The Story Of Mankind - Part 10

The Story of Mankind was written and illustrated by Dutch-American journalist, professor, and author Hendrik Willem van Loon and published in 1921. In 1922, it was the first book to be awarded the Newbery Medal for its outstanding contribution to children's literature.

Transcript

This is part 10 of the story of mankind by Hendrik van Loon.

Muhammad Ahmed the camel driver who became the prophet of the Arabian desert and whose followers Almost conquered the entire world known for the greater glory of Allah the only true God Since the days of Carthage and Hannibal we have said nothing of the Semitic people You will remember how they filled all the chapters devoted to the story of the ancient world the Babylonians the Assyrians the Phoenicians the Jews Vieramians the Chaldeans all of them Carthage a Colony of Semitic Phoenicians had fought the indo-european Romans for the mastery of the Mediterranean Carthage had been defeated and destroyed and for 800 years the Romans had been masters of the world in the seventh century however another Semitic tribe appeared upon the scene and challenged the power of the West They were the Arabs peaceful shepherds who had roamed through the desert since the beginning of time without showing any signs of imperial ambitions Then they listened to Muhammad mounted their horses and in less than a century They had pushed to the heart of Europe and proclaimed the glories of Allah the only God and Muhammad the prophet of the only God to the frightened peasants of France The story of Ahmed the son of Abdullah and Amina usually known as Muhammad or He who will be praised reads like a chapter in the thousand and one nights He was a camel driver born in Mecca He seems to have been an epileptic and he suffered from spells of unconsciousness When he dreamed strange dreams and heard the voice of the angel Gabriel Whose words were afterwards written down in a book called the Quran His work as a caravan leader carried him all over Arabia and he was constantly falling in with Jewish merchants and with Christian traders and He came to see that the worship of a single God was a very excellent thing His own people the Arabs still revered Queen stones and trunks of trees as their ancestors had done tens of thousands of years before In Mecca their whole city stood a little square building the Kaaba full of idols and strange odds and ends of who do worship Muhammad decided to be the Moses of the Arab people He could not well be a prophet and a camel driver at the same time So he made himself independent by marrying his employer the rich widow Kadhaja Then he told his neighbors in Mecca that he was the long expected prophet sent by Allah to save the world The neighbors laughed most heartily and when Muhammad continued to annoy them with his speeches they decided to kill him They regarded him as a lunatic and a public bore who deserved no mercy Mohammed heard of the plot and in the dark of night.

He fled to Medina together with Abu Bakr his trusted pupil This happened in the year 622 It is the most important date of Muhammad in history and is known as the Hijra the year of the great flight in Medina Muhammad who was a stranger found it easier to proclaim himself a prophet than his own home city Where everyone had known him as a simple camel driver?

Soon he was surrounded by an increasing number of followers or Muslims who accepted the Islam The submission to the will of God which Muhammad praised as the highest of all virtues For seven years he preached the people of Medina Then he believed himself strong enough to begin a campaign against his former neighbors Who had dared to sneer at him and his holy mission in his old camel driving days At the head of an army of Medinese he marched across the desert His followers took Mecca without great difficulty and having slaughtered a number of the inhabitants They found it quite easy to convince the others that Muhammad was really a great prophet From that time on until the year of his death Muhammad was fortunate in everything he undertook There are two reasons for the success of Islam in the first place the creed which Muhammad taught to his followers was very simple The disciples were told that they must love Allah the ruler of the world the merciful and compassionate They must honor and obey their parents They were warned against dishonesty in dealing with their neighbors and were admonished to be humble and charitable to the poor and to the sick Finally they were ordered to abstain from strong drinks and to be very frugal in what they ate That was all There were no priests who acted as shepherds of their flocks and asked that they be supported at a common expense The Muhammadan churches or mosques were merely large stone halls without benches or pictures Where the faithful could gather if they felt so inclined to read and discuss chapters of the Quran the holy book But the average Muhammadan carried his religion with him and never felt himself hemmed in by the rest of the world He was never The Holy city and said the simple prayer For the rest of the time he let Allah rule the world as he saw fit and accepted whatever fate brought him with patient resignation machinery or bother about railroads and steamship lines.

But it gave every Mohammedan a certain amount of contentment.

It bade him be at peace with himself and with the world in which he lived.

And that was a very good thing.

The second reason which explains the success of the Muslims in their warfare upon Christians had to do with the conduct of those Mohammedan soldiers who went forth to do battle for their true faith.

The Prophet promised that those who fell,

Facing the enemy,

Would go directly to heaven.

This made sudden death in the field preferable to a long but dreary existence upon this earth.

It gave the Mohammedans an enormous advantage over the Crusaders,

Who were in constant dread of a dark hereafter and who stuck to the good things of this world as long as they possibly could.

Incidentally,

It explains why even today Muslim soldiers will charge into the fire of European machine guns quite indifferent to the fate that awaits them and why they are such dangerous and persistent enemies.

Having put his religious house in order,

Mohammed now began to enjoy his power as the undisputed ruler of a large number of Arab tribes.

But success has been the undoing of a large number of men,

Who were great in the days of adversity.

He tried to gain the good will of the rich people by a number of regulations which could appeal to those of wealth.

He allowed the faithful to have four wives,

As one wife was a costly investment in those olden days,

When wives were brought directly from the parents.

Four wives became a positive luxury,

Except to those who possessed camels and dromedaries and date orchards beyond the dreams of Everest.

A religion which at first had been meant for the hardy hunters of the high-sky desert was gradually transformed to suit the needs of the smug merchants who lived in the bazaars of the city.

It was a regrettable change from the original program,

And it did very little good to the cause of Muhammadanism.

As for the Prophet himself,

He went on preaching the truth of Allah and proclaiming new rules of conduct until he died,

Quite suddenly,

Of a fever on June the 7th of the year 632.

His successor as caliph,

Or leader of the Muslims,

Was his father-in-law,

Abu Bakr,

Who had shared the early dangers of the Prophet's life.

Two years later,

Abu Bakr died and Omar ibn al-Khattab followed him.

In less than ten years he conquered Egypt,

Persia,

Phoenicia,

Syria,

And Palestine,

And made Damascus the capital of the first Muhammadan world empire.

Omar was succeeded by Ali,

The husband of Muhammad's daughter,

Fatima,

But a quarrel broke out upon a point of Muslim doctrine,

And Ali was murdered.

After his death,

The caliphate was made hereditary,

And the leaders of the faithful who had begun their careers as the spiritual head of religious sects became the rulers of a vast empire.

They built a new city on the shores of the Euphrates,

Near the ruins of Babylon,

And called it Baghdad,

And organizing the Arab horsemen into regiments of calory,

They set forth to bring the happiness of their Muslim faith to all unbelievers.

In the year 700 AD,

A Muhammadan general by the name of Tariq crossed the old gates of Hercules and reached a high rock on the European side which he called the Gebel al-Tariq,

The Hill of Tariq,

Or Gibraltar.

Eleven years later,

In the Battle of Zeris de la Frontera,

He defeated the king of the Visigoths,

And then the Muslim army moved northward,

And following the route of Hannibal,

They crossed the phases of the Pyrenees.

They defeated the duke of Aquitania,

Who tried to halt them near Bordeaux,

And marched upon Paris.

But in the year 732,

One hundred years after the death of the prophet,

They were beaten in a battle between Tours and Poiteurs.

On that day,

Charles Martel,

Charles with a hammer,

The Frankish chieftain,

Saved Europe from a Muhammadan conquest.

He drove the Muslims out of France,

But they maintained themselves in Spain,

Where Abd al-Rahman founded the Caliphate of Cordova,

Which became the greatest center of science and art of all medieval Europe.

This Moorish kingdom so called,

Because the people came from Mauritania and Morocco,

Lasted seven centuries.

It was only after the capture of Granada,

The last Muslim stronghold,

In the year 1492,

That Columbus received the royal grant which allowed him to go upon a voyage of discovery.

The Muhammadan soon regained their strength in the new conquest,

Which they made in Asia and Africa,

And today there are many followers of Muhammad,

As there are of Christ.

Reviews

Loved it and it is true that musilum soldiers are a very strong enemy even in todays mordern world which I find amazing

Still loving this series. Really helps me sleep. Thank you.

Wauw. Love it 💋👍👍💪🙏🙏❤️❤️

I look forward to every new chapter. I listen to each over and over again in hopes of assimilating and retaining more details each time.