ISLAM

THE CHRISTIAN AND MOSLEM ALPHABETS 125
tures. Moreover, Islam has been denounced by
some half-scholars like Mr. Levonian as hidebound,
narrow and averse to advancing* with the times. No
charge could be falser or less in accord with the
judgment of history. Mr. Khuda Bukhsh points out
in this connection : "It is not only now that Islam
has been accommodating itself to the need of the
times. It has done so throughout the ages. Its
liberal principles have found yet more liberal exponents.
Witness the entire Islamic literature !
Does the history of the world show another literature
catholic in taste, more liberal in principles,
more generous in sentiments, more universal in tone
and accent than the Islamic ? Is there one narrow,
parochial note in the splendid array of the Muslim
poets who are the glory of the Islamic world from
Sanai to Ghalib there is not one who has not
preached "the truth of all religions," and the doctrine
of the "brotherhood of man." It thrills me with joy
and fills me with hope when I read this literature
the proudest legacy of the vast Islamic world."*
The diffusion of Islamic culture through travellers
and caravans is also an eloquent testimony to the
thirst for correct knowledge among the Moslems.
They were not bigots are fanatics like the early
Christians.
Khuda Bukhsh says
:
"Azhari whose caravan was attacked and plun-
* Khuda Bukhsh's History of Islamic Civilisation Vol. II.
page 144.