L’auteur

Carl Heinrich Becker obtint son doctorat en 1899 et devint, en 1902, Professeur de philologie sémitique à l’Université de Heidelberg. En 1910, il a pris la direction de la revue Der Islam. En 1913, il déménagea à Bonn, où il fut professeur de philologie orientale. Il contribua à de nombreux articles dans la première édition de l’Encyclopédie de l’Islam. Comme politicien, il fut ministre de la culture et de l’éducation dans l’Etat de Prusse.

Table des matières

A. Christianity and the rise of Islam:

1. Muhammed and his contemporaries
2. The influence of Christianity upon the development of Muhammed
3. Muhammed’s knowledge of Christianity
4. The position of Christians under Muhammedanism

B. The similarity of Christian and Muhammedan metaphysics during the
middle ages:

1. The means and direction by which Christian influence affected
Islam
2. The penetration of daily life by the spirit of religion;
asceticism, contradictions and influences affecting the
development of a clerical class and the theory of
marriage
3. The theory of life in general with reference to the doctrine
of immortality
4. The attitude of religion towards the State, economic life,
society, etc.
5. The permanent importance to Islam of these influences: the
doctrine of duties
6. Ritual
7. Mysticism and the worship of saints

8. Dogma and the development of scholasticism

C. The influence of Islam upon Christianity:

The manner in which this influence operated, and the explanation
of the superiority of Islam
The influence of Muhammedan philosophy
The new world of European Christendom and the modern East

Conclusion. The historical growth of religion

Bibliography

Ouvrage intégral en ligne (édition d’origine en allemand, 1907)