The purpose of the present work has been to show not so much the
identity of Christian and Muhammedan theories of life during the
middle ages, as the parallel course of development common to both, and
to demonstrate the fact that ideas could be transferred from one
system to the other. Detail has been sacrificed to this general
purpose. The brief outline of Muhammedan dogmatics and mysticism was
necessary to complete the general survey of the question. Any one of
these subjects, and the same is true as regards a detailed life of
Muhammed, would require at least another volume of equal size for
satisfactory treatment.

The Oriental scholar will easily see where I base my statements upon
my own researches and where I have followed Goldziher and Snouck. My
chief source of information, apart from the six great books of
tradition, has been the invaluable compilation of Soj[=u]t[=i], the
great Kanz el-'Umm[=a]l (Hyderabad, 1314). To those who do not read
Arabic may be recommended the French translation of the Boch[=a]r[=i],
of which two volumes are now published: _El-Bokâhri, les traditions
islamiques traduites ... par_ O. Houdas and W. Marçais. Paris,
1906.

Of general works dealing with the questions I have touched, the
following, to which I owe a considerable debt, may be recommended:--

J. Goldziher. Muhammedanische Studien, Halle, 1889 and following
year.

Die Religion des Islams (Kult. d. Gegenw., I, iii. 1).