Islam has here been summarized. A persistent effort has been made to be im-
partial, to see each faith and culture from its own point of view. But preju-
dice has survived, if only in the selection of material and the allotment of
space. The mind, like the body, is imprisoned in its skin.

The manuscript has been written three times, and each rewriting has
discovered errors. Many must still remain; the improvement of the part is
sacrificed to the completion of the whole. The correction of errors will be
welcomed.

Grateful acknowledgment is due to Dr. Ilse Lichtenstadter, of the Asia
Institute of New York, for reading the pages on Islamic civilization; to Dr.
Bernard Mandelbaum, of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, for
reviewing the pages on medieval Jewry; to Professor Lynn Thorndike, of
Columbia University, for the use of his translation of a passage from Alex-
ander Neckham; to the Cambridge University Press for permission to quote
translations from Edward G. Browne's A Literary History of Persia; to the
Public Library of Los Angeles, and specifically to its Hollywood Branch,
and to the Library of Congress, for the loan of books; to Miss Rose Mary
DeWitte for typing 50,000 notes; to Dr. James L. Whitehead, Dr. C. Edward
Hopkin, and Mrs. Will Durant for their learned aid in classifying the ma-
terial; to Misses Mary and Flora Kaufman for varied assistance; and to Mrs.
Edith Digate for her high competence in typing the manuscript.

This book, like all its predecessors, should have been dedicated to my wife,
who for thirty-seven years has given me a patient toleration, protection,
guidance, and inspiration that not all these volumes could repay. It is at her
prompting that these two volumes are dedicated to our daughter, son-in-law,
and grandson.

WILL DURANT

November 22, 1949

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