CHAMBERS'S INFORMATION FOR THE PEOPLE. 



about sunset, at nightfall, about daybreak, about 

 noon, and in the afternoon; the exact time of sun- 

 rise, noon, and sunset being avoided, to guard 

 against the appearance of countenancing the 

 worship of the sun. The prayers are in forms 

 prescribed, which may not be abridged, except by 

 travellers and by soldiers preparing for battle. 

 They are made up of extracts from the Koran, and 

 other writings attributed to Mohammed, and con- 

 sist in praise of God, desires for his direction or 

 assistance, and pious ejaculations, not at all of 

 special petitions. They are uttered with the face 

 turned towards Mecca, kneeling, but with much 

 variety of posturing. Notice of the times of 

 prayer is given by the chanting of mueddins, or 

 criers, from the minarets of the mosques or places 

 of worship ; and in these the prayers are recited 

 by Imams, or ministers. Prayer, however, may be 

 said anywhere ; women, indeed, must always say 

 the appointed prayers in some place other than 

 the mosque, for it they are not allowed to enter, 

 while men are there, lest their presence should 

 distract the men from their devotions. The 

 Imam is simply a qualified person selected to go 

 through the appointed ritual by the warden of 

 the mosque, and holding office at his pleasure. 

 No religious character belongs to him. In our 

 sense of the word, the Mohammedans have no 

 clergy. 



Next to prayer, stands the duty of alms- 

 giving. Once every year, the law requires the 

 giving of alms, consisting of cattle, money, corn, 

 fruit, and other articles which can be sold ; and it 

 is customary to give away provisions to the poor 

 at the end of the sacred month of Ramadan. 



Fasting, though third in order of the posi- 

 tive duties, is a duty much insisted upon among 

 Mohammedans : it is said to be 'a fourth part 

 of the faith;' nay, to be 'the gate of religion.' 

 It consists in abstaining from satisfying the appe- 

 tites ; in restraining the ears, eyes, tongue, and 

 other bodily members from sin ; in keeping the 

 thoughts away from worldly cares, and fixing them 

 upon God. During the whole of the month of 

 Ramadan, the Moslem is required to fast from 

 daybreak until sunset Though there is no re- 

 straint upon indulgence between sunset and day- 

 break, the fasting is a severe trial of constancy at 

 all times, but especially when (the Arabian years 

 being lunar) the sacred month falls in the hot 

 season. The fasting, particularly the abstinence 

 from drink, is then excessively mortifying. Nurses 

 and pregnant women are exempt from the fast ; 

 so are sick people, travellers, and soldiers on a 

 campaign, though they are required to make 

 up for the omission at other times. 



Once at least to make a pilgrimage to Mecca, is 

 the last of the leading positive duties of the Moslem. 

 Inability from poverty, ill-health, or other good 

 cause, may excuse from its performance ; but as 

 to him who through negligence omits it, it is 

 deemed he might ' as well die a Jew or a Chris- 

 tian.' The Kaaba, or temple of Mecca, with its 

 Black Stone, which bears the mark of Abraham's 

 foot, and with other traces of the patriarch, had 

 been regarded as sacred long before the time 

 of Mohammed. Mohammed found the annual 

 pilgrimage sanctioned by the usage of ages, and 

 he accepted it, and found a place for it in his 

 system. The ceremonies of the Hadj or pilgrim- 

 age take place in the month called Zil-hadj. 



420 



Pilgrims come from every Mohammedan country. 

 Apart from the pilgrimage, Mecca is to Mo- 

 hammedans a holy city, full of spots which are 

 regarded with deep veneration. The pilgrimage 

 is frequently, if not habitually, followed by a visit 

 to Medina, where is Mohammed's tomb. 



Among minor positive duties, is that of keeping 

 the appointed festivals, of which that which suc- 

 ceeds the month of Ramadan, though not the most 

 important, is not unnaturally the most joyfully 

 celebrated. The observance of Friday as the day 

 of rest and worship may also be here mentioned. 

 This, like the pilgrimage, was an established 

 institution in Arabia for ages before the time of 

 Mohammed. There is a service, including devo- 

 tional readings from the Koran, and usually a 

 sermon at the mosque ; but, that over, work is 

 not forbidden ; those may work who cannot afford 

 to give the whole day to pleasure and devotion. 



Among things forbidden by Mohammedanism 

 are the drinking of wine under which are included 

 all spirituous and intoxicating liquors and, in 

 the opinion of the very rigid, opium, coffee, and 

 tobacco also ; the eating of the flesh of swine, 

 and of the flesh of animals which have died from 

 disease or age, which have been strangled or 

 killed by a blow or fall, or by some other 

 beast, or on which the name of an idol has 

 been invoked, or which have been sacrificed 

 to idols, or which have not been slaughtered 

 according to rules prescribed ; and the use of 

 the blood of animals. Games of chance are 

 strictly prohibited, but, according to the majority 

 of theologians, not games of skill, such as chess ; 

 usury also is forbidden ; and to make an imita- 

 tion of any living being in any material is not 

 only forbidden, but considered one of the worst of 

 offences, being regarded as tending to idolatry. 



The social regulations of Mohammedanism its- 

 laws, civil and criminal are, equally with its code 

 of personal duties, of religious obligation, resting 

 as they do upon the same authority, the teaching 

 of the Prophet The principal Mohammedan 

 governments, however, have had to depart in some 

 degree from the strict law of Islam, it being im- 

 possible for a government dealing with a society 

 in any degree advanced to adhere rigidly to its 

 prescriptions. Mohammed seems in the main ta 

 have accepted the laws he found existing about 

 him, abrogating or altering where he thought it 

 necessary. His laws are therefore those proper 

 to a semi-savage people, and they have proved 

 a heavy incubus on the advance of Moham- 

 medan peoples. The law allows polygamy, but 

 not without restriction ; a man may not have more 

 than four wives, but he may have a certain num- 

 ber of concubines besides. The limitations put 

 upon marriage on the grounds of consanguinity 

 or propinquity are, generally speaking, the same 

 with those of the Jewish law; and the tie of milk 

 that is, connection through a foster-mother bars 

 marriage in every degree in which the tie of blood 

 prevents it. To say to his wife, 'Thou art 

 divorced,' or, 'I divorce thee,' and to pay back 

 part of the dowry, are all a husband has to do to 

 terminate a disagreeable connection. The woman, 

 on the other hand, if under age, can be given in 

 marriage by her guardians without her consent, 

 and is bound to her husband for ever, unless she 

 can prove some flagrant ill-usage, or neglect of con- 

 jugal duty on his part 





