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In the 100 years from the death of Muhammad in 632 AD until 732 AD, Islam spread rapidly to the East, going to the Indus River Valley, and to the West, conquering all of northern Africa. In 711 an army of Berber converts to Islam crossed the Straits of Gibraltar and soon took control of southern Iberia (Spain). The final advance of Islam into the Christian west came when Muslim armies crossed over the Pyrenees into the south of France in 718. Near Poitiers, France (near Tours), the Muslim armies met those of the Frankish ruler, Charles Martel (the Hammer). Charles defeated the Muslims at this history-changing battle, for Poitiers (Tours) marks the high water mark of Islam in Western Europe. Charles arranged his army at the top of a steep, wooded hill to deal in a defensive way with the invading Muslim cavalry. He had his men huddle together to form a large square, holding up their shields as a “shield wall,” while creating a row of spears to fend off the Muslim cavalry. Wave after wave of Muslim cavalrymen came, but the shield wall held!
But what if Charles Martel’s army had not held; what if the shield wall had collapsed? Gene Edward Veith comments on five major consequences if all of Europe had fallen to Islam:
- We would have no legislatures, for Islam does not recognize the creation of new laws. Shari’a is sufficient for all time. An absolute ruler, or caliph would govern. Political liberty as now exists in the West is impossible in an Islamic society.
- Islam does not approve of representative art, for it is a sin to try and picture another human being in art. The only acceptable forms of art are elaborate designs for their mosques and tapestries. Islam has no drama and only limited fiction.
- In the history of Islam, science was abstract and theoretical, “missing the way Western engineers turned scientific discovery into applied technology.”
- The church would be marginalized and restricted. As long as they pay deference to Islam, Christians can remain in small groups to propagate their faith in their families, but no larger than that.
- Muslims would control all aspects of the culture and their goal would be to bring everything under the authority of Shari’a.
The point is that Christianity shaped and indirectly affected almost all aspects of western civilization. If that shield wall had not held in 732 AD, we would still be stuck in the 8th century. The Battle of Tours (Poitiers) was indeed a watershed in human history. The world was totally different because of that strategic battle. God, in His mercy, preserved western civilization to develop all its unique characteristics, centered on human liberty, freedom and individualism. Even those who reject Christianity should be thankful that the Muslims did not win the Battle of Tours in 732 AD.
See The Oxford History of Islam, pp. 313-315 and Gene Edward Veith, Tabletalk (July 2008), pp. 82-84.
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