66 



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



in which the intervention of the Mohammedan authorities is 

 required are not uncommon. The effect of these scenes on the 

 Mohammedan spectators is detrimental to the Christian cause, 

 since the Koran declares dissension to be of the essence of 

 Christianity, and destined to adhere to it till the last day. On 

 the other hand, the presence of rival missions at work among the 

 native Christian communities is said to weaken their attachment 

 to the hereditary religion, and while raising their intellectual 

 level, to be of little use for the maintenance of Christianity 

 •even among them. 



And thirdly, missionaries have ordinarily some difficulty in 

 'gaining access to Mohammedans at all. The agents stationed 

 in Persia and Asiatic Turkey ordinarily abstain from all attempts 

 to convert either, because their rules forbid them to make any, 

 ■or because such attempts could only lead to the abandonment of 

 their ostensible work, while failing to produce any effect on the 

 Moslems. In several of the places where Mohammedans are 

 subject to Christian governments missionary work is prevented 

 'Or discouraged by the authorities ; and this practice has the 

 •approval of some observers, who find that the absence of any 

 •endeavour on the part of the government to shake their faith, 

 leads to the diminution of fanaticism and accomplishes auto- 

 matically part of the work which the missionaries would 

 •endeavour to achieve. These and other considerations justify us 

 in the opinion that the transference of large masses of Moham- 

 medans to Christianity is not an operation at all likely to be 

 realized in any space of time which it is reasonable to contemplate. 



Other writers speak of a general awakening of Islam, and 

 twenty-five years ago Mr. Schuyler* declared that such an 

 event seemed near, though he knew not whether it would be 

 beneficial or otherwise to the human race. It might be 

 .asserted that this prophecy had come after the event; the 

 •eighteenth and nineteenth centuries had already seen 

 .awakenings of Islam on a great scale. Such were the 

 Wahhabi movement which engulfed Arabia, and advanced 

 .as far as Damascusf ; the Babi movement, which threatened 

 to overrun Persia ; the Mahdist movement, from the effects 

 of which the Sudan has just begun to recover. The home of 

 many of these sects has been Arabia ; some are professedly 

 waves of the mystic or pantheistic doctrine which has 



* Schuyler, Turkestan i, 172. 



t S. M. Zwemer. "The Wahabis," Journ. Vict. Inst., vol. xxxiii, p. 311 

 (1901). 



