Quote:
|
Beginning with Mohammed, the Arabs carried the sword of Islam for about 350 years. From Arabia the Moslems overran the Middle East, North Africa, Portugal, Spain, and part of France before being checked. The Turks then became the most militant arm of Mohammedanism.
|
The bolded word in the above paragraph is poorly chosen, I think. Conquered could have been better. As it would have implied a sense of nation building and imperialistic behavior, which is exactly what had happened and what was planned. But to use the word "overran" implies the same thing, except without the glory I suppose. Rome had conquered and not overran the Mediterranean. Great Britain had conquered much of the world in the 18th - 19th Century, not overran. Same could be said of France and Napoleon.
There is a certain status that is implied if one conquers, rather than "overruns" a territory. And certain status is linked to the legitimacy of rule. This is perhaps linked to the acknowledgement that the people of the East can defeat the West. That "developed" Western societies, such as Byzantium, Spain, and France, can be conquered by the likes of the "backward" societies of the East.
I find that a certain type of attitude can be read from just that one poorly chosen word. An attitude whose facial gesture can be produced by placing a skunk under someone's nose, while pointing your chin high so that others may see the hair of your nostrils.