THE MOHAMMEDAN MENACE—THE RISE OF ISLAM—SARACENS—TURKS.
The rapid rise and wide-spread conquest of Mohammedanism make one of the
most startling phenomena of history. If its story excites our wonder in
these days, while we are watching its decadence, we may imagine the
consternation wrought when its swarming hosts, with the prestige of
having conquered all western Asia, were breaking through the barriers of
Christendom.
We shall greatly mistake this movement if we regard it as a mere
irruption of brute force such as characterized the assaults of the
barbarians upon the Roman empire. The teachings of Mohammed, gross as
they appear in contrast with either primitive or modern Christianity,
contained elements which appealed to far nobler sentiments than those
entertained by the pagans of northern Europe, or those current in the
age of the Prophet among the people of his own race. Compared with
these, Islamism was a reformation, and enthused its adherents with the
belief that they fought for the advancement of civilization as well as
for the rewards of paradise.
The central thought of Islamism is the unity of the Godhead, and its
first victory was the obliteration of polytheism among the tribes of
Arabia.
It is true that, before the time of Mohammed, Allah had been accorded
the first place in the speculative theology of the Arabs; yet gods many
usurped their worship and were supposed to control their daily lives.
Wise men, called hanifs, had protested against the prevailing
superstition, and succeeded in spreading a healthful scepticism
regarding the lesser divinities. Mohammed eagerly imbibed the better
philosophy. Familiarity with the religion of the Jews, and some
acquaintance with the doctrine of Jesus, whom he accepted as a true
prophet, doubtless gave shape and vividness to his better faith. His
meditations on the grand themes of religion were, to his excited
imagination, rewarded by definite revelation. He rose inspired with the
conviction,—which became the call for a new civilization in the
Orient,—“Great is God, and Mohammed is His prophet!” Islam, or
resignation to the sovereign will of Allah, became the title and spirit
of the new religion.
But if a celestial ray had touched and stimulated the mind of Mohammed,
no heavenly influence refined his heart and conscience. Sensuality and
cruelty, racial qualities of the Arab, were not only unrestrained, but
utilized as agencies for the spread of the faith. Ferocity wielded the
sword, and its fury was to be rewarded by the gratification of lust in a
paradise whose description surpassed the sensuous fancies of pagan poets
and romancers. The spirit of the new propaganda is evinced in this
sentence from the Koran: “The sword is the key of heaven and hell; a
drop of blood shed in the cause of Allah, a night spent in arms, is of
more avail than two months of fasting and prayer; whoever falls in
battle, his sins are forgiven, and at the day of judgment his limbs
shall be supplied with the wings of angels and cherubim.”
It might seem that the Christian would be spared the vengeance of
Mohammed, since he also taught the unity of the Godhead; but the Arabian
misunderstood Christianity. To him the Trinity was essential polytheism.
It must be confessed that such Christianity as the Arab saw very
naturally suggested that false interpretation of the Bible doctrine. In
some Eastern Christian sects Mariolatry had exalted the mother of Jesus
to the third place in the Trinity, in horrid usurpation of the office of
the Holy Ghost. The Koran expressly condemns the triform worship of
Jehovah, Jesus, and Mary. The Prophet, while denying the divinity of
Christ, regarded himself as an avenger of Jesus, the holy man, against
the heresy of his professed followers. Mohammed’s last utterance is
reported to have been, “The Lord destroy the Jews and Christians! Let
His anger be kindled against all those that turn the tombs of their
prophets into places of worship! Eternity in paradise!”
Not only was the doctrine of the Koran acceptable to the people to whom
it was delivered; the organization of the Mohammedan system provided an
efficient agency for its development and propagandism.
This organization was exceedingly simple. It had but one code for things
religious and things secular. The Koran was at once the confession of
faith and the national constitution. From the same pages the priest
preached eternal life, caliph, emir, and sheik quoted the rules of
government, the judge drew his decision in controversies, the soldier
read his reward for valor and death on the field, and merchant and
peasant found the regulations for their daily traffic. The one book
destroyed the distinction between sacred and profane, since everything
became thereby religious, while the duties and amenities of common life
were surcharged with the bigotry of devoteeism.
The unity of Moslemism under the book was further intensified by the
sole headship of the Prophet and his successors. The fondest dream of
the popes of Rome, to blend spiritual and secular authority, was
surpassed by the throne which actually arose in the Arabian desert. The
opinion of the caliph was the final decision of all questions of dogma;
ministers of state were his personal commissioners, and over them, as
over the humblest subject, he exercised the power of life and death. One
will was sovereign, responsible to none other, and actuated all things
in church and state. One man’s word rallied tribes and sects, and hurled
them _en masse_ upon his enemies, or in more peaceful ways directed
their seeming diversities to the accomplishment of a single purpose.
It must be acknowledged, however, that, while the Mohammedan system thus
adapted it to the most deadly tyranny over thought and life, it was not
always so wielded. The cause was advanced by the sagacity, if not the
more humane inclinations, of many of the caliphs. Not a few of these
were among the wisest men of their day, and adopted a policy of leniency
in dealing with their submissive enemies, which facilitated the
extension of their rule. The repetition of a single sentence,
acknowledging the unity of God and the supremacy of the Prophet,
transformed foe into friend. In many instances the tribute paid to the
conqueror was far less than that which the former Christian rulers had
been in the habit of exacting. Though, as a rule, Christian churches
were ruthlessly despoiled of their symbolic ornaments and reduced to the
barren simplicity of the mosque, yet they were frequently spared this
sacrilege. When Jerusalem fell into the hands of Omar, the Christians
were forbidden to call to worship by the sound of bell, to parade the
streets in religious procession, to distinguish their sect by badge or
dress, and were compelled to give up the temple site for the mosque of
Omar; yet they were allowed freely to worship in the Church of the Holy
Sepulchre, the caliph himself refusing to appear within those sacred
precincts, saying, “Had I done so, future Mussulmans would infringe the
treaty under cover of imitating my example.” Haroun-al-Raschid, in
exchanging courtesies with Charlemagne, presented him with the keys of
the Holy Sepulchre.
To this compact unity of Mohammedanism under Koran and caliph, and this
wise blending of the terror of arms with peaceful patronage, was due the
unparalleled progress of the religion of the Prophet. The Moslem
conquests will appear in the story, first of the Saracen, and later that
of the Turk.
_The Saracens._—During Mohammed’s lifetime Arabia and Syria were beneath
his hand. Within eight years following, Persia, parts of Asia Minor,
Palestine, and Egypt submitted to him. Thirteen years more (653) saw the
cimeter of the Saracens enclosing an area as large as the Roman empire
under the Cæsars. In 668 they assaulted Constantinople. In 707 North
Africa surrendered the treasures of its entire coast from the Nile to
the Atlantic, and the home of Augustine, the father of Christian
orthodoxy, was occupied by the Infidels. In 711 the Saracen general
Tarik crossed the straits between the Mediterranean and Atlantic, and
landed on the rock which has ever since borne his name—Jebel-Tarik, the
“hill of Tarik,” or Gibraltar. By 717 Spain, from the Mediterranean to
the Pyrenees, had become the proud conquest of the Moors. But for the
timely victory of Charles Martel at Tours, in 732, they had surely
subdued France and soon completed the circle of conquest by the
desolation of Italy, Germany, and the lands bordering the Balkans. In
847 the Saracens were masters of Sicily, and besieged Rome itself,
plundering the suburban churches of St. Peter and St. Paul. Thirty years
later Pope John VIII. wrote to Charles the Bold: “If all the trees in
the forests were turned into tongues, they could not describe the
ravages of these impious pagans; the devout people of God is destroyed
by a continual slaughter; he who escapes the fire and the sword is
carried as a captive into exile. Cities, castles, and villages are
utterly wasted and without an inhabitant. The Hagarenes [sons of
fornication and wrath] have crossed the Tiber.” In 916 these persistent
foes occupied a fortress on the Gangliano, between Naples and Rome,
whence they held the papal domain at their mercy, and seizing the
persons of pilgrims on their way to the shrine of the apostles, held
them for heavy ransom. This stronghold was broken up only by the attack
of a powerful confederacy of Italian dukes, aided by the emperors of the
East and West. The exigency was so great that, in the estimate of papal
apologists, it warranted the action of Pope John X., who arrayed himself
in carnal armor and rode at the head of the attacking forces.
In 1016 a powerful armament of Saracens was landed at Luna in the
territory of Pisa, but defeated by Pope Benedict VIII. This disaster did
not diminish either the hauteur or expectancy of the invader, who sent
to the Pope a huge bag of chestnuts with the message, “I will return
with as many valiant Saracens to the conquest of Italy.” The Pope was
not to be outdone in prowess of speech, and returned a bag of millet
with the boast, “As many brave warriors as there are grains will appear
at my bidding to defend their native land.”
In 1058 there occurred a wild outburst of Moslem bigotry, which sent a
thrill of horror through Christian Europe. The charity of earlier rulers
of Palestine towards Christian worshippers gave place to fiercest
persecution by Mad Hakem, the Sultan of Egypt, who razed to the ground
the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, and slaughtered its devotees. He
ultimately, however, commuted his rage into cupidity, and affixed a tax
upon the worshippers. At the close of the eleventh century, the time of
the first crusade, the Saracenic power, though steadily receding before
the Christians, still menaced southern Europe. Trained bands of Moslems,
when not in war on their own account with their common enemy, the
Christians, joined themselves with one or another of the contending
parties which rent the empire and the church. Thus in 1085, ten years
before the first crusade, Pope Gregory rescued Rome from the hands of
his imperial opponent, Henry of Germany, only with the assistance of
Saracen soldiers, who thronged the ranks of the Pope’s Norman allies.
Very naturally the joy of the papal victory was mingled with jealousy of
the means by which it had been accomplished.
Not only were Moslem warriors often found in Christian ranks; frequently
the valor of the Christian knight found freest exploit in the cause of
the Moors. The adventures of the Cid, whom Philip II. wished Rome to
canonize as an ideal saint, were for eight years performed in the
service of the Arab king of Saragossa.
The Moslem became also the rival of the Christian in commerce. The ships
which in the lull of hostilities sailed from the ports of France and
Italy met the richly laden vessels of Egypt and Spain in exhausting
competition for the trade of the Mediterranean. The coast of North
Africa was the lurking-place of pirates, who darted over the Great Sea
with the celerity of spiders along their web, and seized every craft
that weakness or misfortune made their prey. With his wealth the Moslem
often won his way to social position, and even invaded the family
relations of his Christian neighbor. Shakespeare’s Othello, the Moor of
Venice, if not a real character, was at least one typical not only of
the fifteenth, but of earlier centuries. The plot of this play was
borrowed by the English dramatist from the Venetian romances. More than
one Desdemona had braved the curses of her Christian kindred for the
fascinations of the Infidel; many a renegade Iago was found in his
service; and often the Christian dignitary, like Brabantis, was led by
gold and political advantage to assent that his daughter should
“run from her guardage to the sooty bosom”
of the Moor.
Yet these misalliances did not destroy the common sentiment of the
Christians against the Saracens. The foul sensuality allowed by the
Koran as it thus touched the homes of Europe deepened the racial
antipathy of the people who were still monogamic in their faith and
customs.
The Mohammedan menace was further augmented in the superstitious notions
of the age by the intellectual ascendency of the Saracens. Christendom
did not discern that, in the mass of evils brought upon Europe by the
invasions from the East, there were the germs of its own quickening, as
the freshets of the Nile enrich the land of Egypt. If, in the first heat
of his zealotry, the Saracen destroyed the library of Alexandria,
regarding the Koran as compensation for all the books of Christian and
pagan wisdom, yet in the light of the flames he saw his mistake, and
became the most liberal patron of education. To the mosque he added the
school. While the rest of Europe was in the density of the Dark Ages,
the Moorish universities of Spain were the beacons of the revival of
learning. The Christian teacher was still manipulating the bones of the
saints when the Arab physician was making a _materia medica_ and
practising surgery. By the discovery of strong acids the Moor laid the
basis of the science of chemistry; by the adoption of the Hindu numerals
he improved arithmetic. He first practically used, if he did not invent,
algebra; introduced astronomy to the European student; wrote on optics,
the weight and height of the atmosphere, gravity, capillary attraction;
applied the pendulum to the measurement of time, and guessed that the
earth was round. In the superstition of Christian Europe these studies
were regarded, if not as belonging to the magic arts, at least as
threatening the faith by fostering undue independence of thought, and
tempting to scepticism regarding the office of the church as universal
teacher. The subsequent persecution of Galileo and Bruno was anticipated
in the hatred and fear which were awakened by such names as Ben-Musa
(ninth century), Avicenna (tenth century), Alhazan and Algazzali
(eleventh century). The diverse spirits of the age are illustrated by
the Giralda, the tower of Seville, which was built by the Moors for an
observatory, but on the Catholic conquest was used only for a belfry.
_The Turks._—The Saracenic conquests caused only a part of the
Mohammedan menace in the eleventh century. A new power appeared, which
has since dominated the middle Orient. For generations the Turks, or
Tartars, had been steadily pressing southward and westward, from
Turkestan and the borders of China towards the fertile plains and rich
cities of the eastern Roman empire. Of nomadic habits, their entire
property was in their camps and the driven herds that sustained them.
They were skilled horsemen, cradled in the saddle, tireless on the
march, loving the swift foray better than luxurious residence, inured to
danger, and careless of blood. In the course of their migrations they
came in contact with the followers of Mohammed. The Koran, with its
celestial indorsement of sensuality, easily captivated in such a people
that demand of common human nature for some religious faith and pursuit.
They became the most enthusiastic devotees of the new faith, although in
their deeper passion for selfish conquest they often slaughtered their
fellow-religionists of other races.
Early in the eleventh century one division of this people—the Seljukian
Turks, so named from their great chieftain, Seljuk—overran Armenia and
conquered Persia. Togrul-Beg, the grandson of Seljuk, had been elected
to the chieftaincy according to the ancient custom, the chance drawing,
by the hand of a child, of an arrow inscribed with his name. He was
further honored by being chosen a temporal vicar of the caliph of
Bagdad, then the chief of Arabic Mohammedanism. In 1055 Togrul-Beg was
proclaimed “Commander of the Faithful and Protector of Mussulmans.” He
was clothed in the seven robes of honor, was presented with seven slaves
born in the seven climates of Araby the Blest, was crowned with two
crowns and girded with two cimeters, emblematic of dominion over both
the West and the East.
The successor of Togrul-Beg was Alp-Arslan, the “strong lion” (1063). He
merited his title when, like a wild beast, he ravaged Armenia and
Iberia, and then sprang upon Asia Minor. At the time, this peninsula
between the Mediterranean and the Euxine was flourishing with proud
cities and prolific fields, and occupied by an industrious, peace-loving
population. The ruined amphitheatre and aqueduct which to-day oppress
the curiosity of the traveller are the footprints of this Turkish
invader, which the misgovernment of his successors has not permitted to
be effaced. In the battle of Manzikert (1071) Alp-Arslan defeated and
captured Romanus IV., the Greek emperor, and thus broke the only Eastern
power that could dispute his sway. Finlay remarks: “History records few
periods in which so large a portion of the human race was in so short a
time reduced from an industrious and flourishing condition to
degradation and serfage.”
Under Malek-Shah, son of Alp-Arslan (1073), the Turkish power, swollen
by new hordes from the great central plains of Asia, occupied almost the
entire territory now known as Turkey in Asia. They pressed to the walls
of Constantinople. By threatening, and by intrigue with every insurgent
against the throne, they kept the Greek empire in constant alarm.
In their peril the Greeks appealed for help to their Christian brethren
of Europe. In spite of the scorn in which the Latins held the Greek
Church for its antipapal heresies, the common danger led Pope Gregory
VII. (Hildebrand) in 1074 to summon all Christian potentates to repel
the Turks. He himself proposed to lead the avenging hosts, but was
diverted from this generous purpose by the nearer ambition of crushing
the enemies of the papal throne at home.
In 1079 the Emperor Michael saved his crown only by the assistance of
the Turks against his Greek rival, for which aid he paid by surrendering
to Solyman the government of the best part of the empire east of the
Bosporus.
In 1093 Europe was startled by the news of the fall of Jerusalem. After
incredible slaughter, not only of Christians, but of Arabic Moslems as
well, the black flag of Ortuk floated from the tower of David. All
privileges which had been granted to followers of Jesus by the
comparative humanity of the Arab were now withdrawn by the Turk. To bow
in worship at the Holy Sepulchre was to bend the neck beneath the
cimeter.
Europe was thrown into a state of terrorism. Moslem irruption into the
West seemed imminent. Kings trembled on their thrones, and peasant
mothers hushed their crying babes with stories which transformed every
spectre into the shape of the turbaned invader.
In 1093, on the death of Malek-Shah, the Turkish power was weakened by
divisions; this gave Christendom heart. The statesmen at the Vatican saw
the opportunity, and Pope Urban’s appeal for the crusades met the quick
response both of the powers and the people. One of the divisions of
Malek-Shah’s empire was that of Solyman, Sultan of Roum, or Iconium.
From this power sprang the Ottomans, who for eight hundred years have
held an unbroken dynasty, and for four hundred years have occupied the
city of Constantine for their capital.