62 



PROF. D. S. MARGOLIOUTH, D.LITT., ON 



Persia fear of the European press assures the native Christians 

 better treatment than is accorded to the Moslems, about whose 

 wrongs the press of Europe cares not. Vambery, writing in 

 1875,* further accounted for the prosperity of Christians at 

 Constantinople by their exemption from military service, and 

 so being enabled to pursue their industries continuously, 

 whereas the Moslem workers were liable at any time to be 

 interrupted. 



Besides these explanations it may be remembered that during 

 the history of the Caliphates of Baghdad and Egypt offices of 

 trust and importance were frequently committed to Jews and 

 Christians, partly on the ground that they were more under 

 the control of their masters than co-religionists who could 

 claim equality ; and partly because the disabilities under which 

 they laboured had necessarily caused them to develop energies 

 and talents which the ruling caste had no occasion to employ. 

 Tliis policy has never been altogether abandoned by Mohamme- 

 dan rulers, as the most modern experience testifies ; but if the 

 motive for their employment of Christians in offices of trust 

 were examined, it is unlikely that even a dim consciousness of 

 the superior business capacity of a Christian would be admitted ; 

 at most they might grant that in times when business and 

 politics had gravitated to the West, those whose religion 

 brought them in touch wich Westerns were miOst likely to be 

 intelligent and sagacious in their dealings with them. 



My own experience of Mohammedans, as I believe that of 

 many travellers, tells of many honest and industrious workers, 

 of men of high character and principle, with most of the 

 qualities that succeed in the business life of Europe. The 

 theory of Vambery, who insists constantly on the difference 

 between the European and the Asiatic, seems to me more in 

 accordance with the facts than that which finds the difference 

 in aptitude between the Moslem and the Christian ; and there 

 is much that is attractive in the view of Schuyler and others, 

 according to which the difference between Eastern and Western 

 capacity is one of development : the Moslems of the less visited 

 countries standing on the level of Europe in the fourteenth or 

 fifteenth century, when this country was still backward, but, 

 unless we alter the meaning of words, was Christian. The 

 chief evils of Moslem countries are ascribed by Vambery to 

 bad government, and bad systems of government, and this too 



* Der Islam wi l^ten Jahrhundert. 



