Note 214 — BOOK IV. (continued 2)

The Turks, thirty years before the taking of Jerusalem by the Christians, had scarcely met with any resistance to their invasions of some of the richest provinces of Asia, because the Mussulman religion, which they had recently embraced, was that of the countries against which they directed their arms. If the Tartars at different epochs have invaded several countries of the globe, and have maintained themselves in them, it was because on issuing from their deserts they had almost no religion, and were thus disposed to adopt any advantageous faith they might meet with in their passage. It will be objected to me that the Arabians, in the first ages of the Hegira, invaded a great part of Asia and Africa, where they found other religions than their own long established; but it may be answered that these religions were sinking to decay. When the Mussulmans presented themselves in Europe, where the Christian religion was better established than in the East, this religion offered an insurmountable barrier to their progress.