From this time we have nothing left to account for, but that Mahomet
should collect an army, that his army should conquer, and that his
religion should proceed together with his conquests. The ordinary
experience of human affairs leaves us little to wonder at in any of
these effects: and they were likewise each assisted by peculiar
facilities. From all sides, the roving Arabs crowded round the standard
of religion and plunder, of freedom and victory, of arms and rapine.
Beside the highly painted joys of a carnal paradise, Mahomet rewarded
his followers in this world with a liberal division of the spoils, and
with the persons of their female captives. (Gibbon, vol. ix. p. 255.) The
condition of Arabia, occupied by small independent tribes, exposed it to
the impression, and yielded to the progress of a firm and resolute army.
After the reduction of his native peninsula, the weakness also of the
Roman provinces on the north and the west, as well as the distracted
state of the Persian empire on the east, facilitated the successful
invasion of neighbouring countries. That Mahomet's conquests should
carry his religion along with them will excite little surprise, when we
know the conditions which he proposed to the vanquished.
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