MEMOIR OF BURCKHARDT. 95 



Bonaparte, the British army which had been em- 

 ployed in Spain and the south of France, would in- 

 vade his dominions ; " for (said he) the great fish 

 swallow the small, and Egypt is necessary to Eng- 

 land in supplying corn to Malta and Gibraltar." 

 Had it not been for this persuasion, he would have 

 been well pleased that the Czar should seize Turkey 

 and drive the Sultan from the throne. 



Whether Ali believed Burckhardt to be sincere in 

 his profession of the Mahommedan faith, is doubt- 

 ful. When he first heard of his purpose to visit 

 the Holy Cities, he observed jocosely, " It is not 

 the beard alone which proves a man to be a true 

 Moslem ;" and then turning to the Cadi of Mecca, 

 who had been to Tayf for his health, and was sitting 

 beside him, " but you are a better judge in such 

 matters than I am !" Our traveller, however, liad 

 no objection that his qualifications should be put 

 to the test; and accordinglv, Avhen the two most 

 learned professors of the law, then in Arabia, were 

 directed to examine him upon his knowledge of the 

 Koran, and of the practical as well as doctrinal 

 precepts of their creed, the result was a complete 

 conviction in the minds of his hearers, as at his last 

 two examinations, of his being not only a true but 

 a very learned Mussulman. After one of these exa- 

 minations, Burckhardt remarks with some naivete, 

 " I supped with the Cadi, and then performed the 

 evening prayers in his company, when I took gTeat 

 care to chaunt as long a chapter of the Koran as my 

 memory furnished at the moment." 



