Islam Creator of the Modern Age
4. Liberty, Equality, Fraternity
~ 170 ~
Giving many further instances of the freedom of
thought and expression during the Muslim period,
Arnold has written that those Roman provinces
which were rapidly conquered by Muslims
suddenly found themselves in such an atmosphere
of tolerance as had been unknown to them for
centuries. Such tolerance was quite striking in the
history of the seventh century.
RELIGIOUS FREEDOM
Professor Arnold mentions another incident which
took place during the rule of the Abbasid Caliph, al-
Mamun (813-833). When al-Mamun came to know
that the enemies of Islam declared that it owed its
success to the sword and not to the power of
argument, he summoned a great assembly of the
leaders of all the religious bodies of the period. In
this meeting, the Muslim doctors defended their
religion against the imputation, and the unbelievers
acknowledged that the Muslims had satisfactorily
proved their point.
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Professor Arnold goes on to
say: “Al-Mamun himself was very zealous in his
efforts to spread the faith of Islam ... but he did not
