SUFISM 



SUGAR 



785 



pathetic God of Islam. Thereafter Sufism divided 

 itself. Some with the Persian Bestamt, -who died 

 in 875, professed openly that man is God. Others 

 with Jonaid, who died m 909, a Persian too, though 

 born in Bagdad, were of like faith, but cautious 

 and orthodox in their language. The favourite 

 watchword of Islam, the Unity of God, meant 

 with them that God is all. The object of all Sufism 

 was to deliver the soul from the sway of the pas- 

 sions by destroying human nature and the power 

 of the flesh, and so to make the soul merely 

 spiritual, uniting it by love with God, from whom 

 it had emanated as a ray emanates from the sun. 

 Cautious Sufis were often revered as saints, while 

 sometimes the incautious became martyrs. Many, 

 like Jonaid's pupil Hallaj, who was executed by 

 Hamid, the vizier of the calif Al-M6qtadir, at 

 Bagdad in 922, were alternately adored and perse- 

 cuted. In Snfism the devotee must choose a 

 teacher, and strive toward development through 

 degrees, of which there are commonly reckoned 

 three. First is the Law, wherein the Sufi is merely 

 a Muslim, blameless in all ordinances of morality 

 and of Islam ; but the only motive to worship or 

 obedience is not fear of punishment nor hope of 

 reward, but love. Second is the Way or Method, 

 wherein he practises asceticism, fasts, watches in 

 silence and solitude, studies Sufistic lore, drives 

 away other thought, rises into an occasional 

 ecstatic state, Hal, which when permanent is called 

 a position, Makam. Positive religion, needful for 

 the weak, is now needless for him. The final 

 degree is Certainty ; the transcendental objective 

 <3od has now become subjective ; the Suf t is now con- 

 sciously God ; all religion is vain. The first great 

 Sufi poet was the Persian Fertd eddin Attar, who 

 died c. 1220. The greatest Sflfl poet was another 

 Persian, Jelftl eddfn RumJ (1207-73). But Sufism, 

 the dream of the least and the most cultured alike, 

 has been the religion of Hatiz and Sadi and of 

 nearly all the great Persian poets. Their luscious 

 language of love and beauty s charms, of intoxica- 

 tion and the wine-house, is strongly sensual or 

 spiritual accordingas it is taken. Of the Sufiides, 

 who reigned over Persia from 1499 to 1736, the first 

 was Ismael the Suft. In 1777 a famous Sufi, Mir 

 Macflm Ali Shah, came from India to Shiraz, and 

 raised a great Suff fervour, against which a very 

 severe persecution was started uy church and state 

 in 1782, and lasted many years. Yet the influence 

 of Sutism in Persia and eastward is rather increas- 

 ing than waning ; and in all orthodox lands this 

 most fatal dissolvent of Islam is welcomed. There 

 are many sects in Sufism. In Persia when the 19th 

 century began there were at least a quarter of a 

 million of Sufi*. There are more now ; but with 

 the majority the name means not pantheist but 

 freethinker. In this sense the Sufis or Wise may 

 include half of the Persian middle class. 



Slllilir. The sugars form a natural group of 

 substances, for the most part of vegetable origin, 

 connected with glycerol and the 

 glycols on the one side and with 

 the dextrins and with bodies of 

 the starchy class on the other. They are, as a 

 rule, crystallisable, soluble in water, less soluble 

 or insoluble in alcohol, and insoluble in ether 

 and in other solvents which are immiscible with 

 water ; they have a sweet taste, a physical char- 

 acteristic varying in the several members of the 

 group from the luscious sweetness of cane-sugar 

 to the feeble sweetness of some of the saccha- 

 roids. This quality, however, is not confined 

 to the sugars, being also possessed by the glycols, 

 l,y glycerol, by glycocine, by certain compounds 

 of the aromatic group, and even by some inor- 

 ganic salts, such as those of lead and yttrium. 

 Most sugars possess the property of causing rota- 

 466 



Copyright 1892, 1897, and 

 1900 ID the U. 8. liy J. R. 

 Lipplncott Company. 



tion of a ray of polarised light, and this optical 

 activity serves as a means of estimation of very 

 great value to the analyst. The sugars are divided 

 according to the views entertained as to their con- 

 stitution into three classes : the saccharoids, the 

 glucoses, and the saccharoses. The saccharoids are 

 regarded as saturated hexatomic alcohols, and have 

 the general formula CeHuOe, or differ from this in 

 having in certain instances the elements of water 

 superadded. Mannite, dulcite, isodulcite, hesperi- 

 din sugar, persite, sorbite are the chief saccharoids, 

 but quercite, pinite, raflfinose, and erythro-man- 

 nite, which possess formulae departing from the 

 type CeHuOe, are usually included under the sama 

 heading. The saccharoids are all crystalline, and 

 not capable of being fermented either with yeast 

 or with the lactic and butyric bacteria, or in one 

 or two instances undergo a very feeble action of 

 this kind. The glucoses are more important ; they 

 are the aldehydes of hexatomic alcohols, and have 

 the general formula CeHnOe. Dextrose, Isevulose, 

 and mannitose closely resemble one another, reduce 

 Fehling's solution, readily ferment (except the 

 last) with yeast, rotate the plane of polarisation, 

 and when oxidised yield saccharic acid. Galactose, 

 which is probably a mixture of two dextro-rotatory 

 sugars, closely resembles lapvulose, but has a feebler 

 action on Fehling's solution, and yields mucic acid 

 under the influence of oxidants. Inosite, sorbinose, 

 and eucalyptose do not ferment with yeast, but are 

 acted upon by the lactic and butyric bacteria (milk 

 and cheese). 



Dextrose (synonyms glucose, grape-sugar, starch- 

 sugar) is the most important sugar of the glucose 

 class. It occurs in the anhydrous condition as 

 transparent prismatic crystals, and in warty masses 

 having the composition CeHuOs + HzO, which lose 

 all their water below 100 C. It melts at 146 C., 

 is less soluble in water and in alcohol than sucrose, 

 and dissolves in boiling water in all proportions. 

 Dextrose has a dextro-rotatory action upon polar- 

 ised light, and reduces Fehling's solution. It is 

 not affected by moderate boiling with dilute acids, 

 nor does it readily char under the influence of 

 strong sulphuric acid, but forms with this body an 

 acid ethereal salt decomposed by water. It also 

 forms analogous compounds with many other acids. 

 It is rapidly decomposed on boilding with caustic 

 alkalis or caustic lime. Dextrose is found ready 

 formed in the grape to the extent of 15 per cent., 

 and in many other fruits. It may be prepared by 

 decomposing the glucosides and oy the hydrolysis 

 of starch, dextrin, cane-sugar, &c., by means of 

 dilute acids, diastase, or invertase, also by the 

 action of sulphuric acid upon cellulose. In honey 

 and in many fruits it occurs in association with 

 Isevulose, a glucose which bears a great resemblance 

 to it, but is distinguished by having a greater 

 sweetness and a tevo-rotatory power. Lajvulose is 

 said to be even sweeter than cane-sugar. 



The saccharoses, with the general formula 

 CuIfeOn, are the most important sugars, inas- 

 much as ordinary sugar, malt-sugar, and sugar of 

 milk are members of this class. They may be 

 regarded as condensation products of the glucoses, 

 and derived from two molecules by elimination of 

 the elements of water, thus : 2C6Hi 2 O6 - H 2 O = 

 CnlfcOii. The saccharoses are, with the excep- 

 tions of malt-sugar (maltose) and milk-sugar (lac- 

 tose), incapable of reducing Fehling's solution. 

 They are fermented by yeast, but only after 

 previous conversion into glucoses by the agency 

 of an enzyme (or enzymes), invertase, secreted by 

 that organism. The saccharoses are charred by 

 strong sulphuric acid. Besides the three already- 

 mentioned, this group contains melitose, melezi- 

 tose, mycose, and synanthrose. 



Sucrose (syn. cane-sugar, saccharose, saccharon. 



