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hagiology. It is difficult for us to realize that stories like the most extravagant in
the Thousand and One Nights are the simplest possibilities to the masses of Islam.
The canon lawyers, still, in their discussions, take account of the existence of Jinn, and
no theologian would dare to doubt that Solomon sealed them up in brass bottles. Of
philosophy, in the free and large sense, there is no trace. Ibn Rushd's reply to al-Ghazzali's
"Destruction of the Philosophers" has been printed, but only as a pendant to
that work. In it, too, Ibn Rushd carefully covers his great heresies. His tractates on the
study of kalam, spoken of above, have also been reprinted at Cairo from the European
edition. But these tractates are arranged to give no clue to his real philosophy. The
Arabic Aristotelianism has perished utterly from the Muslim lands. Of the modern Indian
Mu'tazilism no account need be taken here. It is derived from Europe and is ordinary
Christian Unitarianism, connecting with Muhammad instead of with Jesus.
From the above sketch some necessary conditions are clear, which must be fulfilled if
there is to be a chance for a future development in Islam. Education must be widely
extended. The proportion of trained minds must be greatly increased and the barrier
between them and the commonalty removed. The economy of teaching has failed; it has
destroyed the doctrine which it sought to protect. Again, the slavery of the disciple to
the master must cease. It must always be possible for the student, in defiance of
taqlid, to go back to first principles or to the primary facts and to disregard what
the great Imams
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