Page:Outlines of European History.djvu/434

 368 Outlines of European History Madison vSquare Garden in New York, The Mohammedans built beautiful palaces and laid out charming gardens. One of these palaces, the Alhambra, built at Granada some centuries after their arrival in Spain, is a marvel of lovely detail (Fig. 146). They also founded a great university at Cordova, to which Chris- tians from the North sometimes went in search of knowledge. Moors far Historians commonly regard it as a matter of great good luck the Franks that Charles the Hammer and his barbarous soldiers succeeded in defeating and driving back the Mohammedans at Tours. But had they been permitted to settle in southern France they might have developed science and art far more rapidly than did the Franks. It is difficult to say whether it was a good thing or a bad thing that the Moors, as the Mohammedans in Spain were called, did not get control of a portion of Gaul. QUESTIONS Section 56, What various reasons led men to enter monasteries? When and where did Christian monasteries originate? Give some of the chief provisions of St. Benedict's Rule. What is meant by the " regular " and the " secular " clergy ? Why did the monks some- times devote part of their time to copying books? Describe the general plan of a monastery. Section %'j. Tell about the conversion of the king of Kent. Did England become a part of the medieval Catholic Church? Section 58. Give a short account of Mohammed's life. Define Kaaba, Islam, Koran. What does the Mohammedan religion require of its adherents ? Section 59. What countries did the MjDhammedans conquer during the century following Mohammed's death ? Where is Mecca Bagdad, Damascus, Cordova? Tell what you can of the Moorish buildings in Spain. to the Kaaba at Mecca (Fig. 144). It was begun about 785 and gradually en larged and beautified during the following two centuries, with the hope that it would rival Mecca as a place of pilgrimage. The part represented in the illus- tration was built by Caliph Al-Hakim, who came to the throne in 961. The beautiful holy of holies (the entrance of which may be seen in the background) is richly adorned with magnificent mosaics. The whole mosque is 570 by 425 feet ; that is, about the size of St. Peter's in Rome.