{"product_id":"2940015630572","title":"Mohammedanism","description":"CONTENTS\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSOME POINTS CONCERNING THE ORIGIN OF ISLÂM.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eTHE RELIGIOUS DEVELOPMENT OF ISLÂM.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eTHE POLITICAL DEVELOPMENT OF ISLÂM.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eISLÂM AND MODERN THOUGHT.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eINDEX.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eMohammedanism\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSOME POINTS CONCERNING THE ORIGIN OF ISLÂM\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThere are more than two hundred million people who call themselves after\u003cbr\u003ethe name of Mohammed, would not relinquish that name at any price, and\u003cbr\u003ecannot imagine a greater blessing for the remainder of humanity than to be\u003cbr\u003eincorporated into their communion. Their ideal is no less than that the\u003cbr\u003ewhole earth should join in the faith that there is no god but Allah and\u003cbr\u003ethat Mohammed is Allah's last and most perfect messenger, who brought the\u003cbr\u003elatest and final revelation of Allah to humanity in Allah's own words. This\u003cbr\u003ealone is enough to claim our special interest for the Prophet, who in the\u003cbr\u003eseventh century stirred all Arabia into agitation and whose followers soon\u003cbr\u003eafter his death founded an empire extending from Morocco to China.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eEven those who--to my mind, not without gross exaggeration--would seek the\u003cbr\u003eexplanation of the mighty stream of humanity poured out by the Arabian\u003cbr\u003epeninsula since 630 over Western and Middle Asia, Northern Africa, and\u003cbr\u003eSouthern Europe principally in geographic and economic causes, do not\u003cbr\u003eignore the fact that it was Mohammed who opened the sluice gates. It would\u003cbr\u003eindeed be difficult to maintain that without his preaching the Arabs of the\u003cbr\u003eseventh century would have been induced by circumstances to swallow up\u003cbr\u003ethe empire of the Sasanids and to rob the Byzantine Empire of some of its\u003cbr\u003erichest provinces. However great a weight one may give to political and\u003cbr\u003eeconomic factors, it was religion, Islâm, which in a certain sense united\u003cbr\u003ethe hitherto hopelessly divided Arabs, Islâm which enabled them to found\u003cbr\u003ean enormous international community; it was Islâm which bound the speedily\u003cbr\u003econverted nations together even after the shattering of its political\u003cbr\u003epower, and which still binds them today when only a miserable remnant of\u003cbr\u003ethat power remains.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe aggressive manner in which young Islâm immediately put itself in\u003cbr\u003eopposition to the rest of the world had the natural consequence of\u003cbr\u003eawakening an interest which was far from being of a friendly nature.\u003cbr\u003eMoreover men were still very far from such a striving towards universal\u003cbr\u003epeace as would have induced a patient study of the means of bringing the\u003cbr\u003edifferent peoples into close spiritual relationship, and therefore from an\u003cbr\u003eendeavour to understand the spiritual life of races different to their own.\u003cbr\u003eThe Christianity of that time was itself by no means averse to the\u003cbr\u003eforcible extension of its faith, and in the community of Mohammedans which\u003cbr\u003esystematically attempted to reduce the world to its authority by force of\u003cbr\u003earms, it saw only an enemy whose annihilation was, to its regret, beyond\u003cbr\u003eits power. Such an enemy it could no more observe impartially than one\u003cbr\u003emodern nation can another upon which it considers it necessary to make war.\u003cbr\u003eEverything maintained or invented to the disadvantage of Islâm was greedily\u003cbr\u003eabsorbed by Europe; the picture which our forefathers in the Middle Ages\u003cbr\u003eformed of Mohammed's religion appears to us a malignant caricature. The\u003cbr\u003erare theologians[1] who, before attacking the false faith, tried to form a\u003cbr\u003eclear notion of it, were not listened to, and their merits have only become\u003cbr\u003eappreciated in our own time. A vigorous combating of the prevalent fictions\u003cbr\u003econcerning Islâm would have exposed a scholar to a similar treatment to\u003cbr\u003ethat which, fifteen years ago, fell to the lot of any Englishman who\u003cbr\u003emaintained the cause of the Boers; he would have been as much of an outcast\u003cbr\u003eas a modern inhabitant of Mecca who tried to convince his compatriots of\u003cbr\u003ethe virtues of European policy and social order.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e[Footnote 1: See for instance the reference to the exposition of the\u003cbr\u003ePaderborn bishop Olivers (1227) in the Paderborn review _Theologie und\u003cbr\u003eGlaube_, Jahrg. iv., p. 535, etc. (_Islâm_, iv., p. 186); also some of the\u003cbr\u003eaccounts mentioned in Güterbock, _Der Islâm im Lichte der byzantinischen\u003cbr\u003ePolemik_, etc.]\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eTwo and a half centuries ago, a prominent Orientalist,[2] who wrote\u003cbr\u003ean exposition of Mohammed's teaching, felt himself obliged to give an\u003cbr\u003eelaborate justification of his undertaking in his \"Dedicatio.\" He appeals\u003cbr\u003eto one or two celebrated predecessors and to learned colleagues, who have\u003cbr\u003eexpressly instigated him to this work.","brand":"SAP","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47080852652272,"sku":"2940015630572","price":0.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940015630572","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}