PROGRESS OF ISLAMIC SCIENCE 511 



pretending descendants of the Prophet's family, there was standing 

 on a hill a stone idol called Krza (the vowel between r and z is un- 

 certain). The neighboring Berber Kabyles made pilgrimages to this 

 idol, brought it sacrifices, and held rogation ceremonies in time of 

 drought. I am no friend of mere hypotheses and bold identifica- 

 tions of proper names. Nevertheless, in mentioning this African idol, 

 I cannot help throwing out the query whether we have not before us 

 in this Krza the remainder of the name Gurzil, mentioned by Corippus 

 in his Joannide (n, vv. 109-110, 405; iv, vv. 669, 1139), as the name 

 of an old Berber idol, identified with Jupiter Ammon, and brought 

 into connection with an oracle. 



At the same time a Berber tribe in the Atlas Mountains is said, 

 by the same Al-Bekri, to have worshiped a ram. 1 And even in the 

 fifteenth century Leo Africanus can tell us about customs of North 

 African Berbers, which he explains as remains of ancient African 

 paganism which had not disappeared in the times of Islam. 2 The 

 worship of the ram in Muhammadan North Africa can be brought into 

 analogy with a parallel from quite the opposite end of the territory of 

 Islam. Al-Dimishki, a cosmographic writer of the thirteenth century 

 (died 1256), informs us regarding the province of Ghilan, North- 

 western Persia, along the shores of the Caspian Sea, that the Muham- 

 madans of that country labored under materialistic ideas about the 

 Deity. They went so far as to conceive of God as riding at midday 

 on a white ass. And in fact they bestowed great honors on asses 

 of that color. 3 Indefinite as this remark of the Arabic author may 

 be, at any rate it serves us as testimony of well-pronounced animal- 

 worship among a population who no doubt esteemed themselves 

 orthodox adherents of Islamic faith. Perhaps there is some relation 

 between this superstitious cult of a white ass and the ideas about 

 the mythological Kharem ashavanem (probably a white ass) of the 

 Zarathustrians (Bundahish, ch. xix). 



We have thus seen solid pagan remains in the midst of Muhammadan 

 populations. But such religious survivals are not attested of former 

 times only. In different parts of the Islamic world paganism, with 

 uncultivated tribes, in its more or less original forms, has outlasted 

 the ruling influence of Islam, although that was established centuries 

 ago. A remarkable instance in the religious conditions of Muham- 

 madan Madagascar is given in the description supplied by the French 

 Consul, M. Gabriel Ferrand, who has with great industry and zeal 

 revealed to us Malagasy philology and ethnography. Although the 

 Sakalava people have adhered to Islam for three centuries, " they 

 have adopted Islam without bringing any notable change to their 



1 Rekri, Description de VAfrique septentrionale (ed. de Slane, Alger, 1857), p. 

 161, 4. 



Descriptio Africae (ed. Antwerpen), p. 112. 



Dimischki, Cosmographie ed. Mehren (St. Petersburg, 1866), p. 226. 



