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the Hegira * consigned t <> the flatties the labour of the j&flos ^ phei-s , mathematicians and poults * of Cdtddva ;* thi * literature of # splenffid dynasty of 700 years . —Ay * de mi ± Athama ! might be the lament of the Christian ; as weU afr the ? Woslfcm stttvfcjrdr oF this * melancholy ruin—the work of united political antd religious bigot * J \ f
One very » interesting feature of mo- * dem literature , romantic fiction , owegr its brightest splendour , if not iti » origin , % to the communication of thief wonders of Arabian imagination : during the brilliant reign of the Spanish Moors , and the intercourse which tfcob
place ( Juring the wars fbr rfceovery of the Holy Kandi Those creations of feiwy which adorn . ' the tales of the ^ Eastern iflviader ^ those glowing : d& seriptions and * lu ^ ttriant oWiament * , the offspring of 2 tA equally luxuriant climate , the pictures of th& endiafit&ig 5 3 cenery of Eastern lands ^ were eagerly
agreed that the imprecation should be transferred from the God of Mahomet te Mahomet himself , his doctrine and sect . ( Mosheim ' s EccL Hist ., Cent . xii . F&rt ii . Chap . Hi . ) - —^ We must take care / says Zebedeus , the Etonian Catholic zealot , ' that we fell not * unawares iirto the
heresy of Manuel Comnetfus , Emperor of Greece , who affirmed that Mahomet ' s God was the true God ; which opinion was not only rejected and 1 condemned by : the Synod , but imputed to him' ad ex * trexne madness , being reproached to himself also by the Bishop of Thessalonica , la those bitter and strange words as are * not to be named . '—Bacon ' s Abridgment
touching an Holy War , " * The library at Cordova contained 280 , 000 volumes , and more than seventy libraries were open to the public in Andalusia .
t The completest pfcture of the manners and splendid qualities of this striking people , the Moors'of Spain , is exhibited m the " Historia de las Guerras Civiles de Granada , " written originally by a Moor ; translated first by a Jew and afterwards b
y Gines Perez d $ Hita , and published a » out 1600 . The beautiful simplicity of Jne story , as well as of the historical » wlads it has preserved , i $ well known . See also the Reflexions Historiques pre-180 tO the translatioii by ** . San € ,
t According to Salmasius , afterwards supported by T . Waftoti , Hist : orP&etrf , 100 L l Dunlo P a History of Fiction , I .
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received ; the colder imaginations , and more barren fancy of Western regions , were kindled by the presence of these enlivening'visitors : " And woriders wild of Arabesque combine Witli gdtliic images of darker shade . ' *
Bdfore the system of the pretended prophet , supported by the furious zeal of a braye , temperate akd enterprising people , the Christian faith seemed in the 7 th century ? deserted by Providence , betrayed and left defenceless by the powers -to which it had long * allied
itself , and » the princes in whom it had put its trUst , in \ vhose smiles its votaries had basked , and it * whose crimes they had largel y participated . As if to pronounce a solemn , fearful warning to the world , that'the true spirit of
Christianity " ' saw nothing tmt degradation w cry fj in sueh unfafoly affiances , no sooner had its false teachers raised themselves to the desired eminence of authorit y ^ whence they seemed to have only to dictate then ? crudest inventions for
the doetrinea of revealed truth , than a religion , grounded on mere policy and imposture , arose to combat them with the * weapons they had assumed as the * tests of truth . —The sword seemed by consent of both parties , to have usurped the place erf reason , and if it
be not presumptuous to interpret the will of JProvWeilce by events , seldom has it displaced darker frowns than lowered ujKm this Christian Church as it fell before the triumphant fortune of the impostor . It found itself identified with the interests of a state which
had now no power to protect it , but from which it had no means of disengaging itself ; yet hardly daring to deny to the taunts of its adversaries , that if the cause of God was rightly left to the decision of arms , ana to the smiles of princes for its protection , success ought to be considered' ad the seal of the l > ivine approbation towards the victor .
If , thefty the enlightened friend of Christian trulh , mourning over any delay , in the progress of that cause which be considers fraught with so mueh r good to the human' race , should the fate of the
inquire aft ^ r once * renowjled Churches of Asia and Africa , and the causes of their decay or disper sion , —I ^ would answer , that they felf chiefly from their i > wn » iijw ? 6 nauct—dea-
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7 £ ke Nonconfbrmi ** : Nd . XVIII . 265
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VOL . KV , 2 M
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), May 2, 1820, page 265, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2488/page/9/
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