95 
The Mahometan religion is extremely simple; it ha^ 
no mysteries, no sacraments, no intermediate persons 
between God and man, known by the name of priests 
or ministers; no altars, images, or ornaments. God is 
invisible, the heart of man is his altar, and every Mussul- 
man is high priest. According te> the El Hhaddiss or the 
canonical tradition, the prophet has declared the essence 
of his religion to consist in the following sentence: "Ma- 
hometanism is established on five fundamentals; viz. 
" The profession of the faith; c There is no God but one 
God, and Mouhhammed is his messenger? the saying 
of prayers, giving of alms, fasting on Ramadan, and 
making a pilgrimage to the house of God." 
Notwithstanding this simplicity, there is, perhaps, not 
a religion in the world which has had so many commen- 
tators, expositors, and writers. 
Its worship* is divided into four orthodox rites, 
which are the Hhaneffi, the Maleki, the Hhanbeli and 
the Schaffi, names of the four Imans who founded them. 
The first of these rites is that observed by the Turks, 
the second by the people of Morocco and by the wes- 
tern Arabians, and the two others are followed by vari- 
ous tribes and nations of Arabia and Asia. With re- 
* Though the Mahometan worship has been so often described, 
frhe description of Ali Bey is so very [exact, that we have thought pro- 
per not to suppress it, and the more so, as it contains several things 
hitherto unknown. For more ample details the learned work of 
Mr. D'Ohson on the Ottoman empire may be inspected. Where 
that is found to differ from Ali Bey's narrative, it may be recollected; 
1° That the latter has seen every thing he speaks of, whereas 
$he former only describes from hearsay, and the reports of others, 
2° Because Ali Bey is speaking of the Arabians, who preserve 
the purity of the worship; and Mr. Ohson treats of the Turks, who 
have mixed superstitious ideas with the purity of Isjamism. (Note 
cf the Parisian editor.) 
