444 



ISLAM, THE FUTURE OF. 



already become real in Tunis and Southern 

 Algeria. 



Both these movements the one that aims 

 to extend and develop the spiritual authority 

 of the Snltan, and that which aspires to the 

 erection of an independent caliphate contem- 

 plate a union of the Mohammedan world, and 

 may equally be called Pan-Islamic : the ques- 

 tion as to which party will prevail must be one 

 of physical force, for the Sultan's title to the 

 caliphate avowedly rests solely upon his ability 

 to maintain it thus. The parties opposed to the 

 Sultan labor under the disadvantage of not 

 being united under any single leader, and of 

 having their forces scattered. The Shereef of 

 Morocco advances a claim to the title; and a 

 chief has arisen in Tripoli who claims to be the 

 expected leader of the Mohammedan prophecies, 

 and promises to reveal himself openly to the 

 world on the 12th of November, 1882. This 

 leader, who is called El Mehdi, is the sacrosanct 

 head of the Sennoussia community, which is 

 said to have hundreds of monasteries in North 

 Africa, and even in Arabia and Syria, and to 

 be obeyed by Mohammedan tribes of the desert 

 whose very names are unknown to Europeans. 

 The prophecy of which he aspires to accom- 

 plish the fulfillment is believed to have been 

 drawn up by Sennoussi, the Algerine Moor a 

 shereef or descendant of the Prophet who 

 founded in 1850 the great organization which 

 now disputes with the Turks the sovereignty 

 of Southern Tripoli, and which supplies the 

 material resources for the resistance offered by 

 the Tunisian tribes to the Turkish invasion. It 

 has been circulated for several years through 

 the Moorish-Mussulman world, and predicts 

 that '' on the 1st of the month of Mohassan, in 

 the year 1300 (November 12, 1882), will ap- 

 pear the El Mohdy, or Messiah. He will be 

 exactly forty years of age, and of noble bear- 

 ing. One arm will be longer than the other; 

 his father's name will be Mohammed, his 

 mother's Fatima, and he will be hidden for a 

 time prior to his manifestation." The Tripoli- 

 tan El Mehdi has the physical peculiarity re- 

 ferred to, his right arm reaching to his knee, 

 and he has for four years been hidden from all 

 eyes in a religious retreat. Another chief has 

 risen in Soodan. The Khedive of Egypt is 

 believed to be willing to aspire to the position 

 of a leader if an opportunity should be offered 

 him ; and the followers of Colonel Arabi, in 

 the same country, are said to be earnestly 

 watching for the deliverer. The family of the 

 Shereef of -Mecca have the vast advantage over 

 any other possible competitors to the supreme 

 title of Islam that they are of the acknowl- 

 edged blood of that tribe of Koreysh which 

 Mohammed himself designated as his heirs, and 

 "are surrounded with a halo of religious pres- 

 tige which would make their acquisition of the 

 supreme temporal title appear natural to all 

 but the races who have been in subjection to 

 the Ottomans." 



The Sultan, who is said to acknowledge the 



superior rank of the shereefs on ceremonial 

 occasions, is well aware of this fact, and has 

 therefore always taken particular pains, by 

 subsidies, by fostering family feuds, by personal 

 selection of the shereefs, and by influence over 

 them personally, to keep them in subordination 

 to him. The assassination of the Shereef El 

 Husseyn Ibn Aoun, on the 14th of March, 1880, 

 although nothing is positively known on the 

 subject, is believed to have been inspired by 

 political motives. The murdered Shereef was 

 a man of liberal views, friendly toward the 

 European powers, and so popular among the 

 Arabs of Ilejaz as to excite the jealousy of the 

 Turkish Government. The Shereef who took 

 his place, Abdul Mutalleb, was of a rival branch 

 of the family, of Wahabite affiliations, and a 

 fierce fanatic, and had twice before been 

 shereef and twice deposed. He is more than 

 ninety years old, and it has been mentioned 

 as a curious coincidence that his name is the 

 same which the traditions give to the vicege- 

 rent of the Mohdy who is to appear in 1882, 

 and overthrow the Turkish power and the 

 caliphate of Constantinople. It is believed by 

 many Mussulmans that an Arabian caliphate, 

 deriving an undoubted title direct from the 

 founder of the faith, would go far toward 

 reconciling the sects with orthodox Islam, and 

 restoring unity among them. The Arabians 

 would be able to give their caliphate a strong 

 and effective support ; for they are described 

 as being an active, vigorous, and liberal-minded 

 people ; their settled estates in the oases are 

 well kept and thrifty ; and the political princes 

 in the states of the peninsula have given their 

 people a security of government that is un- 

 known under Turkish jurisdiction. 



Opposite opinions prevail on the question 

 whether the Mohammedan religion is capable 

 of being reformed and given a development in 

 accordance with the present tendencies of civ- 

 ilized nations. The Rev. Edward Sell, who 

 has embodied the results of fifteen years' study 

 among the Mussulmans of India in his " Faith 

 of Islam," has shown that the Koran is not the 

 sole standard of Moslem doctrine and practice, 

 but that it is supplemented by three other 

 standards of nearly equal authority. The Ko- 

 ran itself is held to be unique among sacred 

 books, and pre-eminent over them all, because 

 every word of it was composed in heaven and 

 dictated to Mohammed, word by word, in the 

 Arabic language, and in an audible voice, while 

 the other divine books were received by the 

 prophets who uttered them only in the form 

 of ideas. Thus, it can not be altered in the 

 slightest degree. It is, however, supplemented 

 and explained by the " Sunnat," which consists 

 of the commands given by the Prophet outside 

 of the Koran, and the examples set by him, 

 including his "recorded sayings, doings, and 

 silences" on certain subjects, which, though 

 technically not as sacred as the Koran, are 

 quite as binding, and are in many cases the 

 authoritative interpretation of doubtful pas- 



