Mohammed — Saracenic Conquests (ii)

by John Lord, LL. D.  


        So he allowed polygamy,——the vice of Eastern nations   
     from remote periods; he promised a sensual Paradise to  
     those who should die in defence of his religion; he in-  
     flamed the imagination of the Arabians with visions of  
     sensual joys.  He painted heaven as a land whose soil  
     was the finest wheaten flour, whose air was fragrant  
     with perfumes, whose streams were of crystal water or  
     milk or wine or honey, flowing over beds of musk and  
     camphor,—–a glorious garden of fruits and flowers,  
     whose inhabitants were clothed in garments of gold,  
     sparkling with rubies and diamonds, who reclined   
     in sumptuous  palaces and silken pavilions, and on  
     couches of voluptuous ease, and who were served with  
     viands which could be eaten without satiety, and liquors  
     which could be drunk without inebriation; yea, where  
     the blissful warrior for the faith should enjoy an unend-  
     ing youth, and where he would be attended by hou-  
     ris, with black and loving eyes, free from all defects,  
     resplendent in beauty and grace, and rejoicing in per-  
     petual charms.  
        Such were the views, it is maintained, with which  
     he inflamed the faithful.  And, more, he encouraged  
     them to take up arms, and penetrate, as warlike  
     missionaries, to the utmost bounds of the habitable   
     world, in order to convert men to the faith of the  
     one God, whose Prophet he claimed to be.  Moreover,  
     he made new and extraordinary "revelations,"——that he  
     had ascended into the seventh heaven and held con-  
     verse with Gabriel; and he now added to his creed  
     that old lie of Eastern theogonies, that base element  
     of all false religions,——that man can propitiate the  
     Deity by works of supererogation; that man can purchase  
     by ascetic labors and sacrifices his future salvation.  
     This falsity enters largely into Mohammedanism.  I  
     need not add how discrepant it is with the cheerful  
     teachings of the apostles, especially to the poor, as seen  
     in the deeds of penance, prayers in the corners of the   
     streets, the ablutions, the fasts, and the pilgrimages to  
     which the faithful are exhorted.  And moreover he  
     accommodated his fasts and feasts and holidays and   
     pilgrimages to the old customs of the people, thereby  
     teaching lessons of worldly wisdom.  Astarte, the old  
     object of Sabæan idolatry, was particularly worshipped   
     on a Friday; and this day was made the Mohammedan  
     Sabbath.  Again, the month of Rhamadán, from time im-  
     memorial, had been set apart for fastings; this month  
     the Prophet adopted, declaring that in it he had received   
     his first revelations.  Pilgrimages to the lack Stone  
     were favorite forms of penance; and this was perpetu-  
     ated in the pilgrimages to Mecca.  
        Thus it would appear that Mohammed, after his  
     flight, accommodated his doctrines to the customs and  
     tastes of his countrymen,——blending with the sublime  
     truths he declared subtile and pernicious errors.  The  
     early missionaries did the same thing in China and  
     Japan, thinking more of the number of their converts  
     than of the truth itself.  Expediency——the utterly  
     fallacious principle of the end justifying the means——  
     is seen in almost everything in this world which  
     blazes with success.  It is seen in politics, in philan-  
     thropy, in ecclesiasticism, and in education.  So the  
     earlier missionaries, disregarding their vows, made the  
     cause to which they were consecrated subservient to their  
     personal gain.  What do you think of a man, wearing  
     the livery of a gospel minister, devoting all his ener-   
     gies to money-making, versed in ways of the "hea-  
     then Chinee,"——"ways that are dark, and tricks that  
     are vain,"——all to succeed better in worldly thrift, using  
     all means for that single end,——is he not a traitor to  
     his God, his Church, and his fellowmen?  "Truth  
     forever on the scaffold, Wrong forever on the   
     throne."  What would you think of a college which low-  
     ered the standard of education in order to draw stu-  
     dents, or selected, as the guardians of its higher interests,  
     those men who would contribute the most money to its  
     funds?  
        This spirit of expediency Mohammed entertained and  
     utilized, in order to gain success.  Most of what is false  
     in Mohammedanism is based on expediency.  The end  
     was not lost sight of,——the conversion of his country-  
     men to the belief in the unity and sovereignty of God,  
     but it was sought by means which would make them  
     fanatics or pharisees.  He was not such a miserable  
     creature as one who seeks to make money by trading  
     on the religious capital of the community; but he did  
     adapt his religion to the passions and habits of he  
     people in order that they might more readily be led to   
     accept it.  He listened to that same wicked Voice which  
     afterwards appeared in the guise of an angle of light to  
     mediæval ritualists.  And it is thus that Satan has  
     contrived to pervert the best institutions of the world.  
     The moment good men look to outward and superficial  
     triumphs, to the disregard of inward purity, that mo-  
     ment do they accept the seductive lie of all ages,——  
     "The end justifies the means."  
        But the worst thing which the Prophet did in order  
     to gain his end was to make use of the sword.  For  
     thirteen years he appealed to conscience.  Now he  
     makes it an inducement for men to fight for his great  
     idea.  "Different prophets," said he, in his memorable  
     manifesto, "have been sent by God to illustrate His  
     different attributes: Moses, His providence; Solomon,  
     His wisdom; Christ, His righteousness; but I, the last  
     of the prophets, and sent with the sword.  Let those  
     who promulgate my faith enter into no arguments or  
     discussions, but slay all who refuse obedience.  Who-  
     ever fights for the true faith, whether he fall or con-  
     quer will assuredly receive a glorious reward, for the  
     sword is the key of heaven.  All who draw it in de-  
     fence of faith shall receive temporal and future   
     blessings.  Every drop of their blood, every peril and  
     hardship, will be registered on high as more meritorious  
     than fasting or prayer.  If they fall in battle their sins  
     will be washed away, and they shall be transported into  
     Paradise, to revel in eternal pleasures, and in the arms  
     of black-eyed houris."  Thus did he stimulate the mar-  
     tial fanaticism of a warlike and heroic people with the  
     promise of future happiness.  What a monstrous ex-  
     pediency,——worse than all the combined usurpations of  
     the popes!  
        And what was the result?  I need not point to the  
     successive conquests of the Saracens with such a mighty  
     stimulus.  They were loyal to the truth for which they  
     fought.  They never afterwards became idolaters; but  
     their religion was built up on the miseries of nations.  
     To propagate the faith of Mohammed they overran  
     the world. Never were conquests more rapid and  
     more terrible.  
        At first Mohammed's followers in Medina sallied out  
     and attacked the caravans of Arabia, and especially all  
     belonging to Mecca (the city which had rejected him),  
     until all the various tribes acknowledged the religion  
     of he Prophet, for they were easily converted to a faith  
     which flattered their predatory inclinations and prom-  
     ised them future immunities. The first cavalcade which   
     entered Medina with spoils made Musselmans of all the  
     inhabitants, and gave Mohammed the control of the city.  
     The battle of Moat gave him a triumphal entrance into   
     Mecca.  He soon found himself the sovereign of all  
     Arabia; and when he died, at the age of 63, in the  
     eleventh year after his Hegira, or flight from Mecca,  
     he was the most successful founder of a religion the  
     world has known, next to Buddha.  A religion appeal-  
     ing to truth alone had made only a few converts   
     in thirteen years; a religion which appealed to the  
     sword had  made converts of a great nation in eleven   
     years.  
        It is difficult to ascertain what the private life of the  
     Prophet was in these years of dazzling success.  The  
     authorities differ.  Some represent him as sunk in a  
     miserable sensuality which shortened his days.  But I  
     think this statement may be doubted.  He never lost  
     the veneration of his countrymen,——and no veneration   
     can last for a man steeped in sensuality.  Eben Solo-  
     mon lost his prestige and popularity when he became  
     vain and sensual.  Those who were nearest to the  
     Prophet reverenced him most profoundly.  With his  
     wife Ayésha he lived with great frugality.  He was  
     kindly, ready to forgive enemies, just in decision.  The  
     caliphs who succeeded him, for some time, were men of  
     great simplicity, and sought to imitate his virtues.  He  
     was doubtless warlike and fanatical, but conquests such  
     as he and his successors made are incompatible with  
     luxury and effeminacy.  He stands arraigned at the bar  
     of eternal justice for perverting truth, for blending it   
     with error, for making use of wicked means to accom-  
     plish what he deemed a great end.  
        I have no patience with Mr. Carlyle, great and ven-  
     erable as is his authority, for seeming to justify Moham-  
     med in assuming the sword.  "I care little for the  
     sword," says the sophistical writer.  "I will allow a  
     thing to struggle for itself in this world, with any  
     sword or tongue or implement it has or can lay hold  
     on.  What is better than itself it cannot put away,  
     but only what is worse.  In this great life-duel Nature  
     herself is umpire, and can do no wrong."  That is,  
     might makes right; only evil perishes in the con-  
     flict of principles; whatever prevails is just.  In other  
     words, if Mohammedanism, by any means it may  
     choose to use, proves itself more formidable than  
     other religions, then it ought to prevail.  Suppose that  
     the victories of the Saracens had extended over Europe,  
     as well as Asia and Africa,——had not been arrested by  
     Charles Martel,——would Carlyle then have preferred  
     Mohammedanism to the Christianity of degenerate  
     nations?  Was Mohammedanism a better religion  
     than the Christianity which existed in Asia Minor  
     and in various parts of the Greek empire in the  
     sixth and seventh centuries?  Was it a good thing  
     to convert the church of Saint Sophia into a Sara-  
     cenic mosque, and the city of the later Christian em-   
     perors into the capital of the Turks?  Is a united  
     Saracenic empire better than a divided, wrangling  
     Christian empire?  
        But I will not enter upon that discussion.  I confine  
     myself to facts.  It is certain that Mohammedanism, by  
     means of the sword, spread with marvellous and unpre-  
     cedented rapidity.  The successors of the Prophet car-  
     ried their conquests even to India.  Neither the Syrians  
     nor the Egyptians could cope with men who felt that  
     the sacrifice of life in battle would secure an eternity of  
     bliss.  The armies of the Greek emperor melted away  
     before the generals of the caliph.  The Cross waned   
     before the Crescent.  The banners of the Moslems  
     floated over the proudest battlements of ancient Ro-  
     man grandeur.    
        In the fifth year of the caliph Omar, only seventeen  
     years from the Prophet's flight from Mecca, the con  
     quest of Syria was completed.  The Christians were  
     forbidden to build churches, or speak openly of their  
     religion, or sit in the presence of a Mohammedan, or to  
     sell wine, or bear arms, or use the saddle in riding, or  
     have a domestic who had been in the Mohammedan  
     service.  The utter prostration of all civil and religious  
     liberty took place in the old scenes of Christian tri-  
     umph.  This was an instance in which persecution  
     proved successful; and because it was successful it is a  
     proof, in the eyes of Carlyle, that the persecuting re-  
     ligion was the better, because it was outwardly the  
     stronger.  
        The conquest of Egypt rapidly followed that of  
     Syria; and with the fall of Alexandria perished the  
     largest library of the world, the thesaurus of all  
     the intellectual treasures of antiquity.  
        Then followed  the conquests of Persia.  A single  
     battle, as in the time of Alexander, decided its fate.  
     The marvel is that the people should have changed  
     their religion; but then, it was Mohammedanism or   
     death.  And a still greater marvel it is,——an utter  
     mystery to me,——why that Oriental country should  
     have continued faithful to the new religion.  It must  
     have had some elements of vitality almost worth fight-  
     ing for, and which we do not comprehend.  
        Nor did Saracenic conquests end until the Arabs of  
     the desert had penetrated southward into India farther  
     than had Alexander the Great, and westward until they  
     had subdued the northern kingdoms of Africa, and car-  
     ried their arms to the Pillars of Hercules; yea, to the  
     cities of the Goths in Spain, and were only finally  
     arrested in Europe by the heroism of Charles Martel.  
        Such were the rapid conquests of the Saracens——and  
     permanent conquests also——in Asia and Africa, under  
     the stimulus of religious fanaticism, until they had re-  
     duced thirty-six thousand cities, town, and castles, and   
     bult fourteen thousand mosques.  
        Now what are the deductions to be logically drawn  
     from these stupendous victories and the consolidation  
     of the various religions of the conquered into the creed  
     of Mohammed,——not repudiated when the pressure  
     was removed, but apparently cherished by one hundred  
     and eighty millions of people for more than a thousand   
     years?  
        We must take the ground that the religion of Mo-  
     hammed has marvellous and powerful truths, which we  
     have overlooked and do not understand, which appeal  
     to the heart and conscience, and excite a great enthu-  
     siasm,——so great as to stimulate successive generations  
     with an almost unexampled ardor, and to defend which  
     they were ready to die; a religion which has bound  
     diverse nations together for nearly fourteen hundred  
     years.  If so, it cannot be abused, or ridiculed, or  
     sneered at, any more than can the dominion of the  
     popes in the Middle Ages, but remains august in im-   
     pressive mystery to us, and even to future ages.  
        But if, in comparison with Christianity, it is a cor-  
     rupt and false religion, as many assume, then what  
     deductions must we draw from its amazing triumphs?  
     For the fact stares us in the face that it is rooted deeply  
     in a large part of the Eastern world, or, at least, has  
     prevailed victorious for more than a thousand years.  
        First, we must conclude that the external triumph of  
     a religion, especially among ignorant or wicked people,  
     is not so much owing to the purity and loftiness of its  
     truths, as to its harmony with prevailing errors and cor-  
     ruptions.  When Mohammed preached his sublimest  
     doctrines, and appealed to reason and conscience, he  
     converted about a score of people in thirteen years.  
     When he invoked demoralizing passions, he converted  
     all Arabia in eleven years.  And does not this startling   
     conclusion seem to be confirmed by the whole history  
     of mankind?  How slow the progress of Christianity  
     for two hundred years, except when assisted by direct   
     supernatural influences!  How rapid its triumphs when  
     it became adapted to the rude barbaric mind, or to the  
     degenerate people of the Empire!  How popular and  
     prevalent and widespread are those religions which we  
     are accustomed to regard as most corrupt!  Buddhism  
     and Brahmanism have had more adherents than even   
     Mohammedanism.  how difficult it was for Moses and  
     the prophets to keep the Jews from idolatry!  What   
     caused the rapid eclipse of faith in the antediluvian   
     world?  Why could not Noah establish and perpetuate  
     his doctrines among his own descendants before he was  
     dead?  Why was the Socratic philosophy unpopular?  
     Why were the Epicureans so fashionable?  Why  
     was Christianity itself most eagerly embraced when its  
     light was obscured by fables and superstitions?  Why  
     did the Roman Empire perish, with all the aid of a  
     magnificent civilization;  why did this civilization it-  
     self retrograde; why did its arts and literature decline?  
     Why did the grand triumphs of Protestantism stop in  
     half a century after Luther delivered his message?  
     What made the mediæval popes so powerful?  What  
     gave such ascendancy to the Jesuits?  Why is the sim-  
     ple faith of the primitive Christians so obnoxious to the  
     wise, the mighty, and the noble?  What makes the  
     most insidious heresies so acceptable to the learned?  
     Why is modern literature, when fashionable and popu-  
     lar, so antichristian in its tone and spirit?  Why have  
     not the doctrines of Luther held their own in Germany,  
     and those of Calvin in Geneva, and those of Cranmer in  
     England, and those of the Pilgrim Fathers in New Eng-  
     land?  It is because, as men become advanced in learn-  
     ing and culture, they are theologically wiser than Moses  
     and Abraham and Isaiah?  
        I do not cite the rapid decline of modern civilized  
     society, in a political or social view, in the most favored  
     sections of Christendom; I do not sing dirges over  
     republican institutions; I would not croak Jeremiads  
     over the changes and developments of mankind.  I  
     simply speak of the marvellous similarity which the  
     spread and triumph of Mohammedanism seem to bear  
     to the spread and triumph of what is corrupt and  
     wicked in all institutions and religions since the fall   
     of man.  Everywhere it is the frivolous, the corrupt,  
     the false, which seem to be most prevalent and most  
     popular.  Do men love truth, or readily accept it, when   
     it conflicts with passions and interests?  Is any truth  
     popular which is arrayed against the pride of reason?  
     When has pure moral truth ever been fashionable?  
     When have its advocates not been reviled, slandered,  
     misrepresented, and persecuted, if it has interfered  
     with the domination of prevailing interests?  The  
     lower the scale of pleasures the more eagerly are they     
     sought by the great mass of the people, even in Chris-  
     tian communities.  You can best make colleges thrive  
     by turning them into schools of technology, with a view  
     to advancing utilitarian and material interests.  You  
     cannot make a newspaper flourish unless you fill it with  
     pictures and scandals, or make it a vehicle of advertise-  
     ments——which are not frivolous or corrupt, it is true,  
     but which have to do with the merely material interests.  
     Your libraries would never be visited, if you took  
     away their trash.  You Sabbath-school books would  
     not be read, unless you made them an insult to  
     the human understanding.  Your salons would be de-  
     serted, if you entertained your guests with instructive  
     conversation.  There would be no fashionable gather-  
     ings, if it were not to display dresses and diamonds.  
     Your pulpits would be unoccupied, f you sought the  
     profoundest men to fill them.  
        Everything, even in Christian communities, shows  
     that vanities and follies and falsehoods are the most   
     sought, and that nothing is more discouraging than  
     appeals to high intelligence or virtue, even in art.  
     This is the uniform history of the race, everywhere  
     and in all ages.  Is it darkness or light which the  
     world loves?  I never read, and I never heard, of a  
     great man with a great message to deliver, who would  
     not have sunk under disappointment or chagrin but  
     for his faith.  Everywhere do you see the fascination   
     of error, so that it almost seems to be as vital as truth  
     itself.  When and where have not lies and sophistries  
     and hypocrites reigned?  I appeal to history.  I   
     appeal to the observation and experience of every  
     thoughtful and candid mind.  You cannot get around  
     this truth.  It blazes and it burns like the fires of   
     Sinai.  Men left to themselves will more and more  
     retrograde in virtue.  
        What, then, is the hope of the world?  We are driven  
     to this deduction,——that if truth in itself is not all-  
     conquering, the divine assistance, given at times to  
     truth itself, as in the early Church, is the only rea-  
     son why truth conquers.  This divine grace, prom-  
     ised in the Bible, has wrought wonders wherever it has  
     pleased the Almighty to bestow it, and only then.  
     History teaches this as impressively as revelation.  
     Christianity itself, unaided, would probably die out in   
     this world.  And hence the grand conclusion is, that  
     it is the mysterious, or, as some call it, the super-  
     natural, spirit of Almighty power which is, after all,  
     the highest hope of this world.  This is not discrepant  
     with the oldest traditions and theogonies of the East,  
     ——the hidden wisdom of ancient Indian and Persian  
     and Egyptian sages, concealed from the vulgar, but  
     really embraced by the profoundest men, before corrup-  
     tions perverted even their wisdom.  This certainly is  
     the earliest revelation of the Bible.  This is the power  
     which Moses recognized, and all the prophets who suc-  
     ceeded him.  This is the power which even Mohammed,  
     in the loftiness of his contemplations, more dimly saw,  
     and imperfectly taught to the idolaters around him, and  
     which gives to his system all that was really valuable.  
     Ask not when and where this power shall be most truly  
     felt.  It is around us, and above us, and beneath us.  
     It is the mystery and grandeur of the ages.  "It is not  
     by might nor by power, but by my spirit," saith the Lord.  
     Man is nothing, his aspirations are nothing, the universe  
     itself is nothing, without the living, permeating force  
     which comes from this supernal Deity we adore, to inter-  
     fere and save.  Without His special agency, giving to His  
     truths vitality, this world would soon become a hope-  
     less and perpetual pandemonium.  Take away the  
     necessity of this divine assistance as the one great  
     condition of all progress, as well as the highest boon  
     which mortals seek,——then prayer itself, recognized  
     even by Mohammedans as the loftiest aspiration  
     and expression of a dependent soul, and regarded by   
     prophets and apostles and martyrs as their noblest  
     privilege, becomes a superstition, a puerility, a mock-  
     ery, and a hopeless dream.   
     
     
     
     
                              AUTHORITIES.   

        THE Koran; Dean Prideaux's Life of Mohammed; Vie de Mahomet,  
     by the Comte de Boulainvilliers; Gagnier's Life of Mohammed; Ockley's  
     History of the Saracens; Gibbon, fiftieth chapter; Hallam's Middle Ages;  
     Milman's Latin Christianity; Dr. Weil's Mohammed der Prophet; sein  
     Leben und seine Lehre; Renan, Revue des Deux Mondes, 1851; Bustner's  
     Pilgrimage to El Medina and Mecca; Life of Mahomet, by Washington  
     Irving; Essai sur l'Histoire des Arabes, par A. P. Caussin de Perceval;  
     Carlyle's Lectures on Heroes and Hero Worship; E. A. Freeman's Lectures  
     on the History of the Saracens; Foster's Mahometanism Unveiled; Mau-  
     rice of the Religions of the World; Life and Religion of Mohammed,  
     translated from the Persian, by Rev. I. L. Merrick.   

from Beacon Lights of History, by John Lord, LL. D.,
Volume III, Part I: The Middle Ages, pp. 38 - 54
©1883, by John Lord.
©1921, By Wm. H. Wise & Co., New York