A literary history of Persia

304 RELIGION AND PHILOSOPHYsyrienne et arabe d'un grand nombre d'ouvrages traitant dediverses matieres." J Harran, since the time of Alexander theGreat, had been deeply under the influence of Greece, so thatit was surnamed 'EAAijvoTroAte, and its inhabitants, thoughspeaking at this time the purest dialect of Syriac, were inmany cases partly Greek by extraction. % Strongly opposed tothe Christianity professed by most of their compatriots, theywere deeply attachedto Greek culture, and more particularlyto the Neo-Platonist philosophy ;and for khis reason their cityhad long served as a rallying-point for all those, including theEmperors Caracalla and Julian the Apostate, who clungpassionately to pagan Culture. And now, under the 'AbbasidCaliphate, it was these pagans of Harran who, more than anyone else, imparted to the Muslims all the learning and wisdomof the Greeks which they had so jealously guarded ; providingthe capital of the Caliphs with a series of brilliant scholars,such as Thdbit b.Qurra (t A.D. 901),his son Abu Sa'idSindn, his grandsons Ibrdhim and Abu'l-Hasan Thabit, hisgreat-grandsons Ishdq and Abu'l-Faraj, and many others,whose biographies will be found in chap, xii of the first bookof Chwolson's great work. Many of these attained positionsof the greatest eminence as physicians, astronomers, mathematicians,geometricians, and philosophers ; and,thanks totheir influence at a Court singularin the world's historyfor itsdevotion to learning,their co-religionists were suffered to continuein their 2thinly-disguised paganism.The Syrians,both heathen and Christian, werd, indeed, the1Kunik's compte-rendu of Chwolson's work, Melanges Asiatiques,vol. i, p. 663...3 Several sects existing in Western Asia at the present day, such as theNusayris, the Yezidis (or so-called " Devil-worshippers,") &c., are, asChwolson and others have pointed out, almost certainly survivals ofancient pagan communities ; though, to secure a doubtful tolerance fromtheir Muhammadan governors, they have been careful to conceal theirreal beliefs and practices, and to vindicate their right to be regarded andtreated as " People of the Book," by a liberal, though not always skilfuluse of names regarded by the Muslims as holy.