ISLAM, THE FUTURE OF. 



ITALY. 



445 



sages in the Koran. A third standard is the 

 " Ijma," or consensus of the leading Mohamme- 

 dan theologians on all disputed points of faith 

 and practice, which is based on the systems of 

 jurisprudence established by the four great or- 

 thodox Imauins, Abn Hanifa, Ibn Malik, As- 

 Shafii, and Ibn Hanbal. These decisions are 

 absolutely binding on all true believers, and it 

 has been an article of faith with men of the 

 Turkish schools since the eleventh century of 

 the Christian era, that all further discussion or 

 interpretation on these points is closed. The 

 fourth standard, "Qias," is provided in the 

 system of analogical reasoning practiced by the 

 doctors of the Mohammedan law. The Turkish 

 school hold that this method of interpretation 

 also is closed by the rule that nothing can be 

 drawn out by it that is contradictory to or does 

 not coincide wi,th what is determined by the 

 other three standards. Another school, rep- 

 resented by the Turkish liberals and the Ara- 

 bian reformers, has arisen, who believe that this 

 method can be used so as to afford a system 

 under which the principles of Islam may be 

 adapted to any exigency that may arise. They 

 maintain that Mohammedanism in its institu- 

 tion, and for many centuries after its birth, 

 was eminently a rationalistic creed, and that 

 its first spiritual triumphs were obtained 

 through reason as well as through faith. The 

 rules then established, embodied in custom and 

 law, served as a sufficient guide while Islam 

 was confined to Arabia, but had to be elabo- 

 rated by further reasoning, as was done by the 

 four great Imaums, as soon as it went out 

 from Arabia, and had to meet new conditions. 

 By the same principle, a new elaboration of 

 reasoning is now called for, since the faith has 

 to face other new and unprecedented condi- 

 tions, and will be in place whenever a new 

 leader may appear with sufficient authority to 

 direct it and give it approval. These views, 

 and the expectation of the new leader, or 

 Mohdy, prevail most wherever Arab, thought 

 is the strongest, and it is there, says Mr. Blunt, 

 " that we now find the surest symptoms of re- 

 turning mental life. Modern Arabia, wherever 

 she has come in contact with what we call 

 the civilization of the world, has shown her- 

 self ready and able to look it in the face ; and 

 she is now setting herself seriously to solve the 

 problem of her own position, and that of her 

 creed toward it. ... Where her intelligence 

 has remained unclouded by the sense of polit- 

 ical wrong, she has proved herself capable not 

 only of understanding the better thought of Eu- 

 rope, but of assimilating with it as akin to her 

 own." Thus at Cairo, the Arabian ulemasaro 

 rapidly assimilating to their own fbe higher 

 principles of European thought, and adopting 

 some of the better features of European moral- 

 ity. In Oman and Peninsular Arabia general- 

 ly there is a real feeling of cordiality between 

 the Mohammedan and his Christian guest. The 

 abolition of slavery in Zanzibar was a conces- 

 sion to European opinion as much as to Euro- 



pean force ; " and a moral sympathy is ac- 

 knowledged between a Mos.em and a Christian 

 state which has its base in a common sense of 

 right and justice." The same humane feeling 

 is known to exist in Nejd ; it is believed to 

 exist in Yemen ; in Hejaz, the most fanatical 

 of Mohammedan states, Mr. Blunt found "all 

 that was truly Arabian in the population as 

 truly liberal " ; and the late Shereef of Mecca 

 was ready, when he was assassinated, to open 

 his country to European intercourse, and abol- 

 ish the slave-trade. The best thinkers of Is- 

 lam, who seek to promote these views, are 

 simply waiting a legal authority to change, and 

 are seeking means to call such an authority out 

 and put it in a position to act. 



The political prospects of Islam are less 

 promising than are the forecasts of its relig- 

 ious zeal and spiritual supremacy. Its princi- 

 pal independent states are hard pressed by hos- 

 tile Christian nations. The Ottoman power is 

 threatened in Europe and Armenia, and Turk- 

 ish statesmen themselves can not exclude the 

 belief that it is only a question of a short time 

 when the Sultan will have to retire from those 

 outlying provinces, and fall back upon the 

 Turkish populations of Asia Minor and the 

 Arabian tribes. Persia, weak, disorganized, 

 and decaying, is constantly threatened by 

 Russia, while the Turcomans of the desert and 

 the tribes beyond the Oxus and the Jaxartes 

 are submitting to the same great power. Af- 

 ghanistan, the last of the great independent 

 khanates, is overshadowed by Russia and 

 England. The Mediterranean states of Africa 

 are either already under European influence 

 or objects of the jealous greed of rival powers. 

 In India, the largest population of Mohammed- 

 ans in any single country is under the con- 

 trol of the English Government ; and another 

 large population of Malay Mohammedans is 

 restrained by Dutch rule. Two desperate at- 

 tempts of Mohammedans within the Chinese 

 Empire to recover independence have been 

 suppressed, in Yunnan and Kashgar, with 

 bloody massacres. Mohammedanism holds its 

 own, however, in the interior of Asiatic Tur- 

 key and Arabia, and is making a rapid spir- 

 itual growth in Southeastern Asia, where it is 

 believed that it, rather than Christianity, is 

 destined to supplant Buddhism, and in the in- 

 terior of Africa, where it has the advantage in 

 the rivalry with Christianity, and appears des- 

 tined to be the religion of the future. Whether 

 it will be able to maintain its spiritual ascend- 

 ency and growth without a strong center of 

 temporal power, or whether it will again be 

 able to establish such a power as shall com- 

 mand the respect of the world, and maintain 

 its influence among the populations of the faith, 

 are questions to which the present condition of 

 affairs does not afford the data for an intelli- 

 gent answer. 



ITALY, a kingdom of Southern Europe. 

 King, Humbert I, born March 14, 1844. He 

 succeeded his father, Victor Emanuel II, Janu- 



