143 
ORDINARY MEETING.* 
D. Howarp, Esq., D.L., F.C.8., &c., IN THE CHAIR. 
The Minutes of the last Meeting were read and confirmed. 
The following Paper was then read by the Author :— 
ISLAM: ITS ORIGIN, ITS STRENGTH, AND ITS 
WEAKNESS. By the Rev. W. St. Cuan TISDALL, M.A. 
Modver Oeoduirées, Gaorce e€xOpov TO adixéew—( Democritus). 
: To dvoaeBes yap epyov 
pera pev meiova Tikres, oerépa © eixdra yerva—(Aischylus). 
SLAM is to-day the religion of about 150,000,000 of our 
fellow-creatures. Its sway extends from the Pillars of 
Hercules to the Caspian Sea, from the Pamir Steppes to 
Zanzibar, from the Balkans to Sumatra. It is the faith of 
Arabia, Palestine, Syria, Turkey im Europe and Asia 
Minor; of Mesopotamia, Persia, Afghanistan, Balichistan; of 
the vast regions of Turkistén and other parts of Central 
Asia. In India alone its professors number 57,000,000. It 
is the religion of the Malay Peninsula, and is said to be still 
extending in the Islands. In Yun-nan and other parts of 
China its devotees may be numbered by tens of thousands. 
* Dec. 7, 1891. 
