Samuel M. Zwemer’s, The Moslem World

Samuel M. Zwemer wrote this volume as a textbook for mission classes in colleges and universities. His purpose was “…to present Islam as a challenge to the faith and enterprise of the Church…. Each chapter was intended as a study by itself on the Mohammedan religion in its different aspects, and the needs and opportunities of the Mohammedan world from the standpoint of Christian missions.” [p.xii]. As such, it remains to great value to this day.

My thanks to the Cambridge Centre for Christianity Worldwide for making a copy of this public domain title available for digitisation.

Samuel M. Zwemer [1867-1952], The Moslem World. New York: Young People’s Missionary Movement, 1908. Hbk. pp.239. [Click to visit the download page]

Contents

• Preface

1. The Great Arabian Prophet
2. Spread of His Religion
3. What the Moslems Believe and Practise
4. A General View of the Moslem World
5. Social and Moral Evils of Islam
6. The Story of Missions to Moslems
7. The Present Problem and Peril
8. The Day of Opportunity

• Appendixes
• A. Chronological Table of Important Events in the History of Islam and of Missions to Moslems
• B. List of Missionary Societies
• C. Selected List of Books on the Moslem World
• Index

Chapter 1. The Great Arabian Prophet

About the year 570 A. D., Abdullah, the son of Abdul Muttalib, a Mecca merchant, went on a trading trip from Mecca to Medina, and died there. A few months after his death his wife, Amina, gave birth to a boy, who was named Mohammed. One hundred years later the name of this Arab, joined to that of the Almighty, was called out in ten thousand minarets five times daily from the Persian Gulf to the Atlantic, and his new religion was sweeping everything before it in three continents. Who was this hero-prophet, what was his environment, and what the secret of his genius? What is the explanation of this marvel of history? Many theories have been given, and the true explanation of the spread of Islam is probably the sum of all these theories: the weakness of the Oriental Churches; their corrupt state; the condition of the Roman and Persian empires.…