Muslims read their conquest of Christian lands as divinely sanctioned proof of Islam’s superiority

Evidence

In this way, with him in whom we trust, and in whom we believe, we went off, barefoot, naked, without equipment, strength, weapons or provisions, to fight against the largest empires, the most evidently powerful nations whose rule over other peoples was the most ruthless, that is to say: Persia and Byzantium. We marched against them with our small number, and our weak resources. And God enabled us to triumph over them and to take possession of their territories. He allowed us to settle down in their lands and houses, gave us their riches, when we had no other might or power than the Religion of Truth, thanks to God’s power, mercy and help. — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 267 (#qualifies, via linked claim)

For the Muslim, this was the rational, normal order of things. God had rewarded his faithful with dominion over the richest lands of the earth. He had shown Islam’s superiority to Christianity (and Judaism) twice: first through the Koran, then by making Jews and Christians submit, as dhimmi, to the Muslim yoke. Their weakness and submission were appropriate to their inferior, secondary status in the eyes of God. More and more of them, moreover, were seeing the light and converting to Islam. There was still, of course, the weakened but still important Christian power of Rûm (Rome), with its capital, Constantinople, that resisted repeated Muslim attacks. Muslims prayed to have it delivered to Islam, and some day it would be. — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 279 (#qualifies, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Medieval believers read military victory as divine judgment on the merits of faiths; Christians reinterpreted biblical prophecy to explain Muslim conquests; Muslims read military conquest as divine favor and proof of true faith (+19 more)

Broader Connections

• Medieval Christians read Muslim victories as divine judgment against Christendom #expands (0.95)
• Early Muslims read Christian and Jewish submission as divine sanction of Islam’s superiority. #qualifies (0.95) — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 279
• Early Muslims framed conquests as God-given triumph of the weak against mighty empires #qualifies (0.95) — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 267
• Christians ignored Islam’s actual beliefs because they read Muslim conquests as divine punishment #complicates (0.85) — Green, Todd H, The Fear of Islam_ An Introduction to…, 123
• Political conquest enabled sharper Christian polemic against Islam #complicates (0.85) — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 830
• Both sides read the Muslim conquest as God’s punishment of the other’s heresy #complicates (0.85)
• Crusade propagandists framed Muslim conquests as divine punishment for Christian sins #complicates (0.85) — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 1077
• Christians explained Islamic conquest as prophesied punishment for their own sins #complicates (0.85) — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 721
• Medieval Christians read Islamic revelation as a divine warrant for worldly war #complicates (0.85) — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 1909
• Early modern Christians read Islam as divine punishment for Eastern schisms #complicates (0.85) — Robert Irwin, For Lust of Knowing, 130