96 Johore at Cross Purposes [1893 



ideas are most embroiled, and his manner, too, for an Oriental, is 

 strangely bad, and I fear he shocked el Bekri by a certain sans-fagon 

 in speaking of holy things, though I was able to smooth down his more 

 unfortunate remarks, as interpreters do. The truth is they were at 

 cross purposes. What el Bekri wanted to find out was whether the 

 Sultan had any panislamic ideas, whether he wanted to see Abdul 

 Hamid at Constantinople for a political purpose, and whether he would 

 encourage panislamic missionaries at Johore. The old man, on the 

 oilier hand, only wanted a little personal sympathy as a Mohammedan 

 from Mohammedans. He was too humble-minded to expect much no- 

 tice from Abdul Hamid, and had nothing of any importance to say to 

 him. Thus each misunderstood the other. ' Do the Mohammedan 

 Princes in India,' the Sheykh asked, ' communicate with each other as 

 such, and do they communicate with the Sultan at Constantinople ? ' 

 To which the other replied that the Malay princes knew each other, but 

 not the others. They had never had the smallest communication with 

 Constantinople, and the Ottomans looked on them as Kaffirs. A Turk- 

 ish man-of-war had once come and stayed some time at Singapore on 

 her way to Japan, and it was not till just before she sailed that they 

 discovered that Johore was Mohammedan. Then everybody had been 

 delighted. That was the only communication that had ever taken 

 place with the Turks. They saw many Arabs of the Hedjaz at Singa- 

 pore who came to trade, but they were ignorant men, though some were 

 rich. He would like to go to Constantinople, but he would not put the 

 Sultan to the trouble of receiving him. He was only a small sovereign, 

 and had nothing of importance to say. As to missionaries, he would 

 be delighted if the Sheykh would send them a professor to teach them 

 their religion. They were all Shafais at Johore. They said their 

 prayers in Arabic, but did not know the meaning of the words ; the 

 Koran was not translated into Malay except some parts of it. He was 

 having a translation made, they were all very ignorant. The young 

 Sheykh el Bekri hardly knew, I think, what to make of it all. The 

 good Sultan of Johore was more successful with other Egyptians whom 

 I took him to. At Abdul Salaam's the Pasha was on all fours to His 

 Highness, and me for bringing him. He described to them his patri- 

 archal way of governing his country with a walking stick — ' like the 

 first Caliphs ' Abdul Salaam remarked — and how he liked, when he 

 was at home with his wife and his mother, to sit on the floor and eat 

 with his fingers. He wanted to find somebody doing that, but at Cairo 

 there were European chairs and sofas everywhere. We have promised 

 to show him that, too, and he is to go on to Mohammed Abdu. 



' Later I went alone with Mohammed to call on Mukhtar Pasha, and 

 had a long talk with him on the political situation, the upshot of which 

 was that he promised no time should be lost in pushing things on. He 



