Mohammed — Saracenic Conquests (i)

by John Lord, LL.D.  


     THE most extraordinary man who arose after the  
     fall of the Roman Empire was doubtless Moham-  
     med; and his posthumous influence has been greater  
     than that of any man since Christianity was declared,  
     if we take into account the number of those who have  
     received his doctrines.  Even Christianity never had so  
     rapid a spread.  More than a sixth part of the human    
     race are the professed followers of the Arabian prophet.  
        In regard to Mohammed himself, a great change  
     has taken place in the opinions of critics within fifty   
     years.  It was the fashion half a century ago to speak  
     of this man as a hypocrite, an impostor, even an Anti-  
     christ.  Now he is generally regarded as a reformer;  
     that is, as a man who introduced into Arabia a religion  
     and a morality superior to what had previously existed, and  
     he is regarded as an impostor only so far as he was vision-  
     ary.  Few critics doubt his sincerity.  He was no hyp-  
     ocrite, since he himself believed in his mission; and  
     his mission was benevolent,——to turn his countrymen  
     from a gross polytheism to the worship of one God.  
     Although his religion cannot compare with Christianity  
     in purity and loftiness, yet it enforced a higher moral-  
     ity than the old Arabian religions, and assimilated to  
     Christianity in many important respects.  The chief  
     fault we have to find in Mohammed was, the propa-  
     gation of his doctrines by the sword, and the use of   
     wicked means to bring about good ends.  The truths  
     he declared have had an immense influence on Asiatic  
     nations, and these have given vitality to his system, if  
     we accept the position that truth alone has vitality.  
        One remarkable fact stands out for the world to pon-  
     der,——that, for more than fourteen hundred years, one  
     hundred and eighty millions (more than a sixth part of  
     the human race) have adopted and cherished the reli-  
     gion of Mohammed; that Christianity never had so  
     astonishing a triumph; and that even the adherents of  
     Christianity, in many countries, have not manifested  
     the zeal of the Mohammedans in most of the countries  
     where it has been acknowledged.  Now these startling  
     facts can be explained only on the ground that Moham-  
     medanism has great vital religious and moral truths  
     underlying its system which appeal to the conscious-  
     ness of mankind, or else that these truths are so blended  
     with dangerous errors which appeal to depraved pas-  
     sions and interests, that the religion spread in conse-  
     quence of these errors rather than of the truth itself.  
        The question to be considered, then, is whether Mo-  
     hammedanism spread in consequence of its truths or in   
     consequence of its errors.  

        In order to appreciate the influence of the Arabian  
     prophet, we are first led into the inquiry whether his  
     religion was really an improvement on the old systems  
     which previously prevailed in Arabia.  If it was, he  
     must be regarded as a benefactor and reformer, even if  
     we admit the glaring evils of his system, when meas-  
     ured by the purer religion of the Cross.  And it then  
     simply becomes a question whether it is better to have  
     a prevalent corrupted system of religion containing  
     many important truths, or a system of downright  
     paganism with few truths at all.  
        In examining the religious systems of Arabia in the  
     age preceding the advent of the Prophet, it would seem  
     that the most prominent of them were the old doctrines  
     of the Magians and Sabæans, blended with a gross idol-  
     atry and a senseless polytheism.  Whatever may have  
     been the faith of the ancient Sabæan sages, who noted  
     the aspects of the stars, and supposed they were inhab-  
     ited by angels placed there by Almighty power to  
     supervise and govern the universe, yet history seems   
     to record that this ancient faith was practically sub-  
     verted, and that the stars, where were supposed to  
     dwell deities to whom prayers were made, became  
     themselves objects of worship, and even graven images  
     were made in honor of them.  Among the Arabs each  
     tribe worshipped a particular star, and set up its par-  
     ticular idol, so that a degrading polytheism was the  
     religion of the land.  The object of greatest veneration   
     was the celebrated Black Stone, at Mecca, fabled to  
     have fallen from heaven at the same time with Adam.  
     Over this stone was built the Kaabah, a small oblong  
     stone building, around which has been since built the  
     great mosque.  It was ornamented with three hundred  
     and sixty idols.  The guardianship of this pagan temple  
     was intrusted to the most ancient and honourable fami-  
     lies of Mecca, and to it resorted innumerable pilgrims   
     bringing precious offerings.  It was like the shrine of  
     Delphi, as a source of profit to the fortunate guardians.  
        Thus before Mohammed appeared polytheism was  
     the prevalent religion of Arabia,——a degradation even  
     from the ancient Sabæan faith.  It is true there were  
     also other religions.  There were many Jews at Medina;  
     and there was also a corrupted form of Christianity in  
     many places, split up into hostile and wrangling sects,  
     with but little of the spirit of the divine Founder, with  
     innumerable errors and superstitions, so that in no part  
     of the world was Christianity so feeble a light.  But  
     the great body of the people were pagans.  A marked  
     reform was imperatively needed to restore the belief in  
     the unity of God and set up a higher standard of  
     morality.   
        It is claimed that Mohammed brought such a reform.  
     He was born in the year 570, of the family of Hashem  
     and the tribe of Koreish, to whom was entrusted the  
     keeping of the Black Stone.  He therefore belonged to   
     the highest Arabian aristocracy.  Early left an orphan   
     and in poverty, he was reared in the family of one of  
     his uncles, under all the influences of idolatry.  This  
     uncle was a merchant. and the youth made long jour-  
     neys with him to distant fairs, especially in Syria,  
     where he probably became acquainted with the Holy  
     Scriptures, especially with the Old Testament.  In his   
     twenty-fifth year he entered the service of Cadijeh, a   
     very wealthy widow, who sent to the fairs and towns  
     great caravans, which Mohammed accompanied in some  
     humble capacity,——according to the tradition as camel-  
     driver.  But his personal beauty, which was remarkable,  
     and probably also his intelligence and spirit, won the   
     heart of this powerful mistress, and she became his wife.  
        He was now second to none in the capital of Arabia,  
     and great thoughts began to fill his soul.  His wife per-  
     ceived his greatness, and, like Josephine and the wife  
     of Disraeli, forwarded the fortunes of her husband, for  
     he became rich as well as intellectual and noble, and  
     thus had time and leisure to accomplish more easily  
     his work.  From twenty-five to forty he led chiefly   
     a contemplative life, spending months together in a  
     cave, absorbed in his grand reflections,——at intervals  
     issuing from his retreat, visiting the marts of commerce,  
     and gaining knowledge from learned men.  It is seldom  
     that very great men lead either a life of perpetual con- 
     templation or perpetual activity.  Without occasional   
     rest, and leisure to mature knowledge, no man can arm  
     himself with the weapons of the gods.  To be truly   
     great, a man must blend a life of activity with a life   
     of study,—like Moses, who matured the knowledge he  
     had gained in Egypt amid the deserts of Midian.  
        With all great men some leading idea rules the or-  
     dinary life.  The idea which took possession of the  
     mind of Mohammed was the degrading polytheism of  
     his countrymen, the multitude of their idols, the gross-  
     ness of their worship, and the degrading morals which  
     usually accompany a false theology.  He set himself  
     to work to produce a reform, but amid overwhelming  
     obstacles.  He talked with his uncles, and they  
     laughed at him.  They would not even admit the  
     necessity of a reform.  Only Cadijeh listened to him  
     and encouraged him and believed in him.  And Mo-  
     hammed was ever grateful for this mark of confidence,  
     and cherished the memory of his wife in his subse-  
     quent apostasy,——,if it be true that he fell, like Solo-  
     mon.  Long afterwards, when she was dead, Ayésha,  
     his young and favorite wife, thus addressed him: "Am  
     I not better than Cadijeh?  Do you not love me bet-  
     ter than you did her?  She was a widow, old and ugly."  
     "No, by Allah!" replied the Prophet; "she believed  
     in me when no one else did.  In the whole world I had  
     but one friend, and she was that friend."  No woman  
     ever retained the affections of a husband superior to  
     herself, unless she had the spirit of Cadijeh,——unless  
     she proved herself his friend, and believed in him.  
     How miserable the life of Jane Carlyle would have    
     been had she not been proud of her husband!  One  
     reason why there is frequent unhappiness in married  
     life is because there is no mutual appreciation.  How  
     often have we seen a noble, lofty, earnest man fet-  
     tered and chained by a frivolous woman who could not  
     be made to see the dignity and importance of the labors  
     which gave to her husband all his real power!  Not so  
     with the woman who assisted Mohammed.  Without  
     her sympathy and faith he probably would have failed.  
     He told her, and her alone, his dreams, his ecstasies,  
     his visions; how that God at different times had sent  
     prophets and teachers to reveal new truths, by whom  
     religion had been restored; how this one God, who  
     created the heavens and the earth, had never left Him-  
     self without witnesses of His truth in the most degen-  
     erate times; how that the universal recognition of this   
     sovereign Power and Providence was necessary to the  
     salvation of society.  he had learned much from the  
     study of the Talmud and the Jewish Scriptures; he  
     had reflected deeply in his isolated cave; he knew  
     that there was but one supreme God, and that there  
     could be no elevated morality without the sense of per-  
     sonal responsibility to Him; that without the fear of   
     this one God there could be neither wisdom nor virtue.  
        Hence his soul burned to tell his countrymen his   
     earnest belie in a supreme and personal God, to whom  
     alone prayers should be made, and who alone could res-  
     cue by His almighty power.  He pondered day and  
     night on this single simple truth.  His perpetual  
     meditations and ascetic habits induced dreams and ec-  
     stasies, such as marked primitive monks, and Loyola in   
     his Manresan cave.  He became a visionary man, but  
     most intensely earnest, for his convictions were over-  
     whelming.  He fancied himself the ambassador of this  
     God, as the ancient Jewish prophets were; that he  
     was even greater than they, his mission being to remove  
     idolatry,——to his mind the greatest evil under the sun,  
     since it was the root of all vices and follies.  Idolatry  
     is either a defiance or a forgetfulness of God,——high  
     treason to the majesty of Heaven, entailing the direst  
     calamities.  
        At last, one day, in his fortieth year, after he had  
     been shut up a whole month in solitude, so that his  
     soul was filled with ecstasy and enthusiasm, he declared  
     to Cadijeh that the night before, while wrapped in his  
     mantle, absorbed in reverie, a form of divine beauty, in  
     a flood of light, appeared to him, and, in the name of  
     the Almighty who created the heavens and the earth,   
     thus spake: "O, Mohammed! of a truth thou art the  
     Prophet of God, and I am his angel Gabriel."  "This,"  
     says Carlyle, "is the soul of Islam.  This is what Mo-  
     hammed felt and now declared to be of infinite mo-  
     ment, that idols and formulas were nothing; that the  
     jargon of argumentative Greek sects, the vague tra-  
     ditions of Jews, the stupid routine of Arab idolatry  
     were a mockery and a delusion; that there is but one  
     God; that we must let idols alone and look to Him.  
     He alone is reality; He made us and sustains us.  Our  
     whole strength lies in submission to Him.  The thing  
     He sends us, be it death even, is good, is the best.  
     We resign ourselves to Him."  
        Such were the truths which Mohammed, with pre-  
     ternatural earnestness, now declared,——doctrines which  
     would revolutionize Arabia.  And why not?  They are  
     the same substantially which Moses declared to those   
     sensual and degraded slaves whom he led out of Egypt,  
     ——yea, the doctrines of David and Job.  "Though He  
     slay me, yet I will trust in Him."  What a grand and  
     all-important truth it is to impress upon people sunk in  
     forgetfulness and sensuality and pleasure-seeking and   
     idle schemes of vanity and ambition, that there is a  
     supreme Intelligence who overrules, and whose laws  
     cannot be violated with impunity; from whom no one  
     can escape, even though he "take the wings of the morn-  
     ing and fly to the uttermost parts of the sea."  This is  
     the one truth that Moses sought to plant in the minds  
     of the Jews,——a truth always forgotten when there is  
     slavery to epicurean pleasures or a false philosophy.  
        Now I maintain that Mohammed, in seeking to im-  
     press his degenerate countrymen with the idea of the  
     one supreme God, amid a most degrading and almost  
     universal polytheism, was a great reformer.  In preach-  
     ing this he was neither fanatic nor hypocrite; he was  
     a very great man, and thus far a good man.  He does  
     not make an original revelation; he reproduces an old  
     truth,——as old as the patriarchs, as old as Job, as old  
     as the primitive religions,——but an exceedingly im-  
     portant one, lost sight of by his countrymen, gradually  
     lost sight of by all peoples when divine grace is with-  
     held; indeed practically by people in Christian lands in   
     times of great degeneracy.  "The fool has said in his  
     heart there is no God;" or, Let there be no God, that we  
     may eat and drink before we die.  Epicureanism, in its  
     pleasures or in its speculations, is virtually atheism.  It  
     was so in Greece.  It is so with us.  
        Mohammed was now at the mature age of forty, in the  
     fulness of his powers, in the prime of his life; and he  
     began to preach everywhere that there is but one God.  
     Few, however, believed in him.  Why not acknowl-  
     edge such a fundamental truth, appealing to the intel-  
     lect as well as the moral sense?  But to confess there is  
     a supreme God, who rewards and punishes, and to  
     whom all are responsible both for words and actions,  
     is to imply a confession of sinfulness and the justice of  
     retribution.  Those degraded Arabians would not receive  
     willingly such a truth as this, even as the Israelites  
     ever sought to banish it from their hearts and minds,  
     in spite of their deliverance from slavery.  The uncles  
     and friends of Mohammed treated his mission with  
     scorn and derision.  Nor do I read that the common  
     people heard him gladly, as they listened to the teach-  
     ings of Christ.  Zealously he laboured for three years  
     with all classes; and yet in three years of exalted labor,  
     with all his eloquence and fervor and sincerity, he con-  
     verted only about thirteen persons, one of whom was  
     his slave.  Think of such a man declaring such a truth,  
     and only gaining thirteen followers in three years!  How  
     sickened must have been his enthusiastic soul!  His  
     worldly relatives urged him to silence.  Why attack  
     idols; why quarrel with his own interests; why destroy  
     his popularity?  Then exclaimed that great hero: "If  
     the sun stood on my right hand, and the moon on my  
     left, ordering me to hold my peace, I would still de-  
     clare there is but one God,"——a speech rivalled only by  
     Luther at the Diet of Worms.  Why urge a great man  
     to be silent on the very things which make him great?  
     He cannot be silent.  His truth——from which he can-  
     not be separated——is greater than life or death, or prin-  
      cipalities or powers.  
        Buffeted and ridiculed, still Mohammed persevered.  
     He used at first only moral means.  He appealed only  
     to the minds and hearts of the people, encouraged by  
     his few believers and sustained by the fancied voice  
     of that angel who appeared to him in his retreat.  
     But his earnest voice was drowned by discordant noises.  
     He was regarded as a lunatic, a demented man, be-  
     cause he professed to believe in a personal God.  The  
     angry mob covered his clothes with dust and ashes.  
     They demanded miracles.  But at this time he had only  
     truths to declare,——these saving truths which are per-  
     petual miracles.  At last hostilities began.  He was  
     threatened and he was persecuted.  They laid plots  
     to take his life.  He sought shelter in the castle of his  
     uncle, Abu Taleh; but he died.  Then Mohammed's  
     wife Cadijeh died.  The priests of an idolatrous religion  
     became furious.  He had laid his hands on their idols.  
     He was regarded as a disorganizer, an innovator, a  
     most dangerous man.  His fortunes became darker  
     and darker; he was hated, persecuted, and alone.  
        Thus thirteen years passed way in reproach, in  
     persecution, in fear.  At last forty picked men swore  
     to assassinate him.  Should he remain at Mecca and  
     die, before his mission was accomplished, or should  
     he fly?  He concluded to fly to Medina, where there  
     were Jews, and some nominal converts to Chris-  
     tianity,——a new ground.  This was the year 622,  
     and the flight is called the Hegira,——from which the  
     East dates its era, in the fifty-third year of the Prophet's  
     life.  In this city he was cordially welcomed, and  
     he soon found himself surrounded with enthusiastic  
     followers.  He built a mosque, and openly performed  
     the rites of the new religion.  
        At this era a new phase appears in the Prophet's life  
     and teachings.  Thus far, until his flight, it would seem  
     that he propagated his doctrines by moral force alone,  
     and these doctrines, in the main, were elevated.  
     He had earnestly declared his great idea of the unity of  
     God.  He had pronounced the worship of images to be  
     idolatrous.  He held idolatry of all kinds in supreme  
     abhorrence.  He enjoined charity, justice, and forbear-  
     ance.  he denounced all falsehood and all deception,  
     especially in trade.  He declared that humility, benevo-  
     lence and self-abnegation were the greatest virtues.  
     He commanded his disciples to return good for evil, to  
     restrain the passions, to bridle the tongue, to be patient  
     under injuries, to be submissive to God.  He enjoined  
     prayer, fastings, and meditation as a means of grace.  
     He laid down the necessity of rest on the seventh day.  
     He copied the precepts of Bible in many of their   
     essential features, and recognized its greatest teachers  
     as inspire prophets.  
        It was during these thirteen years at Mecca, amid per-  
     secution and ridicule, and with few outward successes,  
     that he probably wrote the Koran,——a book without   
     beginning and without end, disjecta membra, regard-  
     less of all rules of art, full of repetitions, and yet full of  
     lofty precepts and noble truths of morality evidently  
     borrowed from Jewish Scriptures,——in which his  
     great ideas stand out with singular eloquence and im-  
     pressiveness: the unity of God, His divine sovereignty,  
     the necessity of prayer, the soul's immortality, future  
     rewards and punishments.  His own private life had  
     been blameless.  It was plain and simple.  For a whole  
     month he did not light a fire to cook his food.  He swept  
     his chamber himself and mended his own clothes.  His  
     life was that of an ascetic enthusiast, profoundly im-  
     pressed with the greatness and dignity of his mission.  
     Thus far his greatest error and fault was in the suppo-  
     sition that he was inspired in the same sense as the  
     ancient Jewish prophets were inspired,——to declare   
     the will and the truth of God.  Any man leading such  
     a life of contemplative asceticism and retirement is  
     prone to fall into the belief of special divine illumina-  
     tion.  It characterized George Fox, the Anabaptistss,  
     Ignatius Loyola, Saint Theresa, and even, to some ex-  
     tent, Oliver Cromwell himself.  Mohammed's supreme  
     error was that he was the greatest as well as the last of  
     the prophets.  This was fanaticism, but he was probably  
     honest in the belief.  His brain was turned by dreams,  
     ecstasies, and ascetic devotions.  But with all his vision-  
     ary ideas of his call, his own morality and teachings  
     had been lofty, and apparently unsuccessful.  Possibly  
     he was discouraged with the small progress he had  
     made,——disgusted, irritated, fierce.  
        Certainly, soon after he was established at Medina, a  
     great change took place in his mode of propagating his  
     doctrines.  His great ideas remained the same, but he  
     adopted a new way to spread them.  So that I can  
     almost fancy that some Mephistopheles, some form of  
     Satanic agency, some ling Voice whispering to him in this  
     wise: "O Mohammed! of a truth thou art the Prophet  
     of the living God.  Thou hast declared the grandest  
     truths ever uttered in Arabia; but see how powerless  
     they are on the minds and hearts of thy countrymen,  
     with all thy eloquence, sincerity, and fervor.  By moral  
     means thou hast effected comparatively nothing.  Thou  
     hast preached thirteen years, and only made a few con-  
     verts.  They truths are too elevated for a corrupt and  
     wicked generation to accept.  Even thine own life is in  
     danger.  Thou hast been obliged to fly these barren  
     rocks and sands.  Thou hast failed.  Why not pursue  
     a new course, and adapt thy doctrines to men as they   
     are?  Thy countrymen are wild, fierce, and warlike;  
     why not incite their martial passions in defence of thy  
     doctrines?  They are an earnest people, and, believing  
     in the truths which thou now declarest, they will fight  
     for them and establish them by the sword, not merely   
     in Arabia, but throughout the East.  They are a pleasure-  
     loving and imaginative people: why not promise the vic-  
     tors of thy faith a sensual bliss in Paradise?  They will  
     not be subverters of your grand truths; they will simply  
     extend them, and jealously, if they have a reward in   
     what their passions crave.  In short, use the proper   
     means for a great end.  The end justifies the means."  
        Whether influenced by such specious sophistries, or  
     disheartened by his former method, or corrupted in  
     his own heart, as Solomon was, by his numerous wives,  
     ——for Mohammed permitted polygamy and practised   
     it himself,——it is certain that he now was bent on  
     achieving more signal and rapid victories.  He resolved   
     to adapt his religion to the depraved hearts of his fol-  
     lowers.  He would mix up truth with error; he would  
     make truth palatable; he would use the means which  
     secure success.  It was success he wanted, and success  
     he thus far had not secured.  He was ambitious; he  
     would become a mighty spiritual potentate.     

from Beacon Lights of History, by John Lord, LL. D.,
Volume III, Part I: The Middle Ages, pp. 23 -38
©1883, by John Lord.
©1921, By Wm. H. Wise & Co., New York