[Illustration: ROYAL IVORY BOX, WITH METAL MOUNTING. HISPANO-ARABIAN ART, XIITH-XIIITH CENTURY DECORATED IN ENAMEL AND GOLD, DEPICTING INSIGNIA OF SUCCESSORS OF UMAYYAD CALIPHS OF SPAIN, AND QUR'ANIC ROSETTES AND KUFIC CALLIGRAPHY OF THE HIGHEST DISTINCTION] [Illustration: FAIENCE CYLINDRICAL VASE, WITH RELIEF AND LUSTRE DECORATION. FROM FOSTAT (ANCIENT CAIRO), DYNASTY OF FATIMID ANTI-CALIPHS (A.D. 974-1171)] [Illustration: AN EARLY SAFAWID PAINTING (CIRCA A.D. 1525) OF EXQUISITE RHYTHM, DEPTH AND DIGNITY] * * * * * [PAGE 9] artistic productions of the MUHAMMADAN world that have come down to us as living monuments, substantiate this statement without a shadow of doubt, which makes it unnecessary to resort to recorded history, although its pages abound with incontestable evidences.[5] [Footnote 5: "Thus it is by no means correct to imply that the two or three centuries immediately following the MUHAMMADAN conquest of Persia were a blank page in the intellectual life of its people. It is, on the contrary, a period of immense and unique interest, of fusion between the old and the new, of transformation of forms and transmigration of ideas, but in no wise of stagnation or death. Politically, it is true, Persia ceased for a while to enjoy a separate national existence, being merged in that great MUHAMMADAN EMPIRE which stretched from GIBRALTAR to the JAXARTES; but in the intellectual domain she soon began to assert the supremacy to which the ability and subtlety of her people entitled her. Even the forms of State organization were largely adapted from Persian models."--AL-FAKHRI (ed. AHLWARDT, page 101), on the organization of the DIWANS or Government offices. "In the finance department not only was the Persian system adopted, but the Persian language and notation continued to be used till the time of AL-HAJJAJ B. YUSUF (about A.D. 700)."--EDWARD G. BROWNE, "Literary History of Persia", Vol. I, page 204.] It would be difficult to offer an explanation for the underlying unity and integrity of character manifest in the artistic expression of the MUHAMMADAN countries, of vast geographical range, without a clear understanding of the vital force contained in the teachings of the Arabian Apostle, and the characteristics of his people, destined to carry those teachings from one end of the earth to the other. For this reason the foregoing brief survey has been ventured. There can be no doubt that the pivot around which the artistic activities of MUHAMMADAN countries revolved, was Persia.[6] She was to attain the function of the SUN, element of [CONTINUED ON PAGE SEVENTEEN] * * * * * ILLUSTRATIONS FOR TITLE-PAGES OF A SHAHNAMA (EPIC OF KINGS) of the XVth Century. Representing TIMUR-I-LANG (A.H. 736-807) attending a festival. The name and the full titles of TIMUR appear in excellent Thuluth lettering round the border of the rug upon which the monarch sits.