148 



GhazzaWs Alchemy of Happiness. 



Note A, p. 54. 



Preserved Table. This record-tablet of Mohammed, may have 

 been suggested to his mind by the two tables of stone of the Ten 

 Commandments of Moses. A clear view of what this table is, may 

 be obtained from the following extract from a treatise of Berkevi 

 explaining the Mussulman dogmas, which is at the present day a 

 text-book in the Turkish schools. 



" It must be confessed, that good and evil and every thing in short 

 happens from the predestination and foreknowledge of God, — that 

 all which has been and will be, was decreed from eternity and is 

 written upon the preserved table, — that nothing can happen con- 

 trary to it, — that the faith of the believer, the piety of the pious 

 man and his good works are foreseen, willed, predestined and de- 

 creed in writing on the preserved table, are produced, accepted and 

 loved by G-od ; — but that the infidelity of infidels, the irreligion of 

 the wicked and their bad actions happen indeed with the foreknow- 

 ledge of God, by his will, and as an effect of his predestination in- 

 scribed upon the preserved table, and by the operation of God, — 

 but not with his satisfaction or affection." 



Note B, p. 56. 



Mystics. Wherever this word is found in this treatise, it is to be 

 understood that the original word is soofee, and sometimes the word 

 has been allowed to stand untranslated. Soofee does not necessarily 

 mean any one particular society of Mussulmans, but includes all 

 persons as well as orders and congregations, who embrace mystical 

 or transcendental modes of interpreting the Koran and who conform 

 their life in a greater or less degree to their mystical notions. Soofee, 

 Dervish and Fakir, are different words for various classes of ori- 

 ental monks and mystics. They are found wherever there are 

 Mussulmans, and the differences between them and other Mussul- 

 mans bear a considerable relation to the differences developed by 

 mystics, pietists or puritans in Christian churches. They differ also 

 much among themselves in their modes of spiritualization and in 

 their ceremonies and practices. There is also much jealousy of each 

 other, between the dominant orthodox clergy and doctors of religion, 

 and the mystics, dervishes and preachers. The orthodox clergy 



