Such views are
entirely false; during the Middle Ages Muhammedanism and Western
culture were inspired by the same spirit. The fact has been obscured
by the contrast between the two religions whose differences have been
constantly exaggerated and by dissimilarities of language and
nationality. To retrace in full detail the close connection which
unites Christianity and Islam would be the work of years. Within the
scope of the present volume, all that can be done is to explain the
points of contact between Christian and Muhammedan theories of life
and religion. Such is the object of the following pages. We shall
first treat of Muhammed personally, because his rise as a religious
force will explain the possibility of later developments.
This statement also explains the sense in which we shall use the term
Christianity. Muhammedanism has no connection with post-Reformation
Christianity and meets it only in the mission field. Practical
questions there arise which lie beyond the limits of our subject, as
we have already indicated. Our interests are concerned with the
mediaeval Church, when Christianity first imposed its ideas upon
Muhammedanism at the time of its rise in the East, and afterwards
received a material extension of its own horizon through the rapid
progress of its protege. Our task is to analyse and explain these
special relations between the two systems of thought.
The religion now known as Islam is as near to the preaching of
Muhammed or as remote from it, as modern Catholicism or Protestant
Christianity is at variance or in harmony with the teaching of Jesus.
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