obey him so long as his orders are in con- | liberty to its fullest extent, and the conformity with the laws." * tracting parties take note," as they have In the year 1835 a young Armenian been doing from time to time for half a Christian in Constantinople, in a moment century, "of this spontaneous declaraof impulse, made a profession of Islam; tion." This was in the summer of 1878, but in a few days repented and fled from and in October of the following year the capital to save his life. Ten years Achmet Tewfyk Effendi was tried and afterwards he returned, much changed in condemned to death in Constantinople for appearance, to Constantinople, was acci- the crime of helping Dr. Koelle, of the dentally identified, and condemned to Church Missionary Society, to translate death for apostasy. The Christian powers into Turkish a Christian tract in which protested, but the sentence was executed. there was nothing about Islam. Achmet This was followed shortly afterwards by Effendi was a ulema of rank and repua similar infliction at Broussa. Christian tation, the first Musulman scholar in Europe again protested, and the ambas- Constantinople, with the almost certain sadors of France and England were prospect of becoming Sheik-ul-Islam on ordered by their governments to demand the first vacancy. He was, moreover, a the abrogation of the law, and, leaving man of high character, related by marriage Constantinople, wait at the Dardanelles to the sultan, and was at the time of his for the sultan's answer. The Porte be- arrest a professor at a madressé (college) came alarmed, begged the ambassadors in Constantinople. The great powers to return, and entered into a solemn en-interfered energetically to save his life. gagement to repeal the law. In spite of this engagement executions of renegades from Islam took place at intervals in the Turkish provinces, and reached a climax of audacity by the execution of a young Muslim for professing Christianity in Adrianople in the end of the year 1853, almost within sound of British and French guns battling for the Ottoman Empire. The British ambassador was instructed by Lord Clarendon " distinctly to demand" the abolition of "a law which is not only a standing insult" to "the great European powers, but also a source of cruel persecution to their fellow-Christians." The Porte procrastinated, and spent months in trying to wriggle out of its previous promise; but a menace that England and France might punish its perfidy by leaving it to its fate in face of Russia extorted the truth. The previous promises of the Porte were at last confessed to be all moonshine. Lord Stratford de Redcliffe reports that he had been informed by the sultan's ministers that "it is thought impossible for the sultan either to abrogate the Musulman law, or to make any declaration equivalent to its abolition in that respect." promised that the sacred law, though necessarily remaining unrepealed, should no longer be put in force. We shall see how this promise was redeemed. But they By Article 62 of the Treaty of Berlin the Porte renewed its oft-repeated promises "to maintain the principle of religious • Despatches from Her Majesty's Consuls in the Levant, 1858-60, pp. 27-8. Eastern Papers. Presented to Parliament in 1856, pt. xviii., pp. 16, 22-4, 55-8. The diplomatic controversy lasted three months, and during the whole of that time Achmet Effendi was kept in a dark, damp dungeon under ground, his food being let down through a hole in the floor which was closed by a stone. As a special concession to the powers, the sentence of death was commuted into perpetual exile to Chios; and when the prisoner left his dungeon his clothes were found to have rotted off his back. Knowing that his exile meant, as in all such cases, private assassination, he managed to escape by the aid of some Christian fishermen, and made his way to London, where I made his acquaintance. But surely the sacred law in such matters as dress and salutations has not been in force in recent times? I reply by the following quotation from a despatch from Consul Holmes, dated Bosna Seraï, April 17, 1871 : A young Christian groom, in the service of a Turk, being about to be married, had the imprudence to dress himself for the occasion in certain colors and articles which the Turks jealously appropriate to persons of their own religion, and his bride in gay colors. They proceeded to the Christian cemetery outside the town, where, in the absence of a church, marriages were then celebrated. While the service was proceeding, several armed Turks, who had accidentally appeared as spectators, were observed to collect some wood and kindle a fire. As soon as the ceremony was finished they seized the unhappy pair, hacked the girl to pieces with their yatagans, and having half murdered the man, they burnt him on the fire they had prepared, declaring to the affrighted assembly [who, being unarmed, were helpless] that they would thus treat all Ghiaours who dared to presume to wear clothes such as the Turks. (In Bosnia "Turk" is a generic term for Muslim.) [At Mostar] the Governor's Cavas, or body servant, was walking down the main street of the town, when an unfortunate Christian, working in his shop, and who chanced not to see this functionary, did not rise in respect as he passed. The Cavas passed on a few yards, and then turning back drew his pistol and shot the Christian dead on the spot. It was nothing unusual. Consul Holmes relates these outrages on the authority of "a gentleman who is now dragoman to the Italian consulategeneral here, and who was an eyewitness in both instances." * These Musulman Bosniacs were by no means exceptionally cruel. They were simply executing the unrepealable sacred law of Islam on Christians who had inadvertently offended against it. The active energy of that immutable law in a Musulman State is in exact proportion to the degree of pressure which is brought to bear upon it. The pressure is greatest at Constantinople and the neighborhood, by reason of the presence of foreign ambassadors, and there the sacred law is consequently, in many of its worst provisions, in abeyance. In some of the provinces of Turkey foreign pressure is very light, and the sacred law is therefore in active operation, as the wretched Armenians know to their cost, the Berlin Treaty notwithstanding. Many English people are misled by the fact that Christian foreigners, resident in any part of the Turkish Empire, are protected by special capitulations from the jurisdiction of the sacred law, and cannot be cited for the most trivial offence before a Turkish tribunal. But Islam is not only bound in the fetters of an absolutely unchangeable law which, so long as it is under no external restraint, as it is in India, excludes the possibility of civilization; it has, like Christianity, its pattern man. And what manner of person is the pattern man of Islam? Our knowledge about him is derived from Musulman writers - admirers and devotees; and what kind of portrait have they drawn? Divinity is not formally ascribed to him, but practically he takes the place occupied by Jesus of Nazareth in Christian theology. Mahomed is the Muslim's all-powerful intercessor with the Most High, and his unique and unapproachable dignity is proclaimed daily from the minaret of every mosque in the same breath with the unity of the Turkey, No. 16 (1877), p. 51. eternal God. To speak against God is a sin, but a pardonable one; but to speak expiated by death alone. The laws of against the Prophet is blasphemy, to be morality which bind others have no existence for Mahomed. His will is the measure of right and wrong, so that acts the most wicked in themselves are made holy when he is the doer of them. Secret assassination, incest, unbridled lust, are in him exhibitions of supernatural guidance and sanctity. The foundations of morality are thus overthrown. Right and wrong are but phrases, not ethical facts differentiated by an impassable gulf. In the 32nd sura God is represented as granting Mahomed, "as a peculiar favor above the rest of the true believers," "the daughters of his uncles and the daughters of his aunts both on his father's and his mother's side." "Fear not to be culpable in using thy rights, for God is gracious and merciful." Another sura (33rd) bids him marry his own daughter-in-law, Zeinab, whose beauty had captivated him as he saw her, in her husband's absence, en déshabille. God of the Koran is thus a deified Oriental despot, whose relentless will, regardless of morality, is the only law, and who has his favorites - Mahomed being unapproachably the chief whom he humors in all the wantonness of their lusts. The "licentious theocrat," as Sprengel calls Mahomed, declared that his devotions were inflamed by the stimulating pleasures of sexual indulgence and perfumes. The Add to this the perpetual consecration of slavery in Islam, and the degradation of woman. By Islamic law a woman must not be saluted, and it is an insult to a Muslim to ask after the health of any of his female belongings. Mahomed has the credit of mitigating polygamy. What he did was to make polygamy cheaper. He restricted his followers to four wives at one time, with as many concubines as they pleased. But by allowing divorce ad libitum he simply taught his followers how to practice unlimited polygamy after a cheaper fashion. In fact, the position assigned to woman in Islam is alone sufficient to account for the decadence observ. able in every Musulman State when it has ceased to conquer and has settled down on its lees. The life of unnatural seclusion to which the inmates of the harem are condemned must necessarily enervate the mind and predispose the imagination. to unwholesome thoughts, there being no resources of education or mental activity in reserve. Most of these women are slaves in the literal sense, and all are 64 Once the Mahomedan nation has constituted itself and Islam becomes the recognized creed, then decadence begins. The position assigned to women is quite enough to account for this. The best-educated Turks see in the position of their women the hopelessness of competing with Christians. One of them once put it to me in this way. Suppose," said he, "in 1453, you had peopled one island with Mahomedans, and another with Christians of any creed, and the two peoples started equal in education and intelligence; what would be the result now? The Mahomedan children would have been brought up in the stupidity of the harem; during all those years the sons would have regarded their sisters and mothers as inferior animals; the fathers would have had no intercourse with their wives on any social, mercantile, political, or religious questions; the wives would have been ignorant with a childish ignorance a European can hardly imagine. In other words, the nine or ten generations of children would have been each practically the offspring of only one parent educated by contact with his fellows. On the other hand, each child of the Christian Cult would be the issue of two persons, who, from converse together and with their friends and relations of both sexes, had acquired an education which was wanting to the Mahomedan mothers." In fact, my friend's idea was that on pure Darwinian principles the Mahomedan islanders would be inferior in intelligence to the Christians. I say nothing here about morality, though on that point the difference would have been greater. slaves practically; without education, with- and indolent ease in this world and the out aim or purpose in life beyond minister- next. Its vanquished foes and their ing to the brutal passions of their masters. property become its lawful prize, and the What hope can there be for sons brought believer who falls in war against the inup in such nurseries of frivolity and sen- fidel goes straight to Paradise to recline suality? This point is put in a striking on luxurious couches by cooling streams form by the learned author of "The Fall and attended by black-eyed houris-sevof Constantinople (himself for many enty for each believer who serve him years resident in Constantinople), in a let with dainty food and refreshing wines, a ter which I have lately received from him. beverage that may be quaffed without He says:stint in Paradise. The true believers, moreover, are promised the irresistible aid and protection of an omnipotent tribal God, whose favorites they must remain so long as they are true to his Prophet. Opposed to the rush of fanatical barbarians thus stimulated and inspired was Christendom on the one hand, disunited and enfeebled by internecine strife; and, on the other, the Persian Empire, enervated by luxury and shaken to its foundations by successive waves of barbaric invasion. It was therefore to the sword of conquest and not to any innate attractiveness that Islam owed its early triumphs. "Of all the native populations of the countries subdued," says Finlay, in his "History of Greece under Foreign Domination," "the Arabs of Syria alone appear to have immediately adopted the religion of their co-national race; but the great mass of the native races in Syria, Mesopotamia, Egypt, Cyrenaica, and Africa, clung firmly to their faith; and the decline of Christianity in all those countries is to be attributed rather to the extermination than to the conversion of the Christian inhabitants." And even the converts to Islam, in the first generation, have everywhere been almost always proselytes by compulsion or from some secular motive. They are mostly so in Africa at the present day. The two great motives of conversion there are (1) the sword of Islam, (2) the dread of slavery. The slave-hunters and slave-merchants are Muslims. Slave traffic is sanctioned by Mahomedan law, even in the case of Muslim slaves; and not only so, but the torture of slaves, such as mutilation in case of theft, is authorized.† Nevertheless, the African slave-hunters naturally prefer nonMusulman slaves - so much so, indeed. that they discourage in some districts conversions to Islam as narrowing the area of the pagan population available for The rapid spread of Islam has been contrasted with the slower progress of Christianity. But rapidity of propagation, so far from being a mark of superior organization, is commonly the reverse. The rabbit is not superior to the elephant, nor the American weed to the forest oak. The rapid spread of Islam can be explained on other grounds. The new theocracy offered to the rude brave sons of the desert a number of alluring induce ments well calculated to weld them together into a terrific engine of destruction. Islam panders to man's lower appetites, and imposes very few self-denials. It is a religion without a cross, appealing to man's lust, cupidity, pride, love of power, i. 368. Cf. Dozy, Hist. des Musulman d'Espagne. ii., p. 50. "In the ninth century the conquerors of the Peninsula followed to the letter the coarsely expressed advice of the khalif Omar: 'We ought to eat up the Christians, and our descendants ought to go on eating them up as long as Islam endures."" † See the Hedaya, edited by Grady, p. 265. slavery. To escape slavery, therefore, necessary condition of progress is unsat whole tribes in Africa sometimes profess isfied longing. Our Lord's command, Islam. These are manifestly not genuine therefore, "Be ye perfect, as your Faconversions. In India the caste system ther which is in heaven is perfect," is operates in the same way. The profes- but a declaration of the universal law of sion of Islam is an immense social gain progress for all intellectual and moral beto low-caste populations. Here again is ings. To prescribe a standard of conduct no genuine conversion. In short, purely which the mass of men can easily reach is spiritual causes have never had much to to doom, as Islam dooms, mankind to do with conversions to Islam anywhere. stagnation and sterility. It is its excepAnd it must be borne in mind, in addition, tionally high standard that has helped to that in Mahomedan countries the chil- make Christian civilization so exceptiondren, not only of mixed marriages, but ally superior to all other civilizations. even of heathen parents, are by law reck- To it is mainly due the fabric of all that oned as Mahomedans, although they have complex structure known as modern civilnever made any profession of Islam.* ization. In the degree in which ChrisFinally, the following fact reported by tianity has had fair play human nature Consul Sandwith from Larnaca is true of has been purified and elevated. Slavery many other places under Musulman rule: has steadily receded before it. Woman "There exist some fifteen hundred per- (whose moral and intellectual status is an sons who are Musulmans in name only; unfailing test of civilization) has been but a great many are Christians at heart, raised to her rightful position as man's but are obliged publicly to acknowledge co-equal partner. The sacredness of huthe Prophet, and can only secretly testify man life, even in its feeblest and most their adherence to Christianity." t degraded forms, has been established as a As a spiritual force, in so far as it ever religious dogma.* Wars are becoming was one, Islam is not advancing, but ret-less frequent and immeasurably more hurograding. The Musulman world contains no longer a single centre from which radiates any intellectual light or any sign of material progress. There is not one Musulman State in the world which wields independent sway which, in fact, does not exist solely by the sufferance of Christendom. A creeping paralysis has fastened upon Islam, and the shadow of the devouring eagles may even now be descried on its horizon. How stands the case of Christianity in comparison? Its pattern man is not only to the Christian, but to the great mass of intelligent and educated unbelievers, the highest and noblest ideal of humanity that history records or the human mind can conceive. His teaching and example are the most perfect exhibition of human virtue that the world has seen. Mr. Cotter Morison, indeed, thinks that Christianity inculcates so high a standard of conduct that it "is only adapted to a very limited number of minds." Is not this a fallacy in the sphere not only of ethical progress, but of intellectual as well? Does not progress depend on an ever-receding goal? The artist, the man of science, the orator or poet, who realizes his own ideal and is satisfied, can progress no more. The • See Blue-book on Religious Persecutions in Turkey, (1875), pp. 40, 49, 54. f Consul Reports on the Condition of Christians in Turkey, (1867), p. 54. + Service of Man, pp. 224-5. The mane. Popular education and political And as to the comparatively slow progress of Christianity and its imperfect suc "The Christian care for the sick and infirm was unknown to the pagan world." (Service of Man, p. 237.) This is one of Mr. Cotter Morison's many candid acknowledgments of the superiority of Christianity to all its rivals. cess even within the frontiers of Christendom, we must distinguish between the essence of a system and its separable accidents. I have endeavored to show that Islam, at its best, bears within it the incurable germ of inevitable decay and dissolution. The hindrances to the spread of Christianity, on the other hand, are but parasites which cling to it and which it may shake off. They may be summarized as follows: (1) The divisions of Christendom. Islam, too, has its sects, and many of them; but they close their ranks and present a united front to the "unbeliev time of Christ's death "the number of names together" who owned themselves his disciples "were about an hundred and twenty."* Was that a fair test of the success of his ministry? The apparently signal failures of Christianity have generally been the preludes to fresh victories. So it may be now. The success of Christianity at any given time is not to be measured by visible results. In India, in Japan, in China, in Africa, throughout the Turkish Empire, it is silently sapping the foundations of rival religions. Its ideas and principles are in the air, like those ers." (2) Faulty methods of propagan-minute yet potent germs of which physdism, such as neglect of rearing in foreign ical science tells us. Only they are germs lands a native ministry, while importing of health inoculating diseased organisms European habits, customs, and dress among native converts. (3) The discredit cast upon the Christian name by the lives and demoralizing traffic of professing Christians. (4) To which may be added, as regards India, the active discourage ment and even resistance which, until a recent period, a professedly Christian government offered to the propagation of Christianity. Chaplains in the Indian army were forbidden to make converts, and a Sepoy who became a Christian was, I believe, down to the Mutiny, liable to dismissal from the army. with the seeds of a regenerate life. Christianity is impregnating Islam, Buddhism, Confucianism, paganism, with hopes, aspirations, ideals, principles, which are gradually but surely disintegrating the old order of things, and preparing the way for the reception of Christianity. The stranger who stands on the banks of the Neva or drives over its frozen surface, at the close of winter, has no idea of the change that is impending - no idea that in one week ice and snow will have vanished, giving place to flowers and verdure, while the erstwhile quiet and leafless woods will, in full foliage, be resonant with the song of birds. All this sudden transformation, however, is the result of fore, though silently and invisibly. Those who believe that the Author of Nature is the Founder of Christianity are justified in looking for similar methods and corresponding results in both. MALCOLM MACCOLL. But admitting all this, do not slow progress and apparent failure indicate the divine method of working, which is not by lopping off branches and pruning super-forces which have been at work long beficial excrescences, but by subterranean approaches and working at roots? What is this earth which we inhabit but a record of what must have seemed failures at the time? In the retrospect we see that there was no failure. We behold a development from rude beginnings, through seeming flaws and miscarriages, to a crowning result. Thus the perfection of which we are cognizant in the physical not less than in the intellectual and moral world is a perfection seen at the end of a long vista of apparent failures. The progress is not in a straight line, but zigzag, like that of the Alpine climber, whose back is sometimes turned towards the point for which he is making. It is therefore a superficial view which would confine the comparison between Christianity and Islam to the numerical proportions of their respective adherents, though even on that score Christianity has no reason to blush, as I have already shown, and as Sir William Hunter has explained with respect to India.* At the * See his Indian Empire, 2nd. ed., pp. 263-4. This From Temple Bar. MARINO FALIERO. Lent, in the year 1355, the palace of the On the evening of the Thursday before doge of Venice was flaring with the lights of a masqued ball. A festival was in the est palaces shot everywhere across the ocean city. The gondolas of all her prouddown a gorgeous company at the steps of glistening waters; and every gondola set St. Mark's Place. The grand hall, where article was written before the delivery of Sir W. Hunter's interesting lecture, under the auspices of the Society of Arts, and also before the appearance of the article on "Islam and Christianity in India," LIVING AGE, No. 2280, p. 579. Acts i. 15. |