with Christianity, seeing that without the preliminary culture of Greece
and Rome modern Christian doctrines would not exist in their present
form, and of the former Mahomet had no cognisance. He stands altogether
apart from the Christian system, finding no affinity in its doctrines or
practices, scorning its monasticism no less than its conception of the
Trinity. His position in history lies between the warriors and the
saints, at the head of the Prophets, who went, flail in hand, to summon
to repentance, but unlike the generality, bearing also the sword and
sceptre of a kingdom.

No other religious leader has ever bound his creed so closely to definite
political conceptions, Mahomet was not only the instrument of divine
revelation, but he was also at the end of his life the head of a temporal
state with minutest laws and regulations--chaotic it may be, but still
binding so that Islamic influence extended over the whole of the lives of
its adherents. This constitutes its strength. Its leader swayed not only
the convictions but the activities of his subjects.

His position with regard to the political institution of other countries
is unique. His temporal power grew almost in spite of himself, and he
unconsciously adopted ideas in connection with it which arose out of the
circumstances involved. Any form of government except despotism was
impossible among so heterogeneous and unruly a people; despotism also
bore out his own idea as to the nature of God's governance. Political
ideas were largely built upon religious conceptions, sometimes
outstripping, sometimes lagging behind them, but always with some
irrefragable connection. Despotism, therefore, was the form best suited
to Islam, and becomes its chief legacy to posterity, since without the
religious sanction Islam politically could not exist.