MOPIAMMEDANISM. 



585 



laws regulate the most powerful kingdoms 

 Footah, Masina, Houssa, Bornoo, Waday, Dar- 

 foor, Kordofan, Sennaar, etc. It produces and 

 controls the most valuable commerce between 

 Africa and foreign countries ; it is daily gath- 

 ering converts from the ranks of paganism ; 

 and it commands respect among all Africans 

 wherever it is known, even where the people 

 have not submitted to the sway of the Koran." 

 Numerous negro Mohammedan communities 

 are mentioned as self-reliant, productive, inde- 

 pendent, and dominant, supporting, without 

 the countenance or patronage of the parent 

 country Arabia, their political, religious, and 

 ecclesiastical institutions. In Sierra Leone the 

 negro Mohammedans erect their mosques, keep 

 up their religious services, conduct their schools, 

 and contribute to the support of missionaries 

 who visit them from Arabia, Morocco, or Foo- 

 tah, without any aid. Along the whole western 

 coast of Africa, from Senegal to Lagos, a dis- 

 tance of two thousand miles, hardly an impor- 

 tant town is without its mosque and its rep- 

 resentative of Islam ; and the adherents of 

 this faith are increasing in numbers at Sierra 

 Leone, three fourths of the additions being 

 through conviction and not by birth. Dr. 

 Blyden, when on an exploring expedition for 

 the Government of Sierra Leone in 1872-'73, 

 found Moslems acting as prime ministers to the 

 chiefs in all the important pagan towns, and 

 learned that the chief advisers of the King of 

 Ashantee were Mohammedans from Sokotoo. 

 The same was true of Dahomey. 



The Mohammedan mind is fairly active in 

 literary production, but few of its works at- 

 tract attention abroad. They partake mainly 

 of the character of commentaries on the Koran 

 or treatises on law and morals, but many of 

 them are controversial works of no insignifi- 

 cant merit. A reply in the Arabic language 

 to the attack of Dr. Pfander on the Moham- 

 medan system, by Rahmut Allah, a Moham- 

 medan scholar, is said by Dr. Blyden to reveal 

 *' a marvelous acquaintance with European lit- 

 erature." Two able works have recently ap- 

 peared in the English language : " Essays on 

 the Life of Mohammed," by Syed Ahmed Khan 

 Bahadur, 0. S. I., London, 1870 ; and " Critical 

 Examination of the Life and Teachings of Mo- 

 hammed," by Syed Ameer Ali Mulvi, M. A., 

 LL. B., of the Inner Temple, Barrister-at-Law, 

 etc., London, 1873. The Mulvi Syed Ahmed 

 Khan Bahadur, a distinguished member of the 

 party of liberal Mohammedans in northern 

 India, commenced the publication of a com- 

 mentary in Hindustani upon the Hebrew text 

 of the Old Testament, of which two volumes 

 of about three hundred pages quarto had ap- 

 peared when it was discontinued, the author 

 finding that he had undertaken a larger work 

 than he could accomplish at his advanced age. 

 This work maintains that all the books of the 

 Scriptures except the Epistles of the New Tes- 

 tament which are received by Christians are 

 also received by Mohammedans as the word of 



God, and that we have the books essentially 

 as they were delivered by the prophets and 

 apostles. On the question of the abrogation of 

 one part of the revelation of God by another, 

 on which there is some difference among Mo- 

 hammedans, it holds that only such laws as are 

 ceremonial can possibly be altered or abro- 

 gated, and that "those who imagine it to be a 

 part of the Mohammedan creed that one law 

 has totally repealed another, are utterly mis- 

 taken." A special introduction to the Old 

 Testament is based largely upon Home's " In- 

 troduction." Syed Ahmed has also been iden- 

 tified with a scheme for the foundation of a 

 Mohammedan university at Allygurh, India, 

 which, while it is open to students of all reli- 

 gions, shall be invested with peculiar Oriental 

 characteristics, and in which theology shall be 

 taught by both Sunnite and Shiite professors. 

 The theological department is to be endowed 

 with sixty scholarships. The foundation of 

 this institution was laid about two years ago 

 by Lord Lytton, the Viceroy. 



The subject of the best and most effective 

 method of presenting Christianity to Moham- 

 medan peoples has received prominent atten- 

 tion at several recent ecclesiastical meetings. 

 It was considered at the meeting of the Eng- 

 lish Church Congress in 1877, in papers by 

 Bishop Steere of Zanzibar, Professor E. H. 

 Palmer, Sir W. Muir, Professor Monier Wil- 

 liams, the Rev. Jani Alii, a converted Mussul- 

 man, and the Rev. J. Cane-Browne. It was 

 also discussed in various forms at the General 

 Conference on Foreign Missions held in London 

 in October, 1878. The Rev. E. E. Jenkins de- 

 fined the obstacles which Islam presents to the 

 reception of Christianity by its votaries to con- 

 sist largely in the political unity of the system, 

 and " the irrepressible personality of its found- 

 er." To preach Christ to Mohammedans, he 

 said, is to exhibit a rival. Although the unity 

 of God is common to both, this is their termi- 

 nal base of accordance ; here they divide in 

 opposite lines, not in either case in the pursuit 

 of remoter truths, but in the acceptance and 

 maintenance of diametrically opposite dogmas. 

 The Rev. Mr. Hughes, of Peshawer, called at- 

 tention to the fact that since Mohammedanism 

 is largely founded on the Old Testament Scrip- 

 tures, care must be taken in throwing down 

 this system that the truths it contains are not 

 allowed to suffer. 



The Protestant missionary societies in Mo- 

 hammedan countries have only recently made 

 any direct efforts for the conversion of Mus- 

 sulmans. They have been prevented by the 

 laws which affixed the penalty of death to the 

 profession of another faith by a Moslem. Even 

 where those laws were no longer operative, the 

 convert continued to be in imminent danger 

 of being murdered by his neighbors ; and, ac- 

 cording to Bishop Steere, the late Seyyid of^ 

 Zanzibar told one of the European consuls that,* 

 if the missions made any converts, there were 

 many people in the town who would consider 



