Islamism - 7

[G.Subramaniam]

Excerpts from Travels of Marco Polo -



For example, he hails the Brahmins of India as being "most honorable," possessing a "hatred for cheating or of taking the goods of other persons. They are likewise remarkable for the virtue of being satisfied with the possession of one wife (p.298)." He refers to one Muslim leader as governing "with justice" (p.317) and another who "showed himself [to be] a very good lord, and made himself beloved by everybody (p.332)."



That said, Polo clearly had no problem being blunt about Islam (political correctness being nonexistent in the Middle Ages). Whereas he praised the Brahmins for their "hatred for cheating or of taking the goods of other persons," regarding the Muslims of Tauris, (modern day Iraq), he wrote:



According to their doctrine, whatever is stolen or plundered from others of a different faith, is properly taken, and the theft is no crime; whilst those who suffer death or injury by the hands of Christians, are considered as martyrs. If, therefore, they were not prohibited and restrained by the powers who now govern them, they would commit many outrages. These principles are common to all Saracens (p.63).