FROM CHARLEMAGNE TO HILDEBRAND 163 ages it was more prominent than the Slavonic, which afterwards either absorbed it or shook it off. The Russians made their attack on the eastern empire by way of the Black Sea; they were finally beaten off by the Emperor John Tzimisces, the predecessor of Basil 11. It was immediately after this that the Russians accepted Christianity from the Greek, not from the Roman, Church. At the end of the tenth century the western nations began also to be aware that a different Slavonic dominion, that of Poland, was establishing itself on the eastern ther frontier of the German domain. To the west Slavonic and south of the Poles another branch of the Pe °P les - Slavs had already established themselves in Moravia, where they also had become Christianised. These Moravians or Bohemians represent the most westerly expansion of the Slavs. Perhaps the portion of Europe which best deserved to be described as civilised was the Saracen dominion in Spain. The Ommayad kaliphs, Abdur Rahman and . _ , his successors, encouraged the decorative Art permitted by Mohammedanism as distinct from sculpture and painting, the image-making which it prohibited. To us, how- ever, who are accustomed to look upon Mohamme- _. .. . .,. I'll ST ll ClVlllSS,- danism as a particularly intolerant and fanatical tion of religion, it is remarkable that there was a larger Moorish spirit of toleration, more freedom of discussion and inquiry, in Mohammedan Spain than was ever dreamed of in Christian Spain, or in the Christian world at all during the most part of the Middle Ages. In the Christian world philosophy and scientific inquiry started with assum- ing as fundamental truths phrases in the Bible which had been completely misinterpreted. A scientific inquirer was quite certain to be branded as being in league with the powers of darkness. But among the Moors the antagonism to knowledge did not prevail, and whatever progress was made in science or philosophy was to be found among them. At the same time the country enjoyed a remarkable material
