“Such thoughts as these threatened to shake my reason, and I sought to find an escape from them. But how? In order to disentangle the knot of this difficulty, a proof was necessary. Now a proof must be based on primary assumptions, and it was precisely these of which I was in doubt. This unhappy state lasted about two months, during which I was not, it is true, explicitly or by profession, _but morally and essentially a thoroughgoing sceptic_.” That Al-Ghazali was driven to scepticism must not surprise us. Schools of free thinkers had been established fifty years earlier at Bagdad and Busrah. Every Friday they gathered together. Some were rationalists, some downright materialists. Not only philosophers but poets were the leaders of these circles. Among them we must mention Abu’l ʾAla Al-Maʾarri, born in 973 A. D. This blind poet is said to have written a Koran in imitation of Mohammed, and when some one complained to him that although the book was well written it did not make the same impression as the true Koran, he replied: “Let it be read from the pulpit of the mosques for four hundred years and then you will all be delighted with it.” His quatrains rival those of Omar Al-Khayyam in their utter pessimism and rank infidelity from the orthodox Moslem standpoint. For example, he writes: “Lo: there are many ways and many traps And many guides and which of them is Lord? For verily Mohammed has the sword And he may have the truth—perhaps? _perhaps?_ Now _this_ religion happens to prevail Until by _that_ one it is overthrown,— Because men dare not live with men alone, But always with another fairy-tale. Religion is a charming girl, I say; But over this poor threshold will not pass, Because I can’t unveil her, and alas; The bridal gift I can’t afford to pay.” Nor could this poet have had much reverence for the religion of Islam when he wrote: “Where is the valiance of the folk who sing These valiant stories of the world to come? Which they describe, forsooth, as if it swung In air and anchored with a yard of string.” ... “Two merchantmen decided they would battle, To prove at last who sold the finest wares; And while Mohammed shrieked his call to prayers, The true Messiah waved his wooden rattle.” As in the nineteenth century for Christianity, so in the eleventh century for Islam, the struggle between science and orthodoxy waged fiercely. The rationalistic school of the Muʾtazilites still exercised great influence while the literalists and the blind followers of traditional Islam were often more distinguished for Pharisaism than piety. We need only turn to the “Maqamat” of Al-Hamadhani to know what the sceptic of that day thought of the public religious services.