ORDINARY MEETING.* 
THEOPHILUS G. PINCHES, ESQ., IN THE CHAIR. 
The Minutes of the last Meeting were read and confirmed, and the 
following elections took place :— 
ASsocIATES :— Rev. Charles Estcourt Boucher, M.A.; Rev. Albert 
Henry Hodges. 
The following paper was read by the Secretary in the absence of the 
Author :— 
THE WAHABIS: THEIR ORIGIN, HISTORY, 
TENETS, AND INFLUENCE. By Rev. 8S. M. 
ZWEMER, F.R.G.S. 
HE rise of innumerable heresies as the result of philo- 
sophical speculation, the spread of mysticism among 
the learned classes, and the return to many heathen super- 
stitions on the part of the masses made Islam ripe for 
reform at the middle of the last century.f Add to this that 
there was a general decadence of morals under the Ottoman 
caliphate and that there had been a lull in the period of 
Moslem conquest. Except for a temporary revival of 
missionary activity on the part of the Moslems in China 
and the spread of Islam among the Baraba Tartars, the 
eighteenth century saw little advance for the Crescent. 
Instead of conquest there was controversy. Over one 
hundred and fifty heretical Moslem sects are enumerated by 
writers of that period. Each of them agreed with the 
words of Mohammed, ascribed to him in the tradition: “ My 
people will be divided into seventy-three sects; every one 
of which will go to hell except one sect” (Mishkat, book 1, 
* Monday, February 18th, 1901. 
+ The 18th century. 
