Mohammedanism then figures as a hostile force, as a real Ishmaelite in church history; it
is the only formidable rival which Christianity ever had, the only religion which for a while at least
aspired to universal empire.
And yet it is not hostile only. It has not been without beneficial effect upon Western
civilization. It aided in the development of chivalry; it influenced Christian architecture; it stimulated
the study of mathematics, chemistry, medicine (as is indicated by the technical terms: algebra,
chemistry, alchemy); and the Arabic translations and commentaries on Aristotle by the Spanish
Moors laid the philosophical foundation of scholasticism. Even the conquest of Constantinople by
the Turks brought an inestimable blessing to the West by driving Greek scholars with the Greek
Testament to Italy to inaugurate there the revival of letters which prepared the way for the Protestant
Reformation.
Viewed in its relation to the Eastern Church which it robbed of the fairest dominions,
Mohammedanism was a well-deserved divine punishment for the unfruitful speculations, bitter
contentions, empty ceremonialism and virtual idolatry which degraded and disgraced the Christianity
of the East after the fifth century. The essence of true religion, love to God and to man, was eaten
out by rancor and strife, and there was left no power of ultimate resistance to the foreign conqueror.
The hatred between the orthodox Eastern church and the Eastern schismatics driven from her
communion, and the jealousy between the Greek and Latin churches prevented them from aiding
each other in efforts to arrest the progress of the common foe. The Greeks detested the Latin Filioque
as a heresy more deadly than Islâm; while the Latins cared more for the supremacy of the Pope
than the triumph of Christianity, and set up during the Crusades a rival hierarchy in the East. Even
now Greek and Latin monks in Bethlehem and Jerusalem are apt to fight at Christmas and Easter
over the cradle and the grave of their common Lord and Redeemer, unless Turkish soldiers keep
them in order!^139
But viewed in relation to the heathenism from which it arose or which it converted,
Mahommedanism is a vast progress, and may ultimately be a stepping-stone to Christianity, like
the law of Moses which served as a schoolmaster to lead men to the gospel. It has destroyed the
power of idolatry in Arabia and a large part of Asia and Africa, and raised Tartars and Negroes
from the rudest forms of superstition to the belief and worship of the one true God, and to a certain
degree of civilization.
It should be mentioned, however, that, according to the testimony of missionaries and
African travelers, Mohammedanism has inflamed the simple minded African tribes with the impure
fire of fanaticism and given them greater power of resistance to Christianity. Sir William Muir, a
very competent judge, thinks that Mohammedanism by the poisoning influence of polygamy and
(^139) Archbishop Trench, l.c. p. 54: "We can regard Mohammedanism in no other light than as a scourge of God upon a
guilty church. He will not give his glory to another. He will not suffer the Creator and the creature to be confounded; and if
those who should have been witnesses for the truth, who had been appointed thereunto, forsake, forget, or deny it, He will raise
up witnesses from quarters the most unlooked for, and will strengthen their hands and give victory to their arms even against
those who bear his name, but have forgotten his truth." Similarly Dr. Jessup, l.c. p. 14: "The Mohammedan religion arose, in
the providence of God, as a scourge to the idolatrous Christianity, and the pagan systems of Asia and Africa—a protest against
polytheism, and a preparation for the future conversion to a pure Christianity of the multitude who have fallen under its
extraordinary power." Carlyle calls the creed of Mohammed "a kind of Christianity better than that of those miserable Syrian
Sects with the head full of worthless noise, the heart empty and dead. The truth of it is imbedded in portentous error and
falsehood; but the truth makes it to be believed, not the falsehood: it succeeded by its truth. A bastard kind of Christianity, but
a living kind; with a heart-life in it; not dead, chopping, barren logic merely."