Page:On the education of the people of India (IA oneducationofpeo00trevrich).pdf/60

46 their intercourse with the various nations included within their dominions. They extolled the beauty of their own language, and gave the utmost encouragement to the cultivation of it. The effect was not universally beneficial, because many of the subject races were already in a more advanced stage of civilization than the Arabs themselves; but it was such as exemplified, in a very remarkable way, the extent to which the study of a new language and literature may remould national character. Arabic literature became the literature of all the conquered nations; their dialects were saturated with Arabic words; their habits of thought, their manners, their whole character, became conformed to the same standard. Religion has, no doubt, a great deal to do with the striking uniformity which prevails throughout the Mohammedan world; but language and literature have a great deal more to do with it. There are many tribes on the outskirts of Mohammedanism which have conformed to the religion, without adopting the learning of Islam, and they are often