This smears Jews — as though they were no better than Muslims.
It is literally anti-Semitic — in the most heinous possible manifestation.
"This smears Jews — as though they were no better than Muslims. It is literally anti-Semitic — in the most heinous possible manifestation."-BenLurkin
The article did raise the hairs on the back of my neck as well. If you choose to follow the link to read the wordy article in its entirety, you'll recognize the above quotes were selected to specifically highlight his views of Muslims and Arabs. The author does separate them at points in his piece, ultimately advocating for the superiority of Christianity (his opinion). The above quotes relay the position of Jews as scribes put to use by the conquering Arab/Muhammedan forces to translate into Arabic material which was plundered from conquered civilizations - material determined worth saving, making claim to it, and obviously not destroyed as jahiliyya.
Muhammedans were generally illiterate. Jews tended to be literate, hence they were not eliminated when useful. Translations obviously were approved by their Muhammedan overlords, which is why the 'knowledge'that was passed on lacked any authenticity.
Jews also were used as 'bankers' because usury (practice of lending money with interest) was against religious laws for Christians as well as Muhammedans...despite money trade being a matter of survival - the practice blackened their identity, helping birth/perpetuate antisemitism.
My point in posting this article from 1863 is to illustrate whether Islam was discussed back then, and to what extent. Political correctness did not exist back then, and I'm curious how the topic was addressed and why.
I am currently exploring several other nineteenth century articles for consideration, because I find that the topic of Islam came up quite a bit more frequently than expected.