144 THE REV. W. ST. CLAIR TISDALL, M.A., ON ISLAM: 
It is the religion of Egypt and of the whole of the Stidan, 
and its professors may be found not only in Zanzibar, but at 
Lake Victoria Nyanza. We find it again in the Niger Basin, 
in the regions of Haiisa and Sokoto, and it is not unknown 
at Sierra Leone. The Tawariks and other fierce tribes of 
the Sahara profess a belief in Muhammad, and the Arabian 
‘‘ Prophet” is acknowledged by sovereigns and people alike 
throughout Tripoli, Tunis, Algiers, and Morocco. ‘To what 
extent this faith is still being spread in Africa it is difficult 
to say precisely, but it is already the dominant religion of 
fully one half of the entire continent. Nor must we imagine 
that the Muslims in general care but little for their faith. On 
the contrary, commended to its professors not less by its 
many half-truths, and its apparent* simplicity, than by its 
warlike} spirit and lax moral code, Islam has long exercised, 
and even now exercises, over the hearts and lives of 
many millions of Muhammadaus a very powerful influence 
indeed, 
Nor has this influence been entirely confined to those who 
have professed the religion of Islam. The number of works 
bearing upon the subject which have appeared on the 
Continent and in England during the present century, show 
that much interest exists with reference to this religious 
system. To Geiger, Sprenger, Dozy, Weil, and many others 
on the Continent; to Lane, Carlyle, Rodwell, Draper, 
E. Deutsch, Sir W. Muir, Bosworth Smith, and Dr. Keelle, in 
our own language, we owe volumes of great interest, and in 
many cases of much value. An attentive student of these 
writers, however, is struck by the fact that the opinions 
expressed by them regarding Muhammad himself and the 
* Some modern writers represent Muhammadanism as a faith which 
has neither mysteries nor miracles, nothing which the human mind 
cannot readily grasp. Nothing can be further from the truth. The 
miracles related in later Muslim writings as wrought by Muhammad are 
very numerous and very absurd. Those attributed in the Qur’an to the 
prophets mentioned in it are of the same nature. No religion which, 
like Isl4m, recognises a Creator and a Creation, sin and righteousness, 
Heaven and Hell, can possibly be free from the element of mystery. In 
reality, Isl4m is simple only with reference to its evidences, which consist. 
in Muhammad’s own assertion of his prophetic claims. 
+ It is needless to dwell on the method of the propagation of Islam, 
acknowledged by Arabic historians such as Al WAqidi, etc. Vide also the 
injunctions regarding the Jihad or Holy War in the Qur'an (e.g., Sirahs 
IV, VIII, XLVI, etc.), and in the Mishkitwl Masdbih (Kitébwl Jihid), 
ete. 
