Machine summary:
Mr, Philby writes:-· " I have no doubt whatever in my own mind that, while the Arabs in general know and use · the term ' Rub ' al-Khali ·'.
" The ancient fable-handed on by Ya' qut-of a great city destroyed by the wrath of Heaven was finally ex• plained by ~Ir. Phil by-as far as the Rub ' al-Khali is concerned.
H Harley, Principal of the Islamia College,Calcutta, writes : " The author is a trained theologian, zealous for Islam, but conservatism for its own sake is not a principle with him, he is sufficiently modern to have rendered into Urdu Mµgge'sLife of Nietsche.
the Islamic schools of thought; except the philosophical, · derive their material and their motive force from the· Qur'an.
Muzaffar-ud-din writes:- · "It is generally held by European scholars that Mu'ta• zalism owed its origin to Hellenic culture.
a counter-growth of hair• splitting theology, like that of the Byzantines, which was very far removed from common-sense ; and that the said· theology produced two schools of purely Muslim thought.
He writes : ·"My firm conviction is that Rationalism had begun to assert itself in Islam long before the Christians had access to the Muslim Court or religious discussions between different communities were resorted to or Muslim scholars took to the study of Greek philosophy.
" The following , has the ring of quite authentic history : · "One day Abu Nuwas said to the Caliph : ' 0 Commander of the Faithful I You know that I am a Muslim !