Note 52 — MOORISH LITERATURE

It is unfortunate that both the philosopher and his opponents should have advanced the same argument in defense of themselves—namely, their own wisdom. The Arab philosophers were, amongst their kind, something like the libertins of the seventeenth century in France. "Often," says Al Ghazali, "I have seen one read the Koran, assist at religious ceremonies and prayers, and praise religion aloud. When I asked him, 'If you consider prophetism as false, why do you pray!' he responded, 'It is an exercise of the body, a custom of the country, a method of having your life saved.' Yet he did not cease from drinking wine, and delivering himself to all sorts of abominations and impieties."