The Koran (Al-Qur'an). Anonymous

of GOD, as it is called, is most acceptable unto him, and that the defending the territories of the Moslems for one night is more meritorious than a fast of two months:4 on the other hand, desertion, or refusing to serve in these holy wars, or to contribute towards the carrying them on, if a man has ability, is accounted a most heinous crime, being frequently declaimed against in the Korân.5 Such a doctrine, which Mohammed ventured not to teach till his circumstances enabled him to put it in practice,6 it must be allowed, was well calculated for his purpose, and stood him and his successors in great stead: for what dangers and difficulties may not be despised and overcome by the courage and constancy which these sentiments necessarily inspire? Nor have the Jews and Christians, how much soever they detest such principles in others, been ignorant of the force of enthusiastic heroism, or omitted to spirit up their respective partisans by the like arguments and promises. "Let him who has listed himself in defence of the law," says Maimonides,7 "rely on him who is the hope of Israel, and the saviour thereof in the time of trouble;8 and let him know that he fights for the profession of the divine unity: wherefore let him put his life in his hand,9 and think neither of wife nor children, but banish the memory of them from his heart, having his mind wholly fixed on the war. For if he should begin to waver in his thoughts, he would not only confound himself, but sin against the law;

      6 See Deut. xxv. 2, 3. 7 Vide Grelot, Voy. de Constant. p. 220, and Chardin, ubi supra, p. 302. 1 Vide Chardin, ubi supra, p. 290, &c. 2 Cap. 22; c. 2, p. 20; c . 4, p. 62, &c.; c. 8; c. 9; c. 47 and c. 61, &c. 3 Cap. 2, p. 17; c. 3, p. 47; c. 47; c. 61. 4 Reland. de Jure Milit. Moham. p. 5, &c. 5 Vide c. 9; c. 3, p. 47, &c. 6 See before, p. 37. 7 Halach. Melachim, c. 7. 8 Jerem. xiv. 8. 9 Job xiii. 14.

      nay, the blood of the whole people hangeth on his neck; for if they are discomfited, and he has not fought stoutly with all his might, it is equally the same as if he had shed the blood of them all; according to that saying, let him return, lest his brethren's heart fail as his own."1 To the same purpose doth the Kabala accommodate that other passage, "Cursed be he who doth the work of the LORD negligently, and cursed be he who keepeth back his sword from blood.2 On the contrary, he who behaveth bravely in battle, to the utmost of his endeavour, without trembling, with intent to glorify GOD'S name, he ought to expect the victory with confidence, and to apprehend no danger or misfortune, but may be assured that he will have a house built him in Israel, appropriated to him and his children for ever; as it is said, GOD shall certainly make my lord a sure house, because he hath fought the battles of the LORD, and his life shall be bound up in the bundle of life with the LORD his GOD."3 More passages of this kind might be produced from the Jewish writers; and the Christians come not far behind them. "We are desirous of knowing," says one4 writing to the Franks engaged in the holy war, "the charity of you all; for that every one (which we speak not because we wish it) who shall faithfully lose his life in this warfare, shall be by no means denied the kingdom of heaven." And another5 gives the following exhortation: "Laying aside all fear and dread, endeavour to act effectually against the enemies of the holy faith, and the adversaries of all religions: for the Almighty knoweth, if any of you die, that he dieth for the truth of the faith, and the salvation of his country, and the defence of Christians; and therefore he shall obtain of him a celestial reward." The Jews, indeed, had a divine commission, extensive and explicit enough, to attack, subdue, and destroy the enemies of their religion; and Mohammed pretended to have received one in favour of himself and his Moslems, in terms equally plain and full; and therefore it is no wonder that they should act consistently with their avowed principles: but that Christians should teach and practise a doctrine so opposite to the temper and whole tenour of the Gospel, seems very strange; and yet the latter have carried matters farther, and shown a more violent spirit of intolerance than either of the former. The laws of war, according to the Mohammedans, have been already so exactly set down by the learned Reland,6 that I need say very little of them. I shall, therefore, only observe some conformity between their military laws and those of the Jews. While Mohammedism was in its infancy, the opposers thereof taken in battle were doomed to death, without mercy; but this was judged too severe to be put in practice when that religion came to be sufficiently established, and past the danger of being subverted by its enemies.1 The same sentence was pronounced not only against the seven Canaanitish nations,2 whose possessions were given to the Israelites, and without whose destruction, in a manner, they could not have settled themselves in the country designed them, but against the

      1 Deut. xx. 8. 2 Jerem. xlviii. 10. 3 I Sam. xxv. 28, 29. 4 Nicolaus, in Jure Canon. c. omnium, 23, quæst. 5. 5 Leo IV. ibid. quæst. 8. 6 In his treatise De Jure Militari Mohammedanor. in the third vol. of his Dissertationes Miscellanæe. 1 See Kor. c. 47. and the notes there; and c. 4, p. 64; c. 5, p. 77. 2 Deut. xx. 16–18.

      Amalekites3 and Midianites,4 who had done their utmost to cut them off in their passage thither. When the Mohammedans declare war against people of a different faith, they give them their choice of three offers, viz., either to embrace Mohammedism, in which case they become not only secure in their persons, families, and fortunes, but entitled to all the privileges of other Moslems; or to submit and pay tribute,5 by doing which they are allowed to profess their own religion, provided it be not gross idolatry or against the moral law; or else to decide the quarrel by the sword, in which last case, if the Moslems prevail, the women and children which are made captives become absolute slaves, and the men taken in the battle may either be slain, unless they turn Mohammedans, or otherwise disposed of at the pleasure of the prince.6 Herewith agree the laws of war given to the Jews, which relate to the nations not devoted to destruction;7 and Joshua is said to have sent even to the inhabitants of Canaan, before he entered the land, three schedules, in one of which was written, "Let him fly, who will;" in the second, "Let him who surrender, who will;" and in the third, "Let him fight, who will;"8 though none of those nations made peace with the Israelites (except only the Gibeonites, who obtained terms of security by stratagem, after they had refused those offered by Joshua), "it being of the LORD to harden their hearts, that he might destroy them utterly."9 On the first considerable success of Mohammed in war, the dispute which happened among his followers in relation to the dividing of the spoil, rendered it necessary for him to make some regulation therein; he therefore pretended to have received the divine commission to distribute the spoil among his soldiers at his own discretion,1 reserving thereout, in the first place, one-fifth part2 for the uses after mentioned; and, in consequence hereof, he took himself to be authorized on extraordinary occasions, to distribute it as he thought fit, without observing an equality. Thus he did, for example, with the spoil of the tribe of Hawâzen taken at the battle of Honein, which he bestowed by way of presents on the Meccans only, passing by those of Medina, and highly distinguishing the principal Korashites, that he might ingratiate himself with them, after he had become master of their city.3 He was also allowed in the expedition against those of al Nadîr to take the whole booty to himself, and to dispose thereof as he pleased, because no horses or camels were made use of in that expedition,4 but the whole army went on foot; and this became thenceforward a law:5 the reason of which seems to be, that the spoil taken by a party consisting of infantry

      3 Ibid. c. xxv. 17–19. 4 Numb. xxxi. 17. 5 See c. 9, and the notes there. 6 See the notes to c. 47. 7 Deut. xx. 10–15. 8 Talmud Hierosol. apud Maimonid. Halach. Melachim, c. 6, § 5. R. Bechai, ex. lib. Siphre. Vide Selden, de Jure Nat. et Gent. Sec. Hebr. l. 6, c. 13 and 14; and Schickardi Jus Regium Hebr. c. 5, Theor. 16. 9 Josh. xi. 20. The Jews, however, say that the Girgashites, believing they could not escape the destruction with which they were threatened by GOD, if they persisted to defend themselves, fled into Africa in great numbers. (Vide Talm. Hieros. ubi sup.) And this is assigned as the reason why the Girgashites are not mentioned among the other Canaanitish nations who assembled to fight against Joshua (Josh. ix. I0, and who were doomed to utter extirpation (Deut. xx. 17). But it is observable, that the Girgashites are not omitted by the Septuagint in either of those texts, and that their name appears in the latter of them in the Samaritan Pentateuch: they are also joined with the other Canaanites as having fought against Israel, in Josh. xxiv. II. 1 Kor. c. 8. 2 Ibid. 3 Abulfed. in Vit. Moh. p. 118, &c. Vide Kor. c. 9. and the notes there. 4 Kor. c. 59, see the notes there. 5 Vide Abulfed. ubi sup. p. 91.

      only, should be considered as the more immediate gift of GOD,6 and therefore properly left to the disposition of his apostle. According to the Jews, the spoil ought to be divided into two equal parts, one to be shared among the captors, and the other to be taken by