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ascendency in the Empire, not to speak of the long period of decrepitude that followed.
About this time the Western Empire was finally overthrown by the Mohammedans hailing from Baghdad, who conquered Egypt and Mauritania and settled in Spain. The history of the Saracen occupation of Spain is one brilliant record of commerce and civilization. Spreading their commerce to every part of the known world, the Saracens encouraged literature, learning and art by every means in their power. The world was ransacted for manuscripts and books of all kinds. The Saracenic cities of Cordova, Granada, and Seville were the depositories of every branch of learning known, which rivalled, as the results of civilization, even the commerce itself which had given them birth. In the bazaars in the cities of Seville, Granada and Cordova all known commodities, from the silks of China to the tin of Britain, from the products of Sokoto and Timbuctoo to those of the Baltic, were gathered together. Indeed, it was once said that, even "if you wanted bird's milk, by Allah, you will procure it at Seville". All branches of learning, in astronomy, in medicine, in surgery, were practised and studied here during the Saracenic occupation. Brazen and leaden pipes conveyed, by gravitation, the water stored in the reservoirs to the inhabitants of these cities. Gunpowder was known and made in Spain; glass was made; and printing was known, having been acquired from the Chinese, through Arabia. The connection between the plague rat and the dissemination of plague was believed by the Saracens. Indeed, the period of the Saracenic occupation of Spain was one of the most brilliant epochs—if not the most brilliant of all—in civilization and commerce, Europe has ever seen. I say Europe because the Saracens exemplified the highest efficiency in commerce and the highest luxury in civilization that was to be found in the world, they themselves being Asiatics, and knowing all that was best to know and learn in the civilizations of China and India. We have only to read the "Arabian Nights" to understand the intimate relationships between Arabia, India, and China. The contrast between Arab
