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[v\  J  s  \  xr^      THE 

MOSLEM  WORLD 

A  quarterly  review  of  current  events,  literature,  and 

thought  among  Mohammedans  and  the  progress 

of  Christian  Missions  in  Moslem  lands 


VOLUME  IX 


EDITOR 

SAMUEL  M.  ZWEMER,  D.D.,  F.R.G.S. 
Cairo,  Egypt 

ASSISTANT  EDITOR 

MISS  E.  I.  M.  BOYD 

London,  England 

ASSOCUTE  EDITORS 

CANON  W.  H.  T.  GAIRDNER,  B.A.  REV.  E.  M.  WHERRY,  D.D. 

MR.  MARSHALL  BROOMHALL  REV.  H.  U.  WEITBRECHT 

PROF.  D.  B.  MACDONALD,  D.D.  STANTON 

REV.  W.  ST.  CLAIR  TISDALL,  D.D.         REV.  F.  WURZ 

DR.  J.  W.  GUNNING 


AMERICAN  COMMITTEE 

DR.  CHARLES  R.  WATSON,  Chairman  MISS  J.  H.  RIGHTER,  Secretary 

DELAVAN  L.  PIERSON,  Vice-Chainnan  REV.  JAMES  L.  BARTON,  D.D. 

ALFRED  V.  S.  OLCOTT,  Treasurer  MRS.  WM.  BORDEN 

MRS.  WM.  BANCROFT  HILL 


MISS  JULIA  C.  CHESTER,  Office  Secret 


COPYRIGHTED  AND  PUBLISHED  BY  THE 

MISSIONARY  REVIEW  PUBLISHING  CO.,  Inc. 

THE  ARTHUR  H.  CRIST  CO.,  COOPERSTOWN,  N.  Y.,  and 

156  FIFTH  AVENUE,  NEW  YORK 

1919 


D5 

INDEX  TO  VOLUME  IX         ka  -^ 


LEADING  ARTICLES 


Y.G 


Page 

All-India  Moslem  Ladies'  Conference,  The.  .Mrs.  H.  A.  Walter  169 

Another  Plea  for  Literature  in  Vernacular  Arabic. .  .Percy  Smith  351 

Arabia  Today,  The  Politico — Religious  Situation  in 

C.  Stanley  G.  Mylrea  300 

Arabian  Nights  to  Spirit,  From  the Duncan  B.  Macdonald  336 

China,  The  Present  Condition  of  Islam  in A.  H.  Mateer  77 

Christian  Literature  for  Malaysia Rev.  W.  G.  Shellabear  379 

Christian  Literature  for  Russian  Moslems.  .Miss  Jenny  de  Mayer  137 

Christians — Mohammed's  Controversy  with  Jews  and 

Jospeh  D.  Byran,  B.  A.  385 

Christ  Superior  to  Mohammed E.  M.  Wherry  252 

Constantinople  College  and  the  Future  of  the  Near  East 

Miss  E.  A.  Thomson  1 56 

Correct  Foundations  of  Religion,  The Isaac  Mason  268 

Crescent  as  Symbol  of  Islam,  The. .              H.  E.  E.  Hayes  149 

Editorials:  Anno  Domini  191 9 D.  B.  Macdonald  i 

Chasm,  The S.  M.  Zwemer  1 1 1 

Islam  in  the  New  Age...H.  U.  Weibtrecht  Stanton  114 

On  Taking  Hold  of  God S.  M.  Zwemer  221 

Supernational  because  Supernatural.  ..  .S.  M.  Zwemer  4 

Urgency  of  the   Hour,   The.  ..  .Samuel   M.   Zwemer  331 

Eg>'pt  in  1857-1861 Lydia  S.  McCague  363 

Fiji,  Islam  in Frank  L.  Nunn  265 

From  the  Arabian  Nights  to  Spirit Duncan  B.  Macdonald  336 

Future    of    the    Near  East,    Constantinople    College    and    the 

Miss  E.  A.  Thomson  156 

Great  Venture  in  Khorasan,  The Dwight  M.  Donaldson  292 

If  I  had  a  Million  Dollars James  P.  McNaughton  369 

Illiteracy  Among  Indian  Moslems H.  J.  Lane-Smith  132 

Indian  Sufi  Hymn,  An Siraj  ud  Din  and  H.  A.  Walter  122 

Islam  in  China,  The  Present  Condition  of A.  H.  Mateer  77 

Islam  in  Fiji Frank  L.  Nunn  265 

Islam  in  Siam Paul  M.  Hinkhousc  142 

Islam  in  the  Philippine  Islands Robt.  T.  McCutchen  230 

Jews    and   Christians — Mohammed's   Controversy   With 

Joseph   D.    Byran,    B.   A.  385 

Khorasan,  The  Great  Venture  in Dwight  M.  Donaldson  292 

Literature  for  Turkish  Moslems. George  F.  Herrick  375 

Lure  of  the  Difficult,  The Edwin  M.  Poteat  224 

Makhail  Mansur Jas.  G.  Hunt  19 

Malaysia,  Christian  Literature  for Rev.  W.  G.  Shellabear  379 

Message  of  Good-Will,  The Marie  Bashian   Bedikian  349 

Mohammed's  Controversy  With  Jews  and  Christians 

Jospeh  D.  Byran,  B.  A.  385 


INDEX  TO  VOLUME  IX  445 

Mohammendans  in  Syria  During  the  War Wm.  H.  Hall  176 

Mohammed  Without  Camoflage W.  H.  T.  Gairdncr  25 

Moslem  Evangelization,  Patience  in Geo.  Swan  117 

Moslem  Idea  of  'Ilm,  The Frea  J.  Barny  159 

Moslem  Ladies'  Conference,  The  All-India.  .Mrs.  H.  A.  Walters  169 
Near  East,  The  Constantinople  College  and  the  Future  of  the 

Miss  E.  A.  Thomson  156 

Near  East,  Woman  in  the Basil  Mathews  240 

Origin  of  the  Moros,  The .Chas.  S.  Lobingier  58 

Patience  in  Moslem  Evangelization Geo.  Swan  117 

Philippine  Islands,  Islam  in Robt.  T.  McCutchen  230 

Politico-Religious  Situation  in  Arabia  Today 

C.  Stanley  G.  Mylrea  300 

Prayer  for  the  Times,  A "A  Veteran  Missionary"  6 

Present  Condition  of  Islam  in  China A.  H.  Mateer  77 

Reaping  the  Harvest  Today W.  T.  Anderson  65 

Russian  Moslems,  Christian  Literature  for.  .Miss  Jenny  de  Mayer  137 

Saint  Worship  in  Turkey Geo.  E.  White  8 

Siam,  Islam  in Paul  M.  Hinkhouse  149 

Symbol  of  Islam,  The  Crescent H.  E.  E.  Hayes  149 

Syria  During  the  War,  Mohammedans  in Wm.  H.  Hall  176 

Turkey,  Saint  Worship  in Geo.  E.  White  8 

Turkish  Lore,  Evil  Spirits  and  the  Evil  Eye  in.  .Geo.  E.  White  179 

Turkish  Moslems,  Literature  for George.  F.  Herrick  375 

Vernacular  Arabic, — Another  Plea  for  Literature  in. .  Percy  Smith  351 

Waning  Crescent  in  Turkey,  The Chas.  T.  Riggs  68 

Wanted :  A  More  Vigorous  Policy Arthur  J.  P.  French  247 

Woman  in  the  Near  East Basil  Mathews  240 

NOTES  ON  CURRENT  TOPICS 

Africa,  A  German  Appeal  to  Mohammedans  in 188 

Aga  Khan's  Vision  of  a  Greater  India,  The 189 

Arab  Geography,   Early 193 

Arabia,  Exploration  in  Central 420 

Arabic   Calligraphy 319 

Bakr-id  Festival  at  Calcutta,  The 190 

Baptism  in  Western  China 189 

Bible  at  Port  Said,  The 423 

Bible  in  Sumatra,  The 324 

Bolshevism — The  Koran  and 417 

British  Red  Crescent  Society,  The 314 

Burma,    Islam   in 92,  423 

Caliphate,  The 326,  424 

Christianity   a   Failure 88 

Damascus,  A  Medical  Missionary  in 323 

Decadence  of  Islam,  The 187 

Early  Arab  Geography 193 

Egypt — Literary  Work  in 416 

Egypt,  The  Strategic  Value  of 416 

Exploration  in  Central  Arabia 420 

Facilitating  the   Pilgrimage 420 

Frank  Letter  and  a  Reply,  A 429 

Future  of   Palestine,  The 418 

Future  Palestine :  Jewish  or  Moslem? 91 

German  Appeal  to  Mohammendans  in  Africa,  A 188 

Gospel  in  Java,  The 316 


446  THE  MOSLEM  WORLD 

Great  Britian  as  a  Mohammedan  Power 325 

Hospitals  for  Turkey 420 

How  to  Pray  for  Moslems 319 

How  to  Win  Back  Santa  Sophia 314 

How  Turks  Conduct  an  Orphanage 324 

Indian  Frontier  and  the  War,  The 86 

Indian  Moslems  and  Prohibition 323 

Islam  in  Burma 92,  423 

Islam  in  Kaifung,  China 426 

Islam  Not  a  Creed  Only  but  a  Civilization 422 

Java,  The  Gospel  in 316 

Kansu,  The  Moslems  of 95 

Kazan,  The  Moslem  Center  of  Russia 196 

Key  of  Paradise"  in  Popular  Islam,  "The 417 

Koran  and   Bolshevism,  The 417 

Largest  Unevangelized  Field,  The 327 

Lefroy,  Bishop  of  Calcutta,  George  Alfred 328 

Literary  Work  in  Egypt 416 

Lest  We  Offend 316 

Manifesto  by  Turkish  Women,  A 315 

Medical  Missionary  in  Damascus,  A 323 

Method  of  Approach  in  Turkey,  The 89 

Mohammedan  Appeal  to  the  British  Government 321 

Moros  of  the  Philippine  Islands,  The 194 

Moslem  Population  of  the  Philippine  Islands 83 

Moslems  of  the  Delta  and  the  Bible 426 

Moslem  Work  in  China, — Special  Committee 422 

Moslems  of  Kansu,  The 95 

Moslem  Student  of  Hinduism,  A 187 

Need  of  Special  Literature  for  Chinese  Moslems 90 

Neglected    Arabia 191 

New  Era  for  Arabia,  A 82 

New  Era  for  Palestine,  A 84 

New  Hospitals  for  Turkey 423 

New  Movement  Among  Moslems  in  Abyssinia 92 

North  Africa  ?  Why   Pray  For 93 

Occupation    of    Damascus 84 

Offense  of  the  Cross,  The 88 

Palestine :  Jewish  or  Moslem  ?  Future 91 

Philippine  Islands,  Moslem  Population  of  the 83 

Philippine  Islands,  The  Moros  of 194 

Palestine,  The  Future  of 418 

Pilgrimage, — Facilitating  the 420 

Pilgrimage  to   Mecca 83 

Pilgrimage  to  the  Shrine  at  Najaf,  Arabia 86 

Political  Position  of  the  Moslem  League  in  India 191 

Port   Said,   The   Bible   at 423 

Raymund   Lull    Home,   The 320 

Rebuilding  Churches  Destroyed  by  the  Turk 318 

Recent  Moslem  Miracle,  A 190 

Risk  of  Bibles  Being  Tom  Up,  The 325 

Russian    Moslems 90 

Russia,  Kazan  the  Moslem  Centre  of 196 

Sahara,  War  Missions  to  the 85 

Santa  Sophia,  How  to  Win  Back 314 

Saint   Sophia 425 


INDEX  TO  VOLUME  IX  447 

Should  Arabic  be  Taught  in  Government  Schools  in  Nigeria? 91 

Should  the  Koran  be  used  to  Prove  Christian  Doctrine? 317 

Social   Problem,   A SU 

Special  Committee  for  Moslem  Work  in  China 422 

Strategic  Value   of   Egypt,   The 416 

Sumatra,  The   Bible  in 324 

Sunday  Schools  for  Street  Children  in  Egypt 318 

Syrian — ^American  Commerical  Magazine,  The 422 

Touring  in  Kansu,  China 94 

Turkey,  Hospitals  for 420 

Turkey,  New  Hospitals  for 423 

Turkish  Women,  A  Manifesto  by 315 

Valiant  Worker,  A 320 

Value  of  the  Vernacular 96 

War  Mission  to  the  Sahara 85 

Western  China,  Baptisms  in 189 

Why  Pray  for  North  Africa? 93 

SURVEY  OF  RECENT  PERIODICALS 109,  218,  441 

BOOK  REVIEWS 

Achievements  of  Christianity,  The T.  K.  Mozley  313 

Armenia,  A  Martyr  Nation M.  C.  Gabrielian  107 

Asia  Minor W.  A.  Hawley  212 

Aspects  of  Ancient  Arabic  Poetry,  Some Chas.  J.  Lyall  210 

Ayeen  Akberi, — Gladwins L.  F.  Rushbrook  435 

Bagdad Mrs.  Ashley  Carus- Wilson  108 

Bagdad,  son  chemin  de  fer,  son  importance,  son  evenir.  .E.  Auble  206 

"Book  of  the  Dove" Bar  Habraeus  433 

Beneath  the  Surface  and  Other*  Stories G.  W.  Cornish  208 

Bijak  of  Kabir,  The Ahmand  Shah  105 

Black  Stone,  The Geo.   Gibbs  311 

Bulletin  of  the  School  of  Oriental  Studies:  1918 306 

Charles  Chapin  Tracy Chas.   E.  White  310 

Christian  Approach  to  Islam,  The Jas.  L.  Barton  208 

Cyprus  Under  British  Rule C.  W.  J.  Orr  203 

Devil  Worship Isya  Joseph  309 

Die  auf  Siidarabien  be'ziiglichen  Angaben  Nashwan's  im  Shams 

al  'ulum  gesammelt Azimuddin  Ahmad  211 

Downfall  of  the  Christian  Church  in  North  Africa.  .L.  E.  Iselin  199 

Encyclopedia  of  Islam,  The  Vol.  II.  No.  XXI 103 

England  and  Palestine Herbert  Sidelbatham  310 

Examples  of  Various  Turki  Dialects G.  W.  Hunter  213 

From  Egyptian  Rubbish  Heaps J.  Hope  Moulton  209 

Gospel  of  Matthew  in  Chinese  and  Arabic,  The 308 

Guide  to  the  Study  of  Christian  Religion,  A G.  B.  Smith  104 

History  of  Aryan  Rule  in  India  from  the  Earliest  Times  to  the 

Death  of  Akbar E.  B.  Havell  206 

Holy  Spirit:  The  Christian  Dynamic,  The.  .  .Rev.  J.  F.  Edwards  436 

La  Escatologia  Musulmana  en  la  Divina  Comedia. .  Asin  Palacios  432 

Life  of  God  in  the  Life  of  His  World,  The Jas.  M.  Whiton  210 

Life  of  Mohammed,  The  (In  Chinese) Isaac  Mason  437 

Little  Daughter  of  Jerusalem Myriam  Harry  440 

List  of  Chinese-Moslem  Terms Isaac  Mason  308 

Luzumiyat  of  Abu'l-'Ala,  The Abu'l-'Ala  431 

Madman,  His  Parables  and  Poems,  The Kahlfl  Gibran  430 

Messiahs:  Christian  and  Pagan Wilson  D.  Wallis  436 


448  INDEX  TO  VOLUME  IX 

Modern  Sons  of  the  Pharoahs S.  H.  Leider  216 

Mohammedan  Law  of  Marriage  and  Divorce,  The.  Ahmed  Shukri  198 

Near  East   From  Within,   The 204 

Nigeria,  The  Unknown 213 

Orient  Mediterraneen,  V A.  Duboscq  206 

Primer  on  Islam,  A Samuel  M.  Zwemer  437 

Qadiani  Commentary  on  the  Qu'ran,  A 98 

Rage  of  Islam,  The Y.  H.  Shahbaz  207 

Reconstruction  in  Turkey Wm.  H.  Hall  197 

Red  Rugs  of  Tarsus,  The H.  D.  Gibbons  205 

Revolt  in  Arabia,  The Dr.  C.  Snouck  Hurgronje  430 

Revue  du  Monde  Musulman.  .La  Mission  Scientique  du  Maroc  438 

Revue  due  Monde  Mussulman Vol.  XXXIV  313 

Riddle  of  Nearer  Asia,  The Basil  Mathews  107 

Road  Ahead,  The Elizabeth  Wilson  212 

Sex  Worship  and  Symbolism  of  Primitive  Races.  .Sanger  Brown  312 

Should  America  Accept  Mandate  for  Armenia? 307 

South  Eastern  Europe V.  R.  Savic  104 

sur  L'enseignement  dans  la  Russie  Musulman 439 

Switzerland  in  the  East  African  War  Zone J.  H.  Briggs  203 

Syria  and  the  Holy  Land Sir  Geo.  Adam  Smith  208 

Trade,  Politics  and  Christanity  in  Africa  and  the  East , 

A.  J.  Macdonald  312 

Tradition  Chevalersque  des  Arabes,  La W.   B.  Ghali  307 

War  and  Revolution  in  Asiatic  Russia W.  Phillips  Price  311 

War  and  the  Bagdad  Railway,  The M.  Jastrow  105 

War  and  the  Coming  Peace,  The M.  Jastrow  203 

Woman  Under  Christanity Shaikh  M.  H.  Kidwai  435 

World  Power  and  Evolution Ellsworth  Huntington  307 

CONTRIBUTORS 

Adams    310      McCutchen,  Robt.  T 230 

Anderson,  W.  T 65      McNaughton,  James  P 369 

Barney,  Fred  J 107,  159      Macdonald,  D.  B...    i,  211,  336 

Bedikian,  Marie  Bashian...   349      Mason,    Isaac 268 

Blackmore,  J.  T.  C 93      Mateer,   K.   H 77 

Bryan,  Joseph  D 385       Mathews,   Basil 240 

St.  John,  Mrs.  Burton.  .  105,  307      Mayer,  J.  de 137 

Christ-Socin,    Dr.    H 199      Mylrea,  C.  Stanley  G 300 

Donaldson,   D.  M 292      Nunn,  Frank  L 265 

E.   I.   M.   B Poteat,   Edwin   M 224 

107,  108,  212,  213,  312      Riggs,  Chas.  T 68 

Elder,    E.   E 198      Sell,    Edward 98 

French,  A.  J.   P 267      Shellabear,  Rev.  W.  G 379 

G 207      Siraj    un    din ^ I22 

Gairdner,  W.   H.  T 2S      Smith,    Percy 351 

Hall,  Wm.   H 176      Stanton,  H.  W.  Weitbrecht.  . 

Hayes,  H.  E.  E 149            114,  203 

Hcring,   Hollis  W 311       Swan,    Geo 117 

Hcrrick,  George  F 375      Thomson,   E.   A 156 

Hinkhousc,  Paul  M 142      Tisdall,  W.  St  C 213 

Hunt,  Jas.  G 19,  216      Walter,  H.  A 122 

L.  S.  R 104     Walter,  Mrs.  H.  A 169 

Lane-Smith,    H.   J 132      Wherry,  E.  M 252 

Lobingcr,  Chas.  S 58      White,  Geo.  E 8,  179 

McCaguc,  Lydia  S 363      Zwemer,  Samuel  M.  4,  iii,  331 


MAKHAIL  MANSUR— A  CONVKRTED  MOSLEM  SHEIKH 

Now  An  Aiv)stle  of  Jcstts  Christ 


The  Moslem  World 


VOL.  IX  JANUARY,  1919  NO.  1 


EDITORIALS 


Anno  Domini  19 19 

It  is  no  empty  rhetoric  to  say  that  in  the  past  few 
months  an  epoch  has  been  marked  in  the  history  of  the 
Moslem  East.  Whether  there  remain  any  independent 
Turkey  or  not,  the  period  of  the  Ottoman  Turks  has 
passed  as  passed  those  of  the  Fatimids,  the  Kurds  and 
the  Mongols;  the  Pan-Turanian  dream  is  melting  like 
morning  mists.  It  may  be  that  we  are  moving  towards 
a  new  Arab  period;  but  along  with  it,  we  may  be  cer- 
tain, the  principle  of  nationality  has  come  to  rule.  Pan- 
Islam  has  now  no  meaning  but  one  of  sentiment  and 
religion.  And  as  dreams  fly  so  the  fulfillments  of 
other  dreams  arrive.  Dreams  of  Crusaders,  but  ful- 
filled with  what  strange  differences;  dreams  of  European 
Ghettos  but  again  how  transformed;  dreams  of  desert 
Arabs,  now  peacefully  holding  Damascus,  for  whose 
plunder  they  have  looked  for  centuries;  dreams  of  the 
Druses  of  the  coming  of  their  kinsfolk  from  England, 
but  not  in  the  red  coats  of  tradition;  dreams  of' all  the 
little  subject  peoples,  living  still  though  crushed  through 
centuries,  and  with  them  of  crypto-Christians,  crypto- 
Jews,  crypto-Pagans,  nourishing  their  old  Faiths  in 
generations  of  secret  tradition.  And  what  scenes  have 
risen,  like  apocalyptic  figures  of  doom  and  promise 
for  a  new  word :  Australian  troops  riding  in  the  lands 
of  the  Sons  of  the  East  and  charging  besides  the  spear- 
men of  the  Desert,  French  cavalry  streaming  up  the 
Syrian  coast  past  Acre  before  which  Napoleon  failed; 
Turks  and  Teutons  driven  in  rout  by  men  of  England 
and  India  across  the  plain  of  Armageddon  and  down 
the  passes  to  the  fords  of  the  Jordan,  whither  fled  the 
army  of  Sisera  before  Deborah  and  Barak;  the  pipes 


2  THE  MOSLEM  WORLD 

of  the  Scottish  clans  heard  in  the  streets  of  Baghdad 
and  tuned  by  the  waters  of  Babylon;  the  waters  of 
the  Caspian,  crossed  not  by  English  merchants  as  in 
the  days  of  Elizabeth,  but  by  an  English  army.  These 
are  visions,  surely,  to  tell,  if  not  of  a  new  heavens,  at 
least  of  a  new  earth.  For  the  old  things  have  passed 
away. 

And  what  now  of  this  new  world?  It  is  most  eri- 
dently  a  world  of  hope,  a  world  of  life,  a  world  of 
freedom.  Ten  years  ago  there  echoed  in  the  hearts 
of  many  of  us  the  words  of  the  Scottish  poet  of  the 
War  of  Independence: — 

"Ah,  freedom  is  a  noble  thing; 

Freedom  makes  men  to  have  liking — " 
and  it  seemed  before  our  eyes  in  Turkey  that  men 
were  "having  liking"  again.  But  that  quickly  passed. 
Now  it  is  for  all  friends  of  the  Moslem  peoples  and 
of  the  Nearer  East  to  see  to  it  that  it  abides.  That  may 
not  be  easy.  The  awful  object-lessons  of  the  present 
chaos  of  Russia,  and  even  of  China,  are  before  our 
eyes  and  are  a  standing  warning  against  trust  in 
formulae  and  quick  methods.  The  history  of  Syria, 
and  even  of  Mesopotamia,  is  not  an  encouraging  one. 
Arabia  has  always  gone  its  own  way,  or  rather  ways, 
and  will  continue  to  do  the  same.  In  Asia  Minor  and 
the  Caucasus  the  medley  of  races  and  nationalities, 
of  religions  and  rites,  will  call  for  the  most  careful 
sorting  out.  But  there,  too,  the  separate  districts  have 
an  instinct  of  self-government  and  will  follow  and 
apply  it  once  they  are  secure  against  the  plundering 
over-lordship  of  a  dominant  race  or  religion.  Infinite 
patience  and  principle  of  festina  lente  must  be  the 
governing  thoughts  for  those  who  have  actually  to 
labour  on  these  problems. 

But  for  us,  for  that  world  of  Christian  workers  and 
thinkers  for  whom  this  Magazine  is  written  there  is  a 
simpler  yet  longer  task.  Our  part  in  the  new  life,  our 
share  in  the  new  hope,  our  use  of  the  new  freedom 
must  be  to  see  that  faith  in  God  and  in  the  divine 
destinies  of  man  does  not  vanish   in   these  cataclyms 


EDITORIALS  3 

and  revolutions  and  that  the  commission  to  the  Church 
of  Christ  to  preach  the  Gospel  of  the  Kingdom  of 
God  is  carried  out  in  its  fullness.  For  the  task  of  the 
missionary  is  changing  and  becoming,  if  that  be  possi- 
ble, deeper  and  more  necessary.  Very  often  he  has  now 
not  only  to  preach  Christ  but  to  preach  God;  he  has 
to  combat  materialism  and  atheism  and  not  the  imper- 
fect faith  of  Mohammed  alone.  Our  western  civiliza- 
tion is  sweeping  over  the  East  in  material  forms  and 
with  resistless  force;  our  education  is  spreading  cold 
theories  of  science  and  crass  phases  of  philosophy  which 
we  have  ourselves  outgrown,  the  doubts  and  scepticisms 
of  the  eighteenth  and  early  nineteenth  centuries  in 
Europe  are  capturing  the  oriental  mind.  The  Christian 
Church,  then,  must  accompany  this  material  civiliza- 
tion and  put  a  soul  into  it,  even  as  it  itself  is  the  soul  of 
our  own  life.  From  this  there  can  be  no  turning  back 
and  no  slackening;  otherwise  the  last  state  of  these  lands 
will  be  worse  than  the  first. 

To  aid  in  that  high  endeavor — that  adventure  of 
the  Christian  Church — is  the  object  of  this  Magazine. 
It  exists  for  the  Christian  world  which  takes  thought  of 
the  Moslem  world,  and  it  asks  all  in  the  Christian 
world  to  aid  it  with  interest,  with  contributions — 
scholarly,  practical,  devotional — and  with  recommenda- 
tions to  others  that  its  circle  may  be  extended  and  its 
influence  widened.  It  seeks  to  be  a  clearing-house  for 
missionary  experiences  and  studies  and  in  every  way 
to  make  more  intelligible  the  world  of  Islam.  It 
believes  that  only  by  deeply  sympathetic  study  and  sound 
knowledge  can  we  learn  to  do  our  part  by  that  world. 
And  so,  with  this  challenge  to  all  missionaries  and 
friends  of  missions  to  Islams,  it  now  goes  to  meet  this 
momentous  New  Year. 

D.  B.  Macdonald, 


SUPERNATIONAL   BECAUSE   SUPERNATURAL 

The  War  has  brought  many  back  to  God  and  prayer. 
It  has  shown  that  neither  education,  culture,  science, 
diplomacy  or  social  theory  can  itself  bring  blessing  to 
mankind.  We  are  now  contending  for  an  idealism 
that  is  supernational  because  based  on  the  supernatural. 
Only  God  can  make  His  world  safe  for  Democracy  and 
only   His   kind  of   Democracy  is   safe   for   the   world. 

Military  victory  of  itself  will  not  produce  the  new 
era  of  brotherhood  for  which  we  hope  and  pray.  The 
War  someone  has  said,  "is  a  solemn  protest  that  this 
world  is  not  a  mere  aggregation  of  nations,  but  a 
compressed  neighborhood  of  interwoven  interests  and 
aspirations."  Unless  after  the  War  we  can  rise  above 
mere  national  interests  and  programs  to  those  that 
are  universal  because  supernational,  the  battle  of  the 
allies  for  Democracy  and  the  rights  of  smaller  nations 
will  have  been  fought  in  vain.  It  is  possible  that 
some  of  those  whom  we  now  count  our  enemies  may 
be  in  the  list  of  the  weaker  nations  after  the  War. 

Christianity  has  always  claimed  to  be  supernational 
because  it  is  supernatural  in  its  origin  and  effect.  The 
great  commission  as  given  in  three  of  the  gospel  narra- 
tives is  expressed  in  world  wide  terms  only  because 
He  who  gave  it  claimed  supreme  authority  and  super- 
natural power.  We  must  never,  therefore,  give  final 
consent  to  any  measure  or  method  which  stamps  the 
missionary  enterprise  as  a  mere  national  one.  It  is 
fundamentally  international;  it  breaks  through  every 
race  barrier,  prejudice  and  hatred,  proclaiming  the 
solidarity  of  the  race  and  the  universality  of  redeeming 
Love.  Paul  did  it  on  Mars  Hill  and  we  must  do  it 
on  the  smoking  battle  fields  of  Europe  and  Asia.  This 
does  not  preclude   loyalty,   patriotism   and   sacrifice  to 


EDITORIALS  5 

the  utmost  for  the  cause  we  believe  to  be  just;  but  it 
includes  more.  It  includes  the  hope  which  the  Society 
of  Friends  and  a  large  number  of  Swiss  and  Swedish 
Christians  expressed   in   a  memorial: 

''In  the- full  assurance  that  we  plead  for  Christ's  Truth 
and  Right  we  lift  up  our  weak  voice  and,  notwith- 
standing all  that  might  frighten  us  in  facing  the  future, 
express  the  following  hope.  That  after  the  end  of  this 
war  all  those  who  will  have  deciding  influence  in  the 
reorganization  of  affairs  will  acknowledge  in  fact  and 
in  principle  the  nonpolitical  and  the  super-national 
character  and  freedom  of  movement  and  action  in  mis- 
sionary work  as  a  purely  Christian  undertaking.  A 
treaty  of  peace  not  bearing  this  character  would  fail, 
to  bring  about  the  peaceful  relationship  of  nations  in 
Christian  co-operation.  Consequently  it  would  bear 
the  burden  of  a  heavy  guilt,  which  would  produce  new 
evil."  They  go  on  to  say  that  it  remains  with  the 
Christians  of  all  countries  to  watch  over  their  personal 
attitude  toward  missions  lest  it  lose  the  genuine  founda- 
tion of  faith  under  the  stress  of  national  sentiment,  and 
to  guard  against  this  danger  by  repentence  and  prayer. 

The  chasm  made  by  the  war  between  Christians  can 
only  be  bridged  by  those  who  are  in  vital  union  with 
the  super-national  and  super-natural  Christ.  Under 
the  shadow  of  His  cross  and  in  the  light  of  His 
countenance  there  is  no  East  or  West,  no  breed  or 
birth,  no  friend  or  foe.  To  love  our  enemies  is  difficult 
because  it  is  super-natural.  It  requires  all  the  funda- 
mental graces,  faith,  hope  and  love.  This  fruit  of  the 
Spirit  is  exotic  and  grows  only  in  the  garden  of 
God.  This  Love  Divine  bridged  the  chasm  between 
Jew  and  Gentile;  Peter  and  Cornelius;  Stephen  and 
Saul  of  Tarsus;  Raymond  Lull  and  the  Moors;  Henry 
Martyn  and  the  mullahs  of  Shiraz.  It  will  enable  the 
Armenian  martyr  remnant  to  preach  Christ's  love  to 
Turk  and  Kurd.  Will  it  not  enable  us  also  to  take  up 
the  broken-off,  but  not  abandoned  Edinburgh  and  Luck- 
now  programs  and  reunite  our  spiritual  forces  for 
world  conquest? 


6  THE  MOSLEM  WORLD 

A  united  front  is  still  possible  in  the  realm  of 
Islamic  scholarship,  witness  the  Encyclopedia  and  many 
other  books  published  or  translated  in  Germany  and  in 
neutral  countries  during  the  war.  Shall  it  prove  im- 
possible in  the  realm  of  prayer  and  Christian  missions? 
The  Evangelization  of  the  Moslem  world  is  a  super- 
national  and  super-natural  task.  We  believe  this  in 
spite  of  all  the  dreadful  exposures  of  intrigue,  espion- 
age, secret  diplomacy,  racial  hatred  and  proclamations 
of  "Holy  War''  that  have  been  made  during  the  last 
four  years.  Because  we  face  a  new  era  we  need  a 
new  spirit.  More  than  ever  we  need  the  co-operation 
of  all  the  forces  of  Christianity  in  the  conflict  with 
Islam. 

Samuel  M.  Zwemer. 


A  PRAYER  FOR  THE  TIMES 

By  a  Veteran  Missionary  in  Turkey 

Almighty  and  most  merciful  God,  our  Heavenly 
Father. 

We  offer  Thee  our  most  humble  and  hearty  thanks  that 
Thou  has  invited  us  to  call  Thee  Father,  that  Thou  dost 
permit  us  to  claim  kinship  with  Thee.  We  wonder  at 
this  condescension.  We  bow  before  Thee  in  worship 
and  adoration,  in  deep  penitence  but  also  in  the  boldness 
conferred  by  Thy  word  of  promise.  We  rejoice  in  the 
knowledge  that  as  Thou  are  the  Father  of  all  men  then 
all  men  are  brothers,  members  of  one  great  family  of 
which  Christ  is  the  Head.  Wonderful  is  the  patience 
and  compassion  Thou  has  ever  shown  to  thine  ignorant 
and  erring  children.  We  thank  Thee  for  a  love  so  deep 
and  strong  that  Thou  has  given  Thyself  in  the  person  of 
Jesus  Christ  thy  well  beloved  to  lead  men  back  from  their 
unfilial  wandering  into  communion  and  fellowship  with 
Thee. 

We  thank  Thee  that  millions  of  copies  of  the  Gospel 
message, — of  that  Word  which  Thou  hast  declared  shall 
not  return  unto  Thee  void, — have  been  read  by  Moslems 
in  their  own  language  for  these  many  years. 


A  PRAYER  FOR  THE  TIMES  7 

We  pray  that  the  Holy  Spirit  may  at  this  time  bring 
the  Word  of  life  into  saving  touch  with  the  mind  and 
heart  of  every  reader.  Give,  we  pray  Thee,  to  every 
soul  to  whom  the  Holy  Spirit  has  spoken  the  courage 
openly  to  confess  Jesus  as  Saviour  and  Lord. 

We  pray  that  the  influence  already  exerted  by  the  lives 
of  Thy  servants  who  have  lived  among  Moslems  may 
prove  good  seed  which  shall  yet  spring  up  into  a  harvest 
of  souls  saved.  We  pray  that  Thou  wilt  overrule  all 
the  events  of  the  great  world  war,  all  the  comradeship 
of  Christian  and  Mohammedan  in  camps  and  on  fields 
of  battle  and  the  witness  borne  among  them  by  the  great 
army  of  Armenian  martyrs  to  disarm  prejudice  and 
remove  misunderstanding  and  give  to  Moslems  truer 
visions  of  Christ  and  of  Christianity. 

We  pray  that  Thou  wilt  greatly  increase  the  number  of 
young  men  and  young  women  who  shall  listen  to  Thy  call 
to  serve  Thee  in  giving  their  lives  to  the  work  of  intelli- 
gent and  sympathetic  ministry  to  Moslems  in  Eastern 
lands. 

May  we  all  live,  work  and  pray  with  a  devotion  born 
of  love  to  Jesus  and  to  those  for  whom  He  died  so  deep 
and  fervent  that  we  shall  feel  sure  there  can  be  no  service 
in  the  immortal  life  better  than  that  we  are  called  to 
here  of  bringing  our  brothers  of  the  religion  of  Islam  to 
a  true  knowledge  of  Jesus  Christ  and  to  vital  faith  in 
Him. 

We  thank  Thee,  O  Father,  that  we  may  have  any,  even 
the  least  share  in  the  blessed  work  our  Saviour  came  into 
the  world  to  accomplish  and  has  committed  to  those  who 
love  Him  to  proclaim,  namely,  the  redemption  and  sal- 
vation of  all  our  human  race. 

Be  with  us  all  the  days  as  Thou  hast  promised,  O 
blessed  Saviour,  till  this  great  work  is  fully  accomplished. 
Amen. 


SAINT  WORSHIP  IN  TURKEY 


When  the  thought  of  God  suggests  to  the  mind  a 
being  so  far  away  and  surrounded  with  such  a  retinue 
as  to  be  inaccessible  to  ordinary  mortals,  the  human  heart 
fixes  its  hope  upon  saints  as  intercessors.  The  common 
Anatolian  Turk  habitually  offers  his  most  earnest  prayers 
in  the  name  of  some  of  these  saints,  is  an  unquestioning 
believer  in  their  effective  intercession,  and  in  the  stress 
of  an  emergency  is  quite  as  prone  to  worship  at  a  sacred 
grave  as  in  a  mosque.  The  people  have  a  strong  sense 
of  unworthiness  before  God  and  of  helplessness  in  the 
affairs  of  life.  True,  the  idea  of  sin  emphasizes  mis- 
fortune quite  as  much  as  guilt,  but  conscience  is  at  work, 
penalty  is  recognized  as  deserved,  and  the  judgment  bar 
is  anticipated  with  dread.  Human  life  in  the  Orient  is 
beset  with  hard  experiences.  Death  is  possible  any  hour. 
It  is  not  uncommon  to  find  an  average  of  one  sick  person 
in  every  house  of  a  village.  Crop  failure  may  be  fol- 
lowed by  grim  hunger;  delayed  or  scanty  rains  mean 
drought;  accident,  robbery,  pestilence,  war,  disease 
among  the  cattle  or  other  disaster,  may  take  place  any 
day,  and  their  prevention  belongs  to  powers  beyond  those 
that  are  human.  The  life  of  an  Anatolian  rustic  is  som- 
bre, as  may  be  seen  from  the  fact  that  for  one  major 
scale  in  C  he  chants  his  peasant  songs  in  more  than  twenty 
minor  scales  in  which  G  is  the  predominant  note. 

In  Oriental  custom  a  favor  is  not  asked  directly  of 
the  person  who  alone  has  the  right  to  grant  it,  but  the 
petition  is  presented  through  some  intermediary  party. 
Requests  come  to  the  officials  of  Church  and  State  through 
parties  supposed  to  have  such  influence  with  the  real 
authorities  that  their  presentation  of  the  petitions  will 
ensure  their  success.  Possibly  as  a  heritage  from  some 
period  of  polytheism,  the  simple  Turks  of  Asia  Minor 
people  the  earth  with  number  of  beings  who  once  were 

8 


SAINT  WORSHIP  IN  TURKEY  9 

men,  each  of  whom  is  now  in  his  grave,  has  a  sphere  of 
influence  around  his  tomb,  takes  an  active  interest  in  the 
affairs  of  men,  especially  of  his  retainers,  and  has  a  great 
degree  of  influence  with  the  Almighty,  which  influence 
he  can  by  proper  means  be  brought  to  exercise  on  behalf 
of  his  suppliants.  My  friend,  the  mufti  of  our  town, 
explained  to  me  the  intercession  of  a  saint  as  similar  to 
the  introduction  of  a  friend  in  this  world.  "Suppose  you 
are  acquainted  with  the  governor  and  I  am  not.  You 
conduct  me  into  the  presence  of  the  great  man,  tell  him 
that  I  am  your  friend,  and  request  him  to  hear  me  for 
your  sake,  and  of  course  your  introduction  will  gain  fav- 
orable attention  to  my  case." 

The  tomb  of  a  reputed  saint  is  often  set  off  by  a  rough 
enclosing  wall,  and  is  sometimes  covered  by  a  building. 
The  occupant  is  termed  an  evliya  (plural  of  the  Arabic 
vely  or  wely).  The  site  is  frequently  "on  a  high  hill" 
and  "under  a  green  tree,"  just  as  was  so  often  the  case  in 
the  Old  Testament  times  and  countries.  Many  are  in 
secluded  spots,  but  every  worshipper  is  welcomed.  In 
and  near  a  city  evliyas  are  abundant.  One  saint  has  the 
reputation  of  curing  headache;  another  stomach-ache; 
another,  tooth-ache.  Some  are  good  for  weak  eyes.  At 
one  such  spot  it  is  the  prescribed  custom  to  burn  pine 
fagots  and  rub  the  eyes  with  the  soot,  while  at  another 
one  must  wash  his  eyes  in  the  water  of  a  fountain  close  at 
hand.  One  is  visited  by  persons  hard  of  hearing,  another 
by  anyone  whose  mouth  is  awry.  In  the  latter  trying 
condition  the  suppliant  pays  a  small  fee,  and  is  slapped 
on  the  mouth  by  the  attendant  with  the  slipper  of  the 
deceased  saint.  Certain  graves  are  much  resorted  to 
by  barren  women,  who  desire  children,  as  Hannah  visited 
Shiloh,  (I  Sam.  1:9-11);  to  others  children  are  taken 
who  cannot  properly  walk,  or  talk,  or  who  seem  deficient 
or  belated  in  the  use  of  some  ordinary  faculty. 

The  ceremonies  at  such  shrines  are  simple,  and  vary 
with  local  customs  and  with  the  worshipper's  sense  of  the 
fitness  of  things  and  of  the  urgency  of  his  case.  There  is 
of  course  a  prayer,  "uttered  or  unexpressed,"  understood 
to  be  offered  to  the  Almighty  through  the  medium  of  the 


10  THE  MOSLEM  WORLD 

saint.  Sacrifice  is  common.  Earth  taken  from  beside  a 
sacred  tomb  is  called  ^'precious,"  and  is  supposed  to 
possess  great  efficacy.  This  seems  to  be  on  the  principle 
of  sympathetic  magic.  The  dust  having  been  in  contact 
with  or  close  proximity  to  the  holy  man  has  partaken  of 
his  virtues  and  retains  his  power.  A  little  of  such  earth 
is  mixed  with  water  and  smeared  upon  the  person  of  a 
child  ailing  or  in  any  way  deficient,  or  the  child  is  made 
to  drink  the  muddy  water.  One  general  panacea  for  the 
sick  is  to  bring  earth  from  a  sacred  grave,  dissolve  it  in 
water,  and  give  it  to  the  patient  to  drink.  It  is  more  in 
keeping,  however,  for  the  patient,  if  possible,  to  walk, 
ride,  or  be  carried  to  the  sacred  spot,  to  ofifer  his  petition 
there  in  person,  and  to  smear  the  "precious"  earth  on  his 
body,  or  to  swallow  it  moistened  with  water.  To  fertilize 
a  field,  or  rid  it  of  pests  like  mice,  handfuls  of  earth  are 
taken  from  beside  the  tomb  of  the  saint,  whose  living 
representatives  collect  the  farmer's  religious  dues,  and  the 
"precious"  earth  is  sprinkled  over  the  soil.  Another  way 
of  approaching  the  being  once  human,  but  now  having 
access  to  the  superhuman  realm,  is  especially  employed 
by  those  who  are  afflicted  w4th  malaria,  or  with  some  of 
the  other  sorts  of  fever  prevalent  in  a  country  where 
sanitary  science  is  yet  almost  absent.  This  consists  in 
tying  a  rag  or  a  bit  of  rope  or  hair  taken  from  the  person 
to  the  fence  or  wall  about  the  grave  or  to  a  tree  standing 
near.  Horseshoes  and  nails  are  also  driven  into  the  trees, 
constituting  a  visible,  tangible,  permanent  bond  between 
the  suppliant  and  the  saint. 

Men  fear  to  steal  or  commit  other  depredation  within 
or  near  such  sacred  precincts.  I  once  climbed  over  the 
log  enclosure  around  a  grave  to  pick  some  Alpine  violets, 
those  early  harbingers  of  spring.  A  friendly  passer-by 
advised  me  to  get  out,  lest  the  offended  "lier"  there 
should  kick  me  out.  Trees  are  not  cut  from  a  grove  made 
sacred  by  the  presence  of  an  evliya,  lest  the  wood  fly  back 
to  its  place  in  the  night,  or  lest  the  wood-cutter's  house 
burn  before  morning.  Even  sticks  brought  home  by 
children  are  sometimes  carried  back  by  an  old  granny 
before  night,  lest  some  "stroke"  overtake  the  dwelling  or 


SAINT  WORSHIP  IN  TURKEY  ii 

its  inmates.  This  fear,  however,  has  been  very  useful  in 
retaining  some  trees  on  the  mountains,  which  are  fast  be- 
ing deforested  to  the  serious  damage  of  the  plains  and 
valleys  below.  In  the  event  of  death,  however,  wood 
may  be  cut  from  even  the  most  sacred  grove  for  the  pur- 
pose of  making  a  cofEn. 

To  their  own  people  and  to  reverent  worshippers  these 
"lords  many  and  gods  many"  are  held  to  be  indispensable 
protectors  and  kind  benefactors.  Immigrants  from  the 
province  of  Shirwan  in  Russia  are  unwilling  to  settle 
more  than  six  hours  distant  from  the  grave  of  Hadji 
Hamza  in  Amasia,  because  their  great  hoja  promised 
his  intercession  for  all  his  people  living  within  six  hours 
of  his  burial-place  when  they  come  before  the  Judge 
of  all  the  earth.  Strange  whims  are  attributed  to  these 
characters.  For  instance,  a  woman  once  related  to  us 
how  Hadji  Veli,  their  village  patron,  could  not  endure 
the  color  of  red,  nor  the  sound  of  a  drum.  As  a  conse- 
quence the  village  women  forego  the  beauty  of  red 
dresses,  the  color  they  love  best,  and  they  never  beat  a 
drum  there,  even  at  a  wedding. 

One  summer  day,  beside  a  clear,  cold  mountain  spring, 
I  fell  in  with  a  man  who  talked  familiarly,  almost  lov- 
ingly, of  the  dedes,  the  venerable  religious  characters 
entombed  here  and  there  upon  the  sunny  mountain  slopes 
about.  The  enclosure  of  one  grave,  he  told  me,  was 
built  by  deer,  who  brought  the  material  on  their  backs  for 
the  purpose.  At  another  of  the  graves,  miles  away  across 
the  valley,  a  camel  was  formerly  sacrificed  every  year. 
Then,  becoming  interested  as  I  listened,  he  related  how 
the  dedes  occasionally  fire  a  cannon,  and  how  he  had 
once  plainly  heard  them  on  the  very  spot  where  we  then 
were  sitting,  the  echo  of  the  great  guns  booming  from 
peak  to  peak  around.  On  going  to  the  city  he  found  at 
least  ten  men  who  had  heard  the  same  cannonading, 
and  all  were  sure  that  something  portentious  was  at 
hand.  My  informant  was  then  a  soldier  under  arms, 
and  in  just  a  week  came  news  of  the  Greek  war  of 
1896,  with  orders  for  the  troops  to  leave  for  the  front. 


la  .  THE  MOSLEM  WORLD 

And  the  men  went  with  light  hearts,  for  they  felt  that 
God  and  the  saints  were  stirring  in  their  behalf. 

On  another  day  a  party  of  us  visited  the  grove  and  tomb 
of  Chal  Dede,  Saint  Chal — a  spot  to  kindle  the  imagina- 
tion of  the  most  prosaic.  Picture  to  your  mind's  eye  a 
mountain  peak  1500  feet  above  the  fertile  plain  unrolled 
like  a  map  below;  lower  peaks  separated  by  winding 
valleys  round  about;  over  yonder  Bulak  Mountain, 
crowned  with  the  ruins  of  an  ancient  castle;  the  mis- 
sionary compound  in  sight  in  the  city  a  dozen  miles  away, 
where  500  young  people  gather  to  attend  the  schools  in 
term  time ;  the  rain-clouds  rolling  up  from  the  valley  of 
the  historic  Halys  river  over  there  to  the  west;  a  pine- 
grove  below  our  feet,  with  the  cool  breeze  soughing  up 
through  the  trees;  the  flattened  top  of  the  grassy  hill  offer- 
ing accomodation  for  a  concourse  of  hundreds  or  even 
thousands  of  people;  and  in  the  center  of  the  greens- 
ward the  tomb  of  the  Shia  saint,  Chal  Dede. 

A  substantial  stone  wall  about  forty  feet  square  en- 
closed the  little  low  building  within  which  was  the  tomb. 
This  last  was  perhaps  three  feet  high  by  six  feet  long,  and 
was  a  whitened  sepulchre  plastered  outside.  The  outline 
of  a  neck  and  head  of  plaster  at  the  west  indicated  the 
head  of  the  saint,  and  a  string  of  99  beads  was  hanging 
around  this  neck  to  be  run  through  the  fingers  of  a  wor- 
shipper while  repeating  the  "beautiful  names"  of  God. 
A  cloth  of  green  was  thrown  over  the  tomb,  and  a  tur- 
ban of  the  same  sacred  color  was  wrapped  about  the 
headpiece.  The  walls  were  stained  with  the  smoke  of 
many  candles  burned  in  reverence. 

Our  guide,  a  Sunnite  Turk,  at  once  began  to  pray, 
prostrating  himself  toward  the  south,  the  direction  of 
Mecca,  and  intoning  over  such  standard  phrases  as,  "God 
is  great,"  "There  is  no  god  but  Allah,"  and  the  like.  He 
wiped  his  eyes  with  the  green  cloth  from  upon  the  tomb, 
remarking  that  they  were  diseased,  and  he  hoped  the  saint 
would  help  them.  He  tore  a  rag  from  his  ragged  clothes 
and  added  another  to  the  many  rags  tied  to  nails  in  the 
wall.  He  took  dust  from  the  grave-side  and  rubbed  it 
on  his  forehead.    Then,  as  the  rain-clouds  discharged 


SAINT  WORSHIP  IN  TURKEY  13 

their  contents,  our  Turk  explained  that  Chal  Dede  is 
one  of  the  beloved  of  God  and  is  of  great  mercy  toward 
men.  The  region  belongs  to  him.  No  man  can  cut  a 
tree  from  the  grove,  or  carry  away  stones  or  earth  with- 
out the  risk  of  incurring  his  displeasure  and  some  conse- 
quent penalty.  The  trespasser  may  die,  or  fall  sick  or 
paralytic,  or  his  cattle  be  stricken  with  disease,  or  his 
crops  fail.  Chal  Dede  roams  about  at  will,  especially 
by  night,  visiting  other  dedes,  his  friends,  and  inspecting 
things  generally.  He  sews, — and  the  speaker  directed 
our  attention  to  a  needle  and  thread  always  kept  hanging 
on  the  wall, — and  makes  presents  of  garments  where  they 
are  least  expected,  or  he  repairs  rents  in  the  cloth  thrown 
over  his  grave. 

"So,"  continued  the  Turk  simply,  "my  dead  father  and 
mother  revisit  my  house  every  Friday  night.  I  cannot  see 
them,  but  they  are  there,  and  inspect  my  dwelling  to  see 
whether  there  is  sin  there  or  right  conduct,  whether  we 
quarrel  or  are  at  peace.  Just  so  every  man  has  a  record- 
ing angel  looking  over  his  shoulder,  who  puts  down  all 
his  acts  and  utterances,  whether  good  or  bad,  and  at  the 
end  the  account  is  struck,  and  according  to  the  balance, 
one  goes  to  heaven  or  hell.  Yes,"  he  went  on  in  response 
to  a  question,  "we  pray  in  the  name  of  Jesus,  for  we  have 
many  prophets  and  Jesus  is  one  of  them.  He  was  a  good 
person." 

Let  me  relate  the  following  incident  as  indicating  how 
much  of  their  real  religion  typical  Moslems  and  typical 
Christians  in  the  Orient  hold  in  common.  Much  of  it  is 
not  found  in  either  the  Bible  or  the  Koran.  On  one  occa- 
sion I  accompanied  some  hospitable  Armenians  on  their 
annual  midsummer  excursion  to  celebrate  the  festival  of 
Vartevar  on  Cross  Mountain.  They  relate  that  in  the 
generation  of  our  Lord  one  of  his  disciples,  Andrew  or 
Bartholomew,  was  on  a  preaching  tour  and  came  to  the 
neighborhood  of  this  mountain.  Finding  most  of  the 
people  heathen,  he  prayed  that  a  strong  tree  which  they 
worshipped  might  be  uprooted  as  a  sign.  This  was  done, 
and  many  believed  in  the  evangelist  and  his  message. 
Then  he  was  told  that  a  Christian  hermit  living  on  the 


14  THE  MOSLEM  WORLD 

mountain  had  died  under  persecution,  and  he  went  thither 
to  give  that  early  martyr  a  Christian  buriah  The  hermit, 
named  Pagham,  which  is  the  Armenian  for  Balaam,  had 
possessed  a  splinter  of  the  true  cross,  and  under  the  agony 
of  persecution,  lest  the  holy  relic  should  be  abused,  he 
had  cast  it  from  him,  when,  lo,  on  the  spot  where  it 
struck,  a  beautiful  spring  gushed  forth. 

In  the  natural  amphitheatre,  just  under  the  highest 
ridge  of  Cross  Mountain,  there  is  now  this  spring  of  clear 
cold  water,  about  which  on  their  annual  excursion  the 
people  encamp,  while  the  alleged  grave  of  the  martyr 
hermit,  enclosed  by  a  rough  wall  of  unhewn  stones,  is 
shown  on  the  summit  of  the  ridge  above.  On  the  occa- 
sion of  our  visit  we  found  a  large  tent,  with  six  crosses 
wrought  in  red  upon  its  sides,  fitted  up  to  serve  as  an 
Armenian  church.  A  priest  was  in  attendance.  A  busy 
crowd  was  gathering  for  a  three  days'  camp  meeting,  and 
constructing  rough  lodges  out  of  stones  or  out  of  such 
substitutes  for  tents  as  they  had  brought.  A  flock  of 
sheep  suitable  for  sacrifice  stood  awaiting  purchasers, 
and  would  be  entirely  disposed  of  before  the  ceremonies 
were  done.  People  assemble  from  the  towns  and  villages 
about  on  Friday,  belated  comers  arriving  on  Saturday; 
they  remain  over  Saturday;  the  festival  reaches  its  height 
during  the  morning  hours  of  Sunday,  and  toward  evening 
of  the  same  day  people  scatter  to  their  homes,  having 
given  three  days  to  the  celebration  by  having  given  parts 
of  three  separate  days,  on  the  same  system  of  reckoning 
employed  in  the  Old  and  New  Testament.  Armenians 
might  celebrate  the  festival  of  Vartever  on  any  mountain 
in  commemoration  of  our  Lord's  Transfiguration,  or  be- 
side any  spring  or  stream  in  commemoration  of  the  Flood 
of  No^h,  but  they  assemble  on  the  mountain  of  the  Cross 
because  of  the  martyred  saint  buried  on  its  highest  ridge. 
Vows  registered  at  any  crisis  of  life  all  through  the  year 
are  redeemed  by  prayer  and  sacrifice  at  the  annual  pil- 
grimage to  the  shrine  of  the  saint  and  by  dipping  in  the 
waters  of  his  sacred  pool. 

A  venerable  Greek  priest  and  his  wife,  whose  parish  is 
not  far  from  the  tomb  and  monastery  of  St.  Chrysostom, 


SAINT  WORSHIP  IN  TURKEY  15 

once  called  at  my  home,  and  in  the  course  of  our  conver- 
sation described  the  sanctity  ascribed  by  Turks  as  well  as 
Christians  to  the  locality  where  the  great  preacher  died 
and  was  buried.  The  earth  of  a  field  near  the  monastery 
is  of  a  peculiar  reddish  color,  attributed  locally  to  the 
stain  of  the  holy  blood  supposed  to  have  been  shed  there. 
Wonders  are  performed  at  the  tomb.  This  couple  had 
eight  children  one  after  another,  and  lost  them  all  in 
infancy  or  early  childhood.  Then  came  a  son  whose 
legs  were  -weak,  and  when  a  year  and  a  half  old  he  was 
taken  by  the  anxious  parents  to  many  places  of  ^Visita- 
tion," and  many  remedies  were  tried.  Finally  the  mother 
took  the  child  and  rubbed  him  bodily  on  the  tomb  of 
Chrysostom,  and  he  suddenly  straightened  up  his  limbs 
with  new  vigor.  He  grew  strong,  and  since  then  three 
children  have  grown  to  mature  years  in  that  home. 

The  inhabitants  of  Sinope  whether  Turks  or  Greeks, 
are  a  sea-faring  people,  in  keeping  with  the  character  of 
the  city  since  the  earliest  years.  Turkish  sailors  in  a 
storm  call  upon  Noah  to  protect  them.  The  whole  Greek 
community  honors  St.  Nicholas,  the  patron  saint  of  sail- 
ors along  the  coasts  of  the  Levant,  while  the  Greek  fisher- 
men trust  in  St.  Andrew,  who  was  himself  a  fisherman. 
Tradition  holds  that  Andrew  visited  Sinope  as  an  evan- 
gelist, that  he  lost  a  finger  which  was  cut  off  by  perse- 
cutors and  was  later  kept  as  a  relic  in  the  metropolitan 
church  "at  the  gate  of  the  city."  When  St.  Andrew's 
day  comes  around,  the  fishermen  contribute  to  a  fund 
with  which  wheat,  sugar  and  flour  are  bought  as  materals 
for  cakes  or  sweet  bread.  These  cakes  are  cooked,  con- 
secrated in  the  church,  and  then  part  is  eaten  by  the  con- 
tributing fishermen  and  their  friends,  but  part  is  kept  and 
carried  to  sea  in  the  boats.  Then  in  case  of  a  storm  when 
the  sea  is  rough,  crumbs  of  the  cake  are  sprinkled  on  the 
waters  in  the  name  of  St.  Andrew  with  an  appeal  for  his 
protecting  care. 

As  a  rule,  every  Oriental  church  in  our  region  is 
founded  in  the  name  of  some  saint  whose  name  is  listed 
in  the  calendar.  The  Virgin  Mary  has  perhaps  more  con- 
gregations than  any  other  one,   but  St.  Nicholas,   St. 


i6  THE  MOSLEM  WORLD 

George,  St.  Nishan,  St.  John  the  Baptist  and  others  are 
among  the  favorites.  When  the  annual  "day"  of  any 
given  church  is  reached,  its  congregation  prepares  for  a 
great  celebration.  A  drove  of  sheep  appears,  individual 
members  buy  some  of  the  animals  for  sacrifice,  and  the 
church  as  an  institution  gets  enough  more  to  ensure  an 
adequate  number.  One  and  another  contribute  to  the 
common  fund,  and  the  expense  is  all  made  up.  On  the 
morning  of  the  "day"  the  sheep  are  killed  with  sacrificial 
rites,  rice  and  unleavened  bread  are  cooked  as  accomp- 
panying  food,  and  the  people  of  the  community  partake 
of  the  meal,  picnic  style,  in  the  name  of  their  saint 
Friends  and  neighbors  for  miles  around  watch  for  the 
annual  celebration,  and  present  themselves  at  the  set 
time  to  satisfy  their  hunger  from  the  abundant  supply. 
Dishes  of  the  food  may  be  sent  to  every  house  of  the  parish 
if  the  quantity  suffices,  and  by  special  arrangement  por- 
tions are  often  sent  to  absent  members  of  the  community, 
or  to  those  who  have  moved  and  permanently  settled 
elsewhere.  A  present  to  the  treasury  of  the  church  is 
usually  made  in  return  for  such  a  favor,  and  thus  people 
are  united  with  each  other  in  their  worship  and  religious 
life  through  the  common  bond  with  the  saint  into  whose 
special  community  they  entered  at  birth,  and  who  is  their 
representative  before  God.  This  food  is  counted  very 
"health-giving"  because  of  its  character  as  sacrificial  and 
because  of  the  prayers  that  are  "read"  over  it  in  blessing 
before  its  distribution. 

So  far  as  possible,  the  whole  round  of  life  is  put  under 
the  care  of  guardian  saints.  A  child  born  on  or  near  the 
annual  festival  of  some  saint  is  given  his  name,  and  always 
regards  himself  as  under  his  tutelage.  One  Mohamme- 
dan authority  informed  me  that  the  mother  of  Moses  was 
named  Johanna,  and  that  if  in  any  difficulty  a  person 
would  just  speak  her  name,  "Johanna,  Johanna,"  it  would 
make  things  go  easier.  Every  dervish  claims  that  the 
"proofs"  which  he  offers  of  his  acceptance  with  God 
and  so  of  his  freedom  from  ordinary  laws,  such  as  chew- 
ing live  coals,  lapping  red-hot  iron,  thrusting  skewers 
through  the  flesh,  whirling,  sword-play,  and  all  without 


SAINT  WORSHIP  IN  TURKEY  17 

pain  to  himself,  are  due  to  the  power  of  the  "Pir,"  or 
Founder  of  his  Order.  The  Pir  lived  many  generations 
ago,  but  his  virtue  has  been  transmitted  through  succeed- 
ing superiors  down  the  years,  and  from  the  higher  to  the 
humbler  ranks  of  Dervish  membership,  until  the  last 
performer  is  reached. 

Living  men  may  have  a  reputation  for  sanctity  and 
power  similar  to  that  ascribed  the  dead,  though  usually 
it  is  rather  less  in  degree.    Distance  lends  enchantment, 
and  flaws  of  character  are  forgotten  as  the  graves  grow 
mossy.    The   Kurds,   the  wild  mountaineers  descended 
from  the  Carduchoi  of  Xenophon  and  the  Ten  Thousand, 
call  their  religious  head  a  sheikh.    These  people  have 
many  of  the  simple  virtues  of  men  who  live  an  out-of- 
door,  rough-and-ready  sort  of  life,  and  especially  they 
treat  their  own  women  with  more  respect  than  is  the 
case  with  regular  Mohammedans.  When  the  sheikh  ap- 
proaches one  of  his  villages,  two  men  lead  before  him  the 
finest  stallion  they  can  command,  which  they  allege  is 
ridden  by  an  angel  forerunner.  The  sheikh  himself  rides 
a  gentler  and  more  sure-footed  mule.   A  herald  reads  aloud 
proclamation  before  the  approaching  great  man,  who  is 
escorted  by  almost  the  whole  population  of  the  place. 
On  alighting,  he  is  offered  water  with  which  to  wash  his 
feet,  and  after  he  has  performed  this  ablution  the  people 
carefully  preserve  the  water  and  mix  it  in  their  bread 
dough.     His  virtue  should  be  contagious  and  pass  with 
his  blessing  to  his  people  by  means  of  the  water  in  which 
his  person  has  been  laved.     Likewise,  when  he  drinks,  he 
is  careful  not  to  drain  the  cup,  but  having  taken  part  of 
the  liquid  he  hands  the  rest  to  the  by-standers,  who  receive 
the  remainder  with  almost  sacramental  reverence.     Thus 
also  when  he  partakes  of  food,  that  which  is  left  in  the 
dishes  is  divided  and  eaten  by  the  retainers  of  his  feudal 
brotherhood,   not  only  as  a  common  bond  but  as  impart- 
ing the  divine  favor  which  belongs  to  their  religious  head. 
The  heart  of  the  ordinary  Shia,  quite  as  much  as  that 
of  better  educated  Sunnis,  lives  and  moves  in  his  saints, 
alive  or, — better, — dead,  who  are  his  daysmen  with  God 
Most  High.     One  crisp  fall  day  I  went  a  mile  or  two 


i8  THE  MOSLEM  WORLD 

from  home  for  a  picnic  with  some  members  of  my  family. 
The  place  was  on  the  slope  of  Khudderluk,  the  peak  of 
St.  Elijah,  where  a  sacred  grave  is  shaded  by  a  cluster  of 
trees,  and  these  in  turn  are  watered  by  a  clear  mountain 
spring.  Some  woodmen  had  thrown  down  their  burdens 
and  were  resting  there  as  we  approached.  Along  with 
them  was  another  young  fellow  with  a  chicken  lying  on 
the  ground  beside  him.  When  there  was  a  chance  for  a 
chat  I  inquired  if  he  was  sick.  He  replied  that  there  was 
sickness  at  home,  and  went  on  to  tell  how  the  children  of 
his  village  were  sick  and  dying  of  scarlet  fever,  many  of 
them.  It  was  Friday  and  the  stricken  parents  had  ar- 
ranged a  big  sacrifice  at  their  nearest  shrine,  and  offering 
being  an  ox.  But  he  had  walked  fourteen  miles  to  appeal 
to  another  saint  of  his  own  Shia  faith  with  his  own  little 
sacrifice,  as  an  alternative  to  or  in  reinforcement  of  the 
community  sacrifice  at  home.  Possibly  other  individuals 
had  scattered  out  to  other  shrines  in  the  country  about, 
each  with  a  similar  offering.  While  we  were  lunching 
he  picked  up  his  chicken,  walked  about  the  grave,  killed 
it  and  poured  out  its  blood  at  the  head  of  the  enclosure, 
and  then  started  off  on  his  long  walk  home.  Of  course 
we  spoke  of  medicine,  isolation  of  the  sick,  and  the  serv- 
ices of  the  mission  hospital  in  sight  across  the  plain,  but 
ideas  connected  with  such  topics  penetrate  slowly.  Peo- 
ple are  hard  of  heart  and  slow  of  understanding,  even  as 
in  the  days  of  the  one  Mediator,  who  meets  the  needs  of  a 
superhuman  intercessor,  our  all-sufficient  Saviour. 

George  E.  White. 


MAKHAIL  MANSUR 
An  Apostle  of  Christ 


"Princes  shall  come  out  of  Egypt"  Ps.  68:31 

In  the  death  of  Makhail  Mansur,  Egypt's  most  prom- 
inent convert  from  Islam  and  most  able  worker  among 
Moslems,  there  passed  out  from  our  midst  a  man  of 
princely  bearing  and  of  princely  soul.  His  unique 
character  and  career  have  made  his  name  familiar 
to  many  beyond  the  bounds  of  his  own  land. 

It  is  now  a  quarter  of  a  century  since  Mohammed 
Mansur,  as  he  was  then  known,  completed  a  twelve 
years'  course  in  El  Azhar  University  in  Cairo  and 
returned  to  his  home  in  upper  Egypt.  Barely  more 
than  twenty  years  of  age,  he  had  attained  the  rank 
of  a  learned  sheikh  and  was  honored  by  all.  He  had 
been  a  brilliant  student,  often  surpassing  his  teachers. 
He  had  made  himself  master  of  the  Arabic  language 
and  literature  as  well  as  the  Koran.  He  used  to  tell 
with  amusement  that  in  those  days  he  had  so  steeped 
himself  in  classical  Arabic  that  when  he  asked  a  simple 
question  of  a  boy  in  the  street  of  his  native  town  one 
day,  the  lad  looked  blank,  and  said,  "I  don't  know 
English." 

Up  till  this  time  he  had  had  no  contact  with  Chris- 
tianity. A  Bible  had  never  come  to  his  hands.  Be- 
lieving that  the  Christians  had  corrupted  the  Scrip- 
tures beyond  recognition,  he  felt  little  interest  in  them. 
But  he  chanced  one  day  upon  a  single  verse  of  Scripture, 
quoted  in  a  scurrilous  attack  on  Christianity,  that  grip- 
ped him  with  a  strange  power:  "And  this  is  eternal 
life,  that  they  should  know  thee,  the  only  true  God, 
and  Jesus  Christ  whom  thou  hast  sent."  From  a 
footnote  he  learned  that  these  words  were  from  the 
Gospel  by  John,  and  he  became  eager  to  see  the  whole 
Gospel. 

About  the  same  time  he  conceived  a  desire  to  try 

19 


20  THE  MOSLEM  WORLD 

his  dialectical  skill  with  some  of  the  Christians,  con- 
fident that  he  could  outrival  them  with  his  logic  and 
learning.  In  searching  for  an  opponent  worthy  of  his 
steel,  he  came  finally  to  the  small  evangelical  meet- 
ing place  in  his  town,  and  made  known  to  the  preacher 
his  desire  to  discuss  religion  with  him.  The  latter 
expressed  his  willingness,  and  a  time  and  place  of 
meeting  were  agreed  upon.  But  the  preacher  then 
turned  and  said,  *'If  you  really  want  light  on  these 
matters,  you  had  better  read  the  Bible  and  pray."  He 
answered  that  he  had  never  seen  a  Bible,  and  forth- 
with one  was  handed  him  with  the  words;  "Take  it 
with  you." 

Being  of  an  open  mind  even  at  this  stage,  the  would- 
be  controversalist  agreed  to  the  suggestion,  hid  the 
Book  under  his  flowing  robes,  went  home,  shut  himself 
in  his  room  and  began  to  read.  In  telling  of  it  after- 
wards, he  said  that  he  never  stopped  reading  all  that 
night;  that  the  words  of  the  Book  burned  like  fire  in 
his  soul — an  effect  which  the  Koran  had  never  had, 
though  he  knew  it  by  heart.  He  soon  became  a  genuine 
and  earnest  seeker  for  the  truth.  He  grew  haggard 
while  he  wrestled  with  doubts  and  fears  and  perplex- 
ities, and  worked  his  way  through  theological  prob- 
lems. Like  Saul  of  Tarsus  he  could  see  all  his  past 
and  all  his  prospects  falling  in  ruins  at  his  feet  if  he 
became  a  Christian.  But  in  course  of  time  the  revolu- 
tion took  place,  and  the  proud  Moslem  Sheikh  became 
a  follower  of  the  lowly  Nazarene. 

Then  he  sought  baptism.  He  was  timid  in  those 
days,  as,  indeed,  he  had  reason  to  be,  and  feared  to 
confess  his  faith  in  his  native  town.  There  being  some 
delay  or  misunderstanding  in  arranging  the  matter, 
he  went  eventually  to  a  Roman  Catholic  Church  in 
another  town  and  was  there  baptised,  taking  the  name 
Makhail,  in  honor  of  the  young  preacher  who  had 
helped  him  to  the  light.  For  some  two  years  he  re- 
mained with  the  Catholics,  teaching  in  their  schools. 
During  this  time  he  was  taken  to  Rome  and  introduced 
to  Pope  Leo  XIII  as  a  trophy  from  Islam.     But  this 


MAKHAIL   MANSUR— AN   APOSTLE  21 

journey,  instead  of  impressing  him  with  the  greatness 
and  sanctity  of  Rome,  opened  his  eyes  to  its  weakness 
and  errors.  And  when  soon  after  his  return,  his  room 
was  entered  in  his  absence  and  his  Bible  and  some  other 
books  removed,  he  could  stand  it  no  longer.  He  re- 
turned to  the  Evangelical  Church  in  which  he  had 
first  found  the  light,  and  remained  a  faithful  member 
in  that  church  as  long  as  he  lived.  But  while  thorough- 
ly evangelical  in  his  conviction,  his  breadth  and 
charity  of  spirit  appeared  in  the  fact  that  he  always 
retained  cordial  and  friendly  relations  with  some  of 
the  Catholic  leaders  whom  he  respected;  especially 
Father    Lammens,    the    Islamic    scholar. 

For  some  time  he  continued  to  serve  as  a  teacher, 
in  the  mission  schools  and  to  young  missionaries. 
Some  of  the  latter  will  never  forget  his  warm  and 
genial  personality,  his  mental  alertness  and  swiftness 
of  understanding,  and  his  unfailing  dignity  and  court- 
esy. It  must  have  been  dull  enough  work  for  one  of 
his  keen,  trained  mind,  to  sit  and  teach  Aleph,  Ba 
and  the  elementary  rules  of  grammar,  not  to  mention 
the  rasping  of  crude  pronunciation  on  his  ears.  But 
he  was  patient  and  uncomplaining.  Bonds  of  friend- 
ship were  formed  in  those  years  that  were  never  to  be 
broken;  and  he  too  was  learning.  On  going  to  his 
home  one  day,  we  were  struck  with  the  kindly  defer- 
ence he  showed  his  wife;  he  remarked  that  he  learned 
that  in  the  home  of  Dr.  W  *  *  * ,  one  of  his  first 
pupils. 

Before  a  great  while  had  passed,  there  came  to  him 
and  to  others  the  strong  conviction  of  a  call  for  him  to 
preach  the  gospel  to  his  Moslem  brothers.  There  was 
hesitancy  at  first  lest  his  grasp  of  Christian  truth  and 
knowledge  of  the  Bible  prove  insufiicient  for  such  work. 
A  small  meeting  was  opened,  however,  in  one  of  the 
school  rooms.  Not  more  than  a  dozen  or  two  attended 
at  first,  and  they  were  mostly  Christians  and  his  address- 
es were  crude  compared  with  those  of  after  years. 
But  he  was  learning  and  getting  ready  for  larger  things. 
After  some  time  he  began  to  give  opportunity  for  ques- 


22  THE  MOSLEM  WORLD 

tions  and  discussions.  This  rapidly  increased  the  size 
of  the  audience  until  the  time  came  that  no  building 
was  large  enough  to  hold  the  crowds,  almost  wholly 
composed  of  Moslems,  many  of  them  students  from 
the  Azhar. 

His  meetings  were  always  opened  with  prayer  and 
reading  of  the  Scripture,  followed  by  a  clear,  strong 
gospel  message.  He  came  to  have  an  unusual  grasp  of 
the  contents  and  meaning  of  the  Scriptures.  Indeed, 
he  could  truly  have  been  called  an  Apollos,  '^mighty 
in  the  Scriptures."  The  first  and  main  part  of  the 
meeting  was  always  an  exposition  of  some  portion  of 
Scripture.  Then  would  follow  a  discussion  of  some 
theme  related  to  Islam,  or  an  opportunity  for  questions. 
All  had  listened  intently  enough  to  the  sermon,  but  now 
one  could  feel  a  new  thrill  of  expectancy  pass  over 
the  audience.  Sometimes  the  Moslems  had  a  champion 
present  to  speak  for  them,  or  one  of  his  own  accord 
asked  the  privilege.  Whatever  the  circumstances,  we 
were  seldom  concerned  for  the  outcome.  For  Makhail 
proved  a  master  controversalist,  rarely  failing  to  meet 
any  emergency  successfully.  While  he  spoke  with  the 
utmost  plainness,  he  was  so  unfailingly  fair  and  frank 
and  friendly  that  even  though  he  did  not  succeed  in  con- 
vincing his  opponent,  he  always  won  his  good  will.  It 
was  often  manifest  that  the  audience  knew  his  reasoning 
had  triumphed. 

Remembering  that  he  was  regarded  by  them  as  a 
renegade  from  the  faith,  it  was  remarkable  the  respect 
they  showed  him.  We  have  seen  the  crowded  house  a 
seething  mass  when  he  entered;  as  he  quietly  took  his 
seat  and  bowed  his  head  in  silent  prayer,  a  hush  fell 
upon  all.  When  at  times  they  became  turbulent  and 
even  police  officials  could  do  nothing,  a  word  from 
him,  "My  friends,  I  wish  you  to  be  quiet,"  would  usu- 
ally calm  them.  And  at  the  end  of  the  meeting 
many  would  gather  about  him  for  friendly  greeting, 
while  some  would  accompany  him  down  the  street 
or  perhaps  sit  down  somewhere  for  further  talk  over 
their  coffee  cups. 


MAKHAIL   MANSUR— AN   APOSTLE  23 

The  timidity  of  the  early  days  completely  left  him. 
His  Christian  friends  sometimes  feared  for  his  safety, 
but  he  himself  seemed  not  to  know  what  fear  was.  He 
persisted  in  regarding  all  as  his  friends.  Occasionally 
he  received  a  threatening  letter.  And  once  he  held  up 
such  a  letter  in  his  meeting  before  a  dense  crowd,  and 
opening  his  coat,  said,  "If  anyone  wishes  to  shoot,  I 
am  ready,  but  I  shall  continue,  by  the  grace  of  God, 
to  preach  Christ's  gospel." 

Some  series  of  addresses  he  gave  in  the  later  years  on 
The  Integrity  of  the  Scriptures,  The  Marks  of  a  True 
Prophet,  and  Incidental  Evidences  of  the  Deity  of 
Christ  from  the  Scripture,  will  never  be  forgotten  by 
those  who  heard  them.  Not  only  from  Scripture,  but 
from  the  literature  of  Islam  itself  which  he  had  at  his 
fingers'  end,  he  could  master  keen  and  cogent  arguments 
in  such  an  array  as  to  be  overwhelming  in  their  con- 
vincing power. 

How  many  were  definitely  won  to  the  truth  through 
his  ministry,  it  is  not  easy  to  say.  We  can  name  some 
who  were  brought  to  confess  their  faith  and  are  fol- 
lowing in  his  train.  One  of  these  is  his  own  brother, 
who  shares  a  measure  of  his  gifts.  On  his  deathbed 
he  charged  this  brother,  on  his  return  to  Alexandria, 
to  preach  on  the  text  he  had  wanted  to  use  next:  "That 
ye  may  be  filled  with  all  the  fulness  of  God."  The 
most  manifest  result  of  his  work  as  yet  is  the  opening 
of  the  minds  of  very  many  to  the  gospel  message,  and 
the  winning  of  a  wide  hearing  for  that  message.  He 
could  go  even  to  El  Azhar,  as  he  often  did,  and  talk 
freely  with  students  and  professors.  It  is  some  years 
since  he  made  the  statement  that  when  he  began  to 
preach,  but  one  in  a  thousand  would  willingly  listen, 
but  that  now  not  one  in  a  thousand  would  refuse  to 
listen.  For  eighteen  years  he  continued  his  meetings 
in  Cairo,  twice  each  week,  while  he  was  often  called 
to  other  parts  of  the  country  to  give  his  message.  These 
meetings  fluctuated  in  attendance  from  a  few  score  to 
many  hundreds.  When  the  excitement  became  too 
great,  controversial  discussion  would  be  dropped  for  a 


24  THE  MOSLEM  WORLD 

time  and  resumed  when  the  interest  lagged.  But  the 
witness  to  the  divine  Saviour  was  maintained  without 
interruption.  And  eternity  alone  will  reveal  the  extent 
of  the  harvest. 

He  was  a  man  of  striking  presence,  being  of  large 
frame,  with  a  fine  shapely  head  and  open  face.  His 
figure  would  have  commanded  attention  anywhere. 
He  had  a  quick  sense  of  humor,  a  rare  friendliness 
of  manner  and  an  unvarying  courtesy  to  all  with  whom 
he  came  in  contact — the  servant  as  well  as  the  sheikh. 
He  loved  books  and  was  seldom  seen  without  one  under 
his  arm.  Yet  he  loved  men  still  more  and  counted  his 
friends  among  all  classes.  And  he  knew  well  how  to 
turn  every  opportunity  to  account  in  witness  for  Christ. 

He  was  not  without  his  weaknesses — his  faults,  it  may 
be.  And  no  one  was  more  ready  to  acknowledge  this 
than  himself,  as  he  often  did,  with  streaming  eyes, 
when  we  met  to  talk  and  pray  about  the  deeper  things. 
But  that  his  heart  was  true  to  his  Lord,  and  his  life 
devoted  to  the  Master's  service,  and  that  he  is  now  in 
the  presence  of  the  Redeemer,  no  one  who  knew  him 
well  can  doubt.  Nor  that  eventually  many  others  will 
be  found  in  the  kingdom  through  his  life  and  testimony. 
When  one  by  his  deathbed  told  him  he  was  praying  for 
his  recovery,  he  said,  "Pray  that  God  will  do  his  will 
in  Makhail."  Why  it  was  God's  will  to  call  him 
'  away  at  scarcely  more  than  middle  life,  we  know  not 
now.  We  do  not  believe  that  His  plans  have  miscar- 
ried. But  our  friend's  departure  has  left  a  large 
vacancy  in  our  ranks  and  in  our  hearts.  "A  prince  and 
a  great  man  is  fallen."  God  speed  the  day  when  many 
such  "princes  shall  come  out  of  Egypt." 

James  G.  Hunt. 

Cairo,  Egypt, 


MOHAMMED  WITHOUT  CAMOUFLAGE. 
Ecce  Homo  Arabicus 

[To  those  who  know  the  Moslem  civilization  and  the  Moslem  litera- 
ture, it  need  not  be  said  that  this  article  touches  only  one  single  part  of 
a  large  subject.  Western  scholars  almost  from  the  beginning,  or  at  least 
since  they  ceased  to  write  in  Latin,  have  persistently  ignored  certain  essen- 
tial and  characteristic  elements  in  that  civilization  and  in  these  literatures. 
In  part  this  seems  to  have  been  due  to  a  desire  to  appear  "broad-minded" 
and  "unprejudiced" ;  in  part,  in  the  case  of  writers  in  English,  it  was 
certainly  due  to  the  reticence  and  prudery  of  the  Victorian  period.  The 
consequences  have  been  that  the  European  public,  and  especially  the 
English  reading  public,  have  had  no  means  of  knowing  Islam  truly  and 
as  a  whole.  This  has  effected  all  except  such  very  few  Arabists  as  have 
read  really  deeply  and  broadly  in  the  literature.  And  these  have  regularly 
avoided  telling  what  they  knew  because  they  had  difficulty  in  doing  so  in 
decent  language,  and  even  feared  the  stigma  of  prejudice  and  of  a  lack 
of  historic  sense.  But  now  at  last  the  ban  of  silence  is  being  broken  and 
that  not  only  by  missionaries,  as  here  in  Canon  Gairdner's  most  able 
article,  but  also  by  scholars  of  the  first  rank  who  write  under  no 
ecclesiastical  or  theological  banners.  In  this  connection  Professor  Snouck 
Hurgronje's  "Mohammedanism"  (Putnam's)  may  with  advantage  be  read. 
Editor.] 

The  Islamic  Review — the  monthly  organ  of  the  Wok- 
ing cult — leads  off  its  1917  volume  with  what  it  calls 
"OUR  PROPHET'S  BIRTHDAY  NUMBER."^  This  number 
from  end  to  end  consists  of  panegyrics  on  the  Founder  of 
Islam  from  the  pens  of  various  persons,  not  all  of  them 
(apparently)  within  the  Islamic  fold,  but  all  of  them  of 
one  mind  in  attributing  every  excellence  to  Mohammed, 
and  disclaiming  for  him  every  fault  above  a  negligible 
magnitude.  The  Mohammedan  writers  further  claim 
for  him  the  position  of  perfect  human  exemplar  and  fin^l 
ethical  standard. 

We  have  meditated  for  some  time  on  this  remarkable 
number,  and  the  following  article  represents  some  of 
our  meditations. 

First,  we  wish  to  protest  with  all  our  might  against 
the  way  in  which  our  Moslem  friends  practically  force 
us  into  a  position  in  which  we  appear  to  be  that  poor 
thing,  the  advocatus  diaboli.    If  the  question  were  noth- 

*Vol.  V  No.  1.  \ 

25 


26  THE  MOSLEM  WORLD 

ing  more  than  the  estimating  of  the  character  of  a  great 
historic  personage,  a  great  reformer,  enthusiast,  states- 
man, what  you  will,  then  we  could  let  it  go  at  that,  and 
with  the  ringers  ring  the  changes  on  his  greatness  and 
his  merits,  mentioning  manifest  blots  without  any  par- 
ticular emphasis,  as  things  appertaining  to  his  times  and 
environment.  Nay,  we  have  often  enough  done  so.  For, 
prate  our  detractors  as  they  will,  we  believe  and  dare 
to  assert  that  the  sketches  or  biographies  of  Mohammed 
which  have  shown  most  seriousness,  most  sympathetic 
insight,  and  most  concern  for  all  aspects  of  the  subject- 
matter,  are  some  by  Christian  missionaries  or  missionary 
supporters.  The  secular  Christian  writers  are  too 
worldly,  often  too  scornful:  they  miss  the  mark  by  try- 
ing to  treat  secularly  of  what  was  fundamentally  reli- 
gious. On  the  other  hand,  the  works  of  modern  Mo- 
hammedans and  Islamophils  are  incorrigible  in  their 
glozing  over  of  plain  but  uncongenial  facts,  and  they 
invariably  topple  over  into  fulsomeness.  But  is  Muir 
wanting  in  either  religious  sympathy  or  truth?  Who 
has  convicted  him  of  untruth,  or  even  of  inaccuracy? 
He  simply  reproduces  the  sources  as  they  stand,  and 
the  grounds  of  his  verdicts  are  stated  with  perfect  clear- 
ness and  candour.       r 

This  being  so,  we  greatly  resent  being  exhibited  as 
mere  detractors,  or  being  forced  into  appearing  as  such. 
For  two  things  do  seem  often  to  force  us,  against  our 
will,  into  apparently  taking  that  position:  namely,  the 
downright  untruthfulness  of  things  like  this  ^Troph- 
et's  Birthday  Number" — untruthfulness  in  the  way  of 
concealment  and  evasion;  and,  secondly,  the  fact  that 
so  much  more  is  claimed  for  Mohammed  than  the  right 
to  be  called  a  great  and  good  man.  No,  he  must  be  the 
best;  the  perfect  fruit  of  humanity;  the  man  par  excel- 
lence: the  blameless  exemplar!  And,  per  contra,  the 
figure  of  Jesus  in  the  Gospels  must  (in  the  politer  pro- 
ductions of  the  Islamic  press)  be  held  up  to  many  a  deli- 
cate insinuation  of  inferiority^  to  a  patronising  hardly 
concealing  its  real  total  want  of  sympathy;  or   (in  the 

*Scc  B.  N.    (i.e.   "Birthday  Number")   pp.  9,   14-16,  etc. 


MOHAMMED  WITHOUT  CAMOUFLAGE  27 

writers  of  the  lewder  sort)  to  the  grossest  forms  of  self- 
damnatory  attack.  In  short  Ecce  Homo  is  to  be  trans- 
ferred from  the  Nazarene  to  the  Arabian. 

Obviously  those  who  make  these  claims  and  set  up 
these  comparisons  render  silence  impossible,  and,  un- 
fortunately, make  the  work  of  Mohammed-criticism, 
for  mere  truth's  sake,  inevitable.  But  when  there  is  no 
option,  then  the  work  is  not  that  of  an  advocatus  diaboli, 
but  an  advocatus  Dei.  This  reckless  tampering  with 
ethical  values  must  be  prevented  at  any  cost.  And  the 
criticisms  thus  wrung  from  us,  based  directly  as  they 
are  on  facts  taken  straight  from  the  Arabic  authorities, 
must  not  and  shall  not  be  cried  down  as  "bigotry,"  nor 
yet  deprecated  because  such  criticism  offends  the  dan- 
gerous element  of  the  Moslem  public.  The  latter  plea, 
by  the  way,  would  be  particularly  cowardly  if  it  came 
from  the  protected  serenity  of  a  mosque-precinct  in 
England,  ^ 

The  view  we  shall  substantiate  is,  we  submit,  that 
"Our  Prophet's  Birthday  Number"  gives  us  a  Moham- 
med-cum-lavender-water :  that  the  true  Mohammed  was 
really  an  Arabian  of  the  seventh-century,  with  (it  may 
be)  all  the  virtues  of  his  time,  and  some  in  which  he 
was  beyond  his  time;  also  with  many  of  the  violences 
and  sins  of  his  time  and  environment:  and  that  therefore 
the  claims  made  for  him  (but  not  by  him)  to  be  hu- 
manity's beau  ideal  and  consummate  example  for  ever 
is  a  pernicious  one,  and  in  the  name  of  the  God  of  Truth 
must  be  rejected  and  resisted — wa  la  m^dkhadha  ft 
dhdlik. 

The  comments  on  the  life  of  the  Founder  of  Islam 
which  we  think  are  demanded  by  truth  and  right  shall 
not  be  our  own.  They  are  drawn  straight  from  the  rec- 
ords of  the  Moslem  chroniclers  themselves.  Further, 
they  will  not  be  vague  generalities,  still  less  vulgar 
abuse:  they  will  consist  of  the  citation  of  specific  in- 
stances drawn  from  the  said  chronicles,  and  these  (we 
are  told  in  the  editorial  to  the  number  under  examina- 
tion) are  reliable:  "the  record  of  the  acts  and  sayings 
of   the   Prophet   Mohammed   himself   is   exceptionally 


28  THE  MOSLEM  WORLD 

complete,  faithful,  and  correct"  (p.  3).  So  be  it.  We 
hope  that  after  this  we  shall  have  no  attempt  to  get  rid 
of  embarrassing  incidents  by  means  of  an  absolute  ar- 
bitrary "criticism."  We  do  not  want  to  hear  now  from 
these  people  that  a  traditionist  like  al-Bukhari,  an  his- 
torian like  Ibn  Hisham,  or  a  favorite  biographer  like 
al-Halabi  are  "incomplete,  wwfaithful  or  /ncorrect."  As 
a  matter  of  fact,  the  incidents  in  question  are  just  the 
sort  which  a  criticism  of  al-Bukhari,  Ibn  Hisham,  and 
al-Halabi — and  needless  to  say  such  a  criticism  is  in- 
evitable— would  leave  untouched;  for  they  occur  in 
what  might  be  called  the  prosaic  parts  of  the  biography; 
they  are  the  incidents  which  were  the  most  complete, 
sharply  defined  and  easily  remembered;  and  therefore 
likely  to  be  most  faithfully  recorded  and  handed 
down, — the  ordinary  historic  stuff  which,  in  the  life  of 
any  man,  is  least  likely  to  be  intentionally  or  uninten- 
tionally twisted.  And,  besides,  what  would  it  boot  to 
meet  us  with  a  feeble,  arbitrary,  subjective  criticism  of 
the  sources  of  these  three  books?  Two  (al  Bukhari  and 
al  HalabI)  are  among  the  two  most  popular  and  uni- 
versal in  the  Ddr  al  Islam.  The  incidents  recorded 
therein  have  been  accepted  by  the  general  mind  of  bil- 
lions of  Mohammedans  for  over  a  thousand  years, — 
moulding  their  thoughts  and  ideals  into  a  public  opin- 
ion that  is  absolutely  perdurable  and  permanent.  For 
a  millenium  the  universal  conscience  of  Islam  has  ap- 
proved of  the  things  chronicled  in  these  books,  has  found 
in  them  nothing  to  censure  but  on  the  contrary  every- 
thing to  esteem  and  admire.  From  the  viewpoint  there- 
fore of  "Mohammed  as  Moral  Ideal"  these  incidents 
are  all  of  equal  importance,  and  for  a  Mohammedan 
to  raise  at  this  time  of  day  the  question  of  the  historical 
actuality  of  this  or  that  incident  is  to  commit  an  absolute 
irrelevance.  Apart  from  all  which,  as  already  said,  the 
question  cannot  be  raised  by  Mohammedans  in  virtue 
of  any  genuine  critical  apparatus  po,«;sessed  by  them.  The 
fact  is  that  it  can  only  be  and  only  is  raised  a  priori,  by 
those  who,  when  they  find  themselves  among  Christians 
and  in  a  Christian  atmosphere,  jib  at  many  things  in  the 


MOHAMMED  WITHOUT  CAMOUFLAGE  29 

sira  which  have  not  caused,  and  which  do  not  cause,  so 
much  as  one  qualm  in  a  truly  Mohammedan  environ- 
ment. Such  ^historical'  scruples  are  therefore  simply  a 
convincing  tribute  to  the  moral  and  spiritual  superior- 
ity of  the  Catholic-Christian  ideal,  and  to  the  serious 
and  felt  defectiveness  of  the  Catholic-Islamic  one.  We 
welcome  them  as  a  sign  that  truth  will  surely  conquer; 
and  we  pass  on.^ 

MOHAMMED  AND  THE   "MORALS  OF  WAR" 

For  special  pleading  and  assumed  superiority  it  would 
be  hard  to  beat  the  following : 

"If  God  had  to  come  as  the  4deal  representative  and 
guide  of  humanity,'  as  it  is  said  he  did  in  the  person  of 
Jesus,  we  could  have  been  more  benefited  if  God  had 
appeared  as  a  king  or  a  statesman.  He  could  have  left 
better  rules  for  the  guidance  of  Christian  kings  and 
statesmen  in  Europe,  and  the  world  would  have  been 
saved  this  terrible  conflagration  with  which  it  has  been 
thrown  under  ambition  and  self-assertiveness.  Chris- 
tendom wanted  a  God  in  the  person  of  a  general  and  an 
emperor  rather  than  in  a  Trince  of  peace,'  to  guide 
Christian  nations  in  their  recent  slaughter  of  humanity. 
He  could  have  taught  then  the  morals  of  war^.  Perhaps 
His  precepts  and  action  in  this  respect  might  have 
proved  a  better  check  in  this  war  and  all  that  has 
created  in  Europe  a  long  and  sombre  procession  of 
cruelty  and  suffering  and  a  most  deplorable  and  tragic 
spectacle  of  bloodshed  and  distress." 

As  if  the  spirit  of  Christianity  had  not  been  steadily 
evolving  an  international  code  of  decency  and  practicable 
humaneness  in  war,  the  deliberate  scrapping  of  which 
by  some  is  just  what  is  raising  up  the  whole  world  in 

*  Some  of  the  writers  in  this  number  are  a  little  unfortunate  when  they 
begin  to  handle  modern  critical  apparatus.  Thus  Mr.  S.  Khuda  Buklish 
quotes  "Bosworth,  Smith,"  and  others.  Does  he  give  us  the  whole  con- 
sidered verdict  of  these  (two!)  gentlemen?  He  also  refers  prejudiced 
Christians  to  "the  monumental  work  of  Caetini  (sic)  in  Italian."  It  is 
obvious  he  has  never  reaa  a  Hne  of  "Caetini."  No  more  weigBty  and 
severe  judgments  could  be  imagined  than  some  which  Caetani  has  passed 
on  several  scenes  in  the  life  of  Mohammed,  although  his  standpoint  is 
purely  historic  and  objectiv"^ 

"Italics  ova» 


30  THE  MOSLEM  WORLD 

its  defence!  As  if  "rules  for  guidance"  can  ever  avail 
where  spirit  and  principle  have  been  denied!  As  if 
either  rules  or  principle  stopped  a  single  Ottoman  con- 
queror in  Hungary,  or  a  Mahmoud  or  Timur  in  India, 
from  committing  slaughters  and  atrocities!  As  if,  from 
the  days  of  the  fathers  of  Islam  until  now,  either  Koran 
or  Sunna  had  ever  eliminated  the  "ambition  and  self- 
assertiveness"  which  have  caused  the  countless  wars  be- 
tween Mohammedans  from  the  days  of  'Uthman  down 
to  those  of  Mulai  Hafiz!  As  if  Mohammed  himself, 
at  all  times  and  on  every  occasion,  taught  by  his  exam- 
ple the  highest  "morals  of  war" !    But  to  proceed. 

"HAGUE  CONVENTIONS''  OF  THE  SEVENTH  CENTURY 

The  passage  before  us,  and  others  in  the  number,  ap- 
pears to  censure  Prussian  methods.  But  is  there  not  a 
real  analogy  between  the  way  in  which  Prussia  has 
washed  out  the  old  European-Christian  conventions  and 
codes,  and  the  resolute  way  in  which  Mohammed  ig- 
nored and  destroyed  some  of  the  most  sacred  conven- 
tions which  embodied  the  public  conscience  of  Arabia 
at  that  time,  and  represented  the  best  and  noblest  to 
which  the  Arabs  had  been  hitherto  able  to  rise? 

Foj  example,  one  of  the  holiest  articles  of  "interna- 
tional" i.e.  inter-tribal  morality  in  Arabia  was  that  in 
all  wars  and  raids  the  date-palms  should  be  spared.  At 
the  raid  on  the  Bani  Nadir,  however,  in  A.  H.  4,  Mo- 
hammed "had  the  date-palms  of  the  Nadirites" — their 
pride,  glory,  and  chief  means  of  sustenance — "burned 
or  cut  down."  The  narrative  is  from  Ibn  Ishaq,  the 
oldest  biographer  of  Mohammed,^  who  continues: 
"Then  they  cried,  O  Mohammed,  have  you  not  pun- 
ished forbidden  acts  of  destructiveness,  and  censured 
whoever  commits  such?  How  then  can  you  have  these 
date-palms  cut  down  and  burnt?"^ 

*lbn  Hishim,  sub  loco;  see  Wiistenfeld's  edition  p.  653. 

"A  writer  in  the  Birthday  Number  (on  page  25)  makes  his  boast  of 
Abu  Bakr's  humanity  as  a  warrior  in  explicitl)^  commanding  his  men  "to 
cut  down  no  palms!"  Sometimes  the  disciple  is  greater  than  his  master, 
then. 


MOHAMMED  WITHOUT  CAMOUFLAGE  31 

No  answer  is  reported!  What  answer  could  there 
have  been — except  "military  necessity"'/ 

This  was  not  the  only  time  where  the  consciences  of 
his  own  followers  caused  outspoken  disapproval  of  some- 
thing for  which  Mohammed  gave  permission  {rakhkhas, 
see  Muslim  vol.  ii,  p.  22).  But  it  was  of  no  avail.  Mus- 
lim {loc.  cit.)  tells  us  what  happened  on  one  such  oc- 
casion. ''He  got  so  angry  that  his  anger  was  visible 
on  his  face"!  and  the  scruples  were  dashed  aside  by  the 
assertion  that  he  was  the  most  god-fearing  of  them  all. 

A  still  holier  law  than  the  one  prohibiting  the  destruc- 
tion of  date-palms, — the  one,  in  fact,  which  made  social 
life  possible  in  Arabia  at  that  time, — ^was  the  Truce  of 
God  which  forbade  all  fighting  during  the  four  "sacred 
months."  Only  an  anarch  or  an  outlaw  ever  dreamed  of 
infringing  this  law.  Yet  in  one  of  the  earliest  raids 
launched  from  al  Madina  on  the  Quraishites  this  law 
was  flagrantly  broken.  The  story  can  be  found  in  any 
of  the  biographies  in  the  chapter  about  the  raid  on  the 
Kinana  in  the  sacred  month  of  Rajab.  But  a  most  in- 
teresting addition  to  it  has  been  discovered  in  the  tradi- 
tions collected  by  Ahmed  b.  Hanbal.  From  this  it  ap- 
pears that  Sa'd  b.  Waqqas  was  the  original  leader. 
Sard's  own  account  will  be  found  translated  in  Margo- 
liouth's  Life,  page  243^.  Not  all  the  details  are  clear,— 
in  fact,  to  leave  some  of  them  obscure  was  necessary. 
Also,  the  whole  incident  has  formed  the  subject  of 
controversy,  and  much  sophistry.  But  no  obscurity  and 
no  sophism  can  explain  away  the  following  facts:  (i) 
Mohammed  sent  Sa'd  out  on  a  warlike  operation  dur- 
ing Rajab.  (2)  The  recently  Islamised  Junaiha  were 
scandalized.  (3)  Sa'd  and  his  party  themselves  be- 
lieved that  they  were  out  to  fight  during  that  month, — 
not  to  wait  till  the  next.  (4)  When  nevertheless  they 
returned  empty-handed  the  Prophet  was  "red  with  rage." 
(5)  He  immediately  appointed  the  unscrupulous  'Ab- 
dallah  b.  Jahsh,  who  left  with  sealed  orders,  the  text  of 

^The   subsequent  indemnification    for  the   act  in  a  Koran   utterance   is 
the   reverse   of   impressive. 

'Translated  from  the  Musnad  of  Ahmed  ibn  Hanbal  i  178. 


32  THE  MOSLEM  WORLD 

which  contained  definite  instructions  to  attack  a  party 
who  were  going  without  escort  under  cover  of  the  sacred 
month,  though  the  precise  command  to  do  so  in  that 
month  was  wanting  {litera  scripta  manetl)  (6)  This 
was  done,  and  blood  was  shed,  during  the  truce.  (7) 
The  act  was,  finally,  expressly  justified  by  Mohammed, 
in  the  name  of  Allah  and  the  scandal  which  it  created^ 
was  thus  silenced. 

The  manifest  desire  of  some  apologists  to  show  that 
Mohammed  did  not  order  the  Truce  to  be  violated  is 
valuable  as  showing  their  opinion  of  such  an  act.  Un- 
fortunately, for  them,  the  facts  are  against  them,  and 
him. 

RAPES  BY  MOSLEM  TROOPS 

So  much  for  the  violation  of  conventions  deemed 
sacred  by  the  conscience  of  that  time.  But  there  were 
also  violations  of  laws  of  humanity  itself.  We  have 
heard  with  shuddering  of  the  wholesale  rapes  during 
the  present  campaign:  what  will  the  public  think,  and 
what  will  Woking  say,  when  it  is  known  that  troops  of 
the  first  Mohammedan  saints  and  martyrs  and  com- 
manded by  Mohammed  in  person,  committed  rape  on 
the  field  on  at  least  one  occasion  and  under  peculiarly 
shocking  circumstances?  The  occasion  was  after  the 
overthrow  of  the  BanI  Mu§'taliq  at  the  wells  of  Marasi*, 
when  many  of  the  two  hundred  captured  women  of  the 
tribe  (expressly  said  to  be  free  women  and  not  slaves, 
karaim  al  'Arab  HalabI  ii  296)  were  raped  by  Mo- 
hammed's men  with  his  full  consent!^  There  can  be 
no  doubt  about  the  facts;  they  are  narrated  by  all  the 
most  reputed  of  the  Traditionalists,  and  by  at  least  two 
of  the  historians^:  so  much  so  that  a  certain  point  in  the 

^  Arnold  {Preaching  of  Islam  p.  30)  asserts  Mohammed  "disapproved 
of  the  act,"  on  the  return  of  the  triumphing  'Abdallah.  If  so,  on  the  face 
of  the  above,  the  disapproval  was  manifest  hypocrisy.  And  the  point 
remains,  Mohammed  'did  sanction  the  violation  of  the  Sacred  Truce. 
Arnold  suppresses  entirely  this  cardinal  fact  that  Mohammed  finally  con- 
doned the  act  and  sanctioned  the  practice.  He  also  suppresses  most  of  the 
facts  of  the  case  mentioned  above. 

*  The  fact  that  means  were  recommended  by  the  Prophet  (in  at  least 
one  case  not  successfully)  to  prevent  conception  only  increases  one's  sense 
of  disgust. 

"Halabi  ii  296,  7;  Waqidi  (kitab  al  Maghazi,  translated  by  Wellhausen 
page  179).  In  the  hadith  anthology,  Mishkdt  al  Mas&bih,  the  tradition  is 
marked  as  muttafaq  *alaih,  i.  e.  found  in  all  the  great  collections. 


MOHAMMED  WITHOUT  CAMOUFLAGE  33 

Shari^'a  itself  is  settled  by  reference  to  the  incident^. 
The  violated  wives  had  actually  still  to  be  bought  back 
by  their  husbands.  We  refrain  from  translating  this 
passage  in  full^  for  the  simple  reason  that  it  is  really 
unprintable.  The  prejudiced  Muir  and  other  Christian 
historians  (until  ^'Caetini"!)  have  .  .  .  kept  silent  on  the 
incident!  Let  not  their  generosity  however  be  now  rep- 
resented as  a  silent  verdict  on  their  part  that  the  inci- 
dent is  spurious.  The  authority  is  too  strong,  as  we 
saw.  And  who  would  have  invented  such  things?  And 
even  supposing  the  incident  is  spurious,  it  was  and  is 
accepted  by  Islam  as  absolute  truth, — except  of  course 
when  Christians  are  in  the  neighborhood. 

Nor  was  this  an  isolated  incident.  The  very  fact  that 
on  at  least  two  occasions,  Khaybar^  and  Hunain^,  Mo- 
hammed had  to  regulate  what  might  be  done  with 
women  taken  on  the  field  shows  this  sufficiently.  It  was 
at  Hunain  that  he  definitely  enacted,  against  the  scruples 
of  some  of  his  followers,  that  capture  on  the  field  ipso 
facto  dissolved  previous  (heathen)  marriages  (see 
Koran  iv  22)  ;  and  that  married  wives  (not  merely  vir- 
gins and  slave  girls),  their  husbands  being  living  and 
most  likely  present,  might  be  passed  to  the  immediate^ 
use  of  their  conquerors,  provided  that  certain  precau- 
tions were  taken  against  pregnancy.  Are  we  to  add  these 
prescriptions  to  the  universal  "morals  of  war"? 

DEPORTATION,  AND  AN   EXECUTION-EN-MASSE 

Again,  wholesale  deportations  of  defenceless  people 
have  lately  excited  the  indignation  of  humanity.  But 
this  deporting  was  done  without  scruple  and  on  a  large 
scale  in  the  wars  conducted  from  the  City  of  Moham- 
med. We  must  not  judge  the  practice  and  conditions 
of  that  time  from  the  standpoint  of  the  present  day? 
But  we  thought  that  the  whole  point  of  the  "Birthday 

*Halabi  loc.  cit. 

'Hisham  p.  759.     Waqidi    (ed.  Wellhausen)    p.  282. 

'Muslim  in  Mishkat  al  Masabith,  Kitab  an  nikah,  v.  i.  9 ;  Waqidi  p.  366. 

*This  is  perfectly  clear  both  from  the  wording  of  the  tradition  from 
Muslim  and  from  the  analogy  of  the  Bani  Mustaliq  affair.  The  three- 
months  limit  (idda)  was  only  in  case  conception  were  not  artificially  pre- 
vented, and  did  not  hinder  immediate  violation.  Indeed  Waqidi  makes 
this  point  explicit  (op.  cit.  p.  366)  ;  but  it  is  unmistakable  even  without  this. 


34  THE  MOSLEM  WORLD 

Number"  was  to  show  that  ''Our  Prophet's"  example 
and  practice  was  to  standardise  morality,  (and  especially 
"the  morals  of  war")  for  all  time? 

The  wealthy,  prosperous  Jewish  tribe  of  the  Qainuqa^ 
had  to  purchase  dear  life  itself  by  submitting  to  this 
wholesale  deportation.  They  went  off  in  the  direction 
of  Syria,  where  they  vanish  from  history.  For  aught 
we  know,  or  any  Moslem  cared,  they  may  have  perished 
as  the  deported  Armenians  have.  Their  goods  were 
confiscated.  It  was  utterly  impossible  to  assert  that  the 
special  occasion  justified  such  fearful  severity,  for  the 
whole  matter  was  occasioned  by  a  private  brawl.  The 
real  cause  was  the  impossibility  of  winning  over  that 
Jewish  tribe  to  the  new  order  of  things.^ 

The  plea  of  the  apologists  is  that  Mohammed  was  the 
de  facto  ruler  of  Madlna  and  that  he,  in  agreeing  with 
the  patrons  of  these  Jewish  tribes,  had  virtually  agreed 
with  the  tribes,  so  that  their  opposition  was  treachery. 
We  only  remark  (a)  the  ''Kitab"  of  A.H.  was  a  rescript 
not  an  agreement;  (b)  one  of  the  tribes  definitely  de- 
nied the  existence  of  any  agreement  with  Mohammed 
[la  '^a  qda  bainand  wa  baina  Muhammadin  wala  '^ahd 
and  the  two  Sa'ds  did  not  in  reply  appeal  to  the  kitab 
(Hisham  p.  675)  ;  and  (c)  the  Qainuqa*^  had  admittedly 
not  got  further  than  foolish  boastings  and  taunts  (Hish- 
am p.  545).  Does  the  perfect  human  ethic  approve  of 
the  designed  slaughter  of  the  manhood  of  a  tribe  for 
this? 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  these  Qainuqa*^  only  owed  their 
escape  from  wholesale  massacre  to  the  pertinacity  of  the 
temporiser  'Abdallah  ibn  Ubayy,  not  to  the  humanity 
of  Mohammed.  It  is  explicitly  stated  by  Tabari  that 
"they  came  down  for  the  judgment  of  the  Prophet:  then 
they  were  bound,  he  being  determined  on  their  slaugh- 
ter"^. Then  'Abdallah  intervened.  But  for  this,  their 
"700  warriors"  would  have  shared  the  horrible  fate  that 

*  Whether  the  account  of  al-Bukhari  or  of  Ibn  Hisham  is  considered, 
it  is  utterly  impossible  to  say  that  anything  in  them  justifies  the  sequel. 
Moreover  it  is  to  be  remembered  that  in  no  single  one  of  these  cases  of 
alleged  oflFence  is  it  possible  audire  alteram  partem. 

"Vol  i,  1360  "wahuwa  yuridu  qatlahum," 


MOHAMMED  WITHOUT  CAMOUFLAGE  35 

ultimately  overtook  the  men  of  the  Bani  Quraiza/  As 
it  was,  ^Abdallah's  desperate  persistence  "made  the 
Prophet  wroth,  so  that  his  countenance  became  quite 
dark."  He  was  furious  at  being  obliged  to  spare  those 
hundreds  of  human  lives. 

In  just  the  same  way  the  Bani  Nadir  were  expelled 
from  their  country  and  nearly  the  whole  of  their  goods 
were  plundered.  The  excuses  for  this  proceeding,  in- 
deed for  the  whole  campaign  against  them,  were  of  the 
flimsiest  and  will  not  stand  a  moment's  analysis.  For 
example,  the  charge  of  treachery,  which  ostensibly  oc- 
casioned and  justified  the  original  attack  was  tacitly 
dropped.  It  is  not  so  much  as  mentioned  in  the  Koran 
(Surah  58). 

This  bad  business  of  deportation  was  later  given  up, 
because  it  was  found  to  be  bad  economics,  and  the  "more 
profitable  practice  of  constituting  the  subject  tribes  as 
tribute-paying  dhimmis  was  instituted."  Thus  the  tribe 
of  Khaybar  was  not  deported  but  made  tributary.^ 

A  darker  fate  overtook  the  Bani  Quraiza,  the  fate  that 
the  Qainuqa*^  only  just  avoided.  These  people  had  cer- 
tainly waged  actual  war  with  the  Mohammedans  and 
had  helped  to  put  Madina  in  great  danger.  But  then, 
they  had  seen  the  fate  of  the  Qainuqa*'  and  the  Bani 
Nadir!  At  any  rate  their  punishment  was  horrible,  and 
that  though  they  capitulated  in  the  apparently  satisfac- 
tory hope  that  their  lives  would  be  spared.  It  is  per- 
fectly clear,  however,  that  this  time  Mohammed  had 
decided  that  no  meddling  ^Abdallah  should  stop  the 
blood  from  flowing,^  though  with  unworthy  want  of  can- 
dour he  employed  a  transparent  device,  by  which  the 

Hbn  Hisham  p.  546  makes  this  perfectly  clear. 

'  Nevertheless,  the  Caliph  Omar  later  hustldd  away  the  remnant  of 
these  poor  people  out  of  the  peninsula. 

"The  warning  of  Abu  Lubaba  (Hisham  p.  686)  makes  this  perfectly 
clear.  It  is  to  be  feared  that  this  story  also  proves  that  Abu  Lubaba  had 
been  sent  to  mislead  the  garrison  into  surrendering  in  order  to  save  their 
lives,  the  destruction  of  which  had  nevertheless  been  settled  on.  They  asked 
him  if  they  should  surrender,  and  he  answered  'y^s':  but  with  a  signifi- 
cant gesture  of  hand  to  the  throat  signifying  that  their  fate  would  cer- 
tainly be  butchery  (Ibn  Hisham  p.  688).  The  narrative  goes  on  to  say 
that  an  instant  after  Abu  Lubaba  "felt  he  had  betrayed  God  and  the 
Apostle."  It  is  obvious  he  had  been  instructed  to  encourage  them  to 
surrender,  and  equally  obvious  that  their  tragic  fate  had  nevertheless 
been  decided  on.  It  is  another  proof  that  the  arbitration  of  Sa*d  was 
a  mere  subterfuge. 


36  THE  MOSLEM  WORLD 

fatal  decision  should  appear  not  to  be  his  but  that  of  the 
umpire  who  was  agreed  on  between  him  and  the  Jews 
themselves.  Between  600  and  900  men  were  beheaded 
over  a  trench  in  a  single  night!  The  women  and  chil- 
dren were  treated  as  booty.  "Our  Prophet's  Birthday 
Number"  would  have  us  adopt  this  also,  we  presume, 
as  a  sample  of  the  perfect  ethics  of  war,  and  as  an  ele- 
ment in  the  human  beau-ideal. 

The  umpire  who  gave  the  fatal  decision  (Sa^d)  was 
extravagantly  praised  by  Mohammed\  Yet  his  action 
was  wholly  and  admittedly  due  to  his  lust  for  personal 
vengeance  on  a  tribe  which  had  occasioned  him  a  pain- 
ful wound.  In  the  agony  jof  its  treatment  he  cried 
out, — "O  God,  let  not  my  soul  go  forth  ere  thou  has 
cooled  my  eye  from  the  Ban!  Quraiza"^.  This  was  the 
arbiter  to  whose  word  the  fate  of  that  tribe  was  given 
over.  His  sentiments  were  well-known  to  Mohammed, 
who  appointed  him.  It  is  perfectly  clear  from  that  that 
their  slaughter  had  been  decreed. 

What  makes  it  clearer  still  is  the  assertion  of  another 
biographer^  that  Mohammed  had  refused  to  treat  with 
the  Ban!  Quraiza  at,  all  until  they  had  "come  down  to 
receive  the  judgment  of  the  Apostle  of  God."  Accord- 
ingly "they  came  down" ;  in  other  words  put  themselves 
in  his  power.  And  only  then  was  the  arbitration  of  Sa^d 
proposed  and  accepted, — but  not  accepted  until  it  had 
been  forced  on  him  by  Mohammed;  for  Sa^d  first  de- 
clined and  tried  to  make  Mohammed  take  the  respon- 
sibility, but  was  told  ''qad  amarak  Alldhu  an  tahkuma 
flhim'*  "Allah  has  commanded  you  to  give  sentence  in 
their  case"*. 

From  every  point  of  view  therefore  the  evidence  is 
simply  crushing  that  Mohammed  was  the  ultimate  au- 
thor of  this  massacre.  His  own  thin  attempt  to  conceal 
this  fact,  and  the  neo-Moslems'  attempts  to  shift  the 
responsiblility  on  to  Sa^d,  merely  prove  that  neither  his 

*Musnad  of  ibn  Hanbal  vi  55,  iii  207. 

*ih.    iu.   350. 

*  Sira  Nabaiviyya  on  the  margin  of  al-Halabi,  ii  p.  150. 

**.    tip.    154. 


MOHAMMED  WITHOUT  CAMOUFLAGE  37 

conscience  nor  theirs  have  been  at  rest  over  the  dark 
affair. 

The  milder  fate  of  the  Khaybarites  has  already  been 
mentioned.  Yet  the  campaign  against  them  was  marked 
by  two  very  shocking  individual  incidents. 

( I )  One  of  the  surrendered  Jews,  Kinana,  was  believed 
to  have  a  certain  treasure  which  he  had  refrained  from 
handing  over.  He  denied  its  existence,  but  Mohammed 
asked  him  whether  he  might  kill  him  if  it  was  found. 
He  assented.  A  renegade  then  revealed  the  cache  where 
part  of  it  was  hidden,  and  then,  at  Mohammed's  bidding, 
the  wretch  was  tortured  "till  he!  should  give  up  the 
whole."  He  was  plied  with  fire-brands  thrust  on  to  his 
breast,  till  he  was  near  death,  when  Mohammed  gave 
him  over  to  Ibn  Maslama  who  slew  him  for  his  brother 
Mahmoud\  All  this,  be  it  observed,  after  the  entire 
surrender  of  the  tribe  had  taken  place ;  and  over  a  ques- 
tion of  booty,  pure  and  simple.  Such  was  another  piece 
of  "frightfulness"  to  which  the  first  saints  of  Islam  were 
introduced  by  their  leader.  Are  we  to  adopt  these  meth- 
ods also  as  an  article  in  "the  ethics  of  war,"  and  also 
weave  the  action  into  our  ideal  for  a  perfect  human 
character? 

(2)  The  wife  of  the  man  thus  tortured  to  death,  the 
beautiful  Safiyya  (whose  father  and  brother  had  also 
perished  at  the  hands  of  the  Mohammed)  became 
nevertheless  within  a  few  days  his  wedded  wife!  That 
she  w^as  willing  to  do  this  thing,  (as  she  was),  merely 
arouses  astonished  disgust  towards  her.^  But  it  has 
nothing  to  do  with  the  verdict  which  the  inci- 
dent calls  for.  The  thing  took  place  because  Mo- 
hammed conceived  a  passion  for  the  woman.  It 
is  high  time  that  the  ignorant  or  hypocritical  state- 
ments of  neo-Mohammedan  writers,  to  the  effect  that 
all  Mohammed's  marriage  and  demi-marriage  connec- 
tions were  made  for  humanitarian  or  political  (etc., 
etc.)    reasons,   and   that  the  women   in   question   were 

*  Hisham   p.    763,   4. 

'The  historians  represent  that  her  husband  had  ill-used  her.  She  is 
certainly  made  out  as  having  showed  no  love  for  him  alive  or  dead. 
See   Hisham  p.   763. 


38  THE  MOSLEM  WORLD 

elderly  or  otherwise  unattractive,  should  be  put  a  stop 
to.  These  statements  are  becoming  stereotyped  among 
apologist  writers  both  of  the  west  and  the  east.  But 
they  are  false;  and  they  are  made  either  ignorantly  or 
falsely.  To  take  the  present  case  only — and  from  it 
the  cases  of  Raihana  and  Zainab  may  also  be  judged:^ 
the  records  make  the  matter  perfectly  plain.  The 
woman's  beauty  was  well-known,  and  it  made  an  instant 
impression.  When  it  was  announced  ^'Oh  Apostle  of 
God,  there  has  fallen  to  the  lot  of  Dahya  a  beautiful 
damsel,"  the  Apostle  of  God  immediately  (we  are 
told)  "purchased  her;"^  The  marriage  was  hastened 
on  with  a  speed  that  set  at  defiiance  even  the  decent 
(and  sacred)  law  of  the  'idda^:  and,  finally  there  were 
several  special  circumstances  that  showed  the  extreme 
complacency  of  the  bridegroom, — which  as  usual  oc- 
casioned tears  in  the  harem.  In  view  of  these  facts, 
and  of  the  case  of  Juwairiyya  (see  footnote),  the  re- 
marks of  Mr.  S.  H.  Leeder  (in  B.  N.  p.  31)  reach  the 
very  nadir  of  ineptitude  and  soft  untruth. 
UNPROVOKED  ATTACKS 
'^Mohammed  was  compelled  to  wage  wars,  but 
never  a  sword  was  drawn  but  as  a  last  resort  to  defend 

^In  the  case  of  Juwairiyya,  the  old  historians  state  with  the  utmost 
freedom  that  the  prophet  was  smitten  with  her  beauty  the  moment  he 
set  eyes  on  her.  See  Halabi,  ii  p.  291,  92,  where  the  jealous  *A'isha  tells 
the  story:  "Juwairiyya  was  a  lovely  woman  (hilwa)  whom  men  no 
sooner  saw  than  they  became  smitten  with  her.  .  .  .  She  came  in,  and  by 
Allah  I  no  sooner  set  eyes  on  her  than  I  was  vexed  at  her  coming  in, 
and  knew  that  the  Apostle  of  God  would  see  in  her  just  what  I 
saw."  The  meaning  is  obvious,  and  is  made  explicit  by  the  following: 
"I  felt  certain  that  if  once  the  Apostle  of  God  saw  her  he  would  admire 
her"  ('for  she  knew*  adds  the  historian,  'the  influence  of  beauty  on 
him*).  "Well,  then,  she  spoke  to  him,  and  he  said  to  her  'Better  still, 
I  will  pay  the  ransom  and  marry  thee  myself.*  *  See  also  Hisham  p.  729. 
The  marriage  was  constmimated  that  very  day,— the  day,  by  the  way, 
when  Juwairijrya's  fellow  tribes-women  were  being  raped  by  the  bride- 
groom*s  comrades  at  the  wells  of  Marasi**  (see  above).  We  hope  we 
shall   now  hear   no  more   of   the   neo-Moslem   pretence   mentioned   above. 

'  Musnad   of   Ibn   Hanbal,   iii   p.    123. 

•That  is,  that  before  marrying  a  widow  a  man  must  wait  at  least 
three  months,  to  make  sure  that  she  is  not  with  child  by  her  first  husband. 
When,  in  the  "Reproach  of  Islam,*  I  erroneously  stated  that  Raihana 
aeain  a  Celebrated  beauty  who  also  had  just  lost  her  husband  at 
Mohammed's  hands — was  taken  to  his  embraces  immediately  after  his 
execution,  I  was  severely  taken  to  task  by  a  well-known  neo-Moslem 
apologist  of  Cairo  for  gross  ignorance.  Did  I  not  know  that 
the  law  of  the  'idda  would  itself  have  made  such  a  thing  impossible? 
I  keenly  regretted  the  slip.  But  this  gentleman  did  not  see  fit  to 
mention  this  case  of  Safiyyal  Was  this  disingenuousness?  Or  was  my 
gross  ignorance  balanced  by  his? — See  also  above,  where  it  shows  that, 
given   certain   circumstances,   the   law   of   the  'idda  was   irrelevant. 


MOHAMMED  WITHOUT  CAMOUFLAGE  39 

human  life  and  secure  safety  to  it/'    Thus  Mr.  Sadr  ud 
Din  in  the  ''Birthday  Number''  p.  23. 

Is  this  in  the  least  true?  The  biographers^  make  it 
perfectly  clear  that  the  earliest  object  of  the  very  first 
warlike  raids  planned  by  Mohammed  was  to  cut  off 
and  capture  Makkan  caravans.  There  is  not  the  least 
hint  in  these  accounts  of  anything  else,  nor  of  the 
existence  of  any  necessity  for  instituting  defensive 
operations.  Ibn  SaM,  for  instance,  leads  off  his  account 
of  the  Wars  of  the  Prophet  {al  maghdzi)  with  the 
words  kharaga  Hamza  ya  tarid  li  Hr  quraish,  ''Hamza 
went  out  to  intercept  the  caravan  of  the  Quraish  which 
had  come  from  Syria  making  for  Makka."^  Ibn 
Ishaq  is  equally  explicit.  According  to  him  ^  the  first 
expedition  was  so  militarily  and  strategically  planned 
that  it  had  in  view  not  merely  the  Quraish  but  the 
perfectly  neutral  Ban!  Damra,  the  position  of  whose 
territory  vis-a-vis  of  Makka  was  strategically  import- 
ant. The  document  promulgated  by  Mohammed  short- 
ly after  his  arrival  in  Madina  makes  clear  in  its  20th 
article  that  he  regarded  himself  and  all  his  people  as 
in  a  state  of  de  facto  hostility  with  the  Quraish  of 
Makka.^  The  sending  of  cutting-out  expeditions  fol- 
lowed as  a  matter  of  course:  and  the  swords  of  cutting- 
out  expeditions  do  not  usually  abide  in  their  sheaths. 
And  so  blood  inevitably  flowed.  Later  on,  as  success 
grew,  the  object  of  the  Holy  War  became  the  right  to 
worship  at  the  Ka'ba  in  the  way  of  Islam.  And  finally, 
of  course,  it  became  the  conquest  of  Arabia  (and 
later  the  whole  world)  for  Islam.  There  is  not 
the  smallest  piece  of  concrete  evidence  that  the  Mak- 
kans  meditated  hostilities  on  the  Moslems  after  having 
once  relieved  Makka  of  their  uncongenial  presence. 
With  the  fullest  knowledge  of  all  the  Arabic  sources^ 
Caetani  in  a  note  on  this  subject  (vol.  i.  p.  423)  is 
crushingly  conclusive:  "Qui  (i.  e.  in  the  first  expedi- 
te, g.  Hisham  pp.  415-6,  WaqMi  p.  33;  Tab.  i.  p.  1265. 
'op.  cit.  i.  p.  2  and  so  twice  on  p.  3. 
"Hisham    p.    415. 

*  Caetani  vol.   i,  pp.   358-9   and   reff. 
"For  some  of  them  see  previous  note. 


40  THE  MOSLEM  WORLD 

tion)  abbiamo  vera  e  propria  aggressione  meditata: 
nessuna  attenuante  per  necessita  di  difese:  i  Qurays 
non  si  davano  alcun  pensiero  di  molestare  il  Profeta  in 
Medina." 

That  it  was  Mohammed  who  took  the  offensive  from 
Medina  is  quite  frankly  stated  by  the  author  of  the  Sira 
Nabawiyya.  The  noisy-mouthedness  of  these  moderns 
would  have  seemed  unintelligible,  or  perhaps  somewhat 
contemptible,  to  him.  He  says:  "The  first  thing  which 
the  Prophet  set  about  was  to  intercept  the  caravans  of  the 
Quraish  so  as  to  capture  their  goods,  in  order  that  that 
might  be  an  occasion  for  the  opening  of  hostilities,  and 
in  order  that  the  hearts  of  his  companions  might  be  in- 
ured to  hostilities  little  by  little;  and  in  order  that  they 
might  profit  from  what  should  accrue  to  them  from  the 
spoils  which  they  carried  off  from  those  caravans,  and 
thus  get  relief."^  Quid  plura?  The  author  of  this  sira 
merely  brings  out  clearly  what  is  written  in  not  very  in- 
visible ink  over  all  these  early  proceedings. 

Compare  these  plain  facts  now  with  the  windy  re- 
mark of  Mr.  Sadr  ad  Din  quoted  above.  The  Neo- 
Moslems  do  not  tell  the  truth :  that  is  the  trouble.- 

So  much  for  the  earliest  raids;  in  which,  it  is  espe- 
cially recorded  (Ibn  SaM  i  3),  the  first  arrow  shot 
was  shot  by  a  Moslem  (Sa'^d  ibn  Waqqas),  and  the  first 
blood  shed  was  shed  by  a  Moslem  (in  the  raid  in  the 
Sacred  Month,  see  above).  After  this  point  it  became 
unprofitable  to  pursue  the  enquiry  as  to  who  was  pro- 

%i  yakuna  dhalik  sababan  1  iftitah  il  qital  wa  li  taqwa  qulubu 
ashabihi   *ala   1   qitali    shai'an    fa   shai'an,    etc.   vol.    I.    p.   417. 

'Arnold  {Preaching  of  Islam,  p.  30)  is  equally  untrustworthy.  To 
facts  he  opposes  theories.  It  is  extraordinary,  and  a  real  pity,  how  this 
useful  book  is  spoiled  by  its  being  a  brief.  We  have  had  an  example 
of  this  already  in  his  treatment  of  the  fight  in  the  sacred  month. 
Here  is  another  example.  Take  the  crucial  point  of  the  object  of  the 
first  expedition  against  the  Quraish.  Arnold: — "We  find  mention  of  sev- 
eral reconnoitring  parties  that  went  out  in  small  numbers  to  watch  the 
movements  of  the  Quraish"  (p.  30).  Now  the  historians: — (on  the 
first  raid,  not  accompanied  by  Mohammed)  "to  intercept  the  camels  of  the 
Quraish,"  Ibn  Sa'd  i  p.  3,  Hal.  ii,  p.  134: — (on  the  first  expedition  accom- 

?anied  bv  Mohammed  himself,  "to  intercept  the  camels  of  the  Quraish/* 
bn  Sa**!  i,  p.  41  Another  grossly  misleading  remark  is  found  in  a 
footnote  to  p.  30,  where  the  raid  of  the  Quraishite  Kurz  (see  Muir  p. 
207)  is  brought  in  with  the  sole  point  of  showing  that  the  Quraish 
practised  the  first  hostiHties.  Now  in  the  first  place  there  is  not  the 
smallest  proof  that  this  marauder  had  been  sent  by  the  Quraish:  and 
what  shall  we  say,  further,  when  we  learn  that  his  raid,  such  as  it  was, 
took  place  after  Mohammed  or  his  officers  had  already  some  four  times 
taken  the  field  \     (Hisham  p.  423,  Tabari,  i  pp.  1269). 


MOHAMMED  WITHOUT  CAMOUFLAGE  41 

voker  and  who  provoked.  When  the  whole  of  a  history 
is  written  up  by  the  conquerors  it  is  easy  to  show  the 
conquered  as  invariably  in  the  wrong.  Imagine  khc 
history  of  the  invasion  of  Serbia  written  by  Austrian 
historians  A.  D.  2050,  all  Serbians  having  disappeared 
or  been  absorbed!  Nevertheless,  it  is  often  possible  to 
see  that  there  was  no  provocation  or  that  the  provoca- 
tion was  itself  provoked,  so  indifferent  are  the  Moslem 
historians  to  casus  belli  in  such  cases,  trained  as  they 
were  to  think  that  the  whole  world  was  Ddr  ul  Harh, 
and  that  the  non-Islamism  of  any  state  was  the  one  real 
and  sufficient  casus  belli.  We  have  seen  that  a  mere 
private  brawl  occasioned  the  expatriation,  which  almost 
included  the  decimation,  of  the  Bani  Qainuqa*;  and 
that  the  Bani  Nadir  also  were  attacked  for  reasons 
which,  even  as  stated,  will  not  bear  a  moment's  exam- 
ination. But  in  other  cases,  one  act  of  violence  became 
the  cause,  and  even  the  justification,  of  the  next.  For 
the  weak  are  always,  and  of  necessity,  in  the  wrong. 

Take  for  instance  the  affair  of  Khaybar.  Caetani,  to 
whom  Mr.  S.  Khuda  Bukhsh  would  have  us  appeal, 
states  roundly  and  very  strongly  that  this  attack  was 
utterly  unmotived,  and  that  it  is  an  instance  of  the  most 
purely  arbitrary  aggression.^  This  is  morally  true;  but 
it  would  be  more  accurate  to  say  that  it  is  an  instance 
where  an  aggression  was  a  natural  and  inevitable  result 
of  previous  ones.  Consider  the  following  train  of  cir- 
cumstances. 

(i)  The  Bani  Nadir  are  attacked  and  exiled,  as  we 
have  seen,  without  cause. 

(2)  A  party  of  them,  under  a  declared  rebel  Abu 
RafT,  settle  among  their  kindred,  the  tribe  of  Khaybar, 
a  somewhat  distant  settlement  in  the  opposite  direction 
from  Makka.  Note  that  the  departing  Nadirites  had 
not  been  discouraged  from  settling  there  or  elsewhere. 
They  were  perfectly  free  in  this  matter. 

(3)  The  presence  of  Abu  Rafi^now  "justifies"  an  ex- 

*  Annali  II  pp  9,  10 ;  We  commend  this  passage  to  the  notice  of  Mr. 
Bukhsh  and  his  friends,  but  to  spare  their  feelings  refrain  from  trans- 
lating  it. 


42  THE  MOSLEM  WORLD 

pedition  under  ""Ali  (without  notice)  against  the  tribe  of 
Khaybar,  with  no  result. 

(4)  The  sudden  assassination  of  Abu  Rafi'^  is  next 
procured  by  Mohammed.  The  assassin  was  ^Abdallah 
ibn  Unais. 

(5)  It  is  related  by  Waqidi  that  the  immigrant  Nadi- 
rites  now  began  to  engineer  from  Khaybar  a  league  with 
the  Quraish  for  the  subversion  of  Islam.  Supposing 
it  true,  it  is  rather  naive  in  Waqidi  not  to  give  the  small- 
est suggestion  that  an  unprovoked  campaign,  and  the 
assassination  of  a  guest  in  the  bosom  of  the  host-tribe, 
might  justifiably  have  something  to  do  with  the  hostili- 
ty of  the  Khaybarites!  But  up  to  this  time,  it  is  only  the 
exiled  Nadirites  who  are  as  a  matter  of  fact  mentioned 
in  this  connection.  The  awakening  of  the  Khaybarites 
came  after  the  Quraiza  massacre. 

(6)  Waqidi  reports,^  though  here  again  not  a  single 
other  historian  or  biographer  bears  him  out,  that  the 
appalling  news  of  the  BanI  Quraiza  massacre  reached 
Khaybar  where  an  indescribable  consternation  was  cre- 
ated. At  a  meeting  of  these  Bani  Nadirites  and  the 
Khaybarites  it  was  then  proposed  ^^as  it  is  certain  that 
Mohammed  will  next  attack  Khaybar,  to  anticipate 
him/'    This  was  agreed  to.^ 

(7)  The  successor  of  Abu  Rafi*^,  Usair,  is  also  sus- 
pected and  his  assassination  is  determined  on,  but  it  is 
not  found  to  be  feasable.  Nevertheless  he  and  his  fol- 
lowers are  subsequently  destroyed,  while  unarmed  and 
under  safe-conduct,  under  most  dubious  circumstances 
(see  below),  and  by  the  almost  professional  assassin, 
Abdallah  ibn  Unais. 

(8)  No  more  is  reported  from  Khaybar.  But  the 
Khaybarites  are  next  attacked  suddenly  and  in  fullest 
strength,  six  months  later.  They  are  totally  despoiled: 
their  rich  possessions  are  divided  among  the  conquerors. 

We  think  that  a  candid   examination  of  the   above 

*Ed.    Wcllhausen,  p.   190. 

'Ed.  Wellhausen,  p.  224.  Considering  that  W§qidi  mentions  that  a 
few  months  later  the  head  of  the  tribe  wanted  peace  with  Mohammed, 
nothing  important  having  happened  in  the  meantime,  one  need  not  take 
these  unsupported   assertions   of   Khaybarite   plotting  very   seriously. 


MOHAMMED  WITHOUT  CAMOUFLAGE  43 

train  of  circumstances,  which  are  here  brought  to- 
gether for  the  first  time,  will  show  clearly  how  hope- 
less was  the  position  of  a  tribe  like  Khaybar,  which 
originally,  no  doubt,  simply  wanted  to  be  left  in  peace. 
To  the  very  end  of  the  chapter  no  semblance  of  a 
negotiation  was  carried  on  with  the  Khaybarites  them- 
selves. The  blow  fell,  when  it  fell,  like  lightning,  a 
surprise  attack  without  either  declaration  of  war  or 
even  remonstrance.  Yet  ^^never"  a  sword  was  drawn 
but  ''as  a  last  resorf\  etc.,  etc.,  (Mr.  Sadr  ud  Din)  ; 
and  we  are  to  see  in  all  this  an  example  of  "the  morals 
of  war" — and  we  presume  of  diplomacy  also!  The 
fact  is  that  the  theory  "I  will  destroy  you  because  I 
fear,  or  pretend  to  fear,  you  will  attack  me,"  with 
which  also  we  have  been  familiarised  of  late,  is  a 
ruinously  dangerous  one  in  the  hands  of  anyone  who 
from  the  beginning  determines  to  be  on  top.  And, 
observe,  when  the  weaker  begins  to  think  of  acting  on 
the  same  theory  (if  Waqidi's  account  is  to  be  trusted) 
his  action  is  to  be  considered  a  piece  of  unqualified 
aggression,  and  the  counterstroke  becomes  an  act  of 
merest  defence!  So  impossible  is  it  for  the  weaker 
under  such  circumstances  ever  to  be  right,  or  the 
stronger  ever  to  be  wrong.  It  is  further  to  be  noticed 
that  the  Khaybarites  had  not  the  smallest  doubt  as  to 
Mohammed's  principles  and  practice  in  these  matters. 
And  their  plot,  if  there  was  a  plot,  was  simply  the 
result  of  the  despair  engendered  by  the  knowledge. 
Not  even  Waqidi  asserts  that  there  had  been  any  previ- 
ous ill-will.^ 

It  were  unprofitable  to  follow  out  any  further  the 
justifiability  or  unjustifiability  of  the  many  campaigns 
of  the  period,  or  to  study  them  from  the  viewpoint  of 
"the  morals  of  war."  But  just  to  show  how  far  the 
Moslems  had   got  by  this  time   from   all   pretence   of 

*A  remarkable  tradition  is  recorded  by  Muslim,  (ii  p.  237)  "The 
Prophet  gave  the  standard  to  *Ali  and  said,  'Forward!  and  do  not  look 
back  until  Allah  gives  you  the  victory.*  *  AH  went  forward  a  few  steps 
and  halted,  and  without  looking  back  shouted  out  *0  Apostle  of 
Allah,  to  what  end  am  I  to  fight  the  folk?'  He  replied,  'Fight  them  so 
that  they  may  witness  that  there  is  no  god  save  Allah  and  that  Moham- 
mad is  Allah's  Apostle.  If  they  do  this  they  have  redeemed  their  lives 
from  you:    or   else   they   must   buy   their   lives   with   the   price   Oif   them.*' 


44  THE  MOSLEM  WORLD 

waiting  for  provocation,  we  might  mention  the  expedi- 
tions against  the  Christians  of  Duma,  and  against  Mid- 
yan,  both  in  the  far  north  of  Arabia,  distant  many  days 
journey.  The  authorities  do  not  so  much  as  trouble  to 
mention  the  causes  of  offence.  In  fact  there  were 
none.  In  the  case  of  the  latter  raid  \  totally  unpro- 
voked as  we  have  said,  many  women  and  children  were 
captured  and  brought  away  to  Makka,  where  they  were 
all  sold  into  slavery.  (The  Mohammedan  saints  were 
going  to  have  sold  the  mothers  and  their  children 
separately,  but  here  the  prophet  intervened.)  Now, 
we  ask,  in  what  single  respect  was  this  proceeding 
distinguishable  from  a  vulgar  slave-raid?  Are  we  to 
work  //  also  into  our  "morals  of  war"?  And  where  is 
now  the  man  who  "never  drew  a  sword  but  as  a  last 
resort  to  defend  human  life  and  secure  safety  to  it"? 
What  would  have  been  the  comment  of  the  husbands 
of  these  Midyanite  women  on  this  bland  remark?  We 
wish  Woking  could  have  heard  it. 

GOVERNMENT  BY  ASSASSINATION 
Kipling  somewhere  wisely  remarks,  of  a  certain 
Ameer,  that,  like  other  heads  of  states,  he  governs  not 
as  he  would,  but  as  he  can.  By  some  such  axiom  the 
various  atrocities  connected  with  the  government  of  Mo- 
hammed are  usually  justified.  It  is  represented  that  there 
was  no  settled  government  in  Arabia,  no  constitution, 
no  intertribal  code,  no  legislature  and  no  judicature. 
A  man  who  became  powerful  enough  in  any  given  dis- 

•  trict  was  ruler  de  facto  and  therefore  de  jure,  and  it  was 
henceforth  the  business  of  those  about  him  to  be  sub- 
ject, or  take  the  consequences.  Hostility,  even  on  the 
part  of  those  who  had  never  desired  his  rule,  was 
high-treason,  and  might  be  punished  in  any  way  what- 
soever. 

In  other  words,  Mohammed  was  a  son  of  his  time 
and  by  his  time  must  his  actions  be  justified.  Agreed. 
This  fact,   as  we   said   at   the  very  outset,   might  and 

.  would  make  us  excuse  and  justify  an  ordinary  man, 
the  story  of  whose  life  is  being  told  relatively  to  his 

*HaL    III,   206. 


MOHAMMED  WITHOUT  CAMOUFLAGE  45 

times;  and  were  Mohammedans  consistent  in  taking 
this  line,  there  would  be  the  less  to  be  said.  But  show 
would  this  be  consistent  with  the  position  of  the  Birth- 
day Number,  that  the  Prophet's  life  is  all  beautiful, 
not  relatively  but  absolutely;  that  it  is  human  ideal  for 
all  time  and  times;  and  that  from  it  we  may  construct 
our  ethics,  not  only  of  war,  but  the  true  ethic  itself? 

It  is,  therefore,  just  when  we  are  asked  to  invest  this 
Makkan  with  a  perfect  human  light,  that  his  govern- 
ment by  assassination  appears  hideous.  His  use  of  this 
method  for  governmental  purposes  ^  is  clear  enough — 
indeed  the  fact  is  not  denied.  But — government  by 
assassination!  When  it  comes  to  giving  the  method  its 
name,  one  is  permitted  to  regret  that  the  human  ideal 
for  all  time  lived  in  Arabia. 

We  pass  over  the  first  of  the  series, — the  assassination 
of  the  sleeping  woman  ^  with  a  baby  at  her  breast,  and 
the  Prophet's  brutally  contemptuous  remark  about  the 
matter  when  he  enthusiastically  commended  the  assas- 
sin. We  pass  over  also  the  assassination  of  the  bride- 
groom, called  by  treachery,  unarmed,  from  the  pres- 
ence of  his  bride.  And  we  pass  by  a  largish  number  of 
other  "executions." 

It  is  understood  that  legal  procedure  as  conducted 
in  Arabia  was  necessarily  deficient,  and  that  justice, 
disencumbered  of  bandage  and  scales,  had  to  yield  to 
one  and  the  same  man  the  exceptional  facilities  of  being 
accuser,  crown-counsel,  judge,  and  (through  his  fol- 
lowers) executioner,  at  one  and  the  same  time.  The 
method  certainly  made  for  despatch.  But  it  is  permis- 
sible to  whisper  another  word  to  the  Woking  enthusi- 
asts,— Justice? 

But  even  so,  there  are  some  things  that  make  one 

^It  will  be  noticed  that  in  deference  to  Moslems  we  drop  the 
notion  of  personal  animosity.  Let  these  assassinations  be  "executions" 
conceived  and  executed  with  passionless,  judicial  sternness. 

"  She  was  a  poetess  and  a  satirist,  and  she  had  satirised  Mohammed. 
We  do  not  forget  that  modern  researches  (see  Goldziher's  Ahhandlungen) 
have  made  it  clearer  that  these  hija'  poets  had  uncanny  power  in  those 
days,  and  that  their  satires  were  much  more  to  be  dreaded  by  govern- 
ments than  those  of  Mr.  Punch.  So,  let  her  satire  be  high -treason. 
Still . . . !  This  by  the  way  was  the  man  who  "made  the  woman  sex 
almost  sacred"  (B.  N.  p.  32.)  Mohammed's  contempt  for  *the  female  sex* 
is   notoriously   proved    from    the   traditions. 


46  THE  MOSLEM  WORLD 

catch  one's  breath.  What  is  to  be  thought,  for  example, 
of  the  "execution"  of  Usair  (see  above)  with  all  his 
thirty  men,  all  unarmed,  riding  to  Madina  under  safe- 
conduct,  each  behind  a  Mohammedan  ambassador? 
These  ambassadors  had  come  under  the  white  flag 
and  under  the  white  flag  they  were  riding  away.  Their 
leader,  an  approved  assassin,  had  already  "executed" 
the  former  chief  of  the  tribe,  Ibn  Rafi',  yet  he  had 
the  impudence  to  say  that  the  slaughter  of  this  whole 
unarmed  band  was  committed  because  he  felt  Usair 
feeling  stealthily  for  his  (^Aballah's)  sword  as  he  rode 
behind  him  through  the  night.  Now  this  is  really 
rather  too  thin;  for  (l)  Waqidi  and  Ibn  SaM  ^  state 
explicitly  that  Mohammed  had  just  offered  the  man 
peace  and  the  secure  headship  of  the  tribe,  and  that  the 
man  himself  wanted  peace;  (2)  supposing  he  had 
overmastered  ^^Abdallah,  how  about  the  other  thirty 
armed  Moslems?!  and  (3)  to  crown  all,  Waqidi  tells 
us  that  *^Abdallah  himself  said  to  his  son,  "I  was  mend- 
ing my  bow  when  I  came  and  found  that  my  comrades 
had  been  ordered  out  against  Usair,  The  Prophet  said 
^May  I  never  see  Usair.'  He  meant  that  I  should  kill 
him/'P 

Waqidi  merely  makes  explicit  what  is  clearly  writ 
between  every  two  lines  of  this  unhallowed  story.  And, 
in  fact,  the  popular  biography  of  Halabi  (III  pp  207, 
28)  makes  it  absolutely  patent  that  Mohammed  was 
designing  Usair's  death  from  the  start.  Government 
by  assassination!  and  if  thirty  others  have  to  fall,  as 
well  as  the  assumed  offender,  and  that  under  the  white 
flag,  what  of  it?  As  the  prophet  remarked,  they  were 
well  rid — by  Allah  of  course — "of  an  unrighteous  peo- 
ple." ' 

Well,  it  may  have  been  good  enough  for  Arabia  in 
the  Seventh  Century.  But  we  were  talking,  we  thought, 
of  humanity  for  all  time? 

And  even  the  Arabian  stomach  occasionally  turned 
queasy  when  even  its  low  records  were  further  lowered 

^Halabi  1:67. 

*oJ.   cit.   pp.   239,   240. 

•Close  of  Ibn  Hisham's  narrative  p.  980  f. 


MOHAMMED  WITHOUT  CAMOUFLAGE  47 

by  the  innovators.  Many  years  after  the  event,  the 
death  of  Ka^b  was  being  discussed  in  Madina,  and  a 
converted  Nadirite  Jew-Moslem,  named  Benjamin, 
roundly  asserted  that  Ka^b  had  been  treacherously  assas- 
sinated. The  assassin  (Mohammed  b.  Muslima,  then  a 
very  old  man)  was  present  and  was  furious,  and 
shouted,  "Dost  thou  ascribe  to  the  Apostle  of  God  a 
treachery?;  for  only  at  his  direct  order  did  we  compass 
his  death."  And  he  threatened  the  speaker  so  that  he 
would  assassinate  him,  and  very  nearly  accomplished 
his  threat  too.  This  attitude  of  the  original  hero  of  the 
piece  is  what  we  should  expect;  it  is  the  attitude  of 
Benjamin  that  gives  food  for  thought.  Many  must  have 
had  similar  scruples  which  were  never  expressed,  or 
which  if  expressed  have  not  broken  their  way  through 
into  tradition.  The  saints  were  not  slow  to  follow 
the  leader's  lead.  One  of  them,  finding  his  sister 
by  the  sea  shore,  killed — ^we  suppose  we  must 
say  "executed" — her  on  the  spot  for  satire  against  the 
prophet.  Islam,  at  that  time  at  any  rate,  completely 
obliterated  natural  ties.  There  was  sometimes,  in  fact, 
a  bloodthirsty  competition  to  show  sincerity  by  the 
assassination  of  father  ^,  relative  ^,  or  friend  ^. 

But  the  word  "executed"  would  have  to  be  stretched 
to  an  impossible  tenuity  to  cover  the  following  instance. 
After  the  assassination  of  Ka'b  (see  above) — in  fact 
the  next  day — Mohammed  gave  the  astounding  order 
to  kill  all  Jews  wherever  found !^  (It  must  be  remem- 
bered that  these  were  still  early  days.  Badr  had  only 
just  been  fought  and  only  the  first  of  the  Jewish 
tribes,  al  Qainuqa^,  had  offended  and  paid  the  penal- 
ty.) Accordingly  one  of  the  Mohammedans  slew  a 
Jewish  trader,  actually  a  man  with  whom  he  had  most 
friendly  commercial  dealings,  which  had  been  highly 
profitable  to  him.  The  motive  of  the  deed  was  purely 
mercenary — to  get  his  benefactor's  goods.  A  blacker 
murder  in  short,  (for  God's  sake  let  us  occasionally  call 
a  thing  its  real  name,)   was  never  committed.     It  was 

*As  in  the  case  of  the  son  of  'Abdallah  ibn  Ubayy,  Hisham  p.   727. 

*As  here. 

'See  the  following  incident. 

*  Hisham  p.   553. 


48  THE  MOSLEM  WORLD 

too  much  for  the  brother  of  the  murderer  (not  being 
yet  a  Moslem).  He  cried  shame  on  his  brother  say- 
ing: "You  enemy  of  God,  have  you  murdered  a  man 
from  whose  goods  most  of  the  fat  in  your  carcase  came?"^ 
It  is  needless  to  say  the  act  was  never  disclaimed  or 
even  criticised,  by  Mohammed.  It  was  in  fact  directly 
due  to  his  own  fatal  proscription.  Let  Woking  appeal  to 
the  universal  conscience  of  humanity  as  to  whose  instinct 
was  the  sounder,  the  unconverted  brother's,  or  the 
Moslem  assassin's.  The  heavens  would  fall — ^we  say, 
the  very  heavens  would  fall — if  the  verdict  were  to 
be  given  to  the  latter. 

FORGIVENESS  OF   ENEMIES 

"Love  your  enemy'  did  not  pass  beyond  the  domain  of  dream  in  Chris- 
tianity, but  Mohammed — peace  be  on  him — has  shown  us  horn  love  for 
the  enemy  may  be  shown  in  practice." 

The  Birthday  Number  rings  the  changes  upon  this 
theme.  It  is  one  of  the  great  discoveries  of  Neo-Islam 
that  poor  Sayyidna  ^Isa  was  all  very  well  in  his 
way  (see  the  whole  of  p.  22),  but  he  never  had  the 
chance  to  show  real  forgiveness,  i.  e.  in  an  hour  of 
actual  triumph.  This  Mohammed  actually  did.  Such 
is  the  theme. 

We  are  far  from  asserting  that  Mohammed  was  a 
radically  inhumane  or  radically  vindictive  man,  though 
he  once  punished  some  of  his  enemies  by  cutting  off 
their  hands  and  feet,  blinding  them,  and  then  impaling 
the  sightless  trunks  till  life  ebbed.  But  this  was  an 
isolated  and  exceptional  incident,  and  the  men  were 
themselves  murderers  and  mutilators  and  were  being 
punished  in  kind.^ 

So  far  from  Mohammed's  being  specially  cruel  or 
specially  vindictive  the  contrary  is  the  case,  if  we  con- 
fine ourselves  still  to  Arabia.  He  was  magnanimous, 
and  also  had  with  his  magnanimity  that  coolness  of  head 

*/or.  cit.  When  he  heard  that  his  brother  would  have  had  as  little 
hesitation  in  killing  him,  he  is  said  to  have  exclaimed,  "By  Allah,  such  a 
religion  is  a  wonderful  religion,"  and  incontinently  embraced  Islam.  We 
wonder  what   is   thought   of   this  argument    for   Islamizing. 

'Still  the  very  Sura  which,  after  this  horrible  incident,  humanely 
forbade  punishment  by  torture  or  crucifixion,  commanded  that  robbers, 
both  male  and  female,  should  have  their  hands  cut  off,  and  their  feet  to 
follow,  one  after  the  other,  if  the  crime  were  repeated.  Are  we,  by  the 
way,  to  work  this  also  into  our  ideal  penal  code? 


MOHAMMED  WITHOUT  CAMOUFLAGE  49 

which  showed  him  clearly  where  and  when  magna- 
nimity paid;  especially  at  the  capture  of  Makka,  when 
the  tide  had  clearly  turned,  and  where  to  have  ruined 
his  winning  cause  by  acts  of  vindictiveness  would  have 
been  the  absurdest  of  blunders.  And  other  conquerors 
have  been  as  clear-sighted,  and,  let  us  gladly  add,  as 
magnanimous.  But  the  challenge  of  the  Birthday 
Number  cannot  be  allowed  to  pass  so  tamely.  We  hare 
seen  Mohammed's  intense  vindictiveness  in  regard  to 
one  special  type  of  offence,  satire;  we  have  seen  the 
assassinations  that  followed  this  with  every  circum- 
stance of  horror,  over  which,  to  do  him  justice,  and 
to  put  it  mildly,  no  crocodile's  tears  were  shed,  for  the 
deaths  caused  him  the  keenest  pleasure.  If  in  the 
shades  Abu  Lahab  has  access  to  the  Birthday  Number, 
these  parts  of  it  must  amuse  him  considerably.  The 
ferocious  vindictiveness  of  the  prophet  in  his  case 
could  not  even  be  kept  out  of  the  Koran.  Another 
uncle,  Abu  Jahl,  with  others  of  the  slain  at  Badr,  were 
pitched  into  a  pit,  to  the  accompaniment  of  opprobrious 
remarks  from  the  prophet.  One  Nawfal  was  among 
the  prisoners  hacked  down  after  Badr,  and  Moham- 
med's keen  relish  thereat  is  specially  commented  on.^ 
The  look  which  he  fastened  on  al  Nadr  was  so  black 
that  a  bystander  whispered  that  death  was  in  it.  The 
implacable  and  angry  pitilessness  shown  after  the  sur- 
render of  the  Banu  Quraiza  (see  the  case  of  Thabit, 
and  Mohammed's  comment  on  the  judgment  of  Sa^d) 
we  have  already  seen:  also  the  soulless  spirit  of  unmer- 
cifulness  in  which  the  sentence  of  mercy  for  the 
Qainuqa  '^was  extorted  from  him.  But  ''Mohammed 
was  the  last  of  the  race,  and  all  these  Divine  moral  at- 
tributes which  were  still  undeveloped  in  men  found  their 
proper  Epiphany  in  him.  Forgiveness  being  one  of 
them  had  its  own  occasion  as  well  as  its  use.  It  found 
no  occasion  in  the  life-time  of  Jesus;  and  if  others  had 
it,  they  did  not  utilize  it.  But  Mohammed  had  the 
rare  occasion,  and  did  not  fail  to  use  it.  His  enemies, 
when  utterly  fallen,  entreated  him   to   treat  them  as  a 

*Muir  p.  227  note.- 


50  THE  MOSLEM  WORLD 

noble-minded  person  would  do.  The  appeal  was  most 
opportune,  and  made  to  the  right  man,  and  was  readily 
accepted.     (B.  N.  p.  23.) 

We  have  seen  the  very  considerable  qualification 
which  such  extravagant  words  need.  And  what  shall 
we  say  to  the  following  as  a  commentary  upon  them? 
When  ^Uqba  was  ordered  out  to  be  executed  after 
Badr  he  asked  why  he  should  be  treated  wth  such 
special  rigour?  "Because  of  your  enmity  to  Allah  and 
his  prophet,"  answered  Mohammed.  And  then  a 
gleam  of  human  pathos  suddenly  illuminates  the 
gloomy  record,  as  the  condemned  man  cried  out, 
''Who  will  look  after  the  children,  Mohammed?"  To 
which  the  reply  was,  ^^HellF —  and  he  was  cut  down.^ 
Another  historian  adds  that  the  prophet  went  on: 
''Wretch  that  thou  wast,  and  persecutor  *  *  *  I  give 
thanks  to  the  Lord  that  he  hath  slain  thee,  and  com- 
forted mine  eyes  thereby." — The  "Epiphany  of  the 
Divine  moral  attributes"  had  something  to  learn  from 
the  Sermon  on  the  Mount,  after  all — nay,  he  had  some- 
thing to  learn  even  from  the  despised  heathen  Quraish, 
who,  according  to  the  Birthday  Number,  "deserved 
every  imaginable  punishment  to  be  devised  of  human 
ingenuity!"  (p.  22).  For  when  al-Nadr  (see  above) 
was  led  out  to  execution — though  his  ransom  would 
have  been  accepted  by  his  captor — he  said  to  Mus'ab, 
"Had  the  Quraish  made  thee  a  prisoner,  they  would 
never  have  put  thee  to  death;"  to  which  came  a  reply, 
somewhat  unfortunate  in  this  connection,  "I  am  not 
as  thou  art:  Islam  has  broken  the  pacts."  And  at  this 
precise  moment  the  command  to  strike  off  his  head  was 
interposed  by  Mohammed,  who  had  been  watching 
what  had  passed.     And  it  was  instantly  done  by  'Ali.^ 

The  plain  fact  is  that  Mohammed  though  above 
the  men  of  his  time  and  place  in  many  things,  was, 
to  put  it  mildly  on  their  own  level  in  others.  It  is  not 
to  later  lavender-watering  traditions  produced  by  hu- 
maner    Syrians    and    Persians,    still    less    to    milk-and- 

*Hisham    p.    458. 
•Waqidi  p,  68. 


MOHAMMED  WITHOUT  CAMOUFLAGE  51 

watery  idealisations  like  this  Birthday  Number,  that  one 
must  look,  but  to  records  which  are  evidently  contempo- 
rary. What  the  real  attitude  of  this  Arabian  was  in 
this  matter  of  vengeance  and  forgiveness  is  admirably 
shown  up — with  naive  unconsciousness  moreover — by 
the  contemporary  poet  Ka'b  b.  Zuhair,  an  Arab  of  the 
Arabs.  That  attitude  thoroughly  appealed  to  Ka^b,  but 
we  do  not  see  why  it  should  arouse  the  enthusiasm  of 
the  mild  gentlemen  responsible  for  the  Birthday  Num- 
ber. It  was  expressed  by  the  said  poet  in  his  famous 
poem,  the  Banat  Su^ad.  We  should  premise  that  he 
also  had  been  dabbling  in  the  perilous  game  of  satire, 
and  that  it  was  represented  to  him  that  the  fate  of  the 
other  Ka'b  and  sundry  male  and  female  members  of 
the  satirical  profession  would  inevitably  be  his.  He 
therefore  made  his  submission  in  the  following  words: 

Slanders  worked  their  way  to  Su*ad  and  repeated  to  her  "Thou  art 
a   dead  man,    O   Kal) !" 

And  every  friend  in  whom  I  hoped  said  to  me  "I  will  not  meddle  with 
thee,    I   have  no   time   for   thee  :"^ 

Until  I  pledge  my  troth  to  the  Man  of   Vengeances  whose  word  is  law. 

Verily  when  it  was  said  to  me  'Thou  are  being  charged  and  aske'd 
after,'     he  was  more  terrible  to  me  than   a   lion  of   the   forest." 

There  is  a  good  deal  of  Araby,  but  precious  little 
of  Woking,  in  all  this. 

SLAUGHTER  OF   PRISONERS 

The  Birthday  Number  writers  do  not  specially  say 
that  the  slaughter  of  prisoners  is  barbarous  under  any 
circumstances,  but  it  is  to  be  imagined  that  they  would 
say  so  in  no  unmeasured  terms,  especially  if  they  had 
come  across  any  such  incident  in  ^'Christian"  wars. 
But  such  deeds  occurred  after  some  of  Mohamrped's 
battles.  After  Badr,  especially,  the  greatest  vindictive- 
ness  and  bloodthirstiness  were  manifested.  Many  pris- 
oners were  slaughtered  in  cold  blood,  at  least  two  of 
them  at  the  personal  instance  of  Mohammed  who  had 
a  special  grudge  against  them.  The  most  famous 
Companions  (except  Abu  Bakr)  were  then  the  most 
truculent.  One  of  them  was  for  burning  the  prisoners 
alive  en  masseP  The  Prophet  checked  these  excesses. 
But  the  very  words  in  which  he  did  so,  the  very  limits 

^To   which   the   commentator:    "They   washed   their   hands    of   him   in 
their  despair   for  his  life  and  their   fear  of  the  Prophet's  anger. 
•Musnad   I   383. 


52  THE  MOSLEM  WORLD 

set  up,  show  clearly  that  defenceless  prisoners  might 
always  be  slaughtered  in  cold  blood  if  they  could  not 
get  anyone  to  redeem  them.^ 

The  Sura  produced  after  the  event  (viii  68)  explicit- 
ly commands  the  slaughter  of  prisoners  on  occasions 
when  it  is  advisable  to  make  an  impression  by  ''fright- 
fulness:"  on  such  occasions  the  sin  would  be  to  grow 
rich  by  accepting  ransoms!  And  there  is  a  whole 
series  of  traditions  (quoted  by  Muir,  Life  p.  231)  which 
make  out  that  the  "leniency"  shown  at  Badr  was  a  sin, 
that  Mohammed  had  been  against  that  sin,  that  humane 
Abu  Bakr  was  the  chief  offender,  and  that  had  that 
sin  been  punished,  only  the  whole-hoggers  who  had 
urged  the  slaughter  of  all  the  prisoners  ('Umar  and 
Sa'd)   would  have  escaped! 

The  same  Sura  however  gives  signs  that  Moham- 
med already  saw  that  the  Badr  policy  was  not  for  uni- 
versal application.  And  as  Islam  developed,  the  terrible 
Badrian  alternative  was  modified.  For  one  thing,  as 
we  have  already  seen,  the  practice  of  selling  war-cap- 
tives became  common  (Are  we,  by  the  way,  to  regulate 
our  practice  by  this  also  when  the  Governments  turn 
their  attention  to  the  prisoners  after  the  present  war?)  : 
and,  as  the  Birthday  Number  says,  the  Koran  itself 
recommended  the  ransoming  of  war-captives  as  a  form 
of  charity  suitable  for  rich  Moslems.  But  the  Badr 
alternative  is  always  there  in  the  background,  and  on 
suitable  occasions  may  always  be  brought  into  the 
foreground.  The  prisoner  of  war  is  mubah  damuhu: 
his  life's  essentially  forfeit.  Are  we  to  ask  the  coming 
Hague  convention  of  the  new  world  to  adopt  this  into 
its  code  of  ethics  for  international  war? 

FORCED  CONVERSIONS 

The  subject  of  the  "execution"  of  prisoners  of  war 
leads  insensibly  to  forced  conversions,  about  which 
some  nonsense  has  been  written  by  Christians,  and  a 
good  deal  more  by  Moslem  apologists.     It  is  quite  true 

*  Loc :  cit.  la  yanfalitanna  ahadun  minkum  ilia  bifida'in  aw  dar- 
bati  'unq :  "Let  not  one  escape  you  except  he  pay  a  ransom,  or  else  have 
his   head   struck   off." 


MOHAMMED  WITHOUT  CAMOUFLAGE  53 

that  some  Christian  writers  have  written  as  if  the 
whole  Moslem  propaganda  might  be  depicted  exclu- 
sively by  a  Moslem  standing  over  a  non-Moslem  with 
the  sword  in  one  hand  and  the  Koran  in  the  other.  In 
regard  to  Christians  and  Jews  this  idea  was  in  any  case 
absurd  and  false,  for  the  law  from  the  beginning — or 
at  any  rate  since  Khaybar — has  been  that  Christians 
and  Jews  (Peoples  of  the  Book)  have  been  free  to  re- 
ject Islam  and  hold  to  their  own  faith  on  condition  of 
becoming  tributary^  Zimmiyyun.  And  most  of  the 
best-known  wars  of  Islam  have  been  against  peoples 
of  a  Book,  for  even  the  Persians  were  from  the  first  in- 
cluded practically  under  the  term.  In  consequence  of 
which,  the  plea  to  regard  Islam  as  an  exceptionally 
tolerant  religion  has  lately  gained  more  and  more 
recognition,  and  in  some  respects  perfectly  rightly  so. 

But  not  in  all.  It  seems  to  be  forgotten,  and  we  may 
be  sure  that  the  Birthday  Number  does  not  remind  us 
of  it,  that  the  Arabian  heathen  had  by  law  no  benefit 
whatever  of  protection  without  Islamising.  For  them 
and  for  "apostates"  the  law  from  the  beginning  was 
Islam  or  death.  And  it  was  at  the  beginning  that  that 
law  was  most  rigorously  carried  out.  Moslems  are 
very  naive,  and  what  has  prevented  them  from  seeing 
that  this  fact  is  constitutive  of  forced  conversion  is  their 
idea  that  the  deliberate  preference  of  "conversion"  to 
death  is  not  a  forced  conversion!  (It  is  notorious  that 
neither  Mohammed  nor  any  who  came  after  ever 
troubled  about  motives  for  profession;  and  so  every 
conversion  is  a  conversion  w's  saldm.)  They  forget 
that  the  very  real  alternative  was  death.  True,  most 
preferred  to  escape  death;  but  that  proves,  not  dis- 
proves, our  point.     What  of  those  who  refused? 

Sura  IX  is  of  course  the  locus  classicus  for  the  above 
facts.  After  the  pilgrimage  of  A.  H.  9  there  was  to 
be  no  quarter  for  heathen   (in  the  peninsula  at  least,) 

*The  Armenian  horrors,  in  which  the  alternative  of  Islam  or  death 
was  many  a  time  horribly  presented,  were  justly  represented  by  Moslems 
as  contrary  to  the  law  of  Islam.  We  suspect  however  that  very  many 
Moslems  justified  these  in  their  hearts  on  the  score  of  these  zimmis' 
loss  of  rights  through  rebellion — an  excuse  which  can  be  stretched  to  fit 
almost   any  case. 


54  THE  MOSLEM  WORLD 

It  was  to  be  for  them  Islam  or  death.  And  the  alterna- 
tive was  forced  and  note  that  the  text  make  the  alterna- 
tive most  explicit.  ^When  the  sacred  months  are  past 
(viz.,  the  time  of  grace  allowed  at  the  Pilgrimage  of 
A.H.  9),  kill  the  polytheists  wherever  ye  find  them  ,  .  . 
but  if  they  repent  and  perform  the  prayer  and  bring 
the  alms,  let  them  go  their  way!'  None  of  these  con- 
formists, then,  were  instances  of  "forced  conversion!" 
They  all,  of  course,  "repented!"  No,  it  will  not  do. 
How  about  their  almost  unanimous  apostacy  {rid da) 
the  moment  the  terrible  Quraishite  passed  from  the 
scene? 

We  shall  not  go  into  the  question  whether  these 
prescriptions  referred  only  to  contemporary  Arabs  or 
to  pagans  all  down  the  centuries^,  for  our  theme  is 
Mohammed.  And  it  would  seem  to  be  a  sufficient 
answer  to  the  following  challenge  to  have  shown  that 
by  the  command  of  the  Prophet  many  thousands  were 
as  a  plain  matter  of  fact  converted  by  force.  The  chal- 
lenge is  this: 

"If  the  sword  was  'drawn  to  force  these  to  conversion,  why  were 
the  prisoners  released  at  the  end  of  each  war  and  all  allowed  to  go  to  their 
home  without  being  converted  to  Islam?  Can  any  person  refer  to  a  single 
conversion    which    was    secured    through    compulsion?"     (B.N.  24.) 

Most  assuredly  any  person  can.  We  should  have 
thought  that  a  KalD  preferring  Islam  to  the  continual 
menace  of  the  assassin's  sword  would  have  been  a  suffi- 
cient instance  for  most  people.  But  here  the  apologists 
are  to  some  extent  helped  by  the  incurable  naivete  of 
the  Arab  mind,  which  saw  in  such  arguments  real  signs 
that  so  lusty  a  religion  was  from  Allah — or  at  any  rate  was 
to  be  subscribed  to:  in  practice  the  two  things  came 
to  the  same  thing:  only  Allah  knoweth  the  hearts. 

But  the  matter  cannot  be  so  lightly  dismissed. 

*We  suspect  that  the  fact  that  the  first  great  campaigns  were  against 
People  of  a  Book — for  the  expression  was  stretched  to  embrace  even 
the  Persians — mitigated  the  rigour  of  Sura  ix.  The  Arabs  were  from 
the  first  sensitive  to  humanising  and  civilising  influences.  It  was  noted 
as  noteworthy  that  when  India  was  reached  the  polytheists  got  the 
benefit  of  the  tribute  privilege,  whereby  they  kept  their  heads  and 
their  polvtheism.  Still,  when  Timur  "turned  Northern  India  into  a 
shambles,  we  imagine  he  was  able  to  make  out  a  fairly  good  case  for 
himself. 


MOHAMMED  WITHOUT  CAM(^^^^ 

.     fact,  that 

Does  Woking  know,  or  merely  conce'^^  gani 

any   one   of   those   "executed"    hundreo^^        tsion"?" 
Quraiza  Jews  could  have  bought  life  bf ^^^     ^  ^on- 
One,  Jabal,  did  so}     Was  his  case,  or  wa^  ^  j,^ ^^ 
version  which  was  secured  through  comp^^^.    ^  ^^ey 
the   remaining  hundreds?     Is  it  not  a   fac  ti^Q^^pul- 
only   escaped   "conversion"   by   resisting   the  .     ^ives? 
sion,"  and  paying  for  their  constancy  with  ti.   ^-^^pedi- 

Similarly  the  picket  captured  in  the  Maras"  ^^  ^X^^ 
tion.     He  was  first  questioned,  but  refused  to  m.rj^^  ^e- 
reply.     Mohammed  then  offered  him  Islam.     1  ,^  off 
fused.     The   Prophet  then  ordered   ^Umar   to   cu\(iily 
his  head,  which  that  cheerful  headsman  most  reav    ve 
did.^     If  that  man  had  preferred  to  Islamise  and  sa^^A 
his  neck,  it  would  not  have  been,   it  seems,   a  forcec'  \ 
conversion !  \ 

It  may  be  objected  that  in  this  instance  the  man  was  \ 
a  spy,  and  a  spy's  life  was  forfeit,  and  that  the  offer- 
ing Islam  to  him  was  gratuitous  mercy.  And  some- 
what similarly  the  Bani  Quraiza.  But  this  is  beside 
the  mark.  Our  subject  is  enforced  conversion;  and  if 
the  "conversion"  of  a  man  at  the  sword's  point,  what- 
ever be  the  circumstances,  is  not  to  be  called  a  forced 
conversion,    then   words   have    lost   their   meaning. 

But  all  doubts  are  dispelled  by  the  following  incident.^ 
Another  spy  was  captured  at  Khaybar,  but  on  this 
occasion  the  man  was  induced  to  talk,  and  his  life  was 
secured  to  him  on  Mohammed^s  express  word.  In  con- 
sideration of  this  promise,  Mohammed  (remarks  the 
historian)  refrained  from  ordering  *^Umar  to  cut  his 
head  off.^  Latter  on  however  ^^He  had  him  brought 
before  him  in  Khaybar  and  offered  him  Islam,  with 
the  remark  that  if  on  the  third  time  of  asking  he  did, 
not  accept  it  the  rope  should  only  depart  from  his  neck 


*Isaba  I  453. 

'Halabi  II  p.  294. 

'Waqidi,  pp.  266-7. 

*  *Umar  seems  to  have  been  a  sort  of  voluntary  headsman  to  the 
court,  being  devoted  to  the  argument  of  the  sword  at  all  times  (see  his 
conduct  after  Badr).  Later  responsibility  seems  greatly  to  have  elevated 
and    enlarged   his   character. 


bSLEM  WORLD 

56  Tb  should  hang).     That  worked/' 

e^  .      .     ,   i  waive  enquiry  into  the  honour- 

ajter  swinging^  r    1        1         9     /•  1        1     j 

•NT     J     u.  -^  j'-^ty  01  the  threaf^  after  what  had 
No  doubt  It  di*  ^r^,  .11-  I. 

abl  f  thf^*  point  IS  that  here  we  have 

J         ,  /  example  of   a  forced   conversion, 

the   clearest  / 

T  ,  'Mohammed's  words   to  ^Ali   before 

— islam  or  ;  ,  .,,     ,  .  ,         , 

rpi  /  them  till   they  witness  that  there   is 

TTi      1      3  41ah  and  that  Mohammed  is  the  apostle 

p    1    /I  they  do  this,  then  they  will  have  kept 

r   A  11  /&  goods  from  you, — but  only  at  the  price 

,    .    i/and  their  reckoning  is  on  God."     We  are 

r    ,  iieve  that  a  'Witness"  under  these  conditions 

,^'  forced  witness! 

^Apostates?"     Whether  their  apostacy  was  from 

conviction,  or  motived,  or  whether  it  was  due 

.  fact  that  their  original  Islamising  was  a  hypo- 

cal  farce  as  it  obviously  often  was,  matters  not.   The 

ernative   for   them  was  to   be,   Islam   or   death.      If 

.ney  chose   Islam,   would   this  or  would   it  not,   be   a 

forced  conversion? 

And  what  comment  is  needed  by  the  following  candid 
narrative  from  Ibn  Hisham?  After  the  acts  of  fright- 
fulness  against  the  Jews  which  we  have  already  men- 
tioned, numbers  of  Jews  '^pretended  to  have  embraced 
Islam,  They  adopted  it  in  order  to  escape  being 
killed.' 

Let  the  facts  speak  for  themselves. 

CONCLUSION 

We  must  now  bring  this  investigation  to  a  close. 
And  in  closing  it  we  would  emphatically  repeat  what 
was  said  at  the  outset,  namely  that  when  and  if  ad- 
mirers of  Mohammed  are  content  to  regard  him  histor- 
ically as  a  great  Arabian,  who  had  a  real  and  strange 
sense  of  prophetical  call,  and  through  this  and  his  im- 
mense natural  genius,  singular  gifts,  and  many  virtues, 

^Lam  yakrug  U  hahlu  min  'vngika  Hi  su'  ii  dan,  Waqidi,  p.  267. 
*The    incident    of    Abu    Lubaba,    sent    by    Mohammed    to    parley    with 
the  Bani  Quraiza,  offers  a  similar  instance  of  doubtful  good-faith. 
•Muslim  II  237. 
*Zaharfl  bil  *islain  wa  ttahadhUhu  hannatan  min  al  qatl. 


MOHAMMED  WITHOUT  CAMOUFLAGE  57 


accomplished  a  stupendous  life-work,  then  we  join 
with  the  admirers.  Who  with  a  grain  of  historic  sense 
and  appreciation  would  not?  The  worst  enemies  of 
Mohammed  are  not  his  opponents,  but  his  friends,  who 
will  have  it  that  the  character  of  this  Arabian  giant 
is  the  very  type  of  perfected  humanity;  that  all  his 
actions  apart  from  trifles  were  perfect;  that  no  great 
wrong  can  be  attributed  to  him;  that  his  moral  splen- 
dour throws  that  of  Jesus  completely  in  the  shade;  and 
that  his  example  and  precept  make  the  best  foundation 
not  only  for  codes  of  conduct  but  for  national  and  inter- 
national law!  Worst  offenders  of  all  are  the  Neo- 
Moslems  who  have  assumed  the  task  of  dishing  up 
the  Biography  to  suit  the  taste  of  the  Christian  West; 
omitting  here,  explaining  away  there;  challenging  this 
(against  the  sources)  and  glozing  that.  It  is  not  our 
business  to  estimate  the  sincerity  of  these  men,  nor  of 
their  Christian  supporters.  Some  of  these  latter  have 
been  inspired  to  "their  self-appointed  task  through  the 
indignation  of  an  honest  reaction  against  former  exag- 
gerations, or  misrepresentations,  or  under-estimations; 
and  some  are  merely  officious  and  mealy-mouthed.  We 
have  nothing  to  do  with  that.  All  we  know  is  that  these 
men  one  and  all,  are  doing  a  disservice  both  to  truth 
and  to  their  idol.  For  they  as  little  give  the  world  the 
whole  truth  as  did  the  old-time  wholesale  obloquist; 
and  they  simply  force  those  who  see  in  these  assertions 
a  gross  offence  against  fact,  and  a  definite  attack  on 
the  perfection  and  universality  of  the  Man  Christ 
Jesus,  to  rise  up  and  show  from  the  sources  that  the 
real  Mohammed,  the  Mohammed  of  the  sources  and  of 
the  Agreement  of  Islam,  the  only  Mohammed  who 
counts,  because  the  Mohammed  of  thirteen  dead  cen- 
turies and  three  hundred  million  living  Moslems,  will 
not  fit  the  role  in  virtue  of  which  the  human  race  is 
invited  to  travel  from  Bethlehem  to  Mekka,  from  the 
Mount  of  the  Beatitudes  to  the  Mount  of  'Arafat. 

W.  H.  T.  Gairdner. 
Cairo,  Egypt, 


THE  ORIGIN  OF  THE  MOROS 

rPortion    of    a    paper    read  before    the    Royal    Asiatic    Society,    Shanghai,    and    pub- 
lished by  permission  of  the  author. — Ed.] 


Beginning  with  the  contributions  of  Dr.  N.  M.  Saleeby 
on  the  history  and  culture  of  the  Moros  of  the  South  a 
collection  of  monographs  has  gradually  appeared  which 
constitutes  almost  the  first  scientific  attempt  to  penetrate 
the  mystery  that  shrouds  the  origin  of  the  present  inhabi- 
tants of  the  Philippines  and  their  cultural  sources. 

Among  the  most  recent  of  these  publications,  though 
relating  to  the  earliest  period,  are  those  compiled  by 
the  ingenious  Professor  of  History  in  the  University  of 
the  Philippines — Austin  Craig — ^who  is  also  known  for 
his  painstaking  and  authoritative  life  of  Rizal,'  and 
other  works.  His  pamphlet  on  "Malays"  is  largely  ex- 
tracted from  a  work*  by  General  Forlong  which  deals 
with  the  origin  of  the  Malay  race  and  its  primitive  reli- 
gious ideas.  Like  Dr.  Saleeby,'  General  Forlong  be- 
lieves that  the  Malays  originated  on  the  Asiatic  main- 
land (the  latter  holding  that  they  entered  India  from  the 
north)  and  long  remained  under  the  influence  of  Indian 
civilisation.  This  general  theory  finds  abundant  philo- 
logical evidence  in  its  favor  and  in  addition  to  that  men- 
tioned by  General  Forlong  much  more  might  be  cited 
from  the  Philippine  languages. 

The  pioneer  in  this  interesting  field  appears  to  have 
been  Dr.  H.  Kern  (1833 — ),  formerly  Professor  of  San- 
scrit in  the  University  of  Leyden,  who,  in  1880  and  1881 
published  the  results  of  his  observations  on  the  presence 

>  Studies  in  Moro  Hiitory  Law  and  Religion  (Manila  1905) ;  The  History  of  Suln 
(1905);    Origin   of  the  Malayan  Filipinoi    (1912). 

'The  Pre-Spanish  Philippines,  by  Austin  Craig;  (Manila,  1914);  Particulars  of  the 
Philippines'  Pre-Spanish  Past,  by  the  same  author,  (Manila,  1916);  Malays,  by  the  •«&• 
author,   (Manila,   1916). 

•Manila    (Philippine   Education  Co.)    1913. 

•  Short  Studies  in  the   Science  of  ComparatiTe  Religions. 

•  Origin  of  the  Malayan  Filipinos,  Academy  Publications  I,  1,  37. 

•  Otto  Scheerer  in  Philippine  Rcricw,  III,  63. 

58 


THE  ORIGIN  OF  THE  MOROS  59 

of  Sanscrit  words  in  Bisaya  and  Tagalog.  As  regards 
the  latter,  Dr.  T.  H.  Pardo  de  Tavera,  a  member  of  the 
Philippine  Academy,  took  ifp  the  same  line  of  inves- 
tigation a  few  years  later/  The  presence  of  Sancrit 
words  in  other  Philippine  languages  was  noticed  by  still 
another  and  charter  member  of  the  Academy,  recently 
chosen  as  its  Chancellor — Dr.  David  P.  Barrows.^  But 
it  was  reserved  for  Dr.  Saleeby  to  carry  this  fascinating 
investigation  to  the  farthest  extent  yet  reached.  Select- 
ing as  his  particular  subject  the  Magindanaw  language  of 
the  south  Philippines  he  has  not  only  collected  an  ex- 
tensive vocabulary^  of  common  words  therein,  which  are 
cognate  with  Sanscrit,  but  he  marshals  other  evidence 
in  support  of  his  conclusion  that  Malay  speech  in  gen- 
eral "is  an  Indian  tongue  closely  allied  to,  or  originally 
derived  from,  Sanscrit — the  language  of  Vedic  worship 
and  Vedic  days."  And  he  sums  up  the  results  of  his  re- 
searches in  the  following  inquiry: 

"What  conclusion  can  we  then  at  present  draw,  other  than  that 
the  ancient  home  of  these  peoples  and  the  birth  place  of  their  fore- 
fathers was  in  the  land  where  the  Vedic  gods  were  worshipped  and 
an  Indian  language  was  spoken,  which  land  can  be  no  other  country 
than  that  extensive  continent  of  India — the  cradle  of  the  Malay 
race." 

Moreover,  the  term  Malay  itself,  instead  of  being  de- 
rived, as  General  Forlong  seems  to  think,  from  the  Indian 
mala  (hill) ,  is  more  probably  connected  with  the  Tagalog 
malayo  (far)  with  its  allusion  to  the  long  wanderings  of 
the  race  which  General  Forlong  emphasizes.* 

When  the  Malays  entered  the  archipelago  now  known 
as  the  Philippines^  they  found  there  an  aboriginal  race, 

^  See  his  monographs,  El  Sanscrito  en  la  lengua  tagalog  (Paris,  1887,  55  pp) ;  Con- 
sideraciones  sobre  el  origen  del  nombre  re  Ids  numeros  en  tagalog  (Manila,  1889,  26  pp.) 

*  History  of  the  Philippines,  92,  93.  Dr.  Barrows  also  found  "a  few  Sanskrit  or 
Indian  words"  in  the  Ilongot  language  of  North  Luzon.  See  his  "Ilongot  or  Ibilaw," 
Popular  Science  monthly,    (December,   1910)    LXXVII,   537. 

'  Origin   of  the  Malayan   Filipinos,   Academy  Publications,    1,   22-35, 

*  "They  have,"  he  says,  "thronged  EJast  Africa  above  1000  years,  and  have  even  a 
colony  at  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope.  They  traded  everywhere  throughout  Madagascar — ^their 
Malagasa  and  the  Mala-dvipas  or  Maldives.  They  colonized  500  miles  of  the  West 
Coast  of  India,  still  known  as  Mala-bar;  the  great  island  of  Sumatra  and  adjoining  main- 
land known  as  the  Malaka  Peninsular,  extending  over  some  700  miles;  all  the  large 
island  kingdoms  of  Java,  Celebes  and  their  dependencies  and  the  eponymous  extensive 
Molucca  group." 

*  This  name  was  not  applied  until  long  after  Spanish  occupation  when  it  was  given 
in  honor  of  the  reigning  monarch  Felipe  II.  Magellan,  who  discovered  the  group  on 
San  Lazaro's  day,  named  it  after  that  saint. 


6o  THE  MOSLEM  WORLD 

dark-skinned,  of  short  stature  and  curly  hair,  resembling, 
and  probably  akin  to,  the  Papuans  of  New  Guinea,  the  ab- 
original Semang  of  the  Malay  peninsula,^  the  Mincopies 
of  the  Andaman  Isla^nds^  and  perhaps  to  the  blacks  of 
Australia.  Long  afterward  this  race  received  from  the 
Spaniards  the  name  of  Negritos  (little  blacks).  Once 
numerous  and  distributed  throughout  the  islands  they  are 
now  confined  to  a  few  provinces  while  their  number  is 
very  smalP  and  believed  to  be  rapidly  diminishing.  Yet 
it  is  long  since  active  warfare  between  them  and  the 
Malay  intruder  has  decimated  the  former's  ranks.  Their 
present  decline  seems  rather  due  to  a  prolonged  process 
of  amalgamation,  largely  at  their  expense,  with  the  in- 
coming race.  Dr.  Barrows  long  since  expressed  his  con- 
viction that 

"Much  has  been  made  of  the  'Indonesian'  theory  and  far  too  much 
of  pre-Spanish  Chinese  influence,  but  the  result  to  the  physical  types 
found  in  the  Philippines  of  the  constant  absorption  of  the  Negrito 
race  into  the  Malayan  and  the  wide  prevalence  of  the  Negrito  blood 
in  all  classes  of  islanders  has  been  generally  overlooked.   .    .    . 

'*I  shall  not  attempt  here,"  he  adds,  "to  estimate  the  proportion  of 
Negrito  blood  in  the  Christian  peoples  of  the  Philippines — Bisaya, 
Hikol,  Tagalog,  Ilokano,  etc. — further  than  to  express  my  conviction 
that  in  certain  regions  it  is  very  large  and  has  greatly  modified  the 
primitive  Malayan  type." 

This  mixture  of  blood  has  produced  in  certain  parts 
of  the  Philippines,  groups  which,  though  not  pure  Ne- 
gritos, resemble  them  to  a  degree  more  or  less  consider- 
able according  to  the  amount  of  Malay  infusion.  The 
Bataks  of  Palawan  are  practically  Negritos  while  the 
Tagbanuas  of  the  same  island  are  predominently  Malayan 
with  a  Negrito  strain. 

Thus  the  diffusion  of  Malays  appers  to  have  skirted 
practically  the  entire  inhabited  coasts  of  Asia  and  to  have 
left  its  trail  stretching  from  South  Africa  to  Korea. 

Of  the  cultural  influences  affecting  this  widely  scat- 
tered race  the  Indian  was  the  first  and  most  powerful. 

•  Barrows,  The  Negrito  ad  Allied  Types  in  the  Philippines,  American-Anthopologist, 
(N.  S.)  XII,  375,  citing  Skeat  &  Blagden's  Pagan  Races  of  the  Malay  Peninsula. 

•  Reed,  Negritos  of  Zambales  (Philippine  Ethnological  Survey  Publications,  Vol.  II 
pt.  I)   13  et  seq. 

•  Dr.  H.  Otley  Beyer  in  his  recent  work  on  the  "Population  of  the  Philippine 
Islands  in  1916"  estimates  (p.  22)  the  Negritos  at  about  36,000,  or  leas  than  one-half 
of  one  per  cent  of  the  total  population. 


THE  ORIGIN  OF  THE    MOROS  6i 

But  in  spreading  northward  the  Malays  naturally  en- 
countered the  civilization  which  was  then  dominant  in 
eastern  Asia — the  Chinese. 

Professor  Craig  shows  how,  as  early  as  the  third  cen- 
tury of  our  era,  Chinese  writers  mention  what  we  know  as 
the  Philippines,  grouping  them  with  Formosa;  and  his 
chronological  leaflet,  issued  separately  from  the  other 
pamphlets,  indicates  that  there  has  hardly  been  a  century 
since  in  which  reference  to  the  Philippines  fails  to  ap- 
pear in  some  Chinese  work. 

Meanwhile  communication  between  the  two  countries 
appears  to  have  continued,  persistently  even  if  intermit- 
tently, until  checked  by  unwise  and  ill  adapted  immigra- 
tion restrictions  originating  in  Spain;  and  one  begins 
to  understand  from  the  antiquity  of  this  contact  how  it 
is  that  the  Chinese  people  and  their  civilization  have 
come  to  exert  such  an  extensive  and  permanent,  though 
withal  unobtrusive,  influence  upon  the  Philippines.  The 
motive  of  this  contact  seems  to  have  been  primarily  com- 
mercial. The  "New  History  of  the  T'ang  Dynasty," 
dealing  with  the  period  from  the  seventh  to  the  tenth 
centuries  of  our  era,  states  that: 

"When  Chinese  merchants  arrive  there,  they  are  entertained  as 
guests  in  a  public  building  and  the  eatables  and  drinkables  are 
abundant  and  clean."  '  * 

But  these  old  writers  whose  work  is  here  made  acces- 
sible have  something  more  to  record  than  commerce. 
Social  customs,  religious  beliefs  and  practices  and  even 
juridical  conceptions  find  a  place  in  their  narratives 
Thus  the  historian  of  the  T'ang  Dynasty  above  quoted 
informs  us  that  these  primitive  inhabitants  of  the  Philip- 
pines 

"have  no  corporal  punishments,  all  transgressions  being  penalized 
with  fines  in  gold  which  vary  according  to  the  nature  of  the  offence. 
Only  robbers  and  theives  are  made  to  suffer  death." 

It  is  the  argreement  of  all  this  with  what  we  know 
from  other  sources  that  stamps  the  descriptions  as  ac- 
curate and  genuine  and  it  is  just  here  that  the  work  of 
Dr.  Robertson  connects  with  that  of  Professor  Craig. 


6a  THE  MOSLEM  WORLD 

Formerly  Chancellor  of  the  Philippine  Academy  and 
Insular  Librarian  the  former  is  too  well  known  to  need 
extended  mention  here/ 

The  materials  collected  by  these  two — Professor  Craig 
and  Dr.  Robertson — furnish  us  glimpses  of  the  relations 
between  Chinese  and  Malays  down  to  the  time  when  the 
latter  first  came  under  the  influence  of  the  Arab  mission- 
aries of  Islam.  At  this  point  the  notable  and  illuminat- 
ing work  of  Dr.  Saleeby  commences;  for  while  this  was 
the  first  to  appear,  it  covers  the  latest  period  of  pre- 
Spanish,  Philippine  history. 

Dr.  Saleeby  is  of  the  opinion  that  the  Malays  left  the 
Asiatic  mainland  at  least  as  early  as  looo  B.  C.  As  the 
first  Mohammedans  did  not  enter  India  much  if  any 
before  600  A.  D.  they  could  hardly  have  influenced  the 
Malays  there.  The  Moslem  conquest  of  India  began  in 
1024  and  Moslem  influence  was  extended  to  Malaysia 
about  1300.  Leaving  the  mainland  the  emissaries  of 
Islam  seem  to  have  proceeded  first  to  Sumatra  and  thence 
to  the  other  islands  of  the  Malay  archipelago  whose  in- 
habitants are  now  so  largely  of  their  faith.  They  en- 
tered the  Philippines  by  two  routes,  the  first  via  Balabac 
and  Palawan  to  Manila  Bay  and  the  second  by  way  of 
Tawi-Tawi  and  Sulu  to  Magindanaw  (now  Cottabato). 
They  appear  to  have  reached  Sulu  before  1380  and  when 
the  Spainards  arrived  at  the  Pasig  river,  less  than  two 
centuries  later,  they  found  a  Mohammedan  prince — 
Rajah  Soliman — reigning  in  Tondo,  now  a  part  of 
Manila,  and  Islam  quite  extensively  established  there. 

To  the  Spainards  who  had  just  succeeded  in  expelling 
the  Moors  from  ther  home  peninsula  it  seemed  a  reli- 
gious duty  to  repeat  the  process  as  regards  these  coreli- 
gionists in  the  Philippines  to  whom  they  applied  the 
same  term — Moros.  The  process  was  completed  in  the 
northern  and  central  Philippines  where,  except  in  the 
mountain  regions  of  Luzon,  most  of  the  inhabitants  came 
under  the  influence  of  the  Spanish  Friar  Missonaries. 
But  the  Malays  of  the  southern  Philippines  have  re- 

»  Blair  and  Robertson,  The  Philippine  Islands  1493-1898— Cleveland  Ohio  1903-1909 

in  55  volumes. 


THE  ORIGIN  OF  THE  MOROS  63 

mained  Mohammedan  to  this  day.  And  the  new  in- 
fluence which  thus  .affected  them  came  directly  and  not 
indirectly  from  Arabia.  Abu  Bekr  who  introduced 
Islam  into  Sulu  was  a  real  Arab  and  so  late  as  191 1 
when  I  visited  the  Lake  Lanao  region  of  central  Min- 
danao the  military  commandant  there  (Colonel  Beecham) 
told  me  that  the  leading  Moro  of  the  locality  was  a  man 
from  Mecca.  On  the  other  hand  among  the  Moros  of 
to-day  are  not  a  few  "hadjis"  who  proudly  wear  the  green 
turban  in  token  of  a  pilgrimage  to  the  Holy  Land  of 
Islam. 

Among  the  most  interesting  monuments  of  this  long 
domination  of  Islam  in  the  southern  Philippines  are  the 
series  of  legal  compilations,  often  called  codes,  which 
Dr.  Saleeby  discovered  and  translated.'  A  detailed  ex- 
amination of  them  would  lead  us  too  far  afield  and 
besides  would  require  a  separate  monograph  for  adequate 
treatment.  Sufiice  it  here  to  say  that  they  constitute  a 
curious  blending  of  Moslem  law  with  Malay  custom  and 
that,  while  crude  and  unsystematic  in  arrangement,  they 
contain  some  rather  advanced  provisions.  They  were 
mainly  intended  for  the  Moro  panditas  (judges)  who 
were  unfamiliar  with  Arabic  and  therefore  unable  to 
read  the  real  Mohammedan  law  books.  But  they  have 
introduced  not  a  little  of  the  law  of  Islam  which  the 
American  government  in  the  Philippines  has  recognized 
by  authorizing  the  Moro  Provincial  Council  "to  modify 
the  substantive  civil  and  criminal  law  ...  to  suit  local 
conditions  among  the  Moros"  etc.,  "to  conform  .  .  . 
to  the  local  custom?  and  usages."' 

Here,  then,  we  have  a  concrete  and  striking  example 
of  an  external  influence  which  has  profoundly  affected 
Malayan  culture  in  two  vital  features — religion  and 
law —  just  as  it  had  been  previously  affected  by  Indian 
influence  as  regards  language  and  Chinese  influence  re- 
specting commerce  and  social  customs.  Thus  we  dis- 
cover that  the  external  influences  which  affected  succes- 
sively the  Malayan  Filipino  were  the  three  most  poten- 

*Studies   in    Moro   History,    Law   and   Religion,    Phillipine   IJthnological    Survey   Pub- 
lications, IV,  pt.  I  (1905). 

2  Compilation,   Acts  of  the  Philippine  Commission  p.  251. 


64  THE  MOSLEM  WORLD 

rial  civilizations  of  Asia — the  Indian,  the  Chinese  and 
the  Arabic.  And  operating  concomitantly  with  these 
was  an  internal  influence  which,  if  less  obtrusive,  was  even 
more  effectve  and  real — the  local  contact  and  amalga- 
mation with  the  Negrito.  And  if  there  is  one  outstand- 
ing lesson  to  be  drawn  from  a  study  of  the  Malay  race 
it  is  the  unity  and  continuity  of  history  in  the  Far  East 
and  the  solidarity  of  its  culture.  For  it  shows  that  the 
native  races  of  this  region  are  not  isolated  units,  having 
no  relation  to  each  other,  but  sharers  in  a  common  civili- 
zation whose  influence  has  been  age-long  and  far  reach- 
ing. Surely,  therefore,  none  of  the  laborers  in  such  a 
common,  though  extensive,  field  can  afford  to  be  ignor- 
ant of,  or  isolated  from,  their  fellows. 

Charles  Sumner  Lobingier. 


REAPING  THE  HARVEST  TO-DAY. 


The  command,  "Go  ye  into  all  the  world  and  preach 
the  Gospel  to  the  whole  creation"  has  been  recognized 
by  the  Church  and,  to  a  limited  extent,  emphasized ;  but 
another  and  equally  important  command,  "Behold,  I 
send  you  forth  to  reap,"  has  not  been  so  generally  rec- 
ognized as  binding  and  hence  has  been  sadly  neglected 
by  most  of  the  laymen  of  the  Church  and,  I  fear,  by 
some  of  the  ministry  as  well. 

True,  the  command  to  preach  or  sow  comes  logically 
first,  but  not  necessarily  a  long  time  before  the  command 
to  reap. 

Whatever  the  conditions  may  have  been  in  the  past  as 
to  the  sowing  and  the  reaping  among  Moslems,  today  we 
find  large  areas  where  the  preaching  has  been  done,  the 
seed  has  been  scattered  into  ground  that  is  good  and  has 
come  to  full  fruition.  They  now  await  the  ministry  of 
the  skillful  reaper.  From  many  mission  fields  comes 
the  news  that  these  religiously  zealous  people  are  hun- 
gering and  thirsting  for  they  do  not  know  what,  but  they 
realize  that  their  faith  has  not  saved  them  from  this 
hunger  and  thirst.  I  myself  have  had  men  follow  me 
to  the  third  preaching  place  just  to  hear  more  of  this 
great  salvation  theme. 

I  find  that  although  they  deny  that  Christ  died  on  the 
cross,  yet  there  is  no  subject  that  holds  them  like  the 
story  of  the  Crucifixion,  and  when  this  is  illustrated  by 
lantern  slides  there  is  a  stillness  and  solemnity  that  is 
impressive.  Bishop  Warne  tells  of  the  effect  of  the 
story  of  the  crucifixion  on  a  Hindu  holy  man.  When 
the  Bishop  in  his  description  got  to  where  Jesus  said, 
"Father  forgive  them,"  the  man  became  excited  and 
cried  out,  "Get  out  of  India;  get  out  of  India  at  once. 
If  you  tell  that  story  to  these  warm-hearted  people  of 
India  our  temples  will  soon  become  empty  and  our  occu- 

65 


66  THE  MOSLEM  WORLD 

pation  gone.  Get  out  of  India,  I  say."  Often  we  find 
our  audiences  deeply  impressed  and  at  such  times  we 
should  seek  the  closer  touch.  The  attempt  should  be 
made  to  reap  or  at  least  to  protect  the  seed  so  that  it  may 
not  be  injured  but  helped  to  full  fruition.  There  are 
those  for  whom  the  command  is,  doubtless,  "I  send  you 
forth  to  reap,"  and  the  endeavor  should  be  made  to  get 
such  to  decide  for  Christ  at  once.  While  there  are 
others  upon  whom,  were  you  to  urge  an  immediate 
decision,  you  would  not  only  fail  to  have  them  decide 
but  would  likely  so  estrange  them  from  you  as  to  en- 
danger future  opportunities  for  conversation.  One  must 
be  divinely  led,  must  live  in  unbroken  fellowship  that 
He,  the  Holy  Spirit,  may  be  able  to  use  us  freely  on  any 
and  every  occasion. 

My  own  practice  may  help  some  by  giving  a  sugges- 
tion as  to  method.  I  do  bazaar  and  village  preaching 
daily.  In  the  station  I  have  a  reading  room,  to  which 
all  who  wish  further  information  are  invited  to  come, 
either  at  the  close  of  the  talk  or  the  next  day.  Both 
times  should  be  stated, — the  opportunity  right  after  the 
preaching  for  those  transient  hearers  who  cannot  come 
another  day,  and  because  they  who  do  not  live  there  are 
not  afraid  to  come ;  the  later  time  for  those  who  have  not 
the  courage  to  come  in  from  the  audience  and  wish  to 
keep  it  secret.  There  is  a  man  always  in  the  reading 
room  who  will  meet  the  inquirer  and,  when  desired, 
arrange  a  meeting  with  me,  while  I  of  course  make  it 
known  that  I  will  welcome  interviews  in  my  home. 
Other  programs  must  give  way  to  this  the  greatest  work 
given  us,  of  saving  souls.  In  the  village  work  I  arrange 
for  private  interviews,  according  to  circumstances,  in 
my  tent  or  worker's  house,  etc. 

I  do  a  great  deal  of  my  work  on  the  train  by  riding  in 
the  third-class  compartment.  Here  I  use  the  hand-bill 
or  portion  of  Scripture  as  a  means  of  approach.  From 
the  Scripture  portion  to  a  heart  to  heart  talk  the  way  is 
very  easy.  Recently  I  have  found  it  very  helpful  to  use 
three  small  booklets  which  were  gotten  out  by  one  of  the 
evangelistic  committees  in  India.     These  are  graded  to 


REAPING  THE  HARVEST— TODAY  67 

correspond  with  the  learner's  different  stages  of  progress. 
The  first  simply  declares,  "I  desire  to  learn  more  of 
Christ  and  will  endeavor  to  follow  Him  as  He  gives  me 
light,"  and  is  signed  by  the  inquirer.  This  has  a  stub 
which  you  keep  and  should  at  once  be  added  to  your 
prayer  list;  the  other  the  inquirer  keeps  as  a  reminder  of 
his  vow.  As  far  as  possible,  these  inquirers  should  be 
followed  up,  and  in  many  cases  a  copy  of  the  stub  can  be 
sent  to  the  missionary  in  charge  of  the  district  where  the 
inquirer  resides.  The  second  booklet  declares,  "I  prom- 
ise to  read  and  study  the  Bible."  The  third  booklet 
brings  the  inquirer  face  to  face  with  a  definite  decision 
in  the  statement,  "I  accept  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  as  my 
Saviour."  Follow  up  work  must  accompany  all  such 
effort.  It  is  no  easy  job!  You  say,  surely  not,  nor  is 
the  work  of  saving  souls  declared  to  be  easy.  However, 
it  is  worth  the  cost. 

It  need  scarcely  be  said  again  that  argument  is  to  be 
avoided.  You  can  often  avoid  this  by  frankly  requesting 
that  they  kindly  refrain  from  asking  questions  the  answer 
to  which  would  give  pain  to  the  hearer,  i.  e.,  such  ques- 
tions as  this:  "Is  the  Koran  the  word  of  God?"  How- 
ever, it  is  of  immense  advantage  to  any  personal  worker 
to  be  able  to  show  that  he  can  answer  such  questions  if 
insisted  upon.  They  soon  take  one's  measure  and 
respect  one  who  knows  the  claims  of  Islam.  Therefore 
be  a  student  of  Islam,  try  to  get  the  Moslem  viewpoint, 
and  by  prayer  and  fellowship  get  into  sympathy  with 
your  Moslem  neighbor  in  his  hopes  and  ambitions.  Oh! 
the  harm  that  has  been  done  by  the  unsympathetic  fault- 
finder trying  to  preach  the  Gospel  of  love  to  the 
Moslem.  The  war  has  made  the  Moslem  more  than 
ever  in  need  of  our  sympathetic  help,  and  to  my  mind 
there  are  at  present  no  people  who  offer  such  a  chal- 
lenge to  the  Church.  May  God  help  us  to  meet  the 
challenge! 

W.  T.  Anderson. 

Rawal  Pindi,  Punjab, 


THE  WANING  CRESCENT  IN  TURKEY 


One  of  the  first  effects  of  Turkey's  entry  into  the 
world  war,  in  October  of  19 14,  on  the  Moslems  of  that 
country,  was  to  intensify  and  speed  the  disintegration 
of  Islam.  There  had  already  been  signs  of  such  disin- 
tegration; but  many  facts  contributed  to  its  further  and 
deeper  working.  And  as  a  result,  never  before  has 
such  an  opportunity  revealed  itself  for  earnest  effort 
to  lead  these  darkened,  wandering,  dissatisfied  hearts 
into  a  new  light. 

The  attempted  Jihad  was  a  flat  failure  in  Turkey. 
No  local  enthusiasm  could  be  roused,  though  prodigious 
efforts  were  everywhere  made.  One  explanation  of  this 
was  in  the  composite  character  of  the  Turkish  army 
since  1908.  Armenians,  Greeks,  Jews,  Druzes  and 
Syrians  stood  in  the  ranks  next  to  and  between  the 
Moslems,  and  any  appeal  to  religious  fanaticism  was 
confusing  to  officers  and  men  alike.  When  the  Moslem 
soldier  was  told  he  was  to  fight  for  his  faith,  he  looked 
in  amazement  at  his  Greek  and  Hebrew  comrades, 
and  wondered  what  it  all  meant.  How  can  any  army 
which  is  no  longer  a  Moslem  unit,  go  into  a  "Holy 
War"  without  first  waging  a  civil  war  against  its  Chris- 
tian elements? 

Furthermore,  the  Turkish  army  which  was  summoned 
to  the  Jihad  was  commanded  by  German  oflScers.  To 
send  home  Gen.  Liman  von  Sanders,  or  later  on  Gen. 
von  der  Goltz  and  Gen.  von  Falkenhayn,  would  suit 
neither  Germany's  purpose  in  ordering  Turkey  to 
declare  a  Holy  War,  nor  Turkey's  in  unfurling  the 
green  banner.  And  with  the  acquisition  of  the  Goeben 
and  Breslau  the  Ottoman  navy  as  well  passed  from 
Turkish  control  into  the  hands  of  German  naval  officers. 
To  be  sure,  these  wore  the  fez;  but  no  amount  of  false 
reasoning  could  convince  your  honest  Turk  that  "Hadji 


THE  WANING  CRESCENT  IN  TURKEY  69 

Guillaume,"  as  the  Kaiser  came  to  be  known,  was  a 
Moslem.  Then  too,  the  Moslems  were  told  that  in 
this  Jihad  they  were  to  fight  against  the  British, — 
"why!"  thought  Mehmed,  '^the  Ingliz  have  always  been 
our  protectors  against  Moskoff  (Russians)  ;  what  have 
they  ever  done  against  us?" — and  they  were  not  to 
fight  the  Austrians,  who  were  to  be  their  friends. 
"Well,"  said  perplexed  Mehmed,  "only  yesterday  we 
were  boycotting  the  Austrians  because  they  stole  Bosnia 
and  Herzegovina  from  us."  It  was  very  confusing. 
Fanaticism  is  an  attribute  of  a  narrow  mind;  and  it 
must  be  put  before  such  a  simple  mind  as  a  very  clear- 
cut  issue.  This  problem  of  nationalities  within  and 
without,  killed  the  Jihad  in  Turkey. 

But  there  were  turbaned  fanatics  among  the  leaders 
who  swallowed  all  at  a  gulp,  and  still  expected  the 
thing  to  succeed.  Great  was  their  amazement  at  the 
reception  of  the  Sultan's  proclamation  in  Egypt  and 
India.  Why,  were  not  those  countries  seething  with 
revolution  under  the  galling  British  yoke?  So  their 
German  advisers  had  told  them.  And  would  they  not 
immediately  rally  to  the  thought  of  a  united  Islam, 
under  the  lead  of  the  great  Khalif?  If  the  general 
loyalty  of  the  Indian  and  Egyptian  Mohammedans  was 
a  surprise  to  the  British,  it  was  no  less  so,  and  dis- 
couragingly  so,  to  the  Turkish  leaders.  Secret  emis- 
saries were  sent  into  those  lands;  political  assassina- 
tions in  Egypt  were  lauded  as  the  holy  work  of 
zealots  of  martyr  heroism;  but  all  was  useless;  the 
Turkish  Moslem  would  not  become  "fighting  mad." 

Simultaneously  there  was  an  entirely  different  effort 
on  the  part  of  the  better  element  of  Moslem  thinkers. 
They  believed  Islam  was  losing  ground  because  people 
were  not  allowed  to  understand  it;  and  they  began  pub- 
lishing a  translation  of  the  Koran  into  Turkish,  hoping 
to  popularize  its  study.  After  twenty  or  thirty  pages 
had  been  printed  and  circulated  in  leaflet  form,  however 
the  fanatical  extremists  took  drastic  action,  and  the 
whole  thing  was  suppressed  and  further  translation 
forbidden.     Arabic  was  the  only  sacred  language,  and 


70  THE  MOSLEM  WORLD 

nobody  had  a  right  to  try  to  translate  the  Koran  into  any 
mere  human  tongue. 

But  the  event  that  made  the  average  Mohammedan 
think  most  uncomfortably  as  to  the  character  of  his 
faith,  was  the  wonderful  heroism  of  so  many  Armenians 
under  the  tortures  to  which  they  were  subjected  by 
the  fiendishness  of  Talaat  and  Enver.  Whenever  ex- 
pedient, this  movement  against  a  harmless  subject  race 
was  represented  to  the  Moslem  populace  as  a  religious 
effort.  The  Armenians  were  given  the  choice  of  accept- 
ing the  true  faith  or  being  butchered  for  obstinacy. 
But  these  Armenians  had  something  in  their  faith  that 
made  them  prefer  death  in  its  most  revolting  forms  to 
this  simple  expedient.  With  a  new  light  in  their  eyes, 
and  often  with  a  hymn  of  consecration,  *'they  bowed 
their  necks  the  stroke  to  feel,"  and  the  simple  Moslem 
said,  "Mashallah!  there  must  be  something  in  Chris- 
tianity that  I  don't  understand." 

There  can  be  no  doubt  but  that  the  sublime  courage 
of  these  Armenians  had  a  deep  and  lasting  effect  on 
many  of  their  persecutors.  For  the  most  part  the  ac- 
tual butchering  was  done  by  hired  hordes  of  the  worst 
criminal  classes  in  Turkey,  and  not  by  the  average 
Moslem;  but  the  onlooker,  who  had  not  cared  to  soil 
his  hand  with  such  a  job,  was  disgusted  at  the  link- 
ing up  of  this  crime  with  the  name  of  his  religion 
This  was  at  least  one  of  the  contributing  causes  for  a 
growing  laxity  in  the  religious  zeal  of  Moslems. 

Such  laxity  was  seen  in  a  lessening  attention  to  the 
daily  namaz,  or  stated  prayers  of  each  day.  For  a 
long  time  comparatively  few  Turks  had  been  scrupu- 
lously faithful  in  their  five  daily  prayers;  but  when  the 
war  began,  this  carelessness  was  more  marked.  And 
the  same  spirit  was  more  noticeable  with  reference  to 
the  fast  of  Ramazan.  This  is  one  of  the  cardinal  virtues 
of  the  Moslem  and  the  fast  is  a  very  rigorous  one. 
From  the  time  you  can  distinguish  a  white  hair  from 
a  black  one  till  the  sun  goes  down,  not  a  drop  of  water, 
nor  a  whiff  of  tobacco-smoke,  nor  a  crumb  of  food  is 
allowed   to   enter   his  mouth.     But  for   three   or   four 


THE  WANING  CRESCENT  IN  TURKEY  71 

years  just  preceding  this  war,  things  had  become  so  lax 
in  Constantinople  that  official  warnings  had  to  be 
printed  in  the  Moslem  dailies  each  year  during  Rama- 
zan,  to  the  effect  that  if  anyone  were  found  eating  or 
drinking  or  smoking  during  the  fast,  he  would  be  pun- 
ished with  fine  and  imprisonment.  When,  however, 
that  month  came,  in  the  summer  of  191 5,  not  only 
military  officers  but  civilians  as  well  openly  disregarded 
the  law,  and  the  numbers  seen  eating  at  restaurants  at 
midday  were  shocking;  and  no  notice  appeared  in  any 
paper  to  warn  anybody.  If  the  Turks  will  neglect  the 
sacred  month  of  fasting,  is  anything  too  sacred  for  them 
to  cast  away? 

Of  course  the  pilgrimage  to  Mecca  had  to  be  sus- 
pended; for,  to  say  nothing  of  the  seas  being  blockaded 
all  around,  the  Arabs  were  behaving  queerly,  and 
Turkish  pilgrims  were  not  welcome  in  Arabia.  But  the 
most  astounding  exhibition  of  decadence  was  from  a 
most  unexpected  source.  A  little  over  two  years  ago, 
a  prayer  specially  drawn  up  by  Enver  Pasha,  the 
Turkish  Minister  of  War,  was  ordered  recited  every 
night  by  each  soldier  in  the  Turkish  army.  This  re- 
markable document  contains  no  reference  whatever  to 
Islam,  and  is  a  deliberate  attempt  to  turn  back  the 
hands  of  the  clock  to  pre-Moslem  times.  The  transla- 
tion follows: — 

"Almighty  God!  Grant  the  Turks  health,  and  unite  all  the 
Brethren  in  the  benevolence  of  the  Sultan.  That  thy  power  may  be 
glorified,  grant  us  the  favor  of  the  White  Wolf.  Thou,  Young 
Turan,  thou  beloved  Fatherland,  we  beseech  thee  to  show  us  thy 
path.  Our  great  ancestor  Abhouz  calls  us.  Almighty  God,  shed 
upon  the  Turks  the  blaze  of  thy  light,  that  the  path  of  Turan  may 
be  plain  and  dwellings  be  illuminated  in  every  place  and  corner  with 
a  rosy  glow." 

The  ^White  Wolf"  was  the  Turkish  god  of  war  while 
they  were  still  a  Tartar  tribe  east  of  the  Caspian.  And 
here  is  the  redoubtable  leader  of  the  army  of  the  most 
powerful  Moslem  nation  on  earth,  deliberately  trying 
to  urge  his  troops  back  into  heathenism!  No  wonder, 
then,  that  the  newly  established  Kingdom  of  the 
Hejaz,  in  making  its  defence  before  the  world  for 
revolting  against  Turkey,  said  the  Turkish  leaders  were 


72  THE  MOSLEM  WORLD 

no  longer  true  Moslems,  and  had  therefore  forfeited  all 
right  to  be  guardians  of  the  holy  cities  of  Mecca  and 
Medina. 

For  it  is  not  Enver  alone  who  has  shown  his  defection 
from  Mohammed.  The  former  Grand  Vizier,  Talaat, 
is  of  the  so-called  Deunmeh,  or  perverts  from  Judaism, 
a  powerful  group  in  Salonica  who  have  furnished  sev- 
eral chief  men  to  the  Young  Turks,  and  of  whose 
religious  zeal  the  less  said  the  better.  Talaat  is  notori- 
ously an  irreligious  man.  With  the  collapse  of  the 
pan-Islamic  bubble,  these  leading  spirits  have  shelved 
religion  and  are  trying  to  boom  pan-Turanism  instead. 
And  the  Arabs  are  right;  Islam  is  a  waning  crescent 
in  Turkey.  No  longer  will  any  Sultan  of  Turkey  be 
recognized  as  Khalif  of  all  the  Faithful,  or  have  his 
name  mentioned  in  the  daily  prayers  of  millions  all  over 
the  world.  Constantinople  will  never  again  be  the 
political  capital  of  the  Moslem  world. 

What  reasons  have  brought  about  this  result?  Doubt- 
less political  factors  have  had  some  part.  The  power 
of  these  irreligious  Deunmehs  in  the  Cabinet,  the  failure 
of  Islam  in  the  Balkan  wars  and  the  loss  of  European 
Turkey,  the  failure  of  the  redoubtable  Senoussi  in  Trip- 
oli to  drive  out  the  Italians  and  restore  Turkish  power 
there,  have  opened  the  eyes  of  many  to  the  vulner- 
ability of  Islam.  Again,  the  more  liberal  attitude  of 
the  Ottoman  authorities  as  to  education  has  helped. 
Turkey  has  for  ten  years  past  been  sending  students  to 
European  and  American  Universities;  and  these  Mos- 
lems have  some  of  them  returned  to  assume  a  far  less 
Mohammedan  attitude  in  leading  the  youth  of  the  land. 
But  far  greater  has  been  the  influx  of  Moslem  pupils 
into  the  American  and  other  foreign  schools  of  Turkey 
itself.  Before  1908,  rare  indeed  was  the  Turkish  pupil 
in  a  non-Moslem  institution;  but  during  1914-1915  there 
were  in  our  American  colleges  and  high  schools  alone 
throughout  Turkey  over  a  thousand  of  them.  Turks 
brought  their  sons  and  daughters  there,  not  so  as  to 
make  them  Christians,  but,  according  to  their  own  con- 
fession because  of  the  moral  bankruptcy  or  worse  of 


THE  WANING  CRESCENT  IN  TURKEY  73 

the  Moslem  institutions.  Our  schools  gave  them  char- 
acter, while  their  own  schools  failed  in  this.  Further, 
there  has  been  an  awakened  desire  for  studying  the 
sources.  The  reports  of  the  two  great  Bible  Societies, 
the  American  and  the  British  and  Foreign,  show 
phenomenal  sales  of  Scripture  portions  in  the  languages 
of  the  Turkish  Moslems  during  the  two  years  previous 
to  this  war.  Colporteurs  in  Constantinople  have  told 
the  writer  most  interesting  stories  of  some  of  these 
sales.  These  Moslems  were  also  reading  other  Chris- 
tian literature,  for  they  wished  to  know  where  its  great 
and  undeniable  strength  lay.  The  same  spirit  of  investi- 
gation was  back  of  several  Moslem  efforts  to  apply 
the  methods  of  the  higher  criticism  to  the  Koran  and 
Moslem  tradition.  As  an  immediate  consequence  of  this 
was  seen  a  feverish  desire  to  disregard  and  overlook  the 
facts  of  Mohammed's  personal  character,  and  lay  stress 
instead  on  his  teaching;  also  in  the  effort  already  men- 
tioned to  print  a  translation  of  the  Koran,  suppressed 
by  the  Government.  In  connection  with  this  awaken- 
ing desire,  many  were  the  private  conversations  of 
sincere  seekers  after  truth,  with  those  well  versed  in 
Moslem  theology  and  dialectic.  High  tribute  is  due 
some  of  our  Armenian  co-laborers  who  with  rare  judg- 
ment and  tact  in  the  spirit  of  Christian  love  helped 
several  such  earnest  souls  into  the  light.  Their  names 
are  written  in  the  Book  of  Life.  Then  again,  no  one 
can  overestimate  the  influence  of  the  Christian  hospital 
in  undermining  prejudice  and  exhibiting  the  atmo- 
sphere of  love  and  purity.  Moslem  patients  return 
from  such  havens  of  rest  to  their  villages  or  towns, 
not  merely  full  of  praise  for  the  wonders  of  western 
science,  but  with  at  least  a  new  respect  for  the  fol- 
lowers of  'Isa-el-Mesih.  An  interesting  follow-up 
work  wath  former  patients  had  begun  shortly  before  the 
war  in  connection  with  at  least  one  of  our  mission  hos- 
pitals, in  a  systematic  visiting  in  their  village  homes, 
which  brought  unexpected  and  surprising  opportunities 
for  Bible  reading  and  personal  presentation  of  the  mes- 
sage.    This  work  promises  remarkable  results. 


74  THE  MOSLEM  WORLD 

But  one  of  the  most  potent  forces  without  doubt  in 
breaking  down  the  stronghold  of  Islam  in  Turkey  has 
been  the  testimony  of  the  Armenian  martyrs,  sealed  with 
their  blood,  during  these  awful  four  years.  The  atroci- 
tes  themselves,  to  which  these  innocent  people  were  sub- 
jected, have  caused  really  thoughtful  Moslems  to  shud- 
der and  to  question  the  righteousness  of  a  religion  that 
tolerated  them.  And  the  witness  of  those  who  "counted 
not  their  lives  dear  unto  themselves,"  has  certainly 
had  its  convincing  effect.  If  ever  the  blood  of  martyrs 
was  the  seed  of  the  church,  it  is  to  prove  so  in  the 
case  of  these  Armenian  victims  of  a  decadent  Islam 
whose  already  shaken  devotees  will  many  of  them 
cry  out,  "O  Galilean  thou  hast  conquered!" 

In  a  very  true  sense,  all  these  elements  in  the  new 
situation  in  Turkey  may  be  summed  up  under  one, — 
One  Hundred  Years  of  Protestant  Missions.  Since 
Pliny  Fisk  and  Levi  Parsons  went  out  there  in  1819, 
through  the  long  line  of  polished  mirrors  of  His 
grace,  the  Sun  of  Righteousness  has  been  shedding 
into  Moslem  hearts  the  genial  warmth  and  wonderful 
light  of  His  love.  Paul  has  planted,  Apollos  watered; 
and  now  God  is  about  to  grant  the  harvest.  From  all 
sides  come  testimonies  that  the  fields  are  ripe  unto  the 
harvest.  A  recent  writer  in  The  Missionary  Herald 
says:  "The  mere  negative  fact  of  the  removal  of  gov- 
ernmental restrictions  does  not  begin  to  tell  the  story  of 
the  new  opportunity  for  missionary  work  among  the 
Moslems  of  Turkey.  Even  should  there  not  be  religious 
liberty,  the  Moslems  are  softened  and  prepared  for  hear- 
ing the  gospel  as  never  before.  No  one  who  has  not 
lived  among  the  Moslems  during  the  past  three  years 
can  realize  the  change  that  has  come  over  many  of 
them  during  the  war."  * 

It  is  certainly  high  time  we  asked  ourselves:  What 
then  shall  we  do?  Such  a  breakdown  of  a  hoary  sys- 
tem in  its  grip  on  the  hearts  of  men  constitutes  a 
challenge  to  every  loyal  servant  of  Christ.  If  the 
strategy  of  this  war  has  taught  us  anything,  it  is  the 

♦Feb.  1918,  p.  65.  ^ 


THE  WANING  CRESCENT  IN  TURKEY  75 

absolute  necessity  of  watching  for  the  least  sign  of 
weakening  anywhere  along  the  enemy's  line,  and  then 
driving  home  the  attack  at  the  vulnerable  point. 
Islam  has  developed  a  weak  point.  Who  can  estimate 
the  effect  on  the  two  hundred  millions  of  Moslems 
the  world  over  if  the  Turks  begin  to  yield  to  our 
Master? 

And  again  our  eyes  turn  towards  the  Armenians. 
If  through  this  awful  time  a  large  remnant  have  been 
saved,  "as  through  fire,"  it  is  that  they  may  be  the 
messengers  of  the  grace  of  Christ  to  their  Moslem 
persecutors.  Already  the  spirit  of  missionary  zeal  has 
shown  itself  among  them  in  the  establishing  of  the 
"Home  Missionary  Society,"  for  work  among  their 
Kurdish  neighbors;  this  enterprise  has  been  going 
on  for  several  ye^rs.  Such  effort  is  now  to  be  in- 
creased by  the  new  spirit  of  consecration  born  of  fear- 
ful suffering  for  the  Name.  The  relation  between 
Turk  and  Armenian  is  to  be  no  longer  that  of  tyrant 
and  slave,  but  of  the  stricken  Saul  of  Tarsus  and 
Ananias  coming  and  saying  to  him,  "Brother  Saul, 
receive  thy  sight." 

There,  is  however,  much  that  American  missionaries 
can  also  do,  in  cooperation  with  the  native  evangelists. 
We  can  show  them  the  fruits  of  Christian  love  in  med- 
ical and  philanthropic  work;  we  can  put  forth  a  con- 
structive literature,  less  controversial  than  testimonial, 
to  show  them  the  results  of  the  love  of  Jesus;  we  can 
talk  with  them  and  answer  their  questions.  All  this 
involves  deep  and  exhaustive  study  of  the  Koran,  to 
enable  one  to  use  it  for  testimony,  even  as  Paul  used 
the  heathen  Greek  poets.  The  Koran  has  much  to 
say  of  Jesus  the  Messiah;  we  should  be  able  to  declare 
unto  them  Him  whom  they  ignorantly  venerate  as  a 
prophet  but  refuse  to  worship.  They  will  listen  in- 
tently if  we  can  tell  them  personally  of  His  still  contin- 
uing life  of  love. 

Another  possible  line  of  approach  is  conditioned  on 
the  emergence  of  the  country  with  some  degree  of 
freedom  of  speech,  and  a  decent  security  of  life  from 


76  THE  MOSLEM  WORLD 

fanatical  outbursts.  There  are  strong  converts  from 
Islam  in  Egypt  and  India  who  could  visit  the  Turks 
and  testify  to  them  of  their  own  experience.  The  effect 
of  such  words  from  a  turbaned  ex-Moslem  can  hardly 
be  estimated. 

All  that  has  been  said  till  now  has  applied  mainly 
if  not  solely  to  the  Turks.  But  there  are  large  and 
almost  untried  opportunities  as  well  among  other  Mos- 
lem populations,  such  as  the  Kurds,  the  Circassians 
and  the  Yiiriiks,  where  the  Gospel  may  win  still 
greater  triumphs  or  work  more  speedily.  The  exist- 
ing missionary  forces  are  entirely  inadequate  to  deal 
with  these  possibilities;  a  large  immediate  increase  in 
missionary  personnel  is  demanded.  We  must  help  se- 
cure a  native  leadership  among  Armenians  and  others; 
but  we  must  also  have  far  more  workers  from  abroad, 
to  seize  this  unique  opportunity  to  turn  tired  Turkish 
eyes  from  the  waning  moon  of  the  false  prophet  to  that 
true  Light  of  Life. 

Charles  Trowbridge  Riggs, 

of  Constantinople. 
Northhampton,  Mass, 


THE     PRESENT     CONDITION     OF     ISLAM 

IN  CHINA 

It  is  not  surprising  that  the  Christian  Church  emerg- 
ing triumphant  from  the  fearful  testing  of  the  Boxer 
uprising,  set  the  other  religions  to  seeking  the  secret  of 
her  success.  Three  external  facts  met  their  eye — edu- 
cation, church  organization,  and  the  diffusion  of  litera- 
ture,— especially  magazines.  So  the  leaders  of  the 
ancient  religions  are  now  bestirring  themselves  in  these 
lines,  even  to  the  publication  of  magazines.  There  are 
now  illustrated  Buddhist  and  Confucianist  magazines, 
and  a  few  years  ago  a  Mohammedan  magazine  was 
started  in  Peking.  The  following  article  is  a  translation 
of  the  leading  editorial  of  this  magazine.  The  pathos  of 
the  situation  lies  in  the  fact  that  this  first  issue  of  the 

periodical  was  also  the  last. 

*     *     * 

"Has  not  the  day  now  come  when  the  pure  aims  and 
glorious  purpose  of  the  leading  principles  of  Moham- 
medanism should  be  diffused  throughout  China?  If 
God  will  protect,  and  devout  scholars  will  lend  assist- 
ance, then  it  will  not  be  difficult  for  the  occult  tenets  of 
our  religion  to  become  luminous,  and  its  great  principles 
to  be  spread  abroad.  This  is  the  earnest  hope  of  your 
servant,  and  he  thinks  that  other  Mohammedans  will 
also  join  with  him  in  fervent  prayers  for  this.  But  who 
would  imagine  how  men  foolishly  stick  in  the  old  ruts, 
and  blindly  follow  the  ways  of  the  world,  not  compre- 
hending the  present  condition  of  the  Moslem  world! 
Such  are  astonished  at  the  issuing  of  such  a  magazine, 
considering  it  a  work  of  presumption.  They  slander  us 
by  saying  that  we  do  not  understand  Fate.  Your  serv- 
ant pities  their  folly,  and  is  concerned  about  the  frivolity 
of  the  present  generation;  so  he  wishes  in  the  opening 
number  of  this  magazine,  regarding  the  situation  with 
tearful  eyes,  to  clearly  state  the  present  condition  of 

77 


78  THE  MOSLEM  WORLD 

things,  and  also  the  function  of  this  periodical,  in  order 
that  we,  with  our  fellow-believers,  may  together  investi- 
gate these  matters. 

"Your  servant  is  a  young,  insignificant  person  of  rash 
speech,  but  if  his  elders  will  not  lose  sight  of  his  message 
in  considering  its  source,  and  will  forgive  his  presump- 
tion, he  will  indeed  consider  it  fortunate. 

"Let  us  first  speak  of  the  present  condition  of  our 
religion.  During  the  past  ten  years,  the  critical  con- 
dition of  our  religion  has  been  concealed,  but  the  dangers 
were  daily  becoming  more  pressing.  From  these  we 
shall  select  a  few  of  the  greatest  and  most  serious. 

"I.  The  tenets  of  our  religion  are  obscure.  At  the 
time  our  religion  first  entered  China  in  the  T'ang 
Dynasty,  it  spread  with  miraculous  quickness,  like  a 
mettlesome  horse,  by  leaps  and  bounds, — a  thousand  li 
at  a  bound.*  This  of  course  was  owing  to  the  assistance 
of  God,  and  to  the  intrepid  zeal  of  the  learned  Moslem 
propagators,  as  well  as  to  the  pure,  illuminating  doctrines 
they  preached,  so  that  when  men  heard,  they  felt  its  influ- 
ence and  followed.  But  now  the  mullahs  seek  only  their 
own  ease;  the  doctrine  of  the  religion  has  gradually 
become  obscure,  and  the  majority  of  the  adherents  sim- 
ply say,  T  am  a  Mohammedan;  I  hold  the  Pure  True 
Religion';  but  as  to  investigating  what  constitutes  a 
Mohammedan,  and  what  are  the  true  principles  of  the 
religion,  they  care  nothing.  The  absolute  blindness  of 
the  ordinary  Mohammedan  is  as  great  as  this.  Those  of 
other  religions  deride  us,  calumniate  us, — and  what 
wonder?  If  we  examine  the  present  state  of  the  reli- 
gious world,  we  shall  see  that  it  follows  the  current 
trend  of  thought, — struggling  to  advance, — the  progres- 
sives are  the  victors,  the  conservatives  are  the  van- 
quished. In  this  age,  when  all  religions  are  striving  for 
the  supremacy,  how  can  those  who  hold  an  obscure  doc- 
trine hope  to  hold  their  own  against  a  progressive  doc- 
trine?   This  is  the  first  danger. 


*  "Mohammedanism  was  first  introduced  into  Chna  in  the  T'ang  Dynasty,  A.  D. 
629.  In  consequence  of  a  dream  of  the  Emperor,  he  summoned  Mohammedan 
teachers  and  received  them  kindly.  In  on  hundred  years,  five  thousand  mosques 
were  built" 


THE  CONDITION  OF  ISLAM  IN  CHINA  79 

"II.  Learning  is  decadent.  Examine  the  progress  of 
civilization  of  the  present  age, — trace  to  its  source  the 
renaissance  of  European  learning,  and  one  sees  that  this 
renaissance  was  due  to  the  influence  of  the  Moslems  of 
western  Asia,  for  on  the  return  of  the  Crusaders  from 
the  wars,  the  scholars  of  Europe,  whether  by  direct  or 
indirect  contact,  became  imbued  with  the  learning  of 
the  Moslem  world, — the  abstract  sciences,  like  astron- 
omy, mathematics,  philosophy,  prosody,  etc.; — the  prac- 
tical sciences,  like  geography,  medicine,  the  smelting  of 
metals,  the  spirit  lamp,  etc.  By  degrees  they  flung  away 
the  empty  dialectics  of  Greek  philosophy,  and  occupied 
themselves  with  studying  the  learning  of  the  Mohamme- 
dans, strenuously  devoting  themselves  to  the  advance- 
ment of  practical  science;  hence  they  have  attained  to 
their  present  state  of  perfection.  This  is  not  only  the 
private  opinion  of  your  servant;  all  who  are  acquainted 
with  the  history  of  civilization  are  of  the  same  opinion. 
The  canons  of  our  religion  are  rich  in  learning.  But  look 
at  the  present  state  of  our  religion!  Not  only  no  new 
scientific  discoveries,  but  it  cannot  even  hold  to  the  old 
learning.  The  learning  of  others  is  always  on  the  ad- 
vance, but  our  learning  daily  retrogrades.  If,  just  at 
this  juncture,  while  others  progress,  we  simply  hold  on, 
it  is  difficult  to  maintain  our  position,  much  more  so,  if 
while  others  daily  advance,  we  daily  retreat.  This  is  the 
second  danger. 

"III.  The  Mullahs  do  not  fulfil  their  duty.  Look  at 
the  foreign  religious  leaders.  They  not  only  keep  a  firm 
grasp  on  religious  matters,  but  also  have  a  say  in  local 
politics.  This  kind  of  men  fulfil  their  duty  to  the  utmost; 
not  one  neglects  the  duties  of  his  office.  Hence  the 
affairs  of  these  churches  prosper,  and  the  church-mem- 
bers become  wealthy.  Chinese  preachers,  although  they 
have  no  influence  in  local  politics,  yet  have  the  affairs 
of  the  church  entirely  in  their  hands;  their  duties  are 
varied  and  heavy,  and  their  work  is  in  no  way  inferior 
to  that  of  the  foreign  pastors.  But  our  Mullahs  have 
no  concern  about  anything  but  reading  the  services,  and 
conducting  religious  exercises.     As  to  the  advancement 


8o  THE  MOSLEM  WORLD 

of  religion,  or  the  economic  or  intellectual  condition  of 
their  flock,  they  know  nothing.  How  can  such  as  they 
compete  with  the  religious  teachers  of  the  present  day? 
This  is  the  third  danger. 

"IV.  The  degraded  condition  of  our  adherents.  To- 
day the  greater  part  of  our  adherents  cannot  attain  the 
golden  mean.  If  they  do  not  err  on  the  side  of  being 
too  progressive,  then  they  are  too  conservative.  Among 
the  ordinary  progressive  class,  there  are  those  who  hold 
no  religion,  and  those  who  want  to  revolutionize  every- 
thing. The  too  conservative  are  occupied  only  with 
forms  and  ceremonies,  thinking  nothing  of  the  true 
spirit,  the  animating  idea.  If  the  condition  of  the 
adherents  is  as  low  as  this,  what  hope  is  there  of  rival- 
ling other  churches?    This  is  the  fourth  danger. 

"V.  tVe  constantly  encounter  scorn.  Before  the  time 
of  the  Open  Door,  there  were  only  two  or  three  reli- 
gions in  China,  each  pursuing  its  own  course,  and  there 
was  no  conflict.  But  with  the  introduction  of  steam 
traffic,  Europe  and  America  came  with  their  ideas  of 
usurpation,  putting  their  religion  in  the  forefront,  as  an 
efficient  means  [keen-edged  tool],  and  disseminating 
their  doctrines  throughout  the  land.  They  see  in  our 
religion  a  powerful  enemy,  and  transgressing  the  prin- 
ciples of  right,  seek  opportunity  to  attack  us.  And  our 
adherents,  being  heedless  and  unprepared,  retire  in  an 
unconcerned  manner.  Hence  Christianity  gains  pres- 
tige: these  last  few  tens  of  years,  it  has  been  overriding 
us.  It  is  pitiable!  Of  late  they  have  still  further  put  us 
down  and  exalted  themselves,  by  the  publication  of  all 
kinds  of  books,  both  in  Chinese  and  Arabic,  finding 
unreasonable  fault  with  others,  and  praising  themselves 
inordinately.  The  good  name  of  our  religion  suffers 
accordingly.  Up  to  the  present,  no  one  has  arisen  to 
refute  this,  or  argue  with  them.  I  do  not  know  how 
many  stupid  people  have  been  deceived  and  led  astray 
by  this.  If  the  present  is  thus,  what  will  the  future 
bring?    This  is  the  fifth  danger. 

"VI.  Economic  conditions  are  becoming  daily  more 
stringent.     Formerly  our  adherents  mostly  belonged  to 


THE  CONDITION  OF  ISLAM  IN  CHINA  8i 

the  higher  professions,  and  it  was  easy  to  make  money; 
hence  they  considered  it  no  sacrifice  to  give  large 
amounts  to  religion,  and  religious  affairs  prospered. 
But  since  the  revolution  of  191 1,  their  prestige  is  gone, 
and  circumstances  have  changed.  Formerly  they  consid- 
ered the  places  they  held  as  very  good;  but  now  these 
offices  have  been  almost  entirely  abolished,  and  they  are 
so  restrained  by  habit  and  immersed  in  custom,  that  they 
can  think  of  no  other  way  of  making  a  living, — so  they 
lay  the  blame  on  Fate.  Those  who  formerly  were  worth 
many  tens  of  thousands,  now  are  so  poor  that  they  have 
hardly  a  basket  of  grain.  Now  when  economic  condi- 
tions are  stringent,  the  source  of  wealth  is  cut  off;  and 
when  the  source  of  wealth  is  cut  off,  religious  affairs  are 
also  impeded;  and  when  religious  affairs  are  impeded, 
then  universal  education  is  unattainable;  and  when  uni- 
versal education  is  unattainable,  then  it  is  impossible  to 
plan  for  new  ways  of  making  a  livelihood.  So  we  come 
around  again  to  the  original  starting-place  in  an  endless 
chain  of  interrelated  cause  and  effect,  always  going  on 
in  the  same  way.  As  to  what  the  final  result  will  be,  I 
cannot  bear  to  think.    This  is  the  sixth  danger." 

A.  H.  Mateer. 
Peking^  China, 


NOTES  ON  CURRENT  TOPICS 


A  New  Era  for  Arabia 

In  language  that  reminds  of  a  military  communique  the  Rev.  John 
Van  Ess  summarizes  the  present  situation  as  follows; 

**In  Arabia  the  conflict  rages  around  the  Cross  of  Christ  and  His 
Divinity — the  very  citadel  of  our  faith.  Even  though  we  could  do 
nothing  but  hold  our  own  and  could  make  no  sensible  progress  as 
men  count  such,  we  should  still  have  to  fight,  for  failure  to  fight 
would  mean  admission  of  defeat  on  the  great  issue.  Even  if  we 
gained  no  converts  forever  our  presence  there  would  yet  be  a  testi- 
mony to  our  faith  and  conviction.  After  all,  to  be  witnesses  is  a  big 
part  of  our  commission. 

After  many  years  of  trench  fighting,  so  to  speak,  which  taught 
lessons  of  faith  and  prayer,  the  fighting  has  shifted  to  the  open. 
Schools  are  cavalry,  hospitals  are  artillery,  evangelists  are  the  infan- 
try— each  branch  has  its  function  and  needs  the  others.  In  each 
center  of  activity  all  arms  have  been  engaged,  but  in  each  peculiar 
conditions  have  given  special  opportunities  for  one  or  another. 

Britain  counted  Mesopotamia  strategic  enough  to  employ  there  a 
large  force  even  while  she  was  already  with  her  back  to  the  wall  in 
France  and  Flanders.  The  issue  was  to  close  the  door  to  Germany's 
dream  of  Mittel  Europa.  Can  we  count  of  less  importance  the  door 
there  thrown  open  by  which  to  enter  into  the  land  which  is  the  key- 
stone of  the  new  Arab  Empire  now  being  molded?  Britain  invites  us 
to  undertake  a  large  educational  enterprise;  she  gives  in  our  hand  the 
training  of  the  leadership  of  the  future  who  in  turn  will  mould  the 
lives  of  thousands.  It  is  not  only  an  invitation,  it  is  a  sacred 
challenge. 

Kuweit 

Aristocratic  Kuweit,  where  live  the  bluest  of  blue-blooded  Arabs,  in 
face  and  language  like  the  very  Arab  prophet  himself;  fanatical  Kuweit, 
where  only  a  few  short  years  ago  four  missionaries  in  turn  and  in 
short  order  were  rudely  expelled ;  Kuweit  is  wide  open  to  the  Gospel. 
On  Sunday  mornings  the  church  is  so  packed  with  Arabs,  men  and 
women,  that  men  stand  on  boxes  at  the  windows.  Very  recently  a 
young  man  in  direct  line  of  descent  from  Mohammed,  confessed  Jesus 
Christ  and  is  being  educated  to  preach  Christ.  To  Kuweit  came  the 
Viceroy  of  India,  Lord  Hardingh,  and  when  he  saw  the  hospital  he 
gave  from  his  personal  purse  a  substantial  gift. 

Bahrein 

Bahrein  is  the  Heligoland  to  the  interior  of  Arabia.  Last  year  our 
own  Dr.  Harrison  on  personal  invitation  from  the  Emir  went  inland 
and  for  twenty-five  days  preached  with  lancet  and  medicine  and 
Scripture  and  tongue  the  riches  of  Christ.  In  Nejd  is  a  college  of 
three  hundred  Moslem  students  being  trained  to  go  as  missionaries  and 

82 


NOTES  ON  CURRENT  TOPICS  83 

teachers  of  Islam  to  all  the  tribes.  In  Nejd  Islam  in  all  its  self- 
conceived  purity  and  naked  fanaticism  is  held  and  practised.  Only 
the  Reformed  Church  in  America  has  been  honored  by  God  to  enter 
Nejd.     Shall  we  trample  on  God's  Croix  dc  Guerre f 

In  Bahrein  the  Gospel  is  making  a  deep  salient  in  Moslem  woman- 
hood. If  we  breach  the  line  there  we  can  roll  up  the  lines  of  count- 
less children  yet  to  be  born  and  make  them  prisoners  of  hope. 

Maskat 

Maskat,  the  key  to  Oman,  Oman  a  veritable  Switzerland  in 
Arabia,  with  towering  mountains,  fertile  valleys,  flowing  streams. 
The  people  have  been  torn  by  dissension  and  warfare,  but  at  heart 
they  are  as  sociable  and  approachable  as  ever  before  the  war.  To 
reach  the  Woman's  Hospital  scores  have  run  the  blockade  that  cuts  off 
Maskat  from  the  interior.  Shall  we  be  as  eager  to  reach  the  interior 
as  they  are  to  reach  us? 

What  great  contribution  will  the  Arab  make  to  the  body  of  Christ? 
God  asks  us  to  answer." 

Moslem  Population  of  the  Philippine  Islands 

We  learn  from  the  Bureau  of  Non-Christian  Tribes,  Manila,  that 
"According  to  the  best  available  data  there  are  360,000  Moslems  in 
Mindanao-Sulu.  The  number  of  Moslems  in  southern  Palawan  and 
the  Island  of  Balabac  is  estimated  at  3,000.  These  figures  I  consider 
maximum  and  including  all  persons  who  claim  to  be  "Islam,"  this 
covering  probably  not  less  than  50,000  persons  who  are  properly 
classifiable  as  Pagans  but  by  reason  of  commercial  and  social  relations 
with  Mohammedans,  habitually  claim  status  as  such  in  the  belief  that 
they  are  thereby  securing  a  classification  as  civilized  rather  than 
uncivilized  or  as  they  would  term  it  "savage"  peoples.  These  Pagans 
are  mountain  people  who  necessarily  by  reason  of  the  topography  of 
the  country  trade  with  Moslems,  rarely  coming  in  contact  with 
Christian  communities  or  traders. 

"As  to  Luzon  and  Visayas  there  are  available  no  accurate  data,  but 
I  doubt  if  there  be  a  total  of  500  Moslems  in  all  this  territory,  includ- 
ing foreigners  as  well  as  natives." 

The  Pilgrimage  to  Mecca 

The  number  of  pilgrims  to  Mecca  has  decreased  steadily  since  the 
outbreak  of  the  war.  Even  at  that  time  the  estimates  made  of  the 
numbers  entering  Mecca  were  exaggerated.  The  article  on  the  Hajj 
in  the  last  fascicule  of  the  Encyclopedia  of  Islam  (191 8)  states  that 
the  total  number  of  pilgrims  did  not  exceed  60,000  and  was  seldom 
more  than  80,000.  In  the  Cairo  press  we  read  that  the  Egyptian  Gov- 
ernment has  this  past  year  (191 8)  "afforded  all  facilities  possible 
under  existing  conditions  for  the  performance  of  this  sacred  duty, 
which  is  of  primary  importance  to  Moslems.  Owing  to  the  difficulty 
of  transport,  certain  regulations  had  of  necessity  to  be  laid  down  for 
strict  observance  by  intending  pilgrims.  The  limited  number  provided 
for  will  have  obtained  the  privilege  in  the  order  of  precedence 
by  application. 

"The  Mahmal  ceremony  in  Cairo  will  take  place  on  August  31, 
and  the  procession  will  leave  Suez  on  September  4.  In  view  of  the 
unusually  high  cost  of  transport,  the  following  rates  will  be  found 
to  be  very  moderate: — £E20  per  passenger,  ist  class;  £Ei5,  2nd 
class;  £Eio,   3rd  class.     These  rates   do  not   include   the   following 


84  THE  MOSLEM  WORLD 

charges: — Quarantine  dues,  £Ei.6o;  sanitary  dues  at  Jeddah,  190 
milliemes;  insurance  of  provisions,  £Ei^;  passport  fee,  125  milli- 
emes — all  of  which  apply  equally  to  each  class.  Of  course  the  pilgrim 
will  have  to  pay  his  own  railway  fare  to  Suez  and  back,  as  well  as 
that  of  food  during  the  sea  voyage.  The  Government  will  under- 
take to  provide  the  necessary  facilities  for  camel  transport  between 
Jedda,  and  Mecca  and  Arafat,  and  will  publish  in  due  course  the 
expenses  relative  thereto." 

The  Occupation  of  Damascus 

The  fall  of  Damascus  was  welcomed  by  the  Syrian  colony  in  New 
York  with  enthusiasm  and  redoubled  the  purchase  of  Liberty  Bonds 
by  all  those  who  had  formerly  lived  under  the  yoke  of  he  Turk. 
Twenty  thousand  Syrians  live  in  New  York  City,  publish  Arabic 
newspapers,  gain  wealth,  and  retain  a  strong  love  for  the  home  land 
across  the  waters.  At  a  meeting  held  recently  the  following  resolu- 
tions were  passed.  The  text  of  these  resolutions  speaks  eloquently  for 
the  patriotic  spirit  of  the  Syrians  and  also  for  their  love  for  America, 
largely  due  to  the  work  of  education.     It  reads: 

"Whereas,  news  has  just  come  that  the  allied  troops  in  Syria  have 
practically  cleared  the  despicable  Turk  from  our  beloved  native  land 
and  that  they  are  now  in  the  outskirts  of  Damascus  and  Beirut. 

"Whereas,  the  Syrians  in  New  York  have  been  deeply  stirred  by 
these  momentous  events,  which,  after  centuries  of  oppression  and 
repression,  bid  fair  now  to  rid  our  native  land  of  the  Turk,  driving 
him  therefrom,  in  the  same  condition  in  which  he  came,  savage  and 
naked,  and 

"Whereas,  we  desire  to  express  our  joy  in  the  fact  that  might, 
coupled  with  tyranny,  could  not  triumph  over  right,  and  that  a  new 
era  is  dawning  for  Syria  and  the  Syrians,  we,  the  Syrian  residents  of 
New  York,  in  public  mass  meeting  assembled  this  ist  day  of  October, 
1 91 8,  hereby 

"Resolve: 

"First — ^That  our  deep,  heartfelt  gratitude  be  extended  first  and 
foremost  to  the  leading  citizen  of  the  world,  our  President,  Woodrow 
Wilson,  for  his  unflinching  and  indormitable  stand  for  justice  and 
freedom  for  all,  the  weak  and  the  strong. 

"Second — That  our  deep  and  heartfelt  thanks  be  extended  to  the 
British  and  French  Governments,  who  have  taken  the  lead  in  the 
liberation  of  Syria,  as  well  as  all  the  other  gallant  allies,  who  have 
aided  in  this  great  undertaking. 

"Third — and  further  be  it  resolved.  That  our  heartfelt  thanks  be 
extended  to  General  Allenby,  the  leader  of  the  allied  forces  in  Syria, 
for  the  God-given  wisdom  which  enabled  him  to  carry  to  such  a  speedy 
and  successful  conclusion  his  wonderful  campaign,  and, 

"Fourth — Be  it  further  resolved.  That  we  Syrians  pledge  ourselves 
to  support  any  and  all  movements  that  tend  to  grant  political  and 
commercial  freedom  to  our  race,  so  that  we  may  be  afforded  an  oppor- 
tunity of  developing  our  wonderful  country  untrammeled  and  unhin- 
dered, and, 

"Fifth — Be  it  further  resolved.  That  copies  of  this  resolution  be 
sent  to  the  President  of  the  United  States  and  to  their  excellencies  the 
Ambassadors  of  Great  Britain  and  of  France  at  Washington." 

A  New  Era  for  Palestine 
We  learn  from  one  of  our  exchanges  that  the  occupied  territory  of 


NOTES  ON  CURRENT  TOPICS  85 

Palestine  is  receiving  the  benefits  of  settled  government.  "Civil  Courts 
cf  Justice  arc  about  to  be  established.  The  Court  of  Appeal  v^^ill  be 
at  Jerusalem;  it  will  also  sit  as  a  Court  of  Assize,  and  go  on  circuit. 
For  the  present  there  will  be  two  Courts  of  First  Instance — at  Jerusa- 
lem and  Jaffa — ^with  special  Courts  in  the  districts  (kazas)  where 
there  is  no  Court  of  First  Instance.  The  personnel,  it  is  announced  by 
The  Times  from  Egypt,  will  include  a  certain  number  of  British 
ofKcers  possessing  legal  experience  and  knowledge  of  Arabic,  while  the 
staff  of  the  Courts  will  be  reserved  as  much  as  possible  for  the  inhab- 
itants. Local  law,  which  will  be  substantially  unaltered,  will  be 
administered,  except  for  special  provisions  arising  from  the  military 
operations  and  the  special  Turkish  legislation." 

"Experts  are  busy  investigating  the  agricultural  situation,  the  fiscal 
question,  the  educational  requirements,  public  security,  including  the 
prisons,  the  complicated  question  of  judicial  organization,  and  pious 
foundations.  Slowly,  but  surely,  an  organized  administration  is  being 
built  up,  despite  the  lack  of  local  officers  and  the  difficulty  of  obtaining 
competent  men  from  outside.  Already  there  is  on  every  side  abundant 
evidence  of  the  fruits  of  this  activity.  Especially  is  this  noticeable  in 
a  city  like  Jerusalem,  where  the  normal  life  of  the  people  has  been 
entirely  resumed,  and  where,  except  for  the  difficulty  in  obtaining 
domestic  commodities,  one  would  not  know  that  a  war  is  on.  When 
we  entered  the  city  in  December  most  of  the  shops  were  closed,  and 
it  had  a  deserted  appearance.  Today  closed  shops  are  more  the  excep- 
tion than  the  rule.  David's  Street  and  the  Jaffa  Gate  have  resumed 
their  crowded  and  picturesque  appearance,  and  the  shopkeepers  are 
exposing  for  sale  goods  which  were  thought  to  be  unobtainable,  and 
which  they  have  unearthed  from  the  places  where  they  hid  them  from 
the  Turks. 

A  War  Mission  to  the  Sahara 

Scribners  Magazine  for  September,  1918,  had  for  its  leading  article 
an  account  of  a  war  mission  in  the  Sahara,  by  Captain  Rajmiond 
Recouly,  Aid-de-camp  to  the  Governor  General  of  Algeria.  He 
describes  the  charm  of  the  Sahara  oases  in  the  springtime,  the  daily 
life  of  the  natives  and  the  improvements  due  to  French  rule. 

"The  Frenchman  is  a  wonderful  builder  of  roads.  Nowhere  save 
in  Algeria  is  there  such  a  network  of  roads  and  trails  offering  to  the 
automobilist  the  most  attractive,  and  at  the  same  time  the  most  varied, 
excursions.  American  tourists  who  come  to  Europe  after  the  war  will 
not  regret  taking  a  look-in  on  Algeria. 

"From  Laghouat  on  through  the  desert,  the  military  authorities  who 
control  the  affairs  of  the  country  have  constructed  a  road  especially 
reserved  for  automobiles.  Vehicles  without  rubber  tires  are  prohib- 
ited from  using  it  under  heavy  penalty  of  the  law.  Thanks  to  this 
regulation,  the  road  is  as  smooth  as  a  billiard-table. 

"Every  thirty  kilometres  there  is  a  fortified  road-house  where 
soldiers  on  the  march  may  halt  for  rest.  There  they  can  obtain  water 
and  food.  One  of  these  caravansaries,  Tilrempt,  even  boasts  a  won- 
derful native  cook.  El  Haid,  a  desert  Vatel,  who  can  serve  a  breakfast 
which  would  make  the  chef  of  a  "Cafe  de  Paris"  or  a  "Voisin" 
restaurant  jealous." 

Most  remarkable  is  his  testimony  to  the  loyalty  of  the  Moslems 
throughout  all  this  region.  During  the  first  months  of  the  war,  when 
the  fate  of  France  hung  in  the  balance,  it  might  have  seemed  more 
wise  and  prudent  to  economize  troops  by  withdrawing  from  some  of 


86  THE  MOSLEM  WORLD 

her  frontier  posts.  This  was  not  done.  Moral  force  and  prestige 
proved  to  be  of  greater  value  than  material  strength.  "Now,  thanks 
to  us,"  he  says,  ''practically  the  whole  immense  desert  of  the  Sahara 
is  pacified.  As  a  rule  it  is  a  comparatively  easy  trip  from  Algiers  to 
Timbuctoo — the  whole  length  of  the  great  desert.  It  is  no  longer  a 
warlike  expedition,  bristling  with  serious  risks,  but  just  "globe-trot- 
ting," pure  and  simple. 

"During  the  three  years  and  more  of  the  war  the  security  of  the 
Sahara  has  not  been  seriously  disturbed.  At  one  time  the  Turco- 
German  intrigues  in  Tripoli  threatened  to  cause  us  some  embarrass- 
ment. The  Italians  were  obliged  to  evacuate  the  hinterland  of  their 
colony,  the  oases  of  the  interior,  Ghadames  and  Rhat.  A  Senouissist 
uprising,  instigated  by  the  Turco-German  propaganda,  seemed  to  be 
on  the  point  of  breaking  out  in  the  extreme  south  of  Algeria,  the 
Senoussists  having  been  able  to  bring  up  a  fairly  strong  fighting  force 
which  attacked  our  outposts.  But  this  menace  was  speedily  averted, 
thanks  to  the  energetic  measures  taken  by  our  military  commanders 
and  to  the  loyalty  of  the  native  chiefs.  At  the  present  time  the  danger 
has  entirely  passed." 

The  Indian  Frontier  and  the  War 

Ikbal  Ali  Shah  writing  in  the  Asiatic  Review  of  July,  191 8, 
describes  the  Indian  frontier  and  the  character  of  the  tribesmen,  with 
their  crude  democratic  spirit,  mingled  with  lawlessness  against  any 
settled  government.  He  praises  the  attitude  of  the  Amir  of  Afghan- 
istan who  in  spite  of  much  intrigue  by  German  agents  made  a  holy  war, 
oi*  Jihad,  impossible.  Himself  a  Moslem,  Ikbal  Ali  Shah  sa)^ 
that  no  article  of  faith  has  wrought  such  mischief  at  the  hands  of 
designing  men  as  that  of  a  holy  war.  Concerning  the  raids  into 
British  territory  he  says:  "They  can  safely  be  assigned  to  two  main 
causes:  first,  and  chiefly,  priestly  influence;  secondly,  the  unproductive- 
ness of  the  country,  which  leaves  the  majority  of  the  people  without  a 
settled  avocation  in  life,  and  they,  for  mere  subsistence,  are  lured  on 
to  join  the  gangs  of  raiders.  Further,  the  natural  tendencies  of  these 
hillsmen  make  them  subject  to  fanatical  obsessions,  and  consequently 
the  Mullahs,  in  order  to  win  their  own  ends,  take  advantage  by 
preying  on  the  minds  of  the  tribesmen,  and  inflame  them  to  sudden 
passion  of  religious  wars,  loosely  understood  as  "Jihad." 

"The  British  Government  has  devised  many  schemes  to  calm  this 
turbulent  people;  and  one  of  them,  which  has  most  effectually  met 
the  case,  is  a  generous  distribution  of  money  amongst  the  clans,  and 
thus  to  a  very  great  degree  quietude  has  been  guaranteed.  But  the 
pernicious  effect  of  a  widespread  preaching  of  the  Mullah  will 
always  remain  a  problem.  *I  have  known  these  Mullahs,'  once  wrote 
Amir  Abdur  Rahman  Khan — 'they  are  like  the  priests  of  the  time  of 
Peter  the  Great  who  created  great  mischief  in  Russia.  These  Mullahs 
pretend  to  the  people  that  Paradise  and  Hell  are  within  their  power 
and  authority.'  " 

Pilgrimage  to  the  Shrine  at  Najaf,  Arabia 
Mr.  Edmund  Candler,  the  representative  of  the  British  press  with 
the  Expeditionary  Force  in  Mesopotamia,  writes  as  follows: 

"The  shrines  of  Najaf,  Kerbela,  and  Kazimain,  the  resting  places 
of  Ali,  Hussein,  and  the  seventh  and  ninth  Imams,  lie  on  the  edge  of 
the  desert  in  the  country  we  occupy.     The  tide  oiF  war  has  not  alto- 


NOTES  ON  CURRENT  TOPICS  87 

gether  swept  back  the  pilgrim  traffic,  though  some  of  the  main  com- 
munications are  closed.  One  often  meets  a  corpse  on  the  road  packed 
in  a  long  crate  or  bundle  of  palm  leaves  and  slung  across  the  back  of 
an  ass.  The  pilgrim  behind  is  taking  his  relative  to  swell  the  popu- 
lation of  the  cities  of  the  dead,  by  which  these  sanctuaries  are 
surrounded.  Of  the  three  shrines  Najaf,  the  tomb  of  Ali,  is  the  richest 
and  to  some  minds  the  most  sacred.  It  is  also  the  most  remote.  A 
thousand  years  ago  it  probably  stood  on  the  banks  of  the  Euphrates, 
but  the  river  has  changed  it  course,  and  the  golden  dome  and  min- 
arets dominate  a  stretch  of  upland  desert  six  miles  from  Kufah,  which 
is  the  river  port  of  the  city.  Najaf  and  Kufah,  according  to  tradition, 
are  "a  piece  of  heaven."  If  you  point  out  to  the  Moslem  the  very 
terrestrial  nakedness  of  this  plot  of  earth  he  will  reply  that  God  is 
all-powerful  and  will  make  gardens  there.  The  mosque  at  Kufah, 
with  the  walls  like  a  fortress,  was  built  on  the  spot  where  Ali  was 
slain.  Here  the  Prophet  Mahomet  and  his  guide,  and  the  Angel 
Gabriel,  stayed  to  pray  on  their  way  to  heaven;  the  makam  in  the 
mosque  marks  the  position. 

"Najaf,  like  Kazimain,  is  approached  by  a  horse  tram.  The  line 
runs  from  the  river  bank  at  Kufah  to  within  a  few  yards  of  the  city 
walls,  and  ends  as  it  begins  in  a  very  Hunnish-looking  terminus  with 
a  sloping  roof. 

"Najaf  is  richly  endowed.  Not  only  land,  but  shops  and  houses, 
and  gardens  and  baths,  and  even  boats  are  bequeathed  as  religious 
endowment  (Waqf),  and  the  inheritors  pay  their  tithes  to  the  church; 
and  besides  the  offerings  that  are  brought  to  the  shrine  or  sent  by  the 
pious  from  a  distance,  there  are  charitable  endowments  such  as  the 
Oudh  Bequest  for  Indian  pilgrims,  which  has  always  been  distributed 
through  the  British  Resident  at  Bagdad.  One  of  the  first  gifts  for  the 
shrines  to  reach  Bagdad  after  we  entered  the  city  were  four  curved 
swords  of  gold  with  diamonds  on  the  sheath  and  hilt — one  for  Kazi- 
main, one  for  Najaf,  and  two  for  the  shrines  of  Hussein  and  Abbas 
at  Kerbela.  They  were  despatched  from  Constantinople  to  Bagdad 
when  the  British  menace  was  regarded  as  a  madman's  dream,  and  bore 
the  inscription,  'From  the  servant  of  all  pious  Moslems,  Enver  Bey.* 

"The  first  thing  one  sees  when  one  enters  the  gate  near  the  tram 
terminus  is  an  ugly  little  obelisk  which  commemorates  the  birth  of 
the  Committee  of  Union  and  Progress.  The  ruined  houses  facing  it 
were  the  Turkish  Club  and  Municipal  Offices.  They  were  destroyed 
by  the  citizens  in  the  spring  of  1916  when  the  Turks  fell  out  with  the 
people  of  Najaf  and  Kerbela.  Owing  to  heavy  war  taxes,  compulsory 
military  service,  the  seizure  of  women,  and  the  house-searching  for 
deserters,  who  were  dragged  out  and  shot,  Najaf  rebelled  and  arrested 
the  Turkish  garrison.  At  the  same  time  Kerbela  ejected  the  Turks. 
In  the  fight  that  ensued  the  Holy  places  were  shelled — a  sacrilege  that 
will  never  be  forgiven.  The  defenders  of  the  town  flooded  the 
approach  and  the  enemy'  reinforcements  were  held  back.  Turkey 
had  other  preoccupations  on  the  Tigris  and  Euphrates  just  then  and 
Najaf  and  Kerbela  held  their  own.  Najaf  has  always  been  a  thorn 
in  the  Turks'  side  and  an  asylum  for  deserters  and  political  refugees. 
Owing  to  the  subterranean  windings  of  the  vaults  under  the  city  it  is 
almost  impossible  to  unearth   a  man  whose   friends   remain    faithful. 

"The  shrine,  like  those  of  Kazimam  and  Kerbela,  is  so  built  round 
that  one  cannot  get  a  view  of  it  from  near  by.  One  approaches  the 
East  Gate  of  the  mosque  through  the  covered  bazaar,  which  is  long 


88  THE  MOSLEM  WORLD 

and  straight  and  at  least  30  feet  high.  One  cannot  take  one's  eye 
from  the  rich  mosaic  of  blue  and  green  and  gold  which  glitters  at 
the  end  of  this  clear  perspective.  The  Najafis  are  more  fanatical  than 
the  people  of  Kazimain  and  Kerbela,  where  one  may  admire  what  may 
be  seen  of  the  interior  of  the  gate.  Here  a  near  approach  by  the 
Christian  is  resented.  So  one  turns  aside  at  fifty  yards,  right  or  left, 
into  the  honeycombed  bazaars.  These  are  more  irregular  and  intri- 
cate than  in  Bagdad,  a  warren  of  courtyards  and  alleys  under  one 
roof,  and  they  preserve  more  of  the  ancient  East.  One  descends  steps 
into  spacious  quadrangles  with  great  scales  at  the  corners  for  weighing 
cotton  or  cloth.  One  may  buy  Persian  jars  and  carpets  and  the  rich 
silk  abas  (cloaks)  for  which  the  city  is  famous.  But  the  amenities  of 
life  are  becoming  as  scarce  at  Najaf  as  everywhere  else.  I  saw  a  tin 
of  kerosene  oil,  which  would  have  cost  five  rupees  before  the  war, 
sold  for  fifty,  and  I  noticed  that  all  the  phials  in  the  shop  of  the  attar 
sellers  were  empty,  but  one.  There  was  still  a  little  of  the  henna 
left  with  which  the  Arab  ladies  dye  the  tips  of  their  finger  nails 
and  hair." 

The  Offence  of  the  Cross 

"They  did  not  kill  him  and  they  did  not  crucify  him" — this 
teaching  of  the  Koran  expresses  the  belief  of  Moslems  today.  The 
cross  of  Christ  is  not  only  the  missing  link  in  their  creed  but  the 
stumbling-block  in  their  path.  They  do  not  desire  the  God-given 
mediator.  God  forgives  sin  by  His  omnipotence  regardless  of  His 
holiness.  These  verses  on  Grace  and  Sin  by  one  who  signs  himself 
Khwaja  appear  in  the  Islamic  Review: 

"I  know  my  life  is  evil  full, 

But  who  can  count  Thy  grace  as  well? 

I   bask  in   shining  rays   of  hope, 
Undaunted  of  all  fear  of  hell. 

Thou  dost  not  need  some  price  for  sin 

In  compensation  of  mercy. 
In   things   from   Thee   'no   give   and   take*; 

Thy  gifts.   Thy  blessings,   ever  free. 

But  if  Thy  wrath  is  unappeased, 

And  wants  'the  blood'  in   penalty, 
Adieu,  O  Lordl  to  Thee  adieu; 

What  difference  is  in  me  and  Thee?" 

'Without  the  shedding  of  blood  there  is  no  remission"  in  the  Old 
or  New  Testament  and  we  still  glory  in  the  Cross — it  is  our  only 
message  to  Moslems. 

"Christianity  a  Failure" 

The  "Islamic  Review,"  Woking,  England,  uses  the  pen  of  Moslem 
and  renegade  Christian  in  every  issue  to  emphasize  the  glory  of  Islam 
and  the  dreadful  failure  of  the  Church  of  Christ.  According  to  Lord 
Headley  and  Marmaduke  Pickthall,  who  write  for  this  magazine,  we 
need  the  Koran  to  adjust  our  civilization  not  only  but  to  reveal  the 
true  doctrines  of  Jesus.  In  a  recent  number  Al-Qidwai,  one  of  the 
editorial  staff,  quotes  from  a  sermon  on  "The  Failure  of  Christianity" 
given  at  the  City  Temple  and  goes  on  to  say:  "The  Christianity  of 
the  Church  is  more  than  a  useless  institution.  It  is  positively  harm- 
ful.    From  a  religious  point  of  view  it  is  pernicious  because  it  replaces 


I 


NOTES  ON  CURRENT  TOPICS  89 

the  One  God  of  Moses  with  three  gods  supposed  to  be  one.  Socially 
Christianity  has  degraded  woman  sex.  *  *  *  The  writers  of  the 
New  Testament  did  not  think  it  worth  while  to  see  that  they  do  not 
contradict  each  other.  The  New  Testament  does  not  contain  any  such 
guidance  for  man  which  would  make  him  a  useful  citizen  of  any 
advanced  State,  which  would  teach  him  how  to  secure  the  best  form 
of  government  or  how  to  lay  down  such  practical  laws  that  would 
ensure  the  freedom,  the  sobriety,  the  purity,  and  the  progress  of 
nations.  There  are  certainly  some  beautiful  ethical  dogmas  in  the 
New  Testament,  as  there  are  in  those  other  sacred  books  which  are 
attributed  to  those  saintly  men  who  came  centuries  before  Christ. 
But  there  is  nothing  in  the  Christianity  as  known  to  us  upon  which 
any  democratic  government  can  be  based.  Christianity  as  a  religion 
never  did  anything  to  discourage  even  slavery.  It  never  taught  man 
to  respect  liberty.  Woman,  according  to  Christian  saints,  was  nothing 
but  a  deadly  evil — man  and  woman  both  miserable  sinners.  Chris- 
tianity has  no  doubt  proved  an  utter  failure,  and  this  through  no 
fault  of  that  grand  and  noble  soul — ^Jesus  Christ,  Son  of  Mary." 

Method  of  Approach  in  Turkey 

"While  my  form  of  service  as  a  missionary  in  Turkey  since  1890  has 
been  chiefly  in  connection  with  Anatolia  College,  I  have  been  greatly 
interested  in  the  problem  of  offering  a  winning  presentation  of  the 
Gospel  of  Christ  to  Moslems.  At  first  my  feelings  toward  Moham- 
medanism were  perhaps  rather  hostile  in  the  conviction  that  the 
Mohammedan  religion  must  yield  to  Christianity,  and  that  the  two 
would  naturally  clash.  But  as  a  pastor  in  America  I  had  found  it 
impossible  to  win  men  on  any  basis  of  mutual  antipathy  or  hostility. 
If  I  could  first  become  really  acquainted  with  a  man  as  a  friend,  the 
time  would  come  when  I  could  influence  him  with  my  message  as  a 
Christian  minister.  And  as  I  became  acquainted  with  Turks,  a 
feeling  of  human  friendliness  grew  up  that  inspired  a  desire  within 
me  to  get  acquainted  with  them  in  order  to  be  able  to  offer  them 
what  was  of  such  value  to  me. 

I  attended  Mosque  services,  and  by  degrees  established  such  rela- 
tions of  mutual  acquaintance  and  confidence  with  the  preachers  that 
we  could  discuss  their  sermons  on  God,  and  mine.  I  became  quite  at 
home  in  Dervish  ceremonials  with  their  dancing,  howling,  sword 
play,  chewing  hot  coals,  and  the  like.  My  associates  authorized  my 
taking  so  much  of  Fridays  as  I  conveniently  could,  not  only  to  attend 
the  religious  services,  but  often  to  take  a  ride  and  visit  a  Turkish 
village  or  local  shrine,  where  my  immediate  aim  was  to  meet  the 
people,  converse  with  them  and  establish  relations  of  personal  friend- 
ship. Many  callers  were  welcomed  in  my  home,  and  when  they 
inquired  of  me  the  Christian  view  on  any  given  doctrine,  such  as  the 
Sonship  of  Christ,  I  heard  after  my  statement  the  comment,  "That's 
all  right,"  and  I  felt  that  that  interview  was  not  wasted.  It  has 
always  been  my  purpose  in  such  conversations  to  introduce  some  direct 
statement  or  quotation  from  the  Bible  when  I  could  do  so  naturally. 

But  as  I  sought  a  form  of  expression  which  should  present  the 
heart  of  Christianity  in  such  form  as  to  win  Moslem  assent,  I  came 
at  last  upon  the  simplest  plan  of  all,  namely,  to  quote  Christ's  own 
statement  of  the  heart  of  Christianity.  As  he  put  it,  it  is  in  the 
double  principle  of  love  to  God  and  fellow  men.  This  is  always 
perfectly  intelligible.  It  arouses  no  feeling  of  opposition,  and  it  is 
our  Lord's  own  expresison  of  the  most  important  religious  truth. 


90  THE  MOSLEM  WORLD 

So  I  had  a  quantity  of  little  slips  printed  in  Osmanli  Turkish  con- 
taining on  one  side  the  words  in  Mark  12:29-31,  and  on  the  other 
side  the  Beatitudes  and  Matthew  5:1-9.  It  was  easy  oftentimes  in 
conversations  so  to  shape  the  course  of  thought  that  it  was  natural  to 
leave  with  the  friend  participating  in  the  discussion  copies  of  this 
simple  statement.  They  were  generally  very  ready  to  receive  them, 
in  some  cases  with  the  aim  of  passing  them  on  the  friends.  Thus  in 
the  simplest  of  the  teachings  of  Christ  I  found  a  common  ground  on 
which  to  meet  with  Moslem  friends.  Offer  them  the  Gospel  Mes- 
sage in  a  nut-shell,  and  that  in  a  form  which  will  compel  assent, 
rather  than  dissent. 

G.  E.  W. 

Need  of  Special  Literature  for  Chinese  Moslems 
In  other  lands  work  for  Moslems  naturally  develops  a  special 
literature,  often  of  considerable  proportions.  The  China  Continuation 
Committee's  catalogue  (191 8)  of  Chinese  Christian  Literature  in  a 
page  and  a  half  shows  by  the  brevity  of  its  list  of  Moslem  Chinese 
tracts  that  little  specific  work  has  been  done  for  Chinese  Moslems,  and 
hence  little  special  literature  has  been  produced.  The  visit  of  Dr. 
Zwemer  to  China  has  aroused  much  interest  in  Moslems,  and  more 
definite  work  in  their  behalf  means  the  demand  of  more  varied  books 
and  tracts,  partly  as  equipment  for  the  Moslem  worker  himself,  and 
partly  for  propaganda  among  the  followers  of  the  Prophet. 

At  the  lowest  estimate  we  have  ten  million  Mohammedans  to 
evangelize,  and  literature  can  do  much  to  prepare  the  way  for  the 
personal  worker,  and  in  many  cases  even  lead  men  into  the  Truth, 
in  the  absence  of  the  living  witness.  At  present  the  total  in  the  cata- 
logue makes  about  200  pages  of  reading  matter  and  even  of  this  much 
is  tentative  and  some  of  the  tracts  remain  still  to  be  tried  out  in 
actual  work.  In  the  West,  the  productions  of  the  Christian  Press  are 
constantly  being  winnowed  by  the  winds  of  actual  use  and  not  all  are 
pure  grain.  We  cannot  hope  to  escape  the  same  law  in  China,  and 
this  still  further  reduces  the  present  pitiful  list  of  our  special  books 
for  Moslems. 

Happily  a  good  list  of  Moslem  terms  is  being  accumulated  to  be 
used  in  the  new  literature.  These  are  gathered  from  Chinese  works 
by  Moslems.  Furthermore,  the  China  missionaries  on  whose  heart 
the  preparation  of  this  special  literature  is  laid,  have  two  splendid 
advantages  to  begin  with.  They  have  at  their  disposal  all  the  exper- 
ience of  Moslem  workers  in  other  lands  and  besides  they  have  a  con- 
siderable literature  in  English  already  prepared  by  the  finest  experts 
for  reaching  Moslems  and  meeting  their  difficulties.  They  know 
which  of  these  have  been  most  blessed  in  Moslem  lands,  and  with 
some  changes  these  can  be  rendered  into  Chinese.  Of  course,  Mos- 
lem scribes  must  be  obtained  to  collaborate  with  the  missionaries,  but 
it  is  a  matter  of  gratitude  that  the  Christian  Literature  Society  for 
China  (C.  L.  S.)  has  placed  its  experience  at  the  service  of  the 
Moslem  Committee,  and  with  the  needful  financial  backing  there 
should  be  no  difficulty  in  quickly  augmenting  the  at  present  scanty 
library  of  the  Moslem  worker. 

D.    McGlLLIVRAY. 

Russian  Moslems 
At  a  meeting  of  the  Central   Asian   Society  held   last  year,   Mr. 
Arnold  Toynbee  gave  a  lecture  on  the  Mohammedans  of  Russia,  of 
which   the  Times  gave  this  summary: 


NOTES  ON  CURRENT  TOPICS  91 

Mr.  Toynbee  said  that  under  Russian  autocracy  Islam  was  an 
unknown  field,  all  free  movement  being  crushed.  The  number  of  the 
Russian  Moslems  was  estimated  at  19,000,000,  and  Russia  was  cer- 
tainly the  third  largest  Moslem  Power.  He  gave  a  survey  of  their 
distribution,  showing  that  they  are  widely  scattered,  of  different 
nationalities  and  forms  of  economic  life.  No  fewer  than  16,000,000 
of  them  are  Turkish-speaking,  though  of  widely  varying  vernaculars. 
After  the  Revolution  the  various  forces  among  them  found  free  play 
and  were  awakened.  The  first  tendency  was  towards  unity  within 
the  Russian  State,  combined  with  cultural  autonomy.  At  an  All- 
Russian  Moslem  conference  at  Moscow  a  year  ago,  at  which  lOO  of 
the  800  delegates  were  women,  the  dominant  note  was  Islamic 
brotherhood.  There  was  a  break  with  the  Cadets  over  the  future  of 
Constantinople,  but  a  desire  to  keep  within  the  Russian  political 
system,  because  it  held  together  a  great  Moslem  group.  But  there 
were  seen  signs  of  a  second  tendency,  toward  federalism  and  political 
autonomy  on  a  territorial  basis.  The  government  was  led  by  the 
Azerbaijani  Tartars,  and  it  had  steadily  gained  the  day  in  conse- 
quence of  the  ascendancy  of  the  advanced  Socialists  in  Petrograd. 
In  December  last  a  congress  was  held  at  Ufa  to  appoint  a  com- 
mission to  work  out  cultural  autonomy,  but  the  territorialists  carried 
territorial  resolutions,  and  appointed  a  committee  of  their  own.  This 
unhappy  turn  of  policy  was  probably  mainly  a  symptom  of  the  gen- 
eral disorganization  of  Russia.  If  Russia  or  parts  of  Russia  came 
together  again  as  a  federation,  the  idea  of  unity  among  the  Moslems 
might  revive. 

Future  Palestine — Jewish  or  Moslem? 
We  learn  from  the  Morning  Post!,  London,  that  members  of  the 
Moslem  community  resident  in  England  have  submitted  to  Mr.  Bal- 
Balfour  as  Secretary  of  State  a  representation  of  the  feelings  of  the  Mo- 
hammedan subjects  of  his  Majesty  in  regard  to  the  future  of  Palestine. 
They  point  out  that  through  a  period  of  1,800  years  the  followers 
of  Judaism  have  had  no  vestige  of  claim  to  the  land  "of  which 
they  had  possessed  themselves  some  centuries  before  their  dispersion 
by  the  slaughter  and  despoilment  of  its  original  inhabitants."  They 
submit  that  during  the  1,300  years,  excepting  the  short  interruption 
when  the  Crusaders  held  the  country,  the  Moslems  have  acted  with 
justice  and  toleration  towards  other  creeds  and  peoples;  indeed,  that 
the  Jews  have  always  enjoyed  greater  toleration,  good-will,  and 
respect  in  Moslem  lands  than  in  most  Christian  countries.  But  as 
regards  Palestine,  they  protest  against  any  proposal  to  place  Jews  in 
a  privileged  position  in  respect  to  the  other  communities,  "the  spirit 
of  exploitation,  for  which  the  Jew^ish  race  is  singularly  distinguished," 
being  likely  to  bring  them  into  collison  with  their  neighbours.  For 
these  and  other  reasons  given  the  petitioners  submit  that  "should  it 
be  considered  necessary,  under  the  right  of  self-determination,  to  create 
an  autonomous  State  in  Palestine,  with  Jerusalem  as  its  capital,  it 
should  be  a  Moslem  State,  with  a  Council  consisting  of  members 
representing  the  Jewish,  Christian,  and  Moslem  communities  in 
proportion  to  the  number  of  their  followers,  with  equal  rights  and 
status  for  all  its  citizens  and  equal  opportunities  for  free  development 
without  artificial   political  backing  for   any  one  community." 

Should  Arabic  be  Taught  in  Government  Schools  in  Nigeria? 

The  writer  of  African  notes  in  the  Church  Missionary  Review  calls 
attention  to  an  address  before  the  African  Society  by  Mr.  A.  S.  Tudd 


92  THE  MOSLEM  WORLD 

of  the  Sudan  United  Mission  in  which  he  spoke  of  the  place  Arabic 
occupies  in  the  Government  Schools  of  Northern  Nigeria: 

"In  a  letter  to  'West  Africa/  a  correspondent  signing  himself 
'Oyo'  deprecates  the  teaching  of  Arabic  in  the  northern  province, 
and  points  to  the  system  in  the  southern  province  where  English  is 
taught,  with  better  results  to  native  efficiency.  The  clerks  employed 
in  the  offices  of  the  northern  province  are  all  southern  men.  He 
concludes  that  "the  education  authorities,  by  adhering  to  native 
customs,  teaching  Arabic  for  English,  and  holding  back  modern 
Christian  education  in  order  to  prop  up  an  antiquated  and  useless 
Moslem  system,  are  doing  no  kindness  to  the  Mohammedans  or  the 
Hausa.  They  are  giving  the  pushful  Yoruba  and  coast  native  an 
advantage  over  him  which  he  is  not  slow  to  take." 

In  Morocco  the  education  system  includes  primary  Franco-Arabic 
classes  for  Moslems,  Arabic  evening  classes  for  Europeans,  and  a 
college  for  higher  Arabic  tuition  at  Rabat.  But  Arabic  is  almost 
an  indigenous  language  in  Morrocco.  In  Nigeria  it  is  an  immigrant 
language  of  comparatively  recent  date." 

New  Movement  Among  Moslems  in  Abyssinia 

Through  the  Swedish  Evangelical  Mission  a  remarkable  religious 
movement  is  reported  from  the  interior  of  Abyssinia.  This  has  taken 
hold  of  the  Moslem  population  so  that  in  the  last  six  years  some 
10,000  have  been  baptized  into  the  Christian  Church.  The  apostle 
of  this  movement  is  an  ex-Sheik,  Zaccaria,  who  has  changed  his  name 
to  Noaye  Kristos,  a  person  of  great  influence  in  Sokoto,  in  the 
Amhara  country  where  he  lives.  The  movement  has  sprung  from 
Scriptures  distributed  by  the  British  Bible  Society  in  Abyssinia,  and 
is  evangelical  in  character.  Indeed  these  new  Christians  are  so 
dissatisfied  with  the  dead  forms  of  the  Coptic  Church  that  they  are 
organizing  classes  for  Scripture  study  and  have  mobilized  some  500 
men,  who  are  serving  as  teachers. 

Islam  in  Burma 

According  to  the  last  census  the  total  number  of  Moslems  in 
Burma  is  420,777  out  of  a  total  population  of  12,115,217.  It 
seems  that  the  number  of  Moslems,  especially  in  the  large  com- 
mercial centers,  such  as  Rangoon,  is  steadily  increasing. 

We  therefore  learn  with  interest  that  the  work  carried  on  by 
the  late  Dr.  W.  F.  Armstrong,  of  the  Baptist  Mission,  is  to  be 
continued.  While  at  Moulmain  Dr.  Armstrong  took  part  in  a 
memorable  public  debate  with  the  educated  Moslems  of  that  city, 
and  while  he  did  not  appear  to  have  won  any  progress  he  did  win 
for  his  cause  and  for  himself  the  respect  and  admiration  of  all  his 
opponents  and  made  life-long  friends  of  the  leaders  on  the  Moslem 
side  in  the  debate.  He  was  able  to  meet  all  Moslems  afterwards 
on  a  plane  of  friendship  surpassed  by  no  others.  About  two  years 
before  his  death  Dr.  Armstrong  received  a  slight  shock  which 
caused  the  loss  of  his  eyesight.  In  his  blindness  he  dictated  a  series 
of  messages  to  thinking  men  among  the  Moslems  which  were  recently 
published   and  have  been  well   received. 

The  Rev.  F.  Kurtz,  of  the  same  Mission,  speaks  of  the  number 
of  Moslem  hearers  at  the  public  preaching  services.  He  says  there 
are  -a  number  of  promising  converts  and  believes  that  the  opening 
there  for  work  would  be  more  favorable  than  in  India. 


NOTES  ON  CURRENT  TOPICS  93 

Why    Pray   for    North    Africa? 

From  the  Atlantic  to  Egypt  extends  the  territory  of  the  old  Roman 
Barbary  States  and  now,  as  of  old,  it  is  peopled  by  the  Berbers — 
(anciently  Barbares.)  These  are  white  Africans,  said  by  some  to 
be  the  original  stock  of  the  European  races. 

Christianity  owes  much  to  the  Berbers.  It  found  in  them  a 
favorable  soil  for  development  in  the  second  and  third  centuries  at 
a  time  when  little  progress  could  be  made  elsewhere  in  the  world. 
The  reason  for  this  was  probably  that  the  new  religion,  teaching 
equality  and  fraternity,  promised  the  Berbers  some  relief  from  the 
iron  rule  of  the  dominating  Romans. 

Before  Emperor  Constantine's  conversion  in  313  the  martyrdom 
of  thousands  of  North  Africans  including  such  as  the  dauntless 
Perpetua,  Bishop  Cyprian  and  others,  helped  to  attract  attention 
to  Christianity. 

(i)  Christians  owe  much  to  the  Berbers  because  of  the  hearty 
reception  given   in   their  land  to   Christianity   in   its  infancy. 

North  Africa  furnished  the  Christian  Church  with  some  of  its 
finest  pillars,  e.  g.  Cyprian,  Tertullian,  the  great  Augustine,  etc. 
Missionaries  from  the  Barbary  States  helped  to  spread  the  religion 
of  Jesus  Christ  in  Western  Europe  in  the  fourth  and  fifth  cen- 
turies. The  light  of  truth  has  passed  on  from  there  to  all  lands 
and  is  illuminating  our  homes  today. 

(2)  The  people  of  all  civilized  countries  owe  a  great  debt  to 
the  Berbers  of  North  Africa  for  having  helped  to  hand  on  the 
torch    of   Christian   civilization. 

Eleven  centuries  ago  Islam  came  to  North  Africa  and  stamped 
out  Christianity.  Civilization  was  arrested  and  pushed  back;  law 
and  order  disappeared  and  woman  was  abased  to  a  position  of  inferi- 
ority. Recent  excavations  have  made  bare  here  and  there  broken 
stumps  of  marble  columns  standing  around  beautiful  mosaic  pave- 
ments— all  that  is  left  of  the  Christian  religion  and  its  40,000 
churches.  The  Mohammedan  workman,  hired  to  dig  away  the 
earth,  gloats  over  such  proof  of  Moslem  superiority.  The  newly- 
won  convert  stares  and  asks  in  sad  amazement  if  Jesus  Christ  is 
really  the   Son  of   the  Almighty  God. 

(3)  We  owe  it  to  the  honor  of  our  Lord  to  prove  to  the  Berbers 
that  the  pure  religion  of  Jesus  Christ  ever  carries  with  it  the  almighty 
power  of  God. 

To-day  the  law  of  France  drafts  her  Berber  subjects  for  war 
service  the  same  as  her  own  sons.  Hundreds  of  thousands  are  in  the 
trenches  and  w^ar-factories,  etc.,  bravely  and  keenly  participating  in 
the  struggle  against  autocracy.  Their  women  receive  the  same 
separation  allowance  from  generous  France  as  their  European  sisters. 

Close  contact  with  the  life  of  Europe  and  all  the  other  conditions 
resulting  from  the  war  has  melted  down  the  old  ideals  of  life  in 
Algeria. 

(4)  All  lovers  of  high  ideals  would  desire  that  the  character  of 
the  brave  Berber^  now  in  a  fluid  state  morally,  rest  into  the  true 
Christ-mould,  rather  than  that  of  a  Christian  civilization  divorced 
from  her  Lord. 

The  Berber,  whose  home  is  the  Atlas,  is  of  the  sturdy,  independent 
and  broad  common-sense  type  that  mountains  breed.  Islam  was 
forced  on  him  at  the  point  of  the  sword  but  he  was  never  a  good 
Moslem.     His  women  are  not  veiled  in  the  mountains. 


94  THE  MOSLEM  WORLD 

The  Berber  is  the  most  accessible  element  of  the  whole  Moslem 
front  in  Africa.  Once  re-won  to  the  truth  he  will  be  its .  unflinch- 
ing champion  before  his  co-religionists. 

(5)  The  Christian  church  will  find  in  the  Berber  her  best  helper 
in  winning  Moslems. 

In  the  face  then  of  what  we  owe  this  land  and  should  do  for 
it  North  Africa  claims  our  intercession  immediately  and  impera- 
tively. 

Remembering  however  that  the  opposing  forces  linked  in  the 
great  conflict  represent  primarily  great  spiritual  interests  the  fol- 
lowing quotation  is  eminently  to  the  point: — 

"You  can  do  more  than  pray  after  you  have  prayed,  but  you 
cannot  do  more  than  pray  until  you  have  prayed." 

JosiAH  T.  C.  Blackmore. 
Kabylia,  Algeria. 

Touring  in  Kansu,  China 

Mr.  George  K.  Harris,  of  the  China  Inland  Mission,  writes  as 
follows  of  an  interesting  tour  he  made  in  this  part  of  China  among 
the  Moslems: 

"Early  in  December  I  left  for  the  trip  of  sixteen  days  by  cart 
for  Lanchow.  While  at  Pingliang  in  Eastern  Kansu  I  had  the 
privilege  of  seeing  the  new  Mosque  just  being  completed  in  the 
city.  Mr.  Tornvall  at  that  place  said  that  in  the  vicinity  of  Ping- 
liang there  could  not  be  less  than  1,000,000  Mohammedans.  The 
two  principal  districts  are  in  the  valley  to  the  North  and  to  the 
South  in  the  vicinity  of  Chang-Hsin-Chuang.  A  large  number  of 
these  are  followers  of  a  man  named  Mo-Shan-Ren. 

One  of  the  leading  Mohammedans  in  Pingliang  is  very  friendly 
with  the  missionaries.  He  studied  at  one  time  to  be  an  Ahong,  but 
later  gave  it  up  and  entered  into  business  in  the  city.  He  was  the 
one  who  took  us  to  see  the  new  edifice.  All  along  the  roads  from 
Sian  to  Lanchow  the  best  Inns  and  Food  Shops  display  the  sign  of 
"the  Pure  and  True  faith"  as  they  call  themselves.  Almost  every 
city  and  town  has  its  small  mosque  and  Moslem  community.  At 
Lanchow  I  stayed  about  a  month  and  a  half.  The  Borden  Mem- 
orial Hospital  is  located  here.  The  Moslems  of  the  district  are 
exceedingly  shy  and  stay  away  from  the  hospital  unless  an  absolute 
necessity  brings  them.  One  ward  is  especially  set  aside  for  this 
purpose. 

On  March  12th  Mr.  Learner  and  I  started  out  on  horseback  for  a 
fourteen  days  journey  to  the  districts  North  of  Sining.  We  visited 
distinct  districts  of  Chinese,  Aboriginal  peoples,  Tibetans  and  Moham- 
medans. To  the  last  of  these  I  shall  confine  myself.  On  March 
1 8th  we  left  a  small  village  directly  North  of  Sining,  a  days  journey. 
In  the  morning  proceeding  West  we  began  to  meet  Mohammedans  in 
numbers  along  the  roads.  About  noon  we  passed  through  a  village 
where  there  was  a  big  fair  and  among  the  thousands  of  people 
gathered  about  there  was  hardly  a  Chinese  face  among  them,  all 
seemed  to  be  Moslems.  We  could  not  stop  as  we  had  barely  time 
to  make  our  stage  by  dark.  All  afternoon  along  these  valleys  we 
passed  many  Moslem  villages.  Farming  and  stock  raising  seemed 
to  be  their  principal  industries.  About  4.00  p.  m.  we  came 
out  into  a  very  wide  valley  where  a  majority  of  the  villages  had  a 
mosque  in  place  of  the  usual  Chinese  temple.  This  immense  valley 
with  wide  fertile  lands  almost  entirely  in  the  hands  of  the  followers 


NOTES  ON  CURRENT  TOPICS  95 

of  the  Prophet  is  only  a  day's  journey  from  Sining.  In  the  heart 
of  this  valley  is  located  the  city  of  Da-Tong-Heien,  which  is  known 
in  the  vicinity  by  another  name,  Mo-Bay-Shen.  This  was  our  destina- 
tion. We  found  the  Chinese  walled  city  thinly  populated  and 
asleep  compared  with  the  busy-populous  West  suburb.  This  Moham- 
medan suburb  must  have  twice  the  population  of  the  walled  city. 
We  stayed  at  a  Mohammedan  Inn. 

Before  daylight  each  morning  we  would  see  these  people  out  in 
the  Inn-yard  carefully  pouring  water  from  a  big  jar  into  their  hands 
and  washing  their  feet  and  hands  and  head.  Then  from  various 
rooms  we  would  hear  the  mumble  of  Arabic.  The  same  every  even- 
ing. One  very  strange  custom  was  this.  At  morning  sunrise  one  of 
these  men  would  always  climb  up  to  the  roof  top  and  kneeling  would 
pray  toward  the  sun.  This  may  be  an  idea  from  Persian  sun  worship 
mixed  with  Islam  here.  In  many  Chinese  villages  every  morning 
a  gaily  dressed  priest  mounts  to  a  prepared  temple  and  prays  to  the 
rising  sun. 

The  son  of  the  Innkeeper,  a  young  Mullah,  came  in  on  the  last 
evening  and  obtained  from  us  an  Arabic  Gospel.  He  seemed  very 
keen  to  study  it.  In  this  big  center  there  are  mosques,  but  they 
have  no  one  who  would  be  rated  as  an  Ahong.  Most  of  their 
leaders  are  Mullahs,  who  understand  very  little  Arabic.  Of  course, 
this  is  just  on   the  word  of  certain   Moslems. 

We  stayed  in  the  city  for  one  full  day.  Set  up  our  book-stall  and 
sold  Gospels  and  scripture  portions.  Only  a  few  Gospels  in  Arabic 
were  sold,  but  as  most  of  these  Moslems  read  Chinese  as  well,  the 
vast  majority  of  the  Chinese  portions  sold  reached  Mohammedan 
homes.  We  sold  over  5,000  cash  worth  of  books,  or  what  would 
amount  to  almost  a  thousand  scripture  portions.  When  selling 
Arabic  Gospels  one  has  to  watch  every  copy.  Even  in  spite  of  our 
careful  watching  three  managed  to  get  stolen.  Perhaps  this  word 
of   life   even   from  stolen   property  may   get   into   their   hearts. 

The  next  day  we  went  on  up  the  valley  past  many  more  villages 
with  Mosques.  These  can  often  be  distinguished  by  the  white  marble 
with  which  the  mosque  front  is  faced.  In  construction  they  are 
much  like  a  Chinese  Temple.  Smaller  ones  are  often  built  as  an 
upper  story  on  an  Inn  or  dwelling.  Soon  we  started  climbing  and 
for  seven  solid  hours  we  climbed  until  at  an  altitude  of  13,500 
feet  we  crossed  the  upper  pass  of  the  Da  Ban  Shan.  This  is  called 
a  pass,  but  we  went  right  over  the  ridge  of  the  mountains.  After  a 
few  hours  more  of  slush  and  melting  snow,  frozen  streams  and 
dangerous  rocky  paths  we  came  out  in  the  valley  of  the  Da-Tong 
River — a  vast  plain  10,000  feet  high.  In  this  plain  the  principal 
city  is  Bay  Dai  Tong  where  we  sold  Gospels  the  next  day.  There 
are  about  80  Moslem  families  in  the  city  and  on  the  South  bank 
of  the  river  there  are  many  Mohammedan  villages.  It  was  along 
these  villages  that  we  saw  two  new  mosques  just  nearing  completion. 
One  had  a  beautiful  arabesque  front  although  Chinese  in  structure. 

The  Moslems  of  Kansu 

We  glean  the  following  paragraphs  from  the  last  report  of  the 
British  and  Foreign  Bible  Society  in  China.  The  population  of 
Kansu  is  not  large,  considering  that  the  area  of  the  province  is 
about  125,000  square  miles.  The  number  of  inhabitants  is  usually 
given  as  under  ten  and  one-half  millions,  and  of  these  three  millions 
are  said  to  be  Moslems.     There  are  many  questions  of  deep  interest 


96  THE  MOSLEM  WORLD 

concerning  these  people  which  need  not  be  discussed  here,  but  now 
that  a  fresh  movement  is  being  made  to  present  the  Gospel  to  them, 
the  experiences  of  missionaries  who  have  come  into  contact  with 
Moslems  in  this  province  may  help  to  an  understanding  of  their  atti- 
tude toward  Christianity. 

Mr.  Learner  writes  from  Sining: — ^We  have  done  very  well  in  our 
sales  of  Gospels  to  Mohammedans.  They  too,  many  of  them,  are 
seeking  the  Light.  All  round  Sining  there  are  many  thousands  of 
the  followers  of  Mohammed,  and  not  only  do  they  buy  the  Scrip- 
tures in  Arabic,  but  also  in  the  Chinese  language,  for  practically  all 
their  scholars  can  read  Chinese,  and  in  this  way  the  Word  is  being 
scattered  amongst  them.  If  it  were  not  for  the  power  of  their 
Ahongs  I  believe  there  would  be  many  more  Christian  Moham- 
medans. The  people  fear  them,  and  many  hate  them  like  poison. 
I  myself  believe  that  there  are  many  Nicodemus-Christians  among 
them. 

At  Lanchowfu  Mr.  George  Andrew  has  also  met  with  a  spirit 
of  opposition: — 

Not  many  copies  of  Arabic  Scripture  portions,  he  writes,  have  been 
sold.  The  Ahongs  still  exercise  their  authority  and  prevent,  so  far  as 
they  can,  the  Mohammedans  from  reading  the  Word  of  God.  The 
leader  of  the  *Newest  Sect,'  as  it  is  called,  is  in  prison  here  with  a 
number  of  followers  on  a  charge  of  rioting  and  murder.  He  claims 
that  the  spirit  of  Jesus  fills  him,  and  is  styled  *Er-sa.* 

Some  time  ago  one  of  the  helpers  brought  to  me  a  copy  of  the 
Bible  in  Persian  and  another  in  Arabic,  saying  that  a  Mohammedan 
who  has  been  away  in  Shanghai  got  them  there.  Here  he  was  so 
afraid  of  his  fellow-religionists  finding  them  among  his  effects  that 
he  brought  them  to  the  Mission.  He  claimed  to  be  a  believer,  but 
I  am  sorry  to  say  he  has  not  been  for  his  books. 

The  following  notes  from  Mr.  Hunter's  diary,  telling  of  his  ex- 
periences among  the  Moslems  in  the  Altai  Region  are  also  of  deep 
interest.  During  the  twenty  weeks  he  travelled  2000  miles  and  sold 
646  Scriptures  in  eight  different  languages: 

July  1st.  Gave  away  a  Gospel  to  a  Qazaq.  This  is  the  first  one 
that  has  been  given  to  them  in  their  own  language.  Read  a  little 
to  the  Qazaqs  from  John's  Gospel.  July  3rd.  I  find  the  population 
of  this  place  to  be  about  as  follows: — Qazaqs  120,000,  Turki  i,ooo, 
Chinese  300,  Tongan-Mohammedans  lOO.  The  Chinese  are  mostly 
gold-diggers  and  many  of  them  leave  here  in  the  winter-time.  There 
are  also  many  Mongols  in  this  district.  July  4th.  Sold  a  number 
of  Chinese,  Tibetan,  and  Mongolian  Gospels.  July  nth.  Came  on 
through  a  valley  called  Chemuchek  where  there  are  many  gold  mines 
near  the  Kurtu  river.  Reached  the  head  of  the  Kurtu  river,  sold 
quite  a  number  of  Turki  and  Qazaq  books  to  some  merchants. 
July  1 2th.  Many  visitors  to-day,  preached,  read,  and  sang  to 
them.  Had  a  visit  from  Janam  Bai,  the  head  of  this  tribe  of 
Qazaqs.  July  19th.  Started  up  the  U-liang-shih-keo  and  came  on 
the  watershed  of  the  upper  waters  of  the  Kran  and  Irtish  rivers. 
The  next  day  quite  a  number  of  Qazaqs  and  some  Mongols  came 
for  books.  We  received  as  much  milk  and  meat  as  we  could  use. 
Here  the  people  were  on  the  whole  kind  and  friendly. 

The  Value  of  the  Vernacular 

In  a  recent  article  in  "The  African  World,"  Sir  Harry  Johnston 
pays  a  high  tribute  to  the  linguistic  studies  of  missionaries.     "I  remem- 


NOTES  ON  CURRENT  TOPICS  97 

ber  some  time  early  in  the  '8o's  a  mission  was  organized  in  England 
to  work  among  the  North  African  Moslems;  even  I  thought  it  a 
purely  wasteful  effort  and  even  a  dangerous  experiment.  The 
French  Government  grudgingly,  fearing  lest  by  some  blunder  in 
tact  or  propaganda  they  might  provoke  disturbances.  But  scarcely 
any  trouble  followed,  for  those  who  entered  this  mission  devoted 
themselves  to  acquiring  the  vernacular;  not  merely  a  theoretic  knowl- 
edge of  classical  Arabic  but  the  exact  dialect  spoken  in  Egypt  or 
Tripoli,  Tunis,  Algeria  or  Morocco.  Thenceforth  one  heard  no 
more  of  them  for  the  simple  reason  that  they  caused  us  trouble. 

Far  and  wide  they  were  well  received  by  the  Arabs,  Berbers  and 
*'Moors"  (or  town  population  of  mixed  origin,  but  Mohammedan 
faith).  They  may  not  have  made  many  converts  to  Christianity  in 
the  doctrinal  sense,  but  they  Christianized  and  civilized  many  a 
North  African  family  in  the  larger  sense.  They  were  sought  after 
for  their  medical  advice  and  listened  to  in  matters  of  hygiene  (a 
quasi  branch  of  present-day  religion).  They  appeased  quarrels  and 
made  excellent  suggestions  for  the  development  of  native  industries. 
They  have  lived  long  enough  to  have  themselves  and  their  mission 
warmly  praised  by  the  very  French  administrators  or  British  consuls 
who  in  earlier  days  regarded  their  enterprise  as  fatuous  or  harmful. 
And  this  by  acquiring  a  native  language  or  dialect     *     *     *     * 

Why  have  Christian  Missions  in  general  had  such  a  large  develop- 
ment in  negro  Africa  during  the  last  lOO  years,  so  that  the  mission- 
ary nearly  always  forged  far  ahead  of  the  sportsman  or  mining 
pioneer?  Because  the  missionaries  acquired  one  or  more  native 
languages  and  spoke  words  that  the  shy,  frightened,  angry,  truculent 
negro  could  understand.  Livingston's,  Stanley's,  Joseph  Thompson's 
— and  may  I  say  my  own? — successes  in  exploration  were  mainly 
due  to  a  knowledge  of  one  or  more  forms  of  native  speech  *  *  *  * 
I  have  had  to  rely  far  more  on  my  tongue  than  on  any  armed  escort 
or  weapon.  By  speech,  and  the  right  kind  of  speech — sarcasm,  chat, 
interesting  stories,  sympathetic  inquiries,  appeals,  jokes,  angry  remon- 
strance— one  could  create  devotion,  pluck,  endurance,  loyalty  among 
one's  native  followers  as  one  could  not  have  done  with  blows  and 
scarcely  with  generosity  or  gifts." 


BOOK  REVIEWS 


A    Qadiani   Commentary   on   The    Qur*an.* 

This  work  is  published  by  the  Anjuman-i-Tarriqi-i-Islam,  Qadian, 
Punjab,  and  in  its  contents  gives  clear  indications  that  its  real  object 
is  to  support  the  novel  claim  to  the  Messiahship  of  the  late  Mirza 
Ghulam  Ahmad  of  Qadian.  Indeed  it  is  published  under  the 
auspices  of  Hadrat  Bashiru'd-din  the  second  successor  of  the  'Promised 
Messiah'.  The  need  for  a  new  English  translation  is  based  on  the 
alleged  incompetence  of  previous  translators,  of  whom  it  is  said  that 
their  ignorance  of  Arabic  is  great  and  their  religious  prejudice  is 
strong.  The  present  translator,  is  we  believe,  a  non-Arab  and 
is  therefore  a  foreigner,  and  it  is  now  his  opportunity  to  show 
that  even  a  foreigner  can  be  an  Arabic  scholar,  and  that  a 
commentator,  with  a  good  stock  of  religious  prejudice,  as  this  com- 
mentary shows  him  to  possess,  can  do  impartial  and  scholarly  work. 
If  he  demonstrates  all  this,  there  is  no  obvious  reason  for  the 
assertion  that  other  foreigners  and  commentators  are  incompetent. 
By  his  unwise  depreciation  of  the  work  of  eminent  orientalists  he 
has  placed  the  standard  very  high  and  by  it  he  must  stand  or  fall. 

We  do  not  propose  to  deal  with  the  translation,  for  a  comparison 
of  the  translation  of  the  first  five  verses  of  the  second  Sura  with  that 
of  the  same  verses  made  by  Palmer  shows  a  marked  inferiority.  In 
fact,  as  far  as  it  has  gone,  the  translation  appears  to  be  little  more 
than  an  adaptation  of  previous  translations,  and  with  such  helps 
could  be  made  by  any  one  possessed  of  a  moderate  acquaintance  with 
Arabic  and   a   good  command  of   English. 

In  the  commentary  an  ingenious  attempt  is  made  to  connect  the 
opening  Sura,  the  Suratu'l-Fatiha,  with  'a  little  book  open'  of  Revela- 
tion X.  2,  on  the  ground  that  Fatiha  means  'open',  and  that  the 
seven  thunders  of  Revelation  x.  4  correspond  to  the  seven  verses  of 
this  Sura.  This  is  pure  fancy  and  not  sober  criticism,  but  as  the 
claims  of  the  'Promised  Messiah',  Mirza  Ghulam  Ahmad,  had  to  be 
brought  to  notice  quite  early  in  the  commentary,  this  seemed  to  give 
the  opportunity.  So  we  are  told  that  until  the  times  of  the 
'Promised  Messiah'  this  Sura  had  been  a  sealed  book,  according 
to  the  words  in  Revelation  x.  4:  'Seal  up  those  things  which  the 
seven  thunders  uttered  and  write  them  not.'  It  is  further  stated  that 
this  Mirza  Ghulam  Ahmad  in  his  comments  on  this  Sura  showed 
that  'such  pearls  of  divine  wisdom  and  prophecy  were  embodied  in 
the  short  verses  of  this  pithy  chapter  as  had  never  been  dreamt  of  be- 
fore.' We  are  told  that  the  word  'open'  in  Revelation  x.  2  is  the  He- 
brew word  fatoah,  but  the  writer  seems  to  be  ignorant  of  the  fact  that 

*Thi8  book  was  briefly  reviewed  in  the  "Moslem  World"  Vol.  VI.  1916,  p. 
170-174  by  R.  F.  McNeile.  We  reprint  this  longer  criticism  and  review 
from  a  pamphlet  by  the  Christian  Literature  Society  Madras.  Everything 
that  Canon  Sell  writes  on  Islam  is  of  special  value  to  the  missionary  student. 
We  retain  the  spelling  used  by  the  C.  L.  S.  in  their  publications. — Ed. 

98 


BOOK  REVIEWS  99 

the  book  of  Revelation  was  written  in  Greek  and  not  in  Hebrew, 
so  the  bearing  of  his  remark  is  not  obvious.  This  crude  attempt 
to  magnify  Mirza  Ghulam  Ahmad  shows  a  lack  of  scholarship  and 
judgment,  qualities  of  the  first  importance  in  a  commentator.  It  is 
not  easy  to  follow  this  dissertation,  for  apparently  it  means  that 
the  Suratu'l-Fatiha  has  been  a  sealed  book,  which  neither  Imams 
nor  Muj  tabid  in  nor  Musafirs  nor  the  Fuqaha  have  been  able  hitherto 
to  explain,  and  that  the  whole  world  of  Islam  has  had  to  wait  for 
the  advent  of  Mirza  Ghulam  Ahmad,  to  whom  it  has  been  given 
to  open  the  book.  This  is  all  pure  fancy  and  a  bad  beginning  for 
a  commentary  for  which  so  much  is  claimed. 

Sura  ii.  5  is  thus  translated:  'Who  believe  in  what  hath  been 
sent  down  to  thee,  and  what  has  been  sent  before  thee  and  firm 
faith  have  they  in  what  is  to  come ;'  and  the  comment  on  it  calls  for 
some  notice.  Muslim  commentators  rightly  interpret  it  as  referring 
to  the  Qur'an,  the  Jewish  and  Christian  Scriptures  and  to  belief 
in  that  important  article  of  the  Muslim  creed,  known  as  the 
'Last  Day'.  These  words  were  uttered  by  the  Prophet  in  the  early 
days  at  Madina  when  the  support  of  the  Jews,  at  least,  was  earnestly 
desired,  and  they  clearly  enjoin  on  all  concerned  the  study  of  these 
Scriptures;  but  we  are  now  told  that  such  a  view  is  absurd. 

Why  so  is  not  apparent  considering  the  constant  reference  the 
Prophet  made  to  the  Scriptures  and  the  high  position  he  accorded 
to  them.  The  comment  on  the  words  'which  is  to  come'  is  curious 
and  is  made  for  a  sectarian  purpose.  The  phrase  is  a  translation  of 
one  word  al-Akhirat — the  last  or  end — and  usually  denotes  the  'Last 
Day',  and  is  so  dealt  with  in  other  parts  of  this  commentary.  A  well- 
known  commentator  interprets  the  word  as  al-bath  bad  al-maut,  i.e. 
resurrection  after  death.  I  do  not  know  any  Muslim  commentator 
who  interprets  al-Akhirat  as  meaning  some  further  revelation  to  come 
after  the  Qur'an.  However,  the  Qadiani  commentator  says  that 
al-Akhirat  signifies  the  revelation  referred  to  as  that  which  is  to  follow, 
and  that  is  the  revelation  which  has  come  through  the  Promised  Messiah, 
Mirza  Ghulam  Ahmad  of  Qadian.  If  this  far-fetched  interpretation  is 
'orrect,  why  must  the  supposed  prophecy  refer  to  him?  Why  not  to 
'le  great  reformer,  Muhammad  ibn  'Abdu'l-Wahhab,  or  to  Mirza 
•luhammad  'All,  the  Bab,  or  to  his  successor  Baha'ullah  the  prophet 
of  the  Baha'is?  These  men  founded  large  and  important  sects, 
exercised  great  influence  and,  if  al-Akhirat  can  be  forced  to  mean 
what  this  commentary  says  it  does,  they  have  a  prior  claim  to  the 
position  of  fulfillers  of  it.  Are  the  writings  of  the  Bab  and  of 
Baha'ullah  to  be  passed  over? 

Verse  24  reads  thus:  'If  ye  are  in  doubt  as  to  that  which  we 
have  sent  down  to  our  servant,  then  produce  a  chapter  (Sura)  like 
it.'  The  commentator  says,  'For  thirteen  long  centuries  this  chal- 
lenge of  the  Holy  Qur'an  has  stood  unmet.'  Now,  it  is  obvious  that 
the  comparison  was  not  intended  to  be  made  with  books  in  the 
ancient  classical,  or  in  modern  languages,  for  its  challenge  was  to 
produce  some  Arabic  composition.  In  Muslim  schools  the  principles 
of  rhetoric  are  drawn  from  the  Qur'an,  which  is  regarded  as  the  per- 
fection of  thought  and  expression,  and  so  obviously  a  new  book  or 
Sura  when  written  would  not  surpass  its  model.  The  challenge  was 
once  taken  up  by  Nadir  bin  Haritha,  who  is  referred  to  and  con- 
demned in  Surata  Luqman  (xxxi.  5),  but  he  was  taken  prisoner  at 
the  battle  of  Badr  and  put  to  death.  Naturally  no  further  attempts 
were  then  made.     If  the  comparison  is  considered  to  be  with  any  other 


100  THE  MOSLEM  WORLD 

religious  books,  then  it  is  maintained  that  no  book  in  any  language, 
ancient  or  modern,  is  equal  to  it.  Such  a  comparison  no  Muslim  for 
'thirteen  long  centuries'  has  ever  made.  When  our  commentator 
has  acquainted  himself  with  the  literature  of  all  the  ancient  classical 
languages  and  of  the  best  modern  ones,  he  will  then,  and  not  till 
then,  be  able  to  make  the  comparison.  The  Qur'an  is  a  great  book. 
No  scholar  disputes  this.  But  to  base  its  greatness  on  the  supposed 
inferiority  of  all  other  books  in  all  other  languages  and  with  which 
comparison  is  impossible  is  to  damage  its  reputation.  It  needs  no 
such  foolish  support. 

The  comment  on  verse  41  is  that  just  as  the  Mosaic  dispensation  saw 
its  consummation  in  the  person  of  Jesus  of  Nazareth  similarly  the 
Muhammedan  dispensation  has  been  consummated  in  the  person  of 
Mirza  Ghulam  Ahmad  of  Qadian.'  The  reply  may  be  left  to  Muslim 
theologians,  with  whom  it  is  an  article  of  belief  that  Muhammad  is 
the  seal  of  the  prophets — Khatimu'n-nabiyin  [Suratu'l-Ahzab  (xxxiii. 
40)  ] — ^whose  revelation  is  final. 

On  verse  76  the  old  worn-out  charge  of  the  corruption  of  the 
text  of  their  Scriptures  by  the  Jews  is  reiterated.  The  commentator 
says:  'They  wilfully  tampered  with  the  text  of  the  divine  word.' 
This  charge  is  based  on  the  words,  *Yet  a  class  among  them  heard 
the  word  of  Allah,  and  then  perverted  it  after  they  had  under- 
stood it  while  they  knew;'  but  it  means  that  they  'twisted  the  words,' 
i.e.  gave  a  wrong  meaning  to  them.  Baidawi's  interpretation  of 
'perverting  it'  is  that  it  refers  to  'the  description  of  Muhammad,  or 
the  verse  of  stoning,  or  the  explanation  thereof  and  they  interpret 
it  as  they  desire.'  The  charge  of  concealing  the  truth  is  made  in 
verse  161  (Baidawi  ed.),  and  according  to  Ibn  Hisham  the  verse 
was  revealed  when  certain  Arabs  enquired  of  the  Jews  regarding  a 
certain  matter  in  the  Taurat  and  they  concealed  it  from  them  and 
refused  to  give  any  information.  Neither  in  verse  76  nor  elsewhere 
is  it  explicitly  stated  that  they  wilfully  tampered  with  the  text.  The 
charge  is  strongly  asserted  but  no  proofs  are  given:  on  the  other 
hand  we  have  a  definite  Qur'anic  assurance:  'Verily,  we  have  sent 
down  the  Taurat,  wherein  are  guidance  and  light'  [Suratu'l-Ma'ida 
(v.  48)].  There  is  a  very  important  word  Musaddiqun  which  occurs 
several  times  in  connection  with  the  verification  of  previous  Scriptures 
by  the  Qur'an.  In  verses  90,  92,  98  and  102  the  translation  given 
of  it  is  'verifying'.  A  commentator  should  not,  in  his  exposition, 
overlook  so  important  a  word  as  this,  but  in  this  commentary,  which 
is  to  surpass  all  others,  it  is  judiciously  left  alone.  In  Suratu'l- 
Ma'ida  (v.  12)  it  also  occurs  with  the  addition  of  the  important 
word — Muhaiminan — safeguard.  Thus  the  Qur'an  itself  claims  to 
be  the  'safeguard'  of  previous  Scriptures.  If  the  text  has  been  cor- 
rupted then  the  Qur'an  has  clearly  failed  in  its  mission  of  being  a 
'safeguard*. 

Now,  assuming  for  the  sake  of  argument  that  a  few  Jews  in 
Madina  did  alter  the  text  of  the  few  copies  of  the  Old  Testament 
which  they  had  in  their  possession,  this  does  not  prove  that  the 
text  of  all  copies  has  been  altered.  To  prove  that  it  is  necessary 
to  show  that  the  Jews  settled  in  all  the  large  cities  of  the  then  known 
world  were  in  communication  with  the  Jews  at  Madina  and  simul- 
taneously altered  in  the  same  manner  the  sacred  text.  Now  for 
'thirteen  long  centuries'  no  one  has  been  able  to  prove  this.  The 
obligation,  therefore,  still  lies  on  all  good  Muslims  to  read  those 
Scriptures   which   the   Qur'an   verifies    {Musaddiqun)    and    of   which 


J 


BOOK  REVIEWS  loi 

it  is  the  safeguard  (Muhaiminan) .  The  subject  has  been  fully  dealt 
with  by  the  late  Sir  Syed  Ahmad  Khan.^  He  defines  the  terms 
tahrifuVlafzh  as  an  actual  change  of  the  written  words,  and  tahrifl- 
mdnawi,  as  a  change  in  the  meaning  of  words.  Our  commentator 
surely  knew  that  the  most  famous  Muslim  commentators  hold  that 
the  'perverting'  referred  to  is  of  the  latter  kind  and  that  there  has 
been  no  tahriful-lafzi,  or  alteration  of  the  text.  For  his  instruction 
we  quote  a  few.^  Shah  Wali  Ullah,  in  the  Faizu'l-Kabir,  considers 
that  'the  original  text  was  not  tampered  with;'  Imam  Fakhru'ddin 
Razi  (p.  12)  says:  'How  was  it  possible  to  corrupt  the  Old  Testa- 
ment when  it  was  so  well  known  among  the  people.'  In  the  Tafsir-i- 
Durr-i-Mauthur  (p.  15)  we  read:  'The  Taurat  and  Injil  are  in 
the  same  state  of  purity  in  which  they  were  sent  down  from  heaven 
and  that  no  alterations  have  been  made  in  them,  but  that  the  Jews 
were  wont  to  deceive  the  people  by  unsound  arguments  and  by  wrest- 
ing the  sense  of  scripture.'  In  other  words  there  was  tahrtfuU 
mdnawi,  but  no  tahriful-lafzi.  On  verse  76,  on  which  the  Qadiani 
commentator  bases  his  charge  of  the  corruption  of  the  text.  Sir  Syed 
Ahmad  says:  'This  verse  shows  that  the  scripture  readers  were  in 
the  habit  of  substituting  words  of  their  own  for  those  of  the  text; 
but  it  does  not  show  that  there  was  any  tampering  with  the 
written  text  itself.'  After  an  exhaustive  investigation  of  the  subject 
Sir  Syed  Ahmad  (p.  33)  concludes  thus:  'From  all  the  foregoing 
authorities  it  is  very  evident,  that  according  to  the  Muhammedan 
belief,  the  expression  of  corrupting  scripture  does  not  mean  an 
actual  mutilation  of  the  text,  but  simply  the  modifying  of  words 
when  read  to  another,  or  the  concealing  of  passages.'  In  another 
work^  he  says:  'I  do  not  agree  with  the  statement  that  the  Jews 
and  Christians  in  the  sacred  books  made  tahriful-lafzi/  We  cannot 
do  the  Qadiani  commentator  the  injustice  supposing  that  he  is 
ignorant  of  the  difference  of  these  two  kinds  of  tahrif.  He  must 
know  it  perfectly  well;  but  his  reticence  on  this  point  may  be  in- 
tentional, for  he  could  hardly  have  explained  the  meaning  of 
tahrif ul-lafzi  and  at  the  same  time  have  failed  to  notice  the  views  of 
the  great  commentators  whose  opinions  we  have  quoted,  which  are 
in  direct  conflict  with  his  own  dogmatic  statement — a  statement  sup- 
ported by  no  proof.  Thus  it  was  clearly  the  politic,  though  un- 
scholarly,  plan  to  pass  by  this  important  point  of  Qur'anic  exegesis 
altogether  and  to  say  nothing  about  it.  In  the  succeeding  issues  of 
this  commentary  the  subject  will  frequently  recur,  and  before  com- 
menting on  similar  passages  the  author  would  be  well  advised  to 
study  carefully  the  Shahadut-i-Qur  dni  bar  Kutub-i-Rabbani  (Lucknow 
1863)  and  from  it  also  to  learn  the  views  of  the  famous  commen- 
tators, Jalalu'd-din  and   Baidawi. 

Before  passing  from  this  subject  we  may  remark  that  it  is  not  stated 
whether  the  Jews,  who  are  charged  with  altering  the  text  of  their 
scriptures,  destroyed  the  old  copies  in  order  to  conceal  their  action, 

*  Sir  Syeid  Ahmad  justly  remarks  that  if  any  person  has  made  inter- 
polations in  his  private  copy  of  scripture,  it  is  a  mere  isolated  fact  quite 
unconnected  with  the  general  question.  Mohamedan  Commentary  on 
the  Holy  Bible,  Seventh  Discourse;  p.   10    (C.   L.   S.) 

'  The  Mohamedan  Commentary  on  the  Holy  Bible.  The  chapter 
referred  to  has  been  reprinted  in  The  Seventh  Discourse  of  Sir  Syed 
Ahmad   (C.  I..  S.  Madras.) 

"The  quotations  are  from  The  Seventh  Discourse  of  Sir  Syed 
Ahmad.      (C.   L.   S.   Madras.) 


I02  THE  MOSLEM  WORLD 

or  whether  they  allowed  both  the  unaltered  and  the  alleged  altered 
copies  to  remain  in  existence.  There  is  no  such  uncertainty  about  the 
altered  copy  of  the  Qur'an.  The  only  guarantee  of  the  authenticity 
of  the  Qur'an,  as  it  now  exists,  is  the  testimony  of  Zaid  ibn  Thabit. 
He  compiled  the  Qur'an  first  in  the  time  of  the  Khalifa  Abu  Bakr 
and  again  in  the  days  of  the  Khalifa  'Uthman.  Then  a  curious  thing 
happened.  All  the  copies  of  the  first  edition  were  destroyed  in  order 
that  no  record  of  the  alterations  in  the  text  might  exist.  ^  If  this  is 
not  so,  let  the  commentator  who  makes  the  charge  against  the  Jews, 
produce  Abu  Bakr's  Qur'an.  and  compare  it  with  that  of  'Uthman. 
But  we  notice  that  throughout  this  commentary  the  author  is  most 
reticent  on  the  subject  of  Various  readings'.* 

The  comment  on  verse  107  ridicules  the  doctrine  of  abrogation.  It 
says  that  the  conclusion  that  some  of  the  verses  of  the  Qur'an  have 
been  abrogated  is  erroneous  and  unwarranted.  The  reply  to  this 
may  safely  be  left  to  Muslim  theologians.  The  fact  that  the  dogma 
is  accepted  by  them  and  that  minute  rules  regarding  it  have  been 
drawn  up,  with  which  this  commentator  must  be  acquainted,  leads 
to  the  conclusion  that  his  remarks  are  meant  for  English  read- 
ers who  presumably  are  unacquainted  with  the  doctrinal  system  of 
Islam.  The  implication  that  the  alleged  error  concerning  the  ortho- 
dox dogma  of  abrogation  is  due  to  translators  is  a  very  weak  argu- 
ment against  a  well-established  orthodox  principle  of  Qur'anic  interpre- 
tation. It  is  advisable  that  the  commentator  should  read  carefully 
the  Tafsir-i-Baiddwi  and  the  Itqdn  of  Jalau'd-din  and  note  how  many 
verses  are  said  to  have  been  abrogated,  or  if  an  easy  reference  is 
desired  he  will  find  in  The  Dictionary  of  Islam  (p.  520)  a  list  of 
the  abrogated  verses  taken  from  the  Itqdn.  It  is  unlikely  that 
Muslims  will  set  aside  the  authority  of  these  great  commentators 
and  accept  the  opposite  view  of  a  sectarian  novice.  In  this  con- 
nection we  may  ask  what  has  become  of  the  Ayatu'rrajm,^  the 
Verse  of  stoning'  and  the  Suratu'n-Nurain.* 

Verses  126  et  seq  afford  an  opportunity  for  an  attempt  to  show 
that  the  expected  prophet  must  be  of  the  House  of  Ishmael,  but  the 
laboured  effort  is  not  convincing  and  the  author  would  be  well  ad- 
vised, before  he  returns  to  the  subject,  to  study  critically  the  able 
and  scholarly  work  of  Bates,  known  as  The  Claims  of  Ishmael 
(Lazarus  and  Co.,   Benares   1884). 

The  commentator  shows  an  astounding  ignorance  of  the  Christian 
doctrine  of  the  Trinity  in  Unity.  We  commend  to  his  notice  the 
Miftdh  al-Asrdr   (C.  L.  S.  Madras,   191 2,  pp.   131,  et  seq). 

On  the  whole,  the  commentary  is  very  disappointing.  The  plan 
adopted,  that  of  Christian  commentaries,  is  good  and  a  very  valuable 
book  might  have  been  prepared,  but  its  value  is  much  depreciated 
by  its  dogmatic  tone,  its  assumption  of  the  ignorance  of  its  readers, 
its  depreciation  of  the  views  and  work  of  other  scholars  and  its 
fanciful  interpretation  of  passages  which  it  is  assumed  can  lend 
themselves  to  the  support  of  the  claims  of  the  Qadiani  sect.     Thus, 

*0n  the  revision  being  completed,  "Uthman  ordered  all  the  remaining 
editions  to  be  destroyed,  and  it  is  due  to  this  fact  that  at  the  present  day 
only  one  authentic  and  uniform  text  is  in  use  throughout  the  Muslim 
world."  Mr.  Justice  *Abur-Rahim  Muhammadan  Jurisprudence,  (S.  P. 
C.  K.  Madras,  1904,  Lucac  &  Co.,  London)  p.  20. 

'  See  'Leaves  from  some  ancient  Qu/dns  possibly  pre-Othmanic.  Cam- 
bridge University   Press,   1914. 

*^See  The   Verse  of  Stoning   (C.  L.   S.   Madras). 

*See  The  Rescensions  of  the  Qur'dn  (C.  L.  S.  Madras). 


BOOK  REVIEWS  103 

instead  of  a  scholarly  commentary,  which  all  oriental  scholars  would 
have  welcomed  with  delight,  we  have  a  sectarian  book,  evidently 
composed  to  spread  and  enforce  the  claims  of  a  modern  sect  which  all 
good   Muslims   must   repudiate. 

Edward  Sell. 

Transliteration  of  Arabic  and  Persian.  Report  of  the  Committee 
appointed  to  draw  up  a  practical  scheme  for  the  transliteration 
into  English  of  words  and  names  belonging  to  the  Languages 
of  the  nearer  East,  (From  the  Proceedings  of  the  British  Academy, 
Vol.  VIII),  London,  published  for  the  British  Academy  by 
Humphrey  Milford,  Oxford  University  Press.  Price  One 
Shilling  net.      1918. 

This  is  one  of  a  series  of  "schemes"  for  the  transliteration  of 
words  from  Russian,  other  Slavonic  and  Eastern  languages.  The 
Sub-Committee  dealing  with  Arabic  and  Persian  included  in  this 
paper  were:  Sir  Charles  Lvall,  F.B.A.,  Prof.  A.  A.  Bevan,  F.B.A., 
Prof.  T.  Rhys  Davids,  F.B.A.,  Prof.  D.  S.  Margoliouth,  F.B.A., 
Sir  Frederick  Pollock,  F.B.A.,  and  Mr.  Hinks.  It  is  perhaps  the 
best  scheme  available  and  we  commend  it  to  our  readers.  As  it  is 
quite  impossible  to  represent  Arabic  words  without  diacritical  marks 
these  have  been  used,  to  a  considerable  extent,  and  yet  the  scheme 
includes  only  five  dotted  letters.  Specimen  lists  are  given  of  places, 
names,  and  persons  in  which  the  conventional  spelling  of  many  of 
these  words  is  retained,  for  example,  Aden,  Beyrout,  Mecca,  Oman. 
On  the  other  hand,  we  find  Muhammad,  Muslim. 

Z. 

The  Encyclopaedia  of  Islam.  A  Dictionary  of  the  Geography, 
Ethnography  and  Biography  of  the  Muhammadan  Peoples, 
edited  by  M.  Th.  Houtsma,  T.  W.  Arnold,  R.  Basset  and 
H.  Bauer,  Number  21  {Hadith-Hanafts)  Leyden,  Late  E.  J. 
Brill,  Ltd.  London,  'L\iz2iC  &  Co.,  46  Great  Russell  St.,  Pub- 
lishers and  Printers,     pp.  193-256  of  Vol.  II. 

This  Encyclopaedia  has  already  received  notice  in  our  Quarterly. 
It  is  a  welcome  evidence  that  there  can  still  be  international  coopera- 
tion in  the  realm  of  scientific  research  during  the  present  conflict. 
The  International  Association  of  the  Academies,  under  whose  patron- 
age this  great  work  is  being  published,  may  be  congratulated  on  the 
continuation  of  its  task  in  spite  of  the  deep  lines  of  cleavage  occasioned 
by  the  war.  The  present  number  gives  the  last  portion  of  the  article 
on  Hadith  by  Professor  JuynboU,  and  ends  with  the  first  paragraph 
on  the  Hanafis.  Among  the  leading  articles  we  note  an  important 
contribution  on  the  Hajj  (here  spelled  Hadjdj)  by  Professor  A.  J. 
Wensinck.  He  describes  the  Islamic  ritual,  the  origin  of  these 
practices  and  traces  most  of  them  back  to  pre-Islamic  paganism.  The 
article  on  Hadramaut  gives  the  population  of  that  vast  province  as 
only  150,000.  We  doubt  whether  this  is  correct.  The  article  on 
Haidarabad  is  distinctly  disappointing.  Where  so  much  space  is 
rightly  given  to  Halab  (Aleppo) — more  than  nineteen  columns — 
we  expected  more  than  a  paragraph  on  one  of  the  leading  Moslem 
centers  of  India  and  the  seat  of  one  of  its  ruling  dynasties. 

Among  the  shorter  articles  there  is  an  interesting  sketch  of 
Moslem  superstition  regarding  al  Haiya  (the  snake)  in  which  the 
serious   omission   occurs   of   any   reference   to   serpent   worship   among 


104  THE  MOSLEM  WORLD 

Moslems  in  Egypt  today  (see  The  Moslem  World,  July  1918). 
Professor  Margoliouth  contributes  a  number  of  articles  to  this 
section  of  the  Encyclopaedia  and  we  note  with  special  interest  the 
illuminating  although  brief  articles  by  Professor  D.  B.  MacDonald 
on  Hakika  (reality),  Hakk,  and  al  Hamdala. 

We  repeat  an  earlier  criticism  that  the  German-English  system  of 
spelling  and  the  lack  of  any  cross  references  make  it  difficult  to 
find  the  desired  subject  or  topic.  Who,  for  example,  would  look 
for  information  about  amulets  and  talismans  under  Hamail,  or  find 
the  most  famous  Turkish  encyclopaedist  disguised  as  Hadjdji-Khalifa? 

S.  M.  Z. 

A  Guide  to  the  Study  of  the  Christian  Religion.  Gerald  B. 
Smith,  editor,  published  by  The  University  of  Chicago  Press, 
Chicago,  111.,  pp.  751.     Price  $3.(X)  net.     1918. 

The  missionary  abroad  often  finds  it  difficult,  especially  during 
the  present  war,  to  keep  in  touch  with  the  new  theological  books  so 
essential  for  the  task.  Everyone  who  deals  with  the  Moslem  mind 
realizes  that  an  acquaintance  with  present-day  aspects  of  theological 
problems  is  an  essential  for  a  sympathetic  contact  with  those  Moslems 
who  are  using  the  arguments  of  Western  Unitarianism.  One  may 
find  in  this  volume  as  nowhere  else  within  the  same  compass  a 
summary  of  present-day  thinking  by  those  who  are  recognized  leaders. 
Although  most  of  them  might  be  designated  as  progressive  rather 
than  conservative,  they  all  accept  the  historical  method,  and  the 
survey  is,  therefore,  thoroughly  modern.  In  twelve  chapters  such 
subjects  as  the  following  are  treated  by  Drs.  Faunce,  Shailer  Mathews, 
Burton,  Foster  and  others;  most  of  the  writers  belonging  to  the 
Faculty  of  the  University  of  Chicago: — ^The  Historical  Study  of 
Religion;  Introduction  to  the  Old  and  New  Testaments;  The 
Development  of  the  Catholic  Church;  The  Protestant  Reformation; 
The  Development  of  Modern  Christianity;  Systematic  Theology; 
Practical  Theology;  Social  Problems;  and  The  Contribution  of 
Critical  Scholarship  to  Ministerial  Efficiency.  We  do  not  agree 
with  all  the  opinions  set  forth  under  these  various  topics,  but  no  one 
can  read  the  discussions  without  benefit.  Perhaps  the  concluding 
paragraph  of  the  book  will  indicate  its  scope,  method  and  goal 
succinctly : 

"Usually  the  candidate  for  the  ministry — young  though  he  may 
sometimes  be — enters  the  divinity  school  as  a  finished  religious  and 
theological  product,  but  in  consequence  of  his  studies  there  he  departs 
unfinished,  growing  aware  that  his  personality,  with  its  religions  and 
its  theology,  are  alike  in  the  making.  A  divinity  school  that 
achieves  such  a  result  has  fulfilled  its  function  in  the  life  of  the 
human  spirit."  We  have  not  yet  learned  this  lesson  on  the  mission 
field  in  the  study  of  non-Christian  religions! 

Each  chapter  is  followed  by  a  careful  bibliography  but  the  index  is 
meagre;  and  in  a  guide  to  the  study  of  the  Christian  religion  one 
might  surely  expect  a  larger  use  of  the  Scriptures  themselves. 
Quotations  or  references  to  the  Old  Testament  and  New  Testament 
are  conspicuous  by  their   absence. 

L.  S.  R. 

South-Eastem  Europe.  The  Main  Problem  of  the  Present  World 
Struggle.  Vladislav  R.  Savic.  Map-276  pages.  Fleming  H. 
Revell  Company.     $1.50  net. 


BOOK  REVIEWS  105 

"South-Eastern  Europe",  by  Vladislav  R.  Savic,  a  Serbian  author, 
is  a  masterly  brief  of  the  case  for  the  Jugo-Slavs,  especially  for 
Serbia.  The  intricacies  of  the  history  and  interrelation  of  the  Balkan 
States  is  a  subject  requiring  close  study,  and  the  presentation  of 
innumerable  facts,  in  order  to  understand  the  claims  of  the  Serbo- 
Croats*  and   the   Slovenes  to   an   independent   autonomy. 

The  writer  goes  most  carefully  into  Serbia's  life-history,  her  grow- 
ing relation  of  servitude  to  Austria-Hungary,  and  the  traitorous  defec- 
tion of  Bulgaria  to  the  side  of  the  Central  Powers.  He  shows 
remarkable  familiarity  and  insight  into  the  struggles  of  his  brave 
nation  for  its  very  existence,  declaring  that  "though  Germany's  thrust 
against  France  and  Belgium  was  stupendous,  that  the  principal 
ambition  of  Germany  lay  in  the  East."  He  maintains  Serbia  and 
the  Southern  Slavs  to  be  the  "pivotal  point  in  the  sound  recon- 
struction of  South-Eastern  Europe." 

Mr.  Savic  makes  it  clear  that  not  only  should  Italy  not  have 
delegated  to  her  the  exclusive  control  of  the  Adriatic,  as  some  are 
inclined  to  claim,  but  that  the  Southern  Slavs  should  be  united  in  a 
Serbo-Crotian  and  Slovene  kingdom,  taking  Italy  as  a  pattern.  The 
thirteen  points  of  organization  of  such  a  constitutional  monarchy 
were  determined  upon  at  a  conference  held  at  Corfu  in  191 7. 

Making  the  humiliating  declaration  that  until  only  recently 
Western  ideas  of  things  Slavic  have  been  obtained  through  a  German 
medium,  he  states  that  the  purpose  of  this  volume  is  to  give  to  the 
American  people  an  acquaintance  with  the  historical  and  political 
material  that  will  help  them  to  understand  the  points  involved  in 
the  final  settlement  of  the  question  of  South-Eastern  Europe. 

Mrs.  Burton  St.  John. 

The  Bijak  of  Kabir.  Translated  into  English  by  the  Rev.  Ahmad 
Shah.  Published  by  the  author  at  Hamirpur,  U.  P.,  India.  Pp. 
236. 

Although  this  book  has  no  special  reference  to  the  Moslem  problem, 
we  are  glad  to  note  it  in  our  columns  because  it  represents  a  fine  piece 
of  scholarship  by  one  of  the  noted  Moslem  converts  of  India,  who  has 
for  many  years  labored  not  only  in  preaching  but  as  translator  and 
writer.  He  is  well  known  as  the  author  of  a  Concordance  and  Com- 
prehensive Glossary  of  the  Koran  in  English  and  Urdu.  The  Asiatic 
Quarterly  speaks  in  the  highest  terms  of  this  translation.  The  con- 
tents comprise  in  all  2,ioo  couplets  and  the  whole  subject  is  treated  with 
sympathy  and  discrimination.  The  author  gives  in  full  the  contradictory 
Moslem  and  Hindu  traditions  of  the  legendary  life  of  Kabir.  He 
holds  that  many  of  the  thoughts  in  this  great  poem  resemble  those  of  the 
Moslem  Sufis. 

The  War  and  the  Bagdad  Railway:  The  story  of  Asia  Minor 
and  its  Relation  to  the  Present  Conflict.  By  Morris  Jastrow, 
Jr.,  Ph.  D.,  L.  L.  D.  Second  edition,  J.  B.  Lippincott  Co., 
Philadelphia.     Pp.  160,  with  illustrations.     1918.     $1.50  net. 

This  book,  because  of  the  preface  to  a  second  edition  if  for  no  other 
reason,  is  one  of  those  few  books  on  the  war  which  every  missionary 
in  the  Near  East  must  read.  The  author  holds  with  many  others,  that 
the  Bagdad  Railway  project  was  the  deciding  factor  which  led  Germany 
in  July,  191 4,  to  take  the  position  which  brought  on  the  War.  He 
believes  that  in  the  last  analysis  the  Bagdad  railway  has  been  at  the 


io6  THE  MOSLEM  WORLD 

core  of  the  Eastern  question  and  he  therefore  goes  back  not  only  to  the 
history  of  modern  diplomacy  and  the  economic  struggle  for  the  ex- 
ploitation of  the  Euphrates  Valley,  but  to  the  story  of  Asia  Minor 
from  the  days  of  the  Hittities.  This  part  of  the  book  does  not 
particularly  concern  us,  although  it  shows  the  importance  of  the  highway 
between  Europe  and  Asia  and  affords  the  author  an  opportunity  to  dis- 
close his  special  learning  in  his  department.  The  other  three  chapters 
deal  with  the  war  in  the  East,  the  story  of  the  Bagdad  railway,  and  the 
Issue  of  the  present  conflict  as  well  as  the  outlook  afterward.  No  one 
can  accuse  the  writer  of  prejudice.  He  himself  says  that  in  speaking 
of  Germany's  conduct  in  the  war,  he  writes  more  in  sorrow  than  in 
anger. 

Nor  is  he  blind  to  the  fact  that  in  the  new  alignment  of  power 
throughout  the  near  East,  especially  in  Arabia,  England  "may  be 
stirring  up  a  spirit  which  it  will  be  hard  for  her  to  control,  for  the 
spirit  of  Islam  is  still  the  spirit  of  fanaticism  that  sees  only  the  doings 
of  Iblis  in  a  world  that  does  not  acknowledge  Mohammed  as  the  Apostle 
of  Allah."  The  book  is  a  proof  that  although  the  decisive  battlefield  for 
the  triumph  of  democracy  may  be  in  the  West,  the  decisions  that 
will  affect  the  supremacy  of  European  power  for  the  future  lie  in  the 
East.  He  traces  the  interesting  story  of  the  Bagdad  railway  project 
from  1888  when  the  first  concession  was  made  to  a  syndicate  of 
Germans,  until  the  outbreak  of  the  war.  A  full  bibliography  gives  the 
sources  for  this  chapter.  The  effect  of  German  control  aroused  a 
storm  of  protest  against  the  entire  project  in  England  and  France. 
"It  was  felt  in  England  that  if,  as  Napoleon  is  said  to  have  remarked, 
Antwerp  in  the  hands  of  a  great  continental  power,  was  a  pistol  leveled 
at  the  English  coast,  Bagdad  and  the  Persian  Gulf  in  the  hands  of 
Germany  (or  any  other  strong  power)  would  be  a  42-centimetre  gun 
pointed  at  India." 

England  by  the  declaration  of  a  protectorate  over  Kuweit  check- 
mated Germany's  efforts.  Meanwhile  the  railway  began  to  be  built. 
In  1904  the  first  section  from  Konia  to  Bulgurli  was  opened.  At  the 
time  of  the  outbreak  of  the  war  the  second  section  as  far  as  Adana  was 
almost  finished,  as  well  as  the  stretch  from  Bagdad  to  Samarra. 

The  Ipst  chapter  in  the  book  is  the  least  satisfactory.  The  author 
distinguishes  the  war  of  191 7  from  the  war  of  191 4.  He  believes  that 
Germany's  diplomatic  case  at  the  outbreak  of  the  war  of  191 4  was 
not  bad.  Yet,  he  grants  that  Germany  could  have  prevented  the  war, 
even  if  she  did  not  will  it.  He  insists  on  a  clear  distinction  between 
the  German  Government  and  the  German  people.  We  cannot  agree 
with  hi  '  thnt  Attic  irnns  have  no  special  concern  with  the  issues 
that  brought  on  the  war  of  191 4;  (Page  130).  The  plan  of  Germany 
for  world  domination  and  for  using  Turkey  and  Islam  to  further  her 
aims  at  any  cost  goes  back  much  earlier  than  191 4.  Karl  Peters  wrote 
in  1907  "If  German  policy  is  only  bold  enough,  she  will  be  able  through 
Pan-Islamism  to  fashion  the  dynamite  which  will  blow  to  atoms 
British  and  French  rule  from  Morocco  to  Calcutta". 

In  conclusion  he  speaks  of  the  problems  that  confront  the  coming 
Peace  Conference  and  the  clash  of  interests  which  cannot  be  avoided. 
The  fate  of  Persia  is  involved,  as  well  as  of  Turkey.  He  hopes  that 
both  of  these  lands  will  be  restored  as  Asiatic  entities  and  have  self 
Government.     Let  him  who  believes  the  impossible  hope  for  it. 


BOOK  REVIEWS  107 

The  Riddle  of  Nearer  Asia        Basil    Mathews,    M.    A.,    United 
Council   for   Missionary   Education.      London.      191 8.      160   pp. 

2/1. 

Ten  British  Missionary  Societies  have  combined  with  the  United 
Council  for  Missionary  Education  in  promoting  systematic  study  of 
the  Near  East  with  this  text  book  as  guide  this  winter,  and  we 
may  hope  that  it  will  arouse  interest  as  never  before  in  that  part 
of  the  world  hitherto  the  most  neglected,  except  perhaps  South 
America,  by  British  supporters  of  foreign  missions.  It  is  masterly 
in  its  grasp  of  century-long  riddles  in  historical  perspective,  and  local 
colour  has  been  gained  by  the  writer's  personal  visit  to  the  Near 
East  before  he  issued  his  previous  book  "Paul  the  Dauntless,"  which 
has  had  such  good  success.  Practically  all  the  illustrations  are  from 
his  own  photographs,  and  here  and  there  one  takes  a  seat  beside 
him  at  some  crossroad  of  history  as  he  writes  his  impressions.  Perhaps 
it  is  a  book  of  impressions  rather  than  a  textbook.  Nevertheless  it 
has  a  strong,  definite  message  and  will  not  easily  be  forgotten,  any 
more  than  the  rest  of  Mr.  Mathews'  work.  Chapter  VI.,  **The 
People  of  the  Camel,"  is  as  vivid  a  description  of  the  Arab,  in 
brief  compass,  as  we  have  found  anywhere:  great  possibilities  lie 
concealed  within  the  Arab  race  and  those  who  have  set  their  hand 
to  support  missions  in  Arabia  should  ponder  much  on  this  chapter. 
"Among  all  those  rich  powers  that  lie  dormant  in  the  Arab,  the 
deepest  and  fullest  is  his  capacity  to  undertake  great  adventure  for 
God  *  *  *  The  Arab  has  proved  himself  to  be  a  natural  mission- 
ary force  *  *  *  The  adventurous,  mobile  and  virile  strength  of  the 
Arab  placed  at  the  service  of  Christ  would  certainly  lead  into  His 
kingdom  not  only  his  own  great  people  but  an  increasing  army  of 
others  in  Asia  and  in  Africa.  The  Arab  would  also  interpret  to 
the  world  that  masculine  and  heroic  element,  that  sterner  quality  in 
Christ  which  the  Church  in  the  West  has  tended  to  lose." 

E.  I.  M.  B. 

Armenia,  a  Martyr  Nation.  A  Historical  Sketch  of  the  Armenian 

People  from  Traditional  Times  to  the  Present  Day,  by  M.   C. 

Gabrielian,    with    an    Introduction    by   William    Henry    Roberts, 

and  a  map  of  Asia  Minor.     352  pp.     Published  by  The  Fleming 

H.  Revell  Co.  1918. 

The    author    is    described    in    the    Introduction    as    follows    "the 

Reverend   M.   C.   Gabrielian,   M.   D.,   is   a   native  of  Armenia,   was 

first   trained    in    the   American    Mission    at    Marsovan,    Asia    Minor, 

came   to   the   United    States   in    1881    and   completed    his    theological 

studies   at    Princeton   Theological    Seminary    at    Princeton,    N.    J.    in 

1888.     He  then  took  a  course  of  study  at  Jefferson  Medical  College, 

Philadelphia,    Pennsylvania,    and    received    in    1892    the    degree    of 

Doctor  of   Medicine."     The   book  of   twenty   chapters   divides  quite 

naturally  into  two  parts.     The  first  ten  chapters  treat  of  the  land, 

the    people    and    their    history,    both    secular    and    religious.      The 

historical   treatment   is    not   only   from   traditional    times   but   is    also 

on   traditional    lines.      The    attention   of   readers   of   The    Moslem 

World  is  called  to  the  second  half  of  the  book.     Chapter  XI  is  on 

the    Armenian    Question,    Chapter    XII    on    'The    Gospel    and    the 

Koran',    Chapter   XIII    on    'Massacres    of   the    Christians';    the    rest 

recount    in    detail    the    horrors    of    1895-6,    1908    and    191 5    to    the 

present.     Victims  of  insomnia  should  not  read  these  chapters  before 

retiring  and  most  readers  should  be  prepared  to  raise  their  subscrip- 


io8  THE  MOSLEM  WORLD 

tions  to  the  Liberty  Loan  or  to  make  a  gift  to  the  Red  Cross — 
unless  the  reader  be  such  that  nothing  will  move  him.  Our  author 
does  not  have  the  historian's  instinct  for  marshalling  his  facts, 
although,  in  general,  the  main  items  receive  mention.  What  he  does 
accomplish  is  the  arraignment  of  Islam  and  the  Turks,  Old  and 
Young.  To  an  observer  of  our  times  it  sometimes  seems  as  if 
the  great  German  atrocities  on  land  and  sea  tend,  for  most  people, 
to  put  the  horrible  crimes  of  the  Turks  and  Kurds  in  the  shade. 
It  is  to  be  hoped  that  this  is  not  really  the  case  arid  that  the  nations 
for  w^hom  President  Wilson  has  so  nobly  spoken  will  impose  a 
just  retribution  on  them  also  and  secure  the  liberation  of  the  oppressed 
peoples  of  Asia  Minor.  The  book  under  review  should  help  toward 
this  end.  But  it  also  has  another  message  for  an  open-minded  reader. 
It  has  long  been  the  fashion  to  gloss  over  the  real  nature  of  Islam. 
Even  in  missionary  circles  the  tendency  has  been  to  urge  irenics 
rather  than  polemics.  Dr.  Gabrielian  points  out  that  the  Armenian 
Question  has  always  been  and  is  a  religious  one.  "Why  have  the 
Armenians  been  so  cruelly  persecuted,  oppressed,  tortured  and  butch- 
ered? *  *  *  Not  because  they  belong  to  a  different  nationality — 
though  they  do — but  because  they  belong  to  a  different  religion,  they 
are  Christians."  (p.  187)  The  author  writes  for  Armenia  and 
was  therefore  under  no  obligation  to  make  mention  of  other  peoples, 
though  he  does  so.  However,  the  real  anti-Christian  character  of  these 
persecutions  comes  out  when  the  fact  is  made  plain  that  all  Chris- 
tians in  Asia  Minor  have  suffered  alike,  Armenians,  Syrians, 
Jacobites,  Nestorians,  Catholics,  Protestant,  whatever  sect  or  nation- 
ality they  belonged  to.  Robbing  and  killing  Christians  are  matters 
of  divine  command  and  prophetic  example  for  the  Moslem.  **No 
Mohammedan  can  be  expected  to  be  any  better  than  Mohammed 
himself;  that  he  was  a  sensual,  cruel  and  blood-thirsty  man,  and  a 
relentless  enemy  to  Christianity,  *  *  *  is  manifest  from  the  facts 
of  history,  his  life  and  his  teaching." 

We  ofiFer  a  few  minor  criticisms.  The  author  has  a  habit  of 
using  quotation  marks  without  indicating  the  source  of  the  quota- 
tion, e.g.  on  pages  62,  69,  193,  etc.  A  number  of  misprints  appear, 
curiously  all  in  proper  names.  To  indicate  a  few,  Orhtman  for 
Othman  p.  89,  Seljinkian  for  Seljukian  p.  91,  Armedian  for  Armenian 
p.    105,   Jesup   for  Jessup  p.   205    (hardly   pardonable). 

F.  J.  Barny^ 

Baghdad.  Mrs.  Ashley  Carus-Wilson,  B.  A.,  London:     Church 

Missionary  Society.  191 8.  pp.  30.  6d.  net. 
This  small  pamphlet  contains  an  extraordinary  amount  of  historical 
information  about  Baghdad  as  a  station  of  the  C.  M.  S.,  and  one 
could  only  wish  every  important  mission  station  were  placed  before 
those  who  support  its  work  or  are  about  to  go  out  to  it  as  recruits 
with  equal  care.  "Three  stages  of  civilization  have  been  marked 
out  *  *  ♦  Baghdad's  situation  carries  us  straight  back  to  the  first; 
its  fame  belongs  to  the  second;  the  third,  which  found  it  fallen,  now 
promises  it  a  wonderful  future" — such  is  the  text  of  the  booklet; 
and  its  appeal  is  that  especially  the  British,  who  by  the  victory  in  the 
recent  campaign  find  themselves  responsible  for  the  industrial  and 
commercial  development  of  the  country,  may  follow  up  the  brave 
beginning  of  their  handful  of  missionaries  and  make  Baghdad  worthy 
of  its  name:  "Garden  of  Beneficence." 

E.  I.  M.  B. 


SURVEY  OF  RECENT  PERIODICALS. 

I.  GENERAL. 

IL  SOURCES  OF  ISLAM  IN  ARABIA. 

IIL  HISTORY  OF  ISLAM  UP  TILL  RECENT  TIMES. 

The  Mohammedans  m  China.  By  Archimandrite  Palladius,  of 
the  Russian  Mission,  Peking;  translated  from  Russian  by  Miss 
C.  Figouroksky  and  the  Rev.  C.  L.  Ogilvie.  "Chinese  Recorder." 
Shanghai.     July,   191 8. 

An  historical  account  written  in  1866  with  some  mention  of 
Mohammedan  practices  and  ways  of  life  in  China.  Several  state- 
ments are  subject  to  correction,  e.  g.  that  there  are  but  four  millions 
of  Moslems  in  the  country,   but  in  general   the   article   is  welcome. 

Kazan  and  the  Reconstruction  of  Russia.  "The  Near  East" 
Aug.  9,  1 91 8. 

An  estimate  upon  the  strategic  importance  of  Kazan,  the  centre  of 
the  Russian  Moslem  community,  the  oldest  under  any  European  gov- 
ernment. "Whoever  holds  Kazan  commands  the  whole  course  of  the 
Volga  below  it  to  its  delta  in  the  Caspian  Sea." 

IV.  KORAN,   TRADITIONS,   THEOLOGY,   ETC. 

V.  SOCIAL  AND  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  IN  ISLAM. 

VI.  POLITICAL  RELATIONSHIPS. 

England  and  Palestine.  Estelle  Blyth.  "The  Near  East."  Aug. 
16,  1918. 

An  appeal  to  the  sons  and  daughters  of  Palestine  on  their  coming 
under  the  protection  of  the  British. 

Turkey  and  Armenia.  G.  Thoumaian.  "Contemporary  Review." 
London.     Aug.  1918. 

A  discussion  from  the  Armenian  point  of  view  of  Mr.  Brailsford's 
scheme,  whereby  each  religious  body  in  the  Turkish  Empire  should  be 
reorganized  as  an  autonomous  community  free  to  administer  its  own 
affairs  with  the  fullest  self-government.  "The  principal  defect  in  this 
scheme  is  that  it  lacks  the  execution  power.  We  ought  to  be  con- 
cerned at  this  moment  with  the  creation  of  this  executive  power 
rather  than  lose  our  time  over  the  details  of  the  administrative 
machinery.     It  must  be  well  understood  that  the  failure  of  all  schemes 

109 


no  SURVEY  OF  PERIODICALS 

tried  is  due  to  the  insincerity  and  bad  faith  of  the  Turks  and  their 
unwillingness  to  make  them  a  success.  ♦  *  *  The  Turk  is  the 
unwilling  partner." 

The  Situation  in  the  Middle  East.  Robert  Mackay.  "Fortnightly 
Review."     London.     October,    191 8. 

A  summary,  well  focused,  of  the  progress  of  the  war  in  the 
Middle  East,  especially  from  the  taking  of  Baghdad  to  the  with- 
drawal from  Baku  by  the  British. 

Mesopotamia :  the  Land  between  the  Rivers.  Major  General 
Sir  George  MacMunn,  K.  C.  B.,  D.  S.  O.  "Cornhill  Maga- 
zine."   London. 

A  general  description  of  the  country  now  in  the  possession  of  the 
British. 

Turkey,  Islam  and  Pan  Turanianism.  Sir  Edwin  Pears.  "Con- 
temporary Review."     London.     October,  191 8. 

A  discussion  of  the  proposal  made  by  certain  Turks  to  renounce 
the  religion  of  Mohammed  and  to  substitute  for  it  that  of  the 
Turanians.  "Were  it  to  materialize,  it  would  mean  a  relapse  from 
monotheism  into  polytheism,  or  a  confusion  of  religious  conceptions 
hardly  distingishable  from  fetishism."  The  conclusion  is  that  "Tur- 
anianism is  a  retrograde  movement  which  offends  both  educated 
Moslems  and  the  ignorant.  Ottoman  statesmen,  already  recognize 
that  such  a  movement,  founded  on  common  origins,  customs  and 
language,  would  conflict  with  Pan-Islamism.  Of  the  two  forces 
the  latter  is  undoubtedly  the  most  potent." 

VIIL  HISTORY  OF  MOHAMMEDAN  MISSIONS. 

The  Present  Attitude  of  Non-Christians  in  Egypt  towards  the 
Gospel.     Rev.    S.    M.    Zwemer,'   D.    D.      "Blessed    be    Egypt." 
October,    1918. 

A  paper  read  at  the  Missionary  Conference  at  Mena  House,  Cairo, 
in  April,   191 8. 

Christian  Literature  for  Moslems.  Canon  W.  H.  T.  Gairdner. 
"Blessed  be  Egypt."     October,  1918. 

A  summary  of  special  kinds  of  literary  work  needed  at  the  present 
time,  more  particularly  in  Egypt. 

Evangelism  Among  Moslems.  Rev.  W.  H.  Reed.  "Blessed  be 
Egypt."     October,   191 8. 

A  paper  based  on  the  opinions  and  experience  of  many  Christian 
workers,   missionaries   and   Egj^ptian   Christians. 


The  Moslem  World 


VOL.  IX  APRIL,  1919  NO.  2 


EDITORIALS 


The  Chasm 


In  a  recent  report  by  Bishop  Brent  on  the  work 
among  the  Moros  in  the  Philippine  Islands  he  says  that 
"this  age-long  problem  of  Mohammedanism  has  been 
as  baffling  to  governments  as  to  religion ;  it  has  a  certain 
attractiveness  just  because  it  is  so  stubborn  and  so  mys- 
terious. Neither  the  Christian  faith  nor  Christian  civi- 
lization has  more  than  dented  the  solid  unity  of  Moham- 
medanism." Now  there  is  a  sense  in  which  this  state- 
ment is  still  true  although  it  may  at  first  glance  seem  an 
over-statement  in  view  of  the  evident  intellectual  disin- 
tegration of  Islam,  the  collapse  of  its  political  power 
and  the  increasing  effect  of  the  impact  of  Christian  misr 
sions  on  its  social  life  and  institutions.  The  problem  of 
Islam  stretches  over  thirteen  centuries  and  includes 
many  elements  all  of  which  offer  scope  for  study  and 
prayer  to  those  who  are  engaged  in  the  task  of  inter- 
preting Christ  to  Moslems. 

It  is  a  historical  problem;  and  no  one  can  have  real 
sympathy  with  Moslems  or  qualify  as  a  worker  among 
them  who  has  not  studied  the  genesis  of  this  great  world 
movement,  its  wide  spread,  its  deep  penetration  through- 
out Asia  and  Africa.  Whether  this  religion  has  been  a 
barrier  and  a  stumbling-block  or  a  stepping-stone  and  a 
helpful  influence  in  the  progress  of  the  race  cannot  be  an- 
swered off-hand  or  categorically.  The  elements  of  the 
problem  are  too  many  and  varied ;  nevertheless  Schlegel 
in  his  "Philosophy  of  History"  summed  up  his  conclu- 
sions by  saying:  "A  Prophet  without  miracles,  a  religion 
without  mysteries  and  a  morality  without  love,  which  has 
always  encouraged  a  thirst  for  blood  and  which  began 
and  ended  in  the  most  unbounded  sensuality."     Will  this 


III 


112  THE  MOSLEM  WORLD 

verdict  stand  in  view  of  the  events  of  the  past  four  years 
oris  it  too  severe? 

Islam  is  also  a  political  problem.  For  the  first  time  in 
history  Moslem  rulers  and  representatives  have  been  at 
the  Peace  Table  with  representatives  of  Christian  nations 
to  plan  for  a  league  of  nations  and  to  make  democracy 
safe  for  the  world.  The  incongruity  of  all  this  with  the 
old  idea  of  Islam  as  a  church-state  and  with  the  whole 
Moslem  theory  of  political  government  is  self  evident. 
Whatever  has  been  said  to  the  contrary,  missionaries  have 
always  realized  the  baffling  character  of  the  problem 
which  colonial  governments  face  in  Moslem  lands. 
Where,  in  their  judgment,  mistakes  have  sometimes  been 
made  in  the  readjustment  of  the  rights  of  Christians 
under  Moslem  law,  in  the  question  of  the  Christian  Sab- 
bath or  in  the  protection  of  converts,  there  has  been  on 
their  part  no  lack  of  sympathy  and  appreciation  of  the 
difficult  process  of  bridging  this  chasm. 

In  its  social  aspects  the  Moslem,  problem  involves  the 
condition  of  childhood  and  womanhood,  the  sanctity  of 
tne  home,  the  *^compulsory  ignorance'*  of  the  masses,  in- 
credible superstitions  due  to  almost  universal  illiteracy, 
and  the  crying  needs  of  the  defectives,  delinquents  and 
dependents  in  Moslem  society.  The  dark  places  of  the 
Moslem  world  are  still  the  habitation  of  cruelty.  The 
cry  of  Moslem  childhood  in  its  utter  need  and  neglect 
is  still  unheeded.  The  percentage  of  infant  mortality  in 
all  Moslem  lands  for  example,  is  incredible  until  we 
know  the  degradation  and  superstitions  of  motherhood 
in  these  lands.  It  is  not  in  this  way  that  Christ  intended 
the  little  children  to  come  unto  Him. 

The  religious  problem  of  Islam  is  back  of  it  all  and 
is  therefore  fundamental.  The  yawning  chasm  between 
the  devout  Moslem  and  the  devout  Christian,  between 
the  orthodox  Moslem  and  the  orthodox  Christian  is  a 
problem  that  faces  every  colporteur  and  Bible  woman, 
every  teacher  and  preacher.  It  is  real  and  deep.  The 
chasm  cannot  be  bridged  by  rickety  planks  of  com- 
promise. Syncretism  would  be  equivalent  to  surrender; 
for  Islam  thrives  only  by  its  denial  of  the  authority  of 
ihe  Scriptures,  the  Deity  of  our  Lord,  the  blessedness  of 


EDITORIALS  113 

the  Holy  Trinity,  the  cruciality  and  significance  of  the 
Cross,  (nay,  its  very  historicity)  and  the  pre-eminence  of 
Jesus  Christ  as  King  and  Saviour.  And  this  denial  is 
accompanied  by  the  assertion  of  the  authority  of  another 
book,  the  Koran,  the  eclipse  of  Christ's  glory  by  another 
prophet,  even  Mohammed,  and  the  substitution  of  an- 
other path  to  holiness  and  forgiveness  than  the  way  of  the 
Cross.  These  denials  and  assertions  are  imbedded  in  the 
Koran  and  are  the  orthodox  belief  of  ninety  per  cent  of 
the  people.  On  every  one  of  these  points  the  true  Mos- 
lem stands  arrayed  in  armor  against  the  missionary  and 
the  Truth,  of  which  he  is  the  custodian  and  the  preacher. 
In  this  respect  the  New  Islam  of  Aligarh  or  of  Woking 
differs  little  from  that  of  Mecca  and  the  Azhar.  In  fact 
the  Sheikhs  of  the  Azhar  give  a  higher  place  to  Jesus  of 
Nazareth  than  does  "the  Moslem  Review"  or  the  anti- 
Christian  propagandism  of  the  Lahore  Tract  Society. 
The  former  have  never  denied  the  sinlessness  of  our 
Saviour  while  the  latter  have  shown  the  depth  of  their 
own  mental  degradation  by  frantic  attempts  to  besmirch 
His  spotless  character.  Yet  we  must  plan  and  sacrifice 
not  to  bombard  the  enemies'  position  but  to  bridge  the 
chasm  and  win  captives.  At  all  of  these  points  the  mis- 
sionary problem  is  how  to  bridge  the  chasm  with  cour- 
age and  tact,  by  the  manifestation  of  the  truth  in  love. 
The  distribution  of  the  Word  of  God  always  holds  the 
first  place.  It  has  always  proved  its  power.  No  less 
must  we  flood  the  world  of  Islam  with  a  Christian  liter- 
ature that  is  apologetic  without  being  too  dogmatic,  and 
captivating  rather  than  polemic.  We  must  show  that 
even  the  human  character  of  Jesus  as  recorded  in  the 
Gospel  and  illustrated  in  the  lives  of  his  followers  for- 
bids his  classification  with  men.  His  life  was  in  God, 
his  principles  are  super-human.  He  is  more  than  an 
Apostle.  It  is  the  conviction  of  many  workers  in  Mos- 
lem lands  that  the  right  approach  to  the  Moslem's  dif- 
ficulty with  the  Deity  of  Christ  is  by  way  of  His  human- 
ity. The  ignorance  of  His  life  and  character  must  be 
overcome  not  by  dogma  but  by  demonstration.  When 
they  see  the  print  of  the  nails  and  the  mark  of  the  spear 


114  THE  MOSLEM  WORLD 

in  the  lives  of  Christ's  followers  as  they  have  witnessed 
them  this  past  year  in  the  noble  army  of  Armenian  mar- 
tyrs, the  Moslem  heart  will  overcome  its  doubts  as 
Thomas  did  and  cry  out,  "My  Lord  and  My  God." 

A  new  political  situation  with  all  the  dawn  and  glory 
of  a  new  economic  era  will  not  suffice  us.  Islam  is  a 
spiritual  problem  and  can  only  be  solved  in  spiritual 
terms.  To  the  Moslem  mind  the  unknown  quantity  is 
the  exceeding  greatness  of  the  love  of  God  in  Jesus 
Christ,  His  Son,  our  Saviour.  This  is  the  heart  of  the 
problem.  Prayer  and  pains  will  accomplish  wonders  in 
solving  it.  In  every  mission  station  and  in  every  mis- 
sionary's prayer  life  this  should  be  our  chief  petition: 
That  Moslem  hearts  may  be  enlightened  so  that  the 
glory  of  the  invisible  God  whom  they  worship,  may  be 
revealed  to  them  in  the  face  of  Jesus  Christ,  in  whom 
dwelleth  all  the  fullness  of  the  God-head  bodily.  Then 
we  shall  bridge  the  chasm. 

S.   M.  ZWEMER. 

ISLAM  IN  THE  NEW  AGE 
In  the  world  at  large  the  great  war  has  matured  what 
were  slow  processes  with  a  rapid  rush.  In  the  world 
of  Islam  two  such  processes  especially  stand  out.  One 
is  the  dissolution  of  the  Turkish  Empire  which  had 
linked  itself  with  the  world  dominion  of  Germany  and 
has  fallen  with  it;  the  other  is  the  rise  of  a  new  Arab 
state,  regarding  which  ^'The  Times''  has  recently  re- 
ported a  proposal  that  the  various  Arab-speaking  na- 
tionalities in  Western  Asia  should  be  linked  in  one  fed- 
erated nation.  Whether  the  Moslem  world  will  come 
to  recognize  the  head  of  such  a  state  as  their  khalifa, 
the  future  alone  can  show.  By  the  time  these  lines  are 
in  print  we  may  have  come  to  know  what  conclusions  the 
Peace  Conference  has  arrived  at  in  this  matter.  At  any 
rate  there  is  an  important  future  in  store  for  the  power 
represented  by  the  newly  constituted  Kingdom  of  the 
Hejaz.  This  revival  of  an  ancient  Moslem  nationality 
is  paralleled  by  other  movements  in  the  Moslem  world 
which  give  evidence  that  the  spirit  of  nationalism  in  Is- 
lam is  rapidly  increasing  in  influence.     Perhaps  the  most 


EDITORIALS  115 

Striking  evidence  of  this  is  the  action  of  the  All-India 
Moslem  League  in  allying  its  political  agitation  with 
that  of  the  Indian  National  Congress  from  which  it  had 
previously  held  aloof,  so  that  within  the  last  few  months 
Moslem  agitators  on  the  Nationalist  side  have  gone  be- 
yond their  Hindu  compatriots.  What  does  this  mean 
for  the  progress  of  the  Gospel  among  the  Moslem  na- 
tions? 

Our  minds  naturally  go  back  to  the  early  history  of 
Arab  culture  when  the  Arabian  language  and  philosophy 
and  science  disputed  the  palm  with  those  of  Christendom. 
After  the  destruction  of  the  great  Arab  Caliphate  of 
Baghdad  in  1258,  and  still  more  after  the  fall  of  Con- 
stantinople in  1453,  Arab  culture  (which  was  intimately 
linked  with  that  of  Greece,  being  in  fact  largely  de- 
rived from  it,)  fell  into  decay.  Will  the  coming  genera- 
tion witness  a  revival  of  the  political  and  artistic  glories 
of  Baghdad  and  Cordova?  At  present  the  Arab  nation 
has  much  leeway  to  make  up,  but  we  may  well  believe 
that  the  progress,  intellectual  and  social,  of  this  gifted 
people  will  be  greatly  accelerated  by  freer  contact  with 
the  culture  and  life  of  the  modern  world.  The  situation 
will,  however,  be  obviously  very  different  as  compared 
with  that  of  mediaeval  history.  For  Christendom  the 
age  of  the  Crusader  is  long  past  and  recently  when  a 
Holy  War  was  proclaimed  by  the  Ottoman  Empire,  un- 
der German  influence,  it  failed  to  find  anything  like  a 
general  response  among  Moslems.  Arabia  and  Islam  of 
the  new  age  are  thrown  back  upon  spiritual  and  intellec- 
tual forces  for  the  propagation  of  religion.  We  may  ex- 
pect that  the  teachers  and  leaders  of  Islam  will  more 
and  more  endeavour  to  base  their  presentation  of  religious 
truth  on  lines  of  modern  thought.  Of  this  we  already 
see  signs  in  the  tendency  to  recur  to  the  teaching  of  the 
Koran,  without  the  accretions  of  tradition,  the  sacred 
volume  being  interpreted  with  a  very  wide  degree  of 
latitude  to  modernise  its  teaching.  The  Christian  teacher 
will  have  to  deal  with  Islam  largely  from  this  angle. 

If  and  when  the  Arab  Confederation  emerges  we  may 
presume  that  it  will  do  so  as  a  part  of  the  League  of  Na- 


ii6  THE  MOSLEM  WORLD 

tions,  in  which  mutual  toleration  and  freedom  are  funda- 
mental factors.  The  force  which  will  tell  upon  Islam 
will  be  that  of  brotherhood  in  religion,  practically  exem- 
plified in  the  life  of  Christian  nations  and  of  Christian 
society.  This  gives  us  food  for  thought.  The  Christian 
Church  will  have  to  put  to  herself  with  increased  empha- 
sis the  question  "Have  I  developed  the  brotherhood  of 
man  with  man  among  my  own  children  as  my  Master 
would  have  it."  In  contact  with  the  Moslem,  we  need 
preachers  and  teachers,  but  most  of  all  we  need  Christian 
lives.  In  the  recruiting  campaign  for  the  service  of  the 
Church  in  France  carried  on  among  the  army  the  follow- 
ing poster  was  used.  "China  needs-Preachers,  Schoolmas- 
ters, Bankers,  Engineers  and  everybody  who  will  live  a 
consistent  Christian  life."  The  same  applies  to  the  Chris- 
tian campaign  in  the  Moslem  world.  Not  that  this 
does  away  with  the  need  of  heralds  of  the  good  news. 
The  opening  is  greater  than  ever;  Moslems  are  reading 
the  Law,  the  Psalms,  and  the  Evangel,  to  which  their 
Koran  bears  witness,  more  widely  and  attentively  than 
before,  though  sometimes  only  with  a  view  of  combating 
them.  The  Christian  is  called  upon  in  this  fateful  period 
of  the  world's  history  by  a  new  campaign  of  brotherhood, 
to  bring  to  the  Moslem  that  which  he  lacks.  The  debt 
of  the  Church  is  great.  At  the  rise  of  Islam  her  failure 
to  adhere  to  the  true  teaching  of  Christ  and  her  image 
worship  repelled  and  estranged  Mohammed.  In  the  Cru- 
sades she  disregarded  the  teaching  of  the  Christ  who 
has  said :  "My  kingdom  is  not  of  this  world,  else  would 
my  servants  fight."  If  St.  Paul,  thinking  of  imperial 
Rome,  felt  himself  a  debtor,  not  less  are  we  when  we 
think  of  what  Christendom  has  done  and  neglected  to  do 
for  Islam.  A  gifted  young  missonary,  H.  A.  Walter  of 
the  Y.  M.  C.  A.,  Lahore,  who  was  giving  himself  with 
great  perseverance,  sympathy,  and  study  to  work  among 
Moslems,  recently  passed  away.  We  mourn  the  loss  of 
such  lives,  and  they  call  for  more  volunteers.  His  last 
word  was  "O  Christ,  I  am  ready."    Are  we? 

H.  U.  Weitbrecht  Stanton. 

London,  England, 


PATIENCE  IN  MOSLEM   EVANGELIZATION 
^'Ye  have  need  of  patience'^  Heb,  10:36. 

At  the  very  outset  it  is  well  to  notice  that  the  Biblical 
conception  of  Patience  differs  considerable  from  our 
modem  use  of  the  word.  Influenced,  perhaps,  by  cen- 
turies of  monasticism,  we  are  inclined  to  connect  the 
thought  of  patience  with  that  of  a  quiet  passivism,  slow- 
ness to  anger,  a  patient  forbearance.  This  thought, 
with  a  special  Greek  word,  has  its  place  in  the  New  Tes- 
tament, but  it  is  a  very  small  place  compared  to  the 
word  more  generally  translated  "patience."  Patience 
in  the  New  Testament  is  a  word  full  of  virility.  It  is 
the  patient  endurance  of  the  soldier  that  gives  him  the 
fruits  of  victory,  just  as  it  is  almost  beyond  his  grasp, 
by  what  has  been  so  aptly  called  "stick-at-it-ness." 

Amongst  a  very  large  number  of  historical  examples, 
perhaps  the  war  has  furnished  the  most  startling  illus- 
tration of  irreparable  loss  through  lack  of  this  virtue. 
When  the  Germans  in  their  first  great  drive  towards 
Paris  had  broken  down  one  line  of  resistance  after  an- 
other, at  one  vital  part  of  the  line  there  remained,  if 
they  had  only  known  it,  a  thin,  weak,  extemporized  line 
of  non-combatant  units,  and  it  was  at  this  psychological 
moment  that  they  failed  to  continue  their  push  at  this 
particular  sector;  that  their  patience,  in  the  New  Tes- 
tament meaning  of  the  word,  failed. 

There  can  be  no  doubt  that  this  virtue  is  the  great 
need  not  only  of  missionaries  to  Mohammedans  and 
their  Home  Boards,  but  of  those  that  support  them  in 
prayer  and  with  their  substance.  Compared  with  other 
mission  fields,  there  is  little  encouragement  from  the  vis- 
ible results  of  the  work.  It  is  essentially  a  work  of  faith, 
though  we  must  not  forget  that  faith  reacts  on  sight, 
opening  the  eyes  to  see  and  understand  God's  wonder- 
ful workings  amongst  Mohammedans,  and  His  prepara- 

"7 


ii8  THE  MOSLEM  WORLD 

tion  of  them  for  the  reception  of  our  glorious  message. 

For  all  who  seek  the  evangelization  of  the  Moslem 
World,  there  comes  the  message  "Ye  have  need  of  Pa- 
tience," patient,  virile,  courageous  endurance,  coupled 
with  diligent  faith  and  free  from  sluggishness,  faint- 
hearted flinching  and  drawing  back.  A  most  valuable 
study  with  this  end  in  view  can  be  made  of  the  Epistle 
to  the  Hebrews,  taking  Patience  as  the  keyword.  I  do 
not  propose  here  to  enter  at  all  fully  into  the  teaching 
of  the  book  along  these  lines,  or  to  refer  to  its  well- 
known  primary  application,  but  only  to  give  a  hint  as  to 
its  value  to  us,  hoping  that  those  who  read  this  article 
will  turn  to  the  Epistle  and  prayerfully  study  it  for 
themselves. 

First  let  us  look  at  some  of  the  marks  of  those  who 
had  drawn  back,  of  those  who  had  gone  far  and  then 
fell  away,  and  who  were  to  be  a  warning  to  those  who 
were  in  danger  of  doing  so. 

(i).  They  had  been  so  long  under  instruction  that 
they  ought  to  have  been  teachers,  yet  they  had  become 
children  in  intelligence. 

(2).  They  had  been  slothful,  sluggish,  slack  about 
inheriting  the  promises,  not  steadfastly  believing  them 
and  making  them  theirs. 

(3).  They  had  been  neglecting  true  Christian  fellow- 
ship and  so  failed  to  provoke  one  another  to  love  and 
good  works. 

(4).  They  had  neglected  the  word  of  God,  "spoken 
to  us  in  a  Son,"  and  had  been  consequently  carried 
away  with  divers  and  strange  doctrines.  (This  is  the 
great  ever-recurring  warning,  running  through  the 
whole  Epistle.) 

(5).  They  had  cast  away  their  joyful  confidence  with 
its  great  recompense  of  reward. 

Let  us  now  seek  to  apply  some  of  these  warnings.  It 
is  not  an  easy  matter  to  become  an  intelligent  teacher 
of  Mohammedans,  understanding  their  mentality  and 
applying  the  great  truths  of  the  Gospel  to  them  in  an 
effective  way.  Time  should  be  ever  bridging  the  men- 
tal gulf  between  the  Mohammedan  and  the  would-be 


PATIENCE  IN   MOSLEM   EVANGELIZATION       119 

Christian  teacher.  Are  there  not  many  who  having 
started  with  confident  assurance  that  they  were  called 
of  God  to  this  work,  have  not  grown  more  effective  in 
their  power  of  presenting  the  Gospel  to  Mohammedans. 
They  seem  to  have  become  satisfied  with  the  routine- 
work  of  a  missionary's  life,  becoming  less  and  less 
effective  as  the  years  have  gone  by.  This  is  not  only  a 
loss  to  the  Mohammedans  to  whom  God  intended  them 
to  be  the  messengers,  but  is  fraught  with  spiritual  dan- 
ger to  themselves. 

The  Word  of  God  is  full  of  promises  for  the  worker 
among  Mohammedans,  and  has  some  especially  bright 
promises  for  particular  fields.  Are  missionaries  laying 
hold  of  these  promises,  making  them  theirs,  and  receiv- 
ing from  them  a  full  assurance  of  hope.  Or  are  they 
allowing  so  called  modern  scholarship  to  present  them 
with  a  Bible  that  is  emasculated  of  the  revealed  truth 
of  God  that  is  intended  to  be  ^'a  light  that  shineth  in  a 
dark  place,  until  the  day  dawns?"  Then  there  are 
other  promises,  of  spiritual  endowment,  without  which 
all  the  mental  bridging  of  the  gulf  between  Moham- 
medan and  teacher  will  be  of  no  avail.  Are  we  being 
diligent  in  laying  hold  of  these?  And  again  there  is 
the  spirit  of  wisdom  and  revelation  that  enables  us  to 
look  right  past  the  present  and  to  get  a  vision  of  the 
hope  of  our  calling,  to  get  a  vista  of  the  wonderful  pur- 
poses of  God  in  gathering  to  Himself  a  people  of  all 
nations,  and  kindreds,  and  people,  and  tongues. 

Do  we  at  all  realize  the  importance  of  Christian  fel- 
lowship, a  real  Christian  fellowship,  not  a  mere  per- 
functory coming  together  of  Christians,  but  a  meeting 
together  with  purpose  of  heart  to  meet  together  with 
God?  "I  thank  Thee,  O  Lord,  that  Thou  hast  placed 
so  many  lights  in  the  upper  chamber — so  many  and  so 
varied.  I  thank  Thee  that  I  do  not  need  to  take  my 
rule  from  one,  that  each  can  see  his  own  star  in  Thy  sky. 
And  yet  I  thank  Thee  still  more  that  I  do  not  need  to 
rest  in  my  own  star.  Thou  hast  ordained  many  lights, 
not  only  to  prepare  a  place  for  me,  but  to  prepare  for 
me  many  places.     Thou  wouldst  have  me,  not  merely 


I20  THE  MOSLEM  WORLD 

to  keep  my  own  glow,  but  to  get  from  others  the  color 
which  in  me  is  dim.  Thou  hast  put  Peter  beside  John 
that  the  impulsiveness  of  Peter  may  be  moderated; 
Thou  hast  put  John  beside  Peter  that  the  slowness  of 
John  may  be  quickened.  Illuminate  me  by  my  broth- 
er's light.  Give  to  my  love  the  quality  in  which  it  is 
not  strong.  Let  me  catch  the  impress  of  the  opposite 
star.  Let  me  press  toward  the  gate  by  which  /  have 
not  found  Thee,  but  by  which  my  brother  has  found 
Thee.  Help  me  to  sympathize  with  those  who  have 
entered  by  another  door  of  Thy  temple.  Reveal  to  me 
that  my  song  of  praise  is  not  complete  till  it  blends  with 
a  counterpart  in  the  great  symphony.  I  shall  know  the 
meaning  of  the  many  voices  when  I  learn  the  need  of 
Thy  manifold  grace."  So  prayed  Dr.  George 
Matheson,  the  author  of  "O  Love  that  will  not  let  me 
go." 

Surely  it  is  unnecessary  for  us  here  to  emphasize  the 
supreme  importance  of  a  continuous  devotional  reading 
of  God's  Word  that  we  may  learn  to  know  Him  who  is 
the  Living  Word  of  God,  the  Son  in  whom  He  has 
spoken  to  us.  If  through  the  pressure  of  work  we  neg- 
lect this,  how  soon  will  we  lose  the  buoyant  confidence 
of  a  sure  and  stedfast  hope.  Yes,  surely  we  have  need 
of  steady  patience,  so  that  after  doing  the  will  of  God 
we  may  get  what  we  have  been  promised. 

Whilst  in  many  Mohammedan  lands  of  the  near  East 
work  amongst  Mohammedans  has  been  stopped  by  the 
War  and  in  others  has  had  to  be  greatly  modified,  God 
has  been  working  as  only  He  can  work,  but  in  His  wis- 
dom there  is  some  of  the  work  that  will  not  be  done 
unless  we  do  it.  Will  He  find  us  patiently  enduring, 
ready  and  keen  for  the  next  offensive,  all  alert  to  "go 
over  the  top,"  or  will  He  find  some  who  have  drawn 
back,  some  whose  hands  are  hanging  down,  whose  knees 
are  feeble? 

These  words  have  been  mostly  directed  to  the  mission- 
ary, but  just  as  we  have  learned  in  these  days  that  the 
Army  on  the  field,  the  Army  in  preparation,  the  Army 
of  organizers  and  the  Army  of  munition  workers  arc 


PATIENCE  IN  MOSLEM  EVANGELIZATION        121 

all  one,  and  that  without  the  best  efforts  of  the  others 
the  Army  on  the  field  is  crippled,  so  we  all  at  home  and 
on  the  field  need  this  great  fighting  quality  of  patience, 
of  steady  endurance,  that  we  may  win  through.  The 
limits,  however,  of  a  magazine  article  constrain  me  to 
leave  to  the  reader  these  applications  to  the  home  end. 
Suffer  a  final  word  with  regard  to  what  I  have  termed 
above  the  Army  of  Preparation.  From  one  cause  and 
another  during  these  years  of  war,  reinforcements  have 
not  been  coming  to  the  field.  Some  who  were  ready  to 
come  have  drawn  back  on  account  of  the  long  wait 
caused  by  restrictions  on  travel.  Every  missionary  so- 
ciety working  amongst  Mohammedans  is  on  this  ac- 
count faced  with  a  grave  crisis.  Ranks  need  filling  up. 
Front  line  troops  need  relief.  Reinforcements  need 
rapid  and  specialized  training.  These  are  matters  that 
call  for  urgent  prayer  and  faith.  The  present  is  no 
time  for  drawing  back,  no  time  even  for  letting  organi- 
zations that  have  been  started  in  the  past  to  "carry  on" 
with  what  is  left  them  their  initial  momentum. 
"Ye  have  need  of  patience,"  the  patience  of  a  racer  that 
has  his  eye  on  the  goal  and  who  makes  his  supreme  ef- 
fort towards  the  end  of  the  race.  "Forgetting  the 
things  that  are  behind,  pressing  forward  towards  the 
mark."     "So  run  that  ye  may  obtain." 

George  Swan. 


AN  INDIAN  SUFI  HYMN 


The  following  is  a  metrical  translation  of  a 
popular  Punjabi  sacred  lyric  entitled,  ''Si  Harfi 
Dholla/^^  i.  e.  ,  "A  lyric  of  30  stanzas  in  praise 
of  the  Beloved."  The  original  Punjabi  poem  was 
published  at  Lahore  by  Rai  Sahib  M.  Gu- 
lab  Singh  at  the  Mufid-i-'Am  Press  in  13 17  A.  H.  (cor. 
responding  to  1899  A.  D.)^ 

The  Poet's  nom  de  plume  is  Talib.  The  name  of  his 
spiritual  guide  is  Chishti.  The  poem  is  one  of  those 
that  are  often  sung  to  the  accompaniment  of  music, 
usually  a  sarangi,  or  fiddle. 

Unlike  the  pretentious  writings  of  some  world-re- 
nowned Persian  or  Arabic  Sufi  author,  this  poem  is  an 
unpretentious  but  thoroughly  native,  pure  Punjabi  poem 
whose  popularity  and  wide  acceptance  are  evidenced  not 
only  by  its  extremely  low  (nominal)  price,  but  also  by 
the  fact  that  it  is  used  as  an  early  morning  hymn  by 
street  singers  who  go  about  singing  such  songs,  partly 
as  religious  worship  and  partly  with  the  object  of  re- 
ceiving alms.  This  use  of  the  poem  by  street  singers 
was  a  great  help  to  the  present  translator  just  before  his 
acceptance  of  Christianity,  and  also  in  the  early  years 
after  his  baptism  when  he  lived  in  the  very  heart  of  the 
city  of  Lahore. 

The  poem  may  be  regarded  as  typical  of  Sufi  liter- 
ature in  several  ways:  (a)  Its  three  stages  of  transition 
from  an  all-pervading  or  pantheistic  idea  of  God  to  His 
incarnation  in  the  Prophet,  and  later  in  the  person  of 
the  Spiritual  Guide  from  whom  the  Sufi  disciple  re- 
ceives direct  guidance  and  illumination.  Usually,  how- 
ever, the  transition  of  thought  is  supposed  to  be  in  the 
reverse  order,  so  that  the  pantheistic  stage   (viz,  Fand- 

^"Sir  Harfi"  (literally  "of,  or  pertaining  to,  the  thirty  letters  of  the  alphabet"),  is 
y  song  or  poem  consisting  of  thirty  stanzas,  each  stanza  beginning  with  one  of  the  thirty 
letters  of  the  alphabet  "Dholla"  is  "the  Beloved." 

'  First  Edition,   10,000  copies.     Size,  8  small  pages.      Price,  one  pice. 


AN  INDIAN  SUFI  HYMN  123 

fi-llah)  succeeds  the  stages  of  incarnation  (viz.  Fand- 
fi-sh-shaikh  and  Fand-fir-rasul).  (b)  Also,  with  regard 
to  its  language,  the  disciple  appears  as  a  woman,  a  wife, 
or  a  bride.  The  spiritual  guide  and  the  Prophet,  and 
ultimately  God,  figure  as  a  bridegroom  or  husband. 
The  disciple's  constant  longing  is  for  the  m^'^stic  union 
typified  by  the  union  of  the  bride  and  bridegroom. 
This  conception  prevails  throughout  oriental,  particu- 
larly Indian,  mysticism,  whether  Mohammedan,  Sikh 
or  Hindu.  Compare  with  this  the  Old  Testament  con- 
ception of  God  as  the  husband  of  His  people,  Israel^ 
particularly  in  the  prophets  Isaiah  and  Hosea.  Com- 
pare also  the  language  and  thought  of  the  Song  of  Solo- 
mon. In  the  New  Testament,  John  the  Baptist  called 
himself  the  friend  of  the  Bridegroom,  a  figure  which 
Jesus  Himself  adopted  in  several  instances,  with  refer- 
ence to  His  mission  on  earth.  And  in  the  Epistles  of 
St.  Paul  and  the  Book  of  Revelation  the  Church  is 
called  the  Bride  of  Christ  or  of  the  Lamb. 

This  poem,  like  many  others  of  its  kind,  bears  out 
the  widespread  and  thoroughly  assimilated  character 
of  the  influence  of  Sufism,  not  only  on  Moslem  but  also 
on  non-Moslem  thought  and  religious  practice  in  India. 
Consider,  for  instance,  the  very  wide  influence  exercised 
by  the  Kaffis,  or  Hymns  of  the  great  Sufi  poet  of  the 
Punjab,  Bullheshah,  of  sacred  memory,  who  may  well 
be  called  "the  Hafiz  of  the  Land  of  Five  Rivers."  Or, 
since  the  Punjab  is  the  heart  of  Moslem  India,  he  may 
truly  be  regarded  as  "the  Hafiz  of  Moslem  India." 

We  notice  this  same  deep  Sufi  strain  in  the  sayings  of 
Guru  Nanak,  the  founder  of  the  Sikh  religion,  and  of 
the  great  Punjabi  saint,  Kabir  Bhagat,  from  whom  the 
sect  of  Kabir  Panthis  takes  its  name.^  We  hope  later 
to  give  metrical  translations  of  some  of  the  best  known 
of  these  other  Hindustani  hymns. 

For  the  Christian  evangelist  this  hymn  and  others  of 
the  same  kind  will  be  helpful  in  showing  the  close 
affinity  of  Moslem  Sufism  to  the  message  of  the  Gospel 

•  See  the  English  translations  from  Kabir  by  Rev.  Ahmad  Shah  of  the  S.  P.  G. 
Mission,  Hamirpur,  and  by   Sir  Rabindranath  Tagore. 


124  THE  MOSLEM  WORLD 

of  Jesus  Christ.  For  instance,  the  present  hymn  may 
be  taken  as  a  good  illustration  of  the  yearning  of  the 
Moslem  heart  for  the  incarnate  God-Man  in  Islam. 
The  most  remarkable  feature  of  Moslem  mysticism  is 
that  it  seeks  perfection  of  life  and  character,  through 
passionate  devotion  to  a  holy  person,  imagined  or  ideal- 
ised/ This  fact  should  exercise  the  reflex  influence  of 
creating  and  increasing  a  passionate  devotion  to  the 
person  of  Christ  in  a  Christian  devotee  who  attempts  to 
win  souls  for  his  Master,  even  such  a  passion  as  St.  Paul 
possessed,  which  was  the  secret  of  his  success  in  evan- 
gelistic work. 

We  are  fortunate  that  such  a  rare,  poetical  gift  as  that 
possessed  by  the  one  who  has  versified  the  present  hymn 
is  being  brought  to  the  service  of  Sufi  hymnody,  thus 
enabling  the  reader  to  get  the  beauty  and  sentiment  of 
the  original  poetry,  as  far  as  it  is  possible  to  do  so.  It 
may  be  mentioned  that  owing  to  ambiguity  of  expres- 
sion or  misprint  the  translator  was  obliged  to  give  a 
more  or  less  doubtful  translation  of  3  out  of  120  lines 
of  this  poem,  viz,  the  last  lines,  in  each  case,  of  the  12th, 
20th  and  23rd  stanzas. 

It  will  help  the  reader  if  he  keeps  in  mind  the  four 
divisions  of  the  poem  which  we  suggest  below. 

Part  I.  Stanzas  i  to  6.     Pantheistic. 

Part  II.  Stanzas  7  to  15.  Divine  Incarnation  in  the 
person  of  the  Prophet. 

Part  III.  Stanzas  16  to  25.  Divine  Incarnation  in 
the  person  of  the  Spiritual  Guide  as  representative  of 
God  through  the  Prophet. 

Part  IV.  Stanzas  26  to  29.  A  description  of  the 
meeting,  the  spiritual  or  mystic  union,  with  the  Beloved. 

(Stanza  30  is  the  concluding  stanza.) 

R.  S.  D. 

NOTE   ON   THE   ENGLISH   TRANSLATION 

In  rendering  this  hymn  into  English  verse  our  en- 
deavor has  been  to  approximate  the  metre,  as  well  as 

*  One  of  the  well-known  doctrines  of  Sufism  is  expressed  thus:  "My  Spiritual 
Guide  may  be  weak  like  a  straw,  but  my  faith  is  enough."  ("Pir-i-man  Khasast  I'tiqad-i- 
man   bos  ast.") 


AN  INDIAN  SUFI  HYMN  125 

to  convey  the  meaning  and  catch  the  spirit,  of  the 
original.  We  have  also  retained  the  rhyming  sequence 
of  the  Punjabi  in  which  the  same  rhyme  obtains 
throughout  each  quatrain.  For  purposes  of  comparison 
we  give  the  transliteration  and  a  literal  translation  of 
the  first  verse: 

Alif  A  Mian  Dholla  tere  man  wieh  dere 
Chhaddo  watan  durddd,  Kol  wasso  mere 
Apnd  watan  sundwen  sdnun  shdh  ragon  nere 
Akhin  dissen  ndhin,  kahe  pde  jhere, 

O,  come,  Beloved,  Thy  habitation  is  in  the  soul. 

Forsake  the  distant  home  and  reside  near  me. 

Thou  sayest,  "Our  abode  is  nearer  than  the  artery  of 

the  neck;" 
Yet  thou  art  invisible   to  these  eyes.     What  vexation 

hast  Thou  created! 

H.  A.  W. 

PART  I. 

Pantheistic 

I 

Come,  Love,  within  the  soul  Thy  dwellng-place  doth 

lie. 
Thy  distant  home  desert,  and  to  my  fond  heart  fly  I 
Thou  sayest  Thou  dost  bide  than  the  neck  vein  more 

nigh;' 
Yet,  vexing  one,  Thy  form  is  veiled  before  mine  eye. 

2. 

O,  Love,  deceive  no  more!     Thy  fickle  words  forsake! 
Without  us  and  within  Thy  dwelling  Thou  dost  take. 
My  heart,  with  wiles  bewitched,  a  captive  Thou  dost 

make' 
Then  into  words  of  scorn  Thy  mocking  accents  break. 

3- 
Oh,  Love,  for  all  our  woes  no  pity  hast  Thou  shown; 

"  This  line  embodies  the  well-known  sentence  of  the  Qur'an,  "We  (God)  are 
tJoser  to  him  (man)  than  his  neck  vein."  (L,,  15,  b).  (_Nahnu  aqrabu  min  hobl-il- 
warid.)      Tennyson's   lines  in   "The  Higher   Pantheism,"  echo  this   thought: 

"Speak  to  Him,   Thou,  for  He  hears,  and  Spirit  with  Spirit  can  meet, 
(Closer  is  He  than  breathing,  and  nearer  than  hands  and  feet." 


126  THE  MOSLEM  WORLD 

Exiled  from  Home,  to  pine  in  far-off  realms  alone,^ 
Through  Thy  false  deed,  Who  once  had  made  our  souls 

Thine  own. 
In  this  strange  land,  alas,  no  peace  my  heart  hath  known. 

4- 
Thou  only  art;  all  else  is  unreality. 

Why  press  this  vain  debate  if  one  or  separate  we? 

Since,  when  Thy  face  is  shown,  my  sighs  Thy  grief 

must  be. 
And  in  my  prayers  for  death,  my  tears  are  tears  of 

Thee.^ 

I  sleep,  and  at  my  side  Love  sinks  in  slumber  deep: 
When  first  my  eyes  unclose.  He  rouses,  too,  from  sleep. 
I   Laugh,   He  shouts  for  joy;   His   tears   fall  when   I 

weep :® 
Yet  bargains  He,  nor  cares  my  plighted  hours  to  keep. 

6. 

None  knows  my  state  save  Love;  for  no  one  else  'twere 

meet. 
I  sacrifice  my  all,  an  offering  at  Love's  feet. 
Each  moment  yearns  my  heart  its   guileless   Love   to 

greet : 
Unless  Love  quickly  come,  this  heart  must  cease  to  beat. 

PART  11. 

Divine    Incarnation    in    the    Person    of    the    Prophet 

Mohammed 

7. 
'Twas  told  that  the  Beloved  to  holy  Mecca  came: 
That  never  man  should  know  He  chose  Mohammed's 
name. 

•  This  quartain  introduces  the  Sufi  belief  in  the  pre-existence  of  the  soul.  Exile 
from  Home  represents  separation  from  the  Beloved  at  birth.  In  its  new  life  the  soul 
at   this   stage   seems   to   feel,    with    Francis   Thompson,    "in    no    strange    land." 

^  This  conception   of  the  entire   oneness   of  the   Beloved   and   the   loved   one,   in   the 
latter's  grief,   is  beautifully  expressed,   with  regard  to   human  love   only,   in   the  closing 
lines  of  Mrs.  Browning's  sixth  "Sonnet  from  the  Portuguese":     "...  and  when  I  sue 
God  for  myself.  He  hears  that  name  of  thine. 

And  sees  within  my  eyes  the  tears  of  two." 

•One  is  reminded  of  St.  Paul's  injunction  in  Romans  12-15,  "Rejoice  with  those 
who  rejoice,  and  weep  with  those  who  weep." 


AN  INDIAN  SUFI  HYMN  127 

Medina,  now,  His  home:  and  Talib's^  fond  lips  frame 
Prayers  for  ''God's  peace"  on  Him,^^  and  His  high  serv- 
ice claim. 

8." 

A  gift  I  crave  whose  sight  sweet  thoughts  of  Thee  shall 

start; 
With  ring  from  Thy  dear  hand,  or  necklace,  Thou  must 

part. 
In  Hindustan,  my  home ;  Thou  in  Medina  art. 
Slain  by  Thy  love,  what  sins  had  soiled  my  hapless 

heart? 

9.  .. 

By  telling  o'er  Thy  name  each  passing  hour  I  grace. 

Leave  town  and  vale  and  make  my  heart  Thy  resting- 
place. 

Love  reigns  the  Lord  of  all;  His,  earth  and  sky  and 
space. 

Since  Thou  hast  made  me  Thine,  whom  else  should  I 
embrace? 

10. 

If  e'er  my  lips,  unsealed.  Thy  mystery  reveal,^^ 

From  mighty  rivers'  depths  great  flames  of  fire  will 
steal. 

Blood  from  God's  throne  will  rain,  the  stars  will  earth- 
ward reel. 

Ah,  Love,  what  streams  can  cool  when  these  hot  fires 
I  feel?^^ 

II. 
My  years  of  youth  were  spent  in  doleful  tears  and  sighs. 

•  "Talib,"  meaning  "a  seeker"  on  the  Sufi's  Path,  is  the  nom  de  plume  of  the  poet. 

"  The  words  translated  "God's  peace,"  or  Blessing,"  or  "benediction,"  here  and  in 
stanzas  27,  28  and  29,  stand  for  the  Arabic  phrase,  "Salli  'Aid",  which  habitually  follows 
Mohammed's  name  in  Moslem  writings.  It  is  an  abbreviation  for  "Sallallahu  'alaihi  wa 
sallatn,  of  which  the  meaning  is,  "May  God's  blessing  and  peace,  be  upon  him!" 

"  From  this  stanza  onward  the  disciple  throughout  speaks  of  himself  as  a  woman, 
a  bride,  a  wife,  and  uses  the  feminine  gender  for  himself,  and  the  masculine  for  the 
Divine  Beloved. 

"  This  refers  to  the  esoteric  truth  of  the  Sufis,  supposed  to  have  originated  with 
Mohammed  in  the  Qur'an,  to  which  the  Sufi's  lips  must  ever  remain  sealed. 

"  Compare  Song  of  Solcmo-n  8 :7,  "Many  waters  cannot  quench  love,  neither  can 
floods  drown  it." 


128  THE  MOSLEM  'WORLD 

Now,  to  my  aged  heart,  Love's  winged  arrow  flies. 
Bring  hither  my  Beloved,  the  darling  of  mine  eyes. 
Talib's  true  love  from  heart  as  well  as  tongue  doth  rise. 

12. 

My  artless  Love  goes  by  nor  casts  on  me  His  eyes. 
Heedless,  He  passes  by;  counsel  Him,  O,  ye  wise! 
Medina,  now,  I  seek;  there  my  sole  refuge  lies. 
O,  Talib,  plead  thy  love,  till  from  His  course  He  hies. 

13- 

Beloved,  my  heart  now  yearns  to  see  Medina  fair,^^ 

All  hidden  grief  and  pain  to  lay  before  Thee  there. 
Long  years  have  sped  since  Love  left  me  to  lone  despair. 
All  men,  O  Talib,  now  toward  Thee  some  malice  bear.**^ 

Apart  from  the  Beloved,  no  comfort  can  I  gain. 
Should   one   Love's   kalima}^   read,   these   inward   fires 

might  wane. 
Remembering  Love  my  lifeless  heart  revives  again. 
O,  let  Love  learn,  at  last,  my  piteous  cries  of  pain! 

15. 

Thou  who  my  surety^^  art,  O  Love,  stir  not  away. 

Summon  me  to  Thyself,  and  share  my  grief,  I  pray. 
Secure  my  pardon.  Love,  for  I  have  gone  astray. 
To  my  dead  soul  give  life,  and  sinless  I  shall  stay. 

PART  HI 

Divine  Incarnation  in  the  Person  of  the  Spiritual  Guide 

16. 

Mount  Sinai's^**  lofty  height  my  Love  hath  put  to  shame. 

"  It   will   be   noted   that  the    Sufi's   eyes   turn   not   to   the   Ka'ba  at   Mecca   but   to 
Mohammed's  tomb  at  Medina. 

"  The    oriental    attitude    toward  the    lover — of    either    God    or    man — is    quite    the 

opposite    of   that    represented    by    the  Wstern    proverb,    "All    the    world    loves   a    lover.** 

The   Psalms   are   full   of   this   enmity  of   man   toward   the   true   lover  of   God.     See   also 
SUnza  23. 

"  The  kalima  is  Mohammed's  prescribed  Confession  of  Faith,  viz,  "There  is  no  (od 
but  God  and  Mohammed  is  His  Prophet" 

*^  The     word     "z&min"     is     equivalent     to     a     "substitute"     which     resembles     tke 
Christian   idea   of   vicarious   atonement. 

^The   mountain-top    where   Moaes    met    God.     See    Exodus,   chap.    19,    the   Qnr'an 

XXVIII,  44.  and  other  passages. 


AN  INDIAN  SUFI  HYMN  129 

Mounting  the  throne  on  high,  all-holy  God,  His  name. 
To  tread  Medina^s  streets,  as  the  Beloved,  He  came; 
Now,  guiding  on  the  Path,  as  Chishti,^^  spreads  His 
fame. 

17. 
Inside  and  out  my  Love  holds  His  high  Sovereignty : 
In  every  place  He  dwells,  the  First  and  Last^^  is  He. 
Save  only  the  Beloved,  none  other  can  there  be. 
I  live  but  by  His  life,  Love's  own  eternally. 

18. 
From  the  great  Presence  sought.  Thy  bounteous  Love 

I  own. 
Afar  or  near,  O  Love,  I  see  but  Thee  alone. 
All  from  Thy  light  have  come — no  other  source  have 

known.^^ 
Send  pardon  from  Thyself,  nor  bid  my  steps  begone. 

19. 
Never  to  know  my  Love  were  no  man's  mournful  fate. 
To  her^^  who  is  Love's  bride  my  life  I  consecrate. 
For  her  whom   Love   hath   called,   with  welcome   all 

would  wait. 
That  Love  mine  arm  would  hold,  my  longing  passionate. 

20. 
Stricken  to  death,  I  lie,  crushed  by  Thy  beauty's  wave. 
In  Thy  love's  ocean  vast  my  soul  hath  found  its  grave. 
In  every  town  men's  tongues  for  Thee  their  tribute  save. 
To  Thee  our  lives  we  yield :  to  see  Thy  face  we  crave. 

21. 
This  daily  task  to  do,  of  old  my  destiny — 
That  I  His  praise  proclaim,  whene'er  Love  summons 
me. 

"Tke  word  "Chishti"  relates  to  a  Sufi  order  founded  by  ud  Din  Chishti, 
India's  most  celebrated  Mohammedan  saint.  He  was  a  pupil  of  Abdul  Qadir  Jilani 
His  tomb  at  Ajmere  takes  precedence  over  all  others  in  India  among  saint- worshipping 
Moslems,  and  is  also  visited  by  thousands  of  Hindu  pilgrims.  Here  Chishti  standi 
for  the  name  of  the   Poet's   Spiritual  Guide. 

*"  Compare  Revelation  22:13,  "I  am  the  Alpha  and  the  Omega,  the  first  and  the 
last,   the   beginning  and   the   end. 

**  Compare  John  1 :3,  "All  things  were  made  by  Him,  and  without  Him  waa  not 
anything   made   that   was    made." 

*»  The  reference  is  to  other  brides  or  disciples  of  the  Master.  Sec  note  on 
Stanza    8. 


130  THE  MOSLEM  WORLD 

O,  friends,  I  am  consumed;  Love's  form  I  cannot  see. 
My   Love   hath   learned    to   w^ork  w^ith   what   strange 
witchery! 

22. 

Who,  from  the  path  of  Love,  my  steps  shall  turn  aside ?^* 
If  Love  desire,  my  life  to  Him  would  I  confide. 
Love  will  not  faithless  be;  my  trust  hath  time  defied. 
Since  Love  hath  held  mine  arm,  with  me  He  must  abide, 

23- 
Love,   I   am  slain,  whom  men  with   gibes  and   taunts 

assail. 

My  heart  Medina  craves,  for  justice  there  to  wail. 

Come,  O,  my  Love,  behold,  I  have  removed  my  veil^ 

My  witness  thus  to  add  to  Thy  dear  beauty's  tale. 

24. 
In  the  Beloved's  way,  friends,  I  am  lost  to  sight. 
Then  lest  I  be  not  found,  let  all  in  search  unite! 
This  very  Love,  the  thief--0,  seize  His  arm  with  mightl 
A  seeker  after  Love,  know  me,  by  day  and  night. 

25.         ■ 
"Negation's"    medicine, ^^     Love,   for    mine    eyes    was 

brought; 
And  now,  save  only  Love,  I  can  distinguish  naught. 
Love's  citadel  He  showed,  with  every  splendor  fraught. 
Love,  I  am  lost  indeed*  what  magic  hast  Thou  wrought? 

PART  IV 

The  Mystical  Union  with  the  Beloved, 

26 

Love,  I  would  die  for  Thee,  most  ravishing  Thy  grace. 

Bring  news,  O  friends,  from  whence  comes  the  Be- 
loved's face. 

My  soul  with  joy  grows  faint,  and  faster,  my  heart's 
pace. 

"Compare  Romans  8:35  "Who  shall  separate  us  from  the  love  of  Christ?" 

*•  "Nafi  Isbdt."  "Negation  and  affirmation,"  an  expression  used  to  describe  the 
highest  dhikr  or  repetition  of  the  sacred  "Kalima,"  "La  Ilaka  Illallah."  The  first  part,  "La 
Ilaha,"  "There  is  no  (false)  god,"  is  the  negation  or  the  rejection  of  all  false  gods. 
Hence  "negation"  is  here  equivalent  to  complete  absorption  in  the  thought  of  the 
Beloved. 


AN  INDIAN  SUFI  HYMN  131 

What  if,  this  morn,  should  come  Love's  step  and  His 
embrace ! 

27. 
My  necklace  is  God's  praise,  wherewith  I  am  arrayed. 
My  ear-rings  are  the  prayer,  "God's  peace"^^  my  lips 

have  prayed. 
Love,  on  my  heart,  for  gems,  longing  for  God  hath  laid. 
The  nuptial  bed  I  mount,  invoking  Chishti's  aid. 

28 

The  heavenly  lightnings  flash,   and   blazing  fountains 

spout. 
With  Sinai's^^  splendor  clothed,  my  glory  shines  about. 
Love,  entering  at  last,  "My  follower,"  calls  out. 
Beings  of  light  and  fire  and  earth,^^  "God's  blessing" 

shout. 

29. 
To  meet  Love,  as  He  comes,  with  bended  head  I  go, 
"God's  benediction"  ask,  and  at  Love's  feet  bow  low 
This  hand-maid's  ministry,  unworthy,  all  must  know. 
Talib,  Thy  slave  to  keep — this  boon,  O  Love,  bestow. 

30- 
How  bountifully.  Love,  Thy  gracious  mercies  fall. 
Ever  Thy  faith  I  own.  Thy  kalima^^  recall; 
Ever  at  Thy  blest  tomb,  I  sacrifice  my  all ; 
Ever  on  Chishti,  Guide,  with  grateful  spirit,  call. 

R.  SiRAj  UD  Din. 

H.  A.  Walter. 
Lahore,  India, 

*  See  note  on  stanza  7. 

>*  See  note  on  stanza  16. 

•^That    is,    angels,    jinn    (genii),   and    men,    who,     Moslems    Relieve,     are    created, 
respectively,  out  of  light,  fire  and  clay.     See  Qur'an  XV,  26,  27,  and  LV,   13,   14. 

**  See  note  on  itanza  14. 


ILLITERACY    AMONG     INDIAN     MOSLEMS 


The  test  of  literacy  at  the  last  census  was  the  ability 
to  write  a  letter  to  a  friend  and  to  read  his  reply.  There 
are  many  who  can  spell  out  a  printed  book  with  dif- 
j&culty,  and  also  many  Moslems  who  can  read  the 
Koran  without  being  able  to  write  a  word.  The  cen- 
sus takes  no  account  of  this  minor  form  of  literacy. 
Whilst  of  the  whole  population  of  India  59  persons 
per  1000  are  literate  in  the  above  sense,  among  the 
Moslems  only  37  per  1000  are  literate.  The  object  of 
the  present  paper  is  to  enquire  into  the  reasons  for  this 
low  degree  of  literacy  among  the  Mohammedans  of 
India. 

The  points  which  strike  one  most  forcibly  on  looking 
over  the  tables  showing  the  particulars  of  the  Mussul- 
man communit}^  are  (i)  the  general  predominance  of 
Moslems  over  other  peoples  in  the  Northwest,  atid  the 
scantiness  of  them  in  the  South;  (ii)  the  fact  that,  in  the 
Northwest,  Northeast  and  North  the  overwhelming  ma- 
jority of  them  live  in  villages;  (iii)  their  general  il- 
literacy in  the  North  compared  with  their  relatively 
higher  literacy  in  the  South.  I  propose  to  examine  the 
condition  of  the  Moslem  population  of  India,  dividing 
the  country  into  four  main  divisions,  and  with  reference 
to  the  three  facts  I  have  pointed  out  above. 

/.  The  Northwest. 

In  Kashmir,  Baluchistan,  the  Northwest  Frontier 
Province,  the  Panjab,  and  Sind,  we  find  the  population 
almost  entirely  composed  of  Moslems;  in  some  parts 
they  form  93  per  cent  of  the  total.  This  region  is  the 
gateway  through  which  in  old  time  the  Pathan  and 
Moghul   invaders   marched    to   the   conquest  of    India. 

132 


ILLITERACY  AMONG  INDIAN  MOSLEMS  133 

Less  than  10  per  cent  of  these  Moslems  live  in  the 
towns,  and  the  caste-names,  under  which  vast  numbers 
of  them  are  described,  reveal  their  Hindu  origin,  and 
indicate  that  they  are  for  the  most  part  engaged  in  vil- 
lage ocupations.  This,  the  most  predominantly  Mo- 
hammedan part  of  all  India,  is  by  far  the  most  illiterate 
region  so  far  as  the  Mohammedans  themselves  are  con- 
cerned. In  all  these  provinces,  there  are  nowhere  more 
than  two  females  per  1000  who  can  read  or  write,  and 
not  more  than  about  25  males  per  1000,  of  the  Mos- 
lems. 

77.  The  Northeast  and  North. 

In  Assam,  Bengal,  Bihar  and  Orissa,  and  the  United 
Provinces  of  Agra  and  Oudh,  Mussulmans  form  a  much 
smaller  element  in  the  population,  except  in  certain 
parts,  being  well  under  30%  of  the  whole.  In  some 
parts  of  Assam  and  Bengal,  however,  they  are  very 
strong  in  numbers.  Except  in  the  United  Provinces, 
less  than  10%  of  these  Moslems  live  in  towns,  and  mul- 
titudes of  them  are  converts  from  depressed  and  back- 
ward classes  of  Hindus.  Nowhere  are  there  more  than 
six  female  Moslems  in  1,000  who  can  read,  nor  as  many 
as  80  males;  the  average  being  about  36  persons  per 
1,000.  Yet  this  is  an  advance  on  the  more  fully  Mos- 
lem Northwest. 

777.  The  Central  Zone. 

Here  the  Mohammedans  are  much  fewer  propor- 
tionately and  actually.  In  Bombay  and  Hyderabad 
they  are  about  10%  of  the  populaton,  and  less  in  the 
other  provinces.  In  this  zone,  a  much  larger  propor- 
tion of  them  are  living  in  the  towns,  this  proportion 
being  about  three-fourths  in  Bombay  Presidency.  The 
Bohras,  Khojas,  and  Memons  of  Bombay,  who  are 
Mussulmans,  are  a  commercial  people,  and  have  an 
average  of  414  literate  males,  and  33  females,  per 
1000.  In  Hyderabad,  Central  India,  and  the  Central 
Provinces,  there  are  large  numbers  of  Moslems  in 
Government  service.  These  causes  help  to  increase 
the  average  literacy.     The  average  of  Moslem  literacy 


134  THE  MOSLEM  WORLD 

in  this  central  zone  is  138  males  per  1000,  and  13  fe- 
males. In  Rajputana  and  Ajmere  the  Mussulmans  are 
much  less  educated  than  those  in  other  parts  of  this 
zone. 

IV,  The  South, 

Here  the  Mussulman  element  is  weaker  than  it  is  in 
any  other  part  of  India,  averaging  only  about  6j4% 
of  the  population.  All  classes  are  more  literate  in 
South  India  than  in  other  parts,  and  even  the  coolies 
in  the  streets  speak  English.  Accordingly  we  find  that 
the  Moslems  of  the  South  are  much  better  educated 
than  anywhere  else,  and  their  average  is  95  literate 
persons  per  rooo  in  these  five  districts.  Special  efforts 
have  been  made  to  educate  the  Mapillas  and  Labbais, 
many  thousands  of  whom  are  found  in  these  regions; 
the  Labbais  of  Madras  having  278  literate  males  per 
1000.  Female  education,  too,  is  much  further  ad- 
vanced here  than  elsewhere,  especially  among  the 
Mussulmans  of  Mysore,  where  we  find  there  are  41 
females  per  1000  who  can  read  and  write.  The  pro- 
portion of  town  to  village  dwellers  among  the  Mussul- 
mans is  not  so  great  as  we  should  have  expected  to 
find  it,  but  this  is  counter-balanced  by  the  general 
spread  of  education,  which  affords  facilities  to  the  vil- 
lagers which  are  denied  them  in  other  parts  of  India, 
which  are  not  so  well  served  in  the  matter  of  education. 

Burma,  with  its  free  monastic  education  and  ab- 
sence of  "purdah,"  heads  the  list  with  234  Moslem 
males  per  1000  who  can  read,  and  jj  females.  The 
native  State  of  Baroda,  with  its  large  trading  communi- 
ties, and  its  free  and  compulsory  primary  education, 
comes  next  with  232  males  and  17  females.  But  these 
provinces  have  a  relatively  small  Mohammedan  popu- 
lation, and  may  be  considered  as  abnormal. 

I  have  not  ready  access  to  the  reports  of  the  Census  of 
1901,  but  so  far  as  I  can  trace  there  has  been  some 
progress  among  Mussulmans  in  education.  In  some 
parts  no  improvement  is  apparent,  but  in  others  a 
great  anxiety  for  learning  is  evident.     Probably  there 


ILLITERACY  AMONG  INDIAN  MOSLEMS  135 

has  been  on  the  whole  some  improvement,  but  it  might 
be  much  greater.  I  myself  know  of  several  places  in 
Western  India  where  the  Mussulmans  have  founded, 
and  still  maintain  with  the  help  of  government  grants, 
schools  for  their  own  children.  I  have  no  means  of 
knowing  whether  they  are  as  enterprising  in  other 
parts  of  India. 

Illiteracy  is  the  missionary's  greatest  enemy,  among 
Mussulmans  in  particular,  it  engenders  a  form  of  big- 
otry and  prejudice  which  it  is  nearly  impossible  to 
overcome.  It  is  not  too  much  to  say  that  the  vast 
majority  of  Indian  Moslems  know  absolutely  nothing 
of  the  tenets  of  Islam,  and  in  many  places  their  ignor- 
ance of  their  own  religion  is  so  profound  that  they  are 
hardly  distinguishable  from  their  pagan  neighbors. 
Many  village  Moslems  worship  Hindu  deities,  and 
join  in  heathen  festivals  as  a  matter  of  course.  This 
makes  them  harder  to  deal  with  than  if  they  were 
frankly  heathen,  because  they  have  the  Moslem's  ex- 
clusiveness  and  pride  coupled  with  the  debasement  of 
pagan  idolatry  and  superstition.  It  is  nearly  impossi- 
ble to  enlighten  them,  for  they  can  read  neither  their 
own  nor  Christian  books,  and  cannot  take  in  the  argu- 
ments with  which  better  educated  men  can  be  ap- 
proached and  convinced.  Though  they  can  read  the 
Koran,  as  some  of  them  can,  they  cannot  understand 
a  word  of  it,  and  read  it,  as  indeed  even  many  well 
educated  men  and  women  do,  as  an  aid  to  acquiring 
merit. 

Of  the  67  millions  of  Mohammedans  in  India, 
about  58  millons  live  in  the  villages,  which  means  that 
about  seven-eighths  of  the  whole  number  are  sunk  in 
dense  ignorance.  The  remainder,  about  eight  and  a 
half  millions,  who  inhabit  the  2152  towns  and  cities 
scattered  throughout  the  length  and  breadth  of  this 
vast  continent  of  India,  are  more  or  less  easily  accessi- 
ble, and  can  be  reached  if  men  and  women  can  be 
found  whose  hearts  are  on  fire  with  love  for  them, 
realizing  the  debt  of  love  which  the  Church  of  Christ 
owes    to   these    followers    of    the    Prophet   of   Arabia. 


136  THE  MOSLEM  WORLD 

May  we  not  cease  to  pray  that  such  may  be  forth- 
coming when  the  war  is  over,  and  the  youth  of  the 
churches  are  again  at  liberty  to  set  forth  on  errands 
of  mercy  to  the  world  for  which  Christ  died! 

But  the  great  ^^Mass  Movements/'  which  are  now 
attracting  so  much  attention  in  many  parts  of  India, 
and  which  are  absorbing  so  much  of  the  available 
missionary  staff  and  resources,  will  no  doubt  affect  the 
Moslems,  as  well  as  the  Hindus,  who  live  in  the  vil- 
lages, for  they  too,  will  partake  of  the  benefits  of  the 
education  which  will  be  imparted,  when  the  means 
are  forthcoming  to  establish  village  schools  all  over 
India.  Any  movement,  whether  it  emanates  from  mis- 
sionary societies,  or  from  governments,  or  from  re- 
formers among  the  Hindu  and  Moslem  peoples  them- 
selves, which  has  for  its  object  the  education  and  en- 
lightenment of  the  masses,  is  worthy  of  our  admiration 
and  even  of  our  active  cooperation,  and  calls  for 
thankfulness;  for  such  movements  will  surely  be 
blessed  by  the  Lord  of  the  Harvest  to  the  preparation 
of  the  ground  in  which  the  precious  seed  of  His  Word 
may  be  sown,  and  without  which  it  seems  humanly 
speaking  impossible  that  any  harvest  can  ever  spring 
up  among  these  ignorant  Mohammedans. 

H.  J.  Lane-Smith. 
Aurangabad,  India, 


CHRISTIAN     LITERATURE     FOR     RUSSIAN 

MOSLEMS 


The  need  of  the  Mohammedan  World  and  the 
equipment  required  of  those  who  approach  it  as  com- 
missioned by  God  to  this  service, — are  the  same  in 
Russia  as  elsewhere  in  the  ^^Beit-ul-Islam."  The  Mo- 
hammedans are,  as  well  as  we,  a  "People  of  the  Book," 
and  have  fully  grasped  from  the  very  beginning  of 
their  era  the  unique  power  of  the  written  and  printed 
word.  ''Maktuy — "It  is  written"— has  with  the  Mo- 
hammedan a  sound  of  authority,  yea,  even  finality, 
[much  more  so,  it  seems  to  me,  than  with  us  Christians. 

The  intellectually  and  politically  most  developed 
[.and  religiously  most  fanatical  Mohammedans  of  Rus- 
fsia — the  Tartars — are  wide  awake  to  the  opportunity 
presented  by  the  increased  interest  of  their  co-religion- 
ists in  world-affairs,  the  greater  number  of  people  who 
can  read  and  write,  and  by  the  necessity  to  stimulate 
religious  zeal  and  counteract  the  poison  of  greater 
contact  with  the  unbeliever.  And  so  the  Tartars — of 
Kazan  and  Orenburg,  of  Baku  and  Suinferapel  alike — 
are  flooding  the  market  for  Moslems  in  Russia  proper 
and  Russian  Central  Asia,  with  literature  of  all  kinds, 
newspapers,  periodicals,  and  even  translations  of  Euro- 
pean writers.  In  this  field,  the  orthodox  as  well  as 
the  liberal  Mohammedans  are  doing  their  best.  They 
have  well-stocked  book  stores,  reading  rooms  and  col- 
porteurs. While  traveling  as  sister  of  mercy  on  board 
a  Russian  steamer,  carrying  thousands  of  pilgrims  to 
and  from  Syria  and  Jeddah  (the  port  of  Mecca),  we 
had  with  us  several  Tartar  colporteurs,  who  spread 
among  us  their  pilgrims'  tracts  of  all  kinds;  and  well 
do  I  remember  my  impotent  grief,  when  I  saw  the 
pilgrims  squatting  around  the  Tartar,  reading  to  them 

137 


138  THE.  MOSLEM  WORLD 

from  his  tracts — while  I,  at  that  time,  had  nothing  to 
offer  them. 

From  the  very  beginning  of  my  work  as  Bible  wom- 
an, itinerating  among  the  Mohammedans  of  Central 
Asia  or  Turkestan,  I  came  to  understand  the  import^ 
ance  of  the  tract  next  to  the  Scriptures  themselves. 
Yes,  I  would  even  make  free  to  say  that  the  tract  might 
go  before  the  Scriptures.  We  all  know  the  objections 
the  Mohammedan  raises  against  the  word  of  God,  and 
some  tract,  answering  the  questions,  and  putting  ta 
naught  the  prejudice  with  which  the  orthodox  Moham- 
medan approaches  the  Scriptures,  might  clear  the  way 
for  the  reading  of  these,  with  a  more  enlightened  mind 
and  a  more  willing  heart.  Turkestan  being  a  meeting- 
place  of  men  of  all  sorts  and  conditions  and  languages^ 
I  had  need  of  as  many  as  twenty-two  languages  in 
order  to  reach  most  of  the  people  around  me.  Among 
these  were  from  nine  to  eleven  different  Mohammedan 
languages.  I  had  the  whole  Scriptures  too  and  por- 
tions in  Tartar  or  Nogay,  Kirghize,  Turkoman,  Per- 
sian, Azerbedjani,  Arabic,  Pushtu,  Kashgari,  Sart,  and 
two  languages  for  the  Hindustani  Mohammedans,  scat- 
tered among  our  people.  I  understood  that  the  ques- 
tions which  were  put  to  me,  in  nearly  all  cases  the 
same,  might  best  be  answered  by  good  tracts,  and  I 
managed  to  get  some  in  Arabic  (Nile  Mission  Press), 
Persian  and  Azerbedjani  (Tabriz).  But  only  a  few 
in  number  were  available,  and  even  these  did  not  reach 
the  real  ^^Turkestan"  man,  the  Sart  or  Usbek-Turki 
speaking  Mohammedan,  among  whom  I  was  labor- 
ing in  particular.  So  I  set  out  to  translate  something 
for  my  people,  the  Sarts.  With  the  help  of  a  Mullah 
at  Tashkent — who  often  put  down  his  pen  in  despair 
at  being  asked  to  write  some  "Kafir"  expression,  and 
who  made  me  promise  never  to  divulge  his  name, 
except  to  God  in  praying  for  him — we  translated  four 
tracts,  published  by  the  Nile  Mission  Press,  Cairo. 
They  had  been  translated  from  the  original  Arabic 
into  English;  I  translated  them  into  Russian,  and  from 
this  into  Sart.     The  four  thousand  copies,  neatly  writ- 


LitERATURE  FOR  RUSSIAN  MOSLEMS  139 

ten  out  by  a  Mirzah  and  lithographed,  were  a  complete 
success;  they  evoked  much  interest,  discussion  and  op- 
position, and  also,  thank  God,  assent  from  some  sincere 
God-seekers.  After  that  I  started  a  small  book,  30-40 
pages  entitled  ^'Who  is  Jesus  Christ?'',  which  I  had 
received  from  Constantinople;  we  translated  it  from  the 
Osmanli,  being  guided  very  often  only  through  under-  f 
standing  the  roots  of  the  words,  which  are  about  the 
same  as  in  the  Sart  language.  This  booklet,  presenting 
the  personality  and  claims  of  our  Lord,  was  the  subject 
of  special  love  and  prayer  on  my  side,  and  also  proved 
a  success.  But  before  I  could  sell  out  the  whole  edition, 
the  government  stopped  my  itinerating  through  the 
country,  and  I  turned  the  remnant  over  to  the  agent  of 
the  British  and  Foreign  Bible  Society,  who  is  a  mis- 
sionary to  Moslems  in  heart  and  in  deed,  a  Mennonite 
bred  amongst  the  Kirghize,  and  very  conversant  with 
the  Sart  language. 

Being  deprived  of  the  possibility  of  traveling  through 
the  country,  I  settled  down  at  Samarkand,  to  prepare 
seed  for  future  work.  The  Lord  provided  me  with  a 
Mullah,  intelligent  and  spiritual-minded,  of  the  de- 
scendants of  Ali,  son-in-law  of  Mohammed,  a  Persian. 
For  about  one  year  we  worked  together  at  the  revising 
of  the  editions  formerly  published,  and  at  the  transla- 
tion of  seven  new  tracts — one  of  them  a  real  book  in- 
deed, of  134  pages,  so  that  now  12  Mss.  are  waiting  to 
be  printed,  scattered,  read,  discussed — believed  by  many 
a  soul,  the  Lord  willing. 

It  was  a  blessed  and  never-to-be-forgotten  time,  when 
I  had  the  opportunity  of  discussing  every  word  of  these 
tracts  with  my  Mohammedan  helper.  Every  word  was 
prayed  over  by  me,  and,  at  least  intellectually,  under- 
stood by  him,  before  it  was  put  down.  He  was  very 
scrupulous  about  translating  Scripture  texts  as  accur- 
ately as  possible,  and  we  had  at  our  disposal  the  Bible 
and  parts  of  Scripture  in  ten  different  translations  to 
compare  with  and  to  choose  from.  The  four  Gospels 
only  had  been  translated  into  Sart  and  were  being  cir- 
culated by  the  Bible  Society.     With  Mullah  Sayid  Ali 


140  THE  MOSLEM  WORLD 

Effendi,  we  set  out  now  to  translate  into  it  part  of  the 
Old  Testament  and  Epistles,  using  freely  for  the  latter 
ones  the  translation  of  the  New  Testament  into  Kash- 
gari,  recently  finished  by  the  Rev.  Awetaranian  of  Sofia, 
Bulgaria.  When  visiting  at  Beirut  I  had  found  at  the 
American  Mission  Press  a  book  in  the  Persian  language 
containing  about  one  thousand  of  the  fundamental  texts 
of  the  Old  and  New  Testaments — grouped  according 
to  one  leading  thought,  as  for  instance,  "The  Fall;" 
"Salvation;"  "The  Law  of  Sin  and  Death;"  "The  Law  of 
Grace  and  Life;"  etc.  I  added  several  pages,  compil- 
ing texts  from  the  Old  and  New  Testaments  proving 
the  pre-existence  of  our  Lord,  giving  the  prophecies 
concerning  Him  and  His  assertions  concerning  His 
deity  and  Oneness  with  the  Father,  and  so  on.  More 
than  one  thousand  texts  in  this  book  "Words  of  Life" 
give  to  the  Sart  reader  for  the  first  time  the  whole  plan 
of  salvation  and  the  central  figure  of  our  Lord — pre- 
sented in  their  own  language.  Claiming  the  Lord's 
promise  that  His  word  will  not  return  empty  but  shall 
fulfill  that  for  which  it  was  sent  out,  and  claiming  also 
the  promise  that  our  tears,  prayer  and  toil  for  Him  shall 
not  be  fruitless,  I  rejoice  by  faith  already  in  the  re- 
sponse this  book  will  find  in  the  hearts  of  Turkestan 
Moslems. 

I  give  here  the  list  of  the  tracts  which  are  ready  for 
the  press: 

1.  The  Unity  of  God.  (Nile  Mission  Press) 

2.  The  Line  of  Prophecy.  (     "        "  "     ) 

3.  The  Noble  Sacrifice.  (     "         "  "     ) 

4.  The  All-Sufficient  Advocate    (     "         "  "     ) 

5.  Who  is  Jesus  Christ?  (Constantinople) 

6.  Is  the  Witness  of  Jesus  Christ 

about        Himself        True? 

(40  pp.)  (Nile  Mission  Press) 

7.  The    Three     Blessed     Days. 

(30  PP-)  (Nile  Mission  Press) 

8.  Annulled  and  the  Annulling  (     "         "  "     ) 

9.  The  Sack  of  Wool 

10.  The  Sacrifice  of  Ishmael  Miss  Lillian  Trotter 


LITERATURE  FOR  RUSSIAN  MOSLEMS  141 

11.  The  City  of  Salvation  (Nile  Mission  Press.) 

12.  Words  of  Life  (134  pp.)       (Beirut  Mission  Press.) 

In  the  above  named  tracts  and  books,  the  Mohamme- 
dan reader  will  find  an  answer  to  most  of  his  questions 
and  objections,  given  either  by  men  who  are  experts  in 
this  kind  of  work,  or  by  the  Word  of  God  itself. 

The  Lord  willing,  I  hope  to  return  in  a  month  or 
two  to  my  field  in  Russian  Central  Asia,  to  print  these 
Mss.,  and  to  take  up  again  the  humble,  but  blessed  work 
of  a  ^'pedlar  for  Christ's  sake."  As  every  other  worker 
among  Mohammedans,  I  expect  to  find  a  great  change 
in  the  field.  The  "shadow"  of  protection  by  the  gov- 
ernment as  formerly — not  requested,  but  all  the  same 
enjoyed — ^will  be  gone.  Mohammedans  and  Christians 
will  meet  now  as  equally  free  citizens.  Opposition, 
danger,  persecution,  will  have  to  be  met  with  the 
"shield  of  faith"  alone.  But  this  shield  has  proved  a 
good  one,  and  we  do  not  desire  another.  On  the  other 
hand,  the  "House  of  Islam"  itself  has  been  so  mightily 
shaken,  that  windows  and  doors  are  wide  open — enter 
who  will,  who  ever  dares  in  the  name  of  the  Lord.  All 
Russian  Central  Asia,  heretofore  closed,  is  now  open. 

Jenny  de  Mayer. 
Of  Samarkand,  Russia. 


ISLAM  IN  SIAM 


Islam  in  Siam  seems  content  to  "Keep  the  Home 
Fires  Burning."  As  an  active  missionary  organization, 
it  is  to  all  appearances  dormant.  I  have  talked  with 
the  majority  of  the  missionaries  in  the  country,  and  am 
unable  to  find  any  trace  of  Moslem  missionary  propa- 
ganda. In  searching  for  a  reason  for  this  absence  of 
propaganda,  one  missonary  replied,  "The  soil  is  not 
conducive  to  any  great  religious  movement  and  the  in- 
difference of  the  average  Siamese  Buddhist  toward  any 
other  religion  than  his  own  makes  the  spread  of  Mo- 
hammedanism, as  well  as  Christianity,  a  difficult  task." 
A  French  Catholic  frere  suggested  that  the  Moslems 
had  seen  the  hopelessness  of  converting  the  Siamese,  and 
added  that  they — the  Catholics — were  content  to  spend 
their  time  working  among  Eurasians  and  Chinese.  One 
old  Moslem  sheikh  gesticulated  violently  when  I 
pressed  him  for  his  opinion  of  the  Siamese  idol-wor- 
shippers, and  said  that  they  were  impossible,  and  were 
all  bound  for  "Gehenna." 

To  the  unshaken  self-satisfaction  of  the  Siamese  Bud- 
dhist, with  the  present  state  of  his  religious  affairs^  must 
be  ascribed  the  reason  why  the  Moslems  are  content  to 
make  no  determined  effort  to  convert  him.  The  Mos- 
lem is  saved,  the  Siamese  refuses  to  be  saved,  and 
therefore  no  effort  is  made. 

It  is  exceedingly  difficult  to  say,  how  many  Moham- 
medans there  are  in  Siam,  for  the  most  of  them  are  im- 
migrants to  the  country  and  have  no  fixed  place  of 
abode.  The  exact  number  will  not  be  known  till  more 
accurate  census  records  are  kept.  One  "imam"  in  a 
Bangkok  mosque   said    that   there   were    "hundreds   of 

142 


ISLAM  IN  SIAM  143 

thousands  and  then  some"  in  the  country,  and  in  spite 
of  the  Oriental  propensity  for  exaggeration,  there  is  no 
great  reason  to  believe  that  the  number  is  far  from  cor- 
rect. The  number  of  Malays  (Moslems)  in  Siam  is 
variously  given  as  200,000;  800,000  or  even  one  million. 

Siam  is  surrounded  on  three  sides  by  peoples  holding 
more  or  less  mixed  Moslem  beliefs.  On  the  north  are 
the  Yunnanese  Chinese,  or,  as  they  are  popularly 
known  to  the  Siamese,  ^^Hows."  Through  these  people 
have  been  severely  persecuted,  many  of  them  are 
staunch  supporters  of  the  Faith.  To  the  immediate 
west  are  the  Burmese,  but  beyond  them  is  the  seething 
mass  of  Indian  Moslems,  who  reside  throughout  all 
Burmah  and  who  have  penetrated  into  Siam  in  large 
numbers.  To  the  south  of  Siam  are  the  Malays,  and 
still  farther  south  are  the  Javanese.  The  Malay  Mo- 
hammedan population  has  decreased  in  recent  years, 
not  through  any  apostasy  on  the  part  of  the  natives, 
but  because  several  states  with  large  Malay  elements 
have  been  ceded  by  Siam  to  the  Federated  Malay 
States. 

It  is  presumed  that  Islam  came  into  Siam  by  way 
of  the  south,  after  the  Malays  had  been  converted. 
During  the  19th  century  and  thus  far  in  the  20th,  but 
little  has  been  heard  of  these  Mohammedans.  They 
have  come  to  the  country  with  their  trade,  and  have 
lived  in  quietness  and  comparative  isolation.  Since  the 
French  first  came  to  Siam,  they  have  been  expelled 
three  times,  a  record  that  the  Moslems  cannot  equal. 
They  have  remained  unnoticed,  chiefly  because  of  their 
lack  of  propaganda. 

In  the  history  of  the  country,  which  I  might  add  is 
very  meagre  and  probably  quite  inaccurate,  there  are 
many  evidences  that  Siam  came  into  contact  with  Mo- 
hammedans in  times  past  to  a  considerable  extent.  It 
is  quite  interesting  to  read  in  Turpin's  "History  oi 
Siam,"  published  in  Paris  in  1771,  of  the  adventures  of 
the  Mohammedan  traders,  their  ability  in  war  and  the 
different  embassies  sent  to  and  from  Persia  and  Siam. 
The  author  was  a  French  missionary,  and  extracts  from 


144  THE  MOSLEM  WORLD 

his  work  are  interesting  because  they  show  the  intrigue 
and  the  attempts  at  intercourse  between  the  rival  re- 
ligions. After  recounting  how,  in  the  middle  of  the 
i6th  century,  the  reigning  king  of  Siam  seemed  to 
favor  Christianity  by  building  the  Christians  a  church, 
he  remarks,  "This  generosity  seemed  to  indicate  his 
leanings  toward  Christianity;  but  in  reality  he  was  in- 
different to  all  religions,  and  above  all  took  delight  in 
showing  his  contempt  for  the  idolatrous  priests  (mean- 
ing Buddhist  priests)  whom  he  delighted  to  humiliate. 
The  Mohammedans  shared  his  favors  with  the  Chris- 
tians, and  if  he  had  been  obliged  to  make  choice  of  a 
religion,  it  is  most  probable  that  he  would  have  de- 
clared for  the  Koran.  A  prince  surrounded  by  con- 
cubines would  naturally  vote  for  a  religion  which  au- 
thorizes his  predilections. 

Only  one  serious  attempt  appears  to  have  been  made 
by  the  Mohammedans  to  convert  the  entire  country  to 
Islam.  In  1687,  Louis  XIV  sent  a  group  of  Jesuit 
mathematicians  to  the  Far  East  in  order  that  their  ob- 
servations might  perfect  the  knowledge  of  navigation 
and  geography.  The  Siamese  had  sent  an  embassy  to 
his  court  some  time  before  and  he  seized  their  visit  as 
an  opportunity  to  send  out  his  ambassadors  and  mathe- 
maticians. The  Siamese  king  received  the  ambassadors 
with  great  cordiality  and  became  very  familiar  with 
them, — so  familiar  in  fact  that  the  ambassadors  asked 
the  king  to  become  a  Christian.  Their  first  plea  was 
followed  by  many  more,  for  they  had  just  learned  that 
an  ambassador  from  Persia  had  arrived  to  convert  the 
king  to  Islam.  The  king  was  indifferent  to  the  at- 
tempts of  both  Christians  and  Moslems  to  convert  him, 
replying  that  he  would  be  rash  to  embrace  a  religion  of 
which  he  knew  nothing.  Following  in  the  wake  of  the 
Moslem  ambassador  came  the  Arab,  Mogul,  and  Per- 
sian traders.  They  brought  to  Siam  fabrics,  silks  and 
spices,  and  took  away  a  great  many  elephants  to  the 
Coromandel  Coast,  to  Golconda,  and  to  Persia.  With 
the  increase  in  numbers,  their  religious  enthusiasm 
grew,  and  they  realized  what  a  great  advantage  it  would 


ISLAM  IN  SIAM  I45 

be  to  them  if  they  could  convert  the  entire  country. 
The  large  colony  started  with  the  supposition  that  the 
success  which  Mohammedanism  had  had  among  the 
Malays  might  be  repeated  on  a  large  scale  in  Siam. 
In  this  supposition  they  were,  however,  mistaken;  and 
their  doctrines,  instead  of  being  acceptable  to  the  peo- 
ple, gave  rise  to  such  popular  commotion  and  antagonism 
against  Islam,  that  "a  large  number  of  Moslems 
achieved  to  the  sanctity  of  martyrdom."  In  one  place 
we  read  that  the  Moors  made  an  expedition  to  Siam, 
firing  several  shots  at  some  Siamese  vessels;  and  that 
the  Siamese  Army  had  a  great  many  Malays  and 
Macassars,  who  were  considered   as  the  finest  troops. 

It  is  probably  five  hundred  years  ago  that  the  natives 
of  Malacca  reached  the  northern  part  of  the  Malay 
peninsula  and  converted  the  indigenous  population  to 
Islam.  They  seldom  brought  their  women,  and  inter- 
married with  the  females  of  the  newly  settled  regions. 
They  have  produced  a  race  which  is  passable  as  Malay. 
Before  their  conversion  to  Islam,  it  is  supposed  that 
these  inhabitants  of  the  Malay  peninsula  held  Brahmin 
beliefs.  At  any  rate,  these  Moslems  are  influenced  by 
the  Brahmin  gods,  who,  though  classed  as  Efrits  and 
Jinns  by  the  orthodox,  remain  at  the  head  of  the  spirit 
world  and  command  the  respect  of  the  population.  In 
fact,  these  Brahmin  gods  hold  the  same  position  to 
Siamese  Mohammedanism  as  they  do  to  Siamese  Bud- 
dhism. 

The  men  usually  have  closely  shaven  heads,  while  the 
women,  in  contrast  to  their  Siamese  neighbors  wear  long 
hair.  The  people  are  not  naturally  hairy,  and  one 
authority  holds  that  the  scanty  hairs  which  appear  on 
the  chin  are  usually  plucked  out.  The  women  expose 
their  features  quite  openly,  and  at  any  time,  in  a  man- 
ner that  would  not  be  tolerated  in  the  southern  part  of 
the  peninsula  or  Java.  The  Moslem  women  seem  to 
have  considerable  freedom,  far  more  than  the  women  of 
Egypt.  Only  on  occasions  of  festivals  are  they  veiled 
and  separated  from  the  men.  It  is  probable  that  the 
poorest  type  of  Mohammedans  are  these  Siamese  Ma- 


146  THE  MOSLEM  WORLD 

lays,  yet  notwithstanding  their  apparent  unorthodoxy, 
the  prohibitions  of  alcohol  and  gambling  are  quite  rigor- 
ously observed,  especially  by  those  who  come  in  contact 
with  the  outside  world  to  any  extent.  The  Malays  of 
South  Siam  are  agriculturalists  and  fishermen,  but  in 
Bangkok,  they  are  ''sayces,"  gardeners  and  cloth  mer- 
chants. In  the  case  of  marrying  a  Siamese  woman,  the 
woman  will  usually  retain  her  Buddhism.  A  Siamese 
princess  once  said,  "The  strength  of  Buddhism  lies  in 
its  hold  upon  the  women."  An  interesting  case  of  this 
kind  is  found  in  the  family  of  one  of  the  Christian 
evangelists.  His  father  was  a  Moslem  and  a  most  ear- 
nest and  devout  one;  his  mother  clung  tenaciously  to 
Buddhism.  At  the  death  of  the  Moslem  father,  the 
mother,  in  spite  of  strong  protests  from  her  dead  hus- 
band's relatives,  took  the  boy  and  educated  him  for  the 
Buddhist  priesthood.  From  the  priesthood  he  was  con- 
verted to  Christianity.  The  evangelist  still  recognizes 
his  Moslem  relatives  and  they  have  insisted  that  he  be 
circumcised.  One  day  in  the  training  class,  the  mis- 
sionary in  giving  the  assignment  for  the  next  day,  told 
the  class  that  as  the  Siamese  did  not  practise  circum- 
cision, it  would  be  of  little  value  to  discuss  the  subject. 
The  old  evangelist  disagreed,  and  said  that  to  him  the 
question  was  a  vital  one,  as  he  had  been  urged  many 
times  to  submit  to  the  rite.  As  a  result,  the  missionary 
with  the  class  studied  the  fifth  chapter  of  Galatians. 
While  on  a  tour,  this  evangelist  tried  to  convert  an  old 
Mohammedan  sheikh  who  would  have  none  of  it,  and 
who  replied,  "What  would  you  do,  if  that  Vearer  of 
pants'  (the  missionary)  wasn't  here  to  support  you?" 

In  Central  and  North  Siam,  Mohammedanism  is 
found  only  in  the  cities  and  villages.  The  Malays 
above  Bangkok  are  few  and  far  between.  Bangkok  is 
the  center  of  Islam,  as  it  is  the  centre  of  everything  in 
the  country.  There  are  some  twenty  mosques  in  Bang- 
kok alone,  with  a  sheikh  from  Alexandria  and  El  Azhar 
University  in  charge.  The  dull,  unornamented  mosques, 
with  their  short  minarets,  form  a  sombre  contrast  to 
the     elaborately     ornamented     and     gilded     Buddhist 


ISLAM  IN  SI  AM  I47 

"wats,"  with  their  towering  "prapangs"  and  '^prachi- 
dees."  Mosques  and  temples  are  located  close  together, 
and  very  often  as  the  muezzin  is  rolling  out  his  call  to 
prayer,  some  faithful  merit  maker  is  beating  the  "wat" 
bells  so  despised  by  the  followers  of  the  prophet. 

Though  His  Majesty  the  King  is  a  strong  Buddhist, 
and  does  every  thing  that  he  can  do  to  strengthen  his 
religion,  there  is  a  remarkable  spirit  of  religious  tolera- 
tion shown;  or  perhaps  it  is  only  another  name  for  the 
religious  indifference  already  commented  upon.  King 
Rama  has  given  ground  for  the  erection  of  several  of  the 
Bangkok  mosques.  All  of  the  Malays  in  Bangkok  are 
Shafts  and  most  of  the  Indians  are  Hanafis.  As  a  result 
they  have  their  own  mosques  in  which  to  worship,  but 
there  is  a  strong  attachment  between  them.  Each  sect 
will  aid  the  other  in  the  promotion  of  some  worthy  object. 
A  large  number  of  the  Moslems  have  been  to  Mecca, 
and  considerable  Arabic  is  spoken  in  the  city.  All 
wear  some  form  of  cap  or  headdress  without  a  visor  and 
the  red  "tarboush"  or  fez  is  quite  popular;  these  are, 
however,  about  one-half  the  height  of  the  Turkish  or 
Egyptian  fezes.  It  is  a  quite  common  sight  to  see  them 
at  prayer,  and  they  make  no  attempt  to  "hide  their  light 
under  a  bushel." 

In  North  Siam  the  Mohammedans  are  either  In- 
dians or  Yunnanese  Chinese.  All  are  traders  and  they 
lead  a  roving  life.  Each  year  the  caravans  come  all 
the  way  from  Yunnan  to  Siam  and  Burmah  and  the  In- 
dians will  trade  between  Burmah  and  Siam.  There 
are  four  mosques  in  the  city  of  Chiengmai,  the  most 
important  city  in  North  Siam.  A  fifth  one  is  now  be- 
ing built  by  the  Yunnannese  with  the  financial  aid  of 
their  richer  Indian  brothers.  The  hereditary  princes 
of  North  Siam  employ  Moslems  as  grooms.  The 
groom  of  the  Chao  Luang  (hereditary  prince)  of  Lam- 
pang  receives  a  salary  far  in  excess  of  the  other  ser- 
vants. It  is  because  the  Malays  have  derived  a  love 
of  horses  from  their  Arab  co-religionists,  that  they  are 
so  much  sought  after. 

The  missionaries  in  Siam  have  made  no  attempt  at 


148  THE  MOSLEM  WORLD 

the  conversion  of  the  Mohammedans.  They  have  set 
themselves  toward  a  larger  and  every  bit  as  difficult 
a  task.  The  only  converts  that  have  been  made  from 
Mohammedanism  so  far  as  I  have  been  able  to  learn 
are  the  evangelist,  who  was  in  reality  a  Buddhist,  and 
a  poor  helpless  Yunnanese  leper  in  the  Leper  Asylum 
at  Chiengmai.  In  Bangkok  there  are  Mohammedans 
in  the  schools  of  the  American  and  French  missionaries, 
but  it  is  very  difficult  to  infljuence  them.  They  are  far 
less  receptive  to  Christian  teachings  than  are  the  Budd- 
hists. A  Buddhist  boy  in  explaining  to  his  Sunday- 
school  teacher,  why  his  friend  would  not  enter  the  Sun- 
day-school class  said,  "You  see,  he  is  a  Mohammedan." 

Paul  McClure  Hinkhouse. 
Bangkok,  Siatn, 


THE  CRESCENT  AS  SYMBOL  OF  ISLAM 


A  reference  in  the  MOSLEM  WORLD  for  April,  1917, 
to  the  new  flag  of  the  Kingdom  of  Hejaz  suggests  a 
consideration  of  the  Crescent,  the  standard  of  the 
Turks,  as  a  religious  symbol.  Historians,  when  speak- 
ing of  the  Crusades,  have  frequently  described  them  as 
conflicts  between  the  Cross  and  Crescent,  and  the  same 
figure  of  speech  is  used  often  to  describe  the  campaign 
carried  on  by  missionaries  in  Moslem  lands.  Professor 
Ridgeway  points  out  that  to  speak  of  the  Crescent  as  a 
symbol  of  Islam  when  Richard  Coeur-de-Lion  or  St. 
Louis  fought  against  the  Saracens,  is  to  be  guilty  of  an 
anachronism,  for  the  crescent  did  not  appear  as  a  Mos- 
lem symbol  until  after  the  appearance  of  the  Osmanli 
Turks. 

The  banner  of  Mohammed,  like  the  modern  standard 
of  the  King  of  the  Hejaz,  bore  no  device,  and  during 
the  struggle  which  characterized  the  caliphate  up  to 
the  time  of  the  domination  of  the  Osmanlis,  the  different 
banners  of  the  various  houses  were  simply  plain  colors,* 
each  party  possessing  one  distinguishing  color. 

Unlike  the  Cross,  which  is  full  of  significance  to  the 
Christian,  the  crescent  has  no  religious  significance  for 
the  Moslem.  It  is  merely  a  symbol  of  the  Ottoman 
domination  of  Islam,  and  yet  a  study  of  the  symbol  re- 
veals the  fact  that  it  has  possessed  a  religious  signifi- 
cance from  very  ancient  times.  It  is  an  interesting  co- 
incidence that  the  symbol  of  an  ancient  moon  god,  whose 
influence  extended  from  ancient  Babylonia  throughout 
the  whole  of  Africa,  should  eventually  become  the  sym- 
bol of  a  monotheistic  faith  which  had  its  origin  in 
Arabia. 

History  has  given  us  no  clear  record  as  to  why  the 

*  Black  was  the  color  of  the  Abasids,  white  of  the  Ummayads,  red  of  the  Khawarii, 
and  green  of  the  Alids.  ' 

149 


150  THE  MOSLEM  WORLD 

Turks  adopted  the  crescent  as  their  standard.  Some 
authorities  suggest  that  it  was  accepted  after  their  occu- 
pation of  Northern  Asia  Minor,  but  others  maintained 
that  it  was  not  used  until  after  the  capture  of  Constanti- 
nople in  1453  A.  D. 

In  his  "Rise,  Decline  and  Fall  of  the  Caliphate"  Sir 
William  Muir  says:  "In  the  8th  century  (of  the  He- 
gira)  the  Osmanlis  achieved  the  conquest  of  Asia 
Minor,  and  eventually  crossing  the  Bosphorus,  planted 
the  crescent  an  the  walls  of  Byzantium,"  which  seems  to 
indicate  that  he  believed  the  crescent  to  have  been  the 
standard  of  the  Turks  before  the  conquest  of  Byzantium. 
He  does  not  however  quote  his  authority  for  the  view. 

One  of  the  earliest  appearances  of  the  crescent  in  art 
seems  to  be  that  which  is  shown  on  a  Babylonian  seal 
cylinder  bearing  an  inscription  of  the  days  of  Urengur, 
king  of  Ur,  who  was  reigning  in  2450  B.  C. 
The  symbol  is  shown  above  a  seated  human  figure,  and 
indicates  that  the  figure  is  a  representation  of  the  moon 
god,  Sin,  whose  worship  apparently  originated  in  Ur, 
the  early  home  of  Abraham,  and  eventually  spread  over 
almost  the  whole  of  Arabia.  Although  the  appearance 
of  the  crescent  near  a  seated  human  figure  in  Babylon- 
ian Art  almost  invariably  indicates  that  he  is  the  moon 
god,  there  are  some  instances  where  this  is  not  intended, 
and  the  actual  significance  of  the  symbol  in  such  cases 
is  not  clear.  With  the  eight  or  sixteen  rayed  star,  and 
the  sun's  disc,  the  crescent  is  one  of  the  commonest  sym- 
bols found  upon  the  ancient  monuments,  particularly 
upon  the  boundary  stones;  where  very  probably  it  had  a 
magical  significance  related  to  the  superstitious  beliefs 
associated  with  the  heaps  of  boundary  stones  in  Pales- 
tine today.  The  frequency  of  the  appearance  of  the 
crescent  in  the  art  of  Babylonians  may  be  explained  by 
the  fact  that  the  worship  of  Sin  assumed  great  promi- 
nence in  the  earliest  days  known  to  us  of  Babylonian 
History,  and  persisted  through  all  changes  in  political, 
social  and  religious  thought  right  down  to  the  time  of 
the  disappearance  of  Babylonian — Assyrian  civilization. 

From   ancient  times,   down   to  the   present  day,   the 


''THE  CRESCENT  AS  SYMBOL  OF  ISLAM"         151 

moon  has  been  associated  with  magical  rites  and  cere- 
monies, with  the  result  that  all  moon  gods  and  goddesses 
are  concerned  with  many  forms  of  magic. 

The  Babylonians  and  early  Arabians  regarded  the 
moon  as  masculine  and  "Sin,"  the  moon  god,  was 
represented  as  an  old  man  with  a  flowing  beard;  but 
gradually  the  conception  changed  and  the  moon  became 
feminine.  The  daughter  of  Sin — Ishtar — not  origi- 
nally a  moon  goddess,  whose  symbol  was  a  star  repre- 
senting the  sky,  was  identified  by  later  historians  with 
the  many  moon  goddesses  who  were  worshipped  in 
different  localities  and  whose  symbols  were  almost  in- 
variably crescents.  This  relationship  is  recognized  by 
modern  anthologists,  on  the  ground  that  all  moon  god- 
desses are  associated  with  nature  myths  based  upon  the 
generative  principle  in  nature,  the  worship  of  which 
usually  degenerated  into  the  grossly  immoral  rites  so 
strongly  denounced  by  Jewish  prophets,  and  in  later 
times  associated  by  some  Arabian  writers  with  forms 
of  black  magic  (Sihr). 

The  prevalence  of  the  crescent  and  other  astrological 
symbols  may  be  inferred  from  a  curious  legend  re- 
corded by  Maimonides  in  his  commentary  on  the 
Mishna  which  declares  that  idolatry  had  its  origin  in 
star  worship,  the  first  image  worshipped  by  man  being 
the  representation  of  a  star.  The  story  says  that  a  time 
came  when  man  could  think  of  no  other  god  than  the 
stars  and  spheres  of  the  heavens.  This  legend,  with 
the  fact  that  in  ancient  Arabia  there  was  a  strongly 
developed  star  worship,  in  which  the  cult  of  the  moon 
god  as  masculine  had  precedence,  would  indicate  that 
the  people  of  the  lands  affected  were  familiar  with  the 
crescent  and  star  as  religious  symbols  long  before  Islam 
under  the  influence  of  the  Osmanlis  adopted  the  crescent 
and  star  as  its  standard.  A  favorite  method  of  thought 
among  the  old  Arabians  was  to  regard  the  two  chief 
aspects  of  the  moon — waning  and  waxing — as  two  dei- 
ties, in  which  Asthtar,  the  planet  Venus  regarded  as 
masculine,  is  confused  with  the  more  ancient  Babylonian 
Ishtar  as  a  symbol  of  the  heavens. 


152  THE  MOSLEM  WORLD 

The  obscure  goddess  Alillat  was  also  associated  with 
Ishtar,  and  also  with  Diana  the  Greek  goddess  whose 
symbol  was  a  crescent.  Some  Arabic  scholars  have 
identified  Alillat  with  Al  Lat,  and  Robertson-Smith  in 
1887  conjectured  that  Leto,  the  mother  of  the  Greek 
Apollo  and  Diana,  was  actually  the  Arabian  Lat  who 
had  been  introduced  into  Greece  by  Greek  merchants. 
If  this  conjecture  is  correct,  it  is  quite  possible  that 
further  research  will  show  that  the  crescent  as  a  divine 
symbol  was  introduced  directly  from  Arabia  into 
Greece. 

Hesychius  tells  us  that  the  adoption  of  the  crescent 
and  star  as  the  arms  of  Byzantium  was  due  to  the  grati- 
tude of  the  citizens  for  the  miraculous  intervention  of 
Hecate  or  Diana  when  Philip  of  Macedon  was  be- 
sieging the  city  in  339  B.  C.  It  is  said  that  Philip  was 
preparing  secretly  by  night  for  an  attack  when  a  brighf 
light  shone  out  from  heaven  and  revealed  his  plans  to 
the  besieged,  with  the  result  that  they  were  able  to  fore- 
stall the  attempt.  The  appearance  of  the  light,  which 
seems  to  have  been  caused  by  the  cresent  moon  with  a 
star  near  one  of  its  horns,  was  hailed  as  a  direct  inter- 
vention of  Hecate  whose  symbol  was  a  blazing  crescent, 
which  in  her  honor  was  adopted  as  the  civic  badge,  and 
was  struck  upon  the  coins  for  centuries. 

The  adoption  of  the  symbol  by  the  Turks,  it  is  gen- 
erally believed,  occurred  after  their  conquest  of  Con- 
stantinople in  1453 ;  but  there  seems  to  be  no  clear  his- 
torical evidence  to  support  this.  Some  authorities  main- 
tain that  the  Osmanlis  adopted  it  as  their  standard  after 
their  occupation  of  Northern  Asia  Minor,  where,  as  the 
badge  of  the  Byzantine  emperors,  the  crescent  and  star 
would  have  been  well  known. 

Professor  Ridgeway,  in  a  very  interesting  paper 
published  in  the  Journal  of  the  Royal  Anthropological 
Institute  (1908),  maintains  that-  the  adoption  of  the 
crescent  by  the  Turks  was  largely  due  to  their  familiar- 
ity with  the  symbol  as  formed  by  double  Boars'  tusks 
worn  as  amulets.  The  paper  is  illustrated  with  photo- 
graphs of  such  amulets  in  the  writer's  possession,  col- 


"THE  CRESCENT  AS  SYMBOL  OF  ISLAM"         153 

lected  from  many  parts  of  the  world,  some  of  them  be- 
ing ancient  imitations  in  bronze  of  Boars'  tusks  united 
to  form  crescents,  which  seems  to  indicate  that  the  cres- 
cents of  Boars'  tusks  and  their  imitations  in  metal  were 
far  older  than  the  astrological  symbols  used  in  the  region 
ruled  by  the  Byzantine  emperors. 

In  a  letter  to  me  Professor  Ridgeway  says  research 
has  convinced  him  that  astrological  symbols  only  come 
very  late  in  all  religions.  Primitive  man  is  concerned 
with  what  is  concrete,  his  magic  is  concerned  with  ma- 
terial things  which  will  aid  him  in  getting  food,  or  in 
overcoming  his  enemies;  any  fancied  virtues  in  the 
moon  would  be  of  no  use  to  him,  but  a  pair  of  horns 
would  be  a  formidable  weapon.  His  knowledge  of  the 
power  of  the  animals  he  may  hunt  leads  him  to  the  be- 
lief that  possession  of  horns,  claws  or  teeth  will  give 
him  some  of  the  power  manifested.  Thus  today,  among 
other  amulets  the  Esquimos  use  when  hunting,  are  dogs' 
teeth. 

Traces  of  such  primitive  ideas  seem  to  be  reflected 
in  the  name  given  to  Sin,  the  Babylonian  moon-god, 
for  he  is  frequently  known  as  ^^The  young  bullock  of 
Enlil,"  and  in  the  art  which  distinguishes  a  god  from  a 
human,  by  the  addition  of  a  pair  of  horns  upon  the 
head.  In  the  Greek  period,  Astarte  the  moon-goddess, 
is  sometimes  figured  crowned  with  a  bull's  head,  and 
in  a  representation  of  the  composite  god  of  Egypt — 
Serapis — the  bull's  horns  are  shown  as  a  well  defined 
crescent.  Pliny  tells  us  that  one  of  the  identification 
marks  of  a  sacred  bull  was  a  conspicuous  white  spot  on 
the  right  side  in  the  form  of  a  crescent,  probably  be- 
cause the  Apis  bull  of  Memphis  symbolized  the 
moon.  Khonsu,  the  moon-god  of  Egypt  (sometimes 
identified  with  Thoth)  as  the  new  moon  is  likened  to 
a  fiery  bull.  As  Khensu-pa-Khast,  he  is  the  beautiful 
light  of  the  crescent  moon  shining  upon  the  earth, 
through  whose  agency  women  conceive,  etc.  In  Egyp- 
tian art  the  crescent  almost  invariably  appears  as  a  sup- 
port for  the  moon's  disc  generally  shown  as  a  head- 
dress of  the  god. 


154  THE  MOSLEM  WORLD 

It  is  interesting  to  notice,  with  the  thought  of  the 
Boars'  tusk  crescent  in  our  minds,  that  in  Cyprus  once 
a  year  wild  boars  are  sacrificed  to  Aphrodite  and 
Adonis  and  that  Antiphanes  tells  us  the  boar  and  pig 
were  especially  sacred  to  Aphrodite  or  Astarte,  the 
moon  goddess.  Lucian  tells  us  that  the  pig  was  con- 
sidered to  be  a  sacred  animal  by  the  Syrians,  a  concep- 
tion which  must  have  been  very  ancient,  and  very  pos- 
sibly related  to  the  magical  conception  regarding  the 
tusk. 

I  suppose  we  shall  never  discover  how  it  was  that 
man  transferred  his  magical  conceptions  from  the  tusk 
or  horn  of  an  animal  to  the  loftier,  if  less  practical, 
religious  and  magical  conceptions  of  the  crescent  moon. 
Such  a  transference  may  represent  the  transition  of  cen- 
turies— a  gradual  growth  from  the  primitive  concrete 
conceptions  to  the  abstract,  as  man  noticing  the  resem- 
blance of  the  cresent  to  his  powerful  pair  of  tusks  or 
horns  begins  to  associate  those  ideas  of  power  with  the 
being  to  whom  the  astrological  horns  belong.  From  the 
conception  of  the  power  of  the  tusk  to  the  conception 
of  Sin,  represents  a  great  advance.  There  is  evi- 
dence which  shows  that  conceptions  of  a  moon-god 
have  been  associated  with  wisdom,  knowledge  and  un- 
derstanding, always,  in  the  primitive  mind,  related  to 
magic;  it  has  been  said  of  Thoth,  the  wisdom  god 
of  Egypt,  who,  as  we  have  seen,  is  regarded  in  some 
aspects  as  a  moon  god,  that  his  character  is  a  ''lofty 
and  beautiful  conception  and  is  perhaps  the  highest 
idea  of  deity  ever  fashioned  in  the  Egyptian  mind, 
which  was  somewhat  prone  to  dwell  on  the  material 
side  of  divine  matters." 

One  of  Professor  Ridgeway's  illustrations  is  a  gem  of 
the  third  century,  bearing  a  crescent  with  three  eight- 
pointed  stars.  The  ancient  Babylonian  ideograph  for 
the  word  "God"  was  the  star  repeated  three  times, 
apparently  to  distinguish  it  from  the  word  star  which 
was  denoted  by  the  ideograph  of  one  star.  This  may 
be  merely  a  coincidence,  which  is  more  striking  be- 
cause the  symbol  of   Ishtar,   as  we  have  noticed,  was 


"THE  CRESCENT  AS  SYMBOL  OF  ISLAM"         155 

generally  an  eight-pointed  star.  It  has  been  suggested 
that  the  Byzantine  emperors  adopted  the  star  as  their 
symbol  partly  because  it  represents  the  Star  of  Bethle- 
hem ;  for  this  reason  it  was  also  adopted  with  a  crescent 
by  Richard  the  first  of  England.  Thus  the  crescent  and 
star  became  the  badge  of  an  English  king,  and  was 
struck  on  the  silver  pennies  of  Dublin  in  12 10.  It  ap- 
pears over  the  stalls  of  the  Dean  and  Precentor  of  St. 
Patrick's  Cathedral,  Dublin.  Henry  III  used  the  same 
device,  so  that  the  star  and  crescent  have  been  used  as 
a  badge  by  Christian  rulers,  while  in  some  places  the 
crescent  is  seen  actually  combined  with  a  cross. 

Reference  is  made  in  the  Professor's  paper  to  the 
modern  cart  horse  pendant  used  in  England,  where 
often  one  of  the  ornaments  is  a  crescent  and  star  sup- 
posed to  be  a  survival  of  the  badges  taken  in  a  crusade. 
He  shows  that  brass  imitations  of  the  boars'  tusk  cres- 
cents were  used  on  Roman  Norse  trappings,  and  sug- 
gests that  this  device  may  also  be  a  survival  of  the  old 
boars'  tusk  amulet.  The  superstitious  significance  of 
the  modern  crescent-shaped  horseshoe,  which  is  sup- 
posed to  bring  luck  to  its  finder,  may  be  derived  from 
the  same  idea. 

Concluding  his  convincing  arguments.  Professor 
Ridgeway  points  out  that  there  were  two  main  reasons 
which  influenced  the  Turk  in  his  adoption  of  the  cres- 
cent as  a  badge.  There  was  first  his  familiarity  with 
the  old  amulet  of  the  boars'  tusk,  and  then  the  preval- 
ence of  the  astrological  symbol  in  the  new  kingdom  he 
had  conquered. 

The  abandonment  of  the  Ottoman  device  by  the  King 
of  the  Hejaz  is  significant.  It  surely  indicates  that 
the  domination  of  the  Osmanlis  has  never  been  accept- 
able to  the  real  sons  of  Islam.  It  may  be  that  the  dis- 
integration of  the  Turkish  empire,  which  has  been  has- 
tened by  the  war,  will  lead  to  a  new  birth  in  Islam 
which  will  make  it  less  antagonistic  to  the  Cross,  and 
will  result  eventually  in  a  definite  recognition  of  the 
claims  of  the  Redeemer  of  men. 

H.  E.  E.  Hayes. 


CONSTANTINOPLE     COLLEGE     AND     THE 
FUTURE  OF  THE  NEAR  EAST 


In  these  glorious  days  of  triumph  and  the  fulfilling 
of  many  dreams,  none  rejoice  so  much  as  the  friends  of 
the  people  of  the  Near  East.  In  that  part  of  the  world, 
which  has  so  long  lain  prostrate  under  the  paralyzing 
influence  of  a  hideous  misgovernment,  the  day  of  de- 
liverance shines  even  more  brightly  than  it  does  further 
west.  Educators  who  for  nearly  a  hundred  years  have 
worked  against  unreasonable  obstacles,  who  have  hoped 
against  hope  for  a  chance  to  progress,  who  have  prayed 
for  a  cessation  of  the  sufferings  of  the  people  to  whom 
they  ministered,  are  at  last  able  to  look  with  clear  and 
confident  eyes  towards  a  future  full  of  hope  and  peace 
and  progress.  That  future  is  as  yet  afar  off,  but  still 
it  can  be  seen  and  the  joy  of  working  towards  it  has  been 
increased  a  hundredfold. 

The  hope  of  the  Near  East,  of  Mesopotamia,  Syria, 
Asia  Minor,  the  Balkans,  lies  with  the  women.  This 
has  always  been  true  to  some  extent,  but  never  more  so 
than  today.  The  men  of  the  Ottoman  Empire  have 
been  killed  in  battle  or  massacred.  The  country  is 
wretchedly  poor  and  in  many  regions  faces  starvation. 
It  is  full  of  refugees  and  orphans;  its  homes  have  been 
shattered;  its  cities  have  been  destroyed.  Redemption 
lies  in  the  minds  and  hearts  of  its  women. 

No  one  realizes  this  more  fully  than  the  Americans 
who  have  given  their  lives  to  the  education  of  the  young 
women  of  the  Near  East  at  Constantinople  College. 
Situated  in  the  ancient  city  of  the  Caesars,  on  the 
shores  of  the  Bosphorus,  this  American  college  has  for 
nearly  fifty  years  been  training  scores  of  girls,  Alban- 
ians, Armenians,  Bulgarians,  Greeks,  Jews,  Turks,  and 
bringing  enlightenment  into  hundreds  of  homes.  To- 
day its  hard  work  and  indefatigable  devotion  seem  to 

156 


FUTURE  OF  THE  NEAR  EAST  157 

be  justified  indeed.  This  college,  which  is  the  largest 
and  the  most  advanced  American  institution  for  women 
in  Turkey  is  face  to  face  with  the  problem  of  recon- 
struction and  rehabilitation,  for  which  its  many  years 
of  quiet  service  have  been  an  excellent  preparation. 
During  the  whole  period  of  the  war,  it  has  kept  its 
doors  open  to  all  who  would  come  in  search  of  knowl- 
edge. It  has  faced  the  uncertainty  of  war  conditions, 
staggering  expenses,  hardships  of  many  kinds.  But  by 
its  steadfastness  it  has  proved  to  the  people  of  the  Near 
East  that  it  believes  with  all  its  heart  in  education  and 
in  the  vital  importance  of  the  training  of  young  woman- 
hood as  the  key  to  national  progress  and  development. 
So  that  wars,  revolutions,  massacres  have  failed  to  close 
its  doors  and  the  good  work  has  gone  on. 

Constantinople  College  has  an  interesting  history. 
It  started  as  a  mission  school  for  Armenian  girls  in 
1871  on  the  Asiatic  shore  of  the  Bosphorus  in  Scutari. 
Its  modest  buildings  stood  upon  a  hill  overlooking  the 
splendid  panorama  of  Stamboul.  Soon  it  began  to  in- 
clude other  nationalities  in  the  student  body,  and  in 
1890  became  a  full  fledged  college  with  a  charter 
from  the  state  of  Massachusetts.  Its  staff  and  student 
body  grew  with  considerable  rapidity  and  a  Preparatory 
school  was  founded  in  connection  with  it  which  is  car- 
ried on  with  success  to  this  day.  In  1905  a  fire  de- 
stroyed the  main  building  in  Scutari.  Instead  of  re- 
building on  the  same  campus,  the  President,  through  the 
help  of  generous  friends  in  America,  was  able  in  the 
course  of  five  years  to  buy  a  beautiful  piece  of  prop- 
erty on  the  European  side  of  the  Bosphorus  on  the  top 
of  Arnaoutkeuy  hill,  and  erect  four  new  buildings 
which  the  college  has  occupied  since  April,    19 14. 

The  influence  that  such  a  fine  Christian  institution 
exerts  in  so  important  a  city  as  Constantinople  can  be 
easily  imagined.  This  year  500  students  are  enrolled. 
The  language  of  the  College  is  English  which  all  must 
master  as  soon  as  they  enter.  This  is  only  one  of  the 
common  bonds  which  link  these  girls  of  many  varying 
nationalties.     A  love  of  learning,  a  respect  for  Ameri- 


158  THE  MOSLEM  WORLD 

can  ideals  of  honor  and  justice  and  an  acceptance  of 
the  Christian  principles  of  service  and  sacrifice  are  a 
few  of  the  many  spiritual  advantages  shared  by  Bul- 
garian and  Turk,  Armenian  and  Greek.  The  book 
knowledge  is  important,  but  the  training  of  character 
is  much  more  important  and  it  is  here  that  the  College 
aims  high.  Alumnae  go  out  to  become  leaders  in  their 
several  communities.  They  return  to  their  homes  often 
to  teach  their  people  the  new  lessons  of  a  fuller  life 
which  they  have  learned  from  the  College. 

Never  before,  however,  in  all  its  history  has  the  op- 
portunity for  service  been  so  great  as  at  this  moment. 
The  Ottoman  Empire  must  be  reconstructed.  Its 
women  must  do  most  of  that  reconstructing.  And  Con- 
stantinople College  intends  to  furnish  those  women  to  a 
large  extent.  The  President  and  the  trustees  have  al- 
ready turned  their  thoughts  to  the  laying  of  new  plans. 
Practical  education  must  hare  a  larger  place  to  meet 
the  present  needs.  Courses  in  agriculture  and  village 
improvement  have  begun.  A  movement  for  making  a 
start  at  medical  education  is  under  way.  No  one  need 
be  told  of  the  necessity  for  nurses  and  doctors  among  the 
women  of  the  Near  East.  Evils  are  crying  out  to  be 
met  and  overcome.  It  is  merely  a  matter  of  trying  to 
choose,  among  many  needs,  which  one  is  the  greatest. 

Constantinople  College  is  supported  partly  by  the 
fees  of  students,  but  largely  by  American  friends. 
These  four  years  of  war  have  told  upon  it  severely. 
Funds  are  badly  needed.  Let  it  never  be  said  that  its 
service  for  suffering  Near  Eastern  girls  had  to  be  cur- 
tailed because  friends  in  America  found  it  impossible 
to  provide  the  money  that  was  necessary.  Recon- 
struction is  the  watch  word  to-day.  Constantinople 
College  is  ready  and  passionately  eager  to  take  a  large 
share  of  the  responsibility  in  the  Near  East  for  build- 
ing up  broken  lives,  for  bringing  together  Jew  and  Gen- 
tile, Christian  and  Moslem  into  a  great  sisterhood  of 
service  for  all  humanity. 

Eveline  A.  Thomson. 

New  York  City, 


THE  MOSLEM  IDEA  OF  'ILM  (KNOWLEDGE) 

(Illustrated  by  Al  Ghazali's  Experience) 


Tradition  reflects  the  importance  of  this  subject  by  the 
number  of  references  to  it.  A  peculiarity  about  them  is 
that  many  are  connected  with  the  name  of  Ali  bin  Abu 
Talib  just  as  traditions  on  the  subject  of  asceticism 
collect  around  the  name  of  Jesus.  (And  those  of  great 
exaggeration  about  the  name  of  Abu  Huraira.)  There 
is  not  a  treatise  on  knowledge  that  does  not  have  a  sec- 
tion on  its  excellency.  What  the  tone  of  this  praise  is, 
appears  from  the  following  extract  from  Ghazali. 
"God,  Exalted,  said  ^God  bears  witness  that  there  is  no 
god  but  He,  and  the  angels  and  the  possessed  of  knowl- 
edge, standing  up  for  justice'  (3:16).  Behold  how  the 
Exalted  begins  with  Himself  and  then  mentions  the 
angels  and  lastly  the  people  of  knowledge.  What  an 
honor  and  excellence  and  glory  and  superiority!  And 
God  said  ^God  will  raise  up  all  you  who  believe,  as  well 
as  those  who  are  given  knowledge'  (58:12).  Ibn  Abbas, 
may  God  be  pleased  with  him,  said  ^The  learned  are 
raised  above  believers  by  700  grades  and  between  each 
two  grades  there  is  a  distance  of  500  years.'  *  *  * 
Said  he  upon  whom  be  the  prayers  and  peace  of  God, 
The  learned  are  the  heirs  of  the  prophets'  and  it  is  well 
known  that  there  is  no  rank  above  that  of  the  prophets 
and  no  honor  above  the  honor  of  inheriting  that  rank. 
*  *  *  And  he  said  The  learned  believer  is  better 
than  a  worshipper  of  seventy  years'  standing.'  *  *  * 
It  was  also  said  ^O  apostle  of  God,  what  works  are  the 
best?  He  said.  The  knowledge  of  God  Exalted'  (Ihya, 
p.  5).  And  the  messenger  of  God  said  The  seeking  of 
knowledge  is  a  duty'  and  'Seek  knowledge  though  it  be 
in  China' (!)"  (Ihya,  Vol.  I,  p.  12). 

159 


i6o  THE  MOSLEM  WORLD 

All  are  agreed  that  knowledge  is  an  essential  duty 
{faradh  'ain)  but  when  the  question  is  asked  what  this^ 
knowledge  is,  there  are,  as  Ghazali  says,  more  than 
twenty  different  answers.  The  Scholastics  say  that  their 
science  furnishes  the  knowledge  that  is  necessary,  for  by 
it  is  known  the  Unity  and  Being  of  God  and  His  attri- 
butes. The  lawyers  urge  the  claims  of  theirs,  because 
by  it  is  know^n  the  religious  duties  and  the  lawful  and 
the  unlawful.  The  Commentators  and  Traditionalists 
say  it  is  the  knowledge  of  the  Koran  and  Tradition  for 
by  these  all  knowledge  is  determined  and  finally  the 
Sufis  prefer  their  claims.  Now  what  all  these  parties 
are  speaking  of  has  nothing  to  do  with  a  mere  acquaint- 
ance with  the  doctrines  and  practices  of  religion  which 
enables  one  to  confess  and  perform  what  is  necessary. 
It  is,  of  course,  incumbent  on  the  beginner  to  learn  what 
he  must  confess  to  do,  and  Moslems,  especially,  the 
learned,  must  give  the  needful  instruction  in  order  that 
the  beginner  may  share  fully  in  Islam.  But  knowledge 
of  this  kind,  received  by  'imitation  and  hearing"  (takltd 
wa  samd^)  has  no  virtue  in  it,  and  has  no  reward 
attached  to  it.  One  who  remains  in  this  condition  is 
called  a  mukallid,  imitator.  Taklid  is  defined  as  "an 
expression  for  the  following  of  one  by  another  in  a  word 
or  a  deed,  accepting  its  truth  without  examination  or 
thought  as  to  proof,  as  if  this  follower  made  the  word  or 
deed  of  the  other  a  chain  (kilada)  about  his  neck"  (Frey- 
tag  Lex.  s.  v.).  Such  a  one  is  not  a  knower  whose 
praise  is  in  all  the  books,  in  fact  the  question  is  very 
much  discussed  whether  he  is  a  Moslem  at  all.  ''Then 
they  (the  Lawyers  and  the  Scholastics)  dift'er  among 
themselves  on  two  points.  One  is  as  to  the  nature  of  the 
knowledge  which  is  the  basis  of  faith.  Some  say  it  is 
a  well-formed  body  of  belief  whether  it  be  by  imitation 
or  an  apprehension  based  on  proof.  The  more  common 
opinion  is  that  of  those  who  judge  one  who  accepts  his 
faith  by  imitation  to  be  a  Moslem.  Opposed  to  these 
are  those  who  hold  that  knowledge  is  only  such  when 
founded  on  the  reasoning  of  deductive  argument.  The 
second  point  is  whether  knowledge   (V/m),  recognized 


THE  MOSLEM  IDEA  OF  'ILM  i6i 

in  the  definition  of  faith,  is  a  knowing  of  what  some  of 
the  Scholastics  said,  viz.,  a  knowing  of  God  and  His 
attributes  in  a  full  and  complete  manner,  or  whether, 
according  to  the  general  belief — come  into  being  after 
men  differed  greatly  and  had  called  each  other  infidels 
for  differing — it  is  knowing  all  that  is  acknowledged  as 
being  a  necessary  part  of  the  religion  of  Mohammed. 
In  this  acceptation  of  the  term  knowing,  it  is  not  a  part 
of  the  definition  of  faith  whether  one  believes  that  God 
is  'knowing'  by  knowledge  or  by  Himself,  or  whether  he 
is  seen  or  not  seen."     (Nisaburi,  Vol.  p.  139.) 

Those  of  ordinary  attainments,  then,  and  such  are  the 
great  mass,  just  barely  have  standing  in  the  community 
and  what  they  have  is  by  the  grace  of  the  learned.  One 
might  say  that  what  is  taught  about  the  ranking  of  men 
in  the  next  world  (and  this  is  a  large  part  of  eschatol- 
ogy)  centres  around  this  pre-eminence  of  the  possessors 
of  knowledge.  For,  beginning  at  the  trial  in  the  grave, 
or  rather  with  the  soul's  first  excursion  to  the  several 
regions  between  death  and  burial,  to  the  last  scene,  when 
all  have  their  places  assigned,  the  learned  take  prece- 
dence. They  are  at  the  head  of  those  entering  the  Gar- 
den, next  to  the  prophets — and  the  poor  mukallid  comes 
a  great  way  after  them.  These  may  enter  without  suf- 
fering, if  they  have  known  all  the  requirements  of  doc- 
trine and  practice  and  have  faithfully  observed  them. 
Practically,  this  is  a  supposition  contrary  to  fact,  when 
we  listen  to  what  the  traditionalists,  and  then  the  law- 
yers and  then  the  theologians  have  to  say.  Ghazali's 
attitude  to  the  common  believer  is  different  from  that  of 
these  masters  of  learning.  He  takes  up  their  defence 
and  he  does  it  in  a  way  that  seems  to  give  them  full 
rights  within  the  community.  As  his  teaching  here  is 
the  accepted  belief  of  a  large  part  of  the  Moslem  world 
and  especially  since  it  is  the  basis  of  the  ethico-religious 
instruction  of  the  Sufis,  we  must  dwell  on  it  more  fully. 
Ghazali  divides  the  knowledge  that  concerns  the  here- 
after into  two  kinds,  knowledge  of  performance  {'Urn 
al  mudamala)  and  knowledge  of  discovery  {'Urn  al  mu- 
kashafa)^  or,  practical  knowledge  and  unveiling  knowl- 


1 62  THE  MOSLEM  WORLD 

edge.  The  distinction  is  fundamental  in  the  Ghazal- 
ian  system  and  we  will  try  to  make  it  clear.  His  prac- 
tical knowledge  covers  all  that  is  necessary  to  know  for 
confession  and  performance.  It  is  not  practical  as  dis- 
tinguished from  doctrinal,  for  doctrine  too  must  be 
known,  since  a  man  must  perform  the  duties  of  confes- 
sion of  the  articles  of  belief.  But  as  being  practical  and 
not  theoretical,  it  does  not  include  the  reasoning  of 
deduction  and  the  co-ordination  of  proofs.  It  includes, 
naturally,  the  knowledge  of  the  correct  performance  of 
the  distinctive  duties  of  prayer,  fasting,  etc.,  and  in 
addition,  the  knowledge  of  the  faults  and  vices,  which 
disfigure  character,  and  how  to  uproot  them,  plus 
the  virtues  that  must  be  cultivated.  In  short,  this 
knowledge  includes  all  that  is  necessary  for  correct 
living  in  thought  and  word  and  deed.  The  other  is 
something  quite  different.  Its  name  is  derived  from  the 
great  Sufi  word  kashf,  meaning  uncovering,  unveiling, 
revealing.  It  is  not  concerned  with  the  things  of  this 
world;  its  objects  are  the  realities  (perhaps  better, 
reality)  of  the  world  of  spirits,  as  God,  the  angels  and 
the  Preserved  Tablet  (in  which  are  the  eternal  proto- 
types of  all  things).  As  we  saw,  the  soul  of  man  is  so 
made  as  to  be  able  to  come  into  direct  contact  with 
that  other  world.  When  it  does,  it  has  attained  to  real- 
ity and  that  is  kashf.  It  is  the  teaching  and  the  hope  of 
the  Sufi  that  by  means  of  ascetic  practices  and  abstrac- 
tion, he  may  attain  to  this  unveiling,  so  that  he  may 
know  God,  though  it  be  but  momentarily  and  once  in  a 
lifetime.  This  knowing  is  described  by  Sufis  in  many 
ways.  It  is  the  secret  (sirr)^  the  light,  inward  light, 
faith,  light  of  faith.  It  does  not  come  by  study  and 
learning,  and  what  its  contents  are  must  not  be  recorded 
in  books.  The  prophets  only  spoke  of  it  darkly  and 
figuratively  and,  as  Ghazali  says,  since  the  learned  are 
heirs  of  the  prophets,  they  also  may  not  spread  it  before 
the  common  crowd.  These  two  kinds  of  knowledge  are 
most  intimately  connected.  The  practical  is  the  first 
and  essential  means  of  attaining  to  the  other;  this  other, 
when  obtained,  is  the  rationale  and  the  proof  of  the 


THE  MOSLEM  IDEA  OF  'ILM  ♦  163 

first.  The  one  is  the  property  and  the  duty  of  all,  the 
other  comes  to  him  whose  soul  is  so  created  as  to  attain 
to  it  and  to  whom  God  grants  the  mercy  of  attaining  it. 
The  one  who  is  thus  favored,  knows  by  the  soul's  native 
power  of  spiritual  insight;  the  other  knows  by  a  pro- 
cess of  learning  and  by  means  of  the  regular  functions 
of  the  mind.  This  latter  does  not  look  for  proof,  because 
it  needs  not  if,  indeed,  it  could.  The  proofs  are  in  the 
unveilings  of  the  mystic  rapture  which  underwrite  and 
guarantee  the  soundness  of  the  knowledge  of  perform- 
ance. It  is  a  wonderfully  conceived  system  this,  which 
at  once  supplies  certainty,  and  assurance,  and  order  in 
the  hierarchy  of  believers.  And  yet,  after  all,  it  is  only 
the  old  distinction  of  learned  and  imitator  in  another 
dress.  The  learned  now  is  the  Sufi  with  his  mystical 
experience  from  whom  the  common  mass  humbly 
receive  the  crumbs  of  knowledge.  One  does  not  have  to 
read  far  in  the  Ihya,  to  see  that  Ghazali  never  got 
beyond  the  universal  attitude.  The  constantly  recurring 
phrases  are  "but  for  those  who  have  true  insight"  and 
"ye  cannot  bear  it  now." 

Because  guidance  is  what  is  offered,  knowledge  is 
really  all  that  it  calls  forth.  As  between  it  and  faith, 
this  latter  is  only  the  correct  way  of  knowing.  Hence 
discussions  about  faith  naturally  turn  into  those  of 
knowledge.  For  the  same  reason,  there  exists  this  dis- 
tinction of  learned  and  imitator  and  the  assumed  superi- 
ority of  the  one  over  the  other.  This  claim  of 
superiority  on  the  part  of  the  learned  looks  to  us  like 
intellectual  snobbery.  (There  is  plenty  of  that,  to  be 
sure.)  But  the  distinction  at  the  basis  of  that  attitude 
is  something  that  belongs  to  the  very  structure  of  the 
religion.  "This  people  that  know  not  the  law  is 
accursed,"  sounds  harsh  to  us  and  suggests  over-weaning 
pride.  In  Islam  it  expresses  an  actual  fact,  universally 
recognized.  How  thoroughly  Ghazali  apprehended 
knowledge  as  the  fundamental  Moslem  virtue,  is  shown 
by  his  method  in  the  Ihya,  He  wrote  that  book  in  order 
to  stem  the  tide  of  immorality  consequent  on  the  skepti- 
cism of  his  time.     He  called  it  the  "Revival  of  the 


i64  THE  MOSLEM  WORLD 

Sciences  of  Religion"  and  what  he  offers  for  the  ills  of 
his  time  is — knowledge,  (It  is  well  to  remember  that  all 
the  keywords  in  Arabic  used  in  connection  with  this  sub- 
ject, such  as  knowledge,  learning,  science,  instruction^  know- 
ing, etc.,  are  different  forms  of  the  radical  dUma,  to 
know.)  That  which  he  offered  was  not  the  kind  that  he 
valued  for  himself,  still  it  was  knowledge  and  since,  on 
his  own  showing,  it  did  not  or  could  not  convince,  he 
salted  it  amply  with  the  threat  of  the  Fire.  That  he 
succeeded  as  well  as  he  did,  was  due,  in  part,  to  his  own 
great  personality.  The  other  reason  for  his  success  was 
that  the  course  which  he  followed  was  so  entirely  in 
accord  with  the  teachings  and  the  spirit  of  the  religion. 
And  finally,  that  he  accomplished  so  much  as  he  dia 
was  due  to  the  fact  that,  whereas,  he  recognized  the  cen- 
tral place  of  knowledge,  he  rejected  the  merely  intellec- 
tual kinds  of  the  Traditionalists,  Lawyers,  etc.,  and 
made  the  mystic  experience  of  the  Sufi  the  ground  of 
reality  in  religion.  In  its  last  analysis  this  experience  is 
also  knowing^  but  compared  with  the  lifeless  thing  of 
the  others,  it  had  in  itself  at  least  a  measure  of  vitality 
in  that  it  recognized  the  claims  of  man's  emotional 
nature.  Ghazali  went  through  an  experience,  which 
has  been  called  conversion,  before  he  reached  this  posi- 
tion. An  examination  of  that  experience  may  perhaps 
enable  us  to  understand  the  entire  subject  better. 

The  comparison  is  sometimes  made  between  him  and 
St.  Augustine.  We  do  not  think  this  holds  as  to  the 
character  of  their  soul  experiences,  but  externally  the 
resemblances  are  striking.  The  lives  of  both  marked  a 
turning-point  in  the  history  of  their  respective  faiths, 
the  experiences  of  both  are  an  epitome  of  the  life  which 
their  religions  produce,  and  in  both  cases  their  personal 
experiences  determined  the  doctrinal  developments  of 
the  succeeding  centuries.  When  Ghazali  lived  (1058- 
III  i)  Islam  had  attained  its  full  growth  and  the  theo- 
logical sciences  were  completed.  It  was  now  possible  for 
men  to  examine  the  whole  structure.  Whether  such 
examination  was  the  cause  of  the  current  skepticism 
cannot  be  said.    At  any  rate,  the  cycle  of  development 


THE  MOSLEM  IDEA  OF  'ILM  165 

seemed  about  to  end  in  an  unbelief  that  threatened  both 
religion  and  morality.  Ghazali  had  been  thoroughly 
educated  and  he  was  master  of  the  theological  and  phil- 
osophical learning  of  his  day.  A  fact  as  to  his  early 
education  is  to  be  noted,  viz.,  that  he  and  his  brother 
were  brought  up  by  a  Sufi  to  whom  the  father  had  en- 
trusted them.  At  the  age  of  thirty-three  he  became  the 
head  of  a  theological  school  at  Bagdad  where  he  soon 
enjoyed  the  greatest  popularity,  including  the  favor  of 
the  court.  But  before  rery  long,  doubt  laid  hold  of  him 
and  so  thorough  was  his  skepticism  that  his  whole  theo- 
logical structure  went  down  like  a  house  of  cards. 
According  to  his  own  statement  in  his  Confessions,  he 
lost  faith  in  everything.  "Such  thoughts  as  these  threat- 
ened to  shake  my  reason  and  I  sought  to  find  an  escape 
from  them.  But  how?  In  order  to  disentangle  the  knot 
of  this  difficulty,  a  proof  was  necessary.  Now  a  proof 
must  be  based  on  primary  assumptions,  and  it  was  pre- 
cisely these  of  which  I  was  in  doubt.  This  unhappy 
state  lasted  about  two  months,  during  which  I  was  not, 
it  is  true,  explicitly  or  by  profession,  but  morally  and 
essentially  a  thorough-going  skeptic."  (Claud  Field, 
Confessions  of  Al  Ghazali;  p.  18.) 

There  is  nothing  said  here  or  anywhere  else,  as  to 
what  led  him  to  question  the  foundations  which  proved 
to  be  so  insecure.  We  may  say  quite  confidently  that 
the  starting-point  of  his  struggles  was  not  a  conviction 
of  sin.  Nothing  of  such  nature  is  suggested  in  the  Con- 
fessions. As  he  himself  states,  his  skepticism  had  not  led 
him  into  either  irreligion  or  immorality.  That  which 
threatened  to  shake  his  reason  was  not  the  torture  of  a 
guilty  conscience,  nor  the  fear  of  threatening  doom. 
What  he  sought  after  was  not  the  peace  of  mind  that 
comes  from  the  knowledge  of  forgiveness  of  sins,  but  the 
security  of  the  mind  that  rests  on  primary  assumptions 
of  reason.  Perhaps  what  started  his  doubts,  was  the 
increasing  immorality  of  his  day  which  he  was  unable 
to  stem  by  means  of  the  learning  of  the  schools.  One 
would  say  probably  it  was  that,  judging  by  his  subse- 
quent efforts  to  win  the  people  back  to  religious  life. 


i66  THE  MOSLEM  WORLD 

He  himself  had  belonged  to  the  extreme  Scholastics 
whose  claim  was  that  they  could  prove  everything  by 
their  method  of  logic.  Ghazali  declares  himself  free 
from  them  and  from  all  dependence  on  knowledge 
based  on  reasoning.  "God  at  last  deigned  to  heal  me  of 
this  mental  malady :  my  mind  recovered  sanity  and  equi- 
librium. The  primary  assumptions  of  reason  recovered 
with  me  all  their  stringency  and  force.  I  owed  my 
deliverance,  not  to  a  concatenation  of  proofs  and  argu- 
ments, but  to  the  light  which  God  caused  to  penetrate 
into  my  heart — the  light  which  illuminates  the  threshold 
of  all  knowledge.  To  suppose  that  certitude  can  be 
only  based  upon  formal  arguments  is  to  limit  the  bound- 
less mercy  of  God."     (P.  19,  op.  cit.) 

What  was  the  path  which  he  trod,  the  goal  at  which 
he  arrived  and  the  outcome  of  his  experience,  are  indi- 
cated in  the  following  extracts.  "The  researches  to 
which  I  have  devoted  myself,  the  path  which  I  had 
traversed  in  studying  religious  and  speculative  branches 
of  knowledge,  had  given  me  a  firm  faith  in  three 
things — God,  Inspiration  and  the  Last  Judgment.  These 
three  fundamental  articles  of  belief  were  confirmed  in 
me,  not  merely  by  definite  arguments,  but  by  a  chain  of 
causes,  circumstances,  and  proofs  which  it  is  impossible 
to  recount.  I  saw  that  one  can  only  hope  for  salvation 
by  devotion  and  the  conquest  of  the  passions,  a  proced- 
ure which  presupposes  renouncement  and  detachment 
from  the  world  of  falsehood,  in  order  to  turn  towards 
eternity  and  meditation  on  God.  I  saw  that  the  only 
condition  of  success  was  to  sacrifice  honor  and  riches 
and  to  sever  the  ties  and  attachments  of  worldly  life." 
(P.  42,  op.  cit.)  After  struggling  a  time  against  the  call 
of  the  life  of  a  Sufi,  during  which  time  he  lost  interest 
in  everything  and  he  seemed  to  be  smitten  by  some  secret 
malady,  he  finally  yielded.  "Finally,  conscious  of  my 
weakness  and  the  prostration  of  my  soul,  I  took  refuge 
in  God  as  a  man  at  the  end  of  himself  and  without 
resources.  *He  who  hears  the  wretched  when  they  cry' 
(K.  27:63)  deigned  to  hear  me;  He  made  easy  to  me  the 
sacrifice  of  honors,  wealth  and  family.    I  gave  out  pub- 


THE  MOSLEM  IDEA  OF  'ILM  167 

licly  that  I  intended  to  make  the  pilgrimage  to  Mecca, 
while  I  secretly  resolved  to  go  to  Syria,  not  wishing  that 
the  Caliph  (May  God  magnify  him)  or  my  friends 
should  know  my  intention  of  settling  in  that  country.  I 
made  all  kinds  of  clever  excuses  for  leaving  Bagdad 
with  the  fixed  intention  of  not  returning  thither." 

If  these  statements  have  enough  autobiographical 
worth  to  found  on  them,  in  part,  an  exposition  of  a 
variety  of  religious  experience,  we  may  proceed  with  a 
measure  of  confidence.  We  repeat,  this  experience  of 
Ghazali  had  nothing  to  do  with  a  conviction  of  sin. 
One  troubled  by  a  burdened  conscience  does  not  crave 
for  a  proof  of  the  reality  of  the  Judgment!  But  the 
conviction  of  its  reality  may  produce  the  fear  of  it.  His 
experience  began  with  a  complete  skepsis  of  all  the  pri- 
mary assumptions  of  religion.  In  epitome,  Islam  had, 
in  him,  come  to  its  natural  impasse.  Islam  makes  knowl- 
edge the  centre  of  the  religious  life,  and  the  knowledge 
which  it  offers  is  impossible  of  demonstration.  Whether 
Ghazali  consciously  recognized  the  fact  or  not,  he 
came  to  the  ultimate  human  experience  that  man  by 
searching  cannot  find  out  God.  When  his  mind  ^recov- 
ered sanity'  the  results  of  his  re-conviction  was  the  truth 
of  God,  inspiration  and  the  last  judgment.  He  does  not 
tell  us  what  the  process  of  recovery  was,  except,  in 
general  terms,  that  God  healed  his  malady.  He  is  a 
little  more  definite  when  he  says  that  it  was  "not  merely 
by  definite  arguments  (for  such  were  always  needed), 
but  by  a  chain  of  causes,  circumstances  and  proofs  which 
it  is  impossible  to  record."  Now  we  would  like  to  know 
just  what  those  "causes,  circumstances  and  proofs"  were. 
Still  we  need  not  really  be  in  doubt  as  to  their  nature, 
and  that  they  are  comprehended  in  kashf,  because  in  the 
finished  system,  the  higher  knowledge  which  guarantees 
the  reality  of  the  beliefs  in  question  is  his  'ilm  muka- 
shafa.  How  much  of  the  kashf  of  the  Sufi,  in  the  way 
of  the  rhapsody  of  the  dhikr,  and  veridical  dreaming, 
and  clairvoyance,  was  necessary  to  convince  him,  we 
need  not  inquire  after.  It  is  enough  to  know  that  it 
was  kashf;  and  being  of  this  nature  Ghazali  could  not 


i68  THE  MOSLEM  WORLD 

relate  the  details  of  it,  for  the  things  of  "unveiling"  may 
not  be  spread  before  the  eyes  of  all. 

We  have  seen  that  Islam  makes  knowledge  the  centre 
of  its  religious  life,  and  that  the  knowledge  which  it 
offers  cannot  satisfy  the  requirements  of  reason.  Gha- 
zali  had  tried  it  all  and  found  that  it  lacked  reality. 

And  yet  knowledge  he  must  have,  or  sink  in  the  slough 
of  skepticism.  And  here  in  the  "revealing"  of  the  Sufi 
it  is  offered!  Not  book-learning,  or  a  science  of  this 
or  that;  not  just  a  knowledge  about  things  which  them- 
selves are  in  need  of  demonstration,  but  the  demon- 
stration itself!  In  truth,  not  so  much  knowledge,  as  a 
personal  experience  of  God  and  of  the  spirit  world! 
And  so  Islam  is  true,  because,  for  him,  it  has  at  the 
centre  of  it  this  real  knowledge. 

If  the  Confessions  are  real  biography,  it  was  from 
this  point  that  the  struggle  in  his  soul  between  the  call 
of  the  world  and  its  pleasures  and  the  demands  of  Sufi 
renouncement  ensued.  It  was  now  that  he  began  to  seek 
deliverance  from  the  vanities  of  life.  Having  regained 
certainty  in  knowledge  of  the  fundamental  beliefs  by 
the  help  of  the  mystic  "way"  naturally  the  call  of  that 
life  would  become  insistent;  and  because  of  his  child- 
hood influence,  that  call  would  become  imperative.  Now 
if  the  significance  of  his  "conversion"  be  sought  merely 
in  his  denial  of  the  world  and  accepting  of  life  of  renun- 
ciation and  asceticism,  there  would  be  nothing  more  in 
his  experience  than  in  that  of  thousands  of  others  who 
have  followed  the  same  call.  The  significance  of  Gha- 
zali  for  Islam  was  that  he  made  the  mystical  experience 
a  new  centre  for  its  life  and  thereby  furnished  the 
knowledge  which  it  itself  craves  but  could  not  supply. 
What  the  religious  value  of  that  experience  is,  is  not  for 
us  to  determine.  Mysticism  is  a  very  wide  term  and 
covers  many  phenomena;  Sufism  is  this  mysticsm  con- 
ditioned by  Islam. 

Frederick  J.  Barny. 

Maskatj  Arabia, 


THE    ALL    INDIA     MOSLEM-    LADIES 
CONFERENCE 


The  fifth  annual  conference  of  Indian  Mohammedan 
ladies  was  held  in  Lahore,  on  March  3rd  to  5th,  1918, 
at  the  house  of  the  Maharaja  of  Faridkot.  The  entire 
building  and  grounds  were  donated  to  the  conference 
for  a  week  by  the  Maharaja  Sahib.  The  entertainment 
of  the  delegates,  as  in  past  years,  was  in  charge  of  Mrs. 
Mohammed  Shafi  Sahiba  and  Mrs.  Shah  Din  Sahiba 
of  Lahore,  the  wives  of  the  two  leading  Moslem  bar- 
risters in  the  Punjab. 

About  four  hundred  ladies  attended,  representing  the 
cities  of  Lahore,  Allahabad,  Lucknow,  Aligarh,  Buland- 
shahr,  Delhi,  Meerut,  Bhopal,  Peshawar,  Ludhiana, 
Amritsar,  Sialkot,  Rawalpindi  and  Jammu.  Some  of 
these  were  accommodated  in  Faridkot  House,  and  others 
stayed  with  relatives  in  the  city.  When  one  considers 
the  fact  that  the  vast  majority  of  these  delegates  observe 
strict  "pardah;"*  one  gains  some  conception  of  the  dif- 
ficulties involved  in  undertaking  such  a  conference.  A 
number  of  male  relatives  accompanied  the  women  to 
Faridkot  House,  and,  while  the  latter  were  attending 
the  meetings,  found  accommodation  and  refreshment 
for  themselves  in  a  large  tent  erected  in  the  compound. 
The  verandah,  outside  the  large  hall  used  for  the  wom- 
en's meetings,  was  closely  screened,  and  all  within  the 
house  was  kept  for  the  exclusive  use  of  the  women. 
Mohammedan  books  and  papers  of  a  religious  and  secu- 
lar nature  were  sold  from  a  table  on  the  verandah. 

Fifteen  young  ladies,  calling  themselves  the  Volun- 
teer Club,  formed  a  sort  of  Committee  of  Arrange- 
ments for  the  Conference.  They  wore  a  distinctive 
form  of  native  dress,  remarkable  for  its  simplicity,  and 

•  A  word  (meaning,  "curtain")  used  in  India  to  express  the  seclusion  in  which  the 
high  class  of  Mohammedan  and  Hindu  ladies  live.  They  see  no  men  but  those  who 
are  close  relatives,  and  never  go  unveiled  outside  the  women's  quarters. 

169 


I70  THE  MOSLEM  WORLD 

badges  bearing  the  star  and  crescent  of  Islam.  Their 
chairman,  Asghari  Khanoum  (Mrs.  Mohammed  Rafi 
of  Lahore),  had  her  office  in  the  building,  where  any 
ladies  could  come  freely  at  any  time  and  present  their 
needs.  An  upper  room  of  the  house  was  set  aside  as  a 
place  of  prayer,  and  in  the  dressing-room  the  women 
found  hot  water,  towels  ,and  everything  necessary  for 
their  ablutions.  When  we  visited  this  room  two  of  the 
older  women  were  saying  the  noon  prayers.  On  the 
chairs  in  the  meeting-hall  printed  programmes  of  the 
day's  work  were  placed  for  the  delegates,  and,  later, 
copies  of  the  President's  speech  were  distributed.  Re- 
ports of  the  conference  and  copies  of  Jahanara  Begam's 
two  addresses  on  polygamy  were  sent,  some  weeks  later, 
to  those  interested  in  the  proceedings. 

On  arriving  we  were  warmly  welcomed  by  a  number 
of  our  Moslem  friends  and,  once  inside  the  curtains, 
we  came  upon  a  scene  of  the  utmost  animation.  The 
gaily  decorated  assembly  hall  was  crowded  with  pict- 
uresque and  chattering  ladies,  children  and  nurses 
moved  freely  about,  and  the  atmosphere  was  heavy  with 
the  scent  used  by  many  of  the  women.  It  was  notice- 
able, however,  that  most  of  the  ladies  were  quietly 
dressed.  This  was  to  make  the  poorer  ladies  feel  quite 
at  liberty  to  attend  the  conference.  One  of  the  speak- 
ers emphasised  this  later,  urging  that,  for  the  same 
reason,  the  ladies  who  came  from  a  distance  should 
travel  "intermediate"  instead  of  "second  class"  on  the 
trains,  and  that  simple  food  should  be  eaten  by  all. 

The  lack  of  concentration  common  to  most  oriental 
women  was  responsible  for  the  unwearied  patience  with 
which  the  audience  sat  through  the  long  four  hour 
sessions,  with  their  many  reports,  resolutions,  speeches, 
poems,  devotional  acts  and  discussion.  At  the  begin- 
ing  of  each  session  an  enormous  Koran  was  carried  in. 
Often  the  ladies  who  handled  it  kissed  it,  before  it  was 
laid  on  the  table,  when  its  wrappings  were  removed. 
Portions  from  this  volume  were  read  in  Arabic  and  then 
explained  in  the  vernacular,  the  audience  standing 
meanwhile. 


ALL  INDIA  MOSLEM  LADIES'  CONFERENCE      171 

At  the  first  session,  after  this  reading,  the  President, 
Abru  Begam  of  Bhopal,  was  asked  to  take  the  chair; 
and  in  a  clear  voice  she  gave  her  address,  a  lengthy  one 
and  a  feature  of  the  conference.  The  address,  like  all 
the  proceedings  of  the  Conference,  was  in  Urdu.  In 
her  address  the  President  drew  a  rather  dismal  picture 
of  Western  education  and  its  results.  She  quoted  an 
Egyptian's  objections  to  modern  education  for  women, 
saying  that  some  results  were: 

1.  The  women  do  not  like  housework. 

2.  They  become  extravagant  about  dress. 

3.  They  sing  and  play  the  piano  in  order  to  fit  them- 
selves to  associate  with  cultured  women  of  the  West. 

4.  They  spend  their  time  reading  love-stories. 

5.  They  do  not  live  economically. 

6.  They  wish  to  marry  for  love,  money  or  good  looks. 
Owing  to  the  early  age  at  which  Indian  girls  mature, 

the  President  was  of  the  opinion  that  education  between 
the  ages  of  5  and  15  should  be  sufficient;  and  some 
useful  occupations  she  suggested  for  women  who  must 
become  self-supporting  were  writing,  copying,  book- 
binding, and  making  caps  and  laces.  She  approved  of 
marriages  made  at  about  twenty  years  of  age,  for  one 
reason  because  the  children  born  in  such  marriages 
were  more  numerous.  Towads  the  close  of  her  speech 
she  said :  ''Ladies,  do  not  misunderstand  me.  I  am  not 
opposed  to  the  higher  education  of  women.  It  is  a 
natural  tendency  of  all  human  beings,  whether  men  or 
women,  that  they  wish  to  achieve  the  highest  education 
possible.  As  far  as  I  interpret  the  meaning  of  educa- 
tion every  Moslem  woman  should  understand  her  reli- 
gion, should  perceive  her  domestic  duties,  and  should 
have  a  knowledge  of  her  national  legends  and  history. 
Women  should  look  after  the  hygiene  of  their  children 
and  know  housekeeping,  and  should  possess  the  qualities 
of  national  loyalty  and  religious  enthusiasm  *  *  * 
Other  qualifications  belong  to  the  natural  state  of  wom- 
en. To  achieve  this  kind  of  education  it  is  necessary 
for  us  to  have  our  own  system."  As  means  to  this  end 
she  urged  "that  a  Moslem  Women's  University  be  es- 


172  THE  MOSLEM  WORLD 

tablished  at  Aligarh,  the  women  to  raise  the  money 
themselves."  In  conclusion  she  said  that  women  were 
following  the  men  in  an  attitude  of  indifference  toward 
their  religion,  and  that  this  was  a  weak  point.  The  life 
of  Moslems  was  bound  up  with  their  religion.  The 
women's  part  was  to  make  their  ideals  practical  by 
living  them. 

During  the  conference  many  speeches  were  made,  on 
the  following  subjects:  The  need  of  reform  in  the  cus- 
toms of  living,  such  as  the  necessity  of  education  in 
domestic  science  and  simple  home  hygiene,  economy  and 
simplicity  in  dress,  and  less  extravagance  at  weddings 
and  funerals.  It  was  insisted  that  orphanages  and 
schools  were  needed,  and  that  as  the  mission  schools 
teach  the  Gospel  so  the  Koran  must  be  taught  in  Mos- 
lem schools.  Special  courses  of  study  for  less  educated 
women,  and  translations  into  Urdu  of  good  English 
books  were  recommended.  Firmer  adherence  to  re- 
ligious beliefs,  and  more  strict  observance  of  fasting 
and  prayer  were  enjoined.  Some  money  for  various 
educational  and  philanthropic  purposes  was  collected, 
a  method  for  collecting  funds  similar  to  the  Christian 
missionary  box  being  introduced.  Resolutions  to  put 
into  practice  all  these  reforms  were  signed  by  the  ladies. 
^'This  is  in  order  to  convince  the  men  that  we  are  in 
earnest,  and  to  prove  to  them  that  we  can  accomplish 
these  reforms,"  one  of  my  friends  remarked. 

One  of  the  most  interesting  features  of  the  confer- 
ence, and  one  which  has  called  forth  considerable  dis- 
cussion in  the  Lahore  newspapers,  was  an  address  on 
second  marriages  given  by  Mrs.  Shah  Nawaz  Sahiba 
of  Lahore — (Jahan  Ara  Begam,  daughter  of  Mr.  Mo- 
hammed Shafi).  This  young  woman  is  an  example  of 
oriental  modesty  and  charm,  plus  a  Western  education. 
She  is  one  of  the  younger  and  more  progressive  set,  is 
a  fine  speaker  and  devoutly  religious.  She  observes 
"pardah,"  however,  feeling  that  the  time  is  not  ripe  to 
abandon  the  custom.  In  her  first  address,  delivered  at 
the  second  session  of  the  conference,  she  first  referred 
to  the  prosperous  days  of  Islam,  when  "the  sun  of  Mo- 


ALL  INDIA  MOSLEM  LADIES'  CONFERENCE       173 

hammedanism  *  *  *  high  in  the  heavens  was  with  its 
golden  rays  making  the  world  a  garden  of  heaven." 
And  she  declared  that  "the  success  of  Mohammedanism 
was  due  to  its  godliness,  truthfulness,  simplicity,  humil- 
ity, justice  and  mercy."  Then  she  went  on,  in  a  dif- 
ferent strain;  "But  alas,  at  the  present  day  the  state  of 
the  followers  of  Mohammed  is  not  to  be  compared  with 
that  of  the  past.  We  have  forgotten  the  golden  pre- 
cepts by  acting  upon  which  we  gained  honor  in  our 
own  religion  and  in  the  eyes  of  the  world,  and  we  have 
to  such  an  extent  given  up  acting  in  accordance  with 
these  precepts  that  we  are  a  shame  to  our  holy  religion. 
People  who  allow  oppression  to  creep  in  under  the 
cloak  of  religion  receive  the  recompense  of  their  wick- 
edness. One  of  the  shameful  acts  of  oppression  in  Is- 
lam is  the  custom  of  plural  marriages,"  which,  she 
affirmed,  "is  prevalent  and  increasing  among  the  best 
educated  and  most  influential  class  of  young  Mussul- 
mans," and  she  called  upon  the  men  as  well  as  the  wom- 
en of  Islam  to  once  for  all,  abandon  this  practice  of 
plural  marriages  as  fatal  to  national  progress  and  con- 
trary to  the  principles  of  Islam,  "a  religion  which  is 
too  holy  to  countenance  such  a  pernicious  custom." 
"True,"  she  said,  "the  Koran  allows  four  wives,  but  it 
enjoins  an  equal  treatment  of  all  four,  and  as  this  is 
impossible  for  any  man,  no  one  should  marry  more  than 
one  wife." 

There  was  a  storm  of  applause  at  the  conclusion  of 
her  address.  Her  contention  was  supported  by  a  num- 
ber of  other  speakers,  one  of  whom  boldly  suggested 
that  "the  Government  of  India  be  called  upon  to  abol- 
ish polygamy  as  it  abolished  'suttee.'  "*  Only  one 
Persian  lady  spoke  in  favour  of  the  custom,  saying  that 
she  preferred  to  maintain  her  place  in  her  husband's 
heart  by  affection  rather  than  by  law — and  that  she 
would  gladly  face  three  other  wives  if  her  master 
wished  it.     The  President,  Abru  Begam,  said  that  all 

•The  practice  formerly  followed  by  the  Hindu  wife  of  burning  herself  alive  on  her 
husband's  funeral  pyre.  This  was  abolished,  as  being  "culpable  homicide,"  by  lyord 
William  Bentinck  in  1829. 


174  THE  MOSLEM  WORLD 

the  things  Jahan  Ara  Begam  had  said  about  the  evils  of 
polygamy  were  true,  nothing  had  been  exaggerated,  but 
that  it  was  woman's  duty  to  obey  the  Koran,  which  says 
a  man  may  have  four  wives.  Man's  ill-treatment  of 
woman,  not  the  Koran,  is  the  cause  of  the  trouble.  In 
this  matter  the  women  were  facing  a  serious  question  of 
Mohammedan  law;  and  how  could  the  law  be  set  aside? 
This  matter  must  be  taken  to  wiser  minds  than  theirs 
for  consultation.  Therefore  she  would  take  the  signed 
resolution,  (to  the  effect  that  the  women  would  not  give 
their  daughters  to  men  who  had  other  wives)  to  the 
Begam  of  Bhopal,  (the  Mohammedan  ruling  princess 
of  that  progressive  state),  and  leave  it  in  her  hands. 
All  acquiesced  in  this  suggestion,  and  while  the  signa- 
tures to  the  resolution  were  being  taken,  a  hymn,  in 
praise  of  Mohammed,  was  sung! 

The  second  address  of  Jahan  Ara  Begam  on  polyg- 
amy was  not  actually  given  at  the  Conference,  but  was 
written  out  to  defend  her  position,  after  she  had  been 
bitterly  attacked  in  the  local  papers  for  the  speech  men- 
tioned above.  In  this  she  stated  that  her  object  in 
speaking  as  she  did  at  the  Conference  was  not  to  curry 
favor  with  anyone,  but  that  she  had  been  moved  to  that 
act  solely  on  account  of  her  suffering  Moslem  sisters. 
She  was  willing,  for  their  sake,  to  endure  cursing  and 
blame,  to  hear  herself  called  a  blasphemer  and  a  Chris- 
tian, and  to  have  her  brothers  in  the  faith  say  that  this 
request  to  abandon  polygamy  came  because  of  Christian 
missionary  influence,  and  her  modern  education.  In 
spite  of  the  fact  that  some  said  that  her  speech  was  "not 
only  unfit  for  consideration,  but  that  it  was  not  even 
worth  looking  at,  and  that,  moreover,  the  paper  on 
which  such  writings  were  inscribed  should  be  torn  into 
bits,"  she  declared  she  would  continue  to  cry  out  against 
polygamy  until  she  was  shown  "five  or  ten  examples  of 
Mohammedan  men  in  the  whole  of  India"  who  were 
living  in  perfect  equity  and  justice,  as  the  Prophet  lived 
with  his  wives.  "Brothers  of  Islam,"  she  said,  "do  not 
blame  your  holy  and  true  religion  for  actions  which 
it  is  far  from  countenancing  *  *  *  that  religion,  which, 


ALL  INDIA  MOSLEM  LADIES'  CONFERENCE      175 

up  till  now,  has  given  such  privileges  to  women  as  no 
other  religion  has  done.  Don't  permit  such  persecution 
to  go  on!"  In  the  course  of  this  second  address  she  not 
only  told  the  story  of  an  abandoned  wife  of  sixteen 
years  of  age,  but  gave  an  interesting  list  of  reasons  put 
forth  by  men  as  excuses  for  marrying  a  second  time. 
"The  first  wives  have  been  uneducated,  ugly,  immoral, 
some  disfigured  by  plague,  or  subject  to  epileptic  fits, 
some  older  than  their  husbands,  some  ignorant  how  to 
bring  up  their  children,  and  others  not  sufficiently  mod- 
ern in  their  ways."  Sometimes,  she  said,  the  first  wives 
and  their  children  were  left  in  actual  want. 

At  the  third  session  of  the  Conference  the  most  in- 
teresting feature  was  the  profession  of  allegiance  to 
Islam  made  by  the  English  wife  of  a  Moslem.  This 
lady  had  been  won  to  Mohammedanism  at  the  Mosque 
in  Woking,  and,  as  all  women  who  become  followers  of 
the  Prophet  are  expected  to  marry  Mohammedans,  she 
came  to  Lahore  as  a  Moslem  bride.  At  a  previous 
session  she  had  recited  some  of  the  prescribed  prayers. 
The  President,  in  reply  to  her  public  profession  of 
faith,  said  that  "honor  is  due  to  all  who  become  Mo- 
hammedans." The  Conference  report  states  that  this 
English  woman  is  "reading  the  Koran  with  great  zeal. 
May  God  give  her  faith  and  power." 

May  God  indeed  grant  faith,  power  and  wisdom, 
not  only  to  this  English  girl  but  to  all  these  earnest  and 
awakening  Moslem  women  of  India,  that  they  may 
come  to  know  and  serve  Him  who  said,  "I  am  the 
way,  the  truth,  and  the  life,  no  man  cometh  to  the 
Father  but  my  Me." 

Marguerite  B.  Walter. 
Lahore,  India, 


MOHAMMEDANS    IN    SYRIA    DURING   THE 

WAR 


Our  household  marketing  was  always  done  at  a  little 
corner  shop  kept  by  a  Mohammedan  in  Ras  Beirut. 
This  man,  by  patient  industry,  had  prospered  until  he 
owned  his  own  shop,  possessed  property  and  had  money 
to  lend.  He  was  respected  by  his  neighbors,  was  honest 
in  business  and  conscientious  in  his  religious  practices. 
Whenever  the  Muezzin  called  for  prayer,  he  was  one 
of  the  faithful  who  was  always  found  in  the  Mosque. 
He  was  also  a  diligent  student  of  his  Koran,  a  typically 
devout  Mohammedan,  seeking  to  know  the  teachings  of 
his  Prophet  and  trying  to  the  best  of  his  ability  to  live 
according  to  the  light  he  had. 

With  the  coming  of  war  his  fortunes  changed.  Peo- 
ple could  not  pay  their  debts,  the  property  had  to  be 
mortgaged,  the  shop  was  closed  and  at  last  this  pros- 
perous merchant  was  driving  a  donkey  before  him  and 
peddling  from  door  to  door.  But  still  he  remained 
faithful  to  his  religious  practices  and  gave  expression 
to  the  conviction  that  this  trouble  had  come  upon  him 
and  his  fellow  Mohammedans  because  they  had  been 
greedy  to  gain  wealth  and  had  neglected  the  practices 
of  their  religion.  He  also  felt  that  this  great  world 
calamity  was  the  beginning  of  the  end,  as  many  of  owr 
Church  people  in  America  have  believed,  and  he  felt 
that  the  final  judgment  was  at  hand.  His  view  was 
probably  typical  of  a  great  many  of  the  devout  Moham- 
medans through  Syria.  Like  the  prophets  of  old  they 
saw  the  shrines  forsaken,  the  ritual  services  neglected 
and  the  people  overwhelmed  because  of  their  material 
greed  and  their  lack  of  religious  observances. 

Other  Mohammedans  met  the  distressing  situation 
not  so  philosophically,  but  more  practically.     A  com- 

176 


MOHAMMEDANS  IN  SYRIA  DURING  THE  WAR     177 

mittee  of  prominent  Moslems  organized  relief  work  in 
the  city  and  carried  out  quite  successfully  a  distribution 
of  food  to  the  needy.  Mohammedan  women  organized 
an  orphanage  and  were  showing  great  sympathy  and 
ability  in  the  way  in  which  they  gathered  the  children 
and  had  them  cared  for. 

As  soon  as  war  was  declared,  the  Turkish  govern- 
ment abolished  the  foreign  capitulations  and  published 
a  new  educational  law.  According  to  this  law  it  was 
forbidden  to  require  the  students  of  one  religion  to  at- 
tend prayers  or  the  religious  instruction  of  another  re- 
ligion. The  old  requirement,  therefore,  that  Moham- 
medan students  in  attendance  upon  mission  schools 
should  study  the  Bible  and  attend  Chapel  services,  had 
to  be  given  up.  Perhaps  because  of  this  regulation, 
perhaps  because  of  the  close  of  other  foreign  schools, 
or  it  may  be  of  an  awakening  to  a  greater  realization  of 
their  need  of  Western  education,  large  numbers  of  Mo- 
hammedan boys  flocked  to  the  American  schools.  At 
the  American  College  in  Beirut  before  the  close  of  the 
war  51%  of  the  more  than  700  students  were  Mohamme- 
dans. 

Throughout  Syria  the  Mohammedan  political  feel- 
ing was  effectually  turned  against  the  Turkish  govern- 
ment because  of  the  strictness  with  which  the  officials 
enforced  the  findings  of  their  court  martials  and  pub- 
licly hanged  in  the  streets  of  Damascus  and  Beirut  a 
score  of  Moslem  leaders,  members  of  the  oldest  and 
wealthiest  and  most  powerful  families  in  Syria.  At 
the  beginning  of  the  war  if  the  Syrian  Moslems  were 
not  enthusiastic  in  their  support  of  Turkish  participa- 
tion, certainly  their  sympathies  were  with  the  Central 
Powers,  and  in  the  early  days  the  Christian  population 
were  somewhat  fearful  as  to  the  attitude  of  the  Mo- 
hammedans when  Turkey  entered  the  war,  especially  at 
the  time  of  the  declaring  of  the  ''Jehad."  But  when 
they  found  that  the  Holy  War  was  not  taken  very  ser- 
iously by  their  Moslem  neighbors,  they  began  to  realize 
that  Syrian  Moslems  were  not  to  have  their  prejudices 
and   fanaticisms    aroused.     Christian    leaders    also    suf- 


178  THE  MOSLEM  WORLD 

fered  with  the  Mohammedans  and  a  number  of  them 
were  hanged  at  the  same  time  in  the  city  streets. 

Then  came  the  sufferings  of  famine  and  disease  and 
all  fared  alike.  There  was  no  respect  of  persons  in 
the  distress  which  ensued  and  there  developed  a  deal 
of  sympathy  one  with  another,  brought  on  by  the  fel- 
lowship of  suffering. 

What  this  will  amount  to  when  the  reconstruction  per- 
iod begins  remains  to  be  seen.  But  one  cannot  believe 
that  the  lessons  of  the  experiences  of  the  past  four  years 
will  be  utterly  lost.  From  one  end  of  the  land  to  the 
other,  the  soldiers  of  the  Allies  have  been  looked  upon 
as  deliverers  and  when  the  new  day  dawns,  the  service 
which  has  been  rendered  cannot  be  forgotten;  and  it 
must  be  that  a  better  understanding  and  greater  sym- 
pathy will  result  between  the  different  religions.  There 
is  a  lamentable  feeling  on  the  part  of  Syrian  Christians 
that  the  Mohammedan  is  beyond  the  pale  of  salvation. 
It  is  difficult  for  him  to  recognize  the  average  Moslem 
as  also  a  child  of  God,  or  to  admit  that  it  is  worth  while 
to  extend  to  him  the  same  offer  of  fellowship  with  God 
that  he  himself  enjoys.  There  must  be  learned  over 
again  the  lesson  of  the  Jerusalem  council  in  the  days  of 
Paul.  But  the  common  experiences  of  these  past  days 
gives  us  hope  that  there  will  be  found  a  sympathetic 
approach  and  understanding  which  has  never  before 
prevailed. 

Wm.  H.  Hall. 


EVIL  SPIRITS  AND  THE  EVIL    EYE    IN 
TURKISH  LORE 


Corresponding  to  the  lore  among  our  Turkish  friends 
connected  with  saints  is  that  relating  to  jinns  or  evil 
spirits  and  the  evil  eye. 

Turkish  jinns  of  modern  times  differ  from  their 
cousins,  the  genii  of  Arabian  Nights  stories,  in  that  they 
work  only  harm  to  men.  Anatolians  have  no  trouble 
with  the  belief  in  a  personal  devil  and  his  demon  legions 
which  is  the  background  of  what  we  find  in  the  Gos- 
pels on  this  subject.  To  the  ordinary  people  of  the 
country,  earth  and  air  and  sky  are  peopled  with  spirits 
malign  as  well  as  benign,  and  to  neutralize  the  one  is 
quite  as  important  as  to  utilize  the  other. 

An  old  hoja,  venerable  in  beard  and  robe  of  fur,  once 
informed  me  that  God  first  created  the  holy  angels,  then 
the  devilish  jinns  of  seventy-two  classes  corresponding 
to  the  seventy-two  races  of  men,  and  finally  God  created 
man  with  character  and  possibilities  partly  angelic  and 
partly  devilish.  The  nature  of  jinns  may  be  under- 
stood from  the  fact  that  one  day  after  the  afternoon  call 
to  prayer  they  destroyed  80,000  prophets.  This  was 
before  the  creation  of  man!  How  there  could  be 
80,000  prophets  before  the  creation  of  man  is  a  question 
that  perhaps  never  occurred  to  the  hoja,  and  if  one 
should  put  it  before  him  it  might  seem  like  needless 
homiletic  nicety.  For  this  offense  Allah  wiped  the 
jinns  out;  that  is,  he  wiped  them  out  of  sight,  and  now 
they  are  seldom  allowed  to  appear  to  human  eyes. 
There  is  also  a  gruesome  fear  of  ghosts,  especially  in 
case  of  a  recent  death  or  in  the  neighborhood  of  a  ceme- 
tery. Jinns  are  to  be  expected  on  moors,  by  rushing 
streams  or  roaring  mills,  in  dark  corners  and  lonely 
places,  where  they  lurk  to  work  harm  to  the  unwary. 

179 


i8o  THE  MOSLEM  WORLD 

They  bewitch  people  and  things,  and  deprive  men  of 
their  reason;  they  bind  "spells,"  and  pervert  the  ordi- 
nary operation  of  beneficient  natural  law;  they  cause 
sickness,  deformity,  lunacy,  epilepsy  and  even  death. 
Things  ought  to  go  well  in  this  world,  but  they  don't, 
because  of  the  activities  of  these  bad  jinns. 

Fear  of  the  evil  eye  seems  to  be  a  weakened  form  of 
the  belief  in  hurtful  jinns,  and  both  are  perhaps,  a  rem- 
nant of  old-time  devil  worship.  Indeed  the  Yezidees 
of  eastern  Asia  Minor  are  alleged  to  be  devil  worship- 
pers now.  Their  theory  is  the  negative  one  of  trying 
to  get  through  life  without  laying  one's  self  liable  to 
penalty  or  persecution.  God  will  do  men  no  harm, 
being  of  a  benevolent  disposition,  and  if  they  can  only 
"square"  Satan,  if  they  can  only  keep  the  powers  of 
evil  inactive,  they  will  get  through  the  world  reason- 
ably well.  The  chosen  people  of  the  old  covenant 
"sacrificed  unto  demons,  which  were  no  God,"  (Deut 
32:17)  "yea,  they  sacrificed  their  sons  and  their  daugh- 
ters unto  demons,"  (Ps.  106:37).  In  the  time  of  Paul 
we  find  him  saying:  "The  things  which  the  Gentiles 
sacrifice,  they  sacrifice  to  demons,  and  not  to  God:  and 
I  would  not  that  ye  should  have  communion  with  de- 
mons. Ye  cannot  drink  the  cup  of  the  Lord,  and  the 
cup  of  demons,  ye  cannot  partake  of  the  table  of  the 
Lord,  and  of  the  table  of  demons"  (I  Cor.  10:20,  21). 
People  generally  are  not  Yezidees,  as  we  meet  them 
now,  but  even  the  intelligent  assert  and  believe  that 
"if  we  say  three-fourths  of  the  dead  are  in  their  graves 
because  of  the  evil  eye,  we  would  not  be  at  fault." 
They  are  horribly  afraid  of  the  "glance"  of  a  person 
of  "short  stature,  blue  eyes  and  fair  hair."  But  wheth- 
er some  dreaded  "eye"  is  seen  or  not,  many  souls  pass 
their  worldly  existence  in  bondage  to  this  fear. 

Thus  it  becomes  serious  business  to  break,  or  better 
yet  to  avoid,  the  wiles  of  the  jinn  and  the  spell  of  the 
evil  eye.  One  method,  naturally,  is  to  invoke  the  aid  of 
saints  and  all  good  powers.  The  Moslem  teacher, 
Solomon  Hoja^  after  relating  that  the  earth  is  full  of 
jinns,  said  that  to  avoid  danger  when  one  goes  out  at 


EVIL  SPIRITS  IN  TURKEY  i8i 

night  he  should  ''read"  constantly,  at  any  rate  he  should 
read  (that  is,  repeat  sacred  passages  from  memory)  just 
as  he  leaves  the  house  door,  and  particularly  as 'he  puts 
on  his  shoes.  If  he  does  so  he  is  safe  for  that  walk, 
especially  if  he  also  gently  blows  in  different  directions, 
for  blowing  the  breath  is  very  efficacious  in  warding  off 
evil  spirits,  as  also  is  spitting  in  any  direction  from 
which  they  may  be  feared.  Amulets  and  charms  are 
very  powerful,  and  their  use  is  all  but  universal. 

Piles  of  small  stones  are  often  seen  by  the  roadside, 
and  passersby  heap  them  higher  by  adding  a  stone  or 
two  to  secure  "traveler's  luck."  One  theory  is  that  the 
pile  of  stones  holds  the  evil  spirits  down,  and  pre- 
vents their  doing  harm  to  people  from  home.  If 
by  casting  a  small  stone  on  a  pile  a  wagoner  may  secure 
protection  for  a  mile,  it  is  a  cheap  form  of  insurance, 
when  on  any  mile  of  the  road  a  horse  may  sicken,  the 
wagon  break  down,  or  robbers  waylay  the  driver. 

Lunacy,  epilepsy  and  other  afflictions  are  attributed 
to  possession  by  demons.  A  man  who  could  not  con- 
trol his  mouth  properly,  probably  owing  to  paralysis, 
told  me  that  he  attributed  it  to  the  jinns.  If  a  person 
is  believed  to  be  possessed,  one  form  of  treatment  is  to 
heat  an  iron  chain  red-hot,  form  it  into  a  ring,  and  pass 
the  suffering  person  through  the  loop,  on  the  theory 
that  evil  spirits  cannot  pass  the  hot  chain,  and  so  they 
are  torn  loose  from  their  victim  and  left  behind.  Al- 
most every  Oriental  church  has  its  room  for  the  treat- 
ment of  the  insane.  They  are  brought  to  the  sacred 
building,  placed  in  this  room,  which  is  usually  very 
bare  and  often  underground,  and  allowed  to  remain 
over  night.  Then  the  friends  earnestly  look  for  signs 
of  returning  reason,  and,  if  they  find  them,  take  the  suf- 
ferer home  with  cheer;  if  they  see  no  sign  of  improve- 
ment, they  prolong  the  detention  in  hope  that  the  recov- 
ery will  take  place  in  time. 

To  continue  the  Christian  parallel,  the  Armenian 
monastery  near  our  city  has  a  hand  cased  in  silver  al- 
leged to  be  the  dead  hand  of  St.  Andrew.  In  one  in- 
stance an  insane  person  was  locked  in  the  room  with 


i82  THE  MOSLEM  WORLD 

this  relic  over  night,  and  pronounced  quite  rational  in 
the  morning.  The  office  of  exorcist  has  been  of  much 
importance  in  the  eastern  churches,  and  prayers  for  the 
banning  or  exorcism  of  evil  spirits  are  in  constant  use. 
At  the  baptism  of  an  infant  the  priest  recites  prayers 
over  the  w^ater  to  purge  it  of  such  evil  presence,  and 
blows  toward  the  four  points  of  the  compass  across  the 
font  for  the  same  purpose.  Twice  a  year  or  more  the 
priests  sprinkle  each  house  of  their  congregation  with 
holy  water  to  drive  away  lurking  spirits,  and  that  pre- 
cautions may  never  be  omitted,  sacred  pictures  are  hung 
upon  the  house  walls.  These  pictures  are  of  saints  of 
the  church,  and  are  hung  first  for  forty  days  in  the 
church  to  hallow  them.  Then  they  are  put  upon  the 
wall  of  a  humble  house,  and  little  lamps  filled  with  pure 
olive  oil  are  often  kept  alight  before  them,  especially  at 
the  sacred  seasons  in  the  calendar. 

A  village  woodman  of  Moslem  faith  living  not  far 
from  my  home  thought  his  companions  called  him  to 
rise  and  go  as  usual  to  the  forest.  Though  it  was  night, 
he  set  out,  and  followed  a  phantom  leader  a  dozen 
miles  with  bare  and  bleeding  feet,  until  he  came  to  a 
place  known  as  God's  valley,  and  there  he  saw  a  big 
meeting  of  jinns, — thousands  of  them,  a  veritable  pan- 
demonium. A  venerable  person  was  at  their  head,  as 
king,  a  sort  of  Beelzebub,  and  the  sight  finally  over- 
came the  woodman  and  drove  him  away.  His  phantom 
leader  then  brought  him  to  a  point  near  his  home  and 
left  him,  but  after  that  experience  the  man  was  epilep- 
tic and  dumb.  His  friends  took  him  to  a  famous  holy 
man  to  '^read"  over  him.  This  was  done,  and  the  dumb 
man  was  relieved  to  such  an  extent  that  he  spoke  and 
related  his  story  as  given  here,  but  he  continued  sub- 
ject to  epileptic  attacks  about  once  a  month.  One  of  my 
acquaintance,  a  Georgian  by  race,  claims  to  be  a  success- 
ful exorcist,  and  tells  me  of  various  cases  he  has  cured. 
His  standard  remedy  is  to  write  a  passage  from  the  Law 
of  Moses,  the  Psalms,  the  Gospels  or  the  Koran,  and 
bind  it  on  the  neck  of  the  patient. 

Dervishes  and  others  are  believed  to  call  up  familiar 


EVIL  SPIRITS  IN  TURKEY  183 

spirits.  Compare  the  difficult  passage  concerning  the 
woman  of  Endor,  (i  Sam.  28:7-25).  A  dervish  search- 
es his  sacred  volumes  amid  the  ruins  of  some  deserted 
village  or  old  castle,  and  endeavors  to  learn  from  famil- 
iar spirits  where  to  look  for  buried  treasure.  The  cus- 
tom must  be  very  common,  for  every  foreigner  is  be- 
lieved to  be  able  to  locate  hidden  treasure  in  this  way. 
My  Georgian  friend  is  a  professional  jinnji,  who  claims 
to  deal  with  familiar  spirits,  to  wield  occult  powers  and 
to  exorcise  demons.  He  has  invited  me  to  be  present 
and  witness  his  ceremony  of  exorcism  at  some  conven- 
ient opportunity.  But  he  has  even  more  earnestly  pro- 
posed that  we  should  join  forces,  form  a  partnership 
and  by  combining  our  skill,  endeavor  to  locate  hidden 
treasure  in  certain  Hittite  ruins  on  a  site  with  which 
we  are  both  familiar,  and  with  the  supposition  on  his 
part  that  there  is  a  good  prospect  of  our  locating  bur- 
ied treasure  of  fabulous  value.  If  a  robbery  has  been 
committed  a  dervish  or  hoja  may  be  summoned,  who 
for  a  small  fee  will  "read"  over  a  cup  of  water  in 
which  some  member  of  the  family,  preferably  a  child, 
may  then  see  black  jinns,  and  from  them  learn  such  in- 
formation as  whether  the  thieves  were  male  or  female 
young  or  old,  tall  or  short,  fair  or  swarthy,  departed  to 
the  east  or  west,  and  the  like.  Acting  on  this  infor- 
mation the  parties  then  endeavor  to  track  the  thieves 
and  recover  their  property.  This  experiment  was  tried 
by  a  constable,  whose  young  son  saw  three  jinns  in  the 
water, — but  they  did  not  catch  the  thieves.  Gipsies 
often  have  recourse  to  the  same  means,  and  would  hard- 
ly continue  it  if  they  did  not  find  some  satisfactory  re- 
ward in  doing  so. 

Near  us  is  an  important  coast  and  commercial  city, 
and  the  governor  of  the  district  is  the  absolute  ruler  of 
a  quarter  million  people.  I  once  called  on  the  governor 
in  company  with  the  official  inspector  of  agriculture,  a 
Greek  gentleman  with  a  European  education.  As  I 
walked  with  the  inspector  through  the  governor's  vine- 
yard, my  attention  was  attracted  by  a  "tink,  tink"  sound, 
which  I  soon  found  came  from  a  tiny  windmill  set  up  on 


i84  THE  MOSLEM  WORLD 

a  pole.  Each  revolution  of  the  wheel  raised  a  little 
tin  rod  which  dropped  and  produced  the  tinking  noise. 
What  was  the  purpose  of  the  wind-mill  and  its  little 
noise?  To  keep  the  evil  eye  off  the  vineyard,  by  fixing 
its  attention  upon  the  unusual  sight  and  sound  of  the 
little  mill. 

To  keep  the  evil  eye  from  a  child,  blue  beads  are 
put  upon  it;  to  avert  it  from  a  field,  garden,  tree  or 
threshing  floor,  a  skull  of  some  animal  is  erected  on  a 
pole;  to  counteract  its  influence  on  a  mill,  a  great  pla- 
card with  the  words  "wonder  of  God"  is  nailed  to  the 
roof;  to  protect  a  dwelling,  a  bunch  of  garlic  or  a  pair 
of  deer's  antlers  is  fixed  in  a  conspicuous  place;  to  pre- 
vent milk  from  souring,  bits  of  charcoal  are  laid  upon 
it;  to  protect  a  camel,  its  saddle  is  made  of  a  particular 
kind  of  wood;  and  so  forward  ad  infinitum.  People's 
notions  and  fears  of  the  evil  eye  vary  with  their  en- 
vironment and  the  degree  of  their  intelligence,  but 
there  is  no  marked  difference  traceable  to  religious  con- 
nection. 

I  was  once  asked  by  a  villager  whom  I  had  never 
seen  before  to  tie  a  knot  on  a  string  he  had  wound 
around  his  wrist.  It  seems  he  had  malaria,  attributed 
it  to  some  evil  influence,  and  thought  he  might  use  me 
to  bind  the  spell.  His  notion  was,  perhaps,  not  that  I 
would  hold  an  acceptable  brief  for  him  with  the  super- 
human powers,  but  that  I  as  a  Christian,  would  be  so 
unacceptable  as  to  attract  the  evil  being,  and  release 
him.  I  would  thus  render  a  service  similar  to  that  per- 
formed by  a  skull  planted  on  a  pole  in  a  garden,  whose 
unsightliness  transfixes  the  evil  eye,  and  leaves  the  ten- 
der plants  to  grow  without  harm. 

Just  as  a  bridal  couple  entered  their  new  home  I  once 
observed  an  old  woman  smashing  an  earthen  dish  at 
their  feet.  Her  idea  was  that  as  we  see  human  life 
we  may  safely  infer  that  there  are  superhuman  and  in- 
human forces  at  work  which  are  likely  to  smash  some- 
thing. It  is  better,  therefore,  to  get  the  start  of  them, 
to  keep  them  quiet  by  doing  their  work  for  them,  and 
lose  the  value  of  a  cheap  dish  rather  than  endanger  the 


EVIL  SPIRITS  IN  TURKEY  185 

health  or  property  of  the  new  household.  If  such  a 
superstition  is  not  a  survival  of  devil  worship,  I  know 
not  how  to  account  for  it. 

On  the  whole,  the  power  most  trusted,  whether  as  a 
prophylactic  against  or  as  a  remedy  for  the  ill  effects 
of  evil  spirits  or  evil  eyes,  i^  "reading,"  that  is,  reciting 
from  some  of  the  sacred  books.  If  a  sheep  does  not 
come  in  from  its  pasturage  at  nightfall,  read  to  protect 
it.  Then  if  a  wolf  pursues,  it  cannot  catch  the  sheep; 
if  it  catches,  cannot  bite  it;  if  it  bites,  cannot  pull  its 
teeth  out;  and  the  sheep  will  reach  home  dragging  the 
wolf  as  its  victim,  or  rather  as  the  victim  of  the  power- 
ful reading.  If  the  charm  does  not  work, — God  knows 
best. 

For  many  people,  almost  the  whole  life  is  passed  in 
bondage  to  this  fear.  They  are  especially  anxious  for 
young  and  tender  plants  and  animals,  and  tell  how  often 
they  have  seen  such  an  object  helpless  and  beloved  over- 
taken by  some  "stroke."  A  foreigner  soon  learns  not  to 
praise  children,  or  even  a  driver's  horses,  without  add- 
ing an  expression  like  "wonder  of  God"  to  avert  the 
evil  eye  which  might  be  attracted  by  the  praise.  Some 
have  supposed  that  Orientals  were  indifferent  to  chil- 
dren because  they  do  not  express  appreciation  of  them 
in  the  presence  of  strangers  and  resent  such  expressions 
from  strangers.  Really  Orientals  love  their  children 
exceedingly  well,  but  they  dread  the  awful  bewitching. 
They  fear  to  leave  a  baby  alone  in  a  house,  lest  jinns 
get  it,  but  a  measure  of  protection  is  attributed  to  the 
presence  of  a  broom.  Native  Christians  sometimes  fix 
a  cross  composed  of  sticks  of  wood  over  the  chimney  of 
the  house  to  prevent  witches  from  flying  down  and 
strangling  the  little  children.  A  driver  on  the  road  is 
easily  troubled  about  his  horses,  lest  they  suffer  from 
some  evil  glance.  If  he  tells  you  his  trouble,  you  may 
recommend  him  to  blow  or  spit  gently  toward  any  per- 
son he  suspects,  and  he  will  probably  tell  you  that  he 
does  so  every  time  he  sees  any  reason  for  suspicion,  but 
the  charm  doesn't  alway  seem  to  work  perfectly.     It  is 


i86  THE  MOSLEM  WORLD 

always  dangerous  to  whistle,  for  you  may  summon  evil 
spirits  by  doing  so. 

Some  persons  claim  to  exercise  the  power  of  the  evil 
eye.  One  man,  boasting  of  his  accomplishment,  called 
the  attention  of  another  to  the  third  camel  of  a  passing 
caravan,  and  immediately  the  beast  stumbled  and  fell. 
Its  saddle,  however,  was  made  of  the  right  kind  of 
wood,  and  the  animal  rose  and  went  on  its  way  without 
further  harm.  Usually  one  does  not  like  such  a  repu- 
tation, and  may  have  his  life  made  miserable  by  possess- 
ing it.  People  come  and  cut  slivers  from  the  threshold 
of  a  person  thus  feared,  to  use  by  way  of  antidote,  and 
I  have  heard  of  old  women  whose  thresholds  would  be 
so  cut  away  in  consequence  that  it  would  be  necessary  to 
renew  the  wood  several  times  a  year.  If  milk  from  a 
cow  unaccountably  sours,  the  owner  will  not  sell  any 
more,  unless  perhaps  he  ventures  to  do  so  after  tying 
a  powerful  writing  wrapped  up  in  leather  to  the  horn 
of  his  cow.  Greek  miners,  serfs  under  Turkish  feudal- 
ism, sometimes  quake  at  a  vision  of  phantom  men,  tall, 
large  and  hairy.  A  miner  then  knows  that  he  has  found 
a  rich  vein  of  ore,  and  further  that  he  has  not  long  to 
live.  And  to  pass  from  things  below  to  things  above 
earth,  an  eclipse  of  the  sun  or  moon  is  habitually  attri- 
buted to  a  jinn  or  dragon  trying  to  swallow  the  heaven- 
ly luminary.  The  people  then  get  out  at  once  with 
guns,  tin  pans,  and  anything  than  can  make  a  noise, 
and  try  to  intimidate  and  frighten  away  the  awful 
monster.  The  sun  and  moon  are  always  saved,  and 
people  rejoice  that  their  efforts  have  been  successful. 

People  seriously  fear  to  be  cursed,  and  probably  at 
bottom  the  reason  is  that  they  fear  curses  will  release 
the  power  of  evil  spirits,  or  will  neutralize  all  the  in- 
tercession and  influence  of  beneficent  spirits.  Evil  be- 
ings are  too  many  and  too  strong  to  be  treated  with 
impunity.  Life  in  the  Orient  is  sombre.  Even  its  mu- 
sic is  in  minor  keys  and  mournful.  Our  fellow  human 
beings  pass  their  days  in  bondage  unto  fear. 

George  E.  White. 

Marsovan,  Turkey, 


NOTES  ON  CURRENT  TOPICS 

A    Moslem    Student    of    Hinduism 

A  recent  number  of  the  Hindustan  Review  (Madras)  gives  an  appre- 
ciation of  Khan  Abdul  Aziz,  M.  A.,  of  Allahabad  University,  who  has 
passed  the  examinations  in  Sanskrit  and  shown  a  truly  catholic  spirit 
through  his  studies  of  a  non-Islamic  faith. 

"As  a  school  boy  the  Khan  Sahib  was  irresistibly  drawn  to  the  study 
of  Sanskrit  language  and  literature.  Fortunately  for  him  he  had  as  his 
teacher  of  Sanskrit  a  Brahmin  Pandit  of  great  erudition 
and  wide  sympathies  who  not  only  helped  him  along  the 
slippery  places  but  instilled  into  his  mind  a  love  for  San- 
skrit literature.  The  Khan  Sahib  was  an  apt  pupil  and 
made  such  progress  in  his  studies  that  even  as  a  school  boy  he  was  quite 
capable  of  holding  his  own  against  any  student  of  the  F.  A.  class.  In 
those  days  students  from  these  parts  appeared  in  Sanskrit  for  the  exami- 
nations of  the  Oriental  Faculty  of  the  Punjab  University.  The  Khan 
Sahib  whose  devotion  to  Sanskrit  amounted  almost  to  a  passion  made 
up  his  mind,  soon  after  passing  the  entrance  examination,  to  appear 
for  the  Prajna  (proficiency  in  Sanskrit  language  and  literature)  exami- 
nation. This  is  the  more  remarkable  for  being  a  Mohammedan  he  had 
to  battle  against  prejudice  and  other  difficulties  such  as  depending,  in 
the  absence  of  a  teacher,  on  his  own  unaided  efforts  and  the  notes  sup- 
plied to  him  by  a  friend  \^ho,  being  a  Brahmin,  enjoyed  the  inestimable 
advantage  of  being  taught  by  Bramin  Pandits.  Being  a  diligent  student 
the  Khan  Sahib's  efforts  were  crowned  with  success,  for  he  was  placed 
second  in  order  of  merit  in  the  Prajna  examination  of  that  year. 

"In  1896  while  reading  for  the  degree  examination  he  obtained  the 
first  prize  for  a  speech  in  Sanskrit  delivered  in  connection  with  the 
Nagpur  Oration  Competition — the  text  of  his  speech  being  IX — 22  verse 
of  the  Bhagwad  Gita." 

"It  is  pleasing  to  note  that  he  has  distinguished  himself  in  a  branch 
of  Sanskrit  learning  which  is  beyond  the  powers  of  many  a  well-read 
gentleman  of  our  country  and  which  recalls  to  memory  the  achieve- 
ments of  Abul  Fazl  and  Faizi  whose  predilection  for  Sanskrit  literature 
and  philosophy  earned  for  them  the  undying  hatred  of  the  orthodox 
portion  of  the  Mohammedan  community  of  the  days  of  Akbar.  The 
times  have,  however,  happily  changed,  for  the  Mohammedan  community 
of  today  feels  justly  proud  of  the  distinction  achieved  by  one  of  its  mem- 
bers. But  there  is  a  public  side  to  it  and  we  fully  endorse  what  a  high 
government  official  says  regarding  the  Khan  Sahib's  success.  "Separa- 
tion between  your  own  great  community  of  Mohammedans  and  the 
Hindus  can  never  be  so  great  again  when  a  Mohammedan  has  made 
such  a  bridge  and  shown  to  much  appreciation  of  Hindu  learning.'* 

The  Decadence  of  Islam 

Mohammedans,  like  the   Hindus,   are  becoming  increasingly  tinged 

with  the  pessimistic  view  that  the  golden  age  is  past  and  gone.     We  have 

been  reading  a  book  just  published,  by  a  Moslem,  on  the  History  and 

Problems   of  Moslem   Education   in   Bengal.     The   author   tells   how 

187 


1 88  THE  MOSLEM  WORLD 

"from  the  numerous  schools  and  academies  of  Granada,  Baghdad,  and 
Damascus,  the  Mussulmans  once  taught  the  world  the  gentle  lessons  of 
philosophy  and  the  practical  teachings  of  stern  science.  .  .  .  To  think 
of  those  palmy  days  of  Islam  and  the  present  fallen  condition  of  the 
Mussulmans  in  India.  Arts  and  letters  are  almost  dead;  science  and 
philosophy  have  taken  shelter  in  other  lands;  faith  has  lost  her  grip; 
even  the  spirit  of  Islam,  in  which  the  Moslem  lived  and  died,  is  fast 
waning  in  our  midst.  Nowhere  has  this  fall  been  so  complete  as  in  this 
presidency.  We  are  hopelessly  fallen,  and  have  managed  to  forget  our 
glorious  history  and  the  lofty  ideals  of  Islam.  Our  ideal  has  no  longer 
the  same  charm  for  us.  Our  history  does  no  longer  animate  us  to  the 
same  spirit  of  world  activity.  If  ever  a  people  stood  in  need  of  human 
S5rmpathies  and  co-operation,  of  government  aid  and  patronage,  it  is  we, 
the  Mussulmans  of  Bengal.  Poor  in  education,  lost  in  power,  shut  out 
from  all  legitimate  and  noble  vocations  of  life  by  force  of  circumstances 
and  stress  of  competition,  and,  lastly,  reduced  to  the  lowest  stage  of 
penury,  we  find  ourselves  hopelessly  lost  in  the  battle  of  life.  And  all 
this  is  due  to  our  want  of  proper  training  and  education." 

A  German  Appeal  to  Mohammedans  in  Africa 

According  to  the  New  York  Times  the  following  letter  was  written 
by  Captain  Falkenstein  to  Chief  Isa,  a  Mohammedan  teacher  who  has 
great  influence  in  East  Africa  on  the  border  between  Lake  Nyasa  and 
Rhodesia.  According  to  the  newspaper  the  letter  was  written  both  in 
Arabic  and  in  the  native  tongue  of  the  people.  The  text  was  as 
follows : 

"First,  greetings,  and  then  I  inform  thee  that  thy  letter  has  reached 
me  here.  I  have  received  thy  news.  The  Holy  War  has  now  spread 
over  the  entire  world.  The  Holy  War  is  being  preached  in  Egypt, 
Tunis,  Algeria,  Tripoli,  Afghanistan,  Beluchistan,  Persia,  half  of  India, 
the  Sudan,  and  the  land  of  the  Nubians — in  fact,  all  over  the  world. 

"The  Mohammedans  are  fighting  with  the  Germans  and  Austrians 
against  English,  French,  Italians,  Serbians,  and  Japanese.  Everjrwhere 
the  enemy  is  being  defeated.  The  Turks,  under  the  Padishah  of  Stam- 
boul,  have  beaten  the  Russians  many  times.  They  have  sunk  many 
English  and  French  ships.  The  French  are  nearly  driven  out  of  Mo- 
rocco, and  in  Tripoli  the  Italians  have  been  soundly  defeated  by  the 
Mohammedans  Our  Russian  enemies  and  the  English  have  been  driven 
out  of  Persia.  The  English  have  fled  from  Afghanistan  and  Beluch- 
istan. 

"Now  the  children  of  the  Padishah  are  coming  into  power.  There 
are  soldiers  of  the  Holy  War  in  the  Punjab  and  in  India.  Everywhere 
the  Germans  and  the  Austrians  have  beaten  the  French  and  the  Russians. 
In  fact,  the  Russians  and  the  French  are  practically  beaten  to  a  standstill. 
The  English  are  not  yet  entirely  defeated,  but  they  have  lost  a  great 
many  of  their  soldiers  and  a  great  many  of  their  warships  have  been 
sunk.     More  than  500  of  their  steamers  have  been  sunk. 

"Here  in  East  Africa  our  soldiers  have  struck  the  English  railroad  in 
several  places  and  torn  up  the  tracks.  Our  Askaris  have  blown  up  three 
railroad  bridges.  Many  railway  coaches  have  been  destroyed.  Some 
Englishmen  and  many  English  Askaris  have  fallen.  The  Belgian 
Askaris  have  been  defeated  every\vhere.  Many  of  them  have  fallen  and 
many  have  surrendered.  There  are  many  German  Askaris  here  in 
Nyasaland  now.  With  them  are  many  Mohammedans,  and  we  plan  to 
strike  a  great  blow. 

"Now,  every  Mohammedan  knows  that  he  must  die.     But  he  also 


NOTES  ON  CURRENT  TOPICS  189 

knows  that  he  dies  for  Allah.  Allah  has  seen  the  flag  of  the  Holy  War 
with  his  own  eyes.  And  thou  must  not  fail  to  send  me  news  at  once 
and  the  names  of  these  Wangonis,  as  we  wish  to  know  their  countersigns 
and  to  meet  their  leaders. 

"Ask  them  in  all  secrecy.  Use  wise  men  who  are  capable  of  guarding 
our  secret,  and  thou  and  thy  people  will  find  favor  in  the  eyes  of  the 
government." 

The  Aga  Khan*s  Vision  of  a  Greater  India 

In  his  recent  book  entitled  "India  in  Transition,"  H.  H.  the  Aga 
Khan  expresses  the  hope  that  in  the  near  future  there  will  be  a  great 
southern  Asiatic  federation,  of  which  India  would  be  the  pivot  and 
center.  The  Asiatic  Review  commenting  on  his  book  and  quoting  the 
dimensions  of  this  federation  says : 

"A  vast  agglomeration  of  States,  Principalities,  and  Countries  in  Asia, 
extending  from  Aden  to  Mesopotamia — from  the  two  shores  of  the 
Gulf  to  India  proper,  from  India  proper  across  Burma,  and  including 
the  Malay  Peninsula,  and  thence  from  Ceylon  to  the  States  of  Bokhara, 
and  from  Tibet  to  Singapore.'  This  Federation  would  affect  some  four 
hundred  million  human  beings,  made  up  of  races  manifold.  But  in 
order  that  India  may  be  prepared  to  occupy  the  proud  position  of  pivot 
and  center,  certain  reforms  within  herself  are  necessary,  and  these 
possible  reforms  the  Aga  Khan  discusses  in  detail. 

As  he  justly  says,  "the  broad  aim  must  be  to  make  India  sufficiently 
well-equipped  educationally  to  give  her  sons  the  general  and  special 
culture  they  seek,  so  that  the  ambitious  should  no  longer  be  under  the 
virtual  compulsion  to  spend  years  of  their  normal  student  life  abroad." 

In  many  parts  of  the  book  true  and  somber  pictures  are  drawn  of  the 
social  disorganization  and  economic  backwardness  from  which  India 
suffers,  but  it  is  urged  that  this  constitutes  no  reason  for  denying  political 
reform,  and  that  India  really  wants,  not  only  social  and  economic,  but 
also  political  advancement,  with  which  social  and  economic  reforms  can- 
not be  brought  to  fruitful  maturity.  The  Aga  Khan  accordingly  insists 
that  the  basis  of  the  autonomous  State  should  be  broadened,  in  order  to 
give  the  people  as  a  whole  occasion  for  understanding  and  responding  to 
the  call  of  sacrifice  for  the  Commonwealth.  The  claim,  therefore,  of 
women  to  share  in  the  election  of  National  Assemblies  is  an  unanswer- 
able one,  for  it  cannot  be  maintained  that  women  are  less  capable  than 
the  men  of  realizing  the  need  for  sacrifice,  and  it  would  be  wrong  to 
impose  on  them  the  acceptation  of  responsibility  to  society  at  large  with- 
out participation  in  the  political  shaping  of  the  State.  This  being  so, 
the  Aga  Khan  has  no  hesitation  in  laying  it  down  as  his  belief  that 

"The  progressive  modernization  which  depends  on  co-operation 
and  understanding  between  the  rulers  and  the  ruled  w^ill  be  im- 
possible in  India  unless  women  are  permitted  to  play  their  legiti- 
mate part  in  the  great  work  of  national  regeneration  on  a  basis  of 
political  equality." 

This  is  plain  speaking  for  a  Moslem,  and  arising  out  of  the  status  of 
Indian  women  the  Aga  Khan  discusses — like  the  Indian  gentleman  he 
is — British  and  Indian  social  relations,  and  points  out  that  the  keynote 
to  improved  relations  is  the  cultivation  of  real  affinities. 

Baptisms  in  Western  China 
"Mr.  Ridley  recently  reported  eighteen  baptisms  at  Sining,  including 
that  of  the  first  Moslem  in  the  district  to  confess  Christ.     This  man  will 
need  our  prayers,  as  he  will  doubtless  be  subjected  to  persecution.     Mr. 


I90       ^  THE  MOSLEM  WORLD 

Jamieson,  writing  from  Hingi,  in  Kweichow,  mentions  openings  for 
work  among  Moslems  in  that  center.  The  local  Ahung  has  made 
frequent  visits.  Other  Mohammedans  have  been  attending  the  meet- 
ings, and  appear  to  be  interested  in  the  Gospel." 

The  Bakr-id  Festival  at  Calcutta 

The  following  account  of  the  festival  held  this  year  is  taken  from 
The  Englishman  and  describes  certain  practices  peculiar  to  India  which 
will  interest  our  readers.     We  give  the  account  verbatim: 

"The  Bakr-Id,  one  of  the  two  great  festivals  of  the  Mohammedans, 
was  celebrated  in  Calcutta  on  Tuesday  and  passed  off  quietly. 

"This  is  a  feast  held  on  the  lOth  Zil  Hijjah  in  honour,  it  is  said,  of 
Abraham's  intending  to  offer  up  Ismail,  who,  they  aver,  was  chosen  as 
the  offering  to  the  Almighty  and  not  Is-hak,  grounding  their  assertions 
on  traditions  which  they  deem  conclusive  evidence  on  the  subject.  The 
offering  thus  made  is  annually  commemorated  by  the  sacrifice  of  animals, 
such  as  camels,  cows,  sheep,  goats,  kids,  or  lambs,  according  to  each 
person's  means,  which  answer  the  double  purpose  of  honouring  the 
memory  of  Abraham  and  Ismail  and  as  food.  The  followers  of  Mo- 
hammed believe  that  the  entrance  to  paradise  is  guarded  by  a  bridge, 
Pul-i-Sirat,  as  narrow  as  a  scythe,  affording  a  precarious  and  unstable 
footing.  To  enable  them,  therefore,  to  pass  without  danger,  they  be- 
lieve that  the  animals  they  have  sacrificed  at  the  Id  will  be  present  to 
lend  their  aid  in  helping  them  over  with  lightning  celerity.  This  festival 
called  by  the  Arabs  "Id-ul-Zoha,"  day  of  sacrifice,  and  the  "Id-ul-Fitr" 
are  the  two  great  festivals  of  the  Mohammedans. 

"From  an  early  hour  crowds  of  Mohammedans,  gaily  attired  and 
perfumed  with  atar,  attended  the  various  mosques  throughout  the  city 
to  say  their  Namaz  prayers.  Batch  after  batch  of  worshippers  suc- 
ceeded each  other,  the  largest  attendance  being  at  the  Nakoda  Mosque 
in  Chitpore  Road  which  is  the  biggest  mosque  in  Calcutta. 

"In  addition  there  were  bands  of  devout  Mohammedans  who  said 
their  prayers  on  the  maidan  near  the  tank  opposite  Lindsay  Street,  and 
also  at  the  tramway  junction  at  Esplanade  and  Chowringhee. 

"The  Kabulis  celebrated  the  Bakr-Id  in  their  own  fashion.  Dressed 
in  clean,  white,  flowing  garments,  with  bright  coloured  waistcoats,  their 
hair  well  oiled  and  carrying  their  inevitable  lathis,  some  hundreds  of 
them  assembled  on  the  Maidan  alongside  the  Ochterlony  Monument  in 
the  early  morning.  After  saying  their  prayers,  facing  the  Holy  Places, 
as  all  Moslems  do,  they  indulged  in  dancing.  At  the  conclusion  of  their 
religious  rites,  quite  a  large  number  of  them  engaged  taxis  and  went  for 
joy  rides,  while  others  visited  friends.  Later,  in  the  afternoon,  they  met 
at  their  headquarters  in  Nebutolla  Lane  and  sat  down  to  a  burra  khana. 

"After  the  early  morning  prayers  there  was  the  usual  sacrifice  of 
animals  at  the  Amratolla  Mosque. 

"Various  precautions  were  taken  by  the  authorities.  There  was  no 
disturbance  of  any  kind." 

A  Recent  Moslem  Miracle 

A  young  Moslem  recently  wrote  to  a  Christian  missionary  in  India 
as  follows: 

"One  thing  I  am  going  to  ask  you  to  know  the  fact.  On  the  I2th 
June,  191 7,  a  fish  flung  itself  into  the  boat  of  a  fisherman  fishing  in  the 
sea  near  Zanzibar.  One  purchased  the  fish,  and  noticed  that  the  tail 
fin  bore  marks  akin  to  writing,  .  .  .  says  the  Ceylon  Independent,  .  .  . 
He  read  the  Arabic  words,  'La  ilaha  illallah'  on  one  side  of  the  fish, 


NOTES  ON  CURRENT  TOPICS  191 

and  'Shan  Allah'  on  the  other.  The  first  are  the  Qur'anic  words 
meaning,  'There  is  no  deity  but  Allah,'  and  the  second  means  'Majesty 
of  Allah.'  However,  the  fact  may  not  be  denied,  as  it  was  taken  to  the 
British  Residency,  and  was  examined  by  experts.  The  markings  were 
quite  pronounced.  Chemicals  were  used  to  test  whether  they  were 
natural  or  not,  and  after  thorough  examination  it  was  definitely  establ- 
ished that  the  inscription  on  the  fish  was  natural.  The  photographs  of 
the  fish  have  been  taken.  Now  it  is  in  safe  custody.  The  photographs 
are  being  sold  by  thousands.  The  owner  of  the  fish  has  refused  an  offer 
of  Rs.  30,000.  It  has  been  placed  on  public  exhibition.  The  Arabic 
lettering  is  perfectly  plain  However,  I  could  not  understand  what  does 
it  mean.  The  photo  of  the  fish  can  be  had  from  H.  H.  Abdul  Ali, 
Fourth  Cross  Street,  Pettah,  Ceylon.  I  have  seen  the  photo  here  from  a 
Mohammedan  student  of  4th  year  class." 

Neglected  Arabia 

During  the  war  the  doors  of  inland  Arabia  have  swung  open  to  the 
touch  of  the  medical  missionary.  Dr.  Paul  W.  Harrison,  writing  in 
the  missionary  magazine  of  the  Reformed  Church  in  America  says : 

"As  to  inland  Arabia,  words  fail  us.  There  has  been  the  object  of 
our  hopes  and  prayers  and  the  goal  of  our  plans  and  endeavours  for  the 
past  twenty-eight  years.  Now,  as  the  doors  swing  open,  who  is  to  enter  ? 
Kateef  would  be  glad  to  have  a  resident  medical  missionary  now.  Hassa 
probably  could  have  been  entered  before  this  if  anyone  had  made  the 
effort.  Riadh  itself,  the  key  position  of  Arabia,  and  indeed,  as  some  of 
us  think,  of  all  Islam,  is  opening  its  doors. 

"It  is  to  men  whose  hearts  burn  with  the  fire  of  Christ's  own  ambition 
for  His  world  that  Arabia  makes  her  appeal.  Let  Hassa  serve  as  an 
example.  Here  is  a  city  of  probably  thirty  thousand  inhabitants,  sur- 
rounded by  date  gardens  which  stretch  for  miles.  There  are  fifty-one 
cities  and  villages  in  this  area,. many  of  them  cities  of  thousands,  some  of 
them  mere  villages.  The  evidences  of  material  prosperity  are  every- 
where. The  whole  district  is  one  of  date  gardens,  wheat  fields,  and 
beautiful  stretches  of  dark  green  alfalfa.  It  is  the  richest  district  of 
Arabia  and  doubtless  also  the  most  densely  populated.  The  inland 
Bedouins  come  here  to  trade  from  almost  the  entire  eastern  half  of  the 
peninsula.  The  Church  of  Christ  occupies  no  point  in  Arabia  com- 
parable to  this  in  strategic  importance. 

"But  it  is  a  bigoted,  fanatical  place,  whose  doors  are  shut  to  everyone 
except  the  Medical  Missionary.  What  are  the  opportunities  for  medical 
work?  Opportunities  of  the  sort  that  break  men.  A  mass  of  diseases 
to  be  treated,  of  surgery  to  be  done,  such  as  ten  men  could  not  overtake. 
Indeed,  fifty  men  could  not  handle  it  properly.  A  sanitary  situation  as 
bad  as  hum'an  ignorance  and  filth  can  make  it.  The  worker  in  Hassa 
with  his  little  hospital  must  undertake  single-handed  the  fight  against  the 
forces  of  hygienic  depravity  of  the  whole  eastern  part  of  Arabia.  The 
inertia  of  centuries,  ignorance  so  profound  that  it  is  almost  sublime,  some 
of  the  bitterest  religious  prejudices  of  the  world,  will  all  be  pitted  against 
him.  But  an  inch  at  a  time  he  will  forge  ahead  and  finally  win,  because 
the  promises  of  God  and  the  laws  of  God  are  with  him." 

Political  Position   of  the   Moslem   League   in   India 

In  the  recently  published  Montagu-Chelmsford  Report  on  Indian  Con- 
stitutional Reforms,  there  is  the  following  interesting  summary  of  the 
recent  changes  in  the  political  position  of  the  Moslem  League  in  India: 

"Throughout  the  troubled  years  1907-10  the  Mohammedans,  with  a 


192  THE  MOSLEM  WORLD 

few  exceptions,  held  severely  aloof  from  the  revolutionary  movement 
and  retained  their  traditional  attitude  of  sturdy  loyalty,  secure  in  the 
feeling — which  the  partition  of  Bengal  and  the  concession  of  communal 
representation  in  the  reforms  of  1909  had  strengthened — that  their 
interests  were  safe  in  the  hands  of  the  Government.  Since  191 1  their 
attitude  has  been  growing  far  less  acquiescent.  Their  first  disquiet 
arose  from  the  war  which  broke  out  between  Italy  and  Turkey  in  191 1, 
when  Great  Britain's  neutrality  engendered  some  bitterness  of  feeling. 
It  seemed  to  our  Moslems  in  India  that  in  deference  to  the  religious 
susceptibilities  of  her  seventy  million  subjects  Great  Britain  ought  to 
have  supported  Turkey.  Before  this  feeling  had  died  down,  the  re- 
partition of  Bengal  was  announced.  This  was  not  only  a  severe  disap- 
pointment to  the  community  because  it  deprived  them  of  what  was 
essentially  a  Moslem  province,  but  to  many  it  came  also  as  a  shock  ta 
their  faith  in  the  Government  which  they  regarded  as  positively  pledged 
to  maintain  the  partition.  The  Balkan  War  was  a  further  cause  of 
estrangement.  This  was  represented  as  a  struggle  between  the  Cross 
and  the  Crescent  and  led  to  much  bitterness  of  feeling.  Indian  Mos- 
lems showed  their  sympathy  for  Turkey  by  despatching  a  medical  mission 
to  her  aid  in  December,  191 2,  and  a  section  of  pan-Islamists  began  to 
teach  that  the  first  duty  of  Moslems  is  allegiance  to  the  Khalif,  and 
founded  a  new  organization,  the  Anjuman-i-Khuddam-i-Kaaba,  whose 
members  took  the  oath  to  sacrifice  life  and  property  in  defense  of  the 
Holy  Shrine  against  non-Moslem  aggressors.  There  were  signs,  how- 
ever, of  an  improvement  in  Moslem  feeling  in  the  latter  half  of  1913, 
when  riots  and  loss  of  life  in  connection  with  the  partial  demolition  of  a 
Cawnpore  mosque  caused  a  temporary  set-back.  The  Turks'  recovery 
of  Adrainople,  the  declaration  of  peace  in  the  Balkans  and  the  reaction 
from  the  passions  aroused  by  the  Cawnpore  affair  induced  calmer  feel- 
ings; but  a  fresh  difficulty  presented  itself  when  Turkey  entered  the 
war  against  us  in  191 4.  The  Germans  counted  certainly  on  being 
able  to  stir  up  disaffection  in  India,  and  lost  no  labor  in  trying  to 
persuade  Indian  Mohammedans  that  Turkey  was  engaged  in  a  Jihad  or 
Holy  War,  and  that  it  was  their  religious  duty  to  take  sides  against 
England  and  her  allies.  These  enemy  attempts  wholly  failed  to  affect 
the  great  mass  of  the  Moslem  community.  Keenly  as  they  felt  the  painful 
position  in  which  they  were  placed,  they  were  admirably  steadied  by 
the  great  Mohammedan  princes  and  nobles,  and  preserved  an  attitude 
of  firm  loyalty  which  deserves  our  praise  and  sympathy.  In  this  they 
were  greatly  helped  by  the  public  assurance  given  by  His  Majesty's 
Government  that  the  question  of  the  Khalifate  is  one  that  must  be 
decided  by  Moslems  in  India  and  elsewhere  without  interference  from 
non-Moslem  powers.  But  a  small  section  of  extremists  were  quick  to 
seize  the  opportunity  of  making  trouble  and  ventured  on  almost  open 
avowals  of  disloyalty  against  which  the  Government  had  no  choice  but 
to  take  action. 

Probably  few  communities  could  have  passed  through  so  prolonged 
a  period  of  trial  without  some  cleavage  in  their  ranks.  The  crumbling 
of  Islamic  kingdoms  in  Morocco  and  Persia  has  led  Indian  Mo- 
hammedans to  cling  more  closely  than  ever  to  Turkey  as  the  great 
surviving  Moslem  power  in  the  world ;  and  when  Turkey  was 
threatened,  first  by  Italy  and  then  by  the  Balkan  League,  the  ex- 
cited fancy  of  many  Indian  Moslems  saw  in  these  events  a  con- 
certed plot  of  the  Christian  Powers  to  make  an  end  of  Islam  as  a 
temporal    power.     The    re-partition    of    Bengal    and    also    the    check 


NOTES  ON  CURRENT  TOPICS       '  193 

to  the  hopes  entertained  of  a  great  Mohammedan  university  de- 
pressed the  minds  of  many  honest  Moslems  with  a  sense  of  their 
inefficiency.  There  were  those  who,  feeling  mainly  their  political 
weakness  compared  with  the  Hindus,  wished  to  have  done  with 
agitation  and  excitement,  to  concentrate  effort  on  education,  and 
to  rely  on  Government  for  protection  and  fair  play.  Younger  and 
keener  minds,  touched  often  with  some  fervor  of  pan-Jslamism, 
were  no  longer  willing  "stare  super  antiquas  vias."  The  ad- 
vanced party  prevailed  in  the  counsels  of  the  Moslem  League;  in 
19 1 3  it  proclaimed  its  adoption  of  the  cause  of  colonial  self-gov- 
ernment of  a  kind  suited  to  India  and  was  warmly  eulogised  by 
the  Congress  for  so  doing.  So  far  as  pan-Islamic  feeling  affected 
the  situation,  that  factor  did  not  tend  of  course  towards  union  with 
the  Hindus;  but  at  the  time,  stronger  causes  were  at  work  to 
bring  the  advanced  parties  on  both  sides  together.  With  them,  at 
all  events,  the  new  nationalism  produced  by  the  War  prevailed ; 
and  at  the  meetings  at  Lucknow  in  Christmas  week,  19 16,  Con- 
gress and  League  came  formally  together  and  the  conservative  por- 
tion of  Mohammedan  opinion,  which  remained  outside  the  con- 
cordant, was  ignored.  This  agreement,  however,  represents  the 
beginning  of  united  action  between  Hindus  and  Mohammedans, 
which   every   well-wisher   of   India   hopes   will    grow. 

Early  Arab  Geography 

It  is  well  known  that  whilst  geography  during  the  Middle  Ages 
was  at  a  very  low  ebb  among  Christian  nations  it  reached  a  higher 
development  among  the  Arabs,  who  alone  preserved  the  more  scien- 
tific methods  handed  down  from  classical  times.  New  light  has 
lately  been  thrown  on  the  history  of  the  science  as  cultivated  by 
the  latter,  by  the  study  of  the  work  of  the  Arab  astronomer  Mo- 
hammed bin  Musa  al  Huwarizmi  (or  Hwarazmi).  The  fact  that 
an  Arabic  version,  or  adaptation,  of  Ptolemy's  geography  was 
made  for  the  Khalif  Al  Mamun  in  the  ninth  century  has  long  been 
known  from  the  statements  of  Abulfeda,  and  that  its  author  was 
Mohammed  bin  Musa  was  suggested  as  far  back  as  1823  by  Fraehn. 
A  manuscript  of  the  actual  work  (entitled  Kitab  surat  al  ardh,  or  'Book 
of  the  Form  of  the  Earth)  was  discovered  at  Cairo  by  W.  Spitta  in 
1878,  and  soon  afterwards  described  by  him,  being  subsequently  dis- 
cussed with  much  acumen  by  C.  A.  Nallino  in  a  memoir  published  by 
the  Reale  Accademia  dei  Lincei  in  1896.  The  result  of  the  studies 
of  these  two  scholars  was  to  show  that  Al  Huwarizmi's  work  was 
not  a  direct  translation  of  Ptolemy,  but  was  written  as  an  explana- 
tory accompaniment  to  a  series  of  maps.  That  these  too  were  not 
Ptolemy's  was  shown  by  the  important  divergencies  in  the  data,  many 
of  the  geographical  positions  being  altered  and  many  additional  de- 
tails added — probably  from  current  Arab  tradition  and  many  of  them 
purely  imaginary.  A  passage  in  Masudi  tells  us  that  Al  Mamun 
entrusted  the  task  of  compiling  an  atlas  of  star  and  terrestrial  maps 
to  a  whole  commission  of  learned  men,  and  it  seems  to  have  been  Al 
Huwarizmi's  part  in  the  work  to  bring  together  the  data  of  the  maps 
in  book  form  as  had  been  done  by  Ptolemy,  whose  geography  was  of 
course  in  the  hands  of  the  savants,  though  these  appear  to  have  al- 
lowed themselves  a  surprisingly  free  hand  in  dealing  with  it.  In 
order  to  gauge  correctly  the  quality  of  Al  Huwarizmi's  work  it  was 
desirable  that  a  map  should  be  constructed  on  the  basis  of  the  lists  of 
positions  contained  in  it,  and  this  has  at  last  been  done  for  the  Afri- 


194  THE  MOSLEM  WORLD 

can  part  of  it  by  Dr.  Hans  von  Mzik  in  two  memoirs  published  re- 
spectively by  the  Vienna  Geographical  Society  and  the  Vienna  Aca- 
demy of  Sciences  in  191 5  and  1916.  These  memoirs  have  not  yet 
reached  us  by  reason  of  the  war,  but  the  facts  above  brought  together 
are  taken  from  a  review  by  Julius  Ruska  in  the  Geographische  Zeits- 
chriftj  1 918,  No.  2-3.  This  writer  speaks  enthusiastically  of  the  care 
and  thoroughness  with  which  Von  Mzik  has  carried  out  his  examina- 
tion of  the  manuscript  and  the  conversion  of  the  data  into  map  form; 
only  declining  to  accept  certain  conclusions  of  Von  Mzik's  as  to  the 
use  of  Syrian  rather  than  Greek  models  in  the  composition  of  the 
Arab  work. — The  Geographical  Journal. 

The  Moros  of  the  Philippine  Islands 

We  glean  the  following  from  the  report  of  the  Governor  General 
of  the  Philippine  Islands,  1916  (Washington)  :  "The  so-called  Moro 
problem  has  been  handled  with  the  greatest  skill  and  success  by  the 
department  governor,  Frank  W.  Carpenter,  and  his  able  staff  of  as- 
sistants. Inasmuch  as  Gov.  Carpenter's  report  is  printed  herewith  in 
full,  only  a  passing  mention  will  be  made  of  several  features  of  his 
administration. 

The  year  1916  in  the  department  government  was  marked 
by  the  bringing  under  government  control  of  at  least  3,000  square 
miles  of  heretofore  unexplored  country,  and  an  area  30  per  cent 
greater  throughout  the  departments  than  that  of  the  previous  year  is 
now  cultivated.  Twent3'-two  thousand  people  have  been  brought  un- 
der control  and  settled  on  agricultural  lands — people  who  were  here- 
tofore semi-nomadic  and  living  in  the  inaccessible  mountains.  Eco- 
nomically, the  department  is  going  ahead  very  rapidly,  and  a  very 
notable  increase  in  exports  took  place  in  1916.  Bureaus  of  the  in- 
sular government  now  have  jurisdiction  over  the  Department  of 
Mindanao  and  Sulu,  thus  carrying  forward  the  policy  of  assimilation 
into  the  general  body  of  Philippine  peoples  of  the  inhabitants  of  the 
southern  islands. 

Regarding  the  Moslem  population  of  this  group  of  islands,  it  is 
admitted  that  the  census  of  1903  was  little  more  than  a  guess.  Ow- 
ing to  distances,  lack  of  communication,  and  unfriendliness  of  the 
people,  the  enumerators  were  often  able  to  gain  but  a  very  imperfect 
idea  of  the  exact  population,  and  the  figures  reported  were  in  many 
instances  but  mere  surmises.  Many  Army  officers  at  that  time  serv- 
ing in  Mindanao-Sulu  feel  certain  that  large  blocks  of  the  Moham- 
medan population  of  Lanao  and  Cotabato  were  omitted  from  the 
estimates.  Furthermore,  quite  apart  from  the  question  of  omis- 
sions at  the  time  of  the  enumeration,  the  increase  of  population  in 
Mindanao-Sulu  during  the  period  since  the  census  of  1903  lias  been 
abnormally  large,  owing  to  the  steady  immigration.  It  is  certain 
that,  apart  from  some  urban  districts,  no  considerable  territory  of 
the  Philippines  has  so  rapidly  increased  in  population  as  have  the 
seven  provinces  of  this  department. 

During  the  past  few  years,  however,  the  reduction  to  governmental 
control  of  vast  areas  of  the  hinterland  has  been  systematically  and 
unceasingly  carried  on.  The  organizations  of  villages  and  the  settle- 
ment therein  of  pagans  or  Mohammedans  formerly  living  a  semi- 
nomadic — sometimes  lawless — life  in  the  hills,  has  been  of  frequent 
occurrence." 


NOTES  ON  CURRENT  TOPICS  195 

The  present  Mohammedan  population  is  given  as  follows:  By 
provinces : 

Cotobato    107,205      Sulu   120,000 

Davao    7,803      Zamboanga    45,000 

Lanao 75,960  

Total    355,968 

As  the  total  population  of  all  of  these  districts  is  given  at  723,655, 
it  is  clear  that  the  Mohammedans  compose  nearly  one-half  of  the  to- 
tal population.  The  policy  of  the  government  has  been  one  of  eco- 
nomic development  and  education.  We  read:  "No  effort  is  spared 
by  the  department  and  provisional  governments  in  the  locating  of 
homeseekers  and  contract-released  laborers,  not  only  on  first-class 
public  lands,  but  where  they  will  form  mixed  communities  with  Mo- 
hammedans and  pagans.  No  other  practical  method  seems  to  offer 
assurance  of  the  rapid  political  as  well  as  economic  development  of 
the  Mohammedan  and  pagan  territory.  The  government  is  able  to 
assure  fair  treatment  and  prompt  pa5^ment  of  wages  to  contracted 
laborers,  and  to  all  immigrants  security  of  life  and  property,  no  less 
than  security  enjoyed  in  the  northern  Provinces.  At  the  same  time 
due  precautions  are  taken  to  safeguard  the  property  rights  of  Mo- 
hammedan and  pagan  residents  and  otherwise  assure  the  continuation 
of  harmonious  relations  between  them  and  Christian  settlers." 

In  1916  the  United  States  Government  accomplished  the  complete 
disarmament  and  submission  of  the  people  to  its  authority  for  the 
first  time  throughout  all  Mohammedan  territory.  Public  drinking 
places  were  ordered  closed  in  June,  1916,  and  there  has  been  a  no- 
table decline  in  the  number  of  crimes.  These  drinking  places  were 
extremely  distasteful  to  Mohammedans,  who  are  not  inclined  to  in- 
dulge in  the  habit,  and  whose  religion  forbids  it.  * 'There  has  been  a 
constant  and  remarkable  increase  in  the  popular  demand,  especially 
among  Mohammedans  and  pagans  for  modern  medicine  and  surgery. 
The  facilities  of  both  hospitals  and  dispensaries  have  generally  been 
taxed  to  the  utmost  of  their  capacities,  and  increases  of  present  hospital 
facilities,  especially  in  Lanao,  are  urgently  needed.  At  both  Zam- 
goanga  and  Davao,  where  the  government  maintains  no  general  hos- 
pital, the  private  hospitals  maintained  by  missions  or  other  private 
philanthropy  have  rendered  great  public  service  and  are  deservedly 
popular.  The  general  hospital  facilities  at  Zamboanga  have  been  in- 
creased during  the  year  by  the  establishment  of  the  Hospital  del 
Pilar  by  the  Roman  Catholic  bishop  of  Zamboanga." 

Regarding  mission  work  among  the  Mohammedans  the  report  men- 
tions not  only  the  hospital  of  the  Roman  Catholic  bishop  which  was 
opened  February  i6th,  1916,  but  mentions,  "the  Farm  School,  at 
Camp  Indianan,  in  the  island  of  Jolo,  formally  opened  during  1916, 
under  the  auspices  of  Bishop  Brent  (Episcopal  Church  Mission), 
This  school  for  boys  is  under  the  supervision  of  Mr.  J.  F.  Fugate, 
who  was  formerly  lieutenant  governor  of  Siquijor,  and  is  accom- 
plishing splendid  results,  having  an  attendance  of  about  35  pupils. 
This  mission  has  continued  its  activities  in  Zamboanga  by  the  en- 
largement and  improvement  of  the  Zamboanga  Hospital,  under  the 
direction  of  an  American  resident  physician,  with  a  satff  of  several 
trained  nurses,  including  an  American  nurse.  This  hospital  is  re- 
ported to  be  crowded  to  the  limit  of  its  capacity  most  of  the  time." 

"The  same  Episcopalian  Mission  maintains  a  "Moro  Settlement 
House"  under  the  direction  of  Miss  Barter,  where  Moro  women  and 


196  THE  MOSLEM  WORLD 

children  are  taught  weaving  and  lace  making.  There  seems  to  be  a 
good  market  for  the  articles  produced  by  this  settlement  house.  There 
has  also  been  maintained  by  the  mission  the  Sulu  Press,  which  pub- 
lishes a  monthly  periodical  in  the  Sulu  vernacular,  using  a  modified 
Arabic  alphabet. 

The  Congregational  Mission  has  continued  its  activities  ^in  Da- 
vao  and  outstations  in  other  Provinces  of  the  department.  This 
mission  has  improved  the  hospital  ma-^itained  at  Davao  under  the 
supervision  of  an  American  physician  and  schools  under  an  ordained 
missionary  and  his  wife,   both  Americans. 

"The  Christian  and  Missionary  Alliance  has  continued  its  activi- 
ties in  Zamboanga  Province  during  the  year  without  special  incident 
to  be  noted. 

"There  arrived  during  the  year  a  few  Arabs  and  Malays,  re- 
presenting themselves  to  be  Mohammedan  missionaries,  but  their  ef- 
forts to  exploit  native  Mohammedans  made  their  presence  here  un- 
tenable, and  they  were  compelled  by  the  popular  attitude  to  leave." 

Kazan,  the  Moslem  Center  of  Russia. 

In  "the  Near  East"  for  Aug.  9,  1918  there  is  the  following  statement 
upon  Kazan  as  the  historical  centre  of  Mohammedanism  in  Russia: 

"Kazan  was  converted  to  Mohammedanism  soon  after  the  year 
950  A.  D.,  and  has  thus  been  a  Moslem  centre  for  nearly  lOOO 
years,  but  it  has  always  been  a  Moslem  Island  in  a  sea  of  Pagan,  and 
latterly  of  Christian  populations;  and  since  the  Russian  conquest  in 
the  middle  of  the  i6th  century,  it  has  been  incorporated  in  a 
Christian  state.  The  Kazan  Moslems  were  treated  more  tolerantly 
by  Russia  than  most  Moslems  conquered  by  Christian  governments 
at  that  date.  The  Moors  in  Spain,  for  instance,  were  compelled  to 
become  Christians  or  to  leave  the  country;  but  the  Kazan  Tartars 
were  never  presented  with  this  alternative.  They  were  allowed  to 
continue  in  their  homes  as  Moslems  and  profited  by  the  commercial 
opportunities  which  their  city,  with  its  magnificent  geographical 
situations,  saw  open  to  it  by  the  extension  of  the  Russian  Empire 
towards  the  south  and  east.  They  took  kindly  to  the  Russian  connec- 
tion and  became  a  prosperous  "bourgeois"  element  in  Russian  society. 
No  Moslem  community  exists  today  which  has  been  longer  under 
European  government." 


BOOK  REVIEWS 


Reconstruction  in  Turkey.  A  Series  of  Reports  compiled  for  the 
American  Committee  of  Armenian  and  Syrian  Relief;  William 
H.  Hall,  Editor.     For  Private  Distribution  only;  pp.  245. 

The  papers  that  compose  this  report  were  prepared  in  October, 
191 7,  to  guide  those  friends  of  the  Near  East  who  desired  concise 
and  reliable  information  on  present  conditions,  as  well  as  on  the  re- 
sources and  possibilities  of  the  Turkish  Empire,  as  it  was  before  the 
war.  Although  printed  for  private  circulation  only,  we  express 
the  hope  that  it  may  be  published  for  general  use  in  the  near  future, 
and  therefore  give  our  readers  a  summary  of  the  contents. 

After  an  outline  of  the  history  and  ethnology  of  the  races  in 
Turkey,  there  is  a  chapter  on  the  religious  conditions  and  on  educa- 
tion, with  special  reference  to  social  and  economic  conditions.  A 
summary  is  given  of  the  laws,  which  formerly  governed  private 
schools.  The  papers  on  health  and  sanitary  conditions,  transporta- 
tion, irrigation,  agriculture  and  rug  weaving  are  by  missionary  ex- 
perts, and  give  a  graphic  picture  of  needs  and  opportunities.  The 
chapter  on  the  status  of  women  is  rather  brief  and  disappointing. 
That  on  finances  and  the  public  debt  is  excellent.  Although  the 
section  that  deals  with  religious  conditions  is  not  as  thorough  and 
scholarly  as  we  might  expect  in  a  volume  of  this  character,  yet  as 
outlined  it  is  good,  and  we  heartily  endorse  the  conclusion  reached: 
"This  outline  of  the  religious  conditions  in  the  empire  reveals  the 
complexity  of  the  question  and  the  difficulty  of  dealing  with  it  from 
a  political  point  of  view.  This  difficulty  does  not  lie  in  the  great 
number  of  sects,  a  greater  number  can  be  found  in  America,  but  in 
the  age-long  antagonisms  under  which  they  have  existed  and  their 
lack  of  cohesion  in  any  political  sense.  The  political  life  of  the  non- 
Moslem  population,  so  far  as  it  has  had  any,  has  been  circumscribed 
by  the  sect  to  which  the  individuals  belong;  they  have  had  no  part  in 
the  political  life  of  the  empire.  To  a  large  extent  this  has  been  true 
of  the  heretical  sects  among  the  Moslems  and  to  some  degree  among 
the  Arab  Moslems.  Hence  the  people  have  never  been  accustomed 
to  act  together  in  political  matters  and  it  would  be  difficult  to  bring 
them  to  do  so.  There  was  great  hope  at  the  time  of  the  revolution 
in  1908  that  a  real  union  of  these  antagonistic  elements  for  the  gen- 
eral good  might  be  brought  about,  but  the  result  was  a  dismal  failure. 
This  was  due  no  doubt  to  mismanagement  on  the  part  of  the  Young 
Turks,  who  never  intended  to  commit  the  control  of  affairs  to  the 
people,  but  had  they  done  so,  the  deep  seated  prejudices  of  the  sects 
and  the  underlying  current  of  fanaticism  still  existing,  even  among 
the  Christians,  would  have  proved  an  almost  insurmountable  obstacle. 
It  is  doubtful  whether  the  different  races  and  religious  sects  can  be 
molded  into  one  body  politic  capable  of  controlling  its  own  affairs 
without  a  long  course  of  education  and  training." 

S.  M.  Z. 

197 


198  THE  MOSLEM  WORLD 

Mohammedan  Law  of  Marriage  and  Divorce  by  Ahmed  Shu- 
kri  LL.  B.,  Ph.  D.  Contributions  to  Oriental  History  and  Philol- 
ogy. No.  Vn.  Columbia  University  Press,  New  York.  191 7. 
pp.  126. 

The  author  has  carefully  selected  the  materials  for  his  thesis  from 
the  vast  encyclopedia  of  Moslem  jurisprudence  and  has  given  us  a 
most  scholarly  and  unbiased  work.  He  writes  almost  entirely  from 
the  standpoint  of  the  compiler  and  rarely  assumes  the  role  of  inter- 
preter of  the  development  or  transformation  that  is  taking  place  in 
the  marriage  customs  and  laws  of  the  Moslem  countries  now  under 
European  powers.  One  exception  is  a  case  which  was  before  the 
highest  Algerian  court.  A  woman  was  granted  a  divorce  from  her 
husband  on  the  ground  of  cruelty,  although  he  had  beaten  her  for 
blaspheming  the  Moslem  religion  (p.  124) 

The  introduction  contains  a  brief  discussion  of  the  relation  of  Mos- 
lem and  Roman  jurisprudence  and  a  concise  statement  as  to  the  rise 
of  the  four  schools  of  Moslem  law.  The  principles  governing  each 
school  are  given.  As  to  method  of  presentation  the  author  is  to  be 
congratulated  on  setting  forth  "the  positive  rules  in  arrangement  more 
nearly  corresponding  to  that  employed  in  western  systems  of  juris- 
prudence" than  in  following  the  plan  of  the  Moslem  jurists.  The 
following  quotation  shows  the  manner  in  which  he  brings  before  his 
reader  the  interpretation  of  the  different  schools  on  a  subject  under 
discussion.  "Marriage  by  Guardians. — The  marriage  of  infants  un- 
der age  or  of  insane  persons  by  their  guardians  (wali)  is  lawful,  the 
Prophet  having  declared  that  'marriage  is  committed  to  the  parental 
kindred!'  Malikites  interpret  this  to  mean  that  the  father  only  may 
contract  marriage  for  the  child,  while  the  Shafi'ites  extend  this  power 
to  the  grandfather.  The  Hanifites,  however,  argue  that  any  guar- 
dians may  validly  contract  marriage  for  their  wards,  'lest  an  oppor- 
tunity of  marrying  them  be  lost.'  " 

The  subject  matter  of  the  book  is  treated  under  three  heads, — 
Marriage,  The  Matrimonial  Relation,  and  Divorce.  Marriage  under 
Moslem  law  is  said  to  be  either  a  contract  or  a  sacrament  or  both. 
When  one  reaches  the  end  of  Dr.  Shukri's  book,  one  is  inclined  to 
doubt  if  it  is  either.  On  p.  I22,  we  find  a  startling  statement  that 
confirms  such  doubt.  "Although  the  Arabic  sources  assert  in  general 
terms  the  right  of  the  wife  to  claim  a  divorce  if  the  husband  fails 
to  fulfill  the  terms  of  the  marriage  contract  or  to  perform  the  obli- 
gations imposed  on  him  by  law,  I  have  been  unable  to  find  specific 
cases  in  which  divorce  has  been  granted  for  such  causes"  Under 
Marriage  we  find  the  discussion  of  such  subjects  as  impediments  to 
the  marriage  bond,  both  perpetual  and  temporary,  the  equality  of 
position,  the  marriage  contract  and  the  dower.  Sometimes  the  sub- 
jects cover  such  minute  details  as  to  make  the  matter  seem  humorous. 
Under  the  question  of  dower  it  is  stated  that  this  "must,  of  course, 
be  of  realizable  value;  dower  cannot  consist  of  fish  in  the  sea,  birds 
in  the  air,  or  runaway  slaves." 

The  treatment  of  the  subject  of  the  Matrimonial  Relation  deals 
with  the  topics  of  the  duties  of  the  husband,  duties  of  the  wife,  and 
marital  authority.  In  introducing  the  subject  of  the  rights  of  wom- 
en, we  read  that  Mohammed  put  women  "on  a  footing  of  equality 
with  men,  in  so  far  as  was  practicable"  (p.  66).  Are  we  to  inter- 
pret practicable  by  this  further  statement,  "the  Mohammedan  wom- 
an is  far  from  being  the  equal  of  her  spouse   (p.  87)   or  by  this,  "A 


BOOK  REVIEWS  i99 

husband  is  not  bound  to  furnish  his  wife  with  stockings  and  em- 
briodered  robe  in  connection  with  maintenance;  because  they  are 
not  necessary  except  when  going  out,  and  it  is  not  necessary  for  the 
husband  to  furnish  his  wife  with  means  for  going  out.  "Kazi  Khan" 

(P-  78)- 
The    compilation    of    the    laws    governing    divorce    introduces    the 

reader  to  subjects  that  seem  to  the  Western  mind  either  unchaste  or 
ludicrous  or  tediously  detailed  As  the  triple  divorce  necessitates 
the  marriage  of  the  woman  to  another  man  and  subsequent  divorce 
from  him  before  she  can  return  to  her  husband,  there  is  a  great 
dissertation  on  the  value  of  the  word  *'and."  "If  a  woman  says 
to  her  husband, 'Repudiate  me  and  repudiate  me  and  repudiate  me,' 
and  the  husband  answers:  *I  have  repudiated  thee,'  this  amounts  to  a 
triplerepudiation,  whether  the  man  so  meant  it  or  not.  But  if  the 
wife  had  said,  'Repudiate  me,  repudiate  me,  repudiate  me,'  without 
the  conjunction  'and'  and  the  husband  has  answered:  'I  have  repu- 
diated thee'  it  would  be  open  to  him  to  explain  whether  he  meant 
one  or  three  repudiations."  (p.  lOo).  However,  "if  a  man  says  to 
his  wife:  'As  often  as  you  repeat  a  good  sentence  you  are  repudiated,' 
and  she  says,  'Praise  be  to  God  and  there  is  no  God  but  God  and 
God  is  most  great,'  only  one  repudiation  takes  place;  but  if  she  were 
to  repeat  the  same  sentences  without  the  connective  'and*  there 
would  be  a  triple  repudiation"    (p.    loi). 

The  only  apology  for  Islam  that  the  author  offers  is  that  the  cus- 
toms such  as  are  found  in  the  Mohammedan  codes  of  marriage  and 
divorce  were  prevalent  among  the  Oriental  nations  of  antiquity. 
Ameer  Ali  is  quoted  as  upholding  polygamy  among  primitive  races. 
And  when  compared  with  some  notorious  mediaeval  Christians  the 
practice  of  Moslem  code  does  not  seem  to  him  uniquely  degraded. 
However,  the  author  is  far  from  orthodox  Islam  when  he  says,  "As 
a  statesman  he,  Mohammed,  recognized  polygamy  as  an  ethnic  con- 
dition, and  he  acted  wisely  in  not  interfering  with  it.  Any  radical 
innovation  in  this  direction  would  have  upset  the  entire  fabric  of 
Eastern  society,  and  might  have  been  fatal  to  Islam."  Therefore 
we  might  conclude  the  Koranic  passages  upholding  polygamy  arc 
not  the  words  of  an  inspired  prophet,  but  the  schemes  of  a  mere 
opportunist.  E.  E.  Elder. 

The  Downfall  of  the  Christian  Church  in  North  Africa.  By 
Dr.  L.  E.  Iselin.  Reprint  from  Der.  Evangelische  Missions- 
Magazin  191 8,  Nos.  2-4.  Basel,  1918.  Missionsbuchhand- 
lung  69  pp.  2.50  francs. 

The  author  has  already  published — in  der  Evangelisches  Missions- 
Magaztn  of  September,  191 5 — an  important  historical  treatise  en- 
titled: "Former  Christian  Ethiopia"  dealing  with  the  fate  of  the 
former  Christian  Church  in  Nubia  and  Sennar.  He  now  follows 
this  with  the  above  mentioned  pamphlet  in  which  he  gives  a  more 
extensive  account  of  ancient  Africa  from  Carthage  to  Morocco,  its 
Christian  culture,  its  Christian  churches,  their  decay  and  the  causes 
of  their  downfall  according  to  the  ancient  sources.  Concerning  the 
significance  and  the  results  of  his  work  the  author  expresses  himself 
in  a  preface  which  contains  some  ideas  of  great  importance  to  mis- 
sion workers.  In  the  light  of  the  mistakes  made  in  those  days  we 
realize  to  the  fullest  extent  the  unfortunate  effects  of  a  policy  which 


200  THE  MOSLEM  WORLD 

tries  to  combine  missionary  and  colonization  projects,  the  interests  of 
the  Kingdom  of  God  and  those  of  the  kingdoms  of  this  world;  and 
we  receive  the  impression  that  the  substance  of  our  faith  is  not  a 
matter  of  doctrine  but  of  a  life  lived  close  to  a  living  Saviour,  that 
the  Kingdom  of  God  does  not  consist  of  words  but  of  faith  and 
power.  We  also  see  that  the  various  beliefs  of  that  time,  the  Nes- 
torian,  Monophysite  and  Arian  communions,  were  not  small  sects  but 
creeds  of  as  great  importance  as  the  Catholic  and  Protestant  of  our 
own  day.  In  the  light  of  such  historical  facts  we  will  have  to  cease 
making  foolish  and  dogmatic  assertions  about  those  ancient  churches 
in  Egypt,  Abj^ssinia,  Syria,  etc.  of  which  even  missionary  workers  in 
their  blind  evangelical  zeal  were  guilty.  In  the  same  category  be- 
longs the  favorite  explanation  given  for  the  collapse  of  Oriental 
Christianity  before  the  onslaught  of  Islam  by  simply  calling  it  the 
"righteous  judgment  of  God." 

We  clearly  perceive  that  peoples  and  countries,  which  had  at  one 
time  been  won  over  to  Christianity  and  then  lost  again  through  the 
fault  or  complicity  of  Christendom,  present  almost  insurmountable 
difficulties  in  the  way  of  a  second  attempt  at  evangelization. 

We  will  also  have  to  revise  many  pre-conceived  opinions  in  re- 
gard to  the  relations  between  Christianity  and  Islam.  It  is  histori- 
cally untenable  that  Islam  had  an  inherent  mania  for  persecution,  or 
that  it  deliberately  set  out  to  exterminate  the  Christians.  In  the 
spread  of  Islam  we  must  recognize  not  merely  a  religious  movement 
but  also  a  second  migration  from  the  East  to  the  West. 

What  Christianity  lost  at  that  time  in  "extensity"  is  enormous,  for 
we  have  information  about  centers  of  Christian  activity  in  the  in- 
erior  of  China,  in  India  and  in  Java,  and  although  many  of  these 
districts  could  not  be  considered  much  more  than  occupied  mission 
fields,  still  the  loss  is  immeasurable.  And,  as  regards  the  intensity  of 
this  lost  Christianity,  the  author  reminds  us  that  it  was  just  North 
Africa  that  had  at  that  time  the  truest  evangelical  conception  of 
Christianity. 

The  chapters  in  which  the  author  develops  his  subject  begin  (Ch. 
2)  with  a  survey  of  the  appended — very  meagre — bibliography  of 
modern  books;  in  Ch.  3  there  follows  the  ethnological  situation  of 
ancient  Africa  wherein  special  emphasis  is  laid  on  the  fact  that  we 
are  mainly  concerned  here  with  the  white  peoples  of  the  Berber 
tribes.  Ch.  4  describes  the  "bridges"  leading  over  from  Southern 
Europe.  Ch.  5  treats  of  Africa  at  the  time  of  the  Romans.  At 
the  time  of  St.  Augustine  (died  430  A.  D.)  Africa  was  a  rich,  civil- 
ized. Christianized  country.  During  an  occupation  of  four  hundred 
years  a  thoroughly  Roman  Africa  had  arisen,  with  the  exception  of 
the  remote"  mountain  tribes.  Latin  was  both  the  official  and  the 
vernacular  language.  Chap.  6  describes  Christian  Africa.  As  early 
as  the  year  220  there  were  already  seventy  bishoprics  in  existence;  the 
Latin  translation  of  the  Bible  completed  during  the  second  century 
was  the  authority  for  the  entire  African  Church;  but  concerning  an 
evangelization  of  the  Berbers  we  hear  absolutely  nothing.  The 
Church  was  a  State  Church,  under  the  strict  government  of  the 
bishops.  One  of  them,  St.  Augustine,  became  of  inestimable  value 
to  the  religious  life  of  Christendom  during  medieval  and  Reformation 
times,  since  it  was  he  who  clearly  and  unmistakably  presented  again 
the  soul's  need  of  salvation  and  the  Divine  Grace  coming  to  its 
assistance — a  truth  which  had  become  more  or  less  obscured  at  that 
time;  of  course,  wc  must  adn  it  that  he  did   contribute   towards  the 


BOOK  REVIEWS  201 

imperialism  of  the  Church  by  his  placing  of  the  Church  as  the  divine 
state  in  juxtaposition  to  the  worldly  state. 

It  is  hard  to  form  a  correct  estimate  of  African  Christianity  as  re- 
gards its  religious  and  moral  strength.  Salvian  who  lived  at  the 
time  of  the  first  Vandal  invasion  gives  a  discouraging  picture  of  the 
moral  degradation  of  the  cities.  And  the  writings  of  St.  Augustine 
also  reflect  a  certain  hopelessness  in  regard  to  the  Christian  aspect 
of  the  national  life. 

In  Ch.  7  the  internal  quarrels  and  the  external  upheavals  of  the 
Church  are  discussed;  the  disorders  of  the  Donatists  and  the  invasion 
of  the  Vandals.  Donatism  was  at  first  merely  a  puritanic  tendency 
within  the  Church;  soon,  however,  a  non-conformist  movement  devel- 
oped therefrom  and  the  result  was  an  acute  crisis  and  an  open  state 
of  war.  Then  the  fanatic  Arian  Vandals  appeared  on  the  scene  as 
conquerors  (439)  and  started  a  terrible  persecution  against  the  ortho- 
dox Church.  This  lawless  state  of  affairs  which  was  driving  Africa 
towards  her  ruin  lasted  one  hundred  years  until  an  important  restora- 
tion took  place  during  the  reign  of  the  Byzantine  emperors,  533-709. 
These  established  strict  order;  new  churches  were  built  and  the  first 
attempt  was  made  at  united  missionary  effort — or  at  least  at  Chris- 
tian propaganda — among  the  native  pagan  races.  This  was  of 
course  done  in  the  name  of  the  Christian  state  as  a  political  measure. 
Conversion  in  the  deeper  sense  we  can  hardly  assume.  Gradually 
through  the  doctrinal  quarrels  between  the  Emperor  and  the  African 
bishops  ('monotheletic  dissensions")  it  came  to  a  declaration  of  inde- 
pendence on  Africa's  part.  But  now  the  usurper  Gregory  was  killed 
in  the  first  Arab  invasion  (647)  and  Africa  was  conquered  (703). 
However,  Christianity  was  not  exactly  exterminated  by  the  conquer- 
ors (Ch.  9)  ;  it  gradually  died  out  in  consequence  of  the  new  and 
unfavorable  conditions  and  because  of  its  lack  of  vital  power  (page 
44) — in  fact  the  communions  oppressed  by  the  Byzantine  Emperor 
Heraclios  at  first  welcomed  the  Arabs  as  deliverers.  Afterw^ards, 
however,  the  treatment  accorded  the  Christians  varied  greatly.  If 
it  happened  to  be  to  the  interest  of  the  rulers  to  treat  the  conquered 
Christians  kindly,  then  their  religious  observances  and  their  organiza- 
tion were  permitted  with  certain  limitations  But  gradually  the 
pressure  became  worse.  In  the  eleventh  cent  ry  we  find  only  five 
sees  mentioned.  Emigration,  apostasy  and  extermination  all  con- 
tributed towards  this  decay. 

The  relation  between  Christendom  and  the  Mohammedan  world 
had  undergone  change  in  the  course  of  the  centuries.  Through  the 
conquest  of  Granada  in  1492  the  fanaticism  of  the  Moslems,  es- 
pecially in  North  Africa,  was  thoroughly  aroused.  The  result  was 
the  predatory  warfare  of  the  Barbary  States.  Each  side  entertained 
the  most  peculiar  notions  concerning  the  other's  religion  (page  50)  — 
from  the  belles-lettres  and  the  travel  records  of  those  days  we  see 
that  they  looked  upon  each  other  as  pagans.  The  subtle  doctrinal 
distinctions  within  the  African  Ch  .stian  Church,  with  her  fixed  ritual, 
easily  succumbed  to  the  simple  creed  of  Islam.  To  retract  de- 
manded no  real  internal  change.  Then,  as  now,  Mohammedan  or- 
dained and  lay  missionaries  were  active.  For  we  must 
realize  that  Mohammedanism  is  essentially  a  missionary  relig- 
ion, a  fact  that  is  closely  connected  with  its  externality 
and  its  privately  perfor  led  devotions.  The  ancient  Chris- 
tian   consciousness    could      iOt    conceive    of    a    Christian     not    con- 


202  THE  MOSLEM  WORLD 

nected  with  the  Church.  For  lack  of  this  connection  many  converts 
and  whole  churches  went  to  ruin.  And  then  too  the  numerous  Ber- 
bers in  the  interior  were  never  really  Christianized,  although  here 
and  there  they  were  outwardly  converted  from  heathenism,  and  so 
afterwards  they  readily  succumbed  to  Mohammedanism  which  they 
interpeted  according  to  their  own  desires.  The  author  gives  us  an 
interesting  characterization  of  the   Berbers    (page   53    f.). 

The  Catholic  Church  spared  no  efforts  to  win  back  the  lost  terri- 
tory. Of  course  at  first  it  was  merely  a  "pastorization"  of  the  Chris- 
tians who  had  settled  or  were  captive  in  Africa.  As  a  result  of  the 
commercial  treaties  between  the  Romans  and  the  Moors  the  former 
had  stipulated  for  their  employees  in  the  coast  towns  that  they  be 
unmolested  in  the  practice  of  the  Christian  religion  and  that  they  be 
allowed  to  build  churches,  etc.  In  1403  the  Christian  population  of 
Tunis  was  estimated  at  100,000  souls.  All  these  were  shepherded  by 
the  Franciscan  and  Dominican  monks.  And  so  we  find  the  Domini- 
can Raymond  de  Pennaforta  in  1250  in  Tunis  establishing  an  Arabic 
school  in  the  monastery  of  his  order  and  writing  a  handbook  for 
missionaries.  But  the  one  who  worked  most  zealously  and  devotedly 
for  the  evangelization  of  North  Africa  was  the  Franciscan,  Raymond 
Lull,  during  the  years  from  1234  to  13 15.  In  Majorca  he  founded 
a  seminary  for  the  training  of  missionaries,  and  he  himself  labored 
as  a  missionary  in  Tunisia  and  in  Algeria  and  died  as  a  result  of  the 
ill-treatment  which  he  suffered  in  Bugia  because  of  his  courageous 
but  blind  zeal.  When,  under  the  rule  of  the  Turks,  there  com- 
menced on  a  large  scale  those  pillages  and  slave-raids  which  laid  waste 
Southern  Europe  during  nine  centuries,  the  misery  and  the  numbers 
of  the  Christian  slaves  in  Barbary  grew  to  enormous  proportions.  In 
view  of  the  powerlessness  of  the  Christian  states  it  was  particularly 
admirable  that  the  Christian  Church  attempted  both  to  alleviate  the 
lot  of  these  Christian  slaves  and  to  ransom  them.  Special  orders  were 
established  for  this  purpose  and  the  number  of  monks  who  volun- 
tarily went  into  slavery  in  order  thereby  to  ransom  a  slave  is  incal- 
culable. The  Church  tried  by  means  of  well  regulated  pastorization 
under  the  jurisdiction  of  Apostolic  vicars  in  Algeria  and  Tunisia  to 
prevent  the  slaves  from  going  over  to  Islam. 

Today,  of  course,  the  external  obstacles  in  the  way  of  the  second 
evangelization  are  practically  overcome,  but  now,  when  it  is  a  matter 
of  winning  over  the  soul  of  the  people,  Christianity  comes  up  against 
the  spiritual  power  of  Islam.  Conditions  are  much  the  same  today 
as  at  the  time  of  the  Roman  supremacy;  Europe  controls  the  North- 
ern coast  of  Africa  far  into  the  interior,  exploits  the  land  and  the 
people  and  sends  the  natives  as  auxiliary  troops  to  her  battlefields. 
Behind  the  political  problem  of  establishing  a  centralized  government 
there  looms  up  the  religious  problem.  If  we  wish  to  overcome  the 
might  of  Islam  we  can  do  so  only  through  the  power  of  a  broad  and 
tolerant  faith  and  the  impelling  force  of  a  burning  love,  which  are 
not  in  the  service  of  national  politics;  and  through  educational  work 
for  the  young.  For  this  work  the  evangelical  conception  of  Chris- 
tianity is  better  suited  than  the  Catholic,  and  the  Berber  element  will 
be  more  receptive  than  the  Arabic.  The  Catholic  Church  is  work- 
ing among  the  Berbers  through  various  agencies  (page  67),  and,  as 
individual  conversions  probably  seldom  occur,  she  resorts  to  mass 
baptisms.  Protestant  missions  were  started  in  1831,  first  by  the  Paris 
Missionary  Society,  and  then  by  a  newly  organized  North  Africa 
Mission  of  London  and  by  the  Swedish  Missionary  Society. 


BOOK  REVIEWS  203 

The  essay,  so  rich  in  facts  and  suggestions,  closes  with  a  sincere  and 
earnest  wish  for  the  speedy  coming  of  the  Kingdom  of  God  among 
the  peoples  of  North  Africa. 

Dr.  H.  Christ-Socin. 

Switzerland   in   the   East   Africa   War   Zone.    By  J.  H.  Briggs, 
Church  Missionary  Society,  London,  1918,  pp.  88,  i  sh.  3d.  net. 

An  inspiring  record  of  the  work  of  the  missionaries  of  the  Church 
Missionary  Society  in  German  East  Africa  and  their  sufferings  during 
the  war.  The  fifteen  short  chapters  are  well  written  and  the  score 
of  illustrations  excellent. 

The  War  and  the  Coming  Peace,   by  Morris  Jastrow,  Jr.,  Ph.  D., 
J.  B.  Lippincott  Company,  Philadelphia,  1918,  pp.  144,  $1.00  net. 

In  our  October  number  we  reviewed  "The  War  and  the  Bagdad 
Railway  by  the  same  author.  This  might  be  considered  a  postcript  to 
that  volume.  Professor  Jastrow,  carrying  out  the  spirit  of  his  other 
work  and  applying  himself  to  the  deeper  aspects  of  the  war,  the 
"undercurrents,"  as  he  puts  it,  shows  how  both  the  great  conflict  and 
the  coming  peace  must  be  looked  at  from  the  angle  of  the  moral 
issue. 

This  book  will  be  found  very  full  of  suggestion  and  stimulating  in 
its  thought,  illuminated  by  the  author's  wide  knowledge  of  the  great 
movements  of  the  world,  ancient  and  modern. 

It  is  written  for  those  whose  wish  to  pass  from  a  consideration  of 
surface  events  to  a  deeper  interpretation  of  the  great  conflict;  it  aims 
especially  to  provide  a  basis  on  which  a  structure  of  eudur'mg  peace 
can  be  erected. 

His  view  of  the  war  as  a  moral  issue  does  not  blind  him  to  the 
real  conditions  that  preceded  the  war.  "Taking  even  the  main  aim 
of  Pan-Germanism,"  he  says,  "The  control  of  the  highway  across 
Asia  Minor,  and  regarding  it  as  the  means  of  opening  up  an  im- 
portant region  of  the  world  that  has  in  the  past  played  so  notable  a 
part  in  the  world's  history,  and  we  must  in  a  just  and  impartial 
spirit  commend  not  only  the  main  project  of  a  railway  connecting  two 
poles  of  the  East,  a  Constantinople  and  Bagdad,  a  project  of  the  same 
large  vision  as  the  cutting  of  the  Suez  and  Panama  Canals,  but  we 
may  also  recognize  the  great  benefits  of  such  an  enterprise  towards 
the  resuscitation  of  the  ancient  East.  An  English  writer  has  re- 
cently called  the  project  *a  great  conception  worthy  of  a  scientific 
and  systematic  people.'  But  note  how  the  project  becomes  a  veri- 
table curse  the  moment  that  a  powerful  government  steps  behind  it 
and  attempts  to  use  it,  by  the  threat  of  militarism,  for  a  political  domi- 
nation of  the  East  which  necessarily  could  only  be  carried  out  at  the 
cost  of  the  interests  of  the  sister  nations  of  the  world." 

Z. 

Cyprus  Under  British  Rule.     By    Captain    C.    W.    J.    Orr.     192 
pp.  6s.  net.  Robert  Scott,  1918. 

The  chapters  of  most  general  interest  in  this  book  are  the  first 
and  second,  which  give  a  good  description  of  the  island  and  a  sketch 
of  its  history  up  to  the  British  occupation,  and  the.  last  two  which 
deal  with  the  Hellenic  idea  and  the  prospects  following  on  the  formal 


204  THE  MOSLEM  WORLD 

annexation  by  Britain  in  191 4.  The  intervening  bulk  of  the  book 
gives  an  orderly,  but  rather  ponderous,  account  of  the  political  tenure 
and  administration  from  the  Convention  of  1878  by  which  Turkey 
ceded  the  government  of  Cyprus  to  the  British  Crown  till  it  de- 
clared war  on  Britain  and  forfeited  the  island  finally.  Captain  Orr 
shows  how  the  development  of  Cyprus,  with  its  area  of  3,600  square 
miles  (much  less  than  Yorkshire)  and  population  of  275,000  was  ham- 
pered by  the  heavy  tribute  of  £140,000  annually  payable  to  Turkey. 
Nevertheless  it  prospered  greatly  under  British  rule,  despite  the  rather 
hidebound  traditions  of  the  Colonial  Office.  At  the  time  of  the 
Berlin  Conference,  during  which  the  Convention  was  concluded,  it 
had  seemed  as  if  Cyprus  were  a  necessary  outpost  of  empire  for  the 
guardianship  of  the  Suez  Canal,  but  the  subsequent  occupation  of 
Egypt  relegated  it  to  a  peaceful  backwater  of  politics.  Yet  even  here 
the  spirit  of  home  rule  has  developed  in  the  form  of  Henosis,  i.  e.  the 
aspiration  for  "union"  with  the  Greek  race  as  a  whole.  The  Chris- 
tian and  Greek  speaking  population  forms  about  three-fourths  of  the 
whole.  The  facts  that  they  are  a  mixed  race,  that  the  island  is  in  no 
sense  geographically  attached  to  Greece,  and  that  it  has  never  been 
under  the  rule  of  Greece  do  not  prevent  enthusiasm  for  Greek 
nationality.  The  situation  is  a  curious  inversion  of  that  in  Ireland, 
for  the  quarter  of  the  population  which  is  of  Turkish  race  protests 
with  might  and  main  against  Hellenization ;  but  they  are  the  less 
cultured  and  progressive  section.  Moreover,  they  have  been  thor- 
oughly loyal  to  British  rule,  even  when  war  with  Turkey  was  de- 
clared, and  when  permission  was  given  at  the  time  of  annexation  to 
retain  Ottoman  nationality,  not  a  single  Ottoman  Cypriot  applied  for 
it.  The  offer  of  Cyprus  to  Greece  in  1916  was  refused  under  the 
monarch  then  reigning.  Should  it  be  renewed  and  accepted  at  the 
Peace  Congress  we  trust  that  guarantees  will  be  taken  to  ensure 
the  fair  treatment  of  the  Cypriot  Moslems  who  have  been  faithful 
to  Britain  in  the  hour  of  her  danger. 

H.  U.  W.  Stanton. 

The  Near  East  From  Within,      by  *  *  *     Price  $1.50.  Pp.  265. 
E.  P.  Button  &  Co.,  New  York,  N.  Y.,  1918. 

This  is  a  new  and  cheap  edition  of  a  work  published  in  1916^  but 
contains  the  full  text  without  omissions  or  additions.  The  preface 
is  not  only  anonymous,  but  dateless.  We  gather,  however,  from  a 
statement  on  page  245  that  the  book  was  written  a  few  months 
after  the  deposition  of  Abbas- Hilmi  as  Khedive  of  Egypt.  The  pub- 
lishers announce  that  "this  astonishing  book  contains  the  revelations 
which  the  anonymous  author,  au  fait  with  the  innermost  secrets  of 
German  diplomacy,  has  felt  it  a  duty  to  the  world  to  make  concerning 
the  vast  underhand  machinations  of  the  Kaiser  with  regard  to  the 
Balkans,  Turkey  and  Egypt  during  the  past  twenty  years.  The  au- 
thor's account  of  the  imperial  intriguer's  sinister  activities  throws  into 
truer  focus  a  great  deal  that  has  hitherto  remained  confused  and 
explains  much  that  was  mysterious  and  obscure."  And  this  announce- 
ment is  borne  out  by  the  course  of  events,  and  as  additional  facts 
come  to  light.  That  the  author  writes  with  caution  as  well  as  with 
a  consciousness  of  full  knowledge,  is  evident.  In  trying  to  explain  the 
currents  and  counter-currents  of  diplomatic  intrigue,  he  warns  his 
readers  in  one  or  two  places  that  "it  is  quite  possible  I  shall  not  be 
altogether  accurate  in  my  details,  as  some  of  the  darker  shadows  of 


BOOK  REVIEWS  205 

the  intrigue  are  not  within  my  personal  knowledge/'  On  the  other 
hand,  he  is  able  to  assure  those  who  read  these  fascinating  chapters 
that  "whereas  they  perhaps  may  find  several  matters  to  shock  or  dis- 
tress, they  will  not  come  across  any  that  are  consciously  exaggerated." 
We  have  here,  therefore,  the  observations  of  a  diplomat  in  regard 
to  the  events  that  preceded  the  world-war  in  the  Balkans,  Turkey 
and  Egypt.  The  chapters  are  not  carefully  arranged  and  the  ma- 
terial often  overlaps.  We  learn  something  of  the  factors  by  which 
Teutonic  influence  gained  ground  so  rapidly  in  Turkey  after  the  re- 
turn of  Enver  Pasha  from  Germany.  The  author  tells  us  of  the 
prodigal  bribery  carried  on  long  before  the  war  to  win  over  the 
political  and  religious  leaders  of  Egypt  and  Turkey.  We  gain  new 
knowledge  of  affairs  in  Egypt  preceding  the  outbreak  of  hostilities. 
If  the  following  incident  is  historic  there  can  be  no  doubt  as  to  who 
was  responsible  for  the  war.  "When  Adrianople  fell,  it  is  public 
knowledge  that  the  German  Emperor  telegraphed  his  regrets  to  the 
Sultan.  What  is  not  known  outside  a  narrow  circle  of  higher  politi- 
cal agents  is  that  the  royal  telegram  also  included  the  following  as- 
tonishing sentiment:  *I  do  not  despair  that  within  a  very  short  time 
the  ancient  shrine  of  Islam  will  be  again  in  the  possession  of  Your 
Majesty,  and  Your  Majesty  may  rest  assured  that  I  shall  do  all 
that  lies  within  my  power  in  order  that  it  should  be  so.'  To  explain 
that  the  telegram  was  in  cipher  is  unnecessary."  The  author  makes 
clear  the  reasons  for  the  attack  on  the  Suez  Canal  and  the  conse- 
quent importance  of  German  intrigue  in  Egypt.  The  purpose  was  to 
throttle  the  British  Empire.  "Marshal  Liman  von  Sanders  had 
been  given  special  instructions  regarding  that  part  of  the  campaign 
which  aimed  at  the  Suez  Canal,  and  a  number  of  German  staff  offi- 
cers had  been  put  at  his  disposal  for  the  purpose  of  organizing  a  raid 
on  Egyptian  territory  at  the  first  opportune  moment.  Meanwhile  it 
was  settled  that,  in  the  case  of  a  victorious  war,  the  Khedive  Abbas 
Hilmi  was  to  accept  a  half  Turkish,  half-German  garrison,  and  that 
Egypt)  though  nominally  still  under  the  suzerainty  of  the  Sultan,  was 
to  be  given  a  German  administration  and  to  become  to  all  purposes 
practically  a  German  colony." 

This  volume  deserves  a  place  on  the  missionary  shelf  of  war  books 
that  deal  with  the  Near  East,  especially  as  the  index  is  complete  and 
the  list  of  illustrations  includes  all  the  rulers,  good,  bad  and  indiffer- 
ent, who  played  their  part  in  the  struggle  of  war  in  the  Near  East. 

Z. 

"The  Red  Rugs  of  Tarsus."     By  Helen  Davenport  Gibbons,     194- 
pp.     Price  $1.25  Net,  The  Century  Co.,  New  York. 

This  personal  narrative  of  experiences  during  the  Armenian  massacre 
at  Adana  and  Tarsus  in  1909  is  not  a  new  story,  but  it  is  told  in  a 
fascinating  style  that  grips  the  reader.  It's  dedication  to  the  memory 
of  Major  Doughty- Wylie  who  was  killed  in  action  on  Gallipoli  Penin- 
sula April  29th,  1 91 5,  and  who  is  also  one  of  the  heroes  of  the  story, 
brings  it  up  to  date. 

The  story  is  in  the  form  of  letters  written  to  Mrs.  Gibbons'  mother. 
Although  the  maternal  instinct  seems  emphasized  to  excess  in  every 
chapter,  the  letters  are  real  and  "scrappie."  The  baby,  born  when  the 
streets  ran  red  with  blood  and  five  thousand  terrified  Armenians  took 
refuge  in  the  mission  school,  is  very  dear  to  the  reader  as  well  as  to 
her  parents. 


2o6  THE  MOSLEM  WORLD 

Mrs.  Gibbons  is  outspoken  regarding  the  cause  of  the  Armenian 
massacres;  she  says:  "We  see  how  heartless  and  synical  the  diplomats 
of  Europe  arc.  They  are  the  cause,  as  much  as  the  Turks,  of  the 
massacres.  Not  the  foreign  policy  of  Russia  or  Germany  alone.  As 
far  as  the  Near  East  goes,  the  Great  Powers  are  equally  guilty.  No 
distinction  can  be  drawn  between  them.  In  England,  in  Germany 
and  in  France,  people  do  not  care,  because  these  horrible  things  are 
done  so  far  away.  They  are  indifferent  to  their  own  solemn  treaty 
obligations.  They  are  ignorant  of  the  cruelty  and  wickedness  of  the 
selfish  policy  pursued  by  the  men  to  whom  they  entrust  their  foreign 
affairs.  I  see  blood  when  I  think  of  what  is  called  "European  diplo- 
macy"— for  blood  is  there,  blood  shed  before  your  eyes." 

z. 

Bagdad  son  chemin  de  fcr,  son  importance,  son  avenir,  par  Emile 
Auble,  ingenieur,  conseiller  du  Commerce  exterieur  de  la  France. 
Preface  de  Edouard  Herriot,  scnateur,  maire  de  Lyon,  ministre 
des  Travaux  publics  et  du  Ravitaillement  =  Un  vol.  in  =:  8* 
de  1 68  pj^es.   ,  Edition  et  Librairie,  40,  rue  de  Seine,  Paris. 

A  complete  account  of  Bagdad  and  the  importance  of  this  city  as  a 
future  centre  of  trade  and  agriculture  because  of  the  Bagdad  railway. 
Based  on  all  the  sources  available  before  the  war,  but  making  no  men- 
tion of  the  British  occupation  and  the  marvelous  changes  that  have 
since  taken  place.  Valuable  for  its  careful  statistics  of  population,  etc 
and  resume  of  recent  Turkish  history. 

L'Orient  Mediterraneen. 

Impressions  et  essais  sur  quelques  elements 
due  probleme  actuei,  par  Andre  Duboscq.  Un  volume  in- 16  de 
168  pages,  librairie  academique  Perrin  et  Cie.     Paris,   191 8. 

The  author  spent  some  time  in  the  Orient  as  newspaper  corres- 
pondent and  deals  with  the  old  problem  of  races,  religions  and  poli- 
tics, especially  as  this  was  effected  by  the  regime  of  the  Committee  of 
Union  and  Progress.  He  thinks  the  only  noble  race  "courageous,  gen- 
erous and  with  a  future"  is  the  Arab.  He  favors  the  internationali- 
zation of  Palestine  and  comments  on  the  result  after  the  war  of  Mos- 
lem loyalty  to  France  in  North  Africa,  in  her  future  contacts  with 
Asia  Minor  and  Syria.  This  book  was  also  written  before  the  sur- 
render of  Turkey  and  the  armistice. 

The  History  of  Aryan  Rule  in  India  from  the  Earliest  Times 
to  the  Death  of  Akbar.  By  E.  B.  Havell.  Published  by  G.  G. 
Harrap,  London,   1918,   151-PP.  5sh.  4^- 

This  is  a  well  gotten  up  and  well  printed  book  with  many  beautiful 
photographs  of  contemporary  architecture;  extending  over  5CX)  pages. 
It  is  written  by  one  who  is  evidently  an  enthusiast  on  Aryan  culture. 
Whether  he  has  not  suffered  his  own  predilections  to  carry  him  away 
from  what  should  be  the  impartial  judicial  view  of  a  historian  seems 
at  times  a  question. 

It  opens  with  a  chapter  on  the  Aryan  as  contrasted  with  the  non- 
Aryan;  in  which  some  will  see  exaggeration  in  the  description  of  the 
Indo-Aryan  civilization  as  being  not  only  hoary  in  its  antiquity  beyond 
Others,  but  also  ideal   in   its  democratic   regime.     We   may  be   quite 


BOOK  REVIEWS  207 

wrong,  but  the  author  has  a  way  of  assuming  inferences  from  very 
sh'ght  evidence  and  of  drawing  an  ideal  picture  which  must  be  reliable 
in  every  detail;  e.  g.  he  says  that  **the  Aryan  system  was  an  organiza- 
tion based  upon  sanitary  laws  and  inspired  by  high  ethical  and  social 
ideals — not  under  the  compulsion  of  an  aristocrat  or  of  a  ruling  caste, 
but  by  a  clear  perception  of  mutual  advantage  and  a  voluntary  recog- 
nition of  superior  intellectual  leadership."  He  again  describes  it  as  an 
"Arcadian  scheme  of  life,  delightful  in  its  primitive  simplicity."  He 
admits,  however,  that,  while  the  Aryans  were  a  far  more  cultured 
race,  yet  their  organization  resembled  in  some  respects  that  of  the 
Dravidian  robber-tribes.  It  is  rather  a  one-sided  inference  to  say 
that  "the  higher  spiritual  intelligence  of  the  Aryan,  with  its  great  con- 
structive genius,  gradually  welded  together  Dravidian  civilization  with 
its  own."  May  not  the  influence,  for  all  we  know,  have  come  from 
the  other  side? 

In  the  following  chapter,  with  the  same  underlying  partiality  for 
the  Aryans,  over  all  other  civilization,  he  describes  the  results  of  the 
short-lived  Alexandrian  Empire,  the  rise  and  spread  of  Buddhism,  and 
the  Mauryan  Empire. 

The  value  of  the  book  lies  chiefly  in  its  interpretation  of  Indian 
Art  as  throwing  light  upon  Aryan  history,  and  therefore  the  first 
half  is  the  more  interesting.  The  second  part  which  is  devoted  to 
Mohammedan  dynasties  and  wars  becomes  more  historical,  in  the  ordi- 
nary sense  of  the  term.  But  here  also  the  author's  predilection  for 
Aryans  over  all  others  is  manifest  in  refusing  to  allow  any  initiative 
or  original  genius  to  the  Mohammedans  and  in  making  hardly  any 
allusion  to  the  more  flagrantly  debasing  side  of  Aryan  art.  The  so- 
called  Pathan  architecture  he  laughs  to  scorn  again  and  again,  nor  will 
he  give  any  quarter  to  its  advocate,  Mr.  Fergusson.  It  is  not  till 
we  reach  Akbar  that  he  seems  to  have  fully  regained  his  equanimity. 
His  description  of  that  wonderful  ruler's  character  and  of  his  tolerant 
dominion  form  a  most  fitting  conclusion  to  this  valuable  book.  We 
wish  we  were  more  competent  to  enter  into  the  question  of  Art 
involved;  but  we  cannot  help  feeling  that  Moham.medan  talent  is 
made  to  play  too  much  a  secondary  and  a  purely  imitative  part  in 
the  supposed  vastly  superior  and  more  original  Art  of  the  Aryans. 

G. 


The  Rage  of  Islam,    by  Yonan  H.  Shahbaz.     The  Roger  Williams 
Press,  Philadelphia,  1918;  181  pp.;  price  $1.50  net. 

In  a  brief  introduction  by  Dr.  Robert  Stuart  MacArthur,  the 
president  of  the  Baptist  World  Alliance,  we  learn  that  the  author 
was  educated  in  a  Persian  mission  school,  then  came  to  New  York 
and  was  received  and  trained  by  the  Baptists  for  mission  work  in 
Persia.  He  passed  through  trial  and  persecution  during  the  period 
of  the  massacres  of  191 4  on  the  Urumian  plain,  and  this  book  tells  the 
story  of  his  thrilling  experiences.  The  coming  of  Russia  into  northern 
Persia,  the  German  propaganda,  the  coming  storm  and  outburst  of 
persecution  are  vividly  portrayed  and  conclude  with  the  story  of  his 
escape.  Because  of  the  title  of  the  book  we  are  the  more  glad  to 
have  his  testimony  that:  "By  no  means  all  the  Mohammedans  were 
parties  to  the  evil  deeds  I  have  enumerated.  Indeed  it  gives  me  much 
satisfaction  to  record  that  thousands  of  our  people  found  refuge  with 
Moslems  who  were  friendly.     The  number  of  good  Samaritans  is  not 


2o8       ^  THE  MOSLEM  WORLD 

small.     Most  of  them  were  humble  villagers,  but  some  were  of  the 
highest  caste." 

Mr.  Shahbaz  uses  no  literary  art,  but  tells  a  plain  tale  that  grips 
because  of  his  sincerity  of  purpose.  We  regret  there  is  not  a  stronger 
note  of  appeal  to  carry  the  Gospel  to  those  who  in  fanatic  ignorance 
persecuted  the  followers  of  Christ. 

Syria  and  the  Holy  Land,  by  Sir  George  Adam  Smith,  London :  Hod- 
der  &  Stoughton,  1918.     pp.  56.     Two  colored  maps.     is.  net. 

A  sketch  of  the  main  geographical  features  of  Syria  and  its  position  in 
the  Near  East,  illustrated  by  two  valuable  maps  colored  to  show  the  oro- 
graphical  features.  In  about  fifty  pages  the  author  deals  not  only 
with  the  geographical  facts  concerning  this  land,  but  touches  upon 
the  past  history,  economic  questions,  colonization,  and  the  political 
questions  concerned  with  Palestine's  future.  A  vast  aomunt  of  infor- 
mation, by  a  recognized  authority,  and  as  timely  in  appearance  as  it  is 
cheap  in  price. 

Beneath  the  Surface  and  Other  Stories,    by    Gerald    Warrc    Cor- 
nish, London,   191 8;  Grant  Richard's  Ltd,  6s.  net. 

Of  these  seven  mystical  stories  by  an  army  officer  killed  in  the  bat- 
tle of  the  Somme,  only  the  last  and  longest  (which  lends  its  title  to 
the  volume)  touches  the  Near  East.  It  tells  of  a  Danish  explorer, 
weird  in  his  method  and  uncanny  in  his  knowledge,  who  goes  out  as 
an  agent  for  the  German  Government  to  Mesopotamia.  There  arc 
vivid  pictures  of  the  Euphrates  region  from  Aleppo  to  the  "Garden  of 
Eden."  Lund,  the  explorer,  disappears  in  the  marshes  of  Kurna, 
swallowed  up  or  transported  when  in  sight  of  the  Tree  of  Life!  It  is 
all  very  clever  and  impossible  and  amusing. 

Z. 

The  Christian  Approach  to  Islam.    By  James  L.  Barton.       The 
Pils:rim  Press,  Boston,  pp.  316.     Price  $1.25  net. 

The  substance  of  this  book  was  delivered  as  a  course  of  lectures  at 
the  College  of  Missions  in  Indianapolis,  Ind.,  and  the  book  is  a  most 
valuable  summary  of  all  that  has  appeared  in  recent  years  regarding  the 
relations  of  Islam  and  Christianity  to  the  problem  of  evangelization. 
The  title  is  a  strange  misnomer  and  should  evidently  be  "The  Chris- 
tian Approach  to  the  Moslem"  or  "Moslems."  The  first  part  deals 
with  the  external  history  of  Mohammedanism,  its  rise,  spread,  strength 
and  the  effect  of  the  great  War  upon  Pan-Islamism.  The  second  part 
treats  of  Mohamedanism  as  a  religion.  One  of  the  chapters  in  this 
section,  namely  that  on  the  Mohammedan  conception  of  God,  is  by 
Prof.  George  A.  Barton  of  Bryn  Mawr  College.  The  third  part  is 
on  Missions,  and  is  the  more  valuable  because  the  ground  was  not 
covered  satisfactorily  in  any  previous  manual.  That  the  book  is  timely, 
the  author  an  expert  on  the  subject,  both  by  actual  contact  with  Mos- 
lems and  in  his  experience  as  Secretary  of  the  American  Board  work 
in  Turkey,  and  that  therefore  the  contents  are  fascinating,  goes  without 
saying.  The  author  quotes  with  approval  the  definition  of  Islam  given 
by  Prof.  Margoliouth,  page  7:  "A  Moslem  or  Mohammedan  is,  then, 
one  who  accepts  the  proposition  that  an  Arab  named  Mohammed  or 
Ahmad,  son  of  Abdallah,  of  the  City  Meccah,  in  Central  Arabia,  who 


BOOK  REVIEWS  209 

died  A.  D.  632,  is  the  main  and  indeed  ultimate  channel  whereby  the 
will  of  the  Creator  of  the  world  has  been  revealed  to  mankind.'*  The 
sketch  of  the  early  attempts  to  Christianize  Moslems  and  the  history 
of  modern  efforts  is  admirable.  Many  authorities  are  quoted  to  show 
that  there  is  a  decidedly  changed  attitude  toward  Christianity  and  that 
many  of  the  earlier  difficulties  of  approach  have  been  wholly  removed. 
Dr.  Barton  therefore  pleads  for  a  new  attitude  on  the  part  of  the 
Christian  messenger,  lest  we  prejudice  the  minds  of  our  hearers.  He 
mentions  a  number  of  points  in  doctrine  and  life  where  wise  missionary 
policy  would  lead  to  a  change  of  method.  Among  them,  for  example 
is  the  use  of  fermented  wine  at  the  sacraments..  We  have  nowhere 
seen  a  more  comprehensive  and  statesmanlike  presentation  of  an  adequate 
program  for  the  evangelization  of  the  whole  Moslem  world  than  is 
contained  in  the  last  two  chapters. 

It  is  with  regret  that  we  note  a  number  of  inaccuracies,  some  of  them 
minor,  but  others  apt  to  lead  the  reader  far  astray.  The  best  authors 
do  not  agree  that  there  are  40,000,000  Moslems  in  Central  and  South 
Africa  (page  11).  The  Sudan  is  not  the  only  country  where  Great 
Britain  has  put  restrictions  upon  missionaries  in  Africa  (page  13). 
"Kalid"  (page  35)  should  be  *'Khalid."  A  number  of  Koran  refer- 
ences on  page  54  are  confused.  The  curtains  of  the  Kaaba  are  pro- 
vided annually  by  Egypt  and  not  by  Turkey  (page  61).  There  is 
only  one — and  that  incorrect — reference  to  the  Arabian  Mission  of  the 
Reformed  Church  (page  223).  ''El-Moquattam"  (page  189)  is  not  a 
Moslem  paper,  but  it  is  the  leading  Syrian  semi-Government  organ  of 
Cairo.  All  these  minor  errors,  however,  are  insignificant  in  view  of 
the  splendid  survey  of  the  whole  field  and  the  heroic  attitude  of  the 
writer.  He  believes  that  a  new  day  has  dawned  for  the  work  of  mis- 
sions and  that  we  should  use  boldness  in  proclaiming  our  message. 
The  Armenian  massacres,  with  all  their  horror,  are  shown  to  be  not 
without  promise  of  blessing.  "Many  Christian  young  women,"  he 
writes,  *'from  among  the  Armenians  young  women  who  had  been  trained 
in  the  mission  schools,  strong  of  mind  and  of  faith,  were  forcibly  taken 
into  Mohammedan  harems.  The  whole  world  stands  aghast  at  the 
cruelty  and  horror  of  this  treatment.  Undoubtedly,  many  of  these, 
when  the  war  is  over,  will  be  restored  to  their  friends,  but  unques- 
tionably many  will  remain  throughout  their  lives  in  a  Moslem  home. 
It  is  inevitable  that  into  that  home  these  women  will  carry  the  leaven 
of  their  Christian  training,  thinking  and  living."  In  this  way  one  of 
the  most  terrible  events  in  modern  history  may  yet  prove  one  of  the 
divine  means  for  implanting  the  Spirit  of  Christ  in  the  strongholds  of 
Islam. 

S.    M.    ZWEMER. 

i 

From  Egyptian  Rubbish  Heaps.  By  James  Hope  Moulton,  Charles 
H.  Kelly,  191 8,  London.     2/6  Net- 173  Pages. 

As  the  sub-title  tells  us,  this  little  book  consists  of  "five  popular  lec- 
tures on  the  New  Testament"  and  a  sermon.  The  lectures  delivered 
at  Northfield  are  packed  with  such  information  and  inspiration  as  only 
an  expert  in  the  subject  could  make  popular.  The  evidence  from 
Egyptian  papyri  regarding  the  style  of  New  Testament  Greek  "the 
common  vernacular  of  daily  life,"  is  a  valuable  side  light  on  the  present 
day  missionary  problem  of  classical  vs.  vulgar  Arabic.  Portions  of 
the  book  might  well  be  translated  into  the  leading  vernaculars.  There 


2IO  THE  MOSLEM  WORLD 

is  great  need  of  a  popular  work  on  "How  we  got  our  Arabic  Bible." 
We  commend  the  book.     It  is  well  worth  buying  and  reading. 

The  Life  of  God  in  the  Life  of  His  World  — ^James    Morris 
Whiton,   Ph.  D.     Funk  and  Wagnalls  Co,   1918.     Pp.  69. 

This  little  book  is  admirable  in  that  the  author  has  the  courage 
to  attempt  another  presentation  of  the  doctrine  of  the  Trinity — 
the  outcome,  however,  is  not  as  happy  as  the  attempt  is  courageous. 

To  designate  the  accepted  view  as  "barren,"  "a  shibboleth,"  "a 
field  long  fallow  and  unfruitful,"  and  similar  discrediting  terms  with 
which   anti-trinitarian   literature   is  loaded   is  unfortunate. 

The  presentation  of  the  old  doctrine  is  a  caricature  instead  of  a 
calm  characterization  when  it  is  affirmed  that  "the  formative  idea 
of  God  in  ancient  theology  views  him  as  governing  the  world  from  a 
heavenly  throne  afar,  and  thence  conducting  his  relation  to  the 
world  in  judgment  and  in  mercy  by  intermediaries,  especially  by  the 
second  and  third  'Persons*  of  the  'Trinity',  sent  by  him,  the  first 
'Person'  on  a  mission  of  grace  to  men — this  idea  of  God  as  separate 
from  his  world,  and  acting  on  it  from  the  outside,  still  reigns  in 
Roman  and  Greek  Catholicism,  and  is  perpetuated  in  much  of 
Protestant    hymnody    and    liturgy." 

Such  a  statement  is  not  in  harmony  with  the  facts  of  doctrinal 
history.  Who  would  be  willing  to  affirm  that  the  above  view  was 
held  by  Athanasius  and  Augustine  and  the  other  church  Fathers, 
of  Anselm  and  Aquinas  of  the  Middle  Ages,  of  Luther  and  Calvin 
of  the  Reformation,  of  Jonathan  Edwards,  Philips  Brooks  and  others 
of  modern  times? 

Instead  of  the  doctrine  that  "There  are  three  persons  in  the 
Godhead;  the  Father,  the  Son,  and  the  Holy  Ghost;  and  these 
three  are  one  God,  the  same  in  substance,  equal  in  power  and 
glory,"  embodied  in  all  the  creeds  of  Christendom,  the  following 
is  offered: 

"The  Life  is  one,  its  distinct  phases  are  three — transcendent  in  its 
self-existent  paternal  Source;  immanent  in  its  filial  universe  of  col- 
lective being,  individualized  in  each  separate  life  with  its  peculiar 
endowment  of  power  for  the  communication  of  good  from  each  to 
others. 

"These  three  phases  of  the  activity  of  God,  apparent  to  reflective 
thought,  are  as  real  as  he  is  real.  *  *  *  Reflection  will  recognize  just 
these  three  phases  of  Life,  these  essential  three,  and  no  more,  as  a 
real   Trinity." 

It  is  evident  that  with  such  a  biological  treatment  of  the  subject, 
the  doctrine  of  the  Scriptures  disappears.  It  is  not  new.  It  is  an 
old  error  in  a  new  dress.  With  every  shift  of  thought  in  science 
and   philosophy   it   reappears. 

Is  it  not  high  time  for  some  American  theological  writers  and 
teachers  to  break  with  Germany  where  the  art  of  emptying  the 
gospel  of  its  real  content  has  been  practiced   for  half  a  century? 

There  are  yet  too  many  pro-Germans  among  theologians  both  in 
England  and  America. 

E.  J.  Blekkink. 

Some  Aspects  of  Ancient  Arabic  Poetry,  as  illustrated  by  a  Little- 
known    Anthology,    by    Sir    Charles    J.    Lyall,    K.C.S.I.,D.Litt., 


BOOK  REVIEWS  211 

London,    published    by    Humphrey    Milford,    Oxford    University 
Press,  pp.  16.     One  Shilling  and  Sixpence  net  191 8. 

This  paper  is  of  interest  to  the  student  of  Islam  because  it  describes 
one  of  the  sources  of  our  knowledge  of  conditions  in  early  Arabia. 
The  Anthology  referred  to  by  Professor  Lyall  is  the  Mufaddaliyat, 

**A1-Mufaddal,  according  to  the  concurrent  testimony  of  Arabian 
scholars,  was  one  of  the  most  learned  men  of  his  time,  and  conspicuous 
for  his  scrupulous  honesty  in  the  transmission  of  texts  and  traditions. 
He  lived  partly  under  the  'Umayyad  and  partly  under  the  'Abbasid 
dynasty.  The  collection  is  drawn  from  those  poets  whose  surviving 
works  were  not  sufficiently  numerous  to  have  been,  at  the  time  when 
al-Mufaddal  wrote,  collected  into  a  diwan,  and  therefore  contains 
no  pieces  from  the  most  celebrated  authors  whose  compositions  had 
already  been  brought  together,  such  as  Imra'  al-Qais,  Tarafah, 
Zuhair,  Labid,  'Antarah,  an-Nabighah,  and  al-A'sha.  Notwithstand- 
ing this,  it  includes  some  very  famous  poems,  and  a  few  of  supreme 
excellence.  The  total  of  the  pieces  contained  in  it  is,  as  already 
mentioned,  126,  the  work  of  sixty-seven  poets,  of  whom  only  six 
were  born  under  Islam,  fourteen  adhered  to  the  new  faith  after 
reaching  maturity,  and  the  remaining  forty-seven  lived  and  died  in 
the  period  called  by  Muslims  the  Ignorance,  that  is,  before  the 
general  acceptance  of  the  preaching  of  the  Prophet  in  Arabia.  The 
great  body  of  the  collection  is,  therefore,  a  picture  of  the  conditions 
of  life  in  that  country  before  the  great  change  wrought  by  the 
mission  of  Muhammad,  while  of  the  compositions  attributed  to  the 
converts  the  greater  part  was  composed  before  they  embraced  the 
new  faith.  Both  the  few  pieces  by  authors  born  Muslims  and  those 
of  the  converts  which  were  certainly  produced  after  they  had  accepted 
Islam  are  remarkable  for  the  very  small  difference  effected  by 
nominal  conversion.  Typical  cases  are  a  long  poem  by  'Abd  allah  son  or 
at-Tabib,  a  poet  of  Tamim,  dated  about  the  time  of  the  great  battle 
of  al-Qadisiyah  (near  al-Kufah)  ;  in  the  year  15  of  the  Hi j rah 
(A.  D.  637),  some  four  or  five  years  after  the  opet  had  become 
a  believer,  which  contains  a  minute  description  of  a  wine-party, 
given  with  much  zest  and  enjoyment." 

Die  auf  Sudarabien  beziiglichen  Angaben  Nashwan's  im  Shams 
al  'ulum  gesammelt,  alphabetisch  geordnet  und  herausgegeben  von 
'Azimuddin   Ahmad   Ph.    D.,   E.   J.   W.   Gibb   Memorial    Series. 
Pp.  xxiv,  44,  164.     E.  J.  Brill  Leyden,  191 6. 

It  can  only  be  as  a  pathetic  survival  from  days  when  the  repub- 
lic of  letters  and  scholarship  was  world  wide  that  this  book;  evi- 
dently the  Ph.  D.  thesis  of  a  British  Indian  Muslim  in  a  German 
University,  should  have  been  published  by  an  English  Foundation 
two  years  after  the  war  began.  And  we  may  be  sure  that  it  will 
be  long  before  the  British  government  will  again  encourage  and 
subsidize  such  studies  by  native  Indians.  As  for  the  subject,  all  who 
began  their  Arabic  with  Socin's  grammar  will  remember  the  tale 
of  Bilqis  and  of  her  castles  and  kingdom  in  South  Arabia.  It 
is  of  that  realm  of  fable  that  the  extracts  here  given  from  Nashwan's 
great  Lexicon  treat.  A  land  of  real  history,  as  western  explorers 
and  students  have  proved  it  to  be,  it  became  a  land  of  mysterv 
almost  for  the  earliest  Muslim  generations.  It  is  one  of  the  strangest 
breaks  in  the  continuity  of  history  that  so  quickly  the  true  tradition. 


aia  THE  MOSLEM  WORLD 

should  have  been  forgotten  or  inextricably  confused  with  later 
fabrications.  The  ability  to  read  the  not  difficult  character  of  the 
multitudinous  inscriptions  was  lost,  and  absurd  and  confident  guesses 
took  the  place  of  decipherment.  Yet,  from  time  to  time,  authors  of 
Himyaritic  descent  tried  to  vindicate  the  vanished  glories  of 
their  native  land,  and  this  Nashwan,  who  died  A.D.  1117,  is  one 
of  the  last  of  these.  With  him  the  Muslim  legend  has  overcome 
historical  tradition  and  his  statements  can  be  accepted  only  after 
verification.  That  can  be  done  through  the  use  of  earlier  writers 
such  as  the  far  more  trustworthy  Hamdani  who  died  A.  D.  945. 
The  extracts  given  here  cover  historical  and  genealogical  notices 
and  all  the  lexicographical  material  that  is  especially  Himyaritic 
— words,  idioms,  usages,  proverbs,  etc.  There  are  43  pp.  of  care- 
ful indices  and  44  of  highly  compressed  commentary.  The  editor 
has  evidently  given  much  labour  to  the  construction  of  the  text 
which  is  based  on  the  excellent  MS  in  thhe  Escurial,  and  his  book 
will  undoubtedly  be  useful.  It  is  curious  that  he,  a  native  Indian, 
should  ignore  the  text  and  translation  of  Nashwan's  great  Qasida 
published  in  1879  by  Major  W.  F.  Prideaux  at  Lahore  under  the 
title,  "The  Lay  of  the  Himyarites."  It  is  not  a  great  poem;  but  it 
is  full  of  the  dignified  melancholy  of  Ecclesiastes  and  gives  a  clue 
to  the  so  frequent  compound  of  the  native  fatalism  of  Arab  thought 
with  Muslim  piety. 

D.  B.  Macdonald. 

The  Road  Ahead.       Elizabeth  Wilson,  M.  A.,  The  Woman's  Press. 
New   York,    191 8.     $1.00. 

This  is  the  biography  of  Miss  Frances  C.  Gage,  sometime  Y.  W. 
C.  A.  secretary  in  the  states  of  Oregon,  Washington,  Idaho  and 
Montana,  but  more  widely  known  as  a  missionary  of  the  Amer- 
ican Board  at  Marsovan,  Asia  Minor  and  the  first  travelling  secre- 
tary of  the  Y.  W.  C.  A.  in  the  Turkish  Empire.  It  is  a  story 
"filled  with  romance,  while  it  portrays  the  life  of  a  great,  big 
heart  balanced  by  a  rare  intelligence,  in  a  women  not  physically 
strong  but  with  the  courage  and  consecration  of  the  apostles  of  old." 
The  last  chapter  in  the  book,  "The  last  stretch"  of  the  road  is  the 
best,  and  with  a  feeling  of  deep  loss  one  realizes  that  Frances  Gage 
will  not  be  there  to  welcome  the  pioneers  afresh  in  Turkey,  whether 
of  missionary,  work  or  under  the  Y.  W.  C.  A.  committee.  She 
laid  down  her  life  for  Turkish  women  in  June,  191 7,  and  now 
passes  on  the  appeal  to  others  of  a  woman  in  one  of  those  cities 
of  the  interior:  "Don't  you  see?  Didn't  you  see  it  in  our  faces? 
We  are  hungry  for  something.  We  have  had  almost  nothing  in  our 
lives  but  working  and  slaving.  No  one  thought  of  anything  for  us 
but  that.  We  want  something  worth  while  to  do.  We  are  only 
waiting  to  be  led." 

E.  I.  M.  B. 

Asia  Minor.    Walter  A.  Hawley.  London :  John  Lane.     The  Bodley 
Head.     1918.     pp.  330.     12/6. 

This  is  an  attractively  written  and  well  illustrated  record  of  a 
tour  from  Constantinople  through  the  famous  cities  of  Asia  Minor. 
A  brief  introductory  chapter  concerns  the  physiography  and  history 
of  the  country,  and  then  the  reader  is  carried  along  in  leisurely 
fashion  to  see  things  as  they  arc   around   the    cities  of    "the   Seven 


BOOK  REVIEWS  213 

Churches  of  Asia."  The  author  has  an  eye  for  detail  and  is 
especially  interesting  in  his  observation  of  the  industries,  that  of 
making  rugs  in  particular,  the  every  day  life  and  the  religious 
observances  of  the  people.  He  is  concerned  vi^ith  today  and  to- 
morrovi^,  rather  than  with  yesterday,  and  his  book  will  particularly 
interest  those  going  to  Asia  Minor  for  the  first  time.  The  charm 
of  the  country  is  conveyed  with  a  lingering  spell  and  a  true  belief 
in  the  possibilities  of  the  Turkish  race.  "When  the  hopes  of  the 
most  enlightened  of  its  own  people  shall  have  been  realized;  when 
the  women  are  accorded  the  same  rights  as  men,  and  the  men  have 
risen  to  a  higher  plane  of  thought,  and  of  mechanical  and  intellectual 
efficiency;  when  just  laws  regulate  their  rights  among  one  another 
and  when  a  stable  government  insures  the  enforcement  of  those 
laws  and  the  performance  of  its  own  obligations,  Asia  Minor  will 
occupy  a  far  more  important  place  in  the  world's  activities  than 
it  has  enjoyed  for  many  centuries." 

E.  I.  M.  B. 

Nigeria,  the  Unknown.  A  Missionary  Study  Text  Book.  London: 
Church  Missionary  Society.     1918.     56  pp.     1/ — 

This  textbook  has  been  compiled  from  annual  letters  from  C.  M.  S. 
missionaries  and  articles  in  "the  Church  Missionary  Review"  and 
"the  Western  Equatorial  Africa  Diocesan  Magazine,"  and  presents 
very  much  information  in  compact  and  attractive  form  which  other- 
wise it  is  difficult  to  find.  Chapter  I.,  "Empire  Builders  in  Nigeria' 
gives  the  story  of  the  beginning  of  British  rule  over  what  is  as  a  matter 
of  fact  'with  the  exception  of  India,  the  largest,  most  populous  and 
most  wealthy  of  the  tropical  dominions  of  King  George  V,'  its  area 
equaling  that  of  Germany,  Holland  and  Italy  combined.  Chapter 
II  and  III  describe  the  country  and  the  people  at  home — Chapter  IV 
deals  with  "the  Coming  of  Islam  and  of  Christianity"  and  boldly 
attacks  the  problem  of  the  attraction  of  Islam  for  the  natives.  "There 
is  no  vital  clement  in  their  faith,  nothing  even  to  arouse  much  interest, 
hence  they  never  think  about  it  for  themselves.  They  fulfil  all  the 
claims  of  their  religion  by  simply  conforming  to  the  outward  rites 
and  ceremonies  when  necessary,  and  by  the  mechanical  repetition  of 
a  few  formal  prayers  at  appointed  times  in  Arabic,  which  to  the 
Nigeria  is  'an  unknown  tongue.'  *  *  *  Is  it  any  wonder  that 
the  religion  of  the  majority  in  the  Northern  Provinces  can  only 
be  described  as  simple  paganism  with  a  veneer  of  Mohammedanism." 
(P.  35)  In  Chapter  V  ''the  Present  Opportunity"  is  well  focussed, 
and  Chapter  VI  gives  good  hopes  for  the  future  of  "The  Growth  of 
the  Church  in  Nigeria,"  if  only  reinforcements  can  be  secured. 

E.  I.  M.  B. 

"Examples  of  the  Various  Turki  Dialects":  Turki  Text,  with 
English  Translation.  By  G.  W.  Hunter,  China  Inland  Mission, 
Tihwafu  Sin:  1918.  Price  6/-,  or  i  Dollar  50  Cents.  Part  I., 
Qazaq  Turki  Text  &  Translation:  Part  II.,  Tartar  Turki  Text 
with  Translation  etc. : 

Mr.  Hunter  has  given  us  in  this  little  volume  a  work  which  is  of 
much  interest  to  the  student  of  the  Turki  dialects  of  which  it  treats. 
The  widespread  Turkish  language  in  its  several  varieties  is  not  only 
one  of  the  easiest  of  tongues  to  acquire,  but  is  also  so  mathematically 
constructed,  so  to  speak,  that  it  is  of  very  deep  interest  to  the  philolo- 


214        ^>  THE  MOSLEM  WORLD 

gist  apart  altogether  from  the  historian,  the  politician,  the  merchant  and 
the  missionary.  Ottoman  Turkish  is,  of  course,  the  dialect  most  com- 
monly studied  in  Europe,  because  it  alone  poscssses  a  comparatively 
large  literature  in  prose  and  verse.  It  is  also  the  only  dialect  of  the 
Turkish  stock  which  can  properly  be  called  cultivated.  But,  un- 
fortunately, it  is  at  the  same  time  the  poorest  of  all  these  dialects, 
having  dropped  not  a  few  of  its  genuine  words,  and  even  roots,  and 
replaced  them  with  Arabic  and  Persian  vocables,  which  have  com- 
bined to  denaturalise  the  tongue  to  a  great  extent,  and  to  render  it 
hybrid.  The  fact  that  most  of  the  Arabic'  words  introduced  into 
Ottoman  Turkish  are  mispronounced,  and  that  many  of  them  are 
used  in  an  incorrect  sense,  just  as  is  the  case  with  the  Latin  element 
in  English,  renders  it  far  from  being  a  genuine  representative  of  the 
Turko-Tatar  family.  Even  the  case-terminations  in  Ottoman  Turk- 
ish are  in  large  measure  worn  away,  thus  making  the  dialect  rather 
more  like  an  Inflexional  than  an  Agglutinative  language.  Though  not 
entirely  free  from  such  sources  of  linguistic  corruption,  yet  the  dia- 
lects with  which  this  book  deals  are  far  purer  in  vocabulai7  and 
more  genuinely  Turkish.  There  exist  many  admirable  grammars 
and  dictionaries  of  the  Ottoman  tongue,  whereas  the  means  of  ob- 
taining an  acquaintance  with  the  other  Turkish  dialects  are  few  and 
far  between.  Hence  Mr.  Hunter  has  deserved  the  gratitude  of  all 
true  students  of  language  by  compiling  the  present  volume. 

Mr.  Hunter  is  evidently  one  of  those  men  who  define  difficulties  as 
"things  to  be  overcome."  He  has  no  Turkish,  or  even  English,  type. 
Nor  has  he  even  a  Lithographic  Press  at  his  disposal.  Yet  he  ven- 
tures to  produce  such  books  as  this,  and  another*  which  we  reviewed 
some  time  ago  in  the  Moslem  World,  by  Mimeograph,  though  this 
has  involved  his  writing  out  the  whole  text  of  the  English  version 
himself,  and  getting  the  original  Turki  texts  copied  by  his  Turkish 
teacher  'Abdu'  ul  Qadir.  We  cannot  congratulate  the  latter  upon 
the  neatness  of  his  calligraphy;  at  least  it  hardly  equals  the  script 
of  a  Persian  Khush-Navis.  It  is  a  pity  that  the  Turki  text  is  con- 
sequently so  faint  and  indistinct  in  many  places  that  the  beginner 
will  often  find  himself  in  difficulties  which  are  quite  unnecessary,  and 
which  would  not  exist  were  the  Turki  characters  clear  and  unmis- 
takable. This  detracts  very  seriously  from  the  value  of  the  book. 
The  Arabic  character  is  not  well  adapted  to  any  tongue  but  a  Semi- 
tic language,  and  is  in  particular  ill  suited  to  Turkish.  The  Cen- 
tral Asian  dialects  of  this  stock  endeavour,  with  some  degree  of  suc- 
cess, to  obviate  this  defect  by  employing  the  weak  letters  as  vowels, 
making  little  or  no  distinction  between  long  and  short  vowel  sounds. 
But  when  the  printing  is  faint  and  many  of  the  diacritical  dots  are 
indistinct  or  altogether  invisible,  the  text  sometimes  puzzles  even  the 
scholar,  and  is  almost  useless  to  the  beginner.  All  this  would  be 
avoided,  at  least  in  great  measure,  were  some  of  our  readers  to  sup- 
ply Mr.  Hunter  either  with  a  small  lithographic  Press  or  a  hand- 
press  with  Arabic  (Persian  nasta-liq  preferably)  and  English  type. 
Considering  the  trouble  he  has  taken  to  assist  students  of  the  Central 
Asian  dialects  of  Turki,  he  has  richly  deserved  such  encouragement, 
even  from  a  secular  and  merely  literary  point  of  view.  Or,  if  this 
cannot  be  done,  doubtless  he  could  get  the  rough  iron  framework  of 
a  lithographic  press  made  locally  as  the  present  Reviewer  did  in  the 
centre  of  Persia  years  ago),  and  would  require  only  the  proper 
lithographic  stones  to  be  sent  out  to  him.     He  has  proved  his  ability 

•"Mohammedan    Narratives   of   the   Prophets." 


BOOK  REVIEWS  215 

to  make  the  best  possible  use  of  them.     We  wish  him,  however,   a 
better  scribe  in  the  Arabic  character. 

It  would  greatly  assist  the  students  whom  he  desires  to  help,  if 
Mr.  Hunter  would  publish  some  Turki  texts  in  both  the  Arabic 
alphabet  and  in  an  exact  transcription.  The  latter  is  needed  to  en- 
able the  student  to  pronounce  the  words  properly.  Without  it,  he 
cannot  know  the  vowels,  as  the  Turki  (Arabic)  character  does  not  dis- 
tinguish 0  from  u,  i  from  e,  aiy  and  so  on.  A  vocabulary  might  also 
be  added  with  advantage.  Many  of  the  words  that  occur  in  these 
texts  are  not  to  be  found  even  in  Zenker's  large  dictionary.  To  the 
advanced  student  it  is  both  pleasant  and  profitable,  no  doubt,  to  dis- 
cover for  himself  that  in  the  Qazaq  dialect  /  takes  the  place  of  Y 
(jiib)  e.  g.  for  the  Ottoman  Turkish  yeib,  "having  eaten";  Q  some- 
times that  of  KH^  and  S  that  of  SH,  so  that  the  word  ydkhshi 
(good),  so  often  used  in  Persian  and  Eastern  Turki,  becomes  jdqsi; 
SH  that  of  CHj  as  in  shardgh  for  chardghj  (lamp)  ;  B  that  of  V  as  in 
Btrmak  for  Vermek  (to  give)^  bik  for  pek  (very)  ;  and  to  find 
that  dar,  der,  sometimes  represents  the  lar,  ler,  of  the  Plural.  But 
the  beginner,  though  he  may  be  quite  familiar  with  such  words  as 
ydd  (memory)  vilj  (year),  yttrmi  (twenty),  ye' it  (a  young  man, 
yoq  (no),  yildiz  (star),  de*il  (not),  may  nevertheless  fail  to  recog- 
nise the  well-known  words  in  the  Qazaq  forms  jdt,  jil,  jirmeh,  jegit, 
joq,  jolduZj  togulj  respectively,  or  to  perceive  that  jdqindar  means 
yeqlnler  (used  in  the  Qazaq  form  for  "neighbors."  If  the  essentials 
of  Qazaq  Grammar  were  added,  the  beginner  would  find  his  pro- 
gress very  much  forwarded. 

Mr.  Hunter's  translation  into  English  is  in  general  very  fairly 
correct  though  not  in  every  case  as  exact  as  a  beginner  would  per- 
haps wish  for.  To  render  musdfir  by  "gentleman"  instead  of  "trav- 
eler" (p.  31,  Part  I.)  is  perhaps  rather  free,  and  iki  iich  jil  means 
"for  two  or  three  years,"  not  "for  three  years."  Slight  slips  in  the 
English,  such  as  "village"  and  "lamed"  (for  "lambed")  are  of  less 
importance.  Some  of  the  Stories  in  Part  I  are  probably  of  genuine 
Turki  origin,  but  that  entitled  "The  Grandfather  and  the  Grand- 
son" became  first  known  to  the  present  Reviewer  many  years  ago  in 
a  Russian  book,  though  it  does  not  therefore  necessarily  follow  that 
it  is  originally  Russian.  The  same  thing  applies  to  the  tale  of  "The 
Two  Huntsmen"  and  perhaps  to  other  stories  in  Part  II,  which  is 
a  much  better  known  dialect  (the  Tatar  or  Eastern  Turki)  than  the 
Qazaq  Part  III  gives  us  a  few  specimens  of  the  Uzbek  Turki  dialect, 
including  a  portion  of  an  Uzbek  translation  of  a  Persian  tale.  Then 
comes  an  example  of  Kirghese  Turki  and  a  few  idiomatic  sentences 
in  it.  Part  IV  contains  a  passage  in  the  Ottoman  (Stambul)  Turkish, 
which  it  was  hardly  worth  printing  here  as  it  is  so  so  well  known.  Then 
we  come  to  a  part  of  the  Astrakhan  Turkish  version  of  St.  John's 
Gospel  (Ch.  IV.,  w.  39-45),  and  the  first  ten  verses  of  the  Book 
of  Genesis  from  the  B.  &  F.  B.  Society's  Azarbaijan  Turki  Jirans- 
lation.  Unfortunately  the  text  and  translation  in  these  concluding 
portions  of  Mr.  Hunter's  valuable  book  are  paged  somewhat  con- 
fusedly. The  book  contains  a  few  notes  on  Turki  customs  and 
idioms,  all  of  which  are  interesting,  but  its  main  value  consists  in  the 
comparison  which  it  enables  the  student  to  institute  between  the  dia- 
lects, and  the  encouragement  it  affords  him  to  pursue  his  studies  with 
the  hope  of  ultimately  being  able  to  proclaim  the  Gospel  in  more 
than  one  of  the  dialects  of  the  Turki  family. 

W.   St.  Clair  Tisdall. 


2i6  THE  MOSLEM  WORLD 

Modem  Sons  of  the  Pharaohs.     A  Study    of    the    Manners    and 

Customs  of  the  Copts  of  Egypt.  By  S.   H.  Leeder,  author  of 

"Veiled  Mysteries  of  Egypt"  etc.  Hodder  and  Stoughton.     Pp. 
355.     London,  1918. 

Whatever  else  we  may  think  of  this  book,  no  one  is  likely  to  call 
it  uninteresting.  With  considerable  opportunity  for  first-hand  in- 
formation and  acquisitive  powers  of  more  than  ordinary  keenness, 
the  author  reproduces  for  us  in  a  vivid,  racy  style  what  he  has  seen 
and  heard. 

His  graphic  pictures  of  the  country  and  the  life  of  the  people  in 
the  first  part  of  the  book  make  delightful  reading.  He  has  evidently 
enjoyed  to  the  full  his  visits  to  Egypt  and  his  contact  with  the  people 
and  writes  con  amorc.  In  the  main  his  descriptions  are  accurate  and 
true  to  life.  Special  mention  should  be  made  of  his  description  of 
Oriental   hospitality,   for  which  too  much  can  never  be  said. 

At  times,  however,  he  gives  rather  free  rein  to  his  imagination,  as 
when  he  refers  to  the  scents  even  along  a  country  road  as  "a  para- 
dise of  delicate  perfumes,"  the  sounds  from  the  fields  giving  "an 
impression  of  natural  gladness  unlike  that  of  any  other  country," 
and  the  "constant  industry,"  regularity  and  orderliness  of  the  poorer 
foiks,  and  the  "daintiness  and  self-restraint"  of  their  table-manners. 
There  is  occasionally  a  tell-tale  slip  in  the  use  of  Arabic  words  or  in 
statement  of  fact,  as  for  example  his  remark  that  "today  the  army 
service  causes  no  wailing,"  which  betrays  the  limitations  of  his  knowl- 
edge and  observation.  While  he  had  stayed  in  out-of-the-way  ham- 
lets, as  he  tells  us,  it  is  evident  that  he  always  stayed  at  the  well- 
to-do  houses,  and  so  saw  the  life  from  the  most  favorable  angle. 

But  he  has  a  keen  appreciation  of  that  which  is  best  in  the  Egyptian 
character,  and  is  to  be  commended  for  his  efiort  to  discover  this  and 
make  it  known.  And  his  frankness  in  dealing  with  certain  moral  and 
spiritual  conditions  shows  that  he  does  not  mean  to  conceal  the  truth. 
His  frequent  comparisons  of  modern  customs  and  characteristics  with 
those  of  ancient  Egypt  are  interesting  and  suggestive. 

The  second  half  of  the  volume  deals  particularly  with  the  Coptic 
Church — the  church  buildings,  the  worship,  the  fasts,  the  beliefs  of 
the  Copts  and  some  of  the  leading  ecclesiastics  being  described  in 
detail.  It  stirs  up  afresh  one's  sense  of  reverence  for  this  old 
Church  with  its  great  history,  for  its  tenacity  and  patient  endurance 
through  centuries  of  suffering.  Yet  despite  the  fact  of  not  a  few 
admirable  characters  among  the  present  membership  of  the  Church 
and  hopeful  movements  toward  better  things,  it  is  painfully  patent 
that  ignorance,  superstition,  formalism,  disorder,  perverted  beliefs  and 
practices  and  absence  of  spiritual  life  are  generally  characteristic  of 
the  Church  still.  The  author  makes  no  attempt  to  hide  these  un- 
happy conditions.  He  speaks  both  of  the  need  for  reform  and  the 
difficulty  of  accomplishing  it.  For  it  is  most  needed  among  the 
clergy  themselves.  The  higher  orders  are  always  sons  of  the  monas- 
tery, and  if  any  reform  gains  a  footing,  as  the  author  well  says, 
there  is  "an  ever-recurring  set-back  as  one  desert  recluse  succeeds 
another  as  Patriach  or  bishop." 

But  while  the  author  shows  a  candor  and  critical  discrimination  m 
dealing  with  his  subject  not  found  in  some  other  writers  on  the 
Coptic  Church,  he  too  displays  occasionally  a  generous  credulity  that 
speaks  more  for  his  heart  than  for  his  head.  This  appears  especially 
in  his  lengthy  chapter  on  the  Bishop  of  the  Fayoum,  though  in  other 


BOOK  REVIEWS  217 

places  also  he  seems  ready  to  give  credence  to  popular  legends  which 
plainly  could  never  stand  the  light  of  intelligent  criticism. 

He  makes  no  effort  to  deal  at  any  length  with  the  missionary  work 
that  has  been  done  among  the  Copts — a  grave  defect  surely  in  a  book 
aiming  at  anything  like  a  comprehensive  study  of  the  subject.  For 
as  he  himself  says,  the  adherents  of  the  Evangelical  Church  (he  in- 
correctly says,  of  the  Mission)  are  "numbered  by  tens  of  thousands," 
and  include  "many  of  the  richest  and  most  influential  Copts  in  the 
country."  Indeed,  he  seems  to  have  given  little  attention  to  the 
mission  work.  And  the  few  impressions  he  records  here  and  there 
throughout  the  book  show  that  he  failed  to  comprehend  its  aim  and 
significance.  He  does  have  words  of  praise  for  the  general  benefits 
conferred  by  the  schools  and  hospitals  of  the  American  Mission.  But 
he  regards  the  aim  of  the  work  as  "proselytising,"  the  winning  of  the 
Copts  to  Presbyterianism,  a  form  of  worship  which  he  thinks  will 
never  afford  satisfaction  to  Oriental  people.  Had  he  taken  pains  to 
investigate  the  matter,  he  would  have  found  that  both  the  aim  and  the 
result  of  the  mission  work  are  other  and  far  deeper  than  he  thought. 
While  he  has  no  remedy  to  suggest  for  the  serious  ills  he  depicts  in 
the  Coptic  Church,  he  seems  ready  to  discard  without  examination 
the  remedy  of  the  missionaries.  In  giving  a  very  appreciative  account 
of  some  village  preaching  by  "one  of  the  daughters  of  a  leading  Cop- 
tic family"  of  Assiut  whom  he  accompanied  one  day,  and  of  which  he 
says  nothing  had  ever  impressed  him  more,  he  seems  not  to  be  aware 
of  the  fact  that  she  and  her  work  were  the  fruit  of  mission  effort. 

The  last  chapter,  dealing  with  the  political  aspirations  and  rights  of 
the  Copts,  is  perhaps  the  most  valuable  section  of  the  book.  He  deals 
frankly  with  the  British  distrust  of  the  Copt  and  the  reasons  for  it, 
and  then  attempts  to  state  fairly  the  Coptic  claims  which  he  regards 
as  sincere  and  in  the  main  reasonable.  His  paragraphs  on  the  Sab- 
bath question  are  especially  strong  and  to  the  point,  and  it  is  to  be 
hoped  will  have  their  influence  in  official  quarters.  I  fear  he  is 
going  too  far  when  he  says  that  "the  Copts  have  an  intense  feeling 
of  reverence  for  the  Sabbath,"  but  this  does  not  affect  the  question 
of  their  needs  and  rights.  He  well  characterizes  the  attitude  of  the 
British  government  in  this  matter  as  one  of  "callous  expediency,"  and 
convincingly  shows  the  fallacy  of  the  arguments  by  which  it  is  de- 
fended. 

There  is  more  or  less  repetition  in  the  volume,  and  a  certain  lack 
of  sequence  often.  The  author  is  an  impressional  rather  than  a  logical 
writer.  He  is  better  at  compiling  than  sifting  material.  And  his 
statements,  as  we  have  seen,  are  not  always  free  from  error.  But  he 
is  never  dull,  and  his  volume  is  a  useful  contribution  to  an  inter- 
esting and  important  subject.  The  book  was  written  just  before  the 
outbreak  of  the  war  in  1914,  but  was  not  published  till  191 8.  It  is 
illustrated  with  numerous  attractive  and  well-selected  pictures,  in- 
cluding one  of  the  author  in  Egyptian  garb.  There  is  a  brief  biblio- 
graphy and  an  excellent  index. 

James  G.   Hunt. 


SURVEY  OF  RECENT  PERIODICALS 

I.  GENERAL. 

What  to  Read  About  the  Near  East.  Charles  H.  Levcrmorc. 
"The  World  Court."     New  York.     October,  1918. 

A  select  list  of  books  and  articles  of  recent  date  in  English  on  the 
subject  of  the  peoples  of  the  Turkish  Empire  and  more  particularly  of 
Asia  Minor.  (Many  of  the  best  authorities  are  necessarily  excluded 
as  their  works  are  not  published  in  English.) 

In  the  Persian  Oilfields.  Edmund  Candler.  "Cornhill  Maga- 
zine."    London.     Jan.,    1919. 

A  description  of  Maidan-i-Naftun,  "a  bit  of  Staffordshire  translated 
into  the  most  uncompromising  wifderness  and  all  in  a  way  solid  Bakh- 
tiari,  every  brick  and  stone  the  product  of  the  tableland,  all  power 
proceeding  from  the  wells." 

II.  SOURCES  OF  ISLAM  IN  ARABIA. 

IIL  HISTORY  OF  ISLAM  UP  TILL  RECENT  TIMES. 

The  National  Problem  in  Arabia.  Edmond  Power.  S.  J.,  D.  Litt., 
"Studies."  Sept.,  191 8.  Educational  Company  of  Ireland.  89 
Talbot  Street,  Dublin. 

An  interesting  historical  account  of  the  different  parts  of  Arabia, 
the  conclusion  of  which  is  somewhat  doubtful  of  the  rise  of  any 
national  power  in  Arabia  because  domestic  feuds  and  the  ambitions 
of  rival  chiefs  will  be  a  constant  source  of  internal  strife.  They  will 
probably  in  the  future,  as  in  the  past,  prevail  over  national  solidarity 
and  facilitate  the  entry  of  the  foreigner. 

The  Psychology  of  the  Turk.  H.  Morgenthau.  "Land  and  Wa- 
ter," Nov.  7th,  1918. 

Explanation  of  the  psychological  tendencies  which  produced  the 
present  Turkish  attitude  towards  modern  Western  civilization. 

IV.  KORAN,  TRADITIONS,  THEOLOGY,  ETC. 

V.  RELIGIOUS  AND  SOCIAL  LIFE  IN  ISLAM. 

Mosque  of  Saiyid  Ahmed  of  Bedawi,  Tana.  Miss  J.  S.  Jameson. 
"Egypt  General  Mission  News."     London.     Nov.-Dec,   191 8. 

Description  of  the  visit  of  two  lady  visitors. 

The  Future  of  Woman  in  the  Near  East.  Mary  Caroline  Holmes. 
"The  World  Court."     October,  1918. 
Urges  the  necessity  of  developing  self-support. 

218 


SURVEY  OF  PERIODICALS  219 

The  Future  of  Women  in  the  Near  East.     Basil  Mathews.  "The 
Women's  International  Quarterly."     London.  Jan.,   1919. 

Describes  "that  often  concealed  but  continuously  aggressive  move- 
ment of  ideas  and  forces  moving  from  the  West  into  the  Near  East  and 
especially  disintegrating  the  life  of  the  harem." 

VI.     POLITICAL  RELATIONSHIPS. 

The  English  in  the  Levant.     Horatio   F.    Brown.     "Quarterly  Re- 
view" October,  191 8. 
The  early  history  of  the  English  in  the  Mediterranean  from  1553- 
1603,  based  on  State  papers,   Richard  Hakluyt's   "Navigations,  Voy- 
ages and  Discoveries  of  the  English  Nation,"  etc. 

Islam  and  the  Future  of  Constantinople.    Sir    Valentine    Chirol. 
"The  Fortnightly  Review."     London.     January,  1919. 

"One  of  the  great  opportunities  created  by  the  War  for  the  better- 
ment of  the  world  will  be  lost,  if  the  Peace  Conference  fails  to  put 
an  end  to  Turkish  rule  in  Constantinople.  If  Constantinople  remains 
the  seat  of  Turkish  Government,  the  new  Turkish  state  that  emerges 
from  the  Peace  Conference  will  be  fatally  handicapped ....  No  worse 
service  could  be  done  to  the  simple,  honest  and  industrious  Turkish 
population  of  Asia  Minor,  who  have  suffered  in  the  past  no  less  than 
their  Christian  fellow  subjects  from  Constantinople's  misgovernment 
and  themselves  detest  it." 

A  much  larger  issue  is  the  elimination  of  the  pernicious  influence  which 
the  Ottoman  sovereignty  has  exercised  over  the  whole  world  of  Islam. 

America  is  suggested  as  the  power  to  be  entrusted  with  the  task 
of  preserving  the  freedom  of  Constantinople  and  the  Straits.  "No  na- 
tion has  worked  harder  for  the  diffusion  of  Western  knowledge  and 
Western  civilization  in  Turkey  and  in  the  Turkish  capital.  America 
can  lay  her  hands  at  once  on  men  who  know  the  country  and  who  arc 
respected  and  trusted  by  all." 

St.   Sophia.    "Church  Times."    London.    Dec.  6th,  1918. 

A  plea  that  Constantinople  "shall  cease  to  be  a  Turkish  city  even  by 
a  political  fiction  and  revert  to  its  true  character  as  a  Greek  city.  It 
IS  as  unreasonable  to  withhold  Constantinople  from  the  Greeks  on  the 
ground  of  the  religious  sentiments  of  Mussulmans  in  India  as  it  would 
have  been  to  deny  the  Italians  entry  into  Rome  on  the  ground  of  the 
religious  sentiments  of  Papists  in  North  and  South  America. 

The  New  Palestine.    "Manchester    Guardian."     Nov.    25,   26,    27, 

1918. 

I.  Agriculture  the  key  to  its  prosperity.  2.  Benefits  wrought 
by  the  occupation  3.  Setting  the  law  on  its  feet  By  Father 
Waggett. 

Effective  Distribution  of  Relief  Funds  in  Turkey.  W.  W.  Pect. 

The   American   Committee   for   Armenian   and    Syrian   Relief. 

Charles  V.  Vickery. 
Condition  and  Needs  of  the  Refugees  in  the  Caucasus.  Thomas 

Dann  Heald. 


220  THE  MOSLEM  WORLD 

Economic  Possibilities  of  Rehabilitation.  Wm.  H.  Hall. 
Rehabilitation  through  Education.       Sam.  T.  Dutton. 

A  series  of  articles  in  "The  World  Court,"  New  York,  dealing 
with  the  work  of  the  American  Committee  for  Armenian  and  Syrian 
Relief.    October,  1918. 

The  Future  of  Armenia.      Viscount  Bryce.    "The  Contemporary  Re- 
view."   London.    Dec.  191 8. 

"Turkish  rule  over  populations  of  a  different  faith  must  cease  for 
ever  to  exist.  Turkish  government  has  been  the  very  worst  which  has 
afflicted  humanity  during  the  last  fifteen  centuries.  .  .  .  That 
which  we  should  work  for  is  a  Christian  Armenian  State,  of  course 
with  full  protection  assured  to  every  race  and  every  religion." 

Reconstruction  will  take  15-20  years.  In  the  meantime  there  must 
be  a  Protecting  Power  to  undertake  the  functions  of  policing  the  Kurds, 
constructing  lines  of  communication,  seeing  fairplay  between  the  dif- 
ferent communities.  America  has  often  been  designated  as  the  most 
obvious  power  for  this.  It  is  "not  only  impartial  but  also  disinterested, 
having  no  possible  self -regarding  ambitions  of  its  own.  Its  missionaries 
have  already  won  the  gratitude  and  affection  of  the  Christian  popula- 
tion. They  are  the  only  foreigners  who  really  know  the  country  and 
understand  the  people.  ...  If  however  the  American  govern- 
ment and  people  should  hesitate  to  make  such  a  departure  from  the 
long  settled  lines  of  their  policy,  nothing  remains  except  to  find  some 
European  power  or  group  of  powers  for  the  task." 


Armenia  and  the  Settlement.  Rev.  Harold  Buxton.     "The  East  and 
the  West."     London.    Jan.  1919. 

An  account  of  the  work  of  the  British  Armenian  Relief  Committees 
and  an  outline  of  future  policy  for  the  restoration  of  the  Armenian 
nation,  which  follows  that  of  Viscount  Bryce. 

The  New  Armenia.     "The  Times."    Dec.  31,  1918. 

An  outline  of  Armenia's  claims  to  be  brought  forward  at  the  Peace 
Conference  and  given  on  the  authority  of  Boghos  Nubar  Pasha,  the 
son  of  the  famous  Nubar  Pasha,  Prime  Minister  of  Egypt.  He  is  sup- 
ported by  all  Armenian  parties,  whatever  the  country  of  their  adoption. 
"Armenia  asks  for  a  mandatory — one  of  the  Entente  Powers,  England, 
France  or  America,  to  stand  sponsor  for  her  while  she  is  developing 
strength.  .  .  .  The  delegation  believe  that  in  a  few  years  the 
new  Armenia  will  be  capable  of  self-government  and  self-defense. 

What  the  Young  Turk  Government  Stands  For.  Charles  T. 

Riggs.    "The  World  Court."    New  York.    Oct.  1918. 

A  well  balanced  review,  written  before  the  Armistice,  of  the  external 
and  internal  policy  of  the  Young  Turk  Government  in  so  far  as  there 
is  one. 

VIL     HISTORY  OF  MOHAMMEDAN  MISSIONS. 

VIIL  APOLOGETIC. 


♦^ 


.V 


The  Moslem  World 

VOL.  IX  JULY,  1919  NO.  3 


EDITORIAL 


On  Taking  Hold  of  God. 

This  number  of  our  Quarterly  points  out  the  glory 
of  the  impossible  and  puts  the  reader  face  to  face  with 
the  spiritual  problems  of  the  missionary  task.  Whether 
at  Meshed  or  in  the  Philippine  Islands,  whether  in 
Arabia  or  among  the  Chinese  Moslems,  the  missionary 
faces  the  same  call  of  duty — to  transfer  allegiance  from 
Mohammed  to  Christ.  Here  human  wisdom  and 
strength  fail.     We  are  cast  back  upon  God. 

In  spite  of  the  tremendous  changes,  political,  social 
and  economic  which  will  doubtless  result  from  the 
redistribution  or  reconstruction  of  empires  in  the  Near 
East,  the  intellectual  and  spiritual  forces  of  Islam  will 
rally  and  strengthen  their  grip  on  the  minds  and  hearts 
of  its  followers.  Any  reliance  on  political  prestige  or 
racial  superiority  would  be  a  costly  blunder.  At  a 
time  like  this  we  are  forcibly  reminded  of  the  words 
spoken  by  Jeremiah: 

''Thus  saith  the  Lord;  Cursed  be  the  man  that  trusteth  in  man, 
and  maketh  flesh  his  arm,  and  whose  heart  departeth  from  the  Tvord. 

"For  he  shall  be  like  the  heath  in  the  desert,  and  shall  not  see 
when  good  cometh;  but  shall  inhabit  the  parched  places  in  the 
wilderness,  in  a  salt  land  and  not  inhabited. 

''Blessed  is  the  man  that  trusteth  in  the  Lord,  and  whose  hope  the 
Lord  is. 

"For  he  shall  be  as  a  tree  planted  by  the  waters,  and  that 
spreadeth  out  her  roots  by  the  river,  and  shall  not  see  when  heat 
cometh,  but  her  leaf  shall  be  green;  and  shall  not  be  careful  in  the 
year  of  drought,  neither  shall  cease  from  yielding  fruit." 

The  rivers  of  God  do  not  take  their  rise  in  the  desert 
of  diplomacy,  but  flow  from  the  throne  of  God  and  of 
the  Lamb.  In  the  spiritual  conflict  between  Christianity 
and  Islam,  the  true  soldier  of  the  Cross  must  stand  in 
His    strength     alone.  .  The    arm    of    flesh    will     fail 

221 


222  THE  MOSLEM  WORLD 

us;  we  dare  not  trust  human  governments,  however 
righteous  be  their  policy  and  practice.  When  the 
capitulations  have  disappeared,  will  evangelism  be 
helped  or  hindered?  There  may  be  need  for  outspoken 
testimony,  but  the  greater  need  is  for  out-poured  inter- 
cession. We  must  ^'take  hold  of  God."  No  definition 
of  prayer  is  so  bold  as  that  expressed  in  these  words  of 
Isaiah.  Here  we  have  at  once  the  pathos  of  the  sup- 
pliant, the  strength  of  the  martyrs'  faith  and  the  daring 
of  Hebrew  poetry.  Prayer  which  Gladstone  called 
"the  highest  exercise  of  the  human  intellect"  is  also 
the  highest  exercise  of  the  affections  and  will.  In  our 
survey  of  the  Moslem  world ;  its  neglected  areas,  its  new 
conditions  and  the  ripening  of  the  harvest — where  the 
seed  of  the  martyrs  has  fallen — we  will  make  the  largest 
progress  on  our  knees.  The  conditions  in  the  Moslem 
world  cannot  help  stirring  the  emotions;  yet  the  only 
place  where  these  need  never  be  stifled  or  suppressed, 
for  fear  of  man  or  the  censorship,  is  in  the  prayer 
closet.  Here  we  may  pour  out  our  hearts,  our  tears, 
our  agony.  Intercessory  prayer  is  the  test  of  the  reality 
and  sincerity  of  our  compassion.  When  we  consider 
the  history  of  Islam — its  conditions  and  progress  and 
the  neglect  of  the  Church,  the  luke-warmness  of  our 
love  and  the  feebleness  of  our  efforts, — what  unoccupied 
realms  there  are  for  confession  and  humiliation,  and  of 
passion  for  God's  glory.  He  who  takes  hold  of  God 
for  the  Moslem  world  starts  in  motion  divine  forces. 
Such  prayer  is  far-reaching  and  achieves  as  much  as  it 
costs.  The  Christian  on  his  knees  is  a  king  and  priest 
unto  God  in  His  universe  and  the  inner  chamber  be- 
comes a  gymnasium  for  the  soul.  The  effort  to  realize 
God's  presence  in  His  world  stretches  the  sinews  of  our 
faith  and  hardens  its  muscles.  We  believe  because  it 
is  impossible.  Prayer  invigorates  the  will,  purifies  it 
and  confers  decision  on  those  that  waver;  energy  on  the 
listless,  calmness  to  the  fretful,  sympathy  to  the  selfish 
and  largeness  of  heart  on  those  who  are  narrow  and 
provincial.  Paul  calls  this  part  of  his  life  "wrestling." 
It  is  a  great  spiritual  conflict  in  an  arena  where  the 


EDITORIAL  223 

weapons  are  never  carnal,  but  mighty  through  God  to 
the  pulling  down  of  strongholds.  Why  do  we  not  go 
over  the  top? 

The  energies  of  the  universe,  nay,  of  God  Himself, 
are  at  the  disposal  of  those  who  pray — to  the  man  who 
stirreth  up  himself  to  take  hold  of  God.  Opportunity 
is  a  great  word;  it  challenges  by  its  very  hopefulness 
and  sense  of  urgency.  Yet  opportunity  is  not  the  last 
word  in  missions  nor  the  real  measure  of  obligation. 
It  always  carries  with  it  the  temptation  to  opportunism 
and  this  is  not  good  missionary  policy.  The  open  door 
beckons,  it  is  true,  but  the  closed  door  challenges  Him 
who  has  a  right  to  enter.  He  came  when  the  doors 
were  shut.  The  kingdoms  and  governments  of  this 
world  may  have  frontiers  which  must  not  be  crossed, 
but  the  Gospel  of  Jesus  Christ  knows  no  frontier.  It 
never  has  been  kept  in  bonds  or  within  bounds;  its  mes- 
sage is  expulsive  and  explosive.  It  is  significant  that 
the  last  name  of  Allah  in  Islam's  rosary  is  '^41  Fattah" 
— the  Great  Opener.  He  opens  the  lips  of  the  dumb 
to  song,  the  eyes  of  the  blind  to  sight  and  bursts  the 
prison-house  of  the  captive.  He  opens  the  doors  of 
utterance  and  entrance;  graves  and  gates;  the  windows 
of  heaven  and  the  bars  of  death.  Because  He  holds 
the  keys  to  every  situation  we  must  take  hold  of  Him. 
When  He  opens  no  man  can  shut.  Paul's  experience  at 
Ephesus  may  be  that  of  many  workers  this  year  in 
Moslem  lands.  ''A  great  and  effectual  door  has  been 
opened  unto  me  and  there  are  many  adversaries."  God's 
grace  made  the  door  effectual  and  the  adversaries  made 
it  great.  The  more  baffling  the  problem  seems  to  us, 
the  easier  it  is  to  OMNIPOTENCE.  This  is  the  glory  of 
the  impossible.  Shall  we  not  take  hold  of  God — and 
let  go  of  man — for  the  Moslem  world. 

Samuel  M.  Zwemer. 


THE  LURE  OF  THE  DIFFICULT 


History  refuses  to  answer  our  ethical  questions.  It 
tells  us  what  was,  not  what  ought  to  have  been.  Why 
did  Christianity  turn  westward  from  Antioch?  If 
Peter  went  to  Babylon  (i  Peter,  5:13),  little  trace  of 
his  work  was  left.  North  Africa  by  the  fifth  century 
(Augustine  died  430  A.  D.)  "was  a  rich,  civilized 
Christianized  country."  "As  early  as  the  year  220  there 
were  already  seventy  bishoprics  in  existence,  and  the 
Latin  translation  of  the  Bible  completed  during  the 
second  century  was  the  authority  for  the  entire  African 
Church."*  What  was  left  of  this  African  Church  after 
the  Saracen  invasion?  Traces?  Yes;  but  only  traces. 
And  it  remains  true  that  the  course  of  Christianity 
which  carried  the  vital  current  that  made  the  western 
world  turned  north  and  west  from  Antioch.  We  can 
only  guess  at  the  reason ;  and  there  can  be  no  hazard  in 
a  little  speculation  here. 

According  to  its  own  estimate  of  itself  Christianity  is 
the  universal  religion,  the  only  religion  for  mankind; 
not  one  of  many  religions  but  the  final  revelation  of  God 
to  man.  The  finality  of  Jesus  admits  no  rival  claim. 
His  death  and  resurrection  accomplished  an  eternal 
redemption,  and  His  enthronement  in  glory  established 
Him  as  King  of  a  universal  kingdom.  Now,  this  "sal- 
vation is  of  the  Jews;"  its  star  was  first  seen  in  the  East. 
Oriental  in  its  origin,  in  its  earliest  environment,  in  the 
cast  of  its  teachings,  it  was  yet  meant  to  overspread  the 
earth  and  to  supersede  all  philosophies  and  cults  what- 
soever. To  have  turned  eastward  would  have  been  to 
take  the  line  of  least  resistance,  to  have  essayed  the 
more  congenial  task;  while  to  turn  westward  was  to 
encounter  the  heaviest  obstacles,  to  essay  the  hardest 
task. 

♦See  Dr.  Iselin:  "The  Downfall  of  the  Christian  Church  in  North  Africa."  Chaps. 
5  and  6. 

224 


THE  LURE  OF  THE  DIFFICULT  225 

In  point  of  fact,  in  the  first  generation  of  its  progress, 
Christianity  boldly — one  would  like  to  say  deliberate- 
ly— encountered  the  most  highly  developed  civilization 
on  earth.  And  the  Greek  culture,  the  most  elaborate 
known,  and  the  Greek  intellect,  the  best  trained,  af- 
forded the  stoutest  challenge  Christianity  could  find  in 
the  whole  world.  And  when  it  came  into  the  Roman 
world  proclaiming  "another  King,  one  Jesus"  (Acts 
17:7),  it  directly  disputed  the  most  uncompromising 
political  ambition  hitherto  conceived.  Surely  this 
Greaco-Roman  world,  with  its  intellectual  pride  and 
its  towering  passion  for  world  dominion,  must  first  be 
conquered  by  the  Universal  Religion,  or  Christianity 
must  carry  a  paralyzing  suspicion  in  its  heart — a  sus- 
picion that  it  might  not  at  last  be  equal  to  the  hardest 
task. 

Greece  yielded.  "Galilean,  thou  hast  conquered." 
Rome  also.  And  in  pushing  on  north  and  west  Chris- 
tianity undertook  to  master  the  peoples  who  had  mas- 
tered Rome.  The  individualism  of  the  Teutonic  peo- 
ples, the  hard  aggressiveness  of  the  Anglo-Saxons,  the 
will  to  power,  the  will  to  possess,  of  the  western  nations? 
— these,  one  after  the  other,  threw  the  lure  of  the  in- 
creasingly difficult,  like  a  spell,  upon  the  preachers  and 
propagandists  of  Christianity.  And,  if  one  may  at- 
tempt a  generalization  in  the  field  of  guesses,  from  the 
fact  of  the  westward  march  of  our  religion,  one  would 
say:  It  is  of  the  very  genius  of  Christianity  to  tackle 
the  hardest  tasks,  to  step  in  where  all  others  are  baffled 
and  say,  "Bring  him  to  me."  It  is  its  mission  to  abolish 
bafflement,  defeat  death,  to  cleanse  the  tainted  will,  to 
give  peace  to  the  soul,  to  give  light  to  the  mind,  to 
overcome  the  world.  "Be  of  good  cheer,  I  have  over- 
come the  world !" 

And  not  till  the  last  of  the  western  peoples,  the  Anglo- 
Saxons,  had  acknowledged  themselves  Christians  did 
Christianity  turn  eastward  again  toward  lands  and  peo- 
ples in  a  peculiar  sense  dominated  by  other-worldliness 
— peoples  contented  to  live  in  huts  and  hovels  while 
their  temples  towered  skyward  and  blazed  with  gems 


226  THE  MOSLEM  WORLD 

and  gold.  Certain  facts  in  the  life  of  these  peoples 
would  seem  to  show  that  Christianity  will  find  in  them 
a  more  congenial  soil  than  the  west  could  afford — facts 
like  the  wide  success  of  Buddhism,  for  example.  The 
denial  of  the  will  to  live,  and  finding  the  fullness  of  be- 
ing in  Nirvana  (Nothingness)  probably  involves  in  any 
fair  interpretation  the  destructon  of  personality;  but 
people  accustomed  to  it  through  centuries  will  find  less 
difficulty  than  western  peoples  have  found  in  the  death 
to  self,  the  "I  die  daily"  required  by  Christianity.  The 
death  of  self  and  the  death  to  self  are,  of  course,  worlds 
apart,  but  they  are  not  so  far  apart  as  the  self-assertion 
of  the  West  and  the  total  unselfishness  insisted  on  in  the 
teachings  of  our  Lord. 

,  ^  The  rise  and  spread  of  Buddhism  in  the  East  is  not 
the  only  fact  which  suggests  a  favorable  presumption  for 
Christian  propagandism  there.  There  is  also  the  rise 
and  spread  of  Mohammedanism.  I  am  not  here  inti- 
mating that  Mohammedanism  is  a  step  toward  Chris- 
tianity, as  some  writers  affirm.  I  cite  the  fact  only  as 
proving  that  Orientals  can  be  converted,  and  that  on  a 
great  scale,  to  a  new  religion  provided  only  the  new 
religion  is  aggressive  enough  to  attack  and  break  up 
the  metaphysical  calm  which  broods  over  the  vast 
plains  of  India  or  to  divert  the  strongwilled  Chinese 
from  his  unvarnished  and  unashamed  secularism.  Mo- 
hammedanism did  both  these;  it  controls  one-seventh  of 
the  human  race,  and  today  is  the  only  force  able  to  hurl 
Western  Asia  on  the  iron  civilization  of  Europe.^ 
Speaking  in  particular  of  India,  Mr.  Townsend^  says 
that  Islam  has  taken  three  times  the  time  to  convert  a 
fifth  of  the  people  of  India  that  Christianity  took  to 
convert  the  Roman  Empire;  and  we  may  believe  that, 
once  Christianity  adequately  undertakes  the  task,  the 
conversion  of  Hindu  India  will  follow  with  astonish- 
ing rapidity.  Here  I  transcribe  a  more  extended  quo- 
tation from  the  great  journalist  written  after  years  of 
residence  in  India. ^     "The  difficulties  of  Christianity  to 

>  Meredith  Townsend:  "The  Great  Arabian"  in  "Europe  and   Asia"   p.    159. 
« Ibid  p.  46. 
•  Ibid  p.  66. 


THE  LURE  OF  THE  DIFFICULT  227 

Christians  are  not  difficulties  to  the  Hindu.  He  is 
perfectly  familiar  with  the  idea  that  God  can  be  triune; 
that  God  may  reveal  Himself  to  man  in  human  form; 
that  a  being  may  be  at  once  man  and  God,  and  both 
completely;  that  the  Divine  man  may  be  the  true  exem- 
plar, though  separated  from  man  by  his  whole  Divinity; 
and  that  sin  may  be  wiped  off  by  a  supreme  sacrifice. 
Those  are  the  ideas  the  missionaries  teach,  and  the 
majority  of  Hindus  would  affiirm  that  they  were  per- 
fectly reasonable  and  in  accordance  with  the  general 
and  divinely  originated  scheme  of  things.  There  is 
nothing  in  Christian  dogma  which  to  the  Hindu  seems 
either  ridiculous  or  impossible,  while  no  miracle 
whatever,  however  stupendous,  in  the  least  overstrains 
the  capacity  of  his  faith.  There  never  was  a  creed 
whose  dogmas  were  in  themselves  so  little  offensive  to 
a  heathen  people  as  the  greater  dogmas  of  Christianity 
are  to  the  Hindu."  The  chapter  from  which  this  quo- 
tation is  taken,  entitled  ''Christianity  and  Islam  in  In- 
dia," is  full  of  suggestions  on  the  whole  question  of  the 
progress  of  the  two  faiths,  a  discussion  somewhat  aside 
from  the  line  of  the  present  article. 

I  spoke  of  the  possible  rapid  conversion  of  Hindu 
India.  But  what  of  Mohammedan  India — the  sixty- 
seven  millions  of  India  who  have  confessed  Mohammed 
as  God's  apostle?  What  of  the  Moslems  throughout 
the  world? 

Here  we  come  upon  the  most  formidable  antagonist 
Christianity  has  ever  faced.  It  is  a  most  striking  phe- 
nomenon when  you  remember  that  Mohammedanism 
arose  in  Arabia  and  early  made  conquest  of  the  lands 
and  peoples  who  first  embraced  Christianity.  It  is  as 
though  Christianity,  in  the  eagerness  of  its  westward 
march,  forgot  to  conserve  its  gains  in  Palestine,  Egypt, 
Syria,  Asia  Minor;  and  while  it  swept  on,  still  west- 
ward, back  there  in  its  remote  rear  a  sinister  rival  grew 
to  power,  crept  forward  on  its  trail  as  far  as  the  gates 
of  Vienna,  or  around  North  Africa  to  the  Pillars  of 
Hercules  and  through  Spain  to  the  Pyrenees  mountains; 
or  turning  eastward   carried  its  conquests   across  Cen- 


228  THE  MOSLEM  WORLD 

tral  Asia  to  the  China  sea  and  across  India  to  the 
Straits  Settlements  and  beyond,  to  the  islands  of  the 
Pacific.  And  all  the  time  it  fed  and  fattened  on  the 
Christian  tradition,  the  patriarchs,  the  prophets,  the 
apostles,  even  confessing  Jesus  as  God's  messenger  to 
man.  Monotheism,  the  forgiveness  of  sins,  the  life 
everlasting — these  and  other  doctrines  of  the  Christian 
creed  are  included  in  the  creed  of  Mohammed.  It  is 
precisely  for  this  reason  that  Mohammedanism  is  the 
last  stronghold  of  the  enemy;  the  most  formidable  an- 
tagonist of  Christianity.  Here  the  Latin  proverb,  "Cor- 
ruptio  optimi  pessima,"  finds  a  perfect  illustration. 
The  corruption  of  Christianity  by  Mohammedanism 
has  produced  the  worst — a  conglomerate  of  truth  and 
error;  of  loyalty  and  lies;  of  austerity  and  obscenity; 
of  scrupulosity  and  dissoluteness;  of  faith  and  cruelty; 
and  all  these  in  the  name  of  religion!  Though  Mor- 
monism  in  the  United  States  presents  many  striking 
likenesses,  it  is  true  to  say  that  the  like  of  this  corrupt 
religion  was  never  seen  in  all  history.  Christianity  ac- 
cording to  its  genius — a  genius  which  it  first  displayed 
in  the  conquest  of  Greece  and  Rome — must  now  under- 
take the  last  enemy  and  the  fiercest,  Mohammedanism. 
The  lure  of  the  difficult  is  here  and  it  calls  Christians 
to  an  ardor  of  love  as  intense  as  the  propagandist  fury 
of  the  Moslem  fanatic  who  combines  all  the  emotions 
of  religion  with  all  the  motives  which  impel  a  political 
leader  and  a  recruiting  sergeant  in  his  passion  to  pro- 
selytize. Here  the  guage  of  battle  is  drawn,  and  the 
final  question,  the  test  question  of  the  ages  for  all 
Christians  is:  Can  Christianity  conquer  Mohammedan- 
is  mF 

The  answer  to  this  question  must  be  No  if  the  policies 
hitherto  pursued  by  Mission  Boards  are  to  be  con- 
tinued. The  editor  of  this  Quarterly  has  shown  that 
the  '^Unoccupied  Fields"  are  very  nearly  conterminous 
with  Moslem  lands.  To  neglect  them  is  not  the  way 
to  convert  them;  to  pass  by  on  the  other  side  is  not  the 
way  of  the  Good   Samaritan! 

It  requires  an  apostle  to  plant  a  Gospel;  and  it  will 


THE  LURE  OF  THE  DIFFICULT  229 

require  a  zeal  and  a  passion  for  truth  and  for  souls  like 
Paul's  to  win  the  Moslem  heart.  It  is  a  case  of  wrest- 
ling not  against  flesh  and  blood  but  against  principali- 
ties and  powers,  against  world-rulers  of  this  darkness; 
and  only  men  who  are  panoplied  in  the  whole  armor 
of  God  may  dare  to  go  into  the  struggle.  Such  men 
and  a  great  host  of  them  must  be  found ;  men  who  have 
witnessed  the  conquest  of  the  impossible  in  their  own  ex- 
perience of  grace  and  who  therefore  know  Him  to 
Whom  and  in  Whom  and  through  Whom  all  things 
are  possible — such  men  must  be  found.  And  they  can 
be  found,  since  for  every  must  in  God's  world  there  is 
a  can,  for  every  obligation,  a  corresponding  ability. 

The  sacrificial  life  is  fructifying;  it  multiplies  itself; 
the  grain  of  wheat  that  dies  waves  in  new  harvests. 
And  the  men  for  the  conquest  of  Islam  will  call  out 
the  money  which  is  needed.  Literature  and  the  presses 
to  produce  it,  schools,  hospitals,  teachers,  evangelists, 
apostles — these  all  on  a  great  scale  will  spring  forth  to 
meet  the  challenge  when  once  the  whole  Church  of 
Christ  has  been  made  to  hear  the  boast  of  this  new  Go- 
liath of  Gath:  ^^I  defy  the  armies  of  Saul  this  day.'' 
'^Then  said  David  to  the  Philistine,  Thou  comest  to  me 
with  a  sword,  and  with  a  spear,  and  with  a  javelin; 
but  I  come  to  thee  in  the  name  of  Jehovah  of  hosts  whom 
thou  hast  defied.     This  day  will  Jehovah  deliver  thee 

into  my  hand that  all   this   assembly  may  know 

that  Jehovah  saveth  not  with  sword  and  spear;  for  the 
battle  is  Jehovah's  and  he  will  give  you  into  our  hand" 
(1  Sam.  17:  45-47). 

Edwin  M.   Poteat. 

Brookline,  Massachusetts, 


ISLAM  IN  THE  PHILIPPINE  ISLANDS 


The  Moro,  or  "Tau  Sug,"  as  he  is  locally  known  hy 
his  own  people,  occupies  the  hundred  or  more  islands 
of  the  Sulu  Archipelago,  which  forms  the  Southern- 
most boundary  of  the  Philippine  Islands,  and  represents 
the  only  Mohammedan  people,  residing  under  the 
American  flag. 

While  they  are  generally  known  to  the  world  as  a 
Mohammedan  people,  strictly  speaking  they  are  only  a 
sort  of  Mohammedan,  that  is,  the  only  religion  they 
know  is  Mohammedanism  of  a  very  corrupted  type. 
The  Arabian  trader,  while  on  commercial  visits  to  Sulu 
in  the  twelfth  and  thirteenth  centuries,  left  them  most 
of  that  which  they  know  of  Islam.  Their  gradual  con- 
tact with  Western  Christian  civilization  has  so  changed 
them,  that  today  they  know  very  little  about  pure  Mo- 
hammedanism. 

It  is  true,  that  the  period  from  1380  to  1450  marks 
the  establishment  of  Mohammedanism  throughout  the 
Sulu  Archipelago  and  the  rise  of  a  Mohammedan  dy- 
nasty. Previous  to  this  date  they  worshipped  idols  and 
the  spirits  of  the  dead.  They  ate  pig,  rats  and  snakes. 
They  were  a  pagan  people. 

About  1380  there  arrived  the  first  missionary  of  Islam 
in  this  part  of  the  world,  one  Makdum,  an  Arabian 
judge  and  scholar  from  Malacca.  He  appears  to  have 
come  first  to  the  Island  of  Simonor  where  he  made 
many  converts  to  his  faith.  He  then  visited  many  of 
the  other  islands,  converting  the  inhabitants  as  he  went, 
being  especially  active  and  successful  in  the  South, 
where  at  last  he  is  said  to  have  died  in  Sibutu.  He 
built  the  first  mosque  in  Sulu  at  the  town  of  Tubigin- 
danan.  Island  of  Simonor,  portions  of  which  are  still 
standing.  It  has  been  repaired  from  time  to  time,  so 
that  today  all  that  is  left  of  the  original  mosque  are 

230 


ISLAM  L\  THE  PHILIPPINE  ISLANDS  231 

the  carved  posts  of  Ipul  wood  with  a  few  pieces  of 
carving.  The  Sulus  of  the  Island  of  Tapul  claim  de- 
scent from  him.  He  must  have  been  a  man  of  strong 
personality  to  have  been  a  successful  missionary  to  a 
warlike,  savage  race  of  pirates  as  the  people  of  Sulu 
were  at  that  time;  and  the  fact  that  the  Mohammedan 
religion  was  very  largely  established  by  preaching  and 
not  so  much  by  the  sword,  as  is  popularly  supposed,  is 
interesting. 

About  1390  Raja  Baginda  established  his  Capital  at 
Bwansa,  a  place  about  three  miles  West  of  the  City  of 
Jolo.  Jolo  is  today  the  center  of  the  Moslems  of  this 
region,  the  Capital  of  the  Province  and  the  residence 
or  palace  of  Hajji  Mohamad  Jamalul  Kiram  the  pres- 
ent Sultan,  who  is  also  the  head  of  Islam  among  the 
Moros. 

Somewhere  between  1450  and  1480  Abu  Bakr  came 
to  Bwansa  from  Johore  and  became  Sultan  of  Sulu. 
He  erected  mosques  at  Bwansa  and  throughout  Jolo  and 
divided  the  Island  of  Jolo  into  five  sections,  each  admin- 
istered by  a  Panglima  subordinate  to  the  Sultan.  This 
seems  to  mark  the  rise  of  the  Mohammedan  dynasty! 
which  has  continued  to  reign  over  a  large  majority  of 
the  Moro  people. 

For  the  next  few  centuries  there  was  no  attempt  to 
change  these  conditions  as  far  as  any  record  shows, 
until  in  June,  1578,  when  Captain  Estebau  Rodriguez 
de  Figueroa  with  a  large  command  of  Spanish  troops 
came  to  Jolo.  The  purpose  of  this  expedition  are  cata- 
logued as  follows: 

1.  To  reduce  Sulu  as  an  independent  state. 

2.  Obtain  tribute  in  pearls. 

3.  Secure  the  trade  of   Sulu  for   Spain. 

4.  To  punish  the  Sultan  of  Sulu  for  aiding  the  Sultan 
of  Bruney  against  the  Spaniards. 

5.  To  free  the  Christian  slaves  on  Jolo. 

6.  To  introduce  Christianity. 

Thus  in  1578  the  first  attempt  was  made  to  introduce 
Christianity  among  the  Sulu  people,  but  it  was  not 
successful.     Hostilities  continued  until  1737  when  Sul- 


232  THE  MOSLEM  WORLD 

tan  Alim  ud  Din  came  into  power,  and  has  left  on  the 
pages  of  history  the  name  of  being  a  man  of  peace  and  a 
progressive.  Piracy  was  actually  suppressed  during 
his  reign.  He  also  sent  emissaries  to  Manila  and  made 
a  treaty  with  the  Spaniards,  which  he  faithfully  kept. 
He  is  interesting  as  having  been  the  grandfather  of  all 
the  present  Sulu  Datus. 

In  September,  1746,  a  special  commission  from  Manila 
brought  to  Sultan  Alim  ud  Din  a  letter  which  had  been 
written  him  a  couple  of  years  previously  (1744)  by 
King  Philip  V  of  Spain,  in  which  the  latter  requested 
that  Jesuit  missionaries  be  allowed  to  enter  Jolo  un- 
molested and  preach  the  Christian  religion  to  the  Sulus. 
The  Sultan  held  a  council  with  his  ministers  and  the 
request  was  granted.  He  authorized  the  building  of  a 
Church  and  recommended  the  erection  of  a  fort  for  the 
protection  of  the  Jesuits.  The  Jesuits  entered  Jolo, 
translated  the  catechism  into  the  Sulu  dialect  and  dis- 
tributed it  among  the  people. 

This,  together  with  the  liberties  the  Jesuits  exercised 
in  their  proselyting,  and  the  marked  friendship  which 
the  Sultan  showed  toward  them,  created  a  great  deal 
of  dissatisfaction  among  the  people,  so  that  an  opposi- 
tion party  to  the  Sultan  was  formed  headed  by  Raja 
Bantilan.  Their  purpose  was  the  expulsion  of  the 
missionaries  and  the  deposing  of  the  Sultan.  Ill  feel- 
ing soon  ripened  into  hostilities  and  civil  war  became 
imminent.  The  life  of  the  Sultan  himself  was  threat- 
ened, on  one  occasion  Bantilan  throwing  a  spear  which 
wounded  him  severely  in  the  side  or  thigh.  It  became 
dangerous  for  the  missionaries  to  remain  in  Jolo,  so 
that  late  in  1748,  one  of  the  Sultan's  ministers  provided 
them  with  a  sapit  (boat)  in  which  they  escaped  to 
Zamboanga. 

Overpowered,  the  Sultan,  with  his  family  and  a  large 
escort,  went  to  Manila  to  seek  the  aid  of  the  Spanish 
Government,  the  indulgence  in  his  friendship  for 
which  had  largely  been  the  cause  of  his  downfall.  He 
arrived  there  on  January  2nd,  1749.  Bantilan  there- 
upon proclaimed  himself  Sultan. 


ISLAM  IN  THE  PHILIPPINE  ISLANDS  233 

The  Spaniards  treated  Sultan  Alim  ud  Din  exceed- 
ingly well  although  they  were  slow  about  attempting  to 
restore  him  to  his  Sultinate.  He  was  given  a  house  in 
Binondo,  Manila,  for  his  escort  of  seventy,  and  trium- 
phal arches  were  erected  across  the  streets  which  were 
lined  with  2000  native  soldiers.  Many  presents  were 
given  him,  such  as  chains  of  gold,  fine  clothing  and  gold 
headed  canes,  etc. 

He  seems  to  have  responded  to  their  kind  treatment, 
for  at  Panike,  on  April  29th,  1750,  we  find  him  being 
baptized,  receiving  the  name  of  "Ferdinand."  This 
act  has  caused  a  number  of  Spanish  authors  to  refer  to 
him  as  'Terdinand,  First  Christian  Sultan  of  Jolo." 

Ferdinand  was  never  able  to  carry  Christianity  to  his 
people,  and  the  Mohammedan  religion  which  was  in- 
troduced about  the  thirteenth  century  from  India  and 
the  Malay  Straits,  in  such  a  corrupted  form  that  one 
cannot  tell  exactly  to  what  Moslem  sect  it  belongs  but 
probably  to  the  Sunnite  or  Turkish  as  distinguished 
from  the  Shia  or  Persian,  has  continued  to  the  present. 
Today  it  is  professed  by  a  population  of  about  358,968. 
This  is  the  estimated  population  of  Mohammedans  in 
the  Philippines,  according  to  the  Government  census  of 
the  Islands  in  January  191 8.  A  new  census  is  now  in 
process,  but  the  figures  will  not  be  available  for  some 
time. 

The  Moro  today  realizes  the  futility  of  attempt- 
ing to  subdue  his  Christian  brother  of  the  North  and 
thus  Mohammedanism  in  the  Philippine  Islands  is  at  a 
standstill.  It  is  not  even  holding  very  firmly  the  young- 
er generation  and  there  are  no  representatives  from 
other  lands  strengthening  Mohammedanism  in  the  Phil- 
ippine Islands  at  the  present  time  so  far  as  known. 

While  they  read  and  revere  the  Koran,  they  under- 
stand but  very  few  words,  and  the  Koran  has  not  been 
translated  into  the  dialect,  so  that  comparatively  few, 
those  who  have  had  the  advantage  of  an  acquaintance 
with  persons  familiar  with  Arabic,  and  can  explain 
the  principles  of  their  religion  to  them,  understand 
much  about  Islam.  Practically  none  of  the  Sulus  under- 


234  THE  MOSLEM  WORLD 

stand  Arabic.  To  the  great  majority  of  Sulus,  Islam 
consists  only  in  the  prohibition  against  eating  pork. 
Forbidden  foods  of  other  kinds — fish  without  scales, 
and  bats — are  constantly  eaten.  The  religious  feasts 
are  fairly  well  observed,  but  except  for  the  great  fast 
of  Ramadhan,  which  most  of  the  people  pretend  to 
keep,  fasts  are  honored  more  in  the  breach  than  in  the 
observance.  The  fast  of  Ramadhan  is  really  the  only 
event  in  the  Moslem  year  known  to  all  the  people;  and 
it  is  only  during  this  month  that  the  numerous  mosques 
are  not  deserted  and  neglected.  There  are  a  number 
of  superstitions  that  still  survive  from  the  ancient  pagan 
religion;  and  these  mingled  with  baser  superstitions  of 
Mohammedanism,  are  brought  to  the  surface  in  times 
of  great  calamity.  It  is  the  real  religion  of  the  Sulu 
people,  and  has  little  in  common  with  pure  Moham- 
medanism. 

Polygamy  is  allowed  and  practiced  by  all  Mohamme- 
dan peoples.  The  economic  conditions  have  had  some- 
thing to  do  with  its  practical  application  in  recent  years 
and  the  American  occupation  of  the  Philippines  has  had 
even  more  to  do  with  its  cessation  in  the  Sulu  Archi- 
pelago. Today  only  a  few  of  the  wealthier  class  of 
Moros  practice  polygamy.  As  a  race  they  are  too  poor 
to  support  more  than  one  wife. 

In  morals  the  Moro  or  the  Philippine  Mohamme- 
dan as  he  is  sometimes  called,  on  the  whole  compares 
favorably  with  many  of  the  Christian  Filipinos.  They 
are  more  orderly  in  sexual  relations  than  many  of  the 
Christians.  A  Moro  woman  is  quoted  as  saying,  she 
preferred  to  be  the  legal  fourth  wife  (that  is,  legal  in 
Mohammedan  sense)  of  a  Moro  man  than  one  of  two  or 
three  women  having  informal  relations  with  a  ^'Chris- 
tian" Filipino. 

In  other  respects,  so  far  as  appearance  is  concerned, 
the  Moros  are  not  clearly  distinguishable  from  the 
pagan  tribes.  A  Moro  and  an  Igorot,  and  even  some 
of  the  Visayan  people,  if  they  would  cut  their  hair 
alike  and  dress  alike,  would  be  found  hard  to  distin- 
guish.    They    are    however    distinguishable    from    the 


ISLAM  IN  THE  PHILIPPINE  ISLANDS  235 

pagan  tribes  in  most  of  their  customs  and  of  course  are 
congregated  in  settlements  where  they  can  be  quite 
easily  distinguished  from  the  pagan  tribes  of  the  sur- 
rounding country. 

The  Moro  population  has  not  increased  to  any 
marked  extent  in  recent  years.  Thus  Mohammedanism 
has  not  increased  as  there  is  no  propaganda  other  than 
the  individual  who  is  often  an  ardent  missionary.  In 
fact  the  younger  generation,  as  they  are  being  educated, 
find  that  the  parrot  fashion  of  reading  the  Koran, 
which  they  cannot  understand,  is  most  unsatisfactory. 
These  are  ready  to  consider  some  form  of  religion 
which  is  intelligible  to  them.  With  this  in  view  the 
Gospel  of  St.  Luke  has  been  placed  in  the  Sulu  dialect 
and  is  being  printed,  we  hope  to  follow  it  with  the 
entire  New  Testament. 

It  is  the  custom  for  the  Panglima  and  others  who 
can  read  and  write,  to  read  to  those  who  cannot. 
Perhaps  twenty-five  per  cent  of  the  MQros  could  be 
called  literate,  as  we  understand  that  term. 

There  is  practically  no  extant  literature.  There  are 
some  old  manuscripts  which  are  a  medley  of  magic 
and  quotations  from  the  Koran.  Such  manuscripts  are 
especially  prevalent  in  Cotabato.  The  Mohammedanism 
of  the  Philippines  seems  to  be  strong  in  the  magic  ele- 
ment. There  is  no  current  literature  either  books  or 
magazines.  The  Moro  Mission  of  the  Episcopal 
Church  at  Zamboanga  publishes  a  monthly  newspaper, 
the  '^Surat  Habar  Sing  Sug"  in  Sulu  with  a  circulation 
of  about  600  copies.  It  endeavors  to  give  the  news  of 
the  world  in  a  form  that  would  be  interesting  to  the 
Moslems  together  with  some  simple  Christian  teaching. 
It  is  paving  the  way  for  the  introduction  of  Christianity. 
Our  own  printing  office  has  the  only  movable  type  in 
the  world  to  print  the  Moro  dialects  which  use  an 
adapted  form  of  Arabic  character.  The  type  was  made 
to  order  in  Beyrout,  Syria. 

The  changing  of  the  Moro  is  being  brought  about 
through  several  agencies,  in  which  the  Moro  Mission 
of  the  Episcopal  Church  is  playing  a  very  important 


236  THE  MOSLEM  WORLD 

part  by  bringing  the  Moro  into  closer  contact  with  the 
civilized  world  through  the  medium  of  the  various  mis- 
sion enterprises  which  were  started  in  August,  191 2. 

Since  then  a  very  respectable  showing  has  been 
made  which  is  bringing  the  Moro  closer  to  Christ. 
While  none  have  been  baptized  as  yet,  many  are  being 
slowly  and  surely  prepared.  Only  recently  in  the  City 
of  Jolo  when  the  Missionary  was  baptizing  two  chil- 
dren, one  whose  father  is  a  Christian  Chinaman  and 
mother  a  Moro,  the  mother  asked  when  could  the 
Missionary  return  to  instruct  her  for  baptism. 

Today,  a  Jesuit  Priest  at  Jolo,  and  the  Missionary 
Priest  of  the  Episcopal  Church  at  Zamboanga  are  the 
only  two  clergy  attempting  to  do  any  Christian  work 
among  the  Moro  people  of  the  Philippine  Islands  and 
their  work  is  largely  that  of  living  the  Christian  life 
among  them  and  preparing  the  way  for  future  direct 
spiritual  work.  The  efforts  of  these  two  men  cannot 
reach  far  when  one  considers  that  the  Moro*  population 
is  spread  over  more  than  a  hundred  islands  extending 
more  than  two  hundred  miles  by  water. 

Perhaps  a  brief  description  of  the  various  mission 
enterprises  which  are  attempting  to  introduce  Chris- 
tianity among  these  people  will  be  of  interest. 

The  Zamboanga  Mission  Hospital,  while  caring  for 
the  sick  without  discrimination  as  to  race  or  religion,  is 
more  and  more  fulfilling  its  original  purpose  of  caring 
for  the  physical  side  of  the  Moro's  life.  It  has  taken 
a  great  deal  of  patience  to  overcome  the  fear  the  Moro 
entertained  of  entering  a  hospital.  On  the  whole  the 
medical  work  of  the  Government  as  well  as  that  of  the 
Mission  hospitals  in  this  Department  of  the  Philippines 
is  progressing  and  the  Moro  is  beginning  to  appreciate 
the  efiPorts  of  the  Christians  to  help  him. 

Through  the  medium  of  the  Moro  Settlement  House 
and  it's  staff  of  workers,  the  Moro  women  and  ^irls  of 
the  vicinity  are  brought  into  contact  with  the  civilized 
population*  and  are  assisted  in  disposing  of  their  handi- 
work in  the  most  profitable  manner.  Their  weaving 
and  lace  making  are  supervised  while  in   the  process 


ISLAM  IN  THE  PHILIPPINE  ISLANDS  237 

of  making  and  when  necessary,  materials  provided  and 
the  cost  deducted  from  the  amount  paid  the  worker 
when  the  work  is  finished. 

It  seems  to  be  contrary  to  the  Moro  custom  to  pro- 
vide an  education  for  the  girls  beyond  that  of  reading 
the  Koran  in  mimic  fashion.  But  here  have  been  gath- 
ered a  few  girls  who  bid  fair  to  change  this  custom. 
One  can  see  the  great  difference  between  the  cleanli- 
ness and  the  conduct  of  the  girls  who  have  come  in 
contact  with  the  House  and  those  who  have  not.  It  is 
seldom  that  a  girl  who  has  been  in  attendance  at  the 
House,  either  in  school,  weaving  or  lace  classes  is  seen 
with  her  teeth  filed  and  blackened  as  is  the  custom 
among  the  Moro  women  and  girls. 

At  Jolo  the  Moro  Mission  of  the  Episcopal  Church 
has  established  a  Moro  Agricultural  School  at  the  very 
center  of  that  formerly  turbulent  island  which  is  the 
center  of  the  Mohammedan  faith  of  these  people,  and 
for  the  past  three  years  have  been  most  successful.  The 
idea  that  a  school  operated  under  Christian  auspices 
would  be  harassed  by  the  Mohammedans  seems  to 
be  wrong.  Today  there  is  a  large  waiting  list  of 
Moro  boys  who  desire  to  enter  the  school.  The  Sultan, 
who  is  the  head  of  the  Mohamedan  Church,  is  a  friend- 
ly and  frequent  visitor  at  the  school. 

Any  one  familiar  with  the  indolent  habits  of  these 
natives  would  be  surprised  at  the  progress  the  school 
has  been  able  to  make  in  the  short  period  of  its  exist- 
ence. At  the  beginning  many  of  the  boys  left  rather 
than  work,  but  later  returned  and  have  grown  from  thin 
listless  individuals  to  be  stout,  robust  boys  taking  part 
and  great  interest  in  all  sorts  of  athletics,  farm  work 
and  even  in  their  academic  studies. 

The  influence  of  the  school  with  its  high  Christian 
ideals  is  being  felt  throughout  the  community  in 
which  it  is  situated. 

Such  forms  of  education  are  of  tremendous  value  and 
will  have  their  effect  on  the  next  generation  in  which 
lies  the  hope  of  these  people. 

The  spiritual  side  of  their  lives  cannot  be  developed 


238  THE  MOSLEM  WORLD 

until  adequate  facilities  are  provided  for  the  Mission- 
ary to  serve  them.  At  present  distance  makes  this 
impracticable. 

All  this  work,  however,  among  the  Moro  youth  is 
preparing  the  way  for  future  development;  they  must 
be  given  education  and  civilization  in  order  to  let 
them   appreciate   Christianity. 

All  these  agences  bring  the  Missionary  into  contact 
with  what  has  always  been  considered  the  section  of  the 
population  of  the  Islands  most  hostile  to  Christianity, 
and  makes  possible  further  development  and  progress 
toward  introducing  some  direct  Christian  teaching. 

A  young  Mohammedan  Moro  came  to  the  Missionary 
recently  to  ascertain  if  he  would  solemnize  his  marriage 
to  a  Mohammedan  girl.  They  did  not  want  to  be 
married  before  the  Imam,  or  Mohammedan  Priest  and 
felt  that  God  would  prefer  a  Christian  marriage  to  that 
of  a  Justice  of  the  Peace.  The  man  would  be  willing 
to  be  baptized  and  become  a  Christian,  but  the  girl  being 
the  daughter  of  a  high  dignitary  in  the  Mohammedan 
mosque  would  find  it  almost  impossible  to  become  a 
Christian  at  this  time.  The  instance  shows  the  ever 
growing  influence  of  the  Mission. 

While  the  Missionary  refused  to  officiate,  still  he 
used  this  opportunity  to  talk  about  Christianity  and 
what  it  was  doing  for  the  non-Christian  Moro.  During 
the  conversation  a  significant  reply  came  finally  to  this 
eflfect.  "I  am  not  a  real  Mohammedan.  I  select  such 
customs  and  practices  as  I  think  are  good  and  observe 
them,  but  I  also  select  what  seems  good  to  me  from 
the  Christian  customs  and  practices." 

This  shows  the  marked  change  in  the  Moro  from  the 
Mohammedan  of  intolerance  that  he  is  supposed  to 
have  been  for  so  many  centuries,  to  the  more  liberal 
minded,  tolerant  and  receptive  stage  into  which  he  is 
rapidly  passing. 

Progress  among  any  Oriental  people  is  slow  as  con- 
sidered in  comparison  with  Occidental  movements  and 
it  is  too  early  to  say  what  will  be  the  result  of  this  at- 
tempt   to    introduce    Christianity. 


ISLAM  IN  THE  PHILIPPINE  ISLANDS  239 

The  Moros  are  still  today  the  combative  and  ex- 
plosive people  they  have  always  been.  But,  if  by 
kindly  and  tactful  treatment  they  be  kept  in  their  pres- 
ent state  of  grace  for  a  few  years,  until  they  receive 
ocular  demonstration  of  what  these  conditions  mean  to 
the  civilized  peoples,  and  if,  in  addition,  education  (in 
farming,  as  well  as  otherwise)  are  at  the  same  time 
pushed  forward  as  rapidly  as  possible,  it  is  believed  the 
Moro  will  prove  the  most  responsive  pupil  which  it  has 
yet  been  tried  to  develop  in  the  world's  first  and 
greatest  experiment  among  Eastern  Orientals  under  a 
Democratic  form  of  government. 

Robert  T.  McCutchen. 

Zamhoanaa,  P.  7. 


WOMAN  IN  THE  NEAR  EAST^ 


The  battle  for  control  of  the  life  of  womanhood  that 
is  raging  in  Nearer  Asia  came  home  to  me  in  a  vivid 
picture  at  Beirut.  While  I  was  there,  just  a  few  months 
before  the  great  war  broke  out,  the  cinema  film  *^Quo 
Vadis"  was  being  shown  for  the  second  time,  its  earlier 
visit  having  been  made  a  year  before.  On  this  second 
occasion  the  Moslem  authorities  issued  an  order  abso- 
lutely forbidding  Mohammedan  women  to  visit  the 
cinema.  Their  reason  for  issuing  the  edict  was  that 
on  the  previous  visit  the  presentation  of  the  heroically 
borne  sufferings  of  the  Christian  martyrs  had  so  moved 
the  emotions  of  the  Christian  martyrs,  had  so  aroused 
their  pity  for  the  persecuted  Christians,  and  had  stimu- 
lated such  lively  debates  behind  the  curtains  of  the 
harems  that  the  masculine  authorities  dreaded  a  repeti- 
tion of  that  influence. 

The  incident  flung  up  into  vivid  relief  that  often  con- 
cealed but  continuous  aggressive  movement  of  ideas  and 
forces  moving  from  the  West  into  the  Near  East,  forces 
that  are  now  penetrating  with  a  rapid  disintegrating 
result  into  the  last  fortresses  of  Eastern  life — the  se- 
cluded harems  of  its  womanhood. 

The  effect  of  this  movement  in  a  place  like  Beirut  is 
typical  of  the  influence  throughout  Nearer  Asia,  but  it 
is  typical  in  quality  rather  than  in  degree.  In  that  cos- 
mopolitan port,  where  you  may  hear  spoken  in  one  elec- 
tric tramcar  Turkish,  French,  English,  Russian,  Tamil, 
and  Greek,  the  seclusion  and  separatism  of  the  past  are 
breaking  down  more  rapidly  than  in  the  interior  under 
the  insistent  forces  of  the  cosmopolitan  and  interracial 
blending  of  the  present.  These  influences  are  neces- 
sarily at  high  pressure  there  just  because  the  place  is  a 
great  international  centre  into  which  the  electric  tram- 

(*)  Reprinted  from  the  Women's  International  Quarterly,  Jan.   1919  by  permission. 

240 


WOMAN  IN  THE  NEAR  EAST  241 

way,  the  cable,  the  daily  newspaper,  the  cinema,  and  all 
the  transforming  forces  of  Western  civilization  have 
penetrated. 

The  same  forces,  however,  are  visibly  at  work  in 
every  part  of  Western  Asia.  Superficially,  of  course,  in 
a  city  like  Tarsus,  with  its  streets  whose  booths  of 
leather-workers,  copper  and  tinsmiths  and  tent-makers 
gives  an  impression  of  the  unchanging  East,  it  is  diffi- 
cult on  the  surface  to  see  that  any  real  process  of  disin- 
tegration is  going  on  in  the  life  of  woman.  I  will  give, 
however,  three  examples  of  things  seen  in  Tarsus,  each 
apparently  meagre  in  itself,  but  each  quite  significant 
to  the  observer,  who  can  from  such  straws  of  evidence 
see  which  way  the  wind  of  social  movement  blows. 

Journeying  from  Tarsus  past  the  foothills  on  the  edge 
of  the  Cilician  Plain  into  the  Taurus  Mountains,  and 
seeing  the  long,  swinging  caravans  of  camels  coming 
down  the  ancient  Pass  of  the  Cilician  Gate,  it  was  in- 
evitable that  one  should  say,  ^'Here,  if  anywhere  in  the 
world,  no  single  thing  has  changed  since  Alexander  the 
Great  led  his  armies  down  the  defile  or  Paul  and  Silas 
trudged  up  its  gorges.  But  when  I  came  to  inquire,  in 
respect  of  a  particular  string  of  camels,  what  burden 
they  were  bearing  from  the  West  to  the  East  the  reply 
was  ^'Sewing  machines."  Here  even  through  the  chan- 
nel of  this  immemorial  pass  on  that  most  ancient  beast  of 
burden  the  scientific,  mechanical  inventive  mind  of  the 
West  was  flowing  into  the  rooms  of  the  women  in  the 
birthplace  of  St.  Paul. 

The  observations,  secondly,  which  my  wife  was  able 
to  make  in  harems  in  Tarsus  brought  out  in  detail  this 
impression.  In  these  harems  she  saw,  in  quite  ludicrous 
association,  side  by  side  with  beautiful  Oriental  tapes- 
tries and  carpets,  the  more  tawdry  and  glittering  type 
of  European  ornament,  and  other  indications  of  the 
fact  that  fissures  had  been  made  in  the  walls  of  the  old 
system  of  seclusion  and  isolation. 

The  third  example  was  more  significant  still.  An 
Armenian  Christian  kindergarten  had  been  established 
in  Tarsus  for  the  education  of  little  Armenian  girls. 


242  THE  MOSLEM  WORLD 

It  was  equipped,  not  lavishly,  but  adequately  for  its 
purposes,  and  a  relatively  well-trained  Armenian  wom- 
an-teacher had  been  provided  for  it,  a  step  made  possi- 
ble by  the  existence  of  the  St.  Paul's  Institute,  that 
efficient  American  educational  missionary  institution, 
and  by  the  enthusiasm  of  Mrs.  Christie,  the  wife  of  the 
Principal. 

The  Moslem  fathers  in  Tarsus  were  so  thoroughly 
stimulated  by  the  existence  of  this  little  Christian  kin- 
dergarten that  they  actually  conceived  the  idea  of  es- 
tablishing one  for  the  education  of  little  Moslem  chil- 
dren; and  their  new-born  passion  for  education  for  girls 
— a  miraculous  thing  in  itself — was  so  strong  that  they 
actually  put  their  hands  in  their  pockets  to  pay  for,  not 
only  equipment,  but  two  salaried  teachers.  Lack  of 
training  made  it  impossible  to  find  a  Moslem  who  could 
run  this  institution;  so,  when  we  went  to  see  the  kinder- 
garten, we  discovered  a  Christian  Armenian  head  teach- 
er with  a  veiled  Moslem  assistant.  The  varied  degree 
in  which  new  ideas  have  penetrated  the  Near  East  was 
illustrated  by  the  fact  that  on  getting  across  the  Taurus 
Mountains  to  Konia  (Iconium),  we  found  that  the 
missionaries  there  who  know  Asia  Minor  with  great 
thoroughness  could  hardly  believe  that  so  progressive  a 
step  had  been  taken  by  the  Moslems  in  Tarsus. 

Penetrating,  as  we  were  able  to  do  by  wagon,  to  the 
inner  fastnesses  of  the  Plateau  of  Asia  Minor  and  stay- 
ing in  the  house  of  a  Turk  close  to  the  ruins  of  Antioch- 
in-Pisidia,  (a  Turk  who  had  only,  come  into  touch  with 
a  handful  of  Europeans  in  his  whole  life),  it  became 
clear  that  in  this  remote  place  in  contrast  to  the  coast 
cities  the  influences  of  Western  civilization  had  had 
hardly  any  effect.  The  acids  that  are  biting  into  the 
old  Asiatic  life  in  Beirut  and  Smyrna,  and  are  at  work 
even  in  Tarsus  and  Damascus,  are  almost  imperceptible 
in  remoter  Antaolia,  when  you  get  away  from  the  Bag- 
dad railway  line. 

These  almost  casual  impressions,  developed  by  inter- 
course running  from  the  Jordan  valley  across  Pales- 
tine, Syria,  Cilicia  and  Asia  Minor  down  to  Smyrna, 


WOMAN  IN  THE  NEAR  EAST  243 

made  upon  me  an  ineffaceable  impression  that  slowly, 
but  with  increasing  swiftness  and  momentum,  the  whole 
fabric  of  the  civilization  of  Western  Asia  is  being 
transformed  and  that  the  process  in  the  nature  of  things 
will  go  forward  until  in  the  remotest  places  and  in  the 
most  secluded  elements  of  society  the  outlook  both  of  the 
men  and  of  the  women  will  undergo  a  thorough  change. 

That  revolution  in  the  ethos — in  the  whole  trend  and 
direction  of  life — is  unlike  anything  that  has  ever  hap- 
pened in  Nearer  Asia  since  civilization  was  really  es- 
tablished there.  It  has  been  true  in  earlier  centuries 
that  '^the  legions  thundered  past"  leaving  the  East  un- 
changed. But  the  cinema,  the  electric  tram,  the  cabled 
and  wireless  news  service,  the  sewing  machine,  the  fab- 
rics and  utensils  of  western  industry  do  not  ''thunder 
past;"  they  enter  into  life  at  every  point  and  penetrate 
to  its  innermost  recesses.  They  are  corrosive  and  ex- 
plosive. They  make,  so  to  speak,  a  positive  chemical 
change  not  in  the  surface  aspect,  but  in  the  inner  reality 
of  life.  And  for  this  reason  they  are  making  a  change 
without  precedent. 

The  man,  or  for  that  matter  the  woman,  who,  having 
lived  in  the  Near  East,  would  dogmatize  as  to  the  line 
on  which  that  future  development  is  likely  to  move 
would  be  guilty  of  audacity  running  perilously  close 
upon  the  heels  of  impertinence. 

There  are,  however,  certain  processes  both  of  de- 
struction and  reconstruction  that  are  already  quite  clearly 
in  evidence,  and  that  seem  in  the  very  nature  of  things 
bound  to  continue.  In  relation  to  the  life  of  woman 
the  first  of  these  is  the  gradual  breaking  of  some  of  the 
shackles  with  which  Islam  has  cramped  the  personality 
of  woman.  The  veil,  polygamy,  and  compulsory  ignor- 
ance are  three  successive  rows  of  entrenchments  that  are 
being  ''taken"  by  the  powerful  influences  of  the  West. 

The  movement  in  this  direction  has  already  found 
such  highly  qualified  leaders  as  Madame  Ulviye  Ha- 
noum,  the  leader  of  Turkish  Feminism,  trained,  it  may 
be  recalled,  in  the  Constantinople  College  for  Girls,  es- 
tablished by  American  missionary  enterprise.     Madame 


244  THE  MOSLEM  WORLD 

Hanoum  is  a  leader  in  the  society  for  the  defence  of  the 
rights  of  women,  which  has  a  sevenfold  programme. 
The  aims  of  this  society  are: 

1.  "To  transform  the  outdoor  costume  of  Turkish  women. 

2.  *'To  ameliorate  the  rules  of  marriage   according  to   the   exig- 

encies of  common  sense. 

3.  "To  fortify  woman  in  the  home. 

4.  "To   render   mothers   capable    of    bringing   up    their   children 

according  to  the  principles  of  modern  pedagogy. 

5.  "To  initiate  Turkish  women  into  life  in  society. 

6.  "To  encourage  women  to  earn  their  own  living  by  their  own 

work,  and  to  find  them  work  in  order  to  remedv  the  nr-o--,i- 
evils. 

7.  "To  open  women's  schools  in  order  to  give  to  young  Turkish 

girls  an  education  suited  to  the  needs  of  their  country,  and 
to  improve  those  schools  already  existing." 

The  Society  has  a  weekly  illustrated  paper,  called 
Kadinler-Dunyassi, 

This  movement  mainly  appeals  to  those  in  the  higher 
grades  of  social  life  in  what  was  the  Turkish  Empire — 
the  Lydias  and  Pricillas  of  to-day;  and  it  is  significant 
of  the  recognition  paid  by  Government  that  such  a 
development  should  so  far  from  being  quelled,  be  helped 
to  develop  itself  on  regularized  and  orderly  lines;  for 
during  the  war  the  Government  had  set  up  in  Beirut 
the  beginnings  of  the  organization  of  a  great  Turkish 
Women's  College,  Moslem  in  basis  but  committed  to  a 
progressive  policy. 

One  of  the  reasons  why  this  movement  is  bound  to 
continue  and  develop  is  that  the  younger  men  of  Turkey, 
and  Smyrna  in  particular,  who  have  seen  American  or 
European  life  either  at  a  university  or  in  the  cities,  are 
not  content  that  their  wives  should  have  no  significance 
as  comrades  or  in  intellectual  interests,  in  outlook  on 
the  wider  aspects  of  life,  in  intelligent  understanding 
of  their  ambitions  or  ideals. 

A  similar  development  is  certainly  going  on  though 
in  a  slower  way  and  by  different  processes  in  the  lower 
grades  of  society.  The  comparatively  small  develop- 
ment of  industry  on  factory  lines  before  the  war  had 
already  called  a  number  of  girls  and  younger  women  to 
work  of  that  order;  while  by  an  earth-shaking  con- 
cession some  Turkish  girls  had  actually  been  introduced 


WOMAN  IN  THE  NEAR  EAST  245 

into  the  Telephone  Exchange  in  Constantinople.  But 
the  work  of  the  mill,  the  office,  the  factory  is  quite 
certain  to  develop.  The  over-work  and  under-pay  of 
women  in  industries  in  Turkey  was  gross  in  pre-war 
times.  The  effect  of  this  evil  was  relatively  small  then, 
but  with  the  widespread  development  of  industry  that 
will  almost  certainly  sweep  across  Asia  Minor,  Syria 
and  Palestine,  and  up  the  Tigris  and  the  Euphrates, 
after  the  war,  such  conditions  of  labour  as  have  pre- 
vailed would  be  calamitous  if  accepted;  and  if  an  at- 
tempt is  made  to  impose  them,  they  will  almost  cer- 
tainly lead  to  severe  social  and  industrial  dislocation. 

It  seems,  then,  looking  at  the  matter  broadly,  as 
though  the  womanhood  of  Nearer  Asia  was  about  to 
enter  on  a  revolutionary  period  like  that  which  her 
European,  and  especially  her  British  and  American, 
sisters  went  through  in  the  industrial  development  of 
the  nineteenth  century — the  period  of  individual  libera- 
tion from  conventional  control  in  matters  of  manners, 
relationship  with  men,  and  self-support,  and  of  sub- 
jection, on  the  other  hand,  to  the  harsh  discipline  of 
industrial  and  commercial  life.  Alongside  of  that 
similarity  there  is  the  tremendously  important  difference 
that  in  the  one  case  there  was  the  tradition  of  relative 
liberty  and  in  the  other  the  tradition  of  quite  severe 
servitude.  The  tremendous  depth  and  width  of  this 
gulf  can  be  realized  faintly  if  we  try  to  imagine  the  pos- 
sibility of  the  existence  in  the  Turkish  Empire  in  the 
old  days  of  a  Jane  Austen  or  Elizabeth  Barrett  Brown- 
ing, to  say  nothing  of  a  George  Eliot  or  a  Florence 
Nightingale. 

In  this  seething  change  which  faces  the  womanhood 
of  the  Near  East  the  first  of  all  necessities  will  be  lead- 
ership, and  the  basis  of  all  leadership  is  character,  ex- 
pressed in  particular  through  will  and  intellect. 

Islam  has  only  begun  to  produce  the  first  elements  of 
such  leadership  under  Western  stimulus  and  on  Chris- 
tian models;  and  indeed  the  essential  principles  of  Is- 
lam, as  proclaimed  in  the  Suras  of  its  founder  and 
exemplified  in  his  life,  have  in  them,  even  giving  them 


246  THE  MOSLEM  WORLD 

credit  for  every  element  of  nobility  that  is  there,  no 
real  basis  for  the  development  of  the  leadership  among 
women. 

It  is  a  simple  statement  of  ultimate  reality  and  evi- 
dent truth  to  say  that  the  one  foundation  on  which  a 
true  leadership  of  womanhood  in  the  Near  East,  as  in- 
deed anywhere,  can  be  based  lies  in  Him,  Who,  born 
of  an  eastern  Mother,  was  the  Divine  Friend  and 
Leader  of  Mary  and  Martha,  lifted  Mary  of  Magdala 
from  corruption,  gave  His  forgiveness  and  restored  to 
purity  the  woman  taken  in  adultery,  and  set  up  for  all 
time  these  immortal,  stern  and  absolute  standards  of 
purity  on  which  alone  the  personality  of  men  and  women 
in  comradeship  can  grow  to  full  bloom  and  splendid 
fruitage. 

To  any  woman  to  whom  Christ  has  given  these  things, 
who  stands  on  the  threshold  of  life' looking  for  an  ave- 
nue down  which  she  shall  walk,  the  vocation  comes  of 
leading  the  new  girlhood  and  womanhood  of  Nearer 
Asia  into  the  freedom  that  is  not  license  and  the  service 
that  is  perfect  liberty.  There  is,  so  far  as  I  know,  no 
call  more  insistent  and  urgent,  nor  any  that  will  bear 
greater  fruit  in  establishing  the  strength  and  beauty  of 
the  life  of  the  world  of  to-morrow,  than  the  need  of 
the  new  womanhood  of  Asia. 

Basil  Mathews. 
London,  England, 


WANTED— A  MORE  VIGOROUS  POLICY 


Marshall  Foch  (Generalissimo  of  the  Allied  Forces) 
has  set  for  all  time  the  maxim  of  the  strategy  of  war. 
Let  the  enemy  attack  and  waste  his  reserves  and  then, 
strike  back  in  force  all  along  the  line  at  the  same  time, 
concentrating  forces  at  certain  salient  but  powerful 
points  of  resistance  which  must  be  attacked  simultan- 
eously and  penetrated  or  driven  back  so  that,  instead 
of  being  hinges  of  a  great  consolidated  line  of  resist- 
ance, they  become  the  weak  links  in  a  chain  which  give 
back  and  so  drag  the  whole  line  in  confusion  after 
them. 

This  is  the  spiritual  policy  of  the  Christian  Church 
with  regard  to  Islam.  Let  us  pursue  the  metaphor. 
We  are  concentrated  and  we  are  moreover  under  the 
superhuman  leadership  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  in 
Heaven.  We  are  in  the  right  positions  everywhere; 
we  know  the  field  thoroughly;  we  know  the  strong 
points  of  resistance;  the  enemies'  materials  have  de- 
teriorated while  ours  are,  as  ever,  efficient.  (See  an 
article  in  October,  1914  ^'The  International  Review  of 
Missions"  on  "The  Present  Attitude  of  Educated  Mos- 
lems towards  Jesus  Christ  and  the  Scriptures"  by  S.  M. 
Zwemer.)  Our  "Air  Force"  (the  Holy  Scriptures)  is 
everywhere  flying  over  enemy  lines  and  lands  and  liter- 
ally "bombing"  places  formerly  unattackable.  We  have 
a  vast  amount  of  material  (literature)  and  we  have  in 
Hartford  and  the  Cairo  Study  Centre  schools  of 
training  of  the  highest  value — Yes,  good!  but  Is  the 
time  for  this  "offensive  come"?  and  "What  are  the 
strong  salient  positions  where  the  attack  should  be 
pressed?" 

In  regard  to  the  first— "Is  it  the  time?"  Is  it?  The 
great  all-world  policy  of  the  "League  of  Nations"  is 
formulating.     Outside  of  that  League  may  lie  the  two 

247 


248  THE  MOSLEM  WORLD 

great  strongholds  of  Islamic  rule — Germany  and  Tur- 
key. Eventually  they  too  will  be  absorbed;  not  as  but- 
tresses of  a  devasting  and  static  Islam  but  as  integral 
parts  of  a  great  whole,  dominatingly  Christian,  leagued 
against  the  doctrine  of  Jihad  and  the  policy  of  inde- 
pendent nations  free  to  exterminate  Christian  peoples 
within  their  borders.  Armenia  and  Georgia  will  again 
become  free  peoples  and  their  Churches  Missionary 
Churches;  in  free  Jerusalem  and  Damascus,  in  Bagdad 
and  Shiraz  the  life  of  the  convert  from  Islam  will  be 
as  free  as  it  is  today  in  the  bazaars  of  Bombay;  civil 
and  religious  liberty  will  prevail.  There  will  be  a  fair 
field  (if  no  favor)  ;  in  this  time,  nay,  within  the  next 
few  months,  if  possible,  before  the  League  of  Nations 
*(Deo  Gratia!)  is  founded  at  the  Hague,  long  b.efore 
this  first  quarter  century  is  over,  the  Christian  Church 
must  have  already  occupied  the  positions  decided  on  as 
centres  of  attack,  and  have  established  its  claim  to 
hold  them  for  Christ, 

What  are  they? 

It  is  easier  to  say  what  they  are  not.  The  old  Moghul 
cities  in  India  can  be  ruled  out,  they  are  unproductive. 
Moreover  the  time  has  now  come  to  advance  in  all 
countries  inland  from  the  Ports.  General  Sir  Stanley 
Maude  directly  on  arrival  in  Mesopotamia  moved  his 
headquarters  (a  steamer  on  the  Tigris!)  from  Basrah 
up  to  the  advanced  lines  and  even  in  advance — of  these 
and  finally  (the  day  after  its  capture)  right  into  Bag- 
dad, an  advance  of  500  miles  in  some  100  days!  The 
Frontier  Missions  of  India  must  move  forward  into 
Afghanistan  and  Persia,  and  the  Missions  along  the 
North  African  coast  use  the  coast  towns  merely  as 
"bases."  We  would,  similarly,  like  to  see  Khartoum 
the  Headquarters  of  the  Nile  Mission.  The  Malay 
Peninsula  is  another  strategic  point  to  be  occupied — 
Singapore  to  be  the  base.  The  whole  stretches  of  the 
Tigris  up  to  Mosul  from  Bagdad  as  a  centre;  the  Bag- 
dad Railway  with  Aleppo  as  a  base  and  Damascus  for 
Syria;  Arabia  is  the  only  possible  exception,  but  Mecca 
is  'our  Mecca.' 


WANTED— A  MORE  VIGOROUS  POLICY  249 

This  article  may  sound,  to  some,  too  militant  and  too 
geographic.  The  justification  of  the  former  is  the  lan- 
guage of  St  Paul ;  of  the  latter  the  fact  that  we  are  al- 
ways told  the  problem  of  religions  is  a  geographical 
one.  By  geography  aided  by  Ethnography  can  we 
alone  envisage  the  world.  Let  us  grasp  that  vision  and 
the  spirit  of  Christ  will  reveal  to  us  the  problems  of 
evangelization  which  underlie  the  geographical  picture. 
The  Holy  Scriptures  are  full  of  both  warfare  and  geog- 
raphy. The  delineation  is  geographical;  the  founda- 
tion of  the  calculus  is  far  deeper  and  is  based  not  only 
on  the  religious  needs  of  Islamic  peoples  but  also  on 
the  regeneration  of  peoples  under  Islam  by  Christian 
agencies;  such  as  Medical  and  Educational  Missions 
and  the  distribution  of  the  Scriptures  always  placed  at 
the  right  centres  in  each  land,  at  strategic  and  economic 
points  where  you  reach  the  nerve  centres  of  a  country 
and  also  save  unnecessary  journeyings.  Are  we  mis- 
taken in  picturing  the  founders  of  the  League  of  Na- 
tions meeting  in  a  room  with  great  maps  on  the  walls? 
These  maps  will  certainly  represent  the  ethnic  prob- 
lems to  be  settled,  racial  boundaries  and  affinities,  com- 
mercial interests,  trade  routes,  economic  relations. 
What  is  also  essential  is  that  they  should  represent  re- 
ligious connotation.  The  League  will  have  to  take 
into  account  religious  problems.  What  if  it  lays  it 
down  as  axiomatic  that  propaganda  of  religion  by  one 
Faith  in  a  country  mainly  professing  another  is  not 
allowable?  Then  the  two  great  Propagandist  Faiths — 
Christianity  and  Islam — can  continue  to  compete  for 
the  religious  supremacy  of  the  backward  portions  of 
Africa,  but  Islam  cannot  be  propagated  in  China  nor 
Christianity  in  Moslem  Asia  or  North  Africa;  Mis- 
sions to  Jews  in  the  Holy  Land  must  cease;  the  Soudan 
would  be  a  closed  land  to  Christian  Missions.  What 
then  becomes  of  our  campaign?  Islam  will  be  in  as- 
sured possession  of  the  lands  which  it  already  claims 
to  possess  and  the  area  of  Christian  propaganda  re- 
stricted to  Central  and  South  African  tribes  and  to  the 
Australasian  Archipelago ! 


250  THE  MOSLEM  WORLD 

We  have  therefore  at  our  Home  Base  to  face  a 
politico-religious  question.  Our  representatives  in  the 
foundation  of  the  League  of  Nations — I  mean  the  rep- 
resentatives of  the  Allied  Powers,  Great  Britain, 
France,  Italy  and  America,  must  be  informed  now  of 
the  attitude  of  the  Christian  Church  to  any  such  ar- 
rangement. But  that  is  not  enough.  We  have  to 
demonstrate  that  the  protagonists  of  Christianity  are 
the  best  friends  of  the  League  of  Nations.  In  other 
v^ords  we  have  to  convince  the  founders  of  the  League 
that  we  are  out  to  help;  to  propagate  peace  and  good- 
will amongst  men,  that  the  weapons  of  our  warfare  are 
not  carnal  but  spiritual  and  mighty  through  God  to  the 
throwing  down  of  the  strongholds  of  unrighteousness. 
This  will  be  by  no  means  an  easy  task,  rather  it  appears 
to  be  one  of  consummate  difficulty.  We  have  to  re- 
member several  factors:  i.  That  it  is  an  obsession  of 
the  British  Political  and  Military  mind  that  Turkey  is 
our  old  and  tried  friend  whose  late  aberration  from 
friendship  was  a  by-product.  2.  That  the  inviolability 
of  the  Islamic  sacred  places  and  (by  inference)  of  Is- 
lam itself  is  guaranteed  by  British  diplomacy.  3.  That 
we  are  now  all  of  us  Allies  pledged  to  the  Constitution 
of  an  Arab  state  ruled  from  Damascus.  4.  That  Great 
Britain,  France,  Italy  and  the  Netherlands  rule  vast 
numbers  of  Mussalmans.  5.  That  Moslem  soldiers 
assisted  the  Allies  to  win  the  War  and  fell  by  thousands 
in  our  Cause. 

We  cannot,  in  the  face  of  these  facts,  hope  to  con- 
vince our  rulers  that  the  character  of  Islam  is  opposed 
to  civilization  and  progress.  We  have  then,  by  the 
Grace  of  God,  to  gird  ourselves  to  the  great  task  of 
bringing  back  the  leaders  of  Christianity  today  to  the 
eternal  truth  ''Seek  ye  first  the  Kingdom  of  God  and 
His  righteousness."  We  can  point  to  the  fact  that  not 
religious  propaganda  but  the  propaganda  of  ''Welt 
Politik"  of  German  materialistic  Kultur  has  turned  the 
world  upside-down.  That  not  religion,  but  "the  will 
to  power"  involved  twenty  millions  of  men  in  a  death 
struggle.     Religion  therefore  stands  absolved;  the  Gos- 


WANTED— A  MORE  VIGOROUS  POLICY  251 

pel  is  still  the  Faith  of  the  Prince  of  Peace."  That  ^Ve 
conquer  but  to  save,"  and  that  the  great  redeeming  and 
healing  forces  of  the  Gospel  of  the  Christ  are  the  leaves 
of  a  tree  that  grows  ^'for  the  healing  of  the  Nations." 

We  have  to  prove  to  the  Founders  of  the  League  of 
Nations  that  Islamic  lands  can  only  become  vital  parts 
of  the  League  by  coming  into  "the  Christian  Family" 
for  (as  ex-President  Taft  said  of  the  Moslems  of  the 
Philippines)  "they  will  never  understand  democracy 
until  they  accept  Christianity." 

At  this  vital  hour  of  the  World's  history  we  need  not 
then  labor  the  point  that  we  want,  in  the  organization 
of  missions  to  Moslems,  a  more  vigorous  policy  at 
home    and    abroad.     It    is    self-evident. 

What  we  must  lay  stress  on  is 

1.  That  it  needs  the  consummate  statesmanship  of 
our  leaders. 

2.  That  it  needs  the  pouring  out  of  life  and  treasure. 

3.  That  it  needs  intense  and  organized  intercession 
for  the  gift  of  the  Divine  Wisdom  to  religious  and  civil 
leaders  and  rulers. 

Arthur  J.  P.  French. 

Bombay,  India, 


CHRIST  SUPERIOR  TO  MOHAMMED 


Fourteen  Reasons  From  the  Koran 
I 

Some  time  since,  a  missionary  sent  me  a  manuscript 
written  by  a  Mullah  who  was  an  inquirer  and  a  con- 
fessed believer  in  Jesus  Christ  as  a  Saviour.  The  mis- 
sionary suggested  that  the  article  might  be  suitable  for 
publication  in  our  weekly  newspaper  the  Nur  Afshan. 
I  concluded  it  would  be  better  to  print  it  as  a  separate 
pamphlet  for  use  among  Moslem  inquirers  or  those 
interested  in  any  way  in  Christian  teaching.  I  sub- 
mitted it  to  a  Christian  friend,  himself  once  a  Moslem, 
and  asked  him  to  revise  and  give  his  opinion  as  to  wheth- 
er it  might  be  published.  He  said  it  should  be  pub- 
lished, and  undertook  to  carry  it  through  the  press  for 
me.  Two  thousand  copies  were  printed  under  the  title- 
Haqaiq-i-Quran  qabil-i-tawajju-i-Ahl-i-Islam.  (Truths 
of  the  Koran  deserving  of  the  attention  of  the  people 
of  Islam). 

The  tract  gives  fourteen  reasons,  drawn  from  the 
Koran,  for  believing  that  Jesus  Christ  is  greater  than 
Mohammed.     They  are  in  brief  as  follows: 

1.  The  miraculous  surrounding  the  birth  of  Jesus; 
Gabriel's  visit  to  Mary.  But  no  mention  is  made  of 
any  such  thing  connected  with  Mohammed's  birth. 

2.  The  mother  of  Jesus  is  thus  addressed  in  the  Koran 
— "Ya  Maryam..  inna  Allah  astafaki  'ala  nisai'  Tala- 
min"  (To  Mary.... God  hath  chosen  thee  above  (all) 
the  women  of  the  worlds  (Suratu  Al  Imran  iii:42). 
She  is  also  given  the  title  of  ^Sadiqah'  (A  woman  of 
veracity  Suratu'l-Maidah,  verse  78),  but  the  mother  of 
Mohammed  is  not  so  much  as  mentioned,  while  many 
Moslems  do  not  believe  she  was  a  Mussalman. 

3.  Miraculous  accompaniments  attending  the  birth 
of  Jesus,  e.  g.,  the  dry  palm  tree  becoming  green  and 

252 


CHRIST  SUPERIOR  TO  MOHAMMED  253 

producing  fruit  to  sustain  Mary  while  in  travail;  the 
bursting  forth  of  a  fountain  to  give  her  drink;  the  visit 
of  angels  to  comfort  her  (Suratu-i-Maryam,  2nd.  Ru- 
qu).  But  the  Koran  makes  no  such  mention  of  any 
miraculous  manifestations  in  connection  with  Moham- 
med's birth. 

4.  Jesus'  declaration  in  infancy,  saying  He  was  a 
prophet  to  whom  God  had  given  the  Book,  raises  Hirri 
above  all  other  prophets,  but  Mohammed  did  not  claim 
to  be  a  prophet  until  he  was  advanced  in  years.  This 
proves  Jesus'  superiority  to  Mohammed. 

5.  According  to  the  Koran  when  the  enemies  of  Jesus 
thought  to  kill  Him,  the  angels  caught  Him  out  of 
their  hands  and  carried  Him  up  to  heaven.  When  the 
enemies  of  Mohammed  sought  to  kill  him,  no  angel 
came  to  his  aid,  but,  hiding  in  a  cave  he  made  his  escape 
and  fled  to  Medina,  where  he  took  refuge  with  the 
Ansar.  Is  there  not  the  difference  here  as  between 
heaven  and  earth! 

6.  A  somewhat  lengthy  statement  concerning  the  exal- 
tation of  Jesus  in  heaven,  where  He  has  existed  in  His 
humanity  for  two  thousand  years;  this  gives  Him  a  place 
above  Mohammed,  and  indeed  in  so  far  as  the  Koran 
teaching  is  concerned  proves  Him  superior  to  all  other 
mortals,  whether  prophets  or  otherwise.  In  proof  of 
this  the  author  cites  the  Koran  (Surat-i-Ihraf,  2nd  Ru- 
qu;  and  Surat-i-Mursalat,  Ruqu  i,  also  Suratu  '1  An- 
biya,  Ruqu  i). 

7.  The  Koran  admits  that  Jesus  raised  the  dead  and 
exercised  Divine  power  (Surat  '1  Muminin,  Ruqu  5), 
saying  that  ^'He  maketh  alive  and  He  destroyeth."  This 
is  the  sole  prerogative  of  God.  Did  Mohammed  ever 
raise  the  dead?  Is  it  not  as  clear  as  sunlight  that 
Christ  is  superior  to  Mohammed? 

8.  The  Koran  declares  that  Allah  is  **Lord  of  the 
worlds,"  and  'The  Creator  of  all  things."  This  Koran 
also  declares  that  the  Christ  created  birds.  This 
proves  that  neither  Mohammed  nor  any  of  the  prophets, 
but  only  the  Messiah  had  power  to  create.  For  this 
reason  Christ  is  superior  to  Mohammed. 


254  THE  MOSLEM  WORLD 

9.  The  Koran  declares  that  Christ  healed  the  blind, 
gave  hearing  to  the  deaf  and  cleansed  the  lepers  by 
reason  of  His  miraculous  power.  If  Mohammed  ever 
performed  such  a  miracle  let  someone  prove  it  from 
the  Koran,  or  else  recognize  Jesus  as  greater  than  Mo- 
hammed. 

10.  The  Koran  declares  that  Christ  by  His  omnis- 
cience could  tell  people  what  they  had  been  doing,  what 
they  ate  and  drank  in  their  houses.  In  the  fact  that 
Christ  possessed  the  omniscience  of  God,  He  was  su- 
perior to  Mohammed. 

11.  The  Koran  proves  all  the  prophets,  including 
Mohammed,  to  have  been  sinners,  but  in  no  place  is  Jesus 
Christ  said  to  have  sinned  or  to  have  repented,  or  to 
have  been  commanded  to  repent  of  sin.  Mohammed's 
sins  are  mentioned,  and  he  was  commanded  to  repent 
of  them.     Here  again   Christ  excels   Mohammed. 

12.  Thirteen  hundred  years  ago  Mohammed  died 
and  was  buried  in  the  ordinary  manner,  and  his  body 
has  been  mingled  with  the  dust;  but  Christ  has  been 
alive  for  two  thousand  years  in  heaven,  and,  according 
to  the  teaching  of  Islam,  He  shall  again  descend  for 
the  guidance  and  instruction  of  men.  The  Koran  de- 
clares that  "The  Living  and  the  Dead  are  not  equal," 
wherefore  Christ  is  superior  to  Mohammed  . 

13.  Among  the  doctrines  of  Islam  is  this,  that  in  the 
last  times,  when  Dajjal  shall  appear  and  lead  astray 
the  faithful  and  the  Faith  of  God  be  jeopardized,  then 
Christ  shall  descend  from  heaven  and  reestablish  the 
true  Faith,  and  all  men  shall  believe  on  Him  (Suratu 
Nisa,  Ruqu  22).  If  now  Mohammed  were  the  last 
oi  the  prophets,  why  should  he  not  have  been  raised 
from  the  dead  to  do  this  service?  Why  should  Christ 
be  sent  down  to  do  work  while  the  dust  of  Mohammed 
should  remain  unaware  of  all  these  things?  Wherefore 
since  the  Messiah  at  the  first  was  Guide  and  Leader, 
and  is  the  same  too  at  the  last,  while  Mohammed  came 
between  like  a  whirlwind  and  then  passed  away  and  is 
no  longer  able  to  raise  his  head  from  the  dust,  who 
but  the  wilful  unbeliever  would  shut  his  eyes  to  the  fact 


CHRIST  SUPERIOR  TO  MOHAMMED  255 

that  the  Christ  is  a  thousandfold  greater  than  Mo- 
hammed? 

14.  According  to  the  Koran,  Mohammed  is  only  an 
apostle  and  a  sinful  man,  while  the  Messiah  is  abso- 
lutely  sinless    and    a   divine   person. 

The  above  arguments  are  so  clear  and  true  that  the 
fact  is  established  that  Christ  is  in  every  possible  as- 
pect of  the  case  a  thousandfold  superior  and  more 
exalted  than  Mohammed.  If  now  any  one  will  not 
accept  this  clear  and  convincing  truth,  it  will  be  be- 
cause of  his  self-conceit  and  bigotry.  May  the  merciful 
Lord  heal  my  Moslem  brothers  of  this  disease  and 
enlighten  their  eyes  with  the  true  light.     Amen.'' 

This  little  tract  has  fallen  as  a  bomb  in  the  Moslem 
camp.  Letters  were  written  to  the  Editor  of  the  Paig- 
ham-i-Sullah  of  Lahore,  urging  that  the  learned  Maul- 
vis  should  speedily  reply  to  these  ^^objections,"  because 
the  faith  of  many  of  the  faithful  was  being  undermined. 
The  editor  very  frankly  says  that  orthodox  Islam  cannot 
reply  to  these  objections,  claiming  that  only  the  Qadiani 
Moslems  can  reply.  He  has  been  laboriously  replying 
to  his  followers,  but  the  end  is  not  yet.  Let  us  pray 
that  the  readers  of  this  tract  may  see  something  more  in 
the  Messiah  of  the  Koran  than  the  most  exalted  of  all 
prophets,  and  come  out  into  the  true  light  of  the  Gospel 
of  the  Son  of  God,  who,  being  the  brightness  of  the 
glory  of  God  and  the  express  image  of  His  Person,  is 
the  Incarnate  God  and  Saviour  of  the  world. 

Four  editions  of  this  pamphlet  have  been  published. 
Nineteen  thousand  copies  have  been  issued,  of  which 
ten  thousand  have  been  sold. 

The  tract  has  been  called  for  by  both  Christians  and 
Moslems.  Orders  for  hundreds  and  by  two  persons  one 
thousand  each.  This  proves  the  interest  awakened  by 
this  new  presentation  of  the  claims  of  Jesus  Christ. 

II 

Several  learned  Mullahs  have  volunteered  replies  to 
this  tract.  The  readers  of  the  MOSLEM  WORLD  will  be 
interested  in  the  discussion.     The  following  is  the  reply 


256  THE  MOSLEM  WORLD 

of   one   of    them,    a    Maulvi    in   Jessore,    BengaL     He 
writes  as  follows: 

"Praise  be  to  God,  the  Lord  of  the  Worlds.  He  begetteth  not, 
neither  is  begotten,  and  there  is  not  any  like  him." 

* 'There  has  recently  come  into  our  hands  a  scurrilous  tract  pub- 
lished by  some  Christian  Padris  which  pretends  to  prove  by  fourteen 
"reasons"  taken  from  the  Koran,  that  the  Prophet  Isa,  on  whom 
be  the  peace  and  blessing  of  God,  is  greater  than  our  Prophet  Mo- 
hammed, on  whom  be  the  peace  and  blessing  of  God.  The  tract 
in  question  is  composed  of  a  compound  of  ignorance  and  bigotry 
such  as  is  seldom  met  with  even  in  the  writings  of  these  Christian, 
whose  one  aim  is  to  deceive  ignorant  and  simple  minded  believers. 
The  writer  of  the  tract,  with  the  cunning  of  his  kind,  adroitly 
attempts  to  secure  his  ends  by  ruling  out  of  court,  the  testimony 
of  the  traditions.  These  premises,  however,  w^e  cannot  admit. 
If  Christians  rely  upon  biographies  of  their  Prophet  written 
by  his  followers  long  after  his  death,  they  have  no  right  to  reject 
the  testimony  of  Mohammed's  followers  with  regard  to  the  events 
of  his  life.  The  Holy  Koran  does  not  profess  to  be  a  biography  of  the 
Prophet.  It  came  direct  from  heaven  for  the  guidance  of  men. 
For  this  reason  Allah  has  given  to  men  the  further  revelation  of  the 
Hadith  in  which  the  unique  supremacy  of  Mohammed  over  all  other 
prophets  is  clearly  shown.  We  now  turn  to  the  fourteen  reasons 
of  the  Christian's  tract. 

(i)  The  Padri's  first  point  is  that,  according  to  the  Koran, 
miraculous  events  accompanied  the  birth  of  Christ,  such  as  the  an- 
nouncement by  an  angel,  etc.,  but  that  Mohammed's  birth  is  not 
so  much  as  mentioned,  therefore  Christ  is  superior  to  Mohammed. 

This  argument  affords  a  good  illustration  of  the  Padri's  fallacious 
method  of  arguing  from  the  silence  of  Scripture.  No  miraculous 
events  surrounding  Mohammed's  birth  are  mentioned,  therefore  none 
happened.  Truly  wonderful  logic.  He  might  as  w^U  argue  that 
the  Prophet's  birth  is  not  mentioned  in  the  Koran,  and  therefore  he 
was  never  born.  Does  the  Padri  forget,  too,  that  the  Koran  states 
that  an  angel  came  to  announce  the  birth  of  John  the  Baptist,  and 
that  his  own  Bible  states  that  other  Prophets  were  announced  before 
their  birth?  Wherein,  then,  lies  the  superiority  of  Christ?  More- 
over, if  a  prophet's  preeminence  is  to  be  judged  by  the  amount  of 
space  given  to  him  in  the  pages  of  the  Holy  Koran,  than  many  other 
prophets,  such  as  Abraham,  Joseph  and  Moses  are  far  superior  to 
Christ.  If  the  Padri  will  put  aside  his  prejudices  and  read  the  Tra- 
ditions, he  will  see  that  many  prodigies  accompanied  the  birth  of  the 
Prophet  of  Islam. 

(2)  The  second  so-called  argument  of  the  Padri  is  even  weaker 
than  the  first,  viz:  that  in  the  Koran  the  mother  of  Christ  is  men- 
tioned with  approbation,  whilst  Mohammed's  mother  is  not  so  much 
as  named.  Therefore  Christ  is  superior.  Does,  then,  we  ask,  a 
man's  status  before  God  depend  upon  his  mother?  The  greatest 
Prophet  of  the  Old  Testament  as  well  as  of  the  Koran,  whose 
greatness  earned  him  the  title,  "Friend  of  God,"  was  the  son  of 
idolators.  On  the  other  hand,  some  of  the  sons  of  the  Prophet 
David  were  wicked  men.  According  to  the  Padri's  logic  Amnon 
should  be  superior  to  Abraham.  If  the  Padri  will  take  the  trouble 
to  study   the  great  commentaries  of   the   Koran   he  will   learn   that 


CHRIST  SUPERIOR  TO  MOHAMMED  257 

the  words  "God  hath  chosen  thee  above  all  the  women  of  the  world" 
addressed  to  Mary  the  mother  of  Jesus,  in  the  Koran,  simply  mean, 
above  all  the  women  of  thy  own   time. 

(3)  It  is  said  that  Jesus  spoke  in  his  cradle,  and  claimed  to  be 
a  prophet  from  his  infancy,  Mohammed  only  assumed  the  prophetic 
office  from  middle  age,  therefore  Christ  is  superior. 

The  assumption  that  because  a  man  receives  his  prophetic  call 
late  in  life  and  therefore  he  is  inferior  to  one  who  receives  it  in 
childhood  is  false.  Was  Abraham,  the  Friend  of  God  inferior  to 
Samuel,  or  Moses  to  Jeremiah?  "Life  is  measured  by  deeds,  not 
years,"  and  our  holy  prophet  Mohammed  as  the  seal  of  the  prophets, 
who  came  to  abrogate  all  previous  dispensations  is  clearly  greater 
than  them  all.  The  Padri  boldly  declares  that  "Christ's  speaking  in 
the  cradle,  arid  claiming  prophethood  from  infancy  afiEords  clear 
proof  of  his  superiority  over  all  prophets."  He  forgets  that  others, 
such  as  Jeremiah  and  John  the  Baptist  were  chosen,  even  before  their 
birth,  to  be  the  messengers  of  God. 

(5)  It  is  said  that  God  saved  the  prophet  Isa  from  his  enemies 
by  taking  him  up  alive  to  heaven.  He  did  not  intervene  to  save 
Mohammed,  who  w^as  obliged  to  flee  from  Mecca,  first  to  a  cave, 
and  subsequently  to  Medina,  therefore  Christ  is  greater  than  Mo- 
hammed. 

We  first  of  all  thank  the  Padri  for  emphasising  the  fact  that 
Christ  did  not  die,  but  was  taken  up  alive  to  heaven;  but  we  reject 
with  scorn  the  implication  that  because  our  holy  prophet  Mohammed 
was  not  taken  up  to  heaven  in  a  similar  manner  that,  therefore,  he 
was  inferior  to  Christ.  Christ's  work  was  done,  or,  to  be  more 
correct,  had  proved  an  utter  failure,  and  so  God  took  him ;  but  had 
the  Prophet  Mohammed  been  taken  from  Mecca  to  heaven  his  mis- 
sion of  founding  the  final  and  perfect  religion  could  not  have  been 
accomplished.  The  padri's  ingenuousness  and  intention  to  deceive 
the  uninformed  is  seen  by  his  reference  to  the  cave  in  which  the  prophet 
took  refuge,  whilst  deliberately  omitting  to  mention  how  God 
miraculously  preserved  the  prophet  by  sending  a  spider  to  weave  a 
web  across  the  entrance  in  order  to  deceive  his  pursuers.  Our 
prophet's  life  is  full  of  instances  of  God's  protecting  care,  as  e.  g., 
when  he  sent  thousands  of  angels  to  assist  the  Moslems  at  the  Battle 
of  Bedr,  and  later  caused  a  piece  of  poisoned  meat  to  speak  and 
warn  the  prophet  of  his  danger.  With  such  facts  before  him  how 
dare  the  Padri  say  that  God  did  not  protect  our  holy  prophet 
Mohammed. 

(6)  Jesus  was  taken  alive  to  heaven,  and  remained  there,  in  his 
human  body,  for  2,000  years  without  food  or  drink,  he  is  therefore 
"superior  to  all  the  sons  of  Adam." 

Again  the  Padri  presumes  upon  the  ignorance  of  his  readers,  for 
'  he  knows  full  well  that  other  prophets,  such  as  Moses  and  Elijahj 
were  taken  up  to  heaven  and  have  lived  there  many  centuries  longer 
than  Christ.  If  it  is  a  question  of  length  of  stay  in  the  celestial 
regions,  then  these  are  obviously  superior  to  Christ.  Moreover,  in 
spite  of  the  Padri's  assumption  to  the  contrary,  our  holy  prophet 
Mohammed  was  also  taken  up  to  heaven  and  held  privileged  con- 
verse with  his  Creator.  This  celebrated  "Night  journey"  of  our 
prophet  is  a  clearly  established  fact  which  only  one  blind  with 
bigotry  would  dare  deny. 

(7)  Jesus  raised  the  dead.  Giving  life  to  the  dead  is  a  divine 
prerogative,    therefore    Christ   shares    the    divine   nature.     "Has    Mo- 


258  THE  MOSLEM  WORLD 

hammed  sabib  or  any  other  rasul  or  nabi  ever  raised  anyone  from 
the  dead?"  This  unique  power  of  raising  the  dead  places  Christ 
high  above  all  the  prophets. 

The  Padri  pursues  his  usual  tactics  of  tradinjg  on  the  assumed 
ignorance  of  his  readers,  for  he  knows  full  well  that  his  argument 
is  utterly  w^orthless.  Firstly  because  the  Koran  distinctly  states  that 
Jesus  raised  the  dead  only  by  the  "permission  of  God,"  which  means 
by  the  delegated  power  of  God ;  and —  secondly,  because  in  spite  of 
the  Padri's  hypocritical  challenge,  many  others  besides  Christ  are  said 
to  have  raised  the  dead.  The  Christians  own  Bible  witnesses  against 
him,  and  if  the  act  of  raising  the  dead  is  a  proof  that  Jesus,  Son  of 
Mary,  was  "a  sharer  in  the  divine  nature,"  then  he  must  admit  that 
Elijah,  Peter  and  Paul  were  all  divine." 

(8)  Christ  is  stated  in  the  Koran  to  have  "created"  birds.  Crea- 
tion, like  raising  the  dead,  is  the  prerogative  of  divinity.  Therefore 
Christ  is  divine.  Neither  Mohammed  or  any  other  prophet  is  said 
to  have  created,  therefore  Christ  is  superior  to  all. 

Again  the  Padri  deliberately  suppresses  the  fact  that,  in  the  Koran, 
it  is  definitely  stated  that  Christ  created  by  the  "permission"  of  God. 
He  had  no  powder  of  his  own,  apart  from  that  delegated  power. 
This  repeated  suppression  of  facts  and  statement  of  half-truths  show 
the  straits  to  which  these  Padris  are  put  in  order  to  bolster  up  the 
supposed  superiority  of  their  prophet.  If  the  Padri's  argument  from 
the  silence  of  scripture  was  a  blunder,  when  dealing  with  the 
miraculous  birth  of  Christ  his  suppression  of  it  here  is  a  crime. 

(9)  Christ  performed  many  miracles  of  healing.  Mohammed  per- 
formed  no  miracle,   therefore   Christ   is  superior. 

Again  the  writer  omits  to  mention  that  these  miracles  of  Christ 
were  all  performed  by  the  "permission"  of  God.  Moreover  the 
Padri  lies  when  he  says  that  our  holy  prophet  performed  no  miracles. 
He  worked  many  miracles  some  of  w^hich  such  as  the  splitting  of  the 
moon,  are  mentioned  in  the  Koran.  If  the  Padri  will  only  read 
the  Traditions  he  will  see  that  the  miracles  of  Mohammed  are  in  no 
way  inferior  to  those  of  Christ.  Moreover  the  miracles  of  Christ 
were  only  a  sign  to  the  people  of  his  day,  but  the  great  miracle  of 
Mohammed,  the  incomparable  eloquence  of  the  Koran,  is  a  standing 
miracle  for  all  time,  as  potent  today  as  when  the  prophet  lived  upon 
earth. 

(10)  Christ  was  omniscient  and  could  tell  what  people  were  eat- 
ing and  drinking  in  their  housees.  This  knowledge  of  the  unseen, 
like  raising  the  dead,  is  the  sole  prerogative  of  God,  therefore  Jesus 
shares  the  divine  nature.  Mohammed  had  no  such  power,  and  so 
was,  in  this  respect  also  far  inferior  to  Christ. 

Again  the  astounding  arrogance  of  the  Christian  is  seen.  He 
knows  full  well  that  it  is  recorded  in  his  own  scriptures  that  many 
prophets  had  this  power  given  them  by  God,  and  could  read  the 
thoughts  of  men.  Elisha's  dealings  with  Gehazi  and  Peter's  with 
Ananias  are  illustrations  in  point.  Our  own  prophet,  also,  was 
given  the  power  to  perceive  the  insincerity  of  the  hyprocites  of  Medina. 
He  also  foretold  future  events,  such  as  the  fall  of  Mecca  and  the  defeat 
of  the  Persians.  Will  then  the  Padri  admit  that  Elisha  and  Peter 
were  also  "partakers  of  the  divine  power  of  God."  This  power  was, 
however,  limited  in  the  prophet  Jesus,  as  in  all  others,  as  is  seen  in 
his  ignorance  of  the  resurrection  day. 

(11)  In  the  Koran  the  sins  of  all  prophets,  including  Mohammed, 


CHRIST  SUPERIOR  TO  MOHAMMED  259 

are  mentioned,  but  no  sin  of  Jesus  was  mentioned,  therefore  he  was 
sinless,  and  hence,  superior  to  all  others. 

Again  the  Padri  resorts  to  his  vicious  argument  from  the  silence 
of  scripture  to  prove  his  point.  But  in  his  haste,  he,  as  usual, 
proves  too  much,  for  other  people  are  mentioned  in  the  Koran,  of 
whose  sins,  the  Padri's  assertion  to  the  contrary  notwithstanding,  no 
mention  is  found.  Is  every  man  to  be  presumed  blind,  of  whose  sight 
forsooth  no  rrjention  happens  to  be  made?  That  Jesus  was  a  sinner  we 
know  from  his  words,  * Vhy  callest  thou  me  good"  ?  As  to  the  Koran's 
passages  in  which  Mohammed  was  told  to  ask  pardon  for  his  sins, 
these  do  not  refer  to  actual  sins  committed,  but  the  prophet  was  told 
to  ask  pardon  as  an  example  of  humility  to  his  followers. 

(12)  Christ  has  been  alive  in  heaven  for  2,000  years,  whereas 
Mohammed  is  dead,  and  his  body  lies  rotting  in  the  grave.  The  living 
is  greater  than  the  dead,  therefore  Christ  is  greater  than  Mohammed. 

We  have  already  pointed  out  that  others  have  been  alive  in  heaven 
longer  than  Christ,  therefore  the  Padri  should  on  his  own  showing 
acknowledge  them  to  be  superior  to  Christ.  But  the  Padri's  boast 
of  the  living  being  greater  than  the  dead  is  worthless;  for  in  the 
very  tradition  which  he  quotes  regarding  Christ's  return  to  earth,  it 
is  clearly  stated  that  he  will  return  to  die.  Behold  then  the  perfidy 
of  these  Christian  priests  in  their  suppression  of  that  portion  of  the 
tradition  which  tells  against  their  argument.  If  the  Padri's  argu- 
ment is  worth  anything,  then  Elijah  is  superior  to  Christ. 

(13)  Christ  is  to  come  again  to  destroy  Dajjal,  and  re-establish 
the  true  faith.  If  Mohammed  had  been  the  greatest  and  last  prophet 
he  would  have  been  chosen  for  that  honorable  service,  therefore 
Christ  is  greater. 

Again  the  Padri  suppresses  facts,  and  omits  to  point  out  that  the 
tradition  clearly  indicates  that  the  "true  faith"  is  Islam,  which 
Christ  himself  must  embrace  before  attaining  final  salvation.  Surely 
this  proves  the  superiority  of  Mohammed,  and  not  of  Christ. 

(14)  Christ  is  sinless  and  divine,  because  God  breathed  into  Mary 
of  his  Spirit. 

Again  the  Padri  proves  too  much,  for  the  Koran  speaks  of  God 
breathing  his  spirit  into  Adam  also.  Was  Adam  also  divine? 
(Na-*uzzu  billahi  min  dhalik).  In  conclusion,  since  the  Padri  grants 
the  authority  of  the  Koran,  I  will  quote  one  passage  for  his  considera- 
tion. ''Whoever  followeth  any  other  religion  than  Islam,  it  shall 
not  be  accepted  of  him,  and  in  the  next  life  he  shall  be  of  those 
who    perish." 

Abdulla, 
Jessore. 

Ill 

One  wonders  why  any  one  should  waste  his  time  in 
replying  to  "a  Compound  of  ignorance  and  bigotry." 
However  this  may  be,  it  may  help  our  Jessore  friend  to 
know  that  the  author  of  Haqaiq-ul-Quran  is  not  a 
Padri  but  a  Maulvi,  who  has  become  a  follower 
of  Jesus  Christ.  Our  friend  has  failed  to  see  the  point, 
or  at  least  he  ignores  the  point  of  almost  every  one  of 
the  Maulvies'  statements.     Let  us  look  at  them  again. 


26o  THE  MOSLEM  WORLD 

Please  note  that  we  must  look  at  these  questions  from 
the  stand-point  of  Orthodox  Islam.  We  simply  say 
what  the  Koran  teaches  concerning  the  exalted  person 
of  Jesus. 

1.  The  Maulvi  first  of  all  notes  the  fact  that  the 
Birth  of  Jesus  was  miraculous  and  was  accompanied  by 
miraculous  manifestations;  But  the  birth  of  Mohammed 
is  not  even  mentioned  in  the  Koran.  The  superiority 
accorded  to  Jesus  by  the  Koran,  is  the  greater  honour 
in  His  advent. 

2.  The  Maulvi  then  notes  the  fact  that  the  Koran  be- 
stows great  praise  upon  Mary  the  mother  of  Jesus. 
She  is  said  to  be  ^^chosen  of  God  above  the  women  of 
the  Worlds/'  But  the  mother  of  Mohammed  is  not 
even  mentioned  in  the  Koran.  Surely  no  one  can  fail 
to  see  that  the  son  of  Mary  is  exalted  by  his  exalted 
mother, — exalted  by  Allah.  Herd  Jesus'  exaltation 
over  Mohammed  is  in  his  exalted  mother. 

3.  The  next  point  of  superiority,  noted  by  the  Maulvi, 
is  the  mention  made  of  miraculous  accompaniments 
attending  the  birth  of  Jesus,  while  no  such  signs  of 
Divine  favor  accompanied  Mohammed's  birth.  Our 
Jessore  friend  may  regard  this  as  a  trifling  matter,  but 
he  can  not  deny  that  it  proves  the  superiority  of  Jesus' 
birth  over  that  of  Mohammed. 

4.  The  next  item  mentioned  by  the  Maulvi  is,  the 
statement  that  Jesus  spoke  in  infancy  defending  his 
mother  Mary  (chap.  XIX:  28-34).  ^^  was  therefore 
from  childhood  recognized  as  a  prophet  of  God  but  Mo- 
hammed did  not  claim  to  be  a  prophet  until  advanced 
in  years.  Our  Jessore  friend  says  ''Jeremiah  and  John 
the  Baptist  were  chosen  even  before  their  birth"  to 
which  we  reply,  that  Mohammed  was  not  so  chosen  and 
is  therefore  inferior  to  Jesus,  the  Koran  being  witness. 

5.  The  Maulvi  also  made  mention  of  another  state- 
ment of  the  Koran,  that  Jesus  was  caught  up  alive  to 
heaven  to  save  him  from  his  enemies,  while  no  such 
interposition  is  mentioned  in  behalf  of  Mohammed. 
Comparing  the  statements  of  the  Koran,  there  was  here 
a  very  significant  difference  in  treatment,  pointing  to  a 


CHRIST  SUPERIOR  TO  MOHAMMED  261 

great  superiority  of  Jesus  over  Mohammed.  This  com- 
parison is  not  based  on  Christian  Scripture  or  belief^ 
but  upon  the  Koran.  The  Christian  comparison  here 
would  be  one  of  comparison  of  their  crucified  and  risen 
and  ascended  Lord,  with  Mohammed  dead  and  buried. 

6.  The  Maulvi's  next  claim,  is  that  the  teaching  of 
the  Koran,  that  Jesus  is  alive  in  Heaven,  where  he  has 
been  in  His  humanity  for  2000  years,  proves  Him  to 
be  superior  to  Mohammed.  Our  Jessore  friend's  re- 
ply, that  Enoch  and  Elijah  have  been  in  Heaven  much 
longer  does  not  prove  his  point.  He  only  shows  that 
some  other  prophets  are  also  in  this  respect  superior  to 
Mohammed.  The  fact  remains  that  Jesus  is  alive  in 
Heaven  while  Mohammed  rests  in  the  tomb  at  Medina. 

7.  The  Maulvi  next  points  to  the  Koranic  statement 
that  Jesus  raised  the  dead,  while  Mohammed  had  no 
such  power.  This  proves  Jesus  superior  to  Mohammed. 

Here  again  our  Jessore  friend  fails  to  reply.  His 
answer  is  that  other  prophets  exercised  this  power,  but 
he  does  not  show  that  Mohammed  has  such  power. 
The  true  inference  from  his  argument  is,  that  other 
prophets  also  were  superior  to  Mohammed. 

8.  Here  again  the  Maulvi  points  to  the  testimony  of 
the  Koran  to  the  fact  that  Jesus  performed  miracles  of 
creation,  which  mark  him  as  superior  to  Mohammed. 
The  author  of  the  Koran  says  this  was  **by  permission 
of  God."  Nevertheless  Mohammed  did  no  miracles 
even  with  the  divine  permission.  Hence  the  Maulvi's 
claim  remains  that  Jesus  was  superior  to  Mohammed. 

9.  The  Maulvi  again  points  to  the  many  miracles 
which  Christ  performed  and  challenges  any  one  either 
to  prove  from  the  Koran,  that  Mohammed  ever  worked 
any  miracle  or  else  recognize  Jesus  as  greater  than  Mo- 
hammed. 

Our  Jessore  friend  again  resorts  to  the  statement  of 
the  Koran  that  Jesus  wrought  miracles  *'by  the  permis- 
sion of  God"  and  adds  two  miracles,  of  Mohammed: 
the  splitting  of  the  moon  and  the  incomparable  style  of 
the  Koran.  Unfortunately  for  this  argument  the  moon 
has  not  yet  been  split,  and,  if  so,  Mohammed  did  not 


262  THE  MOSLEM  WORLD 

split  it, — and  as  for  the  style  of  the  Koran,  that  was  not 
his  style  at  all,  as,  according  to  his  claim,  it  was  brought 
down-  from  heaven. 

10.  The  Maulvi  again  points  to  the  omniscience  of 
Christ  as  an  indisputable  proof  of  his  supremacy  and 
Divine  character,  establishing  his  contention  that  he  was 
superior  to  Mohammed.  The  Jessore  Maulvi's  reply 
to  this  claim  is,  that  this  power  was  given  to  many 
prophets — always  limited  by  the  will  of  God;  and  also 
that  Mohammed  had  made  a  prophecy  foretelling  the 
fall  of  Mecca  and  the  defeat  of  the  Persians.  Of  course 
the  case  is  against  the  Arabian  prophet,  because  such 
forecasts  cannot  be  reckoned  prophecies  else  we  all 
must  be  numbered  among  the  prophets  who  have  fore- 
told the  final  defeat  of  the  Germans  and  the  fall  of 
Turkey.  The  whole  spirit  of  prophecy  in  the  words 
of  Jesus  declares  his  superiority  over  Mohammed. 

11.  The  Maulvi  claims  superiority  for  Jesus,  over 
Mohammed,  on  the  ground  of  his  sinlessness.  Our  Jes- 
sore friend  says,  what  few  Moslems  would  dare  to  say, 
That  Jesus  was  a  sinner  we  know  from  his  words  "Why 
callest  thou  me  good."  To  meet  this  assertion,  based 
on  a  wrong  inference,  we  only  need  to  quote  another 
Statement  of  Jesus  himself  "which  of  you  convinceth 
me  of  sin."  (John  VIII  :46).  The  teaching  of  the 
Koran  is  clear  as  to  the  sinfulness  of  Mohammed  but 
nowhere  in  the  Koran  is  there  even  a  hint  that  Jesus 
was  a  sinner.  The  sinlessness  of  Jesus  proves  his  su- 
premacy. 

12.  The  Maulvi  adduces  still  one  more  proof  from 
the  Koran,  that  Jesus  is  alive  while  Mohammed  is  dead, 
and  therefore  superior  to  him. 

Our  friend  in  his  reply,  discounts  this  argument  by 
saying  that  he  will  come  again  to  earth  to  die. 

The  statement  of  tradition  that  Jesus  will  die,  is  not 
true  because  Jesus  is  "alive  for  evermore."  He  will 
cOiTie  to  judge  the  world,  having  triumphed  over  death 
and  the  grave.  The  main  contention  of  the  Maulvi, 
however  is,  already  sustained  by  the  fact  that  Jesus 
lives  while  Mohammed  is  dead. 


CHRIST  SUPERIOR  TO  MOHAMMED  263 

13.  The  Maulvi  now  presents  his  thirteenth  argument 
for  the  supremacy  of  Jesus  Christ,  viz:  Christ  is  to 
come  again  to  destroy  Dajjal  and  re-establish  the  true 
faith.  If  Mohammed  had  been  the  greatest  and  last 
prophet  he  would  have  been  chosen  for  that  honorable 
service.  Therefore  Christ  is  greater.  Our  Jessore 
friend  was  staggered  by  this  argument  and  could  only 
say  that  ^'the  true  faith  is  Islam,  which  Christ  himself 
must  embrace  before  attaining  final  Salvation.  This  is 
news  indeed.  According  to  the  Koran  Jesus  is  a  true 
prophet  and  has  been  in  Heaven  for  2000  years  already, 
but  the  Jessore's  Maulvi  says  he  is  not  yet  one  of  the 
faithful!. ..  .If  our  friend  cannot  find  anything  better 
than  this  he  should  bow  down  and  acknowledge  Jesus 
as  ^^the  Almighty  God  and  Saviour." 

14.  It  has  been  proved  that  Mohammed  is  only  an 
apostle  and  a  sinful  man,  but  that  Christ  is  absolutely 
sinless  and  being  born  of  the  Spirit  of  God  possesses  the 
Divine  Nature,  hence  the  Divine  is  now  exalted  over 
man  and  Apostle.  Our  Jessore  friend  can  only  turn 
to  the  Bible  and  say  that  God  breathed  into  Adam  also, 
and  therefore  he  should  be  divine.  But  where  is 
Mohammed? 

The  statements  above  made  prove  the  infinite  super- 
iority of  Christ  over  Mohammed.  The  only  true  re- 
ligion— the  religion  of  Adam,  Noah,  Abraham  and  the 
prophets  and  Jesus — is  the  religion  of  the  Christian. 
This  is  the  true  Islam.  This  little  brochure  will  illus- 
trate mildly  the  kind  of  apology  which  must  be,  and 
continually  is  being  made  for  the  religion  of  Jesus 
Christ  in  its  conflict  with  Islam.  The  Moslem  advo- 
cate first  of  all  seeks  to  disparage  the  ability  and  char- 
acter of  his  antagonist.  His  next  step  is  to  change  or 
modify  the  issue. 

Orthodox  Islam  is  more  consistent  than  the  Qadiani 
followers  of  Ghulam  Ahmad  ^'the  20th  century  Mes- 
siah." This  Indian  form  of  Babism  is  often  very  irrev- 
erent and  sometimes  blasphemous.  They  often,  as  in 
this  instance,  admit  that  Orthodox  Islam  cannot  an- 
swer   Christian   objections   because   of   their    following 


264  THE  MOSLEM  WORLD 

slavishly  a  literal  interpretation  of  the  Koran.  They 
explain  away  the  objections  by  ''Spiritualizing''  the 
text  of  the  Koran. 

It  is  plain  that  Islam  is  rapidly  changing  color  under 
the  influence  of  Western  education.  The  prospect  is 
that  now,  since  the  sword  had  been  broken,  an  effort 
yvill  be  made  to  reform  Islam  and  that  various  sects 
will  spring  up.  The  effect  will  be  to  side  track  many, 
who  are  already  looking  towards  Christianity,  by  pro- 
viding a  more  liberal  interpretation  of  the  Koran  re- 
quirements. Such  as  the  abolition  of  the  purdah  (veil), 
the  general  adoption  of  monogony  and  the  education  of 
women. 

In  the  long  run  the  effect  will  be  the  Evangelization 
of  the  Moslem  peoples.  The  great  need  at  this  mo- 
ment is  the  widespread  distribution  of  the  Christian 
Scriptures  and  a  continual  holding  forth  of  Jesus  Christ 
as  the  Saviour  of  men. 

The  Maulvi,  in  his  "Truths  of  the  Koran  worthy  of 
the  attention  of  the  people  of  Islam,"  rightly  under- 
stands the  issue  in  the  Moslem  controversy.  //  is  Mo- 
hammed or  Christ, 

E.  M.  Wherry. 
Ludhiana,  Punjab,  India. 


ISLAM  IN  FIJI 


Islam  in  Fiji  is  the  religion  of  some  15,000  Indian 
immigrants  and  their  descendants.  Being  cut  off  from 
all  supervision  from  the  mother-country  for  some  forty 
years,  it  has  been  obliged  to  develop  along  its  own 
lines.  Consequently  this  offshoot  of  Islam  dififers  con- 
siderably from  the  type  one  is  accustomed  to  in  India. 
It  pays  little  attention  to  the  outward  performance  of 
the  ceremonies  known  as  the  five  pillars  of  Islam.  It 
is  characterized  by  an  ignorance  for  tradition  and  the 
requirements  of  Moslem  law.  It  is  almost  a  law  unto 
itself,  being  influenced  by  the  conditions  of  life  in  this 
Indian  Colony. 

Islam  as  reflected  in  the  family  life  of  the  people, 
is  marked  by  an  utter  disregard  for  the  sentiments  and 
prejudices  that  characterize  it  elsewhere.  Here  the 
Moslem  associates  with  the  Hindu  in  social  and  do- 
mestic life.  Inter-marriage  is  frequent  and  it  is  not 
unusual  for  a  Mohammedan  wife  to  practice  her  reli- 
gious customs  while  her  Hindu  husband  follows  his  own 
traditions  or  vice  versa.  The  marriage  tie  scarcely 
exists,  for  comparatively  few  ever  legalize  their  mar- 
riage by  registration  and  the  unions  celebrated  accord- 
ing to  their  own  religious  rites  are  not  considered  m 
any  way  binding,  either  by  the  man  or  woman,  who 
forsake  each  other  according  to  their  caprice.  Polyg- 
amy is  not  very  common  in  the  sense  of  keeping  more 
than  one  wife,  but  it  is  not  unusual  for  a  man  or  woman 
in  the  course  of  a  few  years  to  contract  a  large  number 
of  matrimonial  unions.  Such  a  state  is  fatal  to  true 
family  life  and  religion.  A  child  is  a  Hindu  or  Mo- 
hammedan at  any  period  according  to  the  religion  of 
the  man  with  whom  his  mother  for  the  time  being  may 
be  living.  Such  a  condition  is  made  possible  by  the 
free  social  intercourse  of  men  and  women  consequent 

265 


266  THE  MOSLEM  WORLD 

upon  the  non-observance  of  the  custom  of  secluding 
women.  Immigration  to  a  new  country  has  given  the 
people  a  priceless  opportunity  of  enjoying  liberty  from 
the  tyranny  of  caste  and  custom  that  crushes  their  breth- 
ren in  India,  but  the  opportunity  is  abused  and  liberty 
has  degenerated  into  license. 

One  might  live  for  months  in  Fiji  without  being 
aware  that  there  is  such  an  institution  as  a  Mohamme- 
dan mosque.  In  the  whole  group  there  are  probably 
not  more  than  half  a  dozen.  These  are  almost  entirely 
neglected  by  worshippers.  In  some  the  Muezzin  for 
weeks  is  the  only  one  present  for  Namaz  and  the  Azan 
or  call  to  prayer  is  generally  dispensed  with.  One  sel- 
dom or  never  sees  a  Mohammedan  either  in  mosque  or 
elsewhere  observing  the  stated  times  for  devotions. 
The  ablutions  and  other  ceremonies  connected  with  the 
mosque  services  are  all  performed  without  regard  to 
strict  Mohammedan  usage.  There  is  no  Id-gah  in  the 
colony  but  sometimes  for  the  celebration  of  festivals 
some  large  Government  buildings  are  used  by  those  who 
live  in  the  capital. 

The  Tazia  of  Muharram  is  the  principal  festival 
observed  in  Fiji  which  like  other  Mohammedan  prac- 
tices is  celebrated  with  such  a  license  that  would  shock 
their  orthodox  fellow  religionists  in  India.  The  festi- 
val is  devoid  almost  of  religious  sentiment.  It  is  a 
show  performance  got  up  for  the  entertainment  of  the 
crowd  of  all  creeds  and  nationalities.  It  is  regulated 
largely  by  commercial  considerations,  in  order  to  profit 
the  promoters  of  the  festival  and  the  tradesmen  who 
take  advantage  of  the  opportunity  to  sell  their  wares. 
The  building  of  the  Tazias  is  commenced  in  the  differ- 
ent localities  at  the  appointed  time,  but  the  burials  in 
connection  with  which  the  great  gatherings  are  held,  are 
celebrated  at  different  times  in  different  neighborhoods. 
For  instance,  if  the  burial  should  take  place  at  Lura 
on  one  Sunday,  the  following  Sunday  the  same  cere- 
mony would  take  place  at  Rewa  and  on  the  third  Sun- 
day at  Navua  and  so  on,  so  that  the  observance  of  this 
festival    throughout   the   colony   might   occupy   several 


ISLAM  IN  FIJI  267 

weeks.  During  the  war  a  special  celebration  of  the 
Tazia  was  arranged  for  the  purpose  of  raising  money 
for  the  Red  Cross  funds.  A  few  of  the  more  enlight- 
ened Moslems  repudiate  these  performances  and  do  not 
identify  themselves  with  them  but  they  are  only  a 
small  remnant. 

Saint  worship  is  being  established  in  the  country. 
In  spite  of  the  fact  that  Fiji  has  not  yet  possessed  any 
Mohammedan  saints,  yet  several  tombs  have  already 
become  recognized  as  Mohammedan  shrines  where  the 
people  gather  to  present  their  offerings  and  make  their 
petitions  to  the  departed, 

Islam  is  not  lacking  in  religious  leaders.  Maulvies 
and  Pirs,  so  called,  strive  to  maintain  and  propagate 
their  faith,  but  their  influence  for  good  is  marred  by 
their  cupidity.  Islam  is  not  progressive.  Some  of 
the  more  thoughtful,  calling  themselves  Haqq  parast 
reject  Mohammed  as  the  medium  of  salvation  from  sin, 
acknowledging  that  he  is  proved  a  sinner  himself  both 
by  his  own  statements  in  the  Koran  and  by  the  nature 
of  his  own  personal  conduct.  Christ  alone  is  regarded 
by  them  as  the  sinless  prophet. 

With  religion  at  such  a  low  ebb  one  can  imagine 
the  moral  condition  of  the  people.  Gambling,  immor- 
ality and  intemperance  are  very  prevalent. 

Islam  is  decadent  in  Fiji.  It  is  not  the  spiritual  and 
moral  force  in  the  lives  of  the  people  that  a  living  faith 
should  be.  The  future  belongs  not  to  Mohammed  but 
to  Christ.  Islam  is  not  yet  prepared  to  follow  Him  in 
preference  to  its  false  prophet.  The  hope  of  the  fu- 
ture is  in  the  rising  generation.  Free  from  the  preju- 
dices of  their  fathers  they  will  more  clearly  discern 
the  glory  of  the  perfection  of  Christ  and  choose  to 
follow  Him  as  the  way  to  God. 

Frank  L.  Nunn. 

Ba,  Fiji  Islands, 


THE  CORRECT  FOUNDATION  OF  RELIGION 


{A  Translation  of  a  Moslem  tract  printed  at  Tientsin 
in  IQI6,  and  'written  by  Li  W en  Lan  and  Chang  Hsi 
Cheng,  of  Tientsin^  China.) 

Chapter  l.     RECOGNITION  OF  GOD 

The  True  Lord  (God)  is  the  Self -created,  Originally- 
existent  Source.  What  is  meant  by  ^'Self-created,  Orig- 
inally-existent Source  is  that  God's  existence  is  from  His 
own  source,  self-existent,  and  not  needing  outside  assist- 
ance; therefore  God  is  the  Self-created,  Originally- 
existent  Source. 

God  has  three  characteristics,  viz:  His  Essence,  His 
Attributes,  and  His  works. 

(a)  The  Originally-existent  Essence  of  God  is  with- 
out beginning  and  without  end.  He  is  eternal,  and  not 
affected  by  the  dual  powers  ''Yin"  and  "Yang."  He  is 
without  peer  or  mate,  the  only  One  most  honorable. 
He  is  not  restricted  to  certain  regions;  there  are  no 
traces  of  His  form.  He  cannot  be  said  to  be  on  high  or 
below,  to  be  near  or  distant.  He  is  without  likeness  or 
manner;  there  is  nothing  to  which  He  can  be  compared, 
and  there  is  no  pattern  of  Him.  He  can  command  that 
things  be,  or  cease  to  exist.  He  is  able  to  create  all 
things,  and  that  without  depending  upon  means.  His 
eternal  life  does  not  depend  upon  any  decree.  Such  is 
the  Originally-existent  Essence  of  God. 

The  Christians'  recognition  of  God  is  by  no  means 
the  same  as  the  above.  Having  said  that  God  is  only 
One,  they  further  proceed  to  discourse  about  three  in 
one  and  one  in  three.  In  doing  this,  are  they  not  far 
removed  from  what  has  been  said  above  about  God  hav- 
ing no  birth  or  death,  no  peer  or  mate,  and  being  the 
only  One  most  honorable?  They  take  God  and  Jesus 
10  be  as  one,  and  thus  rebel  against  the  God  who  created 
all   things.     Jesus  had  a  visible  body  which   received 

268 


THE  CORRECT  FOUNDATION  OF  RELIGION     269 

life,  and  was  not  the  Self-created,  Originally-Existent 
Source.  Jesus  was  also  a  created  being,  needing  out- 
side assistance;  he  had  beginning  and  end,  was  affected 
by  'Tin"  and  ''Yang";  he  also  had  equals.  Although 
he  had  power  over  life  and  death,  yet  he  was  put  to 
death.  In  these  things  was  he  not  as  far  removed  from 
God  as  the  sea  is  from  the  sky? 

(b)  The  Attributes  of  God. 

The  Attributes  are  the  motions  of  the  Essence;  the 
manifestations  of  the  principles  whereof  vary.  God's 
Unity  is  not  one  of  several,  but  is  the  original  Unity; 
He  is  first  and  last,  and  the  only  One.  His  existence  is 
genuine,  and  it  is  also  the  original  existence;  it  is  there- 
fore the  long  existence  of  contentment.  His  life  is  not 
dependent  on  a  soul  or  spirit,  so  His  life  is  eternal. 
His  knowledge  is  not  by  means  of  a  mind,  so  He  is 
omniscient.  His  power  does  not  need  any  assistance,  so 
He  is  omnipotent.  His  vision  is  not  by  means  of  an  eye, 
so  He  is  omnispective.  His  hearing  is  not  by  means  of 
ears,  so  He  is  all-hearing.  His  speaking  is  not  by 
means  of  a  tongue,  so  there  is  nothing  that  He  cannot 
speak.  These  are  the  attributes  of  God,  and  all  others 
except  God  are  just  the  opposite  in  all  these  qualities. 

The  Christians  say  that  the  Spirit  of  God  descended 
upon  Jesus  like  a  dove.  But  they  should  know  that  the 
life  of  God  is  not  a  life  requiring  a  Spirit;  if  He  re- 
quired a  spirit  in  order  to  have  life,  would  His  life  not 
be  just  the  same  as  all  other  life? 

(c)  The  Works  of  God. 

The  Works  of  God  are  of  the  power  which  God 
alone  has,  the  marvellous  principles  of  which,  we  men 
find  it  difficult  to  conjecture.  Such  works  as  creating 
men,  spirits,  and  all  things  decree  man's  birth  and 
death,  and  his  position  as  honorable  or  mean.  God 
causes  men  to  have  short  life  or  long,  to  have  poverty 
or  plenty;  He  gives  to  men  clothing  and  food,  and  sus- 
tains all  life.  All  these  things  belong  to  the  power 
which  God  alone  has.  And  in  creating  heaven  and 
earth,  men,  spirits  and  all  things.  He  did  not  require 
implements,  nor  any  patterns,  nor  wait  for  any  special 


270  THE  MOSLEM  WORLD 

time,  when  He  willed  things  to  be,  they  came  into 
existence;  when  He  wills  things  to  cease,  they  cease. 
Such  are  the  Works  of  God. 

The  acts  of  men  are  far  removed  from  the  works  of 
God.  In  the  case  of  Jesus,  he  also  has  power  to  heal 
the  sick  and  call  the  dead  to  life;  but  you  must  reflect 
that  apart  from  means  he  could  not  really  perform  his 
acts.  The  original  power  of  God  is  shown  in  that  He 
could  without  means  cause  things  to  exist.  In  this  way 
there  is  fixed  between  God  and  Jesus  the  difference  as 
of  Master  and  servant. 

The  Prophet*  Mohammed  said  "In  order  to  manifest 
His  perfect  power,  God  created  heaven  and  earth;  in 
order  to  manifest  the  movements  of  His  Essence,  He 
created  primal  man,  Adam." 

God  has  been  likened  to  a  handsome  man,  and  the 
prophets  and  sages  of  the  whole  world  like  to  a  mirror^ 
the  world  being  the  stand  of  the  mirror;  by 
observing  the  wonderful  acts  of  the  prophets  and  sages, 
we  see  a  reflection  of  God's  great  power.  But  heresies 
and  false  religions  are  not  to  be  regarded  in  the  same 
way,  as  they  have  confounded  the  sources  and  gone 
counter  to  the  original  principles;  they  have  recognized 
a  natural  being  as  God,  and  therefore  publicly  ad- 
mitted that  their  religion  is  heretical,  and  has  gone 
astray.  In  the  illustration  used  above,  the  handsome  man 
is  not  part  of  the  mirror;  the  mirror  reflects  the  move- 
ments of  the  man,  but  does  not  itself  contain  the  man. 
If  a  man  calls  himself  equal  to  the  king,  he  surely  puts 
himself  in  opposition  to  the  king,  and  can  this  offence 
be  pardoned?  How  much  less  can  be  pardoned  the 
claim  to  be  equal  with  the  God  who  created  heaven, 
earth,  men  and  spirits  1 

Chapter  2.      THE  CREATION  OF  THE  WORLDS 
God  is  originally-existent;  He  is  without  beginning; 
is  of  universal  benevolence,  and  of  active  propensity. 
By  His  command  things  exist  or  cease,  just  as  He  pleases. 

•  The  characters  used  for  Mohammed's  title  mean  literally  "most  holy."  The 
character  "sheng"  =  holy,  or  saint,  in  used  in  Moslem  books  for  prophets  and  apostles, 
and  is  here  usually  translated  prophet,  the  capital  letter  indicating  the  higher  title  given 
to   Mohammed. 


THE  CORRECT  FOUNDATION  OF  RELIGION     271 

Out  of  His  abundant  glory  God  manifested  the  "wu 
chi."  This  'Vu  chi"  is  the  spirit  of  the  Prophet  Mo- 
hammed. God  spake  to  the  Prophet  saying,  ''Had  it 
not  been  on  thy  account,  I  certainly  would  not  have 
created  the  whole  world."  The  Prophet  has  stated 
"The  foremost  thing  which  God  created  was  my  spirit." 
The  "wu  chi"  is  the  starting  place  of  all  things,  where 
they  first  exist  in  the  abstract.  The  souls  of  men  and 
of  angels  and  of  devils,  and  the  natures  of  heaven,  earth 
and  all  things,  all  these  proceed  from  this  "wu  chi,"  and 
they  come  into  existence  on  receiving  the  command. 
Before  heaven  and  earth  were  named,  all  the  wonders 
of  the  coming  creation  were  enfolded  in  the  "wu  chi." 
This  invisible  world  was  the  place  of  the  great  regu- 
lating of  all  spirits. 

The  books  of  the  Christians  say  nothing  about  this 
^'wu  chi,"  so  it  is  not  discussed. 

From  what  remained  over  after  producing  all  spirits 
and  natures  and  all  principles,  there  was  created  the 
"t'ai  chi,"  which  is  the  source  of  vitality.  The  "t'ai 
chi"  is  parent  and  superior  of  the  so-called  heaven  and 
earth,  and  it  enfolds  all  forms  of  material  things.  The 
^'t'ai  chi"  transformed  into  the  dual  powers  "yin"  and 
"yang."  The  interacting  and  transforming  of  "yin" 
and  "yang"  divided  the  four  elements,  air,  water,  fire 
and  earth.  The  heavy  air  settled  and  the  earth  was 
formed;  the  light  air  ascended,  and  the  heavens  also 
were  formed.  The  heavens  being  ethereal  and  revolv- 
ing, were  called  "yang"  (male  principle)  ;  the  earth 
being  gross  and  not  moving,  was  called  "yin"  (female 
principle).  You  should  know  that  the  four  elements 
had  the  beginnings  of  their  creation  in  the  former 
heaven.  When  the  positions  of  heaven  and  earth  were 
fixed,  and  days  first  began,  there  was  what  is  called  the 
tangible  world,  and  from  that  time  forth  things  belonged 
to  the  tangible  world. 

God,  on  the  first  day,  created  mountains  and  rivers; 
on  the  second  day  He  created  plants  and  trees;  on  the 
third  day  He  created  diseases  and  calamities;  on  the 
fourth  day  He  created  the  light  of  the  sun  and  moon; 


272  THE  MOSLEM  WORLD 

on  the  fifth  day  He  made  moving  creatures;  on  the  sixth 
day,  at  the  "shen"  period,  He  created  ancestral  man, 
Adam.  (According  to  this  calculation  of  the  days  of 
creation,  omitting  the  Mosaic  Sabbath,  the  first  day  is 
the  Christians'  Sunday  and  the  sixth  day  is  the  Moslems' 
'^Chu  Ma"  =  Jum'a,  Day  of  Assembly.) 

When  God  was  about  to  create  Adam,  He  said  to  the 
angels,  "Verily  I  will  make  a  man  from  clay,"  and  forth- 
with He  commanded  the  angels  saying  "Go  and  collect 
a  layer  of  earth  and  bring  it."  The  angels  having  col- 
lected the  earth  placed  it  in  the  wilderness  between 
Mecca  and  Taif .  God  manifested  His  wonderful  skill  in 
the  clay  of  which  Adam  was  formed,  and  after  40  days 
God  created  Adam's  material  body  after  the  likeness  of 
Adam.  The  Prophet  has  said  "God  truly  created  Adam 
after  his  likeness,"  i.  e.  Adam's  likeness.  The  Prophet 
said  further,  "Before  God  created  all  things.  He  first 
fixed  their  likeness  on  the  immortal  tablets  in  the  seventh 
heaven,  and  afterwards  created  them." 

Christians  say  God  created  man  in  His  own  image, 
made  him  the  same  as  God ;  and  moreover  male  and  fe- 
male were  both  of  the  same  order.  Now  having  said 
that  God  has  no  equal,  is  without  likeness  or  comparison, 
how  can  they  say  that  God  made  man  in  His  own  like- 
ness. Furthermore,  male  and  female  are  spoken  of;  is 
the  male  in  the  likeness  of  God,  or  is  the  female  in  the 
likeness  of  God?  Truly,  though  we  think  this  over  100 
times  we  cannot  arrive  at  a  satisfactory  explanation  of 
it. 

God  commanded  the  angels  to  take  the  soul  of  Adam 
out  of  the  supernatural  world,  then  He  blew  it  into  the 
body  of  Adam.  Thenceforward  to  the  end  of  the  ages, 
all  men  receive  life  like  this.  On  the  day  on  which  they 
enter  the  tangible  world,  the  period  of  their  super- 
natural pre-existence  has  ceased. 

Christians  when  speaking  of  the  heavenly  kingdom, 
confound  the  world  to  come  with  the  pre-existent  super- 
natural world,  counting  them  as  one,  which  is  unintelli- 
gible. 

God  said  "I  will  blow  my  spirit  into  him,"  this  refers 


THE  CORRECT  FOUNDATION  OF  RELIGION     273 

to  the  spirit  made  from  the  surplus  of  God's  glory,  and 
is  by  no  means  the  Holy  Spirit  spoken  of  by  Christians. 
They  say  that  God  is  the  Holy  Spirit,  and  the  Holy 
Spirit  is  God,  and  that  the  Spirit  entered  the  body  of 
Jesus;  and  yet  they  call  Jesus  the  Son  of  God!  This  is 
still  more  difficult  to  fathom.  The  spirits  which  all 
men  have  are  all  made  from  the  surplus  of  the  Light  of 
God. 

Adam  was  the  ancestor  of  all  men;  speaking  of  the 
flesh,  he  was  the  progenitor  of  Mohammed;  speaking 
of  the  spirit,  Mohammed  was  his  progenitor.  It  may  be 
said  "As  Mohammed's  spirit  was  the  first  of  all  spirits, 
why  did  his  body  appear  later?"  The  answer  is  that 
Mohammed's  spirit  was  like  a  seed,  and  his  body  like 
the  fruit.  The  branches  and  leaves  come  first;  the  fruit 
follows. 

Chapter  3.  PROPHETS,  APOSTLES,  ETC. 

Mohammedanism  is  the  religion  of  God,  the  great 
Doctrine  which  has  been  transmitted  by  all  the  prophets. 
One  prophet  received  from  another,  right  down  to  the 
present.  The  prophets  were  sent  by  God  to  proclaim 
the  correct  Doctrine,  and  to  guide  those  who  had  lost 
the  way.  There  are  four  classes  of  prophets,  viz :  Emi- 
nent prophets.  Appointed  prophets.  Ordinary  prophets, 
and  the  Highest  prophet.  The  Eminent  prophets  are 
six  in  number,  Adam,  Noah,  Abraham,  Moses,  David 
and  Jesus.  Of  the  Appointed  prophets  there  were  313, 
and  of  Ordinary  prophets  over  100,000.  The  Highest 
Prophet  was  Mohammed  alone. 

God  gave  command  to  Adam  to  establish  religion  on 
His  behalf.  The  first  thing  to  make  clear  was  the  doc- 
trine of  recognition  of  God.  Next  to  firmly  establish 
the  moral  obligations ;  then  religion  was  founded. 

The  Doctrine  which  Adam  propagated  was  that 
which  God  commanded.  What  are  the  matters  apper- 
taining thereto?  They  are.  Recognition  of  God,  Purifi- 
cation; Fasting;  Prayer  and  Worship;  the  Pilgrimage 
to  Mecca;  Sacrifice;  Almsgiving,  etc. 

Purification,    After  intercourse  had  taken  place  be- 


274  THE  MOSLEM  WORLD 

tween  Adam  and  Eve,  the  archangel  received  the  com- 
mand of  God  to  give  to  Adam  the  order  and  method  of 
purification.     Adam  subsequently  taught  these  to  Eve. 

Fasting,     Three  days  every  month. 

Prayer  and  Worship,  When  God  sent  Adam  down 
to  earth,  it  was  dark  night;  Adam  was  afraid  and  wept, 
saying,  "It  is  because  of  sin  that  I  have  come  to  this." 
When  light  appeared  in  the  East,  and  from  darkness 
there  came  the  bright  light,  Adam  having  obtained  the 
light  was  thankful  for  God's  grace,  so  he  worshipped 
with  two  obeisances. 

Pilgrimage.     Once  a  year  if  possible. 

Sacrifice,  Adam,  in  order  to  test  the  sincerilty  of 
heart  of  his  two  sons,  Cain  and  Abel,  commanded  them 
to  perform  sacrifice.  At  that  time  there  was  no  fixed 
rule  as  to  what  should  be  sacrificed ;  any  offering  could 
be  used  as  a  sacrifice,  only  it  must  be  clean.  Later, 
when  Abraham  took  his  son  Ishmael  to  offer  as  a  sacri- 
fice, the  archangel  Gabriel  received  the  command  of 
God  to  lead  a  sheep  with  which  to  redeem  the  son.  We 
Moslems  now  take  sheep  to  sacrifice,  in  obedience  to  this 
law.  There  are  some  who  sacrifice  a  cow  or  a  camel, 
several  people  joining  together  in  this  good  action. 

With  regard  to  the  redeeming  of  a  son  by  a  sheep,  it 
may  be  queried  that  as  the  son  was  a  prophet,  was  not 
this  making  a  sheep  of  more  value  than  a  prophet?  In 
reply,  we  say  that  a  sheep  is  the  most  docile  of  all  ani- 
mals, and  it  is  very  fitting  that  a  sheep  should  redeem  a 
prophet.  But  the  mysteries  underlying  the  principle  of 
redeeming  a  prophet  by  a  sheep  are  not  such  as  an  ordi- 
nary man  can  understand. 

Tracing  back  from  the  time  of  Adam's  coming  into 
the  world  to  the  present,  it  is  over  7000  years.  After 
Adam  there  were  appointed  prophets  and  ordinary 
prophets  in  close  succession,  propagating  the  Doctrine, 
until  the  appearance  of  the  eminent  prophet  Noah.  His 
nativity  was  over  5000  years  ago.  What  he  propagated 
was  according  to  the  regulations  of  the  ancestral  father 
Adam.  Because  the  multitudes  of  the  people  would  not 
believe,  the  anger  of  the  Lord  was  stirred,  and  He  com- 


THE  CORRECT  FOUNDATION  OF  RELIGION     275 

manded  Noah  to  make  a  boat,  and  take  with  him  into 
the  boat  one  male  and  one  female  of  every  living  thing 
of  the  whole  world.  Then  the  flood  covered  the  whole 
earth.  After  the  flood  stopped,  all  the  people  who  had 
been  in  the  boat  came  out  on  to  the  dry  land,  and  they 
divided  the  earth  and  governed  the  world.  These  were 
all  people  who  confessed  God,  therefore  Noah  has  the 
designation  of  the  Minor  Ancestor. 

Subsequently,  prophets  handed  on  God's  Doctrine  one 
to  another,  until  the  appearance  of  the  eminent  prophet 
Abraham.  What  he  propagated  was  the  Doctrine  of 
Adam,  only  in  addition,  he  performed  circumcision, 
clipped  the  beard,  cleansed  the  body  of  hair,  etc.  These 
things  began  with  this  prophet,  and  they  are  commands 
of  God  which  must  be  observed,  for  God  said  to  Abra- 
ham, "Verily  I  will  make  thee  a  leader  of  men."  God 
also  said  to  the  people  "Ye  must  all  follow  the  correct 
path  of  Abraham."  Therefore  we  Moslems  have  ob- 
served these  things  down  to  the  present,  and  can  never 
forget  them.  Abraham  was  distressed  on  account  of 
four  things,  (i)  on  account  of  his  wives;  (2)  on  account 
of  his  children;  (3)  on  account  of  enemies;  (4)  on  ac- 
count of  hell.  God  delivered  him  from  these  four  dis- 
tresses, so  at  the  "wei"  period,  in  thanks  for  God's  grace, 
he  worshipped  with  four  obeisances. 

Someone  may  query  "Is  not  circumcision  an  altering 
of  the  body  as  originally  created  by  God?"  We  answer, 
if  the  whole  member  was  cut,  it  would  be  an  alteration 
of  the  created  form;  but  circumcision  is  not  cutting  the 
whole,  but  it  is  the  same  in  principle  as  shaving  the 
head  or  cutting  the  nails. 

The  worship  which  we  perform  at  the  "shen"  period 
is  what  was  handed  down  from  the  appointed  prophet 
Jonah ;  he  was  delivered  from  the  calamity  of  the  fish's 
belly,  therefore  in  thankfulness  to  God  for  His  grace  he 
worshipped  with  four  obeisances. 

From  this  onward,  prophets  succeeded  prophets, 
transmitting  the  Doctrine,  on  to  the  appearing  of  the 
eminent  prophet  Moses.  He  propagated  the  Doctrine 
of  Adam  and  Abraham,  only  in  fasting  he  abstained 


276  THE  MOSLEM  WORLD 

from  food  ten  days,  and  the  legal  alms  and  levying  of 
taxes,  etc.,  are  handed  down  from  Moses.  One  night  he 
was  on  his  way  fleeing  from  trouble,  when  suddenly 
thunder,  rain,  wind  and  lightning  came  on  fiercely,  the 
caravan  was  scattered  in  fear,  and  his  family  was  lost. 
Then  God  sent  bright  light  to  show  the  road,  the  wind 
and  rain  stopped  completely,  the  family  was  found  and 
re-united,  therefore  in  thankfulness  for  God's  grace,  he 
worshipped  w^ith  four  obeisances. 

Subsequently  prophets  succeeded  prophets,  transmit- 
ting the  Doctrine,  on  to  the  appearing  of  the  eminent 
prophet  David,  who  came  in  obedience  to  command.  He 
also  propagated  the  Doctrine  of  Adam,  Abraham  and 
Moses,  but  his  method  of  fasting  was  on  every  alternate 
day  to  abstain  from  food  for  a  whole  day.  His  son 
Solomon's  fasting  was  at  the  beginning,  middle,  and  end 
of  each  month,  three  days  on  each  occasion.  Father  and 
son  were  both  prophets  who  had  commands  laid  upon 
them  for  the  building  up  of  the  religion.  (David  was 
an  eminent  prophet;  Solomon  was  an  ordinary  prophet.) 
In  regard  to  this  it  must  be  said  that  there  can  be  no 
doubt  about  Solomon  being  the  legitimate  son  of  David's 
legal  wife. 

Christians  say  that  King  David  committed  adultery 
with  Bathsheeba,  the  wife  of  Uriah,  and  that  Solomon 
was  thus  born.  They  also  say  that  Judah,  the  son  of 
Jacob,  committed  adultery  with  his  daughter-in-law 
Tamar,  and  begat  Pharez  and  Zarah,  twin  sons;  these 
are  errors.  According  to  that,  Jesus  would  be  the  de- 
scendent  of  a  son  of  adultery.  This  truly  is  unprin- 
cipled talk.  Do  they  not  know  that  the  marriage  of 
David  and  Bathsheeba  was  according  to  the  clear  com- 
mand of  God;  and  that  there  never  was  such  a  thing  as 
adultery  between  Judah  and  his  daughter-in-law?  The 
wise  will  not  be  deceived  into  taking  these  disorderly 
accounts  as  correct. 

Afterwards  the  transmission  continued  down  to  Jesus, 
who  was  born  according  to  command.  He  propagated 
the  Doctrine  of  Adam,  Abraham  and  Moses,  but  his 
fasting  was  for  forty  days,  or  for  the  whole  year,  not  al- 


THE  CORRECT  FOUNDATION  OF  RELIGION     277 

ways  the  same.  His  special  praying  was  because  cer- 
tain Jews  slanderously  called  him  the  Son  of  God,  on 
which  account  he  feared  in  his  own  heart,  so  just  at  the 
setting  of  the  sun  he  worshipped  with  three  obeisances, 
one  because  he  himself  knew  certainly  that  he  was  God's 
servant,  and  he  thanked  God;  the  second  obeisance  was 
because  he  knew  that  his  mother  was  by  no  means  the 
wife  of  God,  but  was  also  the  servant  of  God,  for  which 
he  thanked  God;  the  third  obeisance  was  because  he 
knew  that  God  is  the  Only  Most  High  God,  and  he 
sought  to  escape  from  the  false  sayings.  God  had  said 
^'The  Messiah  will  truly  not  be  ashamed  to  be  the  serv- 
ant of  God."  God  further  said  ^'How  can  the  Lord 
have  a  son?  The  Lord  assuredly  has  no  wife."  This 
proves  the  truth  of  what  our  religion  says  about  the  Lord 
and  His  servant,  and  shows  that  what  their  religion  says 
about  Father  and  Son  is  wrong. 

As  for  Jesus — he  was  an  eminent  prophet,  a  servant 
of  God,  but  not  the  Son  of  God.  As  regards  his  mira- 
cles,— all  the  prophets  had  miracles,  only  they  had  their 
differences.  All  the  prophets  were  God's  mirrors.  If 
we  speak  about  having  no  father,  then  we  may  say  that 
Adam  had  neither  father  nor  mother,  and  moreover  God 
commanded  angels  to  do  obeisance  to  him.  To  con- 
sider him  as  the  son  of  God  would  be  very  inappropriate, 
and  Jesus  would  come  next  to  him. 

China  had  the  philosopher  Li  Peh  Yang  (Lao  Tzu), 
whose  mother  was  pregnant  80  years,  and  whose  left 
side  was  cut  to  give  birth  to  her  son.  There  is  nothing 
said  about  his  father,  as  to  who  he  was;  could  he  be  called 
the  son  of  God?  No,  indeed.  Inasmuch  as  Jesus  had 
one  of  the  canonical  books  (the  Gospel),  he  was  one 
of  God's  appointed  eminent  prophets.  As  regards  his 
worshipping  and  praying  to  God,  and  his  other  acts  he 
was,  without  doubt,  just  a  servant  of  God.  Jesus  from 
his  cradle  proclaimed  to  all,  "Verily  I  am  God's  serv- 
ant; He  has  given  me  the  Holy  Book,  and  made  me  an 
eminent  apostle."  This  saying  all  the  more  demon- 
strates the  errors  of  the  Christians. 

They  further  say  that  Jesus  was  God's  son  from  the 


278  THE  MOSLEM  WORLD 

beginning.  This  saying  is  still  more  mistaken.  If  Je- 
sus existed  from  the  beginning,  then  he  could  be  called 
God,  why  call  him  God's  son? 

Again,  it  is  said  that  Jesus  is  God's  son,  but  not  a 
materially-born  son,  but  that  he  was  delighted  in,  and 
honored,  and  made  most  nigh ;  therefore  he  is  called  the 
Son  of  God.  If  this  be  so,  then  he  is  a  spurious  son,  and 
not  really  God's  son.  If  he  is  a  spurious  son,  why  must 
he  be  called  a  son  at  all? 

It  is  also  said  that  Jesus  died  upon  the  cross,  as  an 
atonement  for  the  sins  of  the  world,  and  were  it  not  for 
this,  God  would  not  forgive  sins.  Did  Jesus  atone  for 
the  sins  of  those  after  him,  or  those  before  him?  If  it 
be  said  he  atoned  for  those  after  him,  then  who  atones 
for  the  sins  of  those  who  lived  in  the  more  than  6000 
years  from  Adam  to  Jesus?  Or  if  it  be  said  that  he 
atoned  for  the  sins  of  those  before  him,  then  those  who 
lived  after  him  reap  no  advantage  from  living  in  the 
dispensation  of  Jesus,  as  they  do  not  benefit  by  his  grace. 
If  it  be  said  that  he  atoned  for  both  those  who  lived  be- 
fore, and  for  those  who  came  after,  then  we  say  that 
those  who  lived  before  had  not  observed  the  conditions 
of  his  teaching,  and  of  those  who  lived  after,  there  have 
been  many  who  refused  allegance;  thus  it  really  seems 
that  Jesus  suffered  vainly  what  he  endured  when  on  the 
earth. 

Seeing  that  God  can  forgive  men's  sins,  why  should 
He  not  forgive  them  unless  Jesus  was  killed?  More- 
over, as  it  is  said  that  Jesus  is  the  Son  of  God,  could  it  be 
right  to  slay  His  son  to  save  the  world?  If,  for  example, 
the  people  rebel  against  their  prince,  and  the  prince  sends 
his  minister  to  pacify  them,  and  the  people  listen  to  the 
minister  and  obey  the  prince,  could  there  be  such  a  thing 
as  the  prince  still  refusing  to  forgive  the  people  unless  the 
minister  be  put  to  death? 

When  it  is  said  that  God  divided  His  Being,  and  part 
came  down  to  earth,  seeing  that  the  divided  portion  was 
on  earth,  would  there  not  be  an  incomplete  God  in  Heav- 
en? And  again,  Jesus  is  called  the  Saviour  of  the  world, 
and  seeing  he  has  already  been  killed,  then  at  present  the 


THE  CORRECT  FOUNDATION  OF  RELIGION     279 

world  must  be  without  a  Lord.  Moreover,  to  say  that 
God  came  down  and  was  born  as  a  man,  this  is  indeed  sup- 
porting the  doctrine  of  transmigration ;  can  there  be  any- 
such  principle? 

The  way  in  which  we  Moslems  recognize  God  is  that 
God  is  God  Himself,  and  Jesus  is  Jesus  himself,  an  emi- 
nent prophet;  this  is  quite  clear.  This  talk  about  one 
Body  having  three  Persons,  is  it  not  quite  erroneous? 

After  Jesus  left  the  world,  the  succession  of  the  Doc- 
trine was  not  carried  on,  in  consequence  of  which  num- 
erous heresies  arose,  fishermen  were  exalted  as  the  in- 
structors of  heaven  and  men ;  corrupt  sayings  begat  quar- 
rels; a  prophet  was  taken  to  be  God;  sorceries  led  on  to 
deceptions,  heresies  and  heterdoxies  kept  causing  divi- 
sions to  break  out,  the  people  were  distressed  thereby,  and 
all  under  heaven  were  in  a  state  of  ferment.  Six  hun- 
dred years  after  Jesus,  the  Greatest  Prophet,  Mohammed, 
appeared  in  response  to  the  needs  of  the  times.  This  ful- 
filled the  saying  of  Jesus,  "After  me,  in  Arabia,  there 
will  be  born  a  man  who  rides  a  camel,  his  name  is  Mo- 
hammed, and  he  is  the  Greatest  Prophet." 

When  our  Prophet  reached  forty  years  of  age,  he  re- 
ceived the  command  of  God  to  expound  the  correct  Doc- 
trine and  put  a  stop  to  false  sayings,  sweep  away  the  here- 
sies, and  revive  again  the  Doctrine  handed  down  by 
Adam  and  all  the  prophets,  so  he  was  called  the  Prophet 
of  the  great  completion.  Like  Confucius  in  China,  whose 
Doctrines  were  those  handed  down  by  the  Three  Emper- 
ors and  the  Five  Kings,  Yao,  Shun,  Duke  Chou,  and  all 
the  sages  and  worthies  down  to  the  time  of  Confucius,  who 
then  gathered  these  things  together,  and  is  therefore 
called  by  Confucianists  the  Greatest  Sage.  Our  Prophet, 
after  receiving  the  command,  lived  at  Mecca  ten  years, 
then  removed  to  Medina,  and  died  there  at  the  age  of 
63.  From  the  age  of  40  onward,  for  23  years,  his  story 
is  similar  to  the  story  of  Moses  and  Pharaoh.  After  go- 
ing through  several  tens  of  battles,  the  sheiks  of  the  sur- 
rounding tribes  submitted  to  him,  and  the  affairs  of  the 
Faith  prospered  g'reatly.  After  Mohammed  no  other 
prophet  appeared. 


28o  THE  MOSLEM  WORLD 

We  now  submit  briefly  for  consideration  a  few  of  the 
matters  connected  with  our  Prophet. 

1.  The  Rules  of  the  Religion,  The  Rules  of  the  re- 
ligion are  those  handed  down  with  the  Doctrine  from 
of  old,  such  as  worshipping  five  times  a  day,  as  was  done 
by  Adam,  Abraham,  Noah,  Jesus  and  Moses.  God  gave 
to  us  Moslems  a  command  from  heaven  in  respect  to  this 
worshipping,  therefore  every  one  should  observe  the  com- 
mand and  not  change.  Unless  one  attends  to  this  wor- 
ship in  person,  it  cannot  be  counted  effectual.  Chris- 
tians consider  prayer  as  worship,  which  is  wrong.  If, 
for  example,  a  man  commanded  his  servant  to  attend  at 
his  side,  unless  that  servant  is  personally  present  he  can- 
not be  thus  in  attendance.  Could  it  be  right  that  when  a 
master  commands  his  servant  to  do  something,  the  servant 
should  make  a  prayer  suffice? 

Again,  fasting  is  what  has  been  handed  down  from 
the  early  prophets,  but  in  the  case  of  our  Prophet  it  was 
just  a  little  different,  that  is  all.  For  the  rest  of  the  com- 
mands and  prohibitions,  they  are  all  according  to  the 
Doctrine  of  the  several  prophets;  such  as  the  ten  com- 
mandments of  Moses,  we  Moslems  count  them  as  most 
important  laws.  Thus  we  Moslems  keep  to  the  Doctrine 
which  the  prophets  of  old  have  handed  down,  one  to  an- 
other, with  which  is  not  to  be  compared  the  heterodoxies 
of  upstart  religions. 

2.  The  Prophetical  Sayings  of  earlier  Prophets,  Adam 
said  "In  two  things  Mohammed  is  my  superior;  (i)  his 
wife  could  escape  the  wiles  of  Iblis  (the  Devil)  ;  my  wife 
assisted  his  wiles.  (2)  The  Devil,  in  Mohammed's  case, 
when  egging  on  to  evil,  had  no  prospect  of  succeeding,  sc 
he  submitted  to  the  Doctrine  of  Mohammed ;  in  my  case 
the  Devil  did  not  submit  to  me." 

Again,  the  prophet  David  said  "I  saw  in  the  Book 
(Psalms)  a  ray  of  light,  and  when  I  prayed  to  the  Lord 
saying  "Lord,  what  is  this  light?"  the  Lord  answered 
saying  "This  is  the  light  of  Mohammed;  on  his  account 
I  have  created  the  present  world  and  the  world  to  come, 
and  Adam,  Eve,  heaven  and  hell." 


THE  CORRECT  FOUNDATION  OF  RELIGION     281 

Then  Jesus  the  son  of  Mary  said  "Children  of  Israel, 
I  am  the  Messenger  appointed  by  God  to  you;  that 
which  bare  witness  before  me,  (the  Torah)  is  true  and 
not  false,  and  it  testifies  that  after  me  there  will  appear 
a  Great  Appointed  One,  whose  name  is  Mohammed  the 
Prophet."  Limitations  of  space  forbid  us  particulariz- 
ing the  prophesies  of  other  prophets. 

3.  Phenomena.  The  phenomena  attaching  to  our 
Prophet  were  many,  so  it  would  be  difficult  for  pen  to 
record  them  all.  We  here  give  briefly  a  collation  of  a 
few  items. 

(a)  His  body  cast  no  shadow  on  the  ground;  it  was  an 
elegant  and  transparent  body.  None  of  the  ordinary 
prophets  and  worthies  had  this  quality.  Was  this  not  a 
great  phenomenon? 

(b)  Once  upon  a  time  some  Nazarenes  came  to  the 
mosque  of  our  Prophet  and  asked  him  saying,  "Jesus 
could  command  the  dead  to  rise;  can  you  also?"  Our 
Prophet  forthwith  commanded  Ali  to  go  with  them  to  a 
Jews'  burial  ground  and  cause  Joseph  the  son  of  Kaierpu 
to  rise  from  the  dead.  When  Joseph  arose  he  said  "I, 
Joseph  am  a  Jew.  To-day  I  am  resurrected,  and  I  be- 
lieve there  is  only  one  God,  and  Mohammed  is  His 
Prophet."     Was  not  this  seen  with  their  own  eyes? 

(c)  Mohammed,  with  his  finger,  cleft  the  moon.  Is 
not  that  the  marvel  of  all  time? 

(d)  Our  Prophet  was  taken  up  into  the  ninth  heaven, 
and  saw  many  marvellous  things,  and  returned  the  same 
night.     This  was  a  great  phenomenon. 

Some  may  ask  saying.  Christians  say  about  the  cleav- 
ing of  the  moon,  why  was  it  that  people  everywhere  did 
not  see  it,  but  only  people  in  Arabia  saw  it?"  We  an- 
swer :"At  that  time  there  were  many  people  coming  from 
Persia,  and  on  the  road  they  also  saw  the  moon  cleft. 
Moreover,  if  we  speak  about  the  whole  world  not  seeing 
it,  there  are  differences  of  location  and  time  to  take  into 
consideration.  Daytime  in  China  is  night  in  America; 
I  o'clock  p.  m.  in  China  is  8  p.  m.  in  Germany  [this 
may  be  a  slip  Trans.]  The  cleaving  of  the  moon  was 
an  occurrence  of  one  time,  and  is  not  to  be  compared  with 


282  THE  MOSLEM  WORLD 

the  ordinary.  If  you  are  still  in  doubt,  look  at  the  Old 
Testament  of  that  religion,  in  the  book  of  Joshua,  Chap. 
X,  verses  12:13;  Joshua  in  the  presence  of  the  Israelites 
prayed  to  God  saying,  "Sun,  stand  thou  still  uponGibeon 
and  thou,  moon,  in  the  valley  of  Ajalon.  And  the  sun 
stood  still,  and  the  moon  stayed  until  the  people  had 
avenged  themselves  upon  their  enemies.  This  is  written 
in  the  book  of  Jasher.  The  sun  stood  still  in  the  midst 
of  heaven,  and  hasted  not  to  go  down  about  a  whole  day." 
Who  witnessed  this  event? 

Or  if  it  be  again  queried,  "How  could  Mohammed  as- 
cend into  heaven?  Heaven  is  a  solid  substance,  how 
could  it  be  pierced?"  We  answer,  "Have  you  not  heard 
that  earlier  prophets  also  ascended  into  heaven?  The 
prophet  Enoch,  at  the  age  of  365  years,  ascended  into 
heaven.  For  this  event  see  the  Christians'  Old  Testa- 
ment, in  the  book  of  Genesis,  Chap.  5  verses  23,24.  Again, 
the  prophet  Elijah  also  ascended  into  heaven,  see  2  Kings, 
Chap.  2,  verse  12,  saying  that  just  as  Elijah  and  his  son 
were  walking,  suddenly  there  came  a  chariot  and  horses 
of  fire,  dividing  the  two  men,  and  Elijah  went  up  on  a 
whirlwind.  Moreover,  when  Jesus  was  being  baptized 
by  John,  the  heavens  suddenly  opened,  and  a  dove  came 
forth  and  lighted  upon  Jesus.  Are  not  these  proofs  that 
our  Prophet  ascended  into  heaven,  and  that  heaven  was 
opened?" 

4.  The  Establishing  of  the  Faith  (Church).  Our 
Prophet  received  the  command  to  exhort  the  people  by 
means  of  kindness,  and  not  severity.  Some  who  were  de- 
luded and  steeped  in  heresies,  could  not  receive  the  il- 
lumination from  God,  but  remained  obstinately  fixed  in 
their  delusions,  not  distinguishing  between  black  and 
white,  nor  between  the  true  and  the  false;  they  also  dis- 
played barbarous  conduct,  so  God  gave  command  that 
they  were  to  be  admonished  by  the  force  of  arms.  The 
Prophet  divided  people  into  three  classes;  those  who  sub- 
mitted were  to  be  left  alone;  those  who  would  not  obey, 
were  to  be  punished.  Those  who  after  punishment  still 
remained  obdurate,  were  to  be  killed.  The  children, 
aged  and  women,  in  all  cases  were  to  be  forgiven.     The 


THE  CORRECT  FOUNDATION  OF  RELIGION     283 

benevolence  of  the  Prophet  was  unequalled;  when  he 
attacked  and  entered  Mecca,  and  captives  were  made,  the 
Prophet  took  them  to  the  door  of  the  Kaaba,  and  said  to 
all:  ''I  now  have  with  you  the  intercourse  of  friends  as 
in  bye-gone  days;  Joseph  the  son  of  Jacob  had  friendly 
intercourse  with  his  brethren." 

The  Christians  say  that  our  Prophet  used  force  to  pro- 
pagate his  Faith.  This  was  not  so.  But  they  should 
know  that  the  religious  methods  of  Moses  were  the  same. 
It  is  said  in  Exodus  that  Moses  commanded  the  Levites 
to  kill  the  worshippers  of  the  calf,  and  they  killed  230,- 
000  people.  It  is  further  said  that  if  one  person  of  a 
farmstead  offended  against  the  religion,  all  the  people 
of  that  home  were  to  be  killed,  and  also  their  cattle,  and 
their  steading  was  to  be  burned,  and  their  possessions 
destroyed.  Again,  in  Kings  the  First  book,  it  is  said 
that  God  bare  witness  that  the  punitive  wars  and  other 
good  deeds  of  David  were  pleasing  unto  God.  This  is 
sufficient  to  prove  the  falsity  of  the  Christians'  slander 
of  our  Prophet. 

5.  The  Family,  As  regards  the  family  affairs  of  our 
Prophet,  the  people  of  other  religions  all  consider  the 
matter  of  having  nine  wives  as  being  contrary  to  reason 
and  good  principle.  But  these  folk  only  know  one  side 
of  the  matter,  and  not  the  other  side.  The  nine  wives 
of  Mohammed  were  all  women  of  excellent  character, 
so  they  assisted  in  bringing  out  the  perfect  character  of 
the  Prophet.  The  case  is  not  to  be  compared  to  one  of 
inordinate  lust  and  love  of  beauty.  Moreover,  the  early 
prophet  Jacob  married  four  women;  David  first  mar- 
ried seven,  and  afterwards  married  more  than  90,  this 
number  being  ten  times  more  than  our  Prophet  had. 
Solomon  married  1000  women,  700  of  them  being  prop- 
er wives,  and  300  concubines;  his  number  was  100  times 
greater  than  that  of  our  Prophet;  how  can  our  Prophet, 
with  nine  wives,  be  said  to  have  had  many?  Our 
Prophet  begat  three  sons  and  four  daughters;  his  sons 
all  died  young.  When  his  last  son  Ibrahim  died,  the 
enemies  of  the  Prophet  vilified  him  as  a  man  without 
an  heir.     So  the  Prophet  prayed  to  God  saying  "Lord, 


284  THE  MOSLEM  WORLD 

Thou  hast  now  taken  all  my  sons,  one  by  one,  therefore 
mine  enemies  vilify  me  as  a  man  without  an  heir;  my 
heart  is  distressed  beyond  measure."  God  answered 
saying  ^'Mohammed!  thou  art  now  the  Sealed  Prophet; 
after  thee  there  shall  arise  no  other  prophet.  If  I  had 
commanded  that  thy  son  should  live  until  the  age  when 
one  receives  the  command  to  be  a  prophet,  (40  years), 
and  had  then  extended  to  him  the  command  to  be  a 
prophet,  how  could  thou  have  been  the  Sealed,  or  Final 
Prophet?  But  if  he  had  reached  the  age,  and  I  had 
not  given  him  the  position  of  a  prophet,  then,  in  the 
world  to  come,  when  all  the  past  and  present  prophets 
foregathered,  and  all  prophets  had  sons  who  were 
prophets,  except  in  thine  own  case,  would  not  the  grief 
at  that  be  greater  than  thy  present  grief?  But  do  not 
be  distressed,  I  will  raise  up  thy  successor  from  among 
the  descendants  of  thy  daughter  Fatima.''  Our  Prophet 
on  hearing  this  command,  was  straightway  relieved. 

6.  Saving  the  World.  There  are  four  degrees  of 
Saviours.  The  prophets  save  their  followers.  The 
worthies  save  their  brethren.  Children  under  age  may 
save  their  parents.  The  Prophet  will  save  all  believ- 
ers of  all  time.  This  salvation  is  not  salvation  after  one 
has  suffered  his  punishment.  Our  present  world  relig- 
ion exhorts  people  to  believe  in  God  and  to  walk  in  His 
ways,  then  they  will  be  saved  from  the  punishments  of 
hell ;  it  is  not  the  same  as  some  others  say,  that  one  must 
suffer  his  penalty  (in  purgatory),  and  then  afterwards 
be  saved. 

The  Christians  say  that  apart  from  Jesus,  no  one  else 
can  save;  but  this  self-contradictory  statement  is  easily 
exposed.  Their  Bible  says  that  when  the  children  of 
Israel  had  worshipped  the  calf,  God  was  angry  and 
wanted  to  destroy  them  all.  Moses  then  prayed  to  God 
to  forgive  them,  and  God  ceased  His  anger  and  forgave 
them.  Is  this  not  an  evidence  of  salvation  through  an- 
other? Our  religion  believes  that  in  the  work  of  sal- 
vation, all  the  prophets  have  saving  power,  how  much 
more  must  Mohammed  have  it,  as  he  is  the  Flighest 
Prophet,  in  whom  is  gathered  the  great  completion? 


THE  CORRECT  FOUNDATION  OF  RELIGION     285 

Christians  also  say  that  none  but  a  descendant  of  Isaac 
could  be  the  saviour  of  the  world.  Do  they  not  know 
that  Isaac  and  Ishmael  were  both  sons  of  legal  wives  of 
Abraham;  can  they  mean  to  say  that  a  descendant  of 
Isaac  could  save  while  a  descendant  of  Ishmael  could 
not?     That  is  really  a  one-sided  statement. 

Chapter  4.   The  Illustrious  Books, 

The  books  which  God  has  given  number  104.  To 
Adam  He  gave  10  books;  to  Seth  50  books;  to  Enoch 
30  books;  to  Abraham  10  books;  to  Moses  one  book, 
named  the  Torah;  to  David  one  book  named  the 
Psalms;  to  Jesus  one  book  named  the  Injil,.  (Gospel); 
to  Mohammed  one  book  named  the  Koran. 

The  Books  of  the  Canon  are  the  mandates  of  God, 
and  are  not  made  by  the  prophets  themselves.  The 
written  characters  are  the  exterior,  the  embodied  ideas 
are  the  interior.  Before  the  books  appeared,  the  inner 
meaning  of  them  existed,  and  after  they  appeared,  the 
exteriors  of  them  were  apparent.  Angels  saw  the  ex- 
teriors, and  understood  their  inner  contents,  and  gave 
these  to  the  hearts  of  the  prophets;  this  is  what  is  meant 
by  the  books  being  received.  All  the  mandates  of  God 
ought  to  be  obeyed ;  those  who  do  not  believe  them  are 
rebellious  persons.  All  the  books  mentioned  above 
have  remained  without  revision  or  alteration.  For  over 
1300  years  the  Koran  of  our  Faith  has  never  been  al- 
tered a  single  character.  Christians  say  that  the  Koran 
is  Mohammed's  book;  this  is  not  correct.  Our  re- 
ligion has  in  it  the  principles  of  full  satisfaction;  this 
pamphlet  will  not  suffice  to  record  these  in  detail. 

The  Bible  of  the  Christians  has  been  altered  many 
times.  If  it  be  said  "How  do  you  know  this?"  we  say, 
Their  religion  has  the  Old  and  the  New  Testaments. 
The  Old  Testament  is  the  book  before  Jesus,  and  the 
New  Testament  is  the  book  of  Jesus.  We  will  now 
give  the  years  in  which  the  New  Testament  has  been 
altered, «  to    assist    the    investigation    into    this    matter. 

In  the  year  325  A.  D.  the  scholars  revised  the  book. 
Again,  in  364  A.  D.  they  added  seven  books.     Later,  in 


286  THE  MOSLEM  WORLD 

397  A.  D.  seven  books  more  were  added.  The  scholars 
of  those  times  all  accepted  the  Canon.  In  1200  A.  D. 
a  new  Church  arose,  whose  adherents  said  that  the  laws 
of  these  books  should  be  set  aside,  and  ought  not  to  be 
followed.  What  required  altering  should  be  altered, 
and  what  ought  to  be  retained  should  be  re- 
tained; so  at  that  time  they  accepted  a  half  and 
rejected  a  half.  But  there  are  some  conservative 
people  who,  to  the  present,  accept  the  old 
Book.  The  names  ^^Heavenly  Lord"  (Roman  Catho- 
lics) and  ^^Jesus"  (Protestants),  are  known  all  over  the 
world,  but  it  should  be  understood  that  neither  of  these 
sects  are  the  old  Doctrine,  and  their  books  are  not  the 
old  Books  given  by  God,  but  are  compilations  of  men, 
just  as  they  pleased. 

It  may  be  queried,  "As  the  Canon  was  given  by  God, 
why  did  God  cause  the  later  messages  to  make  to  cease 
some  of  the  earlier  ones?"  The  answer  is:  '^The  Canon 
is  what  angels,  little  by  little,  brought  down  of  the  de- 
crees of  God,  and  was  not  all  given  at  one  time.  At 
the  time  when  the  new  religion  was  established,  God 
gave  decrees  of  the  Law,  and  man  could  easily  follow. 
Afterwards,  when  the  foundations  of  the  Faith  were 
established,  it  was  necessary  to  have  strict  laws  for  the 
governing  of  the  Faith,  so  the  earlier  decrees,  having 
fulfilled  their  purpose  thereupon  ceased." 

It  may  be  further  queried,  "As  the  later  decrees 
caused  to  cease  the  earlier  decrees,  could  it  be  that  God 
did  not  know  what  was  to  come  later."  We  answer, 
"God  is  the  Almighty  and  Omniscient  Ruler,  and  there 
is  nothing  that  He  does  not  know."  The  laws  which  the 
prophets  handed  down  were  transmitted  according  to 
commands.  For  example,  a  master  commands  his  serv- 
ant to  manage  his  affairs,  he  tells  him  one  thing  at  a 
time,  but  the  whole  plan  is  in  the  mind  of  the  master; 
when  one  thing  is  finished,  he  will  give  instructions 
about  the  next.  The  prophets  receiving  commands  to 
establish  the  Faith  was  on  the  same  principles. 

Someone  may  say,  "It  is  only  natural  that  our  Faith 
should  respect  the  Koran  and  obey  it,  as  the  Koran  is  the 


THE  CORRECT  FOUNDATION  OF  RELIGION     287 

Canon  of  the  Law,  and  the  Law  should  be  recited  to  the 
living,  and  they  be  commanded  to  observe  it.  But  why 
must  it  be  recited  when  praying  for  forgiveness  for 
those  who  are  already  dead?  Are  there  some  duties  of 
obeying  the  laws  which  the  dead  also  have  to  observe?" 
We  answer.  In  the  Book  it  is  said,  ^'Recite  the  words 
of  the  Koran  over  the  departed;  it  may  be  that  the  de- 
ceased was  a  rustic  not  accustomed  to  seeing  officials  or 
generals,  and  perhaps  he  may  have  been  very  wicked. 
The  avenging  angels  will  be  like  officials  who  on  hear- 
ing of  the  sins  will  want  to  proceed  to  punish;  then  if 
the  words  of  the  Koran  be  recited  over  the  grave  of  the 
departed,  the  angels  will  hear  the  true  words  of  God, 
which  will  be  like  hanging  up  the  decrees  of  a  king, 
and  the  angels  will  not  dare  to  inquire  into  the  sins,  but 
will  depart.  Is  this  not  immeasurably  better  than  the 
prayers   of   men?" 

Chapter  5.  PredesHnation 

Predestination  means  that  God  in  a  former  world, 
when  creating  all  things,  predestined  what  they  should 
be,  and  this  cannot  be  altered  in  the  least.  Good  or 
evil,  riches  or  poverty,  eminence  or  lowliness,  prosper- 
ity or  adversity,  have  all  been  fixed  before,  and  men 
have  nothing  to  do  with  them. 

If  it  be  asked,  "If  good  and  evil  are  predetermined, 
why  has  God  appointed  heaven  and  hell  as  the  re- 
spective places  where  the  good  and  evil  people  go  to?" 
We  reply;  "Good  and  evil  are  of  God's  fixing;  wisdom 
and  freedom  are  left  with  men.  For  example,  when  a 
king  sets  up  a  code  of  rewards  and  punishments,  it  is 
that  the  good  may  be  rewarded,  and  the  bad  punished. 
Therefore  Confucius  said  ^Select  the  good  and  follow  it, 
and  amend  what  is  not  good.'  " 

When  the  first  men  of  our  Faith  came  to  China,  they 
selected  the  character  "hui"  in  deciding  the  name  of  the 
Faith.  The  idea  in  taking  the  character  "hui"  was  be- 
cause there  is  in  the  character  a  mouth  (representing  a 
person)  surrounded  by  an  enclosure.  The  enclosure 
indicates  the  boundaries  fixed  by  predestination. 


288  THE  MOSLEM  WORLD 

Further,  our  Prophet  had  the  figure  ^P  drawn  as 
a  sign,  its  meaning  being  that  no  matter  how  much  one 
may  change  and  transform,  yet  one  cannot  get  beyond 
the  determined  bounds.  Now-a-days  there  are  in  all 
civilized  countries  ambitious  scholars  who,  whenever 
they  investigate  anything,  must  make  it  fit  in  with  their 
plan  or  they  are  not  happy;  so  at  present  we  have  talk 
about  evolution.  But  they  should  know  that  there  are 
also  some  things  which  will  not  fit  in  with  their  plans, 
and  if  they  do  fit  in,  it  is  because  they  were  so  foreor- 
dained, all  that  we  do  has  been  foreordained,  and 
the  great  operations  of  God  are  thus  manifested  in  the 
world. 

Christians  all  say  that  predestination  should  not  be 
believed.  They  mostly  when  considering  the  relative 
positions  of  the  countries  of  the  modern  world,  say  that 
Turkey  is  a  Mohammedan  country,  which  believes  in 
predestination  (Fate)  as  a  fundamental,  therefore  it  is 
a  weak  country.  Please  observe,  in  the  present  war  in 
Europe,  Belgium,  Servia,  England,  France,  Russia  and 
Italy,  of  these  countries  some  are  great  and  some  are 
small,  but  none  of  them  have  a  Mohammedan  govern- 
ment, and  they  do  not  think  much  of  predestination. 
Yet  among  them  there  are  some  which  have  gone  under, 
and  others  which  cannot  fight;  is  not  this  fate? 

Chapter  6.  Resurrection  and  the  Future  World 
There  are  two  future  worlds,  the  great  one  and  the 
small  one.  Men  after  death  enter  the  minor  future 
world;  whatever  good  or  evil  they  have  committed 
will  be  inquired  into  in  this  minor  future  world,  and 
will  receive  the  judgment  of  God.  But  when  this 
present  world  has  passed  away,  then  there  is  a  great 
future  world,  in  which  all  who  have  lived  in  all  ages, 
will  be  resurrected  to  life,  and  the  One  who 
will  wield  the  power  of  judgment  is  God 
alone.  This  talk  of  other  sects  about  Jesus  wielding 
the  power  of  judgment,  is  a  great  mistake  altogether, 
because  Jesus  also  is  a  created  being. 

Resurrection  means  that  the  original   body  will  be 


THE  CORRECT  FOUNDATION  OF  RELIGION     289 

gathered  together,  and  have  its  original  life  resusci- 
tated, and  there  will  be  rewarding  of  the  good,  and 
punishing  of  the  evil.  The  good  will  go  into  heaven; 
the  bad  will  go  into  hell. 

It  may  be  asked,  "What  is  the  original  body?"  We 
answer:  "The  original  body  means  the  members  of  the 
body  as  originally  made;  that  is  of  the  essences  of  the 
earth.  The  source  of  all  things  came  from  the  "t'ai 
chi,"  therefore  the  body  of  ancestral  man,  Adam,  came 
from  the  earth  of  the  "t'ai  chi,"  and  his  descendants 
to  all  generations  are  the  same;  the  essence  of  their 
bodies  has  been  transmitted  from  Adam's  body,  genera- 
tion after  generation,  the  seed  of  the  father  blending 
with  the  blood  of  the  mother,  and  so  forming  the  bod- 
ies. So  after  death,  the  body  at  first  returns  to  the 
earth,  but  does  not  perish,  therefore  there  is  a  gather- 
ing together  of  the  original  life.  The  good  and  evil 
of  men  belong  to  the  time  when  the  body  was  living, 
therefore  it  is  a  complete  man,  psychic  and  material, 
which  enters  heaven  or  hell. 

The  joys  of  heaven  are  two  kinds,  sensuous  and  in- 
sensuous.  The  insensuous  or  spiritual  joys  are  the  de- 
lights which  confessors  and  believers  of  God  will  have 
in  seeing  His  face.  Heaven  is  the  place  where  serv- 
ants see  their  Lord,  it  is  not  a  fixed  place  of  God. 
The  sensuous  delights  are  the  delights  which  those 
who  have  served  God  will  receive  by  His  grace. 

It  may  be  queried  "Does  God  have  form  and  like- 
ness that  can  be  seen  in  the  future  world,  if  He  does 
not  have  form  and  likeness  how  can  He  be  seen?"  We 
answer:  "The  recognition  of  God  is  a  recognition  with- 
out objective  likeness,  and  the  seeing  of  God 
will  be  a  seeing  without  objective  likeness;  those 
who  see  God  cannot  tell  of  the  appearance  of  God  which 
they  have  seen.  For  example,  when  a  man  eats  excellent 
food,  he  cannot  describe  the  flavor  by  any  concrete  ob- 
ject. 

The  Christians  say  that  the  joys  of  heaven  are  not 
joys  of  sense;  the  resurrection  is  a  resurrection  of  the 
soul,  and  not  of  the  body.     This  is  a  great  mistake. 


290  THE  MOSLEM  WORLD 

Do  they  not  know  that  the  soul  has  no  death,  that 
which  dies  is  the  body.  Seeing  the  soul  does  not  die 
how  can  it  be  said  to  come  to  life  again?  Those  peo- 
ple do  not  keep  the  fast,  or  mafce  the  pilgrimage,  or 
observe  the  laws;  do  they  not  thus  act  unreasonably? 
But  when  they  speak  of  the  resurrection  being  of  the 
soul  only  then  if  one  ought  to  enter  heaven,  it  is  under- 
standable; but  if  one  ought  to  enter  hell,  then  what 
is  the  right  thing  to  be  resurrected?  If  it  be  said,  the 
soul,  then  how  is  that  when  both  body  and  soul  together 
committed  sin,  yet  only  the  soul  receives  punishment? 
The  soul  by  itself  cannot  commit  sin.  If  they  say  it 
is  not  the  soul  which  is  resurrected,  then  though  we 
agree  as  to  the  resurrection^  yet  is  not  the  manner  of 
the  resurrection  different?  Could  there  be  such  a 
thing  as  there  being  no  joys  of  sense?  Truly  this  is  a 
very  vulgar  tenet  of  that  religion. 

An  Appendix. 

A  statement  as  to  the  majesty  and  grandeur  of  the 
Mohammed  religion,  and  the  reason  for  writing  this 
book. 

In  the  beginning  the  world  was  in  chaotic  dark- 
ness, and  trackless;  afterwards,  like  the  light  of  the 
stars,  or  the  gleaming  of  lamps,  the  prophets  handed 
down  one  to  another  what  they  had  received,  and  so 
the  Way  (Doctrine)  was  obtained.  At  the  time  of 
Mohammed,  the  Way  was  as  bright  as  the  sun,  and 
the  lights  of  the  stars  and  the  gleams  of  the  lamps 
were  absorbed  in  the  brilliant  light  of  the  sun.  The 
Doctrine,  like  the  sun,  illuminates  the  whole  universe. 
Although  there  are,  like  clouds  and  fogs,  strange  ten- 
ets and  heresies  making  chaos  with  each  other,  yet  by 
the  light  and  heat  of  the  sun  it  is  possible  to  dissipate 
these  clouds  and  fogs,  and  to  still  further  send  forth 
the  glorious  light  until  there  is  nothing  anywhere 
which  shall  not  share  in  the  illumination.  Therefore 
men  of  vision  obtain  the  blessings  which  come  from 
the    Faith.     Ignorant    people    go    groping    along    in 


THE  CORRECT  FOUNDATION  OF  RELIGION     291 

blindness;  they  do  not  obtain  the  light,  so  are  unable 
to  distinguish  between  black  and  white. 

We  Moslems  consider  the  Doctrine  as  fundamental. 
We  give  attention  to  what  is  fundamental,  and  prac- 
tice the  Doctrine;  so  long  as  we  understand  the  Doc- 
trine, there  is  nothing  else  we  ask  for.  Although  at 
present  there  are  strange  tenets  like  rebellious  winds 
raking  up  the  dust  of  the  whole  earth,  yet  the  true 
Doctrine  is  like  a  great  rain  descending,  which  will 
speedily  put  away  the  wind  and  dust  of  the  strange 
tenets,  and  manifest  the  glory  of  the  great  Doctrine. 
The  faith  of  the  Moslems  is  as  steadfast  as  the  T'ai 
mountain;  although  wild  winds  tempestuously  blow, 
how  can  we  be  moved  by  them?  We  have  in  this 
present  effort  selected  and  briefly  outlined  some  of 
the  minute  principles  of  our  religion,  and  offer  them 
to  gentlemen  of  intelligence  who  examine  into  re- 
ligions, so  that  they  may  also  use  these  in  their  inves- 
tigation. 

Isaac  Mason. 

Shanghai,  China. 


292 


THE  MOSLEM  WORLD 


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It  was  a  bold  undertaking  for  Dr.  Lewis  F.  Esselstyn  to 
attempt  alone  in  19,1 1  to  open  missionary  work  in  Meshed, 
in  the  very  midst  of  most  bigoted  and  fanatical  Moham- 
medans. The  city  is  known  as  Mashad  muqaddas, 
'^Meshed  the  Holy/'  and  resentment  was  altogether  nat- 
ural against  the  teaching  of  a  foreign  religion  in  the  sa- 
cred city. 

But  perhaps  few  people  understand  why  the  city  of 
Meshed  is  called  sacred.  The  Imam  Riza,  a  celebrated 
saint  of  Islam  and  the  eighth  lineal  descendant  of  Mo- 
hammad, died  eleven  hundred  years  ago  in  Tus,  the  an- 
cient capital  of  Khorasan.  He  was  buried  sixteen  miles 
outside  the  city  and  a  little  mud  house  was  built  over  his 
tomb.  Three  hundred  years  later,  the  son  of  the  Sultan 
Sanjar,  a  young  man  who  had  been  suffering  from  poor 
health,  was  hunting  nearby  this  tomb  and  the  gazelle 

293 


294  THE  MOSLEM  WORLD 

that  he  was  chasing  took  'refuge  inside  the  little  mud 
house.  He  tried  to  persuade  his  horse  to  advance  to- 
wards it  but  the  horse  kept  shying  away  from  the  tomb. 
Surmising  that  he  was  on  holy  ground  the  Prince  dis- 
mounted and  walked  right  into  the  little  mud  house. 
There  at  the  tomb  he  prayed  directly  to  the  saint,  the 
Imam  Riza,  that  he  might  be  healed  of  his  illness.  At 
once  he  was  miraculously  cured,  according  to  the  story, 
and  from  that  time  on  the  tomb  became  sacred  and  cele- 
brated. The  Sultan  Sanjar  built  a  shrine  where  the 
little  mud  house  had  stood.  And  one  hundred  years  later, 
when  the  Mongols  came  down  from  central  Asia  and 
utterly  destroyed  the  city  of  Tus,  the  people  who  escaped 
fled  up  the  valley  of  the  Ravi  river  and  took  refuge  in 
the  shrine.  There  they  were  not  molested  and  round- 
about the  shrine  they  put  up  a  village  of  mud  houses, 
and  during  the  last  seven  hundred  years  this  village  grew 
into  the  modern  city  of  Meshed.  Successive  kings  and 
governors  have  added  to  the  shrine,  and  now  it  occupies 
a  vast  "temple  area"  in  the  center  of  the  city.  The 
hundred  thousand  pilgrims  who  come  to  the  sacred  city  of 
Meshed  every  year,  come  over  the  hills  roundabout,  and 
before  they  start  down  into  the  fertile  valley,  as  they  get 
their  first  view  of  the  city,  it  is  to  see  the  gold  dome  of 
the  shrine  glistening  in  the  sunlight. 

There  was  certainly  an  element  of  adventure  and  of 
extraordinary  privilege  about  the  opportunity  to  carry 
the  gospel  of  Jesus  Christ  into  the  city  of  the  pilgrims, 
Meshed,  the  famous  healing  place  of  Islam. 

But  bold  undertakings  are  not  always  successful.  When 
the  scouts  have  reported  favorably  and  with  enthusiasm, 
then  comes  the  command,  "Go  up  and  possess  it."  The 
work  of  scouting  in  Meshed  and  the  vast  unoccupied 
field  that  surrounds  it  has  been  done.  It  has  taken  seven 
years  to  do  it.  That  it  is  possible  to  do  the  most  effective 
kinds  of  missionary  work  throughout  all  that  vast  region 
has  been  repeatedly  demonstrated.  The  question  that 
faces  the  church,  now  is  no  longer.  Can  it  be  done,  but. 
Will  we  do  it?  Is  the  work  of  the  scouts  to  be  met  with 
forty  years  of  lethargy  in  the  desert?     It  the  work  at 


THE  GREAT  VENTURE  IN  KHORASAN  295 

Meshed  to  fail  on  account  of  the  complacent  weakness 
and  indifference  of  folks  at  home? 

The  first  map  shows  that  the  responsibility  of  other 
mission  stations  in  Persia  has  extended,  in  theory  and  in 
practice,  as  far  east  as  the  western  border  of  the  province 
of  Khorasan.  Now  Khorasan  has  about  a  fourth  of  the 
area  and  more  than  a  fifth  of  the  population  of  all  Persia. 
But  as  yet  only  about  one  twenty-fifth  of  the  missionaries 
in  Persia  are  working  in  this  great  eastern  province.  The 
inequality  is  due  in  part  to  the  newness  of  missionary 
work  in  Khorasan  and  does  not  constitute  a  ground  for 
criticism  unless  it  should  be  allowed  to  continue. 

If  the  present  force  of  missionaries  in  Khorasan  should 
be  increased  sevenfold,  the  grand  total  would  still  allow 
only  one  missionary  for  every  50,000  people.  Five  new 
missionaries  a  year  for  the  next  seven  years,  allowing  for 
no  deaths  or  resignations,  would  establish  this  quota  for 
Khorasan.  We  realize,  of  course,  that  this  is  an  exceed- 
ingly conservative  estimate  if  we  really  "mean  business" 
in  Khorasan  and  later  in  the  neighboring  Mohammedan 
lands  of  Central  Asia,  but  other  parts  of  Persia  are  in 
grave  need  of  reenf orcement  also. 

The  large  circle  on  the  map  represents  the  isolation  of 
Meshed  from  other  mission  stations  and  also  its  prox- 
imity to  countries  that  have  not  been  occupied  by  Christ- 
ian missions.  The  radius  of  the  circle  is  six  hundred 
miles  and  it  will  be  seen  to  extend  far  into  the  neighbor- 
ing countries  of  Turkestan  and  Afghanistan. 

Turkestan  is  a  great  neglected  region  with  nearly 
15,000,000  Mohammadans,  of  whom  probably  at  least 
5,000,000,  Tartars  and  Turkemans  principally,  live  with- 
in the  region  included  within  the  circle.  When  the 
chaotic  period  of  the  Russian  revolution  shall  have 
passed,  other  American  missionary  societies  may  wish  to 
help  in  the  work  in  central  Asia.  They  will  find  plenty 
of  opportunity  in  Turkestan.  The  Trans-Caspian  rail- 
road reaches  many  of  the  chief  cities.  The  whole  region 
is  accessible  and  visitors  to  the  mission  hospital  in  Mes- 
hed, visitors  from  Turkestan,  have  repeatedly  declared 
that  if  scriptures  in  the  Persian,  Arabic,  Turkish,  Rus- 


296        ^^  THE  MOSLEM  WORLD 

sian  and  Tartar  languages  could  be  brought  to  Askabad, 
Tashkend,  Merv,  Samarkand  and  other  cities  in  Turkes- 
tan, they  would  be  sold  literally  by  thousands. 

The  situation  in  Afghanistan  may  be  modified  by  po- 
litical developments  in  the  very  near  future.  The  old 
Amir  of  Afghanistan,  recently  deceased,  was  under  treaty 
obligations  with  Great  Britian,  (see  Statesmen's  Year 
Book,  1916)  to  keep  his  mountainous  state,  which  is  as 
large  as  Texas,  as  a  ^'buffer  state"  between  the  Indian 
and  the  Russian  Empires,  to  admit  no  foreigners  what- 
ever to  his  country,  and  in  return  for  this  favor  the  En- 
glish were  also  to  stay  out  of  Afghanistan,  and  the  Amir 
of  the  Afghans  was  to  receive  an  annual  stipend  of  $600,- 
000  from  the  Indian  Empire.  During  the  last  two  years 
of  the  war,  German,  Austrian  and  Turkish  spies,  who  had 
been  carrying  on  their  propaganda  work  in  Persia,  left 
Persia  when  the  sympathizers  with  the  Allies  got  the 
upper  hand  in  the  Persian  government.  These  spies  left 
Persia  by  the  back  door  and  took  refuge  in  Afghanistan. 
The  act  of  giving  refuge  to  the  spies  of  England's  en- 
emies at  the  time  of  war  could  probably  have  been  in- 
terpreted as  a  violation  of  the  treaty  between  Afghanis- 
tan and  the  Indian  Empire,  but  at  the  time  the  British 
policy  seems  to  have  been  conciliatory.  Precautions  were 
taken,  however,  to  have  only  native  Afghans  act  as  Brit- 
ish agents  within  Afghanistan  in  order  to  thwart  the 
possible  activity  of  the  enemy  refugees,  some  of  whom 
were  expelled  from  the  country,  and  after  crossing  into 
Persia  were  captured  as  prisoners. 

There  is  now  a  new  Amir  of  Afghanistan;  under  the 
pressure  of  war  time  necessity  a  new  railroad  was  ex- 
tended clear  through  the  desert  land  of  Baluchistan  to  the 
south-eastern  border  of  Persia;  after  the  collapse  of  the 
Russians,  British-Indian  troops  occupied  the  eastern 
border  of  Khorasan  in  order  to  prevent  a  very  possible 
German  advance  into  that  part  of  Persia;  the  expansion 
towards  India  of  the  old  imperial  Russian  government 
is  no  longer  to  be  feared  by  the  government  of  India;  the 
Afghan  people  have  learned  more  of  foreign  affairs  and 
have  taken  more  interest  in  trade  with  their  neighbors 


THE  GREAT  VENTURE  IN  KHORASAN  297 

during  the  war  than  ever  before ;  consequently,  although 
a  mere  statement  of  these  facts  is  by  no  means  conclusive, 
they  are  nevertheless  at  least  suggestive  of  the  probability 
that  it  will  no  longer  be  to  the  political,  military,  or  com- 
mercial interest  of  the  government  of  India  to  keep  Af- 
ghanistan closed.  It  is  by  no  means  unlikely  that  the 
new  Amir  of  Afghanistan  would  be  willing  to  continue 
to  receive  an  annual  stipend  from  the  government  of  In- 
dia, not  to  keep  his  country  closed  to  foreigners,  but  as 
the  price  of  a  right  of  way  for  a  British  railroad  directly 
across  Afghanistan  to  Meshed,  thence  to  the  Trans- 
Caspian  railroad,  so  that  India  would  be  directly  con- 
nected by  rail  with  Europe.  Certainly,  when  Afghanis- 
tan is  opened,  among  the  first  to  answer  the  invitation, 
'^Come  over  and  help  us,"  will  be  the  missionary  doctors 
and  nurses,  ministers  and  teachers,  who  are  now  working 
on  the  Persian  and  Indian  borders. 

The  fact  that  the  people  of  Afghanistan  read  and  speak 
the  Persian  language  is  already  giving  missionaries  of 
Khorasan  a  unique  advantage.  Pushtu,  the  distinctive 
dialect  of  Afghanistan,  has  approximately  the  same  re- 
lationship to  Persian  that  Scotch  or  Gaelic  has  to  English. 
Persian  books  and  newspapers  are  read  much  more  widely 
than  one  would  imagine  in  that  still  closed  land.  From 
the  American  mission  hospital  in  Meshed,  in  one  year, 
1 79 1  copies  of  scripture,  most  of  them  in  the  Persian  lan- 
guage, were  sold  to  visiting  merchants  from  Afghanistan, 
and  by  them  were  taken  across  the  border  and  sold  among 
their  countrymen. 

Afghanistan  has  three  principal  cities,  Herat,  Kabul, 
and  Kandahar.  At  one  time,  in  the  Meshed  hospital, 
there  were  four  hernia  cases  in  one  room.  They  had  all 
come  from  the  city  of  Herat,  one  hundred  and  seventy 
miles  from  Meshed. 

Six  tall,  vigorous  young  Afghans  came  to  the  Meshed 
hospital  together  one  morning,  and  one  of  them  said,  ^  We 
are  brothers,  last  year  our  father  came  here  and  bought  a 
book  which  he  reads  back  home  at  nights.  He  told  us  to 
come  and  get  more  of  those  books."  The  missionary 
asked,  '^And  where  did  you  come  from?"    The  answer 


298  THE  MOSLEM  WORLD 

was,  "We  are  from  Kabuh"  Another  glance  at  the  first 
map  will  show  the  reader  what  that  means.  Kabul  is 
farther  from  Meshed  than  Joseph  was  carried  down  into 
Egypt,  farther  than  Joseph's  brothers  went  for  corn,  and 
there  were  those  six  Mohammedan  brothers  who  had 
made  a  longer  journey  at  their  father's  request,  to  buy 
scriptures.  May  they  not  have  carried  back  the  very 
Bread  of  Life? 

And  from  Kandahar,  three  hundred  miles  from  Mes- 
hed, there  came  one  day  a  poor  blind  old  grandmother. 
Her  eyes  had  cataracts.  When  she  was  able  to  return 
however,  she  went  back  to  her  distant  home,  happily  con- 
vinced that  it  was  true  that  the  Christian  doctor  could 
give  sight  to  the  blind. 

The  city  of  Meshed  is  compactly  built  and  contains 
the  sacred  tomb  of  the  Iman  Riza,  the  Moslem  saint,  the 
precints  of  whose  shrine  only  Mohammedans  are  allowed 
to  enter.  The  mission  hospital  was  started  in  a  rented 
Persian  house,  about  ten  minutes  walk  from  the  shrine 
area.  More  and  more  of  the  pilgrims  that  visit  the  shrine, 
many  of  them  disappointed  and  robbed  of  all  they  had, 
are  coming  to  the  hospital  both  for  treatment  and  to  buy 
scriptures.  Dr.  Rolla  E.  Hoffman  is  treating  about  15,000 
patients  a  year  in  this  hospital.  A  second  doctor  will 
soon  be  there  to  help  him,  and  a  trained  nurse.  The  first 
modern  hospital  building  has  recently  been  provided  for, 
so  that  the  wonderful  opportunity  in  Meshed  for  medical 
mission  work  will  be  met  with  greatly  improved  facilities 
in  the  very  near  future. 

While  Meshed  is  the  first  great  sacred  city  of  Islam 
in  which  Christian  missionary  work  has  been  established, 
the  opposition  of  fanatics  has  been  much  less  noteworthy 
than  the  splendid  appreciation  that  thousands  of  the 
people  have  shown.  A  striking  example  of  this  is  the 
fact  that  a  full  two-thirds  of  the  entire  expense  of  the 
medical  mission  work  so  far  has  been  paid  by  the  Persian 
people. 

The  American  hospital  took  the  lead  in  feeding  the 
starving  multitudes  of  Meshed  during  the  recent  famine, 
and  last  year,  when  one  of  the  missionaries,  Dr.  Lewis 


THE  GREAT  VExNTURE  IN  KHORASAN  299 

F.  Esselstyn,  the  founder  of  Meshed  station,  died  of  ty- 
phus fever,  after  he  had  given  himself  unsparingly  to 
relief  work,  the  people  said  of  him,  "He  gave  his  life  for 
us." 

The  vast  region  in  Persia  that  has  been  left  to  the  little 
mission  station  at  Meshed  is  as  large  as  all  France.  There 
were  never  more  than  five  missionaries  in  Meshed  but 
they  have  undertaken  to  do  extensive  evangelistic  and 
medical  itinerating  throughout  the  whole  extent  of  Khor- 
asan.  The  dotted  lines  on  the  map  of  Khorasan  show 
how  extensive  these  journeys  have  been.  Only  two  large 
cities.  Tun  and  Tabbas,  are  still  unvisited.  They  lie  far 
to  the  south,  across  the  desert,  in  a  district  that  is  famous 
for  its  dates  and  oranges.  All  of  the  other  cities  and  more 
than  300  villages  have  been  visited,  many  of  them  re- 
peatedly, and  the  people  have  bought  hundreds  of  copies 
of  scriptures.  They  have  shown  also  a  friendly  interest 
in  Christian  preaching,  and  in  many  cases  have  urged  the 
missionaries  "to  come  and  stay."  In  Sabzevar  and  in 
Nishapur,  Karez,  Naratabad,  Neh,  and  Turbat  substan- 
tial offers  of  help  have  been  made  if  mission  work  could 
be  started  also  in  these  places.  About  seven  very  prom- 
ising new  stations  could  be  started  at  once  in  Khorasan  if 
the  missionaries  were  available. 

In  the  meantime,  while  the  little  station  at  Meshed 
goes  on  struggling  with  the  problems  of  a  whole  new 
mission,  a  very  considerable  advantage  is  now  afforded 
them  from  the  fact  that  the  main  trades  routes  in  north- 
eastern Persia  have  been  so  improved  by  British-Indian 
troops  that  automobiles  can  be  used.  This  method  of 
travel  will  be  in  great  contrast  to  the  long  and  weari- 
some journey  of  eight  hundred  miles,  on  pack  mules  and 
running  camels,  which  was  made  a  year  ago  from  Mes- 
hed to  the  terminus  of  the  new  English  railroad.  More 
rapid  means  of  transportation  will  be  of  great  help  in. 
holding  the  Meshed  sector. 

D WIGHT  M.  Donaldson. 
Meshed  J  Persia, 


THE   POLITICO-RELIGIOUS    SITUATION    IN 
ARABIA  TODAY* 


It  is  doubtless  natural  for  one  living  as  a  stranger  in  a 
strange  land  to  resent  in  some  measure  the  ignorance 
of  the  outside  world  concerning  the  particular  corner 
where  he  is  residing,  but  the  civilized  world  is  too  busy 
today  to  assimilate  all  that  it  ought  to  know  with  refer- 
ence to  countries  upon  which  it  proposes  to  confer  some 
of  its  civilization.  The  ignorance  of  the  average  man 
upon  the  subject  of  Arabia  is  almost  absolute.  Only  the 
other  day  in  its  issue  of  September  28th,  1918,  pages 
366,  367,  The  Illustrated  London  'News  in  discussing  a 
photograph  of  the  Holy  Carpet  Pilgrimage  leaving 
Cairo  said,  "The  Holy  Carpet  itself  consists  of  a  num- 
ber of  pieces  of  tapestry  to  form  hangings,  or  curtains, 
for  the  Kaaba,  the  tomb  of  the  Prophet,  at  Mecca," 
Surely  the  veriest  beginner  in  the  study  of  Arabia  and 
her  powerful  religion,  Islam,  knows  that  the  Kaaba  is 
not  a  tomb.  He  also  knows  that  the  Prophet  was  not 
buried  in  Mecca  but  in  Medina,  which  is  the  reason 
why  this  latter  city  is  counted  second  in  the  list  of  the 
sacred  cities  of  Islam,  and  why  in  normal  times  pil- 
grims visit  Medina  after  performing  the  Hajj. 

When  Mecca  passed  out  of  the  hands  of  the  Turk  in- 
to the  hands  of  King  Hussein,  the  fact  was  acclaimed 
everywhere  as  one  more  triumph  of  liberty  over  tyran- 
ny, as  one  more  example  of  a  small  and  weak  people  to 
whom  would  come  as  one  of  the  results  of  the  Great 
War  the  opportunity  to  develop  the  principles  of  "self- 
determination"  in  the  matter  of  government.  One 
caught  the  idea  from  the  papers  that  Arabia  had  fought 
for  and  won  her  independence  and  that  the  whole  coun- 
try was  a  unit  in  glorying  in  the  downfall  of  their  age- 
long oppressor,  the  Turk.  We  read  of  regiments  of 
Arab  soldiers  brought  into  being  by  British  energy,  and 

*  From    The    Christian   Intelligence,   New    York. 

300 


POLITICO-RELIGIOUS  SITUATION  IN  ARABIA    301 

officered  by  the  sons  of  Sheikhs,  who  in  their  turn  are 
under  the  guidance  of  Englishmen.  These  Arabs  are 
our  whole-hearted  allies — we  are  taught — and  are  ren- 
dering us  invaluable  and  loyal  service.  In  a  word,  the 
impression  is  wide-spread  that  the  Arab  is  enthusiastic 
over  the  defeat  of  the  Turk  and  also  over  the  victory 
of  the  ''Christian"  Allies.  Is  this  impression  quite  cor- 
rect? 

It  must  always  be  borne  in  mind  that  there  is  no  such 
thing  in  Arabia  as  a  national  spirit,  there  is  no  patriot- 
ism or  anything  remotely  resembling  it;  the  Arab  is  an 
individualist.  "His  hand  against  every  man  and  every 
man's  hand  against  him."  It  is  probable  that  most  of 
the  Arabs  who  fought  against  the  Turks,  whether  under 
Hussein's  banner  in  the  Hedjaz,  or  under  ours  in  Meso- 
potamia, did  so  because  they  were  well  paid  for  it  or 
because  they  thought  there  was  a  good  chance  of  loot. 
Hussein,  in  particular,  pays  his  followers  very  highly. 
Some  time  ago,  the  writer  was  speaking  to  a  friend  of 
the  fine  proportions  of  Hussein's  army,  and  the  remark 
made  in  reply  was,  ''Go  out  into  the  cemetery  beyond 
the  town  with  plenty  of  dates;  all  the  stray  dogs  will 
come  to  you,  but  they  will  only  stay  with  you  as  long  as 
the  dates  last."  The  Arab  is  not  enthusiastic  over  the 
victory  of  the  Allies;  he  is  never  enthusiastic  over  any- 
thing, least  of  all  of  the  victory  of  the  Christian  over  the 
Moslem.  He  is  a  Semite  with  an  eye  to  the  main 
chance,  he  is  selfish  to  the  last  degree  and  though  he  has 
been  praised  and  rightly  so  for  his  manliness  of  bear- 
ing, it  is  nevertheless  true  that  a  good  deal  of  this  same 
is  the  conceit  of  ignorance.  Your  true  Arab,  down  in 
his  heart,  has  an  ineffable  contempt  for  the  Christian 
and  would  rather  be  ruled,  if  ruled  he  must  be,  by  a 
Turk  than  a  Christian,  even  though  strictly  both  to  him 
are  foreigners. 

Quite  recently  I  had  a  long  conversation  on  this  sub- 
ject with  a  prominent  Kuweit  merchant,  a  dealer  in 
pearls  worth  many  lakhs  of  rupees,  and  who  would  not 
be  the  wealthy  man  he  is  had  it  not  been  for  the  steadi- 
ness and  security  of  trade  due  to  the  Pax  Britannica  in 


302  THE  MOSLEM  WORLD 

the  Persian  Gulf.  He  admitted  first  that  the  Arab  had 
never  been  treated  right  by  the  Turk,  second  that  the 
Arab  had  no  real  love  for  the  Turk,  third  that  most 
Turks  were  sceptics  and  only  nominal  Moslems,  and 
yet  in  the  face  of  all  these  admissions  he  admitted  one 
more  thing,  namely,  that  he  would  prefer  to  see  the  Turk 
win  in  Iraq,  or  at  any  rate  would  prefer  that  the  Turk 
should  not  be  humiliated  in  defeat.  "The  religious  tie 
is  the  only  bond  between  us  and  the  Turk,  but  it  is  the 
tie  that  binds"  was  more  or  less  the  way  he  summed  up 
the  situation.  This  man  does  not  stand  alone;  in  fact 
his  attitude  is  probably  the  real  inward  attitude  of  the 
great  majority  of  the  leading  men  of  Kuweit,  from  the 
Sheikh  down.  The  Arab  is,  however,  a  fatalist  and 
will  gradually  learn  to  accept  the  inevitable  but  he  has 
only  just  begun  to  admit  that  Germany  is  hopelessly 
beaten,  and  with  her,  Turkey. 

The  question  of  "self-determination"  as  applied  to 
Arabia,  will  from  those  who  know  the  Arab  receive  for 
answer  only  a  smile.  A  land  where  the  great  mass  of 
the  men  and  practically  all  the  women  are  illiterate, 
and  where  what  little  education  there  is  consists  in  a 
knowledge  of  the  Koran  and  Mohammedan  tradition, 
a  land  where  people  do  not  want  to  learn,  a  land  steeped 
in  the  tenets  of  its  great  but  hopelessly  unprogressive 
religion,  a  land  where  there  is  no  mutual  trust,  surely 
such  a  land  is  an  unpromising  soil  on  which  to  sow  the 
seeds  of  Government  of  the  People,  by  the  People,  and 
for  the  People.  Oh!  but  you  say  "King  Hussein,  the 
new  Khalifah,  is  a  popular  ruler  in  the  modern  sense 
of  the  word.  He  is  the  people's  choice  and  would  be 
acclaimed  by  the  Arabs  all  over  the  country  were  they 
to  hold  an  election.  An  Arab  of  the  Arabs,  a  native 
of  Mecca,  a  man  of  Mohammed's  own  tribe,  the  Ko- 
reish;  surely  none  will  question  his  office."  On  the  sur- 
face, Huessin's  qualifications  seem  more  than  sufficient 
to  satisfy  the  most  ardent  home-ruler,  but  it  is  an 
interesting  fact  that  whereas  in  this  part  of  Arabia  the 
man  in  the  street  never  questioned  the  authority  both 
religious  and  political  of  the  Sultans  of  Constantinople, 


POLITICO-RELIGIOUS  SITUATION  IN  ARABIA    303 

the  Sherif,  as  King  Hussein  is  always  called  here,  is 
by  a  certain  section  of  the  community  spoken  of  with 
contempt  while  his  claims  are  sneered  at.  "An  upstart," 
they  say.  "Would  never  have  been  anybody  had  it  not 
been  for  the  British  Government."  It  is  useless  to  re- 
tort that  the  obvious  course  for  the  British  Government 
was  to  take  the  man  it  found  on  the  spot,  a  man  who  had 
long  been  the  biggest  Arab  in  Mecca. 

The  people  who  talk  against  the  Sherif  in  the  above 
strain  have  a  candidate  of  their  own  for  the  Khalifate. 
It  is  true  that  the  Arabs  have  never  been  a  unit  in  any- 
thing, except  possibly  their  religion.  It  is  also  true 
that  their  differences  are  narrowing.  There  are  in 
Arabia  today  only  two  chiefs  who  count.  The  one  is 
King  Hussein  of  the  Hedjaz;  the  other  is  Abdul  Aziz 
bin  Saud  of  the  Nejd.  Each  of  these  two  men  aspires 
to  be  lord  of  all  the  Arabs,  and  each  is  bending  all  his 
energies  to  that  end.  In  the  old  days  the  fight  was  be- 
tween Bin  Saud  and  Bin  Rashi,  and  the  stake  was  the 
supremacy  of  the  Nejd.  Now  Bin  Rashid  is  out  of  the 
running  and  reduced  to  impotence,  though  to  his  credit 
it  must  be  recorded  that  he  remained  faithful  to  his 
ally,  the  Turk,  to  the  very  end.  Today  Bin  Saud  is 
master  of  the  great  interior,  besides  the  province  of 
Hassa.  He  is  a  great  leader,  full  of  religious  zeal,  and 
would  probably  love  to  be  Khalifa  if  only  for  the  joy 
of  being  able  to  bring  Islam  back  to  the  austere  doc- 
trines of  Wahabism.  He  has  a  sprinkling  of  backers 
in   Kuweit. 

There  is  a  new  movement  just  stirring  in  the  interior, 
known  as  the  Ikhwan  movement,  a  sort  of  extreme 
development  of  the  doctrine  of  the  Wahabis.  "The 
simple  life"  is  their  cry  and  their  numbers  are  growing 
rapidly.  Bin  Saud  is  encouraging  the  Ikhwans,  think- 
ing that  there  are  no  Arab  troops  likely  to  be  able  to 
cope  with  a  host  of  fanatics  burning  with  holy  zeal.  If 
Bin  Saud  had  been  lucky  enough  to  take  Mecca  by  the 
strength  of  his  own  right  arm  at  the  time  that  he  con- 
quered Hassa,  he  would  have  been  master  of  Arabia 
today;  but  now  his  chance  has  probably  gone  forever 


304  THE  MOSLEM  WORLD 

and  he  will  have  to  be  content  to  share  the  country  with 
Hussein,  king  of  Hejaz.  It  is  gall  and  wormwood 
to  his  ambitious  soul  to  realize  that  Hussein  must  of 
necessity  both  potentially  and  actually  be  the  bigger 
man,  actually  because  Hussein  is  the  de  facto  Khalifa, 
reigning  in  Mecca,  and  backed  by  the  British  Govern- 
ment, to  whom  Hussein  is  a  more  important  person 
politically  than  Bin  Saud,  and  potentially  because  Hus- 
sein's adherents  are  probably  more  numerous  than  Bin 
Saud's.  Bin  Saud  can  count  on  no  outside  help  save 
the  Ikhwans;  he  has  quarreled  with  the  Sheikh  of 
Kuweit  who  now  sides  with  the  Sherif,  and  although  to 
a  certain  extent  Bin  Rashid  has  been  defeated  by  Bin 
Saud,  it  is  doubtful  whether  Bin  Saud  will  gain  the 
Shammar  Arabs  (Bin  Rashid's  great  tribe)  as  his  fol- 
lowers. Bin  Saud  would  probably  be  more  popular 
were  he  not  so  aggressively  religious.  The  day  has 
gone  by  when  men  will  submit  to  being  stoned  to  death 
for  being  lax  in  prayer,  when  men  will  put  up  with 
severe  punishment  because  they  have  been  casual,  say, 
in  keeping  the  fast  of  Ramadan.  The  writer  is  assured 
that  the  subjects  of  Bin  Saud  are  compelled  to  be  reli- 
gious. The  Ikhwans  will  even  shoot  a  man  for  smok- 
ing, according  to  popular  report;  in  fact  they  say  that 
by  so  doing  they  save  his  soul  from  perdition  and  he 
goes  direct  to  Jenna,  whereas  Jehennum  would  most 
assurdly  be  his  fate  did  he  continue  to  live  on  in  his 
sin. 

King  Hussein  from  the  very  nature  of  things  is  a  man 
of  broader  outlook  than  Bin  Saud,  though  the  latter  is 
the  finer,  simper,  nobler  character  of  the  two.  Hus- 
sein has  mixed  with  the  world,  the  flesh  and  possibly 
the  devil,  in  the  shape  of  the  Turk,  to  an  extent  which 
makes  him  a  past  master  in  the  art  of  intrigue.  From 
all  accounts  he  is  a  worldly-wise  man,  whereas  Bin 
Saud  is  unsophisticated  to  a  degree,  transparent  in  his 
politics  and  hampered  by  his  ignorance  of  the  outer 
world,  shut  up  as  he  is  in  the  interior  of  Arabia.  This 
year  he  forbade  his  people  to  go  on  the  Hajj  and  has 
prohibited  the  export  of  all  desert  produce  to  the  He- 


POLITICO-RELIGIOUS  SITUATION  IN  ARABIA    305 

jaz.  The  price  of  butter,  that  indispensable  ingredient 
of  so  many  Arab  dishes,  is  therefore  very  high  in  Mec- 
ca. It  is  almost  unthinkable  that  Bin  Saud  will  try 
to  make  friends  with  Hussein,  much  to  be  desired  as 
such  a  consummation  is.  He  is  too  proud  to  take  sec- 
ond place,  while  Hussein,  strong  in  the  consciousness 
of  his  solid  position,  will  probably  ignore  him.  And  so 
the  wheel  of  fate  in  Arabia  keeps  on  turning  and  Bin 
Saud,  while  having  gained  enormously  in  power  and 
prestige  during  the  past  five  years,  remains  nevertheless 
a  disappointed  man,  in  that  he  has  not  realized  and 
cannot  realize  his  great  ambition. 

C.  Stanley  G.  Mylrea. 

Kuweit.  Arabia, 


BOOK     REVIEWS 


Bulletin  of  the  School  of  Oriental  Studies.  Published  by  the  School 
of  Oriental  Studies,  London  Institution.  191 8.  Six  shillings. 
P.   151. 

We  are  glad  to  call  attention  to  the  second  Bulletin  of  the  school 
of  Oriental  Studies.  Articles  of  interest  in  this  number  to  students  of 
Islam  are  the  following:  Hausa  Speech,  its  Wit  and  Wisdom  by  J. 
Withers  Gill,  The  Russian  Seizure  of  Barha'ah  in  943  A.  D.  by  Pro- 
fessor D.  J.  Margoliouth,  and  Swahili  Poetry  by  Miss  Alice  Werner. 

In  writing  of  the  Hausa  language  a  number  of  the  familiar  proverbs 
are  given.  The  writer  shows  how  animism  still  dominates  the  thought 
of  the  Moslem  leaders.  He  says:  **A  considerable  portion  of  the 
Mallams,  educated  under  the  old  native  regime,  devote  their  talents 
to  the  work  of  doubtful  utility  of  writing  charms  against  all  con- 
ceivable evils  and  misfortunes.  To  a  people  nourished  on  mystery  who, 
in  spite  of  their  fatalistic  creed,  believe  in  genii,  ghosts,  goblins  and 
those  terrific  things  that  'go  bump  in  the  night,'  protective  charms  are 
eagerly  sought  for.  These  consist  sometimes  of  a  quotation  from  the 
Koran,  more  or  less  appropriate;  sometimes  an  astrological  formula; 
sometimes  some  mjeaningless  rubbish  written  In  Arabic.  You  may  have 
them  wrapped  in  leather  to  carrry  about  as  a  permanent  amulet.  You 
may  also  have  a  charm  written  on  a  board.  Wash  of?  the  ink  from  the 
lattei"  and  drink  the  decoction,  and  lo!  the  cure  is  complete.  Or  you 
may  have  a  love  potion  that  will  cause  the  object  of  your  admiration 
to  follow  you  like  a  pet  dog.  Or  of  your  desires  wander  from  self- 
protection  to  vengeance  on  someone  who  has  wronged  you,  you  may 
steal  a  portion  of  your  victim's  shirt,  impregnated  through  the  sudorif- 
erous work  of  Africa  with  your  victim's  soul,  and  the  weaver  of  un- 
holy spells  will  concoct  for  you  a  medicine  that  will  bring  him  untold 
injury." 

Professor  Margoliouth's  paper  is  historical  and  critical,  but  none  the 
less  thoroughly  interesting.  Miss  Werner  shows  that  the  Swahili  lan- 
guage stands  alone  among  the  Bantu  group  in  possessing  a  literature. 
This  is  due  to  the  Arabs  who  settled  on  the  east  coast  of  Africa  and 
brought  with  them  their  alphabet  and  their  prosody  as  well  as  their  tradi- 
tion of  literary  culture.  The  Swahili  adopted  the  Arabic  metres  with 
variations  due  to  the  intonations  of  their  language.  Their  verse  is  always 
rhymed  and  sL  number  of  specimens  are  given  of  the  immense  body  of 
verse  in  circulation.  Some  of  it  is  popular  doggerel,  but  other  specimens 
deserve  the  name  of  poetry.  "There  is  a  poem  on  Joseph,  of  which  I 
possess  an  incomplete  copy  written,  to  judge  by  the  condition  of  the  paper, 
a  good  many  years  ago.  I  have  also  a  more  modern  version  of  the  same 
(in  nearly  8cx)  stanzas)  by  a  living  and  very  prolific  writer,  Muhammad 
bin  Abubakar  (Muhammadi  Kijuma)  of  Lamu,  who  informed  me  that 
he  had  used  both  the  Koran  and  the  Old  Testament  as  his  sources.  I 
have  not  yet  been  able  to  compare  it  with  the  available  portions  of  the 
older  poem  (or  poems,  for  a  detached  leaf,  in  a  different  hand,  while 
evidently  part  of  a  poem  on  Joseph,  may  or  may  not  belong  to  the  one 
above  referred  to),  but  believe  it  would  be  quite  in  accordance  with  the 
literary  traditions  of  the  East  if  he  should  prove  to  have  borrowed 
freely." 

306 


BOOK  REVIEWS  307 

Should  America  Accept  Mandate  for  Armenia?  A  Pamphlet, 
pp.  32.  Illustrated.  Issued  by  the  Press  Bureau  of  the  Armenian 
National  Union  of  America.     New  York,  191 9. 

A  strong  plea  in  favor  of  America's  accepting  the  mandate  for  the 
new  Armenian  state  if  created  by  the  decisions  of  the  Peace  Conference. 
An  account  is  given  of  the  area,  population  and  geographical  features 
of  Armenia  in  the  larger  sense  of  the  word.  According  to  the  author 
of  this  pamphlet,  the  number  of  Armenians  within  the  proposed  bound- 
aries is  two  and  one-half  millions,  of  other  Christians  five  hundred 
thousand,  while  the  Moslems  only  number  one  million.  The  argument 
is  fortified  by  a  number  of  editorials  from  the  American  Press  showing 
Armenia's  share  in  winning  the  war  and  concludes  with  a  memorandum 
presented  by  the  President  of  the  Delegation  of  the  Armenian  Republic 
to  the  President  of  the  Peace  Conference. 

The  pamphlet  is  of  special  value  because  it  gives  the  Christian  esti- 
mate of  populations  both  in  Turkish  and  Russian  Armenian  territories. 

S.  M.  Z. 

World  Power  and  Evolution.     Ellsworth  Huntington,  Ph.  D.  Yale 
University  Press,  191 9,  pp.  297.    $2.50. 

Dr.  Huntington's  book  is  well  worth  reading;  the  exhaustive  chapter 
on  Turkey  is  of  particular  value  to  those  interested  in  Moslem  lands 
and  their  future. 

The  thesis  maintains  that  race  development  is  strongly  influenced  by 
climatic  conditions.  The  volume  is  difficult  to  read  and  is  less  convinc- 
ing than  it  might  be  because  the  sequence  of  thought  is  not  always 
well  established.  One  even  questions  the  validity  of  some  of  the  argu- 
ments. For  example  it  does  not  seem  wise  to  draw  sweeping  conclusions 
for  the  United  States  from  preliminary  figures  on  9,000  draft  rejections 
in  which  it  is  not  made  clear  as  to  whether  or  not  a  man  is  rejected 
for  more  than  one  cause.  Nor  is  one  fully  convinced  of  the  validity  of 
conclusions  in  regard  to  health  conditions  taken  for  the  state  of  Massa- 
chusetts, the  state  of  Connecticut,  New  York  City  and  the  uncertain 
reports  for  the  city  of  Chicago  (doubled!) — the  total  being  made  to 
apply  to  "The  Business  Section  of  the  U.  S."  The  charts  used  for 
illustrations  violate  nearly  every  known  rule  of  graphics. 

A  missionary  with  experience  in  Turkey  tells  us  he  disagrees  with  the 
chapter  on  that  country.  He  holds  that  the  primary  cause  for  the  lack 
of  progress  in  industry  and  education  is  not  the  climate  but  the  philosophy 
of  fatalism  which  numbs  endeavor  and  striving.  He  asserts  also  that 
the  climate  does  not  take  away  from  the  energy  and  activity  of  people 
of  the  West  who  live  continuously  in  Turkey  but  to  the  contrary  the 
western  man  feels  as  well  and  accomplishes  even  more  in  the  beautiful 
climate  of  Turkey  than  he  would  in  his  native  land. 

Burton  St.  John. 

La  Tradition  Chevaleresque  des  Arabes.     By      Wacif      Boutros 
Ghali.    Paris.     Plon-Nourrit.     4f.  70  cents.     191 9. 

Mr.  Ghali  in  arguing  his  case,  touches  on  a  variety  of  points  in  the 
character  and  customs  of  the  Arab,  and  defends  the  religion  of  Islam 
against  certain  of  the  charges  brought  against  it.  If,  however,  he  seeks 
to  prove  his  case  by  citing  instances  wherein  Christians  have  fallen  below 
the  standard  of  their  Moslem  compeers,  he,  like  many  who  be- 
little the  Faith  which  he  upholds,  forgets  that  men  are  often  unable 


3o8  THE  MOSLEM  WORLD 

or  unwilling  to  do  what  they  know  to  be  their  duty.  If  Islam  at  times 
presents  an  unattractive  side  to  critics,  it  may  be  because  certain  Moslems 
fall  short  of  its  teachings.  Christians  are  not  alone  in  being  unable  at  all 
timjes  and  in  all  places  to  carry  out  the  whole  of  their  law.  The  author 
refers  to  the  origin  of  the  veil  in  Moslem  countries,  a  mark  of  distinction 
and  freedom  which  is  often  looked  upon  by  those  unaccustomed  to  its 
uses  and  mentality  of  its  wearers  as  a  badge  of  servitude  and  sex- 
inferiority.  The  customs  and  practice  of  divorce  among  the  Moslems 
are  also  discussed,  and  the  dissolution  of  the  marriage  tie  appears  to  be 
infinitely  easier  under  the  Sheri  law  than  under  that  dispensed  in  Eng- 
land, if,  indeed,  it  be  really  an  advantage.  It  may  be  perhaps  that  Mr. 
Ghali  at  times  is  tempted  to  gild  his  lily  a  little;  but  his  book  is  in- 
teresting, and  he  has  collected  an  anthology  of  Moslem  praise  of 
famous  deeds  which  does  not  always  fit  in  precisely  with  the  democratic 
point  of  view  which  he  adopts  in  places.  A  sheriff  is  a  person  who 
hardly  comes  within  the  ken  of  modern  democracy,  and  the  kinsmen  of 
the  Prophet  are  both  numerous  and  important  among  the  Arabs  of  to- 
day. 

The  London  Times. 

Gospel  of  Matthew  in  Chinese  and  Arabic.  British  and  Foreign 
Bible  Society,  Shanghai.     1919. 

This  is  the  first  Christian  diglot  publication  in  Chinese  and  was  one 
■of  the  fruits  of  Dr.  Zwemer's  visit  in  191 7.  The  union  version  of 
the  Mandarin  text  and  the  Arabic  of  Beyruit  voweled  text  are  printed 
side  by  side.  The  chapter  and  verse  divisions  correspond  making  it 
possible  for  the  Chinese  Moslem  who  reads  Arabic  to  compare  the 
Chinese  translation  and  for  the  missionary  to  point  out  the  Arabic 
gospel  message  to  the  Moslem  seekers  in  West  China  who  under- 
stand the  language  of  the  Koran  better  than  his  own. 

Xrist  of  Chinese-Moslem  Terms.  Prepared  by  Isaac  Mason.  Issued 
by  the  Committee  on  Work  for  Moslems  of  the  China  Continuation 
Committee.    Shanghai.  1919. 

This  list  of  terms  will  prove  exceedingly  useful  to  all  missionaries 
in  China  who  have  dealings  with  Moslems  or  who  desire  to  study 
their  literature.  It  consists  of  two  parts.  First  a  miscellaneous  vo- 
cabulary of  important  religious  terms  and  second,  of  transliterations  in 
use  among  Moslems  of  the  Arabic  names  of  persons,  etc.,  including  the 
prophets  and  saints  of  the  Moslem  calander  and  the  terms  applied  to 
God.  In  the  preface  we  read  that  "A  list  of  terms  was  published  in 
'The  Chinese  Recorder'  in  1892,  and  this  has  been  revised,  and  is  in  the 
main  embodied  in  the  present  list.  A  large  number  of  other  terms 
have  been  gathered  from  Mohammedan  books  and  from  other  sources. 
Unfortunately  the  Moslem  writers  have  no  fixed  terminology  for  most 
names,  the  varieties  at  times  being  bewildering.  In  this  matter  the 
Moslem  writers  are  perhaps  no  worse  than  Christian  writers  who  have 
given  such  a  variety  of  renderings  of  names  in  histories  and  geogra- 
phies. Probably  the  best  and  most  widely-accepted  Moslem  authority 
is  Liu  Chi,  a  Chinese  scholar  of  Arabic  descent,  who  used  seventy 
Arabic  works  in  his  compilations.  His  writings  have  been  the  standard 
Moslem  works  for  two  centuries.  More  modern  writers  have  used 
other  terms,  some  of  which  have  been  affected  by  contact  with  Chris- 
tianity."   The  list  is  not  complete  nor  altogether  accurate,  but  it  is  a 


BOOK  REVIEWS  309 

splendid  piece  of  work  for  criticism  and  completion.  On  the  first  page 
the  Chinese  term  as  well  as  the  Arabic  for  the  recording  angels  should 
be  written  in  the  same  line  as  the  two  terms  following. 

S.  M.  Z. 

Devil  Worship.    By  Isya  Joseph,  Ph.  D.  pp.  220.     Richard  Badger, 
Publisher.     The  Gorham  Press.     Boston,  191 9. 

An  authoritative  study  of  an  interesting  pagan  Moslem  sect  number- 
ing no  more  than  two  hundred  thousand  and  scattered  over  a  belt  of 
territory  three  hundred  miles  wide  from  Aleppo  to  the  Caucasus.  By 
reason  of  their  mysterious  religion  the  Yezidis  or  devil  worshippers  have 
been  an  object  of  interest  since  the  first  notice  of  them  appeared  by 
Sir  Henry  Leyard,  in  1894. 

Dr.  Joseph,  a  native  Christian  of  Mespotamia,  has  made  an  exhaustive 
study  of  the  origin  and  traditions  of  this  baffling  sect  and  also  of  their 
present  religious  ceremonies,  festivals,  and  social  system.  The  religion 
of  the  Yezids  is  a  syncretism,  to  which  Moslem,  Christian  (heretical, 
rather  than  orthodox),  pagan,  and  prehaps  also  Persian  religions  have 
contributed.  The  author  shows  his  acquaintance  with  the  entire 
literature  on  the  subject,  but  bases  his  special  study  on  an  Arabian 
manuscript  recently  discovered  of  which  he  gives  a  translation  (pages 
29-82).  This  is  followed  by  a  critical  discussion  of  the  sacred  books 
themselves  and  the  origin  of  the  sect ;  their  customs,  sacraments,  religious 
observances  tribal  divisions,  etc.  The  book  contains  a  full  bibliography, 
but  a  meagre  index. 

We  quote  the  paragraph  in  which  the  author  gives  his  conclusions 
after  careful  study  of  the  subject: 

"I  am  of  the  opinion,  therefore,  that  the  Yezidis  received  their  name 
from  Yezid  bin  Unaisa,  their  founder  as  a  kharijite  subsect  in  the  early 
period  of  Islam;  that,  attracted  by  Seid  'Adi's  reputation,  they  joined 
his  movement  and  took  him  for  their  chief  religious  teacher ;  that  in  the 
early  history  of  the  sect  and  of  'Adi  many  Christians,  Persians,  and 
Moslems  united  with  it;  and  that  large  survivals  or  absorptions  of 
pagan  beliefs  or  customs  are  to  be  found  in  modern  Yezidism.  In 
other  words,  the  actual  religion  of  the  Yezidis  is  syncretism  in  which 
it  is  easy  to  recognize  Yezidi,  Christian,  Moslem,  especially  sufism  and 
pagan  elements." 

In  regard  to  their  veneration  of  the  devil  he  says  on  page  153: 

"It  is  not  quite  easy  to  understand  the  underlying  idea  in  worshipping 
the  devil.  Some  explain  this  by  supposing  he  is  so  bad  that  he  requires 
constant  propitiation  otherwise  he  will  take  revenge  and  cause  great 
misery.  For  this  reason,  it  is  claimed,  they  do  not  worship  God,  because 
he  is  so  good  that  He  cannot  but  forgive.  This  is  the  usual  interpreta- 
tion, and  it  is  confirmed  by  the  nature  of  the  religious  service  rendered, 
It  seems  to  partake  much  more  of  a  propitiatory  than  a  eucharistic 
character,  not  as  the  natural  expression  of  love  but  of  fear.  This  re- 
minds us  at  once  of  the  Babylonian  religion." 

The  form  which  this  veneration  takes  is  described  as  follows  on  page 
155: 

"The  Yezidis'  veneration  for  the  devil  in  their  assemblies  is  paid  to 
his  symbol,  the  sanjak.  It  is  the  figure  of  a  peacock  with  a  swelling 
breast,  diminutive  head,  and  wipespread  tail.  The  body  is  full  but  the 
tail  is  flat  and  fluted.  This  figure  is  fixed  on  the  top  of  a  candlestick 
around  which  two  lamps  are  placed,  one  above  the  other,  and  con- 
taining seven  burners.    The  stand  has  a  bag,  and  is  taken  to  pieces  when 


310  THE  MOSLEM  WORLD 

carried  from  place  to  place.  Close  by  the  stand  they  put  water  jugs 
filled  with  water,  to  be  drunk  as  a  charm  by  the  sick  and  afflicted.  They 
set  the  sanjak  at  the  end  of  a  room  and  cover  it  with  a  cloth.  Un- 
derneath is  a  plate  to  receive  the  contributions.  The  kaw^val  (sacred 
musician)  kisses  the  corner  of  the  cloth  when  he  uncovers  Melek-Ta'us. 
At  a  given  signal  all  arise,  then  each  approaches  the  sanjak  bows  be- 
fore it  and  puts  his  contribution  into  the  plate.  On  returning  to  their 
place,  they  bow  to  the  image  several  times  and  strike  their  breasts  as  a 
token  of  their  desire  to  propitiate  the  evil  principle." 

The  frontispiece  reproduces  the  symbol  of  the  devil  used  in  the 
worship  of  the  Yezidis. 

z. 

Charles  Chapin  Tracy.  By  Charles  E.  White.  The  Pilgrim  Press, 
Boston  &  Chicago,    pp.  79.    Price  $1.00. 

We  welcome  this  brief  but  most  interesting  biography  of  a  broad- 
minded  missionary  who  contributed  much  to  the  awakening  of  the 
Ottoman  Empire,  and  as  college  president  left  an  impression  of  his  own 
devoted  personality  upon  hundreds  of  students,  many  of  whom  will 
prove  to  'be  leaders  in  the  reconstruction  period.  Mr.  Charles  C. 
Tracy  was  born  in  Pennsylvania,  October  31st,  1838,  was  graduated 
from  Williams  College,  and  Union  Seminary.  He  then  went  out  as 
a  missionary  to  Marsovan,  Turkey,  arriving  in  1867.  Dr.  White,  the 
President  of  Anatolia  College  sketches  the  work  of  its  founder  in 
planting  the  institution,  overcoming  the  prejudices,  and  meeting  the 
problems  of  a  pioneer  in  Turkey.  We  read  of  the  days  of  massacre  and 
the  recuperation  of  the  Armenian  community,  of  the  growth  of  the 
work  until  the  outbreak  of  the  war.  In  191 5  Marsovan  had  a  popu- 
lation of  I2,0CX)  Armenians,  and  when  the  deportations  were  com- 
pleted in  the  fall  of  that  year  the  officials  plowed  the  Armenian 
cemetery  and  sowed  it  to  grain  as  their  way  of  giving  public  notice 
that  they  did  not  intend  to  allow  any  more  people  of  that  race  to  live 
or  die  or  be  buried  in  that  city.  Eight  members  of  the  College 
Faculty,  because  they  were  Armenians  and  because  they  were  Christians, 
were  slain.  The  student  body,  the  Girls'  Schools  and  the  Hospital 
similarly  suffered;  and  from  the  Protestant  community  in  the  city, 
consisting  of  950  souls,  900  were  swept  away.  The  college  continued 
in  session  until  May,  191 6,  with  Greek,  Russian  and  Turkish  students^ 
in  attendance.  No  Armenian  teacher  was  spared  to  the  institution  and 
but  one  student  was  left  to  represent  that  race.  The  effect  of  these 
events  on  Mr.  Tracy  can  well  be  imagined.  He  was  in  America  at  the 
time,  and  as  soon  as  the  work  of  relief  was  organized  threw  himself 
into  it  with  heart  and  soul,  but  the  intensity  of  the  effort  proved  too 
much.  On  April  19,  191 7,  he  passed  to  his  reward.  The  biography 
is  only  one  chapter  in  the  story  of  missions,  but  it  is  a  chapter  that 
glows  with  light  and  kindles  the  heart  to  heroism. 

X. 

England  and  Palestine.  Essays  Towards  the  Restoration  of  the 
Jewish  State.  Herbert  Sidebotham.  pp.  257.  With  maps.  Price 
6/  net.    London,  Constable  &  Company,  Ltd.,  1918. 

The  purpose  of  the  volume  by  a  British  military  critic  is  indicated 
by  the  sub-title.  The  author  attempts  to  anchor  the  Zionist  ideal  "on 
the  hard  and  stony  ground  of  modern  politics"  and  especially  a  "com- 
munity of  ideals  and  interests  between  Zionism  and  British  policy." 


BOOK  REVIEWS  311 

The  prime  interest  for  Great  Britian  in  the  establishment  of  a 
Jewish  State  in  Palestine,  the  author  holds,  is  the  defence  of  Egypt. 
Palestine  is  the  natural  key  to  this  defence  from  the  north.  As  the 
bridgehead  between  Asia  and  Africa  it  has  been  the  scene  of  numberless 
conflicts.  Its  geography  and  military  history,  reviewed  in  some  detail, 
show  the  importance  of  Palestine  to  the  power  possessing  Egypt. 

The  old  Britsh  policy  in  the  Near  East  was  based  upon  the  benevo- 
lent neutrality  of  Turkey,  the  integrity  of  which  was  stubbornly 
maintained  out  of  fear  of  Russian  designs  and  rivalry  for  France. 
Meanwhile  Germany  was  developing  her  designs  for  the  control  of 
Turkey  and  in  furtherance  of  these  designs  precipitated  the  war  in 
1 91 4.  The  war  has  made  necessary  a  new  alignment  of  political 
forces  in  the  Near  East.  British  Imperial  interests  demand  that  the 
adjustments  be  such  as  render  the  military  burden  in  the  future  as  light 
as  possible. 

Materials  for  such  a  settlement,  the  author  maintains,  lie  to  hand  in  a 
Jewish  State  in  Palestine  under  British  protection,  or  failing  that,  under 
the  protection  of  the  United  States.  By  adjustment  and  friendly  under- 
standing with  a  French  Syria  to  the  north  and  the  new  Arab  State 
or  states  to  the  east,  such  boundaries  for  the  new  state  may  be  established 
that  her  economic  future  may  be  assured.  A  self-supporting,  self- 
governing  Palestine  will  offer  scope  for  the  development  of  Jewish 
genius  in  politics  and  commerce,  presents  no  insuperable  difficulties  in 
its  realization,  and  as  a  mediator  between  the  East  and  the  West  will 
exert  a  beneficent  influence  throughout  all  the  East. 

Adams. 

The  Black  Stone.      George  Gibbs.    $1.50.    Illustrated,  i2mo.,  cloth. 
D.  Appleton  &  Co.  , 

A  brisk  breezy  adventure  story  of  the  same  type  as  the  author's 
previous  successes.  The  hero  is  an  American  millionaire,  the  scenes 
are  laid  in  Egypt  and  Arabia,  and  the  plot  revolves  around  the 
sacred  black  stone  of  Mecca  which  a  German  steals  and  uses  in  an 
effort  to  start  an  uprising  of  the  fanatical  Arabs  of  the  desert.  Not  a 
war  story  but  a  rapid  fire  adventure  tale. 

War  and  Revolution  in  Asiatic  Russia.    M.  Phillips  Price.     Al- 
len &  Unwin,  Ltd.,  London,   1918.     pp.  296. 

This  book  is  the  result  of  observations  and  studies  made  by  the 
special  correspondent  of  the  "Manchester  Guardian,"  and  contains 
both  the  exellencies  and  faults  of  newspaper  work.  After  a  brief 
historical  and  economic  sketch  of  Central  Asia,  the  military  campaigns 
of  the  Russian  and  Arntenian  volunteers  in  the  Caucasus  during 
1 91 4-19 16  are  outlined,  and  finally,  the  political  situation  and  the 
effect  of  the  Russian  Revolution  in  the  Caucasus  are  discussed.  The 
growth  of  national  and  international  feeling  in  the  various  races  of 
this  section,  and  the  policy  of  Russia  and  Germany  in  attempting  to 
play  these  off  against  each  other  is  clearly  shown.  The  Armenians 
were  found  to  be  not  only  progressive,  but  distinctly  aggressive,  while 
their  intense  and  narrow  nationalism  was  a  constant  source  of  anxiety 
to  all  their  neighbors.  The  repressive  policy  of  Russia  towards  the 
Tartars  and  Moslems  of  the  Caucasus  so  far  as  education  and  travel 
were  concerned,  from  fear  of  a  Pan-Islamic  Movement  in  Asiatic  Russia, 


312  THE  MOSLEM  WORLD 

the  author  finds  to  have  resulted  in  a  tendency  to  unite  the  forces  of 
all  Caucasian  Moslems  in  a  national  revival.  This  revival  will  take  the 
form  of  a  cultural  Renaissance  of  Islam.  One  limitation  of  the  book  is 
the  fact  that  it  was  written  in  191 7.  Events  have  moved  rapidly  since 
then,  and  as  a  result  one  feels  a  little  skeptical  on  reading  such  con- 
clusions as  that,  in  the  event  of  an  autonomous  and  federated  Caucasus, 
"it  will  be  in  close  alliance  with  the  great  Republic  of  Free  Russia." 

The  book  is  written  in  an  easy  style,  although  at  times  the  personal 
details  become  a  trifle  wearisome.  There  are  a  few  minor  instances  of 
careless  proof-reading,  but  on  the  whole  we  are  left  hoping  that  the 
author  may  make  good  his  promise  to  publish  a  chapter  on  Persia 
and  her  Future  "After  the  war  or  when  there  is  no  Censor  to  be  con- 
sulted." 

HoLLis  W.  Hering. 

Sex  Worship  and  S3mibolism  of  Primitive  Races.  By  Sanger 
Brown  IL  M.D.  Richard  G.  Badger.  Boston,  1919.  $3.00  net. 
pp.  145. 

The  history  of  the  racial  motive  associated  with  the  reproductive 
instincts,  as  expressed  in  sex  worship  is  described  with  an  account  of  its 
origin,  development  and  decadence.  The  historical  portion  compiled 
from  many  sources,  gives  a  description  of  a  form  of  worship  that  pos- 
sibly had  its  origin  in  primitive  man,  but  which  has  continued, 
unrecognized  for  the  most  part,  through  the  past  ages  down  to  the 
present  day.  The  reader  interested  in  this  phase  of  comparative 
religion  will  find  possible  explanation  of  certain  animistic  practices 
current  among  the  masses  and  perhaps  receive  new  light  on  the  worship 
of  the  sacred  palm  in  ancient  Arabia  and  the  ceremonies  carried  on  at 
the  Kaaba  before  the  days  of  Mohammied.  It  is  a  book  only  for  special- 
ists. 

Z. 

Trade,    Politics    and    Christianity    in    Africa    and    the    East. 

A.  T.  Macdonald,  M.  A.     London:     Longmans,  Green  &  Co. 
1916.     pp.  296.     6/ — 

This  book,  which  was  awarded  the  Maitland  Prize  at  Cambridge 
in  191 5,  as  an  essay  on  the  thesis  "Problems  raised  by  the  contact 
of  the  West  with  Africa  and  the  East  and  the  part  that  Christianity 
can  play  in  their  solution,"  should  have  received  an  earlier  review  in 
"The  Moslem  World."  Some  of  it  deals  with  questions  outside 
our  purview;  other  sections  of  it,  however,  are  of  closest  interest 
to  the  student  of  conditions  in  Mohammedan  regions,  especially  in 
Africa.  Also  it  is  a  book  that  should  be  circulated  widely  in  com- 
mercial circles,  more  particularly  among  those  who  departmentalize 
their  business  and  religious  concerns.  It  faces  facts  as  presented  by 
governments  in  Blue  Books  and  Minutes  of  Evidence,  and  the  result, 
as  Sir  Harry  Johnston  says  in  his  introduction,  is  a  "thoroughly 
practical,  common  sense  book  on  the  relations  between  Christianity, 
commerce  and  civilization." 

The  chief  problems  tackled  are  in  Africa,  the  Native  Labour  ques- 
tion and  the  Liquor  question;  in  India,  the  Liquor  trade,  Self-Gov- 
crnment  and  Education;  in  China,  the  development  of  constitutional 
Government,  Education  and  the  Opium  and  Morphia  Traffic.  A 
special   chapter  is   devoted  to   Interracial   Marriage   and   a  final   one 


BOOK  REVIEWS  313 

to  "The  Problem  of  Religions." — "Wherein  does  the  solution  lie? 
In  Christianity,  not  in  the  disseminaton  of  metaphysic  dogmas,  nor  in 
the  fulmination  of  apocalyptic  doom,  but  in  the  quiet  teaching  of 
Christian  ethics  and  the  inculcation  of  Christian  practice.  The 
teaching  of  the  Cross  must  be  kept  always  before  the  governments 
of  the  West  *  *  *  It  must  be  offered  to  the  traders  and  the 
administrator  *  *  ♦  *  It  must  be  revealed  to  the  native  peoples 
themselves  in  order  to  shovs^  them  the  true  w^ay  to  democracy  and 
the  vision  of  a  universal  brotherhood  of  man." 

E.  I.  M.  B. 

The  Achievements  of  Christianity.  T.  K.  Mozley,  B.  D.  Lon- 
don:   S.  P.  C.  K.    1917.    pp.  86.    i/6d. 

The  reader  of  missionary  literature  is  sometimes  almost  overwhelmed 
by  the  sense  of  all  there  is  yet  to  be  done  and  the  urgency  of  the 
appeals  from  all  sides  for  more  recruits  and  better  equipped  institu- 
tions. To  such  a  one  this  little  book  by  a  Fellow  and  Dean  of 
Pembroke  College,  Cambridge,  will  bring  real  encouragement.  It 
is  one  of  a  series  drawn  up  at  the  instance  of  the  Christian  Evi- 
dence Society,  and  while  it  does  not  ignore  how  much  ground  there 
is  still  to  be  won,  it  bears  a  strong,  convincing  testimony  to  the  solid 
achievements  already  of  Christianity  as  a  religious  force,  in  the 
sphere  of  politics  and  society,  upon  the  aesthetic  side  of  life  and  as 
moulding  individual  character.  We  can  commend  it  with  sincere 
appreciation  as  a  book  to  give  to  thoughtful  non-Christians,  honestly 
weighing  our  claim  for  the  Faith  as  the  living  power  unto  right- 
eousness. 

E.  I.  M.  B. 

Revue  du  Monde  Mussulman.  Published  by  La  Mission  Scienti- 
tifique  du  Maroc.  191 7-18.  Volume  XXXIV.  Paris.  Edited 
by  Ernest  Leroux.     pp.  354. 

This  magazine  on  account  of  the  war  has  become  an  annual.  It 
began  as  a  monthly,  then  for  a  number  of  years  was  a  quarterly  and 
the  present  issue  is  the  volume  for  the  year  191 7-18.  In  addition 
to  articles  on  the  Moslem  press  in  Russia  during  the  revolution,  the 
Moslem  press  in  Persia  in  191 5  and  1916  together  with  briefer  quota- 
tions from  the  newspapers  of  Constantinople  and  Mecca,  the  following 
articles   demand   special   note: 

"L  'Islam  et  Abyssinie,"  by  Professor  A.  Guerinot,  is  a  careful 
study,  with  full  bibliography,  on  Islam  in  Abyssinia,  giving  a  de- 
tailed account  of  its  rise  and  spread  from  161 5  A.  H.  until  the 
present  time.  A  list  is  given  of  the  tribes  which  have  become 
Moslem  to  a  greater  or  less  degree.  In  the  case  of  many  of  these 
tribes  the  superficial  character  of  the  Arabian  faith  shows  its  recent 
adoption.  In  the  southeast  the  Mohammedans  are  most  numerous, 
but  Mohammedan  tribes  are  also  found  in  the  north. 

"Notes  Sur  L'Enseignement  Dans  La  Russie  Musulmane,"  by  R. 
Majerczak,  contains  important  notes  (66  pages  in  length)  on  the 
educational  program  of  the  Russian  Mohammedans  before  the  revo- 
lution. A  summary  of  these  articles  will  appear  in  our  October 
number  S.  M.  Z. 


NOTES  ON  CURRENT  TOPICS 


The  British  Red  Crescent  Society 
We  gladly  give  a  brief  statement  of  the  account  issued  by  this  society 
as  published  in  The  Times : 

A  statement  of  accounts  issued  by  the  Right  Hon.  Ameer  Ali,  presi- 
dent of  the  British  Red  Crescent  Society,  shows  that  during  the  four 
years  of  the  war,  from  September  i,  191 4,  to  December  6,  191 8,  the 
sum  of  £1,631  i6ds.  6d.  was  spent  in  relief,  the  principal  items  includ- 
£450  for  the  relief  of  Moslem  sufferers  in  Armenia,  £200  for  a  similar 
purpose  in  Russia,  £100  for  distressed  Moslems  in  Baghdad,  £275 
contributed  to  the  Indian  Soldiers'  Fund,  £350  for  a  motor-ambulance, 
and  £185  for  the  relief  of  Moslems  in  Syria  and  Palestine  and  in 
Salonika. 

A  Social  Problem 

The  following  social  problem  is  presented  by  a  missionary  worker 
in  North  Africa  and  shows  the  difficulties  that  follow  polygamy  and 
divorce  when  the  Moslem  becomes  a  Christian. 

H.  Married  two  waives,  each  of  whom  when  he  took  her,  was  a 
divorced  women,  with  her  first  husband  still  living.  (This  is  per- 
mitted, according  to  Moslem  law.)  The  form  of  marriage  was  the 
*Djimaa"  viz:  seven  or  eight  men  together  witnessing  to  the  payment 
of  the  price  given  for  one  wife,  by  the  husband. 

No.  I  wife,  taken  some  twenty  years  ago,  bore  two  daughters — 
one  elder  of  whom  is  still  living,  or  lately  married,  the  younger,  de- 
ceased. 

No.  2  wife,  taken  about  ten  years  ago,  bore  him  a  daughter  and  son, 
aged  respectively  at  this  present  6  and  3^  years.  Both  these  women  are 
still  living,  but  the  first,  through  some  small  quarrel,  has  gone  to  live, 
on  her  own  initiate,  in  another  neighborhood,  with  her  married  daughter 
and  son-in-law. 

H.  has  not  divorced  her. 

This  family  has  been  evangelized,  with  the  result  that  the  second 
wife  and  the  elder  daughter  accepted  our  gospel,  and  after  a  period  of 
testing,  were  baptized  (immersed)  into  the  Christian  Church  with  the 
sanction,  and  in  the  presence  of  the  father  and  husband,  who  though  at 
first  he  mocked  Christianity  yet  later  became  interested  and  so  willing 
for  his  women  to  take  such  a  step  as  Christian  baptism. 

Last  5'ear,  191 7,  H.  himself,  confessed  his  belief  in  Christ  crucified 
for  his  sins,  and  is  believed  by  the  missionaries  to  have  "passed  from 
death  unto  life." 

He  is  now  requesting  baptism,  but  the  workers  desire  that  the  marital 
faults  of  his  past  life,  though  now  forgiven,  should  as  far  as  possible 
be  straightened  out  before  he  is  baptized. 

What  course  should  be  pursued?" 

How  to  Win  Back  Santa  Sophia 

We  heartily  endorse  the  spirit  of  the  words  written  by  Mr.  H.  M. 
Walbrook  in  the  lively  discussion  that  has  taken  place  in  the  British 

314 


CURRENT  TOPICS  315 

press  regarding  the  future  of  the  mosque,  formerly  the  Church  of  Santa 
Sophia : 

"In  March,  191 5,  Mr.  Stephen  Graham,  Glowing  over  the  Russian 
defeat  of  the  Turk  and  Germ'an,  which  he  then  saw  immediately  im- 
pending had  a  vision  of  Santa  Sophia  as  the  St.  Peter's  of  the  East. 

"Alas,  Russia  lies  today  prostrate  at  the  feet  of  her  own  dreamers 
and  sentimentalists ;  and  the  Mohammedan  priest  still  ascends  and  pulpit 
of  the  church  of  Justinian  every  Friday  bearing  a  drawn  sword  as  an 
indication  that  the  temple  originally  belonged  to  a  conquered  faith. 

"Now  the  Bishop  of  London  has  declared,  both  in  Athens  and  at 
home,  that  it  is  "necessary"  that  this  church  should  be  restored  to 
Christian  worship;  and,  as  the  Turk  has  undoubtedly  at  last  been 
defeated,  the  cry  is  being  taken  up  in  other  quarters.  From  the  points 
in  view  of  Art,  History  and  Civilization  it  is  one  of  the  most  dangerous 
and  reckless  cries  of  the  moment. 

"We  all  know  that  for  the  first  nine  centuries  of  its  amazing  history 
this  glorious  structure  was  a  Christian  temple  and  the  centre  of  a 
Christian  Empire,  and  it  is  easy  enough  to  conceive  the  emotion  with 
which  Christendom  would  hear  of  the  hymns  and  incense  of  the 
Christian  Church  once  more  ascending  to  its  golden  dome. 

"But  let  us  also  bear  in  mind  that  for  more  than  four  and  a  half 
centuries  it  has  now  been  the  head  of  the  Mohammedan  Empire  and  the 
chief  religious  edifice  of  the  Mohammedan  world;  and  let  us  be  very 
sure  that  its  violent  re-Christianization  would  send  a  fire  of  fury 
through  the  entire  Mohammedan  community,  not  in  Turkey  only  but  in 
India,  Egypt,  North  Africa  and  the  Hedjaz. 

"Such  is  Mohammedan  feeling  on  this  subject  that  sooner  than  see 
the  mosque  so  "desecrated"  they  would  see  it  levelled  with  the  dust. 
There  lies  the  peril! 

"There  is  one  safe  and.  worthy  way,  and  one  only  by  which  Chris- 
tianity can  win  back  Santa  Sophia,  and  that  is  by  winning  over  those 
millions  who  revere  its  present  sancities.  No  Bishop's  sic  volo  sic  jubeo 
can  do  it.    No  sword  can  do  it." 

A  Manifesto  by  Turkish  Women 

There  are  many  curious  cross  currents  at  present  in  Constantinople. 
Every  attempt  possible  is  being  made  to  befog  the  situation  and  the  local 
press  takes  advantage  of  the  armistice  by  subtle  propagadism  and  show 
that  the  Turks  have  not  really  been  beaten.  In  this  connection  the  fol- 
lowing manifesto  was  sent  out  by  the  Moslem  women  of  Kadikeui,  a 
town  near-by  over  on  the  Asiatic  side,  which  says,  amongst  other 
things:  "We,  the  mothers,  wives,  sisters  and  daughters  of  the  illustrious 
heroes  of  the  defence  of  the  Dardanelles,  in  the  presence  of  the  souls 
of  the  martyrs  who  sleep  under  the  sacred  earth  which  they  defended 
address  ourselves  to  all  Turkish  women  and  to  the  civilized  world.  A 
nation  which  prevailed  over  the  tow^ers  of  steel  (meaning  warships) 
which  we  see  in  our  port,  and  which  threw  into  the  sea  half  a  million  in- 
vading soldiers,  cannot  be  considered  as  vanquished.  We  protest  against 
the  declarations  of  the  Minister  of  Public  Instruction  spoken  from  the 
tribune  in  the  name  of  the  Government,  in  which  he  said,  Ve  are 
vanquished.  They  can  do  with  us  as  they  wish.'  If  there  are  no  men 
to  defend  us  and  our  national  rights  we  women  are  here."  It  would  be 
interesting  to  know  by  w^hat  means  the  Turkish  ladies  of  Kadikeui  be- 
came so  bombastically  and  politically  articulate,  or  if  indeed  they  ever 
heard  of  the  manifesto  proclaimed  in  their  name. 


3i6  THE  MOSLEM  WORLD 

Lest  We  Offend 

Quite  curious  criticism,  says  a  writer  in  the  London  World,  has  been 
made  in  India  with  respect  to  the  venerable  proverb,  "If  the  mountain 
cannot  go  to  Mahomet,"  etc.  Well-known  Moslems  have  been  com- 
plaining that  this  outrages  Moslem  sentiment.  In  the  first  place  no 
Mohammedan,  they  contend,  can  bear  to  hear  the  name  of  the  prophet 
used  at  all,  and,  in  the  second  place,  employed  in  this  fashion.  One 
writer  points  out  that  every  Moslem  always,  in  referring  to  Christ,  adds 
the  words,  "On  whom  be  peace."  The  Moslem  never  uses  the  name 
of  the  Prophet  in  this  fashion,  and  he  objects  also  to  expressions  like 
"Mahomet's  coffin"  being  in  common  colloquial  currency. 

Writing  in  the  Spectator,  Mr.  Ameer  Ali  objects  very  strongly  to 
designating  Islam  as  Prussianism  in  religion.  His  letter  is  interesting 
for  other  reasons  and  reads  as  follows: 

Sir, — ^Will  you  allow  me  to  enter  a  strong  protest  against  the  latest 
attempt  to  create  illwell  between  Christian  and  Mohammedans?  News- 
papers of  Saturday  last  contained  an  appeal  from  the  Church  Missionary 
Society  for  funds  for  massionizing  purposes  under  the  heading  "Prussian- 
ism in  Religion:  the  Crescent  and  the  Cross."  In  this  appeal  the 
Mohammedan  religion  is  gratuitously  dragged  in  and  held  up  to  con- 
tumely. The  religion  of  a  hundred  million  of  the  King's  subjects  is 
vilified  under  the  obnoxious  designation  of  "Prussianism,"  and  the 
Cross  is  pitted  against  the  Crescent.  Whatever  may  be  the  object  of 
the  authors  of  this  extraordinary,  not  to  say  outrageous,  advertisement, 
they  do  not  seem  to  realize  the  mischievous  consequences  of  rekindling 
the  old  haterd.  Nor  do  they  appear  to  see  that  it  show^s  a  certain 
religious  poverty  to  have  to  stiffen  up  Christianity  and  awaken  charita- 
ble instincts  by  attacking  another  religion.  The  two  great  religions 
can  live  and  work  side  by  side  for  the  elevation  of  humanity  without 
^  rivalry  or  rancour.  But  if  this  constant  agitation  for  the  sowing  of 
discord  between  the  followers  of  the  two  faiths,  either  by  means  of 
attempts  to  rob  the  Moslems  of  their  places  of  worship  or  by  reviling 
their  Prophet  and  His  teachings,  is  allowed  to  continue,  there  can  be 
no  prospect  of  the  much  needed  "peace  and  goodwill." 

The   Gospel  in  Java 

Next  to  India  the  little  island  of  Java  lying  amid  the  Far  Eastern 
seas  has  the  largest  Moslem  population  of  any  country  in  the  world. 
There  effective  evangelization  is  being  carried  on  by  Dutch  missionaries, 
and  year  by  year  the  work  of  the  Bible  Society  has  grown  in  value  and 
influence.  Although  as  a  rule  the  people  shun  the  missionaries  and  re- 
fuse to  enter  a  Christian  place  of  worship  they  are  ever  willing  to  pur- 
chase the  Scriptures  which  appeal  to  them  because  written  in  their  own 
language.  Mr.  Paulus  Penninga  who  is  stationed  at  Lawang,  devotes 
most  of  his  time  to  linguistic  work.  The  distribution  of  the  Scriptures 
is  mainly  in  the  hands  of  the  Rev.  W.  H.  Williams,  who  has  now 
completed  his  twenty-first  year  of  service  for  the  Bible  Society  in  Ma- 
laya. Since  the  end  of  191 1  when  he  took  control  of  the  work  in 
Java  the  annual  sales  in  the  Island  have  more  than  trebled.  Such  a 
result  speaks  volumes  for  his  energy  and  organization  and  is  a  record 
of  which  any  one  might  be  proud.  Mr.  Williams  says:  "Although 
during  the  war  there  was  difficulty  in  securing  from  Japan  fresh  sup- 
plies of  Javanese  Testaments  and  portions,  the  total  sales  of  the  year 
amounted  to  75,163 — an  advance  of  15,416  over  1916.  Last  year  our 
old  colporteurs  plodded  on  steadily,  and  if  they  have  been  unable  to  make 


CURRENT  TOPICS  317 

startling  sales  yet  they  have  kept  up  their  average.  Our  colportage 
sales  in  Java  last  year  rose  to  42,696  books — an  increase  of  3,659  over 
the  figures  for  19 16.  Wherever  there  is  a  chance  of  selling  a  book 
there  the  colporteurs  go.  I  sometimes  receive  an  urgent  request  from 
one  of  my  men  for  a  large  number  of  copies  of  the  Scriptures  to  be 
forwarded  at  once,  'for  there  is  to  be  a  great  Mohammedan  festival  at 
such  and  such  a  town,  and  I  want  to  be  there  with  my  books.'  Or 
another  will  write  for  a  fresh  lot  of  Testaments  and  Gospels  to  be  sent, 
'for  the  people  in  my  district  are  just  finishing  the  rice  harvest,  and 
money  is  plentiful.'  We  are  receiving  very  practical  proofs  that  the 
leaven  of  Christianity  is  entering  into  the  lives  of  the  people — often 
through  the  work  of  our  colporteurs.  We  need  a  Bible  van,  drawn  by  a 
couple  of  Javanese  ponies  or  propelled  by  motor,  which  could  patrol 
all  roads  of  the  island,  and  visit  the  sugar,  coffee,  tea,  tobacco  and  other 
estates  w^hich  at  the  present  time  are  almost  closed  to  us.  I  am  quite 
confident  had  we  such  a  vehicle  it  would  be  productive  of  very  much 
good,  would  send  up  our  sales,  and  be  a  splendid  advertisement  for  the 
Society." 

Should  the  Koran  be  used  to  Prove  Christian  Doctrine? 

This  question  was  recently  asked  by  a  missionary  in  East  Africa  and 
the  reply  given  by  the  late  Mr.  H.  A.  Walter,  of  Lahore,  is  so  inter- 
esting that  we  give  it  to  our  readers  quoting  from  the  correspondence  in 
"News  and  Notes." 

"Answer:  i.  Few  today  will  accept  the  position  that  because  the 
Koran  (like  all  other  man-made  books)  is  not  divinely  inspired,  as  are 
the  Christian  Scriptures,  it  therefore  follows  that  its  inspiration  is 
Satanic.  Such  a  view  belongs  to  a  period  when  Mohamlned  was  looked 
upon  in  Europe  as  the  great  imposter,  misled  by  the  devil,  if  not  actually 
as  Anti-Christ.  To  the  vitality  and  strength  of  the  Koran  in  the  life 
of  the  Moslems  at  the  present  time,  many  passages  in  The  Vital  Forces 
of  Christianity  and  Islam  bear  witness. 

"2.  The  Christian  worker  among  Moslems  will  naturally  and  wisely 
use  the  Koran  to  bring  the  Moslem  back  from  the  later  develop- 
ments of  his  religion,  such  as  the  glorification  of  Mohammed,  Ali,  and 
Hussain,  etc.,  to  the  primary  facts  of  his  faith,  which  will  show  him 
how  few,  and  yet  how  essential,  are  the  real  differences  between  Moslem 
and  Christian.    This  is,  of  course,  a  preliminary  clearing  of  the  ground. 

"3.  The  Christian  worker  will  carfeully  avoid  seeming  to  use  the 
Koran  to  prove  the  truth  of  any  Christian  position.  From  this  follows 
the  fact  that  from  the  very  first  he  makes  it  clear  that  he  accepts  the 
Bible,  only,  as  God's  inspired  Word. 

"4.  The  Christian  worker  openly  accepts  the  fact  that  the  Koran  is 
the  inspired  Book  of  the  Moslem  and  he  can  therefore  legitimately  seek 
to  show  the  Moslem  the  implications  of  his  own  belief,  such  as  are 
found  in  the  testimony  of  the  Koran  to  the  genuineness  of  the  Chris- 
tian scriptures  and  in  its  ascription  to  Jesus  (Isa)  of  such  titles  as 
Word  of  Allah  and  Spirit  of  Allah. 

"5.  This  procedure  has  been  used  with  great  success  in  persuading 
Moslems  to  purchase  and  to  read  the  Gospel,  resulting  not  infrequently 
in  their  ultimate  conversion  to  Christianity.  Pleaders  of  the  series  on 
'How  Christ  Won  My  Heart'  in  'News  &  Notes'  two  years  ago, 
will  remember  how  more  than  one  of  those  writers  traced  their  interest 
in  Christianity  to  the  significant  references  to  Isa  found  in  the  Koran. 

"6.  For  a  more  extended  treatment  of  this  subject  and  use  of  this 
method,  see: 


3i8  THE  MOSLEM  WORLD 

Rice— "Crusaders  of  the  Twentieth  Century,  pp.  112-117,  150-152. 

MuiR— "Sweet  First-fruits,  pp.  31-35,  168. 

Takle— "Sirat-Ul-Mustaqim,  pp.  5-7,  46-50. 

GAia)NER — "Christianity  and  Mohammedanism,  pp.  31-57." 

Sunday  Schools  for  Street  Children  in  Egypt 
Miss  Jeannette  L.  McCrory,  a  United  Presbyterian  Missionary,  is 
making  a  great  success  of  two  Sunday-schools  for  street  children  in 
Cairo,  where  she  is  working.  The  report  was  sent  by  Metry  Dewairy, 
Field  Secretary  for  Egypt  representing  the  World's  Sunday  School  As- 
sociation. Miss  McCrory  goes  every  Sunday  afternoon  with  her 
Egyptian  teachers  to  the  poor  quarters  of  the  town,  gathers  the  children 
and  teaches  them  Bible  stories.  Psalms  and  Bible  texts.  She  gives  them 
picture  cards,  received  through  the  Surplus  Material  Department  of  the 
World's  Sunday  School  Association,  and  prays  with  the  children.  Some 
are  bootblacks,  some  are  beggars  and  most  of  them  are  Moslems.  They 
now  use  a  very  different  language.  They  go  into  the  streets  singing 
"God  is  my  Saviour"  or  reciting  "Create  in  me  a  clean  heart,"  etc., 
instead  of  their  former  quarrels  and  vile  expressions.  There  are  two 
or  three  places  where  such  schools  are  started  and  more  of  the  same 
kind  will  soon  be  opened  in  different  centers. 

Rebuilding  Churches  Destroyed  by  the  Turk 
Rev.  Stephen  V.  Trowbridge  of  the  World's  Sunday  School  Associa- 
tion is  Field  Sceretary  for  Moslems  Lands  and  writes  the  following 
from  Aleppo: 

"The  Sunday-school  treasurer  of  Egypt  has  forwarded  $1,400  as  the 
Christmas  offering  from  the  Sunday-schools  of  Egypt  and  the  Sudan  for 
Syrian  and  Armenian  Relief.  This  will  be  used  in  giving  employment 
to  hundreds  of  Armenian  refuges  in  Aintab,  who  are  now  being  set  at 
work  cutting  stone  and  preparing  other  materials  for  the  restoration  of 
the  four  ruined  churches  in  that  city.  Twenty  school  buildings  in 
Aintab  were  also  sacked  by  the  Turks,  and  all  the  woodwork  was  torn 
out.  Every  bit  of  Sunday-school  and  day  school  equipment  was  stolen, 
and  much  of  it  was  actually  destroyed.  I  am  sure  that  no  work  is  more 
worth  while  than  the  reconstruction  of  these  churches  and  school  build- 
ings. It  furnishes  employment  to  more  than  five  hundred  people,  and 
they  in  turn  have  families  at  home  who  are  helped  through  their  wages. 
More  than  a  thousand  houses  in  Aintab  were  entirely  torn  down  by  the 
Turks,  who  coveted  the  timber  and  used  it  for  fuel  or  sold  it  in  the 
markets.  The  people  who  have  survived  are  crowded  together  in  the 
houses  not  destroyed,  and  as  fresh  batches  of  refugees  come  back  from 
Mesopotamia  there  is  no  shelter  for  them.  We  are  applying  to  G.  H.  Q. 
for  one  hundred  marquee  tents  for  them  and  especially  for  orphanage 
work  and  for  a  refuge  home  for  girls  released  from  Moslem  houses. 

"For  three  and  a  half  j^ears  no  church  services  and  no  Sunday-schools 
have  been  allowed  at  Aintab.  One  of  the  churches  the  Turks  had 
made  into  a  brothel,  and  in  another  they  had  quartered  a  horde  of 
Kurdish  refugees.  In  every  conceivable  way  the  Turks  had  desecrated 
these  buildings.  In  January  we  secured  permission,  through  the  in- 
fluence of  the  British  authorities,  for  the  re-opening  of  churches,  Sunday- 
schools  and  day  schools.  The  keys  were  handed  over  by  the  Turks  to  my 
brother-in-law.  Dr.  Merrill,  and  at  the  Gregorian  Cathedral,  after  the 
celebration  of  Mass  I  was  asked  to  preach  the  sermon.  More  than  four 
thousand  Armenians  had  gathered  for  this  service.  This  stately  church 
had  been  despoiled  of  all  of  its  treasures.    The  ancient  tiles  had  been 


CURRENT  TOPICS  319 

ripped  out  with  pickaxes,  and  the  marble  stones  of  the  altar  torn  away. 
There  was  deep  emotion  manifest  as  the  service  proceeded,  especially 
during  the  singing  of  the  Te  Deum  in  ancient  Armenian." 

Viscount  Bryce  on  Islam 

Viscount  Bryce,  writing  in  the  Laymen's  Bulletin,  reviews  at  length 
"The  Riddle  of  Nearer  Asia"  and  says: 

"Most  of  those  who  know  either  India  or  the  west  Asiatic  countries 
have  been  so  struck  by  the  grip  which  Islam  has  laid  upon  those  who 
grow  up  under  it  as  to  treat  it  as  a  permanent  and  irreducible  factor  in 
Eastern  life.  They  may  be  right.  But  let  us  note  that  the  conditions 
under  which  the  Moslem  faith  will  henceforth  have  to  live  will  be  very 
different  from  those  which  have  heretofore  protected  it.  Political  power 
having  departed,  it  will  no  longer  be  the  religion  of  the  conqueror,  and 
the  scorn  which  the  Moslem  has  felt  for  the  Unbeliever  cannot  long 
survive.  The  scepticism  that  has  been  sapping  it  among  the  educated 
will  spread  faster  and  farther  through  all  classes.  The  young  Turks 
who  made  the  massacres  were  not  fanatics,  but  Prussianised  politicians. 
The  social  institutions  of  the  Moslems  are  almost  as  great  a  hindrance 
to  progress  as  the  comparative  stagnation  of  his  intellectual  life.  Islam 
has  its  good  points,  and  has  done  much  to  raise  some  of  the  races  that 
have  embraced  it.  But,  in  the  Nearer  East,  at  least,  it  deserves  to  de- 
cline and  nothing  forbids  the  hope  that  the  decline  already  discernible 
may  ere  long  become  more  rapid." 

Arabic  Calligraphy 
"A  Beyrout  paper,  the  Lissan  el-Hal,  reports  that  a  certain  effendi 
skilled  in  caligraphy  once  wrote  on  an  egg  the  whole  of  the  Ottoman 
Organic  Law,  in  Arabic  and  in  Turkish,  with  explanatory  notes  and  two 
poems  about  the  Ottoman  Constitution,  adding — to  fill  up  space,  one 
supposes — a  map  of  the  Ottoman  Empire.  Altogether  the  ingenious 
gentleman  managed  to  write  some  10,000  words  on  the  egg.  Now  he 
has  presented  to  the  Syrian  Protestant  College  Museum  a  grain  of  wheat 
on  which  he  has  written  a  poem  of  107  words,  all  of  which,  we  are  told, 
can  be  read  clearly  through  a  magnifying  glass,  and  even  by  a  man 
with  strong  sight.  I  agree  with  the  Lissan  el-Hal  that  the  effendi  has 
given  proofs  of  marvellous  patience  and  skill.  But  we  must  remem- 
ber the  training  of  the  Oriental  scribe.  Usually  he  holds  his  paper  "all 
anyhow"  in  one  hand,  making  it  into  a  kind  of  crumpled  ball,  and  then 
writes  on  it  with  a  split  reed,  using  ink  that  consists  chiefly  of  lumps  of 
weird  chemical  substance.  After  that,  writing  on  an  egg-shell,  or  even 
on  a  grain  of  wheat,  must  be  comparatively  "smooth  going,"  and  a 
decent  pen  and  readily-flowing  ink  must  be  wonderfully  helpful.  I  am 
not  sure  that  I  do  not  consider  the  caligraphic  performances  of  certain 
Turkish  officials  that  I  have  witnessed  in  my  travels  quite  as  wonderful 
as  the  feat  of  the  writer  on  the  egg,  and  the  grain  of  wheat.  At  any 
rate,  I  could  never  write  anything  at  all  in  circumstances  which  seemed 
to  present  no  difficulties  to  the  Turks  and  Arabs  referred  to;  while  I 
could  write  at  least  a  few  words  on  an  egg!" — The  Near  East. 

How  to  Pray  for  Moslems 

Prayer  for  the  Moslem  should  be  intelligent.  Every  need  spells 
opportunity. 

Prayer  for  the  Moslem  should  be  definite,  that  he  may  have  a  real 
sense  of  sin.  Because  of  absence  of  the  consciousness  of  sin  he  despises 
salvation  offered  through  Christ. 


320  THE  MOSLEM  WORLD 

Pray  that  the  offense  of  the  Cross  may  cease  to  repel  the  Moslem. 
Pray  that  they  may  be  cured  of  their  pride  and  self-satisfaction. 

Pray  persistently  and  insistently.  "With  all  prayer  and  supplication, 
praying  at  all^seasons  and  watching  thereunto  in  all  perseverance  and 
supplication."    No  superficial,  half-hearted  prayer  will  do  for  Moslems. 

Pray  for  the  converts. 

Pray  for  the  missionary  to  the  Moslem  that  he  may  make  known 
with  boldness  the  mystery  of  the  Gospel.  F.  M. 

A    Valiant    Worker 

News  comes  of  the  sudden  death  through  drowning  of  Alexa  E. 
Clerihew,  a  woman  utterly  devoted  to  the  cause  of  Moslem  women  in 
Poona.  Miss  Clerihew,  a  brillant  student  with  a  perfect  genius  for 
teaching,  went  to  India  in  1892  with  her  widowed  mother  and  there  they 
henceforth  made  their  home.  She  loved  the  poor  Mohammedan  women, 
"perishing"  as  she  said,  "for  the  lack  of  knowledge,"  and  the  quaint  little 
children  were  her  delight.  She  visited  the  women  in  their  zenanas 
and  carried  on  schools  for  the  girls.  The  following  quotation  from  the 
Missionary  Record  of  the  United  Free  Church  of  Scotland  will  show 
something  of  the  spirit  of  this  worker. 

"It  was  not  all  smooth  sailing,  indeed  as  years  passed  she  must  often 
have  had  to  inure  herself  to  disappointment.  A  whole  school  would  be 
emptied  at  the  w^ord  of  a  Mullah.  A  rival  school  would  be  opened  next 
door  to  one  of  hers,  and  her  pupils  allured  into  it.  The  w^omen  would 
take  fright  when  they  found  they  were  getting  interested  in  her  message, 
and,  in  picturesque  Eastern  language,  would  intimate  that  "the  door 
was  shut"!  But  when  she  told  a  story  like  this  she  would  add,  "It  is 
always  true  that  'Greater  is  He  that  is  for  us  than  all  that  be  against 
us' — I  expect  all  the  children  back,"  and  they  usually  came.  Like  many 
another  zenana  missionary,  she  had  not  the  joy  of  seeing  her  women 
flocking  into  the  Kingdom,  as  I  know  she  expected  they  would  when 
she  began  her  work.  One  and  another  seemed  near  the  Kingdom,  but 
none  took  the  final  step.  To  her  ardent  soul  this  must  have  been  a 
peculiar  disappointment." 

During  her  26  years  of  service  she  only  made  one  brief  visit  to  Scot- 
land and  could  not  be  prevailed  upon  to  stay  away  for  more  than  a 
month  from  her  Indian  home  and  her  Moslem  sisters. 

The  Raymund  Lull  Home 

An  interesting  letter  has  reached  us  from  Mr.  H.  E.  Jones  of  the 
Raymund  Lull  Home,  Tangier,  which  testifies,  to  the  great  need  for 
reinforcements.  He  writes,  "We  shall,  I  expect,  have  to  close  the  home 
entirely  in  the  spring  as  Mr.  Elson  is  planning  to  go  to  Canada  for  two 
or  three  months,  and  I  am  hoping  to  go  to  England  to  see  my  daughter 
whom  I  have  not  seen  for  seven  years."  He  then  tells  of  the  conversion 
of  a  young  man  "who,  when  he  came  to  us  was  quite  blind,  but 
through  careful  treatment  and  in  answer  to  prayer  he  can  now  see,  and 
best  of  all  he  has  received  his  spiritual  sight  and  sees  the  Lord  Jesus  as 
his  Saviour.  He  is  quite  a  help  to  us  with  the  boys  and  declares  that 
when  he  returns  to  his  own  country  he  will  witness  before  his  own 
people  that  'There  is  one  God  and  one  Mediator  between  God  and  man, 
the  Man  Christ  Jesus.'  " 


CURRENT  TOPICS  321 

A  Mohammedan  Appeal  to  the  British  Govermnent 
We  reprint  the  following  appeal  from  the  Daily  Telegraph,  March 
2 1 ,  in  order  to  give  our  readers  the  full  text  of  a  document  which  is  very- 
significant  at  this  time.  \ 

To  THE  Editor  of  The  Daily  Telegraph  : 

gir — I  beg  to  attach  copy  of  the  supplementary  memorial  that  has  been 
submitted  to  his  Majesty's  Secretary  of  State  for  Foreign  Affairs,  and 
solicit  the  hospitality  of  your  columns  for  its  publication. — I  am  yours 
faithfully,  M.  H.  Ispahani. 

21,  Mincing-lane,  E.  C,  March  21. 

To  the  Right  Hon.  A.  J.  Balfour,  O.  M.,  Secretary  of  State  for 

Foreign  Affairs: 

Sir — I.  Referring  to  our  memorial  of  Jan.  i  respecting  Constantin- 
ople, Thrace  and  the  homeland  of  the  Turkish  nation,  we  beg  to  observe 
that  we  refrained  from  expressing  our  opinion  with  regard  to  the  other 
parts  bf  the  Turkish  Empire,  reserving  it  for  a  further  representation 
to  his  Majesty's  Government,  as  we  were  not  acquainted  at  the  time 
with  the  suggestions  before  the  Peace  Conference  for  their  ultimate  dis- 
position. 

2.  We  now  learn  from  the  Press  that  it  is  proposed  to  form  them 
into  self-governing  States,  under  the  protectorate  of  one  or  other  of  the 
Allied  and  Associated  Powers.  As  there  is  no  Mohammedan  represen- 
tative on  the  Conference  to  place  before  it  the  opinions  of  his  Majesty's 
Mussulman  subjects  concerning  the  vast  problems  affecting  the  whole 
Islamic  world  which  form  the  subject  of  consideration  by  the  Confer- 
ence, we  venture  to  take  the  only  constitutional  course  left  to  us  for 
acquainting  his  Majesty's  Government  and  the  Allied  and  Associated 
Powers  with  our  view^s — viz.,  to  submit  those  views  in  this  memorial. 

3.  We  welcome  the  proposal  to  create  self-governing  institutions  in 
the  occupied  Provinces  of  Turkey  and  in  Armenia  under  the  guarantee 
of  the  League  of  Nations,  but  we  most  strongly  deprecate  the  suggestion 
to  sever  them  absolutely  from  the  Turkish  Empire.  Our  reasons  for 
this  submission  are  not  sentimental ;  they  are  founded  on  grounds  of  ex- 
pediency and  policy  which  we  respectively  venture  to  think  deserve  the 
serious  consideration  of  his  Majesty's  Government  and  the  Allied 
and  Associated  Powers.  The  evidence  as  to  the  depth  of  feeling,  not 
only  among  the  vast  Mussulman  population  of  India,  but  also  among 
the  Afghans  and  the  frontier  tribes  (who  form  the  bulk  of  the  Mussul- 
man element  in  the  Indian  Army)  against  the  dismemberment  of  Tur- 
key, and  in  favour  of  the  preservation  of  her  prestige,  is  accumulating 
day  by  day. 

4.  We  hope  that,  with  the  disappearance  of  the  two  Empires  that 
had  hitherto  exploited  Asiatic  unrest  and  misgovernment  to  their  own 
advantage  with  a  view  to  final  political  or  economic  absorption,  the  new 
peace  would  assure  the  pacific  development  of  Western  and  Middle 
Asia  on  durable  lines.  We  have  no  hesitation  in  expressing  our  convic- 
tion that  Turkey,  under  a  Government  such  as  she  has  now  been 
fortunate  enough  to  obtain,  with  her  prestige  among  the  Mussulmans  of 
the  world,  would  be  an  immense  source  of  strength  to  England  and  the 
Allied  Powers  who  rule  over  large  masses  of  Moslems. 

5.  We  fear,  however,  that  the  complete  and  absolute  severance  from 
the  Turkish  Empire  of  the  provinces  whose  future  status  is  under  con- 
sideration will  give  rise  to  a  rankling  sense  of  injustice. 

S.  In  any  event,  we  venture  strongly  to  urge  that  these  proposed  new 


322  THE  MOSLEM  WORLD 

autonomous  States  should  not  be  withdrawn  from  the  spiritual  suzer- 
ainty of  the  Ottoman  sovereign  as  Caliph.  Our  reasons  for  making  this 
submission  are  based,  firstly,  on  our  desire  for  the  peaceable  develop- 
ment of  Western  Asia;  and,  secondly,  on  the  necessity,  in  our  opinion, 
of  an  endeavour  on  the  part  of  his  Majesty's  Government  to  meet,  so 
far  as  possible,  the  wishes  and  legitimate  feelings  of  the  Mussulmans, 
who  form  fully  one-fourth  of  the  population  of  the  Empire. 

7.  Under  the  Sunni  system  of  jurisprudence,  the  investiture  of  a  new 
ruler  by  the  Caliph,  the  Chief  Pontiff,  regularises  his  status  in  the  eyes 
of  his  people  and  makes  any  rising  against  him  illegal;  it  gives  him  a 
prestige  in  the  Mussulman  world,  and  places  him  in  an  unimpugnable 
position  This  was  the  reason  that  led  the  Mussulman  sovereigns  of 
India,  before  the  rise  of  the  Shiah  Empire,  which  divided  them  from 
the  Western  Sunnis,  to  apply  and  obtain  investiture  from  the  Chief 
Pontiff,  In  our  opinion,  therefore,  if  the  Peace  Conference  were  to 
leave  the  Ottoman  Soverign  or  Caliph  with  the  prestige  of  conferring 
on  the  rulers  of  these  proposed  autonomous  States  on  their  accession  to 
their  respective  thrones  the  usual  investiture,  it  would  not  only  con- 
ciliate Mussulman  feeling,  but  would  add  to  the  guarantees  of  peace 
and  pacific  development  amoog  the  peoples  of  those  countries.  To 
sever  them  altogether,  both  secularly  and  religiously,  from  the  Ottoman 
State  would,  in  our  opinion,  lead  to  constant  trouble,  and  leave  behind, 
as  we  have  already  ventured  to  submit,  a  legacy  of  bitterness  which  we 
humbly  think  might  easily  be  avoided. 

8.  With  regard  to  the  suggested  creation  of  a  Jewish  State  in  Pales- 
tine, we  desire  to  observe  that  if  the  Peace  Conference  were  to  decide 
to  create  that  province  into  a  self-governing  State,  the  entire  Mussul- 
man world  would  resent  its  being  placed  under  any  but  a  Mussulman 
ruler,  whatever  other  form  the  Government  may  take.  Not  only  is 
Jerusalem  intimately  associated  with  the  Mussulman  religion  and 
Mussulman  religious  traditions,  but  in  the  long  course  of  fourteen  cen- 
turies the  land  has  become  covered  with  the  memorials  of  the  Mussul- 
man faith.  To  convert  it  into  a  Jewish  State  or  to  place  it  under  a 
Jewish  ruler  would  be  most  repugnant  to  Mussulman  feelings,  especially 
as  only  one-seventh  of  the  population  of  Palestine  is  Jewish.  History 
proves  that  the  Jews  can  live  in  the  closest  amity  with  their  Mussulman 
fellow-subjects  under  Moslem  rulers,  and  enjoy  exceptional  privileges 
not  conceded  to  them  even  now  by  many  European  nations. 

9.  Finally,  we  venture  to  appeal  once  more  to  his  Majesty's  Govern- 
ment and  the  Peace  Conference  that,  in  devising  the  new  form  of 
government  for  Armenia,  the  rights  and  interests,  together  with  the 
religious  institutions  and  places  of  worship,  of  the  large  Mussulman 
population  inhabiting  that  province  (who  in  many  districts  form  the 
majority)  should  be  safe-guarded  and  that  they  should  be  protected 
from  persecution,  and  that  they  should  be  placed  on  an  equal  footing 
with  the  non-Moslem  population  in  the  enjoyment  of  all  civil  rights 
and  privileges. — ^We  have  the  honour  to  be,  Sir,  your  most  obedient  and 
humble  servants. 

Shaik  M  H.  Kidwai  of  Gadian.  Aca  Khan. 

Khwaja  Kamalud  Din.  Ameer  All 

Marmaduke  Pickthall.  a.  a.  Baig. 

S.  H.  Kidwai  of  Rampur.  M     H.    Ispahanl 

Ibrahim  S.  Hajl  A.  A   Mirza. 

A.  S.  M.  Anik. 
(Twenty  other  Signatures.) 


CURRENT  TOPICS  323 

A  Medical  Missionary  in  Damascus 

Mr.  Basil  Mathews  in  his  fascinating  book,  "The  Riddle  of  Nearer 
Asia"  pays  this  tribute  to  Dr.  Frank  Mackinnon  of  the  Scotch  Mis- 
sion: 

''As  I  traveled,  again,  through  village  after  village  of  the  plateau  of 
Asia  Minor  with  the  Christian  doctor  who  has  established  his  hospital 
at  Konia,  and  watched  him  with  his  colleagues  at  work  in  the  district 
and  in  the  hospital  wards,  I  discovered  that  he  and  they  had  acquired 
an  ascendance  of  influence,  an  authority  of  personality  that  radiated 
over  wide  areas  where  their  faces  had  never  been  seen.  The  power  of 
the  scalpel  of  the  Christian  surgeon  and  the  healing  services  of  the 
nurse,  bathed  in  an  atmosphere  of  passionate  devotion  to  the  Great 
Physician  and  of  absolute  obedience  to  His  will,  had  literally  broken 
the  powers  of  darkness  on  the  Anatolian  plateau.  It  was  written  over 
every  Moslem  face  in  the  city  or  village,  as  I  watched  them  when  the 
Christian  doctor  came  to  them,  that  he  had  broken  down  with  the  bat- 
teries of  skilled  love  the  seemingly  impregnable  defences  of  Islamic 
arrogance  and  exclusiveness. 

It  was  again,  a  strange  experience  to  climb  over  the  roofs  of  booths 
in  Damascus  to  that  wonderful  arch  over  the  now  closed  entrance  to 
the  great  Mosque  that  was  once  a  Byzantine  Christian  cathedral  and 
see  there  over  the  arch  in  great  Greek  capital  letters  the  inscription : 

Thy  Kingdom  of  Christ 

Is  AN  Ever  Lasting  Kingdom 

And  Thy  Dominion  Endureth 

Throughout  all  Generations 

and  then  to  come  down  and  walk  right  through  Damascus  along  the 
street  called  "Straight"  without  meeting  a  single  Christain. 

Was  the  valiant  inscription  really  true? 

Then  I  discovered  little  by  little  that  in  all  that  city  of  Damascus, 
the  most  ancient  city  now  standing  in  the  world,  there  was  one  man 
who  has  universal  authority,  not  by  official  position  nor  by  wealth,  but 
by  the  power  of  service  and  of  personality.  Even  the  wild  untamable 
Arabs  of  the  desert  would  come  in  and  lie  down  with  complete  confi- 
dence on  the  operating  table  of  Dr.  Frank  McKinnon,  saying,  in  the 
phrase  that  has  become  provebial  about  that  great  Scottish  Christian 
surgeon  through  the  Arab  World — "He  carries  a  blessing  in  his  hands." 
From  that  hospital,  established  by  British  missionary  enterprise,  at  the 
very  pulse  of  the  Arab  world,  the  invisible  power  of  a  conquering  leader- 
ship in  service  radiates  all  along  the  camel  routes  of  Asia. 

Indian  Moslems  and  Prohibition 

A  public  meeting  of  Mohammedans  was  held  at  Lahore  in  January 
last,  Moulvi  Sadruddin,  Principal  of  Munshi  High  School  presiding. 
Resolutions  were  passed  requesting  the  Indian  Government  "(i)  that  a 
law  similar  to  that  in  America  be  passed  with  regard  to  the  prohibition 
of  the  manufacture,  sale,  export  and  import  of  intoxicating  liquors,  (2) 
congratulating  President  Wilson  through  a  cablegram  on  acting  on  the 
principle  which  was  for  the  first  time  introduced  by  the  Holy  Prophet 
of  Islam,  and  (3)  requesting  all  temperance  societies,  public  bodies  and 
associations  to  move  in  the  matter  and  hold  public  meetings  throughout 
the  length  and  breadth  of  the  country." 


324  THE  MOSLEM  WORLD 

How  Turks  Conduct  an  Orphanage 

Major  Stephen  Trowbridge,  who  is  working  with  the  American 
Red  Cross  Commission  to  Syria  and  Palestine  gives  us  the  following 
interesting  report.  We  print  a  portion  of  it  as  it  appeared  in  The 
Missionary  Review  of  the  World, 

"It  may  surprise  many  to  know  that  the  Turks  conducted  an  or- 
phanage for  Armenian  and  Kurdish  children  during  the  war.  In 
the  village  of  'Antoura,  in  a  beautiful  valley  of  the  Lebanon,  twelve 
miles  north  of  Beirut,  an  officially  appointed  Commission  of  the 
Young  Turks  gathered  during  the  second  and  third  years  of  the  war 
nearly  two  thousand  Armenian  and  Kurdish  orphans.  But  what  a 
vast  difference  there  was  between  this  institution  and  those  conducted 
under  Christian  auspices.  The  commission  subjected  the  children  to 
a  rigid  system  of  training  in  the  Turkish  language,  Turkish  history, 
and  the  Mohammjedan  religion.  Every  vestige  and  as  far  as  possible 
every  memory,  of  the  children's  religious  and  racial  inheritance  was 
done  away  with.  Turkish  names  were  assigned  and  the  children  were 
compelled  to  undergo  the  rites  prescribed  by  Islamic  law  and  tradition. 
The  girls  were  being  trained  in  "Ottoman"  Kultur"  in  preparation  for 
the  harems  of  Turkish  officers  and  notables.  The  boys  were  being 
trained  as  servants  in  the  Army  or  Government. 

"Not  a  word  of  Armenian  or  Kurdish  was  allowed  to  be  spoken  by 
the  children.  Turkish  ideas  and  customs  were  impressed  upon  the 
lives  of  the  children,  and  they  were  taught  the  reasons  contributing  to 
the  glory  of  Ottoman  arms  and  the  prestige  of  the  Turkish  race.  When- 
ever a  German  or  Turkish  officer  visited  the  orphanage  the  children 
must  form  a  hollow  square  and  shout:  "Long  life  to  our  King!  (the 
Sultan)  Long  life  to  Germany!"  The  children  w^ere  drilled  in  the 
genuflections  and  formulas  of  Moslem  prayer  and  in  the  creed:  "There 
is  no  God  but  Allah,  and  Mohammed  is  his  prophet.  "  The  little 
crosses  which  many  of  the  Armenian  children  wore  at  their  necks  were 
destroyed. 

"The  building  chosen  by  the  Commission  was  the  large  Boys'  School 
of  the  Lazarist  Fathers  in  'Antoura.  Army  officers  were  detailed  to  go 
to  the  concentration  camps  north  and  south  of  Damascus  to  select  the 
children.  Loutfi  Bey  was  appointed  director,  and  Khalideh  Khanum 
of  Constantinople,  a  lady  of  remarkable  literary  ability,  furnished  the 
teaching  staff  from  her  private  school  in  Beirut  and  Djemal  Pasha  de- 
lighted in  having  their  photographs  taken  on  the  steps  of  the  orphanage, 
surrounded  by  the  employed  staff,  as  the  leaders  of  Ottoman  modern- 
ism. 

"At  the  'Antoura  orphanage,  on  October  17th  and  i8th,  191 8, 
nine  days  after  the  Franco-British  occupation  of  Beirut,  nearly  two 
thousand  children  had  decreased  until  there  were  only  six  hundred 
and  sixty-nine  orphans  left — 151  girls  and  489  boys — Armenians 
and  Kurds,  beside  29  Syrians.  All  the  rest  of  the  two  thousand  had 
died  during  the  past  three  years." 

The  Bible  in  Sumatra 

From  the  British  &  Foreign  Bible  Society  Report  we  learn  how  the 
Word  of  God  is  winning  its  way  in  Sumatra: 

"Of  the  Society's  colporteurs  working  from  Singapore  as  a  centre, 
one  of  the  most  successful  is  Khoo  Chiang  Bie.  He  has  visited  both 
eastern  and  western  coasts  of  Sumatra,  and  made  three  tours  to  dif- 
ferent parts  of  Johore,  selling  during  the  year  11,600  books — most  of 
them  Gospels. 


CURRENT  TOPICS  325. 

At  Bindjee,  near  Deli  in  East  Sumatra,  a  lantern  service  was  held' 
in  the  open  air,  with  pictures  of  the  life  of  Christ.  The  colporteur 
interested  the  Malay  by  speaking  about  the  Good  Shepherd.  After 
the  lantern  show  they  come  to  ask  for  books  containing  the  whole  story 
of  this  Good  Shepherd,  and  a  number  of  copies  were  sold  to  Malays 
and  Chinese. 

At  Gemas  the  colporteur  sold  his  books  mainly  to  rubber  estate 
coolies,  the  majority  of  whom  are  Tamils  from  South  India.  A 
Moslem  Tamil  came  up  and  tried  to  prevent  his  fellow-countrymen 
from  purchasing  the  Scriptures,  but  the  colporteur  talked  to  him  about 
Christ,  so  that  in  the  end  he  not  only  bought  two  books  for  himself, 
but  interpreted  what  the  colporteur  said  to  the  Tamils,  some  of  whom 
could  not  speak  Malay.  He  also  called  other  Tamil  coolies  and  per- 
suaded them  to  purchase  Gospels." 

The  Risk  of  Bibles  Being  Tom  Up 

In  the  little  paper  The  Epiphany  published  by  members  of  the 
Oxford  Mission  at  Calcutta,  there  is  a  department  devoted  to  letters- 
from  non-Christian  Indians  and  replies  to  their  con^plaints  and  dif- 
ficulties. Recently  a  correspondent  from  Allahabad  argued  that  the 
public  sale  of  the  Christian  Scriptures  in  the  vernacular  is  wrong  be- 
cause some  purchasers  may  treat  the  books  with  irreverance.  In  a 
vigorous  rejoiner  the  editor  of  ^^The  Epiphany^  writes: 

"We  reply  that  the  risk  is  abundantly  worth  while,  and  among  others; 
for  these  two  reasons: 

( 1 )  Truth  is  the  inalienable  right  of  all  men,  and  we  have  to  run 
risks  in  imparting  it. 

(2)  The  risk  in  this  case  is  negligible.  Written  material  is  not  to  be: 
treated  as  Hindus  treat  idols.  The  Truth  is  not  in  the  material,  but 
the  Holy  Spirit  of  God  uses  the  material  to  teach  the  truth.  He 
does  not  actually  and  locally  dwell  in  it  *  *  *  People  who  are  reverent 
will  naturally  treat  with  reverence  even  the  outward  form  the  Spirit 
uses,  but  to  say  that  the  fear  that  some  will  not  is  a  sufficient  reason  for 
not  selling  Bibles  is  to  say  good-bye  to  reason  and  common  sense,  not  tO' 
say  religion." 

Great  Britain  as  Mohammedan  Power 

From  the  large  correspondence  which  has  appeared  in  the  London 
Times  and  other  papers  regarding  the  danger  of  arousing  religious 
fanaticism  at  the  present  juncture,  we  quote  the  following  letter  and 
hope  that  its  spirit  may  find  response  among  all  missionary  workers. 
This  is  not  the  time  to  demand  our  rights  or  to  exhibit  racial  pride  or 
prejudice.  Love  alone  will  conquor.  The  letter  as  it  appeared  in  the 
London  Times  reads: 

"Sir, — The  risk  of  religious  antagonism  between  Christians  and 
Mahommedans  over  the  Allied  occupation  of  Palestine  and  Constan- 
tinople is  much  disturbing  Indian  Mahommedans.  The  fact  that  there 
are  more  Mahonimedans  than  Christians  in  the  British  Empire,  and  that 
these  Mahommedans  have  stood  loyally  by  us  even  though  one  of  our 
enemies  was  a  great  Mahommedan  Power,  should  make  all  responsible 
Englishmen  exceedingly  careful  in  their  words  and  actions  regarding 
sacred  buildings,  places,  and  persons  in  Turkish  and  ex-Turkish  ter- 
ritories. In  Mesopotamia,  Palestine,  and  other  Arabic  portions  of  the 
late  Turkish  Empire  we  shall  in  all  probability  be  responsible  for  pre- 
serving order  among  some  millions  of  Mahommedans  of  a  highly  in- 


326  THE  MOSLEM  WORLD 

flammable  type.  And  the  task  of  our  soldiers  and  administrators  will 
be  rendered  incalculably  more  difficult  if  the  antagonisms  of  the  Middle 
Ages  are  fanned  into  flame  once  more. 

On  the  other  hand,  there  is  now  the  opportunity  of  centuries  for 
bringing  about  the  great  reconciliation  between  Mahommedans  and 
Christians.  Here,  on  ground  sanctified  by  memories  dear  to  both, 
might  spring  up  such  religion  and  culture  as  all  alike  might  reverence. 
Differences  may  increase  rather  than  diminish.  But  respect  might  con- 
tinue and  conflicts  need  not  occur  if  common  human  courtesy  is  dis- 
played and  the  Mohammedans  can  see  that  while  we  English  deeply  va- 
lue religion  we  are  now  more  concerned  with  refining  and  strengthening 
the  religion  we  adopted  from  the  land  in  which  grew  the  roots  of  Mo- 
hammedanism than  in  reviving  the  bitter  feuds  of  a  less  cultured  age. 

Your  obedient  servant, 

Francis  Younghusband. 

London,  March  i8." 

The  Caliphate 
"Orientalist"  writes  in  the  London  Times  for  March  25 : 
Sir, — In  the  communication  from  Mohammedan  leaders  to  the 
Right  Hon.  A.  J.  Balfour  which  you  printed  in  yesterday's  issue,  and  to 
which  a  wide  publicity  has  otherwise  been  given,  the  following  sentences 
occur,  written,  it  would  appear,  in  the  name  of  Sunni  Mahommedans 
in  particular: — 

''Lender  the  Sunni  system  of  jurisprudence  the  investiture  of  a  new 
ruler  by  the  Caliph,  the  Chief  Pontiff,  regularizes  his  status  in  the  eyes 
of  his  people  and  makes  any  rising  against  him  illegal. 

We  venture  strongly  to  urge  that  these  proposed  new  autonomous 
States  should  not  be  withdrawn  from  the  spiritual  suzerainty  of  the 
Ottoman  Sovereign  as  Caliph." 

The  italics  are  mine,  and  it  is  to  the  italicized  words  that  I  wish  to 
call  attention,  because  in  them  lurks  a  serious  fallacy,  which,  again,  in- 
volves matters  of  very  great  moment.  Those  responsible  for  the  hand- 
ling of  these  matters,  whether  in  London,  Paris,  or  the  East,  have  a 
right  to  claim  that  their  data  at  so  serious  a  time  should  be  free  from 
all  fallacies,  and  it  is,  therefore,  a  duty  to  call  attention  to  the  truth 
of  all  such  matters.  It  is  noticeable  that  some  of  the  best-known  names 
of  the  signatories  are  very  far  removed  from  being  Sunnis  themselves 
and  the  fallacy  to  which  attention  is  drawn  may  be  due  to  this  or  some 
other  fact.  What  it  is  may  be  most  easily  understood  from  three 
quotations  from  a  recent  book  by  the  great  Dutch  Islamologist,  Dr. 
Snouck  Hurgronje,  of  Leyden,  which  consists  of  four  lectures  on  *Ma- 
hommedanism.'  I  will  only  premise  that  not  only  is  Hurgronje's  book- 
knowledge  of  Islam  as  great  as  that  of  any  man  in  Europe,  except 
Goldziher,  but  his  practical  knowledge  of  Mahommedan  minds,  men, 
and  matters  is  absolutely  unique.  He  has  lived  nine  months  at  Mecca. 
He  has  hobnobbed  all  his  life  with  Mahommedan  learned  men  from 
all  over  the  world.  And  he  has  lived  in  closest  touch  with  the  Ma- 
hommedans of  the  East  Indies  for  over  a  decade  of  his  life.  He  is, 
therefore,  in  real  touch  with  the  thoughts  of  the  demos  of  Islam,  which 
the  signatories  claim  to,  but  do  not,  represent.  In  short  his  experience  is 
unparalleled.  And  his  meticulous  love  of  accuracy  in  detail,  and  care- 
fulness in  statement,  is  a  commonplace  among  Orientalists.  This,  then, 
is  what  this  indisputable  authority  says  on  the  points  in  question  ("Mo- 
hammedanism," chapter  III.). 


CURRENT  TOPICS  327 

First  in  regard  to  the  view  that  the  Sunni  Caliphate  is  a  "spiritual" 
authority,  he  says: 

Though  this  view,  through  the  ignorance  of  European  statesmen  and 
diplomatists,  may  have  found  acceptance  even  by  some  of  the  Great 
Powers,  it  is  nevertheless  entirely  untrue;  unless  by  "spiritual  author- 
ity'' we  are  to  understand  the  empty  appearance  of  worldly  authority." 

With  regard  to  the  comparison  of  the  Caliph  with  'Pontiff'  or  Pope, 
we  have  the  following: — 

"Of  late  years  Mohammedan  statesmen  in  their  intercourse  with  their 
Western  Colleagues  are  glad  to  take  the  latter's  point  of  view;  and  in 
discussion,  accept  the  comparison  of  the  Khalifate  with  the  Papacy, 
because  they  are  aware  that  only  in  this  form  the  Khalifate  can  be  made 
acceptable  to  Powers  which  have  Mohammedan  subjects.  But  for  these 
subjects  the  Khalif  is  then  their  true  prince,  who  is  temporarily  hin- 
dered in  the  exercise  of  his  Government,  but  whose  right  is  acknov/1- 
edged  even  by  their  unbelieving  masters." 

And  finally — ^ 

"A  Western  State  that  admits  any  authority  of  a  Khalif  over  its 
Mohammedan  subjects,  thus  acknowledges,  not  the  authority  of  a 
Pope  of  the  Moslem  Church,  but  in  simple  ignorance  is  feeding  politi- 
cal progammes  which,  however  vain,  alwaj^s  have  the  power  of  stir- 
ring Mohammedan  masses  to  confusion  and   excitement." 

It  is  preferable  to  let  these  weighted  words  speak  for  themselves." 

The  Largest  Unevangelized  Field 

From  the  Light  Bearer,  the  organ  or  the  Sudan  United  Mission, 
we  take  the  following  paragraphs. 

The  Sudan  contains  the  largest  unevangelised  field  on  the  face  of  the 
earth.  A  map  of  the  section  gives  its  situation  and  some  idea  of  its  size. 
It  includes  such  great  territories  as  the  Anglo-Egyptian  Sudan,  the 
French  Sudan,  Adamawa,  Northern  Nigeria,  and  the  Upper  Senegal. 
It  is  as  large  as  Europe  minus  Russian,  or  about  2,000,000  square  miles 
in  extent.  It  is,  for  Africa,  a  well-populated  country,  estimated  to  con- 
tain from  forty  to  fifty  millions  of  people. 

How  far  has  the  Gospel  been  proclaimed  in  this  vast  region?  The 
arrows  on  the  map  give  an  answer  to  that  question.  Several  Missionary 
Societies  are  working  in  the  Northern  Provinces  of  Nigeria,  Western 
Sudan,  and  work  is  also  being  carried  on  in  the  Anglo-Egyptian  Sudan, 
but  even  in  these  two  sections  of  the  Sudan  the  ground  is  by  no  means 
covered.  In  the  space  between  the  arrows  on  the  map,  the  stretch  of 
country  1,500  miles  in  breadth  which  lies  between  the  eastern  and 
w^estern  outposts  of  the  Sudan  United  Mission,  no  one  has  ever  wit- 
nessed for  Christ.    The  great  section  west  of  Nigeria  is  also  untouched. 

The  Sudan  United  Mission  has  now  been  at  work  for  fourteen  years. 
Beginning  with  a  small  expeditionary  force  in  Nigeria,  God  has  so 
blessed  its  efforts  that  it  has  now  ten  central  stations  in  the  Northern 
Provinces  of  Nigeria  and  two  in  the  Eastern  Sudan.  Tribe  after  tribe 
has  been  entered,  until  now  some  twelve  tribes  are  being  directly 
reached.  The  language  difficulty,  arising  from  the  fact  that  almost 
every  tribe  speaks  its  own  distinct  tongue,  has  been  met  and  mastered; 
already  six  languages  hitherto  unknown  to  any  European  have  been 
reduced  to  writing,  while  others  are  being  tackled.  Gospels  have  been 
translated,  primers  and  books  of  Bible  stories,  etc.,  complied,  and  are 
being  read  by  those  who  have  been  taught  in  the  Mission  schools.  Evan- 
gelists have  been  trained  and  are  at  work.    Over  two  hundred  children, 


328  THE  MOSLEM  WORLD 

freed  from  slavery  by  the  Britisfi  Government  and  handed  over  to  the 
Mission  have  been  brought  up  in  a  Christian  atmosphere. 

Now  comes  the  call  to  go  forward!  During  the  war  this  was  not 
possible  to  any  large  extent,  but  the  Committee  of  the  Mission  now 
propose  to  push  into  the  great  untouched  regions  bej^ond  as  soon  as 
men  and  means  become  available.  It  is  estimated  that  to  cover  the 
ground  at  least  forty  new  stations  must  be  opened  in  carefully  chosen 
centres,  manned  by  a  staff  of  I20  new  missionaries.  For  this  purpose 
the  Committee  are  appealing  for  £50,000  to  send  out  these  workers, 
build,  furnish  and  equip  the  stations;  and  for  the  men,  called  by  God 
and  filled  with  His  Spirit  for  His  service. 

George  Alfred  Lefroy,  Bishop  of  Calcutta 

By  the  passing  of  George  Alfred  Lefroy,  Bishop  of  Calcutta 
and  Metropolitan  of  India,  on  the  ist  of  January,  1919,  a  great 
missionary  to  Mohammedans  has  been  taken  from  among  us.  Dr. 
Lefroy  was  first  a  member  and  later  the  head  of  the  Cambridge  Mis- 
sion to  Delhi.  He  soon  discerned  the  importance  of  the  great  im- 
perial city  as  the  religious  and  literary  centre  of  Indian  Islam.  He 
gave  himself  to  the  work  of  preaching  to  Moslems  and  managed, 
amid  the  exacting  calls  of  a  large  mission,  to  give  time  to  the  study 
of  Moslem  theology.  One  of  his  bitterest  opponents  in  the  bazaar,  a 
blind  hafiz,  afterwards  became  a  devoted  disciple  and  effective  helper. 
When  Dr.  Lefroy  was  appointed  to  the  see  of  Lahore  it  was  impos- 
sible for  him  to  continue  in  this  line  of  activity  but  he  lectured  to 
large  audiences  of  Moslems  in  the  provincial  capital  and  his  con- 
tributions to  the  Lucknow  Conference  will  long  be  remembered. 
As  Bishop  of  Calcutta  since  191 3  he  was  president  of  the  League 
of  missionaries  to  Moslems,  though  failing  health  and  heavy  work 
forbade  more  active  cooperation.  The  Rev.  G.  Hibbert  Ware,  for 
some  years  a  member  of  the  Cambridge  Brotherhood,  gives  in  The 
Mission  Field  the  fol owing  vivid  description  of  Dr.  Lefroy 's  Mo- 
hammedan work  at  Delhi. 

"Of  all  kinds  of  missionary  work  which  a  man  may  undertake 
in  the  Master's  cause,  it  will  generally  be  agreed  that  preaching 
in  the  bazaars  to  Moslems  is  one  of  the  very  hardest — among  other 
reasons,  because  of  the  obstruction  he  must  meet,  because  of  the  in- 
sults he  must  bear,  and  because  of  the  blasphemies  against  sacred 
things  that  he  must  hear.  Many  missionaries  who  have  tried  it  have 
at  least  felt  themselves  obliged  to  abandon  it;  some  who  retain  it  do 
so  more  because  it  is  a  striking  and  public  witness  to  Christianity  than 
because  they  really  hope  to  see  conversions  result  from  it.  But  all 
who  have  studied  missionary  work  among  Moslems  in  India  know 
that  the  late  Bishop  Lefroy  was  a  master  in  this  difficult  kind  of 
work,  and  that,  as  he  carried  it  on,  positive  fruits  came  from  it. 

*'He  began  in  Delhi,  like  others,  with  preaching  in  the  bazaars, 
quite  in  the  ordinary  way;  he  experienced  its  hardships,  and  came  up 
against  its  apparent  futility.  But  in  the  end  he  found  opportunities 
to  lift  the  preaching  of  the  Gospel  to  Mohammedans  in  that  city  on 
to  an  altogether  higher  level.  This  was  largely  by  means  of  con- 
ferences in  mosques  and  lectures  in  a  special  preaching  hall. 

"The  first  of  these  opportunities  came  by  what  seemed  a  pure 
accident.  He  was  preaching  in  the  bazaar,  when  a  Mohammedan 
controversialist  alleged  that  there  were  discrepances  in  the  Gospel 
accounts   of    the    Crucifixion.     They    had    to    look    up    passages;    the 


CURRENT  TOPICS  329 

light  was  bad,  and  the  Mohammedan  complained  that  he  could  not 
see.  Lefroy  quite  casually  asked  why  they  could  not  meet  under 
better  conditions.  The  unexpected  reply  to  this  was  an  invitation  to 
meet  in  one  of  the  mosques  of  Delhi.  Lefroy  accepted  the  invitation, 
and  went  expecting  to  find  twenty,  and  found  three  hundred,  in- 
cluding Mohammedan  maulvis,  with  ^copies  of  the  Koran  and  books  of 
reference.  Thus  began  a  series  of  remarkable  meetings,  at  which 
sometimes  more  than  a  thousand  Moslems  were  present.  The  sub- 
ject of  the  conference  was  always  chosen  beforehand,  and  each  of 
the  protagonists,  the  Mohammedan  and  the  Christian,  was  allow^ed 
a  fixed  time  to  give  his  presentation  of  his  faith. 

"In  the  nature  of  things  this  series  of  conferences  by  invitation 
could  only  be  temporary,  and  Lefroy  and  his  fellow-missionaries 
looked  about  for  some  method  of  preaching  to  better-disposed  Moslems 
that  should  be  permanent.  This  was  achieved  at  last  by  the  building 
of  the  Bickersteth  Hall  for  this  express  work.  Here  debates  were 
held,  somewhat  in  the  manner  in  which  they  had  been  held  ia  the 
mosques.  Friday  afternoon  was  the  time  chosen,  when  the  Mo- 
hammedan schools  for  theological  students  would  be  closed.  A  great 
crowd  would  gather  in  the  hall;  lectures  would  be  given  by  both 
sides  in  turn  on  a  subject  advertised  beforehand,  and  then  a  debate 
would  take  place,  point  by  point.  In  a  formal  sense  no  conclusion  was 
reached;  it  was  Lefroy 's  method  to  leave  the  final  judgment  to  the 
tribunal  of  every  man's  conscience. 

"No  doubt  it  was  difficult  at  first  to  maintain  the  order  of  the 
proceedings.  But  by  degrees  a  body  of  rules,  though  not  written 
rules,  grew  up.  The  writer  saw  these  conferences  in  somewhat  later 
days,  when  the  hall  was  used  equally  for  debates  with  Mohammedans 
and  with  Hindus.  A  chairman — always  a  Christian  was  appointed, 
his  principal  task  being  to  keep  the  speakers  within  their  allotted 
time,  which  was  agreed  upon  beforehand.  Generally  the  Christian 
led  off  with  a  speech  of  half-an-hour ;  his  opponent  followed  with  one 
of  the  same  length.  Then  each  would  take  a  quarter  of  an  hour; 
after  that,  ten  minutes  for  each  of  the  speakers  was  considered 
enough,  till  the  close — the  Christian,  by  right  of  being  in  a  Christian 
building,  always  to  have  the  last  word.  No  one  in  the  audience  was 
allowed  to  interrupt,  though  applause  would  frequently  break  out. 
In  these  later  times  there  was  a  considerable  body  of  what  one  might 
call  regular  "Hall-goers" — the  English  word  "hall"  had  been  adopted 
into  the  Urdu  language,  and  the  Bickersteth  Hall  was  always  known 
as  the  "Hall" — some  of  the  attendants  at  which  would  come  quite  a 
long  distance  by  tram.  It  was  evident,  too,  that  there  was  a  certain 
amount  of  pride  in  the  orderly  conduct  of  the  controversy;  and  an  ap- 
peal to  the  "Rule  of  the  Hall,"  when  one  of  the  opponents  thought 
the  other  was  dealing  unfairly  with  him,  would  often  set  things  right. 

"The  late  Bishop  Lefroy  excelled  in  the  qualities  that  go  to  make 
a  successful  bazaar  preacher.  He  had  a  fine  presence  with  a  winning 
manner.  More  important  were  his  command  of  the  language,  his 
ready  wit  and  sense  of  humour,   and  his  patience   and   courtesy. 

"His  command  of  the  Urdu  language  was  wonderful.  Indians 
were  known  to  say,  referring  to  his  speech,  "he  is  one  of  us."  He 
was  truly  eloquent  in  Urdu.  He  had  the  very  pronunciation  and  the 
idiom,  and  he  seemed  to  have  the  gift  of  thinking  like  an  Oriental. 

"He  could  be  keenly  alive  to  the  humour  of  a  situation  even  when 
it  was  most  trying  to  him  personally.  Once,  when,  with  another  of 
the  missionaries,  he  was  trying  to  preach  in  the  bazaar,  a  redoubtable 


330  THE  MOSLEM  WORLD 

antagonist,  a  blind  man,  tried  to  make  preaching  impossible  by  stand- 
ing immediately  by  him  and  pouring  out  blasphemies  against  things 
held  by  Christians  most  sacred,  mingled  with  abuse  of  certain  per- 
sons belonging  to  the  Mission.  To  shift  ground  a  few  yards  this 
way  or  that,  which  w^as  what  Lefroy  tried  at  first  to  do,  was  una- 
vailing, for  the  Mohammedan  wormed  his  way  through  the  crowd 
in  pursuit.  The  solution  was  found  by  his  brother  missionary  inter- 
posing his  larger  bulk  in  purely  passive  resistance  to  the  antagonist's 
progress  from  whatever  direction,  whereupon  the  late  Bishop  got  a 
hearing. 

"It  is  a  striking  coincidence  that,  writing  on  the  day  after  ther 
foregoing  incident,  the  late  Bishop  said,  with  regard  to  the  possibility 
of  having  to  claim  the  protection  of  the  law,  that  'one  feels  that  the 
victory  will  be  more  real  if,  by  simple  patience  and  continuance,  one 
can  put  him  to  shame  and  divert  him  from  such  an  unseemly  prac- 
tice'; for  that  identical  opponent  has  for  years  past  carried  on — so 
far  as  it  could  be  carried  on — the  late  Bishop's  own  work  in  the 
bazaar  and  the  Bickersteth  Hall  as  the  Christian  protagonist.  He  was 
won  to  Christianity,  says  another  missionary,  by  'the  truthfulness  and 
patience  which  he  witnessed  in  Christian  preachers.' 

"One  incident  may  be  given  to  illustrate  Bishop's  Lefroy's  unfail- 
ing courtesy  to  his  opponents.  The  scene  is  Lahore,  not  Delhi,  and 
he  was  then  Bishop  of  that  See.  He  was  giving  a  lecture  to  Mo- 
hammedans, of  whom  there  were  twelve  hundred  present.  His 
subject  w^as  'Zinda  Rasul,  the  Living  Messenger,'  a  name  which  is 
given  in  Islam  to  Jesus  alone,  from  which  the  Bishop  urged  them  to 
draw  conclusions  as  to  His  mediatorship. 

"After  a  fifty-minutes'  address  questions  were  allowed,  and  two 
champions  arose  at  once.  They  belonged  to  two  rival  sects  of  Mos- 
lems, the  one  orthodox,  the  other  unorthodox.  Each  shouted  against 
the  other,  and  their  followers  were  not  silent.  It  was  the  Bishop 
who,  by  a  strong  appeal,  got  a  hearing  for  them  separately.  And 
even  then  the  Moslem  antagonist's  dependence  on  the  Bishop's  cour- 
tesy was  not  at  an  end;  for  he  had  brought  a  speech  which  he  could 
only  deliver  by  the  aid  of  a  lamp  which  he  had  fixed  to  the  wall,  and  a 
member  of  the  rival  sect  stole  across  and  put  out  the  lamp  and  re- 
duced the  speaker  to  silence,  till   the   Bishop  sent  him   another. 

"Bishop  Lefroy  belonged  to  that  order  of  men  in  whom  the  in- 
tellectual gifts  shine  out  conspicuously.  But  greater  still  were  his 
love,  his  courtesy,  and  his  patience." 


April  Number  Errata 

Page  149,  Line  4  from  bottom,  for  "Africa"  read  "Arabia." 

Page  151,  Line  14  from  top — for  "anthologists"  read  "mythologists." 

Page  154,  Line  3  from  top — for  "are"  read  "were." 

Page  155,  Line  18  from  top — for  "Norse"  read  "horse." 

Percy   Smith. 


The  Moslem  World 


VOL.  IX  OCTOBER,  1919  NO.  4 


EDITORIAL 

The  Urgency  of  the  Hour 
We  are  living  in  an  age  of  despatch  and  immediacy. 
Men  count  time  no  longer  with  a  sand-glass  but  with 
a  stop-watch.  Fractions  of  a  second  count.  Over  the 
desks  of  business  men  you  may  see  in  large  letters,  "Do 
It  Now."  To  postpone  would  be  to  lose  opportunity; 
delay  would  mean  disaster;  modern  life  runs  on  a  close 
schedule. 

In  the  modern  business  world  three  words  have  come 
to  the  front,  each  of  which  represents  live  methods,  and 
aims  at  definite  results  by  enlarged  business  enterprise. 
The  three  words  are  publicity,  cooperation,  efficiency. 
It  is  generally  agreed  that  the  greatest  of  these  is  effi- 
ciency. Without  it  publicity  and  cooperation  are 
fruitless.  With  the  call  for  efficiency,  and  almost  iden- 
tified with  it,  there  has  come  a  new  sense  of  the  value 
of  time  and  opportunity. 

The  missionary  enterprise  needs  the  highest  standards 
of  efficiency,  for  there  is  no  task  in  the  entire  realm  of 
business  which  equals  that  of  the  disciples  of  Jesus 
Christ  in  its  supreme  urgency.  Nineteen  hundred  years 
ago  He  gave  us  His  commission.  The  work  that  cen- 
turies might  have  done  must  now  crowd  the  hour  of 
setting  sun.  It  is  a  commonplace  in  the  survey  of  the 
missionary  task  that  Moslem  lands  and  populations 
have  been  the  most  neglected.  Whatever  may  have 
been  the  reasons  for  this  neglect  in  times  past,  they 
do  not  obtain  now,  for  a  new  day  has  dawned.  Regions 
that  once  were  inaccessible  because  of  political  poli- 
cies or  intrigues,  or  because  of  religious  fanaticism,  have 
been  thrown  wide  open.  If  Christian  missions  were  at 
hand  now,  with  proper  and  sufficient  resources,  and  a 

331 


332  THE  MOSLEM  WORLD 

qualified  staff  of  tactful  agents,  the  approaching  flood 
of  a  new  civilization  during  the  reconstruction  period 
could,  to  a  great  extent,  be  turned  in  the  direction  of  the 
Kingdom.  The  non-Christian  culture  from  the  East 
and  from  the  West  is  already  meeting  in  Central  and 
Western  Asia  to  fight  the  great  battle  for  supremacy 
against  the  standards  of  the  Gospel.  It  is  not  probable 
that  amid  all  the  restless  movements,  the  upheavals  and 
resettlements  of  the  World  War  any  Moslem  land  will 
longer  remain  dormant.  A  wave  of  unrest  is  passing 
over  the  peoples  of  Asia,  and  one  of  the  results  is  likely 
to  be  a  greater  tolerance  between  Moslem  and  Christian. 
Nothing  can  hold  back  the  advance  of  Western  civili- 
zation into  the  very  heart  of  every  Moslem  village.  The 
steamship,  the  railway  and  the  aeroplane  are  forcing 
their  way  through  every  sea  or  mountain  pass  and 
along  every  channel  of  communication  with  the  latest 
inventions  of  our  times.  Even  before  the  War  one 
might  see  at  Kabul  and  Fez  motor  cars,  sewing  ma- 
chines, cinemas,  gramaphones,  machine  guns  and  smoke- 
less powder.  For  the  management  of  these  modern 
enterprises  a  staff  of  Western  engineers  and  mechanics 
will  doubtless  be  admitted  into  every  part  of  the  Near 
East.  Why  should  the  missionary  hesitate  to  go  before 
them  or  follow  in  their  train?  This  is  no  time  for 
idle  dreaming  or  for  plans  laid  that  will  mature  only 
after  a  decade.  The  War  has  shown  us  how  opportuni- 
ties slip  away  for  the  unalert.  Shall  the  Soldiers  of 
the  Cross,  because  of  their  blindness  to  the  vision  of 
God  and  the  unpardonable  sin  of  dawdling,  miss  the 
day  of  victory  and  arrive  on  the  battlefield  of  Arma- 
geddon too  late?  The  work  of  foreign  missions  during 
the  past  century  has  itself  been  a  preparation  for  the 
new  internationalism.  In  many  countries  the  national- 
istic movement  will  gain  power,  whether  we  like  it  or 
not,  and  it  is  the  part  of  wisdom  to  relate  ourselves  to 
it  intelligently.  The  decisions  of  the  Peace  Conference 
have  confronted  us  with  such  fundamental  questions  as 
the  nature,  the  grounds,  the  limitations,  nay  the  very 
right  of  religious  propaganda  everywhere.     The  free- 


EDITORIAL  333 

dom  of  the  sea  and  the  open  door  for  commerce  are 
questions  that  chiefly  concern  the  diplomat  and  states- 
man, but  the  missionary  must  plead  and  pray  that  a  like 
freedom  may  be  given  to  the  Gospel.  The  urgency  of 
the  situation  admits  no  delay.  To  postpone  advance 
may  mean  to  lose  the  battle. 

Another  reason  why  we  should  do  our  utmost  nov^  to 
bring  in  the  Kingdom  of  Christ  throughout  the  w^orld 
is  the  conviction  gained  by  the  War  that  Christ  is  the 
only  hope  of  the  nations,  and  the  only  Saviour  of  the 
individual.  We  need,  therefore,  a  large  increase  of 
w^orkers  to  enter  the  unoccupied  fields  and  to  thrust 
in  the  sickle  w^here  the  harvest  is  dead-ripe.  We  need 
them  for  the  sake  of  those  w^ho  are  v\^aiting  and  have  been 
waiting  so  long;  the  millions  who  have  not  yet  shared 
the  Father's  bread,  w^ho  have  lost  their  way  to  His 
home,  and  who  have  never  rested  in  the  greatness  of  His 
loving  heart.  We  know  the  road;  we  have  the  light; 
vv^e  experience  His  life.  Adult  Moslems  may  seem  hard 
to  reach  or  persuade;  their  minds  may  be  wilfully 
blinded,  their  consciences  seared,  but  how  can  we  delay 
in  carrying  these  blessings  to  the  eighty  million  children 
of  the  Moslem  world?  If  they  stood  together  holding 
hands,  the  line  would  stretch  twice  around  the  globe's 
circumference.  The  Moslem  children  of  India  alone, 
marching  with  hands  on  each  other's  shoulders,  would 
reach,  in  one  unbroken  procession,  fifteen  times  the  dis- 
tance from  New  York  to  Chicago.  The  world  of  chil- 
dren in  Moslem  lands  would  fill  seventeen  cities  as 
large  as  London.  This  is  the  generation  that  we  must 
reach  with  the  Gospel  message  before  it  is  too  late.  In- 
fant mortality,  neglected  childhood,  corrupted  adoles- 
ence  and  then — the  same  cycle  over  again?  One  genera- 
tion of  these  children  understood  as  they  should  be, 
loved  as  they  ask  to  be,  and  approached  in  the  spirit  of 
Jesus  Christ  and  with  His  highest  gift,  the  Gospel, 
would  transform  the  world  of  Islam  into  the  Kingdom 
of  Heaven.  What  we  do  for  them  must  be  done  now, 
*^We  must  work  the  works  of  Him  that  sent  us  while  it 
is  day,  for  the  night  cometh  when  no  man  can  work." 


334  THE  MOSLEM  WORLD 

The  mortality  of  childhood  and  its  immortality  unite  to 
show  the  urgency  of  the  task.  When  we  think  of  the 
physical  ills  which  they  suffer,  of  their  poor  dwarfed 
bodies  in  so  many  cases  of  child  marriage,  of  the  too 
brief  period  between  adolescence  and  the  responsibilities 
of  manhood  and  womanhood,  our  heart  aches  to  help 
them.  When  Jesus  said,  ^'Suffer  the  little  children  to 
come  unto  me" — He  spoke  of  the  childhood  of  the  Near 
East.     Yet  ever  since  He  left  us, 

**Over  what  cruel  road 
These  innocents  have  trod, 
What  mountain-peaks  of  tragedy, 
What  valleys  of  black  misery, 
Their  bleeding  feet  have  passed 
Coming  to  Thee,  at  last  ; 
Across  what  plains  of  hopelessness, 
Through  what  deep  ruts  of  dire  distress. — 
O  God  forbid  that  at  our  door 
Should  lie  the  blame. 
The  living  shame. 
If  JO  there  go  to  Thee  one  more !" 

Christ's  glory,  too,  is  concerned  in  the  completion 
of  the  task  and  the  occupation  of  all  fields.  Because  He 
is  Lord  of  all,  the  last  stronghold  must  yield.  If  only 
there  were  the  spirit  of  loyalty  there  would  be  a  keen 
sense  of  immediacy.  Procrastination  in  this  case  is  not 
only  a  thief  of  time,  but  a  thief  of  Christ's  glory.  In 
many  Moslem  lands  His  name  is  now  known  as  "Isa  the 
prophet"  where  once  He  was  acknowledged  and  wor- 
shipped as  the  Divine  Redeemer.  "The  countries  of 
Central  Asia,  to  the  west  and  north  of  India,  are  a 
challenge  and  reproach  to  the  Christian  Church"  said 
Dr.  Pennell,  "a  reproach,  because  in  the  early  centuries 
of  the  Christian  era,  the  Gospel  was  carried  right  across 
Turkestan  aod  Tibet  to  China,  and  Christian  churches 

flourished  from  Asia  Minor  to  Mongolia In  again 

proclaiming  the  Gospel  in  Turkestan,  the  Christian 
Church  will  only  be  re-occupying  her  lost  territories 
where,  at  one  time,  Christian  congregations  gathered 
in  their  churches,  but  for  centuries  only  the  Mohamme- 
dan call  to  prayer  has  been  permitted  to  be  heard." 

Sven  Hedin  even  found  Christian  medals  in  the  ruins 


EDITORIAL  335 

about  distant  Khotan, — a  miniature  angel  of  gold, 
crosses  and  Byzantine  gold  coins.  "God  grant"  he 
writes,  "that  the  time  may  come  when,  within  those 
very  ancient  walls  which  have  witnessed  the  successive 
supremacy  of  the  three  predominant  religions  of  the 
world,  the  Cross  shall  supplant  the  Crescent  even  as 
Gautama's  temple  was  formerly  leveled  with  the 
ground  before  the  green  banner  of  the  Prophet/'  Who 
will  answer  this  prayer  of  the  intrepid  traveler  by  going 
to  Khotan? 

A  recent  book  review  in  our  Quarterly  called  atten- 
tion to  the  loss  of  all  North  Africa  and  the  destruction 
of  the  ancient  Christian  church  by  Islam.  South  Egypt 
also  was  once  Christian,  and  many  ruins  of  these 
churches  exist  today  in  the  torrid  Sudan,  notably  at 
Magaa  and  Soba.  For  thirteen  centuries,  after  Mo- 
hammed's successors  blotted  out  Christianity  in  Nejran, 
Yemen  and  Socotra,  Arabia  did  not  hear  the  message 
of  Life.  In  Hadramaut,  there  are  inscriptions  that  tell 
of  a  Christ  who  is  known  no  longer.  In  Socotra,  on 
the  hill  Ditrerre,  of  the  Hamar  Range,  "a  perfect  mass 
of  crosses"  of  every  possible  shape,  is  carved,  perhaps 
to  mark  a  Christian  burial-ground.  Alas!  neither  the 
hill  tribes  of  Yemen,  nor  the  people  of  Socotra,  nor  the 
province  of  Hadramaut,  have  a  single  living  witness 
for  the  Crucified  today. 

"The  evangelization  of  the  Moslem  world  in  this 
generation" — is  the  part  greater  than  the  whole,  that  we 
shrink  from  using  this  watchword,  or  does  our  faith 
weaken  when  we  face  the  baffling  difficulties?  Even 
this  would  only  emphasize  the  urgency  of  the  task. 
Until  Verdun  be  won,  there  can  be  no  complete  victory 
along  the  whole  line. 

S.  M.  ZWEMER. 
Cairo,  Egypt, 


FROM  THE  ARABIAN  NIGHTS  TO  SPIRIT* 


All  missionaries  to  Muslims,  like  all  students  of  more 
remote  languages,  literatures  and  civilizations,  have 
probably  felt  the  need  of  some  absolutely  candid  and 
unprejudiced  informant  to  guide  them  as  to  the  v^ork- 
ings  of  the  Muslim  mind,  as  to  its  fixed  ideas,  its  un- 
reasoned assumptions,  and  even  as  to  the  real  meaning 
of  the  words  of  the  languages  in  w^hich  it  expresses  it- 
self. It  is  notorious  that  the  dictionaries  w^hich  pro- 
fess to  render  these  vs^ords  into  English  are  often  highly 
misleading,  as  no  one  word  in  one  language  is  ever 
exactly  equivalent  to  one  in  another  language.  Every 
word  has  a  penumbra  of  implications  and  suggestions, 
of  memories  and  applications,  which  cannot  be  repre- 
sented by  other  single  words.  Gradually,  as  we  learn  to 
use  any  new  language,  we  learn  when  to  employ  one 
word  and  when  another  in  it;  but  there  are  some  words, 
and  those  of  the  greatest  importance,  which  may  long 
baffle  us.  Further,  it  slowly  becomes  clear  that  in  the 
Muslim  mind,  for  example,  when  it  uses  such  words 
there  is  a  fundamental  difference  of  attitude,  a  basal 
assumption,  which  to  us  the  word  in  question  itself  does 
not  suggest.  It  is  then  that  the  whole  matter  may  be 
suddenly  illumined  by  a  usage  in  some  trivial  story 
which  makes  concrete  and  vivid  that  difference  which 
has  baffled  us. 

I  propose  to  illustrate  this  from  a  very  ordinary  little 
story  in  the  Arabian  Nights.  I  will  show,  too,  how 
the  Nights  may  be  turned  into  that  candid  informant 
whose  help  we  have  all  desired  and  that  the  diligent 
student  of  the  Nights  is  in  contact  with  the  naked  mind 
of  Islam — and  with  its  naked  conduct  as  well — with  a 
direct  immediacy  for  which  he,  as  a  missionary,  can 
never   otherwise   hope.     He    cannot   expect,    nor    is   it 

*  This    quarterly    follows   the    spelling    of   Moslem    (for   Muslim)    and    Koran    (for 
Q'uran),  but  in  this  article  we  have  permitted  the  author's  spellings  to  stand. — Edito*. 


FROM  THE  ARABIAN  NIGHTS  TO  SPIRIT        337 

indeed  desirable,  that  actual  Muslims  will  open  their 
minds  to  him  with  the  same  frankness  as  that  with 
which  he  will  find  them  pictured  there.  The  Nights 
were  written  for  Muslims  by  Muslims,  with  perfect 
simplicity  and  unconscious  devotion  to  the  Real,  and 
just  on  account  of  this  simplicity  of  attitude  and  uncon- 
sciousness of  art,  they  are  an  indefinitely  truer  picture 
of  life  than  any  painted  by  our  own  hyperconscious  de- 
votees to  a  supposed  realism.  As  I  have  treated  this 
side  of  the  Nights  already  in  my  article  on  Hikdya  in 
the  Leyden  Encyclopedia  of  Islam  (vol.  ii,  pp.  303  ff.) 
I  will  not  develope  it  here.  I  will  only  say  that  there 
is  a  class  of  stories  in  the  Nights  which  I  believe  to 
have  arisen  out  of  deliberate  following  of  the  Aristotel- 
ian doctrine  of  'imitation"  in  literary  art. 

The  story  is  that  of  the  Merchant  and  the  Jinni,  at 
the  very  beginning  of  the  Nights,  in  which  the  son  of 
the  JinnI  is  killed  by  the  merchant,  who  throws  his 
date  "shells"  carelessly  about.  The  incident  has  prob- 
ably puzzled  us  all  from  childhood.  Most  of  us  knew, 
even  then,  that  dates  have  no  shells;  but,  apart  from 
that  detail,  it  was  a  hard  saying  that  a  Genie — accept- 
edly  some  kind  of  spirit — should  be  killed  by  a  little 
thing  tossed  right  or  left.  The  translations  in  which 
the  "shells"  occur  all  go  back  to  Galland,  the  primary 
French  translator  of  the  Nights  at  the  beginning  of  the 
xviiith  century.  Why  he  translated  his  Arabic  as 
"ecorces"  and  not  as  "noyaux"  nobody  knows,  but  the 
English  translators  of  his  French  followed  with  unanim- 
ity and  the  absurdity  survived  in  English  forms  long 
after  it  had  been  corrected  in  the  French  texts.*  But 
as  to  the  second  point  Galland  was  evidently  himself 
puzzled,  for  he  interpolated  that  the  "shell"  struck  the 
young  Jinn!  in  the  eye.  That  is  not  in  his  Arabic  text. 
He  had  had  the  good  fortune  to  happen  upon  the  oldest, 
as  yet,  known  ms  of  the  Nights,  and  I  transcribe  the 
following  passages  from  a  photograph  of  it  which  I 
have  and  with  the  help  of  which  I  am  preparing  an 

*  It  is  already  corrected  in  the  oldest  French  edition  I  have  (dated  1790)  but 
seems  still  to  survive  in  all  the  English  renderings  of  Galland,  except  that  by  Edward 
Foster. 


338  THE  MOSLEM  WORLD 

edition:  fa-jalas  *^ala-l-^ain  wa-rabat  dabbatahu  wa-hatta 
khurjahu  wa-'akhraj  baMa  tilka-l-qura$  az-zawada  wa- 
qalil  tamr  wa-§iar  ya'  kul  tamr  wa-yarmi-n-nawa  yaminan 
wa-shimalan  hatta-ktafa  *  *  *  fa-qala-1-jinnI  anta  qatalta 
waladi  wa-dhalik  annaka  lamma  $irta  tarmi-n-nawa 
yaminan  wa-shimalan  kan  waladi  kama  masha  fa- 
ja'at  niwaya  flh  fa-qatalathu.  It  will  be  seen  that  this 
text  is  neither  colloquial  nor  literary,  though  it  is,  if  any- 
thing, more  the  latter  than  the  former.  It  is,  I  think,  a 
genuine  specimen  of  the  story-telling  style  of  the  end  of 
the  XlVth  century  in  Egypt  and  I  would  translate  this 
bit  as  follows:  "So  he  alighted^  beside  the  spring  and 
tethered  his  riding-beast  and  put  down  his  saddlebags 
and  took  out  some  of  those  cakes — his  provender — and 
a  few  dates  and  began  to  eat  some  dates  and  to  cast  the 
stones  right  and  left  until  he  was  satisfied.  .  .  .  Then 
the  Jinni  said,  *Thou  didst  kill  my  boy;  because  when 
thou  begannest  casting  the  date-stones  right  and  left  my 
boy  was  there,  as  it  were,  walking,  and  a  stone  entered 
him  and  killed  him.'  " 

This  evidently  means  that  the  young  Jinni  was  walk- 
ing, as  a  man  would,  on  the  ground  and  that  the  date- 
stone  pierced  him  so  that  he  died.  It  will  be  noticed, 
too,  that  the  merchant  does  not  dispute  either  the  possi- 
bility or  the  probability  of  such  a  thing  happening.  It 
was  a  strange  accident,  but  quite  possible.  How,  then, 
can  we  explain  it,  and  whither  will  the  explanation  lead 
us? 

In  the  preface  to  his  English  translation  of  Galland*s 
French  Edward  Foster  notices  this  apparent  absurdity 
and  tells  how  it  was  explained  to  him  by  Warren  Hast- 
ings. "There  are  accounts  of  people  having  been  killed 
by  date-stones,  which  were  shot  at  them  in  a  particular 
manner  with  both  hands.  Those  persons,  who  are  in 
the  habit  of  doing  this,  will  send  the  stone  with  such 
velocity  as  to  give  a  most  violent  blow.  And  it  is  in  this 
manner  that  prisoners  are  sometimes  put  to  death;  a 
man  sits  down  at  a  little  distance  from  the  object  he 
intends  to  destroy,  and  then  attacks  him  by  repeatedly 

'The  context  teem*  to  require  this  translation  of  jalasa,  but  it  is  rerj 


FROM  THE  ARABIAN  NIGHTS  TO  SPIRIT        339 

shooting  at  him  with  the  stone  of  the  date,  thrown  from 
his  two  forefingers;  and  in  this  way  puts  an  end  to  his 
life."^ 

This  must  strike  us  as  a  very  oriental  method  of  ex- 
ecution, both  in  slowness  and  in  cruelty;  but  Warren 
Hastings  is  an  excellent  authority.  A  further  develop- 
ment of  this  same  explanation  was  given  to  me  by  a 
former  student  of  mine,  the  late  R.  S.  Emrich  of  Mar- 
din,  from  his  own  experience.  While  riding  with  his 
shaykh,  a  Muslim  of  education  and  position,  through 
some  wild  and  broken  country,  he  noticed  that  his 
shaykh  alighted  from  his  horse  and  gathered  a  number 
of  small  pebbles.  He  mounted  again  and  they  rode 
on,  and  the  shaykh  kept  slinging  pebbles  right  and  left 
from  the  tips  of  his  forefingers,  using  the  spring  of  the 
stiffly  held  forefingers  as  propelling  force.  Naturally, 
Mr.  Emrich  asked  what  that  mieant,  but  the  only  answer 
he  could  get  was,  "I  must  protect  myself."  It  appeared, 
however,  that  the  place  was  one  reputed  to  be  a  haunt 
of  the  Jinn.  This  evidently  means  that  the  Jinn  are 
afraid  of  being  injured  by  such  small  rapidly  flying 
missiles  and  will  keep  their  distance. 

We  have  thus  a  parallel  to  the  case  of  the  merchant 
and  his  date-stones.  But  how  can  the  Jinn  be  thus  in- 
jured? For  the  answer  to  that  question  we  must  go 
back  to  their  origin.  According  to  the  usual  statement 
the  angels  were  created  of  light,  mankind  of  clay  and 
the  Jinn  of  smokeless  flame.  The  angels  and  mankind 
are  not  our  present  subject,  but  it  may  be  worth  while 
to  say  that  I  know  of  no  Qur'anic  authority  for  the 
origin  of  the  angels  (but  there  is  a  tradition  from  ^A'isha 
to  the  above  effect  in  the  Lisdn,  iii,  p.  189)  and  that  an 
excellent  short  statement  of  their  nature  will  be  found 
in  Baidawi's  commentary  on  Qur.  ii,  28  and  at  greater 
length  in  the  "Dictionary  of  Technical  Terms,"  pp. 
1337  f.  From  these  it  is  plain  that  the  angels  for 
orthodox  Islam  are  specifically  material,  although  of 
a  very  fine  substance  (ajsdm  latifa)  and  capable  of  as- 


•  Edward   Forster's  translation  appeared   first   in    1802,     I   quote    from   an   edition   of 
1842,   p.   xxvi. 


340  THE  MOSLEM  WORLD 

suming  different  forms.  The  phrase  describing  the 
substance  of  the  Jinn  is  more  difficult.  It  occurs  only 
in  Qur.  iv,  14,  min  mdrijin  min  ndr,  "of  a  mdrij  of 
fire,"  and  on  the  meaning  of  mdrij  the  lexicographers 
and  commentators  are  entirely  at  odds.  The  oldest 
exegetical  traditions  are  collected  in  Tabari's  Tafsir^ 
vol.  xxvii,  pp.  66  f.  and  the  views  of  the  lexicographers 
in  the  Lisdn,  vol.  iii,  p.  189  and  partly  in  Lane,  p.  2704  c. 
The  meaning  of  the  root  is  very  obscure — *^mix,"  "cause 
to  flow,"  "be  confused,  spoiled" — and  the  principal  in- 
terpretations of  the  phrase  are,  "a  confused,  mixed 
flame  of  fire,"  i.  e.  with  blackness  and  different  colours 
in  it,  or  "a  pure  flame  of  fire,"  i.  e.  without 
smoke.  One  of  the  most  picturesque  para- 
phrases given  in  the  Lisdn  might  be  rendered,  "a  flash- 
ing fire-brand  full  of  strong  flame."  But  in  Qur.  xv, 
27  the  Jinn  are  said  to  be  formed  out  of  "fire  of  the 
samum/'  the  hot  and  penetrating  wind  of  the  desert. 
In  both  passages  the  object  seems  to  be  combined  with  the 
ideas  of  fiery  flame  and  extreme  tenuity  of  substance. 
But,  for  all  this,  I  strongly  suspect  that  behind  mdrij 
is  concealed  one  of  the  foreign  words  of  which  Mu- 
hammad was  so  fond. 

Again  the  Qur'an  tells  (xv,  18;  xxxvii,  7  ff. ;  Ixxii, 
8,  9,  but  see  especially  Baidawi  on  xxxvii,  7  ff.)  how  the 
Jinn  and  Shaitans  used  to  ascend  to  the  lowest  heaven 
and  listen  to  the  angels  and  thus  gather  information,  and 
how  they  were  chased  away  from  the  walls  of  heaven 
with  shuhub,  "firebrands"  and  rujum,  "missiles."  The 
traditions  tell  that  at  the  birth  of  ^Isa  they  were  cut 
off  from  a  third  of  heaven  and  at  that  of  Muhammad 
from  all  the  rest;  but  still  they  make  the  attempt, 
although  at  deadly  peril.  For  these  meteors  and  shoot- 
ing stars  may  utterly  destroy  them,  their  greater  fire 
overcoming  the  lesser  fire  of  the  Jinn,  as  Baidawi  ex- 
plains, and  burning  them  completely  up.  Of  this  there 
are  several  cases  in  the  Nights.  It  will  be  remembered 
how  Badr  ad-Din  (N.  xxii)  was  put  down  asleep  at  the 
gate  of  Damascus  because  the  ^  Ifrit  was  burned  up  by 
shuhub  and  the  ^  Ifrlta  could  carry  him  no  further. 


FROM  THE  ARABIAN  NIGHTS  TO  SPIRIT        341 

But  it  does  not  need  the  angels  of  Allah  and  shooting 
stars  to  destroy  a  Jinni  or  an  ^frit.  Men  can  destroy 
them  too,  if  they  only  know  how.  My  old  pupiPs  shaykh 
knew  how,  and  the  merchant  in  the  Nights  accepted  his 
unwitting  deed  as  perfectly  intelligible.  It  is  the  belief, 
too,  of  the  Egyptian  populace  that  a  Jinni  or  'Ifrit  is 
a  body  of  fire  covered  with  a  thin  skin.  If  the  skin  is 
broken  in  any  way  he  flares  up  and  all  that  is  left  is  a 
small  burnt  mass,  which  they  compare  to  an  old  shoe, 
perforated  by  fire  and  burned  to  a  cinder.  In  Sophia 
Poole's  ^'Englishwoman  in  Egypt"  (London,  1884),  a 
collection  of  letters  written  in  1842-4  by  the  sister 
of  E.  W.  Lane,  when  living  with  him  in  Cairo,  there 
is  a  long  account  of  the  troubles  they  had  with  a 
haunted  house  (vol.  i,  pp.  72  ff.,  199  fif. ;  ii,  p.  9).  The 
narrative  is  not  as  full  and  exact  as  modern  psych- 
ical research  requires;  but  it  affords  a  good  book- 
case of  an  oriental  haunting  with  poltergeist  phenomena 
added.  The  haunters  Cdmirs)  were  a  saint — his  saint- 
hood was  fixed  by  his  drawing  water  from  the  well 
in  the  court,  performing  his  tahdra  and  going  through 
the  said — and  an  'Ifrit;  that  he  was  not  only  an  'Ifrit 
but  a  Shaitan  was  shown  by  his  throwing  dust  in  the 
right  eye  of  the  bawwdb.  So  the  bawwdb  destroyed 
him  with  a  double-loaded  pistol  and  all  that  was  left 
was  the  burnt  up  shoe-sole  described  above.  In  J.  S. 
Willmore's  "Spoken  Arabic  of  Egypt"  similar  stories 
are  told. 

In  this  way,  then,  the  son  of  the  Jinni  must  have  died. 
The  swiftly  slung  date-stone  was  quite  enough  to  pierce 
to  his  central  fires;  they  rushed  out  and  he  burnt  up. 
His  demise  was  quite  normal  for  the  Muslim  mind; 
for  it  there  is  nothing  strange  in  the  story.  But  what 
does  all  this  mean  for  the  missionary?  Does  it  do  any 
more  than  illustrate  the,  for  him,  essential  queerness  of 
that  mind?  I  think  it  does,  and  I  wish  now  to  work 
out  some  of  the  ideas  as  to  words  and  their  meanings 
which  it  brings. 


'  The  best  statement  of  the  meanings  of  this  word  which  I  know  is  in  the   Lisan, 
vol.   iii,  pp.   289  ff..     The  Lisan  is  always  fuller   than   I<ane. 


342  THE  iMOSLEM  WORLD 

To  angels  and  Jinn  and  Shaitans  alike  the  word  ruk » 
can  be  applied.  We,  without  thinking,  translate  that 
word  "spirit."  Are  we  right  in  doing  so,  or  are  we 
indolently  leading  ourselves  astray?  Or,  to  put  the 
matter  otherwise,  is  there  (i)  any  other  English  trans- 
lation for  ruh  than  "spirit"  and  (ii)  is  there  any  other 
Arabic  translation  of  "spirit"  than  riih}  Probably 
every  missionary  has  been  told  some  time  or  other,  "We 
don^t  think  of  spirit — or  riih — as  you  do."  This  came 
out  recently  very  forcibly  in  Dr.  Harrison's  most  in- 
teresting account  of  his  expedition  to  the  Wahhabi 
capital,  ar-Riyad.  On  his  cart  and  on  hand-bills  he  had 
what  seems  to  us  the  simplest,  most  fundamental  and 
most  inoffensive  statement,  "God  is  a  Spirit,"  Allahu 
ruh.  For  the  Wahhabis  it  was  the  most  horrible  blas- 
phemy, and  he  had  to  suppress  it.  Evidently,  for  them, 
it  meant  that  God  was  a  material  being,  one  of  the  Jinn 
family.  This  would  be  a  return  to  the  pre-Islamic 
heathenism,  for  the  Meccans  had  asserted  that  there 
was  a  kinship  (nasab)  between  the  Jinn  and  Allah  (Qur. 
xxxvii,  158)  and  that  the  Jinn  were  partners  of  Allah 
(vi,  100). 

It  may,  therefore,  be  said  that,  while  we  can,  per- 
haps, safely  render  ruh  with  "spirit,"  if  we  always 
remember  that  it  does  not  really  mean  "spirit"  as  op- 
posed to  "matter,"  we  cannot  render  "spirit"  with  ruh 
unless  we  explain  that  this  is  a  new  use  of  ruh  and  also 
make  perfectly  clear  the  sense  in  which  we  now  use  it. 
The  last  condition,  it  is  safe  to  say,  will  be  fulfilled 
with  difficulty.  Yet,  it  may  be  the  only  way  out  and  we 
know  the  strain  which  was  put  upon  Greek  words  by  the 
early  Christian  usage.  St.  Paul  could  use  xveDjia  and 
balance  xveu'^axixo?  against  <?uxt>^o?  but  was  he  always 
completely  understood?  That  native  Arabic-speaking 
Christians  have  for  centuries  used  ruh  in  this  sense  will 
not  greatly  help  the  matter;  but  there  are  some  Qur'anic 
passages  which  may  be  a  bridge,  and  some  Muslim 
theologians  have  made  a  beginning  in  that  direction. 

It  is  unanimously  accepted  that  Muhammad  himself 
was  not  a  systematic  theologian.     He  often  used  tech- 


FROM  THE  ARABIAN  NIGHTS  TO  SPIRIT         343 

nical  terms  and  expressions;  but  they  were  debris  of 
previous  systems  and  were  used  by  him  without  clear 
understanding.  One  of  these  was  our  present  word 
ra.h,  and  with  regard  to  it  Muhammad  himself  real- 
ized that  he  was  out  of  his  depth.  He,  therefore,  shut 
down  discussion  with  a  command  from  Allah  (Qur. 
xvii,  87)  :  "Say  thou  [O  Muhammad],  'The  ruh  is  of 
my  Lord's  affair,'  "  min  amri  rabbi.  But  contradictory 
passages  enough  were  left  in  the  Qur'an  to  puzzle  later 
commentators.  Thrice  it  speaks  of  "angels  and  the  riih" 
(Ixx,  4;  Ixxviii,  38;  xcvii,  4).  Four  times  there  is 
mention  of  "the  holy  ruJi'  (ruh  al-qudus,  ii,  81,  254; 
V,  109;  xvi,  104).  "Jesus  is  a  ruh  from  Allah"  (iv, 
169)  and  later  Islam  has  even  called  Him  ruhu-lldh 
and  "the  ru1i\  Allah  made  Adam  symmetrical  and 
breathed  (nafakha)  into  him  some  of  His  ruK'  (xv, 
29;  xxxii,  8;  xxxviii,  72)  and  similarly  into  Maryam 
(xxi,  91 ;  Ixvii,  12).  There  are,  besides,  passages  where 
ruh  means,  evidently,  "angel"  and  especially  the  angel 
of  revelation  and  others  in  which  rvh  is  associated  with 
angels  or  is  a  direct  influence  from  Allah  (xvi,  2; 
xix,  17;  xxvi,  193;  xl,  15;  xlii,  52;  Iviii,  22).  In  these 
last  passages  Muhammad's  own  thought  is  often  most 
obscure,  and  we  are  left  guessing  between  concrete 
angelic  ministrations  and  an  influence  like  that  of  the 
Holy  Spirit  in  Christian  theology.  That  Muhammad 
was  in  contact  with  a  doctrine  of  the  Holy  Spirit  of 
one  kind  or  another  can  hardly  be  doubted.  It  re- 
mained, however,  for  him  amorphous  and  contradictory 
because  it  clashed  when  thought  out  to  the  end  with 
his  fundamental  antithesis  between  Allah  and  all  else 
than  Allah;  between  the  creative  Will  and  the  created 
universe.  And  in  this  antithesis  lies  the  difliculty 
which  orthodox  Islam  finds  in  our  antithesis  between 
spiritual  and  material.  All  creation  must  be  material 
for  it  is  "other  than  Allah"  and  Allah  alone  is  spiritual. 
So,  while  "material"  can  be  rendered  exactly  by  mdddl, 
there  is  no  exact  and  unambiguous  word  for  "spiritual". 
^Aqli  means  "belonging  to  the  ^aql  or  reason,"  ovoG?, 
"noetic,"  and  ma'nawi  is  "mental,  ideal,   intellectual" 


344  THE  MOSLEM  WORLD 

and  is  not  at  all  spiritual  in  its  atmosphere. 

But  before  the  fact  of  the  religious  consciousness  such 
a  position  as  this  could  not  stand.  A  Muslim  with  a 
real  religious  experience,  however  orthodox  in  theology 
he  may  be,  must  recognize  that  there  is  a  vital  relation 
between  himself  and  Allah.  He  may  not  be  willing 
to  say,  '^Est  Deus  in  nobis";  but  there  must  be  in  him 
something,  somehow,  of  the  Divine.  It  is  true  that  he 
may  leave  the  matter  there  and  decline,  out  of  fear  of 
soul-destroying  error,  to  speculate  further.  But  if  he 
is  a  thinking  man  as  well  as  a  religious  man  he  must  go 
on  and  bring  together,  by  some  device,  his  theology  and 
his  experience.  Muhammad,  with  his  utterly  unsys- 
tematic mind,  had  left  the  two  unreconciled.  But  the 
following  generations  of  Muslims  could  not  do  that; 
and,  however  they  might  shrink  from  extreme  mystical 
theories,  they  had  to  reach  a  possible  view  of  the  human 
soul   and   its  relation   to  Allah. 

Such  a  view  is  developed  by  al-Ghazzali  in  one  of 
his  smaller  treatises,  Al-madnun  of'saghtr,^  In  form 
it  consists  of  answers  to  questions  addressed  to  him  by 
some  of  his  more  advanced  students  on  subjects  not 
suited  for  public  discussion.  For  al-Ghazzli,  like 
practically  all  the  Muslims,  believed  in  an  economy 
of  teaching,  and  declined  to  go  beyond  a  certain  point 
in  discussing  theological  questions  with  those  who, 
he  thought,  might  be,  thereby,  rather  injured  than  ad- 
vantaged. This  method  was  perfectly  understood  and 
accepted  at  the  time,  but  those  little,  esoteric  tractates 
have  been  sometimes  misunderstood  in  later  times  and 
have  led  to  accusations  of  disingenuousness,  at  the  least. 
For  myself,  I  do  not  think  that  he  always  realized  the 
implications  of  his  views  and  arguments;  but  that  he  was 
a  conscious  pantheist,  concealing  out  of  fear  his  true 
position,  I  do  not  believe.  In  this  case  he  developed 
what  is  no  more  than  a  Christian  view  of  the  soul,  and 
many  Muslims  at  the  present  time  would  accept  it. 
But  many  would  not,  and  among  these  would  virtually 

*I  use  a  Cairo  edition  of  1303.  It  has  been  translated  into  Spanish  by  Asin  in 
his  "Algazal"  (Zaragoza,  1901),  pp.  692-733.  What  I  give  here  is  an  outline  only; 
al-Ghazzali    supports    all    his    positions    with    scholastic    dialectic. 


FROM  THE  ARABIAN  NIGHTS  TO  SPIRIT        345 

be  all  the  Hanbalites  and  the  straiter  party  of  the 
Ash'arites.  The  Wahhabites,  whom  Dr.  Harrison  met 
at  ar-Riyad  are  Hanbalites,  more  immediately  of  the 
school  of  Ibn  Taimiya,  and  to  them  this  doctrine  would 
be  an  abomination. 

The  Qur'anic  passages,  xv,  29;  xxxii,  8;  xxxviii,  72, 
mean,  says  al-Ghazzali,  that  Allah  makes  the  embryo  a 
purified  and  balanced  compound  fit  to  receive  and  re- 
tain the  ruh  as  a  wick  after  bein^  soaked  with  oil  can 
retain  fire.  The  '^breathing"  or  ^^blowing"  is  a  meta- 
phorical expression  for  this  kindling,  as  it  were,  of 
the  light  of  the  ruh  in  the  "wick''  of  the  embryo.  It 
may  be  illustrated,  on  the  one  side,  by  the  light  of  the 
sun  which  illuminates  things  whose  nature  it  is  to  be 
brought  out  by  light,  i.  e.  the  variegated  things  under 
the  sphere  of  Air,  and,  on  the  other  side,  by  the  polish 
of  a  steel  mirror  which  only  when  polished  reflects  what 
is  in  front  of  it.  But  it  must  not  be  thought  that  this 
outpouring  of  the  riih  means  any  change  in  Allah  who 
creates  it.  It  is  not  like  the  pouring  of  water  from  a 
vessel  upon  the  hand,  nor  even  of  the  rays  of  the  sun, 
if  these  are  thought  of,  as  some  erroneously  think,  as 
separated  from  the  body  of  the  sun.  The  light  of  the 
sun  is  the  cause  of  the  production  of  a  thing  which  re- 
sembles it  in  quality  of  light  although  much  weaker 
than  it.  Similarly  the  object  reflected  in  the  mirror 
is  the  cause  of  the  reflection  which  resembles  it;  there 
is  no  joining  nor  separating  but  a  simple  causal  rela- 
tionship. 

The  ruh,  again,  is  not  something  abiding  in  the  body,, 
like  water  in  a  vessel,  nor  as  an  attribute  or  accident 
abides  in  a  substance;  it  is  a  substance  existing  in  itself, 
not  in  the  heart  or  brain,  nor  in  space  at  all.  It  is  not 
a  body  and  cannot  be  divided,  and  you  cannot  predicate 
spatial  relationships  of  it  any  more  than  you  can  predi- 
cate knowledge  or  ignorance  of  a  stone.  So  it  is  neither 
inside  the  body  nor  outside,  joined  to  it  or  separated 
from  it.  To  justify  such  description  corporeality  is. 
needed.  And  here  al-Ghazzali  attacks  boldly  the  ques- 
tion of  economy  in  teaching.     Why  was  the  Prophet,, 


346         ^  THE  MOSLEM  WORLD 

in  Qur.  x\'ii,  87,  forbidden  by  Allah  to  discuss  the 
nature  of  rih?  Because  men  are  of  different  degrees 
of  understanding.  There  arel  the  anthropomorphic 
Karramites  and  the  Hanbalites  who  cannot  accept  such 
a  conception  as  this,  even  in  the  case  of  Allah;  for  them 
an  entity  {mawjud)  must  be  corporeal,  a  jism  at  which 
you  can  point.  How,  then,  can  they  think  of  the  human 
ruh  as  uncorporeal?  With  the  Ash^arites  and  the 
Mut  azilites  the  case  is  not  so  bad.  They  can  conceive 
of  an  entity  which  is  not  in  a  direction;  but  they  will 
not  extend  that  possibility  beyond  Allah.  This  is  be- 
cause they  say  that  two  different  things  cannot  be  in 
one  place;  otherwise  the  two  things  are  the  same  and 
not  different.  And  they  extend  this  argument  to  two 
different  things  not  in  place  at  all.  In  that  case  they 
say  that  the  two  things  cannot  be  distinguished.  But 
in  this  they  err,  for  distinguishing  does  not  take  place 
simply  by  locality  but  also  by  time  and  by  definitions 
and  essential  natures.  Two  bodies  may  be  distinguished 
by  being  in  two  places,  and  two  qualities,  such  as  the 
being  black  may  be  in  one  substance  at  two  different 
times  and  different  accidents  such  as  color  and 
taste  and  cold  and  moisture  may  be  in  one  body 
at  one  time  and  yet  be  distinguishable  by  their  defini- 
tions and  essential  natures.  If,  then,  accidents  thus  dif- 
fering can  be  conceived,  much  more  can  be  conceived 
things  similarly  differing  apart  from  space. 

Similarly,  they  err  in  their  objection  that  this  is  to 
make  comparison  (tashblh)  between  Allah  and  man- 
kind and  to  ascribe  to  the  nlh  of  mankind  the  most 
individual  of  the  qualities  of  Allah,  the  being  free  from 
space  and  direction.  For  many  qualities  of  Allah  are 
ascribed  to  mankind,  as  hearing,  seeing  and  speaking, 
and  being  apart  from  space  and  direction  is  not  His 
most  individual  quality;  but,  rather  that  is  His  being 
qayyum^  existing  in  and  through  His  own  essence. 
Every  other  being  exists  through  Allah^s  essence;  has, 
in  truth,  only  a  borrowed,  derivative  existence. 

But  what  does  Allah  mean  when  He  says  that  this 
ruh  is  His  ruh,   when  all  creation  is  by  Him?     Is  it  a 


FROM  THE  ARABIAN  NIGHTS  TO  SPIRIT        347 

part  of  Him  poured  out  on  the  recipient,  as  when  one 
gives  alms  to  a  beggar  and  says,  ''I  bestowed  upon  him 
some  of  my  wealth?"  The  answer  is  to  refer  back  to 
the  metaphor  of  the  sun  pouring  out  "some  of  its  light" 
upon  the  object.  The  resultant  light  upon  the  object 
is  in  a  sense  of  the  same  genus  as  the  light  of  the  sun 
although  weakened  in  the  extreme.  So  with  Allah; 
this  human  riih,  being  apart  from  space  and  direction, 
is  similar  and  related  to  Allah,  though  so  infinitely 
weaker,  and  has  the  power,  being  different  from  all 
corporeal  things,  of  knowing  and  studying  all  things. 

Al-Ghazzali  takes  a  different  view  of  Qur.  xvii,  87 
from  that  which  I,  following  Zamakhshari  in  his 
Kashshdf,  have  stated  above;  it  is  a  much  disputed 
passage  because  of  the  different  possibilities  of  meaning 
in  the  word  'amr.  Ghazzali  here  connects  it  with  the 
distinction  between  *  dlam  al-'amr  and  ^dlam  al-khalq^ 
"the  world  of  (divine)  command," — and  "the  world  of 
measure"  understanding  khalq  here  as  taqdtr,  "to  meas- 
ure" and  not  in  its  more  usual  meaning,  "creation." 
The  spirits  (arwdh),  then,  of  men  and  of  angels  belong 
to  this  World  of  Command  which  is  an  expression  for 
all  entities  which  exist  apart  from  sense  and  form,  di- 
rection and  space,  and  do  not  come  under  dimension 
and  measure.  But,  of  course,  this  does  not  mean  that 
they  are  uncreated  and  existent  from  all  eternity.  There 
follows  a  bit  of  dialectic  to  prove  that  these  spirits  are 
created.  It  is  more  interesting  in  its  incidentals  than 
in  its  primary  object.  For  example,  al-Ghazzali  re- 
jects any  kind  of  panpsychism  once  the  spirits  are  joined 
to  their  bodies;  how,  then,  could  Zaid  know  something 
and  *Amr  not  know  it?  But  this  difference  and  person- 
ality is  through  their  being  joined  to  material  bodies 
and  not  by  their  own  nature.  This  difference,  how- 
ever, when  so  gained,  is  permanent  and  they  retain  it 
after  they  are  separated  from  their  bodies.  It  is  plain, 
too,  that  al-Ghazzali  is  very  anxious  to  rule  out  any 
possible  pre-existence  of  souls. 

Such,  then,  is  his  answer  to  the  question  of  the  ruh, 
and  it  lies  very  far  apart  from  the  killing  of  Jinn  with 


348  THE  MOSLEM  WORLD 

date-Stones.  Over  the  space  between  the  two  the  Mus- 
lim mind  still  wanders.  It  is  a  space  full  of  infinite 
possibilities,  and  I  should  be  glad  to  hear  from  any 
missionaries  who,  on  discreet  inquiry,  may  get  reactions 
to  any  of  the  ideas  reproduced  above. 

Duncan  B.  Macdonald. 
Hartford,  Connecticut, 


A  MESSAGE  OF  GOOD-WILL 


*'Faith  of  our  fathers!     We  will  love 
Both  friend  and  foe,  in  all  our  strife: 
And  preach  Thee,  too,  as  love  knows  how, 
By  kindly  words  and  virtuous  life." 

My  voice  has  often  faltered  at  these  words  and  a  lump 
has  at  times  risen  to  my  throat  and  almost  chocked  me, 
as  I  have  tried  to  sing  this  last  verse  of  my  favorite 
hymn.  But  I  dared  not  utter  the  words  until  I  knew 
that  I  could  at  least  falteringly  say,  "both  friend  and 
foe."  No  one  can  imagine  how  fierce  the  struggle  was 
in  the  heart  that  wanted  to  love  the  foe,  but  found  it 
unspeakably  hard,  for  the  many  daggers  which  the  foe 
had  pierced  into  it  were  still  there.  It  was  the  heart 
of  an  Armenian,  and  it  was  still  bleeding  painfully. 
The  wounds  of  age-long  cruelty  and  tyranny  cannot  be 
easily  cured,  but  thank  God,  before  the  heart  was  cured 
the  song  was  sung.  There  came  a  day  when  I  was 
ready  to  say  that,  through  the  faith  of  our  martyred 
fathers,  we  can  love  both  friend  and  foe  in  all  our  strife. 

It  was  two  years  ago  when  I  first  heard  the  story 
from  one  of  our  missionaries  who  had  recently  returned 
from  his  station  in  Armenia.  The  girl  students  of  this 
American  school  were  deported  with  the  rest  of  the 
Armenian  population  of  the  city.  They  had  witnessed 
all  that  the  world  now  calls  "the  worst  atrocities  ever 
recorded  in  history,"  and  many  of  them  not  only  had 
witnessed  but  experienced  horrors  worse  than  martyr- 
dom. This  group  of  girls  through  the  efforts  of  our 
American  friends  were  allowed  to  come  back  home. 
The  school  was  made  into  a  hospital  and  everyone  of 
the  rescued  girls  became  a  nurse.  They  had  for  their 
motto  "saved  to  serve"  and  I  was  told,  to  my  won- 
der, that  they  took  care  of  the  Turkish  soldiers  who 
were  brought  to  the  hospital  with  a  tenderness  that  was 
amazing. 

349    . 


350       ^  THE  MOSLEM  WORLD 

I  could  hardly  believe  the  story  was  true.  It  sounded 
almost  superhuman.  Then  came  back  to  me  what  I  had 
always  known  only  as  a  piece  of  objective  knowledge, 
that  if  we  are  made  after  the  image  of  God  we  must 
know  how  to  forgive.  It  is  true  that  the  spirit  of  for- 
giveness and  good-will  in  those  of  us  Armenians  who 
have  survived  the  horrors  will  do  more  in  bridging  the 
chasm  of  hatred  and  revealing  Christ  to  them  in  His 
true  character  than  ages  of  Gospel  preaching.  And 
how  I  wish  I  could  come  to  see  Christ  as  He  really  is! 
The  cry  of  a  million  martyrs  is  still  in  my  ears — "How 
long  shall  'the  wicked,  Lord,  how  long  shall  the  wicked 
triumph."  As  long  as  they  are  kept  in  the  darkness 
which  surrounds  them,  the  dead  from  under  the  earth 
will  raise  this  solemn  protest.  And  what  can  the  heav- 
enly Father  do  if  men  are  not  willing  to  cooperate  with 
Him?  The  world  has  long  known  that  the  political 
power  in  the  hands  of  the  Turk  has  been  the  greatest 
obstacle  to  his  enlightenment  and  it  has  not  only  caused 
the  indescribable  suffering  of  the  Christians  under  his 
power,  but  has  also  intensified  the  darkness  of  his 
heart.  Will  the  Christian  world  now  help  relieve  this 
bond  for  the  salvation  of  many  millions?  Or  will  self- 
ish ends  interfere  again?  Active  prayer  on  the  part 
of  the  Christian  people  of  this  happy  land  is  an  urgent 
being  shaped  the  victorious  Christian  nations  among  all 
their  many  considerations  may  also  have  in  view  the 
SOUL  of  the  Near  East.  As  for  us? — God  help  the 
Armenians  to  be  able  to  preach  Thee,  as  we  desire  to 
do,  and  as  "love  knows  how — by  kindly  words  and 
virtuous  life." 

Marie  Bashian   Bedikian. 
New  York  City. 


ANOTHER  PLEA  FOR  LITERATURE  IN 
VERNACULAR  ARABIC 


In  his  article  in  the  MOSLEM  WORLD  (July,  1918), 
entitled,  'What  Style  of  Language  For  Our  Literature," 
my  old  friend  and  former  fellow  student  of  Arabic, 
Mr.  A.  T.  Upson,  combats  the  view  set  forth  in  my 
two  articles  on  "Literature  in  the  Vulgar  or  Vernacular 
Arabic"  (MOSLEM  WORLD,  Jan.  1914,  and  Oct.  1917), 
at  least  in  so  far  as  the  application  of  my  views  might 
be  made  to  Egypt.  The  general  impression  left  upon 
me  by  his  article  is  that  he  has  set  up  a  "bogey"  for  the 
pleasure  of  knocking  it  down  again.  His  article  does 
not  touch  my  position.  The  "bogey"  he  combats  is 
what  he  calls  "slang"  Arabic.  I  hope  all  who  read  his 
article  will  refer  to  both  of  mine,  otherwise  they  would 
suppose  I  had  advocated  some  low-down  kind  of  Ara- 
bic, used  only  by  street  vagrants  or  Eastern  hooligans, 
whereas  my  plea  was  for  the  use  of  literature  in  the 
Common  Speech,  the  everyday  language  of  both  learned 
and  unlearned  alike.  Besides,  our  plea  was  not  that 
literature  in  this  common,  current  Arabic  should  re- 
place that  in  the  Literary  or  Classical  Arabic,  which 
would  be  impossible  and  undesirable,  but  rather  that  it 
should  supplement  it.     In  my  first  article  I  wrote: 

"I  wish,  first,  to  make  my  position  clear  with  regard 
to  the  Literary  Arabic.  I  have  a  great  admiration  and 
love  for  it  and  its  literature,  and  I  would  not  that  any- 
thing in  this  article  should  be  understood  as  depreca- 
tory in  the  least  degree  of  this,  the  most  perfect  of 
Semitic  tongues.  I  am  also  an  advocate  of  its  use 
up  to  the  hilt  of  its  possibilities,  or  in  other  words,  to 
the  fullest  extent  that  the  capacity  and  knowledge  of 
those  among  whom  we  labor  will  permit.  This  last 
phrase  will  indicate  where  I  part  company  with  the 
pedant  and  the  purist." 

But  it  is  a  long  way  from  this  position  to  that  which 

351 


352  THE  MOSLEM  WORLD 

combats  and  flouts  all  idea  of  literature  in  the  Current 
Arabic  spoken  by  learned  and  unlearned  alike  in  Arabic 
countries  today.  Our  plea  is  that  a  "place  in  the  sun" 
and  "the  right  to  live"  be  accorded  to  versions  of  the 
Scripture  and  other  literature  in  this  living  tongue. 
My  first  article  concluded  thus:  "The  conclusion,  then, 
is  not  that  the  use  of  the  Literary  Version  of  the  Scrip- 
tures and  of  literature  in  that  form  of  the  language  is 
objected  to;  on  the  contrary  the  fullest  possible  use  of 
them  is  advocated.  But  seeing  that  the  hope  of  bring- 
ing up  the  masses  to  the  educational  level  of  the  Liter- 
ary Arabic  seems  hopeless,  here  lies  before  us  an  un- 
limited  field   of   hope   for  a   literature   in   the  Vulgar 

Arabic The  two  Literatures  could  exist  side  by 

side.     Time  w^ould  decide  the  fate  of  each." 

Mr.  Upson  can  be  under  no  misapprehension  as  to 
v^hat  I  meant  by  "Vulgar  Arabic."  In  linguistic  ter- 
minology the  vv^ord  is  used  in  most  European  languages 
to  mean  the  "Common  Speech"  of  a  people.  "Vulgar," 
pertaining  to,  characteristic  of,  or  used  by,  the  multi- 
tude or  common  people,  common,  general  vernacular.' 
(British  Empire  Universities,  Modern  English  Dic- 
tionary.) I  used  other  terms  as  well,  such  as  Vernacu- 
lar, Modern  Speech,  Modern  Spoken  Arabic,  which 
made  my  meaning  clear.  The  terms  used  in  Algeria, 
(Kelam  Jaiz;  'Arabiya  Jaiya;  'Arabiya  Jariya,  Cur- 
rent Arabic.)  "Current  Arabic";  "Arabe  usuel,  Arabe 
dialectal,  Arabe  parle,"  could  also  be  used.  The 
natives  of  Algeria  often  say:  Our  speech  is  not  the  Lit- 
erary Arabic  (El'arabiya  ennahwia)  but  the  Arabic  of 
Barbary  (El'arabiya  elbarbariya).  Even  in  his  time 
Ibn  Khaldoun  could  say  of  this  form  of  Arabic  that  it 
was  sui  generis  {lugha  Qaima  binafsiha). 

Mr.  Upson  says  he  is  glad  I  did  not  call  this  Arabic 
"Colloquial,"  for,  says  he,  "if  this  term  be  taken  to  de- 
note merely  language  'understanded  of  the  people,' 
then,  many  of  us  would  vote  solidly  for  it."  This  seems 
to  me  a  mere  verbal  quibble.  What  I  meant  by  Vulgar 
or  Vernacular  Arabic  is  what  is  also  called  Colloquial, 
which  means  however,   not  merely  understood   by  the 


PLEA  FOR  LITERATURE  LN  ARABIC  353 

people,  but  used  by  them  in  ordinary  speech.  But  even 
this  term  Colloquial  is  often  used  in  a  deprecatory 
sense.  In  fact  it  is  not  the  word  used  that  is  objected 
to,  it  is  the  thing  that  is  disliked  and  despised.  Stretch 
the  meaning  of  Colloquial  as  much  as  you  will  it  cannot 
be  made  to  include  either  the  Literary  Arabis  (El^ara- 
biya  en-nahwiya)  or  even  what  Mr.  Upson  calls 
the  'Middle  Language.  {El  lugha  El  mutawassitay  I 
surely  understood  that  Egyptian  Colloquial  used 
''mush''  for  the  negative  instead  of  the  Literary  ''laisa'' 
or  ^^ghairy  Now  whether  the  term  Colloquial,  Vulgar 
or  Vernacular  be  used,  Mr.  Upson  tells  us  in  almost 
as  many  words  that  ''mush''  is  the  hall-mark  of  slang. 
I  hope  he  never  uses  it,  for  slang  in  the  mouth  of  a 
missionary  would  be  most  unbecoming,  or  if  it  be  not 
slang  when  spoken,  how  does  it  become  so  by  being 
written?  Fancy  anyone  being  reduced  to  using  slang  to 
explain  the  Gospel  to  illiterate  people!  And  to  what 
an  abyss  of  degradation  must  a  people  be  fallen,  when 
all,  both  learned  and  unlearned  alike,  converse  in  slang! 
The  very  supposition  itself  proves  that  this  judgment, 
to  say  the  least,  is  an  exceeding  great  exaggeration. 

I  am  of  opinion  that  were  there  no  Literary  Arabic, 
this  same  Vernacular  Arabic  would  hold  a  high  place 
among  the  languages  of  Africa  and  even  of  Asia.  In 
the  discussion  of  this  question  there  is  a  place  for  Com- 
parative Philology,  and  especially  that  of  the  Semitic 
languages.  From  comparison  with  Hebrew,  laisa  is 
known  to  be  a  contracted  compound  as  much  as  the 
despised  ''mush"  (See  Muhit  el  Muhit)  and  reseach 
would  doubtless  find  that  many  of  the  highly  respect- 
able particles  of  the  Literary  Arabic  had  an  origin 
similar  to  that  of  the  corresponding  despised  Colloquial 
particles. 

In  my  first  article  I  plainly  stated  that  I  wrote  chiefly 
in  view  of  the  conditions  that  prevail  in  the  Barbary 
States,  although  stating  my  point  of  view  in  a  general 
way.  I  certainly  do  not  consider  myself  capable  of 
judging  from  outside  of  the  particular  conditions  that 
obtain  in  Egypt  or  Syria;  but  Mr.  Upson  says  that  "he 


354        m  THE  MOSLEM  WORLD 

does  not  deny  that  quite  an  important  minority  of  mis- 
sionaries (and  others)  in  Egypt  and  Syria  hold  the  view 
expounded  by  me"  in  the  two  afore-mentioned  articles. 
In  them  I  sought  to  establish  my  case  not  only  from 
the  point  of  view  of  utility,  but  also  from  a  linguistic 
standpoint,  and  were  it  not  that  this  might  become  too 
technical  for  general  readers,  I  would  continue  along 
this  line.  This  linguistic  side  of  the  question  merits 
thorough  discussion. 

I  hope,  however,  that  someone  representing  this  "im- 
portant minority"  in  Egypt  or  Syria  will  be  led  to  enter 
the  discussion  of  this  question  from  the  stand-point  of 
the  conditions  that  hold  in  those  tvvo  countries  for  "du 
choc  des  idees  nait  la  lumiere."  (From  the  collision  of 
ideas  light  is  born.")  As  far  as  my  own  remarks  deal 
with  the  practical  side  of  the  question  they  refer  to 
the  conditions  that  prevail  in  the  Barbary  States  and 
especially  Algeria.  The  linguistic  side  of  the  question 
has,  naturally,  a  more  general  reference. 

There  are  a  few  misconceptions  or  misapplications  in 
Mr.  Upson's  article  that  I  would  point  out.  One  of 
them  is  as  to  his  use  of  the  dictum  I  adduced  in  my 
second  article:  "In  the  matter  of  language  it  is  the 
people  that  rule."  This  dictum  refers  to  the  living 
speech  which  in  the  continual  evolution  of  language 
often  sets  at  defiance  former  rules  of  writing  and 
speech,  so  that  errors  become  the  rule  and  are  then  no 
longer  errors.  Every  language  affords  examples  of  this 
truth,  and  the  absolute  rule  of  the  people  can  be  seen 
from  the  fact  that  in  spite  of  their  knowledge  of  the 
Literary  Arabic,  the  educated,  even  among  themselves, 
use  the  Common  Speech,  the  despised  ''mush''  included. 
Until  those  who  write  the  Literary  Arabic  form  the 
majority  of  the  people  and  use  it  or  some  modified  form 
of  it  in  speech,  this  dictum  cannot  be  invoked  in  their 
favor. 

The  question  arises.  What  is  the  living  language  of 
the  people?  Is  it  the  Literary  Arabic,  practically  the 
same  as  that  of  a  thousand  years  ago,  or  is  it  the  Com- 
mon speech  used  by  everyone  in  daily  intercourse?     For 


PLEA  FOR  LITERATURE  IN  ARABIC  355 

Mr.  Upson  their  own  tongue  is  the  Literary  Arabic  in 
which  their  own  books  have  been  written,  whereas  my 
contention  is  that  the  living  tongue  is  the  language  they 
habitually  speak.  Why  not  write  in  that  language,  there- 
fore, as  well  as  in  the  Classical  form  of  the  language? 
Is  there  any  reason  why  a  new  departure  may  not  be 
made  in  Arabic  as,  for  example,  is  done  in  Modern 
Greek  and  Modern  Armenian?  If  there  were  a  possi- 
bility of  bringing  back  by  education  the  spoken  lan- 
guage nearer  the  standard  of  the  Literary  Arabic,  so 
well  and  good;  but  let  the  learned  classes  make  the 
attempt  to  use  only  the  literary  language  in  speech,  and 
they  would  soon  find  out  the  truth  of  the  dictum  that 
in  the  matter  of  language  it  is  the  people  that  rule,  not 
the  grammarians  and  the  purists. 

Unless  the  living  speech  in  its  best  form  (not  slang) 
can  be  gradually  made  a  Literary  medium  then  the 
age-long  cleavage  must  continue  between  the  Literary 
language  capable  of  being  understood  and  effectively 
used  only  by  those  with  a  certain  amount  of  culture  and 
the  spoken  tongue  used  by  all  but  despised  and  deemed 
unfit  for  literary  culture.  According  to  the  traditional 
opinion  the  Literary  Arabic  alone  is  worthy  of  being 
written.  It  alone  is  Arabic.  The  Common  speech  is 
only  a  "patois,"  a  necessary  evil.  (Mr.  Upson's  use  of 
the  term  patois  is  incorrect,  since  this  Colloquial  is  the 
common  speech  of  all,)  Apart  from  the  question  of 
literature  this  attitude  will  never  produce  sympathetic 
students  and  users  of  the  popular  tongue.  I  am  afraid 
there  are  many  who  spend  hours  daily  in  the  study  of 
the  Literary  Arabic,  who  after  their  preliminary  studies 
of  the  Colloquial,  think  they  have  nothing  more  to 
learn  of  it,  and  who  regard  the  Common  Speech  more 
as  an  evil  and  a  hindrance  than  as  the  best  adapted 
instrument  for  reaching  the  Common  people? 

What  is  the  origin  of  this  traditional  opinion?  It 
is  a  very  old  one.  Ibn  Khaldoun  (14th  Century)  tells 
us  that  the  learned  had  nothing  but  contempt  for  the 
epic  songs  of  the  Beni  Hilal,  the  productions  of  the 
popular  genius,  because  they  did  not  observe  the  literary 


356  THE  MOSLEM  WORLD 

syntax  and  prosody.  I  will  quote  from  a  letter  of  a 
lamented  mutual  friend  of  Mr.  Upson  and  myself,  the 
late  Mr.  W.  Summers  Agent  of  the  British  and  Foreign 
Bible  Society  for  Spain  and  Portugal  and  the  Barbary 
States,  who  had  had  several  years  of  missionary  exper- 
ience in  Morocco  and  Egypt.  I  had  sent  him  a  draft 
of  my  first  article  mentioned  above.     He  replied: 

''The  considerations  and  the  arguments  which  you 
set  forth  are,  I  think,  unassailable.  The  great  argu- 
ment in  favor  of  the  Classical  Arabic,  as  far  as  the 
Scriptures  are  concerned,  is  that  the  Moslem  cannot 
conceive  of  a  book  of  revelation  except  in  the  correct 
style  of  the  classical  form.  This  is  due,  of  course,  to 
the  Moslem  doctrine  that  the  style  of  the  Koran  is  its 
permanent  attesting  miracle.  It  is  a  bold  step,  but,  I 
certainly  think,  a  necessary  one,  that  we  knock  the  bot- 
tom out  of  that  argument,  by  following  the  Christian 
tradition  of  publishing  the  Word  of  God  in  the  simple 
language  of  the  people."  ♦ 

What  linguistic  reason  can  be  urged  against  this, 
except  that  this  language  is  not  the  Literary  Arabic? 
What  moral,  religious  or  psychological  reason  can  be 
evoked  against  it?  Mr.  Upson's  linguistic  reason  that 
the  Common  tongue  is  "slang"  cannot  be  maintained. 
He  would  seem  to  adduce  as  a  moral  reason  that  al- 
though there  exist  publications  in  the  Common  speech 
of  Egypt,  they  are  (a)  indecent,  (b)  comic  in  a  way, 
(c)  not  to  be  obtained  from  any  decent  book-shop.  I 
answer  that  the  indecent  publications  can  be  more  than 
paralleled  in  the  Literary  Arabic,  without  that  fact 
bringing  a  reproach  on  the  language  itself,  and  cer- 
tainly moral  and  religious  publications  in  the  vernacu- 
lar would  be  neither  indecent  nor  comic,  and  if  Mission 
Bible  depots  and  other  Christian  book-shops  stocked 
them  they  could  be  found.  I  suppose  it  is  possible  for 
the  people  to  treat  of  serious  and  moral  questions  in 
their  Common  Speech.  Their  language  would  not 
then  be  slang,  nor  indecent,  I  opine.  All  depends  on 
the  subject  matter,  not  on  the  language,  I  was  much 
struck  with  the  remark  made  to  me  once  by  a  native 


PLEA  FOR  LITERATURE  IN  ARABIC  357 

friend  an  Arab  of  Algeria,  (not  a  Christian).  In 
discussing  with  him  the  propriety  of  using  a  certain 
word  of  the  Common  Speech  in  connection  with  our 
Lord,  which  some  had  questioned,  he  said  Maqdm 
cnnabi  yadill  'ala-l-mana.  ''The  position  (dignity  or 
rank)  of  the  prophet  gives  the  clue  to  the  meaning." 
This  remark  is  capable  of  a  wide  application. 

Another  misunderstanding  of  Mr.  Upson's  is  of  the 
parallel  I  drew  (as  did  Renan)  between  the  Latin  and 
the  Literary  Arabic.  No  one  would  be  so  foolish  as  to 
suggest  that  the  Literary  Arabic  should  be  compared 
with  the  present-day  use  of  Latin.  Yet  this  is  what  is 
implied  by  him  in  the  following  extract: 

*'It  would  be  very  intersting  to  hear  (from  those  who 
imagine  that  Arabic  and  Latin  are  in  the  same  condi- 
tion) how  many  daily  newspapers  were  published  en- 
tirely in  Latin  in  Italy  at  the  time  of  the  outbreak  of 
war  (1914)  !" 

This  is  entirely  beside  the  mark.  What  I  maintain 
is  that  the  position  of  Latin  as  the  Literary  language 
of  Europe  during  the  Middle  ages  up  to  the  Renais- 
sance and  the  Reformation,  with  regard  to  the  Neo- 
Latin  or  Romanic  tongues,  presents  a  very  close  analogy 
to  the  position  of  the  Literary  Arabic  in  its  relation  to 
the  dialects  of  Arabic  spoken  today.  Some  might  have 
said,  then,  that  Latin  was  "very  much  alive,"  but  for 
all  that  it  was  the  living  tongue  of  no  people  at  that 
time.  Up  to  the  time  of  the  Reformation  Latin  only 
was  deemed  worthy  of  being  the  language  of  books  and 
of  the  Church,  at  least  as  a  general  rule.  The  popular 
forms  of  speech  were  good  enough  for  daily  intercourse 
and  for  the  ignorant,  but  were  deemed  unfit  for,  and 
incapable  of,  literary  culture.  Yet  out  of  the  Romanic 
dialects  have  developed  the  rich  literatures  of  France, 
Italy,  Spain  and  Portugal.  Happily  for  civilization 
the  popular  tongues  gained  the  victory. 

The  analogy  between  the  two  cases  is  even  closer. 
The  decadence  of  the  Latin  culture  and  literature  that 
followed  the  invasions  of  the  Roman  Empire  by  the 
Germanic  tribes  brought  about  a  great  corruption  of 


358  THE  MOSLEM  WORLD 

the  Literary  Latin,  a  corruption  which  rapidly  in- 
creased from  the  Vlth  to  the  Vlllth  centuries.  In 
Gaul  those  who  attempted  still  to  write  the  Literary 
Latin  were  generally  too  ignorant  to  observe  the  gram- 
matical rules  and  to  preserve  the  literary  traditions: 
and  since  on  the  other  hand  they  despised  beyond  meas- 
ure the  popular  spoken  Latin,  they  employed  a  kind  of 
barbarous  jargon  which  was  neither  the  Classical  nor 
the  Vulgar  Latin,  but  in  which  the  two  elements  were 
strangely  amalgamated,  the  proportion  of  the  latter 
increasing  according  to  the  ignorance  of  the  writer. 
This  Low-Latin  was  but  a  gross  and  sterile  imitation  of 
the  Classical  Latin.  On  the  other  hand  the  Vulgar 
Latin  was  the  natural  language  of  the  people.  *  We  find 
St.  Prosper  in  the  Vth  Century  recommending  the 
priests  to  neglect  the  Classical  and  to  use  the  rustic 
Latin;  the  monk  Baudemond  in  the  Vllth  Century 
wrote  in  the  language  of  the  people  the  Life  of  St. 
Amand.  Gregory  of  Tours  wrote  in  the  Preface  to 
his  History  (Vlth  C.)  that  very  few  knew  the  learned 
Latin,  but  that  the  masses  could  understand  the  rustic 
tongue.  It  is  out  of  this  rustic,  vulgar  Latin  spoken  by 
the  multitude  but  despised  by  the  learned,  that  the 
French  and  other  Romance  languages  gradually  devel- 
loped,  (See  "Origin  and  formation  of  the  French  lan- 
guage" by  Mr.  Charles  Aubertin). 

"Confined  to  the  domain  of  Science  and  of  administration  the  Low- 
Latin  revived  under  Charlemange  and  later  on  in  the  Xlth  century 
by  a  sort  of  artificial  resurrection,  it  became,  or  remained,  the  lan- 
guage of  Scholasticism  and  its  use  in  France  was  not  banished  from 
the  Official  Acts  and  from  the  Law  Courts  till  1539.  The  Renais- 
sance of  the  XVIth  Century  purified  it  and  brought  it  nearer  the 
Classical  model"  (Ibid).  This  clinging  to  an  ancient  literary  lan- 
guage to  the  extent  of  refusing  to  recognize  new  developments  is  an 
illustration  of  the  excessive  conservatism  of  a  literary  minority.  The 
final  result  of  the  struggle  as  far  as  the  Romance  languages  are  con- 
cerned is  a  striking  proof  of  the  fact  that  "in  the  matter  of  lan- 
guage it  is  the  people  that  rule." 

Taking  the  mass  of  the  Arabic-speaking  peoples  to- 
day, do  we  not  find  that  outside  the  "sheikh"  class  and 
a  very  small  minority  of  men  educated  in  Arabic  Gram- 
mar and  literature,  very  few  are  able  to  use  the  Liter- 
ary Arabic  correctly,  and  is  there  not,  in  spite  of  the 


PLEA  FOR  LITERATURE  IN  ARABIC  359 

contempt  that  is  shown  for  the  Vulgar  Arabic,  a  strange 
mixture  of  Classical  and  Vulgar  elements,  the  latter  in- 
creasing in  direct  proportion  to  the  ignorance  of  the 
writer?  In  letter-writing  the  opening,  stereotyped  for- 
mulas are  more  or  less  correct,  but  in  the  body  of  the 
letter,  where  the  writer  expresses  himself  in  his  own 
thoughts,  the  influence  of  the  spoken  tongue  shows  it- 
self continually,  either  in  the  use  of  words  and  parti- 
cles or  in  the  sense  given  them,  which  may  differ  con- 
siderably from  the  Classical  meaning.  At  least  it  is 
often  so  in  Algeria. 

If  we  wish  to  reach  the  mass  of  the  Arabic-speaking 
peoples,  what  is  more  natural  than  to  use  the  tongue 
they  speak,  and  also  to  write  it?  For  higher  and  scien- 
tific education  and  for  the  use  of  the  learned  classes  the 
Literary  Arabic  is  always  at  hand,  but  for  the  common 
people  with  little  or  no  literary  culture,  it  seems  to  me 
not  only  the  most  practical,  but  also  the  most  psychologi- 
cally and  scientifically  correct  method  to  begin  at  their 
level  and  employ  in  speech  and  writing  the  language 
in  daily  use  and  which  is  not  only  their  living  speech 
but  that  of  the  learned  themselves.  This  need  not  hin- 
der those  having  the  ability,  leisure  and  inclination 
from  acquiring  a  knowledge  of  the  Classical  language. 
It  would  rather  be  the  stepping-stone  to  such  further 
study. 

I  do  not  forget  that  my  friend  speaks  for  Egypt  and 
in  view  of  the  conditions  that  hold  there.  If  any  of 
my  arguments  are  applicable  to  the  conditions  in  that 
country  and  in  Syria,  I  leave  it  to  those  working  there 
who  are  in  favor  of  them  to  apply  them.  The  applica- 
tion of  them  as  far  as  I  am  personally  concerned  is 
limited  to  the  Maghreb,  especially  Algeria. 

Although  my  old  friend  and  I  are  in  opposite  camps 
on  this  question  of  Vernacular  literature,  I  am  never- 
theless rejoiced  at  his  advocacy  of  the  simple  style  of 
Literary  Arabic  and  of  his  hopes  of  one  day  reaching 
what  he  calls  the  "Middle  Language,  somewhat  analo- 
gous to  present-day  Hebrew."  I  do  not  understand 
exactly  what  this  latter  phrase  means.     If  it  means  He- 


36o  THE  MOSLEM  WORLD 

brew  as  written  by  a  Jewish  author  today  it  would  most 
likely  be  a  mixture  of  Biblical  Hebrew  and  Aramaic 
elements  with  lexical  borrowings  from  various  lan- 
guages. I  have  no  practical  knowledge  of  Egyptian 
^'mush-mush  slang,"  so-called,  so  cannot  say  how  far 
there  is  analogy  between  it  and  Hebrew,  but  I  can  give 
abundant  proof  that  the  Arabic  spoken  in  Algeria  is 
much  nearer  the  Hebrew  than  is  the  Literary  Arabic. 
However  this  may  be,  the  demand  for  a  simple  style 
of  literary  Arabic  with  suggestions  of  grammatical  and 
syntactical  simplifications  are  steps  in  the  right  direc- 
tion, for  they  are  all  concessions  to  the  common  speech, 
and  as  such  I  heartily  endorse  them.  These  suggestions 
are: 

(a)  Use  of  the  vocabulary  of  every-day  life; 

(b)  Feminine  plural  of  the  verb  to  be  replaced  by 
common  gender  plural; 

(c)  The  case-vowels  (perhaps  the  final  nun  of 
Al-Mudari')  might  be  dropped  altogether.  (Hebrew, 
Aramaic  and  Colloquial  Arabic  have  dropped  all 
these.) 

The  dropping  of  the  case-vowels  would  bring  other 
changes  in  its  train  which  need  not  be  mentioned  here. 
Mr.  Upson  would,  however,  draw  the  line  at  the  "shin" 
or  the  particle  {shi  or  shai)  at  the  end  of  verbs  as  com- 
plement of  the  negative  {ma)  and  there  must  be  no 
''mush-mush,"  in  which  the  ma  and  the  shin  are  united. 
{Ma  hu  shi)  .  Yet  this  {ma.  .  .  .shi)  is  no  more  un- 
reasonable than  the  ne .  .  .  .pas  or  ne .  .  .point  of  French. 
Both  are  facts  of  linguistic  development,  and  the  one 
is  as  respectable  as  the  other. 

But  does  Mr.  Upson  think  he  will  escape  the  ire  of 
purists  and  the  reproach  of  corrupting  the  unequalled 
Arabic  tongue  (Lahn)  if  he  follows  out  his  suggestions? 
Besides,  such  a  language  would  correspond  to  nothing 
real.  It  would  be  a  conventional,  artificial  language, 
conforming  neither  to  the  grammatical  system  of  the 
Literary  Arabic  nor  to  the  rules  observed  in  the  popular 
speech.  For  ourselves  we  would  prefer  to  begin  with 
the  spoken  language,  which  is  a  natural  creation  of  the 


PLEA  FOR  LITERATURE  IN  ARABIC  361 

Arab  mind.  We  might  some  day  get  nearer  to  Mr. 
Upson's  "Middle  Language,"  and  the  two  camps  might 
meet  in  the  distant  future. 

The  extract  from  the  Nile  Mission  Press  "Regula- 
tions" as  to  Mss.  offered  for  publication,  is  excellent. 

As  to  the  demand  for,  and  sale  of,  portions  of  Collo- 
quial Scriptures  our  experience  in  Algeria  is  just  the 
opposite  of  that  cited  by  Mr.  Upson  with  regard  to  the 
Egyptian  Colloquial  St.  Luke.  The  following  statis- 
tics will  make  this  clear: 


copies 
copies 


0 

[)   Editions  printed. 

St. 

Luke,     first 
(exhausted). 

Edition 

(1908) 

of 

10,000 

St. 

Luke,     second 
(exhausted). 

Edition 

(1912) 

of 

10,000 

Algerian 


St.     John,      first     Edition       (1910)      of     10,000     copies 

(exhausted). 
Acts,  first  Edition  Tunisian  (1911)  of  5,000  copies. 
St.  Luke,  first  Edition  Tunisian  (1911)  of  5,000  copies. 

(2)  Circulation  from  January  1909  to  Aug.   1914.  ..  .25,000  copies. 
Circulation  from  August,   1914  to  Nov.   1918.  ...  11,500  copies. 

(3)  Average  Annual  Circulation  of  portions  in  Literary  Arabic  prev- 

ious to  publication  of  vernacular  portions,   1,250  copies. 
Note.  These  figures  are  only  for  portions  in  the  Arabic  character. 
There  are  various  other  portions  in  vernacular  Arabic,  but  in  Hebrew 
character,  which  are  not  comprised  in  the  above  statistics. 

One  of  the  chief  arguments  for  the  use  of  literature 
in  the  vernacular  in  Algeria  is  the  fact  that  there  are  a 
great  number  who  have  begun  to  study  Arabic,  but 
have  discontinued  the  study  before  they  have  derived 
any  real  benefit  from  it.  They  know,  however,  suffi- 
cient to  be  able  to  read  their  own  spoken  tongue.  All 
the  grammatical  forms  employed  in  the  vernacular 
they  are  acquainted  with  from  use.  There  are  rarely 
words  or  particles  that  they  do  not  understand.  From 
the  common  people  who  buy  and  read  the  Scriptures  in 
the  vernacular,  one  hardly  ever  hears  criticism  as  to 
leaders,  who  themselves  do  nothing  to  educate  the 
masses  in  the  Literary  Arabic  unless  paid.  Yet  it  was 
one  of  the  most  competent  local  native  scholars  that 
helped  me  in  the  translation  of  the  portions  of  Scripture 
published  in  Algerian  Arabic.  He  did  not  mind  doing 
it  as  the  responsibility  was  not  his. 


362  THE  MOSLEM  WORLD 

Even  among  those  abfe  to  read  the  literary  Arabic 
to  some  extent  there  are  many  who  prefer  to  read  a 
good  colloquial  as  they  understand  it  far  better.  Does 
not  the  same  state  of  things  prevail  in  other  Arabic- 
speaking  countries?  Although  exact  statistics  on  such 
points  are  difficult  to  procure,  it  w^ould  help  in  the 
understanding  of  the  problem  as  it  presents  itself  to 
workers  in  different  countries  and  among  diflferent 
classes  of  people,  if  we  could  learn : 

(i)  What  proportion  of  the  population  is  utterly  un- 
able to  read,  either  the  literary  or  the  vernacular  Arabic? 

(2)  What  proportion  is  able  to  read  a  little,  to  whom 
the  vernacular  would  be  far  easier  than  the  literary? 

(3)  What  proportion,  now  unable  to  read  and  under- 
stand the  literary  Arabic,  are  likely  to  be  able  to  do  so, 
say  in  ten  years'  time,  as  far  as  one  can  judge  from  the 
educational  programmes  of  the  difiPerent  governments? 

(4)  What  proportion  of  the  Moslem  population  have 
a  fairly  adequate  knowledge  of  literary  Arabic? 

Percy  Smith, 

Constantine,  Algeria, 


EGYPT  IN  1 857-1861 


From  the  very  beginning  of  missionary  work  in 
Egypt  there  has  been  the  hope  in  the  hearts  of  the  mis- 
sionaries that  the  Moslems  would  eventually  be  reached 
by  the  Gospel,  notwithstanding  their  deep-seated  preju- 
dice against  Christianity.  This  prejudice  on  the  part 
of  the  Moslem,  and  hope  on  the  part  of  the  missionary, 
appear  in  letters  written  by  our  first  missionaries,  the 
Rev.  and  Mrs.  Thos.  McCague,  in  reference  to  their 
teacher  of  Arabic,  a  learned  Moslem  sheikh: 

^^Sometimes  when  he  is  reading  the  Bible,  he  will 
often  appear  struck  with  some  passage,  and  stop  and 
say  'Beautiful!'  Death  is  the  penalty  which 
the  Moslem  law  inflicts  upon  any  apostate  from  their 
faith.  But  we  hope  this  state  of  things  will  not  long 
continue.  The  Moslems  say  and  feel  that  their  power 
is  broken."  And  in  another  letter  written  in  1856: 
'^I  must  commence  preaching  in  Arabic  before  long. 
One  thing  is  a  hindrance  in  preparation.  Our  teacher 
is  a  Moslem  and  if  I  write  a  discourse  and  wish  him  to 
criticise  it  he  is  unable  to  enter  into  the  spirit  of 
Christian  language,  and  furthermore  thinks  I  want  to 
convert  him  to  my  faith  instead  of  wanting  criticism." 
That  this  prejudice  was  often  inconvenient  is  shown  by 
the  fact,  that  in  those  days  in  a  certain  locality  in  Cairo, 
no  Christian  could  walk  on  the  same  side  of  the  street 
with  a  Mohammedan.  And  that  sometimes  it  was 
more  than  merely  inconvenient  is  shown  by  the  follow- 
ing incident  related  by  Mrs.  McCague:  ''One  day  we 
went  to  the  bazaars  to  do  a  little  shopping,  Mr.  Barnett 
going  along  as  interpreter.  I  had  become  accustomed 
in  the  street  to  sometimes  hear  the  children  say,  'You 
Nazarene,  you  dog,  you  pig,'  but  this  day  men  mut- 
tered and  scowjied.  Mr.  Barnett  said,  'It  is  your  dress,' 
I  thought  I  was  looking  very  nice  in  my  pretty  green 
cashmere.     I  hurried  home  and  never  again  wore  my 

363 


364  THE  MOSLEM  WORLD 

green  dress  in  the  streets  of  Egypt.  Green  is  regarded 
by  the  Moslems  as  a  sacred  color  and  none  but  the 
descendants  of  Mohammed  are  permitted  to  wear  it." 

Although  these  pioneers  soon  found  that  Mohamme- 
dans were  not  yet  open  to  the  Gospel,  and  that  their 
work  must  be  begun  with  the  Christian  Copts,  concern 
for  the  Moslems  was  not  lacking.  It  was  their  purpose 
"to  gather  in  converts  whose  lives  should  be  an  incontro- 
vertible proof  to  the  Moslems  of  the  divinity  of  the 
Christian  religion."  This  is  seen  in  a  report  by  Dr. 
Barnett  (who  had  been  transferred  from  Syria  to  Egypt) 
published  in  the  Christian  Instructor,  Nov.  1857: 
"These  Christians  must  be  changed  before  their  moral 
influence  can  be  brought  to  bear  upon  the  vast  numbers 
of  Mohammedans  by  which  they  are  surrounded.  And 
who  stands  responsible  for  this  great  work  more  than 
we  do?"  He  refers  to  the  missions  in  northern  Tur- 
key and  Syria  which  commenced  among  nominal  Chris- 
tians and  adds,  "Now,  Mohammedans  there  are  listen- 
ing to  a  Mohammedan  brother  preaching  Christ.  Peo- 
ple at  home  must  be  patient  and  remember  that  this 
Northern  work  has  been  going  on  for  a  great  number 
of  years;  here  it  has  scarcely  had  a  beginning.  Revive 
these  dead  and  formal  Christians  and  the  surrounding 
Mohammedans  and  Jews  will  take  knowledge  of  them 
that  they  have  been  with  Jesus  and  seeing  their  good 
works  and  their  holy  lives,  they,  too,  will  fall  down  and 
worship  God." 

In  an  article  written  for  the  United  Presbyterian, 
on  Egypt  Revisited,  Dr.  McCague  says:  "From  the 
beginning  of  our  mission  we  were  privileged  to  carry 
on  our  work  with  but  little  if  any  open  manifestation 
of  opposition  or  trouble  from  the  outside.  Little  rip- 
ples on  the  sea,  however,  were  enough  to  show  us  that 
these  elements  were  here,  and  only  required  occasion 
and  a  disturbing  cause  to  raise  a  storm.  The  Jiddah 
Massacre  furnished  an  occasion  in  changing  the  bearing 
of  the  Moslem  population  toward  us  and  all  Christians. 
It  began  to  be  whispered  that,  on  the  annual  festival  of 
Bairam  for  slaughtering  animals  for  their  poor,   they 


EGYPT  IN  1857-1861  365 

would  instead  slaughter  Christians.  But  through  the 
interest  of  foreign  consuls  and  their  representation  of 
the  danger,  the  Pasha  assembled  the  sheikhs  and  with 
a  firm  hand  warned  them  that  if  a  Christian  was 
touched  their  own  heads  would  pay  the  penalty.  This 
had  the  desired  effect  and  all  passed  off  quietly."  To 
quote  from  a  letter  written  at  this  time,  "The  Moslem 
excitement  is  all  passed  by."  The  Jiddah  Consul- 
slaughter  has  recently  been  investigated  thoroughly  by 
the  Allied  Powers  together  with  the  Porte.  Two  of 
the  highest  officers  of  the  place  were  executed  and  others 
taken  prisoners  to  Constantinople.  This  will  teach  the 
Arabs  a  good  lesson  that  Europeans  are  not  to  be  pro- 
miscuously slaughtered  at  their  will.  Perhaps  you  may 
think  it  strange  to  hear  me,  a  missionary,  plead  for 
immediate  justice  to  be  administered  by  the  sword  upon 
this  poor,  degraded  people.  But  I  tell  you,  to  make 
every  murder  they  commit  a  speedy  example  by  the 
executioners  is  the  only  way  to  keep  this  people  in 
peace  with  Christians  and  especially  with  European 
Christians."  That  the  judgment  of  the  missionary  was 
fully  justified,  one  knows  by  the  record  of  the  dreadful 
outbreak  of  Moslem  fanaticism  in  Damascus  the  follow- 
ing year,  when  five  to  eight  thousand  Christians  were 
massacred  in  Syria. 

The  firm  position  taken  by  Said  Pasha  removed  im- 
mediate danger  from  outbreak  of  fanaticism  or  open 
opposition,  yet  the  laws  decidedly  favored  Moslems  and 
oppressed  Christians.  Government  regulations  required 
all  difficulties  between  Europeans  and  natives  to  be 
settled  before  a  native  court,  government  employees 
were  compelled  to  observe  Friday,  the  Moslem  Sab- 
bath, and  to  work  on  the  Christian  Sabbath,  and  evan- 
gelistic services  were  not  allowed  to  be  held  in  the 
streets.  Thus  the  work  of  preaching  services  and  mis- 
sion schools  was  hindered.  Moslems  were  slow  to  send 
their  children  to  mission  schools;  however,  in  a  report 
of  attendance  at  the  girls'  school  in  Alexandria  about 
this  time,  mention  is  made  of  nine  Moslem  girls  among 
those  enrolled  during  two  years.     At  this  time  one  of 


366  THE  MOSLEM  WORLD 

the  missionaries  writes:  "I  am  getting  almost  discour- 
aged about  the  Arabs.  I  get  along  so  slowly  but  I 
will  try  to  stir  them  up."  But  the  strong  faith  of  Mrs. 
McCague  did  not  waver.  She  says:  "We  are  working 
for  a  good  and  faithful  Master,  w^ho  is  ever  jealous 
of  His  own  cause,  and  who  will  assist  all  who  labor 
for  Him.  The  silver  and  gold  and  the  hearts  of  all 
men  are  in  His  hands  and  if  we  are  faithful  He  will 
help  us." 

A  marked  feature  of  the  people  of  Egypt,  namely 
their  disposition  to  read  and  discuss  religious  truths,, 
was  soon  recognized  by  the  early  missionaries.  Accord- 
ingly stress  was  laid  on  the  Book  Department  as  the 
best  means  of  reaching  the  Mohammedan  population. 
From  the  beginning,  a  considerable  number  of  Bibles 
was  distributed  or  sold  for  a  small  sum.  A  reading 
room  had  been  opened  in  the  missionaries'  house  where 
natives  could  read  and  talk  on  religious  matters.  The 
following  year  a  shop  was  rented  on  one  of  the  principal 
streets  in  Cairo,  with  Awad  Hanna,  a  Coptic  convert, 
in  charge.  Bibles  being  obtained  from  the  British  and 
Foreign  Bible  Society  at  Malta,  and  books  and  tracts 
from  the  American  Mission  Press  at  Beirut,  Syria. 
Here  the  passers-by  would  stop  and  talk  and  many 
Bibles  were  sold  not  only  to  Copts,  but  to  Moslems  as 
well.     A  book  depot  was  also  opened   in  Alexandria. 

In  addition  to  this  seed  sowing  in  the  cities,  attempts 
were  made  in  these  early  years  to  bring  the  whole  popu- 
lation of  the  country  within  reach  of  evangelising  in- 
fluence. A  system  of  colportage  was  commenced  among 
the  chief  towns  of  the  Delta  and  later,  on  a  more  ex- 
tended scale,  throughout  the  provinces  of  Upper  Egypt. 
The  first  itinerary  in  the  Delta  was  made  in  April, 
i860,  by  Rev.  Thos.  McCague  accompanied  by  Mr. 
Awad  Hanna.  They  spent  three  weeks  at  the  Moslem 
festival  of  EsSeyyid  El  Bedawi  in  the  town  of  Tanta  and 
at  the  Coptic  festival  of  the  Lady  Damianeh  on  the  bor- 
ders of  the  "Eastern  Province"  the  ancient  "Land  of 
Goshen."  In  a  letter  from  Tanta,  after  describing  their 
room  which  overlooked  a  small  court  containing  two 


EGYPT  IN  1857-1861  367 

buffaloes,  a  cow,  a  donkey,  a  mare  and  colt,  turkeys 
and  chickens,  and  telling  of  their  host's  kindness  (?) 
in  giving  him  a  first  portion  of  meat  with  his  own 
hands,  the  missionary  joyfully  adds  that  they  had  al- 
ready sold  about  1750  piastres  worth  of  books — mostly 
Scriptures.     What  mattered  a  few  discomforts? 

The  extension  of  the  work  in  the  Nile  Valley  had 
become  so  important  that  the  three  missionaries,  Messrs. 
Lansing,  Hogg  and  McCague  purchased  a  boat,  the 
Ibis,  in  which  to  journey  up  and  down  the  Nile.  The 
first  trip  was  made  by  Rev.  and  Mrs.  McCague  taking 
with  them  four  native  assistants  and  twelve  boxes  of 
Scriptures  and  other  books.  During  their  five  weeks' 
trip  they  sold  about  $162.00  worth  of  books  and  estab- 
lished two  stations,  one  at  Assint,  one  at  Luxor.  In  the 
former  place  Mr.  McCague  with  the  assistance  of  the 
faithful  Awad,  loaded  a  donkey  with  Bibles  and  went 
through  the  streets  crying,  '^The  Holy  Bible  for  Sale!" 
This  method  brought  them  into  contact  with  the  na- 
tives, both  Copts  and  Moslems.  In  his  book  "Egypt's 
Princes,"  Dr.  Gulian  Lansing  describes  the  second  Ibis 
trip  when  about  $1000  worth  of  books  was  sold. 

The  dissemination  of  the  printed  Word  has  always 
been  an  important  branch  of  the  work  in  Egypt.  Short- 
ly after  the  forced  return  of  Rev.  and  Mrs.  McCague  to 
America  in  1861  on  account  of  threatened  blindness  of 
the  wife  and  son  due  to  ophthalmia,  they  received  a 
letter  from  Dr.  Lansing  telling  of  his  negotiations  with 
the  Egyptian  Government  for  the  purchase  of  the  gov- 
ernment press  at  Boulak  which,  "we  trust  will  put  us  in 
the  way  of  supplying  Egypt  with  a  Christian  literature." 
A  month  later  he  writes,  "We  are  not  to  have  their 
printing  press.  The  Counsellors  stepped  in  and  said 
they  could  not  let  this  press,  which  had  been  a  fountain 
of  Moslem  learning,  become  Christian."  In  the  cor- 
respondence of  those  years  there  is  a  very  evident  note 
of  joy  at  each  indication  of  the  gathering  in  of  a  Mos- 
lem. Dr.  Hogg  wrote  that  the  boys  in  his  school  at 
Alexandria  "are  beginning  to  search  for  themselves  at 
midday,  whether  these  things  told  them  in  the  morning 


368  THE  MOSLEM  WORLD 

are  so,"  and  he  adds,  "May  the  Spirit  lift  up  the  veil 
and  show  them  the  loving  heart  of  the  despised  Naza- 
rene." 

How  the  prayers  of  these  pioneers  are  being  an- 
swered today  by  the  great  work  of  the  Nile  Mission 
Press  in  patiently  overcoming  the  opposition  of  Islam, 
and  by  the  gathering  of  Moslems  into  the  Kingdom! 
Surely  God's  Word  sown  in  the  morning  of  the  Mis- 
sion in  Cairo  and  along  the  Nile  Valley  is  not  return- 
ing unto  Him  void. 

Lydia  S.  McCague. 
Omaha,  Nebraska, 


IF  I  HAD  A  MILLION  DOLLARS 


If  I.  had  a  million  dollars  I  would  first  of  all  pay 
my  debts,  were  I  indebted  to  anyone.  This  is  what  any 
honest  man  would  do;  it  is  what  any  honest  nation 
would  do.  Debts  are  often  forgotten.  One  of  the 
functions  of  history  is  to  remind  us  of  what  we  owe  the 
past;  what  contribution  the  past  has  made  to  the 
content  of  our  present  civilization.  In  paying  my  debts 
I  must  not  overlook  what  I  owe  to  those  who  have  gone 
before  and  to  their  descendants. 

We  all  recognize  more  or  less  clearly  what  the  coun- 
tries of  our  immediate  ancestors  have  done  for  us.  Any 
ordinarily  well  educated  American  has  some  intelligent 
conception  of  our  indebtedness  to  England  or  France 
but  how  many  of  us  pursue  history  far  enough  to  real- 
ize what  the  countries  of  the  Mediterranean  have  con- 
tributed to  make  America  what  she  is? 

It  would  surprise  most  of  us  to  be  informed  that  we 
owe  the  nations  of  the  Near  East  more  than  we  owe  all 
other  nations  combined.  It  would  be  difficult  to  men- 
tion a  single  one  of  our  institutions  whose  roots  do  not 
run  back  through  the  centuries  and  lose  themselves  in 
Oriental  soil. 

We  never  tire  of  praising  the  great  qualities  and 
sacrifices  of  the  Pilgrim  Fathers,  and  they  deserve  it 
all.  But  what  did  they  do?  They  abandoned  Hol- 
land and  England  for  the  bleak  shores  of  America  that 
they  might  enjoy  the  privilege  of  reading  God^s  Word 
and  interpreting  it  in  accord  with  the  dictates  of  their 
own  conscience.  But  where  did  they  get  this  Book  for 
which  they  would  venture  so  much?  Every  word  of 
it  is  from  Oriental  sources. 

Three  great  religions  dominate  the  world,  no  one  of 
which  is  indebted  to  Occidental  thinking.  The  proph- 
ets, those  great  men  of  the  past  whose  words  still 
reverberate  across  the  centuries,  changed  the  destinies 

369 


370  THE  MOSLEM  WORLD 

of  peoples  while  our  ancestors  were  living  in  savage 
brutality. 

Who  gave  us  the  apostles?  Those  men  whose  teach- 
ings are  becoming  world  forces.  Has  any  modern 
civilized  nation  escaped  the  influence  of  the  unparalleled 
intellect  and  deep-souled  vision  of  the  Apostle  Paul? 

What  can  we  adequately  say  about  Jesus  Christ,  that 
unique  person  the,  Son  of  God,  our  Saviour  whose  life 
and  death  inspires  every  beneficent  movement  through- 
out the  world  ? 

Our  greatest  and  best  have  become  great  and  good 
in  proportion  as  they  have  become  dominated  by  the 
philosophy  of  the  Apostle  Paul  and  the  ethics  of  Jesus 
Christ.  But  what  are  they  compared  to  these  masters? 
What  about  our  philosophy?  Are  not  all  modern 
theories  based  upon  systems  that  were  in  vogue  before 
the  Romans  landed  on  the  shores  of  England?  In  re- 
spect to  our  ethics,  can  we  point  to  a  single  book  which 
purports  to  interpret  human  conduct  that  does  not  find 
its  inspiration  in  the  Bible?  What  about  our  art?  Are 
we  still  anything  more  than  poor  imitators  of  the  artis- 
tic productions  of  men  of  Eastern  lands?  Our  plastic 
art  is  wholly  the  gift  of  peoples  who  look  across  the 
centuries  and  over  thousands  of  miles  and  see  us  strug- 
gling with  the  rudiments  of  what  to  them  was  a  skilled 
science.  And  our  architecture?  We  have  only  to 
study  the  great  public  buildings  erected  across  our  con- 
tinent, recognized  as  artistically  meritorious,  to  be  con- 
vinced that  we  are  but  children  attempting  to  adapt  the 
East  to  the  conceptions  of  the  genius  of  modern  require- 
ments. 

Is  there  anything  in  the  higher  reaches  of  our  civil- 
ization that  is  original  with  us?     Nothing. 

A  brief  survey  of  what  has  entered  into  the  warp* 
and  woof  of  our  civilization  must  bring  every  intelli- 
gent man  and  woman  in  America  under  the  power  of 
two  sentiments,  humility  and  gratitude. 

Our  debt  to  the  East  is  beyond  calculation.  What 
have  we  done  to  liquidate  it? 

We  have  been  generous  to  Belgium,  Poland  and  Ser- 


IF  I  HAD  A  MILLION  DOLLARS  371 

via.  The  instincts  of  humanity  were  obeyed  in  our  lav- 
ish generosity;  but  these  countries  can  make  little  ap- 
peal from  the  standpoint  of  having  added  anything 
original  to  the  content  of  our  civilization. 

But  when  we  mention  the  peoples  of  the  Near  East, 
who  are  now  in  the  throes  of  a  tragedy  unparalleled  in 
history,  we  ought  to  be  filled  with  a  desire  to  make  any 
reasonable  sacrifice  to  meet  their  needs  and  thus  in  some 
small  measure  acknowledge  our  indebtedness  and  meet 
our  obligations  so  far  as  that  is  possible. 

Under  the  sinister  shadow  of  their  agony  a  ray  of 
hope  pierces  their  gloomy  outlook  as  they  indulge  the 
hope  of  national  emancipation  from  a  long  past  of 
oppression  and  wrong.  Yet  they  feel  helpless  in  the 
face  of  tremendous  political  and  social  problems  they 
are  in  no  way  fitted  to  solve.  The  word  America  has 
become  a  synonym  of  disinterested  altruism.  In  the 
past  her  doors  were  open  to  the  oppressed  of  all  nations, 
now  like  an  angel  of  mercy  she  goes  forth  to  relieve 
the  oppressed  in  all  lands,  to  feed  the  hungry,  to  clothe 
the  naked  and  lend  a  hand  in  assuring  just  considera- 
tion of  reasonable  national  aspirations. 

But  what  these  new  states  need  more  than  material 
blessings  and  national  freedom  is  moral  and  spiritual 
help. 

The  Christian  churches  in  the  Near  East  are  coming 
under  a  responsibility  they  have  neither  sought  nor 
desired. 

The  Christians  of  the  Orient  are  much  less  in  num- 
ber than  the  Moslems.  New  Christian  states  are  being 
carved  out  of  the  Turkish  Empire  but  the  Turks  re- 
main.    What  is  to  be  done  with  them? 

One  can  easily  see  that  in  the  consolidation  of  these 
new  states  most  difficult  problems  are  sure  to  rise. 
Social,  political  and  administrative  questions  will  press 
for  attention  that  will  require  the  most  delicate  hand- 
ling. 

Will  these  young  nations  be  able  to  solve  these  ques- 
tions? 


372  THE  xMOSLEM  WORLD 

Another,  and  perhaps  most  difficult  of  all,  is  the  re- 
ligious question. 

We  must  not  forget  the  feelings  of  the  once  dominant 
race  as  it  finds  itself  in  the  position  of  dependence.  For- 
merly the  Moslems  looked  with  contempt  upon  the 
subject  races,  especially  from  a  religious  standpoint. 
All  non-Moslems  were  included  under  the  opprobrious 
term  ^^giaour'''' — infidel. 

I  was  asked  to  speak  at  the  World's  Sunday  School 
Convention  in  Zurich  a  few  years  ago.  The  subject 
assigned  to  me  was:  ^Tslam,  the  Problem  and  Solution." 

I  began  my  address  with  the  following  words: 

"The  problem  is  this — the  attempt  to  induce  the 
proudest  man  on  earth  to  accept  what  he  detests  from 
men  he  despises."  I  see  no  sufficient  reason  why  I 
should  change  a  word  of  this.  The  Turk  is  sure  to 
emerge  from  the  awful  experiences  of  the  war  hum- 
bled and  embittered.  Humbled  as  he  falls  from  the 
position  of  ruler  to  that  of  ruled;  embittered  because 
he  must  take  his  orders  from  giaours  whom  he  despises. 

If  he  were  in  the  minority  he  would  find  it  hard 
enough,  but  to  be  in  the  majority  and  yet  be  ruled  by 
former  subject  races,  especially  as  he  remembers  that 
one  of  the  "fourteen  points"  is  the  "self-determination 
of  races"; — well  it  takes  little  imagination  to  realize 
the  tremendous  handicap  under  which  the  new  nations 
are  to  work. 

It  is  easy  to  say  that  the  league  of  nations  will  adjust 
these  difficulties  as  they  arise.  No  league  of  nations 
can  control  the  currents  of  thought  and  sentiments,  of 
religion  that  must  prevail.  To  cultivate  even  tolera- 
tion for  each  other  will  tax  the  utmost  patience  of  these 
races  for  years.  In  many  cities  and  towns  the  propor- 
tions of  Moslems  to  Christians  will  be  as  three  to  one.. 
It  is  difficult  for  one  not  living  in  the  country  to  appre- 
ciate the  gulf  fixed  between  Moslem  and  Christian  when 
the  subject  of  religion  is  broached. 

There  can  be  only  one  solution  to  this  difficult  ques- 
tion.    It  is  found  in  the  Christianization  of  the  Moslem. 

It  is  rather  too  much  to  expect  that  the  Christians 


IF  I  HAD  A  MILLION  DOLLARS  373 

after  their  awful  experiences  at  the  hands  of  the  Mo- 
hammedans will  turn  around  and  work  for  their  con- 
version; although  some  few  are  doing  so  already. 

Indeed  the  Oriental  churches  themselves  are  in  dire 
need  of  conversion.  There  is  not  an  intelligent  Chris- 
tian in  the  Near  East  from  the  bishops  down  who  will 
not  admit  the  need  of  important  reforms  in  their  be- 
liefs and  practices.  The  best  elements  of  these  churches 
are  working  and  praying  for  important  changes  in 
their  ecclesiastical  machinery  and  a  deeper  spiritual  life 
in  their  church  leaders  and  members.  If  that  be  true 
can  we  expect  much  help  from  these  churches  in  the 
conversion  of  the  Moslems? 

Therefore  it  is  the  duty  of  the  Christian  churches  of 
America  to  assume  this  responsibility.  I  say  the 
churches  in  America  for  they,  much  more  than  those  of 
any  other  nation,  have  prosecuted  the  missionary  work 
in  Turkey,  and  by  common  consent  this  territory  is 
regarded  as  peculiarly  belonging  to  Christian  American 
enterprise. 

From  these  remarks  certain  deductions  follow  which 
may  be  incorporated  in  the  following  propositions: 

The  success  of  the  experiment  of  erecting  autonomous 
states  on  the  ruins  of  the  Turkish  empire  depends  in 
very  large  measure  upon  external  help. 

This  help  must  be  of  various  kinds. 

Repatriation.  These  scattered  peoples  must  be 
brought  to  their  new  homes. 

Rehabilitation.  This  will  require  the  erection  and 
furnishing  of  numerous  homes. 

Reconstruction.  Family  and  social  life  so  sadly 
disintegrated  during  the  war  must  be  rebuilt  from  the 
foundations  up. 

Until  one  full  harvest  is  garnered  the  people  must  be 
fed  and  clothed. 

All  this  will  take  large  bodies  of  workers  and  vast 
sums  of  money. 

Administrative,  political  and  financial  assistance  must 
be  furnished  by  the  nation  to  which  mandatory  power 
is  accorded. 


374  THE  MOSLEM  WORLD 

The  work  already  done  by  American  missionaries  is 
of  the  most  important  character.  This  work  on  a  vaster 
scale  must  be  planned  and  pushed. 

The  splendid  educational  system  resulting  from  a 
century  of  effort,  so  largely  broken  and  dissipated  by 
the  war,  must  be  reconstructed  and  broadened. 

Turkey  is  essentially  an  agricultural  country.  Farm- 
ing and  the  dairy  industry  are  carried  on  according  to 
the  most  primitive  methods.  The  gang  plow,  reaping 
machines  and  steam  threshers  must  be  introduced. 

All  the  common  minerals  of  commerce  are  found  in 
abundance  and  will  constitute  one  of  the  prominent 
sources  of  wealth.  This  department  will  require  spe- 
cial attention  by  experts. 

Should  all  this  be  done  without  reference  to  the 
Mohammedans,  and  this  is  quite  possible,  a  very  serious 
mistake  will  be  made. 

The  most  important  problem  facing  the  Christian 
Church  is  that  of  Islam.  Until  the  Church  determines 
to  bring  to  bear  upon  this  subject  the  vast  powers  at 
her  disposal  success  cannot  be  expected.  Two  hundred 
million  Mohammedans  scattered  through  Asia  and 
Africa  menace  the  success  of  the  Christian  propaganda 
in  these  continents.  This  vast  body  has  been  defying 
Christendom  for  centuries  and  she  dare  not  any  longer 
neglect  the  call  to  duty  without  imperiling  her  own 
future  in  the  Eastern  Hemisphere. 

Not  only  is  the  Near  East  the  arena  in  which  this 
great  struggle  must  be  fought  out  but  it  is  the  field  best 
prepared.  Christian  churches  and  Christian  traditions 
have  a  history  of  two  thousand  years  in  this  territory. 
Are  the  Christian  churches  now  on  the  field  equal  to 
the  task  of  converting  the  Moslems  of  the  country? 
They  would  be  the  first  to  answer  in  the  negative. 

What  then  is  the  solution  of  this  question?  There 
seems  but  one, — an  earnest  attempt  by  the  Christian 
churches  of  America  to  convert  the  Moslem  of  the 
Near  East  to  Christianity. 

James  P.  McNaughton. 
Constantinople,  Turkey. 


LITERATURE   FOR  TURKISH   MOSLEMS 


One  must  be  content  with  an  approximate  answer  to 
the  question  of  the  number  who,  if  they  could  read, 
would  use  the  Osmanli  Turkish.  I  should  put  the 
number  before  the  War  at  ten  million.  This  includes 
Albanians  and  other  European  Moslems  and  at  least  a 
million  Christians. 

My  estimate  of  the  number  of  literates  is  higher  than 
that  generally  given.  Ten  per  cent  I  believe  a  moderate 
estimate.  Fifty  years  ago,  in  Marsovan,  Mrs.  Herrick 
received  calls  from  hundreds  of  Turkish  women,  and 
was  surprised  to  find  so  many  of  them  able  to  read  and 
eager  to  receive  copies  of  selected  scripture  texts  printed 
in  very  large  type  on  single  sheets,  i6x  12  inches. 

Coming  to  a  second  and  most  important  question,  viz., 
the  Christian  literature  actually  available  for  Mos- 
lems in  Turkey,  I  face  a  real  embarrassment.  With  the 
exception  of  two  volumes  by  Dr.  Pfander  and  one  each 
by  Dr.  Koelle  and  Rev.  R.  H.  Weakley  and  a  scientific 
volume  by  Dr.  H.  O.  Dwight  the  list  is  that  of  books 
prepared  by  me  and  issued  between  the  years  1865  and 
191 1.  Since  the  last  date  several  little  books  of  homi- 
lies have  been  issued.  A  larger  number  of  my  books 
in  Turkish  in  the  Armenian  character  have  been  issued 
and  some  of  these  have  indirectly  received  the  atten- 
tion of  Turks.  It  is  impossible  for  me  to  tell  what  has 
been  done  and  to  indicate  the  principles,  the  aims,  also 
the  governmental  limitations  under  which  the  work  has 
been  done,  more  clearly  than  by  giving  the  list  of  my 
books,  with  explanations  relative  to  their  preparation 
and  issue. 

Before  this  is  done,  special  attention  is  invited  to  the 
latest  translation  of  the  Bible  into  Turkish  and  the 
record  of  the  circulation  of  Scripture  in  that  language 
the  last  forty  years. 

The  work  of  the  Committee  appointed  by  the  two 

375 


376  THE  MOSLEM  WORLD 

great  Bible  societies  to  newly  translate  and  prepare  for 
circulation  the  Bible  in  Turkish,  both  in  Osmanli  and 
Armenian  characters  (subsequently  in  Greek  charac- 
ters also)  began  in  June,  1873  ^"^  ended  May  28th, 
1878.  Subsequent  revisions  in  the  interest  of  simplicity 
of  language  and  unification  of  texts  took  three  more 
3'^ears  of  work  of  the  present  writer,  the  sole  survivor 
of  the  twelve  men,  seven  of  them  natives  of  the  country, 
who  had  a  share,  greater  or  less,  in  the  translation  and 
revision. 

The  Bible  societies  have  printed  15,000  copies  of  the 
Bible  in  Osmanli  Turkish;  about  three  times  that 
number  of  copies  of  the  New  Testament  and  at  least 
100,000  copies  of  Bible  '^portions."  These  portions 
have  been  the  four  Gospels,  printed  separately,  the 
Psalms  and  the  books  of  Job  and  Proverbs,  the  latter 
becoming  especially  popular  with  the  Turks.  A  con- 
servative statement  of  the  circulation  of  Scripture 
among  Turks  and  other  Turkish  speaking  Moslems 
based  on  official  reports,  would  give  an  average  of 
4000  volumes  a  year  for  the  forty  years,  at  least  100,000 
of  the  160,000  being  sold  to  the  readers.  One  thing  is 
certain — speaking  generally  and  emphatically — the 
knowledge  that  living  Moslems  in  Turkey  have  gained 
of  Christian  literature  has  been  gained  chiefly  from 
the  reading  of  the  Christian  sacred  Scriptures  . 

Turning  now  to  efforts  that  have  been  made  by  the 
Publication  Department  of  the  American  Missions  in 
Turkey  to  form,  upon  the  basis  of  the  Bible,  the  begin- 
ning of  a  general  Christian  literature  for  Turks  we 
give  the  following  details. 

In  the  year  1865  there  were  issued  by  the  Constanti- 
nople Mission  Press: 

/.  "A  Commentary  on  Matthew  and  Mark"  (of  400 
pages)  which  had  very  limited  sale.  The  part  cover- 
ing the  Sermon  on  the  Mount  was  circulated  gratis 
somewhat  widely. 

2,  The  same  year  a  first  book  for  teaching  children 
was  issued  (63  pages),  and  in  the  course  of  ten  years 
many  editions  were  issued   (6300  copies  in  all).     The 


LITERATURE  FOR  TURKISH  MOSLEMS  377 

book  became  the  model  for  many  useful  books  prepared 
by  Turks. 

J.  In  1868  a  little  book  of  no  pages  on  "The  Belief 
and  Worship  of  Protestants"  was  issued.  This  book 
was  enlarged  and  issued  in  1885  a  book  of  224  pages. 

4.  A  sketch  of  the  Life  of  Lincoln  (40  pp.)  was  is- 
sued in  1872  and  widely  circulated. 

5.  A  booklet  '^Thoughts  on  Education,"  (32  pp.) 
was  printed  for  me  by  Tewfik  abd  ul  Zia  in  1883. 

6.  In  1885  "Natural  Theology"  (220  pp.)  was 
printed  and  had  a  considerable  sale. 

After  1885  until  1908  it  was  impossible  to  print 
Christian  literature  in  Osmanli  Turkish. 

7.  A  book  on  "Christian  Manliness,"  pretty  thor- 
oughly emasculated  of  everything  distinctively  Chris- 
tian and  with  little  "manliness,"  passed  the  censors  and 
was  printed  in  1898  over  the  protest  of  one  of  them  that 
"the  book  smells  of  Christianity  all  through." 

8  6c  Q.  During  this  period  (1895- 1908)  a  Physical 
Geography  and  an  Astronomy  were  published. 

10.  In  1909  the  hymn  book  of  more  than  300  hymns, 
previously  circulating  in  Turkish  in  the  Armenian  char- 
acter, was  issued  in  Osmanli. 

//  and  12.  Booklets  on  Matthew  5,  6,  7  and  on  I 
Corinthians  13  were  issued. 

I  J.  "The  Dawn  of  Liberty"  (80  pp.)  was  published 
in  1910. 

14.  "The  Unique  Person  of  Jesus  Christ  and  His 
Relation  to  Mankind"  (273  pp.)  was  my  last  work 
issued  in  191 1.  It  was  an  effort  to  present  our  Lord 
Jesus  Christ  to  Moslems  in  a  way  to  win  their  attention. 
Such  a  book  could  not  have  been  issued  before  1908. 

On  the  greater  problem  of  disiderata  and  present  ur- 
gent needs  I  think  we  should  expect  and  prepare  for 
greatly  increased  opportunities  for  direct  Christian 
work  for  Moslems  using  the  Osmanli  Turkish  in  the 
very  near  future.  The  Press  will  have  two  functions 
to  meet  (a)  To  foster  the  great  educational  movement 
(b)  To  issue  and  circulate  evangelistic  literature  in 
large  volume. 


378  THE  MOSLEM  WORLD 

For  schools  and  for  Sunday  schools  a  large  amount 
of  literature  will  be  required  and  will  be  prepared  as 
fast  as  men  and  funds  are  ready  for  the  work. 

Uncontroversial  evangelistic  literature,  translated  and 
adapted,  should  be  issued  in  considerable  variety.  Nar- 
ratives and  stories  should  find  place.  One  little  tract 
which  I  translated  and  issued  in  1 910  is  a  good  model. 
The  title  of  the  tract  was  ^The  Man  Who  Died  for 
Me."  Short  biographical  sketches  will  be  found  popu- 
lar and  useful. 

There  is  no  doubt  that  the  door  will  soon  be  thrown 
wide  open  for  work  on  this  line  far  beyond  our  present 
readiness  to  enter  it. 

George  F.  Herrick. 
New  York  City, 


CHRISTIAN  LITERATURE  FOR  MALAYSIA 

I.      RACES  AND  LANGUAGES 

Malaysia  consists  of  the  Malay  Peninsula  and  the 
great  group  of  islands  known  as  the  East  Indies, 
the  largest  of  which  are,  in  order  of  their  size — 
New  Guinea,  Borneo,  Sumatra,  Java,  and  Celebes.  The 
total  population  is  estimated  to  be  slightly  over  forty 
millions,  and  out  of  this  number  there  are  more  than 
thirty-seven  million  Mohammedans. 

The  Malay  Peninsula,  the  Northern  part  of  Borneo, 
and  the  Eastern  part  of  New  Guinea  are  under  British 
rule  or  protection.  Practically  all  the  rest  of  the  Archi- 
pelago is  under  the  authority  of  the  Queen  of  Holland, 
and  is  known  as  the  Dutch  East  Indies,  or  Netherlands 
India. 

The  distribution  of  the  Mohammedans  in  Malaysia 
by  governments  is  as  follows: 


Under  Dutch  Rule 

Java  and  Madura 

29,627,557 

Sumatra 

3,275,000 

Borneo 

985,440 

Celebes 

640,000 

Banka  and  Dependencies 

70,853 

Riau  and  Dependencies 

93,434 

Billiton 

34,200 

Amboina  and  Dependencies 

71,204 

Ternate,  New  Guinea  and  Dependencies 

108,240 

Timor  and  Dependencies 

34,650 

Bali  and  Lombok 

368,418 

35,308,996 

Under  British  Rule 

Straits  Settlements 

258,791 

Federated   Malay   States 

420,840 

Protected  Malay  States  (estimate) 

758,060 

British  North  Borneo  (estimate) 

150,000 

Sarawak    (estimate) 

150,000 

1,737,691 

Under  Siamese  Rule 

Siamese  Malay  States  (estimate) 

115,000 

37,161,687 

379 


38o  THE  MOSLEM  WORLD 

The  distribution  by  languages  can  only  be  given 
approximately.  The  Javanese  language  is  spoken  by 
the  largest  number,  perhaps  sixteen  millions,  and  Sunda- 
nese,  the  language  of  West  Java,  by  ten  or  eleven  mil- 
lions. The  Malay  language,  however,  is  the  language 
of  Mohammedan  propaganda,  and  is  more  widely 
known  than  any  other,  being  the  lingua  franca  all  over 
the  coast  line  and  rivers  of  every  island;  and  it  is  the 
mother  tongue  of  probably  more  than  five  millions  of 
the  inhabitants  of  the  Malay  Peninsula,  Sumatra,  Riau, 
Banka,  Billiton,  and  parts  of  Borneo  and  Java.  Prob- 
ably two  millions  speak  the  Madurese  language,  and 
the  following  minor  languages  are  each  spoken  by  per- 
haps something  less  than  half  a  million  Mohamme- 
dans— Achinese,  Bugis,  Macassar,  Battak.  Many  other 
languages  are  spoken  in  Malaysia,  but  there  are  no  data 
to  show  the  number  of  Moslems  who  speak  them. 
These  languages  are  distributed  as  follows: 

Java 

Malay  Peninsula 

Sumatra 

Smaller  islands 

Celebes 

Dutch  Borneo 

British  Borneo 

Total  172 

Most  of  the  languages  of  Borneo,  which  are  given 
by  Skeat  and  Blagden  in  'Tagan  Races  of  the  Malay 
Peninsula,"  are  spoken  by  the  various  Dayak  tribes. 
Probably  not  more  than  half  of  the  172  languages  re- 
ferred to  above  are  spoken  by  Mohammedans. 

Literacy, 

The  Dutch  government  reports  7959  schools  in  the 
Dutch  Indies  with  696,731  pupils  under  instruction; 
and  probably  600,000  of  these  pupils  are  Moslems. 

The  British  government  reports  1196  Malay  schools, 
with  over  30,000  pupils  in  attendance.  In  the  non- 
federated  Malay  States  there  are  at  present  very  few 
schools. 


3 

languages 

4 

13 

18 

26 

9 

99 

CHRISTIAN  LITERATURE  FOR  MALAYSIA        381 

The  proportion  of  literates  among  those  who  speak 
the  Malay  language  is  much  higher  than  among  those 
who  speak  Javanese  and  Sundanese.  Nearly  all  news- 
papers are  printed  in  the  Malay  language,  and  in  the 
Dutch  Indies  many  Malay  newspapers  are  printed  in 
the  Roman  character,  and  are  read  very  largely  by 
Chinese  as  well  as  by  Moslems. 

The  percentage  of  literates  is  certainly  high  as  com- 
pared with  other  Moslem  lands,  but  very  few  Moham- 
medan women  are  able  to  read. 

II.      CHRISTIAN  LITERATURE  AVAILABLE  FOR  MOSLEMS 
LEMS. 

The  Scriptures  are  available  in  the  following  lan- 
guages : 

Malay,  the  whole  Bible. 
In  Arabic  Character  Javanese,  Gospels  and  Acts. 

Sundanese,  Luke,  John,  Acts. 

Javanese,  the  whole  Bible. 
Bugis,  Gospels  and  Acts. 
Macasar,  Gospels  and  Acts. 
In  Native  Characters  Battak   (Toba)    New  Testament. 

"       (Mandailing)  Mt,  Lu,  Jn. 
Madurese,  Gospels,  Acts,  Phil. 

Javanese,  New  Testament. 
Sundanese,   the   whole    Bible. 
In  Roman  Characters  Battak  (Toba)  the  whole  Bible. 

"        (Mandailing)    New  Test. 
Psalms. 

This  list  shows  that  we  have  the  Scriptures  in  only 
eight  of  the  languages  which  are  spoken  by  Moslems. 

The  Bible  is  also  available  in  seven  other  Malaysian 
languages  which  are  spoken  by  Pagans,  namely:  Nias, 
Balinese,  Rotti,  Sangir,  and  three  dialects  of  Dayak. 

Comparatively  few  Mohammedans  can  read  those 
versions  of  the  Scriptures  mentioned  in  the  above  list 
which  are  printed  in  the  Roman  character,  these  ver- 
sions having  been  prepared  principally  for  native  Chris- 
tians. The  versions  shown  as  being  in  native  charac- 
ters can  be  read  by  Moslems  very  generally,  but  some 
Mof.Jems  can  only  read  those  versions  which  are  printed 
in  the  Arabic  character. 


382    ^  THE  MOSLEM  WORLD 

Other  Literature  in  Malay 

I.  Pilgrim's  Progress,  translated  by  Keasberry  60  years  ago,  is  now 
out  of  print.  Two  other  versions  exist  in  Romanised  Malay,  but 
are  not  suitable  for  Malays  except  in  Java. 

2.  History  of  the  Jews,  an  adaptation  of  Walker's  "Philosophy  of  the 

Plan  of  Salvation,"  (100  pages). 

3.  Story  of  Joseph,  from  Genesis,  (60  pages). 

4.  The  Witness  of  Christ  to  Himself,  32  pages,  translation  of  the  Nile 

Mission  Press  tract. 

5.  Story  of  St.  Paul,   (26  pages). 

6.  Story  of  an  Indian  Prince  Who  Became  a  Christian,  (22  pages). 

7.  What  the  Koran  says  of  the   Bible,  extract  from  Muir's   "The 

Coran,"  published  by  the  S.  P.  C.  K.  21  pages. 

8.  The  True  Religion,   (13  pages). 

9.  Khutba  No.  i,  on  Prophecy. 

10.  Khutba  No.  17,  on  The  Unity  of  God. 

Also  the  following  leaflet  tracts: 

Creation  and  the  Beginning  of  Sin. 

Salvation  and   Holiness. 

The  Death  of  a  Christian  Boy. 

Story  of  Naomi  and  Ruth. 

A  Moslem  Mistake   (as  to  the  Son  of  God). 

God's  Prohibitions  and  Commands. 

The  Ten  Commandments. 

The  True  Way  Should  Be  Sought,  C.  L.  S.  Madras. 

What  the  Koran  Says  of  the  Scriptures,  C.  L.  S.  Madras. 

The  Sermon  on  the  Mount,  (In  the  Press). 

The  Bedouin  and  Camel  (In  the  Press)  Nile  Mission  Press. 

Letter  from  a  Far  Country.  (In  the  Press.)     Nile  Mission  Press. 

Rashid's  Robe.  (In  the  Press.)     Nile  Mission  Press. 

Several  books  and  tracts  have  been  published  in  Ro- 
manized Malay  for  the  Malay-speaking  Chinese  of  the 
British  area,  but  most  of  these  are  in  the  dialect  known 
as  "Baba  Malay,"  which  is  looked  down  upon  by  the 
Malays  as  a  mere  patois  or  jargon,  and  these  books 
and  tracts  cannot  for  that  reason  be  considered  as 
available  for  the  Moslems.  It  should  also  be  said  that 
although  the  Roman  character  is  taught  in  the  British 
vernacular  schools,  the  Malays  dislike  it,  and  very  much 
prefer  to  read  their  own  language  in  the  Arabic  charac- 
ter. The  following  books  and  tracts  are  available  in 
Baba  Malay  (Romanized)  : 

Lessons  in  the  Life  of  Christ  for  Sunday  Schools.     (104  lessons.) 
The  Methodist  Malay  Hymnal,  (150  hymns  with  music). 
The  Ritual  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church. 
The  Discipline  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  (not  complete). 


CHRISTIAN  LITERATURE  FOR  MALAYSIA        383 

The  Catechism  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church. 
Stories  about  Jesus,    (42  pages). 
The  Story  of  David,  (18  pages). 
Eight  Sermons  on  the  Lord's  Prayer  (46  pages). 
The  Pilgrim's  Progress  (illustrated). 
Black  Beauty,  the  Autobiography  of  a  Horse. 
The  Story  of  Queen  Victoria. 
The  Story  of  Florence  Nightingale. 
Jessica's  First  Prayer. 
The  Story  of  Joseph. 

The  Greatest  Thing  in  the  World,  Drummond. 
The  Victory  of  Mary  Christopher,  H.  R.  Calkins. 
Also  6  leaflet  tracts. 

Dutch  missionaries,  working  in  Java,  have  published 
a  number  of  books  and  tracts  in  what  is  known  as  the 
Dutch  spelling,  in  which  the  English  "u"  is  represented 
by  "oe,"  the  English  "y"  by  ^^j,"  ^T'  by  "dj,"  "ny''  by 
*^nj,"  ^^ch"  by  '^tj,''  etc.  The  Natives  in  the  British 
area  find  it  extremely  difficult  to  read  anything  in  this 
spelling,  and  those  in  the  Dutch  area  equally  object  to 
the  English  spelling.  For  this  reason  books  printed 
in  the  Dutch  Indies  are  not  available  for  use  in  the 
British  area,  and  vice  versa. 

A  few  of  the  books  in  the  Dutch  Romanized  Malay 
are  in  what  the  Dutch  call  '^High  Malay,"  which  is 
practically  the  same  as  the  Malay  of  the  Peninsula  and 
East  Sumatra,  and  such  books  could,  with  slight  altera- 
tions, be  reprinted  in  Arabic  character,  and  thus  be- 
come available  for  Malay-speaking  Moslems  all  over 
the  Archipelago.  Unfortunately  there  does  not  appear 
to  be  any  catalogue  of  these  books  accessible  in  this 
country.  Amongst  them  there  are  two  or  three  col- 
lections of  sermons  by  the  Rev.  Mr.  Tiemersma,  a 
Church  History  by  the  Rev.  Mr.  Iken,  and  one  or  two 
other  books  suitable  for  the  use  of  native  preachers. 
There  are  also  in  the  Dutch  Romanized  several  ele- 
mentary books  on  science,  published  by  the  Dutch  gov- 
ernment. 

In  addition  to  the  above  the  Dutch  missionaries  have 
published  a  few  books  and  tracts  in  what  they  call 
"Low  Malay,"  that  is  to  say  the  patois  spoken  by  the 
mixed  races  who  speak  the  Malay  language  on  the 
island   of  Java.     Such   literature   is   no   more   suitable 


384       ,  THE  MOSLEM  WORLD 

than  the  "Baba  Malay"  of  the  British  area  would  be 
for  the  use  of  the  Mohammedan  Malays,  and  therefore 
need  hardly  be  considered  in  dealing  with  literature 
for  Moslems. 

III.  Main  Desiderata  and  Cost  of  Literature. 

1.  In  view  of  the  fact  that  the  Malay  language  is 
the  language  of  Moslem  propaganda,  and  is  used  far 
more  widely  than  any  of  the  other  languages  of  Malay- 
sia, it  seems  to  be  advisable  in  the  first  instance  to 
create  and  publish  in  the  Arabic  character  a  strong 
literature  suited  for  an  aggressive  campaign  among  the 
Malay-speaking  Moslems  of  Malaysia. 

2.  Any  suitable  literature  which  may  already  be 
available  in  the  Roman  character,  either  English  or 
Dutch  spelling,  could  be  rapidly  adapted  by  rewriting 
in  such  form  as  would  be  necessary  for  printing  in 
the  Arabic  character. 

3.  In  Java  there  are  two  Literature  Societies — The 
Malay  Christian  Union,  in  charge  of  Mr.  Meeuwig, 
Meester-Cornelis,  Java,  and  the  "Paper  Missionary," 
in  charge  of  Rev.  Hochendijk,  Garoet,  Java.  The 
latter  is  assisted  by  the  Netherlands  Tract  Society,  of 
Holland.  Very  few  of  the  Dutch  and  German  mis- 
sionaries in  Malaysia  appear  to  be  alive  to  the  im- 
portance of  producing  and  circulating  literature  es- 
pecially suited  to  the  Mohammedan  people,  and  the 
literature  which  they  have  produced  and  make  use  of 
so  far  has  been  intended  chiefly  for  the  instruction  and 
edification  of  the  native  Christians.  Some  years  ago 
a  careful  survey  was  made  of  the  literature  published 
by  the  Malay  Christian  Union  at  Meester-Cornelis,  and 
none  of  their  publications  were  found  to  be  suitable 
for  use  among  Moslems,  even  if  reprinted  in  the  Arabic 
character.  The  "Paper  Missionary"  is  a  more  recent 
organization,  and  has  distributed  large  quantities  of 
leaflet  tracts  in  Malay  and  Javanese,  but  none  of  these 
have  ever  come  into  the  writer's  hands,  so  he  is  unable 
to  speak  of  their  value  for  Mohammedan  work. 
New  York  City.  W.  G.  Shellabear. 


MOHAMMED'S  CONTROVERSY  WITH  JEWS 
AND  CHRISTIANS  * 


Mohammed  in  his  early  years,  in  common  with  the 
rest  of  the  Meccan  traders,  was  acquainted  with  tradi- 
tional lore  embodying  some  of  the  doctrines  taught  by 
the  Hebrews, — a  kindred  race, — in  a  vague  and  con- 
fused form.  He  learnt  something  of  these  on  his  jour- 
neys with  the  caravans  to  Syria,  and  on  his  visits  to 
the  literary  fairs,  the  forerunners  of  the  Welsh  Eistedd- 
fod, held  periodically  at  Okadh  and  other  towns,  in 
which  religious  subjects  were  publicly  discussed.  He 
gained  more  definite  and  deeper  knowledge  from  the 
Hanifs,  a  small  body  of  enquirers  after  truth,  residents 
of  Mecca,  and  earnest  students  of  Judaism  and  Chris- 
tianity. He  was  thus  led  to  reject  idolatry,  and  to  ac- 
cept the  monotheistic  formula.  La  ilaha  ill'  Allah, — 
"There  is  no  god  but  God."  His  intense  conviction 
made  of  him  a  missionary;  and,  naturally,  he  used  the 
means  of  his  own  conversion  as  his  chief  weapon  in  his 
efforts  to  gain  others  over  to  his  faith.  Many  of  the 
Meccan  chapters  of  the  Koran  are  devoted  to  the  story 
of    the    prophets,    taken    from    Hebrew    sources. 

The  short  twelve  years  of  Mohammed's  mission  in 
Mecca  was  a  period  of  preparation  and  growth.  One 
of  the  most  striking  developments  is  in  his  conception 
of  his  own  office.  He  started  diffidently  as  a  mere 
"warner"  to  his  own  relatives  and  immediate  circle  of 
friends.  Encouraged  by  three  or  four  conversions,  he 
began  to  frequent  the  area  of  the  temple — the  Ka'aba, 
which  was  the  meeting-place  of  the  Meccans.  There, 
at  first  unostentatiously  to  small  groups,  but  later  on 
openly  and  passionately,  he  denounced  idolatry  and 
threatened  the  city  with  disaster  should  it  persist  in  dis- 
regarding his  message.  He  had  become  a  "preacher" 
and  a  "prophet"  to  his  own  people. 

*  We    have    left    the    reference    to    the    author's    mss.,    as    we    did    not    have    at 
hand  his  edition  of  Sale's  translation  of  the  Koran. 

385 


386  THE  MOSLEM  WORLD 

The  Meccans  laughed  at  his  threats,  and  eventually 
bitterly  persecuted  him.  After  years  of  labour  among 
them  he  could  count  but  a  few  score  followers,  most 
of  them  from  among  the  poor  and  "the  feeble  in  the 
land."  Despairing  of  converting  his  fellow-citizens, 
he  went  to  Ta'if,  the  nearest  city  of  importance,  and 
there  expounded  his  doctrines  to  the  native  chiefs.  His 
action  roused  the  populace  to  fury;  and  Mohammed, 
barely  escaping  with  his  life,  fled  back  to  Mecca. 

Though  dejected  at  his  failure  in  Mecca  and  Ta'if,  he 
never  lost  faith  in  the  truth  of  his  message,  or  in  his 
own  call  to  be  God's  messenger.  He  made  his  rejec- 
tion by  his  neighbors  a  reason  for  widening  his  appeal 
to  include  all  Arab  idolaters.  During  certain  months 
of  the  year  large  caravans  of  pilgrims  used  to  visit 
Mecca,  partly  for  the  purposes  of  trade,  but  more  par- 
ticularly to  pay  their  vows  at  the  Ka'aba,  the  most 
venerated  shrine  in  all  Arabia.  Mohammed  saw  here 
an  opening  to  satisfy  his  missionary  zeal.  He  visited 
the  various  camps,  and,  at  last,  obtained  a  favourable 
hearing  amongst  the  pilgrims  from  Medina.  He  made 
a  compact  with  their  chiefs,  who  pledged  themselves 
to  give  a  home  and  protection  for  himself  and  those 
of  his  converts  who  chose  to  migrate  there  with  him. 
This  was  his  opportunity  of  escaping  from  the  perse- 
cution of  the  Meccans,  and,  at  the  same  time,  securing 
a  better  soil  for  the  propagation  of  his  creed.  From 
being  a  local  preacher  he  had  become  an  "apostle"  to 
the  Arab  nation. 

The  progressive  stages  in  his  development  may  be 
seen  in  the  following  verses  from  the  Koran: 

Warn  thy  pople ;  for  thou  art  a  warner  only :  thou  art  not  empowered 
to  act  with  authority  over  them.    LXXXVIII.    21,  22. 

That  thou  mayest  preach  it  unto  the  metropolis  of  Mecca  and  to  those 
who  are  around  it.     VI,  93. 

It  is  He  who  hath  raised  up  amidst  the  illiterate  Arabians  an  apostle 
from  among  themselves.    LXII,  2. 

Cf.  also  XXVII,  46;  XII,  29:  VI,  155-157  &C. 

In  the  Kor'anic  revelations  of  the  Meccan  period 
there  is  no  mention  of  opposition  on  the  part  of  the 
Jews  and  Christians  to  Mohammed's  ofl!ice  or  teaching. 


CONTROVERSY  WITH  JEWS  AND  CHRISTIANS  387 

On  the  contrary,  he  looks  to  them,  as  the  heirs  of  the 
Torah  and  the  Gospel,  to  bear  him  out  in  the  face  of 
his  enemies.  He  claims  that  they  confirm  the  con- 
sonancy  of  his  doctrine  with  that  of  their  own  Scrip- 
tures, and  that  they  regard  Islam  as  being  the  same 
religion  as  they  had  always  professed. 

Say.  What  is  your  opinion?  If  this  book  (the  Koran)  be  from 
God  and  ye  believe  not  therein ;  and  a  witness  of  the  children  of  Israel 
bear  witness  to  its  consonancy  with  the  Law  and  believeth  therein;  and 
ye  proudly  reject  the  same.     XLVI  9. 

And  now  We  have  caused  Our  word  to  come  unto  them,  that  they  may 
be  admonished.  They  unto  whom  We  have  given  the  Scriptures  be- 
lieve in  the  same;  and  when  it  is  read  unto  them  they  say,  "We 
believe  therein ;  it  is  certainly  the  truth  from  the  Lord :  verily  we  were 
Muslims  before  this."     XXVIII,  48-53. 

If  thou  art  in  doubt  concerning  that  which  We  have  sent  down 
unto  thee,  ask  them  who  had  read  the  book  of  the  Law  before  thee. 
X,  94.    Cf.  VI,  20  and  114;  XI,  18:  XXIV,  6:  XVII,  108  etc. 

In  the  post-Hijra  chapters  there  comes  a  distinct 
change  in  the  tone  of  Mohammed's  references  to  the 
Jews  and  Christians.  From  friendly  appreciation  he 
passes  to  virulent  tirade.  Compare  the  following  verses, 
revealed  respectively  before  and  after  the  Flight: 

We  gave  unto  the  children  of  Israel  the  book  of  the  law  and  wisdom 
and  prophecy;  and  We  fed  them  with  good  things,  and  preferred  them 
above  all  nations;  XLV,  15.     Cf.  II,  46  and  122,  LVII,  26,  27. 

Satan  hath  prevailed  against  them,  and  hath  caused  them  to  forget 
the  remembrance  of  God.  These  are  the  party  of  the  devil;  and  shall 
not  the  party  of  the  devil  be  doomed  to  perdition?    LVIII,  20,  21. 

The  reason  for  this  difiference  in  the  character  of  the 
Koranic  verses  is  to  be  found  in  the  changed  condition 
of  the  prophet's  life.  In  his  old  home  Mohammed  had 
never  come  into  close  contact  with  the  mass  of  Jews 
and  Christians;  the  number  of  them  resident  in  Mecca 
was  insignificant.  In  Medina,  on  the  other  hand,  there 
was  a  large  and  prosperous  colony  of  Jews,  and  some 
Christians.  Though,  politically,  these  occupied  a  sub- 
ordinate position  as  clients  of,  or  protected  by,  the  na- 
tive pagan  tribes,  their  wealth  and  their  higher  moral 
and  religious  culture  gave  them  power  and  influence 
among  their  neighbors.  When  the  prophet  fled  from 
Mecca  in  A.  D.  622,  he  came  to  live  among  the  "People 
of  the  Book"  on  the  close  terms  of  daily  intercourse. 
It  was  obvious  that  the  religious  attitude  of  the  one  to 
the  other  had  to  be  clearly  defined. 


388  THE  MOSLEM  WORLD 

On  his  arrival  in  Medina  Mohammed  fully  expected 
to  be  recognized  by  the  Jews  and  Christians  as  a  true 
prophet,  and  the  Koran,  as  far  as  it  was  then  revealed, 
accepted  by  them  as  divinely  inspired  equally  with 
former  scriptures.  Some  of  the  Jews  whom  he  had 
met  in  Mecca  had  certainly  given  him  grounds  for  this 
expectation.  Had  the  Flight  taken  place  some  years 
earlier,  Mohammed  might  have  developed  into  a  great 
reformer  of  his  own  people  through  the  medium  of 
Judism  or  Christianity;  but  by  now  he  had  reached 
too  advanced  a  stage  in  the  conception  of  his  own 
apostleship  to  allow  himself  to  become  a  mere  proselyte, 
he  claimed  to  be  greater  than  a  Jewish  rabbi  or  a 
Christian  bishop,  he  was  an  apostle  with  a  distinct  mis- 
sion of  his  own.  His  theology  and  history  were  based 
mainly  on  their  literature;  his  ritual,  as  far  as  he 
had  then  established  it,  was  modelled  on  their  cere- 
monial. His  ambition  was  to  be  accepted  by  them  as 
one  in  the  successive  line  of  prophets,  bringing  to  the 
Arabs  the  same  divine  message  as  had  been  delivered  to 
those  of  the  Hebrew  race  by  the  apostles  of  old.  In 
Mecca,  Mohammed's  struggle  had  been  against  ignor- 
ant idolators;  in  Medina  he  soon  found  himself  en- 
gaged in  an  intellectual  contest  with  a  far  more  for- 
midable foe, — with  the  possessors  of  those  scriptures 
whose  fundamental  doctrines  he  professed  to  have  ac- 
cepted and  taught. 

To  follow  the  progress  of  the  controversy,  we  have  to 
depend  almost  entirely  on  the  references  to  it  in  the 
Koran.  Fortunately,  these  are  fairly  full.  We  have 
no  records  from  the  Jewish  or  Christian  side. 

Mohammed's  standpoint  during  the  first  phase  of  the 
discussion  is  defined  in  the  following  verses: 

The  apostle  believeth  in  that  which  hath  been  sent  down  unto  him 
from  the  Lord,  and  the  faithful  also.  Every  one  of  them  believeth  in 
God,  and  His  angels,  and  His  scriptures,  and  His  apostles:  we  make 
no  distinction  at  all  between  His  apostles  II,  285. 

We  believe  that  which  hath  been  sent  down  unto  us,  and  that  which 
hath  been  sent  unto  you.  Our  God  and  your  God  is  one.  To  Him 
are  we  self-surrendered.     XXIX,  46. 

Surely  those  who  believe  (the  Moslems)  and  those  who  Judaize, 
and  Christians,  and  Sabians — whoever  believeth  in  God  and  the  last 


CONTROVERSY  WITH  JEWS  AND  CHRISTIANS  389 

day,  and  doth  that  which  is  right,  they  shall  have  their  reward 
with  their  Lord :  there  shall  come  no  fear  on  them,  neither  shall  they  be 
grieved.     II,  61  and  V,  73. 

This  last  verse  must  have  been  revealed  at  an  early 
date  after  the  Hijra;  it  represents  the  prophet  at  his 
most  modest  and  tolerant  period.  It  was  probably  used 
on  many  occasions  as  a  kind  of  stock  piece,  and  is 
repeated  twice  in  the  Koran,  in  both  cases  fitting  in 
badly  with  the  context.  The  Sabians  are  brought  in  to 
emphasize  Mohammed's  point  by  including  the  sects 
which  he  regarded  as  monotheists.  Here  he  declares 
that  belief  in  God,  together  with  good  works,  con- 
stituted all  that  was  necessary  to  salvation,  (Cf.  XXIX, 
6-8)  ;  but  it  was  not  long  before  he  revised  this  judg- 
ment. This  belief  in  all  God's  prophets  was  embodied 
at  a  later  date  in  some  verses  which  practically  amount 
to  a  definition  of  Islam: 

We  believe  in  God,  and  that  which  hath  been  sent  down  to  us,  and 
that  which  hath  been  sent  down  unto  Abraham,  and  Ismael,  and  Isaac, 
and  Jacob,  and  the  tribes,  and  that  which  was  delivered  unto  Moses  and 
Jesus  and  that  which  was  delivered  unto  the  prophets  from  the  Lord: 
We  make  no  distinction  between  any  of  them;  and  to  God  are  we 
resigned  (II,  136). 

This  confession  of  faith  is  given  again  in  Chap.  Ill, 
83,  and  in  both  cases  it  is  followed  by  a  declaration  that 
any  religion  other  than  Islam  thus  defined  is  not  accept- 
able to  God. 

Though,  at  first,  he  hesitated  before  insisting  on  ac- 
ceptance of  himself  as  a  condition  necessary  to  salva- 
tion, he  yielded  nothing  to  the  "People  of  the  Book"  on 
the  point  of  the  divine  authority  for  his  office  and  his 
message  to  his  own  people.  He  sought  a  common 
ground  where  what  he  regarded  simply  as  three  groups 
in  the  same  religion  could,  and  must  meet, — the  ground 
of  monotheism:  "Your  God  and  our  God  is  ONE." 
The  idea  of  a  separate  sect  of  his  own  was  not  a  new 
one.  Like  the  disciples  of  Jesus  who  desired  their 
Master  to  teach  them  a  form  of  prayer  which  should 
be  peculiarly  their  own,  Mohammed's  earliest  con- 
verts had  asked  for  instruction  in  private  and  common 
worship,  and  the  prophet  had  established  a  few  ele- 
mentary forms  of   ritual   before   leaving   Mecca.     His 


390  THE  MOSLEM  WORLD 

sect  was  not  in  any  way  to  be  opposed  to  Judaism  and 
Christianity,  but  was  to  exist  alongside  of  them  in  per- 
fect harmony.  In  this  spirit  of  conciliation,  and  with 
a  keen  desire  for  cooperation,  he  planned  his  mosque 
at  Medina  so  that  the  worshippers  stood  in  prayer  with 
their  faces  towards  Jerusalem;  and  instituted  a  fast  for 
the  Moslems  in  imitation  of  the  Jewish  fast  of  Ashura. 
Mohammed  could  not  understand  any  hesitation  on 
the  part  of  the  Jews  and  Christians  in  accepting  him  as 
a  true  prophet  to  the  Arabs.  Were  his  people  to  per- 
ish because  no  divine  message  of  warning  and  direction 
had  ever  been  sent  to  them?  He  had  already  definitely 
answered  such  a  plea  of  ignorance  set  up  by  the  idola- 
ters of  Mecca : 

The  book  which  We  have  now  sent  down  is  blessed ;  therefore,  follow 
it  *  *  *  Lest  ye  should  say  "The  scriptures  were  sent  down  to 
two  people  only  before  us."  *  *  ♦  or  lest  ye  should  say,  "If  a 
book  of  divine  revelation  had  been  sent  down  to  us,  we  would  surely 
have  been  better  directed  than  they."  Now  hath  a  manifest  declaration 
come  to  you  from  vour  Lord,  and  a  direction  and  a  mercy,  VI,  155-157. 
(Cf.  VII,  174.) 

To  Mohammed's  mind  it  was  unthinkable  that  God 
should  punish  any  nation  without  first  sending  it  in- 
struction : 

Verily  God  will  not  deal  unjustly  with  men  in  any  respect,  but  men 
deal  unjustly  with  their  own  souls.     X,  45. 

During  the  period  of  his  mission  in  Mecca  the 
prophet  had  developed  the  following  thesis,  and  con- 
firmed it  on  his  first  arrival  in  Medina,  only  to  modify 
it  somewhat,  at  a  later  date: 

I.  There  is  but  one  true  religion,  which  was  once 
universal.  This  appeared  to  him  a  natural  complement 
of  the  belief  in  one  God.  It  followed  that  the  mes- 
sages sent  by  successive  prophets  were  essentially  the 
same: 

Men  were  professors  of  one  religion  only,  but  they  dissented  there- 
from.    X,  20. 

Mankind  was  of  one  faith,  and  God  sent  prophets  bearing  good 
tidings  and  denouncing  threats,  and  sent  down  with  the  scripture  in 
truth.     II,  212. 

He  hath  ordained  you  that  which  He  commanded  Noah,  and  that 
which  We  have  revealed  unto  thee,  and  which  We  commanded  Abra- 
ham and  Moses,  and  Jesus,  saying,  "Observe  this  religion,  and  be  not 
divided  therein."    XLII,  II. 


CONTROVERSY  WITH  JEWS  AND  CHRISTIANS  391 

2.  Every  nation  hath  its  own  prophet,  God  never 
punished  a  people  without  first  sending  an  apostle  to 
warn  them  plainly  in  their  own  language: 

Unto  every  nation  hath  an  apostle  been  sent.     X,  48. 

Every  age  hath  its  book  of  revelations  XIII,  38. 

We  did  not  punish  any  people  until  We  had  first  sent  an  apostle  to 
warn  them.    XVII,  16. 

We  have  therefore  raised  up  in  every  nation  an  apostle.  There  hath 
been  no  nation  but  a  preacher  hath  in  past  times  been  conversant  v^^ith 
them.     XXXV,  22. 

We  have  sent  no  apostle  but  with  the  language  of  his  people,  that  he 
might  declare  their  duty  plainly  to  them.     XIV,  4. 

We  have  not  destroyed  a  city  but  a  fixed  term  of  repentance  was 
appointed  them.     XV,  4. 

3,  The  nations  would  be  called  to  account  on  the 
Day  of  Judgment  for  the  reception  they  had  accorded 
to  these  messengers.  Each  prophet  would  be  raised 
on  that  day  as  a  witness  against  his  own  people.  Mo- 
hammed would  appear  against  the  Arabians. 

On  a  certain  day  We  will  raise  up  in  every  nation  a  witness  against 
them  from  among  themselves ;  and  We  will  bring  thee,  O  Mohammed, 
as  a  witness  against  these  Arabians.  XVI,  86  and  91. 

How  will  it  be  with  the  unbelievers  when  We  shall  bring  a  witness 
out  of  each  nation  against  itself,  and  shall  bring  thee  a  witness  against 
these  people  ?     IV,  40. 

Holding  this  doctrine  as  he  did,  with  such  firm  con- 
viction, Mohammed  could  not  possibly  abandon  his 
claim  to  apostleship  without  violating  his  sense  of  God's 
justice  in  His  dealings  with  men. 

On  political  grounds,  as  well  as  from  religious  sym- 
pathy, the  prophet  sought  earnestly  to  bring  about 
friendly  relationship  with  the  People  of  the  Book.  He 
could  not  afford  to  be  at  variance  with  such  an  influen- 
tial section  of  the  community  at  Medina.  His  own 
position  there  at  the  time  was  precarious  enough,  for  it 
depended  entirely  on  the  good  will  of  the  pagan  tribes. 
So,  we  find  the  first  stage  of  the  controversy  was  of  a 
mild  character: 

Dispute  not  unless  in  the  kindliest  spirit  with  the  People  of  the  Book. 

The  famous  victory  over  the  Meccan  army  at  Badr 
in  the  second  year  after  the  Flight  brought  about  a 
great  change.  Mohammed  became  a  popular  military 
leader,  and  the  number  of  converts  to  the  new  faith 


392  THE  MOSLEM  WORLD 

multiplied  greatly.  The  prophet  could  now  go  his  own 
way  more  independently  of  the  Jews  and  Christians. 
They  had  to  change  their  tone,  and  veil  their  enmity  to 
him,  (II,  30;  III,  119).  His  attitude  towards  them 
turned  from  conciliation  to*  reltictant  toleration.  He 
could  not  ignore  them,  or  attack  them  in  a  body.  The 
Koran  of  this  period  is  silent  on  certain  acts  of  hostility 
which  took  place.  The  prophet  was  beginning  to  realize 
his  power,  and  to  assume  an  air  of  superiority  with- 
out that  deference  with  which  he  had  hitherto  treated 
them  as  heirs  of  the  Law  and  the  Gospel.  He  had  not 
entirely  lost  hope  and  desire  to  gain  the  bulk  of  them 
over  to  his  side.  He  continued  to  make  earnest  appeals 
to  them  to  believe  in  God's  latest  revelation;  he  re- 
counted the  multitude  of  God's  favours  to  them,  and 
besought  them  to  cast  out  vanity  with  persevering 
prayer,  and  keep  their  covenant  with  God. 

O  children  of  Israel,  remember  My  favour  wherewith  I  have 
favoured  you;  and  perform  your  covenant  with  Me,  and  I  will  perform 
My  covenant  with  you  *  *  *  And  believe  in  the  revelation  which 
I  have  sent  down,  confirming  that  which  is  with  you,  and  be  not  the  first 
to  believe  not  therein,  neither  exchange  My  signs  for  a  small  price ;  and 
fear  Me.  Clothe  not  the  truth  with  vanity,  neither  conceal  the  truth 
against  your  own  knowledge  *  *  *  Ask  help  with  perseverance 
and  prayer;  this  is  indeed  grievous  unless  to  the  humble  who  think  they 
shall  meet  their  Lord,  and  that  to  Him  they  shall  return.    II  39  ic. 

"Do  ye  reject  us,"  asks  Mohammed,  ''O  ye  who  have 
received  the  Scriptures,  for  any  other  reason  than  be- 
cause we  believe  in  God  and  that  revelation  which  hath 
been  sent  down  to  us,  and  that  which  was  formerly  sent 
down,  and  for  that  the  greater  part  of  you  are  trans- 
gressors?" (V,  64).  There  was  more  dividing  him  from 
the  Christians  than  is  implied  in  this  question.  He  was 
at  variance  with  them  on  a  matter  of  principle  involv- 
ing the  acceptance  or  the  rejection  of  the  divinity  of 
Christ. 

The  Koran  always  refers  to  Jesus  in  terms  of  highest 
esteem  short  of  attributing  him  to  divine  sonship.  Be- 
side the  ordinary  names,  prophet,  apostle,  servant  of 
God,  he  is  called  (i)  Isa,  (Jesus)  son  of  Mary;  (2) 
the  Messiah;  (3)  the  Word  of  God;  (4)  the  Spirit  of 
(or  from)  God;  (5)  the  Word  of  Truth.     There  is  no 


CONTROVERSY  WITH  JEWS  AND  CHRISTIANS  393 

reference  in  the  Koran  to  Jesus  Christ  as  ''Saviour"; 
salvation  is  only  by  the  mercy  of  God. 

A  long  account,  very  much  in  the  style  of  apocryphal 
books,  is  given  of  the  Annunciation  and  birth  of  Christ 
in  Chapters  III,  42-48,  and  XIX,  16-35.  The  doctrine 
of  the  immaculate  conception  is  accepted: 

— Mary — who  preserved  her  chastity,  and  Into  whose  womb  We 
breathed  of  Our  Spirit.     XLVI,  12. 

— Her,  who  preserved  her  virginity,  and  into  whom  We  breathed  of 
Our  Spirit,  ordaining  her  and  her  son  for  a  sign  unto  all  creatures. 
XXI,  91.     Cf.  IV,   169  and  XIX,   16. 

His  mission  and  miracles  are  acknowledged : 

When  the  angels  said,  "O  Mary,  God  sendeth  thee  good  tidings, 
that  thou  shalt  bear  the  Word  proceeding  from  Himself:  his  name 
shall  be  Christ  Jesus,  the  son  of  Mar>',  honourable  in  this  world  and  in 
the  world  to  come,  and  one  of  those  who  approach  near  God:  and 
he  shall  speak  unto  men  in   the  cradle,   and  when  he  is  grown   up 

*  *  *  God  shall  teach  him  the  Scripture,  and  Wisdom,  and  the 
Law,  and  the  Gospel  *  *  *  an  apostle  to  the  children  of  Israel. 
And  he  shall  say,  * 'Verily,  I  come  unto  you  with  a  sign  from  your  Lord ; 
and  will  make  before  you  of  clay,  as  it  were  the  figure  of  a  bird; 
then  I  will  breathe  thereon,  and  it  shall  become  a  bird  by  the  permission 
of  God:  and  I  will  heal  him  who  hath  been  blind  from  his  birth,  and 
the  leper;  and  I  will  raise  the  dead  by  permission  of  God."  Ill,  45-48. 

We  have  given  Jesus  the  son  of  Mary,  manifest  signs,  and  strength- 
ened him  with  the  Holy  Spirit.    II,  254. 

His  death  and  resurrection  are  referred  to,  in  rather 
contradictory  passages: 

God  said,  O  Jesus,  verily  I  will  cause  thee  to  die,  and  I  will  take  thee 
up  to  Me.    Ill,  54. 

They,  {the  Jews)  have  said,  "Verily  we  have  slain  Christ  Jesus,  the 
son  of  Mary,  the  apostle  of  God."     Yet  they  slew  him  not,  neither 
crucified  him ;  but  he  was  represented  by  one  in  his  likeness     *     *     * 
They  really  did  not  kill  him,  but  God  took  him  up  to  Himself.  IV,  156, 
157. 

Then  follows  this  enigmatical  declaration: 

And  there  shall  not  be  one  of  those  who  have  received  the  Scriptures 
who  shall  not  believe  in  him  before  his  death ;  and  on  the  day.* 

The  whole  passage  is  addressed  to  the  Jews  with  the 
object  of  convincing  them  that  Jesus  was  really  a  proph- 
et. Mohammed  was  now  insisting  that  acceptance  of 
all  prophets  was  incumbent  on  true  believers.  The 
meaning  then  appears  to  be  that  if  all  Jews  as  well  as 

*  Commentators  do  not  agree  on  the  meaning  of  this  verse,  some  referring  "his" 
to  death  of  the  individual,  and  others,  straining  the  sense,  referring  it  to  the  death 
of  Christ  after  his  second  advent.  There  does  not  seem  to  be  any  support  in  the  Koran 
for  the  theory  that  Mohammed  believed  in  the  second  coming  of  Christ.  The  statement  is 
based  on  the  above  contradictory  verses,  the  one  saying  he  would  die,  and  the  other 
dclaring  that  the  Jews  did  not  kill  him,  but  that  he  was.  taken  up  by  God.  The  only 
other  verse  which  can  be  sai'd  to  have  anything  like  a  reference  to  the  Second  Advent 
is  Xlylll,  61,  which  merely  states  that  "He  (Jesue)  shall  be  a  sign  of  the  approach  of 
the  last  hour." 


394  THE  MOSLEM  WORLD 

Christians  were  to  believe  in  Christ  as  an  apostle,  other- 
wise, at  the  Day  of  Judgment,  they  .would  be  held 
responsible  for  their  unbelief,  and  Jesus  would  be  pres- 
ent there  as  a  witness  against  them.  Of  resurrection  he 
shall  be  a  witness  against  them.     (IX.  158). 

Mohammed  is  here  on  slippery  ground.  He  had  only 
just  recently  begun  to  insist  on  his  prophetic  mission 
to  the  People  of  the  Book,  demanding  acceptance  of 
all  prophets,  himself  included,  and  recognition  of  the 
Koran  because  it  confirms  and  preserves  former  Scrip- 
tures and  here  he  emphatically  denies  the  crucifixion 
and  death  of  Christ  as  narrated  in  the  canonical  Gos- 
pels. Moreover,  when  introducing  the  story  of  Jesus 
in  Chap.  Ill  42  seq  *  *  *  a  counterpart  of  the  passage 
(IV  155  seq)  quoted  above,  he  declares  that  this  in- 
formation is  by  direct  revelation. 

This  is  secret  history;  We  reveal  it  unto  thee.     Ill,  44. 

He  had  advanced  a  similar  claim  on  other  occasions, 
(XI,  51  ic;  XII,  3,  103;  XXVIII,  2,  ic.)  when  he  was 
accused  by  his  opponents  of  obtaining  his  ancient  his- 
tory from  certain  individuals.  His  declaration  at  this 
juncture  may  have  been  in  order  to  refute  a  charge  of 
having  taken  his  version  of  the  life  of  Christ  from 
apocryphal  or  heterodox  Christian  sources.  The  effect 
of  his  affirmation  is  distinctly  to  make  the  Koran 
supersede  former  Scriptures.  It  must  be  noted  here, 
however,  that  we  have  no  definite  knowledge  of  what 
books  of  the  New  Testament  Mohammed  was  ac- 
quainted with.  The  Koran  always  mentions  the  Gos- 
pel, but  the  phraseslogy  of  some  verses  recalls  portions 
t)f  the  Epistles. 

The  prophet  in  these  two  passages  (in,  42  seq.,  and 
IV,  155  seq.)  is  making  a  serious  effort  at  adjusting 
the  differences  dividing  the  Jews  and  Christians.  Be- 
fore coming  to  Medina  he  had  had  occasion  to  rebuke 
the  People  of  the  Book  for  their  schisms  among  them- 
selves. 

Verily,  this  your  reh'gion  is  one  reh'gion,  and  I  am  your  Lord ;  where- 
for  serve  Me.  But  they  have  made  schisms  in  the  affair  of  their 
religion  among  themselves;  all  of  them  shall  appear  before  Us.  XXI, 
92,  93. 


CONTROVERSY  WITH  JEWS  AND  CHRISTIANS  395 

This  same  dispute  among  them  was  a  stumbling  block 
to  all  young  Moslem  converts  and  enquirers,  (XLII, 
13).  Here  Mohammed  delivers  his  judgment  between 
the  two  parties.  The  Jews  were  wrong  when  they 
mockingly  boasted  of  having  slain  the  Christian  apostle. 
It  would  not  have  affected  Christ's  office  as  an  apostle 
whether  the  Jews  killed  him  or  not,  for  they  had  slain 
other  prophets,  (IV,  154:  V,  74)  but  the  miraculous 
birth  of  Christ  and  his  ascension  into  heaven  without 
having  first  tasted  death  were  such  manifest  signs  of 
God's  favour  that  no  further  proofs  of  his  apostleship 
should  be  necessary  to  convince  the  Jews  of  their  error 
of  rejecting  him.  On  the  other  hand,  in  denying  the 
death  of  Christ,  he  was  rejecting  one  of  the  cardinal 
factors  in  the  history  and  dogma  of  orthodox  Chris- 
tianity. There  is  no  hint  in  any  of  these  passages  that 
Mohammed  had  in  mind  the  Christian  doctrine  of 
atonement;  he  ignores  it  here  as  he  does  throughout 
the  Koran.  Not  so  with  the  divinity  of  Christ.  After 
giving  his  proofs  that  Jesus  was  a  true  prophet,  he  turns 
round  to  the  Christians  and  warns  them: 

Exceed  not  the  just  bonds  in  your  religion,  neither  say  of  God  any 
other  than  the  truth.  The  Messiah,  Jesus,  son  of  Mary,  is  but  an 
apostle  of  God  and  His  Word  which  he  cast  into  Mary,  and  a  spirit 
from  Him.  Believe  therefore  in  God  and  his  apostles,  and  say  not 
"Three" ;  forbear  this,  it  will  be  better  for  you.  God  is  but  one  God. 
Far  be  it  from  Him  that  He  should  have  .a  son!  IV,  169. 

In  several  other  passages  also  he  strongly  protests^ 
against  the  belief  in  the  divine  sonship  of  Christ: 

Verily  the  likeness  of  Jesus  in  the  sight  of  God  is  as  the  likeness  of 
Adam.  He  created  him  out  of  dust,  and  then  said  to  him,  "Be";  and 
he  was.    Ill,  58. 

They  are  surely  infidels  who  say,  "Verily  God  is  Christ,  the  son  of 
Mary":  they  are  certainly  infidels  who  say,  "God  is  a  third  of  three": 
for  there  is  no  god  beside  one  God.  And  if  they  refrain  not  from  what 
they  say,  a  painful  torment  shall  surely  be  inflicted  on  such  of  them  as 
are  unbelievers.     V.  78. 

Christ  the  son  of  Mary  is  no  more  than  an  apostle.  Other  apostles^ 
have  preceded  him;  and  his  mother  was  a  woman  of  veracity.  They 
both  ate  food.     (i.  e.  they  were  subject  to  human  appetities) .  V.  79. 

It  is  not  meet  for  God  that  He  should  have  a  son. 
God  forbid!  When  He  decreeth  a  thing  He  only 
saith  unto  it,  *'Be"  and  it  is.  XIX,  36.  As  a  clinching 
touch  to  his  argument  he  exclaims: 


396  THE  MOSLEM  WORLD 

Sole  maker  of  heaven  and  earth!  How,  when  He  hath  no  consort 
could  he  have  a  son?     VI,  loi.     See  also  IH,  47:  LXXH,  3. 

Mohammed  went  a  step  further,  and  maintained  that  Christ  never 
made  a  claim  to  divinity,  but  on  the  contrary,  repudiated  the 
idea.     *     *     * 

And  when  God  shall  say  "O  Jesus,  Son  of  Mary,  hast  thou  said 
unto  men,  'Take  me  and  my  mother  for  two  gods  besides  God,'  he 
shall  answer,  *  Praise  be  unto  Thee,  it  is  not  for  me  to  say  that  which 
I  ought  not.  HI  had  said  so,  Thou  wouldst  surely  have  known 
•^  *  *  *  J  ]^^yQ  pQj.  spoken  to  them  any  other  than  what  Thou 
didst  command  me,  namely,  'Worship  God,  my  lord  and  your  lord.* 
V.  116.  117. 

Jesus  said  "I  come  to  confirm  the  law  which  was  revealed  before 
iY\e  *  *  *  I  come  as  a  sign  unto  you  from  your  Lord.  Therefore, 
fear  God,  and  obey  me.  Verily  God  is  my  Lord :  therefore  serve  Him. 
Ill,  49.   50. 

Mohammed^s  conception  of  the  unity  of  God  and  of 
the  uniqueness  of  His  nature  is  best  expressed  in  the 
words  of  Chap.  CXII, — the  very  foundation  of  his 
faith.  This  chapter  was  revealed  early  in  the  prophet's 
career,  and  was  directed  against  the  Meccan  idea  that 
their  idols  were  "daughters  of  God,"  (XXT,  92;  XLIII, 
57-60).  The  original  significance  is  now  almost  for- 
gotten, and  the  bulk  of  the  Moslems  of  to-day,  who 
constantly  use  these  verses  in  their  prayers,  interpret 
them  in  direct  opposition  to  Christianity: 

God  is  one  God;  the  eternal  God.  He  begetteth  not,  neither  is  He 
begotten ;  and  there  is  not  any  one  like  unto  Him.    CXLI. 

Thus,  in  his  dispute  with  the  Christians,  Mohammed's 
sole  aim  is  to  disprove  the  divinity  of  Christ,  a  doctrine 
which  he  understands  only  in  the  anthropomorphic 
sense  of  the  verse  (VT,  loi)  quoted  above.  He  con- 
fuses Mariolatry  with  the  Trinity,  (V,  116)  and  en- 
tirely ignores  the  Holy  Ghost.  The  term  "holy  spirit" 
did  not  convey  to  him  any  meaning  but  that  of  an  angel 
like  Gabriel,  bringing  the  message  to  be  delivered  to 
men. 

The  dispute  with  the  Jews  turned  more  on  the  per- 
sonality and  office  of  Mohammed  himself.  Their  ob- 
jection to  him  was  twofold.  First,  they  declared  that 
all  revelation  and  prophecy  came  in  the  line  of  the 
Hebrews;  they  were  the  chosen  people  of  God.  Sec- 
ondly, the  only  prophet  still  to  come  was  their  own 
Messiah,  who  was  to   restore   the  kingdom   to   Israel. 


CONTROVERSY  WITH  JEWS  AND  CHRISTIANS  397 

On  both  grounds  they  could  concede  nothing  in  favour 
of  Mohammed. 

Against  the  latter  point  the  prophet  maintained  that 
the  Messiah  had  come  in  the  person  of  Jesus  Christ, 
whom  he  calls  by  this  title  in  several  verses  in  the 
Koran;  and  that  ^'Unto  God  belongeth  the  kingdom  of 
Heaven  and  of  earth,"  to  dipose  of  at  His  own  good 
pleasure,  (VH,  157).  In  answer  to  the  former  ob- 
jection he  protested  in  some  really  ^ne  passages  against 
the  idea  that  the  grace  of  God  should  be  held  as  the 
monopoly  of  any  one  nation: 

Verily,  the  true  direction  is  the  direction  of  God,  that  there  may 
be  given  to  some  other  a  revelation  like  unto  what  hath  been  given  unto 
you  *  *  *  Surely  excellance  is  in  the  hands  of  God ;  He  giveth 
unto  whom  He  pleaseth,  God  is  bounteous  and  wise.  He  will  confer 
peculiar  mercy  on  whom  He  pleaseth,  for  God  is  endued  with  great 
beneficence  II,  72  73. 

That  those  who  have  received  the  Scriptures  may  know  that  they  have 
not  power  over  any  of  the  favors  of  God ;  and  that  good  is  in  the  hands 
of  God:  He  bestoweth  the  same  on  whom  He  pleaseth.    LVII,  29. 

The  Jews  say,  "The  hands  of  God  are  tied  up."  Their  hands  shall 
be  tied  up,  and  they  shall  be  cursed  for  that  which  they  have  said. 
Nay!  His  hands  are  both  stretched  forth,  He  bestoweth  as  He  pleaseth. 
V.  69. 

It  is  not  the  desire  of  the  unbelievers  either  those  unto  whom  the 
Scriptures  have  been  given,  or  among  the  idolaters  that  any  good 
should  be  sent  down  unto  you  from  your  Lord;  but  God  will  appro- 
priate His  mercy  unto  whom  He  pleaseth,  for  God  is  exceeding 
beneficent.  II,  104. 

They  say,  **None  shall  enter  paradise  except  those  who  are  Jews 
and  Christians."  This  is  their  wish.  Say,  "Produce  your  proof,  if  ye 
speak  truth."  Nay!  but  he  who  resigneth  himself  to  God,  and  doth 
that  which  is  right,  he  shall  have  his  reward  with  his  Lord:  there 
shall  come  no  fear  on  them,  neither  shall  they  be  grieved.     II,  no,  iii. 

The  baptism  of  God  have  we  received,  and  who  is  better  than  God 
to  baptize?    Him  do  we  w^orship.     11,138. 

If  the  future  mansion  with  God  be  prepared  peculiarly  for  you, 
exclusive  of  the  rest  of  mankind,  wish  for  death,  if  ye  say  truth:  but 
they  will  never  wish  for  it,  because  of  that  which  their  hands  have  sent 
before  them.     II,  93,  94. 

We  have  already  seen  that  Mohammed  could  not 
accept  this  claim  to  exclusiveness  by  the  Jews,  without 
violating  his  sense  of  God's  justice  and  mercy.  God's 
message  is  universal,  and  His  warners  are  sent  to  every- 
nation. 

The  prophet  accused  his  opponents  of  rejecting  him 
out  of  envy  and  jealousy,  (II,  89-108)  whereas  in  their 
hearts  they  knew  him  to  be  true,  and  that  his  coming 


398  THE  MOSLEM  WORLD 

had  been  foretold  in  the  Jewish  and  Christian  writings. 
To  hide  this  they  ^'perverted  the  Scriptures  with  their 
tongues,  and  sold  the  truth  for  a  small  price." 

When  God  accepted  the  covenant  of  the  prophets,  He  said,  "This 
verily  is  the  Scriptures  and  the  wisdom  I  have  given  you:  hereafter 
shall  an  apostle  come  unto  j^ou  confirming  the  truth  of  that  Scripture 
which  is  with  you:  ye  shall  surely  believe  in  him  and  ye  shall  assist 
him."    Ill,  80. 

I  will  write  down  good  unto  those  who  shall  fear  Me  *  *  *  and 
who  shall  follow  the  apostle,  the  illiterate  prophet  whom  they  shall 
find  written  down  with  them  in  the  Law  and  the  Gospel  *  *  * 
Say,  "Verily,  O  Men,  I  am  the  messenger  of  God  unto  you  all :  unto 
Him  belongeth  the  kingdom  of  heaven  and  earth.  *  *  *  Believe 
therefore  in  God  and  His  apostle,  the  illiterate  *  prophet  who  believeth 
in  God  and  His  word,  and  follow  him  that  ye  may  be  rightly  directed. 
VII,  156-159. 

And  when  Jesus  the  son  of  Mary,  said,  "O  children  of  Israel  verily 
I  a7n  an  apostle  of  God  sent  unto  you,  confirming  the  Law  which 
was  delivered  before  me,  and  bringing  good  tidings  of  an  apostle  who 
shall  come  after  me,  and  whose  name  shall  be  Ahmad."  LXI,  6. 

The  Christian  prophecy  as  given  here  is  a  distinct 
reference  to  John  XVI,  7.  Moslem  commentators,  with 
some  ingenuity,  maintain  that  the  word  paraclete  in  the 
New  Testament  is  an  error  for  periclete  which  might 
very  well  be  rendered  in  Arabic  by  Ahmad. 

The  knowledge  of  these  prophetical  passages  in  the 
Scriptures  came  to  Mohammed  through  the  Jews  and 
Christians  themselves,  of  whom  there  were  some  con- 
verts at  Medina,  (III,  199  etc.)  These  new  disciples 
would  naturally  lay  great  stress  on  the  prophecies  as 
the  main  element  in  their  own  conversion.  Very  prob- 
ably, the  first  suggestion  came  from  them  that  the  prom- 
ises referred  to  Mohammed,  who  united  in  his  own 
person  the  Jewish  Messiah  and  the  Christian  paraclete. 
Others  of  the  People  of  the  Book  would  use  the  same 
passages  as  an  argument  against  Mohammed's  claim  to 
be  the  apostle  foretold,  the  Jews  saying  that  the  Mes- 
siah, the  only  prophet  yet  to  come,  was  to  be  the  son 
of  David,  and  the  Christians  looking  forward  to  the 
coming  of  the  "comforter,"  who  was  to  be  sent  in  the 
name  of  Christ.     The  bulk  of  the  Jews  and  Christians 


•  As  Rodwell  points  out  in  loco,  the  word  ummi,  translated  here  by  Sale  as  "illiterate" 
does  not  mean  that  Mohammed  could  no*  read  or  write.  The  same  term  was  used  by 
the  Jews  themselves  for  "the  heathen,"  (III,  74)  Mohammend  applies  it  in  the  sense 
of  "ignorant  of  the  Scriptures"  to  the  Arabs,  (III,  20  and  LXII,  2),  and  also  to  a 
section  of  the  Jews: — "There  are  illiterate  men  among  them  who  know  not  the  book 
of  the  Law,  but  only  lying  stories."  (II,  77)  Which  is  of  the  same  root  as  Mohammed. 


CONTROVERSY  WITH  JEWS  AND  CHRISTIANS  399 

depreciated  the  idea  of  giving  information  to  Mo- 
hammed and  his  followers  of  what  was  contained  in  the 
Scriptures: 

When  they  are  privately  assembled  together  they  say,  ''Will  ye  ac- 
quaint them  with  what  God  hath  revealed  unto  you,  that  they  might 
dispute  with  you  concerning  it?"     II,  75. 

This  verse  gives  the  key  to  the  accusations  brought  by 
Mohammed  from  now  on  against  the  People  of  the 
Book  of  "hiding  the  truth,"  (II,  147)  ;  "concealing  the 
truth  against  their  own  knowledge,"  (II,  41)  ;  "throwing 
it  behind  their  backs,  and  selling  it  for  a  small  price," 
(III,  188)  ;  "perverting"  (IV,  44)  and  "dislocating  the 
words,"  (V,  14).  All  these  charges  centre  round  the 
aversion  of  the  orthodox  Jews  and  Christians  to  dis- 
closing verses  in  their  Scriptures  which  might  in  any 
way  be  interpreted  as  foretelling  the  coming  of  Mo- 
hammed. In  only  one  passage  is  there  a  possible  charge 
of  corrupting  the  text  of  the  Scriptures,  then  extant; 
the  usual  accusations  are  of  hiding,  of  misquoting,  or 
of  wilful  misinterpretation.     In  Chap.  II,  78  we  read: 

Woe  unto  them  who  transcribe  corruptly  the  book  of  the  Law  with 
their  hands,  and  then  say,  ''This  is  from  God,"  that  they  may  sell  it  for  a 
small  price. 

The  prophet  is  dealing  in  that  passage  with  some 
"illiterate"  Jews,  "who  know  not  the  book  of  the  Law 
but  only  lying  stories."  Mohammed  and  his  followers 
did  not  possess  copies  of  the  Scriptures,  so  in  any  dis- 
pute between  him  and  the  People  of  the  Book,  he  chal- 
lenged them  to  produce  their  copy:  "Bring  hither  the 
Pentateuch"  (III,  93)  for  reference  as  authoritative. 

Undoubtedly  the  belief  in  his  coming  having  been 
foretold  in  former  Scriptures  profoundly  affected  Mo- 
hammed's estimate  of  his  own  office.  It  led  him  to 
regard  himself  not  merely  as  the  national  prophet  to 
the  Arabs,  but  also  as  the  promised  apostle  to  the 
Jews  and  Christians,  and  God's  final  messenger  to  man- 
kind in  general. 

It  is  clear  that  Mohammed  did  not  understand  the 
Messianic  hopes  and  expectations  of  the  Jews,  the 
"earthly  kingdom  of  God"  of  the  early  prophets  with 
its  material  advantages  to  the  children  of  Israel,  nor 


400  THE  MOSLEM  WORLD 

the  higher  conception  of  the  ''Kingdom"  in  a  new 
heaven  and  a  new  earth  of  the  latter  apocalyptic.  The 
Christian  ''comforter/'  the  "Spirit  of  truth,  who  dwell- 
eth  within  you,  and  shall  be  in  you"  (John  XIV.  17) 
was  in  his  sight  but  a  human  apostle  like  himself. 

The  passages  from  which  the  verses  quoted  above 
are  taken,  (Chaps.  Ill,  80  seq:  VII,  156  seq:  LXI,  6 
seq.  All  four  sections  are  complementary  to  one  an- 
other in  thought,  and  contain  several  striking  chords  and 
phrases  in  common. 

The  first  step  forward  which  Mohammed  now  took 
is  seen  in  Chap.  V,  13  and  22,  where,  after  accusing  the 
People  of  the  Book  of  dislocating  words  in  their  Scrip- 
tures, forgetting  part  and  concealing  others,  he  makes 
the  following  declaration  to  them,  putting  the  words 
in  the  mouth  of  God : 

Oh  ye  who  have  received  the  Scriptures  now  is  Our  apostle  come 
unto  you  to  make  manifest  unto  you  many  things  which  ye  concealed 
in  your  Scriptures,  and  to  pass  over  mlany  things.  Now  is  a  light  and 
perspicuous  book  come  unto  you  from  God.    V,  16,  17. 

Oh  ye  who  have  received  the  Scriptures  now  is  Our  apostle  come 
unto  you  declaring  unto  you  the  true  religion,  during  the  cessation  of 
prophets,  lest  ye  should  say  ''There  came  unto  us  no  bearer  of  good 
tiding  and  a  warner  came  unto  you."    V,  22. 

The  long  period  of  cessation  of  prophets  since  the 
time  of  Christ  was  at  an  end;  the  promises  of  the  Old 
and  New  Testaments  had  been  long  being  fulfilled,  but 
now  the  long  expected  apostle  had  come  to  them,  bring- 
ing with  him  a  book  of  revelations. 

After  this  we  find  Mohammed  referring  to  the  Jews 
and  Christians  as  those  who  had  received  "part"  of  the 
Scriptures,  (III,  23,  25  and  others).  The  revelation  of 
God  was  not  complete  without  the  Koran,  nor  were 
they  true  believers  who  rejected  the  latest  prophet  and 
his  book  (II,  37  etc). 

In  Chap.  VII,  159  sandwiched  in  between  his  two 
references  to  himself  as  the  "illiterate  prophet  written 
down  with  them  in  the  Law  and  the  Gospel,"  he  places 
this  proclamation  of  universal  apostleship: 

Verily,  I  am  the  messenger  of  God  unto  you  all. 

In  Chap.  LXI,  the  reference  to  the  paraclete  is  fol- 


CONTROVERSY  WITH  JEWS  AND  CHRISTIANS  401 

lowed  by  a  promise  that  Islam  shall  be  victorious  over, 
or  exalted  above,  every  other  religion. 

It  is  He  who  hath  sent  down  the  apostle  with  the  direction  and  the 
reh'gion  of  truth,  that  he  may  exalt  the  same  above  every  religion  LXI,  9. 

Further  we  find  in  Chap.  Ill,  84  that  Islam,  which 
includes  belief  in  all  prophets  from  Adam  to  Mo- 
hammed, is  the  only  religion  acceptable  of  God: 

Whosoever  followeth  any  other  religion  than  Islam,  it  shall  not  be 
accepted  of  him,  and  in  the  next  life,  he  shall  be  of  those  who  perish, 
III,  84. 

The  sequence  of  thought  in  these  passages  points 
clearly  to  the  connection  in  Mohammed's  mind  between 
the  Scriptural  prophecies  and  the  universality  of  his 
office.  The  thesis,  which  he  had  laid  down  during  his 
Meccan  period,  had  now  to  be  modified;  from  this  on 
we  hear  nothing  of  an  apostle  for  every  nation;  Mo- 
hammed had  become  the  ^^seal  of  the  prophets," 
(XXXIII,  40)  ;  the  Moslems  themselves  were  the 
chosen  people  of  God  and  the  bearers  of  his  message 
to  the  rest  of  mankind. 

We  have  sent  thee  an  apostle  unto  men;  and  God  is  a  sufficient 
witness  thereof  IV,  78. 

Verily,  the  true  religion  with  God  is  Islam,  iii,  19. 

Ye  are  the  best  nation,  {or  sect  or  people)  that  hath  been  raised  up 
to  mankind.  Ill,  no. 

He  hath  chosen  you,  and  hath  not  imposed  upon  you  any  difficulty  in 
religion,  the  religion  of  your  father  Abraham.  He  hath  named  you 
Muslims  heretofore,  and  in  this  book ;  that  Our  apostle  may  be  a  witness 
against  you  at  the  day  of  judgment,  and  that  you  may  be  witnesses 
against  the  rest  of  mankind.     XXII,  79.     Cf.  IV,  40,  XVI,  86,  91. 

Thus  have  wc  placed  you  an  intermediate  nation,  {or  a  central  people) 
that  you  may  be  witnesses  against  the  rest  of  mankind,  and  that  apostle 
may  be  a  witnes  against  you.    II,  143. 

They  seek  to  extinguish  the  light  of  God  with  their  mouths  but  God 
willeth  no  other  than  to  perfect  His  light,  though  the  infidels  be  averse 
thereto.  It  is  He  who  hath  sent  His  apostle  with  the  direction  and  the 
true  religion,  that  He  may  cause  it  to  appear  superior  to  any  other 
religion,  although  the  idolaters  be  averse  thereto.     IX,  32,  33. 

He  repeats  the  promise  of  victory  to  Islam  in  one  of 
the  latest  chapters  of  the  Koran: 

He  hath  sent  His  apostle  with  the  direction  and  true  religion  that 
he  may  exalt  the  same  above  every  religion.     XLVIII,  28. 

Then  immediately  follows  the  phrase  Mohammed 
rasul  Allah,  '^Mohammed  is  the  prophet  of  God,"  the 
only  time  it  occurs  in  the  Koran.  This  phrase  forms 
the  second  portion  and  completes  the  great  formula  of 
Islam,  La  ilaha  ill  Allah,  Mohammed  rasul  Allah. 


402  THE  MOSLEM  WORLD 

«• 

It  was  but  natural  for  Mohammed  to  believe  firmly 
in  the  prophecies  of  his  coming.  They  fitted  in  with 
his  own  desires,  and  confirmed  to  him  the  truth  of  his 
message.  Mohammed  was  not  so  great  in  his  concep- 
tion of  God  as  he  was  in  his  conviction,  and  in  his 
power  to  inspire  others  with  the  same  faith.  It  was 
as  an  apostle  that  he  led  his  people  into  battle,  and 
came  out  again,  if  victorious,  to  the  glory  of  God  and 
the  consolidation  of  his  own  office;  if  defeated,  still 
like  the  apostles  of  old  "who  desponded  not  in  their 
mind  for  what  had  befallen  them  in  fighting  for  the 
religion  of  God,  and  were  not  weakened,  neither  be- 
haved themselves  in  an  abject  manner,"  (III,  146).  As 
his  temporal  power  increased,  so  did  his  conviction  in 
his  own  apostleship  deepen.  It  was  as  a  prophet  that 
he  had  touched  the  imagination  of  his  countrymen,  and 
had  become  a  divine  oracle  to  the  pagan  tribes  even 
before  they  accepted  Islam.  All  his  decisions  on  mat- 
ters of  daily  life  as  well  as  on  ceremonials  were  given 
in  the  character  of  the  interpreter  of  God's  will  to 
men.  So  obsessed  was  he  by  his  office  that,  when  he 
was  the  leader  of  only  a  sm^ll  force  which  had  quite 
recently  been  in  great  straits  defending  itself  against 
annihilation,  he,  according  to  Moslem  tradition,  sent 
embassies  to  the  rulers  of  the  Persian  and  Byzantine 
Empires,  and  Egypt,  etc.  demanding  their  acceptance  of, 
and  submission  to  him  as  the  apostle  of  God.  The 
same  conviction  inspired  his  followers  to  face  fearful 
odds,  and,  in  the  exaltation  of  their  faith,  to  sweep 
triumphantly  over  those  empires  which,  a  few  years 
previously,  had  laughed  the  prophet's  messengers  to 
scorn.  The  second  phrase  equally  with  the  first  of 
their  formula  has  entered  into  the  soul  of  Islam  as  it 
possessed  the  soul  of  its  founder. 

Mohammed  charged  the  Jews  as  well  as  the  Chris- 
tians with  defying  their  prophets: 

The  Jews  say,  "Ezra  is  the  son  of  God,"  and  the  Christians  say, 
"Christ  is  the  son  of  God."  This  is  the  saying  in  their  mouths.  They 
imitate  the  saying  of  those  who  were  unbelievers  in  former  times. 
May  God  resist  them !  How  are  they  infatuated !  They  take  their 
priests  and  their  monks  for  their  lords,  besides  God  and  Christ,  the 


CONTROVERSY  WITH  JEWS  AND  CHRISTIANS  403 

son  of  Mary,  although  they  are  commanded  to  worship  one  God  only. 
There  is  no  God,  but  He.     IX,  30-31. 

There  does  not  seem  to  be  any  foundation  for  this 
charge  against  the  Jews  in  general;  but  it  is  difficult 
to  understand  how  Mohammed  could  have  made  a 
statement  of  this  kind  if  he  had  no  grounds  whatsoever 
for  doing  so,  when  the  accusation  could  be  so  easily  and 
promptly  refuted.  He  was  on  firmer  ground  when  he 
taunted  his  opponents  with  being  at  enmity  with  each 
other,  and  with  their  disregard  for  the  revelation  which 
had  been  given  them : 

The  Jews  says,  **The  Christians  lean  on  naught,"  "on  naught  can  the 
Jews,"  say  the  Christians.    II,  112. 

The  likeness  of  those  who  were  charged  with  the  observance  of  the 
Law,  and  then  observed  it  not,  is  at  the  likeness  of  an  ass  laden  with 
books.     LXII,  15. 

They  had  much  learning  but  no  knowledge ;  they  had 
not  the  heart  to  understand. 

Both  Jews  and  Christians  boasted  of  being  the  true 
sons  of  Abraham,  and  the  sons  of  God.  Mohamrned 
treated  this  claim  with  scorn: 

The  Jews  and  Christians  say,  "We  are  the  children  of  God  and  His 
beloved."  Answer, — "Why  then  doth  he  punish  you  for  your  sins?" 
Nay,  but  ye  are  men,  of  those  whom  he  hath  created.    V,  21. 

Abraham  was  neither  Jew  or  a  Christian;  but  he  was  of  the  true 
religion,  one  resigned  unto  God,  and  was  not  of  the  number  of  the 
idolaters.  Verily,  the  men  who  are  nearest  of  kin  unto  Abraham  are 
they  who  follow  him,  and  this  prophet  and  they  who  follow  him.  Ill,  39. 

Mohammed  returns  again  and  again  to  his  original 
statement  that  his  teaching  was  fundamentally  the  same 
as  their  beliefs;  the  divine  command  that  he  had  re- 
ceived and  passed  on  to  the  Arabs  was  the  same  as 
they  themselves  had  received  from  their  prophets: 

Come  to  a  commandment  that  is  common  to  us  and  to  you, — that 
we  worship  not  aught  but  God,  and  that  we  join  no  other  gods  with 
Him;  and  that  we  take  not  one  another  for  lords  besides  God.  Ill,  63. 

We  have  already  commanded  those  unto  whom  the  Scriptures  were 
given  before  you,  and  We  command  you  also,  saying  "Fear  God."  IV, 
130. 

During  his  Meccan  period  Mohammed  had  regarded 
Moses  as  his  hero  amongst  the  prophets;  but  in  the 
Koran  of  Medina  the  first  place  is  given  to  Abraham. 
This  arose  naturally  from  the  Jewish  position.     Moses 


404  THE  MOSLEM  WORLD 

was  the  great  law-giver  and  the  interpreter  of  God's 
will  to  His  chosen  people  regarding  conduct  and  ritual; 
but  they  never  refer  to  the  deity  as  the  ^^God  of  Moses," 
but  as  the  ''God  of  Abraham,  Isaac  and  Jacob";  Abra- 
ham was  their  father  in  God  as  well  as  their  father 
in  the  flesh.  Mohammed  grappled  with  them  on  the 
grounds  they  had  selected  for  themselves.  He  ac- 
cepted Abraham  as  the  "iman,  (leader  of  the  public 
worship),  and  model  in  religion,"  (HI,  66)  ''the  Law 
and  the  Gospel  were  not  sent  down  until  after  him" 
(HI,  64).  He  was  willing  to  put  his  doctrine  to  a  test 
of  comparison  with  the  teaching  of  Abraham,  and  to 
abide  the  result. 

They  saj^  ''Become  Jews  or  Christians,  that  ye  may  be  directed." 
Say,  "Nay!  We  will  follow  the  religion  of  Abraham  the  orthodox  who 
was  no  idolator,  (III,  135  and  II,  120). 

It  was  useless  for  the  Jews  and  Christians  to  taunt 
him  with  his  failure  to  perform  miracles.  Other 
prophets  had  come  before  him  with  these  signs,  only 
to  meet  with  their  death  at  the  hands  of  their  own 
people: 

They  say,  "Surely  God  has  commanded  us  that  we  should  not  give 
credit  to  any  apostle  until  one  should  come  unto  us  with  a  sacrifice 
which  should  be  consumed  by  fire."  Say,  "Apostles  have  already  come 
unto  you  before  me  with  plain  proofs,  and  with  the  miracle  which  ye 
mention;  why  therefore  have  ye  slain  them?"  If  they  accuse  thee  of 
imposture,  the  apostles  before  thee  have  also  been  accounted  impostors, 
who  brought  evident  demonstrations,  and  the  Scriptures,  and  the  book 
which  enlighteneth.  iii,  184,  185. 

Rites  and  ceremonials  were  not  essentials.  Each  sect 
had  its  own  ritual  and  its  laws  by  which  its  members 
had  a  right  to  be  judged,  provided  such  laws  were  not 
contrary  to  later  positive  revelation.  As  Mohammed's 
power  grew  in  Medina,  he  was  more  and  more  looked 
upon  as  the  final  judge  in  all  disputes  between  par- 
ties in  the  community.  The  Jews  were  averse  to  -sub- 
mitting their  cases  to  his  judgment,  preferring  the 
crude  justice  of  the  pagan  authorities.  This  annoyed 
the  prophet,  (IV,  58  etc.).  He  received  instructions 
how  to  deal  with  them  by  divine  revelation. 

With  all  due  regard  and  respect  for  former  Scrip- 
tures, the  final  authority  was  to  be  the  Koran.  Mo- 
hammed  could   not  trust   the  Jews   to   apply   the   "di- 


CONTROVERSY  WITH  JEWS  AND  CHRISTIANS  405 

rection  and  light"  they  had  received  to  their  pagan 
adversaries  who  were  outside  the  benefits  of  the  Law, 
or  to  share  the  ^'kingdom  of  God"  with  the  rest  of 
mankind : 

They  say,  "We  are  not  obliged  to  observe  justice  with  the  heathen" ; 
but  they  utter  a  lie  against  God  knowingly.     Ill,  74. 

Hast  thou  not  considered  those  to  whom  part  of  the  Scriptures  hath 
been  given?  *  *  *  Shall  they  have  part  of  the  kingdom  since 
even  then  they  would  not  bestow  the  smallest  matter  on  men  ?  Do  they 
envy  other  men  that  which  God  of  His  bounty  hath  given  them?  IV, 

49-51. 

Because  of  the  iniquity  of  those  who  Judaize.  We  have  forbidden 
them  good  things,  which  had  formerly  been  allowed  them;  and  because 
they  shut  out  many  from  the  way  of  God.    IV,  159. 

God  had  given  to  the  Jews  the  book  of  law, — "a 
perfect  rule  unto  him  who  should  do  right,  and  a  de- 
termination concerning  all  things"  (VI.  154)  ;  but 
'^they  had  forgotten  the  admonitions  which  had  been 
given  them,"  (VII,  166)  ;  in  consequence  God  had  sub- 
jected them  ''until  the  day  of  resurrection  to  nations 
who  would  afflict  them  with  a  grievous  oppression," 
(VII,  168).  He  dispersed  them  ''among  the  nations 
of  the  earth,  and  proved  them  with  prosperity  and  with 
adversity,  that  they  might  return  from  their  disobe- 
dience" (VII,  169).  In  spite  of  God's  favours  to  them, 
spiritual  and  temporal,  they  persistently  refused  to  ac- 
cept His  signs.  The  punishment  of  those  who  wilfully 
continued  in  their  unbelief  would  be  specially  severe, 
but  those  of  the  People  of  the  Book  who  accepted  Islam 
would  have  a  double  reward  in  the  next  world  (Surahs 
IV,  53,  54;  II:  17s). 

The  failure  of  his  appeal  on,  the  basis  of  prophesy 
and  unity  of  doctrine  caused  Mohammed  to  despair  of 
ever  gaining  his  opponents  over  to  his  side.  The  keen- 
ness of  his  disappointment  is  reflected  in  bitter  passages 
of  reproach  in  the  Koran  of  this  period,  particularly 
against  the  Jews.  The  prophet  retained  some  good 
feeling  towards  the  "followers  of  Jesus,"  "in  whose 
hearts  we  placed  compassion  and  mercy"  (LVII,  27). 

The  Jews  hearken  to  a  lie,  and  eat  of  that  which  is  for  bidden.  V,  45. 

Thou  shalt  surely  find  the  most  violent  of  all  men  in  enmity  against 
the  true  believers  to  be  Jews  and  the  idolaters;  and  thou  shalt  find 
those  among  them  to  be  the  most  inclinable  to  friendship  for  the  true 
believers  who  say,  "We  are  Christians."    This  because  there  are  priests 


4o6  THE  MOSLEM  WORLD 

and  monks  among  them,  and  because  they  are  not  elated  with  pride. 
V,85. 

The  controversy  went  on  at  Medina  for  about  four 

years,  gradually  becoming  more  and  more  embittered 
as  his  opponents,  in  Mohammed^s  estimation,  persisted 
in  their  sinful  obstinacy,  and  rejected  his  advances. 
His  attitude  towards  them  passed  through  the  several 
phases  of  conciliation,  toleration  and  estrangement  to 
open  hostility.  In  keeping  with  these  different  phases 
we  find  Mohammed  departing  further  and  further  from 
the  ritual  of  the  Jews  which  he  had  once  in  a  measure 
accepted  or  closely  imitated.  There  was  no  more  de- 
sire for  union  or  cooperation  with  the  other  mono- 
theists. 

Though  Mohammed  never  regarded  ceremonials  as 
of  vital  importance,  he  recognized  that  certain  formali- 
ties may  be  of  use  to  the  weak  in  faith,  and  serve  as  a 
bond  of  union  among  believers  and  a  distinction  from 
other  religions.  Like  his  code  of  laws,  his  system  of 
rites  was  a  growth;  he  never  set  himself  to  elaborate  a 
scheme,  but  decided  each  point  as  it  was  raised. 

On  his  first  arrival  in  Medina  the  prophet  had  com- 
manded his  followers  to  fast  on  the  same  day  as  the 
Jews.  He  now  substituted  for  that  the  fast  of  Rama- 
dan, a  whole  lunar  month  during  which  Moslems  are 
forbidden  to  eat,  drink,  or  smoke,  from  two  hours  be- 
fore dawn  to  sunset  each  day.  He  regretted  his  choice 
of  Jerusalem  as  his  kiblah,  and  for  some  time  he  was 
sorely  troubled  in  his  mind  to  find  a  spot  sacred  enough 
to  take  its  place.  Possibly  this  state  of  indecision  lasted 
for  many  months,  during  which  period  he  tried  many 
points  of  the  compass  without  satisfaction.  The  diffi- 
culty was  overcome  by  a  direct  revelation§  appointing 
the  Ka'aba  at  Mecca  as  the  Moslem  kiblah  to  which  the 
faithful  were  to  turn  their  faces  in  prayer;  it  was  to 
be  to  the  Moslems  what  Solomon  made  the  temple  in 
Jerusalem  to  the  Jews,  (i  Kings,  VHI,  the  centre  of 
all  worship.     This  was  not  obligatory  on  the  Jews  and 


§  Moslem  tradition  states  that  the  first  suggestion  to  adopt  the  Kabah  as  their  kiblar 
was  made  by  Omar,  the  friend  of  Mohammed  and  afterwards  second  Caliph.  This  is 
quite  probable.  Mohammed  was  quick  at  taking  a  hint,  and  if  the  matter  was  importan 
enougn,  a  revelation  would  follow  to  give  the  decision  a  divine  sanction. 


CONTROVERSY  WITH  JEWS  AND  CHRISTIANS  407 
Christians;  it  was  purely  a  sectarian  detail: 

It  is  not  rightousness  that  ye  turn  your  faces  in  prayer  towards  the 
east  or  west,  but  righteousness  is  of  him  who  believeth  in  God  and  the 
last  day,  and  the  angels,  and  the  Scriptures,  and  the  prophets:  who 
giveth  money  for  God's  sake  unto  his  kindred,  and  unto  orphans,  and 
the  needy,  and  the  stranger,  and  those  who  ask,  and  for  the  redemption 
of  captives;  who  is  constant  at  prayer,  and  giveth  alms;  and  of  those 
who  perform  their  covenants  when  they  have  convenanted;  and  who 
behave  themselves  patiently  in  adversity,  and  hardship,  and  in  times  of 
violence :  these  are  they  who  are  true,  and  these  are  they  who  fear  God. 
II,  177. 

The  foolish  say,  "What  hath  turned  them  from  their  kiblah  which 
they  used  ?"     Say,  "The  East  and  West  and  God's." 

We  have  seen  thee  turn  they  face  towards  heaven  with  uncertainity, 
but  We  will  cause  thee  to  turn  thyself  towards  a  kiblah  that  will 
please  thee.  Turn  therefore  thy  face  towards  the  holy  temple  of 
Mecca)  and  wherever  ye  be  turn  your  faces  towards  that  place,  ii,  145. 

Every  sect  hath  a  certain  tract  of  heaven  to  which  they  turn  them- 
selves in  prayer.    II,  149. 

When  remonstrated  with,  probably  by  the  Jews,  for 
departing  so  widely  from  precedents,  he  answered,  as 
usual  putting  the  words  as  a  divine  command: 

Say,  Will  ye  dispute  with  us  concerning  God  who  is  our  Lord  and 
your  Lord?  We  have  our  works,  and  ye  have  your  works,  and  unto 
Him  are  we  sincerely  devoted.  Will  ye  say,  'Truly  Abraham  and 
Ismael  and  Jacob  and  the  tribes  were  Jews  or  Christians?"  Say,  "Are 
ye  wiser,  or  God?"     II,  139. 

Unto  the  professors  of  every  religion  have  We  appointed  certain 
rites  which  they  observe.  Let  them  therefore  not  dispute  with  thee 
concerning  this  matter:  but  invite  them  unto  thy  Lord,  for  thou  fol- 
lowest  the  right  direction.    XXII,  68. 

The  adoption  of  the  Ka'aba  as  the  Moslm  kiblah 
marks  a  definite  breach  with  the  Jews  and  Christians. 
From  this  on  they  were  to  be  regarded  as  enemies,  and 
not  sought  as  friends: 

O  true  believers,  take  not  the  Jews  and  Christians  for  your  friends; 
they  are  friends  the  one  to  the  other;  and  whoso  among  you  taketh 
them  for  his  friends,  he  is  surely  one  of  them.  V,  56. 

O  true  believers,  take  not  such  of  those  to  whom  the  Scriptures  were 
given  before  you,  or  of  the  infidels,  for  your  friends,  who  make  a 
laughing-stock  and  a  jest  of  your  religion.  V,  62. 

When  Mohammed  turned  his  face  towards  Mecca, 
he  turned  his  back  forever  on  Jerusalem;  henceforth 
it  was  to  be  war. 

Why  did  not  the  prophet  fix  upon  the  mosque  ht 
himself  had  built  as  the  kiblah  for  the  Moslems?  Why 
did  he  not  proclaim  Medina,  his  chosen  home,  as  the 
holy  city  of  Islam?  The  thought  never  seems  to  have 
struck  him.     We  can  only  judge  that  the  bent  of  his 


4o8  THE  MOSLEM  WORLD 

mind  was  towards  precedent  and  tradition.  His 
thoughts  had  lately  dwelt  on  the  history  of  Abraham; 
the  trend  of  the  debate  with  the  Jews  and  Christians 
had  exalted  the  patriarch  to  the  position  of  model  of 
religion  and  fountainhead  of  monotheistic  teaching. 
Mohammed  relied  on  and  constantly  used,  the  argu- 
ment based  on  the  unity  of  his  teaching  with  that  of 
the  ancient  prophets;  his  position  would  be  further 
strengthened  if  he  could  attach  his  religious  practices 
to  a  place  and  form  of  worship  which  l]ad  the  prestige 
of  antiquity.  The  Meccan  tradition  of  the  coming  of 
Abraham  and  Hagar  with  their  child  Ishmael  to  the 
valley  of  Mecca,  or  Beccah  as  it  was  then  called  (XIV, 
38  seq.)  and  of  the  building  there  of  the  ^'house  of 
God,"  by  father  and  son  (II,  127  seq.)  supplied  him 
with  the  desired  link  with  the  past.  It  did  more,  it 
appealed  eventually  to  national  sentiment  by  connect- 
ing an  early  divine  revelation  and  organized  worship 
with  the  Arabs,  giving  them  priority  over  the  He- 
brews who  had  so  long  and  vaingloriously  claimed  the 
exclusive  favour  of  God: 

Verily,  the  first  house  appointed  unto  men  to  worship  in  was  that 
which  was  in  Becca;  blessed,  and  a  direction  to  all  creatures.  Therein 
are  manifest  signs,  the  place  where  Abraham  stood;  and  whosoever 
entereth  therein  shall  be  safe.     Ill,  96,  97. 

Some  European  authors  of  high  standing  hold  that 
this  story  of  the  connection  between  Abraham  and  Mec- 
ca is  the  product  of  Mohammed's  own  brain,  invented 
to  supply  him  with  the  means  of  conciliating  the  Mec- 
cans  and  of  preserving  their  prosperity,  much  of  which 
was  derived  from  the  pilgrims  to  the  holy  shrine;  and 
appealing  at  the  same  time  to  the  national  pride  of  the 
Arabs.  They  do  not  quite  prove  their  case.  There  is 
too  much  tendency  to  interpret  Mohammed's  motives 
and  policy  in  the  light  of  subsequent  events,  which  he 
could  not  possibly  have  foreseen.  The  prophet's  genius 
was  not  so  much  inventive  as  it  was  adaptive.  There 
are  references  to  the  sacred  character  of  Mecca  and  its 
district  in  chapters  generally  regarded  as  having  been 
revealed  before  the  Hijra, — XIV,  38  etc.  The  refer- 
ence to  the  ''holy  temple"  and  the  sin  of  keeping  men 


CONTROVERSY  WITH  JEWS  AND  CHRISTIANS  409 

away  from  it,  in  the  prophet's  apology  for  the  affair  at 
Nakhla,  (II,  216)  should,  in  our  opinion,  be  dated  be- 
tween the  abandoning  of  Jerusalem  and  the  adopting  of 
the  Ka'aba  as  kiblah;  it  was  certainly  revealed  long 
before  the  prophet  thought  of  proclaiming  the  pilgrim- 
age to  Mecca  a  duty  incumbent  on  Moslems.  Even  be- 
fore the  time  of  Mohammed  the  Meccans  believed  in 
the  existence  of  a  great  remote  God  whom  they  sought 
only  in  the  times  of  greatest  distress  (XVII,  69).  Like 
the  nations  in  Samaria,  (ii  Kings  XVII,  41)  ''they 
feared  the  Lord,  but  served  their  own  graven  images." 
The  prophet's  task  was  therefore,  not  to  convince  them 
of  the  existence  of  Allah,  but  to  prove  that  nothing  but 
He  was  divine.  He  set  himself  to  bring  man  into  a 
closer  relation  with  God;  still,  by  laying  such  emphasis 
on  the  uniqueness  of  His  nature,  he  has  left  Him  the 
great  lone  God  of  Islam.  The  prevalence  of  this  be- 
lief is  used  as  an  argument  in  support  of  the  theory  that 
the  Meccan  Arabs  were  descended  from  a  monotheistic 
stock,  in  fact,  from  Ishmael  whose  second  son,  Kedar, 
was  the  ancestor  in  a  direct  line  of  the  prophet  Mo- 
hammed. Nowhere  in  the  Koran  itself  is  such  a  claim 
definitely  advanced,  nor  does  it  state  clearly  that  Ish- 
mael was  the  one  offered  up  for  sacrifices,  as  many 
Moslem  authors  maintain.  Ishmael  is  certainly  given 
a  high  rank  among  the  ancient  prophets.  In  the  Chap- 
ter of  Commemoration  (XIX)  of  all  the  prophets  men- 
tioned therein  Ishmael  and  Moses  alone  are  given  the 
dignity  of  apostles;  the  rest,  even  Jesus,  are  mere 
prophets.  It  may  be  argued  with  some  show  of  force 
that  the  descent  from  Ishmael  was  so  universally  ac- 
cepted, even  by  the  Jews,  that  Mohammed  never 
thought  it  necessary  to  emphasize  the  point  by  revela- 
tion. The  tone  of  the  Koran  lends  itself  somewhat  to 
such  an  inference. 

Though  the  tradition  may  have  been  current  among 
the  Arabs,  Mohammed  did  not  make  use  of  it  in  his 
earlier  years  because,  at  that  time,  the  Jews  loomed  so 
largely  in  his  mind  as  the  curators,  and  Jerusalem  as 
the  centre  of  the  true  religion.     In  this  spirit,  when 


4IO  THE  MOSLEM  WORLD 

referring  to  his  night  journey  to  heaven  in  Chap.  XVII, 
I,  he  speaks  of  the  Ka'aba  as  the  ''sacred  mosque"  but 
accords  a  greater  need  of  sanctity  to  the  temple  at 
Jerusalem, — "whose  precinct  We  have  blessed";  the 
road  to  hempen  passed  through  Jerusalem.  After  a  few 
years  of  close  acquaintance  with  the  Hebrews,  he  re- 
vised his  estimate  of  them;  and  probably  rejoiced  at 
finding  an  opportunity  of  striking  a  blow  at  their  na- 
tional and  religious  pride. 

Mohammed's  whole  public  effort  had  been  directed 
at  destroying  the  idolatrous  worship  in  Mecca.  The 
fact  that  this  city  had  been  so  long  the  religious  capital 
of  Arabia  had,  no  doubt,  great  weight;  the  possession 
of  it  would  mean  a  tremendous  triumph  of  the  ''true 
religion"  over  paganism;  but  at  that  time,  when  Mo- 
hammed adopted  the  Ka'aba  as  his  kiblah,  he  had  no 
prospects  of  subduing  Mecca.  His  power  was  not  ab- 
solute over  Medina  itself,  and  his  influence  extended 
only  over  a  few  tribes  in  the  immediate  vicinity.  Mo- 
hammed confesses  that  he  was  not  a  prophet  in  the 
sense  of  foreseeing  events  and  knowing  the  secrets  of 
God.  (VII,  i88.) 

A  filial  hankering  after  the  city  of  his  birth  was 
natural;  but  he  had  made  a  compact  with  the  Medinites 
that  their  city  should  be  his  home,  her  people  his 
people.  Mecca  could  not  therefore  become  his  head- 
quarters. Nor  was  it  the  pressure  of  public  opinion 
among  his  followers  which  induced  him  to  make  Mecca 
the  centre  of  Islam.  At  that  time  the  majority  of  his 
converts  were  natives  of  Medina  and  not  Muhajireen 
(refugees)  and  their  interests  were  in  their  own  home. 

Further,  we  know  from  subsequent  events  that  this 
appeal  to  the  national  pride, — if  it  were  meant  as  such, 
had  not  much  force  except  amongst  those  who  had  ac- 
cepted Islam.  The  adoption  of  the  Ka'aba  as  the  Mos- 
lem kiblah  made  no  impression  upon  the  unbelieving 
Meccans;  it  was  Mohammed's  growing  military  power 
that  induced  them,  some  years  later,  to  agree  to  the 
prophet  and  his  followers  visiting  the  holy  places  as 
pilgrims.     In  his  preamble  to  the  Proclamation  of  Pil- 


CONTROVERSY  WITH  JEWS  AND  CHRISTIANS  411 

grimage  Mohammed  enters  a  claim  to  the  right  of  the 
stranger  equally  with  that  of  the  Meccans  themselves 
to  perform  the  rites  of  the  Hajj.  (XXII,  25).  It  was 
by  peaceful  negotiation  that  he  hoped  to  secure  these 
rites,  and  not  by  conquest.  He  looked  forward  to 
nothing  more  than  being  allowed  to  go  there,  just  as 
every  other  pilgrim  had  been  doing  for  centuries,  and 
perform  the  rites  appertaining  to  his  own  religion. 

The  prophet  could  not  have  meant  it  for  the  sake 
of  securing  the  prosperity  of  Mecca,  for  he  recognizes 
that  his  success  as  a  preacher  meant  a  danger  of  loss  of 
profits  to  the  city  (IX,  28).  Even  if  he  had  visions 
of  the  tribes  coming  to  him  in  troops,  they  came  as 
Moslems;  and  as  Moslems  they  would  have  come  to 
Medina  quite  as  readily,  and  accepted  any  rites  he 
wished  to  impose  upon  them  as  they  did  the  fast  of 
Ramadan,  the  most  onerous  of  all  Moslem  duties. 

If  we  seek,  therefore,  the  primary  motive  of  Mo- 
hammed's action  in  these  circumstances,  we  find  it  in 
his  desire  to  get  away  from  the  official  religion  of  the 
Jews,  at  a  time  when  he  had  just  assumed  the  office 
of  apostle  to  mankind  in  general.  The  Jews  had  made 
their  religion  a  national  and  not  a  universal  one,  con- 
trary to  what  Mohammed  believed  to  be  the  teaching 
of  Abraharri,  and  the  purpose  of  God;  they  had  been 
chosen  to  propagate  the  faith,  and  not  to  reserve  God's 
favours  to  themselves. 

There  must  have  been  something  in  the  character  and 
history  of  Mecca  which  appealed  strongly  to  him  as  an 
apostle,  something  sacred  to  which  he  could  attach  his 
message.  It  was  not  filial  love,  hope  of  conquest,  vi- 
sions of  future  success.  He  says  it  was  the  connection 
between  Abraham  and  the  holy  temple. 

Whether  this  belief  already  existed  among  the  Arabs, 
or  was  imposed  upon  them  by  ^^divine  revelation,"  it 
became  an  important  factor  in  the  success  of  Islam  after 
the  conquest  of  Mecca,  and  forms  an  integral  part  of  the 
faith,  and  a  source  of  pride  to  all  believers. 

Mohammed's  desire  to  seize  the  stronghold  of  idola- 
try can  readily  be  understood,  but  not  so  easily  his  tak- 


412  THE  MOSLEM  WORLD 

ing  over  the  rites  practised  by  the  idolaters,  and  making 
them  his  own.  There  are  some  indications  in  the 
Koran  that,  when  he  first  decided  on  the  pilgrimage, 
he  did  not  intend  to  adopt  all  the  forms  of  ritual  which 
Were  customary  at  the  temple ;  some  of  them  he  referred 
to  contemptuously  as  mere  ^'whistling  and  clapping  of 
hands,"  (VIII,  35).  He  may  even  have  purged  them 
of  some  of  their  worst  features.  He  meant  to  impose 
certain  ceremonials  which  he  conceived  to  be  more  in 
accordance  with  the  custom  of  the  patriarch  Abraham. 
The  Scriptures  never  refer  to  the  patriarchs,  before  the 
time  of  Solomon,  as  building  a  ''house  of  God";  they 
always  erected  an  altar.  This  gave  him  ah  opportunity 
of  emphasizing  the  priority  of  the  Ka'aba  over  the 
temple  at  Jerusalem,  by  stating  that  the  first  house  ''ap- 
pointed by  God  unto  men"  was  at  Becca.  This  house, 
however,  was  not  like  Solomon's  temple,  a  place  for 
God  "to  dwell  in  forever,"  but  w^as  built  for  public 
worship.  This  house  of  God  had  its  altar,  for  sacrifice 
is  a  "duty  which  God  appointed  to  the  professors  of 
every  religion,"  (XXII,  36).  The  Koran  states  dis- 
tinctly that  the  place  for  sacrificing  the  victims  was 
the  Ka'aba,  "the  ancient  house,"  the  same  ancient 
house"  as  they  were  to  compass  (XXII,  31  and  35). 
Why  the  sacrifices  are  offered  now  at  Mina,  as  they 
were  by  Mohammed  himself,  and  not  at  the  Ka'aba  as 
definitely  commanded  in  these  verses,  the  Koran  does 
not  explain.*  Even  when,  a  few  years  later,  he  en- 
tered Mecca  as  a  conqueror,  and  could  have  imposed 
ordinances  at  his  pleasure,  he  adopted  most  of  the  pagan 
rites  already  in  practice  there.  Did  he  find,  after  all, 
that  it  is  easier  to  change  principles  than  to  do  away 
with  habits  and  customs  of  long-standing?  Or  was  the 
apostle  by  now  merged  in  the  politician?  His  old  atti- 
tude towards  ritual,  regarding  it  as  not  fundamental, 
may  have  had  something  to  do  with  his  decision.     Some 


♦  Er  Razi  says:  "They  feared  to  defile  Mecca  with  blood  and  sacrifice  at  Mina; 
but  it  is  incumbent  at  Mecca,  though  Mina  is  part  of  Mecca."  Vol.  VI:  p.  157.  Tabari 
says:  "The  old  house  is  the  Ka'aba,  but  is  also  includes  the  whole  of  Mecca  and  its 
environs."  Vol.  XVII.  p.  116.  The  commentators  are  not  happy  in  their  explanation. 
The  Moslems  do  not  compass"  the  whole  of  the  sacred  district  of  Mecca,  including 
Mina  which  is  miles  away.  The  meaning  of  the  verse  is  perfectly  clear,  but  sanitary 
considerations  may  have  led  the  prophet  to  change  his  first  order,  for  the  temple 
occupies  the  bottom  of  a  valley,  where  drainage  is  impossible  except  by  modern  machinery. 


CONTROVERSY  WITH  JEWS  AND  CHRISTIANS  413 

of  the  customary  rites  which  are  now  taken  as  obliga- 
tory, he  looked  upon  as  merely  harmless  and  per- 
missible: 

Safa  and  Markah  *  *  *  it  shall  be  no  crime  in  you  if  ye  compass 
them  both.      (II,   159.) 

He  was,  however,  very  careful  to  explain  the  mean- 
ing and  object  of  sacrifice, — ''to  commemorate  the  name 
of  the  Lord,"  ''to  render  thanks  to  Him  for  His  bounti- 
ful gifts  in  the  brute  cattle,"  and  "to  magnify  God." 
The  victims  slain  are  "the  symbols  of  your  obedience 
to   God,"    (XXn,   38);   there   was   no   atoning  value: 

Their  flesh  is  not  accepted  of  God,  neither  is  their  blood,  but  your 
piety  is  accepted  of  Him.     XXII,  39. 

Mohammed  probably  regarded  "atoning  value"  as  a 
doctrine  introduced  into  Judaism  later  than  the  time  of 
Abraham,  and  contrary  to  his  teaching.  In  this  pas- 
sage dealing  with  the  institution  of  sacrifice,  there  is  a 
faint  echo  of  the  wording  in  the  Old  Testament.  The 
phrase  "to  commemorate  the  name  of  the  Lord"  is 
repeated  three  times,  and  corresponds  with  the  Scrip- 
tural sentence  used  to  define  the  object  and  nature  of 
the  worship  offered  by  Abraham  wherever  he  built  an 
altar  in  the  name  of  the  Lord,"  (Gen.  XH  and  XHI). 

The  closing  phase  of  the  controversy  is  marked  by 
threats,  more  particularly  against  the  Jews  whom  Mo- 
hammed accused  of  intriguing  against  the  Moslems; 
but  the  prophet  was  cautious,  and  would  not  strike  until 
he  felt  the  enemy  entirely  in  his  power: 

Many  of  those  unto  whom  the  Scriptures  have  been  given  desire 
to  render  you  again  unbelievers,  after  ye  have  believed;  out  of  envy 
from  their  souls,  even  after  the  truth  is  become  manifest  unto  them; 
but  forgive  them,  and  avoid  them,  till  God  shall  send  His  command. 
II,  108. 

Oh  ye  to  whom  the  Scriptures  have  been  given,  believe  in  the 
revelation  which  We  have  sent  down  confirming  that  which  is  with 
you,  before  We  deface  your  countenances,  and  render  them  as  the 
back  parts  thereof ;  or  curse  them  as  We  cursed  those  who  transgressed 
on  the  Sabbath  day.     IV,  45. 

And  if  they  who  have  received  the  Scriptures  had  believed,  it  had 
surely  been  better  for  them,  but  the  greater  part  of  them  are  transgres- 
sors. They  shall  not  hurt  you  except  with  a  slight  hurt;  and  if  they 
fight  against  you,  they  shall  turn  their  backs  to  you,  and  they  shall  not 
be  helped.  They  are  smitten  with  vileness  wheresoever  they  are 
found;  unless  they  obtain  security  by  entering  into  a  treaty  with  God, 
and  a  treaty  with  men  and  they  draw  on  themselves  indignation  from 
God,  and  they  are  afflicted  with  poverty.    This  they  suffer  because  they 


414  THE  MOSLEM  WORLD 

disbelieved  the  signs  of  God,  and  slew  the  prophets  unjustly;  this 
because  they  were  rebellious  and  transgressors.    Ill,  1 1 1,  112. 

To  learn  the  fate  of  the  People  of  the  Book  of  Me- 
dina, and  the  final  stage  in  the  controversy,  we  have  to 
supplement  the  Koranic  account  by  a  few  details  from 
Moslem  history,  without  entering  on  an  examination 
of  the  reasons  given  there  for  Mohammed's  action.  The 
prophet  himself  has  stated  in  the  quotations  given  be- 
low what  were  his  main  motives,  and  the  only  ones  he 
regarded  as  important  enough  to  be  incorporated  in 
the  Koran. 

The  Christians  escaped  lightly  by  submitting  to  pay- 
ing tribute,  but  a  worse  fate  was  in  store  for  the  Jews. 
Of  them,  there  were  three  main  branches  or  tribes  at 
Medina, — the  Banu  Kainuka,  the  Banu  Nadhir,  and  the 
Banu  Kuraizah.  These  dwelt  in  separate  fortified 
suburbs  of  the  city,  and  entirely  lacked  cohesion  amongst 
themselves.  The  prophet  was  well  aware  of  this,  (II, 
83,  84),  and  dealt  with  them  by  sections.  The  first  to 
be  attacked,  not  long  after  the  victory  at  Badr,  were 
the  Banu  Kainuka,  the  smallest  of  the  tribes.  After  a 
short  siege,  they  were  compelled  to  surrender.  Mo- 
hammed's own  will  inclined  to  severity  and  the  pun- 
ishment of  death,  but  he  had  to  yield  to  the  more 
merciful  persuasion  of  some  powerful  pagan  chiefs,  and 
content  himself  with  banishing  the  whole  tribe  to  the 
confines  of  Syria.  Two  years  later  came  the  turn  of 
the  Banu  Nadhir,  who  were  also  exiled,  after  having 
been  plundered  of  much  of  their  wealth.  The  Koranic 
account  of  this  incident  is  as  follows: 

It  was  He  who  caused  those  who  believed  not,  of  the  people  who 
received  the  Scriptures,  to  depart  from  their  inhabitation  at  the  first 
emigration.  Ye  did  not  think  they  would  go  forth,  and  they  thought 
that  their  fortresses  would  protect  them  against  God.  But  God  came 
upon  them  from  whence  they  did  not  expect,  and  He  cast  terror  into 
their  hearts.  They  pulled  down  their  houses  with  their  own  hands, 
and  the  hands  of  the  believers.  Wherefore,  take  example  from  them, 
O  ye  who  have  eyes.  And  if  God  had  not  doomed  them  to  banishment, 
He  had  surely  punished  them  in  this  world ;  and  in  the  world  to  come 
they  shall  suffer  the  torment  of  hell  fire.  This,  because  they  opposed 
God  and  His  apostle.     LIX,  2-5. 

The  Banu  Kuraizah  suffered  more.  Medina  had 
been   besieged,   unsuccessfully,   but  very  hard   pressed, 


CONTROVERSY  WITH  JEWS  AND  CHRISTIANS  415 

by  a  confederation  of  tribes  bent  upon  the  destruction 
of  this  power  which  menaced  the  security  of  their  cara- 
van routes.  When  the  enemy  raised  the  siege  and  drew 
off,  Mohammed,  who  was  in  a  bitter  mood,  turned  his 
forces  against  the  Banu  Kuraizah,  whom  he  suspected 
and  accused  of  secretly  assisting  the  enemy.  When,  at 
length,  the  Jews  were  compelled  to  surrender  uncon- 
ditionally, their  wealth  was  confiscated,  the  women  and 
children  were  made  slaves,  and  all  the  males  above  the 
age  of  puberty  were  put  to  death.  The  number  of  men 
thus  slaughtered  is  variously  given  from  six  hundred 
to  nine  hundred.  The  event  is  thus  recorded  in  the 
Koran : 

God  hath  driven  back  the  infidels  in  their  wrath;  they  obtained  no 
advantage;  and  God  was  a  sufficient  protector  unto  the  faithful  in 
battle  *  *  ♦  And  He  hath  caused  such  of  those  who  have  received 
the  Scriptures  as  assisted  the  confederates  to  come  out  of  their  fortresses, 
and  He  cast  terror  into  their  hearts.  A  part  of  them  ye  slew,  and  a  part 
ye  made  captives.  And  God  hath  caused  you  to  inherit  their  land  and 
their  houses  and  their  wealth.    XXXIII,  26. 

Whatever  charges  can  be  made  against  these  Jewish 
tribes  of  weakness,  of  intrigue,  and  of  breach  of  faith, 
they  cannot  be  accused  of  moral  cowardice.  For  a 
^^small  price," — merely  the  recognition  of  Mohammed 
as  a  prophet,  they  could  have  purchased  peace  and 
security.  The  general  command  applied  to  them  equal- 
ly, perhaps  more  readily  than  to  the  pagan  folk, — ''Ye 
shall  fight  against  them  or  they  shall  profess  Islam" 
(XLVIII,  16).  They  chose,  instead,  to  face  and  to 
suffer  poverty,  exile  and  death.  They  were  true  to 
the  faith  that  was  in  them. 

This  was  the  end  of  the  controversy;  and  this  was 
the  end  of  the  Jews  at  Medina,  because  ''they  opposed 
God  and  His  Apostles"   (LIX,  5). 

J.  Bryan. 
Alexandria,  Egypt, 


NOTES  ON  CURRENT  TOPICS 


The  Strategic  Value  of  Egypt 

Mr.  A.  Y.  Steel,  of  the  Egypt  General  Mission,  writing  from 
Shebin-el-Kanater,  describes  the  New  Egypt  as  follows: 

In  speaking  of  mission  work  in  Egypt,  it  is  well  ever  to  keep  before 
us  the  important  position  this  country  has  ever  held  in  the  Near 
East;  and  although  destined,  according  to  the  Scriptures,  to  "be  the 
basest  of  the  kingdoms,"  and  never  to  have  a  ruler  of  Egyptian  extrac- 
tion (Ezek.  xxix.  15  ;  xxx.  13)  it  still  holds,  with  ever  increasing  import- 
ance a  most  central  place.  On  the  desert,  a  few  miles  from  here,  we  have 
the  largest,  or  one  of  the  largest,  wireless  stations  in  the  world,  where 
direct  communication  is  kept  up  with  England,  India,  and  South 
Africa,  and  where  is  picked  up  the  wireless  news  of  all  the  European 
capitals.  A  large  aeroplane  base  is  being  formed  for  the  development 
of  commercial  aviation,  from  whence  we  may,  ere  long,  hear  the 
porters  shouting,  "Change  planes  for  India,  China,  Australasia  Khartum, 
Uganda,  and  The  Cape."  With  the  great  railway  developments  in 
progress  we  may  be  able  to  come  and  go  from  the  homeland,  via 
Constantinople,  practically  dry-shod  all  the  way.  We  must  pray  and 
trust  that  all  these  new  lines  of  communication  may  become  so  many 
arteries  for  carrying  the  life-giving  message  of  the  Cross." 

Literary  Work  in  Egypt 

Mr.  George  Swan  writes  as  follows  in  the  last  number  of  the 
magazine  of  the  Egypt  General  Mission: 

"The  colloquial  translation  of  Genesis  is  complete,  and  several  manu- 
script copies  are  being  tested  in  our  village  stations.  I  hope  to  glean 
useful  suggestions  for  an  improvement  of  the  text.  The  Gospel  of  John 
is  well  under  way. 

"The  past  year  has  seen  a  considerable  return  of  our  magazine, 
'Beshair-el-Salam,'  to  its  pre-war  witness  of  the  Gospel  to  Mohamme- 
dans. It  was  hampered  for  so  long  by  a  strict  censorship,  so  timorously 
afraid  of  hurting  the  susceptibilities  of  Mohammedans,  that  it  allowed 
no  reference  to  any  subjects  that  were  of  particular  interest  to  them. 
Only  after  we  had  made  a  vigorous  protest  at  the  deletion  of  a  whole 
article,  that  was  clearly  a  defence,  and  defence  only,  of  Christianity 
from  gross  Mohammedan  attacks,  did  a  change  take  place  in  the  at- 
titude of  the  censor.  We  have  since  been  able  to  adapt  our  articles 
more  to  the  needs  of  the  Mohammedan  reader.  We  cannot,  however, 
too  strongly  emphasise  the  fact  that  the  lodging  of  this  successful  protest 
coincided  with  special  prayer  at  the  homt-end  for  the  removal  of  this 
crippling  censorship. 

"A  great  cause  for  cheer  has  been  the  growing  number  of  friends 
in  the  home-lands  who  are  paying  for  magazines  to  be  sent  to  selected 
Mohammedans  for  whom  they  pray.  One  of  our  Egyptian  helpers, 
himself  a  convert  from  Islam,  has  greatly  gladdened  our  hearts  by 
spontaneously  subscribing  for  ten — out  of  a  mere  pittance  of  a  wage. 
Some  of  our  friends  at  home  write  seeking  to  know  the  progress  of  the 
men  for  whom  they  are  praying.  Generally  it  is  almost  impossible  for 
us  to  tell.    But  in  the  face  of  such  expectant  faith  we  must  seek  to  find 

416 


CURRENT  TOPICS  417 

out  means  whereby  we  can  get  news  of  these  specially  prayed-for  souls^ 
and  where  possible  follow  up  the  printed  message  with  the  warmer  heart 
to  heart  touch  of  the  Gospel  messenger. 

"The  first  volume  of  'What  the  Bible  Teaches'  (Torrey)  has  been 
issued  from  the  Press,  and  has  met  with  great  appreciation.  The 
second  and  final  volume  into  which  we  have  divided  it  should  appear 
shortly.  We  have  had  to  cut  this  book  out  as  a  monthly  supplement 
to  the  magazine,  as  also  the  colloquial  supplement,  on  account  of  the 
tremendous  rise  in  the  cost  of  paper,  but  we  are  steadily  going  on 
with  its  preparation." 

The  Koran  and  Bolshevism 

It  is,  of  course,  true  says.  The  Near  East  that  Orientals  set  great 
store  by  tradition,  but  in  the  East  generally,  and  more  particularly  in 
India,  tradition  is  very  easily  made.  Practically  anything  that  has 
once  been  written,  or  for  that  matter  said,  may  come  to  be  accepted 
as  traditional  truth,  and  then  it  may  be  defended  to  the  death.  The 
importance  of  this  principle  has  been  recognised  by  the  Bolshevist 
propaganda,  which  we  are  told  is  arranging  for  a  pamphlet  deriving 
its  peculiar  principles  from  the  Koran;  the  idea  is  in  itself  ludicrous; 
but  there  is  seldom  any  real  difficulty  in  twisting  isolated  texts  so  as 
to  support  accepted  conclusions,  and  such  a  pamphlet  might  easily 
acquire  an  importance  which  might  take  accurate  scholars  entirely  by 
surprise.  The  manufacture  of  tradition  is,  in  fact,  on  the  way  to  become 
a  recognised  branch  of  industry,  and  the  authorities  cannot  afford  to  be 
blind  to  its  potential  importance." 

"The  Key  of  Paradise"  in  Popular  Islam 

We  are  indebted  to  the  Rev.  J.  Ireland  Hasler,  of  the  Baptist  Mis- 
sion, Agra,  for  a  resume  of  a  little  Moslem  book  with  this  title 
in   Urdu: 

"It  opens  with  a  detailed  description  of  the  delights  of  Paradise 
and  the  torments  of  Hell — both  alike  materialistic  in  the  extreme. 
There  is  no  trace  of  the  attempted  spiritualizing  of  the  teachings  of 
the  Koran  on  these  points,  such  as  is  met  with  in  the  writings  of  the 
more  educated  Mohammedans.  The  attractions  of  Paradise  are  all 
sensuous  if  not  sensualistic.  Should  a  maiden  die,  and  enter  Paradise,. 
Almighty  God  will  marry  her  to  a  man  of  Paradise.  While  the 
maiden  is  limited  to  monogamy,  the  faithful  male  however  is  promised 
polygamy.  Wine  will  be  available  for  drinking,  yet  no  ill  effects 
such  as  headache  or  intoxication  will  ensue.  Delicious  fruits  and  the 
tender  flesh  of  fowls  either  roast  or  made  into  soup  according  to 
individual  tastes  will  be  served  by  'khidmatgars.'  The  luridness  of  Hell 
is  painted  in  sharp  contract  to  the  lusciousness  of  Paradise.  Hell  is 
under  the  charge  of  19  angels,  the  chief  of  whom  is  Malik.  So  huge 
are  they  that  it  is  a  year's  journey  from  one  shoulder  to  the  other,  fire 
issues  from  their  mouths,  and  their  hands  are  large  enough  to  seize  on 
70,000  infidels  at  once  and  consign  them  to  torment.  It  is  utterly  im- 
possible either  to  withstand  them  or  escape  from  them.  Seventy  yards 
of  chains  are  clamped  upon  each  unbeliever  and  he  is  thrown  into  the 
flames.  There  is  nothing  to  relieve  hunger,  and  for  the  slaking  of 
thirst  there  is  but  boiling  water  full  of  steam,  which  only  burns  the 
mouth.  And  the  object  of  the  writer  of  the  book  is  to  teach  plainly 
how  Paradise  may  be  gained  and  Hell  escaped. 

"He   deals   first   with   faith    (iman)    which    is   both    the   root   and 


41 8  THE  MOSLEM  WORLD 

crown  of  all  virtues.  Faith  is  the  acceptance  of  the  Mohammedan 
creed,  and  in  connection  with  it  two  things  are  essential,  viz.,  its 
confession  with  the  lips,  and  its  acknowledgment  by  the  heart  as  true. 
Both  forms  of  the  creed  are  mentioned,  the  abridged  form  (Iman 
Mujmal)  and  the  detailed  form  (Iman  Mufassal). 

"After  faith  comes  prayer  (namaz) — the  pillar  and  support  of  religion 
(din)  and  the  key  of  Paradise.  The  key  of  'namaz'  is  purity  (paki), 
and  the  absence  of  this  purity  invalidates  prayer.  This  purity  however 
ever  is  entirely  external  in  its  nature,  viz.,  the  cleansing  from  out- 
ward impurity  or  ceremonial  defilement,  such  as  is  removed  by  the 
performance  of  the  prescribed  ablution  (wazu,)  either  through  bathing 
or  washing  in  water  or  through  the  use  of  sand  or  dust  where  water 
is  not  available  (tayammum).  How  precise  are  the  details  given  not 
only  in  this  connection  but  also  throughout  all  the  book  can  be  seen 
from  the  folowing  extract: — *In  wazu,  four  things  are  obligatory, 
but  in  the  case  of  a  man  with  a  thick  beard  five  things.  First,  the 
face  must  be  washed  from  the  hair  to  below  the  chin,  and  from  ear  to 
ear.  It  is  not,  however,  incumbent  on  a  bearded  man  to  apply  water 
beneath  the  hair  of  his  beard,  neither  is  it  incumbent  to  wet  a  wound, 
if  water  would  hurt  it,  nor  put  water  beneath  a  bandage  which  a 
surgeon  has  affixed  in  a  case  of  phlebotomy,  or  on  a  broken  limb,  nor 
yet  apply  water  to  the  eyeball.  The  washing  of  the  eyelid  is,  however, 
obligatory.  Secondly,  both  hands  must  be  washed  as  far  as  the  elbows, 
and,  thirdly,  both  feet  up  to  the  ankles,  and,  fourthly,  a  fourth  part 
of  the  head  must  be  rubbed  with  the  wet  hand.  A  bearded  man 
must  also  do  the  same  to  a  quarter  of  his  beard.' 

''Ceremonial  bathing  is  not  rightly  performed  unless  in  addition 
to  washing  the  body  the  mouth  and  nose  are  also  rinsed  out.  Instruc- 
tions are  given  as  to  the  correct  way  of  performing  the  ablution,  and 
as  to  the  nature  of  the  water  that  must  be  used.  A  whole  chapter  is 
devoted  to  dealing  with  the  proper  method  of  tayammum.  If  socks 
are  worn,  they  must  be  removed  in  the  case  of  bathing  (ghusl),  but 
in  the  case  of  zuazu  it  is  sufficient  merely  to  lay  the  wet  hand  upon 
them.  A  similar  liberty  is  permissible  in  the  case  of  bandages.  The 
chapters  in  the  book  that  treat  of  the  causes  of  defilement  and  impurity 
cannot  be  translated  into  English  without  the  rules  of  ordinary  decency 
being  violated." 

The  Future  of  Palestine 

In  the  discussion  which  has  taken  place  regarding  the  future  of 
Palestine  and  Turkey  it  is  good  for  us  to  know  the  opinion  of  the  Jews 
themselves.     In  the  Jewish  World  for  March  26,  1919,  we  read: 

"An  influentially  signed  letter  on  the  future  of  Turkey  has  been  for- 
warded to  Mr.  Balfour,  in  which  a  strong  plea  is  made  for  the  preser- 
vation of  the  Turkish  Empire  and  the  maintenance  of  the  prestige  of  the 
Ottomian  Sovereign  as  Caliph.  The  main  reason  urged  is  Mussulman 
sentiment ;  and  the  letter  observes : 

'With  regard  to  the  suggested  creation  of  a  Jewish  State  in  Palestine, 
we  desire  to  observe  that  if  the  Peace  Conference  were  to  decide  to 
create  that  province  into  a  self-governing  State,  the  entire  Mussulman 
world  would  resent  its  being  placed  under  any  but  a  Mussulman  ruler, 
whatever  other  form  the  Government  may  take.  Not  only  is  Jerusa- 
lem intimately  associated  with  the  Mussulman  religion  and  Mussulman 
religious  traditions,  but  in  the  long  course  of  fourteen  centuries  the  land 
has  become  covered  with  memorials  of  the  Mussulman  faith.  To  convert 


CURRENT  TOPICS  419 

it  into  a  Jewish  State  or  to  place  it  under  a  Jewish  ruler  would  be  most 
repugnant  to  Mussulman  feelings,  especially  as  only  one-seventh  of  the 
population  of  Palestine  is  Jewish.  History  proves  that  the  Jews  can 
live  in  the  closest  amity  with  their  Mussulman  fellow-subjects  under 
Moslem  rulers,  and  enjoy  exceptional  privileges  not  conceded  to  them 
even  now  by  many  European  nations.' 

We  would  desire  to  say  nothing  which  would  tend  to  exacerbate 
Mussulman  sentiment,  but  we  cannot  forbear  from  remarking  that  it 
would  surely  be  most  unwise  in  the  interest  of  the  world  at  large  to  al- 
low that  feeling  to  be  the  sole  arbiter  of  international  settlement.  This, 
apparently,  is  what  the  signatories  of  the  letter  referred  to  would  wish. 

This  is  on  the  assumption  that  the  signatories  of  the  letter  addressed 
to  Mr.  Balfour,  in  fact  represent  Mussulman  opinion  in  what  they  say. 
But,  so  far  as  Jews  and  Palestine  are  concerned,  we  fail  to  see  why, 
upon  the  showing  of  the  letter,  MussulnrHans  would  have  more  reason- 
able cause  for  complaint  if  Palestine  becomes  a  Jewish  State  than  would 
Jews  if  it  became  again  a  Mussulman  possession,  or  indeed  than  Jews 
have  had  cause  for  complaint  these  last  twenty  centuries.  Palestine  is 
not  merely  intimately  associated  with  the  Jewish  religion  and  Jewish 
religious  traditions — not  only  is  it  covered  with  the  memorials  of  the 
Jewish  faith — but  it  is  the  one  spot  on  earth  on  which  the  Jew  can 
regain  his  nationhood.  So  that  on  the  score  of  sentiment,  from  all 
points  of  view,  Palestine  is  much  more  to  the  Jew  than  to  the  Mussul- 
man. 

And  if,  as  the  letter  rightly  says,  Jews,  as  history  proves,  can  live  in 
the  closest  amity  with  Mussulmans,  the  converse  is  true,  and  we  have 
the  authority  of  history  for  saying  that  Mussulmans  can  live  in  the 
closest  amity  with  Jews.  The  toleration  Jews  have  received  from 
Moslem  rulers  is  freely  acknowledged." 

The  Newcastle  Chronicle  of  March  3,  1909  comments  on  the  same 
subject  as  follows: 

"Inasmuch  as  the  population  of  Palestine  is  composed  of  80  per  cent, 
of  Moslems  and  Christians,  it  is  natural  that  the  opinion  of  this  ma- 
jority \n  regard  to  Zionism  should  be  consulted.  The  'Matin'  has  ob- 
tained the  views  of  severat  prominent  persons.  First  there  is  the  gal- 
lant Emir  Feisul,  son  of  the  King  of  the  Hedjaz,  who  has  impressed  so 
agreeably  all  who  have  come  into  contact  with  him  in  London  and  Paris. 
He  says  the  Moslems  are  of  course  deeply  interested  in  Palestine. 
Jerusalem  is  for  them  a  holy  city,  as  the  Koran  has  taught  them  to 
reverence  the  prophets  of  Israel.  He  sees  no  objection  to  a  return  of 
the  Jews  to  Palestine,  but  he  thinks  they  ought  to  be  placed  under  a 
Mussulman  or  Christian  Government  recognized  by  the  League  of 
Nations.  A  separate  Jewish  state  with  sovereign  rights  has  in  it  the 
elements  of  conflict.  In  the  name  of  Orthodox  Greeks,  the  Archiman- 
driate  Vasilakis  admits  the  historical,  but  not  the  ethnographical  claims 
of  the  Jews  to  Palestine.  Their  aspirations  are,  however,  deserving  of 
sympathy.  The  great  question  is  whether  they  could  prosper  in  Pales- 
tine which  apart  from  some  regions,  is  sterile,  and  would  require  in- 
tense labour  to  be  rendered  productive.  Pastor  Monod,  a  leader  of  the 
Protestants,  looks  upon  the  Zionistic  movement  as  perfectly  legitimate. 
He  has  nevertheless  misgivings  as  to  its  being  practical.  On  the  side 
of  the  Catholics  the  Archbishop  of  Paris  has  refused  to  speak,  but  Canon 
Couget  has  ventured  to  remark  that  Palestine  really  belongs  to  the 
Syrian  peoples.  The  Jews  were  only  encamped  there  for  some  cen- 
turies, and  their  case  is  as  if  the  descendants  of  the  ancient  Romans 


4iO  THE  MOSLEM  WORLD 

were  to  claim  Gaul  because  their  ancestors  occupied  it  for  some  three 
or  four  hundred  years." 

Hospitals  for  Turkey 

We  quote  the  following  from  Men  and  Missions : 

"Turkey  is  all  upset  in  the  overturn  of  her  political  affairs  and  mis- 
sion work  there  has  been  interrupted,  if  not  blocked  for  the  last  four 
years.  One  or  two  mission  hospitals  have  kept  going,  as  at  Adana, 
where  the  Turkish  soldiers  were  served,  and  Aintab,  where  for  a  time 
Dr.  Hamilton,  a  woman  physician,  was  able  to  keep  up  some  medical 
work.  In  other  stations,  such  as  Marsovan,  Sivas,  Harpoot,  Erzroom, 
Van,  in  fact  most  of  the  interior  stations,  the  hospital  work  had  to  be 
abandoned  either  because  of  the  enforced  withdrawal  of  the  missionaries 
from  the  stations  or  because  the  Turks  took  over  the  buildings  for  their 
own  use. 

Under  the  auspices  of  the  American  Committee  for  Relief  in  the  Near 
East  a  party  of  30  medical  men,  60  nurses,  102  technically  trained  relief 
workers  besides  missionaries,  teachers  and  many  general  workers  have 
gone  to  Turkey  with  full  equipment  for  fifteen  hospitals,  including 
X-ray  machines,  ice-making  machines,  sterilizing  outfits  and  all  the 
appliances  of  a  modern  hospital,  representing  an  investment  of  a  million 
or  more  dollars.  It  is  proposed  to  set  up  these  hospitals  at  central  points 
in  Turkey  as  the  way  opens.  The  American  Board  has  maintained 
ten  hospitals  there.  It  is  quite  possible  that  many  of  these  locations  will 
be  occupied  by  this  relief  commission.  The  financial  needs  of  main- 
taining these  hospitals  for  the  relief  period  it  is  hoped  will  be  met  by  the 
drive  now  being  made  for  thirty  millions  of  dollars  for  the  support  of 
this  relief  work. 

The  whole  enterprise  of  medical  missionary  work  in  Turkey  is  there- 
fore in  flux  and  will  need  to  be  re-established  following  the  immediate 
undertakings  of  these  relief  workers  who  are  in  the  field  and  who  v/ill 
remain  there  it  is  understood,  for  a  year." 

Facilitating  the  Pilgrimage 

In  a  despatch  from  Simla,  India,  to  the  London  papers,  we  may  read 
between  the  lines  the  character  of  the  policy  that  is  to  be  followed 
according  to  present  indications.  Such  a  bit  of  news  makes  it  yet  more 
important  for  us  to  pray  that  those  who  are  seeking  salvation  by 
pilgrimage  to  Mecca  will  learn  the  nearer  road  to  God  through  Jesus 
Christ : 

"The  Government  announces  that  it  has  made  special  arrangements 
for  ample  shipping  to  carry  pilgrims  to  and  from  the  Hedjaz  during  the 
current  season   at  a  cost   not  greater  than  before  the  War. 

The  arrangement  involved  protracted  negotiation  and  considerable 
expense,  but  the  Government  is  determined  that  the  Moslem  com- 
munity, which  has  borne  patiently  the  restrictions  caused  by  the  War, 
shall  now  be  offered  special  facilities." 

Exploration  in  Central  Arabia 

One  of  the  results  of  the  War  has  been  the  re-discovery  of  Central 
Arabia  by  missionaries  and  travellers.  Now  that  the  door  into  the 
interior  is  open  we  may  expect  further  results.  The  following  account 
is  taken  from  The  Near  East. 

"Lecturing  before  the  Royal  Geographical  Society  on  April  28, 
Mr.  H.  St.  J.  B.  Philby  described  a  journey  he  made  in  the  southern 


CURRENT  TOPICS  421 

part  of  the  Nejd  during  May  and  June  of  last  year.  His  journey 
was  southwards  from  Riyadh,  the  capital  of  the  Wahabi  country,  to 
the  extremity  of  the  country  and  back  again  by  a  different  route.  Riyadh 
itself  he  described  as  a  walled  city  of  some  12,000  to  15,000  souls, 
situated  in  an  oasis.  It  was  built  of  clay  without  regard  to  symmetry, 
and,  besides  its  lofty  embastioned  walls,  contained  only  three  buildings 
of  any  importance.  Of  these  one  was  a  fort,  the  second  a  mosque, 
typical  for  the  country — i.  e.,  with  a  flat  roof  and  short  minaret — 
and  the  third  was  the  palace  of  the  ruler.  Eastwards  of  Riyadh  the 
desert  sloped  gradually  downwards  from  an  elevation  of  2,000  ft.  to 
the  shores  of  the  Persian  Gulf.  Westward  the  plateau  of  Tuwaiq 
extended  another  twenty  miles,  rising  in  a  gentle  slope  another  thousand 
feet,  and  ended  in  a  steep  escarpment,  which  fell  some  four  hundred 
feet  or  more  to  the  western  plain.  The  Tuwaiq,  flanked  by  sand 
deserts,  presented  a  formidable  barrier  to  an  invader  from  the  west. 
Through  it  ran  the  Wady  Hanifa,  main  drainage  artery  of  the 
country,  and  on  its  broad  back  were  clustered  the  oases  which  gave 
the  Arabs  a  respite  from  their  nomad  life.  Travelling  southwards, 
Mr.  Philby  reached  the  town  of  Kharj.  There  was,  he  said,  a  strong 
local  tradition  that  the  Wady  had  once  been  much  more  thickly 
populated  than  now,  but  that  a  double  scourge  of  locusts  and  plague 
had  ruined  the  oases.  Such  a  theory,  while  it  would  account  for  the 
sorry  state  of  some  places,  would  not  account  for  the  survival  of  others  ; 
and  a  better  explanation  was  ready  to  hand.  Was  it  not  possible  that  the 
Wady  had  in  times  past  been  the  scene  of  one  of  those  devastating  floods 
of  which  we  had  accounts  from  other  parts  of  Arabia?  Such  a  flood 
would  have  poured  down  the  narrow  channel  mercilessly  sweeping 
before  it  the  rich  settlements  lying  in  its  path,  but  sparing  those  it  could 
not  reach  on  account  of  their  greater  elevation. 

One  place  which  Mr.  Philby  visited  he  described  as  an  oasis  covered 
with  date  palms,  where  the  resident  population  consisted  entirely  of 
people  of  negro  extraction.  The  absentee  owners  were  a  Bedouin  trib 
who  avoided  the  cramped  life  and  sickly  climate  of  the  valley,  and 
only  visited  the  place  once  a  year  at  the  time  of  the  date  harvest  to  collect 
their  rents.  Another  oasis,  Qurain,  was  a  kind  of  stud  farm.  At  the 
time  of  Mr.  Philby 's  visit  there  were  some  fifty  animals  in  the  spacious 
courtyard — stallions,  mares  and  young  stock,  and  even  an  occasional 
mule  and  camel.  Each  animal  was  tethered  to  a  stone  manger  piled 
twice  a  day  with  lucerne.  The  single  groom  in  charge  confessed  that 
he  never  exercised  or  groomted  the  animals,  and  that  the  stalls  were 
only  cleared  of  refuse  when  this  became  absolutely  necessary.  Yet  the 
animals  seemed  none  the  worse  except  for  a  curious  ailment  attributed  to 
a  germ  brought  in  with  the  lucerne,  and  which  attacked  the  white  parts 
of  their  skins,  but  otherwise  did  not  affect  them.  At  Dilam,  a  walled 
town  of  7,000  or  8,000  inhabitants,  Mr.  Philby  witnessed  a  funeral. 
The  local  custom,  he  said,  is  to  dig  the  grave  about  five  feet  deep  for  a 
man  and  a  little  more  for  a  woman.  A  raised  ledge  is  left  on  either 
side  of  the  body  to  prevent  the  whole  weight  of  the  earth  resting  on  it. 
The  body  is  dressed  in  a  complete  suit  of  white,  covering  every  part, 
except  that  a  small  aperture  is  left  over  the  face  of  children.  If  the 
grave  is  for  a  man,  when  it  is  filled  in  a  tiny  stone  is  placed  at  the  head 
and  another  at  the  foot.  In  the  case  of  a  woman  a  third  stone  is  placed 
midway  between  the  other  two." 


422  THE  MOSLEM  WORLD 

Islam  Not  a  Creed  Only  but  a  Civilization 
In  an  article  contributed  to  The  Observer.  Sir  Theodore  Morrison 
deals  with  "The  Future  of  Islam,"  and  explains  the  devotion  felt  by  all 
Moslems  to  their  faith  and  their  fears  at  present,  regarding  the  fate 
of  Turkey.  These  fears  are  based  upon  religious  devotion  akin  to 
patriotism.    He  saj^s : 

"How  can  I  make  intelligible  the  devotion  which  Mohammedans 
feel  for  Islam?  It  is  not  patriotism  in  the  ordinary  sense  of  the 
word,  for  it  is  not  associated  with  one  particular  country  or  race, 
nor  is  it  bigotry  or  religious  fanaticism  for  some  of  the  most  zealous 
defenders  of  Islam  at  the  present  day  hardly  believe  in  its  creed  at  all. 
The  3^oung.  Moslems  in  India,  Turkey,  and  Egypt  are  either  sceptics  or 
they  hold  unorthodox  opinions  which  would  scandalise  the  divines  of 
Al  Azhar  or  Deoband;  even  among  old-fashioned  Moslems  who  are 
untouched  by  European  ideas  there  is,  and  always  has  been,  a  good 
deal  of  free  thought.  I  knew  in  India  a  Mohammedan  scholar  who 
was  notoriously  an  atheist,  but  he  was  a  vigorous  champion  of  Islam, 
and  was  for  that  reason  accepted  even  in  orthodox  circles  as  a  good 
Moslem.  The  explanation  of  this  apparent  anomaly  is,  I  believe,  that 
Islam  is  more  than  a  creed — it  is  a  civilization;  it  is  a  social  group 
with  a  philosophy,  a  culture  and  an  art  of  its  own ;  it  is  conscious  of  its 
separate  existence,  proud  of  its  past,  and  confident  of  its  capacity 
to  develop  in  the  future.  For  this  social  group  Mohammedans  feel  an 
intense  affection,  which,  if  not  patriotism,  has  many  of  the  characteris- 
tics of  patriotism." 

The  Syrian-American  Commercial  Magazine 
We  are  glad  to  call  the  attention  of  our  readers  to  this  new  monthly 
Arabic  magazine  devoted  to  the  promotion  of  commerical  relations  be- 
tween America  and  the  Arabic-speaking  peoples  throughout  the  world. 
Vol.  I,  No.  4  for  March,  191 9,  comes  to  our  desk  and  is  a  beautiful 
example  of  Arabic  typography  and  Syrian  enterprise.  The  contents 
of  this  number  include  a  summary  of  the  principal  events  of  the  month 
in  business  and  politics,  an  optimistic  review  of  industrial  conditions, 
an  illuminating  article  on  the  resources  and  possibilities  of  Mesopotamia 
and  another  on  Switzerland.  There  is  a  long  report  on  German 
preparations  for  re-entering  the  world  markets,  and  an  account  of  the 
cotton  goods  trade  in  Syria.  The  publication  office  is  at  74  Greenwich 
St.,  New  York  City,  Mr.  S.  A.  Mokarzel,  Editor,  and  the  annual 
subscription  is  $5.00  for  foreign  countries. 

Special  Committee  for  Moslem  Work  in  China 
We  learn  from  the  report  of  the  China  Continuation  Committee 
that  the  special  committee  on  work  for  Moslems  in  China  is  following 
up  the  publication  of  the  Gospel  of  Matthew  in  diglot  with  the  Gospel 
of  John  in  a  similar  edition.  Mr.  Goldsack's  "God  in  Islam"  has 
been  translated  by  Rev.  D.  McGillivray  and  printed  in  both  Wenli  and 
Mandarin  versions.  To  the  original  book  comments  have  been  added 
at  the  end  of  each  chapter,  by  one  of  the  Council's  critics,  Mr.  Ma 
Fang-po  of  Chinkiang,  who  is  a  convert  from  Islam,  and  a  member  of 
this  Committee.  In  these  comments  Mr.  Ma  has  given  his  own 
personal  testimony  regarding  the  subject  of  each  chapter.  This  has 
made  this  book  much  more  than  a  translation,  for  it  now  contains  an 
original  record  of  Chinese  experience.  The  Committee  has  voted 
to  proceed  as  rapidly  as  possible  in  securing  a  translation  in  Mandarin  of 


CURRENT  TOPICS  423 

Zwemer's  "Primer  of  Islam"  and  also  to  endeavor  to  secure  a  Chinese 
translation  of  the  Second  Chapter  of  the  Koran.  The  Committee 
expects  to  issue  a  diglot  edition  of  the  "Sermon  on  the  Mount"  in 
Chinese  and  Arabic,  and  will  arrange  to  publish  soon  ten  or  twelve 
illustrated  Scripture  portionettes  in  Mandarin.  The  Committee  is 
at  the  present  time  examining  a  considerable  number  of  tracts  specially 
prepared  for  Moslems  in  India  to  discover  those  that  are  suitable  for 
translation  into  Chinese. 

New  Hospitals  for  Turkey 
Dr.  George  H.  Washburn,  son  of  a  former  president  of  Robert 
College,  Constantinople,  has  been  sent  to  Turkey  to  superintend  the 
erection  of  not  less  than  fifteen  hospitals,  the  cost  of  which  will  be 
$800,000.  They  will  be  located  at  strategic  points  from  the  Sea  of 
Marmora  to  the  Persian  frontier.  Special  research  is  being  carried  on 
with  diseases  prevalent  in  Asia  Minor,  and  special  facilities  for  their 
treatment  will  be  provided  in  the  hospitals  to  be  erected. 

The  Bible  at  Port  Said 

"Notwithstanding  the  conquest  of  Syria,  Port  Said  and  Kantara 
remain  strong  naval  and  military  centres  of  increasing  importance.  At 
Port  Said  the  scene  is  one  of  continual  change.  The  harbor  is  kept 
busy  with  long  lines  of  convoyed  ships  arriving  and  departing.  The 
large  transit  camp  behind  the  town,  the  huge  Australian  hospital  across 
the  Canal,  and  the  Rest  Camp  on  the  sea  front,  are  all  places  of  great 
activity,  affording  opportunity  for  Bible  distribution.  Here  in  this 
meeting-place  of  East  and  West  the  changes  are  very  pronounced.  One 
day  we  see  French  troops  from  Algiers,  another  day  Chinamen  from 
the  Far  East,  or  Italian  Bersaglieri  from  Europe,  Indians  of  varied 
castes  and  creeds,  and  Abyssinian  soldiers  from  Eritrea.  These  last- 
named  are  most  picturesque — tall,  ebony-skinned,  bare-footed  men,  clad 
in  loose  white  cotton  garments,  with  green  sash  and  red  fez  topped  with 
a  yellow  tuft.  Great  was  their  delight  when  they  found  our  Bible 
depot  at  Port  Said,  where  the  Scriptures  in  Ethiopic,  Amharic,  Tigre, 
Tigrani  could  so  easily  be  obtained.  They  examined  the  books  most 
carefully,  and  in  their  own  tongue  made  purchases  amid  much  excite- 
ment." The  Bible  in  the  World. 

Islam  in  Burma 

A  correspondent  who  has  traveled  extensively  in  Burma  writes  as 
follows : 

"There  are,  according  to  my  hasty  observation,  four  types  of  Moslems 
in  Burma.  By  far  the  larger  number  come  from  North  or  South  India. 
Third  in  number  are  probably  Chinese  Mohammedans  from  Yunnan  and 
Szechuan.  And  then  there  is  a  scattering  of  Malays,  though  very 
small.  The  Chinese  come  largely  from  Talifu,  or  at  least  pass  through 
there,  then  come  to  Tengyue  (or  Monein  as  it  is  on  most  maps),  and 
enter  Burma  at  Bhamo;  thence  down  the  Irriwaddi  river  to  Rangond. 
A  great  many  Chinese  come  to  Burma  by  sea  from  Canton  and  Swatow, 
though  I  very  much  doubt  if  any  number  of  Moslems  come  that  way. 
I  met  in  Bhamo  a  Chinese  Mohamhiedan,  and  talked  with  him  in 
Hindustani.  He  was  working  for  an  Indian  Mohammedan  merchant, 
and  spoke  quite  passable  Urdu.  He  understood  quite  well  what  I 
meant  by  'Hue-hue  Jow,'  and  assured  me  that  they  were  the  same 
thing  as  'Musulman'  in  India.     I  asked  him  if  there  were  very  many 


424  THE  MOSLEM  WORLD 

of  them  in  Yunnan,  and  he  assured  me  that  there  were  a  very  great 
number,  in  fact  gave  the  impression  that  most  of  China  was  Moslem. 
In  many  ways,  he  was  very  much  'Indianized.'  I  have  not  heard  of 
any  Chinese  Mosque  in  Burma,  though  there  may  be  some,  of  course. 
The  Indian  Mohammedans  have  come  to  Burma  with  the  rest  of  the  In- 
dians, and  are  not  a  very  high  class,  except  some  of  the  Government 
servants.  I  did  not  see  any  Malays,  though  I  understand  that  there 
are  some.  I  have  heard  of  no  work  being  done  especially  for  Moham- 
medans in  Burma.  Of  course  the  number  is  not  great,  and  they  have 
been  neglected  in  Burma  as  elsewhere.  The  American  Baptists  and  the 
C.  M.  S.  have  both  brought  over  from  India  Tamil  pastors  for  work 
among  Indians,  with  some  success. 

"It  seems  to  me  that  a  very  fruitful  field  of  work  lies  before  the 
missions  in  Burma,  in  the  children  of  the  Chinese  emigrants.  Follow- 
ing their  usual  customs,  which  I  have  noticed  in  Siam,  the  Straits 
and  the  Philippines,  the  Chinese  do  not  often  bring  their  womenfolk 
with  them.  When  they  are  able  to  marry,  they  marry  the  women  of 
their  country,  and  as  a  rule  in  the  East,  I  believe,  a  mixture  of  Chinese 
with  other  races  produces  offspring  who  are  mentally  and  physically 
very  good.  The  fact  that  he  marries  one  of  another  race  means  that 
practically  speaking  he  has  broken  from  his  old  beliefs,  though  he  retains 
many  of  his  superstitions.  In  the  case  of  Burma,  his  wife  would 
probably  remain  more  or  less  of  a  Buddhist,  while  the  children  will  have 
little  or  no  religious  belief.  I  think  that  this  is  a  very  open  field,  and 
that  very  good  results  would  come  if  it  were  attempted.  If  they  were 
brought  up  in  mission  schools,  they  would  probably  become  Christians, 
and  neither  the  father  nor  the  mother  would  object  very  much.  This 
applies  to  all  the  Chinese  in  Burma,  and  would  be  equally  true  or  even 
more  so  of  the  Moslems." 

The  Caliphate 

The  character  of  the  Caliphate  and  its  relation  to  the  world  of 
Islam  has  often  been  misrepresented.  The  common  opinion  in  the 
newspaper  world  seems  to  be  that  the  Mohammedans  must  have  a 
Caliph  even  as  the  Roman  Catholics  must  have  a  Pope.  Many  have 
tried  to  confirm  this  common  error  for  political  ends.  Edwin  Bevan 
^vriting  in  the  Ti?nes  calls  this  opinion  mischievous,  and  says  that 
scholars  like  Professor  C.  Snouck  Hurgronje  and  Professor  C.  A. 
Nallino  are  doing  their  best  to  disabuse  us  of  this  error.     He  says : 

"In  his  pamphlet  on  the  Caliphate,  reviewed  some  time  ago  in  your 
Literary  Supplement,  Professor  Nallino  shows  that  the  idea  of  the  Caliph 
as  a  spiritual  pontiff,  analogous  to  the  Pope,  who  could  exercise  religious 
authority  outside  the  sphere  of  his  temporal  sovereignty,  never  appears 
till  the  Treaty  of  Kiitshyiik  Kainardje  in  1774.  The  Russians  were 
then  fradulently  induced  to  accept  this  view,  which  the  Turks  had 
invented  for  the  occasion,  to  impose  upon  the  ignorance  of  their 
European  enemy;  they  were  perfectly  well  aware  that  it  was  wholly 
contrary  to  the  real  doctrine  of  Islam.  The  first  time  that  any  Turkish 
Sultan  ventured  to  put  it  forward  to  his  own  Mohammedan  subjects  was 
in  the  Constitution  of  1876.  The  Caliphate,  according  to  the  true 
Moslem  theory  (so  Professor  Nallino  tells  us),  connotes  always  tem- 
poral authority,  and  the  recognition  of  a  potentate  as  Caliph  in  any 
country  is  an  implicit  assertion  that  he  is  the  legitimate  sovereign  of 
the  country.  At  the  present  day  apparently  the  khutba  (the  public 
prayer  for  the  Sovereign )  is  not  said  in  the  name  of  the  Ottoman  Sultan 


CURRENT  TOPICS  425 

either  in  Morocco,  in  Algiers,  in  the  independent  States  of  Arabia,  or 
in  those  of  Central  Asia." 

Saint  Sophia 

Dr.  Louis  Brehier,  Professor  in  the  University  of  Clermont-Ferrand, 
France  writes  in  the  Constructive  Quarterly  for  June,  191 9  as  follows: 

"It  was  in  the  grand  precincts  of  Saint  Sophia  that  the  Byzantine 
empire,  which  for  ten  centuries  had  defended  civilized  Europe  on  the 
Bosporus,  suffered  its  death  pangs.  The  following  day  the  city  was 
taken,  the  last  emperor  of  the  Romans  met  his  death  at  the  head  of  his 
last  troops,  and  through  all  the  breaches  in  the  ramparts  streamed  the 
Turks,  who  soon  flooded  the  whole  city.  The  masses  of  distracted 
people  moved  instinctively  towards  Saint  Sophia,  as  if  it  were  an  in- 
violable refuge.  Childish  stories  had  spread  among  the  people,  and 
it  was  said  that  when  the  unbeliever  should  reach  the  Forum  Augustaion 
and  pass  towards  the  column  of  Justinian,  an  archangel  armed  with  a 
flaming  sword  would  descend  from  heaven  to  exterminate  him. 

"But  the  expected  miracle  did  not  happen,  and  while  the  priests  were 
celebrating  divine  service  for  the  last  time,  Turksh  soldiers  broke  into 
the  immense  nave  and  'took  as  in  one  cast  of  a  net'  the  dazed  multitude 
of  women  and  children.  Then  began  the  pillage,  the  destruction  of 
altars  and  icons,  the  dispersion  of  relics,  the  theft  of  priestly  ornaments 
and  sacred  vessels.  Only  the  arrival  of  the  Sultan  himself  put  an  end 
to  this  plunder.  Seeing  one  of  his  soldiers  about  to  shatter  the  marble 
pavement,  Mohammed  II  drew  his  scimitar  and  cut  off  the  man's 
head,  saying  that  if  he  had  abandoned  to  his  troops  the  spoils  and  the 
captives,  he  had  reserved  for  himself  the  buildings.  Then  accompanied 
by  an  imam,  he  mounted  the  ambo  and  said  a  prayer,  afterwards  scaling 
the  altar  and  trampling  on  it.  On  entering  the  imperial  city  the 
first  thought  of  the  conqueror  was  of  the  wonderful  edifice  whijh 
seemed  to  be  the  symbol  of  the  Christian  empire.  The  transformation 
of  the  Church  of  Divine  Wisdom  into  a  mosque  was  in  his  eyes  the 
first  privilege  of  his  conquest,  and  in  the  pride  of  his  victory  he  could 
imagine  that  he  had  destroyed  the  past. 

"And  now  after  a  little  less  than  five  centuries,  the  past  revives,  ris- 
ing, as  it  were,  from  the  grave.  Like  a  huge  wave  the  War  came  and 
has  washed  away  many  human  constructions  whose  venerable  aspects  we 
had  admired,  yet  they  were  but  temporary.  The  question  of  the  dispo- 
sition of  Constantinople  is  now  before  the  Peace  Conference,  and  many 
Christians  in  the  Old  and  the  New  World  are  anxious  as  to  the  fate 
of  Saint  Sophia.  Should  it  retain  the  incongruous  decorations  which 
for  the  Turk  are  the  proud  evidence  of  his  conquest?  Should  it  on 
the  other  hand  once  more  be  the  Great  Cathedral,  the  great  Christian 
sanctuary  of  the  East?  Will  the  mosaics,  set  in  gold  but  now  hidden 
by  plaster,  again  see  the  light  of  day?  A  few  years  ago  such  a  thought 
would  have  seemed  chimerical;  today  we  may  ask  if  the  priest,  who, 
according  to  the  legend,  disappeared  into  the  recesses  of  the  wall  at 
the  moment  when  the  Turks  entered  the  cathedral  on  May  29th,  1453, 
will  not  soon  return  to  complete  the  holy  sacrifice  which  was  then 
interrupted. 

"To  every  man  of  good  faith  the  facts  speak  for  themselves.  After 
466  years  of  occupation  the  Turks  have  not  succeeded  in  abolishing  the 
Christian  past  of  Saint  Sophia.  They  might  have  destroyed  it,  but 
they  showed  themselves  powerless  to  make  it  theirs.  They  could  occupy 
it,  but  they  have  not  conquered  it,  and  they  could  see  for  themselves 


426  THE  MOSLEM  WORLD 

that  the  inept  furnishing  of  their  mosques  defaced  its  magnificent 
adornings. 

"To  all  Christians,  however,  Saint  Sophia  recalls  the  act  of  sublime 
faith  for  which  a  sovereign  and  a  whole  people  poured  out  their  wealth 
without  stint,  while  two  architects  of  genius,  whose  names  may  be 
ranked  with  those  of  Ictinus,  Robert  of  Luzarches,  John  of  Orbais, 
Brunellesco  and  Bramante,  realized  one  of  the  grandest  conceptions  of  a' 
Christian  church  which  has  ever  been  imagined. 

"But  above  all  Saint  Sophia  belongs  to  the  Christian  Church  by 
reason  of  the  nine  centuries  of  history  during  which  it  was  the 
metropolis  of  the  East,  and  was  visited  yearly  by  multitudes  of  pilgrims 
of  all  races,  who  came  to  contemplate  this  reflection  of  divine  grandeur. 
Under  its  sublime  arches  have  passed  the  most  illustrious  representatives 
of  the  Church:  popes,  patriarchs,  bishops,  theologians;  in  its  vast  halls 
councils  have  been  held  and  a  great  number  of  cardinal  events  in  the 
history  of  the  Church  have  been  enacted  within  its  walls. 

"Of  these  memories  of  the  past  some,  it  is  true,  are  sad;  others,  on 
the  contrary,  recall  the  greatest  triumphs  won  by  the  Christian  fai^h. 
Together  they  form  a  heritage  of  tradition  which  all  Christian  peoples 
claim  in  full  as  their  own. 

"At  a  time  when  attempts  are  being  made  on  all  hands  to  right  old 
wrongs,  at  the  moment  when  nations  oppressed  by  conquest  are  making 
good  their  claims  to  existence,  the  Christian  peoples  of  the  whole  world 
ought  to  claim  the  liberation  of  Saint  Sophia,  for  though  a  captive  since 
May  29,  1453,  it  has  always  been  for  them  one  of  the  greatest  of  their 
sanctuaries." 

Moslems  of  the  Delta  and  the  Bible 
The  agent  of  the  British  and  Foreign  Bible  Society  at  Port  Said  tells 
us: 

"It  was  most  significant  to  watch  the  Moslem  inhabitants  of  the  Nile 
Delta  after  the  news  of  the  Armistice  was  published.  They  seemed 
dumb  with  astonishment,  for  they  had  never  believed  in  the  possibility 
of  Turkey's  defeat.  In  fact,  they  refused  to  accept  the  news  as  true, 
and  three  difiFerent  stories  circulated  among  them.  First,  they  said 
that  peace  had  been  signed  during  the  advance  of  the  Germans  in  the 
West  last  March  and  April,  and  that  all  the  telegrams  since  then  were 
false,  being  published  to  conceal  the  final  retreat  of  the  Allies.  A 
second  story  warned  them  to  be  patient  a  little  longer,  as  it  was  only 
a  question  of  a  few  more  weeks  and  the  Turks  would  return  in  force 
to  Egypt.  As  the  truth  gradually  became  known,  their  last  standby 
was  a  third  story  to  the  effect  that  President  Wilson's  plan  was  to 
give  each  country  its  opportunity  to  choose  its  ruler,  when  Egypt 
would  soon  make  it  clear  whether  or  not  England  was  wanted  as  the 
ruling  power.  Over  against  this  attitude  must  be  placed  that  of  the 
Sheikhs  and  Omeds  (headmen)  in  a  group  of  Delta  villages,  who 
had  their  eyes  opened  by  the  progress  of  the  war,  and  came  to  the 
Bible  Society's  depot  at  Tanta  asking  for  a  supply  of  Bibles,  as  they 
had  now  determined  to  study  the  Scriptures  themselves." 

Islam  in  Kaifung,  China 
The  Rev.   E.    McNeill   Poteat   has  contributed   a  series   of   articles 
on   Chinese    Mohammedans   to   the   magazine   of   his   society    (South 
Baptist)  for  home  and  foreign  fields,  which  gives  this  picture  of  a  visit 
to  the  mosques: 


CURRENT  TOPICS  427 

"Our  compound,  being  in  the  very  heart  of  this  great  city,  also 
happens  td  h*e  directly  in  the  center  almost  of  the  Mohammedan 
section,  and  all  about  us  are  the  butcher  shops,  the  homes  with  Arabic 
inscriptions  over  the  doors,  and  the  picture  of  a  tea-pot  hung  outside, 
which  is  a  sign  of  Moslem  enterprise. 

"The  mosques,  except  for  their  absence  of  idols  and  the  general  lit- 
ter of  things  might  be  mistaken  for  Buddhist  temples.  No  minarets  or 
bargar  walls,  no  glistening  domes  or  crying  muezzin  tempt  your  en- 
trance. We  went  in,  followed  by  a  host  of  gaping  urchins,  who  lose 
no  opportunity  to  stare  at  the  foreigners.  The  temple  court  was 
flanked  by  high  walls,  and  crowned  by  the  eternal  tiles  of  China. 
We  passed  a  room  from  which  came  the  rhythmic  intoning  of  the 
school  children,  who  were  stud3ang  in  unintelligible  Arabic,  and  were 
finally  ushered  into  a  side  room.  In  the  rather  dark  corners  figures 
stirred  and  then  came  out  to  meet  us  putting  on  extra  garments  as  they 
came,  bowing  in  true  Chinese  fashion,  and  begging  us  to  drink  tea  with 
them.  They  were  temple  officers  of  greater  or  lesser  rank,  and  told  us 
that  the  Ahung  or  head  man,  was  away  on  a  visit  to  the  north.  We 
sat  and  indulged  in  the  "idle  talk"  which  presages  every  conversation 
in  China,  asking  the  ages  of  the  gentlemen  present,  and  complimenting 
the  oldest  one  on  his  "extreme  old  age."  They  seemed  very  interested 
and  quite  cordial.  In  fact,  they  said  they  were  quite  willing  and 
anxious  to  exchange  opinions  as  to  the  only  true  God,  and  agreed  that 
if  there  was  only  one  True  God,  then  there  was  only  one  Gospel  about 
Him.  As  we  sat  talking,  a  younger  man  came  in,  who  had  made 
his  pilgrimage  to  Mecca.  He  took  our  names  and  address  and  promised 
to  visit  us.  And  then  there  was  the  presentation  of  tracts  and  the 
remarks  about  them,  and  then  the  privilege  of  looking  in  on  the  hall 
of  worship  from  the  outside,  before  we  were  escorted  generously  to  the 
front  gate  and  promised  a  visit  in  return. 

"We  worked  our  way  up  through  a  back  street,  where  the  dust  was 
swirling  about,  and  came  later  to  another  mosque.  The  door  to  the 
court  stood  open,  and  we  went  in  unannounced,  save  by  the  bleat 
of  a  newly-shorn  fat-tailed  sheep  that  looked  up  at  us  from  its  plot 
of  brown  grass  in  the  paved  courtyard  where  it  was  browsing,  as  we 
came  through  the  gate.  Through  a  window  we  saw  a  young  man 
with  a  white  turban  on,  sitting  on  a  high  divan.  Before  we  had  gotten 
to  his  door,  however,  he  had  replaced  his  turban  with  a  little  black 
Chinese  hat,  and  came  to  the  doorway  to  invite  us  in.  The  friendly  cup  of 
tea  was  placed  before  us,  and  as  the  steam  rose  from  the  fragrant 
drink  we  talked  with  him.  He  seemed  to  be  an  unusually  intelligent 
fellow.  Certainly  the  appearance  of  the  huge  volumes  printed  in  Arabic, 
that  surrounded  him,  and  bore  evidence  of  much  handling,  argued  for 
his  studious  inclinations.  Here  again  we  asked  ages  and  told  them, 
and  spoke  of  the  desire  to  know  more  of  the  religion  they  were  teaching, 
and  the  privilege  and  pleasure  of  mutual  intercourse.  He  also  somewhat 
surprised  us  by  his  cordiality,  and  escorted  us  to  the  outer  gate  with  quite 
as  much  generosity  as  the  others  had. 

"This  was  the  first  time  that  we  had  tried  to  get  within  their  walls. 
They  are  a  distinct  people  in  some  respects  from  those  who  live  with 
them.  It  isn't  hard  to  spot  a  Mohammedan  on  the  street.  Their 
features  are  clearer  and  quite  like  the  people  of  the  Near  East.  Heavy 
beards,  which  are  totally  foreign  to  Chinese,  adorn  the  faces  of  many 
of  them,  and  the  men  in  the  mosques  we  visited  seemed  to  stroke  with 
peculiar  pride  their  distinguishing  whiskers.  In  fact,  the  adornment 
was  mentioned  in  the  course  of  our  conversation.     They  are  forbidden 


428  THE  MOSLEM  WORLD 

to  use  tobacco  and  strong  drink,  which  prohibition  is  in  their  favor, 
although  there  is  a  woeful  laxity  in  its  observation.  But  it  is  perhaps 
true  that  their  chief  difference  from  those  around  them  is  physical. 
They  are  all  Chinese,  despite  their  straight  noses  and  whiskers,  and 
are  as  little  concerned  with  what  Mohammed  did  in  Arabia  as  with 
what  Gautama  did  in  India.  They  have  the  same  religious  lack  that 
the  rest  have,  because  the  vitality  of  the  religions  with  which  they 
are  acquainted  is  nil. 

"What  results  can  we  see  from  such  a  visit  ?  Well,  they  may  not  be 
startling,  but  they  are  at  least  these:  We  showed  them  that  we  can 
be  friends  with  them  despite  our  religious  differences.  They  have  had 
us  visit  them  first  with  no  motive  save  a  friendly  one,  and  that  is 
what  must  govern  our  contacts  with  others,  no  matter  how  widely 
we  are  separated  religiously.  Moreover,  they  will  look  to  us  for  the 
continuation  of  our  visits,  and  that  is  decidedly  in  our  favor.  One  of  the 
official  gentlemen,  the  one  who  has  made  his  pilgrimage  to  Mecca,  has 
been  to  see  two  of  the  party  who  went  first  to  his  mosque,  and  had  long 
conversations  on  the  Gospel.  Moreover,  he  has  consented  to  teach  the 
sacred  language  of  his  faith  to  two  of  them,  that  they  may  be  more 
intimate  in  their  dealings.  We  may  have  reason  to  impugn  the  motives 
of  these  cordialities,  but  we  feel  them  to  have  been  sent  of  the  Lord 
to  open  a  way  into  their  hearts.  And  lastly,  we  have  found  that 
they  are  friendly  toward  us.  That,  at  least,  is  a  great  discovery.  The 
harvest  has  been  white  a  long  time,  and  there  have  been  reapers  who 
have  been  gathering  their  sheaves  and  putting  them  into  the  wrong 
garners,  those  of  Mohammed,  Gautama,  and  all  the  rest;  but  we 
hesitate  not  to  continually  pray  the  Lord  of  the  harvest  that  He  thrust 
forth  more  laborers  into  His  harvest." 


CURRENT  TOPICS  429 

A  Frank  Letter  and  a  Reply 

Islamic  Review^ 
The  Mosque,  Woking,  England. 
10/6/1919. 
Dear  Sir: 

We  thank  you  for  your  kind  note  which  we  received  today.  So  far  as 
Islam  and  its  future  is  concerned  the  Moslems  the  world  over  are 
convinced  that  it  is  passing  through  a  period  of  destruction — a  revival 
of  the  old  spirit  of  the  warriors  of  the  Cross  with  the  difference  that 
those  who  are  battling  to  gain  mastery  over  its  followers  today  are 
armed  with  better  weapons  and  are  in  every  way  more  thoroughly 
unscrupulous.  It  is  truly  painful  to  see  that  the  spirit  which  animates 
the  followers  of  Christianity  is  anything  but  Christian.  Amidst  such 
conditions  the  efforts  of  the  meagre  band  of  Christian  missionaries 
going  abroad  to  convert  Moslems  to  a  faith  which  has  been  banished 
from  its  own  home,  if  doomed  to  failure,  are  certainly  deserving  of 
admiration.  But  again  it  must  be  deplored  that  even  they  do  not  scruple 
from  stooping  to  any  means  however  unworthy,  to  promote  the  end. 

Let  us  all  pray  therefore  before  the  throne  of  only  One  Allah  to 
enable  us  to  live  and  work  in  honesty  and  sincerity.  Before  trying  to 
attack  others  let  us  examine  our  own  minds  and  try  to  remove  the 
defects  that  lurk  in  us. 

Yours  truly, 

Abdul  Qayum  Malik. 

*       ♦       * 

The  Moslem  World, 
New  York  City,  June  30,  191 9. 
Abdul  Quyum  Malik,  Esq., 

The  Mosque,  Woking,  England. 
Dear  Sir: 

I  was  very  much  pleased  to  receive  your  kind  letter  of  June  loth 
in  answer  to  our  circular  letter  sent  to  our  exchanges.  I  owe  you  an 
apology  in  that  this  letter,  which  was  more  especially  intended  for  our 
exchanges  of  the  Christian  press,  was  also  sent  to  you.  The  reason  is 
that,  as  you  are  aware,  our  magazine  bears  a  two  fold  character.  One 
class  of  its  articles  is  common  ground  to  you  and  me  and  all  students 
of  Islam;  the  other  is  special  ground,  viz:  the  work  of  Christian 
missions. 

I  certainly  admire  your  breadth  of  view  and  courtesy  in  the  kind 
reception  you  have  given  our  Quarterly  in  spite  of  its  vigorous  policy. 
I  think  that  there  is  a  common  ground,  viz;  that  of  the  exposition  of 
the  real  tenets  of  Islam,  in  which  your  publication  and  ours  can  work 
together  to  ascertain  historic  facts. 

The  war  has  certainly  shown  the  evil  and  passions  of  human  nature 
in  all  lands  and  no  one  regrets  more  than  I  do  that  Christian  nations 
have  not  been  guiltless  of  injustice  towards  Moslems  and  Moslem 
populations. 

You  know  that  the  principles  of  Jesus  Christ,  as  recorded  in  the  New 
Testament,  are  above  criticism.  They  should  lead  us  to  work  with 
sympathy  in  all  of  our  efforts  and  I  am  glad  to  join  you  in  prayer,  as 
you  say,  "to  the  throne  of  the  only  God"  that  we  may  each  of  us  find 
the  true  pathway  of  peace  and  the  fulness  of  God's  truth. 

Believe  me, 

Yours  sincerely, 

S.  M.  ZWEMER. 


BOOK  REVIEWS 


BOOK  REVIEW 

The  Revolt  in  Arabia.  By  Dr.  C.  Snouck  Hurgronje,  with  a  fore- 
word b}^  Richard  J,  H.  Gottheil.  G.  P.  Putnam's  Sons,  New 
York  &  London.  Price  75c.  55  pp. 
We  regret  delay  in  noticing  this  small  volume  which  might  be  of  only 
passing  interest  except  that  it  voices  the  opinion  of  one  of  the  highest 
authorities  on  the  episode  of  the  Arabian  Revolt  June  22,  191 6.  It 
consists  of  a  translation  of  an  article  which  appeared  in  the  Dutch 
newspaper  Nieuwe  Rotterdamsche  Courant  July  14,  19 16,  and  a  fore- 
word by  the  translator.  Dr.  Hurgronje  traces  the  history  of  the 
"Shereefate"  of  Mecca  from  its  origin  to  the  present.  His  remarks 
about  the  grand-children  of  Mohammed  (page  8)  are  not  flattering. 
He  describes  them  as  robber  knights,  superstitious,  short-sighted,  avari- 
cious, and  incapable  of  carrying  out  any  great  undertaking.  From  1200 
A.  D.  to  the  present  he  says  one  line  of  these  children  of  Ali,  namely, 
that  of  Katada,  maintained  supremacy  in  Mecca.  When  Egypt  was 
conquered  in  15 17  by  Turkey  she  took  over  the  protectorate  of  the 
Hejaz,  with  the  result  that  the  Turkish  Sultans  became  the  overlords 
of  Mecca.  The  relation  between  the  Shereefs  and  the  Turkish  Gover- 
nors was  never  cordial,  and  rose  to  open  hostility  1 882-1 905.  The 
advent  of  the  Young  Turkish  party  did  not  improve  matters,  and  a 
revolt  was  inevitable.  But  Dr.  Hurgronje  holds  that  Arabia  is  still  as 
of  old  absolutely  divided  by  conflicting  interests  and  age-long  feuds. 
It  is  folly  to  speak  of  arr  Arabian  Khalifate.  "A  Khalifate  no  matter 
who  holds  the  dignity,  is  wholly  incompatible  with  modern  political 
conditions.  And  this  will  be  as  true  after  the  present  war  as  it  was 
before.  Only  as  an  empty  title  can  it  be  tolerated  at  all."  One  is  sur- 
prised to  find  much  careless  spelling  and  proof-reading.  We  call  atten- 
tion to  one  or  two  errors  in  the  text:  To  speak  of  "several  hundred 
millions"  of  Moslems  (page  iii)  is  an  exaggeration.  Gordon  College 
is  at  Khartum  not  at  Aswan.  Kaba  might  better  be  Kdaba,  and  in 
several  places  Islam  is  used  as  an  adjective  where  Islamic  or  Moslem 
is  intended. 

Z 

The  Madman,  His  Parables  and  Poems.  By  Kahlil  Gibran — Al- 
fred A.  Knopf,  New  York.  Price  $1.25.  71  pp. 
This  slight  volume  serves  to  introduce  the  English  reader  to  the 
work  of  a  modern  Syrian  poet  who  in  the  opinion  of  some  critics  is  the 
Tagore  of  the  Near  East.  The  Madman  unmasks  himself  in  the 
marketplace  of  human  knowledge  and  looks  through  the  veil  of  man 
and  creation  for  the  inner  wisdom.  The  book  contains  thirty-four 
brief  translations  of  Arabic  poems  in  English  prose.  His  philosophy  of 
life  may  be  judged  from  the  story  of  the  Three  Ants.  "Three  ants 
met  on  the  nose  of  a  man  who  was  lying  asleep  in  the  sun,  And  gfter 
they  had  saluted  one  another,  each  according  to  the  custom  of  his  tribe, 
they  stood  there  conversing.  The  first  ant  said,  'These  hills  and  plains 
are  the  most  barren  I  have  known.     I  have  searched  all  day  for  a 

430 


BOOK  REVIEWS  43i 

grain  of  some  sort,  and  there  is  none  to  be  found.*  Said  the  second 
ant,  *I  too  have  found  nothing,  though  I  have  visited  every  nook  and 
glade.  This  is,  I  believe,  what  my  people  call  the  soft,  moving  land 
where  nothing  grows.'  Then  the  third  ant  raised  his  head  and  said, 
*My  friends,  we  are  standing  now  on  the  nose  of  the  Supreme  Ant, 
the  mighty  and  infinite  Ant,  whose  body  is  so  great  that  we  cannot  see  it, 
whose  shadow  is  so  vast  that  we  cannot  trace  it,  whose  voice  is  so  loud 
that  we  cannot  hear  it;  and  He  is  omnipresent.'  When  the  third  ant 
spoke  thus  the  other  ants  looked  at  each  other  and  laughed.  At  that 
moment  the  man  moved  and  in  his  sleep  raised  his  hand  and  scratched 
his  nose,  and  the  three  ants  were  crushed." 

Z. 
The  Luzumiyat  of  Abu'1-Ala.  Selected  from  his  Luzum  ma  la 
Yalzam  and  Suet  uz-Zand  and  first  rendered  into  English  by  Ameen 
Rihani.  James  T.  White  &  Company,  New  York.  pp.  lOO. 
Abu  1-Ala  who  has  been  called  the  Voltaire  of  the  East,  and  the 
Lucretius  of  Islam  was  born  973  A.  D.  near  Aleppo,  and  died  1055. 
His  poems,  the  Luzumiyat,  were  published  in  Cairo,  in  two  volumes,  by 
Azeez  Zind,  from  an  original  Ms.  written  in  the  twelfth  century,  under 
Abu'I-AIa's  own  title  Luzum  ma  la  Yalzam,  or  The  Necessity  of  What 
in  Unnecessary.  This  title  refers  to  the  special  system  of  rhyming  which 
the  poet  adopted.  And  the  poems,  published  in  desultory  fashion,  were 
written  it  seems,  at  different  periods  of  his  life,  and  are  arranged  ac- 
cording to  his  particular  alphabetical  system  of  rhyming.  They  bear  no 
titles  except,  "And  he  also  says,  rhyming  with  so  and  so"  whatever  the 
consonant  and  vowel  may  be.  He  was  one  of  the  foremost  thinkers 
of  his  age, — skeptical,  pessimistic,  and  a  severe  critic  of  the  shams 
and  hypocrisies  of  Islam  in  his  day.  His  blindness  may  pardon  in  a 
measure  his  outlook  upon  life  and  pessimism  toward  religion: 

"But  I,  the  thrice-imprisoned,  try  to  troll  ; 

Bits  of  the  song  of  night,  which  fill  with  dole 

My  blindness,  my  confinement,  and  my  flesh —  i 

The  sordid  habitation  of  my  soul." 
Like  Job  who  cursed  the  day  in  which  he  was  born,  he  wrote  his 
own  famous  epitaph  thus : 

"This  wrong  to  me  was  by  my  father  done, 
But  never  by  me  to  anyone." 
The  problem  of  life  and  destiny  is  expressed  in  similar  fashion  as  by 
his  better-known  imitator,  Omar  Khayyam.  His  poems  present  a 
vivid  picture  of  the  degeneracy,  corruption  and  godlessness  of  the  age 
in  which  he  lived.  Vanity  of  Vanities, — that  is  the  keynote  of  his 
theme. 

"And  what  avails  it  then  that  Man  be  born 
To  Joy  or  Sorrow? — why  rejoice  or  mourn? 

The  doling  doves  are  calling  to  the  rose; 
The  dying  rose  is  bleeding  o'er  the  thorn." 

"If  Miracles  were  wrought  in  ancient  years 
Why  not  today?    O  Heaven-cradled  seers? 
The  highway's  strewn  with  dead,  the  lepers  weep, 
If  ye  but   knew, — if  ye  but  saw   their  tears." 

"The  way  of  vice  is  open  as  the  sky, 
The  way  of  virtue's  like  the  needle's  eye ; 

But  whether  here  or  there,  the  eager  Soul 
Has  only  two  Companions, — Whence  and  Why." — 


432      .,  THE  MOSLEM  WORLD 

There  are  a  number  of  misprints  and  faulty  rhythms,  e.  g.  the  "theolo- 
gians," "Lock"  for  Locke,  "Muazzens"  for  Muezzins,  "Juhannam" 
for  Jahannam  (several  times),  and  "vinyards."  The  printing  and 
binding  are  beautiful  and  the  notes  interesting. 

Z. 

La  Escatologia  Musulmana  en  la  Divina  Commedia.  Pav  Miguel 
Asin  Palacios.     Madrid.   19 19.  Pp.  404. 

This  book  is  of  the  highest  interest  to  the  readers  of  our  magazine 
as  it  is  by  far  the  most  elaborate  study  yet  made,  in  a  western  language, 
of  the  eschatology  of  Islam.  It  does  not,  it  is  true,  deal  with  the 
details  of  the  Judgment  Day;  the  comparison  with  Dante's  poem  did 
not  call  for  these;  but  it  describes  most  elaborately  from  Moslem 
sources  the  structure  of  the  world — this  earth,  hell,  paradise,  al-A'raf 
or  Limbo  the  Earthly  Paradise. 

It  begins  with  an  elaborate  analysis  and  description  of  the  different 
recensions  of  the  legend  of  Mohammed's  Night  Journeys  and  Ascent 
(al-isrd,  al-mirdj)^  of  the  theological  commentaries  on  these,  with  their 
added  legends,  and  of  the  imitations  of  the  Night  Journey,  literary  and 
mystical.  This  leads  incidentally  to  studies  of  a  number  of  subjects  of 
primary  interest.  One  of  these  is  the  attitude  of  Islam  to  the  un-evan- 
gelized  heathen.  Can  those  to  whom  the  Message  and  Guidance 
never  came  be  held  responsible  for  not  following  them?  On  this  the 
systematic  theologians  have  made  no  clear  statements;  no  one  position 
is  "of  Faith."  But  we  are  given  here  the  Ghazzalian  position  in  very 
clear  detail  as  it  was  evidently  that  of  Dante  and  of  the  later  Roman 
theology.  Ghazzali  {Ihyd  and  Faisul  at-tafriqa)  in  his  broad  Catholi- 
cism and  on  the  basis  of  a  very  doubtful  Qur'anic  text  (VII,  44-46)  built 
up  a  real  doctrine  of  a  limbo.  This  was  either  ignored  by  the  later 
and  stiffer  theologians  or  obscured  by  a  dispute  over  the  classification 
of  those  who  would  be  permitted  to  enter  it. 

Another  of  these  incidental  subjects  of  interest  is  the  school  of  Ibn 
^Arabi,  the  mystical  Spanish  Moslem,  who  had  to  take  refuge  at  Mecca 
and  was  buried  near  Damascus.  Here  there  will  be  found  much  detail 
on  his  view  of  man  and  the  world  and  their  relations  to  the  Divine. 
And  it  cannot  be  over-emphasized  that  the  attitudes  and  ideas  of 
Ibn  'Arabi  are  a  constant  and  living  element  in  the  thinking  of  Islatii 
today.  With  Ibn  'Arabi  goes  naturally  al-Ghazzali,  a  greater  theologian, 
a  more  original  thinker,  a  more  attractive  personality,  if  not  an 
ecstatic  of  the  same  spiritual  experience  or  a  poet  of  the  same  imagina- 
tive gift.  And  it  is  a  study  in  itself  to  observe  how  Professor  As'n,  a  priest 
in  the  Roman  communion,  has  been  captured  by  the  charm  of  al- 
Ghazzali,  as  indeed  are  all  who  come  into  real  contact  with  him. 
Asin  guards  himself,  it  is  true,  by  a  hypothesis  that  these  praiseworthy 
elements  and  amiable  traits  are  to  be  traced  to  Christian  influence, 
mediate  or  immediate,  but  their  presence  in  the  theology  and  ethics 
of  al-Ghazzali  he  thoroughly  accepts.  The  Ghazzalian  conception  of 
the  nature  of  saving  faith  is  for  him  entirely  Christian,  and  the  doctrine 
of  the  Person  of  God  is  separated  by  very  little  from  the  Christian 
position. 

The  philosophical  dependence  of  much  of  the  theological  thinking 
of  mediaeval  Europe  upon  Islam  is  brought  out  ver>'  clearly  and  also 
the  channels  of  influence  between  East  and  West.  Here  we  find 
Raymond  Lull  not  as  a  missionary  to  Moslems  but,  so  far  as  philosophy 
was  concerned,  of  Moslems  to  Christians.  We  see,  too,  how  deeply  the 


BOOK  REVIEWS  433 

system  of  Aquinas  himself  was  affected  by  al-Ghazzali.  And  the  whole 
thesis  of  the  book  is  that  the  mind  of  Dante  was  soaked  in  Moslem 
pictures  and  conceptions  and  that  he  was  practically,  whether  directly  or 
indirectly,  a  disciple  of  Ibn  'Arabi. 

The  great  pity  of  the  book  is  that  almost  to  the  Dantists  alone  will 
its  Spanish  be  familiar  reading.  For  the  readers  of  this  magazine  it 
would  probably  have  been  more  accessible  if  written  in  Arabic.  But  it 
is  a  good  book  and  unique,  and  goes  a  great  way  towards  making  a 
reading  knowledge  of  Spanish  a  necessity  for  the  real  student  of  Islam. 

D.  B.  Macdonald. 

"Book  of  the  Dove,"  Together  with  some  chapters  from  his 
"Ethikon."  By  Bar  Habraeus,  translated  by  A.  J.  Wensinck  with 
an  introduction.  Notes  and  Registers.  Leyden,  11,  1919.  Pp. 
cxxxvi,  152. 

William  Wright,  in  his  "History  of  Syriac  Literature,"  p.  265, 
speaks  of  "the  imposing  figure  of  Bar-Hebreaus"  and  calls  him  "one 
of  the  most  learned  and  versatile  men  that  Syria  has  ever  produced." 
That  is  no  more  than  the  truth ;  in  many  ways  he  stands  out  in  Syriac 
as  Ibn  Khaldun,  the  Berber,  does  in  Arabic,  but  with  a  still  wider  and 
deeper  knowledge.  Physician,  theologian,  philosopher,  historian,  gram- 
marian, mathematician,  astronomer,  he  covered  the  knowledge  of  his 
age  and  especially  mediated  the  learning*  of  such  Moslem  students  of 
Aristotle  as  Ibn  Sina  to  his  Christian  brethren.  In  theology  his  greatest 
work  is  his  "Storehouse  of  Secrets,"  a  critical,  exegetical  and  doctrinal 
commentary  on  the  Old  and  the  New  Testaments,  written  in  an 
objective  and  scientific  spirit.  But  he  wrote  also  on  mystic  theology 
and  edited  and  illustrated  with  a  commentary  that  "Book  of  Hireo- 
thus,"  by  Stephen  Bar  Sudaili,  which  played  so  important  a  part  in 
the  literature  connected  with  the  name  of  the  pseudo-Dionysius  the  Aero- 
pagite  (Wright,  pp.  76  f.,  and  Duval,  "Literature  Syriaque,"  pp.  317 

f..  358ff.). 

Professor  Wensinck  has  now  moved  this  side  of  Bar  Hebraeus's 
spiritual  life  and  mental  activity  into  a  much  clearer  light,  and  has 
thereby  added  to  our  wonder  at  his  myriad-mindedness.  "The  Book 
of  the  Dove"  is  an  ascetic  manual  intended  for  the  guidance  of  monks 
and  hermits  who  have  no  spiritual  director.  It  describes  the  office  in 
the  monastery,  the  office  in  the  cell,  the  spiritual  consolations  which 
the  divine  Dove  imparts  and  the  revelations  given  to  the  individual  as 
he  is  gradually  initiated  into  the  spiritual  life  and  reaches  the  ecstasy  of 
the  mystic.  It  appears  to  have  been  written  about  A.  D.  1278,  eight 
years  before  Bar  Hebraeus  died,  and  contains  a  strong  autobiographic 
element.  "The  Ethikon,"  on  the  other  hand,  was  evidently  written 
to  regulate  the  ethical  and  spiritual  life  of  every  believer,  whether 
in  the  world  or  in  religion.     It  thus  resembles  the  Ihyd  of  al-Ghazzali. 

But  the  matter  goes  much  further  than  this,  and  Professor  Wensinck 
has  demonstrated  that  Bar  Hebraeus  was  a  close  student  of  al-Ghazzali 
and  modelled  his  mystical  treatises  on  the  Ihyd,  not  only  in  arrange- 
ment but  in  ideas  and  expressions.  He  used,  in  fact,  al-Ghazzali  for  the 
mystical  life  as  he  had  used  Ibn  Sina  for  Aristotle.  It  is  not  surprising 
that  he  should  have  accepted  the  philosophical  and  scientific  guidance 
of  a  Moslem  but  that  he  should  have  extended  his  dicipleship  to  the 
ruling  and  development  of  the  religious  life  is  almost  startling  and 
suggests  how  close  must  have  been  the  contact  between  the  intellectual 
minds  of  the  time.    It  is  true  that  Bar  Hebraeus  was  no  polemist  but  all 


434  THE  MOSLEM  WORLD 

his  life  a  very  open-minded  student.  He  was  ordained  bishop  at  the 
age  of  twenty  and  found  the  disputations  with  Christian  theologians 
which  then  fell  upon  him  exceedingly  distasteful.  He  would  fain 
have  had  a  simple  statement  of  the  nature  of  Christ  as  wholly  God 
and  wholly  man,  without  mixture  or  mutation  of  natures  and  that 
this  two-sided  likeness  should  be  called  nature  or  person  or  hypostasis. 
So  he  declined  disputes  beyond  this  and  gave  himself  to  the  study  of 
Greek  science  in  the  widest  sense.  In  that  he  almost  lost  his  faith 
and  his  soul  until  the  Lord  led  him  to  the  writings  of  the  mystics  and 
these,  after  seven  years  of  seeking  and  study,  brought  him  into  the 
light — not  to  perfect  light,  he  is  careful  to  confess,  but  sufficient  for  his 
need.  So  he  tells  us  at  the  beginning  of  chapter  iv  of  "The  Book  of  the 
Dove"  and  he  follows  up  this  confession  with  an  hundred  little  para- 
graphs, "part  of  what  the  flash  of  lightening  revealed  to  me  in  the 
nightly  darkness." 

This  cannot  but  remind  us  of  al-Ghazzli's  own  confession,  in  the 
Munqidh,  of  his  wanderings  and  conversion.  Bar  Hebraeus,  who 
knew  the  Ihya  so  well,  must  surely  have  read  the  Munqidh,  yet  appar- 
ently, he  never  mentions  its  author  who  had  died  167  years  eariler. 

But  not  only  were  the  cardinal  features  of  Moslem  and  Christian 
mysticism  closely  akin;  in  its  essence  all  mysticism  everywhere  is  one 
and  two  religions  so  near  to  one  another  as  Islam  and  Christianity 
must  almost  necessarily  be  alike  in  forms.  The  matter  goes  further,  and 
dependence,  on  the  part  of  Islam,  on  earlier  Christian  forms,  both 
ascetic  and  speculative,  can  be  demonstrated  and,  beyond  that,  depen- 
dence of  these  Christian  forms  upon  Hellenistic  currents  of  thought. 
Some  influences  may  have  worked,  both  on  Christianity  and  on  Islam, 
from  the  East,  Persia  and  India;  but  Professor  Wensinck's  thesis  is 
that  the  main  and  immediate  influence  was  Western.  This  means  the 
mystery-religions  of  Greece,  of  which  we  have  heard  so  much  recently, 
gnosticism,  the  Hermetic  system,  neo-Platonism  and  neo-Pythagorianism 
— all  the  forms  in  which  Hellenistic  religiosity  expressed  itself  under 
foreign  stimuli  and  after  the  intellectualist  debacle  of  its  formal  phil- 
osophies. The  foreign  stimuli  have  still  to  be  marked  out  and  these  may 
lead  back  to  the  East;  but  the  immediate  influence,  first  on  Christian- 
ity and  second  on  Islam,  both  directly  and  through  Christianity,  was 
western.  Still  to  be  marked  out,  also  are  the  precise  lines  of  connection 
between  these  Hellenistic  ideas  and  forms  of  speech  and  Islam.  Were 
they  through  Greek  or  Syriac,  or  what?  One  interesting  little  point  in 
this  connection  Professor  Wensinck  does  not  seem  to  have  noticed. 
A  very  common  expression  in  Syriac  for  religious  ecstasy  is  derived 
from  the  root  KH-T-F.  This  occurs  as  early  as  Isaac  of  Nineveh, 
in  the  seventh  century  A.  D.  and  is  frequent  in  Bar  Hebraeus.  It  is 
roughly  equivalent  to  the  Arabic  jadhb  and  fana.  But  in  the  Moslem 
mystics  the  root  KH-T-F  seems  never  to  be  used  in  this  sense.  It 
has  always  m  Arabic  an  evil  or  violent  implication,  and  khutuf  means 
"madness"  or  "diabolic  possession."  The  Syriac  verbal  usage  evidently 
did  not  aflFect  Islam  and  yet  Arabic  Islam  has  never  hesitated  to  take 
over  a  cognate  Semitic  word  in  a  perfectly  un-Arabic  sense. 

Professor  Wensinck  elected  to  write  his  book  in  English,  for  which 
we  may  well  be  grateful  to  him.  But  it  would  have  been  bette;r  if  he 
had  secured  thorough  revision  by  an  English  speaker.  That  by  the 
person  named  in  the  preface  can  only  have  been  a  bad  joke.  There  are 
places  where  the  meaning  is  hardly  intelligible.  , 

D.  B.  Macdonali>. 


BOOK  REVIEWS  435 

Gladwin's  Ayeen  Akberi.      Supplement  to  Vol.  I ;  prepared  for  the 
use  of  students  by  L.  F.  Rushbrook  Williams,  B.  A.  L.  Litt., 
etc.     Published    for    the    University    of    Allahabad.     Longmans, 
Green  &  Co.,  London,  etc.  191 8.     3/net. 
The  Ayeen  Akberi    (or,  more  exactly  transliterated  A'in-i-Akbari) 
is  a  statistical  account  of  Akbar's  empire  in  Persia  by  his  vizier  Abu'l- 
fazl.     A  part  of  the  translation  of  this  w^ork  of  Francis  Gladwin  is 
prescribed  for  study  in  Allahabad  University.    The  w^ork  of  Mr.  Rush- 
brook  Williams,  forming  no.  2  of  the  Publications  of  the  Department 
of  Modern  Indian  History  of  that  University,  consists  of  corrections  of 
and  supplementary  notes  to  Gladwin's  translation,  followed  by  a  chron- 
ological table  of  Akbar's  reign,  complied  by  two  Indian  scholars.    This 
supplement   evidently  contains   a  quantity  of   useful   information,   but 
from   the   nature   of   the   case   will   appeal   to   few   outside   the   group 
by  whom  the  portion  of  Gladwin's  translation  with  which  it  deals  is 
studied  for  the  purpose  of  examinations. 

D.  S.  Margoliouth. 

Woman  Under  Christianity.  By  Shaikh,  M.  H.  Kidwai  of  Gadia. 
Published  by  The  Islamic  Review.  The  Mosque,  Woking.  Pp. 
52. 

This  book  is  not  pleasant  reading ;  partly  because  it  contains  so 
much  that  is  true,  but  chiefly  because  it  contains  so  much  that  is  untrue. 
That  the  evils  on  which  he  dilates — prostitution,  venereal  disease,  loos- 
ness  of  the  marriage  tie,  immodest  dressing,  immoral  dancing,  etc. — are 
all  too  common  in  so-called  Christian  lands,  we  confess  with  shame.  But 
they  are  not  by  any  means  universal  as  the  author  generally  assumes. 
They  are  in  fact  the  exception  rather  than  the  rule.  And  they  exist 
not  because  of,  but  in  spite  of,  Christianity.  And  few  intelligent  Chris- 
tians are  likely  to  turn  to  Islam  as  the  author  advises  as  a  cure  for  these 
conditions. 

The  book  is  manifestly  written  as  propaganda.  And  a  more  unfair 
treatment  of  the  theme  could  scarcely  be  conceived.  Though  the  author 
professes  "the  greatest  possible  respect"  for  Jesus,  he  grossly  misrepre- 
sents Him  and  the  teachings  of  Christianity.  He  says  that  Christianity 
has  "nothing  but  curse  and  vituperation"  for  women ;  that  "woman  has 
nothing  to  be  thankful  for  to  Christ  or  to  any  of  his  apostles" ;  and  that 
Christianity,  teaching  salvation  by  faith,  pays  little  attention  to  conduct, 
and  "has  no  remedy  for  immorality."  Most  of  the  "Christian"  au- 
thorities he  quotes  are  early  or  medieval  fathers  or  such  moderns  as 
Byron,  Schopenhauer,  Mrs.  Besant  and  Emma  Goldman!  He  refers 
to  certain  medieval  customs  surviving  in  Russia  and  elsewhere  as  if  they 
were  typical  of  Christianity.  And  not  unnaturally  he  reaches  the  con- 
clusion that  "an  honest,  truthful,  bashful,  faithful,  modest  woman 
cannot  exist  in  Europe  under  the  present  social  laws,  and  therefore 
those  only  survive  who  have  not  these  virtues."  "Every  impartial 
person,"  he  says,  "will  see  that  perhaps  there  is  no  religion  in  the 
world  which  has  so  lowered  and  degraded  woman"  as  Christianity. 

But  when  he  advises  the  women  of  the  West  to  turn  to  Islam  for 
relief,  to  "bid  0:ood-by  to  Christianity"  that  they  may  become  "morally 
equal  to  their  Moslem  sister";  when  he  represents  women  under  Islam 
as  possessing  all  the  virtues  that  are  lacking  in  women  under  Chris- 
tianity, and  says  that  "their  religion  and  their  customs  evolve  in  them 
wonderfully  beautiful  characters":  that  the  men  of  the  East  "are. never 
unchivalrous  to  them";  that  discord  between  the  Moslem  husband  and 
his  wife  is  very  rare:  when  he  says  that  the  brothel  is  practically  un- 


436       ^  THE  MOSLEM  WORLD 

known  among  Moslem  peoples,  and  calls  Mohammed  "the  real  re- 
deemer of  woman  sex" — anyone  who  knows  the  actual  conditions  in 
Moslem  lands  with  smile  a  bitter  smile.  The  shaikh  apparently  feels 
secure  in  assuming  that  his  readers  are  ignorant  of  Islamic  history  and 
teaching  and  of  the  actual  state  of  woman  under  Islam. 

A  full  page  picture  of  the  author  does  not  make  this  book  any  more 
attractive. 

J.  G.  Hunt. 
Cairo,  Egypt. 

The  Holy  Spirit:  The  Christian  Dynamic.  By  Rev.  J.  F.  Ed- 
wards. Christian  Literature  Society  for  India.  Madras.  1918. 
Pages  450. 

Among  all  the  recent  publications  of  this  society  for  missionaries 
and  the  native  church  we  have  seen  none  more  important,  more  helpful 
and  more  suggestive  than  the  present  volume.  The  author  tells  us  in 
his  preface  that  the  book  "is  sent  forth  under  the  deep  conviction  that 
in  the  dynamical  truth  of  the  Holy  Spirit  lies  the  entire  future  of  Chris- 
tianity in  India.  Points  of  contact  and  of  contrast  between  Christianity 
and  Hinduism  have  been  indicated,  and  the  Scripture  teaching  on  the 
Christian  dynamic  has  been  set  forth  with  a  special  view  to  the  needs 
of  the  Indian  Christian  Church.  This,  however,  has  been  th6  limit  of 
my  treatment  of  the  subject  from  the  distinctly  Indian  standpoint,  be- 
lieving as  I  do  that  it  is  not  for  the  missionary  to  'reformulate'  or 
adapt  Christian  truth  to  meet  Indian  conditions,  but  that  he  can  best 
help  India  towards  any  needed  restatement  by  emphazing  what  is  fun- 
damental and  'un-Hindu'  in  Christianity." 

He  has  attained  his  high  ideals,  and  there  is  scarcely  a  page  which 
does  not  carry  its  message  for  the  teacher  and  preacher.  The  book  is 
divided  into  six  sections  which  deal  respectively  with  I — The  Dynamic 
needed;  II — ^The  Holy  Spirit's  Dynamic  in  the  Bible;  III — The  Holy 
Spirit's  Dynamic  in  Christ;  IV — The  Holy  Spirit's  Dynamic  in  the 
work  of  the  Cross;  V — In  the  Individual;  VI — In  the  Christian 
Church. 

Although  the  book  is  written  especially  with  a  view  to  Hindu  India 
and  there  are  scarcely  any  direct  references  to  the  Moslem  problem,  it 
is  nevertheless  valuable  for  workers  among  Mohammedans.  A  good 
bibliography  and  an  index  of  subjects,  authors  and  Scripture  pass-^ges 
add  to  the  usefulness  of  the  book.  Z. 

Messiahs :  Christian  and  Pagan.  By  Wilson  D.  Wallis.  Boston, 
Richard  G.  Badger,  191 8,  pages  276.    Price  $2.00. 

In  1892  Dr.  Ellinwood  in  a  series  of  lectures  on  Oriental  Religions 
and  Christianity  called  attention  to  the  universality  of  expectation  re- 
garding the  coming  of  a  Messiah  among  all  nations  and  characterized 
it  as  one  of  the  most  striking  facts  in  comparative  religion.  He 
showed  how  in  modern  days,  as  well  as  in  ancient  times,  nations  and  races 
have  looked  for  a  deliverer  as  the  fulfillment  of  their  past.  In  the 
volume  before  us  we  have  a  most  interesting  although  undigested  com- 
pilation of  facts  regarding  messiahs. 

Beginning  with  Judaism,  he  traces  the  movements  in  Islam  due  to 
the  expectation  of  the  Mahdi  and  similar  ideas  among  Buddhists,  Ne- 
groes and  North  American  Indians ;  the  author  then  takes  up  in  a  chapter 
far  too  brief  the  Messianic  idea  in  Christianity,  points  out  the  relation 
between  the  messiahs  and  miracles  as  well  as  the  danger  of  these  move- 


BOOK  REVIEWS  437 

ments  in  politics;  the  last  chapter  is  a  lame  conclusion  in  which  Jesus 
Christ,  our  Lord,  does  not  come  to  His  own  although  he  admits  two 
outstanding  facts:  "a  remarkable  similarity  and  a  remarkable  difference. 
The  conditions  which  called  forth  the  Messianic  claim  are  remarkably 
like  those  which  have  called  forth  Messianic  claims  in  other  times  and 
other  climes;  the  response  to  these  demands  was  a  unique  response, 
a  filling  of  the  old  bottles  with  new  wine,  a  quenching  of  the  thirst 
by  a  new  draught.  Moreover,  this  unexpected  response  to  the  demands 
brought  about  a  transformation  in  those  demands  themselves.  As  his 
followers  were  given  other  than  they  had  asked,  so  they  came  to  ask 
other  things.  The  new  fulfillment  in  itself  created  a  new  demand  and 
a  new  attitude.  Thus  the  Christ  who  was  the  product  of  His  age  be- 
came the  creator  of  a  new  age. 

The  book  was  hastily  compiled  and  the  proof  reading  is  atrocious. 
In  chapter  II,  e.  g.,  we  find  the  following:  Meaki  for  Meakin,  Abn  for 
Ibn,  Carmations  (five  times)  for  Carmatians,  Baba  for  Baha,  Maimum 
for  Maimun.  Two  impossible  geographical  terms  are  given,  viz., 
Assma  and  Hatalastiva,  while  the  famous  historian  Ibn  Khaldun  is 
spoken  of  as  the  great  theologian.  The  references  to  authorities  are 
many.  The  index  is  good  and  the  reader  can  use  the  material  to  good 
advantage  as  a  point  of  departure  for  further  study. 

The  Life  of  Mohammed  (In  Chinese)  by  Isaac  Mason.  Illus- 
trated. Pp.  90.  Shanghai,  1919. 
A  summary  of  the  material  found  in  standard  English  works  and 
written  in  a  style  not  likely  to  arouse  opposition.  It  is  a  good  and 
necessary  piece  of  work  both  for  the  education  of  the  Chinese  Church 
and  to  give  Moslems  in  China  a  more  correct  and  historic  view  of  their 
prophet  than  that  found  in  the  miraculous  and  traditional  life  by  Liu 
Chi. 

A  Primer  on  Islam  and  the  Spiritual  needs  of  the  Mohammedans 
of  China.  Illustrated.  Prepared  for  the  Christian  Church  of 
the  Chinese  Republic  by  Samuel  M.  Zwemer.  The  Committee 
on  work  for  Moslems  of  the  China  Continuation  Committee.  Pp. 
50.     Shanghai,   191 9. 

This  primer  was  prepared  for  translation  into  Chinese  as  a  brief 
introduction  to  the  subject.  "Mohammedans  in  China,  at  least  in  fifteen 
out  of  the  eighteen  provinces,  have  become  merged  in  the  Chinese  popu- 
lation, but  are  more  or  less  easily  distinguishable  from  their  neighbors. 
They  speak  the  language  of  the  country  in  which  they  live  and  wear 
its  costume;  but  there  are  some  physical  features  by  which  they  may 
be  differentiated,  their  cheek  bones  being  generally  more  prominent  and 
their  noses  higher  shaped  than  the  majority  of  the  Chinese,  and  they 
have  a  habit  of  clipping  the  mustache  which  the  Chinese  do  not  follow. 
They  do  not  intermarry  with  the  Chinese,  but  frequently  adopt  native 
children  into  their  families.  They  make  little  attempt  to  convert  their 
Chinese  neighbors,  and  the  religious  opinions  which  they  hold  are, 
to  a  great  extent,  unknown  to  outsiders. 

"No  class  or  section  of  the  vast  population  of  China  has  been  so 
neglected  in  the  proclamation  of  the  Gospel  as  the  Mohammedans. 
The  two  chief  reasons  are  that  special  missionaries  acquainted  with 
their  religions  and  customs  have  not  been  designated  for  the  task, 
and  that  the  other  work  for  those  professing  the  three  religions  of 
China  looked  so  large  that  it  has  occupied  all  the  time  and  strength 


438  THE  MOSLEM  WORLD 

of  the  missionaries  and  the  native  church.  The  time  has  come,  how- 
ever, when  the  missionary  societies  and  the  Church  of  Christ  in 
China  are  seriously  facing  the  needs  also  of  the  Mohammedans. 
Nowhere  in  the  world  are  the  Mohammedans  more  friendly  and  more 
accessible  than  they  are  in  China." 

The  six  short  chapters  deal  with  the  rise  of  Islam,  its  creed  and 
ethics,  its  strength  and  weakness  and  the  best  methods  of  reaching 
Moslems  with  the  Gospel  message.  The  supreme  method  is  love 
and  the  ministry  of  intercession.  The  appendix  gives  a  classified 
bibliography  of  books  on  Islam  in  Chinese  and  Chinese-Arabic. 

L.  S.  R. 

Revue  du  Monde  Musulman.  Published  by  La  Mission  Scientique 
du  maroc,  Volume  XXXIV,  191 7- 191 8.  Edited  by  Ernest  Le 
Roux,  28  Rue  Bonaparte,  Paris. 

The  most  notable  articles  in  the  1917-1918  Revue  du  Monde 
Musulman  are  perhaps  those  on  L'Islam  et  L^Abyssinnie  by  A.  Guerinot ; 
L'Islam  en  Guinee,  Fouta  Diallon  by  Paul  Marty  and  Notes  sur 
L'Enseignement  dans  la  Russie  Musulmane  avant  la  Revolution  by  R. 
Majerczak. 

The  first  of  these,  L'Islam  et  L'Abyssinie  deals  with  the  origin  of 
Mohammedanism  in  Abyssinia  and  traces  its  growth  and  development 
there,  showing  in  a  striking  yet  logical  way  just  why  Mohammedanism 
has  received  such  a  strong  hold  over  the  primitive  race,  or  rather  races 
of  Abyssinia.  The  author  has  carefully  selected  this  material  and 
presents  this  subject  in  a  clear  and  unbiased  form. 

We  clearly  see  how  inevitable  was  the  conflict  between  the  many 
diflFerent  races  crowded  so  closely  together  within  Abyssinia,  how  this 
tribal  internal  warfare,  together  with  border  wars  resulted  in  per- 
petual disorganization.  In  order  to  understand  the  extent  of  Moham- 
medanism in  Abyssinia  today,  the  author  sketches  its  history  from  about 
615  through  the  19th  century.  He  tells  us  the  legend  of  the  mer- 
chant prince  Merope  who  was  shipwrecked  on  the  coast  of  the  Red 
Sea,  how  his  two  sons  were  given  especial  liberty  because  of  their 
superior  intelligence.  One  of  them,  Frumentius ,  became  a  royal  tutor 
and  it  is  he  whom  the  Ethiopians  venerate  as  their  first  patriarch.  Later 
monks  from  Syria  penetrated  through  Arabia,  Egypt  and  finally  reached 
Abyssinia.  These  monks  made  their  influence  and  faith  felt  upon  the 
natives.  During  the  8th  century  Christianity  made  rapid  progress. 
They,  however,  were  not  long  left  free.  The  Arabs  began  to  emigrate 
into  Abyssinia,  attracted  there  by  commerce.  About  615,  persecuted 
at  home,  50  Moslems  took  refuge  in  Abyssinia.  Their  numbers  and 
strength  increased  rapidly.  The  history  of  Abyssinia  from  this  point 
on  becomes  an  account  of  the  struggle  between  Christianity  and 
Mohammedanism,  the  latter  slowly  but  surely  gaining  in  the  former. 
Until  by  the  time  of  Johannes  I,  in  1668,  we  see  one  of  the  rulers  and 
himself  converted  away  from  the  Christian  faith  by  his  ancestors  and 
openly  favoring  Mohammedanism,  so  that  by  1840,  Abyssinia  is  entirely 
won  from  Christianity  and  subjugated  to  Mohammedanism. 

A  slight  reaction  took  place  under  the  Christian  adventurer  Koosa. 
He  waged  war  successfully  upon  Johannes  VI  and  himself  became 
ruler  under  the  name  of  the  Theodorus  III.  Under  his  rule  the 
Mohammendans  were  persecuted  and  many  fled.  Nevertheless  this 
slight  impetus  given  to  Christianity  did  not  live  long.  In  1889, 
Meuilik  granted  full  religious  freedom  to  the  Moslems. 


BOOK  REVIEWS  439 

As  a  result  of  all  this  political  upheaval,  we  see  in  Abyssinia  today 
3,600,000  Moslems,  as  compared  with  7,500,000  Christians.  Entire 
tribes  that  fifty  or  sixty  years  ago  were  Christian,  are  today  about  to  a 
man  converted  to  the  teachings  of  Mohammed.  The  reasons  for 
this  are  easily  understood.  The  Moslem  in  the  main  has  been  rich — he 
has  enjoyed  all  the  material  advantages  of  property,  which  have 
excited  a  spirit  of  emulation  in  the  Ethiopian.  Then  too,  Mohammed- 
anism promises  immediate  satisfaction  with  the  minimum  of  intellectual 
and  moral  discipline.  The  negro  has  not  been  strong  enough  to  with- 
stand these  temptations — he  has  almost  eagerly  abandoned  the  faith 
of  his  ancestors  and  embraced  this  new  easy-going  optimism. 

In  the  second  half  of  the  article  the  author  gives  a  brief  sketch  of  the 
customs,  manners,  and  laws  of  the  nine  most  important  tribes  that 
have  adopted  Mohammedanism. 

Notes  sur  L'enseignement  dans  la  Russia  Musulman: 

An  intensely  interesting  and  readable  collection  of  notes,  which  the 
author  has  gathered  apparently  with  considerable  difficulty.  He  shows 
how  the  revolutionary  wave  that  swept  Russia  in  1906  extended  even 
to  the  Mohammedan  schools  and  aroused  a  spirit  of  reform,  which  had 
as  its  effect  the  breaking  down  of  the  conservatism  which  had  dominated 
them  in  pre-revolutionary  days. 

The  importance  of  education  was  the  theme  of  the  day — it  was 
discussed  constantly  in  the  press  and  examined  from  every  point  of 
view  by  the  most  prominent  thinkers.  The  Reformers,  however,  could 
not  agree  on  what  method  to  pursue,  and  much  discontent  resulted. 
Strikes  even  took  place  in  the  schools — teachers  took  vacations  in  order 
to  work  out  a  new  and  adequate  scheme  of  education,  a  special  magazine 
was  published  in  which  to  discuss  the  question. 

From  all  this  discussion  and  theorizing,  two  main  facts  stand  forth: 
— the  unpopularity  of  the  Russian  schools  among  the  Mohammedans, 
and  the  inadequacy  of  the  Mohammedan  schools.  In  order  to  under- 
stand the  real  situation,  the  author  describes  the  old  system  of  education 
with  its  prayer,  takhta,  aboudjad,  heftyck  so  that  after  five  or  six  3'ears, 
a  pupil  knows  how  to  read  in  Arabic,  but  cannot  say  his  prayers 
properly,  nor  write — to  say  nothing  of  all  the  other  things. 

The  reason  for  the  existence  of  these  evils  are  wretched  financial 
conditions,  and  the  hostility  of  the  imams  or  Mohammedan  priests 
to  any  innovations. 

From  1906  to  1912  a  series  of  conventions  were  held.  Among  these 
was  the  famous  Congress  of  Niini-Novgorod.  In  1912,  the  Reyne 
Choura  places  these  questions  before  the  public  for  discussion — I. 
What  is  the  essential  object  of  the  primary  schools?  II.  Which  is  the 
more  important — instructor  or  manual?  III.  Should  the  manuals  be 
uniform  or  should  they  be  left  to  the  choice  of  the  instructor?  About 
this  time,  the  Russian  government  began  to  agitate  the  question  of  the 
nationalization  of  all  schools.  This  again  threw  the  Moslem  world 
into  a  furor  of  discussion  and  of  protest,  and  again  created  disorder  and 
strikes  among  the  students  themselves. 

The  outcome  has  thus  been  that  either  the  Mohammedans  must 
reform  their  schools  from  the  point  of  view  of  ( i )  Method  of  instruc- 
tion; (2)  Hygiene;  (3)  Text-books;  (4)  Establish  purely  lay  schools 
of  a  scientific  character  or  be  absorbed  into  the  Russian  Schools.  Though 
the  nationalization  of  the  Mohammedan  has  been  urged  and  pressed 
by  the  Russian  government,  it  has  failed  miserably.  Lately,  the  policy 
has  been  modified,  but  the  Mohammedan  is  still  far  from  satisfied. 


440  THE  MOSLEM  WORLD 

The  second  part  of  the  article  consists  of  a  description  of  the  most 
important  Mohammedan  schools  throughout  the  Russian  kingdom.  As 
these  schools,  in  spite  of  their  decadence,  still  play  a  most  important 
part  in  the  life  of  the  present  Russian  Mohammedan  this?  description 
is  full  of  interesting  details. 

M.    S. 

The  Little  Daughter  of  Jerusalem.  Myriam  Harry,  with  a 
preface  by  M.  Jules  Lemaitre.  pp.  300,  6/-net.  London,  J.  M. 
Dent. 

This  story  of  a  typical  child  in  the  extraordinary  cosmopolitan  com- 
munity of  Jerusalem  at  the  present  time,  is  more  or  less  autobiographical 
and  those  who  are  not  acquainted  with  the  writings  of  Myriam  Harry 
will  be  much  interested  in  the  preface  which  M.  Jules  Lemaitre  has 
contributed  to  it.  She  was  born  herself  in  Jerusalem  and  this  is  a  des- 
cription with  many  delightful  touches  of  her  early  experiences.  "Her 
grandfather  was  a  Russian  Jew,  but  her  father  was  a  convert  to  the 
English  Church,  whilst  her  mother  had  been  a  German  deaconess. 
Thus  Hebrew,  Russian  and  German  blood  flowed  in  her  veins.  She 
was  born  and  brought  up  in  an  old  Saracen  house.  From  her  baby- 
hood she  could  speak  German,  English  and  Arabic,  and  she  had 
picked  up  a  few  French  words  from  a  Maronite  ex-nun  who  was 
supposed  to  teach  her  French. 

The  scene  is  laid  before  the  war,  of  course,  but  the  book  might  almost 
have  been  written  to  stimulate  interest  and  sympathy  in  the  many  girls 
of  mixed  parentage  which  are  to  be  found  in  the  Holy  City  now-a-days. 
Happily  the  ladies  in  connection  with  the  Syria  and  Palestine  Relief 
Fund  have  already  been  able  to  start  club  work  among  them  and  the 
necessity  for  such  is  amply  demonstrated  by  the  story  of  this  little  Siona 
Benedictus,  especially  from  the  religious  side.  To  quote  but  a  couple 
of  instances : 

"Although  Siona  actually  grew  up  amongst  the  living  illustrations 
of  the  Bible,  she  formed  a  totally  different  conception  in  her  own  mind 
of  all  the  people  and  places  associated  with  the  Gospel  story.  She 
pictured  Christ  and  His  disciples  as  Occidentals  who  lived  far  away  from 
Jerusalem  in  some  distant  land,  like  America  perhaps,  of  which  the 
Bethlemites  talked  so  much,  and  where  their  husbands  went  to  sell  their 
mother-of-pearl  wares."    (p.  35). 

"Oh !  Siona,  Siona !"  her  mother  would  cry.  "Don't  you  realize  there 
is  a  good  God  above  us ?  Won't  you  ever  become  religious?"  "Why,  of 
course  I  shall,  mother,"  Siona  would  reply  naively.  "I  shall  be  ever 
so  religious  when  I  go  to  Europe,  because,"  added  the  little  daughter  of 
Jerusalem,  "all  the  Europeans  believe  in  the  Christ  Child  who  was 
born  at  Bethlehem."  (p.  145).  .  .  .  "And  perhaps  just  because  she 
was  so  familiar  with  these  holy  places,  the  little  daughter  of  Jerusalem 
grew  up  more  and  more  indifferent  to  all  that  savoured  of  religion." 
(p.  149). 

E.  L  M.  B. 


SURVEY  OF  RECENT  PERIODICALS 

I.  GENERAL. 

"Islam  and  England."     Sir  Theodore  Morison,  K.  C.  S.  I.    "Nine- 
teenth Century."     London.     July,  191 9. 

An  explanation  of  the  passionate  resentment  which  Mohammedans  in 
India  feel  at  the  proposed  dimemherment  of  the  Turkish  Empire. 
"It  is  not  patriotism  in  the  ordinary  sense  of  the  word,  for  it  is 
not  associated  with  one  particular  country  or  race.  It  is  not  bigotry  or 
religious  fanaticism,  for  some  of  the  most  ardent  defenders  of  Moham- 
medan interests  are  sceptics  in  matters  of  religion  .  .  .  The  truth  is 
Islam  is  more  than  a  creed,  it  is  a  complete  social  system;  it  is  a  civiliza- 
tion with  a  philosophy,  a  culture  and  an  art  of  its  own ;  in  its  long  strug- 
gle against  the  rival  civilization  of  Christendom  it  has  become  an  or- 
ganic unit  conscious  of  itself  ....  No  Mohammedan  believes  that 
this  civilization  is  dead  or  incapable  of  further  development  .... 
They  believe  that  Islam  too  is  about  to  have  its  Renaissance." 

On  the  plain  practical  ground  of  self-interest,  England  should  not 
destroy  the  Turkish  Empire.  .  .  .  England  has  pledged  her  word 
that  Turkish  sovereignty  shall  not  be  destroyed  (in  Mr.  Lloyd  George's 
speech  of  January  5th,  1918.)  "Does  not  every  Englishman  who  knows 
that  England's  word  has  hitherto  stood  for  in  the  East  share  the  indig- 
nation which  Mohammedans  are  feeling  as  that  pledge  seems  about  to 
be  broken?" — 

IL  ORIGIN  OF  ISLAM. 
IIL  HISTORY  OF  ISLAM. 

"Dervishism."     tieorge  Swan.     "Church  Missionary  Review."    Lon- 
don.    March,  191 9. 
An  historical  account  of  the  Dervish  orders  with  a  general  estimate  of 

the  religious  instinct  which  finds  expression  in  the  ZIKR. 

"The  Afghan  Claim  to  Descent  from  Israel."    Colonel  Sir  Thos. 

Holdich,  K.  C.  M.  G.    "Nineteenth  Century."    London.  July,  191 9. 

An  account  by  an  officer  of  the  Boundary  Commission  of  1894-95  of 
the  claim  of  the  Duranis,  who  call  themselves  Bein  Israel  and  are  the 
ruling  clan  of  the  Afghans,  that  they  are  the  modern  representatives  of 
the  Israelites  who  were  deported  from  Syria  by  the  Assyrians  in  772  B.C. 

"An  Impression  of  Mediaeval  Jerusalem."     Cecily  Booth.    "The 

Asiatic  Review."     April,  1 919. 

A  description  of  Jerusalem  in  the  spring  of  1099  A.  D.  based  on  the 
Crusaders'  chronicles  and  other  contemporaries. 

IV.  THEOLOGY,  TRADITIONS,  ETC. 

V.  SOCIAL  LIFE,  CUSTOMS,  ETC. 
VL  POLITICAL    RELATIONSHIPS. 

441 


442  THE  MOSLEM  WORLD 

« 

"The  New  Middle  East."     Robert  Machray.       ** Fortnightly     Re- 
view."    London.     April,  1919. 
A  description  of  movement  and  tendencies  since  the  Armistice  was 

signed. 

"Three  Egyptians  Proconsuls."     Sir  Malcolm  McIIwraith,  K.  C. 

M.  G.     "Fortnightly  Review.'*     London.     April,  1919. 

Part  of  an  address  on  "Egyptian  Administration  since  1882,"  delivered 
at  the  Royal  Colonial  Institute,  London. 

"The  Problem  of  Egypt."      Rt.   Hon.  T.   M.   Robertson.     "Con- 

temporary."     London.     May,  191 9. 

A  discussion  of  the  reasons  for  the  rebellion  in  Egypt  in  1 91 9.  The 
writer  upholds  Miss  M.  E.  Durham  in  The  Daily  News  (London)  of 
April  2nd,  191 9,  when  she  explains  the  situation  as  being  due  to  the 
British  treatment  of  the  Egyptians.  "The  authorities  were  certainly  to 
blame  in  landing  Colonial  troops  in  Egypt  without  carefully  instructing 
them  as  to  the  population  they  would  meet  there.  So  ignorant  were  num- 
bers of  the  men  that  they  imagined  that  Egypt  was  English  and  that  the 
natives  of  the  land  were  colored  intruders." 

"The  Claims  of  Afghanistan."     Ikabl    Ali    Shah,    M.    R.    A.    S. 

The  Edinburgh  Review.     Jan.  191 9. 

An  appeal  by  an  Afghan  for  the  liberation  from  Russia  of  the  provinces 
of  Bokhara,  Turkomania  to  the  Northwest,  Shignan  and  Roshan  to  the 
Northeast  of  Afghanistan  and  their  incorporation  in  Afghanistan  as  a 
reward  for  the  "absolutely  correct  attitude  maintained  by  the  Buffer 
State  during  the  war." 

"Our  Relations  With  Afghanistan."     Demetrius  C.  Bougler.  Con- 
temporary.    July,  1 91 9. 

A  discussion  of  the  present  state  of  affairs  between  India  and  Afghan- 
istan. "The  recent  assassination  of  the  Amir  Habibulla  will  probably 
come  to  be  regarded  as  a  turning  point  in  our  relations  with  Afghanistan. 
....  The  military  peril,  if  it  exists  in  any  acute  degree,  lies  not  in 
the  Afghan  army,  but  with  the  Bolshevist  levies  of  all  kinds,  thousands  of 
starving  and  desperate  men  well  accustomed  to  the  use  of  arms,  that 
necessity  or  some  hostile  influence  may  set  moving  for  the  Indus.  We 
know  by  the  Merv  incident  that  they  have  begun  to  move;  we  do  not 
know  whither  they  will  go  or  where  they  will  stop.  That  is  the  cloud  on 
the  Indian  frontier." 

VIL  MISSIONS  OF  MOHAMMEDANS. 

"Everyday  Difficulties  of  Indian  Christians."     Miss  A.  T.  Mar- 

ris.     East  and  West.     London.     April,  191 9. 

Brings  before  Western  and  especially  British  Christians  some  of  the 
special  troubles,  anxieties  and  everyday  difficulties  of  Indian  Christians. 


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