76 BULLETIN 148, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



or successors, known as caliphs. In a short time the Arabs overran 

 Persia, Mesopotamia, Palestine, Syria, Asia Minor, Egypt, Sicily, 

 and Spain, and carried the standard of their new religion across the 

 waters of the Ganges in India. To-day the sway of Islam extends from 

 extreme India and the borders of China across to the Mediterranean, 

 and is still spreading in Central and Southern Africa. 



DIVISIONS AND SECTS AMONG THE MOHAMMEDANS 



The two great divisions of the Mohammedan community are the 

 Sunnites, who consider themselves as the orthodox and comprise the 

 greater part of the Mohammedan world, namely, Turkey, North 

 Africa, Arabia proper, and the majority of the Moslem in India, and 

 the Shiites (that is, followers) who comprise nearly the whole of Persia 

 and a small part of India in the Province of Oudh. Each of these divi- 

 sions is split up into numerous sects or schools. 



The Sunnites recognize the first three caliphs (Abu Bekr, Omar, 

 and Othman) as legitimate successors of Mohammed, and accept the 

 six books of the Sunna or hadith (see p. 74) as authentic and authori- 

 tative. They are divided into four sects or theological schools who 

 differ in some unimportant points of ritual and the interpretation of 

 the Koran and Moslem law. 



The Shiites repudiate the first three caliphs as usurpers, holding 

 Ali, the cousin of the prophet and husband of his daughter, Fatima, 

 and the imams, his descendants, to be the lawful successors of Mo- 

 hammed. Beginning with Ali the Shiites enumerate 12 legitimate 

 caliphs or imams. The last, whom they term Imam al-MaJidi, is 

 believed by them to be still alive, though he has withdrawn for a time, 

 and they say he will again appear in the last days as the mahdi, or 

 guided one, which the prophet predicted would arise before the 

 Day of Judgment. They also reject the six collections of traditions 

 of the Sunnites and have their own traditions in four collections. 



There are several sects among the Shiites, some of whom hold the 

 imams to be incarnations of God. In the course of time many differ- 

 ences of practice between the two divisions have grown up. 



Another smaller division are the Wahhabis, followers of Ab dal- 

 Wahhab (1691-1787). They have been termed the Protestants, 

 or Puritans, of the Mohammedans. They are opposed to the super- 

 stitions, luxuries, and innovations which have crept into Mohammedan 

 practice, and preach a return to the simplicity of the Koran and the 

 earliest form of Islam. 



MOSQUE 



The name mosque is derived from the Arabic masjid, meaning, 

 literally, "place of prostration." Mosques are generally built of 

 stone or brick. They vary in architecture and decoration according 

 to locality. The usual plan of the mosque is rectangular, and includes, 



