into the hottest fire of hell." Many similar traditions fulminate
against usury in the widest sense of the word. These prohibitions were
circumvented in practice by deed of gift and exchange, but none the
less the free development of commercial enterprise was hampered by
these fetters which modern civilisation first broke. Enterprise was
thus confined to agriculture under these circumstances both for
Christianity and Islam, and economic life in either case became
"mediaeval" in outward appearance.

Methods of making profit without a proportional expenditure of labour
were the particular objects of this aversion. Manual labour was highly
esteemed both in the East and West. A man's first duty was to support
himself by the work of his own hands, a duty proclaimed, as we know,
from the apostolic age onwards. So far as Islam is concerned, this
view may be illustrated by the following utterances: "The best of
deeds is the gain of that which is lawful": "the best gain is made by
sale within lawful limits and by manual labour." "The most precious
gain is that made by manual labour; that which a man thus earns and
gives to himself, his people, his sons and his servants, is as
meritorious as alms." Thus practical work is made incumbent upon the
believer, and the extent to which manufacture flourished in East and
West during the middle ages is well known.

A similar affinity is apparent as regards ideas upon social position
and occupation. Before God man is but a slave: even the mighty Caliphs
themselves, even those who were stigmatised by posterity as secular
monarchs, included in their official titles the designation, "slave of
God." This theory was carried out into the smallest details of life,
even into those which modern observers would consider as unconcerned
with religion. Thus at meals the Muslim was not allowed to recline at