`The problem is of course that the object of our enquiry is itself a
mystery. The secrets of the Mysteries were fully known only to those
who had been initiated into them. We have to help us no ancient text
which expounds these secrets'. 1The author here refers to the Dionysiac
Mysteries portrayed in a fresco in the 'Villa of the Mysteries' near
Pompeii; it must be stressed at once that no parallelism is intended
between the 'Mysteries' thus displayed and the dogmas of Islam, nor
between the initiatory nature of those `Mysteries' 2and the rituals of the
Islamic faith. None the less, the above lines might neatly be borrowed
and used as an epitome of the unschooled mediaeval mentality as it
contemplated the Eastern religion: for the sense of mystery, suspicion
and fear before the unknown and the unfamiliar which was evoked in the
mind of the average Christian witness of things Islamic and Arab in the
Middle East3must have had something in common with the feelings of
the initiand in the Dionysiac Mysteries; though the 'mystery' would not
have been articulated in the form of a ritual flagellation with the former
as was the case with the latter! 4There were real differences, of course,
and the analogy cannot be pressed too far: Islam did have an ancient text,
or at least a mediaeval one, the Holy Qur'an, which provided a solid
basis for the latter development of Islamic theology and law. And the
view and knowledge of Islam held by the common man in mediaeval
times was not necessarily that of the scholars by any means: though
misinformation abounded, perhaps sometimes as a species of 'war
propaganda's or as a defence of Christendom, 6many mediaeval Christian
scholars and writers showed clearly that they were only too well aware
of the essential doctrines and teachings of Islam.