A Critical Analysis of 'Real Islam'. Its People ... - Bukti dan Saksi

emained alive; for when the latter fell in the midst of the fire and the wrath of the Turks, [those barbarians]
stripped them of their clothing and of their footwear. Striking them with rods, they forced them – men and
women, naked and with their hands tied behind their backs – to run with the horses; those perverts pierced the
belly of anyone who grew faint and fell to the ground, and left him to die along the road. And so they became
the prey of wild beasts, and then they expired, or else the food of birds of prey, in which case they were
tortured. The air was poisoned with the stench of the corpses; Assyria was filled with captives." [50]
Professor H.Z. Hirschberg includes this summary of a contemporary Judeo-Arabic account by
Solomon Cohen (which comports with Arab historian Ibn Baydhaq’s sequence of events), from January
1148 C.E, describing the Muslim Almohad conquests in North Africa, and Spain:
"Abd al-Mumin…the leader of the Almohads after the death of Muhammad Ibn Tumart the Mahdi [note: Ibn
Tumart was a cleric whose writings bear a striking resemblance to Khomeini’s rhetoric eight centuries later]
…captured Tlemcen [in the Maghreb] and killed all those who were in it, including the Jews, except those who
embraced Islam…[In Sijilmasa] One hundred and fifty persons were killed for clinging to their [Jewish]
faith…All the cities in the Almoravid [dynastic rulers of North Africa and Spain prior to the Almohads] state
were conquered by the Almohads. One hundred thousand persons were killed in Fez on that occasion, and
120,000 in Marrakesh. The Jews in all [Maghreb] localities [conquered]…groaned under the heavy yoke of the
Almohads; many had been killed, many others converted; none were able to appear in public as Jews [emphasis
added]…Large areas between Seville and Tortosa [in Spain] had likewise [emphasis added] fallen into
Almohad hands." [51]
The mid-15th century Hindu chronicle Kanhadade Prabandha included descriptions of a wave of jihad
attacks at the end of the 13th century, and first three decades of the 14th century. These campaigns
vanquished extensive regions [Malwa, Gujarat, Ranthambhor, Siwana, Jalor, Devagiri, Warangal, Ma’bar,
and Ramesvaram], and resulted in the death or enslavement of perhaps millions of Hindus. [52] The
devastating nature of such attacks, which included deliberate targeting of non-combatants, is captured in
this account:
"A farman (firman) was now given to Gori Malik (to sack Bhinmal)…The Turkish [Muslim] invaders entered
the town making dreadful din and clamor. Orders were issued clear and terrible: ‘The soldiers shall march into
the town spreading terror everywhere! Cut down the Brahmanas [Brahman priests], wherever they may be-
performing homa or milking cows! Kill the cows- even those which are pregnant or with newly born calves!’
The Turks ransacked Bhinmal and captured everybody in the sleepy town. Thereafter, Gori Malik gleefully set
fire to the town in a wanton display of force and meanness." [53]
Ibn Battuta (1304- 1368/ ? 1377), one of the world’s most famous travelogue writers, witnessed this
display of murderous brutality towards Hindu prisoners, and their non-combatant wives and children,
during a jihad campaign in southern India in the mid 14th century conducted by the Sultan Ghayasuddin:
"All the infidels found in the jungle were taken prisoners; they had stakes sharpened at both ends and made the
prisoners carry them on their shoulders. Each was accompanied by his wife and children, and they were thus led
to the camp… In the morning, the Hindus who had been made prisoners the day before, were divided into four
groups, and each of these was led to one of the four gates of the main enclosure. There they were impaled on the
posts they had themselves carried. Afterwards their wives were butchered and tied to the stakes by their hair.
The children were massacred on the bosoms of their mothers, and their corpses left there. Then they struck
camp and started cutting down trees in another forest, and all the Hindus who were made captive were treated in
the same manner." [54]
Both Turkish and Christian chroniclers provide graphic evidence of the wanton pillage and slaughter
of non-combatants following the Ottoman jihad conquest of Constantinople in 1453. First from the
Turkish sources:
"Sultan Mehmed (in order to) arouse greater zeal for the way of God issued an order (that the city was to be)
plundered. And from all directions they (gazis) came forcefully and violently (to join) the army. They entered
the city, they passed the infidels over the sword (i.e. slew them) and…they pillage and looted, they took captive
the youths and maidens, and they took their goods and valuables whatever there was of them…" [Urudj] [55]
"The gazis entered the city, cut off the head of the emperor, captured Kyr Loukas and his family…and they
slew the miserable common people…They placed people and families in chains and placed metal rings on their
necks. " [Neshri] [56]