Arabic Authors: A Manual of Arabian History and LiteratureArbuthnot, F. F.
History
Arabic Authors: A Manual of Arabian History and Literature
Arbuthnot, F. F.
Arabian Peninsula -- History; Arabic literature -- History and criticism
Doubtless, during this residence in the desert Moses legislated both
morally and socially for the Jews, as Muhammad did for the Arabs at
Madinah. But as the Koran was not put together during Muhammad's
lifetime, so it is also highly probable that the Pentateuch, or five
books of Moses, were not collected and collated till some time after
his death, which last is described in the work itself.[6] Indeed, many
things mentioned in them show a more advanced state of civilization
than the children of Israel enjoyed during their wanderings in the
desert.
[Footnote 6: This subject is treated at considerable length
by Dr. A. Kuenen in 'The Religion of Israel,' translated by
Alfred Heath May from the Dutch. Williams and Norgate:
London, 1882.]
But, still, to Moses the Jews owe their nationality, as the Arabs owed
theirs to Muhammad. The former found a weak people, united to a
certain extent, but quite unaccustomed to fighting and hardship, and
he welded them sufficiently together to enable them, under his
successors, to establish themselves in the promised land. The latter
found Arabia inhabited by a quantity of tribes, more or less hostile
to each other, but brave to a degree; fond of fighting and plundering,
and always at it; full of local jealousies and internal enmities,
which kept them separate. Muhammad not only induced them to believe in
one God, but also brought them together to such, an extent that his
successors were able to launch them as united warriors and conquerors
throughout the East, and to found an empire for the time being far
greater, grander, and more important than Canaan, as divided among the
twelve tribes, or the dominions of David and Solomon.
As a military leader Muhammad was not particularly celebrated. The
military expeditions undertaken by him in person are variously stated
to have been from nineteen to twenty-seven in number, whilst those in
which he was not present are stated to have amounted to more than
fifty. With the exception of one or two to the Syrian frontier, they
were chiefly directed against the Arabs and the Jews in Arabia, but
none of them were of the magnitude of those undertaken by his
successors, Abu Bakr and Omar, who, with the aid of the generals
Khalid, son of Walid, Mothanna, Amr bin Al'Aasi, and others, made
great conquests, and finally established the Muslim faith on a firm
and lasting basis. The details of these successes are admirably told
in Muir's 'Annals of the Early Khalifate.'
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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