648 



MONTENEGRO. 



of these dangerous fanatics, and there is reason 

 to believe that the bulk of their Indian core- 

 ligionists openly or tacitly agree with them. 

 The Mohammedan newspapers have therefore 

 of late undisguisedly discussed the question 

 whether rebellion is a duty. Some years ago 

 an assembly of Mohammedan doctors of Luck- 

 now and Delhi, which was held at Rampoor, 

 decided that India with its English govern- 

 ment was not dar ul Islam, land of the Islam, 

 but dar ul harab, land of war ; it ought there- 

 fore to be reconquered for the Islam, but since 

 a war against the powerful Englishman was for 

 the present without any prospect of success, 

 and a defeat of the Islam would be discredit- 

 able in the eyes of the world, it was necessary 

 to remain quiet for the present. The boldness 

 of this declaration frightened the Mohammedan 

 society of Calcutta, which declared through its 

 doctors of law that India was still a land of 

 the faithful, and an insurrection was unlawful. 

 The disquieted Moslems have now procured an 

 opinion of the doctors of Mecca, who likewise 

 declare India, in spite of the English rule, to be 

 a land of the Islam ; intimating, however, in a 

 significant manner, that every Moslem is obliged 

 to do everything that is in his power to rees- 

 tablish the recognition of orthodox regulation 

 and laws, and that anything that a foreign gov- 

 ernment does or introduces contrary to these 

 laws is invalid. The English have done much 

 of this kind. They have replaced Moslem 

 governors by English ; they have removed 

 Mohammedan judges ; their entire legislation is 

 more or less opposed to the Koran. Hitherto 

 those who regarded it as a sacred duty in such 

 a situation to emigrate have settled on Afghan 

 territory, and this cloud collecting on the north- 

 western frontier has been one of the causes that 

 drew English armies to the Afghan territory. 

 A small minority of the Indian Moslems try to 

 explain away, by an artificial interpretation of 

 the plain passages of the Koran, the duty of 

 rebellion and of a sacred war against the infi- 

 dels ; but there can hardly be any doubt as to 

 what Is thought and believed by the majority of 

 them. The Moslem can never forget that his 

 Indian empire was overthrown by the English. 

 The entire Koran is based on the view that the 

 Moslems are a people who either govern or aim 

 at. the government. Moreover, the Mohamme- 

 dans of India are, though through their own 

 fault excluded from nearly all public offices 

 and positions, most of which are in the hands 

 of Brahmanists. 



MONTENEGRO, a principality of south- 

 eastern Europe. Reigning Prince, Nicholas I., 

 born October 7, 1841 ; declared Prince on Au- 

 gust 14, 1860, upon the death of Prince Danilo 

 I. He was married, November 8, 1860, to Mi- 

 lena, daughter of Petar Vukotitch. The chil- 

 dren of this marriage are two sons, Danilo 

 Alexander, born June 30, 1871, and Mirko, 

 born in 1879, and six daughters. The area of 

 the country in 1878 comprised 3,642 square 

 miles. Of this, 1,814 square miles was the 



area before the war, while the Treaty of Ber- 

 lin had added 1,167 square miles from Herze- 

 govina and 661 square miles from Albania. 

 The population before the war was estimated 

 at 180,000; to this number were added 54,000 

 in Herzegovina and 52,000 in Albania, making 

 a total population of 286,000. 



For an account of the finances, army, and 

 commerce, see "Annual Cyclopaedia" for 1878. 



In the beginning of March, Prince Nicholas 

 made a number of reforms which he had for 

 some time considered. He established a min- 

 istry, and adopted the principle of ministerial 

 responsibility, while preserving for himself all 

 the rights and privileges of a constitutional 

 monarch. The first Montenegrin Ministry was 

 composed as follows : Bozo Petrovitch, Minis- 

 ter President and Minister of the Princely 

 House ; Masha Webitza, Interior, Commerce, 

 and Communications ; Stanko Radovitcb, For- 

 eign Affairs ; Ilija Plamenatch, "War ; Gjura 

 Tchernovitch, Finances ; Ljubomir Wenado- 

 vitch, Worship and Education. The princi- 

 pality is to be divided into twenty-three dis- 

 tricts, which are each to have a district chief. 

 There are to be twelve lower courts, a court 

 of appeals, and a court of cassation. Elemen- 

 tary instruction is to be gratuitous and obliga- 

 tory. Every child between eight and fourteen 

 years of age must attend school. Three teach- 

 ers' seminaries and an agricultural school are to 

 be established. Although it seemed desirable 

 to establish representatives at various courts, 

 especially at Vienna, it was deemed advisable, 

 under the present condition of the treasury, to 

 restrict the foreign representation to an am- 

 bassador at Belgrade and an agent at Constan- 

 tinople. 



The negotiations with the Porte for the sur- 

 render of the districts ceded to Montenegro 

 by the Treaty of Berlin continued throughout 

 January. Considerable opposition made itself 

 manifest among the Albanians who were in 

 future to belong to Montenegro, but it eventu- 

 ally subsided. On February 7th Podgoritza, and 

 on the 8th Spuz and Zabliac, were surrendered 

 by the Porte to the Montenegrins without any 

 resistance on the part of the inhabitants. The 

 Montenegrins on their part evacuated the places 

 they still occupied in Turkish territory. The 

 mixed commission for the definite settlement 

 of the boundary soon after met. A slight dif- 

 ference came to light in the latter part of May 

 between the Turkish Commissioners and their 

 colleagues regarding the delimitation on the 

 western side of the Lake of Scutari a differ- 

 ence caused by a certain indistinctness in the 

 text of Article 28 of the Treaty of Berlin fixing 

 the limits of Montenegro. The article stated 

 that from Plavnitza, on the eastern shore of 

 the lake, the new frontier should cross the lake 

 near the Island of Gorica-Topal, and, starting 

 thence, ascend in a direct line to the crest of 

 the hills, and thence, following the watershed, 

 descend to the Adriatic at Kruci. The Turks, 

 taking their stand on the words of the treaty 



