which reference has already been made was the result.

THE MOHAMMEDAN HEAVEN. But, in Arabia, Mohammed overthrew and absolutely
annihilated the old idolatry. No trace of it is found in the doctrines
preached by him and his successors. The black stone that had fallen from
heaven--the meteorite of the Caaba--and its encircling idols, passed
totally out of view. The essential dogma of the new faith--"There is but
one God"--spread without any adulteration. Military successes had, in a
worldly sense made the religion of the Koran profitable; and, no matter
what dogmas may be, when that is the case, there will be plenty of
converts.

As to the popular doctrines of Mohammedanism, I shall here have nothing
to say. The reader who is interested in that matter will find an account
of them in a review of the Koran in the eleventh chapter of my "History
of the Intellectual Development of Europe." It is enough now to remark
that their heaven was arranged in seven stories, and was only a palace
of Oriental carnal delight. It was filled with black-eyed concubines
and servants. The form of God was, perhaps, more awful than that
of paganized Christianity. Anthropomorphism will, however, never be
obliterated from the ideas of the unintellectual. Their God, at the
best, will never be any thing more than the gigantic shadow of a man--a
vast phantom of humanity--like one of those Alpine spectres seen in the
midst of the clouds by him who turns his back on the sun.

Abubeker had scarcely seated himself in the khalifate, when he put forth
the following proclamation:

In the name of the most merciful God! Abubeker to the rest of the true
believers, health and happiness. The mercy and blessing of God be upon
you. I praise the most high God. I pray for his prophet Mohammed.

INVASION OF SYRIA. "This is to inform you that I intend to send the true
believers into Syria, to take it out of the hands of the infidels. And
I would have you know that the fighting for religion is an act of
obedience to God."

On the first encounter, Khaled, the Saracen general, hard pressed,
lifted up his hands in the midst of his army and said: "O God! these
vile wretches pray with idolatrous expressions and take to themselves
another God besides thee, but we acknowledge thy unity and affirm that
there is no other God but thee alone. Help us, we beseech thee, for the
sake of thy prophet Mohammed, against these idolaters." On the part of
the Saracens the conquest o