YOU MUST KNOW THIS MAN Thomas Carlyle in Heroes and Hero Worship and the Heroic in History, 1840 The lies (Western slander) which well-meaning zeal has heaped round this man (Muhammad) are disgraceful to ourselves only. A silent great soul, one of that who cannot but be earnest. He was to kindle the world, the worlds Maker had ordered so.
A. S. Tritton in Islam, 1951 The picture of the Muslim soldier advancing with a sword in one hand and the Quran in the other is quite false.
De Lacy OLeary in Islam at the Crossroads, London, 1923. History makes it clear, however, that the legend of fanatical Muslims sweeping through the world and forcing Islam at the point of sword upon conquered races is one of the most fantastically absurd myths that historians have ever repeated.