Cyril Achcar

Westerners often miss that Islam in South East Asia is a syncretization of local culture, folk traditions and Chinese influences which make it very different from Middle Eastern tradition.

The Covenant of the Prophet Muhammad(s.a.w) with the Monks on Mount Sinai preserved by Saint Catherine's Monastery.

People will hate this but it has to be said.. Genghis Khan is vastly overrated. Yeah, the Mongols conquered a lot of stuff. They were good at war. But that's it. They didn't contribute to human society in any measurable way that affects anyone today. I will bet money you've never eaten a buuz dumpling or listen to throat singing. A large part of the Mongol's success comes from their sheer brutality towards common folk. And brutalize the common folk they did. Sack a castle and kill everyone. Come back two weeks later when people are rummaging through the wreckage and kill everyone again. Capture a bunch of men, women, and children, and make them march at the head of the army's assault, taking the casualties and filling up moats with their corpses. So sure, the war machine was impressive but the slaughter of millions of peasants is (aside from kind of sickening to consider) entirely unimpressive. And in exchange for the slaughter of so many the world got.... ? Mid asian food and terrible music? Weird horse products? "They are inhuman and beastly, rather monsters than men, thirsting for and drinking blood, tearing and devouring the flesh of dogs and men, dressed in ox-hides, armed with plates of iron... bulky, strong, invincible, untiring... They are without human laws, know no comforts, are more ferocious than lions or bears." - Matthew Paris (English Benedictine monk in the 1240s) "They should be called monsters rather than human beings, thirsting after and drinking blood, tearing apart and devouring the corpses of dogs and humans... Devoid of human laws, they have no knowledge of clemency.." "They are extremely arrogant toward other people, [and] tend to anger... easily... They are the greatest liars in the world in dealing with other people... They are crafty and sly... [and] have an admirable ability to keep their intentions secret... They are messy in their eating and drinking and in their whole way of life, [and] cling fiercely to what they have. They have no conscience about killing other people..." -John of Plano Carpini (1240s) "One cannot sufficiently defame the cruelty and artful ability for deception of that people... a certain ill-bred breed of inhuman humans, whose law is lawlessness, whose wrath is furious... overrunning countless lands, which it is dreadfully devastating, killing and horribly exterminating by fire all who stand in their way." -Ivo of Narbonne (1240s) A disgusting people who happen to get very, very good at warfare but highly overrated by people who value martial excellence.