God's generals

the long version

"It is one of the more startling facts of military history that the founders of three of the four "great religions" -- Judaism, Buddhism, and Islam-- were also accomplished field generals with extensive experience in commanding men in battle. One of these, Muhammed, fought eight battles and was wounded twice, once almost fatally. Another, Siddhartha Gautama (later to become the Buddah), witnessed so much battlefield carnage that he suffered a psychological collapse. Moses had become so much a "god-intoxicated" personality that it is a reasonable suspicion that he, like the Buddah, was murdered. Indeed, had the experiences of these men in war not been so successful, it is quite possible that their achievements as religious leaders would never have occured. For all three, war and religion were so closely intertwined in ther personalities that it is difficult to discern where the influence of one ended and the other began. This book attempts to explore the military lives of Moses, the Buddah, and Muhammad, and the role their war experiences played in their religious lives." --