A further injunction of the Koran is that of making war against the infidels (jihad). He who is slain while fighting in defense of lslam or for its propagation is reckoned a martyr; while a deserter from the holy war is held up as an object of execration, and has forfeited his life in this world as well as in the world to come. At first all the enemies taken in battle were ruth lessly slain; later, however, it became the law to give the people of a different faith against whom war was declared the choke of three things—either to embrace Islam, in which case they became Moslems at once, free in their per sons and fortunes, and entitled to all the priv ileges of Moslems; or to submit to pay tribute, in which ease they were allowed to continue in their religion, if it did not imply gross idolatry or otherwise offend against the moral law; or to decide the quarrel by the fortune of war—in which case the captive women and children were made slaves, and the men either slain if they did not become converts at the last moment, or otherwise disposed of by the prince. The fifth part of the spoil belongs 'to God,' that is, must he devoted to a sanctuary, to the Prophet and his kindred, to the orphans, the poor. and the trav eler.
It must not be overlooked that the Islam of history and of the present time is not the pure and unmodified teaching of its founder. The Koran was not intended to he a systematically arranged code of laws. Such laws and regnla tions as it contains v.erc called forth by some occurrence during the Prophet's life, and were, properly, supplement y to existing laws and customs, which tne?, abrogated, confirmed. or modified according to the occasion. in course of time cases arose for which no written rules could be found laid down by Alohanuned. Recourse was then had to traditional oral dicta or to the Surma (q.v.) ; in time precedents were estab lished and laws came into force by the concur rence of the learned ( ipaa'), or by a pnwess of reasoning (k yas). In this way the peculiar system which is called Mohammedan jurispru dence came into being, theoretically founded on the Koran, but often strangely at variance with the principles and spirit of its author. In like manner the reprehensible features of the doctrine and daily life of Islam must not be charged in ,liscriminately against Mohammed. That part of he system which most distinctly reveals the mind of its founder, and which also has under gone least change in the course of time and con stitutes its most complete and brightest part. is its ethics. Injustice, falsehood, pride, vindictive ness, calumny, mockery, avarice, prodigality, de bauchery, mistrust, and suspicion are inveighed against as ungodly and wicked: while benevo lence, liberality, modesty, forbearance, patience and endurance, frugality, sincerity, straightfor wardness, decency, love of peace and truth. and above all trust. in Cod and submission to His will, are considered as the pillars of true and the principal signs of a true believer. :Mo
hammed never expressly laid down that doctrine of absolute predestination and "fatality" which destroys all human will and freedom, and which by the influence of Mohammedan theologians became a fixed element in the orthodox creed. A glance at his system of faith (so far as he had a system), built on hope and fear, rewards and punishments, paradise and hell, both to be man's portion according to his acts in this life, and the incessant exhortations to virtue, and denunciations of vice, are sufficient to prove that aboriginal predestination is not in the Koran. where only submission to Allah's will, hope during misfortune, modesty in prosperity. and entire confidence in the divine plans. are sup ported by the argument that everything is in the hands of the highest being, and that there is no appeal against his absolute decrees. This is but one instance of the way in which Mohammed's dicta have been developed and explained—in such a manner that he has often been made to teach doctrines which lie really did not teach; and thus many elements now found in the :Mos lem creed, if carefully traced back to their original source, will be seen to he the growth of later generations.
In a general estimate of it should not be forgotten what Islam has done for the cause of humanity and more particularly the share it had in the development of science and art in Europe. Broadly speaking, the Mo hammedans may be said to have been the teachers of barbarous Europe from the ninth to the thir teenth century. It is from the days of the Ab basside rulers that the real renaissance of the. Creek spirit and Greek culture is to be dated. Classical literature would have been irredeem ably lost had it not been for the home it found in the schools of the "unbelievers" of the "dark ages." Arabic philosophy, medicine, natural history, geography, history. grammar, rhetoric, schooled by the old Hellenic masters, and the art of poetry." brought forth all abun dant harvest of works, many of which will live .mm teach as lung as there will be generations to be taught. See ARABIC LANGUA6E AND LITERA LURE.
Ills'rota. In the first three years of his mis sion Mohammed won forty converts, including his wife. Khadija. Abu Bekr, and (Allman. Then followed .Ali. ()mar ihn Khattah, and Ilaniza. In 615 the persecutions of the Koreish drove fifteen of the converts into Abyssinia, and they were later joined by a hundred more. After Mohammed's return from Taif to Mecca he won over some of the Bani Khazraj of Yathrib (Me dina). who then made converts among the Bani Ans, formerly their enemies. The new faith spread rapidly from tribe to tribe, the Bani ALd al-Ashhal going over in a body. In 622 the number of Alohammcdan pilgrims from Yathrib was 73. After the flight from Mecca .Medina was organized into a emonmowealth. and Islam be came a political as well as a religious move ment.