Nor were the temporal inducements to conversion confined
to the period during which the Saracens were engaged in spreading Islam
by force of arms. Let us come down a couple of centuries from the time
of Mohammed, and take the reign of the tolerant and liberal-minded
sovereign, Al Mamun.
[Sidenote: Evidence of Al Kindy in second century of Hegira, A.D. 830.
Speech of Al Mamun.]
Among the philosophers of all creeds whom that great caliph gathered
around him at Bagdad was a noble Arab of the Nestorian faith, descended
from the kingly tribe of the Beni Kinda, and hence called _Al Kindy_. A
friend of this Eastern Christian, himself a member of the royal family,
invited Al Kindy to embrace Islam in an epistle enlarging on the
distinguished rank which, in virtue of his descent, he would (if a true
believer) occupy at court, and the other privileges, spiritual and
material, social and conjugal, which he would enjoy. In reply the
Christian wrote an apology of singular eloquence and power, throwing a
flood of light on the worldly inducements which, even at that
comparatively late period, abounded in a Moslem state to promote
conversion to Islam. Thus Al Mamun himself, in a speech delivered before
his council, characterizes certain of his courtiers accused as secret
adherents of the Zoroastrian faith:
"Though professing Islam, they are free from the same.
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