“Head of the State as well as the Church, he was Caesar and Pope in one; but he was Pope without the Pope’s pretensions, and Caesar without the legions of Caesar, without a standing army, without a bodyguard, without a police force, without a fixed revenue. If ever a man ruled by a right divine, it was Muhammad, for he had all the powers without their supports. He cared not for the dressings of power. The simplicity of his private life was in keeping with his public life. In Mohammadanism every thing is different here. Instead of the shadowy and the mysterious, we have history… We know of the external history of Muhammad… while for his internal history after his mission had been proclaimed, we have a book absolutely unique in its origin, in its preservation …on the Substantial authority of which no one has ever been able to cast a serious doubt.”

Reverend B. Smith (‘Muhammad and Muhammadanism’. London, 1874)