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THE SPIRIT OF ISLAM

AMI

THE

SPIRIT OF ISLAM

A HISTORY OF THE EVOLUTION AND
IDEALS OF ISLAM

WITH A LIFE OF THE PROPHET
BY

AMEER ALI, SYED, P.G., LL.D., D.L., CLE.

MEMBER OF THE JUDICIAL COMMITTEE OF HIS MAJESTY'S PKIVT COUNCIL

AUTHOR OF 'a SHORT HISTORY OF THE SARACENS'

'.MOHAMMEDAN LAW,' ETC.

" What matters it whether the words thou utterest in
prayer are Hebrew or Syrian, or whether the place in
which thou seekest God is Jabalka or Jabalsa."— -Sandi

LONDON

CHRISTOPHERS

22 BERNERS STREET, W. :

II \.^ iSil ^—ssJI^a 51 lil i) AJUi

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Fac-simile of a Lette

R FROM HIS LATE MAJESTY, NASIR-UD-DIN SHAH.

TO MY WIFE

50 I uJ

PREFACE

[N the following pages I have attempted to give the history
of the evolution of Islam as a world-religion ; of its rapid
spread and the remarkable hold it obtained over the con-
ience and minds of millions of people within a short space of
me. The impulse it gave to the intellectual development of
le human race is generally recognised. But its great work in
le uplifting of humanity is either ignored or not appreciated ;
or are its rationale, its ideals and its aspirations properly
nderstood. It has been my endeavour in the survey of
lam to elucidate its true place in the history of rehgions.
he review of its rationale and ideals, however feeble, may be
help to wanderers in quest of a constructive faith to steady
le human mind after the strain of the recent cataclysm ; it
also hoped that to those who follow the Faith of Islam it
lay be of assistance in the understanding and exposition of
le foundations of their convictions.

My outline of the life and ministry of the Prophet is based
the Sirat-ur-Rasul of Ibn Hisham, who died in 213 a.h.
28-9 A.c), barely two hundred years after the death of the
rophet, supplemented by, among other works, Ibn ul-Athir's
onumental history, the Chronicles of Tabari, the Insdn
Uyun of al-Halabi (commonly known as Sirat-iil-Halahia).
wo new chapters have been added in this edition : one on
le Imdmate ("The Apostolical Succession"), the other
' The Idealistic and Mystical Spirit in Islam." Considerable
iw matter has also been included in the Introduction and

viii PREFACE

Chapter X., Part II. I take this opportunity of expressing
my gratitude to my esteemed friend, Professor E. G. Bro\vn(
of Cambridge, one of our foremost OrientaHsts, for his mosi
valuable criticisms on the last chapter, and to Mr. Mohammec
Iqbal, Government of India Research Scholar at Cambridge
for his careful revision of the proofs and the compilation o:
the Index. I also desire to express my acknowledgments tc
Mr. Abdul Oayum Malik for transcribing for the Printers the
Arabic quotations for the new chapters and verifying th(
Koranic references, and to the Publishers for their unvarying
courtesy and patience over a difficult publication.

The work has been carried through the Press under heav}
pressure of pubUc duties, and I claim, on that ground, the
indulgence of my readers for any mistake that may have passed
uncorrected. I

N.B. — A few words are necessary to explain the system of translitera-
tion adopted in this work. I have tried to adhere with small modificatior
to the system I have pursued in my previous publications. The lettei
Cj (pronounced by the Arab with a lisp like tb in thin) to a non-Aral
conveys a sound almost identical with s in sin, and he accordingl}
pronounces it as such. Nor, unless an Arabic scholar, does he percei\(
any difference between O and sii: or ^ (sdd). He pronounces
them all alike. Similarly 3 (z^l), \ (Zay), ,^ [Zdd — pronouncet
by the Arab something like dhad), and Jo [zoi), convey to the non-
Arab almost identical sounds ; certainly he cannot help pronouncing
them identically. He also perceives no difference between ^y (soft t]
and Aj {toi), or between the hard aspirate _. (in Ahmed, Mohammed,
Mahmud, etc.) and the softer used in Harun. I have therefore nol
attempted to differentiate these letters by dots or commas, which
however useful for purposes of translation into Arabic, Persian, Turkist
or Urdu, is only bewildering to the general reader unacquainted with the
Arabic alphabet and pronunciation. I have given the words as commonly
pronounced by non- Arabs. In the case of words spelt with a o in
common use in India and Persia such as hadis, masnaui, I sn a-' ash aria,
etc., I have not considered it necessary to denote the Arabic pro-
nunciation with a ih.

PREFACE ix

The ordinary /a/Aa I have represented by a (pronounced as ii in ' cut '

Hi 'but'), excepting in such words as are now commonly written in

Inglish with an e, as Seljuk (pronounced Saljiik), Merwan (pronounced

larw&n), etc. ; the ordinary zamma by u pronounced like u in ' pull,'

, r in Buldan ; the ordinary kasra with the letter i, as in Misr. A liph

dth thefatha is represented by a, as in ' had ' ; Aliph with the zamma,

y M as in Abdul-Muttalib ; with a kasra by i as in Ibn Abi'l Jawari.

^'■Vaw (with a zamma) by o and sometimes by 6. Although like Kufa

t(bd several other words, the last syllables in Mahmud. Harun and

ttifilamun are spelt with a waw, to have represented them by an o or <5

a ;ould have conveyed a wholly wrong notion of the pronunciation,

hich is like oo ; I have, therefore, used m to represent waw in such

ords. Waw with a fatha I have represented by an, as in Maudud.

'a with a kcisra, when used in the middle of a word, I have represented

vjly i, as in Arish. But in Ameer I have kept the classical and time

thj onoured ee. Ya with a. fatha, similarly situated by ai as in Zaid. Ya

ith a fatha at the beginning of a word is represented by ye, as in

'ezid ; with a zamma by yu, as in Yusuf. Excepting such names

s are commonly known to be spelt with an 'ain (c), as Ahd in Abdul

ira lalik, Abdur Rahman, Arab, Abbas, Aziz, Irak, etc., I have used the

iverted comma to denote that letter.

With regard to names which have become familiar in certain garbs
have made no alteration, such as Kaaba, Omar, Abdullah, Basra,
pelt with a sdd, etc. Chain (p.) is represented by gh ; but I
ave not attempted to differentiate between e) and fj, and made
o alteration in the time honoured spelling of the Koran. The com-
lon g (the Persian gdf) and p have no place in the Arabic alphabet,
nd therefore the Persian g and p are transformed in Arabic into _; or
and h ox ph (/), as in Atabek and Isfahan. ^ is represented by

leii 1 The / of al when occurring before certain letters (technically called

jjjiamstM) is assimilated with them in sound, as ash-Shams, ad-din,

jjjlr-Riza, as-Salat, etc. I have used the word " Moslem " in preference

iislr " ^^uslim," as most Europeans unacquainted with Arabic pronounce

j]j be " u " in " Muslim " as in pubUc.

idI;

lii

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

he continuity of religious development — Bactiia (Balkh) supposed
to be the original seat of the human race — Dispersion of the races —
Fetishism and Pantheism — The Eastern and Western Aryans — The
Assyrians — Babylon and the Jews — Hinduism — Zoroastrianism
—The Cult of Isis and of Mythra — Judaism — Christianity —
Gnosticism — Manich^ism— Degradation of the earlier creeds — •
The tribes of Arabia, their origin, their diversity of culture and
religious conceptions — Idolatry among the Arabs— The folk-lore
of Arabia — The advent of Mohammed, a necessity of religious
development]

PART I
i THE LIFE AND MINISTRY OF THE PROPHET

CHAPTER I

MOHAMMED THE PROPHET

Iecca, its foundations — Kossay, his descendants — Abdul Muttalib
— The Meccan decemvirs — The Abyssinian invasion — The Era of
the Elephant — The biith of Mohammed — 'Okaz — The depravity
of the Arabs — Mohammed's marriage — Formation of the League
of the Fuzul — Mohammed's designation of Al-Amin — The period
of probation, of communion, of inspiration — Commencement of
the Ministry — Persecution by the Koreish — Moral evidences of
Mohammed's Mission — Koreishite hostility — The year of mourning i

CHAPTER II

THE HEGIRA

hs\t to Tayef — Ill-treatment — Return to Mecca — First pledge of
'Akaba — Vision of the Ascension — Second pledge of 'Akaba — The
days of persecution — The departure for Medina (the Hegira) - 41
S.I. xi b

xii CONTENTS

CHAPTER III

THE PROPHET AT MEDINA

PAGES

Erection of the first Mosque in Islam — The preachings of the Prophet

— His personality ---_-.. --5(

CHAPTER IV

HOSTILITY OF THE KOREISH AND THE JEWS

Three parties in Medina — Moslems, MunSfikin, Jews — The charter
of the Prophet — Attack by the Koreish — Battle of Badr — Victory
of Islam — Ideas regarding angels in Islam and in Christianity - 56

CHAPTER V

THE INVASION OF MEDINA |

Battle of Ohod — Defeat of the Moslems — Barbarities of the Koreish — i

Jewish treachery — The Bani-Kainuka', their expulsion — The
Bani Nazir, their banishment — Coalition against the Moslems -

— Beleagurement of Medina — Bani Kuraizha, their defection — |

Success of the Moslems — Punishment of the Kuraizha - - 6t

CHAPTER VI j|

THE PROPHET'S CLEMENCY

Charter granted to the monks of St. Catherine — Cruelty prohibited —
Peace of Hudaibiya — The Prophet's message to Heraclius and
Parviz — Murder of the Moslem envoy by the Christians

CHAPTER VII

THE DIFFUSION OF THE FAITH

Continued hostility of the Jews — Expedition against Khaibar — The
Jews sue for forgiveness — Pilgrimage of Accomplishment —
Violation by the Meccans of the Treaty of Hudaibiya — Fall of
Mecca — Treatment of the Meccans — Diffusion of the Faith - - Q

CHAPTER VIII

THE YEAR OF DEPUTATIONS

Deputations to Medina — Apprehension of a Greek Invasion — Ex-
pedition to Tabuk — Conversion of Orwa — His martyrdom — The
Bani Tay, their conversion — Adoption of the Faith by Ka'b
Ibn-Zuhair — His eulogium of the Prophet — Idolaters prohibited
from visiting the Kaaba - - - - - - - -i(

CONTENTS xiii

CHAPTER IX

FULFILMENT OF THE PROPHET'S WORK

PAGES

IHis superiority over his predecessors — His appeal to reason — His
I Sermon on the Mount — Instructions to the governors — The false

prophets — Last illness of the Prophet ; his death — His character - 109

CHAPTER X

THE APOSTOLICAL SUCCESSION

The Imamate — The Sunni doctrine of the Caliphate — The title of the

OsmanU Sultans to the Cahphate - 122

PART II
THE SPIRIT OF ISLAM

CHAPTER I

THE IDEAL OF ISLAM

'slam, its signification — The ethical principles of Islam — Idea of God-
head among the different religionists of the world — Mariolatry
I and Christolatry — Modern idealistic Christianity — Koranic con-
ception of God — Primary aim of the new dispensation — Its morality 137

I CHAPTER n

1 THE RELIGIOUS SPIRIT OF ISLAM

ts practical duties — Conception of prayer — Among the Mago-Zoro-
astrians and Sabeans, Jews, Christians — Islamic conception of
prayer — Of moral purity — Institution of fasting — Of pilgrimage
to Mecca — Their raison d'etre — Intoxication and gambling for-
bidden— Ethical code of Islam, its disciplinary rules— The Islam
of Mohammed, its aims and aspirations — Faith and Charity —
Reprobation of hypocrisy and falsehood — No difference between
? true Christianity and true Islam — Reason of their present diverg-
ence— Defects of modern Mohammedanism - - - - 159
Sumptuary regulations of Mohammed (Note I.) - - - 187

CHAPTER HI .

THE IDEA OF FUTURE LIFE IN ISLAM

he idea of a future existence, result of development — The idea of
future existence among the Egyptians, the Jews, the Zoroastrians
—The Jewish belief in a personal Messiah — Real origin of this

CONTENTS

belief — Character of the Christian traditions — Strongly-developed
idea of an immediate kingdom of heaven in the mind of Jesus and
the early disciples— Paradise and Hell, according to the traditional
words of Jesus — The millenarian dream — How it has died away
— The Islamic conception of a future existence— The parabolic
character of many verses of the Koran — Progressive development
a necessity of human nature — The Koranic conception of present
and future happiness ---------

CHAPTER IV

THE CHURCH MILITANT OF ISLAM

Its wars purely defensive — Toleration in Islam — Intolerance of the
Jews, Christians, Mago-Zoroastrians and Hindus — Islam opposed
to isolation and exclusiveness — Wars of Islam after the Prophet —
The capture of Jerusalem by the Moslems compared with its
capture by the Crusaders - - -

CHAPTER V

THE STATUS OF WOMEN IN ISLAM

Polygamy, its origin — Practised by all the nations of antiquity — Poly-
gamy among the Christians — Opinion of St. Augustine and the
German reformers — Polygamy among the Arabs and the Jews^ —
The Prophet's regulations — Monogamy, result of development —
Compatibility of the Koranic rule with eveiy stage of develop-
ment— Mohammed's marriages examined — Status of women in
early Christianity — Conception of Jesus about marriage — Divorce
among the Romans and the Jews — Among the Christians —
Regulations of the Prophet on the subject — Concubinage forbidden
— Custom of female seclusion — Idealisation of womanhood —
Prophecy and chivalry, offspring of the desert — The women of
Islam — Improvement effected by the Prophet in the status of

CHAPTER VI

BONDAGE IN ISLAM

Slavery existed among all ancient nations — Position of slaves among the
Romans and the Jews — Slavery among the Christians — Regulations
of the Prophet about slavery — Slavery abhorrent to Islam -

CHAPTER VII

THE POLITICAL SPIRIT OF ISLAM

Degraded conditions of humanity at the time of the Prophet's advent
— Serfdom and villeinage — Absence of human liberty and equality
■ — Intolerance of Christianity — The Charter of Mohammed — The

CONTENTS XV

message of the Prophet to the Christians of Najran — ^The char- paces
acter of the early RepubUc — Administration of the CaHphs Abu
Bakr and Omar — Equahty of men inculcated by Islam — Spain
under the Arabs . . . . 268

CHAPTER VIII

THE POLITICAL DIVISIONS AND SCHISMS OF ISLAM

Owed their origin to clannic and desert-feuds, fostered by dynastic
disputes — Osman's partiality for the Ommeyj-ades — His death —
Accession of Ali — Revolt of JMu'awiyah — The battle of Siffin — The
arbitrament of Amr ibn-ul-'As and Abu Musa al-Asha'ri — Assas-
sination of Ali — The usurpation of Mu'avviyah — The butchery of
Kerbela — The triumph of paganism — The sack of Medina — The
rise of the Abbasides — The origin of the Sunni Church — Mamun —
The question of the Imamate — Shiahism — Sunnism — The principal
Shiah sects — The Zaidias — The Isina'ilias — The Isnd-'asharias
— The Paulicians — The doctrine of Abdullah ibn-Maimijn al-
Kaddah — The Grand Lodge of Cairo — The assassins of Alamut
— The Isna-'Asharias divided into Usiilis and Akhbaris, their
respective doctrines — The Sunnis divided into Hanafts, Malikts,
Shdfeis, and HanbaJh — The Khdrijis — Bdbism - - - - 290

CHAPTER IX

THE LITERARY AND SCIENTIFIC SPIRIT OF ISLAM

The Arabian Prophet's devotion to knowledge and science — His precepts
— The Caliph All's sayings — Learning and arts among the primi-
tive Moslems — The school of Medina — Imam Ja'far as-Sadik
— The foundation of Bagdad — Mamun, the Augustus of the
Saracens — Al-Mu'iz li-din-illah — The Ddr-nl-Hikmat of Cairo —
Astronomy and mathematics among the Arabs — Architecture — ■
Histor}'^ — Poetry — The Koran — The intellectual achievements of
the Moslems — Their present stagnation, its causes — the terrible
destruction committed by the Tartars— the result of the Crusades
— The Usbegs and Afghans -------- 360

CHAPTER X

THE RATIONALISTIC AND PHILOSOPHICAL SPIRIT
OF ISLAM

rhe Koranic teachings about free-will and divine government — The
Prophet's sa>nngs — The exposition of the Caliph Ali and of the
early descendants of the Prophet — The Jabarias or predestinarians
— The Sijdtias — The Mu'tazilas — Mu'tazilaism the same as the
teachings of the philosophers of the family of the Prophet — Ration-
alism in Islam — The reign of Mamun — Philosophy among the
Moslems — Avicenna and Averroes — The fall of rationaUsm and

xvi CONTENTS

philosophy in Islam — Its causes — Mutawakkil — His alliance paces
with patristicism — The triumph of patristicism — Abu'l Hassan
Ali al-Asha'ri — His retrogressive teachings — Abu Hanifa, Malik
Shafe'i, and Ibn Hanbal — Ilm-ul-Kalam — The Ikhwan us-Safa
(" The Brethren of Purity ") — Their teachings - - - - 403

CHAPTER XI

IDEALISTIC AND MYSTICAL SPIRIT IN ISLAM

Its origin traceable to the Prophet — The Koranic ideas — The Caliph
Ali's Enunciation— Neo-Platonism — The Early Mystics — Imam at
Ghazzali — His life and work — The Later Mystics — The Brother-
hoods and Lodges — Moslem IdeaHsm 455

Appendices 479

General Index 499

Bibliographical Index 513

INTRODUCTION
U. ^j»;li>i Uw ^ — xfe j^ iS v_fl

Tr~MIE continuity of religious progress among mankind
I is a subject of enthralling interest to the student
-*- of humanity. The gradual awakening of the human
ind to the recognition of a Personality, of a Supreme Will
rershadowing the universe ; the travails through which
dividuals and races have passed before they arrived at
le conception of an Universal Soul pervading, regulating,
id guiding all existence, — furnish lessons of the deepest
iport. The process by which humanity has been lifted
om the adoration of material objects to the worship of
od, has often been retarded. Masses of mankind and
dividuals have broken away from the stream of progress,
ive listened to the promptings of their own desires, have
{ven way to the cravings of their own hearts ; they have gone
lick to the worship of their passions, symbolised in the idols
( their infancy. But though unheard, the voice of God has
{ways sounded the call to truth, and when the time has
i rived His servants have risen to proclaim the duties of man to
Imself and to his Creator. These men have been the veritable

xviii THE SPIRIT OF ISLAM

" messengers of Heaven." They came among their people
as the children of their time ; they represented the burning
aspirations of the human soul for truth, purity, and justice.
Each was an embodiment of the spiritual necessities of his
age ; each came to purify, to reform, to elevate a degraded
race, a corrupted commonwealth. Some came as teachers of
a smaller culture, to influence a smaller sphere ; others came
with a world-wide message — a message not confined to one race
or nation, but intended for all humanity. Such was
Mohammed. His mission was not to the Arabs alone. He
was not sent for one age or clime, but " for all mankind to the
end of the world." The advent of this great Teacher, whose
life from the moment of his Ministry is a verifiable record, was
not a mere accident, an unconnected episode in the history
of the world. The same causes, the same crying evils, the same
earnest demand for an " assured trust " in an all-pervading
Power, which led to the appearance on the shores of Galilee,
in the reign of Augustus Caesar, of a Prophet whose life is a!
tragedy, operated with greater force in the seventh century
of the Christian era. The beginning of the seventh century,
as has been rightly said, was an epoch of disintegration-
national, social, and religious : its phenomena were such as
have always involved a fresh form of positive faith, to recall j
all wandering forces to the inevitable track of spiritual evolution !
"towards the integration of personal worship." They all pointed
to the necessity of a more organic revelation of divine govern-
ment than that attained by Judaism or Christianity. The holy
flames kindled by Zoroaster, Moses, and Jesus had been,
quenched in the blood of man. A corrupt Zoroastrianism,
battling for centuries with a still more corrupt Christianity,
had stifled the voice of humanity, and converted some of the
happiest portions of the globe into a veritable Aceldama.
Incessant war for supremacy, perpetual internecine strife,
combined with the ceaseless wrangling of creeds and sects,!
had sucked the life-blood out of the hearts of nations, and thei
people of the earth, trodden under the iron heels of a lifelessj
sacerdotalism, were crying to God from the misdeeds of theiij
masters. Never in the history of the world was the need sc
great, the time so ripe, for the appearance of a Deliverer. Ir

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INTRODUCTION xix

order, therefore, to appreciate thoroughly the achievement
of Mohammed in the moral world, it is necessary to take a
rapid survey of the rehgious and social condition of the nations
of the earth previous to, and about the time of, the Islamic
Dispensation.

The high table-land of Bactria, appropriately styled by Arab
geographers Unun iil-Bildd, or " mother of countries," is
supposed to be the cradle of humanity, the original birth-place
of creeds and nations. Through the faint and shadowy light,
which comparative ethnology throws on the infancy of man-
kind, we perceive groups of families congregated in this primeval
home of the human race, gradually coalescing into clans and
tribes, and then forced by the pressure of increasing popula-
tion, issuing in successive waves to people the face of the
globe. The Hamitic branch were apparently the first to
leave their ancient habitations. They were followed by the
Turanians, or, as they are sometimes called, the Ugro-Finnish
tribes, supposed to be an offshot of the Japhetic family. Some
of them apparently proceeded northwards, and then spreading
themselves in the East, founded the present Mongolian branch
of the human race. Another section proceeded westward
and settled in Azarbaijan, Hamadan, and Ghilan, countries
to the south and south-west of the Caspian, better known in
ancient history as Media. A portion of these descending
afterwards into the fertile plains of Babylonia, enslaved the
earher Hamitic colonies, and in course of time amalgamating
with them, formed the Accadian nation, the Kushites of the
Jewish and Christian Scriptures. This composite race created
Babylon, and gave birth to a form of religion which, in its
higher phases, was akin to natural pantheism. In its lower
phases, with its pan-daemonism, its worship of the sun-gods
and moon-gods, closely associated with the phallic cult and
the sexual instincts, the sacrifice of children to Baal and
Moloch, of virginity to Beltis and Ashtoreth, it marks an
epoch when high material civilisation was alhed to gross
licentiousness, and cruelty was sanctioned by religion.

The Semites were the next to leave the primeval home.
They also, following in the footsteps of the Turanians, migrated
towards the West, and apparently settled themselves in the

XX THE SPIRIT OF ISLAM (

northern part of the Mesopotamian Delta. Increasing in
numbers and strength, they soon overthrew the Babylonian
kingdom, and founded a far-reaching empire which wielded
its sway over all the neighbouring States. In their seat of
power between the two great rivers of Western Asia, the
Assyrians at times rose to a positive monotheistic conception.
Their system of celestial hierarchy furnishes indications of a
distinct recognition of one Supreme Personality.

Whilst the main body of the Semitic colony was developing
itself in the upper parts of the Delta, a small section had
penetrated far into a district called Ur, within the boundaries ■
of the Chaldaean monarchy.^ The patriarch of this tribe, whose i
self-imposed exile and wanderings have passed into the religious
legends of more than one creed, became the father of the ,
future makers of history. ^ ■

The Japhetic family seems to have tarried longest in its '
ancient habitation. Whilst the other races, which had broken
away from the original stock, were forming empires and evolving
creeds, the Japhetic branch underwent a development peculiar ;
to itself. But the march of nations once set on foot was •
never to cease ; actuated by that spirit of unrest which works \
in barbarous tribes, or influenced by the pressure of population |
and the scarcity of space in their old haunts for the pursuit i
of their pastoral avocations, tribe after tribe moved away
towards the West. Among the first were the Pelasgians and
the Celts. Other tribes followed, until the Aryans proper '■
were left alone in the old haunts. One section apparently •
had its abode near Badakhshan, the other towards Balkh i
proper, where for centuries they lived almost isolated from ;
the neighbouring nations, unaffected by their wars or their '■
movements. The light of history which has dawned on the
Western races, the founders of kingdoms and civilisations, also
falls upon these ancient dwellers of the earth, and reveals,
though indistinctly and as through a mist, several clans
gathered together on that plateau ; just emerged from

^ Rawlinson, Ancient Monarchies, p. 23. I

* In the Arabian traditions the father of Abraham is called Azar, which isj

evidently the same as Asshur ; and the beautiful idols of Azar are frequently!

referred to in Moslem litei-ature. These traditions confirm the belief thatj

Abraham was of Assyrian origin.

INTRODUCTION xxi

^§ in Isavageness into barbarism, they are becoming alive to the sense
oniaD jof an Universal Ideality. Innumerable idealities are taking the
'fWed iplace of the natural objects, hitherto worshipped with fear and
^t ol trembling. With some of them the host of abstractions and
personifications of the powers of nature are subordinated to
two comprehensive principles — Light and Darkness. The
sun, the bright harbinger of life and light, becomes the symbol
of a beneficent Divinity, whose power, though held in check,
is eventually to conquer the opposing principle of Evil and
Darkness. With others, the idealities which they now impress
daries on the fetish they worshipped before, merge in each other ;
at one time standing forth as distinct personal entities, at
another time resolving themselves into a hylozoic whole.
Gradually the clouds lift, and we see the tribal and clan-
formations giving way to monarchical institutions ; agriculture
taking by slow degrees the place of pastoral avocations ;
primitive arts being cultivated ; the use of metals gaining
ohing Iground, and, above all, the higher conception of a Supreme
;ciilar ■ Personality forcing itself upon the yet unopened mind.
t was iKaiumurs, Hoshang, and the other old kings of whom Firdousi
works sings with such wondrous power, are types of an advancing
ilatioo 'civihsation. The introduction of the monarchical institutions
lursuit lamong the Aryans proper seems to be coeval with that religious
away 'conflict between the two branches of the Aryan family which
IS and [led to the expulsion of the Eastern branch from their Bactrian
proper jhome. A powerful religious revolution had been inaugurated
jentl)' jamong the Western Aryans by a teacher whose name has been
galli [preserved in the literature of his religion as Citama Zarathustra.
[ jroiB |The sharp religious conflict, which resulted from this move-
- tjieii iment, has left its mark in the deep imprecations heaped by
pjj tjie [the Vedic hymn-singers on the enemy of their race and creed,
ijjlsojthe Djaradashti of the Vedas. The attitude of the Vedic
hymn-singers towards the reformed faith, even more than the
extraordinary coincidence in names, furnishes the strongest
proof that the religious divergence was the immediate cause
of the split between the two branches of the Aryans proper.
In this, probably the first religious war waged among man-
kind, the Western dualistic clans were successful in driving
their half-polytheistic, half-pantheistic brethren across the

ffbicM

eqiiently
lief that

xxii THE SPIRIT OF ISLAM

Paropamisadae. The Eastern Aryans burst into India, driving
before them the earher black races, massacring and enslaving
them, treating them always as inferior beings, Dasyus and I
Sudras, slaves and serfs. The difference between the Vedic
and the Zoroastrian religions was, however, purely relative.
Zoroastrianism substituted for the worship of the phenomena,
the adoration of the cause. It converted the gods of the
Vedas into demons and the deva-worshippers into infidels ;
whilst the Vedic hymn-singer, on his side, called the Ahura of I
the Avesta an evil god, an Asura, a power hostile to the gods, .
and heaped burning maledictions on the head of Djaradashti.

Whilst the place and time of the early Zoroaster's birth |
are enwrapt in mystery, under Darius Hystaspes arose another
teacher, who, under the same name, revived, organised, and .
enlarged the basis of the ancient teachings.

Retracing our steps for a moment, we see the tide of Aryan
conquest in India flowing eastward and southward for centuries.
The old Aryan religion, which the invaders had brought from
their ancient homes, consisted chiefly in the worship of the
manes and the adoration of the powers of Nature symbolised
in visible phenomena. In the land of the Five Rivers the
spiritual conception developed further ; we can read in the
Vedas the march of progress until we arrive at the zenith
of Hindu religious ideas in the Upanishads, which often in the
intensity of spiritual yearning approach the highest monotheism.
The Upanishads dwell not only on the immanence of God, a
conception which gave birth in later times to the material
pantheism of India ; but also teach that the Supreme Spirit
is the protector of all beings and sovereign over all creation,
that he dwells in the hearts of men, and finally absorbs the
individual soul in infinity " as the ocean absorbs the river " ;
when that absorption takes place the human soul loses all
consciousness of its experience in the earthly frame. But
these interesting records of human progress contained within
themselves unquestioned germs of spiritual decadence which
soon reversed the process of evolution ; and thus instead of
observing a further uplifting, we see a progressive declension.
The Upanishads make way for the Puranic cults, which again
succumb to the power of the Tantric worship.

INTRODUCTION xxiii

The idea to which the Upanishads frequently give expression
that the Supreme Spirit manifests Himself in various forms
gave rise to the conception of the Avatars or incarnations.
Just as in the Western pagan world philosophy failed to satisfy
the craving of the popular mind for a personal God who had
dwelt among mankind and held famihar discourse with them,
the theistic aspirations of the Upanishads did not appeal to
the heart or touch the emotions of the masses of India. And a
hero-god was soon found in a member of the warrior caste,
who came before long to be identified with the Supreme Spirit
and to be regarded in his earthly existence as an incarnate
god.

The development of the Krishna-cult, like that of its rival, the
worship of the " dread Mother," illustrates forcibly not merely
the religious welter which prevailed in India in the seventh
century of the Christian era, but also the gulf which divided
the minds of the philosophers who composed the Upanishads
and the Bhagavad-Gita ; "the Song of Faith," ^ from the
thoughts and feeHngs of the populace. It is abundantly clear
that long before they burst into Hindustan proper, the Aryan
settlers in the Punjab or their priests and rehgious teachers
made the most stringent rules to prevent the intermixture of
the invaders and their descendants with the races they had
conquered and enslaved in their steady and prolonged march
towards the East. The touch of the latter, who were turned
into the lowest and servile caste, was pollution ; all the
religious rites peculiar to the three higher castes were strictly
forbidden to them.

Among all the flow and ebb of Aryan-Hindu thought in
the region of pantheism the worship of the manes has always
clung to the Hindu mind as an essential part of his rehgio-
social system. The Sudra was permitted to offer oblations to
his dead ancestors, but no Brahman could officiate at the rites
without incurring the heaviest penalties. If a Sudra over-
heard a Brahman reciting the Vedas, he was to be punished by
having molten lead poured into his ears ; if he happened to
sit on the same bench with the Brahman he was liable to be

^ A recent writer remarks that the Bhagavad-Gita no doubt shows traces of
theism, but this theism is blended with other and non-theistic elements.

XXIV THE SPIRIT OF ISLAM

branded. Whilst unions, legitimate or illegitimate, between;
the " twice born," as the three superior castes were caUed.i
and the Sudras were interdicted under the cruellest penalties.
No legislation, however, could prevent their religious ideas
and practices being inlEluenced by the primitive beliefs. In
course of time the divinities of the pre-Aryan tribes and races
were incorporated into the Hindu pantheon, and their worship
became part of the Hindu daily ritual. The amalgamations
of diverse beliefs of unequal growth and varying tendencies
had their inevitable result in the debasement of the complex
and abstruse pantheism the philosophers were endeavouring
through ages to evolve.

Before the followers of Islam lifted the veil behind which
India had lived enshrouded in mystery for thousands of years,'
she possessed no history. It is impossible to say when Vasu-
deva-Krishna lived, or to judge of his personality. There are
innumerable legends which verge on the absurd and puerile,
legends evidently manufactured by the priests, who had
become the equals, if not the superiors, of the gods ; and whose
interest it was to keep the minds of the vulgar fascinated and
enthralled. The place which Vasudeva-Krishna occupies in
the Hindu pantheon is that of the incarnation of Vishnu,
and as such he forms the central figure in the devotional part
of the Bhagavad-Gita. He is evidently a composite divinity ;
one of the man-gods associated with him being the gay here
who hved among the cowherds of Gokul and disported him-
self in the famous groves of Brindabun with his merr};
companions. 1

The cult of Vasudeva-Krishna inculcated absolute dharma^
or faith as the key to salvation ; the believer in this incarnate:
Vishnu, whatever his conduct in life, was assured of eternal;
happiness. ;

The doctrine of perfect faith gave birth to practices andl
beliefs which are still current in India. As righteousness;

1 Krishna is usually called the Gopala-Krishna or Cowherd Krishna ; hiV
female companions are called the gopis, the " milkmaids." Many a prettj;
legend is woven round the adventures of this hero-god of the Ahirs, the cow!
herd caste of Upper India. Krishna has been somewhat inaptly called thdj
Apollo of the fiindus, though it is difficult to clothe him with the poetrj
which generally envelopes the Greek god.

INTRODUCTION

etwee consists in the concentration of the mind in one's self as identical
callel with the Supreme Spirit represented in Krishna, the gymno-
naltie 50phic ascetic practices acquired in the eyes of the people a
5 idea Superlative merit. To sit for years in the forest with the
is. li eyes fixed on one spot of the human body and the mind on
drace tKrishna ; to stand for years on one leg ; to be swung round by
vorsliij iliooks fixed in the flesh were acts of devotion which cured all
natioi sins. To expiate a sin or to fulfil a vow a man might be
dencif employed to measure by the length of his body the distance
ompla from the abode of the penitent to the temple of the deity.
vouriij jTo read the Bhagavad-Gita wdth true faith or to bathe in the
[Ganges or any holy pool, absolved every man or woman from
1 whid ^11 breaches of the moral laws.

i{year> ! It is difficult to tell when Sakt'ism acquiied the predominant
nVasi 'hold it now possesses on large masses of the Hindu population.
lereatjThe Sakti is the female half and active creative side of each
puerilt jHindu deity. The Sakti, or spouse of Siva, is the dread goddess
ho \i jknown under various names, such as Parbati, Bhavani,
j\^,li()Sj jKali, Maha-Kali, Durga, Chamunda. The worship of this
yjni goddess, as described in the drama of Bhavabhuti, written
ipies 1! pLpparently in the seventh century of the Christian era, was
Yijlijij belebrated with human sacrifices and other revolting rites,
^ji]pj[, There is nothing of the "mater dolorosa" in the spouse of
[j^.j^jy iSiva, by whatever name she is invoked or in whatever form she
j,jj( p worshipped ; she possesses none of the attributes of human
'^j [jjj,, pity or sympathy with human suffering, the Alexandrian
, j^^g^ worshipper associated with Isis " the goddess of myriad names."
This awe-inspiring, not to say, awful concept of a decadent
religious mind, evidently borrowed from the pre-Aryan races,
,who delights in human blood and revels in human misery,
nas few parallels in the paganism of the world ; for even
Cybele, the 7nagna mater of the Romans, was not so merciless
^jpr took so much pleasure in inflicting pain as the Sakti of the
^' God of destruction " ^ This deity is worshipped according
!to the ritual of the Tantras, which may be regarded as the
^lij bible of Sakt'ism. Many of the Taniric hymns are imbued
yaprettiwdth Considerable devotional spirit, and the invocations ad-
■^'J^"J dressed to the goddess often appeal to her pity ; but whatever

ncarnat!

ices

the pofttJ

Siva.

xxvi THE SPIRIT OF ISLAM

mystical meaning the Tantras may possess for the philosopher,
the people commonly accept the worship in its most literal
sense. ^

From the two great epics, one of which tells the story of the
war between the Pandus and the Kurus, and the other the legend
of the abduction of Sita by the king of Ceylon, we can form a
fairly accurate idea of the popular creeds of the time. Both
represent a developed society and considerable material
progress combined with great moral decadence. Thus long
before the appearance of Gautama, the founder of Buddhism,
religious worship among the masses of India had sunk into
mere mechanical performance of sacrifices and oblations at
which the ability of the ministering priest, without whose
services their observance was not permissible, to perform the
" god-compelling " rites with the appropriate incantations,
rather than the conduct or piety of the worshipper, supplied
the test of merit. The revolt of Gautama and of Mahavira
(Mahabir) represented the natural uprise of the Hindu mind
against a selfish sacerdotalism. Both deny a Creative Principle
and the existence of a Supreme Intelligence governing and
regulating the universe, both affirm the eventual annihilation
of individual life ; both dwell on the merit of work in bringing
about this blissful consummation. But whilst Jainism has
hung on to the skirts of Brahmanism and is now practically
a Brahmanical sect, Buddhism struck out boldly a new path
for itself. It placed Karma in the forefront of its scheme of
salvation ; and its great teacher tried to fulfil its claims in
his own life. Its conception of the destiny of man after

^ There are two chief divisions of Tantric worshippers : the Dakhshina-
chari and Vamachari, or right and left hand rituaHsts ; the worship of the
former is pubUc, and not otherwise noticeable than as addressed to other
goddesses, such as Lakshmi or ]\Iahalakshini, the Sakti of Vishnu. In the
left hand worship, specially called Tantrikn, the exclusive object of
adoration is Kali. This worship is private and is said to be celebrated
with impure practices. This particular cult has an enormous number of
followers all over India and branches into various subdivisions. In the
season of the Ditrga Pitja, which is usvially celebrated in the month of August,
the image of Durga is carried about seated on a throne. In Upper India she
is painted as yellow of complexion ; in Bengal she is represented as absolutely
black, with four hands, seated on a tiger. In the temple of Kalighat (from
which Calcutta derives its name) dripping skulls might be seen hanging from
her neck. In one of the temples at Jeypore the goddess may be seen with her
head twisted round ; the tradition is that the lady turned her face in disgust
when a goat was offered to her in sacrifice instead of a human being.

INTRODUCTION xxvii

death was quite opposed to Brahmanical doctrines ; and
: its occult mysticism soon passed into other creeds. But
in the land of its birth, after a short but glorious
existence Buddhism met with a cruel fate ; and the
measure of punishment that was meted out to it by a
triumphant Brahmanism is depicted on the temples of Southern
India. It must be admitted, however, that in its pristine
garb Buddhism did not possess the attractions Hinduism
offered to its votaries. It never claimed to be a positive
religion, and its " rewards " and " sanctions," its promise of
bliss in a future existence, its penalties for failure to perform
duties in this life, were too shadowy to stir the heart of the
masses. It had soon to abandon its contest with the outside
world or to arrive at a compromise with the religion it had
ip; tried to supplant ; and it was not long before the religion that
,i;/ Buddha preached had to allow its lay- votaries to substitute
prayer-wheels for pious work, or to take to Tantrism to supple-
ment its own barren efforts. Its failure under the most
favourable circumstances in the land of its nativity sealed its
fate as a rousing religious system, although in some of its
. , mystical aspects it exercised considerable influence on the
philosophies of Western Asia and Egypt.

On the expulsion of Buddhism from India, Brahmanism

regained its supremacy ; the long shadow under which it

had lived whilst the religion of Buddha dominated the country

had brought no improvement in its spiritual conceptions ;

and the lifeless formahsm against which Buddha had revolted

,. was now re-established on a stronger foundation ; the lives

of men and women were under the restored Brahmanical

regime regulated more closely than ever by a sacrificial cult

which appealed to their senses, perhaps to their emotions, rather

than to their spiritual instincts. Among the masses religious

;;. vvorship became a daily round of meaningless ritual. For

* 'I jthem " the chief objects of worship were the priests, the manes

Anjiist, and, for form's sake, the Vedic gods." Fetishism, as a part

"jj*: iDf the aboriginal belief, was never eradicated from the Indian

it;iroiJ continent by philosophical Hinduism or by practical Buddhism.

^""A"" i[t now entered into the inner life of all castes ; trees, stones

-^i*1 md other natural objects, along with the idols in which the

xxviii THE SPIRIT OF ISLAM

family gods, the household penates and the ancient divinitie
were symbolised, shared the adoration of the populace. Th
great Code of Manu, of which Hinduism is justly proud, an(
which became in later centuries the model for the legal doctrine
of other Eastern races, represents a legislation for a state c
society where a great advance in material civilisation wa
combined with the absolute domination of the priestly cast
and an astonishing moral decadence amongst the masse:
Like the priest the king was now a divinity. In the secon
century of the Christian era, whilst Manu's Code was still he]
in reverence and treated as the final authority, its place wj
taken by the Commentary of Yajnavalkya, " the Contemplati-\^
Master." To him caste was as iron-bound as to Manu ; arj
the Sudra as impure as in early times. ]

Female infanticide, as among the pagan Arabs, was commo
There is no record when widow-burning was first intrj)
duced, but it must have been common in the seventh centuj
of the Christian era. To the widow death, however terrib/,
must have been a welcome release, for, unless she was t'
mother of children her lot was one of dire misery.

A woman was debarred from studying the Vedas or parti -
pating in the oblations to the manes, or in the sacrifices to tji
deities. The wife's religion was to serve her lord ; her eterijl
happiness depended on the strict performance of that du|.
And the faithful wife, who sacrificed herself on the lunejl
pyre of her dead spouse, found a niche in the hearts of all l|e
votaries of Hinduism as one of the best and noblest of her se;;
and often became herself the object of worship. j

Whilst thinking minds saw in the puerile practices of i'e
religion a deeper meaning; whilst their souls floated far above '.e
ceremonialism of the creed they professed, not one philosopjr
or priest viewed with horror the cruel immolations of ;ie
helpless widow, usually no more than a child. Religiis
associations, generally composed of both sexes and not alw/s
remarkable for austerity of life, had already sprung up ; i'id
numerous celibate brotherhoods worshipping different diviniies
had come into existence. They invariably congregated :in
monasteries into which women were admitted as lay memb's.
Among them, as among the mendicant fraternities that vie

INTRODUCTION xxix

established about the same time, the professed ceUbacy was
more nominal than real, honoured in its breach rather than
in its observance. Large numbers of the mendicant brother-
hoods lived in comfort and ease in temples and muths. Others,
like the begging friars of the Middle Ages and the vulgar cynics
of the Flavian period, wandered in search of merit from the
doles of the devout. Their sole recommendation to the
charity of the pious consisted in their matted locks, their
unkempt beard, the ochre-coloured shirt that hung over their
shoulders, the ash-covered naked bodies and the inevitable
beggar's gourd and staff.

As the divinities loved music and dancing, a large number
of dancing girls were attached to the temples, who were by no
means vestal, and whose services were at the disposal of the
ministrants of the cult. Women occupied a very inferior
position in early Hindu legislation, and Manu's extreme
denunciation of the sex can be compared only to the fanatical
pronouncement of the Christian Saint Tertullian, " Women,"
says Manu, " have impure appetites ; they show weak fiexi-
bihty and bad conduct. Day and night must they be kept in
subjection."

As regards the Sudras, he declared, almost in the words of
the Pandects, that the Creator had made them slaves and that
a man belonging to that caste, even when he is emancipated
by his master, cannot be free ; for bondage being natural to
him, who can deliver him from it ?

Such in brief was the rehgious and social condition among
the people of one of the most gifted sections of the Arj^an race
at the time when the Prophet of Islam brought his Message to
the world.

Let us turn now to Persia — a country which, by its proximity
to the birthplace of Islam, and the powerful influence it has
always exercised on Mohammedan thought, not to speak of
the character and tone it communicated to Judaism and
Christianity, deserves our earnest attention.

Consolidated into a nation and with a new spiritual develop-
ment, the western Aryans soon burst their ancient bounds, and
spread themselves over the regions of modern Persia and
Afghanistan. They appear to have conquered or destroyed

XXX THE SPIRIT OF ISLAM

most of the Hamitic and Kushite races inhabiting those tracts,
and gradually reached the confines of the Caspian, where they
found the more tenacious and hardy Turanians settled in
Media and Susiana. Before, however, they had succeeded in
subjugating the Turanians, they themselves fell under the
yoke of a foreign invader, Kushite or Assyrian, more probably
the latter, under whose iron sway they remained for a consider-
able time.^ With the expulsion of the foreigners commenced
that conflict between Iran and Turan which lasted with varying
fortunes for centuries, and ended with the partial subjugation
of the Turanians in Media and Susiana.^ The frequent contact
of the followers of Afrasiab and Kai-Kaus in the field and the
hall exercised a lasting effect on the Persic faith. The extreme
materialism of the Turanians did not fail to degrade the yet
undeveloped idealism of their Iranian rivals and neighbours,
who, whilst they succeeded in superimposing themselves on
the ancient settlers of Media, had partially to incorporate
Turanian worship with their own. And thus, whilst in Persia,
Ormuzd alone was adored and Ahriman held up to execration,
in Media, the good and the evil principle were both adored
at the altars. Naturally, the Turanian population was more
inclined to worship their ancient national god than the deity
of their Aryan conquerors ; and in the popular worship,
Ahriman, or Afrasiab, took precedence of Ormuzd.

The Assyrian empire had fallen before a coalition, the first
of its kind known in history, of the Medes and the Babylonians,
but the rehgion of Asshur, from its long domination over many
of the parts occupied by the Aryans, left an ineffaceable mark
on the conceptions of the Zoroastrians. The complex system
of celestial co-ordination and the idea prevalent among the
Assyrians of a divine hierarchy engrafted itself on Zoroastrian-
ism. Ormuzd was henceforth worshipped as a second Asshur ;
and the Persian's symbol of the God of light, the all-beneficent
power, became a winged warrior, with bow and lifted hand,
enclosed in the world-circle. Their symbol of growth also,

1 According to the Persian traditions, Zahhak ruled over Iran for over a
thousand years, and this is supposed by several scholars to represent the exact
period of Assyrian domination. The rise of Faridun would, according to
this view, be synchronous with the downfall of Nineveh.

2 Lenormant, Ancient Hist, of the East, p. 54.

INTRODUCTION xxxi

the tree with the candelabra branches ending upwards in the
pine-cone, was converted into the Persian fir-cone. Before
the rise of Cyrus in Farsistan and his consohdating conquests,
the symbohc worship in vogue among the early emigrants
and settlers became degraded among the masses into pyrolatry,
or took the form of Chaldseo-Assyrian Sabaeism.

The city of Asshur, — which had ruled Western Asia up to
the confines of India for nearly a thousand years, and almost
wrested from the Pharaohs the empire of Egypt, — the city
of the mighty Sargon and the great Sennacherib, had fallen
before the combined forces of the Babylonian and the Mede,i
never again to raise its head among the nations of the world.
Babylon, which after its early rivalry with Nineveh had been
reduced to a dependency of Assyria, became again the centre
of Asiatic civilisation. She gathered up the arts and sciences
of a thousand years of growth, and the product of " interfused
races and religions, temples and priesthoods," and supplied
the connecting link between the inorganic faiths of antiquity
and the modern beliefs. Assyria had, with the civilisation
and literature of the early Accadians, also borrowed much of
their religion. Babylon, rising into more potent grandeur
from the ashes of Nineveh, centred in herself the essence of
the Assyrian and Chaldaean cults. Under Nebuchadnezzar
the empire of Babylonia attained the zenith of its power ;
Judaea fell, and the flower of the nation was carried into cap-
tivity to lament by the waters of Babylon the downfall of the
kingdom of Jehovah. The mighty conqueror penetrated into
Arabia, and overwhelmed and nearly destro3^ed the Ishmaelites;
he smote the T^/rians, and broke the power of the Egyptian
Pharaoh. In spite of the maledictions heaped upon her head
by the Hebrew patriot, Babylon was by no means such a hard
taskmaster as Egypt. ^ The Israelites themselves bear testi-
mony to the generosity of their treatment. Not until the
redeemer was nigh with his mighty hosts, marching to the
conquest of the doomed city, did the children of Israel raise
their voice against Babylon. Then burst forth the storm of
imprecations, of predictions of woe, which displayed the
characteristics of the race in its pristine savagery. " By the

^ 606 B.C. * Jer. xlix. 27 to 29.

xxxii THE SPIRIT OF ISLAM

rivers of Babylon, there we sat down ; yea, we wept when we
remembered Zion. O Daughter of Babylon ! happy shall he
be who dasheth thy little ones against the stones." ^

Under Nebuchadnezzar, Babylon was indisputably the
centre of all existing civilisations. And the influence wielded
by her priesthood did not cease with the empire of Babylonia.
The mark of the Babylonian conceptions is traced in unmis-
takable characters in both the Judaical and Christian systems.
The long exile of the Jews among the Chaldaean priesthood,
the influence which some of the Hebrews obtained in the court
of the Babylonian king, and the unavoidable interfusion of
the two peoples, tended to impart a new character to later
Judaism. They were carried to Babylon in a state of semi-
barbarism ; they returned to Zion after their long probation
in the land of exile a new people, advanced in faith and doctrine,
with larger aspirations and their political vision extended.

With the conquest of Babylon begins a new era in religious
development. Henceforth the religion of dualism holds the
empire of Asia. The grand toleration which Cyrus extended
towards the Jews naturally led to his exaltation as " the
Messiah," " the Redeemer," " the anointed Saviour of the
world." The captivity of the Hebraic tribes, and their enforced
settlement near the seat of Persian domination, and their sub-
sequent intermixture under Cyrus with the Persians, most
probably gave impetus to that religious reform among the
Zoroastrians which occurred during the reign of Darius IJys-
taspes. There was mutual action and reaction. The Israelites
impressed on renovated Zoroastrianism a deep and abiding
conception of a Divine Personality overshadowing the universe.
They received from the Iranians the notion of a celestial
hierarchy, and the idea of a duality of principles in the creation
of good and evil. Henceforth it is not the Lord who puts a
lying spirit into the mouths of evil-doers ; Satan, like
Ahriman, from this time takes a prominent part in the religious
and moral history of the Hebrews.

The reign of Cyrus was one of conquest, hardly of organisation.
The reign of Darius was one of consolidation ; stern worshipper
of Ormuzd, to whom he ascribes all his victories, he endeavoured

^ Ps. cxxxvii.

INTRODUCTION xxxiii

to purify the faith of Zoroaster of all its foreign excrescences,
to stamp out the Magism of the Medes from its stronghold,
and to leave Aryan Persia the dominant power of the civilised
e world. Nothing, however, could arrest the process of decay.
d Before a hundred years had gone by, Zoroastrianism had
i imbibed to the full the evils which it had fought against in its
y infancy. The scourgers of idolatry, the uncompromising
s, iconoclasts, who, in their fiery zeal, had slaughtered the
], Egyptian Apis and overturned its shrine, soon absorbed into
ri the worship of Ormuzd the Semitic gods of their subject states.
oi The old Magian element-worship was revived, and Artaxerxes
er r jMnemon, one of the immediate successors of Darius, introduced
li- ! among the Zoroastrians the worship of that androgynous
Mythra — the Persian counterpart of the Chaldsean Myhtta or
Anaitis, with its concomitant phallic cult. The development
of this Mythra-cult into the gorgeous worship of the beautiful
)U5 . |Sun-God is one of the marvels of history. The resplendent
the ISun ascending over the cleft mountains, chasing the Bull into
jjd : jits lair and with its blood atoning human sins, is a conception
^jie ■ {which has left its ineffaceable mark on one of the dominant
tjjg jrehgions of the world. This worship of Mythra was carried
(-gj Iby the Roman legionaries from the valley of the Euphrates
yl). ito the furthest corners of Europe, and in the reign of
^Pjj , iDiocletian it became the state-religion of Rome.
jljg I Never was the condition of woman so bad, never was she
I ,j. i peld under greater subjection, — a slave to the caprice of man, —
than under the Mago-Zoroastrians. The laws of Manu imposed
!:ertain rules of chastity, and the stringency of primitive ex-
;)gamy exercised a restraining effect upon human passions.
jrhe Persian in the relations of the sexes recognised no law
JDut that of his own will. He could marry his nearest kindred,
iind divorce his wives at his pleasure. The system of female
■Jj^g iieclusion was not confined to the Persians alone. Among the
onic Greeks, women were confined within the gynaikonitis,
>ften kept under lock and key, and never allowed to appear
n public. But the Greek gynaikonomoi were not, until later
imes, mutilated specimens of humanity. In Persia, the
pustom of employing eunuchs to guard the women prevailed
rem the remotest antiquity. As in Greece, concubinage was

xxxiv THE SPIRIT OF ISLAM

a recognised social institution, and was interwoven with the
foundations of society. The Persian, however, never allowed
lewdness to be incorporated with the national worship. He
worshipped no Aphrodite Pandemos ; nor was Zoroastrian
society tainted with that " moral pestilence," ^ the most
degrading of all vices, which was universal in Greece, which
spread itself afterwards in Rome, and was not even rooted out
by Christianity.

With the downfall of the Achaemenian Empire ended the
vitality of Zoroastrianism as a motive power in the growth
of the world. The swarms of conquerors, who swept like
whirlwinds over the face of Persia, destroyed all social and
moral life. The Macedonian conquest, with the motley
hordes which followed on its footsteps, the influx of aU the
dregs of Lesser Asia, Cilicians, Tyrians, Pamphylians, Phr3'gians,
and various others, half Greeks, half Asians, obeying no moral
law, the hasty and reckless temper of the conqueror himself, —
aU led to the debasement of the Zoroastrian faith. The Mobeds,
the representatives of the national life, were placed under the
ban of persecution by the foreigner, the aim of whose life was
to heUenise Asia.

Alexander's career was splendidly meteoric. Shorn of the
legends which have surrounded his life and turned it into an
epopee, he stands before us a man of gigantic conceptions and
masterly purposes, possessed of a towering ambition, a genius
which overpowered aU opposition, and a personality which
enabled him to mould the minds of all around him according
to his own will. His was a nature full of contradictions. A
disciple of Aristotle, who aimed at the hellenisation of Asia,
with himself as the central figure in the adoration of the world,
an associate of philosophers and wise men, his life was dis-
graced by excesses of a revolting type. " The sack of Tyre
and the enslavement of its population, the massacres and
executions in India and Bactria, the homicide of Clytus, the
death warrants of Philotas and the faithful Parmenio, the
burning of Persepolis and the conflagration of its splendic
library at the instigation of a courtezan, are acts," says ai
apologist and an admirer, " for which no historian has founc

1 DoUinger, The Gentile and the Jew, vol. ii. p. 239.

INTRODUCTION xxxv

a palliation." With the conquest of Alexander and the
extinction of the Achasmenian dynasty, Zoroastrianism gave
way to Hellenism and the worst traditions of Chaldaean
civilisation. The extreme partiality of the hero of many
legends towards Babylon, and his anxious desire to resuscitate
that city and make it the centre of a mightier and more com-
plete civilisation, led him to discourage all creeds and faiths,
all organisations, religious or political, which militated with
his one great desire. Under the Seleucidae, the process of
denationalisation went on apace. Antiochus Epiphanes, the
cruel persecutor of the worshippers of Jehovah, won for himself
from them as well as the Zoroastrians, the unenviable designa-
tion of Ahriman. Even the rise of the Parthian power tended
to accelerate the decline and ruin of Zoroastrianism. The
Seleucidae ruled on the Tigris and the Orontes ; the Parthians
formed for themselves a kingdom in the middle portion of the
Achaemenian empire ; the Grseco-Bactrian dynasties were in
possession of the eastern tracts, viz. Bactria and the northern
part of Afghanistan. The state-religion of the Seleucidae was
a mixture of Chaldaeo-Hellenism. The Jews and Zoroastrians
were placed under the ban and ostracised. Under the Parthians,
Mazdism, though not actually extinguished, was compelled
to hide itself from the gaze of the rulers. In quiet and settled
parts, Zoroastrianism became mixed with the old Sabaeism of
the Medes and the Chaldaeans ; or, where kept alive in its
pristine character, it was confined to the hearts of some of those
priests who had taken refuge in the inaccessible recesses of
their country. But with Parthia enlarged into an empire,
and the Parthian sovereigns aspiring to the title of Shah-in-
shah, persecution gave way to toleration, and Mago-Zoroastrian-
ism again raised its head among the religions of the world.
And the rise of the Sasanides gave it another spell of power.
The founder of the new empire placed the Mobeds at the head
of the State. Last sad representatives of a dying faith !
Around them clustered the hopes of a renovated religious
existence under the auspices of the Sasanide dynasty. How
far the brilliant aspirations of Ardeshir Babekan (Artaxerxes
Longimanus), the founder of the new empire, were realised,
is a matter of history. The political autonomy of Persia —

xxxvi THE SPIRIT OF ISLAM

its national life — was restored, but the social and religious life
was lost beyond the power of rulers to revive. The teachings
of yore lived perhaps in books, but in the hearts of the people
they were as dead as old Gushtasp or Rustam.

Under the Sasanides, the Zoroastrians attained the zenith
of their power. For centuries they competed with Rome for
the empire of Asia. Time after time they defeated her armies,
sacked her cities, carried away her Caesars into captivity,
and despoiled her subjects of their accumulated riches ; but
the fire of Zoroastrianism as a moral factor was extinct. It
burnt upon the high altars of the temples, but it had died out
from the heart of the nation. The worship of the true God had
given place to a Chaldaeo-Magian cult, and the fierce intolerance
with which Ardeshir and his successors persecuted rival creeds,
failed to achieve its purpose. The Persian empire, under the
later Sasanides, only rivalled in the turmoil of its sects and
the licentiousness of its sovereigns, in the degeneration of its
aristocracy and the overweening pride of its priesthood, the
empire of the Byzantines. The kings were gods ; they were
absolute masters over the person and property of their subjects,
who possessed no rights, and were virtual serfs. The climax
of depravity was reached when Mazdak, in the beginning
of the sixth century of the Christian era, preached the com-
munism with which modern Europe has now become familiar,
and " bade all men to be partners in riches and women, just as
they are in fire, water, and grass ; private property was not
to exist ; each man was to enjoy or endure the good and bad
lots of this world." ^ The lawfulness of marriages with sisters
and other blood relations had already been recognised by
Mago-Zoroastrianism. The proclamation of this extreme
communism revolted the better minds even among the Persians.
The successor of Zoroaster, as Mazdak styled himself, was put
to death ; but his doctrines had taken root, and from Persia
they spread over the West.

All these evils betokened a complete depravity of moral
life, and foreshadowed the speedy extinction of the nation in
its own iniquities. This doom, though staved off for a time

^ The Dabistan-i-M azdhib of Mohsini Fani ; see also Shaikh Muhammad
Iqtal's Development of Metaphysics in Persia, p. i8.

II INTRODUCTION xxxvii

)y the personal character of Kesra Anushirvan, became
'i' nevitable after his death. But a Master had already appeared,
^P'^ ilestined to change the whole aspect of the world !

Eleven centuries had passed over the Jews since their return
"^'' rom the Babylonian captivity, and witnessed many changes
^°f jn their fortunes. The series of disasters which one after
^^^- ' i.nother had befallen the doomed nation of Moses, had culmin-
.ted in the wars of Titus and Hadrian. Pagan Rome had
lestroyed their temple, and stamped out in fire and blood their
:xistence as a nation. Christian Constantinople persecuted
hem with an equally relentless fury, but the misfortunes of
he past had no lessons for them in the future. Their own
ufferings at the hands of ruthless persecutors had failed to
each them the value of humanity and peace. The atrocious
ruelties which they committed in the cities of Egypt, of
.yprus and Cyrene, where they dwelt in treacherous harmony
vdth the unsuspecting natives, take away all sense of pity for
heir future fate. The house of Israel was a total wreck ;
rere {ts members were fugitives on the face of the earth, seeking
cts, jhelter far and wide, but carrying everywhere their indomitable
nax j)ride, their rebellious hardness of heart, denounced and
ling leprehended by an endless succession of prophets. The Jews,
om- |n their safe retreats in foreign lands, re-enacted the scenes
iar, l)f past times. The nation lived in hope, but the hope was
tas inixed with rigid uncompromising bigotry on the one hand,
not jind a voluptuous epicureanism on the other. Jesus had come
bad Imd gone, without producing any visible effect upon them.
ters iHie child of his age, he was imbued with the Messianic ideas
by 'loating in the atmosphere in which he lived and moved.
iM The Book of Daniel, written during one of the greatest travails
ms. )f the nation, with its hopes and aspirations, could not but
put nake a deep impression on the mind of the Teacher mourning
rsia i)ver the sight of his stricken people. The fierce intolerance
bf the Zealots seated in their mountain homes, the lifeless
oral |-eremonialism of the Sadducees, the half-hearted liberalism
^in i)f the Pharisees, the dreamy hopefulness of the Essenes, with
inie i^ne hand extended towards Alexandria and the other towards
{Buddhistic India, the preachings and denunciations of the
"■^ jvild Dervish, whose life became a sacrifice to the depravity

xxxviii THE SPIRIT OF ISLAM

of the Herodian court, all appealed to the heart of Jesus. But
the Eagle's talons were clutched on the heart of Judaea and its
legions crushed out all hope of a violent change. The quietism
of Jesus, and his earnest anticipation of a kingdom of heaven,
to be ushered in by the direct instrumentality of God, were the
outcome of his age. Among a nation of furious and relentless
bigots, he had come as the messenger of universal brotherhood
and love. In the midst of a proud and exclusive race, he trod
the path of humility and meekness ; kind and gentle to his
immediate followers, devoted to the cause of all, he left behind
him the impress of an elevated, self-denying spirit. Among
the powerful, the rich, and the ruling classes, he had roused
only feelings of hatred, fear, and opposition ; among the
poor, the despised, the ignorant and the oppressed, the deep
compassion of the great Teacher had awakened sentiments of
gratitude and love. One bright sunny morning he had entered
the stronghold of Jewish fanaticism full of hope in his ministry
as the promised Messiah ; before a fortnight had run out, he
was sacrificed to the vested interests of his day.

Amidst the legends which surround his life, so much at least
is clear. Born among the poor, his preachings were addressed
to the poor. Deeply versed in the Rabbinical lore, his short
ministry was devoted almost exclusively to the humble denizens
of the country side — the poverty-stricken peasantry and the
fishermen of Galilee. His disciples were poor, ignorant folk.
In spite of their credulous natures, and the vivid — not to say
weird — effect exercised on their imaginations by the untimely
disappearance of the Master, they never regarded him as
anything more than a man. It was not until Paul adopted
the creed of him whose execution he had witnessed, that the
idea of an incarnate God or angel was introduced into Christi-
anity. In spite of the promise attached to the " effusion of
the Holy Ghost," " it was found necessary," says the historian
of Ecclesiasticism, " that there should be some one defender
of the gospel who, versed in the learned arts, might be
able to combat the Jewish doctors and the pagan philosophers
with their own arms. For this purpose Jesus himself, by an
extraordinary voice from heaven, had called to his service a
thirteenth apostle, whose name was Saul (afterwards Paul),

INTRODUCTION xxxix

md whose acquaintance both with Jewish and Grecian learning
vas very considerable." ^

The Mago-Zoroastrian believed in an angel-deliverer, in the
jurush who was to appear from the East ; the Buddhist, in
m incarnate god born of a virgin ; the Alexandrian mystic
nculcated the doctrine of the Logos and the Demiurge. The
isoteric conceptions regarding the birth, death, and resur-
ection of Osiris, the idea of the Isis-Ceres, the virgin mother
'holding in her arms the new-born sun-god Horus," ^ were
n vogue both in Egypt and Syria. And Paul, the Pharisee
ind the scholar, was deeply imbued with these half-mystical,
lalf-philosophical notions of his time. A visionary and
^j^ jnthusiast by nature, not free from physical ailments, as
strauss suggests, he, who had never come in actual contact
vith the Master, was easily inclined to attach to him the
ittributes of a Divinity — of an Angel Incarnate. He infused
nto the simple teachings of Jesus the most mysterious
)rinciples of Neo-Pythagoreanism, with its doctrine of intelli-
gences and its notion of the triad, borrowed from the far East.
The jealousy between the home and the foreign, the Judaical
Lnd the anti-Judaical party, was shown in the curious though
veil-known antipathy of the two apostles, Peter and Paul.^
rhe Ebionites most probably represented the beliefs of the
(riginal companions of the Prophet of Nazareth. He had
on versed with them familiarly, and "in all the actions of
ational and animal life " had appeared to them as of the same
ature as themselves. They had marked him grow from
nfancy to youth and from youth to manhood ; they had
een him increase in stature and wisdom. Their belief was
empered by their knowledge of him as a man. The deprava-
n of ideas from this original faith, through various inter-
ior fcediate phases like those of the Docetes, the Marcionites, the
i0 *atripassians,^ and various others down to the decisions of the

1 Mosheim, Ecclesiastical History, vol. ii. p. 63.

- Comp. Mr. Ernest de Bunsen's Essay on Mohammed's Place in the
"hurch, Asiatic Quarterly Review, April 1889.

* Milner, Hist, of the Church of Christ, vol. i. pp. 26, 27.

^ The Docetes believed Jesus to be a pure God. The Marcionites regarded
lim as a being " most like unto God, even his Son Jesus Christ, clothed with
1 certain shadowy resemblance of a body, that he might thus be visible to

lopti

xl THE SPIRIT OF ISLAM

Council of Nice in 328, forms a continuous chain. The prevale ij
belief in aeons and emanations predisposed all classes of peop ,
especially those who had never beheld the Prophet, observ i
his humanity, or noted his everyday life, to accept his divini '
without any question.

At the time Jesus began his preaching the Empire of Roii
stretched over more than half Europe, and included almct
the whole of Northern Africa and a large part of Westei
Asia. This vast area by an accident became, in the comi ^
centuries, the seed-ground of Christianity and the battlefiei
of contending sects.

Exactly a century before the Phrygian Cybele ^ was broug t
to Rome, Ptolemy Soter, the most fortunate and probably t i
most far-sighted of Alexander's generals, had become masir
of Egypt. With the object of fusing the Egyptians a:i
Greeks into a homogeneous nation by the unifying bond oil
common religion he conceived the design of establishing 1
worship in the practice of which the two peoples would jci
hands. The same idea occurred to Akbar some two thousa i
years later ; but where the great Akbar failed, Ptoler /
succeeded, for all the conditions were in his favour. Te
Greeks worshipped Zeus, Demeter and Apollo or Dionysr ;
the Egyptians, Osiris, Isis and Horus ; the trinitarian bel f
was common to both. The Egyptian faith revolved round te
Passion and Resurrection of Horus, the Son ; the Greek 1
the Passion and Resurrection of Dionysus. The Greek hi
his Eleusinian mysteries with all the mystic rites of initiatin
and communion; the Egyptian hierophant, the mysteries :i
Isis with similar rites and similar significance. To neither*.*
mattered under what names the gods were worshipped or 1e
rituals were conducted. So long as the main idea was ma.-
tained they were indifferent to mere names. Thus was bdi
the great cult of the Serapeum. Serapis took the place i
Zeus among the Greeks, of Osiris among the Egyptiai ;
Isis who became the " mater dolorosa " of the votaries of ^'.e

mortal eyes." The Patripassians believed that the Father suffered with ,ie
Son on the cross (Mosheim and Gibbon, in loco ; and Neander, vol. ii. p.
150, 301 et seq).

^ The worship of Cybele has a very close analogy to the cult of the fan as
Hindu goddess Durga or Kali.

INTRODUCTION xli

Alexandrian cult, displaced Demeter ; and Horus Happocrates
absorbed the adoration hitherto rendered to Dionysus. This
deity does not seem, however, to have lost his hold among the
inhabitants of the sea-board of Asia Minor ; and the prevailing
belief that a god had lived among mankind, had suffered and
died and risen again made easy in later centuries the spread
of Christianity.

The worship of Isis, whose glory had overshadowed the
personality of her consort, was brought to Rome, it is said,
some eighty years before the birth of Jesus. It seized at once
the fancy both of the populace and of the cultivated classes.
Its gorgeous ritual, its tonsured, clean-shaven priests, the
young acolytes in white, carrying lighted tapers, the
solemn processions in which nothing was wanting to stimulate
the emotions, the passionate grief at the suffering and death
of Osiris-Horus, the frenzied joy at his resurrection, the
mysteries with all their mystical meanings, the initiation,
above all the promise of immortality, appealed vividly to a
world whose old gods were mute and which yearned for a
closer touch with the eternal problem of the Universe. It is
not surprising that Isis took a strong hold on the heart of the
Roman people. ^

Although the worship of Isis, " the bestower on the wretched
the sweet affection of a mother " never lost its power on their
emotions, the more virile cult of Mythra the beautiful sun-god,
with all its mystic rites, its doctrine of atonement, its insistence
on the direct touch of its god with humanity, was held in
special favour among the Roman soldiers ; and wherever the
legionaries were quartered they appear to have left the
memorials of their worship.

To form a just estimate of the superlative and exclusive
claim advanced by Christianity to enrol under her banner and
to dominate the conscience of all mankind, it is necessary to
bear in mind the causes that helped in the diffusion of the
Galilean faith before the ascension of Constantine to the throne.
The promise of the second advent of Jesus with the immediate
ushering in of " the Kingdom of God," when the poor would

^Dill's Roman Society from Nero to Marcus Aurelius, chapter v.; Legge's
Forerunners and Rivals of Christianity, vol. ii. p. 87.

xlii THE SPIRIT OF ISLAM

be exalted, and Lazarus would take the place of Dives in the
enjoyment of heavenly gifts, created among the humble folk
a wild excitement. The fervent anticipations of the immediate
disciples and followers of Jesus naturally communicated them-
selves to the neighbouring peoples ; and as the missionaries
of the faith multiplied they carried this vivid belief far and
wide. The religion that held forth the promise of an early
adjustment of inequalities and redress of wrongs and injustice
received a ready acceptance among the masses. So strong
a hold did the belief in the establishment of the kingdom of
God with the second advent acquire among the populace, that
although the fulfilment of the promise, which was assured to
take place within the lifetime of the early disciples, receded as
decades went by into dim futurity, the anticipations and hopes
to which it gave birth did not lose their force until the final
collapse of the Crusades. After a thousand years, first of
travail and later of success, the warriors of Christianity
went forth to destroy the professors of another faith in the
fuU belief that the second coming of their Lord was nigh.

Besides this there were other causes equally potent which
helped the diffusion of Christianity in the shape it assumed
after the death or, according to Ebionite and Moslem beUef,
the disappearance of the Master.

As already observed, among all the peoples of Asia Minor,
Syria and the Mediterranean littoral, excepting the Jev/s,
the idea of a god who had died and risen again, and of a divine
Trinity, was universal. It was an essential part of the
Serapean cult ; and with the spread of Isis-worship every
part of the Roman world was permeated by the trinitarian
conception ; there was no difficulty arising from sentiment
or religious predilection to the acceptance of the principal
doctrines of post- Jesus Christianity.

The philosophers at the same time, albeit unconsciously
and without the intention of helping Christianity, even without
any knowledge of its tenets, furthered its cause. Their
speculations with regard to the nature of God and of a life after
death undermined the faith of many thinking pagans in the
mysteries of Isis and Mythra, and in the rites and practices of
the old cults. And yet the hold of the Alexandrian divinities

INTRODUCTION xliii

and of the Sun-god on the hearts of the cultivated classes,
who looked askance at the revolutionary doctrines of the new
cult, was so strong that for nearly three centuries the spread
of Christianity was confined to the ignorant and uneducated.
Not until the Christian Church had incorporated with its
theology and ecclesiastical system many dogmas borrowed
from its great and fascinating rivals, and almost all their
rites and ceremonialism, and practices and institutions, did
it make any headway among people of culture. And when
these, under the stress oi religious persecution or imperial
pressure, began entering the fold they brought with them all
the elements that have gone to mould modern Christianity
with its multitudinous sects. ^ Relentless persecution lasting
for centuries secured, however, in the early period of its growth
a certain uniformity of faith and doctrines.

Among the masses Isis-worship was transformed into
Mariolatry ; and Mary the mother of Jesus became, instead
of the Egyptian goddess, " the haven of peace," and " the
altar of pity." Thenceforth she was worshipped, as she still
is among the Latin races, as the " madre de dios."

Asceticism was a favoured institution among the votaries
of the Alexandrian divinities ; it was practised by the Pytha-
goreans and Orphics, who had derived much of their inspiration
from the hierophants of the Gangetic Delta, among whom it
was a common practice ; the Christian Church adopted and
sanctified this institution for both sexes. From the simple
immersion used by John the Baptist, baptism under the
influence of the cult of Isis grew into a mystical and cumbrous
rite. Communion took the place of initiation ; and even the
dogma connected with the mysteries of Isis regarding the
change of wine into the blood of the mourned god was absorbed
into the Christian system. In the tonsured clean-shaven,
pale-clad priests, the white robed acolytes, in the gorgeous
rituals, " in the form of the sacraments, in the periods of the
fasts and festivals " ^ of the Christian Church, looking back
\ through the vista of ages, one is forcibly reminded of the older
cults ; and the religions which Christianity displaced rise

^ Dill's Roman Society from Nero to Marcus A urelius, chapter v.
^ Legge, Forertmners and Rivals of Christianity, in loco.
S.I. d

xliv THE SPIRIT OF ISLAM

before us in all their pomp and pageantry. We seem to hear
once more in the litanies of the Church the beautiful touching
hymns sung to the Alexandrian goddess (the Mater dolorosa
of the Western pagan world), by a thousand white-robed boys
and girls, and it requires but little effort of fancy to carr^
back the imagination from St. Peter's or St. Paul's to the
Serapeum.

The religion of Jesus, as taught by his chief disciples, had
besides these borrowed and adventitious recommendations
distinct and independent claims to draw to itself the homag<
of those who, in the welter of spiritual conceptions and religion
beliefs, were groping in semi-darkness for a resting place wheri
high and low, ignorant and educated, should stand on th'
same plane. In its higher phases, it appealed to the noble
instincts of mankind if not more forcibly than the Isiac o;
Mythraic creeds, certainly with greater assurance. Its promis
of a life after death was less veiled in mysteries ; its doctrine
were more positive and concrete than the abstract speculation
of the philosophers. It brought solace and comfort to th
down-trodden and held forth a promise — not yet fulfilled — c
equality and brotherhood among mankind, with an assure
trust in future salvation to rich and poor alike among those wh
accepted its doctrines. Whilst the dogmatism of its preachei
often assisted by secular force silenced questioning mind
it satisfied the yearnings of those who, turning from i\
mysticism of the older cults or fleeing from the hidden ind(
cencies associated with Nature-worship, hungered for an assu
ance that the existence on earth was but part of a larger lif ,
The whole of the Western pagan world was in short in a
expectant mood, waiting for a positive and direct revelatior
and all the teachings of the past had attuned its mind to tl
reception of a call. The Galilean faith seized the opportunit
and after appropriating and absorbing the ritual and doctrin
legacies left by its " Forerunners and Rivals," gradual
monopolised the homage of the peoples who had been subjects,
by Rome. Whether this adaptation of the simple teachin.
of Jesus, to make them more readily acceptable, was a develo ■
ment or the reverse must remain for the present unanswere.
But the charge the Moslems make against his followers th;

INTRODUCTION xlv

they corrupted his faith can hardly be said to be altogether
unwarranted.

The early cessation of the ministry of Jesus and the absence
of any organic teaching, whilst it allowed a freer scope to
imagination, perhaps " a freer latitude of faith and practice," ^
as shown in the lives of even the early Christians, furnished an
open ground for contending factions to dispute not only about
doctrines and discipline, but also as to the nature of their
Teacher. The expulsion of the Jews and the Christians from
Jerusalem, which abounded in so many traditions relating to
Jesus as a man ; the intermixture of his followers with the
non- Judaic people who surrounded them on all sides, and
among whom the Neo-Pythagorean or Platonic ideas as to the
government of the universe were more or less prevalent ; the
very vagueness which surrounded the figure of Jesus in the
conception of his followers — soon gave birth to an infinite
variety of doctrines and sects. And age after age everything
human, " everything not purely ideal, was smoothed away
from the adored image of an incarnate God," the essentially
pathetic history of Jesus was converted into a " fairy tale,"
and his life so surrounded with myths that it is now impossible
for us to know " what he really was and did."

The fantastic shapes assumed by Christianity in the centuries
which preceded the advent of Mohammed are alike interesting
and instructive.

The Gnostic doctrines, which were wholly in conflict with
the notions of the Judaic Christians, are supposed to have
been promulgated towards the end of the first century, almost
simultaneously with the capture and destruction of Jerusalem
by Hadrian. Cerinthus, the most prominent of the Gnostic
teachers in this century, inculcated among his followers the
dual worship of the Father and the Son, whom he supposed
to be totally distinct from the man Jesus, " the creator of the
world."

The narrowness of Pauline Christianity, and its futile endeav-
ours to reconcile its doctrines with the philosophy of the
Alexandrian schools, gave birth about the same time to the
Neo-Platonic eclecticism of Ammonius Saccas, adopted after-

^ Mosheim, p. 121.

xlvi THE SPIRIT OF ISLAM

wards by Origen and other leading Christians. This versatile
writer, whose impress is visible in the writings of almost all
the prominent thinkers of Christendom in the earlier centuries,
endeavoured to bring about a general concordance among aU
the existing creeds and sects. In some respects, Ammonius
was the prototype of Mani, or Manes, and was undoubtedly
above the level of his contemporaries. He succeeded in
forming a school, but his teachings never regulated the morals
or influenced the faith of a community.

The second century of the Christian era was ushered in in
strife and disorder. Divisions and heresies were rife throughout
the Christian Church. Gnosticism was in great force, and
left its character indelibly impressed on Christianity. Some
of the sects which came into prominence in this century deserve
a passing notice, as they show not only the evils which flowed
from the teachings of the Church, but also the influence
exercised upon Christianity by Zoroastrianism, Neo-Pytha-
goreanism, and the ancient Sabseism of the Chaldaeans.

The Marcionites, who were perhaps the most important of the
early Gnostics, believed in the existence of two principles, the
one perfectly good and the other perfectly evil. Between these
there existed the Demiurge, an intermediate kind of deity,
neither perfectly good nor perfectly evil, but of a mixed nature,
who administered rewards and inflicted punishments. The
Demiurge was, according to the Marcionite doctrines, the
creator of this inferior world, and engaged in perpetual conflict
with the Principle of Evil, — mark the impress of the Zoroastrian
ideas ! The Supreme Principle, in order to terminate this
warfare and to deliver from their bondage the human souls,
whose origin is celestial and divine, sent to the Jews, " a being
most like unto Himself, even His Son Jesus Christ," clothed
with a certain shadowy resemblance of a body, that thus he
might be visible to mortal eyes. The commission to this
celestial messenger was to destroy the empire, both of the Evil
Principle and of the Author of this world, and to bring back
wandering souls to God. ' ' On this account he was attacked with
inexpressible violence and fury by the Principle of Evil " and
by the Demiurge, but without effect, since, having a body only
in appearance, he was thereby rendered incapable of suffering.

INTRODUCTION xlvii

The Valentinians, whose influence was more lasting, taught
that " the supreme God permitted Jesus, His Son, to descend
from the upper regions to purge mankind of all the evils into
which they had fallen, clothed, not with a real, but with a
celestial and aerial body." The Valentinians believed Jesus
to be an emanation from the Divine Essence come upon earth
to destroy the dominion of the Prince of Darkness.

The Ophites, who flourished in Egypt, entertained the same
notions as the other Egyptian Gnostics concerning the aeons,
the eternity of matter, the creation of the world in opposition
to the will of God, the tyranny of the Demiurge, and " the
divine Christ united to the man Jesus in order to destroy the
empire of this usurper." They also maintained that the
serpent, by which Adam and Eve were deceived, was either
Christ himself, or Sophia, disguised as a serpent.

Whilst the Gnostic creeds were springing into existence under
the influence of Chaldsean philosophy, the Greeks on their
side endeavoured to bring about a certain harmony between
the Pauline doctrine concerning " the Father, Son, and the
Holy Ghost, and the two natures united in Christ," and their
own philosophical views as to the government of the world.
Praxeus was the first of these sophistical preachers of Christi-
anity, and he set the ball rolling by denying any real distinction
between the " Father, Son, and Holy Ghost," and maintained
that the Father was so intimately united with the man Christ,
His Son, that He suffered with him the anguish of an afflicted
life, and the torments of an ignominious death !

" These sects," says Mosheim, " were the offspring of philo-
sophy. A worse evil was to befall the Christian Church in the
person of Montanus, a native of Phrygia." This man, who
disdained all knowledge and learning, proclaimed himself
the Paraclete promised by Jesus. He soon succeeded in
attaching to himself a large body of followers, the most famous
of whom were Priscilla and Maximilla, the prophetesses,
" ladies more remarkable for their opulence than for their
virtue." They turned Northern Asia into a slaughter-house,
and by their insensate fury inflicted terrible sufferings on the
human race.

Whilst the Marcionites, Valentinians, Montanists, and the

xlviii THE SPIRIT OF ISLAM

other Gnostic sects were endeavouring to spread their doctrines
throughout the empire of Rome, there arose in Persia a man
whose individuahty has impressed itself in ineffaceable char-
acters on the philosophy of two continents. Mani was, to all
accounts, the most perfect embodiment of the culture of his
age. He was an astronomer, a physicist, a musician, and an
artist of eminence. The stories relating to his art-gallery ^
have passed into a proverb.

Thoroughly acquainted with the Jewish Cabbala and the
teachings of the Gnostic masters, imbued with the ancient
philosophy and mysticism of the East, a Magi by birth and
Christian by education, he rose in revolt against the jarring
discord which surrounded him on all sides, and set himself
to the task of creating, from the chaos of beliefs, an eclectic
faith which would satisfy all demands, the aspirations of all
hearts. The audacity with which Mani applied himself to
undermine the current faiths by an outward profession, joined
to a subtle criticism, which destroyed all foundations of belief
in the neophyte — a process afterwards imitated by his congeners,
the Isma'ilias, ^ — and his assertion, like the Batinis, of an
esoteric insight into all religious doctrines, armed against him
every creed and sect ; and naturally, wherever he or his
disciples appeared, they were persecuted with unparalleled
ferocity.

The doctrine of Mani was a fantastic mixture of the tenets
of Christianity with the ancient philosophy of the Persians and
the Chaldaeans. According to him. Matter and Mind are
engaged in perpetual strife with each other. In the course
of this conflict human beings were created by the Principle
of Matter endowed with two natures, one divine, the other
material, the former being a part of the light or spirit which
had been filched from heaven. In order to release the struggling
divine soul from the prison in which it was coniined, the
Supreme God sent from the solar regions an Entity created
from His own substance — which was called Christ. Christ
accordingly appeared among the Jews clothed with the shadowy
form of a human body, and during his ministry taught mortals
how to disengage the rational soul from the corrupt body —

^ Arzang-i-Mani. * See post, part ii. chap. x.

INTRODUCTION xlix

to conquer the violence of malignant matter. The Prince of
Darkness having incited the Jews to put him to death, he was
apparently, but not in reality, crucified. On the contrary,
having fulfilled his mission, he returned to his throne in the sun.

The Manichsean Christ thus could neither eat, drink, suffer,
nor die ; he was not even an incarnate God, but an illusory
phantasm — " the all-pervading light-element imprisoned in
nature, striving to escape matter, without assuming its forms."
However blasphemous and irrational these doctrines may seem,
they appear hardly more so to Moslems than the doctrine of
transubstantiation, the changing of the eucharistic elements
into the actual flesh and blood of the Deity.

Manes divided his disciples into two classes ; one, the
" elect," and the other, the " hearers." The " elect " were
compelled to submit to a rigorous abstinence from all animal
food and intoxicating drink, to abjure wedlock and all gratifica-
tions of the senses. The discipline appointed for the " hearers "
was of a milder kind. They were allowed to possess houses,
lands, and wealth, to feed upon flesh, to enter into the bonds of
conjugal relationship ; but this liberty was granted them
with many limitations, and under the strictest conditions of
moderation and temperance.

Manes, or Mani, was put to death by Bahram-G6r, but his
doctrines passed into Christianity and were visible in all the
struggles which rent the Church in later times.

About the middle of the third century arose the sect of the
SabeUians, which marked a new departure in the religion of
Jesus. They regarded Jesus as only a man, and believed that
a certain energy proceeding from the Supreme Father had
united itself with the man Jesus, thus constituting him the
son of God. This pecuhar doctrine, which Gibbon regards as
an approach to Unitarianism, was the cause of serious disorders
in the Christian Church, and led to the promulgation in the
early part of the fourth century, by Origen, of the doctrine of
three distinct personalities in the Godhead. Tritheism was
only a modification of the ancient paganism suited to the
character of the people who had adopted the creed of Jesus.
Polytheism was ingrained in their nature, and tritheism was
a compromise between the teachings of Jesus and the ancient

1 THE SPIRIT OF ISLAM

worship of a number of personalities. In the course of time,
tritheism merged into the doctrine of the trinity, but not
before it had given birth to the most philosophic sect of
Christianity. 1

The rise of Arianism is due principally to the revolt of the
human intellect from the irrational teachings of the Church.
In Alexandria, which was at that time the most fanatical of
Christian cities, Arius had the boldness to preach, in opposition
to his own bishop, that Christ was not of the same essence with
God. Arianism soon spread itself in Egypt and Northern
Africa, and in spite of violent and frequent persecution, kept
its hold in these parts as well as Spain until his followers were
taken into the fold of Islam. ^

The troubles generated by the schism of Arius induced
Constantine, in a.c. 325, to assemble the Council of Nice, in
Bithynia. In this general council, after many violent efforts
on both sides, the doctrine of Arius was condemned, and
" Christ was declared consubstantial with the Father." ^ What-
ever may have been the condition of the Christian Church
before, henceforth its history presents a constant and deplorable
record of trouble and violence, of internecine strife and
wrangling, of fearful and cruel persecutions, of bitter hatred
and a perpetual endeavour to crush out reason and justice
from the minds of men. The vices of the regular clergy
assumed monstrous proportions, and the luxury, arrogance,
and voluptuousness of the sacerdotal order became the subject
of complaint on all sides. The asceticism of the early times
had given place to monasticism, and the hcentiousness of the
monks became a byword. They were the free lance of the
Church, — always foremost in fomenting tumults and seditions,
and the streets of Constantinople, Alexandria, and Rome
frequently ran with blood in consequence of their unruliness
and turbulence.

1 Mosheim, p. 411.

2 In the latter part of the sixteenth century of the Christian era Socinus of
Sienna (in Italy) revived and amplified the doctrines of Arius. The unitarians
of the present day are the direct spiritual descendants of the Socinians, who
denied the divinity of Jesus. They also repudiated the doctrine of original.;
sin and atonement. To them God alone was the object of adoration.

' Gibbon, vol. iv. 307.

iNtRODUCTION li

The disputes of Nestorius with Cyril, the murderer of
Hypatia, forms a prominent chapter in the history of Christi-
anity. The second Council of Ephesus was convoked partly
with the object of conciliating the various parties which had
sprung up in the Church ; but " the despotism of the Alex-
andrian Patriarch," says Gibbon, " again oppressed the
freedom of debate. The heresy of the two natures was for-
mally condemned. ' May those who divide Christ, be divided
with the sword.' ' May they be hewn in pieces.' ' May they
be burned alive ! ' were the charitable wishes of a Christian
synod."

At the Council of Chalcedon, which was convened at the
instance of the Bishop of Rome, the doctrine of the incarnation
of Christ in one person but in two natures was definitely settled.

The Monophysites and Nestorians, revolting from the
doctrine of incarnation, endeavoured to make a stand against
the decree of Chalcedon. But they succumbed under the
furious onslaught of the orthodox, who had succeeded in
solving the mystery of their Teacher's nature. Jerusalem
was occupied by an army of monks ; in the name of one
incarnate nature they pillaged, they murdered ; the sepulchre
of Christ was defiled with blood. The Alexandrian Christians,
who had murdered a woman, did not hesitate to massacre
their Patriarch in the baptistery, committing his mangled
corpse to the flames and his ashes to the wind.

About the middle of the sixth century the drooping fortunes
of the Monophysites revived under the guidance of one of their
leaders, Jacob, bishop of Edessa. Under him and his successor
they acquired overwhelming predominance in the Eastern
empire, and by their unrelenting persecution of the Nestorians
and their bitter quarrels with the orthodox or the Chalcedonians,
plunged the Christian Church into internecine warfare and
bloodshed. To a non-Christian, the doctrines of the Mono-
physites, who taught that " the divine and human nature of
Christ were so founded as to form only one nature, yet without
any change, confusion, or mixture of the two natures," seem
to be in no way different from those laid down by the Council
of Chalcedon. And yet this distinction without a difference
was the cause of untold misery to a large number of the human

lii THE SPIRIT OF ISLAM

race. At last, in 630 A.c, Heraclius tried to allay the disorders
by starting a new sect, that of the Monothelites, whose doctrines ;
were no less monstrous and fantastical. The Monothelites |
maintained that " Christ was both perfect God and perfect
man, and that in him were two distinct natures so united as to
cause no mixture or confusion, but to form by their union
only one person." Instead, however, of bringing peace into
the bosom of the Church of Jesus, the rise of this sect intensi-
fied the evil ; and Western Asia, Northern Africa, and various
parts of Europe continued to be the scene of massacres and ,
murders and every kind of outrage in the name of Christ. !

Such was the religious condition of Christendom during the j
centuries which preceded the advent of Islam. '

With the apparent conversion of Constantine, Christianity
became the dominant power in the Roman empire. The fate ;
of paganism was sealed. Its downfall, though staved off for j
a time by the greatest and most sincere of the Roman emperors, j
had become inevitable. " After the extinction of paganism," I
says Gibbon, " the Christians, in peace and piety, might have
enjoyed their solitary triumph. But the principle of discord
was alive in their bosom, and they were more solicitous to j
explore the nature than to practise the laws of their founder." ^ ■
The whole of Christian Europe was immersed in absolute
darkness, and the Church of Jesus was rent with schisms and
heresies. The religious conception of the masses had not
advanced beyond the pagan stage ; the souls of the dead were
worshipped in numbers, and the images of those who were
honoured in life were objects of adoration. Relic and saint
worship had become universal ; Christianity had reverted to ;
heathenism. 1

The social and pohtical condition of the nations subject to i
the sway of Christianity was equall}' deplorable. Liberty of
thought and freedom of judgment were crushed out from
among mankind. And the reign of Christ was celebrated by
the sacrifice of heretics who ventured to differ from any idea
which predominated for the time.

^ The Emperor Julian (the so-called Apostate) is reported to have said :
" No wild beasts are so hostile to man as Christian sects in general are to one
another."

INTRODUCTION liii

In the streets of Alexandria, before the eyes of the civiUsed
world, the noblest woman of antiquity was slaughtered with
nameless horrors by a Christian who bears the title of saint
in the annals of Christendom, and who, in modern times, has
found an apologist. The eloquent pages of Draper furnish
a vivid account of the atrocious crime which will always
remain one of the greatest blots on Christianity. A beautiful,
wise, and virtuous woman, whose lecture-room was full to
overflowing with the wealth and fashion of Alexandria, was
attacked as she was coming out of her academy by a mob of
the zealous professors of Christianity. Amidst the fearful
yelling of these defenders of the faith she was dragged from her
chariot, and in the public street stripped naked. Paralysed
with fear, she was haled into an adjoining church, and there
killed by the club of a " saint." The poor naked corpse was
outraged and then dismembered ; but the diabolical crime was
not completed until they had scraped the flesh from the bones
with oyster shells and cast the remnants into the fire. Christen-
dom honoured with canonisation the fiend who instigated this
terrible and revolting atrocity, and the blood of martyred
Hypatia was avenged only by the sword of Amru ! ^

The condition of Constantinople under Justinian, the
Christian and the glorified legislator, is the best index to the
demoralised and degraded state of society all over Christendom.
Public or private virtue had no recognition in the social con-
ceptions ; a harlot sat on the throne of the Caesars, and shared
with the emperor the honours of the State. Theodora had
publicly plied her trade in the city of Constantine, and her
name was a byword among its dissolute inhabitants. And
now she was adored as a queen in the same city by " grave
magistrates, orthodox bishops, victorious generals, and captive
monarchs." The empire was disgraced by her cruelties, which
recognised no religious or moral restraint. Seditions, out-
breaks, and sanguinary tumults, in which the priesthood
always took the most prominent part, were the order of the day.
On these occasions every law, human or divine, was trampled
under foot ; churches and altars were polluted by atrocious
murders ; no place was safe or sacred from depredations ;

^ 'Amr(u) ibn al-'Asi or 'As of Arabian history.

liv THE SPIRIT OF ISLAM

the bonds of society were rent asunder, and revolting
outrages were perpetrated in broad daylight. Nothing, how-
ever, can equal the horrors which were inflicted upon this
unholy city during the Nika riots in the fifth year of Justinian's
reign. The horrible anarchy of the circus, with its incessant
bloodshed and sensuality, stimulated to its worst excesses
by the support and encouragement which the imperial cham-
pions of orthodoxy extended to the most barbarous of the
factions, was unparalleled in any heathen land.

As compared with Constantinople at this period, Persia was
a country of order and law.

Humanity revolts from the accounts of the crimes which
sully the annals of Christian Constantinople. Whilst the
Prophet of Islam was yet an infant, one of the most virtuous
emperors who ever ascended the throne of Byzantium was
massacred, with his children and wife, with fearful tortures
at the instance of a Christian monarch. The emperor was
dragged from his sanctuary, and his five sons were successively
murdered before his eyes ; and this tragic scene closed with
the execution of the emperor himself. The empress and her
daughters were subjected to nameless cruelties and then
beheaded on the very ground which had been stained with the
blood of the poor Emperor Maurice. The ruthless treatment
meted out to the friends, companions and partisans of the
imperial victim, serves as an index to the morality of the
Byzantine Christians. Their eyes were pierced, their tongues
were torn from the root, their hands and feet were amputated ;
some expired under the lash, others in the flames, others again
were transfixed with arrows. " A simple, speedy death,"
says Gibbon, " was a mercy which they could rarely obtain."

The Byzantine empire, slowly bleeding unto death, torn by
political and religious factions, distracted with theological
wranglings, and " crazed by an insane desire to enforce uni-
formity of religious belief," offered a wretched spectacle of
assassinations, dissoluteness, and brutality.^

^ Milman thus describes the Christianity of those days : " The Bishop of
Constantinople was the passive victim, the humble slave, or the factious
adversary of the Byzantine emperor ; rarely exercised a lofty moral control .
upon his despotism. The lower clergy, whatever their more secret beneficent
or sanctifying workings on society, had sufficient power, wealth, and rank '

INTRODUCTION Iv

The countries included in Asiatic Turkey westward of the
Euphrates, devastated alternately by the Parthians and the
Romans, and then by the Persians and the Byzantines, pre-
sented a picture of utter hopelessness. The moral misery of
the people was surpassed by their material ruin. The followers
of Jesus, instead of alleviating, intensified the evil. Mago-
Zoroastrianism combating with a degraded Christianity in
Mesopotamia, the Nestorians engaged in deadly conflict with
the orthodox party, the earher contests of Montanus and
the prophetesses, had converted Western Asia into a wilderness
of despair and desolation.

The whirlwinds of conquest which had passed over Africa,
the massacres, the murders, the lawlessness of the professors
and teachers of the Christian religion, had destroyed every
spark of moral life in Egypt and in the African provinces of
the decaying empire. In Europe the condition of the people
was, if possible, still more miserable. In the open day, in
the presence of the ministers of religion and the people, Narses,
the benefactor of his country, was burnt ahve in the market-
place of Constantinople. In the streets of Rome, under the
eyes of the Exarch, the partisans of rival bishops waged war,
and deluged churches with the blood of Christians. Spain
exhibited a heart-rending scene of anarchy and ruin. The
rich, the privileged few, who held the principal magistracies
of the province under the emperors, or who were dignified
with the title of magistrates, were exempt from all burdens.
They Uved in extreme luxury in beautiful villas, surrounded
by slaves of both sexes ; spending their time in the baths,
which were so many haunts of immorality ; or at the gaming

to tempt ambition or to degrade to intrigue ; not enough to command the
pubUc mind for any great salutary purpose, to repress the inveterate immor-
ality of an effete age, to reconcile jarring interests, to mould together hostile
races ; in general they ruled, when they did rule, by the superstitious fears,
rather than by the reverence and attachment of a grateful people. They sank
downward into the common ignorance, and yielded to the worst barbarism —
a worn-out civilisation. Monasticism withdrew a great number of those who
might have been energetic and useful citizens into barren seclusion and
religious indolence ; but except when the monks formed themselves, as they
frequently did, into fierce political or polemic factions, they had little effect
on the conditions of society. They stood aloof from the world — the anchorites
in their desert wildernesses, the monks in their jealously-barred convents ;
and secure, as they supposed, of their own salvation, left the rest of mankind
to inevitable perdition." — Milman, Latin Christianity, vol. i, Introd. p. 4.

Ivi THE SPIRIT OF ISLAM

table, when not engaged in eating and drinking. The sight
of this luxury and opulence offered a terrible contrast to the
miseries of the masses. The middle class, the free populatior
of the cities and the villages, were ground to the earth by the
tyranny of the Romans, Agrarian slavery had disappeared
its place was taken by the colonists, occupying an intermediate
position between freedom and slavery. They were in some
respects happier than the slaves. They could contract valic
marriages ; they obtained a limited share of the produce oi
the lands they cultivated ; and their patrons could not take'
their goods and chattels from them. But in all other respect:
they were the slaves of the soil. Their personal services wen
at the disposal of the State. They were Uable to corpora
chastisement, like the domestic slaves ; ^ slaves, not of ai
individual, but of the soil, they remained attached to tb
lands they cultivated by an indissoluble and hereditary tie
The condition of the slaves, who formed the bulk of the popula
tion, was miserable beyond description. They were treatee;
with pitiless cruelty, worse than cattle. The invasion of thtj
barbarians brought with it a dire punishment upon the iUj
fated land. In their wake followed desolation, terrible am;
absolute ; they ravaged, they massacred, they reduced int*!
slavery the women, children, and the clergy. '

A vast number of Jews were settled in the peninsula fo
centuries. The terrible persecutions which they suffered a
the hands of the ecclesiastics in the reign of the Visigotl;
Sisebut in the year 6i6 a.c, lasted until Islam brought emanci
pation to the wretched victims of ignorance and fanaticisnn
It was Islam which rendered possible for Judaism to produc,
such men as Maimonides or Ibn Gebrol.

Let us turn now to Arabia, that land of mystery and romance-
which has hitherto lain enwrapt in silence and solitude, isolatei;
from the great nations of the world, unaffected by their wan;
or their polity. The armies of the Chosroes and the CaesaB'
had for centuries marched and re-marched by her frontier
without disturbing her sleep of ages. And though the mutter'
ings of the distant thunder, which so frequently rolled acres

^ Three hundred lashes was the usual allowance for trivial faults. Sf
Dozy, Hist, des Musulmans d'Espagne, vol. ii. p. 87.

INTRODUCTION Ivii

the dominions of the Byzantine and the Persian, often reached
her ears, they failed to rouse her from her shimber. Her
turn, however, was come, and she found her voice in that
of the noblest of her sons.

The chain of mountains which, descending from Palestine
towards the Isthmus of Suez, runs almost parallel to the Red
Sea down to the southern extremity of the Arabian peninsula,
is designated in the Arabic language, Hijaz, or Barrier, and
gives its name to all the country it traverses until it reaches
the province of Yemen. At times the mountains run close to
the sea, at times they draw far away from the coast, leaving
long stretches of lowland, barren, desolate, and inhospitable,
with occasional green valleys and rich oases formed in
the track of the periodical rain-torrents. Beyond this range,
and eastward, stretches the steppe of Najd — the " highland "
of Arabia — a vast plateau, with deserts, mountain gorges, and
here and there green plantations refreshing to the eye. In
Hijaz, the barrier-land, he the holy cities, Mecca and Medina,
the birthplace and cradle of Islam.

This vast region is divided into four tolerably well-defined
countries. First, to the north hes Arabia Petraea, including
the countries of the ancient Edomites and the Midianites.
Then comes Hijaz proper, containing the famous city of Yathrib,
known afterwards in history as the City of the Prophet, —
Medina't un-Nabi, or Medina. South of Hijaz proper hes the
province of Tihama, where are situated Mecca and the port of
Jeddah, — the landing-place of the pilgrims of Islam. The
fourth and the southernmost part is called Asyr, bordering on
Yemen. Yemen, properly so called, is the country forming
the south-western extremity of the Arabian Peninsula, bounded
on the west by the Red Sea, on the south by the Indian Ocean,
on the north by Hijaz, and on the east by Hazramaut (Hadh-
ramaut). The name of Yemen is often applied to southern
Arabia generally. It then includes, besides Yemen proper,
Hazramaut and the district of Mahra to the east of Hazramaut.
Beyond Mahra, at the south-east corner of the peninsula, is
Oman, and to the north of this al-Bahrain, or al-Ahsa, on the
Persian Gulf. This latter country is also called Hijr, from the
name of its principal province.

Iviii THE SPIRIT OF ISLAM

Najd, the highland, is the large plateau which, commencing
westward on the eastern side of the mountains of Hijaz,
occupies the whole of Central Arabia. That portion of Najd,
which borders on Yemen, is called the Najd of Yemen, and the
northern part simply Najd. These two divisions are separated
by a mountainous province called Yemama, famous in the
history of Islam. North of Najd, stretches the Syrian desert,
not really a part of Arabia, but where the Arab tribes now roam,
free and wild, leading a nomadic life like their ancient Aramaean
predecessors. North-east are the deserts of Irak (Barriyat
ul-Irak), bordering the fertile territory of Chaldaea on the right
bank of the Euphrates, and separating it from the cultivated
portions of Arabia. Eastward, Najd is separated from al-Ahsa
by one of those strips of desert called Nafud by the Arabs.
Towards the south lies the vast desert of Dahna. It separates
Najd from Hazramaut and Mahra.

This vast region, which embraces an area twice the size of
France in the height of its power, was then as now inhabited
by two different types of people, " the people of the town "
and " the dwellers of the desert." The virtues and the defects
of the Bedawee, his devotion to his clan, his quixotic sense of
honour, with his recklessness and thirst for revenge, and his
disregard for human life, have been portrayed in vivid and
sympathetic colours by eminent writers like Burton and
Poole. But whatever the difference between the Bedouin
and the citizen, the Arab is peculiarly the child of the desert.
His passionate love of freedom and his spiritual exaltation
are the outcome of the free air which he breathes and of the
wide expanse which he treads, — conscious of his own dignity
and independence. In spite of the annual gatherings at Mecca
and 'Ukaz, the tribes and nationalities which inhabited
the soil of Arabia were far from homogeneous. Each was
more or less distinct from the other in development and
religion. This diversity was mainly due to the diversity
of their origin. Various races had peopled the peninsula
at various times. Many of them had passed away, but
their misdeeds or their prowess were fresh in the memory
of successive generations, and these traditions formed the
history of the nation. The Arabs themselves divide the

INTRODUCTION lix

races who have peopled the peninsula into three grand sub-
divisions, viz. : (i) the Arab ul-Bciidah, the extinct Arabs,
under which are included the Hamitic colonies (Kushites),
which preceded the Semites in the work of colonisation, as also
the Aramaean populations of Syria, Phcenicia, and other parts ;
(2) the 'Arab ul-'Ariba, or Mut'ariba, original Arabs, true
Semites, whom tradition represents to be descended from
Kahtan, or Joktan, and who, in their progress towards the
south, destroyed the aboriginal settlers. The Joktanite
Arabs, nomads by nature, super-imposed themselves in those
countries on the primitive inhabitants, the Hamitic astral-
worshippers. Their original cradle was the region whence also
came the Abrahamites, and is precisely indicated by the
significant names of two of the direct ancestors of Joktan,
Arphaxad, " border of the Chaldaean," and Eber, " the man
from beyond (the river)," in reference to Babylon, or the
district now called Irak-Araby, on the right bank of the
Euphrates. '^ (3) The 'Arab itl-Must'ariba, " or naturalised
Arabs," Abrahamitic Semites, who, either as peaceful immi-
grants or as mihtary colonists, introduced themselves into the
peninsula, and who intermarried and settled among the
Joktanite Arabs. ^ These three names, 'Ariba, Mut'ariba,
and Must'ariba, are derived from the same root, and by the
modification of their grammatical form indicate the periods
when these races were naturalised in the country. ^

Among the 'Arab ul-'Ariba, the races which require special
mention in connection with the history of Islam are the Bani-
'Ad,* the 'Amahka, the Bani-Thamud,^ and Bani-Jadis (the
Thamudiens and Jodicites of Diodorus Siculus and Ptolemy).
The Bani-'Ad, Hamitic in their origin, were the first settlers
and colonists in the peninsula, and they were established

* Lenormant, Ancient History of the East, vol. ii. p. 293.

* Ibn-ul-Athir, vol. i. pp. 55-58.

' Caussin de Perceval regards the Bdidah as the same as 'Ariba, and puts
the Mut'ariba as forming the second group. In the following pages I adopt
his classification.

* The 'Adites are said to have been overwhelmed, conquered, and destroyed
by the Joktanite Arabs ; the Thamudites, " that strange race of troglodytes,"
by the Assyrians under Chedorlaomer (Khozar al-Ahmar).

* With a cb.

Ix THE SPIRIT OF ISLAM

principally in that region of Central Arabia, which is called by
Arab historians and geographers, the Ahsdf ur-ramal, contigu-
ous to Yemen, Hazramaut, and Oman. They appear during
one period of their existence to have formed a powerful and
conquering nation. One of the sovereigns of this race, Shaddad,
whose name is preserved in the Koran, seems to have extended
his power even beyond the confines of the Arabian peninsula.
He is said to have conquered Irak, and even approached the
borders of India. This tradition probably points to the
invasion of Babylonia or Chaldaea by the Arabs more than
2000 years before Christ, and possibly might be referred to
the same event which, in Persian traditions, is called the
invasion of Zahhak. The same Shaddad, or one of his successors
bearing the same name, carried his arms into Egypt and farther
west. This invasion of Egypt by the Arabs has been identified
with the irruption of the Hyksos into that country. And the
way in which the nomadic invaders were ultimately driven
out of Africa by a combination of the princes of the Thebaid,
with the assistance of their Ethiopian or Kushite neighbours
towards the south, gives some degree of corroboration to the
theory.

The bulk of the 'Adites are said to have been destroyed by a
great drought which afflicted their country. A small remnant
escaped and formed the second 'Adite nation, which attained
considerable prosperity in Yemen. These later 'Adites,
however, were engulfed in the Joktanide wave, i

The Bani-'Amalika, supposed by Lenormant to be of
Aramaean origin, who are undoubtedly the same as the Amale-
kites of the Jewish and the Christian Scriptures — the Shashu
of the Egyptian monuments — expelled from Babylonia by the
early Assyrian sovereigns, entered Arabia, and gradually
spread themselves in Yemen and Hijaz, as well as Palestine
and Syria. They appear to have penetrated into Egypt, and
gave her several of her Pharaohs. The 'Amalika of Hijaz
were either destroyed or driven out by the Bani-Jurhum, a'
branch of the Bani-Kahtan, who had originally settled in the'
south, and subsequently moving northwards, overwhelmed the
Amalika.

The Bani-Thamud, who, like the Bani-'Ad, were Kushite

INTRODUCTION Ixi

or Hamitic, inhabited the borders of Edom and afterwards
the country named Hijr, situated to the east of Arabia Petrsea,
and between Hijaz and Syria. These people were troglodytes,
and lived in houses carved in the side of rocks. Sir Henry
Layard, in his Early Travels, has described the ruins of these
rocky habitations, and one can fix the exact location of the
Thamudites by comparing the Arabian traditions with the
accounts of modern travellers and the results of recent dis-
coveries. As the " indispensable middlemen " of the com-
merce between Syria and Najd or Hijaz, the Thamudites
attained a high degree of prosperity. They were, ultimately,
in great part exterminated by Chedorlaomer (Khuzar al-
Ahmar), the great Elamite conqueror, in the course of his
victorious campaigns in Syria and Arabia. The terrible fate
which overtook these ancient cave-dwellers, who, in their solid
habitations, considered themselves safe from divine wrath,
is often referred to in the Koran as a warning to the Koreishites.

After this disaster, the rest of the Bani-Thamud retreated to
Mount Seir, on the north of the Elamitic Gulf, where they
lived in the times of Isaac and Jacob. But they soon dis-
appeared, doubtless absorbed by the neighbouring tribes, and
their place was taken by the Edomites who held Mount Seir
for a time.^ These Edomites were apparently succeeded in
their possessions by a body of Arabs driven from Yemen by
the Bani-Kahtan. In the days of Diodorus Siculus, under the
same name as their predecessors they furnished contingents
to the Roman armies.

Leaving the Tasm and Jadis and other smaller tribes, as
too unimportant to require any specific mention, we come to
the Bani-Jurhum, who, also, are classed under the head of
'Arab ul-'Ariba, and who appear to have overwhelmed,
destroyed, and replaced the 'Amahka in Hijaz. There seem
to have been two tribes of that name, one of them, the most
ancient, and contemporaneous with the 'Adites, and probably
Kushite in their origin ; the other, descendants of Kahtan,
who, issuing from the valley of Yemen in a season of great
steriUty, drove out the 'Amalekite tribes of Hijaz, and estab-
lished themselves in their possessions. The irruption of the

* Gen. xiv. 4, 6.

Ixii THE SPIRIT OF ISLAM

Bani-Jurhum, of Kahtanite origin, is said to have taken
place at a time when the Ishmaehtic Arabs were acquiring
prominence among the 'Amahka, in whose country they had
been long settled. The Ishmaelites entered into amicable
relations with the invading hordes, and lived side by side with
them for a period. Before the advancing tide of the descend-
ants of Ishmael, the Jurhumites began gradually to lose their
hold over the valley, and before a century was well over the
dominion of Hijaz and Tihama passed into the hands of the
Abrahamitic Arabs. The development of the Must'ariba
Arabs suffered a temporary check from the inroad of the
Babylonian monarch, but, as we shall see later, they soon
recovered their vitality, and spread themselves over Hijaz,
Najd, and the deserts of Irak and Mesopotamia, where they
finally absorbed the descendants of Kahtan, their predecessors.

The 'Arab ul-Mut' ariba were tribes sprung from Kahtan,
son of Eber,^ and were chiefly concentrated in Yemen. The
descendants of Kahtan had burst into Arabia from its north-
east corner, and had penetrated down into the south, where
they lived for a time along with the 'Adites of the race of Kush,
subject to their political supremacy, and at last became the
governing power. The population sprung from Kahtan
was not, however, exclusively confined to Southern Arabia.
Their primitive cradle lay in Mesopotamia. In moving south-
ward from that locality to Yemen, the Kahtanite tribes must
have passed through the whole length of the Arabian peninsula,
and no doubt left some settlements behind them along their
route.

According to the Arab historians, the wave which entered
the peninsula at this period was headed by two brothers,
Kahtan and Yaktan, the sons of Eber or Heber. And it was
the son of Kahtan, Yareb, whom they regard as the first prince
of Yemen, who gave his name to all his descendants and to
the whole of the peninsula. Yareb is said to have been
succeeded by his son Yeshhad, founder of Mareb, the ancient
capital ot the realm, and father of the famous Abd ush-Shams,
surnamed Saba. This surname, which means Capturer, was
given to him on account of his victories. The posterity of

^ Ibn ul-Ath!r calls him Ghgbir or 'Abir,

INTRODUCTION Ixiii

Saba became the progenitors of the various tribes of Kahtanite
descent, famous in Arab traditions. Saba left two sons,
Himyar (which means red) ^ and Kuhlan. The former suc-
ceeded to his father's throne, and it was after him that the
dynasty of Saba were called Himyary or Him37arite.2 His
descendants and those of Kuhlan, his brother and successor,
alternately ruled Yemen until the century before Mohammed.
To this dynasty belonged the great Zu'lkarnain, and the
celebrated Bilkis, who went to Jerusalem in the time of
Solomon.^

^ From the red mantle which he used to wear in imitation of the Pharaohs.

* The Himyarite sovereigns of Yemen, who were styled Tobbas, seem to
have been from the earliest times in communication both with Persia and
Byzantium.

' There is considerable doubt as to the identity of Zu'lkarnain. Several
Mohammedan historians have thought that the Zu'lkarnain referred to in the
Koran is identical with Alexander of Maccdon. This opinion, however, is
open to question. Zu'lkarnain in its primitive sense means " the lord of two
horns." When we remember the head-dress worn by the ancient Sabaean
sovereigns, the crescent-shaped moon with its two horns, borrowed probably
from Egypt about the period of this king, there can be little room for doubt
that the reference in the Koran is to some sovereign of native origin, whose
extensive conquests became magnified in the imagination of posterity into a
world-wide dominion.

Lenormant thinks that Shaddad, Zu'lkarnain, and Balkis were all Kushites.

Judaism was strongly represented among the subjects of the Himyarite
sovereigns, and in the year 343 a.c, at the instance of an ambassador sent to
Yemen by the Emperor Constantine, several Christian churches were erected
in their dominions. But the bulk of the nation adhered to the primitive
Semitic cult.

Towards the end of the fifth century, Zu-Nawas, known to the Byzantines
as Dimion, made himself the master of Yemen and its dependencies, after
slaying the ferocious usurper, Zu-Shinatir. His cruel persecution of the
Christians, under the instigation of the Jews, whose creed he had adopted,
drew upon him the vengeance of the Byzantine emperor. Instigated from
Constantinople, an Abyssinian army, under the command of Harith or Aryat,
landed on the shores of Yemen, defeated and killed Zu-Nawas, and made
themselves masters of Yemen. This occurred about 525 a.c.

Shortly afterwards (537 A.c.) Aryat was killed by Abraha al-Ashram, who
subsequently became the Abyssinian viceroy. It was under Abraha that the
Christian Abyssinians made their abortive attempt to conquer Hijaz. Yemen
remained under the Abyssinian domination for nearly half a century, when
M'adi Karib, the son of the famous Saif zu'l Yezen, whose heroic deeds are
sung up to the present day by the Arabs of the desert, restored the Himyarite
dynasty (573 a.c.) with the help of an army furnished by Ke.sra Anushirvan.
On M'adi Karib's assassination by the Christians in 597, Yemen came under
the direct domination of Persia, and was ruled by viceroys appointed by the
court of Ctesiphon. Wahraz was the first Marzban. Under him Yemen,
Hazramaut, Mahra, and Oman were added to the Persian empire. The last
of these viceroys was Bazan, who became Marzban under Khusru Parviz
towards the year 606. It was during the viceroyalty of Bazan that Islam
was introduced into Yemen, and he himself accepted the Faith. The Persian

Ixiv THE SPIRIT OF ISLAM

The traditions respecting the early Ishmaehte settlement
in Arabia relate back to the time of Abraham and his expulsion
or expatriation from Chaldaea. The descendants of Ishmael
prospered and multiplied in Hijaz until they, with their allies
the Jurhumites, were overwhelmed and almost destro^^ed by
the formidable king of Babylonia, Nebuchadnezzar, who, of
all the monarchs that endeavoured to attack the heart of
Arabia, was alone successful in wounding it seriously. The
foundation of Mecca was apparently co-eval with the establish-
ment of the Abrahamitic Arabs in the peninsula, for according
to the Arab traditions a Jurhumite chief named Meghass
ibn-Amr, whose daughter was married to the progenitor of
the Must'ariha Arabs, Ishmael or Isma'il, was the founder of
the city. About the same time was built the temple which
gave Mecca an overwhelming predominance over the other
cities of Arabia. Built by Abraham, that " Saturnian father
of the tribes," in the remotest antiquity, the Kaaba ever
remained the holiest and most sacred of the temples of the
nation. Here were ranged the three hundred and sixty idols,
one for each day, round the great god Hobal, carved of red
agate, the two ghazdlas, gazelles of gold and silver, and the
image of Abraham and of his son. Here the tribes came,
year after year, " to kiss the black stone which had fallen
from heaven in the primeval days of Adam, and to make the
seven circuits of the temple naked." Mecca was thus from the
earliest times the centre, not only of the religious associations
of the Arabs, but also of their commercial enterprises. Stand-
ing on the highway of the commerce of antiquity, it gathered
to itself the wealth and culture of the neighbouring countries.
Not even the Babylonian monarch could touch her mercantile
prosperity ; for, from the necessity of their situation, the
Arabs of Hijaz became the carriers of the nations of the world.

Mecca was the centre of the commercial activity which has
distinguished the Arabs at all times from the other nations of
the East. From Mecca eradiated the caravans which carried
to the Byzantine dominions and to Persia the rich products of

domination of Yemen was extremely mild. All religions enjoyed equal
toleration, and the chiefs of the different tribes exercised their authority in
their different tracts, subject to the control of the Marzban.

INTRODUCTION Ixv

Yemen and the far-famed Ind, and brought from Syria the
silks and stuffs of the Persian cities. But they brought with
them more than articles of trade ; in the train of these caravans
came all the luxurious habits and vices which had corroded
the very heart of the neighbouring empires. Grecian and
Persian slave girls, imported from Syria and Irak, beguiled
the idle hours of the rich with their dancing and singing, or
ministered to their vices. The poet, whose poems formed the
pride of the nation, sung only of the joys of the present life,
and encouraged the immorality of the people. And no one
bethought himself of the morrow.

The Arabs, and especially the Meccans, were passionately
addicted to drinking, gambling, and music. Dancing and
singing, as in other Eastern countries, were practised by a class
of women occupying a servile position, who were called Kiydn,
or, in the singular, Kayna, and whose immorality was pro-
verbial. And yet they were held in the highest estimation,
and the greatest chiefs paid public court to them.^ As among
the Hindus, polygamy was practised to an unUmited extent,
A widow (other than the mother) was considered an integral
part of her deceased husband's patrimony, and passed into the
use of the son ; and the atrocious and inhuman practice of
burying female infants was universal.

The Jews, chased successively from their native homes by
the Assyrians, the Greeks, and the Romans, had found among
the Arabs safety and protection. But they had brought
with their religion that bitter spirit of strife which was perhaps
the cause of the greater portion of their misfortunes. They
had succeeded, however, in gaining in Arabia a considerable
body of proselytes ; and at the time when Mohammed pro-
ceeded to announce his mission, Judaism was professed in
Yemen by a notable fraction of the descendants of Himyar

1 The moral depravity of the people is evidenced by the fact that these
women used to give receptions, which were attended by all the men of light
and leading in the city.

The town Arab was so passionately addicted to dice that he would
frequently, like the Germans of Tacitus, stake away his own liberty. It was
on account of these evils, and the immoralities associated with their practice,
that Mohammed wisely prohibited to his followers gambling, dancing, and
drinking of wine. The Ommeyyades revived all the three evils ; they repre-
sented, in fact, the uprise of the old paganism, which had been stamped out
with such labour by the great Prophet.

Ixvi THE SPIRIT OF ISLAM

and Kinda, issue of Kuhlan ; at Khaibar and at Yathrib,
by the Kuraizha and the Nazir, tribes of IshmaeHte origin,
but naturahsed as Arabs from very ancient times. The
Nestorians and the Jacobite Christians had also founded
colonies in Arabia, The deadly rivalry between these two
creeds to dominate over Arabia occasioned sanguinary wars
in the most fertile provinces.^ Christianity had commenced
to introduce itself among some famihes of the race of Rabi'a
son of Nizar, such as the Taglibites established in Mesopotamia,
and the Bani Abd ul-Kais who were settled in al-Bahrain.
It flourished at Najran among the Bani-1-Harith ibn Ka'b ;
in Irak, among the Ibad ; in Syria, among the Ghassanides
and some Khuzaite families ; at Dumat ul-Jandal, among the
Saconi and Bani-Kalb. And some of the tribes who roamed
over the desert that lay between Palestine and Egypt were also
Christians. Magism and Sabseism had also their representatives
among the Arabs, and specially among the Himyarites : the
Bani-Asad worshipped Mercury ; the Jodham, Jupiter ;
the Bani-Tay, Canopus ; the descendants of Kais-Aylan,
Sirius ; ^ a portion of the Koreish, the three moon-goddesses —
al-Lat, the bright moon, al-Manat the dark, and al-'Uzza, the
union of the two, — who were regarded as the daughters of the
high god {Bandt-ulldh). Mecca was, at this time, the centre
of a far-reaching idolatry, ramifications of which extended
throughout the tribes of the peninsula. The Kinana, closely
allied to the Koreish politically and by blood, besides the star
Aldobaran, served the goddess 'Uzza, represented by a tree
at a place called Nakhla, a day and a half's journey from
Mecca. The Hawazin, who roamed towards the south-east
of Mecca, had for their favourite idol the goddess Lat, located
at Tayef. Manat was represented by a rock on the caravan
road between Mecca and Syria. The worship of these idols
was chiefly phallic, similar in character to that which prevailed
among the ancient Semites, the Phoenicians and the Baby-
lonians. But the majority of the nation, especially the tribes

^ Ibn ul-Athir, vol. i. p. 308 et seq. ; Gibbon, Decline and Fall of the Roman
Empire, vol. vi. pp. 114, 115 ; Caussin de Perceval, Hist, des Arabes, vol. i.
pp. 128-131.

2 Koran, sura xli. 37.

INTRODUCTION Ixvii

belonging to the race of Mozar, were addicted to fetishism
of a very low type. Animals and plants, the gazelle, the
horse, the camel, the palm-tree, inorganic matter like pieces
of rock, stones, etc., formed the principal objects of adoration.
The idea of a Supreme Divinity, however, was not unrecognised ;
but its influence was confined to an inappreciable few, who,
escaping from the bondage of idolatry, betook themselves to a
philosophical scepticism, more or less tinged with the legendary
notions, religious and secular, of their neighbours, the Sabccans,
the Jews, or the Christians. Among these some distinctly
recognised the conception of the supreme Godhead, and, revolt-
ing at the obscenities and gross materialism of their day,
waited patiently for the appearance of a DeHverer who, they
felt in their hearts, would soon appear.

Among some tribes, in the case of a death, a camel was
sacrificed on the tomb, or allowed to die from starvation, in
the belief that it would serve as a conveyance for the deceased
in a future existence. Some believed that when the soul
separated itself from the body, it took the shape of a bird called
Hama or Sada. If the deceased was the victim of a violent
death, the bird hovered over the grave, crying askuni, " Give
me drink," until the murder was avenged. Belief in Jins,
ghouls, and oracles rendered by their idols, whom they con-
sulted by means of pointless arrows, called Azldm or Kiddh,
was universal. Each tribe had its particular idols and particular
temples. The priests and hierophants attached to these
temples received rich offerings from the devotees. And often,
there arose sanguinary conflicts between the followers or the
worshippers of rival temples. ^

But the prestige of the Kaaba, the chapel of Abraham and
Ishmael, stood unimpeached among all. Even the Jews and
the Sabaeans sent offerings there. The custody of this temple
was an object of great jealousy among the tribes, as it conferred
on the custodians the most honourable functions and privileges
in the sight of the Arabs. At the time of Mohammed's birth

^ Among others, the temple of Zu'1-Khulasa in Yemen, belonging to the
tribe of Bani-Khatham ; the temple of Rodha in Najd, belonging to the Bani-
Rabi'a; the temple of Zu Sabat in Irak; and that of Manat at Kodayd, not
far from the sea, belonging to the tribe of Aus and Khazraj, domiciled at
Yathrib — were the most famous.

Ixviii THE SPIRIT OF ISLAM

this honour was possessed by his family ; and his grandfather
was the venerable chief of the theocratic commonwealth which
was constituted round the Kaaba. Human sacrifices were
frequent. Besides special idols located in the temples each
family had household penates which exacted rigorous observ-
ances.

Such was the moral and religious condition of the Arabs.
Neither Christianity nor Judaism had succeeded in raising them
in the scale of humanity. " After five centuries of Christian
evangelization," says Muir, " we can point to but a sprinkling
here and there of Christians ; — the Bani Harith of Najran ;
the Bani Hanifa of Yemama ; some of the Bani Tay at Tayma,
and hardly any more. Judaism, vastly more powerful, had
exhibited a spasmodic effort of proselytism under Zu Nawas ;
but, as an active and converting agent the Jewish faith was no
longer operative. In fine, viewed thus in a religious aspect, the
surface of Arabia had been now and then gently rippled by the
feeble efforts of Christianity ; the sterner influences of Judaism
had been occasionally visible in a deeper and more troubled
current ; but the tide of indigenous idolatry and of Ishmaelite
superstition, setting from every quarter with an unbroken and
unebbing surge towards the Kaaba, gave ample evidence that
the faith and worship of Mecca held the Arab mind in a thral-
dom, rigorous and undisputed." ^

The divisions and jealousies of the tribes, ^ combined with
the antagonistic feelings which actuated one against the other
from religious and racial differences, had enabled the Assyrians,
the Babylonians, the Greeks, the Persians, and Abyssinians,
to become masters of various provinces in the north, in the
east, and in the south-west. The Abyssinians had even gone
so far as to invade Hijaz, with the intention of destroying the
national temple. But their power was broken before Mecca
by the sturdy patriotism of Abd ul-MuttaUb. After twenty
years' oppression, they were driven out of Yemen with the
assistance of Persia, by a native prince, the son of the celebrated
Saif zu'1-Yezen. On his assassination by the Christians, the

^ Muir, vol i. Introd. p. ccxxxix.

* These tribal jealousies and family feuds, which I shall have to describe
later, were the causes which led to the ruin of the Arab empire.

INTKODUCTION Ixix

sovereignty he had enjoyed under the auspices of the great
Anushirvan passed entirely into Persian hands, and Yemen
became tributary/ to Persia.^

Besides the direct domination which the rival empires of
Constantinople and Ctesiphon exercised over the various
provinces of Arabia, two of the greatest chieftains, the kings
of Ghassan and of Hira, divided their allegiance between the
Caesars and the Chosroes ; and in the deadly wars, profitless
and aimless, which Persian and Byzantine waged against
each other, sucking out the lifeblood ot their people from
mere lust of destruction, though oftener the right was on the
side of the Zoroastrian than the Christian, the Ghassanide and
Hirite stood face to face in hostile array, or locked in mortal
combat. 2

The heterogeneous elements of which the Arabian peninsula
was thus composed gave an extremely varied character to the
folklore of the country. Among uncultured nations, the
tendency is always to dress facts in the garb of legends. Im-
agination among them not only colours with a roseate hue,
but magnifies distant objects. And the variety of culture
multiplies legends, more or less based on facts. The Hamitic
colonies of Yemen and of the south-west generally ; the true
Semites who followed in their footsteps, like the Aryans in
the East; the Jews, the Christians, — all brought their traditions,
their myths, their legends with them. In the course of ages,
these relics of the past acquired a consistency and character,
but however unsubstantial in appearance, on analysis there is
always to be found underlying them a stratum of fact. In
the legend of Shaddad and his garden of Irem, we see in the
hazy past the reflection of a mighty empire, which even con-
quered Egypt — " of a wealthy nation, constructors of great
buildings, with an advanced civilisation analogous to that of

^ Ibn ul-Athir, vol. i. pp. 324, 327 ; Caussin de Perceval, vol. i. p. 138
et seq. ; Tabari (Zotenberg's transl.), vol. ii. pp. 217, 218.

^* The sedentary portion of the Arab population of Yemen, of Bahrain and
Irak, obeyed the Persians. The Bedouins of these countries were in reality
free from all yoke. The Arabs of Syria were subject to the Romans ; those
of Mesopotamia recognised alternately the Roman and Persian rule. The
Bedouins of Central Arabia and of Hijaz, over whom the Himyarite kings had
exercised a more or less effective sovereignty, had nominally passed under
Persian rule, but they enjoyed virtual independence.

Ixx THE SPIRIT OF ISLAM

Chaldaea, professing a religion similar to the Babylonian ;
a nation, in short, with whom material progress was allied to
great moral depravity and obscene rites." ^ In the traditional,
half-legendary, half-historic destruction of the 'Adites and the
Thamudites, we see the destructive fate which overwhelmed
these Hamitic races before the Semitic tide, Assyrian and
Arab. 2

The children of Jacob, flying from their ruthless enemies,
brought their legends and traditions with them, and thus
contributed their quota to the folklore of the Peninsula. The
last of the Semitic colonies that entered Arabia was acknow-
ledged by themselves as well as their neighbours to be descended
from Abraham ; and tradition had handed down this belief,
and given it a shape and character.

Manicheism, stamped out from Persia and the Byzantine
dominions, had betaken itself to Arabia. ^ The early Docetes,
the Marcionites, the Valentinians, all had their representatives
in this land of freedom. They all disseminated their views and
traditions, which in course of time became intermixed with
the traditions of the country. These Christians, more consis-
tent in their views than their orthodox persecutors, beheved
that the God incarnate, or at least the Son of God, His Word,
born in the bosom of eternity, an iEon, an Emanation issuing
from the Throne of Light, could not, did not, die on the cross ;
that the words of agony which orthodox Christian traditions
put into the mouth of Jesus did not, and could not, escape
from his lips ; in short, that the man who suffered on the crosis
was a different person from the Divine Christ, who escaped
from the hands of his persecutors and Vv^ent away to the regions
whence he had come.'* This doctrine, however fanciful, was
more consistent with the idea of the sonship of Jesus, and in
itself appears to have been based on some strong probabilities.
The intense desire of Pilate, whom Tertullian calls a Christian
at heart, to save Jesus ; ^ even the unwillingness of Herod

^ Lenormant, Ancient History of the East, vol. ii. p. 296.

^ Ibn ul-Athir, vol. i. pp. 55-58.

^ Beausobre, Hist, dn M anicheisme , pt. i. 1. ii. chap. iv.

* Mosheim and Gibbon, in loco.

^ Blunt, History of the Christian Church, p. 138.

INTRODUCTION Ixxi

to incur more odium by the murder of the Prophet of
Nazareth ; the darkness of the short hours when that great
benefactor of humanity was led forth for the consummation
of the frightful scenes which had continued throughout the
night ; the preternatural gloom which overshadowed the earth
at the most awful part of this drama ; ^ all these coincident
circumstances lend a strong probabihty to the beUef that the
innocent escaped and the guilty suffered.^

Before the Advent of Mohammed, all these traditions, based
on fact though tinged by the colourings of imagination, must
have become firmly imbedded in the convictions of the people,
and formed essential parts of the folklore of the country.
Mohammed, when promulgating his faith and his laws, found
these traditions current among his people ; he took them up
and adopted them as the lever for raising the Arabs and the
surrounding nations from the depths of social and moral
degradation into which they had fallen.

The light that shone on Sinai, the Hght that brightened the
lives of the peasants and fishermen of Galilee, is now aflame
on the heights of Faran ! ^

^ Comp. Milman, History of Christianity, vol. i. pp. 348-362.

^ If anything could lend stronger probability to this curious belief, it ought
to be the circumstantial account of Luke xxiv. 36 e< seq., about Jesus allowing
himself to be touched and felt (after the resurrection) in order to calm his
affrighted disciples, who believed him to be a spirit ; and his asking for
" meat," and partaking of " a broiled fish and of a honey-comb."

*The tradition which I have paraphrased into English is as follows : — ■

" Sfi'ir," says Yakut in his Geographical Encyclopaedia, " is a hill in
Palestine and Faran is the hill of Mecca ; " Mu'jam ul-Bulddn, vol. iii. p. 834.

PART I.

THE LIFE AND MINISTRY OF THE
PROPHET

CHAPTER I
MOHAMMED THE PROPHET

Ail — ♦svj ^^.jlJI wiu-i^i

A — xlr ^_U

THESE lines, untranslatable in their beauty, do not in
the least exaggerate the gentleness of disposition,
the nobihty of character, of the man whose hfe,
career, and teachings we propose to describe in the following
pages. At the dawn of the seventh century of the Christian
era, in the streets of Mecca might often be seen a quiet
thoughtful man, past the meridian of life, his Arab mantle
thrown across his shoulders, his tailasdn ^ drawn low over
his face ; sometimes gently sauntering, sometimes hurrying
along, heedless of the passers-by, heedless of the gay scenes
around him, deeply absorbed in his own thoughts — yet withal
never forgetful to return the salutation of the lowliest, or
to speak a kindly word to the children who loved to throng
around him. This is al-Amin, " the Trusty." He has so
honourably and industriously walked through life, that he
has won for himself from his compatriots the noble designa-
tion of the true and trusty. But now, owing to his strange

' A scarf thrown over the head usually covering the turban, and brought
round under the chin and passed over the left shoulder.
S.I, A

7. THE LIFE OF MOHAMMED i.

preaching, his fellow-townsmen are beginning to look
suspiciously upon him as a wild visionary, a crazed revolutionist,
desirous of levelling the old landmarks of society, of doing
away with their ancient privileges, of making them abandon
their old creeds and customs.

Mecca was, at this time, a city of considerable importance and
note among the townships of Arabia, both from its associations
and its position. Situated in a low-lying valley stretching
north to south, bordered on the west by a range of hills, on the
east by high granite rocks — the Kaaba in its centre, its regular
and paved streets, its fortified houses, its public hall opening
on to the platform of the temple, the city presented an unusual
appearance of prosperity and strength. The guardianship of
the Kaaba, originally an appanage of the children of Ishmael,
had in consequence of the Babylonian attack, passed into the
hands of the Jurhumites. The combination of the secular and
rehgious power enabled the chiefs of the Bani-Jurhum to assume
the title of malik or king. In the early part of the third century
the Jurhumites were overwhelmed by the irruption of a Kahta-
nite tribe, called the Bani-Khuza'a, who, issuing from Yemen,
possessed themselves of Mecca and the southern parts of
Hijaz. In the meantime, the race of Ishmael, which had i
suffered . so terribly at the hands of the Babylonian king, was '
gradually regaining its former strength. 'Adnan, one of the
descendants of Ishmael, who flourished about the first century
before Christ, had, like his ancestor, married the daughter of the |
Jurhumite chief, and estabhshed himself at Mecca, and his son
Ma'add became the real progenitor of the Ishmaelites inhabit-
ing Hijaz and Najd. Fihr, surnamed Koreish, a descendant
of Ma'add, who flourished in the third century, was the ancestor
of the tribe which gave to Arabia her Prophet and Legislator.

The Khuzaites remained in possession of the temple, and of
all the pre-eminence it conferred on them, for more than two
centuries. Upon the death of Holayl, the last of the Khuzaite
chiefs, Kossay, a descendant of Fihr,i who had married Holayl's
daughter, drove the Khuzaites out of Mecca, and possessedij

1 Kossay was the fifth in descent from Fihr, and was born about 398 a.c.
The word Koreish is derived from Karash, to trade, as Fihr and his descendants:
were addicted to commerce.

I. KOSSAY— THE FOUNDER OF MECCA 3

himself of the entire power, both secular and religious, in the
city, and thus became the virtual ruler of Hijaz.^ We now
arrive on absolutely historical grounds.

Kossay appears to have made himself the master of Mecca
about the middle of the fifth century of the Christian era, and
he at once set himself to the task of placing the administration
of the city upon an organised basis. Until Kossay's time, the
different Koreishite families had lived dispersed in separate
quarters, at considerable distances from the Kaaba, and the
extreme sanctity they attached to the temple had prevented
their erecting any habitation in its neighbourhood. Perceiving
the dangers to which the national pantheon was exposed from
its unprotected condition, he induced the Koreish to settle in
its vicinity, leaving a sufficient space free on the four sides of
the temple for the tawdf (circumambulation) . The families, to
whom the lands were allotted, dwelt in strongly fortified quarters.
Kossay built for himself a palace, the door of which opened
on the platform of the temple. This palace was called the Dan.
P'^l-Nadwd,^ " the council hall," where, under the presidency of
Kossay, public affairs were discussed and transacted. To this
hall, no man under the age of forty, unless a descendant of
Kossay, could gain admission. Here also were performed all
civil functions. At the Ddr un-Nadwd, the Koreishites, when
about to engage in a war, received from the hands of Kossay
the standard, liwa. Kossay himself attached to the end of a
lance a piece of white stuff, and handed it, or sent it by one of
his sons, to the Koreishite chiefs. This ceremony, called the
Akd ul-liwa, continued in vogue from the time of its inaugura-
tion by Kossay until the very end of the Arab empire. Another
of Kossay's institutions endured much longer. By representing
to the Koreish the necessity of providing food for the poor
pilgrims who annually visited Mecca, and by impressing on
them the duties of hospitality, Kossay succeeded in making
them submit to the payment of an annual poor-tax, called the
Rifdda, which he applied in feeding the poorer pilgrims during

' The next we hear of the Khuzrdtcs is wlion t)ie Koreish invoked tlicir
assistance against the Prophet.

- This building, after having been renewed several times, was ultimately
converted into a mosque, under Abdul Malik II. (one of the Ommeyyades).

4 THE LIFE OF MOHAMMED i.

the Ayydm id-Mind ^ — the day of the sacrificial feast, and the
two following days which they passed at Mina. This usage
continued after the establishment of Islam, and was the origin
of the distribution of food which was made at Mina each year
during the pilgrimage, in the name of the Caliphs and the
Sultans, their successors. The words nadwa, liwa and rifdda
denote the functions exercised by Kossay, being the right of
convoking and presiding at the council of the nation, of bestow-
ing the standard, — the symbol of military command, — and of
levying imposts, raised for the purpose of supplying food to
the pilgrims. With these dignities, Kossay also held the
administration of the water supplied by the wells in Mecca and
its neighbourhood [sikdya) and the custody of the keys of the
Kaaba {hijdha), with the ministration to the worship of the gods.

Kossay thus united in his own person all the principal
religious, civil, and political functions. He was king, magistrate
and chief pontiff. His power, which was almost royal, threw
great lustre on the tribe of Koreish, of whom he was the
acknowledged chief, and from his time the Koreish acquired
a marked preponderance among the other descendants of
Ishmael.

Kossay died at an advanced age, about the year 480 A.c.

He had in his lifetime designated his eldest son Abd ud-Dar
as his successor, and after his death the son succeeded quietly,
and without dispute, to the high position of the father. Upon
the death of Abd ud-Dar, serious disputes broke out between
his grandchildren and the sons of Abd(u)Manaf, his brother.
The various clans and their allies and neighbours ranged
themselves on opposite sides. The dispute, however, was
amicably settled for the time. By the compromise thus
effected, the sikdya and the rifdda were intrusted to Abd
US-Shams, the son of Abd(u)Manaf, whilst the hijdha, nadwa,
and liwa remained in the hands of the children of Abd ud-Dar.
Abd US-Shams, who was comparatively a poor man, transferred
the duties which had been intrusted to him to his brother
Hashim, a man of great consequence as well as riches among
the Koreish. Hashim was the receiver of the tax imposed
on the Koreishites by Kossay for the support of the pilgrims,

1 Mina (the ' i ' is pronounced very short) is a suburb of Mecca.

I. KOSSAY— THE FOUNDER OF MECCA 5

and the income derived from their contributions joined to his
own resources, was employed in providing food to the
strangers who congregated at Mecca during the season of the
pilgrimage.

Like the majority of the Meccans, Hashim was engaged in
commerce. It was he who founded among the Koreishites the
custom of sending out regularly from Mecca two caravans, one
in winter to Yemen, and the other in summer to Syria. Hashim
died in the course of one of his expeditions into Syria, in the
city of Ghazza, about the year 510 a.c, leaving an only son,
named Shayba, by an Yathribite lady of the name of Salma.
The charge of the rifdda and the sikdya passed, upon his death,
to his younger brother Muttalib, who had won for himself a
high place in the estimation of his compatriots, and the noble
designation of al-Faiz (the Generous) by his worth and munifi-
cence. Muttalib brought Shayba, the white-haired youth, from
Yathrib, to Mecca. Mistaking Shayba for a slave of Muttalib,
the Meccans called him Abd ul-Muttalib and history recognises
the grandfather of the Prophet under no other name than that
of Ahcl ul-Muttalib, " the slave of Muttalib." ^

Muttalib died at Kazwan, in Yemen, towards the end of 520
A.c, and was succeeded by his nephew, Abd ul-Muttalib, as the
virtual head of the Meccan commonwealth. The government
of Mecca was at this time vested in the hands of an oligarchy
composed of the leading members of the house of Kossay.
After the discovery of the sacred well of Zemzem by Abd ul-
Muttalib, and the settlement of the disputes regarding its
superintendence, the governing body consisted of ten senators,
who were styled Sharif s. These decemvirs occupied the first
place in the State, and their offices were hereditary in favour
of the eldest member, or chief, of each family. These dignities
were —

(i). The Hijdha, the guardianship of the keys of the Kaaba,
a sacerdotal office of considerable rank. It had been allotted to
the house of Abd ud-Dar, and at the time when Mecca was
converted to Islam, it was held by Osman, the son of Talha.

* Of the sons of Abd(u)Manaf, Hashim died first, at Ghazza; then died
Abd ush-Shams at Mecca ; then Muttahb at Kazwan ; and lastly, Naufal,
some time after Muttalib, at Silman, in Irfdc.

6 THE LIFE OF MOHAMMED i.

(2). The Sikdya, or the intendance of the sacred wells of
Zemzem, and of all the water destmed for the use of the pil-
grims. This dignity belonged to the house of Hashim, and was
held at the time of the conquest of Mecca, by Abbas, the
uncle of the Prophet.

(3). The Diyat, or the civil and criminal magistracy, which
had, for a long time, belonged to the house of Taym ibn-
Murra, and, at the time of the Prophet's advent, was held by
Abdullah ibn-Kuhafa, surnamed Abu Bakr.

(4). The Sifdrah, or legation. The person to whom this
office belonged was the plenipotentiary of the State, authorised
to discuss and settle the differences which arose between the
Koreish and the other Arab tribes, as also with strangers.
This office was held by Omar.

(5). The Liwa, or the custody of the standard under which
the nation marched against its enemies. The guardian of this
standard was the general-in-chief of all the forces of the State.
This military charge appertained to the house of Ommeyya,
and was held by Abu Sufian, the son of Harb, the most im-
placable enemy of Mohammed.

(6). The Rifdda, or the administration of the poor tax.
Formed with the alms of the nation, it was employed to provide
food for the poor pilgrims, whether travellers or residents,
whom the State regarded as the guests of God. This duty,
after the death of Abu Talib, upon whom it had devolved
after Abd ul-Muttalib, was transferred to the house of Naufal,
son of Abd(u)Manaf, and was held at the time of the Prophet
by Harith, son of Amr.

(7). The Nadwa, the presidency of the national assembly.
The holder of this office was the first councillor of the State,
and under his advice all public acts were transacted. Aswad,
of the house of Abd ul-'Uzza, son of Kossay, held this dignity
at the time of the Prophet.

(8). The Kha'immeh, the guardianship of the council chamber.
This function, which conferred upon the incumbent the right
of convoking the assembly, and even of calling to arms the
troops, was held by Khalid, son of Walid, of the house of
Yakhzum, son of Marra.

(9). Khdzina, or the administration of the pubHc finances.

r. THE KOREISHITE OLIGARCHY 7

belonged to the house of Hasan, son of Kaab, and was held by
Harith, son of Kais.

(10). The Azldm} the guardianship of the divining arrows by
which the judgment of the gods and goddesses was obtained.
Safwan, brother of Abu Sufian, held this dignity. At the same
time it was an established custom that the oldest member
exercised the greatest influence, and bore the title of Rais or
Syed, chief and lord par excellence. Abbas was at the time
of the Prophet the first of these senators.

In spite, however, of this distribution of privilege and power,
the personal character and influence of Abd ul-Muttalib gave
him an undoubted pre-eminence. The venerable patriarch,
who had, in accordance with the custom of his nation, vowed
to the deities of the Kaaba the sacrifice of one of his male
children, was blessed with a numerous progeny .2 And in
fulfilment of his vow he proceeded to offer up to the inexorable
gods of his temple the hfe of his best beloved son, Abdullah.
But this was not to be. The sacrifice of the human life was
commuted, by the voice of the Pythia attached to the temple,
to a hundred camels — thenceforth the fixed Wehrgeld, or price
of blood.

Abdullah was married to Amina, a daughter of Wahb, the
chief of the family of Zuhri. The year following the marriage
of Abdullah was full of momentous events. At the beginning
of the year the whole of Arabia was startled by an event which
sent a thrill through the nation. Abraha al- Ashram, the
Abyssinian viceroy of Yemen, had built a church at San'a, and
was anxious to divert into his own city the wealth which the
sanctity of the Kaaba attracted to Mecca. The desecration
of the church by a Meccan furnished him with an ostensible

^ With a J [zay), plural of zalam.

* Abd ul-Muttalib had twelve sons and six daughters. Of the sons, Harith,
born towards a.c. 538, was the eldest ; the others were Abd ul-'Uzza, alias Abii
Lahah, the persecutor of the Prophet ; Abd(u) Manaf, better known as AbH
Tdlib (born in a.c. 540, died in 620 a.c.) ; Zubair and Abduli ah (54.5), born
of Fatima, the daughter of 'Amr, the Makhzumi ; Dhirar and Abbas (566 652),
born of Xutayla ; Mukawwim, Jahm, surnamed al-Ghaydak (the liberal), and
Hamzah, born of Hala. The daughters were Atika, O'mayma, Arwa, Barra,
and Umm-i-Hakim, surnamed al-Bayza (the fair), by Fatima, and Safiya, born
of Hala, who married Awwam, the grandfather of the famous Abdullah ibn-
Zubair, who played such an important part in the histoiy of Islam. The
names of the other two sons of Abd ul-Muttalib are not known, probabh'
because they left no posterity.

8 THE LIFE OF MOHAMMED i.

motive, and he marched a large army to the destruction of the
temple, himself riding at the head of his troops on a magnifi-
cently caparisoned elephant. The sight of the huge animal
striding solemnly in the midst of the vast force so struck the
imagination of the Arabian tribes, that they dated an era
from this event, and named it as the Era of the Elephant (570
A.c). On the approach of the Abyssinians, the Koreish, with
their women and children, retired to the neighbouring moun- ,
tains, and from there watched the course of affairs, hoping all
the while that the deities of the Kaaba would defend their
dwelling place. The morning dawned brightly as the Abys- t
sinians advanced towards Mecca, when, lo and behold, say the .1
traditionists, the sky was suddenly overcast by an enormous
flight of small birds, swallows, which poured small stones
over the ill-fated army. These stones, penetrating through I
the armour of men and horses, created terrible havoc among ■
the invaders. At the same time the flood-gates of heaven
were opened, and there burst forth torrents of rain, carrying
away the dead and dying towards the sea. {

Abraha fled to San 'a covered with wounds, and died there *
soon after his arrival. Ibn-Hisham, after narrating this
prodigy, adds, " it was in the same year that small-pox mani-
fested itself for the first time in Arabia." " This indication
explains the miracle," says Caussin de Perceval. One can
well understand the annihilation of Abraha's army by some
terrible epidemic, similar to the fate which overtook Senna-
cherib, to which was joined perhaps one of those grand down-
pours of rain which often produce terrible inundations in the
valley of Mecca.

Shortly after this event, Abdullah died in the course of a j
journey to Yathrib, in the twenty-fifth year of his age.^ And, '
a few days after, the afflicted wife gave birth to a son who was
named Mohammed. Mohammed was born on the 12th of
Rabi L, in the year of the Elephant, a little more than fifty
days after the destruction of the Abyssinian army, or the 29th
of August 570.2 His birth, they say, was attended with signs

1 He was buried in th e quarter occupied by the sons of ' Adi, his maternal uncles.
^ Towards the end of the fortieth year of the reign of Kesra Anushirvun,
and the end of the year 880 of the era of the Seleucidae.

I. THE CHILDHOOD OF MOHAMMED 9

and portents from which the nations of the earth could know
that the DeHverer had appeared. The rationahstic historian
smiles, the religious controversialist, who, upon a priori reason-
ing, accepts without comment the accounts of the wise men
following the star, scoffs at these marvels. To the critical
student, whose heart is not devoid of sympathy with earHer
modes of thought, and who is not biased with pre-conceived
notions, " the portents and signs " which the Moslem says
attended the birth of his Prophet are facts deserving of historical
analysis. We, moderns, perceive, in the ordinary incidents
in the lives of nations and individuals, the current of an
irresistible law ; what wonder then that 1400 years ago they
perceived in the fall of a nation's memorial the finger of God,
pointing to the inevitable destiny, which was to overtake it
in its iniquity. In accordance with the custom of the Arabs,
the child was confided during his early infancy to a Bedouin
woman ^ of the tribe of Bani-Sa'd, a branch of the Hawazin,
and upon being returned by her to his mother, was brought
up by Amina with the tenderest care. But she died not long
after, and the doubly-orphaned child was thus thrown upon
the care of his grandfather, Abd ul-Muttalib, who, during the
few years that he survived the mother, watched his grandson
with the utmost tenderness. But nothing could make up for
the loss of that parental care and love which are the blessings
of childhood. His father had died before he was born. He
was bereft of his mother when only six years of age, and this
irreparable loss made a deep impression on the mind of the
sensitive child. Three or four years later he lost his grand-
father also. Abd ul-Muttalib died towards the year 579
A.c.,2 shortly after his return from a journey to San'a, where he
had gone as the representative of the Koreish to congratulate

^ In after life, when this poor Bedouin woman was brought by the Koreish
as a captive to Mecca, Mohammed recognised her with tears of joy, and
obtained for her from his rich wife an ample provision for her life.

^ Of the two duties of the Sikaya and Rifdda held by Abd ul-Muttalib, the
Sikdya, with the custody of the Zemzem, passed to his son Abbas. The
second devolved on Abu Talib, who enjoyed at Mecca great authority and
consideration. Abu Talib, however, did not transmit the Rifdda to his
children. This dignity was transferred, upon his death, to the branch of
Naufal, son of Abd(u) Manaf ; and at the time Mecca surrendered to the
Prophet, Harith, the son of 'Amr, and the grandson of Naufal, exerci.sed, as
we ha\e said before, the functions of the Rifdda ; Zaini, vol. i. p. 14.

10 THE LIFE OF MOHAMMED i.

Saif the son of Zu'l Yezen on his accession to the throne of the
Tobbas, with the help of the Persians. ;

With the death of Abd ul-Muttahb opens another epoch in !
the Hfe of the orphan. On his death-bed the old grandfather '
had confided to Abu TaUb the charge of his brother's child, ;
and in the house of Abu Talib Mohammed passed his early life.
We can almost see the lad with his deep wistful eyes, earnest
and thoughtful, looking, as it were, into futurity, moving
about in the humble unpretentious household of his uncle, or
going often into the desert to gaze upon the beauteous face of j
nature ; sweet and gentle of disposition, painfully sensitive to {
human suffering, this pure-hearted child of the desert was the |
beloved of his small circle, and there ever existed the warmest j
attachment between uncle and nephew. " The angels of God j
had opened out his heart, and filled it with light." His early
life was not free from the burden of labour. He had often to go !
into the desert to watch the flocks of his uncle. The princely j
munificence of Hashim and Abd ul-Muttalib had told upon the
fortunes of their heirs, and the Hashimites, owing to the lack
of means, were fast losing their commanding position. The
duty of providing the pilgrims with food was given up to the
rival branch of Ommeyya, who had always entertained the
bitterest jealousy towards the children of Hashim.

Mohammed was but a child when the " Sacrilegious Wars "
— the Ghazwat ul-Fijdr, which continued with varying fortunes
and considerable loss of human life for a number of years —
broke out at 'Ukaz between the Koreish and the Bani-Kinana
on one side, and the Kais-Aylan on the other. 'Ukaz lies
between Tayef and Nakhla, three short journeys from Mecca.
At this place, famous in Arab history, was held a great annual
fair in the sacred month of Zu'1-ka'da, when it was forbidden to
engage in war or shed human blood in anger — " a sort of God's
truce." Other fairs were held at Majna near Marr uz-Zuhran,
not far from Mecca, and at Zu'l Majaz at the foot of Mount
'Arafat ; but the gathering at 'Ukaz was a great national affair.
Here, in the sacred month, when all enmity and tribal vendetta
was supposed to lie buried for the time, flowed from all parts
of Arabia and even more distant lands, the commerce of the
world. Here came the merchants of " Araby the blest," of

I. THE CHILDHOOD OF MOHAMMED ii

Hijaz, of Najd ; the poet-heroes of the desert ; and the actors,
often disguised from the avengers of blood, in masks or veils,
to recite their poems and win the applause of the nations
gathered there. 'Ukaz was " the Olympia of Arabia " ;
here they came, not for trade only, but to sing of their prowess,
of their glory — to display their poetical and literary talents.
The Kasidas, which won the admiration of the assembled
multitude, were inscribed in letters of gold {Muzahhahdt, golden),
and hung up in the national pantheon as a memorial to posterity.^
During these weeks, 'Ukaz presented a gay scene of pleasure
and excitement. But there was also another side to the pic-
ture. The dancing women, like their modern representatives
the almas and ghawdzin of Egypt, moving from tent to tent,
exciting the impetuous son of the desert by their songs and their
merriment ; the congregation of Corinthians, who did not
even pretend to the calling of music ; the drunken orgies,
frequently ending in brawls and bloodshed ; the gaming-tables,
at which the Meccan gambled from night till morning ; the
bitter hatred and ill-feeling evoked by the pointed personalities
of rival poets, leading to sudden affrays and permanent and
disastrous quarrels, deepened the shadows of the picture, and
made a vivid impression on the orphan child of Amina.

During the interval between the first and second of those
fratricidal wars, named sacrilegious from the violation of the
sanctity of the month in which all quarrel was forbidden,
Mohammed accompanied his uncle and guardian on one of
his mercantile journeys to Syria. ^ Here was opened before
him a scene of social misery and religious degradation, the
sight of which never faded from his memory. Silently and
humbly, with many thoughts in his mind, the solitary orphan
boy grew from childhood to youth and from youth to manhood.

Deeply versed in the legendary lore of his nation, education
in the modern sense of the term he had none. With all his
affection for his people, in his ways and mode of thought he
seemed far removed from them, isolated in the midst of a

' Hence also called the Mn'allakdt, or " suspended poems."

' Abu Talib, like his father and grandfather, carried on a considerable

trade with Syria and Yemen. He transported to Damascus, to Basra, and

other places in Syria the dates of Hijaz and Hijr and the perfumes of Yenaen,

and in return brought back with him the products of the Byzantine empire.

12 THE LIFE OF MOHAMMED i.

chaotic society with his eyes fixed intently on the moving
panorama of an effete and depraved age. The lawlessness
rife among the Meccans, the sudden outbursts of causeless
and sanguinary quarrels among the tribes frequenting the
fairs of 'Ukaz, the immorality and scepticism of the Koreish,
naturally caused feelings of intense horror and disgust in the '
mind of the sensitive youth.

In the twenty-fifth year of his age, Mohammed travelled
once more into Syria as the factor or steward of a noble
Koreishite lady named Khadija, a kinswoman of his. The ;
prudence with which he discharged his duties made a favourable
impression on Khadija, which gradually deepened into attach-
ment. A marriage, which proved a singularly happy one, was
soon after arranged between Mohammed and his noble kins- .
woman, and was solemnised amidst universal rejoicings. In !
spite of the disparity of age between Mohammed and his wife, •
who was much the senior of her husband, there always existed
the tenderest devotion on both sides. This marriage " brought
him that repose and exemption from daily toil which he needed ;
in order to prepare his mind for his great work. But beyond
that it gave him a loving woman's heart, that was the first to
believe in his mission, that was ever ready to console him in his
despair, and to keep ahve within him the thin flickering flame
of hope when no man believed in him — not even himself — and
the world was black before his eyes."

Khadija is a notable figure, an exemplar among the woman-
hood of Islam. The calumny which is levelled at Mohammed's
system, that it has degraded the female sex, is sufficiently j
refuted by the high position which his wife and youngest daughter, I
our " Lady of Light," occupy in the estimation of the Moslem. |
Khadija bore Mohammed several children — three sons and)
four daughters ; but the sons all died in infancy, and their loss,'
which wrung the heart of the bereaved father so tenderly and;
devotedly attached to them, supplied the hostile Koreish lateri
with an abusive epithet to apply to the Prophet.^ Theii
daughters long survived the new Dispensation. With the;
exception of an occasional appearance in public when the;
exigencies of his position or the necessities of the city of his:i

1 Al-abtar, literally without a tail ; in its secondary sense, one without issue.

I. THE PERIOD OF PROBATION 13

birth demanded it, the next fifteen years after his marriage is a
silent record of introspection, preparation, and spiritual com-
munion. Since the death of Abd ul-Muttalib authority in
Mecca had become more or less divided. Each of the senators
enjoyed a somewhat hmited authority, and among the different
functions there was no such institution as a magistracy to
insure the peaceable enjoyment by individuals of their rights
and property. The ties of blood and family esprit de corps
afforded some degree of protection to every citizen against
injustice and spohation, but strangers were exposed to all kinds
of oppression. They would often find themselves robbed, not
only of their goods and chattels, but also of their wives and
daughters. A famous poet of the name of Hanzala of the
tribe of Bani'l Kayn, better known as Abu Tamahan, was
publicly robbed in the streets of Mecca, notwithstanding that
he had entered the city as a client of a Koreishite notable,
Abdullah ibn Juda'an. Another similar act of lawlessness
brought matters to a crisis. At the instance of Mohammed,
the descendants of Hashim and of Muttalib and the principal
members of the family of Zuhra and Taym bound themselves
by a solemn oath to defend every individual, whether Meccan
or stranger, free or slave, from any wrong or injustice to which
he might be subjected in Meccan territories, and to obtain
redress for him from the oppressor. This chivalrous league
received the name of the Hilf ul-Fiizul, or the Federation of the
Fuzul, in memory of an ancient society instituted with a
similar object among the Jurhum, and composed of four
personages, named Fazl, Fazal, Muffazzal, and Fuzail, col-
lectively Fuzul. Mohammed was the principal member of this
new association, which was founded about 595 A.c, shortly after
his marriage. "The League of the Fuzul" exercised efftcient
protection over the weak and oppressed, and during the first
year of its institution the simple threat of its intervention was
sufficient to repress the lawlessness of the strong, and to afford
redress to the helpless. The League continued to exist in full
force for the first half-century of Islam. It was some years
after the establishment of the Hilf ul-FiizM, and towards the
commencement of the seventh century of the Christian era,
that an attempt was made by Osman, son of Huwairith, backed

14 THE LIFE OF MOHAMMED i.

by Byzantine gold, to convert Hijaz into a Roman dependency.
His attempt failed chiefly through the instrumentality of
Mohammed, and Osman was obliged to fly into Syria, where
he was subsequently poisoned by 'Amr, the Ghassanide prince.
In 605 A.c, when Mohammed was thirty-five, the Koreish took
in hand the reconstruction of the Kaaba. In the course of this
work a dispute among the different famihes engaged in the
building of the temple, which at one time seemed likely to
lead to great bloodshed, was happily settled by the ready
intervention of Mohammed. These are all we know of his
public acts within these fifteen years. His gentle disposition, his
austerity of conduct, the severe purity of his -life, his scrupu-
lous refinement, his ever-ready helpfulness towards the poor and
the weak, his noble sense of honour, his unflinching fidehty,
his stern sense of duty had won him, among his compatriots,
the high and enviable designation of al-Amin, the Trusty.

It was at this period that he tried to discharge some portion
of the debt of gratitude and obligation he owed his uncle Abu
Talib, by charging himself with the education of AH, one of
his sons. Abu Talib's endeavour to maintain the old position
of his family had considerably straitened his circumstances.
Mohammed, rich by his alhance with Khadija, and Abbas,
the brother of Abu Talib, were the most opulent citizens of
Mecca. During a severe famine which afflicted the country,
Mohammed persuaded his uncle Abbas, to adopt one of the sons
of Abu Talib, whilst he adopted another. Thus Abbas took
Ja'far ; Mohammed, AH, and 'Akil remained with his father.^
Mohammed had lost all his sons in early infancy. In the
love of AH he found some consolation for their loss ; and the
future marriage of the son of Abu Talib with the youngest
daughter of Mohammed, Fatima,^ sealed the bond of love
and devotedness.

Mohammed about this time set an example to his fellow-
citizens by an act of humanity which created a salutary effect
upon his people. A young Arab of the name of Zaid, son of
Harith, was brought as a captive to Mecca by a hostile tribe,

Mbn-Hisham, p. 109; al-Halabi, /«sa«-«/-' [/;')«", vol. 212; Ibn ul-Athir,
vol. ii. p. 42.

^ Born in 606 A.c.

I. THE PERIOD OF COMMUNION 15

and sold to a nephew of Khadija, who presented the young
lad to her. Mohammed obtained Zaid as a gift from Khadija,
and immediately enfranchised him. This kindness on the one
side gave rise to absolute devotion on the other, and the Arab
boy could not be induced, even by his own father, to return
to his tribe or forsake Mohammed.

Thus passed the fifteen years of trial and probation, years
marked by many afflictions and yet full of sympathy with
human suffering and sorrow.

Before him lay his country, bleeding and torn by fratricidal
wars and inter-tribal dissensions, his people sunk in ignorance,
addicted to obscene rites and superstitions, and, with all their
desert virtues, lawless and cruel. His two visits to Syria had
opened to him a scene of unutterable moral and social desola-
tion ; rival creeds and sects tearing each other to pieces,
wrangling over the body of the God they pretended to worship,
carrying their hatred to the valleys and deserts of Hijaz, and
rending the townships of Arabia with their quarrels and
bitterness. The picture before him was one of dreary hope-
lessness. The few who, abandoning their ancient behefs, were
groping in the dark for some resting-place, represented a
general feeling of unrest.^ In their minds there was nothing
capable of appealing to the humanity beyond themselves.
Mohammed's soul was soaring aloft, trying to peer into the
mysteries of creation, of life and death, of good and evil, to
find order out of chaos. And God's words uttered to his soul
became at last the life-giving power of the world. For years
after his marriage it had been his wont to betake himself,
sometimes with his family, at other times alone, for prayer
and meditation to a cave on the Mount Hira,^ " a huge barren

' Four men, Zaid, Waraka, son of Naufal and a cousin of Khadija, and two
others (Obaidullah and Osman), abandoning the fetishism of their countrymen,
had betaken themselves to a search for the true faith. Zaid was the principal
person among them. Before the Prophet retired into the wilderness, like
Jesus, to commune with God, he had come in contact with Zaid, and learnt
to esteem his abhorrence of idolatry. When Zaid's cousin asked the Prophet
in later times to supplicate divine mercy for him, Mohammed, who would not
pray for his own grandfather, as he had died in idolatry, willingly did .so for
Zaid. — Ibn-Hisham, p. 145.

2 Now called the Mount of Light. Ibn-Hisham, Ibn ul-Athir, and Abulfeda
mention the month of Kamazan as the month which Mohammed usually
spent at Hira in prayer and the succour of the poor and famished wayfarers
of the desert. Tabari mentions Kajab.

i6 THE LIFE OF MOHAMMED i.

rock, torn by cleft and hollow ravine, standing out solitary
in the full white glare of the desert sun, shadowless, fiowerless,
without well or rill." Sohtude had indeed become a passion
with him. Here in this cave he often remained whole nights

plunged in profoundest thought, deep in communion ^ CAisJ^-^i )
with the unseen yet all-pervading God of the Universe. Slowly
the heaven and earth fill with pre-destined vision and command,
A voice seems to issue even from the inanimate objects around
him, the stones and rocks and trees, calling on him to fulfil
the task an Almighty Power was directing him to undertake. ^
Can the poetry of the soul go further ? The mental visions
and the apparitions of angels at these moments were the bright,
though gradual, dawnings of those truths with which he was
to quicken the world into life. Often in the dark and benighted
pathways of concrete existence, the soul of every great man has
been conscious of unrealised yet not unseen influences, which
have led to some of the happiest achievements of humanity.
From Samuel, that ancient Seer, wild and awful as he stands,
deep in the misty horizon of the Past, to Jesus in the wilderness,
pondering over the darksome fate of his people and the magni-
tude of his work, listening to the gentle accents of the God of
Truth, — from Jesus to Mohammed in the sohtude of his
mountain retreat, there is no break in the action of these
influences.2 In the still hours of the night, in the calm-
ness of the early dawn, in the depth of solitude, when no
human sympathy is near, a Voice comes to him from heaven,
softly as the sough of the morning breeze : " Thou art the
man. Thou art the Prophet of God " ; or, when wrapt in
thought it comes in mighty waves : " Cry in the name of thy
Lord." ^ The over- wrought mind at these moments raises a
vision before the eye, a vision of the celestial ministrants who
are believed to form the medium of inter-communication
between the God of Heaven and the man on earth. " The
Father of Truth chooses His own prophets, and He speaks to
them in a voice stronger than the voice of thunder. It is the

1 Ibn-IIisham, p. 151.

2 Koran, sura xcvi. 2 ; Ibn-Hisham, p. 153 ; Al-Iialabi, Insdn-ul-'Uyihi,
vol. i. p. 249 ; Ibn ul-Athir, vol. ii. p. 34. ;

3 Comp. Isa. xl. 6. ;

I. THE INSPIRATION 17

same inner voice through which God speaks to all of us. That
voice may dwindle away, and become hardly audible ; it may
lose its divine accent, and sink into the language of worldly
prudence ; but it may also from time to time assume its real
nature with the chosen of God, and sound in their ears as a
voice from heaven. "^

" The natural relations of Mahomet's vast conception of the
personality of God with the atmosphere of his age," says a
great writer,^ " is the only explanation of that amazing sober-
ness and self-command with which he entertained his all-
absorbing visions " ; and then adds, " it could not have been
accidental that the one supreme force of the epoch issued from
the solitudes of that vast peninsula round which the tides of
empire rose and fell. Every ex-clusive prophetic claim in the
name of a sovereign Will has been a cry from the desert. The
symbolic meaning given to Arabia by the withdrawal of the
Christian apostle to commune with a power above flesh and
blood, in Mahomet became more than a symbol. Arabia was
itself the man of the hour, the prophet of Islam its concentrated
word. To the child of her exalted traditions, driven by secret
compulsion out into the lonely places of the starry night, his
mouth in the dust, the desert spoke without reserve."

One night — " the Night of Power and Excellence " — when a
divine peace rests on creation, and all nature is lifted up towards
its Lord — in the middle of that night the Book was opened to
the thirsting soul. Whilst lying self-absorbed, he is called by a
mighty Voice, surging like the waves of the ocean, to cry.
Twice the Voice called, and twice he struggled and waived its
caU. But a fearful weight was laid on him, and an answer
was wrung out of his heart. " Cry ! " called out the Voice
for the third time.

And he said, " What shall I cry ? " Came the answer :
" Cry — in the name of thy Lord ! "

When the Voice had ceased to speak, telling him how from
minutest beginnings man had been called into existence and
lifted up by understanding and knowledge of the Lord, who is

1 Professor MuUer, quoted from Dean Stanley's Lectures on the History of
the Jewish Church, Part i. Lect. xviii. p. 394.
^ Johnson, Oriental Religions, p. 561.

S.I. B

i8 THE LIFE OF MOHAMMED i.

most beneficent, and who hy the Pen had revealed that which
men did not know,^ Mohammed woke from his trance, and felt
as if the words spoken to his soul had been written on his heart.
A great trembling came upon him, and he hastened home to
his wife, and said, " O Khadija ! What has happened to me ? "
He lay down, and she watched by him. When he recovered
from his paroxysm he said, " O Khadija ! he of whom one
would not have believed it (meaning himself) has become either
a soothsayer ^ [Kdhin) or one possessed — mad." She replied,
" God is my protection, O Abu'l-Kasim ! (a name of Mohammed,
derived from one of his boys). He will surely not let such a
thing happen unto thee ; for thou speakest the truth, dost not
return evil for evil, keepest faith, art of a good life, and kind to
thy relations and friends. And neither art thou a babbler
in the market-places. What has befallen thee ? Hast thou
seen aught terrible ? " Mohammed replied, " Yes." And he
told her what he had seen. Whereupon she answered and
said, " Rejoice, O dear husband, and be of good cheer. He,
in whose hands stands Khadija's life, is my witness that thou
wilt be the Prophet of this people." Then she arose and went
to her cousin Waraka, son of Naufal, who was old and blind,
and " knew the Scriptures of the Jews and Christians." When
she told him what she had heard, he cried out, " Kuddusun,
Kuddusun ! Holy, holy ! Verily this is the Ndmus al-akhar ^
who came to Moses and Jesus. He will be the Prophet of
his people. Tell him this. Bid him be of brave heart."

In the midst of the \vreck of empires and nations, in the wild
turmoil of tribes and clans, there was a voice in the air — east
and west, north and south— that God's message was close
at hand : the shepherd was nigh who was to call back the

^ Sura xcvi. vers. 1-5. " Ikra " is usually rendered into " read " ; but I
have preferred to follow the rendering suggested by Deutsch, as more in
accordance with the call to the Prophet ; see Rodwell also, and compare
Zamakhshari (the Kashshdf).

2 Diviners and soothsayers were his particular aversions ; most of them
were attached to the temples.

' The primary signification of the word Nchm'is in Arabic is a messenger,
one who communicates a secret message. It also means law, as the Greek
I'o/xos. " In Talmudical phraseology," says Deutsch, " it signifies the revealed
law. In Waraka's mind these different significations were combined ; the
messenger and the message, both divine, had come to Mohammed even as
they had come to Moses and Jesus,"

I. COMMENCEMENT OF THE MINISTRY 19

erring flock into the Master's fold. It had spoken to the
heart of Waraka.

And when the two men met subsequently in the streets, the
blind old reader of the Jewish and Christian Scriptures, who had
searched in them for consolation and found none, but who
knew of the promise held out to mankind of a Dehverer, spoke
of his faith and trust. " I swear by Him in whose hand War-
aka's life is," said the old man, " God has chosen thee to be
the prophet of this people ; the Ndnms al-akbar has come to
thee. They will call thee a liar, they will persecute thee, they
will banish thee, they will fight against thee. Oh, that I
could live to those days ! I would fight for thee."^ And he
kissed him on his forehead. These words of hope and trust
brought comfort to the troubled soul.^ And then followed a
period of waiting for the Voice to come again — the inspiration
of Heaven to fall once more on the anxious mind.

We can appreciate the spiritual throes, the severe mental
conflicts, the doubts, hopes, and misgivings which alternately
wrung the heart of Mohammed, when we are told that before
he had himself realised his Mission he was driven to the verge
of self-destruction, when the angel of God recalled him to his
duty to mankind.^ It spoke to the poor grieved heart, agitated
by doubt and fear, — of hope and trust, of the bright future
when he should see the people of the earth crowding into the
one true Faith.

Saved by the gracious monition, he hurries home from the
desert, exhausted in mind and body, to the bosom of his
devoted wife, pra3/ing only to be covered from the overwhelming
Presence.

His was not the communion with God of those egoists who
bury themselves in deserts or forests, and live a life of quietude
for themselves alone. His was the hard struggle of the man
who is led onwards by a nobler destiny towards the liberation
of his race from the bondage of idolatry. His destiny was
unfolded to him when, wrapt in profound meditation, melan-
choly and sad, he felt himself called by that Voice from heaven

1 Ibn-Hisham, p. 103; al-Halabi, Insan-ul-'UyAn, vol. i. p. 256.

^Waraka died soon after this event. — Ibn-Hisham, p. 104.

^ Ibn ul-Athir, vol. ii. pp. 35, 36 ; Tibri (Zotenberg's transl.), vol. ii. p. 392.

20 THE LIFE OF MOHAMMED i.

which had called those who had gone before him, to arise and
preach. " O thou, enwrapped in thy mantle, arise and warn,
and glorify thy Lord." ^ And he arose and girded himself for
the work to which he was called. Thenceforth his life is
devoted to humanity. Preaching with unswerving purpose
amidst unremitting persecution, insulted and outraged, he held
on in his path of reproof and reform.

Khadija was the first to accept his Mission. She was the
first to believe in the revelation, to abandon the idolatry of her
people, and to join with him in purity of heart in offering up
prayers to the All-Merciful. Not only was she the first to
believe in him and his divine message, but in the struggle which
was to follow she was his true consoler ; and " God," says
tradition, " comforted him through her when he returned to
her, for she roused him up again and made his burden more
light to him, assuring him of her own faith in him, and repre-
senting to him the futility of men's babble."

In the beginning Mohammed opened his soul only to those
who were attached to him, and tried to wean them from the
gross practices of their forefathers. After Khadija, Ali was
the next disciple. ^ Often did the Prophet go into the depths
of the solitary desert around Mecca, with his wife and young j
cousin, that they might together offer up their heartfelt thanks '
to the God of all nations for His manifold blessings. Once
they were surprised in the attitude of prayer by Abu Talib,
the father of AH. And he said to Mohammed, " O son of my i
brother, what is this religion that thou art following ? " " It '
is the religion of God, of His angels, of His prophets, and of
our ancestor Abraham," answered the Prophet. " God has
sent me to His servants to direct them towards the truth ;
and thou, O my uncle, art the most worthy of all. It is meet ,
that I should thus call upon thee, and it is meet that thou 1
shouldst accept the truth and help in spreading it." " Son of
my brother," replied Abu Talib, in the true spirit of the sturdy
old Semite, " I cannot abjure the religion of my fathers ; but
by the Supreme God, whilst I am alive none shall dare to injure

1 Koran, sura Ixxiv.

2 Ibn-Hisham, p. 155 ; al-Halabi, Insdn-ttl-'Uy4n, vol. i. p. 285.

I. COMMENCEMENT OF THE MINISTRY 21

thee." Then turning towards AH, his son, the venerable
patriarch inquired what rehgion was his. " O father," answered
AH, " I beheve in God and His Prophet, and go with him."
" Well, my son," said Abu Tahb, " he will not call thee to
aught save what is good, wherefore thou art free to cleave
unto him." ^

Soon after Zaid, the son of Harith, who notwithstanding his
freedom had cast in his lot with Mohammed, became a convert
to the new faith. He was followed by a leading member of
the Koreishite community of the name of Abdullah, son of
Abu Kuhafa, who afterwards became famous in history as
Abu Bakr.'^ A member of the important family of Taym
ibni-Murra, a wealthy merchant, a man of clear, calm judgment,
at the same time energetic, prudent, honest, and amiable, he
enjoyed great consideration among his compatriots. He was
but two years younger than the Prophet, and his unhesitating
adoption of the new faith was of great moral effect. Five
notables followed in his footsteps, among them Osman, son of
Affan, of the family of Ommeyya, who afterwards became the
third caliph ; Abdur Rahman, son of 'Auf ; Sa'd, son of Abi
Wakkas, afterwards the conqueror of Persia ; Zubair, son of
Awwam and nephew of Khadija, presented themselves before
the Prophet and accepted Islam at his hands. Several prose-
lytes also came from the humbler walks of life. It is a noble
feature in the history of the Prophet of Arabia, and one which
strongly attests the sincerity of his character, the purity of
his teachings and the intensity of his faith and trust in God,
that his nearest relations, his wife, his beloved cousin, and
intimate friends, were most thoroughly imbued with the truth
of his Mission and convinced of his inspiration. Those who
knew him best, closest relations and dearest friends, people
who lived with him and noted all his movements, were his
sincere and most devoted followers. If these men and women,
noble, intelligent, and certainly not less ' educated than the
fishermen of GaHlee, had perceived the slightest sign of

* The above is a praraphrase of the account given by Ibn Hisham, pp. 159,
160 ; and Ibn ul-Athir, vol. ii. pp. 42, 43.

* Desvergers in a note (p. 108) mentions that before his conversion to Ishtm,
he was called Abd ul-Kaaba, " servant of the Kaaba."

22 THE LIFE OF MOHAMMED i.

earthliness, deception, or want of faith in the Teacher himself,
Mohammed's hopes of moral regeneration and social reform
would all have been crumbled to dust in a moment. They
braved for him persecution and dangers ; they bore up against
physical tortures and mental agony, caused by social excom-
munication, even unto death. Would this have been so had
they perceived the least backsliding in their master ? But
even had these people not believed in Mohammed with such
earnest faith and trust, it would furnish no reason for doubting
the greatness of his work or the depth of his sincerity. For the
influence of Jesus himself was least among his nearest relations.
His brothers never believed in him,i and they even went so
far as once to endeavour to obtain possession of his person,
believing him to be out of his mind.^ Even his immediate
disciples were not firm in their convictions.^

Perhaps this unsteadiness may have arisen from weakness
of character, or it may have resulted, as Milman thinks,^ from
the varying tone of Jesus himself ; but the fact is undeniable.^
The intense faith and conviction on the part of the immediate
followers of Mohammed is the noblest testimony to his sincerity
and his utter self-absorption in his appointed task.

For three weary long years he laboured quietly to wean his
people from the worship of idols. But polytheism was deeply
rooted among them ; the ancient cult offered attractions, which
the new Faith in its purity, did not possess. The Koreish
had vested interests in the old worship ; and their prestige was
involved in its maintenance. Mohammed had thus to contend,
not only with the heathenism of his city sanctified by ages of
observance and belief but also with the opposition of the
oligarchy which ruled its destinies, and with whom like the
generality of their people, superstition was allied to great
scepticism. With these forces fighting against him, little
wonder that the life and death-struggle of the three years drew

^ John vii. 5. ^ Mark iii. 21.

3 And these were the men whom Jesus called " his mother and brethren,"
in preference to his own mother and brothers, Matt. xii. 45-48 ; Mark iii. 32, 33.

* Milman, History of Christianity, vol. i. pp. 254, 255.

* Sir W. Muir admits this in the most positive terms (vol. ii. p. 274) ;
he says, " the apostles fled at the first sound of danger."

I. THE DEVOTION OF THE DISCIPLES 23

only thirty followers. But the heart of the great Teacher
never failed. Steadfast in his trust in the Almighty Master
whose behests he was carrying out, he held on. Hitherto he
had preached quietly and unobtrusively. His compatriots
had looked askance at him, had begun to doubt the sanity of
al-x\min, thought him crazed or " possessed," but had not
interfered with his isolated exhortations. He now determined
to appeal publicly to the Koreish to abandon their idolatry.
With this object he convened an assembly on the hill of Safa,
and there spoke to them of the enormities of their crimes in
the sight of the Lord, their folly in offering adoration to carved
idols. He warned them of the fate that had overtaken the
races which had passed unheeded the words of the preachers
of bygone days, and invited them to abjure their old impious
worship, and adopt the faith of love and truth and purity.
But the mockers mocked his words, laughed at the enthusiasm
of young Ah, and departed with taunts and scoffs on their
lips, and fear in their hearts at the spirit of revolution which
had risen in their midst. Having thus failed to induce the
Koreish to listen to the warnings of Heaven, he turned his
attention to the strangers visiting the city for trade or pilgrim-
age. To them he endeavoured to convey God's words. But
here again his efforts were frustrated by the Koreish. When

I the pilgrims began to arrive on the environs of the city, the
Koreishites posted themselves on the different routes and
warned the strangers against holding any communication with
Mohammed, whom they represented as a dangerous magician.

i This machination led, however, to a result little expected by
the Meccans. As the pilgrims and traders dispersed to their
distant homes, they carried with them the news of the advent
of the strange, enthusiastic preacher, who, at the risk of his
own life, was calling aloud to the nations of Arabia to give up
the worship of their fathers.

If the Koreish were under the impression that Mohammed
would be abandoned by his own kith and kin, they were soon
undeceived by a scathing denunciation hurled at them by
Abu Talib. The old patriarch, who had refused, with char-
acteristic persistency, to abandon his ancient creed, or to adopt
the new faith rebelled at the injustice and intolerance of his

24 THE LIFE OF MOHAMMED i.

compatriots towards the reformer, and with true desert chivalry ,
he deplored, in a poem which lies embalmed in history, the
enormities of the Koreish towards one who was the benefactor '
of the orphan and the widow — al-Amin, who never failed in
word or deed ; and declared that the children of Hashim and
of Muttalib would defend the innocent with their hves. About
the same time an Yathribite chief wrote to the Koreish of j
Mecca, and, holding up the examples of bygone ages, exhorted ij
them not to embroil themselves with civil dissensions and !
warfare. He advised them to give a hearing to the new j
preacher : " An honourable man has adopted a certain religion, j
why persecute him ? for it is only the Lord of the Heaven who |
can read the heart of man ! " His counsel had some effect,
and occasioned a change of tactics among the Koreish. For
a time accordingly, calumnies and vilifications, exasperating
contumelies and petty outrages were substituted for open
and violent persecution. The hostile Koreish stopped the j
Prophet from offering his prayers at the Kaaba ; they pursued ^
him wherever he went ; they covered him and his disciples
with dirt and filth when engaged in their devotions. They ,
incited the children and the bad characters of the town to follow |
and insult him. They scattered thorns in the places which
he frequented for devotion and meditation. In this act of
refined cruelty the lead was always taken by Umm ul- Jamil,
the wife of Abu Lahab, one of Mohammed's uncles. She was
the most inveterate of his persecutors. Every place which he |
or his disciples frequented for devotion she covered with thorns, i
This exasperating conduct brought down upon her the designa- \
tion of being " the bearer of faggots " {hammdlat ul-hatab) j
[to hell]. j

Amidst all these trials Mohammed never wavered. Full of '
the intensest confidence in his Mission, he worked steadily on.
Several times he was in imminent danger of his life at the ,
hands of the Koreish. On one occasion he disarmed their il
murderous fury by his gentle and calm self-control. But t
persecution only added to the strength of the new faith. " The i
blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church," is a truth not I
confined to one creed. The violence of the Koreish towards i
Mohammed, their burning and bitter intolerance, led to the (

I. THE DEVOTION OF THE DISCIPLES 25

conversion of the redoubtable Hamza, the youngest son of
Abd ul-MuttaUb. This intrepid warrior, brave, generous, and
true, vvliose doughty sword was held in dread by all the Koreish,
about this time came to the Prophet, adopted his faith, and
became thenceforth a devoted adherent of Islam, and finally
laid down his life in the cause.

Amidst all this persecution Mohammed never ceased calhng
to the nation so wedded to iniquity to abandon their evil ways
and abominations. He threw his heart and soul into his
preachings. He told them in burning words that seared
into the hearts of the hsteners, the punishment which had
aUghted on the tribes of 'Ad and Thamud who had heeded not
the warnings of God's messengers, of the outpouring of Heaven's
wrath at the iniquities of Noah's people. He adjured them
by the wonderful sights of nature, by the noon-day brightness,
by the night when she spreadeth her veil, by the day when
it appeareth in glory, to listen to the warning before a like
destruction came upon them. He told them of the day of
reckoning, when the deeds done by man in this world shall be
weighed before the Eternal Judge, when the children who had
been buried alive shall be asked for what crime they had been
put to death, and when heaven and earth shall be folded up
and none be near but God. He spoke to them of the rewards
and punishments of the Hereafter, describing to his material-
istic people the joys of Paradise and the pains of hell " with
all the glow of Eastern imagery." He told them what the
unbehevers were like — " They are like unto one who kindleth
a fire, and when it hath thrown its light on all around him,
God taketh away the light and leaveth him in darkness and they
cannot see."

" Deaf, dumb, blind, therefore they shall not retrace their
steps."

" They are like those who, when there cometh a storm-cloud
of heaven big with darkness, thunder, and lightning, thrust
their fingers into their ears because of the thunder-clap for
fear of death. God is round about the infidels."

" The lightning almost snatcheth away their eyes ; so oft
as it gleameth on them, they walk on in it ; but when darkness
closeth upon them, they stop ; and if God pleased, of their

26 THE LIFE OF MOHAMMED i.

ears and of their eyes would He surely deprive them : verily
God is Almighty." ^

"As to the infidels, their works are like the Sardb on the
plain, 2 which the thirsty [traveller] thinketh to be water, and
then when he cometh thereto, he findeth it [to be] nothing ;
but he findeth God round about him, and He will fully pay
him his account ; for swift in taking an account is God."

" Or, as the darkness over a deep sea, billows riding upon
billows below, and clouds above ; one darkness over another
darkness ; when a man stretcheth forth his hand he is far
from seeing it ; he to whom God doth not grant light, no light
at all hath he." ^

The people were awestruck, and conversions grew frequent.

The Koreish were now thoroughly alarmed ; Mohammed's
preaching betokened a serious revolutionary movement.
Their power and prestige were at stake. They were the
custodians of the idols whom Mohammed threatened with
destruction ; they were the ministers of the worship which
Mohammed denounced — their very existence depended upon
their maintaining the old institutions intact. If his predictions
were fulfilled, they would have to efface themselves as a nation
pre-eminent among the nationalities of Arabia. The new
preacher's tone was intensely democratic ; in the sight of his
Lord all human beings were equal. This levelling of old
distinctions was contrary to all their traditions. They would
have none of it, for it boded no good to their exclusive privileges.
Urgent measures were needed to stifle the movement before
it gained further strength.

They accordingly decided upon an organised system of
persecution. In order, however, not to violate their laws of
vendetta, each family took upon itself the task of strangling
the new religion within its own circle. Each household tortured
its own members, or clients, or slaves, who were supposed to
have attached themselves to the new faith. Mohammed,
owing to the protection of Abu Talib and his kinsmen, Abu
Bakr and a few others, who were either distinguished by their
rank or possessed some influential friend or protector among
the Koreish, were, for the time, exempt from immediate

1 Sura ii. ^ i.e. the mirage of the desert. ^ Sura xxiv. 39, 40.

I. THE KOREISH TEMPTING MOHAMMED 27

violence. The others were thrown into prison, starved, and
then beaten with sticks. The hill of Ramdha and the place
called Batha became thus the scenes of cruel tortures.^ The
men or women whom the Koreish found abandoning the
worship of the idol-gods, were exposed to the burning heat
of the desert on the scorching sand, where, when reduced to
the last extremity by thirst, they were offered the alternative
of adoring the idols or death. Some recanted only to profess
Islam once more when released from their torments ; but the
majority held firmly to their faith. Such a one was Bilal,
the first Muezzin, of Islam. His master, Ommeyya, son of
Khalaf, conducted him each day to Batha when the heat of
the sun was at its greatest, and there exposed him bare-backed
with his face to the burning sun, and placed on his chest a
large block of stone with the words, " There shaft thou
remain until thou art dead or thou hast abjured Islam."
As he lay half -stifled under his heavy weight, dying with
thirst, he would only answer, " Ahadun, ahadun," " one
[God], one." This lasted for days, until the poor sufferer was
reduced to the verge of death, when he was ransomed by Abu
Bakr, who had in like manner purchased the liberty of six
other slaves. They killed with excruciating torments Yasar
and Samiya his wife ; they inflicted fearful tortures on 'Ammar
their son. Mohammed was often an eye-witness to the
sufferings of his disciples — sufferings borne with patience and
fortitude as became martyrs in the cause of truth. And
these were not the only martyrs in the early history of Islam. ^
Like the Pharisees tempting Jesus, the Koreish came to
Mohammed with temptations of worldly honour and aggrand-
isement, to draw him from the path of duty. One day, says
the chronicler, he was sitting in the Kaaba, at a little distance
from an assembly of the antagonistic chiefs, when one of them,
'Otba, son of Rab'ia, a man of moderate views came to him

' Ibn ul-Athir, vol. ii. p. 50 ; Ibn-Hisham, pp. 205-209.

^ E.g. Khobaib bin 'Adi, who, being perfidiously sold to the Koreish, was
by them put to death in a cruel manner by mutilation and cutting off his
flesh piece-meal. In the midst of his tortures, being asked whether he did
not wish Mohammed in his place, answered, " / would not wish to be with my
family, my substance, and my children on condition that Mohammed was only
to be pricked with a thorn."

28 THE LIFE OF MOHAMMED i.

and said, " 0 son of my brother, thou art distinguished by thy
quahties and thy descent. Now thou hast sown division!
among our people, and cast dissension in our famihes ; thou
denouncest our gods and goddesses ; thou dost tax our
ancestors with impiety. We have a proposition to make to
thee ; think well if it will not suit thee to accept it." " Speak,
O father of Walid," ^ said the Prophet, " I listen, O son of my
brother." Commenced 'Otba : "K thou wishest to acquire
riches by this affair, we will collect a fortune larger than is'
possessed by any of us ; if thou desirest honours and dignity, i
we shall make thee our chief, and shall not do a thing without
thee ; if thou desirest dominion, we shall make thee our king ; |
and if the spirit (demon) which possesses thee cannot be over- '
powered, we will bring thee doctors and give them riches till!
they cure thee." And when he had done, " Hast thou finished, |
O father of Wahd ? " asked the Prophet. " Yes," replied he. :
" Then listen to me." " I listen," he said. " In the name of
the most merciful God," commenced the Warner, " this is ai
revelation from the most Merciful : a book, the verses whereof !
are distinctly explained, an Arabic Koran, for the instruction \
of people who understand ; bearing good tidings, and denounc- I
ing threats : but the greater part of them turn aside, and '
hearken not thereto. And they say, ' Our hearts are veiled \
from the doctrine to which thou invitest us ; and there is a
deafness in our ears, and a curtain between us and thee :
wherefore act thou as thou shalt think fit ; for we shall act
according to our own sentiments.' Say ' verily I am only a
man like you. It is revealed unto me that your God is one j
God : wherefore direct your way straight unto Him ; and ask ,
pardon of Him for what is past.' And woe be to the idolaters,
who give not the appointed alms, and believe not in the life
to come ! ^ But as to those who believe and work righteous- 1
ness, they shall receive an everlasting reward." ^ When the i| '
Prophet finished this recitation, he said to 'Otba, " Thou i;

1 Walid being a son of 'Otba. It was usual, and is so even now, among the ;
Arabs to call a man as the father of so-and-so, instead of using his own name, .
as a mark of consideration.

^ Whilst hospitality was regarded as a great virtue, charity was considered
a weakness among the Arabs ; and a future life, an old woman's fable.
3 Koran, Sura xli.

I. THE HOSTILITY OF THE KOREISH 29

hast heard, now take the course which seemeth best to
thee." ^

Profoundly afflicted by the sufferings of his disciples, whose
position, as time went on, became more and more unbearable,
he advised them to seek a refuge in the neighbouring Christian
kingdom of Abyssinia, where ruled a pious sovereign, till God
in His mercy wrought a change in the feelings of the Koreish.
He had heard of the righteousness of this Christian king,
of his tolerance and hospitality, and was certain of a welcome
for his followers.

Some immediately availed themselves of the advice, and
sailed, to the number of fifteen, to the hospitable shores of the
Negus (Najashi). This is called the first Exile {muhdjarat)
in the history of Islam, and occurred in the fifth year of
Mohammed's Mission (615 a.c). These emigrants were soon
joined by many more of their fellow-sufferers and labourers
in the cause of truth, until their number amounted to eighty-
three men and eighteen women. ^ But the untiring hostility
of the Koreish pursued them even here. They were furious
at the escape of their victims, and sent deputies to the king to
demand the delivery of these refugees that they might be put
to death. They stated the chief charges against the poor
fugitives to be the abjuration of their old religion, and the
adoption of a new one. The Negus sent for the exiles, and
inquired of them whether what their enemies had stated was
true. " What is this religion for which you have abandoned
your former faith," asked the king, " and adopted neither
mine nor that of any other people ? " Ja'far, son of Abu
TaUb, and brother of Ali, acting as spokesman for the fugitives,
spoke thus : " O king, we were plunged in the depth of ignor-
ance and barbarism ; we adored idols, we lived in unchastity ;
we ate dead bodies, and we spoke abominations ; we disre-
garded every feeling of humanity, and the duties of hospitality
and neighbourhood ; we knew no law but that of the strong,
when God raised among us a man, of whose birth, truthfulness,
honesty, and purity we were aware ; and he called us to the
unity of God, and taught us not to associate anything with

^ Ibn-Hisham, pp. 185, 186.

^ Ibn-Hisham, p. 208 et seq. ; Ibn ul-Athir, vol. ii. p. 58 ; Abulfeda, p. 20.

30 THE LIFE OF MOHAMMED i

Him ; ^ he forbade us the worship of idols ; and enjoined m
to speak the truth, to be faithful to our trusts, to be merciful;
and to regard the rights of neighbours ; he forbade us to speal?!;
evil of women, or to eat the substance of orphans ; he ordered
us to fly from vices, and to abstain from evil ; to offer prayers,
to render alms, to observe the fast. We have believed in him,;
we have accepted his teachings and his injunctions to worship;
God, and not to associate anything with Him. For thisi
reason our people have risen against us, have persecuted us'
in order to make us forego the worship of God and return to
the worship of idols of wood and stone and other abominations.
They have tortured us and injured us, until finding no safetyl
among them, we have come to thy country, and hope thou'
wilt protect us from their oppression." ^ j

The demands of the Koreish were scouted by the king, andj
the deputies returned in confusion to Mecca.

Whilst the disciples of Mohammed were seeking safety in
other lands from the persecution of their enemies, he himself
stood bravely at his post, and amidst every insult and outrage
pursued his mission. Again they came to him with promises
of honour and riches, to seduce him from his duty ; the reply
was as before, full of life, full of faith : "I am neither desirous
of riches nor ambitious of dignity nor of dominion ; I am sent
by God, who has ordained me to announce glad tidings unto
you. I give you the words of my Lord ; I admonish you.
If you accept the message I bring you, God will be favourable
to you both in this world and in the next ; if you reject my
admonitions, I shall be patient, and leave God to judge between
you and me." They mocked him, scoffed at him, tried by
insidious questions to expose the fallacy of his teachings.^
His simple trust and sublime faith in his Master rose superior
to all their materialistic scepticism. They asked him to
cause wells and rivers to gush forth, to bring down the heaven

^ The idolaters are almost always called " Associaters," MitsJirikiii, in the
Koran, or men who associate other beings with God.

2 Can there be a better summary of Mohammed's work or of his teachings ?
Ibn ul-Athir, vol. ii. p. 6i ; and Ibn-Hisham, pp. 219, 220.

3 Ibn-Hisham, p. 188. A Christian historian goes into raptures at the
subtlety of the idolaters ; see Osborn, Islam under the Arabs,

I. MORAL EVIDENCES OF MOHAMMED'S MISSION 31

in pieces, to remove mountains, to have a house of gold erected,
to ascend to heaven by a ladder. ^ It was a repetition of the
old story, with this difference, that in the case of Jesus his own
followers insisted upon his performing miracles to satisfy
them of the truth of his mission. " His immediate disciples,"
says Professor Momerie, " were always misunderstanding him
and his work : wanting him to call down fire from heaven ;
wanting him to declare himself king of the Jews ; wanting to
sit on his right hand and on his left hand in his kingdom ;
wanting him to show them the Father, to make God visible
to their bodily eyes ; wanting him to do, and wanting to do
themselves, anything and everything that was incompatible
with his great plan. This was how they treated him until
the end. When that came, they all forsook him, and
fled."

To these unsatisfied, lukewarm spirits, whose craving for
wonders was no less strong than that of the Koreish, and who
afterwards clothed the revered figure of Jesus in a mist, a legacy
which even modern ideaHstic Christianity cannot shake off,
the Master was wont to reply, at times angrily, that it was an
evil and adulterous age which sought after a sign, and that no
sign should be given to it ; and that if a man believed not in
Moses and the prophets, he would not repent even though one
rose from the dead.^

It must be said to the credit of the disciples of the Arabian
Teacher, that they never called for a miracle from their Master.
They — scholars, merchants, and soldiers — looked to the moral
evidences of his mission. They ranged themselves round the
friendless preacher at the sacrifice of all their worldly interests
and worldly hopes, and adhered to him through life and death
with a devotion to his human personality to which there is
scarcely a parallel in the history of the world.

In an age when miracles were supposed to be ordinary
occurrences at the beck of the commonest saint, when the

' Sura xvii. 92-96.

- Patristic Christianity has held, and still holds, to the miracles as a proof
of the divinity of Jesus ; modern Christianity calls them Aberglauhe. It may
well be, as the author of Literature and Dogma says, that the miracles arc
doomed, and that the miracle-saga of Christianity must, sooner or later, go
with all lesrends, Eastern or Western.

32 THE LIFE OF MOHAMMED i.

whole atmosphere was surcharged with supematurahsm, not
only in Arabia, but in the neighbouring countries where
civilisation had made far greater progress, the great Pioneer of
rationalism unhesitatingly replies to the miracle-seeking
heathens — " God has not sent me to work wonders ; He has
sent me to preach to you. My Lord be praised ! Am I more
than a man sent as an apostle ? . . , Angels do not commonly
walk the earth, or God would have despatched an angel to
preach His truth to you.^ I never said that Allah's treasures
are in my hand, that I knew the hidden things, or that I was
an angel. ... I who cannot even help or trust myself, unless
God pleaseth." ... No extraordinary pretensions, no indulg-
ence in hyperbolical language, no endeavour to cast a glamour
round his character or personahty. "I am only a preacher
of God's words, the bringer of God's message to mankind,"
repeats he always. From first to last no expression escapes
him " which could be construed into a request for human
worship " ; 2 from first to last there is unvarying soberness of
expression, which, considering the age and surrounding, is
more marvellous ; from first to last the tone is one of simple,
deep humility before the Creator. And in the moment of his
greatest exaltation the feeling is one of humble, sweet thank-
fulness : —

" In the name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate !
Whatsoever is in heaven and on earth praises God the King,
the Holy One, the Almighty, the All-wise. It is He who out
of the midst of the illiterate Arabs has raised an apostle to show
unto them His signs, and to sanctify them, and to teach them
the Scripture and the Wisdom, them who before had been
in great darkness. . . . This is God's free grace, which
He giveth unto whomsoever He wills. God is of great
mercy ! " ^

Disclaiming every power of wonder-working, the Prophet
of Islam ever rests the truth of his divine commission entirely
upon his Teachings. He never resorts to the miraculous to
assert his influence or to enforce his warnings. He invariably
appeals to the familiar phenomena of nature as signs of the

1 Sura xvii. 95-98 ; sura Ixxii. 21-24. ^ Professor Momerie.

^ Sura Ixii. vv. i-io.

I. MOHAMMED'S APPEAL TO REASON 33

divine presence. ^ He unswervingly addresses himself to the
inner consciousness of man, to his reason, and not to his weak-
ness or his credulit3^ Look round yourself : is this wonderful
world, the sun, the moon, and the stars, holding their swift silent
course in the blue vault of heaven, the law and system prevaihng
in the universe ; the rain-drops falling to revive the parched
earth into life ; the ships moving across the ocean, beladen
with what is profitable to mankind ; the beautiful palm
covered with its golden fruit — are these the handiwork of your
wooden or stone gods ? -

Fools ! do you want a sign, when the whole creation is full
of the signs of God ? The structure of your body, how wonder-
fully complex, how beautifully regulated ; the alternations
of night and day, of life and death ; your sleeping and awaking ;
your desire to accumulate from the abundance of God ; the
winds driving abroad the pregnant clouds as the forerunners
of the Creator's mercy ; the harmony and order in the midst
of diversity ; the variety of the human race, and yet their
close affinity ; fruits, flowers, animals, human beings them-
selves— are these not signs enough of the presence of a Master-
Mind ? 3

To the Prophet of Islam, nature in itself is a revelation and
a miracle.

" There is a tongue in every leaf,
A voice in every rill,
A voice that speaketh everywhere,
In flood and fair, through earth and air,
A voice that's never still." *

The Prophet of Monotheism is pre-eminently the Prophet of
Nature. His ethical appeal and his earnest assertion of divine

' The passage of Sir W. Muir on this point is, to say the least, remarkable.
He says : " Whether the idolatry of Mecca would not have succumbed with-
out a struggle before such preaching as Mahomet's, sitstaivcd by reasonable
evidence, may be matter for speculation " (the italics are his own), vol. ii. p.
144. Like the Koreish, Sir W. Muir is not satisfied with the teachings, unless
supported by wonder-workings.

* Sura XXV. 49-59 ; sura 1. 9, etc.

' Sura vi. 96-99, li. 20, xv. 20, xx. 50-57, xxxiv. 20-28, 39, etc.

' Comp. j^/ if ^j j^ ^ i^:^j * »>Jjj c;^> 31 <*^ t±.^ jA

" Every blade that springs from the earth bears testimony to the unity of
God."

34 THE LIFE OF MOHAMMED i.

Unity are founded upon the rational and intellectual recognition
of all-pervading order, of the visible presence of one Mind, one
Will, regulating, guiding, and governing the Universe. His
grandest miracle is the Book in which he has poured forth with
an inspired tongue all the " revelations of nature, conscience,
and prophecy." Ask you a greater miracle than this, 0
unbelieving people ! than to have your vulgar tongue chosen
as the language of that incomparable Book, one piece of which
puts to shame all your golden poesy and suspended songs — to
convey the tidings of universal mercy, the warnings to pride
and tyranny !

But to all his exhortations the Koreish turned a deaf ear.
They were blind to the signs of God, blind to the presence of a
Divine Personality in nature, deaf to the call of the Seer to
come back to righteousness, to forego the crimes and abomina-
tions of antiquity. Their answer to him breathes a fierce
animosity paralleled only by the darkest days of Arian or
Pelagian persecution in Christendom. " Know this, O Moham-
med," said they, " we shall never cease to stop thee from
preaching till either thou or we perish."

During this interval occurred an incident which has been
differently construed by the Moslem historians and the Christian
biographers of the Prophet. One day, in one of his prophetic
trances, Mohammed was reciting within the Kaaba some
verses which now form part of the fifty-third chapter of the
Koran. When he came to the words, " What think ye of
al-Lat, al-'Uzza, and Man at ? the third besides," an idolater
who was present on the occasion, and whom tradition has
converted into the devil, anxious to avert the threatened
denunciation called out, " They are exalted damsels, and their
intercession with God may be hoped for." These words were
supposed to form part of the Prophet's revelation. And the
Koreish, overjoyed either at the trick or at Mohammed's
supposed concession, hastened to express their willingness to
come to terms. When Mohammed learnt what had happened,
he immediately proclaimed the words, " They are nought but
empty names, which you and your fathers have invented."
This is the version given by Mohammedan historians and
traditionists. According to the Christian biographers, the

PERSECUTION CONTINUES

incident is supposed to indicate a momentary desire on the
part of the Prophet to end the strife with the Koreish by some
compromise. The bigot calls it " a lapse " and " a fall " ;
but the generous and unbiased historian considers the episode
as throwing additional lustre on the Prophet of Arabia.
Persecution was becoming fiercer and fiercer every day, the
sufferings of his followers were increasing, and the whole city
was up in arms against them. The sight of his poor disciples
afflicted him deeply ; his weary struggle with the Arabian
idolatry filled him with grief. What wonder that a momentary
thought crossed his mind to end the conflict by making a slight
concession to the bigotry of his enemies. " And so Mohammed
made his first and last concession. He recited a revelation
to the Koreish, in which he spoke respectfully of the three
moon-goddesses, and asserted that their intercession with
God might be hoped for : ' Wherefore bow down before God
and serve Him ' ; and the whole audience, overjoyed at the
compromise, bowed down and worshipped at the name of the
God of Mohammed — the whole city was reconciled to the
double religion. But this dreamer of the desert was not the
man to rest upon a he. At the price of the whole city of Mecca
he would not remain untrue to himself. He came forward
and said he had done wrong — the devil had tempted him.
He openly and frankly retracted what he had said ; and
' as for their idols, they were but empty names which they
and their fathers had invented.' "

" Western biographers have rejoiced greatly over ' Moham-
med's fall' Yet it was a tempting compromise, and few
would have withstood it. And the life of Mohammed is not
the life of a god, but of a man ; from first to last it is intensely
human. But if for once he was not superior to the temptation
of gaining over the whole city, and obtaining peace where
before had been only bitter persecution, what can we say of
his manfully thrusting back the rich prize he had gained,
freely confessing his fault, and resolutely giving himself over
again to the old indignities and insults ? If he was once
insincere — and who is not ? — how intrepid was his after
sincerity ! He was untrue to himself for a while, and he is
ever referring to it in his public preaching with shame and

36 THE LIFE OF MOHAMMED i.

remorse ; but the false step was more than atoned for by his ,, «
magnificent recantation." ^ P

Upon the promulgation that Lat, 'Uzza, and Manat were '
but empty names, the persecution burst out anew with re-
doubled fury.

Supported, however, by a firm conviction of divine assistance,
and upheld by the admonitions of the heavenly voice within,
conveyed to him by the ministrators of heavenly mercy, he
continued his preaching undeterred by the hostility of his
enemies, or by the injuries they inflicted upon him. In spite [
of all opposition, however, slowly but surely the new teachings
gained ground. The seeds of truth thus scattered could not
fail to fructify. The wild Arab of the desert, the trading
citizen of distant townships who came to the national fair, heard
the words of the strange man whom his enemies thought
possessed, listened to the admonitions in which he poured
forth his soul, listened with awe and wonder to his denunciations
of their divinities and of their superstitions, of their unright-
eousness, of their evil ways, and carried back to their far-off
homes new light and new life, even unconsciously to themselves.
And the satires, the ill-names his enemies heaped upon
Mohammed, only tended to make his words more extensively
known.

The Meccans, on their side, were by no means quiet. Several
times the Koreish sent deputations to Abu TaUb, asking him
to stop his nephew from preaching against their religion. At
first Abu Talib turned them away with soft and courteous
words. But as Mohammed persisted in his fiery denunciations
against their godlessness and impiety, they expelled him from
the Kaaba where he had been wont to preach, and then
came in a body to his uncle. ^ " We respect thy age and thy
rank," said they, " but our respect for thee has bounds, and
verily we can have no further patience with thy nephew's
abuse of our gods, and his ill words against our ancestors ;
wherefore do thou either prevent him from so doing, or thyself
take part with him, so that we may settle the matter by fight

1 Stanley Lane-Poole, Introd. to the Selections from the Koran, p. xlix. j

2 Tabari, vol. ii. p. 406 ; according to this author's authorities, ver. 214 ol'j
chap. xxi. of the Koran was revealed about this period. j

I. KOREISHITE LEAGUE AGAINST MOHAMMED 37

until one of the two parties is exterminated." ^ Having thus
spoken, they departed. Abu Talib was unwiUing to separate
himself from his people, neither did he like abandoning his
nephew to the idolaters. Sending for Mohammed, he informed
him of the speech of the Koreish, and begged him to renounce
his task, Mohammed thought his uncle washed to withdraw
his protection ; but his high resolve did not fail him even at
this moment. Firmly he rephed : " O my uncle, if they
placed the sim on my right hand and the moon on my left, to
force me to renounce my work, verily I would not desist there-
from until God made manifest His cause, or I perished in the
attempt." But overcome by the thought of desertion by his
kind protector, he turned to depart. Then Abu Talib called
aloud : " Son of my brother, come back " ; and he came.
And Abu Talib said : " Say whatsoever thou pleasest ; for
by the Lord, I shall not abandon thee, nay, never." ^ The
Koreish made another attempt to persuade Abu Talib to dehver
up his nephew to them. They offered in exchange a young
man of the family of Makhzum, but it was of no avail. ^ The
declared intention of Abu Tahb to support his nephew excited
their fury, and they renewed their menaces of violence. The
venerable patriarch appealed to the sense of honour of the
Bani-Hashim and Bani-Muttalib, the kinsmen of Mohammed,
to protect a distinguished member of their family from falling
a victim to the hatred of rival clans. And the appeal was
nobly responded to, with the sohtary exception of the squint-
eyed Abu Lahab, " the Father of the Flame," as the sequel
will show.

At this time the new Faith gained a valuable adherent in
Omar, whose energy of character made him an important
factor in the future commonwealth of Islam. His services to
the religion of Mohammed have engraved his name on the
pages of history. A distinguished member of the family of
'Adi ibn-Ka'b, and the son of Khattab, notorious for the
persecution of the Moslems, he was hitherto a violent opponent
of Islam, and a bitter adversary of the Prophet. His

* Ibn ul-Athir, vol. ii. p. 47 ; Ibn-Hisham, pp. 167, 168.

* Ibn-Hisham, p. 168 ; Ibn ul-Athir, vol. ii. p. 48 ; Abulfeda, p. 17.

* Ibn-Hisham, p. 169 ; Ibn ul-Athir, vol. ii. p. 48.

38 THE LIFE OF MOHAMMED i.

conversion is said to have been worked by the magic effect
on his mind of a chapter of the Koran which he heard recited
in his sister's house, where he had gone in a furious rage and
with murderous intent.

Struck with the words which he had heard, he went straight
to the Prophet with the naked sword in his hand with which
he had meant to slay Mohammed and his disciples, causing
considerable consternation among the assembly of the Faithful ;
listening to the Preacher. He kissed the Master's hand, and \
then demanded to be taken into the fold of God ; and heartfelt !
thanks went up to heaven from the Moslems for the grace!
that had fallen on Omar. After his conversion he became I
one of the bulwarks of the Faith. !

Islam need no more hide its head in byways and corners, go j
about in concealment, or offer its prayers to God in secret and j
trepidation. Besides a large following taken from the humbler :
walks of life, there were now gathered round the Prophet a
chosen band of apostles, consisting, not of ignorant folk, but
of men of energy, talent, and worth, like Hamza, Abu Bakr,
and Omar. And though Ali was in his youth, he was fast
rising into prominence.

These important adhesions gave heart to the Moslems, and
they now ventured to perform their devotions in public. The
Koreish, who were at first thunderstruck at the conversion of
Omar, saw the gravity of the situation. And yet they waited
to strike the decisive blow.

The return of the deputies, however, from Abyssinia, and the
announcement of their unsuccessful mission, roused them to
frenzy. They determined at last to exterminate with one
stroke the entire clan of Hashim and Muttahb. With that
purpose they, in the 7th year of the Mission, towards the
end of 616 A.c, formed a league against the descendants of
Hashim and Muttalib. They bound themselves by a solemn
document, which was deposited in the Kaaba, not to enter
into any contract of marriage with the Hashimites, or to buy
and sell with them. The Hashimites and Muttalibites,
Musulmans as well as idolaters, were struck with dismay,
and fearful that this might be the prelude to some other attack,
judged it safer to abandon their houses dispersed in the city,

I. THE YEAR OF MOURNING 39

and concentrate themselves at one point. They betook
themselves accordingly to the Shi'b (or quarter) of Abu Talib
— a long, narrow mountain defile on the eastern skirts of
Mecca, cut off by rocks or walls from the city, except for one
narrow gateway. Abu Lahab alone remained aloof, and
ranged himself on the side of the enemy.

They lived in this defensive position with Mohammed in
their midst for nearly three years, beleaguered by the Koreish,
and subjected to every privation. The provisions which they
had carried with them were soon exhausted, and the cries of
the starving children could be heard outside. Probably they
would have entirely perished but for the occasional help they
received surreptitiously from less bigoted compatriots. Some
of the chiefs, however, were beginning to be ashamed of their
injustice. Towards the tenth year of the Mission (619 A.c),
Hisham, son of 'Amr, who took a lively interest in the Hashi-
mites, tried to bring about a reconciliation between the
Koreishites and the two families of Hashim and Muttalib.
He succeeded in winning over Zubair, son of Abu Ommeyya,
to his side ; and, seconded by him and others, the pact was
annulled, and the two families were taken back to the enjoy-
ment of the communal rights, and were allowed to return to
Mecca.

During the period Mohammed was shut up in the Shi'b with
his kinspeople, Islam made no progress outside. In the
sacred months, when violence was considered a sacrilege, the
Teacher would come out of his prison and endeavour to obtain
hearers among the pilgrims ; but the squint-eyed " Father of
the Flame " followed him about, and made his words nought
by calling him " a liar and a Sabean."

The year which followed is called in the history of Islam
" the Year of Mourning " for the loss of Abu Talib and Khadija,
who followed each other to the grave within a short interval.
In Abu Talib, Mohammed lost the guardian of his youth, who
had hitherto stood between him and his enemies. The death
of Khadija was a severe blow. When none believed in him,
when he himself had not yet awakened to the full consciousness
of his mission, and his heart was full of doubts, when all around
him was dark and despairing, her love, her faith had stood by

40 THE LIFE OF MOHAMMED i.

him. " She was ever his angel of hope and consolation."
To the end of his hfe he retained the tenderest recollection of
her love and devotion.

Note to Chapter I.

Sir W. Muir thinks M. Caussin de Perceval has made a
mistake in supposing Batha to be the name of a place. He
thinks it signifies the nature of the soil over which these
people were tortured ; vol. ii, p. 128. To corroborate M.
Caussin de Perceval and myself, I have only to add that the
existence of this place is an undoubted fact ; and Batha
especially has been frequently referred to by Mohammedan
authors as a place in the immediate vicinity of Mecca. For
example, the celebrated Hakim Sanai says :

Cho 'ilniat hast khidmat kun cho

bi-'ilman, ke zisht aid,
Girifta Chinian ihram, wa Mekki

khufta dar Batha.

" If thou possessest knowledge, serve like those who are
ignorant ; for it is unseemly that people from China should
adopt the Ihram (that is to say, come on a pilgrimage to
Mecca), and the native of Mecca should lie sleeping at Batha."

CHAPTER II
THE HEGIRA

'»

THE children of Ommeyya and other hostile clans,
actuated as much by their attachment to the old cult
as by their jealousy of, and hatred towards, the
Hashimites, considered this a favourable opportunity to crush
out Islam in Mecca ; and the death of Abu Tahb, whose
personal influence and character had restrained their fury
within some limits, became the signal for the Koreish to
redouble their persecutions.^

Weighed down by the loss of his venerable protector and of
his cherished wife, hopeless of turning the Koreish from
idolatry, with a saddened heart, and yet full of trust, he
determined to turn to some other field for the exercise of his
ministry. Mecca had rejected the words of God, hapless
Tayef may listen to them. Accompanied by his faithful
servant Zaid, he arrived among the Thakif.^ He spoke to
them about his Mission ; told them about their iniquities, and
called them to the worship of God. His words caused a storm
of indignation. Who was this crazy man, said they, who
invited them to abandon the beautiful divinities they wor-
shipped with such hghtness of heart and such freedom of
morals ? They drove him from the city ; and the rabble and
the slaves followed, hooting and pelting him with stones until
the evening, when they left him to pursue his way alone.
Wounded and bleeding, footsore and weary, he betook himself

^ Ibn ul-Athir, vol. ii. p. 69. - The people of Tayef.

42 THE LIFE OF MOHAMMED i.

to prayer under the shade of some palm trees, which afforded
a welcome shelter to the thirsty and famished wayfarer.
Raising his hands towards heaven, he cried : " O Lord ! I
make my complaint unto Thee, out of my feebleness, and the
vanity of my wishes, I am insignificant in the sight of men.

0 Thou most merciful ! Lord of the weak ! Thou art my
Lord ! Do not forsake me. Leave me not a prey to strangers,
nor to mine enemies. If Thou art not offended, I am safe.

1 seek refuge in the light of Thy countenance, by which all
darkness is dispersed, and peace comes here and hereafter.
Let not Thy anger descend on me ; solve my difficulties as
it pleaseth Thee. There is no power, no help, but in
Thee." 1

Mohammed returned to Mecca sorely stricken in heart. He
lived here for some time, retired from his people, preaching
occasionally, but confining his efforts mainly to the strangers
who congregated in Mecca and its vicinity during the season
of the annual pilgrimage, hoping, as Tabari expresses it, to find
among them some who would believe in him, and carry the
truth to their people.

One day, whilst thus sadly but yet hopefully working among
these half-traders, half-pilgrims, he came upon a group of six
men from the distant city of Yathrib conversing together.
He asked them to sit down and listen to him ; and they sat
down and listened. Struck by his earnestness and the truth
of his words, they became his proselytes (620 a.c.) ; ^ and
returning to their city, they spread the news, with lightning
rapidity, that a Prophet had risen among the Arabs who was
to call them to God, and put an end to their dissensions, which
had lasted for centuries.

The next year these Yathribites returned, and brought six
more of their fellow-citizens as deputies from the two principal
tribes who occupied that city.^

On the self-same spot which had witnessed the conversion
of the former six, the new-comers gave in their adhesion to

1 Ibn-Hisham, pp. 279, 280 ; Ibn ul-Athir, vol. ii. pp. 70, 71.

* Ibn-Hisham, pp. 286, 287 ; Tabari (Zotenberg's transl.), vol. ii. p. 438.

3 Aus and Khazraj.

II. THE FIRST PLEDGE OF 'AKABA 43

Mohammed. This is called the first Pledge of 'Akaba, from the
name of the hill on which the conference was lield.^

The pledge they took was as follows : ' ' We will not associate
anything with God ; we will not steal, nor commit adultery,
nor fornication ; we will not kill our children ; we will abstain
from calumny and slander ; we will obey the Prophet in
everything that is right ; and we will be faithful to him in weal
and in sorrow." ^

After the pledge, they returned home with a disciple of
Mohammed to teach them the fundamental doctrines of the
new rehgion, which rapidly spread among the inhabitants of
Yathrib.

The interval which elapsed between the first and second
pledge is remarkable as one of the most critical periods of
Mohammed's Mission. The subhme trust of Mohammed in
God, and the grandeur of his character, never stand forth
more prominently than at this period. He was sad at the
sight of his people so sternly wedded to idolatry ; ^ but his
sorrow was assuaged by the hope that the truth would in the
end prevail.'* He might not Hve to see it ; ^ but as surely
as darkness flies before the rays of the sun, so surely falsehood
will vanish before truth. ^ Regarding this epoch, a few words
of unconscious admiration escape even the lips of Muir :
" Mahomet, thus holding his people at bay, waiting, in the
still expectation of victory, to outward appearance defenceless,
and with his little band, as it were, in the Hon's mouth, yet
trusting in His Almighty power whose messenger he beUeved
himself to be, resolute and unmoved — presents a spectacle of
sublimity paralleled only in the sacred records by such scenes
as that of the prophet of Israel, when he complained to his
Master, ' I, even I only, am left.' " '

^ In the history of Islam, this pledge is also called the " Pledge of Women,"
in contradistinction to the second pledge, in which the deputies of Yathrib
took an oath to assist the Moslems, even by arms against the attacks and
outrages of their enemies.

2 Ibn-Hisham, p. 289 ; Ibn ul-Athir, vol ii. pp. 73, 74.

* Koran, sura vi. ver. 107.

* Koran, sura xl. ver. 78, xliii. ver. 40, etc.
^ Koran, sura xxi. ver. 18.

6 Koran, sura xvii. ver. 18. ' Life of Mahomet, vol ii. p. 228.

44 THE LIFE OF MOHAMMED i.

This period of anxious waiting is also remarkable for that
notable Vision of the Ascension which has furnished worlds
of golden dreams for the imaginative genius of poets and
traditionists. They have woven beautiful and gorgeous
legends round the simple words of the Koran : " Praise be
to Him who carried His servant by night from the sacred
temple to the temple that is more remote, whose precincts
We have blessed, that We might show him some of our signs !
for He is the Hearer, the Seer." ^ And again : " And remember
we said to thee. Verily, thy Lord is round about mankind ;
We ordained the Vision which We showed thee." ^ In spite
of the beautiful garb in which the traditionists have dressed
this incident, "it is still a grand vision full of glorious
imagery, fraught with deep meaning." ^

The following year (622 a.c), the Yathribites who had adopted
the new religion repaired to Mecca, to the number of seventy-
five, in company with their idolatrous brethren, to invite the
Prophet to their city ; ^ but the idolaters had no knowledge
ot the intention of their companions.

In the stillness of night,* when all hostile elements appeared
slumbering, these pioneers of the new faith met under the hill
which had witnessed the first pledge. Mohammed appeared
among them, accompanied by his uncle Abbas, who, though
not a convert, yet took a warm interest in the progress of
Islam. He opened the conference, and vividly described to
the Yathribites the risk they incurred by adopting Islam and
inviting its Teacher to their city. They replied with one

^ Koran, chap. xvii. ver. i. " All that Mohammedans must believe res-
pecting the Meraj is, that the Prophet saw himself, in a vision, transported
from Mecca to Jerusalem, and that in such vision he really beheld some of
the greatest signs of his Lord. It must be evident to the reader that the
visions also of a prophet are a mode of divine inspiration." — Syed Ahmed
Khan, Ess. xi. p. 3.4. Muir says that " the earliest authorities point only to
a vision, not to a real bodily journey," vol. ii. p. 221, note. Compare the early
traditions given by Ibn-Hisham, p. 267, which support this view. It may, I
think, be fairly asked why Christians, who believe in the bodily resurrection
and bodily ascension of Jesus and of Elijah, should look upon those Moslems
who believe in the bodily ascension of Mohammed as less rational than them-
selves ?

2 Stanley Lane-Poole, Introd. to the Selections from the Koran, p. Ivi.

' Ibn-Hisham, p. 296 ; al-Halabi, Insdn iil-'Uyiln, vol. i. p. 389.

* In the night of the first and second day of the Tashrik, the period of
three days which follow immediately the celebration of the rites of the
pilgrimage.

II. THE SECOND PLEDGE OF 'AKABA 45

voice, that they adopted the rehgion fully conscious of the
dangers that surrounded them. " Speak, O Prophet of God,"
said they, " and exact any pledge for thyself and thy Lord."
The Prophet began, as was his wont, by reciting several passages
of the Koran ; he then invited all present to the service of
God, and dwelt upon the blessings of the new dispensation.^
The former pledge was repeated, that they would worship
none but God ; that they would observe the precepts of Islam ;
that they would obey Mohammed in all that was right, and
defend him and his, even as they would their women and
children.2 " And," said they, " if we die in the cause of God,
what shall be our return ? " " Happiness hereafter," was the
reply. ^ " But," said they, " thou wilt not leave us in the
hour of prosperity to return to thy people ? " The Prophet
smiled and said : " Nay never ; your blood is my blood ; I am
yours, you are mine." " Give us then thy hand " ; and each
one placing his hand on that of the Prophet, swore allegiance
to him and his God. Scarcely had the compact been concluded,
when the voice of a Meccan, who had been watching this
scene from a distance, came floating on the night air, striking
a sudden panic into the self-denying hearts there assembled.
The firm words of Mohammed restored their presence of mind.

Mohammed then selected twelve men from among them —
men of position, pointed out to him by the voice of the people
— as his delegates [Nakihs]} Thus was concluded the second
Pledge of 'Akaba.

The Meccan spy had. already spread the news of this confer-
ence through the city. Astounded at the temerity of Moham-
med and his followers, the Koreish proceeded in a body to the
caravan of the Yathribites to demand the men who had entered
into the pledge with him. Finding no clue, however, as to
the persons who had taken part at the meeting, they allowed
the caravan to depart unmolested. But this apparent modera-

1 Ibn-Hishain, p. 296 ; Ibn ul-Athir, vol. ii. p. 76. - Ibid.

^ Ibn ul-Athir, vol. ii. p. 77.

* Ibn-Hisham, pp. 2Q7-300. Seventy- five people, men and women, took
part in thi.s Pledge. This event occurred in the month of Zu'1-Hijja, and the
Prophet stopped at Mecca throughout the remainder of this month, and
Muharram and Safar. In Rabi I. he left for Medina ; Ibn ul Athir, vol. ii.
p. 78.

46 THE LIFE OF MOHAMMED i.

tion on the part of the Koreish formed only a prelude to a
furious persecution of Mohammed and his disciples. The
position of the latter became every day more and more perilous.
The Prophet, fearing a general massacre, advised his followers
to seek immediate safety at Yathrib ; whereupon about one
hundred families silently disappeared by twos and threes from
Mecca and proceeded to Yathrib, where they were received
with enthusiasm. Entire quarters of the city thus became
deserted ; and 'Otba, the son of Rab'ia, at the sight of these
vacant abodes, once so full of life, " sighed heavily," and
recited the old verse : " Every dwelling-place, even if it has
been blessed ever so long, will one day become a prey to
unhappiness and bitter wind " ; " And," he sorrowfully
added, " all this is the work of the son of our brother, who has
scattered our assemblies, ruined our affairs, and created
dissension amongst us." ^

As it was with Jesus, so it was with Mohammed ; only with
this difference, that in one case the Teacher himself says :
" Think not that I came to send peace on earth ; I came not
to send peace, but a sword : for I am come to set a man at
variance against his father, and the daughter against her
mother, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law." ^
In Mohammed's case it was one of his most persevering oppon-
ents who accused him of creating dissension in families.

Throughout this period, when the storm was at its height
and might at any moment have burst over his head, Mohammed
never quailed. All his disciples had left for Yathrib ; alone
he remained bravely at his post, with the devoted Ali and the
venerable Abu Bakr.

Meanwhile the clouds were gathering fast. Fearful of the
escape of the Prophet, an assembly of the Koreish met in all
despatch in the town-hall (Dar un-Nadwa), and some chiefs
of other clans were invited to attend. The matter had become
one of life and death. Stormy was the meeting, for fear had
entered their hearts. Imprisonment for Hfe, expulsion from
the city, each was debated in turn. Assassination was then
proposed ; but assassination by one man would have exposed
him and his family to the vengeance of blood. The difificulty

1 Ibn-Hisham, p. 316. 2 Matt. x. 34, 35.

II. THE HEGIRA 47

was at last solved by Abu Jahl/ who suggested that a number
of courageous men, chosen from different families, should
sheathe their swords simultaneously in Mohammed's bosom, in
order that the responsibility of the deed might rest upon all,
and the relations of Mohammed might consequently be unable
to avenge it. This proposal was accepted, and a number of
noble youths were selected for the sanguinary deed. As the
night advanced, the assassins posted themselves round the
Prophet's dwelling. Thus they watched all night long, waiting
to murder him when he should leave his house in the early
dawn, peeping now and then through a hole in the door to
make sure that he still lay on his bed. But, meanwhile, the
instinct of self-preservation, the instinct which had often led
the great Prophet of Nazareth to evade his enemies, ^ had
warned Mohammed of the danger. In order to keep the
attention of the assassins fixed upon the bed, he put his own
green garment upon the devoted and faithful Ali, bade him
lie on his bed,^ " and escaped, as David had escaped, through
the windows." He repaired to the house of Abu Bakr, and
they fled together unobserved from the inhospitable city of
their birth. They lay hid for several days in a cavern of
Mount Thaur, a hill to the south of Mecca. ^

The fury of the Koreish was now unbounded. The news
that the would-be assassins had returned unsuccessful, and
Mohammed had escaped, aroused their whole energy. Horsemen

1 Ibn-Hisham, pp. 323-32,5 ; Ibn ul-Athir, vol. ii. p. 79 ; the Koran, sura
viii. vcr. 30. According to" Ibn-Hisham, this proposal of Abu Jahl, one of
the Koreish, was seconded by a stranger, in the guise of a venerable Sheikh
from Najd whom tradition has resolved into Satan himself. Abii Jahl was
one of the bitterest enemies of the Prophet. His real name was 'Amr and he
was surnamed, for his sagacity, Abit'l Hikam (" father of wisdom," in the
plural). Owing to his fanaticism and bigotry, which prevented his perceiving
any good in the new Teachings, Mohammed called him instead Abil Jahl
{" father of ignorance "). Ignorance has in all ages posed as the champion
of orthodoxy. Abu Jahl has thus become a type. It is to this fact Hakim
Sanai, the great mystical poet, refers in the following couplet : —

" Ahmed-i-Mursal nishista kai raivci darad Khirad.
Dil asir-i-s'iyat-i-Bii Jahl-i-Kdfir ddshtan."

" Ahmed the Prophet is sitting (in your midst), how can reason allow

" The heart to become captive of the qualities of Bu-Jahl the unbeliever."

- Comp. Milman, Hist, of Christiauity, vol. i. p. 253.
' Ibn-Hisham, p. 325 ; Ibn ul-Athir, vol. ii. p. 80.
' See Desvergers' note (57) to his Abulfeda, p. 116.

48 THE LIFE OF MOHAMMED

scoured the country. A price was set upon Mohammed
head.^ Once or twice the danger approached so near that th(
heart of old Abu Bakr quaked with fear. " We are but two,'
said he. " Nay," said Mohammed, " we are three, God i;
with us ; " and He was with them. After three days th(
Koreish slackened their efforts. All this time Mohammec
and his companion were sustained by food brought to therr
at night by a daughter of Abu Bakr.^ On the evening of th(
third day the fugitives left the cavern, and, procuring witt
great difficulty two camels, endeavoured to reach Yathrib bj^
unfrequented paths. But even here the way was full of
danger. The heavy price set upon Mohammed's head had
brought out many horsemen from Mecca, and they were still
diligently seeking for the helpless wanderer. One, a wild and
fierce warrior, actually caught sight of the fugitives and
pursued them. Again the heart of Abu Bakr misgave him,
and he cried, " We are lost." " Be not afraid," said the
Prophet, " God will protect us." As the idolater overtook
Mohammed, his horse reared and fell. Struck with sudden
awe, he entreated the forgiveness of the man whom he was
pursuing and asked for an attestation of his pardon. This
was given to him on a piece of bone by Abu Bakr.^

The fugitives continued their journey without further
molestation and after three days' journeying reached the
territories of Yathrib. It was a hot day in June, 622 of the
Christian era, when Mohammed alighted from his camel upon
the soil which was thenceforth to become his home and his
refuge. A Jew watching on a tower first espied him,* and
thus were the words of the Koran fulfilled : " They, to whom
the Scriptures have been given, recognise him as they do their
own children." ^ Mohammed and his companion rested for a
few days "^ at a village called Koba,' situated only two miles
to the south of Yathrib, and remarkable for its beauty and

^ Of a hundred camels, Ibn-Hisham, p. 328 ; Ibn ul-Athir, vol. ii. p. 81.

2 Ibn ul-Athir, vol. ii. p. 81.

3 Ibn-Hisham, pp. 331, 332 ; Ibn ul-Athir, ibid.

■* Ibn-Hisham, p. 330. * Koran, sura vi. ver. 20.

fi Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, Ibn-Hisham, p. 335 ;
Ibn ul-Athir, vol. ii. p. 83.

' See Desvergers' Abulfeda, p. 116, note 59.

II. THE HEGIRA 49

fertility. Here he was joined by Ali, who had been severely
maltreated by the idolaters after their disappointment at
Mohammed's escape. ^ Ah fled from Mecca and journeyed
on foot, hiding himself in the daytime and travelling only at
night, lest he should fall into the hands of the Koreish.^

The Bani 'Amr bin-'Auf, to whom the village belonged,
invited the Prophet to prolong his stay amongst them.
But his duty lay before him ; and he proceeded towards
Yathrib, attended by a numerous body of his disciples. He
entered the city on the morning of a Friday, i6th of Rabi
I., corresponding (according to M. Caussin de Perceval) with
the 2nd of July 622. ^

. Thus was accomplished the Hijrat, called in European annals
" the flight of Mohammed," from which dates the Mohammedan
calendar.

Note i to Chapter II

The " Hegira," or the era of the Hijrat, was instituted
seventeen years later by the second Caliph. The commence-
ment, however, is not laid at the real time of the departure
from Mecca, which happened on the 4th of Rabi I., but on the
first day of the first lunar month of the year, viz. Muharram
— which day, in the year when the era was estabhshed, fell
on the 15th of July.

But though Omar instituted the official era, the custom of
referring to events as happening before or after the Hijrat
originated, according to some traditions, with the Prophet
himself ; this event naturally marking the greatest crisis in
the history of his Mission. — Conip. al-Halabi, Insdn-ul-'Uyun,
in loco.

Note 2 to Chapter II

The twelve Moslem months are ; Muharram (the sacred
month), Safar (the month of departure), Rabi I. (first month

' Ibn ul-Athir, vol. ii. p. 80.

^ Ibid. vol. ii. 82.

=> Caussin de Perceval, vol. iii. pp. 17-20; IbnHisham, p. 335.

S.I. D

50 THE LIFE OF MOHAMMED i.

of the spring), Rabi H. (second month of the spring), Jumadi
I. (first dry month), Jumadi H. (second dry month), Rajab !
{respected, called often Rajab ul-Murajjah), Sha'ban (the month !
of the budding of trees), Ramazan (month of heat), Shawwal
(month of junction), Zu'1-Ka'da (month of truce, rest, or
relaxation), Zu'l Hijja (month of pilgrimage). The ancient
Arabs observed the lunar year of 354 days, 8 hours, 48 seconds,
divided into twelve months of 29 and 30 days alternately.
In order to make them agree with the solar year of their neigh-
bours, the Greeks and the Romans, and also in order to make
the months fall in the right season, they added a month every ,
third year. This intercalation was called Nasi ; and although i
it was not perfectly exact, it served to maintain a sort of }
correlation between the denomination of the months and the ]
seasons. Since the suppression of the Nasi, on account of the
orgies and various heathen rites observed in the intercalary
years, the names of the months have no relation to the seasons.

CHAPTER III

THE

PROPHET AT MEDINA

U^\

' y-i

^Uv.>A ,UJb \]

U^l

IjV

i M^'

>T ^

Jia^^fe

S^ >/«^U/« yi i^Ji jj.*u, Jliw ^j^l

ij-i

i ,v

jI; j IcX^I

' /J^

FEW Musulmans of the present day understand the
full import of the mystical verses quoted at the
head of this chapter, but all appreciate the deep
devotion to the grand Seer implied in those words. And
this devotion is not one which has twined itself round a
mythical ideal, or has grown with the lapse of time. From
the moment of his advent into Yathrib he stands in the
full blaze of day — the grandest of figures upon whom the
light of history has ever shone. The minutest details of
his life are carefully noted and handed down to posterity,
to become crystallised, often against the spirit of his own
Teachings, which aimed at the perpetual growth of the
human race. We have seen this wonderful man as an orphan
child who had never known a father's love, bereft in infancy
of a mother's care, his early life so full of pathos, growing up
from a thoughtful childhood to a still more thoughtful youth.
His youth as pure and true as his boyhood ; his manhood as
austere and devout as his youth. His ear ever open to the
sorrows and sufferings of the weak and the poor ; his heart
ever full of sympathy and tenderness towards all God's creatures.
He walks so humbly and so purely, that men turn round and

52 THE LIFE OF MOHAMMED i.

point, there goes al-Amin, the true, the upright, the trusty.
A faithful friend, a devoted husband ; a thinker intent on the
mysteries of Ufe and death, on the responsibihties of human
actions, the end and aim of human existence, — he sets himself
to the task of reclaiming and reforming a nation, nay, a world,
with only one loving heart to comfort and solace him. Baffled,
he never falters ; beaten, he never despairs. He struggles
on with indomitable spirit to achieve the work assigned to him.
His purity and nobleness of character, his intense and earnest
belief in God's mercy, bring round him ultimately many a
devoted heart ; and when the moment of the severest trial
comes, like the faithful mariner, he remains steadfast at his
post until all his followers are safe, and then betakes himself
to the hospitable shore : such we have seen him. We shall
see him now the king of men, the ruler of human hearts, chief,
lawyer, and supreme magistrate, and yet without any self-
exaltation, lowly and humble. His history henceforth is
merged in the history of the commonwealth of which he was
the centre. Henceforth the Preacher who with his own
hands mended his clothes, and often went without bread, was
mightier than the mightiest sovereigns of the earth.

" Mohammed had shown men what he was ; the nobility
of his character, his strong friendship, his endurance and
courage, above all, his earnestness and fiery enthusiasm for
the truth he came to preach — these things had revealed the
hero ; the master whom it was aUke impossible to disobey
and impossible not to love. Henceforward it is only a question
of time. As the men of Medina come to know Mohammed,
they too will devote themselves to him body and soul ; and
the enthusiasm will catch fire and spread among the tribes,
till all Arabia is at the feet of the Prophet of the one God.
' No emperor with his tiaras was obeyed as this man in a cloak
of his own clouting.' He had the gift of influencing men, and
he had the nobihty only to influence them for good."

Medina, the " illuminated " ^ — the city of many names —
is situated about eleven days' journey to the north of Mecca.
Now a walled city of considerable strength, in those days it
was completely open and exposed to outside attacks until the

1 Munawwareh.

III. THE PROPHET AT MEDINA 53

Prophet made the famous moat as a defence against the
Koreishites. The city is said to have been estabUshed by an
'Amalekite chief, whose name it bore until the advent of the
Prophet. In early times Yathrib^ and its environs were
inhabited by the 'Amalekites ; these are said to have been
overwhelmed and destroyed by successive colonies of Jews,
who, flying before Babylonian and Greek and Roman perse-
cutors or avengers, entered Arabia and established themselves
in the northern part of Hijaz. The most important of these
colonies were the Bani-Nazir at Khaibar, the Bani-Kuraizha
at Fidak, the Bani-Kainuka'a near Medina itself. Living in
fortified cantons, they had domineered over the neighbouring
Arab tribes, until the estabhshment of two Kahtanite tribes,
Aus and Khazraj at Yathrib. These two tribes, who yielded
at first some sort of obedience to the Jews, were able to reduce
them to a state of clientage. Before long, however, they
commenced quarrelling among themselves, and it was only
about the time when the Prophet announced his Mission at
Mecca that, after long years of decimating warfare, they had
succeeded in patching up a peace.

Such was the political condition of Yathrib when the Prophet
made his appearance among the Yathribites. With his
advent a new era dawned upon the city.

The two tribes of Aus and Khazraj, forgetting their inveterate
and mortal feuds in the brotherhood of the Faith, rallied round
the standard of Islam and formed the nucleus of the Moslem
commonwealth. The old divisions were effaced, and the honor-
able designation of Ansdr (Helpers) became the common title
of all who had helped Islam in its hour of trial. The faithful
band who had forsaken their beloved birthplace, and every tie of
home, received the name of Muhdjirin (Emigrants or Exiles).

In order to unite the Ansdr and the Muhdjirin in closer
bonds, the Prophet estabUshed a brotherhood between them,
which linked them together in sorrow and in happiness.

Yathrib changed its ancient name, and was henceforth
styled Medinat un-Nabi, the City of the Prophet, or shortly,
Medina, the city par excellence.

1 With a Cl» (pronounced by the Arabs Hke ih in thiv, by all non-Arabs
likes).

54 THE LIFE OF MOHAMMED i.

A mosque was soon built, in the erection of which Mohammed
assisted with his own hands ; and houses for the accom-
modation of the exiles rose apace. Two brothers, who owned
the land on which it was proposed to build the mosque, had
offered it as a free gift ; but as they were orphans, the Prophet
paid them its value.

The building was simple in form and structure, suited to the
unostentatious religion he taught. The walls were of brick
and earth, and the roof of palm leaves. A portion of the
mosque was set apart as a habitation for those who had no
home of their own.

Everything in this humble place of worship was conducted
with the greatest simplicity. Mohammed preached and
prayed standing on the bare ground or leaning against a
palm tree, and the devoted hearts around him beat in unison
with his soul-stirring words.

" He who is not affectionate to God's creatures and to his
own children," he would say, " God will not be affectionate to
him. Every Moslem who clothes the naked will be clothed by
God in the green robes of Paradise." ^

In one of his sermons he thus dwelt on the subject of charity :
" When God created the earth, it shook and trembled, until
He put mountains upon it to make it firm. Then the angels
asked, ' O God, is there anything in Thy creation stronger than
these mountains ? ' And God replied, ' Iron is stronger than
the mountains, for it breaks them.' ' And is there anything
in Thy creation stronger than iron ? ' ' Yes ; lire is stronger
than iron, for it melts it.' ' Is there anything in Thy creation
stronger than fire ? ' ' Yes, water, for it quenches fire.' ' 0
Lord, is there anything in Thy creation stronger than water ? '
' Yes ; wind, for it overcomes water and puts it in motion.'
' Oh, our Sustainer, is there anything in Thy creation stronger
than wind ? ' ' Yes ; a good man giving alms ; if he give
with his right hand and conceal it from his left, he overcomes
all things.' "

His definition of charity embraced the wide circle of kindness :
" Every good act," he would say, " is charity. Your smiling
in 3^our brother's face is charity ; an exhortation addressed to

1 From Abu Huraira, Mishkat, book xii. chap. iii. part i.

III. THE PROPHET AT MEDINA 55

your fellow-men to do virtuous deeds is equal to alms-giving.
Putting a wanderer in the right path is charity ; assisting the
blind is charity ; removing stones and thorns and other
obstructions from the road is charity ; giving water to the
thirsty is charity." ^ "A man's true wealth hereafter is the
good he does in this world to his fellow-men. When he dies,
people will ask, What property has he left behind him ? But
the angels, who examine him in the grave, ^ will ask, What good
deeds hast thou sent before thee ? "

" Oh Prophet ! " said one of his disciples, " my mother,
Umm Sa'd, is dead ; what is the best alms I can give away
for the good of her soul ? " " Water ! " replied Mohammed,
bethinking himself of the panting heat of the desert. " Dig
a well for her, and give water to the thirsty." The man
dug a well in his mother's name, and said, " This is for my
mother, that its blessings may reach her soul."

" Charity of the tongue," says Irving, " that most important
and least cultivated of charities, was likewise earnestly incul-
cated by Mahomet." Abu Jariya, an inhabitant of Basra,
coming to Medina, and being convinced of the apostolic office
of Mohammed, begged of him some great rule of conduct.
" Speak evil of no one," answered the Prophet. " From that
time," says Abu Jariya, " I never abused any one, whether
freeman or slave."

The teachings of Islam extended to the courtesies of life.
Make a salutation to the dwellers of a house on entering and
leaving it.^ Return the salute of friends and acquaintances,
and wayfarers on the road. He who rides must be the first to
make the salute to him who walks ; he who walks to him
who is sitting ; a small party to a large party, and the young
to the old." ■*

^ From Abu Sa'id Khazri. ^ See post, pt. ii. chap. x.

^ Compare Koran, chap. xxiv. vers. 27, 28, 61 and 62.

■• From Abu Hurairah, Mishkdt, Bk. xxii. chap. i. part i. Besides the
references already given, consult the Kitub ul-Mustatraf, chaps, iv. v. x. xiii.
xix. xxii. xxiii. and xxv The Mustatraf gives fully the references to Tirmizi,
Muslim, and Bukhari. Consult also the Majcdis ul-Abrdr. Majlis (seance), 84.

CHAPTER IV

THE HOSTILITY OF THE KOREISH AND THE JEWS

I A.H.^igth April 622-'/ th May 623 A.C.

.^iJ! ^Ikxj >lsv-, ^^^i^l ^w'»»=>''

AT this time there were three distinct parties in Medina.
The Muhajirin (the Exiles) and the Ansar (the Helpers) ;
^ formed the kernel of Islam. Their devotion to the '
Prophet was unbounded. The Exiles had forsaken their '
I A.H. = i9th homes, and abandoned, contrary to all Arab
April 622 to 7th traditions, the ties of kith and kin, in the
ay 23 A.C. cause of the Faith. They had braved all

sufferings, withstood all temptations in the service of the
Lord. Many of them had come to the City of Safety ■
without means. They had been received with open arms 1
by the Medinite converts, who in many cases shared their \
worldly goods with the poorer of the new-comers. The i
brotherhood of Faith, so wisely established by the Prophet, ;
whilst it prevented the growth of jealousy, gave rise to a I

IV. THE PROPHET IN MEDINA 57

generous emulation, both among the Ansar and the Muhajiiin,
as to who would bring the greatest sacrifice in the service of
God and His Prophet. The enthusiasm and earnestness with
which these men and women devoted themselves to the new
awakening, the zeal with which they laid down their lives,
was a manifestation such as had not been seen since the best
days of the Christian phase of religious development. The
second, and at first by no means an unimportant party, was
composed principally of lukewarm converts to the Faith,
who retained an ill-concealed predilection for idolatry ; and
was headed by Abdullah ibn-Ubayy, a chief of some position
in the city, who aspired to the kinghood of Medina. With
this object he had gathered round him, like Abu Sufian at
Mecca, a strong body of partizans. Everything was ripe
for him to seize the reins of power, when the arrival of the
Prophet upset his designs. The popular enthusiasm compelled
him and his followers to make a nominal profession of Islam ;
but, ever ready as they were to turn against the Moslems at the
least opportunity, they were a source of considerable danger
to the new-bom commonwealth, and required unceasing
watchfulness on the part of the Prophet. Towards them he
always showed the greatest patience and forbearance, hoping
in the end to win them over to the Faith. And this expectation
was fully justified by the result. With the death of Abdullah
ibn-Ubayy his party, which has been stigmatised ^ as the party
of the Mundfikin (the Disaffected), disappeared for a time
from view.

But the Jews, who may be said to have formed the third
party, constituted the most serious element of danger. They
had close business relations with the Koreish, and their
ramifications extended into various parts hostile to the
Faith. At first they were inclined to look with some favour on
the preachings of Mohammed. He could not, of course, be
their promised Messiah, but perhaps a weak dreamer, a humble
preacher, dependent upon the hospitaUty of their old enemies,

^ Koran, sura xlii. ; Ibn-Hisham, pp. 363, 411. The Mundfikin or the
Ineconcilables have never disappeared completely from the Islamic body
politic. Ever and anon they have exercised the most disastrous effects in
Islam. In later times they posed as the champions of orthodoxy ; note for
example, the Khurijis of Africa.

58 THE LIFE OF MOHAMMED i.

now their patrons, the Aus and the Khazraj, might become
their avenger, help them in conquering the Arabs, and found
for them a new kingdom of Judali. With this aim in view,
they had joined with the Medinites in a half-hearted welcome
to the Prophet. And for a time they maintained a pacific '
attitude. But it was only for a time ; for barely a month had i
gone by before the old spirit of rebellion, which had led them \
to crucify their prophets, found vent in open seditions and '
secret treachery. One of the first acts of Mohammed after i
his arrival in Medina was to weld together the heterogeneous i
and conflicting elements of which the city and its suburbs t
were composed, into an orderly confederation. With this i
object he had granted a charter to the people, by which the ;
rights and obligations of the Moslems inter se, and of the j
Moslems and Jews, were clearly defined. And the Jews, borne ?
down for the moment by the irresistible character of the '
movement, had gladly accepted the Pact. This document, i
which has been carefully preserved in the pages of Ibn-Hisham, '
reveals the Man in his real greatness — a master-mind, not only '
of his own age, as Muir calls him, but of all ages. No wild '
dreamer he, bent upon pulling down the existing fabrics of |
society, but a statesman of unrivalled powers, who in an age j
of utter and hopeless disintegration, with such materials and
such polity as God put ready to his hands, set himself to the '
task of reconstructing a State, a commonwealth, a society,
upon the basis of universal humanity. " In the name of the
most merciful and compassionate God," says this first charter
of freedom of conscience, " given by Mohammed, the Prophet,
to the Believers, whether of the Koreish or of Yathrib, and all \
individuals of whatever origin who have made common cause i
with them, all these shall constitute one nation." Then,
after regulating the payment of the Diyat^ by the various clans,
and fixing some wise rules regarding the private duties of
Moslems as between themselves, the document proceeds thus : '
" The state of peace and war shall be common to all Moslems ; i
no one among them shall have the right of concluding peace !
with, or declaring war against, the enemies of his co-religionists.

^ Diyat, Wehrgeld, price which a homicide had to pay to the family of the
victim, if they consented to it.

IV. THE CHARTER OF MOHAMMED 59

The Jews who attach themselves to our commonwealth shall
be protected from all insults and vexations ; they shall have
an equal right with our own people to our assistance and good
offices : the Jews of the various branches of 'Auf, Najjar,
Harith, Jashm, Th'alaba, Aus, and all others domiciled in
Yathrib, shall form with the Moslems one composite nation ;
they shall practise their religion as freely as the Moslems ;
the clients ^ and allies of the Jews shall enjoy the same security
and freedom ; the guilty shall be pursued and punished ; the
Jews shall join the Moslems in defending Yathrib (Medina)
against all enemies ; the interior of Yathrib shall be a sacred
place for all who accept this Charter ; the clients and alhes
of the Moslems and the Jews shall be as respected as the
patrons ; all true Moslems shall hold in abhorrence every man
guilty of crime, injustice, or disorder : no one shall uphold the
culpable, though he were his nearest kin." Then, after some
other provisions regarding the internal management of the
State, this extraordinary document concluded thus : "All
future disputes between those who accept this Charter shall
be referred, under God, to the Prophet." ^

A death-blow was thus given to that anarchic custom of the
Arabs, which had hitherto obliged the aggrieved and the injured
to rely upon his own or his kinsmen's power in order to exact
vengeance, or satisfy the requirements of justice. It constituted
Mohammed the chief magistrate of the nation, as much by his
prophetic function as by a virtual compact between himself
and the people.

The Jewish tribes of the Bani-un-Nazir,^ Bani-Kuraizha,
and Bani-Kainuka'a settled in the vicinity of
Medina, were not at first included in this ^2 ah. 7th May

^, , , , . , 623 to 26th April

Charter ; but after a short time they, too, 624 a.c.
gratefully accepted its terms.

No kindness or generosity, however, on the part of the
Prophet would satisfy the Jews ; nothing could conciliate the
bitter feelings with which they were animated. Enraged that
they could not use him as their instrument for the conversion

^ I.e. the protected.

- Ibn-Hisham, pp. 341-343. This is a paraphrase of an important historical
document.
■' With a zdd.

6o THE LIFE OF MOHAMMED i.;

of Arabia to Judaism, and that his behef was so much simpler,
than their Talmudic legends, they soon broke off, and ranged j
themselves on the side of the enemies of the new Faith. And J
when asked which they preferred, idolatry or Islam, they/
like many Christian controversiahsts, declared they preferred (
idolatry, with all its attendant evils, to the creed of Mohammed. !
They reviled him; they "twisted their tongues" and mis- j
pronounced the Koranic words and the daily prayers and]
formulae of Islam, rendering them meaningless, absurd, or \
blasphemous ; and the Jewish poets and poetesses, of whom •
there existed many at the time, outraged all common decency
and the recognised code of Arab honour and chivalry by
lampooning in obscene verse the Moslem women. But these]
were minor offences. Not satisfied with insulting the women '
of the Believers and reviling the Prophet, they sent out
emissaries to the enemies of the State, the protection of which .
they had formally accepted. The Koreish, who had sworn
Mohammed's death, were well acquainted, thanks to the
party of Abdullah-ibn-Ubayy and the faithless Israelites, with
the exact strength of the Moslems. They also knew that the
Jews had accepted Mohammed's alliance only from motives
of temporary expediency, and that the moment they showed
themselves in the vicinity of Medina the worshippers of
Jehovah would break away from him and join the idolaters.
And now came the moment of severest trial to Islam
Barely had the Prophet time to put the city in a state of
defence and organise the Believers, before the blow descended
upon him.^ Medina itself was honeycombed by sedition
and treachery. And it became the duty of Mohammed to
take serious measures to guard against that dreaded catastrophe
which a rising within, or a sudden attack from without, would
have entailed upon his followers. He was not simply a preacher
of Islam ; he was also the guardian of the lives and Hberties
of his people. As a Prophet, he could afford to ignore the .
revilings and the gibes of his enemies ; but as the head of the ij
State, " the general in a time of almost continual warfare," 1
when Medina was kept in a state of military defence and under

1 Koran, sura ix. ver. 13 ; Zamakhshari (the Kashshdf), Egypt, ed., pp.
314, 315 ; al-Halabi, Insdn-ul-'Uyiin, vol. ii.

IV. THE BATTLE OF BADR 6i

a sort of military discipline, he could not overlook treachery.
He was bound by his duty to his subjects to suppress a party
that might have led, and almost did lead to the sack of the
city by investing armies. The safety of the State required the
proscription of the traitors, who were either sowing the seeds
of sedition within Medina or carrying information to the
common enemy. Some half a dozen were placed under the
ban, outlawed, and executed. We are, however, anticipating
the course of events in referring to these executions.

The Koreish army was afield before Mohammed received
God's command to do battle to His enemies.

He who never in his life had wielded a weapon, to whom the
sight of human suffering caused intense pain and pity, and who,
against all the canons of Arab manliness, wept bitterly at the
loss of his children or disciples, whose character ever remained
so tender and so pathetic as to cause his enemies to call him
womanish,^ — this man was now compelled, from the necessities
of the situation, and against his own inclination, to repel the
attacks of the enemy by force of arms, to organise his followers
for purposes of self-defence, and often to send out expeditions
to anticipate treacherous and sudden onslaughts. Hitherto,
Arab warfare consisted of sudden and murderous forays, often
made in the night or in the early morn ; isolated combats or a
general melee, when the attacked were aware of the designs
of the attacking party. Mohammed, with a thorough know-
ledge of the habits of his people, had frequently to guard
against these sudden onslaughts by sending forth reconnoitring
parties.

The Meccans and their allies commenced raiding up to the
very vicinity of Medina, destroying the fruit-trees of the
Moslems, and carrying away their flocks. A force, consisting
of a thousand well-equipped men, marched under the noted
Abu Jahl, " the Father of Ignorance," towards Medina to
destroy the Moslems, and to protect one of their caravans
bringing munitions of war. The Moslems received timely
notice of the movement, and a body of three hundred disciples
proceeded at once to forestall the heathens by occupying the
valley of Badr, upon which Abu Jahl was moving. When

1 Compare Dozy, Histoire des Musidmans d'Espagne, vol. i. p. 32.

62 THE LIFE OF MOHAMMED ij

Mohammed saw the infidel army arrogantly advancing intc
the valley, raising his hands towards heaven, Hke the prophets
of Israel, he prayed that the little band of the Faithful might
not be destroyed : " O Lord, forget not Thy promise of assist-
ance. O Lord, if this httle band were to perish, there will be
none to offer unto Thee pure worship." ^

Three of the Koreish advanced into the open space which
divided the Moslems from the idolaters, and, according to
Arab usage, challenged three champions from the Moslem
ranks to single combat. Hamza, Ali, and Obaidah accepted
the challenge, and came out conquerors. The engagement
then became general. At one time the fortunes of the field
wavered, but Mohammed's appeal to his people decided the
fate of the battle. " It was a stormy winter day. A piercing;
blast swept across the valley." It seemed as if the angels ■
of heaven were warring for the Moslems. Indeed, to the
earnest minds of Mohammed and his followers, who, like the ;
early Christians, saw God's providence " in all the gifts of
nature, in every relation of life, at each turn of their affairs,
individual or public," — to them those blasts of wind and
sand, the elements warring against the enemies of God, at that
critical moment appeared veritable succour sent from heaven ;
as angels riding on the wings of the wind, and driving the
faithless idolaters before them in confusion. ^ The Meccans
were driven back with great loss ; many of their chiefs were
slain ; and Abu Jahl fell a victim to his unruly pride. ^

A large number remained prisoners in the hands of the
Moslems, but only two of them were executed. They had
been noted for their virulent animosity towards the followers
of the new Faith, and by the laws of war among the Arabs
they now paid the penalty of their conduct.^

1 Ibn-Hisham, p. 444 ; Ibn ul-Athir, vol. ii. p. 97.

^ Koran, Sura viii. ver. 9, and Sura iii. vers. 11, 121-128. Comp. also Muir,
vol. iii. p. 106.

3 Ibn-Hisham, p. 443 et seq. ; Ibn ul-Athir, vol. ii. p. 26 et seq. Sir W.
Muir mentions that when the head of Abii Jahl was brought to Mohammed,
he said, " It is more acceptable to me than the choicest camel in Arabia."
This passage, which is not to be found either in Ibn-Hisham, Ibn ul-Athir,
Abulfeda or Tabari, is apocryphal.

* Nazr, son of Harith, referred to in ver. 32 of Sura viii. of the Koran, was
one of these men.

IV. THE VICTORY OF THE MOSLEMS 63

The rest of the prisoners, contrary to all the usages and
traditions of the Arabs, were treated with the greatest human-
ity. The Prophet gave strict orders that respect should be
paid to their misfortunes, and that they should be treated
with kindness. The Moslems, to whose care he confided them,
faithfully obeyed his instructions. They shared their own
food with the prisoners, giving them the bread which forms the
best part of their repast, and contenting themselves with
dates alone. 1

The division of the spoil gave rise to sharp dissensions among
the Moslem soldiery. For the present, Mohammed calmed
their disputes by dividing it equally amongst all.^ But as
such dissensions among an unruly people were likely to lead
to mischief, the Prophet, with a view to prevent all future
quarrels over spoil acquired in war, promulgated a special
ordinance, which is incorporated in the chapter of the Koran
entitled al-Anfdl (the Spoils). By this law the division of the
spoils was left to the discretion of the chief of the common-
wealth ; a fifth being reserved for the public treasury for the
support of the poor and indigent.^

The remarkable circumstances which led to the victory of
Badr, and the results which followed from it, made a deep
impression on the minds of the Moslems. They firmly believed
that the angels of heaven had battled on their side against the
unbelieving host.

1 Ibn-Hisham, pp. 459, 460 ; Caussin de Perceval, vol. iii. p. 79. M"ir
speaks thus : " In pursuance of Mahomet's commands, the citizens of Medina,
and such of the refugees as possessed houses, received the prisoners, and
treated them with much consideration. ' Blessings be on the men of Medina ! '
said one of these prisoners in later days ; ' they made us ride, while they
themselves walked ; they gave us wheaten bread to eat when there was little
of it ; contenting themselves with dates,' " vol. iii. p. 122.

2 " It is remarkable," says Sale, " that the dispute among Mohammed's
men about sharing the booty at Badr arose on the same occasion as did that
among David's soldiers in relation to the spoils taken from the Amalekites ;
those who had been in the action insisting that they who tarried by the stuff
should have no part of the spoil ; and that the same decision was given in
both cases, which became a law for the future, to wit, that they should part
alike." Prel. Disc. sec. vi.

•■' Koran, chap. viii. ver. 41. Though the distribution was left to the dis-
cretion of the chief of the State, certain customs were invariably observed
which under the Cahphs became precedents, and thus gave a more definite
shape to the law. Compare M. Querry's splendid work, entitled Droit Mussul-
man (Paris 1871), tome i. p. 335.

64 THE LIFE OF MOHAMMED i.

The few simple touches in the Koran which bring into vivid
prominence the poetic element involved in the conception of
the angels fighting the battle of the Lord, will not yield in
beauty or sublimity to the most eloquent words of the Psalmist.
Indeed, the same poetic character is perceptible in both.^

Probably Mohammed, like Jesus and other teachers, believed
in the existence of intermediate beings, celestial messengers
from God to man. The modern disbelief in angels furnishes
no reason for ridicuUng the notions of our forefathers. Our
disbelief is as much open to the name of superstition as their
belief ; only one is negative, the other positive. What we,
in modern times, look upon as the principles of nature, they
looked upon as angels, ministrants of heaven. Whether there
exist intermediate beings, as Locke thinks, between God and
man, just as there are intermediate beings between man and i '
the lowest form of animal creation, is a question too deep to be ;
fathomed by the reason of man. •

Mohammed also, like Jesus, probably beheved in the existence
of the Principle of Evil as a personal entity. But an analysis
of his words reveals a more rationalistic element, a subjective
conception clothed in language suited for the apprehension ^
of his followers. When somebody asked him where Satan j
lived, he replied " In the heart of man," whilst Christian :
tradition converts the Pharisee who tempted Jesus, into the
veritable Prince of Hell.^

The belief in angels and devils has given rise to an extra-
ordinary number of legends both in Islam and in Christianity. !
The saints of heaven and angels fight for the Christian. The ,
Moslem only accepts the assistance of angels in the battles of i
life. ',

^ Ps. xviii. ;

2 All the Schleicrmacher school believe the tempter to have been the head
priest. Milman mentions this view as well as the patristic and orthodox one,
but dexterously leaves for the reader to choose which he likes. The chapter ,
of Reuss on Angels {History of Christian Theology in the Apostolic Age, Engli-sh '
translation, note i, pp. 401-404), with the mass of references arrayed therein, i
distinctly proves that the early Christians, the immediate disciples of Jesus, |
firmly believed the angels and devils to be personal entities, beings slightly I
ethereal, but in every way human-like ; and this belief those disciples of Jesus ■
must have received from the Master himself, who, indeed, as Renan says, .j
could not have been, in these respects, intellectually different from the people ij
of his age ; Vie de Jesus, 3rd ed. 1867, p. 267. ;

IV. CALUMNY AGAINST MOHAMMED 65

Note to Chapter IV

The story of Mohammed's inhuman reply to the appeal of
'Okba, son of Abu Mu'ait, when he was being led forward to
execution, is utterly false ; it is said that on 'Okba's asking,
" \Vlio will take care of my little children ? " Mohammed
answered, " Hell lire." This story is so preposterous in itself,
so opposed to Mohammed's true character (one of whose
noblest traits was his love for children, and who always in-
culcated love and protection of orphans as an absolute duty,
and an act most acceptable to God), that it is hardly necessary
to search for its true origin. Christian writers, however, seem
to gloat over it, and hence it becomes needful to examine how
the story arose.

It originated most probably from the sobriquet of Sihyat
nn-Ndr (children of fire), applied to the children of 'Okba.
'Okba himself belonged to the tribe of 'Ajlan,^ a branch of
which inhabited certain valleys near Safra, and were known by
the name of Bani un-Nar (children or descendants of fire) . The
sobriquet was probably derived from this circumstance ; and
the story of Mohammed's reply from the nickname.

Another story of Mohammed's having bitterly apostrophised
the dead of the idolaters on their burial is, to say the least,
distorted. Tabari thus narrates the circumstances which have
given rise to this calumny : " The Prophet placed himself
by the side of the large grave or pit which had been prepared
for the corpses ; and as the bodies were lowered, the names
were called out, and Mohammed then uttered these words,
' You, my kindred, you accused me of lying, when others
believed in me ; you drove me from my home, when others
received me ; what destiny has been yours ! Alas ! all that
God threatened is fulfilled.' " These words, which were
palpably meant to express pity, have been distorted to imply
bitterness.

^Aghani, according to C. de Perceval, vol. iii. p. 79.

CHAPTER V

THE INVASION OF MEDINA BY THE KOREISH
2 A.H. = 624A.C.

SUCCESS is always one of the greatest criterions of truth.
Even in the early days of Christianity, the good
Pharisee said, " Let them alone ; if these men be false,
they will come to nought, or else you yourselves shall perish."
If Constantine had not seen, or fancied he had
^ ' ' seen, the notable cross in the heavens ; if he
had not marched to success under its auspices ; if it had not
led him on to victory and to the throne — we can hardly conceive
what would have been the fate of Christianity. What the
victory of Badr was for Islam, the victory of the Milvian
Bridge was for Christianity.^ It thenceforth ruled from the
throne of the Caesars.

For the Moslems the victory of Badr was indeed most
auspicious. It was not surprising that they, like the Israelites
or Christians of yore, saw the hand of Providence in their
success over the idolaters. Had the Moslems failed, we can
imagine what their fate would have been — a universal massacre.
Whilst Mohammed was engaged in this expedition, he lost

1 The Christians themselves look upon the defeat of Maxentius by Con-
stantine {312 A.c.) as the greatest triumph of their faith. The chapter of
Gibbon, vol. iii. chap, xx., mingled satire Snd historj-, shows how the success
of Christianity dates from that event.

V HOSTILITY OF THE JEWS AND ARABS 67

one of his favourite daughters, Rukaiya, married to Osman,
who had only recently returned from the Abyssinian exile.
But the desire for revenge with which the idolaters were
burning allowed him no time to indulge in domestic sorrow.
As soon as all the Koreishite prisoners had returned liome, Abu
Sutian issued forth from Mecca with two hundred horsemen,
vowing solemnly never to return until he had avenged himself
on Mohammed and his followers. Scouring the country to
within a few miles of Medina, he came down with a fell swoop
on the unprepared Moslems, slaying the people, and ravaging
date-groves which furnished the staple food of the Arabs.
The Meccans had provided themselves with bags of " sawik " ^
for the foray. As soon, however, as the Moslems sallied forth
from Medina to avenge the murders, the Meccans turned bridle
and fled, dropping the bags in order to lighten their beasts :
whence this affair was derisively called by the Moslems, Ghazwat
us-sau'ik, " the battle of the meal-bags." ^

It was on this occasion that an incident happened to the
Prophet, which has been exceedingly well told
by Washington Irving. Mohammed was sleep- J^g,. Aprir624
ing one day alone at the foot of a tree, at a
distance from his camp, when he was awakened by a noise,
and beheld Durthur, a hostile warrior, standing over him with
a drawn sword. " O Mohammed," cried he, " who is there
now to save thee ? " " God ! " replied the Prophet. The wild
Bedouin was suddenly awed, and dropped his sword, which
was instantly seized upon by Mohammed. Brandishing the
weapon, he exclaimed in turn, " Who is there now to save thee,
0 Durthur ? " " Alas, no one ! " replied the soldier. " Then
learn from me to be merciful." So saying, he returned the
sword. The Arab's heart was overcome ; and in after years
he proved one of the staunchest adherents of the Prophet,^

^ Sawik is the old and modern Arabic name for a dish of green grain, toasted,
pounded, mixed with dates or sugar, and eaten on journeys when it is found
difficult to cook.

- The place where the affair took place bears now the name of Suwayka — a
few hours' journey to the south-west of Medina.

^ The last month of this year was marked by the death of Osman, son
of Mahzun, and the marriage of AH, son of Abu Talib, to Fatima, Mohammed's
daughter.

Osman was one of the earliest believers, and he was the first of the

68 THE LIFE OF MOHAMMED i.

But this skirmish, between the idolaters and the Moslems,
like others which followed, proved only a prelude to the great
drama that was about to be enacted.

The idolaters were burning for revenge. They made formid-
able preparations for another war upon the

3 A.H.=26th Moslems. Their emissaries succeeded in ob-
Aprii 6^25 A.c. taining the assistance of the tribes of Tihama
and Kinana, and their united forces soon
amounted to three thousand well-equipped soldiers (of whom
seven hundred were mailed warriors), animated with but one
desire, that of revenge. This army was as formidable to the
petty tribes of Arabia as the multitudinous hordes of Xerxes
to the Grecian States.

Marching under the command of the relentless Abu Sufian,
and meeting with no opposition from any side, they took up a
well-chosen position to the north-east of Medina, where only
the hill of Ohod and a valley separated them from the devoted
city. From this safe vantage-ground they ravaged the fields
and fruit groves of the Medinites.

Forced by the enthusiasm of his followers, and by their fury
at the destruction of their property, Mohammed marched out
of Medina with a thousand men. The ill-concealed enmity of
the Jews led to the defection of Abdullah ibn-Ubayy, the leader
of the Munafikin (the Disaffected), with three hundred of his
followers. This desertion reduced the strength of Mohammed's
small force to seven hundred men, who only possessed two i
horses amongst them. But still this gallant band marched j
steadily forward. Advancing quietly through groves of fruit |
trees, they soon gained the hill of Ohod. They passed the
night in the defile, and in the morning, after offering prayers as 1
they stood to arms, they debouched into the plain. Mohammed 1
now took up his position immediately under the hill.^ Posting

Muhajirin who died at. Medina, and was interred at Baki, a suburb of Medina,
where he buried a number of illustrious and saintly people, whose tombs are ,
up to the present day venerated by the Moslems. '

Ali had been betrothed to Fatima several days before the expedition to !
Badr, but the marriage was only celebrated three months later, Ali being in '
his twenty-first, and Fatima in her fifteenth year.

1 Burton thus describes the spot : " This spot, so celebrated in the annals
of El Islam, is a shelving strip of land, close to the southern base of Mount .
Ohod. The army of the infidels advanced from the fiumara in crescent shape, 1

V. THE BATTLE OF OHOD 69

a few archers on a height behind the troops, he gave them
strict injunctions not to abandon their place whatever happened
but to harass the cavahy of the enemy and protect the flanks
of the Moslems. The idolaters, confident in their numbers,
marched down into the plain with their idols in the centre of
their army, and the wives of the chiefs chanting their war-
songs and beating their timbrels. ^ The first violent onslaught
of the Koreish was bravely repulsed by the Moslems, led by
Hamza, who, taking advantage of the confusion of the enemy,
dashed into the midst of the Koreishites, deahng havoc on all
sides. Victory had almost declared for the Moslems, when the
archers, forgetting the injunctions of the Prophet, and seeing
the enemy in flight, dispersed in search of plunder. ^ And what
happened in later days at Tours happened at Ohod. Khalid
bin Walid, one of the Koreish, at once perceived their error,
and rallying his horse, fell on the rear of the Moslems.^ The
infantry of the Koreish also turned, and the Moslem troops, taken
both in rear and front, had to renew the battle at fearful odds.
Some of the bravest chiefs in the Moslem army fell fighting.
The intrepid Hamza, with several others, was killed ; Ah, who
had chivalrously answered the first call of defiance (Rajz) of the
idolaters,^ and Omar and Abu Bakr were severely W'ounded.

with Abu Sufiyan, the general, and his idols in the centre. It is distant
about three miles from El IMedinah in a northerly direction. All the visitor
sees is hard gravelly ground, covered with little heaps of various coloured
granite, red sandstone, and bits of porphyry, to denote the different places
where the martyrs fell and were buried. Seen from this point, there is some-
thing appalling in the look of the holy mountain. Its seared and jagged
flanks rise like masses of iron from the plain, and the crevice into which the
Moslem host retired, when the disobedience of the archers in hastening to
plunder enabled Khalid ben Walid to fall upon Mohammed's rear, is the
only break in the grim wall. Reeking with heat, its surface produces not
one green shrub or stunted tree ; not a bird or beast appeared upon its in-
hospitable sides, and the bright blue sky glaring above its bald and sullen
brow made it look only the more repulsive." — Burton's Pilgrimage to Mecca,
vol. ii. pp. 236, 237.

1 Extracts from their war-songs are given by Ibn ul-Athir, vol. ii. p. Ii8.
" Courage ! Ye sons of Abd ud-Dar ; courage ! defenders of women ! strike
home with the edges of your swords." Another runs thus : " We are daughters
of the Star of the JNIorn (Tarik) ; we tread softly on silken cushions {nanulrik) ;
face the enemy boldly, and we shall press you in our arms ; fly, and we shall
shun you, shun you with disgust."

- This disobedience is referred to in the Koran, sura iii. ver. 146.

^ Ibn ul-Athir, vol. ii. 119 ; al-Halabi, Tnscni ul-'UyiXn, vol. ii. p. 239.

^ Tabari says that Talha, the standard-bearer of the idolaters, a man of
heroic bravery, placed himself before AH, and brandishing his sabre, defied

70 THE LIFE OF MOHAMMED i.

The efforts of the idolaters were, however, principally directed
towards Mohammed, who, surrounded by a few disciples and
separated from the main body of his people, became now the
chief object of their assaults. His friends fell fast around him.
Though wounded and bleeding he did not forget their loving
hearts, and blessed the hand that tried to stanch the blood
which flowed from his forehead.^ But rescue was nigh. The
brave warriors who under Ali had been fighting in the centre
with the energy of despair, succeeded in retreating to a point
on the hill, where they were secure from the attacks of the
enemy, but full of consternation at the loss, as they supposed,
of their great Master. Seeing, however, their brethren still
fighting in another part of the field, they rushed down into the
midst of the idolaters. Penetrating to the place where the
small group of Moslems yet defended the Prophet, and finding
that he still lived, they succeeded, after great exertions, in
retreating with him to the heights of Mount Ohod, where they
breathed again. Ali fetched water in his shield from the hollow
of a rock. With this he bathed Mohammed's face and wounds,
and with his companions offered up the mid-day prayers sitting.

The Koreish were too exhausted to follow up their advantage,
either by attacking Medina or driving the Moslems from the
heights of Ohod. They retreated from the Medinite territories
after barbarously mutilating their slain enemies. The wife of
Abu Sufian, Hind, the daughter of 'Otba, with the other
Koreishite women, showed the greatest ferocity in this savage
work of vengeance, tearing out the heart of Hamza, and making
bracelets and necklaces of the ears and noses of the dead.

The barbarities practised by the Koreish on the slain
created among the Moslems a feeling of bitter exasperation.
Even Mohammed was at first so moved by indignation as to

him, crying, " You Moslems say that our dead will go to hell, and yours to
heaven ; let me see whether I cannot send thee to heaven." Upon this Ali
replied, " Be it so ' " and they fought, and Talha was struck to the ground.
" Mercy, O son of my uncle," cried he. Ali replied, " Mercy be it ; thou dost
not deserve the fire." — Vol. iii. p. 25.

1 Ibn ul-Athir, vol. ii. p. 114, and Abulfeda, p. 44, mention the date of the
battle of Ohod as the 7th of Shawwal ; Tabari, vol. iii. p. 21, mentions the 8th ;
Ibn-Hisham, the 5th ; and several others the nth. C. de Perceval, however,
calculates the nth to have been the real date of the battle, as according to
all the chroniclers the day was a Saturday, and the nth of Shawwal (26th of
January) fell on a Saturday. — Hist, des Arabes, vol. iii. p. 96, note.

V. HOSTILITY OF THE JEWS 71

declare that the dead of the Koreish should in future be treated
in like manner.^ But the gentleness of his nature conquered the
bitterness of his heart. " Bear wrong patiently," he preached ;
" verily, best it will be for the patiently enduring." ^ And
from that day the horrible practice of mutilation which pre-
vailed among all the nations of antiquity was inexorably
forbidden to the Moslems.^

On his return to Medina the Prophet directed a small body
of the disciples to pursue the retreating enemy, and to impress
on them that the Moslems, though worsted in battle, were yet
unbroken in spirit, and too strong to be attacked again with
impunity. Abu Sutian, hearing of the pursuit, hastened back
to Mecca, having first murdered two Medinites whom he met
on his route. He, however, sent a message to the Prophet,
saying that he would soon return to exterminate him and his
people. The reply as before was full of trust and faith — " God
is enough for us, a good guardian is He ! " ^

The moral effect of this disastrous battle was at once visible
in the forays which the neighbouring nomads prepared to
make on the Medinite territories. Most of them, however,
were repressed by the energetic action of Mohammed, though
some of the hostile tribes succeeded in enticing Moslem
missionaries into their midst, under the pretence of embracing
Islam, and then massacred them. On one such occasion
seventy Moslems were treacherously murdered near a brook
called Bir-Ma'una, within the territories of two tribes, the
Bani-'Amir and the Bani-Sulaim, chiefly through the instru-
mentality of the latter. One of the two survivors of the
slaughter escaped towards Medina. Meeting on the way two
unarmed Arabs belonging to the Bani-'Amir who were
travelhng under a safe-conduct of the Prophet, and mistaking

' Ibn-Hisham, p. 580 et seq. ; Ibn ul-Athir, vol. ii. pp. 115-126; Tabari,
vol. iii. p. 16 et seq. ; al-Halabi, Insdn ul-'Uyun, vol. ii. p. 242.

^ Koran, sura xvii. ver. 127 ; Ibn-Hisham, pp. 584, 585 ; Zamakhshari
(the Kashshaf), Egypt, ed., p. 446.

^ The Jews used to burn their prisoners alive, and most barbarously
mutilate the slain. The Greeks, the Romans, and the Persians all practised
similar barbarities. Christianity effected no improvement in these frightful
customs, for as late as the sixteenth century we read of the most horrible
mutilations.

* Ibn-Hisham, p. 590 ; Koran, sura iii. ver. 167.

72 THE LIFE OF MOHAMMED i.

them for enemies, he killed them. When Mohammed heard of
this he was deeply grieved. A wrong had been committed b}-
one of his followers, though under a mistake, and the relatives
of the men that were killed were entitled to redress. Accord-
ingly orders were issued for collecting the diyat (the Wehrgeld)
from the Moslems and the people who had accepted the Charter. ^
The Jewish tribes of the Bani un-Nazir, the Kuraizha, and
others were bound equally with the Moslems to contribute
towards this payment.- Mohammed himself, accompanied by \
a few disciples, proceeded to the Bani un-Nazir, and asked I
from them their contribution. They seemingly agreed to the
demand, and requested him to wait awhile. Whilst sitting
with his back to the wall of a house, he observed sinister move-
ments amongst the inhabitants, which led him to divine their
intention of murdering him. j

But to explain the hostility of the Jews we must trace back |
the course of events. We have seen with what bitter animosity
they dogged Mohammed's footsteps from the moment of his
arrival at Medina. They tried to sow disaffection among his
people. They libelled him and his followers. They mis-
pronounced the words of the Koran so as to give them an
offensive meaning. But this was not aU. By their superior
education and intelligence, by their union with the party of
the Munafikin (the Disaffected), and by the general unanimity
which prevailed among them (so different from the disunion
of the Arabs), the Jews formed a most dangerous element
within the federated State which had risen under the Teacher
of Islam. Among unadvanced nations poets occupy the
position and exercise the influence of the press in modern
times. ^ The Jewish poets by their superior culture naturally

^ See a>ite, pp. 58-59.

^ Ibn ul-Athir, vol. iii. p. 133 ; Tabari, vol. iv. p. 50. Muir and Sprenger
have strangely garbled thi.s part of the affair. Sir \V. Muir does not find
any authority for M. C. de Perceval's saying, that the Jews were bound by
treaty to contribute towards the Diyat. If he had referred to Tabari he would
have seen the following statement' "En suite il ordonna de reunir cette
somme, ou la repartissant sur la ville de Medine, et d'y faire contribuer egale- ,
ment les Juifs, tels que les Beni-Nadhir, les Koraizha et ceux de Fadak, qu'y
etaient obliges par le traite." — Zotenberg's Iransl. vol. iii. p. 50. So also
Ibn ul-Athir, vol. ii. p. 133.

3 An example of the influence which poets and rhapsodists exercise among
unprogressed nations is afforded by one of the episodes connected with the

V. HOSTILITY OF THE JEWS 73

exercised a vast influence among the Medinites ; and this
influence was chiefly directed towards sowing sedition among
the Moslems, and widening the breach between them and the
opposing faction. The defeat of the idolaters at Badr was felt
as keenly by the Jews as by the Meccans. Immediately after
this battle a distinguished member of their race, called Ka'b,
the son of Ashraf, belonging to the tribe of Nazir, publicly
deploring the ill-success of the idolaters, proceeded towards
Mecca. Finding the people there plunged in grief, he spared
no exertion to revive their courage. By his satires against the
Prophet and his disciples, by his elegies on the Meccans who
had fallen at Badr, he succeeded in exciting the Koreish to that
frenzy of vengeance which found vent on the plains of Ohod,
Having attained his object, he returned to his home near
Medina in the canton of Nazir, where he continued to attack
Mohammed and the Musulmans in ironical and obscene verses,
not sparing even the women of the Believers, whom he addressed
in terms of the grossest character. His acts were openly
directed against the commonwealth of which he was a member.
He belonged to a tribe which had entered into the Compact ^
with the Moslems, and pledged itself for the internal as well as
the external safety of the State. Another Jew of the Nazir,
Abu Raf'e Sallam, son of Abu'l Hukaik, was equally wild and
bitter against the Musulmans. He inhabited, with a fraction
of his tribe, the territories of Khaibar, four or five da3's' journey
to the north-west of Medina. Detesting Mohammed and the
Musulmans, he made use of every endeavour to excite the
neighbouring Arab tribes, such as the Sulaim and the Ghatafan,
against them. It was impossible for the Musulman Common-
wealth to tolerate this open treachery on the part of those to

war of Ohod. Whilst preparing for this eventful campaign, the Koreish
requested a poet of the name of Abu 'Uzza to go round the tribes of the desert,
and excite them by his songs and poetry against the Moslems, and persuade
them to join the confederacy^ formed under the auspices of the Meccans, for
the destruction of Mohammed and his followers This man had been taken
prisoner by the Moslems in the battle of Badr, but was released by the Prophet,
without ransom, on pledging himself never again to take up arms against the
Medinites. In spite of this, he was tempted to break his word, and went
round the tribes, rousing them to arms by his poetry ; and it is said he was
eminently successful in his work. After Ohod he was again taken prisoner
and executed by the Moslems; Ibn-Hisham, p. 591.

1 See ante, p. 58.

74 THE LIFE OF MOHAMMED i.

whom every consideration had been shown, with the object of
securing their neutrality, if not their support. Tlie very
existence of the Moslem community was at stake ; and every
principle of safety required that these traitorous designs
should be quietly frustrated. The sentence of outlawry was
executed upon them by the Medinites themselves — in one
case by a member of the tribe of Aus, in the other by a
Khazrajite.

C'hristian controversialists have stigmatised these executions
as ' ' assassinations. ' ' And because a Moslem was sent secretly to
kill each of the criminals, in their prejudice against the Prophet,
they shut their eyes to the justice of the sentence, and the
necessity of a swift and secret execution. There existed then
no police court, no judicial tribunal, nor even a court-martial,
to take cognisance of individual crimes. In the absence of a
State executioner any individual might become the executioner
of the law. These men had broken their formal pact ; it was
impossible to arrest them in public, or execute the sentence in
the open before their clans, without causing unnecessary blood-
shed, and giving rise to the feud of blood, and everlasting
vendetta. The exigencies of the State required that whatever
should be done should be done swiftly and noiselessly upon
those whom public opinion had arraigned and condemned.^
The existence of the republic, and the maintenance of peace
and order within the city, depended upon the prompt execution
of the sentence passed upon the culprits before they could rally
their clansmen round them.

The fate of these two traitors, and the expulsion of their

2 A H Shaw- brethren the Bani-Kainuka' from the Medinite
wal, February territories, had given rise to a bitter feeling of

^'^^■^- animosity among the Nazir against the

Prophet. The circumstances connected with the banishment
of the Kainuka' require a brief notice. Whilst the other
Jewish tribes were chiefly agricultural, the Banu-Kainuka'
hardly possessed a single field or date plantation. They were

* Our Christian historians forget that the " wise " Solon himself, for the
safety of his small city, made it obligatory on the Athenians to become
executioners of the law, by pursuing the factious, or taking one or two sides
in a public riot. They also forget that even the laws of Christian England
allow any person to pursue and kill " an outlaw."

V. HOSTILITY OF THE JEWS 75

for the most part artisans employed in handicraft of all kinds.'
Seditious and unruly, always ready for a broil like their co-
religionists of Alexandria, the Banu-Kainuka' were also noted
for the extreme laxity of their morals. One day a young girl
from the country came to their bazaar or market (Suk) to sell
milk. The Jewish youths insulted her grossly. A Moslem
passer-by took the part of the girl, and in the fray which ensued
the author of the outrage was killed ; whereupon the entire
body of the Jews present rose and slaughtered the Moslem. A
wild scene then followed. The Moslems, enraged at the murder
of their compatriot, flew to arms, blood flowed fast, and many
were killed on both sides. At the first news of the riots,
Mohammed hastened to the spot, and, by his presence, suc-
ceeded in restraining the fury of his followers. He at once
perceived what the end would be of these seditions and disorders
if allowed to take their course. Medina would be turned into
an amphitheatre, in which members of hostile factions might
murder one another with impunity. The Jews had openly and
knowingly infringed the terms of their compact. It was
necessary to put a stop to this with a firm hand, or farewell to
all hope of peace and security. Consequently Mohammed
proceeded at once to the quarter of the Bani-Kainuka', and
required them to enter definitely into the Moslem Common-
wealth by embracing Islam, or to vacate Medina. The reply
of the Jews was couched in the most offensive terms. " O,
Mohammed, do not be elated with the victory over thy
people (the Koreish). Thou hast had an affair with men
ignorant of the art of war. If thou art desirous of
having any dealings with us, we shall show thee that
we are men," ^ They then shut themselves up in their fortress,
and set Mohammed's authority at defiance. But their reduc-
tion was an absolute duty, and siege was accordingly laid to
their stronghold without loss of time. After fifteen days they
surrendered. At first it was intended to infiict some severe
punishment on them, but the clemency of Mohammed's nature

' Tabari, vol. iii. p. 8.

Mbn-Hisham, p. 545. Tabari gives the speech of the Kainuka' with a
sHght variation. But all historians agree in its being defiant and offensive.
I cannot understand whence Gibbon obtained the excessively meek reply he
puts into the mouth of these people.

76 THE LIFE OF MOHAMMED i.

overcame the dictates of justice, and the Bani-Kainuka' were
simply banished.

All these circumstances were rankling within the breasts of
the Bani un-Nazir. They only waited for a favourable
opportunity to rid themselves of Mohammed, and therefore'
looked upon his arrival amongst them as providential. But
their sinister designs, as we have before said, did not escape the
eye of the Prophet. He immediately left the place without
raising the suspicions of the Jews, and thus saved himself and
his disciples from almost certain destruction. ^

The Bani un-Nazir had now placed themselves in exactly
the same position as the Bani-Kainuka' had previously done.
They had by their own act put themselves outside the pale of
the Charter ; and therefore on his arrival at Medina, Mohammed
sent them a message of the same import as that which was sent
to the Kainuka'. Relying on the support of the Munafikin
and Abdullah ibn-Ubayy, the Bani un-Nazir returned a
defiant answer. Disappointed, however, in the promised
assistance of Abdullah, and of their brethren, the Bani-
Kuraizha, after a siege of fifteen days ^ they sued for terms.
The previous offer was renewed, and they agreed to evacuate
their territories. They were allowed to take all their movables
with them, with the exception of arms.^ In order to prevent
the Moslems from occupying their dwellings, they destroyed
these before leaving.^

Their lands, warlike materials, etc., which they could not

R bi I AH carry away, were distributed by the Prophet

= June to July with the consent and cordial approval of the

625 A.c. Ansar, among the Muhajirin, who, up to this

time had been entirely dependent for support on the generosity

of the Medinites. Notwithstanding the strong brotherly love

which existed between the " Refugees " and the " Helpers," ^

Mohammed knew that the assistance of the Medinites afforded

1 As any betrayal of suspicion by Mohammed or his disciples of the intents
of the Jews would have made these people desperate, and precipitated matters,
the Prophet went away by himself, leaving his followers behind, which led the
Jews to suppose he was not gone far, and would quickly return.

2 Tabari says eleven days (vol. iii p. 54).

3 Ibn-Hisham, pp. 652, 653 ; Ibn ul-Athir, vol. ii. p. 133 ; Abulfeda, p. 49-
■* Koran, sura lix. ver. 5. ^ See ante, p. 53.

V. HOSTILITY OF THE JEWS 77

but a precarious means of subsistence. He accordingly
assembled the principal men from among the Ansar, and asked
them whether they had any objection to his distributing among
their poor brethren who had followed him from Mecca the goods
left behind by the Jews. With one voice they answered,
" Give to our brothers the goods of the Jews ; assign to them
even a portion of ours : we willingly consent." Upon this the
Prophet divided the property among the Muhajirin and two
of the Ansar who were extremely poor.^

The expulsion of the Bani un-Nazir took place in the month
of Rabi L of the fourth year.^ The remaining portion of this
year and the early part of the next were passed in repressing
the spasmodic hostile attempts of the nomadic tribes against
the Moslems, and in inflicting punishments for various
murderous forays on the Medinite territories.^

Meanwhile the enemies of the Faith were by no means idle.
Far and wide the idolaters had sent their ^^ ^ ^j

emissaries to stir up the tribes against the May 626 to 23rd
Moslems. The Jews were the most active in ^" ^'^ ^'^'
these efforts. Some of the Bani-Nazir had remained behind
with their brethren settled near Khaibar, and there, fired with
the hope of vengeance, had set themselves to the work of
forming another league for the destruction of the Believers.^
Their efforts were successful beyond their utmost hopes. A
formidable coalition was soon formed ; and an army, con-
sisting of ten thousand well-appointed men, marched upon

' Ibn-Hisham, p. 654 ; Ibn ul-Athir, vol. ii. p. 133 ; Tabari, vol. iii. p. 54.
A principle was henceforth established that any acquisition, not made in
actual warfare, should belong to the State, or the chief of the State ; and
that its application should depend upon his discretion (vide Droit Miisiilman
by M. Querry, p. 337). Sura lix. of the Koran treats almost entirely of the
circumstances connected with the banishment of the Bani un-Nazir.

- According to Ibn-Hisham, p. 653, and Abulfeda, p. 49 ; Tabari, vol. iii.
p. 55, says it was the month of Safar.

' Of this nature was the expedition against the Christian Arabs of Dijmat
ul-Jandal (a place according to Abulfeda, about seven days' journey to the
south of Damascus), who had stopped the Medinite traffic with Syria and
even threatened a raid upon ^Medina ; these marauders, however, fled on the
approach of the Moslems, and JNlohammed returned to Medina, after conclud-
ing a treaty with a neighbouring chief, to whom he granted permission of
pasturage on the Medinite territories. — C. de Perceval, vol. iii. p. 129 ; Tabari,
vol. iii. p. 60.

* Ibn-Isham, p. 963 ; Ibn ul-Athir, vol. ii. p. 639 ; Tabari, vol. iii. pp. Oo, 01.

78 THE LIFE OF MOHAMMED i.

Medina, under the command of the relentless Abu Sufian.
Meeting no opposition on their way, they soon encamped
within a few miles of Medina, on its most vulnerable side,
towards Ohod. To oppose this host the Moslems could only
Shawwai, 5 a. 11. ^T^i-^ster a body of three thousand men.^ Forced
=2 February thus by their inferiority in numbers, as well as
^^" by the factious opposition of the Mundfikin

within the city,^ to remain on the defensive, they dug a deep
trench round the unprotected quarters of Medina, and, leaving
their women and children for safety in their fortified houses,
they encamped outside the city, with the moat in front of them.
In the meantime they relied for the safety of the other side, if
not upon the active assistance, at least upon the neutrality of
the Bani-Kuraizha, who possessed several fortresses at a short
distance, towards the south-east, and were bound by the
Compact to assist the Moslems against every assailant. These
Jews, however, were persuaded by the idolaters to violate their
pledged faith, and to join the Koreish. As soon as the news of
their defection reached Mohammed, he deputed " the two
Sa'ds," Sa'd ibn-Mu'az and Sa'd ibn-'Ubada, to entreat them
to return to their duty. The reply was defiant and sullen :
" Who is Mohammed, and who is the Apostle of God that we
should obey him ? There is no bond or compact betwixt us
and him." ^

As these Jews were well acquainted with the locality, and
could materially assist the besiegers by showing them the
weak points of the city, the consternation among the Moslems
became great, whilst the disaffected body within the walls
increased the elements of danger.*

The idolaters and the Jews, failing in all their attempts to

' Ibn-Hisham, p. 678.

- Referred to in the Koran, sura xxxiii. vers. 12, 13, 14, etc.

^ Ibn-Hisham, p. 675 ; Muir, vol. iii. p. 259.

' The whole scene is so beautifully painted in the Koran, sura xxxiii. (Surat
ul-Ahzab, " The Confederates "), that I cannot resist quoting a few verses
here : " When they assailed you from above you and from below you, and
when your eyes became distracted, and your hearts came up into your throats,
and ye thought divers thoughts of God, then were the Faithful tried, and
with strong quaking did they quake ; and when the disaffected and diseased
of heart (with infidelity) said, ' God and His Apostle have made us but a
cheating promise.' "

V. THE FATE OF THE BANI-KURAIZHA 79

draw the Moslems into the open field, or to surprise the city
under the direction of Jewish guides, determined upon a
regular assault. The siege had alread}^ lasted twenty days.
The restless tribes of the desert, who had made common cause
with the Koreish and their Jewish allies, and who had expected
an easy prey, were becoming weary of this protracted campaign.
Great efforts were made at this critical moment by the leaders
of the beleaguering host to cross the trench and fall upon the
small Moslem force. Every attempt was, however, repulsed
by untiring vigilance on the part of the Prophet. The elements
now seemed to combine against the besieging army ; their
horses were perishing fast, and provisions were becoming
scanty. Disunion was rife in their midst, and the far-seeing
chief of the Moslems, with matchless prudence, fomented it
into actual division. Suddenly this vast coalition, which had
seemed to menace the Moslems with inevitable destruction,
vanished into thin air. In the darkness of night, amidst a
storm of wind and rain, their tents overthrown, their lights
put out, Abu Sufian and the majority of his formidable army
fled, the rest took refuge with the Bani-Kuraizha.^ Mohammed
had in the night foretold to his followers the dispersion of their
enemies. Daybreak saw his prognostications fulfilled, and the
Moslems returned in joy to the city.^

But the victory was hardly achieved in the opinion of the
Moslems as long as the Bani-Kuraizha

° , . , , 5 A.H. =28th

remamed so near, and in such dangerous February 626 to
proxhnity to the city of Islam. They had 24^ March 627
proved themselves traitors in spite of their
sworn alliance, and had at one time almost surprised Medina
from their side, — an event which, if successful, would have
involved the general massacre of the faithful. The Moslems
therefore felt it their duty to demand an explanation of
the treachery. This was doggedly refused. The consequence
was that the Jews were besieged, and compelled to surrender
at discretion. They made only one condition, that their
punishment should be left to the judgment of the Ausite
chief, Sa'd ibn-Mu'az. This man, a fierce soldier who had been

1 Ibn-Hisham, p. 683 ; Ibn ul-Athir, vol. ii. p. 140.

' In Moslem annals this war is called the " War of the Trench."

8o THE LIFE OF MOHAMMED I.

wounded in the attack, and indeed died from his wounds the
next day, infuriated by their treacherous conduct, gave
sentence that the fighting men should be put to death, and that
the women and children should become the slaves of the
Moslems ; and this sentence was carried into execution.^ " It
was a harsh, bloody sentence," says Lane-Poole, " worthy of
the episcopal generals of the army against the Albigenses, or
of the deeds of the Augustan age of Puritanism ; but it must
be remembered that the crime of these men was high treason
against the State during a time of siege ; and those who have
read how Wellington's march could be traced by the bodies
of deserters and pillagers hanging from the trees, need not be
surprised at the summary execution of a traitorous clan." ^ !

The punishment inflicted on the various Jewish tribes has j
furnished to the Christian biographers of the Prophet, like \
Muir, Sprenger, Weil and Osborn, a ground for attack. The \
punishment meted out to the Bani-Kainuka' and Bani un-dj
Nazir was far below their deserts. The Bani-Kuraizha alone ■
were treated with severity.

Human nature is so constituted that, however criminal the
acts of an individual may be, the moment he is treated with a
severity which to our mind seems harsh or cruel, a natural
revulsion of feeling occurs, and the sentiment of justice gives
place to pity within our hearts. No doubt the sentence on the
Bani-Kuraizha, from our point of view, was severe. But,
however much we may regret that the fate of these poor people ;
should have been, though at their own special request, left in
the hands of an infuriated soldier— however much we may
regret that the sentence of this man should have been so carried
into effect — we must not, in the sentiment of pity, overlook
the stern question of justice and culpabiUty. We must bear
in mind the crimes of which they were guilty — their treachery,
their open hostility, their defection from an alliance to which
they were bound by every sacred tie. Nor must we altogether
forget the temptations which they, the worshippers of the
pure Jehovah, held out to the heathen Arabs to continue in the

1 Ibn-Hisham, pp. 686-690; Ibn ul-Athir, vol. ii. p. 141 et seq. ; Tabari,
vol. iii p. 68 et seq.

2 Selections from the Koran, Introd. p. Ixv.

V. HOSTILITY OF THE JEWS 8i

practice of idolatry. Some Moslems might naturally be
inclined to say, with the Christian moralist : " It is better that
the wicked should be destroyed a hundred times over than that
they should tempt those who are yet innocent to join their
company." ^

These Moslems might say with him, with only the variation
of a word : " Let us but think what might have been our fate,
and the fate of every other nation under heaven at this hour,
had the sword of the Arab ^ done its work more sparingly.
The Arab's sword, in its bloodiest executions, wrought a work
of mercy for all the countries of the earth to the very end of
the world." If the Christian's argument is correct and not
inhuman, certainly the Moslem's argument cannot be other-
wise. Other Moslems, however, might look upon this fearful
sentence on the Bani-Kuraizha in the same light as Carlyle
looks upon the order of Cromwell for the promiscuous massacre
of the Irish inhabitants of Drogheda : "An armed soldier
solemnly conscious of himself that he is the soldier of God the
Just,— a consciousness which it well beseems all soldiers and
all men to have always, — armed soldier, terrible as death,
relentless as doom ; doing God's judgment on the enemies of
God."

We, however, are not disposed to look at the punishment of
these Jews from either of these points of view. We simply look
upon it as an act done in complete accordance with the laws
of war as then understood by the nations of the world : "a
strict application of admitted customs of war in those days." ^
These people brought their fate upon themselves. If they had
been put to death, even without the judgment of Sa'd, it would
have been in consonance with the principles which then pre-
vailed. But they had themselves chosen Sa'd as the sole
arbiter and judge of their fate ; they knew that his judgment
was not at all contrary to the received notions, and accordingly
never munnured. They knew that if they had succeeded they
would have massacred their enemies without compunction.
People judge of the massacres of King David according to the

> Arnold's Sermons, 4th Sermon, " Wars of the Israelites," pp. 35. 36.
^ In the original, of course, Israelites.

' An observation of Grote, Hist. <>/ Greece, vol. vi. p. 499-
s.i. F

82 THE LIFE OF MOHAMMED i

" lights of his time." ^ Even the fearful slaughters committe(^
by the Christians in primitive times are judged according t<i
certain " lights." Why should not the defensive wars of th(i
early Moslems be looked at from the same standpoint ? But]
whatever the point of view, an unprejudiced mind ^ wil'
perceive that no blame can possibly attach to the Prophet ii
the execution of the Bani-Kuraizha.

The number of men executed could not have been more thai
200 or 250.

In the distribution of the surviving people, it is said, a youn/l
Jewess of the name of Raihana was allotted to the Prophet
Some say she was previously set apart. The Christiai
historians, always read}' to seize upon any point which to thei
mind offers a plausible ground for attacking Mohammed, hav:
not failed to make capital of this story. Leaving the examina-
tion of the question of slavery to a later chapter, we will heri
only observe that the allotment of Raihana, even if true!
furnishes no ground for modern attack, as it was perfectl]!
consonant with the customs of war recognised in those days;
The story about Raihana becoming a wife of the Prophet is ;■
fabrication, for, after this event, she disappears from historj
and we hear no more of her, whilst of others we have full an('
circumstantial accounts.

1 2 Sam. viii. 2 : " The conquered Ammonites he treated with even greate
ferocity, tearing and hewing some of them in pieces with harrows, axes, am
saws ; and roasting others in brick-kilns " (xii. 31) ; Maitland, Jewis
Literature and Modern Education, p. 21. Compare also Stanley's Lectures 0
the Jewish Church, vol. ii. p. 99.

2 I can onl}' remember 3M. Barthelemy St. Hilaire, Mr. Johnson, and Mi.
Stanley Lane- Poole among Europeans who have not been carried away b;'
prejudice.

CHAPTER VI
MOHAMMED'S CLEMENCY

THE formidable coalition formed by the Jews and the
idolaters to compass the destruction of the new
commonwealth of Medina had utterly failed, well
might the Moslems say, miraculously.^ But the surrounding
tribes of the desert, wild and fierce, were 6a.h. =23rd
committincr depredations, accompanied with Apdieay to 12th

1 xu Ar J- -x <^ •- • J +1 April 628 A. c.

murders, on the Medmite territories : and the ^
existence of the State required the employment of stern
measures for their repression. Several expeditions were
despatched against these marauders, but the slippery sons
of the desert generally evaded the approach of the Moslems.
The Bani-Lihyan, who had requested Mohammed to send
a few of his disciples among them to teach the precepts
of Islam, and who, on the arrival of the missionaries,
had killed some and sold the rest to the Meccans,— had, up to
this period, remained unpunished. But the time had come
when this crime should be avenged. In the month of Jumadi
I. of this year, a body of troops, under the personal command
of the Prophet, marched against the Bani-Lihyan. The
marauders, however, receiving timely notice of the Prophet's
approach, fled into the mountains, and the Moslems returned
to Medina without having accomphshed their purpose. -

* Comp. Koran, sura xxxiii. ver. 9.

- Ibn-Hisham, p. 718; Ibn ul-Athir, vol. ii. p. 143; Tabari, vol. iii.
p. 72.

84 THE LIFE OF MOHAMMED i,

A few days had only elapsed when a chief of the Bani-|
Fizara, a branch of the nomad horde of Ghatafan (Khail-j
Ghatafan), suddenly fell upon the open suburbs of the cityj
and drove off a large herd of camels, murdering the man whcj
had charge of them, and carrying off his wife. The Moslemsj
were immediately on their track, and a few of the animals were!
recovered ; but the Bedouins escaped into the desert with the
larger portion of their booty. j

It was about this time that the Prophet granted to the monksl
of the monastery of St. Catherine, near Mount Sinai, and to allj
Christians, a Charter which has been justly designated as one!
of the noblest monuments of enlightened tolerance that thej
history of the world can produce. This remarkable document,!
which has been faithfully preserved by the annalists of Islamj
displays a marvellous breadth of view and liberality of con-|
ception. By it the Prophet secured to the Christians privilegesj
and immunities which they did not possess even under]
sovereigns of their own creed ; and declared that any Moslem]
violating and abusing what was therein ordered, should bej
regarded as a violater of God's testament, a transgressor of|
His commandments, and a slighter of His faith. He under-j
took himself, and enjoined on his followers, to protect the'
Christians, to defend their churches, the residences of their
priests, and to guard them from all injuries. They were not
to be unfairly taxed ; no bishop was to be driven out of his
bishopric ; no Christian was to be forced to reject his religion ;
no monk was to be expeJled from his monastery ; no pilgrim
was to be detained from his pilgrimage. Nor were the Christian!
churches to be pulled down for the sake of building mosques;
or houses for the Moslems. Christian women married to
Moslems were to enjoy their own religion, and not to bej
subjected to compulsion or annoyance of any kind on that;
account. If Christians should stand in need of assistance for
the repair of their churches or monasteries, or any other matter
pertaining to their religion, the Moslems were to assist them.
This was not to be considered as taking part in their religion,
but as merely rendering them assistance in their need, andij
complying with the ordinances of the Prophet which were madei]
in their favour by the authority of God and of His Apostle.'

VI. MOHAMMED'S CLEMENCY 85

Should the Moslems be engaged m hostilities with outside
Christians, no Christian resident among the Moslems should be
treated with contempt on account of his creed. Any Moslem
so treating a Christian should be accounted recalcitrant to the
Prophet.

Man always attaches an idea of greatness to the character of
a person who, whilst possessing the power of returning evil for
evil, not only preaches but practises the divine principle of
forgiveness. Mohammed, as the chief of the State and guardian
of the life and liberty of the people, in the exercise of justice
sternly punished every individual guilty of crime. Mohammed
the Prophet, the Teacher, was gentle and merciful even to his
greatest enemies. In him were combined the highest attributes
that the human mind can conceive — justice and mercy.

A chief of the tribe of Hanifa, named Thumama, son of
Uthal, was taken prisoner by the Moslems in one of their
expeditions against the unruly Arabs of the desert. He was
brought to Medina, where he was so affected by the kindness
of the Prophet, that from an enemy he soon became the most
devoted follower. Returning to his people he stopped the
transport to Mecca of provisions from Yemama, and this
stoppage by Thumama reduced the Meccans to the direst
straits. Failing to move the Hanafites, they at last addressed
themselves to Mohammed, and besought him to intercede for
them. The Prophet's heart was touched with pity, and he
requested Thumama to allow them to have whatever they
wanted ; and at his word the convoys were again permitted to
reach Mecca.

Endless instances might be cited of Mohammed's merciful
nature. We will, however, only instance two. A daughter of
his — a beloved child — was, after the treaty of Hudaibiya, fleeing
from Mecca. She was far advanced in pregnancy, and as she
was mounting her camel, a Koreish named Habrar, with
characteristic ferocity, drove the butt end of his lance against
her, throwing her to the ground, and eventually causing her
death. On the conquest of Mecca the murderer was pro-
scribed. After hiding for some time he presented himself
before the Prophet, and threw himself on the mercy of the
bereaved father. The wrong was great ; the crime was

86 THE LIFE OF MOHAMMED i.

atrocious — but the injury was personal. The man was to all
appearance sincere in his penitence and the profession of the
Faith. Pardon was unconditionally granted. The Jewess who
attempted his life at Khaibar, and Ikrima, the son of Abu Jahl,
who was bitterly personal in his animosity towards the Prophet,
were freely forgiven.

A tribe of Christian Bedouins (the Bani-Kalb), settled about
Dumat ul-Jandal, had, in their depredations, appeared on the
Medinite territories. An expedition was now despatched to
summon them to embrace Islam and forego their lawless
practices. Whilst delivering his injunctions to the captain who
headed this small force, Mohammed used the memorable words,
" In no case shalt thou use deceit or perfidy, nor shalt thou kill
any child." ^

In his instructions to the leaders of the expeditions against
marauding and hostile tribes and people, he invariably enjoined
them in peremptory terms never to injure the weak. " In
avenging the injuries inflicted upon us," he said to his troops,
whom he despatched against the Byzantines, " molest not the
harmless inmates of domestic seclusion ; spare the weakness
of the female sex ; injure not the infant at the breast, or those
who are ill in bed. Abstain from demolishing the dwellings of
the unresisting inhabitants ; destroy not the means of their
subsistence, nor their fruit trees ; and touch not the palm."
Abu Bakr, following his master, thus enjoined his captain :
" O Yezid ! be sure you do not oppress your own people, nor
make them uneasy, but advise with them in all your affairs,
and take care to do that which is right and just ; for those that
do otherwise shall not prosper. When you meet your enemies
quit yourselves hke men, and do not turn your backs ; and if
you gain the victory, kill not little children, nor old people, nor
women. Destroy no palm trees, nor burn any fields of corn.
Cut down no fruit trees, nor do any mischief to cattle, only such

1 Ibn-Hisham, p. 992. Compare these injunctions of the Arabian Prophet
as also the historic words of Abu Bakr (the first Caliph) to Yezid bin Abu
Sufian, when despatching him against the Byzantines, with the commands of
the Israelite Prophet : " Thus saith the Lord of Hosts . . . Now go and
smite Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and spare them not ;
but slay both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and
ass," I. Sam. xv. 3 ; " Slay utterly old and young, both maids, and little
children, and women." Ezek. ix. 6.

VI. MOHAMMED'S CLEMENCY 87

as you kill for the necessity of subsistence. When you make
any covenant or article, stand to it, and be as good as your
word. As you go on, you will find some religious persons that
live retired in monasteries, who propose to themselves to serve
God that wa3^ Let them alone, and neither kill them nor
destroy their monasteries." ^ These injunctions contrast
strangely with the fearful denunciations of the Christians,
Catholic, Protestant and Greek, from the days of St. Lactantius
to those of the Covenanters.- The followers of the " Prince of
Peace " burnt and ravished, pillaged and murdered pro-
miscuously, old and young, male and female, without com-
punction, up to recent times. And his vicegerents on earth,
popes and patriarchs, bishops, priests, and presbyters, approved
of their crimes, and frequently granted plenary absolution for
the most heinous offences.

In the month of Sha'ban of this year (November-December,
627) an expedition was directed against the Bani-MustaUk.
These people had up to this time been on friendly terms with
the Moslems. But, recently, instigated by their chief Harith,
the son of Abu Zirar,^ they had thrown off their allegiance,
and committed forays on the suburbs of Medina. The
expedition was entirely successful, and several prisoners were
taken, amongst whom was a daughter of Harith, called
Juwairiya.

Six years had now passed since the exiles of Mecca had left
their homes and their country for the sake of their faith, and
of him who had infused into them a new consciousness such as
they had never felt before, awakening in them the spirit of
union, love, and brotherhood. People flocked from every part
of Arabia to hsten to the words of the wondrous man who had
achieved all this ; to ask his counsel in the affairs of everyday
hfe, even as the sons of Israel consulted of old the prophet
Samuel.*

' Compare Mill's History of Muhammedanisni, pp. 45, 46 ; and Gagnier,
Vie de Mahomet, in loco.

^ The massacre of 5000 Chinese men, women and children at Blagovestchenk
in Manchuria in the twentieth century by the troops of a great Christian power
needs no mention.

- With a zdd ; Ibn-Hisham, p. 725 ; Ibn ul-Athir, vol. ii. p. 146.

^ Stanley's Lectures on the Jewish Church, vol. i. in loco.

88 THE LIFE OF MOHAMMED i.

But the hearts of these exiles still yearned sadly for the
place of their birth. Driven from their homes, they had found
refuge in a rival city ; expelled from the precincts of the sacred
Kaaba, which formed the glorious centre of all their associa-
tions,— the one spot round which gathered the history of their
nation, — for six years had they been denied the pilgrimage of
the holy shrine, a custom round which time, with its hoary
traditions, had cast the halo of sanctity. The Teacher himself
longed to see the place of his nativity with as great a yearning.
The temple of the Kaaba belonged to the whole Arab nation.
The Koreish were merely the custodians of this shrine, and
were not authorised by the public law of the country to interdict
the approach even of an enemy, if he presented himself without
any hostile design, and with the avowed object of fulfilUng a
religious duty.^

The season of the pilgrimage had approached ; the Prophet
accordingly announced his intention of visiting the holy places.
At once a thousand voices responded to the call. Preparations
were rapidly made, and, accompanied by seven hundred
Moslems, Ansar and Muhajirin, all perfectly unarmed, he set
out on the pilgrimage. ^ The animosity of the Koreish, how-
ever, was not yet extinguished. They posted themselves, with
a large army, some miles in advance of Mecca, to bar the way,
but soon after fell back on the city, in order to keep every
point of access closed to the Moslems. They swore solemnly
not to allow the followers of the Prophet to enter the shrine,
and maltreated the envoy who was sent to them to solicit
permission to visit the Kaaba. A body of the Meccans went
round the Prophet's encampment with the avowed object of
killing any unwary Moslem who might leave the camp. They
even attacked the Prophet with stones and arrows. ^ Finding

^ Tabari, vol. iii. p. 84 ; Caussin de Perceval, vol. hi. pp. 174, 175 et seq.

2 Ibn-Hisham, p. 740; Tabari, vol. iii. p. 84 ; Ibn ul-Athir, vol. ii. p. 152.
Abulfeda, p. 60, mentions the number as 1400.

3 When some of these men were seized and brought before the Prophet, he
pardoned and released them, Ibn-Hisham, p. 745. It was on this occasion
that the Moslems took the pledge, called " The Agreeable Pledge " (Bai atur-
Rizwdn), or " The Pledge of the Tree " {Bai'at-itsh-Shajara). Osman being sent
to the Koreish to repeat the request for permission, they seized and detained
him. The Moslems, fearful of his mui'der, flocked round Mohammed, and
solemnly swore to avenge his death. Ibn-Hish^m, p. 746 ; Koran, sura
xlviii. ver. 17; comp. also Muir, vol. iv. p. 32.

VI. THE PEACE OF HUDAIBIYA 89

the idolaters immovable, and wishful himself to end the state
of warfare between the Moslems and the Koreish, Mohammed
expressed himself willing to agree to any terms the Meccans
might feel inclined to impose. After much difficulty a treaty
was concluded, by which it was agreed that all hostiUties
should cease for ten years ; that anyone coming from the
Koreish to the Prophet without the permission of the guardian
or chief, should be re-delivered to the idolaters ; that any
individual from among the Moslems going over to the Meccans
should not be surrendered ; that any tribe desirous of entering
into alliance, either with the Koreish or with the Moslems,
should be at hberty to do so without hindrance ; that the
Moslems should retrace their steps on this occasion, without
advancing farther ; that they should be permitted in the
following year to visit Mecca and to remain there for three
days with their travelling arms, namely, their " scimitars in
sheaths." ^

The moderation and magnanimity displayed by Mohammed
in concluding this treaty caused some discontent among the
more impulsive of his followers, in whose hearts the injuries
and cmelties inflicted by the Koreish yet rankled. In virtue
of the third stipulation of the treaty, by which the Moslems
bound themselves to surrender every idolater who came over
to their cause without the permission of their patron or chief,
the Koreish demanded the surrender of several of the Prophet's
disciples ; and their demand was immediately comphed with
by Mohammed, in spite of the murmurs of some of the
Moslems.2

On his return to Medina, Mohammed, in pursuance of the
cathoUc wish by which he was inspired, that his religion should

1 I.e. the Sildh-ur-rdkib ; Ibn-Hisham, p. 747 ; Ibn ul-Athir, vol. ii. p.
156 ; Mishkdt, bk xvii. chap. 10, part i. It was on the occasion of this peace
that a Koreishite envoy who was sent to the Moslem encampment, struck with
the profound reverence and love shown to the Prophet by his followers, on
his return to the Ivoreish, told them he had seen sovereigns like the Chosroes
(Kesra), the Ca;-sar (Kaiser), and the Negus (Najashi), surrounded with all the
pomp and circumstance of roj'alty ; but he had never witnessed a sovereign
in the midst of his subjects receiving such veneration and obedience as was
paid to Mohammed by his people ; Ibn-Hisham, p. 745 ; Ibn ul-Athir, vol. ii.
p. 154 ; Tabari, vol. iii. p. 87 ; and Abulfeda, p. 61.

- As women were not included in the treaty, the demand of the idolaters
for the surrender of the female Mo.slems was peremptorily declined.

go THE LIFE OF MOHAMMED i.

embrace all humanity/ despatched several envoys to invite
the neighbouring sovereigns and their subjects to drink of the
cup of life offered to them by the Preacher of Islam. Two of
the most noted embassies were to Heraclius, the Emperor of
the Greeks, and to Khusru Parviz, the Kesra of Persia. The
King of Kings was amazed at the audacity of the fugitive of
Mecca in addressing him, the great Chosroes, on terms of
equality, and enraged at what he considered the insolence of
the letter, tore it to pieces, and drove the envoy from his
presence with contumely. When the news of this treatment
was brought to the Prophet, he quietly observed, " Thus will
the empire of Kesra be torn to pieces." ^ The fulfilment of
the prophecy is engraved on the pages of history. Heraclius,
more polite or more reverential, treated the messenger with
great respect, and returned a gracious and careful reply.
Before, however, leaving Syria he tried to acquaint himself
better with the character of the man who had sent him the
message. With this object he is said to have summoned to
his presence some Arab merchants who had arrived at Gaza
with a caravan from Arabia. Among them was the notorious
Abu Sufian, still one of the bitterest enemies of the Prophet.
The Greek emperor appears to have questioned him with
regard to Mohammed, and his replies, as preserved in the
traditions, are almost identical with the summary which
Ja'far gave to the Negus of the teachings of Mohammed.
" What are the doctrines Mohammed advances ? " asked
Heraclius of Abu Sufian. " He bids us abandon the worship
of our ancient idols and to adore one God ; to bestow alms ;
to observe truth and purity ; to abstain from fornication and
vice, and to flee abominations." Asked if his followers were
increasing in number, or if they were falling off, the reply was,
" his adherents are increasing incessantly, and there has not
been one who has forsaken him."

Another ambassador sent soon afterwards to the Ghassanide
prince, a feudatory of Heraclius, residing at Busra, near
Damascus, instead of receiving the reverence and respect due
to an envoy, was cruelly murdered by another chief of the

1 Koran, sura vii. vers. 157, 158.

2 Ibn ul-Athir, vol. ii. pp. 163, 164.

VI. MESSAGE TO HERACLIUS AND PARVIZ 91

same family, and Ameer of a Christian tribe subject to Byzan-
tium. This wanton outrage on international obligations
became eventually the cause of that war which placed Islam
in conflict with the whole of Christendom. But of this we
shall treat later.

CHAPTER VII
THE DIFFUSION OF THE FAITH

^xlil \ JU 'i\ ^') ^^ A.i U - .,)! Jj] JU ] J/L; Ci

THE Jewish tribes, in spite of the reverses they had
aheady suffered were still formidable, — still busy with
their machinations to work the destruction of the
Moslems. They possessed, at the distance of three or four
7 AH =i2th days' journey to the north-east of Medina, a
April 628 to 1st strongly fortified territory, studded with castles,
ay 629 A.c. ^j^g principal of which, called al-Kamus, was

situated on an almost inaccessible hill. This group of fortresses
was called Khaihar, a word signifying a fortified place. The
population of Khaibar included several branches of the Bani-
Nazir and the Kuraizha, who had taken refuge there. The
Jews of Khaibar had shown an active and implacable hatred
towards Mohammed and his followers, and since the arrival of
their brethren among them, this feeling had acquired greater
force. The Jews of Khaibar united by an ancient alliance with
the Bedouin horde of the Bani-Ghatafan, and other cognate
tribes, worked incessantly for the formation of another coalition
against the Moslems. ^ These latter were alive to the power
possessed by the desert-races to injure them, and prompt
measures were needed to avert the evils of another league
against Medina. Accordingly, early in the month of Muharram
of this year, an expedition, consisting of about 1400 men, was
despatched against Khaibar. The Jews now solicited the
assistance of their allies. The Bani-Fizara hastened to their

^ Caussin de Perceval, vol, iii, pp. iq^, 194.

VII. THE FALL OF KHAIBAR 93

support, but afraid of the Moslems turning their flank, and
surprising their flocks and herds in their absence, speedily
retreated. The Jews were thus left alone to bear the brunt of
the war. Terms were offered to them by the Moslems, but
were refused. In spite of the most determined resistance on
the part of the Jews, fortress after fortress opened its gate. At
last came the turn of the most formidable castle, al-Kamus.
After a spirited defence, it also fell into the hands of the Moslems.
The fate of this, their principal fortress, brought the remaining
Jewish townships to see the utter futility of further resistance.
They sued for forgiveness, which was accorded. Their lands and
immovable property were guaranteed to them (on condition
of good conduct), together with the free practice of their
religion ; and, as they were exempt from the regular taxes, the
Prophet imposed upon them the duty of paying to the Common-
wealth, in return for the protection they would thenceforth
enjoy, half the produce of their lands. The movable property
found in the fortress which the Moslems reduced by regular
sieges and battles, was forfeited to the army, and distributed
among the men according to the character of their arms ; thus,
for instance, three shares were given to a horseman, whilst a
foot-soldier received only one.^

Towards the end of the seventh year of the Hegira, Moham-
med and his disciples availed themselves of their truce with
the Koreish to accomplish the desire of their hearts ^ — the
pilgrimage to the holy places. This journey, in Moslem history,
is reverently stvled " the Pilgrimage, or Visit of Accomplish-
ment." 3 It was in March 629 that the Prophet, accompanied
by 2000 Moslems, proceeded to Mecca to perform the rites of the

1 Ibn-Hisham, pp. 764 and 773 : Ibn ul-Athir, vol. ii. p. 169. The story
of Kinana being tortured for the sake of disclosing the concealed treasures is
false.

Frequent attempts were made about this time to assassinate the Prophet.
On his entry into Khaibar, a Jewess, animated with the same vengeful feeling
as the Judith of old, spread a poisoned repast for him and some of his followers.
One of them died immediately after he had taken a few mouthfuls. The life
of the Prophet was saved, but the poison permeated his system, and in after-
hfc he suffered severely from its effects, and eventually died thereof. In
spite of this crime, Mohammed forgave the woman, and she was allowed to
remain among her people unharmed; Tabari, vol. iii. p. 104 ; Ibn ul-Athir,
vol. ii. p. 170.

" See Koran, sura xlviii. ver. 27. ^ 'Umrat-ul-Kazd.

94 THE LIFE OF MOHAMMED i.

Lesser Pilgrimage — rites which every pilgrim of Islam has now
to observe. The Koreish would, however, have nothing to say
to the pilgrims, and hold no converse with them. For the three
days during which the ceremonies lasted, they evacuated the
city, and from the summits of the neighbouring heights watched
the Moslems performing the rites. " It was surely a strange
sight," says Muir, with an unconscious thrill, " which at this
time presented itself in the vale of Mekka, — a sight unique in
the history of the world. The ancient city is for three days
evacuated by all its inhabitants, high and low, ever}/ house
deserted ; and, as they retire, the exiled converts, many years
banished from their birthplace, approach in a great body,
accompanied by their allies, revisit the empty homes of their
childhood, and within the short allotted space, fulfil the rites
of pilgrimage. The outside inhabitants, climbing the heights
around, take refuge under tents, or other shelter among the
hills and glens ; and, clustering on the overhanging peak of
Aboo-Kubeys, thence watch the movements of the visitors
beneath, as with the Prophet at their head they make the
circuit of the Kaabeh, and the rapid procession between
Es-Safa and Marwah ; and anxiously scan every figure if
perchance they may recognise among the worshippers some
long-lost friend or relative. It was a scene rendered possible
only by the throes which gave birth to Islam." ^ In strict
conformity with the terms of the treaty, they left Mecca after
a sojourn of three days. This peaceful fulfilment of the day-
dream of the Moslems was followed by important conversions
among the Koreish. The seli-restraint and scrupulous
regard for their pledged word displayed by the Believers
created a visible impression among the enemies of Islam.
Many of those who were most violent among the Koreish
in their opposition to the Prophet, men of position and
influence, who had warred against him, and reviled him,
struck by Mohammed's kindness of heart and nobility of
nature, which overlooked all crimes against himself, adopted
the Faith.2

^ Muir, Life of Mohammed, vol. iii. 402.

^ For instance, Khalid bin-Walid, who commanded the Koreish cavalry at
Ohod, and 'Amr(u) ibn al-'Asi, famous as Amru.

VII. THE FALL OF MECCA 95

The murder of the Moslem envoy by a feudatory ^ of the
Greek emperor was an outrage which could not be passed over
m silence, and unpunished. An expedition, consisting of three
thousand men, was despatched to exact reparation from the
Ghassanide prince. The lieutenants of the Byzantine emperor,
instead of disavowing the crime, adopted it, and thus made the
quarrel an imperial one. Uniting their forces, they attacked
the Moslems near Muta, a village not far from Balka in Syria,
the scene of the murder. The Byzantines and their allies were
repulsed, but the disparity of numbers was too great, and the
Moslems retreated to Medina. ^

It was about this time that the Koreish and their alhes the
Bani-Bakr, in violation of the terms of peace concluded at
Hudaibiya, attacked the Bani-Khuza'a, who were under the
protection of, and in alliance with, the Moslems. They
massacred a number of the Khuza'a, and dispersed the rest.
The Banu-Khuza'a brought their complaints to Mohammed,
and asked for justice. The reign of iniquity and oppression
had lasted long at Mecca. The Meccans had themselves
violated the peace, and some of their chief men had taken part
in the massacre of the Khuza'a. The Prophet immediately
marched ten thousand men against the idolaters. With the
exception of a slight resistance by Ikrima,^ and Safwan^ at
the head of their respective clans, in which several Moslems
were killed, Mohammed entered Mecca almost unopposed.

Thus, at length, Mohammed entered Mecca as a conqueror.
He, who was once a fugitive and persecuted, now came to prove
his mission by deeds of mercy. The city which had treated
him so cruelly, driven him and his faithful band for refuge
amongst strangers, which had sworn his life and the lives of his
devoted disciples, lay at his feet. His old persecuters, relentless
and ruthless, who had disgraced humanity by inflicting cruel

1 According to Caussin de Perceval, the name of this chieftain was
Shurahbil, son of 'Amr (and not, as Abulfeda mentions it, 'Amr, son of
Shurahbil). — Vol. ii. p. 253, and vol. iii. p. 211.

* Caussin de Perceval, vol. iii. p. 211 et seq. ; Ibn ul-Athir, vol. ii. pp. 178-
180. In this battle, Zaid, the son of Harith, who commanded the Moslem
troops, Ja'far, the cousin of Mohammed, and several other notables were killed.

* The son of Abu Jahl, who fell at Badr.
' The son of Ommeyya.

96 THE LIFE OF MOHAMMED i.

outrages upon inoffensive men and women, and even upon the
lifeless dead, were now completely at his mercy. But in the
hour of triumph every evil suffered was forgotten, every
injury inflicted was forgiven, and a general amnesty was
extended to the population of Mecca. Only four criminals,
" whom justice condemned," made up Mohammed's proscrip-
tion list when he entered as a conqueror the city of his bitterest
enemies. The army followed his example, and entered gently
and peaceably ; no house was robbed, no woman was insulted.
Most truly has it been said that through all the annals of
conquest, there has been no triumphant entry like unto this
one. But the idols of the nation were unrelentingly struck
down. Sorrowfully the idolaters stood round and watched the
downfall of the images they worshipped. And then dawned
upon them the truth, when they heard the old voice, at which
they were wont to scoff and jeer, cry, as he struck down the
idols, " Truth has come, and falsehood vanisheth ; verily
falsehood is evanescent," ^ how utterly powerless were their
gods!

After destroying these ancient idols and abolishing every
pagan rite, Mohammed delivered a sermon to the assembled
people. He dwelt first upon the natural equality and brother-
hood of mankind, in the words of the Koran,^ and then pro-
ceeded as follows : " Descendants of Koreish, how do you
think I should act towards you ? " " With kindness and pity,
gracious brother and nephew," replied they.^ At these words,
says Tabari, tears came into the eyes of the Prophet, and he
said, " I shall speak to you as Joseph spake unto his brothers,
' I shall not reproach you to-day ; God will forgive,' He is the
most merciful and compassionate." ^

And now was enacted a scene of which there is no parallel
in the history of the world. Hosts upon hosts came and
adopted the religion of Mohammed. Seated on the hill of
Safa, he received the old pledge, exacted before froni the
Medinites : " They would not adore anything ; they would not

1 Koran, sura xvii. ver. 83 ; Ibn ulAthir, vol. ii. p. 192.

- Koran, sura xlix. ver. 10.

' Ibn-Hisham, p. 821 ; Tabari, vol. iii. p. 134.

■* Koran, sura xii. ver. 31.

VII. THE DIFFUSION OF THE FAITH 97

commit larceny, adultery, or infanticide ; they would not utter
falsehood, nor speak evil of women." ^

Thus were the w^ords of the Koranic prophecy fulfilled,
" When arrives victory and assistance from God, and seest
thou men enter in hosts the religion of God, then utter the
praise of thy Lord, and implore His pardon ; for He loveth to
turn in mercy (to those who seek Him)." ^ Mohammed now
saw his Mission all but completed. His principal disciples
were despatched in every direction to call the wild tribes of
the desert to Islam, and with strict injunctions to preach peace
and good-will. Only in case of violence were they to defend
themselves. These injunctions were loyally obeyed with one
exception. The men of Khalid bin-Walid, under the orders of
this fierce and newly-converted warrior, killed a few of the
Bani Jazima ^ Bedouins, apparently mistaking them for hostile
soldiers ; but the other Moslems interfering, prevented further
massacre. The news of this wanton bloodshed deeply grieved
the Prophet, and he cried, raising his hands towards heaven,
" 0 Lord ! I am innocent of what Khalid has done." He
immediately despatched Ali to make every possible reparation
to the Bani Jazima for the outrage committed on them. This
was a mission congenial to All's nature, and he executed it
faithfully. He made careful inquiries as to the number of
persons killed by Khalid, their status, and the losses incurred
by their famihes, and paid the Diyat strictly. When every loss
was made good, he distributed the remainder of the money he
had brought among the kinsmen of the victims and other
members of the tribe, gladdening every heart, says the
chronicler, by his gentleness and benevolence. Carrying with
him the blessings of the whole people, he returned to the
Prophet, who overwhelmed him with thanks and praises.^

The formidable Bedouin tribes, the Hawazin, the Thakif,^
and various others who pastured their flocks on the territories

' Ibn ul-Athir, vol. ii. p. 292 ; Caussin de Perceval, vol. iii. p. 234.
2 Koran, sura ex.; comp. Zamakhshari (the Kashshdf), Egypt, ed., pt. ii.
pp. 490, 491. The verse is given at the head of Chapter IX. post.

'With a ^ (zdl).

* Ibn-Hisham, pp. 834, 835 ; Ibn ul-Athir, vol. ii. p. 195 ; Tabari, vol. iii.
p. 141.
5 With a o

S.I. G

98 THE LIFE OF MOHAMMED i.

bordering Mecca, and some of whom possessed strongly-
fortified towns like Tayef, unwilling to render obedience to the
Moslems without resistance, formed a league, with the intention
of overwhelming Mohammed before he could make prepara-
tions to repulse their attack. His vigilance, however, dis-
appointed them. After a well-contested battle fought near
Hunain, a deep and narrow defile about ten miles to the
north-east of Mecca, ^ the idolaters were defeated with great
loss. 2 Separating their forces, one body of the enemy, con-
sisting principally of the Thakif, took refuge in their cit}' of
Tayef, which only eight or nine j-ears before had driven the
Prophet from within its walls with insults ; the rest fled to a
fortified camp in the valley of the Autas. This was forced,
and the families of the Hawazin, with all their worldly effects, —
their flocks and herds, — fell into the hands of the Moslems.
Tayef was then besieged, but after a few days Mohammed
raised the siege, well knowing that the pressure of circum-
stances would soon force the Tayefites to submit without
bloodshed. Returning to the place where the captured
Hawazin were left for safety, he found a deputation from this
powerful tribe awaiting his return to soHcit the restoration of
their families. Aware of the sensitiveness of the Arab nature
regarding their rights, Mohammed repHed to the Bedouin
deputies that he could not force his people to abandon all the
fruits of their victory, and that they must at least forfeit their
effects if they would regain their families. To this they
consented, and the following day, when Mohammed was
offering the mid-day prayers,^ with his disciples ranged behind
him, they came and repeated the request : " We supplicate the
Prophet to intercede with the Moslems, and the Moslems to
intercede with the Prophet, to restore us our women and
children." Mohammed replied to the deputies, " My own
share in the captives, and that of the children of Abd uj-

1 Caussin de Perceval, vol. iii. p. 248 ; in the Kdimis, Hunain is merely
said to be on the road from Mecca to Tayef. In the Mit'jam ul-Buldan the
distance between Mecca and Hunain (lying to the south of Zu'l Majaz) is
given as three nights' journey; vol. ii. p. 35.

- This battle is referred to in the Koran, sura ix. vers. 25, 26 ; Ibn-Hisham,
p. 840 ; Ibn ul-Athir, vol. ii. pp. 200, 201.

^ Tabari says morning prayer, vol. iii. p. 155.

VII. THE DIFFUSION OF THE FAITH 99

Muttalib, I give you back at once." His disciples, catching
his spirit, instantaneously followed his example, and six
thousand people were in a moment set free.^ This generosity
won the hearts of many of the Thakif,^ who tendered their
allegiance, and became earnest Moslems. The incident which
followed after the distribution of the forfeited flocks and herds
of the Hawazin, shows not only the hold the Prophet had over
the hearts of the Medinites, and the devotion he inspired them
with, but it also proves that at no period of his career had he
any material reward to offer to his disciples. In the division
of the spoil a larger proportion fell to the share of the newly-
converted Meccans than to the people of Medina. Some of
the Ansar looked upon this as an act of partialit}^ and their
discontent reaching the ear of the Prophet, he ordered them to
be assembled. He then addressed them in these words : "Ye
Ansar, I have learnt the discourse ye hold among yourselves.
When I came amongst you, you were wandering in darkness,
and the Lord gave you the right direction ; you were suffering,
and He made you happy ; at enmity amongst yourselves, and
He has filled your hearts with brotherly love and concord.
Was it not so, tell me ? " " Indeed, it is even as thou sayest,"
was the reply ; "to the Lord and His Prophet belong bene-
volence and grace." " Nay, by the Lord," continued the
Prophet, " but ye might have answered, and answered truly,
for I would have testified to its truth myself. ' Thou earnest to
us rejected as an impostor, and we believed in thee ; thou earnest
as a helpless fugitive, and we assisted thee : poor, and an outcast,
and we gave thee an asylum ; comfortless, and we solaced thee.'
Ye Ansar, v/hy disturb your hearts because of the things of this
life ? Are ye not satisfied that others should obtain the flocks
and the camels, while ye go back unto your homes with me in
your midst ? By Him who holds my life in His hands, I shall
never abandon you. If all mankind went one way and the

^ Ibn-Hisham, p. 876 ; Ibn ul-Athir, vol. ii. p. 206 ; Tabari, vol. iii. p. 155.

"- The people of Tayef were so called. The story told by Muir (vol. iv.
p. 149), as a curious illustration of the Prophet's mode of life, is apocryphal.
It must be remembered, firstly, that the division of the booty had not taken
place, and consequently the Prophet could not have given away as gift part
of his own share ; but this he had pronii.sed to the deputies before the
division to restore to the Hawazin. The story is a fabrication, and utterly
worthless.

100 THE LIFE OF MOHAMMED i.

Ansar another, verily I would join the Ansar. The Lord be
favourable unto them, and bless them, and their children,
and their children's children ! " At these words, says the
chronicler, they all wept until the tears ran down upon their
beards. And they all cried with one voice, " Yea, Prophet of
God, we are well satisfied with our share." Thereupon they
retired happy and contented.^

Mohammed soon after returned to Medina.

1 Ibn-Hishani, p. 886 ; Ibn nl-Athir, vol. ii. p. 208 ; Abulfeda, p. 82.

CHAPTER VIII
THE YEAR OF DEPUTATIONS

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Kasidat-ul-Burda.

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Banat SuAd.

THE ninth year of the Hegira was noted for the embassies
which flocked into Medina to render homage to the
Prophet of Islam. The cloud which so long had rested
over this land, with its wild chivalry, its blood-feuds, and its
heathenism, is now Hfted for ever. The age
of barbarism is past. A^ri. t," J^th

The conquest of Mecca decided the fate of April 631 a. c.
idolatry in Arabia. The people, who still
regarded with veneration those beautiful moon-goddesses,
Manat, Lat, and 'Uzza, and their pecuHar cult, were pain-
fully awakened by the fall of its stronghold. Among the
wild denizens of the desert the moral effect of the submis-
sion of the Meccans was great. Deputations began to arrive

ib2 THE LIFE OF MOHAMMED i.

from all si'des- 16 tender the allegiance and adherence of
tribes hitherto most inimical to the Moslems.^ The principal
companions of the Prophet, and the leading citizens of Medina,
at his request, received these envoys in their houses, and enter-
tained them with the time-honoured hospitality of the Arabs.
On departure, they always received an ample sum for the
expenses of the road, with some additional presents, corre-
sponding to their rank. A written treaty, guaranteeing the
privileges of the tribe, was often granted, and a teacher in-
variably accompanied the departing guests to instruct the
newly-converted people in the duties of Islam, and to see that
every remnant of idolatry was obliterated from their midst.

Whilst thus engaged in consohdating the tribes of Arabia
under the new gospel, the great Seer was alive to the dangers
which threatened the new confederation from outside.

The Byzantines seem about this time to have indulged in
those dreams of Arabian conquests which had, once before,
induced the founder of the Roman Empire to despatch expedi-
tions into that country. ^ HeracUus had returned to his
dominions elated by his victories over the Persians. His
pohtical vision could not have been blind to the strange events
which were taking place in Arabia, and he had probably not
forgotten the repulse of his Ueutenants, at the head of a large
army, by a handful of Arabs. During his stay in Syria he had
directed his feudatories to collect an overwhelming force for
the invasion of Arabia. The news of these preparations was
soon brought to Medina, and caused some consternation among
the Moslems. If the report was true it meant a serious danger
to the Islamic commonwealth. Volunteers were summoned
from all quarters to repel the threatened attack. Unfor-
tunately, a severe drought had lately afflicted Hijaz and Najd ;
the date crops had been ruined, and the beasts of burden had
died in large numbers ; and the country people at large were
unwilling to engage at this juncture on an expedition far from
their homes. To some, the time of the year seemed unseason-
able ; whilst the intensity of the heat, the hardships of the
journey and the marvellous stories regarding the power of the

1 Ibn-Hisham, p. 934 et seq. ; Ibn ul-Athir, vol. ii. p. 219.
^ I allude to the expedition of ^lius Gallus under Augustus.

VIII. THE YEAR OF DEPUTATIONS 103

Byzantine empire added largely to the fears of the timorous.
Many applied to be exempted from service ; and the Prophet
acceded to the prayers of those who were either too weak or
too poor to take up arms or leave their homes, and such others
as had no one besides themselves to look after their famihes.^

The unwilhngness of the lukewarm was aggravated by the
machinations of the Mundfikin, who spared no endeavours to
fan it into discontent.^ The example, however, of the principal
disciples and other sincere followers of the Faith, infused
vitality into the hearts of the timorous, and shamed the back-
sliders into enthusiasm which soon spread among the people.
Contributions poured in from all sides. Abu Bakr offered all he
possessed towards the expenses of the expedition ; Osman
equipped and supplied at his own expense a large body of
volunteers, and the other prominent and affluent Moslems were
equally generous. The women brought their ornaments and
jewelleries and besought the Prophet to accept the same for
the needs of the State. A sufflcient force was eventually
collected,^ and accompanied by the Prophet the volunteers
marched towards the frontier.

During his absence from Medina the Prophet left Ali in
charge of the city. The Mundfikin, with Abdullah ibn-Ubayy,
had proceeded with the army as far as "the Mount of Farewell,"^
but they quietly fell back from there and returned to the city.
Here they spread the report that the Prophet had not taken
his cousin with him as he was apprehensive of the dangers of
the expedition. Stung by the malicious rumour, Ali seized his
arms and hastened after the army. Overtaking the troops, he
told the Prophet what he had heard. Mohammed pronounced

1 These were called the al-Bakkdun, the Weepers, as they were distressed
by their inability to join in the sacred enterprise of repelling a dangerous
enemy. — Ibn-Hisham, p. 791 ; al-Halabi, Insdn ul-'UyAn, vol. iii. p. 75.

- The machinations of the Disaffected are censured in Sura IX, v. 82. These
secret conspirators had for their rendezvous the house of a Jew named
Suwailim near the suburb of Jasilm. This house was ultimately rased to
the ground. It was at this time that the great Teacher made the prophecy
that there will always be Mundfikin in Islam to thwart the endeavours of the
true followers of the Faith to do good to their people.

^ It was called the Jaish-ul-'usra, " the army of distress," owing to the
difficulties with which it was collected ; Ibn-Hisham, p. 795.

^ Thiniat-ul-Wada' with a o.. Mu'jam ul-Bulddn, vol. i. p. 937-

104 THE LIFE OF MOHAMMED i.

it to be a base calumny. " I have appointed thee my Vice-
gerent {Khaltfa) and left thee in my stead. Return then to
thy post, and be my deputy over my people and thine. O Ali,
art thou not content that thou art to me what Aaron was to
Moses." 1 Ali accordingly returned to Medina.

The sufferings of the troops from heat and thirst were
intense. After a long and painful march they reached Tabuk,
a place situated midway between Medina and Damascus,^
where they halted. Here they learnt to their amazement, and
perhaps to their relief, that the apprehended attack was a
Grecian dream, and that the emperor had his hands full at
home. Finding, therefore, nothing at the moment to threaten
the safety of the Medinite commonwealth, the Prophet ordered
the Moslems to retrace their steps. ^ After a sojourn of twenty
days at Tabuk, where they found abundance of water for them-
selves and forage for their famished beasts of burden, the
Moslems returned to Medina in the month of Ramazan.'*

The Prophet's return to Medina was signalised by the arrival
of a deputation from the refractory and hard-hearted idolaters
of Tayef, the very people who had driven the poor Preacher
from their midst with insults and violence. 'Orwa, the Tayefite
chief, who had been to Mecca after the Hudaibiya incident as
the Koreishite envoy, was so impressed with the words of the
Teacher and his kindness, that shortly after the accompHsh-
ment of his mission he had come to the Prophet and embraced
his religion. Though repeatedly warned by Mohammed of the
dangers he ran among the bigoted of his city, he hastened back
to Tayef to proclaim his abjuration of idolatry, and to invite

Ibn-Hisham * ^J■^*>'^ cr* ^^)^^ *^^^ t**"* ^>^^ ^1 ij^ k ij^/> ^*f

p. 897.

According to the Shiahs, the Prophet distinctly indicated in these words
that Ah should be his successor.

* Caussin de Perceval, vol. iii. pp. 285, 286.

2 Ibn-Hisham, p. 904 ; Ibn ul-Athir, vol. ii. p. 215 ; Abulfeda, p. 85.

^ According to C. de Perceval, middle of December 630 a.c. Chapter iv.
of the Koran treats vividly of these events. At Tabuk Mohammed received
the submission of many of the neighbouring chiefs ; Ibn ul-Athir, vol. ii.
p. 215.

VIII. THE YEAR OF DEPUTATIONS 105

his fellow-citizens to share in the blessings imparted by the
new Faith. Arriving in the evening, he made public his
conversion and called upon the people to join him. The
following morning he again addressed them ; but his words
roused the priests and worshippers of 'Uzza into frenzy, and
they literally stoned him to death. With his dying breath he
said he had offered up his blood unto his Master for the good of
his people, and he thanked God for the honour of martyrdom,
and as a last wish prayed his friends to bury him by the side
of the Moslems who had fallen at Hunain.^ The dying words
of 'Orwa had a greater effect upon his compatriots than all his
endeavours whilst living. The martyr's blood blossomed into
faith in the hearts of his murderers. Seized with sudden
compunction, perhaps also wearying of their hostility with the
tribes of the desert, the Tayefites sent the deputation to which
we have referred above, to pray for forgiveness and permission
to enter the circle of Islam. They begged, however, for a short
respite for their idols. First they asked two years, then one
year, and then six months, but all to no purpose. The grace of
one month might surely be conceded, they argued as a last
appeal. Mohammed was immovable. Islam and the idols
could not exist together. They then begged for exemption
from the daily prayers. Mohammed replied that without
devotion religion could be nothing. ^ Sorrowfully, at last, they
submitted to all that was required of them. They were
excused, however, from destroying the idols with their own
hands, and the notorious Abu Sufian, the son of Harb, the
father of the well-known Mu'awiyah, the Judas Iscariot of
Islam, one of those who have been stigmatised as the Muallafat
ul-Kulub (the nominal believers) — for they had adopted the
Faith from policy, — and Mughira, the nephew of 'Orwa, were
selected for that work. They executed their commission
amidst uproarious cries of despair and grief from the women of
Tayef.^

' Ibn-Hisham, pp. 914, 915 ; Ibn ul-Athir, vol. ii. p. 216.

* Ibn ul-Athir, vol. ii. p. 217.

^ Ibn-Hisham, pp. 917, 918 ; Tabari, vol. iii. pp. 161-163. The great number
of deputations received by Mohammed in the ninth year has led to its being
called the "Year of Deputations"; {wufHd, pi. of wafad). The principal
adhesions which followed immediatelv ui on the conversion of the Thaklf

io6 THE LIFE OF MOHAMMED i.

The tribe of Tay had about this time proved recalcitrant,
and their disaffection was fostered by the idolatrous priesthood.
A small force was despatched under Ali to reduce them to
obedience and to destroy their idols. 'Adi, the son of the
famous Hatim, whose generosity and munificence have been
sung by poets and minstrels throughout the Eastern world,
was the chief of his tribe. On the approach of Ali he fled to
Syria ; but his sister, with some of his principal clansmen, fell
into the hands of the Moslems. They were conducted, with
every mark of respect and sympathy, to Medina. Mohammed
at once set the daughter of Hatim and her people at liberty,
and bestowed on them many valuable gifts. She proceeded to
Syria, and told her brother of the nobleness of Mohammed.
Touched by gratitude, 'Adi hastened to Medina to throw
himself at the feet of the Prophet, and eventually embraced
Islam. Returning to his people, he persuaded them to abjure
idolatry ; and the Bani-Tay, once so wedded to fetishism,
became thenceforth devoted followers of the religion of
Mohammed.^

Another notable conversion which took place about the same
time as that of the Bani-Tay is deserving of more than passing
notice. Ka'b ibn-Zuhair, a distinguished poet of the tribe of
Mozayna, had placed himself under the ban by trying to incite
hostilities against the Moslems. His brother was a Moslem

were of the Himyarite princes of Yemen, of Mahra, of Oman, of the country
of the Bahrain, and of the tribes domiciled in Yemama.

1 Ibn-Hisham, pp. 948, 949 ; Ibn ul-Athir, vol. ii. p. 218 ; Insan id-'UyAn,
vol. iii. p. 234. The conversion of 'Adi occurred in Rabi II. of the ninth year
(July- August, 630 A.c), and accordingly, ought to have been placed before
the expedition to Tabuk. But I have followed the order of the Arab historians.
When the daughter of Hatim, whose name was Sufana, came before the
Prophet, she addressed him in the following words : " Apostle of God, my
father is dead ; my brother, my only relation, fled into the mountains on the
approach of the Moslems. I cannot ransom myself ; it is thy generosity
which I implore for my deliverance. My father was an illustrious man, the
prince of his tribe, a man who ransomed prisoners, protected the honour of
women, nourished the poor, consoled the afflicted, never rejected any demand.
I am Sufana, daughter of Hatim." " Thy father," answered Mohammed,
'had the virtues of a Musulman ; if it were permitted to me to invoke the
mercy of God on any one whose life was passed in idolatry, I would pray to
God for mercy for the soul of Hatim." Then addressing the Moslems around
him, he said : " The daughter of Hatim is free, her father was a generous and
humane man ; God loves and rewards the merciful." And with Sufana, all
her people were set at liberty. The Persian poet Sa'di has some beautiful
lines in the Bostdn concerning this touching episode.

VIII. THE YEAR OF DEPUTATIONS 107

and had counselled him strongly to renounce idolatry and
embrace Islam. Ka'b, following the advice of his brother,
came secretly to Medina, and proceeded to the mosque where
Mohammed was wont to preach. There he saw a man sur-
rounded by Arabs listening to his words with the greatest
veneration. He at once recognised the Prophet, and penetrat-
ing into the circle, said aloud, " Apostle of God, if I should
bring before thee Ka'b as a Musulman, would you pardon
him ? " " Yes," answered Mohammed. "It is I who am
Ka'b, the son of Zuhair." Several people around the Prophet
wanted leave to put him to death. " No," said the Prophet,
" I have given him grace." Ka'b then begged permission to
recite a Kasida ^ (poem) which has always been considered a
masterpiece of Arabic poetry. When he came to the hues ^
quoted at the head of this chapter, the Prophet bestowed on
the poet his own mantle, which was afterwards sold by his
family to Mu'awiyah for 40,000 dirhems, and, after passing into
the hands of the Ommeyades and Abbasides, is now in the
possession of the Ottoman Caliphs.^

Hitherto no prohibition had issued against the heathens
entering the Kaaba, or perforaiing their old idolatrous rites
within its sacred precincts. It was now decided to put an end
to this anomalous state, and remove once for all any possibihty

1 Called the Kasida of Bdnat Sii'dd from the opening words of the poem,
which begins %vith the prologue usual in Arabic Kasidas. The poet tells
his grief at the departure of Su'ad (his beloved) ; she has left him, his heart
is drooping, distracted and unhappy, following her train like a captive in
chains. He praises her beauty, her sweet soft voice, her bright laughter, her
winsome smile. The theme suddenly changes, and the poet reaches the
climax when he bursts forth into a song of praise of his great subject. The
language throughout is sonorous and virile — a quality often wanting in the
poems of later times, and the rhythmical swing and cadence are maintained,
with extraordinary evenness, up to the last.

- " The Prophet is the torch which has lighted up the world ; he is the
sword of God for destroying ungodliness."

3 Called the Khirkai-sharif (the Holy Mantle) which is taken out as the
national standard in times of great emergency. The Kasida of Bdnat Su'ad,
which is sometimes also called the Kasidat-ul-Burda (the Kasida of the
Mantle), is different from the Kasfdat-nl-Burda of Abu Abdullah Mohammed
ibn-Sa'id, who flourished in the reign of Malik Zahir, which opens with the
following lines : —

^a. iXi. ^^ ^,^ (^,j ^^^; . ^: ^^^. ^1^^^ j^: ^- ,

For translation see Appendix.

io8 THE LIFE OF MOHAMMED i.

of a relapse into idolatry on the part of those upon whom the
new and pure creed hung somewhat lightly. Accordingly,
towards the end of this year, during the month of pilgrimage,
Ali was commissioned to read a proclamation to the assembled
multitudes, on the day of the great Sacrifice [Y euni-un-N ahr) ,
which should strike straight at the heart of idolatry and the
immoralities attendant upon it : " No idolater shall, after this
year, perform the pilgrimage ; no one shall make the circuit
(of the temple) naked ; ^ whoever hath a treaty with the
Prophet, it shall continue binding till its termination ; for the
rest, four months are allowed to every man to return to his
territories ; after that there will exist no obligation on the
Prophet, except towards those with whom treaties have been
concluded." ^

This " Declaration of Discharge," as it is styled by Moslem
writers, was a manifestation of far-sighted wisdom on the part
of the Prophet. It was impossible for the state of society and
morals which then existed to continue ; the idolaters mixing
year after year with the Moslem pilgrims, if allowed to perform
the lascivious and degrading ceremonies of their cult, would
soon have undone what Mohammed had so laboriously
accomplished. History had already seen another gifted, yet
uncultured, branch of the same stock as the Arabs, settling
amongst idolaters ; their leaders had tried to preserve the
worship of Jehovah by wholesale butcheries of the worshippers
of Baal. They had failed miserably. The Israelites had not
only succumbed under the evil influences which surrounded
them, but had even surpassed those whom they at first despised
in the practice of nameless abominations. Mohammed felt
that any compromise with heathenism would nullify all his
work. He accordingly adopted means seemingly harsh, but
yet benignant in their ultimate tendency. The vast concourse
who had listened to Ali returned to their homes, and before the
following year was over the majority of them were Moslems.

1 Alluding to a disgraceful custom of the idolatrous Arabs.

2 Ibn-Hisham, pp. 921, 922 ; Ibn ul-Athir, vol. ii. p. 222 ; Abulfeda, p. 87.

CHAPTER IX
THE FULFILMENT OF MOHAMMED'S MISSION

c/i*^ o* viJ^^'^d v^^-*'^' ^-^il"; * f^'^^^ ; ^'' v^j

/i A

o c o

DURING this year/ as in the preceding, numerous
embassies poured into Medina from every part of
Arabia to testify to the adhesion of their chiefs and
their tribes. To the teachers, whom Mohammed sent into
the different provinces, he invariably gave
the following injunctions : " Deal gently with ^? J''^- ^th
the people, and be not harsh ; cheer them, March 632 a. c
and contemn them not. And ye will meet
with many people of the books ^ who will question thee,
what is the key to heaven ? Reply to them (the key to
heaven is) to testify to the truth of God, and to do good
work." ^

The mission of Mohammed was now achieved. In the midst
of a nation steeped in barbarism a Prophet had arisen " to
rehearse unto them the signs of God to sanctify them, to teach
them the scriptures and knowledge, — them who before had
been in utter darkness." * He found them sunk in a degrading
and sanguinary superstition ; he inspired them with the belief
in one sole God of truth and love. He saw them disunited,

^ In the tenth year of the Hegira took place the conversions of the remain-
ing tribes of Yemen and of Hijaz. Then followed the conversions of the tribes
of Hazramut and Kinda

^ Christians, Jews, and Zoroastrians. ' Ibn-Hisham, p. 907.

■* Koran, sura Ixii. vers. 2-5.

no THE LIFE OF MOHAMMED i.

and engaged in perpetual war with each other ; he united them
by the ties of brotherhood and charity. From time immemorial
the Peninsula had been wrapped in absolute moral darkness.
Spiritual life was utterly unknown. Neither Judaism nor
Christianity had made any lasting impression on the Arab
mind. The people were sunk in superstition, cruelty, and
vice. Incest and the diabolical custom of female infanticide
were common. The eldest son inherited his father's widows,
as property, with the rest of the estate. The worse than
inhuman fathers buried alive their infant daughters ; and this
crime, which was most rife among the tribes of Koreish and ■.
Kinda, was regarded, as among the Hindu Rajpoots, a mark |
of pride. The idea of a future existence, and of retribution of I
good and evil, were, as motives of human action, practically j
unknown. Only a few years before, such was the condition j
of Arabia. What a change had these few years witnessed ! '
The angel of heaven had veritably passed over the land, and
breathed harmony and love into the hearts of those who had
hitherto been engrossed in the most revolting practices of semi- |
barbarism. What had once been a moral desert, where all '
laws, human and divine, were contemned and infringed with-
out remorse, was now transformed into a garden. Idolatry,
with its nameless abominations, was utterly destroyed. Islam
furnishes the only solitary example of a great religion which
though preached among a nation and reigning for the most part
among a people not yet emerged from the dawn of an early
civihsation, had succeeded in effectually restraining its votaries
from idolatry. This phenomenon has been justly acknow-
ledged as the pre-eminent glory of Islam, and the most remark-
able evidence of the genius of its Founder. Long had
Christianity and Judaism tried to wean the Arab tribes from
their gross superstition, their inhuman practices, and their
licentious immorahty. But it was not tiU they heard " the
spirit-stirring strains " of the " Appointed of God " that they
became conscious of the God of Truth, overshadowing the
universe with His power and love. Henceforth their aims are
not of this earth alone ; there is something beyond the grave —
higher, purer, and diviner — calling them to the practice of
charity, goodness, justice, and universal love. God is not

IX. FULFILMENT OF MOHAMMED'S MISSION iii

merely the God of to-day or of to-morrow, carved out of wood
or stone, but the mighty, loving, merciful Creator of the world.
Mohammed was the source, under Providence, of this new
awakening, — the bright fountain from which flowed the stream
of their hopes of eternity ; and to him they paid a fitting
obedience and reverence. They were all animated with one
desire, namely, to serve God in truth and purity ; to obey His
laws reverently in all the affairs of life. The truths and
maxims, the precepts which, from time to time during the past
twenty years, Mohammed had dehvered to his followers, were
embalmed in their hearts, and had become the ruling principles
of every action. Law and morality were united. " Never,
since the days when primitive Christianity startled the world
from its sleep, and waged a mortal conflict with heathenism,
had men seen the like arousing of spiritual hfe, — the like faith
that suffered sacrifices, and took joyfully the spoihng of goods
for conscience' sake." ^

The Mission of Mohammed was now accomphshed. And in
this fact — the fact of the whole work being achieved in his
lifetime — lies his distinctive superiority over the prophets,
sages, and philosophers of other times and other countries.
Jesus, Moses, Zoroaster, Sakya-Muni, Plato, all had their
notions of realms of God, their republics, their ideas, through
which degraded humanity was to be elevated into a new moral
life ; all had departed from this world with their aspirations
unfulfilled, their bright visions unrealised ; or had bequeathed
the task of elevating their fe]low-men to sanguinary disciples
or monarch pupils. ^ It was reserved for Mohammed to fulfil
his mission, and that of his predecessors. It was reserved for
him alone to see accomplished the work of amelioration — no
royal disciple came to his assistance with edicts to enforce the
new teachings. May not the Moslems justly say, the entire
work was the work of God ?

The humble preacher, who had only the other day been
hunted out of the city of his birth, and been stoned out of the

' ]^Iuir, vol. ii. p. 269. Coming from an avowed enemy of Islam, this
observation is of the utmost value.

' A Joshua among the Israelites ; an Asoka among the Buddhists ; a
Darius among the Zoroastrians ; a Constantine among the Christians.

112 THE LIFE OF MOHAMMED i.

place where he had betaken himself to preach God's words,
had, within the short space of nine years, lifted up his people]
from the abysmal depths of moral and spiritual degradation to '
a conception of purity and justice.

His life is the noblest record of a work nobly and faithfully
performed. He infused vitality into a dormant people ; he
consohdated a congeries of warring tribes into a nation inspired
into action with the hope of everlasting life ; he concentrated
into a focus all the fragmentary and broken lights which had
ever fallen on the heart of man. Such was his work, and he
performed it with an enthusiasm and fervour which admitted
no compromise, conceived no halting ; with indomitable
courage which brooked no resistance, and allowed no fear of
consequences ; with a singleness of purpose which thought of
no self. The religion of divine unity preached on the shores
of Gahlee had given place to the worship of an incarnate God ;
the old worship of a female deity had revived among those who
professed the creed of the Master of Nazareth. The Recluse
of Hira, the unlettered philosopher — born among a nation of
unyielding idolaters — impressed ineffaceably the unity of God
and the equality of men upon the minds of the nations who
once heard his voice. His " democratic thunder " was the
signal for the uprise of the human intellect against the tyranny
of priests and rulers. In " that world of wrangling creeds and
oppressive institutions," when the human soul was crushed
under the weight of unintelligible dogmas, and the human body
trampled under the tyranny of vested interests, he broke down
the barriers of caste and exclusive privileges. He swept away
with his breath the cobwebs which self-interest had woven in
the path of man to God. He abolished all exclusiveness in
man's relations to his Creator. This unlettered Prophet, whose
message was for the masses, proclaimed the value of knowledge
and learning. By the Pen, man's works are recorded. By
the Pen, man is to be judged. The Pen is the ultimate arbiter
of human actions in the sight of the Lord. His persistent and
unvarying appeal to reason and to the ethical faculty of man-
kind, his rejection of miracles, " his thoroughly democratic
conception of divine government, the universality of his
religious ideal, his simple humanity," — all serve to differentiate

IX. FULFILMENT OF MOHAMMED'S MISSION 113

him from his predecessors, " all affiliate him," says the author
of Oriental Religions, " with the modem world." His Hfe and
work are not wrapt in mystery. No fairy tale has been woven
round his personaUty.

When the hosts of Arabia came flocking to join his faith,
the Prophet felt that his work was accomplished,^ and under
the impression of his approaching end, he determined to make
a farewell pilgrimage to Mecca. On the 25th of Zu'1-Ka'da
(23rd February 632) , the Prophet left Medina with an immense
concourse of Moslems.- On his arrival at Mecca, and before
completing all the rites of the pilgrimage, he addressed the
assembled multitude from the top of the Jahal ul-' Arafat (8th
Zu'1-Hijja, 7th March), in words which should ever live in the
hearts of all Moslems.

" Ye people ! listen to my words, for I know not whether
another year will be vouchsafed to me after this year to find
myself amongst you at this place."

" Your lives and property are sacred and inviolable amongst
one another until ye appear before the Lord, as this day and
this month is sacred for all ; and (remember) ye shall have to
appear before your Lord, who shall demand from you an
account of all your actions. ... Ye people, ye have rights over
your wives, and your wives have rights over you. . . . Treat
your wives with kindness and love. Verily ye have taken
them on the security of God, and have made their persons
lawful unto you by the words of God." " Keep always faithful
to the trust reposed in you, and avoid sins." " Usury is for-
bidden.^ The debtor shall return only the principal ; and the
beginning will be made with (the loans of) my uncle Abbas,

' Koran, sura ex.

* Ibn-Hisham, p. 966 ; Ibn ul-Athir, vol. ii. p. 230. It is said that from
90,000 to 140,000 people accompanied the Prophet. This pilgrimage is called
the Hajiat-al-Balagh, the Great Hajj, or Hajjat-ul-Isldm, the Hajj of Islam,
and sometimes Hajjat-iil-Wada'a, Pilgrimage of Farewell.

' Ribci or interest in kind was prohibited but not legitimate profit on
advances or loans for purposes of business or trade. No one who realises the
economic condition of Arabia can fail to appreciate the wisdom of this rule.
In fact the same reasons which impelled the great Prophet to forbid usury in
his country, induced the Christian divines, up to nearly the end of the seven-
teenth century of the Christian era, to anathematise against usury. The
elder Disraeli's chapter on this subject in his Curiosities of Literature is most
interesting.

S.I. H

114 THE LIFE OF MOHAMMED i.

son of Abd ul-Muttalib.^ , . . Henceforth the vengeance of
blood practised in the days of paganism {Jdhilyat) is prohibited ;
and all blood-feud abolished, commencing with the murder of
Ibn Rabi'a ^ son of Harith son of Abd ul-Muttalib . . .

" And your slaves! See that ye feed them with such food
as ye eat yourselves, and clothe them with the stuff ye wear ;
and if they commit a fault which ye are not inclined to forgive,
then part from them, for they are the servants of the Lord, and
are not to be harshly treated."

" Ye people ! listen to my words and understand the same.
Know that all Moslems are brothers unto one another. Ye are
one brotherhood. Nothing which belongs to another is lawful
unto his brother, unless freely given out of good-will. Guard
yourselves from committing injustice."

" Let him that is present tell it unto him that is absent.
Haply he that shall be told may remember better than he who
hath heard it." ^

This Sermon on the Mount, less poetically beautiful, certainly
less mystical, than the other, appeals by its practicality and
strong common-sense to higher minds, and is also adapted to
the capacity and demands of inferior natures which require
positive and comprehensible directions for moral guidance.

Towards the conclusion of the sermon, the Prophet, over-
come by the sight of the intense enthusiasm of the people
as they drank in his words, exclaimed, " O Lord ! I have
delivered my message and accomplished my work." The
assembled host below with one voice cried, " Yea, verily
thou hast." "O Lord, I beseech Thee, bear Thou witness
unto it."

With these words the Prophet finished his address, which,
according to the traditions, was remarkable for its length, its
eloquence, and enthusiasm. Soon after, the necessary rites of

1 This shows that Abbas must have been a rich man. In the appHcation
of the rule against Riba and blood-feud, the Prophet set to his fiery people the ,
example of self-denial in his own family.

- Ibn Rabi'a, a cousin of the Prophet. He was confided, in his infancy, to
the care of a family of the Bani Laith. This child was cruelly murdered by
members of the tribe of Huzail, but the murder was not yet avenged.

^ After each sentence the Prophet stopped and his words were repeated in
a stentorian voice by Rabi'a, the son of Ommeyya, son of Khalaf, who stood
below, so that whatever was said was heard by the entire assembled host.

IX. FULFILMENT OF MOHAMMED'S MISSION 115

the pilgrimage being finished, the Prophet returned with his
followers to Medina.^

The last year of Mohammed's life was spent in that city. He
settled the organisation of the provinces and
tribal communities which had adopted Islam " a- "• 29th
and become the component parts of the Moslem March 6^3 a.c.
federation. In fact, though the Faith had not
penetrated among the Arab races settled in Syria and Meso-
potamia, most of whom were Christians, the whole of Arabia
now followed the Islamic Faith. Officers were sent to the
provinces and to the various tribes for the purpose of teaching
the people the duties of Islam, administering justice, and collect-
ing the tithes or zakdt. Mu'az ibn-Jabal was sent to Yemen,
and Mohammed's parting injunction to him was to rely on his
own judgment in the administration of affairs in the event of
not finding any authority in the Koran. To Ali, whom he
deputed to Yemama, he said, " When two parties come before
you for justice, do not decide before hearing both."

Preparations were also commenced for sending an expedition
under Osama, the son of Zaid, who was killed at Muta, against
the Byzantines to exact the long-delayed reparation for the
murder of the envoy in Syria. In fact, the troops were already
encamped outside the city ready for the start. But the poison
which had been given to the Prophet by the Jewess at Khaibar,
and which had slowly penetrated into his system, began now to
show its effects, and it became evident that he had not long to
live. The news of his approaching end led to the stoppage of
the expedition under Osama. It had also the effect of pro-
ducing disorder in some of the outlying provinces. Three
pretenders started up claiming divine commission for their
reign of licentiousness and plunder. They gave themselves
out as prophets, and tried by all kinds of imposture to win over
their tribes. One of these, the most dangerous of all, was
Ayhala ibn-Ka'b, better known as al-Aswad (the black). He

^ Abdullah the son of Ubayy, the head of the Mnndjikin, died in the month
of Zu'l Ka'da (Februaiy, 631 a.c). In his last moments he solicited the
Prophet to say the funeral prayers over him. Mohammed, who never rejected
the wishes of a dying man, against the remonstrances of Omar, who reminded
him of the persistent opposition and calumny of Abdullah, offered the prayers
and with his own hands lowered the body into the grave.

ii6 THE LIFE OF MOHAMMED i.

was a chief of Yemen, a man of great wealth and equal sagacity,
and a clever conjuror. Among his simple tribesmen, the
conjuring tricks he performed invested him with a divine
character. He soon succeeded in gaining them over, and, with
their help, reduced to subjection many of the neighbouring
towns. He killed Shahr, who had been appointed by Moham-
med to the governorship of Sana' in the place of Bazan, his
father, who had just died. Bazan had been the viceroy of
Yemen under the Chosroes of Persia, and after his adoption
of Islam was continued in his viceroy alty by the Prophet. He
had during his lifetime exercised great influence, not only over
his Persian compatriots settled in Yemen, who were called by
the name of Abnd, but also over the Arabs of the province.
His example had led to the conversion of all the Persian settlers
of Yemen. Al-Aswad, the impostor, had massacred Shahr,
and forcibly married his wife Marzbana. He was killed by the
Abnd, assisted by Marzbana, when he was lying drunk, after one
of his orgies. The other two pretenders, Tulaiha, son of Khu-
wailid, and Abu Thumama Haran, son of Habib, commonly
called Mosailima, were not suppressed until the accession of
Abu Bakr to the Caliphate. Mosailima had the audacity to
address the Prophet in the following terms : " From Mosailima,
prophet of God, to Mohammed, prophet of God, salutations !
I am your partner : the power must be divided between us :
half the earth for me, the other half for your Koreishites. But
the Koreishites are a grasping people, not given to justice."
Mohammed's reply reveals his sterling nature. " In the name
of God the merciful and compassionate, from Mohammed, the
Prophet of God, to Mosailima the Liar.^ Peace is on those
who follow the right path. The earth belongs to God ; He
bestows it on such of His servants as He pleaseth. The future
is to the pious [i.e. only those prosper who fear the Lord] ! "

The last days of the Prophet were remarkable for the calm-
ness and serenity of his mind, which enabled him, though weak
and feeble, to preside at the public pra^^ers until within three
days of his death. One night, at midnight, he went to the
place where his old companions were lying in the slumber of
death, and prayed and wept by their tombs, invoking God's

^ Kazzdb, superlative of Kdzih.

IX. THE LAST ILLNESS OF THE PROPHET 117

blessings for his " companions resting in peace." He chose
'Ayesha's house, close to the mosque, for his stay during his
illness, and, as long as his strength lasted, took part in the
public prayers. The last time he appeared in the mosque he
was supported by his two cousins, Ali and Fazl, the son of
Abbas. A smile of inexpressible sweetness played over his
countenance, and was remarked by all who surrounded him.
After the usual praises and hymns to God, he addressed the
multitude thus : " Moslems, if I have wronged any one of you,
here I am to answer for it ; if I owe aught to any one, all I may
happen to possess belongs to you." Upon hearing this, a man
in the crowd rose and claimed three dirhems which he had
given to a poor man at the Prophet's request. They were
immediately paid back, with the words, " Better to blush in
this world than in the next." The Prophet then prayed and
implored heaven's mercy for those present, and for those who
had fallen in the persecutions of their enemies ; and recom- ,
mended to all his people the observance of religious duties
and the practice of a life of peace and good-will, and concluded
with the following words of the Koran : " The dwelling of the
other life we will give unto them who do not seek to exalt
themselves on earth or to do wrong ; for the happy issue shall
attend the pious." ^

After this, Mohammed never again appeared at public
prayers. His strength rapidly failed. At noon on Monday
(i2th of Rabi L, 11 a.h. — 8th June 632 a.c), whilst praying
earnestly in whisper, the spirit of the great Prophet took flight
to the " blessed companionship on high." ^

So ended a life consecrated, from first to last, to the service
of God and humanity. Is there another to be compared to
his, with all its trials and temptations ? Is there another which
has stood the fire of the world, and come out so unscathed ?
The humble preacher had risen to be the ruler of Arabia, the
equal of Chosroes and of Caesar, the arbiter of the destinies of
a nation. But the same humility of spirit, the same nobility

^ Koran, sura xxviii. ver. 83 ; Ibn ul-Athir, vol. ii. p. 241 ; Tabari, vol. iii.
p. 207 et seq.

* Ibn-Hisham, p. 1009 ; Ibn ul-Athir, vol. ii. pp. 244, 245 ; Abulf eda, p. 91.
Comp. Caussin de Perceval, vol. iii. p. 322 and note ; al-Halabi , in loco.

ii8 THE LIFE OF MOHAMMED i.

of soul and purity of heart, austerity of conduct, refinement
and delicacy of feeling, and stern devotion to duty which had
won him the title of al-Amin, combined with a severe sense of
self-examination, are ever the distinguishing traits of his
character. Once in his life, whilst engaged in a religious con-
versation with an influential citizen of Mecca, he had turned
away from a humble blind seeker of the truth. He is always
recurring to this incident with remorse, and proclaiming God's
disapprobation. 1 A nature so pure, so tender, and yet so
heroic, inspires not only reverence, but love. And naturally
the Arabian writers dwell with the proudest satisfaction on the
graces and intellectual gifts of the son of Abdullah. His
courteousness to the great, his affability to the humble, and
his dignified bearing to the presumptuous, procured him
universal respect and admiration. His countenance reflected
the benevolence of his heart. Profoundly read in the volume
of nature, though ignorant of letters, with an expansive mind,
elevated by deep communion with the Soul of the Universe, he
was gifted with the power of influencing equally the learned
and the unlearned. Withal, there was a majesty in his face,
an air of genius, which inspired all who came in contact with
him with a feeling of veneration and love.^

His singular elevation of mind, his extreme delicacy and
refinement of feeling, his purity and truth, form the constant
theme of the traditions. He was most indulgent to his inferiors,

1 The Sura in connection with this incident is known by the title of " He
frowned," and runs thus : —

"The Prophet frowned, and turned aside,
Because the bhnd man came to him.
And how knowest thou whether he might not have been cleansed from

his sins.
Or whether he might have been admonished, and profited thereby ?
As for the man that is rich,
Him thou receivest graciously ;
And thou carest not that he is not cleansed.

But as for him that cometh unto thee earnestly seeking his salvation,
And trembling anxiously, him dost thou neglect.
By no means shouldst thou act thus."
After this, whenever the Prophet saw the poor blind man, he used to go
out of his way to do him honour, saying, " The man is thrice welcome on
whose account my Lord hath reprimanded me " ; and he made him twice
governor of Medina. See the remark of Bosworth Smith on Muir about this
incident.

- Mishkat, Bk. xxiv. chap. 3, pt. 2.

IX. THE CHARACTER OF THE PROPHET 119

and would never allow his awkward little page to be scolded
whatever he did. " Ten years," said Anas, his servant, " was
I about the Prophet, and he never said so much as ' Uff ' to
me." ^ He was very affectionate towards his family. One of
his boys died on his breast in the smoky house of the nurse, a
blacksmith's wife. He was very fond of children. He would
stop them in the streets, and pat their little cheeks. He never
struck any one in his life. The worst expression he ever made
use of in conversation was, " What has come to him ? May
his forehead be darkened with mud ! " ^ When asked to curse
some one, he replied, " I have not been sent to curse, but to
be a mercy to mankind."

He visited the sick, followed every bier he met, accepted the
invitation of a slave to dinner, mended his own clothes, milked
his goats, and waited upon himself, relates summarily another
tradition.^ He never first withdrew his hand from another's
palm, and turned not before the other had turned. His hand
was the most generous, his breast the most courageous, his
tongue the most truthful ; he was the most faithful protector
of those he protected ; the sweetest and most agreeable in

. * Ibid. Bk. xxiv. chap. 4, pt. i.

* Ibid. Bk. xxiv. chap. 4, pt. i.

Mr. Poole's estimate of Mohammed is so beautiful and yet so truthful that
I cannot resist the temptation to quote it here : " There is something so
tender and womanly, and withal so heroic, about the man, that one is in peril
of finding the judgment unconsciously blinded by the feeling of reverence and
well-nigh love that such a nature inspires. He who, standing alone braved
for years the hatred of his people, is the same who was never the first to with-
draw his hand from another's clasp ; the beloved of children, who never passed
a group of little ones without a smile from his wonderful eyes and a kind word
for them, sounding all the kinder in that sweet-toned voice. The frank friend-
ship, the noble generosity, the dauntless courage and hope of the man, all
tend to melt criticism into admiration."

" He was an enthusiast in that noblest sense when enthusiasm becomes the
salt of the earth, the one thing that keeps men from rotting whilst they live.
Enthusiasm is often used despitefuUy, because it is joined to an unworthy
cause, or falls upon barren ground and bears no fruit. So was it not with
Mohammed. He was an enthusiast when enthusiasm was the one thing
needed to set the world aflame, and his enthusiasm was noble for a noble cause.
He was one of those happy few who have attained the supreme joy of making
one great truth their very life-spring. He was the messenger of the one God ;
and never to his life's end did he forget who he was, or the message which was
the marrow of his being. He brought his tidings to his people with a grand
dignity sprung from the consciousness of his high office, together with a most
sweet humility, whose roots lay in the knowledge of his own weakness."

3 Mishkat, Bk. xxiv. chap. 4, pt. 2.

120 THE LIFE OF MOHAMMED i.

conversation ; those who saw him were suddenly filled with
reverence ; those who came near him loved him ; they who
described him would say, " I have never seen his like, either
before or after." He was of great taciturnity ; and when he
spoke, he spoke with emphasis and deliberation, and no one
could ever forget what he said. " Modesty and kindness,
patience, self-denial, and generosity pervaded his conduct, and
riveted the affections of all around him. With the bereaved
and afflicted he sympathised tenderly ... He shared his food
even in times of scarcity with others, and was sedulously
solicitous for the personal comfort of every one about him."
He would stop in the streets listening to the sorrows of the
humblest. He would go to the houses of the lowliest to
console the afflicted and to comfort the heart-broken. The
meanest slaves would take hold of his hand and drag him to
their masters to obtain redress for ill-treatment or release from
bondage.^ He never sat down to a meal without first invoking
a blessing, and never rose without uttering a thanks-giving.
His time was regularly apportioned. During the day, when
not engaged in prayers, he received visitors and transacted
public affairs. At night he slept little, spending most of the
hours in devotion. He loved the poor and respected them,
and many who had no home or shelter of their own slept at
night in the mosque contiguous to his house. Each evening it
was his custom to invite some of them to partake of his humble
fare. The others became the guests of his principal disciples. ^
His conduct towards the bitterest of his enemies was marked
by a noble clemency and forbearance. Stern, almost to
severity, to the enemies of the State, mockings, affronts,
outrages, and persecutions towards himself were, in the hour
of triumph — synonymous with the hour of trial to the human
heart — all buried in oblivion, and forgiveness was extended to
the worst criminal.

Mohammed was extremely simple in his habits. His mode
of Hfe, his dress and his belongings, retained to the very last a
character of patriarchal simplicity. Many a time, Abu Huraira
reports, had the Prophet to go without a meal. Dates and

^ Hayat-ul-Kidub (Shiah) and the Rouzat-ul-Ahbab (Sunni).
" Abulfeda, p. 99; al-Halabi, Insan ul-'Uyiln, vol. iii. p. 362.

IX. THE CHARACTER OF MOHAMMED 121

water frequently formed his only nourishment. Often, for
months together, no fire could be lighted in his house from
scantiness of means. God, say the Moslem historians, had
indeed put before him the key to the treasures of this world,
but he refused it !

The mind of this remarkable Teacher was, in its in-
tellectuahsm and progressive ideals, essentially modern.
Eternal " striving " was in his teachings a necessity of human
existence : " Man cannot exist without constant effort " ; ^
" The effort is from me, its fulfilment comes from God." ^
The world, he taught, was a well-ordered Creation, regulated
and guided by a Supreme Intelhgence overshadowing the
Universe — " Everything is pledged to its own time," ^ he
declared. And yet human will was free to work for its own
salvation. His sympathy was universal ; it was he who
invoked the mercy of the Creator on all living beings.* It
was he who pronounced the saving of one human life as
tantamount to the saving of humanity.

His social conception was constructive not disintegrating.
In his most exalted mood he never overlooked the sanctity of
family life. To him the service of humanity was the highest
act of devotion. His call to his faithful was not to forsake
those to whom they owed a duty ; but in the performance of
that duty to earn " merit " and reward. Children were a
trust from God, to be brought up in tenderness and affection ;
parents were to be respected and loved. The circle of duty
embraced in its fold kindred, neighbour, and the humble being
" whose mouth was in the dust."

Fourteen centuries have passed since he delivered his
message, but time has made no difference in the devotion
he inspired, and to-day as then the Faithful have in their
hearts and on their hps those memorable words : —

" May my life be thy sacrifice, O Prophet of God."

CHAPTER X

THE APOSTOLICAL SUCCESSION

THE spiritual life the Prophet had infused into his
people did not end with his life. From the first it was
an article of faith that he was present in spirit with the
worshippers at their prayers, and that his successors in
the ministry were his representatives. The immanence of the
Master's spirit during the devotions establishes the harmony
between the soul of man and the Divine Essence. Amongst
all the dynastic rivalries and schismatic strife this mystical
conception of his spiritual presence at the prayers has imparted
a force to the Faith which cannot be over-estimated.

The two great sects into which Islam became divided at an
early stage are agreed that the rehgious efficacy of the rites
and duties prescribed by the Law {the Shari'at) depends on
the existence of the vice-gerent and representative of the
Prophet, who, as such, is the rehgious Head [Imam) of the
Faith and the Faithful.

The adherents of the Apostolical Imams have a development
and philosophy of their own quite distinct from " the followers
of the traditions." According to them the spiritual heritage
bequeathed by the Prophet devolved on Ah and his descend-
ants by Fatima, the Prophet's daughter. They hold that the
Imamate descends by Divine appointment in the apostolic
hne. They do not regard the Pontificate of Abu Bakr, Omar
and Osman as rightful ; they consider that AH, who, was
indicated by the Prophet as his successor, was the first rightful

THE APOSTOLICAL SUCCESSION 123

Caliph and Imam of the Faithful, and that after his assassina-
tion the spiritual headship descended in succession to his
and Fatima's posterity in " the direct male line " \mtil it came
to Imam Hasan al-'Askari, eleventh in descent from Ali,
who died in the year 874 A.c. or 260 of the Hegira in the reign
of the Abbaside Caliph Mu'tamid. Upon his death the
Imamate devolved upon his son Mohammed, surnamed al-
Mahdi (the " Guide "), the last Imam. The story of these
Imams of the House of Mohammed is intensely pathetic.
The father of Hasan was deported from Medina to Samarra
I by the tyrant Mutawakkil, and detained there until his death.
Similarly, Hasan was kept a prisoner by the jealousy of
Mutawakkil's successors. His infant son, barely five years
of age, pining for his father, entered in search of him a cavern
not far from their house. From that cavern the child never
returned. The pathos of this calamity culminated in the
hope, the expectation, which fills the hearts of all Shiahs,
that the child may return to relieve a sorrowing and sinful
world of its burden of sin and oppression. So late as the
fourteenth century of the Christian era, when Ibni Khaldun ^
was writing his great work, the Shiahs were wont to assemble
at eventide at the entrance of the cavern and supplicate the
missing child to return to them. After a long and wistful
waiting, they dispersed to their homes, disappointed and sorrow-
ful. This, says Ibn Khaldun, was a daily occurrence. " When
they were told it was hardly possible the child could be alive,"
they answered that, "as the Prophet Khizr^ was ahve why
should not their Imam be alive also?" This Imam bears
among the Shiahs the titles, the Muntazar, the Expected —
the Hujja or the Proof (of the Truth), and the Kami, the
Living.

The philosophical student of religions will not fail to observe
the strange similarity of the Shiah and the Sunni beHefs
to older ideas. Among the Zoroastrians the persecution
of the Seleucidae engendered the belief that a divinely appointed
Saviour, whose name was Sosiosch, would issue from Khorasan
to release them from the hated bondage of the foreigner.
The same causes gave birth to that burning anticipation

> See post, p. 126. - See Appendix III.

124 THE LIFE OF MOHAMMED i.

among the Jews in the advent of the Messiah. The Jew
beHeves that the Messiah is yet to come ; the Sunni, hke him,
beheves that the Saviour of Islam is still unborn. The
Christian beHeves that the Messiah has come and gone, and
wiU come again ; the Asna-'asharia,^ like the Christian, awaits
the reappearance of the Mahdi, the Guide, who is to save the
world from evil and oppression. The origin of these conceptions
and the reasons of their diversity are traceable to like causes.
The phenomena of the age in which the idea of the Mahdi
took shape in its two distinct forms were similar to those
visible in the history of the older faiths. Every eventide
the prayer goes up to heaven in Islam, as in Judaism and
Christianity, for the advent of the divinely-appointed Guide,
to redeem the world from sorrow and sin.

The Shiah beHeves that the Imam though ghdib (absent),
is always present in spirit at the devotions of his fold. The
expounders of the law and the ministers of religion are his
representatives on earth ; and even the secular chiefs represent
him in the temporal affairs of the world. Another point of
difference between them and the Sunnis consists in the qualities
required for the Imamate. According to the Shiahs the
Imam must be sinless or immaculate {m'asum), a quality which
their Imams alone possess, and that he must be the most ex-
cellent {afzal) of mankind.

The Sunni doctrines which govern the lives, thoughts, and
conduct of the bulk of the Moslem world are diametrically
opposed to the Shiah conception. The Sunni religious law
insists that the Imam must be actually present in person to
impart religious efficacy to the devotions of the Faithful ;
and that, where it is not possible for him to lead the prayers,
he should be represented by persons possessing the necessary
qualifications.

These doctrines are enunciated in detail in most works on
jurisprudence and scholastic theology. The Khildfat, it is
explained, is the Vice-gerency of the Prophet ; it is ordained
by Divine Law for the perpetuation of Islam and the continued
observance of its laws and rules. For the existence of Islam,
therefore, there must always be a Caliph, an actual and direct

1 See post, p. 344.

X. THE APOSTOLICAL SUCCESSION 125

representative of the Master. The Imamate is the spiritual
leadership ; but the two dignities are inseparable ; the Vice-
gerent of the Prophet is the only person entitled to lead the
prayers when he can himself be present. No one else can
assume his functions unless directly or indirectly " deputed "
by him. Between the Imam and the mdmum ^ or congregation,
there is a spiritual tie which binds the one to the other in the
fealty to the Faith. There is no inconsistency between this
dogma and the rule that there is no priesthood in Islam.
Each man pleads for himself before his Lord, and each soul
holds communion with God without the intermediation of any
other human being. The Imam is the link between the
individual worshipper and the evangel of Islam. This mystical
element in the religion of Islam forms the foundation of its
remarkable solidarity.

The above remarks serve to emphasise the statement in the
Durr-ul-Mukhtdr that Imamate is of two kinds, the Imdmat-
al-Kuhrd and the Imdmat-as-Stighrd, the supreme spiritual
Headship and the minor derivative right to officiate at the
devotions of the Faithful. The Imdm al-Kahir, the supreme
Pontiff, is the Caliph of the Sunni world. He combines in his
person the spiritual and temporal authority which devolves
on him as the vicegerent of the Master. Secular affairs are
conducted by him in consultation with councillors as under
the first four Caliphs, or, as in later times, by delegates, collect-
ively or individually. Similarly with religious and spiritual
matters. But in the matter of public prayers, unless physically
prostrate, he is bound to conduct the congregational service
in person.

Among the Shiahs, even Friday prayers and prayers offered
at the well-known festivals, may validly be performed indi-
vidually and in private. According to the Sunni doctrines
congregational prayers, where mosques or other places of
pubhc worship are accessible, are obligatory ; abstention from
attendance without valid reason is a sin, and the defaulters
incur even temporal penalties. In Najd, under the rule of
the Wahabis, who have been called the Covenanters of Islam,

^ This is the term used in the Fatdwai-Alamgiri. The individual follower
is usually called the Muktadi.

126 THE LIFE OF MOHAMMED i.

laggards were whipped into the mosque. And to-day under
Ibni S'aud, his followers who designate themselves Ikhwdn, or
" Brothers in faith," pursue the same method for enforcing
the observance of religious rites. Prayers hi'l jama at being
obligatory (farz'ain) naturally made the presence of the Imam
absolutely obligatory. ^

The Sunnis affirm that when stricken by his last illness the
Prophet deputed Abu Bakr to lead the prayers. On his
death, but before he was consigned to his grave, the Master's
nomination was accepted by the " congregation " and Abu
Bakr was installed as his vicegerent by the unanimous suffrage
of the Moslems. And this has ever since been the universal
practice in all regular lines.

Amongst the qualifications necessary for occupying the
pontifical seat, the first and most essential is that he must
be a Moslem belonging to the Sunni communion, capable of
exercising supreme temporal authority, free of all outside
control. The Sunnis do not require that the Imam should
be ma' sum, or that he should be " the most excellent
of mankind," nor do they insist on his descent from the
Prophet. According to them he should be an independent
ruler, without any personal defects, a man of good character,
possessed of the capacity to conduct the affairs of State, and to
lead at prayers. The early doctors, on the authority of a saying
of the Prophet, have included a condition which comes at the
end of the passage relating to the qualities necessary for the
Imamate — viz., that the CaHph-Imam should be a Koreish by
birth. The avowed object of inserting this condition, as is stated
both in the Durr-ul-Mukhtdr and the Radd-ul-Muhtdr , was to
nullify the Shiah contention that the Imamate was restricted
to the House of Mohammed, the descendants of Ali and Fatima,
and to bring in the first three Caliphs, and the Ommeyyade
and the Abbaside Caliphs, into the circle of legitimate Imams.
The great jurist and historian, Ibn Khaldun,^ a contemporary
of Tamerlane, who died in the year 1406 A.c, long before the

^ There is absolute consensus on these points among the different Sunni
schools. The Jurist Khalil ibn Ishak, the author of the monumental work
on Maliki Law, enunciates the rules in the same terms as the Hanafis and
the Shafeis.

- For many years Malikite Chief Kazi of Cairo.

X. THE APOSTOLICAL SUCCESSION 127

House of Othman attained the Caliphate, has dealt at great
length with this condition in his Mukaddamdt (Prolegomena).
He does not dispute the genuineness of the saying on which
it is based, but explains that it was a mere recommendation
which was due to the circumstances of the times. He points
out that when the Islamic Dispensation was given to the world
the tribe of Koreish were the most advanced and most powerful
in Arabia ; and in recommending or desiring that the temporal
and spiritual guardianship of the Moslems should be confined
to a member of his own tribe, the Prophet was thinking of the
immediate future rather than of laying down a hard and fast
rule of succession. At that time a qualified and capable ruler
of Islam could only be found among the Koreish ; hence the
recommendation that the Caliph and Imam should be chosen
from among them. This view eloquently expressed by one of
the most learned of Sunni Jurisconsults is universally accepted
by the modern doctors (the Mutdkhenn), that subject to the
fulfilment of all other conditions the law imposes no tribal or
racial restriction in the choice of an Imam. Abu Bakr before
his death had nominated Omar his successor in the Vice-
gerency, and the appointment was accepted by the " univer-
sality " of the people, including the House of Mohammed.
Omar died from the effects of a mortal wound inflicted on
him by a Christian or Magian fanatic who considered himself
aggrieved by the acts of this great Caliph. To avoid all
imputation of favouritism Omar had, before his death,
appointed an electoral committee consisting of six eminent
members of the Moslem congregation to choose his successor.
Their choice fell on Osman, a descendant of Ommeyya, who
was installed as Caliph with the suffrage of the people. On
Osman's unhappy death, Ali, the son-in-law of the Prophet,
who, according to the Shiahs, was entitled by right to the
Imamate in direct succession to the Prophet, was proclaimed
Caliph and Imam. The husband of Fatima united in his
person the hereditary right with that of election. But his
endeavour to remedy the evils which had crept into the
administration under his aged predecessor raised against him
a host of enemies. Mu'awiyah, an Ommeyyade by descent,
who held the governorship of Syria under Osman, raised the

128 THE LIFE OF MOHAMMED I.

standard of revolt. Ali proceeded to crush the rebelUon
but, after an indecisive battle, was struck down by the hand
of an assassin whilst at his devotions in the pubHc Mosque of
Kufa in 'Irak. With 'AH ended what is called by the early
Sunni doctors of law and theologians, the Khildfat-al-Kdmila,
" the Perfect Caliphate," for in each case their title to the
rulership of Islam was perfected by the universal suffrage of
the Moslem nation.

On Ah's death Mu'awiyah obtained an assignment of the
Caliphate from Hasan, the eldest son of Ali, who had been
elected to the office by the unanimous voice of the people of
Kufa and its dependencies ; and received the suffrage of the
people of Syria to his assumption of the high office. This
happened in 66i A.c. i

It should be noted here that the Ommeyyades and ,
Hashimides were two offshoots from one common stock, that I
of Koreish. Bitter rivalry existed between these famihes j
which it was the great aim of the Prophet throughout his
ministry to remove or reconcile. The Hashimides owe their
designation to Hashim, the great grandfather of the Prophet. ;
His son Abdul Muttalib had several sons ; one of them, I
Abbas, was the progenitor of the Abbaside CaHphs. Abu
Talib, another son, was the father of Ah the Caliph, whilst
the youngest, Abdullah, was the Prophet's father.

Mu'awiyah was the first Cahph of the House of Ommeyya.
On the death of Mu'awiyah's grandson, another member of
the same family belonging to the Hakamite branch, named
Merwan, assumed the Caliphate. Under his son 'Abdul Mahk
and grandson Walid, the Sunni Cahphate attained its widest
expansion ; it extended from the Atlantic to the Indian Ocean i
and from the Tagus to the sands of the Sahara and the confines
of Abyssinia. In 749 A.c. Abu'l Abbas, surnamed Saffah, a
descendant of Abbas, the uncle of the Prophet, overthrew the
Ommeyyade dynasty and was installed as Caliph, in place of ^
Merwan II., the last Pontiff of that House, in the Cathedral
Mosque of Kufa, where he received the Bai'at ^ of the people.
He then ascended the pulpit, recited the pubfic sermon which
the Imam or his representative dehvers at the public pra3^ers.
1 The sacramental oath of fealty.

X. THE APOSTOLICAL SUCCESSION 129

This notable address, religiously preserved by his successors,
is to be found in the pages of the Arab historian Ibn-ul-Athir.
It is in effect a long vindication of the rights of the children
of Abbas to the Caliphate. Abu'l Abbas was henceforth
the legitimate ruler of the Sunni world and the rightful
spiritual Head of the Sunni Church. His first six successors
were men of remarkable ability ; those who followed were of
varying capacity, but a few possessed uncommon talent and
learning. Mansur, the brother of Saffah, who succeeded him
in the Caliphate, founded Bagdad, which became their capital
and seat of Government, and was usually called the Ddr-ul-
Khildfat and the Ddr-ns-saldm, " The Abode of the Caliphate "
and " The Abode of Peace." Here the house of Abbas exercised
undisputed spiritual and temporal authority for centuries.
Their great rivals of Cairo became extinct in Saladin's time ;
the brilliant Ommeyyade dynasty of Cordova disappeared
in the first decade of the eleventh century. The Almohades,
the Almoravides, and the many Berber and Arab dynasties
which, on the decline of the Almoravides, followed each other
in succession in Morocco, had no valid title to the headship
of the Sunni Church. The right of the Abbasides to the
Sunni Imamate stood unchallenged from the Atlantic to the
Ganges, from the Black Sea and the Jaxartes to the Indian
Ocean. In 493 of the Hegira (1099 a.c.) Yusuf bin Tashfin,
the Almohade conqueror after the epoch-making battle of
az-Zallaka, where the Christian hordes were decisively beaten,
obtained from the Abbaside CaUph al-Muktadi, a formal
investiture with the title of Ameer-al-Muslimtn ; and this was
confirmed to him by the Caliph al-Mustazhir. It should be
borne in mind that neither the " Cahphs " of Cordova nor any
of the Moslem sovereigns in after ages assumed the dignity of the
representative of the Prophet {Khalifat-ar-Rasid) or arrogated
the title of Ameer-ul-Mominin.

For full five centuries Bagdad was the centre of all intel-
lectual activity in Islam ; and here the rules and regulations
appertaining to the Cahphate, as also to other matters, secular
and religious, were systematised. And the conception that the
CaHph-Imam was the divinely-appointed Vice-gerent of the
Prophet became, as it is to-day, welded into the religious life of

S.I, I

130 THE LIFE OF MOHAMMED i.

the people. It will thus be seen that according to the Sunni
doctrines the Caliph is not merely a secular sovereign ; he is
the religious head of a Church and a commonwealth, the
actual representative of Divine government.^

The Abbaside Caliphate lasted for five centuries from its
first estabHshment until the destruction of Bagdad by the
Mongols in 1258 of the Christian era. At that time Musta'sim
bTllah was the Caliph, and he, together with his sons and the
principal members of his family, perished in the general
massacre ; only those scions of the House of Abbas escaped
the slaughter who were absent from the capital, or succeeded
in avoiding detection.

For two years after the murder of Musta'sim bTllah the
Sunni world felt acutely the need of an Imam and Caliph ;
both the poignancy of the grief at the absence of a spiritual
Head of the Faith, and the keenness of the necessity for a
representative of the Prophet to bring solace and religious
merit to the Faithful, are pathetically voiced by the Arab
historian of the Caliphs. ^ The devotions of the living were
devoid of that religious efficacy which is imparted to them by
the presence in the world of an acknowledged Imam ; the
prayers for the dead were equally without merit. Sultan
Baibars felt with the whole Sunni world the need of a Caliph
and Imam. The right to the Caliphate had become vested
by five centuries of undisputed acknowledgment in the
House of Abbas ; and a member of this family, Abu'l Kasim
Ahmed, who had succeeded in making his escape from the
massacre by the Mongols, was invited to Cairo for installation
in the pontifical seat. On his arrival in the environs of
Cairo, the Sultan, accompanied by the judges and great officers
of State, went forth to greet him. The ceremony of installa-
tion is described as imposing and sacred. His descent had to
be proved first before the Chief Kazi or Judge. After this was
done, he was installed in the chair and acknowledged as Caliph,
under the title of al-Mustansir bTllah, " Seeking the help of
the Lord." The first to take the oath of Bai'at was the Sultan
Baibars himself ; next came the Chief Kazi Taj-ud-din, the
principal sheikhs and the ministers of State, and lastly the

» Suyuti. * Ihid,

X. THE APOSTOLICAL SUCCESSION 131

nobles, according to their rank. This occurred on May 12th,
1261, and the new CaHph's name was impressed on the coinage
and recited in the Khutba. On the following Friday he rode
to the mosque in procession, wearing the black mantle of the
Abbasides,^ and delivered the pontifical sermon. As his
installation as the Caliph of the Faithful was now complete,
he proceeded to invest the Sultan with the robe and diploma
so essential in the eyes of the orthodox for legitimate
authority.

The Abbaside Caliphate thus established in Cairo lasted for
over two centuries and a-half. During this period Egypt was
ruled by sovereigns who are designated in history as the
Mameluke Sultans. Each Sultan on his accession to power
received his investiture from the Caliph and " Imam of his
time " {Imdm-iil-Wakt) and he professed to exercise his
authority as the lieutenant and delegate of the Pontiff. The
appointment of ministers of religion and administrators of
justice was subject to the formal sanction of the Caliph.
Though shorn of all its temporal powers, the religious prestige
of the Caliphate was so great, and the conviction of its necessity
as a factor in the life of the people so deep-rooted in the
religious sentiments of the Sunni world, that twice after the
fall of Bagdad the Musulman sovereigns of India received
their investiture from the Abbaside Caliphs. The account
of the reception in 1343 a.c. of the Caliph's envoy by Sultan
Mohammed Juna Khan Tughlak, the founder of the gigantic
unfinished city of Tughlakabad, gives us an idea of the venera-
tion in which the Pontiffs were held even in Hindustan, in
those days said to be full six months' journey from Egypt.
On the approach of the envoy the King, accompanied by the
Syeds and the nobles, went out of the capital to greet him ;
and when the Pontiff's missive was handed to the Sultan he
received it with the greatest reverence. The formal diploma
of investiture legitimised the authority of the King. The
whole of this incident is celebrated in a poem still extant
in India by the poet laureate, the famous Badr-ud-din
Chach.

f 1 Black was the colour of the Abbusidcs, white of the Ommeyyades and
green of the Fatimides, the descendants of Mohammed.

132 THE LIFE OF MOHAMMED i.

About the end of the fifteenth century the star of Sehm I.,
also surnamed Saffah, of the House of Othman, rose in the
horizon. His victories over the enemies of Islam had won for
him the title of " Champion of the Faith " ; and no other
Moslem sovereign — not even his great rival Shah Isma'il,
the founder of the Sufi dynasty in Persia and the creator of
the first orthodox Shiah State, — equalled the Osmanli monarch
in greatness and power.

The closing decades of that century had witnessed a vast
change in the condition of Egypt, and the anarchy that had set
in under the later Mameluke Sultans reached its climax some
years later. Invited by a section of the Egyptian people to
restore order and peace in the distracted country, Selim easily
overthrew the incompetent Mamelukes, and incorporated
Egypt with his already vast dominions. At this period the
Cahph who held the Vice-gerency of the Prophet bore the
pontifical name of Al-Mutawakkil *ala- Allah (" Contented
in the grace of the Lord "). According to the Sunni records,
he perceived that the only Moslem sovereign who could com-
bine in his own person the double functions of Caliph and
Imam, and restore the Caliphate of Islam in theory and in
fact, and discharge effectively the duties attached to that
office, was Selim. He accordingly, in 1517, by a formal deed
of assignment, transferred the Caliphate to the Ottoman
conqueror, and, with his officials and dignitaries, "made the
Bai'at on the hand of the Sultan." In the same year Selim
received the homage of the Sharif of Mecca, Mohammed
Abu'l Barakat, a descendant of Ali, who presented by his son
Abu Noumy on a silver salver the keys of the Kaaba and took
the oath by the same proxy. The combination in Selim of the
Abbaside right by assignment and by Bai'at, and the adhesion
of the representative of the Prophet's House who held at the
time the guardianship of the Holy Cities, perfected the Ottoman
Sultan's title to the Caliphate, "just as the adhesion of (the
Caliph) Ali had completed the title of the first three Caliphs."
The solemn prayers with the usual Khutbas offered in Mecca
and Medina for the Sultan gave the necessary finality to the
right of Sehm. Henceforth Constantinople, his seat of govern-
ment, became the Ddr-ul-Khildfat, and began to be called

X. THE APOSTOLICAL SUCCESSION 133

" Islambol," " The City of Islam." Before long envoys arrived
in Selim's Court and that of his son, Solyman the Magnificent,
from the rulers of the Sunni States to offer their homage ;
and thus, according to the Sunnis, the Caliphate became the
heritage of the House of Othman, which they have enjoyed
for four centuries without challenge or dispute.

PART IL
THE SPIRIT OF ISLAM

CHAPTER I
THE IDEAL OF ISLAM

^^JJsrvJ ^^^AAlt'i ^^t xj] [)\

^l\3^; ^__^Aj.lloli V^A**«1 |.U
o o ' o o'o . O' -f o "

THE religion of Jesus bears the name of Christianity,
derived from his designation of Christ ; that of Moses
and of Buddha are known by the respective names
of their teachers. The religion of Mohammed alone has a
distinctive appellation. It is Islam.

In order to form a just appreciation of the rehgion of
Mohammed it is necessary to understand aright the true
significance of the word Islam. Salam {salama), in its primary
sense, means, to be tranquil, at rest, to have done one's duty,
to have paid up, to be at perfect peace ; in its secondary sense,

^ For translation, see Appendix.

138 THE SPIRIT OF ISLAM ii.

to surrender oneself to Him with whom peace is made. The
noun derived from it means peace, greeting, safety, salvation.
The word does not imply, as is commonly supposed, absolute
submission to God's wiU, but means, on the contrary, striving
after righteousness.

The essence of the ethical principles involved and embodied
in Islam is thus summarised in the second chapter of the
Koran : " There is no doubt in this book — a guidance to the
pious, who believe in the Unseen, who observe the prayers,
and distribute (charity) out of what We have bestowed on
them ; and who beheve in that which We have commissioned
thee with, and in that We commissioned others with before thee,
and who have assurance in the life to come ; — these have
received the direction of their Lord." ^

The principal bases on which the Islamic system is founded
are (i) a behef in the unity, immateriality, power, mercy, and
supreme love of the Creator ; (2) charity and brotherhood
among mankind ; (3) subjugation of the passions ; (4) the
outpouring of a grateful heart to the Giver of all good ; and
(5) accountability for human actions in another existence.
The grand and noble conceptions expressed in the Koran of
the power and love of the Deity surpass everything of their
kind in any other language. The unity of God, His immateri-
ality, His majesty. His mercy, form the constant and never-
ending theme of the most eloquent and soul-stirring passages.
The flow of life, light, and spirituality never ceases. But
throughout there is no trace of dogmatism. Appeal is made to
the inner consciousness of man, to his intuitive reason alone.

Let us now take a brief retrospect of the religious conceptions
of the peoples of the world when the Prophet of Islam com-
menced his preachings. Among the heathen Arabs the idea
of Godhead varied according to the culture of the individual
or of the clan. With some it rose, comparatively speaking,
to the " divinisation " or deification of nature ; among others
it feU to simple fetishism, the adoration of a piece of dough,
a stick, or a stone. Some believed in a future hfe ; others
had no idea of it whatever. The pre-Islamite Arabs had their
groves, their oracle-trees, their priestesses, like the Syro-

1 Koran, sura ii. i-6.

I. THE IDEAL OF ISLAM 139

Phoenicians. Phallic worship was not unknown to them ;
and the generative powers received adoration, like the hosts
of heaven, under monuments of stone and wood. The wild
denizens of the desert, then as now, could not be impervious
to the idea of some unseen hand driving the blasts which swept
over whole tracts, or forming the beautiful visions which rose
before the traveller to lure him to destruction. And thus there
floated in the Arab world an intangible, unrealised conception
of a superior deity, the Lord of all.^

The Jews, those great conservators of the monotheistic
idea, as they have been generally regarded in history, probably
might have assisted in the formation of this conception. But
they themselves showed what strange metamorphoses can take
place in the thoughts of a nation when not aided by a historical
and rationalistic element in their religious code.

The Jews had entered Arabia at various times, and under
the pressure of various circumstances. Naturally, the con-
ceptions of the different bodies of emigrants, refugees, or
colonists would vary much. The ideas of the men driven out
by the Assyrians or Babylonians would be more anthropo-
morphic, more anthropopathic, than of those who fled before
Vespasian, Trajan, or Hadrian. The characteristics which
had led the Israelites repeatedly to lapse into idolatry in their
original homes, when seers were in their midst to denounce
their backslidings, would hardly preserve them from the
heathenism of their Arab brothers. With an idea of " the
God of Abraham " they would naturally combine a material-
istic conception of the deity, and hence we find them rearing
" a statue representing Abraham, with the ram beside him
ready for sacrifice," in the interior of the Kaaba.

Amongst the later comers the Shammaites and the Zealots
formed by far the largest proportion. Among them the
worship of the law verged upon idolatry, and the Scribes and
Rabbins claimed a respect almost approaching adoration.
They believed themselves to be the guardians of the people,
the preservers of law and tradition, " living exemplars and
mirrors, in which the true mode of life, according to the law,

1 Shahristani ; Tide calls the religion of the pre-Islamite Arabs " animistic
polydsemonism."

140 THE SPIRIT OF ISLAM ii,

was preserved." ^ They looked upon themselves as the
" flower of the nation," and they were considered, through
their intercourse with God, to possess the gift of prophecy.
In fact, by their people as well as by themselves they were
regarded as the prime favourites of God.^ The veneration of
the Jews for Moses went so far, says Josephus, that they
reverenced his name next to that of God ; and this veneration
they transferred to Ezra, the restorer of national life and law
under the Kyanian dynasty. ^

Besides, the mass of the Jews had never, probably, thoroughly
abandoned the worship of the Teraphim, a sort of household
gods made in the shape of human beings, and consulted on all
occasions as domestic oracles, or regarded perhaps more as
guardian penates.^ This worship must have been strengthened
by contact with the heathen Arabs.

When Jesus made his appearance in Judaea, the doctrine of
divine unity and of a supreme Personal Will, overshadowing the
universe with its might and grace, received acceptance only
among one race — the worshippers of Jehovah. And even
among them, despite all efforts to the contrary, the conception
of the divinity had either deteriorated by contact with heathen
nations, or become modified by the influence of pagan phil-
osophies. On the one hand, Chaldaeo-Magian philosophy
had left its finger-mark indelibly impressed on the Jewish
traditions ; on the other, their best minds, whilst introducing
among the Greek and Roman philosophers the conception of a
great Primal Cause, had imbibed, in the schools of Alexandria,
notions hardly reconcilable with their monotheistic creed.

The Hindus, with their multitudinous hordes of gods and
goddesses ; the Mago-Zoroastrians, with their two divinities
struggling for mastery ; the Greeks, Romans, and Egyptians,
with their pantheons full of deities whose morality was below
that of the worshippers, — such was the condition of the civilised
world when Jesus commenced his preachings. With aU his
dreams and aspirations, his mind was absolutely exempt from

1 Dollinger, The Gentile and the Jew, vol. ii. p. 308.

* Josephus, Antiquities, xvii. 24. They were, so to speak, the Brahmans of
Judaism.

3 Ezra vii. 10 et seq. * Judges xviii. 14.

I. THE IDEAL OF ISLAM 141

those pretensions which have been fixed on him by his over-
zealous followers. He never claimed to be a " complement
of God," or to be a " hypostasis of the Divinity."

Even modem ideaUstic Christianity has not been able yet to
shake itself free from the old legacy bequeathed by the anthro-
pomorphism of bygone ages. Age after age everything human
has been eliminated from the history of the great Teacher,
until his personality is lost in a mass of legends. The New
Testament itself, with " its incubation of a century," leaves
the revered figure clothed in a mist. And each day the old
idea of " an /Eon born in the bosom of eternity," gathers force
until the Council of Nice gives it a shape and consistency, and
formulates it into a dogma.

Many minds, bewildered by the far-offness of the universal
Father, seek a resting-place midway in a human personality
which they call divine. It is this need of a nearer object of
adoration which leads modern Christianity to give a name to
an ideal, clothe it with flesh and blood, and worship it as a
man-God.

The gifted author of the Defects of Modern Christianity con-
siders the frequency with which the Nazarene Prophet asserted
that he was " the Son of God," and demanded the same worship
as God Himself, a proof of his Divinity. That Jesus ever
maintained he was the Son of God, in the sense in which it has
been construed by Christian divines and apologists, we totally
deny. Matthew Arnold has shown conclusively that the New
Testament records are in many respects wholly unreliable.
So far as the divinity of Christ is concerned, one can almost
see the legend growing. But assuming that he made use of
the expressions attributed to him, do they prove that he claimed
to be " the only-begotten of the Father " ? Has the apologist
not heard of the Eastern dervish, famous now as al-Hallaj,
who claimed to be God Himself ? " An-al-Hakk," " I am
God — I am the Truth," said he ; and the Musulman divines,
like the Jewish Sanhedrim, pronounced him guilty of blas-
phemy, and condemned him to death ? A poor simple heart,
kindling with an exalted mysticism, was thus removed from
earth. The Babi still believes that his master, " the Gate "
to eternal Hfe, was not killed, but miraculously removed to

142 THE SPIRIT OF ISLAM ii.

heaven. Can it be said that when Abu Mughis al-Hallaj ^
and the Bab called themselves " Truth " and the " Gate to
heaven," they meant to imply that they were part of the
Divinity, or, if they did, that their " claim " is tantamount to
proof ? But, as we said before, we deny that Jesus, whose
conceptions, when divested of the Aberglaube of his followers,
were singularly free from exaggeration as to his own character
or personality, ever used any expression to justify the demand
attempted to be fixed upon him. His conception of the
" Fatherhood " of God embraced all humanity. All mankind
were the children of God, and he was their Teacher sent by the
Eternal Father. ^ The Christian had thus a nobler exemplar
before him. The teachings of the Prophet of Nazareth should
have elevated him to a purer conception of the Deity. But six
centuries had surrounded the figure of Jesus with those myths
which, in opposition to his own words, resolved him into a
manifestation of the Godhead. The " Servant " took the
place of the Master in the adoration of the world. The vulgar
masses, unable to comprehend or realise this wonderful
mixture of Neo-Pythagoreanism, Platonism, Judaeo-Hellen-
istic philosophy, and the teachings of Jesus, adored him as
God incarnate, or reverted to the primitive worship of relics
and of a tinselled goddess who represented the pure mother
of Jesus. ^ The Collyridians, who were by no means an un-
important sect, went so far as to introduce in the Christian
pantheon the Virgin Mary for God, and worship her as such,
offering her a sort of twisted cake called coUyris, whence the
sect had its name. At the Covmcil of Nice which definitely
settled the nature of Jesus, there were men who held that
besides " God the Father," there were two other gods —

1 Abu Mughis ibn Mansur, al-Halldj, died in the prime of hfe. He was a
man of pure morals, great simpUcity, a friend of the poor, but a dreamer and
an enthusiast. For an account of the Bab and Babism, see Gobineau, Les
Religions et les Philosophies dans I'Asie Centrale and the History of the Bab
by Professor E. G. Browne.

2 The use of the word " Father " in relation to God was cut out from Islam
owing to the perversion of the idea among the then Christians.

* The Isaurian sovereigns, indirectly inspired by Islam, for over a century
battled against the growing degradation of Christianity, strived with all their
might to make it run back in the channel pointed out by the great Teacher,
but to no purpose.

I. THE IDEAL OF ISLAM 143

Christ and the Virgin Mary.^ And the Romanists even now,
it is said, call the mother of Jesus the complement of the Trinity.

In the long night of superstition the Christians had wandered
far away from the simplicity of the Nazarene teachings. The
worship of images, saints, and relics had become inseparably
blended with the religion of Jesus. The practices which he
had denounced, the evils which he had reprehended, were,
one by one, incorporated with his faith. The holy ground
where the revered Teacher had lived and walked was involved
in a cloud of miracles and visions, and " the nerves of the mind
were benumbed by the habits of obedience and belief." ^

Against all the absurdities we have described above, the
life-aim of Mohammed was directed. Addressing, with the
voice of truth, inspired by deep communion with the God of
the Universe, the fetish-worshippers of the Arabian tribes on
one side and the followers of degraded Christianity and Judaism
on the other, Mohammed, that " master of speech," as he has
been truly called, never travelled out of the province of reason,
and made them all blush at the monstrousness of their beliefs.
Mohammed, the grand apostle of the unity of God, thus stands
forth in history in noble conflict with the retrogressive tendency
of man to associate other beings with the Creator of the
universe. Ever and anon in the Koran occur passages, fervid
and burning, like the following : " Your God is one God ;
there is no God but He, the Most Merciful. In the creation of
the heaven and earth, and the alternation of night and day,
and in the ship which saileth on the sea, laden with what is
profitable to mankind ; and in the rain-water which God
sendeth from heaven, quickening again the dead earth, and the
animals of all sorts which cover its surface ; and in the change
of winds, and the clouds balanced between heaven and earth, —

* Mosheim, vol. i. p. 432.

- Mosheim's Ecclesiastical Hist. vol. i. p. 432 ; comp. also Hallam, Const.
Hist, of England, chap. ii. p. 75. From the text it will be seen how much
truth there is in the assertion that Islam derived " everything good it contains "
from Judaism or Christianity. " It has been the fashion," says Deutsch,
" to ascribe whatever is good in Mohammedanism to Christianity. We fear
this theory is not compatible with the results of honest investigation. For
of Arabian Christianity at the time of Mohammed, the less said, perhaps, the
better . . . By the side of it . . . even modern Amharic Christianity, of which
we possess such astounding accounts, appears pure and exalted." — Quarterly
Feview, No. 954, p. 31-,.

144 THE SPIRIT OF ISLAM ii.

are signs to people of understanding ; yet some men take idols
beside God, and love them as with the love due to God." ^
What a depth of sympathy towards those benighted people
do these words convey ! Again : " It is He who causeth the
lightning to appear unto you (to strike) fear and (to raise)
hope ; and formeth the pregnant clouds. The thunder
celebrateth His praise, and the angels also. ... He launcheth
His thunderbolts, and striketh therewith whom He pleaseth
while they dispute concerning Him. ... It is He who of right
ought to be invoked, and those (the idols) whom they invoke
besides Him shall not respond to them at all ; otherwise than
as he who stretched forth his hands to the water that it may
ascend to his mouth when it cannot ascend (thither). ^ He
hath created the heavens and the earth to (manifest His)
justice ; far be that from Him which they associate with Him.
He hath created man . . . and behold he is a professed disputer.
He hath likewise created the cattle for you, and they are a
credit unto you when they come trooping home at evening-
time, or are led forth to pasture in the morn. . . . And He
hath subjected the night and day to your service ; and the sun
and the moon and the stars are all bound by His laws. ... It
is He who hath subjected the sea unto you, and thou seest the
ships ploughing the deep . . . and that ye might render thanks
. . . Shall He therefore who createth be as he who createthi
not ? Do ye not therefore take heed ? If ye were to reckon"
up the blessings of God, ye shall not be able to compute their
number ; God is surely gracious and merciful. He knoweth
that which ye conceal and that which ye publish. But those
[the idols] whom ye invoke, besides the Lord, create nothing,
but are themselves created. They are dead and not
living." 3

"God! there is no God but He — the Living, the Eternal.
No slumber seizeth Him. Whatsoever is in heaven or in earth
is His. Who can intercede with Him but by His own permis-,
sion ? He knows what has been before, and what shall be.
after them ; yet nought of His knowledge shall they grasptj
but He willeth. His Throne reacheth over the heavens andj

1 Sura ii. 158-160. * Sura xiii. 13-15.

' Sura xvi. 3-21.

I. THE IDEAL OF ISLAM 145

the earth, and the upholding of them both burdeneth Him
not, . . .^ He throweth the veil of night over the day, pursuing
it quickly. He created the sun, moon, and stars subjected to
laws by His behest. Is not all creation and all empire His ?
Blessed be the Lord of the worlds. ^ Say, He alone is God :
God the Eternal. He begetteth not, and He is not begotten ;
there is none like unto Him. Praise be to God, the Lord of the
worlds, the Compassionate, the Merciful, King on the day of
reckoning ; Thee only do we worship, and to Thee do we cry
for help. Guide us on the straight path, — the path of those
to whom Thou art gracious, with whom Thou art not angry ;
such as go not astray.^ . . . Against the evil in His creation
I betake me to the Lord of the daybreak." " Thou needest
not raise thy voice, for He knoweth the secret whisper, and what
is yet more hidden. Say, Whose is what is in the heavens and
the earth ? Say, God's who has imposed mercy on Himself.*
. . . With Him are the keys of the unseen. None knows them
save He ; He knows what is in the land and in the sea ; no
leaf falleth but He knoweth it ; nor is there a grain in the
darkness under the earth, nor a thing, green or sere, but it is
recorded by itself. He taketh your souls in the night, and
knoweth what the work of your day deserveth ; then He
awaketh you, that the set life-term may be fulfilled ; then
unto Him shall ye return, and then shall He declare unto you
what you have wrought.^ Verily, God it is who cleaves out
the grain and the date-stone ; He brings forth the living from
the dead, and it is He who brings the dead from the living.
There is God ! How then can ye be beguiled ? "

" It is He who cleaves out the morning, and makes night a
repose, and the sun and the moon two reckonings ; that is the
decree of the Mighty, the Wise.^

" There is God for you, your Lord ! There is no God but
He, the Creator of everything ; then worship Him, for He over
everything keeps guard ! "

' Sura ii. 255. * Sura vii. 54.

■^ This is the Surat-ul-Fatiha, the opening chapter of the Koran.
■* Sura vi. 12. * Sura vi. 59, 60.

* Sura vi. 97.
S.I. K

146 THE SPIRIT OF ISLAM ii.

" Sight perceives Him not, but he perceives men's sights ;
for He is the knower of secrets the Aware." ^

" Say, Verily my prayers and my devotion, and my hfe and
my death, belong to God, the Lord of the worlds." ^

" Dost thou not perceive that all creatures both in heaven
and earth praise God ; and the birds also ?

" Every one knoweth His prayer and His praise.

" Unto God belongeth the kingdom of heaven and earth ;
and unto God shall be the return.

" Whose is the kingdom of the heavens and of the earth ?
There is no God but He ! He maketh alive and killeth.^ . . .
He is the Living One. No God is there but He. Call then
upon Him, and offer Him a pure worship. Praise be to God,
the Lord of the worlds ! . . . My prayers and my worship
and my life and my death are unto God, Lord of the worlds.
He hath no associate.* It is He who hath brought you forth,
and gifted you with hearing and sight and heart ; yet how few
are grateful ! . . . It is He who hath sown you in the earth,
and to Him shall ye be gathered.^ ... O my Lord, place me
not among the ungodly people.^ ... He it is who ordaineth
the night as a garment and sleep for rest, and ordaineth the
day for waking up to life." '

" Is not He the more worthy who answereth the oppressed
when they cry to Him, and taketh off their ills, and maketh
you to succeed your sires on the earth ? ^ God the Almighty,
the All-knowing, Forgiver of Sin, and Receiver of Penitence."^

" Shall I seek any other Lord than God, when He is Lord of
all things ? No soul shall labour but for itself, and no burdened
one shall bear another's burden." i"

" At last ye shall return to your Lord, and He will declare
that to you about which you differ.^" Knower of the hidden
and the manifest ! the Great, the Most High ! . . . Alike to
Him is that person among you who concealeth his words, and

1 Sura vi. 104. * Sura vi. 163.

3 Sura vii. 158. * Sura vii. v. 158.

^ Sura Ixvii. 23, 24. « Sura xxiii. 94.

' Sura XXV. 47. « Sura xxvii. 62.

• Sura xl. 1-2. "Sura ii, 286.

I THE IDEAL OF ISLAM 147

he that telleth them abroad ; he who hideth him in the night,
and he who cometh forth in the day." ^

" God is the Hght of the heavens and the earth ; His Hght
is as a niche in which is a lamp, and the lamp is in a glass ;
the glass is as though it were a glittering star ; it is lit from a
blessed tree, an olive neither of the east nor of the west, the
oil of which would well-nigh give light though no fire touched
it — light upon light ! God guides to His light whom He
pleases ; and God strikes out parables for men, and God all
things doth know."

" In the houses God has permitted to be reared and His name
to be mentioned therein, His praises are celebrated therein
mornings and evenings."

" Men whom neither merchandise nor selling divert from
the remembrance of God, and steadfastness in prayer and
giving alms, who fear a day when hearts and eyes shall be
upset, that God may recompense them for the best they have
done, and give them increase of His grace ; for God provides
whom He pleases without count."

" But those who misbeheve, their works are like the mirage
in a plain, — the thirsty counts it water till when he comes to
it he find§ nothing, but he finds that God is with him, and He
will pay him his account, for God is quick to take account."

" Or like darkness on a deep sea ; there covers it a wave,
above which is a wave, above which is a cloud, — darknesses one
above the other, — when one puts out his hand he can scarcely
see it, for he to whom God has given no light he has no light."

" Hast thou seen that God ? All who are in the heavens and
the earth celebrate His praises, and the birds, too, spreading
out their wings ; each one knows its prayer and its praise, and
God knows what they do."

" Hast thou not seen that God drives the clouds, and then
reunites them, and then accumulates them, and thou mayest
see the rain coming forth from their midst ; and He sends down
from the sky mountains with hail therein, and He makes it
fall on whom He pleases, and He turns it from whom He
pleases ; the flashing of His Hghtning well-nigh goes off with
their sight."

1 Sura xiii. 9, 10, 11.

148 THE SPIRIT OF ISLAM ii.

" God interchanges the night and the day ; verily in that is
a lesson to those endowed with sight."

The chapter entitled " The Merciful," which has been well
called the Benedicite of Islam, furnishes one of the finest ex-
amples of the Prophet's appeal to the testimony of nature.

" The sun and the moon in their appointed time.

The herbs and the trees adore.

And the heavens He raised them, and set the Balance that
ye should not be outrageous in the balance ;

But weigh ye aright and stint not the measure.

And the earth. He has set it for living creatures ;

Therein are fruits, and palms with sheaths, and grain with
chaff and frequent shoots.

He created man of crackhng clay hke the potter's, and He
created the firmament from the smokeless fire.

The Lord of the two easts and the Lord of the two wests.
He has let loose the two seas that meet together ; between

them is a barrier they cannot pass.
He brings forth from each pearls both great and small !

His are the ships which rear aloft in the sea like mountains.
Every one upon it is transient, but the face of thy Lord
endowed with majesty and honour shall endure.

Of Him whosoever is in the heaven and in the earth does
beg ; every day is He in [some fresh] work.

Blessed be the name of thy Lord, possessed of majesty and
glory."

" Every man's actions have we hung round his neck, and on
the last day shall be laid before him a wide-opened Book." ^ . . .
" By a soul, and Him who balanced it, and intimated to it
its wickedness and its piety, blest now is he who hath kept it
pure, and undone is he who hath corrupted it." ^ . . . "No
defect canst thou see in the creation of the God of mercy ;

1 Sura xvii. 13. '^ Sura xci. 7-9.

I. THE IDEAL OF ISLAM 149

repeat the gaze, seest thou a single flaw, then twice more
repeat the gaze, thy gaze shall return to thee dulled and
wear}^" ^ . . . "He quickeneth the earth when it is dead ;
so too sliall you be brought to life."

" The heavens and the earth stand firm at His bidding ;
hereafter when at once He shall summon you from the earth,
forth shah ye come." ^ . . . " When the sun shall be folded
up, and the stars shall fall, and when the mountains shall be
set in motion ; when the she-camels shall be left, and the wild
beasts shall be gathered together ; when the seas shall boil,
and souls be re-paired [with their bodies] ; when the female
child that was buried alive shall be asked for what crime she
was put to death ; when the leaves of the Book shall be un-
rolled, and the heavens shall be stripped away, and the fire
of hell blaze forth, and paradise draw nigh, then shall every
soul know what it hath done." ^ . . . " What knowledge hast
thou [Mohammed] of the hour ? Only God knoweth its period.
It is for thee only to warn those who fear it." . . . " What
shall teach thee the inevitable ? Thamud and Ad treated
the Day of Decision as a lie. They were destroyed with
thunderbolts and roaring blasts."

And yet with all His might, His tender care and pity are
all-embracing :

" By the noonday brightness, and by the night when it
darkeneth, thy Lord hath not forsaken thee, neither hath He
been displeased. Surely the future shall be better for thee
than the past ; and in the end He shall be bounteous to thee,
and thou shalt be satisfied. Did He not find thee an orphan,
and give thee a home ; erring, and guided thee ; needy, and
enriched thee ? As to the orphan, then, wrong him not ;
and chide not away him that asketh of thee, and tell abroad
the favours of thy Lord." ^ " Did ye think We had made you
for sport, and that ye should not be brought back again to us ? "
" O our God, punish us not if we forget and fall into sin ;
blot out our sins and forgive us." " Have mercy, O Lord,
for of the merciful. Thou art the best." ^ " The heavy laden

1 Sura Ixvii. 4. » Sura xxx. 25.

' Sura Ixxxi. ^ Sura xciii.

5 Sura xxiii. 118.

150 THE SPIRIT OF ISLAM ii.

shall not bear another's load. We never punished till we had
sent an apostle." " This clear Book, behold, on a blessed
night have we sent it down for a warning to mankind." " Not
to sadden thee have we sent it thee."

And so on goes this wonderful book, appeahng to the nobler
feelings of man, — his inner consciousness and his moral sense,
proving and manifesting the enormity of idolatrous beliefs.
Scarcely a chapter but contains some fervid passages on the
power, mercy, and unity of God. The Islamic conception of
the Almighty has been misunderstood by Christian writers.
The God of Islam is commonly represented as "a pitiless
tyrant, who plays with humanity as on a chess-board, and works
out His game without regard to the sacrifice of the pieces."
Let us see if this estimate is correct. The God of Islam is the
All-mighty, the All-knowing, the All-just, the Lord of the
worlds, the Author of the heavens and the earth, the Creator
of life and death, in whose hand is dominion and irresistible
power ; the great, all-powerful Lord of the glorious Throne.
God is the Mighty, the Strong, the Most High, the Producer,
the Maker, the Fashioner, the Wise, the Just, the True, the
Swift in reckoning, who knoweth every ant's weight of good
and of ill that each man hath done, and who suffereth not the
reward of the faithful to perish. But the Almighty, the All-
wise, is also the King, the Holy, the Peaceful, the Faithful,
the Guardian over His servants, the Shelterer of the orphan,
the Guide of the erring, the Deliverer from every affliction,
the Friend of the bereaved, the Consoler of the afflicted ;
in His hand is good, and He is the generous Lord, the Gracious,
the Hearer, the Near-at-Hand, the Compassionate, the Merciful,
the Very-forgiving, whose love for man is more tender than
that of the mother-bird for her young.

The mercy of the Almighty is one of the grandest themes of
the Koran. The very name [Ar-Rahman] with which each
chapter opens, and with which He is invoked, expresses a deep,
aU-penetrating conviction of that love, that divine mercy
which enfolds creation. ^

The moral debasement of the followers of the two previous
Dispensations wrings the Teacher's heart, and then burst forth

1 Sura iii. 124, xxv. 50, xxviii 74, xlii. 3, etc. etc.

I. THE IDEAL OF ISLAm 151

denunciations on the Christians and the Jews for the super-
stitious rites they practised in defiance of the warnings of their
prophets. The fire of rehgious zeal, that had burned in the
bosoms of Isaiah and Jeremiah, was rekindled in the breast
of another and far greater man. He denounces ; but above
the wail, the cry of agony at the degradation of humanity, is
heard the voice of hope.

The Koran severely censures the Jews for their " worship
of false gods and idols," the terapkim before referred to, and
for their exaggerated reverence for the memory of Ezra ;
the Christians, for their adoration of Jesus and his mother.
" Hast thou not seen those to whom a portion of the Scriptures
have been given ? They believe in false gods and idols. They
say to the unbelievers they are better directed in the right
way than those that believe [the Moslems]." ^ " The Jews
say, Ezra is the son of God ; the Christians say, al-Masih
(Jesus) is the son of God. How infatuated they are ! They
take their priests and their monks for their lords besides
God. . . . They seek to extinguish the light of God with
their mouths." - . . . " The Jews and the Christians say.
We are the children of God, and His beloved." ^ " Many
of those unto whom the Scriptures have been given ^ desire
to render you again unbelievers, after ye have believed. . . .
Be constant in prayer, and give alms ; and what good ye have
sent before you for your souls, ye shall find it with God." . . .
" They say, Verily, none shall enter paradise except those who
are Jews or Christians. . . . Say, Produce your proof if ye
speak the truth. Nay, but he who directeth towards God,
and doth that which is right, he shall have his reward with
his Lord." ^

" O ye who have received the Scriptures, exceed not the just
bounds in your religion, neither say of God otherwise than the
truth. Verily, al-Masih, the son of Mary, is the apostle of
God and His word. Believe therefore in God and His apostles,
and say not. There are three Gods ; forbear this . . . al-Masili
doth not proudly disdain to be a servant unto God." ^ "It

1 Sura iv. 45. » Sura ix. 30-32. ' Sura v. 18.

* The Jews, the Christians, and the Zoroastrians. ^ Sura v. 105, 106.

•Sura iv. 171,

152 THE SPIRIT OF ISLAM ii.

beseemeth not a man, that God should give him the Scriptures,
and the wisdom, and the gift of prophecy, and that then he
should say to his followers, ' Be ye worshippers of me, as well
as of God,' but rather, ' Be ye perfect in things pertaining
to God, since ye know the Scriptures, and have studied
deep.' "

The following passage shows the feehng with which such
religious conceptions were regarded : " They say the God of
mercy hath gotten to himself a son.^ Now have ye uttered a
grievous thing ; and it wanted but Uttle that the heaven should
be torn open, and that the earth cleave asunder, and the
mountains fall down, for that they attribute children unto the
Merciful ; whereas it is not meet for God to have children.
Verily there is none in heaven or on earth but shall approach
the Merciful as His servant. He encompasseth them." ^ . . .

But the inspired Preacher whose mission it is to proclaim
the Truth does not confound the good with the bad : " Yet
they are not all alike ; there are of those who have received
the Scriptures, upright people ; they meditate on the signs
of God in the night season, and worship ; they believe in God
and the last day ; and command that which is just ; and
forbid that which is unjust, and zealously strive to excel in
good works ; these are of the righteous." ^

The mutual and burning hatred of Jew and Christian, the
savage wars of Nestorian and Monophysite, the meaningless
wrangle of the sects, the heartless and heart-rending logomachy
of the Byzantine clergy, ever and anon bring down denuncia-
tions like the following :

" To Jesus and other apostles we gave manifest signs ; and
if God had pleased, their followers would not have fallen into
these disputes. But God doeth what He will ! " " Mankind
was but one people, and God sent them prophets of warning
and glad tidings, and the Book of Truth to settle all disputes.
Yet none disputed like those to whom the Book had been sent ;
for they were filled with jealousy of each other." " O people
of the Book, why wrangle about Abraham ? Why contend
about that whereof ye know nothing ? "

The primary aim of the new Dispensation was to infuse or

* Sura iii. 78. * Sura xix. gi-94. ' Sura iii. 112, 113.

I. THE IDEAL OF ISLAM 153

revive in the heart of humanity a Uving perception of truth
in the common relations of hfe. " The moral ideal of the new
gospel," to use the phraseology of an eminent writer, " was
set in the common sense of duty and the familiar instances of
love."

" Verily, those people ^ have now passed away ; they have
the reward of their deeds ; and ye shall have the meed of
yours ; of their doings ye shall not be questioned." ^ " Every
soul shall bear the good and the evil for which it has laboured ;
and God will burden none beyond its power." " Blessed is
he who giveth away his substance that he may become pure,
and who offereth not favours to any one for the sake of recom-
pense . . . but only as seeking the approval of his Lord the
Most High." 3

" They are the blest who, though longing for it themselves,
bestowed their food on the poor and the orphan and the
captive [saying], ' We feed you for the sake of God : we seek
from you neither recompense nor thanks.' " *

" Worship God alone ; be kind to kindred and servants,
orphans and the poor ; speak righteously to men, pray, and
pay alms." " Defer humbly to your parents ; with humihty
and tenderness say, O Lord, be merciful to them, even as they
brought me up when I was helpless." " Abandon the old
barbarities, blood-vengeance, and child-murder, and be united
as one flesh." " Do thy alms openly or in secret, for both
are well." Give of that which hath been given you before
the day cometh when there shall be no trafficking, nor friend-
ship, nor intercession." " Wouldst thou be taught the steep
[path] ? It is to ransom the captive, to feed the hungry, the
kindred, the orphan, and him whose mouth is in the dust."
"Be of those who enjoin steadfastness and compassion on
others." ^ " Woe to them that make show of piety, and
refuse help to the needy." " Make not your alms void by
reproaches or injury." " Forgiveness and kind speech are
better than favours with annoyance." " Abandon usury."
" He who spendeth his substance to be seen of men, is like a

^ I.e. Abraham, Ishmael, and Isaac, and the tribes.
- Sura ii. 128. ' Sura xcii. i8, 20.

* Sura Ixxvi. 8, 9. * Sura xc. 12-17.

154 THE SPIRIT OF ISLAM ii.

rock with thin soil over it, whereon the rain falleth and leaveth
it hard. But they who expend their substance to please God
and establish their souls, are like a garden on a hill, on which
the rain falleth and it yieldeth its fruits twofold ; and even
if the rain doth not fall, yet is there a dew."

" Judge between men with truth, and follow not thy passions,
lest they cause thee to err from the way of God." ^ " Covet
not another's gifts from God." " There is no piety in turning
the face east or west, but in believing in God only and doing
good." " Make the best of all things ; enjoin justice and avoid
the foolish ; and if Satan stir thee to evil, take refuge in God."
" Touch not the goods of the orphan. ^ Perform your covenant,
and walk not proudly on the earth." " The birth of a
daughter brings dark shadows on a man's face." ... " Kill
not your children for fear of want : for them and for you will
We provide. Verily the kilHng them is a great wickedness." ^
" God hath given you wives that ye may put love and tender-
ness between you."

" Reverence the wombs that bear you." " Commit not
adultery ; for it is a foul thing and an evil way." * " Let the
believer restrain his eyes from lust ; let women make no
display of ornaments, save to their own kindred."

" Know ye that this world's life is a cheat, the multiplying
of riches and children is hke the plants that spring up after
rain, rejoicing the husbandman, then turn yellow and wither
away. In the next life is severe chastisement, or else pardon
from God and His peace." " Abandon the semblance of
wickedness and wickedness itself. They, verily, whose only
acquirement is iniquity, shall be rewarded for what they
shall have gained." ^ " Those who abstain from vanities and
the indulgence of their passions, give alms, offer prayers, and
tend well their trusts and their covenants, these shall be the
heirs of eternal happiness." ^ " Show kindness to your parents,
whether one or both of them attain to old age with thee : and
say not to them ' Fie ! ' neither reproach them ; but speak to
them both with respectful speech and tender affection." ^

1 Sura xxxviii. 25. ^ Sura xvii. 37. ' Sura xvii. 33.

■* Sura xvii. 32. * Sura vi. 121. * Sura xxiii. 8.

^ Sura xvii. 23.

I. THE IDEAL OF ISLAM 155

" And to him who is of kin render his due, and also to the poor
and to the wayfarer ; yet waste not wastefully." ^

" And let not thy hand be tied up to thy neck ; nor yet
open it with all openness, lest thou sit thee down in rebuke in
beggary." - " Enjoin my servants to speak in kindly sort." ^
" Turn aside evil with that which is better." * " Just balances
will We set up for the day of the Resurrection, neither shall any
soul be wronged in aught ; though were a work but the weight
of a grain of mustard seed, We would bring it forth to he weighed :
and Our reckoning will suftice." ^ " Seek pardon of your Lord
and be turned unto Him : verily, my Lord is merciful, loving." ^
" And your Lord saith, ' Call upon me, I will hearken unto
you." "^ " Say : O my servants who have transgressed to
your own injury, despair not of God's mercy, for all sins doth
God forgive. Gracious, merciful is He ! " ^ " The good
word riseth up to Him, and the righteous deed will He
exalt." ^

" Truly my Lord hath forbidden filthy actions, whether
open or secret, and iniquity, and unjust violence." ^^

" Call upon your Lord with lowliness and in secret, for He
loveth not transgressors. And commit not disorders on the
well-ordered earth after it hath been well ordered ; and call
on Him with fear and longing desire : Verily the mercy of God
is nigh unto the righteous." ^^ " Moreover, We have enjoined
on man to show kindness to his parents. With pain his
mother beareth him ; with pain she bringeth him forth ; and
he saith, ' O my Lord ! stir me up to be grateful for Thy
favours wherewith Thou hast favoured me and my parents,
and to good works which shall please Thee ; and prosper me
in my offspring : for to Thee am I turned, and am resigned to
Thy will.' " 1'^ " For them is a dwelling of peace with their
Lord ; and in recompense for their works shall He be their
protector." ^^ " Lost are they who, in their ignorance, have
foolishly slain their children, and have forbidden that which

1 Sura xvii. 26. ^ Sura xvii. 29. ' Sura xvii. 53.

* Sura xxiii. 96. * Sura xxi. 47. * Sura xi. 90.

' Sura xl. 60. 8 Sura xxxix. 53. * Sura xxxv. 10.

" Sura vii. 33. 11 Sura vii. 55-58. ^* Sura xlvi. 15.
" Sura vi. 28.

156 THE SPIRIT OF ISLAM ii.

God hath given them for food, devising an untruth against
God ! Now have they erred ; and they were not rightly
guided." ^

" The likeness of those who expend their wealth for the
cause of God, is that of a grain of corn which produceth seven
ears, and in each ear a hundred grains ; they who expend their
wealth for the cause of God, and never follow what they have
laid out with reproaches or harm, shall have their reward with
their Lord ; no fear shall come upon them, neither shall they
be put to grief. A kind speech and forgiveness is better than
alms followed by injury." ^

" God will not burden any soul beyond its power. It shall
enjoy the good which it hath acquired, and shall bear the evil
for the acquirement of which it laboured." ... " O Lord !
punish us not if we forget, or fall into sin, O our Lord ! and
lay not on us a load like that which Thou hast laid on those who
have been before us, O our Lord ! And lay not on us that for
which we have not strength : but blot out our sins and forgive
us and have pity on us." ^ " The patient and the truthful,
the lowly and the charitable, they who seek pardon at each
daybreak ":*... " Who give alms, alike in prosperity and
in success, and who master their anger, and forgive others 1
God loveth the doers of good " ; ^ [theirs a goodly home with
their Lord.] " O our Lord ! forgive us then our sin, and hide
away from us our evil deeds, and cause us to die with the
righteous " : ^ . . . " And their Lord answereth them, ' I
will not suffer the work of him among you that worketh,
whether of male or female, to be lost, the one of you is the
issue of the other.' " ' " And fear ye God, in whose name ye
ask favours of each other — and respect women." ®

" And marry not women whom your fathers have married :
for this is a shame, and hateful, and an evil way." ^

" Covet not the gifts by which God hath raised some of you
above others." ^°

" Be good to parents, and to kindred, and to orphans, and

^ Sura vi. 141. * Sura ii. 261-263.

3 Sura ii. 286. * Sura iii. 16. ^ Sura iii. 128.

6 Sura iii. 192. ' Sura iii. 194. • Sura iv. i.

• Sura iv. 22. ^^ Sura iv. 32.

I. THE IDEAL OF ISLAM 157

to the poor, and to a neighbour, whether kinsman or new-
comer, and to a fellow-traveller, and to the wayfarer, and to
the slaves whom your right hands hold ; verily, God loveth
not the proud, the vain boaster." ^ "He who shall mediate
between men for a good purpose shall be the gainer by it.
But he who shall mediate with an evil mediation shall reap
the fruit of it. And God keepeth watch over everything." ^
" O ye Moslems ! stand fast to justice, when ye bear witness
before God, though it be against yourselves, or your parents
or your kindred, whether the party be rich or poor. God
is nearer than you to both. Therefore follow not passion,
lest ye swerve from truth." ^

Do the preachings of this desert-born Prophet, addressing a
larger world and a more advanced humanity, in the nobility of
their love, in their strivings and yearnings for the true, the
pure, and the holy, fall short of the warnings of Isaiah or
" the tender appeals of Jesus ? "

The poor and the orphan, the humble dweller of the earth
" with his mouth in the dust," the unfortunate being bereft
in early life of parental care, are ever the objects of his tenderest
solicitude. Ever and again he announces that the path which
leads to God is the helping of the orphan, the reHeving of the
poor, and the ransoming of the captive. His pity and love
were not confined to his fellow-beings, the brute creation
shared with them his sympathy and tenderness.

" A man once came to him with a bundle, and said : ' O
Prophet, I passed through a wood and heard the voice of the
young of birds, and I took them and put them in my carpet,
and their mother came fluttering round my head.' And the
Prophet said : ' Put them down ' ; and when he had put them
down the mother joined the young. And the Prophet said :
' Do you wonder at the affection of the mother towards her
young ? I swear by Him who has sent me. Verily, God is more
loving to His servants than the mother to these young birds.
Return them to the place from which ye took them, and let
their mother be with them.' " " Fear God with regard to
animals," said Mohammed ; " ride them when they are fit to
be ridden, and get off when they are tired. Verily, there are

1 Sura iv. 36. » Sura iv. 85. » Sura iv. 135.

158 THE SPIRIT OF ISLAM ii.

rewards for our doing good to dumb animals, and giving them
water to drink."

In the Koran, animal life stands on the same footing as
human life in the sight of the Creator. " There is no beast on
earth," says the Koran, " nor bird which flieth with its wings,
but the same is a people like unto you — unto the Lord shall
they return," It took centuries for Christendom to awaken to
a sense of duty towards the animal creation. Long before the i
Christian nations ever dreamt of extending towards animals
tenderness and humanity, Mohammed proclaimed in impressive
words the duty of mankind towards their dumb and humble ,
servitors. These precepts of tenderness so lovingly embalmed :
in the creed are faithfully rendered into a common duty of
everyday life in the world of Islam. !

CHAPTER II
THE RELIGIOUS SPIRIT OF ISLAM

■<,' o ■

■^^'- .-^';5- o ^ > ^ -.o, S fi ' C

* ..■^U,*! ^ — XU) *j. ^^-tf_, *— .ijj » ^_;»s\llj i^l aJDI * ,ck ^..vl

I-

FOR the conservation of a true religious spirit, Mohammed
attached to his precepts certain practical duties, of
which the following are the principal : (i) prayer, (2)
fasting, (3) alms-giving, and (4) pilgrimage.

Man's consciousness of a supreme, all-pervading Power ;
his helplessness in the eternal conflict of nature ; his sense of

i6o THE SPIRIT OF ISLAM ii.

benefaction, — all lead him to pour out the overflowing senti-
ments of his heart in words of gratitude and love, or repentance
and solicitation, to One who is every-wakeful and merciful.
Prayers are only the utterance of the sentiments which fill
the human heart. All these emotions, however, are the result
of a superior development. The savage, if supplications do
not answer his purpose, resorts to the castigation of his fetish.
But every religious system possessing any organic element
has recognised, in some shape, the efficacy of prayer. In
most, however, the theurgic character predominates over the
moral ; in some, the moral idea is entirely wanting.

The early Hindu worship consisted of two sets of acts —
oblations and sacrifice accompanied with invocations. In
the infancy of religious thought the gods are supposed to
possess the same appetites and passions as human beings ;
and thus whilst man needs material benefits, the gods require
offerings and propitiation. This idea often finds expression
in the old hymns of the Rig Veda. With the development of
religious conceptions, it is probable that, among at least the
more advanced or thoughtful minds, the significance attached
to oblations and sacrifice underwent considerable modification.
But as the hold of the priestly caste, which claimed the posses-
sion of a " secret virtue " transmissible only through the blood,
strengthened on the minds of the masses, Brahmanism crystal-
lised into a literally sacrificial cult. The sacrifice could be
performed only by the priest according to rigid and unalterable
formula; ; whilst he recited the majitras and went through the
rites in a mechanical spirit, without religious feeling or
enthusiasm, the worshipper stood by, a passive spectator of
the worship which was performed on his behalf. The smallest
mistake undid the efficacy of the observances. The devotional
spirit, however, could not have been entirely wanting, or the
Bhagavad Git a could not have been composed. But for the
people as a whole, their worship had become a vast system of
sacrifice, the value of which depended not so much upon the
moral conduct of the individual worshipper as upon the
qualification of the officiating priest. The former had only
to believe in the efficacy of the rite and be in a state of legal
purity at the time.

II. THE RELIGIOUS SPIRIT OF ISLAM i6i

The Mago-Zoroastrian and the Sabaean lived in an atmos-
phere of prayer. The Zoroastrian prayed when he sneezed,
when he cut his nails or hair, while preparing meals, day and
night, at the lighting of lamps, etc. Ormuzd was first invoked,
and then not only heaven, earth, the elements and stars, but
trees, especially the moon-plant,^ and beasts. The formuL-e
were often to be repeated as many as twelve hundred times. ^
The moral idea, however pure with the few, would be perfectly
eliminated from the minds of the common people. But even
the sort of spiritual life enjoyed by exceptional minds was
monopolised by the ministers of religion. The barriers of
special holiness which divided the priesthood from the laity,
shut out the latter from all spiritual enjoyments of a nobler
type. The Magians, like the Ophici, had two forms of worship,
or rather, two modes of understanding the objects of worship :
one esoteric, especially reserved for the priestly classes ; the
other exoteric, in which alone the vulgar could participate.^

The Mosaic law contained no ordinances respecting prayers ;
only on the payment of tithes to the priests, and the domestic
solemnity of the presentation of the firstlings, was there a
prescribed formula of a prayer and acknowledgment, when
the father of the house, on the strength of his having obediently
performed the behests of the law, suppHcated blessings from
Jehovah on Israel, " even as He had sworn unto their fathers." *
But, with the rise of a more spiritual idea of the Deity among
the people and the teachers, and the decUne of an uncompro-
mising anthropomorphism, the real nature of prayer, as the
medium of intercommunication between God and man, began
to be understood. Tradition and custom, in default of any
express regulation by the law, made the Jews at last, as Dolhnger
says, a people of prayer.^ Three hours daily were consecrated
to devotional exercises, viz. nine, twelve, and three o'clock.
The necessity, however, for the service of priests, combined

1 Called Soma by the Sanscritic, and Homa or Haoina by the Zend races.

2 Dollinger, The Gentile and the Jew, vol. i. p. 398. The Zend Avesta itself
is a grand repertory of prayers, hymns, invocations, etc., to a multitude of
deities, among whom Ormuzd ranks first. In fact, it is a book of liturgies.
Comp. Clarke, Ten Great Religions, pp. 187, 202,

' Reland, Dissertationes Miscellanys, part i. p. 191 ; Shahristani.
^ Deut. xxvi. 12-15. ^ Dollinger, vol. ii. p. 372.

S.I. L

i62 THE SPIRIT OF ISLAM ii.

with the absence of any positive precedent coming down
from the Lawgiver himself, tended to make prayer, in the
majority of cases, merely mechanical. Phylacteries were in
use in the time of Jesus, and the Koran reproaches the Jews
in bitter terms for " selling the signs of God." ^

The teachings of Jesus, representing a later development of
the religious faculty in man, recognised the true character of
prayer. He consecrated the practice by his own example. ^
The early disciples, in the spirit of their Master, laid great
stress on the habit of devotion and thanksgiving to God.^
But the want of some definite rule for the guidance of the
masses, in process of time, left them completely adrift in all
that regarded the practice of devotion, and under subjection
to the priests, who monopolised the office of regulating the
number, length, and the terminology of prayers. Hence
missals, liturgies, coimcils, and convocations to settle articles
of faith and matters of conscience ; hence also, the mechanical
worship of droning monks, and the hebdomadal flocking into
churches and chapels on one day in the week to make up for
the deficiency of spiritual food during the other six ; hence
also the " presbyter," who, merely a " servant " at first,*
came to regard himself as " the Lord of the spiritual heritage "
bequeathed by Jesus.

All these evils had culminated to a point in the seventh
century, when the Prophet of Arabia began to preach a re-
formed religion. In instituting prayers, Mohammed recognised
the yearning of the human soul to pour out its love and gratitude
to God, and by making the practice of devotion periodic, he
impressed that disciplinary character on the observance of
prayer which keeps the thoughts from wandering into the
regions of the material.^ The formulae, consecrated by his
example and practice, whilst sparing the Islamic world the
evils of contests regarding liturgies, leave to the individual
worshipper the amplest scope for the most heartfelt outpouring
of devotion and humility before the Almighty Presence.

^ Sura ii. 42. - Luke ix. 1-4.

^ E.g. Eph. vi. 18 ; Col. i. 12 et seq.

* Mosheim, vol. i. gg et seq.

5 Comp. Oelsner, Des Effets de la Religion de Mohammed, p. 6.

II. THE RELIGIOUS SPIRIT OF ISLAM 163

The value of prayer as the means of moral elevation and the
purification of the heart, has been clearly set forth in the
Koran :

" Rehearse that which hath been revealed unto thee of the
Book, and be constant at prayer, for prayer preserveth from
crimes and from that which is blameable ; and the remembering
of God is surely a most sacred duty." ^

The forms of the supplicatory hymns, consecrated by the
example of the Prophet, evince the beauty of the moral element
in the teachings of Islam :

" O Lord ! I supplicate Thee for firmness in faith and direction
towards rectitude, and to assist me in being grateful to Thee,
and in adoring Thee in every good way : and I suppHcate
Thee for an innocent heart, which shall not incline to wicked-
ness ; and I supplicate Thee for a true tongue, and for that
virtue which Thou knowest ; and I pray Thee to defend me
from that vice which Thou knowest, and for forgiveness of
those faults which Thou knowest. O my Defender ! assist
me in remembering Thee and being grateful to Thee, and in
worshipping Thee with the excess of my strength. O Lord ! I
have injured my own soul, and no one can pardon the faults of
Thy servants but Thou ; forgive me out of Thy loving-kindness,
and have mercy on me ; for verily Thou art the forgiver of
offences and the bestower of blessings on Thy servants." ^

Another traditional prayer, called the prayer of David, runs
thus ; " O Lord, grant to me the love of Thee ; grant that I
may love those that love Thee ; grant that I may do the deeds
that may win Thy love ; make Thy love to be dearer to me
than self, family or than wealth." ^

The two following prayers of Ali (the Caliph) evince the
highest devotional spirit.

" Thanks be to my Lord ; He the Adorable, and only to be
adored. My Lord, the Eternal, the Ever-existing, the Cherisher,
the True Sovereign whose mercy and might overshadow the
universe ; the Regulator of the world, and Light of the creation.
His is our worship ; to Him belongs all worship ; He existed
before all things, and will exist after all that is living has

1 Koran xxix. 45. » Mishkdt, bk. iv. chap. 18, parts 2, 3.

^ Tasfsir-Jaldh, p. 288.

i64 THE SPIRIT OF ISLAM ii.

ceased. Thou art the adored, my Lord ; Thou art the Master,
the Loving and Forgiving ; Thou bestowest power and might
on whom Thou pleasest ; him whom Thou hast exalted none
can lower ; and him whom Thou hast lowered none can exalt.
Thou, my Lord, art the Eternal, the Creator of all. All-wise
Sovereign Mighty ; Thy knowledge knows everything ; Thy
beneficence is all-pervading ; Thy forgiveness and mercy are
all-embracing. O my Lord, Thou art the Helper of the
afflicted, the Reliever of all distress, the Consoler of the broken-
hearted ; Thou art present everywhere to help Thy servants.
Thou knowest all secrets, all thoughts, art present in every
assembly, Fulfiller of all our needs, Bestower of all blessings.
Thou art the Friend of the poor and bereaved ; my Lord,
Thou art my Fortress ; a Castle for all who seek Thy help.
Thou art the Refuge of the weak ; the Helper of the pure and
true. O my Lord, Thou art my Supporter, my Helper, the
Helper of all who seek Thy help. ... O my Lord, Thou art
the Creator, I am only created ; Thou art my Sovereign, I
am only Thy servant ; Thou art the Helper, I am the beseecher ;
Thou, my Lord art my Refuge ; Thou art the Forgiver, I am
the sinner ; Thou, my Lord, art the Merciful, All-knowing,
All-loving ; I am groping in the dark ; I seek Thy knowledge
and love. Bestow, my Lord, all Thy knowledge and love and
mercy ; forgive my sins, O my Lord, and let me approach
Thee, my Lord."

" O my Lord, Thou the Ever-praised, the Eternal, Thou
art the Ever-present, Ever-exiiting, the Ever-near, the All-
knowing. Thou livest in every heart, in every soul, all-pervad-
ing ; Thy knowledge is ingrained in every mind." " He
bears no similitude, has no equal. One, the Eternal ; thanks
be to the Lord whose mercy extends to every sinner, who
provides for even those who deny Him. To Him belong the
beginning and the end, all knowledge and the most hidden
secret of the heart. He never slumbers, the Ever-just, the
Ever-wakeful. He forgiveth in His mercy our greatest sins, —
loveth all creation. I testify to the goodness of my Lord, to
the truth of His Messenger's message, blessings on him and his
descendants and his companions." ^

1 Sahifai-Kdmila.

II. THE RELIGIOUS SPIRIT OF ISLAM 165

"It is one of the glories of Islam," says an English writer,
" that its temples are not made with hands, and that its
ceremonies can be performed anywhere upon God's earth or
under His heaven." ^ Every place in which the Almighty
is faithfully worshipped is equally pure. The Moslem, whether
he be at home or abroad, when the hour of prayer arrives, pours
forth his soul in a brief but earnest supplicatory address ;
his attention is not wearied by the length of his prayers, the
theme of which is always self-humiliation, the glorification of
the Giver of all good, and rehance on His mercy. ^ The intensity
of the devotional spirit embalmed in the church of Mohammed
has hardly been realised by Christendom. Tradition, that
faithful chronicler of the past, with its hundred corroborative
witnesses, records how the Prophet wept during his prayers
with the fervour of his emotions ; how his noble cousin and
son-in-law became so absorbed in his devotions that his body
grew benumbed.

The Islam of Mohammed recognises no caste of priesthood,
allows no monopoly of spiritual knowledge or special holiness
to intervene between man and his God. Each soul rises to its
Creator without the intervention of priest or hierophant. No
sacrifice,^ no ceremonial, invented by vested interests, is
needed to bring the anxious heart nearer to its Comforter.
Each human being is his own priest ; in the Islam of Mohammed
no one man is higher than the other.

European rationalists have complained of the complex
character of the Moslem prayers, but the ritual of the Koran
is astonishing in its simplicity and soberness. It includes
the necessary acts of faith, the recital of the creed, prayer,
almsgiving, fasting, and pilgrimage, but lays down scarcely
any rules as to how they are to be performed. " Observe the
prayers and the mid-day prayer, and stand ye at tent before
God ; seek aid from patience and prayer. Verily, God is
with the patient ; " but nothing is said regarding the manner
in which the prayers should be offered. " When ye journey

^ Hunter, Our Indian Musalmans, p. 179.

* Sura ii. 127, 239, etc., vii. 204, 205, xvii. 79, xx. 130, xxx. 16, 17, etc. etc.
See the Kitdb ul-Miistalraf.

^ The annual sacrifice at the Hajj and the Bairam is a mere memorial
observance.

i66 THE SPIRIT OF ISLAM ii.

about the earth," says the Koran, "it is no crime to you that
ye come short in prayer if ye fear that those that disbeheve
will set upon you. God pardons everything except associating
aught with Him."

The practice of the Prophet has, however, attached certain
rites and ceremonies to the due observance of prayers. At
the same time it is pointed out in unmistakeable terms that it
is to the devotional state of the mind the Searcher of the spirit
looks : "It is not the flesh or the blood of that which ye
sacrifice which is acceptable to God : it is 5/our piety which is
acceptable to the Lord." ^ " It is not righteousness," con-
tinues the Koran, " that ye turn your faces in praj^er towards
the east or the west ; but righteousness is of him who believeth
in God ; . . . 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 prayers and giveth alms ; and of those who perform their
covenant, when they have covenanted ; and who behave
themselves patiently in hardship and adversity, and in times
of violence : these are they who are true." ^ . . .

It was declared that prayer without " the presence of the
heart " was of no avail, and that God's words which were
addressed to all mankind and not to one people, should be
studied with the heart and lips in absolute accord. And the
Caliph AH held that devotion offered without understanding
was useless and brought no blessing. ^ The celebrated Imam
al-GhazzaU ^ has pronounced that in reading the sacred book ^
heart and intelligence must work together ; the Ups only utter
the words ; intelligence helps in the due apprehension of their
meaning ; the heart, in paying obedience to the dictates of
duty.^ "It is not a sixth nor a tenth of a man's devotion,"
said the Prophet, " which is acceptable to God, but only such
portion thereof as he offers with understanding and true
devotional spirit." '

The practice of baptism in the Christian Church, even the

1 Sura xxii. 37. - Sura ii. 177.

3 Ghurrar wa'd Durrar. ^ See post, chap. xx.

* The Koran. « The Kit&b ul-Mustatraf, chap. i.

' From Muaz ibn Jabal, reported by Abu Daud and Nisai.

II. THE RELIGIOUS SPIRIT OF ISLAM 167

lustrations, which the Egyptians, the Jews, or the hierophants
of the heathen reUgions in the East and the West, required as
preUminary to the performance of devotional or religious
exercises, show the peculiar sanctity which was attached to
external purifications. Mohammed, by his example, conse-
crated this ancient and beneficent custom. He required
cleanliness as a necessary preliminary to the worship and
adoration of God.^ At the same time, he especially inculcated
that mere external, or rather physical, purity does not imply
true devotion. He distinctly laid down that the Almighty
can only be approached in purity and humility of spirit.^
Imam al-Ghazzali expressly says, as against those who are only
solicitous about external purifications, and have their hearts
full of pride and hypocrisy, that the Prophet of God declared
the most important purification to be the cleansing of the
heart from all blameable inclinations and frailties, and the
mind from all vicious ideas, and from all thoughts which
distract attention from God.^

In order to keep alive in the Moslem world the memory of
the birthplace of Islam, Mohammed directed that during
prayers the Moslem should turn his face towards Mecca, as the
glorious centre which saw the first glimmerings of the light of
regenerated truth. ^ With the true instinct of a prophet he
perceived the consolidating effect of fixing a central spot round
which, through all time, should gather the rehgious feelings of
his followers ; and he accordingly ordained that everywhere
throughout the world the Moslem should pray looking towards
the Kaaba. " Mecca is to the Moslem what Jerusalem is to
the Jew. It bears with it all the influence of centuries of
associations. It carries the Moslem back to the cradle of his
faith, the childhood of his Prophet, it reminds him of the
struggle between the old faith and the new, of the overthrow
of the idols, and the establishment of the worship of the one

' Sura V. 6.

The Koran, in its universality, speaks of ablutions, but where water is not
available it allows any cleansing substitute for lavation, but nowhere lays
down the details of the WuzA. As usual, the manner of performing the
lavations or ablutions, derived from the practice of the Prophet, has given
rise to considerable discussions and difference among the theologians.

- Sura vii. 206, ^ Compare the Kitah id-Mustatraf, chap. i. sec. i.

■• Sura ii. 139, 144, etc.

i68 THE SPIRIT OF ISLAM ii.

God ; and, most of all, it bids him remember that all his
brother Moslems are worshipping towards the same sacred
spot ; that he is one of a great company of believers, united
by one faith, filled with the same hopes, reverencing the same
things, worshipping the same God. Mohammed showed his
knowledge of the religious emotions in man when he preserved
the sanctity of the temple of Islam." ^ But that this rule is
not an essential requisite for devotion, is evident from the
passage of the Koran quoted above. ^

The institution of fasting has existed more or less among all
nations. But it may be said that throughout the ancient world
the idea attached to it was, without exception, more of penit-
ence than of abstinence. Even in Judaism the notion of
fasting as an exercise of self-castigation or self-abnegation was
of later growth. The Essenians (from their connection with
the Pythagoreans, and, through them, with the asceticism
of the further East) were the first among the Jews to grasp
this moral element in the principle of fasting ; and Jesus
probably derived this idea, like other conceptions, from them.

The example of Jesus consecrated the custom in the Church.
But the predominating idea in Christianity, with respect to
fasts generally, is one of penitence or expiation ; ^ and partially,
of precedent.- Voluntary corporal mortifications have been
as frequent in the Christian Churcli as in other Churches ;
but the tendency of such mortifications has invariably been
the destruction of mental and bodily energies, and the fosteiing
of a morbid asceticism. The institution of fasting in Islam,
on the contrary, has the legitimate object of restraining the
passions, by diurnal abstinence for a hmited and definite

1 Stanley Lane-Poole, Introd. to the Selections from the Koran, p. Ixxxv.

2 See ante, p. i66.

^ Mosheim, vol. i. p. 131. Mosheim distinctly says that fasting came early
to be regarded " as the most effectual means of repelling the force, and dis-
concerting the stratagems of evil spirits, and of appeasing the anger of an
offended deity." Vol. i. p. 398.

* " The weekly and yearly festivals of the Christians," says Neander,
" originated in the same fundamental idea, . . . the idea of imitating Christ,
the crucified and risen Saviour." And, again, " by the Christians— who were
fond of comparing their calling to a warfare, a militia Christi — such fasts,
united with prayers, were named stationes, as if they constituted the watches
of the soldiers of Christ (the milites Christi) " ; Neander, Church Hist. vol. i.
pp. 408, 409.

II. THE RELIGIOUS SPIRIT OF ISLAM 169

period, from all the gratifications of the senses, and directing
the overflow of the animal spirits into a healthy channel.
Useless and unnecessary mortification of the flesh is discounte-
nanced, nay, condemned. Fasting is prescribed to the able-
bodied and the strong, as a means of chastening the spirit by
imposing a restraint on the body. For the weak, the sickly,
the traveller, the student (who is engaged in the pursuit of
knowledge — the Jihdd-ul-Akhar), the soldier doing God's
battle against the assailants of the faith, and women in their
ailments, it is disallowed. Those who bear in mind the
gluttony of the Greeks, the Romans, the Persians, and the
pre-Islamite Arabs, their excesses in their pleasures as well
as their vices, will appreciate the value of the regulation, and
comprehend how wonderfully adapted it is for keeping in
check the animal propensities of man, especially among semi-
civihsed races.

Mark the wisdom of the rule as given in the Koran : " O
ye that have believed, a fast is ordained to you . . . that ye
may practise piety, a fast of a computed number of days.
But he among you who shall be ailing, or on a journey, (shall
fast) an equal number of other days ; and they that are able
to keep it (and do not), shall make atonement by maintaining
a poor man. . . . But if ye fast, it will be better for you if
ye comprehend ; . . . God willeth that which is easy for you." ^

This rule of abstinence is restricted to the day ; in the night,
in the intervals of prayer and devotion, the Moslem is allowed,
perhaps indeed, is bound, to refresh the system by partaking
in moderation of food and drink, and otherwise enjoying himself
lawfully. In the true spirit of the Teacher, the legists invari-
ably laid down the nfle that, during the fast, abstinence of
mind from all base thoughts is as incumbent as the abstinence
of the body. 2

No religion of the world prior to Islam had consecrated
charity, the support of the widow, the orphan, and the helpless
poor, by enrolling its principles among the positive enactments
of the system.

The agapce, or feasts of charity among the early Christians,
depended on the will of individuals ; their influence, therefore,

' Sura ii. 183-4. 2 jj^^ Kitah ul-Mustalraf, chap. i. sec. 4.

lyo THE SPIRIT OF ISLAM ii.

could only be irregular and spasmodic. It is a matter of
history that this very irregularity led to the suppression of the
" feasts of charity or love-feasts " only a short time after their
introduction. 1

By the laws of Islam every individual is bound to contribute
a certain part of his substance towards the help and assistance
of his poorer neighbours. This portion is usually one part of
forty, or 2| per cent, on the value of all goods, chattels, emble-
ments, on profits of trade, mercantile business, etc. But alms
are due only when the property amounts to a certain value, ^
and has been in the possession of a person for one whole year ;
nor are any due from cattle employed in agriculture or in the
carrying of burdens. Besides, at the end of the month of
Ramazan (the month of fasting), and on the day of the Id-id-
Fitr, the festival which celebrates the close of the Moslem
Lent, each head of a family has to give away in alms, for him-
self and for ever}^ member of his household, and for each guest
who breaks his fast and sleeps in his house during the month,
a measure of wheat, barley, dates, raisins, rice, or any other
grain, or the value of the same.

The rightful recipients of the alms, as pointed out by the
practice of Mohammed and his disciples, are (i) the poor and
the indigent ; (2) those who help in the collection and distri-
bution of the obligatory alms ; (3) slaves, who wish to buy
their freedom and have not the means for so doing ; (4) debtors,
who cannot pay their debts ; (5) travellers and strangers.^
General charity is inculcated by the Koran in the most forcible
terms.* But the glory of Islam consists in having embodied
the beautiful sentiment of Jesus ^ into definite laws.

^ Neander, vol. i. p. 450 et seq. ; Mosheim, vol. ii. p. 56. I do not mean
to say that this was the only form in which Christian charity expressed itself.
The support of the widow, the poor, and orphan was as much insisted upon
in Christianity as in Islam. But even this divine charity taught by Jesus
received an impress of exclusiveness from the disciples, in whose hands he left
his work. The widow, in order to claim the benefits of charity, was required
to be " threescore years of age, to have been the wife of one man, to have
brought up children," etc. Compare throughout Blunt's History of the
Christian Church, p. 27 et seq.

^ For example, no alms are due from a man unless he own twenty camels.

^ Jamaa ut-Tirmizi, chapter on " Alms-giving " ; Jdmaa-Abbdsi ; Querry,
Droit Mtisulman. Comp. also the MabsHt.

■* Sura ii. 267, 270, 271, etc., ix. 60, etc. ^ Matt. xxv. 35, 36.

II. THE RELIGIOUS SPIRIT OF ISLAM 171

The wisdom which incorporated into Islam tlie time-honoured
custom of annual pilgrimage to Mecca and to the shrine of the
Kaaba, has breathed into Mohammed's religion a freemasonry
and brotherhood of faith in spite of sectarian divisions. The
eyes of the whole Moslem world fixed on that central spot,
keep alive in the bosom of each some spark of the celestial
fire which lighted up the earth in that century of darkness.
Here, again, the wisdom of the inspired Lawgiver shines forth
in the negative part of the enactment, in the conditions neces-
sary to make the injunction obligatory : — (i) ripeness of
intelligence and discernment ; (2) perfect freedom and liberty ;
(3) possession of the means of transport and subsistence during
the journey ; (4) possession of means sufficient to support the
pilgrim's family during his absence ; (5) the possibility and
practicability of the voyage.^

Owing to the mhmte regulations, almost Brahmxinical in
their strictness, in force among the heathen Arabs regarding
the lawful or unlawful character of various kinds of food, the
Teacher of Islam had frequently to admonish his followers
that, with certain exceptions, all food was lawful " And
eat of what God hath given you for food that which is lawful
and wholesome : and fear God, in whom ye beUeve." ^ " Say,"
says the Koran, " I find not in what hath been revealed to me
aught forbidden to the eater to eat, except it be that which
dieth of itself, or blood poured forth, or swine's flesh, for that
is an abomination, and meat which has been slain in the name
of other than God [idols]." This is amphfied in the fifth sura,
which is also directed against various savage and idolatrous
practices of the pagan Arabs. " That which dieth of itself,
and blood, and swine's .flesh, and all that hath been sacrificed
under the invocation of any other name than that of God,^
and the strangled, and the killed by a blow or by a fall, or by
goring,* and that which hath been eaten by beasts of prey,

» Radd-ul-muhtar , chapter on Hajj ; Querry, Droit Miisulman, vol. i. ; the
Mabsut.

* Sura V. 98.

' The heathen Arabs, when killing any animal for food, used to consecrate
it by invoking the names of their gods and goddesses.

■* The idolatrous Arabs had different savage methods of killing animals.
This prohibition has reference to the brutal processes employed by them.

172 THE SPIRIT OF ISLAM ii.

unless ye give the death-stroke yourselves, and that which
hath been sacrificed on the blocks of stone/ is forbidden to
you : and to make division of the slain by consulting the
arrows, is impiety in you." ^ " Eat ye of the good things
wherewith we have provided you and give thanks to God." ^

Intoxication and gambling, the curse of Christian com-
nmnities, and the bane of all uncultured and inferior natures,
and excesses of all kinds, were rigorously prohibited.

Nothing can be simpler or more in accord with the advance
of the human intellect than the teachings of the Arabian
Prophet. The few rules for religious ceremonial which he
prescribed were chiefly with the object of maintaining discipHne
and uniformity, so necessary in certain stages of society ;
but they were by no means of an inflexible character. He
allowed them to be broken in cases of illness or other causes.
" God wishes to make things easy for you, for," says the
Koran, " man was created weak." The legal principles which
he enunciated were either delivered as answers to questions
put to him as the Chief Magistrate of Medina, or to remove or
correct patent evils. The Prophet's Islam recognised no

^ Sacrificial stones placed round the Kaaba or at the entrance of houses
over which the offerings were made to the idols.

^ Sura V. 3.

^ Things by nature abhorrent to man, such as the flesh of carnivorous
animals, birds of prey, snakes, etc., required no specific prohibition. The
idea prevalent in India, borrowed from the Hindus, that Moslems should not
partake of food with Christians, is entirely fallacious, and opposed to the
precept contained in the following passage of the Koran (sura v. 5) : " This
day things healthful are legalised to you, and the meats of those who have
received the Scriptures are allowed to you, as your meats are to them." With
regard to the sumptuary regulations, precepts, and prohibitions of Mohammed,
it must be remembered that they were called forth by the temporary cir-
cumstances of the times and people. With the disappearance of such
circumstances, the need for these laws has also disappeared. To suppose,
therefore, that every Islamic precept is necessarily immutable, is to do an
injustice to history and the development of the human intellect. Ibn
Khaldun's words are, in this connection, deserving of our serious consideration :
" It is only by an attentive examination and well-sustained application that
we can discover the truth, and guard ourselves against errors and mistakes.
In fact, if we were merely to satisfy ourselves by reproducing the records
transmitted by tradition without consulting the rules furnished by experience,
the fundamental principles of the art of government, the nature, even, of the
particular civilisation, or the circumstances which characterise the human
society ; if we are not to judge of the wants which occurred in distant times
by those which are occurring under our eyes, if we are not to compare the past
with the present we can hardly escape from falling into errors and losing the
way of truth." Prolegonienes d' Ibn Khaldoun, traduits par M. de Slane,
Premiere Par tie, p. 13.

II. THE RELIGIOUS SPIRIT OF ISLAM 173

ritual likely to distract the mind from the thought of the one
God ; no law to keep enchained the conscience of advancing
huInanit3^

The ethical code of Islam is thus simimarised in the fourth
Sura : " Come, I will rehearse what your Lord hath enjoined
on you — that ye assign not to Him a partner ; that ye be good
to your parents ; and that ye slay not 3^our children because
of poverty : for them and for you will We provide ; and that
ye come not near to pollutions, outward or inward ; and that
ye slay not a soul whom God hath forbidden, unless by right
. . . and draw not nigh to the wealth of the orphan, save so
as to better it . . . and when ye pronounce judgment then be
just, though it be the affair of a kinsman. And God's compact
fulfil ye ; that is, what He hath ordained to you. Verily,
this is my right way ; follow it, then." ^ And again, " Blessed
are they who believe and humbly offer their thanks-giving to
their Lord . . . who are constant in their charity, and who
guard their chastity, and who observe their trust and covenants
. . . Verily, God bids you do justice and good, and give to
kindred their due ; and He forbids you to sin and to do wrong
and oppress."

" Faith and charity," to use the words of the Christian
historian, " are not incompatible with external rites and
positive institutions, which, indeed, are necessary in this
imperfect state to keep ahve a sense of religion in the common
mass." 2 And, accordingly, Mohammed had attached a few
rites to his teachings in order to give a more tangible conception
to the generahty of mankind. Jesus himself had instituted
two rites, baptism and the " Holy Supper." » Probably, had
he lived longer, he would have added more. But one thing is
certain, that had a longer career been vouchsafed to him, he
would have placed his teachings on a more systematic basis.
This fundamental defect in Christianity has been, in fact,
the real cause of the assembling of councils and convocations
for the estabhshment of articles and dogmas, which snap
asunder at every slight tension of reason and free thought.
The work of Jesus was left unfinished. It was reserved for
another Teacher to systematise the laws of morality.

* Sura iv. 155 et seq. ^ Mosheim, vol. i. p. 124. ' Ibid.

174 THE SPIRIT OF ISLAM ii.

Our relations with our Creator are matters of conscience ;
our relations with our fellow-beings must be matters of positive
rules ; and what higher sanction — to use a legal expression —
can be attached to the enforcement of the relative duties of
man to man than the sanction of religion. Rehgion is not to
be regarded merely as a subject for unctuous declamations by
" select preachers," or as some strange theory for the peculiar
gratification of dreamy minds. Religion ought to mean the
rule of life ; its chief object ought to be the elevation of human-
ity towards that perfection which is the end of our existence.
The religion, therefore, which places on a systematic basis the
fundamental principles of morality, regulating social obligations
and human duties, which brings us nearer and nearer, by its
compatibility with the highest development of intellect, to the
All-Perfect — that religion, we say, has the greatest claim to
our consideration and respect. It is the distinctive character-
istic of Islam, as taught by Mohammed, that it combines within
itself the grandest and the most prominent features in all
ethnic and catholic ^ religions compatible with the reason and
moral intuition of man. It is not merely a system of positive
moral rules, based on a true conception of human progress,
but it is also " the establishment of certain principles, the
enforcement of certain dispositions, the cultivation of a certain
temper of mind, which the conscience is to apply to the ever-
var3dng exigencies of time and place." The Teacher of Islam
preached, in a thousand varied ways, universal love and
brotherhood as the emblem of the love borne towards God.
" How do you think God will know you when you are in His
presence — by your love of your children, of your kin, of your
neighbours, of your fellow-creatures ? " ^ "Do you love
your Creator ? love your fellow-beings first." ^ "Do you wish
to approach the Lord ? love His creatures, love for them what
you love yourself, reject for them what you reject for yourself,
do unto them what you wish to be done unto you." He
condemned in scathing language the foulness of impurity, the
meanness of hypocrisy, and the ungodliness of self-deceit.

' For the use of these words see Clarke, Ten Great Religions, chap. i.

2 Mishkdt, bks. xxii., xxiii. chaps, xv. and xvi.

^Comp. Kastalani's Commentary on the SahVi oj Bukhdri, pt. i. p. 70.

II. THE RELIGIOUS SPIRIT OF ISLAM 175

He proclaimed, in unmistakable terms, the preciousness of
truth, charity, and brotherly love.

The wonderful adaptability of Islamic precepts to all ages
and nations ; their entire concordance with the light of reason ;
the absence of all mysterious doctrines to cast a shade of
sentimental ignorance round the primal truths implanted in
the human breast, — all prove that Islam represents the latest
development of the religious faculties of our being. Those
who have ignored the historic significance of some of its precepts
have deemed that their seeming harshness, or unadaptability
to present modes of thought ought to exclude it from any
claim to universality. But a Uttle inquiry into the historic
value of laws and precepts, a little more fairness in the exam-
ination of facts, would evince the temporary character of such
rules as may appear scarcely consonant with the requirements
or prejudices of modern times. The cathoHcity of Islam, its
expansiveness, and its charity towards all moral creeds, has
been utterly mistaken, perverted, or wilfully concealed by the
bigotry of rival religions.

" Verily," says the Koran, " those who believe (the Moslems),
and those who are Jews, Christians, or Sabasans, whoever hath
faith in God and the last day (future existence), and worketh
that which is right and good, — for them shall be the reward
with their Lord ; there will come no fear on them ; neither
shall they be grieved." ^

The same sentiment is repeated in similar words in the fifth
Sura ; and a hundred other passages prove that Islam does not
confine " salvation " to the followers of Mohammed alone : —
" To every one have we given a law and a way. . . . And if
God had pleased. He would have made you all (all mankind)
one people (people of one religion). But He hath done other-
wise, that He might try you in that which He hath severally
given unto you : wherefore press forward in good works. Unto
God shall ye return, and He will tell you that concerning which
ye disagree." ^

Of all the religions of the world that have ruled the conscience

' Sura V. 69. Compare the spirit of these teachings with that of the
Athanasian Creed.

^ Sura V. 48. Compare also xxix. 46, xxxii. 23, 24, xxxix. 41, xl. 13, etc.

176 THE SPIRIT OF ISLAM ii.

of mankind, the Islam of Mohammed alone combines both the
conceptions which have in different ages furnished the main-
spring of human conduct, — the consciousness of human dignity,
so valued in the ancient philosophies, and the sense of human
sinfulness, so dear to the Christian apologist. The belief that
man will be judged by his work solely, throws the Moslem on
the practice of self-denial and universal charity ; the belief
in Divine Providence, in the mercy, love, and omnipotence
of God, leads him to self-humiliation before the Almighty,
and to the practice of those heroic virtues which have given
rise to the charge that the virtues of Islam are stoical," ^
patience, resignation, and firmness in the trials of life. It
leads him to interrogate his conscience with nervous anxiety,
to study with scrupulous care the motives that actuate him,^
to distrust his own strength, and to rely upon the assistance of
an Almighty and All-Loving Power in the conflict between
good and evil.

In some religions the precepts which inculcated duties have
been so utterly devoid of practicabihty, so completely wanting
in a knowledge of human nature, and partaking so much of the
dreamy vagueness of enthusiasts, as to become in the real
battles of life simply useless.^ The practical character of a
religion, its abiding influence on the common relations of
mankind, in the affairs of everyday life, its power on the
masses, are the true criteria for judging of its universality.
We do not look to exceptional minds to recognise the nature
of a religion. We search among the masses to understand its
true character. Does it exercise deep power over them ?
does it elevate them ? does it regulate their conception of
rights and duties ? does it, if carried to the South Sea islander,
or preached to the Caffrarians, improve or degrade them ? —
are the questions we naturally ask. In Islam is joined a
lofty ideaHsm with the most rationahstic practicality. It
did not ignore human nature ; it never entangled itself in the
tortuous pathways which lie outside the domains of the actual

1 Clarke, Ten Great Religions, p. 484.

2 Compare the first Apologue in the Akhlah (Ethics) of Husain Waiz on
Ikhlds.

3 Compare M. Ernest Havet's remarks in his valuable and learned work,
Le Christianisine et ses Origines, Pref. p. xxxix.

II. THE RELIGIOUS SPIRIT OF ISLAM 177

and the real. Its object, like that of other systems, was the
elevation of humanity towards the absolute ideal of perfection ;
but it attained, or tries to attain, this object by grasping the
truth that the nature of man is, in this existence, imperfect.
If it did not say, " If thy brother smite thee on one cheek,
turn thou the other also to him " ; if it allowed the punishment
of the wanton wrong-doer to the extent of the injury he had
done,^ it also taught, in fervid words and varied strains, the
practice of forgiveness and benevolence, and the return of good
for evil : — " Who speaketh better," says the Koran, " than
he who inviteth unto God, and worketh good ? . . . Good and
evil shall not be held equal. Turn away evil with that which
is better." ^ And again, speaking of paradise, it says, " It
is prepared for the godly, who give alms in prosperity and
adversity, who bridle their anger, and forgive men ; for God
loveth the beneficent." ^

The practice of these noble precepts does not lie enshrined
in the limbo of false sentimentalism. With the true follower
of the Prophet they form the active principles of life. History
has preserved, for the admiration of wondering posterity,
many examples of patience under suffering exhibited by the
followers of other creeds. But the practice of the virtue of
patient forgiveness is easier in adversity, when we have no
power to punish the evil-doer, than in prosperity. It is related
of Husain, the noble martyr of Kerbela, that a slave having
once thrown the contents of a scalding dish over him as he sat
at dinner, fell on his knees and repeated the verse of the Koran,
" Paradise is for those who bridle their anger." "I am not
angry," answered Husain. The slave proceeded, " and for
those who forgive men." " I forgive 3^ou." The slave, how-
ever, finished the verse, adding, " for God loveth the beneficent."
" I give you your liberty and four hundred pieces of silver,"
replied Husain.*

' Koran, sura xxii. 39, 40. Thonissen's remark, that Mohammed allowed
the punishment of the wilful wrong-doer for tiie purpose of preventing
enormous evils, must always be borne in mind. — L'Hist. da Droit Crimi}iel
des Peuples Anciens, vol. ii. p. 67.

- Koran, sura xli. 33, 34. ^ Koran, sura xlii. 37.

' This anecdote has been told by Sale in a note to the third chapter of his
translation of the Koran, and also by Gibbon ; but both have, by mistake,

S.I. M

178 THE SPIRIT OF ISLAM ii.

The author of the Kashshdf thus sums up the essence of the
Islamic teachings : " Seek again him who drives you away ;
give to him who takes away from you ; pardon him who
injures you : ^ for God loveth that you should cast into the
depth of your soul the roots of His perfections." ^

In the purity of its aspiration, can anything be more beautiful
than the following : " The servants of the Merciful are they
that walk upon the earth softly ; and when the ignorant
speak unto them, they reply, Peace ! they that spend the night
worshipping their Lord, prostrate, and standing, and resting :
those that, when they spend, are neither profuse nor niggardly,
but take a middle course : . . . those that invoke not with God
any other God, and slay not a soul that God hath forbidden
otherwise than by right ; and commit not fornication : . . .
they who bear not witness to that which is false ; and when
they pass by vain sport, they pass it by with dignity : who
say, ' Oh, our Lord, grant us of our wives and children such as
shall be a comfort unto us, and make us examples unto the
pious,' — these shall be the rewarded, for that they persevered ;
and they shall be accosted in paradise with welcome and
salutation : — For ever therein, — a fair abode and resting-
place ! " ^

This is the Islam of Mohammed. It is not " a mere creed ;
it is a life to be lived in the present " — a religion of right-doing,
right-thinking, and right-speaking, founded on divine love,
universal charity, and the equality of man in the sight of the
Lord. However much the modern professors of Islam may
have dimmed the glory of their Prophet (and a volume might
also be written on the defects of modern Mohammedanism),
the religion which enshrines righteousness and " justification
by work " * deserves the recognition of the lovers of humanity.

applied the episode to Hasan, the brother of Husain. See the Tafsir-
Husaini, Mirat Ed. p. 199.

1 Compare this with the precept of Mohammed reported by Abii Darda,
Mishkdt, bk. iv. chap. i. part ii., and the whole chapter on " Forgiveness "
(chap, xxxvi.) in the Mustatraf.

- Zamakhshari (the Kashshdf), Egypt. Ed. part i. p. 280.

' Koran, sura xxv. 63-76.

* Mr. Cotter Morrison, in his Service of Man, calls the other doctrine the
most disastrous to human morality.

THE RELIGIOUS SPIRIT OF ISLAM 179

" Wishest thou to approach God ?
Live purely, and act righteously."

Jalal

iid-din Rumi says, —

r*>^^

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r^'v

3' ;^C

" Thou partakest of the nature of the beast as well as the angel ;
Leave the nature of the beast, that thou mayest surpass the angel."

The present life was the seed-ground of the future. To work
in all humility of spirit for the human good, to strive with all
energy to approach the perfection of the All-Perfect, is the
essential principle of Islam. The true Moslem is a true
Christian, in that he accepts the ministry of Jesus, and tries
to work out the moral preached by him. Why should not the
true Christian do honour to the Preacher who put the finishing
stroke to the work of the earlier Masters ? Did not he call
back the wandering forces of the world into the channel of
progress ?

Excepting for the conception of the sonship of Jesus, there is
no fundamental difference between Christianity and Islam.
In their essence they are one and the same ; both are the
outcome of the same spiritual forces working in humanity.
One was a protest against the heartless materialism of the
Jews and the Romans ; the other a revolt against the degrading
idolatry of the Arabs, their ferocious customs and usages.
Christianity, preached among a more settled and civilised
people subject to an organised government, had to contend
with comparatively milder evils. Islam, preached among
warring tribes and clans, had to fight against all the instincts
of self-interest and ancient superstition. Christianity, arrested
in its progress towards the East by a man of cultured but
bizarre character, who, though a Jew by birth, was by education
an Alexandrian Greek, was carried to Greece and Rome, and
there gathering up the pagan civilisation of centuries, gave

i8o THE SPIRIT OF ISLAM ii.

birth to new ideas and doctrines. Christianity ceased to be
Christian the moment it was transplanted from the home of
its birth. It became the rehgion of Paul, and ceased to be that
of Jesus. The pantheons of ancient paganism were tottering
to their fall. Greek and Alexandrian philosophy had prepared
the Roman world for the recognition of an incarnate God — a
demiurgus, an JEon born in the bosom of eternity, and this
conception imbedded itself in Pauline Christianity. Modern
idealistic Christianity, which is more a philosophy than a
positive rehgion, is the product of centuries of pre-Christian
and post-Christian civilisation. Islam was preached among
a people, among conditions social and moral, wholly divergent.
Had it broken down the barrier which was raised against it by
a degraded Christianity, and made its way among the higher
races of the earth, its progress and its character would have
presented a totally different aspect from what it now offers
to the observer among the less cultured Moslem communities.
Like rivers flowing through varied tracts, both these creeds
have produced results in accordance with the nature of the
soil through which they have found their course. The Mexican
who castigates himself with cactus leaves, the idol -worshipping
South American, the lower strata of Christian nations, are
hardly in any sense Christians. There exists a wide gulf
between them and the leaders of modern Christian thought.
Islam, wherever it has found its way among culturable and
progressive nations, has shown itself in complete accord with
progressive tendencies, it has assisted civilisation, it has
idealised religion.^

A religion has to be eminently positive in its " command-
ments and prohibitions " to exercise an abiding salutary
influence on the ignorant and vmcultured. The higher and
more spiritualised minds are often able to forge on the anvils
of their own hearts, lines of duty in relation to their fellow
creatures without reference to outside directions. They are

^ The faith which could give birth to the heroic devotion of Ah, the gentle-
ness of Ja'far (the Sadik), the piety and patience of Musa, the divine purity
of Fatima, the saintliness of Rabi'a ; the religion which could produce men
like Ibn-Sina, Al-Beiruni, Ibn-Khaldun, Sanai, Jalal ud-din Rumi, Farid
ud-din (the Attar), Ibrahim Adham, and a host of others, suiely contains
every element of hopefulness.

II. THE RELIGIOUS SPIRIT OF ISLAM i8i

in commune with God and are guided by the consciousness of
right and wrong, of truth and purity which had grown up with
their being. Plato and Aristotle, who had never received the
light of the Semitic revelations, spoke to the world of the
highest principles of morality in as distinct terms as the great
prophets. They too had heard the voice of God, and were
lifted up to Him by their own thoughts.

To the mass of mankind, however, sunk either in ignorance
or barbarism, for the uncultured and the sodden, moral enuncia-
tions convey no meaning unless they are addressed in a positive
form and formulated with the precision of enactments
surrounded with definite sanctions. The ethical side of a
religion does not appeal to their feelings or sentiments ; and
philosophical conceptions exercise no influence on their minds,
their daily conduct or their lives.

They are swayed far more by authority and precedent than
by sermons on abstract principles. They require definite
prescriptions to regulate not only their relations towards their
fellow-beings but also towards their Creator whom, in the
absence of such rules, they are apt to forget.

The success of Islam in the seventh century of the Christian
era, and its rapid and marvellous diffusion over the surface
of the globe, were due to the fact that it recognised this essential
need of human nature. To a world of wrangling sects and
creeds, to whom words were of far greater importance than
practice, it spoke in terms of positive command from an
Absolute Source. Amidst the moral and social wreck in which
it found its birth, it aimed at the integration of the worship
of a Personal Will, and thereby to recall humanity to the
observance of duty which alone pointed to the path of
spiritual development. And by its success in lifting up
the lower races to a higher level of social morality it proved
to the world the need of a positive system. It taught them
sobriety, temperance, charity, justice and equality as the
commandments of God. Its afhrmation of the principle of
equality of man and man and its almost socialistic tendency
represented the same phase of thought that had found
expression on the shores of Gahlee. But even in his most
exalted mood the great Teacher of Islam did not forget the

i82 THE SPIRIT OF ISLAM ii.

limitations imposed on individual capacity which occasion
economic inequalities.

Alas for the latter-day professors of Islam ! The bUght of
patristicism has ruined the blossom of true religion and a true
devotional spirit.

A Christian preacher has pointed out with great force the
distinction between reUgion and theology, and the evils which
have followed in his Church from the confusion of the two.^
What has happened in Christianity has happened in Islam.
Practice has given way to the mockery of profession, cere-
monialism has taken the place of earnest and faithful work, —
doing good to mankind for the sake of doing good, and for the
love of God. Enthusiasm has died out, and devotion to God
and His Prophet are meaningless words. The earnestness
without which human existence is no better than that of the
brute creation, earnestness in right-doing and right-thinking,
is absent. The Moslems of the present day have ignored the
spirit in a hopeless love for the letter. Instead of living up to
the ideal preached by the Master, instead of " striving to
excel in good works," " of being righteous " ; instead of loving
God, and for the sake of His love loving His creatures, — they
have made themselves the slaves of opportunism and outward
observance. It was natural that in their reverence and
admiration for the Teacher his early disciples should stereotype
his ordinary mode of life, crystaUise the passing incidents of a
chequered career, imprint on the heart orders, rules, and
regulations enunciated for the common exigencies of the day
in an infant society. But to suppose that the greatest
Reformer the world has ever produced, the greatest upholder
of the sovereignty of Reason, the man who proclaimed that the
universe was governed and guided by law and order, and that
the law of nature meant progressive development, ever con-
templated that even those injunctions which were called forth
by the passing necessities of a semi-civilised people should
become immutable to the end of the world, is doing an injustice
to the Prophet of Islam.

No one had a keener perception than he of the necessities of
this world of progress with its ever-changing social and moral

^ Professor Momerie in his Defects of Modern Christianity.

II. THE RELIGIOUS SPIRIT OF ISLAM 183

phenomena, nor of the Hkelihood that the revelations vouch-
safed to him might not meet all possible contingencies. When
Muaz was appointed as governor of Yemen, he was asked by
the Prophet by what rule he would be guided in his administra-
tion of that province. " By the law of the Koran," said Muaz.
" But if you find no direction therein ? " " Then I will act
according to the example of the Prophet." " But if that
fails ? " " Then I will exercise my own judgment." The
Prophet approved highly of the answer of his disciple, and
commended it to the other delegates.

The great Teacher, who was fully conscious of the exigencies
of his own times, and the requirements of the people with whom
he had to deal, — people sunk in a slough of social and moral
despond, — with his keen insight and breadth of views, perceived,
and one may say foretold, that a time would come when the
accidental and temporary regulations would have to be differ-
entiated from the permanent and general. " Ye are in an
age," he declared, " in which, if ye abandon one-tenth of what
is ordered, ye will be ruined. After this, a time will come
when he who shall observe one-tenth of what is now ordered
will be redeemed." ^

[sr' ii j^i 1«j£jS ^^'ijo J*.c ^^»a: ^i,,U3 ^li, ^i cl^U ^J^t L« j£j^ ^ii>c ^Jjj

As we have already observed, the bUght which has fallen on
Musulman nations is not due to the teachings of the Master.
No rehgion contained greater promise of development, no
faith was purer, or more in conformity with the progressive
demands of humanity.

The present stagnation of the Musulman communities is
principally due to the notion which has fixed itself on the
minds of the generahty of Moslems, that the right to the
exercise of private judgment ceased with the early legists,

^ This authentic tradition is given in the Jdma' nt-Tirmizi and is to be
found also in the Mishkdt.

i84 THE SPIRIT OF ISLAM ii.

that its exercise in modern times is sinful, and that a Moslem
in order to be regarded as an orthodox follower of Mohammed
should belong to one or the other of the schools established by
the schoolmen of Islam, and abandon his judgment absolutely
to the interpretations of men who lived in the ninth century,
and could have no conception of the necessities of the twentieth.

Among the Sunnis, it is the common belief that since the
four Imams, ^ no doctor has arisen qualified to interpret the
laws of the Prophet. No account is taken of the altered
circumstances in which Moslems are now placed ; the con-
clusions at which these learned legists arrived several centuries
ago are held to be equally applicable to the present day.
Among the Shiahs, the Akhbari will not allow his judgment to
travel beyond the dictates of " the expounders of the law."
The Prophet had consecrated reason as the highest and noblest
function of the human intellect. Our schoolmen and their
servile followers have made its exercise a sin and a crime.

As among Christians, so among Moslems. The lives and
conduct of a large number of Moslems at the present day are
governed less by the precepts and teachings of the Master,
and more by the theories and opinions of the mujtahids and
imams who have tried, each according to his light, to construe
the revelations vouchsafed to the Teacher. Like men in a
crowd listening to a preacher who from a lofty position addresses
a large multitude and from his vantage ground overlooks a
vast area, they observed only their immediate surroundings,
and, without comprehending the wider meaning of his words
or the nature of the audience whom he addressed, adapted his
utterances to their own limited notions of human needs and
human progress. Oblivious of the universality of the Master's
teachings, unassisted by his spirit, devoid of his inspiration,
they forgot that the Prophet, from the pinnacle of his genius,
had spoken to all humanity. They mixed up the temporary
with the permanent, the universal with the particular. Like
many of the ecclesiastics of Christendom, not a few were the
servants of sovereigns and despots whose demands were not
consistent with the precepts of the Master. Canons were
invented, theories started, traditions discovered, and glosses

1 Abu Hanifa, Shafe'i, Malik, and Ibn Hanbal.

II. THE RELIGIOUS SPIRIT OF ISLAM 185

put upon his words utterly at variance with their spirit. And
hence it is that most of the rules and regulations which govern
now the conscience of so many professors of the faith are
hardly derived from any express and positive declarations of
the Koran, but for the most part from the lego-religious books
with which the Islamic world was flooded in the later centuries.
" Just as the Hebrews deposed their Pentateuch in favour of
the Talmud," justly observes an English writer, " so the
Moslems have abolished the Koran in favour of the traditions
and decisions of the learned." " We do not mean to say,"
he adds most pertinently, " that any Mohammedan if asked
what was the text-book of his religion, would answer anything
but the ' Koran ' ; but we do mean that practically it is not
the Koran that guides his behef or practice. In the Middle
Ages of Christendom it was not the New Testament, but the
Summa Theologica of Thomas Aquinas, that decided questions
of orthodoxy ; and in the present day, does the orthodox
churchman usually derive his creed from a personal investiga-
tion of the teaching of Christ in the Gospels ? Probably, if
he refers to a document at all, the Church Catechism contents
him ; or if he be of a peculiarly inquiring disposition, a perusal
of the Thirty-nine Articles will resolve all doubts. Yet he too
would say his religion was drawn from the Gospels, and would
not confess to the medium through which it was filtered. In
precisely the same way modern Mohammedanism is constructed,
and a large part of what Moslems now believe and practise
is not to be found in the Koran at all."

And yet each system, each school contains germs of improve-
ment, and if development is now stopped, it is not even the
fault of the lawyers. It is due to a want of apprehension of
the spirit of the Master's enunciations, and even of those of
the fathers of the Church. ^

In the Western world, the Reformation was ushered in by
the Renaissance and the progress of Europe commenced when

^ The Radd ul-Muhidr of Mohammed Amin the Syrian, and the Majma'
ul-Anhdr of the Shaikh Zadeh are as much in advance of the Multeka and the
Heddya as the views of an Eldon or Mansfield upon those of a Coke or Black-
stone. The opinions of Shaikh Murtaza, in their liberal and liberalising
tendencies, are far above those of the narrow-minded self-opinionated Mohak-
kik. But the servile Akhbari follows the latter in preference to the former.

i86 THE SPIRIT OF ISLAM ii.

it threw off the shackles of Ecclesiasticism. In Islam also,
enlightenment must precede reform ; and, before there can be
a renovation of religious life, the mind must first escape from
the bondage which centuries of literal interpretation and the
doctrine of " conformity " have imposed upon it. The
formahsm that does not appeal to the heart of the worshipper
must be abandoned ; externals must be subordinated to the
inner feeUngs ; and the lessons of ethics must be impressed
on the plastic mind ; then alone can we hope for that enthusiasm
in the principles of duty taught by the Prophet of Islam. The
reformation of Islam will begin when once it is recognised that
divine words rendered into any language retain their divine
character and that devotions offered in any tongue are accept-
able to God. The Prophet himself had allowed his foreign
disciples to say their prayers in their own tongue.^ He had
expressly permitted others to recite the Koran in their respective
dialects ; and had declared that it was revealed in seven
languages.

In the earliest ages of Islam there was a consensus of opinion
that devotion without understanding was useless. Imam
Abu Hanifa considered the recitation of the namdz and also of
the Khutba or sermon, lawful and vaUd in any language. ^
The disciples of Abu Hanifa, Abu Yusuf and Mohammed,
have accepted the doctrine of their master with a certain
variation. They hold that when a person does not know
Arabic, he may validly offer his devotions in any other
language.^

There is, however, one great and cogent reason why the
practice of reciting prayers in Arabic should be maintained
wherever it is possible and practicable. Not because it was
the language of the Prophet, but because it has become the
language of Islam and maintains the unity of sentiment

1 Salman the Persian, whom Ali had saved from a lion, was the first to
whom this permission was granted.

^ Jawahir ul-Akhldti ; Durr id-Mukhtar, Bab us-Saldt (Chapter on Prayer).
This view is also given in the Tajnis. Tahtawi states that the Imam's opinion
is authoritative and should be followed. The commentator of the Diirr
ul-Mukhtdr also recognises the validity of reciting prayers in Persian.

^ This is construed by the Ulemas of the present day to mean, when the
worshipper is unable to pronounce Arabic words ! The absurdity of the
explanation is obvious.

II. THE RELIGIOUS SPIRIT OF ISLAM 187

throughout the Islamic world. And wherein lies more strength
than in unity ?

Note I.

The sumptuary prohibitions of Mohammed may be divided
into two classes, qualitative and quantitative . The prohibition
against excess in eating and drinking and others of the like
import belong to the latter class. They were called forth in
part by the peculiar semi-barbarous epicureanism which was
coming into fashion among the Arabs from their intercourse
with the demoralised Syrians and Persians, and in part by
circumstances of which only glimpses are afforded us in the
Koran. The absolute prohibition of swine's flesh, which may
be classed under the head of qualitative prohibitions, arose,
as is evident, from hygienic reasons and this prohibition must
remain unchanged as long as the nature of the animal and the
diseases engendered by the eating of the flesh remain as at
present. The prohibition against dancing was directed against
the orgiastic dances with which the heathen Arabs used to
celebrate the Syro-Phoenician worship of their Ashtoreth,
Moloch and Baal.

CHAPTER III
THE IDEA OF FUTURE LIFE IN ISLAM

THE idea of a future existence — of an existence after
the separation of the Hving principle of our nature
from the mortal part- — is so generally shared by races
of men, otherwise utterly distinct from each other, that it has
led to the belief that it must be one of the first elementary
constituents of our being. A more careful examination of
facts, however, connected with the infancy of races and tribes,
leads us to the conclusion that the conception of a future
existence is also the result of the natural development of the
human mind.

The wild savage has scarcely any idea of a life separate and
distinct from that which he enjoys on earth. He looks upon
death as the end of existence. Then comes a later stage when
man has passed out of his savage state, his hopes and aspirations
are bounded no more by an earthly death ; he now anticipates
another course of existence after the course here has been
fulfilled. But even in this stage the conception of immortahty
does not rise out of the groove of daily life. Life after death
is a mere continuation of life on earth. This idea of a continued
life beyond the grave must have been developed from the yet
unconscious longing of the human soul for a more extended

^ See translation at end of this chapter.

III. THE IDEA OF FUTURE LIFE IN ISLAM 189

sphere, where the separation of dear friends, so painful to both
savage and civiUsed man, should end in reunion.

The next stage is soon reached ; man comes to believe that
present happiness and misery are not, cannot be, the be-all and
end-all of his existence ; that there will he another life, or that
there is another life after death, where he will be happy or
miserable in proportion to his deserts.

Now we have reached a principle and a law.

The mind of man goes no further towards developing the
idea of future existence. The nihilistic philosopher makes no
discovery, asserts no new position. He is only treading in the
footsteps of our savage ancestor, whose field of vision was
restricted to this life alone.

It is a well-authenticated fact, however, that all those ideas
which represent the various stages, from a subjective point of
view, exist simultaneously not only among different nations
but even in the same nation, in different combinations, accord-
ing to the individual development.

The Egyptians are said to have been the first to recognise
the doctrine of a future life, or, at least, to base the principles
of human conduct on such a doctrine.^ With an idea of
metempsychosis the}^ joined an idea of future recompense and
punishment. Man descended into the tomb only to rise again.
After his resurrection he entered on a new life, in company
with the sun, the principle of generation, the self-existent
cause of all. The soul of man was considered immortal like
the sun, and as accomphshing the same pilgrimages. All
bodies descended into the lower world, but they were not all
assured of resurrection. The deceased were judged by Osiris
and his forty-two assessors. Annihilation was often believed
to be the lot of those adjudged guilty. The righteous,
purified from venial faults, entered into perfect happiness,
and as the companions of Osiris, were fed by him with
delicious food.^

We might naturally expect that the long stay of the Israelites
in Egypt would introduce among them some conception of a

' Rawlinson's History of Ancient Egypt, vol. ii. p. 423.

^ Comp. Lenormant, Ancient History oj the East, vol. i. pp. 319-322 ; and
Alger. History of the Doctrine of a Future Life, p. 102 et seq.

igo THE SPIRIT OF ISLAM ii.

future life with its concomitant idea of rewards and punish-
ments. But pure Mosaism (or the teachings which pass under
that name) does not recognise a state of existence differing
from the present. The pivot on which the entire system of
Mosaic legislation turns consists of tangible earthly rewards and
punishments.^ The vitality of the laws is confined within a
very small compass. The doctrine of a resurrection, with the
ideas arising from it, which appears in later Judaism, — especially
in the writings of Daniel and Ezekiel, — is evidently a fruit of
foreign growth derived from Zoroastrian sources. Even the
descriptions of Sheol, the common sojourn of departed beings,
equally of the just and unjust, which appear in comparatively
earl}^ writings, do not seem of true Hebraic origin. In Sheol
man can no longer praise God or remember His loving-kindness. ^
It is a shadow-realm, a Jewish counterpart of the heathen
Hades, in which the souls lead a sad, lethargic, comfortless
existence ; knowing nothing of those who were dear to them
on earth, mourning only over their own condition.^

But later Judaism is full of the strongest faith in a future
life. Tradition revels in the descriptions of the abodes of bliss,
or of the horrors of the damned.* Zoroastrianism thus acted
on the Hebraic race in a double way. It not only developed
in them a purer and more spiritual conception of a future
existence, but later Mago-Zoroastrianism, itself a product of
Chaldaeism, strongly coloured the Rabbinical beliefs with
materialistic ideas of punishments and rewards hereafter.^ It
was, however, among the Aryan nations of the East that the
doctrine of a future life after visible death was distinctly and
vividly recognised. In one branch of the Aryan family, it took
the shape either of an eternal metempsychosis, a ceaseless whirl
of births and deaths, or of utter absorption after a prolonged
probation in absolute infinity, or endless unfathomable space,

1 Comp. Alger, History of the Doctrine oj a Future Life, p. 157 ; also Milman's
Christianity, vol. i. pp. 21, 25, 75, etc.

2 Ps. vi. 5.

^ Job xiv. 22. Comp. DoUinger, vol. ii. p. 389 ; and Alger, History of the
Doctrine of a Future Life, pp. 151, 152 et seq.

•* See Milman, History of Christianity , vol. i. p. 242, notes.

* See the chapter of Alger, tracing the influence of the Persian system on
later Judaism, p. 165 et seq.

III. THE IDEA OF FUTURE LIFE IN ISLAM 191

or nothing.^ In the other branch, this doctrine was clothed
in the shape of a graduated scale of rewards and punishments,
in the sense in which human accountability is understood
by the modern Christian or Moslem. Whether the Mago-
Zoroastrians from the beginning believed in a corporeal resur-
rection is a question on which scholars are divided. Bollinger,
with Burnouf and others, believes that this notion was not
really Zoroastric, and that it is of later growth, if not derived
from Hebrews. 2

However this be, about the time of the Prophet of Arabia,
the Persians had a strong and developed conception of future
hfe. The remains of the Zend-Avesta which have come down
to us expressly recognise a belief in future rewards and punish-
ments. The Zoroastrianism of the Vendidad and the Bunde-
hesh, enlarging upon the beliefs of the Avesta, holds that after
a man's death the demons take possession of his body, yet
on the third day consciousness returns. Souls that in their
lifetime have yielded to the seductions of evil cannot pass the
terrible bridge Chinevad, to which they are conducted on the
day following the third night after their death. The good
successfully pass it, conducted by the Yazatas (in modern
Persian, Izad), and, entering the realms of bliss, join Ormuzd
and the Amshaspands in their abode, where seated on thrones
of gold, they enjoy the society of beautiful fairies {Hoordn-i-
Behisht) and all manner of delights. The wicked fall over the
bridge or are dragged down into the gulf of Dnzakh where they
are tormented by the Dcevas. The duration of this punishment
is fixed by Ormuzd, and some are redeemed by the prayers
and intercessions of their friends. Towards the end of the
world a prophet is to arise, who is to rid the earth of injustice

1 And yet the Brahmanical priests painted the horrors of hell and the
pleasures of heaven with the vividness of a thoroughly morbid imagination.
The Arabic scholar is referred to the appreciative account of the Buddhistic
doctrines (not so much regarding future life as generally) in Shahristani,
p. 446.

^ Alger has furnished us with strong reasons for supposing that the early
Zoroastrians believed in a bodily resurrection. The extreme repugnance with
which the Mago- Zoroastrians regarded corpses is no reason for discarding
this conclusion, as most probably this repugnance arose under Manichaean
influences ; see Alger, p. 138 et seq. Apropos of the repugnance with which
the Persians in Mohammed's time looked upon corpses, consult Dollinger,
vol. ii. p. 409.

192 THE SPIRIT OF ISLAM ii.

and wickedness, and usher in a reign of happiness — the
Zoroastrian millennium, Ormuzd's kingdom of heaven.^
After this, a universal resurrection will take place, and friends
and relatives will meet again. After the joys of recognition
there will follow a separation of the good from the bad. The
torments of the unrighteous will be fearful. Ahriman will
run up and down Chinevad overwhelmed with anguish. A
blazing comet, falling on the earth, will ignite the world.
Mountains will melt and flow together like liquid metal. All
mankind, good and bad alike, will pass through this glowing
flood, and come out purified. Even Ahriman will be changed
and Duzakh purified. Evil thenceforth will be annihilated,
and all mankind will live in the enjoyment of ineffable delights.

Such is the summary of a religion which has influenced the
Semitic faiths in an unmistakable manner, and especially the
eclectic faith of Mohammed.

About the time when Jesus of Nazareth made his appearance,
the Phoenicians and Assyrians had passed away. The hellenised
Roman ruled the world, checked in the East, however, by
triumphant and revived Mago-Zoroastrianism.

The Jew had lost his independence for ever. A miserable
sycophant occupied the throne of David. A mightier power
than that of the Seleucidae kept in subjection his spirit of
unruliness. Like every nation animated by a fierce love of
their country, creed, and individuality, the Jews, as their fate
grew darker and darker, became more and more inspired with
the hope that some heaven-commissioned ministrant, like
Gideon or Maccabeus, would restore their original glory, and
enable them to plant their foot on the necks of their many
oppressors. 2 The appearance of a Messiah portrayed in vivid
colours by all their patriotic seers, the Jewish bards, was
founded on one grand aspiration — the restoration of the

^ Shahristani calls this prophet Ushizerbeka (Cureton's ed. p. i88) ; but
according to Western authors his name is said to be Sosiosch, who is to be
preceded by two other prophets, called Oscheder Bami and Oschedermah
(Dollinger v. ii. p. 401). De Sacy calls him Pashoutan {Sur Div. Ant. de la
Perse, p. 95).

* It is not necessary, as Alger supposes, that because the Jews looked
forward to the reappearance of Elijah or some other prophet among them
for these national purposes, we must conclude that they believed in trans-
migration.

III. THE IDEA OF FUTURE LIFE IN ISLAM 193

kingdom of Israel. Under the influences of the Mago-Zoro-
astrians and Chaldaeans in the East, and the Grecian schools of
philosophy in the West, among some classes of society
(especially among those whom the hellenising tendencies of
Herod had withdrawn from the bosom of Israel), the belief in
a personal Messiah was either faint and indistinct, or a mere
echo from the vulgar masses. But, as Milman beautifully
observes, the Palestinian Jews had about this time moulded
out of various elements a splendid though confused vision of
the appearance of the Messiah, the simultaneous regeneration
of all things, the resurrection of the dead, and the reign of
Messiah upon earth. All these events were to take place at
once, or to follow close upon each other. ^ The Messiah was to
descend from the Hne of David ; he was to assemble all the
scattered descendants of the tribes, and to expel and destroy
their hateful alien enemies. Under the Messiah a resurrection
would take place, but would be confined to the righteous of
their race.^

Amidst all this enthusiasm and these vague aspirations, the
hopes of eternal life and future bliss were strangely mingled.
The extremes of despair and enthusiastic expectation of
external relief always tend to the development of such a state
of mind among the people. One section appears to look
forward to an unearthly kingdom, a reign of peace and law
under divine agency, as an escape from the galling yoke of
brute force ; the other looks forward to the same or cognate
means for securing the kingdom of heaven by the blood of
aUens and heathens.^

The traditions which record the sayings of Jesus have gone

^ Milman, History of Christianity, vol. i. p. 76.

2 The similarity between the Zoroastrian idea of a deliverer and restorer
of religion and order on earth, and the Messianic conception among the Jews,
is, to say the least, wonderful. The Jews, it is certain, derived this concep-
tion from the Zoroastrians ; and in their misfortunes developed it in more
vivid terms. But I am strongly disposed to think that the idea of a Sosiosch,
whatever its prophetic significance, arose among the Persians also when
labouring; under a foreign yoke — whether of the Semitic Assyrians or the Greek
Macedonians it is difficult to say. The very country in which the scene of
his appearance is laid — KanguMez in Khorasan, according to De Sacy,
Cansoya, according to Dollinger's authorities— shows that the Persians, in their
misfortunes, looked to the East, especially to the " Land of the Sun," for
assistance and deliverance.

^ Like the modern, though obscure, sect of Christadelphians.

S.I. N

194 THE SPIRIT OF ISLAM ii.

through such a process of ehmination and selection, that it is
hardly possible at the present moment to say which are really
his own words and which are not.^ But taking them as they
stand, and on the same footing as we regard other religioufe
documents (without ignoring their real spirit, yet without
trying to find m3^sterious meanings like the faithful believer),
we see that throughout these traditional records the notion of
an immediate advent of a new order of things, " of a kingdom
of heaven," is so predominant in the mind of Jesus as to over-
shadow all other ideas. The Son of Man has appeared, the
kingdom of God is at hand ; such is the burden of every hopeful
word. 2 This kingdom was to replace the society and govern-
ment which the Prophet of Nazareth found so imperfect and
evil. At times his words led the disciples to conclude that the
new Teacher was born to lead only the poor and the famished
to glory and happiness ; that under the hoped-for theocratic
regime these alone would be " the blessed," and would con-
stitute the predominating element, for " woe " is denounced
in awful terms against the rich and the well-fed.^ At other
times, the realm of God is understood to mean the literal
fulfilment of the apocalyptic visions or dreams connected with
the appearance of the Messiah. Sometimes, however, the
kingdom of God is a realm of souls, and the approaching
deliverance is merely a spiritual deliverance from the bondage

^ Milman himself admits that the traditions regarding the acts and sayings
of Jesus, which were floating about among the Christian communities, were
not cast into their present shape till almost the close of the first half of the
second century {History of Christianity, vol. i. p. 126). Necessarily, therefore,
the ancient collectors and modellers of the Christian Gospels, or as Milman
regards them, rude and simple historians, must have exercised a discretionary
latitude in the reception of the traditions. They must have decided every-
thing on dogmatic grounds. " If a narrative or scripture was, in its tone and
substance, agreeable to their (preconceived) views, they looked upon defective
external evidence as complete ; if it was not agreeable, the most sufficient
was explained away as a misunderstanding." Hence a great many additions
were made, though unconsciously, to the sayings and doings of Jesus. On
this point the testimony of Celsus, with every allowance for exaggeration,
must be regarded as conclusive when he says the Christians were in the habit
of coining and remodelling their traditional accounts {Origen c. Celsus, ii. 27).
And this on the principle laid down by Sir W. Muir in Canon III. p. Ixxxi.
vol. i. (Life of Mahomet).

- Matt. iv. 17, X. 7, etc.

^ Luke vii. 20 et seq. In Matthew " the poor in spirit " are mentioned.
But the simpler statement of Luke, from a comparison of all the circum-
stances, seems more authentic.

III. THE IDEA OF FUTURE LIFE IN ISLAM 195

of this miindaiie existence. All these conceptions appear at
one period to have existed in the mind of Jesus simultaneously.^
But the fierceness and bigotry of the dominant party and the
power of the Roman eagle made any immediate social change
impossible. As every hope of present amelioration died away,
hopes and aspirations of a brighter future took possession of
the heart. Jesus felt the present state could not last long ;
that the time of the regeneration of m.ankind was at hand,-
when he himself would appear in the clouds of heaven, clothed
in divine garments, seated on a throne, surrounded by angels
and his chosen disciples.^ The dead would rise from their
graves,^ and the Messiah would sit in judgment. The angels
would be the executors of his sentence. He would send the
elect to a delightful abode prepared from the beginning of the
world, and the unrighteous into " everlasting fire prepared for
the devil and his angels," ^ where there would be weeping and
gnashing of teeth. The chosen, not numerically large, "^ would
be taken into an illuminated mansion, where they would
partake of banquets presided over by the father of the race of
Israel, the patriarchs, and the prophets,' and in which Jesus
himself will share. ^

^ Renan, Vie de Jesus, p. 282.

*Matt. xix. 18.

There can be no doubt that Jesus himself believed in a corporeal resur-
rection, and in tangible rewards and punishments in a future life. He often
spoke of " the blessed " in his kingdom eating and drinking at his table. But
whilst in the earl}' traditions passing under the name of the four apostles,
the accounts, owing to careful pruning, are meagre enough, later traditionists
enlarge upon the descriptions of paradise and hell, and revel in the most
gorgeous fantasies, which go under the name of revelations {uide Rev. xxi.
8-21, xxii. I, 2). In puerility even the Christian traditionists do not fall
short of the followers of other creeds. The tradition handed down by
Irenaeus on the authority of John declares Jesus to have said, " Days shall
come in which there shall be vines, which shall have each ten thousand
branches, and every one of these branches shall have ten thousand lesser
branches, and ever}' one of these branches shall have ten thousand twigs, and
every one of these twigs shall have ten thousand clusters of grapes, and in
every one of these clusters there shall be ten thousand grapes, and every one
of these grapes being pressed shall yield two hundred and seventy-five gallons
of wine ; and when a man shall take hold of one of these sacred bunches,
another bunch shall cry out, I am a better bunch, take me, and bless the
Lord by me," etc.

^ Matt. xvi. 27, xxiv. 30, 31, xxv. 31 et seq. etc.

^ Rev. XX. 12, 13. Compare these notions with the Zoroastrian belief.

' Matt. xxv. 41. ^ Luke xiii. 23.

^ Matt. viii. 11 ; Luke xiii. 28, xxii. 30. =* Matt. xxvi. 29.

196 THE SPIRIT OF ISLAM ii.

That the inauguration of the new regime with the second
advent of Jesus and the resurrection of the human race was
considered not to be distant, is apparent from the words of
the Master himself, when he impressed upon his hearers the
approach of the kingdom of God, and the utter futiUty of every
provision for the occupations and exigencies of the present
hfe.i

The words of the Teacher, acting in unison with the state
of mind engendered by the circumstances of the age,^ had sunk
deep into the hearts of his disciples, and all looked forward,
with a vividness of expectation hardly surpassed in the annals
of human beliefs, to the literal fulfilment of the prophecies
concerning the millennium.

" If the first generation of the Christians had a profound and
constant behef, it was that the world was approaching its end,
and that the great ' revelation ' of Christ was to happen soon." ^
It is only when the Christian Church becomes a regular
organisation that the followers of Jesus expand their views
beyond the restricted horizon of the Judaic world, and, for-
getting their millenarian dream, they pass into the Greek and
Roman system, and extend the empire of their creed over
untold legions of barbarians fresh from their forests, who
looked upon Jesus and his mother as the counterparts of their
own Odin and Freya worshipped in their primeval homes.

But ever and anon the Christian world has been agitated in
moments of convulsions and disasters by the millenary excite-
ment and fierce expectation of the apocalyptic appearance of
the great Prophet of Nazareth. The idea, however, of the
realm of God has, with the lapse of ages and the progress of
thought, taken either a spiritual shape or utterly faded away
from the mind, or, where it has been retained, derives its
character from the surroundings of the individual believers.
The Jew, the Mago-Zoroastrian, and the Christian all believed
in a bodily resurrection. The crude notions of primitive
Mosaism had made way for more definite ideas derived chiefly

1 Matt. X. 23 ; Mark xiii. 30 ; Luke xiii. 35 ; Matt. vi. 25-34, viii. 22.
^ Mark the bitter term which Jesus applies to his generation.
^ Renan, Vie de Jesus, p. 287. Comp. also Milman's History of Christianity,
vol. i. p. 378.

III. THE IDEA OF FUTURE LIFE IN ISLAM 197

from the Chaldaeo-Zoroastrian doctrines. We know how among
the Persians the old worship of the mountains, the simple
teachings of the early teachers, had grown, under the magic
wands of the Babylonian wizards, into a complex system of
graduated rewards and punishments, — how Chaldaean philo-
sophy had permeated Mago-Zoroastrianism to its innermost
core. Primitive Christianity, with its vivid belief in the
immediate advent of the material kingdom of Christ, had
imbibed notions from Chaldaean, Mago-Zoroastrian, and
Alexandrian sources which had considerably altered the old
conceptions. Jew, Christian, and Zoroastrian all looked, more
or less, to material rewards and punishments in a future
existence.

The popular Christian notion, fostered by ecclesiasticism ,
that Mohammed denied souls to women, is by this time, we
believe, exploded. It was a calumny concocted to create an
aversion against Islam. But the idea that the Arabian Prophet
promised his followers a sensual paradise with hooris, and a
graduated scale of delights, still lingers. It is a sign alike of
ignorance and ancient bigotry. There is no doubt that in the
Suras of the intermediate period, before the mind of the Teacher
had attained the full development of religious consciousness,
and when it was necessary to formulate in language inteUigible
to the common folk of the desert, the realistic descriptions of
heaven and hell, borrowed from the floating fancies of Zoro-
astrian, Sabaean, and the Talmudical Jew, attract the attention
as a side picture, and then comes the real essence — the adoration
of God in humility and love. The hooris are creatures of
Zoroastrian origin, so is paradise,^ whilst hell in the severity of
its punishment is Talmudic. The descriptions are realistic,
in some places almost sensuous ; but to say that they are
sensual, or that Mohammed, or any of his followers, even the
ultra-literalists accepted them as such, is a calumny. The wine
" that does not inebriate " and the attendants " that come not
nigh," can hardly be said to represent sensual pleasures !

The chief and predominating idea in Islam respecting a future
life is founded upon the belief that, in a state of existence here-
after, every human being will have to render an account of his
1 In Persian, firdous.

igS THE SPIRIT OF ISLAM ii.

or her actions on earth, and that the happiness or misery of
individuals will depend upon the manner in which they have
performed the behests of their Creator. His mercy and grace
are nevertheless unbounded, and will be bestowed alike upon
His creatures. This is the pivot on which the whole doctrine
of future life in Islam turns, and this is the only doctrinal point
one is required to beUeve and accept. All the other elements,
caught up and syncretised from the floating traditions of the
races and peoples of the time, are mere accessories. Setting
aside from our consideration the question of subjectivity
involved in all ideas of future rewards and punishments, we
may say, in all ideas of a hfe after death, we must bear in mind
that these ideas have furnished to the moral teachers of the
world the most powerful instrument for influencing the conduct
of individuals and nations. But though every rehgion, more
or less, contains the germ of this principle of future account-
ability in another state, all have failed thoroughly to realise
its nature as a continuous agency for the elevation of the masses.
Virtue, for its own sake, can only be grasped by minds of
superior development ; for the average intellect, and for the
uneducated, sanctions, more or less comprehensible, will always
be necessary.

To turn now to the nature of these sanctions, it must be
remembered that it is scarcely ever possible to convey an idea
of spiritual pleasure or spiritual pain to the apprehensions of the
generality of mankind without clothing the expressions in the
garb of tangible personalities, or introducing sensible objects
into the description of such pleasure or pain. Philosophy has
wrangled over abstract expressions, not dressed in tangible
phraseology. Such expressions and conceptions have seen
their day, have flourished, and have died without making them-
selves felt beyond a restricted circle of dreamers, who Hved in
the indefinable vagueness of their own thoughts.

Mohammed was addressing himself not only to the advanced
minds of a few idealistic thinkers who happened to be then
living, but to the wide world around him engrossed in
materialism of every type. He had to adapt himself to the
comprehensions of all. To the wild famished Arab, what more
grateful, or what more consonant to his ideas of paradise than

III. THE IDEA OF FUTURE LIFE IN ISLAM 199

rivers of unsullied incorruptible water, or of milk and honey ;
or anything more acceptable than unlimited fruit, luxuriant
vegetation, inexhaustible fertility ? He could conceive of no
bliss unaccompanied with these sensuous pleasures. This is
the contention of that portion of the Moslem world which,
like Sanai and Ghazzali, holds that behind the descriptions of
material happiness portrayed in objects like trees, rivers, and
beautiful mansions with fairy attendants, lies a deeper meaning ;
and that the joy of joys is to consist in the beatific visions of
the soul in the presence of the Almighty, when the veil which
divides man from his Creator will be rent, and heavenly glory
revealed to the mind untrammelled by its corporeal, earthly
habiliments. In this they are upheld by the words of the
Koran as well as the authentic sayings of the Prophet. " The
most favoured of God," said Mohammed, " will be he who shall
see his Lord's face (glory) night and morning, a felicity which
will surpass all the pleasures of the body, as the ocean surpasses
a drop of sweat." One day, talking to his friend, Abu Huraira,
the Prophet said, " God has prepared for His good people what
no eye hath seen, nor ear heard, nor hath it entered into the
heart of anyone," and then recited the following verse of the
Koran : "No soul knoweth the joy which is secretly prepared
for it as a reward for that it may have wrought." ^ Another
tradition ^ reports that Mohammed declared the good will
enjoy the beatific vision of God, to which reference, he said,
is made in the following verse of the Koran : " And God
inviteth unto the dwelling of peace . . . For those who do good
there is excellent reward and superabundant addition." ^

As to the parabolical nature of the Koranic expressions, this
school of thinkers bases its convictions on the following passage
of the inspired Book : " It is He who hath sent down unto thee
' the Book.' Some of the signs (verses) are firm {i.e. per-
spicuous or clear to understand) — these are the basis (or
fundamental part) of the book — and others are figurative." ^

^ Koran xxxii. 17 ; Mishkat, bk. xxiii. chap. xiii. pt. i. - From Suhaib.

' Koran x. 26. Consult here Zamakhshari (the Kashshdf), Egyp. Ed., pt. i.
p. 244 ; he gives the fullest references to the opinions of the different theo-
logians and schools, and especially mentions the doctrines of the Mush-
habbahSs and the Jabarias.

* Koran iii. 5.

200 THE SPIRIT OF ISLAM ii.

Another section looks upon the joys and pains of the Here-
after as entirely subjective. It holds that as extreme mental
pain is far more agonising than physical pain, so is mental
pleasure of the higher type far more rapturous than any
sensuous pleasure ; that as, after physical death, the indi-
vidual soul " returns," to use the Koranic expression, to the
Universal Soul, all the joys and pains, portrayed in vivid
colours by the inspired Teacher to enable the masses to grasp
the truth, will be mental and subjective. This section includes
within its bosom some of the greatest philosophers and mystics
of the Moslem world.

Another, and by far perhaps the larger class, however, believe
in the Uteral fulfilment of all the word-paintings of the Koran.

Without venturing to pass any opinion on these different
notions, we may take this occasion to state our own behef
with regard to the Koranic conception of future rewards and
punishments.

A careful study of the Koran makes it evident that the mind
of Mohammed went through the same process of development
which marked the religious consciousness of Jesus. Moham-
med and Jesus are the only two historic Teachers of the world,
and for this reason we take them together. How great this
development was in Jesus is apparent, not only from the
idealised conception towards the end of his earthly career
regarding the Kingdom of Heaven, but also from the change
of tone towards the non-Israelites. Thoroughly exclusive at
first, 1 with a more developed religious consciousness wider
sympathies awaken in the heart. ^

As with Jesus so with Mohammed.

The various chapters of the Koran which contain the ornate
descriptions of paradise, whether figurative or literal, were
delivered wholly or in part at Mecca. Probably in the infancy
of his reUgious consciousness, Mohammed himself believed in
some or other of the traditions which floated around him. But
with a wider awakening of the soul, a deeper communion with
the Creator of the Universe, thoughts, which bore a material

^ Matt. X. 5, XV. 22-26.

- Matt, xxviii. 19, etc. ; comp. throughout Strauss, New Life of Jesus (1865),
vol. i. p. 296 et seq.

III. THE IDEA OF FUTURE LIFE IN ISLAM 201

aspect at first, became spiritualised. The mind of the Teacher
progressed not only with the march of time and the develop-
ment of his religious consciousness, but also with the progress
of his disciples in apprehending spiritual conceptions. Hence,
in the later suras we observe a merging of the material in the
spiritual, of the body in the soul. The gardens " watered by
rivers," perpetual shade, ^ plenty and harmony, so agreeable to
the famished denizen of the parched, shadeless, and waterless
desert, at perpetual discord with himself and all around him,
— these still form the groundwork of beautiful imageries ; but
the happiness of the blessed is shown to consist in eternal peace
and goodwill in the presence of their Creator. " But those,"
says the Koran, " who are pious shall dwell in gardens, amidst
fountains ; they shall say unto them, ' Enter ye therein in
peace and security ' ; and aU rancour will we remove from their
bosoms ; they shall sit as brethren, face to face,^ on couches ;
weariness shall not affect them therein, neither shall they be
repelled thence for ever." ^

What can be nobler or grander in its conception or imagery,
or give a better idea of the belief in the Prophet's mind
when conveying his final message concerning the nature
of the present and future life, than the following passage :
" It is He who enableth you to travel by land and by sea ; so
that ye go on board of ships, which sail on with them, with
favourable breeze, and they rejoice therein. But if a tem-
pestuous wind overtake, and the waves come on them from
every side, and they think they are encompassed therewith,
they call on God, professing unto Him sincere religion ; (saying)
wouldst Thou but rescue us from this, then we will ever be
indeed of the thankful. But when We have rescued them,
Behold ! they commit unrighteous excesses on the earth. O
men ! verily the excesses ye commit to the injury of your own
souls are only for the enjoyment of this earthly life ; soon shall
ye return to Us, and We will declare unto you that which ye
have done. Verily, the likeness of this present life is not
otherwise than the water which We send down from heaven ;
and the productions of the earth, of which men and cattle eat,

^ Koran xiii. 34, xlvii. 16, 17. Comp. also chaps, ix., x., and xiv.

^ I.e. with peace and good-will in their hearts. ^ Koran xv. 48.

202 THE SPIRIT OF ISLAM ii.

are mixed therewith, till the earth has received its beautiful
raiment, and is decked out, and they who inhabit it imagine
they have power over it ! (But) Our behest cometh unto it
by night or by day, and We make it as if it had been mown, as
though it had not teemed (with fertihty) only yesterday. Thus
do we make our signs clear unto those who consider. And
God inviteth unto the abodes of peace, and guideth whom He
pleaseth into the right way.^ For those who do good is
excellent reward and superabundant addition of it ; neither
blackness nor shame shall cover their faces. These are the
inhabitants of paradise ; therein do they abide for ever. But
those who have wrought evil shall receive the reward of evil
equal thereunto ; ^ and shame shall cover them (for there will
be none to protect them against God) as though their faces
were covered with a piece of the night of profound darkness." ^

Then again, what can be purer in its aspirations than the
following :

" Who fulfil the covenant of God and break not their com-
pact ; and who join together what God hath bidden to be
joined ; and who fear their Lord and dread an ill-reckoning ;
and who, from a sincere desire to please their Lord,^ are constant
amid trials, and observe prayers and give alms, in secret and
openly, out of what We have bestowed on them ; and turn
aside evil with good : for them there is the recompense of that
abode, gardens of eternal habitation, into which they shall
enter, together with such as shall have acted rightly from
among their fathers, their wives, and their posterity ; and the
angels shaU go in unto them by every portal, (saying) ' Peace
be with you ! because ye have endured with patience.' Excellent
is the reward in that abode ! " ^

Enough has been said to show the utter falsehood of the
theory that Mohammed's pictures of future life were all

^ Baizawi explains the expression " whom He pleaseth," as " those who
repent " (p. 67, n. i, chap. iv). Compare Zamakhshari (the Kashshaf).

- Observe the reward of virtue will not be confined to an exact measure
of man's works ; it will far exceed his deserts ; but the recompense of evil
will be strictly proportioned to what one has done.

^ Koran x. 23-27.

•* This may also be translated as " from a desire to see the face (glory) of
their Lord."

6 Koran xiii. 20-24. Compare throughout Zamakhshari (the Kashshaf).

III. THE IDEA OF FUTURE LIFE IN ISLAM 203

sensuous. We will conclude this chapter with the following
passage from the Koran to show the depth of spirituality in
Islam, and the purit}^ of the hopes and aspirations on which it
bases its rule of Ufe : " O thou soul which art at rest, return
unto thy Lord, pleased and pleasing Him, enter thou among
my servants, and enter thou my garden of felicity." ^

^ Koran Ixxxix. 27-30.

CHAPTER IV
THE CHURCH MILITANT OF ISLAM

THE extraordinary rapidity with which the religion of
the Arabian Prophet spread over the surface of
the globe is one of the most wonderful phenomena
in the history of religions. For centuries Christianity had
hidden itself in byways and corners ; not until it had largely
absorbed and assimilated paganism, not until a half-pagan
monarch had come to its assistance with edicts and orders,
was it able to rear its head among the creeds of the world.
Islam, within thirty years of the death of its Teacher,
found its way into the hearts of millions of people. And
before a century was well over the voice of the Recluse of
Hira had rolled across three continents. The legions of the
Caesars and the Chosroes, who endeavoured to stop the onrush
of the new democracy preached in Arabia, were shattered to
pieces by the children of the desert. Its remarkable success and
marvellous effect upon the minds of men have given rise to the
charge that, as a religion of the sword, Islam was propagated

1 Sura ii. 261, " Let there be no compulsion in religion."
* Sura V. 69 ; see p. 175. Compare this with the thunders of the Athanasian
Creed.

IV. THE CHURCH MILITANT OF ISLAM 205

by the sword and upheld by the sword. We propose, therefore,
carefully to examine the circumstances and facts connected
with the rise of Islam, to see whether there is any truth in the
statement.

At the time of the Prophet's advent into Medina, the two
tribes of Aus and Khazraj, who had been engaged in deadly
conflict for years, had just ended their strife by a hollow peace.
There was every prospect of the war breaking out again with
fiercer animosity. The Jews, who after the onslaught of Jabala
had accepted the cHentage of the Medinite Arabs, were fast
recovering their strength and were openly threatening their
pagan compatriots with the vengeance of the Messiah, whose
appearance was hourly expected. The surrounding tribes,
among whom the influence of the Koreish was supreme, were
arrayed in all their desert ferocity against Medina. The
moment Mohammed appeared among the Medinites the
elements of danger which threatened the new religion became
apparent. The Meccan disciples who had braved death, and
now faced destitution and exile for their Master and the light
which he had brought to their hearts, were few and weak. His
Medinite followers were not many ; they were divided amongst
themselves, actuated by tribal jealousies. An important
faction, headed by an influential chieftain, an aspirant to the
throne of Medina, worked in the city on the side of the heathens. ^
The Jews, compact and united, jealously and relentlessly, with
poison and with treachery, opposed him in every direction.
But the heart, which did not fail when the Koreish threatened
him with death, was not daunted when the existence of others
depended on him. He at once set himself to the task of
organising into a social entity the varied elements which had
gathered round him as the minister of God. He substituted
referees for the old tribal vendetta ; he abolished the dis-
tinction of Aus and Khazraj ; he comprehended the Jews and
Christians in his little commonwealth, and planted germs of
cordial relations among all believers ; he proclaimed that a Jew,
Sabaean, or Christian, whoever believed in God and future life
and acted righteously, " on him shall come no fear." To a
people wedded to the worst type of heathenism, to a race with
1 See ante,f-p. 57.

2o6 THE SPIRIT OF ISLAM it.

whom the shedding of blood was a second nature, he taught
purity and truth, self-restraint, charity, and love of one's kind.
" It shall be an expiation with God," he said to them, " when
one shall drop his right of retaliation." " He who shall mediate
between men for a good purpose shall be the gainer thereby,
but the mediator for evil shall reap the fruit of his doing." ^

Whilst engaged in this divine work of humanising his people,
raising them from the abyss of degradation, purifying them from
abominations, he is attacked by his enemies, ruthless and un-
tiring in their vengeance. They had sworn his death and the
extirpation of his creed. The apostates from the faith of their
fathers, as the Koreish regarded Mohammed and his followers
to be, had betaken themselves to the rival city, to plant the
germs of revolutionary doctrines. United Arabia must annihi-
late these crazy enthusiasts who had forsaken home and wealth
for the sake of an unseen God, so exacting in His worship, so
insistent on the common duties of love, charity, and benevolence,
on purity of thought and deed. From the moment of his entry i
into Medina, Mohammed's destiny had become intertwined j
with that of his people, and of those who had invited and j
welcomed him into their midst. His destruction meant the j
destruction of the entire body of people who had gathered j
round the minister of God. Surrounded by enemies and ;
traitors, the whole of Arabia responding to the caU of the j
Koreish, the ancient servitors of the national gods marching to j
their slaughter, his followers would have inevitably perished j
but for the swords in their hands. And it was not until their ;
enemies were upon them that it was declared, " The infidels 1
regard not in a behever either ties of blood or covenant ; when
they break their oaths of alUance, and attack you, defend
yourself " ; and again, " Defend yourself against your enemies ;
but attack them not first : God hateth the aggressor." ^ To
the Moslems self-defence had become a question of self-
preservation. They must either submit to be massacred or
fight when they were attacked. They chose the latter alter-
native, and succeeded, after a long struggle, in subduing their
enemies.

The bitter animosity of the Jews, their repeated violations of

^ Sura iv. 85. ^ Sura ii. 190.

IV. THE CHURCH MILITANT OF ISLAM 207

the most solemn engagements, their constant seditiousness, and
then- frequent endeavours to betray the Moslems to the idolaters,
led naturally to severe chastisement. It was essentially neces-
sary for the safety of the weak and small community, more as
a deterrent warning than as a vindictive punishment.

We have no right to assume that because some of the great
teachers who have from time to time appeared on earth have
succumbed under the force of opposing circumstances and
become martyrs, that because others have created in their
brams an unreahsed Utopia, that because dreamers have
existed, and enthusiasts have suffered, Mohammed was bound
to follow their example, and leave the world before he had
fulfilled his mission. Nor was he obliged to sacrifice himself
and the entire community over which he was called to preside,
for the sake of carrying out what, in the present time, would
be called an ' Idea.'

Let us compare the struggles of the Moslems in self-defence,
and for self-preservation, with the frightful wars of the Jews
and the Christians, and even of the gentle Parsis, for the
propagation of their respective faiths. In the case of the Jews,
aggression and extirpation were sanctified by rehgion. They
were cursed for sparing.

In the case of the early Christians, the doctrine of humility
and meekness, preached by the Prophet of Nazareth, was soon
forgotten in the pride of power. From the moment Christianity
became a recognised force, — the dominant faith of a community,
— it became aggressive and persecuting. Parallels have been
drawn between Jesus and Mohammed by different writers.
Those fully penetrated with the conviction of the godhead of
Jesus have recognised in the " earthly " means employed by
the Arabian Prophet for the regeneration of his people the
result of " Satanic suggestions," while the non-employment of
such means (perhaps from want of opportunity to use them)
has been looked upon as establishing the divinity of the Prophet
of Nazareth. We shall furnish reasons to show that such com-
parisons are unfair, based as they are on what is not only false
to history, but false to human nature.

The circumstances attending the lives of Jesus and
Mohammed were wholly different. During his short ministry

2o8 THE SPIRIT OF ISLAM ii.

the influence of Jesus remained confined to a small body of
followers, taken chiefly from the lower and uneducated ranks.
He fell a victim ^ to the passions he had evoked by his scathing
denunciations of the lifeless sacerdotalism of the priestly classes
—to the undying hatred of a relentless race — before his followers
had become either numerous or influential enough to require
practical rules for their guidance, or before they could form an
organisation, either for purposes of spiritual teaching, or as a
safeguard against the persecutions of the dominant creed.
Drawn from among a people with settled laws, the observance
of which was guaranteed by the suzerain power, the followers
of Jesus had no occasion to constitute themselves into an
organised body, nor had the Teacher any need to frame rules
of practical positive morality. The want was felt when the '
community became more extensive, and the genius of a scholar,
well-versed in the Neo-Platonic lore, destroyed the individuality ;
and simplicity of the teachings of the Master. j

Mohammed, like Jesus, was followed from the commence- j
ment of his career as a preacher and reformer by the hostility j
and opposition of his people. His followers also, in the j
beginning, were few and insignificant. He also was preceded i
by men who had shaken off the bondage of idolatry, and had !
listened to the springs of the life within. He, too, preached j
gentleness, charity, and love. |

But Mohammed appeared among a nation steeped in barbar- j
ous usages, who looked upon war as the object of life, — a nation \
far removed from the materiahsing, degrading influences of the
Greeks and the Romans, yet likewise far from their humanising
influences. At first his enunciations evoked scorn, and then ^
vengeful passions. His followers, however, increased in number j
and strength until at last the invitation of the Medinites \
crowned his glorious work with success. From the moment he
accepted the asylum so nobly proffered, from the moment he ,
was called upon to become their chief magistrate as well as.;

1 I write according to the generally received opinion among Western
scholars ; that Mohammed, in accordance with the traditions current in his
time, believed that Jesus miraculously disappeared, there is no doubt. In
spite of this so-called apocryphal Gnostic tradition being opposed to the
general body of Christian traditions, there is as much historic probability on
one side as the other.

IV. THE CHURCH MILITANT OF ISLAM 209

their spiritual teacher, his fate became involved in theirs ;
from that time the hostilities of the idolaters and their allies
required an unsleeping vigilance on the part of the Moslems.
A single city had to make head against the combined attacks
of the multitudinous tribes of Arabia. Under these circum-
stances, energetic measures were often necessary to sustain the
existence of the Moslem commonwealth. When persuasion
failed, pressure was required.

The same instinct of self-preservation which spoke so warmly
within the bosom of the great Prophet of Nazareth, ^ when he
advised his disciples to look to the instruments of defence,
caused the persecuted Moslems to take up arms when attacked
by their relentless enemies.

Gradually, by gentle kindness and energy, all the disjointed
fragments of the Arabian tribes were brought together to the
worship of the true God, and then peace settled upon the land.
Born among a people the most fiery of the earth, then as now
vehement and impulsive by nature, and possessed of passions
as burning as the sun of their desert, Mohammed impressed
on them habits of self-control and self-denial such as have
never before been revealed in the pages of history.

At the time of Mohammed's advent international obligations
were unknown. When nations or tribes made war upon each
other, the result usually was the massacre of the able-bodied,
the slavery of the innocent, and plunder of the household
penates.

The Romans, who took thirteen centuries to evolve a system
of laws which was as comprehensive as it was elevated in con-
ception, ^ could never realise the duties of international morality
or of humanity. They waged war for the sole purpose of
subjugating the surrounding nations. Where they succeeded,
they imposed their will on the people absolutely. The sacred-
ness of treaties was unknown ; pacts were made and broken,
just as convenience dictated. The liberty of other nations
was never of the slightest importance in their estimation.^ The

' Luke xxii. 256.

* In justice to the Semitic races, I must say that almost all the great jurists
of Rome were Semites, — Phoenicians, Syrians, or Carthaginians.

^ Compare Dollinger, The Gentile and the Jew, throughout on this subject.
S.I. o

210 THE SPIRIT OF ISLAM ii.

introduction of Christianity made little or no change in the
views entertained by its professors concerning international obli-
gations. War was as inhuman and as exterminating as before ;
people were led into slavery without compunction on the part
of the captors ; treaties were entered into and broken just as
suited the purpose of some designing chieftain. Christianity
did not profess to deal with international morahty, and so left
its followers groping in the dark.

Modern thinkers, instead of admitting this to be a real
deficiency in the Christian system, natural to the unfinished
state in which it was left, have tried to justify it. A strange
perversion of the human intellect ! Hence, what is right in the
individual comes to be considered wrong in the nation, and
vice versa. Religion and morality, two convertible terms, are
kept apart from the domain of law. Religion, which claims
to regulate the ties of individual men, ignores the reciprocal
relations of the various aggregates of humanity. Religion is
thus reduced into mere sentimentaHsm, an object of gushing
effusion, or mutual laudation at debating societies, albeit
sometimes rising to the dignity of philosophical morahty.

The basis of international obligations consists in the recogni-
tion of nations as individuals, and of the fact that there is not
one standard for individuals and another for nations ; for as
individuals compose a nation, so nations compose humanity ;
and the rights of nations and their obligations to each other
in nowise differ from those existing between individuals.^

True it is, that the rise of the Latin Church in the West, and
the necessary augmentation of the power of the bishops of
Rome, introduced in the Latin Christian world a certain degree
of international responsibility. But this was absolutely con-
fined to the adherents of the Church of Rome, or was occasion-
ally extended as a favour to Greek Christianity. The rest of
the world was unconditionally excluded from the benefits of
such responsibility. " The name of rehgion served as the plea
and justification of aggression upon weaker nations ; it led to
their spoliation and enslavement." Every act of violation
was sanctified by the Church, and, in case of extreme iniquity,

^ Comp. David Urquhart's essay on the " Effects of the Contempt of Inter-
national Law," reprinted from The East and West, Feb. 1867.

IV. THE CHURCH MILITANT OF ISLAM 211

absolution paved the criminal's way to heaven. From the
first slaughters of Charlemagne, with the full sanction of the
Church, to the massacre and enslavement of the unoffending
races of America, there is an unbroken series of the infringement
of international duties and the claims of humanity. This
utter disregard of the first principles of charity led also to the
persecution of those followers of Jesus who ventured to think
differently from the Church.^

The rise of Protestantism made no difference. The wars
and mutual persecutions of the several religious factions form
a history in themselves. " Persecution," says Hallam, " is
the deadly original sin of the Reformed Church, that which
cools every honest man's zeal for their cause, in proportion as
his reading becomes more expansive." ^

But, however much the various new-born Churches disagreed
among themselves, or from the Church of Rome, regarding
doctrinal and theological points, they were in perfect accord
with each other in denying all community of interests and
rights to nations outside the pale of Christendom.^

The spirit of Islam., on the contrary, is opposed to isolation
and exclusiveness. In a comparatively rude age, when the
world was immersed in darkness, moral and social, Mohammed
preached those principles of equality which are only half-
realised in other creeds, and promulgated laws which, for their
expansiveness and nobility of conception, would bear com-
parison with the records of any faith. " Islam," says an able
writer, " offered its religion, but never enforced it ; and the
acceptance of that religion conferred co-equal rights with the
conquering body, and emancipated the vanquished States from
the conditions which every conqueror, since the world existed
up to the period of Mohammed, had invariably imposed."

^ Compare Milman, Latin Christianity, vol. i. p. 352, and Lecky, History of
Rationalism in Europe, chap, on " Persecution."

^ Hallam's Const. Hist, of England, vol. i. chap. ii. p. 62. When Calvin
burnt Servetus for his opinions regarding the Trinity, his act was applauded,
says Lecky, by all sections of Protestants. Melanchthon, Bullinger, and
Farel wrote to express their warm approbation of the crime. Beza defended
it in an elaborate treatise ; Lecky, Hist, of Rationalism, vol. ii. p. 49. A
study of the penal laws of England against the Catholics, Dissenters, and
non-Conformists is enough to shock any candid mind.

* Grotius, the founder, perhaps, of international law in Europe, formally
excepted the Moslems from all community of rights with the European nations.

212 THE SPIRIT OF ISLAM ii.

By the laws of Islam, liberty of conscience and freedom of
worship were allowed and guaranteed to the followers of every
other creed under Moslem dominion. The passage in the
Koran, " Let there be no compulsion in religion," ^ testifies to
the principle of toleration and charity inculcated by Islam.
" If thy Lord had pleased, verily all who are in the world
would have beheved together." " Wilt thou then force men
to beheve when belief can come only from God ? " — " Adhere
to those who forsake you ; speak truth to your own heart ; do
good to every one that does ill to you " : these are the precepts
of a Teacher who has been accused of fanaticism and intolerance.
Let it be remembered that these are the utterances, not of a
powerless enthusiast or philosophical dreamer paralysed by the
weight of opposing forces. These are the utterances of a man
in the plenitude of his power, of the head of a sufficiently strong
and well-organised State, able to enforce his doctrines with the
edge of his reputed sword.

In religion, as in politics, individuals and sects have preached
toleration, and insisted upon its practice only so long as they
have been powerless and feeble. The moment they have
acquired strength enough to battle with the forces which they
wish to supersede, tolerance gives way to persecution. With
the accession of Constantine to the throne of the Caesars,
Christianity was safe from molestation. But from that period ;
commenced a system of rehgious persecution in its atrocity |
paralleled only by that of the Jews. " From the very moment," i
says Lecky, " the Church obtained civil power under Con- ;
stantine, the general principle of coercion was admitted and :
acted on, both against the Jews, the heretics, and pagans." ^
They were tortured with every refinement of cruelty ; they
were burnt at a slow-consuming fire to enable them to think ;
of the charity and humanity of the church of Christ. Father
after father wrote about the holiness of persecution. One of
the greatest saints of the Church, " a saint of the most tender ■
and exquisite piety " — supplied arguments for the most
atrocious persecution. Except during the titanic struggles in
Europe at the beginning of the nineteenth century, the Christian

1 Sura ii. 257 (a Medina sura).

2 Comp. Hallam, Const. Hist, of England, vol. i. chap. iii. p. 98.

IV. THE CHURCH MILITANT OF ISLAM 213

church, purporting to derive its authority from the Apostles,
has never hesitated to encourage war,i — or to give its sanction,
in the name of reHgion and " the glory of Christ," to exter-
minating enterprises against heretics and heathens. These
had no claims on Christian humanity or the law of nations ;
nor have the poor black races now ! In the fifteenth century,
the Pope granted a special charter by which the non-Christian
world was allotted to the Portuguese and Spaniards in equal
shares with absolute power to convert the inhabitants in any
way they chose ! History records how hberally they construed
the permission. And all the atrocious doctrines relating to
persecution and the treatment of non-Christians are unjustly
based upon the words of Jesus himself ! Did not the Master
say, " Compel them to come in " ?

In the hour of his greatest triumph, when the Arabian
Prophet entered the old shrine of Mecca and broke down the
idols, it was not in wrath or religious rage, but in pity, that he
said — " Truth is come, darkness departeth," — announcing
amnesty almost universal, commanding protection to the weak
and poor, and freeing fugitive slaves.

Mohammed did not merely preach toleration ; he embodied
it into a law. To all conquered nations he offered liberty of
worship. A nominal tribute was the only compensation they
were required to pay for the observance and enjoyment of their
faith. Once the tax or tribute was agreed upon, every inter-
ference with their religion or the liberty of conscience was
regarded as a direct contravention of the laws of Islam. -
Could so much be said of other creeds ? Proselytism by the
sword was wholly contrary to the instincts of Mohammed, and
wrangling over creeds his abhorrence. Repeatedly he exclaims,
" Why wrangle over that which you know not ; try to excel in
good works ; when you shall return to God, He will tell you
about that in which you have differed."

We must now return to our examination of the wars of the
Prophet. We have seen that the various conflicts of the

^ In the colossal and devastating struggle of the twentieth century, in
which all the great nations of Christendom were engaged, the ministers of
religion on both sides took vehement part in fostering the warlike spirit.

^ See chapter on The Political Spirit of Islam.

214 THE SPIRIT OF ISLAM ii.

Moslems under Mohammed with the surrounding tribes were
occasioned by the aggressive and unrelenting hostility of the
idolaters, and were necessary for self-defence.

The battle of Muta and the campaign of Tabuk, the earliest
demonstrations against a foreign State, arose out of the
assassination of an envoy by the Greeks. Probably we should
not have heard of the promulgation of Islam by the sword had
the Moslems not punished the eastern Christians for this
murder. The battle of Muta was indecisive, and the campaign
of Tabuk, which was entirely defensive in its nature (being
undertaken to repulse the gathering of the forces of Herachus) ,
left this international crime unpunished during the lifetime of
the Prophet ; but his successors did not forget it, and a heavy
penalty was exacted.

The extent of the Greek empire brought the Moslems into a
state of belligerency with the greatest portion of Christendom.
Besides, the anomalous position occupied by the governors of
the provinces under the waning suzerainty of the Byzantine
emperors rendered it impossible for the Moslem Chiefs to put
an end to this condition of affairs by means of treaty-stipula-
tions with any one of them. Before one could be subdued and
brought to terms another committed some act of hostility,
and compelled the Moslems to punish him. Hence the career
once entered upon, they were placed in just warfare with nearly
the whole of Christendom.^

Religion has often furnished to designing chieftains, among
Moslems as among Christians, a pretext for the gratification of
ambition. The Moslem casuists, like the Christian jurists and
divines, have divided the world into two regions — the Ddr

1 See Urquhart's Isldni as a Political System. I do not mean to assert that
the Moslems were never actuated by the spirit of aggression or by cupidity.
It would be showing extreme ignorance of human nature to make such an
assertion. It was hardly possible, that after the unprecedented progress
they had made against their enemies and assailants, and after becoming
aware of the weakness of the surrounding nations, they should still retain
their moderation, and keep within the bounds of the law. Nor do I shut
my eyes to the fact that there have been wars among the followers of Moham-
med perhaps as cruelly waged as among the Christians. But these wars have
been invariably dynastic. The persecutions to which certain sects have been
subjected have arisen also, for the most part, from the same cause. The
persecution of the descendants of Mohammed, the children of Ali and Fatima,
by the Ommeyyades, found its origin in the old hatred of the Koreish to
Mohammed and the HAshimis, as I shall show hereafter.

IV. THE CHURCH MILITANT OF ISLAM 215

ul-Harb and the Ddr ul-Isldm, the counterparts of Heathendom
and Christendom. An examination, however, of the principles
upon which the relations of Moslem states with non-Moslem
countries were based, shows a far greater degree of liberality
than has been evinced by Christian writers on international
law. It is only in recent times, and under stress of circum-
stances that non-Christian states have been admitted into the
" comity of nations." The Moslem jurists, on the other hand,
differentiate between the condition of belligerency and that of
peace. The expression, Ddr ul-Harb,^ thus includes countries
with which the Moslems are at war ; whilst the States with
which they are at peace are the Day ul-Amdn.^ The harhi, the
inhabitants of the Ddr ul-Harb, is an alien, pure and simple.
He has no right to enter Islamic States without express permis-
sion. But once he receives the amdn or guarantee of safety
from even the poorest Moslem, he is perfectly secure from
molestation for the space of one year. On the expiration of
that period, he is bound to depart. The inhabitant of the
Ddr ul-Amdn is a mustdmin. The amdn may be for ever or for
a Hmited duration ; but so long as it lasts, the nmstdmin's
treatment is regulated in strict accordance with the terms of
the treaty with his country. ^ The mustdmins were governed
by their own laws, were exempt from taxation and enjoyed
other privileges.

The spirit of aggression never breathed itself into that code
which formally incorporated the Law of Nations with the
reUgion ; and the followers of Mohammed, in the plenitude of
their power, were always ready to say to their enemies, " Cease
all hostility to us, and be our alUes, and we shall be faithful to
you ; or pay tribute, and we will secure and protect you in all
your rights ; or adopt our religion, and you shall enjoy every
privilege we ourselves possess."

The principal directions of Mohammed, on which the Moslem
laws of war are founded, show the wisdom and humanity
which animated the Islamic system : " And fight for the
reUgion of God against those who fight against you ; but

* Lit. The country of war. - The country of peace.

'Tliese Amdns formed the origin of the Capitulations which have proved
the ruin of Turkish resources.

2i6 THE SPIRIT OF ISLAM ii.

transgress not (by attacking them first), for God loveth not
the transgressors ; ... if they attack you, slay them ; . . . but
if they desist, let there be no hostihty, except against the
ungodly." ^

In turning their arms against Persia the Moslems were led
on by circumstances. The Munzirs, a dynasty of semi-Arab
kings who reigned under the shadow of the Persian monarchy,
though politically hostile, were aUied to the Byzantines by ties
of faith and community of interests. The first conflicts of the
Moslems with the Greeks naturally re-acted on the Hirites, the
subjects of the Munzirs. The Hirite territories comprehended
a large tract of country, from the banks of the Euphrates west-
ward, overlapping the desert of Irak, and almost reaching the
pasturage of the Ghassanide Arabs, who owned allegiance to
the Byzantines. i

The position of Hira under the Persians was similar to that '
of Judasa under Augustus or Tiberias. About the time of the
Moslem conquest a Persian nominee ruled this principahty ; ,
but the jealousy of the Chosroes associated a marzbdn, or |
satrap, with the successor of the Munzirs, whose subjects, as '
impatient of control then as their descendants now, engaged
in predatory raids on the neighbouring tribes, and became i
involved in hostilities with the Moslems. A strong government i
under the guidance of a single ruler, whose power had become
doubly consohdated after the suppression of the revolts of the
nomads on the death of the Prophet, was little incUned to
brook quietly the insults of the petty dependency of a tottering
empire. A Moslem army marched upon Hira ; the marzbdn ;
fled to Madain (Ctesiphon), the capital of the Persian empire,'
and the Arab chief submitted, almost without a struggle, to!
the Moslems under Khahd bin-Walid. :

The conquest of Hira brought the Moslems to the threshold ;
of the dominions of the Chosroes. Persia had, after a long
period of internecine conflict, signalised by revolting murders
and atrocities, succeeded in obtaining an energetic ruler, in the
person of Yezdjard. Under the directions of this sovereign,
the Persian general brought an imposing force to bear on the
Moslems. The great Omar who now ruled at Medina, before

1 Sura ii. i86, compare ver. 257.

IV. THE CHURCH MILITANT OF ISLAM 217

taking up the challenge, offered to Yezdjard, through his
deputies, the usual terms by which war might be avoided.
These terms were, the profession of Islam, which meant the
reform of the pohtical abuses that had brought the Sasanian
empire so low ; the reduction of all those heavy taxes and
perquisites,^ which sucked out the life-blood of the nation ;
and the administration of justice by the code of Mohammed,
which held all men, without distinction of rank or office, equal
in the eye of the law. The alternative offer was the payment
of tribute in return for protection. These terms were disdain-
fully refused by the Persian monarch and the days of Kadesia
followed. After the conquest of Madain (Ctesiphon), the
Caliph promulgated peremptory orders that under no circum-
stance should the Moslems cross the Tigris towards the East,
and that that river should for ever form the boundary between
the Persian and the Saracenic empires. Upon this basis a
peace was concluded. But Iran chafed under the loss of
Mesopotamia ; and the successive breaches of faith by the
Persians led to Nehavend. The Kesra's power was irretrievably
shattered ; many of his nobles and the chiefs of the priesthood,
whose interest it was to keep up the reign of disorder and
oppression, were cut off, and he himself became a fugitive Hke
another Darius. The nation at large hailed the Moslems as
their deliverers. ^ The advance of the Saracens from the Tigris
to the Elburz and from the Elburz to Transoxiana was not
different from that of the British in India and due to similar
causes.

The general conversion of the Persians to the religion of
Mohammed is often taken as a proof of the intolerant character
of Islam. But, in the blindness of bigotry, even scholars forget
the circumstances under which the Moslems entered the
country. Every trace of religious life was extinct among the
people ; the masses were ground down by the worst of all
evils, a degenerate priesthood and a licentious ohgarchy. The
Mazdakian and Manichaean heresies had loosened every rivet

* Save the tenth on landed property, and 2 J per cent, of every man's means
for the poor, the distribution of which would have been left to himself and
his officers.

- Yezdjard, like Darius, was assassinated by his own people. See The

Short History of the Saracens (Macmillan, 1921), p. 32.

2i8 THE SPIRIT OF ISLAM ii.

in the social fabric. Kesra Anushirvan had only postponed
for a time the general disruption of society.

The consequence was, that as soon as the Moslems entered
the country as the precursors of law and order, a general con-
version took place, and Persia became for ever attached to
Islam. ^

An impartial analyst of facts will now be able to judge for
himself how much truth there is in the following remark of
Muir : "It was essential to the permanence of Islam that its
aggressive course should be continuously pursued, and that its
claim to an universal acceptance, or, at the least, to an universal
supremacy, should be enforced at the point of the sword." -
Every religion, in some stage of its career, has, from the
tendencies of its professors, been aggressive. Such also has
been the case with Islam ; but that it ever aims at proselytism
by force, or that it has been more aggressive than other religions,
must be entirely denied.^

Islam seized the sword in self-defence, and held it in self-
defence, as it wiU ever do. But Islam never interfered with
the dogmas of any moral faith, never persecuted, never
established an Inquisition. It never invented the rack or the
stake for stifling difference of opinion, or strangling the human
conscience, or exterminating heresy. No one who has a com-
petent knowledge of history can deny that the Church of
Christ, when it pretended to be most infalhble, " shed more
innocent blood than any other institution that has ever existed
among mankind " ; whilst the fate of the man or woman who
forsook the Church, or even expressed a preference for any
other creed, was no less cruel.* In 1521, death and confisca-
tion of property was decreed by Charles V. against all heretics.
Burnings and hangings, and tearing out and twisting of tongues

1 As a testimony to the spirit which animated the Moslems, we quote the
following from Gibbon : " The administration of Persia was regulated by an
actual survey of the people, the cattle, and the fruits of the earth ; and this
monument, which attests the vigilance of the Caliphs, might have instructed
the philosophers of every age." — Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, vol. v.
p, 97. See also Suyflti, Tdnhh ul-Khulafd {History of the Caliphs).

- Muir, Life of Mahomet, vol. iii. p. 251.

^ Compare Niebuhr's remarks in his Description de I'Arabie.

■* In the seventeenth century a young man was hanged for having said, it is
stated, that he did not think Mohammed was a bad man.

IV. THE CHURCH MILITANT OF ISLAM 219

were the usual penalties of refusal to adopt the orthodox
communion. In England, after it became Protestant, the
Presbyterians, through a long succession of reigns, were
imprisoned, branded, mutilated, scourged, and exposed in the
pillory. In Scotland, they were hunted like criminals over
the mountains ; their ears were torn from the roots ; they
were branded with hot irons ; their fingers were wrenched
asunder by thumbkins ; the bones of their legs were shattered
in the boots. Women were scourged pubhcly through the
streets. The Catholics were tortured and hanged. Anabaptists
and Arians were burnt alive. But as regards non-Christians,
Catholics and Protestants, orthodox and un-orthodox, were in
perfect accord. Musulmans and Jews were beyond the pale
of Christendom. In England, the Jews were tortured and
hanged. In Spain, the Moslems were burnt Marriages between
Christians and Jews, and Christians and " infidels," were null
and void, in fact prohibited under terrible and revolting
penalties. Even now. Christian America burns alive a Christian
negro marrying a Christian white woman ! Such has been the
effect produced by Christianity.

To this day, wherever scientific thought has not infused a
new soul, wherever true culture has not gained a foothold, the
old spirit of exclusiveness and intolerance, the old ecclesiastical
hatred of Islam, displays itself in writings, in newspaper
attacks, in private conversations, in pubhc speeches. The
spirit of persecution is not dead in Christianity ; it is lying
dormant, ready to burst into flame at the touch of the first
bigot.

Let us turn from this picture to the world of Islam. Whilst
orthodox Christianity persecuted with equal ferocity the Jews
and Nestorians, — the descendants of the men who were sup-
posed to have crucified its Incarnate God, and the men who
refused to adore his mother, — Islam afforded them both
shelter and protection. Whilst Christian Europe was burning
witches and heretics, and massacring Jews and " infidels,"
the Moslem sovereigns were treating their non-Moslem subjects
with consideration and tolerance. They were the trusted
subjects of the State, councillors of the empire. Every secular
office was open to them along with the Moslems. The Teacher

220 THE SPIRIT OF ISLAM ii.

himself had declared it lawful for a Moslem to intermarry with
a Christian, Hebrew, or Zoroastrian. The converse was not
allowed, for obvious political reasons. Moslem Turkey and
Persia entrust their foreign interests to the charge of their
Christian subjects. In Christendom, difference of faith has
been a crime ; in Islam it is an accident. " To Christians,"
says Urquhart, " a difference of religion was indeed a ground
for war, and that not merely in dark times and amongst
fanatics." From the massacres, in the name of religion, of the
Saxons, the Frisians and other Germanic tribes by Charle-
magne ; from the burning to death of the thousands of innocent
men and women ; from the frightful slaughters of the Arians,
the Paulicians, the Albigenses and the Huguenots, from the
horrors of the sacks of Magdeburg and Rome, from the san-
guinary scenes of the Thirty Years' War, down to the cruel
persecutions of Calvinistic Scotland and Lutheran England,
there is an uninterrupted chain of intolerance, bigotry, and
fanaticism. Can anything be more heart-rending than the
wholesale extermination of the unoffending races of America
in the name of Christ ?

It has been said that a warlike spirit was infused into
mediaeval Christianity by aggressive Islam ! The massacres
of Justinian and the fearful wars of Christian Clovis in the
name of religion, occurred long before the time of Mohammed.

Compare, again, the conduct of the Christian Crusaders with
that of the Moslems. " When the Khalif Omar took Jeru-
salem, A.D. 637, he rode into the city by the side of the
Patriarch Sophronius, conversing with him on its antiquities.
At the hour of prayer, he declined to perform his devotions in
the Church of the Resurrection, in which he chanced to be, but
prayed on the steps of the Church of Constantine ; for, said he
to the Patriarch, ' had I done so, the Musulmans in a future
age might have infringed the treaty, under colour of imitating
my example.' But in the capture by the Crusaders, the brains
of young children were dashed out against the walls ; infants
were pitched over the battlements ; men were roasted at fires ;
some were ripped up, to see if they had swallowed gold ; the
Jews were driven into their synagogue, and there burnt ; a
massacre of nearly 70,000 persons took place ; and the pope's

IV. THE CHURCH MILITANT OF ISLAM 221

legate was seen partaking in the triumph ! " ^ When Saladin
recaptured the city, he released all Christians, gave them money
and food, and allowed them to depart with a safe-conduct. ^

Islam " grasped the sword " in self-defence ; Christianity
grasped it in order to stifle freedom of thought and liberty of
belief. With the conversion of Constantine, Christianity had
become the dominant religion of the Western world. It had
thenceforth nothing to fear from its enemies ; but from the
moment it obtained the mastery, it developed its true character
of isolation and exclusiveness. Wherever Christianity pre-
vailed, no other religion could be followed without molestation.
The Moslems, on the other hand, required from others a simple
guarantee of peace and amity, tribute in return for protection,
or perfect equality, — the possession of equal rights and
privileges, — on condition of the acceptance of Islam,

1 Draper, History of the Intellectual Development of Europe, vol. ii. p. 22.

2 For a full account, seeThe Short History of the Saracens, p. 356.

CHAPTER V
THE STATUS OF WOMEN IN ISLAM

IN certain stages of social development, polygamy, or more
properly speaking, polygyny, — the union of one man with
several women, — is an unavoidable circumstance. The
frequent tribal wars and the consequent decimation of the male
population, the numerical superiority of women, combined
with the absolute power possessed by the chiefs, originated
the custom which, in our advanced times, is justly regarded as
an unendurable evil.

Among all Eastern nations of antiquity, polygamy was a
recognised institution. Its practice by royalty, which every-
where bore the insignia of divinity, sanctified its observance
to the people. Among the Hindus, polygamy, in both its
aspects, prevailed from the earliest times. There was,
apparently, as among the ancient Medes, Babylonians,
Assyrians, and Persians, no restriction as to the number of
wives a man might have. A high caste Brahman, even in
modern times, is privileged to marr^^ as many wives as he
chooses. Polygamy existed among the Israelites before the
time of Moses, who continued the institution without imposing
any limit on the number of marriages which a Hebrew husband
might contract. In later times, the Talmud of Jerusalem
restricted the number by the abihty of the husband to main-
tain the wives properly ; and though the Rabbins counselled
that a man should not take more than four wives, the Karaites

1 " Paradise is at the foot of the mother ; " the Prophet.

V. THE STATUS OF WOMEN IN ISLAM 223

differed from them, and did not recognise the vaHdity of any
hmitation.

To the Persians, rehgion offered a premium on the plurality
of wives. ^

Among the Syro-Phoenician races, whom the Israehtes dis-
placed, conquered, or destroyed, polygamy was degraded into
bestiality. 2

Among the Thracians, Lydians, and the Pelasgian races
settled in various parts of Europe and Western Asia, the
custom of plurality of marriages prevailed to an inordinate
extent, and dwarfs all comparison with the practice prevailing
elsewhere.^

Among the Athenians, the most civiHsed and most cultured
of all the nations of antiquity, the wife was a mere chattel
marketable and transferable to others, and a subject of testa-
mentary disposition. She was regarded in the light of an evil,
indispensable for the ordering of a household and procreation
of children. An Athenian was allowed to have any number of
wives ; and Demosthenes gloried in the possession by his
people of three classes of women, two of which furnished the
legal and semi-legal wives.*

Among the Spartans, though the men were not allowed,
unless under especial circumstances, to have more than one
wife, the women could have, and almost always had, more
than one husband.^

The peculiar circumstances under which the Roman State
was originally constituted probably prevented the introduction
of legal polygamy at the commencement of its existence.
Whatever the historical truth of the Rape of the Sabines, the
very existence of the tradition testifies to the causes which
helped to form the primitive laws of the Romans on the subject
of matrimony. In the surrounding states generally, and
especially among the Etruscans, plurality of marriage was a
privileged custom. The contact, for centuries, with the other

^ Dollinger, The Gentile and the Jew, pp. 405, 406. ^ Lev. xviii. 24.

" Encyclopedie Universelle, art. " Mariage " ; Dollinger, The Gentile and the
Jew, vol. ii. p. 233.

^ Dollinger, The Gentile and the Jew, vol. ii. pp. 233-238.

' Grote, History of Greece, vol. vi. p. 136.

224 THE SPIRIT OF ISLAM ii.

nations of Ital}^ the wars and conquests of ages, combined
with the luxurious habits which success engendered, at last
resulted in making the sanctity of marriage a mere by-word
amongst the Romans. Polygamy was not indeed legalised,
but " after the Punic triumphs the matrons of Rome aspired
to the common benefits of a free and opulent republic, and
their wishes were gratified by the indulgence of fathers and
lovers." ^ Marriage soon became a simple practice of pro-
miscuous concubinage. Concubinage recognised by the laws
of the State acquired the force of a privileged institution. The
freedom of women, the looseness of the tie which bound them
to men, the frequency with which wives were changed or
transferred, betoken in fact the prevalence of polygamy, only
under a different name.

In the meantime, the doctrines of primitive Christianity
preached on the shores of Galilee began to irradiate the whole
Roman world. The influence of the Essenes, which is reflected
visibly in the teachings of Jesus, combined with an earnest
anticipation of the Kingdom of Heaven, had led the Prophet
of Nazareth to depreciate matrimony in general, although he
never interdicted or expressly forbade its practice in any
shape.

Polygamy flourished in a more or less pronounced form
until forbidden by the laws of Justinian. But the prohibition
contained in the civil law effected no change in the moral ideas
of the people, and polygamy continued to be practised until
condemned by the opinion of modern society. The wives,
with the exception of the one first married, laboured under
severe disabilities. Without rights, without any of the safe-
guards which the law threw around the favoured first one, they
were the slaves of every caprice and whim of their husbands.
Their children were stigmatised as bastards, precluded from
all share in the inheritance of their father, and treated as
outcasts from society.

Morganatic and left-handed marriages were not confined to
the aristocracy. Even the clergy, frequently forgetting their
vows of celibacy, contracted more than one legal or illegal
union. History proves conclusively that, until very recent

1 Gibbon, Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, vol. ii. p. 206.

V. THE STATUS OF WOMEN IN ISLAM 225

times, polygamy was not considered so reprehensible as it is
now. St. Augustine ^ himself seems to have observed in it no
intrinsic immorality or sinfulness, and declared that polygamy
was not a crime where it was the legal institution of a country.
The German reformers, as Hallam points out, even so late as
the sixteenth century, admitted the validity of a second or a
third marriage contemporaneously with the first, in default of
issue and other similar causes.

Some scholars, whilst admitting that there is no intrinsic
immorality in a plurality of wives, and that Jesus did not
absolutely or expressly forbid the custom, hold that the present
monogamous practice, in one sense general throughout Europe,
arose from the engrafting of either Germanic or Hellenic-
Roman notions on Christianity. ^ The latter view is distinctly
opposed to fact and history and deserves no credit. As regards
the Germans, the proof of their monogamous habits and customs
rests upon the uncorroborated testimony of one or two Romans,
of all men the most untrustworthy witnesses to facts when it
was to their interest to suppress them. Besides, we must
remember the object with which Tacitus wrote his Manners of
the Germans. It was a distinct attack upon the licentiousness
of his own people, and, by contrasting the laxity of the Romans
with the imaginary virtues of barbarians, was intended to
introduce better ideas into Rome. Again, supposing that
Tacitus is right, to what cause should we ascribe the poly-
gamous habits of the higher classes of the Germans, even up
to the nineteenth century ? ^

Whatever may have been the custom of the Romans in
early times, it is evident that in the latter days of the republic
and the commencement of the empire, polygamy must have
been accepted as an institution, or, at least, not regarded as
illegal. Its existence is assumed, and its practice recognised,
by the edict which interfered with its universality. How far
the Praetorian Edict succeeded in remedying the evil, or divert-
ing the current of public opinion, appears from the rescript of

^ St. Augustine, lib. ii. cont. Faust, ch. xlvii.

*M. Barthelemy St. Hilaire appears to hold the opinion that monogamy
was engrafted upon Christianity from Hellenic and Roman sources,
' Comp. EncycJopidie Universelle, art. Mariage.
S.I. p

226 THE SPIRIT OF ISLAM ii.

the Emperors Honorius and Arcadius towards the end of the
fourth century, and the practice of Constantine and his son,
both of whom had several wives. The Emperor Valentinian
II., by an edict, allowed all the subjects of the empire, if they
pleased, to marry several wives ; nor does it appear from the
ecclesiastical history of those times that the bishops and the
heads of the Christian Churches made any objection to this
law.^ Far from it, all the succeeding emperors practised
polygamy, and the people generally were not remiss in following
their example.

This state of the laws continued until the time of Justinian,
when the concentrated wisdom and experience of thirteen
centuries of progress and development in the arts of life resulted
in the proclamation of the laws which have shed a factitious
lustre on his infamous reign. But these laws owed httle to
Christianity, at least directly. The greatest adviser of
Justinian was an atheist and a pagan. Even the prohibition
of polygamy by Justinian failed to check the tendency of the
age. The law represented the advancement of thought ; its
influence was confined to a few thinkers, but to the mass it
was a perfectly dead letter.

In the western parts of Europe, the tremendous upheaval of
the barbarians, the intermingling of their moral ideas with
those of the people among whom they settled, tended to
degrade the relations between man and wife. Some of the
barbaric codes attempted to deal with polygamy, ^ but example
was stronger than precept, and the monarchs, setting the
fashion of plurality of wives, were quickly imitated by the
people.^ Even the clergy, in spite of the recommendation to
perpetual ceHbacy held out to them by the Church, availed
themselves of the custom of keeping several left-handed wives
by a simple licence obtained from the bishop or the head of
their diocese.*

^ Comp. Encyclopedic Universelle, art. Manage and Davenport, Apology
for Mahomet.

2 Like the laws of Theodoric. But they were based on advanced Byzantine
notions.

^ For polygamy among the Merovingian and Carlovingian sovereigns, see
The Short History of the Saracens, p. 626.

* Comp. Hallam's Constitutional History of England, vol. i. p. 87, and note ;
Middle Ages, p. 353 (i vol. ed.).

V. THE STATUS OF WOMEN IN ISLAM 227

The greatest and most reprehensible mistake committed by
Christian writers is to suppose that Mohammed either adopted
or legahsed polygamy. The old idea of his having introduced
it, a sign only of the ignorance of those who entertained that
notion, is by this time exploded ; but the opinion that he
adopted and legalised the custom is still maintained by the
common masses, as well as by many of the learned in ChristLU-
dom. No belief can be more false.

Mohammed found polygamy practised, not only among his
own people, but amongst the people of the neighbouring
countries, where it assumed some of its most degrading aspects.
The laws of the Christian empire had indeed tried to correct
the evil, but without avail. Polygamy continued to flourish
unchecked, and the wretched women, with the exception of
the first wife, selected according to priority of time, laboured
under severe disabilities.

The corruptness of morals in Persia about the time of the
Prophet was deplorable. There was no recognised law of
marriage, or, if any existed, it was completely ignored. In the
absence of any fixed rule in the Zend-Avesta as to the number
of wives a man might possess, the Persians indulged in a
multitude of regular matrimonial connections, besides having
a number of concubines.^

Among the ancient Arabs and the Jews there existed,
besides the system of plurality of wives, the custom of entering
into conditional, as well as temporary contracts of marriage.
These loose notions of morality exercised a disastrous influence
on the constitution of society within the peninsula.

The reforms instituted by Mohammed effected a vast and
marked improvement in the position of women. Both among
the Jews and the non-nomadic Arabs the condition of women
was degraded in the extreme. The Hebrew maiden, even in
her father's house, stood in the position of a servant ; her
father could sell her if a minor. In case of his death, the sons
could dispose of her at their will and pleasure. The daughter
inherited nothing, except when there were no male heirs. ^
Among the settled pagan Arabs, who were mostly influenced

^ Dbllinger, The Gentile and the Jew, vol. i. p. 406.
2 Num. XXX. 17.

228 THE SPIRIT OF ISLAM ii.

by the corrupt and effete civilisation of the neighbouring
empires, a woman was considered a mere chattel ; she formed
an integral part of the estate of her husband or her father ;
and the widows of a man descended to his son or sons by right
of inheritance, as any other portion of his patrimony. Hence
the frequent unions between step-sons and step-mothers which,
when subsequently forbidden by Islam, were branded under
the name of Nikdh ul-Mekt (" shameful or odious marriages ").
Even polyandry was practised by the half- Jewish, half-Sabsean
tribes of Yemen. ^

The pre-Islamite Arabs carried their aversion to women so
far as to destroy, by burying alive, many of their female
children. This fearful custom, which was most prevalent
among the tribes of Koreish and Kindah, was denounced in
burning terms by Mohammed and was prohibited under severe
penalties, along with the inhuman practice, which they, in
common with other nations of antiquity, observed, of sacri-
ficing children to their gods.

In both the empires, the Persian and the Byzantine, women
occupied a very low position in the social scale. Fanatical
enthusiasts, whom Christendom in later times canonised as
saints, preached against them and denounced their enormities,
forgetting that the evils they preceived in women were the
reflections of their own jaundiced minds. It was at this time,
when the social fabric was f alhng to pieces on all sides, when all
that had hitherto kept it together was giving way, when the j
cry had gone forth that all the older systems had been weighed
in the scale of experience and found wanting, that Mohammed
introduced his reforms.

The Prophet of Islam enforced as one of the essential teach-
ings of his creed, " respect for women." And his followers, in
their love and reverence for his celebrated daughter, proclaimed
her " the Lady of Paradise," as the representative of her sex.
" Our Lady of Light " ^ is the embodiment of all that is divine
in womanhood,— of all that is pure and true and holy in her
sex, — the noblest ideal of human conception. And she hasi
been followed by a long succession of women, who have

1 Lenormant, Ancient History of the East, vol. ii. p. 318.

2 Khdt4n-i-jinnat, Fdtima't-az-zahrd.

V. THE STATUS OF WOMEN IN ISLAM 229

consecrated their sex by their virtues. Who has not heard of
the saintly Rabi'a and a thousand others her equals ?

In the laws which the Arabian Prophet promulgated he
strictly prohibited the custom of conditional marriages, and
though at first temporary marriages were tacitly allowed, in
the third year of the Hegira even these were forbidden. ^
Mohammed secured to women, in his system, rights which
they had not before possessed ; he allowed them privileges the
value of which will be more fully appreciated as time advances.
He placed them on a footing of perfect equality with men
in the exercise of all legal powers and functions. He restrained
polygamy by limiting the maximum number of contempor-
aneous marriages, and by making absolute equity towards all
obligatory on the man. It is worthy of note that the clause
in the Koran which contains the permission to contract four
contemporaneous marriages, is immediately followed by a
sentence which cuts down the significance of the preceding
passage to its normal and legitimate dimensions. The passage
runs thus, " You may marry two, three, or four wives, but not
more." The subsequent lines declare, " but if you cannot deal
equitably and justly with all, you shall marry only one." The
extreme importance of this proviso, bearing especially in mind
the meaning which is attached to the word " equity " {'ad I)
in the Koranic teachings, has not been lost sight of by the
great thinkers of the Moslem world. 'Adl signifies not merely
equality of treatment in the matter of lodgment, clothing and
other domestic requisites, but also complete equity in love,
affection and esteem. As absolute justice in matters of feehng
is impossible, the Koranic prescription amounted in reahty to
a prohibition. This view was propounded as early as the third
century of the Hegira. 2 In the reign of al-Mamun, the first
Mu'tazilite doctors taught that the developed Koranic laws

^ A section of the Shiahs still regard temporary marriages as lawful. J3ut
with all deference to the MujtcLhids, who have expounded that view, I cannot
help considering that it was put forward to suit the tastes of the times, or of
the sovereigns under whom these lawyers flourished. In many of their
doctrines one cannot fail to perceive the influence of personal inclinations.

* The Radd ul-Miihtar distinctly says " some doctors [the Mu'tazila] hold
that 'adl includes equality in love and affection, but our masters differ from
this view and confine it to equal treatment in the matter of nafhah, which
in the language of law, signifies food, clothing and lodgment."

230 THE SPIRIT OF ISLAM ii.

inculcated monogamy. And though the cruel persecution of
the mad bigot, Mutawakkil, prevented the general diffusion of
their teachings, the conviction is gradually forcing itself on all
sides, in all advanced Moslem communities, that polygamy is
as much opposed to the teachings of Mohammed as it is to the
general progress of civilised society and true culture.^

The fact must be borne in mind, that the existence of poly-
gamy depends on circumstances. Certain times, certain
conditions of society, make its practice absolutely needful, for
the preservation of women from starvation or utter destitution.
If reports and statistics speak true, the greatest proportion of
the mass of immorality prevalent in the centres of civilisation
in the West arises from absolute destitution. Abbe Hue and
Lady Duff Gordon have both remarked that in the generahty
of cases sheer force of circumstances drives people to polygamy
in the East.

With the progress of thought, with the ever-changing con-
ditions of this world, the necessity for polygamy disappears,
and its practice is tacitly abandoned or expressly forbidden.
And hence it is, that in those Moslem countries where the
circumstances which made its existence at first necessary are
disappearing, plurality of wives has come to be regarded as an
evil, and as an institution opposed to the teachings of the
Prophet ; while in those countries where the conditions of
society are different, where the means which, in advanced
communities, enable women to help themselves are absent or
wanting, polygamy must necessarily continue to exist. Perhaps
the objection may be raised, that as the freedom of construction
leaves room for casuistical distinctions, the total extinction of
polygamy will be a task of considerable difftculty. We admit
the force of this objection, which deserves the serious con-
sideration of all Moslems desirous of freeing the Islamic
teachings from the blame which has hitherto been attached to
them, and of moving with advancing civilisation. But it must
be remembered that the elasticity of laws is the greatest test
of their beneficence and usefulness. And this is the merit of
the Koranic provision. It is adapted alike for the acceptance

^ Compare the remarks on this subject of Moulvi Chiragh Ah in his able
work called Are Reforms possible in Mohammedan States?

V. THE STATUS OF WOMEN IN ISLAM 231

of the most cultured society and the requirements of the least
civilised. It ignores not the needs of progressive humanity,
nor forgets that there are races and communities on the earth
among whom monogamy may prove a dire evil. The task of
abolishing polygamy, however, is not so difficult as is imagined.
The blight that has fallen on the Moslem nations is due to the
patristic doctrine which has prohibited the exercise of indi-
vidual judgment {Ijtihdd). The day is not far distant when an
appeal to the Teacher's own words will settle the question
whether the Moslems will follow Mohammed or the Fathers of
the Church, who have misused the Master's name to satisfy
their own whimsicalities, or the capricious dictates of Cahphs
and Sultans, whose obsequious servants they were. Europe
has gone through the same process herself, and instead of
hurUng anathemas at the Church of Mohammed, ought to
watch, with patience and sympathy, the efforts of regenerated
Islam to free itself from patristic bondage. When once the
freedom from the enthralment of old ideas is achieved, it will
be easy for the jurists of each particular Moslem State to
abolish, by an authoritative dictum, polygamy within that
State. But such a consummation can only result from a
general progress in the conception of facts, and a proper under-
standing of the Prophet's teachings. Polygamy is disappearing,
or will soon disappear, under the new light in which his words
are being studied.

As remarked already, the compatibility of Mohammed's
system with every stage of progress shows their Founder's
wisdom. Among unadvanced communities, polygamy, hedged
by all the safeguards imposed by the Prophet, is by no means
an evil to be deplored. At least it is preferable to those
polyandrous customs and habits and modes of hfe which
betoken an utter abandonment of all moral self-restraint. As
culture advances, the mischiefs resulting from pol^^gamy are
better appreciated, and the meaning of the prohibition better
comprehended. We are by no means prepared to say that the
Musulmans of India have benefited greatly by their inter-
mixture with the Brahmanical races, among whom prostitution
was a legalised custom. Their moral ideas have become lax ;
the conception of human dignity and spiritual purity has

232 THE SPIRIT OF ISLAM ii.

become degraded ; the class of hetairai has become as popular
among them as among their non-Moslem neighbours. And yet
there are signs visible which bid us hope that God's light, which
lit up Arabia in the seventh century, will fall on their hearts and
bring them out of the darkness in which they are now plunged.
The Mu'tazila is, by conviction, a strict monogamist ; according
to him the law forbids a second union during the subsistence
of a prior contract. In other words, a Mu'tazila marriage
fulfils in every respect the requirements of an essentially
monogamous marriage as a " voluntary union for life of one
man and one woman to the exclusion of all others."

Even among the archaic sects, a large and influential body
hold polygamy to be unlawful, the circumstances which
rendered it permissible in primitive times having either passed
away or not existing in the present day.

As a matter of fact, the feeling against polygamy is becoming
a strong social, if not a moral, conviction, and many extraneous
circumstances in combination with this growing feeling, are
tending to root out the custom from among the Indian Musul-
mans. It has been customary among all classes of the com-
munity to insert in the marriage-deed a clause, by which the
intending husband formally renounces his supposed right to
contract a second union during the continuance of the first
marriage. Among the Indian Musulmans ninety-five men out
of every hundred are at the present moment, either by
conviction or necessity, monogamists. Among the educated
classes, versed in the history of their ancestors, and able to
compare it with the records of other nations, the custom is
regarded with disapprobation. In Persia, only a small fraction
of the population enjoy the questionable luxury of plurality
of wives. ^ It is earnestly to be hoped that, before long,
a general synod of Moslem doctors will authoritatively
declare that polygamy, like slavery, is abhorrent to the laws
of Islam.

We now turn to the subject of Mohammed's marriages,
which to many minds not cognisant of the facts, or not honest
enough to appreciate them, seem to offer a fair ground of
reproach against the Prophet of Islam. His Christian

^ Only two per cent, according to Col. Macgregor.

V. THE STATUS OF WOMEN IN ISLAM 233

assailants maintain that in his own person by frequent
marriages he assumed a privilege not granted by the laws, and
that he displayed in this manner a weakness of character little
compatible with the office of Prophet. Truer knowledge of
history, and a more correct appreciation of facts, instead of
proving him to be a self-indulgent libertine, would conclusively
establish that the man, poor and without resource himself, when
he undertook the burden of supporting the women whom he
married in strict accordance with the old patriarchal institution,
was undergoing a self-sacrifice of no light a character. And
we beheve that a thorough analysis of motives from the stand-
point of humanity will demonstrate the falsehood and un-
charitableness of the charges levelled at " the Great Arabian."
When Mohammed was only twenty-five years of age, in the
prime of life, he married Khadija, much his senior in years.
For twenty-five years his life with her was an uninterrupted
sunshine of faithfulness and happiness. Through every
contumely and outrage heaped on him by the idolaters, through
every persecution, Khadija was his sole companion and helper.
At the time of Khadija's death Mohammed was in the fifty-first
year of his age. His enemies cannot deny, but are forced to
admit, that during the whole of this long period they find not
a single flaw in his moral character. During the lifetime of
Khadija, the Prophet married no other wife, notwithstanding
that public opinion among his people would have allowed him
to do so had he chosen .

Several months after Khadija's death and on his return,
helpless and persecuted, from Tayef, he married Sauda, the
widow of one Sakran, who had embraced Islam, and had been
forced to fly into Abyssinia to escape the persecution of the
idolaters. Sakran had died in exile, and left his wife utterly
destitute. According to the customs of the country, marriage
was the only means by which the Teacher could protect and
help the widow of his faithful disciple. Every principle of
generosity and humanity would impel Mohammed to offer her
his hand. Her husband had given his life in the cause of the
new religion ; he had left home and country for the sake of his
faith ; his wife had shared his exile, and now had returned to
Mecca destitute. As the only means of assisting the poor

234 THE SPIRIT OF ISLAM il.

woman, Mohammed, though straitened for the very means of
daily subsistence, married Sauda.

Abdullah, the son of Osman Abu Kuhafa, known afterwards
in history as Abu Bakr, was one of the most devoted followers
of Mohammed. He was one of the earliest converts to the
faith of the Prophet ; and in his sincere, earnest and unvary-
ing attachment to Mohammed he might almost be compared
with AH.

Abu Bakr, as by anticipation we may well call him, had a
little daughter named Ayesha, and it was the desire of his life
to cement the attachment which existed between himself and
the Prophet, who had led him out from the darkness of scep-
ticism, by giving Mohammed his daughter in marriage. The
child was only seven years of age, but the manners of the
country recognised such alliances. At the earnest solicitation
of the disciple, the little maiden became the wife of the
Prophet.

Some time after the arrival of the fugitives at Medina there
occurred an incident which throws considerable light on the
conditions of life among the Arabs of the time. Those who
know the peculiarities of the Arab character — " pride,
pugnacity, a peculiar point of honour, and a vindictiveness of
wonderful force and patience " — will be able to appreciate the
full bearing of the story. Even now " words often pass lightly
between individuals," says Burton, " which suffice to cause a
blood-feud amongst Bedouins." Omar Ibn ul-Khattab, who
afterwards became the second Caliph of Islam, had a daughter
of the name of Hafsa. This good lady had lost her husband
at the battle of Badr, and being blessed with a temper as fiery
as that of her father, had remained ever since without a husband.
The disciples bent upon matrimony fought shy of her. It was
almost a reflection on the father ; and Omar, in order to get
rid of the scandal, offered his daughter's hand to Abu Bakr,
and, upon his declining the honour, to Osman. He also met
the offer with a refusal. This was little less than a direct
insult, and Omar proceeded in a towering rage to Mohammed
to lay his complaint before the Prophet. The point of honour
must, anyhow, be settled in his favour. But neither Abu
Bakr nor Osman would undertake the burden of Hafsa's

V. THE STATUS OF WOMEN IN ISLAM 235

temper : — a dispute, ludicrous in its origin from our point of
view, but sufficient!}^ serious then to throw into commotion
the small body of the Faithful. In this extremity the chief of
the Moslems appeased the enraged father by marrying the
daughter. And public opinion not only approved, but was
jubilant over it.^

Hind Umm Salma, Umm Habiba, and Zainab Umm
ul-Masakin,2 three other wives of the Prophet, had also been
widows, whom the animosity of the idolaters had bereft of
their natural protectors, and whom their relations were
either unable or unwilling to support.

Mohammed had married his devoted friend and freedman,
Zaid, to a high-born lady of the name of Zainab, descended
from two of the noblest families of Arabia. Proud of her
birth, and perhaps also of her beauty, her marriage with a
freedman rankled in her breast. Mutual aversion at last
culminated in disgust. Probably this disgust on the husband's
part was enhanced by the frequent repetition, in a manner
which women only know how to adopt, of a few words which
had fallen from the lips of Mohammed on once seeing Zainab.
He had occasion to visit the house of Zaid, and upon seeing
Zainab's unveiled face, had exclaimed, as a Moslem would
say at the present day when admiring a beautiful picture or
statue, " Praise be to God, the ruler of hearts ! "

The words, uttered in natural admiration, were often

^ The story told by Muir, Sprcnger, and Osborn, with some amount of
gloating, of the domestic squabble between Hafsa and JMohammed, con-
cerning Mary, the Coptic girl presented to the Prophet's household by the
Negus, is absolutely false and malicious. A tradition, which is repudiated
by all the respectable commentators of the Koran, and which must have
been invented in the time of some Ommeyyade or Abbasside sensualist,
founded on the weakest authority, has been seized with avidity by these
critics for the vilification of the Prophet. The vei'se in the Koran which has
been supposed to refer to this story, refers, in truth, to a wholly different
circumstance. Mohammed, in his boyhood, when he tended the flocks of his
uncle, had acquired a fondness for honey, which was often supplied by Zainab.
Hafsa and Ayesha set to work to make him give up honey, and they succeeded
in inducing him to vow he would never touch it. But after he had made the
vow to her came the thought that he was making something unlawful in
which there was nothing unlawful, simply to please his wives. His conscience
smote him as to his weakness, and then came the verse, " O Prophet, why
boldest thou that to be prohibited which God has made lawful, seeking to
please thy wives ? " — (Zamakh?hari.)

* " Afother of the poor," so called from her charity and benevolence.

236 THE SPIRIT OF ISLAM ii.

repeated by Zainab to her husband to show how even the
Prophet praised her beauty, and naturally added to his
displeasure. At last he came to the decision not to live any
longer with her, and with this determination he went to the
Prophet and expressed his intention of being divorced. " Why,"
demanded Mohammed, " hast thou found any fault in her ? "
" No," replied Zaid, " but I can no longer live with her." The
Prophet then peremptorily said, " Go and guard thy wife ;
treat her well and fear God, for God has said ' Take care of
your wives, and fear the Lord ! ' " But Zaid was not moved
from his purpose, and in spite of the command of the Prophet
he divorced Zainab. Mohammed was grieved at the conduct
of Zaid, more especially as it was he who had arranged the
marriage of these two uncongenial spirits.

After Zainab had succeeded in obtaining a divorce from
Zaid, she commenced importuning Mohammed to marry her,
and was not satisfied until she had won for herself the honour
of being one of the wives of the Prophet. ^

Another wife of Mohammed was called Juwairiya. She was
the daughter of Harith, the chief of the Bani Mustahk, and was
taken prisoner by a Moslem in an expedition undertaken to
repress their revolt. She had made an agreement with her
captor to purchase her freedom for a stipulated sum. She
petitioned Mohammed for the amount, which he immediately
gave her. In recognition of this kindness, and in gratitude for
her liberty, she offered her hand to Mohammed, and they were
married. As soon as the Moslems heard of this alliance, they
said amongst themselves the Banu Mustalik are now con-
nections of the Prophet, and we must treat them as such.
Each victor thereupon hastened to release the captives he
had made in the expedition, and a hundred families, thus

^ Tabari (Zotenberg's translation), vol. iii. p. 58. This marriage created a
sensation amongst the idolaters, who, whilst marrying their step-mothers and
mothers-in-law, looked upon the marriage of the divorced wife of an adopted
son (as Zaid at one time was regarded by Mohammed) by the adoptive father
as culpable. To disabuse the people of the notion that adoption creates any
such tie as real consanguinity, some verses of chap, xxxiii. were delivered,
which destroyed the pagan custom of forbidding or making sacred the person
of a wife or husband, or intended wife or husband, by merely calling her
mother, sister, father, or brother — much less by her or him being first allied
to an adopted son or daughter. One of the greatest tests of the Prophet's
purity is that Zaid never swerved from his devotion to his master.

V. THE STATUS OF WOMEN IN ISLAM 237

regaining their liberty, blessed the marriage of Juwairiya with
Mohammed.^

Safiya, a Jewess, had also been taken prisoner by a Moslem
in the expedition against Khaibar. Her, too, Mohammed
generously liberated, and elevated to the position of his wife
at her request.

Maimuna, whom Mohammed married in Mecca, was his
kinswoman, and was already above fifty. Her marriage with
Mohammed, besides providing for a poor relation the means of
support, gained over to the cause of Islam two famous men,
Ibn-Abbas and Khalid bin-Wahd, the leader of the Koreish
cavalry in the disastrous battle of Ohod, and in later times the
conqueror of the Greeks.

Such was the nature of the marriages of Mohammed. Some
of them may possibly have arisen from a desire for male off-
spring, for he was not a god, and may have felt the natural
wish to leave sons behind him. He may have wished also
to escape from the nickname which the bitterness of his
enemies attached to him.^ But taking the facts as they
stand, we see that even these marriages tended in their results
to unite the warring tribes, and bring them into some degree
of harmony.

The practice of Thar (vendetta) prevailed among the heathen
Arabs ; blood-feuds decimated tribes. There was not a family
without its blood-feud, in which the men were frequently
murdered, and the women and children reduced to slavery.
Moses had found the practice of Thar existing among his people
(as it exists among all people in a certain stage of development) ;
but faihng to abolish it, had legalised it by the institution of
sanctuaries. Mohammed, with a deeper conception of the
remedies to be apphed, connected various rival families and

* Ibn-Hisham, p. 729.

* With savage bitterness the enemies of the Prophet apphed to him the
nickname of al-ahtar on the death of his last son. This word htcrally means
" one whose tail has been cut off." Among the ancient Arabs, as among the
Hindoos, a male issue was regarded as the continuation of the blessings of the
gods ; and the man who left no male issue behind was looked upon as pecu-
liarly unfortunate. Hence the bitter word applied to the Prophet ; Koran,
chap, cviii. (see the Kashshdf). Hence, also, the idolatrous Arabs used to
bury alive their female offspring, which Mohanmied denounced and repre-
hended in burning terms ; comp. Koran xvii. 34, etc.

238 THE SPIRIT OF ISLAM ii.

powerful tribes to each other and to himself by marriage ties.
Towards the close of his mission, standing on the Mount of
Arafat, he proclaimed that from that time all blood-feuds
should cease.

The malevolence of unfair and uncandid enemies has distorted
the motives which, under the sanction of the great patriarchs
of ancient times, led Mohammed to have a plurality of wives,
and so provide helpless or widowed women with subsistence
in the lack of all other means. By taking them into his family,
Mohammed provided for them in the only way which the
circumstances of the age and the people rendered possible.

People in the West are apt to regard polygamy as intrinsically
evil, and its practice not only illegal, but the result of licentious-
ness and immorahty. They forget that all such institutions
are the offspring of the circumstances and necessities of the
times. They forget that the great patriarchs of the Hebraic
race, who are regarded by the followers of all Semitic creeds as
exemplars of moral grandeur, practised polygamy to an extent
which, to our modern ideas, seems the culmination of legalised
immorality. We cannot perhap)s allow their practice or con-
duct to pass unquestioned, in spite of the sanctity which time-
honoured legend has cast around them. But in the case of the
Prophet of Arabia, it is essential we should bear in mind the
historic value and significance of the acts.

Probably it will be said that no necessity should have induced
the Prophet either to practise or to allow such an evil custom
as polygamy, and that he ought to have forbidden it absolutely,
Jesus having overlooked it. But this custom, like many others,
is not absolutely evil. Evil is a relative term. An act or
usage may be primarily quite in accordance with the moral
conceptions of societies and individuals ; but progress of ideas
and changes in the condition of a people may make it evil in
its tendency, and, in process of time, it may be made by the
State, illegal. That ideas are progressive is a truism ; but that
usages and customs depend on the progress of ideas, and are
good or evil according to circumstances, or as they are or are
not in accordance with conscience, — " the spirit of the time "
— is a fact much ignored by superficial thinkers.

One of the most remarkable features in the history of early

V. THE STATUS OF WOMEN IN ISLAM 239

Christianity is its depreciation of marriage. Matrimony was
regarded as a condition of inferiority, and the birth ot children
an evil. Monasticism had withdrawn from the world the most
vigorous minds ; the lay-clergy were either not allowed to
marry, or to marry but once. This morbid feature was partly
due to the example of the Master, and partly the resultant of
a variety of circumstances which pressed upon the early
Christian organisation.

The Nazarene Prophet's intimate connection with the
Essene ascetics, his vivid anticipation of the immediate advent
of a kingdom of God, where all social relations would be at an
end, and the early cessation of his ministry, all explain his
depreciation of matrimony, and we may add, perhaps, his never
entering the married state. His association with the Baptist,
himself an Essene, throws light upon the history of a short but
most pathetic life. The strong and inexplicable antipathy of
Paul towards the female sex, joined to the words of the Master,
strengthened in the Church the Essenic conception that the
union of man and woman in the holiest of ties was an act of
sinfulness, an evil to be avoided as far as possible. Marriage
was regarded as having for its sole object the procreation of
children and the gratification of " man's carnal lusts," and the
marriage services of most of the Christian Churches bear to
this day the impress of this primitive notion. It was under
these influences, the idea engrafted itself upon Christianity,
which still retains its hold where not displaced by humanitarian
science, that a person who has never married is a far superior
being to one who has contaminated himself by marriage. The
ash-covered Yogis of India, the matted-locked ascetics of the
East generally, the priests of Buddha, were celibates. Accord-
ing to them, " knowledge was unattainable without sundering
all the loving ties of home and family, and infinity impossible
of realisation without leading a life of singleness." Celibacy
passed into Christianity through many hands from Eastern
Gnosticism and Asceticism. The " sinlessness " of Jesus has
been regarded by some as a proof of his divinity, by others as
an indication of his immeasurable superiority over the rest of
the teachers of the world. To our mind, the comparison or
contrast which is so falsely instituted between Jesus and

240 THE SPIRIT OF ISLAM ii.

j
Mohammed appears wholly misconceived, and founded uponi
a wrong estimate of moral ideals. If never marrying con-j
stitutes a man an ideal being, then all the ascetics, the hermits,
the dervishes are perfect. A perfect life would then imply a
total abandonment of ah domestic relations. Surely this view
would be a perversion of nature, and end in disastrous con-
sequences to humanity. But if it be not so, then why this
disparagement of the Prophet, who fulfilled the work of Jesus ?!
Is it because he married more wives than one ? We have
shown what these marriages meant ; we have at least en-
deavoured to show that in those very deeds which have been
used to calumniate him, he was undergoing a sacrifice.

But let us look for a moment at his marriages from an abstract
point of view. Why did Moses marry more than one wife ?
Was he a moral, or a sensual man for doing so ? Why did
David, " the man after God's heart," indulge in unlimited
polygamy ? The answer is plain — each age has its own stan-
dard. What is suited for one time is not suited for the other,
and we must not judge of the past by the standard of the
present. Our ideals do not lose their greatness or their;
sublimity by having acted truthfully and honestly up to the;^
standard of their age. Would we be justified in calling Jesus'
a vain, ambitious, unpractical dreamer, or Moses and David
sanguinary sensualists, because the mind of one was filled with
vague imaginings of expected sovereignty, and the lives of the
others were so objectionable from the twentieth centurj^;
point of view ? In both cases we would be entirely wrong ;
the aspirations of the one, the a.chievements of the others, were
all historical facts, in accord with their times. It is the truest
mark of the Prophet that, in his most exalted mood, he does
not lose sight of the living in his anticipation of the yet unborn.
In his person he represents the growth and development oJ
humanity. Neither Jesus nor Mohammed could at once efface
existing society, or obliterate all national and political institu-
tions. Like Jesus, Mohammed contented himself, except
where ordinances were necessary, to meet the requirements o:
the moment, " with planting principles in the hearts of his
followers which would, when the time was ripe for it, worl
out their abohtion,"

V. THE STATUS OF WOMEN IN ISLAM 241

As regards the statement that Mohammed assumed to
himself a privilege which he denied to his followers, only thus
much need be said, that it is founded on a misconception
resulting from ignorance. The limitation on polygamy was
enunciated at Medina some years after the exile ; and the
provision regarding himself, instead of being a privilege
assumed by a libertine, was a burden consciously imposed on
a self-conscious, self-examining soul. All his marriages were
contracted before the revelation came restricting polygamy ;
and with that came the other which took away from him all
privileges. Whilst his followers were free (subject to the
conditions imposed by the law), to marry to the limit of four,
and by the use of the power of divorce, which, in spite of the
Prophet's denunciations, they still exercised, could ^nter into
fresh alliances, he could neither put away any of his wives,
whose support he had undertaken, nor could he marry any
other. Was this the assumption of a " privilege " ; or was it
not a humane provision for those already allied to him — ^and to
himself, a revelation of perfect self-abnegation in his prophetic
task ?

The subject of divorce has proved a fruitful source of mis-
conception and controversy ; but there can be no question that
the Koranic laws concerning the treatment of women in divorce
are of " better humanity and regard for justice than those of
any other scripture."

Among all the nations of antiquity, the power of divorce has
been regarded as a necessary corollary to 'the law of marriage ;
but this right, with a few exceptions, was exclusively reserved
for the benefit of the stronger sex ; the wife was under no
circumstance entitled to claim a divorce.

The progress of civilisation and the advancement of ideas
led to a partial amelioration in the condition of women. They,
too, acquired a qualified right of divorce, which they were never
backward in exercising freely, until the facility with which
marriages were contracted and dissolved under the Roman
emperors passed into a bye-word.

Under the ancient Hebraic Law, a husband could divorce
his wife for any cause which made her disagreeable to him, and
there were few or no checks to an arbitrary and capricious use

S.I. Q

242 THE SPIRIT OF ISLAM ii.

of his power. Women were not allowed to demand a divorce
from their husbands for any reason whatsoever. ^

In later times, the Sham^maites, to some extent, modified the
custom of divorce by imposing certain restrictions on its
exercise, but the school of Hillel upheld the law in its primitive
strictness.

At the time of the Prophet's appearance, the Hillehte
doctrines were chiefly in force among the Jewish tribes of
Arabia, and repudiations by the husbands were as common
among them as among the pagan Arabs.

Among the Athenians the husband's right to repudiate the
wife was as unrestricted as among the ancient Israelites.

Among the Romans, the legahty of the practice of divorce
was recognised from the earliest times. The laws of the
Twelve Tables admitted divorce. And if the Romans, as is
stated by their admirers, did not take advantage of this law
until five hundred years after the foundation of their city, it
was not because they were more exemplary than other nations,
but because the husband possessed the power of summarily
putting his wife to death for acts like poisoning, drinking, and
the substitution of a spurious child. But the wife had no right
to sue for a divorce ; ^ and if she solicited separation, her
temerity made her liable to punishment. But in the later
Republic, the frequency of divorce was at once the sign, the
cause, and the consequence of the rapid depravation of
morals.

We have selected the two most prominent nations of antiquity
whose modes of thought have acted powerfully on modern ways
of thinking and modern life and manners. The laws of the
Romans regarding divorce were marked by a progressive spirit,
tending to the melioration of the condition of women, and to
their elevation to an equality with men. This was the result
of the advancement of human ideas, as much as of any
extraneous cause.

" The ambiguous word which contains the precept of Jesus
is flexible to any interpretation that the wisdom of the legislator

1 Ex. xxi. 2 ; Deut. xxi. 14, xxiv. i. Compare also Dollinger, The Gentile
and the Jew, vol. ii. pp. 339, 340 ; and Selden's Uxor Hebraica, in loco.
* Dollinper, The Gentile and the Jew, vol. ii. p. 255.

V. THE STATUS OF WOMEN IN ISLAM 243

can demand." ^ We may well suppose that at the time Jesus
uttered the words, " What God has joined, let not man put
asunder," he had no other idea than that of stemming the
torrent of moral depravity, and he did not stop to consider the
ultimate tendency of his words. The subsequent rule, which
makes fornication ^ (using the translated word) the only ground
of valid divorce, shows abundantly that Jesus was alive to the
emergency.^ But the " wisdom " of subsequent legislators
has not confined itself to a bhnd adherence to a rule laid down
probably to suit the requirement of an embryonic community,
and dehvered verbally. The rule may be regarded as incul-
cating a noble sentiment ; but that it should be considered as
the typical law of divorce is sufficiently controverted by the
multitudinous provisions of successive ages in Christian
countries.

Among the Arabs, the power of divorce possessed by the
husband was unlimited. They recognised no rule of humanity
or justice in the treatment of their wives. Mohammed looked
upon the custom of divorce with extreme disapproval, and
regarded its practice as calculated to undermine the founda-
tions of society.^ He repeatedly declared that nothing pleased
God more than the emancipation of slaves, and nothing more
displeased Him than divorce. It was impossible, however,
under the existing conditions of society to abolish the custom
entirely. He was to mould the mind of an uncultured and
semi-barbarous community to a higher development so that
in the fulness of time his spiritual lessons might blossom in the
hearts of mankind. The custom was not an unmixed evil ;

1 Gihhon Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, vol. iv. (2nd Ed.) p. 209.

niatt. j&iKg. lli.f

3 Two of the Christian Gospels make no mention of the reason for which
Jesus allowed his followers " to put away " their wives (Mark x. 11 and Luke
xvi. 18). If the traditions recorded by these two Gospels be considered of
higher authority than those passing undei the name of Matthew, then our
contention is that Jesus, whilst preaching noble sentiments, and inculcating
high principles of morality, did not intend his words .should be considered as
an immutable and positive law, nor had he any other idea than that of stem-
ming the rising tide of immorality and irreligion. Selden thinks that by an
evasive answer, Jesus wanted to avoid giving offence either to the school of
Shammai or that of Hillel, Uxor Hehraica, I. iii c. 18-22, 28, 31. Compare
Gibbon's valuable note on the interpretation of the Greek word ■n-opvela,
rendered " fornication " in the English version, vol. iv. (2nd Ed.) p. 209.

■* Koran, sura ii. 226,

244 THE SPIRIT OF ISLAM ii.

and accordingly he allowed the exercise of the power of divorce
to husbands under certain conditions. He permitted to '
divorced parties three distinct and separate periods within
which they might endeavour to become reconciled and resume
their conjugal relationship ; but should all attempts at recon-
ciliation prove unsuccessful, then the third period in which
the final separation was declared to have arrived, supervened.
In case of conjugal disputes, he advised settlement by means
of arbiters chosen by the two disputants.

M. Sedillot, than whom no Western writer has analysed the '
laws of Mohammed better, has the following passage on the ;
subject :

"Divorce was permitted, but subject to formalities which,
allowed (and, we will add, recommended), a revocation of a!
hurried or not well-considered resolution. Three successive \
declarations, at a month's interval, were necessary in order to j
make it irrevocable." ^ i

The reforms of Mohammed marked a new departure in the,'
history of Eastern legislation. He restrained the power of;
divorce possessed by the husbands ; he gave to the women the I
right of obtaining a separation on reasonable grounds ; andj
towards the end of his life he went so far as practically toi
forbid its exercise by the men without the intervention of
arbiters or a judge. He pronounced " taldk to be the most
detestable before God of all permitted things," for it prevented,
conjugal happiness and interfered with the proper bringing up
of children. The permission, therefore, in the Koran though
it gave a certain countenance to the old customs, has to be read''
with the light of the Lawgiver's own enunciations. When it' •
is borne in mind how intimately law and religion are connected'
in the Islamic system, it will be easy to understand the bearing
of his words on the institution of divorce.

Naturally, great divergence exists among the various schools)
regarding the exercise of the power of divorce by the husband*
of his own motion and without the intervention of the judge :|
A large and influential body of jurists regard taldk emanating'
from the husband as really prohibited, except for necessity
such as the adultery of the wife. Another section, consisting
1 Sedillot, Histoire des Arabes, vol. i. p. 85.

V. THE STATUS OF WOMEN IN ISLAM 245

chiefly of the Mu'tazilas/ consider taldk as not permissible or
lawful without the sanction of the Hakim ush-shara'. They
hold that any such case as may justify separation and remove
taldk from the category of heing forbidden, should be tested by
an unbiased judge ; and, in support of their doctrine, they
refer to the words of the Prophet already cited, and to his
direction that in case of disputes between the married parties,
arbiters should be appointed for the settlement of their
differences.

The Hanafis, the Malikis, the Shafe'is and the bulk of the
Shiahs hold taldk to be permitted, though they regard the
exercise of the power without any cause to be unlawful.

The Radd ul-Muhtdr, after stating the arguments against the
proposition that taldk is unlawful, proceeds to say, " no doubt,
it is forbidden, but it becomes muhdh (permitted) for certain
outside reasons, and this is the meaning of those jurists who
hold that it is really forbidden."

Although " the Fathers of the Church " have taken up the
temporary permission as the positive rule, and ignored many
of the principles of equity inculcated by the Master, the rules
laid down by the legists are far more humane and just towards
women than those of the most perfect Roman law developed
in the bosom of the Church. ^ According to the legists, the
wife also is entitled to demand a separation on the ground of
ill-usage, want of proper maintenance, and various other
causes ; but unless she showed very good and solid grounds for
demanding the separation, she lost her " settlement " or
dowry. In every case, when the divorce originated with the
husband (except in cases of open infidehty), he had to give up
to her everything he settled upon her at her marriage.^

1 See post. « INIilman's Latin Christianity, vol, i. pp. 368, 369.

' M. Sedillot also speaks of the condition which (according to the Sunnite
doctrines) requires that in such cases of complete separation, prior to the
husband and wife coming together again, the latter should marry another
and be divorced anew, — as a very wise measure which rendered separation
more rare. Muir censures Mohammed for making such a condition necessary
(vol. iii. p. 306). He ignores, that, among a proud, jealous, and sensitive race
hke the Arabs, such a condition was one of the strongest antidotes for the
evil. The very proverb he quotes ought to have shown the disgrace which
was attached to the man who would make his wife go through such " a dis-
gusting ordeal." I am afraid, in his dislike towards Mohammed, Sir W.
Muir forgot that this condition was intended as a check on that other

246 THE SPIRIT OF ISLAM ii.

The frequent admonitions in the Koran against separations,
the repeated recommendation to heal quarrels by private
reconciliation, show the extreme sacredness of the marriage;
tie in the eyes of the Arab Legislator : '

" If a woman fear ill-usage or aversion from her husband, it^
shall not be blameable in them ^ if they agree with mutual
agreement, for reconciliation (or agreement) is best. (Men's)
souls are prone to avarice ; but if ye act kindly and deal!
piously, verily God is well acquainted with what ye do. And'
ye will not have it at all in your power to treat your wives alike]
with equity, even though you fain wanted to do so ; ^ yet yield
not to your inclinations ever so much as to leave her in sus-;
pense ; and if ye agree and act piously, then, verily, God is!
forgiving and merciful." ^ ■

And, again, in a preceding verse, it is declared :

" And if ye fear a breach between them (man and wife),
then send a judge chosen from his family and a judge chosen;
from her family ; if they desire a reconciliation, God will cause!
them to agree ; verily, God is knowing and apprised of all." * {

The sanctity attached to the institution of marriage in the!
Islamic system has either not been apprehended or sufficiently,
appreciated by outsiders. " Marriage," says the Ashbdh w'an-\
Nazdir, "is an institution ordained for the protection oil

" revolting " practice rife both among the Jews and the heathen Arabs, and
by example also among the Christians, of repudiating a wife on every slighl;
occasion, at every outburst of senseless passion or caprice. This check wasj
intended to control one of the most sensitive nations of the earth, by acting^
on the strongest feeling of their nature, the sense of honour (compare Sale;
Preliminary Discourse, p. 134). Sir W. Muir also forgot that many of th«l
Shiite doctors do not recognise the obligation or validity of the wife's beinj;
married to a third person, prior to her being taken back (compare jNIalcolmj
History of Persia, vol. ii. p. 241, and the Mabsiit, in loco). •,

For my part, I believe in the correctness of the construction, namely, tha1i
the verse which says, " When ye divorce women, and the time for sending
them away is come, send them away with generosity ; but retain them nc
by constraint so as to be unjust towards them " abrogates the preceding verse
which requires the intervention of a third person.

^ The Arabic expression implies " it will be commendable," etc. '

^ This furnishes another argument against those Mohammedans who hole'
that the developed laws of Islam allow plurality of wives. It being declarec
that " equity " is beyond human power to observe, we must naturally infe
that the Legislator had in view the merging of the lower in the higher prin
ciple, and the abolition of a custom which though necessary in some state o
society, is opposed to the later development of thought and morals.

' Koran, sura iv. 128, 129. ■• Koran, sura iv. 35.

V. THE STATUS OF WOMEN IN ISLAM 247

society, and in order that human beings may guard themselves
from foulness and unchastity." " Marriage is a sacrament,
insomuch that in this world it is an act of 'ibddat or worship,
for it preserves mankind free from pollution." ..." It is
instituted by divine command among members of the human
species." " Marriage when treated as a contract is a per-
manent relationship based on mutual consent on the part of
a man and a woman between whom there is no bar to a lawful
imion."

It has been frequently said that Mohammed allowed his
followers, besides the four legitimate wives, to take to them-
selves any number of female slaves. A simple statement of
the regulation on this point will show at once how opposed this
notion is to the true precepts of Islam. " Whoso among you
hath not the means to marry a free believing woman, then let
him marry such of your maid-servants whom your right hands
possess and who are believers. This is allowed unto him
among you who is afraid of committing sin ; but if ye abstain
from allying yourself with slaves, it will be better for you."

On this slender basis, and perhaps on some temporary and
accidental circumstances connected with the early rise of the
Moslem commonwealth, have our legists based the usage of
holding [jdrias) female slaves. And this, though opposed to
the spirit of the Master's precepts, has given rise to some of
the strongest animadversions of rival religionists.

Concubinage, the union of people standing to each other in
the relation of master and slave, without the sanction of
matrimony, existed among the Arabs, the Jews, the Christians,
and all the neighbouring nations. The Prophet did not in the
beginning denounce the custom, but towards the end of his
career he expressly forbade it.

" And you are permitted to marry virtuous women who are
believers, and virtuous women of those who have been given
the Scriptures before you, when you have provided them their
portions, living chastely with them without fornication, and not
taking concubines." ^

Compare the spirit of the hrst part of this commandment
with the exclusiveness of Christian ecclesiasticism, which

^ Sura V. 5.

248 THE SPIRIT OF ISLAM 11.

refused to recognise as valid or lawful the union of a Christian
with a non-Christian. The stake frequently was the lot of the
" infidel " who indulged in the temerity of marrying a
Christian. Mohammed's rule was a distinct advance in
humanity.

The prohibition directed against Moslem women entering
into marriage with non-Moslems, which has furnished a handle
for attacks, was founded upon reasons of policy and the neces-
sities of the early commonwealth.

It cannot be denied that several institutions which the
Musulmans borrowed from the pre-Islamic period, " the Days
of Ignorance," and which exist simply as so many survivals of
an older growth, have had the tendency to retard the advance-
ment of Mohammedan nations. Among them the system of
the seclusion of women is one. It had been in practice among
most of the nations of antiquity from the earliest times. The
gynaikonitis was a familiar institution among the Athenians ;
and the inmates of an Athenian harem were as jealousl}^ guaided
from the public gaze as the members of a Persian household
then, or of an Indian household now. The gynaikonomoi, like
their Oriental counterpart, were the faithful warders of female
privacy, and rigorously watched over the ladies of Athens.
The seclusion of women naturally gave birth to the caste of
Hetairai, various members of whom played such an important
part in Athenian history. Were it not for the extraordinary
and almost inexplicable spectacle presented by the Byzantine
empire and modern Europe and America, we should have said
that in every society, at all advanced in the arts of civilised
life, the growth of the unhappy class of beings whose existence
is alike a reproach to humanity and a disgrace to civilisation,
was due to the withdrawal of women from the legitimate
exercise of their ennobling, purifying, and humanising influence
over the minds of men. The human mind, when it does not
perceive the pure, hankers after the impure. The Baby-
lonians, the Etruscans, the Athenians and the pre-Islamite
Meccans furnish the best exemplification of this view in ancient
times. The enormity of the social canker eating into the heart
and poisoning the life-blood of nations in modern times is
due, however, to the spread of a godless materialism covered

V. THE STATUS OF WOMEN IN ISLAM 249

with a thin veneer of rehgion, be it Christianity, be it Moham-
medanism, or any other form of creed. Mohammed had, in
early hfe, observed with pain and sorrow the depravity
prevailing among the Meccans, and he took the most effective
step suited to the age and the people to stamp out the evil.
" By his severe laws at first," to use the expressive language
of Mr. Bosworth Smith, " and by the strong moral sentiment
aroused by these laws afterwards, he has succeeded, down to
this very day, and to a greater extent than has ever been
the case elsewhere, in freeing all Mohammedan countries " —
where they are not overgrown by foreign excrescences — " from
those professional outcasts who live by their own misery,
and, by their existence as a recognised class, are a standing
reproach to every member of the society of which they form
a part."

The system of female seclusion undoubtedly possesses many
advantages in the social well-being of unsettled and uncultured
communities ; and even in countries, where the diversity of
culture and moral conceptions is great, a modified form of
seclusion is not absolutely to be deprecated. It prevails at
the present moment, in forms more or less strict, among
nations far removed from Moslem influences, to which is
ascribed the existence of the custom in India and other Oriental
countries. In Corea, female seclusion is carried to the height
of absurdity. In China and among the Spanish colonies of
South America, which are not within the immediate ambit of
the European social code, the Pitrdah is still observed. The
Prophet of Islam found it existing among the Persians and
other Oriental communities ; he perceived its advantages, and
it is possible that, in view of the widespread laxity of morals
among all classes of people, he recommended to the women-folk
the observance of privacy. But to suppose that he ever
intended his recommendation should assume its present
inelastic form, or that he ever allowed or enjoined the seclusion
of women, is wholly opposed to the spirit of his reforms. The
Koran itself affords no warrant for holding that the seclusion
of women is a part of the new gospel.

" 0 Prophet ! speak to thy wives and to thy daughters, and
to the wives of the Faithful, that they let their wrappers fall

250 THE SPIRIT OF ISLAM ii.

low. Thus will they more easily be known, and they will not
be affronted. God is indulgent, merciful." ^

" And speak to the believing women, that they refrain their^
looks and observe continence ; and that they display not their
ornaments except those which are external, and that they
draw their kerchiefs over their bosoms." ^

Directions easy to understand ^ in the midst of the social and
moral chaos from which he was endeavouring, under God's Guid-
ance, to evolve order, — wise and beneficent injunctions having
for their object the promotion of decency among women, the
improvement of their dress and demeanour, and their protec-
tion from insult.* It is a mistake, therefore, to suppose there
is anything in the law which tends to the perpetuation of the
custom. Considerable light is thrown on the Lawgiver's-
recommendation for female privacy, by the remarkable im-;
munity from restraint or seclusion which the members of his!
family always enjoyed. 'Ayesha, the daughter of Abu Bakr;
who was married to Mohammed on Khadija's death, personall}
conducted the insurrectionary movement against Ah. She;
commanded her own troops at the famous " Battle of the!
Camel." Fatima, the daughter of the Prophet, often tool?!
part in the discussions regarding the succession to the Cahphate,:
The grand-daughter of Mohammed, Zainab the sister of Husain,,
shielded her youthful nephew from the Ommeyyades after the
butchery of Kerbela. Her indomitable spirit awed equally the
ferocious Obaidullah ibn Ziyad and the pitiless Yezid. \

The depravity of morals, which had sapped the foundations!

1 Sura xxxiii. 59. * Sura xxiv. 31. '

' Those who have travelled in Europeanised Egypt and in the Levant wil '
understand how necessary these directions must have been in those times. ;
•» Hamilton, the translator of the Hedaya, in his preliminary discourst
dealing with the Book of Abominations, has the following : " A subject whict
involves a vast variety of frivolous matter, and must be considered chief!}
in the light of a treatise upon propriety and decorum. In it is particularlj
exhibited the scrupulous attention paid to female modesty, and the avoidance
of every act which may tend to violate it, even in thought. It is remarkable
however, that this does not amount to that absolute seclusion of women
supposed by some writers. In fact, this seclusion is a result of jealousy 01,
pride, and not of any legal injunction, as appears in this and several other
parts of the Hedaya. Neither is it a custom universally prevalent in Moham
medan countries." jNIarsden, in his Travels, says: "The Arab settlers ir
Java never observed the custom, and the Javanese Mussulman women enjoy,:
the same amount of freedom as their Dutch sisters." i

V. THE STATUS OF WOMEN IN ISLAM 251

of society among the prc-Islamic Arabs, as well as ainong the
Jews and the Christians, urgently needed some correction.
The Prophet's counsel regarding the privacy of women served
undoubtedly to stem the tide of immorality, and to prevent
the diffusion among his followers of the custom of disguised
polyandry, which had evidently, until then, existed among
the pagan Arabs.

According to von Hammer, " the hare in is a sanctuary : it
is prohibited to strangers, not because women are considered
unworthy of coniidence, but on account of the sacredness with
which custom and manners invest them. The degree of
reverence which is accorded to women throughout higher
Asia and Europe (among Mohammedan communities) is a
matter capable of the clearest demonstration."

The idealisation of womanhood is a natural characteristic of
all the highest natures. But national pride and religious
bigotry have given rise to two divergent theories regarding
the social exaltation of women among the cultured classes in
modern Christendom. The one attributes it to Mariolatry, the
other to Mediaeval chivalry, alleged to be the offspring of
Teutonic institutions. Of Christianity, in its relation to
womankind, the less said the better. In the early ages, when
the religion of the people, high and low, the ignorant and
educated, consisted only of the adoration of the mother of
Jesus, the Church of Christ had placed the sex under a ban.
Father after father had written upon the enormities of women,
their evil tendencies, their inconceivable malignity. Tertulhan
represented the general feeling in a book in which he described
women as " the devil's gateway, the unsealer of the forbidden
tree, the deserter of the divine law, the destroyer of God's
image — man." Another authority declared with a revolting
cynicism, " among women he sought for chastity but found
none." Chrysostom, who is recognised as a saint of high
merit, " interpreted the general opinion of the Fathers," says
Lecky, " when he pronounced women to be a necessary evil,
a natural temptation, a desirable calamity, a domestic peril,
a deadly fascination, a painted ill." The orthodox Church
excluded women from the exercise of all religious functions
excepting the lowliest. They were excluded absolutely from

252 THE SPIRIT OF ISLAM ii.

society ; they were prohibited from appearing in pubHc, from
going to feasts or banquets. They were directed to remain in
seclusion, to observe silence, to obey their husbands, and to
apply themselves to weaving and spinning and cooking. If
they ever went out they were to be clothed from head to foot.
Such was the position of women in Christianity when Mariolatry
was recognised and practised by all classes. In later times, and
in the gloomy interval which elapsed between the overthrow of
the Western empire and the rise of modern society in Europe,
a period which has been described as one of " rapine, falsehood,
tyranny, lust, and violence," Christianity, by introducing
convents and nunneries, served, in some respects, to improve
the lot of women. This questionable amelioration, however,
was only suited for an age when the abduction of women was
an everyday occurrence, and the dissoluteness of morals was
such as to defy description. But the convents were not always
the haunts of virtue, nor the inculcation of celibacy the surest
safeguard of chastity. The Registnini Visitationem, or the
diary of the pastoral visits of Archbishop Rigaud, throws a
peculiar light upon the state of morality and the position of
the sex during the most glorious epoch of the Age of Faith.
The rise of Protestantism made no difference in the social
conditions or in the conception of lawyers regarding the status
of women. Jesus had treated woman with humanity ; his
followers excluded her from justice.

The other theory to which we have adverted is in vogue
among the romanceurs of Europe. They have represented each
historical figure in the Middle Ages to be a Bayard or a Crichton.
The age of chivalry is generally supposed to extend from the
beginning of the eighth to the close of the fourteenth century
— a period, be it noted, almost synchronous with the Saracenic
domination in Spain. But, during this period, in spite of the
halo which poetry and romance have cast around the conditions
of society, women were the frequent subjects of violence.
Force and fraud were the distinguishing characteristics of the
golden age of Christian chivalry. Roland and Arthur were
myths until the West came in contact with the civilisation
and culture of the East. Chivalry was not the product of the
wilds of Scandinavia or of the gloomy forests of Germany ; —

V. THE STATUS OF WOMEN IN ISLAM 253

prophecy and chivalry ahke were the children of the desert.
From the desert issued Moses, Jesus, and Mohammed ; from
the desert issued 'Antar, Hamza, and Ah.

The condition of women among the Arabs settled in the cities
and villages, who had adopted the loose notions of morality
prevalent among the Syrians, Persians, and Romans, was, as
we have already stated, degraded in the extreme. Among
some of the nomads, however, they enjoyed great freedom,
and exercised much influence over the fortunes of their tribes.
" They were not, as among the Greeks," says Perron, " the
creatures of misery." They accompanied the warriors to
battle, and inspired them to heroism ; the cavaliers rushed into
the fights singing the praises of sister, wife, or lady-love. The
guerdon of their loves was the highest prize of their prowess.
Valour and generosity were the greatest virtues of the men,
and chastity that of the women. An insult offered to a woman
of a tribe would set in flame the desert tribes from end to end of
the peninsula. The " Sacrilegious Wars," which lasted for forty
years, and were put an end to by the Prophet, had their origin
in an insult offered to a young girl at one of the fairs of Okaz,

Mohammed rendered a fitful custom into a permanent creed,
and embodied respect for women in his revelations. With
many directions, which reflect the rude and patriarchal
simphcity of the age, his regulations breathe a more chivalrous
spirit towards the sex than is to be found in the teachings of
the older masters. Islam, like Christianity, is different with
different individuals and in different ages, but on the whole,
true chivalry is more intimately associated with true Islam
than with any other form of positive faith or social institution.

The hero of Islam, the true disciple of the founder of the
Hilf-id-Fuzid, was as ready with lance and sword to do battle
with God's enemies as to redress the wrongs of the weak and
oppressed. Whether on the plains of Irak or nearer home,
the cry of distress never failed to bring the mailed knight to
the succour of the helpless and suffering. His deeds translated
into legends, and carried from the tent to the palace, have
served to influence the prowess of succeeding ages. The caliph
in his banqueting-hall puts down the half-tasted bowl on being
told that an Arab maiden, carried into captivity by the Romans,

254 THE SPIRIT OF ISLAM ii.

had cried out, " Why does not Abd ul-Mahk come to my help ? "
— he vows that no wine or water shall wet his lips until he has
released the maiden from bondage. Forthwith he marches his
troops upon the Roman caitiffs, and only when the maiden has
attained her liberty is he freed from his vow. A Mogul em-
peror, ^ sore pressed by relentless foes, is marching towards the
frontiers when he receives the bracelet of an alien queen — the
token of brotherhood and call for succour. He abandons his
own necessities, retraces his steps, defeats her foes, and then
resumes his march.

Oelsner calls 'Antar " the father of chivalry." AH was its
beau-ideal — an impersonation of gallantry, of bravery, of
generosity ; pure, gentle, and learned, " without fear and with-
out reproach," he set the world the noblest example of chival-
rous grandeur of character. His spirit, a pure reflection of
that of the Master, overshadowed the Islamic world, and formed
the animating genius of succeeding ages. The wars of the
Crusades brought barbarian Europe into contact with the
civilisation of the Islamic East, and opened its eyes to the
magnificence and refinement of the Moslems ; but it was
especially the influences of Mohammedan Andalusia on the
neighbouring Christian provinces which led to the introduction
of chivalry into Europe. The troubadours, the trouveurs of
Southern France, and the minnesingers of Germany, who sang
of love and honour in war, were the immediate disciples of the
romanceurs of Cordova, Granada, and Malaga. Petrarch and
Boccaccio, even Tasso and Chaucer, derived their inspiration
from the Islamic fountain-head. But the coarse habits and
thoughts of the barbarian hordes of Europe communicated a
character of grossness to pure chivalry.

In the early centuries of Islam, almost until the extinction
of the Saracenic empire in the East, women continued to occupy
as exalted a position as in modern society. Zubaida, the wife
of Harun, plays a conspicuous part in the history of the age, and
by her virtues, as well as by her accomplishments, leaves an
honoured name to posterity. Humaida, the wife of Faruk, a

^ The Emperor Humayun, pursued by the Afghans, received, on his march
to Cabul, the bracelet from the Jodhpur queen, and at once came to her help.
I have mentioned two instances of Moslem chivalry, which might be multiplied
by hundreds.

THE STATUS OF WOMEN IN ISLAM 255

tledinitc citizen, left for many years the sole guardian of hcv
ninor son. edncates him to become one of the most distingnished
urisconsnlts of the day.^ Sukaina, or Sakina, the daughter of
iusain,- and the grand-daughter of Ali, was the most brilliant,
nost accomplished, and most virtuous woman of her time, —
' la dame des dames de son temps, la plus belle, la plus gracieuse,
la plus brillante de qualites," as Perron calls her. Herself no
nean scholar, she prized the converse of learned and pious
)eople. The ladies of the Prophet's family were noted for
heir learning, their virtues, and their strength of character.
3uran, the wife of the Caliph Mamun, Umm-ul-Fazl, Mamun's
ister, married to the eighth Imam of the house of Ali, Umm
il-Habib, Mamun's daughter, were all famous for their scholar-
hip. In the fifth century of the Hegira, the Sheikha Shuhda,
lesignated Fakkr un-nisa ("the glory of women"), lectured
)ublicly, at the Cathedral Mosque of Bagdad, to large
udiences on literature, rhetoric, and poetry. She occupies in
he annals of Islam a position of equality with the most dis-
inguished 'iilama. What would have befallen this lady had
he flourished among the fellow-religionists of St. Cyril can be
udged by the fate of Hypatia. Possibly she would not have
)een torn to pieces by enthusiastic Christians, but she would,
o a certainty, have been burnt as a witch. Zat ul-Hemma,
iorrupted into Zemma, " the lion-heart," the heroine of many
)attles, fought side by side with the bravest knights.^

The improvement effected in the position of women by the
^rophet of Arabia has been acknowledged by all unprejudiced
vriters, though it is still the fashion with bigoted contro-
'ersialists to say the Islamic system lowered the status of
vomen. No falser calumny has been levelled at the great
^rophet. Nineteen centuries of progressive development
vorking with the legacy of a prior civilization, under the most
avourable racial and climatic conditions, have tended to place

^ Faruk was away for twenty-seven years engaged in wars in Khorasiin.
iis son's name is Rabya-ar-Ra}'.

* Husain was married to one of the daughters of Yezdjard, the last
iasanian king of Persia.

* For a full account of the distinguished women who have flourished in
slam, see the article in the May number of the Nineteenth Century for 1899
nd The Short History of the Saracens (Macmillan).

256 THE SPIRIT OF ISLAM ii.

women, in most countries of Christendom, on a higher social
level than the men, — have given birth to a code of etiquette
which, at least ostensibly, recognises the right of women to
higher social respect. But what is their legal position even in
the most advanced communities of Christendom ? Until very
recently, even in England, a married woman possessed no
rights independently of her husband. If the Moslem woman
does not attain in another hundred years, the social position i
of her European sister, there will be time enough to declaim j
against Islam as a system and a dispensation. But the Teacher j
who in an age when no country, no system, no community gave
any right to woman, maiden or married, mother or wife, who,
in a country where the birth of a daughter was considered a
calamity, secured to the sex rights which are only unwillingly and
under pressure being conceded to them by the civilised nations
in the twentieth century, deserves the gratitude of humanity.
If Mohammed had done nothing more, his claim to be a bene-
factor of mankind would have been indisputable. Even under
the laws as they stand at present in the pages of the legists, the
legal position of Moslem females may be said to compare
favourably with that of European women. We have dealt in
another place at length with this subject. We shall do no
more here than glance at the provisions of the Moslem codes
relating to women. As long as she is unmarried she remains
under the parental roof, and until she attains her majority she
is, to some extent, under the control of the father or his repre-
sentative. As soon, however, as she is of age, the law vests
in her all the rights which belong to her as an independent
human being. She is entitled to share in the inheritance of
her parents along with her brothers, and though the proportion
is different, the distinction is founded on the relative position
of brother and sister. A woman who is sui juris can under no
circumstances be married without her own express consent,
" not even by the sultan." ^ On her marriage she does not,
lose her individuality. She does not cease to be a separate,
member of society. '

1 Centuries after the principle was laid down by the Moslem jurists, the'
sovereigns and chiefs of Christendom were in the habit of forcibly marrying
women to their subjects.

V. THE STATUS OF WOMEN IN ISLAM 257

An ante-nuptial settlement by the husband in favour of the
wife is a necessary condition, and on his failure to make a
settlement the law presumes one in accordance with the social
position of the wife. A Moslem marriage is a civil act, needing
no priest, requiring no ceremonial. The contract of marriage
gives the man no power over the woman's person, beyond
what the law defines, and none whatever upon her goods and
property. Her rights as a mother do not depend for their
recognition upon the idiosyncrasies of individual judges. Her
earnings acquired by her own exertions cannot be wasted by
a prodigal husband, nor can she be ill-treated with impunity
by one who is brutal. She acts, if sui juris, in all matters
which relate to herself and her property in her own individual
right, without the intervention of husband or father. She can
sue her debtors in the open courts, without the necessity of
joining a next friend, or under cover of her husband's name.
She continues to exercise, after she has passed from her father's
house into her husband's home, all the rights which the law
gives to men. All the privileges which belong to her as a
woman and a wife are secured to her, not by the courtesies
which " come and go," but by the actual text in the book of
law. Taken as a whole, her status is not more unfavourable
than that of many European women, whilst in many respects
she occupies a decidedly better position. Her comparatively
backward condition is the result of a want of culture among
the community generally, rather than of any special feature
in the laws of the fathers.

CHAPTER VI
BONDAGE (SLAVERY)

" And as to your slaves, see that ye feed them as ye feed yourselves
and clothe them as ye clothe yourselves." — The Prophet.

SLAVERY in some of its features has been aptly compared
with polygamy. Like polygamy, it has existed among
all nations, and has died away with the progress of
human thought and the growth of a sense of justice among
mankind. Like polygamy it was the natural product of
passion and pride so strongly marked in certain phases of
the communal and individual development. But unlike
polygamy, it bears from its outset the curse of inherent
injustice.

In the early stages, when humanity has not risen to the full
appreciation of the reciprocal rights and duties of man ; when
laws are the mandates of one, or of the few, for the many ;
when the will of the strong is the rule of life and the guide of
conduct — then the necessary inequality, social, physical, or
mental, engendered by nature among the human race, invari-
ably takes the form of slavery, and a system springs into
existence which allows absolute power to the superior over the
inferior. 1 This complete subserviency of the weak to the
strong has helped the latter to escape from the legendary curse
laid on man — " In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread
till thou return to the ground," and allowed them to employ
the leisure thus acquired in congenial pursuits. " The simple
wish," says the author of Ancient Law, " to use the bodily
powers of another person as the means of ministering to one's

^ Comp. throughout L' Influence des Croisades siir l'£tat des Penples de
I' Europe, by Maxime de Choiseul D'Aillecourt, Paris, 1809.

VI. BONDAGE (SLAVERY) 259

own ease or pleasure, is doubtless the foundation of slavery,
and as old as human nature." ^

The practice of slavery is co-eval with human existence.
Historicall3^ its traces are visible in every age and in every
nation. Its germs were developed in a savage state of society,
and it continued to flourish even when the progress of material
civilisation had done away with its necessity.

The Jews, the Greeks, the Romans, and the ancient Germans, ^
—people whose legal and social institutions have most affected
modern manners and customs, — recognised and practised both
kinds of slavery, prasdial servitude as well as household
slavery.

Among the Hebrews, from the commencement of their
existence as a nation, two forms of slavery were practised. The
Israelite slave, given into bondage as a punishment for crime
or for the payment of a debt, occupied a higher position than
a slave of alien birth. The law allowed the former his liberty
after six years of servitude, unless he refused to avail himself
of his right. But the foreign slaves, whether belonging to the
people whom the Israelites had reduced into absolute helotage
by a merciless system of warfare, or whether acquired in
treacherous forays or by purchase, were entirely excluded from
the benefits of this arrangement, an arrangement made in a
spirit of national partiaHty and characteristic isolation. ^ The
lot of these bondsmen and bondswomen was one of unmitigated
hardship. Helots of the soil or slaves of the house, hated and
despised at the same time, they lived a life of perpetual drudgery
in the service of pitiless masters.

Christianity, as a system and a creed, raised no protest
against slavery, enforced no rule, inculcated no principle for
the mitigation of the evil. Excepting a few remarks on the
disobedience of slaves,^ and a general advice to masters to give
servants their due, the teachings of Jesus, as portrayed in the
Christian traditions, contained nothing expressive of dis-
approval of bondage. On the contrary, Christianity enjoined

* Maine, Ancient Law, p. 104.

* Caesar {De Bell. Gall. lib. vi.), Tacitus {De Moribus German, cap. 24, 25).
and Pothier {De Stat. Servor. apud Germ. lib. i.) all testify to the extreme
severity of German servitude.

" Lev. XXV. 44, 45. * I Tim. iv. i, 2.

26o THE SPIRIT OF ISLAM ii.

on the slave absolute submission to the will of his or her pro-
prietor. It found slavery a recognised institution of the
empire ; it adopted the system without any endeavour to
mitigate its baneful character, or to promote its gradual
abolition, or to improve the status of slaves. Under the civil
law, slaves were mere chattels. They remained so under the
Christian domination. Slavery had flourished among the
Romans from the earliest times. The slaves, whether of native
or of foreign birth, whether acquired by war or purchase, were
regarded simply as chattels. Their masters possessed the
power of life and death over them. But that gradual improve- I
ment which had raised the archaic laws of the Twelve Tables j
to the comprehensive code of Hadrian, did not fail to introduce
some amehoration in the condition of the slaves. In spite, j
however, of the changes which the humanity or the wisdom of ■
the emperors had effected in the old laws, the person of the \
slave was absolutely subject to the will of the master. Each j
magnate of the empire possessed thousands of slaves, who were j
tortured and subjected to lashings for the most trivial of faults. |

The introduction of the religion of Jesus into Europe affected j
human chattelhood only in its relation to the priesthood. A j
slave could become free by adopting monachism, if not claimed !
within three years. ^ But in other respects, slavery flourished l
as much and in as varied shapes as under the pagan domination.
The Digest, compiled under a Christian emperor, pronounced
slavery a constitution of the law of nature ; and the Code fixed '
the maximum price of slaves according to the professions for |
which they were intended. Marriages between slaves were j
not legal, and between the slave and the free were prohibited i
under severe penalties. ^ The natural result was unrestrained
concubinage, which even the clergy recognised and practised.'

Such was slavery under the most advanced system of laws
known to the ancient world. These laws reflected the wisdom ;
of thirteen centuries, and towards the close of their develop- '^

^ Comp. Milman, Latin Christianity, vol. i. p. 358. |

2 One of the punishments was, if a free woman married a slave, she was !

to be put to death and the slave burnt alive. Comp. the splendid though ;

apologetic chapter of Milman on the subject, Latin Christianity, vol. ii. j

2 Comp. Milman, Latin Christianitv, vol. ii. p. 369 ; and also Du Cange, 1,

Concubina. '

VI. BONDAGE (SLAVERY) 261

ment had engrafted upon themselves some faint offshoots of
the teachings of one of the greatest moral preceptors of the
world.

\Mth the establishment of the Western and Northern bar-
barians on the ruins of the Roman empire, besides personal
slavery, territorial servitude scarcely known to the Romans,
became general in all the newly settled countries. The various
rights possessed by the lords over their vassals and serfs
exhibited a revolting picture of moral depravity and degrada-
tion.^ The barbaric codes, like the Roman, regarded slavery
as an ordinary condition of mankind ; and if any protection
was afforded to the slave, it was chiefly as the property of his
master, who alone, besides the State, had the power of life and
death over him.

Christianity had failed utterly in abolishing slavery or
alleviating its evils. The Church itself held slaves, and recog-
nised in exphcit terms the lawfulness of this baneful institution.
Under its influence the greatest civilians of Europe had upheld
slavery, and have insisted upon its usefulness as preventing the
increase of pauperism and theft. ^ And it was under the same
influences that the highly cultured Christians of the Southern
States of North America practised the cruellest inhumanities
upon the unfortunate beings whom they held as slaves, — many
of their own kith, — and shed torrents of blood for the main-
tenance of the curse of slavery in their midst. The least trace
of the blood of an inferior race, however imperceptible, sub-
jected the unfortunate being to all the penalties of slavery.
The white Christian could never legitimatise the issue of his
illicit connection with his negro slave-women. With her he
could never contract a legal union. The mother of his
illegitimate children and her descendants, however remote,

^ Comp. De Choiseul, and also consult on this subject the comprehensive
chapter of Stephen's Commentaries on the Laws of England, bk. ii. pt. i. chap.
ii. One of the miserable and disgusting privileges possessed by the lord was
designated in Britain the custom of culiage, which was afterwards commuted
into a fine. This custom, as has been correctly supposed, gave rise to the
law of inheritance, prevalent in some English counties, and known by the
name of Borough English.

* Pufendorff, Law of Nature and Nations, bk. vi. c. 3, s. 10 ; Ulricus Huberus,
Praelect Jur. Civ. 1. i. tit. 4, s. 6 ; Pothier, De Statu Servorum ; and Grotius,
De Jure Bell., 1. ii. c. 5, s. 27.

262 THE SPIRIT OF ISLAM il.

could be sold by his legitimate white issue at any time. Chris-
tianity failed to grasp the spirit of its Master's teachings in
regard to the equality of man in the sight of God.

Islam recognises no distinction of race or colour ; black or
white, citizens or soldiers, rulers or subjects, they are perfectly
equal, not in theory only, but in practice. In the field or in
the guest-chamber, in the tent or in the palace, in the mosque
or in the market, they mix without reserve and without con-
tempt. The first Muezzin of Islam, a devoted adherent and an
esteemed disciple, was a negro slave. To the white Christian,
his black fellow-religionist may be his equal in the kingdom of
heaven, but certainly not in the kingdom of this world ; in the
reign of Christ, perhaps, but not in the reign of Christianity.
The law may compel him, a larger humanity with torrents of
blood may force him to give his black brother civic rights, but
the pride of race and colour acknowledges no equality, and even
in the house of God a strict separation is observed.

The Islamic teachings dealt a blow at the institution of
slavery which, had it not been for the deep root it had taken
among the surrounding nations and the natural obliquity of
the human mind, would have been completely extinguished as
soon as the generation which then practised it had passed away.

It has been justly contended that, as the promulgation of
the laws, precepts, and teachings of Islam extended over
twenty years, it is naturally to be expected many of the pre-
Islamic institutions, which were eventually abolished, were, at
first, either tacitly permitted or expressly recognised.^ In one
of these categories stood the usage of slavery. The evil was
intertwined with the inmost relations of the people among whom
Mohammed flourished. Its extinction was only to be achieved
by the continued agency of wise and humane laws, and not by
the sudden and entire emancipation of the existing slaves,
which was morally and economically impossible. Numberless
provisions, negative as well as positive, were accordingly
introduced in order to promote and accomplish a gradual
enfranchisement. A contrary policy would have produced an
utter collapse of the infant commonwealth.

The Prophet exhorted his followers repeatedly in the name

^Tahzib ul-Akhlak (15th Rajab, 1288), p. 118.

VI. BONDAGE (SLAVERY) 263

of God to enfranchise slaves, " than which there was not an
act more acceptable to God." He ruled that for certain sins
of omission the penalty should be the manumission of slaves.
He ordered that slaves should be allowed to purchase their
liberty by the wages of their service ; and that in case the
unfortunate beings had no present means of gain, and wanted
to earn in some other employment enough for that purpose,
they should be allowed to leave their masters on an agreement
to that effect.^ He also provided that sums should be advanced
to the slaves from the public treasury to purchase their liberty.
In certain contingencies, it was provided that the slave should
become enfranchised without the interference and even against
the will of his master. The contract or agreement in which
the least doubt was discovered, was construed most favourably
in the interests of the slave, and the slightest promise on the
part of the master was made obligatory for the purposes of
enfranchisement. He placed the duty of kindness towards the
slave on the same footing with the claims of " kindred and
neighbours, and fellow-travellers, and wayfarers " ; encouraged
manumission to the freest extent, and therewith the gift of " a
portion of that wealth which God hath given you " ; and
prohibited sensual uses of a master's power over the slave, with
the promise of divine mercy to the wronged. To free a slave
is the expiation for ignorantly slaying a believer, and for certain
forms of untruth. The whole tenor of Mohammed's teaching
made " permanent chattelhood " or caste impossible ; and it is
simply " an abuse of words " to apply the word slavery, in the
English sense, to any status known to the legislation of Islam.
The Lawgiver ordained, that a fugitive fleeing to the
territories of Islam should at once become enfranchised ; that
the child of a slave woman should follow the condition of the
father, while the mother should become free at his death ; that
the slave should be able to contract with his master for his
emancipation ; and that a part of the poor-tax should be
devoted to the ransom of those held in bondage. The masters
were forbidden to exact more work than was just and proper.
They were ordered never to address their male or female slaves
by that degrading appellation, but by the more affectionate

1 Koran xxiv. 33, etc.

264 THE SPIRIT OF ISLAM ii.

name of " my young man," or " my young maid " ; it was
enjoined that all slaves should be dressed, clothed, and fed
exactly as their masters and mistresses. Above all, it was
ordered that in no case should the mother be separated from
her child, nor brother from brother, nor father from son, nor
husband from wife, nor one relative from another.^

In the moral rules laid down for the treatment of those then
in bondage, the Arabian Teacher did not prescribe the reciprocal
duties of master and slave in the one-sided manner so often
visible in other creeds.^ With a deeper and truer knowledge
of human nature, he saw that it was not so needful to lay down
the duties the weak owe to the strong, as those the strong owe
to the weak. In Islam no discredit is attached to the status
of slavery. It is an accident, and not, as in the civil law and
patristic Christianity, " a constitution of nature." Zaid, the
freedman of the Prophet, was often entrusted with the command
of troops, and the noblest captains served under him without
demur ; and his son 'Osama was honoured with the leadership
of the expedition sent by Abu Bakr against the Greeks. Kutb
ud-din, the first king of Delhi, and the true founder, therefore,
of the Musulman empire in India, was a slave. The slavery
which was allowed in Islam had, in fact, nothing in common
with that which was in vogue in Christendom until recent
times, or with American slavery until the holy war of 1865 put
an end to that curse.

In Islam the slave of to-day is the grand vizier of to-morrow.
He may marry, without discredit, his master's daughter, and
become the head of the family. Slaves have ruled kingdoms
and founded dynasties. The father of Mahmud of Ghazni
was a slave. Can Christianity point to such records as these ?
Can Christianity show, in the pages of history, as clear, "as
humane an account of her treatment of slaves as this ?

From all that we have said it is abundantly clear that the
Legislator himself looked upon the custom as temporary in its

^ I see no need of quoting authorities on these points, as they are admitted
facts. But I may refer the curious reader to the traditions collected in the
Mishkdt, the Sahih of Bukhari, and the Bihar iil- Anwar. The latter contains
the noblest monument of generosity and charity practised hy the Prophet's
immediate descendants.

* See Col. iii. 22 ; i Tim. vi. i.

VI. BONDAGE (SLAVERY) 265

nature, and held that its extinction was sure to be achieved by
the progress of ideas and change of circumstances. The Koran
always speaks of slaves as " those whom your right hands have
acquired," indicating thus the only means of acquisition of
bondsmen or bondswomen. It recognised, in fact, only one
kind of slavery — the servitude of men made captives in bond
fide lawful warfare, Jihdd-i-Shara'i. Among all barbarous
nations the captives are spared from a motive of selfishness
alone, ^ in order to add to the wealth of the individual captor,
or of the collective nation, by their sale-money or by their
labour. 2 Like other nations of antiquity, the Arab of the
pre-Islamic period spared the lives of his captives for the sake
of profiting by them. Mohammed found this custom existing
among his people. Instead of theorising, or dealing in vague
platitudes, he laid down strict rules for their guidance, enjoin-
ing that those only may be held in bond who were taken in
bond fide legal war until they were ransomed, or the captive
bought his or her own liberty by the wages of service. But
even when these means failed, an appeal to the pious feelings
of the Moslem, combined with the onerous responsibilities
attached to the possession of a slave, was often enough to
secure the eventual enfranchisement of the latter. Slave-
Ufting and slave-dealing, patronised by dominant Christianity,'
and sanctified by Judaism, were utterly reprobated and con-
demned. The man who dealt in slaves was declared the
outcast of humanity. Enfranchisement * of slaves was pro-
nounced to be a noble act of virtue. It was forbidden in
absolute terms to reduce Moslems to slavery. To the lasting
disgrace of a large number of professed Moslems it must

1 Comp. Milman, Latin Christ, vol. ii. p. 387. The ancient jurists based the
righf of enslaving the captive on the prior right of killing him. In this they
are followed by Albericus Gentilis {De Jur. Gent. cap. de Servitude), Grotius,
and Pufendortf. Montesquieu, indeed, was the first to deny this mythical
right of killing a captive, unless in case of absolute necessity, or for self-
preservation. And this the author of the Spirit of Laws denied, because of
his freedom from the thraldom of the Church.

* Comp. Milman, Hist, of the Jews, vol. iii. p. 48.

' After the massacre of Drogheda by Cromwell, and the suppression of the
insurrection in Ireland, the English Protestants sold the Irish, men and
women, wholesale to the colonists in Virginia, Pennsylvania, and other places.
The same was done after Monmouth's rebellion.

* According to an authentic and well-known tradition from Imam Ja'far
as-Sadik (Bihar ul- Anwar),

266 THE SPIRIT OF ISLAM ii.

be said, however, that, whilst observing, or trying to observe
the letter, they have utterly ignored the spirit of the Teacher's
precepts, and allowed slavery to flourish (in direct contraven-
tion of the injunctions of the Prophet) by purchase and other
means. The possession of a slave, by the Koranic laws, was
conditional on a bond fide struggle, in self-defence, against
unbelieving and idolatrous aggressors, and its permission was
a guarantee for the safety and preservation of the captives.
The cessation of the state of war in which the Moslem com-
munity was at first involved, from the animosity of the
surrounding tribes and nations, would have brought about the
extinction of slavery by a natural process — the stoppage of
future acquisition and the enfranchisement of those in bondage.
However, whether from contact with the demoralised nations
of the East and the West, and the wild races of the North, or
from the fact that the baneful institution was deeply rooted
among all classes of society, many Moslems, like the Christians
and the Jews, recognised slavery, and to some extent do so
even now. But the wild Turkoman, or the African Arab, who
glories in slave-lifting, is no more a representative of Islam than
is the barbarous Guacho, who revels on the savage prairies of
South America, of Christianity.^ Like polygamy, the institu-
tion of slavery, prevalent universally among mankind at some
stage or other of their growth, has, at least among the nations
which claim to be civilised, outlived the necessities which
induced its practice, and must sooner or later become extinct.
It will be seen, therefore, that Islam, did not " consecrate "
slavery, as has been maUciously affirmed, but provided in everj;

1 In order not to break the letter of his Prophet's Commandments, the
Turkoman (himself a violent Sunni) forced his captive (whether a Sunni or a,
Shiah) to acknowledge himself a heretic. And the African Arab calls hij
murderous razzias, on the pagan negroes, Jihads. Mr. Joseph Thompson, th(
well-known African traveller, in a letter to the London Times of the i4tl:
of November, 1887, thus writes on the subject of slavery in East Africa
" I unhesitatingly affirm, and I speak from a wider experience of Easterr
Central Africa than any of your correspondents possess, that if the slav(
trade thrives it is because Islam has not been introduced in these regions'
and for the strongest of all reasons, that the spread of Mahommedanisn,
would have meant the concomitant suppression of the slave trade." Hii;
account of " the peaceful and unassuming agencies " by which Islam has beer:
spread in Western Africa and Central Soudan deserves the attention of ever)
reader. " Here," he says, " we have Islam as a living, active force, full o
the lire and energy of its early days, proselytizing too with much of the mar
vellous success which characterized its early days."

VI. BONDAGE (SLAVERY) 267

way for its abolition and extinction by circumscribing the means
of possession within the narrowest Hmits. Islam did not deal
capriciously with this important question. Whilst proclaiming
in the most emphatic terms the natural equality of human
beings, it did not, regardless of consequences, enfranchise the
men and women already in bondage, which would have only
been productive of evil in a world not then ripe for that con-
summation of human liberty, moral and intellectual.

The mutilation of the human body was also explicitly
forbidden by Mohammed, and the institution which flourished
both in the Persian and the Byzantine empires was denounced
in severe terms. Slavery by purchase was unknown during
the reigns of the first four CaHphs. There is at least no
authentic record of any slave having been acquired by purchase
during their tenure of the office. But with the accession of the
usurping house of Ommeyya a change came over the spirit
of Islam. Muawiyah w^as the first Musulman sovereign who
introduced into the Moslem world the practice of acquiring
slaves by purchase. He w^as also the first to adopt the
Byzantine custom of guarding his women by eunuchs. During
the reigns of the early Abbassides, the Shiah Imam Ja'far
as-Sadik preached against slavery.

The time is now arrived when humanity at large should
raise its voice against the practice of servitude, in whatever
shape or under whatever denomination it may be disguised.
The Moslems especially, for the honour of their great Prophet,
should try to efface that dark page from their history — a page
which would never have been written but for their contra-
vention of the spirit of his laws, however bright it may appear
by the side of the ghastly scrolls on which the deeds of the
professors of the rival creeds are recorded. The day is come
when the voice which proclaimed liberty, equality, and universal
brotherhood among all mankind should be heard with the fresh
vigour acquired from the spiritual existence and spiritual
pervasion of fourteen centuries. It remains for the Moslems
to show the falseness of the aspersions cast on the memory of
the great and noble Prophet, by proclaiming in exphcit terms
that slavery is reprobated by their faith and discountenanced
by their code.

CHAPTER VII
THE POLITICAL SPIRIT OF ISLAM

" The blood of the Zimmi is Uke the blood of the Moslem " — All

HITHERTO, we have considered the teachings of th(
Arabian Prophet solely from one point of view — ae
furnishing the rule of human conduct, and supplying
the guide of man's duty to his Creator and to his fellow-
creatures. We now propose to examine the influence o^
Islam on collective humanity — on nations, and not merel)
on the individual, in short, on the destiny of mankind in the
aggregate.

Seven centuries had passed since the Master of Nazaretl
had come with his message of the Kingdom of Heaven to th(
poor and the lowly. A beautiful life was ended before th(
ministry had barely commenced. And now unutterable
desolation brooded over the empires and kingdoms o:
the earth, and God's children, sunk in misery, were anxiousl}
waiting for the promised deliverance which was so long ir
coming.

In the West, as in the East, the condition of the masses wa;
so miserable as to defy description. They possessed no civi
rights or political privileges. These were the monopoly of th(
rich and the powerful, or of the sacerdotal classes. The lav
was not the same for the weak and the strong, the rich and th(
poor, the great and the lowly. In Sasanide Persia, the priest;
and the landed proprietors, the Dehkdns, enjoyed all power anc
influence, and the wealth of the country was centred in theii
hands. The peasantry and the poorer classes generally wen
ground to the earth under a lawless despotism. In the Byzan
tine Empire, the clergy and the great magnates, courtezans

VII. THE POLITICAL SPIRIT OF ISLAM 269

and other nameless ministrants to the vices of Cjesar and
proconsul, were the happy possessors of wealth, influence
and power. The people grovelled in the most abject misery.
In the barbaric kingdoms — in fact, wherever feudalism
had established itself — by far the largest proportion of the
population were either serfs or slaves.

Villeinage or serfdom was the ordinary status of the peasantry.
At first there was little distinction between praedial and domestic
slavery. Both classes of slaves, with their families, and their
goods and chattels, belonged to the lord of the soil, who could
deal with them at his own free will and pleasure.^ In later
times the serfs or villeins were either annexed to the manor,
and were bought and sold with the land to which they belonged,
or were annexed to the person of the lord, and were transferable
from one owner to another. They could not leave their lord
without his permission ; and if they ran away, or were pur-
loined from him, might be claimed and recovered by action,
like beasts or other chattels. They held, indeed, small portions
of land by way of sustaining themselves and their families, but
it was at the mere will of the lord, who might dispossess them
whenever he pleased. A villein could acquire no property,
either in land or goods ; but if he purchased either, the lord
might enter upon them, oust the villein, and seize them to his
own use.

An iron collar round the neck was the badge of both praedial
servitude and domestic slavery. The slaves were driven from
place to place in gangs, fed like swine, and housed worse than
swine, with fettered feet and manacled hands, linked together
in a single chain which led from collar to collar. The trader
in human flesh rode with a heavy knotted lash in his hands,
with which he ' encouraged ' the weary and flagging. This
whip when it struck, and that was frequently, cut the flesh out
of the body. Men, women, and children were thus dragged
about the country with rags on their body, their ankles ulcerated,
their naked feet torn. If any of the wretches flagged and fell,
they were laid on the ground and lashed until the skin was flayed
and they were nearly dead. The horrors of the Middle Passage,

* The Church retained its slaves longest. Sir Thomas Smith in his Common-
wealth speaks bitterly of the hypocrisy of the clergy.

270 THE SPIRIT OF ISLAM ii.

the sufferings of the poor negroes in the Southern States of
North America before the War of Emancipation, the cruelties
practised by the Soudanese slave-hfters, give us some con-
ception of the terrible sufferings of the slaves under Christian
domination at the time when Islam was first promulgated, and
until the close of the fifteenth century. ^ And even after the
lapse of almost two thousand years of Christ's reign, we still
find Christians lashing to death helpless women, imprisoned for
real or imaginary pohtical offences by one of the most powerful ,
empires of the civilised world. ^ i

The condition of the so-called freemen was nowise better
than that of the ordinary serfs. If they wanted to part with
their lands, they must pay a fine to the lord of the manor. If
they wanted to buy any, they must likewise pay a fine. They
could not take by succession any property until they had paid !
a heavy duty. They could not grind their corn or make their |
bread without paying a share to the lord. They could not
harvest their crops before the Church had first appropriated its
tenth, the king his twentieth, the courtiers their smaller shares.
They could not leave their homes without the leave of the lord,
and they were bound, at all times, to render him gratuitous
services. If the lord's son or daughter married, they must ;
cheerfully pay their contributions. But when the freeman's !
daughter married, she must first submit to an infamous outrage '.
— and not even the bishop, the servant of Christ, when he ;
happened to be the lord of the manor, would waive the atrocious ■
privilege of barbarism. Death even had no solace for these
poor victims of barbarism. Living, they were subject to the ;
inhumanities of man ; dead, they were doomed to eternal
perdition ; for a. felo-de-se was the unholiest of criminals, there |
was no room for his poor body in consecrated ground ; he '
could only be smuggled away in the dead of night and buried
in some unhallowed spot with a stake through his body as a
warning to others., \

1 In the Parliamentary War both sides sold their opponents as slaves to ;l
the colonists. After the suppression of the Duke of Monmouth's rebellion i
all his followers were sold into slavery. The treatment of the slaves in the i
colonies at the hands of " the Pilgrim Fathers " and their descendants will \\
not bear description.

» This was written before the fall of the Romanoffs.

VII. THE POLITICAL SPIRIT OF ISLAM 271

Such was the terrible misery which hung over the people !
But the baron in his hall, the bishop in his palace, the priest in
his cloister, little recked they of the sufferings of the masses.
The clouds of night had gathered over the fairest portion of
Europe and Africa. Everywhere the will of the strongest was
the measure of law and right. The Church afforded no help
to the downtrodden and oppressed. Its teachings were
opposed to the enfranchisement of the human race from the
rule of brute force. " The early Fathers " had condemned
resistance to the constituted authorities as a deadly sin. No
tyranny, no oppression, no outrages upon humanity were held
to justify subjects in forcibly protecting themselves against
the injustice of their rulers. The servants of Jesus had made
common cause with those whom he had denounced, — the rich
and powerful tyrant. They had associated themselves with
feudalism, and enjoyed all its privileges as lords of the soil,
barons and princes.

The non-Christians — Jews, heretics, or pagans — enjoyed,
under Christian domination, a fitful existence. It was a matter
of chance whether they would be massacred or reduced to
slavery. Rights they had none ; enough if they were suffered
to exist. If a Christian contracted an ilUcit union with a non-
Christian, — a lawful union was out of the question, — he was
burnt to death. The Jews might not eat or drink or sit at the
same table with the Christians, nor dress hke them. Their
children were liable to be torn from their arms, their goods
plundered, at the will of the baron or bishop, or a frenzied
populace. And this state of things lasted until the close of
the seventeenth century.

Not until the Recluse of Hira sounded the note of freedom,
— not until he proclaimed the practical equality of mankind,
not until he abolished every privilege of caste, and emancipated
labour, — did the chains which had held in bond the nations
of the earth fall to pieces. He came with the same message
which had been brought by his precursors and he fulfilled it.

The essence of the pohtical character of Islam is to be found
in the charter, which was granted to the Jews by the Prophet
after his arrival in Medina, and the notable message sent to^the
Christians of Najran and the neighbouring territories after

272 THE SPIRIT OF ISLAM ii.

Islam had fully established itself in the Peninsula. This latter
document has, for the most part, furnished the guiding principle ;
to aU Moslem rulers in their mode of dealing with their non-
Moslem subjects, and if they have departed from it in any
instance the cause is to be found in the character of the par-
ticular sovereign. If we separate the political necessity which
has often spoken and acted in the name of religion, no faith is
more tolerant than Islam to the followers of other creeds.^
" Reasons of State " have led a sovereign here and there to
display a certain degree of intolerance, or to insist upon a
certain uniformity of faith ; but the system itself has ever
maintained the most complete tolerance. Christians and Jews,
as a rule, have never been molested in the exercise of their
religion, or constrained to change their faith. If they are ;
required to pa}^ a special tax, it is in lieu of military service, ;
and it is but right that those who enjoy the protection of the ;
State should contribute in some shape to the pubUc burdens. •
Towards the idolaters there was greater strictness in theory, ,j
but in practice the law was equally hberal. If at any time i|
they were treated with harshness, the cause is to be found in j
the passions of the ruler or the population. The religious :
element was used only as a pretext. |

In support of the time-worn thesis that the non-Moslem i
subjects 2 of Islamic States labour under severe disabilities,
reference is made not only to the narrow views of the later
canonists and lawyers of Islam, but also to certain verses of
the Koran, in order to show that the Prophet did not view
non-Moslems with favour, and did not encourage friendly .
relations between them and his followers.^ In dealing with ,
this subject, we must not forget the stress and strain of the
life-and-death struggle in which Islam was involved when
those verses were promulgated, and the treacherous means that
were often employed by the heathens, as well as the Jews and
the Christians, to corrupt and seduce the Moslems from the
new Faith. At such a time, it was incumbent upon the Teacher

1 Comp. Gobineau, Les Religions et les Philosophies dans I'Asie Centrale.

2 In the Islamic system the non-Moslem subjects of Moslem States are called
Ahl-uz-zimmah or Zimmis. i.e " people living under guarantees,"

3 See Sell's Essays on IsWm,

VII. THE POLITICAL SPIRIT OF ISLAM 273

to warn his followers against the wiles and insidious designs of
hostile creeds. And no student of comparative history can
blame him for trying to safeguard his little commonwealth
against the treachery of enemies and aliens. But when we
come to look at his general treatment of non-Moslem sub-
jects, we find it marked by a large-hearted tolerance and
sympathy.

Has any conquering race or Faith given to its subject
nationalities a better guarantee than is to be found in the
following words of the Prophet } "To [the Christians of]
Najran and the neighbouring territories, the security of God
and the pledge of His Prophet are extended for their lives,
their religion, and their property — to the present as well as
the absent and others besides ; there shall be no interference
\\dth [the practice of] their faith or their observances ; nor any
change in their rights or privileges ; no bishop shall be removed
from his bishopric ; nor any monk from his monastery, nor
any priest from his priesthood, and they shall continue to
enjoy every thing great and small as heretofore ; no image or
cross shall be destroyed ; they shall not oppress or be oppressed ;
they shall not practise the rights of blood-vengeance as
in the Days of Ignorance ; no tithes shall be levied from
them nor shall they be required to furnish provisions for the
troops." ^

After the subjugation of Hira, and as soon as the people had
taken the oath of allegiance, Khalid bin-Walid issued a pro-
clamation by which he guaranteed the lives, liberty and
property of the Christians, and declared that " they shall not
be prevented from beating their ndkm ^ and taking out their
crosses on occasions of festivals." " And this declaration,"
says Imam Abu-Yusuf,^ " was approved of and sanctioned by
the Caliph * and his council." ^

1 I.e. nor shall troops be quartered on them ; Fithlh ul-Bulddn (Balazuri).
p. 65 ; Kitdb-ul-Khardj of Imam Abu Yusuf. Muir gives this guarantee of
the Prophet in an abridged form, vol. ii. p. 299 ; see Appendix.

* A piece of wood used in Eastern Christian churches in place of a bell.
' The Chief Kazi of Harun ar-Rashid.

* Abu Bakr.

'•• Consisting of Omar. Osman and Ali and the other leading Companions
of the Prophet ; see the Kitdb \d-Kharaj, p. 84.
SI. S

274 THE SPIRIT OF ISLAM ii.

The non-Moslem subjects were not precluded from building
new churches or temples. Only in places exclusively inhabited
by Moslems a rule of this kind existed in theory. " No new
Church or temple," said Abdullah bin Abbas/ " can be erected
in a town solely inhabited by Moslems ; but in other places
where there are already Zimmis inhabiting from before, we
must abide by our contract with them." ^ In practice, how-
ever, the prohibition was totally disregarded. In the reign of
Mamun, we hear of eleven thousand Christian churches,
besides hundreds of synagogues and fire-temples within the
empire. This enlightened monarch, who has been represented
as " a bitter enemy " of the Christians, included in his Council
the representatives of all the communities under his sway, —
Moslems, Jews, Christians, Sabaeans and Zoroastrians ; whilst
the rights and privileges of the Christian hierarchy were
carefully regulated and guaranteed.

It is a notable fact, with few parallels even in modern history,
that after the conquest of Egypt the Caliph Omar scrupulously
preserved intact the property dedicated to the Christian
churches and continued the allowances made by the former
government for the support of the priests.^

The best testimony to the toleration of the early Moslem
government is furnished by the Christians themselves. In
the reign of Osman (the third Caliph), the Christian Patriarch
of Merv addressed the Bishop of Ears, named Simeon, in the
following terms : " The Arabs who have been given by God the
kingdom (of the earth) do not attack the Christian faith ; on
the contrary they help us in our religion ; they respect our
God and our Saints, and bestow gifts on our churches and
monasteries."

In order to avoid the least semblance of high-handedness,
no Moslem was allowed to acquire the land of a zimmi even
by purchase. " Neither the Imam nor the Sultan could dis-
possess a zimmi of his property."

The Moslems and the zimmis were absolutely equal in the
eye of the law. "Their blood," said Ali the Caliph, " was j
like our blood." Many modern governments, not excepting |

^ A cousin of the Prophet and a jurist of recognised authority.

» Kitab nl-Khardj, p. 88. ^ Makrizi, pp. 492, 499. ;

i VII. THE POLITICAL SPIRIT OF ISLAM 275

some of the most civilised, may take the Moslem administration
for their model. In the punishment of crimes there was no
difference between the rulers and the ruled. Islam's law is
that if a zimmi is killed by a Moslem, the latter is liable to the
: same penalty as in the reverse case.^

} In their anxiety for the welfare of the non-Moslem subjects,
the Caliphs of Bagdad, like their rivals of Cordova, created a
special department charged with the protection of the zimmis
and the safeguarding of their interests. The head of this
department was called, in Bagdad, Kdtih-ul-Jihhdzeh ; in
Spain, Kdtib-uz-Zimdm.^

Mutawakkil, who rased to the ground the mausoleum of the
martyr Husain and forbade pilgrimages to the consecrated
spot, excluded non-Moslems, as he excluded the Moslem
I Rationalists, from the employment of the State and subjected
them to many disabilities. In the later works of law, written
whilst the great struggle was proceeding between Islam and
Christendom, on one side for Hfe, on the other for brute
mastery, there occur no doubt passages which give colour to
the allegation that in Islam zimmis are subject to humiliation.
But no warrant for this statement will be found in the rules
inculcated by the Teacher, or his immediate disciples or suc-
cessors. It must be added, however, that the bigoted views
of the later canonists were never carried into practice ; and
the toleration and generosity with which the non-Moslems were
j treated are evidenced by the fact that zimmis could be
{ nominated as executors to the wills of Moslems ; that they
I often filled the office of rectors of Moslem universities and
I educational institutions, and of curators of Moslem endow-
I ments so long as they did not perform any religious functions.
I And when a non-Moslem of worth and merit died, the Moslems
i attended his funeral in a body.

■ In the beginning military commands, for obvious reasons,

> Zail'i in his T akhrij-id-Hedaya mentions a case which occurred in the
; Caliphate of Omar. A Moslem of the name of Bakr bin Wail killed a Christian
' named Hairut. The Caliph ordered that " the killer should be surrendered to

■ the heirs of the killed." The culprit was made over to Honain, Hairiit's heir,
i who put him to death, p. 338, Delhi edition. A similar case is reported in the

reign of Omar bin Abdul Aziz.

* With a Zal ; see The Short History of the Saracens, p. 573.

276 THE SPIRIT OF ISLAM 11.

were not entrusted to non-Moslems, but all other posts of
emolument and trust were open to them equally with Moslems.
This equality was not merely theoretical, for from the first
century of the Hegira we find important offices of state held
by Christians, Jews and Magians. The Abbasides, with rare
exceptions, recognised no distinction among their subjects on
the score of religion. And the dynasties that succeeded them
in power scrupulously followed their example.

If the treatment of non-Moslems in Islamic countries is
compared with that of non-Christians under European Govern-
ments, it would be found that the balance of humanity and
generosity, generally speaking, inclines in favour of Islam.
Under the Mogul Emperors of Delhi, Hindus commanded
armies, administered provinces and sat in the councils of the
sovereign. Even at the present time can it be said that in no
European empire, ruling over mixed nationalities and faiths,
is any distinction made of creed, colour or race ?

That which Islam had almost exclusively in view was to
inculcate among mankind the principle of divine unity and
human equality preached by the Prophet. So long as the
central doctrine of the unity of God and the message of the
Prophet is recognised and accepted, Islam allows the widest
latitude to the human conscience. Consequently, wherever the
Moslem missionary-soldier made his appearance, he was hailed
by the down-trodden masses and the persecuted heretics as
the harbinger of freedom and emancipation from a galling
bondage. Islam brought to them practical equahty in the
eye of the law, and fixity of taxation.

The battle of Kadesia, which threw Persia into the hands
of the Moslems, was the signal of dehverance to the bulk of
the Persians, as the battles of Yermuk and Ajnadin were to the
Syrians, the Greeks, and the Egyptians. The Jews, whom the
Zoroastrians had massacred from time to time, the Christians,
whom they hunted from place to place, breathed freely under
the authority of the Prophet, the watchword of whose faith
was the brotherhood of man. The people everywhere received
the Moslems as their hberators. Wherever any resistance
was offered, it was by the priesthood and the aristocracy.
The masses and the working classes in general, who were

VII. THE POLITICAL SPIRIT OF ISLAM 277

under the ban of Zoroastrianism, ranged themselves with the
conquerors. A simple confession of an everlasting truth placed
them on the same footing as their Moslem emancipators.

The feudal chiefs of the tribes and villages retained all their
privileges, honours, and local influence, — " more than we
believe," says Gobineau, " for the oppressions and persecutions
of the Musulmans have been greatly exaggerated."

The conquest of Africa and Spain was attended with the
same result. The Arians, the Pelagians, and other heretics
hitherto the victims of orthodox fury and hatred, — the people
at large, who had been terribly oppressed by a lawless soldiery
and a still more lawless priesthood, — found peace and security
under Islam. By an irony of fate, which almost induces a
belief in the Nemesis of the ancients, the Jews, whose animosity
towards the Prophet very nearly wrought the destruction of
the Islamic commonwealth, found in the Moslems their best
protectors. " Insulted, plundered, hated and despised by all
Christian nations," they found that refuge in Islam, that
protection from inhumanity, which was ruthlessly denied to
them in Christendom.

Islam gave to the people a code which, however archaic
in its simplicity, was capable of the greatest development in
accordance with the progress of material civihsation. It
conferred on the State a flexible constitution, based on a just
appreciation of human rights and human duty. It limited
taxation, it made men equal in the eye of the law, it consecrated
the principles of self-government. It established a control
over the sovereign power by rendering the executive authority
subordinate to the law, — a law based upon religious sanction
and moral obligations. " The excellence and effectiveness of
each of these principles," says Urquhart " (each capable of
immortalising its founder), gave value to the rest ; and aU
combined, endowed the system which they formed with a
force and energy exceeding those of any other political system.
Within the lifetime of a man, though in the hands of a popula-
tion, wild, ignorant, and insignificant, it spread over a greater
extent than the dominions of Rome. While it retained its
primitive character, it was irresistible." ^

* Urquhart, Spirit of the East, vol. i. Introd. p. xxviii.

278 THE SPIRIT OF ISLAM ii.

The short government of Abu Bakr was too fully occupied
with the labour of pacifying the desert tribes to afford time for
any systematic regulation of the provinces. But with the
reign of Omar — a truly great man — commenced that sleepless
care for the welfare of the subject nations which characterised
the early Moslem governments.

An examination of the political condition of the Moslems
under the early Caliphs brings into view a popular government
administered by an elective chief with limited powers. The
prerogatives of the head of the State were confined to admini-
strative and executive matters, such as the regulation of the
police, control of the army, transaction of foreign affairs,
disbursement of the finances, etc. But he could never act in
contravention of the recognised law.

The tribunals were not dependent on the government. Their
decisions were supreme ; and the early Caliphs could not
assume the power of pardoning those whom the regular
tribunals had condemned. The law was the same for the poor
as for the rich, for the man in power as for the labourer in the
field. i

As time advances the stringency of the system is relaxed |
but the form is always maintained. Even the usurpers, who,i
without right, by treachery and murder seized the reins of'
government, and who in their persons represented the pagan
oligarchy which had been displaced by the teachings of Islam,
observed more or less the outward semblance of law-abiding
executive heads of a representative government. And the
rulers of the later dynasties, when they overstepped the bounds,
often unhmited, of arbitrary power, were restrained by the;
sentence of the general body of jurisconsults, which in all
Musulman States serves as a constitutional check on the
sovereign. In the early times, however, the " Companions "
of the Master formed as it were an effective Council of State.
The consideration attached to the title of " Companion of the
Prophet " was as great in the camp as in the city. The power-
ful influence which they possessed increased with the conquests
of the Moslems. The quality of ashdh carried with it a
character of sanctity and nobleness. When a person bearing
this title was in an action, the crowd flocked to his side and;

VII. THE POLITICAL SPIRIT OF ISLAM 279

followed his lead. In the first degree were those who had
accompanied the Prophet from Mecca — the Exiles, and the
Ansar who had received him with devotion, and who had
battled in defence of the Faith at Badr and Ohod ; those who
were charged with any work by him and those who had talked
with him, seen him, or heard him. In the last rank came
those who had served under any of the sahdba, and thus came
indirectly within the magic influence of the Master.

An incident which occurred during the Caliphate of Omar
shows the absolute equality of all men in Islam. Jabala, king
of the Ghassanides, having embraced the Faith, had proceeded
to Medina to pay his homage to the Commander of the Faithful.
He had entered the city with great pomp and ceremony, and
been received with much consideration. Whilst performing
the tawdf, or circumambulation of the Kaaba, a humble pilgrim
engaged in the same sacred duties accidentally dropped a piece
of his pilgrim's dress over the royal shoulders. Jabala turned
round furiously and struck him a blow which knocked out the
poor man's teeth. The rest of this episode must be told in
the memorable words of Omar himself to Abu Obaidah, com-
manding the Moslem troops in Syria. " The poor man came
to me," writes the Caliph, " and prayed for redress ; I sent
for Jabala, and when he came before me I asked him why he
had so ill-treated a brother-Moslem. He answered that the
man had insulted him, and that were it not for the sanctity of
the place he would have killed him on the spot. I answered
that his words added to the gravity of his offence, and that
unless he obtained the pardon of the injured man he would
have to submit to the usual penalty of the law. Jabala
replied, ' I am a king, and the other is only a common man.'
" King or no king, both of you are Musulmans and both of
you are equal in the eye of the law.' He asked that the penalty
might be delayed until the next day ; and, on the consent of
the injured, I accorded the delay. In the night Jabala escaped,
and has now joined the Christian dog.^ But God will grant
thee victory over him and the hke of them ..."

This letter was read by Abu Obaidali at the head of his

* Such was the designation usually given to the Byzantine emperors by the
early Moslems.

2So THE SPIRIT OF ISLAM ii.

troops. These communications appear to have been frequent
under the early Cahphate. No person in the camp or in the
city was a stranger to pubHc affairs. Every Friday after
divine service, the Commander of the Faithful mentioned to
the assembly the important nominations and events of the day.
The prefects in their provinces followed the example. No one
was excluded from these general assemblies of the public. It
was the reign of democracy in its best form. The Pontiff of
Islam, the Commander of the Faithful, was not hedged roimd '
by any divinity. He was responsible for the administration of
the State to his subjects. The stern devotion of the early
Caliphs to the well-being of the people, and the austere
simphcity of their lives, were in strict accordance with the
example of the Master. They preached and prayed in the
mosque like the Prophet ; received in their homes the poor
and oppressed, and failed not to give a hearing to the meanest.
Without cortege, without pomp or ceremony, they ruled the ,
hearts of men by the force of their character. Omar travelled i
to Syria to receive the capitulation of Jerusalem, accompanied I
by a single slave. Abu Bakr on his death-bed left only a suit
of clothes, a camel, and a slave to his heir. Every Friday, Ali !
distributed his own allowance from the public treasury among I
the distressed and suffering ; and set an example to the people
by his respect for the ordinary tribunals. Whilst the Republic
lasted none of the CaUphs could alter, or act contrary to, the ■
judgment of the constituted courts of justice.^

Naturally, it is difficult for a new government, introduced by
force of arms, to conciliate the affection of the people at once.
But the early Saracens offered to the conquered nations motives
for the greatest confidence and attachment. Headed by chiefs
of the moderation and gentleness of Abu Obaidah, who
tempered and held in check the ferocity of soldiers like Khalid,
they maintained intact the civil rights of their subjects. They
accorded to all the conquered nations the completest religious '
toleration. Their conduct might furnish to many of the i!
civilised governments of modern times the noblest example of |

1 The first sentence of a court of justice which was not carried into execution
was under Mu'awi5-ah, who pardoned a man found guilty by the judge upon
the criminal reciting a poem in praise of the usurper.

VII. THE POLITICAL SPIRIT OF ISLAM 281

civil and religious libe^t5^ They did not lash women to death.
They did not condemn innocent females to Siberian mines
and the outrages of their guards. They had the sagacity not
to interfere with any beneficent civil institution, existing in
the conquered countries, which did not militate wkh their
religion.

The measures taken by Omar to secure the agricultural

prosperity of the people evince an ever-present solicitude to

promote their well-being and interests. Taxation on land was

fixed upon an equable and moderate basis ; aqueducts and

canals were ordered to be made in every part of the empire.

The feudal burdens, which had afflicted the cultivators of the

soil, were absolutely withdrawn, and the peasantry were

emancipated from the bondage of centuries. The death of

this remarkable man at the hands of an assassin was an un-

i doubted loss to the government. His character, stern and yet

just, his practical commonsense and knowledge of men, had

eminently fitted him to repress and hold in check the ambitious

; designs of the children of Ommeyya. On his death-bed Omar

: entrusted to six electors the task of nominating a successor to

I the office . The CaHphate was offered to the son of Abu Talib,

but Ommeyyade intrigue had annexed to the proposal a

' condition which they knew Ali would not accept. He was

i required to govern, not only in accordance with the laws and

• precedents of the Prophet, but also with those estabUshed by

his two predecessors. With characteristic independence Ali

; refused to allow his judgment to be so fettered. The Caliphate

\ was then offered, as it was expected by the Ommeyyades, to

! their kinsman Osman. The accession of this venerable chief

I to the vicegerency of the Prophet proved in the sequel an

j unquahfied disaster to the commonwealth of Islam. He was

I a member of that family which had always borne a deep-rooted

I animosity towards the children of Hashim. They had per-

; secuted the Teacher with rancorous hatred, and had driven

: him from his home. They had struggled hard to crush the

Faith in its infancy, and had battled against it to the last.

Strongly united among themselves, and exercising great

influence among all the tribes of Mozar,^ of wliicli they were

» With a Zdd.

282 THE SPIRIT OF ISLAM ii

the prominent members, the Ommeyyades had watched witi
ill-concealed jealousy the old power and prestige slip awaj'
from their hands. After the fall of Mecca they had acceptec
the inevitable, but never forgave the house of Hashim oi
Islam for the ruin which the son of Abdullah had wrought tc
them. Whilst the Prophet lived, his commanding personalit)
overawed all these traitors. Many of them had made c
nominal profession of the Faith from self-interest ^ and i
greed to secure a part of the worldly goods which the success
of the Moslems brought to the Islamic commonwealth. Bui
they never ceased to hate the democracy proclaimed b}
Mohammed. Libertines and profligates, unscrupulous anc
cruel, pagans at heart, they chafed at a religion of equal rights
a religion which exacted strict observance of moral duties anc
personal chastity. They set themselves, from the commence
ment, to undermine the government to which they had sworr
allegiance, and to destroy the men upon whom the Republic
depended. The lirst two successors of the Prophet had kepi
their ambition within bounds, and repressed their intrigue;
and treacherous designs. With the election of Osman, thej
flocked to Medina like vultures scenting the prey. His acces
sion was the signal for that outburst of hatred, that pent-uj
profligacy on the part of the Ommeyyades, which convulsec
the Islamic world to its innermost core, and destroyed it:
noblest and most precious hves.

Under Osman there was a complete reversal of the policj'
and administration of his two predecessors, whose decisions b
had engaged to follow. All the old governors and commanderi
taken from among the immediate disciples of the Prophet anc
his Companions were displaced. Merit and faithful service
were wholly disregarded. All offices of trust and emolumen"
were seized by the Ommeyyades. The governorships of the
provinces were bestowed on men who had proved themselve;
most inimical to Islam, and the treasury was emptied in theii'
favour. We shall have to describe the subsequent events ii
some detail when dealing with the divisions in the Church o
Mohammed ; suffice it for us to say, that the corruptness of th(
administration, the total disregard of all precedent, the gros;
1 They were, therefore, called the Muallafat ul-kuliXb.

I vil. THE POLITICAL SPIRIT OF ISLAM 283

I favouritism displayed by the old Caliph towards his kinsmen,
\ and his refusal to listen to any complaint, gave rise to serious
f disaffection among the old companions of the Prophet and the
' general body of the Moslems, ending in revolt in which Osman
I lost his life. On Osman's tragical death, AH was elected to
i the vacant Caliphate by the consensus of the people. The
i rebellions which followed are matters of history. " Had Ali
I been allowed to reign in peace," says Oelsner, " his virtues,
\ his firmness, and his ascendancy of character would have
I perpetuated the old republic and its simple manners." ^ The
t dagger of an assassin destro3^ed the hope of Islam. " With
; him," says Major Osborn, " perished the truest-hearted and
! best Moslem of whom Mohammedan history has preserved the
I remembrance." Seven centuries before, this wonderful man
! would have been apotheosised ; thirteen centuries later his
I genius and talents, his virtues and his valour, would have
! extorted the admiration of the civilised world. As a ruler, he
came before his time. He was almost unfitted by his uncom-
promising love of truth, his gentleness, and his merciful nature,
to cope with the Ommeyyades' treachery and falsehood.
With the estabUshment of an autocracy under Mu'awiyah
' the political spirit of Islam underwent a great change. The
! sovereigns were no more the heads of a commonwealth, elected
i by the suffrage of the people, and governing solely for the
: welfare of their subjects and the glory of the Faith. From the
! time of IMu'awiyah the reigning Cahph nominated his successor ;
I and the oath of fealty taken by the people in his presence, or
) in that of his proxy, confirmed his nomination. This system
i combined the vices of democracy and despotism without the
advantages of either. Under the Repubhc not only were
i the Cahphs assisted by a council of the Companions of the
' Prophet, but the provincial governors had similar advisory
bodies. During the Ommeyyade rule the government was a
pure autocracy tempered by the freedom of speech possessed
by the desert Arabs and the learned or holy, which enabled
them, often by a phrase or verse from the Koran or from the
poets, to change the mood of the sovereign. Under the first
five Cahphs of the Abbaside dynasty also the government

' Oelsner, Des Effets de la religion de Mohammed.

284 THE SPIRIT OF ISLAM ii.

continued to be more or less autocratic, although the j
departmental ministers and prominent members of the family !
formed a body of unauthorised councillors. A regular Council l
composed of the leading representatives of communities owning
allegiance to the Caliph was for the first time established in
the reign of Mamun the Great. The Buyides, the Samanides,
the Seljukides, and the Ayyubides all had their councils in j
which the people were more or less represented. '

But absolutism in the hands of the early Abbasides helped :
in the intellectual development and material prosperity of the
Islamic nations. In the vigour of their rule and the firmness ;
with which they held the reins of government they may be |
compared with the Tudors of England. The political and i
administrative machinery of the Abbaside Cahphate, which i
was afterwards adopted by the succeeding dynasties, owes its ;
origin to the genius of Mansur, the founder of Bagdad. In
its effective distribution of work and its control of details it
ranks with the most perfectly organised systems of modern |
times. I

At the very commencement of their rule, which lasted forj
several centuries, they estabUshed a Chamber of Finance and|
a Chancellery of State, the first being charged with the duty of j
receiving the taxes and disbursing the expenses of the empire,
the second with the duty of impressing a character of authen-
ticity on the mandates of the sovereigns. Later, for the better
subdivision of work, other departments of state (called diwdns)
were created, of which the following are the principal : — the
Diwdn-ul-Khardj (Central Offtce of Taxes) or Department of
Finance ; the Diwdn-ud-Did (Offtce of the Crown Property) ;
the Diwdn-iiz-zimdm (Audit or Accounts Office) ; the Diwdn-
ul-Jund (War Office) ; the Diwdn-ul-Mawdli wa'l Ghilmdn
(Office for the Protection of Clients and Slaves), where a
register was kept of the freedmen and slaves of the Caliph, and
arrangements made for their maintenance ; the Diwdn-ul-
Barid (the Post Office) ; Diwdn-uz-Zimdm an-Nafakdt (House-
hold Expense Office) ; the Diwdn-ur-Rasdil (Board of Corre-
spondence or Chancery Office) ; the Diwdn-ut-Toukia (Board of
Requests) ; the Diwdn un nazr fi'l Mazdlim (Board for the
Inspection of Grievances) ; the Diwdn-ul-Ahdds w'ash-Shurta

VII. THE POLITICAL SPIRIT OF ISLAM 285

(Militia and Police Office) ; and the Diwdn-ul-'Atd (Donation
Office), analogous to the paymaster-general's department,
charged with the payment of the regular troops. The protec-
tion of the interests of non-Moslems was entrusted to a special
office, the head of which was called the Kdtih-ul-jihhdzeh.

Each Government office was presided over by a director
who was designated the Rats, or Sadr, and the practical work
!of control and supervision was carried on by inspectors, called
Mushrifs, or Ndzirs.'^

To this organisation the Abbaside CaHphs added the
appointment of an officer with the designation of Hdjib, who
introduced the foreign ambassadors, and also foraied a Court
of Appeal from the decrees of the Kazis. They instituted the
office of Vizier, or Prime Minister, whose duty it was to submit
for the consideration of the sovereign the various matters
requiring his decision. They gave regularity to the provincial
administration, and fixed definitely the contributions due from
the provinces. They constructed caravanserais, built cisterns
and aqueducts along the road from Bagdad to Mecca, planted
trees along the route, and everywhere founded wayside resting-
■ places for the travellers and pilgrims. They made a route
. between Mecca and Medina, and laid relays of horses and
! camels between Hijaz and Yemen to facilitate communication
I between these two provinces. They established couriers in
i every city for the despatch of the post. They formed a central
office in the metropolis for the custody and preservation of the
archives of the empire, and created an efficient pohce in every
part of their dominions. They formed a syndicate of mer-
chants, charged with the supervision of commercial transactions,
the decision of disputes between mercantile men, and the duty
1 of suppressing fraud. Not only did each centre of commerce
' possess its corporation of merchants but most cities of
importance had their town councils. They created the office
of Miihtesib, or intendant of the market, who went round daily
to examine the weights and measures of the tradespeople.
They fostered self-government and protected and encouraged
municipal institutions. Agriculture was promoted by advances

^ For a full account of the political and administrative machinery of the
Abbasides, see The Short History of the Saracens, pp. 402-443.

286 THE SPIRIT OF ISLAM ii.

to the peasantry, and periodical reports were required from the
provincial officers respecting the prosperity of the people and
the state of the country. Many of them, in the midst of their
pomp and circumstance, tried to maintain a semblance of
republican virtue. Books written by them, baskets woven by
them, used to be sold in the market, and the proceeds were
supposed to supply the personal expenses of the Caliphs.
Their zeal to promote the well-being of their subjects may
perhaps be taken into the great Account against their cruelties
towards the Alides. Under Mamun and his two immediate
successors the Abbaside empire attained the zenith of
prosperity.

Spain furnishes one of the most instructive examples of the
political character of Islam and its adaptability to all forms
and conditions of society. This country had suffered fright-
fully under the barbarian hordes which had swept over the
land, destroying and levelling every institution they found
existing. The kingdoms they had formed over the ruins of
the Roman administration had effaced the germs of political
development. Their subjects were weighted down with feudal
burdens, and all the terrible consequences flowing therefrom.
Vast areas were completely denuded of population. The
introduction of the Islamic Code enfranchised the people as
well as the land from feudal bondage. The desert became
fruitful, thriving cities sprang into existence on all sides, and
order took the place of anarchy. Immediately on their arrival
on the soil of Spain, the Saracens published an edict assuring
to the subject races, without any difference of race or creed,
the most ample liberty, Suevi, Goth, Vandal, Roman, and Jew
were all placed on an equal footing with the Moslem. They
guaranteed to both Christian and Jew the full exercise of their
religions, the free use of their places of worship, and perfect
security of person and property. They even allowed them to
be governed, within prescribed limits, by their own laws, to
fill all civil offices and serve in the army. Their women were
invited to intermarry with the conquerors. Does not the conduct
of the Arabs in Spain offer an astonishing contrast to that of
many European nations, even in modern times, in their treat-
ment of conquered nationalities ? Whilst to compare the Arabi

'm. THE POLITICAL SPIRIT OF ISLAM 287

rule with that of the Normans in England, or of the Christians
in Syria during the Crusades, would be an insult to common-
^ense and humanity. The fidehty of the Arabs in maintaining
their promises, the equal-handed justice which they administered
to all classes, without distinction of any kind, secured them the
confidence of the people. And not only in these particulars,
but also in generosity of mind and in amenity of manner, and
in the hospitality of their customs, the Arabians were dis-
tinguished above all other people of those times. ^ The Jews
had, owing to the influence of the Christian priesthood, suffered
bitterly under the barbarians, and they profited most by the
change of government. Spanish ladies of the highest rank,
among them the sister of Pelagius and the daughter of Roderick,
contracted marriages with " the Infidels," as the orthodox Jean
Mariana calls the Moslems. They enjoyed all the rights and
:privileges which their rank gave them with full liberty of
iconscience. The Moslems invited all the landed proprietors,
Iwhom the violence of Roderick had driven into the mountains,
ito abandon their retreats. Unhappily the depopulation was so
igreat that this measure had no effect in supplying inhabitants
to the soil. They, accordingly, held forth the most generous
advantages to foreign cultivators who wished to establish them-
selves in the Peninsula. These offers brought large and
industrious colonies from Africa and Asia. Fifty thousand
Jews at one time, accompanied by their women and children,
j settled in Andalusia.

j For seven centuries the Moslems held Spain, and the bene-
ficence of their rule, in spite of intestine quarrels and dynastic
disputes, is testified to and acknowledged even by their
: enemies. The high culture attained by the Spanish Arabs has
'been sometimes considered as due principally to frequent
I marriages between Moslems and Christians. This circumstance
: undoubtedly exercised a great influence on the development of
1 the Spanish Moslems and the growth of that wonderful civilisa-
■ tion to which modern Europe owes so much of its advance in
'the arts of peace. ^ What happened in Spain happened also
in other places. Wherever the Moslems entered a change came

1 Conde's History of the Spanish Moors,
» Renan, Averroes et Averroisme,

288 THE SPIRIT OF ISLAM ii

over the countries ; order took the place of lawlessness, and
peace and plenty smiled on the land. As war was not the
privileged profession of one caste, so labour was not the mart
of degradation to another. The pursuit of agriculture was as
popular wdth all classes as the pursuit of arms.^

The importance which Islam attaches to the duties o1
sovereigns towards their subjects, and the manner in which il
promotes the freedom and equality of the people and protects
them against the oppression of their rulers, is shown in £
remarkable work ^ on the reciprocal rights of sovereigns anc
subjects, by Safi-ud-din Mohammed bin AU bin Taba Taba
commonly known as Ibn ut-Tiktaka.^ The book was com
posed in 701 a.h. (1301-2), and is dedicated to Fakhr ud-dti
Tsa bin Ibrahim, Ameer of Mosul.

The first part deals with the duties of sovereigns tc
their subjects, and the rules for the administration of public
affairs and pohtical economy. The author describes th(
qualities essential for a sovereign, — wisdom, justice, know
ledge of the wants and wishes of his people, and the fea
of God ; and adds emphatically that this latter quality i;
the root of all good, and the key to all blessings, " fo
when the king is conscious of the presence of God, Hi
servants will enjoy the blessings of peace and security." Thi

aIJ' jUc xx^ I &lil fc_JlA. S..t

sovereign must also possess the quality of mercy, wy3Jt ^;>*^a*.
and " this is the greatest of all good quahties." He must hav
an ever-present desire to benefit his subjects, and consult wit^
them on their wants ; for the Prophet consulted always wit
his Companions, and God hath said,^ " Consult with them ^ 0:
every affair." In the administration of pubhc affairs, it is th

1 Oelsner. I

2 This work is generally known as the Kitdb-i-Tarikh-ud-Duwal Hist, tj
Dynasties; but its proper title is Kiidb-iil-fakhn fi'l dddb-ul-Sultaniyat wa
duwal nl-Isldynia, " the book of Fakhri, concerning the conduct of sovereigi
and the Islamic dynasties " ; Derenbourg's Edition ; see Appendix.

3 With a hard kdf. * In the Koran. « I.e. The people.

VII. THE POLITICAL SPIRIT OF ISLAM 289

sovereign's duty to superintend the public income, guard the
Uves and property of his subjects, maintain peace, check
the evil-doer, prevent injuries. He must always keep his word,
and then, adds the author significantly, " the duty of the
subject is obedience, but no subject is bound to obey a tyrant."
Ibn Rushd (the great Averroes) says, " the tyrant is he who
governs for himself, and not for his people."

The laws of the Moslems, based on equitable principles, and
remarkable for their simplicity and precision, did not demand
an obedience either difficult to render or incompatible with the
intelligence of mankind. The countries where the Moslems
estabUshed themselves remained exempt from the disastrous
consequences of the feudal system and the feudal code.^
" Admitting no privilege, no caste, their legislation produced
two grand results, — that of freeing the soil from factitious
burdens imposed by barbarian laws, and of assuring to
individuals perfect equality of rights." ^

1 In Corsica, Sardinia, Sicily, and Lower Italy, the feudal system was
introduced after the expulsion of the Arabs.
* Oelsner.

CHAPTER VIII
THE POLITICAL DIVISIONS AND SCHISMS OF ISLAM

iUi\

Hafiz.

TO every philosophical student of the history of religion
the heading of this chapter must cause surprise, ifj
not pain ; to every Islamist devoted to the Founder
of his Faith it must cause sorrow and shame. Alas ! that
the religion of humanity and universal brotherhood should not
have escaped the curse of internecine strife and discord ; that
the Faith which was to bring peace and rest to the distracted
world should itself be torn to pieces by angry passions
and the lust of power. The evils, which we deplored in
Christianity arose from the incompleteness of the system, and_
its incompatibihty with human needs ; in Islam, the evilsj
that we shall have to describe arose from the greed of earthly]
advancement, and the revolutionary instincts of individuals]
and classes impatient of moral law and order. j

Nothing evinces so clearly the extraordinary genius of thfj
Arabian Teacher, his wonderful personality, and the impressive
ness of his call to religious unity and universal citizenship, a;
the world-movement of which he was the cause, and which, ir
spite of internal dynastic wars, carried his people on a tida
wave of conquest from one end of the globe to the other. Arabia ,
hitherto the home of warring tribes and clans, each with itij
blood-feud of centuries, was suddenly animated with a commoi
purpose. Until now the wars of the Arabs and their alliances
their virtues and their vices, their love of independence anc

VIII. THE POLITICAL DIVISIONS AND SCHISMS 291

their clannish feeling, had alike prevented community of action.
Suddenly a nation of shepherds is turned into a nation of kings,
a race of semi-nomades transformed into masters of " a world-
faith and law." With unexampled energy and self-mastering
devotion the congeries of wandering clans planted between
three continents take up the banner of the Faith and bear it
aloft to ever}^ quarter of the earth. " You have been elected
to carry to all mankind the message of mercy, the announcement
i of divine unity," is the call addressed to them, and they respond
I to it with a determination which acknowledges no obstacle.
The intensity of conviction, which alone could carry them
through the barriers of hostile creeds and races, explains the
mystery of the revolution !

Truth is eternal : Mohammed's message was not new. It
had been dehvered before, but had not reached the heart of
I man. His voice quickened the dead into life, revived the
i dying, and made the pulse of humanity beat with the accumu-
lated force of ages. The exodus of the Saracens under this
mighty impulse, its magnitude and its far-reaching effects,
, form the most marvellous phenomenon of modern times. They
; issued from their desert-fastnesses as the preceptors of
; humanity. Within thirty years — the term prophesied for the
' true CaHphate — they were knocking at the gate of every nation,
; from the Hindu Kush to the shores of the Atlantic, to deliver
, their message. In the short space of time which elapsed from
; the death of the Prophet to the subversion of the Republic,
I they built up an empire, which, in its vastness, exceeded that
j achieved by the Romans after thirteen centuries of continuous
1 expansion. Turn over the pages of Ibn ul-Athir, Tabari, or
I Abulfeda, you will find a continuous record of the wave rolling
onward, fertilising every soil over which it passes, assimilating
in its way all that is good.
I The same causes, however, which, until the advent of the
, Prophet, had prevented the growth of the Arabs into a nation,
I — the same tribal jealousies, the same division of clan and clan,
i the marks of which are still visible throughout the Moslem
; world, — led eventually, not only to the ruin of the Republic,
but also to the downfall of the Saracenic empire. " Had the
followers of Mohammed marched on the lines of the Master

292 THE SPIRIT OF ISLAM ii.

and adopted the character of the early CaUphs," says d'Ohsson,
" their empire would have been still more vast and more durable
than that of the Romans." But the greed of the Ommeyyade,
the unruliness of the Arab, and his spirit of individualism,
which showed itself even when arrayed against a common foe,
caused the overthrow of the stupendous fabric which the
heroism and devotion of the early Moslems had raised. Owing
to this, they lost Tours, even whilst victory was within their
grasp ; they were driven out of Spain because they could not
forget the old jealousies of the desert, and make common cause
against the enemy.

But though the Republic fell, and the imperial sceptre passed
from the hands of the Saracens, the Faith lived. It was the
outcome of ages of evolution. It represented the latest phase
in the religious development of man ; it did not depend for its
existence or its growth on the life of empires or men. And as
it spread and fructified, each race and each age profited by its
teachings according to their own spiritual necessities and,
intellectual comprehension ! \

The Church of Mohammed, like the Church of Christ, hasj
been rent by intestine divisions and strifes. Difference o:
opinion on abstract subjects, about which there cannot be an)
certitude in a finite existence, has always given rise to greatei
bitterness and a fiercer hostility than ordinary differences oi
matters within the range of human cognition. The disputei
respecting the nature of Christ deluged the earth with th<|
blood of millions ; the question of Free-will in man caused, i!
not the same amount of bloodshed, equal trouble in Islam;
The claim to infaUibility on the part of the Pontiffs of Ronni
convulsed Christendom to its core ; the infallibility of tb|
people and of the Fathers became in Islam the instrument fa'
the destruction of precious fives.

Most of the divisions in the Church of Mohammed owe thei
origin primarily to political and dynastic causes, — to the oL
tribal quarrels, and the strong feeling of jealousy whic
animated the other Koreishites against the family of Hashiir
It is generally supposed that the Prophet had not expressl
designated any one as his [successor in the spiritual and ten
poral Government of Islam ; but this notion is founded on

VIII. THE POLITICAL DIVISIONS AND SCHISMS 293

mistaken apprehension of facts, for there is abundant evidence
that many a time the Prophet had indicated Ah for the vice-
gerency. Notably on the occasion of the retm^n journey from
the performance of " the Farewell Pilgrimage," during a halt
at a place called Khumm, he had convoked an assembly of the
people accompanying him, and used words which could leave
little doubt as to his intention regarding a successor. " Ali,"
said he, " is to me what Aaron was to Moses. Almighty God !
be a friend to his friends and a foe to his foes ; help those who
help him, and frustrate the hopes of those who betray him ! " ^
On the other hand, the nomination of Abu Bakr to lead prayers
during the Prophet's illness might point to a different choice.
The question came up for discussion and settlement on his
decease, when it became necessary to elect a leader for Islam.
The Hashimites maintained that the office had devolved by
appointment as well as by succession upon Ali. The other
Koreishites insisted upon proceeding by election. Whilst the
kinsmen of Mohammed were engaged in his obsequies, Abu
Bakr was elected to the Caliphate by the votes of the Koreish
and some of the Medinite Ansar. The urgency of an immediate
selection for the headship of the State might explain the haste.
With his usual magnanimity and devotion to the Faith,
scrupulously anxious to avoid the least discord among the
disciples of the Master, Ali at once gave in his adhesion to
Abu Bakr. Three times was he set aside, and on every occasion
he accepted the choice of the electors without demur. He
himself had never stood forth as a candidate for the suffrages
of the electors, and whatever might have been the feeling of
his partisans, he had never refrained from giving to the first
two Cahphs his help and advice in the governance of the
Commonwealth : and they on their side had always deferred
to his counsel and his exposition of the Master's teachings.
We have already referred to the circumstances connected with
the elevation of Osman to the Cahphate. We will here trace

' Ibn Khallikan, vol. i. p. 383. " According to Al-Hazimi," says Ibn-
Khallikan, " Khumm is the name of a valley lying between Mecca and Medina,
and in the neighbourhood of at-Tuhfa. It contains a pond (Ghadir) near
which the Prophet pronounced his invocation." This took place on the i8th
of Zu'l-Hijja, for Ibn- Khallikan says the 18th of that month " is the
anniversary of the Feast of Ghadir {Id ul-Ghadh). which is the same as that
of Ghadir i-Khumm."

294 THE SPIRIT OF ISLAM ii.

the events which followed upon his accession to elucidate the
history of the deplorable schism which has for so long divided
the Moslem world into two sects. Osman possessed neither
the shrewdness of Abu Bakr nor the intellectual vigour or the
moral fibre of Omar. His amiability and easy good nature
made him a pliable tool in the hands of his kinsfolk. The
venerable Caliph surrounded by his hungry kinsmen, the
provinces crying for redress, and the general body of Moslems
sullenly watching the proceedings of the head of the State,
form an instructive though sad picture of the times. The
character of the deluded Pontiff has been graphically portrayed }
by Dozy. "The personality of Osman did not justify his
election to the Caliphate. It is true he was rich and generous,
had assisted Mohammed and the rehgion by pecuniary sacrifices,
and that he prayed and fasted often, and was a man of amiable
and soft manners. He was, however, not a man of spirit, and
was greatly enfeebled by old age. His timidity was such that
when placed on the pulpit he knew not how to commence his
sermon. Unhappily for this old man, he possessed an inordinate
fondness for his kinsmen, who formed the Meccan aristocracy,
and who, for twenty years, had insulted, persecuted, and fought
against Mohammed. Soon they dominated over him com-
pletely. His uncle, Hisham, and especially Hisham's son,
Merwan, in reality governed the country, only allowing the
title of Cahph to Osman, and the responsibility of the most
compromising measures, of which he was often wholly ignorant.
The orthodoxy of these two men, especially of the father, was
strongly suspected. Hisham had been converted only when
Mecca was taken. Having betrayed state-secrets, he had been
disgraced and exiled. Abu Bakr and Omar had maintained
the order passed (b}' the Prophet). Osman, on the contrary,
not only recalled him from his exile, but gave him on his arrival
a hundred thousand pieces of silver from the public treasury^
and a piece of land belonging to the State. He made Merwan
his secretary and vizier, and married him to one of his daughters
and enriched him with the spoils of Africa." ^ . . . He con-
firmed Mu'awiyah, the son of Abu Sufian and Hind, who hac
fought against Mohammed with such ferocity at Ohod, in tht

' Doz}', Hist, des Mussulmans dans I'Espagne, vol. i. p. 4-|.

VIII. THE POLITICAL DIVISIONS AND SCHISMS 295

governorship of Syria ; and his foster-brother, Abdullah ibn
Sa'd ibn Snrrah, to the satrapy of Egypt. This Abdullah was
at one time a secretary to the Prophet, and when the Master
dictated his revelations, he used to change the words and
" denaturalise " their meaning. His sacrilege being discovered,
he had fled, and had relapsed into idolatry. Walid, an uterine
brother of the old Caliph, was made governor of Kufa. His
father had often ill-treated Mohammed, and once nearly
strangled him. An abandoned debauchee, a profligate
drunkard, his life was a scandal to the Moslems. He appeared
in the mosque at the time of morning-prayers helpless from
intoxication, falling prostrate on the ground as he attempted
to perform the duties of an Imam, or leader of prayer ; and
when the by-standers hurried up to assist him to his feet,
shocked them by demanding more wine, in a husky and stam-
mering voice. These were the men whom the Caliph favoured !
They fastened upon the provinces like famished leeches, heaping
up wealth by means of pitiless extortion. Complaints poured
into Medina from all parts of the empire. But the complaints
were invariably dismissed with abuses and hard words. ^ A
deputation, consisting of twelve thousand men, headed by
Mohammed, the son of the Caliph Abu Bakr, came to the
capital to lay before Osman the grievances of the people, and
to seek redress. Sore pressed at their demands for justice, he
had recourse to the intervention of the son-in-law of the Prophet
whose advice he had hitherto persistently refused to heed. Ali
persuaded the deputation to depart to their homes, by giving
them a pledge that their complaints should be redressed. On
their way back, and hardly at a day's journey from Medina,
they intercepted a letter written by Osman's secretary, which
bore the Caliph's own seal, containing a mandate to the un-
scrupulous Mu'awiyah to massacre them in a body. Enraged
at this treachery, they returned to Medina, entered the old
Cahph's house, and killed him. His death furnished to the
Ommeyyades what they were long thirsting for, a plea for a
revolt against Islam, — against its democracy, its equal rights,
and its stern rules of morahty. It furnished to the Meccans
and their allies an excuse for organising a conspiracy against

' Ibn ul-Athir, vol. iii. p. 125.

296 THE SPIRIT OF ISLAM 11.

Medinite dominance, which they hated so bitterly. Ah had
tried hard to save Osman, at first by wise counsels not to
abandon himself absolutely into the hands of his unprincipled
kinsmen, and at the last crisis by placing himself before the
infuriated soldiery, and asking for consideration for the vener-
able though misguided pontiff. He had nearly sacrificed his
own sons in his endeavours to protect Osman. On Osman's
death he was raised to the Caliphate by the unanimous voice
of the people. Since the death of the Prophet, Ali, though he
had never failed to attend the councils of State, had always
maintained a dignified reserve and a noble independence of
character. In his retirement he had chiefly devoted himself
to study and the peaceable occupations of domestic life. Called
to the helm of the State, he received the oath of fealty with his
usual simplicity, declaring his readiness to resign the office to
any one more worthy.

" Had," says Sedillot, " the principle of hereditary succession
(in favour of Ali) been recognised at the outset, it would have
prevented the rise of those disastrous pretensions which engulfed
Islam in the blood of Moslems. . . . The husband of Fatima
united in his person the right of succession as the lawful heir
of the Prophet, as well as the right by election. It might have
been thought that all would submit themselves before his
glory ; so pure and so grand. But it was not to be." Zubair
and Talha, who had hoped that the choice of the people might
fall on either of them for the Caliphate, baulked in their am-
bitious designs, and smarting under the refusal of the new
Caliph to bestow on them the governorships of Basra and
Kufa, were the first to raise the standard of revolt. They were
assisted by 'Ayesha, the daughter of Abu Bakr, who had taken
a decisive part in the former elections. This lady had always
borne an inveterate dislike towards the son-in-law of Khadija,
and now this feeling had grown into positive hatred. She was:^
the life and soul of the insurrection, and herself accompanied ■;
the insurgent troops to the field, riding a camel. The Caliph,
with his characteristic aversion to bloodshed, sent his cousin
Abdullah bin Abbas to adjure the insurgents by every obliga-
tion of the Faith to abandon the arbitrament of war. But toi'
no avail. Zubair and Talha gave battle at a place called;

VIII. THE POLITICAL DIVISIONS AND SCHISMS 297

Khoraiba, and were defeated and killed.^ 'Ayesha was taken
prisoner. She was treated with courtesy and consideration,
and escorted with every mark of respect to Medina. Hardly
had this rebelhon been suppressed, when Ah learnt of the
insurrection of Mu'awiyah in Syria. The son of Abu Sufian,
like most of his kinsmen whom Osman had appointed to the
governorships of the provinces, had, with the gold lavished
upon him by the late Pontiff and the wealth of Syria, collected
round him a large band of mercenaries. Ali had been advised
by several of his councillors to defer the dismissal of the corrupt
governors appointed by the late Cahph until he himself was
secure against all enemies. " The Bayard of Islam, the hero,
without fear and without reproach," ^ refused to be guilty of
any duplicity or compromise with injustice. The fiat went
forth removing from their offices all the men whom Osman had
placed in power, and who had so grossly betrayed the public
trust. Mu'awiyah at once raised the standard of revolt.
Defeated in several consecutive battles on the plains of Siffin,
on the last day when his troops were flying like chaff before
the irresistible charge of Malek al-Ashtar, he bethought himself
of a ruse to save his men from impending destruction. He
made some of his soldiers tie copies of the Koran to their
spears, and advance towards the Moslems shouting, " Let the
blood of the Faithful cease to flow ; if the Syrian army be
destroyed, who will defend the frontier against the Greeks ?
If the army of Irak be destroyed, who will defend the frontier
against the Turks and Persians ? Let the Book of God decide
between us." The Caliph, who knew well the character of the
arch-rebel and his fellow-conspirator, Amr(u) the son of al-'As,
saw through the artifice, and tried to open the eyes of his
people to the treachery ; but a large body of his troops refused
to fight further, and demanded that the dispute should be
referred to arbitration. In answer to the Caliph's assurances
that the son of Abu Sufian was only using the Koran as a device
for delivering himself from the jaws of death, these refractory

1 The battle is called the " Battle of the Camel," from 'Ayesha's presence in
a litter on a camel. The place where the fight actually took place and where
these men were killed, is called Wddi us-Saba', " Valley of the Lion."

- These are the designations given to Ali by Major Osborn.

298 THE SPIRIT OF ISLAM ii.

spirits threatened open defection.^ Malek al-Ashtar was recalled,
the battle was stopped, and the fruits of a victory already!
won were irretrievably lost.^ An arbitration was arranged.;
The bigots, who had compelled AH to sheathe the sword at thei
moment of victory, forced upon him, against his own judgment!
and wishes, Abu Musa al-Asha'ri as the representative of the{
House of Mohammed. This man, who was also secretly hostile,
to Ali, was altogether unfitted by his vanity and religious'i
conceit and a somewhat simple nature to cope with the astute
and unscrupulous Amr the son of al-'As, who acted as the
representative of Mu'awiyah, and he soon fell into the trap laid
for him by the latter. Amr led Abu Musa to believe that the
removal of both Ali and Mu'awiyah (of the one from the Cali-
phate and of the other from the governorship of Syria), and}
the nomination of another person to the Headship of Islam,!
was necessary to the well-being of the Moslems. The trick]
succeeded ; Abu Musa ascended the pulpit and solemnly an-j
nounced the deposition of Ali. After making this announcement!
he descended aglow with the sensation of having performed,
a virtuous deed. And then Amr smilingly ascended the pulpiti
vacated by Abu Musa the representative of AH, and pronounced
that he accepted the deposition of Ali, and appointed
Mu'awiyah in his place. Poor Abu Musa was thunder-struck ;
but the treachery was too patent, and the Fatimides refused
to accept the decision as vahd.^ This happened at Dumat
ul-Jandal. The treachery of the Ommeyyades exasperated
the Fatimides, and both parties separated vowing undying
hatred towards each other. Ali was shortly after assassinated
whilst engaged in prayer in a mosque at Kufa.^ His assassina-i
tion enabled the son of Abu Sufian to consolidate his power]
both in Syria and Hijaz. On the death of Ali, Hasan, his!

^ Shahristani, pt. i. p. 85. - Ibid.

^ Those very men who had forced upon the CaUph the arbitration after-
wards repudiated it, and rose in rebelUon against him for consenting to theii
demand for arbitration. They were the original Khawarij (insurgents), whc
became afterwards an enormous source of evil to Islam ; see post.

^ With the chivalrous generosity which distinguished him, the Caliph Ali,
even in his war against his treacherous foe, always ordered his troops tc
await the enemy's attack, to spare the fugitive, and respect the captive, andj
never to insult the women. With his dying breath he commanded his sons'
to see that the murderer was killed with one stroke of the sword, and that nc
unnecessary pain might be inflicted on him.

VIII. THE POLITICAL DIVISIONS AND SCHISMS 299

eldest son, was raised to the Caliphate. Fond of ease and
i quiet, he hastened to make peace with the enemy of his House,
and retired into private life. But the Ommeyyade's animosity
pursued him even there, and before many months were over
! he was poisoned to death. The star of Hind's son was now in
i the ascendant, and Abu Sufian's ambition to become the king
, of Mecca was fulfilled on a grander scale by Mu'awiyah. Thus
, was the son of the two most implacable foes of the Prophet,
' by the strangest freak of fortune recorded in history, seated on

• the throne of the Caliphs. Lest it be considered our estimate
I of Mu'awiyah's character is actuated by prejudice, we give the

• words of a historian who cannot be accused of bias in favour
of either side. " Astute, unscrupulous, and pitiless," says

i Osborn, " the first Khalif of the Ommayas shrank from no
I crime necessary to secure his position. Murder was his accus-
! tomed mode of removing a formidable opponent. The grand-
i son of the Prophet he caused to be poisoned ; Malek-al-Ashtar,
: the heroic heutenant of Ah, was destroyed in a hke way. To
! secure the succession of his son Yezid, IMu'awiyah hesitated not
i to break the word he had pledged to Husain, the surviving son
t of AH. And yet this cool, calculating, thoroughly atheistic
; Arab ruled over the regions of Islam, and the sceptre remained
. among his descendants for the space of nearly one hundred and
i twenty years. The explanation of this anomaly is to be found
; in two circumstances, to which I have more than once adverted.

The one is, that the truly devout and earnest Muhammadan
! conceived that he manifested his religion most effectually by
I withdrawing himself from the affairs of the world. The other
j is the tribal spirit of the Arabs. Conquerors of Asia, of
j Northern Africa, of Spain, the Arabs never rose to the level of
i their position. Greatness had been thrust upon them, but in

the midst of their grandeur they retained, in all their previous
. force and intensity, the passions, the rivalries, the petty
: jealousies of the desert. They merely fought again on a wider

field ' the battles of the Arabs before Islam.' "

With the rise of Mu'awiyah the oligarchical rule of the

heathen times displaced the democratic rule of Islam.

Paganism, with all its attendant depravity, revived, and

vice and immorality followed everywhere in the wake of

300 THE SPIRIT OF ISLAM ii.

Ommeyyade governors and the Syrian soldiery. Hijaz and
Irak groaned under the usurper's rule ; but his hold on the
throat of Islam was too strong to be shaken off with impunity.
The wealth which he pitilessly extracted from his subjects,
he lavished on his mercenaries, who in return helped him to
repress all murmurings. Before his death, he convened the
chief officers of his army and made them take the oath of
fealty to his son Yezid, whom he had designated as his successor
to the throne. This was Yezid's title to the Caliphate ! On;
Mu'awiyah's death, the Domitian of the house of Ommeyya;
ascended the throne founded by his father on fraud andj
treachery. As cruel and treacherous as Muawiyah, he did not, '
like his father, possess the capacity to clothe his cruelties in
the guise of policy. His depraved nature knew no pity or
justice. He killed and tortured for the pleasure he derived
from human suffering. Addicted to the grossest of vices, his
boon companions were the most abandoned of both sexes.
Such was the Caliph — the Commander of the Faithful ! Hus-
ain, the second son of Ali, had inherited his father's chivalric
nature and virtues. He had served with honour against the
Christians in the siege of Constantinople. He united in his
person the right of descent from AH, with the holy character
of grandson of the Apostle. In the terms of peace signed
between Mu'awiyah and Hasan, his right to the Caliphate had
been expressly reserved. Husain had never deigned to
acknowledge the title of the tyrant of Damascus, whose vices
he despised, and whose character he regarded with abhorrence ;
and when the Moslems of Kufa besought his help to release;
them from the curse of the Ommeyyade's rule, he felt it his;
duty to respond to the Irakians' appeal for deliverance. The*
assurances he received, that all Irak was ready to spring to its
feet to hurl the despot from his throne the moment he appeared
on the scene, decided him to start for Kufa with his family
He traversed the desert of Arabia unmolested, accompanied
by his brother Abbas, a few devoted followers, and a timorous,
retinue of women and children ; but as he approached the'
confines of Irak he was alarmed by the solitary and hostile
face of the country, and suspecting treachery, the Ommey-
yade's weapon, he encamped his small band at a place called

VIII. THE POLITICAL DIVISIONS AND SCHISMS 301

iKerbela near the western bank of the Euphrates. No event
in histor}' surpasses in pathos the scenes enacted on this spot.
Husain's apprehensions of betrayal proved to be only too true.
He was overtaken by an Ommeyyade army under the brutal
and ferocious Obaidullah ibn-Ziyad. For days their tents were
surrounded ; and as the cowardly hounds dared not come
within the reach of the sword of All's son they cut the victims
off from the waters of the Tigris. The sufferings of the poor
band of martjTS were terrible. In a conference with the chief
of the enemy, Husain proposed the option of three honourable
conditions : that he should be allowed to return to Medina,
or be stationed in a frontier garrison against the Turks, or
safely conducted to the presence of Yezid.^ But the com-
mands of the Ommeyyade tyrant were stern and inexorable —
that no mercy should be shown to Husain or his party, and
that they must be brought as criminals before the " Caliph "
to be dealt with according to the Ommeyyade sense of justice.
As a last resource, Husain besought these monsters not to war
upon the helpless women and children, but to kill him and be
done with it. But they knew no pity. He pressed his friends
to consult their safety by a timely flight ; they unanimously
refused to desert or survive their beloved master. One of the
enemy's chiefs, struck with horror at the sacrilege of warring
against the grandson of the Prophet, deserted with thirty
followers " to claim the partnership of inevitable death." In
every single combat and close fight the valour of the Fatimides
was invincible. But the enemy's archers picked them off from
a safe distance. One by one the defenders fell, until at last
there remained but the grandson of the Prophet. Wounded
and dying he dragged himself to the river-side for a last drink ;
they turned him off with arrows from there. And as he re-
entered his tent he took his infant child in his arms ; him they
transfixed with a dart. The stricken father bowed his head
to heaven. Able no more to stand up against his pitiless foes,

1 The author of the Ronzai-tis-Safd. after stating the above, adds that an
attendant of Husain, who by chance escaped the butchery of Kerbela, denied
that his master, so far as he was aware, ever made any such proposal to the
Ommeyyade leader. It is possible, however, that such denial was made in
order to show that Husain did not lower himself by proposing terms to the
enemy. To my mind, however, it detracts in no way from the grandeur of
Husain's character that he proposed terms to the Ommeyyades.

302 THE SPIRIT OF ISLAM ii.

alone and weary, he seated himself at the door of his tent.
One of the women handed him a cup of water to assuage his
burning thirst ; as he raised it to his lips he was pierced in the
mouth with a dart ; and his son and nephew were killed in his
arms. He lifted his hands to heaven, — they were full of blood,
— and he uttered a funeral prayer for the living and the dead.
Raising himself for one desperate charge, he threw himself
among the Ommeyyades, who fell back on every side. But
faint with loss of blood he soon sank to the ground, and then
the murderous crew rushed upon the dying hero. They cut
off his head, trampled on his body, and subjected it to every ,
ignominy in the old spirit of Hind. They carried the martyr's |
head to the castle of Kufa, and the inhuman Obaidullah struck I
it on the mouth with a cane : " Alas ! " exclaimed an aged ;
Musulman, " on these lips have I seen the lips of the Apostle
of God." " In a distant age and climate," says Gibbon, " the
tragic scene of the death of Husain will awaken the sympathy
of the coldest reader." It will now be easy to understand, if
not to sympathise with, the frenzy of sorrow and indignation
to which the adherents of Ali and his children give vent on the
recurrence of the anniversary of Husain's martyrdom.

Thus fell one of the noblest spirits of the age, and with him
perished all the male members of his family, — old and young,—
with the solitary exception of a sickly child, whom Husain's
sister, Zainab (Zenobia), saved from the general massacre. He,
too, bore the name of Ali, and in after-life received the noble
designation of Zain ul-'Abidin, " the Ornament of the Pious."
He was the son of Husain by the daughter of Yezdjard, the
last Sasanide king of Persia, and in him was perpetuated the
house of Mohammed. He represented also, in his mother's
right, the claims of the Sasanians to the throne of Iran.

The tragical fate of Husain and his children sent a thrill of
horror through Islam ; and the revulsion of feeling which it
caused proved eventually the salvation of the Faith. It
arrested the current of depravity which flowed from the
Ommeyyade court of Damascus. It made the bulk of Moslems
think of what the Master had done, and of the injuries which
the children of his enemies were inflicting on Islam. For a
hundred years, however, the Ommeyyades ruled with the free

VIII. THE POLITICAL DIVISIONS AND SCHISMS 303

help of tlie sword and poison. They sacked Medina, and drove
the children of the Helpers into exile in far-away lands. The
city which had sheltered the Prophet from the persecution of
{the idolaters, and which he loved so dearly, the hallowed
ground he had trod in life, and every inch of which was sanc-
tified by his holy work and ministry, was foully desecrated ;
and the people who had stood by him in the hour of his need,
and helped him to build up the arch of the Faith, were sub-
jected to the most terrible and revolting atrocities, which find
;a parallel only in those committed by the soldiers of the Con-
stable of France and the equally ferocious Lutherans of George
Frundsberg at the sack of Rome. The men were massacred,
the women outraged, the children reduced into slavery. The
public mosque was turned into a stable, the shrines demolished
ifor the sake of their ornaments. During the whole period of
lOmmeyyade domination the holy city remained a haunt of
iwild beasts.^ The paganism of Mecca was once more trium-
'phant. And " its reaction," says Dozy, " against Islam was
cruel, terrible, and revolting." The Meccans and the Ommey-
1 yades thus repaid the clemency and forbearance shown to them
iin the hour of Islam's triumph ! The Ommeyyades produced
' many notable men eminent for piety and virtue, chief amongst
them Omar bin-'Abdul Aziz, the Marcus Aurelius of the Arabs,
; a virtuous sovereign, a good ruler, and a God-fearing Moslem,
'who modelled his life after his great namesake the second
! Caliph. For the rest they were unabashed pagans and revelled
in the disregard of the rules and discipline of the religion they
professed.

But for the Ommeyyades, the difference between the followers
of the Ahl-ul-Bait,^ the upholders of All's right to the apostolical
succession, and those who maintained the right of the people
to elect their own spiritual as well as temporal chiefs, would
never have grown into a schism ; it would have ended in a
compromise or coahtion after the accession of Ali to the Cali-
phate. The violence and treachery of the children of Ommeyya
rendered this impossible. They had waded to the throne

^ Abdul Malik ibn-Merwan went so far as to issue an edict forbidding pilgrims
to visit the sepulchre of the Prophet at Medina.
* For the meaning of this word see note 2, page 313.

304 THE SPIRIT OF ISLAM ii.

through manifold crimes and oceans of blood ; it was necessary
for them to impart a semblance of validity to their tenure of
the ofhce of Caliph. They claimed to have the title of Ameey-
nl-Mominin by right of election — election by their own mer-
cenaries and pagan partisans. After the sack of Medina and
the destruction and dispersion of the family of Mohammed and
the Muhajirin and Ansar, it was easy to draw precedents from
the early Caliphate, and when that failed, to manufacture '
traditions. Nor was it difficult to appropriate a title which '
might have been assumed, but was not, by those who supported i
the right of the universality of the people to elect their chiefs, li
The giants who had built up the Republic were dead or de- !
stroyed ; their children were fugitives or slaves ; who was to '
question the validity of the title so adroitly usurped ? The i
Ommeyyade policy was pursued by the dynasty which took
its place. The same fierce jealousy with which the Bani- ;
Ommeyya had pursued or persecuted the Bani-Fatima, char-j
acterised the conduct of the Bani-Abbas towards the descen-
dants of Mohammed. They had no claim to the Caliphate «
themselves ; they made the affection of the people for the
children of Fatima the means for their own elevation, and when
they had attained the desired end they rewarded the Fatimides
with bitter persecution. Their title also was founded on quasi-
election, and naturally they hunted, hke the Ommeyyades, all {
who questioned the legality of their claim, or who upheld in !
explicit terms the doctrine of the devolution of the Imamate
by succession in the line of Mohammed. Every difference of
opinion was strictly repressed ; even the jurists of the time j
were punished if they ventured to express opinions which didj
not find favour with the sovereigns. ^ If we did not keep inj
view the circumstances which led to the sudden and unexpected ■
rise of the Abbasides, we would be apt to regard it as pheno-
menal. The terrible cruelties inflicted by the Ommeyyades on
the children of Fatima, and the sublime patience with which
they had borne their sufferings and their wrongs, had given'
rise to a universal feeling of horror against the tyrants, andij
had invested the objects of persecution, in the eyes of their

1 Imam Malik ibn Anas, the third pillar of the Sunni Church, was publicly
punished for an offence of this nature.

VIII. THE POLITICAL DIVISIONS AND SCHISMS 305

followers and disciples, with a superhuman halo. Persecution,
however fierce, has always failed to achieve its end ; instead
of stamping out the faith or devotion of a sect or community,
it has diverted it into new channels and imparted to it greater
vitality. In Islam, as in Christianity, the dangers of the battle-
field and the pains of persecution have " clothed with more
than earthly splendour the objects for whom they were endured."
And the children of Fatima, saints who had submitted to the
injustice of man and devoted themselves to intellectual pursuits
and the practice of religion, — without arms, without treasure,
and without subjects, — ruled more firmly over the hearts of
their followers, and enjoyed the veneration of the people to a
greater degree, than the caliph in his palace, the master of
legions. The cup of Ommeyyade iniquity was full to over-
flowing, and men were crying aloud in the anguish of their
hearts, O Lord, how long ! On every side there was an eager
and passionate longing engendered by the vices and misrule of
the pseudo-caliphs that the House of Mohammed might be
restored to its rights. They looked wistfully to the Imams to
give the sign, but these saints had retired from the world ;
their domain was no more of this earth. Successive avengers ^
of their wrongs had risen in arms, and gone down before the
serried ranks of their Syrian enemies. The people waited for
authority from the divinely-appointed leaders of the Faithful,
but they condemned the use of force. What was to be done ?
Several scions of the House who had risen against the Bani-
Ommeyya, contrary to the counsel and without the sanction
of the heads of the family, had sacrificed themselves to their
ambition or their religious zeal. It was at this juncture, at
this moment of unrest, when the Moslems were longing for a
sign from the House of Mohammed, that the Bani-Abbas
appeared on the scene. The Bani-Abbas were the descendants
of Abbas, an uncle of the Prophet. Abbas had always taken
a deep interest in the progress of Islam ; he was Mohammed's
companion when the famous " Pledge of the Women " was
taken from the Medinites. But from some weakness of char-
acter or from policy, he did not embrace Islam definitely until
about the time Mecca fell. He was, however, always treated

* Sulaiman ibn Surrad, al-Mukhtar, and Yezid ibn Muhallib.
S.I. u

3o6 THE SPIRIT OF ISLAM ii.

with the greatest affection and consideration by Mohammed.
The Prophet's example was imitated by Abu Bakr, Omar, and
Osman. They dismounted if they met him walking ; and not
unfrequently would accompany him to his residence.^ He died
in A.H. 32, — according to some, two years later, — leaving four
sons, Abdullah {Abu I Abbas Abdullah ibn Abbas), Fazl, Obaid-
uUah, and Kaithan. Abdullah, better known in history and
tradition as Ibn Abbas, was bom at Mecca in a.c. 619, three
years before the Hegira, He was instructed in the Koran and
jurisprudence by Ali himself. His reputation as a scholar and
expounder of the Koran and of the decisions of the Caliphs
stood so high that crowds flocked from all parts to hear his
lectures. He gave public lessons one day in the week on the
interpretation of the Koran ; another day, on law ; the third,
on grammar ; the fourth, on the history of the Arabs, and the
fifth on poetry. He gave an impulse to the study and pre-
servation of pre-Islamic Arab literature and history by fre-
quently quoting verses from the ancient poets to explain and
illustrate the difficult and obscure passages of the Koran. He
was wont to say, " When you meet with a difficulty in the
Koran, look for its solution in the poems of the Arabs, for these
are the registers of the Arab nation . " ^ The steady and un var}4ng
devotion of Ibn Abbas and his brothers to Ali was proverbial.
All four brothers were present at " the Battle of the Camel,"
and at Siffin, Ibn Abbas, who was no less an accomplished
soldier than a scholar, commanded the cavalry of Ali. He
acted frequently as the envoy of the Caliph, and it was he
whom Ah desired to nominate as the representative of the
House of Mohammed when forced by the refractory troops
to refer the dispute between himself and Mu'awiyah to
arbitration.^ Ibn Abbas died at Tayef of a broken heart,
after the murder of Husain, in a.h. 67, in the seventieth
year of his age. His son, who was named Ah after the great
Caliph, walked in the footsteps of his father in his zealous
attachment to the children of Fatima. He died in a.h. 117,

1 Abbas may be called the John of Gaunt of Moslem liistory.

2 Once he was asked how he had acquired his extensive knowledge : his
reply was, " By means of an inquiring tongue and an intelligent heart."

3 Shahristani, pt. i. p. 86.

nil. THE POLITICAL DIVISIONS AND SCHISMS 307

ind was succeeded in the headship of his family by his son
Mohammed.

At this time, Persia, Irak, and Hijaz, which had suffered
nost from the atrocities of the Bani-Ommeyya, were honey-
rombed by secret organisations for the overthrow of the hated
"amily. The Bani-Abbas were the most active in the move-
ment to subvert the Ommeyyade rule, at first, perhaps, from
I sincere desire to restore to the Fatimides their just rights,
Dut afterwards in their own interests. Mohammed, the son of
\li ibn Abdullah, was the first to conceive the project of seizing
he Caliphate for himself. He was a man of great ability and
mbounded ambition. Whilst working ostensibly for the Fati-
nides, he contrived gradually to establish the pretensions of
lis own family. He started a new doctrine to justify the
■laims of his house to the Imamate : that on the murder of
Tusain at Kerbela, the spiritual headship of Islam was not
ransmitted to his surviving son Ali (Zain ul-'Abidin), but to
\Iohammed ibn al-Hanafiya, a son of the Caliph Ali by a
lifferent mother, whom he had married after the death of
.^atima, belonging to the tribe of Hanifa ; that upon his death
he office descended upon his son Hashim, who had assigned
t formally to the Abbaside Mohammed. This story received
redence in some quarters ; but for the bulk of the people, who
lung to the descendants of the Prophet, the da' is 1 of the
Vbbasides affirmed that they were working for the Ahl-ul-hait.
iitherto, the Abbasides had professed great devotion to the
iouse of Fatima, and had ascribed to all their movements and
)lans the object of securing justice for the descendants of
slohammed. The representatives and adherents of the Ahl-
d-hait, Uttle suspecting the treachery which lay behind their
professions, extended to Mohammed bin Ali and to his party
he favour and protection which was needed to impress upon
lis action the sanction of a recognised authority. The attach-
nent of the Persians to the Fatimide cause was due to historical
!.nd national associations. The Fatimides represented in their
)ersons, through the daughter of Yezdjard, the right to the
hrone of Iran. From the first commencement of the Islamic
)reachings, Ali had extended the utmost consideration and

' Missionaries or political agents.

3o8 THE SPIRIT OF ISLAM ii.

friendship to the Persian converts, Salman the Persian, one
of the most notable disciples of the Prophet, was long the
associate and friend of the Caliph. After the battle of Kadesia,
Ali used to devote his share of the prize-money to the redemp-
tion of the captives, and repeatedly by his counsel induced
Omar to lighten the burden of the subjects. The devotion oj
the Persians to his descendants was intelligible. Mohammed
bin Ali beguiled the Persians by preaching to them theii
approaching deliverance from the hated rule of their Aral
oppressors. To the Yemenites settled in Khorasan, Pars, anc
other provinces of Iran, who were equally attached to th(
Ahl-ul-hait, and whose animosity against their old enemies, th(
descendants of Mozar, was inflamed by many recent injuries
he proclaimed he was acting solely on behalf of the Imams o
the House of Mohammed. He succeeded in winning over t(
his side Abu Mushm, the ablest general of his time, and hithert*
a devoted partisan of the children of Ali. Before his death
which took place in 125 A.H., he named his sons Ibrahim
Abdullah Abu'l Abbas (surnamed Saffdh), Abdullah Abu Ja'fa
(surnamed al-Mansur) as his successors, one after the other. •
The furious struggle which broke out about the middle of th
eighth century between the Yemenites and Mozarites i|
Khorasan served as a signal to apply the torch to the well-laij
mine. Abu Muslim sent word to his partisans in every cit
and village of the Province to raise at once the standard (
revolt. The cause proclaimed was " the rights of the Ahl-u\
bait " against the usurping Bani-Ommeyya. A short tiirj
previously, Yahya, a grandson of the Imam Ali Zain-ul-'Abidii
had revolted and been killed, and his body was exposed, by tl
order of Merwan, upon a gibbet. Abu Muslim ordered tl;
remains of the young chief to be taken down and buried wit
every mark of respect ; and his followers clothed themselv
in black in token of their sorrow, and their determination
avenge the death of Yahya. From that day black became t)
distinguishing symbol of the Abbaside cause. And wh
the order went forth summoning the people to arms against t
usurpers, the crowd, clothed in black, which flocked to t;
trysting-places showed the widespread character and strengi
of the revolt. The gathering was to take place on the nig:

VIII. THE POLITICAL DIVISIONS AND SCHISMS 309

of the 25th of Ramazan a.h. 127, and the people were to be
summoned by large bonfires lighted on the tops of the hills.
Vast multitudes poured from every quarter into Merv, where
Abu Muslim was dwelhng at the time. Ibrahim, who had
succeeded Mohammed bin Ali as the head of the Abbasides,
was seized by Merwan and killed ; but before his death he
contrived to pass to his second brother, Abu'l Abbas, a docu-
ment assigning him the authority in accordance with the
testament of their father. Abii Muslim soon made himself
master of the whole of Khorasan, and marched his victorious
troops towards Irak. Nothing as yet was divulged as to the
ultimate purpose of the movement. The Ahl-ul-bait was the
watchword which rallied all classes of people round the black
standard. Kufa surrendered at once. Hasan ibn Kahtaba,
the Ueutenant of Abu Muslim, entered the city at the head of
his troops, and was joined at once by Abu Salma Ja'ar ibn
Sulaiman al-Khallal, " who," says the author of the Rouzat-us-
Safd, " was designated the vizier of the descendants of Moham-
med." Apparently this man acted as the agent of the head of
the family. He was received with the greatest consideration
by the Abbaside general, " who kissed his hand, and seated
him in the place of honour," ^ and told him that it was Abu
Muslim's orders that he should be obeyed in all things. Abu
Salma's vanity was flattered, but as yet he was wholly unaware
of the Abbaside design. A proclamation was issued in the
joint names of Abu Salma and Hasan ibn Kahtaba, inviting
\ the inhabitants of Kufa to assemble the next day at the Masjid-
al-Jdmi' (the pubhc mosque). The people flocked to the
mosque expecting some announcement ; but the plot had not
yet thickened, and Hasan and the other Abbaside partisans
considered the moment inopportune for the proclamation of
their design. In the meantime, Abu'l Abbas, with his brother
Abu Ja'far, had successfully evaded the Ommeyyade guards,
and had arrived at Kufa, where they kept themselves con-
cealed, waiting for the next event of the drama. Abu Salma,
who was still faithful to the masters he purported to serve,
sent a message secretly to the Imam (Ja'far as-Sadik) to come
and take up his right. The Imam, knowing well the nature of

1 Rouzat-HS-Safd ; Ibn ul-Athir, vol. v. p. 312 el seq.

310 THE SPIRIT OF ISLAM h

Irakian communications, burnt the missive unopened. Bu
before any answer could reach Abu Salma, he had ahead
accepted Abu'l Abbas as the Cahph. He then issued a pre
clamation, still acting ostensibly in the name of the Ahl-iil-hai
inviting the inhabitants, one and all, to assemble on the follow
ing day, which was a Friday, to elect a Caliph. On that da
Kufa presented a strange aspect. Large crowds of peoplt
clothed in the sable garments of the Bani- Abbas, were hastenin
from every quarter to the Masjid-al-jdmi' to hear the lon^
deferred announcement. In due time Abu Salma appeared o
the scene, and, strangely, dressed in the same sombre blacl
Few, excepting the partisans of Abu'l Abbas, knew how 1
had come to sell himself to the Abbaside cause. He preferre
his head to the interests of his masters. After leading tl
prayers he explained to the assemblage the object of tl
meeting. Abu Muslim, he said, the defender of the Faith ar
the upholder of the right of the House, had hurled the Omme;
yades from the height of their iniquity ; it was now necessai
to elect an Imam and Caliph ; there was none so eminent i]
piety, abihty, and all the virtues requisite for the office :j
Abu'l Abbas ; and him he offered to the Faithful for electio'
Up to this Abu Salma and the Abbasides were dubious of tl
impression on the people. They were afraid that even tl
Kufians might not view their treachery to the house of /
with approbation. But the proverbial fickleness of the Irakia
was now proved. They had again and again risen in arms
support of the Fatimide cause, and as often betrayed thc:;
whom they had pledged themselves to help or whose help thS'
had invoked. Swayed by the passing whim of the momeil,
they had as often shown themselves to be traitors, as t)
defenders of truth. After the massacre of Kerbela they hi
been so struck with remorse that twenty thousand of the;,
after spending a night over the tomb of Husain praying i."
forgiveness, had hurled themselves against the serried legico
of Yezid. But the remorse did not last long ; fickle a 1
turbulent, faithless and unreliable, Hajjaj ibn-Yusuf, U
veritable " Scourge of God," had alone kept them in ord .
And now, no sooner had the words passed from the lips f
Abu Salma, proposing Abu'l Abbas as the Caliph, than tly

VIII. THE POLITICAL DIVISIONS AND SCHISMS 311

burst forth with loud acclamations of the takbir ^ signifying
their approval. A messenger was sent in haste to fetch Abu'l
Abbas from his concealment, and when he arrived at the
mosque there was a frantic rush on the part of the multitude
to take his hand and swear fealty. The election was complete.
He ascended the pulpit, recited the khutha, and was henceforth
the Imam and Cahph of the Moslems. ^ Thus rose the Abbas-
ides to power on the popularity of the children of Fatima,
whom they repaid afterwards in a different coin. The greed
of earthly power is the worst form of ambition. It has caused
greater disasters to humanity than any other manifestation of
human passion. It never hesitates as to the choice of means
to attain its object ; it uses indiscriminately both crime and
virtue, the one to disguise its design, the other to achieve its
ends. It has even pressed religion into its service. Ambition
disguised in the cloak of religion has been productive of fearful
calamities to mankind. The popes of Rome, in their incessant
endeavour to maintain unimpaired their temporal power,
deluged the civilised world with human blood. The pontiffs
of Islam, Abbaside, Egyptian Fatimide, and Ommeyyade,
seized with avidity upon the claim prepared by willing minions
to supreme spiritual and temporal rule, and in their desire to
maintain the undivided allegiance of their subjects, caused
equal bloodshed and strife in the bosom of Islam.

The early Abbaside Caliphs were men of great ability, and
possessed of vast foresight and statesmanship. From the
moment they were raised to the Caliphate by the acclamation
of the people of Kufa, they directed their whole energy towards
consolidating the spiritual and temporal power in their hands,
and to give shape and consistency to the doctrine of divine
sanction to popular election. Henceforth it became a point
of vital importance to disavow the principle of apostolical
succession by descent, and to make the election by the people
almost sacramental.

During Saffah's ^ reign, Abu Muslim enjoyed some considera-

* I.e. Alldho-Akbar, God is great.

* For a full account, see The Short History of the Saracens (Macnullan).
'Abu'l Abbas Abdullah received the title of Saffah, " blood-spiller," or

"sanguinary," on account of his unsparing use of the sword against his

312 THE SPIRIT OF ISLAM ii.

tion, but the king-maker was hated and suspected for his ill-
concealed Fatimide proclivities. Under Saffah's successor he
was accused of heresy — stigmatised with the opprobrious epithet
of Zendik ^ — and killed. The pure and unsullied lives of the
leading representatives of the House of Mohammed, the extreme
veneration in which they were held by the people, frequently
evoked the jealousy of the Abbasides, and exposed the children
of Fatima to periodic outbursts of persecution. Harun de-
stroyed the Barmekides, who were the bulwarks of his empire
and had made for him the fame which he so largely appropriated,
solely on suspicion of conspiracy with the Fatimides. This
state of affairs lasted until the reign of Abdullah al-Mamun,
the noblest Cahph of the house of Abbas, who, on his accession
to the Caliphate, resolved to restore to the children of Fatima
their just rights. He accordingly named Ah ibn Musa, sur-
named Riza (" the acceptable or agreeable "), the eighth Imam
of the Fatimides, as his successor, and gave his sister Umm
ul-Fazl in marriage to this prince. He also abandoned the
black, the Abbaside colour, in favour of the green, which was
the recognised standard of the Fatimides. ^ Ali ibn Musa
ar-Riza was poisoned by the infuriated Abbasides, and Mamun
was forced to resume the black as the colour of his house. The
tolerance shown by him to the Fatimides was continued by his
two immediate successors (Mu'tasim and Wasik).^ The acces-
sion of Mutawakkil was the signal for a new and fierce per-
secution, which lasted during the whole fifteen years of a reign
signalised by gross cruelty and debauchery. He was succeeded
by his son Muntasir, whose first care was to restore the tombs
of Ali and Husain, destroyed by Mutawakkil, and to re-
estabhsh the sacredness of their memory so wantonly outraged
by his father. The sagacity of this Caliph was imitated by his
successors, and some degree of toleration was thenceforward
extended to the Shiahs. In the year 334 a.h. (a.c. 945) Muiz2
ud-dowla (the Deilemite), of the House of Buwaih, became th(

enemies ; one of his successors (Mu'tazid b'illah) received the title of Safial
as-Sani (Saffah II.), and the Ottoman, SeUm I., bore the same designation.

^ I.e. a Magian, Guebre, from Zend.

- The Fatimides had adopted green, the colour of the Prophet, as the symbc
of their cause ; the Bani-Ommeyya, the white ; and the Bani-Abbas, black.

^ Mu'tasim-b'illah (Mohammed) and Wasik b'illah (Harun).

.III. THE POLITICAL DIVISIONS AND SCHISMS 313

Mayor of the Palace at Bagdad. An enthusiastic partisan of
:he Fatimides, he entertained at one time the design of deposing
die Abbaside Cahph Muti'ullah, and placing in his stead some
Bcion of the house of Ali, but was restrained by motives of
ipolicy from carrying this project into effect. Muizz ud-dowla
also instituted the Yaum-i-'dshum, the day of mourning, in
commemoration of the martyrdom of Hussain and his family
on the plains of Kerbela. In the year a.h. 645 (a.c. 1247),
under Musta'sim b'illah, another fierce persecution of the
Shiahs broke out, the consequences of which proved in the end
disastrous to Saracenic civilisation, engulfing in one common
ruin the Western Asians. Impelled by the perfidious counsels
of the fanatics who surrounded him, this imbecile pontiff of
the Sunni Church doomed the entire male population of the
Shiahs to massacre. By a terrible edict, which reminds us of
the fate of the Albigenses and the Huguenots, he permitted the
orthodox to plunder the goods, demolish the houses, ravage
the fields, and reduce to slavery the women and children of
ithe Shiahs. This atrocious conduct brought upon the ill-fated
city of Bagdad the arms of the avenging Hulakii, the grandson
;of Chengiz. For three days the Tartar chief gave up the town
;to rapine and slaughter. On the third day the thirty-seventh
Caliph of the house of Abbas was put to death with every
circumstance of ignominy ; and so ended the Abbaside
idynasty ! ^

; Until the time of Mu'awiyah the adherents of the Ahl-ul-bait -
jhad not assumed or adopted any distinctive appellation. They

' * A scion of the house of Abbas escaped into Egypt, and the titular CaUphate
flourished there until the Ottoman Selim obtained a renunciation in his favour
from the last of the Abbasides ; see ante, p. 130.

*The Ahl-ul-bait, " People of the House " (of Mohammed), is the designa-
Ition usually given to Fatima and Ali and their children and descendants.
I This is the name by which Ibn-Khaldun invariably designates them, and
their followers and disciples, — the Shiahs or adherents of the " People of the
House." Sanai represents the general feeling with which the descendants
;of Mohammed were regarded in the following verse : —

Ij ,.ii.=a/<>

;;; ^'' J/' y> ^J^'^^t

" Excepting the Book of God and his family (descendants) nothing has
been left by Ahmed the Prophet, memorials such as these can never be obtained
till the Day of Judgment."

314 THE SPIRIT OF ISLAM i

were known simply as the Bani-Hashim. There was no diffe
ence between the Bani-Fatima and the Bani- Abbas ; they wei
all connected with each other by the closest ties of blood. Aft*
Mu'awiyah's seizure of the sovereign power the followers of tl
House of Mohammed began to call themselves Shiahs (adheren
and their enemies either Nawdsib (rebels) or Khawdrij (insu
gents or deserters). ^ The Ommeyyades called themselv(
Aviawis (children of Ommeyya). As yet the name of Ahl-u
Sunnat wa'l Jama' at was wholly unknown. Under Mansur an
Harun this designation first came into existence. In the tent
century, a member of the house of Ali wrested Egypt from tl
Abbasides, and estabUshed a dynasty which ruled over th;
country and Syria until the rise of Saladin. The anathem:
which the Caliphs of Bagdad and Cairo hurled at each othe
the multitudinous traditions which were unearthed to demoli:
the claims of the one and the other, and the fatwas emanatii
from the doctors of the two CaUphates, accentuated the stri
and bitterness of partisans. Saladin overthrew the Fatimi(
dynasty in Egypt, and restored the predominance of the Sun
Church in Eastern Africa. Various other branches of tl
Bani-Fatima, however, succeeded in establishing the suprema(
of their family in different parts of the two continents. ^ T]
Isnd-'asharias ^ alone, the followers of the saintly Imams, wl
reprehended the use of force, and who claimed and exercist
only a spiritual dominion, maintained an attitude of comple
withdrawal from temporal interests, until Shah Ismail t]
great Safawi monarch made Isnd-'ashariaism the State religic
of Persia. Himself a philosopher and a Sufi, he perceived
the sympathy and devotion of the people to the House
Mohammed, whose descendant he was, a means of nation
awakening and consolidation. Since then Isnd-'ashariaism
the national church of Persia.

1 The name of Khawarij was especially given to the troops who desert,.
Ali at Dumat ul-Jandal and formed a confederacy hostile to IslSm, and w
afterwards applied to those who adopted their pernicious doctrines ; see pi.

- Besides the Bani-Fatima of Egypt, other branches of Fatiniides ha;
ruled under the different denominations of Ameer, Imam, Sharif, and Cali
in different parts of the Musulman world, such as the Bani-Ukhaydur, t
Bani-jNIusa, the Bani-Kitadah at Mecca, the Bani-Taba-Taba in Northe
Yemen, the Bani-Ziyad in Southern Yemen, and the Bani-Idris in MoroC'

^ Isnd with a ^^ ; see post.

VIII. THE POLITICAL DIVISIONS AND SCHISMS 315

The Bahmani and 'Adil Shahi dynasties of Southern India
which Aurungzeb overthrew, thus paving the way for the rise
of the Mahratta marauders whom the Bahmani sovereigns had
kept in check with an iron hand, were attaclied to the doctrines
of the Imams. Such has been the pohtical fate of the Fatimides,
which has left its impress on their doctrines.

The title of the Bani-Abbas to the spiritual and temporal
headship of Islam was founded on bai'at or nominal election.
Since Saffah's accession, the Abbaside Caliphs had taken the
precaution of obtaining during their lifetime the fealty of the
chiefs for their intended successors. And it became necessary
to impress on the doctrine of election a sanctity derived from
precedent and ancient practice. The rise of the Fatimides in
Egypt, their persistent endeavour to wrest the dominion of the
East from the Caliphs of Bagdad, made it doubly necessary
to controvert the pretensions of the children of Fatima,
and to give form and consistency to the orthodox doctrines
recognising the Abbaside Pontiffs as the spiritual chiefs
of Islam. 1

Every corner of Irak and Hijaz was ransacked for traditions
in support of the right of the house of Abbas. The doctors of
law were required to formulate the principles of orthodoxy in
explicit terms : and gradually the grand superstructure of the
Sunni church was raised on the narrow foundations of Abbaside
self-interest. Much of the success of the doctors and legists
who assisted in the growth and development of Sunnism was
due to the Manichaeism of the Egyptian Fatimides. The nature
of their doctrines, which were at variance with the teachings

* Arslan al-Basasiri, a general in the service of the Abbasides, but an
adherent of the Egyptian Fatimides, drove al-Kaim-ba-amr illah, the then
Caliph of Bagdad, from the city, and compelled him to take refuge with
the phylarch of the Arabs (the Ameer-ul-Arab, a title analogous to the
Il-Khani of Persia), until restored by Tughril, the father of Alp Arslan and
the founder of the Seljukide dynasty. During the whole of this period the
Khutba was read in Bagdad itself in the name of the Fatimide Caliph. The
Khutba is the name given to the sermon pronounced on Fridays from the
pulpits of the great mosques in all Moslem countries ; it begins by a declara-
tion of God's attributes and unity, and an invocation of His blessings upon
the Prophet, his family, and successors ; then follows a prayer for the
reigning Caliph and for the prince who exercises civil power in the State.
The right of being named in the Khutba and that of coining money are two
of the principal privileges possessed by the temporal sovereign, and the
special marks of his legitimacy.

3i6 THE SPIRIT OF ISLAM n.

of both the Shiah Imams and the Simni doctors ; the assassi-
nations of the best men committed at the instance of Hasan
Sabbah (" the Old Man of the Mountain ") ; the disintegrating
character of the heresies, which under the influence of the
ancient Chaldseo-Magism had sprung up in various quarters,
and which were subversive of all order and morality, — added
greatly to the strength of a system which formed, in the opinion
of the masses, a bulwark against the enemies of Islam. The
Shiah Imams strongly condemned the impious or communistic
doctrines of the antitypes of Mani and Mazdak, but they lacked
the power, even if willing to use it, to suppress heresy or enforce
uniformity. Sunnism, associated with the temporal power oj
the Abbaside Caliphs, possessed the means and used it, anc
thereby won the sympathy and acceptance of all who carec
little about the disputes on the abstract question of apostolica
descent. ;

Until the rise of the House of Abbas there was little or mi
difference between the assertors of the right of the Ahl-ul-bai:
to the pontificate and the upholders of the right of the peoplt;
to elect their own spiritual and temporal chiefs. The peopl«!
of Hijaz and the Medinite Ansar especially, who were so ruthj
lessly destroyed by the Ommeyyades, whilst they insisted oij
the principle of election, abhorred the injustice done to th<
children of Fatima. After the murder of Husain, a cry o
horror had gone forth from the heart of Islam, and the peoplj
of the holy cities had risen in arms against the tyrant, anc;
suffered bitterly for it. The adherents of the Ahl-ul-bait and
the followers of the first three Caliphs together underwent fearful
cruelties in the cause of the common Faith. But when i|
became necessary for dynastic reasons to create a gulf betweer
the two parties the elements of divergence came ready to ham
on both sides. Their doctrinal and legal differences began fron
this time to assume the type and proportions they retain at th
present moment

During the enlightened rule of Mamun and of his two im
mediate successors, when humanitarian science and philosoph
influenced the conceptions of all classes of society, there wa
a break in the development of the Sunni Church. With th
exception of this period the entire duration of the Abbasid

VIII. THE POLITICAL DIVISIONS AND SCHISMS 317

Caliphate ^ was occupied in the consolidation of its dogmas.
The Church and State were hnked together ; the Caliph was
the Imam — temporal chief as well as spiritual head. The
doctors of law and religion were his servants. He presided at
the convocations, and guided their decisions. Hence the
solidarity of the Sunni church. Many of the sects 2 into which
it was originally split up have gradually disappeared, but it is
still divided into four principal denominations, differing from
each other on many questions of dogma and ritual. Their
differences may perhaps be likened to those existing between
the Roman Catholic and the Greek, Armenian, and Syrian
orthodox churches.

Shiahism, on the other hand, shows how the Church and the
State have become dissociated from each other, and how the
" Expounders of the Law " have assumed, at least among a
section, the authority and position of the clergy in Christendom,
The freedom of judgment, which in Protestantism has given
birth to one hundred and eighty sects, has produced an almost
parallel result in Shiahism, and the immense diversity of opinion
within the church itself is due to the absence of a controlling
temporal power, compelling uniformity at the point of the
sword.

The question of the Imamate,^ or the spiritual headship of

* From 750 A.c. to 1252 A.c.

* According to Imam Ja'far Tusi (quoted in the Dabistdn), the Sunnis were
originally divided into sixty-five sects.

' A very good definition of the word " Imam " is given by Dr. Percy Badger :
" The word ' Imam ' comes from an Arabic root signifying to aim at, to follow
after, — most of the derivatives of which partake, more or less, of that idea.
Thus Imam means, primarily, an exemplar, or one whose example ought to
be imitated. It is applied in that sense, xar' e'^ox7?i', to Mohammed, as
being the leader and head of the Muslims in civil and religious matters, and
also to the Khalifahs, or legitimate Successors, as his representatives in both
capacities. It is also given — in its religious import only — to the heads of the
four orthodox sects, namely, the el-Hanafy, esh-Shafa'iy, el-Maliky, and
el-Hanbaly ; and, in a more restricted sense still, to the ordinary functionary
of a mosque who leads in the daily prayers of the congregation, — an office
usually conferred on individuals of reputed piety, who are removable by the
Ndzirs or wardens, and who, with their employment and salary, lose the title
also."

" The term is used in the Koran to indicate the Book, or Scriptures, or
record of a people ; also, to designate a teacher of religion. Hence, most
probably, its adoption by the Muslims in the latter sense. ' 'VMien the Lord
tried Abraham with certain words, which he fulfilled, He said, I have made
thee an Imam to the people.' Again, referring to Abraham, Isaac and
Jacob, ' We have made them Imams, that they may direct others at our

3i8 THE SPIRIT OF ISLAM ii.

the Musulman commonwealth, is henceforth the chief battle-;
ground of the two sects. ^ The Shiahs hold that the spiritual;;
heritage bequeathed by Mohammed devolved on Ali and his
descendants. They naturally repudiate the authority of the
Jama' at (the people) to elect a spiritual head who should super-
sede the rightful claims of the Prophet's family. According to
the Shiahs, therefore, the Imamate descends by divine appoint-
ment in the apostolical line. The Imam, besides being a
descendant of the Prophet, must possess certain qualities, — he
must be Ma' sum or sinless, bear the purest and most unsullied
character, and must be distinguished above all other men for
truth and purity. It is not proper, nor could it be the intention
of the Almighty, they argue, that a man whose character is not
unimpeachable should have the direction of the human con-
science. Human choice is fallible, as is proved by the history
of mankind ; and the people have often accepted the worst
men for their leaders. God could never have left the religious
needs of man to his unaided faculty. If an Imam be needed,
he must be one whom the conscience must accept. Accordingly;
they declare that if the choice of an Imam be left to the
community, it would be subversive of all morality ; and

command.' And again, ' We delivered to Moses the Book, therefore be not
in doubt of his reception thereof, and we ordained it to be a guide unto the
children of Israel. And we appointed some of them to be Imams, to direct
the people according to our command.' " — Badger's Imams and Seyyids oj
Oman, App. A.

^ "The question of the Imamate forms a subject of controversy," says Mas'udi,j
" between the followers of different sects, particularly between those who.
adhere to the doctrine of appointment, ^jajJ\ b im»LI&^) ^^^ the followers
of the doctrine of election, ,IJli^^|| uj(«^|. The defenders of the doctrine ol
appointment are the Imamias, icl/oVl (Ja| who form a section of the!
Adherents, Shiahs Sjtj>.JiJ\ of Ali ibn Abi Talib and his holy children (bj;
Fatima) j j.!. ^^ Wij'^^l ■ They believe that God does not leave man-
kind at any time without a man who maintains the religion of God (and act;
as their Imam). Such men are either prophets or their legates. The doctrine
of election is defended by a section of the Khawarij ^J'j^^i , the Murjia;
AjkAy^^j,, by many of those who admit the traditions and the generally receivec
opinions [Ahl-ns-Sunnat), by some of the Mu 'tazalas, and by a section of th(
Zaidias, <y>JO^_>/f. They believe that it is the will of God and his Prophe-
that the nation should choose a man amongst themselves, and make him thei
Imam, for there are times when God does not send a legate. The Shiah.
consider such Imams as usurpers of the dignity." — Muriij-uz-zahab.

III. THE POLITICAL DIVISIONS AND SCHISMS 319

msequently the spiritual guidance of mankind has been
;itrusted to divineh^-appointed persons.^
According to the Sunnis, the Imamate is not restricted to
16 family of Mohammed. The Imam need not be just,
irtuous, or irreproachable {Ma'sum) in his life, nor need he
e the most excellent or eminent being of his time (^U/| JUii ;

0 long as he is free, adult, sane, and possessed of the capacity
) attend to the ordinary affairs of State, he is qualified for
.ection. Another doctrine in which they agree with the
hurch of Rome was full of momentous consequences to Islam,
hey hold that neither the vices nor the tyranny of the Imam
•ould justify his deposition ; ^ nor can the perversity or evil
Duduct of the Imam or those who preside at the public divine
3rvice invahdate the prayers of the Faithful.^ They also hold
ftat the Im.amate is indivisible, and that it is not lawful to
lave two Imams at one and the same time. As Christianity
ould yield obedience to but one Pope, so the Moslem world
ould yield obedience to but one lawful Caliph. But as three
'opes have often pretended to the triple crown, so have three

^ " It is neither the beauty of the sovereign," says Ibn-Klialdun, " nor

'is great learning, perspicacity, or any other personal accomplishment which

useful to his subject. . . . The sovereign exists for the good of his people."

The necessity of a ruler," continues this remarkable writer, whose keenness

1 observation was equalled by his versatility, " arises from the fact that
uman beings have to live together, and unless there is some one to maintain
rder, society would break to pieces. A temporal sovereign only enforces
jch orders as are promulgated by man, but the laws framed by a divinely-
ispired legislator have two objects in view — the moral as well as social
•ell-being of mankind. The Caliph is the Vicar and Lieutenant of the Prophet,
le is more than a temporal ruler, he is a spiritual chief as well. The Caliph
. thus designated the Imam, his position being similar to that of the leader
f the congregation at the public prayers."

" This establishment of an Imam," continues Ibn-Khaldun, " is a matter
f obligation. The law which declares its necessity is founded on the general
ccord of the Companions of the Prophet. The Imam is the spiritual head,
•hilst the Caliph or Sultan represents the temporal power."

I ' In spite of this doctrine, promulgated at the order of tyrants anxious
0 avoid the penalty of their oppression, the people have never approved
,f it entirely. Under the Ommeyyade Walid, surnamed for his vices the
dsik (the Wicked), they rose in revolt and deposed him. Similarly, when
'ic iniquities of Mutawakkil (the Abbaside) became intolerable, he was
;eposed by his own son, Muntasir the Good. The history of the Ottoman
.urks contains many examples of the people rising in revolt against a vicious
r incapable sovereign, the last being under the unhappy Abdul Aziz.

' Against this doctrine there is now a widespread revolt in the Sunni Church ;
ne Ghair-Mukallidin, whom we shall describe later, holding that if the Imam
•- not chaste in his life, the prayers of the congregation are invalid.

320 THE SPIRIT OF ISLAM

Ameer ul-Muslimin laid claim to supreme rule. After tl
downfall of the Ommeyyades in Asia a member of thij
house succeeded in setting up an independent state in Spaij
whilst the family of Abbas exercised power on the banlj
of the Tigris, and that of Fatima on the Nile. The fa
that at various times two or three sovereigns have assurrn
simultaneously the Headship of Islam has given rise to ;
opinion that the rule of indivisibility applies only to one ai
the same country, or to two countries contiguous to each othe
but when the countries are so far apart that the power of o:
Imam cannot extend to the other, it is lawful to elect a secoi
Imam. The Imam is the patron and syndic of all Musulmar
and the guardian of their interests during their lives as well :
after their death. He is vested with the power to nomina|
his successors, subject to the approval of the Moslems. As t'
ofhce is for the temporal and spiritual benefit of the communit:
the nomination is dependent on the choice of the people.^ i

It might have been expected that persecution would ke^l
the Shiahs united among themselves ; but although all we
agreed on the question that the supreme pontificate of Isla^.
is confined to the line of the Prophet, many of them fell awf
from the recognised heads of the family, and attached their
selves from design or predilection to other members of tii
House. Whilst the acknowledged Imams and their discipr.
lived in holy retirement, the others found leisure amidst th('
foreign hostilities for domestic quarrels. They preached, thr
disputed, they suffered. i

Shahristani divides the Shiahs into five sects, viz. the Zaid'i
the Isma'ilia, the Isnd-'asharia or Imdmia, the Kaisdnia, a:;i
the Ghdllia or Ghulldt. As a matter of fact, however, as '|;
shall show hereafter, some of these sects, and especially t;!
branches into which they bifurcated, had, excepting in a mcj!
or less exaggerated attachment to Ali, nothing in common wiji
Shiahism proper. On the contrary, they derived their origli
from sources other than Islamic. \

The Zaidias, says Shahristani, are the followers of Zaid, sji
of Ah II. (Zain-ul-'Abidin), son of Husain. They affirm ttit
the Imamate descended from Ah to Hasan, then to Husai ;

^ Ibn-Khaldun ; see ante, part i. chapter x.

VIII. THE POLITICAL DIVISIONS AND SCHISMS 321

from Husain it devolved upon Ali II. (Zain-ul-'Abidin) ; and
from him it passed to Zaid, and not, as is held by the Isnd-
'Ashanas, and, in fact, by most Moslems, to Mohammed
al-Bakir. In their doctrines they closely approach the Ahl
us-Sunnat. They hold that the people have the right of
choosing their spiritual head from among the descendants
of the Prophet, combining thus the principle of election with
the principle which restricts the Imamate to the family of
Mohammed. They also affirm that it is lawful to elect the
mafziil [tJic less eminent) whilst the afzal {the most eminent) is
present. As a consequence of this principle, they accept the
Imamate of the first three Caliphs, whose pontificate is generally
disclaimed by the other Shiahs. They hold that though All
was the most eminent of all the Companions of the Prophet,
and by right of descent as well as by his qualities entitled to
the Imamate, yet for reasons of policy, and to allay the dis-
orders which had broken out upon the death of the Prophet,
to settle the minds of the people and to compose the differences
among the tribes, a man of a maturer age was required to fill
the office. Besides, owing to the struggle in which Ali had
been engaged in defence of the Faith, the feeling of retaliation
was strong in the bosom of those who had fought against Islam,
and who had been only recently reduced to subjection ; and
these people would not willingly have bowed before the grandeur
of Ah. They hold that the same reason applies to the election
of Omar.^ Their acceptance of the Imamate of the first two
Caliphs brought upon the Zaidias the name of Rawdfiz, or Dis-
senters, by the other Shiahs. Another doctrine held by them
is too important to escape notice. They maintain that in
addition to piety, truth, knowledge, and innocence or sinless-
ness, qualities required by the Shiahs proper for the pontifical
office, the Imam should possess bravery, and the capacity to
assert by force of arms his right to the Imamate. The Imam
Mohammed al-Bakir, who had succeeded his father Ali II.,
maintained that the use of force was reprehensible. Zaid
differed from his brother in this opinion. He rose in arms
against the tyrants in the reign of Hisham ibn Abdul Malik
(the Ommeyyade), and was killed in the neighbourhood of

* Shahristani, pt. i. p. 115.
s.i. X

322 THE SPIRIT OF ISLAM ii.

Kufa. He was succeeded by Yahya, his son, who followed
the example of his father, and, against the advice of Imam
Ja'far as-Sadik, proceeded to assert his right by force of arms.
He collected a large following in Khorasan, but was defeated
and killed by one of the generals of Hisham.

On the death of Yahya, the Imamate, say the Zaidias, passed
to another member of the family, Mohammed ibn Abdullah,
surnamed an-N afs-uz-Zakiya (" the Pure Soul "). Mohammed
assumed the title of Mahdi, and rose in arms in Hijaz against
the Abbaside Mansur. He was defeated and killed at Medina
by Tsa, Mansur's nephew. He was succeeded by his brother
Ibrahim, who lost his life similarly in a vain struggle against
the Abbasides. Isa, another brother, who also endeavoured
to assert his claims by force, was seized by Mansur, and im-
prisoned for life. After mentioning these facts, Shahristani
adds that " whatever befell them was prognosticated by Ja'far
as-Sadik, who said that temporal dominion was not for their
family, but that the Imamate was to be a toy in the hands of
the Abbasides."

According to a branch of the Zaidias, the Imamate passed
from Ibrahim to Idris, the founder of the Idriside dynasty in
Mauritania (^5"'^^' v^*^), and of the city of Fez. After the
fall of the Idrisides, the Zaidias became disorganised, but
members of this sect are still to be found in different parts of
Asia and Africa. A branch of the Zaidias ruled in Tabaristan
for a long time, and there is a Zaidia Imam still in Northern
Yemen. The Zaidias, according to Shahristani, were divided
into four subsections, viz. the Jdrudias, Sulaimdnias, Tabarias,
and Sdlehias. They differ from each other about the devolution
of the Imamate from Zaid's grandson. The Jdrudias, who up-
held the claims of Mohammed Nafs-uz-Zakiya in supersession
of Isa, suffered bitterly under Mansur. The Sulaimdnias were
named after their founder, Sulaiman ibn Jaris, who declared
that the Imamate depended upon the consensus of the people ; ,
..." that the Imamate is not intended for regulating religion
or for the acquisition of a knowledge of the Deity, or His unity
or the laws which He has made for the government of the world,j
for these are acquired through Reason. The Imamate is in-'
tended for the government of the earth, inflicting punishments

III. THE POLITICAL DIVISIONS AND SCHISMS 323

a wrong-doers, dealing out justice, and defending the State.
: is not necessary for the Imam to be af-^r.l. ..." "A section
f the Ahl-us-Sunnat hold similar opinions, for they say that
is not required for the Imam to be learned or a Mujtahid,
) long as he is wise and has some one with him capable of
vpounding the law." ^ The Sulaimdnias and the Sdlehias
^ree in accepting the Imamate of the first two Caliphs ; the
.tter hold that Ali, having himself abandoned his preferential
aim in favour of Abu Bakr and Omar, the people have no
ght to question their Imamate : but as regards Osman they
•e in doubt, for they say " when we see how he travailed for
le support of the Bani Ommeyya, we find his character
ifferent from the other Sahdba."

The Ismailias, also sometimes called Sabi'yiin {Seveners),"
?rive their names from Isma'il, a son of Imam Ja'far as-Sadik,
ho predeceased his father. They hold that upon the death
•• Imam Ja'far as-Sadik, the Imamate devolved on Isma'il's
:)n, Mohammed (surnamed al-Maktum,^ the hidden or un-
vealed), and not on Ja'far's son, Musa al-Kazim, as believed
y the Isnd-'Asharias and generally by the other Moslems,
iohammed al-Maktum was succeeded, according to the Is-
.a'ilias, by Ja'far al-Musaddak, whose son Mohammed al-Hahih
as the last of the iinrevealed Irndms.

i His son, Abu Mohammed Abdullah, was the founder of the
atimide dynasty which ruled Northern Africa for three cen-
iries. He had been thrown into prison by the Abbaside
iliph, Mu'tazid-b'illah Saffah II., but, escaping from his
angeon at Segelmessa, he appeared in Barbary, where he
:.sumed the title of Ohaidnllah and ISIahdi [the promised Guide).
oUowers gathered round him from all sides, and, assisted by

* Shahristani, pt. i. pp. 119, 120.

* Because they acknowledge only seven Imams — [i) Ali, (2) Hasan, (3)
usain, (4) Ali II., (5) Mohammed al-Bakir, (6) Ja'far as-Sadik (the True).

•id (7) Isma'il.

' So called, says Makrizi, because his followers kept him " concealed " to
cape the persecution of the Abbasides. Isma'il was the eldest son of Imam
I'far as-Sadik, and a man of sweet disposition and engaging manners, and
cording to Makrizi, had a considerable following in Yemen, in Ketama,
id the African provinces. During the lifetime of Isma'tl's mother, says
lahristani, the Imam Ja'far never had any other wife, " like the Prophet
•th Khadija, and Ali with Fatima."

324 THE SPIRIT OF ISLAM i

a Sufi, he soon overthrew the Aghlabites, who were ruHng thi
African provinces in the name of the Cahphs of Bagdad, anl ;
founded an empire which extended from Mauritania to th! ;
confines of Egypt. One of his successors (Ma'dd Abu Temimi *!
al-Muizz-li-din-illdh [Exalter of the Faith of God) , wrested Egypj i'
and a portion of Syria from the Abbasides. Muizz, to marj
his victory over the enemies of his House, founded Cair
[Kdhira, the Victorious City), and removed his capital froi
Mahdieh, near Kairwan, estabUshed by Obaidullah al-Mahd,
to the new city. At this time his dominions inchided, besid(,
the whole of Northern Africa, the islands of Sardinia anj
Sicily. He founded in Cairo the mosque of al-Azhar {fdmi\
al-azhar, the Brilliant Mosque), a vast public library, anl
several colleges, and endowed them richly. At these collegej
students received instruction in grammar, literature, the intej \
pretation of the Koran, jurisprudence, medicine, mathematicj i
and history. " The distinctive character of his reign," says tlj |
historian, " was justice and moderation." ^ |

Almost all the accounts we possess of the Egyptian Fatimidj '
have come down to us from hostile sources. Since Jouhar, tlj ;
general of Muizz, conquered Egypt and Syria from the Caliplj i
of Bagdad, there was an incessant struggle between the tv |
Caliphates as to the legitimacy of their respective titles. Tlj
hold which the claim of the Fatimides to be descended fro
Mohammed enabled them to acquire over the people, gave ri,
to an unceasing desire on the part of the Abbasides to anrs I
hilate the genuineness of their rivals' genealogy, and to impre ;
on the world the anti-Islamic character of the doctrines adopt'
by them. In the reign of Kadir-b'illah, a secret assemblage
the doctors of the law was held at Bagdad at the instance

^ Marcel. The orthodox Jamal ud-din bin Taghri-bardi (in his Maured ■
Latafat, &jl!aiJ| ^J^l says, " though Muizz was a schismatic, he was w .
learned, generous, and just to his subjects,"

For a full account of the Fatimide dynasty, see Short History of the Sarac s
(Macmillan).

[II. THE POLITICAL DIVISIONS AND SCHISMS 325

le frightened Caliph, to fulminate against the Fatimides an
iiathema declaring that they were not the genuine descendants
<■ Fatima. The Fatimides, on their side, replied by a counter-
aathema, signed by the leading doctoi-s of Cairo, among them
: any belonging to the IMaliki and Shafe'i persuasions. In spite,
jwever, of the doubts thrown on their legitimacy by the
.bbaside doctors, great historians like Makrizi, Ibn Khaldun,
,id Abulfeda have accepted the genuineness of the claims of
le Fatimides.

1 Makrizi is extremely outspoken on the subject, and plainly
aarges the partisans of the Bani-Abbas with misrepresenta-
pn and forgery. Dealing with the Abbaside statement that
•baidullah al-Mahdi was not a descendant of Mohammed, he
pes on to say, " a little examination of facts will show that this
] a fabrication. The descendants of Ali, the son of Abu Talib,
;; that time were numerous, and the Shiahs regarded them with
feat veneration. What was it then that could have induced
•leir partisans to forsake them, the descendants of Mohammed,
ad to recognise in their stead as Imam an offspring of the Magi,
;man of Jewish origin ? No man, unless absolutely devoid of
(•mmonsense, would act thus. The report that Obaidullah al-
ahdi was by descent a Jew or a Magian owes its origin to the
;tifices of the feeble Abbaside princes, who did not know how
i rid themselves of the Fatimides, for their power lasted with-
nt interruption for 270 years, and they despoiled the
ibbasides of the countries of Africa, Egypt, Syria, the Diar-
akr, the two sacred cities (Mecca and Medina), and of Yemen.
Ihe Khutba was even read in their names at Bagdad during
[rty weeks. The Abbaside armies could not make head
ii,^ainst them ; and, therefore, to inspire the people with
j/ersion against the Fatimides, they spread calumnies about
■'leir origin. The Abbaside officers and Ameers who could not
ontend successfully with the Fatimides gladly adopted these
;inders as a means of revenge. The Kazis, who attested the
;:t of convocation under Kadir b'illah, acted under the orders
« the Caliph, and only upon hearsay ; and since then historians
kve heedlessly and without reflection given currency to a
f.lumny which was invented by the Abbasides." Nothing
<.n be more explicit than this statement by a critical historian

326 THE SPIRIT OF ISLAM i

and a distinguished jurisconsult whose reputation stands hi^
among all Orientals.^

Probably the doctrines professed by the Egyptian Fatimid
were subjected to the same process of misrepresentation. St:
there can be little doubt that they adopted largely the esoter
doctrines of Abdullah ibn Maimun, surnamed the Kadddh (tl
Oculist), and made use of his degrees of initiation for tl
purposes of a political propaganda.

The protracted struggle between pope and emperor for tl
suzerainty of Christendom ; the Thirty Years' War, with i
concomitant miseries ; the persecution of the Huguenots,
which dynastic ambitions played as important a part as religio
bigotry, — give us some conception of the evils that have flow*
from the greed of earthly power. In Islam it has been tl
same. The Abbasides battling with the Ommeyyades, ai
then with the Egyptian Fatimides, produced the same d:
astrous results.

The eastern provinces of the ancient Persian empire were
this time the home of a variety of congenial spirits. Here h;.
gathered not only the Mago-Zoroastrians, fleeing before ti:
Islamic wave, but also the representatives of various Indi;!.
sects, with their ideas of metempsychosis, the incarnation li
Vishnu, the descent of Krishna from heaven, and his free a:!
easy intercourse with the gopis. The revolutionary opinio;
and heresies which under the later Sasanides had shaken t ;
temple and palace alike, and which Kesra Anushirvan hi
endeavoured to exterminate with fire and sword, had surviv \
all persecutions. At least they retained sufficient vitality ^
reappear in Islam in various shapes and forms.

Makrizi died in 845 a.c. Jamal ud-din Abu'l Mahasin Yusuf bin Tag ;

bardi, in
thus :—

his

'ij^^

jj^

•J_^^

^-*

»:,^!>'t

CJ^>

speaks of MaK

^-^ly^^-

1 'is

&£

Jisiji

OJsvJI ^JlxJI ^Ui'

>i^jl

;jUil

SiX

J.^1

cri'^^' ^^' ^j*:^^^^^^

^_5 •

.^n

^^' ^

'. f»-*^

c/^ ^

'^^'^ ^^

,»*a'/^'

c/^ '^-^ I

s]jJA

^o^J

J-

" In this year died the learned sheikh and Imam, jurisconsult, and nt
eminent historian and traditionist, Taki ud-din Ahmed, son ol Ali," etc. e1

VIII. THE POLITICAL DIVISIONS AND SCHISMS 327

The Rdwendis, an Indo-Magian sect who maintained the
doctrine of the transmigration of souls, and the Safidjdmagdn}
founded by Hakim bin Hashim, the infamous Mokanna,^
revolted in Khorasan, and were suppressed by the Caliph Al-
Mcihdi. Mokanna taught that God had assumed the human
form, since He had commanded the angels to adore the first
man ; and that, since that period, the divine nature had passed
from prophet to prophet until it had descended to himself.^

About the same time Mazdakism, which two centuries and
a half before had involved the empire of the Chosroes in a
general conflagration, and was ruthlessly trampled under foot by
the great Anushirvan, raised its head again under the Caliphs.
The snake had only been half killed. Babek, surnamed
Khurrami (from Khurram, his place of birth), preached, like
his prototype Mazdak, the same nihilistic doctrines, — the com-
munity of women and goods, and the indifference of all human
actions. For a space of twenty years he filled the whole
circuit of the Caliphate with carnage and ruin, until at length,
in the reign of Mu'tasim b'illah, he was overthrown, taken
prisoner, and put to death in the Caliph's presence. It was a
repetition of the old story. Islam had to pass through the
same throes as Christianity. From the beginning of the second
to the end of the ninth century there was an unceasing struggle
in Christianity with the ancient cults, which were appearing in
diversified characters throughout the wide area in which the
religion of Jesus was professed. After this struggle was over,
a deadly pall settled over Christendom ; orthodoxy had suc-
ceeded in crushing not only the revolutionary Montanists, the
Manichaean Paulicians, but also the rationalistic Arians.
Ecclesiasticism and orthodoxy, convertible terms, held in
bondage the mind of man until the Reformation. Islam had

' So called because they dressed themselves in white, like the Taborides of
Europe.

* This is the impostor whom Moore has made famous as " the Veiled Prophet
of Khorasan." He was called Mokanna because, either to conceal his ugliness,
or to impress his followers with a sense of inaccessibility, he always wore a veil.
He was also called the Sdzendeh-i-Mah (Moon-maker), because on one occasion
he had, by a piece of jugglery, caused an illumination, like that of the moon,
at Nakhsheb.

' Ibn Khaldun's General History, Kitdb til-' I bar. &c. (Egypt, cd.), vol. iii.
p. 206.

328 THE SPIRIT OF ISLAM ii.

to pass through the same ordeal, but its Reformation is only
just commencing.

Islam required from its votaries a simple confession of an
eternal truth, and the practice of a few moral duties. In other
respects it allowed them the widest latitude of judgment. In
the name of divine unity it held forth to all creeds and sects the
promise of a democratic equality. Naturally the persecuted
heretics of every faith rallied round the standard of the Prophet
who had emancipated human judgment from the bondage of
priesthood ; and " Avestan scripturalists " and Zoroastrian
free-thinkers, Manichaeans, Christians, Jews, and Magi aU
hailed the advent of a new dispensation which realised the
dream of religious unity. The swarms of gnostic sects which
had distracted the Church of Jesus from the second to the sixth
century had either merged in the Church of Mohammed, or
lived in peace, unmolested by the orthodox Greeks or Catholics,
under the large tolerance of the Caliphs. The former, whilst
they adopted the faith of Mohammed, retained their primitive
conceptions, and gave birth to the docetic sects of Islam, which
we shall describe later on.

The national characteristics of a people, the climatic condi-
tions under which they exist, the natural features of the country
in which they dwell, the influence of older cults, all give a colour
and a complexion to their faiths and doctrines. It is the same
in Christendom and in Islam. Iran gave birth to agnosticism ;
from there emanated the docetic conceptions which permeated
the Roman world and impressed upon the primitive belief of
the judaical Christians the conception of a divinity who dis-
coursed familiarly with mankind on earth. Manichasism, that
wonderful mixture of fancy and philosophy, to which Chris-
tianity owes so much and acknowledges so little, was, in spite
of the persecution of Zoroastrian and Christian, alive, not dead.
Will it ever die, that child of a bizarre genius, the outcome of
a nation's character ? Theologians may try, but will never
kill it. The morbidism of the Fathers of the Sunni Church gave
place in Iran to imaginative philosophy. All's personality
fired the imagination of Manichseism. It took the place of the
docetic Christ among the people. The process of deification
was not confined to Ali. His successors were deified with him.

|iii. THE POLITICAL DIVISIONS AND SCHISMS 329

hiaism, like Sunnism, presents therefore two aspects. One
the pure, simple S hiaism of Mohammed's immediate descen-
ants, which we shall describe shortly. The other is docetic
hiaism, fantastic and transmogrified according to the
rimitive beliefs of the people among whom it spread. Ultra-
liiaism is again as different from docetic Shiaism as ultra-
imnism or NaK'dsibism is from docetic Sunnism. Narrow-
linded exclusiveness is not the peculiar characteristic of any
lie faith or creed ; nor are the thunders of the Athanasian
[reed confined to Christianity. In Islam also (be it said with
i^rtain exceptions) each sect condemns the others to perdition,
iDt eternal (as the orthodox Christian charitably hopes it will
te), but sufficiently prolonged to make them feel the evils of
: different 'doxy from its own. Still, notwithstanding the
nathemas of hell-fire and brimstone which have been hurled
y contending parties and sects against each other, the philo-
ophical student will not fail to observe the universality of Islam.
, About the middle of the seventh century Constantine
ylvanus founded the Manichaean sect of PauUcians, who
srived their name from St. Paul, whose disciples they professed
lemselves to be. The Paulicians disclaimed the designation
I Manichaean ; but their doctrines bear the closest analogy to
iiose taught by Mani, and all the Christian writers, with the
Kception of Milner, ascribe their origin to Manichaeism. The
aulicians were the real progenitors of the Reformed Churches
if Europe. Their abhorrence of images and relics was pro-
ably a reflex of Islamic influences. In their aversion towards
•ariolatry and saint-worship, and in the repudiation of all
.isible objects of adoration, they closely approached the
i'oslems. They believed, however, with Mani, that Christ was
pure spirit which bore on earth only the semblance of a body,
id that the crucifixion was a mere delusion. They maintained
ae eternity of matter ; the origin of a second principle, of an
ctive being, who has created this visible world, and exercises
■is temporal reign till the final consummation of sin and death.
1 the interpretation of the Christian Gospels they indulge in
legories and figures, and claimed, like Mani, an esoteric insight
iito the meaning of words. An outward and expedient profes-
:;on of another faith, a doctrine whicli in modern Persia has

330 THE SPIRIT OF ISLAM

become famous as ketmdn or takiyye,^ was held to be commei -
able, I

The Paulicians were persecuted by the Greek Church and e
Byzantine Court with terrible fury, and for nearly two hundil
years they waged a not unequal contest in North Armenia si
Cappadocia with the fanatics and despots of Byzantium, i
which both sides perpetrated the most fearful atrocities, 2 t
last they succumbed to superior force ; but though tl;!r
fortresses were razed and their cities ruined, the sect lived, t
passed its doctrines to the Bulgarians, who have alw;s
been regarded with disfavour by the Orthodox Churcli;.
The Paulicians after their destruction in Asia appead
in South Provence and Savoy in the thirteenth centr/.
Their fate in those countries is known to every reaix
of European history. They were annihilated with fire <id
sword, — not even women and children were spared ; sih
of the latter as escaped were reduced to slavery. But Pai-
cianism did not die ; it showed itself in England, where i:s
followers, under the name of Lollards, suffered like tliir
predecessors in Asia, in Savoy, and in Provence ; it reappead
in Bohemia under Huss ; and finally it triumphed under Lut^r
and Calvin over its orthodox persecutors. We have tracecjio
far the fate of this peculiar sect, as in its original honnit
exercised no inconsiderable influence over the religio-politial
movements which were proceeding about the same timejin
Islam. I

During the tempestuous epoch, when Chyroseir the Paulid'in
was devastating the eastern portion of the Byzantine domini<;S,
and had filled the cities of Asia Minor with carnage and r,n,
there lived at Ahwaz, in Ears, a man who equalled Mani in le
versatility of his genius, the variety of his information, andie
profundity of his knowledge, and who was destined to plajin
almost equal part in the history of religion. AbduUah |)n
Maimun al-Kaddah has been represented by his enemies ;i a
Magian by birth : whilst his disciples have declared m

1 See post, p. 335.

" A hundred thousand PauUcians are said to have been destroyed unde he
orders of the second Theodora, the mother of Manuel, by the sword, the gi et,
or the flames.

viii. THE POLITICAL DIVISIONS AND SCHISMS 331

to be a descendant of Ali.^ However that may be, it
is clear that he was a devoted adherent of the House of
Mohammed. Considering the disastrous consequences which
directly or indirectly have flowed from his teachings, it was
impossible for even historians like Ibn Khaldim ^ to avoid
viewing the man and his doctrines with an unfavourable bias.
They think Abdullah ibn Maimun was animated by a desire to
subvert the dominion of Islam by the same insidious means
which were adopted by his great prototype against Christianity.
Aware of the risk attendant upon an open war against con-
stituted authority so long as the conscience of the people and
temporal power were at its back, he determined (they say) to
work in secret like Mani. He accordingly enveloped his system
in a veil of mystery, and, in order to annihilate all positive
religion and authority, he resolved to divide his followers into
seven degrees, like the Pythagoreans. The last degree incul-
cated the vanity of all religion, — the indifference of actions,
which, according to him, are neither visited with recompense
nor chastisement, either now or hereafter. He appointed
emissaries whom he despatched to enlist disciples, and to
initiate them according to their capacity in some or all of the
degrees. The pretensions of the son of Isma'il served them as
a poUtical mask ; whilst working ostensibly for him, they were
secretly, but in reality, the apostles of impiety. ^

Shahristani's account,^ however, of the tenets of the sect is
in a more philosophical spirit ; whilst Mohsin Fani's description
in the Dabisidn, derived from members of the fraternity, is
coloured with a slightly roseate hue. But, studied carefully,
they render it more than probable that Abdullah ibn Maimun
was a materialistic theist ; that like Mani, he was fired with
the ambition of creating an eclectic naturalism, which would
reconcile philosophy with positive religion ; and that his
degrees of initiation were analogous to the mystical degrees of
the Sufis. It is evident from what Mirkhond states that the

* Abdullah ibn Maimun is stated to have been at one time in the service of
Imam Ja'far as S&dik.

•Pronounced in Arabic Ibn (u) Khaldun ; in Persian, Ibn (i) Khaldfln.
•Nuwairi, Journal Asiatique, vol. iv. p. 298.

* Shahristani, part i. p. 147.

332 THE SPIRIT OF ISLAM il.

Egyptian Fatimides adopted most of their mystical doctrines
from Abdullah ibn Maimun.^

Abdullah proceeded from Ahwaz to Basra, and thence to
Syria, where he settled at Salemiye. In the course of his
travels he came in contact with the Paulicians, and imbibed
many of their doctrines. The long-continued struggle of the
Paulicians with the Byzantines, and the success of their pro-
selytising endeavours, undoubtedly influenced him in his
project of religion. He moulded his doctrines partly upon
those actually taught by Mani and partly upon those of the
Moslem mystics. Manichaeism itself was essentially pan-
theistic, founded upon a substratum of Pythagorean philo-
sophy, Zervanism, and Christianity. Abdullah's followers have
received the designation of Bdtinis or Esotericians, on account
of their claim to an esoteric insight into the precepts of positive
religion — a claim similar to that advanced by the Manichaeans
and Paulicians.

Abdullah ibn Maimun seems to have affirmed the eternity of
matter. He declared further " that God is not separate from
His manifestations ; that it cannot be predicated of him inde-
pendently that He is existent or non-existent, omniscient or
non-omniscient, for to affirm regarding Him any of these things
is to assume that there is some resemblance between Him and
His creatures ; that the First Cause evolved by a simple
command [amr-i-wdhid) , or a mere act of volition, a Principle
which was embosomed in Eternity, and is called Akl or Reason,
and this Principle evolved a subordinate Principle called the
Nafs or soul, whose relation to the other is that of a child to the
parent ; that the essential attribute of this Principle is Life,
as that of Reason is Knowledge ; that this second Principle gave
shape to pre-existent Matter, the essential attribute of which
is passivity, and afterwards created Time and Space, the
elements, the planets, and the astral bodies, and all other
objects in creation ; that in consequence of an incessant desire ,
on the part of the Second Principle {the Demiurgtis) to raise

^ The Egyptian Fatimides differed from the general body of the Isma'ilias
in one essential feature. Whilst the latter held that Isma'il, their last Imam,
had only disappeared, and would reappear in the fulness of time when " the
kingdom of heaven " would be revealed, the Egyptians taught that he had
reappeared in the person of ObaiduUah al-Mahdi and his successors.

VIII. THE POLITICAL DIVISIONS AND SCHISMS 333

itself to the level of the First Created Principle, it manifested
itself in matter in the shape of human beings ; that the aim of
all human souls is to struggle upwards to the Creative Principle
or Wisdom ; that the Prophets are embodiments or manifesta-
tions of that Principle to help the human soul to struggle with
matter ; the Prophets are therefore called Ndtik, (>iL., ' speak-
ing apostles ' ; that they are seven in number like the planets ;
that the progress of the world is in cycles, and at the last stage
will occur the Resurrection (^^t^ c-<iJ ) , when the sanctions
of positive religion and law will be withdrawn, for the motion
of the heavens and the adoption of the precepts of religion are
for the purpose that the Soul may attain Perfection, and its
perfection consists in attaining to the degrees of Reason and
its junction or assimilation with it in fact ; and this is the great
Resurrection ( ^yS o^Li ), when all things, the heavens, the
elements, and organic substances, will be dissolved ; and the
earth will be changed, and the heavens will be closed like a
I written book, and the good will be differentiated from the bad,
I and the obedient from the disobedient, and the good will be
i merged in the Universal Soul, and the bad will join with the
! Principle of Evil ; thus from the commencement of motion to
j its cessation (according to Abdullah ibn Maimun) is the initial
S stage ( \iy)J0 ), and from the cessation of motion or activitj' to
i amalgamation with infinity is the stage of perfection ; ^ tliat

« ^'l kJI ^ J5*JI ^ ^j^a.'\S\ O^j.sviL. u-TU'ill u;>,S.sv; L$
^^A.iJI i_^j,s\ij ^Jl.-iJlj (_>5liv.i))| . (^y-^ftiJI t^i^i.s^; i^Jai

J.C k;l> j..-^ js ,

iXij

«yU^)U ^M^U , ^''Wl v-^iiU; J:^'di ^^,xi.!\ A^li&/,
t/5;Vl j^y'c (>;V1 Jj^I ^ ^,$^_<JI /Mil ^ >U^i| ^^.Jo ,

334 THE SPIRIT OF ISLAM ii.

all the precepts of religion and law have their measures "...
" and that each letter and word have two meanings, for every
revelation [tanzii) has an interpretation {tdvil), and everything
visible has its counterpart in the invisible world ; that know-
ledge of truth cannot be acquired by reason but by instruction."
Abdullah ibn Maimun's disciples developed his doctrines still
further by declaring that Resurrection means the Advent or
Revelation of the Imam and of a Heavenly Kingdom in which
all the burdens of positive religion and traditions would be
removed ; that deception in religion is allowable ; that all the
precepts of the Koran have an esoteric sense ; that religion does
not consist in external observances, but in an inner sense and
feeling ; that every thing or act which is not injurious is lawful ;
that fasting is nothing but keeping the secret of the Imam ;
that the prohibition against fornication implies that the
disciple must not disclose the mysteries of the faith ; and that
zakdt means the giving of the tithes to the Imam ma'stlm — a
peculiar and fantastical medley of many cults and philosophies,
and in its tendency subversive of law and morality.

Abdullah ibn Maimun settled in Syria, the home of Christian
Gnosticism, where he still further developed his doctrines.
Here he converted Hamadan, also called Karmath, whose name
has become infamous in the annals of Islam.

The method of proselytising adopted by the followers of
Abdullah ibn Maimun was the old Manichaean one of throwing
the acolyte into a sea of doubt with insidious questions and
equivocal replies, " not," says Mohsin Fani's informant, " with
any evil object, but simply to bring the seeker after truth and
wisdom to the goal of perfection." ^ The process varied with
the religious standpoint of the person whom they desired to

JixiARj JJsl kI] ^^^j/.yc. J Jxn ^j^Rill> j_svJI- oU*,^

etc; JkxJ

— Shahristani, pt. i. pp. 148, I49
» Dabistdn, p. 356.

|i. THE POLITICAL DIVISIONS AND SCHISMS 335

ivert. The Dd'i ^ (the missionary) would at first give a tacit
cognition of the faith of the intended proselyte, and then by
insinuation of doubt and difficulties, gradually unsettle his
md, and end by suggesting as the only possible solution the
iculiar tenets of the Bdtini system. For example, if the Dd'i
d to proselytise a Shiah, he would represent himself as a
Ivoted partisan of the House of Mohammed. He would
patiate on the cruelty and injustice with which they were
•ated — on the martyrdom of Husain and the butchery of
irbela ; having thus prepared the way, he would instil into
!3 now receptive mind the esoteric doctrines of the Bdtinis.
ihe had a Jew to deal with, he spoke disparagingly of the
ristians and the Musulmans, and while agreeing with his
ended convert in still looking forward to a promised Messiah,
degrees persuaded the neophyte that this promised Messiah
n be none other than the Isma'ilite Imam. If it was a Christian
lom he hoped to win over, he enlarged on the obstinacy of the
|ws and the ignorance of the Musulmans, he conformed to all
e chief articles of the Christian creed, at the same time hinting
at they were all symbolic, and pointed to a deeper meaning
lich the Bdtini system alone could solve. And after the
,.nd of the neophyte had been so far moulded he would suggest
at the Christians had misinterpreted the doctrine of the
iraclete, and that the Isma'ilia Imam was the real Paraclete. ^
-)dullah ibn Maimun also formulated in precise terms the
ictrine of takeyye — outward conformity with an alien
iigious belief or practice. It had been in vogue among all
;;e Manichaean sects — not excepting the Paulicians. It was
-introduced by Abdullah ibn Maimun, partly to escape per-
cution, partly to facilitate the work of proselytism. Takeyye
the natural defence of the weak and suffering against the
rong. All people have not the fibre of a martyr ; and the
ajority of them have to submit where they cannot oppose.
:ie primitive Christians had to practise takeyye. The Isma'ilias
.d special reasons for concealing their religious views in all
untries within the sway of the Abbaside Caliphs ; and this
ig-enforced habit became at last a second nature with them,
lorn them the Shiahs proper borrowed the practice of takeyye.

^^1^, one who invites. » Mani, in fact, claimed to be the Paraclete,

336 THE SPIRIT OF ISLAM

Before Persia and Turkey had entered upon terms of amity i
Shiah was unable to perform the Hajj unless he conformed d
the Sunni rites, and takeyye in such cases was almost a necessy
with the devout Shiah wishing to visit the holy shrines. It
takeyye, "the natural offspring of persecution and fear," ]s
become so habitual with the Persians that they conform tc t
even in circumstances when there is no necessity. Tl^
practise it to avoid giving offence or wounding susceptibilit:;,
just as the modern Protestant shows a certain deference o
Romish rites in Catholic countries.

Hamadan, otherwise called Karmath, had broken away frn
his master and formed a sect of his own. Abdullah ibn Main n
had disavowed the use of force in his proselytism ; Karm;h
advocated it as the corner-stone of his sect. Possibly, ] e
Chyroseir, he was driven to it by the persecution of the ort >-
dox. He raised an insurrection in al-Ahsa and al-Bahni.
The weakness of the Caliph's troops gave him the victcA
Collecting a large following he issued from al-Bahrain, a;l,
like the Paulician Chyroseir, marked his progress by slauglj^r
and ruin. The Karmathites, from their fastnesses in al-Bahij.n
and al-Ahsa, waged for nearly a hundred years a sanguiniy
contest with the Pontiffs of Bagdad. They pillaged ein
Mecca, and carried away the sacred stone, the symbol 3f
Abrahamitic antiquity, like the Wahabis 900 years later, n
this sacrilege they imitated the example of their congeners, le
Paulicians, who had pillaged Ephesus, destroyed the sepuk're
of St. John, and turned his cathedral into a stable for m es
and horses. They were destroyed ultimately by the Ca)h
Mu'tazid b'illah.

After the destruction of the Karmathites, Isma'ilism as
proscribed ; its votaries were placed under the ban, and hur Jd
like vermin. Isma'ilism had to hide itself on all sides util
Obaidullah al-Mahdi wrested Africa from the Abbasides,

The Fatimides of Egypt were grand supporters of lean ig
and science. Yet in their desire to promote the diffusioi ol
knowledge among their subjects, they did not ignore .he
political advantages of the propaganda established by AbduaJi
ibn Maimun, whose esoteric and Manichsean doctrines ley
partially adopted for their own purposes, They establijed

VIII. THE POLITICAL DIVISIONS AND SCHISMS 337

colleges, public libraries, and scientific institutes {Day id-
///^Wi?/), richly furnished with books, mathematical instruments,
to which were attached numerous professors and attendants.
Access to, and the use of, these literary treasures were free to
all, and writing materials were afforded gratis. ^ The Caliphs
frequently held learned disputations, at which the professors at
these academies appeared, divided according to the different
faculties, — logicians, mathematicians, jurists, and physicians,
dressed in their Khala', or doctoral mantles. The gowns of the
English universities still retain the original form of the Arabic
Khala' or Kaftan.

Two hundred and fifty-seven thousand ducats, raised by a
•carefully regulated taxation, was the amount of the annual
revenue of the institutes, for the salaries of the professors and
officials, for the provision of the requisites for teaching, and
other objects of public scientific instruction. In these institutes
they taught every branch of human knowledge. To the central
Ddr ul-hikmat was attached a grand Lodge, where the candi-
dates for initiation into the esoteric doctrines of Isma'ilism were
instructed in the articles of the faith. Twice a week, every
Monday and Wednesday, the Dcl'i ud-du'dt, the Grand Prior
of the Lodge, convened meetings, which were frequented by
both men and women, dressed in white, occupying separate
seats. These assemblages were named Majdlis iil-hikmat, or
Conferences of Wisdom. Before the initiation the Dd'i ud-
du'dt waited on the Caliph, who was the Grand Master, and
'read to him the discourse he proposed to deliver to the neo-
phytes, and received his sign-manual on the cover of the
manuscript. 2 After the lecture the pupils kissed the hands of
the Grand Prior, and touched the signature of the Master
reverently with their foreheads. Makrizi's account of the
different degrees of initiation adopted in this Lodge forms an
invaluable record of freemasonry. In fact, the Lodge at Cairo
became the model of all the Lodges created afterwards in
Christendom. Abdullah ibn Maimiin had established seven
degrees of initiation. Seven was the sacred number : there
were seven planets, seven days in the week, and seven Imams,
At Cairo, where Egyptian hierophantism with the old mystic
! ^Makrlzi; Chrestomathie Arabe (De Sacy), vol. i. p. 158. * Makkari.

S.I. Y

338 THE SPIRIT OF ISLAM u

ceremonies became superimposed on the Manichaean foimda
tion, the number was increased to nine.^ The first degree wa
the most difficult of all, and required the longest time to mouL
the mind of the neophyte, and incline him to take that mos
solemn oath by which he bound himself to the secret doctrin
with blind faith and unconditional obedience. After this th
process was simple enough : the acolyte was led gradually t
recognise all the doctrines, and to become the instrument c
insatiable ambition.

The Grand Lodges of Mahdieh and afterwards of Caii
became thus the centres of a vast and far-reaching politic;
propaganda. But the knowledge of the doctrines upon whic
they worked was confined to a few. Like the mysteries (

^ A very good description of the different stages of initiation is given 1
De Sacy in the Journal Asiatiqite, vol. iv. p. 298. In order to induce t
neophyte to take the oath of the first degree, his mind was perplexed by t
Da'i with doubts. The contradictions of positive religion and reason we
dwelt upon, but it was pointed out that behind the apparent literal signific
tion there lay a deeper meaning, which was the kernel, as the words wt
mere husks. The curiosity of the novice was, however, not satisfied until i
had taken an unrestricted oath ; on this he was admitted to the second degn;
This inculcated the recognition of divinely-appointed Imams, who were t'
source of all knowledge. As soon as the faith in them was well establishf
the third degree taught their number, which could not exceed the holy save
for, as God had created seven heavens, seven earths, seven seas, seven plane,
seven colours, seven musical sounds, and seven metals, so had He appoinli
seven of the most excellent of His creatures as revealed Imams : these W"J
Ali, Hasan, Husain, Ali II. (Zain ul-'Abidin), Mohammed al-Bakir, Ja' '
as-Sadik, and Isma'il his son, as the last and seventh. In the fourth deg -'
they taught that since the beginning of the world there have been se\ i
speaking apostles ( {^^^ ). embodiments of the Logos, each of whom 1,1
always, by the command of Heaven, altered the doctrine of his predecessr;
each of these had seven coadjutors, who succeeded each other in the ep< 1
from one Natik to another, but who, as they did not manifest themseh ,
were called Sdmit (>.;►-< t^ ) or Silent. The seven Ndtiks were Adam, No ,
Abraham, Moses, Jesus, Mohammed, and Isma'il (the son of Ja'far as- Sac )
or Imdm-i-zamdn (Lord or Imam of all times). Their seven colleagues we
Seth, Shem, Ishmael son of Abraham, Aaron, Simeon, Ali, and Mohamr i
son of Isma'il. The object of having a Sdmit attached to a Ndtik was to al v
a free hand to the teachers and emissaries to put forward any one they H d
as the Sdmit apostle of the time. The fifth degree inculcated that eacl if
the seven Sdmits had twelve Nakibs or delegates for the extension of the 1 e
faith, for the number twelve is the most excellent after seven ; hence e
twelve signs of the Zodiac, the twelve months, the twelve tribes of Israel, :.
In the sixth degree, the principles of IManichaean philosophy were insti d
into the heart of the neophyte, and only when he was fully impressed with >e
wisdom of those doctrines was he admitted to the seventh, where he pa; d
from philosophy to mysticism. He then became one of the knowers ('drij )•
In the eighth he shook off the trammels of positive religion : The " veil" iS
lifted, and henceforth " everything was pure to the pure." The tendenc Jf
these doctrines can be better imagined than described.

VIII. THE POLITICAL DR'ISIONS AND SCHISMS 339

Eleiisis, or tlie secret principles of tlie Templars, the Illiiminati,
and tlie Revolutionists of France, they were imparted only to
the adepts — in whole or in part ; wholly to those alone who
'were intended to be used for the purpose of undermining the
[power of their enemies. For the masses and the uninitiated,
the State-religion was Islam, and its moral precepts and
religious observances were enforced in all its austerity. Most
A the Caliphs, especially al-Muizz, were in their lives and
practice strict religionists and observers of the duties enjoined
by the moral law.^ The doctors of law and the officers of State
ivvere pious Moslems. Nevertheless the fact of the existence of
li secret body working on mysterious lines loosened the bonds
bf society. The organisation of secret emissaries weakened the
control of the Abbasides without permanently strengthening
|:he hold of the Fatimides or extending their temporal power.
[ The Fatimides of Egypt have been called the Western
{[sma'ilias, in contradistinction to the followers of Hasan ibn
Mohammed Sabbah Himyari, commonly known as Hasan
Sabbah, infamous in the history of the West as the founder of
the order of the Assassins, ^ but known to his followers as
' Syedna," " our lord." His disciples are sometimes designated

* Mohsin Fani says : —

jjjjj c ,-i .ftlii '^^L cVi*'* **A v-J;*'* ixU**«kl i*jl

Hakim bi-amr-illah, the sixth Fatimide Cahph of Cairo, who is regarded
,;ven at the present day by the Druses (a branch of the Isma'ihas) as an
incarnation of the Divinity, has been represented as " a monster of iniquity."
rtis was a strangely contradictory character ; and, as Makrizi rightly thinks,
'lis mind was probably affected. He was at times atrociously cruel ; at other
limes, a wise and humane sovereign. He abolished all distinction of race
ind creed in his dominions ; he introduced the system of lighting up the streets
A Cairo for the protection of wayfarers ; he organised a system of police ; he
epressed violence. For an account of Hakim bi-amr-illah, see Short History
>/ the Saracens, p. 602. It may be noticed, as a remarkable coincidence, that
jivan the Terrible, who has been termed just such another monster, was
egarded by the average Russian of his day as a monarch of singular force of
;;haracter and ability. The fact is that the cruelties practised by Galeazzo
Maria Sforza, by the Norman chief of Sicily who was in the habit of dis-
bmboweUing his victims, by the Popes Paul and Alexander VI., by the Kings
\ii England, Richard and John, and others, show only too clearly how little
jiiSerence creed or country is apt to make in the misdeeds of irresponsible
power joined to an innately cruel nature.

\ * Sylvestre de Sacy derives the name from the word hashish (the Indian
\^hang) with which Hasan Sabbah's followers drugged themselves, and
phis derivation is now generally accepted. See Professor Browne's Literary
\Hist. of Persia, vol. ii. pp. 204-5. Mohsin Fani describes this man's life and

340 THE SPIRIT OF ISLAM

as the Eastern Isiiia'ilias or Alamutias, or the Maldhida
Kuhistan (" the impious atheists " of Kiihistan).

Hasan was the son of a learned Shiah doctor, an Arab 1
descent, as his name betokens, residing in the city of Khoi
Persia. He had been carefully trained in all the learning of 1 ,
time. It is said that at one time he was a fellow-stude
of Nizam ul-Mulk (afterwards the renowned minister of h)
Arslan and of Malik Shah, the two great Seljukian so^■
reigns of the East) and of the famous mystical poet On:
Khayyam. But the story appears now to be discredited^
Baulked in his ambition at the court of MaUk Shah, 3
proceeded to the pontifical court at Cairo, and was t\ni
initiated into the mysteries of the Cairene Lodge. Persia t
that time was in the most rigid bonds of Sunni orthodo: ,
the Seljukian Sultans having always been among the mrt
devoted upholders of the straitest traditions of Asha'ris .
Hasan returned from Egypt to Asia, and partly by force ai
partly by fraud possessed himself of an almost impregnae
fortress called in the archaic Persian or Pahlavi Alamut,x
the Eagles' Nest,^ seated on one of the most inaccessie
mountain-fastnesses of Upper Persia ; ^ and during the thir ;-
five years that he held the dominion of that place, he organid
from there a system of terror throughout Asia and Africa * i d
Eastern Europe, fighting the sword with the dagger, and ave ',-
ing persecution with assassination. He himself was a st::;t
observer of all the precepts of religion, and would not alw
drunkenness or dancing or music within the circuit of his rz.
His esotericism appears to have been different from that of ae

doctrines according to the Isma'ilias themselves, " as hitherto his life had 1 Jn
written with the pen of prejudice."

(_y / . - « y V « vy J'.

1 Professor E. G. Browne's Lit. Hist, of Persia, vol. ii. pp. 190-193.

2 Wassaf, o-jlii! i^\xi,\ J\ Jitu o^| AaJj
^ Near Kazwin.

* Wassaf says : —

•^^ fiy'ij'*' J^^^

j/iii. THE POLITICAL DIVISIONS AND SCHISMS 341

•Vestern Isma'ilias, and is explained in detail by Shahristani
ind Moshin Fani, both of whom speak of him with some awe,
vliich induces the conviction that they were not quite un-
ipprehensive of the dagger of his Jiddis.^ Leaving the mystical
)ortion of his doctrines aside, it may be said that he admitted
mly four degrees of initiation. Those who had obtained the
irst three degrees were named respectively Fiddi, Rafik, and
.)d''i, — fellows, companions, and knights, — to use the terms of
;. system to which Hasan's institution bears the closest resem-
plance, viz. that of the Templars. Hasan was the first Grand
[iaster of this institution, though he always paid a formal
fiomage to the Egyptian Caliphs. The fourth Grand Master,
[lasan bin Mohammed, of the Alamutia Lodge, who, in order
o further his ends, did not hesitate to claim descent from the
I'aliph Mustansir billah of Cairo through his son Nizar, abolished
,11 the ordinances of religion. The Resurrection had arrived ;
he revelation of the Imam had taken place in his person ; and
ihe Kingdom of Heaven was ushered in with freedom and
,cence from the ordinary trammels of the moral law.^ This

' ^ That their apprehensions were not unjustified will be apparent from the
allowing anecdote concerning Imam Fakhr ud-din Razi. This learned Imam
sed to lecture on jurisprudence in his native city of Rai (Rhages). Once he
■ad occasion to denounce the Isma'ilias from his professorial chair. The news
if this audacious conduct was carried to the Eagles' Nest, and a Fidai was
Tomptly deputed to bring the careless professor to reason. The Fidai on his
frrival at Rai entered himself as a student in the Imam's college. For seven
aonths he waited for an opportunity to carry his design into effect. At last
;ne day he found the Imam alone in his chamber ; he locked the door, and
iirowing the Imam on the ground pointed the dagger at his throat. " Why
lill me ? " asked the frightened professor. " Because you have cursed the
isma'ilias," answered the Fidai. The Imam offered to bind himself solemnly
iever again to disparage the brotherhood. The Fidai refused to accept the
mam's word unless he agreed to receive a pension from the Grand Alaster,
iius binding himself by the debt of " bread and salt."

* Hasan died in 508 a.h. Wassaf, following Juwaini, the vizier of Hulaku
nd the author of the Jahdn-Kusha, gives an extremely bitter but not unjust
ccount of these Isma'iUas.

Id'j'* »J.i cjli /.^/ej/o jHji« Jys>. I y ^cVx^sxJ \\

fy-^

^Ul

' o-;^

S\'i \\

) ^

:>.«*.i>j

cy*)

>**;

\yA *$

oij

342 THE SPIRIT OF ISLAM n

mad revolutionist is known in the history of the Alamiitias a;
' ala-Zikrihi-as-Saldm , " may his name be blessed " — corruptee
into Zikr -US-Sal dm. From this time, imtil the destruction o
Alamut, the disciples of the two Hasans maintained a remorse
less fight with civil society, in which no quarter was shown oi
either side. They were, in fact, the Nihilists of Islam. Unde
their stilettoes fell both Christians and Moslems. They wer
attacked by Hulaku, and after the destruction of their fortresse
in the mountains, they were hunted and killed like vermin. ^

From the Isma'ilias the Crusaders borrowed the conceptioi;
which led to the formation of all the secret societies, religiou,'
and secular, of Europe. The institutions of Templars an'
Hospitallers ; the Society of Jesus, founded by Ignatiii
Loyola, composed of a body of men whose spirit of self-sacrific
and devotion to their cause can hardly be surpassed in oi
times ; the ferocious Dominicans, the milder Franciscans,-
may all be traced either to Cairo or to Alamut. The Knigh
Templars especially, with their system of grand masters, grar
priors and religious devotees, and their degrees of initiatio
bear the strongest analogy to the Eastern Isma'ihas. Smc
sections of the Western Isma'ilias are still to be found in Yeme
in Egypt, and Barbary, where they cannot be distinguish(
from the general body of Moslems. On the western coast
India there exists, however, a large community called Khojal
who are the direct representatives of the original Easte

\ji\.;^i} ,^,oj UU Vi'iy'O _j t.i>.

^1 Jflia.'* Aftjkli^ ..^ ry^^'. (^

J;y jh^^ 3' .c^7 ^^-'^^^

cJixU; cly! y J^iU; y^^^

u*A. *— '.^J > ti>il^iw /lUi" Jlvc I,JI^ J.LmS JVC LU*/ S

Wagpaf. — ^jIIrS j-H«*il i^j ^J'

^ For a full account of the Alamutias and their crimes against human '.
see Von Hammer's History of the Assassins, translated into English by Wc>.
Even the Christian sovereigns frequently availed themselves of the service.if
the Alamutia assassins to get rid of their enemies. Richard of England :d
Conrad of Montferrat assassinated by a Fiddi of Alamiit ; and one of e
Popes employed another, though unsuccessfully, to remove Frederick Ban-
rossa. After the destruction of Alamiit, Rudbar, and the other castles of e
Assassins, the Alamiitias were massacred without compunction by the Tarts.

VIII. THE POLITICAL DIVISIONS AND SCHISMS 343

Isma'ilias. Hindus by origin, they were converted to Isma'il-
ism, in the eleventh or twelfth century of the Christian era, by
one Pir Sadr ud-din, an Isma'ilian Dd'i. His teachings fitted
in with their own religious conceptions, for part of the old cult
was incorporated with the Isma'ilia doctrines.^

The Kaisdnias and Hdshiniias, both of them exclusively
political in their character, but tinted by Magianism, are now
completely extinct, and hardly require any mention.

The Ghdllias or the Ghuldt (Extravagantists), supposed by
Ibn Khaldun and Shaliristani to be a sect of the Shiahs, are, in
reality, the descendants of the old Gnostics, whose Islam con-
sisted merely in the substitution of Mohammed or Ali, chiefly
the latter, for Christ. They are, in fact, the Docetes of Islam.
The Nusairis, who believe in the divinity of Ali, the Ishdkins,
the Numdnias, the Khitdhias, and others, anthropomorphists,
behevers in incarnations and metempsychosis, — represent the
notions which were prevalent among the Marcionites, the
\'alentinians, and the other docetic Christians. Some of these
have replaced the Christian triad by a pentad. These believe
that Mohammed, Ali, Fatima, Hasan, and Husain jointly
represent the Divinity. A form of Docetism is in vogue also
in Sunnism. In the mountains of Kurdistan a Sunni Saint ^
occupies almost a similar place in the popular faith to Jesus
among the Gnostics.

The Roushenias, as tlieir name implies, were the exact
counterparts of the Illuminati of Christendom. This sect had
its origin in Afghanistan in that dark, turbulent, and san-
guinary period which preceded the accession of Akbar to the
throne of India. Their founder, Bayezid,^ by birth an Afghan,
but of Arab extraction, appears to have been a man of great
natural abihties and extreme subtlety of genius. In his early
youth he acquired a taint of Manichaeism from the Isma'ilias

^ Numbers of Isma'ilias are also to be found in the mountains of Gilgat and
Hunza.

* Sheikh Abdul Kadir Ghilani. There are Sunnis who pay an extravagant
veneration, verging on adoration, to this Saint. He has received the title
among them of Ghaus-i-'uzam, Mahbub-i-Subhani, Kutb-i-Rabbdni — " The
great Saint, the beloved of God, the Pole-star of holiness " (see the Giildastai-
Keramat). Sheikh Abdul Kadir was a mystic, and a Fatimide by descent.

! He takes a high position in the hierarchy of the mystics and the dervishes ;

t see chapter xi.

* • Afterwards called Mian Roiishan Bayczid.

344 THE SPIRIT OF ISLAM ii.

who still flourished in considerable numbers in some of the
mountainous districts of Khorasan. The doctrines which he
first propagated seem not to have differed essentially from those
of the Sufis ; but as he proceeded he diverged wider and
wider from the pale of dogmatic Islam. As his sect increased
in numbers and power, it assumed a political as well as a
religious aspect ; and soon made such formidable progress
that, at last, it embraced nearly the whole of Afghanistan.

The doctrines taught by Bayezid, when examined critically,
show a superstructure of mysticism and pantheism upon a basis
of Isma'ilism. The observant reader, however, will not fail to
perceive a strange and fantastic analogy between his teachings
and the practices and theories of the brotherhood of Fakirs.
He taught that God is all-pervading, and that all existing
objects are only forms of the Deity ; that the Ptrs or rehgious
teachers were the great manifestations of the Divinity ; that
the sole test of right and wrong was to follow the path pointed
out by the Pir, who is the representative of the Divinity ; that
the ordinances of the law have therefore a mystical meaning,
and are ordained only as the means of acquiring religious perfec-
tion ; and that the mystic sense of the law is only attainable by
religious exercises and through the instructions of a Pir ; it
is the source of religious perfection, and this perfection being
attained, the exterior ordinances of the law cease to be binding,
and are virtually annulled.

The Bdtinis, the Isma'ilias, and all the cognate sects differ
from the general body of Moslems in making /ai^^ the keystone
of their doctrines. In this they closely approach most of the
Reformed Churches of Christendom. They "believe," like
Luther, in "justification by faith." Luther has strenuously
inculcated that " faith in Christ " would save all sinners. The
Batinis and the Isma'ilias with their offshoots made " faith"
or " imdn," which included a firm reUance on the divine Imam,
an essential factor in their creed. So long as an individual was
blessed with imdn, his outward acts were immaterial.

We now come to the Shiahs proper, the followers of the Imams
of the house of Mohammed, generally known as the Ism-
'Asharias (the Duo decemians) , so named because they accept
the leadership of twelve Imams. The I snd-' Asharias hold

•III. THE POLITICAL DIVISIONS AND SCHISMS 345

hat the Imamate descended by express appointment in the
olio wing order : —

1. Ali, the Caliph, usually styled Murtaza Asad-ullah al-
rhdlib, the Chosen, the Lion of God, the Victorious (d. a.h. 40,
..c. 661).

2. Hasan, styled Mujtaba, the Approved (a.h. 44, A.c. 664).

3. Husain, Shahid-i-Kerbela, the Martyr of Kcrhela (a.h. 60,
..c. 679).

4. Ali II., surnamed for his piety Zain ul-'Abidin, the Orna-
lent of the Pious (died a.h. 94, a.c. 713).

5. Mohammed al-Bdkir, the Explainer of Mysteries, or the
Profound, a man of great learning and ascetic austerity (born

.H. 57, a.c. 676 ; died a.h. 113, a.c. 731).

6. Ja'far as-Sddik, the True, was the eldest son of Mohammed
'-Bdkir. Ja'far was born in Medina, in the year of the Hegira
.H. 80 (a.c. 699). As a scholar, a litterateur, and a juris-
onsult, his reputation stands high among all sects of Moslems,
'is learning and his virtues, the transcendental purity and
uth of his character, won him the veneration even of the
lemies of his family. He died at an advanced age in his native
)wn, in the reign of Abu Ja'far al-Mansur, the second
bbaside Caliph, in the year of the Hegira 148 (a.c. 765).

7. Abu' I Hasan Musa al-Kdzim, the son of Ja'far as-Sadik,
as also surnamed al-Abd iis-Sdleh, the Holy Servant, on account
'■ his piety and " his efforts to please God." He was born at

edina in the year 129 a.h. (a.c. 746-747). He died at Bagdad
a the 25th of Rajab 183 (ist September, 799 A.c.) in a prison
"here he was confined for a number of years by Harun, who
'as extremely jealous of the veneration in which the Imam was
hid in Hijaz. De Sacy says Musa was put to death secretly in
Is confinement by order of Harun. His sufferings and his pure
ad exalted character endeared him greatly to all classes of
I'ople, and gained for him the title of Kdzim, " the Patient."

18. Ali III., Abu'l Hasan Ali, surnamed ar-Riza, the Accept-
cle, for the purity of his character. He was a scholar, a poet,
lid. a philosopher of the first rank. He was born in Medina in
te year 153 a.h. (a.c. 770), and died at Tus in Khorasan in
m.202 (a.c. 817). He married a sister of Mamun, named
Inm ul-Fazl.

346 THE SPIRIT OF ISLAM ]

9. Abu Ja'far Mohammed, surnamed al-Jawwdd for h
munificence and generosity, and Taki for his piety. He was
nephew of Mamun, and was also married to his daughter, name
Umm ul-Habib. He was held in the highest estimation by th;
Caliph and his successor Mu'tasim (born a.h. 195, a.c. 811 ; ar
died in a.h. 220, a.c. 835).

10. Ali IV., surnamed Naki, the Pure, died a.h. 260, A.c. 86

11. Abu Mohammed al-Hasan ibn Ali al-'Askari, surname
al-Hddi, the Director, and called 'Askari from his long residen(
under the surveillance of Mutawakkil at Surra man-Raa ^ whic
also went by the name of al-'Askar, " the Encampment." t
was a man of eminent piety and great nobility of character,
distinguished poet and litterateur. He was born at Medir
A.H. 231 (a.c. 845-6), and died at al-'Askar in a.h. 260 (a.
874). He is said to have been poisoned by Mutawakkil.

12. Mohammed al-Mahdi (a.h. 265, a.c. 878-9). This k;
Imam disappeared, according to the Shiah belief, in a groti!
at Surra-man-Raa in the fifth year of his age.^ He is believej
to be still alive, and they look forward with earnest anticipatic'
to his reappearance to re-establish the universal Caliphate, ar
to restore the purity of the human race. He is styled the Ima:
Ghdih (the absent Imam), the Muntazar, "the Expected
and the Kdim, " the Living." ^

The Isna-'Asharias, now called Shiahs or Imamias />(
excellence, are divided into two sub-sects — Usulis and Akhbdr
{i.e. the followers of principles and the followers of traditiom
There is no difference between them on the question of tl
Imamate or its descent to the last Imam. But they differ c
the amount of authority to be attached to the exposition of tl
Mujtahids, who call themselves the representatives of the Imar
The Usuli repudiates entirely the authority of the expounde
of the law to fetter his judgment. He contends that the la
is clear, and that it is his duty to construe it for himself with tl
light of reason and progress of human thought, and not to 1

^ a place several days' journey to the north-west of Bagdad.

* For an account of this pathetic incident, see ante, p. 123, and She
History of the Saracens (Macmillan), p. 295.

^ Compare especially the belief of the Christadelphians, according to who
Christ will reappear to bring about an earthly kingdom.

viii. THE POLITICAL DIVLSIONS AND SCHISMS 347

guided in his judgment by the dictates of men as falhble as him-
self, and interested in maintaining the world in ignorance. He
holds that God's revelations had not the object of hiding the
Divine meaning in words difficult to apprehend. They were
addressed through his Prophet to humanity to apprehend and
to obey. Thus God's teachings delivered through His Messenger
do not require the interpretation of priest or lawyer. The
Akhbari, on the other hand, obeys slavishly the expositions of
the Muj tabids.

According to the L^suli doctrines, the oral precepts of the
Prophet are in their nature supplementar}^ to the Koranic
ordinances, and their binding effect depends on the degree of
harmony existing between them and the teachings of the Koran.
Thus, those traditions which seem to be in conflict with the
spirit of the Koranic precepts are considered apocryphal. The
process of elimination is conducted upon recognised principles,
founded upon logical rules and definite data. These rules have
acquired a distinctive type among the Mu'tazilas, who have
eliminated from the Hadis Kudsi {the holy traditions) such
alleged sa^dngs of the Prophet as appeared incompatible and
out of harmony with his developed teachings as explained and
illustrated by the philosophers and jurists of his family.

The Usulis divide the traditions under four heads, viz. : —
(a) Sahih, " authentic " ; {h) Hasan, " good " ; (c) Musak,
"strong"; and [d) Za'if, "weak." A hadis sahih, or an
t authentic tradition, is one the authority of which can be con-
clusively traced to the Aimma-i-Ma'sum (the sinless Imams),
according to the narration of an Imam 'ddil, " a just or trust-
worthy Imam," about whose integrity there is a consensus
• among the " masters of traditions " (arbab-i-hadis) . The narra-
; tion must be through a succession of such 'ddils. A hadis-hasan,
; or a good tradition, is one the authority of which goes back,
like that of the hadis sahih, to the Ma'sum ; but, according to
I the narrative of a venerable Imam, in this way, that although,
I in regard to the narrator of it, the words sikah 'ddil, " trust-
worthy and just," have not been used by the historians, yet
' they have praised him in other words. A hadis-musak, or a
strong tradition, is one handed down by people who are acknow-
ledged to be sikah and 'ddil, " virtuous and just," by the

348 THE SPIRIT OF ISLAM ii

historians, though some or all of the narrators might not b
Imdmias, " followers of Ali." A hadis-za'if, or a weak tradition
is one which complies with neither of these conditions. It i
only the first three kinds of hadts that are accepted or relie(
upon by the Usulis.

Again, a tradition before it can be accepted must have beei
handed down in regular succession. A tradition is in regula
succession when a large number of people in the regular cours(
of time make the same narration until it is traced to the Ma'sum
subject to the condition that the number of narrators, in eacl
particular age, is so great as to exclude the idea of their having,
combined in telling a falsehood. A tradition is without C
regular succession, when the number of narrators does not, iii
all or several stages, reach to such a body of witnesses ; ano
this kind of tradition is called, " in the peculiar idiom of th(;
masters of traditions, the information of one." ■

The Usuli exercises his own judgment in the construction o
the law, and the reception, application, and interpretation of th(;
traditions. He does not consider himself bound to follow the
exposition of a Muj tabid, if his judgment and conscience tel
him that that exposition is against the revealed or natural law
or justice, or reason. They protest against the immoderatt]
number of traditions accepted by the Akhhdris without an)!
criticism, or any application of the rules of exegesis. Th(
Usulis represent the Broad Church, if not of Islam, at least o:
Shiahism.

According to the Dabistdn, the Akhbdris derive their titk
from the fact that they rely entirely upon akhbdr, or traditions
and repudiate ijtihdd (the exercise of private judgment), as the}
consider it contrary to the practice of the Imams. The}
accept as authentic whatever tradition happens to be current
if only it is labelled with the name of an Imam or of the Prophet
It is enough that it is called a hadis ; it becomes ipso facta^^
authentic in their eyes,^ and further inquiry is not required tc|
test the source from which it emanates. It need not be saidj
that under colour of this easy principle a vast number of tradi-'
tions and maxims have become incorporated with the Islami(

^ Adilla-i-Kati', conclusive evidence, which admits of no questioning, anc
requires no exercise of judgment.

VIII. THE POLITICAL DIVISIONS AND SCHISMS 349

teachings which have Uttle in common with them. The ancient
faitli had never completely died out of the hearts of the masses,
and it was impossible that with the growth of a national Church
many of the old thoughts should not find expression in new and
more approved garbs. Gobineau has, somewhat harshly, but
not quite without reason, charged ultra-Akhbarism with having
converted the great hero of Islam into an Ormuzd, and his
descendants into Amshaspands.

Akhbarism is the favourite creed of the uneducated, who
require a leading string for their guidance, or of the half-
educated Mullas. LTsulism finds acceptance among the
most intellectual classes of the people and the most
learned of the clergy. One of the most notable advocates of
the Usuli doctrines within recent times was Mulla Sadra ^
(Mohammed bin Ibrahim), a native of Shiraz, and probably the
ablest scholar and dialectician of his time. He was the reviver
of philosophy and humanitarian science among the Persians.
From the fall of the Buwaihs to the rise of the Safawis, Iran
had remained under a cloud. Patristic orthodoxy had pro-
scribed philosophy and science ; the very name of Avicenna
had become hateful, and his works were publicly burnt. During
these centuries many Mazdeistic traditions dressed in Islamic
garb naturally had found acceptance among the uneducated
classes. The true Fatimide scholars had retired into seclusion,
and a body of ecclesiastics strongly imbued with national pre-
dilections and prejudices had sprung up to maintain the people
in ignorance. Mulla Sadra had thus to contend against a clergy
as tenacious of their rights as those of Christendom, and as
ready to take offence at the slightest approach to an attack on
their preserve of orthodoxy. But Mulla Sadra was gifted with
great perseverance and tact, and succeeded after considerable
difficulty in reviving the study of philosophy and science.
Usulism came to the front once more. Its philosophical counter-
part, Mu'tazilaism, is unquestionably the most rationalistic and
liberal phase of Islam. In its liberalism, in its sympathy with
all phases of human thought, its grand hopefulness and ex-
pansiveness, it represents the ideas of the philosophers of the
House of Mohammed who reflected the thoughts of the Master.

^ Mulla Sadra flourished in the reign of Shah Abbas IJ.

350 THE SPIRIT OF ISLAM ii.

The political factions which have hitherto kept the Shiahs
divided among themselves are disappearing, and the rest of the
sects are fast merging into the Isna-'Asharias. The Shiahs
of Persia, Arabia, West Africa, and India belong for the most
part to this sect. Isnd-'Ashanaism has thus become synony-
mous with Shiahism.

Like the Akhbaris, the Sunnis base their doctrines on the
entirety of the traditions. But they differ from them in accept-
ing such only of the traditions as can stand the test of certain
rules of criticism peculiar to their school. In this they approach
the Usulis. They regard the concordant decisions of the
successive Caliphs and of the general assemblies {Ijmd'-ul- .
Ummat) as supplementing the Koranic rules and regulations, ;
and as almost equal in authority to them. i

The Sunnis are divided into several sub-sects, each differing ,
from the other on various points of dogma and doctrine. These i
minor sectarian differences have often given rise to great i
bitterness and persecutions. In the main, however, they are
agreed on the fundamental bases of their doctrines and laws,
deriving them from four unvarying sources, viz. : — (i) The j
Koran ; (2) The Hadis or Sunnat (traditions handed down from 1
the Prophet) ; (3) The Ijmd'-td-Ummat (concordance among 1
the followers) ; and (4) The Kiyds (private judgment). The j
Hadis {pi. Ahddis) embraces (a) all the words, counsels, and ,
oral precepts of the Prophet [Kawl) ; {h) his actions, his works, '
and daily practice {Fi'l) ; (c) and his silence [Taknr), implying
a tacit approbation on his part of any individual act committed
by his disciples. The rules deduced from these subsidiary ;
sources vary considerably in respect of the degree of authority
which is attached to them. If the rules, or traditional precepts,
are of public and universal notoriety {Ahddis-i-Mutawdtireh) ,
they are regarded as absolutely authentic and decisive. If the
traditions, though known publicly by a great majority of \
people, do not possess the character of universal notoriety, they >j
are designated Ahddis-i-Mashhtlra, and stand next in rank tOj
the Ahddis-i-Mutawdtireh ; whilst the Akhhdr-i-wdhid, which =
depend for their authenticity upon the authority of isolated
individuals, have little or no value attached to them. Thus
every tradition purporting to be handed down by the con-

:iii. THE POLITICAL DIVISIONS AND SCHISMS 351

emporarics and companions of the PropJiet, regardless of their
ictual relationship to liim, is considered to be authentic and
genuine, provided certain arbitrary conditions framed with the
;iew of testing the value of personal testimony are complied
vith. The expression Ijmd'-ul-Ummat implies general con-
:ordance. Under this collective name are included all the
ipostolic laws, the explanations, glosses, and decisions of the
eading disciples of the Prophet, especially of the first four
Caliphs (the Khulafdi Rdshidin), on theological, civil, and
;riminal matters.

Since the eighth century of the Christian era, however, all
:hese sources of law and doctrine have been relegated to the
iomain of oblivion. And each sect has followed blindly its
)wn doctors in the interpretation of the law and the exposition
A doctrines. This is called Taklid. No man is considered
' orthodox " unless he conforms to the doctrines of one or
:he other of the principal doctors.

The four most important persuasions or sects ^ among the
nmnis are designated Hanafi, Shafe'i, Maliki, and Hanbali,
ifter their respective founders.

Abu Hanifa,^ who gave his name to the first school, was born
n the year 80 of the Hegira, during the reign of Abdul Malik
bn Merwan. He was educated in the Shiah school of law, and
■eceived his first instructions in jurisprudence from Imam
Ja'far as-Sadik, and heard traditions from Abu Abdullah ibn
d-Mubarak and Hamid ibn Sulaiman. Abu Hanifa often
juotes the great Shiah Imam as his authority. On his return
:o his native city of Kufa, though he continued to remain a
:ealous and consistent partisan of the house of Ali, he seceded
rom the Shiah school of law and founded a system of his own,
liverging completely in many important points from the
loctrines of the Shiahs ; and yet, so close is the resemblance
)etween his exposition of the law and their views, that there is
10 reason for doubt as to the source from which he derived his
)riginal inspiration. The latitude which he allows to private
udgment in the interpretation of the law seems to be unques-
ionably a reflex of the opinions of the Fatimide doctors. He

1 Called the Mazdhib-arba'a.

* Abu Hanifa an-No'man ibn Thabit (a.c. 699-769).

352 THE SPIRIT OF ISLAM ii

is called by his followers the Iindiii-ul-Na'zaui (the great Imam)
He died in the year a.h. 150. The doctrines taught by him ard
in force among the major portion of the Indian Musulmans
among the Afghans, Turkomans, almost all Central Asiar
Moslems, the Turks, and the Egyptians. His school owns b}
far the largest number of followers.

The founder of the second school was (Abu Abdullah) Malil^
ibn Anas, who died in the year a.h. 179, in the Caliphate 0.
Harun ar-Rashid.

Shafe'i was the originator of the third school. He was borrj
at Ghazza in Syria, in the same year in which Abu Hanifa died:
He died in Egypt in the year a.h. 204 (a.c. 819), during thC
Caliphate of Mamun. He was a contemporary of the Fatimid(
Imam Ali ibn Musa ar-Riza. Shafe'i's doctrines are generall},
followed in Northern Africa, partially in Egypt, in Southen;
Arabia, and the Malayan Peninsula, and among the Musulmansj
of Ceylon. His followers are also to be found among the;
Borahs ^ of the Bombay Presidency. ;

The fourth school was originated by Ibn-Hanbal. H(
flourished during the reigns of Mamun and his successor Mu'taj
sim b'illah. These two Caliphs were Mu'tazilas. Ibn-Hanbal':!
extreme fanaticism, and the persistency with which he tried t('
inflame the bigotry of the masses against the sovereigns, brough
him into trouble with the rulers. He died in the odour of grea
sanctity in the year a.h. 241. Ibn-Hanbal and his patristicisn
are responsible for the ill-success of Mamun in introducing tb-!
Mu'tazfla doctrines throughout the empire, and for the frequen
outbursts of persecution which deluged the Mohammedan worI(
with the blood of Moslems.

I have in another place ^ described the legal difference
of the various Sunni schools ; their doctrinal divergence
run into the minutiae of the ceremonials of worship, unneces
sary to detail in a work intended for the general student,
It may be said, however, that the Hanbahtes were the mosij
pronounced anthropomorphists. To them God was a beinj,
in the similitude of man enthroned in heaven. Amonn
the other sects the conceptions varied considerably accordinjj

1 These Borahs are partly Shafe'is and partly Isma'ilias of the Egyptian typ(
* "Mohammedan Law."

VIII. THE POLITICAL DIVISIONS AND SCHISMS 353

to the age and the people. Anthropomorphism was, how-
ever, the predominating element. There is no doubt that
Hanafism was originally the most liberal of these sects,
whilst Shafe'ism and Malikism were both exclusive and
harsh in their sympathies and ideas. With the advance
of time, and as despotism fixed itself upon the habits and
customs of the people, and the Caliph or sovereign became the
arbiter of their fate without check or hindrance from juris-
consult or legist, patristicism took hold of the mind of all classes
of society. The enunciations of the Fathers of the Church
became law. The Hanafis, who styled themselves, and were
styled by their brethren of the rival schools, ahl-ur-rai w'al
kiyds, " people of judgment and analogy," in contradistinction
to the others, who were called ahl-id-hadis , traditionists par
excellence, have long ceased to exercise their judgment in
the domains of law or doctrine. What has been laid down
by the Fathers is unchangeable, and beyond the range of
discussion. The Faith may be carried to the land of the
Esquimaux, but it must go with rules framed for the guidance
of Irakians !

Patristicism has thus destroyed all hope of development
in the Sunni fold. But its endeavours to ensure uniformity
of faith and practice have led within the last hundred years to
two notable revolts within the bosom of the Sunni Church.
Wahabism, which made its appearance at the beginning of
the nineteenth century, derived its breath from the Desert.
Ghair-mukallidism springs from the innermost recesses of
the human heart, seeking an escape from the strait-laced
Pharisaism of the established Church. The Ghair-mukallid is
a non-conformist, though he has been wrongly and unjustly
confounded with the Wahabis. He is undoubtedly more
philosophical and rationalistic than the followers of the other
denominations of Sunnism. Narrow, no doubt, admittedly
hmited and unsympathetic in its scope, Ghair-Mukallidism is
nevertheless the one movement in the Sunni Church which
contains great promise for the future.

The dispute which ushered in the Reformation in Europe has
already commenced among the Hanafis, and is sure before long
to make itself felt among all sects and schools of Moslems.

354 THE SPIRIT OF ISLAM u

Does the translation of the Koran stand on the same footin.
as the Arabic Koran ; are prayers offered in the vulgar tongue
in the tongue of the worshipper ignorant of Arabic, as meri
torious as those offered in the language of Hijaz — such are th
questions which are now agitating the Moslem world in India
The controversy has already caused much bitterness and give:
rise to a few anathemas on the side of the orthodox, and th
reformers may well be congratulated that the movement whid
they have set on foot is conducted under a neutral Government
To the old plea, which vested interests have always urge(
against every innovation, the leaders of the reform answer by
asking. Is Arabic the sole language which God understands '
If not, what is the purpose of the prayer instituted by th
Prophet ? If it is to bring the worshipper nearer to God, and t'i
purify and ennoble his heart, then how can he feel the elevatin;'
effect of prayer if he only mumbles what he cannot understand
From reason they appeal to the example of the Prophet, wh
allowed his Persian converts to offer their prayers in their ow:
tongue.^ This movement, still unknown to Europeans, con
tains the germ of great development. It is the beginnin,
of the Reformation. Hitherto the theologians of Islam, lik
the Christian clergy in the Middle Ages, have exercised, throug"
the knowledge of a language not known to the masses or th
sovereigns, a dominating influence. Once the principle fc
which the reformers are working is accepted, the prescription
framed in the ninth and tenth centuries of the Christian ert;
for people utterly apart from the culture and civilisation c
the present day, will have to be understood and explained wit
the light of a thousand years.

Khawdrijism has been often regarded as a branch of Sunnisn
though in reality it came into existence long before the foundc
tions of the Sunni Church were laid. The refractory troop:
who had forced the Caliph Ali to abandon the fruits of th
well-earned victory at Siffin, and who afterwards rose in anr
against him at Nahrwan, were the first to receive the name c
Khawdrij (deserters or rebels). Shahristani has given a ver
lucid account of this insurrection. These were the men wh
were most eager in referring to arbitration the dispute of th

^ See ante, p. i86.

VIII. THE POLITICAL DIVISIONS AND SCHISMS 355

arch-rebel Mu'awiyah with the CaHph. They had forced upon
their chief, against his own judgment, Abu Musa as the repre-
sentative of the House of Mohammed ; but no sooner had the
terms been settled than these soldier-theologians, these
Covenanters of Islam, fell into a hot controversy amongst
themselves about the sinfulness of submitting any cause to
human judgment. In order to prevent the spectacle of Moslems
slaughtering each other in the presence of the enemy, Ali retired
to Kufa with the greater part of his army, leaving a small
detachment at Dumat ul-Jandal to await the result of the
arbitration. The rebels to the number of twelve thousand
deserted the Caliph at Kufa, and, retiring to Nahrwan, took
up a formidable position from which they threatened the
Caliphate. With the repugnance to shed blood which was ever
the distinguishing trait in Ali's character, he besought them
repeatedly to return to their allegiance. In reply they
threatened him with death. Human patience could not bear
this contumacy longer. They were attacked and defeated in
two successive battles. A few of the rebels escaped, says
Shahristani, and betaking themselves to al-Bahrain, that
harbour of refuge for all the free lances of Islam, spread their
noxious doctrines among the wild inhabitants of that tract.
They reappeared in the time of Abdul Malik, who drove them
back into their fastnesses in al-Ahsa and al-Bahrain. They
issued again under Merwan II., and spread themselves in
Yemen, Hijaz, and the Irak. They were attacked and defeated,
and forced to take refuge in Oman, where they have remained
settled ever since. Under the Abbasides they spread their
doctrines among the Berbers of Africa, whom they raised
repeatedly against the Pontiffs of Bagdad. The Khawarij are
the Calvinists of Islam. Their doctrines are gloomy and
morose, hard and fanatical. They are strict predestinarians.
They do not accept the Imamate of any of the Caliphs after
Omar, their own chiefs being, according to them, the lawful
Imams. They differ from the other Sunnis, in maintaining that
it is not requisite for a person to be either a Koreishite or a free
man for election as Imam of the Moslems. Slaves and non-
Koreishites were eligible for the Imamate equally with Kor-
eishites and free men. According to Shahristani, the Khawarij

356 THE SPIRIT OF ISLAM ii.

are divided into six groups, the most important of whom are
the Azdrika (the followers of Abu Rashid Nafe ibn Azrak) ;
the Ihddhia (the followers of Abdullah ibn Ibadh, who appeared
in the reign of Merwan II., the last of the Ommeyyades) ;
the Nejdat Azdna (the followers of Nejdat ibn 'Amir) ; the
Ajdrida (of Abdul Karim bin 'Ajrad) ; and the Sufdruz
Ziadia.

Of these, the Azdrika are the most fanatical, exclusive, and
narrow. According to them, every sect besides their own is
doomed to perdition, and ought to be forcibly converted or
ruthlessly destroyed. No mercy ought to be shown to any
infidel or Mushrik (an expansive term, including Moslems,
Christians, and Jews). To them every sin is of the same
degree : murder, fornication, intoxication, smoking, all are
damning offences against religion. Whilst the other Moslems,
Shiah as well as Sunni, hold that every child is born into the
world in the faith of Islam, ^ and remains so until perverted by
education, the Azraki declares that the child of an infidel is
an infidel. The orthodox Christian maintains that every child
who is not baptized is doomed to perdition ; the Khariji, likej
the Christian, declares that every child who has not pronounced!
the formula of the Faith is beyond the pale of salvation. Thei
Azdrika were destroyed by Hajjaj ibn Yusuf ; but their;
sanguinary, fierce, and merciless doctrines found expression
nine centuries later in Wahabism.

The Ihddhia were decidedly less fanatical. They were, foi
the most part, settled in Oman, and are still to be found in tht
principality of Muscat. The Azdrika, and afterwards the
Wahabis, were at deadly feud with the Ibddhias.

According to them, the general body of Moslems are un
believers, but not Mushrik (polytheists), and that consequentl)
they can intermarry with them. They differ from the Azdrik
in this and in other respects. They accept the evidence o
Moslems against their people ; hold that the taking of the good:,
of the Moslems except in time of war, is unlawful, and " proi|
nounce no opinion," says Shahristani, " on the infidelity of thf'
children of infidels " ; but they agree with their brethren, th(

.' ^luiii %jki ^ic jj^ jy^^ J$

\nu. THE POLITICAL DIVISIONS AND SCHISMS 357

Azdrika, in denouncing and anathematising the cliief com-
panions of the Prophet (the AsIidb-i-Kabai).

The I bad hi as have held Oman until now. Sore pressed by
the Wahabis, they have succeeded in maintaining their power
on the coast of Eastern Arabia, but they seem to be fast merging
into the general body of Sunnis.

The Wahabis have been depicted in rather favourable colours
by Mr. Palgrave, in his Travels in Central Arabia, but, in fact,
they are the direct descendants of the Azdrika, who, after
their defeat by Hajjaj ibn Yusuf, had taken refuge in the
recesses of Central Arabia. Abdul Wahab's doctrines bear the
closest resemblance to those held so fiercely by the followers of
Nafe ibn al-Azrak. Like them, the Wahabis designate all
other Moslems as unbelievers, and permit their despoilment
and enslavement. However commendable their revolt against
the anthropolatrous usages in vogue among the modern
Moslems, their views of religion and divine government, like
those of the Ikhwdn of the present day in Nejd, are intensely
morose and Calvinistic, and in absolute conflict with progress
and development.

Babism, wliich made its appearance in Persia in the early
part of the nineteenth century, has been represented in widely
divergent colours. According to the Moslem authorities, it is
nothing but a new form of Mazdakism, an Eastern socialistic
communism. Its mixed gatherings of men and women are
regarded in the same light as the ancient Agapo'- of the primitive
Christians were considered by the followers of the older faiths.
On the other hand, a European scholar ^ of great research and
learning, who has studied the religious literature of the Babis,
and mixed familiarly with them, represents Babism as the
latest expression of an eclectic evolution growing out of the
innate pantheism of the Iranian mind.

During the reign of Mohammed Shah,^ the h^^pocrisy and
vices of the national clergy, says this writer, had reached
such a pitch that a change was inevitable. The pohtical
and social condition of the people was deplorable. In this

^ Gobineau.

- The third Kajar King of Persia, who ascended the throne on the death
of his grandfather, Fathi Ali Shah.

358 THE SPIRIT OF ISLAM ii.

state of affairs a young Mullah of Shiraz, Mirza All Mo-
hammed, supposed to be a Fatimide by descent, who had
studied much, had travelled a great deal and made the
pilgrimage to the holy cities, and had for many years resided
in Arabia and Syria, began to preach a social and moral
reform. He denounced the hypocrisy of the ordinary mullahs,
and their reception of the most doubtful traditions to justify
practices condemned by Islam. His words struck a sym-
pathetic chord in minds already prepared for the reception of
his views, and evoked extraordinary enthusiasm. He obtained
numerous disciples, among them a young lady of Kazwin,
whose learning and eloquence supplied a powerful support to
his cause. She is venerated now as Kurrat-ul-'Ayn, " Light of
the Eyes." Mirza Ali Mohammed, either carried away by the,
enthusiasm of his followers, or unhinged by his own exaltation, |
in a fit of pantheistical insanity, assumed the title of Bab '
Hazrat-i-d'ala, and styled himself a part of the Divinity. His
followers rose in arms against the constituted authorities and
failed. The fanaticism of the clergy and political expediency
gave rise to a persecution, for which even Gobineau thinks thei
Babis were primarily responsible. The Bab was killed withj
most of his prominent disciples. But his teachings have!
survived. His social precepts are said by Gobineau to bCj
much in advance of the received doctrines. He attached great
importance to the marriage-relations, and during the con-,
tinuance of the first marriage he allowed the taking of a second!
wife only under certain conditions. He absolutely interdicted
concubinage, forbade divorce, and allowed the appearance of
women in public. The custom of seclusion, as Gobineau justly
observes, creates infinite disorders, and exercises a pernicious
influence on the early education of children. The usage itself
does not depend on any religious prescription, it is simply a
convenience. The ancient kings of Persia observed it as a sign
of grandeur, and the Moslem sovereigns and chiefs imitated
their example, and adopted the custom. Among the Arabs
the women of the tribes are perfectly free to move about as
they wish. The ladies of the Prophet's family conversed with
the disciples, received their visits, and often shared in the
repasts of the men. Mirza Ali Mohammed therefore, says

VIII. THE POLITICAL DIVISIONS AND SCHISMS 359

Gobineau, made no innovation in endeavouring to free women
from the bondage of a mischievous custom. His rehgious
doctrines are essentially pantheistic, and his code of morals,
far from being lax, is strict and rigid. ^

i Some Moslem writers have divided the religious sects into
two comprehensive groups, viz. the Ahl-ul-hdtin, the Intiii-
iionalists, and the Ahl-uz-zdhir , those who look into the meaning of
■precepts, and those who look only to the literal sense. The Ahl-nl-
bdtin, however, must not be confounded with the Bdtinis.
The Ahl-ul-bdtin include the mystical Sufis, the philosophical
mutakallimtn, and the Idealists in general, " all those," to use
ithe words of Zamakhshari's comment, " who strive to implant
!in their hearts the roots of divine perfection," who strive and
litruggle to attain the highest standard of human excellence,
md who, whilst conforming to the prescriptions of the law,
oerceive in them the divine intent to promote concord and
larmony among the races of the earth, peace and goodwill
imong mankind. 2

* The most recent account of this remarkable religious movement, from
he Babi point of view, is to be found in Professor E. G. Browne's New History
•f the Bab, which purports to be a translation of a Babi work called Tdrikh-i-
'adid. Professor Browne's Introduction is extremely interesting. From the
^drikh one can picture the fascinating personality of Knrrat-td-'Ayn ; see
vppendix III. This great scholar has given to the world in his new work,
ailed Materials for the Study of the Babi Religion, considerable additional
nformation regarding its development and diffusion. Bahaism, its latest
)hase, which flourishes chiefly in the United States of America, appears to
;iave largely assimilated the doctrines of Christian Science.

^ See post, chap. xi.

CHAPTER IX
THE LITERARY AND SCIENTIFIC SPIRIT OF ISLAM

WE have already referred to the Arabian Prophet's
devotion to knowledge and science as distinguishing
him from all other Teachers, and bringing him into
the closest affinity with the modern world of thought. Medina,
the seat of the theocratic commonwealth of Islam, had, afteij
the faU of Mecca, become the centre of attraction, not to the!
hosts of Arabia only, but also to inquirers from abroad. Here
flocked the Persian, the Greek, the Syrian, the Irakian, and
African of diverse hues and nationalities from the north and
the west. Some, no doubt, came from curiosity, but most
came to seek knowledge and to listen to the words of the Prophet
of Islam. He preached of the value of knowledge : " Acquirt
knowledge, because he who acquires it in the way of the Lord
performs an act of piety ; who speaks of it, praises the Lord
who seeks it, adores God ; who dispenses instruction in it
bestows alms ; and who imparts it to its fitting objects, per-
forms an act of devotion to God. Knowledge enables ite
possessor to distinguish what is forbidden from what is not
it lights the way to Heaven ; it is our friend in the desert, oui
society in solitude, our companion when bereft of friends ; ii|
guides us to happiness ; it sustains us in misery ; it is ouij
ornament in the company of friends ; it serves as an armouij

1 The translation of this Hadis is given in the text : " Acquire knowledge
etc."

IX. THE LITERARY AND SCIENTIFIC SPIRIT 361

against our enemies. With knowledge, the servant of God
rises to the heights of goodness and to a noble position,
associates with sovereigns in this world, and attains to the
perfection of happiness in the next." ^

He would often say, " the ink of the scholar is more holy
than the blood of the martyr " ; and repeatedly impress on his
disciples the necessity of seeking for knowledge " even unto
China." ^ " He who leaves his home in search of knowledge,
walks in the path of God." " He who travels in search of
knowledge, to him God shows the way to paradise." ^

The Koran itself bears testimony to the supreme value of
learning and science. Commenting on the Surat-nl-'alak*
Zamakhshari thus explains the meaning of the Koranic words :
" God taught human beings that which they did not know, and
this testilieth to the greatness of His beneficence, for He has
given to His serv^ants knowledge of that which they did not
know. And He has brought them out of the darkness of
ignorance to the light of knowledge, and made them aware of
the inestimable blessings of the knowledge of writing, for great
benefits accrue therefrom which God alone compasseth ; and
without the knowledge of writing no other knowledge {'iilum)
could be comprehended, nor the sciences placed within bounds,
nor the history of the ancients be acquired and their sayings
be recorded, nor the revealed books be written ; and if that
knowledge did not exist, the affairs of religion and the world,
^■^1 J (^"^i jr*l. could not be regulated."

Up to the time of the Islamic Dispensation, the Arab world,
properly so called, restricted within the Peninsula of Arabia
and some outlying tracts to the north-west and the north-east,
had shown no signs of intellectual growth. Poetry, oratory,
and judicial astrology formed the favourite objects of pursuit
among the pre-Islamic Arabs. Science and literature pos-
sessed no votaries. But the words of the Prophet gave a new
impulse to the awakened energies of the race. Even within

'Tradition from the Bihdr-ul-Anwdr of Mulla Bakir ibn Mohammed Taki
al-majlisi, vol. i. chap, on Knowledge, handed down by the Imam Ja'far
as-Sadik, also quoted from Mu'az ibn-Jabal in the Mustatraf, chap. iv. ; also
in the Kashf iiz-Zunun of Haji Khalifa, Fluegel's ed. p. 44.

- Misbah nsh-Shartat. ^ Jdnti' ul-Akhbdr.

* Koran, sura xcvi. : see also other suras.

362 THE SPIRIT OF ISLAM r

his lifetime was formed the nucleus of an educational institution
which in after years grew into universities at Bagdad an(
Salerno, at Cairo and Cordova, Here preached the Maste
himself on the cultivation of a holy spirit : " One hour'
meditation on the work of the Creator [in a devout spirit] i
better than seventy years of prayer." ^ "To listen to thi
instructions of science and learning for one hour is more meri
torious than attending the funerals of a thousand martyrs-
more meritorious than standing up in prayer for a thousan(
nights ; " "To the student who goes forth in quest of know
ledge, God will allot a high place in the mansions of bliss ; evenj
step he takes is blessed, and every lesson he receives has it;;
reward ; " " The seeker of knowledge will be greeted in Heaver!
with a welcome from the angels ; " "to listen to the words o
the learned, and to instil into the heart the lessons of sciences
is better than religious exercises, . . . better than emancipatin^i
a hundred slaves ; " " Him who favours learning and thij
learned, God will favour in the next world ; " "He who honourii
the learned honours me." Ali lectured on branches of learning;
most suited to the wants of the infant commonwealth. Amon^'
his recorded sayings are the following : " Eminence in scienct!
is the highest of honours ; " "He dies not who gives life t(
learning ; " " The greatest ornament of a man is erudition."

Naturally such sentiments on the part of the Master and thd
chief of the Disciples gave rise to a liberal policy, and animatec
all classes with a desire for learning. The art of Kufic writing'
which had just been acquired by a disciple at Hira, furtherec
the primitive development of the Moslems. It was, however*
pre-eminently an age of earnestness and faith, marked by the
uprise of the soul against the domination of aimless, lifelessj
philosophy. The practice of religion, the conservation of 2'
devotional spirit, and the special cultivation of those branches
of learning which were of practical value in the battle of every-
day life, were the primary objects of the Moslem's attention. ,

The age of speculation was soon to commence ; its germs werCj
contained in the positive precepts of the Master ; and even;
whilst he was working, the scholarly Disciple was thinking.
The Master had himself declared that whosoever desired tc

' J ami' itl-Akhbar.

X. THE LITERARY AND SCIENTIFIC SPIRIT 363

ealise the spirit of his teachings must hsten to the words of the
>cholar.^ Who more able to grasp the meaning of tJie Master's
vords than Ah, the beloved friend, the trusted Disciple, the
ievoted cousin and son ? The gentle, calm teachings instilled
n early life into the young mind bore their fruit.

In spite of the upheaval of the Arab race under the early
\iliphs, literature and arts were by no means neglected in the
netropolis of primitive Islam. Ali and Ibn Abbas, his cousin,
^ave public lectures on poetry, grammar, history, and mathe-
natics ; others taught the art of recitation or elocution ;
vhilst some gave lessons in caligraphy, — in ancient times an
n valuable branch of knowledge.

On Osman's tragical death the Scholar was called by the
•oice of the people to the helm of the State. During his retire-
nent Ali had devoted himself to the study of the Master's
)recepts by the light of reason. "But for his assassination,"
o quote the language of a French historian, " the Moslem
vorld might have witnessed the realisation of the Prophet's
eachings, in the actual amalgamation of Reason with Law,
md in the impersonation of the first principles of true philosophy
n positive action." The same passionate devotion to know-
edge and learning which distinguished Mohammed, breathed
n every word of his Disciple. With a liberality of mind — far
)eyond that of the age in which he lived — was joined a sincere
levoutness of spirit and earnestness of faith. His sermons,
aithfully preserved by one of his descendants, and his litanies
)r psalms, portray a devout uplooking toward the Source of
VU Good, and an unbounded faith in humanity. The accession
)f the Ommeyyades to the rulership of Islam was a blow to
he progress of knowledge and liberalism in the Moslem world,
iheir stormy reigns left the nation little leisure to devote to
he gentler pursuits of science ; and to this, among the
overeigns, was joined a characteristic idolatry of the past,
lieir thoughts were engrossed by war and politics. During
he comparatively long rule of a century, the House of

' V-^ J'^ C^^^ '^'^i^^ ^Jl
" I am the city of learning, .'Mi is its gate."

364 THE SPIRIT OF ISLAM ii

Ommeyya produced only one man devoted to the cultivatioi
of letters ; and this man was Abii Hashim Khalid ibn Yezid
" the philosopher of the Merwanian family," ^ as he has beei
called, who was set aside from the succession on account of hi
learning.

The jealous suspicion and the untiring animosity of th
children of Abu Sufian and Hind had obliged the descendant
of the Prophet to live a life of humble retirement. " In th«!
night of misery and unhappiness " they followed truly an(
faithfully the precepts of their ancestor, and found consolatio:
in intellectual pursuits. Their ardent love of knowledge, thai
passionate devotion to the cause of humanity, — their spiri
looking upwards far above the literalness of common interpreta
tions of the law, — show the spirituality and expansiveness c
Islam. 2 The definition by the Imam Ja'far as-Sadik of science
or knowledge gives some idea of their faith in the progress 0
man : " The enlightenment of the heart is its essence ; Trut!
its principal object ; Inspiration, its guide ; Reason, it
accepter ; God, its inspirer ; and the words of man its utterer."

Surrounded by men whom love, devotion, and sympathj
with their patience had gathered around them, the earl;*
descendants of the Prophet were naturally more or less in
fluenced by the varied ideas of their followers. Yet thai
philosophy never sinks to that war of words without life an^
without earnestness which characterised the schools of Athen
or Alexandria under the Ptolemies.

But though literature and philosophy were at a discoun
among the rulers, the example of the Imams naturally exercise
no small influence on the intellectual activity of the Arabs an
the subject races. Whilst the Ommeyyades discouraged th
peaceful pursuits of the mind, the children of Fatima, wit
remarkable liberalism, favoured learning. They were no

^ M&hhaz-i-'ul'Hm of Moulvi Syed Keramat Ali. This learned scholar w;
nearly forty years curator of the Imambara at Houghly.

2 See the Hadis-i-Ihlilaj, from the Imam Ali bin-Musa ar-Raza, reporte^
by Mufazal bin-Omar Joufi, Bihar ul- Anwar. j

3 Tarikh ul-Hukama, by Jamal ud-din al-Kifti, founded upon another wor'
bearing the same name, by Shihab ud-din Suhrwardi ; Shihab ud-din was ;|
Platonist — an Ishraki — an idealist, and was condemned and put to death U)
the orthodox synod in the reign of Saladin's son. Compare the first Khutb
of the Nahj-ul-Baldghat, and the traditions on knowledge in the BihAr ul-Anwa

X. THE LITERARY AND SCIENTIFIC SPIRIT 365

ievotcd to the past, — the salaf was not their guide. Witli
he Master's precepts to light their path, they kept in view the
ievelopment of humanity, and devoted themselves to the
■ultivation of science and learning in all its branches. Like
he Master and the early Caliphs, the " Philosophers of the
rlcuse of Mohammed " ^ received with distinction the learned
nen whom the fanatical persecution of Justinian's successors
Irove for refuge into foreign lands. The academies of philo-
sophy and medicine, founded by the Nestorians at Edessa and
S'isibis, had been broken up ; its professors and students were
efugees in Persia and Arabia. Many betook themselves — as
:heir predecessors had done before, in the time of the Prophet
md the Caliph Abu Bakr — to Medina, which, after its sack by
:he Ommeyyades, had again gathered round Ja'far as-Sadik
a galaxy of talented scholars. The concourse of many and
v'aried minds in the City of the Prophet gave an impetus to the
:ultivation of science and literature among the Moslems. From
Medina a stream of unusual intellectual activity flowed towards
Damascus. Situated on the northern confines of the Arabian
Desert, along the trade-route from Mecca and Medina to Syria,
Damascus had been associated from ancient times with the
3mmeyyades ; and the Syrian Arabs were closely allied by
interest and kinship to the family whom they had assisted to
,?levate to the rulership of Islam. The Ommeyyades had
QaturaUy fixed upon this city as the seat of their empire ; and
though shunned with horror by the devout Moslems, it formed
the gathering place for the representatives of the many races
who had come under the sway of Islam. The controversies of
Greek and Saracen furnished a strong incentive to the study of
dialectics and Greek philosophy ; and the invention of the
diacritical and vowel points furthered the cultivation of
grammar and philology. At this time flourished two Christian
writers of note, who, fleeing before their orthodox persecutors,
had taken shelter in Damascus. These were Johannes Damas-
:enus and Theodorus Abucara. Their polemical writings
igainst the Moslems, their rationalistic and philosophical
disputes with their own orthodox brethren, joined to the
influence of the Medinite school, which flourished under

1 Mdkhaz-i-'Ulilm.

366 THE SPIRIT OF ISLAM ]

Mohammed al-Bakir andja'far as-Sadik, soon led to the growl
of philosophical tendencies among the Saracens. For centurii
Greek philosophy had been known to the Persians and tl
Arabs ; the Nestorians had spread themselves in the dominioi
of the Chosroes since the beginning of Justinian's reign, but
was not until all the varied elements had been fused into a
organic whole by Islam that Greek science and culture exercise,
any real effect on the intellectual development of Western Asi;'
It was towards the close of the Ommeyyade rule that sever;
Moslem thinkers came into prominence, whose lectures o
subjects then uppermost in the minds of the people attracte
great attention. And their ideas and conceptions material)
moulded the thoughts of succeeding generations.

It was in the second century, however, that the literary an
scientific activity of the Moslems commenced in earnest, an
the chief impulse to this was given by the settlement of tl:
Arabs in towns. Hitherto they had lived in camps isolate!
from the races they had subjugated. Osman had laid a pn]
hibition on their acquiring lands in the conquered countrie!
or contracting marriages with the subject nations. The objec]
of this policy was apparent ; it has its parallel in the historl
of all nations, ancient and modern. In British India and ii
French Algeria it is still in force. During the whole period i]
the Ommeyyade rule the Arabs had constituted the dominai
element, — the aristocratic military caste amongst their subject
The majority of them were occupied in warlike pursuits. Tl
gentler avocations of learning and science were left to tl
suspected Hashimis and the children of the Ansar, — to tl
descendants of Ali, Abu Bakr, and Omar. The Arabs ha
carried with them into distant regions the system of clienta^
which had existed in Arabia, as it had existed among tl
Romans, from ancient times. Clientage afforded to tl
subjects protection and consideration ; to the conqueror
the additional strength gained by numbers. Thus, both in tl
East and in the West, the leading families allied themselves wit^
members of the prominent desert clans, and became the maulc\
or clients, not freedmen, as has been incorrectly supposed, «j
their conquerors. To these clients, besides the Hashimito'
and the children of the Ansar and Muhajirin, such as ha

IX. THE LITERARY AND SCIENTIFIC SPIRIT 367

survived the sack of Medina, was left scholarship and the
cultivation of arts and sciences during the Ommeyyade rule.
With the rise of the Abbasides commenced a new era. They
rose to power with the assistance of the Persians ; and they
relied for the maintenance of their rule more upon the attach-
ment of the general body of their subjects, than the fickle
affection of the military colonists of Arabia. Abu'l Abbas
Saffah held the reins of government for but two years. His
brother and successor, al-Mansiir, though cruel in his treatment
of the Fatimides, was a statesman of the first rank. He
organised the State, established a standing army and a corps
of police, and gave firmness and consistency to the system of
administration. The Arabs had hitherto devoted themselves
almost exclusively to the profession of arms ; the method of
government adopted by al-Mansur gave a new bent to their
genius. They settled in cities, acquired landed properties, and
devoted themselves to the cultivation of letters with the same
ardour which they had displayed in the pursuit of war.

The rich and fertile valley of the Euphrates, watered by the
two great rivers of Western Asia, has, from the most ancient
times, been the seat of empire and the centre of civilisation.
It was in this region that Babylon, Ctesiphon, and Seleucia
had risen successively. Here existed at this epoch Basra and
Kufa, with their unruly and volatile inhabitants. Basra
and Kiifa had, from the first conquest of the Moslems,
formed important centres of commercial activity. The latter
city was at one time the seat of government. To Basra
and Kufa had come all the active spirits of the East, who
either could not or would not go to the depraved capital
of the Ommeyyades. For the Abbasides, Damascus had not
only no attraction, but was a place of peril ; and the uncertain
and fickle temperament of the people of Basra and Kufa
made those cities undesirable as the seat of government. Al-
Mansijr cast about for a site for his capital, and at last fixed
upon the locality where Bagdad now stands — a six days' journey
by river from Basra.

Bagdad is said to have been a summer retreat of Kesra
Anushirvan, the famous monarch of Persia, and derived from
his reputation as a just ruler the name it bears, — the " Garden

368 THE SPIRIT OF ISLAM i

of Justice." With the disappearance of the Persian monarch
had disappeared the famous Garden where the Lord of Asi
dispensed justice to his multitudinous subjects ; traditioi
however, had preserved the name. The beautiful site, centr;
and salubrious, attracted the eyes of Mansur, and the glorioi
city of the Caliphs arose, like the sea-goddess issuing from th
waves, under the magic wand of the foremost architects of tl:
day.

The Bagdad of Mansur was founded in the year 145 of th;
Hegira on the western bank of the Tigris. Soon, howeve'
another city — a new Bagdad — sprang up on the eastern ban
under the auspices of the heir-apparent, the Prince Imperial (
the Caliphate, who afterwards assumed the title of al-Mahd
This new city vied in the splendour of its structures with tl
beauty and magnificence of the Mansurieh. In the days of ii
glory, before the destroying hordes of Chengiz sweeping ove
Western Asia had engulfed in ruin every vestige of Saracen
civilisation, Bagdad presented a beautiful and imposir;
appearance — a fit capital for the Pontiffs of Islam. ^ ;

The beauty and splendour of the city, before its sack by ttj
Mongols, have been immortalised in glowing lines by Anwari-:
most brilliant of panegyrists : — ^

" Blessed be the site of Bagdad, seat of learning and art —
None can point in the world to a city equal to her,
Her suburbs vie in beauty with the blue vault of heaven.
Her climate in quality equals the life-giving breezes <

heaven,
Her stones in their brightness rival gems and rubies,

^ For a description of Bagdad under the Abbasides, see Shoyt History
the Saracens (Macmillan) , p. 444.

2 This English rendering gives an inadequate idea of the beauty of t
original : —

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— i-^livj

IX. THE LITERARY AND SCIENTIFIC SPIRIT 369

Her soil in beneficence has the fragrance of the amber,
The morning breeze has imparted to the earth the freshness

of Tiiha (the tree of Paradise),
And the winds have concealed in her water the sweetness

of Kausar (the spring of Eden) ,
The banks of the Tigris with their beautiful damsels surpass

(the city of) Khullakh}
The gardens filled with lovely nymphs equal Cashmere,
And thousands of gondolas on the water,
Dance and sparkle hke sunbeams in the sky."

Its designation of the City of Peace, Ddr us-Saldm, was
derived from a prophecy made by the astronomer-royal Nou-
bakht, that none of the Caliphs would die within the walls of the
city, and the strange fulfilment of this prognostication in the
case of thirty-seven Pontiffs. The great number of holy men
who have found their last resting-place within or about its
walls, and whose tombs are objects of veneration to all Moslems,
gave to Bagdad the title of Bulwark of the Holy. Here are the
mausoleums of the greatest Imams and the most pious Sheikhs.
Here reposes the Imam Musa al-Kazim, and here lie buried
Abu Hanifa, the Sheikhs Junaid, Shibh, and Abdul Kadir
Ghilani, the chiefs of the Sufis.

In the midst of the monuments of the Imams and Sheikhs
;stood those of the Caliphs and their consorts. Of the numerous
academies, colleges, and schools which filled the city, two
institutions surpassed all others in importance by their wealth

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• A city in Cathay famous for the beauty of its women.
S.I. 2 A

370 THE SPIRIT OF ISLAM ii

and the number of their students. These were the Nizamie]
and Mustansarieh ; the first estabhshed in the first half of th
fifth century of the Hegira by Nizam ul-Mulk, the great Vizie
of Malik Shah, Sultan of the Seljuks ; and the second, buil
two centuries later, by the Caliph Al-Mustansir b'illah.

" It is a remarkable fact," says the historian of Culture unde
the Caliphs, " that the sovereign who makes us forget some c
the darker sides of his nature by his moral and mental quahtia'
also gave the impetus to the great intellectual movement whic
now commenced in the Islamic world." ^ It was by Mansur'
command that literary and scientific works in foreign language
were first translated into Arabic. Himself no mean scholar an
mathematician he had the famous collections of Indian fabk
(the Hitopadesa), the Indian treatise on astronomy called th
Siddhanta, several works of Aristotle, the Almagest of Claudir
Ptolemy, the books of Euclid, as well as other ancient Greel
Byzantine, Persian, and Syrian productions, translated int
the language of the Arabs. Mas'udi mentions that no soont
were these translations published than they were studied wit
much avidity. Mansur's successors were not only wan
patrons of the learned, who flocked to the metropolis from a
quarters, but were themselves assiduous cultivators of eveii
branch of knowledge. Under them the intellectual develojl
ment of the Saracens, in other words of the conglomerate rac('
of the vast empire which constituted the Cahphate, proceeds
with wonderful rapidity.

Each great nation of the world has had its golden ag
Athens had her Periclean era ; Rome, her Augustan age ; s
too, had the Islamic world its epoch of glory ; and we may wii
justice look upon the period which elapsed from the accessic
of Mansur to the death of Mu'tazid-b'illah, with only a bri
intermission during the reign of Mutawakkil, as an epoch
equal, if not of superior greatness and magnificence. Und
the first six Abbaside Caliphs, but especially under Mamu
the Moslems formed the vanguard of civilisation. Tl
Saracenic race by its elastic genius as well as by its centr
position, — with the priceless treasures of dying Greece ai
Rome on one side, and of Persia on the other, and India ai

1 Kremer, Cidturgeschichte des Orients tinter den Chalifen, vol. ii. p. 412.

IX. THE LITERARY AND SCIENTIFIC SPIRIT 371

China far away sleeping the sleep of ages, — was pre-eminently
fitted to become the teacher of mankind. Under the inspiring
influences of the great Prophet, who gave them a code and a
nationality, and assisted by their sovereigns, the Saracens
caught up the lessons of wisdom from the East and the West,
combined them with the teachings of the Master, and " started
from soldiers into scholars." " The Arabs," says Humboldt,
" were admirably situated to act the part of mediators, and to
influence the nations from the Euphrates to the Guadalquivir
and Mid-Africa. Their unexampled intellectual activity marks
a distinct epoch in the history of the world."

Under the Ommeyyades we see the Moslems passing through
a period of probation, preparing themselves for the great task
they were called upon to undertake. Under the Abbasides
we find them the repositories of the knowledge of the world.
Every part of the globe is ransacked by the agents of the Caliphs
for the hoarded wealth of antiquity ; these are brought to the
capital, and laid before an admiring and appreciating public.
Schools and academies spring up in every direction ; public
Ubraries are established in every city free to every comer ; the
great philosophers of the ancient world are studied side by side
with the Koran. Galen, Dioscorides, Themistius, Aristotle,
Plato, Euclid, Ptolemy, and Apollonius receive their due meed
Df appreciation. The sovereigns themselves assist at literary
meetings and philosophical disquisitions. For the first time in
the history of humanity a religious and autocratic government
s observed to ally itself with philosophy, preparing and
participating in its triumphs.

! Every city in the empire sought to outrival the other in tlie
cultivation of the arts and sciences. And governors and
provincial chiefs tried to emulate the sovereign. Travelling in
search of knowledge was, according to the precept of the Master,
I pious duty. From every part of the globe students and
-cholars flocked to Cordova, to Bagdad, and to Cairo to listen
o the words of the Saracenic sages. Even Christians from
remote corners of Europe attended Moslem colleges. Men who
)ecame in after-Hfe the heads of the Christian Church, ^ acquired
heir scholarship from Islamic teachers. The rise of Cairo

^ Such as Gerbert, afterwards Pope Sylvester II., who studied in Cordova.

■^12 THE SPIRIT OF ISLAM n.

under al-Muizz li-din-illah added a spirit of rivalry to the
patronage of learning on the part of the Caliphs of the Houses
of Abbas and Fatima. Al-Muizz was the Mamun of the West
— the Maecenas of Moslem Africa, which then embraced the
whole of the continent from the eastern confines of Egypt to
the shores of the Atlantic and the borders of the Sahara. During
the reign of al-Muizz and his first three successors, the arts and
sciences flourished under the especial and loving protection of
the sovereigns. The free university of Cairo, the Ddy-ul-Hikmat
— Scientific Institute — established by al-Muizz, "anticipated
Bacon's ideal with a fact." The Idrisides at Fez, and the
Moorish sovereigns in Spain, outvied each other in the cultiva-
tion of arts and letters. From the shores of the Atlantic
eastward to the Indian Ocean, far away even to the Pacific,,
resounded the voice of philosophy and learning, under Moslem
guidance and Moslem inspiration. And when the House of
Abbas lost its grasp on the empire of the East, the chiefs who
held the reins of government in the tracts which at one time
were under the undivided temporal sway of the Caliphs,|
extended the same protection to science and literature as the'
Pontiffs from whom they still derived their title to sovereignty.
This glorious period lasted, in spite of the triumph of patris-
ticism and its unconcealed jealousy towards scientific and
philosophical pursuits, until the fall of Bagdad before the
Tartar hordes. But the wild savages who overturned the
Caliphate and destroyed civilisation, as soon as they adoptee
Islam, became ardent protectors of learning !

What was the condition of learning and science in Christen
dom at this epoch ? Under Constantine and his orthodo
successors the ^Esclepions were closed for ever ; the public
libraries established by the liberality of the pagan emperon
were dispersed or destroyed ; learning was " branded as magi(
or punished as treason " ; and philosophy and science wen
exterminated. The ecclesiastical hatred against human learn
ing had found expression in the patristic maxim, " Ignoranci
is the mother of devotion " ; and Pope Gregory the Great
the founder of ecclesiastical supremacy, gave effect to thi
obscurantist dogma by expelling from Rome all scientific
studies, and burning the Palatine Library founded by Augustu

IX. THE LITERARY AND SCIENTIFIC SPIRIT 373

Caesar. He forbade the study of the ancient writers of Greece
and Rome. He introduced and sanctified the mythologic
Christianity which continued for centuries the predominating
creed of Europe, with its worship of rehcs and the remains of
saints. Science and hterature were placed under the ban by
orthodox Christianity, and they succeeded in emancipating
themselves only when Free Thought had broken down the
barriers raised by orthodoxy against the progress of the human
mind.

Abdullah al-Mamiin has been deservedly styled the Augustus
of the Arabs. " He was not ignorant that they are the elect
of God, his best and most useful servants, whose lives are
devoted to the improvement of their rational faculties . . . that
the teachers of wisdom are the true luminaries and legislators
of the world." ^

! Mamun was followed by a brilliant succession of princes who
Continued his work. Under him and his successors, the prin-
:ipal distinguishing feature of the school of Bagdad was a true
and strongly marked scientific spirit, which dominated over all
its achievements. The deductive method, hitherto proudly
:'egarded as the invention and sole monopoly of modern Europe,
.vas perfectly understood by the Moslems. " Marching from
ihe known to the unknown, the school of Bagdad rendered to
tself an exact account of the phenomena for the purpose of
■ising from the effect to the cause, accepting only what had
Deen demonstrated by experience ; such were the principles
:aught by the (Moslem) masters." " The Arabs of the ninth
:entury," continues the author we are quoting, " were in the
Dossession of that fecund method which was to become long
ifterwards, in the hands of the moderns, the instrument of
heir most beautiful discoveries."

Volumes would be required to enumerate the host of scientific
ind learned men who flourished about this epoch, all of whom
lave, in some way or other, left their mark on the history of
)rogress. Mashallah and Ahmed ibn Mohammed al-Neha-
^endi, the most ancient of the Arab astronomers, Hved in the
eign of Mansur. The former, who has been called the Phcenix
'f his time by Abu'l Faraj, wrote several valuable treatises on

* Abu'l Faraj.

374 THE SPIRIT OF ISLAM ii

the astrolabe and the armiUary sphere, and the nature anc
movements of celestial bodies — works which still evoke th(
admiration of scientists. Ahmed al-Nehavendi wrote from hi;
own observations an astronomical table, al-Mustamal, whicl
formed a decided advance upon the notions of both the Greek;
and the Hindus. Under Mamun, the Almagest of Ptolemy was
re-translated, and the Verified Tables prepared by famou;
astronomers like Send ibn Ali, Yahya ibn Abi-Mansur, anc
Khalid ibn Abdul Malik. Their observations connected witl
the equinoxes, the eclipses, the apparitions of the comets, anc
other celestial phenomena, were valuable in the extreme, anc
added greatly to human knowledge.

Mohammed ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi made a new translation
under the orders of Mamun, of the Siddhanta, or the Indiai
Tables, with notes and observations. Al-Kindi wrote tw(
hundred works on various subjects — arithmetic, geometry
philosophy, meteorology, optics and medicine. Thoroughly-
versed in the language of the Greeks, he derived from the schooli
of Athens and Alexandria part of the information which h'
embodied in his invaluable treatises. " His works," say
Sedillot, " are full of curious and interesting facts." Abu
Ma'shar (corrupted by the Europe of the Middle Ages int'
Albumazar) made the celestial phenomena his special study
and the Zij-abt-Ma'shar, or the Table of Abu-Ma 'shar, ha
always remained one of the chief sources of astronomical know
ledge. The discoveries of the sons of Musa ibn Shakir,^ wh
flourished under Mamun and his two immediate successon
especially with respect to the evaluations of the mean movemen
of the sun and other astral bodies, are almost as exact as th
latest discoveries of Europe. They ascertained with wonderfi
precision, considering the appliances they possessed, th
obliquity of the ecliptic, and marked for the first time th
variations in the lunar altitudes. They also observed an'
determined with remarkable accuracy the precession of th
equinoxes, and the movements of the solar apogee (which wer
utterly unknown to the Greeks). They calculated the size c
the earth from the measurement of a degree on the shor
of the Red Sea — this at a time when Christian Europe wa

^ Mohammed, Ahmed, and Hasan.

:ix. THE LITERARY AND SCIENTIFIC SPIRIT 375

asserting the flatness of the globe. Abu'l Hasan invented the
telescope, of which he speaks as '' a tube to the extremities of
which were attached diopters." These " tubes " were improved
and used afterwards in the observatories of Maragha and Cairo
with great success. Al-Nairezi and Mohammed ibn Isa Abii
Abdullah continued the great work of Musa ibn Shakir's sons.^
By the time al-Batani appeared, the Moslems had evolved from
the crude astronomy of the ancients a regular and harmonious
science. 1 Al-Batani, ^ though surpassed by his successors,
occupies a high position among astronomers, and a competent
judge pronounces his role to be the same among the Saracens
as that of Ptolemy among the Greeks. His Astronomical
Tables, translated into Latin, furnished the groundwork of
astronomy in Europe for many centuries. He is, however,
best known in the history of mathematics as the introducer of
the sine and co-sine instead of the chord in astronomical and
trigonometrical calculations.

, Among the numerous astronomers who lived and worked in
Bagdad at the close of the tenth century, the names of two men,
AH ibn Amajur and Abu'l Hasan Ali ibn Amajur, generally
known as Banu-Amajur, stand prominently forward. They
are noted for their calculation of the lunar movements.

Owing to the weakness of the central power, and an increasing
inability to maintain the sway of the Caliphate in outlying and
distant parts, there arose on the confines of the empire, towards
the end of the tenth century, several quasi-independent chiefs.
Spain had been lost to the Abbasides at the commencement of
their rule ; about this period the Bani-Idris established them-
selves at Fez, the Bani-Rustam at Tahart, and the Bani-
Aghlab at Kairowan in Africa. Soon, however, the whole of
the northern part of that continent was brought under the
domination of the Bani-Fatima, and then another era of glory
for arts and literature commenced. Fez, Miknasa, Segelmessa,
Tahart, Tlemcen, Kairowan, but above all, Cairo, became
centres of culture and learning. In Khorasan the Taherides,

* For their names, see ante, p. 374. Mohammed ibn Musa ibn Shakir died
in A.H. 259 (a.c. 873).

- Abu Abdullah Mohammed ibn Jabir ibn Sinan al-Batani was a native of
Ilarran, died ah. 317 (a.c. 929-30).

376 THE SPIRIT OF ISLAM i

in Transoxiana the Samanides, the Buyides in Tabaristan an^
afterwards in Persia and Bagdad, as mayors of the palace;
extended a lavish patronage to scientists and scholars. Abdij
Rahman Sufi, one of the most brilHant physicists of the ag(
was an intimate friend of the Buyide Ameer 'Azud ud-Dowlfj
deservedly called the second Augustus of the Arabs. Abdt!
Rahman improved the photometry of the stars. 'Azud uc
Dowla,^ himself a scholar and a mathematician, welcomed t
his palace as honoured guests the learned men who flocked t;
Bagdad from every part of the globe, and took part in theil
scientific controversies. Ja'far, the son of the Caliph Muktai
b'illah, made important observations regarding the errati
movements of comets, and wrote a treatise on them ; an
other princes cultivated the sciences side by side with thai;
subjects. :

Under the Buyides flourished a host of astronomen
physicists, and mathematicians, of whom only two need b
mentioned here, Al-Kohi and Abu'1-Wafa. Al-Kohi studied an!
wrote on the movements of the planets His discoveries cor.;
cerning the summer solstice and the autumnal equinox adde'
materially to the store of human knowledge. Abu'1-Wafa waj
born in 939 A.c. at Buzjan in Khorasan ; he established himseJ
in Irak in 959, where he applied himself chiefly to mathematicj
and astronomy. His Zij-ush-Shdmil {the Consolidated or Generc\
Table) is a monument of industry and keen and accuratj
observation. He introduced the use of the secant and thj
tangent in trigonometry and astronomical observations. " Bu!
this was not all," says M. Sedillot ; " struck by the imperfec'
tion of the lunar theory of Ptolemy, he verified the ancien'
observations, and discovered, independently of the equation c
the centre and the eviction, a. third inequality, which is no othe!
than the variation determined six centuries later by Tych
Brahe." ^

Under the Fatimides of Egypt, Cairo had become a neMJ
intellectual and scientific centre. Here flourished, in the reigni

1 To 'Azud ud-Dowla (Malik Fanakhusru) Bagdad owed several hospital;
for the sick and refuges for orphans. He built magnificent mausoleums ove
the tombs of Ali and Husain at Najaf and Kerbela. He rendered navigabi
the river which flows by Shiraz by erecting the famous dyke called Bend-emir

* Abu'l Wafa died in a.h. 387 (a.c. 997).

I IX. THE LITERARY AND SCIENTIFIC SPIRIT 377

of Aziz b'illah ^ and Hakim bi-amr-illah, one of the master-
spirits of the age, Ibn Yunus,- the inventor of the pendulum
'and the measurement of time by its oscillations. He is, how-
;ever, famous for his great work named after his patron and
I sovereign, Zij-ul-Akhar-al-Hdkimi, which soon displaced the
iwork of Claudius Ptolemy. It was reproduced among the
I Persians by the astronomer-poet Omar Khayyam (1079) ;
among the Greeks, in the Syntax of Chrysococca ; among the
Mongols by Nasir ud-din Tusi, in the Zij-il-Khdni ; and
among the Chinese, in the astronomy of Co-Cheou-king in 1280 ;
and thus what is attributed to the ancient civilisation of China
;is only a borrowed light from the Moslems.^
! Ibn Yunus died in 1009, and his discoveries were continued
by Ibn un-Nabdi, who lived in Cairo in 1040, and Hasan ibn
Haitham, commonly called in Europe Alhazen, and famous for
the discovery of atmospheric refraction. He flourished about
ithe end of the eleventh century, and was a distinguished
astronomer and optician. He was born in Spain, but resided
chiefly in Egypt. He is best known in Europe by his works
ton optics, one of which has been translated into Latin by
, Risner. He corrected the Greek misconception as to the
i nature of vision, and demonstrated for the first time that the
I rays of light come from external objects to the eye, and do not
issue forth from the eye, and impinge on external things. He
determined the retina as the seat of vision, and proved that the
impressions made upon it were conveyed along the optic nerves
to the brain. He explained the phenomena of a single vision
by the formation of visual images on symmetrical portions of
the two retinas. He discovered that the refraction of light
varies with the density of the atmosphere, and that atmospheric
density again varies with the height. He explained accurately
and clearly how in consequence of this refraction, astral bodies
;are seen before they have actually risen and after they have
iset, and demonstrated that the beautiful phenomenon of

' ' 'Aziz b'illah was one of the greatest sovereigns Egypt ever had. " He
loved his people as they loved him." He was married to a Christian lady,
whose brothers, Jeremiah and Arvenius, held the posts of patriarchs, one of
Jerusalem and the other of Alexandria. Both of them belonged to the
orthodox or melkite sect.

■ See Appendix TTI. '^ S6dillot.

378 THE SPIRIT OF ISLAM ii

twilight was due to the effect of atmospheric refraction com
billed with the reflecting action of the air upon the course o
the rays of hght. In his book called the Balance of Wisdom \\<
discusses dynamical principles, generally supposed to be thi
monopoly of modern science. He describes minutely th
connection between the weight of the atmosphere and it
density, and how material objects vary in weight in a ran
and in a dense atmosphere. He discusses the submergence o
floating bodies, and the force with which they rise to thi
surface when immersed in light or heavy media ; he full\
understands the principle of gravitation, and recognises gravitjj
as a force. He knows correctly the relation between tho
velocities, spaces, and times of falling bodies, and has van.
distinct ideas of capillary attraction. ^ j

In Spain the same activity of mind was at work from th(i
Pyrenees to the Straits : Seville, Cordova, Granada, Murcia'
Toledo, and other places possessed their public libraries an(
colleges, where they gave free instruction in science and letters
Of Cordova, an English writer speaks thus : " Beautiful a
were the palaces and gardens of Cordova, her claims to admira
tion in higher matters were no less strong. The mind was a:
lovely as the body. Her professors and teachers made her th(
centre of European culture ; students would come from al
parts of Europe to study under her famous doctors, and ever
the nun Hroswitha far away in her Saxon convent of Ganders
heim, when she told of the martyrdom of Eulogius, could no
refrain from singing the praises of Cordova, ' the brightes i
splendour of the world.' Every branch of science was seriousljl
studied there, and medicine received more and greater additionij
by the discoveries of the doctors and surgeons of Andalusia thar|
it had gained during all the centuries that had elapsed since th(
days of Galen. . . . Astronomy, geography, chemistry, natura
history, all were studied with ardour at Cordova ; and as fo;
the graces of literature there never was a time in Europe whei
poetry became so much the speech of everybody — when peoplt

1 The annalist 'Ayni says that at this period the pubHc Hbrary of Cairo con
tained over two miUion books, of which six thousand treated exclusively Ojj
mathematics and astronomy. I have only mentioned a few of the name.-'
among the thousands of mathematicians and physicists who flourished durinf'
this epoch, when the scientific spirit of Islam was at its zenith.

IX. THE LITERARY AND SCIENTIFIC SPIRIT 379

of all ranks composed those Arabic verses which perhaps
suggested models for the ballads and canzonettes of the Spanish
minstrels and the troubadours of Provence and Italy. No
speech or address was complete without some scrap of verse,
improvised on the spur of the moment, by the speaker or quoted
by memory from some famous poet." ^ To these we may add
the words of Renan : " The taste for science and literature
liad, by the tenth century, established, in this privileged
comer of the world, a toleration of which modern times hardly
offer us an example. Christians, Jews, and Musulmans spoke
the same tongue, sang the same songs, participated in the same
literary and scientific studies. All the barriers which separated
the various peoples were effaced ; all worked with one accord
in the work of a common civilisation.. The mosques of Cordova,
where the students could be counted by thousands, became the
active centres of philosophical and scientific studies." ^

The first observatory in Europe was built by the Arabs.
The Giralda, or tower of Seville, was erected under the super-
intendence of the great mathematician Jabir ibn Afiah in
1190 A.c. for the observation of the heavens. Its fate was not
a httle characteristic. After the expulsion of the Moors, it was
turned into a belfry, the Spaniards not knowing what else to
do with it !

Omar ibn Khaldun, Ya'kub ibn Tarik, Muslimah al-Maghr'ibi,
and the famous Averroes (Abu'l Walid Mohammed ibn Rushd)
are some of the physicists whom we may mention here. Nor was
Western Africa inactive during this period : Ceuta and Tangier,
Fez, and Morocco, rivalled Cordova, Seville, and Granada ;
their colleges sent out able professors, and numerous learned
works testified to the indefatigable ardour of the Moslem mind
in all departments of learning.

The beginning of the eleventh century saw a great change
in the political condition of Central Asia. The rise of

' Stanley Lane-Poole, The Moors in Spain, p. 144. For a full account of
Cordova, see Short History of the Saracens (Macmillan), p. 515.

'Renan, Averroes et Averroism, p. 4. The golden age of literature and
science in Spain was under Hakam al-Mtistansir b'illdh who died in 976 a.c.
The catalogue of his library consists of forty-four quartos. He employed
agents in every quarter of the globe to procure for him, at any price, scientific
works, ancient and modern. He paid to Abu'l Faraj al-Isphahani 1000 dinars
of gold for the first copy of his celebrated Anthology {Kifah ul-Aghdni).

38o THE SPIRIT OF ISLAM i

Mahmud/ the great Ghaznavide conqueror, Yemin ud-Dowl^
and Amin iil-Millat, " right hand of the empire " and " custodial
of the Faith," brought Transoxiana, Afghanistan, and Persi
under the sovereignty of Ghazni. He collected round him
body of scholars and Utterateurs who shed a glorious lustre o|
his brilliant reign. Attached to the renovated " orthodoxy " c!
al-Asha'ri, and consequently piously inimical to the rationalist!
school of thinkers, chary in his munificence to the poets wh
made his name famous in the annals of the world, he yet haj
the genius to perceive the merits of men like Abu Raiha\
Mohammed ibn Ahmed al-Beiruni, philosopher, ma thematiciarj
and geographer. Firdousi, the prince of poets, Dakiki, ari''
Unsuri. Al-Beiriini's mind was encyclopaedic. His work o:
astronomy, entitled after his patron Sultan Ma.su' d,^ al-Kdnm
al-Mas'udi, Canon Masudicus, is a monument of learning ani
research. He travelled into India, and studied the languag
of the Hindus, their sciences, their philosophy and literature
and embodied his observations in a work which has recentl;
been furnished to us in an English garb. The philosophica
and scientific, not to say sympathetic, spirit which animate
al-Beiruni in the treatment of his subject is in marked contras
to the mode still in vogue among Western nations, and servcj
as an index to the intellectual character of Islam. The IvSiKa
of al-Beiruni shows the extent to which the Moslems had utilise(|
the treasures of Greek learning, and turned them to fruitfui
purposes. Besides these two great works, he wrote on mathe
matics, chronology, mathematical geography, physics, and
chemistry. I

Al-Beiruni communicated to the Hindus the knowledge o'
the Bagdadian school in return for their notions and traditions
He found among them the remains of Greek science, which ha(
been transported to India in the early centuries of the Christiai
era, or perhaps earlier, during the existence of the Graeco^j
Bactrian dynasties. The Hindus do not seem to have possessec!
any advanced astronomical science of their own ; for, had itj

^ A.c. 996-1030. - The son and successor of the Conqueror.

3 Fi't Tahkik ma li'l Hind ; see Short History of the Saracens (Macmillan)*
p. 463. Another remarkable work of his is the Asdr nl-B&kieh or the Vestige?
of the Past, translated into English by Dr. Sachau. j

IX. THE LITERARY AND SCIENTIFIC SPIRIT 381

been otherwise, we doubtless would have heard about it, as
Sedillot rightly observes, from the Greek writers of the times
of Alexander and the Seleucidae. They, like the Chinese,
borrowed most of their scientific ideas from foreign sources,
and modified them according to their national characteristics,
I Under the successors of Mahmud learning and arts flourished
abundantly. The rise of the Seljukides and their grand muni-
ficence towards scholarship and science rivalled that of the
golden days of the Abbaside rule. Tughril, Alp Arslan, Mahk
Shah, and San jar were not only remarkable for the greatness
of their power, the clear comprehension of what constituted the
welfare of their subjects, but were equally distinguished for
their intellectual gifts and ardent enthusiasm in the cause of
learning. Jaldl nd-din Malik Shah ^ and his vizier, Khwaja
Hasan Nizam ul-Mulk,^ collected round them a galaxy of
astronomers, poets, scholars, and historians. The astronomical
observations conducted in his reign by a body of savants, with
Omar Khayyam and Abdur Rahman al-Hazini at their head,
led to the refonn of the Calendar which preceded the Gregorian
by six hundred years and is said by a competent authority to
be even more exact. ^ The era which was introduced upon these
observations was named after Malik Shah, the Jaldlian.
I The destructive uiroads of the Christian marauders who
called themselves Crusaders was disastrous to the cause of
learning and science in Western Asia and Northern Africa.
Barbarous savages, hounded to rapine and slaughter by crazy
priests, they knew neither mercy for the weakness of sex or
age, nor the value of letters or arts. They destroyed the
splendid library of Tripoli without compunction ; they reduced
to ashes many of the glorious centres of Saracenic culture and
arts. Christian Europe has held up to obloquy the apocryphal
destruction of the Alexandrian library, which had already been
burned in the time of Juhus Caesar, but it has no word of blame
for the crimes of her Crusaders five centuries later. The
calamities inflicted by the Crusaders were lasting in their
effect ; and in spite of the endeavours of Saladin and his sons
to restore the intellectual life of Syria, it has remained dead
from that day to this.

' 1073-1092 A.c. 2 i.e. the Administrator of the Empire. ' Sedillot.

382 THE SPIRIT OF ISLAM

In the interval which elapsed between the rise of Mahm 1
and the fall of Bagdad, there flourished a number of phi-
sophers and scientists, among whom shine the great Avicen i
{Abu AH Husain Ibn-Sina),i Fath ibn Nabeghah Khakar^
Mubashshar ibn Ahmed, ^ and his son Mohammed.*

The eruption of the Mongols upon the Saracenic world m
not like the invasion of the Roman empire by the northeji
barbarians. These had proceeded slowly ; and in their coi-
paratively gradual progress towards the heart of the empi:
they had become partially softened, and had to some exte;
cast off their pristine ferocity. The case was otherwise wi
the hordes of the devastator Chengiz. They swept like ov€
whelming torrents over Western Asia. Wherever they we
they left misery and desolation.^ Their barbarous campaig.
and their savage slaughters put an end for a time to t];;
intellectual development of Asia. But the moment the wi;
savages adopted the religion of the Prophet of Arabia a chanj
came over them. From the destroyers of the seats of learnii
and arts they became the founders of academies and tl
protectors of the learned. Sultan Khoda-Bendah (Uljait
Khan), sixth in descent from Chengiz, was distinguished ft
his attainments and his patronage of the sciences. But tl
fearful massacres which the barbarians had committed amor
the settled and cultured population of the towns destroys
most of the gifted classes, with the result that, though the grej
cities like Bokhara and Samarcand rose again into splendou
they became, nevertheless, the seats of a narrower culture, moi
casuistical and theological than before. And yet the Mongo
protected philosophers like Nasir ud-din Tusi, Muwayya
ud-din al-Orezi of Damascus, Fakhr ud-din al-Maraghi, Molj
ud-din al-Maghribi, Ali Shah al-Bokhari, and many otherl
The successors of Hulaku tried thus to restore to Islam whc'
their ancestor had destroyed. Whilst the Mongols in Persi
were employed in making some amends to civilisation, Kubkii
Khan transported to China the learning of the Arabs. Cc'

1 Died in 1037 a.c. - Died in 1082 a.c.

^ Died in 1135 a.c. ' Died in 1193 a.c. j

5 For a full account of the havoc and ruin caused by the Tartars, see SAoJJ
History of the Saracens, pp. 391-400.

[X. THE LITERARY AND SCIENTIFIC SPIRIT 383

Cheou-king received in 1280 from Jamal ud-din the tables of
Ibn-Yunus, and appropriated them for Chinese purposes.

Ibn-Shathir, who lived in the reign of Mohammed ibn Kalaim,
the Mameluke sovereign of Egypt, developed still further the
nathematical and astronomical sciences. And now arose on
the eastern horizon the comet-like personality of Timur.
■' From his throne in Samarcand this Titan of the fourteenth
bentury called into being the greatest empire ever seen in
A.sia, and seemed to extinguish in his one resistless will the
mmemorial antagonism of Iran and Turan." He was a patron
of science and poetry, himself fond of the society of the scholars
md artists of his day, an author, as well as a legislator of no
iiean order. ^ Magnificent colleges, splendid mosques, vast
ibraries, testified to the taste for letters of this remarkable man.
His vast system of colonisation filled the great cities of Eastern
Asia, especially Samarcand, with the splendour of all the arts
md sciences known to the West. Timur established " the most
briUiant empire known to the history of Islam, except that
of the Ommeyyads in Spain, and that of the first Abbasides
in Arabistan." Jami, master of sciences ; Suhaili, translator
of Pilpay ; Ali Sher Ameer, were some of the men who shed
lustre on the reigns of his successors. The college founded by
his consort, Bibi Khanam, and known by her name, stiU strikes
the observer as one of the most imposing and most beautiful
products of Saracenic architecture. Timur's son. Shah Rukh
Mirza, imitated his father in the cultivation and patronage of
arts and letters. His peaceful reign of nearly half a century
was remarkable for high intellectual culture and scientific
^tudy. When he transported his government from Samarcand
to Herat, the former city lost none of its splendour. Ulugh
Beg, his son, charged with the government of Transoxiana,
maintained the literary and scientific glories of Samarcand.
Himself an astronomer of a high rank, he presided at tlie
observations which have immortalised his name. The tables
in which those observations were embodied complete the cycle
of Arabian thought. Ulugh Beg is separated by only a century
and a half from Kepler, the founder of modern astronomy.

1 The MalJAzat-i-Timikri (" The Institutes of Timur ") are couched in the
style of the old Assjaian and Kyanian monarchs.

384 THE SPIRIT OF ISLAM i

It was, however, not astronomy only which the Mosleir.
cultivated and improved. Every branch of higher mathf
matics bears traces of their genius. The Greeks are said t
have invented algebra, but among them, as Oelsner has justl
remarked, it was confined to furnishing amusement " for th
plays of the goblet." The Moslems applied it to higher pu]
poses, and thus gave it a value hitherto unknown. Undt
Mamun they had discovered the equations of the secon
degree, and very soon after they developed the theory c
quadratic equations and the binomial theorem. Not onl
algebra, geometry, and arithmetic, but optics and mechanic
made remarkable progress in the hands of the Moslems. The
invented spherical trigonometry ; they were the first to appl
algebra to geometry, to introduce the tangent, and to sub
stitute the sine for the arc in trigonometrical calculatiom
Their progress in mathematical geography was no less remarl
able. The works of Ibn-Haukal, of Makrizi, al-Istakhr
Mas'iidi, al-Beiruni, al-Kumi and al-Idrisi, Kazwini, Ibn u
Wardi, and Abu'l Feda, show what the Saracens attained i!
this department of science, called by them the rasm-ul-an\
At a time when Europe firmly believed in the flatness of th
earth, and was ready to burn any foolhardy person who though,
otherwise, the Arabs taught geography by globes.

The physical sciences were as diligently cultivated. Th
method of experimentation was substituted for theorising ; an
the crude ideas of the ancients were developed into positiv
sciences.^ Chemistry, botany, geology, natural history, amon
others occupied the attention and exercised the energies of th
ablest men. j

Chemistry, as a science, is unquestionably the invention c'
the i\Ioslems. Abu Musa Jabir (the Geber of Chris tia
writers) ^ is the true father of modern chemistry. " Hi
name is memorable in chemistry, since it marks an epoch i
that science of equal importance to that of Priestley anvl

1 Humboldt calls the Arabs the real founders of the physical sciences.

^ Abu Musa Jabir ibn Hayyan was a native of Tarsus. Ibn Khallikan sa}
" Jabir compiled a work of two thousand pages in which he inserted th
problems of his master (the Imam) Ja'far as-Sadik which formed five hundre
treatises " ; see also the Tdrikh-nl-Hiikama.

X. THE LITERARY AND SCIENTIFIC SPIRIT 385

.avoisier." He was followed by others, whose originahty and
ndustry, profoundness of knowledge, and keenness of observa-
ion, evoke the astonishment of students, and make them
ook with regret upon the inertness of the latter-day Moslem.
The science of medicine and the art of surgery, the best index

0 a nation's genius and a severe test to the intellectual spirit
)f a faith, were developed to the highest degree. Medicine had
mdoubtedly attained a high degree of excellence among the
jreeks, but the Arabs carried it far beyond the stage in which
heir predecessors in the work of civilisation had left it, and
)rought it close to the modern standard. We can give here
)ut a small conception of the work done by the Saracens for
.everal centuries in this department of human study, and in
he development of the natural sciences.

The study of medical substances, the idea of which struck
Dioscorides in the Alexandrian school, is, in its scientific form,

1 creation of the Arabs. They invented chemical pharmacy,
ind were the first founders of those institutions which are now
:alled dispensaries.^ They established in every city pubHc
lospitals, called Ddr ush-Shifa, " the house of cure," or Mdri-
tdn (an abbreviation of Mmdristan, " the patient's house ")
ind maintained them at the expense of the State.

The names of the Arab physicians in the biographical
lictionary of Abu Usaibi'a fill a volume. Abu Bakr Mohammed
bn Zakaria ar-Razi (known to mediaeval Europe as Rhazes),
vho flourished in the beginning of the tenth century, ^ Ali ibn-
\.bbas,3 Avicenna (x\bu AH Husain ibn-Sina), Albucasis (Abu'l

^ The persons in charge of the dispensaries were under the control of Govern-
lent. The price and quality of medicine were strictly regulated. Many
ispensaries were maintained by the State. There were regular examinations
3r physicians and pharmacists, at which licences were given to passed
andidates. The licence-holders were alone entitled to practise. Compare
Cremer and Sedillot.

* This great physician, surnamed Razi, from the place of his birth, Rai
incient Rhages), filled successively the office of principal of the public
ospitals at Rai, Jund Shapur, and Bagdad. He wrote the Hdwt, which
edillot calls " un corpus medical fort estime." His treatises on smallpox
nd measles have been consulted by the physicians of all nations. He intro-
uced the use of minor atives, invented the seton, and discovered the nerve
f the larynx. He wrote two hundred medical works, some of which were
ubUshed in Venice in 1510. Ar-Razi died in a.h. 311 (a.c. 923-4)-

^ Ali ibn-Abbas flourished fifty years later than Rhazes. He published a
ledical work,'consisting^of^twenty volumes, on the theory and practice of
S.I. " 2 B

386 THE SPIRIT OF ISLAM

Kasim Khalaf ibn Abbas), Aven-Zoar ^ (Abu Merwan iii.
Abdul Malik ibn Zuhr), Averroes (Abu'l Walid Mohammed i|.
Riishd),^ and Aben-Bethar (Abdullah ibn Ahmed ibn Ali /
Beithdr, the veterinary),^ are some of the most brilliant and mc
distinguished physicians who have left an enduring impressi.
on the world of thought. Albucasis was not only a physicii
but a surgeon of the first rank. He performed the most diffici :
surgical operations in his own and the obstetrical departmei,
In operations on women, we are informed by him, in whi.
considerations of delicacy intervened, the services of proper
instructed women were secured. The ample description he h.
left of the surgical instruments employed in his time gives .
idea of the development of surgery among the Arabs.* Avicen l
was unquestionably the most gifted man of his age ; a ui'
versalist in genius, and encyclopaedic in his writings, .
philosopher, mathematician, astronomer, poet, and physicis,
he has left his influence impressed on two continents, and wl
deserves the title of Aristotle of the East. In spite of patris-;
jealousy, his philosophic ideas exercised an undisputed sway 1"
several centuries in the schools of the East as well as of Euroj,
Avicenna is commonly known in Asia as the Sheikh par excellen.

medicine, which he dedicated to the Buyide Ameer 'Azud ud-dowla. This w( :
was translated into Latin in 1227, and printed at Lyons in 1523 by Micl
Capella. Ali ibn- Abbas corrected many of the errors of Hippocrates i I
Galen.

^ Ibn Zuhr or Aven-Zoar was one of the most distinguished physici; >
of his age. Born at Penaflor, he entered, after finishing his medical eI
scientific studies, the service of Yusuf bin Tashhn, the great Almorav :
monarch of Africa, who covered the rising physician with honours and ricl .
Ibn Zuhr joined, like Albucasis, the practice of medicine with surgery. !
was the first to conceive the idea of bronchotomy, with exact indicationsf
the luxations and fractures, and discovered several important maladies wi
their treatment. His son followed in his father's steps and was the cli
surgeon and physician of Yusuf bin Tashfin's army.

^ Averroes was the Avicenna of the West. His life and writings have b 1
given to the world by Renan. He was a contemporary of Ibn Zuhr, Ibn B« .
and Ibn Tufail. Of Averroes and his contemporaries we shall have to sp' :
in the next chapter.

Besides these may be mentioned Abu'l Hasan ibn Tilmiz, author of Ah ■
lihi ; Abu Ja'far Ahmed ibn Mohammed at-Talib, who wrote on pleur',
etc. ; and Hibatulla.

^ Al-Beithar travelled all over the East to find medicinal herbs, on whii
he wrote an exhaustive treatise. The Arab physicians introduced the use f
the rhubarb, cassia, senna, camphor, the pulp of the tamarind [tarn

^-hindi — Indian date), etc.

* In lithotomy he was equal to the foremost surgeons of modern times,

IX. THE LITERARY AND SCIENTIFIC SPIRIT 387

He was born in the year 980 A.c. at a village called Afshanah. in
Transoxiana, of which place his father was the governor. He
finished his medical studies in Bokhara at the age of eighteen,
when commenced an extraordinary political and philosophical
career. His tenacity in refusing the liberal offers of Mahmud
the Conqueror to join his service led to his expulsion from the
Ghaznavide dominions. He soon became the vizier of Shams
ud-dowla, Ameer of Hamadan, and afterwards of 'Ala ud-dowla,
Ameer of Isphahan, where he pursued his scientific and
philosophical studies, and wrote his great works, the Kdnun
and the Arjuza, afterwards the foundation of all medical
knowledge.

The Greeks possessed crude notions of anatomy, and their
knowledge of pharmacy was restricted within a very narrow
compass . The Moslems developed both anatomy and pharmacy
into positive sciences. The wide extent of the empire enabled
researches and investigations in every quarter of the globe,
with the result that they enriched the existing pharmacopoeia
by innumerable and invaluable additions. Botany they
advanced far beyond the state in which it had been left by
Dioscorides, and augmented the herbalogy of the Greeks by
the addition of two thousand plants. Regular gardens existed
both in Cordova and Bagdad, at Cairo and Fez for the education
of pupils, where discourses were delivered by the most learned
in the sciences.

Ad-Damiri (Aldemri) is famous in the Moslem world for his
history of animals — a work which forestalled Button by seven
hundred years.

Geology was cultivated under the name of 'Ilm-i-Tashrih-ul-
Arz, " the science of the anatomy of the earth."

The superiority of the Moslems in architecture requires no
I comment, for the glorious remains of Saracenic art in the East
and in the West still evoke the admiration of the modern world.
Their religion has been charged with their backwardness in
painting and sculpture, but it must be borne in mind that the
prohibition contained in the Koran is similar to the Levitical
commandment. It was but a continuation of the Mosaic Law,
which had so effectually suppressed the making of " graven
images " among the Jews, and its signification rests upon the

388 THE SPIRIT OF ISLAM ii.

inveterate idolatry of the pre-Islamite Arabs. To the early
Moslems, therefore, painting and statuary were odious and
unlawful, as emblematic of heathenism, and this deeply
implanted iconoclasm undoubtedly saved them from relapsing,
as other nations had done, into idolatry. But with the gradual
development of the primitive commonwealth into a civilised
and cultured empire, and with the ascendency of learning and
science, the Moslems grasped the spirit of the prohibition, and
cast off the fetters of a narrow literalism. No doubt the spirit
of rationalism, which so deeply influenced the early Abbaside
and Spanish Caliphs, was the actual cause of the impetus
given by them to art. Hence throughout the Moslem world
a taste for painting and sculpture arose simultaneously with
the progress of literature and science. The palaces of the
CaHphs, the mansions of the sovereigns who followed in their
footsteps, and the houses of the grandees were decorated with
pictures and sculptures.

To the Prophet's prohibition of graven images or painting in
mosques the world is indebted for the art of arabesque—
which possesses such peculiar charm in the decoration oi.
Oriental buildings, and which has been widely adopted by
Western art. With the gradual enlightenment of the Moslems
by contact with the arts of other nations, animals and flowers,
birds and fruits were introduced into arabesque ; but the
figures of animated beings were throughout absolutely inter-
dicted in the decoration of places of worship. In purity oi
form and simplicity of outline, in the gracefulness of design
and perfection of symmetry, in the harmony of every detail,
in the exquisiteness of finish and sublimity of conception,
Moslem architecture is equal to any in the world, and the
chaste and graceful ornamentation with which so many of
the grandest monuments are adorned, indicates a refinement of
taste and culture surpassing any of the great monumental
relics of ancient Greece or modern Europe. Another branch
of Moslem decorative art is that of ornamental writing, which
is so often utilised with remarkable effect in the adornment of
mosques, mausolea, and palaces, where whole chapters of the
Koran are carved or inlaid round domes and minarets, doors
and arches, testifying to the same religious earnestness, yet in

IX. THE LITERARY AND SCIENTIFIC SPIRIT 389

a purely monotheistic spirit, as the pictures of saints and
martyrs which decorate Christian churches.

Before the promulgation of Islam the profession of music
among the Arabs was confined to the slaves of both sexes
imported from Syria and Persia, or to the class of hetairai
called Kydn. The Prophet had discountenanced, for obvious
moral reasons, the songs and dances of these degraded women.
But under the Abbasides and the Spanish Arab kings, when
' music was elevated to the rank of a science, and its cultivation
was recognised as an art, a love for music spread among all
classes of society. A large literature grew up on the subject ;
songs were collected and classified according to their melodies
and keys, and the musical instruments of the ancients were
improved and new ones invented. The sharp conflict between
Rationalism and Patristicism, between Idealism and Literalism,
which marked the middle of the twelfth century, drove this
sweetest of arts back into the arms of the servile classes or
forced it to seek a refuge in the chapels of the dervishes.

A large general literature existed on the subject of com-
merce, agriculture, handicraft and manufacture, the latter
I including every conceivable subject, from porcelain to weapons
1 of war.

I In historical research the Moslems have not been behind any
( other nation, ancient or modern. At first attention was devoted
■ chiefly to the history of the Prophet, but soon the primitive idea
widened into a broad conception. Archaeology, geography, and
ethnology were included in history, and the greatest minds
applied themselves to the pursuit of this captivating branch of
study. Between the simple work of Ibn-Ishak and the universal
history of Ibn-Khaldun there is a great difference, but the
intervening space is occupied by a host of writers, the product
of whose labours supplies some index to the intellectual activity
of the Saracenic nations under the inspiration of Islam.
i Balazuri, who died in 279 a.h. (a.c. 892), was born at Bagdad,
■where he hved and worked. His " Conquest of the Countries "
[Futuh iil-Bulddn) is written in admirable style, and marks a
distinct advance of the historical spirit.

Hamadani, who flourished towards the end of the third and
the beginning of the fourth century of the Hegira, gave to the

390 THE SPIRIT OF ISLAM ii

world a comprehensive history of Southern Arabia, with ai
account of its tribes, its numerous remains of interest, wit!
explanations of their inscriptions, as well as the ethnograph;
and geography of Yemen. It is, however, in the monumenta
works of Mas'udi, of al-Beiruni, of Ibn ul-Athir, of Tabari, c
Ibn-Khaldun, called by Mohl the Montesquieu of Islam, c
Makrizi, Makkari, Abu'lfeda, Nuwairi, and Mirkhond that th
mental vigour of the Moslem races in this department of know
ledge is found in full play. These men were not speciaUst
only ; they were encyclopaedists — philosophers, mathema
ticians, geographers, as well as historians. Mas'udi was .
native of Bagdad, but by descent a Northern Arab, who in hi
early youth travelled and saw the greater part of the Moham
medan world. He first went to India, visited Multan an
Mansura, then travelled over Persia and Kerman, again wen
to India, remained for some time at Cambay (Kambaja) an>j
the Deccan, went to Ceylon, sailed from there to Kambal.]
(Madagascar), and went from there to Oman, and perhaps eve:
reached the Indo-Chinese Peninsula and China. He ha'
travelled far in Central Asia, and reached the Caspian Sec-
After finishing his travels, he lived for some time in Tiberia,
and Antioch, and afterwards took up his abode in Basralj
where he first published his great work, called the Muruj-u:
Zahah (»-**<iJ| ^jy). Afterwards he removed to Fostc
(old Cairo), where he published the Kitdh ut-Tanhth, and latf
the Mirdt-uz-Zamdn, or the Mirror of the Times, a voluminoi
work, which is only partially preserved. ^ In the Muruj-u.
Zahah (the " Golden Meadows ") "he tells the rich experienc(
of his life in the amiable and cheerful manner of a man wh
had seen various lands, experienced life in all its phases, an
who takes pleasure, not only in instructing, but in amusin
his reader. Without burdening us with the names of tl
authorities, without losing himself in long explanations, 1
delights in giving prominence to that which strikes him i
wonderful, rare, and interesting, and to portray people an
manners with conciseness and anecdotic skill."

^ I am told that the Library in Vienna contains a historical work by tl
same author consisting of some thirty volumes which bears the name of t)
Ahhbar-uz-Zamcin. Perhaps this is the same work as Mirat-tiz-Zaman.

IX. THE LITERARY AND SCIENTIFIC SPIRIT 391

Tabari (Abu Ja'far Mohammed ibn Jarir), surnamed the Livy
of the Arabs, who died in Bagdad in 922 A.c, brought his work
down to the year 302 of the Hegira (914 A.c.) . It was continued
to the end of the twelfth century by al-Makin or Elmacin.

Ibn ul-Athir (^J/i^ji), surnamed Izz ud-din, "glory of
religion," was a native of Jazireh-bani-Omar, in Irak, but
resided chiefly at Mosul, where his house was the resort of the
most distinguished scholars and savants of the time. His
universal history, known as the al-Kdmil, which ends with the
year 1231 a.c, may be compared with the best works of
modern Europe.

Makrizi ^ (Taki ud-din Ahmed) was a contemporary of Ibn-
Khaldun. His works on Egypt furnish a vivid picture of the
political, religious, social, commercial, archseological, and
administrative condition of the country.

Abu'lfeda, whom we have already mentioned as a geographer,
was the Prince of Hamah at the commencement of the four-
teenth century. Distinguished alike in the pursuit of arms
as in letters, gifted with eminent qualities, he occupies a
prominent place among the scholars and scientists of the East.
The portion of his great work which deals with the political and
literary history of Islam, and its relations to the Byzantines
from the eighth to the twelfth century, is extremely valuable,

Ibn Khaldun flourished in the fourteenth century of the
Christian era. Born in Tunis in 1332, he was in the midst of
all the revolutions of which Africa was the theatre in the
fourteenth century. His magnificent history is preceded by a
Prolegomena, in itself a store-house of information and philo-
sophical dissertation. In the Prolegomena he traces the origin
of society, the development of civilisation, the causes which led
to the rise and fall of kingdoms and dynasties ; and discusses,
among other questions, the influence of climate on the formation
of a nation's character. He died in the year 1406 a.c.

The Arabs invented the mariner's compass, and voyaged to
all parts of the world in quest of knowledge or in the pursuit of
commerce. They established colonies in Africa, far to the
south in the Indian Archipelago, on the coasts of India, and on
the Malayan Peninsula. Even China opened her barred gates

^ Died in 1442 a.c.

392 THE SPIRIT OF ISLAM i]

to Moslem colonists and mercenaries. They discovered th
Azores, and, it is even surmised, penetrated as far as America
Within the confines of the ancient continents they gave ai
unprecedented and almost unparalleled impulse in even
direction to human industry. The Prophet had inculcatec
labour as a duty ; he had given the impress of piety to industria
pursuits ; he had recommended commerce and agriculture a
meritorious in the sight of the Lord. These precepts had thei
natural result ; the merchants, the traders, the industria
classes in general, were treated with respect ; and governors
generals, and savants disdained not to call themselves by th(
title of their professions. The peace and security with whicl
caravans travelled the empire ; the perfect safety of the roads
the cisterns, and tanks, and reservoirs, and rest-houses whicl:
existed everywhere along the routes — all aided in the rapiq
development of commerce and trade, and arts and manuf acturesij
The Arabs covered the countries where they settled witli
networks of canals. To Spain they gave the system of irriga'
tion by flood-gates, wheels, and pumps. Whole tracts of lane-
that now lie waste and barren were covered with olive groves |
and the environs of Seville alone, under Moslem rule, containeci
several thousand oil-factories. They introduced the stapkj
products, rice, sugar, cotton, and nearly all the fine garden ancj
orchard fruits, together with many less important plants, sucli
as ginger, saffron, myrrh, etc. They opened up the mines oii
copper, sulphur, mercury, and iron. They established th(;
culture of silk, the manufacture of paper and other textikj
fabrics ; of porcelain, earthenware, iron, steel, and leather,|
The tapestries of Cordova, the woollen stuffs of Murcia, the
silks of Granada, Almeria, and Seville, the steel and gold wori
of Toledo, the paper of Salibah were sought all over the world '
The ports of Malaga, Carthagena, Barcelona, and Cadiz were]
vast commercial emporiums for export and import. In thf'
days of their prosperity the Spanish Arabs maintained a,
merchant navy of more than a thousand ships. They had
fictories and representatives on the Danube. With Con-
stantinople they possessed a great trade, which ramified fronij
the Black Sea and the eastern shores of the Mediterranean intc;
the interior of Asia, and reached the ports of India and China

IX. THE LITERARY AND SCIENTIFIC SPIRIT 393

and extended along the African coast as far as Madagascar.
"In the midst of the tenth centiir}^ when Europe was about
in the same condition that Caffraria is now, enhghtened Moors,
hke Abul Cassem, were writing treatises on the principles of
trade and commerce." In order to supply an incentive to
commercial enterprise, and to further the impulse to travel,
geographical registers, gazetteers, and itineraries were pub-
lished under the authority of Government, containing minute
descriptions of the places to which they related, with par-
ticulars of the routes and other necessary matters. Travellers
like Ibn-i-Batuta visited foreign lands in quest of information,
iand wrote voluminous works on the people of those countries,
[on their fauna and flora, their mineral products, their climatic
and physical features, with astonishing perspicacity and keen-
ness of observation.

The love of learning and arts was by no means confined to
one sex. The culture and education of the women proceeded
on parallel lines with that of the men, and women were as keen
in the pursuit of literature and as devoted to science as men.
They had their own colleges ; ^ they studied medicine and
jurisprudence, lectured on rhetoric, ethics, and bdlcs-lcUres,
and participated with the stronger sex in the glories of a
splendid civilisation. The wives and daughters of magnates
,and sovereigns spent their substance in founding colleges and
endowing universities, in establishing hospitals for the sick,
refuges for the homeless, the orphan, and the widow. ^

The division and jealousy of the Arab tribes, which had
prevented the assimilation and fusion of their several dialects,
had nevertheless conduced to the enrichment of the national
anguage as spoken in Hijaz, and the annual conflux of people

i ^ One well-known institution of this kind was established in Cairo in 684 a.h.

by the daughter of the Mameluke Sultan Malik Taher.

■ * Zubaida, the wife of Harun, founded several such refuges ; and the hospital

puilt by the wife of 'Azud ud-dowla rivalled her husband's. The daughter of

Malik Ashraf, known as the Khatun, erected a splendid college at Damascus.

\nother college was founded by Zamurud Khatun, wife of NSsir ud-dowla of

rlems.

Many Moslem ladies were distinguished in poetry. Fatima, the Prophet's
laughter, holds a high rank among poets. So does the daughter of Aurangzeb,
Uh un-nisa, surnamed Makhji. When Urquhart travelled in Turkey, three
)f the most celebrated living poets were ladies, and one of them, Pcrishek
Xhanam, acted as private secretary to Sultan Mustafa.

394 THE SPIRIT OF ISLAM

at Okaz, with the periodical contest of the poets, had imparb.
to it a regularity and polish. But it was the Koran — " a bo4
by the aid of which the Arabs conquered a world greater th;
that of Alexander the Great, greater than that of Rome, ai
in as many tens of years as the latter had wanted hundreds
accomplish her conquests ; by the aid of which they alone
all the Shemites came to Europe as kings, whither the Phoei
cians had come as tradesmen, and the Jews as fugitives
captives ; came to Europe to hold up, together with the
fugitives, the light to humanity ; — they alone, while darkne
lay around, to raise up the wisdom and knowledge of Hell
from the dead, to teach philosophy, medicine, astronomy, ai.
the golden art of song to the West as to the East, to staTid j
the cradle of modern science, and to cause us late epigoni f-
ever to weep over the day when Granada fell," ^ — it was tl
book which fixed and preserved for ever the Arabic tongue ,
all its purity. The simple grandeur of its diction, the chas!:
elegance of its style, the variety of its imageries, the rap
transitions, Uke flashes of lightning, which show the moral
teaching, the philosopher theosophising, the injured patri
denouncing in fervent expressions the immorality and degrad
tion of his people, and withal the heavenly Father calling bai
through His servant His erring children, — all mark its uniqi
character among reUgious records. And the awe and venei*
tion with which the greatest poets of the day listened to :
teachings, show how deeply it must have moved the peop;
Delivered at different times, — in moments of persecution aij.
anguish, or of energetic action, or enunciated for purposes |
practical guidance, — there is yet a vitahty, an earnestness ai'
energy in every word, which differentiates it from all otb
Scriptures. Lest it be thought we are biassed in our opinic
we give the words of the great orientalist whom we have alrea(
quoted : " Those grand accents of joy and sorrow, of love, ai
valour, and passion, of which but faint echoes strike on o.
ears now, were full-toned at the time of Mohammed ; and if
had not merely to rival the illustrious of the illustrious, b|
excel them ; to appeal to the superiority of what he said ai
sang as a very sign and proof of his mission . . . The poe

* Deutsch.

Itx. THE LITERARY AND SCIENTIFIC SPIRIT 393

before him had sung of love . . . Antara, himself the hero of
the most famous novel, sings of the ruin, around which ever
^over lovers' thoughts, of the dwelling of Abla, who is gone,
and her dwelling-place knows her not. Mohammed sang none
:)f these. No love-minstrelsy his, not the joys of this world,
nor sword nor camel, not jealousy or human vengeance, not
the glories of tribe or ancestors, nor the unmeaning, swiftly
and forever-extinguished existence of man, were his themes.
He preached Islam. And he preached it by rending the skies
iibove and tearing open the ground below, by adjuring heaven
and hell, the Hving and the dead."

Another great writer speaks of the Koran in the following
terms : "If it is not poetry, — and it is hard to say whether it
be or not, — it is more than poetry. It is not history, nor
biography. It is not anthology, like the Sermon on the
Mount ; nor metaphysical dialectics, like the Buddhist Sutras ;
nor sublime homiletics like Plato's conferences of the wise
and foolish teachers. It is a prophet's cry, Semitic to the core ;
yet of a meaning so universal and so timely that all the voices
of the age take it up, willing or unwilling, and it echoes over
palaces and deserts, over cities and empires, first kindling its
chosen hearts to world-conquest, then gathering itself up into
a reconstructive force that all the creative light of Greece and
Asia might penetrate the heavy gloom of Christian Europe,
when Christianity was but the Queen of Night." ^

In general literature, embracing every phase of the human
intellect, ethics, metaphysics, logic, rhetoric, the Moslem
writers may be counted by hundreds. In poetry, the fertility
of the Moslem mind has not been yet surpassed. From Mutan-
abbi the Arab (not to go back to the poets who flourished in
the time of the Prophet) to Hali the Indian, there is an endless
succession of poets. Mutanabbi flourished in the ninth century,
and enjoyed the patronage of Ameer Saif ud-dowla (Abu'l
Hasan Ali bin Hamdan). He was followed by Ibn-Duraid,^
Abu-Ula,3 Ibn Faridh,* Tantarani,^ and others. The Spanish
Arabs were nature's poets ; they invented the different kinds
'of poetry, which afterwards were adopted as models by the

* Johnson. 2 Died in a.c. 933. ' Died in a.c. 1057.

* Died in a.c. 1255. ^ Died in A.c. 1092.

396 THE SPIRIT OF ISLAM

Christian nations of southern Europe. Among the great per,
who flourished in Spain the name of Ahmed ibn Mohamm.
(Abu-Omar) 1 is the most famous. We have already mention
the poets who lived under Mahmud ; Firdousi, who broug
back to life the dead heroes of Iran, rivals the fame of t
sovereign whom first he praised and afterwards satirise
Under the later Ghaznavides and the Seljukides flourished t
lyric poets Suzeni,^ the creator of the Persian metrical systei
and Watwat ; the panegyrists Anwari,^ Khakani/ and Zal
Faryabi ; ^ the great mystics, Sanai,*' whose Hadika is valu(
wherever the Persian language is known and appreciated, ai
Farid ud-din 'Attar ; "^ and the romancist Nizami, the immort
bard of Khusru and Shirin and of Alexander. Under tl.
Atabegs, who rose to power on the decline of the Seljukide
flourished the moralist Sa'di and the mystic Jalal ud-d
Rumi. Under Timur lived the sweet singer Hafiz (Shan
ud-din), called the Anacreon of Persia. These are but a voj
few of the names famous in the realm of poetry. The pagJ
of Ibn-Khallikan, and of Lutf Ali Azar ^ speak more eloquentl
of the poetical genius of the Moslems. |

Such were the glorious achievements of the Moslems in tlj
field of intellect ; and all was due to the teachings of one ma;
Called by his voice from the abyss of barbarism and ignoranc
in which they had hitherto dwelt, with little hope of the presen
with none of the future, the Arab went into the world, i
elevate and civilise. Afliicted humanity awoke into new lif
Whilst the barbarians of Europe, who had overturned an effei
empire, were groping in the darkness of ignorance and brutalit;
the Moslems were building up a great civilisation. Durin
centuries of moral and intellectual desolation in Europe, Islai
led the vanguard of progress. Christianity had establishe

1 A.C. II75, A.H. 569. * A.C. II77, A.H. 573.

* Anwari's panegyric on Sultan Sanjar is one of the finest poems in tl
Persian language. The Hindustani poet Sauda in the Kastda in honour 1
Asaf ud-Dowla of Oudh has imitated Anwari with great success.

* A.C. I186, A.H. 582. 5 A.C I2OI, A.H. 598.

* A.C. I180, A.H. 576. ' A.C. II90, A.H. 586.

» The Atesh-Kadeh {" Fire Temple ") of Lutf Ali Azar is the lives of tl
Persian poets from the earliest times, with specimens of their poetry.

c THE LITERARY AND SCIENTIFIC SPIRIT 397

self on the throne of the Caesars, but it had failed to regenerate
:ie nations of the earth. From the fourth century of the
hristian era to the twelfth, the gloom that overshadowed
iurope grew deeper and deeper. During these ages of ferocious
igotry Ecclesiasticism barred every access through which the
ght of knowledge, humanity, or civilisation could enter. But
■lOUgh jealously shut out from this land of fanaticism, the
enignant influences of Islamic culture in time made them-
?lves felt in every part of Christendom. From the schools
f Salerno, of Bagdad, of Damascus, of Cordova, of Granada, of
lalaga, the Moslems taught the world the gentle lessons of
hilosophy and the practical teachings of stern science.^

The first manifestation of Rationalism in the West occurred in
lie province most amenable to the power of Moslem civilisation.
Icclesiasticism crushed this fair flower with fire and with
rt-ord, and threw back the progress of the world for centuries.
)Ut the principles of Free Thought, so strongly impressed on
slam, had communicated their vitality to Christian Europe,
ibelard had felt the power of Averroes' genius, which was
bedding its light over the whole of the Western world. Abelard
truck a blow for Free Thought which led to the eventual
mancipation of Christendom from the bondage of Ecclesi-
sticism. Avenpace and Averroes were the precursors of
)escartes, Hobbes, and Locke.

The influence of Abelard and of his school soon penetrated
ito England. Wycliffe's originahty of thought and freedom
f spirit took their rise from the bold conceptions of the former
hinkers. The later German reformers, deriving their notions
n one side from the iconoclasts of Constantinople, and on the
ther from the movements of the Albigenses and the Wycliffites,
ompleted the work which had been commenced by others
nder foreign rationalistic influence.

While Christian Europe had placed learning under the ban
f persecution ; while the Vicar of Christ set the example of
tifling the infant hspings of Free Thought ; while the priests

^ The impetus which Islam gave to the intellectual development of mankind
. evidenced by the fact that the Arabs were joined in the race for progress by
lembers of nationalities which had hitherto lain absolutely dormant. Islam
uickened the pulse of humanity and awakened new life in communities which
ere either dead or dying ; see Appendi.x III,

398 THE 8PIRIT OF ISLAM i

led the way in consigning to the flames thousands of inoffensiA
beings for mere aberration of reason ; while Christian Euroj
was exorcising demons and worshipping rags and bones-
learning flourished under the Moslem sovereigns, and was he!
in honour and veneration as never before. The Vicegerents (
Mohammed allied themselves to the cause of civilisation, an
assisted in the growth of Free Thought and Free Inquir;
originated and consecrated by the Prophet himself. Persecutic
for the sake of the faith was unknown ; and whatever tl
political conduct of the sovereigns, the world has never ha
superior examples in their impartiality and absolute toleratic
of all creeds and religions. The cultivation of the physic;
sciences — that great index to the intellectual liberty of a natio
— ^formed a popular pursuit among the Moslems.

The two failures of the Arabs, the one before Constantinop
and the other in France, retarded the progress of the world f(;
ages, and put back the hour-hand of time for centuries. Haj
the Arabs been less keen for the safety of their spoils, lesj
divided among themselves, had they succeeded in driving befoij
them the barbarian hosts of Charles Martel, the history of ttj
darkest period in the annals of the world would never have beej
written. The Renaissance, civilisation, the growth of inte
lectual liberty, would have been accelerated by seven hundre
years. We should not have had to shudder over the massaci
of the Albigenses or of the Huguenots, or the ghastly slaughtei
of the Irish Catholics by the English Protestants under tbj
Tudors and the Protectorate. We should not have had ti
mourn over the fate of a Bruno or a Servetus, murdered by th
hands of those who had revolted from their mother-churcl
The history of the auto-da-fe, of the murders of the Inquisitior
of the massacres of the Aztecs and the Incas ; the tale of th
Thirty Years' War, with its manifold miseries, — all this woul
have remained untold. Above all, Spain, at one time th
favoured haunt of learning and the arts, would not have becom,
the intellectual desert it now is, bereft of the glories of centurie&j
Who has not mourned over the fate of that noble race, exile(i
by the mad bigotry of a Christian sovereign from the countr
of its adoption, which it had made famous among nations
Justly has it been said, " In an ill-omened hour the Cros

IX. THE LITERARY AND SCIENTIFIC SPIRIT 399

supplanted the Crescent on the towers of Granada. ' ' The shades
of the glorious dead, of Averroes and Avenpace, of Waladeh
and Ayesha, sit weeping by the ruined haunts of their people
— haunts silent now to the voice of minstrelsy, of chivalry, of
learning, and of art, — only echoing at times the mad outcries
of religious combatants, at times the fierce sounds of political
animosities. Christianity drove the descendants of these
Moslem Andalusians into the desert, sucked out every element
of vitality from beautiful Spain, and made the land a synonym
for intellectual and moral desolation. ^

If Maslamah had succeeded in capturing Constantinople, —
the capital of Irene, the warm advocate of orthodoxy and cruel
murderess of her own son, — the dark deeds which sully the
annals of the Isaurians, the Comneni, the Palaeologi, the terrible
results which attended the seizure of Byzantium by the Latins,
above all, the frightful outburst of the unholy wars, in which
Christian Europe tried to strangle the nations of Asia, would
probably never have come to pass. One thing at all events is
certain, that if Constantinople had fallen into the hands of the
Moslems, the iconoclastic movement would not have proved
altogether abortive, and the reformation of the Christian
Church would have been accomplished centuries earlier.
Providence willed otherwise. The wave of Free Thought,
which had reached the Isaurian emperors from the Islamic
regions, broke upon the rocks of ignorance, superstition, and
bigotry ; its power was not felt until the combined action of
the schools of Salerno and Cordova — the influence of Averroes,
and perhaps of some Greeks who had imbibed learning at the
Saracenic fountain — had battered down the rampart of
Ecclesiasticism.

^ Islam inaugurated the reign of intellectual liberty. It has
been truly remarked, that so long as Islam retained its pristine
character, it proved itself the wann protector and promoter of
knowledge and civilisation, — the zealous ally of intellectual
freedom. The moment extraneous elements attached them-
selves to it, it lagged behind in the race of progress.

But, to explain the stagnation of the Moslems in the present

^ For the economic condition of Spain and the state of arts and learninp;
under the Arabs, see Short History of the Saracens, pp. 474-580.

400 THE SPIRIT OF ISLAM n.

day, it is necessary to glance back for a moment at the events
that transpired in Spain, in Africa, and in Asia between the
twelfth and the seventeenth centuries. In the former country,
Christianity destroyed the intellectual life of the people. The
Moslems had turned Spain into a garden ; the Christians con-
verted it into a desert. The Moslems had covered the land
with colleges and schools ; the Christians transformed them into
churches for the worship of saints and images. The Uterary
and scientific treasures amassed by the Moslem sovereigns
were consigned to the flames. The Moslem men, women, and
children were ruthlessly butchered or burnt at the stake ; the
few who were spared were reduced to slavery. Those who fled
were thrown on the shores of Africa helpless beggars. It would
take the combined charity of Jesus and Mohammed to make;
Islam forget or forgive the terrible wrongs inflicted by the
Christians of Spain upon the Andalusian Moslems. But the!
punishment was not long in coming. Before the world was aj
century old, Spain's fire had sunk into a heap of ashes ! |

In Western Africa, the triumph of Patristicism under thi
third Almohade sovereign,^ and the uprise of Berber fanaticisir
turned back the tide of progress, arrested the civihsation o:
centuries, and converted the seats of learning and arts into
centres of bigotry and ignorance. The settlement of th(
Corsairs on the Barbary coast and the anarchy which prevailec
in Egypt under the later Mamelukes, discouraged the cultiva
tion of peaceful knowledge. In Asia the decadence of th(
Timuride dynasty, the eruption of the wild and fanatica
Uzbegs, and the establishment of their power in the capital o|
Timur, destroyed the intellectual vitality of the people. Ii
Persia, under the Safawis, literature and science had begui

^ On the decadence of the Fatimide power in Western Africa there arose
dynasty descended from a Marabout or saint of the country, hence calle
A\mora.vide or al-Mtirdbatia (<U£ijl^l)- To this family belonged Yusuf ib
Tashfin, the patron of Ibn-Zuhr. His son and successor was defeated an
killed by Abdu'l Momin, the founder of the dynasty of Almohades [al-Muwi-
hidin, ^^'^c^j^Jt the Unitarians), who sacked and destroyed Morocc
and Fez. They were akin to the Wahabis and the Ikhwdn of Central Arabia
and probably not very different from the Mahdists of Lybia. The first tw
sovereigns of this dynasty, Abdu'l Momin and Yusuf, encouraged learnin
and arts; in the reign of Ya'kub al-Mansur, the third Almohade kini
fanaticism became rampant,

X. THE LITERARY AND SCIENTIFIC SPIRIT 401

.0 breathe once more ; but this renaissance was only temporary,
Lnd with the irruption of the barbarous Ghihzais the renovated
ife of Iran came to an end. A deathhke gloom settled upon
>ntral Asia, which still hangs heavy over these unhappy
;ountries, and is slowly lifting in Afghanistan.

Under Selim I., Solyman and the Murads, learning received
.upport in the Ottoman dominions ; but the Osmanlis were on
he whole a military race. At first from ambition, afterwards
rom sheer necessity and for self-preservation, they had been
it war with a relentless foe, whose designs knew no slackening,
vhose purpose was inscrutable. That enemy has disappeared,
3ut the nation has still to fight for its existence. Letters and
irts, under such conditions, can make but little progress.
Deahng with the charge of obscurantism, often levelled against
islam, M. Gobineau makes the following pregnant observation :
' Imagine in any European country the absolute predominance
:)f mihtary and administrative despotism during a period of
two hundred and fifty years, as is the case in Turkey ; conceive
something approaching the warlike anarchy of Egypt under the
domination of foreign slaves — Circassians, Georgians, Turks,
ind Albanians ; picture to yourself an Afghan invasion, as in
Persia after 1730, the tyranny of Nadir Shah, the cruelties and
ravages that have marked the accession of the dynasty of the
Xajars, — unite all these circumstances with their naturally
concomitant causes, you will then understand what would have
become of any European country although European, and it
will not be necessary to look further for any explanation of the
ruin of Oriental countries, nor to charge Islam with any unjust
responsibility."

From the time of its birth in the seventh century up to the
end of the seventeenth, not to descend later, Islam was
animated by a scientific and literary spirit equal in force and
energy to that which animates Europe of our own day. It
carried the Moslems forward on a wave of progress, and enabled
them to achieve a high degree of material and mental develop-
ment. Since the eruption of the Goths and the Vandals, the
progress of Europe has been on a continuous scale. No such
calamity as has afflicted Asia, in the persons of the Tartars
or the Uzbegs, has befallen Christendom since x\ttila's retreat

402 THE SPIRIT OF ISLAM ii.

from France. Her wars, cruel and bitter, fierce and inhuman,
have been waged on equal terms of humanity or inhumanity.
Catholics and Protestants have burnt each other ; but Europe
has never witnessed, since the wholesale butcheries of the poor
Spanish Moors, the terrible massacres committed by the Tartars
in all the centres of civilisation and culture, in which fell the
gifted classes who formed the backbone of the nation. ^
And now.

The spider holds watch in the palace of Caesar,
The owlet beats the drum on the tower of Afrisiab.

^ The sack of Bagdad by the Mongols exemplifies what happened in other
cities, but in order to give a true conception of the fearful atrocities perpetrated
by the savages, it requires to be painted by another Gibbon. For three days j
the streets ran with blood, and the water of the Tigris was dyed red for miles I
along its course. The horrors of rapine, slaughter, and outraged humanity]
lasted for six weeks. The palaces, mosques, and mausoleums were destroyed '
by fire or levelled to the earth for their golden domes. The patients in the
hospitals and the students and professors in the colleges were put to the sword.
In the mausoleums the mortal remains of the sheikhs and pious imams, and
in the academies the immortal works of great and learned men, were con-
sumed to ashes ; books were thrown into the fire, or, where that w-as distant
and the Tigris near, were buried in the waters of the latter. The accumulated
treasures of five centuries were thus lost for ever to hiimanity. The flower of
the nation was completely destroyed. It was the custom of Hulaku, from
policy and as a precaution, to carry along with his horde the princes and chiefs
of the countries through which they swept. One of these princes was Sa'di
bin Zangi, the Atabek of Fars. The poet Sa'di had, it appears, accompanied
his friend and patron. He was thus an eye-witness to the terrible state oi
Bagdad and its doomed inhabitants. In two pathetic couplets he has given
expression to its magnitude and horrors, see Appendix II.

CHAPTER X

THE RATIONALISTIC AND PHILOSOPHICAL
SPIRIT OF ISLAM

1 |»*^flAj U L^jkij ^Xa. ^^aj U j^ki^ i' Alii ^1

LIKE all other nations of antiquity, the pre-Islamite Arabs
were stern fatalists. The remains of their ancient
-^ poetry, sole record of old Arab thought and manners,
show that before the promulgation of Islam the people of the
Peninsula had absolutely abandoned themselves to the idea of
an irresistible and blind fatality. Man was but a sport in the
hands of Fate. This idea bred a reckless contempt of death,
and an utter disregard for human life. The teachings of Islam
created a revolution in the Arab mind ; with the recognition
of a supreme Intelligence governing the universe, they received
the conception of self-dependence and of moral responsibility
founded on the liberty of human volition. One of the remark-
able characteristics of the Koran is the curious, and, at first
sight, inconsistent, manner in which it combines the existence
of a Divine Will, which not only orders all things, but which
acts directly upon men and addresses itself to the springs of
thought in them, with the assertion of a free agency in man
and of the liberty of intellect. Not that this feature is peculiar
to the Moslem scripture ; the same characteristic is to be found
in the Biblical records. But in the Koran the conception of
human responsibihty is so strongly developed that the question
naturally occurs to the mind. How can these two ideas be

^ " God changes not as to what concerns any people until they change in
respect to what depends upon themselves."

404 THE SPIRIT OF ISLAM ii

reconciled with each other ? It seems inconsistent at first
sight that man should be judged by his works, a doctrine which
forms the foundation of Islamic morality, if all his actions are
ruled by an all-powerful Will. The earnest faith of Mohammed
in an active ever-living Principle, joined to his trust in the
progress of man, supplies a key to this mystery. I propose to
illustrate my meaning by a reference to a few of the passages
which give expression to the absolutism of the Divine Will and
those which assert the liberty of human volition : " And
God's ordering is in accordance with a determined decree ;
. . . and the sun proceeding to its place of rest — that is an
ordinance ; ^^aj ) of the Almighty, the All-wise ; ^ . . . and
among His signs is the creation of the heavens and the earth
and of the animals which He hath distributed therein, which :
He has sovereign power to gather when He will ; ^ . . . and do
they not see that God who created the heavens and the earth,
and faltered not in creating these, has power to vivify the dead
— nay. He has sovereign control over all things ; ^ and other ;
things which are not at your command, but which are truly)
within His grasp, inasmuch as God is sovereign disposer of all
things ( \jj^ ^J^ Jf ^U ) ; * nor is there anything not pro-
vided beforehand by Us, or which We send down otherwise
than according to a fore-known decree ; ^ . . . the secrets of
the heavens and the earth are God's ; . . . God has all thingsi
at command ;^ . . . and propound to them a similitude of this;
present life, which is Hke water sent down by Us from heaven,
so that the plants of the earth are fattened by it, and on the
morrow become stubble, scattered by the winds,- — God disposes
of all things ; ' . . . and it pertains to God's sovereignty tc
defend them ; "^ . . . God creates what He will ; ^ . . . and whc
created all things, and determined respecting the same witl
absolute determination ; ^" . . . and thy Lord is a supreme
sovereign ; ^^ . . . behold thou the imprints of the mercy o
God : how He vivilies the earth, after it has died — in ver}
deed, a restorer of life to the dead is there, and all things an
at His bidding ; ^- . . . to God belongs whatsoever is in th

1 xxxvi. 38. 2 xlii. 28. ^ xlvi. 29. * xlviii. 21. ^ xv. 21.

•xvi. 77. ' xviii. 43. « xxii. 40. ' xxiv. 45. i" xxv. 2.

" XXV. 54. ^2 /^ ^^ J^ j^ ^j , xxx. 50.

X. RATIONALISTIC AND PHILOSOPHICAL SPIRIT 405

heavens and whatsoever is on the earth ; and whether ye dis-
close that which is within 3'ou or conceal it, God will reckon
with you for it ; and He pardons whom He will, and punishes
whom He will — inasmuch as God is a Supreme Sovereign ; ^
. . . say thou : O God, Sovereign Disposer of dominion. Thou
givest rule to whom Thou wilt, and takest away power from
whom Thou wilt, Thou exaltest whom Thou wilt, and humblest
whom Thou wilt : all good is at Thy disposal — verily, Thou art
a Supreme Sovereign ; ^ . . God punishes whom He will, and
pardons whom He will ; ^ . . . to God belongs the dominion of
the heavens and the earth, and whatsoever they contain is
His, and He is Sovereign over all things.*. . . Verily, God
accomplishes what He ordains — He hath established for every-
thing a fixed decree ; ^ . . . but God has the measuring out
{ jZoj ) of the night and the day ; ^ . . . extol the name of Thy
Lord, the Most High, who made the world, and fashioned it to
completeness, who fore-ordained, and guides accordingly ; '
... as for the unbeHevers it matters nothing to them whether
thou warnest them or dost not warn them ; they will not
believe ; God hath sealed up their hearts and their ears ; » . .
and the darkness of night is over their eyes ; ^ . . and God
guides into the right path whomsoever He will ; ^° . . . God is
pleased to make your burthens light, inasmuch as man is by
nature infirm. . . . God changes not as to what concerns any
people until they change in respect to what depends upon
themselves ; ^^ . . . say thou : Verily, Gods leads astray whom-
soever He will, and directs to Himself those who are penitent. "^2
It will be noticed that, in many of these passages by " the
decree of God " is clearly meant the law of nature. The stars
and planets have each their appointed course ; so has every
other object in creation. The movements of the heavenly
bodies, the phenomena of nature, life and death, are all
governed by law. Other passages unquestionably indicate the
idea of Divine agency upon human will ; but they are again
explained by others, in which that agency is " conditioned "
upon human will. It is to the seeker for Divine help that God

*ii- 284. »iii. 25. 'v. 18. * V. 120.

s Ixv. 3.

•Ixxiii. 20. ' Ixxxvii. 1-3. ' ii. 5-6. » ii. 7.

1" xiii. 31

u •^M-iiU U !^^ J^ ^^ U^ y aV\ Jf, xiii. II.

" xiii. 27.

4o6 THE SPIRIT OF ISLAM n.

renders His help ; it is on the searcher of his own heart, who
purifies his soul from impure longings, that God bestows grace.
To the Arabian Teacher, as to his predecessors, the existence of
an Almighty Power, the Fashioner of the Universe, the Ruler
of His creatures, was an intense and vivid reality. The feeling
of "an assured trust " in an all-pervading, ever-conscious
Personality has been the motive power in the world of every
age. To the weary mariner, " sailing on life's solemn main,"
there is nothing more assuring, nothing that more satisfies the
intense longing for a better and purer world, than the con-
sciousness of a Power above humanity to redress wrongs, to
fulfil hopes, to help the forlorn. Our belief in God springs from
the very essence of Divine ordinances. They are as much laws,
in the strictest sense of the word, as the laws which regulate the
movements of the celestial bodies. But the willof God is not
an arbitrary will : it is an educating will, to be obeyed by the
scholar in his walks of learning as by the devotee in his cell.

The passages, however, in which human responsibiUty and
the freedom of human will are laid down in emphatic terms
define and limit the conception of absolutism. " And who-
soever gets to himself a sin, gets it solely on his own responsi-
bility ; ^ . . . and let alone those who make a sport and a
mockery of their religion, and whom this present world has
deluded, and thereby bring to remembrance that any soul
perishes for what it has got to itself ; ^ and when they commit
a deed of shame they say : We have found that our fathers did
so, and God obliges us to do it ; say thou : Surely, God
requireth not shameful doing : ^ . . . the}^ did injustice to them-
selves ; * yonder will every soul experience that which it hath
bargained for ; ^ ... so then, whosoever goes astray, he himself
bears the whole responsibility of wandering.

2 vL.j-.J' Uj jjmAJ JLjj e^l, vi. 70.

3 ^UIsA'l.^L 51 f\J\ ^\, vii. 29.

^ OwAJLjI Le jj,^ Jr \jij3 iJJUa, X. 30.

LfiJic cl/A> UJli J/« ,^j A-JoJ ^J<^i4J UJ ti j^oJjki ^^, v. los.

X. RATIONALISTIC AND PHILOSOPHICAL SPIRIT 407

Man, within the Hmited sphere of his existence, is absolute
master of his conduct. He is responsible for his actions, and
for the use or misuse of the powers with which he has been
endowed. He may fall or rise, according to his own " inclina-
tion." There was supreme assistance for him who sought
Divine help and guidance. Is not the soul purer and better
in calling to its Lord for that help which He has promised ?
Are not the weak strengthened, the stricken comforted — by their
own appeal to the Heavenly Father for solace and strength ?
Such were the ideas of the Teacher of Islam with regard to
Divine sovereignty and the liberty of human volition. His
recorded sayings handed down from sources which may be
regarded as unquestionably authentic, help in explaining the
conception he entertained about freewill and predestination
(j«>i» J Ui or jljis^] J jx^ ). Not only his own words, but those
of his son-in-law, " the legitimate heir to his inspiration,"
and his immediate descendants, who derived their ideas from
him, may well furnish us with a key to the true Islamic notion
on the question of the free agency of man — a subject which has
for ages, both in Islam and in Christianity, been the battle-
ground of sectarian disputes. In discussing this subject, we
must not, however, lose sight of the fact that most of the
traditions which have supplied to Patristicism its armoury of
weapons against the sovereignty of reason, bear evident traces
of being ' made to order.' They tell their own story of how,
and the circumstances under which, they came into existence.
Some of the traditions which purport to be handed down by
men who came casually in contact with the Teacher, show
palpable signs of changes and transformations in the minds
and in the memories of the mediaries. The authentic sayings,
however, are many, and I shall refer only to a few to explain
what I have already indicated, that in Mohammed's mind an
earnest belief in the liberty of human will was joined to a vivid
trust in the personality of the heavenly Father. Hereditary
depravity and natural sinfulness were emphatically denied.
Every child of man was bom pure and true ; every departure
in after-life from the path of truth and rectitude is due to
education. " Every man is born religiously constituted ; it is
his parents who make him afterwards a Jew, Christian, or a

4o8 THE SPIRIT OF ISLAM ii.

Sabsean, like as ye take up the beast at its birth — do ye find
upon it any mutilation, until ye yourselves mutilate it ? " ^
Infants have no positive moral character : for about those who
die in early life, " God best knows what would have been their
conduct " [had they lived to maturity]. " Every human being
has two inclinations, — one prompting him to good and impelling
him thereto, and the other prompting him to evil and thereto
impelling him ; ^ but the godly assistance is nigh, and he who
asks the help of God in contending with the evil promptings of
his own heart obtains it." " It is your own conduct which will
lead you to paradise or hell, as if you had been destined there-
for." No man's conduct is the outcome of fatality, nor is he
borne along by an irresistible decree to heaven or hell ; on the
contrary, the ultimate result is the creation of his own actions,
for each individual is primarily answerable for his future
destiny. " Every moral agent is furthered to his own con-
duct," or, as it is put in another tradition : " Every one is
divinely furthered in accordance with his character." ^ Human
conduct is by no means fortuitous ; one act is the result of
another ; and life, destiny and character mean the connected
series of incidents and actions which are related to each other.,
as cause and effect, by an ordained law, " the assignment " oi
God. In the sermons of the Disciple we find the doctrine more
fully developed. " Weigh your own soul before the time foi
the weighing of your actions arrives ; take count with yourseh
before you are called upon to account for your conduct in thie
existence ; apply yourself to good and pure actions, adhere tc
the path of truth and rectitude before the soul is pressed tc
leave its earthly abode : verily, if you will not guide and warr
yourself, none other can direct you." * "I adjure you tc

vj)»*«J JU *l**^ «4Ji4J ^*^\ J^» U^ aJUsT^ } ii\j^ J ^\i>j^.

* Bukhari's Collections, chapter on the Hadis, " He is secured whom Goc
helps " ; reported by Abfi Sa'id al-Khuzri.

* Nahj ul-Baldghat, p. 43 (a collection of the Khuthas of the Caliph Ali b;
one of his descendants, named Sharif Riza, mentioned by Ibn-Khallikanj
printed at Tabriz in 1299 a.h.

X. RATIONALISTIC AND PHILOSOPHICAL SPIRIT 409

worship the Lord in purity and hohness. He has pointed out
to you the path of salvation and the temptations of this world.
Abstain from foulness, though it may be fair-seeming to your
sight ; avoid evil, however pleasant. . . . For ye knoweth how
far it takes you away from Him. . . . Listen, and take warning
by the words of the Merciful Guardian." ^ . . . And again, " O
ye servants of my Lord, fulfil the duties that are imposed on
you, for in their neglect is abasement : your good works alone
will render easy the road to death. Remember, each sin
increases the debt, and makes the chain [which binds you]
heavier. The message of mercy has come ; the path of truth
is clear ; obey the command that has been laid on you ; live
in purity, and work in piety, and ask God to help you in
your endeavours, and to forgive your past transgressions." ^
" Cultivate humility and forbearance : comport yourself with
piety and truth. Take count of your actions with your own
conscience ( ^j^ij )^ for he who takes such count reaps a great
reward, and he who neglects incurs great loss. He who acts
with piety gives rest to his soul ; he who takes warning under-
stands the truth ; he who understands it attains the perfect
knowledge." These utterances convey no impression of pre-
destinarianism ; on the contrary, they portray a soul animated
with a hving faith in God, and yet full of trust in human
development founded upon individual exertion springing from
human vohtion. Mohammed's definition of reason and know^-
ledge, of the cognition of the finite and infinite, reminds us of
AristoteUan phraseology and thought, and Ah's address to his
son may be read with advantage by the admirer of Aristotelian
ethics.

The Ihtijdj ut-Tahrasi ^ supplies further materials to form a
correct opinion on the question of predestinarianism in Islam.
The Caliph Ali was one day asked the meaning of Kazd (U* )
and Kadar O*^* ) ; he replied, "The first means obedience
to the commandments of God and avoidance of sin ; the latter,
the ability to live a holy life, and to do that which brings one
nearer to God and to shun that which throws him away from

^ Ibid. p. 136. * Nahj ul-Baldghat, p. 170.

' Evidences of Tabrasi, a collection of traditions by the Shaikh ut-Tabrasi.

410 THE SPIRIT OF ISLAM ii.

His perfection. . . . Say not that man is compelled, for that is
attribution of tyranny to God ; nor say that man has absolute
discretion/ — rather that we are furthered by His help and
grace in our endeavours to act righteously, and we transgress
because of our neglect (of His commands)." One of his inter-
locutors, 'Utba ibn Rabi'a Asadi, asked him once as to the
meaning of the words " there is no power nor help but from
God," *jJb ill jy ^ ^ Jr=^ ^ • "It means," said the Caliph,
" that I am not afraid of God's anger, but I am afraid of his
purity ; nor have I the power to observe His commandment,
but my strength is in His assistance." ^ . . . God has placed
us on earth to try each according to his endowments. Referring
to the following and other passages of the Koran, the Cahph
went on to say, " God says, ' We will try you to see who are the
strivers 'e^ ->•*'«-*) [after truth and purity], and who are the
forbearing and patient, and We will test your actions.' ...
and ' We will help you by degrees to attain what ye know | ^
not.' ^ . . . These verses prove the liberty of human volition." * f •
Explaining the verse of the Koran, " God directs him whom
He chooses, and leads astray him whom He chooses," the Caliph ,.
said that this does not mean that He compels men to evil or
good, that He either gives direction or refuses it according
to His caprice, for this would do away with aU responsibility
for human action ; it means, on the contrary, that God points | j
out the road to truth, and lets men choose as they wiU.^

Arabian philosophy, nurtured afterwards in other cradles,
drew its first breath in the school of Medina. The freedom of
human will, based on the doctrine that man would be judged by
the use he had made of his reason, was inculcated in the teach-
ings of the Master, along with an earnest belief in a Supreme
Power ruling the universe. The idea assumed a more definite
shape in the words of the Disciple, and grew into a philosophy.
From Medina it was carried to Damascus, Kufa, Basra, and

^ I.e. to decide what is right and what is wrong.
* Ihtijdj ut-Tabrasi, p. 236.

«7W(i, p. 237. ^lUd.

X. RATIONALISTIC AND PHILOSOPHICAL SPIRIT 411

Bagdad, where it gave birth to the eclectic schools, which shed
such lustre on the reigns of the early Abbasides.

The butchery of Kerbela and the sack of Medina had led to
the closing of the lecture-room of the Imams. With the
appearance of Jaafar as-Sadik as the head of Mohammed's
descendants, it acquired a new life. Extremely Hberal and
rationahstic in his views, — a scholar, a poet, and a philosopher,
apparently well read in some of the foreign languages, — in
constant contact with cultured Christians, Jews, and Zoro-
astrians, with whom metaphysical disputations were frequent,
— he impressed a distinct philosophical character on the
Medinite school. Some of his views respecting predestination
deserve to be mentioned. Speaking of the doctrine of Jahr
{compulsion or predestinarianism) , which had about this period
made its appearance in Damascus, he expressed the following
opinion : " Those who uphold Jabr make out God to be a
participator in every sin they commit, and a tyrant for punish-
ing those sins which they are impelled to commit by the
compulsion of their being : this is infidelity." Then (giving
the analogy of a servant sent by his master to the market to
purchase something which he, the master, knows well that he
cannot bring, not possessing the wherewithal to buy it, and,
nevertheless, the master punishes him) the Imam adds, " the
doctrine of Jabr converts God into an unjust Master." ^ As
regards the opposite doctrine of absolute liberty {Tafwiz, delega-
tion of authority) — meaning not the freedom of human will, but
unqualified discretion in the choice of v/rong and right, he
declared that to afiirm such a principle would destroy all the
foundations of morality, and give to all human beings absolute
licence in the indulgence of their animal propensities ; for if
each individual is vested with a discretion to choose what is
right or wrong, no sanction, no law can have any force. ^ Ikhtidr
(jUiii )| is therefore different from Tafwtz \^jyij), " God
has endowed each human being with the capacity to under-
stand His commands and to obey them. They who exert
themselves to live purely and truly, them He helps : they are
those who please Him ; whilst they who disobey Him are
sinners." These views are repeated with greater emphasis by

^ Ihiijdj ut-Tabrasi, p. 236. ^ Ibid. p. 235.

412 THE SPIRIT OF ISLAM

the eighth Imam, Ah ar-Riza, who denomiced Jahr (pi
destinarianism) and Tashbih (anthropomorphism) as absolul
infidehty,^ and declared the upholders of those doctrines to
" the enemies of the Faith." He openly charged the advocate
of Jabr and Tashbih with the fabrication of traditions. At tl
same time he warned his followers against the doctrine
discretion or Tafwiz. He laid down in broad terms, " God h£
pointed out to you the two paths, one of which leads you
Him, the other takes you far away from His perfection ; yc
are at liberty to take the one or the other ; pain or J03
reward or punishment, depend upon your own conduct. Bi
man has not the capacity of turning evil into good, or si
into virtue."

The Ommeyyades, many of whom remained pagans at heai
even after the profession of Islam, were, like their forefather
fatahsts. Under them arose a school which purported to deri\
its doctrines from the " ancients," the Salaf, a body of primitiA
Moslems. All of them were dead ; it was consequently easj
to fabricate any tradition and pass it as handed down by 01
or other of them. Jahm bin Safwan was the founder of tl
school, which was called Jabria. The Jabrias ^ rivalle
Calvin in the absolute denial of free-will to man. They mail
tained " that man is not responsible for any of his actior
which proceed entirely from God ; ^ that he has no determinh
power to do any act, nor does he possess the capacity of fre
volition ; that he is the subject of absolute Divine sovereign^
in his actions, without abihty on his part, or will or power
choice ; and that God absolutely creates actions within hira
just as He produces activity in all inanimate things ; . . . and
that reward and punishment are subject to absolute Divine
sovereignty in human actions," The Jabrias maintained
certain views regarding Divine attributes which have nc

^ He who believes in Jaby is a Kafir ; Ihtijdj ut-Tabrasi, p. 214.

2 Shahristani divides the Jabrias into two branches, one being Jabriai
pure and simple, and the other more moderate. The first maintained thai
neither action nor the ability to act belongs in any sense to maC'
(^1 J*a)\ ^ aj^ Vj lUi ,yx*iJ o^) ; the latter held that man has an
ability which is not at all efficacious ( iLc] ijiyo jjji i^ yi jjjjj w->-»J ) •

X. RATIONALISTIC AND PHILOSOPHICAL SPIRIT 413

particular significance.^ According to Shahristani, the Jahrias
were divided into three sects, viz. : the Jahmia, the Najjdria,
and the Zirdria, differing from each other on minor points ;
but, so far as the doctrine of predestination was concerned, all
of them were agreed in denying free agency. The Najj arias,
who, after undergoing several transformations, developed two
centuries later into the Asha'rias, maintained that God creates
the conduct of His creatures, good and bad, virtuous and
vicious, while man appropriates the same. The Jahria
doctrines found favour with the Ommeyyade rulers, and soon
spread among the people.

The uncompromising fatahsm of the Jahrias occasioned
among the thinking classes a revolt, which was headed by
Ma'bad al-Juhani, Yunus al-Aswari, and Ghailan Dimishki {i.e.
of Damascus), who had evidently derived many of their ideas
from the Fatimides. They boldly asserted in the capital of the
Ommeyyades, in the very stronghold of predestinarianism, the
free agency of man.^ But in the assertion of human liberty
they sometimes verged on the doctrine of Tafwtz. From
Damascus the dispute was carried to Basra, and there the
differences of the two parties waxed high. The Jahrias
merged into a new sect, called the Sijdtias,^ who, with pre-
destinarianism, combined the affirmation of certain attributes
in the Deity as distinct from His Essence, which the Jahrias
denied. The Sifdtias claimed to be the direct representatives
of the SalaJ. According to Shahristani, these followers of the
SalaJ " maintained that certain eternal attributes pertain to
God, namely, knowledge, power, life, will, hearing, sight,
speech, majesty, magnanimity, bounty, beneficence, glory, and
greatness,— making no distinction between attributes of essence
and attributes of action. . . . They also assert certain de-
scriptive attributes ( aj^^ o5a*:; as, for example, hands and
face, without any other explanation than to say that these
attributes enter into the revealed representation of the Deity,
and that, accordingly, they had given them the name of
descriptive attributes." Like the Jahrias, they adhered to
the doctrine of predestination in all its gloominess and intensity.

1 Shahristani, part i. p. 59. '^ Shahristani, part i. pp. 59-O3.

8 Lit. Attributists,

414 THE SPIRIT OF ISLAM ill

From the Sifdtias sprang the Mushabbihas, " who likened thq
Divine attributes to the attributes of created things," ^ and
turned God into a simihtude of their own selves. 2 At thi^
period one of the most noted professors belonging to the anti-i
predestinarian party was Imam Hasan, surnamed al-BasrJ
(from his place of residence). He was a Medinite by birth;
and had actually sat at the feet of " the Philosophers of the
family of Mohammed." He had imbibed their liberal and
rationahstic ideas, and, on setthng at Basra, had started a
lecture-room, which was soon thronged by the students of Irak.
Here he discoursed on the metaphysical questions of the day
in the spirit of his masters.

One of his most prominent pupils was Abu Huzaifa Wasil
bin 'Ata al-Ghazzal,^ a man of great mental powers, thoroughly
versed in the sciences and traditions, who had also studied in
the lecture-room of Medina. He differed from the Imam on
a question of religious dogma, and was made to withdraw from
the lecture-room. He thereupon founded a school of his own
His followers have, from this fact, been called Mu'tazilas, 01
Ahl-ul-Ftizdl, Dissenters.'* He soon rivalled the fame of
master, whose school before long practically merged in th;
of the pupil. In his antagonism against intellectual tyrann
he often overstepped the bounds of moderation, and gav
utterance to views, especially on the controversy raised b;
Mu'awiyah, which were in conflict with those entertained a|
Medina. Yet the general rationalism of his school rallied t
strongest and most liberal minds round his standard. Proceed!
ing upon the lines of the Fatimide philosophers, and appropriatinj

2 Shahristani draws a distinction between the Sifdtia anthropomorphii
and those who came into existence later. " At a later period certain persoi
went beyond what had been professed by any who held to the primitive fai' '
and said that undoubtedly those expressions (denoting the attributes) i
used in the literal sense, and are to be interpreted just as they stand, witho'
resort to figurative interpretation, and at the same time, without insistii
upon the literal sense alone, whereby they fell into pure anthropomorphisi
( «J^t ixiJiJJ\) in violation of the primitive Moslem faith."

^ J ')*^' ^^^1^ (J'^l^j iSjC>^ >)| . He lived in the days of Abd ul-Mali
Walid and Hisham. He was born in 83 a.h. (699-700 A.c.) and died in i
A.H. (748-9 A.c).

* Shahristani, p. 31 ; Goiihar-i-Miirdd {vide post). Mti'tazala spelt with
fatha {a) in the third syllable in the Ghyds-ul-lnghal and the Farhang (Lucknow
1889). See Appendix HI.

X. RATIONALISTIC AND PHILOSOPHICAL SPIRIT 415

the principles which they had laid down and the ideas to which
they had often given forcible expression, he formulated into
theses the doctrines which constitute the basis of his difference
from the predestinarian schools and from Patristicism generally.
For several centuries his school dominated over the intellects
of men, and with the support of the enhghtened rulers who
during this period held the reins of government, it gave an
impetus to the development of national and intellectual life
among the Saracens such as had never been witnessed before.
Distinguished scholars, prominent physicists, mathematicians,
historians — all the world of intellect in fact, including the
Caliphs, belonged to the Mu'tazilite school.^

Men like Abu'l Huzail Hamdan,^ Ibrahim ibn Sayyar an-
Nazzam,3 Ahmed ibn Hait, Fazl al-Hadasi, and Abu Ah
Mohammed al-Jubbai,* well read in Greek philosophy and
logic, amalgamated many ideas borrowed from those sources
with the Medinite conceptions, and impressed a new feature
on the philosophical notions of the Moslems. The study of
Aristotle, Porphyry, and other Greek and Alexandrian writers
gave birth to a new science among the Mu'tazilas, which was
called Ilm-iil-Kaldm, " the science of reason " [Kaldm, logos), ^
with which they fought both against the external as well as the
internal enemies of the Faith, — the non-Moslems who assailed
the teachings of Islam from outside, and the patristic Moslems
who aimed at its degradation from within. The extreme views
of Wasil on the political questions which had agitated the
Caliphate of Ali were before long abandoned, with the result
that moderate Mu'tazilaism became substantially amalgamated
with the rationahsm of the Fatimide school, whence it had
sprung. It is a well-known fact that the chief doctors of the
Mu'tazilite school were educated under the Fatimides, and
there can hardly be any doubt that moderate Mu'tazilaism

1 We may mention here two or three prominent Mutazilas whose names
are still famous, e.g. Imam Zamakhshari, the author of the Kashshdf, admittedly
the best and most erudite commentary on the Koran; Mas'udi, "Imam,
historian, and philosopher " ; the famous Al-Hazen, Abu'l Wafa, and Mirk-
hond.

" Died A.H. 235 (a.c. 849-850), in the beginning of al-Mutawakkil's Caliphate.

3 A nephew of Abu'l Huzail. * Born in 861 ; died in 933.

' Shahristani, p. 18 ; Ibn-Khaldun iv loco.

4i6 THE SPIRIT OF ISLAM ii.

represented the views of the Caliph Ah and the most hberal of
his early descendants, and probably of Mohammed himself.
A careful comparison of the Mu'tazilite doctrines will show
that they were either word for word the same as were taught
by the early Fatimides, or were modifications of those doctrines
induced by the requirements of a progressive society, and
partly, perhaps, by the study of Greek and Alexandrian
philosophy.

The Caliph Ali had condemned in emphatic language all
anthropomorphic and anthropopathic conceptions of the Deity.
" God was not hke any object that the human mind can con-
ceive ; no attribute can be ascribed to Him which bore the least
resemblance to any quality of which human beings have
perception from their knowledge of material objects. The
perfection of piety consists in knowing God ; the perfection of
knowledge is the affirmation of His verity ; and the perfection
of verity is to acknowledge His unity in all sincerity ; and the
perfection of sincerity is to deny all attributes to the Deity . . .
' Ajj: ^\suJ\ ^^flj aJ ,j£^2w^t JLf? . He who refers an attribute to
God believes the attribute to be God, and he who so beheves an
attribute to be God, regards God as two or part of one. . . .
He who asks where God is, assimilates Him with some object.
God is the Creator, not because He Himself is created ; God is
existent, not because He was non-existent. He is with every
object, not from resemblance or nearness ; He is outside of every-
thing not from separation. He is the Primary Cause (Jcli),
not in the meaning of motion or action ; He is the Seer, but no
sight can see Him. He has no relation to place, time, or
measure.^ . . . God is Omniscient, because knowledge is His
Essence ; Mighty, because Power is His Essence ; Loving,
because Love is His Essence . . . not because these are attributes
apart from His Essence. . . . The conditions of time or space
were wholly inapplicable to Him." . . . ^ Takdir [yM> ),
construed by the followers of the Salaf to mean predestination,
meant " weighing," " probation," " trial."

Let us see now what Mu'tazilaism is. On many minor and
subsidiary points the prominent Mu'tazilite doctors differed

^ Nahj-ul-Balaghat ; see the comment of Ibn-i-Abi'l Hadid, the Mu'tazihte.
* From the Imam Ja'far as-Sadik, ibid.

X. RATIONALISTIC AND PHILOSOPHICAL SPIRIT 417

among themselves ; but I shall give here a sketch of the
doctrines on which they were in accord. According to Shahri-
stani, the Mu'tazilas ^ declare that " eternity is the distinguish-
ing attribute of the Divine Being ; that God is Eternal, for
Eternity is the peculiar property of His Essence ; they
unanimously deny the existence of eternal (Divine) qualities
C A4j^>ii)i o'fl^'i ) [as distinct from His being], and maintain
that He is Omniscient as to His being ; Living as to His being ;
Almighty as to His being ; but not through any knowledge,
power, or life existing in Him as eternal attributes ; for know-
ledge, power, and life are part of His Essence. Otherwise, if
they are to be looked upon as eternal attributes of the Deity
(separate from His Essence), it would tend to the affirmation
of a multipHcity of eternal entities. . . . They also maintain
that the Word of God is created, and when created, is
expressed in letters and sounds. ... In like manner they
unanimously denied that willing, hearing, and seeing are ideas
subsistent in the Divine Being, though differing as to the modes
of their existence and their metaphysical grounds." ^ " They
deny unanimously that God can be beheld in the Ddr-ul-Kardr
(in the Abode of Rest) with the corporeal sight. They forbid
the describing of God by any quality belonging to material
objects, either by way of direction, or location, or appearance,
or body, or change, or cessation of action, or dissolution ; and
they have explained the passages of the Koran in which expres-
sions implying these qualities have been used, by asserting that
the expressions are used figuratively and not literally. And this
doctrine they call Tauhtd, ' assertion of Divine unity.' . . .

^ " The Mu'tazilas called themselves," says Shahristani, " Ashdb-ul-'adl
wa't-tauhid, ' people of justice and unity,' and sometimes Kadarias." As
a matter of fact, however, the designation of Kadaria was never applied by
the Mu'tazilas to themselves ; it was applied by their enemies to the extreme
Mu'tazilas who maintained the doctrine of Tafwtz, and which was condemned
by the Fatimide Imams. They always repudiated that designation, and
applied it to the predestinarians, who asserted that God is the Creator of every
human action. Shahristani admits this, and says : —

But he tries to refute the applicability of the word Kadaria to the pre-
destinarians. " How can it apply to those who trust in God " ; Shahristani,
P- 30.

* Shahristani, p. 30.

S.I. 2 D

4i8 THE SPIRIT OF ISLAM ii.

They also agree in believing that man is the creative efficient
of his actions, good and bad ((^^^ ji^s .-x^\ k^•• ^tr^j 'V^ ^^ ^^
and gets reward and punishment in the future world by merit
for what he does ; and that no moral evil, or iniquity of action,
or unbehef, or disobedience, can be referred to God, because,
if He had caused unrighteousness to be, He would be
Himself unrighteous (UiJS cI^^JL&Jt jLkyaiNI ) . . . They also
unanimously maintain that the All-wise does only that which
is beneficial and good ( ^"'i ^ j^^^t ^i J^aj ^'). and that a
regard in the Hght of wisdom ( i^Sis^t ^^ ^ ) for the good
of humanity ( -i*^' ^''-** ) is incumbent upon Him, though
they differed as to His being obligated to secure the highest good,
and to bestow grace ( f^^ o^ii. Aj^^j ^JSJ waW/i ^ ^UVi t^i j ).
And this doctrine they call the doctrine of 'adl, or justice."

They further hold that there is no eternal law as regards
human actions ; that the Divine ordinances which regulate
the conduct of men are the result of growth and development ;
that God has commanded and forbidden by a law which grewj
gradually. At the same time, they say that he who works
righteousness merits rewards, and he who works evil deserves
punishment ; and this, they say, is consonant with reason.
The Mu'tazilas also say that all knowledge is attained through
reason, and must necessarily be so obtained. They hold that
the cognition of good and evil is also within the province of
reason ; that nothing is known to be wrong or right until reason
has enhghtened us as to the distinction ; and that thankfulness
for the blessings of the Benefactor is made obligatory by reason,!
even before the promulgation of any law on the subject. Theyj
maintain that the knowledge of God is within the province of
reason ; and, with the exception of Himself, everything else is
liable to change or to suffer extinction. " They also maintain
that the Almighty has sent His Prophets to explain to mankind
His commandments. . . . They differ among themselves as to
the question of the Imamate ; some maintaining that if
descended by appointment, others holding to the right of the'
people to elect." The Mu'tazilas are, therefore, the direct
antitheses of the Sif alias, for " these and all other Ahl-us-
Sunnat hold that God does whatever He pleases, for He is the

X. RATIONALISTIC AND PHILOSOPHICAL SPIRIT 419

Sovereign Lord of His dominions, and whatever He wishes
He orders . . . and this is 'adl (justice) according to them.
According to the Ahl-ul-I'tizdl, what accords with Reason and
Wisdom only is justice {'adl), and the doing of acts for
(or according to) the good and well-being [of mankind],
e^-^^U ^ ^^^y^\ i^j J^^ ■ The Ahl-ul-'adl say that God has
commanded and forbidden by created words. According to
the Ahl-HS-Sunnat (the Sifatias), all that is obligatory is known
from hearsay (^^-.) ; (secular) knowledge only is attained by
reason ; Reason cannot tell us what is good, or what is bad,
or what is obligatory. The Ahl-id-'adl say (on the contrary)
that all knowledge comes through reason. ^ They referred
that term of tradition ' pre-destination ' to trial and deliverance,
adversity and prosperity, sickness and health, death and life,
and other doings of God, exclusive of moral good and evil,
virtue and vice, regarding men as responsible for the latter,

and it is in the same sense that the whole community of the
Mu'tazila employ that term."

Thus far we have given the views of the school as a body ;
but there were certain opinions held by the prominent doctors
individually, which, though not accepted beyond the immediate
circle of their particular disciples, are yet deserving of notice.
For example Abu-Huzail Hamdan maintained that the Creator
is knowing by virtue of knowledge, but that His knowledge is
His Essence ; powerful by virtue of power, but that His power
is His Essence ; living by virtue of life, but that His life is His
Essence. " A view," says Shahristani, " adopted from the
Philosophers," but really taken from the Medinite school. He
also affirmed that free will ( i<iLJi ) is an accident ( t^^« )i
additional to perfection of development and soundness
( 'is^\ ) Ibrahim ibn Sayyar an-Nazzam, " a diligent student
of the books of the Philosophers," maintained " that without
a revelation, man is capable, by reflection, of recognising the
Creator, and of distinguishing between virtue and vice . . .
and that the Doer of Righteousness possessed not the capacity
to do wrong." Mu'ammar ibn Abbad as-Sulami advanced

1 Shahristani, p. 31.

420 THE SPIRIT OF ISLAM ii.

the Platonic theory of " archetypes." He maintained that
accidents are permanent in the several species of things to
which they belong ( cy Jr ^i \ykUIjV ), and that every

accident subsists in a subject, though its subsistence therein
is only by virtue of some idea (in the human mind) . Mu'ammar
and his followers were in consequence of this doctrine called
IdeaUsts ( j_^0ij| ^[s'^^^-^^^ Abu Ah Mohammed ibn x\bdul

Wahhab, known as Abu Ali al-Jubbai, maintained that action
pertains to man in the way of origination and first production ;
and ascribed to man moral good and evil, obedience and dis-
obedience, in the way of sovereignty and prerogative ; and
that free-will ( **lkl^5/i ) is a pre-requisite to action, and a
power additional to bodily completeness and soundness of the
members. Abu'l Ma'ali al-Juwaini,' ^ Imdm-ul-Har amain [i.e.
of the two sacred cities), who, however, did not call himself a
Mu'tazila, and is generally claimed by the upholders of the
opposite doctrine as belonging to their body, held that the
denial of ability and free-wiU is something which reason and
consciousness disavow ; that to affirm an ability without an>
sort of efficacy is equivalent to denying ability altogether, and
that to affirm some unintelligible influence (of ability), whicl:
constitutes a motive cause, amounts to the denial of any specia."
influence, and that, inasmuch as conditions and states, on the
principle of those who maintain them, are not to be charac
terised as existing or non-existing (but must be explained b}
reference to their origin), action on the part of man (regardec
as an existing state) is to be attributed really to his own ability
— though not in the way of origination and creation, for bj
creation is meant the causing of something to come into bein^
by supreme power which was not previously in existence ; anc
that action depends for its existence upon ability (in man)
which itself depends for its existence upon some other cause
its relation to that cause being the same as the relation o
(human) action to (man's) ability, and so one cause depend:
upon another until the causa causans ( ^'^-5'' v-*-** ). th(
Creator of causes and of their operations, the Absolute Self

1 Died 1085.

X. RATIONALISTIC AND PHILOSOPHICAL SPIRIT 421

sufficing, is reached. " This view," adds Shahristani, " was
borrowed by Abu'l Ma'aU from the Philosophers of the theistic
school, but he presented it in the garb of the Kaldm (scholastic
theology)." ^

This is the general outline of the philosophical notions of the
Mu'tazilas respecting some of the most burning questions which
have agitated the mind of man in every age and country, and
have so frequently led to sanguinary strifes and fratricidal
wars both in the East and in the West.

As the assertors of divine Unity, shorn of all anthropo-
morphic conceptions, and the advocates of moral responsibihty,
they naturally called themselves ashdh-ul-' adl iva't-tauhid,
" upholders of the unity and justice of God," and designated
their opponents Mushabbihas {" assimilators " or anthropo-
morphists). They reasoned thus : If sin emanated from, or
was created by God, and man was pre-ordained to commit it,
the imposition of any penalty for its commission would make
the Creator an Unrighteous God, — which is infidelity : thus
reason and revelation both tell us that piety and sin, virtue
and vice, evil and good, are the product of human volition ;
man has absolute control over his actions, though he has been
told what is right and what is wrong. Evil and good depend
upon what is just ; for God's creation is ruled by justice.
Reason and justice are the guiding principles of human actions ;
and general usefulness and the promotion of the happiness of
mankind at large, the chief criterion of right and wrong. Has
not God Himself declared that " the two Paths were shown to
mankind for their own good ? Has He not Himself called
upon them to exercise their understanding ? " Rationalists
and Utilitarians, they based the foundations of the moral law
on the concordance of Reason with positive revelation. They
walked in the footsteps of the Master and his immediate
descendants. They upheld the doctrine of Evolution in
regarding every law that regulates the mutual relations
of man to man as the result and outcome of a process
of continuous development. In their ideas of the long

' Comp. Juwaini's views with those of Ibn-Rushd (Averroes). Shahristani
evidently had not made himself acquainted with the views of the Fatimide
Imams; Shahristani, part i. pp. 70, 71. The views of Abu'l Ma'ali do not
commend themselves to the " orthodox " Shahristani.

422 THE SPIRIT OF ISLAM ii."

antiquity of man on earth/ they occupy a vantage ground
in relation to the natural philosophers of the modern
world.

Mu'tazilaism spread rapidly among all the thinking and
cultured classes in every part of the Empire, and finding its
way into Spain took possession of the Andalusian colleges
and academies. Mansur and his immediate successors en-
couraged RationaHsm, but made no open profession of the
Mu'tazihte doctrines. Mamun, who deserves more justly than
any other Asiatic sovereign the title of " Great," acknowledged
his adhesion to the Mu'tazilite school ; and he and his brother
Mu'tasim and nephew Wasik, endeavoured to infuse the
rationalistic spirit into the whole Moslem world. Under them
Rationalism acquired a predominance such as it has not gained
perhaps even in modern times in European countries. The
Rationalists preached in the mosques and lectured in the
colleges ; they had the moulding of the character of the nation's
youth in their hands ; they were the chief counsellors of the
Caliphs, and it cannot be gainsaid that they used their influence
wisely. As professors, preachers, scientists, physicians, viziers,
or provincial governors, they helped in the growth and develop-
ment of the Saracenic nation. The rise of the Bani-Idris in
Western Africa, and the establishment of the Fatimide power
imparted a new life to Mu'tazilaism after its glory had come
to an end in Asia.

The question now naturally occurs to the mind, how is it
that predestinarianism and the subjection of Reason to blind
authority, though discountenanced by the Prophet and the
Philosophers of his family, became finally predominant in the
speculations and practice of the Moslem world ? Before we
furnish an answer to this inquiry, let us trace the development
of another phase of the Moslem intellect. Mu'tazilaism has
been, with considerable plausibility, compared to the scholastic
philosophy of the Middle Ages in Europe. . Scholasticism is
said to have been the " movement of the intellect to justify
by reason several of the dogmas of the Faith." Mu'tazilaism
also directed its endeavours to establish a concordance between

^ They derived this notion from a Hadis reported from Ali, Bihar -ul- Anwar,
chapter on Creation.

X. RATIONALISTIC AND PHILOSOPHICAL SPIRIT 423

Reason and positive revelation. But there the parallel ends.
In the Christian Church, the dogmas requiring explanation
and justification were many. The doctrine of the trinity in
unity, of the three " Natures " in one, of original sin, of tran-
substantiation, all gave rise to a certain intellectual tension.
The dogmas of the Church accordingly required some such
" solvent " as scholasticism before science and free thought
could find their way into Christendom. In Islam the case
was otherwise ; with the exception of the unity of God — the
doctrine of Tauhid, which was the foundation of Mohammed's
Church — there was no dogma upon which insistence was placed
in any such form as to compel Reason to hold back its
acceptance. The doctrine of " origin and return " — juahdd
( U^^jQ ) and madd ( iU* ), " coming (from God) and returning
(to Him) " — and of the moral responsibility of man, was founded
on the conception of a Primal Cause — the Originator of all
things. That the Ego will not be entirely lost after it has
been set apart from its earthly habiliments, that it will exist as
a self-conscious entity after the dissolution of the body, is a
notion which has been shared ahke by the wise and the ignorant.
Some few have denied a future existence, but the generality
have believed in it, though all have differed as to the nature of
that existence. So also as regards moral responsibility, there
is great divergence of opinion on the mode in which man shall
discharge the obligation ; but there is little difference on the
question that he is responsible for the use or misuse of his
powers. On both these questions the words of the Teacher
allow the greatest latitude of judgment ; so long as the original
conceptions were retained and accepted, Mohammed's Church
permitted the broadest and most rationalistic view. Hence it
was that Islam passed at once from the Age of Receptivity into
the Age of Activity, from the Age of Faith into the Age of
Reason, without any such intermediate stage as was required
in Christianity.

In the Prophet's time, as well as under the Rdshidtyi Caliphs,
no doubt, free independent inquiry was naturally, and perhaps
rightly, discouraged. But no questioning was avoided, no
doubt was silenced by the terror of authority, and if the teacher
was unable to answer the question, the inability was avowed in

424 THE SPIRIT OF ISLAM ii.

all humility.^ Mu'tazilaism holds therefore a distinctive place
in the development of the human intellect. It bears an analogy
to European scholasticism, but in reality it is akin in genius
to modern rationalism. Scholasticism worked under the shadow
of the Church. Mu'tazilaism worked in conjunction with the
heads of the Church. The real scholasticism of Islam came
later.

The cultivation of the physical sciences gave a new direction
to Saracenic genius. A body of thinkers sprang up, who
received the generic name of Hukamd (pi. of hakim, a scientist
or philosopher), whose method of reasoning was analogous to
that of modern science. They were mostly Mu'tazilas, but the
conceptions of a few were tinged by the philosophical notions
of Aristotle and the Neo-Platonic school of Alexandria. Though
bigotry and ignorance stigmatised them with the opprobrious
epithets of infidel and heretic, historical verity must admit that
they did not exclude themselves from Islam, nor advance any
theory for which they were unable to find a warrant in the
sayings of the Founder of the Faith or his immediate
descendants.

The doctrine of evolution and progressive development to
which these philosophers adhered most strongly has been
propounded in clear terms by one of their prominent repre-
sentatives, the famous Al-Hazen. The philosophical notions
on this subject may be summarised thus : "In the region of
existing matter, the mineral kingdom comes lowest, then
comes the vegetable kingdom, then the animal, and finally the
human being. By his body he belongs to the material world,
but by his soul he appertains to the spiritual or immaterial.
Above him are only the purely spiritual beings, — the angels,^ —
above whom only is God ; thus the lowest is combined by a
chain of progress to the highest. But the human soul per-
petually strives to cast off the bonds of matter, and, becoming
free, it soars upwards again to God, from whom it emanated."
And these notions found expression later in the Masnavi of

1 The answer was, " God knows best."

- The author of the Goithar-i-Murdd, to which I shall refer later in some
detail, explains that what are called in " the language of theology " " angels,"
are the forces of nature in the language of Hikmat.

X. RATIONALISTIC AND PHILOSOPHICAL SPIRIT 425

Moulana Jalal ud-din, whose " orthodoxy " can hardly be
questioned, —

^t***-' j' ^j — i*-- j^i-i ^ L^

r^-^ c'/;; "^ — ^'^ ;' J — ^^ }'.

c^^^^;' o'^^ r-^^ r-"J c^^ ^^;i

cJ>-

.*^l; A x!l US' ^j. ._,jS

" Dying from the inorganic we developed into the vegetable kingdom.
Dying from the vegetable we rose to the animal. And leaving the animal we
became men. Then what fear that death will lower us ? The next transition
will make vis angels. From angels we shall rise and become what no mind
can conceive ; we shall merge in Infinity as in the beginning. Have we not
been told, ' All of us will return unto Him ' ? "

The greatest of the philosophers were al-Kindi, al-Farabi,
Ibn-Sina, Ibn-Baja, Ibn-Tufail, and Ibn-Rushd.^

Al-Kindi ^ (Abu Yusuf Ya'kub ibn Ishak), surnamed the
Philosopher par excellence, was a descendant of the illustrious
family of Kinda, and counted among his ancestors several of
the princes of Arabia. His father, Ishak bin as-Sabbah, was
the governor of Kufa under al-Mahdi, al-Hadi, and Harun.
Al-Kindi, who prosecuted his studies at Basra and Bagdad,
rendered himself famous under the Caliphs Mamun and
Mu'tasim by the versatility of his genius and the profoundness
of his knowledge. He wrote on philosophy, mathematics,

^ Shahristani mentions several others, such as — Yahya al-Nahwy, Abu'l
Faraj al-Mufassir, Abu Sulaiman al-Sajzy, Abu Bakr Sabit bin Kurrah, Abu
Sulaiman Mohammed al-Mukaddasi, Abii Tamam Yusuf bin Mohammed
Nishapuri, Abu Zaid Ahmed bin Saha al-Balkhi, Abu Muharib al-Hasan bin-
Sahl bin Muharib al-Kiimy, Ahmed bin Tayyeb al-Sarrakhsy, Talha bin
Mohammed al-Nafsy, Abu Hamid Ahmed bin Mohammed al-Safzari, Tsa bin
Ali al-Wazir, Abu Ali Ahmed^ bin Muskuya, Abu Zakaria Yahya bin "Adi
al-Zumairi, Abu'l Hasan al-'Amri. He does not mention a single Spanish
philosopher.

- 813 to 842 A.c. ; see Appendix H.

426 THE SPIRIT OF ISLAM ii.

astronomy, medicine, politics, music, etc. Versed in the
languages of the Greeks, the Persians, and the Indians,
thoroughly acquainted with their sciences and philosophy, he
was selected by Mamun for the work of translating Aristotle
and other Greek writers into Arabic. " Cardan," says Munk
" places him among the twelve geniuses of the first order whc
had appeared in the world up to the sixteenth century."

Abu Nasr Fdrdhi (Abu Nasr Mohammed bin Mohammed
Turkhan al-Fdrdhi), so called from his native city of Farab ir
Transoxiana, was a distinguished physician, mathematician
and philosopher. He is regarded as the most learned ane
subtle of the commentators of Aristotle. He enjoyed the
patronage of Saif ud-dowla Ali bin Hamdan, Prince of Aleppo
and died at Damascus in the month of Rajab 339 a.h
December (950 a.c). Among his various works some may b(
mentioned here to show the tendency of the Arab mind in thai
prolific age. In the Encyclopcedia of Science [Ihsd ul-uliim]
he gives a general review of all the sciences. A Latin epitome
of this work gives an idea of the range over which it extends
being divided into five parts dealing with the different branches
of science, viz. language, logic, mathematics, natural sciences
and political and social economy. Another celebrated worl
of Farabi, largely utiHsed by Roger Bacon and Albertuf
Magnus, was his commentary on Aristotle's Organon. His
Tendency of the Philosophies of Plato and Aristotle, his treatise
on ethics, entitled as-Sirat iil-Fazild, and another on politics
called as-Siydsat ul-Medtneyya, which forms part of a largei
and more comprehensive work bearing the name of Mahddi
ul-Moiijuddt, show the versatile character of his intellect
Besides philosophy and medicine, Farabi cultivated music
which he elevated into a science. He wrote several treatise;
both on the theory and the art of music, as well as the manu-
facture of musical instruments. In one he compared tht
systems of music among the ancients with that in vogue ir
his own time. Abu'l Kasim Kinderski, no mean judge, place;
Farabi on a level with his great successor, Ibn-Sina.^

1 See also the 'Uyiln-ul-Masail (Dieterici's ed. p. 52), where he estabUshe:
by deductive reasoning that Creation is the work of a Supreme IntelHgence
and that nothing in the universe is fortuitous or accidental.

X. RATIONALISTIC AND PHILOSOPHICAL SPIRIT 427

Of Ibn-Sina I have already spoken as a physician. As a
philosopher he occupies a position hardly inferior to that of
the great Stagyrite. He was unquestionably the master-spirit
of his age, and in spite of the opposition raised against him by
fanaticism and self-interest, he left his impress in undying
characters on the thoughts of succeeding ages. His voluminous
works testify to the extraordinary activity of his mind.^ He
systematised Aristotehan philosophy, and filled " the void
between God and man " in Aristotle's fragmentary psychology
by the doctrine of the intelligence of the spheres conceived
after a scientific method. The great object of the Arabian
philosophers was to furnish the world with a complete theory
of the unity of the Cosmos which would satisfy, not the mind
only, but also the religious sense. And accordingly they
endeavoured to reconcile the ethical and spiritual with the
philosophical side of science. Hence the development of the
theory of the two intellects — the passive Reason, or Abstract
Soul, in contact with material forms, and subject through
them to change and death ; and the Active Reason [Akl-i-
fa'dl), conversant with the immutable, and so remaining un-
changed in itself. By patient discipline of the heart and soul
man can elevate himself to conjunction with this Higher
Reason. But the discipline needed was as much moral and
spiritual as intellectual. Ibn-Sina represented these ideas in
the highest degree. He was the truest and most faithful
exponent of the philosophical aspirations of his time. " For
ethical earnestness it would be hard to find anything more
impressive than the teaching of Avicenna." A severely logical
treatment of his subjects is the distinctive character of his
writings. His main endeavour was directed towards the
demonstration of the theory that there existed an intimate
connexion between the human Soul and the Primary Absolute
Cause — a conception which is traced in every line of Jalal
ud-din Rumi.

Shahristani gives a brief but exhaustive sketch of Ibn-Sina's
views, culled, as he says, from his various books. After
describing Ibn-Sina's treatment of the sciences, logic, and other

' His two greatest works on philosophy and science, the Shifa and the
Najat, still exist intact.

428 THE SPIRIT OF ISLAM ii

cognate subjects, Shahristani states that the Philosopher
discussed metaphysics under ten theses ; under the first fivei
he deals with the origin of knowledge, experimentation, induc-
tion, and deduction ; matter and force ; the relation of cause
and effect ; the primary and accidental, universals and
particulars. Under the sixth and seventh he demonstrate*
that the Primal Cause — the being whose existence is necessary
by virtue of his Essence — is one and Absolute. Under th(
eighth and ninth he deals with the unity of the Cosmos, the
relation of human souls to the Primal Cause and the Active
Intellect, the first created. And lastly, he discusses the con
ception of future existence, the doctrine of " Return " ( ^Ijcc )
He proclaims the individual permanence of the human soul
and argues that it will retain its individuality after its separatior
from the corporeal body ; but that the pleasure and pain o:
the future existence will be purely spiritual, depending on th(
use or misuse by man of his mental, moral and physical power;
to attain the Perfection. He argues under the last head th(
necessity for mankind of prophetism. The Prophet expound;
to men the Divine laws, explains to them the ethical demand;
of God and Humanity in parables comprehensible to commor
folk, which appeal to and settle their hearts. The Prophei
dissuades from jealousy, rancour, and misdeeds ; lays th(
foundations of social and moral development, and is God';
veritable messenger on earth.

Abu Bakr Mohammed ibn Yahya, sumamed Ibti-nl-Sdyehu
popularly called Ibn-Baja, corrupted by the Europearj;
scholiasts into Avenpace, is one of the most celebrated philo|
sophers among the Arabs of Spain. He was not only ij
distinguished physician, mathematician, and astronomer, bu|
also a musician of the first rank. He was born at Saragossi
towards the end of the eleventh century of the Christian eraj
and in 1118 A.c. we find him mentioned as residing in SevillelJ
He afterwards proceeded to Africa, where he occupied a higt
position under the Almoravides. He died at Fez in 1138 a.c'
Several of his works have come down to us in their entirety
and show the free range of the Moslem intellect in thos(
days.

Ibn-Tufail (Abu Bakr Mohammed ibn Abdul Mahk ibn

X. RATIONALISTIC AND PHILOSOPHICAL SPIRIT 429

Tufail al-Kaisi) was bom in the beginning of the twelfth century
at Gaudix ( Wadi-ash) , a small city of Andalusia, in the province
of Granada. He was celebrated as a physician, mathematician,
philosopher, and poet, and was held in great esteem at the court
of the first two sovereigns of the Almohade dynasty. From
1 163 to 1 184 he filled the office of vizier and physician to Abu
Ya'kiib Yusuf, the second Almohade king. Ibn-Tufail died
in Morocco in 1185 A.c. He belonged to the contemplative
school of Arab philosophy which was designated Ishrdki,
an offshoot of ancient Neo-Platonism, and akin in its
aspirations to modern mysticism. His contemplative philo-
sophy is not founded on mystical exaltation, but on a
method in which intuition is combined with reasoning.
His famous work, called Hayy ihn Yakzdn, represents the
gradual and successive development of intelligence and the
power of perception in a person wholly unassisted by outside
instruction. 1

Ibn-Rushd or Averroes (Abu'l Walid Mohammed ibn Ahmed)
was born in 520 a.h. (1126 A.c.) at Cordova, where his family
had for a long time occupied a prominent position. His grand-
father was the Kdzi iil-Kuzdt of all Andalusia under the
Almoravides. Ibn-Rushd was a jurisconsult of the first rank,
but he applied himself mainly to medicine, mathematics, and
philosophy. Introduced to Abu Ya'kub Yusuf by Ibn-Tufail,
he was received with great favour by that sovereign. In
1169-1170 we find him holding the office of Kazi of Seville,
and in 1182 of Cordova. For a few years after the accession
of Ya'kub al-Mansur to the throne of the Almohades, Ibn-
Rushd enjoyed the consideration and esteem of that monarch,
but when the pent-up Berber fanaticism burst forth he was
the first to fall a victim to the fury of the lawyers and Mullahs
whom he had offended by his philosophical writings, and who
were jealous of his genius and his learning. Ibn-Rushd was
without question one of the greatest scholars and philosophers
the Arab world has produced, and " one of the profoundest
commentators," says Munk, " of Aristotle's works." Ibn-
Rushd held that the highest effort of man ought to be directed
towards the attainment of perfection, that is, a complete

1 See Appendix III.

430 THE SPIRIT OF ISLAM

identification with the Active Universal Intellect ; that this
perfection can only be attained by study and speculation, and
abandoning all the desires which belong to the inferior faculties
of the soul, and especially to the senses, — but not by mere
sterile meditation. He also held that prophetic revelations
were necessary for spreading among mankind the eternal
verities proclaimed equally by religion and philosophy ; that
religion itself directs their search by means of science ; that it
teaches truths in a popular manner comprehensible to all
people : that philosophy alone is capable of seizing the true
religious doctrines by means of interpretation ; but the ignorant
apprehend only the literal meaning. On the question of pre-
destination he held that man was neither the absolute master
of his actions nor bound by fixed immutable decrees. But the
truth, says Ibn-Rushd, lies in the middle, j^^^i e^ y«V'
words used by the Fatimide Imams, and explained by them
somewhat similarly. Our actions depend partly on our own
free will and partly on causes outside us. We are free to wish
and to act in a particular manner ; but our wiU is always
restrained and determined by exterior causes. These causes
spring from the general laws of nature ; God alone knows their
sequence. It is this which, in the language of theology, is
called Kazd and Kadar. Ibn-Rushd's political theories were
directed against human tyranny in every shape. He regarded
the Arab repubUc under the Rashidin Caliphs as the model
government in which was realised the dream of Plato.
Mu'awiyah, he says, in establishing the Ommeyyade autocracy,
overthrew this ideal, and opened the door to all disasters.
Ibn-Rushd considered women to be equal in every respect to
men, and claimed for them equal capacity — in war, in philo-
sophy, in science. He cites the example of the female warriors
of Arabia, Africa, and Greece ; and refers to their superioiity
in music in support of his contention, that, if women were
placed in the same position as men, and received the same
education, they would become the equals of their husbands and
brothers in all the sciences and arts ; and he ascribes their
inferiority to the narrow lives they lead.

In Ibn-Rushd Arabian philosophy reached its apogee. Six
centuries divide him from the Prophet. Within these centuries

X. RATIONALISTIC AND PHILOSOPHICAL SPIRIT 431

the Arab intellect had broadened in every direction. Men like
Ibn-Sina and Ibn-Rushd thought with the accumulated wealth
of ages on all the most important questions which occupy
human attention in modern times, and formulated their ideas,
little different from those held by the most advanced scientists
of the present day, with logical precision. All these thinkers
claimed to be Moslems, and were recognised as such by the best
minds of their times. Ibn-Sina repudiated with indignation
and contempt the charge of infidelity levelled against him by
fanatics or enemies jealous of his fame ; and one of the greatest
mystical poets of Islam, Sanai, whose orthodoxy, though
doubted by his personal foes, is no longer questioned, has
embodied his veneration for " Bu AH Sina " in an immortal
poem.^

Ibn-Rushd wrote on the concord of religion with philosophy ;
and one of his intimate friends, Abd ul-Kabir, a highly religious
person, described him as one anxious to estabhsh a harmony
between religion and philosophy.^ Al-Ansari and Abd ul-
Walid speak of Ibn-Rushd as sincerely attached to Islam ;
and his latest biographer says : " There is nothing to prevent
our supposing that Ibn-Rushd was a sincere believer in
Islamism, especially when we consider how little irrational
the supernatural element in the essential dogmas of this
religion is, and how closely this religion approaches the purest
Deism." ^

The close of the tenth century was full of the darkest omens
for rationalism and science. The star of the son of Sina had
not yet risen on the horizon ; but masters like Kindi and
Farabi had appeared and departed after shedding an abiding
lustre on the Saracenic race. Patristicism was triumphant in
every quarter which owned the temporal or spiritual sway of
the Abbasides : the college of jurists had placed under the
ban of heresy the rationalists and philosophers who had made
the name of Moslems glorious in the annals of the world ; a
heartless, illiberal, and persecuting formalism dominated the

* See Appendix III.

Mn the Fasl-ul-Makdl (Muller's ed. published in Munich, 1859), which is
said to have been written in a.h. 575 for the Almohade sovereign Yusuf ibn
Tashfin, he estabhshes this concordance.

^ Renan, Averroes et Averroism, p. 163.

432 THE SPIRIT OF ISLAM ii.

spirit of the theologians ; a pharisaical epicureanism had taken
possession of the rich, and an ignorant fanaticism of the poor ;
the gloom of night was fast thickening, and Islam was drifting
into the condition into which ecclesiasticism had led Chris-
tianity. It was at this epoch of travail and sorrow for all
lovers of truth that a small body of thinkers formed themselves
into a Brotherhood to keep alive the lamp of knowledge among
the Moslems, to introduce a more healthy tone among the
people, to arrest the downward course of the Moslems towards
ignorance and fanaticism, in fact, to save the social fabric from
utter ruin. They called themselves the " Brothers of Purity,"
Ikhwdn-us-Safd. The society of the " Pure Brethren " was
established in Basra, which still held rank in the fast-
dwindling Caliphate as the second city of the empire, the home
of rationalism and intellectual activity. To this " Brother-
hood " none but men of unsullied character and the purest
morals were admitted ; the passport for admission into the
select circle was devotion to the cause of knowledge and
humanity. There was nothing exclusive or esoteric in their
spirit ; though, from the necessities of their situation, and
working under a rigid theological and poUtical despotism, their
movements were enshrouded in some degree of mystery. They
met together quietly and unobtrusively in the residence of the
head of the society, who bore the name of Zaid the son of
Rifa'a, and discussed philosophical and ethical subjects with a
catholicity of spirit and breadth of views difficult to rival even
in modern times. They formed branches in every city of the
Caliphate, wherever, in fact, they could find a body of thought-
ful men, willing and qualified to work according to their
scientific method. This philanthropic and scientific movement
was led by five men, who, with Zaid, were the life and soul of
the " Brotherhood." Their system was eclectic in the highest
and truest sense of the word. They contemned no field of
thought ; they " culled flowers from every meadow." In
spite of the mysticism which slightly tinged their philosophical
conceptions, their views on social and poUtical problems were
highly practical and intensely humane. As the result of their
labours, they gave to the world a general resumd of the know-
ledge of the time in separate treatises, which were collectively

X. RATIONALISTIC AND PHILOSOPHICAL SPIRIT 433

known as the Rasdil ^-i-Ikhwdn-tis-Safd iva-Khulldn-ul-Wafd,
" Tracts of the Brothers of Purity and Friends of Sincerity " ;
or, shortly, Rasdil-i-IkJmdn-us-Safdr These risdlas range over
every subject of human study — mathematics, including astro-
nomy, physical geography, music, and mechanics ; physics,
including chemistry, meteorology, and geology ; biology,
physiology, zoology, botany, logic, grammar, metaphysics,
ethics, the doctrine of a future life. They form, in fact, a
popular encyclopaedia of all the sciences and philosophy then
extant. The theory of these evolutionists of the tenth century
as to the development of animal organism may be compared
with advantage with that entertained in present times. But
I am not concerned so much with the scientific and intellectual
side of their writings as with the ethical and moral. The ethics
of the " Pure Brethren " are founded on self -study and the
purification or abstraction of human thought from all impurity.
Moral endowments are prized above intellectual gifts ; and
the strength of soul founded upon patient self-discipline and
self-control is regarded as the highest of virtues.^ " Faith
without work, knowing without doing, were vain." Patience
and forbearance, mildness and loving gentleness, justice, mercy,
and truth, the sublimity of virtue, the sacrifice of self for others,
are taught in every line : cant, hypocrisy, and deceit, envy and
pride, tyranny and falsehood, are reprobated in every page ;
and the whole is pervaded by a purity of sentiment, a fervent
love of humanity, an earnest faith in the progress of man, a
universal charity, embracing even the brute creation in its
fold.* \\Tiat can be more beautiful, more truly humane, than
the disputation between the " animals and mankind " ? Their
ethics form the foundation of all later works. ^ Their rehgious
idea was identical with that of Farabi and Ibn Sina, — the
universe was an emanation from God, but not directly ; the
Primal Absolute Cause created Reason, or the Active Intel-

1 Plural of Risala, a tract, a chapter, a monograph.
* PubUshed in 4 vols., at Bombay, in 1305 a.h., by Haji Niir ud-din.
' See the third Risala, vol. iv.
^ See the fourth Risala, vol. iv.

5 Such as the Akhldk-i-N asiri of Nasir ud-din Tusi, the Akhlak-i-Jalali,
and the Akhlak-i-Muhsini of Husain Waiz Kashifi.

434 THE SPIRIT OF ISLAM ii.

ligence : and from this proceeded the Nafs-i-nufus, the Abstract
Soul, from which sprang primary matter, the protoplasm of all
material entities ; the Active Intelligence moulded this primary
matter, and made it capable of taking shapes and forms, and
set it in motion, whence were formed the spheres and the
planets. Their morality is founded on this very conception of
the Primal Absolute Cause being connected by an unbroken
chain with the lowest of His creation ; for the Abstract Soul
individualised in humanity is always struggling to attain by
purity of life, self-discipline, intellectual study, the goal of
Perfection, — to get back to the source from which it emanated.
This is Ma'dd ; this is the " Return " which the Prophet taught ;
this is the rest and peace inculcated in the Scripture. It was i
thus that the " Pure Brethren " taught. Whatever we may'
think of their psychology there is no denying that their morality
was of the purest, their ethics of the highest that can be con-
ceived, standing on a different plane from those of the theo-
logians who induced the bigot Mustanjid to bum their
encyclopaedia in Bagdad, before Bagdad itself was burnt by the
Mongols.

Aristotelian philosophy, which was founded on " observation
and experience," was, however, more akin to the Saracenic
genius and the positive bent of the Arab mind. AristoteHan
logic and metaphysics naturally exercised a great influence on
the conceptions of Arab scientists and scholars. Neo-Platonism
based on intuition and a certain vague and mystical contempla-
tion, did not take root among the Arabs until it was made
popular by the writings of the unfortunate Shihab ud-din
Suhrwardi. The Aristotelian conception of the First Cause
pervades accordingly many of the philosophical and meta-
physical writings of this period. And it was in consequence ol
the influence exercised by the Stagyrite that a section of Arab
thinkers tended towards a belief in the eternity of matter.
These men received the name of Dahrts (from dahr, or nature).
" The fundamental idea of these philosophers," says Kremer,
" was the same as has gained ground, in modern times, owing
to the extension of natural science." But they were not, as
their enemies called them, atheists. Atheism is the negation
of a power or Cause beyond and outside the visible and materia]

X. RATIONALISTIC AND PHILOSOPHICAL SPIRIT 435

world. These philosophers affirmed no such thing ; they only
held that it was impossible to predicate of the Causa Causans
any attribute whatsoever, or to explain the mode in which He
works on the universe. They were, in fact, the exponents of
the doctrine of fa'lU or agnosticism.

It appears clear, therefore, that the Islam of Mohammed
contains nothing which in itself bars progress or the intellectual
development of humanity. How is it, then, that, since the
twelfth century of the Christian era, philosophy has almost
died out among the followers of Islam and an anti-rationalistic
patristicism has taken possession of the bulk of the people ?
How is it that predestinarianism, though only one phase of the
Koranic teachings, has become the predominant creed of a
large number of Moslems ? As regards the supposed extinction
among them of philosophy, I should like to call attention to the
revival of Avicennism under the Safawi sovereigns of Persia
to show that rationalism and free-thought are not yet dead in
Islam. But the questions which I have formulated apply to
the general body of Moslems, and I propose to explain the
causes which have led to this result.

Before the Abbaside Mutawakkil's accession to the throne,
Islam presented a spectacle similar to that of Christendom in
the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. It was divided into
two camps, one of Authority, the other of Reason ; the one
advocated the guidance of humanity in matters, natural as well
as supernatural, by precedent, pure and simple ; the other, by
human judgment tempered so far as practicable by precedent.
Between these two parties the difference was irreconcilable.
The first was composed chiefly of the lawyers — a class of people
who have been regarded in every age and country, and not
always without reason, as narrow-minded, self-opinionated, and
extremely jealous of their interests as a body. To them were
joined the ignorant populace. " The creed of the bishop is the
creed of the grocer. But the philosophy of that grocer is
in no sense the philosophy of a professor. Therefore it is
that the bishop will be revered where the professor will be
stoned. Intellect is that which man claims as specially his
own ; it is the one limiting distinction ; and thus the
multitude, so tolerant of the claims of an aristocracy of birth

436 THE SPIRIT OF ISLAM ii.

or of wealth, is uneasy under the claims of an aristocracy of
intelligence." ^

As I have had occasion to mention in a previous chapter,
most of the legal decisions pronounced by the Prophet were
called forth by the passing necessities of a primitive and archaic
society. After him the Caliph Ali was the expositor of the new
Faith. In the Koran these legal doctrines were extremely few,
and adaptable to any circumstance or time, and, during the
reigns of the Rashidin Caliphs, were expounded chiefly by Ali
and his disciple Ibn Abbas.

Upon their death, the men who had attended their lectures
or listened to their judgments opened classes of jurisprudence
on their own account. Fakihs or lawyers multiplied ; they
discussed religio-legal questions, gave opinions on points of
casuistry, the rites of religion, as well as on the ordinary
relations of life. Gradually they became the keepers of the
conscience of the people. Naturally there was a keen desire
to discover how the Prophet had acted in any particular case ;
traditions multiplied. The supply was in proportion to the
demand. But, excepting in the school of Medina, there was
no uniformity of system or method. The immediate des-
cendants of Mohammed followed one definite rule ; if they
found any precedent of the time of the Prophet or of the Caliph
Ali, authenticated by their own ancestors, which was applicable
to the circumstances of the case, they based their decision upon
it ; if not, they relied on their own judgment. Law was with
them inductive and experimental ; and they decided according
to the exigencies and requirements of each particular case.
Under the early Ommeyyades there was no fixed rule ; the
governors ruled sharply by the sword, according to their own
judgment, leaving matters of conscience to the Fakihs. Under
the later Ommeyyades, however, the lawyers assumed great
preponderance, chiefly on account of their influence with the
fickle populace. When the Abbasides rose to power the
lecture-room of Imam Ja'far as Sadik was attended by two
men who afterwards became the bulwarks of the Sunni Church,
— one was Abu Hanifa,^ and the other Malik son of Anas.*

1 Lewes's History of Philosophy, vol. ii.p. 50.

- See ante, p. 351. ^ See ante, p. 352.

X. RATIONALISTIC AND PHILOSOPHICAL SPIRIT 437

Abu Hanifa was a native of Irak ; Malik, of Medina. Both
were men of severe morals and great kindliness of nature, and
anxious to broaden the foundations of the Church. They were
devoted to the family of the Prophet, and suffered in con-
sequence of their attachment. Abu Hanifa on his return to
Kufa opened a class which became the nucleus of the now
famous Hanafi school. He rejected most of the traditions ^
as untrue, and rehed solely on the Koran ; and by " analogical
deductions " endeavoured to make the simple Koranic
utterances applicable to every variety of circumstance. Abii
Hanifa knew nothing of human kind ; nor had he ever been to
any city except Medina and Bagdad. He was a speculative
legist, and his two disciples, Abu Yusuf, who became Chief
Kazi of Bagdad under Harun, and Mohammed ash-Shaibani,
fixed Abu Hanifa's conceptions on a regular basis. Malik
proceeded on different lines. He excluded from his system all
inferences and " deductions." He applied himself to discover
in Medina, so full of the Prophet's memories, every real or
supposititious incident in the Master's life and based his
doctrines thereupon. His was " the Beaten Path," ^ and to
the simple Arabs and the cognate races of Africa Malik's
enunciations were more acceptable, being suited to their archaic
forms of society, than the rationalised views of the Fatimide
Imams, or the speculative theories of Abu Hanifa. Soon after
came Shafe'i, a man of strong and vigorous mind, better
acquainted with the world than Abu Hanifa and Malik, and
less casuistical than Abu Yusuf and Mohammed ash-Shaibani.
He formed, from the materials furnished by Ja'far as-Sadik,
Malik, and Abu Hanifa, an eclectic school, which found accep-
tance chiefly among the middle classes. Less adaptable than
original Hanafism to the varying necessities of a growing and
mixed population, it contained sufficient germs of improvement
which, had they not been killed by the rigid formahsm of later
times, would have been productive of substantial good.^ Four
different systems of law and doctrine, more or less distinct from

* Ibn Khallikan.

- The Muwatta, i.e. " The Beaten Path," is the name of his work on juris-
prudence.
^ Shafe'ism is spreading rapidly among the educated Hanafis of India.

m
438 THE SPIRIT OF ISLAM ii.

each other, thus estabhshed themselves in the Islamic world.
The Fatimide system was chiefly in force among the Shiahs,
who were dispersed all over the empire ; Malikism among a
large part of the Arabs in the Peninsula, among the Berbers,
and most of the Spanish Moslems ; Shafe'ism among the fairly
well-to-do classes ; and Hanafism among the more respectable
sections of society in Mesopotamia, Syria, and Egypt. The
position of Hanafism in the Caliphate was similar to that of
Pharisaism among the Jews. It received the countenance of
the Court as the only school with sufficient expansiveness
to meet the requirements of a mixed population. To have
acknowledged the Fatimide system would have been to give
too great a preponderance to the descendants of the Prophet ;
to have adopted Malikism and Shafe'ism for the administration
of a liberal State would have jeopardised the interests of the
empire. Hence, whilst rationalism ruled in the colleges and
Madrasas} Hanafism held possession of the pulpits and
Mahkamas.- In its theological views, Hanafism inclined
towards Sifdtism ; but it varied its opinions according to those
of the rulers. At this period Hanafism was remarkable for its
flexibility. Ahmed ibn Hanbal, commonly known as Imam
Hanbal, made his appearance at this juncture, — a red hot
puritan, breathing eternal perdition to all who differed from
him, he was shocked with the pharisaical liberalism of Hanafism,
and disgusted both with the narrowness of Malikism and the
common-place character of Shafe'ism, he applied himself to
frame a new system, based on traditions, for the whole empire.
Abii Hanifa had rejected the majority of the current traditions ;
Ibn Hanbal's system included a mass of incongruous, irrational,
and bewildering stories, the bulk of which were wholly incon-
sistent with each other, and bearing upon their face the marks
of fabrication. And now commenced a serious struggle between
the parties of progress and retrogression. Ibn Hanbal adopted
the extreme Sifdtia views ; he inculcated that the Deity was
visible to the human sight ; that His attributes were separate
from His essence ; that the statements about His being seated
on the throne were to be accepted in their literal sense ; that

1 Madrasa is a place where lectures are given, hence a college, school, etc.

2 Courts of justice.

X. RATIONALISTIC AND PHILOSOPHICAL SPIRIT 439

man was in no sense a free agent ; that every human action
was the direct act of the Deity, and so forth. He denounced
learning and science, and proclaimed a holy war against
Rationalism. The populace, carried away by his eloquence or
his vehemence, took up the cry ; tlie Hanafi jurists, whose
power materially depended on their influence over the ignorant
masses, and who were jealous of the prominence of the scientists
and philosophers in the Court of Harun and Mamun, made
common cause with the new reformer. The pulpits began to
fulminate brimstone and fire against the upholders of reason
and the advocates of philosophy and science. The streets of
Bagdad became the scenes of frequent rioting and bloodshed.
Mu'tasim and Wasik repressed the fanatical violence of the
fiery puritans with some severity. The prime mover of the
disturbances was put in prison, where he died in the odour of
great sanctity ; his bier was followed to the grave by a crowd
consisting of a hundred and forty thousand men and women. ^
His system never took root among any large body of people :
but, mixing with Hanafism, it gave a new character to the
doctrines of Abu Hanifa. Henceforth Hanafism represents
a mixture of the teachings of Abu Hanifa and of Ibn
Hanbal.

When Mutawakkil was raised to the throne the position of
the various parties stood thus : — the Rationalists were the
directing power of the State ; they held the chief offices of
trust ; they were professors in colleges, superintendents of
hospitals, directors of observatories ; they were merchants ;
in fact, they represented the wisdom and the wealth of the
empire ; Rationalism was the dominating creed among the
educated, the intellectual, and influential classes of the com-
munity. Sifdtism was in force among the lower strata of
society, and most of the Kazis, the preachers, the lawyers of
various degree were attached to it. A cruel drunken sot,
almost crazy at times, Mutawakkil had the wit to perceive the
advantage of an alliance with the latter party. It would make
him at once the idol of the populace, and the model Caliph of
the bigots. The fiat accordingly went forth for the expulsion
of the party of progress from their offices under government.

^ See Appendix II.

440 THE SPIRIT OF ISLAM ii.

The colleges and universities were closed ; literature, science,
and philosophy were interdicted ; and the Rationalists were
hunted from Bagdad. Mutawakkil at the same time demolished
the mausoleum of the Caliph Ali and his sons. The fanatical
lawyers, who were now the priests and rabbis of Islam, be-
came the ruling power of the State. Mutawakkil's death
and Mustansir's accession gave the victory once more to
the Progressists. But their success was short-lived. Under
the pitiless and sanguinary Mu'tazid b'iUah the triumph of
Patristicism was complete. He mercilessly persecuted the
Rationalists. They inculcated that " justice " was the animat-
ing principle of human actions ; that God Himself governed
the universe by " justice," which was His Essence ; that the
test of right and wrong was not any individual wiU, but the
good of humanity. These doctrines were terribly revolutionary;
they were aimed at the divine right of the Caliph to do wrong.
Tom Paine could scarcely preach worse. On the other hand,
the clerical party taught very properly " God is the Sovereign ;
as the sovereign does no wrong, so God can do no wrong."
There could be no question which of these two doctrines was
true. The days of Rationalism were now over under the
Abbasides. Expelled from Bagdad, it took refuge in Cairo,
which was worse, for if there was one place which the Abbaside
Caliphs hated with the hatred of death, that was Cairo. The
very name of Rationalism became one of dire import to the
Pontiffs of Bagdad. A College of Jurists was estabhshed to
ferret out " heresy " in the writings of the philosophers and
scientists, whose misfortune was still to live within the reach
of the patristic influences. The works in which the smallest
taint was observed were committed to the flames ; their authors
were subjected to tortures and to death. Islam now presented
the spectacle of orthodox Christendom. There was a time
when, in spite of the fact that the temporal power was arrayed
against it, Rationalism would have regained its hold on the
masses. In their constant disputations the clerical party
always found themselves worsted ; and though, on these
occasions, they not infrequently invoked the more forcible
reasoning of the sword and bricks and stones, their defeats
in argument perceptibly told on the ranks of their followers.

X. RATIONALISTIC AND PHILOSOPHICAL SPIRIT 441

It was at this period that the retrogressive party received the
assistance of an unexpected ally. Hitherto they had fought
against Reason with their usual repertory of traditions. Abu'l
Hasan al-Asha'ri/ a descendant of the famous Abu Musa
al-Asha'ri, who had been tricked by 'Amr ibn al-'As into
abandoning the rights of the Caliph Ali, was educated among
the Mu'tazilas. He had learnt their logic, their philosophy,
their science of reasoning. Actuated by vanity, and partly
perhaps by ambition, he one day in the Jdmi' mosque of
Basra, in the presence of a large congregation, made a
public disavowal of the Mu'tazilite doctrines, and declared his
adherence to Sifdtism. His theatrical manner and his eloquent
words impressed the people, and the waverers at once went
over to him. Asha'ri was now the greatest man in the
CaHphate ; he was petted by the legists, idolised by the
populace, respected by the Caliph. He gave to the clerical
party what they had long been wanting — a logical system,
or what may be called by that name, for the defence of
patristic theology against the rationahstic conceptions of the
Mu'tazilas, the philosophers, and the Fatimide Imams. Abu'l
Hasan maintained the Sifatia doctrines, with very slight
modifications.

A short summary of his views, taken from Shahristani, will
explain the present mental lethargy of so many Moslems. " He
maintained," says our author, " that the attributes of the
Deity are eternal and subsistent in His Essence, but they are
not simply His Essence, rather they are additional to His
Essence ; . . . that God speaks by an eternal word, and wills
by an eternal will, for it is evident that God is a Sovereign,
and, as a Sovereign, is One to whom it belongs to command
and prohibit, so God commands and prohibits ; . . . that His
ordering is eternal, subsistent in Him, a quality pertaining to
Him ; that the will of God is indivisible, eternal, embracing all
things subject to volition, whether determinate actions of His
own or actions of His creatures — the latter, so far as created

^ Al-Asha'ri was born at Basra in 260 a.h. (874 a.c), but passed the greatest
part of his Ufa in Bagdad. Up to the fortieth year of his age he was a devoted
adherent of the Mu'tazilas. He ascribed his theatrical abjuration of his old
behefs to an admonition he received from the Prophet in a dream during the
fasting month of Ramazan.

442 THE SPIRIT OF ISLAM

by Him, not as they are their own actions by appropyiation ; ^
. . . that God wills all things morally, good and evil, beneficial
and injurious ; and, as He both knows and wills, that He wills
on the part of His creatures what He knows, and has caused to
be registered in the memorial-book — which fore-knowledge
constitutes His decree. His decisions, and His determination,
therein there is no varying or change ; that an appropriated
action means an action which is pre-destined to be done by
created ability, and which takes place under the condition of.
created ability." In plainer language, he taught that every}
human action emanates from God, or is pre-destined by His
decree, to be performed by a particular person, and this person,
having the capacity of appropriation or acquisitiveness, does
the act ; the act is primarily God's act, secondarily the man's.
For example, if a man applies himself to write a letter, his
desire to write is the outcome of an eternal decree that he
should write ; then he takes up the pen, it is the will of God
that He should do so ; and so on. When the writing is finished,
it is due to his acquisitiveness. Shahristani very appropriately
observes that, according to Abu'l Hasan, no influence in
respect to origination (of action) pertains to created ability.
This worthy divine further maintained that " God rules as a
Sovereign over His creatures, doing what He wills and deter-
mining as He pleases ; so that were He to cause all men to
enter Paradise, there would be no injustice, and if He were to
send them all to hell, there would be no wrong-doing, because
injustice is the ordering in respect to things which do not
come within the sphere of control of the Orderer, or the
inversion of established relations of things, and God is the
Absolute Sovereign, on whose part no injustice is imaginable,
and to whom no wrong can be attributed ; . . . and that nothing
whatever is obligatory upon God by virtue of reason — neither
that which is beneficial, nor that which is most advantageous,
nor gracious assistance . . . and that the ground of (human)
obligation is nothing which constitutes a necessity binding
upon God." . . .

After mentioning the doctrines of Abu'l Hasan, Shahristani
proceeds to state the views of Abu'l Hasan's principal disciple,

^ Shahristani explains this word later.

X. RATIONALISTIC AND PHILOSOPHICAL SPIRIT 443

whose teachings were adopted by a large body of people — Abu
Abdullah Mohammed bin Karram, " whom we count as one of
the Sifatias." This man maintained that the Divine attributes
were distinct from His Essence, that God can be perceived by
eyesight, and that He creates human actions from time to time
as He wills.

No account of al-Asha'ri's teachings would be complete
without a reference to Ibn 'Asakir's work.^ Shahristani in
his resume of the Asha'rite doctrines maintains a philosophical
and judicial attitude. Ibn 'Asakir, on the other hand, makes
no pretence of holding an even balance between contending
schools. To him, as to Asha'ri, the doctrines of the Rationalists
are rank heresy ; and he denounces their teachings with
uncompromising violence. His exposition, however, of
al-Asha'ri's emphatic rule that the dogmas of the Faith must be
accepted by the orthodox, without questioning, helps us to
understand the tendencies which were set in motion at an
early stage of Moslem development, and which eventually
succeeded in arresting the progress of Moslem nations and
paralysing, in the course of centuries, their intellectual energy.
AU questioning was declared to be an impiety and an unfor-
givable sin, whilst the spirit of inquiry was held to be a
manifestation of the devil. " God," says the Koran, " sees
all things " ; therefore, it was assumed, He must have eyes,
and the beUever must accept it hila kaifa, without " why or
wherefore " ; — thus reasoned al- Asha'ri, and thus has reasoned
his school through all ages.

Two hundred and fifty years separate al-Asha'ri from his
distinguished exponent and apologist. Within this period of
time, Islam had undergone a great change. Until al-Asha'ri
started his new school of dogmatic theology, the struggle for
ascendancy was confined between Rationalism on one side and
Patristicism on the other. Al-Asha'ri supplied the latter with
a weapon it had never possessed before. As Ibn 'Asakir

1 Abil-Kasim Ali bin al-Hasan b. Hibat-ullah, b. Abdullah bin al-Hasan
Ali Shafe'i, surnamed Ibn 'Asakir, famous for his monumental work on the
history of Damascus, was born in 499 a.h., died 571 a. 11. He was a rigid
Shafe'ite and a violent partisan of al-Asha'ri, whom he regarded as a renovator
and foremost champion of Islam. Ibn 'Asakir's work is called The
Exposure by al-Imam Hasan al-Asha'ri of Mischievous Untruths.

444 THE SPIRIT OF ISLAM ii.

remarks, " al-Asha'ri was the first orthodox dialectician,^ who
reasoned with the Rationahsts and other heretics according to
their own principles of logic." As an attempted compromise
between Rationalism and Patristicism, between " orthodoxy "
and " heterodoxy," his doctrines found a ready acceptance
among the extreme theologians and divines, who saw in his
system the means for overthrowing Rationalism from the
pinnacle of power and influence which it had attained in the
enlightened reigns of al-Mamun and his two immediate suc-
cessors. Rationalism was also favoured by the earlier Buyides,
and, under their auspices and encouragement, its influence
had become paramount in Mid- Asia. " The power of the
Mu'tazila," says Ibn 'Asakir, " was very great in Irak until
the time of Fenakhusru " ('Azud-ud-Dowla).^ In his reign
Asha'rism first found favour at Court and graduaUy spread
among all classes. Up to the middle of the fifth century of
the Hegira it was often confounded with Mu'tazilaism, which
al-Asha'ri had professed until his dramatic secession. His
disciples appear even to have been subjected to some per-
secution at the hands of the sects who claimed the special
privilege of orthodoxy.

Under Sultan Tughril, the founder of the Seljukide dynasty,
the followers of al-Asha'ri were suspected of unorthodoxy, and
had to undergo proscription and exile. The Sultan himself
was a follower of Imam Abii Hanifa and professed Hanafite
orthodoxy. He had given orders for public imprecation on
heretics from the pulpits of the mosques. According to Ibn
'Asakir, his vizier,^ who was a Mu'tazili, included the
Asha'rites in the imprecation, and started a persecution of the

* Mutakallim bi'lisan.

- Al-Malik Fenakhusru reigned as the Mayor of the Palace from 367-372 a.h.
Ibn 'Asakir tells the story of how Fenakhusru, after attending one of the
" Assemblies of the learned " which were held in the house of the Chief Kazi,
who was a Mu'tazili, found that there was not a single Asha'rite in their midst.
On being told that there was no learned Asha'rite in Bagdad, he pressed the
Judge to invite some from outside. It was at his instance, it is stated, that
Ibn al-Bakillani, one of the principal disciples of al-Asha'ri, was summoned
to Bagdad. To him Fenakhusru confided the education of his sons. Whether
this story be true or not, the period of 'Azud-ud-Dowla's reign fixes the date of
the rise of the Star of Asha'rism.

^ Abu Nasr Mansur Kunduri, surnamed 'Amid ul-Mulk.

X. RATIONALISTIC AND PHILOSOPHICAL SPIRIT 445

most prominent Imams and doctors among the disciples of
al-Asha'ri.

The cloud under which Asha'rism laboured in the reign of
j Tughril Beg lifted on his death, and with the accession of Alp
i Arslan and the rise of Nizam ul-Mulk, " who favoured the
I adherents of the Sunnat," Asha'rism became the dominant
I sect. " He recalled the exiles, covered them with honours,
i opened colleges and schools in their names." Thus one of the
j most generous patrons of learning among the Moslems uncon-
sciously allied himself to a tendency to which, more largely
than any other cause, the sterilisation of the intellectual energies
of the Moslems is due.

Ibn 'Asakir's account of the progress of Asha'rism is
enthusiastic. From Irak it spread into Syria and Egypt under
the Ayyubides ^ and Mamelukes ; from Irak also it was carried
into Western Africa by Ibn Tumart,^ and it took firm root in
j the Maghrib (Morocco). "There remained no other sect in
I Islam, excepting some followers of Ibn Hanbal and some
: partisans of Abu Hanifa, to compete with the adherents of
I al-Asha'ri." " Ahmed bin Hanbal and al-Asha'ri were in
; perfect harmony," says Ibn 'Asakir, " in their religious
opinions and did not differ in any particular, in the funda-
: mental doctrines and in tlie acceptance of the authority of
the Traditions." " This is the reason," he continues, " why the
Hanbalites relied from always and at all times on the
' Asha'rites against the heterodox, as they were the only dialec-
ticians among the orthodox."
j To throw into relief the cardinal principles of al-Asha'ri's
! teachings, Ibn 'Asakir places in juxtaposition the opinions
held by different sects.

After mentioning various other sects, he gives an account, in
i the words of al-Asha'ri, of the Mu'tazilite doctrines (" in which
they have strayed from the right path "). He tells us that the
Mu'tazilas repudiate the notion that God can be seen by the
corporeal sight, or that the Almighty has any similitude to
human beings ; or that there will be a corporeal resurrection
on the Day of Account. " They repudiate also," he says,

1 Saladin and his successors.

- The founder of the Almohade dynasty in north-west Africa.

446 THE SPIRIT OF ISLAM ii

" the doctrine of pains and penalties {'Azdb) ^ in the grave,'
nor do they beheve in the intercession (Shafd'at) of the Prophet
they hold that human sins can only be forgiven or remitted b}
Divine Mercy, and that neither His mercy nor justice can b(
influenced or deflected by human intercession ; they beheve
that the Koran is created and revealed to the Prophel
and that the " law has been announced according to humar
needs."

After stating the Mu'tazilite doctrines Ibn 'Asakir proceed;
to give in detail the creed of al-Asha'ri. They are twenty-fouii
in number, but to show the theological attitude of al-Asha'r
and his sharp difference with rationalistic Islam it is sufiiciem
to refer only to a few. After the confession of Faith, regarding
the unity of God and the messengership of the Prophet in which
all Islam is agreed, the Asha'rite creed proceeds thus : —

" We declare that Paradise and HeU are true, that the arriva
of the Hour of Judgment is certain, and that without doub'
God will raise the dead from their graves ; that God will appea:
to human sight on the Day of Judgment.^ We declare that th<
word of God {i.e. the Koran), and every part thereof, i:
uncreated : that there is nothing on earth, neither good no:
bad, which does not come into existence but by the will of God
that nothing, in fact, comes into being unless He wishes. W(
beheve that God the Almighty knows the acts of His servant:
and their ends and consequences, as well as those which do nc
come to pass. We beheve that human actions owe thei:
origin to His will and are determined in advance by Him ; tha-
man has no power to originate or create anything by himsel
{i.e. without God's help). That man is incapable of obtaining
by himself that which is good for his soul, or avoiding tha'
which is harmful, except by the will of God."

The Asha'rite creed then goes on thus : — " We believe ir
the intercession of the Prophet, and that God will redeem froir

1 The meaning of 'Azab will become clearer later on.

2 It is believed that on the third day after burial the grave is visitec
by two angels named Munkir and Nakir, who raise the dead to Ufe by blow:
from their batons, and interrogate him as to his or her past life and recon
the answers in a register. They act as a sort of Jt<ge d'instruction. Thi
belief, evidently an offshoot from the Egyptian conceptions, was imbeddec
in the folk-lore of the country before the promulgation of Islam.

X. RATIONALISTIC AND PHILOSOPHICAL SPIRIT 447

the punishment of fire believers who have sinned." " We
beheve in the Day of Resurrection, we believe in the appearance
of the anti-Christ, in the interrogation of the dead by the two
angels (Munkir and Nakir). We believe in the Ascension of the
Prophet ; ^ we believe that all evil thoughts are inspired by
Satan ; we believe that it is sinful to rise in arms against the
lawful Imam." -

This summary shows more clearly than Shahristani's philo-
sophical analysis the attitude of al-Asha'ri towards Moslem
development .

In order to meet the Mu'tazilas on their own ground, Abu'l
Hasan invented a rival science of reason — the real scholastic
theology of the Moslems, which, though supposed to be an
offshoot of the 'Ilm-td-kaldm founded by the Mu'tazilas, is in
many essential features different from it. For example, most
of the Mu'tazilas were conceptualists , whilst the Asha'ri Muta-
kallimin were either realists or modified nominalists. The
Asha'ris maintained that a negative quahty like ignorance is
an actual entity, whilst the Mu'tazilas declared that it was the
mere negation of a quality, for example, ignorance was the
absence of knowledge. The Asha'ri Mutakallim maintained
that the Koran was uncreated and eternal ; the Mu'tazilite
declared that it represented the words of God revealed to the
Prophet from time to time as occasion arose, otherwise there
would be no meaning in ndsikh and mansiikh, for admittedly
some of the later verses repealed others which had been uttered
before.

Asha'rism thus became the dominant school in the East.
When the enlightened Buyides became the mayors of the
palace Rationalism again raised its head in Bagdad ; but
Asha'rism never lost its hold over the conscience of the masses,

^ The belief in the Ascension of the Prophet is general in Islam. Whilst
the Asha'ri and the patristic sects believe that the Prophet was bodily carried
up from earth to heaven, the Rationalists hold that it was a spiritual exalta-
tion, that it represented the uphfting of the soul by stages until it was brought
into absolute communion with the Universal Soul.

- The orthodox Sunni belief, that once the sacramental oath of allegiance
is sworn to the Caliph any rising against him is a religious crime, led all Moslem
sovereigns to beg for investiture from the Caliph, however impotent, as it
made insurrection against them or their authority on the part of their subjects
unlawful.

448 THE SPIRIT OF ISLAM iiT

nor did Mu'tazilaism ever regain its old position of preponder-
ance. The Buyides were Rationalists ; but the Seljukides, in
spite of their patronage of learning and science, belonged t
the Asha'ri school. Renan ^ has observed that Islamis
having become, by the accident of history, the property of rac
given over to fanaticism, such as the Spaniards, the Berber:
the Persians, the Turks, acquired in their hands the garb
a rigid and exclusive dogmatism. " What has happened t
Catholicism in Spain has happened to Islam, what would havi
happened in all Europe if the religious revival which took plao
(in Christendom) at the end of the sixteenth and the beginnin
of the seventeenth century had stopped all national develo
ment." This observation is absolutely true. The Persian'
always associated an idea of divinity with the person of his
sovereign ; the Turk, the Mongol, the Berber looked upon their
chiefs as the direct descendants of God ; conversion to Islam
did not detract from their veneration of their kings or princes.
For centuries the Arabs had tried to exorcise the demon of
fanaticism which had been introduced into the hearts of the
Spaniards by the Christian clergy ; they failed, and the moment
the Chancellor al-Mansur, in order to enlist popular support
in furtherance of his ambitious designs, raised in Spain a cry
against Rationalism, the same crowd which afterwards assisted
with willing hands and gleeful faces at the auto-da-fe of heretics,
helped in the burning of philosophical works in the market-place
of Cordova. The victorious arms of Saladin carried Asha'rism
into Egypt. Whilst Rationahsm was thus fighting a losing
battle with its old enemy, the writings of Imam al-Ghazzah,
which were directed chiefly against the study of philosophy,
strengthened the hands of Patristicism. Abu Hamid Moham-
med ibn Mohammed al Ghazzali ^ was a man of undoubted
talents and purity of character. He had studied philosophy
and dived into the mysteries of the sciences ; he had even

1 Averroes et Averroism, p. 30.

^ Was born at Tus in Khorasan (the birthplace of Firdousi) in the year
1058 A. c. (450 A. H.) ; died in mi a.c. (505 of the Hegira). His most cele-
brated works are the Ihya ul-'uMm {" the Revival of the Sciences of Religion ") ;
the Munkiz min-az-zaldl ("Deliverance from Errors "); M akdsid-td-faldsifa (the
"Tendencies of Philosophers"); and Tahdfut-ul-faldsifa (" Destruction of
Philosophers"), to which Ibn-Rushd wrote a refutation called the Tahdfut-u-
Tahdfui td-faldsifa ("the Destruction of Destruction," etc.) ; see chap. xi.

X. RATIONALISTIC AND PHILOSOPHICAL SPIRIT 449

indulged in free-thought. Suddenly the spirit of earnest
longing for a solid rock on which to rest the weary soul, the
spirit that has worked similarly upon other minds in later ages,
spoke to his heart, and from a philosopher he turned into a
mystic. In the Mimkiz, which appears to have been a dis-
course delivered either verbally or written to his religious
brethren, he describes with some naivete how he hankered for
knowledge, and in its search went everywhere, dipped into
everything, acquainted himself with every subject ; and how
he abandoned the doctrines which had been instilled into him
in early life. He says he knew the saying of the Prophet, which
declared that every child was bom with a knowledge of the
truth in nature, and therefore wanted to know what that truth
was. Then he describes how he was seized with scepticism,
and how he escaped from its consequences by betaking himself
into the higher regions of faith, viz. a mystical exaltation. The
discourse contains a violent attack on the philosophers, whom
he groups under three heads, (i) The Dahris, who believe in
the eternity of matter, and deny the existence of a Creator.

(2) The Physicists or naturalists, who beUeve in the existence
of a Creator, but think that the human soul once separated
from the body ceases to exist, and that therefore there is no
accountabihty for human actions ; both of them were infidels.

(3) The Theists (Plato and Aristotle), " these have completely
refuted the doctrines of the first two, and God has saved thereby
the true behever from the battle." " But they must be pro-
nounced infidels ; and so also the Moslem philosophers who
have followed them, especially Farabi and Ibn-Sina, for their
philosophy is so confused that you cannot separate the truth
from the false, so as to refute the latter ! From what we can
discover of the writings of these two men, knowledge may be
divided under three heads ; one group we are bound to pro-
nounce as infidel, another as heresy, and about the third we
need say nothing ! " And yet with all this simplicity there is
considerable practical sense displayed in Ghazzali's writings.
He praises wisdom as far higher than mere belief, and opposes
the fanatical dogmatism which rejects all rational inquiry and
all knowledge because it is cultivated by his betes noires the
philosophers. He calls this dogmatism the unwise friend ol

S.I. 2 P

450 THE SPIRIT OF ISLAM ii

Islam. At the same time his precepts on personal indepen-
dence, on moral discipline, on self -purification, on practica
kindness, and on the education of the young, and hi;
denunciation of the immoral and useless lives of the Mullah:
of his time, reflect great credit on the goodness of hii
nature.^

From this period there was an unceasing struggle betweei
RationaHsm and Patristicism. In the year 1150, under th
orders of the Caliph Mustanjid, all the philosophical works 0
Ibn-Sina and the copies of the Rasdil-i-Ikhwdn us-Safd founc
in the public and private libraries were consigned to the flames
In 1 192 the physician Ar-Rukn Abdus-Salam was accused 0
atheism, and the populace and priests proceeded to make i
bonfire of his books. The Mullah who presided at thi
ceremony stood on a chair and delivered a sermon agains
philosophy. As the books were brought out they wer'
delivered to him, and with a few remarks on their impiet}/
he threw them into the fire. A disciple of Maimonides wa
a witness to this strange scene, and has left an account 0
it. "I saw," says he, "in the hands of this doctor the worJi
of Ibn-ul-Haithem (Al-Hazen) on astronomy. Showing to thi
people the circle by which the author represented the celestiE'
sphere, the doctor burst forth, ' Misery of miseries, inexpressibl
disaster ! ' and with these words he threw the book into th
flames." But even the influence of Imam al-Ghazzali and th
temporal power of the sovereigns, some of whom were at heai
rationahsts, would not have prevented the eventual victory c
reason over the dead-weight of authority, had not the Mongol
sword turned the scale. " One Khan, one God : as the Khan'
ordinance is immutable, so is God's decree." Could an
doctrine be more logical or more irresistible, backed as it wa
by a milhon swords ? Rationalism, philosophy, the science
and arts went down before that avalanche of savagery — neve
to rise again. The gleams of light which we have seen shinin
on Western Asia under the successors of Hulaku were the fitfv
rays of the setting sun. Policy worked with an inbor
fanaticism in crushing any endeavour to introduce rationalisr
and philosophy in the Moslem world. The lawyers were nc

^ See chapter xi, post.

X. RATIONALISTIC AND PHILOSOPHICAL SPIRIT 451

only strong, but also the main support of despotism. The
result was, as we have already seen, Patristicism took possession
of the hearts of large sections of Moslems, and has in course
of time become a second nature with them. They can perceive
nothing except through the medium of the patristic glasses.
The Prophet inculcated the use of reason ; his followers have
made its exercise a sin. He preached against anthropolatry
and extravagant veneration for human beings ; the Sunnis
have canonised the salaf and the four jurists ; the Akhbari
Shiahs, their Muj tabids, — and have called any deviation
from the course laid down by them — however much that
deviation might accord with the Master's own teachings
and with reason — a crime. He had said that " ghosts,
apparitions, and the hke have nothing to do with Islam."
They now beheve firmly in them. He impressed on them
to go in quest of knowledge to the land of the heathens.
They do not take it even when it is offered to them in their
own homes.

Under the Safawis, rationalism and philosophy came to
life once more — though not in that vigorous shape in which
they had flourished under the earlier Abbasides. From the
twelfth to the fifteenth century Iran had suffered terribly ;
and in the darkness which enshrouded the land during this long
period of disaster and trouble, the Shiah Mullahs had assumed
the position of the clergy in Christendom to a larger degree than
even the Sunni lawyers. They claimed the sole and absolute
power of expounding the laws on the ground that they were the
representatives of the Fatimide Imams. MuUa Sadra, whom I
have already mentioned as the reviver of the Usuli doctrines, —
the religion of Mohammed as it was understood and accepted
by his immediate descendants, — apphed himself to revive the
study of philosophy and science among his countrymen. It
was by no means an easy task, but he worked with tact and
judgment. Avicennism came to life again, and, in spite of the
political vicissitudes of Iran, the destruction of fives during
the Afghan domination, and the establishment of the Kajars
on the throne of Persia, has persistently maintained its hold
over many of the cultivated class. One of the best epitomes
of Avicennistic philosophy was published in the reign of_^Shah

452 THE SPIRIT OF ISLAM ii.

Abbas 1 1./ by Abdur Razzak bin Ali bin al-Hassan al-Lahiji,
under the name of Gouhar-i-Murdd, " The Pearl of Desire."
It contains a summary of Ibn-Sina's views, explained and
illustrated by references to the opinions of the Cahph Ali
and his descendants, and philosophers and physicists like
Imam Fakhr ud-din Razi, Nasir ud-din Tusi, Imam Taftazani,
and others.

Some of Abdur Razzak's views are extremely interesting.
For example, dealing with Mu'tazilaism and Asha'rism, he
states that " the Mu'tazilas invented the science of Kaldui with
the object of establishing a harmony between the precepts of
religion and the requirements of society, and of explaining by
principles of Reason the [Koranic] verses and the traditions
which at first sight seem unreasonable (j<i>^& v-^^^ii) ; whilst
their opponents (cJJi^^ iLih) upheld the literal acceptance
[of the verses of the Koran and of the traditions] partly
from motives of bigotry and partly from policy ; prohibited
all interpretations, and pronounced the interpretations of the
Mu'tazilas and all their opinions as heresy ( •jvsc^j ), and
designated the Mu'tazilas heretics ( ^<^j^ ), and considered
themselves in opposition to them [the Mu'tazilas] as ahl-i-
Sunnat wa-Janid'at. ... So much so, that many of them have
fallen into the sin of thinking God to be a material being, all
of them are immersed in that of anthropomorphism. — And this
has happened of their shutting the door upon all interpretations;
they have construed in their literal acceptation, the verse that
' He is seated on the Throne,' and such like, and the traditions
as to ii^jj) (the sight of God) until they derived tajsim
(corporeaUty) from one, and tashbih (similarity, or anthropo-
morphism) from the other. These people had at first no
method of reasoning or putting forward of logical arguments ;
they relied only on the hteral words of the Koran and traditions
until the appearance of Abu'l Hasan Asha'ri, who was a
prominent disciple of Abu AH Jubbai, one of the learned Imams
of the Mu'tazilas. Abu'l Hasan had acquired great knowledge

1 Of this sovereign it is said that he was as tolerant to all religions as his
great ancestor Abbas I. He often declared the principle by which his conduct
on this point was regulated : " It is for God, not for me, to judge of men's
consciences : and I will never interfere with what belongs to the tribunal of
the great Creator and Lord of the Universe."

X. RATIONALISTIC AND PHILOSOPHICAL SPIRIT 453

off logic J^and argumentation. He abandoned the Mazhab-i-
'itizdl, and] adopted that of the Ahl-i-Sunnat lea-Jamd'at and
made great endeavours to advance the cause of this sect, which up
to his time^had no influence whatsoever. Henceforth it began
to be called after him . He invented principles and rules according
to'the^Mu'tazilite^models. . . . And as the tyrannical sovereigns
found 'that the doctrines of this Mazhah suited their policy,

iy^. cJ^T J^-^o c>»V< o'-^'I v*^-" '^I^J *^ c)'^^ fJ^J <^\s.\^^y} ^y:^ ii^j\ J \ki^

they supported this sect ; and so Asha'rism spread widely
among the Ahl-i-Isldm. But, as the doctrines of the Mu'tazilas
(Jj-j^i^i_ji) were founded on the principles of reason
( *i^a^ J***' ), they found acceptance among a large number
of the true-hearted people .(Axs.^; J=- v>^f>i jo,V And as the
Mu'tazilas had studied deeply the philosophical and scientific
works, they introduced arguments borrowed from them
in the discussion of metaphysical and theological subjects.
And when the Asha'ris became aware of this, as they considered
everything which was not contained in the bosom of Islam a
heresy — Ao>j*i-«>'i.> ^ci-i tb^} j^*.*.* -^^ ;*>>^o;4 ^^y^, they at once
pronounced the study of philosophy (^t-sa. j^i^ AAiik«) to be
unlawful and dangerous. It was owing to the endeavours of
this sect that philosophy became so unpopular among the Ahl-i-
Isldm as to affect even the learned of the Mu'tazilas. But the
Asha'rta were the originators of this antagonism to philosophy,
for, otherwise, it is in truth in no way inconsistent with religion
or the mysteries O'-^-O . of the Koran and traditions. . . .
The prophets and their representatives ^•'r'O.'J have ex-
plained the truths of philosophy which are Divine by tamsil,
similitudes." ... " With regard to the freedom of human
actions, there are three Mazhahs : the first is the doctrine of
Jahr, and that is the Mazhah of the Asha'rias ; they hold that
the actions of man are immediately created by God without
any exercise of will on the part of human beings — so much so,
that if a person lights a fire, the lighting is said to be an act of
God." Then after exposing the immorality of this doctrine,
the author proceeds to say, " the second Mazhah, that of tafwiz,
was adopted by a few Mu'tazilas, who held that man has
absolute power to choose what is right and what is wrong, and

454 THE SPIRIT OF ISLAM n.

do accordingly. The third is the Mazhah of the Fatimide
Imams, and the majority of the philosophers and rationahsts
who maintain that human actions are the immediate creations
of man, but evil and good are pointed out by God." . . .

We cannot help contrasting the present condition of the
Church which claims to be orthodox in Christendom with that
of the one which advances a similar claim in Islam. From the
fourth century, ever since its foundation, until the revolt of
Luther, Catholicism proved itself the mortal enemy of science,
philosophy, and learning. It consigned to the flames myriads
of beings for heresy ; it trampled out the hspings of free-
thought in Southern France : and closed with violence the
schools of rational theology. But CathoHcism, after the great
break of Luther and Calvin, discovered that neither the cultiva-
tion of science nor the pursuit of philosophy renders the faithful
an unbehever. It broadened its base and now includes men of
the largest minds, scientists, litterateurs, etc. To an outsider
it presents a more liberal aspect than even the Reformed
Christian Churches. For five centuries Islam assisted in the
free intellectual development of humanity, but a reactionary
movement then set in, and all at once the whole stream of
human thought was altered. The cultivators of science and
philosophy were pronounced to be beyond the pale of Islam.
Is it impossible for the Sunni Church to take a lesson from the
Church of Rome ? Is it impossible for her to expand similarly
— to become many-sided ? There is nothing in Mohammed's
teachings which prevents this. Islamic Protestantism, in one
of its phases, — Mu'tazilaism, — has already paved the way.
Why should not the great Sunni Church shake off the old
trammels and rise to a new life ?

CHAPTER XI
THE MYSTICAL AND IDEALISTIC SPIRIT IN ISLAM

THE mystical philosophy which forms the life and soul
of modern Persian literature owes its distinct origin
to the esoteric significance attached by an important
section of Moslems to the words of the Koran. The elevated
feehng of Divine pervasion with which the Prophet often spoke,
the depth of fervent and ecstatic rapture which characterised
his devotions, constitute the chief basis on which Moslem
mysticism is founded. During his lifetime, when the per-
formance of duties was placed before religious speculation,
there was little scope for the full development of the con-
templative and mystical element in Islam. This mystical and
contemplative element exists in all religions and among every
people. And yet it varies with the peculiarities of the indi-
vidual and the race, and according to their tendency to
confound the abstract with the concrete. The Hindu looks on
absorption of the finite into the Infinite as the culmination
of happiness ; and to attain that end he remains immovable
in one spot, and resigns himself to complete apathy. The
sense of infinity makes it difficult for him to distinguish
objectively between the priest and the God, or himself and
the God ; and eventually between the Deity and the different
forms of nature in which He is supposed to be manifested.
Gradually this train of contemplation leads to the formal
conclusion, as appears from the Bhagavad Gita, that Creator
and creation are identical. We see thus how curiously pan-
theism, in its extreme manifestation, approaches to fetishism,

455

456 THE SPIRIT OF ISLAM ii.,

which preceded every other idea of the Divinity. In it
infancy the human mind knows no spiritual sentiment bi
one of unmixed terror. The primeval forests, which the hanj
of man has not yet touched, the stupendous mountains loomn
in the distance, the darkness of the night, with the grim, weiri
shapes which hover about it, the howling of the wind througj
the forest tops, all inspire fear and awe in the infant mind
man. He worships every material object he finds mor|
powerful or more awe-striking than himself or his immediat
surroundings. Gradually he comes to attach an ideahty tl
all these objects of nature, and thinks these idealities worthj
of adoration. In process of time all these separate idealitif
merge in one universal all-embracing Ideahty. Materiahsti
pantheism is the first step in the rise from fetishism.

Neo-Platonism, itself the child of Eastern thought, hal
impressed its character on Christianity, and probably give|
rise to the eucharistic idea. With the exception of Johanne
Scotus and Eckhart,^ the mystics of Europe during the Middl
Ages fought only on this ground. Mysticism, properly sd
called, with its higher yearning after the Infinite, was ushere
in by the Moslem doctrine of " inward light."

The idea among the nobler minds in the world of Islar
that there is a deeper and more inward sense in the wore
of the Koran, arose not from the wish to escape from the rigoi
of " texts and dogmas," but from a profound conviction tha|
those words mean more, not less, than the popular expounder
supposed them to convey. This conviction, combined with
deep feeling of Divine pervasion, — a feeling originating froi
and in perfect accordance with the teachings of the Koran am
the instructions of the Prophet, led to the developmeni
among the Moslems of that contemplative or idealistii
philosophy which has received the name of Sufism, and th|
spread of which, among the Mohammedans, was probably*'
assisted by the prevalence of Neo-Platonic ideas. Imam
al-Ghazzali in the East, and Ibn-Tufail in the West, were
the two great representatives of mysticism among the Moslems.
The former, as we have already seen, dissatisfied with every
philosophical system, which based knowledge on experience
1 1260-1328 A.C.

XI. THE MYSTICAL AND IDEALISTIC SPIRIT 457

or reason, had taken refuge in Sufism. Al-Ghazzali's influence
served greatly to promote the diffusion of Sufism among the
Eastern Moslems, and idealistic philosophy was embraced by
the greatest intellects of the Mohammedan East. Moulana
Jalal ud-din of Rum (Turkey), whose Masnavi ^ is venerated
by the Sufi ; Sanai, whom Jalal ud-din himself has called his
superior ; 2 Farid ud-din Attar, Shams ud-din Haliz, Khakani,
the moralist Sa'di, the romancer Nizami, — all belonged to this
school.

It must not be supposed that al-Ghazzali was the first
preacher of " inward light " in Islam. Intuitive knowledge of
God (ta'armf) is inherent in the Faith. The intent {niyyet) of
" approach " {kurhat) to and communion with Him is the
essential preliminary to true devotion ; the " Ascension "
(the mi'rdj) of the Prophet meant the absolute communion of
the finite with the Infinite. Not only does God speak to the
hearts of men and women who in earnest sincerity seek divine
help and guidance, but all knowledge is from the Supreme
Intelligence ; it comes to the Prophets by direct revelation
( c^i ) and often " The sacrament of the heart " is
conveyed by Him to His chosen few, " fi-sirraf-kalbi,
(^^ kr^/(J'' , without an intermediary. This in Islam is
called 'Ilmi-ladunni.^ It is referred to in the Koran, where
it says, " We taught him [His chosen servant] knowledge from
Ourself." * The same conception of intimate communion with
God occurs in the well-known hadis, where the Almighty says,
" My earth and My heaven contain Me not, but the heart of
My faithful servant containeth Me," ^ And the Divine promise
finds a responsive note in the human heart when it is uplifted

^ One of the apologues of the Masnavi on true devotion being the service
0/ man, has been beautifully rendered into English by Leigh Hunt in the lines
beginning —

" Abou ben Adhem (may his tribe increase)
Awoke one night from a deep dream of peace," etc.

' See Appendix III.

Ci'c^*(^

* Koran, Sura xviii. v. 65, l^t^'^ jt^ 3

* See Appendix II. Also quoted by Dr. Reynold Nicholson of Cambridge
in his Mystics of Islam. This work, by a scholar whose knowledge of Suti
literature is unrivalled in Europe, gives in a small compass a lucid summary
of Persian mysticism.

458 THE SPIRIT OF ISLAM ii. j"

in prayer : " The Almighty God hears whatever prayers [lit.
praises) I offer Him. O my Lord, I thank Thee." ^

The same transcendentaUsm is to be found in other
traditions ; and AH discourses on the inward Hght in his
sermons ; ^ Fatima'-t az-Zahra, " our Lady of Light," dwells
on it in her preachings ; ^ and it finds ecstatic expression
in the prayers of the grandson of Ali, the son of Husain the
Martyr.* But nowhere in these earliest records of the concep-
tion of " Inward Light " is there any ground for the suggestion
that either the Prophet or the direct inheritors of his spiritual
heritage ever preached the abandonment of the affairs of the
world in the pursuit of Truth, or the observance of asceticism
which he so strongly reprobated.^ And that is exactly what
has happened in the evolution of Moslem esotericism. In the
endeavour to obtain spiritual perfection ^ numbers of Moslems
have forgotten the precept that human existence depends on
constant exertion. How this has taken place is not without
interest.

The mystic cult neither in Christianity nor in Islam is a new

* The Nahj-ul-Baldghat. There are two commentaries on the Nahj-ul-
Baldghat, one bv Ibn Abi'l Hadid, the other in Persian by Lutf UUah
Kashani. The full name of Ibn Abi'l Hadid is given in the editorial note
to the Shark as " Abu Hamid Abdul Hamid bin Hibatullah bin Mohammed
bin Mohammed bin Husain bin Abi'l Hadid." He was born at Madain
in the month of Zu'l Hijja 586 a.h. (December 1190 a.c). He was a
Mu'tazili and a Shiah, and those designations are applied to him in the
note. He was a jurisconsult of the first rank, profoundly versed {mutabahhir)
in science and learning, a mutakallim (dialectician) and a poet ; and was
attached to the Chancellery (the Diwdn) under the Caliphs Nasir and Zahir.
Ibn Khallikan (De Slane, vol. iii. p. 543, in the biography of Zia-ud-din Ibn
ul-Athir) speaks of him as the " jurisconsult Izz-ud-din and a man of letters " ;
but does not mention Ibn Abi'l Hadid's great work, the Commentary on the
Nahj-ul-Baldghat ; nor the fact that he was a Mu'tazili and a Shiah. Ibn
Abi'l Hadid refutes at the beginning of his work, where he propounds the
human duty of thankfulness and worship to the Almighty, the Asha'ri doctrine 1
of the corporeal vision of God on the day of Judgment {r'uyat ul-Bdri fi'l
Akhirat).

Ibn Abi'l Hadid died at Bagdad in a.h. 655 (1257 a.c), the year before its
destruction by the Mongols (Persian Ed., date apparently 1304 a.h.).

8 Lutn'ai-ul-Baiza. * Sahifai Kdmila.

■' The Prophet and the early disciples spent " the greater part of the night
in devotion ; and their days in transacting the affairs of the people." So
did Omar ibn Abdul Aziz, the fifth Ommeyyade Caliph, who deserved the
title of saint more than many others.

« To become what in Sufi phraseology is called a " perfect man," " ins&ni
kdmil."

XI. THE MYSTICAL AND IDEALISTIC SPIRIT 459

development. It existed in the Roman world and was not
unknown to the Jews. In Aryan India, it practically ran riot
and was cultivated in every form. From India it was trans-
ported into Western and Central Asia, where it assumed from
time to time most fantastic shapes. Wherever it was planted
it implied the abandonment of all commerce with the outside
world, the renunciation of family ties and obligations, and the
concentration of the human mind on one object to the exclusion
of all others. This, in fact, represents the essence of the mystic
cult. The call of Jesus was an echo of the world-old teaching
of the Mystic. The Prophet of Islam, on the other hand,
emphasised the faithful performance of the less impressive
duty, the service of man, as the most acceptable worship to
God. His call was the direct antithesis of the older con-
ceptions.

Unfortunately, the convulsions that followed on the break-
up ot the original and true Caliphate with the assassination
of Ah,i the sack of Medina with all its attendant horrors, and
the pagan licence which came into vogue in social life under
the more dissolute Ommeyyade sovereigns of Damascus, drove
many earnest-minded Moslems to take refuge in retirement and
religion. From piety there is only a step to Quietism. Thence-
forward the evolution of the mystical cult runs a natural course.
The adoption of the distinctive woollen garment (the khirka)
as a mark of penitence and renunciation of the world dates
from early times. ^ The Sufi theory of spiritual development is
based on complete self-abnegation and absolute absorption in
the contemplation of God. The Sufi believes that by this
absorption and mental concentration ^ he can attain a far

^ See ante, p. 296 ; also Short History of the Saracens, pp. 52 and 70.

^ In Christianity garments made of sackcloth or hair served the same
purpose. The Khirka is a sort of gaberdine like a long pillow-case. The Sufi
derives his name from the woollen garment he wears, the word silf meaning
wool. The term siifi has no connection either with the ahl-us-Suffa, the
religious men who were wont to sit and sleep outside the Prophet's mosque
and receive daily their food from him, nor with the Ikhwdn-us-Safa, "The
Brethren of Purity."

' It is stated that Abu Sa'id bin Abi'l Khair who also holds a high place
in Sufi hagiology, kept his mind, like the Hindu yogis, centred on his navel.
An excellent biography of Abu Sa'id bin Abi'l Khair is given in Dr. Nicholson's
Studies in Islamic Mysticism, published by the Cambridge University Press ;
see also Professor E. G. Browne's Literary History of Persia. He is said to
have been a contemporary of Avicenna. He died in 1049.

46o THE SPIRIT OF ISLAM il.

closer communion with the Divinity and a truer cognition of
the Truth. This belief, whilst it no doubt led many pious
and devout men and women to consecrate their lives to
rehgion, produced at the same time a rank growth of fantastic
ideas.

Ah the Caliph and the Imams of his House are regarded as
having possessed in a superlative degree the " Inward Know-Bj'
ledge." Abu Nasr as-Sarraj, in his work al-Luma' on the"
philosophy of Sufism,^ quoting Junaid ^ says, that had Ali
not been occupied in so many wars, he would have imparted
to the world the vast measure of the 'Ilm-ul-ladunni ^ with
which he was endowed.* And in the Tazkirat-nl-Awlia^ of
Farid-ud-din 'Attar « the first place in the hst of mystic saints
is given to Ja'far as-Sadik, the sixth apostolical Imam. It is
worthy of note that in the case of almost every Sufi saint the
line of spiritual descent is traced back to AH and through ,
him to the Prophet.' A few only trace it to Abu Bakr.

The holy men and women who flourished in the first two
centuries were more Quietists than Sufis. They had abandoned
the world and devoted themselves exclusively to devotion and
piety {zuhd and takwa). Such were Imam Hasan al-Basri,*

'^Al-Luma' fi-tasawwuf ; tasawwtif is the philosophy of Sufism. Thel
Luma' of as-Sarraj has been recently edited with great care and erudition by|
the learned author of Studies in Islamic Mysticism. According to Nur-ud-
din Abdur Rahman Jami {Nafahclt-ul-Uns, Calcutta ed. p. 319) as-Sarrajj
occupies an eminent position among the Sufi saints. He appears also fromi
J ami's account to have been a proficient mathematician, versed in the abstract
sciences. As-Sarraj died in 378 a.h. (988 a.c), nearly 100 years beforet
al-Ghazzali. '■ '

^Al-Luma', p. 129. Junaid was one of the earliest mystics of Islam ; he
died A.H. 297 (a.c. 910). He is stated to have declared that " the Sfifi system
of doctrine is firmly bound with the dogmas of the Faith and the Koran "
(Ibn Khallikan).

* The Indian poet Dabir calls Ali the " Knower of the mysteries of God,"^.
ramtizddn-i-Khnda.

^ Biography of the Saints.

* See ante, p. 396 ; 'Attar was born in 545 a.h. (1150 a.c), and is beheved
to have been killed by the Mongols in 627 a.h. (1229-30 a.c).

' See post.

* Wasil bin 'Ata, the founder of Mu'tazilaism, was a pupil of Hasan
Basri. Imam Hasan Basri died in a.h. iio (a.c. 728).

XL THE MYSTICAL AND IDEALISTIC SPIRIT 461

Ibrahim ibn Adham/ Ma'ruf Karkhi,- Junaid,^ Rabi'a/ the
pious lady whose name has become famous in the annals of
Islam, Bayezid Bistami and a host of others. In the third
century when Junaid flourished, Sufism had become a recog-
nised offshoot of Islamic philosophy, but owing to the scope it
afforded to indulgence in undiscipHned thought, Sufism began
to assume in different minds distinctly non-Islamic shapes.
Abu Nasr as-Sarraj denounces the erratic tendencies which
now emerged from the welter of old ideas and conceptions.
Some of the professors of the mystic cult anticipated Johannes
Agricola in declaring that perfect knowledge absolved the
" knower " from all trammels of the moral law.^

As-Sarraj was the predecessor of al-Ghazzali in his endeavour
to systematise Sufistic philosophy. In spite of his efforts to
shape Sufism into a disciplined channel, it still continued to
run in the old gnostic and often antinomian currents. And
yet throughout the five centuries which elapsed between the
death of the Prophet and the rise of Al-Ghazzali there flourished
numbers of men and women revered for their learning, piety
and nobleness of character. One of these was the famous
Imam-ul-Haramain, the master of al-Ghazzali.

To Imam al-Ghazzali eastern Sufism owes in a large measure
its systematisation and most of the colour and beauty in which
it is clothed. His appearance on the stage of the world was
well-timed ; for the Sunni Church, owing to causes which I
propose to review briefly, needed vitahsation.

' Abu Ishak Ibrahim ibn Adham ibn Mansur is spoken of in the TazkiraU
ul-Awlia as the son of a prince of Balkh. His father appears to have been a
rich magnate. He abandoned the world, gave all his riches to the poor and
lived a life of piety and devotion. He is said to have been a disciple of Abu
Hanifa. He died in i6i a.h.

^Ma'riif Karkhi was the son of a Christian; he was converted to Islam by
the eighth Apostolical Imam Ali ar-Riza the son of Imam Musa. He was
Imam Riza's disciple. The Imam was greatly attached to him and treated
him as a son, from which comes the saying " Ali Milsi Riza az-tvai-raza
Md." Ma'ruf was killed in a riot at the gate of the Imam's residence in Meshed ,

^ In Junaid's time already convents and congregational lodges had come
into existence.

* Rabi'a died in the year i6o a.h., and her name is embalmed in the annals
of mysticism as one of the holiest of saints. She had a long line of successors ;
the last of them, Bibi Pakdaman, died in Lahore about the middle or towards
the end of the last century.

^ These Sufis or dervishes in India are called Be Shara' — " without law."

462 THE SPIRIT OF ISLAM 11^

Al-Asha'ri died in 320 of the Hegira ; al-Ghazzali was born
exactly 130 years later, towards the close of the fifth century
of the Moslem era, and began his work of revivification when
he was forty years of age. The sixth century was the most
critical in the history of Islam. Whilst the faith of Mohammed
was involved in a deadly struggle with Christendom which
threatened its very existence, an insidious enemy within its
own bosom was poisoning its life. Hasan Sabbah's tenets
inculcated imphcit and unquestioning obedience to him as the
vicegerent of the Fatimide Caliph Nizar, commonly regarded
by the sect as the incarnate Imam ; he taught that the " path "
to Truth led to and through him. His disciples, drugged by
hashish, obtained on awakening a foretaste of the delights he
promised them in after-life as the reward for their obedience and
unfaltering execution of his orders. Beautiful maidens gathered
from every quarter helped in fastening his chains on the neck
of his votaries. His emissaries, actuated by varied motives,
but all subject to an irresistible driving force, abounded in:
every city, township and village of Central and Western
Asia. Every household contained a concealed member of the!
dread fraternity. Neither heroic service to the Faith, norj
learning, devoutness or nobihty of character was a protection!
against these nihihsts of Islam. ^ The best and noblest of'
Moslems were struck down by these enemies of society. Their
propaganda was not confined among Moslems alone. Jews,
Christians, Zoroastrians and Hindus alike became the victims!
of their insidious methods of proselytism. Both men and"
women, and even children, were seduced from their faith by|
alluring hopes of immediate reward from Heaven. To con-i
tend against these enemies of Islam it had become essentials
to galvanise the conservative forces into fresh vitality. Whilst ',
Asha'rism had hardened into a rigid formalism, among the,
populace the cult of the mystic had run wild. Every man or '
woman who found the discipline of the Faith irksome turned'

^ Compare the destructive tendencies of Hasan Sabbah's cult with those
of the Illuminati in the eighteenth century. Professor E. G. Browne in
his Literary History of Persia gives a list of some of the eminent men who
fell victims to the daggers of the Isma'ilis. See also the opening chapter in
M.^Guyard's Un Grand Maitre des Assassins au Temps de Saladin ; and the
life" of Hasan Sabbah by Moulvi Abdul Halim in Urdu, published in Lucknow.

XI. THE MYSTICAL AND IDEALISTIC SPIRIT 463

to Sufism, to a life independent of rules. Philosophical
reasoning brought no immediate reHef or consolation to minds
in terror from enemies within and without. There was a
general relaxation in ethical conceptions and an amazing
deterioration in ideals. It was just at this critical period in
the life of Islam that al-Ghazzali's call to a mystical life in
God, and to the attainment of truth by the individual soul in
direct communion with the Almighty, struck a responsive
chord in many distracted hearts. It relaxed the tension and
gave orthodoxy a new weapon with which to fight the dis-
ruptive teachings of Hasan Sabbah's emissaries.^

It is a dispensation of Providence that wherever a religion
becomes reduced to formalism cross-currents set in to restore
spiritual vitaUty. The author of The Foremnners and
Rivals of Christianity enumerates the men, each of whom,
according to his Hght, tried to vitalise the old creed of Palestine.
But it was the Prophet of Nazareth who, by his mystical
summons to the worship of the Spirit in place of the national
God of Israel, infused new life into Judaism.

Al-Ghazzali was preceded by other intuitionalists besides
the Apostolical Imams. Immediately before him came as-
Sarraj and al-Kushairi.^ But al-Ghazzali set the coping stone
upon their work, and freed the Sunni church from Asha'rite
dogmatism.

The story of al-Ghazzali's life told by himself, of his trials and
tribulations, of his doubts and his hopes, of his final emergence
from " darkness into light," is an interesting record of spiritual
growth finally ending in Quietism, a form of spiritual relief
which brings solace and comfort to many a heart tossed on the
ocean of doubt.

Al-Ghazzali ^ was born in 450 of the Hegira (1058 a.c.) at

^ In Professor Goldziher's learned chapter on " Ascetism et Sufism " in
Le Dogme et la lot ds V Islam, which I read only after I had sent this chapter
to the press, I find that my estimate of the causes which brought forward
al-Ghazzali is in general accord with the views of that eminent scholar ;
compare also the masterly essay of Professor D. B. Macdonald in the Journal
of the American Oriental Society, vol. xx.

* AI-Kushairi (Abu'l Kasim) died in 465 a.h. (a.c. 1074).

^ Aba Hamid Mohammed al-Ghazzali surnamed, says Ibn Khallikan,
Hujjat-ul-Islam, "the Proof of Islam," and Zain iid-din, "the ornament
of Religion."

464 THE SPIRIT OF ISLAM ii.

Tus/ a township in the neighbourhood of Meshed in Khorasan.
He must have been gifted with a peculiarly virile and inde-
pendent mind, for, as he tells us in the Munkiz, he had aban-
doned in early youth that test of orthodoxy in all creeds caUed
taklid or conformity. To abandon taklid and strike out a path
for the exercise of individual judgment in the domain of
religious thought has been in all ages and in aU creeds regarded
by dogmatic theologians as a sin of the first degree. Orthodoxy
in the Sunni Church meant conformity with the principles of
one or other of the founders of the four schools of law. Ghazzali,
with an audacity which demands admiration, refused to
adhere to any particular dogma without independent examina-
tion. ^ But as he always called himself ash-Shafe'i', he must
have conformed more or less to the doctrines of that school.
Ibn Khallikan, in fact, says al-Ghazzali was a doctor of the
Shafe'i sect. " Towards the close of his life the Shafe'is had
not a doctor to be compared to him." In the twentieth year
of his age al-Ghazzali proceeded from Tus to Naishapur, a
great centre of learning until its destruction by the Mongols
in 1256 A.c. Here he enrolled himself in the Nizamieh College,
which had been founded only a few years before, as a pupil of
the Imam ul-Haramain al-Juwaini. Al-Ghazzali studied with
this saintly Imam until his death in 478 a.h. (1084 a.c).
Al-Ghazzali was then in his twenty-eighth year ; ambitious,
energetic, weU-versed in all the learning of the Islamic world,
he betook himself to the court of Nizam-ul-Mulk,^ the great
Vizier of the Seljukide sovereign MaUk Shah. Nizam-ul-Mulk
by his munificent patronage of scholarship, science and arts,
had gathered round him a brilliant galaxy of savants and
learned men. He recognised the worth of the new aspirant for
his help and support, and after a short probation in his own

1 Tus is also the birthplace of Firdousi, the greatest of Persian poets. Meshed,
properly Mashhad (mausoleum), is venerated by the Shiahs as the eighth
Apostolical Imam Ali bin Musa ar-Riza is buried there.

* It is only in recent times that a new sect has grown up among the Moslems
of India, which bears the proud name of ' Ghair Mtikallid ' {" Non-confor-
mists "), see ante, p. 353.

3 Abu Ali al-Hasan, also a native of Tus. He is the author of the Sidsat-
Ndmeh, a book on the administration of the commonwealth — " the art of
government." The text of this work in the original Persian with a French
translation has been published by the late M. Ch. Schefer.

XI. THE MYSTICAL AND IDEALISTIC SPIRIT 465

entourage conferred on al-Ghazzali a professorial seat in one
of the colleges in Bagdad. Nothing shows so clearly the extra-
ordinary solidarity of the intellectual world of Islam nor the
link throughout the vast extent of the territories over which
the Seljukide sovereigns in the plenitude of their power held
sway as the manner in which officials of every rank, including
professors and lecturers, were transferred from one centre to
another.

In Bagdad al-Ghazzali performed his professorial duties for
six years. His lectures attracted pupils of all classes from
every part of the Empire to hear his discourses on scholastic
theology and logic. Towards the end of 488 a.h. (1095 A.c.)
he was compelled to leave Bagdad in consequence of a severe
nervous breakdown. The very subjects on which he lectured
strengthened his doubts in the teachings of the schoolmen and
divines of his Church. Asha'ri had emerged from his retreat
after a fortnight's contemplation of the comparative virtues
of Rationalism and Patristicism. It took ten years for
al-Ghazzali to find the resting-place for his soul. That rest he
found, as he tells us himself, in the Master's words read in the
light of the revelation which the Fashioner of the Universe
vouchsafes to all hearts that seek Him. During his prolonged
wanderings he visited every centre of learning and every
scholastic or religious institution, where he found scholars or
holy men engaged in the pursuit of knowledge, secular or
divine. Al-Ghazzali was in Jerusalem just before the crusad-
ing storm burst on that devoted city (Sha'ban 492).^ He
seems to have tarried longest at Damascus, where he lectured
in a corner of the cathedral mosque situated on the west bank
of the river. The cloister he occupied in the mosque is still
called the Zdvia of Imam al-GhazzdU. When he returned to
Naishapur after his long wandering, he was forty-eight years
of age, still in the prime of life, worn and scarred, though he
had found what he sought — the knowledge of God and peace
of soul. His great and generous patron, Nizam-ul-Mulk, had
been assassinated by an Isma'ih Fiddi, one of Hasan Sabbah's
emissaries, in 485 a.h. (1092 a.c), whilst al-Ghazzali was still
lecturing in Bagdad. Malik Shah had died six months after

^ He is said to have visited in his wanderings even Alexandria.
S.l. 2 G

466 THE SPIRIT OF ISLAM ii

the assassination of his faithful servant, the bulwark of hi:
empire. Sultan Sanjar, one of Malik Shah's sons, now reignec
over the shrunken patrimony of Tughril and Alp Arslan, anc
Fakhr-ul-Mulk, a son of Nizam-ul-Mulk, held at this time tht
office of Vizier under Sanjar. As great a patron of learning a:
his distinguished father, Fakhr-ul-Mulk at once requisitionec
the services of Ghazzali and appointed him to a high professoria
post in the Maimunieh-Nizamieh College ^ at Naishapur. Heri
commenced that marvellous activity of a pro]ific mind whic]
has left its impress on the emotional and mystical side o
Islam.

The Mtmkiz-min-az-Zaldl (" The deliverer from darkness ")
was evidently written about this time. In this book, whicl
is not more than a discourse, he divides the " seekers of truth '
[at-tdlihin) into three classes or groups (sinf). The first grou]
consists of the dogmatic theologians (the Ashar'ite Mutakal
limtn). These people base their conceptions on " deductions '
(rdi) and speculation {nazar) . Their unsatisfactory dogmatisn
is ruled out in rather a measured criticism. In the secon(
group are included the Batinis or Isma'iHas,^ those wh«
profess to derive their knowledge from a " living Imam.'
After an examination of the views of the philosophers, amoni
whom are included the authors of the Ikhwdn-us-Safd, " whicl
is no more than a compilation of philosophy," al-Ghazzal
subjects the teachings of the Ta'limis, that is the Isma'ilias
to a merciless criticism and exposes their anti-Islamic char
acter. To their assertion that they follow a living Imam
he replies, " There is the Prophet, why should we follow an
other leader."* And he adds that these misbelieving heretic
would not have met with so much success among the people
had their opponents (implying the dogmatists) not been s
remiss and feeble in their arguments. In the fourth grou-

1 The old Nizami^h College appears to have been extended and enlarge,
by Fakhr-ul-Mulk, and received the new designation.

J'uIjj^^^^j;.* Printed with Schmolder's Essai sur les Jtcoles Philosi

phiques chez les Arabes ; India Office copy.

3 See ante, note, p. 326.

* This is identical in spirit to the famous couplet of Sanai already quotec
ante p. 47.

XI. THE MYSTICAL AND IDEALISTIC SPIRIT 467

come the Sufis, the intuitionahsts, people of " vision and
manifestation." In other words, they see Truth where others
find the Divine Essence from reason. According to the his-
torian Ibn-ul-Athir, who compiled his great work in Mosul not
long after al-Ghazzali's death, the Ihya-ul-Ulum'^ ("the Re-
vivification of Knowledge ") was written before the Imam
returned to Naishapur. There is some difference of opinion on
this point ; although by consensus it is by far the most impor-
tant of his productions. The Ihya-ul-' Ulum is an encyclopaedic
work dealing comprehensively with the philosophy and ethics
of Sufism.

Al-Asha'ri had condemned all enquiry into the mysteries
of existence. Although equally dogmatic in his denunciation
of philosophers and philosophy, of rationalism and its ideals,
al-Ghazzali gives them a hearing ; appraises their work
and finds it wanting, wanting in the capacity to attain the
goal to which, according to him, humanity should strive.
And what is more, as people of the same kihleh 2 he includes
them within the pale of Islam. It is extraordinary that the
greatest mystics of the succeeding ages make little reference to
him. Jalal-ud-din sings of Attar and Sanai but expresses
no obhgation to al-Ghazzali for his transcendentalism. Is

^ iJ:.tJ\> ^^')t}>'] Cairo Ed. India Office copy.

A short reference to some of the subjects with which it deals will show
its extraordinary range and the industry and intellectual powers of the
writer. The book (in vol. i.) opens with a disquisition on the excellence
of learning (knowledge) — fazilat-ul-'Ilm ; and it is established by proofs
furnished by reason and authority {ash-shawdhid ul-'aklieh wa'l naklieh) ;
there is a disquisition on the "excellence of Reason" {Sharaf-id-'akT) and the
difference between soul {nafs) and Reason ('akl) ; and Islam and I man (faith).
Toleration is extended to all who bow to the same kibleh {i.e. are followers of
Islam). In vol. ii. he deals with the duties of man to man. of the reciprocal
duties of children and parents. He defines here the meaning of nafs (the
soul) and rilh (the spirit), of kalb (the heart), and 'akl (Reason) ; he points out
the distinction between intuition [ilham) and instruction ila'allum). And in
this volume he deals with the whole philosophy of Sufism {tank-us-Sufiyeh
fi-istikshdf il-Hak wa-tarik un-nazdir).

The other two volumes are mainly concerned with the ethics of Islam ;
he condemns pride, anger and vindictiveness, avarice and miserliness ; and
commends condescension and humility {hilni), forgiveness and mercy,
generosity (sakha) and kindness. The Ihya-ul-U'lmn is held in high esteem
also among the Shiahs ; in the Bihdr-id- Anwar, in the thesis on Reason and
Knowledge it is mentioned as one of the Isndds or " supports."

^ Kibleh is the point to which the Moslem turns his face when offering his
orisons, i.e. Mecca, or rather the Kaaba.

468 THE SPIRIT OF ISLAM ii.

it because the impetus he gave to emotional Islam lost its force
in the life and death struggle with the crusading hordes which
lasted for nearly two centuries ? To the Christian onslaught
in Western Asia, followed by the Mongol avalanche which swept
over mid-Asia, destroying in its course every vestige of civil-
isation and culture, is entirely due the long night that followed
the sack of Bagdad. It is not improbable that the force of
his example and precept became barren in the cataclysm that
overwhelmed Islam not long after his death. And yet the
faith in communion with the Almighty, with its aspirations
and inwardness, survived in the hearts of the truly earnest
and devout disciples, and the 'drif claimed to have visions
where the philosopher and the rationalist obtained cognition
by reason. The emotional part of al-Ghazzali's mystical
philosophy found refuge in the monasteries of the dervishes ;
zdvias, rabdts ^ and khdnkdhs ^ sprang up on all sides.
Wherever the holy men who claimed a transcendental insight,
an insight beyond the ken of reason, took up their abode,
disciples clustered round them ; they founded orders, and
imparted mystical knowledge to their followers. Many were
sincere and honest, others were impostors. The influence and
teachings of the first, whilst they lasted, were undoubtedly
beneficent ; the influence of the others, with their sundering
tendencies from Islam, were demoralising.

Al-Ghazzali himself did not place his trust in dogmatic
theology [Kaldm] and denounces it as opposed to reason,
but the exact sciences, arithmetic, geometry and the connected
branches, are considered by him as absolutely unassailable
and not open to doubt or controversy. At Naishapur he wrote,
among other works, the Makdsid ul-Faldsifa (" The Aims of
Philosophy "), and the Tahdfut-ul-Faldsifa (" the Destruction
of the Philosophers "), both directed against philosophy and
those who cultivated it, and in both he tries to prove the

1 From the word rabat is derived the word " marabout." In the eleventh
century the Murabita established a powerful empire in Morocco and Spain ;
see History of the Saracens, p. 532.

2 Meninski defines a khankah thus : domus propter Deus extructa in usum
sophorum aut religiosorum ; coenobium. Richardson calls it a monasters' or
religious structure built for Eastern Sufis and der\-ishes. There is a startling
analog^^ between those Moslem institutions and the Hindu Muths in southern
India, where also disciples gather for religious instruction.

£i

THE MYSTICAL AND IDEALISTIC SPIRIT 469

y of philosophic reasoning and the unsatisfying character
teachings of philosophy.

the assassination of his patron. and friend Fakhr-ul-Mulk
)y an emissary of that arch-enemy of ordered society "the
Ian of the Mountain," Hasan Sabbah, in the Muharram
D A.H. al-Ghazzali retired sorrow-stricken to his native
f Tus, where he had built a raadrassa for students and a
ah (monastery) for his disciples. Here he lectured,
.ere he laboured on his works which have made him a
lahty in the world of Islam. The great Suh died on
ay the 14th of Jumadi 11. 505 a.h. (i8th December mi).
;h him passed away one who, in spite of his mysticism,
ndowed with a particularly virile character, the influence
ich lasted long after his death. Imam al-Ghazzali as a
'er of Shafe'i, was bitterly hostile to Imam Abu Hanifa,
; encouragement of analogical reasoning and of the
se of ratiocination ^ he seems to have strongly dis-
ved. Whilst on the one hand the mystic Imam by his
ism chilled the blood in the veins of the Moslem races
rrested their energies ^ for progress and development, on
ther he imparted to Ash'arism an idealism it did not
)usly possess.

I desire to enforce conformity and repress " heresy "
sen the curse of every religious system where ecclesiastics
Legists have usurped authority in the church. Islam
lot escaped from it, though it has been less harsh to
elievers " than to its own " innovators," whom ortho-
designated as ahl-ul-hida' . Men suffering from spiritual
ition, or whose minds had become unhinged by excessive
lortification, along with rationalists and reformers, became

470 THE SPIRIT OF ISLAM ii.

is one of the most pitiful in the annals of mysticism.^ Farid-
ud-din-'Attar was, like Firdousi, an adherent of the House of
Mohammed ; he was also a Sufi of the first degree. In the
Mazhar-id-'Ajdih ^ 'Attar gives an account of his sufferings ;
of his expulsion from the place of his birth (Tus) ; of the con-
fiscation of his property and goods, and of his subsequent
wanderings. Many of them suffered the penalty of death ;
in the case of others the punishment was posthumous ; their
works were consigned to the flames. Even al-Ghazzali's
Ihya-ul-'Ulum met with that fate in Cordova, at one time the
home of Saracenic culture.^ But these repressive methods
did not succeed in stopping the spread of the mystical cult.
Every holy man round whom gathered disciples became a
saint or wall. The saints were credited with supernatural
powers ; and although the most noted Sufis of early times who
rank now as waits of the first rank, like Junaid and Bayezid
Bistami, strongly discountenanced thaumaturgic practices, the
Tazkirat-nl-Awlia, and the Nafahdt-ul-Uns recount remark-
able acts by the saints outside ordinary human experience.
These wonders are called kardmdt, performed as they are by
virtue of the powers gifted to them by God. In these days
they would probably be attributed to what is called " psychic
influence." Hypnotism and mesmerism, under the name of
tdsir ul-anzdr, and telepathy have long been known in the
East. Some of the acts might be due to unconscious
hypnotism.

Sufism travelled speedily from Irak and Persia into India,
where it found a congenial soil. A large number of Sufi saints,
both men and women, flourished in Hindustan and the Deccan
and acquired great fame in their lifetime for sanctity and good
work. Their tombs are up to the present day the objects of
pilgrimage to Moslems and, remarkable to note, to Hindus as
well.* These saints taught their disciples who congregated in
the colleges or monasteries they established Islamic theosophy

1 Tazkirat-ul-Awlia, Pt. ii. p. 135.

" Mazhar-td-' Ajdih is a title of the Caliph Ameer nl-Mominin Alt.

' This happened in the reign of 'Ali bin Yusuf Tashfin, who died in 11 43 A.c.

* LutfuUah in his QdnAni Islam, translated by Herklot, gives an account of
most of these walls, with the practices and superstitions common among the
Indian Sufis.

XI. THE MYSTICAL AND IDEALISTIC SPIRIT 471

and Sufi rules of life. They, like their successors, were called
sajjdd ana shin. ^ They are, in fact, spiritual preceptors. In
the West the preceptor is called the sheikh ; in India, ptr or
murshid ; the disciple the mund. On the death of the -ptr his
successor assumes the privilege of initiating the disciples into the
mysteries of dervishism or Suf'ism. This privilege of initiation,
of making vmrtds, of imparting to them spiritual knowledge,
is one of the functions which the sajjddanashin performs or is
supposed to perform. He is the curator of the mausoleum
where his ancestor is buried, and in him is supposed to con-
tinue the spiritual line {silsila). The shrines [dargahs), which
are to be found all over India, are the tombs of celebrated
dervishes who in their lifetime were regarded as saints. Some
of these men had established khdnkdhs where they lived and
where they taught their Sufi doctrines. Many did not possess
khdnkdhs and when they died their tombs became shrines.
They were mostly Sufis ; but some were undoubtedly the
disciples of Mian Roushan Bayezid,^ who lived about the
time of Akbar, and who had founded an independent esoteric
brotherhood, in which the chief occupied a peculiarly distinctive
position. They called themselves dervishes or fakirs, on the
hypothesis that they had abjured the world, and were humble
servitors of God ; by their followers they were honoured with
the title of shah or king. Although the Persian word
" dervish " is significantly Moslem in its origin and meaning,
" dervishes " have always existed in Western Asia. The
minor Prophets of the Hebrews, designated nabiin, were
only the prototypes of the modern " dervish." John the
Baptist, who lost his life for his temerity before Herod's
wife, acted exactly as hundreds of dervishes have done in
later ages, challenging kings and princes in their palaces. One
of the most celebrated of these Indian walis is Shah Nizam
uddin Awha, who came from Ghazni and is buried in the
neighbourhood of Delhi, where he lived for many years. He is
said to have died in 1325.^ Khwaja Mu'in ud-din Chishti

^ Sajjada is a prayer mat ; and nashin is the person seated on it.

2 See ante, p. 345. This man should not be confounded with the celebrated
Bayezid Bistami, who died in a.h. 261 (a.c. 874-5). In the Surah Bistami
is spelt as Bastami.

^ In the reign of Ala-ud-din Khilji, who was his murid.

472 THE SPIRIT OF ISLAM ii.

appears to have preceded Nizam uddin Awlia into India. He
died at Ajmere at the age of 97 in 663 a.h. (1265 a.c). His
mausoleum at Ajmere is the resort of pilgrims, both Moslem
and Hindu, from all parts of India. ^

Another wall, Burhan ud-din, is buried in Burhanpur (named
after him) in Central India. Shah Kabir Dervish flourished
in the reign of Farrukh Siyar in the eighteenth century. He
is buried in Sasseram in Behar. One of his descendants is
still in charge of his monastery. Ameer Khusni, poet laureate
of Ala-ud-din Khilji, the Pathan King of Delhi, is also claimed
as a Sufi saint. 2

In the West, orders of dervishes sprang up on aU sides. One
of the most famous and probably the most influential is the
Kddiria founded by the celebrated Sunni saint Sheikh Muhi-
ud-din Abd ul-Kadir Ghilani.^ Another was founded by
Moulana Jalal ud-din, which is called after his title the Moulaviya
and has a great reputation for the holy hfe of its members.
The N akshhandia is another powerful order, which has many
adherents in India.

But it is given to few to be saints and to still fewer to combine
a holy life of concentrated devotion with the discharge of the
daily duties of life. To the bulk of humanity the call to
abjure the world and to betake ourselves to complete absorp-
tion in the contemplation of the Divinity is an inducement to
mental lethargy. The responsibihty for the present decadence
of the Moslem nations must be shared by the formalism of the

1 Mu'in ud-din (usually styled among Indian Sufis Moulana Hazrat Sultan
ul-Mashaikh) traced his silsila through Ibrahim Adham, and through Ibrahim
Adham to Hasan Basri, and through him to the Caliph Ali, and through him
to the Prophet, Sarwar-i-Kdindi, " Chief of the Creation." Mu'in ud-din
Chisti is the founder of the Chistia order in India. Three hundred years later
Sheikh Selim Chishi became the spiritual preceptor of the great Akbar, who
named his son and successor Jehangir after his mitrshid.

Moulana Jalal ud-din Rumi traced his silsila similarly through Junaid to
the 8th Apostolical Imam Ali son of Musa (ar-Riza), and through him to the
Caliph Ali and the Prophet.

2 See Appendix III.

3 'Abdul Kadir was a descendant of Ali and is credited with the performance
of many miracles. He is the patron saint of the Kurds and is held in great
veneration among the Siifis of the Sunni sect in India. He is usually called
" Ghous Azam." According to the authors of Les Conjrcries Religieuses
Musulmanes (MM. Depont et Cappolani, vol. i. p. 303) the Kadiria order has
a wide influence in the East, which extends to Java and China, and its lodges
{Zavias) are established in Mecca and Medina. "Abnegation of self," say

XI. THE MYSTICAL AND IDEALISTIC SPIRIT 473

Asha'ri and the quietism of the Sufi. Mystical teachings Hke
the following :

The man who looks on the beggar's bowl as a kingly crown
And the present world a fleeting bubble,
He alone traverseth the ocean of Truth
Who looks upon life as a fairy tale.i

can have but one result — intellectual paralysis.

I must now return to al-Ghazzali's conceptions of Sufi
theosophy and theosophical life. He certainly did not claim
any exclusive knowledge of the mysteries of Creation nor
were his doctrines so esoteric as those professed by latter-day
Sufis. Like as-Sarraj he propounded a scheme of life which
he considered formed the true Path {tarikat) to the ultimate
goal " the attainment of nearness to God," and final peace
in the Beatific Vision. But as his insistence on the Path
depends on the larger theory of the Cosmos it is necessary to
say something about its essential features. His enunciation
about all nature and all existence being the direct Creation of
God the Almighty is but an echo of what is told in the Koran.
His theory assumes a broader aspect when he begins to state
his conception of the universe as a whole. He divides Creation
into two categories, viz. the Visible and the Invisible. The
Visible world {'dlam-iil-Mulk) is the world of matter ; and
is subject to the law of evolution, to change and growth. Here
he is in accord with the Rationalists (the Mu'tazilas).

The invisible world, imperceptible to human sense, he divides
into two sub-categories ; first, the 'dlam-ul-jaharut,^ which
stands between pure matter and pure spirit ; it is not wholly
matter nor wholly spirit but partakes of the character of both.
The forces of nature belong to this category. Had al-Ghazzali
lived in these days he would probably have assigned some of
the discoveries of modern science like the properties of radium

the authors of the Confr cries, " to the service of God ; ecstatic mysticism
bordering on hysteria ; philanthropic principles developed to the highest
degree, without distinction of race or creed ; intense charity ; vigorous piety,
humiUty, pervading all actions, and a gentleness of spirit, have made him
(Abdul Kadir) the most popular and most revered saint of Islam."

1 See Appendix III.

* " Jabarut, in the language of the scilikdn [those who strive to attain Truth],"
says the Farhang, " is the sublime realm, the abode of angels and Divine
Attributes" {sifdt Ilaki).

474 THE SPIRIT OF ISLAM

to the 'dlam-ul-jaharut. His idea of the purely spiritual world.j
al-' dlam-ul-nialakut ,^ forms the most interesting part of his
theory. The ' dlam-ul-malakut is the realm of " Ideas.
The human soul belongs to this world. It comes as a sparl
from its original home and on separation from the earthh
body, it files back to the region whence it came.^

These divisions are merely al-Ghazzali's deductions froi
the Koran. His abhorrence of analogical reasoning does not
prevent him from arriving at the conclusion by the usuc
process of ratiocination. Neither the theory nor the divisioi
was altogether new, for they had been anticipated by al-
Farabi in his 'Uyun-ul-Masdil.^ According to the Mu'tazilas^
the references in the Koran to the " Balance " (Mizdn) in whicl
human actions are weighed, to the " Pen " (Kalani) and Tablet
{Lauh) with which and on which the decrees of Providence are
inscribed, are allegorical. As already mentioned, al-Asha'
affirms them to be actual, corporeal objects. Imam al-j
Ghazzali takes another course ; he relegates them to the
'dlavi ul-malakut, the realm of " abstract ideas." It was
thus he endeavoured to reconcile Patristicism with his doctrin(
of " inward light " and its longings for the upward flight oi
the human soul.

Some of the extreme Sufis believe that when the final nearness
is attained the human soul becomes absorbed in the Divinity,
This is called hulul (absorption) and sometimes ittihdd (union).
But this pantheistic conception is strongly repudiated botl
by as-Sarraj and al-Ghazzali ; though often the words wisdl
and waslat are used to signify the closeness of the approach
to the Divine Essence. Even when the SM talks of fana-
f'il Alldh (annihilation in God) he does not mean to imply that
the human soul becomes merged in the Universal Soul. Al-
Ghazzali's notion, like that of his great predecessor, is that the
individual soul {riih) at the Almighty's bidding emanates from
a realm, the 'dlam ul-Malakut, nearest to the Divine Essence,
and on its separation from the corporeal body reverts to its
original home ; and that this is the meaning of the Koranic

1 In the Farhang, Malaktlt is defined thus : " in the language of the Sufis,
it means the Realm of Ideas " {'dlami ma'ni).
* See ante, p. 426.

XI. THE MYSTICAL AND IDEALISTIC SPIRIT 475

declaration " We come from God and imto Him we
return." ^

The Mu'tazili, the Asha'ri and the follower of al-Ghazzali
do not differ in the essentials ; their difference is due more to
the angle from which they look at the dogmas of the Faith.
The rationalist holds that a knowledge of God is attainable by
Reason. He appeals to Reason because the call of the Koran
to the worship of one God is based on Reason. The Asha'ri
believes because he is so taught ; the Sufi believes because,
as he says, of " the inward light." According to the Sufi, the
seeker for Truth by intensive " inwardness " and communion
with God can rise by successive stages of exaltation to a state
when he can actually have a vision of the Divine Essence.
The first step for the novitiate is to form the niyyat (the resolve
or intention) ; then comes tauha (penitence and renunciation).
He is now on the forward path, this stage is called mujdhada
(probation or striving). After a prolonged probation the
ecstatic soul appears in the Presence still veiled. Hafiz, in a
mood of exaltation, refers to this stage, technically called
Muhdzara, as huzuri, when the soul presents itself in absolute
surrender to God and " abandonment of the world and all its
vanities. ' ' ^ The next is ' ' the uplifting of the veil ' ' {mukdshafa) ,
when the veil which curtained off the Unseen is lifted and the
God becomes revealed to the worshipper's heart ; the last stage
is the Vision {mushdhada) , when the entranced Soul stands in
the presence of Truth itself, and the light falls distinctly on
" the human heart."

Even in the primary stage, the psychological effort to con-
centrate all thought on one object causes the disciple (the
nmrid) to see visions, hear the voices of angels and prophets,
and gain from them guidance. Exactly parallel forms of
psychological exaltation have appeared in Christianity in all
ages. In the phraseology of the Sufi the effort by which each
stage is gained is called {hdl) a " state." It is a condition
of joy or longing. And when this condition seizes on the

^^^>^)H- ^^1 The pious Moslem pronounces these words whenever
he passes a bier or a cemetery.

* Huziiri gar hami khaki, as-o ghdib mashaii Hafiz
Matd md-talk, man-tahwd da'i 'd-dunyd wa amhilha.

476 THE SPIRIT OF ISLAM ii.

" seeker," he falls into ecstasy (wajd). The dervishes in their
monasteries may be seen working themselves up into a con-
dition of " ecstasy." ^ :.^
The Sufi holds that the knowledge of God is vouchsafed to l,^,]
him by inward light ; the Rationalist affirms that the cognition l|^
comes to him from Reason, a gift of the Creator. Does not ||||q
the Koran constantly appeal to human reason and human
intelligence " to reflect, to consider, to speculate " about
God's Creation and the mysteries of nature ? Had the Koran
condemned the exercise of reason, would it have exhorted the
people to whom it spoke to look at the marvels of nature and
draw their own conclusions whether this wonderful world was
a creation of accident, or was brought into existence by an
all-pervading Intelligence. Religion and Rationalism are
correlated and bound together. If we find anything in the
Koran which seems superficially to be in conflict with the
results of philosophy, we may be sure there is an underlying
meaning, which it should be the work of reason to unravel.
Ibn Rushd places this proposition with extreme lucidity in his
Fasl-nl-Makdl^ He affirms that there is no disagreement
between religion and philosophy ; rehgion is revelation from
God ; philosophy is the product of the human mind. He was
thus not far removed from al-Ghazzali's plane. For al-Ghazzali
did not believe like Asha'ri that the earth was flat because it
was said in the Koran "God had spread it out as a carpet."
He accepts all the revelations of science and the conclusions of
mathematicians and astronomers. The stars and planets
revolve round the world according to pre-ordained laws.
Nature itself contains its own proof of the Power, Benevolence
and Intelligence that brought it into existence. He is thus in
complete accord with Ibn Sina, Ibn Rushd and the rationahsts
in general. Examined closely it wiU be seen that the mind of
al-Ghazzali, who saved Asha'rism from becoming a hard-
crusted formahsm, and by joining it to an exalted form of

1 Zikr is the name of the function in which the dervishes usually congregate
for obtaining the ecstatic condition. There is an excellent description of a
Zikr in an Egyptian Zdvia by Dr. D. B. Macdonald in his Aspects of Islam.
In India Zikrs are usually held at the celebration of the 'Uvs (anniversary
ceremony of the death of the original spiritual preceptor).

- See ante, p. 427.

XI. THE MYSTICAL AND IDEALISTIC SPIRIT 477

emotionalism infused into it fresh vitality, ran really in the
same groove as the minds of those masters.

The Senussi confraternity ^ is not a religious order like the
Kaderia, but unquestionably, in the civilising and uplifting
work it is doing in Northern and Central Africa, it imparts a
mystical meaning into the teachings of its Ikhwdn. They
convey to their converts and disciples some of the lessons of
" inward knowledge " without detaching them from the
world of struggle and advance.

The exalted idealism which breathes in the Prophet's words,
in the preachings of the Imams and in the teachings of the
expounders of " inward light," rationaHsts, philosophers and
Sufis alike, has modelled the lives and inspired the actions of
the noblest men in Islam. Heroes like 'Imad-ud-din Zangi,
rulers like Salah-ud-din bin Ayyub (the Saladin of European
history) have found in it their guiding star. And poets like
Sanai, 'Attar and Jalal ud-din have given fervent expression
to that universal Divine love, which pervades nature from the
lowest type of creation to the highest, and their idylls are
regarded by many Moslems with a respect only less than that
entertained for the Koran.

But Sufism in the Moslem world, like its counterpart in
Christendom, has, in its practical effect, been productive of
many mischievous results. In perfectly well-attuned minds
mysticism takes the form of a noble type of ideahstic philo-
sophy ; but the generality of mankind are more likely to
unhinge their brains by busying themselves with the mysteries
of the Divine Essence and our relations thereto. Every
ignorant and idle specimen of humanity, who, despising real
knowledge, abandoned the fields of true philosophy and betook
himself to the domains of mysticism, would thus set himself up
as one of the Ahl-i-Ma'rifat. And that this actually occurred
in the time of Ghazzali we see by his bitter complaint that
things had come to such a pass that husbandmen were leaving
their tillage and claiming the privileges of " the advanced."
In fact the greatest objection to vulgar mysticism, whether in
Islam or in Christendom, is that, being in itself no religion,
wherever it prevails it unsettles the mind and weakens the

1 See Appendix III.

478 THE SPIRIT OF ISLAM h.

foundations of society and paralyses human energy ; it:|
naturally drifts into anthropolatry and naturalistic pantheism.

Yet the benefits conferred by the nobler type of idealistic !f
philosophy are too great to be ignored ; and the Idealism of
Averroes developed in Europe the conception of Universal
Divinity. Christian Europe owes its outburst of subjective
pantheism— and its consequent emancipation from the intense
materialism of a mythological creed — to the engrafting of
Moslem ideahsm on the Western mind. It was the influence
of Averroistic writings that attracted the attention of reflecting
people to the great problem of the connection between the
worlds of matter and of mind, and revived the conception of
an all-pervading spirit, " which sleeps in the stone, dreams in
the animal, and wakes in the man," " the belief that the hidden
vital principle which produces the varied forms of organisation
is but the thrill of ' the Divine Essence ' that is present in
them all."

" I would have said He was the Soul of the Universe if I had known the
relation of the human soul to the body, for He is present and hidden in the
heart of every atom."

THE END.

APPENDIX I

TRANSLATION OF THE PERSIAN AND ARABIC MOTTOES
AT THE HEAD OF THE CHAPTERS

PAGE

O Thou ! who hast no place in any place,

Wonder-struck I am that Thou art at every place.
Faith and no-Faith are both engaged in Thy search.
Both crying aloud, " He is the one, He is the all-Alone." - i. Introd.

He attained the height of eminence by his perfection ;
He dispelled the darkness (of the world) by his grace ;

Excellent were all his qualities ;
Pray for blessings on him and his posterity. . - - - i

Mohammed is the lord of the two worlds and of mankind and the

Spirits.
And of the two nations, the Arabs and the 'Ajam (non-Arabs). - 41

Thou hast come before all the Teachers of the world.

Though thou hast appeared last of all ;

Last of the Prophets thy Nearness has become known to me ;

Thou comest last, as thou comest from a distance. - - - 51

May God ever convey my benedictions and greeting.
To the Prophet of Arabia, of Medina, — of Mecca ;
The sun of excellence and of splendour, and of sublimest eminence ;
The light of full moon, of elegance, and of the sky of generosity ;
The noblest of creation in person and in adoration and in watch-
fulness ;
The most excellent of mankind in munificence and generosity - 56

He is hke the flower in dehcacy and like the full moon in splendour.

Like the ocean in liberality, and like Time in resolution. - - 66

He called towards God, and those who took hold of him

Took hold of a rope that never breaks. - - - - - 83

But how can the desire of the eulogist come up to

What is in him of nobility of disposition and nature ? - - 92

479

48o THE SPIRIT OF ISLAM |

He surpassed all the Prophets in constitution and disposition.
Nor any did approach him either in knowledge or nobleness.
Avoid what the Christians assert about their Prophet ;
(But) declare whatever else thou wishest in his praise, and contend

for it. ----...... loi

Indeed the Prophet is a light from which guidance is sought,

And a drawn sword out of God's swords. - ... - loi

Is it from the remembrance of the neighbours at Zi-Salam

That thou hast mixed tears flowing from the eyes with blood ? 107

When the help of God and victory come and thou seest the
people entering into the religion of God in troops.

Celebrate the praise of thy Lord, and ask pardon of Him ; for

He is the Forgiver. -------- 109

Hold fast, all ye, to the Rock of God

And be not disunited. 122

Come to Me, do not seek except Me ;

I am the Beneficent ; seek Me thou wilt find Me.

Dost thou remember any night in which thou hast called to Me

secretly,
And I did not hear thee ? Then seek Me thou wilt find Me.
When the afflicted one says " dost not Thou seek me " ?
I look towards him ; seek Me, thou wilt find Me.
Wlien My servant disobeys Me, thou wilt find Me
Quick in chastising ; seek Me, thou wilt find Me. - - - I37

Say, unto whom belongeth whatsoever is in heaven and earth ?
Say unto God ; He hath prescribed unto Himself mercy. - - 159
(For translation of the other passage, see p. 173.)

The disputes of the seventy-two sects put them all aside.

As the}' did not see the Truth they took to the path of fiction - 290

He is the Beginning and the End,

The Manifest and the Hidden, V

And the knower of all things. (Koran), ----- 45J:'

APPENDIX II

p. 1 66 N_-.li!l . ^^ )) r» I _jJL^ iJ

Ibid. ^laJb fJJA^ ^ ^^-J^^ ;[;5|

p. 274 - - liij ^ ijj 0^ U'OlX^ A/O t>» Uv«^ *^ c^ ^ v^r^

C^^J J*; /^^' \j^:> ^^'^ 3' ^^ v:/* r**^-' ^-^^-^"^ vi5^ *^^J

p. 273 - - J^ rv^^' ^^^ ^^r^-h sj^r^- h '^^

k;" -'j ct^ ^.r^' "^7-^ c/'* c;y^- ^j '^^ ^j ^ r*^ r"^" ^
p. 274 r*^^ r^ ;^ u^-^' s'^'

' 3 j,Vo-- '^j) ^^\ ^}^K^ 3 u

P- 457 - - - ^3> \

S.I. 481 * "

APPENDIX III

Whatever the sins of the Babis may have been, their punishment, in
its barbarous inhumanity, far exceeded their deserts — a punishment
borne with subhme fortitude which cannot help evoking the admiration
of every heart not steeped in racial or religious fanaticism and which is
bearing its natural fruit. The sect, instead of dying out, is increasing
in number, and judging from the few professed Babis I have met,
actuated with bitter hatred against the MuUahs whom they believe to
be the primary cause of their persecution.

The cruelties to which the Babis were subjected were the acts of an
ignorant populace and a frightened governor hounded on by fanatical
priests. In China, in our own times, under the eyes of the civilised
world, disciplined troops of certain civilised Powers perpetrated the
most diabolical and nameless horrors upon unoffending citizens and
helpless women and children. Crimes like these destroy one's faith in
humanity and progress. (p. 359)

The astronomer Ali Ibn Yunus was a man of versatile talent. " He
made astronomy his particular study," says Ibn Khallikan, " but he
was well-versed in other sciences and displayed an eminent talent for
poetry." (p. 377)

The Indian Social Reformer of Bombay (of the 28th of July, 1901),
in an appreciative article on " The Liberal Movement in Islam," drew
my attention to certain statements of M. Renan in one of his lectures
delivered in March, 1883, at the Sarbonne.^ In this lecture M. Renan
has tried to show that Islam is opposed to science, and that scientific
pursuits came into vogue among the Moslems only when the religion
became weakened. " Omar," he says, " did not burn, as we are often
told, the library of Alexandria ; that library had, by his time, nearly
disappeared. But the principle which he caused to triumph in the
world was in a very real sense destructive of learned research and of the
varied work of the mind."

The correctness of this somewhat wild and reckless assertion, which,
coming from the author of Averroes and Averroism, is startling, was at
once challenged by the learned Shaikh Jamal ud-din who was residing
at Paris at the time. M. Renan 's reply to the Shaikh's criticism is
instructive. The learned Frenchman had to qualify his generalisations

* The lecture is headed " Islamism and Science," and is printed in a book
called The Poetry of the Celtic Races and Other Studies.

482

APPENDIX III 483

and to acknowledge that by Islam he meant the religion of Mohammed
as accepted and practised by the ignorant and fanatical sections of the
Moslem communities. I will quote here the passage in which he limits
his strictures, as it may perhaps be of some help in awakening the
Musulmans themselves to a sense of their responsibilities : — " One
aspect in which I have appeared unjust to the Shaikh is that I have not
sufi&ciently developed the idea that all revealed religion is forced to
show hostility to positive science ; and that, in this respect, Christianity
has no reason to boast over Islam. About that there can be no doubt.
Galileo was not treated more kindly by Catholicism than was Averroes
by Islam. Galileo found truth in a Catholic country despite Catholi-
cism, as Averroes nobly philosophised in a Moslem country despite
Islam. If I did not insist more strongly upon this point, it was, to tell the
truth, because my opinions on this matter are so well known that there
was no need for me to recur to them again before a public conversant
with my writings. I have said, sufficiently often to preclude any
necessity for repeating it, that the human mind must be detached from
all supernatural belief if it desires to labour at its own essential task,
which is the construction of positive science. This does not imply any
violent destruction or hasty rupture. It does not mean that the
Christian should forsake Christianity, or that the Musulman should
abandon Islam. It means that the enlightened parts of Christendom
and Islam should arrive at that state of benevolent indifference in which
religious beliefs become inoffensive. This is half accomplished in nearly
all Christian countries. Let us hope that the like will be the case for
Islam. Naturally on that day the Shaikh and I will be at one, and
ready to applaud heartily. ... I did not assert that all Musulmans,
without distinction of race, are and always will be sunk in ignorance.
I said that Islamism puts great difficulties in the way of science, and
unfortunately has succeeded for five or six hundred years in almost
suppressing it in the countries under its sway ; and that this is for these
countries a cause of extreme weakness. I believe, in point of fact, that
the regeneration of the Mohammedan countries will not be the work of
Islam ; it will come to pass through the enfeeblement of Islam, as indeed
the great advance of the countries called Christian commenced with the
destruction of the tyrannical church of the Middle Ages. Some persons
have seen in my lecture a thought hostile to the individuals who profess
the Mohammedan religion. That is by no means true ; Musulmans
are themselves the first victims of Islam. More than once in my
Eastern travels I have been in a position to notice how fanaticism
proceeds from a small number of dangerous men who keep the others
in the practice of religion by terror. To emancipate the Musulman
from his religion would be the greatest service that one could render
him. In wishing these populations, in which so many good elements
exist, a deliverance from the yoke that weighs them down, I do not
believe that I have any unkindly thought for them. And, let me say
also, since the Shaikh Jam^l ud-din desires me to hold the balance
equally between different faiths, I should not any the more believe that

484 THE SPIRIT OF ISLAM

I was wishing evil of certain European countries if I expressed a hope
that Christianity should have a less dominant influence upon them."

It is a matter of regret that European scholars, generally speaking,
should persist in comparing the lowest form of Islam with the highest
form of Christianity. All religions have different phases : they vary
according to the climatic and economic conditions of the country, the
environments and education of the people, their national characteristics
and a multitude of other causes. To compare modern idealistic
Christianity with a debased form of Islam is an insult to common sense
and intelligence. In this work I have endeavoured to show how Islam
furthered the intellectual movement of the world, how it brought to life
a dying world, how it promoted culture and civilisation. It was not the
Islam which is professed to-day by the ignorant bigot, the intriguing
self-seeker, but it was nevertheless Islam — Isia.m in its truest, highest
and noblest sense. I have tried to show the cause of the blight that
has fallen on Moslem nations. It is more than probable that my views
will not satisfy the critic of Islam who has started with a preconceived
bias, or who judges of the Faith by its latter-day professors. All the
same I venture to assert that my statements are founded on historical
facts.

One assertion of M. Renan requires a categorical refutation. He
has alleged in his lecture " as a very remarkable thing that among the
philosophers and learned men called Arabic, there was but one alone,
Alkindi, who was of Arabic origin : all the others were Persians, Trans-
oxians, Spaniards, natives of Bokhara, of Samarcand, of Cordova, of
Seville. Not only were those men not Arabs by blood, but they were
in nowise Arabs in mind." The memory of this great French scholar,
whose acquaintance I had the privilege of making, deserves every
respect. But surely this sweeping observation is very wide of the truth.
A glance at the Wafidt nl-Aydn (Ibn Khallikan's great Biographical
Dictionary), the Tdrikh ul-Hiikama and other works of the like nature,
will show how utterly unfounded the assertion is. From the genealogy
of the eminent men whose lives are contained in these books, it will be
seen that a vast number of the great scholars, doctors and savants,
although born in places outside Arabia, were Arabs by descent.

Probably M. Renan would not have admitted that Ali (the Caliph)
was a philosopher, but his descendants Ja'far as-Sadik and Ali ar-Riz4 I
were unquestionably entitled to be included in that designation. And
Ja'far as-SMik was a scientist besides. Jabir ibn Haiyyan (Geber),
the father of modern chemistry, worked in fact with the materials
gathered by Ja'far. It is admitted that Al Kindi, " the Philosopher
of the Arabs," was descended from the royal family of Kinda and was
an Arab of the Arabs. But it is not known that Yahya ibn Ali Mansur
(see ante, p. 374) was a pure Arab. Nor is it known that Ali ibn Yunus
[ante, p. 377) belonged to the tribe of as-Sadaf — " a great branch," says
Ibn KhalUk^n, " of the tribe of Himyar which settled in Egypt."
Al-Jahiz, Abu Osman Amr al-Kindni al-Laisi, the celebrated Mutazilite

APPENDIX III 485

philosopher, who died at Basra in a.h. 255 (868-9 a.c), was a pure
Arab, a member of the tribe of Kinana. Avenpace {ante, p. 428) was a
Tujibite by descent. " Tujibi pronounced also Tajibi," says Ibn
KhaUikan, " means descended from Tujib the mother of 'Adi and
Sa'd, the sons of Ashras ibn us-Sakun. She herself was the daughter
of SaubS,n bin Sulaim ibn Mazis, and her sons were surnamed after her."

The Avenzoars [ante, p. 386) belonged to the Arabian tribe of lyAz
ibn Nizar, and hence bore the title of al-Iyazi.

The great grammarian al-Khalil ibn Ahmed was a member of the
tribe of Azd. The Spanish historian and philosopher Ibn Bash-kuwal
was a descendant of one of the Medinite Ansar who had settled in Spain.
Mas'udi {ante, p. 390) was a direct descendant of one of the Prophet's
immediate companions and disciples, Ibn Masud, hence the title ;
whilst Ibn ul-Athir was a member of the celebrated tribe of Shaiban.

The political economist and jurisconsult, al-Mawardi, a native of
Basra, was a pure Arab.^

The soldier, statesman, philosopher and poet, Osama was a member
of the tribe of Kinana.

Sharif al-Murtaza, the author of the Ghitrar wa'd Durar, one of the
greatest scholars of his time, was descended from Imam Ali ar-Riz£l.

Ibn Tufail {ante, pp. 386, 429) was a member of the tribe of Kais, and
hence the title of al-Kaisi.

Ibn Khaldun was descended from an Yemenite family which had
settled in Spain. They came from Hazramaut and were therefore called
al-Hazrami.

I have given only a few names picked out at random, but the curious
reader will find numberless instances in the books I have mentioned.^

To say that these men were not Arabs and had no Arab blood in
them is surely a bold assertion. I might with equal effrontery assert
that, because Longfellow, Channing, Emerson, Draper were born in
America, they were not Anglo-Saxons.

Ibn Khallikan calls al-Farabi " the greatest philosopher of the
Moslems," and speaks of him in the following terms : —

U4»xc J ^ix^yJi] ^ j^laiJf^^j k*-iulojJ) ««^i.U» .^'^iU.JI ^^\

^) &' c;"*" r*"' \:^^- r^ c/^^***^' i^iii^l ^* j c^'c;'*
jsZ^ AxiXi B^j ^jaJI >ljju« ^1 ^. y] u-^>" :> ^y^ J"

*Two of his most important works are the Ahkdm us-Salt&niyyah and
as-Si&.sat ul-Mudan, both spoken of highly by Von Hammer.

» See also Wfistenfeld's Geschichte der Arabischer Aerzte, Tdrikh xd-Isl&m
of Zahabl, and Casiri's Bibliotheca Arabica.

486 THE SPIRIT OF ISLAM

" Abu Nasr Mohammed bin Mohammed bin Turkhan bin Auslagh
al-Farabi at-Turki (the Turk), a celebrated philosopher, author of many
works in logic, music, and other sciences. He was the greatest of
philosophers among the Moslems, and no one among them attained a
rank equal to his in the sciences. And the chief (of philosophers) Abu
Ali Ibn Sina, whom I have mentioned before, derived benefit from his
writings." (p. 382)

Abu'l Kasim Kinderski was a famous poet and Avicennistic philo-
sopher of Persia in the eighteenth century

Hayy ibn Yakzdn was translated into English and published in
London so long ago as 1686. (p. 429)

Sanai has given expression to his admiration for Ibn Sina and his
devotion to philosophy in the following lines :

f V.O .0 Aril \ j^M jO A^ („;>sCL

" I do not seek for any reward in this world or the next.

" Every moment I pray, whether in prosperity or in adversity.

" O my Lord, bestow on Sanai the proficiency in philosophy and

sciences
" Such as would make even the soul of Bu Ali Sina jealous."

The position of San^i in the world of Islam can be gathered from the
following lines of Jalal ud-din Ruml, revered nowadays by educated
Musulmans throughout Asia and Egypt :

" 'Attar was its soul [of the philosophy of mysticism], Sanai was its
eyes ; I only walked in the footsteps of 'Attar and Sanai." (p 457)

The reactionary character of the influence exercised by Abu'l Hasan
Ali al-Asha'ri and Ahmed al-Ghazzali can hardly be over-estimated.
It has been happily summed up in a few words by the learned editor of
al-Beiruni's al-Asdr ul-Bdkieh — " but for al-Asha'ri and al-Ghazzali the
Arabs might have been a nation of Galileos, Keplers and Newtons."
By their denunciations of science and philosophy, by their exhortations

APPENDIX III 487

that besides theology and law no other knowledge was worth acquiring,
they did more to stop the progress of the Moslem world than most other
Moslem scholiasts. And up to this day their example is held forth as a
reason for ignorance and stagnation.

Al-Asha'ri was born at Basra in 883-4 A.c. (270 a.m.), and died at
Bagdad ; but the year of his death is not certain ; it occurred probably
some time between 941 and 952 a.c. (300 and 340 a.h.). He was
originally a Mu'tazili and publicly taught the rationalistic doctrines.
A clever, ambitious man he saw no opportunity of power or influence
among the Rationalists ; an alliance with the party of retrogression
meant fame and tangible reward. He, accordingly, made a public
renunciation of his former creed in man's free will and " of his opinion
that the Koran was created." This happened on a Friday at the
Cathedral mosque of Basra. Whilst seated on his chair lecturing to
his pupils, he suddenly sprang up, and cried aloud to the assembled
multitude : — " They who know me, know who I am, as for those who
do not know me, I shall tell them : I am Ali ibn Isma'il al-Asha'ri,
and I used to hold that the Koran was created, that the eyes {of men)
shall not see God, and that we ourselves are the authors of our evil
deeds ; now I have returned to the truth, I renounce these opinions
and I take the engagement to refute the Mu'tazilites and expose their
infamy and turpitude." And with the recantation of each doctrine
that he formerly professed, he tore off from his person some garment
saying, " I repudiate this belief as I repudiate this dress." First went
the turban, then the mantle and so on. The effect of this theatrical
display was immense among the impressionable inhabitants of Basra,
and the fame of al-Asha'ri spread so rapidly among the people that he
soon became their recognised leader. Ibn Khallikfln calls him "a
great upholder of the orthodox doctrines."

Upon the death of the last Fatimide Caliph al-'Azid li-din lUah,
Saladin, who was Commander-in-chief and Prime Minister, proclaimed
the Abbaside Mustazii and thus restored Egypt to the spiritual
sovereignty of Bagdad. Asha'rism henceforth became dominant in
that country.

The theological students, who were chiefly the followers of Ibn Hanbal,
under the weaker Abbaside Caliphs became a source of great trouble
in Bagdad. They constituted themselves into a body of irresponsible
censors ; they used forcibly to enter houses, break musical instruments,
and commit similar acts of vandalism.

APPENDIX lll—contd.

ADDITIONAL NOTES
P. 17. The word Ikra might be rendered also as " recite."

P. 106. The incident to which reference is made in the footnote
at p. 106 has been immortalised by the Persian Poet Sa'di. The poem
opens with the following lines, which are difficult to render properly
into another language ;

p. 264. The following lines evince the estimation in which Meshed
is held by the Shiahs

Mash-had afzal tari rui Zamin ast.

Ke dn-jd nur-i Rabb ul-'dlanim ast.
" Mashhad is the most excellent spot on the face of the earth, for there is
to be found the light of the Lord of the Creation (God)."

P. 279. Moslem toleration. — " In the first century of Arab rule,"
says Sir Thomas Arnold in his Preaching of Isldm, " the various
Christian churches enjoyed a toleration and a freedom of religious life,
such as had been unknown for generations under the Byzantine Govern- 1
ment." And he adds, " In the course of the long struggles with the 1
Byzantine Empire, the Caliphs had had occasion to distrust the loyalty I
of their Christian subjects, and the treachery of Nikophoros was not |
improbably one of the reasons for Harun's order that the Christians
should wear a distinctive dress and give up the good posts they held."

Abvl Yusuf 's appeal to Harun ar-Rashid on behalf of the non-Moslem
subjects is noteworthy.

" It is incumbent on the Commander of the Faithful (May God grant
thee His aid !) that thou deal gently with those that have a covenant
with thy Prophet and thy cousin Mohammed (the peace and blessing
of God be upon him), and that thou take care that they be not wronged
or ill-treated and that no burden be laid upon them beyond their strength IjiEg j

488

APPENDIX III 489

and that no part of their belongings be taken from them beyond what
they are in duty bound to pay, for it is related of the Apostle of God
(the peace and blessing of God be upon him !) that he said whosoever
wrongs a zimmi or imposes a burden upon him beyond his strength I
shall be his accuser on the Day of Judgment " ; (Arnold).

P. 279. The Zimmis. — The following was the charter granted by
the Caliph Omar at the capitulation of Jerusalem surrendered in 638
A.H. " In the name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate. This is
the security which Omar the Servant of God, the Commander of the
Faithful, grants to the people of Aelia. He grants to all, whether sick
or sound, security for their lives, their possessions, their churches and
their crosses, and for all that concerns their religion. Their churches
shall not be changed into dwelling places nor destroyed, neither shall
they nor their appurtenances be in any way diminished, nor the crosses
of the inhabitants, nor aught of their possessions, nor shall any con-
straint be put upon them in the matter of their faith, nor shall anyone
of them be harmed " ; Baldzuri, p. 132 ; Kitdh ul-Khardj, p. 54 ; Al-
Makin, Historia Saracenica, p. 11.

Prophet's declaration : — " Whoever wrongs a Zimmi and lays on
him a burden beyond his strength I shall be his accuser."

" Whoever torments the Zimmis torments me."

Omar's injunction to Osman : — " I commend to your care the
Zimmis of the apostle of God ; see that the agreement with them is
kept, and they be defended against their enemies, and that no burden
is laid on them beyond their strength," Abu Yusuf, p. 71.

In similar terms is Ali's injunction to Mohammed Ibn Abu Bakr.
Governor of Egypt in 36 a.h. Tabari, in loco. See also D'Ohsson, p. 44.

P. 285. In the times of the later Abbaside Caliphs three more
Diwdns or departments came into existence, viz., the Diwdn-iil-Kazd
(the Ministry of Justice), the Diwdn ul-'Arz (the Paymaster General's
office), and the Diwdn ut-Tughra, where the imperial seals were kept
and the documents checked.

P. 288. In my former edition of the book I had said as follows :
" The importance which Islam attaches to the duties of sovereigns
towards their subjects, and the manner in which it promotes the freedom
and equality of the people and protects them against the oppres-
sion of their rulers is shown in a remarkable work by the celebrated
publicist Imam Fakhruddin Razi {i.e. of Rhages) on " the Reciprocal
Rights of Sovereigns and Subjects," edited and enlarged afterwards
by Mohammed bin Ali bin Taba Taba, commonly known as Ibn
Tiktaka."

This statement represents the view commonly entertained by the
Moulvis of India. In his work on the history of Arabic literature
(Weimar and Berlin, 1898- 1902), Brockelmann apparently entertained

490 THE SPIRIT OF ISLAM

the same opinion. And he was not singular among the scholars of
Europe on this point. Noel Devergers and apparently de Sacy and
several others were in agreement with him. Hartwig Derenbourg,
however, strongly challenged this view ; and Brockelmann in his later
work {the Nachtrdge, Vol. II. p. 708) altered his opinion. What has
influenced me, however, to cut out the attribution of the authorship
of the Tdrikh ud-duwal to Imam Fakhr ud din Razi is the fact that in
his enumeration of the works of this great scholar Ibn Khallikan does
not include the Tdrikh-ud-duwal. His omission is by no means con-
clusive, for he often leaves out important works, as in the case of Ibn
Ab'il Hadid, to whose great commentary on the Nahj-ul-Baldghat he
does not make the slightest reference. It has, however, been a deter-
mining factor in my omission of the passage in the new edition.

I am indebted to Mr. C. A. Storey of the India Ofi&ce for the following
passage from Brockelmann's works bearing on this point :

C. Brockelmann in his Geschichte der Arabischen Litteratur (Weimar
and Berlin, 1898- 1902), Vol. I. p. 506, has the following entry under
Fahraddin Abfi 'Abdallah M. b. 'Omar b. al-Hosain b. al Hatib ar-
R^zi :

"2. ta'rih adduwal in 2 Teilen : (a) Staatswissenschaft, [b) Gesch.
der 4 ersten Chalifen, der Bujiden, Selgilqen und Fatimiden, Paris, 895,
Ausziige von Jourdain, Fundgruben d. Or., V. 23. D. R. Henzius,
Fragmenta Arabica e. Codd. mss. nunc primum ed. (Fachraddini
Razii hist. Chal. prim.) Petrop. 1828."

In the Nachtrdge (Vol. II. p. 705) he has the following entry :

" 506, 6, 2. zu streichen, = al Fahri von b. at Tiqtaqa."

The entry relating to Ibn al Tiqtaqa (Vol. II. p. 161) is as follows:

" M. b. 'All b. Tabataba b. a^ Tiqtaqa, geb. um 660/1261, schrieb
701/1301 wahrend eines Aufenthaltes in M6sul fiir den dortigen Statt-
halter Fahraddin 'Isa b. Ibrahim :

Al k. al^ahri fil adab as Sultanija wad duwal al islamija. Paris 2441,
Flirstenspiegel und Geschichte der islamischen Reiche von Anfang bis
zu Ende des Chalifats, hrsg. v. W. Ahlwardt, Goth, i860, v. H. Deren-
bourg, Paris, 1895, Bibl. de I'ecole des hautes Etudes, fs. 105. Auszug
vom Verf. Paris 2442 ; vgl. Cherbonneau JAP. s. 4 t. 7. 8.9. 2 "

A footnote to this page says :

" 2 Damit identisch ist der tu'rU ad duwal. Bd. I. p. 506 mit Wieder-
holung eines alten Irrtums dem Fahraddin ar Razi zugeschrieben."

P. 288. Justice. — In the, Kitdb-itl-Mizdn ul-Hikma {" The Balance
of Wisdom "), written in the 12th century, occurs the following definition
of justice : — " Justice is the stay of all virtues and the support of all
excellences. In order to place justice on the pinnacle of perfection,
the Supreme Creator {al-Bdri Ta'dla) made himself known to the

APPENDIX III 491

choicest of His Servants under the name of the Just ; and it was
by the light of justice that the world became complete and perfected
and was brought to perfect order — to which there is allusion in the words
of him on whom there be blessings : "By Justice were the Heavens
and the Earth established."

P. 340. Although some Western scholars have doubted the accuracy
of the story that Nizam-ul-Mulk, Omar Khayyam and Hasan bin
Sabbah were fellow students, the latest biographer of " The Old Man of
the Mountain " re-afhrms that all three were at one time pupils of Imam
Musik ud-din (Muwaffak ud-din) (?). This new life of Hasan Sabbah
is by the pen of a learned Moulvi of Lucknow (Moulvi Abdul Halim
surnamed Sharar), and gives in a short compass an exhaustive and
well-balanced summary of Hasan Sabbah's life and objects, and of the
pernicious character of his propaganda.

P. 340. Hasan Sabbdh. — Moulvi Abdul Halim points out how Hasan
Sabbah's followers worked with hashish in carrying out their pernicious
propaganda ; how they drugged the minds of their proselytes for the
furtherance of their designs against the existing order. He also de-
scribes the hydra-headed character of the occult doctrine professed by
these enemies of society ; how on the destruction of the Kardmita
the Isma'ilias sprang into existence.

P. 359. Bdbis. — The Babis, who have now split up into several
sections, are to be found chiefly in foreign countries. They are said
to abound in the United States ; many of them are settled in Beyrout
and not a few in Bombay and Calcutta. The greatest authority in
England on Babism, Professor E. G. Browne, says that the Babi cult
has nothing in common with Sufism. One fundamental difference
between the two cults lies in their mentality ; whilst Siifism shows
great charity towards differing systems, Babism is intensely exclusive,
not to say fanatical.

P. 400. Safawi. — A new theory appears to have been recently
started attributing the derivation of the term " Safawi," the designation
of the dynasty founded by Shah Isma'il in Persia, to the word Safi
which forms part of the name of Safi-ud-din, the ancestor of Shah
Isma'il ; and not to " Sufi," the title borne by Safi ud-din. To this
theory I venture to enter a respectful protest. For several centuries
after the foundation of the Persian Empire the Shahs of Persia were
styled by European travellers, merchants, and chroniclers " The
Grand Sophi," in contradistinction to " The Grand Mogul " and " The
Grand Turk." The reason is obvious. Among oriental writers the
word " safawi " has always been recognised as derived from Sufi, just
as the other designation of this dynasty, " Musawi," is derived from the
Imam Musa al-Kazim. The Rizawi Syeds trace their descent from
Imam AU, son of the Imam Mfisa.

P. 402. The sack of Bagdad.— In the following couplet Sa'di has

492 THE SPIRIT OF ISLAM

expressed his horror at the terrible scenes he witnessed at the sack <
Bagdad :

" It is meet that Heaven should rain tears of blood on earth
At the destruction that has befallen
The Empire of Musta'sim, Commander of the Faithful.
O Mohammed ! If in the Day of Judgment you will raise you

head above the earth
Raise your head and see the tribulation of the people now."
The effect of the picture drawn by the poet is lost in the translation.

p. 406. Predestination. — The following tradition reported b
'Ubayy ibn Ka'b throws considerable light on the view held by th
Prophet on the subject of predestination : — " the most prosperous ma
is he who becomes prosperous by his own exertions ; and the mos
wretched man is he who becomes wretched by his own actions."

The great Caliph Omar is reported to have inflicted double punist
ment on a man who was caught in the act of committing an evil dee
and had said in exculpation that he was led to do it by the decre
of God.

Ameer-ul-Mominin Ali (The Caliph) , in answer to one of his men wh
had fought at Sif&n, and had enquired whether it was the decree of Go
that had led them to Syria, is reported to have said as follows :

" Perhaps you consider predestination to be necessary and th
particular decree to be irreversible ; if it were so, then would rewar^
and punishment be vain, and the promise and the threat would be c
no account ; and surely blame would not have come from God for th
sinner nor praise for the righteous, nor would the righteous be mor
worthy of the reward of his good deeds than the wicked, nor the wickei
be more deserving of the punishment of his sin than the righteous
Such a remark (savours) of the brethren of devils and the worshippers c
idols and of the enemies of the Merciful and of those who bear witnes
to falsehood and of those that are blind to the right in their concerns-
such as the fatalists and the Magians of this church. God hath ordainei
the giving of choice (to men) and forbidden the putting (of them) ii
fear ; and He hath not laid duties upon men by force, nor sent Hi,
Prophets in sport. This is the notion of unbelievers, and woe unto th
unbelievers in hell ! " Then asked the old man : " What is this pre
destination and particular decree which drove us ? " He answered
" The command of God therein and His purpose." Then he repeatec
(the verse) : " The Lord hath ordained (predestined) that ye worshi]
none but Him, and kindness to your parents."

APPENDIX III 493

The second apostolical Imam's letter to the people of Basra also
contains the follo%\dng passage which is worthy of note : " Whoever
makes his Lord responsible for his sin is a transgressor ; God does not
make people obey Him against their will, nor force them to sin against
their will."

P. 414. The word Mu'tazila. — In the Ghyas-ul-Lughat and the
Farhang (Lucknow) the word J^J^ is spelt Avith a fatha on the
third syllable, which would make it in its English garb Mu'tazala.
The Farhang is the work of three of the most learned Moslem scholars
of India, and is the best and most comprehensive lexicon of its kind,
a real encyclopaedia. In its compilation the authors have used every
existing lexicon, among them the Kashf-ul-Lughdt, the Surdh the
Tdj-ul-'Uriis and a number of others, so that it cannot be said they have
decided lightly. In Richardson's Dictionary the word is spelt similarly.

In the Lisdn-ul-'Arab the word is printed with a Kesra under the third
syllable, which would make it read Mu'tazila. And Western Oriental-
ists have almost entirely adopted this view.

The difference, which to an outsider unacquainted with the Arabic
language may sound like a distinction without a difference, arises from
the question, did Wasil bin 'Ata leave the majlis of his own accord, or
was he asked on account of his disagreement with the Imam to with-
draw ? Ibn Khallikan says he was " expelled." In the first case the
active participle would be the right form, and the word would be
mu'tazila ; in the latter case it would be mu'tazala. The Indian Moulvis
hold the opinion that he was asked to leave ; in which they are sup-
ported by Ibn Khallikan. And yet de Slane, the translator of the
Wafi'dt al-Aydn transliterates the word as Mu'tazilite.

In all my previous works I have followed the Ghyds and the Farhang,
but in view of the unanimity among Western Orientalists and in order
to avoid confusing the reader I have decided in this Edition to range
myself with them. This does not, however, alter my adherence to
the scholars of my country.

P. 419. Mu'tazila doctrines. — " The Mu'tazilas are agreed that the
world has a Creator, Eternal, Almighty, Omniscient, Living. He is
neither a body nor an accident nor a substance ; He is self-sufficient.
One, incomprehensible by sense. Just, All- wise, doth no wrong; nor
purposeth any ; He lays duties on human beings by way of indicating
retribution to them. He renders man capable of action, removes
hindrance out of the way, and retribution is absolutely necessary ;
further, they agree upon the necessity of the sending of a Prophet when
a sending is desirable, and that the Prophet must bring a new law or
revive one of which no trace is left, or provide some new life to human-
ity ; and they are agreed that the last of the Prophets is Mohammed ;
and that faith is a declaration and knowledge and action. And they
agree that man's action is not created in him ; they agree in having
friendly feelings towards the Companions of the Prophet, but they
disagree about Osmin after the events that he brought about ; most

494 THE SPIRIT OF ISLAM

of them, however, have friendly feeHngs towards him and offer explanajj
tions for his conduct. And most of them are agreed about standing
aloof from Mu'awiyah and 'Amr ibn al-'As and they are agreed upon the
necessity of enjoining good acts and the forbidding of evil."

P. 472. Ameer Khusru, although he has been accorded a ph
amongst the Awlia (the Sufi saints), was certainly not a professed Suf
Most of the Moslem poets of India bear more than a tinge of mysticisr
and have given expression to it in their poetry. I have alreac
mentioned Dabir [ante, p. 460). The three brothers, Anis, Munis, ai
Uns {noms de plume derived from one and the same root), were cor
temporaries of Dabfr and their thoughts run in the same channe
Altaf Husain Khan Hdli and Asad ullah Khan Ghdlib, like the ur
fortunate Bahadur Shah, the last titular King of Delhi, who wa
deported by the British to Rangoon after the Mutiny, were " intuitional-
ists " In one of his finest poems Ghalib speaks of Bahadur Shah'
in these terms :

Shah-i-roushan dil Bahddur Shah kehai
Rdz-i-hasti uspeh sar-ta-sar khula.
The King Bahadur Shah of the illumined heart.
He has had opened to him fully the mysteries of existence.
P. 472. Sennusi. — The Sennusiya order, if it can be so called, was
founded by Mohammed bin Ali as-Sennusi al-Idrisi. He was a descend-
ant of the Prophet through Idris, who had escaped into the Maghrib
(West Africa) from the massacre in Medina by Yezid's troops. He was
born in a place called Mustaghanem in Algeria in 1787. He appears to
have been a man of a particularly virile character. He travelled much
in the Islamic countries which were easy of access, and noted the
deterioration in morals which resulted to the Arabs and other Moslems
of North Africa from contact with the peoples of the Mediterranean
littoral. He also observed how the Moslems had fallen away from the
old teachings, and how lethargic and fatalistic they had become. He
uplifted them by directing their energies to such industries as conduced
to material prosperity and their minds to the duties imposed by their
religion.

Sidi Mohammed bin Ali, before his death in 1859, had founded numbers
of zavias or lodges in the Hijaz and Yemen, in the Libyan Oases, in
Cyrenaica and Algeria. And those lodges, in mid-Africa at least, exer-
cised considerable moral influence. In Morocco his disciples, who are
usually called Brothers (" Ikhwan "), made little or no progress in
consequence of the old established Moulai Tyyib order. Sidi Mohammed
was succeeded by his son Mohammed al-Mahdi as the head of the
fraternity.

P. 473. I am quoting from memory —

Kajkol ko tdj khusrawdni sahmjhai

Aur dunyd dani ko fdni samjhai

Dariai Hakikat wahi jawai pair

Jo Kisai 'umar ko kahdni samjhai.

APPENDIX III 495

Apostasy. — The punishment for apostasy provided by the ecclesiastical
laws of Islam has recently caused some amount of perturbation among
politicians and others in England. " Apostasy " has always from the
earUest times been regarded as a capital offence in all the religious
and civil systems of the world, as it formed a breach of loyalty to
established order. The Romans condemned the early Christians to
death because they had set themselves up against the government and
the State-religion. The Christians, when they obtained supremacy,
followed the Roman example. The Romish Church burnt apostates,
heretics, men, women and even children, without mercy all over the
globe. The Reformed Churches were not lacking in ardour in the
cause of orthodoxy and maintenance of conformity. Apostates were
subject to the penalty of death up to very recent times in England.
At the present time a person renouncing Christianity is not put to
death, but is subject to social and civil ostracism. The Prophet of
IslS.m never condemned freedom of conscience, but treason to the
Commonwealth was punished with death. It was frequently the case
that the Meccans made a profession of the faith in order to get into the
city of Medina, and after obtaining all the information connected
with the security of the little Moslem State returned to Mecca and
threw ofE Islam. When captured they were condemned to execution.
Treason is still in our own days, throughout the world, punishable
with death, and no objection can be taken to these executions. The
Moslem ecclesiastical law that an apostate must undergo the penalty
of death is based on this rule. But women are not punishable with
death, they are only imprisoned ; nor is any cliild subject to that
penalty. This is the difference between Islam and Christianity in the
matter of humanity and freedom of conscience. If I am not mistaken,
the penalty of death for " apostasy " was abolished in Turkey in the
reign of Sultan Selim II. towards the end of the eighteenth century.

APPENDIX IV

For the Genealogical Tables of the Saracenic Caliphs and Sovereigna
see my Short History of the Saracens. I give here the names of the
Ommeyyade Caliphs of Damascus and Spain, of the Abbaside Calipl:
of Bagdad and the Fatimide Caliphs of Cairo, with the dates of theii
accession to make the text intelligible.

THE RASHIDIN CALIPHS.

A.H. A.C.

1. Abu Bakr ii= 632

2. Omar 13= 634

3. Osman 23= 644

4- All 35 = 656

THE OMMEYYADE SOVEREIGNS OF DAMASCUS.

AH. A.C.

1. Mu'awiyah I. ------- 41= 661

2. Yezid --------- 61 = 681

3. Muawiya'i II. ------- 64 = 683

4. Merwan I. 65= 684

5. Abdul Malik - 65 = 685

6. Walid I. -.-.---- 86 = 705

7. Sulaiman - 96= 715

8. Omar bin Abdul Aziz - 99 = 71?

9. Yezid II. -------- loi = 720

10. Hisham -------- 105 = 724

11. Walid II. 125 = 743

12. Yezid III. - - - - - - - 126 = 744

13. Ibrahim -------- 126 = 744

14. Mervvan II. 127 = 745

THE ABBASIDE CALIPHS OF BAGDAD.

1. As-Saff4h, Abu' I Abbds (Abdullah) -

2. Al-Mansur, Abd Ja'far

496

A.H.

A.C.

132 =

750

136 =

754

APPENDIX IV

497

AH. A.C.

3. Al-Mahdi (Mohammed) 158= 775

4. Al-Hadi (Musa) 168 = 785

5. Ar-Rashid (Harun) 170= 786

6. Al-Amin (Mohammed) - - - - - - 193= 809

g7. Al-Mamun (Abdullah) 198 = 813

8. Al-Mu'tasim b'lUah (Abu Ishak Mohammed) - - 218 = 833

9. Al-Wasik b'lllah (Abu Jaafar Harun) - - - 227 = 842

10. Al-Mutawakkil 'ala-Illah (Jaafar) - - - - 232 = 847

11. Al-Muntasir b'lllah (Mohammed) - - . - 247 = 861

12. Al-Mustain b'lllah (Ahmed) ----- 248 = 862

13. Al-Mu'tazz b'lllah (Mohammed) - - - - 252 = 866

14. Al-Muhtadi b'lllah (Mohammed Abfl Ishak) - - 255 = 869

15. Al-Mu'tamid al'-Allah (Ahmed, Abu'l Abb^s) - 256 = 870

16. Al-Mutazid b'lllah (Ahmed, Abu'l Abbas) - - 279 = 892

17. Al-Muktafi b'lllah (Ali, Abu Mohammed) - - 289 = 902

18. Al-Muktadir b'lllah (Ja'far, Abu'l Fazl) - - 295 = 908

19. Al-Kahir b'lllah (Mohammed, Abu Mansur) - - 320 = 932

20. Ar-Razi b'lllah (Mohammed Abu'l Abbas) - - 322 = 934
:i. Al-Muttaki b'lllah (Ibrahim, Abu'l Ishak) - - 329 = 940

22. Al-Mustakfi b'lllah (Abdullah, Abu'l Kasim) - 333 = 944

23. Al-Muti 'Ullah (Fazl, Abul Kasim) ... 334 = 946
>4. At-Tai b'lllah (Abdul Karim, Abu Bakr) - - 363 = 974
>5. Al-Kadir b'lllah (Ahmed, Abu'l Abbas) - - - 381 = 991
•6. Al-Kaim biamr Illah (Abdullah, Abu Jaafar) - - 422 = 1031
•7. Al-Muktadi bi'amr-Illah (Abdullah, Abu'l Kasim) - 467 = 1075
:8. Al-Mustazhir b'lllah (Ahmed, Abu'l Abbas) - - 487 = 1094
■9. Al-Mustarshid b'lllah (Fazl, Abu'l Mansur) - - 512 = 1118
,0. Ar-Rashid b'lllah (Mansur, Abu Jaafar) - - 529 =1135

1. Al-Muktaii bi'amr-Illah (Mohammed, Abu Abdullah) 530 = 1136

2. Al-Mustanjid b'lllah (Yusuf, Abu'l Muzaffar) - 555 -^1160

3. Al-Mustazii bi'amr-Illah (Hasan, Abu Mohammed) 566 = 1170

4. An-NS,sir li-din-Iliah (Ahmed, Abu'l Abbas) - - 575 =1180

5. Az-Zahir bi'amr-Illah (Mohammed, AbQ Nasr) - 622 = 1225

6. Al-Mustansir b'lllah (Mansur, Abu Ja'far) - - 623 = 1226

7. Al-Musta'sim b'lllah (Abdullah, Abu Ahmed) - 640 = 1242

I THE FATIMIDE CALIPHS OF EGYPT

1 A.H. A.C.

1. Al-Mahdi, ObaiduUah - - - - - - 296 = 908

2. Al-Kaim bi-amr-IUah 322 ^ 934

5. Al-Mansur bi-amr-Illah ------ 334 = 945

\. Al-Muizz li-din-IUah i— 34^= 953

). Al-Aziz b'lllah - 3^5 = 975

■). Al-Hakim bi-amr-Illah - - - - - - 386 = 996

;'. Az-Zahir r-az&z-din-Illah ----- 411 =1021

!i. Al-Mustansir b'lllah 427 = 1036

s.i, 2 I

498

lO.

II.

12.

13-

14.

THE SPIRIT OF ISLAM

Al-Musta'li b'lllah -
Al-'Amir bi-Ahkam-Illah
Al-Hafiz li-din-Illah
Az-Zafir bi-amr-Illah
Al-Faiz bi-amr-Illah
Al-'Azid-li-din-IUah

A.H.

A.C.

487

1094

494

IIOI

523

II30

544

1 149

549

II54

555

ii6a

THE OMMEYYADE CALIPHS OF CORDOVA.

138-422, 756-1031 A.C.

A.H.

Abdur Rahman I. (ad Ddkhil) 138 = 756

Hisham I. (Abu'l Walid) 172 = 788J

Hakam I., al-Muntasir - - - - - - 180= 7961

Abdur Rahman II. [al-Ausat) ----- 206 = 822

Mohammed I. ------- - 238 = 852

Munzir --------- 273 = 88^

Abdullah - - - 275 = 888

An-Nasir li-din-Illah, Abdur Rahman III. - - - 300 = 912

Al-Mustansir b'lllah, Hakam II. - - - - - 350 = 961

Al-Muwayyid b'lllah, Hisham II. - - - - 366 = 97(

Al-Mahdi, Mohammed II. - - - - - - 399 = looc

Al-Musta'in b'lllah, Sulaiman ----- 400 = ioo(

Mohammed II (again) - - 400 = loi*

Hisham II. (again) ------- 400 = iok

Sulaiman (again) -------- 403 = loi

Ali bin Hamud {An-Ndsir the Idriside) . . . 407 == loi'

Abdur Rahman IV {al-Mttrtaza) ----- 408 = lor

Kasim bin Hamud (al-Mdmun) ----- 408 = loi

Yahya bin Ali bin Hamud [al-Mnsta'li) - - - 412 = 102

Kasim bin Hamud (again) - 413 = 102

.\bdur Rahman V. [al-Mustazhir h'llldh) - - - 414 = 102

Mohammed III. [al-Miistakfi b'llldh) - - - - 414 = 102

Yahya bin AU bin Hamud (again) - - - - 416 = 102

Hisham III. [al-Mn'tazz h'llldh) - - - - - 418 = 102

GENERAL INDEX.

N.B. — In the following index the definite article al before proper names
is disregarded, while the prefix Banu or Bajii (" sons of . . . ") before the
names of tribes is omitted ; al-Hallaj, e.g. should be sought under H, and
Banu-Abbas under A.

The letter b. between two names stands for ibn (" son of . . . "), and n
for note.

Abbas, uncle of the Prophet, 6, 7, 9 n,

14. 44, 113, 128, 305-6.
Abbas II., Shah of Persia, 451.
Abbasides (Banu-Abbas), 276, 283-4,

285, 304, 305. 307-13. 315. 316, 324,

325, 326, 339, 367, 371, 372, 389.
Abdullah, father of the Prophet, 7, 8,

128.
Abdullah Abu'l Abbas, see Saffah.
Abdullah Abu Ja'far, see Mansur

(Cahph).
Abdullah b. Abbas, 237, 274, 296, 306,

363. 436.
Abdullah b. Abu Kuhafa, see Abu

Bakr.
Abdullah b. Ahmed b. Ali al-Beithar,

386.
Abdullah b. Juda'an, 13.
Abdullah b. Maimun al-Kaddah, 326,

330-5. 336, 337-
Abdullah b. Sa'd b. Surrah, 295.
Abdullah b. Ubayy, 57, 60, 68. 76,

103, 115 n.
Abdullah b. Zubair, 7 n.
Abd ud-Dar b. Kosayy, 4, 5.
Abd ul-Halim Sharar, Moulvi, 494.
Abd ul-Kabir, a friend of Ibn-Rushd,

431-
Abd ul-Kadir Ghilani, Sheikh, 343 n,

369. 472.
Abd ul-Kais, tribe of, Ixvi.
Abd ul-Malik b. Merwan, 128, 254,

303 w. 355-
\bd ul-Mahk II.

Caliph, 3 n.

499

Abd(u) Manaf, see AbG Talib.

Abd(u) Manaf b. Kosayy, 4, 5 «.

Abd ul-Muttalib, grandfather of the
Prophet, Ixviii, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10, 13,
128.

Abd ur-Rahm&n b. 'Auf, 21.

Abd ur-Rahman al-Hazini, astrono-
mer, 381.

Abd ur-Rahman Sufi, physicist, 376.

Abd ur-Razzak b. Ali b. Hasan
al-Lahiji, 451, 452.

Abd us-Salam ar-Rukn, physician,
450.

Abd ush-Shams b. Abd(u) Manaf, 4,

5 «•
Abd ush-Shams, surnamed ' Saba,'

Ixii-lxiii.
Abd ul-'Uzza, see Abu Lahab.
Abelard, 397.
Aben-Bethar, see Abdullah b. Ahmed

b. AH al-Beithar.
Abraha al-Ashram, Ixiii n, 7-8.
Abraham, Ixiv, Ixx, 20.
Abu'l Abbas, see Saffah.
Abu Abdullah b. al-Mubarak, 351.
Abu Abdullah Mohammed b. Karram,

443-
Abu Abdullah Mohammed b. Sa'id,

poet, 107 n.
Abfi Ali Mohammed al-Jubbai, 415,

420, 452.
Abii Bakr, Caliph, 6, 21, 26, 27, 38. 46,

47, 48, 69, 86, 103, 116, 122, 126,

127, 234, 264, 278, 280, 293, 294,

323. 460.

2 I 2

500

GENERAL INDEX

Abu Bakr Mohammed b. Yahya, see

Ibn-Baja.
Abu Bakr Mohammed b. Zakaria

ar-Razi, 385.
Abucara, Theodorus, 365.
Abu'l Feda, geographer, 384, 390, 391.
Abu Hanifa, Imam, 186, 351, 369,

436-7. 438, 444. 445. 469-
Abu'l Hasan, optician, 375.
Abu'l Hasan, see Asha'ri.
Abu'l Hasan b. Tilmiz, physician,

386 «.
Abu'l Hasan Ali b. Amajur, astrono-
mer, 375.
Abu Hashim Klialid b. Yazid, 364.
Abu Huraira, 120, 199.
Abu'l Huzail Hamdan, 415, 419.
Abu Ja'far Ahmed b. Mohammed

at-Talib, physician, 386 n.
Abu Jahl, uncle of the Prophet, 7 n,

47, 61, 62.
Abu Jariya, 55.
Abu'l Kasim Ahmed, ist Abbaside

Caliph in Egypt, 130.
Abu'l Kasim Kinderski, 486.
Abu Lahab, uncle of the Prophet, 7 n,

37. 39-
Abu'l Ma'ali al-Juwaini, 420, 421.
Abu Ma'shar, astronomer, 374.
Abu Mohammed Abdullah, founder

of the Fatimide dynasty, see

Obaidullah.
Abfi Mughais b. Mansfir, see al-

Hallaj.
Abu Musa al- Asha'ri, 298, 355, 441.
Abu Musa Jabir, chemist, 384, 484.
Abu Muslim Khorasani, 308, 309,

311-12.
Abu Nasr Farabi, see al-Farabi.
Abu Nasr as-Sarraj, 460, 461, 463,

473. 474-
Abu Noumy, son of the Sherif of

Mecca, 132.
Abu Obaidah, 279.
Abfl Raf'e Sallam b. Abu'l Hukaik, 73.
Abu Sa'id b. Abi'l Khair, 459 n.
Abu Salma Ja'far b. Sulaiman al-

Khallal, 309-10.
Abu Sufian, 6, 57, 67, 68, 69 n, 71, 78,

79, 90, 105, 299.
Abu Talib, uncle of the Prophet, 6,

J n, g n, 10, 14, 20-21, 23, 26, 36-37,

39, 41, 128.
Abfl Thumama Haran b. Habib, see

Mosaihma.

Abu'l Ula, poet, 395.

Abu 'Uzza, poet, 73 n.

Abu'l Wafa, mathematician, 376.

Abu Ya'kub Yusuf, Almohade, 429.

Abu Yflsuf, Imam, 186, 273, 437, 491.

Abyssinia, 29, 38.

Accadians, the, xix, xxxi.

'Ad, tribe of, lix, Ix, Ixx, 25.

'Adi b. Hatim, 106.

'Adi b. Ka'b, family of, 37.

'adl, doctrine of, 418, 419.

'Adnan, progenitor of the Koreish, 2.

Aelia, 492.

Afghanistan, 343, 344.

Afrasiab, xxx.

Afshanah, near Bokhara, 387.

Aghlabites, the, 324, 375.

Agricola, Johannes, 461.

Ahirman, Persian god, xxx, 192.

Ahmed b. Halt, 415.

Ahmed b. Mohammed, poet, 396.

Ahmed b. Mohammed an-Nehavendi,
astronomer, 373-4.

Ajarida, the, 356.

'Ajlan, tribe of, 65.

Ajmere, 472.

Ajnadin, battle of, 276.

'Akaba, hill of, 43, 45.

Akbar, the Moghul Emperor, x\,\
472 n.

Akhb&ris, the, 346-9.

'Akil b. Abu Talib, 14.

'Ala ud-Dowla, Ameer of Isfaht
387.

'dlam ul-jabarM, 473, 474.

'dlam ul-malaMt, 474.

'dlam til-mulk, 473.

Alamiit, 340, 342.

Albigenses, the, 80, 220, 313, 397, 35

Albucasis, physician, 385, 386.

Alexander the Great, xxxiv, xxxv,
liii, Ixiii n.

Alexander VI., Pope, 339 n.

Alexandria, 75, 140, 482.

Algeria, 497.

Alhazen, see Hasan b. Haitham.

Ali, Caliph, 14, 20-21, 23, 38, 46, 47I
49, 62, 67 n, 68 n, 69, 70, 97, 103I
104, 106, 108, 115, 117, 122-3, I26|
127, 128, 132, 163, 166, 234, 250J
254, 274, 280, 281, 283, 293, 295I
296-7, 298, 303, 306, 307, 308, 32l|
323, 328, 345, 354, 355, 362, 363*
409, 414, 416, 436, 440, 458, 4591
460, 472 n, 484, 492, 495.

GENERAL INDEX

501

Ali II. (Zain ul-'Abidin), 302, 307,

321, 345. 458.
Ali b. Abbas, physician, 385.
Ali b. Abdullah b. Abbas, 306.
Ali b. Amajur, astronomer, 375.
Ali Mohammed, the Bab, 358.
Ali b. Musa Riza, Imam, 312, 345,

352, 412, 461 n, 464 n, 494.
Ali Naki, Imam, 346.
Ali Shah al-Bokhari, philosopher, 382.
Ah Sh^r Ameer, 383.
Ali b. Yunus, astronomer, see Ibn-

Yunus.
Almagest, the, 374.
Almeria, 392.

Almohades, the 129, 400 n.
Almoravides, the, 129, 400 n.
Alp Arslan, Sultan, 444.
Altaf Husain Hali, poet, 497.
'Amalekites, the, lix, Ix, Ixi, 53.
Ameer Khusru, poet, 472, 497.
Amina, mother of the Prophet, 7, 9.
'Amir, tribe of, 71.
'Ammar b. Yasar. 27.
Ammonius Saccas, xlv, xlvi.
'Amr, the Ghassanide, 14.
'Amr b. al-'As (Amru), liii, 94 n, 297,

298, 497.
'Amr b. 'Auf, clan of, 49.
Anabaptists, 219.

Anas, servant of the Prophet, 119.
Anis, Indian poet, 497.
'Antar, the hero, 254.
Anushirvan the Just, xxxvii, Ixiii n,

Ixix, 8 n, 218, 326, 327, 367.
Anwari, poet, 368, 396.
Aquinas, Thomas, 185.
Arabia, xxxi, Ivi, Ixiv, 53, 290.
Arcadius, Emperor, 226.
Ardeshir Babekan, xxxv, xxxvi.
Arians and Arianism, 1, 219, 220, 277,

327-
Aristotle, xxxiv, 181.
Arius, 1.

Arnold, Matthew, 141.
Arnold, Sir Thomas, 491.
Arphaxad, ancestor of Kahtan, lix.
, Arslan al-Basasiri, 315 n.
. Artaxerxes Mnemon, xxxiii.
Arthur, the Knight, 252.
. Arvenius, patriarch, 377 n.
Arwa, daughter of Abd ul-Muttalib,

7«.
Aryans, the, xxi, xxii, xxix.
Aryat, the Abyssinian general, Ixiii «.

Asad, tribe of, Ixvi.

Asad ullah Khan Gh&lib, poet, 497.

Asha'ri and Asha'rism, 441-8, 452,

453, 462, 465, 467, 473, 474. 476,

486, 487.
Ashtaroth, goddess, xix, 187.
Asia Minor, 330.
Asoka, Emperor, iii n.
Asshur, religion of, xxx, xxxi.
Assyria, xxxi.
Aswad, of the house of Abd ul-'Uzza,

6.
al- Aswad, 'Ayhala b. Ka'b, 115-6.
Asyr, border of Yemen, Ivii.
Athenians, the, 223, 242, 248.
'Atika, daughter of Abd ul-Muttalib,

7«.
Attila, 402.
Augustine, St., 225.
Augustus Caesar, 372.
Aurungzeb, Emperor, 315.
Aus, tribe of, 53, 58, 74, 205.
Autas, valley of, 98.
Avenpace, see Ibn-Baja.
Aven-Zoar, see Ibn-Zuhr.
Averroes, see Ibn-Rushd.
Avicenna, see Ibn-Sina.
Awwam, 7 n.
'Ayesha, wife of the Prophet, 117,

234, 250, 296-7.
'Ayhala b. Ka'b, see al- Aswad.
ayydm ul-mina, the, 4.
Ayyubides, the, 284, 445.
Azar, father of Abraham, xx n.
Azarbaijan, xix.
Azarika, the, 356-7.
al-'Azid, Fatimide Caliph, 487.
Aziz b'illah, Fatimide Caliph, 377.
azlam, the, 7.
Aztecs, the, 398.
'Azud ud-Dowla, the Buyide, 376,

386 n, 444.

Baal, god, xix, 187.

Babek Khurrami, 327.

Babis and Babiism, 357-8. 482, 494.

Babylon, Babylonia and Babylonians,

xix, xxxi, xxxii, 248.
Bactria, xix, xxxiv.
Badakhshan, xx.

Badr, battle of, 61-63, 66, 73, 279.
Badr ud-Din Chach, poet, 131.
Bagdad, 129, 130, 131, 362, 367-70,

371, 397. 402 n, 440, 465, 468, 487.

502

GENERAL INDEX

Bahadur Shah, last King of Delhi,

497-
Bahaism, 359 n.

Bahmani sovereigns of India, 315.
al-Bahrain, Ivii, 336, 355.
Baibars, Sultan, 130.
Baki, suburb of Medina, 68 n.
Bakr, tribe of, 95.
Balazuri, historian, 389.
Balkh, XX.
Balkis, Ixiii.

Barbarossa, Frederick, 342 n.
Barcelona, 392.
Barmekides, the, 312.
Barra, daughter of Abd ul-Muttalib,

jn.
Basra, 11 n, 55, 296, 367, 432, 441,

485. 487-
al-Batani, mathematician, 375.
Batha, near Mecca, 27, 40.
Batinias, the, 344.
Bayezid Bistami, 461, 470.
Bayezid, founder of the Roushenia

order, 343-4, 471.
Bazan, governor of Yemen, Ixiii n,

116.
al-Beiruni, astronomer and historian,

380, 384, 390.
Beltis, goddess, xix.
Beyrout, 494.

Bhagavad Gita, xxiii, xxiv, xxv, 455.
Bibi Khanum, Timur's Consort, 383.
Bibi Pakdaman, 461 11.
Bilal, the Muezzin, 27.
Bir-Ma'una, 71.

Blagovestchenk, in Manchuria, 87 «
Boccaccio, 254.
Bokhara, 382, 484.
Bombay, 494.

Brahe, Tycho, mathematician, 376.
Brahmanism, xxvii, 160.
Brockelmann, C, 492, 493.
Buddhism, xxvi, xxvii.
Bundehesh, the, 191.
Buran, wife of Mamun, 255.
Burhan ud-Din, saint, 472.
Busra, near Damascus, 90.
Buyides, the, 284, 376, 444, 447-8.

Cadiz, 392.

Cairo, 129. 130, 131, 324, 337, 340,
362, 371, 372, 375, 376, 393 n, 4^o.
Calcutta, 494.
Caliphate, theory of, 122-8.

Calvin, 211 n, 330, 454.

Cansoya, 193 m.

Carthagena, 392.

Catherine, St., Monastery of, 84. ! ;:

Catholics and Catholicism, 219, 454, \M

Caussin de Perceval, 8, 40, 49, 70 n,!'
72 n, 95 n.

Celts, the, xx.

Cerinthus, xlv.

Chalcedon, Council of, li.

Charlemagne, 211, 220.

Charles Martel, 398. 1

Chaucer, 254. jB

Chedorlaomer, Ixi. ;

Chengiz, 368, 382.

China, 249, 381, 482.

Chinevad, the bridge in Hell, 191, 192.

Chiragh Ali, Moulvi, 230 n.

Chrysostom, St., 251.

Chyroseir the Paulician, 330, 336.

Clovis, Christian, 220.

Clytus, xxxiv.

Co-Cheou-King, Chinese mathe-
matician, 383.

CoUyridians, the, 142.

Conrad of Montferrat, 342 n.

Constantine, xli, 1, lii, Ixiii n, 66, iii «,
212, 221, 226, 372.

Constantinople, liv, Ixix, 132-3, 392,
398, 399

Cordova, 129, 362, 371, 378-9, 392,
■^ 397. 470. 484-

Corea, 249.

Corsairs, the, 400.

Cromwell [OUver], 81, 265 n.

Cybele, Egyptian god, xl.

Cyrenaica, 497.

Cyril, St., h, 255.

Cyrus, xxxi, xxxii.

Dabir, Indian poet, 497.
Dahna, desert of, Iviii.
Dakiki, poet, 380.
Damascus, 11 n, 365, 367, 397.
ad-Damiri, zoologist, 387.
Daniel, 190.

Darius Hystaspes, xxii, xxxii.
Ddr un-Nadwa, the, 3, 46.
David, 47, 81, 240.
Deccan, the, 470.
Demeter, god, xl, xli.
Demiurge, deity, xlvi, xlvii.
Demosthenes, 223.
Derenbourg, Hartwig, 492.

GENERAL INDEX

503

Dhirar b. Abd ul-Muttalib, 7 n.

Diocletian, xxxiii.

Dionysus, god, xl, xli.

Dioscorides, 3S5, 387.

Dives, xlii.

diyai, 6.

Docetes, the, xxxix, Ixx.

Dominicans, the, 342.

Drogheda, 81, 265 h.

Duff, Gordon, Lady, 230.

Dumat ul-Jandal, Ixvi, 77 n, 86, 298,

355-
Durthur, a Bedouin warrior, 67.

Eber, ancestor of Kahtan, lix.

Ebionites, the, xxxix.

Eckhart, 456.

Edessa, 365.

Edom, Ixi.

Edomites, the, Ixi.

Egypt, Iv, Ix, Ixix, 324, 438, 445, 487.

Elephant, year of the, 8.

Ehjah, 44 n, 192 n.

England, 219, 256, 498.

Ephesus, 336.

, Council of, li.

Epiphanes, Antiochus, xxxv.

Essenians, the, xxxvii, 168, 224.

Etruscans, the, 223, 248,

Ezekiel, 190.

Ezra, 140, 151.

Fakhr ud-Din 'Isa b. Ibrahim, Ameer
of Mosul, 288, 493.

Fakhr ud-Din al-Maraghi, philo-
sopher, 382.

Fakhr ud-Din Razi, Imam, 341 tt,
492-3-

Fakhr ul-Mulk b. Nizam ul-Mulk, 466,
469.

fakirs, the, 471.

fandf'illah, doctrine of, 474.

al-Farabi, 425, 426, 433, 449, 474, 485.

Farid ud-Din 'Attar, 396, 457, 460,
467, 470, 477.

Farid un, xxx n.

Fath b. Nabeghah Khakani, philo-
sopher, 382.

Fatima, daughter of the Prophet, 14,
68 n, 122, 123, 126, 250, 393 n, 458.

Fatima, daughter of 'Amr Makhrumi,

7M.

F&timides, the, 312, 314, 315, 324,
325, 326, 332, 336, 339. 375. 376.

Fazal, of Jurhum, 13.
Fazl, of Jurhum, 13.
Fazl b. 'Abbas, 117, 306.
Fazl al-Hadathi, 415.
Fez, 322, 375, 400.
Fidak, 53,

Fihr (also called Koreish), 2.
Firdousi, 380, 396, 464 n.
Fizara, tribe of, 84, 92.
Franciscans, the, 342.
Frisians, the, 220.
Fuzail. of Jurhum, 13.

Gahleo, 483.

Gautama, xxvi.

Geber the chemist, see Abu Musa

Jabir.
Ghailan Dimishki, 413.
Ghair-Mukallidism, 353.
Ghassanides, the, Ixvi, Ixix.
Ghatafan, tribe of, 73, 84, 92.
Ghazza (or Gaza), in Syria, 5, 90.
al-Ghazzali, Imam, 166, 167, 199,

448-469, 470, 473-4, 475, 476, 486.
Ghilan, xix.

Ghulat (or Ghallia), the, 343.
Giralda (tower of Seville), 379.
Goths, the, 401.
Granada, 392, 397.
Greece, xxxiii, xxxiv.
Gregory the Great, Pope, 372.
Grotius, 211 n.

Habrar, a Koreishite, 85.

Hadrian, xxxvii, xlv, 260.

Hafiz, poet, 396, 457, 475.

Hafsa, wife of the Prophet, 234-5.

Hajjaj b. Yusuf, 310, 357.

Hakim bi Amr'illah, Fatimide, 339 n,

377-
Hakim b. Hashim al-Mokanna, 327.
hdl, Sufi doctrine of, 475.
Hala, wife of Abd ul-Muttalib, 7 «.
al-Hallaj, 141, 142, 469.
Hamadan, xix.
Hamadani, historian, 389.
Hamid b. Sulaiman, 351.
Hamza b. Abd ul-Muttalib, 7 n, 25,

38, 62, 69, 70.
Hanifa, tribe of, Ixviii, 85.
Hanzala, poet, 13.
Harith b. Abd ul-Muttalib, 7 n.
Harith b. Abu-Zirar, 87.

504

GENERAL INDEX

Harith b. 'Amr, 6, g n.

Harith b. Ka'b, Christian tribe, Ixvi,

Ixviii.
Harith b. Kais, 7.
Harun, Abbaside Caliph, 312, 314,

345. 439. 491-
Hasan, Imam, 128, 298-9, 300, 345.
Hasan al-'Askari, Imam, 123, 346.
Hasan al-Basri, 414, 460, 472 ■».
Hasan b. Haitham, mathematician,

377. 424-
Hasan b. Ka'b, house of, 7.
Hasan b. Kahtaba, 309.
Hasan b. Mohammed of Alamut, 341.
Hasan Sabbah, 316, 339-41, 462, 469,

494-
Hashim, ancestor of the Prophet, 4, 5,

6, 10.
, Family of. 13, 37, 38, 39, 41,

128, 281-2, 292, 293, 366.
Hashim b. Mohammed al-Hanafiya,

307-
Hashimias, the, 343.
Hawazin, tribe of, Ixvi, 97-8.
Hazramaut, Ivii.
Heraclius, Emperor, lii, 90, 102.
Hibatullah, physician, 386 n.
hijdbat, office of, 4, 5.
Hijaz, Ivii, Ix, Ixii, Ixiii n, Ixiv, Ixviii,

497-
Hijr, in Yemen, Ivii, Ixi.
hilf ul-fuzHl, 13.
Hillel, school of, 242.
Himyar b. Saba, Ixiii.
Hind, wife of Abu Sufian, 70.
Hind Umm-Salma, wife of the

Prophet, 235.
Hira, mount, 15.
HIra, Ixix, 216, 273, 362.
Hisham, uncle of Osman, 294.
Hisham b. Abd ul-Malik, Cahph, 321.
Hisham b. 'Amr, 39.
Hobal. pagan god, Ixiv.
Holayl, Khuzaite chief, 2.
Honorius, Emperor, 226.
Horus Happocrates, xl, xli.
Hoshang, Persian king, xxi.
Hroswitha, nun, 378.
Hue, Abbe, 230.
Hudaibiya, peace of, 89, 95.
Huguenots, the, 220, 313, 326, 398
Hulaku, 313, 342.
hulill, Sufi doctrine of, 474.
Humaida, wife of Faruk, 254-5.
Humayun, Emperor, 254 n.

Hunain, battle of, 98, 105.

Husain, Imam, 177, 275, 300-2, 313,

345-
Huss, 330.

Huzail, tribe of, 114 j;.
huzuri, Sufi doctrine, 475.
Huksos, the, Ix.
Hypatia, liii, 255.

'Ibad, the, Ixvi.

'Ibadhia, the, 356, 357.

Ibn abi'l Hadid, 458 n.

Ibn 'Asakir, 443, 445, 446.

Ibn ul-Athir, 390, 391, 485.

Ibn-Baja, 397, 425, 428.

Ibn-Bakillani, 444 n.

Ibn-Bash-kuwal, 485.

Ibn-Batuta, 393.

Ibn-Duraid, poet, 395.

Ibn ul-Faridh, poet, 395.

Ibn-Gebrol, Ivi.

Ibn-Hanbal, Imam, 352, 438, 445,
487.

Ibn-Haukal, 384.

Ibn-Hisham, biographer of the Pro-
phet, 8, 58.

Ibn-Khaldun, 123, 126-7, ^7^ w. 3i9W,
331. 390, 391, 485-

Ibn-Khallikan, 496.

Ibn un-Nabdi, mathematician, 377.

Ibn-Rabi'a b. Harith, 114.

Ibn-Rushd, 289, 379, 386, 397, 399,
425, 429-31. 476. 478, 483-

Ibn-Sa'ud of Najd, 126.

Ibn-Shathir, mathematician, 383.

Ibn-Sina, 349, 382, 385, 386-7, 425,
426-8, 431, 433, 449, 476. 486.

Ibn ut-Tiktaka, historian, 288,

492-3-
Ibn-Tufail, 425, 429, 456, 485.
Ibn-Tumart, 445.
Ibn ul-Wardi, geographer, 384.
Ibn-Yunus, astronomer, 377, 482,

484.
Ibn-Zuhr, physician, 386.
Ibrahim b. Abdullah, brother of

an-Nafs uz-Zakiya, 322.
Ibrahim b. Adham, 461, 472 n.
Ibrahim b. Mohammed b. Ali, 308,

309-
Ibrahim b. Sayyar an-Nazzam, 415,

419.
Idris, founder of the Idriside Dynasty,

322, 497-

GENERAL INDEX

505

Idrisides, the, 372, 375, 422.

al-Idrisi, geographer, 384.

ikhtiar, doctrine of, 411.

Ikhwan us-Safa, the, 432-4, 466.

'Ikrama b. Abu Jahl, 86, 95.

'Imad ud-Din Zangi, 477.

Imamate, theory of, 122-8.

Imam ul-Haramain, 461, 464.

Incas, the, 398.

India, xxii, xxxiv, 470.

'Irak, Iviii, Ix, Ixii, 445, 470.

Irving, Washington, 67.

'Isa, nephew of the Cahph Mansur,

322.
Ishak b.as-Sabbah, father of al-Kindi,

425-
Ishakias, the, 343.
Isis, Egyptian god, xl, xli, xhi, xliii.
Isma'il, Shah of Persia, 132, 314, 494.
Isma'il b. Ja'far as-Sadik, 323.
Ismaihas and Ismailism, xlviii, 323,

335. 336. 344-
Isna-'Ashariaism, 314, 344, 346.
Israelites, the, xxxii, xxxvii, 222, 259.
al-Istakhri, geographer, 384.
Ivan the Terrible, 339 n.

J-

Jabala, the Ghassanide, 279.

Jabir b. Afiah, mathematician, 379.

jabr, doctrine of, 41 1-2, 453.

Jabria, the, 412-3.

Jacob, bishop of Edessa, li.

Jacobites, the, Ixvi.

Jadis, tribe of, lix.

Ja'far b. Abu Talib, 14, 29, 90, 95 n.

Ja'far b. al-Muktafi, 376.

Ja'far al-Musaddak, Imam, 323.

Ja'far as-Sadik, Imam, 267, 309, 322,

323. 345, 351. 364. 365. 366, 411,

436. 437. 460. 484.
al-Jahiz, Abu Osman 'Amr, 484.
Jahm b. Safwan, 412.
Jahmia, the, 413.
Jainism, xxvi.
Jalal ud-Din Rumi, 179, 396, 425, 427,

457. 472, 477. 486.
Jamal ud-Din, Sheikh, 482, 483.
Jami, poet, 383.
Jarudias, the, 322.
Java, 250 n.
Jazima, tribe of, 97.
J add ah, Ivii.

Jeremiah, patriarch, 377 n.
Jerusalem, xlv, li, 44 n, 220, 465, 492.

Jesus, xxxvi, xxxviii, xl, xlv, xlvi,
xlvii, xlix, Ixx, 16, 27, 31, 44 n, 46,
64, III, 140, 141, 142, 151, 162, 168,
173. 179. 192, 193-4. 195. 196, 200.
207-8, 213, 225, 238, 239, 240, 243,
252, 259, 459.

Jews, the, xxxvii, Ivi, 219, 227, 271,
276, 287.

Jews of Medina, 53, 57-60, 72-82.

Jodham, tribe of, Ixvi.

Johannes Damascenus, 365.

John the Baptist, xliii, 471.

John, King of England, 339 n.

Joshua, III M.

Jouhar, general of the Caliph al-
Mu'izz, 324.

Judaea, xxxi.

Julian, Emperor, Hi n.

Julius Caesar, 381.

Junaid, Sheikh, 369, 460, 461, 470,

472 M.

Jurhumites, the, Ix, Ixi, Ixii, 2, 13.
Justinian, Emperor, liii, liv, 220, 224,

226.
Juwairiya, wife of the Prophet, 87,

236-7.

K.
Kaaba, Ixiv, Ixvii, Ixviii, 2, 3, 14, 36,

38, 88, 107, 132, 139, 167.
Ka'b b. Ashraf, 73.
Ka'b b. Zuhair, poet, 106-7.
Kadesia, battle of, 217, 276, 308.
Kadir b'illah, Cahph, 324, 325.
Kadiria order of Siifis, 472.
Kahtan, lix, Ixii.

, children of, Ixi.

Kai-Kaus, xxx.

Kaim bi Amr'illah, Caliph, 315 n.

Kainuka', tribe of, 53, 59, 74-76, 80.

Kairowan, 375.

Kaisanias, the, 343.

Kais-'Aylan, tribe of, Ixvi, 10.

Kaithan b. 'Abbas, 306.

Kaiumurs, ancient king of Persia, xxi.

Kalb, Christian tribe, Ixvi, 86.

al-Kamus, fortress of, 92, 93.

Kanguedez (in Khorasan), 193 n.

Karaites, the, 222.

kardmat, 470.

Karmath and Karmathites, 334, 336.

Kazwan (in Yemen), 5.

Kazwini, geographer, 384.

Kepler, astronomer, 383.

Kerbela, 301.

5o6

GENERAL INDEX

Khadijah, wife of the Prophet, 12, 14,

15, 18, 20, 39, 233.
Khaibar, Ixvi, 53, 73, 77, 86, 92-3,

115-

khaimmeh, office of, 6.

KhS.kani, poet, 396, 457.

Khalid b. Abd ul-Malik, astronomer,

374-
Khalid b. Walid, 6, 69, 94 n, 97, 216,

237. 273-
Khalil b. Ahmad, grammarian, 485.
Khalil b. Ishak, jurist, 126 n.
khdnkdhs, the, 468.
Khawarij and Khawarijism, 314,

354-5-

khazina, office of, 6.

KhazraJ, tribe of, 53, 58, 74, 205.

Khitabias, the, 343.

Khizr, the Prophet, 123.

Khobaib b. 'Adi, 27 m.

Khoda-Bendah, Sultan, 382.

Khojas of India, 342.

Khoraiba, 297.

Khorasan, 123, 308, 309, 344.

Khui, in Persia, 340.

Khumm, near Mecca, 293.

Khusru Parvlz, Ixiii «, 90.

Khuza'a, tribe of, 2, 3 n, 95.

Kinana, tribe of, Ixvi, 10, 68.

Kinana the Jew, 93 n.

Kindah, tribes of, Ixvi, 110, 228.

al-Kindi, philosopher, 374, 425, 484.

Koba, near Medina, 48.

Kodayd, Ixvii n.

al-Kohi, astronomer, 376.

Koreish, tribe of, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, 12,
22, 23, 24, 26, 27, 29, 30, 34, 36-7,
39. 41. 45. 46, 47. 48. 49. 53. 57. 60,
62, 69, 70, 73, 78, 79, 88, 89, 94, 95,
no, 127, 128, 228.

Kosayy, founder of Mecca, 2-4.

Kubilai, Mongol Emperor, 382.

Kfifa, 128, 296, 298, 300, 309, 310,

355. 367. 437-
Kuhlan b. Saba, Ixiii.
al-Kumi, geographer, 384.
Kuraizha, Jewish tribe, Ixvi, 53, 59,

72, 76, 78, 79-82, 92.
Kurrat ul-'Ayn, Babi heroine, 358.
al-Kushairi, 463.
Kutb ud-Din, Emperor of Delhi, 264.

Lactantius. St., 87.
Laith, tribe of, 114 n.

al-Lat, goddess, Ixvi, 34, 36, loi.

Lazarus, xlii.

Libyan Oases, the, 497.

Libyan, tribe of, 83.

liwd, office of, 3, 4, 6.

Lollards, the, 330.

Loyola, Ignatius, 342.

Luther [Martin], 330, 344, 454.

Lydians, the, 223.

M.
Ma'add b. 'Adnan, 2.
Ma'bad al-Juhani, 413.
Madain (Ctesiphon), Ixix, 217.
Ma'di Karib b. Saif Zu'l Yezen,

Ixiii n.
Magdeburg, sack of, 220.
Mahavira, founder of Jainism, xxvi,
Mahdi, the, 123-4.
al-Mahdi, Caliph, 327, 368.
MahdiSh, 324, 338.
Mahmud of Ghazni, 264, 380, 387.
Mahmud, Ottoman Sultan, 498.
Mahra, district of, Ivii.
Maimonides, Ivi.

Maimuna, wife of the Prophet, 237.
Majna, near Mecca, 10.
al-Makin, historian, 391.
Makkari, historian, 390.
Makrizi, historian, 325, 326 n, 384,

390. 391-
Malaga, 392, 397.
Malek al-Ashtar, 297, 298, 299.
Malik b. Anas, Imam, 304 n, 352, 436,

437-
Malik Shah the Seljuk, 381, 465.
Malik Zahir, 107 n.
Mameluke Sultans, 131, 132, 445.
al-Mamun, CaHph, 229, 274, 284, 286,

312, 316, 370, 373, 374, 384. 422,

439. 444-
Manat, goddess, Ixvi, 34, 36, loi.
Mani, xlviii, xHx, 329, 332, 335 «.
Manicheism, Ixx, 328, 332.
Mansur, Caliph, 129, 284, 308, 314.

322, 345, 367, 370, 422.
al-Mansur, the chancellor in Spain,

448.
Mansur, see al-Hallaj.
Mansuri^h, 368.

Manu, Code of, xxviii, xxix, xxxiii.
MarHgha, 375.
Marcionites, the, xxxix, xlvi, xlvii,

Ixx, 343.
Mariolatry, cult of, 251. 252, 329.

GENERAL INDEX

507

Marr uz-Zuhran, near Mecca, 10.

Ma'ruf Karkhi, 461.

Mary the Copt, wife of the Prophet,

235-

Mary the Virgin, xHii, 142, 143.

Marzbana, wife of Shahr, 116.

Mashallah, astronomer, 373.

Maslamah, invader of Constantinople,
399.

Mas'udi, historian, 384, 390, 485.

Maurice, Emperor, Uv.

Mauritania, 322.

al-Mawardi, politician, 485.

Maxentius, 66 n.

Maximilla, prophetess, xlvii.

Mazdak and Mazdakism, xxxvi, 327.

Mecca, Ivii, Iviii, Ixiv, Ixvi, i, 2, 3-4, 5,
8, 39, 40, 41, 42, 46, 49, 52, 85, 94,
95-7. 113. 132, 167, 213, 282. 303,
360, 498.

Media, xxx.

Medina, Ivii, 52-3, 56, 60, 61, 67, 68,
69 «, 70, 71. 72, 73, 75, 78, 79, 87,
loi, 109, 123, 132, 303, 360, 365,
410, 436, 497, 498. See also
Yathrib.

Meghass b. 'Amr, the Jurhumite
chief, Ixiv.

Merv, 309.

Merwan I., Caliph, 128.

Merwan II., 128, 308, 309, 355, 356.

Merwan b. Hisham, Osman's cousin,
294.

Meshed, 491.

Mesopotamia, Ixii, 115, 438.

Messiah, the, 124, 192, 193, 195, 205.

Miknasa, 375.

Milman [H. H.], 22, 193.

Milvian Bridge, 66.

Mina, suburb of Mecca, 4.

Mirkhond, historian, 390.

mizan, the, 474.

Mohammed the Prophet ; is called
al-amin, 1,14; birth of, 8 ; loses
his parents, 9 ; taken charge of by
Abu Talib, 10 ; journeys to Syria,
II ; marries Khadija, 12 ; joins
the hilf ul-fuzM, 13 ; settles a dis-
pute at the reconstruction of the
Kaaba, 14 ; takes charge of 'Ali,
14 ; gives himself up to solitude
and meditation, 15-16 ; receives
his first revelation, 17-18; com-
mencement of his ministry, 19-20 ;
his first converts, 20-21 ; his

sincerity, 21-2 ; he is firm in his
teaching, 22-3 ; is persecuted by
the Koreish along with his dis-
ciples, 24-7 ; is tempted by the
Koreish, 27, 30 ; moral evidences
of his mission, 31-2 ; his appeal to
reason, 33 ; is tempted to com-
promise with the Koreish, 34-6 ;
Koreishite league against him,
37-9 ; visits Tayef, 41-2 ; takes
the pledge of 'Akaba, 42-3, 45 ; his
vision of the Ascension, 44 ; plot of
his assassination by the Koreish,
46-7 ; his flight to Medina, 47-9 ;
his character, 51-2, 117-121 ; his
teachings at Medina, 54-5 ; his
treatment of the Jews, 57-60,
72-82 ; calumnies against him, 65 ;
clemency of his nature, 85-7 ; his
messages to Heraclius and Parviz,
90-91 ; conquers Mecca, 95-7 ; suc-
cess of his mission, 109-112 ; his
last daj-s and death, 11 3-7; his
marriages examined, 232-8.

Mohammed b. Abdullah, an-Nafs
uz-Zakiya, 322.

Mohammed b. Abu Bakr, 295, 492.

Mohammed Abu'l Barakat, Sherif of
Mecca, 132.

Mohammed b. Ali b. Abdullah, 307,
308, 309.

Mohammed b. Ali as-Sennusi, 497.

Mohammed al-Bakir, Imam, 321, 345,
366.

Mohammed al-Habib, Imam, 323.

Mohammed b. al-Hanafiyah, 307.

Mohammed b. 'Isa, astronomer, 375.

Mohammed Juna KhanTughlak, 131.

Mohammed al-Mahdi, Imam, 123,
346.

Mohammed al-Mahdi, son of as-
Sennusi. 497.

Mohammed al-Maktum, 323.

Mohammed b. Mubashshir, philo-
sopher, 382.

Mohammed b. Mfisa al-Khwarazmi,
mathematician, 374.

Mohammed Shah Kajar, 357.

Mohammed ash-Shaibani, Im^m, 186,

437-

Mohammed Taki, Imam, 346.

Mohyi ud-Din al-Maghribi, philo-
sopher, 382.

Moloch, god, xix, 187.

Mongols, the, 130, 402 n, 464.

5o8

GENERAL INDEX

Monophysites, the, li.
Monothelites, the, lii.
Montanus, xlvii, Iv.
Montanists, the, xlvii, 327.
Morocco, 129.

Mosailima, the false prophet, 116.
Moses, 104, III, 140, 222, 237, 240.
Moulai Tayyib order, the, 497.
Moulaviya order of dervishes, 472.
Mu'ammar b. 'Abbad as-Sulami, 419,

420.
Mu'awiyah, 105, 107, 127-8, 267,

280 n, 283, 294, 295, 297, 298,

299-300, 313, 314. 355. 414. 430,

497-
Mu'az b. Jabal, 115, 183.
Mubashshar b. Ahmad, philosopher,

382.
Mufazzal of Jurhum, 13.
Mughira, nephew of Orwa of Tayef,

105.
Mu'in ud-Din Chishti, 471.
Muir, Sir William, 40, 43, 72 n.
al-Mu'izz li Din'illah, founder of

Cairo. 324, 339, 372.
Mu'izz ud-Dowla Deilemite, 312-3.
mujdhada, Sufi doctrine, 475.
mukdshafa, Sufi doctrine, 475.
Mukawwim b. Abd ul-Muttalib, 7 n.
Muktadi, Caliph, 129.
Miinis, Indian poet, 497.
Muntasir, Cahph, 312, 319 m.
Munzirs, dynasty of, 216.
Murcia, in Spain, 392.
murid, a Sufi term, 471.
murshid, a Sufi term, 471.
Musa al-Kazim, Imam, 323, 345, 369,

494.
Musa b. Shakir, sons of, 374.
Muselo, in Algeria, 497.
Mushabbihas, the, 414.
mushdhada, Siifi doctrine, 475.
Muslimah al-Maghribi, physicist, 379.
Mustaghanem, in Algeria, 497.
Mustalik, tribe of, 87, 236-7.
Mustaniid, Caliph, 434, 450.
Mustansarifeh, 370.
Mustansir b'illah, Fatimide Caliph,

341, 440.
Mustansir b'illah, Abbaside Caliph,

370.
Musta'sim b'illah, Caliph, 130, 313,

495-
Mustazhir, Caliph, 129.
Mustazii, Caliph, 487.

Muta, battle of, 95, 115, 214.
Mu'tamid, Caliph, 123.
Mutanabbi, poet, 395.
Mu'tasim b'illah. Caliph, 312, 327,

346, 422, 439.
Mutawakkil, Caliph, 123, 230, 275,

312, 319 w, 346, 435, 439-40.
al-Mutawakkil 'ala-Allah, the last

Abbaside Caliph in Egypt, 132.
Mu'tazid b'illah, Saffah II., 323, 336,

370, 440-
Mu'tazila and Mu'tazilaism, 414-5,

416-8, 421, 422, 424, 441, 444,

445-6, 447-8, 452, 453, 454, 496.
Muti', Caliph, 313.
Muttalib, brother of Hashim, 5.

, family of, 13, 37, 38, 39.

Muwaffak ud-Din, Imam, 494.
Muwaid ud-Din al-Orezi, philosopher,

382.
Mythra. the sun-god, xxxiii, xli, xlii.

N.
Nadir Shah, 401.

nadwa (council-hall at Mecca), 3, 4, 6,
Nahrwan, 354, 355.
an-Nairdzi, astronomer, 375.
Naishapur, 464, 468.
Najd, Ivii, Iviii, Ixii, 2, 102, 125.
Najjaria, the, 413.
Najran, Christians of, Ixvi, 271, 273.
Nakhla near Mecca, Ixvi, 10.
Nakshbandia order of Sufis, 472.
Nar, tribe of, 65.
Narses, Iv.

nasi (shifting of months), 50.
Nasir ud-Din Tusi, 377, 382.
Naufal b. Abd(u) Manaf, 5 «, 6, 9 n.
Nazir, Jewish tribe, Ixvi, 53, 59, 72,

73. 74. 76-7. 80, 92.
Nazr b. Harith, 62 n.
Nebuchadnezzar, xxxi, xxxii, Ixiv,
Negus, 29.
Nehavend, 217.
Nejdat-Azarika, the, 356.
Neo-Platonism, 456.
Nestorius, li.
Nestorians, the, li, Iv, Ixvi, 219, 365,

366.
Nice, Council of, xl, 1, 141, 142.
Nikophoros, Byzantine Emperor, 491.
Nineveh, xxx n, xxxi.
Nisibis, 365.

niyyat (" intention "), 475.
Nizami, poet, 396, 457.

geni:ral index

509

Nizami^h, the, 370.

Nizam ud-Din Awliya, 471-2.

Nizam ul-Mulk, 340, 370, 381, 444,

464, 465, 494.
Nizar, Fatimide Caliph, 462.
Noah, 25.
Normans, the, 287.
Noubakht, astronomer, 369.
Nu'manias, the, 343.
Nusairis, the, 343.
Nutayla, wife of 'Abd ul-MuttaUb,

7 n.
Nuwairi, historian, 390.

Obaidah, 62.

ObaiduUah b. Abbas, 306.

Obaidullah al-Mahdi, 323, 324, 325,

332 n, 336.
Obaidullah b. Ziyad, 301, 302.
Ohod, battle of, 68-71, 73, 279.
Okba b. Abu Mu'ait, 65.
Oman, 355, 356, 357.
Omar b. Abdul Aziz, Caliph, 303,

458 n.
Omar b. Khaldun, physicist, 379.
Omar b. al-Khattab, Caliph, 6, 37-8,

49, 69, 115 M, 122, 127, 216, 220,

234, 274, 275 n, 278, 279, 280, 281,

294, 321, 323, 355, 492. 495-
Omar Khayyam, 340, 377, 381, 494.
Omayma, daughter of Abd ul-Mut-

talib, 7 n.
Omeyya b. Khalaf, 27.
Omeyyades, Ixv n, 41, 128, 281-3, 295.

302-5, 307, 308, 314, 316, 326,

363-4. 365. 366, 371. 412, 436.
Ophites, the, xlvii.
Origen, xlvi, xlix.
Ormuzd, god, xxx, xxxiii, 161, 191,

192.
Orphics, the, xliii.
'Orwa, the Tayefite chief, 104-5.
Osama, poet, 485.
Osama b. Zaid, 115, 264.
Oscheder Bami, prophet, 192 n.
Oschedermah, prophet, 192 n.
Osiris, Egyptian god, xl, 189.
Osman b. 'Aifan, Cahph, 21, 67, 88 n,

103, 122, 127, 234, 274, 282-3, 293.

294-6, 297, 323, 363, 366, 492, 496.
Osman b. Huwairith, 13, 14.
Osman b. Mahzun, 67 h.
Osman b. Talha, 5.
Otba b. Rabi'a, 27-8, 46.

Paine, Tom, 440.

Parmenio, xxxiv.

Parthians, the, xxxv, Iv.

Patripassians, the, xxxix.

Paul, St., xxxviii, xxxi.x, 239.

Paul, Pope, 339 n.

Paulicians, the, 220, 330, 332.

, Manichaean, 327, 329.

Pelasgians, the, xx, 223, 277.

Perishek Khanum, secretary to Sul-
tan Mustafa, 393 n.

Persepolis, xxxiv.

Persia, xxix, xxxiv, liv, Ixiii «, 227,
232, 470.

Peter, St., xxxix.

Petrarch, 254.

Philotas, xxxiv.

Pilate, Ixx.

Plato, III, 181.

Praxeus, xlvii.

Presbyterians, the, 219.

Priscilla, prophetess, xlvii.

Pythagoreans, the, xliii.

r abuts, the, 468.

Rabi'a al-Basri, 229, 461.

Rabi'a b. Nizar, family of, Ixvi.

Rabi'a b. Omeyya b. Khalaf, 114 n.

Raihana, wife of the Prophet, 82.

Ramdha, hill of, 27.

Renan, M., 482, 484.

Richard, King of England, 339 ",

342 w.
rifada, a kind of poor-tax, 3, 4, 5, 6.

gn.
Rigaud, Archbishop, 252.
Roderick the Goth, 287.
Rodha, in Najd, Ixvii n.
Roland, the Knight, 252.
Rome, sack of, 220, 303.
Roushan Bayezid, see Bayezid.
Roushenias, the, 343.
Rukaiya, daughter of the Prophet, 67.
Rustam, family of, 375.

S.
Sabellians, the, xlix.
Sa'd, tribe of, 9.
Sa'd b. Abi Wakkas. 21.
Sa'd b. Mu'az, 78. 79-80, 81.
Sa'd b. 'Ubada, 78.
Sadducees, the, xxxvii.
Sa'di, poet, 106 w, 396. 457- 49i. 495-

510

GENERAL INDEX

Sadra, MuUa, 349, 451.

Sadr ud-Din, Pir. 343.

Safa, hill of, 23, 96.

Safawis, the, 400, 451.

Saflfah, Abbaside Caliph, 128-9, 308,

309, 310-11, 315, 367.
Safi ud-Din, ancestor of the Safawis,

494-
Safiya, daughter of Abd al-MuttaUb,

7 n.
Safiya, wife of the Prophet, 237.
Safra, 65.

Safwan, brother of Abu Sufian, 7.
Safwan b. Omeyya, 95.
Saif b. Zu'l Yezen, 10.
Saif ud-Dowla, prince of Aleppo, 395,

426.
sajjddanasktns, the, 471.
Sakina, daughter of Imam Husain,

255-
Sakran, former husband of Sauda,

233-
Sakya-Muni (Buddha), 11 1.
Saladin, 221, 314, 381, 448, 477, 487.
Salehias, the, 322-3.
Salerno, 362, 397.
Salibah, in Spain, 392.
Salma, wife of Hashim, 5.
Salman the Persian, 186 n, 308.
Samanides, the, 284, 376.
Samarcand, 382, 383, 484.
Samarra, 123.
Samiya, wife of Yasar, 27.
Samuel, the prophet, 16, 87.
San'a, in Yemen, 7, 8, 9, 116.
Sanai, Persian poet, 40, 47 n, 199,

313 «, 396, 431, 457, 467, 477, 486.
Sanjar, Sultan, 466.
Sardinia, 324.
Sarraj, see Abu Nasr.
Sassanides, the, xxxv, xxxvi, 326.
Sauda, wife of the Prophet, 233.
Sauda, Indian poet, 396 n.
Saxons, the, 220.
scholasticism, 422, 424.
Scotland, 219.
Scotus, Johannes, 456.
S^dillot, historian, 244.
Segelmessa, 375.
Seir, mount, Ixi.
Seleucidae, xxxv.
Selim Chishti, sheikh, 472 n.
SeUm I., Sultan, 132, 133, 313 «, 401.
Seljukides, the, 284, 381, 465.
Send b. Ali, astronomer, 374.

Sennacherib, 8.

Sennusiya order, the, 497.

Serapis, god, xl, xlii.

Servetus, 211 n.

Seville, 392, 484.

Sforza, Galeazzo Maria, 339 n.

Shaddad, King, Ix, Ixiii n, Ixix.

Shafei, Imam, 352, 437.

Shah Kabir Dervish, 472.

Shahr b. Bazan, governor of Yemen,

116.
Shah Rukh Mirza, Timur's son, 383.
Shammaites, the, 139, 242.
Shams ud-Dowla, Ameer of Hama-

dan, 387.
Sharif al-Murtaza, 485.
Shayba b. Hashim, see Abd ul-

Muttalib.
Sheikha Shuhda, 255.
Shiahism, 329.
Shibli, Sheikh, 369.
Shihab ud-Din Suhrwardi, 434.
Sicily, 324.

Siculus, Diodorus, Ixi.
Siddhanta, the, 374.
sifdrat, office of, 6.
Sifatias, the, 413, 418.
Siffin, battle of, 297, 354.
sikaya, office of, 4, 5, 6, 9 n.
Silman, in Irak, 5 n.
Sisebut, the Visigoth, Ivi.
Socinus of Sienna, 1 n.
Solon, 74 n.

Solyman the Magnificent, 133, 401.
Sophia, xlvii.

Sophronius, patriarch, 220.
Sosiosch, prophet, 123, 192 n.
Soter, Ptolemy, xl.
Spain, 1, 219, 286, 287, 292, 320, 375,

378, 392, 398, 400, 422, 448.
Spartans, the, 223.
Stagyrite, the, 434.
Sufana, daughter of Hatim, 106 n.
Sufaruz Ziadia, the, 356.
Suhaili, poet, 383.
Sulaim, tribe of, 71, 73.
Sulaiman b. Jaris, 322.
Sulaimanias, the, 322-3.
Surra-man-raa, 346.
Suriish, the angel, xxxix.
Susiana, xxx.
Suwailim the Jew, 103 n.
Suwayka, near Medina, 67 n.
Suzeni, poet, 396.
Syed Ahmad Khan, 44 n.

GENERAL INDEX

511

Sylvanus, Constantine, 329.
Sylvester II., Pope, 371 n.
Syria, Ix, 5, 11, 15, 77 n, 102, 115, 127,
128, 324, 438, 445.

T.
Tabari, historian, 42, 96, 390-1.
Tabaristan, 322.
Tabuk, expedition of, 104.
Tacitus, 225.

tafwiz, doctrine of, 41 1-2, 413, 453.
Taghli bites, the, Ixvi.
Tahart, 375.

Taherides of Khorasan, 375.
Taj ud-Din, Kazi of Cairo, 130.
taheyya, practice of, 335-6.
Talha, companion of the Prophet,

296.
Talha, standard bearer of the Koreish,

69 n.
Talmud, the, 222.
Tantarani, poet, 395.
tashbih, doctrine of, 412.
Tasso, 254.

tauba, doctrine of, 475.
tauhid, doctrine of, 417, 423.
tawaf (circumambulation of the

Kaaba), 3.
Tay, tribe of, Ixvi, Ixviii, 106.
Tayef, Ixvi, 10, 41, 98, 104.
Taym, family of, 13.
Taym b. Murra, 6.
Teraphim, the, 140, 151.
Tertullian, St., xxix, 251.
Thakif, tribe of, 41, 97-8, 99, 105 n.
Thamud, tribe of, lix, Ix, Ixx, 25.
Thaur, mount, 47.
Theodora, liii, 330 n.
Thompson, Joseph, African traveller,

266 n.
Thracians, the, 223.
Thumama b. Uthal, 85.
Tihama, Ivii, Ixii, 68.
Timur, 383.
Titus, xxxvii.
Tlemcen, 375.
Toledo, 392.

Tours, in France, 69, 292.
Treitheism, doctrine of, xlix-1.
Tughlakabad, 131.
Tughril, Sultan, 315 n, 444.
Tulaiha b. Khuwaihd, 116.
Turanians, the, xix, xxx.
Tus, 464, 469.
Tyre, sack of, xxxiv.

U.
'Ukaz, fair of , Iviii, lo-ii, 12.
Ulugh Beg. Shah Rukh's son, 383.
Umm ul-Fazl. MSmun's sister, 255,

312, 345.
Umm ul-Habib, M&mfin's daughter,

255- 346.
Umm-Hablba, wife of the Prophet,

235-
Umm-Hakini, daughter of Abd ul-

MuttaUb, 7 n.
Umm ul-Jamll, ^vife of Abu Lahab,

24.
Uns, Indian poet, 497.
'Unsuri, poet, 380.
Upanishads, the, xxii, xxiii.
Ur, in Chaldsea, xx.
Usulis, the, 346-9.
Uzbegs, the, 400, 402.
al-'Uzza, goddess, Ixvi, 34, 36, loi.

Valentinian, Emperor, 226.
Valentinians, the, xlvii, Ixx, 343.
Vandals, the, 401.
Vasudeva- Krishna, xxiv, xxv.
Vendidad, the, 191.

W.
Wahabis and Wahabism, 125-6, 353,

356, 357-
Wahb, grandfather of the Prophet, 7.
Wahraz, Marzban of Yemen, Ixiii «.
wajd, a Sufi term, 476.
Walid, Cahph, 128, 319 «•
Walid, Osman's uterine brother, 295.
waits, the, 470.

Waraka b. Naufal, 15 n. 18, 19.
Wasil b. 'Ata al-Ghazzal, 414-5. 496-
Wathik, Caliph, 312, 422, 439.
Watwat, poet, 396.
Welhngton, Duke of, 80.
wisdl, a Sufi term, 474.
Wychffe, 397.

Xerxes, 68.

Yahya, grandson of Zain ul-'AbidIn,

308, 322.
Yahya b. Abi Mansur, astronomer,

374. 484- , ^

Yakhzum b. Murra, house of, 6.

512

GENERAL INDEX

Yaktan, brother of Kahtan, Ixii.

Ya'kub al-Mansur, Almohade, 429.

Ya'kub b. Tarik, physicist, 379.

Yareb b. Kahtan, Ixii.

Yasar, 27.

Yathrib, Ivii, Ixvi, 5, 8, 42, 43, 46, 48,

49. 51. 53. 59- See also Medina.
Yazatas (" Izad " in modem Persian),

191.
Yemama, Iviii, 85, 115.
Yemen, Ivii, Ix, Ixii, Ixiii n, Ixv,

Ixviii, Ixix, 2, 5, 115, 116, 497.
Yermuk, battle of, 276.
Yeshhad b. Yareb, Ixii.
Yezdjard, King of Persia, 216, 217.
Yezid b. Abu Sufian, 86.
Yezid b. Mu'awiyah, 300.
Yunus al-Aswari, 413.
Yusuf b. Tashfin, 129, 386 n, 400 n.

Z.
Zahhak, xxx n.
Zahir Faryabi, poet, 396.
Zaid b. Ali (Zain ul-'Abidin), 320,

321.
Zaid b. Harith, 14-5, 21, 41, 95 n.

235-6, 264.
Zaid b. Rifa'a, 432.
Zaidias, the, 320-2.

Zainab, wife of the Prophet, 235-6.
Zainab, sister of Imam Husain, 250,

302.
Zain ul-'Abidin, see Ali II.
Zallaka, battle of, 129.
Zamurud Khatun, wife of Nasir ud-

Dowla of Hems, 393 n.
Zat ul-Hemma, 255.
zavias, the, 468.
Zealots, the, xxxvii, 139.
Z6b un-Nisa, 393 n.
Zemzem, the sacred well, 5, 6, 9 n.
Zend Avesta, 191, 227.
Zeus, xl.

zikr, a Sufi term, 476 n.
Ziraria, the, 413.
Zoroaster (Zarathustra), xxi, xxii,

III.
Zubaida, wife of Harun, 254, 393 n.
Zubair b. Abd ul-Muttalib, 7 n.
Zubair b. Abu Omeyya, 39.
Zubair b. al-'Awwam, 21, 296.
Zuhra, family of, 13.
Zu'1-karnain al-Himyari, Ixiii.
Zu'1-khulasa, temple of, Ixvii n.
Zu'l Majaz, near Mount 'Arafat, 10.
Zu Nawas, Tubba', Ixiii n, Ixviii.
Zu's-Sabat (in 'Irak), Ixvii n.
Zu Shinatir. Tubba'. Ixiii n.

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL INDEX

Akhldk Muhsini (Mulla Husain Waliz).

Akhldk Ndsiri (Nasir ud-din Abdur Rahim Ibn Abi Mansur).

al-Asdr lU-Bdkieh (Al-Beiruni).

Al-Karrdr {Life of the Caliph All) (Riza Ali).

Al-Luma' (Abu Nasr as-Sarraj).

Aiesh Kadeh (Lutf Ali Azar) .

Bihdr-ul-Anwdr (Mulla Bakir Majisi).

Dabistdni Mazdhib (Mohsini Fani).

Diwdni Hdfiz (Shams ud-din Hafiz) .

The Durrul-makhtdr .

Fasl-ul-Makdl (Ibn Rushd).

The Fatdwai Alamgiri.

Fi't Tahktk ma I'il Hind (Al-Beiruni).

FutiVi ul-Bulddn (Balazuri).

Ghurar wa'durar (Sharif al-Murtaza) .

Gouhar-i-Murdd (Mulla Abdur Razzak).

Hadika (Sanai).

Hayy ibn Yakzdn (Ibn Tufail).

Ihya ul-'Ulum (Imam al-Ghazzali) .

Ihtijdj ui-Tabrasi (Shaikh at-Tabrasi).

'Ijdz ut-Tanzil (Khalifa Mohammed Hasan).

Insdn ul ' Uyun (al-Halabi) .

fdyni'-ul-Akhbdr.

J ami' -ut-Tivmizi (ImS,m Tirmizi).

Kashf uz-Zunun Haji Khalifa).

Kirdn us-Sa'dain (Ameer Khusru M. E. 1228 A.H.).

Kitdb ul-Ishtikdk (Ibn Doreid).

Kitdb-ul-Khardj (Im^m Abu Yusuf).

Kitdb ul-Mustatraf.

Kitdb al-Tawdsin {The poems of al-Halldj) (M. Louis Massignon, Paris,

1913)-
Kitdb Ridz al-Jindn (Ashraf Ali Ibn Abdul Wall).
Kitdb ud-duwal al-Fakhri (Ibn Tiktaka, Derenbourg ed. 1877).
Kitdb ul-Tabyin (Ibn Asakir (pub. Report Congress Orientalists, 1876 ;

Vol. II.) ).
Lisdn ul-Arab (Jamaiuddin bin Mohammed al-Misri).
Luma't-ul Baiza (Sermons of Fatima't az-Zahra).
Makkari (Umdat ut-Talib) .
Mdkhaz-'UliXm (Syed Ker^mat Ali).

513

514 BIBLIOGRAPHICAL INDEX

Mandkihi Martazawi.

Masnavi (Moulana Jalil ud-din Rumi).

Milal wa'Nihal (Shahristani).

Mishkdt al-Masdbih.

Mu'jam-ul-Bulddn (Yakut).

Munkiz-min azzaldl (Imam al-Ghazzali) .

Muruj uz-Zahab (Mas'udi).

Nafahdt td-Uns (Nur-uddin Jami).

Nahaj-ul-Baldghat (Sermons of Ameer ul-Mominin Ali ibn Abi Talib).

Nahaj ul-Baldghat (Sharh of Ibn Abi'l Hadid on the).

an-Nujum uz-Zdhira (Jamal ud-Din Abu'l Mahasin Ibn Taghri-bardi).

The Radd ul-Mnhtdr.

Sharhi Nahaj ul-Baldghat (LutfuUah Kash^ni).

Sidsatnameh (Nizam ul-Mulk).

Strut ur-Rasul (Ibn Hisham).

Strat ur-Nabawiyeh wa'l Asdr ul-Mohammediya (Syed Ahmed Zaini).

Tafsir al-Kasshdf (Imam Zamakhshari) .

Takhrij ul-Hedaya (Zail'yi).

Tdrikh-iil-Isldm (az-Zahabi).

Tdrikh al-Kdmil (Ibn ul-Athir).

Tdrikh ul-Imdnt Ibn Khaldun.

Tdrikh Wassdf.

Tdrikh ul-Khulafd (Suy'uti).

Tdrikh ul-Hukama (Jamal ud-din Kifti).

Tazkirat-ul-Awlia (Farid ud-din 'Attar).

Umdat iit-Tdlib (Makkari).

' Uyiin ul-Masdil (Abu Nasr Farabi) .

Wafidt ul-'Aydn (Ibn Khallikan).

Etc.

A Literary History of Persia (E. G. Browne).

Ancient History of the East (Lenormant).

Angel-Messiah (de Bunsen).

Arnold's Sermons.

Aspects of Isldm (Duncan Black Macdonald).

Code Rabbinique .

Concubina (du Cange).

Conflict of Religion and Science (Draper).

Culturgeschichte des Orients unter den Caliphen (Von Kremer).

Curiosities of Literature (Disraeli).

Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (Gibbon) .

Ecclesiastical History (Mosheim) .

Essay on Isldm (Emmanuel Deutsch).

Essay on Mahommed's Place in the Church (de Bunsen).

Hallam's History of England.

Hindu Religion and Castes (H. H. Wilson).

Hindu Tribes and Castes (Sherring).

Hisioire des Arabes (Sedillot).

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL INDEX 515

Histoire des Musulmanes d'Espagne (Dozy).

Histoire des Philosaphes et les Theologiens Musulmanes (Gustave Dugat).

History of Ancient Egypt (Rawlinson).

History of Latin Christianity (Milman).

History of Christianity (Milman).

History of Christian Theology in the Apostolic Age (Reuss).

History of Greece (Grote).

History of Rationalism (Leclcy) .

History of the Jews (Milman).

History of the Doctrine of the Future Life (Alger).

History of the Christian Church (Blunt).

History of the Church of Christ (Milner).

Ibn Khallikdn (De Slane's Translation).

Intellectual Development of Europe (Draper).

Islam under the Arabs (Osborne).

J t' wish Literature and Modern Education (Maitland).

Law of Nature and Natioyis (Pufendorfi).

Le Dogme et la Loi de V Islam (Goldziher).

L' Influence des Croissades sur I'etat des Peuples de I' Europe (d'Aillecourt) .

Les Confreries Religieuses Musulmanes (Dupont et Coppolani).

Les Ecoles Philosophiques chez les Arabes (Auguste Schmolders).

Les Effects de la Religion de Muhammed (Oelsner).

Les Riligions et les Philosophies dans I'Asie Centrale (Gobineau).

Life of Jesus (Strauss).

Life of Mahomet (Muir).

Life of Mohammed (Bosworth-Smith) .

Literature and Dogma (Matthew Arnold).

Manichaeism (Beausobre) .

Materials for the Study of the Babi Religion (E. G. Browne).

Melange de Philosophic Juive et Arabe (Munk).

Oriental Religions (Johnson).

Philosophic und Theologie von Averroes (Miiller).

Religion des Druzes (de Sacy).

Religions of India (Hopkins).

Roman Society from Nero to Marcus Aurelius (Samuel Dill)

Secret Societies of All Ages (C. W. Hecklethorn) .

Selections from the Koran (Stanley Lane-Poole) .

Studies in Islamic Mysticism (R. A. Nicholson).

Tableau General de l Empire Ottoman (d'Ohsson).

The Forerunners and Rivals of Christianity (Legge).

The Gentile and the Jew (Dollinger).

The Jewish Church (Stanley's Lectures on).

The Moors in Spain (Stanley Lane-Poole).

The Mystics of Isldm (R. A. Nicholson).

The Preaching of Islam (Arnold).

The Religion of the Tantras {" Arthur Avalon ").

The Upanishad', (Tv. Hume).

Un Grand Maitre des A ssassins au temps de Saladin (M. Stanislas Guyard) .

Vie de Jesus (Renan). Etc.

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