Sykes' History of Persia Vol 2 (pdf) - Heritage Institute

22 HISTORY OF PERSIA CHAP.
Spain the women are partially secluded, and perhaps
wisely.
We come to slavery. In Persia, at any rate, slaves are
kept only as domestic servants, and are particularly well
treated, being with reason trusted more than hired servants.
Can we, with a recollection of Hawkins, who bought
negroes in Africa to sell in America, throw stones at
slavery among Moslems ? I think not. Freedom of
thought and private judgment are gradually asserting
themselves among Moslems, just as among Roman
Catholics, however much the mullas in the one case
or the Pope in the other may deny these privileges.
Moreover, until quite
modern times it has been the
those from whom he
general custom of man to persecute
differed on religious grounds, and the Moslems certainly
have not treated Christians more harshly than the inquisitors
did. Toleration is, in fact, a sentiment of recent
growth.
If the lives of great men are studied, imperfections
are invariably revealed, and in
many cases the greater the
man the more conspicuous the faults. Personally I hold
that Mohamed was, with all his human frailties, one of
the greatest of mankind ;
that he was impelled by the
highest motives to beat down idolatry and fill its place
with the much higher conception of Islam, and that by so
doing he rendered an immense service to the human race,
a service to which I
pay homage.
The Koran. The scriptures of Islam, known as the
Koran, 1
consist
exclusively of the revelations which
Mohamed claimed to receive through Gabriel as messages
direct from God. These messages were received throughout
the twenty-three years of his prophetical life, and were
recited by Mohamed before his followers and committed
both to
memory and to writing.
In the stage of culture
which prevailed at that period in Arabia writing was a
rare accomplishment, and the general
belief is that the
Prophet himself could neither read nor write ; memory
was therefore much stronger than among civilized races,
1
Koran signifies "reading aloud." The syllable
Al which is occasionally prefixed
is the Arabic for the definite article.