THE RISE OF MOHAMMEDANISM 183 mentaries upon these authorities, or made compilations from them, or produced works of their own on the same subjects. Medicine, mathematics, and natural science were especially cultivated by the writers in Arabic ; and in these fields they seem to have learned something from India and the Orient as well as from the ancient Greeks. The Hindu- Arabic numerals were almost as great an advance in mathe- matical notation over the cumbrous Greek and Roman numbers as the phonetic alphabet of the Phoenicians had been over Egyptian hieroglyphs. The great amount of ground covered in three continents by the Mohammedan possessions gave opportunity for extensive travel, and we possess important works by Arabian geographers or tourists of the tenth and eleventh centuries who even penetrated Russia. The Arabs also delved a good deal into occult sub- jects, and wrote many works of astrology, alchemy, necro- mancy, and various arts of magic and divination. A long list of noted Arabian men of learning has come down to us, too long to include here. They begin at Bagdad in the ninth century and last into the twelfth century in Spain. The Arabs were especially impressed by the writings of Aristotle, whose philosophy and science gained greater fame and au- thority in their hands than ever before. Life in the harem and the position of woman in Moslem society do not accord with Western and modern standards, but it was a poetess and musician, who came from Bagdad to Spain about 900, who wrote, "The most shameful thing in the world is igno- rance, and if ignorance were a woman's passport to Para- dise, I would far rather that the Creator sent me to hell!" Women, indeed, were often prominent in the learned world of Moslem Spain. The spread of Islam brought into close commercial rela- tions countries stretching from India, or even Korea and Japan, in the East to Spain and the Atlantic Mohamme- coast of northwestern Africa. The Arabs lined dan trade the west coast of India with trading-stations. They sup- plied distant China with sugar, dates, rose-water, camphor, cotton, glassware, and wrought iron, especially weapons and
