it is said that in the Ka‘ba alone, the Sacred Mosque of all Islam
and the house of worship built by Abrahamas and his
son Ishmael, there were 360 idols. It seems that for
every day of the lunar year the Meccans had an idol. In
other big centres there were other idols, so that we can
say that every part of Arabia was steeped in polytheistic
belief. The Arabs were devoted to the culture of speech.
They were much interested in their spoken language
and were very keen on its advance. Their intellectual
ambitions, however, were scant. Of History, Geography,
Mathematics, etc., they knew nothing. But as they were
a desert people and had to find their way about in the
desert without the assistance of landmarks, they had
developed a keen interest in Astronomy. There was in
the whole of Arabia not a single school. It is said that in
Mecca only a few individuals could read and write ......