which the Church alone had
called into being. On the contrary, only when the movement had grown
ripe did Gregory VII. hasten to take steps to enable the Church to
control it. The idea of a Crusade for the glory of religion had not
sprung from the tenets of Christianity; it was given to mediaeval Europe
by the Muhammedans.

History can hardly boast of another example of so gigantic a conquest
during so short a period as that gained by the first adherents of Islam.
Like the fiery wind of the desert, they had broken from their retreats,
animated by the promises of the Prophet, and spread the new doctrine far
and wide. In 653 the scimitar of the Saracens enclosed an area as large
as the Roman Empire under the Caesars. Barely forty years elapsed after
the death of the Prophet when the armies of Islam reached the Atlantic.
Okba, the wild and gallant leader, rode into the sea on the western
shore of Africa, and, whilst the seething waves reached to the saddle
of his camel, he exclaimed: "Allah, I call thee as witness that I should
have carried the knowledge of Thy name still farther, if these waves
threatening to swallow me would not have prevented me from doing so."
Not long after this, the flag of the crescent was waving from the
Pyrenees to the Chinese mountains. In 711 the Saracens under General
Tarik crossed the straits between the Mediterranean and the Atlantic,
and landed on the rock which has since been called after him, "the hill
of Tarik," Jebel el-Tarik or Gibraltar. Spain was invaded and captured
by the Moslems. For awhile it seemed as if on the other side of the
Garonne the crescent would also supplant the cross, and only the victory
of Charles Martel in 732 put a stop to the wave of Muhammedan conquest.

Thus in a brief period Muhammedanism spread from the Nile Valley to the
Mediterranean. Muhammed's trenchant argument was the sword. He gave a
distinct command to his followers to convince the infidels of the
Power of truth on the battle-field. "The sword is a surer argument than
books," he said. Accordingly the Koran ordered war against unbelievers:
"The sword is the key to heaven and hell; a drop of blood shed in the
cause of Allah, a night spent in arms, is of more avail than two months
of fasting and prayer; whoever falls in battle, his sins are forgiven,
and at the day of judgment his limbs shall be supplied with the wings
of angels and cherubim." Before the battle commenced, the commanders
reminded the warr