Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1912-12-04
CROSS AND CRESCENT
Christian and MOhammedan Have
Battled for Thousands of Years.
WAR NOW WAGED is
CONFLICT OF THE AGES
A Brief History of the Wars i'm Eur
Ope Which Have Led Up to the
Present Conflict Between Tur-
key and the Balkans.

|
| between the Cross and the Crescent
in European Turkey is but a contin.
uation of the conflict of the ages be.
tween Christian and Mohammedan
and it brings to the mind of the stu
dent of history the many sanguine
wars, the many terrible battles be-
tween those two forces and that the
basic cause of it was an idea, a diff
ference in religious belief A short
review of this conflict of the ages
may not be entirely uninteresting to
the young of today who have not yet
had time to review it in the pages of
history.
Mohammed, the founder of Mo-
hammedanism, was native of Ara
bia, born about $40 A. D., and about
61O began preaching his new faith.
We will not stop to outline that faith,
but will simply sketch its spread and
its power. Mecca became the capital
of the new faith and is so still, and
yearly pious Mohammedans make
pilgrimages to it's shrines and there
pour forth their supplications to AL
lah and his Prophet, Mohammed.
Arabia was soon converted and also
Asia Minor, and the faith spread
eastward by the preaching of the
Koran and the power of the sword
until Mesopotamia and the greater
part of India, proclaimed their faith
in the Prophet 1t also spread west
ward and covered all north Africa,
the inhabitants of which were not
Negroes, but Moors and Arabs. In
| 40 a Mohammedan army crossed the
Straits of Gibraltar and commenced
the invasion of Spain. In three years
the whole Spanish peninsula was
overrun and the Mohammedan power
supreme, though the Christian spirit
was not converted or subdued. The
city of Granada became the capita
of the Moorish kings and the beauti-
full Alhambra their residence. In 49,
the forces of the Prophet swarmeC
across the Pyrenees for the invasion
and subjugation of France and ulti
mately all Europe, but they were me
I at Poitiers by Charles Martel who de
Heated them and rolled back the It'd.
,3of invasion across the mountains
4 The conflict between the Cross AM
the Crescent ragged in Spain for sever
hundred years, and at length, in thu
year 1909, the Moors were driver
} back to Africa and not vestige o
their power remained in Spain.
AS early as III an army of 100,
900 Mohammedans appeared befor
Constantinople, which was then tn
!, capital of the Byzantine Empire, for
merly the Roman Empire. They trie'
to capture the city, but were repulse'
by the Greeks. and almost annihilate'
by Greek fire, the secret of the com
position of which was closely guarded
and finally lost. Only small rem
nant of the great army returned t
Arabia But this defeat and other
did not long discourage the Moham
medans. Their faith made fanatic
of them, and finally in 1853 Constant
inople fell before their terrible as
saults and it has since been the capi
tai of Mohammedan power, though
Mecca remains the chief spiritua
seat. The conquest of Constantine
pie was effected chiefly by tina
branch of Mohammedanism known al
the Seljukian Turks. The countr!
in Europe and Asia over which they
held sway became known as Iurke,
and the Sultan of Turkey became The
head and defender of MohammeGan
| ism.
In the early ages it was the Gus
| tom of pious Christians to make pill
grimage to the Holy Land to pray al
the place of crucifixion of the Saviour
and in other places made venerable
by his life work. They walked from
western Europe singly and in bands,
many of them dying on the way there
and back from the hardships OF the
journey. The Holy Land was tlep,
as it is now, under the dominion OF
the Mohammedans and they offered
insult and i'll treatment to the Chris
Itians and those returning complained
bitterly of it and declared that it was
shame for the Christian world II
allow the infidel to have mastery over
and to profane the places made sac
red by the Saviour. One OF these,
more eloquent or fired with more zeal
than the others, monk known as
Peter the Hermit, reused Christian
Europe to frenzy, and what Is known
as the Crusades began. This was be-
fore the commercial age of national
bonds and balances of power. and
there was nothing to hinder those
who desired to go to the rescue OF
the Holy Land from doing so. Peas
ant and noble and king volunteered
and they went in rather unorsan-
lied but earnest horde, and those VINO
did not die on the way finally reach
ed Jerusalem and fell upon the in
fidel. But the infidel was there In
force and the success OF the Chris
tians was not complete. Another and
another crusade followed until ilhal-
ly nine of them were made, and for
more than one hundred years the
chiyalry of Christendom beat against
the hordes of Islam in the Holy Land
with varying success, gaining and los
ing it from time to time and nhally
losing it altogether. The first cruS-
ade was in 1897 and the last in 1920.
The same ground being fought over
now was fought over many times be-
fore between Christian and Moslem.
Adrianople was before besieged by
the same Balkan peoples that are
now besieging it, but unlike the pres
ent occasion the Christians were re-
pulsed by an inferior Moslem army.