“DURING the first half of the seventh century,” says Dozy in his excellent work on Islám,* “everything followed its accustomed Dozy on the rise of the Arab power. course in the Byzantine as in the Persian Empire. These two states continued always to dispute the possession of Western Asia; they were, to all outward appearance, flourishing; the taxes which poured into the treasuries of their kings reached considerable sums, and the magnificence, as well as the luxury of their capitals had become proverbial. But all this was but in appearance, for a secret disease consumed both empires; they were burdened by a crushing despotism; on either hand the history of the dynasties formed a concatenation of horrors, that of the state a series of persecutions born of dissentions in religious matters. At this juncture it was that, all of a sudden, there emerged from deserts hardly known and appeared on the scene of the world a new people, hitherto divided into innumerable nomad tribes, who, for the most part, had been at war with one another, now for the first time united. It was this people, passionately attached to liberty, simple in their food and dress, noble and hospitable, gay and witty, but at the same time proud, irascible, and, once their passions were aroused, vindictive, irreconcilable and cruel, who overthrew in an instant the venerable but rotten Empire of the Persians, snatched from the successors of Constantine their fairest provinces, trampled under their feet a Germanic kingdom but lately founded, and menaced the rest of Europe, while at the same time, at the other end of the world, its victorious armies penetrated to the Himalayas. Yet it was not like so many other conquering peoples, for it preached at the same time a new religion. In opposition to the dualism of the Persians and a degenerate Christianity, it announced a pure monotheism which was accepted by millions of men, and which, even in our own time, constitutes the religion of a tenth part of the human race.”

We have seen that, as at the Battle of Dhú Qár, signs of the immense vitality and potential strength of the Arabs— hitherto regarded by their neighbours as a “negligible quantity”—were not altogether wanting even before the triumph of Islám; yet it was undoubtedly to Islám, that simple yet majestic creed of which no unprejudiced student can ignore the grandeur, that they owed the splendid part which they were destined to play in the history of civilisation. In judging of the Arabian Prophet, Western critics are too often inclined to ignore the condition from which he raised his country, and to forget that many institutions, such as slavery and polygamy, which they condemn were not introduced but only tolerated by Islám. The early Muslims were very sensible of the immense amelioration in their life effected by Muḥammad's teaching. What this amelioration was is well shown in the following passage from the oldest extant biography of the Prophet, that of Ibn Hishám († A.H. 213 = A.D. 828-9):—

“How the Negúsh summoned the Muhájirún* before him, and questioned them concerning their Religion; and their answer concerning this.

“Then he (i.e., the Negúsh or ruler of Abyssinia) sent unto the followers of the Apostle of God and summoned them. So Ibn Hishám's account of the Muslim exiles before the Negúsh of Abyssinia. when his messenger came unto them, they gathered together, and said one to another, ‘What will ye say to the man when ye come before him?’ ‘By Alláh!’ they replied, ‘we will declare what we know, and what our Apostle hath enjoined on us, come what may!’ So when they came to the Negúsh, he had convened his bishops, who had spread out their books round about him; and he inquired of them saying, ‘What is this religion by reason of which ye have separated from your people, yet enter not withal into my religion nor into the religion of any other of these churches?’

“Then answered him Ja'far the son of Abú Ṭálib (may God's approval rest upon him!) saying, ‘O King! We were a barbarous folk, worshipping idols, eating carrion, committing shameful deeds, violating the ties of consanguinity, and evilly entreating our neigh­bours, the strong amongst us consuming the weak; and thus we continued until God sent unto us an Apostle from our midst, whose pedigree and integrity and faithfulness and purity of life we knew, to summon us to God, that we should declare His unity, and worship Him, and put away the stones and idols which we and our fathers used to worship in His stead; and he bade us be truthful in speech, and faithful in the fulfilment of our trusts, and observing of the ties of consanguinity and the duties of neighbours, and to refrain from forbidden things and from blood; and he forbade us from immoral acts and deceitful words, and from consuming the property of orphans, and from slandering virtuous women; and he commanded us to worship God, and to associate naught else with Him, and to pray and give alms and fast.’ Then, when he had enumerated unto him the commandments of Islám, he continued, ‘So we accepted him as true and believed in him and followed him in that which he brought from God, worshipping God alone, and associating naught else with Him, and holding unlawful that which he prohibited to us, and lawful that which he sanctioned unto us. Then our people molested us, and persecuted us, and strove to seduce us from our faith, that they might bring us back from the worship of God to the worship of idols, and induce us to hold lawful the evil practices which we had formerly held lawful. So they strove to compel us, and oppressed us, and constrained us, and strove to come between us and our religion. Wherefore we came forth unto thy land, choosing thee over all beside thee, and eagerly desirous of thy protection. And now, O King, we pray that we may not be oppressed before thee!’

“Then said the Negúsh to him, ‘Hast with thee aught of that which thy Prophet received from God?’ ‘Yea,’ said Ja'far. ‘Then read it to me,’ said the Negúsh. So he read unto him the opening words of the súra entitled K.H.Y.'.Ṣ.,* and the Negúsh wept so that his beard was wet with his tears, and his bishops wept with him, until their books were wet with their tears, when they heard what he read unto them. Then said the Negúsh to them, ‘Verily this and that which Moses brought emanate from one Lamp. Go, for by Alláh I will not suffer them to get at you, nor even contemplate this.’”

To enter into a discussion as to the character and motives of the Prophet Muḥammad would lead us too far afield, more especially as these matters, together with his history, the development of his doctrines, and the progress—slow at first, but afterwards lightning-like in its rapidity—of his religion, have been ably and adequately discussed in the monographs of Sale, Sprenger, Muir, Krehl, Nöldeke, Boswell Smith, and Sayyid Amír 'Alí. Of these works the last, written from the point of view of a modern broad-minded and well­read Muslim, conversant alike with Eastern and Western views, is especially deserving of study by those who desire to understand the strong hold which Islám and its Prophet still have even on those Muslims who are most imbued with European culture and learning. The great strength of Islám lies in its simplicity, its adaptibility, its high yet perfectly attainable ethical standard. The Christian ethical standard is, we must admit, higher, but almost beyond the reach of the individual, and quite beyond the reach of the State. The ideal Muslim state is conceivable and was actually realised, or very nearly so, by Muḥammad's immediate successors, the four “Orthodox Caliphs,” whose rule the historian al-Fakhrí thus describes:—

“Know that this was a state not after the fashion of the states of this world, but rather resembling prophetic dispensations and Citation from al-Fakhrí. the conditions of the world to come. And the truth concerning it is that its fashion was after the fashion of the Prophets, and its conduct after the model of the Saints, while its victories were as those of mighty Kings. Now as for its fashion, this was hardship in life and simplicity in food and raiment; one of them (i.e., the early Caliphs) would walk through the streets on foot, wearing but a tattered shirt reaching half-way down his leg, and sandals on his feet, and carrying in his hand a whip, wherewith he inflicted punishment on such as deserved it. And their food was of the humblest of their poor; the Commander of the Faithful (on whom be peace!) spoke of honey and fine bread as typical of luxury, for he said in one of his speeches, ‘If I wished, I could have the finest of this honey and the softest of this barley-bread.’

“Know further that they were not abstinent in respect to their food and raiment from poverty or inability to procure the most sumptuous apparel or the sweetest meats, but they used to do this in order to put themselves on an equality with the poorest of their subjects, and to wean the flesh from its lusts, and to discipline it till it should accustom itself to its highest potentialities; else was each one of them endowed with ample wealth, and palm-groves, and gardens, and other like possessions. But most of their expenditure was in charitable uses and offerings; the Commander of the Faithful 'Alí (on whom be peace!) had from his properties an abundant revenue, all of which he spent on the poor and needy, while he and his family contented themselves with coarse cotton garments and a loaf of barley-bread.