Note 47 — Chapter XIII · CONCLUSION.

But the recital of such motives as little accounts for all cases of conversion in the one religion as in the other, and they should not make us lose sight of other factors in the missionary life of Islam, whose influence has been of a more distinctly religious character. Foremost among these is the influence of the devout lives of the followers of Islam. Strange as it may appear to a generation accustomed to look upon Islam as a cloak for all kinds of vice, it is nevertheless true that in earlier times many Christians who have come into contact with a living Muslim society have been profoundly impressed by the virtues exhibited therein; if these could so strike the traveller and the stranger, they would no doubt have some influence of attraction on the unbeliever who came in daily contact with them. Ricoldus de Monte Crucis, a Dominican missionary who visited the East at the close of the thirteenth century, thus breaks out in praise of the Muslims among whom he had laboured: “Obstupuimus, quomodo in lege tante perfidie poterant opera tante perfectionis inveniri. Referemus igitur hic breviter opera perfectionis Sarracenorum.… Quis enim non obstupescat, si diligenter consideret, quanta in ipsis Sarracenis sollicitudo ad studium, devocio in oratione, misericordia ad pauperes, reverencia ad nomen Dei et prophetas et loca sancta, gravitas in moribus, affabilitas ad extraneos, concordia et amor ad suos?”47 William Petit of Newburgh in similar manner, towards the end of the twelfth century, praised the sobriety of the Saracens as the outcome of the teaching of their Prophet and as inspiring them with a sense of moral superiority over the Christians: “Gulosos vero atque ebriosos, orbi terrarum graves abominatus, sobrietatem docuit, ciborum delicias sugillavit, vini usum, praeterquam paucis certisque diebus solemnibus, interdixit [Macometus]. Inde est, quod cum Sarraceni in fluxu libidinum de sui, ut dictum est, seductoris indulgentia probentur esse spurcissimi; nostris, proh dolor! in frugalitate superiores esse videntur, nobisque, proh pudor! comessationum et ebrietatum sordes improperant. Denique malleus Christiani nominis Saladinus ante annos aliquot, cum nostrorum mores explorans, audisset quod pluribus in prandio ferculis uterentur, dixisse fertur, ‘tales Terra Sancta indignos esse.’ Unde constat, quod luxus nostrorum conspectus Agarenos, de frugalitate gloriantes, contra nos incitet animetque tanquam dicentes; ‘Deus dereliquit crapulatos istos, persequamur et comprehendamus, quia non est qui eripiat.’”48