THE FUTURE OF ISLAM. 



59 



Islam is still making gigantic strides,* it is probable that there 

 is less evidence for the statement now than there was fourteen 

 years ago. Still it would not appear that Islam had ceased 

 to grow, or was (in numbers at least) beginning to decay. 



On the other hand, the paradoxical opinion which has been 

 quoted is shared by many observers. A missionary who had 

 worked for many years in Asia Minor, writing in 1870, 

 prophesied that Mohammedanism would probably melt away 

 like a frozen iceberg before the gradually increasing light of 

 modern science, of civilization, and of Christianity;! that its 

 doom was fixed, and the w^isdom of men will consist in 

 executing the sentence without haste and yet without hesitation — 

 whatever he may have meant by this last phrase. Some Arabs 

 athrmed, with complete indifference to the able Dr. Pruen,{ that 

 when the Turkish empire is destroyed Mohammedanism will 

 become a thing of the past — and few persons give the Turkish 

 empire a lease of 200 years. In the observations with wliicli 

 Lenz closes the narrative of his journey to Timbuctoo,§ he 

 declares that Islam can subsist only when left to itself, and 

 that contact with European civilization means death to it. It 

 would not be difficult to cite other passages to the same effect ; 

 while it would be equally easy to quote opinions to the effect 

 that Islam has an indefinite period of time before it. 



It is not my intention to criticize these opinions, nor indeed 

 €an the course of events in the future be very well criticized. 

 It is however admissible to comment on the opinions quoted, in 

 the line of examining what is meant by the disappearance of 

 Islam, and of analysing the elements of disintegration which, 

 in the opinion of some observers, are so likely to lead at an 

 early period to the destruction of the whole fabric. For this 

 study I can use a few observations of my own, made in short 

 visits to Mohammedan countries ; but to a much larger extent 

 those of Europeans whose residence in the East has been more 

 lengthy. 



A certain ground for believing in the speedy disappearance 

 •of Islam would be found, if it could be shown that in the 

 struggle for life the equipment which it provides is less 

 efficient than that furnished by Christianity, Judaism, and 

 some other religions. This is indeed asserted by some writers, 



^ Krimskiy, I.e. 



+ Van Lennep, Asia Minor, 1870, i, 283. 

 X The Arab and the African, p. 258. 

 § Timbuktu, 1892, ii, 376. 



