A literary history of Persia

CHAPTER XITHE STATE OF MUSLIM LITERATURE AND SCIENCE AT THEBEGINNING OF THE GHAZNAwi PERIODIT seems desirable that at this point, standing, as itwere, onthe threshold of modern Persian literature, we should considerin somewhat greaterdetail the state of development attainedby the Science and Literature of the Muslims, which were thecommon heritage of all those nations who had embraced Islim.Persian is often spoken of as a very easy language, and this istrue, so far as the language itself is concerned ;but to be agood Persian scholar is very difficult, since it involves athorough familiarity, not only with the Qu'rdn, the Traditionsof the Prophet, and the ancient Persian legends, but with thewhole scientific and literary point of view which prevailed inthe Muhammadan East. This applies more particularly tothose writers who lived before the terrible devastation wroughtby the Mongol invasion of the thirteenth century, for neverafter this did the literature and science of the Muslims reachtheir old level, owingto the wholesale massacres and acts otincendiarism perpetrated by these hateful savages. Thescientific outlook of the later writers is much more circumscribed;the Arabic language ceased to be generally usedthroughout the realms of Islam ; and, owing to the destructionof Baghdad and the Caliphate, there was no longer a metropolis377