Chapter III · THE SPREAD OF ISLAM AMONG THE CHRISTIAN NATIONS OF WESTERN ASIA.
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After the death of Muḥammad, the army he had intended for Syria was despatched thither by Abū Bakr, in spite of the protestations made by certain Muslims in view of the then disturbed state of Arabia. He silenced their expostulations with the words: “I will not revoke any order given by the Prophet. Medina may become the prey of wild beasts, but the army must carry out the wishes of Muḥammad.” This was the first of that wonderful series of campaigns in which the Arabs overran Syria, Persia and Northern Africa—overturning the ancient kingdom of Persia and despoiling the Roman Empire of some of its fairest provinces. It does not fall within the scope of this work to follow the history of these different campaigns, but, in view of the expansion of the Muslim faith that followed the Arab conquests, it is of importance to discover what were the circumstances that made such an expansion possible.
If we turn from the Bedouins to consider the attitude of the settled inhabitants of the towns and the non-Arab population towards the new religion, we do not find that the Arab conquest was so rapidly followed by conversions to Islam. The Christians of the great cities of the eastern provinces of the Byzantine empire seem for the most part to have remained faithful to their ancestral creed, to which indeed they still in large numbers cling.
In order that we may fully appreciate their condition under the Muslim rule, and estimate the influences that led to occasional conversions, it will be well briefly to sketch their situation under the Christian rule of the Byzantine empire which fell back before the Arab arms.
But Heraclius shared the fate of so many would-be peace-makers: for not only did the controversy blaze up again all the more fiercely, but he himself was stigmatised as a heretic and drew upon himself the wrath of both parties.
Tribute was imposed upon them of five dīnārs for the rich, four for the middle class and three for the poor. In company with the Patriarch, ʻUmar visited the holy places, and it is said while they were in the Church of the Resurrection, as it was the appointed hour of prayer, the Patriarch bade the caliph offer his prayers there, but he thoughtfully refused, saying that if he were to do so, his followers might afterwards claim it as a place of Muslim worship.
Living under this security of life and property and such toleration of religious thought, the Christian community—especially in the towns—enjoyed a flourishing prosperity in the early days of the Caliphate.
Further, the general adoption of the Arabic language throughout the empire of the caliphate, especially in the towns and the great centres of population, and the gradual assimilation in manners and customs that in the course of about two centuries caused the numerous conquered races to be largely merged in the national life of the ruling race, had no doubt a counterpart in the religious and intellectual life of many members of the protected religions. The rationalistic movement that so powerfully influenced Muslim theology from the second to the fifth century of the Hijrah may very possibly have influenced Christian thinkers, and turned them from a religion, the prevailing tone of whose theology seems at this time to have been Credo quia impossibile. A Muhammadan writer of the fourth century of the Hijrah has preserved for us a conversation with a Coptic Christian which may safely be taken as characteristic of the general mental attitude of the rest of the Eastern Churches at this period:—
The Georgian Church (founded in the early part of the fourth century) was an offshoot from the Greek Church, with which she has always remained in communion, although from the middle of the sixth century the Patriarch or Katholikos of the Georgian Church declared himself independent. Torn asunder by internal discords and exposed to the successive attacks of Greeks, Persians, Arabs, Turks and Mongols, the history of this heroic warrior people is one of almost uninterrupted warfare against foreign foes and of fiercely contested feuds between native chiefs: the reigns of one or two powerful monarchs who secured for their subjects brief intervals of peace, serving only to bring out in more striking contrast the normally unsettled state of the country. The fierce independent spirit of the Georgians that could not brook a foreign rule has often exasperated well-nigh to madness the fury of their Muhammadan neighbours, when they failed to impose upon them either their civil authority or their religion. It is this circumstance—that a change of faith implied loss of political independence—which explains in a great measure the fact that the Georgian Church inscribes the names of so many martyrs in her calendar, while the annals of the Greek Church during the same period have no such honoured roll to show.
Notes in this chapter
Note 1 · Döllinger, pp. 5–6. ↑Note 2 · Caetani, Studi di Storia Orientale, I, p. 365 sqq. (Milano, 1911.) ↑Note 3 · This interpretation of the Arab conquests as the last of the great Semitic migrations has been worked out in a masterly manner by Caetani, vNote 4 · Caetani, vol. ii. p. 455; vol. v. p. 521. (“In Madīnah si formò un considerevole nucleo religioso, composto d’elementi eterogenei, ma forse Note 5 · Masʻūdī, tome iv. p. 238. ↑Note 6 · Muir’s Caliphate, pp. 121–2. ↑Note 7 · Caetani, vol. iii. p. 814 (§ 323). ↑Note 8 · Caetani, vol. ii. pp. 260, 299, 351. ↑Note 9 · Id. pp. 792–3; vol. iii. p. 253 (§ 8). ↑Note 10 · Id. pp. 1112–15. ↑Note 11 · Muir, Caliphate, pp. 90–4. ↑Note 12 · Caetani, vol. ii. p. 299. Wellhausen, iv. p. 156 (n. 5). ↑Note 13 · Ṭabarī, Prima Series, p. 2482. ↑Note 14 · For an exhaustive study of the jizyah, with a masterly array and critical examination of all the available historical materials, see CaetaniNote 15 · Caetani (vol. iv. p. 227) believes that this story is the invention of a later epoch, to explain the fiscal anomaly of a Christian tribe beiNote 16 · The few meagre notices of this tribe in the works of Arabic historians have been admirably summarised by Lammens: Le Chantre des Omiades. (JNote 17 · Caetani, vol. ii. p. 1180. ↑Note 18 · Barhebræus (3), pp. 134–5. ↑Note 19 · Caetani, vol. ii. p. 828. ↑Note 20 · Ṭabarī, i. p. 2041. ↑Note 21 · Masʻūdī, tome iv. p. 256. ↑Note 22 · “Gli Arabi nei primi anni non perseguitarono invece alcuno per ragioni di fede, non si diedero pena alcuna per convertire chicchessia, sicchNote 23 · Sir Henry Layard: Early Adventures in Persia, Susiana and Babylonia, vol. i. p. 100. (London, 1887); R. Hartmann: Die Herrschaft von al-KaraNote 24 · Burckhardt (2), p. 564. ↑Note 25 · W. G. Palgrave: Essays on Eastern Questions, pp. 206–8. (London, 1872.) ↑Note 26 · I. A. Dorner: A System of Christian Doctrine, vol. iii. pp. 215–16. (London, 1885.) J. C. Robertson: History of the Christian Church, vol. iNote 27 · That such fears were not wholly groundless may be judged from the emperor’s intolerant behaviour towards many of the Monophysite party in hiNote 28 · Michael the Elder, vol. ii. pp. 412–13. Barhebræus, about a century later, wrote in a similar strain. (Chronicon Ecclesiasticum, ed. J. B. ANote 29 · Azdī, p. 97. ↑Note 30 · Balād͟hurī, p. 137. ↑Note 31 · Caetani, vol. iii. p. 813; vol. v. p. 394. (“Gli abitanti accettarono con non celato favore il mutamento di governo, appena ebbero compreso Note 32 · Gottheil has brought together a valuable collection of documentary evidence as to the condition of the protected peoples under Muslim rule iNote 33 · Balād͟hurī, pp. 74 (ad fin.), 116, 121 (med.). ↑Note 34 · For a discussion of this document, see Caetani, vol. iii. p. 952 sqq. ↑Note 35 · Ṭabarī, i. p. 2405. ↑Note 36 · Balād͟hurī, p. 129. ↑Note 37 · Ibn Sʻad, III, i. p. 246. ↑Note 38 · Mémoire sur la conquête de la Syrie, p. 143 sq. ↑Note 39 · Annali dell’Islām, vol. iii. p. 957. ↑Note 40 · Some authorities on Muhammadan law held that this rule did not extend to villages and hamlets, in which the construction of churches was notNote 41 · “The ʻUlamāʼ are divided in opinion on the question of the teaching of the Qurʼān: the sect of Mālik forbids it: that of Abū Ḥanīfah allows Note 42 · Such as the forms of greeting, etc., that are only to be used by Muslims to one another. ↑Note 43 · Abū Yūsuf (p. 82) says that Christians were to be allowed to go in procession once a year with crosses, but not with banners; outside the ciNote 44 · The nāqūs, lit. an oblong piece of wood, struck with a rod. ↑Note 45 · Gottheil, pp. 382–4, where references are given to the various versions of this document. ↑Note 46 · There is evidence to show that the Arab conquerors left unchanged the fiscal system that they found prevailing in the lands they conquered fNote 47 · Goldziher, vol. i. pp. 50–7, 427–30. Caetani, vol. v. p. 311 sqq. ↑Note 48 · Caetani, vol. v. pp. 424 (§ 752), 432. ↑Note 49 · Balād͟hurī, pp. 124–5. ↑Note 50 · A. von Kremer (1), vol. i. pp. 60, 436. ↑Note 51 · A dirham is about fivepence. ↑Note 52 · Bell, pp. xxv, 173. ↑Note 53 · Abū Yūsuf, pp. 69–71. ↑Note 54 · Ṭabarī, Prima Series, p. 2055. ↑Note 55 · Id. p. 2050. ↑Note 56 · Abū Yūsuf, p. 81. ↑Note 57 · Balād͟hurī, p. 159. ↑Note 58 · Ṭabarī, Prima Series, p. 2665. ↑Note 59 · Marsigli, vol. i. p. 86 (he calls them “Musellim”). ↑Note 60 · Finlay, vol. vi. pp. 30, 33. ↑Note 61 · Lazăr, p. 56. ↑Note 62 · De la Jonquière, p. 14. ↑Note 63 · Thomas Smith, p. 324. ↑Note 64 · Dorostamus, p. 326. ↑Note 65 · De la Jonquière, p. 265. ↑Note 66 · Lammens, p. 13. ↑Note 67 · Ibn Abī Usaybiʻah, vol. i. p. 164. ↑Note 68 · Michael the Elder, vol. ii. p. 475. ↑Note 69 · Mārī b. Sulaymān, p. 71 (l. 16). Abū Nūḥ al-Anbārī wrote a refutation of the Qurʼān and other theological works (Wright, p. 191 n. 3). ↑Note 70 · Mārī b. Sulaymān, p. 84. ↑Note 71 · Hilāl al-Ṣābī, p. 95. ↑Note 72 · Ibn al-At͟hīr, vol. ix. p. 16. ↑Note 73 · Von Kremer (1), vol. i. pp. 167–8. Lammens, p. 11. ↑Note 74 · Renaudot, pp. 430, 540. ↑Note 75 · Von Kremer (1), vol. ii. pp. 180–1. ↑Note 76 · Von Kremer (1), vol. i. p. 183. ↑Note 77 · Caetani, vol. iii. pp. 350 sq., 387 sqq. ↑Note 78 · Gottheil, pp. 360–1. Goldziher: Zur Literatur des Ichtilâf al-maḏâhib, ZDMG., vol. 38, pp. 673–4. ↑Note 79 · On this theoretical character of much of Muslim legal literature, see Snouck Hurgronje: Mohammedanisches Recht in Theorie und Wirklichkeit. Note 80 · Gottheil, p. 363. ↑Note 81 · Gottheil, pp. 358–9, however, doubts whether there is evidence for attributing this intolerance to ʻUmar II. ↑Note 82 · Journal Asiatique, IVme série, tome xviii. (1851), pp. 433, 450. Ṭabarī, III, p. 1419. ↑Note 83 · Michael the Elder, vol. ii. p. 476. Renaudot, p. 189. ↑Note 84 · Eutychius, II, p. 41 init. Severus (p. 139) says “two churches.” ↑Note 85 · Von Kremer (1), vol. ii. p. 175. ↑Note 86 · Michael the Elder, vol. ii. pp. 490, 491. ↑Note 87 · Ibn K͟hallikān, vol. i. p. 485. ↑Note 88 · Elias of Nisibis, p. 128. ↑Note 89 · A. J. Butler: The Ancient Coptic Churches of Egypt, vol. i. p. 181. (Oxford, 1884.) ↑Note 90 · Yāqūt, vol. ii. p. 662. ↑Note 91 · Yāqūt, vol. ii. p. 670. ↑Note 92 · Mārī b. Sulaymān, p. 73. ↑Note 93 · Ishok of Romgla, p. 266. ↑Note 94 · Eutychius, II, p. 58. ↑Note 95 · Von Kremer (1), vol. ii. pp. 175–6. ↑Note 96 · Butler: Ancient Coptic Churches of Egypt, vol. i. p. 76. ↑Note 97 · Renaudot, p. 399. ↑Note 98 · Ishok of Romgla, p. 333. ↑Note 99 · Abū Ṣāliḥ, p. 92. ↑Note 100 · A Dominican monk from Florence, by name Ricoldus de Monte Crucis, who visited the East about the close of the thirteenth and the beginning oNote 101 · J. Labourt: De Timotheo I, Nestorianorum Patriarcha, p. 37 sqq. (Paris, 1904.) ↑Note 102 · E. von Dobschütz, p. 390–1. ↑Note 103 · Michael the Elder, vol. ii. p. 439–40. ↑Note 104 · Makīn, p. 12. J. Labourt: Le Christianisme sous la dynastie sassanide, p. 139 sq. (Paris, 1904.) ↑Note 105 · Renaudot, p. 169. ↑Note 106 · Von Kremer well remarks: “Wir verdanken dem unermüdlichen Sammelfleiss der arabischen Chronisten unsere Kenntniss der politischen und militäNote 107 · Thomas of Margā, vol. ii. p. 309 sq. ↑Note 108 · Thomas of Margā, vol. ii. pp. 310, 324 sq. ↑Note 109 · Cf. in addition to the passages quoted below, MʻClintoch & Strong’s Cyclopædia, sub art. Mohammedanism, vol. vi. p. 420. James Freeman ClarkNote 110 · Thus the Emperor Heraclius is represented by the Muhammadan historian as saying, “Their religion is a new religion which gives them new zealNote 111 · History of Latin Christianity, vol. ii. pp. 216–17. ↑Note 112 · Caetani, vol. ii. pp. 1045–6. ↑Note 113 · A paper read before the Church Congress at Wolverhampton, October 7th, 1887. ↑Note 114 · For the oppressive fiscal system under the Byzantine empire, see Gfrörer: Byzantinische Geschichten, vol. ii. pp. 337–9, 389–91, 450. ↑Note 115 · “Der Islam war ein Rückstoss gegen den Missbrauch, welchen Justinian mit der Menschheit, besonders aber mit der christlichen Religion trieb,Note 116 · Id. vol. ii. pp. 296–306, 337. ↑Note 117 · Id. vol. ii. pp. 442–4. ↑Note 118 · Id. vol. ii. p. 445. ↑Note 119 · Masʻūdī, vol. ii. p. 387. ↑Note 120 · Von Kremer (2), p. 8. ↑Note 121 · Id. p. 54 and (3), p. 32. Nicholson, p. 231. ↑Note 122 · Among the Muʻtazilite philosophers, Muḥammad b. al-Huzayl, the teacher of al-Maʼmūn, is said to have converted more than three thousand persNote 123 · Von Kremer (2), pp. 3, 7–8. C. H. Becker: Christliche Polemik und islamische Dogmenbildung (Zeitschrift für Assyriologie, xxvi. 1912). ↑Note 124 · Ibn K͟hallikān, vol. i. p. 45. ↑Note 125 · Wüstenfeld, p. 103. ↑Note 126 · Michael the Elder, vol. ii. pp. 412–13. Caetani, vol. v. p. 508. (“Le vittorie sui Greci e sui Persiani non solamente erano il trionfo dellaNote 127 · Goldziher, vol. i. chaps. 3 and 4. ↑Note 128 · The last of these was prompted by the discovery of an attempt on the part of the Christians to burn the city of Cairo. (De Guignes, vol. iv.Note 129 · Assemani, tom. iii. pars. 2, p. c. Renaudot, pp. 432, 603, 607. ↑Note 130 · Muir: The Caliphate, p. 475. ↑Note 131 · Von Kremer (3), p. 246. ↑Note 132 · Muir (1), pp. 508, 516–17. ↑Note 133 · Mārī b. Sulaymān, p. 79 sq. Ṣalībā b. Yuḥannā, p. 71. ↑Note 134 · Gottheil, p. 364 sqq. ↑Note 135 · Mārī b. Sulaymān, p. 114 (ll. 14–16). ↑Note 136 · This tradition appears in several forms, e.g. “Whoever wrongs one with whom a compact has been made (i.e. a d͟himmī) and lays on him a burdeNote 137 · Journal Asiatique, IVme série, tome xix. p. 109. (Paris, 1852.) See also R. Gottheil: A Fetwa on the appointment of D͟himmīs to office. (ZeiNote 138 · Belin, pp. 435–40, 442, 448, 456, 459–61, 479–80. ↑Note 139 · Id. p. 435, n. 2. ↑Note 140 · Id. p. 478. ↑Note 141 · Mārī b. Sulaymān (p. 115, ll. 1–2) offers this explanation of the defections that followed the persecution towards the close of the tenth ceNote 142 · The Caliph of Egypt, al-Ḥākim (A.D. 996–1020), did in fact order all the Jews and Christians to leave Egypt and emigrate into the Byzantine Note 143 · Silbernagl, p. 268. ↑Note 144 · Id. p. 354. ↑Note 145 · Id. pp. 307, 360. ↑Note 146 · Id. p. 25–6. ↑Note 147 · Id. p. 335. ↑Note 148 · Id. p. 384. ↑Note 149 · See A. von Kremer (1), vol. ii. pp. 490–2. ↑Note 150 · The sack of Constantinople by the Crusaders in 1204 may be taken as a type of the treatment that the Eastern Christians met with at the handNote 151 · H. H. Milman, vol. ii. p. 218. ↑Note 152 · A. von Kremer (1), vol. i. p. 172. ↑Note 153 · Assemani, tom. iii. Pars Prima, pp. 130–1. ↑Note 154 · Ibn Saʻd, Ṭabaqāt, vol. v. p. 258. ↑Note 155 · Id. p. 285. ↑Note 156 · Maḥbūb al-Manbijī, p. 358 (ll. 2–3). ↑Note 157 · Ibn Saʻd, Ṭabaqāt, vol. v. p. 262. ↑Note 158 · August Müller, vol. i. p. 440. ↑Note 159 · Migne: Patr. Gr., tom. 96, pp. 1336–48. ↑Note 160 · Migne: Patr. Gr., tom. 97, pp. 1528–9, 1548–61. ↑Note 161 · Id. p. 1557. ↑Note 162 · ʻAmr b. Mattai, p. 65. ↑Note 163 · Id. p. 72. ↑Note 164 · Risālah ʻAbd Allāh b. Ismāʻīl al-Hāshimī ilạ̄ ʻAbd al-Masīḥ b. Isḥāq al-Kindī, pp. 1–37. (London, 1885.) ↑Note 165 · Appendix I. For an account of Muslim controversial literature, see Appendix II. ↑Note 166 · Kindī, pp. 111–13. ↑Note 167 · Balād͟hurī, pp. 430. ↑Note 168 · It is very probable that the occasion of this visit of Yazdānbak͟ht to Bag͟hdād was the summoning of a great assembly of the leaders of all Note 169 · Kitāb al-Fihrist, vol. i. p. 338. ↑Note 170 · Barhebræus (1), vol. iii. p. 194. ↑Note 171 · Mārī b. Sulaymān, p. 101 (ll. 3–4). ↑Note 172 · Barhebræus (1), vol. iii. p. 230. ↑Note 173 · Id., (1), vol. iii. p. 248. ↑Note 174 · All the Jacobite Patriarchs assumed the name of Ignatius; before his consecration he was called Mark bar Qīqī. ↑Note 175 · Barhebræus (1), vol. iii. pp. 288–90. Elias of Nisibis, pp. 153–4. He returned to the Christian faith, however, before his death, which tookNote 176 · In fact Elias of Nisibis, the contemporary chronicler of the conversion of the Jacobite Patriarch, makes no mention of such a failing, nor dNote 177 · Barhebræus (1), vol. ii. p. 518. ↑Note 178 · Id. vol. ii. p. 712 sq. ↑Note 179 · Historia Orientalis, C. 15 (p. 45). ↑Note 180 · De Guignes, tome ii. (Seconde Partie), p. 15. ↑Note 181 · Odo de Diogilo. (De Ludovici vii. Itinere. Migne, Patr. Lat., tom. cxcv. p. 1243.) “Vitantes igitur sibi crudeles socios fidei, inter infideNote 182 · Guizot: Histoire de la civilisation en Europe, p. 234. (Paris, 1882.) ↑Note 183 · Usāma b. Munqid͟h, p. 99. ↑Note 184 · Prutz, pp. 266–7. ↑Note 185 · Assises de la Cour des Bourgeois. (Recueil des historiens des Croisades, Assises de Jérusalem, tome ii. p. 325.) ↑Note 186 · Bahā al-Dīn, p. 25. ↑Note 187 · Roger Hoveden, vol. ii. p. 307. ↑Note 188 · Benedict of Peterborough, vol. ii. pp. 11–12. ↑Note 189 · Id., vol. ii. pp. 20–1. Roger Hoveden, vol. ii. pp. 316, 322. ↑Note 190 · Abū Shāmah, p. 150. ↑Note 191 · Itinerarium Peregrinorum et Gesta Regis Richardi, p. 131. (Chronicles and Memorials of the reign of Richard I. Edited by William Stubbs.) (LNote 192 · Joinville, p. 238. ↑Note 193 · Id. p. 262. ↑Note 194 · Mas Latrie (1), vol. ii. p. 72. ↑Note 195 · Ludolf de Suchem, p. 71. ↑Note 196 · Lionardo Frescobaldi, quoted in the preface of Defrémery and Sanguinetti’s edition of Ibn Baṭūṭah, vol. i. p. xl. ↑Note 197 · Christophori Füreri ab Haimendorf Itinerarium Ægypti, p. 42. (Norimbergæ, 1620.) ↑Note 198 · Le Voyage en Ethiopie entrepris par le Père Aymard Guérin. (Rabbath, pp. 17–18.) ↑Note 199 · “Notandum autem in rei veritate, licet quidam contrarium senciant, qui ea volunt asserere, que non viderunt, quod oriens totus ultra mare YnNote 200 · Recueil des historiens des Croisades. (Assises de Jérusalem, tome i. p. 325.) ↑Note 201 · Prutz, pp. 146–7, 150. ↑Note 202 · The prelates of the Holy Land wrote as follows, in 1244, concerning the invasion of the K͟hwarizmians, whom Sultan Ayyūb had called in to asNote 203 · Finlay, vol. iii. pp. 358–9. J. H. Krause: Die Byzantiner des Mittelalters, p. 276. (Halle, 1869.) ↑Note 204 · Tavernier (1), p. 174. ↑Note 205 · Joselian, p. 125. All the Abkhazes, Djikhethes, Ossetes, Kabardes and Kisthethes fell away from the Christian faith about this time. ↑Note 206 · Id. p. 127. ↑Note 207 · Id. p. 143. ↑Note 208 · David Chytræus, p. 49. ↑Note 209 · Joselian, p. 157. ↑Note 210 · Brosset, IIe partie, Ire livraison, pp. 227–35. Description géographique de la Géorgie par le Tsarévitch Wakhoucht, p. 79. (St. Petersburg, Note 211 · The Six Voyages, p. 123. ↑Note 212 · Joselian, p. 149. ↑Note 213 · Id. pp. 160–1. ↑Note 214 · Tavernier (1), pp. 124, 126. He estimates the number of Muhammadans at about twelve thousand. (Id. p. 123.) ↑Note 215 · Brosset, IIe partie, Ire livraison, pp. 85, 181. ↑Note 216 · Documens originaux sur les relations diplomatiques de la Géorgie avec la France vers la fin du règne de Louis XIV, recueillis par M. BrossetNote 217 · Mackenzie, p. 7. Garnett, p. 194. ↑Note 218 · Barbier de Meynard, p. 45 sqq. ↑Note 219 · R. du M. M., VII, p. 320 (1909). ↑Note 220 · A great historian1 has well put the problem that meets us here, in the following words: “Was it genuine religious enthusiasm, the new strengNote 221 · These stupendous conquests which laid the foundations of the Arab empire, were certainly not the outcome of a holy war, waged for the propagNote 222 · The national character of this ethnic movement of migration naturally attracted to the invading Arab hosts the outlying representatives of tNote 223 · That force was not the determining factor in these conversions may be judged from the amicable relations that existed between the Christian Note 224 · In the battle of the Bridge (A.H. 13) when a disastrous defeat was imminent and the panic-stricken Arabs were hemmed in between the EuphrateNote 225 · The tribe to which this young man boasted that he belonged was one of those that elected to remain Christian, while other tribes of MesopotaNote 226 · The people of Ḥīrah had likewise resisted all the efforts made by K͟hālid to induce them to accept the Muslim faith. This city was one of thNote 227 · Due provision was made for the instruction of the new converts, for while whole tribes were being converted to the faith with such rapidity,Note 228 · From the examples given above of the toleration extended towards the Christian Arabs by the victorious Muslims of the first century of the HNote 229 · Many of the Arabs of the renowned tribe of the Banū G͟hassān, Arabs of the purest blood, who embraced Christianity towards the end of the foNote 230 · A hundred years before, Justinian had succeeded in giving some show of unity to the Roman Empire, but after his death it rapidly fell asundeNote 231 · Indeed, so bitter was the feeling he aroused that there is strong reason to believe that even a majority of the orthodox subjects of the RomNote 232 · Michael the Elder, Jacobite Patriarch of Antioch, writing in the latter half of the twelfth century, could approve the decision of his co-reNote 233 · When the Muslim army reached the valley of the Jordan and Abū ʻUbaydah pitched his camp at Fiḥl, the Christian inhabitants of the country wrNote 234 · Such was the state of feeling in Syria during the campaign of 633–639 in which the Arabs gradually drove the Roman army out of the province.Note 235 · For the provinces of the Byzantine empire that were rapidly acquired by the prowess of the Muslims found themselves in the enjoyment of a toNote 236 · The exact details of these agreements cannot easily be disentangled from the accretions with which they have become overlaid, but whether veNote 237 · It is in harmony with the same spirit of kindly consideration for his subjects of another faith, that ʻUmar is recorded to have ordered an aNote 238 · A later generation attributed to ʻUmar a number of restrictive regulations which hampered the Christians in the free exercise of their religNote 239 · The earliest mention of this document is made by Ibn Ḥazm, who died in the middle of the fifth century of the Hijrah; its provisions represeNote 240 · The rates of jizyah levied by the early conquerors were not uniform,49 and the great Muslim doctors, Abū Ḥanīfah and Mālik, are not in agreeNote 241 · This tax was not imposed on the Christians, as some would have us think, as a penalty for their refusal to accept the Muslim faith, but was Note 242 · As stated above, the jizyah was levied on the able-bodied males, in lieu of the military service they would have been called upon to performNote 243 · We find similar instances of the remission of jizyah in the case of Christians who served in the army or navy under the Turkish rule. For exNote 244 · The Southern Rumanians, the so-called Armatoli,61 who constituted so important an element of strength in the Turkish army during the sixteenNote 245 · Muʻāwiyah (661–680) employed Christians very largely in his service, and other members of the reigning house followed his example.66 ChristiNote 246 · ʻAbd al-Malik appointed a certain Athanasius, a Christian scholar of Edessa, tutor to his brother, ʻAbd al-ʻAzīz. Athanasius accompanied hisNote 247 · In the reign of al-Muʻtadid (892–902), the governor of Anbār, ʻUmar b. Yūsuf, was a Christian, and the caliph approved of the appointment onNote 248 · Naṣr b. Hārūn, the Prime Minister of ʻAḍud al-Dawlah (949–982), of the Buwayhid dynasty of Persia, who ruled over Southern Persia and ʻIrāq,Note 249 · Recent historical criticism has demonstrated the impossibility of the legend that when Damascus was taken by the Arabs, the churches were eqNote 250 · The opinion of the Muhammadan legists is very diverse on this question, from the more liberal Ḥanafī doctrine, which declares that, though iNote 251 · Indeed, so far from the development of the Christian Church being hampered by the establishment of Muhammadan rule, the history of the NestoNote 252 · If the other Christian sects failed to exhibit the same vigorous life, it was not the fault of the Muhammadans. All were tolerated alike by Note 253 · In view of the toleration thus extended to their Christian subjects in the early period of the Muslim rule, the common hypothesis of the swoNote 254 · Many Christian theologians109 have supposed that the debased condition—moral and spiritual—of the Eastern Church of that period must have alNote 255 · Again, Canon Taylor113 says: “It is easy to understand why this reformed Judaism spread so swiftly over Africa and Asia. The African and SyrNote 256 · Islam has, moreover, been represented as a reaction against that Byzantine ecclesiasticism,115 which looked upon the emperor and his court aNote 257 · “My proof for the truth of Christianity is, that I find its teachings contradictory and mutually destructive, for they are repugnant to reasNote 258 · On the other hand, it should be remembered that those who passed over from Christianity to Islam, under the influence of the rationalistic tNote 259 · Further, the vast and unparalleled success of the Muslim arms shook the faith of the Christian peoples that came under their rule and saw inNote 260 · The Islamic ideal of the brotherhood of all believers was a powerful attraction towards this creed, and though the Arab pride of birth strovNote 261 · But the condition of the Christians did not always continue to be so tolerable as under the earlier caliphs. In the interests of the true beNote 262 · The beginning of a harsher treatment of the native Christian population dates from the reign of Hārūn al-Rashīd (786–809) who ordered them tNote 263 · It is noteworthy that the historians of the Nestorian Church—which had to suffer most from this persecution—describe it as something new andNote 264 · Other outbursts of fanaticism led to the destruction of churches and synagogues,134 and the terror of such persecution led to the defection Note 265 · In proportion as the lot of the conquered peoples became harder to bear, the more irresistible was the temptation to free themselves from thNote 266 · Further causes that contributed to the decrease of the Christian population may be found in the fact that the children of the numerous ChrisNote 267 · Of the ancient Churches in Western Asia at the time of the Muhammadan conquest, there still survive about 150,000 Nestorians,143 and their nNote 268 · The marvel is that these isolated and scattered communities should have survived so long, exposed as they have been to the ravages of war, pNote 269 · Of the details of conversion to Islam we have hardly any information. At the time of the first occupation of their country by the Arabs, theNote 270 · This same period witnesses the conversion of large numbers of the Christians of K͟hurāsān, as we learn from a letter of a contemporary eccleNote 271 · It must not, however, be supposed that such worldly considerations were the only influences at work in the conversion of the Christians to INote 272 · These details from the first two centuries of the Hijrah are meagre in the extreme and rather suggest the existence of proselytising effortsNote 273 · Al-Maʼmūn himself was very zealous in his efforts to spread the faith of Islam, and sent invitations to unbelievers even in the most distantNote 274 · Some scanty references are made by Christian historians to cases of ecclesiastical dignitaries who became Muhammadans, e.g. George, Bishop oNote 275 · In the early part of the same century, Theodore, the Nestorian Bishop of Beth Garmai, became a Muslim, and there is no mention of any force Note 276 · But that these conversions were not merely isolated instances we have the valuable evidence of Jacques de Vitry, Bishop of Acre (1216–1225),Note 277 · So far the Christian Churches that have been described as coming within the sphere of Muhammadan influence, have been the Orthodox Eastern CNote 278 · The history of the ill-fated second Crusade presents us with a very remarkable incident of a similar character. The story, as told by Odo ofNote 279 · The increasing intercourse between Christians and Muslims, the growing appreciation on the part of the Crusaders of the virtues of their oppNote 280 · It would be interesting to discover who were the Muslims who busied themselves in winning these converts to Islam, but they seem to have lefNote 281 · The heroic life and character of Saladin seems to have exercised an especial fascination on the minds of the Christians of his time; some evNote 282 · The fall of Jerusalem and the successes of Saladin in the Holy Land stirred up Europe to undertake the third Crusade, the chief incident of Note 283 · From this time onwards references to renegades are not infrequently to be met with in the writings of those who travelled to the Holy Land aNote 284 · These scattered notices are no doubt significant of more extensive conversions of Christians to Islam, of which no record has come down to uNote 285 · As an example of the rare instances of such a conversion being recorded, the account may here be cited which Fürer von Haimendorf, who was iNote 286 · From the historical sources quoted above, we have as little information respecting the number of these converts as of the proselytising effoNote 287 · The monk Burchard,199 writing about 1283, a few years before the Crusaders were driven out of their last strongholds and the Latin power in Note 288 · The native Christians certainly preferred the rule of the Muhammadans to that of the Crusaders,201 and when Jerusalem fell finally and for eNote 289 · This same sense of security of religious life under Muslim rule led many of the Christians of Asia Minor, also, about the same time, to welcNote 290 · Some account still remains to be given of two other Christian Churches of Western Asia, viz. the Armenian and the Georgian. Of the former itNote 291 · It was not until after Georgia had been overrun by the devastating armies of the Mongols, leaving ruined churches and monasteries and pyramiNote 292 · In 1400 the invasion of Tīmūr added a crowning horror to the sufferings of Georgia, and though for a brief period the rule of Alexander I (1Note 293 · Christianity retained its hold upon the peasants much longer, but when the clergy of Samtzkhé refused allegiance to the Katholikos of KarthlNote 294 · The rest of Georgia had submitted to Persia, and when Tavernier visited this part of the country, about the middle of the seventeenth centurNote 295 · Tavernier describes the Georgians as being very ignorant in matters of religion and the clergy as unlettered and vicious; some of the heads Note 296 · Towards the close of the eighteenth century, the king of Georgia placed his people under the protection of the Russian crown. Hitherto theirNote 297 · Darvīsh Manṣūr was not alone in his efforts to convert the Circassians. When the treaty of Kūchak-Qaïnarji in 1774 had recognised the indepeNote 298 · Under Russian law conversions to any faith other than that of the Orthodox Church were illegal, and the further progress of Islam was stayedNote 299 · Islam was first introduced into Africa by the Arab army that invaded Egypt under the command of ʻAmr b. al-ʻĀṣ in A.D. 640. Three years lateNote 300 · But later rulers recognised that for fiscal reasons such a policy was ruinous to the state, and insisted on the converts continuing to pay tNote 301 · In the seventh century Christianity had probably very little hold on a great mass of the people of Egypt. The theological catchwords that thNote 302 · Further, a theory of the Christian life that found its highest expression in asceticism of the grossest type15 could offer little attractionNote 303 · During the reign of Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn (Saladin) (1169–1193) over Egypt, the condition of the Christians was very happy under the auspices of thisNote 304 · How far this incident is a typical case of conversion to Islam among the Copts it is difficult to say; a parallel case of neglect is mentionNote 305 · A similar neglect probably contributed to the decay of the Nubian Church which recognised the primacy of the Jacobite Patriarch of AlexandriNote 306 · But settlements of Arabs had been established in Nubia for several centuries earlier and the Arabs on the Blue Nile had so increased in numbNote 307 · The Christian Nubian kingdom appears to have come to an end partly through internal dissensions and partly through the attacks of Arab and NNote 308 · But it is probable that the progress of Islam in the country was all this time being promoted by the Muhammadan merchants and others that frNote 309 · Very slowly and gradually the Nubians seem to have drifted from Christianity into Muhammadanism.45 The spiritual life of their Church had su