of intolerance than either of the former.
The laws of war, according to the Mohammedans, have been already so exactly
set down by the learned Reland,6 that I need say very little of them. I
shall, therefore, only observe some conformity between their military laws and
those of the Jews.
While Mohammedism was in its infancy, the opposers thereof taken in battle
were doomed to death, without mercy; but this was judged too severe to be put
in practice when that religion came to be sufficiently established, and past
the danger of being subverted by its enemies.1 The same sentence was
pronounced not only against the seven Canaanitish nations,2 whose possessions
were given to the Israelites, and without whose destruction, in a manner, they
could not have settled themselves in the country designed them, but against
the
1 Deut. xx. 8. 2 Jerem. xlviii. 10. 3 I Sam. xxv. 28,
29. 4 Nicolaus, in Jure Canon. c. omnium, 23, quæst. 5. 5 Leo
IV. ibid. quæst. 8. 6 In his treatise De Jure Militari
Mohammedanor. in the third vol. of his Dissertationes Miscellanæe.
1 See Kor. c. 47. and the notes there; and c. 4, p. 64; c. 5, p. 77.
2 Deut. xx. 16-18.
Amalekites3 and Midianites,4 who had done their utmost to cut them off in
their passage thither. When the Mohammedans declare war against people of a
different faith, they give them their choice of three offers, viz., either to
embrace Mohammedism, in which case they become not only secure in their
persons, families, and fortunes, but entitled to all the privileges of other
Moslems; or to submit and pay tribute,5 by doing which they are allowed to
profess their own religion, provided it be not gross idolatry or against the
moral law; or else to decide the quarrel by the sword, in which last case, if
the Moslems prevail, the women and children which are made captives become
absolute slaves, and the men taken in the battle may either be slain, unless
they turn Mohammedans, or otherwise disposed of at the pleasure of the
prince.6 Herewith agree the laws of war given to the Jews, which relate to
the nations not devoted to destruction;7 and Joshua is said to have sent even
to the inhabitants of Canaan, before he entered the land, three schedules, in
one of which was written, "Let him fly, who will;" in the second, "Let him who
surrender, who will;" and in the third, "Let him fight, who will;"8 though
none of those nations made peace with the Israelites (except only the
Gibeonites, who obtained terms of security by stratagem, after they had
refused those offered by Joshua), "it being of the LORD to harden their
hearts, that he might destroy them utterly."9
On the first considerable success of Mohammed in war, the dispute which
happened among his followers in relation to the dividing of the spoil,
rendered it necessary for him to make some regulation therein; he therefore
pretended to have received the divine commission to distribute the spoil among
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account