THE RISE OF ISLAM.
The reader will please turn aside for awhile to consider the rise
of an alien religion which was destined to change the map of Europe
and the course of history for many centuries; a religion which binds
with fanatical zeal a sixth part of the human race; a power, which
gathering its forces from the sands of Arabia swept like a fierce and
pitiless simoon over the most ancient civilizations, until the flag
of the Prophet waved from the Indus to the pillars of Hercules over
an empire vaster than that ever ruled by Roman legions and Roman law.
While empires and kingdoms rose and fell; and the shock of contending
armies shook all Europe and Northern Africa, and convulsed the
rest of Asia, on its southwestern border, protected by the Red Sea,
the Indian Ocean, Persian Gulf and vast stretches of burning sand,
lay a great peninsula by the name of Arabia, almost untouched by the
cataclysm of centuries. In the depths of its deserts, its primitive
character and independence remained unchanged, nor had the nomadic
tribes of Ishmael ever bent their haughty necks to servitude.
For more than two thousand years Ishmael had been "a wild man; his
hand against every man and every man's hand against him" and now
the other word "I will make him a great nation" was about to receive
its fulfillment.
Our first thought of Arabia is of a barren, desert country inhabited
by a few wandering tribes, of little importance. But it is an immense
country, almost as large as India, with a population of millions. Among
its mountains are beautiful and fertile valleys, towns and castles
surrounded by orchards and vineyards, groves of palm trees and
date-palms, fields of grain and well-stocked pastures. In the south
were the people of Yemen--or Arabia the Happy--that land of spices,
perfumes and frankincense; the Sheba of the Scriptures.
These were the most active and skillful navigators of the eastern
seas and brought the wealth of the far East to their ports: thence by
caravans all these mingled products were distributed to Syria, Egypt
and other lands on the borders of the Mediterranean. The caravans were
generally fitted out and conducted by the nomadic tribes, who added to
the merchandise of other lands the exquisite and costly garments woven
from the finest fleeces of their countless flocks and herds. In Arabia,
above all the other lands in the East, the track of the caravan has
borne on it greater riches even than the ships of Tarshish.
At the intersection of two such tracks where the goods of India and
of Africa were interchanged, and where the gold of the Roman Empire
was weighed against the spices of "Araby the Blest," was situated
the great emporium of Mecca.
Mecca was both the commercial and religious center of the whole
peninsula. Although there was no political capital, the tribe feeling
had led to the establishment of a form of government aristocratic
rather than despotic. The noblest tribe among them all was the Koreish;
the noblest family of the Koreish was that of Hashem: and the family
of Hashem at the time of which we are writing were the rulers of
Mecca and the guardians of its Kaaba.
The original religion of Arabia appears to have been the patriarchal
monotheism in which there was still retained some knowledge of one,
true, living, personal Deity. One supreme God was still worshiped,
but in the language of the Koran they "gave Him companions," they paid
adoration to various subordinate powers, as to the host of heaven--to
three female intelligences spoken of as the daughters of God, and to
various family, local and national idols of which three hundred and
sixty were found in the temple at Mecca.
This ancient temple, built according to Arabian tradition by the
patriarch Abraham, contained besides these molten and graven images,
the Black Stone--one of the stones of Paradise which fell down with
Adam, but being taken up at the deluge, it was brought to Abraham by
the angel Gabriel as a sacred ornament for his restored temple. At any
rate, here at this temple in Mecca was the great center of worship, of
sacrifice, and to it thronged in vast numbers the idolaters of Arabia.
The wild Arab of the desert and the comparatively civilized Arab of
the cities show, though in different degrees, the same great elements
of national character. Among them all the virtues and the vices of the
half savage state, its revenge and its rapacity, its hospitality and
its bounty were to be seen in their full force. How often have we had
pictured before us the simplicity and beauty of such a natural life.
This wild man has been described as generous and hospitable. He
delighted in giving gifts; his door was always open to the wayfarer,
with whom he was ready to share his last morsel; and his deadliest foe,
having once broken bread with him, might repose securely beneath the
inviolable sanctity of his tent.
His social life, however, was most degraded. Drunkenness, gambling and
unrestrained licentiousness abounded: the horrible practice of female
infanticide was prevalent among the pagan tribes: while polygamy,
that curse of the East, everywhere prevailed.
Though speaking a language, copious in the extreme, the words of
which have been compared to gems and flowers, literature in the strict
sense of that word can hardly be said to have existed; but the Arab
had a quick intellect, was always ready with a native vein of rhetoric
and was easily aroused by the appeals of eloquence and charmed by the
graces of poetry. He was naturally an orator, delighted in proverbs and
clothed his ideas in florid oriental style with apologue and parable.
While thus a degraded and degrading polytheism was the prevailing
religion of Arabia, many Jews were to be found at Medina and in the
cities bordering on Syria, and there was also a corrupted form of
Christianity incrusted with numerous errors and superstitions, so that
in no part of the world did Christianity give forth so feeble a light.
A very decided reform was imperatively needed to restore the belief
in the unity of God and set up a higher standard of morality.
It is claimed by his admirers that Mohammed brought about 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 guardianship of
the pagan temple and the Black Stone. 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 journeys with him to distant fairs, especially into Syria
where he became acquainted with the Holy Scriptures, especially with
the Old Testament. At the age of twenty-five he entered the service of
Cadijeh, a very wealthy widow conducting her immense caravans to fairs
in distant cities. His personal beauty, his intelligence and spirit,
won the heart of this powerful mistress and she became his wife.
He was now second to none in Arabia and his soul began to meditate on
great things. There was in his household his wife's cousin, Waraka,
a man of flexible faith and of speculative spirit; originally a Jew,
then a Christian, and withal a pretender to astrology. His name is
worthy of notice as being the first on record to translate parts of
the Old and New Testaments into Arabic.
As Mohammed contrasted these spiritual religions with the surrounding
idolatry, he became more and more sensible of its grossness and
absurdity. It appeared to him that the time for another reform had
arrived. He talked with his uncles, they laughed at him. Only Cadijeh
listened to him, believed in him, and encouraged him. Long afterwards,
when she was dead, Ayeshah, his young and favorite wife, once asked
him: "Am I not better than Cadijeh? Do you not love me better than
you did her? She was a widow, old and ugly?" "No, by Allah," said
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."
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
truth: how this one God who created the heavens and the earth had
never left himself without witness in the most degraded times.
It was in the fortieth year of his age while spending the month
Ramadhan in the cavern of Mount Hara in fasting and prayer that an
angel appeared to him and commanded him to read the writing displayed
to him on a silken cloth.
Instantly he felt his understanding illumined with celestial light
and read what was written thereon:--they were the decrees of God as
afterwards promulgated in the Koran. When he had finished reading the
angel said: "O Mohammed of a truth, thou art the prophet of God! and
I am His angel Gabriel--"
In the morning, as we are told, Mohammed came trembling to Cadijeh not
knowing whether what he had heard and seen was indeed true; and that
he was a prophet decreed to effect that reform so long the object of
his meditations; or whether it might not be a hallucination or worse
than all, the apparition of an evil spirit. Cadijeh, however, saw
everything with the eye of faith and the credulity of an affectionate
wife. "Rejoice, Allah will not suffer thee to fall to shame." Waraka
caught eagerly at the oracle and exclaimed, "Thou speakest true, O
Cadijeh! The angel who has appeared to thy husband is the same who,
in days of old, was sent to Moses the son of Amram. His annunciation
is true. Thy husband is indeed a prophet." The wavering mind of
Mohammed was thus confirmed and throughout his life and even in
the hour of death he never uttered a word of doubt concerning his
heaven-sent mission.
"This," says Carlyle, "is the soul of Islam. This is what Mohammed
felt and now declared to be of infinite moment, that idols and formulas
were nothing: that the jargon of argumentative Greek sects, the vague
traditions 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."
Thus far while possessed of this sole idea that he must proclaim to his
degenerate countrymen in the midst of all but universal polytheism,
that there is but one supreme God, Mohammed is regarded as a great
reformer. He was neither a fanatic nor hypocrite; he was a very great
man, and according to his light a very good man.
He began to preach everywhere that first word of Revelation "Hear O
Israel! The Lord our God is one Lord." "Thou shalt have no other Gods
before me." Few, however, believed in him. But why not acknowledge such
a fundamental truth, appealing to the intellect as well as the moral
sense? Because to confess that 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; and how did the Israelites forget it in spite of deliverance from
slavery and quickly fall back into idolatry: and how opposed it is to
the epicureanism of to-day and the natural pride of the human breast.
The uncles and friends of Mohammed treated his message with scorn
and derision. Zealously he labored for three years, yet with all his
eloquence, fervor and sincerity he had only won by his preaching some
thirteen persons, one of whom was his slave.
His worldly relatives urged him to silence. Why attack idols? Why
destroy his own interests? Why destroy his popularity? Then explained
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 declare, there
is but one God." A speech following in spirit the famous words of
Luther at the Diet of Worms.
At last hostilities began. He was threatened, he was persecuted. They
laid plots to take his life. Then his wife died. The priests of
an idolatrous religion became furious. He had laid hands on their
idols. He was hated, persecuted and alone. Thirteen years had passed
away in reproach, in persecution, in fear. At last forty picked men
swore to assassinate him. Should he remain and die, or fly for his
life? He concluded to fly to Medina, where there were a few Jews and
some nominal converts to Christianity.
This was in the year 622--and the flight is called the Hegira--from
which the East dates its era; the fifty-third year of the prophet's
life.
In this city he was cordially welcomed and soon found himself
surrounded with enthusiastic followers. He built a mosque and openly
performed the rites of the new religion. He was for a time at a loss
to know how to call his followers to prayer. While in this perplexity,
Abdallah, the son of Zeid, suggested a form of words that he declared
were revealed to him in a vision. It was instantly adopted by Mohammed,
and is to this day heard from the lofty minarets throughout the East
calling the Moslems to prayer: "God is great! God is great! There is
no God but God. Mohammed is the apostle of God. Come to prayers! Come
to prayers! God is great! God is great. There is no God but God." To
which at dawn of day are added the words: "Prayer is better than
sleep! Prayer is better than sleep."
Mohammed soon had an army at his disposal, and with this sudden
accession of power there was wrought a fearful change in the spirit
of his dreams. 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 in supreme abhorrence. He enjoined charity, justice and
forbearance. He denounced all falsehood and deception, especially
in trade. He commanded his disciples to return good for evil, to
be submissive to God; declared humility and benevolence to be the
greatest virtues. He enjoined prayers, fastings and meditation as a
means of grace.
But when he found an army at his command he lost command of
himself. His anger burned against the Koreishites and their vindictive
chief, Abu Sofian who now held full sway at Mecca. By them his fortunes
had been blasted, his family degraded, impoverished, dispersed, and
he himself driven into exile. He began to have visions to suit his
changing temper, as all false religionists have even down to our own
day. He declared himself, the last of all the prophets, to be sent
forth into the world with the sword: "Let those who promulgate my
faith enter into no argument nor discussion; but slay all who refuse
obedience to the law. Whoever fights for the true faith whether he
fall or conquer will assuredly receive a glorious reward. * * * The
sword is the key of heaven and hell; and all who draw it in the cause
of the faith will be rewarded with temporal advantages; every drop
shed of their blood, every peril and hardship endured by them, will be
registered on high as more meritorious than even fasting or prayer. If
they fall in battle, their sins will at once be blotted out, and they
will be transported to Paradise, there to revel in eternal pleasures
in the arms of black-eyed houris." He added to this promise of sensual
pleasures the doctrine of fixed-fate, predestination absolute. No man
could die sooner or later than his alloted hour and when it arrived,
it would be the same, whether the angel of death should find him in
the quiet of his bed, or amid the storm of battle.
Behold in these words the chief sources of the fanatical fury which
had well-nigh conquered the entire Christian world.
It is as if some Mephistopheles had whispered in his ear; "thy
countrymen are wild, fierce and warlike, incite their martial passions
in defence of thy doctrines. They are a fanatical people and believing
in these teachings they will fight for them and establish them not
only in Arabia but throughout the East. Grant them a reward in what
their passions crave and they will follow you to the death."
Certainly this is true, that these counsels of evil let loose upon
the world the fiercest, the most cruel and rapacious passions that
were ever set on fire in hell. He resolved to adopt his religion to
the depraved hearts of his followers. He mingled with sublimest truth
the most debasing error. It was success he wanted; he would no longer
scruple as to the means used to secure it. He became ambitious. He
would become a mighty spiritual potentate, but descended to the level
of his people to win them. He granted polygamy under the sanction
of a pretended revelation from heaven. He who in his youth had been
faithful to Cadijeh, fifteen years his senior, was now in his own
age false to his youthful wife Ayeshah, multiplied wives to himself,
robbed his faithful Zeid of his beautiful wife, absolved himself from
his own law that a believer could only have four wives, and brought
forth new revelations to justify in himself the gratifications of
passions he condemned in others.
In the second year of the Hegira, Mohammed gratified his revenge
against the Koreishites by attacking a caravan of a thousand camels
laden with the merchandise of Syria. His arch enemy, Abu Sofian,
commanded the escort. In this fight, known as the battle of Beder, the
Moslems were victorious. It was during the progress of this battle that
Mohammed encouraged his warriors with the memorable words: "Fight and
fear not; the gates of Paradise are under the shade of swords." This
first cavalcade entering Medina with spoils, made Moslems of all the
inhabitants and gave him control of the city. A few years later, at the
head of ten thousand horsemen, he entered the city of Mecca--nothing
but the swift commands of Mohammed to Khaled, "The Sword of God,"
preserving the city from a general massacre. Mohammed now proceeded to
execute the great object of his religious aspirations--the purifying
of the temple. He entered it with the sublime words: "Truth is come;
let falsehood disappear," and shivered in quick succession the three
hundred and sixty abominations which were in the holy place.
Mohammed soon found himself the sovereign of all Arabia; and yet his
military triumphs awakened no pride nor vain glory as they would have
done had they been effected for selfish ends. He ever maintained the
same simplicity of manners as in the days of his adversity. As to
the temporal rule which grew up in his hands, as he used it without
ostentation, so he took no steps to perpetuate it in his family. The
riches which poured in upon him from tribute and the spoils of
war were used in relieving the poor or expended in promoting the
victories of the faith; so that his treasury was often drained of
its last coin. "Allah" says an Arabian historian "offered him the
keys of all the treasures of the earth; but he refused to accept them."
It is this abnegation of self and his apparently heartfelt piety that
even in his own dying hour, when there could be no worldly motive
for deceit, still breathed the same religious devotion and the same
belief in his apostolic mission; that so perplexes one in trying to
estimate justly the full force of his character.
Whatever we may think of Mohammed personally, even though we may
concede that he was a sincere religious fanatic we can but hold in
abhorrence the religion which has ever appealed to the sword and
to the basest passions of men either to compel or persuade them to
yield allegiance to Islam. When he died at the age of sixty-three,
eleven years after the Hegira, Mohammed was next to Buddha, the most
successful founder of a religion the world has ever known--a religion
that is the most relentless and bitterest foe to Christianity, and
that stands like a wall of fire and of adamant to oppose its progress
in all the East.
The Saracens were ever loyal to the truth for which they fought. They
never became idolaters; but their religion has ever been built up on
the miseries of nations. To propagate the faith of Mohammed they drew
the sword and overran the world. Never were conquests more rapid,
more terrible or more remarkable.
Upon the death of Mohammed, Abu Beker, the father of Ayeshah,
was elected to the supreme power, but refused to be called king or
God's vicar on earth, assuming only that of Caliph, that is to say
Successor, and by this title the Arab sovereigns have ever since been
designated. He was indifferent to riches, to all pomp and luxuries;
his Arab establishment was of the simplest kind: his retinue consisting
of a camel and a black slave.
The Golden Age of the Saracens was the twelve years, A. D. 632-644,
comprised in the reigns of Abu Beker and Omar--a period of
uninterrupted harmony and external conquest. Though Mohammed was
dead, the sword of Islam was not buried with him; for Khaled,
surnamed the Sword of God, now advanced to sustain the fame of
former conquests. Within a year, Moseilma, a rival, and hence a false
prophet, was slain, the rebellion subdued, the empire of Islam firmly
reëstablished in Arabia; the scattered leaves gathered for the Koran;
and an army for the subjugation of Syria and the East.
It was a strangely opportune hour for the fierce warriors of the
desert. The Romans and the Persians were almost always engaged in
warfare and their last and most terrible war was contemporary with
the preaching of Mohammed.
Under the great Khosru a war began which lasted more than twenty
years and exhausted both nations and left them a more easy prey to
the Saracens. The Asiatic provinces fell under his victorious armies
and, as in the days of Darius, the Persian Empire extended to the
Mediterranean and the Ægean Seas. When Heradius in 610 A. D. came
to the throne of Constantinople, he was compelled to submit to the
sight of a Persian army encamped at Chalcedon; but after some years'
preparation, he entered on a series of campaigns which places his name
beside those of Hannibal and Belisarius. Leaving his own dominions,
he struck at the very heart of his enemy's country, and by a series
of victories, one of them gained on the site of Nineveh, he utterly
overthrew the Persian power, till Khosru was slain by his own subjects
and a peace was concluded. Heradius returned to Constantinople leaving
Persia torn by contending factions. The Prophet had been diligently
watching from his safe retreat the course of the war which is alluded
to in the Koran, and now the hour had come for the Saracens to strike
their fatal blow.
In the second year of his reign, therefore, Abu Beker prepared
for the great enterprise contemplated by Mohammed--the conquest of
Syria.--Under this general name was included all the country lying
on the north of Arabia and extending from the Mediterranean and the
Euphrates. This had long been a land of promise to them. It was a
land of abundance. From it they had drawn their chief supplies of
corn. Its cities had long been chief marts for the merchandise of
their caravans; its seaports still were the centers of an opulent
and widely extended commerce. This summons was sent to the chiefs of
Arabia Petrea, and Arabia Felix: "In the name of the Most Merciful
God * * * to all true believers, health, happiness and the blessing
of God. Praise be to God and to Mohammed his prophet. This is to
inform you that I intend to send an army of the faithful into Syria,
to deliver that country from the infidels, and I remind you that to
fight for the true faith is to obey God."
This call to the conquest of nations in the name of the most merciful
God is tender compared with the prayers which is now being daily
offered up by the Mohammedans regarding the Armenians: "O Allah! make
their children orphans, and defile their abodes. Cause their feet to
slip, give them and their families, their households and their women,
their children and their relations by marriage, their brothers and
their friends, their possessions and their race, their wealth and
their lands as booty to the Moslems, O Lord of all creatures."
Has the spirit of Islam changed any during the last twelve hundred
years? certainly not, except it be as much for the worse as the Turk
is more lustful and cruel than the Saracen.
Speedily the plains about Medina were covered with the encampments
of the chiefs who had responded from all Arabia, in hope of the rich
booty to be had from conquered cities and provinces. From the brow
of a hill, Abu Beker reviewed the army on the point of departure. His
heart swelled with pride, as he gazed on the passing multitudes; the
glittering arms; the squadrons of horsemen; the lengthening line of
camels, and called to mind the handful of men that followed Mohammed
a fugitive from Mecca. Scarce ten years had elapsed, and now a mighty
host assembled at the summons of his successor, and distant empires
were threatened by the sword of Islam. He lifted up his voice and
prayed God to make these troops valiant and victorious. Then giving
the word to march, the tents were struck, the camels laden, and in a
little while the army poured forth in a long, continuous train over
hill and valley.
The "Scourge of God" was let loose against the nations. Before long
an immense cavalcade of horses, mules and camels came pouring in with
the booty from the first victory over a body of troops sent by the
Emperor Heradius to observe them and harass their march.
Soon four armies were in the field; Jerusalem and Damascus were doomed
and fate hastened on its march to Persia in the person of Khaled,
"The Sword of God" with an army of ten thousand men. He besieged the
city of Hira; stormed its palaces; slew the king in battle; subdued the
kingdom; imposed on it an annual tribute of seventy thousand pieces
of gold; the first tribute ever levied by Moslems on a foreign land,
and sent the same to Medina. City after city fell before him. Nothing
seemed able to withstand his arms. Planting his victorious standard on
the banks of the Euphrates, he wrote to the Persian monarch calling
upon him to embrace the faith or pay tribute. "If you refuse both, I
will come upon you with a host who love death as much as you do life."
But meantime partial defeat had discouraged the leaders of the armies
in Syria, and the caliph summoned Khaled to the command of the northern
armies. Leaving the army in Persia under the command of a tried and
trusty general, Khaled with an escort of fifteen hundred men spurred
across the Syrian borders to join the Moslem host about to besiege
the Christian city of Bosra.
It was on the Syrian frontier, a walled city of great strength and
wealth, that could at anytime put twelve thousand men into the field.
After two days of furious battle the city was taken by treachery,
many were massacred, and the survivors were compelled to pass under
the yoke.
Khaled now aspired to the capture of Damascus. This renowned and
beautiful city, one of the largest and most magnificent in the East
and possibly the oldest in the world, stood in a plain of wondrous
fertility, covered with groves and gardens. Through this plain flowed a
river called by the ancients "The Stream of Gold," feeding the canals
and water courses of its gardens and the fountains of the city.
This most beautiful city lay at the mercy of the coming foe. As the
Moslems accustomed to the barrenness of the desert came in sight of the
rich plain of Damascus and wound along the banks of the shining river,
it seemed as if they were already realizing the paradise promised
by the Prophet to true believers: but when the walls and towers and
fanes of the city rose upon their vision they could not restrain their
shouts of rapture. For the many deeds of valor and personal prowess
in single combat, and the fierce and repeated charges of either army,
the reader may be referred to the brilliant pages of Irving's Mahomet
or Ockley's Saracens.
The inhabitants tried to bribe Khaled to raise the siege. The stern
reply was: Embrace Islam, pay tribute; or fight unto the death. While
the Arabs lay close encamped about the city as if watching its expiring
throes, unusual shouts were one day heard within its walls. The cause
of it proved to be that an army of one hundred thousand men sent by
Heraclius from Antioch were drawing near to their relief.
With fierceness yet the coolness of a practiced warrior Khaled
marched to the support of a small body of horsemen who had been sent
to harass the enemy. He met and defeated division after division of
this Roman army, defeating it in detail by an army less than a third
of their number. Thousands of fugitives were slain in the pursuit that
followed. An immense booty in treasure, arms, baggage, and horses fell
into his hands; and Khaled flushed with conquest, fatigued and burdened
with the spoils, led back his army to resume the siege of Damascus.
Word was soon received however that another army of seventy
thousand men had been gathered by Heraclius to raise the siege of
Damascus. Sending swift couriers to all the Moslem generals within his
call to meet him at the camp of the Greeks, he began a hasty march
to Aiznadin. When the Moslems beheld the multitude and formidable
array of the imperial host they at first quailed at the sight: but
Khaled harangued them with fervid speech: "You behold," he said,
"the last stake of the infidels. This army met and vanquished they
can never muster another force, and all Syria is ours." Khaled armed
the fierce women who were among them--some of them of the highest
rank with orders to slay any Moslem whom they saw turning his back to
the foe. Reinforced by fresh thousands, when, after some preliminary
skirmishes, on the second day the trumpets sounded a general charge,
the imperial armies were struck with confusion and what followed was
rather a massacre than a battle. They broke and fled in all directions
to Cæsarea, to Damascus and to Antioch. The booty of the camp was
of immense value, which Khaled declared should not be divided until
after the capture of Damascus.
Great indeed was the consternation in the city when they learned
from the fugitives that escaped, of the slaughter of this second
army and that all hope of succor was gone. But they set themselves
bravely to work to meet the coming storm. New fortifications were
erected. The walls were lined with engines for hurling stones and
darts upon the besiegers.
Soon the Moslems appeared greatly reinforced. The city was
invested. The troops were carefully stationed and orders given as to
the support to be given. The battles that followed were fierce as the
passions of desperate men could make them. One day a simultaneous
sortie was made from every gate of the city at the first peep of
day. The besiegers were taken by surprise and were struck down before
they could arm themselves or mount. Khaled is said to have wept as he
beheld the carnage and the slaughter of his finest troops. "O thou,
who never sleepest, aid thy faithful servants; let them not fall
beneath the weapons of the infidels." Finally the tide of battle
turned and the Christians were repulsed and driven within the walls
leaving several thousand dead on the field. It was no disgrace for
even such Christians to be beaten by such Moslems.
For seventy days had Damascus been besieged by these fanatic legions
of the desert. They had no heart to make further sallies. They began
to talk of capitulation. Khaled turned a deaf ear to their prayer for
a truce: he was bent upon taking the city by the sword and giving it
up to be plundered by his Arabs. Then they sought under promise of
security the meek and humane Abu Obeidah. One hundred of the principal
inhabitants went by night to this leader of the mighty power that was
shaking the empire of the Orient, and found him living in a humble
haircloth tent like a mere wanderer of the desert. He listened to
their proposals, for his object was conversion rather than conquest,
and tribute rather than plunder. A covenant was written; such of the
inhabitants as pleased could depart in safety with so much of their
effects as they could carry: the rest should remain as tributaries
and have seven churches allotted to them. The gate was then thrown
open and the venerable chief entered at the head of a hundred men to
take possession.
At the eastern gate a very different transaction was taking place. An
apostate priest, on condition of security of person and property to
himself and relatives, agreed to deliver the gate into the hands of
Khaled. Thus a hundred Arabs were introduced into the city, broke the
bolts and chains and bars of the Eastern gate and threw it open with
the cry "Allah Achbar."
Khaled and his legions rushed in at the gate with sound of trumpet
and tramp of steeds; putting all to the sword, deluging the streets
with blood. "Mercy! Mercy!" was the cry. "No mercy for infidels,"
was Khaled's fierce response. He pursued his career of carnage into
the great square and there to his utter astonishment beheld Abu
Obeidah and his attendants, with priests and monks, surrounded by
the principal inhabitants and women and children.
Khaled was furious when he heard of the covenant. Abu Obeidah entreated
him to respect the covenant he had made in the name of God and the
prophet.
After fierce altercation he listened to policy though deaf to the cry
of pity. They were just beginning their career of conquest. Many cities
were to be taken. If the Moslem word was broken, other cities warned
by the fate of Damascus would in fear and fury fight to the bitter end.
Khaled finally gave a slow consent, though murmuring at every article
of the covenant.
All who chose to remain as tributaries were to enjoy the free exercise
of their religion. All who wished might depart, but Khaled only gave
them three days grace from pursuit.
It was a piteous sight to behold aged men, delicate and shrinking
women, and helpless children thus setting forth with what they could
carry on a wandering journey through wastes and deserts and mountains,
and the angry hordes of Arabs only three days behind them and swiftly
mounted. Many a time did they turn to cast another look of fondness
and despair on their beautiful palaces and luxuriant gardens; and
still they would turn and weep and beat their breasts--gaze through
tears on the stately towers of Damascus and the flowery banks of
the Pharpar. Thus Damascus was conquered and yet spared both fire
and sword after more than a twelve months' siege, which Voltaire has
likened for its stratagems, skirmishes and deeds of valor in single
combat, to Homer's Siege of Troy.
The cities of Baalbec, the famous city of the Sun, and Emessa the
capital of the plains, with many intermediate cities soon fell before
the victorious sword of Khaled.
After a short rest at Damascus Abu Obeidah wrote, asking if he should
undertake the siege of Cæsarea or Jerusalem. The decision was for
the instant siege of Jerusalem.
This was a holy war for the Moslems and soon the army was on the march
to Jerusalem. The people saw the approach of these triumphant invaders:
but sent out no plea for help. They planted engines on their walls
and prepared for vigorous defence.
At early dawn, in the morning of the first assault, the Moslem host
was marshalled--the leaders repeated the Matin prayer, each at the
head of his battalion, and all as if by one consent with a loud voice
gave the verse of the Koran "Enter ye, oh people! into the holy land
which Allah hath destined for you."
For ten days they made repeated but unavailing attacks and then
the whole army was brought to their aid. Then a summons was sent
requiring the inhabitants to accept the divine mission of Mohammed,
to acknowledge allegiance and pay tribute to the Caliph, otherwise he
concludes, "Nor will I leave you, God willing, until I have destroyed
your fighting men and made slaves of your children."
But the Christian Patriarch of Jerusalem felt confidence in setting
the invaders at defiance, and above all, there was a pious incentive
to courage and perseverance in defending the Sepulchre of Christ.
Four wintry months elapsed and still the siege was carried on with
undiminished spirit. Finally the Patriarch consented to give up the
city if the Caliph would come in person to take possession and sign
the articles of surrender.
To preserve the city, and inspirit his own troops after their long
absence and the hardships of many campaigns the Caliph consented. His
journey was made in utmost simplicity. He traveled on a red camel
across which was slung his saddle bags, one pocket containing dates
and dried fruits, and the other, nothing more than barley, rice or
wheat, parched or sodden.
His companions ate with him out of a common wooden platter, using
their fingers in true oriental style. At night he slept on a mat
under a tree or under a common Bedouin tent: and never resumed his
march until he had offered up the morning prayer.
When he came in sight of Jerusalem he lifted up his voice and exclaimed
"Allah Achbar, God is mighty! God grant us an easy conquest."
We give the degrading conditions somewhat in full as they formed the
basis upon which other cities were granted terms of peace. "The
Christians were to build no new churches in the surrendered
territory. * * No crosses should be erected on the churches nor
shown openly in the streets. They should not speak openly of their
religion; nor attempt to make proselytes; nor hinder their kinsfolk
from embracing Islam. * * * They should entertain every Moslem
traveler three days gratis. They should sell no wine, bear no arms,
and use no saddle in riding, nor sit in the presence of a Mohammedan."
This utter prostration of all civil and religious liberty took place
in the old scenes of Christian triumph. The most bitter scorn and
abhorrence of their religious adversaries formed main pillars in the
Moslem faith. Upon agreeing to these degrading terms the Caliph gave
them under his own hand an assurance of protection in their lives and
fortunes, the use of their churches and the exercise of their religion.
The gates of the once splendid city of Solomon were then opened. Omar
entered it in reverence and on foot in his simple Arab garb and
soon the flag of the Prophet waved over the battlements of the Holy
City. Strange city that is thus held in equal reverence by Moslem, Jew
and Christian. The surrender of Jerusalem took place in the seventeenth
year of the Hegira, the six hundred and thirty-seventh year of the
Christian era. With the rapidly succeeding fall of Aleppo, Antioch,
Tripoli and Tyre the conquest of Syria was complete. It still remains
under the heel of the invader after more than twelve hundred years
of varying fortunes.
Meanwhile the conquest of Persia had been pushed forward vigorously
since the fall of Damascus. After the battle of Kadesia in which
thirty thousand Persians are said to have fallen and upwards of seven
thousand Moslems, all Persia lay at the feet of the conquerors. As they
advanced with an army of sixty thousand against the capital Madayn the
ancient Ctesiphon, fear paralyzed the King and his counsellors. There
was no one brave enough to take the command and when the enemy were
only a day's march away they decided on flight to the mountains,
leaving behind them the richest city of the world to be sacked by
the Arabs. The spoil was incalculable. It required a caravan of nine
hundred heavily laden camels to convey to Medina the Caliph's fifth
part of the spoil.
Thus fell without a blow the capital of Persia in the same fateful
year that saw the desolation of Jerusalem.
But one more struggle remained--it was the death agony of the Persian
Empire. The fugitive king gathered to his standard at Nehavend, on
the plains of Hamadan, one hundred and fifty thousand men. Tidings
were sent to the Caliph Omar at Medina--and there in the Mosque,
by a handful of grey-headed Arabs, who but a few years previously
had been homeless wanderers, was debated and decided the fate of the
once magnificent empires of the Orient,--Syria, Chaldea, Babylonia
and the dominions of the Medes and Persians.
The army of the Saracens, reinforced by men hardened in war, daring,
confident, and led by able generals, was greatly inferior in numbers,
but fired with zeal and the courage of death.
At the signal given "Allah Achbar" thrice repeated with the shaking
of the standard, the army rushed to battle rending the air with the
universal shout "Allah Achbar! Allah Achbar!" The shock of the two
armies was terrific. In an hour the Persians were routed; by midnight
their slain numbered a hundred thousand men, and their Empire was
destroyed. The battle of Nehavend commemorated as "The Victory of
Victories," took place in the twenty-first year of the Hegira the
year six hundred and forty-one of our era, and only nine years after
the death of Mohammed.
If all Syria fell in six years; if the fate of Persia was decided
by a single battle, Egypt may be said to have fallen in a single
moment. With the fall of Alexandria perished the largest library of the
world, the thesaurus of all the intellectual treasures of antiquity.
While Egypt was won almost without a blow, Latin Africa withstood
the Saracens for sixty years. But at last it was conquered. Spain
also fell. The world staggered. Thirty-six thousand cities, towns and
castles had fallen. The armies of the Saracens were victorious from
Scinde in India, westward to Constantinople, then southward they had
swept through Palestine, Egypt, Northern Africa beyond the Pillars
of Hercules into Spain, and were only and finally arrested in Western
Europe as all the world knows by Charles Martel in 732 upon the field
of Tours.
But all the world does not know so well how that in 673 the Saracens
were beaten back from the walls of Constantinople and the Commander of
the Faithful compelled to purchase peace by an annual tribute of three
thousand pieces of gold, fifty slaves and fifty of the finest Arabian
horses. The year 717 saw Constantinople again besieged by a Saracen
army, but Leo, the Isaurian, again beat back the invader with utter
defeat; and no Moslem army ever again appeared under the walls of the
New Rome, until a fiercer, ruder, more cruel race of Conquerors from
the far East grasped again with bloody hand the sword of the Prophet.