ISLAM'S SUCCESS
'A poor shepherd people, roaming in its deserts unnoticed since the
creation of the world: a Hero-Prophet was sent down to them with a
word they could believe: see, the unnoticed becomes the
world-notable, the small has grown world-great; within one century
afterwards, Arabia is at Grenada on this hand, at Delhi on
that;--glancing in valour and splendour and the light of genius,
Arabia shines through long ages over a great section of the world.
Belief is great, life-giving.'--CARLYLE.
[Sidenote: The Wonder of Islam's Success.]
We have not yet exhausted the amazing phenomena of Islam, nor have we
solved its greatest riddle. We watched the orphan camel-boy grow
into a man; we studied the events which made this man a giant among
his fellows; we stood beside him through those long years of
conflict, during which he gathered a few followers about him, and won
from them a passionate devotion to his person and an unwavering faith
in his cause, which made him soon the acknowledged Prophet and master
of {96} Arabia. It is a wonderful story, but it is not
unintelligible, and there are other stories in history not unlike it.
We attribute them to that wonderful and mysterious power which we
call personal magnetism. But the amazing wonder of Islam is this,
that arising in the heart and mind of one single man, founded
apparently upon devotion to his person, centring upon him rather than
on any system that he founded (for Mohammed made no provision for a
successor), it went forth to work its greatest wonders after he had
gone. For a few months, indeed, Arabia wavered, the Bedouin tribes
'started aside like a broken bow' and revolted; but Abu Bakr, by a
perfectly magnificent exhibition of fortitude, faith, and skill,
proved that he was the successor of the Prophet, inheriting from his
master that one thing which carries conviction to every
Arab--_success_. United for the first time in their history, the
fierce tribes of the desert poured forth to the conquest of the
world. Mohammed had stamped Islam upon Arabia. His successors and
their wild, earnest armies stamped Islam upon the world. With
Arabia, and only Arabia, at their backs, {99} they turned and faced
the great empires of the world, and in a few years were stamping them
beneath their feet. Neither the legions of the Roman Empire, nor the
hosts of Chosroes, the great king of Persia, could stand before them.
Like some irresistible prairie fire, Islam spread within one century
over Palestine, Syria, Persia, Egypt, and Northern Africa, and from
Africa it leapt across to Europe and established itself in Spain;
reducing, it is calculated, 36,000 cities, towns, and castles,
destroying 4000 Christian churches and replacing them with 1400
mosques.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
{97}
[Illustration: EXTENT OF ISLAM, A.D. 800. '_An example in missionary
enthusiasm._']
---------------------------------------------------------------------
[Sidenote: Progress of Islam from Eleventh Century.]
Nor was this all. Flaming up again in the eleventh century, Islam
enveloped Asia Minor and the Balkans, and most of the Great Soudan,
and as though driven by some western hurricane, swept eastward over
Asia across the Turkestans to China, and from Persia down the passes
of the Hindu Koosh to Kashmir, Afghanistan, and India. Nor was its
fire spent then. The eighteenth century and the nineteenth saw its
hungry flame burst forth afresh, spreading further westward across
the Great Soudan and southwards into Central Africa. The twentieth
century sees Islam spreading {100} with incredible speed, though
deprived of its sword, down to Sierra Leone and Lagos in the west, up
the Nile Valley and down to South Africa, threatening to engulf the
native Christian churches in Uganda, Livingstonia, Nyassaland, and
even in British South Africa, offering an example in missionary
enthusiasm which the Church of Christ may well covet.
[Sidenote: Present Position.]
We have taken a big leap over 1200 years. We left Abu Bakr, the
first Caliph, at the head of his Arab host, marching out upon the
world. We find the Moslem still to-day seeking new worlds to
conquer, still the same stalwart, virile enthusiast for the Faith.
How is it? Whence comes this spirit? What is this spirit that is in
him? Can it ever be explained? Can it ever be accounted for?
We shall have the best hope of understanding it if we go back in
thought again to the battle of Badr, or join the fierce, eager armies
of Abu Bakr or Omar (the second Caliph) as they go forth to war--to
fight some of those battles which must ever stand among the greatest
of the world's history.
[Sidenote: Causes of Success. (a) Belief in One God.]
(1) As we move amongst these fierce {101} soldiers we realize that
beneath their glaring Arab faults, their hot passions, their love of
fighting, their love of booty, one strong conviction holds them.
They have come to believe in God: a dim consciousness of Him they had
had before, now many at least of the 'believers' believe
passionately, and with all their hearts, that the one Almighty God
had revealed Himself through His Prophet. To believe that, knowing
nothing of His mercy, His justice, and His love, is enough to make
men fanatics. Every Moslem warrior felt himself to be the 'Sword of
God.' Therefore, these men of the desert carried everything before
them, because they had a conviction and believed in it with a faith
that bore down the superstition of the pagans, the subtleties of the
philosophers, and the empty controversies which, alas! had taken the
place of a living faith within the Christian Church. The thunder of
their cavalry was not more terrible to the enemy than the clamour of
their short, sharp battle-cry and creed, 'There is no God but God:
Mohammed is the Apostle of God.'
[Sidenote: (b) Plunder and Paradise.]
(2) But however brightly burned the Arab's zeal for God, the cause
was not {102} without enticements of a very concrete and attractive
nature. The prospect of plunder and Paradise played a big part.
These uncivilized, simple-living Arabs were fighting against two
mighty, rich, and luxurious empires. The very first battle with
Persia revealed such spoils as no Arab had ever even dreamt of. And
so, from the very first, the invading armies had the intoxicating
hope of spoils that were greater and richer by just so much as Rome
and Persia were greater and richer than Arabia. Mohammed knew the
Arab heart, and instituted the plan of dividing the spoils among the
soldiers; and the captured women were given to them for wives and
concubines. These things acted as new wine to the Arabs. God was
indeed with them! What wonder that all Arabia believed in the
Prophet's doctrine of the Jihâd--the duty of fighting in the path of
God--and became one huge depôt for the army of the Faith!
And Paradise. It, too, had come as a new hope to the pagan Arab--a
paradise, so the Prophet painted it, where every desire of man would
be fulfilled; a place of gardens and flowers and fruits, and {103}
maidens such as never were seen, full of sensual delights that
appealed to the base appetites of ribald soldiery--and its best
places were for those who fell in war for the Faith. So real and so
attractive was it to his warriors, that they dashed into the fight
heedless whether it was plunder or Paradise that they would gain,
choosing often for the latter, never doubting it one single instant.
Khâlid, the famous general of the early Caliphate, spoke truly in his
splendid message to the Persian general--'A people is upon thee,
loving death as thou lovest life.'
We heard Mohammed summoning Medina to the battle of Badr. He did not
hesitate then to appeal to the plunder-motive, nor did the early
Caliphs and their successors ever since. Mothanna, who led the
Moslem soldiers against the army of Persia--their first trial of
strength against the organized army of a mighty empire--'haranguing
his troops at the outset of the campaign, and, in the very first
flush of religious enthusiasm, says much of plunder, captives,
concubines, and forfeit lands, but not one word about Islam, God, and
the Faith.' Sir William Muir {104} tells the story of a Moslem
soldier eighty years old who, seeing a comrade fall by his side,
cried out, 'O Paradise, how close thou art beneath the arrow's point
and the falchion's flash! O Hâshim, even now I see Heaven opened,
and black-eyed maidens all bridally arrayed, who clasp thee in their
fond embrace.' True to its formal character, Islam asks no question
as to motives of 'belief.' Those who struck for God alone, or for
God plus Paradise, or for Paradise and plunder without God, or for
plunder pure and simple, were all the 'Blessed of the Lord,' heroes
and saints, and, if they perished, martyrs in the 'path of God.'
[Sidenote: (c) Simplicity of Creed and Practice.]
(3) The simplicity of Islam was and always has been part of its
charm. That simplicity is without doubt supposed rather than real;
still, for the peoples whom the Moslem hosts conquered, and on whom,
moreover, they imposed their Faith, it was simple enough--God and His
Prophet; Islam--we must submit to God. Once that was acknowledged,
the ritual of Moslem religious practice easily followed. It swept
away the superstitious fears of pagan peoples, and the sectarian
animosities {105} of feeble Christians. It made but the smallest
demands upon the character of a man, and gave but the slightest curb
to his passions. Then, as now, he might be bandit, assassin,
adulterer, anything but a drunkard or a denier of the Prophet, and
yet the best of fighting Moslems.
[Sidenote: (d) Patriotism of Arabs.]
(4) No nation that is not utterly degenerate, whatever its government
or lack thereof, whatever its divisions, is impervious to a patriotic
cry that summons a nation to realize itself, to be united in one
common cause and take its place among the other nations of the world.
This and more than this Mohammed meant to Arabia, and Draper has
showed us how quickly the Arabs passed through the various stages of
intellectual and national life.[1] Till almost the end of the
Prophet's life (632 A.D.), Arabia was an unknown and quite negligible
peninsula to the civilized world. A century later (732 A.D.) the
Saracens (as the Moslems came to be called), conquerors of Spain,
were fighting a seven days' battle at Tours on the banks of the Loire
with Charles Martel, the Frank.
{106}
[Sidenote: (e) Enthusiasm of a Great Cause.]
(5) Is it suggesting another cause, or is it perhaps the sum of these
four, to say that, once it was going, it was the enthusiasm of a
great campaign that drove the Moslem hosts along? History has shown
what this can do in lesser causes. What was it sustained the
Carthaginian soldiers as they painfully followed Hannibal through the
passes of the Alps? What sustained Napoleon's troops through the
miseries of that Russian winter? Was it the purpose, or was it the
fact that they had a purpose? Was it discipline and fear, or
enthusiasm for their general's name? Before Mohammed's time, an Arab
lived to drive his camel and attend his caravan. Now there was a
purpose--a Divine purpose--for every Arab's life, a cause demanding
all his manhood and perhaps his life. To carry the white standard of
the Prophet to the limits of the world in a great and glorious
campaign--that was the will of Allah!
There are few things in history more magnificent than the picture of
Ugba leading his army across Syria, Egypt, Tunis, Tripoli, Algiers,
Morocco, to the Atlantic shore, and urging his horse into the waves,
{107} exclaiming, 'Great God, if I were not stopped by this raging
sea, I would go on to the nations of the West, preaching the unity of
Thy Name, and putting to the sword those who would not submit.'
There are few things to-day more magnificent than the zeal of the
average Moslem for his Faith.
[Sidenote: The 'Method' of Islam.]
Such was the spirit that stirred in the heart of these Moslem hosts
and sent them forth upon the world.
Let us see these Moslems at work in the countries that they
conquered. Mohammed himself was far more than a warrior, or even
than a ruler--first and foremost, he had stood forth as the
_Prophet_. And we shall never understand Islam if we regard it only
as a battle-cry. The task which Islam set itself was more than the
conquest of the nations. That might have left them Zoroastrian or
Pagan, Jew or Christian still. Its task was not merely to defeat
armies, but to _proclaim a creed_ and win adherents to it.
Therefore, as the Caliph's armies marched, conquering province after
province, the inhabitants were summoned to declare their faith in
Islam and to repeat the creed.
{108}
[Sidenote: Settlement of Conquered Countries.]
The _Korân_ was set up as the law of the land, governing, besides
questions of morality and religious ritual, all matters of politics,
and government, and administration; and taxation, economy, and
criminal and civil law. _Mosques_ were quickly built in every city,
from which the call to prayer sounded five times daily. Within a day
or two of the capture of Jerusalem, Omar, the second Caliph, laid the
foundation stone of the 'Mosque of Omar' upon the rock of Mount Zion.
This mosque to-day marks the Moslem's possession of one of the most
sacred spots of historic Christianity. _Moslem governors_, or
viziers, were appointed to each province to carry out the policy of
the Caliph and to collect the tribute for him. _Teachers_ were sent
to every country to instruct the people in the Korân and in the
observances of the new Faith. _Magistrates_ were ordered to insist
that all, whether old or young, were regular in their attendance at
public prayer on Fridays, and to see to the observance of the Fast of
Ramadân.
The 'conversion' of simple pagan tribes under such conditions was an
easy matter. The Zoroastrians of Persia were, for the most part,
readily won. The invasion of {109} Christian states came at the time
when faith was at a low ebb. Indeed, the one only worthy object of
faith was almost hidden by false teaching. Therefore the Church's
grip was weak. In Africa, in Arabia, in Mesopotamia, in Egypt, in
Syria, and, afterwards, in Spain, whole tribes or local states
abandoned Christianity for the new Faith, and even joined the ranks
of the Moslem army.
Here and there small Christian states and Churches stood bravely
against the rushing tide, like lonely fortresses amid a surging,
hostile sea. But the old and illustrious Mediterranean citadels of
the Christian faith--Carthage, Alexandria, Jerusalem, Antioch, and
Constantinople--fell into the hands of the Moslems, and Christendom
fell back to build her capitals anew on the Atlantic shores--in Gaul,
Germany, Britain, and Scandinavia.
[Sidenote: Treatment of Jews and Christians.]
In their administration of these conquered provinces the Moslems
displayed some measure of good sense and humanity, though Christians
and Jews who refused to become Moslems were by the Korân ordered 'to
be brought low by the sword.' They paid tribute, and received in
return {110} the protection of the Islamic state for themselves and
for their churches.[2] In most provinces Christians were, however,
debarred from holding civil office, everywhere they were forbidden to
make converts, and Islam then, as, indeed, in many countries to-day,
punished with death those who turned from the Prophet to Christ.
Conditions changed with the times, and with the character of the
Caliph in power. Seldom, however, were Christians left quite
unmolested by the Mohammedans around; vexatious and humiliating
conditions were imposed upon them, increasing more and more as time
went on; pressure of many sorts was brought to bear upon them. For
instance, 'Bokhara struggled desperately against the new Faith, and
every Bokharan was compelled to share his dwelling with a Moslem
Arab, and those who prayed and fasted like good Moslems were rewarded
with money.' The position taken {111} by the Moslem conquerors was
one which offered many material enticements to those who wavered in
their allegiance to the Gospel, and, as we have said, Islam never
cared about a man's motives. Above all, there was the force and
pressure of such a strong current of opinion, of conviction, of
numbers, of obvious success, as has no parallel in history. Had not
even Jerusalem fallen to the new religion?
Within a century of the Hegira, the Caliphs of Islam were not only
undisputed rulers of the greatest empire the world has ever seen, but
the heads of a religion numbering many million followers. Truly,
they could say, the world was at their feet. The wealth of Asia, of
Africa, of Europe poured into their treasury. The court of the
Caliphs, first at Damascus, and then at Baghdad, was one of the most
magnificent and lavish in history. Within 150 years of the Hegira,
Islam had reached the zenith of its power.
[Sidenote: Rule of the Caliphs of Baghdad.]
The Caliphs of Baghdad especially gave their patronage to science,
literature, and art; men of learning gathered round them; not only
Arabian and Persian literature was exploited, but the sages of the
Greeks {112} were translated into Arabic, and splendid libraries were
collected. Scholars and talented translators and scribes were held
in high honour. 'The ink of the doctor is equally valuable with the
blood of the martyr,' it was said. While Byzantium suppressed
medicine, Baghdad cultivated it. The foundation of the science of
modern chemistry may be said to have been laid there by the discovery
of the acids. A great college was founded and endowed in Baghdad,
where it is said 6000 students, from the son of the noble to the son
of the mechanic, were taught; and instruction was given in
mathematics, astronomy, chemistry, alchemy, law, and medicine. Nor
was it in the capital only that a new impetus was given to learning,
the sciences, and art. One Caliph made a law that, wherever a mosque
was built, a school should be founded beside it, and colleges and
schools sprang up in the bigger cities of the empire. Spain formed a
library of 600,000 volumes, and bears marks to-day of Moslem vigour,
taste, and influence in what is still spoken of as 'Moorish
architecture.'
But at the same time it should be {113} remembered that both at
Baghdad and in Spain the advocates of learning were 'rationalists,'
not orthodox Moslems.
The story of the magnificent pomp of the Caliphs of Baghdad in the
days of its tawdry glory reads like the fairy picture of another
world. Barges and boats of the most superb decoration floated on the
Tigris. A tree of gold and silver stood before the palace, upon
whose eighteen branches sat birds fashioned with precious stones.
The walls of the palace were hung with 38,000 pieces of tapestry, a
great number of which were of silk, embroidered with gold. The
costly carpets on the floors were 12,000. The Caliph was surrounded
by state officers and slaves. Wives, concubines, and eunuchs to the
number of several thousand attended on his person. When he took the
field he was guarded by 12,000 horsemen whose belts and scimitars
were studded with gold.
[Sidenote: Islam's Opportunity.]
If we could close our eyes, our memories, our knowledge, and open
them on the Mediterranean sea-board in those days--no more history
written, no more history {114} made--looking out upon the elaborate
administration of the empire and upon its splendid pomp, what a
future we should have predicted! Islam had a fair field before it,
if ever religion had. How in the slow march of the centuries
strongly and progressively it could work out its faith! To what
sublime heights could it not lead a civilized world in six centuries
of time!
[Sidenote: Has Islam Failed?]
We open our eyes again in these early years of the twentieth century,
when the history of a thousand years has been written, to see whereto
this thing has grown, and what its achievements on behalf of mankind.
The religion of Islam has more adherents than it had; its dominion is
marked by three Moslem empires: Turkey, Persia, and Morocco; it is
the religion of Arabia still; its followers predominate in Egypt, in
Asia Minor, in Afghanistan, in the East Indies. It numbers many
millions throughout Africa, India, China, Russia, and the
Philippines; but nowhere, unless it be possibly in some of the most
degraded districts of pagan Africa, do Moslems stand above their
fellows in enlightenment, in morality, in progress. {115} Has Islam,
then, failed to meet men? No, it has touched man, indeed, in some of
the deeper regions of his consciousness. But it has met men on their
own level, and so it has left them where they were. Why? How?
QUESTIONS ON CHAPTER VII
1. Sketch the successes of Islam for 100 years after the death of
Mohammed. Why are they surprising?
2. Give the chief motives which inspired the Moslem hosts. To which
of these motives do you attach most importance, and why?
3. Which of these motives are right for Christians?
4. Describe the settlement of conquered countries.
5. Give some account of Baghdad in its greatest days.
[1] _The Intellectual Development of Europe_, vol. i.
[2] This description applies more accurately only to the early
centuries of Saracen conquests, e.g. in later years the treasuries of
the Christian churches and monasteries of Spain were a temptation the
Saracens could not refuse. And instances are common enough, even in
the early centuries, of Christians persecuted--even to death--for
their faith.
{116}