History of the Moorish Empire in Europe, Vol. 1 (of 3)Scott, S. P. (Samuel Parsons)
Islamic
History of the Moorish Empire in Europe, Vol. 1 (of 3)
Scott, S. P. (Samuel Parsons)
Arabs -- Europe -- History; Islamic civilization; Muslims -- Spain -- History; Spain -- History -- 711-1516
significant appellation of The Faithful. His marital relations until
after the death of Khadijah were without reproach; a fact conceded by
his most implacable enemies. A profound knowledge of human nature, an
appreciation of the spiritual requirements of his countrymen--upon
whose minds the doctrines of Zoroaster and of Christ had made no
permanent impression--enabled him to fabricate a system demonstrated
by experience to be admirably fitted to the taste, the genius, and
the superstition of the Oriental. Without a supreme conviction of the
genuineness of his mission he could never have impressed his teachings
upon the minds of the satirical and incredulous Arabs, or have secured
proselytes among his kindred, to whom his daily intercourse would
have soon revealed sentiments and conduct wholly inconsistent with
his pretensions as a medium of divine authority. And yet, with all
the sincerity of his convictions, he thoroughly distrusted himself.
He repeatedly affirmed that he was but a man, a preacher, a reformer,
whose mission was the regeneration and the happiness of mankind. In
spite of his realistic descriptions of heaven and hell, he declared
that he was ignorant of what was in store for the soul after death. The
spirit which consolidated a hundred vagrant tribes distracted by the
feuds of centuries, deaf to offers of compromise and peace, so jealous
of every infringement of their personal liberty that they resented
even the benignant and patriarchal rule of their chieftains, into a
powerful empire; which noted the glaring absurdities of contemporaneous
creeds, and offered in their stead an idea of the Deity so simple,
and yet so comprehensive, that no mind, however bigoted, could
conscientiously reject it; which moulded into an harmonious system
the jarring interests of antagonistic races, and, by its maxims of
toleration, conciliated those sectaries who denied the authenticity of
its principles, and refused compliance with its ceremonial; which,
in consonance with ideas of policy far in advance of the time, united
the functions of ruler and priest without apparently giving undue
prominence to either; which founded a religion that has endured for
nearly thirteen centuries, and has claimed the devoted allegiance of
a thousand million men, can hardly with propriety be said to have
been created by the irrational and selfish impulses of insanity or
imposture. Rather may these results be designated the operations of a
master-mind actuated by a lofty ambition; a mind capable of solving the
most perplexing questions of statecraft, and endowed with a degree of
political wisdom not often exhibited by even those few whom the voice
of history has invested with the proud title of artificers of nations.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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