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THE MAKING OF EUROPE / EARLY EUROPEAN HISTORY

From Hutton Webster's, Early European History (1917); edited for this on-line publication, by ELLOPOS

XIII. THE ORIENT AGAINST THE OCCIDENT: RISE AND SPREAD OF ISLAM, 622-1058 A.D.

Em. Macron, Rediscovering the Path to Europe

» Contents of this Chapter

Arabia and the Arabs   * Mohammed: Prophet and Statesman, 622-632 A.D.   * Islam and the Koran   * Expansion of Islam in Asia and Egypt   * Expansion of Islam in North Africa and Spain   * The Caliphate and its Disruption, 632-1058 A.D.   * Arabian Civilization   * The Influence of Islam

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EXPANSION OF ISLAM IN ASIA AND EGYPT

ISLAM SPREAD BY THE SWORD

Mohammed, as we have learned, did not scruple to use the sword as a means of spreading his new religion among the idolatrous Arab tribes. By thus following up preaching with force, he subdued the greater part of Arabia. The prophet's methods were adopted by his successors. Within a century after Mohammed's death, they carried the doctrines of Islam over a large part of the civilized world and founded an Arabian Empire.

ISLAM AS A RELIGION OF CONQUEST

Islam was a religion of conquest. It proclaimed the righteousness of a "holy war," or jihad, against unbelievers. It promised rich booty for those who fought and won, and paradise for those who fell. The Arab soldier, dying on the battlefield, expected to be carried away by bright- eyed maidens to a garden of delight, where, reclining on soft cushions and rugs, he was to enjoy forever an existence of sensual ease. "Whosoever falls in battle," so runs a passage in the Koran, "his sins are forgiven, and at the day of judgment his limbs shall be supplied by the wings of angels and cherubim."

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THE MAKING OF EUROPE / EARLY EUROPEAN HISTORY: Table of Contents

url: www.ellopos.net/politics/european-history/default.asp

IN PRINT

Cf. The Ancient Greece * The Ancient Rome
Eastern Roman Empire (Byzantium) * Western Medieval Europe * Renaissance in Italy