It is necessary to enter into some explanation as regards the contents of this work, originally published in 1880. It does not fall in with its plan to enter into an account either of the life of Muhammad or of the wide and rapid spread of the system founded by him. The author’s study was that of the religious system that had grown out of the Prophet's teaching, and of its effect upon the individual and the community. What the Church in her missionary enterprise had to deal with, what European Governments in the political world had to do with is Islám, and how it influenced those who ruled and those who were ruled under it.