582 



MOHAMMEDANISM. 



tion. The losses which the empire has suffered 

 by the results of the recent war, even after 

 they have been mitigated by the modifications 

 of the treaty of Berlin, can not be concealed 

 from the masses of the Turkish people. ^The 

 continuance of Russian armies in the specially 

 reserved Turkish territory for more than a 

 year after the war was declared at an end, the 

 surrender of Eastern Roumelia to Russian and 

 European administrators, the hold of the Rus- 

 sians upon the captured positions in Armenia, 

 with the gift to them of Batoum, which they 

 had not captured, the delivery of Asia Minor to 

 an English protectorate, and the agitation of 

 the Armenians for a protectorate over their 

 own country, are facts which come home to 

 Turkish communities hitherto most remote 

 from European influences. Including Egypt, 

 which has closer relations now with England 

 and France than it has with its suzerain power, 

 the whole of the Turkish Empire, except the 

 Arab-populated districts stretching from Syria 

 to the Persian Gulf, has been brought more or 

 less directly under the influence and control of 

 the Christian European powers. The allegi- 

 ance of the Arabs to the Porte is slight, and 

 depends largely on the ability of the Sultan to 

 display power. They have among their tribes 

 many princes of the family of Mohammed, 

 whom they believe to be better entitled to their 

 adherence than any ruler of alien blood ; and 

 events have occurred recently which justify 

 and confirm the belief that they are ready, 

 whenever the Sultan clearly betrays his weak- 

 ness, to transfer their obedience to the one of 

 these chiefs who may show himself best able 

 to command it. 



The forty million Mohammedans in India 

 could exert a great force if they should com- 

 bine. The friends of Turkey expected them to 

 combine in favor of the Sultan by furnishing him 

 with material aid, or by inducing the British 

 Government to such a course as would strength- 

 en the power of the Turks to resist Russian at- 

 tacks. These expectations were not fulfilled. 

 The more zealous adherents of the sect and the 

 merchants of some of the Presidency towns 

 formed societies which contributed money and 

 endeavored to arouse enthusiasm for the de- 

 fense of the Commander of the Faithful ; but 

 they could not excite any active interest in the 

 cause among the Mohammedan masses. The 

 circumstances of the Indian Mussulmans are 

 not favorable to their combination. They are 

 divided among themselves by sectarian lines, 

 and by difference of race. They are not suffi- 

 ciently dissatisfied with British rule to organ- 

 ize an extensive insurrection against it, even if 

 some single state should endeavor to do so. 

 The majority of the twenty million Mussul- 

 of northern India do not belong to the 

 race of the Mohammedan conquerors, but are 



>liammedans by conversion, who embraced 

 [slamism because it offered a relief from Brah- 

 manisrn. In Bengal they are quiet working- 

 men, but little different from the Hindoos with 



whom they live and are associated. The Mus- 

 sulmans of the Punjaub are orderly and indus- 

 trious, and are regarded as of exemplary loyal- 

 ty, and in no sense constituting a dangerous or 

 unstable class. Attention has been called to 

 the fact that none of the races which have 

 participated in the Mohammedan conquests 

 Arabs, Persians, Afghans, and Mongols have 

 any blood affinities or fundamental friendship 

 with the Turks, but that they have all been 

 in historical antagonism with them. Sir John 

 Campbell has noticed that these people as a 

 whole have seen the dominion of their own 

 faith overturned in India, have witnessed the 

 deposition of their own sovereigns, and the 

 imposition of burdens upon those who were 

 left, without making any considerable disturb- 

 ance. Mohammedan sepoys fought with their 

 Hindoo comrades against the British during 

 the mutiny, although the Government had 

 just been engaged in a war in defense of the 

 chief Mohammedan power; they showed no 

 indignation at the neutrality of the British dur- 

 ing the recent war. The conclusion is drawn 

 that there is no solidarity among them, and 

 that they need not be counted as a factor in 

 settling Mohammedan questions outside of In- 

 dia. Ninety-six per cent, of the Indian Mo- 

 hammedans are accredited to the Sunnite sect ; 

 the other four per cent, belong to the Shiite 

 and smaller sect. As a rule, the Shiites are of 

 the most industrious, active, and well-to-do 

 class. The Wahabees are represented in every 

 Mussulman town and village by enthusiastic dis- 

 ciples, many of whom are industrious preachers 

 of the doctrine of a religious war ; and a colony 

 of three hundred Wahabees, the remnant of 

 the army which fought in the Jehad against the 

 Sikhs from 1826 to 1831, is settled at Palosi on 

 the banks of the Indus, under the rule of 

 Sheik Abdallah, one of the mutineers of 1857. 

 But these zealots form only a minority of the 

 population. Their religious enthusiasm is in- 

 tense, but they are not united on political ques- 

 tions ; for, says the Rev. Mr. Hughes, mission- 

 ary of the Church Missionary Society at Pesh- 

 awer, " among purely religious Wahabees may 

 be found some of the most loyal native subjects 

 of the Empress of India." The Akhoond of 

 Swat, who died in January, 1878, nearly ninety 

 years of age, was a saint who exercised a 

 great influence and had gained an almost auto- 

 cratic authority over the Mussulmans of all 

 the East. " This Pope," said Mr. Hughes while 

 he was still living and at the height of his 

 power, "reigns supreme as the guide and di- 

 rector of the hearts of men all over High 

 Asia." His residence was the resort of throngs 

 of pilgrims, three hundred of whom are said 

 to have visited him daily, who came from all 

 the surrounding countries, from Bengal. Bok- 

 hara, Constantinople, Persia, Tunis, even from 

 Mecca, to consult him on questions of every 

 kind, and kept his treasury full. For nearly 

 half a century the Indian Government was ac- 

 customed to watch him assiduously and anx- 



