Speech of Al Mamun.]
Among the philosophers of all creeds whom that great caliph gathered
around him at Bagdad was a noble Arab of the Nestorian faith, descended
from the kingly tribe of the Beni Kinda, and hence called _Al Kindy_. A
friend of this Eastern Christian, himself a member of the royal family,
invited Al Kindy to embrace Islam in an epistle enlarging on the
distinguished rank which, in virtue of his descent, he would (if a true
believer) occupy at court, and the other privileges, spiritual and
material, social and conjugal, which he would enjoy. In reply the
Christian wrote an apology of singular eloquence and power, throwing a
flood of light on the worldly inducements which, even at that
comparatively late period, abounded in a Moslem state to promote
conversion to Islam. Thus Al Mamun himself, in a speech delivered before
his council, characterizes certain of his courtiers accused as secret
adherents of the Zoroastrian faith:
"Though professing Islam, they are free from the same. This they do
to be seen of me, while their convictions, I am well aware, are
just the opposite of that which they profess. They belong to a
class which embrace Islam, not from any love of this our faith, but
thinking thereby to gain access to our court, and share in the
honor, wealth, and power of the realm. They have no inward
persuasion of that which they outwardly profess."[53]
[Sidenote: Converts from sordid motives.]
Again, speaking of the various classes brought over to Islam by sordid
and unworthy motives, Al Kindy says:
Moreover, there are the idolatrous races--Magians and Jews--low
people aspiring by the profession of Islam to raise themselves to
riches and power and to form alliances with the families of the
learned and honorable. There are, besides, hypocritical men of the
world, who in this way obtain indulgences in the matter of marriage
and concubinage which are forbidden to them by the Christian faith.
Then we have the dissolute class given over wholly to the lusts of
the flesh. And lastly there are those who by this means obtain a
more secure and easy livelihood.[54]
[Sidenote: Al Kindy contrasts the Christian confessor with the Moslem
"martyr."
The Christian confessor and the Moslem martyr.]
Before leaving this part of our subject it may be opportune to quote a
few more passages from Al Kindy, in which he contrasts the inducements
that, under the military and political predominance of Islam, promoted
its rapid spread, and the opposite conditions under which Christianity
made progress, slow, indeed, comparatively, but sure and steady. First,
he compares the Christian confessor with the Moslem "martyr:"
I marvel much, he says, that ye call those _martyrs_ that fall in
war. Thou hast read, no doubt, in history of the followers of
Christ put to death in the persecutions of the kings of Persia and
elsewhere. Say, now, which are the more worthy to be called
martyrs, these, or thy fellows that fall fighting for the world and
the power thereof? How diverse were the barbarities and kinds of
death inflicted on the Christian confessors! The more they were
slain the more rapidly spread the faith; in place of one sprang up
a hundred. On a certain occasion, when a great multitude had been
put to death, one at court said to the king, "The number of them
increaseth instead of, as thou thinkest, diminishing." "How can
that be?" exclaimed the king. "But yesterday," replied the
courtier, "thou didst put such and such a one to death, and lo,
there were converted double that number; and the people say that a
man appeared to the confessors from heaven strengthening them in
their last moments." Whereupon the king himself was converted. In
those days men thought not their lives dear unto them. Some were
transfixed while yet alive; others had their limbs cut off one
after another; some were cast to the wild beasts and others burned
in the fire. Such continued long to be the fate of the Christian
confessors. No parallel is found thereto in any other religion; and
all was endured with constancy and even with joy. One smiled in the
midst of his great suffering. "Was it cold water," they asked,
"that was brought unto thee?" "No," answered the sufferer, "it was
one like a youth that stood by me and anointed my wounds; and that
made me smile, for the pain forthwith departed."
Now tell me seriously, my friend, which of the two hath the best
claim to be called a _martyr_, "slain in the ways of the Lord:" he
who surrendereth his life rather than renounce his faith; who, when
it is said, Fall down and worship the sun and moon, or the idols of
silver and gold, work of men's hands, instead of the true God,
refuseth, choosing rather to give up life, abandon wealth, and
forego even wife and family; or he that goeth forth, ravaging and
laying waste, plundering and spoiling, slaying the men, carrying
away their children into captivity, and ravishing their wives and
maidens in his unlawful embrace, and then shall call it "Jehad in
the ways of the Lord!" ... And not content therewith, instead of
humbling thyself before the Lord, and seeking pardon for the crime,
thou sayest of such a one slain in the war that "he hath earned
paradise," and thou namest him "a martyr in the ways of the
Lord!"[55]
And again, contrasting the spread of Islam, "its rattling quiver and its
glittering sword," with the silent progress of Christianity, our
apologist, after dwelling on the teaching and the miracles of the
apostles, writes:
They published their message by means of these miracles; and thus
great and powerful kings and philosophers and learned men and
judges of the earth hearkened unto them, without lash or rod, with
neither sword nor spear, nor the advantages of birth or
"Helpers;"[56] with no wisdom of this world, or eloquence or power
of language, or subtlety of reason; with no worldly inducement, nor
yet again with any relaxation of the moral law, but simply at the
voice of truth enforced by miracles beyond the power of man to
show. And so there came over to them the kings and great ones of
the earth. And the philosophers abandoned their systems, with all
their wisdom and learning, and betook them to a saintly life,
giving up the delights of this world together with their
old-established usages, and became followers of a company of poor
men, fishers and publicans, who had neither name nor rank nor any
claim other than that they were obedient to the command of the
Messiah--he that gave them power to do such wonderful works.[57]
[Sidenote: The apostles compared with the chiefs of Islam.]
And yet once more, comparing the apostles with the military chiefs of
Islam, Al Kindy proceeds:
After the descent of the Holy Ghost and the gift of tongues the
apostles separated each to the country to which he was called. They
wrote out in every tongue the holy Gospel, and the story and
teaching of Christ, at the dictation of the Holy Ghost. So the
nations drew near unto them, believing their testimony; and, giving
up the world and their false beliefs, they embraced the Christian
faith as soon as ever the dawn of truth and the light of the good
tidings broke in upon them. Distinguishing the true from the false,
and error from the right direction, they embraced the Gospel and
held it fast without doubt or wavering, when they saw the wonderful
works and signs of the apostles, and their lives and conversation
set after the holy and beautiful example of our Saviour, the traces
whereof remain even unto the present day.... How different this
from the life of thy Master (Mohammed) and his companions, who
ceased not to go forth in battle and rapine, to smite with the
sword, to seize the little ones, and ravish the wives and maidens,
plundering and laying waste, and carrying the people into
captivity. And thus they continue unto this present day, inciting
men to these evil deeds, even as it is told of Omar the Caliph. "If
one among you," said he, "hath a heathen neighbor and is in need,
let him seize and sell him." And many such things they say and
teach. Look now at the lives of Simon and Paul, who went about
healing the sick and raising the dead, by the name of Christ our
Lord; and mark the contrast.[58]
[Sidenote: Such are the conclusions of a native of Chaldea.]
Such are the reflections of one who lived at a Mohammedan court, and
who, moreover, flourishing as he did a thousand years ago, was
sufficiently near the early spread of Islam to be able to contrast what
he saw and heard and read of the causes of its success with those of the
Gospel, and had the courage to confess the same.
[Sidenote: Hinderances or inducements inherent in the faith itself.]
Apart, now, from the outward and extraneous aids given to Islam by the
sword and by the civil arm I will inquire for a moment what natural
effect the teaching of Islam itself had in attracting or repelling
mankind. I do not now speak of any power contained in the truths it
inculcated to convert to Islam by the rousing and quickening of
spiritual impulses; for that lies beyond my present purpose, which is to
inquire whether there is not in material causes and secular motives
enough in themselves to account for success. I speak rather of the
effect of the indulgences granted by Islam, on the one hand, as
calculated to attract; and of the restraints imposed and sacrifices
required, on the other, as calculated to repel. How far, in fact, did
there exist inducements or hinderances to its adoption inherent in the
religion itself?
[Sidenote: Requirements of Islam: prayer.
Prohibition of wine, games of chance, and usury.
Fast of Ramzan.]
What may be regarded as the most constant and irksome of the obligations
of Islam is the duty of prayer, which must be observed at stated
intervals, five times every day, with the contingent ceremony of
lustration. The rite consists of certain forms and passages to be
repeated with prescribed series of prostrations and genuflexions. These
must be repeated at the right times--but anywhere, in the house or by
the wayside, as well as in the mosque; and the ordinance is obligatory
in whatever state of mind the worshiper may be, or however occupied. As
the appointed hour comes round the Moslem is bound to turn aside to
pray--so much so that in Central Asia we read of the police driving the
backward worshiper by the lash to discharge the duty. Thus, with the
mass of Mussulmans, the obligation becomes a mere formal ceremony, and
one sees it performed anywhere and every-where by the whole people, like
any social custom, as a matter of course. No doubt there are exceptions;
but with the multitude it does not involve the irksomeness of a
spiritual service, and so it sits lightly on high and low. The Friday
prayers should as a rule be attended in the mosque; but neither need
there be much devotion there; and, once performed, the rest of the day
is free for pleasure or for business.[59] The prohibition of wine is a
restriction which was severely felt in the early days of the faith; but
it was not long before the universal sentiment (though eluded in some
quarters) supported it. The embargo upon games of chance was certainly
unpopular; and the prohibition of the receipt of interest was also an
important limitation, tending as it did to shackle the freedom of
mercantile speculation; but they have been partially evaded on various
pretexts. The fast throughout the month of Ramzan was a severer test;
but even this lasts only during the day; and at night, from sunset till
dawn, all restrictions are withdrawn, not only in respect of food, but
of all otherwise lawful gratifications.[60]
[Sidenote: Little that is unpopular in these ordinances.]
There is nothing, therefore, in the requirements and ordinances of
Islam, excepting the fast, that is very irksome to humanity, or which,
as involving any material sacrifice, or the renunciation of the
pleasures or indulgences of life, should lead a man of the world to
hesitate in embracing the new faith.
[Sidenote: Indulgences allowed in the matter of wives and concubines.]
On the other hand, the license allowed by the Koran between the
sexes--at least in favor of the male sex--is so wide that for such as
have the means and the desire to take advantage of it there need be no
limit whatever to sexual indulgence. It is true that adultery is
punishable by death and fornication with stripes. But then the Koran
gives the believer permission to have four wives at a time. And he may
exchange them--that is, he may divorce them at pleasure, taking others
in their stead.[61] And, as if this were not license enough, the divine
law permits the believer to consort with all female slaves whom he may
be the master of--such, namely, as have been taken in war, or have been
acquired by gift or purchase. These he may receive into his harem
instead of wives, or in addition to them; and without any limit of
number or restraint whatever he is at liberty to cohabit with them.
[Sidenote: Polygamy, concubinage, and divorce. Practice at the rise of
Islam.]
A few instances taken at random will enable the reader to judge how the
indulgences thus allowed by the religion were taken advantage of in the
early days of Islam. In the great plague which devastated Syria seven
years after the prophet's death Khalid, the Sword of God, lost _forty_
sons. Abdal Rahman, one of the "companions" of Mohammed, had issue by
sixteen wives, not counting slave-girls.[62] Moghira ibn Shoba, another
"companion," and governor of Kufa and Bussorah, had in his harem eighty
consorts, free and servile. Coming closer to the Prophet's household, we
find that Mohammed himself at one period had in his harem no fewer than
nine wives and two slave-girls. Of his grandson Hasan we read that his
vagrant passion gained for him the unenviable sobriquet of _The
Divorcer_; for it was only by continually divorcing his consorts that he
could harmonize his craving for fresh nuptials with the requirements of
the divine law, which limited the number of his free wives to four. We
are told that, as a matter of simple caprice, he exercised the power of
divorce seventy (according to other traditions ninety) times. When the
leading men complained to Aly of the licentious practice of his son his
only reply was that the remedy lay in their own hands, of refusing Hasan
their daughters altogether.[63] Such are the material inducements, the
"works of the flesh," which Islam makes lawful to its votaries, and
which promoted thus its early spread.
[Sidenote: Practice in modern times.
The Malays of Penang.
Lane's testimony concerning Egypt.
The princess of Bhopal's account of Mecca.]
Descending now to modern times, we still find that this sexual license
is taken advantage of more or less in different countries and conditions
of society. The following examples are simply meant as showing to what
excess it is possible for the believer to carry these indulgences,
_under the sanction of his religion_. Of the Malays in Penang it was
written not very long ago: "Young men of thirty to thirty-five years of
age may be met with who have had from fifteen to twenty wives, and
children by several of them. These women have been divorced, married
others, and had children by them." Regarding Egypt, Lane tells us: "I
have heard of men who have been in the habit of marrying a new wife
almost every month."[64] Burkhardt speaks of an Arab forty-five years
old who had had fifty wives, "so that he must have divorced two wives
and married two fresh ones on the average every year." And not to go
further than the sacred city of Mecca, the late reigning princess of
Bhopal, in central India, herself an orthodox follower of the Prophet,
after making the pilgrimage of the holy places, writes thus:
Women frequently contract as many as ten marriages, and those who
have only been married twice are few in number. If a woman sees her
husband growing old, or if she happen to admire any one else, she
goes to the Shereef (the spiritual and civil head of the holy
city), and after having settled the matter with him she puts away
her husband and takes to herself another, who is, perhaps,
good-looking and rich. In this way a marriage seldom lasts more
than a year or two.
And of slave-girls the same high and impartial authority, still writing
of the holy city and of her fellow-Moslems, tells us:
Some of the women (African and Georgian girls) are taken in
marriage; and after that, on being sold again, they receive from
their masters a divorce, and are sold in their houses--that is to
say, they are sent to the purchaser from their master's house on
receipt of payment, and are not exposed for sale in the
slave-market. They are only _married_ when purchased for the first
time.... When the poorer people buy (female) slaves they keep them
for themselves, and change them every year as one would replace old
things by new; but the women who have children are not sold.[65]
[Sidenote: Islam sanctions a license between the sexes which
Christianity forbids.
The laws of Christianity deter men from carnal indulgences.
Islam the "Easy Way."]
What I desire to make clear is the fact that such things may be
practiced _with the sanction_ of the Scripture which the Moslem holds to
be divine, and that these same indulgences have from the first existed
as inducements which helped materially to forward the spread of the
faith. I am very far, indeed, from implying that excessive indulgence in
polygamy is the universal state of Moslem society. Happily this is not
the case. There are not only individuals, but tribes and districts,
which, either from custom or preference, voluntarily restrict the
license given them in the Koran; while the natural influence of the
family, even in Moslem countries, has an antiseptic tendency that often
itself tends greatly to neutralize the evil.[66] Nor am I seeking to
institute any contrast between the morals at large of Moslem countries
and the rest of the world. If Christian nations are (as with shame it
must be confessed) in some strata of society immoral, it is in the teeth
of their divine law. And the restrictions of that law are calculated,
and in the early days of Christianity did tend, in point of fact, _to
deter men_ devoted to the indulgences of the flesh from embracing the
faith.[67] The religion of Mohammed, on the other hand, gives direct
sanction to the sexual indulgences we have been speaking of. Thus it
panders to the lower instincts of humanity and makes its spread the
easier. In direct opposition to the precepts of Christianity it "makes
provision for the flesh to fulfill the lusts thereof." Hence Islam has
been well called by its own votaries the _Easy Way_. Once more, to quote
Al Kindy:
Thou invitest me (says our apologist to his friend) into the "Easy
way of faith and practice." Alas, alas! for our Saviour in the
Gospel telleth us, "When ye have done all that ye are commanded,
say, We are unprofitable servants; we have but done that which was
commanded us." Where then is our merit? The same Lord Jesus saith,
"How strait is the road which leadeth unto life, and how few they
be that walk therein! How wide the gate that leadeth to
destruction, and how many there be that go in thereat!" Different
this, my friend, from the comforts of thy wide and easy gate, and
the facilities for enjoying, as thou wouldst have me, the pleasures
offered by thy faith in wives and damsels![68]
FOOTNOTES:
[a] A.D. 623.
[b] A.D. 630.
[c] A.D. 632.
[d] A.D. 635.
II.
WHY THE SPREAD OF ISLAM WAS STAYED.
[Sidenote: Islam stationary in area, and in civilization retrograde.]
Having thus traced the rapid early spread of Islam to its proper source,
I proceed to the remaining topics, namely, the causes which have checked
its further extension, and those likewise which have depressed the
followers of this religion in the scale of civilization. I shall take
the former first--just remarking here, in respect of the latter, that
the depression of Islam is itself one of the causes which retard the
expansion of the faith.
[Sidenote: The Arabs ceased, in second century, to be a crusading
force.]
As the first spread of Islam was due to the sword, so when the sword was
sheathed Islam ceased to spread. The apostles and missionaries of Islam
were, as we have seen, the martial tribes of Arabia--that is to say, the
grand military force organized by Omar, and by him launched upon the
surrounding nations. Gorged with the plunder of the world, these began,
after a time, to settle on their lees and to mingle with the ordinary
population. So soon as this came to pass they lost the fiery zeal which
at the first had made them irresistible. By the second and third
centuries the Arabs had disappeared as the standing army of the
caliphate, or, in other words, as a body set apart for the dissemination
of the faith. The crusading spirit, indeed, ever and anon burst
forth--and it still bursts forth, as opportunity offers--simply for the
reason that this spirit pervades the Koran, and is ingrained in the
creed. But with the special agency created and maintained during the
first ages for the spread of Islam the incentive of crusade ceased as a
distinctive missionary spring of action, and degenerated into the common
lust of conquest which we meet with in the world at large.
[Sidenote: With cessation of conquest, Islam ceased to spread.]
The extension of Islam, depending upon military success, stopped
wherever that was checked. The religion advanced or retired, speaking
broadly, as the armed predominance made head or retroceded. Thus the
tide of Moslem victory, rushing along the coast of Africa, extinguished
the seats of European civilization on the Mediterranean, overwhelmed
Spain, and was rapidly advancing north, when the onward wave was stemmed
at Tours; and as with the arms, the faith also of Islam was driven back
into Spain and bounded by the Pyrenees. So, likewise, the hold which
the religion seized both of Spain and Sicily came to an end with
Mussulman defeat. It is true that when once long and firmly rooted, as
in India and China, Islam may survive the loss of military power, and
even flourish. But it is equally true that in no single country has
Islam been planted, nor has it anywhere materially spread, saving under
the banner of the Crescent or the political ascendency of some
neighboring State. Accordingly, we find that, excepting some barbarous
zones in Africa which have been raised thereby a step above the
groveling level of fetichism, the faith has in modern times made no
advance worth mentioning.[69]
From the Jewish and Christian religions there has (again speaking
broadly) been no secession whatever to Islam since the wave of Saracen
victory was stayed, excepting by the force of arms. Even in the palmy
days of the Abbasside caliphs, our apologist could challenge his
adversary to produce a single conversion otherwise than by reason of
some powerful material inducement. Here is his testimony:
[Sidenote: Al Kindy's challenge to produce a Christian convert to
Islam apart from material inducements.]
Now tell me, hast thou ever seen, my Friend, (the Lord be gracious
unto thee!) or ever heard of a single person of sound mind--any one
of learning and experience, and acquainted with the Scriptures,
renouncing Christianity otherwise than for some worldly object to
be reached only through thy religion, or for some gratification
withheld by the faith of Jesus? Thou wilt find none. For, excepting
the tempted ones, all continue steadfast in their faith, secure
under our most gracious sovereign, in the profession of their own
religion.[70]
III.
LOW POSITION OF ISLAM IN THE SCALE OF CIVILIZATION.
[Sidenote: Social and intellectual depression.]
I pass on to consider why Mohammedan nations occupy so low a position,
halting as almost every-where they do, in the march of social and
intellectual development.