70 



PEOF, D. S. MAKGOLTODTH, D.LITT.^ ON 



absorbed. The recent event in Fez, where the murderer of a 

 Christian was dra^^ged from an inviolable sanctuary and 

 publicly executed without delay, illustrates the fear felt in 

 barbarous regions of Islam lest any provocation should' 

 accelerate invasion by the irresistible Frank. But though the 

 date cannot be precisely calculated at which the last shred of 

 political power is taken from Islam, the course of events seems 

 to presage that it will not be distant. 



Such a state of matters was never contemplated by either the 

 prophet or liis followers. God had, they thought, determined 

 that Islam should have the upperhand over all religions ; the' 

 world was to be divided into a Moslem caste, who should l ule 

 the others ; a caste of adherents of tolerated religions ; and a 

 caste of unbelievers who were to be exterminated. The sacred 

 war was to be maintained till Islam had engulfed the world. In 

 out-of-the-way parts of the East this prophecy is supposed to 

 have been fulfilled. But even from early times there were 

 exceptions to the rule that the Moslems everywhere should be 

 the ruling section of tlie population ; and in the present day 

 the portion of tlie world in which there is any room for the 

 development of Mohammed's scheme is vanishingly small. 

 Islam, if it is to exist, must learn, as Christianity has learned,, 

 to divorce itself from political ambitions ; and the greater part 

 of its law has to give place to one based on the principle of 

 treating all men as equal. 



A large portion of the Islamic code is of course abrogated at 

 once — its unjust dealings, its barbarous punishments, its senseless- 

 restrictions. If slavery be an essential part of Islam, that 

 essential element is also doomed to destruction ; each year 

 finds the pursuit of the trade less practicable. The study of 

 the portions of the code which deal with these matters becomes 

 therefore an academic study, as harmless as the Jewish study 

 of the four modes of execution which the Sanhedrim may order, 

 where there is no Sanhedrim with any power of ordering them. 



But does it follow that the content of Islam left is insufficient 

 to constitute a religion when civil government has forcibly 

 abrogated large portions of its code Probably one whO' 

 regarded a Mohammedanism that was shorn of slavery, 

 polygamy, and fanaticism, as no Mohammedanism, would be 

 justified in thinking that we are near the end of the system ;. 

 but one who looked only to historical continuity, and dis- 

 regarded even vital alterations in an institution that was 

 historically continuous, would fancy Islam has still a long life 

 before it. For the results of present experience appear to show 



