6 The author of the Koran knew the power of dogmatic assertion. He made no wavering bid for supremacy. When Moseilama, a religious rival, wrote a courteous request to Mohammed that he would share the world with him, the Prophet began his reply, Mohammed, the Apostle of God, to Moseilama the liar.' This was typical of his treatment of dissent. If anything could argue the divinity of his commission, it would be the marvellous fact that he stereotyped a society, and it has retained the distinct impress of his hand down to the present day. The 'unchangeableness of the East is due to its intolerance of foreign ers; but its intolerance of foreigners is due to the teaching of the Koran, which is as applicable now as in the days when the Prophet received his revelations from the Angel Gabriel. Each promise of reform extorted by Western diplomacy is glibly made by Parisian-taught Pashas who know its value. But it is resented as an impious insult to their creed by the fanatics who form the bulk of the nation. There have been reformers in Turkey, notably the Sultans Selim III. and Mahmoud II. But they were branded with the titles of Giaour and renegade; and every amelioration which they were enabled to effect in the condition of their people had to undergo the determined opposition of the old Turkish party, goaded on in their fanaticism by the Ulema, from which both the Church and the Law are recruited. In both professions an accurate and detailed knowledge of the Koran qualifies for the highest offices. Let anyone who would form an idea of what liberality of mind is to be expected from the members of the former profession, picture to himself a Pharisee of the Pharisees, educated solely in the sacred writings, his mind warped from early childhood by a slavish obedience to the letter; or, if he would estimate the intelligence of the lower ranks of the Church, the Dervishes, let him witness a band of these fanatics seated on the ground, their bodies swaying to and fro as they chant their low, monotonous wail, in ever crescendo tones, till at length they fall foaming on the ground in epilepsy. One might as well look for the virtues typical of a priesthood in a swarm of negroes maddening themselves for some bloody 'custom.' Till a very recent change transferred the patronage, the person chosen to fill the supreme judicial post in Egypt was appointed by the Sultan, his sole qualification being that he should know the Koran by heart. What reform in judicature can be expected from a Turkish judge whose only guide is the Koran, supplemented by the Multeka, the digest of the canon law to which he refers for precedents? If ordered to admit a Rayah's evidence, he replies that it is superfluous, the Koran declaring that the Christian is necessarily a liar. Why should a case be decided in his favour? He is not even a man ! When the judge studies his legal handbook he finds such precepts as Slay the unbeliever: set a mark upon him, so that everyone shall know him as he passes, and heap every indignity on him as a sacred duty.' What likelihood is there of such men abating one iota of the law? The most crass ignorance prevails among them; ignorance, not of indolence, but of purpose. They resist all external knowledge. Geography, science, and mathemics are useless, and even worse. For all men were born naturally disposed to the Mussulman faith; it is education which perverts them. Thus every official brings to the exercise of his profession a mind warped by special study, whose aim has been to subordinate every inquisitive thought to the written law. As the Chinaman goes to search his archives for a precedent at every turn of life, so the Turk resorts to his Koran. If the injunctions of the Koran coincide with the Tanzimat of Abdul Medjid, well and good; if not, the devout Mussulman knows his duty. The Sultan is his Pádisháh, and can frame any law that he likes. But God is greater than the Pádisháh, and He revealed to His Prophet every law that it was necessary to obey. It was, however, in this unlooked-for quarter that the late movement originated, and these are the men who must assume much of its direction. The policy which they have inaugurated will demand heavy sacrifices little short of self-effacement. They will have to wean themselves from their most cherished convictions, and strain every nerve to calm the irritated fanaticism of the laity, which they have so long been engaged in fostering. When we see such men as Fuad and Ali Pasha crushed, by a fanatic and priest-ridden people, in their noble efforts to redeem their country, we gain some idea of the paramount influence of the Koran. Every incident in its history tends to enhance its awe and confirm its authority. It is eternal and uncreated. The original copy, bound in silk, and studded with jewels of Paradise, has lain from everlasting beside God's throne. Even the Prophet was only permitted to assure his faith by seeing it once a year. The Mussulmans typify this reverence by the outward respect which they pay to the book. They are forbidden to touch it without having first undergone the legal purification; and lest anyone should err through inadvertence, they write on the back, Let none touch it but those who are clean.' It is instructive to observe how even such a man as Fuad Pasha found it necessary to enlist the Koran on his side. It was the same attempt that Montalembert and others before and after him have made to reconcile the irreconcilable; and it met with like success. rebellion against the power which They rose in crushed individual thought, and they retired crushed and brokenhearted from the conflict. This has been the case with every innovator in Turkey. Sultan Selim was met in turn by the sullen opposition of every interest with which he attempted to deal. Army, Church, Law, and Diplomacy alike closed their ranks against the reformer; and it was not long before the hand of the assassin checked his career. Mahmoud followed resolutely in his steps, having first freed himself from the overshadowing influence of the janissaries by the simple process of extermination. But he lived isolated from his people-a mark for their scorn as the 'Infidel Pádisháh.' Then came the reign of Abdul Medjid, bright with its prospect of reform. But his Tanzimat met with the fate of the Tanzimats of Pio Nono and Ferdinand of Naples, and many another parchment_which raised the hopes of Liberal Europe. How little came of it we can judge by a brief retrospect of the last fiveand-twenty years. nobly to dispel the torpor which He struggled his efforts were vain. Then Abdul was stifling the national life; but all Aziz ascended the throne, a ruler after his people's heart, i.e. a staunch upholder of the Sacred Faith. reign is now a completed chapter His impotent and selfish of history; and once more we see a reforming Sultan on the throne. doubt the incompatibility of the If anything could make one Koran with reform, it would be the assurance of that true patriot as well as Mussulman, Fuad Pasha. He distinctly asserts, not its compatibility only, but its actual advantage over every other form of religion for the work. Islamism, unfettered by dogmas and the narrow prejudices of Christian sects, is free as the wind of heaven to catch up every wandering current of opinion. Islamism is the repository of all truth, therefore she opens her arms to science. Each re-discovery that Christendom makes is not to be scouted as the invention of the Giaours, but gladly received as a lifting of the veil from the secrets hid from all time in the Koran. We might fancy we were reading some Papal allocution, making curious assumption of brotherhood between Ultramontanism and Liberalism-between Science, which spurns all obstacles, and the Papacy, which casts down its gauntlet impossibile' in the path. Rather, perhaps, we should sadly mark the incongruity of the deductions of a high-minded man, whatever his creed may be, with the vulgar realities of life. Fuad Pasha, in his spiritual reading of the Koran, closed his eyes to the fact that others read it by the letter. When Christianity, leaving the catacombs in which it had lurked, dared to measure itself against the polytheism of Rome, it was in its dogmatic certainty that it found its keenest weapon. Rome had become the diversorium of the religious world. New and fantastic forms of worship jostled one another in their pursuit of proselytes, each one pointing out some new path to heaven. The Epicurean had a pitying smile alike for all; but the Stoic's earnest nature could not rest. He sought for some clue to eternity; and, finding none, fell back on annihilation. But even here his wavering voice betrayed his doubt. Thought might recoil, dazed by its effort to pierce the future. But when driven in upon itself the soul refused to believe that it was born to perish. It was to this disorganised mass that the trumpet notes of Chris tianity rang out with their clear sound. There was no need to listen to the claims of rival religions. All alike were false. Liberality was but another name for indifference. There was the certainty of Heaven for the Christian, of Hell for the Pagan. So, too, the strength of Mohammedanism lay in its exclusiveness. With one stroke the Prophet cleared the ground of rivals. There had been prophets, it is true, from Moses to Jesus, and their writings were contained in 104 books. All, however, were lost but the Pentateuch, the Psalms, the Gospel, and the Koran. The first three of these were pronounced so corrupt as to be worthless. One, therefore, alone remained - the Koran. The Reformer tolerated no lukewarm partisans. They must believe in toto or not at all. For the opinion which some have held that a man might be saved in his own religion, if sincere, is directly contradicted by the Koran especially in the words, 'Whoever followeth any other religion than Islamism, it shall not be accepted of him, and at the last day he shall be of those that perish.' In the oft-repeated petition, too, which answers to the Lord's Prayer, the Moslem begs that he may be kept in the right way'-i.e. in the Mohammedan religion, 'not in the way of those against whom God is incensed '-i.e. Christians. The Prophet will not stay to parley with dissent. Those who are not with him are against him. It is true that, as though foreseeing the schisms of later days, especially the bitter animosity of the Sonnite and Shiite factions, he exclaims bitterly that his own people will be more rebellious than the heathen. The Jews have 71, the Christians 72, but his disciples will have 73 sects. But whatever may have been his fear for the future, he never betrayed it in his language. There is the true dogmatic ring about that. 'Good and evil shall not be held equal.' He swept away the superstitions of the Arabs like the wind of the desert, and proclaimed anew the religion which Abraham bequeathed to his posterity and Ishmael handed down to the children of the desert. The Law was the rule till Christ came, then the Gospel; but both were set aside by the Koran, which, however, does not contradict, but is more explicit, and enforces the observance of much that was negligently performed before. Men were originally 'professors of one religion only, but they dissented therefrom.' This was Islam, which was held till the murder of Abel, or, as some think, until the time of Noah. Such being the case, it was the duty of believers to spread the true faith. 'Fight for and contribute to your religion, and beware of the fate of the Israelites who did not do so,' were the Prophet's words; and, as soon as he had collected a sufficient force under his banner, he preached a crusade against his enemies, i.e. those who differed from him. This ordinance has never been annulled. The growing power of the West may have admonished the Turk to suspend the performance of his duty, but it remains a sacred duty for all that. How well the founder of Islamism succeeded in his endeavour to establish an enduring theocracy we see in the case of modern Turkey. The Turkomans have squatted on the country which they seized under Osman, and are to this day the same people. They hold it as a foreign garrison, without an attempt at assimilation with the natives. The tide of European progress surged around them, but they built it out with a wall of resentful prejudice. Their only effort at civil government was to put in practice the regulations suitable to a tribe of predatory herds men. Small wonder, then, that the country should languish under such a rule. A well-tilled, fruitful land became a waste; its desolation made more appalling by the vestiges of ancient civilisation. Where the horse of Attila trod, the grass never grew again, and it withered beneath the Turks' feet. Their creed condemns them to stand still when all around is life and movement. Even, could the Turk consent to shake off his fetters of custom and imitate his neighbours, religion would forbid him. It is the clear and explicit preaching of predestination that has accomplished this physical and moral death. Why trouble oneself? Death will overtake us even in lofty towers.' 'There is no change in what God hath created.' 'Islam' signifies 'resignation;' and the term 'Moslem' (Moslemûna), or, as Europeans write it, Mussulman,' has a like derivation. The calm demeanour of the Turk under the terror of plague, or any similar visitation, which excites the admiration of the restless Frank, is no matter of disposition, but the ingrained teaching of religion. 'Lord make us resigned unto Thee, and of our posterity a people resigned unto Thee,' was the solemn prayer of Abraham and Ishmael when they laid the foundations of 6 the House,' i.e. the Caaba. Again and again the merit of unreasoning obedience is insisted on by the Koran. In questions of faith, it is 'better to follow the steps of the primitive Moslems, avoid disputations, and leave the knowledge of the matter wholly to God.' The same moral is enforced by the story of the patriarch Mâlec Ebn Ans, who, being enquired of why he wept when he was dying, made answer, 'How should I not weep? Would to God that for every question decided by me according to my own opinion I had received so many stripes! Then would my accounts be easier. Would to God I had never given any decision of my that arose the implacable hatred of own!' We cannot be surprised that the believer to the infidel. At first such a system has reared a race of it was a struggle for existence; but officials too indolent to study their as the young faith gathered strength profession, and too fearful of re- it became aggression. Time rolled sponsibility to depart one hair's on, and what had been a matter of breadth from the beaten track. If policy hardened into habit. The a question arises, there is no light motive was gone, but the feeling reto be thrown upon it from without; mained. The Koran is the staple therefore, if it is to be answered at of education. Thus, the earliest all, it must be by precedent. If, words that the child learned to rehowever, the doctrine of blind ac- peat breathed malediction against quiescence in a predetermined fate the Christian. When the Mussulhas removed from the Mussulman man attends his mosque, he listens every incentive to exertion, in one to such injunctions as 'Fight against case it has had a directly opposite the unbelievers till the strife is at effect. In the days when the Pro- an end, and the religion is all of phet was struggling to assert him- God's.' 'Despise every other naself against a powerful opposition, tion; regard them with horror and he saw the advantage that was to distrust. They are impure; in you be gained from a fanatic soldiery. alone is purity.' 'Fight for the reThe doctrine of predestination is ligion of God. He who lends on clearly laid down in the dispute usury to God, God will double it.' between Moses and Adam. For, One of the seven deadly sins is Adam, having learned from Moses desertion during a religious camthat his rebellion was written in the paign. Every spring of human law which was made forty years pity is purposely dried up against before his birth, asks how he could the unhappy Christian. The Musbe blamed for doing what God wrote sulman is taught to believe that he of him forty years before he was is not only doing God service in born, 'nay, for what was decreed persecuting the infidel, but that he of him 50,000 years before the is specially favoured in being set creation of heaven and earth.' apart for this duty; and that God This was undoubtedly to be re- is visibly present assisting at the ceived as an axiom of faith. It work. 'When ye encounter the was specially revealed to Moham- unbelievers, strike off their heads;' med that every soldier who fell for though God could have avenged fighting for his religion was pre- himself, 'He commandeth you to destined to an eternity of bliss. fight His battles, that He may prove 'Whatever good or ill shall happen the one of you by the other.' The is irrevocably fixed and recorded evil deeds of the infidels have been from all eternity in the preserved prepared for them, for God directeth table.' God has secretly predeter- not the unbelieving people. Nevermined a man's faith or infidelity, theless, they had their chance; for and consequently his eternal happi- no man was condemned to punishness or misery. No foresight or ment until an apostle had first been wisdom can alter this. Hence, ar- sent to warn him. Therefore, God gues the Prophet, since aught that declares that He will chastise them you can do will not lengthen your life by the hands of the faithful, and by a span, fight against the enemies will cover them with shame. of God, and beware lest God give the same chapter, moreover, it is you over to a reprobate mind. declared that the giving of drink to pilgrims, and visiting the temple, are things of little merit compared It was from this small cause, viz. the necessities of the rising Prophet, In |