Muhammed+Paper-Stephen+Liao

Tournament of Greatness By: Stephen Liao 500 Word Count What is greatness? A dictionary(.com) provides us wit h the definition, //“18. a person who has achieved importance or distinction in a field”// (4). And because I am the greatest, that explanation should be extended to  // “a person who has achieved the highest importance or distinction in a field.” //  For  my field, religious and political leader, there is no equal to be found in history. Throughout my mortal years, I have been through many hardships. My parents died while I was a small child(2). In a tribal society, this meant I was worthless to the community. When I declared my prophecy, the tribe leaders felt threatened by me and eventually forced me to flee Mecca. Living in late 500s, the Byzantine and Persian empires were at their peak. Mecca was just a trading stop for most people. To survive and prosper, my intelligence and cunning were necessary. My followers and I went to Medina so that the tribal leaders in Mecca would have a false sense of safety. Conquering Mecca was only possible because my believers were very committed to the cause. In the battle of Badr, my army faced one with many more men(3). A lesser leader than myself would have ran from this challenge, but instead I embraced and my men destroyed their advantage in numbers with passion and the help of Allah. Having embarassed Abu Sufyan, the leader of the Umayyads, he became my nemisis for the remainder of our lives. In 628, I married his daughter(2). Now, I was part of the Umayyads, and they could not kill me. Sufyan surrendered in 630(5). My greatest strength as a leader was my ability to inspire my people. Though my followers were thin in numbers early on, they fought and stayed with me through tough times. Even when we were outnumbered and should have lost a battle, we littered the ground with the blood of our enemies and took what was rightfully ours. My weaknesses were few and far between. My poor relationship with Mecca was due to others' fear rather then a mistake on my part. Dying at the age of 63 to illness and being unable to lead my people any further turned out to cause argument over my successor(5). Had my health sustained itself, I could have matured the kingdom for some time before passing it on to an adopted son or appointed leader to avoid this in-fighting. There is no greater leader in human history, this I assure you. No other person has led their followers from obscurity in the desert to toppling massive empires and establishing their own kingdom. The Islamic Empire lasted hundreds of years and covered vast amounts of land in the Middle East. This success in my time has also translated to longevity. My religion currently has over 1.5 billion followers and Muslims are a very important part of “modern” society(1).

Bibliography: 1. Wikipedia. "List of religious populations." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_religious_populations. 2. Wikipedia. "Muhammad." []. 3. Szczepanski, Kallie. "Battle of Badr, 624 CE." New York Times (owns about.com). http://asianhistory.about.com/od/warsinasia/a/battleofbadr.htm. 4. Dictionary.com. "Greatness." []. 5. Nasr, Seyyed H. "Muhammad." Encyclopedia Britannica. http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/396226/Muhammad.