The Anti-Christian Quran

Part 5

The Muslim Empire. Islam's Great War on Christianity

Muhammad’s deathbed orders to attack Christian Syria

In March 632CE, Muhammad made his Farewell Pilgrimage to Mecca and on return to Medina, ordered the army to march on Syria. Al-Waqidi relates that when Muhammad was on his deathbed, he became ‘extremely agitated’ and talked incessantly of the death of Zayd and Jafar and the other companions killed at the Battle of Muta. Hence Muhammad’s frantic and repeated summons to Osama, son of Zayd: “Go in the name of Allah to the place where your father was killed! Attack the people of Ubna with your cavalry and be aggressive!”

   Indeed, the first action of Abu Bakr, on becoming Caliph (successor to the apostle) was to dispatch the Muslim army to Syria to fulfil  Muhammad’s dying wish for vengeance, and in a precursor of the Islamic terrorism and conquest to come, ‘Osama burnt their houses, destroyed their palm trees, killed many and  made slaves of the rest. That day, he killed his father’s killer, and not one Muslim life was lost.’ 

The first four Caliphs and the Great War on Christianity

Under the first four Caliphs, all steadfast warrior companions of the Prophet himself, the great War on Christianity continued, with its sights set first on Jerusalem. The ultimate goal was of course the conquest of Constantinople, the capital of the Christian Byzantine Empire. This however was not to be achieved until 1453, after 800 years of bloody conflict across and around the Mediterranean, by which time Islam had deservedly earned its reputation as the Religion of the Sword.

The Caliphate of Abu Bakr (632-634CE)  

The first Caliph, Abu Bakr, spent most of his time at war, crushing the rebellions of Arab tribes who had been forced against their will by threat of death to convert to Islam, in a series of bloody battles and massacres known as the Ridda (Apostate) Wars. The Islamic onslaught on Christianity then began in earnest with victories in Palestine and Syria before Abu Bakr died of a fever in 634CE.

The Caliphate of Omar (634-644CE)

During the reign of Caliph Omar, Muslim forces under Khalid b. al-Walid, ‘The Sword of Islam’, annihilated the Christian Byzantine army at Yarmuk, defeated the Imperial Persian army, and conquered Jerusalem in 637. By 641, the Muslims had also conquered Alexandria, capital of Coptic Christian Egypt.   

   Those who resisted Islam were killed and their families enslaved, whilst the conquered nations who wished to keep their religion were forced to pay the jizyah, the tax of submission, as protection money to the Caliphate. In 644CE Omar met a violent end, stabbed to death in Medina by a Christian slave of Persian origin, maddened by the sight of wretched slaves from his home town.

The Caliphate of Uthman (644-655CE)

Uthman’s Caliphate was marked by continual wars to crush rebellion of the conquered nations. Egypt was re-conquered and Alexandria sacked. Tripoli was captured whilst a Muslim fleet conquered Cyprus and Rhodes. Wealth poured in from the spoils of war. Uthman too met a violent end, assassinated by a faction of Muslims led by a son of Abu Bakr, jealous of the power and wealth of Uthman’s family, the Umayyad clan of the Quraysh.

The Caliphate of Ali (655-661CE)

Ali’s Caliphate was also marked by bitter warfare, this time Muslim against Muslim, as he fought those who sought revenge for Uthman’s death: first Aisha, daughter of Abu Bakr, and then Muawiya, son of Abu Sufyan, and governor of Syria, who declared himself Caliph and met Ali’s forces in battle. When Ali was killed with a poisoned sword in 661CE, his elder son Hasan, grandson of Muhammad, was proclaimed Caliph but peacefully gave up his title to Muawiya.

Muawiya I and the First Arab Siege of Constantinople

Muawiya became the first Umayyad Caliph in 661, and by 670, his forces had conquered North Africa as far as Tunisia. He moved the capital of the Caliphate to Damascus, and commanded the First Arab Siege of Constantinople by land and sea, a siege which lasted a full four years (from 674 to 678) and which was only ended by the Byzantines destroying the Muslim navy with ‘Greek fire.’   

Yazid I and the death of Husayn

On Muawiya’s death in 680CE, the Muslims were distracted by civil war. Muawiya’s debauched son Yazid was proclaimed Caliph. Ali’s younger son, Husayn, was also hailed as Caliph, but he and his small band of 70 followers were massacred at Karbala by Yazid’s army. Thus Muhammad’s younger grandson met his death at the hand of a grandson of his old enemy Abu Sufyan, beginning the Great Schism and eternal conflict between Sunni Muslims and Shi’ites that blights the Islamic world to this very day.

Abd al-Malik b. Marwan and the Conquest of North Africa

The next great onslaught on Christianity came from Abd al-Malik, the 5th Umayyad Caliph (685-705CE). Once Abd al-Malik had defeated rival Caliph Ibn al-Zubayr in 692, he resumed the great War on Constantinople, whilst launching constant attacks against the Byzantine territories of Anatolia and Armenia. By 698, Muslim forces had destroyed the Tunisian city of Carthage, ending Byzantine rule in Africa, and by 705, they had taken Armenia.

Al-Walid I and the Conquest of Spain

Abd al-Malik’s son, Al-Walid I, the 6th Umayyad Caliph (705-715CE)  continued the Muslim onslaught on Constantinople, whilst his armies conquered the rest of North Africa and burst into Spain. He also forced Greek, Persian and Byzantine craftsmen to build the great Mosque of Damascus on the site of St John the Baptist Cathedral, as well as the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem. 

Suleiman and the Second Arab Siege of Constantinople

In 717, under Caliph Suleiman (715-717CE), an 80,000-strongMuslim land army marched towards Constantinople whilst a fleet of 80,000 men blocked supplies from reaching the city. The Byzantines under Leo III harried the approaching Muslim land army, the icy winter of 717 led to death and famine in the Muslim ranks, and ‘Greek fire’ sank the Muslim fleet. A second Muslim armada sent from Egypt in the spring of 718 was manned by Coptic Christian galley slaves who deserted the fleet on arrival. After this decisive Byzantine victory, the Umayyads concentrated their efforts on the conquest of Europe via Spain.

The Battle of Tours, 721CE

By 721, the Umayyads had devastated southern Gaul and were heading northwards to destroy the Abbey of St Martin of Tours, the holiest shrine in Western Europe, when they were intercepted and routed by a Frankish army led by Charles Martel. Despite this defeat the Muslims remained in control of the area of Narbonne until 759, and were to remain rulers of most of Spain for another 700 years.

The Crusades, 1095 – 1291CE

By 1095, the Byzantine Empire had lost so much territory to the invading Seljuk Turks that Christian pilgrimages to Jerusalem became impossible. Pope Urban II called on Western Christians to take up arms to aid the Byzantines and recapture the Holy Land from Muslim control. This marked the beginning of the Crusades, and the establishment of the Crusader states which lasted less than 200 years, until Acre, the last Crusader stronghold on the mainland, was besieged and stormed by the Mameluks in 1291. The Mameluks massacred the Christians, enslaved the survivors and then destroyed all the Crusader castles along the Mediterranean coast.

The Ottoman Turks and the Fall of Constantinople, 1453CE

During the 14th and 15th centuries, Eastern Europe was under constant attack as the Ottomans expanded their rule into Bythnia, Anatolia, Serbia (The Battle of Kosovo, 1389) and Bulgaria (The Battle of Nicopolis, 1396) and terrorised the Mediterranean. The Europeans were forced to create Christian Holy Leagues in a desperate attempt to defend Europe itself. In 1444, Sultan Murad II annihilated a Christian Holy League army at Varna in Bulgaria. In 1453, the Turks under Sultan Mehmed II besieged Constantinople with war galleys and cannon, and after months of bitter fighting, finally conquered the city, the gateway to Eastern Europe, and triumphantly converted Hagia Sophia, the greatest Church in Christendom, into a mosque.

The Ottoman massacre at Otranto, 1480CE

In 1480 the Italian city of Otranto in southern Italy was besieged and captured by the Ottomans who beheaded more than 800 of the Christian inhabitants. They became known as ‘The Martyrs of Otranto’ and Christian forces retook the city after a siege in 1481.

The Spanish Reconquista, 1492

In 1487, an Ottoman navy, sent to defend Granada, the last remaining Muslim stronghold in Spain, captured Malaga and took many prisoners, then tried to stop the Spanish advance by bombarding Spanish ports. After nearly 800 years of defensive fighting and resistance, it was only in 1492, under the Catholic Monarchs, Ferdinand and Isabella, that Christian knights took the last Muslim stronghold of Granada and by 1502, all remaining Muslims were ordered to convert to Christianity or leave the country.

Suleiman the Magnificent and the Battle of Mohacs, 1526

The 16th century opened with another Ottoman attack on the Balearic Islands in 1501, followed by attacks, massacres and enslavement of captives at ports and islands across the Mediterranean. The reign of Suleiman the Magnificent (1520 -1566) saw campaigns against the Christian powers in central Europe and the Mediterranean, the Siege of Belgrade (1521), the capture of Rhodes (1522), and the invasion of Hungary (1526) when he led an army of 70,000 men across the Balkan Mountains to defeat the meagre forces of the Kingdom of Hungary led by Louis II at the Battle of Mohacs. Suleiman sat on a golden throne to watch 2000 prisoners of war beheaded. Within months, over 100,000 Hungarians had been sent as slaves to Constantinople. The disaster of Mohacs led to the division of Hungary which  then became a battleground between the Habsburg and Ottoman Empires until 1699.

Christian survival at the Siege of Vienna, 1529

In 1529, Suleiman besieged the city of Vienna, capital of the Habsburg Austrian Empire, with over 100,000 men. The defenders numbered no more than 21,000 but Vienna survived the two-week  siege, and Suleiman’s failure to take the city marked the end of Turkish expansion into Europe and the Ottomans then diverted their efforts back towards Asia and the Mediterranean.

Ottoman domination of the Mediterranean

In 1538, the Ottomans, with the combined use of their navy and their army in Albania, captured a string of forts in Dalmatia, defeated a European Holy League navy at the Battle of Preveza, forced the  Venetians to sign a capitulation treaty in 1540, and had a resounding naval victory against the Spanish at the Battle of Djerba in 1560.

The Siege of Szigetvar and the death of Suleiman, 1566

In 1566, in another attempt to conquer Vienna, the ageing Suleiman arrived at Belgrade with a massive 150,000-strong army, and  attacked the great triple fortress of Szigetvar. The siege had lasted a month when Suleiman died of natural causes. The next day, his commanders made a final assault in his name and wiped out the remainder of the 2,300 defenders under their heroic leader Count Zrinski. Although an Ottoman victory, the Siege of Szigetvar stopped the Ottoman push to Vienna that year with French statesman Cardinal Richelieu describing it as ‘the battle that saved civilization.’

Turkish invasion of Cyprus, 1570

In June 1570, a massive Turkish invasion force besieged and destroyed the capital Nicosia. As many as 20,000 members of the garrison and citizens of the city were massacred, with 2000 boys being sent as sexual slaves to Constantinople. In 1571, the Turks besieged Famagusta, the last Christian possession in Cyprus. The Venetians held out against vastly superior forces for eleven months before surrendering to the Muslim forces who then tortured the Venetian commander to death.

Christian victory at the Battle of Lepanto, 1571

The fleets of Spain, Venice and the Papal States then united in a Christian Holy League under the command of Juan of Austria and met the Turkish fleet at Lepanto in a bloody battle that resulted in the death of almost 50,000 men. Lepanto was a great victory for the West. It was the last great sea battle involving war galleys, and ended Ottoman expansion in the Mediterranean. 

The Great Turkish War and the Battles of Vienna and Senta

The Ottomans began the great Turkish War by once again besieging Vienna in 1683. They were defeated on 12th September in the ensuing Battle of Vienna by the armies of the Holy Roman Empire, Poland-Lithuania, Venice, Russia and Habsburg Hungary united in a Christian Holy League.

   Fourteen years of further conflict culminated in the decisive victory of the Holy League  at the Battle of Senta on 11th September 1697 when prince Eugene of Savoy led a surprise attack on an Ottoman army under Sultan Mustafa II which, having  captured Belgrade, was attempting to cross the River Tisa in present-day Serbia in a last major attempt to conquer Hungary.

   The scale of the defeat forced the Ottoman Empire into the 1699 Treaty of Karlowitz ceding a great part of Hungary, the whole of Croatia and Slovenia, and most of Transylvania (all the territory that the Ottoman Emprie had gained since 1526) to Austria.

The decline of the Ottoman Empire

By the 1800s the Ottomans had been overtaken by the trading strength of the British, French and other European powers and in the 19th century their military power decreased whilst the conquered ethnic and regional groups demanded self-determination and independence.

   Christian Serbia in particular suffered 400 years of Ottoman rule and only gained  independence in 1867. Defeated in the Balkan Wars of 1912–13, and driven out of North Africa and Egypt, the Ottoman government began seeking alliances with European nations, and in 1914 entered the First World War as an ally of Germany.

Extermination of Christians in the Ottoman Empire

In 1915, the Ottoman government began a systematic extermination of 1.5 million Christian Armenians, carried out in two phases: the wholesale killing of the able-bodied male population followed by the deportation of women, children, the elderly, and the infirm on death marches to the Syrian desert. Similar Ottoman genocides targeted Assyrians (Syriac Christians) and Christian Orthodox Greeks.

Fall of the Ottoman Empire

In 1916, the British had entered into the Sykes-Picot Agreement with the French. The Treaty of Sèvres of 1920 between the Allies and the Ottomans then led to the partitioning of the Ottoman Empire and the loss of its Middle Eastern territories, including Palestine which became a British mandate. The terms ignited the Turkish War of Independence resulting in the emergence of a secular Republic of Turkey in 1923 under President Mustafa Kemal ‘Ataturk’ which remained neutral during the Second World War. 

The establishment of the State of Israel, 1948

In November 1947, after years of terrorism from both sides, the United Nations recommended the partition of Palestine and the establishment of separate Arab and Jewish states, an action seen by Muslims worldwide as the final humiliation of Islam and proof that Jews or Christians ‘are allies only to each other.’

   Thus, the Great War on Christianity has evolved to become the War on the whole of Western ‘decadent, capitalist, secular’ society,  where young idealistic Muslims are encouraged to throw away their lives fighting for the restoration of the Khilafa or so-called Islamic State. 

“Let those who would exchange the Life of this World for the Hereafter fight for the cause of Allah; whether they die of conquer, We shall richly reward them. The unbelievers are your sworn enemies. (Sura 4.74 & 4.101)