180 THE REV. W. ST. CLAIR TISDALL, M.A., ON ISLAM: 
reference to the various authorities against which it speaks; I 
came here to-night to say a few words upon the subject, but from 
a very different standpoint. I have seen, as a traveller, a very 
large portion of those parts of the world where Muhammadanism 
obtains—as you will see from the map here exhibited, the lines on 
which represent my journeys: In Russian Turkistan, one sees 
Muhammadanism ina certain form. Again in the valley of the 
Tarim you see sundry variations. Then coming down into India 
you find remains of what appears to have been a superior Muham- 
madan civilisation to that in Turkistan. Going up the valley of 
the Euphrates I continued through Palestine, observing certain 
phases of Muhammadanism there, and then went on to Tripoli, 
and visited the famous Muhammadan town of Kairouan. Thence 
I continued through Algiers and across to Spain, where I visited 
the Muhammadan remains at the Alhambra and in other towns. 
Having seen then, as a traveller, a good deal of the countries where 
this religion obtains, I am bound to say that almost everything 
in the paper is in accordance with what I have witnessed. I 
cannot go to anything like the depth that the paper does, nor do I 
approach the subject as an Arabic scholar, or from any wide extent 
of reading, but rather from what struck me in Muhammadan 
countries, and what I have read in the Koran. If Muham- 
madanism be tested by this book, it seems to show great literary 
weakness. Its pages struck nie as singularly wanting in coherence. 
I believe a considerable portion of it was written on bones, the 
shoulder blades of sheep, and substances of that kind, and one 
might almost think that Muhammad had handed them over to a 
copyist without reference to order. One cannot help comparing 
the Koran with the writings of the New Testament. Take, for 
example, the Epistle to the Romans. There, you evidently have 
the writing of a man who understood logic and rhetoric, and who 
knew how to frame his arguments. His first chapter is different 
from his sixth, and occupies a different place in his reasoning. The 
author has a line of thought to go upon and to work out; but 
nowhere in the Koran could I see this. You take a chapter which 
begins with a flourish of trumpets, perhaps after a battle, but as 
you proceed you do not get a subject argued ont, or an appeal to 
reason, but certain statements are thrown down, and you are ex- 
pected, without questioning, to believe and accept them. Again, I 
was struck by the absence of pathos and of connected stories, 
