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 396 DESTRUCTION OF THE GREEK EMPIRE abysmal darkness of unbelief. The support of such men was not to be risked by any nonconformity with the rites which are the outward signs of Islam. Mahomet would have been of all rulers the most blind to his own interest if he had derided their beliefs. But though Mahomet was the leader of a nation containing many fanatics, there is nothing to show that he shared their fanaticism. If he appealed to it, it was because it gave force to his army. He was no more inclined to be a fanatic himself than was Napoleon to be a democrat when he called upon his troops to fulfil their mission of carrying democratic principles to England and other countries assumed to be suffering under despotic rule. In a different age and under different circumstances Mahomet might have been a thoughtful student, or an excellent civil administrator, but it is difficult to conceive that he could ever have been a religious persecutor. He remained all his life a student, desirous of learning, but he was at the same time a man of energy, a successful general, and a good administrator. He was without high ideals of life, but capable of spasmodic kindness, a man not given to sensual pleasures — in his later years at least — sober, intolerant of drunkenness, seeking his pleasure in glory. 1 He appears to me essentially a lonely man ; one who took each man's censure but reserved his judgment ; one who, in his own phrase, would pluck out a hair from his beard if he believed that it knew his designs. He was too suspicious and too highly placed to have friends. He was supremely selfish and only considered himself bound to respect his promise when it suited his purpose to do so. Circumstances compelled him to be a soldier, and his great natural abilities 1 Zorzo Dolfin (p. 985) says : ' E homo non dedito a libidine, sobrio, in tempo del ramadan non vol aldir sobrieta ; a nulla volupta, a nulla piacea e dedito saluo a gloria.' This is in striking contradiction with Barbaro's account, which in describing Mahomet says, ' Che a un momento importantissimo alia vigilia della gran bataglia s'inebrid col capedan pascia secondo la sua usanza.' Barbaro's narrative is written immediately after the capture of the city, and, as usual, he is careless of the accusations which he brings against the Turks or Genoese.