208 ISLAM AT WAR
However, without Islam it is unlikely that the conquests of Syria and Iraq
would have occurred. Without Islam and the charismatic personality of
Muhammad it is unlikely that they would have overcome the fractious
nature of their clan society and the incessant feuds. Islam unified them,
suppressed the clans and gave them the unity that permitted conquest.
Many details of Arab expansion and conquest can be explained by the
words of Muhammad, but its force is found elsewhere. In the Arab culture,
Muhammad would not have succeeded had he preached humility and sub-
mission. For the Arab warriors, “true” meant successful, and “false” meant
unsuccessful. The primary cause of the Arab conquests was this attitude
that God’s will is expressed by success and failure of the individual. In a
society that supplements itself by robbery and pillage, a successful mili-
tary foray that is rewarded with substantial spoils was seen as God’s ap-
proval of that action. It is ironic that many of the early heroes of Islam
were, in fact, little interested in religion. Khalid, who successfully fought
against the Byzantines has been described as someone who “cared for
nothing but war and did not want to learn anything else.” The same goes
for Amr, the conqueror of Egypt, and Othman, who amassed a fortune
from these conquests.
The failure of the Meccans at the Battle of the Trench, the siege of
Medina inA.D. 627, branded them as “false” and gave credence to the
“truth” of Muhammad. It is little wonder, in this light, that key individuals
such as Khalid, Othman, and Amr went over to Islam even before the
capture of Mecca. In light of the Arab culture at that time, the story of
their conversion merits little credence. The defeat before Medina had
shown them where the “truth” lay. This is exactly the concept found in
the medieval European concept of “trial by combat” where God—or Al-
lah—granted victory to the truthful combatant.
Within the Arabic culture of the time, the young men needed to prove
themselves to the older men, while the older men felt obliged to lead and
reaffirm their virility in war. Much of this related to the idea of the vendetta
or feud. Arab culture included a necessity to avenge the death of a family
member, and this led to an almost endless cycle of revenge killings. As a
result, some Arabic tribes lived for generations in a state of conflict with
other tribes. The original cause of the conflict could be long forgotten or
become totally meaningless, but neither tribe would willingly end the
struggle. Battles were even arranged on an annual basis, such as those
fought by the Kuraish and the Hawazin tribes. At the appointed time the
warriors would appear and fight until they felt that enough men had been
killed and maimed to satisfy the feuders.
This was the clay from which Muhammad would mold his army, and
it was the culture into which Allah revealed his word. As language reflects