442 



ISLAM, THE FUTURE OF. 



in Mr. Blunt's observations at Jiddah, where 

 every race and language and sect of Moham- 

 medanism are represented in the throngs of 

 pilgrims, and where the stranger hears dis- 

 cussed on every side the politics of the great 

 world; where "the religion professed is that 

 of a wider Islam than he has been accustomed 

 to in Turkey or in India," and where his view 

 of Islam becomes suddenly enlarged. And Mr. 

 Blunt owns " to having come away with more 

 than a gratified curiosity, and to having found 

 new worlds of thought and life in an atmos- 

 phere I had fancied to be only of decay. I 

 was astonished at the vigorous life of Islam, at 

 its practical hopes and fears in this modern 

 nineteenth century, and, above all, at its reality 

 as a moral force." 



Nevertheless, the Sultan assumes to be Ca- 

 liph of the whole Mohammedan world, and his 

 title is tacitly conceded by the mass of the 

 Sunnite sect. According to the orthodox doc- 

 trine, a caliph is essential as the ex-officio head 

 of the religious polity of Islam, and as the suc- 

 cessor of the Prophet. Whoever holds the 

 office is theoretically king over all Islam, and 

 its supreme religious authority in spiritual mat- 

 ters; although, practically, his temporal juris- 

 diction can only extend to such lands as he can 

 hold by arms ; and the Sultan has not for many 

 centuries exercised any direct authority in 

 spiritual matters. The Sultan derives his title 

 as Caliph from Selim I, who, having captured 

 and beheaded the reigning Mameluke Sultan of 

 Egypt, in 1517, acquired from a descendant of 

 the house of Abbas, whom he found living as titu- 

 lar Caliph at Cairo, a cession of his rights. One 

 of Selim's successors obtained from the Ulema a 

 decision that his title was valid, because he held 

 it 1. By the right of the sword until a 

 claimant with a better title should appear ; 2. 

 By election, the form of which is still kept up ; 

 3. By nomination, derived from the original 

 cession to Selim ; 4. By virtue of the guardian- 

 ship he exercises over the two shrines (at Mecca 

 and Medina) ; and, 5. By virtue of his possess- 

 ing the Amanat, or sacred relics. These claims, 

 however, do not rule without being passively 

 disputed. The Emperor of Morocco claims 

 himself to be the Caliph, as the representative 

 of that ancient schism of Cordova which took 

 place in the second century; but the limited 

 extent of his dominion and his remoteness from 

 the center of Mohammedanism prevent his 

 claim from being effectively heard. Of more 

 importance are the claims of the princes of the 

 house of Koreysh, at Mecca, which are sup- 

 ported by the fact of descent from Ali Ibn 

 Abutaleb, the fourth Caliph, and through his 

 wife, Fatmeh, from Mohammed himself, and 

 are centered in the Grand Shereef of Mecca, 

 as the ostensible head of the house. The Sul- 

 tan does not venture to dispute the claim, but 

 buys it off, and has established thereby one of 

 the strongest facts which he is able to use in 

 support of his own exercise of the powers of 

 Caliph. The Shereef of Mecca has no political 



strength, and needs the support of some stronger 

 power to defend him against the hostile Ara- 

 bian tribes of Nejd, and to protect the pilgrim 

 routes to Mecca, on the freedom of which, and 

 the consequent continued coming of pilgrims, 

 his prosperity depends. The Sultan affords 

 the required protection, and, in addition, trans- 

 mits annually to the Shereef the revenues of 

 the Vacouf within the Turkish Empire, which 

 are supposed to amount to nearly half a million 

 pounds sterling. In return he is acknowledged 

 as sovereign, and enjoys undisturbed power 

 and patronage, except in Mecca itself; and 

 also holds the power of removal and nomina- 

 tion of the Shereef, provided he always selects 

 that officer from the shereefal family. "Either 

 hates and despises the other, the patron and 

 the patronized ; and, save that their union is a 

 necessity, it would long ago have, by mutual 

 consent, been dissolved." 



The internal movements of recent years in 

 Turkey and in the whole Mohammedan world 

 have turned very largely upon the position of 

 the house of Othman in relation to the cal- 

 iphate. Sultan Abdul- Aziz, in the early part of 

 his reign, eagerly took up with a suggestion 

 that his strength and Turkish influence might 

 be greatly increased by putting the spiritual 

 authority of the Sultan as Caliph more promi- 

 nently forward. The Ulema readily agreed to 

 the scheme, and enthusiastically entered into 

 the prosecution of it. Missionaries were sent 

 out to propagate in all the Mohammedan states 

 the doctrine of the Sultan's spiritual leadership. 

 The party of "Young Turkey," with Midhat 

 Pasha, accepted the central idea of the plan, and 

 labored to secure its realization in a modified 

 form, the prominent feature of which was the 

 separation of the political power from the 

 spiritual functions of the Caliph. With this 

 object, they sought to establish a constitutional 

 parliamentary system of government, in which 

 a ministry should assume the charge of tem- 

 poral affairs and be responsible for their man- 

 agement, leaving the Sultan, still the nominal 

 head of the state, to be occupied pre-eminently 

 with his ecclesiastical duties. Abdul-Aziz 

 proved to be incompetent to carry out this en- 

 terprise on which he had apparently started 

 well, became an impediment to it, and was de- 

 posed. Abdul-Hamid was better fitted to the 

 purposes of the Ulema, and seemed more capa- 

 ble of carrying them out, but, before he was 

 able to accomplish anything in that direction, 

 the prestige of Turkey as a power was nearly 

 destroyed by its defeat in war, and a new diffi- 

 culty of the most formidable character had to 

 be met. Abdul-Hamid and those who are co- 

 operating with him have not, however, given up 

 their scheme, but are still using every effort to 

 promote it. 



In the mean time a new scheme, in which 

 Midhat Pasha is credited with being a promi- 

 nent mover, has been started among the Ara- 

 bians and the Mohammedans who are not 

 friendly to Turkish rule, for the erection of a 



