decay. I was astonished at the vigorous life of Islam, at its practical hopes and fears in this modern nineteenth century, and above all at its reality as a moral force; so that if I had not exactly come to mock, I certainly remained, in a certain sense, to pray. As least I left it interested, as I had never thought to be, in the great struggle which seemed to me impending between the parties of reaction in Islam and reform, and not a little hopeful as to its favorable issue. What this is likely to be I now intend to discuss. lands to which they owe their origin and | gratified curiosity, and to having found the people who were their countrymen. new worlds of thought and life in an Thus there is constantly found at Jeddah atmosphere I had fancied to be only of a free mart of intelligence for all that is happening in the world; and the common gossip of the bazaar retails news from every corner of the Mussulman earth. It is hardly too much to say that one can learn more of modern Islam in a week at Jeddah than in a year elsewhere, for there the very shopkeepers discourse of things divine, and even the Frank vice-consuls prophecy. The Hejazi is less shy, too, of discussing religious matters than his fellow-Mussulmans are in other places. Religion is, as it were, part of his stock in trade, and he is accustomed to parade it before strangers. With a European he may do this a little disdainfully, but still he will do it, and with less disguise or desire to please than is in most places the case. Moreover and this is important — it is almost always the practical side of questions that the commercial Jeddan will put forward. He sees things from a political and economical point of view, rather than a doctrinal, and if fanatical, he is so from the same motives, and no others, which once moved the citizens of Ephesus to defend the idols worshipped at their shrines. In other cities the ulema or learned men, of whom a stranger might seek instruction, would be found busying themselves mainly with doctrinal matters not always interesting at the present day, old-world arguments of Koranic interpretation which have from time immemorial occupied the schools. But here even these are treated practically, and as they bear on the political aspect of the hour. For myself, I became speedily impressed with the advantage thus afforded me, and neglected no opportunity which offered itself for listening and asking questions, so that without pretending to the possession of more special skill than any intelligent inquirer might command, I obtained a mass of . information I cannot but think to be of great value-while this in its turn served me later as an introduction to such Mussulman divines as I afterwards met in the north. Jeddah then realized all my hopes and gratified nearly all my curiosities. I will own, too, to having come away with more than a First, however, it will I think be as well to survey briefly the actual composition of the Mohammedan world. It is only by a knowledge of the elements of which Islam is made up that we can guess its future, and these are less generally known than they should be. A stranger from Europe visiting the Hejaz is, as I have said, irresistibly struck with the vastness of the religious world in whose centre he stands. Mohammedanism to our Western eyes seems almost bounded by the limits of the Ottoman Empire. The Turk stands in our foreground and has stood there from the days of Bajazet, and in our vulgar tongue his name is still synonymous with Moslem, so that we are apt to look upon him as, if not the only, at least the chief figure of Islam. But from Arabia we see things in a truer perspective, and become aware that beyond and without the Ottoman dominions there are races and nations, no less truly followers of the Prophet, beside whom the Turk shrinks into numerical insignificance. We catch sight, it may be for the first time in their real proportions, of the old Persian and Mogul monarchies, of the forty million Mussulmans of India, of the thirty million Malays, of the fifteen million Chinese, and the vast and yet uncounted Mohammedan populations of central Africa. We see, too, how important is still the Arabian element, and how necessary it is to count with it, in any estimate we may form of Islam's possible future. Turkey, meanwhile, and Constantinople, retire to a rather remote horizon, and the Mussul man centre of gravity is as it were shifted | by reference to the consular agents residfrom the north and west towards the southing there. They may therefore be relied and east. upon as fairly accurate; while for the land pilgrimage I trust in part my own observations, made three years ago, in part statistics obtained at Cairo and DaFor the table of population in I was at some pains while at Jeddah to gain accurate statistics of the Haj according to the various races and sects composing it, and with them of the popula-mascus. tions they in some measure represent. the various lands of Islam I am obliged to The pilgrimage is of course no certain go more directly to European sources of guide as to the composition of the Mus- information. As may be supposed, no sulman world, for many accidents of dis- statistics on this point of any value were tance and political circumstance interfere obtainable at Jeddah; but by taking the with calculations based on it. Still to a figures commonly given in our handcertain extent a proportion is preserved books, and supplementing and correcting between it and the populations which sup- these by reference to such persons as I ply it; and, in default of better, statistics could find who knew the countries, I have, of the Haj afford us an index not without I hope, arrived at an approximation to the value of the degree of religious vitality truth, near enough to give a tolerable idea existing in the various Mussulman coun- to general readers of the numerical protries. My figures, which for convenience portions of Islam. Strict accuracy, howI have arranged in tabular form, are taken ever, I do not here pretend to, nor would principally from an official record, kept it if obtainable materially help my pres. for some years past at Jeddah, of the pil-ent argument. grims landed at that port, and checked as far as European subjects are concerned The following is my table: The figures thus roundly given require | the four great sects may be thus roughly explanation in order to be of their full given:value as a bird's-eye view of Islam. I hammedans will take them as nearly as possible in the I. The Sunites or Orthodox Mo- The main beliefs common to all Mussulmans are: 1. A belief in one true God, the creator and ordainer of all things. 2. A belief in a future life of reward or punishment. The Sunites, or People of the Path, are of course by far the most important of these. They stand in that relation to the other sects in which the Catholic Church stands to the various Christian heresies, and claim alone to represent that continuous body of tradition political and religious, which is the sign of a living church. In addition to the dogmas already mentioned, they hold that, after the Prophet and his companions, other authorized channels of tradition exist of hardly less authority with these. The sayings of the four first caliphs, as collected in the first century of the Mohammedan era, they hold to be inspired and unimpeachable, as are to a certain extent the theological treatises of the four great doctors of Is 3. A belief in a divine revelation imparted first to Adam, and renewed at intervals to Noah, to Abraham, to Moses, and to Jesus Christ, and last of all in its per-lam, the imams Abu Hanifeh, Malek, fect form to Mohammed. This revelation is not only one of dogma, but of practice. It claims to have taught an universal rule of life for all mankind in politics and leg islation as well as in doctrine and in morals. This is called Islam. 4. A belief in the Koran as the literal word of God, and of its inspired interpretation by the Prophet and his companions, preserved through tradition (Hadith). Esh Shafy, and Hanbal, and after them, though with less and less authority, the fetwas, or decisions of distinguished ulema, down to the present day. collected body of teaching acquired from these sources is called the Sheriat (in Turkey the Sheriati Sherifeh) and is the canon law of Islam. Nor is it lawful that this should be gainsaid; while the imams themselves may not inaptly be compared to the fathers of our Christian Church. It is a dogma, too, with the Sunites that they are not only an ecclesiastical but a politi cal body, and that among them is the living representative of the temporal power of the Prophet, in the person of his khalifeh or successor, though there is much division of opinion as to the precise line of succession in the past and the legitimate ownership of the title in the present. But this is too intricate and important a matter to be entered on at present. These summed up in the well-known "Kelemat or act of faith, "There is no God but God, and Mohammed is the apostle of God," form a common doctrinal basis for every sect of Islam and also common to all are the four religious acts, prayer, fasting, almsgiving, and pilgrimage, ordained by the Koran itself. On other points, however, both of belief and practice, they differ widely; so widely that the sects must be considered as not only distinct from, but hostile to, each The Sunites are then the body of auother. They are nevertheless, it must be thority and tradition, and being more admitted, less absolutely irreconcilable numerous than the other three sects put than are the corresponding sects of Chris- together in a proportion of four and a half tianity, for all allow the rest to be dis- to one, have a good right to treat these as tinctly within the pale of Islam, and they heretics. It must not, however, be suppray on occasion in each other's mosques posed that even the Sunites profess absoand kneel at the same shrines on pilgrim-lutely homogeneous opinions. The path age. Neither do they condemn each of Orthodox Islam is no macadamized others errors as altogether damnable road such as the Catholic Church of except, I believe, in the case of the Wah- Christendom has become, but like one of habites, who accuse other Moslems of its own Haj routes goes winding on, a polytheism and idolatry. The census of labyrinth of separate tracks, some near, some far apart, some clean out of sight of the rest. All lead, it is true, in the same main direction, and here and there in difficult ground where there is a mountain range to cross or where some defile narrows they are brought together, but otherwise they follow their own ways as the idiosyncrasy of race and disposition may dictate. There is no common authority in the world acknowledged as superior to the rest, neither is there any office corresponding even remotely with the infallible papacy. The Mohammedan nations have for the most part each its separate school, composed of its own ulema and presided over by its own Sheykh el Islam, and these are independent of all external influence. If they meet at all it is at Mecca, but even at Mecca there is no college of cardinals, no central authority; and though occasionally cases are referred there or to Constantinople, the fetwas given are not of absolute binding power over the faithful in other lands. Moreover, besides these national distinctions, there are three recognized schools of the ology which divide between them the allegiance of the orthodox, and which, while not in theory opposed, do in fact represent as many distinct lines of religious thought. These it has been the fashion with European writers to describe as sects, but the name sect is certainly inaccurate, for the distinctions recognizable in their respective teachings are not more clearly marked than in those of our own Church parties, the High, the Low, and the Broad. Indeed a rather striking analogy may be traced between these three phases of English Church teaching and the three so-called "orthodox sects" of Islam. The three Mohammedan schools are the Hanefite, the Malekite, and the Shafite, while a fourth, the Hanbalite, is usually added, but it numbers at the present day so few followers that we need not notice it. A few words will describe each of these. The Hanefite school of theology may be described as the school of the upper classes. It is the high and dry party of Church and State, if such expressions can be used about Islam. To it belongs the Osmanli race, I believe, without exception, the old ruling race of the north, and their kinsman who founded empires in central and southern Asia. The official classes, too, in most parts of the world are Hanefite, including the viceregal courts of Egypt, Tripoli, and Tunis, and it would seem the courts of most of the Indian princes. It is probably rather as a consequence of this than as its reason that it is the most conservative of schools, conservative in the true sense of leaving things exactly as they are. The Turkish ulema have always insisted strongly on the dogma that the ijtahad, that is to say the elaboration of new doctrine, is absolutely closed; that nothing can be added to or taken away from the already existing body of religious law, and that no new mujtahed, or doctor of Islam, can be expected who shall adapt that law to the life of the modern world. At the same time, while obstinate in matters of opinion, Hanefism has become extremely lax as to practice. Its moral teaching is held, and I believe justly, to be adapted only too closely to the taste of its chief supporters. It is accused by its enemies of having given its sanction to all the excesses of libertinism common among the Turks, their use of fermented drinks, of European clothing, their immoderate concubinage and other worse vices. It is in fact, to use a phrase once common in England - the "port wine" school of Mussulman orthodoxy. It embraces most of those who at the present day support the revived spiritual pretensions of Constantinople. The pilgrimage then described in our table as Ottoman is mostly made up of men of this theological school. It must not, however, be supposed that anything like the whole number either of the eight thousand five hundred pilgrims, or of the twenty-two million population they represent, is composed of Turks. The true Ottoman Turk is probably now among the rarest of visitors to Mecca, and it is doubtful whether the whole Turkish census in Europe and in Asia amounts to more than four millions. With regard to the pilgrimage there is good reason why this should be the case. In Turkey, all the able-bodied young men, who are the first material of the Haj, are taken from other duties for military service, and hardly any now make their tour of the Kaaba except in the sultan's uniform. Rich merchants, the second material of the Haj in other lands, are almost unknown among the Turks; and the offi cials, the only well-to-do class in the empire, have neither leisure nor inclination to absent themselves from their worldly business of intrigue. Besides, the offi cial Turk is already too civilized to put up readily with the real hardships of the Haj. In spite of the alleviations effected by the steam navigation of the Red Sea, pilgrim age is still no small matter, and, once landed at Jeddah, all things are much as they were a hundred years ago, while the Turk has changed. With his modern notion of dress and comfort he may indeed be excused for shrinking from the quaint nakedness of the pilgrim garb and the bare-headed march to Arafat under a tropical sun. Besides, there is the land journey still of three hundred miles to make before he can reach Medina, and what to some would be worse hardship, a wearisome waiting afterwards in the unhealthy ports of Hejaz. Besides, the Turkish official has learned to dispense with so many of the forms of his religion that he finds no difficulty in making himself excuses here. In fact he seldom or never now makes the pilgrimage. The mass of the Ottoman Haj is made up of Kurds, Syrians, Albanians, Circassians, Lazis, and Tartars, from Russia and the Khanates, of everything rather than real Turks. Nor are those that come distinguished greatly for their piety or learning. The School of St. Sophia at Constantinople has lost its old reputation as a seat of religious knowlege; and its ulema are known to be more occupied with the pursuit of court patronage than of any other science. So much indeed is this the case that serious students often prefer a residence at Bokhara or even in the heretical schools of Persia as a more real road to learning. Turkey proper boasts at the present day few theologians of note, and still fewer independent thinkers. of Arabic-speaking races, and its ulema have the highest reputation of any in Islam. Egyptian influence, therefore, must be reckoned as an important element in the forces which make up Mohammedan opinion. The late khedive, it is true, did much to impair this by his infidelity and his coquetteries with Europe, and under his reign the Egyptian Haj fell to a low level; but Mohammed Towfik, who is a sincere, thorough, liberal Mussulman, has already restored much of his country's prestige at Mecca, and it is not unlikely that in time to come Egypt, grown materially prosperous, may once more take a leading part in the politics of Islam. But of this later. All three schools of theology are taught in the Azhar Mosque, and Egyptians are divided according to their class between them. The viceroy and the ruling clique, men of Ottoman origin, are Hanefites, and so too are some of the leading merchants of Cairo, but the common people of that city are Shafites, while the fellahin of the Delta are almost entirely Malekite. Malekite, too, are the tribes west of the Nile, following the general rule of the population of Africa. The Malekite school of religious thought differs widely from the Hanefite. If the latter has been described as the High Church party of Islam, this must be described as the Low. It is Puritanical, fierce in its dogma, severe in its morals, and those who profess it are undoubtedly the most fervent, the most fanatical of believers. They represent more nearly than any other Mussulmans the ancient earnestness of the Prophet's companions, and the sword in their hand is ever the sword of God. Piety too, ostensible and sincere, is found everywhere among the Malekites. Abd el Kader, the soldier saint, is their type; and holy men by hereditary profession abound among them. The Malekites believe with earnest faith in things supernatural, dreaming prophetic dreams, and seeing miracles performed as every-day occurrences. With the Arabs of Africa, unlike their kinsmen in Arabia itself, it is still the fashion to pray and fast, and no class of Mussulmans are more devout on pilgrimage. In The Egyptian Haj is far more flourish ing. Speaking the language of Arabia, the citizen of Cairo is more at home in the holy places than any inhabitant of the northern towns can be. The customs of Hejaz are very nearly his own customs, and its climate not much more severe than his. Cairo, too, can boast a far more ancient political connection with Mecca than Constantinople can, for as early as the twelfth century the sultans of Egypt were protectors of the holy places, while even since the Ottoman conquest, the caliph's authority in Arabia has been almost uninterruptedly interpreted by his representative at Cairo. So lately as 1830 this was the position of things at Mecca, and it is only since the opening of the Suez Canal that direct administration | Algiers and Morocco it is as common for from Constantinople has been seriously attempted. To the present day the viceroy of Egypt shares with the sultan the privilege of sending a mahmal, or camel litter, to Mecca every year with a covering for the Kaaba. Moreover the Azhar Mosque of Cairo is the great university a young man of fortune to build a mosque as it is for him to keep a large stud of horses. To do so poses him in the world, and a life of prayer is strictly a life of fashion. With regard to morals he is severe where the Koran is severe, indulgent where it indulges. Wine with him |