of Arabian art were derived.
Swiftly burst the flood over Egypt, annihilating at once both the remains of the ancient native and the classical culture, but in its mighty rush it gathered many elements to itself. Through the whole of North Africa the inundation flowed, and thence to Spain, which was the first European nation to be overwhelmed. As in the West, so also it spread in the East, subduing a great part of Asia. But human egotism and the love of dominion would not permit Islam and the caliphate to achieve a permanent political union. Several independent kingdoms were formed, the individual importance of which was so great that, based partly upon the peculiarities of the peoples, they constituted independ ent schools of art. These were constituted in such a manner that the art of Islam does not present itself as a unit, no matter how many cha racteristic traits may have been held in common by all these schools; a consideration of their development leads us to investigate them sepa rately in several countries.
Arabic Art: Seventh to Tenth main stein was the art of the Arabs, who quickly rose to a high state of civilization, and in a comparatively short time developed a style which in imaginative ness and magnificence approached the art of the ancient Persians, and in beauty and in the completeness of forms almost equalled the delicacy of classical art.