...
The religion which lived an unprospering and precarious life, so
long as it depended on the prophetic word alone, became an
aggressive and victorious power so soon as it was embodied in a
State.[40]
[Sidenote: And by von Kremer.]
Another learned and impartial authority tells us:
The Mussulman power under the first four caliphs was nothing but a
grand religio-political association of Arab tribes for universal
plunder and conquest under the holy banner of Islam, and the
watch-word, "There is no god but the Lord, and Mohammed is
his apostle." On pretext of spreading the only true religion the
Arabs swallowed up fair provinces lying all around, and, driving a
profitable business, enriched themselves simultaneously in a
worldly sense.[41]
[Sidenote: Religious merit of "fighting in the ways of the Lord."]
The motives which nerved the armies of Islam were a strange combination
of the lower instincts of nature with the higher aspirations of the
spirit. To engage in the Holy War was the rarest and most blessed of all
religious virtues, and conferred on the combatant a special merit; and
side by side with it lay the bright prospect of spoil and female slaves,
conquest and glory.
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