584 



MOHAMMEDANISM. 



learn no more than they do at Cairo, and re- 

 turn to their homes qualified only to be mol- 

 lalis and casuists in theology. The Sultan of 

 Turkey has endeavored to establish a number 

 of special schools at Constantinople, to give 

 European instruction to young men who were 

 destined for employment in the public offices 

 and in the diplomatic service, but they have 

 never become vigorous; and the Khedive of 

 Egypt has founded some really good schools, 

 including two or three higher-class girls' 

 schools. With these exceptions all the really 

 efficient schools in Mohammedan countries are 

 controlled by non-Moslems. The foreign resi- 

 dents in Egypt of several different nationalities, 

 the Greeks, Armenians, and Bulgarians in Tur- 

 key, sustain good schools for their own people 

 in all the communities where they are suffi- 

 ciently numerous; and the missionary societies 

 have planted many schools of every grade, ris- 

 ing to that of an American college, in Europe- 

 an Turkey, Asia Minor, Armenia, Syria, and 

 Egypt. All of these schools attract Moham- 

 medan scholars, who are not taught in them 

 anything that is Mohammedan, but rather what 

 tends to weaken the hold of their religion upon 

 them. The disparity in the capacity of the 

 Mussulmans and the non -Mussulmans for citi- 

 zenship, and for performing the duties of the 

 public offices, is becoming more evident every 

 year ; and it is often remarked that the most 

 competent and faithful servants the Porte can 

 find are selected from among its Greek and 

 Armenian subjects. The British Government 

 schools furnish a solid secular instruction, and 

 the schools of the missionary societies secular 

 instruction combined with religious teaching 

 in Christian doctrine, to all the people of Brit- 

 ish India ; and since the examinations in these 

 schools supply the tests by which candidates 

 are admitted to the universities and to the civil 

 service, they are eagerly attended by the am- 

 bitious and enterprising youth of all the races 

 and religions of the country. 



The religion of Islam is making an actual, 

 evident growth in the interior of Africa. Ac- 

 cording to our table, nearly one half the Mo- 

 hammedans of the world are on this continent. 

 The Moslem system is losing its supremacy in 

 the coast countries. The Government of Egypt 

 is virtually in the hands of Europeans, and is 

 conforming to European models. Algeria is a 

 French province, and is supplied with a com- 

 plete French system of public instruction. 

 Tunis is threatened with seizure by France or 

 Italy. In Zanzibar, where, according to Bishop 

 Bteere, of the Church of England, five distinct 



its meet, from Arabia, Persia, and India, the 

 is adopting European customs and takes 



le advice of European consuls on administra- 

 tive questions. Only Morocco, now a poor 

 and obscure state, has escaped subjection to 

 some kind of non-Mussulman reform. In the 

 interior, however, the faith is still as pure and 

 Itrong as it is in its native home in Arabia, 

 and is spreading to the heathen tribes around 



with a vigor and rapidity that have attracted the 

 attention of European teachers and observers 

 to such an extent that Professor Monier Wil- 

 liams, of Oxford, expressed the opinion, in a 

 paper discussing the subject in 1875, that un- 

 less a fresh and powerful impulse was given to 

 Christian missionary eifort, Mohammedanism 

 would speedily overrun the whole African 

 Continent. The missionaries of Islam present 

 their religion to the negroes in an aspect which 

 makes it attractive to them, and causes it to 

 appear to them at an advantage, in some re- 

 spects, as compared with Christianity. It is 

 propagated by Arabs and by native Mandin- 

 goes and Foolahs, who traverse the country as 

 traders as well as preachers, and are earnest 

 apostles of their religion, which they dissemi- 

 nate by quietly teaching the Koran ; " and in 

 this way," says the Eev. Dr. Blyden,* who 

 lives in Western Africa and has witnessed their 

 operations, " silently and almost unobtrusively, 

 they are causing princes to become obedient 

 disciples and zealous propagators of Islam." 

 They forthwith teach the negro converts to 

 read', and begin to instruct them in the litera- 

 ture of their newly received religion ; and in 

 the Mohammedan readjustment of the social 

 and political organization, the local institutions 

 are not destroyed, but are modified and adapt- 

 ed; so that, "in all thriving Mohammedan 

 communities in West and Central Africa, it 

 may be noticed that the Arab superstructure 

 has been superimposed on a permanent indi- 

 genous substructure." The missionaries of 

 Mohammedanism have within a few years past 

 exhibited a largely increased activity in propa- 

 gating their religion from the Moslem states 

 of the Nile into the countries of the upper val- 

 ley of that river, and from the Zanzibar coast 

 to the region of the central lakes ; and the es- 

 tablishment of Christian missions in those 

 neighborhoods, which has been effected by the 

 Church, London, and Scottish Missionary So- 

 cieties since 1875, has been hastened by the 

 conviction that it was necessary to act quickly 

 in order to anticipate the Mohammedans on 

 this ground. In the west, according to Dr. 

 Blyden, so long as Timbuctoo, where the reli- 

 gion has been established for many centuries, 

 retained its ascendancy, Islam kept up its 

 strictly Arabian aspect. Recently Kooka has 

 become the seat of literary activity and eccle- 

 siastical influence, and Kano the commercial 

 center both purely negro cities, whence the 

 religion has spread among the communities 

 near the sources of the Niger ; and the system 

 has been " largely affected by the geographical 

 and racial influences to which it has been ex- 

 posed." Mohammedanism in Africa, says this 

 same author, now " counts in its ranks the 

 most enterprising and energetic tribes. It 

 claims as its adherents the only people who 

 have any form of civil polity, or bond of social 

 organization. It has built and occupies the 

 largest cities in the heart of the continent. Its 



* " Methodist Quarterly Keview," January, 1S77. 





