The Moslem Conquest (of India)

Our Oriental Heritage | 1936 | Will Durant

[ml/nj]

The Mohammedan Conquest of India is probably the bloodiest story in history. It is a discouraging tale, for its evident moral is that civilization is a precarious thing, whose delicate complex of order and liberty, culture and peace may at any time be overthrown by barbarians invading from without or multiplying within. The Hindus ... had failed to organize their forces for the protection of their frontiers and their capitals, their wealth and their freedom, from the hordes of Scythians, Huns, Afghans, and Turks hovering about India's boundaries and waiting for national weakness to let them in. For four hundred years (600-1000 A.D.) India invited conquest; and at last it came.

In the year 997 a Turkish chieftain by the name of Mahmud became the sultan of the little state of Ghazni, in eastern Afghanistan. ... Each winter Mahmud descended into India, filled his treasure chest with spoils, and amused his men with full freedom to pillage and kill ... At Mathrua he took from the temple its statues of gold encrusted with precious stones, and emptied its coffers of a vast quantity of gold, silver, and jewelry; he expressed his admiration for the architecture of the great shrine, judged that its duplication would cost one hundred million dinars and the labor of two hundred years, and then ordered it to be soaked with naphtha and burnt to the ground. Six year later he sacked another opulent city of northern India, Somnath, killed all its fifty thousand inhabitants, and dragged its wealth to Ghazni. ... Sometimes he spared the population of the ravaged cities, and took them home to be sold as slaves. ... Moslem historians ranked him as the greatest monarch of his time, and one of the greatest sovereigns of any age.

Seeing the canonization that success had brought to this magnificent thief, other Moslem rulers profited by his example, though none succeeded in bettering his instruction. ... The first of these bloody sultans, Kuth-d Din Aibak, was a normal specimen of his kind-fanatical, ferocious, and merciless. His gifts, as the Mohammedan historian tells us, "were bestowed by hundreds of thousands, and his slaughters likewise were by hundreds of thousands." ... Another sultan, Balban, punished rebals and brigands by casting them under the feet of elephants, or removing their skins, stuffing these with straw, and hanging them from the gates of Delhi. ... Sultan Muhammed bin Tughlak acquired the throne by murdering his father, became a great scholar and an elegant writer. dabbled in mathematics, physics and Greek philosophy, surpassed his predecessors in bloodshed and brutality, fed the flesh of a rebel nephew to the rebel's wife and children, ruined the country with reckless inflation, and laid it waste with pillage and murder till the inhabitants fled to the jungle. He killed so many Hindus that, in the words of a Moslem historian, "there was constantly in front of his royal pavilion and his Civil Court a mound of dead bodies and a heap of corpses, while the sweepers and executioners were wearied out by their work of dragging" the victims "and putting them to death in crowds." ... Sultan Ahmed Shah feasted for three days whenever the number of defenseless Hindus slain in his territories in one day reached twenty thousand.

[XBob]

15 - "A long time ago I read a British book from the 30's about the history of islam. From the descriptions of muhamads death docters said that he most likely died in the advanced stages of a brain deteriating std. Does anyone have any information on that?"

Considering that the brain's function was not discovered until about the 15-1600's, and prior to that all intellect emminated from the heart, I doubt the correctness of that observation.

[ml/nj]

Don't forget Tamerlane

I certainly wasn't suggesting we forget anyone.

My excerpt was intended to provoke interest in the history of these savages who are our enemies. Durant gets to Tamerlane shortly after the part I quoted from. I encourage everyone to read this, and as much as they can about the history of Islam.

ML/NJ

[Coroner]

they can keep breeding. Then lets send em back to their desert and use corn as our weapon like the way they use oil!!! Let Allah feed them!!!

[XBob]

17 - The Taj Mahal was built by one of the Muslim princes, Sha Jahan.

[section9]

With respect, nonsense.

The fastest growing religion on the planet today is Christianity. There is a reason for that. Christianity is a flexible doctrine whose enduring truths adapt to different centuries. Christ's message is eternal.

Islam, otoh, is still stuck in the Ninth Century, which is why it is undergoing a crisis of being. As long as the Islamic world was sealed away from the rest of the planet, things were relatively peaceful. Now, Islam is confronted by modernity and the rise of Buddhist and Hindu Asia. They are not adapting well.

As for Christians, we are a relatively peaceful people. When aroused, however, Christianity takes to the sword like a duck to water.

Be Seeing You,

Chris

[ml/nj]

The Muslims discovered long ago, that the real weapon of mass destruction is the womb.

This is one of the reasons I thought this paragraph was worth presenting and bolding:

The Mohammedan Conquest of India is probably the bloodiest story in history. It is a discouraging tale, for its evident moral is that civilization is a precarious thing, whose delicate complex of order and liberty, culture and peace may at any time be overthrown by barbarians invading from without or multiplying within.

ML/NJ

[Natural Law]

Charles Martel was the king of the Alsace Franks which were a German tribe. His grandson, known to some as Charlemagne, was in actuality named Karl der Grosse (Karl the Great). His capital would reside in Achen, Germany, not France.

[Warlord David]

When the muslum do destroy this nation, because of liberal left thinkers and leaders. And their demoralization of this country. May the Lord have mercy on them who follow him. Has for the liberal left and the right that thinks like the left, may the muslums have no mercy on them. I do not look forward for that day. But that day is closer than most would want it to be.

[Enterprise]

I understand, but without trying to build a strong central government, Afghanistan and Iraq are guaranteed to descend quickly into anarchy and warlords being in control again. The resulting chaos is perfect for people like Bin Laden to hide in and plan future terrorist strikes against America. There IS no short term solution.

The irony here BTW is that President Carter's disastrous Mideast policy is what enabled Khomeini to seize power in Iran and plant the seeds for the eventual terrorist acts we see around the world today. Just a little bit of BALLS and foresight by CARTER may have defrayed the ISLAMOFASCISTS by several decades.

[Redcoat LI]

Charles Martel

Charles Martel (688?-741), Carolingian ruler of the Frankish kingdom of Austrasia (in present northeastern France and southwestern Germany). Charles, whose surname means “the hammer,” was the son of Pepin of Herstal and the grandfather of Charlemagne. Pepin was mayor of the palace under the last kings of the Merovingian dynasty. After Pepin died in 714, Charles, an illegitimate son, was imprisoned by his father's widow, but he escaped and was proclaimed mayor of the palace by the Austrasians. A war between Austrasia and the Frankish kingdom of Neustria (now part of France) followed, and at the end of it Charles became the undisputed ruler of all the Franks. Although he was engaged in wars against the Alamanni, Bavarians, and Saxons, his greatest achievements were against the Muslims from Spain, who invaded France in 732. Charles defeated them near Poitiers at the Battle of Tours in which the Muslim leader, Abd-ar-Rahman, the emir of Spain, was killed. The progress of Islam, which had filled all Christendom with alarm, was thus checked for a time. Charles drove the Muslims out of the Rhône valley in 739, when they had again advanced into France as far as Lyon, leaving them nothing of their possessions north of the Pyrenees beyond the Aude River. Charles died in Quierzy, on the Oise River, leaving the kingdom divided between his two sons, Carloman and Pepin the Short.

[fella]

Perhaps you mis-understand or I did not make myself clear. The doctors were from the 1930's or 20s. The symtoms were taken from so-called holy writeing about the life of muhammed.

[freedumb2003]

There was no France yet, in 772. There were only Gauls, Germans and the remnants of Rome in Western Europe at the time, not counting the islands and Scandanavia.

Clearly, this was the "tadpole" era.

[Enterprise]

The other thing that we must keep in mind is the essence of the article. Look how the Moslems have behaved in the past and ask if there is any possibility that they have changed. And then ask how many do we need to kill to get them to settle down again for a couple of centuries.

[VOA]

This is the only issue in this or any election likely to occur during our lifetimes.
The candidates who understand should get our votes regardless of party affiliation.

Simple voting guide:

Dubya: Will call Islam a "Religion Of Peace" in public.
Will then kick the @$$es of the Islamics who have it coming.

Kerry (and any Democratic Presidential Candidate):
Will call Islam a "Religion Of Peace" in public.
Will believe it in private and appease Islamics who'd like to have his head on a platter.

[Polybius]

Currently studying the Crusades. Funny how many academics denounce the Crusades as "Christian agression" when Islam was spread by the sword and only stopped by the French from taking all of Europe in 772! The first Crusade was not until 1096- iff you ask me- it should have been earlier.

The Islamic Moors conquered most of Spain in 711 A.D. after the descendents of the Visigothic warriors that had conquered Roman Hispania in 415 A.D. had become a decadent and lazy ruling class with the passage of time.

The Christians made a stand in the mountain strongholds of Galicia and Asturias and defeated the Islamic Moors in 718 A.D. at Alcama thus turning the tide of Islamic conquest.

Thus began the Reconquista of Spain that lasted until Granada, the last Moorish kingdom in the Iberian Peninsula, was conquered in 1492.

The Reconquista was the earliest, the longest and the only completely succesful European Crusade in Christendom.

The Surrender of Moorish Granada, 1492

[Burkeman1]

Thanks! Good insight.

[XBob]

31 - "Perhaps you mis-understand or I did not make myself clear. The doctors were from the 1930's or 20s. The symtoms were taken from so-called holy writeing about the life of muhammed."

No - you indicated that they said that he had brain disfunction due to a sexually transmitted disease (eg syphilis). That takes a while to develop, and only comes in middle/older age.

Throughout history, Muhammed was pretty well known to be mentally deranged from his teens, when he was kicked out of Mecca.

[miltonim]

Muhammad-inspired persecution of Christians, Jews and all non-Muslims continues...

Mohammed, The Mad Poet Quoted....

[A. Pole]

The Reconquista was the earliest, the longest and the only completely succesful European Crusade in Christendom.

What about Russian lead liberation of Balkans and Russia itself? If West did not oppose it(Crimean War etc), probably Constantinople("Istambul") and coast of Asian Minor("Turkey") would be still Christian today.

[A. Pole]

Reconquista of Spain

Which was finalized by possibly the greatest woman in history (after Virgin Mary of course) - the Queen Isabella