He was a famous British Orientalist who began his scientific career in Cambridge University where he learnt Arabic out of his love for it. He then moved on to work as a researcher in Aligarh University in India and spent ten years there during which he wrote his famous book The Preaching of Islam. He taught philosophy in Lahore University before returning to London in 1904 to double act as an Assistant Librarian staff member at the India Office and a part-time professor at London University. He was a member of the editorial board of the first edition of the Islamic Encyclopedia published in Leiden, Holland. He was a visiting professor in the Egyptian University in 1930. It is worth mentioning that he was a teacher of the Islamic Indian thinker, Muhammad Iqbâl. The Spread of Islam in the World: A History of Peaceful Preaching
This book as a whole is a great testimony and among the best to be written in observation of the spread of Islam all throughout the different parts of the land. It is indeed worth reading. We have transmitted from it so much due to its abundant witnesses and there are still many statements that should have been transmitted had the space assigned to this point permitted. The eloquent book
“We find even so bigoted an opponent of Islam as Alvar acknowledging that the Qur'an was composed in such eloquent and beautiful language that even Christians could not help reading and admiring it.”[1] Fascinating leadership
“Even before his (Muhammad’s) death, almost all Arabia had submitted to him. An Arabia that had never before obeyed one prince suddenly exhibits a political unity and swears allegiance to the will of an absolute ruler. Out of the numerous tribes, big and small, of a hundred different kinds that were incessantly at feuds with one another, Muhammad's word created a nation. The idea of a common religion under one common head bound the different tribes together into one political organism which developed its peculiar characteristics with surprising rapidity.”[2] Toleration and freedom of life
“The common hypothesis of the sword as the factor of conversion seems hardly satisfactory…it has been shown that the theory of the Muslim faith enjoins toleration and freedom of religious life for all those followers of other faiths.”[3] We have found ourselves at peace
“Michael the Elder, Jacobite Patriarch of Antioch, writing in the latter half of the twelfth century, could approve the decision of his co-religionists and see the finger of God in the Arab conquests even after the Eastern churches had experienced five centuries of Muhammadan rule. After recounting the persecutions of Heraclius, he writes: "This is why the God of vengeance who, alone, is all powerful and changes the empire of mortals as He wills, giving it to whomsoever He wills and uplifting the humble — beholding the wickedness of the Romans who, throughout their dominions, cruelly plundered our churches and monasteries and condemned us without pity — brought from the region of the south the sons of Ishmael to deliver us through them from the hands of the Romans. And, if in truth, we have suffered some loss, because of the catholic churches that had been taken away from us and given to the Chalcedonians and remain in their possession; for when the cities submitted to the Arabs, they assigned to each denomination the churches which they found it to be in possession of (and at that time the great church of Emessa and that of Harran had been taken away from us). Nevertheless, it was no short advantage for us to be delivered from the cruelty of the Romans, their wickedness, wrath and cruel zeal against us and to find ourselves at peace."”[4] Choice and free will
“From the examples given above of the toleration extended towards the Christian Arabs by the victorious Muslims of the first century of Hijrah and continued by succeeding generations, we may surely infer that those Christian tribes that did embrace Islam did so of their own choice and free will. The Christian Arabs of the present day, dwelling in the midst of a Muhammadan population, are giving testimony of this toleration.”[5] They could have swept away Christianity had they so liked
“But of any organized attempt to force the acceptance of Islam on the non-Muslim population or of any systematic persecution intended to stamp out the Christian religion, we hear nothing. Had the caliphs chosen to adopt either course of action, they might have swept away Christianity as easily as Ferdinand and Isabella drove Islam out of Spain or Louis XIV made Protestantism penal in France or the Jews were kept out of England for 350 years. The Eastern Churches in Asia were entirely cut off from communion with the rest of Christendom, throughout which no one would have been found to lift a finger on their behalf, as heretical communions. So that the very survival of these Churches till the present day is a strong proof of the generally tolerant attitude of the Muhammadan governments towards them.”[6] They did not do
“It would have been easy for any of the powerful rulers of Islam to have utterly rooted out their Christian subjects or banished them from their dominions as the Spaniards did to the Moors or the English to the Jews for nearly four centuries.”[7] Unsatisfactory hypothesis
“In view of the toleration thus extended to their Christian subjects in the early period of Muslim rule, the common hypothesis of the sword as the factor of conversion seems hardly satisfactory and we are compelled to seek other motives than that of persecution.”[8] Culminating the spirit of tolerance
The spirit of tolerance, which reached its culmination (is the fundamental rule which stems from the principles of Islam).[9] An abiding testimony
“Still, on the whole, unbelievers have enjoyed under Muhammadan rule a measure of toleration, the like of which is not to be found in Europe until quite modern times. Forcible conversion was forbidden in accordance with the precepts of the Qur'an…The very existence of so many Christian sects and communities in countries for centuries under Muhammadan rule, is an abiding testimony to the toleration they have enjoyed.”[10] A Christian letter
“This same period witnesses the conversion of large numbers of the Christians of Khurâsân, as we learn from a letter of a contemporary ecclesiastic, the Nestorian Patriarch, Isho'yabh III, addressed to Simeon, the Metropolitan of Revardashir and Primate of Persia…and this letter bears such striking testimony to the peaceful character of the spread of the new faith.”[11] They favor our religion
“And the Arabs, to whom God at this time has given the empire of the world, behold, they are among you, as ye know well: and yet they attack not the Christian faith but, on the contrary, they favor our religion, honor our priests and saints of the Lord and confer benefits on churches and monasteries.”[12] [This is a part of the letter written by the Nestorian Patriarch, Isho'yabh III, to Simeon, the Metropolitan of Revardashir and Primate of Persia during the era of ‘Umar ibn al-Khattâb and the conquests of Persia] He never forgets the Thimmis even when he is on the deathbed
“It is in harmony with the same spirit of kind consideration for his subjects of another faith that 'Umar is recorded to have ordered an allowance of money and food to be made to some Christian lepers, apparently out of public funds. Even in his last testament, in which he enjoins on his successor the duties of his high office, he remembers the Thimmis (or protected persons of other faiths): "I commend to his care the Thimmis who enjoy the protection of God and the Prophet; let him see to it that the covenant with them is kept and that no greater burdens than they can bear are laid upon them."”[13] This had been unknown to them for many centuries
“For the provinces of the Byzantine Empire that were rapidly acquired by the prowess of the Muslims found themselves in the enjoyment of a tolerance such as, on account of their Monophysite and Nestorian opinions, had been unknown to them for many centuries. They were allowed the free and undisturbed practice of their religion.”[14] Of persecution we hear nothing
“Of forced conversion or anything like persecution in the early days of the Arab conquests, we hear nothing. Indeed, it was probably in a great measure their tolerant attitude towards the Christian religion that facilitated their rapid acquisition of the country.”[15] The Jerusalem inhabitants welcome
“The native Christians certainly preferred the rule of the Muhammadans to that of the Crusaders and, when Jerusalem fell finally and forever into the hands of the Muslims (A.D. 1244), the Christian population of Palestine seems to have welcomed the new masters and to have submitted quietly and contentedly to their rule.”[16] A documentary proof
“The extent of this toleration — so striking in the history of the seventh century — may be judged from the terms granted to the conquered cities, in which protection of life and property and toleration of religious belief were given in return for submission and the payment of Jizyah.”[17] It was not a penalty
“This tax was not imposed on the Christians, as some would have us think, as a penalty for their refusal to accept the Muslim faith but was paid by them in common with other Thimmis or non-Muslim subjects of the state whose religion precluded them from serving in the army, in return for the protection secured for them by the arms of the Muslims. When the people of Hîrah contributed the sum agreed upon, they expressly mentioned that they paid this Jizyah on condition that "the Muslims and their leader protect us from those who would oppress us, whether they be Muslims or others."”[18] It was levied only on able-bodied males
“This … was levied only on able-bodied males for women, children, monks, the halt, blind, sick, mendicants and slaves were exempted therefrom.”[19] A peaceful penetration
“But for the most part, details are lacking for any history of the disappearance of Christianity from among the Christian Arab tribes of Northern Arabia. They seem to have been absorbed by the surrounding Muslim community in an almost insensible process of "peaceful penetration". Had attempts been made to convert them by force when they first came under Muhammadan rule, it would not have been possible for Christians to have survived among them up to the times of the ‘Abbasid caliphs.”[20] A false allegation
“The very fact of its (Native Christian Church’s) rather long survival (in North Africa) would militate against any supposition of forced conversion.”[21] Saladin and his successors
“During the reign of Salâh ad-Dîn (Saladin) (1169-1193) over Egypt, the condition of the Christians was very well under the auspices of this tolerant ruler. The taxes that had been imposed upon them were lightened and several swept away altogether. They crowded into public offices as secretaries, accountants and registrars and, for nearly a century under the successors of Saladin, they enjoyed the same toleration and favor and had nothing to complain of except the corruption and degeneracy of their own clergy. Simony had become terribly rife among them. Priesthood was sold to ignorant and vicious persons while postulants for the sacred office, who were unable to pay the sums demanded for ordination, were repulsed with scorn in spite of them being worthy and fit persons.”[22] A perfect freedom
“That these conversions were not due to persecution, we know from direct historical evidence that, during this vacancy of the patriarchate, the Christians had full and complete freedom of public worship … and were tried in courts of law of their very own while monks were exempted from the payment of tribute and granted certain privileges.”[23] From interminable controversies to clear faith
“The rapid spread of Islam in the early days of the Arab occupation was probably due less to definite efforts to attract than to the inability of Christianity to retain. The theological basis for the existence of the Jacobites as a separate sect, the tenets that they had so long and at so great a cost struggled to maintain, were embodied in doctrines of the most abstruse and metaphysical character. Many who were doubtless turned, in utter perplexity and weariness from the interminable controversies that raged around them, to a faith that was summed up in the simple, intelligible truth of the Unity of God and the mission of His Prophet, Muhammad. Even within the Coptic Church itself, at a later period, we find evidence of a movement which, if not distinctly Muslim, was at least closely allied thereto and, in the absence of any separate ecclesiastical organization in which it might find expression, probably contributed to the increase of the converts to Islam.”[24] A life based on religious freedom
“To these Copts, as the Jacobite Christians of Egypt are called, the Muhammadan conquest brought a freedom of religious life such as they had not enjoyed for a century.”[25] They embraced Islam even before the conquest
“In the early days of the Muhammadan rule then, the condition of the Copts seems to have been fairly tolerable, and there is no evidence of their widespread apostasy to Islam being due to persecution or unjust pressure on the part of their new rulers. Even before the conquest was complete, while the capital, Alexandria, still held out, many of them inclined to Islam and, a few years later, the example these had set was followed by many others.”[26] A revolt against corruption and superstitions
Clarifying that the cause lying behind the easy and rapid spread of Islam in Africa and Asia goes back to the corruption of Christian society, Canon Taylor[27] says: “It is easy to understand why this reformed Judaism spread so swiftly over Africa and Asia. The African and Syrian doctors had substituted abstruse metaphysical dogmas for the religion of Christ. They tried to combat the licentiousness of the age by setting forth the celestial merit of celibacy and the angelic excellence of virginity — seclusion from the world was the road to holiness and dirt was the characteristic of monkish sanctity — the people were practically polytheists, worshipping a crowd of martyrs, saints and angels. The upper classes were effeminate and corrupt, the middle classes oppressed by taxation and the slaves without hope for the present or the future. As with the besom of God, Islam swept away this mass of corruption and superstition. It was a revolt against empty theological polemics. It was a masculine protest against the exaltation of celibacy as a crown of piety.”[28] A creed too simple to be expounded by anybody
“Foremost among these is the simplicity of the Muslim creed. There is no god but God and Muhammad is the Apostle of God. Assent to these two simple doctrines is all that is demanded of the convert and the entire history of Muslim dogmatics fails to present any attempt on the part of ecclesiastical assemblies to force on the mass of believers any symbol couched in more elaborate and complex terms. This simple creed demands no great trial of faith and arouses as a rule no particular intellectual difficulties while being within the compass of even the meanest intelligence. Unencumbered with theological subtleties, it may be expounded by any, even the most unversed in theological expression.”[29] A rationalistic religion
“This, the rationalistic character of the Muslim creed, and the advantage it reaps thereof in its missionary efforts, have nowhere been more admirably brought out than in the following sentences of Professor Montet[30]: “Islam is a religion that is essentially rationalistic in the widest sense of this term when considered etymologically and historically.”[31] The spiritual spread
“The spiritual energy of Islam is not, as has been so often maintained, commensurate with its political power. On the contrary, the loss of political power and worldly prosperity has served to bring to the front the finer spiritual qualities which are the truest incentives to missionary work.”[32] This brotherhood is the best of ways
“No fetch of religious genius could have conceived a better expedient for impressing on the minds of the faithful a sense of their common life and brotherhood in bonds of faith. Here, in a supreme act of common worship, the Negro of the west coast of Africa meets the Chinaman from the distant east and the courtly and polished Ottoman recognizes his brother Muslim in the wild islander from the farthest end of the Malayan Sea. At the same time, throughout the whole Muhammadan world, the hearts of believers are lifted up in sympathy with their more fortunate brethren gathered together in the sacred city.”[33] The Persians breathed again
“When the armies of the (Persian) state had been routed, the masses of people offered little resistance. The reigns of the last representatives of the Sassanid dynasty had been marked by terrible anarchy and the sympathies of the people had been further alienated from their rulers on account of the support they gave to the persecuting policy of the state religion of Zoroastrianism. The Zoroastrian priests had acquired an enormous influence in the state. They were well-nigh and all-powerful in the councils of the king and arrogated to themselves a very large share in the civil administration. They took advantage of their position to persecute all those religious bodies — (and they were many) — that dissented from them. Besides the numerous adherents of older forms of the Persian religion, there were Christians, Jews, Sabaeans and numerous sects in which the speculations of Gnostics, Manichaeans and Buddhists found expression. In all of these, persecution had stirred up feelings of bitter hatred against the established religion and the dynasty that supported its oppression and so caused the Arab conquest to appear in the light of deliverance. The followers of all these varied forms of faith could breathe again under a rule that granted them religious freedom and exemption from military service.”[34] The deliverer of Persians
“The people of Persia and, especially the Semitic races, were just in the very mental condition calculated to make them welcome the Islamic revolution and urge them on to enthusiastically embrace the new and rugged creed which, with its complete and virile simplicity, swept away with one stroke all those dark mists, opened souls to new, alluring and tangible hopes and promised an immediate release from a miserable state of servitude. But the Muslim creed was most eagerly welcomed by the townsfolk, industrial classes and artisans whose occupations made them impure according to the Zoroastrian creed because, in the pursuance of their trade or occupations, they defiled fire, earth or water. Thus, they were outcasts in the eyes of the law and were treated with scant consideration in consequence. They embraced with eagerness a creed that made them at once free men and equal in a brotherhood of faith.”[35] Even the fire temples
“And we even read of a Muhammadan general (in the reign of al-Mu‘tasim, A.D. 833-842) who ordered an imam and mu'aththin to be flogged because they destroyed a fire temple in Sughd and built a mosque in its place. In the tenth century, three centuries after the conquest of the country, fire temples were still found in 'Iraq, Fars, Kirman, Sijistan, Khurâsân, Jibal Azerbaijan, and Arran (i.e. in almost every province of Persia). In Fars itself, there were hardly any cities or districts in which fire temples and Magians were not found. Ash-Shahrastâni also (writing as late as the twelfth century) mentions a fire temple at Isfiniya, in the neighbourhood of Baghdad itself.”[36] They never sought the aid of power
“In the face of such facts, it is surely impossible to entirely attribute the decay of Zoroastrianism to violent conversions made by Muslim conquerors.”[37] Enthusiasm and toleration
“Uzbek Khan[38], leader of the Golden Horde from 1313 to 1340 and distinguished himself by his proselytizing zeal … is said to have designed the spread of the faith of Islam throughout all of Russia… Moreover, it is noticeable that, in spite of his zeal for the spread of his own faith, Uzbek Khan was very tolerant towards his Christian subjects who were left undisturbed in practicing their religion and even allowed to pursue their missionary labors in his territory.”[39] A document
“One of the most remarkable documents of Muhammadan toleration is the charter that Uzbek Khan granted to the Metropolitan Peter in 1313: "By the will, power, greatness and mercy of the most High! From Uzbek to all our princes, great and small, etc., etc. Let no man insult the metropolitan church, of which Peter is the head, nor his servants or churchmen. Let no man seize their property, goods or people and let no man meddle with the affairs of the metropolitan church, since they are divine. Whoever shall meddle therein and transgress our edict will be guilty before God and feel His wrath and be punished by us with death. Let the metropolitan dwell in the path of safety and rejoice. With a just and upright heart let him (or his deputy) decide and regulate all ecclesiastical matters. We solemnly declare that neither we nor our children, princes of our realm or governors of our provinces will in any way interfere with the affairs of the church and the metropolitan or in their towns, districts, villages, chases and fisheries, hives, lands, meadows, forests, towns, places under their bailiffs, vineyards, mills, winter quarters for cattle or any of the properties and goods of the church. Let the mind of the metropolitan be always at peace and free from trouble. With an upright heart, let him pray to God for us, our children and our nation. Whoever shall lay hands on anything that is sacred shall be held guilty, shall incur the wrath of God and the penalty of death, that others may be dismayed at his fate. When the tribute or other dues such as custom duties, plough-tax, tolls or relays are levied or when we wish to raise troops among our subjects, let nothing be exacted from the cathedral churches under the metropolitan Peter or from any of his clergy: . . . whatever may be exacted from the clergy shall be returned threefold. . . Their laws, churches, monasteries and chapels shall be respected. Whoever condemns or blames this religion shall not be excused under any pretext but shall be punished with death. The brothers and sons of priests and deacons, living at the same table and in the same house, shall enjoy the same privileges."”[40] India: messages rather than swords
“Several Sindian princes responded to the invitation of the Caliph, ‘Umar ibn 'Abd-al-‘Azîz to embrace Islam … That these conversions were in the main, voluntary, may be judged from the toleration that the Arabs, after the first violence of their onslaught, showed towards their idolatrous subjects. For example, the people of Brahman Abad, whose city had been taken by storm, were allowed to repair their temple, which was a means of livelihood to the Brahmans, and nobody was to be forbidden or prevented from following his own religion and, generally, wherever there was submission, quarter was readily given and the people were permitted to practice their own creeds and laws.”[41] A higher conception of God
“It was not to force that Islam owed its permanent success in Lower Bengal. It appealed to the people and derived the great mass of its converts from the poor. It brought in a higher conception of God and a nobler idea of the brotherhood of man. It offered to the teeming low castes of Bengal, who had sat for ages abject on the outermost pale of the Hindu community, free entrance into a new social organization."[42] Intellectual and moral superiority
“Wherever Islam made its way, there was a Muhammadan missionary to be found bearing witness to its doctrines — the trader, be he an Arab, Pul or Mandingo, would combine proselytism with the sale of his merchandise and, whose very profession brings him into close and immediate contact with those he would convert, disarms any possible suspicion of sinister motives. When such a man enters a pagan village, he soon attracts attention with his frequent ablutions and regularly recurring times of prayer and prostration in which he appears to be conversing with some invisible being. By his very assumption of intellectual and moral superiority, he commands the respect and confidence of the heathen people to whom, at the same time, he shows himself ready and willing to communicate his high privileges and knowledge.”[43] The army of jurisconsults, traders and pilgrims
“There is enough evidence to show the existence of peaceful missionary efforts to spread the faith of Islam during the last six-hundred years. Sometimes indeed the sword has been drawn in support of the cause of religion but preaching and persuasion rather than force and violence have been the main characteristics of this missionary movement. The marvelous success that was achieved has been largely the work of traders who won their way to the hearts of natives. … Beside the traders, there have been numbers of what may be called professional missionaries — theologians, preachers, jurisconsults and pilgrims.”[44] The work rather of missionaries than of princes
“This long work of conversion has proceeded peacefully and gradually and the growth of Muslim states in this island (of Java) belongs rather to its political than to its religious history, since the progress of the religion has been achieved by the work rather of missionaries than of princes.”[45] The Seljuks rather than the Byzantines
“This same sense of security of religious life under Muslim rule also led many of the Christians of Asia Minor, at about the same time, to welcome the advent of the Seljuq Turks as their deliverers from the hated Byzantine government. This was not only on account of its oppressive system of taxation but also of the persecuting spirit of the Greek Church which, with such cruelty, crushed the heresies of the Paulicians and Iconoclasts.”[46] Deliver us!
“In the reign of Michael VIII (1261- 1282), the Turks were often invited to take possession of smaller towns in the interior of Asia Minor by their inhabitants, that they might escape the tyranny of the empire and both rich and poor often emigrated into Turkish dominions.”[47] In the thick of historic victory
“One of the first steps taken by Muhammad II, after the capture of Constantinople and the reestablishment of order in that city, was to secure the allegiance of the Christians by proclaiming himself the protector of the Greek Church and that persecution of Christians was strictly forbidden. A decree was granted to the newly elected patriarch, which secured to him, his successors and the bishops under him, the enjoyment of old privileges, revenues and exemptions enjoyed under the former rule. … But not only was the head of the Church treated with all the respect he had been accustomed to receiving from the Christian emperors, but further he was invested with extensive civil power. … Consequently, though the Greeks were numerically superior to the Turks in all the European provinces of the empire, this religious toleration and the protection of life and property they enjoyed soon reconciled them to a change of masters and led them to prefer the domination of the Sultan to that of any Christian power. Indeed, in many parts of the country, the Ottoman conquerors were welcomed by the Greeks as their deliverers from rapacious and tyrannical rule.”[48] The shade of Muslims versus the shade of others
“The Turkish dominions were certainly better governed and more prosperous than most parts of Christian Europe. The masses of the Christian population engaged in cultivation of the lands enjoyed a larger measure of private liberty and the fruits of their labor under the government of the Sultan than their contemporaries did under that of many Christian monarchs. A great impulse, too, was given to the commercial activity of the country for the early Sultans were always ready to foster trade and commerce among their subjects. Many of the great cities entered upon an era of prosperity when the Turkish conquest had delivered them from the paralyzing fiscal oppression of the Byzantine Empire.”[49] Looking with longing eyes
“The treatment of their Christian subjects by the Ottoman emperors — at least for two centuries after their conquest of Greece — exhibits a toleration at that time which was quite unknown in the rest of Europe. The Calvinists of Hungary and Transylvania and the Unitarians of the latter country long preferred to submit to the Turks rather than fall into the hands of the fanatical house of Hapsburg. The Protestants of Silesia looked with longing eyes towards Turkey and would gladly have purchased religious freedom at the price of submission to Muslim rule. It was to Turkey that the persecuted Spanish Jews fled for refuge in enormous numbers at the end of the fifteenth century. Also, the Cossacks who belonged to the sect of the Old Believers and were persecuted by the Russian State Church found in the dominions of the Sultan the toleration which their Christian brethren denied them.”[50] Turning longing eyes
“Even in Italy there were men who turned longing eyes towards the Turks in hope that they, as their subjects, might enjoy the freedom and toleration they despaired of enjoying under a Christian government. It would then seem that Islam was not spread by force in the dominion of the Sultan of Turkey.”[51] Servants and slaves witness
It is proven, according to the author, that the Turks dealt with their servants and slaves better than the Christians did with theirs. The servant skilled in a profession would enjoy all privileges of the free, as if he was almost free.[52] Another document
“God perpetuate the empire of the Turks forever and ever! For they take their impost and enter into no account of religion, be their subjects Christians or Nazarenes, Jews or Samarians. Whereas these accursed Poles were not content with taxes and tithes from the brethren of Christ, though willing to serve them, but they subjected them to the authority of the enemies of Christ, the tyrannical Jews, who did not even permit them to build churches nor leave them any priests that knew the mysteries of their faith."[53] [Macarius, Patriarch of Antioch in the seventeenth century] The upper classes
“After the fall of Constantinople, the upper classes of Christian society showed much more readiness to embrace Islam than the masses of the Greeks.”[54] But also learned men of every class
“There were many who turned from a Church whose spiritual life had sunk so low and weary of interminable discussions on such subtle points of doctrine as the Double Procession of the Holy Spirit and such trivialities as the use of leavened and unleavened bread in the Blessed Sacrament. They gladly accepted the clear and intelligible theistic teaching of Islam. We are told of large numbers of persons being converted, not only from among the simple folk, but also learned men of every class, rank and condition. How the Turks made a better provision for those monks and priests who embraced the Muslim creed in order that their example might lead others to be converted.”[55] Even the Byzantine princes
“While Adrianople was still the Turkish capital (e. g. before 1453), the court was thronged with renegades and they are said to have formed the majority of the magnates there. Byzantine princes and others often passed over to the side of the Muhammadans and received a ready welcome among them.”[56] The war prisoner invites to Islam
“Even the Muslim prisoner will, on occasion, embrace the opportunity of preaching his faith to his captors or to his fellow prisoners. The first introduction of Islam into Eastern Europe was the work of a Muslim jurisconsult who was taken prisoner, probably in one of the wars between the Byzantine Empire and its Muhammadan neighbours, and was brought to the country of the Pechenegs in the beginning of the eleventh century. He presented to many of them the teachings of Islam and they embraced the faith with sincerity so that it began to spread among this people. But the other Pechenegs who had not accepted the Muslim religion took umbrage at the conduct of their fellow countrymen and finally came to blows with them. The Muslims, who numbered about twelve-thousand, successfully withstood the attack of the unbelievers, though they were more than twice their number, and the remnants of the defeated party embraced the religion of the victors. Before the close of the eleventh century, the whole nation had become Muhammadan and had among them men learned in Muslim theology and jurisprudence.[57] The deliverers
“The Christian clergy took advantage of their power to persecute the Jews who formed a very large community in Spain. Edicts of a brutally severe character were passed against such as refused to be baptized and they consequently hailed the invading Arabs as their deliverers from such cruel oppression. They garrisoned the captured cities on behalf of the conqueror and opened the gates of towns that were being besieged.
The Muhammadans received as warm a welcome from the slaves whose condition under Gothic rule was a very miserable one. Their knowledge of Christianity was too superficial to have any weight when compared with the liberty and numerous advantages they gained by throwing in their lot with the Muslims.
These down-trodden slaves were the first converts to Islam in Spain. The remnants of the heathen population of which we find mention as late as 693 A.D., probably followed their example. Many of the Christian nobles, either through genuine conviction or other motives, also embraced the new creed. Many converts too were won from the lower and middle classes who may well have embraced Islam, not merely outwardly, but from genuine conviction, turning to it from a religion whose ministers had left them ill-instructed and uncared for, busied with worldly ambitions having plundered and oppressed their flocks.”[58] Swords of tolerance
“Indeed, it was probably in a great measure that their tolerant attitude towards the Christian religion facilitated their rapid acquisition of the country.”[59] Nothing led them to complain
“Certainly those Christians who could reconcile themselves to the loss of political power had little to complain of and it is very noticeable that, during the whole of the eighth century, we hear of only one attempt of a revolt on their part, namely at Beja. And in this they appear to have followed the lead of an Arab chief.”[60] As such they were under their umbrella
“In the ninth century at least, the Christian laity wore the same dress as the Arabs. They were at one time even allowed to build new churches. We read also of the founding of several fresh monasteries in addition to the numerous convents both for monks and nuns that flourished undisturbed by the Muhammadan rulers. The monks could appear publicly in the woolen robes of their order and the priest had no need to conceal the mark of his sacred office. At the same time, nor did their religious profession prevent the Christians from being entrusted with high offices at court or serving in the Muslim armies.”[61] As such they were under our umbrella
“Those who migrated into French territory in order that they might live under Christian rule certainly fared no better than the co-religionists they left behind (i.e. those who remained under the Islamic rule in Andalusia). In 812, Charlemagne interfered to protect the exiles that followed him on his retreat from Spain from the exactions of the imperial officers. Three years later, Louis the Pious had to issue another edict on their behalf, in spite of which they had soon again to complain against the nobles who robbed them of the lands that had been assigned to them. But the evil was only checked for a little time to break out afresh and all the edicts passed on their behalf did not avail to make the lot of these unfortunate exiles more tolerable. Also, in the Cagots (i.e. canes Gothi), a despised and ill-treated class of later times, we probably meet again the Spanish colony that fled away from Muslim rule to throw themselves upon the mercy of their Christian co-religionists.”[62] A soft influence
“The toleration of the Muhammadan government towards its Christian subjects in Spain and the freedom of intercourse between the adherents of the two religions brought about a certain amount of assimilation in the two communities. Intermarriages became frequent. Many of the Christians adopted Arab names and, in outward observances, imitated to some extent their Muhammadan neighbors (e.g. many were circumcised). In matters of food and drink, they followed the practice of the "unbaptized pagans.”"[63]
Brilliant civilization and dazzling art
“But the majority of converts were no doubt won over by the imposing influence of the faith of Islam itself, presented to them as it was with all the glamour of a brilliant civilization having its own poetry, philosophy and an art well calculated to attract reason and dazzle imaginations. In the lofty chivalry of the Arabs there was free scope for the exhibition of manly prowess and knightly virtues — a career closed to the conquered Spaniards that remained true to the Christian faith. The history of Spain under Muhammadan rule is singularly free from persecution.”[64] When the theologians learn
“When even Christian theologians were led by their personal intercourse with Muslims to form a more just estimate of their religion and contact with new modes of thought was unsettling the minds of men and giving rise to a swarm of heresies, it is not surprising that many should have been drawn into the pale of Islam.”[65] They were numerous
“The renegades in the twelfth century were in sufficient numbers to be noticed in the statute books of the Crusaders, the so-called Assises of Jerusalem.[66] The magic of morality
“The heroic life and character of Saladin seems to have exercised a special fascination in the minds of the Christians of his time. Even some of the Christian knights were so strongly attracted to him that they abandoned the Christian faith and their own people and joined themselves with the Muslims.”[67] The danger of embracing Islam
“The danger of the pilgrims to the Holy Land becoming converts to Islam was so clearly recognized during this time that, in a "Remembrance" written in about 1266 by Amaury de la Roche, the master of the Knights Templar in France, he requests the Pope and the legates of France and Sicily to prevent the poor, aged and those incapable of bearing arms from crossing the sea to Palestine. Such persons were either killed or taken prisoners by the Saracens or even turned renegades.”[68] Kindness more cruel than all treachery!
“So great was the contrast between the kind treatment the pilgrims received from the unbelievers and the cruelty of their fellow-Christians, the Greeks who imposed forced labor upon them, beat them and robbed them of what little they had left, that many of them voluntarily embraced the faith of their deliverers. As the old chronicler[69] says: "Avoiding their co-religionists who were so cruel to them, they left for safety among the infidels who had compassion for them. And, as we heard, more than three-thousand joined themselves with the Turks when they retired. Oh, kindness more cruel than all treachery! They gave them bread but robbed them of their faith, though it is certain that contented with the services they performed, they compelled no one among them to renounce his religion."”[70] In Africa:
“From the historical sketch given above, it may be seen that peaceful methods have largely characterized the Muhammadan missionary movement in Africa. … There is the overwhelming testimony of travelers and others to this peaceful missionary preaching and the quiet and persistent labors of the Muslim propagandist, which did more for the rapid spread of Islam in modern Africa.”[71] Islam and Negroes
“It is important, too, to note that neither his color nor his race in any way prejudice the Negro in the eyes of his new co-religionists. The progress of Islam in Negritia has no doubt been materially advanced by the absence of any feeling of repulsion towards the Negro — indeed Islam seems never to have treated the Negro as an inferior, as has been too often the case in Christendom.”[72] Islam and Christianization
“This consideration goes partly to explain the success of Muslim as contrasted with Christian missions among the Negro peoples. It has frequently been pointed out that the Negro convert to Christianity is apt to feel that his European co-religionists belong to a stratum of civilization alien to his own habits of life, whereas he feels himself to be more at home in a Muslim society. This has been well stated by a modern observer in the following passage: "Islam, despite its shortcomings, does not, from the Nigerian point of view, demand race-suicide of the Nigerian as an accompaniment of conversion. It does not stipulate revolutionary changes in social life impossible at the present stage of Nigerian development nor does it undermine family or communal authority. Between the converter and converted there is no abyss. Both are equal not in theory but in practice, before God. Both are African; sons of the soil. The doctrine of the brotherhood of man is carried out in practice. Conversion does not mean for the converted a break with his interests, family, social life or respect for the authority of his natural rulers. . . . No one can fail to be impressed with the carriage, the dignity of the Nigerian — indeed of the West African — Mohammedan. The whole bearing of the man suggests a consciousness of citizenship and a pride of race which seems to say: 'We are different, thou and I, but we are men.'
The spread of Islam in Southern Nigeria which we are witnessing today is mainly social in its action. It brings to those with whom it comes in contact a higher status, a loftier conception of man's place in the universe around him and a release from the thralldom of a thousand superstitious fears.
The contrast between the way in which Christianity and Islam present themselves to the African is well brought out by one who is himself a Negro in the following passage: "Tandis que les missions renvoient a une epoque indefinie l'etablissement du pastorat indigene, les pretres musulmans penetrent dans l'interieur de l'Afrique, trouvent un acces facile chez les paiens et les convertissent a l'islam. De sorte qu'aujourdhui les negres regardent l'islam comme la religion des noirs, et le christianisme comme la religion des blancs. Le christianisme, pensent-ils, appelle le negre au salut, mais lui assigne une place tellement basse que, decourage, il se dit: 'Je n'ai ni part ni portion dans cette affaire.' L'islam appelle le negre au salut et lui dit: 'Il ne depend que de toi pour arriver aussi haut que possible.' Alors, le negre enthousiasme se livre corps et ame au service de cette religion." L'islam et le christianisme en Afrique d'apres un Africain. (Journal des Missions Evangiliques. 63 e * annee, p. 207.) (Paris, l838.)[73] [Whereas the Christian missionaries of bishops are limited to a certain class, we find that the Muslim missionaries penetrated into the heart of Africa and had access to the heathens and converted them to Islam. In this way, the Negroes conceived Islam as the religion of the Black and Christianity as the religion of the white and, although Christianity invited the Negro to salvation, it put him in a degraded place to the extent that he said to himself with great despair: ‘I have no share in this religion.’ But Islam invited man to salvation and said to him: ‘You could attain the highest possible degree if you do your best.’ Hence, a Negro entered this religion with enthusiasm of soul and body.]
A complete reversal
“The introduction of Islam into Arab society did not imply merely the sweeping away of a few barbarous and inhuman practices, but a complete reversal of the pre-existing ideals of life.”[74] A higher civilization
“The Mandingos, one of the finest races of Africa and, the most civilized, most intellectual and most respected of all Negroes have been among the most active missionaries of Islam, which was spread by them among the neighboring peoples. On the Guinea Coast, Muslim influences are spread chiefly by Hausa traders who are to be found in all commercial towns on this coast. Whenever they form a settlement, they at once build a mosque and, by their devout behavior and superior culture, they impress the heathen inhabitants. Whole tribes of fetish worshippers pass over to Islam as the result of their imitation of what they recognize to be a higher civilization than their own, without any particular efforts necessary in persuading them.[75] Enslavement may sometimes be guidance
“Freedom is, in many instances, the reward of conversion and devout minds have even recognized, in enslavement, God's guidance to the true faith as the negroes from the Upper Nile countries whom Doughty met in Arabia. "In those Africans there is no resentment that they have been made slaves even though cruel human-traffickers rent them from their parentage. The patrons who paid their price have adopted them into their households, the males are circumcised and — that which enfranchises their souls, even in the long passion of home-sickness — God has visited them in their mishap. They can say 'it was His grace,' since they thereby entered into the saving religion. This, therefore, they think is the better country where they are the Lord's free men. A land of a more civil life, the soil of the two noble Sanctuaries, the land of Mohammed: — for such they do give God thanks that their bodies were sometime sold into slavery!"”[76] Abyssinia: the conversion of the superior to Islam
“One of the chief reasons of the success of this faith (of Islam in Abyssinia)[77] seems to have been the moral superiority of the Muslims as compared with that of the Christian population of Abyssinia. Rüppell says that he frequently noticed in the course of his travels in Abyssinia that, when a post had to be filled which required that a thoroughly honest and trustworthy person should be selected, the choice always fell upon a Muhammadan. In comparison with the Christians, he says that they were more active and energetic; that every Muhammadan had his sons taught to read and write, whereas Christian children were only educated when they were intended for priesthood. This moral superiority of the Muhammadans in Abyssinia over the Christian population goes far to explain the continuous though slow progress made by Islam during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The degradation and apathy of the Abyssinian clergy and the interminable feuds of the Abyssinian chiefs have left Muhammadan influences free to work undisturbed.”[78] They were by no means fanatical
According to Mr. Plowden, who was the English consul in Abyssinia from 1844 to 1860, the Abyssinians were neither compelled nor persecuted to convert to Islam “as the Muhammadans here are said to have been by no means fanatical nor to have borne any particular enmity to Christianity.”[79] Spiritual rescue
“Very slowly and gradually, the Nubians seem to hav drifted from Christianity into Muhammadanism. The spiritual life of their Church had sunk to the lowest ebb and, as no movement of reform sprang up in their midst and having lost touch with the Christian Churches beyond their borders, it was only natural that they should seek for an expression of their spiritual aspirations in the religion of Islam. The religion whose followers had so long borne witness to its living power among them and had already won over some of their countrymen to the acceptance of it.”[80] Nonviolent spread of faith
“As fragmentary and insufficient as these data of the conversion of the Nubians are, we may certainly conclude from all we know of the independent character of this people and the tenacity with which they clung to the Christian faith, so long as it was a living force among them, that their change of religion was a gradual one, extending through several centuries.”[81] A civilizational step
“The very fact that the acceptance of Islam does imply an advance in civilization and is a very distinct step in the intellectual, moral and material progress of a Negro tribe helps very largely to explain the success of this faith.”[82]
[30] Edward Montet (1856-1927) is a French Orientalist born in Leon and is of Swiss origin where he received his education until 1874. Then, he moved to the universities of Jeneva, Berlin and Heidelberg and, in 1883, he earned a Ph.D. in theological protestanticism from Paris University. In 1885, he was appointed a professor of Hebrew, Aramaic and the Old Testament in Jeneva University and of Arabic and the History of Islam later in 1894. He presided over this university in 1910-1912 and was summoned by the French government for two scientific missions to Morocco. In 1910, he was summoned to deliver lectures on Islam in the institute of France. He was appointed a member of the Arab Scientific Academy of Damascus since its foundation. He was recognized for his studies about Arabs and Islam and was characterized by depth, authenticity and objectivity. He translated the Qur’an into French. Among his most famous books is Islam: its Present and Future.