The world: historical and actual . sup-ported by four thous-and pillars of varie-gated marble, inclu-ding not only sombreshafts from Egypt,and white shaftsfrom Italy,but state-ly malachite fromRussia, procuredthrough tfhe com-merce of Novgorodthe Good. Thefloors and walls wereof the same material,all polished to thehighest degree. Gold,burnished steel andprecious jewels em-bellished the was luxury car-ried to the loftiestheights. But the chief gloryof Cordova and itssuburb was not ar-chitectural or ma-terial in any , history, theexact sciences, oreosr-raphy, chemistry, m
The world: historical and actual . sup-ported by four thous-and pillars of varie-gated marble, inclu-ding not only sombreshafts from Egypt,and white shaftsfrom Italy,but state-ly malachite fromRussia, procuredthrough tfhe com-merce of Novgorodthe Good. Thefloors and walls wereof the same material,all polished to thehighest degree. Gold,burnished steel andprecious jewels em-bellished the was luxury car-ried to the loftiestheights. But the chief gloryof Cordova and itssuburb was not ar-chitectural or ma-terial in any , history, theexact sciences, oreosr-raphy, chemistry, medicine, inventions, discoveries,and all that goes to the formation of culture, foundits natural center there. The value of the literaturedeveloped cannot be measured with any degree ofaccuracy, for the vandalism of the Christians whofinally expelled the Moors, spared nothing. Whateverwas written in Arabic character was assumed to bethe Koran, and doomed to the flames. The palaceswere torn down, the gardens desolated, and the real. treasures of the city destroyed. But much whichmade the Renaissance possible and beneficent may betraced to Cordova. Not that the Moors in Spain,any more than the Saracens generally, were actualcreators of a distinctive civilization, but that they found, conserved,and to some extentfused, the civiliza-tions of Greece andIndia. They wereapt scholars andfaithful transmit-ters. The most illustri-ous name in Cordo-vas crown of gloryis Averroes, a ripescholar and pro-found was what wouldbe called an agnosticin our day, too*broadand liberal to be tol-erated even in toler-ant Cordova. Hisphilosophy seems tohave opened the eyesof the devout be-lievers in the Pro-phet to the dangerof religion fromscience. He waspersecuted as a her-etic. His genius wasthe glory of thetwelfth century, andhis persecution wasthe triumph of theKoran over freethought and scien-tific inquiry, the turning-point, in fact, of theMoslem. Had his spirit of progress prevail
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1880, booksubjectworldhistory, bookyea
