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times, plundering, looting, burning, destroying temples and carrying off captives as slaves to his capital. It was, however, Mohammed Ghori (1175-1206) who laid the foundations of Mohammedan rule at Delhi, the Capital of India. The Mohammedan empire of Delhi expanded between 1175 and 1340 to its highest level, and then it began to sink under the pressure of new Hindu and petty Mohammedan princes that arose in the country. When Hindus and Mohammedans were disputing one with another for political ascendency at Delhi, the Mogul Prince Baber, descended from Timur and Chenghis Khan, made an invasion of Delhi in 1526 and made himself emperor of Delhi. The Mogul Empire attained its zenith in the reign of Akber, who reigned from 1556 to 1605, and who was easily the most outstanding sovereign of his times, more tolerant toward other religions than the benighted European princes and princesses of the sixteenth century, more liberal and ahead of his times by many a century in his conception of a synthesis of all religions into a universal one. The Mogul Empire, however, embraced the largest territorial area under Aurangzeb (who reigned from 1659 to 1707), the fanatical zealot of Islam. After his death there was no central power competent enough to govern India in a peaceful and orderly manner. The rise of the Mahrattas in the South under the leadership of Sivaji challenged the Mogul ascendency, and the viceroys of the Mogul Emperor in Bengal, Oudh and other provinces made themselves independent. This confusion was made worse confounded by the interplay of another set of alien forces, namely the Portuguese, the Dutch, the English and the French, who all came to India as peaceful traders and cast their lustful eyes on the riches of the people of Hindusthan who pectingly received them with open arms. we shall devote our attention later on. try to understand what Mohammedanism really stands

had unsusBut to that First, let us

for and what it has contributed to India and to the world.

"Chronologically the latest of the great Moral leaders, Mohammed, like Moses, the Prophets, Jesus and Paul, belonged to the Semitic branch of the human family. He was the founder of the least appreciated and most misunderstood of the world's great religions. It originated thirteen centuries ago on the Arabian peninsula, where the streams of commerce and culture met and mingled in the Middle Ages, where the markets of exchange were stationed for the treasures of India and the products of the Mediterranean coasts. There this religion was established in the unprecedented short period of twenty years and, unlike many another religion, without the aid of any royal patronage and support. Buddhism had its Asoka, Zoroastrianism its Vishtaspa, Judaism its Joshua, Christianity its Constantine, but Mohammedanism had no person of royal rank and power to assist in its establishment and spread.

"Today this religion is acknowledged by nearly two hundred and fifty million souls and extends over an area equal to one-third of the globe. From Arabia it spread eastward over Persia, Turkestan, Afghanistan; westward, across Syria, Asia Minor, Turkey; southward, to Africa, covering more than half of that continent. It found its way to India, and beyond, to the islands of Sumatra, Java and Borneo.

"Already within the first fifty years of its formation this religion extended from the Indus to the Tagus and from the Volga to the Arabian Sea. The Niger and the Nile, the Jordan and the Ganges, the Maritza and the Yang-tse-Kiang, all fertilize Mohammedan soil. Twice did this religion threaten to overrun Europe. Days there have been that were big with the fate of the world. On such a day Themistocles met Xerxes, ordaining that Europe should receive her civilization from Greece rather than from Persia. On such a day, in the year 732, Charles Martel met Abd-er-Rahman and forthwith the cross, not

the crescent, became the emblem of the European faith. So, again, in 1683, when John, King of Poland, at the head of twenty thousand soldiers defeated the Mohammedan army at Vienna, it was once more decreed that Mohammedanism should not be the religion of Europe. Yet it must be remembered that to the early representatives of this faith the world's debt is incalculably great. For it was they who transmitted the treasures of Greek literature from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance; they who originated the graceful art forms of which the Taj-Mahal and the Alhambra are the most famous examples. It was they who contributed to the sciences of algebra and chemistry, astronomy and medicine; they who dotted the Saracen empire with universities and who built at Bagdad and at Cairo the most renowned libraries in the world. During those centuries of ecclesiastical despotism when the Christian Church suppressed all intellectual activities save those that were theological, causing the talent that reproduces to supplant the genius that creates, Mohammedans did all in their power to encourage and stimulate research in every branch of human inquiry. No medieval pope or bishop ever sent thanks to a thinker for scientific discovery, but the sheik, Ul-Islam, sent congratulations and the benedictions of Allah to Al Hassan for his discovery of a fundamental law in optics. When London was a city of hovels and the stench in its streets such that no one could breathe its polluted air with impunity, Cordova was noted for the cleanliness and beauty of her streets and squares. Arabic is the most widely spoken language in the world and though Chinese characters are used by more people, knowledge of Arabic will carry one farther round the world. And with the Arabic vocabulary has gone the Mohammedan religion. Today we decorate our walls and floors with fabrics that Mohammedans taught us to weave. We regale our senses with perfumes they taught us to make, we teach our children the algebra and higher mathematics which they taught the

fathers." Thus Mr. Alfred W. Martin, of the Ethical Culture Society, New York City, in his book "Great Religious Teachers of the East." (Heavy type is mine.)

Concerning Mohammed and his followers, the Christians have fantastic notions. The Christian thinks that the Mohammedan is marked by two characteristics: namely, that he is addicted to the pleasant vice of polygamy and that when he wants a little diversion from polygamous pursuits, he takes to slaughtering the lamb-like innocent Christians. Effeminacy and brutality cannot produce lasting works; and if they have produced lasting works as noted above, the Mohammedans were certainly neither effeminate nor brutal. Doubtless, they have on occasions taken up the sword for the spread and defense of their religion. But their zeal for the salvation of the "heathen" socalled did not surpass the ferocity of the Franciscan Friars who spread the Gospel of meekness and humility by "fire and sword."

"The rapidity of the spread of Islam, the religion of Mohammed, and the dramatic suddenness with which the adherents of his creed rose to a position of dominant sovereignty constitute one of the marvels, or it might be said miracles of history. The prophet Mohammed, a native of Mecca, was more than fifty years of age before he attained any considerable success. He believed himself to be the divinely appointed messenger of a revelation destined to supersede the Jewish and Christian religions, as well as the rude paganism of his countrymen. His fellow-countrymen in Mecca were so hostile that in A. D. 622 he was obliged to quit his birthplace and take refuge at Medina. * * The remaining ten years of his life sufficed to make him substantially the sovereign of Arabia and the accepted Prophet of the Arabs. Soon after his death in A. D. 632 his successors, the early Khalifs (Caliphs) found themselves in conflict with the mighty Persian and Byzantine empires. Nothing could withstand the furious enthusiasm of the Arabs

from the desert, beneath whose attack ancient thrones tottered and fell. Within the brief space of eighty years from the Prophet's death his Arab followers had become the masters, not only of Arabia, but of Persia, Syria, western Turkistan, Sind, Egypt and southern Spain."*

To refute the preposterous notion of the apostacy of Mohammed one needs only to quote two or three significant events in his life. When tempting offers of wealth were made to him in return for desisting from preaching "the truth revealed to him," Mohammed braveley said, "Were I to be offered the sun in my right hand and the moon in my left hand to induce me to abandon my undertaking, the offer would be futile, for I will not rest until the Lord carry His cause to victory, or till I die for it." Such surely is not the language nor the conduct of an imposter. While they were in hiding, his friend and disciple said despairingly, "We are only two," whereupon Mohammed said, "There is a Third with us: God." What more eloquent testimony to his mission is needed? He made no claim to be infallible, sinless or supernatural. "Praise me not," said he "as Jesus was praised. I am liable to err as other men-I too need forgiveness for sin."

What historian worthy the name does not know of the greatness, gentleness and nobility of Abu-Bekr, the Prophet's close friend and supporter, and of the Caliph Omar, his successor? The followers of Mohammed do not concern themselves with the airy flights of metaphysics nor with the mysteries of introspection: they take their stand on but a few tangible principles, which are inviolate and sacred to themnamely: that Mohammed was the messenger of God, Allah, who is One and the sole author of creation; that the Quran (Koran) is the revealed word of God; that idolatry is blasphemous; that prohibition of spirituous liquors is compulsory because it is ordained in

*Quoted from "The Oxford History of India" by V. A. Smith.

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