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companions of Mahomet expired with their lives; and the chiefs or emirs of the Arabian tribes left
behind, in the desert, the spirit of equality and independence" (The Decline and Fall of the Ro-
man Empire). Each tribe, under its own chief, was independent of all the others, and came and
went as it pleased. While this state of affairs continued, their character as "a destroyer" was not
evident -- and could not be until after they were solidly united under one government headed by a
ruler recognized by all.

This is made more apparent when we realize what this "Destroyer" was to destroy! The
fifth trumpet, in actuality, covers the time when the Islamic hordes thrust westwards through the
lands once under the sway of the Roman Empire. To the east, centered in Constantinople, the East-
ern Roman Empire still existed in a weakened state. Therefore, it is in the character of the de-
stroyer that the last vestiges of the once powerful Roman Empire should fall. It was not as a
destroyer of men as such, for of them it is said that they "were not allowed to kill them, only to in-
flict pain on them for five months," and "their power [was] to hurt people for five months." It is
evident, then, that this "character" and work as "a destroyer" relates to the final destruction of the
Roman Empire, which was then represented in the Eastern Empire with its capital at
Constantinople.

Othman was the caliph who established the organized government of the Muhammadans;
and, therefore, it is from him that there has descended the name and title of the Ottoman Empire. It
was under the organized power of Othman that the work of the destroyer began! In his closing
remarks about the devastating rage of the Moguls and Tartars under Zingis Khan and his generals,
Edward Gibbon says:

In this shipwreck of nations [A.D. 1240-1304], some surprise may be excited by the es-
cape of the Roman Empire, whose relics, at the time of the Mogul invasion, were dis-
membered by the Greeks and Latins (The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, chap-
ter LXIV, paragraph 31).

But when the decline of the Moguls gave free reign to the rise of the Moslems under Oth-
man, of this Gibbon states --

He was situate on the verge of the Greek Empire; the Koran sanctified his gazi, or holy
war, against the infidels; and their political errors unlocked the passes of Mount Olym-
pus, and invited him to descend into the plains of Bithynia....It was on July 27, A.D.
1299, that Othman first invaded the territory of Nicomedia; and the singular accuracy of
the date seems to disclose some foresight of the rapid and destructive growth of the mon-
ster (ibid., paragraph 14).

Now, there are several points in this quotation that we should take note of:

1) Othman was the man who succeeded in bringing the disjointed elements of the Islamic power
into a compact and distinctly organized governmental entity. From him dates the time when -- as
never before -- "They had a king over them."

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