Holy War: The Year the Muslims Took Rome

Chiesa.com ^ | January 5, 2005 | Sandro Magister

[NYer]

ROMA, January 5, 2006 – A book published recently in the United States lifts the veil on a crucial aspect of Islam, one which too many understand poorly and know too little about: jihad, the holy war.

It is an aspect that meets with widespread silence, as if it were a taboo. Even among Christians, there are wide gaps on this topic in the general awareness of Church history.

An example? Many recall what happened in Rome, at St. Peter’s Basilica, the night of Christmas Day of the year 800. After the Mass, pope Leo III solemnly placed upon the head of Charlemagne the crown of the Holy Roman Empire.

That night, the basilica of St. Peter gleamed with breathtaking brilliance. A few years earlier, Leo III’s predecessor, pope Hadrian I, had covered the entire floor of the sanctuary with plates of silver; he had covered the walls with gold plates and enclosed it all with a balustrade of gold weighing 1,328 pounds. He had remade the sanctuary gates with silver, and had placed on the iconostasis six images also made of silver, representing Christ, Mary, the archangels Gabriel and Michael, and saints Andrew and John. Finally, in order to make this splendor visible to all, he had ordered the assembly of a candelabrum in the form of a huge cross, on which 1,365 candles burned.

But less than half a century later, none of this remained. And what happened remains generally unknown among Christians today.

What happened is that in 846 some Muslim Arabs arrived in a fleet at the mouth of the Tiber, made their way to Rome, sacked the city, and carried away from the basilica of St. Peter all of the gold and silver it contained.

And this was not just an incidental attack. In 827 the Arabs had conquered Sicily, which they kept under their dominion for two and a half centuries. Rome was under serious threat from nearby. In 847, the year after the assault, the newly elected pope Leo IV began the construction of walls around the entire perimeter of the Vatican, 12 meters high and equipped with 44 towers. He completed the project in six years. These are the “Leonine” walls, and significant traces of them still remain. But very few today know that these walls were erected to defend the see of Peter from an Islamic jihad. And many of those who do know this remain silent out of discretion. “Bridges, not walls” is the fashionable slogan today.

* * *
The book that lifts the veil on the Islamic holy war is entitled “The Legacy of Jihad,” and is edited by Andrew G. Bostom.

The book is essentially made up of documents, many of which have been translated for the first time from Arabic or Farsi, or have been reproduced from books of oriental studies that would be difficult for the general public to find.

The documents range from Mohammed in the seventh century, to the twentieth century. And they include the classic texts on the topic of jihad by Muslim theologians and jurists, accounts of war from ancient and modern witnesses, and analyses of jihad by scholars of varying outlooks.

The book also contains islamic miniatures depicting moments of jihad throughout history, and maps that document the military expansion of Islam century after century, from the seventh to the eleventh century. Each map is accompanied by a summary listing the acts of war in each region.

For example, in the ninth century, during which Rome was assaulted and Sicily was conquered, the Muslim armies occupied Bari and Brindisi in Italy for thirty years; Taranto for forty; Benevento for ten; they attacked Naples, Capua, Calabria, and Sardinia several times; they put the abbey of Montecassino to fire and the sword; they even made skirmishes in northern Italy, arriving from Spain and crossing over the Alps.

One fact emerges clearly from the documentation compiled by Bostom: jihad is not just one of the forms by which the expansion of Islam took place in particular places and times, but it is an institution inherent to the Islamic system itself; it is a permanent religious obligation.

One astonishing thing is that it was not a specialist who published this documentation in the West. Bostom is an epidemiologist living in Providence, Rhode Island. But perhaps this very distance from the academic world of the oriental and Islamic studies scholars leaves him more free from the taboos that gag many of these.

Biting criticisms of the pro-Islamic sentiment of much of Western culture have been written by, among others, Jacques Ellul, Oriana Fallaci, and Bat Ye’or. The latter of these is a leading specialist in the condition of subordination systematically imposed by Islam upon the non-Muslim subjects of conquered countries. She is also the author of an essay published in 2005, carrying the eloquent title “Eurabia: The Euro-Arab Axis.”

One of the central theses of the three authors cited is that Islam is an organic whole and cannot be reformed in its essential elements, and that personal freedom and rights cannot be incorporated into it.

But even another author who does not share this thesis, and is indeed one of the most decisive proponents of the idea that Islam and democracy are compatible – Bernard Lewis, one of the most authoritative Islamic studies experts alive, professor at Princeton University – has severely criticized the pro-Islamic tendencies in vogue among Western intellectuals and politicians, even among Jewish ones.

In an essay entitled “The Pro-Islamic Jews,” Lewis explains how the idea of an early Islamic Spain tolerant of Christians and Jews – evoked by many today as a golden age – is a romantic myth of the nineteenth century, created by Jews themselves in their intellectual conflict with Christians.

And modern Turkey’s aligning itself with the Western world and its support for the state of Israel have also induced a widespread unwillingness to speak about the massacres it carried out last century against the Armenian Christians.

Other factors encouraging the general silence over the holy wars of yesterday and today – and also over slavery, which is still practiced by Muslims in some regions, over assaults on churches and the killing of Christians – are the effort to establish a good relationship with the increasing numbers of Muslim immigrants in Europe, fear of terrorist attacks, and the desire to create distance from the outlook of the “clash of civilizations.”

But the Muslim victims of this reticence and silence on the part of the West are precisely those who are courageously fighting to reform the Islamic faith and reconcile it with democracy and modernity.

It’s a good thing that, with books like the one by Andrew G. Bostom, they aren’t being left entirely alone.

[Hermann the Cherusker]

For some bizarre, inscructable reason, they see Islam as less threatening than Christianity.

No, its quite simple. Islam winks and nods at sexual immorality that Christianity utterly condemns. It really is all about sex.

[kindred]

Interesting article. Wish the school systems would teach history as it happened and not agenda driven politicalzation.

[patent]

That night, the basilica of St. Peter gleamed with breathtaking brilliance. A few years earlier, Leo III’s predecessor, pope Hadrian I, had covered the entire floor of the sanctuary with plates of silver; he had covered the walls with gold plates and enclosed it all with a balustrade of gold weighing 1,328 pounds. He had remade the sanctuary gates with silver, and had placed on the iconostasis six images also made of silver, representing Christ, Mary, the archangels Gabriel and Michael, and saints Andrew and John. Finally, in order to make this splendor visible to all, he had ordered the assembly of a candelabrum in the form of a huge cross, on which 1,365 candles burned.

. . .

What happened is that in 846 some Muslim Arabs arrived in a fleet at the mouth of the Tiber, made their way to Rome, sacked the city, and carried away from the basilica of St. Peter all of the gold and silver it contained.

Frankly, with no disrespect meant to the Pope, any time you cover a Church with that much gold and silver the proper response is for someone to sack the Church and deflate your ego a bit. That much money on the floor is just asking for it. Make it beautiful and opulent, but its not a palace, it’s a Church. That much gold and silver, imho, moves beyond providing the proper respect to the Tabernacle, and begins to shift the focus to men and their wealth, detracting from the worship of God. The muslims probably did us a favor in sacking it.

patent

[Heatseeker]

There's an area north of St Tropez known today as 'Les Maures' (i.e., 'The Moors'). They've got a tourist site at www.ot-lalondelesmaures.fr/us.

That might be the best known but there are a number of others.

[dennisw]

Nomads have raiding in their blood. I say the nomad is embedded in the Arab Muslim psyche. Read "Warriors of the Steppe" http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&rls=GGLG,GGLG:2005-49,GGLG:en&q=%22Warriors+of+the+Steppe%22 for a great account of the Mongols and why nomads raid the more sedentary. The agricultural peoples. They do it to supplement their diet. They could trade but prefer to raid because they are raised to be better horsemen. Thus better at war

[Aliska]

at sexual immorality that Christianity utterly condemns

Seems like selectively immorality such as multiple wives, infiledity of woman is worse than for their men (double standard same as Christian culture), the men seem to want to keep Islamic women virginal but others are fair game, and that iman in London took a pretty strong stand against homosexuality. I don't know if bestiality is as common as some imply.

I agree with you but think there is more to it than that.

[Kenny Bunk]

Excellent post. I went ahead and posted Walter Brandmuller's entire presentation, which seems quite a lucid and historically sound approach ... and a breath of fresh air amongst all this Religion of Peace codswallop out there.

Thanks. good dialogue

[jjmcgo]

Psychology is similar to history. If you want real science, not PC-driven drivel, go to the old texts.

[teawithmisswilliams]

That soulless building really captures the beauty of islam.

[TexConfederate1861]

That is fine...just leave the Orthodox alone during this one :)

[x5452]

Recently I watched a documentary on building Domes, they basically make plain that many Istanbul mosques were inspired by The Church of the Holy Wisdom which the Muslims stole and converted into a mosque. It's very sad.

[Romish_Papist]

Figured you guys might want to help out your Roman Catholic cousins on this one. What do you say? :)

[Hermann the Cherusker]

Islam allows quickie relationships for sex if heterosexual.

[ansel12]

An insightful post.

[NYer]

many Istanbul mosques were inspired by The Church of the Holy Wisdom which the Muslims stole and converted into a mosque. It's very sad.

The Hagia Sophia!!! No respect for anything outside their own religion. Islam has no notion of inalienable natural or human rights such as envisioned by Thomas Jefferson in the Declaration of Independence. Moreover, Islam does not acknowledge civil rights, i. e. rights which inure to people by virtue of their membership in a political state. The only rights possessed by Muslims and dhimmi are religious rights recognized in the Quran and codified in the Sheria.

[x5452]

I understand they are now restoring the original frecoes in the church

[gogogodzilla]

True, but the Mongols aren't Muslim.

Only after their empire broke up into different Khanate's did some convert to Islam.

After all, if they all converted to Islam, it would really be difficult to explain how come the modern Mongols are Buddhist.

[Blzbba]

"True, but the Mongols aren't Muslim. "


No argument. Just pointing out another amazing Euro history factoid that's ignored when teaching history.

[NYer]

Awesome! Thanks for posting those images. My favorite!

Have you seen this?

It's the Demography, Stupid

[M. Espinola]

"The mosque, that can hold up to 3000 people and is the largest in Europe, was financed by some 24 Arab countries. There is also a cultural center and library here."

The jihadist enemy has established a foothold in the heart of Rome and the city government caved in to the enemy regarding the crescent moon issue. Big mistake!