D., just one hundred years after the death of Mohammed. This defeat undermined the western conquests and saved Europe from the advance of the fanatic hordes. In the 8th and 9th centuries A.D. the Moslems conquered Persia, Afghanistan, and a large portion of India and by the 12th century were absolute masters of all Western Asia, Spain, North Africa, Sicily, etc. only to be conquered by the Mongols and the Turks in the next century. These newcomers adopted Islam though, and in the fifteenth century conquered the Byzantine Empire (1453). From Constantinople, the Turks even threatened the German Empire, but were successfully driven back across the Danube at the gates of Vienna in 1683.
The principle tenets of Mohammedanism are laid down in the Koran. As aids in the study of Koran: first, we have the so-called traditions' which are supposed to contain supplementary teachings and doctrine of Mohammed, a very considerable part of which, however, is decidedly false; second, the consensus of the doctors of Islam represented by the most celebrated imams, the founders of various Islamic sects, the Koranic commentators and the masters of Mohammedans jurisprudence; third, the analogy, or deduction from recognized principles admitted in the Koran and in the traditions. Mohammed's religion, known among its adherents as Islam, contains practically nothing original; confusing combinations of native Arabian heathenism, Judaism, Christianity, Sabiism (Mandoenism), Hanifism, and Zoroastrianism.
The system of Islam can be divided up into two parts: dogma, or theory; and morals, or practice. The whole fabric is built on five fundamental points: one belonging to faith, or theory; and the other four to morals, or practice. All Mohammedan dogma is supposed to be expressed in one formula. "There is no God but the true God, and Mohammed is His prophet."" But this one confession implies for Mohammedans six distinct articles.
