Mahomet (Finger)/Foreword
FOREWORD
This little sketch, setting forth not only the life of Mahomet, but the events that followed fast on his death, is built up from a series of notes taken at different times, some while attending a course of lectures given by Edward Spencer Beesley, M.A., Professor of History in University College, London, others when reading the books here listed: Mahometan Theories of Taxation, by Nicholas P. Achnides; Ibrahim Pascha, by H. D. Jenkins, Ph.D.; The Spirit of Islam, by Syed Ayeer Ali; Life of Mahomet, by Sir W. Muir and Irving's Mahomet. Where dates are given, I have taken those as given in the pages of Haydn's Dictionary of Dates.
I have tried to avoid throwing a haze around my subject, presenting Mahomet neither as a half-god nor as a vulgar adventurer, for of the man's sincerity in his early days there can be no shadow of a doubt; but, naturally, as his religion passed into the sphere of practical politics, there had to be a trimming and a resorting to expediences.
The writing and publishing of this book shall hot have been in vain, if, through it, some come to realize that the Turk is not the unintelligent person that many would try to make us believe, nor is his civilization one of primitive simplicity. It is important to realize that in these days, when all nations share in the general malaise of Europe and Asia.
Charles J. Finger