Islam and the Freedom of Conscience — Page 120
~ 120 ~ 19th Century]… A greater number of God's creatures believe in Mahomet's word at this hour, than in any other word whatever. '' 63 Alphonse de Lamartine Lamartine, a French philosopher, wrote in his book, History of Turkey : ''If the grandeur of the design, the pettiness of the means, the immensity of the results, be the three measures of human genius, who would dare to compare humanly the greatest men of modern times to Mahomet? The most famous of them have agitated but armies, laws, empires; they have founded [when they founded anything] but physical potencies, often crumbled to the earth before themselves. Mahomet has recast armies, legislations, empires, peoples, dynasties, with millions of men, throughout a third of the inhabited globe. More than this, he recast altars, gods, religions, ideas, creeds, souls. He has founded upon a book, of which every letter is become a law, a spiritual nationality which embraces peoples of every tongue and race…'' 64 63 Thomas Carlyle. On Heroes, Hero ‐ Worship and the Heroic in History. Wiley and Putnam. , NY. pp. 60‐1 (1846) 64 A. De Lamartine. History of Turkey (English Translation). D. Appleton & Co. , NY. p. 154 (1855‐7)