[27] It seems strange that in the face of these passages, some have denied that Islam was originally intended by its founder to be a universal religion. Thus Sir William Muir says, “That the heritage of Islam is the world, was an afterthought. The idea, spite of much prophetic tradition, had been conceived but dimly, if at all, by Mahomet himself. His world was Arabia, and for it the new dispensation was ordained. From first to last the summons was to Arabs and to none other.... The seed of a universal creed had indeed been sown; but that it ever germinated was due to circumstance rather than design.” (The Caliphate, pp. 43–4.) Caetani is the latest exponent of this view. (Annali dell’Islām, vol. v. pp. 323–4.) [28] Ibn Saʻd, § 10. This story may indeed be apocryphal, but is significant at least of the early realisation of the missionary character of Islam. [29] A. von Kremer (3), pp. 309, 310. [30] This would seem to be acknowledged even by Muir, when speaking of the massacre of the Banū Qurayẓah (A.H. 6): “The ostensible grounds upon which Mahomet proceeded were purely political, for as yet he did not profess to force men to join Islam, or to punish them for not embracing it.” (Muir (2), vol. iii. p. 282.) [31] Ibn Isḥāq, p. 648 sq. [32] Muir (2), vol. iv. pp. 107–8. See also Caetani, vol. i. p. 663. “Assai più che tutte le prediche del Profeta, assai più che tutta la bontà delle dottrine islamiche, siffatti vantaggi militari contribuirono al aumentare il numero dei seguaci. La rapidità della diffusione dell’Islām divenne in special modo sensibile per il contegno et per lo spirito di tolleranza, di libertà, e di opportunismo, che diresse il Profeta nei suoi rapporti con i convertiti.” [33] Ibn Isḥāq, p. 943–4. (This story rests on somewhat doubtful authority, cf. Caetani, vol. i. p. 610.) [34] Ibn Saʻd, § 118. [35] Ibn Isḥāq, pp. 252–4. [36] Caetani, vol. ii. t. i. p. 341. [37] Ibn Saʻd, § 56. [38] Ibn Saʻd, § 85. [39] Id. § 86. [40] Id. § 91. [41] See Sprenger, vol. iii. pp. 360–1. [42] Caetani, vol. ii. p. 433. [43] Caetani, vol. ii. p. 429. [44] This has been nowhere more fully and excellently brought out than in the scholarly work of Prof. Ignaz Goldziher (Muhammedanische Studien, vol. i.), from which I have derived the following considerations. [45] Döllinger, pp. 5–6. [46] Caetani, Studi di Storia Orientale, I, p. 365 sqq. (Milano, 1911.) [47] This interpretation of the Arab conquests as the last of the great Semitic migrations has been worked out in a masterly manner by Caetani, vol. ii. pp. 831–61. [48] Caetani, vol. ii. p. 455; vol. v. p. 521. (“In Madīnah si formò un considerevole nucleo religioso, composto d’elementi eterogenei, ma forse in maggioranza madinesi, i quali presero l’Islām molto sul serio e cercarono sinceramente di osservare la nuova dottrina, per la convinzione che, così agendo facevan bene, ed in devoto omaggio alla volontà del Profeta.”) [49] Masʻūdī, tome iv. p. 238.