A Child's History of the WorldHillyer, V. M. (Virgil Mores)
History
A Child's History of the World
Hillyer, V. M. (Virgil Mores)
World history -- Juvenile literature
The Arabs built many beautiful buildings; but these buildings look
quite different from those that the Greeks and Romans and Christians
built. The doors and window-openings, instead of being square or round,
were usually horseshoe-shaped. On the top of their mosques they liked
to put domes shaped something like an onion, and at the corners they
put tall spires or minarets from which the muezzin could call aloud
the hour for prayer. They covered the walls of their buildings with
beautiful mosaics and designs. The Mohammedans, however, were very
careful that these designs were not copies of anything in nature, for
they had a commandment in the “Koran” something like the Christian
commandment, “Thou shalt not make ... any likeness of anything that is
in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the
water under the earth.” Because of this commandment they never made
drawings or pictures of any living thing, neither of plants nor flowers
nor animals. They thought they would be breaking the commandment if
they did. So they made designs out of lines and curves without copying
anything from nature. These designs were called Arabesques, and
although they were not like anything in nature, they were often very
beautiful.
Still another thing:
In Arabia there grew a little bush on which were small berries with
seeds inside. The sheep seemed to like these berries and, when they ate
them, became very lively. The Arabs themselves tried eating the seeds
of these berries with the same effect. Then they made a drink out of
these seeds by roasting and grinding them and boiling them in water.
This was coffee--which the Arabs had discovered and which is now drunk
all over the world.
Still another thing:
The Arabs found out that when the juice of grapes or other fruits or
grains spoiled, or fermented, as we call it, a peculiar change took
place. Any one who drank this changed juice became greatly excited and
even crazy. They called the new thing to which these juices changed,
“alcohol,” and they were so much afraid of it and what it did to those
who drank it that they forbade every Mohammedan to drink anything
containing alcohol, such as wine, beer, or whisky. So the Moslems
not only discovered alcohol, but, believing it to be poison, they
prohibited its use. They have been prohibitionists, therefore, for more
than a thousand years, while all the rest of the world has been using
wine and beer and other drinks containing alcohol until the United
States only recently forbade their use in this country.
Still another thing:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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