The Preaching of Islam - Forgotten Books

THE

PREA CH INGOF ISLA M

A H isfory of the Profagatz’

on of Me

Faz'

f/z

T . W.

kARNOLD , B . .A

LATE SCHOLAR OF MAGDALENE COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE , PROFESSOR OF PHILOSOPHY,MUHAMMADAN ANGLO ORIENTAL COLLEGE, ALIGARH, INDIA

WESTMINSTER

A RCHIBA LD CONSTA BLE CO .

1 896

PREFA CE

IT i s with conside rable diffidence that I publish these pages the

subject with which they deal is so vast, and I have had to

prosecute it under circumstances so disadvantageous , that I canhope but for small measure of success . When Imay be betterequipped for the task

, and after further study has enabledme to

fil l up the gaps 1 left in the present work , I h0pe to mak e it amore worthy contribu tion to this neglected department ofMuhammadan history and to this end I shall be deeply gratefu l

for the criticisms and corrections of any scholars who may deignto notice the book . To such I would say in the words of

St . Augustine :“Q ui haec legens dicit , intelligo qu idem qu id

dictumsit,sed non vere dictumest asserat ut placet sententiam

suam,et redarguat meam,

si potest . Quod si cur'

n caritate et

veritate fecerit,mihique etiam (si in hac vita maneo) cogno

scendumfacere curaverit,uberrimumfructumlaboris hu ins mei

cepero .

”2

As I can neither claimto be anO

authoritynor a specialist on any

of the periods of history dealt with in this book,and asmany of

the events referred to therein have becomematter for controversy,I have given full references to the sources consulted and here I

have thought it better to err on the side of excess rather thanthat of defect . I have myself sufl’ered so much inconvenience

Eg. The spread of Islamin Sicily and themissionary labours of the numerousMusl imsaints.

2 De Trinitate, i . 5 . (Migne, tom. xlu. p .

PREFACE .

and wasted so much time in hunting up references to book s

indicated in some obscure or un intelligiblemanner, that I woulddesire to spare others a similar annoyance ;and while to the

general reader I may appear gu ilty of pedantry, Imay perchancesave trouble to some scholar who wishes to test the accuracy of astatement or pursue any part of the subject further.The scheme adopted in this book for the transliteration of

Arabic words is that laid down by the Transliteration Committeeof the Tenth International Congress of Orientalists, held at

Geneva in 1 894, with the exception that the last letter of the

article is assimilated to the so - called solar letters . In the case of

geographical names this scheme has no t been so rigidly appliedin many instances because I could not discover the original

Arabic formof the word,in others (e .g. Mecca

,Medina), because

usage has almost created for thema prescriptive title .

Though this work is confessedly, as explained in the Intro

duction , a record of missionary efforts and no t a history of

persecutions ,l I have endeavoured to be strictly impartial and to

conformto the ideal laid down by the Christian historian 2 whochronicled the successes of the Ottomans and the fall of Constantinople : oil-rs «pd;xaipw 0575 ! 96vov, M

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I desire to thank Her Excellency the Princess Barberini His

Excellency the Prince Chigi the Most Rev. Dr. Paul Goethals,

Archbishop of Calcu tta the R ight Rev. Fr. Francis Pesci,Bishop

of Allahabad the Rev. S . S . Allnutt,of the Cambridge Mission,

Dehli ;the Trustees of Dr. Williams’s Library, Gordon Square,London , for the l iberal use they have allowed me of theirrespective libraries .

A ccordingly the reader w il l find no account of the recent history o f A rmeniaor Crete, or indeed of any part of the emp ire of the Turk s during the presentcentury—a period singularly barren ofmissionary enterprise on their part.2 Phrantz es, p. 5 .

PREFACE . xi

I amunder an especial debt ofgratitude to James Kennedy, Esq .,

late of the Bengal Civil Service , who has never ceased to tak e a

k indly interest inmy book , though it has almost exemplified theHoratian precept

,N onumprematur in annum;to his profound

scholarship and wide reading I have been indebted for muchinformation that would o therwise have remained unk nown to

me,nor do I owe less to the stimulus of his enthusiastic love of

learning and his helpful sympathy. I amalso under a debt of

gratitude to the k indness of Conte Ugo Balzani , but for whose

assistance certain parts of my work would have been impossibletome . To the late Professor Robertson Smith I amindebted forvaluable suggestions as to the lines of study on which the history

of the North African church and the condition of the Christians

under Muslimrule,shou ld be work ed out the profound regre t

which all Semitic scholars feel at his loss is tome intensified bythe thought that this is the only ac k nowledgement I amable to

mak e of his generous help and encouragement .I desire also to ack nowledge my obligations to Sir SayyidAhmad fl an Bahadur

,LL .D . ;to my learned friend

and colleague , Shamsu - l ‘Ulama’ Mawlawi Muhammad ShibliNu ‘mani

,who has assisted me most generously out of the

abundance of his k nowledge of early Muhammadan history and

to my former pupil, Mawlawi Bahadur ‘A li, M .A.

Lastly,and above all

,must I thank mydear wife , but for whom

this work would never have emerged out of a chaos of incoherentmaterials, and whose sympathy and approval are the best reward

ofmy labours.

C ONTENTS

CHA PTER 1.

INTRODUCTION .

PA GE

4miss ionary rel igion defined. Is lamspread bymiss ionarymethodsand not by the sword. The Qur’an enjoins preach ing and per

suas ion, and forbids violence and force in the convers ion of

unbel ievers. The present work a history ofmiss ions, not of“

persecutions

CHAPTER II.

STUDY OF THE LIFE OF MUHA MMA D CON SIDERED A S A PREA CHEROF ISLA M .

Muhammad the type of the Musl immiss ionary. A ccount of hisearl y efforts at p ropagating Is lam, and of the convers ionsmadein Mecca before the H ij rah. Persecution of the converts, andF l ight to Med ina. Cond ition of the Musl ims in Medina : beginn ing of the national l ife of Is lam. Islam offered (a) to theArabs, (b) to the whole world . Islamdec lared in the Qur’an tobe a ugiygggw jgion,

— as being the primitive faith del iveredto Abraham. Muhamm

lad as the founder of a pol itical or anisa

tion . The wars of Mu.ammad, not a ressive

,but defens ive.

The spread of Is lamand the effortsmage to convert the A rabsafter the H ijrah. The ideals of

”

Is lamand those of Pre- Is lamicv

A rabia contrasted

CHAPTER III.

THE SPREA D OF ISLA M,A MONG THECHRISTIA N N A TIONS OF

WESTERN A SIA .

Causes of the earl y successes of the Musl ims ./ Conversion of Christian Bedoui

'

n‘s : arrangements made for the instruction of the

converts . Toleration extended to those who remained Christian—The settled population of the towns fai lure of Herac l ius’sattempt to reconc i le the contend ing Chri stian sects . The A rabconquest of Syria and Palestine their toleration : the Ord inanceof

‘Umar : jizyah

'

paid in return for protection and in l ieu ofmi l itary service. ' Condition of the Christians under Mus l imrule : they occupy high posts, bui ld new churches : revival inthe N estorian church. Causes of their convers ion to Is lamrevolt against B yzantine ecc les iastic ism:

“ influence of rational isticthought : impos ing character of Mus l imc ivi l isation. Persecutions suffered by the Christians . Pro el tis in ffort

'

s. D etai lsof convers ion to Islam—Account of

geozfifi grk fromamong

the Crusaders—The Armenian and Georgian Churches

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER IV .

THE SPREA D OF ISLA M A MONG THE CHRISTIA N N A TIONS OF

A FRICA .

pace

Egypt conquered by the A rabs, who are welcomed by the Copts astheir del iverers fromB yz antine rule. Condit ion of the Coptsunder the Muslims . Co tion and ne l i ence of the cl rgylead to convers ions to Islam— Nubia : relations with Mu amma~

dan powers pol itical independencemaintained unti l their convers ion to Islam not converted by force, but through the decay?

”of the Christian faith and the influence of Mus l immerchants .A byss inia : the Arabs on the sea-board : miss ionary efforts inthe fourteenth century : invasion of A hmad Gragne : convers ions to Islam: progress of Is lam in the present centurypersecution of the Musl ims.—N orthern Africa extent of Christianity in N orth Africa in the seventh century : the Christiansare said to have been forc ibl y converted : reasons for ththat this statement is not true toleration enjoyed by the Chtians gradual disappearance of the Christian Church

CHA PTER V .

THE SPREA D or ISLA M A MONG THE CHRISTIA NS or spam.

Christianity in Spain before the Mus l imcon uest : miserable con~

d ition of the Jews and the slaves. Ear y converts to Is lam.

CW rgy. Toleration of the A rabs, and influenceof their Civil isation on the Christians, who study A rab ic and

adopt Arab dress andmanners . a f conversion‘

to Is lam.

The voluntarymartyrs of Cordova. tent o conversions

CHAPTER VI.

THE SPREA D OF ISLAM A MONG THE CHRISTIAN N A TIONS IN EUROPEUNDER THE TURKS.

Relations of the Turk s to their Christian subjects during the firsttwo centuries of their rule : toleration extended to the C reekChurch by Muhammad II. : the benefits of Ottoman rule : itsd isadvantages, the tribute- ch i ldren, the cap itation tax, tyrannyof ind ividuals. F rced convers ion rare. Prosel ytis ing effortsmade by the Turkm h

’

at favoured the spread ofIslam degraded cond ition of the C reek Church fai lure of theattempt to Protestantise the Creek Church : oppression of theGreek clergy : moral superiority of the Ottomans : impos ingcharacter o f the ir conquests . Convers ion of Christian s laves .IslaminAlbania, conquest of the country, independent characterof its people, gradual decay of the Christian faith

, and itscauses —in Servia, al l iance of the Servians w ith the Turk s,convers ions mainl y . fromamong the nobles except in Old

Servia —in Montenegro —in Bosnia, the Bogomi les , po ints ofs imilarity between the Bogomi l ian heresy and the Musl imcreed,convers ion to Is lamin Crete, convers ion in the n inth century,Oppress ion of the Venetian rule, conquered by the Turk s, conversions to Is lam

CONTENTS .

CHAPTER V II.

THE SPREA D or ISLA M IN PERSIA A ND CENTRA L A SIA .

X V

PA GE

Religious condition of Pers ia at the time of the A rab conquest.Islamwelcomed bymany sections of the population. Points ofs imi larity between the older faiths and Islam. T lerGw am. The Isma‘il ians and their miss ionarysystem. 5 amIn Central A s ia and Afghanistan

CHAPTER V II'

I.

THE SPREA D OF ISLA M A MONG THE MONGOLS A N D TA RTA RS.

A ccount of the Mongol conquests Buddhism, Christianity and

Islam in rivalry for the allegIance _of the Mongol s . Their

original rel igion, Shamanism, described. Spread of Buddhism,

of Christianity, and of Islamrespectivel y among the Mongols .D ifficulties that stood in the way of Is lam. Cruel treatment ofthe Mus l ims by some Mongol rulers . Early converts to Is lam.

Barak aRhan, the first Mongol prince converted. Convers ion ofthe Ilk hans. Convers ion of the JagatayMongols. H istory ofIslamunder the GoldenHorde : UzbegEran : failure ofattemptstg convert the Russians . Spread of Is lamIn mo ern tImes Ithe Russian mpIre. he convers ion of the Tartars of S iberia

CHAPTER IX .

THE SPREA D OF ISLA M IN IND IA .

D istribution of the Muhammadan population. Part tak en by theMuhammadan rulers in the propagation of Islam: convers ionof Rajputs and others. -The work of the Mus l immiss ionaries inIndia in South Ind ia, prosel ytis ing labours of Ibn Mal ik andhis companions, forceW fl ar

‘A li and TIpu

Sultan, the Mapp i la —In the Mald ive Is an s —In the D eccan,earl y Arab settlements

,labours of individual miss ionaries - in

S ind, the rule of the A rabs, their toleration, MWmiss ionaries, conversion of the Khojahs and Bor —In Bengal,the Muhammadan rule In this province, extens ive conversion fthe lower castes, rel igious revival In recentmaccount of the labou of missionaries in other parts ofInd ia. Propagandi st movements of modern times . C ircumstances facil itating the progress of ISlam: the oppress iveness ofthe H indu caste system,

worship of Musl imsaints, etc—Spread

of IslamIn Kashmir and Thibet .

CHA PTER X.

THE SPREA D or ISLA M IN CH IN A .

Early notices of Is lamin China. A uthorities for the history of thespread of Islam: Vas i l’ev, D e Thiersant, Sayyid Sulayman.

Intercourse of the Chinese w ith the A rabs spread of Is laminthe north-west;influence of the Mongol conquest. Spread ofIslamin the south . earl y Arab settlements : Wahab ibn A bi

Kabshah. Relations of the Chinese Mus l ims to the ChineseGovernment. Their efforts to spread their rel igion

185

CONTENTS .

CHA PTER X I.

THE SPREA D OF ISLA M IN A FRICA .

The Arabs in N orthern A frica : convers ion of the B erbers : themiss ion of

‘Abdu- llah ibn YassIn. Introduction of Is lam intothe Sudan . rise ofMuhammadan k ingdoms : account ofmissionarymovements, Danfodio ,

‘Uthmanu- l AmIr G_hanI, the Qadri

yah, the TijanIyah, and the Sanamah. Spread of Is lamon

the West Coast : A shanti : Dahomey . Spread of Islamon theEast Coast . earl y Musl imsettlements : the Gal la : the Somal i.IslamIn Cape Coast Colony . AccountW ri

aries in A frica and the rmethods ofwinmng c

CHAPTER X II.

THE SPREA D OF ISLA M IN THE MA LA Y A RCHIPELA GO

Earl y intercourse between the Malay Archipelago and Arab ia and

India. Mw w rk H istory of Islam in

Sumatra; In t e Malay enmsula;In Java;in the Moluccas ;in Borneo ;in Celebes ; in M indanao and the Sulu Is landsamong the Papuans. The Musl immiss ionaries traders has

CHA PTER XIII.

CONCLUSION .

Absence of miss ionary organ isation in Islam zggl on the pan of

ind ividuals. Who are the Musl immissionaries . auses thatf have contributed to their success . the s i of the Mus

creed : the rational ismand ritual ismo s lam. Is am 0 spread

M The toleration of Muhammadan governments.Ircumstances contributing to the progress of IslamIn anc ient

and Inmodern times

APPEN D IX I.

Jihad : meaning of the word : passages in the Qur’an in wh ich itoccurs

AP PEND IX II.

Letter of A l Hashimi invitingAl Kindi to embrace Islam

AP PEN D IX III.

Controvers ial l iterature between Musl ims and the fol lowers ofother faiths

APPEN D IX IV .

Converts to Islamthat have not come under d irect missionaryinfluences

TITLES OFWORKS CITED BY ABBREVIA TED REFERENCESINDEX

PA GE

293

‘

THEPREACHINGOFISLAM.

CHAPTER I.

INTRODUCTION .

EVER since Professor Max Muller delivered his lecture in Westminster Abbey

,on the day of intercession for missions , in

D ecember,1 873 , it has been a l iterary commonplace

,that the six

great religions of the world may be divided into missionary andnon -missionary ;under the latter head will fall Judaism,

Brahmanismand Zoroastrianism

,and under the former Buddhism

,

Christ ian ity and Islam and he has well defined what the term,

a missionary religion ,— should be tak en to mean ,viz . one

“ in

which the spreading of the truth and the conversion of unbelievers

are raised to the rank of a sacred duty by the founder or hisimmediate successors . It is the spirit of truth in the hearts ofbelievers which cannot rest , unless it manifests itself in thought ,word and deed

,which is not satisfied t ill it has carried i tsmessage

to every human soul,till what it believes to be the truth is

accepted as the truth by all members of the human family.

”It is such a zeal for the truth of their religion that has inspiredthe Muhammadans to carry with themthe message of Islamto

the people of every land into which they penetrate,and that

ju stly c laims for their religion a place among those we termmissionary. It is the history of the birth of thismissionary zeal

,

its insp iring forces and the modes of its activi ty that forms thesubject of the followingpages . The 173mill ions ofMuhammadans

1 A note on Mr. Lyal l’s article Missionary Rel igions. Fortmglztzy Review,

Ju ly. 1874

M an; zhrrmgir 1 13 33n zf z veire cm

was i nfl amed n the j emie af fi rfi a‘z l i z e se emt

‘

im , hw

a proohet under who se banner fi efir m ed z i'

nes bec ame :

followers of the Prophet found. themseives. one hun dred years

the zenith of its power.

(n o . 12 53) and arm-71161 1. in bloo d the faded gIory of the ‘Abba‘

sid

Verdimmd of Leon and Cast i le and Granada,the last

summon of Islamin Spain, paid tribute to the Christian k ing,l’

alamM4just gained a foot ing in the island of Sumatra and was

ho t «boo t to r/ lmmmoe its triumphant progress through the

Mao /lo of the Malay A rchipelago . In the hours of its po l i ticaldegradat ion ,

Islamhasachieved s ome of itsmost brill iant spiritual«mono/rte : on two great historical occasions, infidel barbarianshave not their foo t on the nec k s of the fo llowers of the Prophet

,

tbe Fo lio/jTurk s in the eleventh and theMongols in the thi rteenthM utiny, and in web ease the c onquerors have accepted thereligion of tho ( zonquerml . Ilrmlcltxl also by the temporal powernod hymn-mo t ofmy po litical mo tive, Muslimmissionar ies havelmrrloll their faith into ( loo tml A frica

,China and the East India

IMA M/IQ.N thomore" ! day the faith of Islamextends fromMorocco to

v nz llmr, humSieu n Leone to .

‘lllmrla and China, fromBosniaIn New ( l uloou. ( l lulsltlo l lmllmlls of strictly MulumuuzuluuImuIl I lM "ml o f lnmls, M l l l ll Its Chinaand Russia, that contain a

huge Muluumunllnu populnl lon, tIIoI'o m‘

o sumo l'ow A IIIIIII ( tomq ull lonof Hmfo llow/mu o f“ tho I’I'oplml . wlIIoII lmm' wll lwns to

Hmlnll ll of Inlaw In Il lo midst o f unlusllovom. .‘ ltwli are tho

2 THE PREA CHING OF ISLAM

scattered over the world at the present day are evidences of itswork ings through the length of twelve centuries;

A n eternal and l ife - bringing truth , themessage of the One Godwas proclaimed to the people of Arabia in the seventh century

,by

a prophet under whose banner their scattered tribes became anation and fill ed with the pulsations of this new national l ife

,

and with a religious fervour and enthusiasm that impart ed analmost invincible strength to their armies , they poured forth overthree continents to conquer and subdue . Syria, Palest ine , Egypt ,North Africa and Persia were the first to fall before them

,and

p ressing westward to Spain and eastward beyond the Indus,the

followers of the Prophet found themselves , one hundred yearsafter his death ,masters of an empire greater than that of Rome atthe zenith of its power.Although in after years this great empire was split up and the

political power ofIslamd imin ished , still i ts spiritual conquests wenton un interruptedly. When the Mongol hordes sack ed Baghdad

(A .D . 1 2 5 8) and drowned in blood the faded glory of the‘Abbasid

dynasty, —when the Musl ims were expelled from Cordova byFerdinand of Leon and Castile (A .D . and Granada

,the last

stronghold of Islamin Spain , paid tribute to the Christ ian k ing,Islamhad just gained a footing in the island of Sumatra and was

just abou t to commence its triumphant progress through the

islands of the Malay Archipelago . In the hours of its po liticaldegradation , Islamhas achieved some of i tsmost bril liant sp iritualconquests on two great historical occasions , infidel barbarianshave set their feet on the neck s of the followers of the Prophet ,the Salji

'

Iq Turk s in the eleventh and the Mongols in the thirteenthcentury ,— and in each case the conquerors have accepted thereligion of the conquered . Unaided al so by the temporal powerand innocent of any political motive , Muslimmissionaries havecarried their faith into Central Afri ca

,China and the East India

Islands .At the present day the faith of Islamextends fromMorocco toZanzibar, fromSierra Leone to Siberia and China

,fromBosn ia

to New Gu inea. Outside the limits of strictly Muhammadancountries and of lands , such as China and Russia, that contain a

large Muhammadan popu lation , there are some few small communities of the followers of the Prophet , which bear witness tothe faith of Islamin the midst of unbelievers. Such are the

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4 THE PREACHING OF ISLAM .

thy duty is only p reaching and God’s eye is on His

servants. (iii .Thus God clearly showeth you His signs that perchance ye

may be gu idedA nd that theremay be fromamong you apeop le who invite tothe Good

,and enjoin the Just , and forbid the Wrong and

these are they with whomit shall be well . ( i ii . 99To every people have We appointed Observances which theyobserve . Therefore

'

let them‘

no t dispute thematter withthee

,but summon them to thy Lord : Verily thou art

guided aright

But if they debate with thee , then say : God best k nowethwhat ye do (xxii . 66

The following passages are tak en fromwhat is generally supposed to be the last Surah that was delivered .

If any one of those who join gods with God ask an asylumofthee

, grant him an asylum in order that he hear theword of God ;then let himreach his place of safety.

”

(ix.

With regard to the unbelievers who had brok en their plightedword

,who “ sell the signs of God for amean price and turn others

aside from His way, and “ respect not with a believer eitherties of blood or good fai th ,

” it is said“Yet if they turn to God and Observe prayer and give alms,then are they your brothers in the faith : and Wemak eclear the signs formen of k nowledge . (ix .

Thus from its very inception Islam has been a missionaryreligion , both in theory and in pract ice, for the life of Muhammadexemplifies the same teaching and the Prophet himself stands atthe head of a long series of Muslimmissionaries who have wonan entrance for their. faith into the hearts of unbel ievers . Moreover it is not in the cruelties of the persecutor or the fury of thefanatic that we should look for the evidences of themissionaryspirit of Islam,

anymore than in the exp loits of that mythicalpersonage , the Musl imwarrior with sword in one hand and

Qur’an in the other,

-but in the quiet , unobtrusive labours of thepreacher and the trader who have carried their faith into everyquarter of the globe . Such peaceful methods of preaching and

persuasion were no t adopted,as some would have us believe, only

when political circumstances made force and violence impossible

INTRODUCTION. 5

or impolitic,but weremost strictly enjoined in numerou s passages

of the Qur’an,as follows

“ A nd endure what they say with patience and depart fromthemwith a decorou s departure .

“ A nd let Me alone with the gainsayers , rich in the p leasures

(of this l ife) and bear thou with themyet a l ittle while .(lxxii i . 10

(My) sole (work is preaching fromGod and His ‘message.

(lxxii .Tell thosewho have bel ieved to pardon those who hope no tfor the days of God in which He purposeth to recompensemen according to their deserts . (xlv.

“They who had joined other gods with God say,‘Had He

pleased,neither we nor our forefathers had worshipped

aught but Him nor had we,apart fromHim

,declared

anything nula nl .’ Thus acted they who were before

them. Yet is the duty of the apostles other than plainspok en preaching ? (xvi.

“ Then if they turn their back s,Still thy office is only plain

spok en preaching. (xvi.Dispu te ye not , unless in k indl iest sort , with the people Of theBook ;save with such of themas have dealt wrongfully(with you) : and say ye ,

‘We believe in what has beensent down

“ to us and hath been sent down to you . Our

God and your God i s one,and to Him are we self

surrendered .

’(xxix .

But if they turn aside fromthee , yetWe have not sent thee tobe guard ian over them.

’Tis thine but to preach . (xlii .

But if thy Lord had pleased, verily all who are in the worldwould have believed together . Wilt thou then compelmen to become believers (x .

“ A nd we have not sent thee otherwise than to mank ind at

large , to announce and to warn . (xxxiv .

Such precepts are not confined to the Meccan SI‘

Irahs,but are

found in abundance also in those delivered at Medina,as

followsLet there be no compulsion in religion . (i i .Obey God and obey the apostle but if ye turn away

, yet is

our apostle on ly charged with plain - spok en preaching.

(lxiv.


ObeyGod and obey the apostle but if ye turn back,still the

burden of his duty is on himon ly,and the burden of yourduty rests on you . A nd if ye obey him

,ye shall have

guidance : but plain preaching is all that devolves upon

the apostle. (xxiv. 5 3 .

Say : O men ! I amonly your plain - spok en (open) warner.

(xxii .Verily We have sent thee to be a witness and a herald of

good and a warmer,That yemay believe on God and on His apostle and may

assist Himand honour Him,and praise Himmorn ing and

even ing. (xlvi i i . 8Thou wilt not cease to discover the treacherous ones amongthem

,except a few of them. But forgive themand pass it

over. Verily, God 5 loveth those who act generously.”

(v.

It is the object of the following pages to Show how this ideal

was realised in history and how these principles of missionaryactivity were put into practice by the exponents of Islam. A nd

at the outset the reader should clearly understand that this worki s not intended to be a history of Muhammadan persecutionsbut of Muhammadan missions— it does no t aimat chronicl ingthe instances of forced conversions whichmay be found scatteredup and down the pages of Muhammadan histories. Europeanwriters have tak en such care to accentuate these , that there is nofear of their being forgotten , and they do no t strictly come withinthe province of a history of missions . In a history of Christianmission s we should naturally expect to hearmore of the labourso f St . Liudger and St . Willehad among the pagan Saxons than of

the baptisms that Charlemagne forced them to undergo at thepoint of the sword.

1 The true missionaries of Denmark wereSt . Ansgar and his successors rather than King Cnut ,who forciblyrooted out paganismfromhis domin ions .’ Abbot Gottfried and

Bishop Chris t ian,though less successful in converting the pagan

See Enhard i Fuldensis A nnales. A .D . 777.

“ Saxones post multas cades et

varia bel la afliicti, tandem christiani efi'

ecti, Francorumdicioni subduntur.”

G . H . Pertz : Monumenta Germanize Historica. Vo l . i . p . 349 . (See alsopp. 1 56. x5 9

2 “ Tum zelo propaganda: fidei succensus, barbara regna insto certamineaggressus, devictas subditasque nationes christianae Iegi subiugavit.

”(Breviarium

Romanum. Inn.

INTRODUCTION . 7

Prussians,weremore truly representative of Christianmissionary

work than the Brethren of the Sword and other Crusaders whobrought their labours to completion bymeans of fire and sword .

The k nights of the“Ordo fratrummilitiae Christ i forced

Christianity on the peop le of Livon ia, but it is no t to thesemil itant propagandists but to the monk s Meinhard and Theod oric that we should point as being the truemissionaries of theC hristian faith in this country. The violent means sometimesemployed by the Jesu it miss ionaries 1 cannot derogate fromthehonour due to St. Franc is Xavier and other preachers of thesame order. Nor is Valentyn any the less the apostle ofA mboyna because in 1 699 an order was promulgated to theRajas of this island that they shou ld have ready a ,

certain numberOf pagans to be baptised , when the pastor came on his rounds .2Similarly Al Mutawak k il

,Al Hak imand TimSu ltan are not to

be look ed upon as typical missionaries of Islamto the exclusiono f such preachers as Mawlana Ibrahim

, the apostle of_ Java,

K_hwajah Mu

‘Inu - d D In Chishti in India and countless others who

won converts to the Musl imfaith by peacefulmeans alone.

1 Mathurin Veyssrere de la Croze : H isto ire du Christianisme des Indes, pp.

5 2 9 - 5 3 1 . (The Hague,2 Revue .de I

’Histoire des Religions, vol. xi. p. 89 .

CHAPTER II.

STUDY OF THE LIFE OF MUHA MMA D CONSIDERED A S A PREA CHER

OF ISLA M .

IT is not proposed in this chapter to add another to the alreadynumerous biographies of Muhammad , but rather tomak e a studyof his life in one of its aspects only ‘

,viz . that in which the

Prophet is presented to us as a preacher,as the apostle unto

men of a new religion .

1 The life of the founder of Islamand theinaugurator of its propaganda may naturally be e xpected toexhibit to us the true character of the missionary activity of thisreligion . If the life of the Prophet serves as the standard of conduct for the ordinary believer , itmust do the same for the Muslimmissionary. Fromthe pattern , therefore , wemay hope to learnsomething of the spirit that would a

‘

n imate those who sought tocopy it , and of the methods they might be expected to adopt.For the missionary spirit of Islam is no afterthought in its

history it interpenetrates the religion fromi ts very commencement

,and in the following sk etch it is desired to Show how this

i s so,how Muhammad the Prophet is the type of the missionary

of Islam. It is therefore beside the purpose to describe his.

early history,or the influences under which he grew up to man

hood, or to consider himin the light either of a statesman or ageneral : it is as the preacher alone that he will demand our

attention .

When , after long internal confl ict and disqu ietude , after wholedays and n ights of meditation and prayer in the cave of Mount

Hira‘

, Muhammad was at length convinced of his divinemission ,—when at length the Voice aroused himfromhis despondency

Except where spec ial references are given, the facts recorded in this chapterare to be found in al l the well - k nown biographies of the Prophet by Caussin de

Perceval , Muir, Sprenger, Krehl , etc. Whenever several verses are quoted fromthe Qur’an they are arranged in chrono logical order.

MUHAMMAD THE PROPHET .

and fear , and bade himproclaimuntomen the truth that day bydaymore strongly forced i tself upon him,

his earliest efforts weredirected towards persuading his own family of the tru th of thenew doctrine . The un ity of God

,the abomination of idolatry

,

the duty laid uponman of submission to the will of his Creator,

these were the simple truths to which -he claimed their allegiance .The first convert was his faithfu l and loving wife , K_

hadijah,

- she

who fifteen years before had offered her hand in marriage to the »

.

poor k insman that had so successfu lly traded with her Imerchandise as a hired agent , -with the words

,I

“ love thee,my cousin ,

for thy k inship with me , for the respect with which the peopleregard thee , for thy honesty, for the beauty of thy character andfor the truthfulness of thy speech .

” She had l ifted himout of

poverty,and enabled himto l ive up to the social position to

which he was ent itled by right of birth but this was as nothing to»

the fidelity and loving devotion with which she shared hismentalanxieties

,and helped himwith tenderest sympathy and encou

'

r

agement in the hour of his despondency . When in an agony of

mind,after having seen a vision

,he once fled to her for comfort

,

she thuS revived his downcast Sp iri t Fear no t,forjoyful tidings

dost thou bring. I will henceforth regard thee as the Prophetof our nation . Rejoice Al lah will not suffer thee to fall to shame.Hast thou not been loving to thy k insfolk , k ind to thy neighbours

,charitable to the poor, faithfu l to thy word , and ever a

defender of the tru th ? Thus up to her death in 6 1 9 .A .D . (after

a wedded life of five and twenty years) she was always ready withsympathy

,consolation and encouragement whenever he suffered

fromthe persecut ion of his enemies or was tortured by doubtsandmisgivings . So K_

hadijah believed,

”says the biographer ofthe Prophet

,

“and attested the truth of that which came to him

fromGod . Thus was the Lordminded to lighten the burden of

His Prophet for he heard nothing that grieved himtouching hisrejection by the peop le , but he had recourse unto her and she

comforted,re -assured and supported him.

” Tru ly,one of the

most beautifu l p ictures of a perfect wedded life that historygives us.

Among the earliest believers were his adopted children Zaydi

and ‘A li,and his bosomfriend A bii Bak r , of whomMuhammad

wou ld often say in after years I never invi ted any to the

faith who disp layed not hesitation and perplexity— excepting only

31 0 THE PREACHING OF ISLAM.

A bI‘

I Bak r who when I had p ronounced unto himIslamtarriednot

,neither was perplexed .

” He was a wealthymerchant,much

respected by his fellow c itizens for the integrity of his character

and for his intelligence and ability. After his conversion he

expended the greater part of his fortune on the purchase of

Muslimslaves who were persecu ted by theirmasters on account oftheir adherence to the teaching of Muhammad . Through his

influence , to a great extent , five of the earl iest converts wereadded to the number of believers , Sa‘d ibn A bIWaqqas, the future

conqueror of the Persians Zubayr ibnu - l‘A wwam,a relative both

- of the Prophet and his wife ;Talhah , famous as a warrior in

after days a wealthy merchant ‘Abdu - r Rahman , and ‘Uthman,

the third K_

halifah . The last was early exposed to persecutionhis uncle seized and bound him,

saying, Dost thou prefer a new

religion to that of thy fathers ? I swear I will no t loose theeunti l thou givest up this new faith thou art following after.” To

which ‘Uthman replied,By the Lord

,I will never abandon it

Whereupon his uncle,seeing the firmness of his attachment to

his fai th,released him.

With other additions,particularly fromamong slaves and

poor persons,the number of the believers reached to nearly forty

during the first three years of his mission . Encouraged by the

success of these private efforts,Muhammad determined on more

active measures . He called his k insmen together and invited‘ themto embrace the new faith .

“ No Arab,

”he urged ,“ has

' o ffered to his nation more precious advantages than those I bring. you . I offer you happiness in this world and in the life to come .i

Who among you will aidme in this task ? ” All were silent .Only ‘A II

,with boyish enthusiasm

,cried out

,

“Prophet of God ,I will aid thee .”At this the company brok e up with derisivelaughter.

Undeterred by the i ll - success of this preaching, he repeatedlycalled themtogether on future occasions , but hismessage and hiswarnings received fromthemnothing but scoffing and contempt.Indeed , the viru lence of their opposition is probably the reason

'why in the fourth year of his mission ,he took up his residence

‘

in the house of A rqam,an early convert . It was in a central

“

and frequented situation,fronting the Ka

‘bah,and here peaceably

and without interruption he was able to preach and recite the

tQ ur’an to all enqu irers that came to him;and so the number

1 2 THE PREACHING OF ISLAM .

they had to undergo . As Muhammad -was unable to relieve hispersecuted followers , he advised themto tak e refuge inAbyssinia,and in the fifth year of h is mission (A .D . eleven men and

four women crossed over to Abyssinia, where they received a:

k ind welcome fromthe Christ ian k ing of the country. Amongthemwas a certain Mus

‘ab ibn ‘Umayr whose history is inter

esting as of one,who had to endure thatmost bitter trial of the

new convert— the hatred of those he loves and who once lovedhim. He had been led to embrace Islamthrough the teachinghe had listened to in the house of A rqam,

but he was afraid tolet the fact of his conversion become k nown , because his tribeand his mother, who bore an especial love to him

,were bitterly

opposed to the new religion and indeed,when they discovered

the fact,seized and imprisoned him. But he succeeded in effect

ing his escape to Abyssinia.

The hatred of the Quraysh pursued the fugitives even to

Abyssinia,and an embassy was sent to demand their extradition

fromthe k ing of that country. But when he heard their storyfromthe Musl ims

,he refused to withdraw . fromthemhis pro

tection. For,said they

,

“We were plunged in the dark ness ofignorance and worshipped idols . Given up wholly to our evi l'

passions,we k new no law but that of the strongest , when God

raised up among us a man of our own race,illustriou s by his .

birth and long esteemed by us for his virtues . This apostlecal led upon us to profess the un ity of God

,to worship God alone

,

to rej ect the superstitions of our fathers,and despise the gods of

wood and stone . He bade us flee fromwick edness,be truthful‘

in speech,faithfu l to our promises

,k ind and affectionate to our'

parents and neighbours . He forbade us to dishonour women or

rob the orphans;he enjoined on us prayer , alms and fasting.

We believed in his mission and accepted the teachings that hebrought us fromGod . But our countrymen rose up against us,and persecuted us to mak e us renounce our faith and return tothe worship of idols . So , finding no safety in our own country

,

we have sought a refuge in yours . Putting our trust in yourjustice

,we hope that you will deliver us fromthe oppression of our

enemies .” Their prayer was heard and the embassy of theQuraysh returned discomfited . Meanwhile

,in Mecca

,a fresh

attempt wasmade to induce the Prophet to abandon his work ofpreaching by promises of wealth and honour, but in vain.

MUHAMMAD THE PROPHET . 1 3

While the resu lt of the embassy to Abyssin ia was being look ed"for in Mecca with the greatest expectancy, there occurred the

conversion of aman , who before had been one of themost bittere nemies of Muhammad , and had opposed himwith the utmostpersistence and fanaticism— a man Whomthe Muslims had everyreason then to look on as theirmost terrible and virulent enemy

,

though afterwards he shines as one of the noblest figures in the

early history of Islam,viz .

‘Umar ibnu - l Khattab . One day, in a

fit of rage against the Prophet , he set out , sword in hand , to slayh im. On the way, one of his relativesmet himand ask ed himwhere he was going.

“ I am look ing for Muhammad,

”heanswered ,

“ to k ill the wretch who has brought trouble and

d iscord among his fellow- citizens,insulted our gods , and outraged

the memory of our ancestors .” “Why dost thou not rather

p unish those of thy own family,who , unk nown to thee , have

renounced the religion of our fathers A nd who are these ofmy own family ? answered ‘Umar. “ Thy brother- in- law Sa‘idand thy sister Fatimah .

”— ‘Umar at once rushed off to the houseof his sister

,who

,with her husband and Khabbab , another of the

followers of Muhammad , who was instructing themin the faith ,w ere reading a passage of the Qur

’an together.

‘Umar burstinto the room:

“What was that sound I heard ? ” “ It wasn othing,

”they repl ied .

“Nay, you were reading, and I haveheard that you have joined the sect of Muhammad.

”Where'

upon he rushed upon Sa‘id and struck him. Fatimah threw

lherself between them,to protect her husband , crying, Yes , we

are Muslims we believe in God and His Prophet slay us if youw ill .” In the struggle his sister was wounded , and when

‘Umarsaw the blood on her face

,he was softened and ask ed to see the

paper they had been reading after some hesitation she handedit to him. It contained the 20th Sarah of the Qur’an . When‘Umar read it

,he exclaimed

, ,

“How beautiful , how sublime itis As he read on

,conviction suddenly overpowered himand

he cried,

“ Lead me to Muhammad that I may tell himof myconversion .

About the same time also,another important convert was

gained in the person of Hamzah , at once the uncle and fosterbrother of Muhammad , whose chivalrous soul was so stung tosudden sympathy by a tale of insult infl icted on and patientlyborne by his nephew

,that he changed at once froma bitter

14 THE PREACHING OF ISLA M .

enemy into a staunch adherent . His was no t the only instanceof sympathy for the sufferings of the Muslims being thus arousedat the sight of the persecutions they had to endure, and many,no doubt , secretly favoured the new religion who did not declarethemselves until the day of its triumph .

The conversion of ‘Umar is a turn ing-point in the history ofIslam the Muslims were now able to tak e up a bolder attitude .Muhammad left the house of A rqamand the believers publiclyperformed their devotions together around the Ka‘bah .

But this immun ity was short- lived . The embassy to Abyssiniahad returned un successful

,since the k ing had refused to with

draw his protection from the Muslimfugitives . The situationmight thus be expected to give the aristocracy of Mecca justcause for apprehension . For they had no longer to deal with a

band of oppressed and despised outcasts,struggling for a weak

andmiserable existence . It was rather a powerful faction,adding

daily to its strength by the accession of influential cit izens andendangering the stability of the existing government by an

alliance with a powerful foreign prince .The Quraysh resolved accordingly tomak e a determined effortto crush out this dangerous element in the state . They put theBani

‘

i Hashim and the Bani‘

i Muttalib, who through ties ofk indred protected the Prophet , under a ban , in accordance withwhich the Quraysh agreed that they would no t marry theirwomen

,nor give their own in marriage to them;they would

sell nothing to them,nor buy aught fromthem— that dealings

with themof every k ind shou ld cease .This increased severity of persecution , with its attendantdangers, led to a second fl ight to Abyssin ia— this t ime , of eightythreemen and eighteen women .

For three years the Banfi Hashimremained shut up in one

quarter of the city ;during all this time the ban was put

rigorously in force against them. None dared venture out

except during the sacred months , in which all war ceasedthroughout Arabia and a truce wasmade in order that pilgrimsmight visit the sacred Ka‘bah , the centre of the national religion .

Muhammad used to tak e advantage of such times of p ilgrimageto preach to the various tribes that flock ed to Mecca and the

adjacent fairs . But with no success,for his uncle A bfi Lahab

used to dog his footsteps, crying with a loud voice,

“He is an

MUHAMMAD THE PROPHET. 1 5 :

impostor who wants to draw you away from the faith of yourfathers to the false doctrines that he brings , wherefore separateyourselves fromhimand hear himno t .

” They would taunt himwith the words Thine own peop le and k indred

“

shou ld k nowthee best wherefore do they not believe and follow thee ?But at length the privations endured by Muhammad and his

k insmen enlisted the sympathy of a numerous section of theQuraysh and the ban was

‘

withdrawn .

In the same year the loss of Khadijah,the faithful wife who

for twenty- five years had been his counsellor and support ,plunged Muhammad into the u tmost grief and despondency ;and a l ittle later the death of A bu Talib deprived him of his .

constant andmost powerful protector and exposed himafresh toinsu lt and contumely.

Scorned and rejected by his own townsmen,to whomhe had

delivered his message with so little success for ten years , heresolved to see if there were not others whomight bemore readyto listen

,among whom the seeds of faith might find a more

receptive and fru itfu l soil . With this hope he set out for Ta’if

,

a c ity about sixtymiles fromMecca. Before an assembly of thechiefmen of the c ity

,he expounded his doctrine of the un ity or

God and of themi ssion he had received as the Prophet ofGod to

proclaimthis faith at the same time he besought their protectionagainst his persecutors in Mecca. The disproportion betweenhis high claims (which moreover were un intelligible to theheathen people of Ta

’if) and his helpless condition only excitedtheir ridicu le and scorn

,and pitilessly stoning himwith stones

they drove himfromtheir c ity.

On his return from Ta 1f the prospeotf of the success ofMuhammad seemed more hopeless than ever , and the agony ofhis sou l gave itself u tterance in the words that he puts intothe mouth of Noah “ O my Lord , verily I have cried to ‘

my people n ight and day;and my cry on lymak es them fleefromme themore .

“ A nd verily,so oft as I cry to them,

that Thou mayest forgivethem

,they thrust their fingers into their ears and wrap th em

selves in their garments, and persist (in their error), and are

disdainfully disdainfu l .” (lxxi . 5But consolation came to him from an unexpected quarter .At the time of the annual p ilgrimage .he was attracted by a


l it tle group of six or seven persons whom he recognised as

coming fromMedina, or, as it was then called , Yathrib .

“ Ofwhat tribe are you ?

”said he , addressing them.

“We are ofthe Khazraj ,

”they answered.

“ Confederates of the Jews ?"

“ Yes.” “ Then will you no t sit down awhile,that I may talk

with you ?” Assuredly,

”replied they. Then they sat downwith him

,and he proclaimed unto them the true God and

preached Islamand recited to themthe Qur’an .

“Now so itwas

,in that God wrought wonderfully for Islam that there

were found in their country Jews ,who p ossessed scriptures andw isdom

,while they themselves were heathen and idolators.

N ow the Jews oft times suffered violence at their hands,and

when strife was between themhad ever said to them,Soon will

a Prophet arise and his time is at hand himwill we follow,and

with him slay you with the slaughter of ‘A d and of Iram.

When now the apostle of God was speak ing with these men and

p reached unto themthe true God,they said one to another

Know surely that this is the Prophet,of whomthe Jews have

warned us come let us nowmak e haste and be the first to joinhim.

” So they believed in what he preached unto them and

embraced Islam,and said to him

,

‘ Our countrymen have long.been engaged in amost bitter and deadly feud with one another;but now perhaps the true God will un ite themtogether through.thee and thy teaching. Therefore we will p reach to themand

mak e k nown to themthis religion ,that we have received from

athee .

” So,full of faith

,they returned to their own country.

Such is the tradi tional accoun t of th is event which was theturn ing- point of Muhammad’smission . He had nowmet with ap eople whose antecedents had in some way prepared their mindsfor the reception of his teaching and whose present circumstances

,

as afterwards appeared, were favourable to his cause.The city of Yathrib had been long occupied by Jews whomsome nat ional disaster

,possibly the persecu tion under Hadrian

,

had driven fromtheir own country,when abou t 300 A .D. a party

of wandering emigrants , the two Arab clans of ILhaz raj and Aws ,arrived at Yathrib and were admitted by alliance to a share in theterritory . As their numbers increased they encroached moreandmore on the power of the Jewish rulers , and finally

,towards

the end of the fifth century,the government of the city passed

entirely into their hands.

MUHAMMAD THE PROPHET. 17

Some of the Arabs had embraced the Jewish religion , andmanyo f the former masters of the c ity still dwelt there in the serviceof their conquerors , so that it contained in Muhammad’s time aconsiderable Jewish population . The people of Yathrib werethu s famil iar with the idea of a Messiah who was to come

,and

were consequently more capable of understanding the claimofMuhammad to be accep ted as the Prophet ofGod

,than were the

idolatrous Meccans to whomsuch an idea was entirely foreignand especially d istasteful to the Quraysh , whose supremacy overthe

'

o ther tribes and whose worldly prosperity arose from thefact that they were the heredi tary guardians of the national

c ollection of idols k ept in the sacred enclosure of the Ka‘bah .

Further,the c ity of Yathrib was distracted by incessant c ivi l

d iscord through a long- standing feud between the Banfi ,K

_ _hazraj

and the Banu Aws . The c itizens l ived in uncertainty and

suspense,and anything l ik ely to bind the conflicting parties

together by a tie of common interest could no t but p rove a boonto the c ity. Just as the mediaeval republics of Northern Italychose a stranger to hold the chief post in their c ities in order to

main tain some balance of power between the rival factions,and

prevent,if possible

,the c ivil strife which was so ru inou s to com

merce and the general welfare , so the Yathribites would not lookupon the arrival of a stranger with suspicion , even though hewas l ik ely to usurp or gain permission to assume the vacan tau thority. Deadly jealousy at home had extingu ished thejealousy of influence fromoutside .These facts go far to explain how eight years after the HijrahMuhammad cou ld

,at the head of followers

,enter the city

in which he had laboured for ten years with someagre a result .But this is anticipating. Muhammad had p roposed to accom

p any his new converts,the Khaz rajites, to Yathrib himself, but

they dissuaded him therefrom,until a reconcil iation could be

e ffected with the BanuAws . “Let us,we pray thee

,return unto

o ur people , if haply the Lord will create peace amongst us and

we.

will come back again unto thee . Let the season of pilgrimagein the following year be the appointed time.” So they returnedto their homes

,and invited their people to the faith andmany

believed, so that there remained hardly a family in whichmen tionTwas no tmade of the Prophet .When the time of pilgrimage again came round, a depu tation


fromYathrib , ten men of the Bant'

i Khazraj, and two of the BanuAws

,met himat the appointed spot and pledged himtheir word

to obey his teaching. This,the first pledge of

‘Aqabah , so calledfromthe secret spot at which theymet , ran as follows —“We

will no t worship any but the one God we will not steal,neither

will we commit adul tery or k ill our children we will abstainfromcalumny and slander ;we will obey the Prophet in everything that is right and will be faithful to himin weal and woe .

”These twelve men now returned to Yathrib as missionaries ofIslam,

and so well prepared was the ground , and with such zeal

did they prosecute their mission , that the new faith spreadrapidly fromhouse to hou se and fromtribe to tribe .

They were accompan ied on their return by Mus‘ab ibn ‘Umayrthough , according to another account he was sent by the Prophet

upon a written requ isition fromYathrib . This young man hadbeen one of the earliest converts , and had lately returned fromAbyssin ia thus he had hadmuch experience , and severe train ingin the school of persecution had no t only sobered his zeal bu ttaught himhow to meet persecution and deal with those who wereready to condemn Islamwithout waiting to learn the true contentsof its teaching accordingly Muhammad cou ld with the greatestconfidence entrust himwith the difficu lt task of d irecting and

instructing the new converts , cherishing the seeds of religiouszeal and devotion that had already been sown and bringing themto fruition . Mus

‘ab took up his abode in the house of As

‘ad ibn

Zurarah , and gathered the converts together for prayer and thereading of the Qur

’an

,sometimes here and sometimes in a house

belonging to the sons of Zafar, which was situated in a quarter ofthe town occupied jointly by this family and that of ‘Abdu - l

A shhal .

The heads of the latter family at that time were Sa‘d ibn

Mu‘adh and Usayd ibn Hudayr . One day i t happened that

Mus‘ab was sitting together with As‘ad in this house of the sons

of Zafar, engaged in instructing some new converts,when Sa‘d

ibn Mu‘adh , having come to k now of their whereabouts

,said to

Usayd ibnHudayr :“Drive out this missionary and his compan ion

fromour quarter I would spare thee the trouble did no t the tiethat bindsme and the sons ofZurarah preventmydoing himany

harm”(for he himself was the cousin of As‘ad) . Hereupon

Usayd took his spear and bursting in upon As‘ad and Mus ‘ab ,


to tak e refuge in Yathrib fromthe fury of his enemies , and hadcome to swear allegiance to him as their prophet and theirleader. All the early converts who had before met the propheton the two preceding pilgrimages , returned to Mecca on thisimportant occasion ,

and Mus‘ab their teacher accompan ied them.

Immediately on his arrival he hurried to the prophet , and toldhimof the success that had attended his mission . It is said thathismother

,hearing of his arrival , sent amessage to him,

saying“ Ah

,d isobedient son , wilt thou enter a city in which thymother

dwelleth,and not first visit her ?” “Nay, verily,

”he replied,I

wil l never visit the house of any one before the prophet of God .

So,after he had greeted and conferred with Muhammad , he went

to hismother,who thus accosted him:

“Then I ween thou art

still a renegade .” He answered

,I follow the prophet of the Lord

and the true faith of Islam.

” “ A rt thou then well satisfied withthemiserable way thou hast fared in the land of Abyssinia and

now again at Yathrib Now he perceived that she wasmeditating his imprisonment , and exclaimed , “What wilt thou forceaman fromhis religion If ye seek to confineme

,I will assuredly

slay the first person that layeth hands upon me .

” His mothersaid

,

“Then depart frommy presence ,”and she began to weep .

Mus‘ab was moved , and said , Oh

,my mother I give thee

loving counsel . Testify that there is no God but the Lord and

that Muhammad is His servant andmessenger .” But she replied ,“ By the spark l ing stars ! I will never mak e a fool of myself byentering into thy religion. I wash my hands of thee and thyconcerns

,and cleave steadfastly untomine own faith .

”

In order no t to excite susp icion and incur the hostility of theQuraysh

,a secret meeting was arranged at

‘Aqabah,the scene of

the former meeting with the converts of the year before .

Muhammad came accompanied only by his uncle ‘Abbas,who

,

though hewas still an idolater, had been admitted into the secret .‘Abbas opened the solemn conclave , by recommendinghis nephewas a scion of one of the noblest fami lies of his clan

,which had

hitherto afforded the prophet protection,although rejecting his

teachings ;but now that he wished to tak e refuge among thep eople of Yathrib , they should bethink themselves well beforeundertak ing such a charge , and resolve not to go back fromtheirpromise

,if once they undertook the risk . Then Baraibn Ma

‘rur

,

one of the Bani'

i Khazraj , protesting that they were firmin their

MUHAMMAD THE PROPHET . 2 T

resolve to protect the Prophet of God , besought him to declarefully what he wished of them.

Muhammad began by reciting to themsome portions of theQur’an

,and exhorted themto be true to the faith they had pro

fessed in the oneGod and the Prophet,His apostle he then ask ed

themto defend himand his compan ions fromall assailants just asthey would their own wives and children . Then Bara ibn Ma

‘rur

,

tak ing his hand, cried out,

“Yea,by Himwho sent thee as His

Prophet , and through thee revealed unto u s His tru th,we will

protect thee as we would our own bodies,and we swear al legiance

to thee as our leader. We are the sons of battle andmen ofmailwhich we have inherited as worthy sons of worthy forefathers.So they all in turn

,tak ing his hand in theirs , swore allegiance to

him.

As soon as the Quraysh gained intelligence of these secret proceedings, the persecution brok e out afresh against the Muslims

,

and Muhammad advised themto flee out of the city. Departunto Yathrib for the Lord hath verily given you brethren in

that city,and a home in which yemay find refuge .” So qu ietly ,

by twos and threes they escaped to Yathrib , where they wereheart ily welcomed

,their co - religion ists in that city vying with

one another for the honour of entertaining them,and supp lying

themwith such things as they had need of. Within twomonthsnearly all the Muslims except those who were seized and imprisoned and those who could not escape fromcaptivi ty had leftMecca

,to the number of abou t 1 50. There is a story told of one

of these Muslims,by name Suhayb ,whomMuhammad called “

the

first - fru its of Greece”(he had been a Greek slave,and being set

free by hismaster had amassed considerable wealth by successful

trading) ;when he was abou t to emigrate the Meccans said tohim

,Thou camest hither in need and penury but thy wealth

hath increased with us,until thou hast reached thy present

prosperity ;and now thou art departing, not thyself on ly , but

with all thy property. By the Lord , that shall not be and he

said,

“ If I relinqu ish my property , will ye leave me free todepart ?” A nd they agreed thereto ;so he parted with all his

goods. A nd when that was told unto Muhammad , he said ,Verily

, Suhayb hathmade a profitable bargain .

”

Muhammad delayed his own departure (with the intention , nodoubt, of withdrawing attent ion fromhis faithful followers) unti l


a determined plot against his life warned himthat further delaymight be fatal, and hemade his escape bymeans of a stratagem.

His first care after his arrival in Yathrib , or Medina as it was

cal led fromthis period—Madinatu - l Nabi,the city of the Prophet

was to bu ild amosque, to serve both as a place of prayer and of

general assembly for his followers , who had hithertomet for thatpurpose in the dwell ing- place of one of their number. Theworshippers at first used to turn their faces in the direction of

Jerusalem- an arrangement most probably adopted with thehope of gain ing over the Jews . In many other ways

,by constant

appeals to their own sacred Scriptures , by according themperfe’

ctfreedom of worship and political equal ity

,Muhammad en

deavoured to conciliate the Jews , but theymet his advances withscorn and derision . When all hopes of amalgamation provedfru itless and it became clear that the Jews wou ld no t accept himas their Prophet

,Muhammad bade his followers turn their faces in

prayer towards the holy Ka‘bah in Mecca. ( i i . 1

This change of direct ion during prayer has adeeper significancethan might at first sight appear. It was really the beginn ing ofthe National Life of Islam i t established the Ka‘bah at Mecca asa religious centre for all the Muslim people , just as fromtimeimmemorial i t had been a place of pilgrimage for all the tribes ofArabia. Of similar importance was the incorporation of thean cient Arab customof pilgrimage to Mecca into the circle ofthe religious ordinances of Islam,

a duty that was to be performedby every Muslimat least once in his lifetime .

There are many passages in the Qur’an that appeal to this germ

of national feeling and urge the people of Arabia to realise theprivilege that had been granted themof a divine revelation intheir own language and by the lips of one of their own countrymen .

Verily We havemade it an Arabic Qur’an that yemay haplyunderstand. (xl iii . 2

“ A nd thus We have revealed to thee an Arabic Qur’an,that

thou mayest warn the mother of ci ties and those aroundit. (xlii .

A nd if We hadmade it a Qur’an in a foreign tongue , they had

1 The appo intment of the fast of Ramadan (Qur’an 11. 179 is doubtlessanother sign o f the break ingwith the Jews, the fast on the Day of A tonementbeing thus abo l ished.


surely said,

‘ Un less its verses be clearly exp lained (we willno t receive (xli .

A nd verily We have set beforemen in this Qur’an every k indof parable that haply they be mon ished

“ A n Arabic Qur’an,free from tortuous (wording), that haply

theymay fear (God) . (xxxix . 2 8

Verily from the Lord of all creatures hath this (book ) comedown

,in the clear Arabic tongu e . (xxvi . 19 2 ,

A nd We have onlymade i t (i.e . the Qur’an) easy, in thineown tongue , in order that thou mayest announce gladtidings thereby to the God - fearing, and that thou mayestwarn the contentious thereby.

”(xix.

But themessage of Islamwas not for Arabia only the wholeworld was to share in it . As there was but one God

,so there

was to be but one religion into which'

allmen were to be invited .

This claim to be un iversal , to hold sway over all men and all

nations,found a practical illustration in the letters which

Muhammad sent in the year 62 8 A .D . (6 A .H .) to the greatpotentates of that t ime . A n invitation to embrace Islamwas

sent in this year to the Emperor Heracl ius , the k ing of Persia,the governor ofYaman ,

the governor of Egypt and the k ing ofAbyssin ia The letter to Heraclius is said to have been as

follows In the name ofGod,the Merciful

,the Compassionate ,

Muhammad , who is the servant of God and His apostle, to Hiraqlthe QaysarofRum. Peace be on whoever has gone on the straightroad . After this I say, Verily I call you to Islam. EmbraceIslam

,and God will reward you twofold . If you turn away from

the offer of Islam,then on you be the sins of your people. 0

people of the Book,come towards a creed which is fit both for us

and for you . It is this— to worship none bu t God,and not to

associate anythingwith God , and not to call others God . Therefore

,O ye people of the Book

,if ye refuse

,beware . We are

Muslims and our religion i s Islam. However absurd thissummons may have seemed to those who then received it, suc

ceeding years showed t hat it was dictated by no empty enthu

siasm. These letters on ly gave a more open and widespreadexpression to the claim to the '

universal acceptance which isrepeatedlymade for Islamin the Qur’an .

Of a tru th it (i.e . the Qur’an) is no other than an admonition


to all creatures,and after a time shal l ye surely k now its

message . (xxxviii . 87This (book ) is no other than an admonition and a clearQur’an

,to warn whoever l iveth;and that against the

unbelievers sentencemay be justly given . (xxxvi . 69A nd We have no t sent thee otherwise than tomank ind atlarge, to announce and to warn . (xxxiv.

He it is who hath sent His apostle with guidance and thereligion of t ru th , that He may mak e it victorious overevery other religion ,

though the polytheists are averse toit .” (lxi .

In the hour of his deepest despair,when the people of Mecca

persistently turned a deaf ear to the words of their prophet

(xvi. 2 3 , 1 14, when the converts he hadmade were torturedunt il they recanted (xvi. and others were forced to flee fromthe country to escape the rage of their persecutors (xvi. 43 , 1 1 1)then was delivered the promise

,

“One day we will raise up a

witness out of every nation .

”(xvi. 1

This c laimupon the acceptance of all man k ind which theProphetmak es in these passages is further prophetically indicatedin the words “ first - fruits of Abyssinia,

”used by Muhammad in

reference to Bilal,and “ first - fruits of Greece

,

”to Suhayb thefirst Persian convert was a Christian slave in Medina

,who em

braced the new faith in the first year of the Hijrah . Furtherthere is a tradition which represents the Prophet as declaringChina to be within the sphere of his prophetic mission .

$2 Thuslong before any career of conquest was so much as dreamed of,the Prophet had clearly shown that Islamwas not to be confinedto the Arab race. The following account of the sending out ofmissionaries to preach Islam to all nations

,points to the same

claimto be auniversal religion “The Apostle of God said to hiscompan ions

,Come tome all of you early in themorn ing.

’ Afterthe morn ing prayer he spent some time in praising and suppli

1 It seems strange that in the face of these passages, some have denied thatIslamwas original ly intended by its founder to be a universal rel igion. Thus SirWilliamMuir says, That the heritage o f Islamis the world, was an afterthought .The idea, sp ite o fmuch pr0phetic tradition, had been conceived but d imly, if atall, byMahomet himself. His world was A rab ia, and for it the new d ispensationwas ordained. From first to last the summons was to A rabs and to none

other. The seed o f a universal creed had indeed been sown; but that itever germinated was due to c ircumstance rather than design.

”—(The Caliphate,PP°

0

2 Schefer Tro is Chapitres du Khitay Nameh, p . 3 1 .

MUHAMMAD THE PROPHET . 5

cating God , as was his wont then he turned to themand sentforth some in one direction and others in another

,and said ‘ Be

faithfu l to God in your deal ings with His servants (i.e . withmen),for whosoever is entrusted with any matter that concerns mank ind and is not faithfu l in his service of them

,to himGod shuts

the gate of Paradise go forth and be no t l ik e themessengers ofJesus , the son of Mary , for they went only to those that l ived nearand neglected those that dwelt in far countries .’ Then each ofthese messengers came to speak the language of the people towhomhe was sent . When this was told to the Prophet he said,‘

This is the greatest of the'

du ties that they owe to God withrespect to His servants .’ 1

A nd the proof of the un iversality of Islam,of its claimon the

acceptance of all men,lay in the fact that it was the religion

divinely appoin ted for the whole human race and was now

revealed to themanew through Muhammad, “ the seal of theprophe ts”(xxxiii . as it had been to former generations byother prophets .Men were of one religion only then they disagreed one with

another and had no t a decree (of respite) previously goneforth fromthy Lord

,judgment wou ld surely have been

given between themin thematter wherein they disagree.(x .

I amno apostle of new doctrines . (xlvi .Mank ind was but one pe0ple : then God raised up prophetsto announce glad tidings and to warn and He sent downwith themthe Book with the Truth

,that i tmight decide

the dispu tes of men : and none disagreed save those towhomthe book had been given ,

afterthe cleartok ens hadreached them

,throughmutual j ealousy . A nd God guided

those who bel ieved into the truth concerning which theyhad disagreed , by His will ;and God guideth whomHepleaseth into the straight path . (ii . 209 .

“ A nd We revealed to thee,

‘ follow the religion of A braham,

the sound in faith,for he was not of those who join gods

with God.

’(xvi.

Say : As for me,my Lord hath guided me into a straight

path a true faith,the religion of Abraham,

the sound inI

1

“

Ibn Sa‘d , 10. This story mayindeed be apocryphal , but 15 significant atleast of the early real isation of themissionary character of Islam.


faith ;for he was not of those who join gods with God .

(vi.Say : N ay, the religion of Abraham,

the sound in faith andno t one o f those who join gods with God (is our religion) .

(i i .Say : God speak eth truth . Follow therefore the religion ofAbraham

,the sound in faith

,who was not one of those

who joined other gods with God . ( ii i .A nd who hath a better religion than he who resigneth himself to God

,who doth what is good and followeth the

faith of Abraham,the sound in faith (iv.

He hath elected you , and hath no t laid on you any hardshipin religion , the faith of your father Abraham. He hathnamed you the Muslims . (xx.

But to return to Muhammad in Medina. In order properly toappreciate his position after the Flight , i t i s important toremember the pecu liar character of Arab society at that time

,as

far at least as this part of the pen insu la was concerned. Therewas an entire absence of any organ ised admin istrative or judic ialsystemsuch as in modern times we connect with the idea of a

government . Each tribe or c lan formed a separate and absolutelyindependent body

,and this independence extended itself also to

the individual members of the tribe,each of whomrecognised the

authority or leadership of his chief on ly as being the exponent ofa public opin ion which he himself happened to share ;but hewas qu ite at l iberty to refuse his conformity to the (even)unan imous resolve of his fellow c lansmen . Further

,there was no

regu lar transmission of the office of Chieftain ;but he was

generally cho sen as being the oldestmember of the richest andmost powerful family of the clan ,

and as being personal lymostqualified to command respect . If such a tribe became toonumerous

,i t wou ld split up into several d ivisions , each of which

continued to enj oy a separate and independent existence,un iting

only on some extraordinary occasion for common self- defenceor some more than usually important warlik e expedition . Wecan thus understand how Muhammad could establish himself inMedina at the head of a large and increasing body of adherentswho look ed up to himas their head and leaderand ack nowledgedno other authori ty

,—without exciting any feeling of insecurity,

or any fear of encroachment on recognised authority,such as

would have arisen in a city of anc ient Greece or any similarly


blood. Even in case of death,the claims of relationship were set

aside and the bond - brother inheri ted all the property of hisdeceased compan ion . But after the battle of Badr

,when such an

artificial bond was no longer needed to un ite his followers, i t wasabolished such an arrangement was only necessary so long as

the number of the Muslims was still small and the corporate lifeof Islama novelty,moreover Muhammad had l ived in Medinafor a very short space of time before the rapid increase in thenumber of his adherents made so communistic a social systemalmost impracticable .It was only to be expected that the growth of an independentpolitical body composed of refugees fromMecca, located in a

hostile c ity,should eventually lead to an outbreak of hostilities .

A nd,as i s well k nown

,every biography of Muhammad i s largely

tak en up with the account of a long series of petty encountersand b loody battles .between his followers and the Quraysh ofMecca

,ending in his triumphal entry into that city in 630 A .D .

,

and of his hostile relations with numerous other tribes,up to the

t ime of his death,63 3 A .D .

To give any account of these campaigns i s beyond the scope ofthe presen t work

,but i t is necessary to determine exactly in what

relation they stood to the earlymissionary life of Islam. It hasbeen frequently asserted by European writers that fromthe dateof Muhammad’s fl ight to Medina, and fromthe altered circumstances of his life there

,the Prophet appears in an ent irely new

character . He is no longer the preacher, the warner, the apostleof God to men ,

whomhe wou ld persuade of the truth of thereligion revealed to him, but now he appears rather as the

unscrupulous bigot , using all means at his disposal of force and

statecraft to assert himself and his opin ions .But i t is false to suppose that Muhammad in Medina laid asidehis role of preacher andmissionary of Islam,

or that when he hada large army at his command , he ceased to invite unbelievers toaccept the faith . Ibn Sa‘d gives a number of letters written bythe Prophet fromMedina to chiefs and othermembers of differentArabian tribes

,in addition to those addressed to potentates living

beyond the limits of Arabia,invit ing themto embrace Islam

and in the following pages will be found cases of his having sen t

missionaries to preach the faith to the unconverted members oftheir tribes

,whose very ill - successin some cases i s a sign of the


genu inelymissionary character of their efforts and the absence of

an appeal to force .In order fully to apprec iate his new position , we need to obtainsome satisfactory answer to the following questions. How farwas Muhammad himself responsible for the outbreak of hostil itiesWas he the aggressor or was he the first to be attack ed ? 1 A nd

further,when hostilities had been begun , was use made of

the success that attended the Muslimarms,to force the accept

ance of Islam on the conquered,or indeed- as many have

maintained— was not such forced conversion the very purpose forwhich the Muslims first took up arms at all ?Themain dispu te arises in relation to the circumstances which

led to the battle of Badr (A .D . the first regular engagementin the annals of Islam.

Let us try to real ise these circumstances .Here was an exile who

,with a small band of devoted companions

,

had tak en refuge in a foreign c ity : a man who for years hadstriven to persuade his fellow - townsmen to adop t a faith that hebelieved to be divinely inspired

,—with no p ersonal pretensions

other than that of the truth of the doctrines he taught ,“ I am

on ly aman l ik e you ,”he would say. It is only revealed tomethat your God is one God let himthen that hopeth tomeet hisLord work a right work

”(xviii . Treated at first with

silent scorn,and afterwards with undisgu ised contempt , he had to

submit to insults and contumely of every k ind— a formof treatment which increased in viru lence day by day, unti l his persecutors even sought to tak e his l ife . It was on his followershowever that the fury of persecu tion first spent itself — twicewere they compelled to flee for safety across the sea

, pursued eventhen by the hatred of their enemies ;many were put to thecruellest tortures

,under which some succumbed

,asmartyrs to the

faith they wou ld not abandon and when at length the cruelty oftheir persecutors became no longer bearable and a city was foundto offer themprotection

,the Musl ims fled to Medina

,followed by

their Prophet,who only by a stratagemsucceeded in escaping

with his l ife .Here their position was by no means free fromdanger there

was no security of freedomfromhostility on the part of the

1 For the defensive character of the first mil itary operations in Medina, seeC. Snouck Hurgronje, D e Islam. (De Gids. Juni 1886, p.


Meccans,who had no t hesitated to pursue some Medinite converts

andmaltreat one they succeeded in capturing.

‘ In the city itselfthey were not altogether among friends the Jews who inhabitedMedina in large numbers , cherished a secret hostility against thenew Prophet ;and there were many others among the citizen swho though now indifferent , wou ld naturally turn against thenew- comers

,if their arrival brought upon their c ity an invasion

of the Quraysh and threatened it with disaster and ruin . It wastherefore needful for the Muslims to be on their guard against

any hostile incursion on the part of the Quraysh . Nor cou ldthey forget their brethren whomthey had been compelled to leavebehind in Mecca

,themen and women and children who were

not able through their weak ness to find the means of escape”

(iv. who left to themercy of cruel persecutors cried , “ 0 our

Lord bring us forth from this city whose inhabitants are

oppressors;give us a champion fromThy presence and give usfromThy presence a defender." (iv.

Accordingly we find mention of several reconnoitring partiesthat went out in small numbers to watch the movements ofthe Quraysh . None of these expedit ions

,with one exception ,

resu lted in bloodshed,and the hostile parties separated after

amutual interchange of abuse and self- laudation , in accordancewith the o ld Arab custom. But on one occasion (A .H . 2 ) theProphet had sent ‘Abdu - llah ibn Jahsh and a party of eightmen ,with instructions to bring news of themovements of the Quraysh .

His written orders When you read this letter,march on

and halt at Nak_

hlah between Mecca and Ta’if there lie in wait

for the Quraysh and bring us news of them.

” Ibn Jahsh inter

preted his orders in accordance with the impetuous impu lses ofhis own warrior sp irit , and returned to Medinawith two prisonersand the sack of a caravan. In so doing he had no t on ly actedwithou t authority bu t had violated the sacred truce which Arabcustomcaused to be observed throughou t themonth ofp ilgrimage .

Muhammad received himcoldly with the words,I gave thee no

command to fight in the sacredmonth dismissed the prisoners ,and fromhis own purse paid blood -money for a Meccan who hadlost his life in the fray.

The facts of the case clearly show that Muhammad had great

In A 1 1 . 1 , one o f the Quraysh Chieftains, Kurz ibn Jab ir,made a raid upon

some camels and flo ck s which were feeding in a plain a fewmiles fromMedina.

MUHAMMAD THE PROPHET. 3;

d ifficulty in check ing the impetuosity of his Arab followers , withtheir inborn love of fighting and plunder . The contrast drawnbelow between the o ld and the new ideal of life is p roof enoughof the difficulty of his task . and the frequen t admon itions of theQur’an (see iv . 9 6 ;xvi. 9 3 -

96 , etc .) bear witness to the same .It is failure to realise this fact that has led to the Prophet beingaccused of a deliberate in tention of p lundering the caravan of

A bu Sufyan and thu s forcing the Meccans to fight the battle ofBadr . A nd yet the words of the Qur’an—and this

,in the face

of the confl icting testimony of Muhammadan historians,must be

and is recogn ised both by Eu ropean1 and Asiatic scholars to be

the true biography of Muhammad— present to us the Prophetand his followers in antagon ismas to what line of action is to betak en in V 1ew of an impending attack of the Quraysh . 5 . Re

member how thy Lord caused thee to go forth fromthy home(i.e . Medina) in the cause of truth

,and verily a part of the.

believers were qu ite averse to it . 6 . They disputed with theeabou t the tru th 2 after it had been made clear

,as if they were

being led forth to death and saw it'

before them. 7. A nd re

member when God promised you that one of the two troops ?‘shou ld fall to you , and ye desired that they. who had no arms.shou ld fall to you butGod purposed to prove true the truth of

’

His words,and to cut off the u ttermost part of the unbelievers .”

(vi i i . 5The two troops here referred to

,were on the one hand a richly

laden caravan coming fromSyria with an escort of thirty or fortymen ,

under the leadership of A bu Sufyan ,and on the Other a

large army of nearly 1000men collected by the Quraysh ofMecca,

with the ostensible purpose of defending the caravan ,which they

had been informed it was Muhammad’s intention to attack .

Historians have generally assumed this rumour to have been true .

But- setting aside the fact that rumours c irculated by one partyrespecting the intentions of an Opposing party are the last k ind of

statemen ts to be accep ted as evidence— a consideration of theverses quoted above shows the falsity of such a supposition .

I st . The words of v . 5 wou ld certainly seemto show that wh en1 A . Sprenger, vo l . i. p . xv. (D ie Hauptquelle fur die Biographie des

Mohammad ist der Koran .) E. P. Goergens : Mohammad;ein Charak terbi ld .

(Berl in, p . 1 3 .

21. e. The necessity for the combat and its probable results.

3 i.e. The caravan of A bu Sufyan and the army fromMecca.

3 2 THE PREACHINGOF ISLAM .

the d ispute arose the Prophet was still in Medina,and had no t

al ready marched out to interc ept the caravan,as so many

historians have maintained , and that some of his followers wereunwilling to follow himin his proposedmarch to resist the attacko f the Quraysh .

z ud . The ground of these persons’ opposition to the orders of

Muhammad was that they felt as if they were being led forth todeath and saw it before them (vii i . The small handful ofmen that formed the escort of A buSufyz

’m’s caravan cou ld never

have inspired such fear . Muhammad then must have cal led uponthemto face the invading army of the Quraysh .

3rd. Had i t been his intention to attack the caravan,surely he

shou ld have gone northwards fromMedina, to in tercep t it on i tsway fromSyria and no t south towards Badr

,which was on the

highroad betweenMecca and Medina, and exactly in the d irectionthat he wou ld need to tak e in order to repel the attack of theQuraysh who threatened the c ityof his protectors .4th . Had the sole purpose of the Quraysh been the protection

o f the caravan,they wou ld have returned

,when on the road they

heard of its safe arrival in Mecca;instead of which , they revealtheir real purpose by pressing on in the d irection of

_

Medina.

This is enough to show that the report brought into Meccathat Muhammad was preparing to attack the caravan was qu iteunfounded . The action of some of his followersmight well havegiven occasion for such a fear, but the Prophet himselfmust beexonerated fromthe charge of precipitating the inevitable coll ision with the Quraysh . Even granting that the receip t of thisrumour was the cause of the expedition fromMecca, still its largenumbers show that the defence of the caravan was not theirmaino bject

,but that they had designs upon Medina i tself. Muhammad

therefore cannot be blamed for advancing tomeet themin defenceo f the city that had given shelter to himand his followers

,in

o rder to deliver it fromthe horrors of a siege, fromwhich Medina,o wing to the pecul iar character of the city, would necessarily suffervery severely .

1

If i t be further objected that it was inconsistent with hismission

1 SeeWellhausen :“ Medina war ein Komplex von Gehoften , D orfern und

festern Hausern, die bald naher bald weiter von einander entfernt zwischenPalmgruppen, Garten und Saatfeldern z ertreut lagen mehr ein Synoecismus alse ine Stadt.” (Sk izzen und Vorarbeiten, vo l . iv. p .


as a prophet to intermeddle with affairs of war,i t must be re

membered that it was no part of his teaching to say, “My k ingdomis no t of this world .

”

It wou ld be beyond the scope of the present work to follow indetai l the campaigns of the Prophet, and show how forcible con

version was in no case the aimthat any of themhad in view .

This has already been done with the u tmost detail in the workfromwhich the above exposit ion has been tak en ;and to thiswork the reader who desires to pursue this subject further

,i s

referred.

1

It is enough here to have shown that Muhammad when hefound himself at the head of a band of armed followers

, was not

transformed at once,as some wou ld have us believe

,froma peace

ful preacher into a fanatic,sword in hand

,forcing his religion on

whomsoever he could .

2 But,on the contrary

,exactly simi lar

efforts weremade to p reach the faith of Islamand to convert theunbelieving Arabs after the Hij rah

,as before in the days of

Muhammad’s political weak ness ;and in the following pagesabundan t instances of such missionary activity have beencollected .

In themidst of the wars and campaign s into which the hostileattitude of the Quraysh had now dragged Muhammad and his

compan ions,there was little opportun ity for missionary labours

except among the inhabitants of Medina itself and those fewindividual Meccans who voluntarily made their way to theProphet . Among the latter was ‘Umayr ibn Wahb

,who after

the battle of Badr came to Medina with the intention of assassinating the Prophet , but was won over to the faith , so that thewhilompersecutor became one of themost distingu ished of hisdisciples . In the fourth year of the Hijrah (62 5 an attemptwasmade to preach Islamto the Bani‘ 1 ‘Amir ibn Sa‘sa‘ah , and at

the invi tation of the chief of this tribe forty Musl ims were sentinto Najd, but they were treacherously murdered and two on lyof the party escaped with their l ives .

1 Sayyid A hmad Khan : Tafsiru- l Qur’an. Vol . iv . (In vol . vi . .part I . of

Tasz'

tnif A hmadiyah.) (A ligarh ,2 This would seemto be ack nowledged even byMuir, when speak ing of the

massacre of the BanuQ urayzah (A .H . 6 ) The ostensible grounds upon whichMahomet proceeded were purely pol itical , for as yet he did not profess to force

men8to jo in Islam, or to punish themfor no t embracing it.” Muir vol .m

p. 2 2 .


The successes of the Muslimarms, however , attracted everydaymembers of various tribes , particularly those in the vicinityo fMedina

,to swell the rank s of the followers of the Prophet

and “ the courteous treatment which the deputations of thesevarious c lans experienced fromthe Prophet, his ready attentionto their grievances, the wisdomwith which he composed theirdisputes

,and the politic assignments of territory by which he

rewarded an early declaration in favour of Islam,made his name

to be popu lar,and spread his fame as a great and generous prince

throughout the Peninsula.

”1It not unfrequently happened that onemember of a tribe would

come to the Prophet in Medina and return home as amissionaryo f Islamto convert his brethren we have the following accountby an eye -witness of such a conversion in the year 5One day as we were sitting together in the mosque , a Bedou in

came riding up on a camel hemade it k neel down in the court '

yard o f themosque and tied it up . Then he came near to us andask ed

,

‘ Is Muhammad among you ? ’ We answered,

‘He is theman with his elbows resting on the cushions .’ ‘ Art thou the sonof A bu- l Muttalib ?

’he ask ed .

‘ I am,

’ replied the Prophet . -‘ I

t rust thou wilt tak e no offence atmyask ing thee some questions.’A sk whatever thou wilt,

’answered the Prophet. Then he said

,

I adjure thee by the Lord and the Lord of those who were beforethee

,tell me, has Allah sent thee to all men ? Muhammad

answered,‘Yea, by Allah .

’ The other continued ,‘ I adjure thee

by Allah , tellme , hath He commanded thee thatmen should fastduring this month Muhammad answered

,

‘ Yea,by Allah .

’

‘ I adjure thee by Allah , hath He commanded thee that thoushouldest tak e tithes from the rich

,to distribute among the

poor ? Muhammad answered again ,‘ Yea

,by Allah .

’ Thensaid the stranger,

‘ I believe on the revelation thou hast brought .I amB imamibn Tha‘labah , and amthe messenger of my tribe .’S o he returned to his tribe and converted them to Islam.

”2Another suchmissionary was ‘A mr ibn Murrah , belonging to thetribe of the Bana Juhaynah, who dwelt between Medina and theRed Sea. The date of his conversion was prior to the Flight ,and he thus describes it We had an idol that we worshipped

,

and I was the guardian of its shrine . When I heard of theProphet

,I brok e it in pieces and set off to Muhammad in Mecca,

1 Muir vol. iv. pp. 1078 .

9 Sprenger, vol. i i i . pp. 202 -

3 .


people let thy curse fall upon them.

” But Muhammad prayed ,O God

, gu ide the Bani‘

i Daws into the true path,

”and sent

Tufayl back again to commence anew his missionary labours .One of his friends now assisted himin his efforts

,and they went

fromhouse to hou se , preaching the faith , and by A .H . 6 theysucceeded in converting a great part of the tribe . Two yearslater

,the whole tribe abandoned their idolatrous beliefs

,and

united themselves to the Muslims , while Tufayl set fire to theblock of wood that had hitherto been venerated as the idol of thetribe .1

In A .H . 7, fifteen more tribes submitted to the Prophet , andafter the surrender of Mecca in A .H . 8 , the ascendancy of Islamwas assured

,and those Arabs who had held aloof

,saying,

“ Let

Muhammad and his fellow - tribesmen fight i t out ;if he is victorious, then is he a genu ine prophet ,

”9 now hastened to give intheir allegiance to the new religion . Among those who came inafter the fall of Mecca, were some of themost bitter persecu tors ofMuhammad in the earlier days of hismission , to whomhis nobleforbearance and forgiveness now gave a p lace in the brotherhoodof Islam. This same year witnessed the martyrdom of ‘Urwahibn Mas ‘i

‘

id,one of the principal chiefs of the peop le of Ta

’if,

which ci ty the Muslims had unsuccessfully attempted to cap tureHe had been absent at that t ime in Yaman

,and returned from

his journey shortly after the raising of the siege . He had metthe Prophet two years before at Hudaybiyah , and had conceived

a profound veneration for him,and now came to Medina to

embrace the new faith . In the ardour of his zeal he offered to .

go to Ta’if to convert his fellowcountrymen , and in spite of the

efforts of Muhammad to dissuade him from so dangerous anundertak ing, he

°

returned to his nat ive c ity,publicly declared

that he had renounced idolatry , and called upon the people tofollow his example . While he was preaching, he was mortallywounded by an arrow, and d ied giving thank s to God for havinggranted himthe glory of martyrdom. A more successful missionary effort was made by another follower of the Prophet inYaman—probably a year later— of which we have the followinggraphic account The apostle of God wrote to Al Harith and

Masruh, and Nu‘aymibn ‘Abdi Ku lal of Himyar : ‘ Peace be

Sprenger, vo l. i i i . pp . 2 5 5 6 .

2 A l Bums“, quoted by A . von Kremer. (3) p . 3 15 .

MUHAMMAD THE PROPHET . 37

upon you so long as ye believe on God and His apostle. God isone God , there is no partner with Him. He sent Moses with hissigns , and created Jesus with his words. The Jews say,

“Ezra i sthe Son ofGod,

”and the Christians say,

“God is one of three,

and Jesus is the Son of He sent the letter by ‘Ayyashibn A bi Rabi‘ati- l Mak

_ _hz fimi, and said :‘When you reach their

c ity, go not in by n ight , but wait until the morn ing then care

fully performyour ablutions,and pray with two prostrations , and

ask God to bless you with success and a friendly reception,and to

k eep you safe fromharm. Then tak e my letter in your righthand

,and deliver it with your right hand into their right hands,

and they will receive it. A nd recite to them,

“The unbelieversamong the people of the Book and the polytheists did not waver,

”&c. (Sarah 98) to the end of the Sfirah when you have fin ishedsay,

“Muhammad has believed , and I amthe first to believe;A nd you will be able tomeet every objection they bring against

you , and every glittering book that they recite to you will lose itsl ight . A nd when they speak in a foreign tongue , say,

“Translateit,

”and say to them,

“God is sufficient forme I believe in theBook sent down by Him,

and I amcommanded to do justiceamong you ;God is our Lord and your Lord ;to us belong our

work s,and to you belong your work s there is no strife between

us and you God will un ite us,and unto Himwe must return.

”If they now accept Islam,

then ask themfor their three rods,before which they gather together to pray, one rod of tamariskthat is spotted white and yellow, and one k notted lik e a cane, andone black l ik e ebony. Bring the rods out and burn themin the

mark et - p lace.’ So I set out ,”tell s ‘Ayyash , “ to do as the Apostleof God had bidme. When I arrived , I found that all the peoplehad deck ed themselves out for a festival I walk ed on to seethem

,and came at last to three enormous curtains hung in front

o f three doorways. I lifted the curtain and entered the middledoor, and found people collected in the courtyard of the bu ilding.

-I introduced myself to themas the messenger of the Apostle ofGod, and did as he had biddenme ;and they gave heed to mywords, and it fell out as he had said.

”1In A .H . 9 , a less successful attempt wasmade by a new convert ,Wathilah ibnu - l A sqa

‘

,to induce his clan to accept the faith that

he himselfhad embraced after an interviewwith the Prophet. His1 Ibn Sa‘d, 5 6 .


father scornfu lly cast himoff,saying,

“By God I will neverspeak

a word to you again ,”and none were found will ing to believe the

doctrines he preached with the exception of his sister, who provided himwith themeans of return ing to the Prophet at Medina.

1

Thisminth year of the Hijrah has been called the year of thedeputations, because of the enormous number of Arab tribes andcities that now sent delegates to the Prophet , to give in theirsubmission. The introduction into Arab society of a new prin

ciple of social un ion in the brotherhood of Islamhad alreadybegun to weak en the binding force of the old tribal ideal , thaterected the fabric of society on the basis of blood - relationship .

The conversion of an individual and his reception into the new

society was a breach of one of themost fundamental laws of Arablife

,and its frequent occurrence had acted as a powerfu l solvent

on tribal organ isation and had left it weak in the face of anationall ife so enthusiastic and firmly- k n it as that of the Muslims hadbecome . The Arab tribes were thu s impelled to give in theirsubmission to the Prophet ,notmerely as the head of the strongestmil itary force in Arabia, but as the exponent of a theory of sociall ife that wasmak ing all others weak and ineffective.2

'

In thisway,Islamwas un iting together clan s that hitherto had been continually at feud with one another

,and as this great

'

confederacygrew,itmore andmore attracted to itself the weak er among the tribesof Arabia. In the accounts of the conversionof the Arab tribes

,

there is continualmention of the promise ofhecurity against theirenemies ,made to themby the Prophet on the occasion of theirsubmission.

“Woe isme for Muhammad was the cry ofone ofthe Arab tribes on the news of the death of the Prophet . “ Solong as he was al ive

,I lived in peace and in safety frommy

enemies and the cry must have found an echo far and widethroughout Arabia.

How superficial was the adherence of numbers of the ArabJltribes to the faith of Islammay be judged fromthe widespreadapostacy that followed immediately on the death of the Prophet .Their acceptance of Islam wou ld seem to have been oftendictated more by con siderations of political expediency

,and was

more frequently a bargain struck under pressure of violencethan the outcome of any enthusiasm or sp iritual awak ening.

They allowed themselves to be swept into the streamof what

R

1 Ibn Sa‘d, 9 1.2 See Sprenger, vol . ii i . pp. 360- 1 .

MUHAMMAD THE PROPHET. 3 9

had now become a great national movement , and we miss thefervent zeal of the early converts in the cool

,calculating atti

tude of those who came in after the fal l of Mecca. But evenfromamong these must have come many to swell the rank s ofthe true believers an imated with a genuine zeal for the fai th, andready, as we have seen , to give their l ives in the effort to preachi t to their brethren . But for suchmen as these

,so vast amove

ment cou ld not have held together,much less have recoveredthe shock given i t by the death of the founder. For itmust notbe forgotten how distinctly Islamwas a newmovement in heathenArabia, and how diametrically opposed were the ideals of the twosocieties .1 For the introduction of Islam into Arab society didnot imply merely the sweeping away of a few barbarous andinhuman practices

,but a complete reversal of the pre - existing

i deals of life.Herein we have the most conclusive proof of the essentiallymissionary character of the teaching of Muhammad , who thuscomes forward as the exponen t of a new scheme of faith and

practice. Auguste Comte has laid down the distinction betweenthe gen iu s that originates a movement , the energy of whosespirit k eeps it al ive

,and the man that is merely themouthpiece

of the asp irations and feelings of his generation .

“ Sometimesthe individual comes first

,fixes his mind on a determinate

purpose,and then gathers to himself the variou s partial forces

that are necessary to achieve it . More often in the case of greatsocial movements , there . i s a spontaneous convergence of manyparticu lar tendencies , till , finally

,the individual appears who

gives thema common centre,and binds theminto one whole .”2

Now it has frequently been contended that Muhammad belongsto the latter class

,and just as Positivismhas tried to put forward

St. Paul in p lace of Jesus as the founder of Christian ity, so somelook upon ‘Umar as the energising sp irit in the early history of

Islam,and wou ld represent Muhammadmerely as themou thpiece

of a popu larmovement . Now this cou ld on ly have been possibleoncondition that Muhammad had found a state of society prepared to receive his teaching and wai ting only for the voice thatwould express in speech the inarticulate yearn ings of their hearts .

1 This has been nowhere more fully and excellently brought out than in thescholarly work of Prof. Ignaz Goldz iher (Muhammedanische Stud ien, vo l. i . )fromwhich I have derived the fo l lowing considerations.2 Edward Caird The Social Phi losophy of Comte, pp . 42 -3 . (Glasgow,


But it is just this spirit of expectancy that is wanting among theArabs those at least of Central Arabia, towards whomMuhammad’s efforts were at first d irected . They were by no

means ready to receive the preaching of a new teacher,least of

all one who came with the (to themunintell igible) title of apostleof God .

Again, the equality in Islamof all believers and the commonbrotherhood of all Muslims ,which suffered no distinctions betweenArab and non -Arab , between free and slave, to exist among thefaithful

,was an idea that ran directly counter to the proud clan

feeling of the Arab , who grounded his claims to personal cons ideration on the fame of his ancestors

,and in the strength of the

same carried on the endless blood- feuds in which his souldelighted . Indeed

,the fundamental principles in the teaching

of Muhammad were a protest against much that the Arabs hadhitherto most highly valued

,and the newly - converted Muslim

was taught to consider as virtues , qual ities which hitherto he hadlook ed down upon with contempt .To the heathen Arab

,friendship and hostil ity were as a loan

which he sought to repay with interest, and he prided himself onreturn ing evil for evil , and look ed down on any who acted otherw ise as a weak nitherling.

He is the perfectman who late and early p lo tteth sti l lTo do a k indness to his friends and work his foes some i l l.

To such men the Prophet said,Recompense evil with that

which is better”(xxiii. as they desired the forgiveness of

God,they were to pass over and pardon o ffences (xxiv. and

a Paradise,vast as the heavens and the earth

,was prepared for

those who mastered their anger and forgave others (iii .The very institut ion of prayer was jeered at by the Arabsto whomMuhammad first delivered his message , and one of thehardest parts of his task was to induce in themthat pious attitudeofmind towards the Creator, which Islaminculcates equally withJudaismand Christian ity

,but which was practical ly un k nown to

the heathen Arabs . This self- sufficiency and this lack of thereligious spirit , joined with their intense pride of race , l ittle fittedthemto receive the teachings of one who maintained that “Themost worthy of honour in the sight of God is he that feareth Himmost (xl ix. No more cou ld they brook the restrictionsthat Islamsought to lay upon the license of their l ives ;wine,

MUHAMMAD THE PROPHET. 41

women,and song were among the things most dear to the

Arab’s heart in the days of the ignorance , and the Prophet wasstern and severe in his injunctions respecting each of them.

Thus,fromthe very beginn ing, Islambears the stamp of a

missionary religion that seek s to win the hearts ofmen , to converthemand persuade themto enter the brotherhood of the faithfuland as it was in the beginn ing, so has it continued to be

'

up tothe present day, as will be the object of the following pages to)show.

CHAPTER III.

THE SPREA D OF ISLA M A MONG THE CHRISTIA N NA TIONS OF

WESTERN A SIA .

AFTER the death of Muhammad , the army he had intended forSyria was despatched thither by A bi

‘

i Bak r , in spite of the”pro

testationsmade by certain Mus lims in view of the then disturbedstate of Arabia. He silenced their expostu lations with the words :“ I will not revok e anyorder given by the Prophet . Medinamaybecome the prey of wild beasts

,but the armymust carry out the

wishes of Muhammad .

” This was the first of that wonderfulseries of campaign s in which the Arabs overran Syria, Persia andNorthern Africa—overturning the ancient k ingdomof Persia anddespoil ing the Roman Empire of some of its fairest provinces . It

does not fall within the scope of this work to follow the history of

these different campaigns , but , in view of the missionary successthat attended the Arab conquests

,it i s of importance to discover

what were the circumstances thatmade such successes possible .A great historian 1 has well put the problemthatmeets us here ,

in the following words :“Was it genu ine religiou s enthusiasm,

the new strength of a faith now for the first time blossoming forthin all its purity

,that gave the victory in every battle to the arms

of the Arabs and in so incredibly short a time founded thegreatest empire the world had ever seen P But evidence iswanting to prove that thiswas the case . The number was far toosmall of those who had given their allegiance to the Prophet andhis teaching with a free and heartfelt conviction , while on the

o ther hand all the greaterwas the number of those who had been~ brought into the rank s of the Muhammadans on ly throughpressure fromwithout or by the hope of worldly gain . Khal id,‘ that sword of the swords of God

,

’exhibited in a very strik ingmanner that mixture of force and persuasion whereby he and

1 Do ll inger, pp. 5 -6.

44 THE PREA CHING OF ISLAM .

were presently k nit together into a nation,and the worshippers

of a thousand discordant fal sehoods into a soc iety which bore somesort of simil itude to a Church .

”1Accordingly it is not surprising to find that many of theChristian Bedou ins were swept into the ru shing tide of this greatmovement and that Arab tribes , who for centuries had professedthe Christian religion , now abandoned i t to embrace the Mu sl imfaith . Among these was the tribe of the Banu Ghassan , whoheld sway over the desert east of Palestine and southern Syria, ofwhom i t was said that they were “ Lords in the days of theignorance and stars in Islam.

”2After the battle of Qadisiyah (A .H . 14) in which the Persian

army under Rustamhad been u tterly discomfited,many Christ ians

belonging to the Bedou in tribes on both sides of the Euphratescame to the Muslimgeneral and said : “ The tribes that at thefirst embraced Islamwere wiser than we. Now that Rustamhath been slain

,we will accept the new bel ief.”3 Similarly, after

the conquest of northern Syria,most of the Bedou in tribes , after

hesitating a l ittle,joined themselves to the followers of the

Prophet . 4

That force was not the determin ing factor in these conversionsmay be judged fromthe amicable relations that existed betweenthe Christian and the Musl imArabs. Muhammad himself hadentered into

'

treaty with several Christ ian tribes, promisingthemhis protection and guaranteeing themthe free exercise oftheir religion and to their clergy undisturbed enjoyment of theirold rights and au thority .

5 A similar bond of friendship uni tedhis foll owers with their fellow - countrymen of the older faith

,many

of whomvoluntarily came forward to assist the Musl ims in theirmilitary expeditions .In the battle of the Bridge (A .H . 1 3) when a disastrous defeat

was imminent and the pan ic - strick en Arabs were hemmed in

between the Euphrates and the Persian host,a Christian chief of

the Banu Tayy,sprang forward l ik e another Spurius Lartius to

the side of an Arab Horatius,to assist Muthannah the Muslim

general in defending the bridge of boats which cou ld alone afford

1 Lectures on Mediaeval Church H istory, by Richard Chenevix Trench,5 2 . (London,2 Mas

‘i’

idi, tome iv . p. 2 38 .

3 Mu ir’s Cal iphate, pp. 1 2 1 - 2 .

1d . p. 139 .5 Muir vol . i i. pp. 2 99 , 303 .

THE CHRISTIAN ARABS . 4(Il

the means of an orderly retreat . When fresh levies were raisedto retrieve this d isgrace, among the reinforcements that camepouring in fromevery direction was a Christian tribe of the BanuNamir

,who dwelt within the limits of the Byzantine empire

,and

in the ensu ing battle of Buwayb (A .H . just before the finalcharge of the Arabs that turned the fortune of battle in theirfavour

,Muthannah rode up to the Christian chief and said “Ye

are of one blood with us come now,and as I charge , charge ye

withme .

” The Persians fell back before their furious onslaught ,and another great v ictory was added to the gloriou s roll ofMuslimtriumphs . One of the most gallant exploits of the daywas performed by a youth belonging to another Christian tribe ofthe desert

,who with his compan ions , a company of Bedou in

horse - dealers,had come up just as the Arab army was being

drawn up in battle array. They threw themselves into the fighton the side of their compatriots ;and while the confl ict wasraging most fiercely

,this youth

,rushing into the centre of the

Persians,slew their leader

,and leaping on his richly - caparisoned

horse, galloped back amidst the plaudit s of the Muslim l ine

,

crying as he passed in triumph “ I amof the Bant'i Taghlib. Iamhe that hath slain the chief.”1The tribe to which this young man boasted that he belonged,

was one of those that elected to remain Christian ,while other

Bedou in tribes of Mesopotamia,such as the Banfi Namir and the

Banfi Quda‘ah

,became Musalmans.

The Cal iph ‘Umar forbade any pressure to be put upon them,

when they showed themselves unwilling to abandon their oldfai th

,and ordered that they shou ld be left undisturbed in the

practice of it , but that they were not to oppose the conversion ofanymember of their tribe to Islamnor baptise the children ofsuch as became Muslims .2 They were called upon to pay thejizyah or tax imposed on the Christian subjects

,but they felt it to

be humil iating to their pride to paya tax that was levied in returnfor protection of l ife and property

,and petitioned the Caliph to

be allowed tomak e the same k ind of contribution as the Muslimsdid. So in l ieu of the jizyah they paid a double Sadqah or alms ,—which was a poor tax levied on the fields and cattle

,etc . of the

Musalmans.

3

1 Muir’s Cal iphate, pp . 90 94.

2 Tabari, Prima Series, p . 2482 .

3 The fewmeagre notices of this tribe in the work s of A rab ic historians have


The people ofHirah had l ik ewise resisted all the efforts madeby Khal id to induce themto accept the Muslimfaith . This citywas one of themost illustrious in the annals of Arabia, and to themind of the impetuous hero of Islami t seemed that an appeal totheir Arab blood wou ld be enough to induce themto enrol themselves with the followers of the Prophet of Arabia. When thebesieged c itizens sent an embassy to the Muslimgeneral to

arrange the terms of the capitulat ion of their c ity, Khalid ask edthem

,

“Who are you ? are you Arabs or Persians ?” Then

‘A di,the spok esman of the deputation , replied , “N ay, we are

pure - blooded Arabs,while others among us are naturalised

Arabs.” K_h.

“Had you been what you say you are,

you would not have opposed us or hated our cause .”‘A .

“ Our pure Arab speech is the proof of what I say.

Kh.

“You speak tru ly . Now choose you one of these threethings either ( 1 ) accept our faith , then all that i s ours shall beyours

,for weal or woe

,whether you choose to go into another

country or stay in your own land;or (2 ) pay j izyah;or 3)fight . Verily, by God ! I have come to you with a people whoare more desirous of death than you are of life ‘A .

“ Nay,

we will pay j izyah .

"K_ _h.

“ Ill - luck to you ! Unbelief is a

pathless wilderness,and foolish is the Arab who

,when two

guides meet himwandering therein— the one an Arab and theo ther not— leaves the first and accepts the gu idance of thestranger.

”1Due provision wasmade for the instruction of the new converts ,for while whole tribes were being converted to the faith with suchrapidity, i t was necessary to tak e precautions against errors , bothin respect of creed and ritual

,such as might natural ly be feared

in the case of ill - instructed (converts . Accordingly we find thatthe Cal iph ‘Umar appointed teachers in every country , whoseduty it was to instruct the people in the teachings of the Qur

’an

and the Observances of their new fai th. The magistrates wereal so ordered to see that all, whether old or young, were regularin their attendance at public prayer

,especially on Fridays and in

themonth of Ramadan . The importance attached to this workof instructing the new convertsmay be judged fromthe fact that

been admirably summarized by Pere Henri Lammens, S. J . (“ Le Chantre des

(J . A . IX ‘“ série, tome iv. pp. 97-9 , 4381Tabari, Prima Series, p. 2041 .

THE CHRISTIAN ARABS. 47

in the city of Ki‘

ifah it was no less a personage than the statetreasurer who was entrusted with this task .

1

From the examples given above of the toleration extendedtowards the Christian Arabs by the victorious Muslims of the firstcentury of the Hijrah and continued by succeeding generations,we may surely infer that those Christian tribes that did embraceIslam

,did so of their own choice and free will . The Christian

Arabs of the present day, dwelling 1n themidst of aMuhammadanpopulation, are a l iving testimony of this toleration ;Layardspeak s of having come across an encampment of Christian Arabsat Kerak , to the east of the Dead Sea, who differed in no way,

either in dress or inmanners , fromthe Musl imArabs.2 Burckhardt was told by the monk s of Mount Sinai that in the lastcentury there still remained several famil ies of Christian Bedou inswho had not embraced Islam,

and that the last of them,an old

woman , died in 1750, and was buried in the garden of the convent.3 The village of Q uraytayn, in the desert , twenty - four hours’

j ourney south -west of Palmyra, has a population of 1 200 souls,

half of whomare Syrian Christians,l iving in perfect harmony

with their Muslim neighbours and wearing, l ik e them, theBedou in dress

,so that there is no ou tward distinction between

Christian and Muslim.

4 Many of the Arabs of the renownedtribe of the Banfi Ghassan

,Arabs of the purest blood, who em

braced Christian ity towards the end of the fourth century,stil l

retain the Christian faith,and since their submission to the

Church of Rome, about two centuries ago , employ the Arabiclanguage in their religious services .5

If we turn fromthe Bedou ins to consider the attitude of thesettled popu lations of the towns and c ities towards the newreligion, we do not find that the Arab conquest was so rapidlyfollowed by conversions to Islam. The Christians of the greatcities of the eastern provinces of the Byzantine Empire seemforthemost part to have remained faithful to their ancestral creed

,

to which indeed they still in large numbers cling.

In order that wemay fully appreciate their condition under theMuslimru le , and estimate the influences that led to occasional .1 Mas

‘ud1, tome iv. p . 2 .5 6

2 Sir Henry Layard : Early A dventures in Persia, Susiana and Babylonia,vol . i. p . 100. (London,

3 Burck hardt. p . 5 A . von Kremer. (4), pp.

5 W . G . Palgrave : Essays on Eastern Questions, pp. 206 - 8. (London;


conversions,it will be well briefly to sk etch their situation under

the Christian ru le of the Byzantine Empire,that fell back before

the Arab arms .A hundred years before

, Justinian had succeeded in givingsome show of un ity to the Roman Empire

,but after his death it

rapidly fell asunder , and at this time there was an entire want ofcommon nat ional feeling between the provinces and the seat of

government . Heracl ius had made some partial ly successfu lefforts to attach Syria again to the central government , but unfortunately the generalmethods of reconc il iation which he adoptedhad served only to increase dissension instead of allaying it .

Religious passions were the only existing substitute for nationalfeeling, and he tried , by propounding an exposition of fai th

,that

was intended to serve as an eiren icon,to stop all further disputes

between the contending factions and un ite» the heretics to theorthodox church and to the central government . The Council ofChalcedon (45 1) had maintained that Christ was “

to be ack nowledged in two natures, without confusion , change , d ivision , orseparation ;the difference of the natures being in nowise tak enaway by reason of their union

,but rather the properties of each

nature being preserved , and concurring into one person and one

substance,not as it were divided or separated into two persons,

but one and the same Son and only begotten , God the Word .

”

This council was rejected by the Monophysites,who only allowed

one nature in the person ofChrist,who was said to be a composite

person,having all attributes divine and human , but the substance

bearing these attributes was no . longer a dual ity, but a compositeunity. The controversy between the orthodox party and theMonophysites

,who flourished particu larly in Egypt and Syria

and in countries outside the Byzantine Empire,had been hotly

contested for nearly two centuries , when Heracl iu s sought to

effect a reconciliation bymeans of the doctrine of Monotheletismwhile conceding the dual ity of the natures , it secured unity of theperson in the actual l ife of Christ

,by the rejection of two series of

activit ies in this one person the one Christ and Son of God effectuates that which is human and that which is divine by one divinehuman agency, i.e . there is only one will in the Incarnate Word .

1

1 I. A .D orner: A Systemo fChristianDoctrine, vol . iii. p . 2 1 5 - 2 16 . (Lond.

J. C. Robertson : H istory of the ChristianChurch, vol. i i . p . 2 26 . (Lond.

HERACLIUS . 49

But Heracl ius shared the fate of so many wou ldbe peace

mak ers : for no t on ly did '

the controversy blaze up again all themore fiercely

,but he himself was stigmat ised as a heretic and

drew upon himself the wrath of both parties .Indeed

,so bitter was the feeling he aroused that there is strong

reason to believe that even amaj ority of the orthodox subjects ofthe Roman Emp ire , in the provinces that were conquered during“this “emperor’s reign , were the well -wishers of the Arabs ;theyregarded the emperor with aversion as a heret‘ic

,and were . afraid

that he might commence a'

persecution in order to force uponthem'his Monotheletic Op inions.1 They therefore readily—andeven eagerly— received the new masters who promised themreligiou s toleration , and were will ing to compromise their religiou sp ositiOI

‘

I and their national independence if only they cou ld freet hemselves fromthe immediately impending danger. The peopleo f Emessa closed the gates of their c ity against the army ofHeracl ius and told the Muslims that they preferred their govern:ment and justice to the injustice and oppression of the Greek s .2Such was the state of feeling in Syria during the campaign of

6 33-

9 in which the Arabs gradually drove the Roman arm'y outo f the province. A nd when Damascus

,in 637, set the example of

mak ing terms with the Arabs , and thus secured immun ity fromp lunder and other favourable conditions

,the rest of the cit ies of

Syria were not slow to follow . Emessa,Arethus‘a

,Hier0po lis

and other towns entered into treaties whereby they becametribu tary to the Arabs . Even the patriarch of Jerusalemsurrend ered the city on similar terms. The fear of religiou s compu lsiono n the part of the here tical e

’mperormade the promise of Muslimt oleration appear more attractive than the connection with theRoman empire and a Christian government. Further , the se lfrestraint of the conquerors and the humanity which they displayedin their campaigns, must have excited profound respect 3 and

:secured a welcome for an invading army that was guided by suchp rinciples of justice and moderation as were laid down by the

1 That such fearswere no t who l ly groundlessmaybe judged fromthe Emperor’s

into lerant behaviour towards many of the Monophysite party in his progress

through

)Syria after the defeat of the Persians in 627. (See M ichel le Grand,

2 27.

2 A l Baladhmi, p. 1 37.

3 For the outrages committed by the Byzantine so ldiers, on the other hand, on“

their co -religionists in Cappadoc ia, in the reign of Constans II. (642 see

.M ichel le Grand, p. 2 34.


Caliph Aht‘

i Bak r for the gu idance of the first expedition intoSyria Be just break no t your p lighted faith mutilate noneslay neither children

,o ldmen nor women ;injure not the date

palmnor burn i t with fire,nor cut down any fru it - bearing tree

slay neither floc k s nor herds nor camels,except for food ;

perchance you may come across men who have retired intomonasteries , leave themand their work s in peace you may eat

of the food that the people of the land will bring you in t heirvessels

,mak ing mention thereon of the name of God ;and you

will come across people with shaven crown s,touch them only

with the flat of the sword .

1 Go forward now in the name ofGodand may He protect you in battle and pestilence .

”2 For theprovinces of the Byzantine Emp ire that were rap idly acqu iredby the prowess of the Musl ims found themselves in the enjoymentof a toleration such as

,on account of their Monophysite

and Nestorian op in ions , had been unk nown to themfor manycenturies . They were allowed the free and undisturbed exerc iseof their religion wi th some few restrict ions imposed for the sak eof prevent ing any frict ion between the adherents of the rival

religions , or arousing any fanaticismby the ostentatious exhibitionof religious symbols that were so offensive to Muslimfeeling.

The extent of this toleration —so strik ing in the history of theseventh century—may be judged fromthe terms granted to theconquered c ities

,in which protect ion of life and property and

toleration of religious belief were given in return for submissionand the payment of a cap itation - tax ?

In Damascu s,which was held to have been partly tak en by

storm and partly to have cap itulated— for while one Muslimgeneral made his way into the c ity by the eastern gate at the

point of the sword , another at the western gate rece ived the submission of the governor of the city— the churches were equallydivided between the Christians and the conquerors . The greatCathedral of St . John was similarly divided , and for eighty yearsthe adherents of the two rival religions worshipped under the

1 Lit. tap thema tap with the sword In};g p ll, These words have.

often been fa lse ly translated ,

“ Put themto death,

”but the word 6 “ means

originally to hit so as to mak e a sl ight sound ,”and when used of a sword comes

to mean, “to hit w ith the flat o f a sword”: here the action is a sign of the

authority that the Musl ims would henceforth exercise over them.

7Tabari, Prima Series, p . 18 50.

1 A l Baladhuri, pp. 73 -4.

: 2 THE PREACHING OF ISLAM .

t owards their Christian subjects has been gu ided by principles oftoleration

,and (if we except particular periods of persecution , such

as the reign of Al Mutawak k il), the only restrictions imposedwere those found in the so - called Ordinance of ‘Umar.This formula is traditionally said to have been the one adopted

by the Christian c it ies that submitted to the Muslimarmy but

none of the earliest Muhammadan historians give it, and SirWil l iamMu ir l doubts its authenticity and considers that it contains oppressive terms that are more characteristic of later timesthan of the reign of the tolerant

‘Umar . “ In the name of God,the Merc iful

,the Compassionate ! This i s the writing fromthe

Christians of such and such a c ity to ‘Umar ibnu - l K_

hattab .

When you marched against us, we ask ed of you protection foro urselves, our families , our possessions and our co - religion ists ;and we made this stipu lation with you , that we will no t erect inour city or the suburbs any new monastery

,church

,cell or

hermitage ;2 that we will not repair any of such buildings thatmay fall into ru ins, or renew those t hat may be situated in theMuslimquarters of the town that we will no t refuse the Muslimsentry into our churches either by n ight or by day that we willopen the gates wide to passengers and travellers ;that we willreceive anyMusl imtraveller into our houses and give himfoodand lodging for three n ights that we will not harbour any spyin our churches or houses

,or conceal any enemy of the Muslims

that we will not teach our children the Q ur’a‘

rn ;3 that we will no tmak e a show of the Christian religion nor invite anyone to

1 We read in later days of the Ordinance of Omar,’regulating the conditiono f Christian communities throughout Islam. But it would be a l ibel on thatto lerant rulerto credit himw ith the greater part of these Observances theworstd isab i l ities of the into lerant Ordinance ’

were not imposed til l a later period .

”

(The Cal iphate, p . 146 It does not seemto be mentioned by anyauthorityearl ier than the eighth century o f the H ijrah. (Steinschneider, pp . 165

2 Some authorities on Muhammadan law held that this rule did no t extend to

vi llages and hamlets, inwhich the construction of churcheswas not to be prevented.

(Hidziyah, vo l . i i . p .

3 The Ulama’ are d ivided in opinion on the question of the teaching o f the

Q ur’frn the sect o f Mal ik forbids it that of A bfrHanifah allows it and Shr

'

rfi‘i

has two Opinions on the subject : on the one hand, he countenances the study ofit, as indicating a leaning towards Islam;and on the other hand , he forbids it,because he fears that the unbel iever who stud ies the Q ur

’r’mbeing sti ll impure

may read it so lely with the object of turning it to ridicule , since he is the enemyof God and the Prophet who wrote the boo k ;now as these two statements arec ontradictory, Shfifi‘i has no formal ly stated opinion on this matter.

”(Bel in.

p . This very want o f agreement on the part of these great Imams, or leadersof three of the orthodox sec ts of Islam, maywellmak e us doubt whether theseterms of cap itulation can have been drawn up so early as the reign of ‘Umar.

THE C HRISTIANS UNDER A RA B RULE . 5 3

embrace it ;that we will not prevent any of our k insmen fromembracing Islam,

if they so desire . That we will honour theMuslims and rise up in our assemblies when they W ish to tak etheir seats that we will not imitate themin our dress

,either in

the cap , turban , sandals, or parting of the hair that we will notmak e use of their expressions of speech ,l nor adopt their sur

names ;that we will not ride on saddles,or gird on swords

,or

tak e to ourselves arms or wear them,or engrave Arabic 1nscr1p

tions on our rings that we will not sell wine that we will shavethe front of our heads ;that we will k eep to our own style of

dress,wherever we may be that we will wear girdles round our

waists that we will not display the cross upon our churches ordisplay our crosses or our sacred book s in the streets of theMu slims

,or in their mark et - places ;2 that we will strik e the

bells 3 in our churches lightly that we will not recite our servicesin a loud voice , when a Musl imi s present, that we will not carrypalm- branches or our images in procession in the streets

,that at

the burial of our dead we will no t chant loudly or carry lightedcandles in the streets of the Musl ims or theirmark et - places thatwe will not tak e any slaves that have already been in thepossession of Muslims

,nor spy into their houses ;and that we

will not strik e anyMuslim. All this we promise to observe , onbehalf of ourselves and our co - religionists , and receive protectionfromyou in exchange and if we violate any of the conditions of

this agreement , then we forfeit your protection and you are

at l iberty to treat us as enemies and rebels.”4To European readers

,unaccustomed to the outward distinc

tions in dress,etc .

,that Orientals of different creeds naturally and

spontaneou sly adopt,these regu lationsmay appear an unwarrant

able infringement of personal l iberty. But if the brotherhood of

believers ,—4what somemodern writers are fond of call ing the freemasonry of Islam

,—was to become a real ity

,it demanded some

1 Such as the forms of greeting, etc.,that are only to be used byMusl ims to

one another.2 A br

‘

i Yusuf (p . 82 ) says that Christians were to be allowed to go in processiononce a year with crosses, but no t w ith banners;outside the c ity, no t inside wherethemosques were.

3 The nagas, lit. an oblong p iece ofwood, struck with a rod.

4 H . A . Hamak er‘

Incerti auctoris l iber de expugnatione Memphidis et

A lexandrias, p . 165 (Lugduni Batavorum,

Von Kremer vol . i . pp . 102 -4.

Journal A siatique. IVme , série , tome xvi i i . pp. 49 5 -9 .


outward and visible expression , and it was necessary to prevent

those who refused to enter into the pale of Islamfromimitatingthe prevailing tendency among the new converts towards the

adoption ofArab fashions in dress and speech .1 As to the restric

t ions imposed on the public exhibition of religious symbols andObservances

,these are only such aswould be necessary for the pre

servation of public peace and order, and for avoiding anyoutbreak

o f fanatic ismamong the Muhammadan popu lation , to whomany

thing savouring of idolatry was so especially hateful. Had theseregulations always been observed ,many a riot involving loss ofChristian l ives and property would have been prevented but , as

amatter of fact , they were put into force with no sort of regularityindeed

,some outburst of fanaticismwas general ly needed for their

revival .Enough has been said to show that the Christians in the early

days of the Muhammadan conquest had l ittle to complain of inthe wayof religious disabil it ies . It is true that adherence to their

ancient faith rendered themobnoxious to the payment of j izyah

or the capitation - tax , but this was too moderate to constitu te a

burden , seeing that it released themfromthe compulsorymil itaryservice that was incumbent on their Muslim fellow - subjects .Conversion to Islamwas certainly attended by a certain pecun iaryadvantage , but his former religion could have had very little holdon a convert who abandoned i t merely to gain exemption fromthe j izyah in certain cases also , instead of the l_c_haraj or land - tax

,

he was allowed to pay a tithe on the produce , but in other casesthe k

_l_:raraj was exacted even after conversion.

2 But , instead ofj izyah , the convert had now to pay the legal alms, zak at , annuallylevied onmost k inds ofmovable and immovable property.

3

The rates of j izyah fixed by the early conquerors were notuniform,

and the great Muslimdoctors,A bfi Hanifah and Mal ik

,

Goldz iher, vo l . i . pp. 109 , 1 33.2 Von Kremer vo l. i . pp . 437-8 , 177. Mit demUehertritte zumIslam

so llte die Kopftaxe entfallen ;al lein ( la das Haupteink ommen des S taates ebenauf der Grundsteuer und Kopftaxe der A ndersgliiubigen beruhte, so verhieltmand ieselben, trotz ihres Uebertrittes d iese Taxe unver

'

andert z u‘

bez ahlen. A lsendl ich deralte Grundsatz, dass k ein Mosl imL'

andereien und andere Immobi lienerwerben diirfe, gefallen war, machte man den Unterschied zwischen Vo llblutA rabemund N eubek ehrten

, dass man diese trotz ihres Uebertrittes zumIslamverhielt. dennoch die Grundsteuer zu bezahlen, theilsweise sogar auch dieKepftaxe, wahrend die Ersteren nur die geringe Eink ommensteuer (Zehent) z u

entrichten hatten.

”(Id . vo l. i i . p .

Goldz iher, vol . i. pp . 50- 57, 427-430.

THE CHRISTIANS UNDER A RA B RULE . 5 5

are not in agreement on some of the less important details ;l thefollowing facts tak en fromthe Kitabu - l K_

haraj , drawn up by A buYusuf at -the request of Harfinu - r Rashid (A .D . 786 - 809) may betak en gas generally representative of Muhammadan procedureunder the Cal iphate. The rich were to pay48 dirhams 2 a year,themiddl e classes 24, while fromthe poor, i.e . the field- labourersand artisans , only 1 2 dirhams were tak en . This tax cou ld be paidin k ind if desired cattle , merchandise , household effects, evenneedles were to be accepted in l ieu of specie , but not pigs , wine ,or dead animals . The tax was to be levied on ly on able - bodiedmal es , and not on women or children. The poor who weredependent for their l ivelihood on alms and the aged poor whowere incapable of work were also special ly excepted,as also theblind , the lame , the incurables and the insane , unless they happened to bemen of wealth this same cond ition applied to priestsandmonk s

,who were exempt if dependent on the alms of the

rich,but had to pay if they were well - to - do and l ived in comfort.

The collectors of the j izyah were particu larly instructed to showlen iency, and refrain fromal l harsh treatment or the infl iction ofcorporal pun ishment

,in case of non - payment .3

This tax was no t imposed on the Christians , as some would haveus think , as a penalty for their refusal to accept the Muslimfaith ,but was paid by themin common with the other dhimmis or nonMuslimsubjects of the state whose religion precluded them. fromserving in the army, in return for the protection secured for . themby the arms of the Musu lmans. When the peop le of Hirah con

tributed the sumagreed upon , they expresslymentioned that theypaid this j izyah on condition that “ the Muslims and their leaderprotect us fromthose who wou ld oppress us

,whether they be

Muslims or others.”4 Again, in the treatymade by Khal id withsome towns in the neighbourhood of Hirah , he writes,

“ If we

protect you , then j izyah is due to us but if we do not , then it isnot due .

”5 How c learly this cond ition was recognised by theMuhammadansmay be judged from the following incident in thereign of the Cal iph

‘Umar. T he Emperor Heraclius had raisedan enormous army with which to drive back the invading forces

60

1 Se

ga Sale’s note on Sarah IX . v. 29 , and A . von Kremer vol . i . pp.

432 A dirhamis about five pence.

3 A bfi Yiisuf, pP4Tabari , Prima Series, p . 205 5 .

5Tabari, Prima Series, p . 2050.


of the Muslims,who had in consequence to concentrate all their

energies on the impending encounter. The Arab general , Abit‘Ubaydah

,accordingly wrote to the governors of the conquered

cities of Syria,ordering themto pay back all the j izyah that had

been collected from the cities,and wrote to the people , saying,

We give you back the money that we took fromyou , as we

have received news that a strong force is advancing against us.

The agreement between us was that we shou ld protect you , and

as this is not now in our power , we return you all that we took .

But if we are victorious we “shall consider ourselves bound to you

by the o ld terms of ouragreement .” In accordance with this order,enormous sums were paid back out of the

'

state treasury, and the

Christians cal led down blessings on the heads of the Muslims ,saying,

“May God give you rule over us again and mak e youvictorious over the Romans;had i t been they, they wou ld not

have given us back anything, but wou ld have tak en all that

remained with us.”1

As stated above,the jizyah was levied on the able - bodiedmales,

in l ieu of themil itary service they would have been called uponto performhad they been Musalmans;and i t is very noticeablethat when any Christian people served in the Mu slimarmy

,they

were exempted fromthe payment of this tax. Such was the casewith the tribe of Jarajimah , a Christian tribe in the neighbourhood ofAntioch , whomade peace with the Muslims

,promising to

be their all ies and fight on their side in battle , on condition thatthey shou ld not be called upon to pay j izyah and shou ld receivetheir proper share of the booty .

2 When the Arab conquests were

pushed to the north of Persia in A .H . 2 2 , a similar agreement wasmade with a frontier tribe

,whichwas exempted fromthe payment

of j izyah in consideration ofmil itary service .

3

We find similar instances of the remission of j izyah in the caseof Christians who served in the army or navy under the Turk ishru le . For example

,the inhabitants of Megaris , a commun ity of

Albanian Christians,‘

were exempted fromthe payment of this taxon condition that they furn ished a body of armedmen to guard thepasses over Mounts Cithaeron and Geranea

,which lead to the

Isthmus of Corinth . Similarly,the Christian inhabitants of Hydra

paid no direct taxes to the Sultan,but furn ished instead a con

1 A buYusuf, p . 8 1 . 2 A l Balz‘

tdhuri, p . 1 5 9 .

3 Tabari, Prima Series, p . 2 66 5 .

TH‘E CHRISTIANS UNDER A RA B RULE . 5 7

tingent of 2 50 able - bodied seamen to the Turk ish fleet,who were

supported out of the local treasury .

l The Mirdites, a tribe ofAlban ian Catholics who occupied themountains to the north ofScu tari , were exempt fromtaxation on condition of supplying an

armed contingent in time of war.2 In the same spirit , in con

sideration of the services they rendered to the state , the capitat ion

tax was not imposed upon the Greek Christians who look ed afterthe aqueducts that supplied Constantinop le with drink ing-water .3

On the other hand,when the Egyptian peasants , al though Muslimin faith , were made exempt frommil itary service , a tax was

imposed upon themas on the Christians,in l ieu thereof.4

Living under this security of life and property and such toleration of religious thought , the Christian community— especially inthe towns— enjoyed a flourishing prosperity in the early days ofthe Caliphate . Christians frequently held high posts at court , e .g.

a Christian Arab , A l A lghtal , was court poet , and the father of St .

John of Damascus , counsellor to the Cal iph ‘Abdu - l Malik (68 5In the serv ice of the Cal iph Al Mu

‘tasim (83 3 - 842 ) there

were two brothers , Christians,who stood very high in the confidenceof the Commander of the Faithfu l : the one

,named Salmoyah,

seems to have occupied somewhat the position of a modernsecretary of state , and no royal documents were val id unti lcountersigned by him,

while his brother,Ibrahim

,was entru sted

with the care of the privy seal , and was set over the Baytu - l Mal

or Public Treasury , an office that,from the nature of the funds

and their d isposal ,might have been expected to have been putinto the hands of a Mu slim;so great was the Cal iph

’s personalaffection for this Ibrahim,

that he visited himin his sick ness,and

was overwhelmed with grief at his death , and on the day of thefuneral ordered the body to be brought to the palace and theChristian rites performed there with great solemn ity .

5 Nasr ibn

Harli n,the primeminister of ‘Adudu - d Dawlah (949 of the

Buwayhid dynasty of Persia, was a Christian,and bu il t many

churches and monasteries .6 For a long time , the governmentoffices, especial ly in the department of finance

,were filled with

1 Finlay, vol . vi. p . 30, 33 .

2 D e la Jonquiere, p . 14.

3 Thomas Smith, p . 324.4 D e la Jonquiere, p . 2 6 5 .

5 Ibn A bi Usaybi‘ah : Kitabu ‘

i inu- l A nba‘i fi Tabaqz'

rti-l A tibba‘i. Vol. i .

p . 164. (Cairo , A .H .

6 Ibun- l A thir, vol . vi ii . p . 2 8 1 .


Christians and Persians;1 to amuch later date was such the casein Egyp t , where at times the Christians almost entirelymonopolised such posts .

2 Particu larly as physicians , the Christiansfrequently amassed great wealth and were much honoured in thehouses of the great. Gabriel , the personal physician of theCal iph Harfinu- rRashid

,was a Nestorian Christ ian and derived a

yearly income of d irhams fromhis private property, inaddition to an emolument of dirhams a year in return forhis attendance on the cal iph the second physician , also a Christ ian

,received d irhams a year.3 In trade and commerce ,

the Christians also attained considerable affluence indeed it was

frequently their wealth that excited against them the jealou scupidity of the mob

,- a feeling that fanatics took advantage of,

to persecute and oppress them. Further , the non -Muslimcommunities enjoyed an almost complete autonomy, for the government placed in their hands the independentmanagement of theirinternal affairs

,and their religious leaders exercised judicial

functions in cases that concerned their co - religion ists only.

4

Their churches and monasteries were in no way interfered with ,except in the large cities , where some of themwere turned intomosques

,— ameasure that cou ld hardly be objected to in view of

the enormous increase in the Muslimand corresponding decreasein the Christian population . They were even allowed to erect newchurches and monasteries . The very fact that ‘Umar II. (717

at the close of the first century of the Hijrah,shou ld have

ordered the destruction of al l recently constructed churches,and

that rather more than a century later,the fanatical Al Muta

wak k il (847- 86 1) should have had to repeat the same order, showshow little the prohibition of the bu ilding of new churches Wasput into force . 5 We have numerous instances recorded , both byChr istian and Muhammadan historians

,of the bu ilding of new

churches : e .g. in the reign of‘Abdu - l Mal ik (68 5 -705 ) a church

was erected in Edessa and two others at Fustat in Egypt ,6 and

one,dedicated to St. George , at Halwan, a village not far from

Fustat.7 In 71 1 A .D . a Jacobite church was bu ilt at Antioch by1 V on Kremer vol . i . p. 167-8 .

2 Renaudot, pp. 430, 540.

3 Von Kremer vol. i i . p . 180- 1 .

id. vo l. i . p . 183 .

5 Journal A siatique. IVme série. tome xvi i i . ( 185 1) pp. 433 , 450.

5 M ichel le Grand , p. 247. Renaudot, p. 189 .7 Eutychius, tom. i i. p. 369 .


Indeed,so far fromthe development of the Christian Church

being hampered by the establishment of Muhammadan rul e,the

history of the Nestorians exhibits a remark able outburst ofreligious life and energy fromthe time of their becoming subjectto the Muslims .1 Alternately p etted and persecuted by thePersian k ings, in whose dominions by far the majority of themembers of this sect were found

,i t had passed a ratherprecariou s

existence and had been subjected to harsh treatment , when warbetween Persia and Byzantiumexposed i t to the suspicion ofsympathising with the Christian enemy. But

,under the rule of

the Caliphs,the security they enjoyed at home enabled themto

vigorously push forward their missionary enterprises abroad .

Missionaries were sent into China and India,both of which

were raised to the dignity of metropolitan sees in the eighthcentury;about the same period they gained a footing in Egypt ,and later spread the Christian faith right across Asia, and by theeleventh century had gained many converts fromamong the

Tartars .If the other Christian sects failed to exhibit the same vigorouslife

,i t was not the fau lt of the Muhammadans . All were tolerated

al ik e by the supreme government , and furthermore were prevented from persecu ting one another. In the fifth century ,Barsumas

,a Nestorian bishop , had persuaded the Persian King

to set on foot a fierce persecu tion of the Orthodox Church , byrepresenting Nestorius as a friend of the Persians and hisdoctrines as approximating to their own asmany as 7800 of theOrthodox clergy , with an enormous number of laymen , are saidto have been butchered during this persecution .

2 Another per

secution was institu ted against the orthodox by the Persian King,abou t 1 50 years later , at the instigation of his private physician ,who was a Jacobite , and persuaded the King that the orthodoxwou ld always be favourably incl ined towards the Byzantines .3

But the principles of Musl imtoleration forbade such acts of injustice

A D ominicanmonk fromFlorence, by name Rico ldus de Monte Crucis, whovisited the East about the close of the thirteenthand the beginningof the fourteenthcentury , speak s o f the to leration the N estorians had enjoyed underMuhammadanrule right up to his time Et ego inveni perantiquas historias et autenticas aputSaracenos, quod ipsi N estorini amic i fuerunt Machometi et confederati cumeo , et

quod ipse Machometus mandauit suis posteris, quod N estorinos maxime con

semage

pt. Quod usque hodie diligenter obseruant ipsi Sarraceni.

”(Laurent,

1 2

2 M ichel le Grand, pp. 2 36 -7.

3 A l Mak in, p . 1 2 .

CAUSES OF CONVERSION TO ISLAM . 6 1

as these on the contrary, i t seems to have been their endeavour todeal fairly by all their Christian subjects e .g. after the conquest ofEgypt, the Jacobites took advantage of the expu lsion of theByzantine authorities

,to rob the Orthodox of their churches

,

but later they were restored by the Muhammadans to theirrightful owners when these hadmade good their claim

’ to possessthem.

1

In view of the toleration thus extended to the ir Christiansubjects in the early period of the Muslimrule

,the common

hypothesis of the sword as the factor of conversion seems hardlysatisfactory

,and we are compelled to seek for othermotives than

that of persecution. But unfortunately very few detail s are

forthcoming and we are obliged to have recourse to conjecture .2

Many Christian theologians 3 have supposed that the debased con

d ition- moral and spiritual— of the Eastern Chu rch of that periodmust have al ienated the hearts of many and driven themto seeka healthier sp iritual atmosphere in the faith of Islamwhich hadcome to themin all the vigour of new - born zeal .4 For example

,

DeanMilman 5 ask s,

“What was the state of the Christian world inthe provinces exposed to the first invasion of Mohammedan ismSect opposed to sect

,clergy wrangling with clergy upon the

most abstruse andmetaphysical points of doctrine . The orthodox,

the Nestorians,the Eutychians

,the Jacobites were persecuting

each other with unexhausted animosity and it is not judging tooseverely the evils of religiou s controversy to suppose thatmanywou ld rejoice in the degradation of their adversaries under theyok e of the unbeliever

,rather than mak e common cause with

themin defence of the common Christianity. In howmanymust

1 Renaudot, p . 169 .

2 V on Kremer wel l remark s “ Wir verdank en demunermudlichen Sammelfleiss der arab ischen Chronisten unsere Kenntniss derpo l itischen undmilitiirischenGeschichte jener Zeiten, welche so genau ist als d ies nur immer auf eine Entfernung von zwiilf Jahrhunderten der Fall sein k ann;allein gerade die innereGeschichte jener denk wiirdigen Epoche, die Geschichte des Kampfes einerneuen, rohen Rel igion gegen die alten hochgeb ildeten, z umThei le iiberbildetenCulte ist k aumin ihren al lgeme insten Umrissen bek annt. Von Kremerp . 1 - 2 .

3 Cf. in addition to the passages quoted below, M’C lintoch Strong

’

s

Cyclopzedia, sub art. Mohammedan ism, vol. vi. p . 420. James Freeman Clark eTen Great Religions. Part i i . p . 75 . (London,4 Thus the EmperorHeracl ius is represented by the Muhammadan historian as

saying, Their rel igion is a new religion which gives themnew zeal .” Tabari,p. 2 103 .

5 History of Latin Christianity. Vol. 11. pp. 2 16 - 2 17.

2 THE PREACHING OF ISLAM.

this incessant disputation have shak en the foundations of theirfaith ! It had been wonderful if thousands had not

,in their

weariness and perplexity, sought refuge fromthese interminableand implacable controversies in the simple

,intell igible truth of

the Divine Unity,though purchased by the ack nowledgment of

the prophetic mission of Mohammed .

” Again , Canon Taylor 1

says : “ It is easy to understand why this reformed Judaismspread so swiftly over Africa and Asia. The African and Syriandoctors had substituted abstruse metaphysical dogmas for thereligion of Christ they tried to combat the licentiousness of theage by setting forth the celestial merit of celibacy and the

angelic excellence of virginity— seclusion fromthe world was theroad to holiness

,dirt was the characteristic of monk ish sanctity

the people were practically polytheists, worshipping a crowd ofmartyrs

,saints and angels the upper classes were effeminate and

corrupt,the middle classes oppressed by taxation

,

2 the slaveswithout hope for the present or the future. As with the besomof God

,Islamswept away thismass of corruption and superstition .

It was a revolt against empty theological polemics ;it was a

mascul ine protest against the exal tation of celibacy as a crown ofpiety. It brought out the fundamental dogmas of religion—theun ity and greatness of God , that He is merciful and righteous ,that He claims obedience to His will , resignation and faith . Itproclaimed the responsibility of man , a future life , a day of judgment

,and stem retribution to fal l upon the wick ed ;and

enforced the du ties of prayer , almsgiving, fasting and benevolence .It thrust aside the artificial virtues , the religious frauds and foll ies ,the perverted moral sentiments, and the verbal subtleties oftheological d ispu tants. It replaced monk ishness by manl iness .It gave hope to the slave , brotherhood to mank ind, and recogni

t ion to the fundamental facts of human nature .

Islamhasmoreover been represented as a reaction against thatByzantine ecclesiasticism,

3 which look ed upon the emperor and

l A paperread before the Church Congress at Wo lverhampton, October 7th ,

18827For the Oppressive fiscal systemunder the Byzantine Emp ire , see Gfrorer

Byzantinische Geschichten. Vo l . i i . pp. 3 37-9 , 389-

39 1 , 450.

3 Der Islamwar ein Ruck stoss gegen den Missbrauch, welchen Justinianmitder Menschheit, besonders aber mit der christl ichen Religion trieb , derenoberstes geistl iches und weltl iches Haupt er z u sein behauptete. Dass der

A raber Mahomed , welcher 571 der christlichen Zeitrechnung, sechs Jahre nach

demTode Justinian’s, das Licht derWelt erbl ick te, mit seiner Lehre unerhiirtes

CAUSES OF CONVERSION TO ISLAM . 63

his court as a copy of the Divine Majesty on high , and theemperor himself as not only the supreme earthly ruler ofChristendom

,but as High - priest also .

1 Under Justinian thissystemhad been hardened into a despotismthat pressed lik e an

iron weight upon clergy and laity alik e . In 5 3 2 the widespreaddissatisfaction in Constantinople with both church and state

,

burst out into a revolt against the government of Justinian ,which was only suppressed after a massacre of persons .The Greens

,as the party of the malcontents was termed

,had

made open and violent protest in the circus against the oppressionof the emperor

,crying out

,

“Justice has van ished fromthe world

and is no more to be found . But we will become Jews , or ratherwe will return again to Grec ian pagan ism.

”2 The lapse of acentury had removed none of the grounds for the dissatisfactionthat here found such violent expression , but the heavy hand ofthe Byzantine government prevented the renewal of such an

outbreak as that of 5 3 2 and compelled the malcontents todissemble

,though in 5 60 some secret heathens were detected in

Constantinople and pun ished .

3 On the borders of the emp ire ,however

,at a distance from the capital

,such mal contents were

safer,and the persecu ted heretics , and others d issatisfied with the

Byzantine state - church,took refuge in the East , and here th e

Muslimarmies would be welcomed by the spiritual children ofthose who a hundred years before had desired to exchange theChristian religion for another faith . Further , the generaladoption of the Arabic language throughout the empire of theCal iphate , especially in the towns and the great centres o f

popu lation , and the gradual assimilation in manners and customsthat in the course of about two centuries caused the numerousconquered races to be largelymerged in the national l ife of therul ing race , had no doubt a counterpart in the religious and

intellectual l ife ofmanymembers of the protected religions . The

rational istic movement that so powerfully influenced Muslimtheology from

‘

the second to the fifth century of the Hijrahmay

Gluck machte, verdank te ergrossentheils demA bscheu, welchen die imUmk reisedes byzantinischen Reiches angesessenen V iilk er, wie die benachbarten Nationenfiber die von demBasileus begangenen Greuel empfanden.

” Gfrbrer : Byzantimsche Geschichten. Vo l. i i . p . 437.

1 Id . vo l . i i. pp . 2 96 - 306 , 3 37.

2 Id. vo l . ii. pp . 442 -4.

3 Id. Vol . i i . p . 445 .


very possibly have influenced Christian think ers.and turned themfroma religion , the prevailing tone of whose theology seems atthis time to have been Credo quz

’

a A Muhammadanwriter of the fourth century of the Hijrah has preserved for us a

conversation with a Coptic Christian which may safely be tak enas characteristic of the generalmental attitude of the rest of theEastern Chu rches at this period

“My proof for the truth of Christianity is,that I find its teach

ings contradictory andmu tually destructive , for they are repugnan tto common - sense and revolting to the reason , on account of theirinconsistency and contrariety. No reflection can strengthen

them,no discu ssion can prove them and however thoughtfully

wemay investigate them,neither the intellect nor the senses can

p rovide us with any argument in support of them. N o twith

standing this, I have seen that many nations and many k ings oflearn ing and sound judgment , have given in their allegiance tothe Christian faith so I conclude that if these have accepted i tin spite of al l the contradict ions referred to

,i t is becau se the

p roofs they have received, in the formof signs andmiracles , havec ompelled themto submit to it.”1On the other hand it shou ld be remembered that those thatpassed over fromChristianity to Islam

,under the influence of the

rationalistic tendencies of the age , wou ld find in the Mu‘tazilite

p resentment of Musl imtheology , verymuch that was common tothe two faiths

,so that as far as the articles of belief and the

intellectual attitude towards many theological questions wereconcerned , the transition was no t so violent asmight be supposed.

‘

To say nothing of the numerous fundamental doctrines, that willat once suggest themselves to those even who

“

have only a slightk nowledge of the teachings of the Prophet , there were manyo ther common points of V iew

,that were the direct consequences

o f the close relationships between the Christian andMuhammadantheologians in Damascus under the Umayyad cal iphs as also inlater times for it has been maintained that there i s clearevidence of the influence of the Byzantine theologians on thed evelopment of the systematic treatment of Muhammadandogmatics . The very formand arrangement of the oldest rule offaith in the Arabic language suggest a comparison with similar

Mas‘

fxdi, vo l . 11. p . 387.

THE CHRISTIANS UNDER ARAB RULE . 65

treatises of St . John of Damascus and other Christian fathers .1

The oldest Arab Sufiism,the trend of which was purely towards

the ascetic l ife (as distingu ished fromthe later Sufiismwhich wasdeveloped under the influence of ideas borrowed from India) ,originated for the most part i under the influence of Christianthought .9 Such influence is especially traceable in the doctrines

of some of the Mu‘tazilite sects,3 who busied themselves with

speculations on the attributes of the divine nature qu ite in themanner of the Byzantine theologians : the Q adariyah or libertarians of Islamprobably borrowed their doctrine of the freedomof the will directly fromChristian i ty

,while the Murjiyah in their

den ial of the doctrine of eternal pun ishment were in thoroughagreement with the teaching o f the Eastern Church on thissubject as against the generally received opin ion of orthodoxMusl ims .‘ On the other hand , the influence of the moreorthodox doctors of Islamin the conversion of unbelievers isattested by the tradition that twen ty thousand Christians

, Jewsand Magians became Muslims when the great ImamIbn Hanbald ied.

5 A celebrated doctor of the same sect,A bu- l Faraj ibun - l

Jawzi (A .D . 1 1 1 5 most learned man of his t ime,a

popu lar preacher andmost prolific writer , is said to have boastedthat just the same number of person s accepted the faith of Islamat his hands. 6

Further,the vast and unparall eled success of the Muslimarms

shook the fai th of the Christ ian peoples that came under theirru le and saw in these conquests the hand ofGod .

7 Worldly

prosperity they associated with the'divine favou r

,and the God of

battle (they thought) wou ld surely give the victory on ly into thehands of his favoured servants . Thus the very success of theMuhammadans seemed to argue the tru th of their religion .

The Islamic ideal of the brotherhood of all believers was a

powerfu l attraction towards this creed,and though the Arab pride

of birth strove to refuse for several generations the privileges ofthe rul ing race to the new converts , still as clients of the variousArab tribes to which at first they used to be affi l iated , they received

Von Kremer p . 8 .

2 Id. p . 54 p . 32 .

3 A mong the Mu‘tazil ite phi losophers, Muhammad ibnu- l Hudhayl , the teacher

o f A l Ma’mun, is said to have converted more than three thousand persons to

Islam. A l Murtada, sub voc.

4 Von Kremer pp. 3 , 7- 8 .

5 Ibn fi allik an, vol . i . p . 45 .5 Wiistenfeld, p . 103 .

7 M ichel le Grand, p. 2 3 1 .

F


a recognised position in the commun ity, and by the close of thefirst century of the Hijrah they had vindicated for this ideal itstrue place in Muslimtheology and at least a theoretical recogni

t ion in the state .1

But the condition of the Christians did no t always continue to beso tolerable as under the earl ier cal iphs. In the interests of the truebelievers , vexatious conditions were sometimes imposed upon thenon -Muslimpopu lation (or dhimmis as they were cal led, fromthecompact of protection made with them),with the object of securingfor the faithful superior social advantages . Unsuccessfu l attemptsweremade by several cal iphs to exclude themfromthe public oflices.

Decrees to this effect were passed by Al Mutawak k il (847Al Muqtadir (908 and in Egypt by Al Amir ( 1 101one of the Fatimid cal iphs , and by the Mamluk Su ltans in thefourteenth century .

2 But the very fact that these decrees exc luding the dhimmis fromgovernment posts were so often renewed ,i s a sign of the want of any continu ity or persistency in puttingsuch intolerant measures into practice . In fact theymay generally be traced either to popular indignation excited by the harshand insolent behaviour of Christian officials,

3 or to outbursts offanat icismwhich forced upon the government acts of oppressionthat were contrary to the general spirit of Muslimrule and wereconsequently allowed to lapse as soon as possible .The beginn ing of a harsher treatment of the nat ive Christ ian

popu lation dates from the reign of Harfinu - r Rashid (786 - 809)who ordered them to wear a distinctive dress and give up the

government posts they held to Musalmans. The first of theseorders shows how l ittle one at least of the ordinances of ‘Umarwas observed, and these decrees were the outcome , no t so muchof any purely religious feeling, as of the political circumstances ofthe time . The Christians under Muhammadan rule have oftenhad to sufl

'

er for the bad faith k ept by foreign Christ ian powers intheir relat ions with Muhammadan princes

,and on this occasion it

was the treachery of the Byzantine Emperor,N icephorus, that

cau sed the Christian name to stink in the nostrils of Harun .

‘

1 Go ldz iher, vo l . i . chap . 3 8:

4.

9 The last of these was prompted by the d iscovery of an attempt on the part ofthe Christians to burn the c ity o f Cairo . (De Guignes, vo l . iv. p . 204Journal A siatique , IVme série, tome xvi i i . pp . 454, 45 5 , 463 , 484, 49 1 .3 A ssemani, tom. i i i pars. 2 , p . C . Renaudot, pp . 432 , 603 , 607.4 SirW . Muir : The Caliphate, p . 475 .


enforce the persistent execution of these oppressive measures forthe humil iation of the non -Muslimpopu lation .

“ The ‘ulama’

(i.e . the learned,the c lergy) consider this state of things ;they

weep and groan in silence , while the princes who have the powerof putting down these criminal abuses only shut their eyes tothem.

”1 The ru les that a fanat ical priesthood may lay down forthe repression of unbelievers cannot always be tak en as a criterionof the practice of civil governments : i t is failure to real ise thisfact that has rendered possible the highly - coloured pictures ofthe sufferings of the Christians under Muhammadan rule

,

drawn by writers who have assumed that the prescriptions ofcertain Muslim theologians represented an invariable practice .Such outbursts of persecu tion seemin some cases to have beenexcited by the alleged abuse of their position by those Christianswho held high posts in the service of the government ;theyaroused considerable hostility of feeling towards themselves bytheir oppression of the Muslims

,it being said that they took

advantage of their high position to p lunder and annoy the faithful,

treating themwith great harshness and rudeness and despoilingthemof their lands andmoney. Such complaints were laid beforethe cal iphs A l -Mansur (754 A l -Mahdi (775 Al Ma

’mun(8 1 3 Al Mutawak k il (847 Al Muqtadir (908 and

many of their successors .2 They also incurred the odiumofmanyMuhammadans by act ing as the spies of the ‘Abbasid dynasty andhunting down the adherents of the displaced Umayyad family.

3

At a later period,during the time of the Crusades they were

accused of treasonable correspondence with the Crusaders “ and

brought on themselves severe restrictive measures which cannotjustly be described as religious persecution .

In proportion as the lot of the conquered peoples became harderto bear

,the more irresistible was the temptation to free them

selves fromtheir miseries , by the words , “There is no God butGod and Muhammad is the Prophet of God.

”When the statewas in need ofmoney—as was increasingly the case— the subjectraces were more and more burdened with taxes

,so that the

condit ion of the non -Muslims was constantly growing more

1 Journal A siatique. IVme sé rie, tome x ix. p . 109 . (Paris,9 Bel in. 9 13 - 43 5 -440.442 .448. 45 6 .45 9

-46 1.479 -4803 Id. p . 43 5 , n. 2 .

l d . p . 478 .

THE CHRISTIANS UNDER ARAB RULE . 69

unendurable , and conversions to Islam increased in the sameproportion. Further causes that contributed to the decrease ofthe Christian popu lation may be found in the fact that thechildren of the numerous Christian captive women who were

carried off to the harems of the Muslims , had to be brought up inthe religion of their fathers , and in the frequent temptation thatwas offered to the Christian slave by an indulgent master , of purchasing his freedomat the price of conversion to Islam. But of

any organ ised attempt to force the acceptance of Islamon the

non -Musl impopu lation , or of any systematic persecution intendedto stamp out the Christian religion , we hear nothing. Had theCaliphs chosen to adopt either course of action , theymight haveswept away Christian ity as easily as Ferdinand and Isabella droveIslamout of Spain ,

or Lou is XIV . made Protestantismpenal inFrance

,or. the Jews were k ept out of England for 3 50years . The

Eastern Churches in Asia were entirely cut off fromcommun ionwith the rest of Christendom

,throughou t which no one wou ld

have been found to lift a finger on their behalf, as heretical communions. So that the very survival of these churches to thepresent day is a strong proof of the generally tolerant attitude ofthe Muhammadan governments towards them.

1

In the Patriarchate of Antioch there were,in 1 888

,

Christians in the Patriarchate of Palestine,

in the WestSyrian or Jacobite Church , in the East Syrian orAssyrian Church

,Besides these

,there are the Maronite

Church of Lebanon and the other Un iat Churches in the Eastthat have submitted to the Church of Rome .2 The marvel isthat these isolated and scattered communities should havesurvived so long, exposed as they have been to the ravages of

war, pestilence and famine,3 l iving in a country that was for

1 The Cal iph of Egypt, A l Hak im(996 - 1020, A .D . ) did in fact order all theJews and Christians to leave Egypt and emigrate into the Byzantine territory, butyielded to their entreaties to revok e his orders. (Maqriz i

‘

p . It wouldhave been quite possib le however for himto have enforced its execution as it

would have been for the feroc ious SalimI. ( 1 5 12 who w ith the design of

putting an end to all rel igious differences in his dominions caused Shi ‘ahs

to bemassacred, to have comp leted this po l itic scheme by the extermination of

the Christians also . But in al lowing himself to be d issuaded fromthis design , he

most certainly acted in accordance w ith the general po l icy adopted byMuhammadan rulers towards their Christian subjects. (Fin lay, vo l . v. pp . 2 9

2 A thelstan R i ley : Synopsis of Oriental Churches. (T115 Guardian ,

June 27th,3 See A . von Kremer vol . 11. pp. 490-492 .


centuries a continual battlefield , overrun by Turk s , Mongols andCrusaders

,1 it being further remembered that they were forbidden

by the Muhammadan law to mak e good this decay of theirnumbers by proselytising eflorts,— if indeed they had cared to do so ,for they seem(with the exception of the Nestorians) even beforethe Muhammadan conquest

,to have lost that missionary sp irit ,

without which , as history abundantly shows,no healthy life is

possible in a Christian church . It has also been suggested thatthemonastic ideal of continence so widespread in the East , andthe Christian practice of monogamy together with the senseof insecurity and their servile condition ,mayhave acted as check son the growth of the ChristianIt is to some such causes as those above enumerated

,together

with a constan t streamof conversions to Islam,rather than to

religious persecution on the part of their Muhammadan rulers,

that wemust attribute the decay of the Christian populations ofthe East .Of the details of conversion to Islamwe have hardly any

information . At the time of the first occupation of their countryby the Arabs , the Christians appear to have gone over to Islamin very large numbers .3 Some idea of the extent of these earlyconversions in ‘Iraq for example may be formed fromthe factthat the income from taxation in the reign of

‘Umar was from100 to 1 20mill ion dirhams , wh ile in the reign of ‘Abdu - l Malik

,

abou t 50 years later, it had sunk to fortymillions while this fal lin the revenue is largely attribu table to the devastation caused bywars and insurrections

,still i t was chiefly due to the fact that

such large numbers of the population had become Muhammadanand consequently could no longer be called upon to pay thecap itation - tax .

4 This same period witnessed the conversion oflarge numbers of the Christians of K_ _

hurasan,as we learn froma

letter of a contemporary ecclesiastic , the Jacobite Patriarch ,Jesujab III.

,addressed to Simeon

,the Metropol itan of Ravarshir

The sack o f Constantinople by the Crusaders in 1204may be tak en as a typeof the treatment that the Eastern Christiansmet w ith at the hands of the Latins.

A bfi- l Faraj comp lains that themonastery o f Harran was sack ed and p lunderedby CountGoscelin, lord ofEdessa, in 1 184, just as though he had been a Saraceno r a Turk . (A bu- l Faraj vo l . i i . pp . 506

2 H . H . Milman, vo l. i i . p . 2 18 .

3J. B .Bury: A H istory o f the laterRoman Emp ire . Vo l . n .p . 2 67. (Lond .

4 A . von . Kremer vo l . i . p . 172 .

CONVERSION OF CHRISTIANS . 71

and Primate of Persia. We possess so very few Christian docu

ments of the first century of the Hijrah , and this letter bears suchstrik ing testimony to

“

the peacefu l character of the spread of the

new faith , and has moreover been so little noticed by modernhistorians— that i tmay well be quoted here at length .

“Whereare thy sons

,O father bereft of sons ? Where is that great

people of Merv,who though they beheld nei ther sword , nor fire

or tortures,captivated on ly by love for a moiety of their goods ,

have turned aside,l ik e fools

,fromthe true path and rushed head

long into the pit of faithlessness— into everlasting destruction ,

and have utterly been brought to nought , while two priests on ly

(priests at least in name) have , lik e brands snatched from theburn ing, escaped the devouring flames of infidelity . Alas

,alas !

Out of so many thou sands who bore the name of Christians,no t

even one single victimwas consecrated un to God by the sheddingof his blood for the true faith . Where

,too

,are the sanctuaries

of Kirman and all Persia ? i t is no t the coming of Satan or themandates of the k ings of the earth or the orders of governors ofprovinces that have laid themwaste and in ruins— but the feeblebreath of one contemptible little demon ,

who was no t deemedworthy of the honour of demons by those demons who sent himon his errand

,nor was endowed by Satan the seducer with the

power of diabolical deceit , that hemight d isplay it in your landbutmerely by the nod of his command he has thrown down all

the churches of your Persia A nd the Arabs,to whomGod

at this time has given the empire of the world , behold, theyare among you , as ye k now well and yet they attack no t theChristian faith

,but , on the contrary, they favour our religion , do

honour to our priests and the saints of the Lord,and confer

benefits on churches and monasteries . Why then have yourpeople of Merv abandoned their fai th for the sak e of these Arabsand that too when the Arabs

,as the people of Merv themselves

declare,have no t compelled themto leave their own religion

but suffered themto k eep it safe and undefiled if they gave uponly a moiety of their goods . But forsak ing the faith whichbrings eternal salvation , they clung to amoiety of the goods ofthis fleeting world : that faith which whole nat ions have purchased and even to this day do purchase by the shedding of theirblood and gain thereby the inheritance of eternal life , your peopleof Merv were will ing to barter for amoiety of their goods- and


even less .”1 The reign of the Cal iph ‘Umar II . (A .D . 717-720)particularly was mark ed with very extensive conversions : heorganised a zealous missionarymovement and offered every k indof inducement to the conquered peoples to accept Islam. Heabrogated the decree passed in A .D . 700 for the purpose ofarresting the impoverishment of the treasury , according to whichthe convert to Islamwas no t released fromthe cap itation - tax ,

but was compelled to continue to pay i t as before . He no longerexacted the Lharaj from the Muhammadan owners of landedproperty, and imposed upon them the far lighter burden of atithe . These measures

,though financially most ru inous

,were

eminently successful in the way the pious -minded caliph desiredthey should be

,and enormous numbers hastened to enrol them

selves among the Musalmans.

2

Itmust no t however be supposed that such worldly considerations were the only influences at work in the conversion ofthe Christians to Islam. The controversial work s of St . John ofDamascus

,of the same century

, give us glimpses of the zealousMuslimstriving to undermine by his argumen ts the foundationsof the Christian faith . The very dialogue forminto which thesetreatises are thrown

,and the frequent repetition of such phrases

as“ If the Saracen ask s you, If the Saracen says then tell

him —give theman air ofvraisemélancc andmak e themappear

as if they were intended to p rovide the Christians with readyanswers to the numerous objections which their Muslimneighbours brought against the Christian creed .

3 That the aggressiveattitude of the Muhammadan disputant is most prominentlybrought forward in these d ialogues is only what might beexpected

,it being no part of this great theologian

’s purpose toenshrine in his writings an apology for Islam. His pupil

,Bishop

Theodore A bu Qarah,also wrote several controversial dialogues

‘1

with Muhammadans,in which the disputants range over all the

points of dispute between the two faiths , the Muslimas beforebeing the first to tak e up the cudgels , and enabling us to formsome slight idea of the act ivity with which the cause of Islamwas prosecuted at this period. The thoughts of the A garenes,

”

1 A ssemani. Tom. i i i . Pars Prima, pp. 1 30- 1 .

1 A ugust Mul ler, vo l . i . p . 440.

8 M igne : Patr. Gr. Tom. 96 , pp. 1 336- 1 348 .

‘1 M igne : Patr. Gr. Tom. 97, pp . 1 5 28 -9 , 1 548 -6 1 .

PROSELYTISING EFFORTS . 73

says the bishop , and all their zeal,are directed towards the

denial of the divin ity of God the Word , and they strain everyeffort to this end .

”1These details from the first two centuries of the Hijrah are

meagre in the extreme and rather suggest the existence ofproselytising efforts than furnish defin ite facts. The earliestdocument of a distinctly missionary character which has comedown to us

,would seemto date from the reign of A I Ma’mun

(8 13 and tak es the formof a letter 2 written by a cousin ofthe Caliph to a Christian Arab of noble birth and of considerabledistinction at the court

,and held in high est eemby Al Ma

’mfinhimself. In this letter he begs his friend to embrace Islam,

in terms of affectionate appeal and in language that strik inglyillustrates the tolerant attitude of the Muslims towards theChristian church at this period. This letter occup ies an almostunique place in the early history of the propagation of Islam,

and

has on this account been given in full in an appendix .

3 In thesame work we have a report of a speech made by the Cal iph atan assembly of his nobles

,in which he speak s in tones of the

strongest contempt of those who had become Muhammadansmerely out of worldly and selfish motives

,and compares themto

the Hypocrites who while pretending to be friends of theProphet

,in secret plotted against his life . But just as the

Prophet returned good for evil , so the Cal iph resolves to treatthese persons with courtesy and forbearance unti l God shoulddecide between them.

4 The record of this complaint on the partof the Cal iph is interesting as indicating that disinterested and

genuine conviction was expected and look ed for in the new

convert to Islam,and that the discovery of self- seek ing and

unworthymotives drew upon himthe severest censure .

Al Ma’mun himself was very zealous in his efforts to spread thefaith of Islam

,and sent grac iou s invitations to unbelievers even

in the most distant parts of his dominions , such as Transoxaniaand Farghanah .

5 A t the same time he did no t abuse his royalpower , by attempting to force his own faith upon others : when

1 Id . p . 1 5 57.

2 Risalatu ‘A bdi - l lahi -bni Isma‘il i -l Hashimi i113. ‘A bd i - l Masihi -bni Ishaqi - lKindi, pp . 1 -37. (London ,11 A ppendi x II. For an account of Musl im controversial l iterature, see

A ppendix III.1 A l Kindi

, pp . 1 1 1 - 1 13 .

5 A l Baladhuri, pp . 430- 1 .


a certain a leader of the Manichaean sect , came on

a visi t to Baghdad 1 and held a disputation with the Musl imtheologians , in which he was u tterly silenced , the Cal iph tried toinduce himto embrace Islam. But Yaz danbak

_ht refused

,saying,

“ Commander of the faithfu l , your advice is heard and your wordshave been l istened to ;but you are one of those who do no t

force men to abandon their religion .

” So far fromresenting theill - success of his efforts , the Cal iph furn ished himwith a body

guard , that he might no t be exposed to insul t fromthe fanaticalpopu lace .

2 In the early part of the next century , Theodore , theNestorian Bishop of Beth Garmai became a Musalman

,and there

is no ment ion of any force or compu ls ion by the ecclesiasticalhistorian 3 who records the fact, as there would undoubtedly havebeen , had such existed . Abou t a hundred years later

, in 101 6,

Ignatiu s ,‘1 the Jacobite Metropolitan of Tak rit , who had held this

office for twenty - five years , set out for Baghdad and embracedIslamin the presence of the Cal iph Al Qadir, tak ing the name ofA buMuslim.

’1 It would be exceedingly interesting if anApologia

pro Vita Sua had survived to reveal to us the religious develop

ment that took place in the mind of either of these converts .The Christian chron icler hints at immoral ity in both cases

, but.

such an accusation uncorroborated by any further evidence isopen to suspic ion ,° much as it would be if brought forward by a

1 It is very probable that the o ccasion o f this visit ofYaz danbak ht to Baghdadwas the summoning o f a great assemb ly of the leaders of all the religious bodiesof the period, by A l Ma

’miin, when it had come to his ears that the enemies o f

Islamdeclared that it owed its success to the sword and no t to the power o f

argument : in this meeting, the Musl imdoctors defended their rel igion againstthis imputation, and the unbel ievers are said to have ack nowledged that theMuslims had satisfactori ly proved their po int. (A l Murtad

'

ai sub. voc. A l

Kitabu- l Fihrist, vo l . i . p . 33 8.

3 A bil - l Faraj vo l. i i i . p . 2 30.

1 A ll the Jacob ite Patriarchs assume the name of Ignatius;before his consecration he was called Mark bar Qiqi .

A bt'

t - l Faraj vol . i i i . pp . 2 88 - 290.

El ias o f N isib is, pp . 1 5 3-4. Il e returned to the Christian fai th, however,

before his death, which took p lace about twenty years later. Two simi lar casesare recorded in the annals of the Jacobite Patriarchs of A ntioch in the sixteenthcentury : of these one, named Joshua, became a Muhammadan in 1 5 17, butafterwards recanting fled to Cyprus (at that time in the hands o f the Venetians) ,where prostrate at the door of a church in penitential humi l ity he suflered all who

went in or out to trend overhis body the other, N i‘matu- llah (flor. having

abjured Christianity fo r Islam, sought abso lution of Pope GregoryXIII. in Rome .

(A hi‘

i - l Faraj vo l . i i . pp . 847In fact El ias o f N isibis, the contemporary chro nicler of the conversion of

the Jacobite Patriarch,mak es no mention o f such a failing.


at the hands of the Turk s in themountain- passes ofPhrygia (A .D .

and with difficu lty reached the seaport town of Attal ia.

Here , all who could afford to satisfy the exorbitant demands ofthe Greek merchants , took ship for Antioch while the sick and

wounded and the mass of the pilgrims were left behind at themercy of their treacherous all ies , the Greek s, who received fivehundred mark s fromLou is, on condition that they provided an

escort for the p ilgrims and took care of the sick until they werestrong enough to be sent on after the others . B ut no sooner hadthe army left

,than the Greek s informed the Turk s of the helpless

condition of the pilgrims , and qu ietly look ed on while famine,

disease and the arrows of the enemy carried havoc and destructionthrough the camp of these unfortunates . Driven to desperationa party of three .or four thousand attempted to escape , but weresurrounded and cut to p ieces by the Turk s , who now pressed on

to the camp to follow up their victory . The situation of thesurvivors wou ld have been u tterly hopeless , had no t the sight oftheir misery melted the hearts of the Muhammadans to pity .

They tended the sick and relieved the poor and starving withopen -handed l iberal ity. Some even bought up the Frenchmoneywhich the Greek s had go t out of the p ilgrims by force or cunning,and lavishly distributed i t among the needy. So great was thecontrast between the k ind treatment the pilgrims received fromthe unbelievers and the cruelty of their fellow - Christians , theGreek s

,who imposed forced labour upon them, beat themand

robbed themof what l ittle they had left , that many of themvoluntarily embraced the faith of their deliverers . As the

old chron icler says Avoiding their co - religion ists who had

been.so cruel to them

,they went in safety among the infidels

who had compassion upon them,and , as we heard ,more than

three thousand joined themselves to the Turk s when theyretired . Oh

,k indness more cruel than al l treachery ! They

gave thembread but robbed themof their faith , though it iscertain that contented with the services they performed , theycompelled no one among themto renounce his religion .

”1

1 Odo de D iogilo (D e Ludovic i vu. Itinere . M igne , Patr. Lat. tom. cxcv.

Vitantes igitur sibi crudeles so c ios fidei, inter infideles sibi compatientes1bant securi, et sicut audivimus p lusquamtriamillia iuvenumsunt i ll is recedentibus soc ial i . O pietas omni proditione crudelior Dantes panemfidemtol lebant,quamvis certumsit quia, content i servi tio , neminemnegare cogebant.

”

CONVERSION OF CRUSADERS . 77

The increasing intercourse between Christians and Musalmans,

the growing appreciation on the part of the Crusaders of the

virtues of their opponents , which so strik ingly distinguishes thelater fromthe earlier chron iclers of the Crusades

,1 the numerous

imitations of Oriental manners and ways of life by the Fran k ssettled in the Holy Land

,did no t fail to exercise a corresponding

influence on religious op in ions . One of the most remark ablefeatures of this influence is the tolerant attitude ofmany of theChristian Kn ights towards the faith of Islam— an attitude ofmindthat was most vehemently denounced by the church . WhenIbn Munqidh , a Syrian Amir of the twelfth century

,visited

Jerusalem,during a period of truce , the Knights Templar , who

had occup ied the Masjidu - l A qsz'

r,assigned to hima small chapel

adjoining it , for him to say his prayers in , and they stronglyresented the interference with the devotions of their guest on thepart of a newly- arrived Crusader

,who took this new departure in

the direction of religious freedomin very bad part .2 It wouldindeed havebeen strange if religiou s questions had not formed a

‘

top ic of discussion on the many occasions when the Crusaders andthe Muslims met together on a friendly footing, during thefrequent truces

,espec ially when it was religion itself that had

brought the Crusaders into the Holy Land and set themuponthese constant wars . When even Christian theologians were ledby their personal intercourse with the Muslims to forma justerestimate of their religion , and contact with new modes ofthought was unsettling the minds of men and giving riseto a swarmof heresies

,it is no t sufprising that many shou ld

have been drawn into the pale of Islam.

3 The renegades in

the twelfth century were in suflficient numbers to be noticed inthe statute book s of the Crusaders

,the so - called Assises of

Jerusalem,according to which , in certain cases

,their bail was no t

accepted .

4

It wou ld be interesting to discover who were the Muslims whobusied themselves in winn ing these converts to Islam,

but theyseemto have left no record of their labours . We k now

,however ,

1 Guizot : H isto ire de la C ivi l isation en Europe, p . 2 34. (Paris,2 Ibn Munqidh Premiere Partie, p . 187

- 8 .

3 Prutz , p . 2 66- 71 A ssises de la Cour des Bourgeo is. (Recuei l de;historiensifdes Cro isades.

A ssises de Jerusalem. Tome i i . p.


that they had at their head the great Sal adin himself, who isdescribed by his biographer as setting before his Christian guestthe beauties of Islamand urging himto embrace it .

1

The heroic l ife and character of Saladin seems to have exercisedan especial fasc ination on theminds of the Christians of his timesome even of the Christian k nights were so strongly attracted

towards himthat they abandoned the Christian faith and their

own people and joined themselves to the Musalmans such wasthe case

,for example

,with a certain Engl ish Templar , named

Robert of St. Alban’s,who in 1 1 8 5 A .D . gave up Christianity for

Islamand afterwardsmarried a grand - daughter of Saladin .

2 Twoyears later , Saladin invaded Palestine and utterly defeated theChristian army in the battle of Hittin

,Guy, k ing of Jeru

salem,being among the prisoners . On the eve of the battle , six

of his k n ights , possessedwith a devilish spirit ,”deserted the k ing

and escaped into the camp of Saladin , where of their own accord

they became Saracens .3 At the same time Saladin seems to havehad an understanding with Raymund l II.

,Count of Tripoli

,

according to which he was to induce his followers to abandon theChrist ian faith and go over to the Musalmans;but the suddendeath of the Coun t effectually put a stop to the execu tion of thisscheme :1The fal l of Jerusalemand the successes of Saladin in the HolyLand stirred up Europe to undertak e the third Crusade , the chiefincident of which was the siege of Acre (1 1 89 - 9 1 , The

fearfu l sufferings that the Christian army was exposed to , fromfamine and d isease , drovemany of themto desert and see k relieffrom the cravings of hunger in the Muslim camp . Of thesedeserters

,manymade their way back again after some time to the

army of the Crusaders , on the other handmany elected to throw intheir lot with the Musalmans;some tak ing service under theirformer enemies

,still remained true to the Christian faith and (we

are told) were well pleased with their new masters , while othersembracing Islambecame good Musalmans.

5 The conversion ofthese deserters is recorded also by the chron icler who aecom

1 Bahau-d din, p . 2 5 .

2 Roger Hoveden, vo l . 11. p . 307.

1’ Bened ict o f Peterborough, vo l. i i. pp . 1 1 - 12 .

‘1 Bened ict o f Peterborough, vo l. i i . pp . 20- 2 1 .

Roger Hoveden, vol. i i . pp . 3 16, 32 2 .

5 A bfi Shemah, p . 1 50.

CONVERSION OF CRUSADERS . 79

panied Richard I . upon this Crusade Some of our men(whose fate cannot be told or heard without grievous sorrow)yielding to the severity of the sore famine , in achieving thesalvation of the body

,incurred the damnation of their souls . For

after the greater part of the affl iction was past , they deserted and

fled to the Turk s : nor did they hesitate to become renegades ;in order that theymight prolong their temporal l ife a l ittle space ,they purchased eternal death with horrid blasphemies . O balefu ltraffick ing O shameful deed beyond all pun ishment O foolishman l ik ened unto the foolish beasts

,while he flees fromthe death

that must inevitably come soon,he shuns not the death

unending.

”1Fromthis t ime onwards references to renegades are no t infre

quently to bemet with in the writings of those who travelled tothe Holy Land and other countries of the East . The terms ofthe oath which was proposed to St . Lou is by his Muhammadancaptors when he was called upon to promise to pay the ransomimposed upon him(A .D . were suggested by certain whilompriests who had become Muslims ;2 and while this business ofpaying the ransomwas stil l being carried on

,another renegade , a

Frenchman , born at Provins , came to bringa present to the k inghe had accompan ied King John of Jerusalemon his expeditionagainst Damietta in 1 2 1 9 and had remained in Egypt ,married a

Muhammadan wife and become a great lord in that country .

3

The danger of the p ilgrims to the Holy Land becoming converts toIslamwas so clearly recognised at this time that in a Remembrance ,

”wri tten about 1 2 66 by Ama’ury de la Roche,the master

of the Knights Temp lar in France , he requests the Pope and thelegates of France and Sic ily to preven t the poor and the agedand those incapable of bearing arms from crossing the sea toPalestine

,for such persons either go t k illed or tak en prisoners by

the Saracens or turned renegades .‘1 Ludolf de Suchem

,who

travelled in the Holy Land abou t I 3 50, speak s of three renegadeshe found at Hebron they had come fromthe diocese of Mindenand had been in the service of aWestphalian k n ight , who was

held in high honour by the Soldan and other Muhammadan

1 ItinerariumPeregrinorumet Gesta Regis Richardi, p . 1 3 1 . (Chroniclesand Memorials of the reign of R ichard I . Ed ited by William Stubbs.)(London, 2 Jo invi lle, p . 2 38 .

3 Id. p . 262 . Mas Latrie vol. 11. p . 72 .


princes.1 The so - styled Sir John Mandevile ,2 who representshimself as having travelled in Palestine abou t themiddle of thefourteenth century ,mak esmention of renegades , but does no t tellus whether his remark s refer to members of the Eastern or theWestern Church : “Also it befallethe sumtyme,”he says , “ thatCristene men becomen Saraz ines

,outher for povertee , or for

symplenesse , or elles for here owne wyk k ednesse .

” He tell s usalso that the Sultan of Egypt , in whose service he claims to havespent several years , tried to persuade himto abandon his own“ law and belief and become a Muslim.

3

These scattered notices are no doubt significant of more extensive conversions of Christians to Islam,

of which no record has

come down to us e .g. there were said to be abou t rene

gades in the c ity of Cairo towards the close of the fifteenth century,‘

and theremust have been many also to be found in the cities ofthe Holy Land after the d isappearance of the Latin princedoms ofthe East . But the Muhammadan historians of this period seemto have been too busily engaged in record ing the exploits ofprinces and the vicissitudes of dynast ies

,to turn their attention

to religious changes in the l ives of obscure ind ividuals ;and (asfar as I have been able to di scover) they as l ittle notice theconversions of Christians to Islamas of those of their own co

religionists to Christian ity . Consequently,we have to depend for

our k nowledge of both of these classes of events on Christianwriters

,who

,while they give us detailed and sympathetic

accounts of the latter,bear unwilling testimony to the existence

of instances of the former and represent the motives of therenegades in the worst light possible. The possibility of anyChristian becoming converted to Islamfromhonest convict ion

,

probably never entered into the head of any of these writers , andeven had such an idea occurred to themthey would hardly haveventured to expose themse lves to the thunders of ecclesiasticalcensure by giving open expression to it . Even Sir John Man

devile,who c laimed to have lived nearly half his life 1n Muham

madan countries and did no t allow bigotry to influence hisj udgment on their faith , could only suggest that in the absence

1 Ludo lf de Suchem, p . 71 .

2 Mandevi le, p. 141 .

3 Id.

‘1 Lionardo Frescobald i, quoted in the preface of Defrémery and Sanguinetti’5edi tion o f Ibn Batutah, vo l . i . p . xl .

THE CHRISTIAN CONVERTS . 8 1

o f basemotives, the Christian converts to Islammust have beenS impletons if they were neither rogues nor starving, they musthave been fools . To estimate these accounts at their true value

,

wemust remember that such was the attitude ofmind of theC hristian writers who recorded them.

From the historical sources quoted above , we have as l ittleinformation respecting the number of these converts “

as of the

proselytising efforts made to induce themto change their faith .

Themonk Burchard,1 writing abou t 1 2 83 , a few years before the

C rusaders were driven out of their last strongholds and the Latin

p ower in the East came utterly to an end,— represents the

Christian popu lation as largely outnumbering the Muslimsthroughout the whole of the Muhammadan world

,the latter

( except in Egypt and Arabia) forming not more than three or‘ four per cent . of the whole population. This language is nudoubtedly exaggerated and the goodmonk was certainly rash ina ssuming that what he observed in the c ities of the Crusadersand of the k ingdomof Little Armen ia held good in other partso f the East . But his words may be certainly tak en to indicatet hat during the period of the Crusades there had been no widespread conversion to Islam

,and that when the Muhammadans

resumed their sovereignty over the Holy Land , they extendedthe same toleration to the Christians as before

,suffering them to

“ purchase peace and quiet”by the payment of the j izyah . The

p resumption is that the conversions that took place were ofindividual Christians

,who were persuaded in their ownminds

b efore .

,they took the final step and were not forced thereto.

Instances have al ready been given of Christians who took service

1 “ N otandumautemin rei veritate, l icet quidamcontrariamsenciant, qui ea

v o lunt asserere, que non viderunt, quod oriens totus ultra mare Yndiam et

Ethiopiam nomen Christi confitetur et predicat, preter so los Sarracenos et

~

quosdamTurcomannos, qui in Cappadocia sedemhabent, ita quod pro certoassero , sicut permemet ipsumv idi et ab aliis, qu ibus notumerat, audivi, quods emper in omni lo co et regno preterquamin Egypto et A rab ia, ubi plurimumhab itant Sarraceni et al ii Machometumsequentes, pro uno Sarraceno triginta vel

amplius invenies Christianos. Verumtamen, quod Christiani omnes transmarininatione sunt orientales, qui l icet sint Christiani, quia tamen usumarmorumnon

habentmultum, cumimpugnantur a Sarracenis, Tartaris, vel al iis quibuscumque,subiciuntur eis et tributis pacemet quietemcmunt, et Sarraceni sive ali i, qui eisdominantur, balivos suos et exactores in terris i llis ponunt. Et inde contigit,quod regnumillud dicitur esse Sarracenorum, cumtamen in rei veritate suntomnes Christiani preter ipsos balivos et exactores et aliquos de fami lia ipsorum,

s icut oculis meis vidi in C il icia'

et A rmenia minori, que est subdita dominioTartarorum.

”(Burchardi de Monte S ion Descriptio Terrae Sanctae, p.

G


under Muhammadanmasters,in the full enjoyment of their own

faith,and the Assises of Jerusalemmak e a distinction between

“ those who have den ied'

God and follow another law”and “all

those who have done armed service to the Sarracens and othermiscreants against the Christians for more than a year and a

day.

”1The native Christians certainly preferred the rule of theMuhammadans to that of the Crusaders ,2 and when Jerusalemfell final ly and for ever into the hands of the Muslims (A .D .

the Christian populat ion of Palestine seems to have welcomedthe new masters and to have submitted quietly and contentedlyto their rule .This same sense of security of religious life under Muslimruleled many of the Christiansof Asia Minor

,also

,about the same

time to welcome the advent of the Saljuq Turk s as their deliverersfromthe hated Byzantine government , no t only on account ofits oppressive systemof taxation

,bu t also of the persecuting

spirit of the Greek Church,which had with such cruelty crushed

the heresies of the Paul icians and the Iconoclasts . In the reignof Michael VIII . (1 2 6 1 the Turk s were often invited totak e possession of the smaller towns in the interior of Asia Minorby the inhabitants

,that theymight escape fromthe tyranny of

the empire and both rich and poor often emigrated into Turk ishdomin ions .‘1Some account still remains to be given of two other Christianchurches of Western Asia

,viz . the A rmen ian and the Georgian .

Of the former itmay be said that of all the Eastern churches thathave come under Muhammadan rule, the Armenian church hasprobably given fewer of itsmembers (in proportion to the size of

the community) to swell the rank s of Islam,than any other. So

1 Recuei l des historiens des Cro isades. A ssises de Jerusalem, tome 11. p . 3 2 5 .

2 Prutz, pp . 146 -7, 1 50.

3 The prelates o f the Ho ly Land wro te as fo l lows, in 1244, concerning the

invasion of the Lhwarizmians, whomSultan A yyub had called in to assist himindriving out the Crusaders Per totamterramusque ad partes Nazareth et

Saphet l ibere nullo resistente discurrunt, occupantes candem, et inter se quasipropriam dividentes, per vi llas et caz alia Christianoruin legatos et bajulos

praeficiunt, suscipientes a rusticis redditus et tributa, quae Christianis praestaresolebant, qui jamChristianis hostes effecti et rebelles dictis Corosminis univer

sal iter adhaeserunt. (Matthei Parisiensis Chronica Majora, ed. H. R . Luard,vo l. iv. p . 343 . (London, 1 8724 Finlay, vol. iii. p . 3 5 8 -9 . (J . H . Krause : Die Byzantiner des Mittelalters,

p. (Halle,


change of faith implied loss of polit ical independence—whichexplains in a great measure the fact that the Georgian churchinscribes the names of somanymartyrs in her calendar

,while the

annals of the Greek church during the same period have no suchhonoured roll to show.

I t was not until after Georgia had been overrun by the devastating armies of the Mongols , leaving ruined churches and

monasteries and pyramids of human heads to mark the progresso f their destroying hosts , and consequently the spiritual wants ofthe people had remained long unprovided for

,owing to the

decline in the numbers and learning of the clergy— that Christianity began to lose ground.

1 Even among those who stillremained Christian

,some added to the sufferings of the clergy ,

by plundering the property of the Church and appropriating totheir own use the revenues of churches and monasteries

,and

thus hastened the decay of the Christian fai th .

2

In 1400 the invasion of Timur added a crown ing horror to thesufferings of Georgia, and though for a brief period the rule ofAlexander I . (1414- 1442) delivered the country fromthe foreignyok e and drove out all the Muhammadans

,- after his death it was

again brok en up into a number of petty princedoms,fromwhich

the Turk s and the Persians wrested the last shreds of independence . But the Muhammadans always found Georgia to be a

turbulent and rebell ious possession, ever ready to break out intoo pen revolt at the slightest opportun ity. Both Turk s and

Persians sought to secure the allegiance of these troublesomesubjects by means of conversion to Islam. After the fall ofConstantinople and the increase of Turk ish power in AsiaMinor

,

the inhabitants of Ak haltsik he and other districts to the west ofi t became Muhammadans.3 In 1 5 79 two Georgian princesbrothers—came on an embassy to Constan tinople with a largeretinue of about two hundred person s here the younger brothertogether with his attendants became a Musalman

,in the hope (i t

was said) of thereby supplanting his elder brother .‘1 At a rather

later date,the conquests of the Turk s brought some of the

d istricts in the very centre of Georgia into their power, the

1Joselian, p . 1 2 5 . A ll the A p

’hk haz es , -Dj1k hethes, Ossetes, Kabardes and

K isthethes fell away fromthe Christian fa ith about this time.

2 Id. p . 1 27.3 Id. p . 143 .

4 David Chytraeus, p . 49 .

GEORGIA : 8 5

inhabitants of which embraced the creed of the conquerors .1

Fromthis period Samtz k hé, themost western portion of Georgia,recognised the suzerainty of Turk ey its ru lers and people wereallowed to continue undisturbed in the Christian faith , but from1 62 5 the rul ing dynasty became Muhammadan and gradually all

the chiefs and the aristocracy followed their example .Chris

‘

ianity retained its hold upon the peasants much longer ,but whe 1 the clergy of Samtz k hé refused al legiance to the

Katholik os of Karthli,there ceased to be regu lar provisionmade

for supplying the spiritual needs of the peop le the nobles , even

before their conversion,had tak en to p lundering the estates of

the church,and after becomingMusalmans they naturally ceased

to assist it with their offerings , and the chu rches andmonasteriesfall ing into decay were replaced bymosques .2The rest of Georgia had submitted to Persia

,and when

Tavern ier visited this part of the country,about themiddle of the

seventeenth century,he found it divided into two k ingdoms ,

which were provinces of the Persian empire,and were governed

by native Georgian princes who had to turn Muhammadan beforebeing advanced to this dign ity .

3 One of the first of such princeswas the Tsarevitch Constantine

,son of k ing Alexander II .

'

o f

Kak heth,who had been brought up at the Persian court and

had there embraced Islam,at the beginn ing of the seventeenth

century .

‘1 The first Muhammadan k ingof Karthli , the TsarevitchRustam (1 634 had also been brought up in Persia and

he and his successors to the end of the century were all

Muhammadans .11Tavern ier describes the Georgians as being very ignorant inmatters of religion and the clergy as unlettered and vicioussome of the heads of the church actual ly sold the Christian boysand girls as slaves to the Turk s and Persians .

‘1 Fromthis periodthere seems to have been a widespread apostacy

,especially

among the higher classes and those who sought to win the favour

1Joselian, p . 1 5 7.

2 Brosset, Il e. Partie , Ire l ivraison, pp. 2 27- 2 3 5 . D escription géographiquede la Georgie par le Tsarevitch Wak houcht, p . 79 . (St. Petersburg,3 The Six Voyages, p . 12 3 .

4Joselian , p . 149 .

5 Id. pp . 160- 16 1 .

5 Tavernier pp . 1 24, 1 26. He estimates the number of Muhammadans at

about twelve thousand . ( Id . p .


of the Persian court . 1 In 1703 the occupant of the throne ofKarthli

,Wak htang V .

,was a Christian for the first seven years

o f his reign he was a prisoner in Ispahan,where great efforts

were made to induce himto become a Muhammadan when hed eclared that he preferred to lose his throne rather than purchaseit at the price of apostacy, it is said that his younger brother,although he was the Patriarch of Georgia, offered to abandonChristianity and embrace Islam,

if the crown were bestowed uponhim

,but though invested by the Persians with the royal power,

the Georgians refused to accept himas their ruler,and drove him

out of the k ingdom.

11

Towards the close of the eighteenth century, the k ing ofGeorgia placed his people under the protection of the Russiancrown . Hitherto their intense patriotic feeling had helped tok eep the Christian faith alive among them so long as theirforeign invaders had been Musalmans

,but now that the foreign

power that sought to rob them of their independence wasChristian

,this same feeling operated in some of the districts

north of the Caucasus to the advantage of Islam. In Daghistan

a certain Darwesh Mansur endeavoured to un ite the d ifferen ttribes of the Caucasus to oppose the Russians ;preaching thefai th of Islam' he succeeded in converting the princes and noblesof Ubichistan and Daghistan , who have remained faithful toIslamever since many of the Circassians

,too

,were converted by

his preaching, and preferred exile to submitting to the Russianrule .3 But in 179 1 he was tak en prisoner , and in 1 800 Georgiawas formally incorporated in the Russian emp ire .

1 Brosset, IIe. Partie, Ire l ivraison, pp. 85 , 18 1 .

2 Documens originaux sur les relations d ip lomati ques de laGéorgie avec laFrance vers la fin du regne de Louis X IV ., recuei ll is parM . Brosset j eune. (J . A .

2 1“ Série, tome i x . pp . 197,2 Mack enzie, p. 7. Garnett, p. 194. In 1864more than half a mi ll ion

Muhammadan Circassiansmigrated into Turk ish territory.


mitted no act of spoliation or pillage.1 In the early days of theMuhammadan rule then

,the condition of the Copts seems to

have been fairly tolerable,21 and there is no evidence of their

widespread apostacy to Islambeing due to persecution or unjustpressure on the part of their new ru lers . Even before the con

quest was complete,while the capital

,Alexandria

,still held out ,

many of themwent over to Islam,3 and a few years later the

example these had set was followed by many others .‘ In the

reign of‘Uthman (643 - 65 5 the revenue derived from

Egypt amounted to twelve mill ions ;a few years later, in the

reign of Mu‘awiyah (66 1 i t had fallen to five million s

owing to the enormous number of conversions under ‘Umar II .(717-720) i t fell still lower, so that the governor of Egypt proposed that in future the converts shou ld not be exempted fromthe payment of the capitation - tax , but this the pious cal iphrefused to allow

,saying,

“ I should be glad if all the Christiansbecame Muslims

,for God sent His Prophet to be an apostle to

men and not a collector of taxes ! 5 In fact many of theChristians of Egypt seemto have abandoned Christiani ty as

lightly and as rapidly as,in the beginning of the fourth century ,

they had embraced it . Prior to that period,a very small section

of the popu lation of the val ley of the Nile was Christian,but the

sufferings of the martyrs in the persecu tion of Diocletian, thestories of themiracles they performed

,the national feeling excited

by the sense of their opposition to the dictates of the foreign

government,6 the assurance that a paradise ofdelights was openedto themartyr who died under the hands of his tormentors

,—all

these things stirred up an enthusiasm that “

resulted in an

1 John, Jacobite b ishop of N ik in (second half of seventh century) , p . 5 84.2 But the exactions and hardships that, accord ing to Maqriz i, the Copts had to

endure about seventy years after the conquest, hard ly al low us to extend thisperiodso far as Von Rank e does V on A egypten weiss man durch die bestimmtestenZeugnisse, dass sich die Einwohner in den nachsten Jahrhunderten unter derarabischen Herrschaft in einemertr

‘

a‘

glichen Zustand befunden haben.

”(Welt

geschichte, vo l. y . p . 1 5 3 . 4th ed. )1 John of N 1k 1u, p . 5 60.

Id. p . 5 85 . Or beaucoup des Egyptiens, qui étaient de faux chrétiens,renierent la sainte rel igion orthodoxe et le baptéme quidonne la vie, embrasserentla rel igion des Musulmans, les ennemis de D ieu, et accepterent la detestabledoctrine de ccmonstre, c’est-a-d ire de Mahomet ils partagerent l

’égarement de

ces ido latres et prirent les armes contre les chre’tiens.

”5 Dozy tome i . p . 2 2 5 .

11 Sans aucun doute il y eut dans lamultipl icité desmartyrs une sorte de resistance nationale contre les gouverneurs étrangers.

”A mélineau, p. 5 8 .

CONVERSION OF THE COPTS . 9

incredibly rapid spread of the Christian faith .

“ Instead of beingconverted by preaching, as the other countries of the East were ,Egypt embraced Christianity in a fit of wild enthusiasm, without

any preaching, or instruction being given , with hardly any k nowledge of the new religion beyond the name of Jesus , the Messiah ,who bestowed a l ife of eternal happiness on all who confessed

Him.

”1In the seventh century Christianity had probably very little hold

on a great mass of the peop le of Egypt . The theological catchwords that their leaders made use of, to stir up in them feelingsof hatred and opposition to the Byzantine government , couldhave been intelligible to a very few , and the rapid spread of Islamin the early days of the Arab occupation was p robably due less to

defin ite efforts to attract than to the inabil ity of such a Christian ityto retain . The theological basis for the existence of the Jacobites

as a separate sect , the tenets that they had so long and at so great

a cost struggled to maintain , were embodied in doctrines of themost abstruse and metaphysical character , and many doubtlessturned in u tter perplexity andweariness fromthe in terminable controversies that raged around them

,to a faith that was summed up

in the simple,intelligible truth of the Un ity ofGod and themission

of His Prophet , Muhammad. Even within the Coptic churchitself at a later period

,we find evidence of a movement which ,

if not d istinctly Muslim,was at least closely all ied thereto , and in

the absence of any separate ecclesiastical organ isation in which itmight find expression , p robably contributed to the increase of theconverts to Islam. In the beginn ing of the twelfth century, there

was in the monastery of St . Anthony (near Itfih on the Nile),mon k named Balutus, “ learned inthe doctrines of the Christianreligion and the dut ies of the monastic l ife

,and sk illed in the

rules of the canon law . But Satan caught himin one of his nets;for he began to hold opin ions at variance with those taught bythe Three Hundred and Eighteen (of Nicaea) and he corrupted

theminds ofmany of those who had no k nowledge or instruction

in the orthodox faith . He announced with his impuremouth , inhis wick ed discourses

,that Christ our Lord—to Whombe glory

—was lik e one of the prophets . He associated with the lowest

among the followers of ,

his religion , clothed as he was in themonastic habit . ‘

When he was questioned as to his religion and

1 A mélineau, p . 57-8 .


his creed,he professed himself a believer in the Unity of God.

His doctrines prevailed during a period which ended in the year83 9 of the Righteous Martyrs (A .D . 1 1 2 3 ) then he died , and hismemory was cut off for ever.”1Further

,a theory of the Christian l ife that found its highest

expression in asceticismof thegrossest type 2 could offer littleattraction

,in the face of themore humanmorality of Islam.

3 On

account of the large numbers of Copts that fromtime to timehave become Muhammadans

,they have come to be considered

by the followers of the Prophet as ‘much more incl ined to thefaith of Islamthan any other Christian sect , and though theyhave had to endure the most severe oppression and persecut iononmany occasions

,yet the Copts that have been thus driven to

abandon their faith are said to have been few in comparison withthose who have changed their religion

'

voluntarily,‘and even in

the present day;when Egypt is said to be themost tolerant of allMuhammadan countries

,there are yearly conversions of the

Copts to the Musl im faith .

5 Still,persecution and oppression

have undoubtedly played a very large part in the reduction of thenumbers of the Copts

,and the story of the sufferings of the

Jacobite church of Egypt , -

persecuted al ik e by their fellowChristians 6 and by the followers of the dominant faith

,is a very

sad one,andmany abandoned the religion of their fathers in order

to escape fromburdensome taxes and unendurable indign ities .The vast difference in this respect between their condition and

that of the Christians of Syria,Palestine and Spain at the same

period finds its explanation in the turbulent character of the Coptsthemselves. Their long struggle against the c ivi l and theological

1 A ht'

i Si lih, pp. 163 -4.2 Amélineau, pp. 5 3

-4, 69 -70.

3 A buSi lihgives an account of somemonk s that embraced the faith of theProphet, and these are probably representative of a larger number of whomtheh istorian has left no record ,

“

as lack ing the pecul iar c ircumstances of loss to themoqastery or of recantation thatmade such instances of interest to him(pp . 12 8 ,

142Lane. pp. 546. 549

5 L tittk e vo l . 1. pp. 30, 3 5 .1 One of the very first occasions on which the had to complain of excessive

taxation, was when Menas, the Christian prefect 0 LowerEgypt, extorted fromthe city of A lexandria, 3 2057 p ieces of go ld , instead of 2 2000 which ‘A mr hadfixed as the amount to be levied. (John ofNik iu, p. Renaudot (p . 168 ) saysthat after the restoration of the Orthodox hierarchy, about seventy years after theMuhammadan conquest, the Copts suffered asmuch at itshands as at the hands ofthe Muhammadans themselves.

92 .THE PREACHING OF ISLAM.

Saladin , they enjoyed the same toleration and favour,and had

nothing to complain of except the corruption and degeneracy of

their own clergy. Simony had become terribly rife among them;the priesthood was sold to ignoran t and vicious persons

,while

postulants for the sacred oflice who were unable to pay the sumsdemanded for ordination

,were repu lsed with scorn

,in spite of

their being worthy and fit persons . The consequence was thatthe spiritual andmoral trainingof the people was u tterly neglectedand there wasa lamentable decay of the Christian life .1 So corrupthad the church become that

,when

, on the death of John , theseventy - fourth Patriarch of the Jacobites, in 1 2 1 6

,a successor was

to be elected,the contending parties who pushed the claims of

rival candidates,k ept up a fierce and irreconc ilable dispu te for

nearly twenty years,and all this time cared less for the grievous

scandal and the harmful consequences of their shameless quarrelsthan for themaintenance of their dogged and obstinately factiousSpirit. On more than one occasion the reign ing sultan tried tomak e peace between the contending parties , refused the enormousbribes of three

,five

,and even ten thousand gold pieces that were

o ffered in order to induce himto secure the election of one of thecandidates by the pressure of oflicial influence

,and even offered to

remit the fee that it was customary for a newly- elected Patriarchto pay, if only they wou ld put aside their disputes and come tosome agreement ,— but all to no purpose . Meanwhile manyepiscopal sees fell vacan t and there was no one to tak e the placeof the bishops and priests that died in this interval;in themonastery of St . Macarius alone there were on ly four priests leftas compared with over eighty under the last Patriarch .

2 So

utterly neglected were the Christians of the western dioceses, thatthey al l became Musalmans.

11 To this bald statemen t of thehistorian of the Coptic church

, we unfortunately have no infor

mation to add,of the positive efforts made by the Musalmans to

bring these Christians over to their faith . That such there were,

1 Renaudot, p . 388 .

2 Id pp 567. 571. 574- 53 Wansleben, p . 30. Wansleben ment1ons another instance (under d1fferent

circumstances) o f the decay of the Coptic Church, in the island of Cyprus, whichwas formerly under the jurisd iction o f the Coptic Patriarch : here they were so

persecuted by the Orthodox c lergy, who enjoyed the protection of the Byzantineemperors, that the Patriarch could not induce priests to go there, and consequentlyall the Copts on the island either accepted Islamor the Counci l of Chalcedon ,

and their churches were all shut up. (Id. p .

CONVERSION OF“

THE NUBIANS . 93

there can be very little doubt , especially as we k now that theChristians held public dispu tations and engaged in written con

troversies on the respective merits of the rival creeds.1 Thatthese conversions were not due to persecution , we k now fromdirect historical evidence that during this vacancy of the patriar

chate,the Christians had full and complete freedomof public

worship,were allowed to restore their churches and even to build

new ones , were freed fromthe restrictions that forbade themtoride on horses ormu les, and were tried in law- courts of their own ,while themonk s were exempted fromthe payment of tribute andgranted certain privileges .

2

How far this inciden t is a typical case of conversion to Islamamong the Copts, i t is difficult to say;a p arallel case of neglectismentioned by two Capuchinmissionaries who travelled up theNile to Luxor in the seventeenth century

,where they found that

the Copts of Luxor had no priest,and some of themhad not gone

to confession or commun ion for fifty years}1 Under such circumstances the decay of their numbers canreadily be understood.A similar neglect lost to Christian ity the Nubian church whichrecogn ised the primacy of the .Jacobite Patriarch of Alexandria,as do the Abyssinians to the presen t day. The Nubians had beenconverted to Christian ity abou t the middle of the sixth century

,

and retained their independence when Egypt was conquered bythe Arabs ;a treaty wasmade apcording to which the Nubianswere to send every year three hundred black slaves

,ten monk eys

and one giraffe, while the Arabs were to furn ish themwith corn ,oil

and raiment . In the reign of A l Mu‘tasim(83 3 ambassadors

were sen t by the Cal iph renewing this treaty, and the k ing ofNubia visited the capital where he was received with greatmagnificence and dismissed with costly presents . ‘1 In the twelfthcentury they were still all Christian

,

5and retained their old

independence in spite of the frequent expeditions sent againstthemfromEgypt.6 In 1 275 the nephew of the then k ing ofNubia obtained from the Sultan of Egypt a body of troops toassist himin his revolt against his uncle , whomhe by their help

1 Renaudot, p. 377.2 Id. p . 75 .

11 Relation du voyage du Sayd ou de la Thebayde fait en 1668 , par les PP .

Prl

otaieet Charles-Franco is d

’orleans, Capuchins Missionaires, p. 3 . (Thevenot,

vo 11.

‘1 Chronique de M ichel le Grand, pp. 272 - 3 .

1 Idrisi, p. 32 .‘1 Maqriz i tome i. 2me partie, p. 13 1 .


succeeded in deposing;in return for this assistance he had tocede the two northernmost p rovinces of Nubia to the Sultan , andas the inhabitants elected to retain their Christian faith

,an annual

tribute of one dinar for each male was imposed upon them.1 B ut

this Muhammadan overlordship was temporary on ly,and the

Nubians of the ceded provinces soon re -asserted their inde

pendence .

2

In the latter half of the fourteenth century Ibn Batutah 3 tells usthat the Nubians .

'

were still Christians , though the k ing of their chiefcity

,Dongola,

4had embraced Islamin the reign of Nasir (probablyNasir ibn Qalium, one of the Mamluk Sultans of Egypt , Who died1 340 the repeated expeditions of the Muslims so late as thefifteenth century had not succeeded in pushing their conquestssouth of the first cataract

,near which was their last fortified p lace ,5

while Christ iani ty seems to have extended as far up the Nile as

Sennaar. But i t is probable that the progress of Islamin thecountry was all this time being promoted by t he Muhammadanmerchants and others that frequented it . Maqriz i (writing in theearly part of the fifteenth century) quotes one of thosemissionaryanecdotes which occur so rarely in the work s of Arabic authorsit is told by Ibn Salimu - l A swani

,and i s of in terest as giving us a

l iving picture of the Muslimpropagandist at work . Though theconvert referred to is neither a Christian nor a Nubian

,still the

story shows that there was such a thing as conversion to Islamin Nubia in the fifteenth century. Ibn Salimsays that he oncemet aman at the court of the Nubian chief of Muqurrah , whotold himthat he came froma city that lay threemonths’journeyfromthe Nile . When ask ed abou t his religion , he replied ,

“MyCreator and thy Creator is God the Creator of the universe andof all men i s One

,and His dwelling- place is in heaven .

”Whenthere was a dearth of rain

,or when pestilence attack ed themor

1 Maqriz i, pp . 128 - 130.

2 Burck hardt p . 494.

3 Vo l . iv. p. 396 .

‘1 Slatin Pasha records a tradition current among the Danagla A rabs that thistown was founded by their ancestor, Dangal , who cal led it after his own name .

(This however is impossible, inasmuch as D ongo la was in existence in ancientEgyptian times, and is mentioned on the monuments . See Vivien de SaintMartin, vol. i i . p . A ccording to their tradition , this Dangal , though a slave,rose to be ruler of N ubia, but paid tribute to Bahnesa, the Coptic b ishop o f theentire d istrict lying between the present Sarras and D ebba. (Fire and Sword inhe Sudan , p . (London,5 Ibn Salimu- l A swz

‘

ini, quoted byMaqriz i'

: Kitabud fi ritat, vol . i. p . 190.

(Cairo 1 270, A .H .)


there were churches.1 Before the close of the following century,Christian ity had entirely disappeared fromNubia “ for want ofpastors

,

”but the c losed churches were to be found still standingthroughout the whole country ? The Nubians had yielded to the

p owerful Muhammadan influences that surrounded them,to which

the proselytising efforts of the Muslims who had travelled inNubia for centuries past no doubt contributed a great deal ;onthe north were Egypt

'

and the Arab tribes that hadmade theirway up the Nile and extended their authority along the bank s ofthat river ;2 on the south

,the Muhammadan state of the Belloos

,

separating themfromAbyssin ia. These Belloo s,in the early part

of the sixteenth cen tury,were

,in spite of their Muslimfaith

,

t ributaries of the Christian k ing of Abyssin ia4 and— if theymaybe identified with the Baliyun, who , together with their neighbours ,the Bajah (the inhabitants of the so - cal led island of Meroe), arespok en of by Idrisi, in the twelfth century, as being JacobiteChristians

,

5 —it is probable that they had only a few years beforebeen converted to Islam

,at the same time as the Bajah

,who had

been incorporated into the Muhammadan empire of the Funj,

when these latter extended their conquests in 1499 - 1 5 30 fromthesouth up to the borders of Nubia and Abyssinia and founded the

p owerfu l state of Sennaar. When the army of Ahmad Gragneinvaded Abyssinia and made its way right through the country

fromsouth to north , i t effected a junction abou t 1 5 34with the

army of the Sultan of Maseggia or Mazaga, a province underMuhammadan rule but tributary to Abyssinia, lying between thatc ountry and Sennaar ;in the army of this Sultan there were

Nubian sold iers who, fromthe account given of t hem,

appear to have been Musalmans.

6 Fragmentary and insufficientas these data of the conversion of the Nubians are , we may cer

tainly conclude fromall we k now of the independent character

o f this people and the tenacity with which they clung to theChristian faith

,so long as i t was a l iving force among them,

thatt heir change of religion was a voluntary one and could neverhave been forced upon themby pressure fromwithout .Let us now pass to the history of Islamamong the Abyssin ians ,1 Viaggio nella Ethiopia al Prete Ianni fatto par D on Francesco A lvarez

Portughese ( 1 5 20 (Ramusio , tom. i .pp

. 200, 502 \Vansleben, p . 30. Burck hardt ( 1) , p. 133 .

A lvarez, p . 2 50.5 Idrisi, p. 32 .

11 N eraz z ini, p . 1 57, etc.

ABYSSINIA. 97

who had received Christian ity two centuries before the Nubians ,and lik e thembelonged to the Jacobite church .

The tide ofArab emigration does not seemto have set acrossthe Red Sea, the western shores of which formed part of theAbyssin ian k ingdom,

unti l many centuries after Arabia had

accepted the faith of the Prophet . Up to the tenth centu ry onlya few Muhammadan families were to be found residing in the

coast towns of Abyssinia,but at the end of the twelfth century the

foundation of an Arab dynasty al ienated some of the coast - landsfrom the Abyssinian k ingdom. In 1 300 a

'missionary,named

A bn ‘Abdu - llah Muhammad ,made his way into Abyssin ia, cal lingon the people to embrace Islam

,and in the following year, having

collected around him men,he attack ed the ru ler of

Amhara in several engagements .1 At the close of the samecentury the d isturbed state of the country, owing to the civilwars that distracted it

,made it possible for the various Arab

settlemen ts along the coast to mak e themselves masters of theent ire seaboard and drive the Abyssin ians into the interior. In

the early part of the sixteenth century,while the powerfu l Muhammadan k ingdomof Adel , between Abyssin ia and the sou thernextremity of t he Red Sea, and some others were bitterly hostileto the Christian power

,there were others again that formed

peaceful tributaries of “ Prester John”;e .g. in Massowah there

were Arabs who k ept the flock s of the Abyssin ian seigniors ,wandering abou t in bands of thirty or forty with their wives andchildren

,each band having i ts Christian

“captain .

”2 SomeMusalmans are alsomentioned as being in the Service of the k ingand being entrusted by himwith important posts ;3 while someof these remained faithful to Islam

,others embraced the prevailing

religion of the country. What was implied in the fact of theseMuhammadan communities being tributaries of the k ing

‘

ofAbyssinia

,it i s difficult to determine . The Musalmans of Adia

had along with other tribute to give up every year to the k ing a

maiden who had to become a Christian this customwas in

accordance with an ancient treaty, which the k ing of Abyssiniahas alwaysmade themobserve

,

“ because he was the stronger”

besides this, they were forbidden to carry, arms or put on war

1 Maqriz i tome 11. 2 1110 partie, p . 183 .

2 A lvarez . (Ramusio , tom. 1. pp . 2 18, 242 ,3 N eraz z ini

, pp . 33 , 82 .


apparel, and if they rode , their horses were not to be saddled ;

“ these orders,

”they said , “we have always obeyed, so that the

k ing may no t put us to death and burn ourmosques. Everyyear the k ing sends his people to fetch themaiden we tak e and

wash her,and putting her on a. bed

,cover her with a cloth then

we carry her to the door of the house and chant the prayers forthe dead over her and give her up to the people of the k ing;andthus did our fathers and our grandfathers before us.

”1These Muhammadan tributaries were chiefly to be found in

the low - lying countries that formed the northern boundary ofAbyssinia, fromthe Red Sea westward to Sennaar

,2 and on the

sou th and the south- east of the k ingdom.

2 What influence theseMuhammadans had on the Christian populations with which theywere intermingled , and whether theymade converts to Islamas

in the present century,is matter only of conjecture . Certain it

is, however, that when the independent Muhammadan ru ler ofAdel , Ahmad Gragne—himself said to have been the son of aChristian priest of A ijjo , who had left his own country and

adopted Islamin that of the Adels 4— invaded Abyssinia from1 5 2 8

to 1 543 ,many Abyssin ian chiefs with their followers j oined his

v ictorious army and became Musalmans, and though the Christianpopulations of some d istricts preferred to pay tribute ,5 othersembraced the religion of the conqueror.6 But the contemporaryMuslimhistorian himself tells us that in some cases this conversionwas the result of fear

,and that suspicions were entertained of the

genuineness of the allegiance of the new converts .7 But suchapparently was not un iversally the case , and the widespreadcharacter “of the conversions in several districts give the impressiono f a popularmovement. The Christian chiefs who went over toIslamundoubtedly did so of their own free will

,and could only

have made use of their personal influence and the arts of persuasion in inducing their tr00ps to follow their example . Theywere

,as we are told

,in some cases very ignoran t of their own

religion ,8 and thu s the change of faith was a less difficultmatter.

Particu larly instrumental in conversions of this k ind were thoseMuhammadan chiefs who had previously entered the service of

1 Neraz z ini, p . 1 27.

2 Id. pp. 1 54-

5 .

2 Id. pp.

.

1 1 , 14, 5 2 , 1 27. Plowden, p . 36 .

5 N eraz z ini , pp . 1 5 5 , 166 , 172 .5 Id . pass1m.

7 Id. pp . 73 , 84, 1 13 .9 Id. p . 74.


.to thrust their way right into the very centre of the country,

where their settlements remain to the present day.

The progress achieved by Islamduring this period may beestimated from the testimony of a traveller of the seventeenthcentury

,who tells us that in his time the adherents of this faith

were scattered throughout the whole of Abyssin ia and formed a

third of the entire population .

1 During the following centurythe faith of the Prophet seems steadily to have increased bymeansof the conversion of isolated ind ividuals here and there . The

absence of any strong central government in the coun try favouredthe rise of petty independent Chieftains

,many of whomhad strong

Muhammadan sympathies,though (in accordance with a funda

mental law of the state) all the Abyssin ian princesmust belong tothe Christian faith the Muhammadans

,too

,asp iring to the dign ity

of the Abyssin ian aristocracy,abjured the faith in which they had

been born and pretended conversion to Christian ity in order to

get themselves en rolled in the order of the nobles,

and as

governors of Christian provinces made use of all their influencetowards the spread of Islam? One of the chief reasons of thesuccess of this faith seems to have been the moral superiority of

the Muslims as compared with that of the Christian population of

Abyssin ia. Riippell says that he frequently noticed in the courseof his travels in Abyssin ia that when a post had to be fi lled whichrequ ired that a thoroughly honest and trustworthy person shou ldbe selected

,the choice always fell upon a Muhammadan . In

comparison with the Christians,he says that they were more

active and energetic ;that every Muhammadan had his sonstaught to read and write

,whereas Christian children were only

educated when they were in tended for the priesthood ? Thismoral superiority of the Muhammadans of Abyssin ia over theChristian population go

'

es far to explain the continuous thoughslow progressmade by Islamduring the last and present centuries;

1 H isto ire de la Haute Ethiop ic, par ls R . P. Manoel d’A lmeida, p. 7.

(Thevenot, vol.2 Massaja, vo l. i i . pp. 205

- 6 . Ognuno comprende che movente di questeconversioni essendo la sete di regnare, nel fatto non si riducevano che ad una

formal i ta esterna, restando poi i nuovi convertiti verimussulmani nei cuori e nei

costumi. Epercio accadeva che, elevati alla dignita di Ras, si c ircondavano dimussulmani, dando ad essi lamaggiorparte degl i imp ieghi e colmandoli di tito l i ,ricchezze e favori e cosi l

’A bissinia cristiana invasa e popo lata daquesta pessima

razza, passb co ll’andar del tempo sotto il giogo del l

’ islamismo . (Id. p.

Riippell, vo l . i . pp . 328, 366.

ABYSSINIA. 101

the degradation and apathy of the Abyssinian clergy and the

interminable feuds of the Abyssinian chiefs,have left Muham

madan -influences free to work“

undisturbed. Mr. Plowden,who

was English consu l in Abyssinia from 1 844 to 1 860,speak ing of

the Hababs,a pastoral tribe dwelling between 1 6

°and 17

°

30’

lat. ,

to the north -west of Massowah,says that they have become

Muhammadan within the last 100 years,and al l

,save the latest

generation , bear Christian names. They have changed theirfaith

,through the constant influence of the Muhammadans with

whom they trade,and through the gradual and now entire

abandonment of the country by the Abyssin ian chiefs,toomuch

o ccupied in ceaseless wars with their neighbours .”1 Other sections

of the popu lation of the no rthern d istricts of the country weresimilarly converted to Islamduring the same period , because thepriests had abandoned these districts and the churches had beensuffered to fall into ru ins

,— apparently entirely through neglect,

as the Muhammadans here are said to have been by no meansfanatical nor to have borne any particular enmity to Christianity ?Similar testimony to the progress of Islam in the early part ofthis century is given by other travellers ,

3 who found numbers ofChristians to be cont inually passing over to that faith . TheMuhammadans were especially favoured by Ras Aly

,one of the

vice - regents of Abyssin ia and practical lymaster of the countrybefore the accession of King Theodore in 1 8 5 3 . Though himselfa Christian

,he distributed posts and even the spoils of the churches

among the followers of Islam,and during his reign one half of the

population of the central provinces of Abyssin ia embraced thefaith of the Prophet . ‘1 Such deep roots has this faith now struckin Abyssinia that its followers have in their hands all the commerce as well as all the petty trade of the country

,enjoy vast

possessions , aremasters of large towns and central mark ets , andhave afirmhold upon the mass of the people . Indeed , aChristianmissionary who lived for thirty - five years in this country

,rates

the success and the zeal of the Muslimpropagandists so high as tosay that were another Ahmad Gragne to arise and unfurl thebanner of the Prophet

,the whole of Abyssinia wou ld become

1 Plowden, p . 1 5 .2 Id . pp . 8 - 9.3 Bek e , pp . 5 1 - 2 . Isenberg, p . 36.1 Rec lus, vo l . x . p . 247. Massaja, vol. xi . p. 1 2 5 .


Muhammadan .

1 Embroilments with the Egyptian government(with .

which Abyssin ia was at war from 1 875 to 1 882) brought

about a revu lsion of feeling against‘

Muhammadan ism .hatred of

the foreign Muslimfoe re- acted upon their co - religion ists withinthe border. In 1 878 , King John II . summoned a Convocation of

the Abyssin ian clergy , who proclaimed him supreme arbiter inmatters of faith and ordained that there should be but one religionthroughout the whole k ingdom. Christians of all sects otherthan the Jacobite were given two years in which to becomereconciled to the national church ;the Muhammadans were tosubmit within three

,and the heathen within five

,years . A few .

days later the k ing promulgated an edict that showed how littleworth was the three years’ grace allowed to the Muhammadans;for not only did he order them to bu ild Christian churcheswherever they were needed and to pay tithes to the priestsresident in their respective districts , but also gave three months’notice to all Muhammadan offi cials to either receive baptismor.

resign their posts . Such compu lso ry conversion (consisting as i tdid merely of the rite of baptismand the payment of tithes) wasnaturally of the most ineffectual character , and while ou twardlyconforming, the Muslims in secret protested their loyalty to theiro ld faith . Massaja saw some such go straight fromthe church in.

which they had been baptised to themosque , in order to havethis enforced baptismwiped off by some holyman of their ownfaith ? Thesemass conversions were rendered themore ineffectualby being confined to themen

,for as the royal edict hadmade no

mention of the women they were in no waymolested ,— a circumstance that will probably prove to be of con siderable significancein the future history of Islamin Abyssin ia

,as Massaja

.

bearsstrik ing testimony to the important part the Muhammadan womenhave played in the diffusion of their faith in this country.

3 By

1 880 King John i s said to have compelled about Muhammadams to be baptised

,as well as members of one of the

pagan tribes and a hal f a mill ion of Gallas .‘1 Seeing that thei rconversion has gone no further than baptismand the paymen t oftithes

,it i s no t surprising to learn that the on ly result of these

violentmeasures has been to increase the hatred and hostility of

both the Muslim and the heathen Abyssinians towards the

1 Massaja, vol . xi . p. 124.2 Id. vo l . xi . pp . 77-8 .

5 Id. pp . 124, 1 2 5 .1 Oppel , p . 307 Reclus. Tome x. p. 247.


abundance,but of actual religious persecu tion we have little

ment ion,and the survival of the native Christian church formore

than eight centuries after the Arab conquest is a testimony tothe toleration that alone could have rendered such a survivalpossible.The causes that brought about the decay _

of Christian ity inNorth Africamust be sought for elsewhere than in the bigotry ofMuhammadan rulers . But before attempting to enumerate these ,i t will be well to realise how very small must have been thenumber of the Christian popu lation at the end of the seventhcentury— a c ircumstance that renders its con t inued existenceunder Muhammadan ru le stil lmore significan t of the absence offorced conversion

,and leaves such a hypothesis much less plausi

bility thanwou ld have been the case had the Arabs found a largeand flourishing Christian church there when they commencedtheir conquest of northern Africa.

The Roman provinces of Africa,to which the Christian popula

t ion was confined,never extended far southwards ;the Sahara

forms a barrier in this direction,so that the breadth of the coast

seldomexceeds 80 or 100mi les .1 Though there were asmany as5 00 bishoprics just before the Vandal conquest , this number canserve as no criterion of the number of the faithfu l

,owing to the

practice observed in the African church of . appointing bishops tothe most inconsiderable towns and very frequently to the mosto bscure villages,2 and i t is doubtful whether Christian ity everspread far inland among the Berber tribes ? When the power ofthe Roman Empire decl ined in the fifth century

,different tribes

o f this great race , k nown to the Romans under the names ofMoors

,Numidians

,Libyans

,etc .

,swarmed up fromthe south to

ravage and destroy the wealthy c ities of the coast. These invaders were certainly heathen. The Libyans, whose devastationsare so pathetically bewai led by Synesius of Cyrene, p illaged and

burn t the churches and carried ofl'

the sacred vessels for theirown idolatrous rites

,

‘1 and this province of Cyrenaica never recovered from their devastation s

,and Christianity was probably

almost extinct here at the time of the Muslim invasion . The

Gibbon, vol . 1. p . 16 1 .Id . vol . i i . p . 2 12 .

3 C . O. Castigl ioni : Recherches sur les Berberes A tlantiques, pp . 96 -7.

(Milan,4 Synesii Catastasis. (M igne : Patr.Gr. Tom. lxvi . p .

THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH OF NORTH AFRICA . 105

Moorish Chieftain in the district of Tripolis , who was at war with

the Vandal k ing Thorismund (496 but respected thechurches and clergy of the

"

orthodox,who had been ill - treated by

the Vandals,declared his heathen ism' when he said

,

“ I do no t

k now who the God of the Christians is, but if he isso powerfu las he is represented, he will tak e vengeance on those who insu lt

him,and succour those who do himhonour .”1 There is some

probability that the nomads of Mauritan ia also were very largelyheathen .

But whatever may have been the extent of the Christianchurch

,it received a blow from the Vandal persecu tions from

which it never recovered .

’

For nearly a century the ArianVandals persecuted the orthodox with relentless fury;sent theirbishops into exile

,forbade the public exercise of their religion

and cruelly tortured those who refused to conformto the religionof their conquerors ? When in 5 34, Belisarius crushed the powerof the Vandals and restored North Africa to the Roman Empire

,

only 2 17 bishops met in the Synod of Carthage 3 to resume thedirection of the Christian church . After the fierce and longcontinued persecution to which they had been subjected, thenumber of the faithfu l mu st have been verymuch reduced

,and

during the century that elapsed before the comingof the Muhammadans

,the inroads of the barbarian Moors

,who shu t the Romans

up in the cities and other centres of popu lation , and k ept themoun tains

,the desert and the Open country for themselves

,

‘1 theprevalent disorder and ill -government , and above all the desolating plagues that signalised the latter half of the sixth century

,

all combined to carry on the work of destruction . Five mi llionso f Africans are said to have been consumed by the wars andgovernmen t of the Emperor Justin ian . The wealthier citizensabandoned a country whose commerce and agricu lture , once soflourishing, had been irretrievably ruined .

“ Such was the desolation of Africa

,that in many parts a stranger might wander

whole days withou tmeeting the face either ofa friend or an enemy.

The nation of the Vandals had d isappeared they once amountedto an hundred and sixty thousand warriors

,without including

the children,the women

,or the slaves . Their numbers were

1 N eander p . 320.

2 Gibbon, vol. iv.pp. 3 3 1 - 3 .

3 Id. vol . v. p. 1 15 .1 A t Tijani, p. 201 . Gibbon, vol. v. p . 122 .


infini tely surpassed by the number of Moorish families extirpatedin a relentless war;the same destruction was retal iated on the

Romans and their .allies,who perished by the climate , their

mutual quarrels,and .the rage of the barbarians.

”1In 646, the year before the victorious Arabs advanced fromEgypt to the subjugation of the western province , the African

Church that had championed so often the purity of Christiandoctrine, was sti rred to its depths by the struggle against Monotheletism but when the bishops of the four ecclesiastical provincesin the archbishopric of Carthage , viz . Mauritan ia, Numidia,Byzacena and Africa Proconsularis

,held councils to condemn

Monotheletism,and wrote synodal letters to the Emperor and

the Pope , there were only sixty - eight bishops who assembled at

Carthage to represen t the last -mentioned province , and forty - two

for Byz acena. The numbers fromthe other two dioceses are notgiven , but the Christian population had undoubtedly sufferedmuchmore in these than in the two other dioceses which were nearerto the seat of government? It is exceedingly unlik ely that anyof the bishops were absen t on an occasion that excited somuchfeeling, when zeal for Christian doctrine and political an imosityto the Byzantine court both combined in stimulating this movement

,and when Africa took themost prominent part in stirring

up the opposition that led to the conven ing of the great LateranCounc il of 648 . This diminution in the number of the Africanbishops certainly points to a vast decrease in the Christianpopulation , and in consideration of the numerous causes contributing to a decay of the population , too great stress evenmustno t be laid upon the number of these

,because an episcopal see

may be continued to be filled long after the diocese has sunk intoinsignificance.

Fromthe considerations enumerated above , itmay certainly beinferred that the Christian popu lation at the time of the Muhammadan invasion was by no means a large one . During the fiftyyears that elapsed before the Arabs assured their

l

victory,the

Christian population was still further reduced by the devastationsof this long confl ict . The city of Tripolis , after sustaining a siege

1 Gibbon, vol . v. p . 2 14.

2 N eander vo l . v. . .E T . Wiltsch : Hand book of the

geography and statistics ofpz

the5church. (London, vo l . i . pp. 433 4.

I . Bournichon : L’InvasionMusulmane en A frique, pp . 3 2 3 ('

l ours,


The very slowness of i ts decay is a testimony to the tolerationi tmust have received. About 300 years after the Muhammadanconquest there were still nearly forty bishoprics left

,1 and when in

105 3 Pope Leo IX . laments that only five bishops cou ld be foundto represent the once flourishing African church

,2 the cause is

most probably to be sought for in the terrible bloodshed and

destruction wrought by the Arab hordes that had poured into thecountry a few years before and fi lled it with incessant confl ict andanarchy.

3 In 1076, the African church cou ld no t provide thethree bishops necessary for the consecration of an aspirant to thedignity of the episcopate , in accordance with the demands ofcanon law

,and i t was necessary for Pope Gregory VII . to couse

crate two bishops to act as coadjutors of the Archbishop ofCarthage ;but the numbers of the faithfu l were still so large asto demand the creation of fresh bishops to l ighten the burden ofthe work

,which was too heavy for these three bishops to perform

unaided .

4 In the course of the next two cen turies,the Christian

church decl ined still further,and in 1 246 the bishop of Morocco

conquered Tunis in 1 1 5 9 . See De Mas Latrie. (2 ) pp . 77- 8 .

“D eux auteursarabes, Ibn-al A thir, contemporain, mais vivant a Damas aumi l ieu de l’exaltationrel igieuse que provoquaient les victo ires de Saladin, l

’autre El-

’

l 1djan1 visitantl’A frique orientale au quatorzieme siecle, ont écrit que le sultan,maitre de Tunis,forca les chrétiens et les juifs étab l is dans cette vi lle a embrasser l’islamisme, et

que les réfractaires furent imp itoyablement massacrés. N ous doutons de la

réal i té de toutes cesmesures. Si l’arret fatal fut pronoucé dans l’emportement du

triomphe et pour satisfaire quelques exigences momentanées, il dut etre é ludéou révoqué

, tant il était contraire an princ ipe de la l iberté rel igieuse respectéjusque

- la par tous les princes maugrebins. Ce qu’il y a de certain, c

’est que les

chré tiens et les juifs me tarderent pas a repara1tre a Tunis et qu’on vo it les

chrétiens avant la fin du regne d’A bd -el Moumen etablis a Tunis et y jouissant

comme par le passé de la l iberté, de leu1s établissements, de leur commerce et deleur rel igion ‘ A ccompagné ainsi par D ieumeme dans samarche , dit nuanc ien auteur maugrebin, il traversa victorieusement les terres du Zab et de

l’Ifrik iah, conquérant le pays et les vi l les, accordant l

’aman aceux qui le deman

daient et tuant les re’

calcztrants.’Ces derniers mots confirment no tre sentiment

sur sa po l itique a l’égard des chrétiens qui accepterent l

’arret fatal de la

destinée.

1 D e Mas Latrie pp . 27- 8 .

2 S . Leonis IX . Papac Ep ist. lxxxi i i . (M igne : Patr. Lat. Tom. cxlii i . p .

This letter deals w ith a quarrel for precedence between the b isho ps o f Gummiand Carthage, and it is quite possible that the d isordered cond ition o f A frica atthe time may have k ept the A frican bishops ignorant o f the condition o f othersees besides their own and those immediately adjacent, and that accordingly theinformation suppl ied to the Pope represented the number of the bishops as beingsmaller than it real lywas.3 A . Muller, vo l ii. pp . 628 9 .

4 S. Gregorii VII. Ep isto la xix . (Liber tertius.) (Migne : Patr. Lat. Tom.

cxlvi ii. p .

DECAY OF CHRISTIANITY IN NORTH AFRICA. 109

was the sole spiritual leader of the remnant of the native church .

1

Up to the'

same period traces of the survival of Christian ity werestill to be found among the Kabils of A lgeria 9 these tribes hadreceived some slight instruction in the tenets of Islamat an earlyperiod

,but the new faith had tak en very little hold upon them

,

and as years went by,they lost even what l ittle k nowledge they

had at first possessed,so much so that they even forgot the

Muslimformula of prayer. Shut up in theirmountain fastnessesand jealous of their independence

,they successfully resisted the

introduction of the Arab element into theirmidst,and thus the

difliculties in the way of their conversion were very considerable .

Some unsuccessful attempts to start amission among themhad

been made by the inmates of a monastery belonging to the

Qadariyah order, Sajiatu - l Hamra, but the honour of winning an

entrance among them for the Musl imfaith was reserved for anumber of Andalusian Moors who were driven out of Spain afterthe tak ing of Granada in 149 2 . They had tak en refuge in thismonastery and were recognised by the shayg to be eminentlyfitted for the arduou s task that had previously so completelybaffled the efforts of his disciples . Before dismissing themon

this pious errand,he thus addressed them “ It i s a duty incum

bent upon us to bear the torch of Islam into these regions thathave lost their inheritance in the blessings of religion for theseunhappy Kabils are wholly unprovided with schools , and have noshaykh to teach their children the laws ofmoral ity and the virtuesof Islam;so they live lik e the brute beasts , without God or

religion . To do away with this unhappy state of things, I havedetermined to appeal to your religious zeal and en l ightenment .Let no t these mountaineers wallow any longer in their pitiableignorance of the grand truths of our religion ;go and breatheupon the dying fire of their faith and re- illumine its smoulderingembers;purge themof whatever errors may still cling to themfromtheir former belief in Christian ity ;mak e themunderstandthat in the religion of our Lord Muhammad—may God havecompassion upon him- dirt is not

,as mthe Christian religion ,

look ed upon as acceptable in the eyes of God .

3 I will not d1sguise

1 D e Mas Latrie, p . 2 2 6.

9 C . Trumelet Les saints de l’Islam(Paris, p . xxxiii3 Compare the articles pub l ished by a junta held at Madrid in 1 566, for the

reformation of the Moriscoes;one of which runs as fo l lows : “ That neither

-1 10 THE PREACHING OF ISLAM .

fromyou the fact that your task is beset with difficult ies , butyour irresistible zeal and the ardour of your faith will enable you,by the grace ofGod, to

*

overcome all obstacles . Go,my children,

and bring back again to God and His ~ Prophet these unhappy

people who are wallowing in the mire of ignorance and unbelief.Go

,my children

,bearing the message of salvation , andmay God

b e with you'

and uphold you .

”

Themissionaries started off in part ies of five or six at a time invarious directions they went in rags , staff in hand , and choosingo ut the wildest and least frequented parts of the mountains ,e stablished hermi tages in caves and clefts of the rock s. Theirausterities and prolonged devotions soon excited the curiosity ofthe Kabils

,who after a short time began to enter into friendly

relations with them. Little by little themissionaries gained theinfluence they desired through their k nowledge of medicine, of

‘the mechanical arts,and other advantages of civilisation , and

each hermitage became a centre of Muslimteaching. Students,

attracted by the learn ing of the new - comers, gathered round

themand in time became missionaries of Islamto their fellow~countrymen

,until their faith spread throughout all the country

o f the Kabils and the villages of the Algerian Sahara.

l

The above incident i s no doubt illustrat ive of the manner inwhich Islamwas introduced among such other sections of theindependent tribes of the interior as had received any Christiant eaching, but whose k nowledge of this faith had dwindled down

to the observance of a few superstitious rites 9;for , cut off as theywere fromthe rest of the Christian world and unprovided withspiritual teachers

,they could have had l ittle in the way of

p ositive religious belief to oppose to the teachings of the Muslimmissionaries .There is l ittle more to add to these sparse records of the decay

themselves, their women. nor any other persons should be permitted to wash or

bathe themselves either at home or elsewhere ;and that all their bathing housesshould be pulled down and demo l ished .

”0. Morgan, vo l . i i . p .

1 C . Trumelet Les Saints de l’Islam, pp . xxvi i i - xxxvi .2 Leo A fricanus saysthat at the end of the fifteenth century all themountaineers

o f A lgeria and of Buggia, though Muhammadans, painted b lack crosses on theirc heek s and palmof the hand. (Ramusio i . p . 6 1 ) simi larly the Barn? Mzab to

the present day sti ll k eep up some rel igious Observances con esponding to excommunication and confession (Oppel . p . and some nomad tribes of the

Sahara observe the practice of a k ind o f baptismand use the cross as a decorationfor their stuffs and weapons. (De Mas Latrie p .

CHAPTER V .

THE SPREA D OF ISLA M A MONG THE CHRISTIA NS or SPA IN .

IN 71 1 the victorious Arabs introduced Islaminto Spain in‘

1 502

an edict of Ferdinand and Isabella forbade the exercise of theMuhammadan religion throughout the k ingdom. During the

centuries that elapsed between these two dates,Musl imSpain

had written one of the brightest pages in the history ofmediaevalEurope. She had inaugurated the age of chivalry and her influence had passed through Provence into the other countries ofEurope

,bringing into birth a new poetry and a new culture

,and

it was fromher that Christian scholars received what of Greekphilosophy and science they had to stimulate their mentalactivity up to the time of the Renaissance . But these triumphsof the civilised l ife—art and poetry

,science and philosophy—we

must pass over here and fix our attention on the religious cond ition of Spain under the Musl imrule .

When the Muhammadans first brought their religion intoSpain they found Catholic Christianity firmly established after itsconquest over Arianism. The sixth Council of Toledo had

enacted that all k ings were to swear that they would no t sufler

the exercise of any other religion but the Catholic,and would

vigorously enforce the law against all dissentients , while a subse

quent law forbade anyone under pain of confiscation of his property and perpetual imprisonment

,to call in question the Holy

Catholic and Apostolic Church,the Evangelical Institutions, the

definitions of the Fathers,the decrees of the Church

,and the

Holy Sacraments . The clergy had gained for their order a preponderating influence in the affairs of the State ;1 the bishopsand chief ecclesiastics sat in the national councils

,whichmet to

Baudissin, p . 2 2 .

SPAIN BEFORE THE ARAB CONQUEST . 1 13

settle the most important business of the realm,ratified the

e lection of the k ing and claimed the right to depose him if herefused to abide by their decrees. The Christian clergy took

advantage of their power to persecute the Jews who formed a

very large commun ity in Spain ;edicts of a brutally severecharacter were passed against such as refused to be baptised l ;and they consequently hailed the invading Arabs as their

deliverers fromsuch cruel oppression,they garrisoned the cap

tured c ities on behalf of the conqueror and opened the gates oftowns that were being besieged.

2

The Muhammadans received as warm a welcome fromthe.slaves

,whose condition under the Gothic rule wasaverymiserable

one,and whose k nowledge of Christian ity was too superfic ial to

h ave any weight when compared with the liberty and numerousadvantages they gained , by throwing in their lot with theMusalmans.

These down - trodden slaves were the first converts to Islamin

S pain . The remnants of the heathen popu lation of which wefi ndmention as late as 693 A .D .

,3 probably followed their example .

Many of the Christian nobles,also

,whether fromgenu ine con

v iction or fromothermotives, embraced the new creed .

4 Manyvconverts were won , too , fromthe lower and middle classes

,who

may well have embraced Islam,no t merely outwardly

,but from

genu ine conviction , turn ing to it froma religion whose ministershad left them ill - instructed and uncared for

,and busied with

worldly ambitions had p lundered and oppressed their flock s.

5

Having once become Muslims, these Spanish converts showedthemselves zealous adherents of their adopted faith

,and they and

their children joined themselves to the Puritan party of the rigidMuhammadan theologians as against the careless and luxuriousl ife of the Arab aristocracy.

6 At the time of the Muhammadanc onquest the old Gothic virtues had declined and given place toeffeminacy and corruption , so that the Muhammadan rule appearedto Christian theologians to be a pun ishment sent fromGod on

those who had gone astray into the paths of vice .7

1 Helfferich , p . 68 .

2 A l Mak k ari‘

, vo l . i . pp . 2 80- 2 .

3 Baudissin, p . 7.

4 D ozy tome i i . p . 45- 6 .

5 A . M iiller, vo l . 11 . p . 463 .

6 D ozy tome i i . pp . 44- 6 .

7 So St. Boniface (A .D . 745 , Epist. lx11 ) “ Sicut aliis gentibus Hispaniae et

Provinciae et BurgundionumpOpulis contigit, quae sic a Deo recedentes fornicatae

sunt, donec index omnipotens talium criminumultrices poenas per ignorantiam


As time went on,matters do no t seemto have mended them

selves and when Christian bishops took part in the revels of theMuhammadan court

,when episcopal sees were put up to auction

and even atheists appointed as shepherds of the faithful,and

these in their turn bestowed the office of the priesthood on lowand unworthy persons ,1 wemay well suppose that it was no t onlyin the province of Elvira 2 that Christians turned froma religion ,

the corrupt lives of whoseministers had brought it into d iscredit}and sought a more congen ial atmosphere for the moral andSp iritual l ife in the pale of Islam.

Had ecclesiastical writers cared to chron icle them,Spain would

doubtless be found to offer instances of many aman leaving the

Christian church lik e Bodo,a deacon at the French court in the

reign of Lou is the Pious ,‘

who in 83 8 A .D . became a Jew ,in order

that (as he said), forsak ing his sinful l ife, he might “abide steadfast in the law of the Lord .

”4It is very possible , too , that the lingering remains of the o ld

Gothic Arian ism— of which,indeed

,there had been some slight

revival in the Span ish church just before the Arab conquest 5

may have predisposedmen’s minds to accept the new faith whose

Christology was in such close agreement with Arian doctrine .6Of forced conversion or anything l ik e persecution in the earlydays of the Arab conquest, we hear nothing. Indeed

,i t was

probably in a great measure their ’ tolerant attitude towards the

legis D ei et per Saraceno s venire et saevire permisit.” (M igne , Patr. Lat. tom.

lxxxix . p . Eulogius : lib . i. § 30. In cuius (i.e. gentis Saracenicae) ditionenostro compellente facinore sceptrumH ispanize translatumest.

”(M igne, Patr.

Lat. tom. cxv. p . S imi larly A lvar 5 18 .

“ Et probare nostro vitio

inlatumintentabo flagel lum. N ostra haec , fratres, nostra desidia peperit mala,nostra impuritas, nostra levitas, nostra morumobscoenitas unde tradidit

nos Dominus qui iustitiamdiligit, et cuius vultus aequitatemdecernit, ipsi bestiaeconrodendos.

”(pp . 5 3 1

Samson, pp . 377- 8 , 38 1 .

2 D ozy tome 11. p . 2 10.

Bishop Egila who was sent to Southern Spain by Pope Hadrian I . towardsthe end of the eighth century , on amission to counteract the grow ing influence ofMusl imthought, denounces the Spanish priests who l ived in concubinage w ithmarried women. (Helfferich, p .

A lvari Cordubensis Epist xix . Obmeritumzeternae retributionis devovimesedulumin lege D omini consistere. (M igne, Patr. Lat. tom. cxxi . p .

5 Helfl'

erich, p . 79- 80.

6 Bedenk t man nun , wie wichtig gerade die alttestamentl iche Idee des

Prophetenthums in der Christo logie des germanischen A rianismus nachk langundauch nach der A nnahme des k athol ischen Dogma’s in demreligiosen BewusstseinderWestgo then haften bl ieb , so wirdman es sehr erk larlich finden, dass unmittelbarnach demEinfal l der A raber die verwandten Vorstel lungen des Mohammedanismus unter den gek nechteten Christen auftauchten.

”(Helfferich, p.

THE PREACHING OF ISLAM .

the stipulations usually made on the conquest of a Christian

country.

We read also of the founding 1 of several fresh monasteries inaddition to the numerous convents both formonk s and nuns thatflourished undisturbed by the Muhammadan rulers . Themonk scould appear publicly in the woollen robes of their order and the

p riest had no need to conceal the mark of his sacred oflice,9

nor at the same time did their religious profession prevent theChristians frombeing entrusted with high oflices at court .3Certainly those Christians

,who could reconcile themselves to

the loss of political power,had l ittle to complain of

,and it is very

noticeable that during the whole of the eighth century we hear ofo nly one attempt at revolt on their part

,namely at Beja

,and in

this they appear to have followed the lead of an Arab chief.4

Those who migrated into French territory in order that theymight l ive under a Christian rule

,certain ly fared no better than

the cc - religionists they had left behind . In 8 1 2 Charlemagneinterfered to protect the exiles who had followed him on hisretreat fromSpain fromthe exactions of the imperial oflicers.

Three years later Lou is the Pious had to issue another edict ontheir behalf

,in spite of which they had soon again to complain

against the nobles who robbed themof the lands that had beenassigned to them. But the evil was only check ed for a l ittle timeto break out afresh

,and all the edicts passed on their behalf did

no t avail tomak e the lot of these unfortunate exilesmore tolerable

,and in the Cagots (i.e . canes a despised and ill - treated

c lass of later times,we probablymeet again the Spanish colony

that fled away fromMuslimrule to throw themselves upon themercy of their Christian co - religion ists.

5

The toleration of the Muhammadan government towards itsChristian subjects in Spain and the freedom of intercoursebetween the adherents of the two religions brought about a

c ertain amount of assimilation in the two commimities. Intermarriages became frequent s;Isidore of Beja,who fiercely inveighs

1 Eulogius : Mem. Sanct. lib. iii. c . 1 1 . (p.

2 Baudissin, p. 16 .

3 id . p . 2 1 , and John of Gorz. 5 1 28 (p.

4 Dozy tome i i. p. 42 .

5 Baudissin, pp . 96 -7.

5 See the letter o f Pope Hadrian I. to the Spanish bishops :“ Porro diversa

capitula quae ex i ll is audivimus partibus, id est, quodmulti d icentes se catho l icos

sse, communemvitamgerentes cumIudae1s et non bapt1zat1s paganis, tamin

THE SPANISH CHRISTIANS UNDER ARAB RULE . 1 17

against the Muslimconquerors, records the marriage of ‘Abdu - l

‘Aziz,the son of Musa, with the widow of King Roderic, without

a word of blame .1 Many of the Christians adopted Arab names ,and in outward Observances imitated to some extent theirMuhammadan neighbours , e .g. many were circumcised

,2 and in

matters of food and drink followed the practice of the unbaptizedpagans .

”3The very termMuz arabes (i.e .must ‘aribin or Arabic ised) appliedto the Span ish Christians living under Arab rule , i s sign ificant of

the tendencies that were at work . The study of Arabic veryrapidly began to displace that of Latin throughout the country

,

4

so that the language of Christian theology came gradual ly to beneglected and forgotten . Even some of the higher clergy rendered themselves ridicu lou s by their ignorance of correct Latinity.

It cou ld hardly be expected that the lai ty wou ld exhibit morezeal in such amatter than the clergy , and in 8 54a Span ish writerbrings the following complaint against his Christ ian fellow - countrymen -

“While we are investigating their (i.e . the Musl im)sacred ordinances andmeeting together to study the sects of theirphilosophers— or rather philobraggers— not for the purpose of

refuting their errors , but for the exqu isite charmand for theeloquence and beauty of their language— neglecting the readingofthe Scriptures

,we are but settingup as an idol the number of the

beast . (Apoc . xii i. Where nowadays can we find any learnedlayman that

,absorbed in the study of the Holy Scriptures

,cares

to look at the work s of any of the Latin Fathers ? Who is therewith any zeal for the writings of the Evangelists , or the Prophets ,or Apostles ? Our Christian youngmen , with their elegan t airsand fluent speech

,are showy in their dress and carriage , and are

escis quamque in potu et in diversis erroribus n ihi l po llui se inquiunt : et illudquod inhibitumest, ut nul li liceat ingum ducere cuminfidelibus, ipsi enimfilias suas cumal io benedicent, et sic populo genti l i tradentur. (M igne : Patr.Lat. tome xcvi i i . p .

1 Isidori Pacensis Chronicon , 42 (p .

2 A lvar : Indic. Lum. 3 5 (p . John of Gorz . 1 2 3 (p .

3 Letter of Hadrian I . p . 385 . John of Gorz. 5 1 2 3 (p .

4 Some A rab ic verses o fa Christian poet of the eleventh century are sti ll extant,which exhibit considerable sk i ll in handl ing the language and metre. (VonSchack . II.5 A bbot Samson gives us Specimens of the bad Latin written by some of the

ecclesiastics of his time, e .g. Cumcontempti essemus simplicitas christiana,”but

his correction is hardlymuch better, “contenti essemus simplicitati christianae

(pp 404.406 )

1 1 8 THE PREA CHING OF ISLAM .

famed for the learning of the gent iles ;intoxicated with Arabeloquence they greedily handle , eagerly devour and zealouslydiscuss the book s of the Chaldeans (i.e. Muhammadans) , and

mak e them k nown by praising themwith every flourish ofrhetoric

,k nowing nothing of the beauty of the Church

’s l iterature

,and look ing down with contempt on the streams of the

Church that flow forth fromParadise ;alas ! the Christians areso ignorant of their own law ,

the Latins pay so li ttle attention totheir own language , that in the whole Christian flock there ishardly one man in a thousand who can write a letter to inqu ireafter a friend’s health intelligibly , while youmay find a coun tlessrabble of all k inds of themwho can learnedly roll out the grand iloquent periods of the Chaldean tongue . They can even mak epoems

,every line ending with the same letter , which display

higher fl ights of beau ty and more sk ill in handling metre thanthe gent iles themselves possess.”1In fact the k nowledge of Latin somuch decl ined 1n one part ofSpain that it was found necessary to translate the ancient Canon so f the Span ish Church and the Bible into Arabic for the use ofthe Christians .2

While the brilliant l iterature of the Arabs exercised such a

fascination and was so zealously studied,those who desired an

education in Christian l iterature had l ittle more than thematerialsthat had been employed in the train ing of the barbaric Goths ,and could with difficu lty find teachers to induct themeven intothis low level of cu lture . As time went on this want of Christianeducation increased more and more . In 1 1 2 : the Muzarabes

wrote to King Alfonso of Aragon :“We and our fathers have

up to this time been brought up among the gentiles , and havingbeen baptised

,freely observe the Christian ordinances ;but we

have never had it in our power to be fully instructed in our

d ivine religion;for, subject as we are to the infidels who havelong oppressed us

,we have never ventured to ask for teachers

fromRome or France and they have never come to us of theirown accord on account of the barbarity of the heathen whomweo bey.

”3Fromsuch close intercourse with the Muslims and so diligent

1 A lvar : Indic. Lum. 5 39

56(pp. 5 54

2 Von Schack , vol. i i . p . 93 Orderic Vital is, p . 9 28 .


would lead tomuchmore than amere approximation and would

very speedily swell the number of the converts to Islamso thattheir descendants

,the so - cal led Muwallads—a term denoting

those no t of Arab blood— soon formed a large and importantparty in the state

,indeed the maj ority of the population of the

country} and as early as the beginning of the n inth century we

read of attemptsmade by themto shak e off the Arab rule , and on

several later occasions they come forward actively as a nationalparty of Span ish Muslims .We have little or no detail s of the history of the conversion ofthese New -Muslims . Some few apostatised to escape the payment of some penal ty infl icted by the law - courts .2 But themajority of the converts were no doubt won over by the imposinginfluence of the faith of Islamitself, presented to themas it waswith all the glamour of a brill iant civi lisation , having a poetry

,a

philosophy and an art well calculated to attract the reason and

dazzle the imagination while in the lofty chivalry of the Arabsthere was free scope for the exhibition of manly prowess and thek nightly virtues— a career closed to the conquered Span iardsthat remained true to the Christian faith . Again , the learningand l iterature of the Christians must have appeared very poorandmeagre when compared with that of the Muslims

,the study

of which may well by itself have served as an incentive to theadoption of their religion . Besides

,to the devou t mind Islamin

Spain cou ld offer the attractions of a pious and zealous Puritanparty with the orthodox Musl imtheologians at its head, whichat times had a preponderating influence in the state and struggledearnestly towards a reformation of faith andmorals .Tak ing into consideration the ardent religious feeling that

animated the mass of the Span ish Muslims and the provocationthat the Christians gave to the Muhammadan government throughtheir treacherous intrigues with their co - religionists over theborder

,the history of Spain under Muhammadan rule is singularly

free frompersecution. With the exception of three or four casesof genu ine martyrdom,

the only approach to anything li k e persecution during the whole period of the Arab rule is to be foundin the severemeasures adopted by the Muhammadan governmentto repress themadness for voluntarymartyrdomthat brok e out

in Cordova in the ninth century. At this time a fanatical partyDozy tome i i. p . 5 3 .

2 Samson, p . 379 .

THE MARTYRS OF CORDOVA. 1 2 1

came into existence among the Christians in this part of Spain(for apparently the Christian Church in the rest of the countryhad no sympathy with the movement) , which set itself openlyand unprovok edly to insult the religion of the Muslims and

blaspheme their Prophet,with the deliberate intention of in

curring the penalty of death by suchmi sgu ided assertion of theirChristian bigotry.

This strange passion for self- immolation displayed itself mainlyamong priests ,monk s and nuns between the years 8 50 and 860.

It wou ld seemthat brooding, in the silence of their cloisters , overthe decl ine of Christian influence and the decay of religious zeal ,they went forth to win themartyr’s crown— of which the toleration of their infidel rulers was robbing them— bymeans of fierceattack s on Islamand its founder . Thus

,for example

,a certain

monk,by name Isaac

,came before the Qadi and pretended that

he wished to be instructed in the faith of Islam when the Qadihad expounded to himthe doctrines of the Prophet , he burst outwith the words “He hath lied unto you (may the curse of Godconsume himl) , who, full of wic k edness , hath led so manymeninto perdition

,and doomed themwith himself to the pit of hell .

Filled with Satan and practising Satan ic jugglery , he hath given

you a cup of deadly wine to work disease in you ,and will expiate

his guilt with everlasting damnation . Why do ye no t,being

endowed with understanding,deliver yourselves fromsuch dangers ?Why do ye no t

,renounc ing the u lcer of his pestilential doctrines ,

seek the eternal salvation of the Gospel of the faith of Christ P 1

On another ‘ occasion two Christians forced their way into a

mosque and there reviled the Muhammadan religion , which , theydeclared

,wou ld very speedily bring upon its followers the destruo

tion of hell -fire .

2 Though the number of such fanatics was not

considerable,3 the Muhammadan government grew alarmed

,

fearing that such contempt for their authority and disregard oftheir laws against blasphemy, argued awidespread disaffection anda possible general insurrection ,

for in fact,in 8 5 3 Muhammad I .

had to send an army against the Christian s at Toledo , who ,

1

2

Eulogius z Mem. Sanct. Pref. § 2 . (Migne, tom. CX V~ P2 I .d c. x ii i . (p .

3 The number o f the martyrs is said not to have exceeded forty. (W. H .

Prescott : H istory of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella, vol . i . p . 342 , 11 )(London

1 2 2 THE PREACHING OF ISLAM .

incited by Eulogius, the chief apologist of themartyrs , had risenin revolt on

‘ the news of the sufferings of their co - religion ists .1

He is said to have ordered a general massacre of the Christians ,but when it was pointed out that no men of any in telligence orrank among the Christian s had tak en part in such doings 2 (forAlvar himself comp lain s that themajority of the Christian priestscondemned themartyrs the k ing contented himself with puttingin to force the existing laws against blasphemy with the utmostrigour. The moderate party in the Church seconded the effortso f the government ;the bishops anathematised the fanatics , andan ecclesiastical council that was held in 8 5 2 to discuss thematteragreed uponmethods of repression 4 that eventually quashed themovement . One or two isolated cases ofmartyrdomare recordedlater— the last in 9 83 , after which there was none as long as theArab rule lasted in Spain .

5

But under the Berber dynasty of the Almoravids at thebeginn ing of the twelfth century

,there was an outburst of

fanatic ismon the part of the theological zealots of Islamin

which the Christians had to suffer along with the Jews and thel iberal section of the Muhammadan population— the philosophers,the poets and themen of letters . But such incidents are excep

tions to the generally tolerant character of the Muhammadanrulers of Spain towards their Christian subjects .One of the Span ish Muhammadans who was driven out of his

1 D o zy tome 11. p. 16 1 - 2 .

2 Eulogius : Mem. Sanct. 1 . i i i . c. vu. (p . Pro eo quod nullus sapiens,nemo urbanus, nullusque procerumChristianorumhuiuscemodi remperpetrasset,idcirco non debere universos perimere asserebant, quos non praeit personal is duxad praelium.

3 A lvar : Ind . Lum. 14. N onne ipsi qui videbantur columnae, qui

putabantur Ecclesiae petrae, qui credebantur electi, nullo cogente, nemineprovocante, iudicemadierunt

,et in praesentia Cynicorum, imo Epicureorum, D ei

martyres infamaverunt ? No nne pastores Christi, doctores Ecclesiae, ep iscopi ,abbates, presbyteri, proceres etmagnati , haereticos eos esse publ ice clamaverunt ?e t pub l ica pro fessione sine desquisitione, absque interrogatione, quae nec

imminente mortis sententia erant dicenda, spontanea voluntate, et l ibero mentisarb itrio , pro tulerunt ?

"

(M igne : tom. cxxi . p. 5 29 .

4 A lvar : Ind ic . Lum. 1 5 . Quid obtendendumest de i ll is quos ecclesiast ice interdiximus, et a quibus ne aliquando ad martyrii surgerent palmamiuramentumextorsimus ? quibus errores gentiliuminfringere vetuimus, et maledictum ne maledictionibus impeterent ? Evangel io et cruce educta vi iurare

improbiter fecimus, imo feraliter et bel luino terrore coegimus, minantes inauditasuppl icia, etmonstruosa promittentes truncationummembrorumvaria et horrendad ictu audituve flagella ?

”(M igne tom. cxxi . p .

5 Baudissin , p. 199 .


commended nothing somuch as that liberty of conscience , in all

matters of religion ,which the Turk s , and all other Muhammadans ,suffer their subjects to enjoy.

”1What deep roots Islamhad struck in the hearts of the Span ishpeoplemay be judged fromthe fact that when the last remnantof the Moriscoes was expelled fromSpain in 1 6 10

,these unfor

tunate people still clung to the faith of their fathers , although formore than a century they had been forced to outwardly conformto the Christian religion ,

and in spite of the emigrations that hadtak en place Since the fall of Granada

,nearly onemill ion of them

are said to have been expelled at that t ime “ those who golowest mak e the numbers of the then expelled Moriscoes toamo imt to six hundred thousand : a terrible blow for a countrywhich

,even then

,was not overstock ed with natives .”2 Whole

towns and villages were deserted and the houses fell intoru ins , there being no one to rebuild them.

3 These Moriscoeswere probably all descendants of the original inhabitants of thecountry

,with little or no admixture of Arab blood the reasons

thatmay be adduced in support of this statement are too lengthyto be given here ;one point only in the evidence may be mentioned, derived froma l etter written in 1 3 1 1 , in which it is statedthat of the Muhammadans then l iving in the c ity of

Granada,no tmore than 500were of Arab descent , all the rest being

descendants of converted Spaniards .4 Finally , i t i s of interest tonote that even up to the last days of its power in Spain , Islamwonconverts to the faith

,for the historian

,when writing of events that

occurred in the year 1499 , seven years after the fal l of Granada,draws attention to the fact that among the Moors were a fewChristians who had lately embraced the faith of the Prophet . 5

1 Morgan, vol . 11. p. 3 10.

3P 3 37

5 St1rl1ng-Maxwell . (Vo l. 1. p.

CHAPTER VI .

THE SPREA D OF ISLA M A MONG THE CHRISTIA N NA TIONS IN

EUROPE UNDER THE TURKS.

WE first hear of the Ottoman Turk s at the commencement of thethirteenth century

,when fleeing before the Mongols, to the

number of abou t they came to the help of the Su ltan of

Iconiurn,and in return for their Services both against the

Mongols and the Greek s, had assigned to thema district in thenorth -west of Asia Minor. This was the nucleus of the futureOttoman emp ire, which , increasing at first by the absorption ofthe petty states into which the Saljfiq Turk s had spli t up , afterwards crossed over into Europe

,annexing k ingdomafter k ingdom,

until its victorious growth received a check before the gates ofVienna in

'

1 683 .

l

Fromthe earliest days of the extension of their k ingdomin

Asia Minor,the Ottomans exercised authority over Christian

subjects,but i t was no t until the anc ient capital of the Eastern

Empire fell into their hands in 145 3 that the relations betweenthe MuslimGovernment and the Christian church were definitelyestablished on a fixed basis . One of the first steps tak en byMuhammad after the capture of Constantinople and the

1 This is_

no p lace to give a history of these territorial acquisitions, which maybe briefly summed up thus. In 1 3 5 3 the Ottoman Turk s first passed over intoEurope and a few years later A drianople was made their European cap ital .Under Bayazid ( 1389 their dominions stretched fromthe Egaean to theDanube, embrac ing all Bulgaria, Macedonia, Thessaly and Thrace, w ith the

exception of Chalk idik e and the d istrict just round Constantinop le. Murad II.( 142 1 - 145 1 ) occup ied Chalk idik e and pushed his conquests to the A driatic.

Muhammad II . ( 145 1 - 148 1 ) by the overthrow of Constantinople, A lbania, Bosmaand Servia, became master of the who le South-Eastern peninsula, with the

exception of the parts of the coast held byVenice and Montenegro , Sulayman II .

( 1 5 20- 1 5 66) added Hungary and made the ZEgaean an Ottoman sea. In the

seventeenth century Crete was won and Podo l ia ceded by Po land.


re- estab lishment of order in that city, was to secure the allegi

ance of the Christians, by proclaiming himself the protector ofthe Greek church . Persecution of the Christians was strictlyforbidden a decree was granted to the newly- elected patriarchwhich secured to himand his successors and the bishops underhim

,the enjoyment of the old privi leges , revenues and exemp

tions enjoyed under the former rule . Gennadios,the first

patr iarch after the Turk ish conquest , received fromthe hands ofthe Sultan himself the pastoral staff, which was the Sign of hisoflice

,together with a purse of a thousand golden ducats and a

horse with gorgeous trappings , on which he was privileged toride with his train through the city .

l But no t only was thehead of the church treated with all the respect he had beenaccustomed to receive fromthe Christian emperors

,but further

he was invested with extensive civil power. The patriarch’scourt sat to decide all cases between Greek and Greek i t couldimpose fines

,imprison offenders in a prison provided for. its own

special use,and in some cases even condemn to capital punish

ment : while the min isters and officials of the government weredirected to enforce its judgments . The complete control ofsp iritual and ecclesiasticalmatters (in which the Turk ish government

,unl ik e the civi l power of the Byzantine empire

,never

interfered), was left entirely in his hands and those of the grandSynod which he could summon whenever he pleased ;and

hereby he cou ld decide all matters of faith and dogma withoutfear of interference on the part of the state . As a recognisedofficer of the imperial government , he could do much for thealleviation of the oppressed , by bringing the acts of unjust

governors to the notice of the Sultan . The Greek bishops in theprovinces in their turn were treated with great consideration and

were entrusted with somuch jurisdiction in civi l affairs,that up

tomodern times they have acted in their dioceses as a k ind of

Ottoman prefects over the orthodox popu lation,thus

’

tak ing theplace of the o ld Christian aristocracy which had been exterminated by the conquerors

,and we find that the higher clergy

were'

generally more active as Turk ish agents than as Greekpriests

,and they always taught their people that the Sultan

possessed a divine sanction,as the protector of the orthodox

1 Phrantz es, pp. 305- 6 .


institutions, neither chance ofamelioration nor hope of redress.”1Lest such a judgment appear dictated by a spirit of party bias, ac ontemporary authority may be appealed to in support of itsc orrectness . The Russian annal ists who speak of the fal l ofC onstantinople bring a simi lar indictment against its government .Without the fear of the law an empire is l ik e a steed withou t

reins . Constantine and his ancestors allowed their grandees too ppress the people ;there was no more justice in their lawc ourts ;no more courage in their hearts ;the judges amassedt reasures fromthe tears and blood of the innocent ;the Greeksoldiers were proud only of the magnificence of their dress ;thec it izens did no t blush at being traitors ;the soldiers were not

ashamed to fly. At length the Lord poured out His thunder onthese unworthy rulers

,and raised up Muhammad , whose warriors

d elight in bat tle , and whose judges do no t betray their trust .”2This last itemof praise 3 may sound strange in the ears of ageneration that for the last fifty years has constantly been called

u pon to protest against Turk ish injustice ;but it is clearly andabundantly borne out - by the testimony of contemporary hist orians. The Byzantine historian who has handed down to us

t he story of the capture of Constantin'ople tells us how even the

impetuou s Bayazid was l iberal and generous to his Christian:subjects

,and made himself extremely popu lar among themby

admitting themfreely to his society.

4 Murad II. distinguished

h imself by his attention to the admini stration of justice and by

h is reforms of the abuses prevalent under the Greek emperors , andp un ished without mercy those of his officials who oppressed anyo f his subjects. 5 For at least a century after the fall of Constantinople a series of able ru lers secured, by a firmand vigorous

administration,peace and order throughout their dominions , and

an admirable civi l and judicial organ isation , if it did no t provide

an absolutely impartial justice for Musl ims and Christians ali k e,

1 Urquhart, quoted by Clark Races ofEuropean Turk ey, p. 82 .

2 Karamsin, vol . v. p . 437.

3 Martin Crusius writes in the same Sp irit : “ Et mirumest, inter barbaros, intanta tantae urb is co l luvie , nullas caedes andiri , viminiustamnon ferri , ius cuivisdic i . Ideo Constantinopolin Sultanus, Refugium totius orb is scribit : quodomnesmiseri , ihi tutissime latent quodque omnibus (taminfimis quamsummistamChristianis. quaminfidelibus) iustitia administretur.

”(Turcogrzecia, p .

( Basi lese,4 Phrantz es, p . 8 1 .

5 Id. p . 92 .

GREEK CHRISTIANS UNDER OTTOMAN RULE . 1 2 9

yet caused the Greek s to be far better. off than they had been

before . They were“ harassed by fewer exactions of forced labour ,

extraordinary contributions were rarely levied , and the taxes theypaid were a trifl ing burden compared with the endless feudalobligations of the Frank s and the countless extortions of theByzantines . The Turk ish domin ions were certainly better

governed and more prosperous than most parts of ChristianEurope , and themass of the Christian population engaged in thecultivation of the soil enj oyed a largermeasure of private libertyand of the fru its of their labour

,under the government

'

of theSultan than their contemporaries did under that ofmany Christianmonarchs .1 A great impulse, too , was given to the commercialactivity of the country

,for the early Sultans were always ready

to foster trade and commerce among their subjects , and many ofthe great cities entered upon an era of prosperity when theTurk ish conquest had delivered themfromthe paralyzing fiscaloppression of the Byzantine emp ire , one of the first of thembeingNicaea

,which capitu lated to Urk han in 1 330 under the most

favourable terms after a long-

prot racted siege .

2 Lik e the anc ien tRomans

,the Ottomans were great mak ers of roads and bridges ,

and thereby facil itated trade throughout their emp ire ;andforeign states were compelled to admit the Greek merchants intoports fromwhich they had been excluded in the time of theByzantine emperors , but now sailing under the Ottoman flag,

they assumed the dress andmanners of Turk s,and thus secured

fromthe nation s of Western Europe the respect and considerationwhich the Catholics had hitherto always refused to the membersof the Greek church .

3

There is'

however one notable exception to this general goodtreatment and toleration

,viz . the tribute of Christian children ,

who were forcibly tak en fromtheir parents at an early age and

enrolled in the famous corps of Jan issaries . Instituted by Urk hanin 1 3 30, it formed for centuries the mainstay of the despotic powerof the Turk ish Su ltan

'

s,and was k ept alive by a regu lar contribu

tion exacted .every four years,when the officers of the Su ltan

visited the districts on which the tax was imposed , and made a

selection fromamong the children between the ages of six and

n ine . The Muhammadan legists attempted to apologise for this1 Finlay

,vo l. v. pp . 5 , 1 2 3 .

2 Hertzberg, pp . 467, 646 , 650.

3 Finlay, vo l. v. p. 1 5 6 -7.


inhuman tribute by representing these children as the fifth of thespoil which the Qur’an assigns to the sovereign} and they prescribed that the injunction again st forcible conversion 2 should beobserved with regard to themalso

,although the tender age at

which they were placed under the in struction of Muslimteachersmust havemade it practically of none effect .3 Christian Europehas always expressed its horror at such a barbarous tax

,and

travellers in the Turk ish dominions have painted touching pictures of desolated homes and of parents weeping for the childrentorn fromtheir arms . But when the corps was first institu ted,i ts numbers were rapidly swelled by voluntary accessions fromamong the Christians themselves ,4 and the circumstances underwhich this tribute was first imposed may go far to explain theapathy which the Greek s themselves appear to have exhibited .

The whole country had been laid waste by war,and families were

often in danger of perishing with hunger the children who werethus adopted were in many cases orphans

,who would otherwise

have been left to perish further, the customso widely prevalentat that time of Selling Christians as slaves may have made thistax appear less appalling than might have been expected . Thiscustom has

,moreover

,been maintained to have been only a

continuation of a similar u sage that was in force under theByzantine emperors .5 It has even been said that there was

seldomany necessity of an appeal to force on the part of theoflicers who collected the appointed number of children

,but

rather that the parents were often eager to have their childrenenrolled in a service that secured for themin many cases a

brilliant career. and under any circumstances a well- cared - for and

comfortable ex1stence , since these little captives were brought upand educated as if they were the Sultan’s own children .

6 This

1 Qur’an, vi i i . 42 . Qur’tl u. x . 99 , 100.

3 “ On ne forcait cependant pas les jeunes Chrétiens achanger de foi. Les

principes du gouvernement s’

y opposaient aussi b ien que les préceptes duCour

’ann et 5 1 des o fficiers,mus par leur fanatisme, usaient quelquefo is de con

trainte, leur conduite a cet égard pouvait b ien étre tolerée ;mais elle n’était

jamais autorise'e par les chefs. (M. d’Ohsson, tome i i i . pp . 397

Hertzberg, p . 472 .

5 Sed hoc tristissimumest. quod , ut o l imChristiani imperatores, ex singulis

Oppidis, certum numeram l iberorum, in quibus egregia indo les prae caeteris

elucebat, delegerunt : quos ad publ ica officia militiae togatae et bellicae in A ulaeducari curarunt : ita Turci

, occupato Graecorum imperio , idemius eripiendi

patribus fam1lias l1beros ingenus eximns praed1tos, usurpant.” (David Chytrxus,

pp. 1 2 - 13 )6 Creasy, p. 99 . M . d

’Ohsson. tome i i i . p . 397.

1 3 2 THE PREACHING OF ISLAM.

sell their Sou ls a Pennyworth all they get in exchange for theirReligion , i s a Vest , and the Privilege of being exempt fromtheCap itation -Tax

,which is no t above five Crowns a year.”1

Scheflier also,who is anxious to represent the condit ion of the

Christians under Turk ish rule in as black colours as possible,admits that the o ne ducat a head was a trifl ingmatter , and has tolay stress on the extraord inary taxes, war contributions , etc .

, thatthey were called upon to pay.

51 The land taxes were the same bothfor Christians andMusalmans

,3 for the old d istinction between lands

on which tithe was paid by the Muhammadan proprietor , andthose on which g araj was paid by the non -Muhammadanproprietor

,was no t recogn ised by the Ottomans .4 Whatever

sufferings the Christians had to endure proceeded from thetyranny of individuals

,who took advantage of their official

position to extort money from those under their jurisdiction .

Such acts of oppression were no t only contrary to the Muhammadan law

,but were rare before the central government had

grown weak and suffered the corruption and injustice of localauthorities to go unpun ished .

5 There is a verymark ed d ifferencebetween the accounts we have of the condition of the Christiansduring the first two cen turies of the Turk ish ru le in Europe and

those of a later date,when the period of decadence had fully set

in . But i t is very noticeable that in those very times in whichthe condition of the Christians had been most intolerable there isleast record of conversion to Islam. In the eighteenth century,when the condition of the Christians was worse than at any other

1 Tournefort, vo l . i . p . 9 1 .2 Schefll er, 5 6 . Was aber auch den Ducaten anbelangt, so werdet ihrmit

demselben in euremS inn ebener massen greulich betrogen. D enn es ist zwarwahr, dass der Tiirck ische Kayser ordentl ich nicht mehr nimt als vomHaupte inen Uneaten : aber wo b leiben die Zol le und ausserordentl iche A nlagen ?nehmen dann seine Konigl iche Verweser und Hauptleute nichts ? muss man zu

Kriegen nichts ausser ordentl ich geben i1 Was aber die ausser ordentl icheA nlagen betrifft;die ste igen und fal len nach den bo

'

sen Zeiten, undmiissen von

den Tiirck ischen Unterthanen so wohl gegeben werden als bey uns.

”3 Finlay, vo l . v. p . 24- 5 .

Hammer vol . i . p. 3465 “ The hard lot o f the Chr1stian subjects of the Sultan has at all times arisenfromthe fact that the central authority at Constantinople has but l ittle realauthority throughout the Emp ire of Turk ey. It is the petty tyranny o f the

village officials, sharpened by personal hatred, which has instigated those acts of

atroc ity to which, both in former times, and sti ll more at the present day, theChristians in Turk ey are subjected. In the days of a nation’s greatness justiceand even magnanimity towards a subject race are p ossible;these, however, arerarely found to exist in the time o f a nation’s decay .

” Rev. W. Denton : Serviaand the Servians, p . 1 5 . (London,

THE CAPITATION -TAX . 1 3 3

period, we find hardly anymention of conversions at all , and theTurk s themselves are represented as u tterly indifferent to theprogress of their religion and considerably infected with -scepticismand unbelief. l A further proof that their sufferings have been duetomisgovernment rather than to religious persecution is the factthat Muslims and Christian s suffered alik e fll The Christianswould

,however

,naturally be more exposed to extortion and

ill - treatment owing to the difficu lt ies that lay in the way ofobtain ing redress at law ,

and some of the poorest may thus havesought a relief fromtheir sufferings in a change of faith .

But if we excep t the tribu te of the children , to which the con

quered Greek s seemto have submitted with so little show ofresistance

,and which . owed its abolition

,no t to any revolt or

insurrection against its continuance , but to the increase of theTurk ish popu lation and of the number of the renegades whowere constantly entering the Sultan

’s service,

3 —the treatment of

1 Businello , pp . 43-4.

2 “ The central government o f the Sultan has generally treated its Mussulmansubjects w ith as much cruelty and injustice as the conquered Christians. The

sufferings o f the Greek s were caused by the inso lence and oppression of the

rul ing class and the corruption that reigned in the Othoman administration ,

rather than- by the direct exercise of the sultan’s power. In his private affairs, aGreek had a better chance of obtaining justice fromhis bishop and the e lders o f

his d istrict than a Turk fromthe cadi or the voivode. (Finlay, vo l . vi. pp . 4It would be amistak e to suppose that the _

Christians are the only part of thepopulation that is o ppressed and miserable, Turk ishmisgovernment is uniform

,

and falls with a heavy hand upon all al ik e. In some parts of the k ingdomthe

po verty o f the Mussulmans may be actual ly worse than the poverty o f the

Christians, and it is their condi tion which most excites the p ity o f the travel ler.

”

(Will iamFor'

syth : The Slavonic Provinces South o f the Danube, pp . 1 57(London ,

“ A ll this oppression and misery (i.e. in the north of A sia M inor) fal ls upon

the Mohammedan population equal ly w ith the Christian.

”(James Bryce

Transcaucasia and A rarat, p .

L’Europe s

’imagine que les chre

'

tiens seuls sont soumis, en Turquie, al’arbitraire, aux souffrances, ‘

aux avi l issements de toute nature , qui naissent del’oppression il n

’en est rien !

_

Les musulmans, préc isément parce que nul lepuissance e

’trangere ne s’intéresse a eux, sont peut

- étre p lus ind ignement spo l iés,p lus corbes sous le joug que ceux qui méconnaissent le prophete.

”(D e la

Jonquiere, p .

1‘ To judge fromwhat we have already observed, the lowest order of Christiansare no t in a worse condition in A sia M inor than the same class of Turk s and if

the Christians ofEuropean Turk ey have some advantages arising fromthe effects

o f the superiority o f their numbers over the Turk s, those of A sia have the

satisfaction of seeing that the Turk s are as much oppressed by the men in poweras they are themselves;and they have to deal '

w ith a race o f Mussulmansgeneral lymi lder, more rel igious, and better principled than those of Europe.

”

(W. M. Leak e Journal of a Tour in A sia Minor, p . ( London,Cf. also Laurence Ol iphant : The Land ofGilead , pp. 3 20 3 ,446 . (London ,

3 Itwas in the sixteenth century that the tribute of children fel l into desuetude,and the last recorded examp le of its exaction was in the year 1676 .


their Christian subjects by the Ottoman emperors—at least fortwo centuries after their conquest of Greece—exhibits a tolerationsuch as was at that time qu ite unk nown in the rest of Europe .The Calvin ists of Hungary and Transylvan ia, and the Un itariansof the latter country

,long preferred to submi t to the Turk s

rather than fall into the hands of the fanatical house of Haps

burgl ;and the Protestants of Silesia look ed with longing eyes

towards Turk ey,and would gladly have purchased religious free -

t

domat the price of submission to the Muslim rule .

2 It was toTurk ey that the persecuted Spanish Jews fled for refuge inenormous numbers at the end of the fifteenth century

,3 and the

Cossack s who belonged to the sect of the Old Believers and werepersecuted by the Russian state church , found in the domin ions ofthe Sultan the toleration which their Christian brethren deniedthem.

4 Well might Macarius,Patriarch of Antioch in the

seventeenth century,

congratu late himself when he saw thefearful atrocities that the Catholic Poles infl icted on the Russiansof the Orthodox Eastern Church We all weptmuch over thethousands of martyrs who were k illed by those impious wretches,the enemies of the faith

,in these forty or fifty years . .The

number probably amounted to seventy or eighty thousand souls .0 you infidels ! O you monsters of impurity ! 0 you hearts ofstone ! What had the nuns and women done ? What the girlsand boys and infant children , that you should murder them?

A nd why do I pronounce them(the Poles) accursed ?Because they have shown themselves more debased and wick edthan the corrupt worshippers of idols , by their cruel treatmentof Christians

,think ing to abolish the very name of Orthodox .

God perpetuate the empire of the Turk s for ever and ever !For they tak e their impost , and enter into no account of religion,be their subjects Christians or Nazarenes

, Jews or Samaritans

1 D e la Jon niere, p . 3 33 Scheflier, 45 -6 .

2 “ D enn ic h'

ore mit grosser Verwunderung und Besturtzung, class nichtallein unter den gemeinen Pével Reden imSchwange gehn, es sey unter demTiirck en auch gut wohnen wannman einen Ducaten von Haupt gebe, so w

'

aireman frey ;Itemer l iesse die Rel igion frey ;man wiirde die Kirchen w iederbe k ommen;tind was vergleichen : sondern dass auch andre. die es wo l besser

verstehen so l lten , sich dessen erfreuen, und iiber ihr eigen Ungliick froloc k en !welches nicht alle in Halssbriichige, sondern auch Go ttlose Vermessenhei tenseynd, die ans k einemandremGrunde

,als aus demGeist der Ketz erey, der zum

A uffruhr und antz licherA usreitung des Christenthumbs geneigt ist, herk ommen.

”

(Scheffler, 43 Hertzberg. p . 6 50. De la Jonquiere, p . 34.

1 36 THE PREACHING OF ISL A M .

of the hearts o f men. For the Turk,i t is true

,at the presen t

time compels no country by violence to apostatise but he uses

other means whereby imperceptibly he roots . out Christian ityWhat then has become of'Tthe Christians They are not

expelled from=the country, neither are they forced to embrace theTurk ish faith : then they mUSt 'Of the

'mselves '

have been con

verted into Turk s .”

The Turk s considered that the greatest k indness they couldshow aman was to bring himinto

'

the salvation of the faith of

Islam}'

and to this end they left nomethod of persuasion untried

a Dutch traveller of the sixteenth century,tells us that while he

was admiring the greatmosque of Santa Sophia, some Turk s eventried

‘

to work ;upon his religiou s feelings through his aestheticsense

,

'

saying.to him,

“ If you become a Musalman, you will be

able to come here everyd ay of your life .” About acentury later,

an Engl ish traveller 2 had a similar experience Sometimes out ofan excess of zeal , they will

‘

ask a Christian civilly enough, as I havebeen ask ed myself in the Portico of Sancta Sophia

,why will you

no t turn Musalman,and be

‘

as one of us . The .public rejoicingsthat hailed the accession of a new . con

'

vert to the faith , 1 testify tothe '

ardent love for sou ls Which made these men such . zealousproselytisers . 1 The new Muslimwas set upon a horse and led intriumph through the streets of the ci ty. If he was k nown to b e

ge'

nu inely honest in his change of faith and had voluntarilyentered the pale of Islam,

or if he was a person of good position ,

he was received with high honour and some provision made forhis

'

supportfi

, There was certainly abundant evidence for sayingthat “The Turk s are preposterously zealous in praying for theconversion, or perversion rather , of Christians to their irreligiousreligion : they pray

'

heartily,and every day in. their T emples

,

that Christians may- imbrace the Alcoran,and become their

Proselytes,in effecting of which they leave no means unassaied

by fear and flattery,by punishments and rewards? “1

These zealous efforts for winning converts were rendered ' the

1 Dousa, p . 38 . Busbecq . p . 190.

2 Thomas Smith, p . 3 2 .

3 Thomas Smith, p . 42 . Blount, vol .‘ 1. p . 548 . Georgieviz , p . 20.

A lexander Ross, p . ix. Cf. also"

Rycaut, vo l. i . p . 276 . On cro itmeriterbeaucoup que de faire un Pro selyte , il n

’

y a personne assez riche pour avo ir nu

esc lave qu1 n’en veiiille nu jeune, qu

’

i so it capab le de recevo ir sans peine toutessortes d

’

impressions, et qu’i l puisse appeller son converti , afin demeri ter l’honneur

d’avoir augmente

’

le nombre des fidélcs.

”

PROSELYTISING EFFORTS OF THE TURKS . 1 37

more effective by certain conditions of Christian society itself.

Foremost among these was the degraded condition of the Greek

Church . Side by Side with the c ivil despotismof the Byzantineempire‘

,had arisen an ecclesiastical despotismwhich had crushed

all energy of intellectual life under the weight of a dogmatismthat interdicted all discussion in matters ofmorals and religion .

The only thing that disturbed this lethargy was the fierce con

troversial warWaged against the Latin Church with all the bitter

ness of theological polemics and race hatred . The religion of thepeople had degenerated into a scrupulous observance of outwardforms

,and the intense fervour of their devotion found an outlet

in the worship of the Virgin and the saints,of p ictures and relics .

There weremany who turned froma church whose spiritual lifehad sunk so low

,and weary of interminable discussions on such

subtle points of doctrine as the Double Procession of . the HolySpirit

,and such trivial ities as the use of leavened and unleavened

bread in the Blessed'

Sacrament, gladly accepted the clear and

intelligible theistic teaching of_Islam. We are told 1 .of large

numbers of persons being converted,no t on ly fromamong the

simple folk , but also learnedmen of every c lass,ran k and con

dition ;of how the Turk s made a better provision for thosemon k s and priests who embraced the Musl imcreed

,in order that

their example might lead others to be converted . WhileAdrianople was sti ll the Turk ish

‘

capital (i.e . before thecourt was thronged with renegades and they are said to haveformed themajority of the magnates there .

2 Byzantine princesand others often passed over to the Side of the Muhammadans

,

and received a ready welcome among them one of the earliestof such cases dates from 1 140 when a nephew of the emperorJohn Comnenes embraced Islam and married a daughter ofMas‘ud , the Sultan of Iconium.

3 After the fall of Con stantinop le ,

1 By an anonymous writer who was a captive in Turk ey from 1436 to 145 8 .

Turchicae spurcitiae suggillatio , fo l. xvi i . (a.)2 Turchicae spurcitiae suggillatio , fo l . xi . (b .) Lionardo of Scio , A rchb ishop o f

M itylene, who was present at the tak ing of Constantinop le , speak s of the largenumber o f renegades in the besieging army : “ Chi c ircondo la c itta, e chi

insegno a’ turchi l’ordine, se non i pessimi christiani Io son testimonio , che i

Greci;ch’ i Latini , che i Tedeschi , che gli Ungari, e che ogn i altra generation dichristiani , mesco lati co

’turchi impararono l

’opere e la fede loro , i qual i

domenticatisi de lla fede Christiana, espugnavano la citté O empij che rinegasti

Christo . O settatori di antichristo , dannati al le pene infernal i , questo ehora ilvo stro tempo .

”(Sansovino , p .

3 J . H . Krause : D ie Byz antiner des M i ttelal ters, pp . 38 5 - 6 . (Halle,


the upper classes of Christian society showed much more readiness to embrace Islamthan the mass of the Greek s among theconverts we meet with several bearing the name of the lateimperial family of the Palaeo logi, and the learned GeorgeA miroutz es of Trebizond abandoned Christianity in his decliningyears , and the names ofmany other such individual s have founda record .

1 The new religion only demanded assent to its simplecreed There is no god but God and Muhammad is the prophetof God as the above -mentioned writer 2 says

,

“ The whole

difliculty l ies in this profession of faith . For if only aman can

persuade himself that he is a worshipper of the One God,the

poison of his error easily infects himunder the guise of religion .

This is the rock of offence on whichmany have struck and fall eninto the snare that has brought perdition on their souls . This isthe mill - stone that hung about the neck s of many has plungedthem into the pit of despair. For when these fools hear theTurk s execrate idolatry and express their horror of every imageand picture as though it were the fire of hell , and so continually

profess and preach the worship of One God there no longerremains any roomfor suspicion in theirminds .The faith of Islamwould now be the natural refuge for thosemembers of the Eastern Church who felt such yearnings after apurer and s impler formof doctrine as had given rise to thePau lician heresy so fiercely suppressed a few centuries before .

This movemen t had been very largely a protest against thesuperstitions of the Orthodox Church , against the worship o f

images , relics and saints , and an effort after simplicity of faith andthe devout life . As some adherents of this heresy were to befound in Bu lgaria even so late as the seventeenth century

,3 the

Muhammadan conquerors doubtless found many who were dissatisfied with the doctrine and practice of the Greek Church and

as all the conditions were unfavourable to the formation of anysuch Protestant Churches as arose in the West , such dissentientspirits would doubtless find amore congen ial atmosphere in thereligion of Islam. There is every reason to think that such wasthe result of the unsuccessful attempt to Protestantise the GreekChurch in the beginningof the seventeenth century . The guiding

1 Hertzberg, p . 6 16 . Finlay , vol . v. p . 1 18 .

2 Turchicae Spurcitiae Suggillatio , fo l. xix. (a.)11 Rycaut , vol . i . pp. 710-71 1 . Bizzi , fo l. 49 (b .)


condemn this whole Confession as full of heresies and utterlyopposed to our orthodoxy

,and l i k ewise declare that i ts comp i ler

has nothing in common with our faith,but in calumn ious fashion

has falsely charged his own Calvinismon us. All those who readand k eep it as true and blameless

,and defend i t by written word

or speech,we thrust out of the commun ity of the faithful as

followers and partak ers of his heresy and corruptors of theChristian Church

,and command that whatever be their rank and

station, they be treated as heathen and publ icans . Let thembelaid under an anathema for ever and cut off fromthe Father , theSon and the Holy Ghost in this l ife and in the life to come

,

accursed,excommun icated

,be lost after death

,and be partak ers

of everlasting pun ishment .”l In 1 672 a third synod met at

Jerusalem to repudiate the heretical articles of this Confessionof Fai th and vindicate the orthodoxy of the Greek Churchagainst those who represented her as infected with Calvinism.

The attemp t to Protestantise the Greek Church thus completelyfailed to achieve success : the doctrines of Calvin were d iametrical ly opposed to her teachings , and indeed incu lcated manyarticles of fai th which weremore in harmony with the tenets ofMuslimtheologians than with those of the orthodox Church , and.which moreover she had often attack ed in her controversies withher Muhammadan adversaries . It is this approximation to Islamicthought which gives this movemen t towards Calvin isma place ina history of the spread of Islam: aman who inveighed againstthe adoration of p ictures , decried the authority and ' the veryinstitution of the priesthood,maintained the doctrines of absolutePredestination

,denied freedom to the human will

,and was in

sympathy with the stern spirit of Calvin ismthat had more incommon with the Old than the New Testament

,—would certainly

find a more congenial atmosphere in Islamthan in the GreekChurch of the seventeenth century

,and there can be l ittle doubt

that among the numerous converts to Islamduring that centurywere to be found men who had been alienated fromthe Churchof their fathers through their lean ings towards Calvinism.

2 Wehave no definite information as to the number of the followers of

1 Pichler, p . 2 26 .

2 A s regards the Christian captives the Pro testants certainly had the reputationamong the Turk s of showing a greater incl ination towards conversion than the

Catho l ics.

‘

(Gmel in, p.

CYRIL LUCA RIS . 141

Cyril Lucaris and the extent of Calvin istic influences in the GreekChurch ;the clergy, j ealous of the reputation of their church ,whose orthodoxy and immunity fromheresy were so boastfullyvindicated by her children

,and had thus been impugned through

the susp icion of Calvinism,wished to represent the heretical

patriarch as standing alone in his opinions .1'

But a following heundoubtedly had : his Confession of Faith had received thesanction of a synod composed o f his followers ;52 those whosympathised with his heresies were anathematised both by thesecond synod of Constantinople ( 1 642) and by the synod of

Jerusalem(1 672 ) 3— surely a mean ingless repetition , had no such

persons existed moreover the names of some few of these havecome down to us : Sophronius, Metropolitan of Athens , was a

warmsupporter of the Reformation ;4 amonk named Nicodemu sMetaras

,who had brought a printing-

press fromLondon and

issued heretical treatises therefrom,was rewarded with ametro

politan see by Cyril in return for his services ;5 the philosopherCorydaleus, a friend of Cyril , opened a Calvin istic school in Constantin0ple , and another Greek

,Gerganos, published a Catechism

so as to introduce the teachings of Calvin among his fellow - countrymen .

6 In a letter to the University ofGeneva (dated July ,Cyril writes that Leger had gained a large number of converts toCalvinism by his writings and p reaching

7;in another letteraddressed to Leger , he describes how.he hadmade his influence feltin Candia.

8 His successor in the patriarchal chair was ban ishedto Carthage and there “ strangled by the adherents of Lucaris in

Parthen ius who was Patriarch of Constantinop le from1 644to 1 646 , was at heart a thorough Calvinist , and though hedid no t venture openly to teach the doctrines of Calvin , still hisk nown sympathy with themcaused himto be deposed and sentinto exile .10 Thus the influence of Calvinismwas undoubtedlymore widespread than the enemies of Cyril Lucaris were willingto admit and

,

'

as stated above,those who refused to bow to the

anathemas of the synods that condemned their leader,had cer

tainly more in common with their Muhammadan neighbours

1 Pichler, pp. 2 1 1 , 2 27.

2 Id. p . 2 28, 18 1 .

zId .fpp . 2 2 2 , 2 26 . 2Id. P 173 °

Id. pp . 12 8 , 132 , 143. Id. p . 143 .

7 Id . p . 172 .3 Hefele, vol . i . p . 473 .

9 Le Quien, tom. i . p . 335 .1° Id . tom. 1. p. 3 37~


than with the Orthodox c lergy who cast themout of theirmidst .There is no actual evidence

,i t i s true

,of Calvinistic influences in

Turk ey facilitating conversion to Islam} but in the absence ofany other explanation it certainly seems a very plausible conjecture that such were among the factors that so enormously increased the number of the Greek renegades towards themiddle ofthe seventeenth century— a period during which the number ofrenegades fromamong themiddle and lower orders of society issaid to have been more considerable than at any other time .2Frequent mention is made of cases of apostacy fromamong theclergy , and even among the highest dignitaries of the Church ,such as a former Metropolitan of Rhodes .3 In 1 676 it i s said thatin Corinth some Christian people went over every day to

“ theTurk ish abomination

,

”and that three priests had become Musal

mans the year before 4 in 1 679 is recorded the death of a rene

gademon k .

6 On the occasion of the circumcision of Mustafa, sonof Muhammad IV.

,in 1 675 , there were at least two hundred

proselytesmade during the thirteen days of public rejoic ing,6 andnumerous other instancesmay be found in writings of this period .

A contemporary writer ( 1 663) has well described the mentalattitude of such converts. “When you mix with the Turk s inthe ordinary intercourse of l ife and see that they pray and singeven the Psalms of David that theygive alms and do other goodwork s that they think highly of Christ , hold the Bible in greathonour

,and the lik e ;that , besides , any ass may become parish

priest who plies the Bassa with presents,and he will no t urge

Christian ity on you verymuch so you will come to think thatthey are good people and will very probably be saved and so youwill come to believe that you too may be saved, if you l ik ewisebecome Turk s . Herewith will the Holy Triunity and the crucified Son of God

,with many other mysteries of the faith

,which

seemqu ite absurd to the unenlightened reason , easily pass out ofyour thoughts , and imperceptibly Christianity will quite die out

1 However,in an earl ier attempt made by the Pro testant theo logians o f

Tiibingen ( 15 73 -77) to introduce the doctrines o f the reformed church into the

eastem church, the Vaivode Q uarquar of Samtsk heth in Georgia, embraced the

Confession of A ugsburg, but in 1 5 80 became a Musl im. (Joselian, p.

2 Schefll er, - 6 . Finlay,vo l v. pp . 1 18 - 9 .

3 Hammer vo l . vi. p . 94.4 Spon, vol . 11. p . 57.

5 Hammer vo l. vi. p . 364.11 Early Voyages and Travels in the Levant, edited by] . Theodore Bent, p . 2 10

(London,


thousand crowns for his pains,besides having his charges borne

in every diocese . In virtue of the agreement he has made withthe Patriarch

,he deprives and interdicts fromall ecclesiastical

functions,those prelates who refuse to pay their tax.

”1 TheChristian clergy are even said to have carried o ff the children oftheir parishioners and sold themas Slaves

,to get money for their

simon iacal designs .2The extortions practised in the seventeenth have found theircounterpart in the presen t century

,and the sufferings of the

Christians of the Greek Church in Bosnia,before the Austrian

occupat ion,exactly illustrate the words of Tournefort . The

Metropol itan of Serajevo used’

to wring as much as14 a

year fromhismiserable flock — a sumexactly double the salary ofthe Turk ish Governor himself— and to raise this enormous sumthe unfortunate parishioners were squeezed in every possible way,and the Turk ish au thorities had orders to assist the clergy in

levying their exactions and whole Christian villages suffered thefate of sack ed c ities

,for refusing, or often beingunable , to comply

with the exorbitant demands of Christian Prelates .3 Such un

bearable oppression on the part of the spiritual leaders who shou ldprotect the Christian popu lation ,

has often stirred it up to openrevolt

,whenever a favourable opportuni ty has offered itself.4

It is no t surprising then to learn that many of the Christianswent over to Islam

,to deliver themselves fromsuch tyranny.

5

Though the mass of the parish c lergy were innocent of thecharges brought against their superiors ,

6 still they were veryignorant and illiterate . At the end of the seventeenth century

,

there were said to be hardly twelve persons in the whole Turk ish

1 Tournefort, vo l . 1. p . 107. Spon usesmuch the same language, vo l . 1. p . 5 6 .

2 Gaultier de Lesl ie, p . 1 37.3 A . J . Evans, p. 2 67. Simi larly Mack enzie and Irby say :

“ Inmo st parts of

Old Serbia the idea we found associated with a b ishop, was that of a person whocarried off what few paras the Turk s had left (p. A simi lar account ofthe clergy o f the Greek Church is given by a writer in the Revue des D eux

Manda: (tome 97, p . who narrates the fo llow ing story :“ A u début de

ce siecle, aTirno va. un certain pope du nomde Joachim, ado ré de ses ouail les,détesté de son évéque , recut l

’

ordre, nu jour, de faire la corvée du fumier dansl’

écurie ep iscopale. Il se rebifla : aussitdt la valetai lle l’assaillit a coups de

fourche. Mais no tre homme é tait vigoureux ; ii se débattit, e t, laissant sa

tunique en gage, s’en fut tout chaud chez le cadi. Le solei l 11 'e’tait pas couché

qu’i l devenait bon Musulman.

”‘1 Pitz ipios, Seconde Partie, p . 87.5 Id. Seconde Partie, p. 87. Pichler, p. 29 .

Finlay, vo l . iv. pp. 1 5 3 -4.

CHRISTIAN EULOGIES OF THE TURKS . 145

dominions thoroughly Sk illed in the k nowledge of the ancientGreek language it was considered a greatmerit in the clergy tobe able to read

,while they were quite ignorant of themean ing of

the words of their service - book s .1

While there was somuch in the Christian society of the time,

to repel, there was much in the character and l ife of the Turk s toattract

,and the superiority of the early Ottomans as compared

with the degradation of the gu ides and teachers of the Christianchurch would naturally impress devou tminds that revolted fromthe selfish ambition

,Simony and corruption of the Greek eccle

siastics. Christian writers constantly praise these Turk s for theearnestness and intensity of their religious life their zeal inthe

‘

performance of the Observances prescribed by their faith ;the ou tward decency andmodesty disp layed in their apparel andmode of living the absence of ostentatious display and thesimplic ity of life observable even in the great and powerfu l ? Theannalist of the embassy fromthe Emperor Leopold I . to theOttoman Porte in 1 665

- 6,especially eulogises the devou tness and

regu larity of the Turk s in prayer , and he even goes so far as to

say,“Nous devons dire a la confusion des Chrét iens

, que lesTurcs témoignent beaucoup p lus de soin et de zele al’exercice deleur Religion que les Chrétiens n

’en fon t paroitre a la pratique

de la leur. Mais cc qui passe tou t ce que nous experimen tons de dévot entre les Chrétieii s c’est que pendant le ternsde la priere

,vous me voyez pas une personne distraite de ses

yeux vous n’en voyez pas une qui ne soit attachée al’objet de

Sa priere et pas une qui n’ait tou te la révérence extérieure pour

son Créateur,qu’on peut exiger de la Créature .

”3Even the behaviour of the soldiery receives itsmeed of praise .

During themarch of an army the inhabitantsof the country , weare told by the secretary to the Embassy sent by Charles II . tothe Sultan , had no complaints to mak e of being plundered or oftheir women beingmaltreated . All the taverns along the line ofmarch were shu t up and sealed two or three days before the arrivalof the army

,and no wine was allowed to be sold to the

‘

soldiersunder pain of death .

4

1 Tournefort, vo l . i . 104. Cf. Pichler, 2 9 , 3 1 . SPO“. VOL 1 P: 442 Turchicae spurcitiae

psuggillatio , fo l . fol . xv. (b );fo l . xvi i. (b) ;

fo l . xx. (a). Veniero , pp . 3 2 , 3 6 . Busbecq, p . 1743 Gaultier de Lesl ie , pp . 180, 182 .

‘1 Rycaut, vo l. 1. p . 689 . See also Georgieviz , pp'

. 5 3 -4, and'

Menavino , P: 73


Many a tribu te of praise is given to the virtues of the Turk s even

by Christian writers who bore themno love one such who had avery poor opinion of their religion} speak s of themas follows“ Even in the dirt of the Alcoran you shal l find some jewelsof Christian Virtues and indeed if Christians will but diligentlyread and observe the Laws and Histories of the Mahometans

,they

may blush to see how zealou s they are in the work s of devotion ,piety

,and charity

,how devout

,cleanly

,and reverend in their

Mosques,how obedien t to their Priest

,that even the great Turk

himself will attempt nothing without consu lting his Mufti how

careful are they to observe their hours of prayer five times a daywherever they are

,or however employed how constan tly do they

observe their Fasts frommorning t ill n ight a whole monthtogether how loving and charitable the Muslemans are to eachother

,and how careful of strangers ,may be seen by their Hos

pitals, both for the Poor and for Travellers ;if we observe their

Justice, Temperance , and other moral Vertues,we may truly

blush at our own coldness,both in devotion and charity

,at our

injustice,intemperance

,and oppression doubtless these Men

will rise up in judgment against us;and surely their devotion ,

piety,and work s of mercy are main causes of the growth of

Mahometism.

”

The same conclusion is drawn by a modern historian}2 whowrites “We find that many Greek s of high talent and moralcharacter were so sensibl e of the superiority of the Mohammedans ,that even when they escaped being drafted into the Sultan

’shousehold as tribu te - children

,they voluntarily embraced the faith

of Mahomet. Themoral superiority of Othoman societymust beallowed to have had asmuch weight in causing these conversions,which were numerous in the fifteenth century

,as the personal

ambition of individuals .”A generation that has watched the decay of the Turk ish power

in Europe and the successive curtailment of its territorial possessions

,and i s accustomed to hearing i t Spok en of as the “ sick

man,

”destined to a speedy dissolution,must find it diflicult to

1 A lexander Ross, p. i x. ;he cal ls the Qur'an a“gall imaufry o f Errors (a

Brat as deformed as the Parent, and as ful l o f Heresies, as his scald head was o f—“

ahodg podge made up o f these four Ingredients. 1 Of Contradic

tions. 2 . Of Blasphemy. 3 . Of ridiculous Fables. 4. Of Lyes.2 Finlay, vol. v. p . 2 9 .


avenue of freedomto you , p erchance it is His pleasurethat you

should leave it and join this sect and be saved therein .

”1The Christian slave who thus describes the doubts that arose in

his mind as the slow - passing years brought no relief, doubtless

gives expression here to thoughts that suggested'

themselves tomany a hapless Christian captive with overwhelming persistency ,unti l at last he brok e away from‘ the ties of his old faith and

embraced Islam. Many who wou ld have been ready to die as

martyrs for the Christian religion if themythical choice between theQur’an and the sword had been offered them

,felt more andmore

strongly , after long years of captivity, the influence of Muhammadan thought and pract ice , and humanity won converts whereviolence would have failed ? For though the lot ofmany of theChristian captives was a very pitiable one

,others who held

positions in the households of private individuals , were often no

worse off than domest ic servants in the rest of Europe . Asorganised by the Muhammadan Law

,slavery was robbed ofmany

of its harshest features,nor in Turk ey at least does it seemto

have been accompan ied by such barbarities and atrocities as in thepirate states of Northern Africa. The slaves

,l ik e other citizens

,

had their rights, and it is even said that a slave might summonhismaster before the Qadi for ill usage , and that if he alleged thattheir tempers were so opposite , that it was impossible for themtoagree , the 9 51111 could oblige hismaster to sell him.

8 The condit ion of the Christian captives naturally varied with c ircumstancesand their own capabil ities of adapting themselves to a life of hardship the aged, the priests and monk s , and those of noble birthsufferedmost

,while the physician and the handicraftsman received

more considerate treatment fromtheir masters,as being servants

that best repaid the money spent upon them.

4 The galley - slaves

1 Turchicae Spurcitiae Suggillatio , fo l . xxvn (a)2 “ Dum corpora exterius fovendo sub p1etat1s Specie non occidit : interius

fidem auferendo animas sua diabo l ica astutia occidere intend it. Huins rei

testimonium innumerabilis multitudo fidelium esse potest. Quorummultipromptissimi essent pro fide Christi et snarumanimarumsalute in fide Christimori : quos tamen conservando a morte corporal i : et duetos in captivitatempersuccessumtemporis suo infectos veneno fidemChristi turpiter negate facit.”Turchicae Spurcitiae Suggillatio , fo l . i . cf. fo l . vi. (a) .

3 Menavino , p . 96 . John Harris : Navigantiumatque ItinerantiumBibl iotheca,vo l . i i . p . 8 19 . (London,

1

4 D iesesmussman den Tiirk en nachsagen, dass sie die D iener i1nd Sclaven,durch deren Fleiss und Bemiihun Sie sich einen Nntz en schaffen honnen, sehrwo l und oft besser, als die Christen die ihrige, hal ten tind wann ein

CHRISTIAN SLAVES UNDER THE TURKS . 149

naturally sufferedmost of al l, indeed the k indest treatment cou ldhave but l ittle relieved the hardships incident to such an occupation .

1 Further,the lot of the slaves who were state property was

more pitiable than that of those who had been purchased byprivate individuals ? As a ru le they were allowed the free exerc iseof their religion in the state - prisons at

.

Constantinople,they had

their own priests and chapels,and the c lergy were allowed to

admin ister the consolations of religion to the galley- slaves .3 The

number of the Christian Slaves who embraced Islamwas enormous some few cases have been recorded of their beingthreatened and ill - treated for the very purpose of inducing themto recant

,but as a rule the masters seldom forced them to

renounce their faith,

‘1 and put the greatest pressure upon themduring the first years of their captivity , after which they let themalone to follow their own faith ? The majority of the c

‘onvertedslaves therefore changed their religion of their own free choiceand when the Christian embassies were never sure fromday today that some of their fellow - countrymen that had accompan ied

Knecht in einer Kunst erfahren ist, gebet ihmnichts anders als die Freyheit ab

ausserwelche er alles andere hat, was ein freyer Mensch sich nurwiinschen k an .

G . C . von den Driesch, p . 132 .

1 SirWilliamStirl ing-Maxwell says of these The poorwretches who tugged

at the oar on board a Turk ish ship ofwar l ived a l ife neither more nor lessmiserable than the galley- slaves under the Sign o f the Cross. Hard work , hard

fare, and hard k nock s were the lot o f bo th. A shore , a Turk ish or A lgerineprison was, perhaps, more no isome in its filth and dark ness than a prison at

Naples or Barcelona but at sea, if there were degrees o f misery, the Christianin Turk ish chains probably had the advantage ;for in the Sultan’s vessels the

oar-

gangwas o ften the property o f the captain,and the owner

’s natural tenderness

for his own was Sometimes supposed to interfere with the d ischarge o f his duty .

”

(Vol. i . pp. 1022 Gmelin, p. 16 .

3 Id. p . 2 3 .

John Harris Navigantiumatque ItinerantiumBibliotheca, vo l. 11 . p . 8 10.

5 Die ersten Jahre sind fur so lche ungliick liche Leute ambeschwehrlichsten,absonderl ich wenn Sie no ch jung, wei l die Turk en selbige entwedermit Schmeichelu, oder, wann d ieses n ichts verfangen wi ll, mit der Scharfe z u ihren Glaubenz u bringen suchen;warmaber dieser Sturmiiberwunden, w irdman finden, dass

die Gefangenschaft nirgend ertraglicher als beyden Turk en seye . (G. C . von den

Driesch, p . MoreoverGeorgieviz says that those who persevered in the

Christian faith were set free after a certain fixed eriod. Si in Christiana fideperseveraveiint, statuitur certumtempus serviendi , quo elapso l iberi huntVerumill is qui nostramreligionemabiurarunt, nec certumtempus est serviendi,nec ullumius in patriamredeundi, Spes libertatis so lummodo pendet a dominiarb itrio (p . Simi larly Menavino , p . 6 5 . Cantacuz eno s gives this period as

seven years Grata e la compagnia che essi fanno a gli schiavi loro , percioche

Maumetto gli ha fra l’altre cose comandato che egl i non Si possa tener in servitii

uno schiavo pili che sette anni , et percib nessuno o raro eco lui che a tal comandamento vogl ia contrafare

”(p .


themto Constantinople as domestic servants,might not turn

Turk } i t can easily be understood that slaves who had lost all

hope of return to their nat ive country,and found little in their

surroundings to strengthen and continue the teachings of theirearlier years

,wou ld yield to the influences that beset themand

would feel few restraints to hinder themfromentering a new

society and a new religion . A n Engl ish traveller 2 of theseventeenth century has said of them:

“ Few ever return totheir native country and fewer have the courage and constancyof retaining the Christian Faith , in which they were educated ;their education being butmean , and their k nowledge but slightin the principles and grounds of i t whereof some are frightenedinto Turcismby their impatience and too deep resentments of thehardships of the servitude ;others are enticed by the blandishments and flatteries of pleasure the Mahometan Law allows

,and

the allurements they have of mak ing their condition better andmo re easy by a change of their Religion ;having no hope leftof being redeemed, they renounce their Saviour and theirChristianity

,and soon forget their original country, and are no

longer look ed upon as strangers , but pass for natives .”

Much of course depended upon the individual character of thedifferent Christian slaves themselves . The anonymous writer

,so

often quoted above,whose long captivitymade himso competent

to speak on their condit ion,d ivides them in to three classes

first,those who passed their days in all simp licity, no t caring to

trouble themselves to learn anything about the religion of theirmasters for themit was enough to k now that the Turk s wereinfidels, and so , as far as their cap t ive condi tion and their yok e ofSlavery allowed

,they avoided having anything to do with them

and their rel igious worship , fearing lest they should be led astrayby their errors , and striving to observe the Christian faith as far

as their k nowledge and power went . The second class consisted

1 “ Fromme Christen, die nach der Turk ei oder in andere muhamedanischeLiinder k amen, hatten A nlass genug z urTrauer iiber die H '

aufigk eit des A bfallsihrer Glaubensgenossen, und besonders die Schriften der Ordensgeistl ichen sindvo l l von so lchen Klagen. Bei den Sclaven k onnte sich immer noch einGeftihldes M itleids demder M issb i lligung be imischen, aber oft genugmussteman dieb ittersten Erfahrungen auch an freien Landsleuten machen. D ie christl ichenGesandten n aren k einen Tag sicher, ob ihnen nicht Leute von ihremGefo lgedavon l liefen;undman that gut daran, den Tag nicht vor demA bend 2 11 loben.

”(Gmel in, p . Cf. Von den Driesch, p. 16 1 .

2 Thomas Smith, pp 144- 5 .


whom appear to have passed over to Islam in the second

generation.1

In the following pages it is proposed to give amore detailedand particular account of the spread of Islamamong the Christianpopulations of Albania

,Servia

,Bosn ia and Crete

,as the history

of each of these countries after its conquest by the Ottomanspresents some special features of interest in the history of thepropagation of Islam.

The Albanians,with the exception of some settlements in

Greece,2 inhabit the mountainou s count ry that stretches along

the east shore of the Adriatic fromMontenegro to the Gu l f ofArta. They formone of the oldest and purest - blooded races inEurope and belong to the Pelasgic branch of the Aryan stock .

Their country was first conquered by Bayaz id I . in the early partof the fifteenth century. For a short time it regained its independence under George Castrio t , who is better k nown under hisMuhammadan name of Scanderbeg or Sik andarbeg. When a

boy he had been surrendered,together with his three brothers,

by his father , the despot of Epirus , as a hostage for the paymentof the tribute imposed by the .Turk s . He was circumcised and

brought up as a Musl imunder the especial favour of the Sultan,

who made himcommander of 5000 Turk ish horse . On the deathof his father

,his brothers were put to death and the principality

seized by the Sultan ,who thought that he had bound Sik andar

securely to himself,but thirsting for revenge, the young Alban ian

threw off his allegiance to Islam,and for twenty- three years

maintained a vigorous and successful resistance to the Turk ish

armies . After ;the death of Sik andarbeg in 1467, the Turk sbegan again

‘

to tak e possession of Albania. Kroia,the capital

of the Castriot dynasty,fell into their hands eleven years later

,

and from this date there appears to have been no organisedresistance of the whole country

,though revolts were frequent and

the subjection of the country was never complete . Some of thesea- port towns held outmuch longer Durazzo was captured in

1 501 , while Antivari , the northernmost point of the sea- coast ofAlbania

,did no t surrender until 1 571 . The terms of capitulation

1 “ The o ld People dying, the young ones general ly turn Mahumetans So thatnow ( 16 5 5 ) you can hardlymeet with two Christian A rmenians in al l those fairP lains, which their fathers were sent to manure.

”Tavernier p . 16 .

2 For a l ist o f these, see Finlay , vo l . vi. pp. 2 8 -

9 .

ALBANIA. 1 5 3

were that the city should retain i ts o ld laws and magistrature,that -there should be free and public exerc ise of the Christianreligion , that the churches and chapels Should remain un injuredand might be - rebu ilt if they fell into decay ;that the cit izensshould retain all their movable and immovable property and

should no t be burdened by any additional taxation .

The Alban ians under Turk ish rule appear always to havemaintained a k ind of semi - au tonomy

,and the several tribes and

c lans remained as essentially independent as they were before theconquest . Though vassals of the Sultan , they wou ld no t brookthe interference of Turk ish officials in their internal admin istration , and there is reason to believe that the Turk ish Governmenthas never been able to appoint or confirm any provincial

governor who was no t a native of Albania, and had no t alreadyestablished his influence by his arms

, policy or connections .l

Their racial pride i s in tense , and to the present day theAlbanian

,if ask ed what he is

,will call himself a Sk ipetar ,2 before

saying whether he is a Christian or a Muhammadan - a veryremark able instance of national feeling obliterating the fierce distinction between these two religions , that so forcibly obtrudesitself in the rest of the Ottoman empire . The Christian and

Muhammadan Alban ians al ik e, just as they speak the samelanguage, so do they cherish the same traditions

,and observe

the same manners and customs ;arid pride in their commonnational ity has been too strong a bond to allow differences ofreligious belief to Split the nation into separate commun ities onthis basis .3 Side by side they serve in the irregu lar troops , thatsoon after the Turk ish conquest became themain dependence ofthe government in all i ts in ternal admin istrat ion

,and both

classes have found the same ready emp loyment in the service of

1 Leak e, p . 2 50.

2 The name bywhich the A lbamans always cal l themselves, l it. ro ck -dwellers.

3 One of themselves, an A lbanian Christian , speak ing o f the enmity existingbetween the Christians and Muhammadans of Bulgaria, says A berfur A lbanienl iegen die Sachen ganz anders . D ie Muselm'

anner A lbaniens sind A lbanesen ,

wie die Christen;sie sprechen d ieselbe Sprache, sie haben d iese lben Sitten , siefo lgen denselben Gebrauchen, Sic haben dieselben Traditionen sie

_

und die

Christen haben sich n iemals gehasst, zwischen ihnen herrscht k el

ine Jahrhundertealte Feindschaft. - Der Unterschied der Rel igion war niemals ein z u einersystematischen Trennung tre ibendes Motiv ;Muselm'

anner und Christen habenstets, mit wenigen A usnahmen. auf gleichemFusse gelebt, sich der gleichenRechte erfreuend , dieselben Pflichten erfiillend .

” Effend i : A lbamentind die A lbanesen , p . (Berlin ,


the local pashas, being accounted the bravest soldiers in theempire . Christian Albanians served in the Ottoman army inthe Crimean War} and though they have perhaps been a little

more quiet and agricu ltural than their Musl imfellow - countrymen,

still the difference has been small : they have always retainedtheir arms and mi litary habits , have always displayed the samefierce

,proud

,untamable spirit , and been an imated with the same

intense national feeling as their brethren who had embraced thecreed of the Prophet ?

The consideration of these facts is of importance in trac ing thespread of Islamin Albania, for it appears to have been propagatedvery gradually by the people of the country themselves, and no t

under pressure of foreign influences. The details that we possessof this movement are very meagre , as the history of Albaniafromthe close of the fifteenth century to the rise of ‘A li Pashathree hundred years later , is almost a blank what k nowledge wehave

,therefore

,of the slow but continuous accession of converts

to Islamduring this period , is derived fromthe ecclesiasticalchronicles of the various dioceses ,3 and the reports sent in fromtime to time to the Pope and the Society de Propaganda Fide .

4

But it goes without saying that the very nature of these sources

gives the information derived fromthemthe stamp of imperfection

,—especially in the matter of the motives assigned for

conversion . For an ecclesiastic of those times to have evenentertained the possibility of a conversion to Islamfromgenu ineconviction—much less have Openly expressed such an opinion inwriting to his superiors— is well - n igh inconceivable .During the Sixteenth century, Islamappears to have made butl i ttle progress , though the tide of conversion had already set in .

In 1 6 10 the Christian population exceeded the Muhammadan inthe proportion of ten to one

,

5 and as most of the villages wereinhabited by Christians

,with a very small admixture of Muham

1 Finlay,vol . v. p . 46 .

2 Clark , pp . 175 -7. The Mirdites who are very fanatical Roman Catho l ics (inthe d io cese of A lessio ) w i l l no t suffer a Muhammadan to l ive in the ir mountains .

and no member of their tribe has ever abjured his faith;were anyM irdite to

attempt to do so , he would certainly be put to death, unless he succeeded in

mak ing good his escape fromA lbania. Hecquard : Histo ire de la Haute

A lbanie, p . 2 24.

3 Publ ished in Farlati's IllyricumSacrum.

4 A lessandro Comuleo , 1 5 93 Bizzi , 16 10. Marco Crisic . 16 5 1 . Fra Bo naventura di S. A ntonio , 16 5 2 . Zmaievich, 1703 .

1 Bizz i , fo l. 60, b .


Such permission was rendered practically ineffective by the actionof the Christian ecclesiastics who ordered the mothers to beexc luded fromthe churches and fromparticipation in the sacra

ments} and consequently (though the parish priests often disregarded the commands of their superiors)many of these womenembraced the faith of their husbands . B ut even then they k ep tup a superstitious observance of the rite of bap tism,

which wassupposed to be a sovereign Specific against leprosy, witches andwolves? and Christian priests were found ready to pander to thissuperstition for anyMuhammadan woman who wished to haveher children baptised .

3 This good feeling between themembersof the two religions

‘1 is similarly illustrated by the attendance ofMuhammadans at the festivals of Christian saints ;e .g. MarcoBizzi says that on the feast - day of St . Elias (for whomtheAlbanians appear to have had a special devotion) there were as

many Muhammadans present in the church as Christians . 5 Evento the presen t day we are told that Alban ian Muhammadansrevere the Virgin Mary and the Christian saints

,and mak e

pilgrimages to their shrines, while Christians on the other handresort to the tombs of Muslimsaints for the cure of ailments orin f ulfilment of vows .6 In the town of Calevacci

,where there

were sixty Christian and ten Muhammadan households , thefollowers of the Prophet contributed towards the support of the

parish priest , as the majority of them had Christian wives .7

Under such circumstances it is hardly surprising to learn thatmany openly professed Islam

,while satisfying their consciences

by saying that they professed Christian ity in their hearts .8

Marco Bizzi has three explanations to offer for such a lapse,— the

attraction of worldly advantage , the desire to avoid the paymentof tribu te

,and the want of a sufficiently large number of intelli

1 Bizzi , fo l . 38 , b . Farlati, tom. v1i. p . 1 5 8 .

2 Bizz i , fo l . 10, b . Veniero , fo l . 34.

3 Shortly afterMarco Biz z i’

s arrival at A ntivari a Muhammadan lady o f highrank wished to have her chi ld baptised by the A rchbisho p himself, who tel ls us

that She complained bitterly to one of the leading Christians o f the c i ty that 10

nonmi fossi degnato di far a lei questo piacere, il qual quo tid ianamente vien fattodaimiei preti a richiesta di qualsivogl ia plebeo (fo l. 10, b ) .4For modern instances o f the harmonious relations subsisting between the

fo llowers of the two faiths l iving together in the same vi llage, see HyacintheHecquard : H isto ire ct description de la Haute A lbanie (pp. 1 5 3 , 16 2 ,

(Paris.1Bizzi , fo l. 38 , a.

‘1 Gamctt, p . 2 67.

7 Bizzi, fo l. 3 6 , l) . Id . fo l . 38 , b . ;37, a.

ALBANIA. 1 57

gent clergy to supply the sp iritual needs of the country . Con

versions are frequently ascribed to the pressure of the burden oftaxation imposed upon the Christians

,and whole villages are said

to have apostatised to avoid payment of the tribu te . As no

details are given , i t is impossible to judge whether there wasreally suflicient ground for the complaint , or whether th is wasnot the apology for their conduct alleged by the renegades in ordertomak e some k ind of excuse to their former co - religion ists ,— or

indeed an exaggeration on the part of ecclesiastics'

to whoma

genuine.

conversion to Islam on rational grounds seemed an

absolute impossibil ity . A century later (in 1703) the cap itationtaxwas six reals a head for eachmale and this (with the exceptionof a tax

,termed sciataraccio

,of three reals a year) was the on ly

burden imposed on the Christians exclusively .

2 Men musthave had very little attachment to their religion to abandon

i tmerely in order to be quit of so slight a penalty , and with no

other motive ;and the very existence of so large a body ofChristians in Alban ia at the presen t time shows that the burdencould no t have been so heavy as to force theminto apostacywithout any other alternative .

If on ly we had somethingmore than vague general complaintsagainst the

“ Turk ish tyranny,

”we should be better able todetermine how far this could have had such a preponderatinginfluence as i s ascribed to it : but the evidence alleged seemshardly to warrant such a conclusion . The vic ious practicefollowed by the Ottoman Court of sell ing posts in the provincesto the highest bidder and the uncertainty of the tenure ofsuch

'

posts , often resu lted in the occupants trying to amassas large a fortune as possible by extortions of every k ind .

But such burdens are said to have weighed as heavily on

Muhammadans as Christians .3 Though certainly an avariciousand unjust oflicial may have found it easier to oppress theChristians than the Muslims

,especially when the former were

convicted of treasonable correspondence with the Venetiansand other : Christian states and were suspected of a wish to

revolt .

2 Bizzi ,1 fol . 38 , b ;6 1 , a; a , 3 , b.

2 Zmaievich, fo l. 5 . The iienetian';real in the eighteenth century was equal to

a Turk ish p iastre. (Businello , p . 94.

3 Bizzi fo l. 1 2 13 . Zmaievich, fo l. 5 .


However this may have been , there can be little doubt of theinfluence exerted by the zealous activi ty and vigorous life ofIslamin the face of the apathetic and ignorant Christian clergy .

If Islamin Alban ia hadmany such exponents as the Mulla,whose

sincerity,courtesy and friendliness are praised by Marco Bizzi

,

with whomhe used to discuss religious questions , it may wellhave made its way.

1 Themajority of the Christian clergy appearto have been wholly unlettered : most of them

,though they could

read a l ittle,did no t k now how to write

,and were so ignorant of

the duties of their sacred calling that they could no t even repeatthe formu la of absolution by heart g;though they had to recitethe mass and other services in Latin

,there were very few who

could understand any of it , as they were ignorant of any languagebut theirmother tongue , and they had only a vague, traditionaryk nowledge of the truths of their religion .

3 Marco Bizzi consideredthe inadequate ep iscopate of the country responsible for theseevils

,as for the small numbers of the clergy , and their ignorance

of their sacred call ing, and for the large number of Christianswho grew o ld and even die d without being confirmed and

apostati sed almost everywhere “;and un less this were remediedhe prophesied a rapid decay of Christiani ty in the country .

5

Several priests were also accused of k eeping concubines,and of

drun k enness .6

Itmay here be observed that the Albanian priests were no t therepo sitaries of the national aspirat ions and ideals , as were thec lergy

'

of the Orthodox Church in other provinces of the Turk ishEmp ire , who in spite of their ignorance k ept al ive among theirpeople that devotion to the Christian faith which formed thenucleus of the national l ife of the Greek s .7 On the contrary

,

the Albanians cherished a national feeling that was qu ite apartfrom religious belief, and with regard to the Turk s, con

sidered,in true feudal spirit

,that as they were the masters of

Bizzi , fol. 10- 1 1 .2 Id. fo l . 3 1 , b .

3 Id. fo l. 60, bId. fol . 33 . b . Q ui deriva il puoco numero de Sacerdoti in quel le parti e

la pnoea loro intell igenza in quel mestiero ;il gran numero de Christiani, cheinvecchiano , et anco morono senza il sacramento dellaConfermatione et apostatanodel la fede quasi per tutto .

”5 Se l’A lbania non riceveraqualche mag

'

or agiuto inmeno di anni anderaamale quasi tutta quella Christianita per i puoco numero dei Vescovi e dei

Sacerdoti di qualche intelligenza.

"Id. fo l . 6 1 , a.

6 Id . fo l . 36 , a. Id . fol . 64, b.

7 Finlay , vo l . v. pp. 1 5 3 -4. Clark , p. 2 90.


Catholics left .1 In the whole country generally, the majority o fthe Christian community in 1 65 1 was composed of women , as themale population had apostatised in such large numbers to Islam.

$2

Matters were still worse at the close of the century,the Catholics

being then fewer in number than the Muhammadans,the propor

tions beingabout 1 to whereas less than ahundred years before,

they had outnumbered the Muhammadans in the proportion of10 to in the Archbishopric of Durazzo the Christian popu lationhad decreased by abou t half in twenty years

,

5 in another town (inthe diocese ofKroia) the entire population passed fromChristian ityto Islamin the course of thirty years .6 In sp ite of the frequentprotests and regulationsmade by their ecclesiastical superiors , theparish priests continued to countenance the open profession ofIslamalong with a secret adherence to Christian ity

,011 the part

of manymale members of their flock s,by administering to them

the Blessed Sacrament the resul t of which was that the childrenof such ‘ persons

,being brought up as Muhammadans

,were for

ever lost to the Christian church .

7 Similarly,Christian parents

still gave their daughters in marriage to Muhammadans,the

parish priests countenancing such unions by admin istering thesacrament to such women ,

8 in sp ite of the fulminations of theh igher clergy against such indulgence .

9 Such action on the partof the lower clergy can hardly however be tak en as indicatinganygreat zeal on behalf of the spiritual welfare of their flock s , inthe face of the accusations brought against them;themajority ofthemare accused of being scandalou s l ivers, who very seldomwen t to confession and held drunk en revels in their parsonageson festival days they sold the property of the Church

,frequently

absented themselves from their parishes,and when censured

,

succeeded in getting off by putting themselves under the pro tect ion of the Turk s .10 The Reformed Franciscans and the Observants who had been sent to min ister to the spiritual wants of thepeople did nothing but quarrel and go to law with one another;much to the scandal of the laity and the neglect of themission .

l l

Parlati . tom. vu. pp . 1 24, 141 . Marco Crisio , p . 202 .

1‘ Zmaievich , fo l . 2 27. Bizzi , fo l . 60. b.

5 Zmaievich, fo l . 137.

5 Zmaievich, fo l . 1 57.

7 Zmaievich, 101. 1 1 , 1 5 9 .

8 Zmaievich. fo l. 1 3 .

9 Bizzi, fo l. 38 , b . Parlati , vol . v11. p . 1 5 8

‘0 Zmaievich,

~fo l . 13 - 14.

Informatione circa la.missione d’A lbania, fo l. 196 .

ALBANIA. 1 6 1

In themiddle of the seventeenth century five out of the twelveAlbanian sees were vacant ;the diocese of Pullati had not beenvisited by a bishop for thirty years

,and there were only two

priests to 6348 souls.1 In some parishes in the interior of thecountry

,there had been no priests formore than forty years;and

this was in no waydue to the Oppression of the“Turk ish tyrant

,

”

for when at last four Franciscan missionaries were sent,they

reported that they could go through the country and exercisetheir sacred office without any hindrance whatever.2 The bishopof Sappa

,to the great prejudice of his diocese , had been long

resident in Venice , where he is said to have lived a vicious life,

and had appointed as his vicar an ignorant priest who was a

notorious evil - l iver thisman had souls under his charge ,and

,says the ecclesiastical visitor

,

“ through the absence of thebishop there is danger of his losing his own soul and compassingthe destruction of the souls under himand of the property ofthe Church .

”3 The bishop of Scutari was look ed upon as a

tyrant by his clergy and peop le , and only succeeded in k eepinghis po st through the aid of the Turk s

“ and Zmaievich complains ofthe bishops generally that they burdened the parishes in theirdiocese with forced contribu tions .5 It appears that Christianecclesiastics were authorised by the Sultan to levy contributionson their flock s . Thus the Archbishop of Antivari (1 5 99 - 1 607)was allowed to “ exact and receive”two aspers from eachChristian family

,twelve for every firstmarriage (and double the

amount for a second,and quadruple for a third marriage), and

one gold piece fromeach parish annually,and it seems to have

been possible to obtain the assistance of the Turk ish authoritiesin levying these contribu tions .

6

Throughout the whole of Albania there was not a singleChristian school

,7and the priests were profoundly ignorant : some

were sent to study in Italy,but Marco Crisio condemns this prac

tice,as such priests were in danger of find ing l ife in Italy so

pleasant that they refused to_

return to their native country .

With apriesthood so ignorant and so careless of their sacred duties ,it is not surprising to learn that the common people had no k now

Crisio , fol . 204.

2 F1 3. Bonaventura, fol . 201 .

3 Marco Crisio , fol . 202 , 205 .

4 Id . fo l . 205 .

5 Zmaievich, fol . 1 3 .

5 Farlati. Tom. vu. p. 109 .

7 Marco'

Cristo , fo l . 205 . Bizzi, fol. 19 , b .

M


ledge even of the rudiments of their faith , and that numerousabuses and corruptions sprang up among them,

which “wroughtthe utmost desolation to . this vineyard of the Lord.

”1 ManyChristian s l ived in Open concubinage for years , still howeverbeing admitted to the sacraments,2 while others had a plural ity ofwives .3 In this latter practice we notice an assimilation betweenthe habits of the two communit ies— the Chri stian and the Muslim—which is further illustrated by the admission of Muhammadans

as sponsors at the"

baptismof Christian children,while the o ld

superstitious customof baptisingMuhammadan children was stillsanctioned by the priests .4

Such being the state of the Christian Church in A lban1a 1n

the latter half of the seventeenth century,some very trifl ing

incentive would have been enough to bring about a widespread

apostacy;and the punishment infl icted on the rebell ious Catholicsin the latter half of the century was a determining factor morethan suflicient to consummate the tendencies that had beendrawing themtowards Islamand to cause large numbers of themto fall away fromthe Christian Church . The rebellious movemen t referred to seems to have been instigated by George, thethirty -n inth Archbishop 0f Ant ivari (1 63 5 who throughthe bishops of Durazzo

,Scodra and Al essio tried to induce the

leaders of the Christian community to conspire against the Turk ishru le and hand over the country to the neighbouring C hristian

power, the Republic of Ven ice . As in his time Venice was at

peace with the Turk s a fitting opportunity for the hatching of

this plot did no t occur,but in 1 645 war brok e out between

Turk ey and the Republic,and the Venetians made an unsuccess

ful attempt to capture the city of Antivari,which before the

Turk ish conquest had been in their possession for more thanthree centuries (1 262 The Alban ian Catholics who hadsided with the enemy and secretly given themassistance wereseverely pun ished and deprived of their privileges , while theGreek Christians (who had everything to fear in the event of therestoration of the Venetian rule and had remained faithful to theTurk ish government) were l iberally rewarded and were laudedas the saviours of their country. Many of the Catholics either

Zmaievich, fol . 1 1. Zmaievich, fol . 3 2 .

Crisio , fo l. 204. Zmaievich, fo l. 1 1 . Farlati, vo l. vu . p. 15 1 .


to the Muhammadans, with the exception of the capitation - tax ofsix reals ayear for each male , and another tax

,termed sciataraccio ,

of three reals a year.l He concludes with the words “Thenation

,wounded by these taxes in its weak est part

,namely

,

worldly interest,to the consideration of which it has a singular

leaning either by nature or by necessity, hasgiven just cause forlamenting the deplorable loss of about 2000 soul s who apostatisedfromthe true faith so as not to be subject to the tribute .”9 Thereis nothing in his report to show that the taxes the Catholics hadto pay, constituted so intolerable a burden as to force themtorenounce their creed

,and though he attributesmany conversions

to Islamto the desire of escaping the tribute , he says expresslythat these apostacies fromthe Christian faith are mainly to beascribed to the extreme ignorance of the clergy,3 in greatmeasurealso to their practice of admitting to the sacraments those whoopenly professed Islamwhile in secret adhering to the Christianfai th 4 : in another place he says

,speak ing of the clergy who were

no t fit to be parish priests and their practice of administering thesacraments to apostates and secret Christians

,

“ these are preciselythe two causes fromwhich have come all the losses that theChristian Church has sustained in Albania.

”5 There is very littledoubt but that the widespread apostacy at this time was theresu lt of a long series of influences similar to thosementioned inthe preceding pages , and that the deliverance fromthe paymentof the tribute was the last l in k in the chain .

What active efforts Muhammadans themselves weremak ing togain over the Christians to Islam,

we can hardly expect to learnfromthe report of an ecclesiastical visitor . But we findmentionof a district

,the inhabitants of which

,fromtheir intercourse with

the Turk s,had “

contracted the vices of these infidels,

”and one of

the chief causes of their falling away fromthe Christian faith wastheir contracting marriages with Tur k ish women .

‘ There wereno doubt strongMuhammadan influences at work here

,as also in

the two parishes of Biscascia and Basia,whose joint population

of nearly a thousand sou ls was “ exposed to the obvious risk ofapostatising through lack of anypastor,

”and were “much tempted

Zmaievich, fo l . 5 .

Id. fo l. 1 5 . 197.Id . 101. 1 37.

ALBANIA. 1 6 5

in their faith,and needed to be strengthened in it by wise and

zealous pastors .”1Zmaievich speak s of one of the old noble Christian famil ies inthe neighbourhood of Antivari which was represented at thattime by two brothers the elder of these had been wheedledby the prominent Muhammadans of the p lace , who were closelyrelated to him

,into denying his faith ;the younger wished to

study for the priesthood,in which oflice “ he wou ld be ofmuch

assistance to the Christian church through the high esteemin

which the Turk s held his family ;which though poor wasuniversally respected.

”2 This indeed is another indication ofthe fact that the Muhammadans did not ill - treat the Christians

,

merely as such,but only when they showed themselves to be

politically disaffected . Zmaievich,who was himself an A lban ian ,

and took up his residence in his diocese instead of in Venetianterritory

,as many of the Archbishops of Antivari seemto have

done,3 was received with “ extraordinary honours and with

marvellous courtesy,

”not only by the Turk ish oflicialsgenerally,

but also by the Supreme Pasha of Albania himself,who gave him

the place of honour in his Divan,always accompanying himto

the door on his departure and receiving himthere on his arrival .4This “ barbarian who “ showed himself more l ik e a generoushearted Christian than a Turk

,

”gavemore substantial mark s of

good feeling towards the Christians by remitting—at the Archbishop’s request— the tribute due for the ensu ing year fromfourseparate towns.5 If any of the Christian clergy were roughlytreated by the Turk s

,i t seems generally to have been due to the

suspicion of treasonable correspondence with the enemies of t heTurk s ;ecclesiastical visits to Italy seemalso to have excitedand in many cases

,justly

,— such suspicions . Otherwise the

Christian clergy seem to have had no reason to comp lain ofthe treatmen t they received fromthe Musl ims Zmaievich evenspeak s of one parish priest being much beloved by the principalTurk s ,

”6and doubtless there were parallels in Alban ia to the

case of a priest in the d iocese of Trebinje in Herzegovina, who in

the early part of the eighteenth century was suspected , on

account of his famil iar intercourse with Muhammadans,of having

Zmaievich, fo l. 143 -4.

7 Id. fol . 2 2 .

3 Parlati . Tom. vii. p . 141 . Zmaievich , fol . 7, 17.

5 Id. fo l . 9 .5 Id. fo l. 141 .


formed an intention to embrace Islam,and was accordingly sent

by his bishop to Rome under safe cu stody .

1

The k ingdomof Servia first paid tribute to the Ottomans in1 375 and lost its independence after the disastrou s defeat ofKossovo where both the k ing of Servia and the Turk ishsultan were left dead upon the field. The successors of the twosovereign

-

s entered into a friendly , compact , the young Servianprince

,Stephen ,

ack nowledged the suzerainty of Turk ey, gavehis sister in marriage to the

'

new su ltan,Bayazid

,and formed

with hima league of brotherhood . At the battle of Ni k opoliswhich gave to the Turk s assured possession of the whole

Balk an pen insu la,except the. d istrict surrounding Constantinople ,

the Servian contingent turned the wavering fortune of the battleand gave the victory to the Turk s . On the field of Angorawhen the Turk ish power was ann ihilated and Bayazid himselftak en prisoner by Timur

,Stephen was present with his Servian

troops and fought bravely for his brother- in - law,and instead of

tak ing this opportun i ty of securing his independence , remainedfaithfu l to his engagement , and stood by the sons of Bayazid

until they recovered their father’s throne . Under the successorof Stephen , George Brank ovitch

,Servia enjoyed a semi

independence,but when in 143 8 he raised the standard of

revolt , his country was again overrun by the Turk s . Then for at ime Servia had to ack nowledge the suzerainty of Hungary, butthe defeat of John Hunyady at Varna in 1444brought her oncemore under tribute and in 145 9 she finally became a Turk ish

province .When given the choice between the Roman Catholic rule ofHungary and the Muslimru le of the Turk s

,the devotion of the

Servians to the Greek Church led themto prefer the tolerance ofthe Muhammadans to the uncompromising proselytising spirit ofthe Lat ins . A n old legend thus represents their feelings at thist ime —The Turk s and the Hungarians were at war;GeorgeBrank ovitch sought out John Hunyady and ask ed him

,

“ If youare victorious

,what will you do ?

” “Establish the RomanCatholic faith ,

”was the answer . Then he sought out the su ltan

and ask ed him,

“ If you come out victorious,what will you do

with our religion By the side of everymosque shall stand achurch

,and every man shall be free to pray in whichever he

Farlati, vo l. vi. p . 3 17.

1 68 THE PREACHING OF ISLA M .

rapidly among the remnant of the Servian population . TheServian clergy were very ignorant and unlettered , they could only

manage with difficulty to read their service -book s and hardly anyhad learned to write ;they neither preached to the people nor

taught themthe catechism,consequently in whole villages scarcely

aman could be found who k new the Lord’s Prayer or howmanycommandments there were even the priests themselves werequ ite as ignorant .l A fter the insurrection of 1 689 , the Patriarchof Ipek

,the ecclesiastical capital of Servia

,was appointed by the

Porte,but in 1737, as the resu lt ofanother rebell ion , the Servian

Patriarchate was entirely suppressed and the Servian Church

made dependen t upon the Greek Patriarch of Constantinople .

The churches were filled with Greek bishops,who made common

cause with the Turk ish Beys and Pashas in bleeding the un

fortunate Christians their national language was proscribed and

the Old Slavonic service - book s,etc.

,were collected and sent off to

Constantinople .2 With such a clergy it is not surprising that theChristian faith should decline e.g. in the commune of Gora (inthe district of Prizren), which had begun to become Muhammadanised soon after the great exodus of 1 690, the Servians that stillclung to the Christian faith , appealed again and again to theGreek bishop of Prizren to send thempriests

,at least occasionally,

but all in vain their children remained unbaptised,weddings and

burials were conducted without the blessing of the church , and

the consecrated bu ildings fell into decay.

3 In the neighbouringdistrict of Opolje , similarly, the present Musl impopulation of 9 500sou ls is probably for themost part descended fromthe original Slavinhabitants of the place.4 At the beginning of the seventeenthcentury, Bizzi found in the city of Jagnevo , 1 20 Roman Catholichouseholds

,200 Greek and 180Muhammadan ‘;less than ahundred

years later, every house in the city was look ed upon as Muhammadan , as the head of each family professed this faith and thewomen only,with some of the children,were Christian .

6 About themiddle of the eighteenth century , the village of Ljurs was entirelyCatholic in 1 863 there were 90 Muslimand 23 Christian families ,but at the present day this village , together with the surrounding

Parlati , vo l. vu. pp . 127-8 .

2

;911d Irby , pp. 374- 5 . 2é

d. p.

{38

.

8 bamz , p .

3 Id. pp. 39 -40. Zmaievich, fo l. 182 .

SERVIA. MONTENEGRO . 1 69

villages, has wholly given up Christian ity.1 Until recently some

lingering survivals of their old Christian faith , such as the burningof the Yule - log at Christmas , etc .

,were still to be met with in

certain villages, but such customs are now fast dying out.

After the battle of Kossovo and the downfall of the ServianEmpire

,the wild highlands of Montenegro afforded a refuge to

those Servians who would not submit to the Turk s but weredetermined tomaintain their independence. It is no t the placehere to relate the history of the heroic struggles of this bravepeople against overwhelming odds, how through centuries of

continual warfare , under the rule of their prince- bishops,2 they

have k ept al ive a free Christian state when all their brethren ofthe same race had been compelled to submit to Muhammadanrule. While the very basis of their separate existence as a nation

was their firmadherence to the Christian faith it could hardly havebeen expected that Islamwould havemade its way among them,

but in the seventeenth. century manyMontenegrins in the frontierdistricts became Muhammadans and took service with the neighbouring Pashas . But in 1703 , Dan iel Petrovitch , the thenreigning bishop , called the tribes together and told themthat theonly hope for their country and their faith lay in the destructionof the Muhammadans living among them. Accordingly, onChristmas Eve

,all the converted Montenegrins who would not

forswear Islamand embrace Christianity were massacred in coldblood .

3

To pass now to Bosn ia —in this country the religious and

social conditions of the people , before the Turk ish conquest,

merit especial attention. Themajority of the popu lation belongedto a heretical Christian sect , called Bogomiles, who fromthethirteenth century had been exposed to the persecution of theRoman Catholics and against whomPopes had on several occasionspreached a Crusade.4 In 1 3 2 5 , Pope John XXII . wrote thus tothe k ing of Bosnia To our beloved son and nobleman

,Stephen

,

Prince of Bosnia,—k nowing that thou art a fai thful son of thechurch , we therefore charge thee to exterminate the heretics in

Kanitz, p. 38 .

2 Montenegro was ruled by bishops from15 16 to 18 5 2 .

3 E. L. C lark , pp. 362 - 3 .

Honorius III. in 12 2 1 , Gregory IX . in 1238 , Innocent IV . in 1246, BenedictX II. in 1337. The Inquisition was establ ished in 129 1.


thy dominions , and to render .aid . and .assistance to Fabian , our

Inqu isitor , fo rasmuch as a large multitude of h eretics frommanyand divers parts . colle

‘

cted hath flowed together into the princis

pality of Bosnia, trusting there to sow their obscene errorsanddwell there in safety. These men , imbued with the cunning ofthe Old Fiend , and armed wi th the venomof their falseness ,corrupt theminds of Catholics by outward show of simplicity andthe sham assumption of the name of Christians ;their speechcrawleth l ik e a crab

,and they creep in with humil ity, but in

secret they k ill , and are wolves in sheep’s clothing, covering their

bestial fury as ameans to deceive the simple sheep of Christ .”In the fifteenth century

,the sufferings of the Bogomiles became so

intolerable that they appealed to the Turk s to deliver them. fromtheir unhappy condition ,

for the k ing of Bosn ia and the priestswere pushing the persecution of the Bogomiles to an extremewhich perhaps it had never reached before ;as many as fortythou sand of themfled fromBosn ia and took refuge in ,

neigh

bouring countries others who did no t succeed in mak ing theirescape

,were sent in chains to Rome . But even these violent

measures did l ittle to d iminish the strength of the Bogomiles inBosnia

,as in 1462

'

we are told that heresy was as powerful as ever

in t his country . The following year,‘ when Bosn ia was invaded

by Muhammad II. , the Catholic k ing found himself deserted byhis subjects the k eys of the principal fortress , the royal city of

B obo vatz , were handed over to the Turk s by the Bogomi legovernor the other fortresses and towns hastened

' to follow thisexample and within

’

a week seventy cities passed into the handsof the Sultan , and Muhammad II . added Bosnia to the number ofhis numerous conquests . lFromthis time forth we hear bu t l ittle of the Bogomiles theyseem to have willingly embraced Islamin large numbers im,mediately after the Turk ish conquest , and the rest seemto havegradually followed later, while the Bosnian .Roman Catholicsemigrated into the neighbouring territories of Hungary and

Austria. It has been supposed by some 9 that a large proportionof the Bogomiles , at least in the earl ier period of the conquest ,embraced Islamwith the intention of returning to their faithwhen a favourable opportunity presented itself;as, being con

A sbo th, pp. 42 -9 5 . Evans, pp . xxxvi -xln .

7 A sbo th, pp . 96-7.


we find in this Bogomilian heresy, but there were , of course , somedoctrines of a distinctly Christian character wh ich an orthodoxMuslimcould no t hold ;still , with so much in common, i t caneasily be understood how the Bogomilesmay gradually have beenpersuaded to give up those doctrines that were repugnant to theMuslim faith . Their Man ichaean dual ism was equally irreconcilable with Musl imtheology, but Islamhas always showni tself tolerant of such theological specu lations provided that theydid no t issue in a schismand that a general assent and consentwere given to themain principles of i ts theory and practice .The Turk s

,as was their usual custom

,offered every advantage

to induce the Bosn ians to accept their creed . All who embracedIslamwere allowed to retain their lands and possessions

,and i t is

probable thatmany rightful heirs of ancient houses who had beendispossessed for heretical opinions by the Catholic faction amongthe nobility

,now embraced the opportunity of regaining their old

position by submiss ion to the dominant creed .

The latest territorial acquisition of the Ottoman conquests wasthe island of Crete

,which in 1 669 was wrested fromthe hands of

the Venetian Republic when the city of Candia was tak en after

a long and desperate siege of nearly three years , which closed astruggle of twenty -five years between these rival powers for thepossession of the island .

This was no t the first time that Crete had come under Muslimrule . Early in the ninth century the island was suddenly seizedby a band of Saracen adventurers fromSpain

,and i t remained in

their power for nearly a century and ahalf (A .D . 82 5 Duringthis period well - n igh the whole populat ion of the island hadbecome Muslim

,and the churches had either fallen into ru ins or

been turned intomosques but when the authority of the Byzantine empire was once re - established here

,the people were con

verted again to their anc ient faith through the sk ilful preachingof an Armenian monk , and the Christian religion became theonly one professed on the island ? In the beginning of thethirteenth century

,the Venetians purchased the island from

Boniface,Duk e of Montserrat

,to whose lo t it had fallen after

the partition of the Byzantine empire,and they ruled i t with a

heavy hand,apparently look ing upon i t only in the light of a

Amari , vo l . i . p . 163 ;vo l. 11. p. 260.

Cornaro, vo l. i . pp. 205- 8 .

CRETE . 173

purchase that was to be exploited for the benefit of the homegovernment and i ts colon ists . Their administration was so

Oppressive and tyrannical as to excite several revolts, which werecrushed with pitiless severity ;on one of these occasions wholecantons in the provinces of Sfak ia and Lassiti were depopulated ,and it was forbidden under pain of death to sow any corn there ,so that these districts remained barren and uncultivated for nearlya century.

1 The terrific cruelty with which the Venetian senatesuppressed the last of these attempts at the beginning of thesixteenth century added a crown ing horror to the miserablecondit ion of the unhappy Cretans . How terrible was their lot atthis time we learn fromthe reports of the commissmners sent bythe Venetian senate in the latter part of the same century, inorder to inqu ire into the condition of the islanders . The peasantswere said to be crushed down by the cruellest oppression and

tyranny on the part of the Venetian nobles,their feudal lords

,

being reduced to a worse condition than that of slaves,so that

they never dared even to complain of any injustice . Each

peasant had to do twelve days’forced labour for his feudal lord

every year without payment , and could then be compelled to goon work ing for as long as his lord requ ired his services at thenominal rate of a penny a day his vineyards were mulcted in a

full third of their produce,but fraud and force combined generally

succeeded in appropriating asmuch as two - thirds ;his oxen and

mules could be seized for the service of the lord,who had a

thousand other devices for squeezing the unfortunate peasant ?

The protests of these commissioners proved ineffectual to inducethe Venetian senate to alleviate the unhappy condition of theCretans and put a stop to the cruelty and tyranny of the noblesit preferred to listen to the advice of a certain Fra Paolo Sarp iwho in 1 6 1 5 thus addressed the Republic on the subject of itsGreek colonies : “If the gentlemen of these Colon ies do tyrannizeover the villages of their dominion , the best way is no t to seemto see it, that theremay be no k indness between themand theirsubjects .”3

It is not surprising to learn fromthe same sources that theCretans longed for a change of rulers , and that

“ they would not

Perrot, p . 1 5 1 .2 Pashley, vol . i . p. 30;vol. 11. pp. 284, 29 142 .

3 Pashley, vo l . i i . p . 298.


much stick at submitting to the Turk , having the example of allthe rest of their nation before their eyes .” Indeed

,many at this

time fled into Turk ey to escape the intolerable burden of taxation,

following in the footsteps of countless others, who fromtime totime had tak en refuge there .l Large numbers of them alsoemigrated to Egypt , where many embraced Islam? Especially

gall ing to the Cretans were the exactions of the Latin clergy ,who

appropriated the endowments that belonged of right to the Greekecclesiastics

,and did everything they cou ld to insult the Christians

of the Greek rite,who constituted n ine - tenths of the population

of the island .

3 The Turk s on the other hand conciliated their

good - wi ll by restoring the Greek hierarchy. This,according to

a Venetian writer,was brought about in the following manner

“A certain papas or priest of Canea went to Cusseim' theTurk ish general , and told himthat if he desired to gain the goodwill of the Cretan people

,and bring detestation upon the name

of Venice,i t was necessary for himto bear in mind that the

staunchest of the link s which k eep civil ized society fromfallingasunder is religion . It would be needfu l for himto act in a way

different fromthe line followed by the'

V enetians. These didtheir utmost to root out the Greek faith and establish that of

Rome in it s place,with which interest they had made an injunc

tion that there should be no Greek b ishops in the island . Bythus removing these venerated and authoritative shepherds

,they

thought themore easily to gain control over the scattered flock s .This prohibition had caused such distress in the minds of theCretans that they were ready to welcome with joy and obedienceany sovereignty that would lend its will to the re- institution ofthis order in their hierarchy— an order so essential for the properexercise of their divine worship . He added

,that it would be a

furthermeans of conciliating the people if they were assured thatthey would not only be confirmed in the old privileges of theirreligion, -but that new privileges would be granted them. Thesearguments seemed to Cusseimso plausible that he wrote at onceto Constantinople with a statement of them. Here they are

approved , and the Greek'

Patriarch was bidden to institute an

archbishop who should be metropole of the Province of Candia.

Pashley, vo l. 11. p.

P t 1 5

Pashley, vo l . i . p . 3 19 .

erro p. 1.


the children of their Christian friends? The soc ial communication between the two communities was further signified by theircommon dress

,as the Cretans of both creeds dress somuch al ik e

that the distinction i s often no t even recognised by residents oflong standing or by Greek s of the neighbouring islands

?

1 Pashley , vol i . pp . 10, 19 5 .’

l‘

. A . B. Spratt : Travels and Researches 111 Crete, vol. i . p . 47 (Lond . 1865 .

CHAPTER VII .

THE SPREA D OF ISLA M IN PERSIA A ND CENTRA L A SIA .

IN order to follow the course of the spread of Islamwestward intoCentral Asia, wemust retrace our steps to the period of the firstArab conquests . By themiddle of the seventh century

,the great

dynasty of the Sasan ids had fallen,and the vast empire of Persia

that for four centuries had withstood the might of Rome and

Byzantium,now became the heritage of the Muslims . When the

armies of the state had been routed,the mass of the people

offered little resistance ;the reigns of the last representatives ofthe Sasanid dynasty had beenmark ed by terrible anarchy

,and the

sympathies of the people had been fu rther alienated fromtheirrulers on account of the support they gave to the persecutingpolicy of the state religion of Zoroastrian ism. The Zoroastrianpriests had acqu ired an enormous influence in the state ;theywere well - nigh all- powerful in the councils of the k ing and

arrogated to themselves a very large share in the civi l admin istration . They took advantage of their position to persecute allthose religious bodies— (and they were many)— that d issentedfromthem. Besides the numerous adherents of older forms ofthe Persian religion , there were Christians , Jews , Sabaeans andnumerous sects in which the speculations of Gnostics

,Man i

chaeans and Buddhists found expression . In all of these, persecu

tion had stirred up feelings of b itter hatred against the establishedreligion and the dynasty that supported its oppressions

,and so

caused the Arab conquest to appear in the l ight of a deliverance ?The followers of all these varied forms of faith could breatheagain under a rule that granted them religious freedomand

exemption frommil itary service , on payment of a l ight tribute .

A de Gob ineau pp . 5 5 - 6 . La Saussaye, vol . 11. pp. 45 - 6 .


For the Muslimlaw granted toleration and the right of paying

j izyah not only to the Christians and Jews, but to Zoroastriansand Sabaeans

,to worshippers of idols

,of fire and of stone ? It was

said that the Prophet himself had distinctly given directions thatthe Zoroastrians were to be treated exactly lik e “ the people of

the book,

”i.e . the Jews and Christians, and that j izyah mightalso be tak en fromthemin return for protection ?

But the Muslimcreed was most eagerly welcomed by thetownsfolk

,the industrial classes and the artiz ans

,whose occupa

t ions made themimpure according to the Zoroastrian creed ,because in the pursuance of their trade or occupations theydefiled fire

,earth or water

,and who thus

,outcasts in the eyes of

the law and treated with scant consideration in consequence ,embraced with eagerness a creed that made themat once freemen

,and equal in a brotherhood of faith .

3 Nor were the conversions fromZoroastrian ismitself less stri k ing : the fabric of thenational church had fallen with a crash in the general ruin ofthe dynasty that had before upheld it ;hav ing no other centreround which to rally

,the followers of this creed would find the

transition'

to Islama simple and easy one,owing to the numerous

p oints of similarity In the o ld creed and the new . For thePersian could find in the Qur’an many of the fundamentaldoctrines of his old faith

,though in a rather different form he

wou ldmeet again Ahuramazda and Ahriman under the names ofAllah and Iblis the creation of the world in six periods ;theangels and the demons the story of the primitive innocence ofman ;the resurrection of the body and the doctrine of heavenand hell .4 Even in the details of daily worship there weres imilarities to be found , and the followers of Zoroaster when theyadopted Islamwere enjoined by their new faith to pray five timesa day just as they had been by the Avesta.

5 Those tribes in thenorth of Persia that h ad stubbornly resisted the ecclesiasticalo rgan isation of the state religion , on the ground that each manwas a priest in his own household and had no need of any other ,and believing in a supreme being and the immortality of thesoul , taught that aman should love his neighbour , conquer his

A bfi Yi‘

isuf : Kitzibu- l Kharaj , p . 73 .

2 Id. Id . p . 743 A de Gobineau pp . 306 -

3 10. D ozy p . 1 5 7.5 Haneberg, p . 5 .


which fire - temples and Magians were no t to be found ? A sh

Sharastani also (writing as late as the twelfth century), mak esmention of a fire- temple at Isfiniya, in the neighbourhood ofBaghdad itself ?

In the face of such facts,i t is surely impossible to attribute the

decay of Zoroastrianism to violent conversions made by theMuslim conquerors . The number of Persians who embracedIslamin the early days of the Arab rule was probably very largefromthe various reasons given above

,but the late survival of

their ancient faith and the occasional record of conversions in thecourse of successive centuries

,render i t probable that the

acceptance of Islamwas both peaceful and voluntary . Aboutthe close of the eighth century

,Saman

,a noble of Balk h, having

received assistance fromAsad ibn ‘Abdu - llah,the governor of

1111111 115 5 11, renounced Zoroastrian ism,embraced Islamand named

his son Asad after his protector it is fromthis convert that thedynasty of the Saman ids (874-

999 A .D .) took its name . Aboutthe beginning of the n inth century, Karimibn Shahriyar was thefirst k ing of the Qabus iyah dynasty who became a Musalman

,

and in 873 a large number of fire -worshippers were converted toIslamin Daylamthrough the influence of Nasiru - l Haqq A bi

‘

I'

Muhammad . In the following century, about 9 1 2 A .D .

, Hasanibn ‘A li

,of the ‘A lid dynasty on the sou thern shore of the

Caspian Sea,who is said to have been a man of learn ing and

intelligence and well acquainted with the religious Opin ions ofdifferent sects

,Invited the inhabitants of Tabaristan and Daylam,

who were partly idolaters and partly Magians , to accept Islam;many of themresponded to his call

,while others persisted in

their former. state of In the year 394A .H . (1003 -4a famous poet, A ht

'

I - l'

Hasan Mihyar, a’

mative of Daylam,who had

been a fire -worshipper, was converted to Islamby a still morefamous poet

,the Shar if Ar Rida,who was hismaster in the poetic

art .

4 Scanty as these notices of conversions are,yet the very fact

that such can be found up to three centuries and a half after theMuslimconquest is clear testimony to the toleration the Persians

Das Buch der Lander von Schech Ebu Ishak el Farsi el Isz tachri, ubersetz tV011 A . D . Mordtmann, p . 6 2 - 3 . (Hamburg,

2 Kitfibu- lmilal wa-n nihal , edited by Cureton, part i . p . 198 .

3 Mas‘t'

Idi , vol . vi i i . p . 279 vo l . ix . 4- 5 .

IbnEhallik fin, vol . i i i . p . 5 17.

THE ISMA ‘ILIANS. I 8 I

enjoyed , and argues that their conversion to Islamwas peacefuland

,to some extent at least

, gradual .

In the middle of the eighth century,Persia gave birth to

.

a

movement that is of interest in the missionary history of Islam,

viz . the sect of the Isma‘ilians . This is not the place to enterintoa history of this sect or of the theological position tak en up by itsfollowers

,or of the social and political factors that lent it strength ,

but it demands atten tion here on account of the marvellousmissionary organ isation whereby it was propagated . The founderof this organ isation—which rivals that of the Jesuits for the k eeninsight into human nature it displays and the consummate sk i llwith which the doctrines of the sect were accommodated to

varying capacities and prejudices— was a certain ‘Abdu - llah ibn

Maymun,who early in the n inth century infused new l ife into the

Isma‘ilians. He sent out his missionaries in all directions undervarious guises, very frequently as Sufis but also asmerchants andt raders and the lik e they were instructed to be all things to allmen and to win over different classes of men to allegiance to the

grandmaster of their sect , by speak ing to eachman ,as i t were

,in

his own language , and accommodating their teaching to thevarying capacities and opin ions of their hearers. They captivatedthe ignorant mu ltitude by the performance ofmarvels that weretak en formiracles and bymysterious utterances that excited thei rcuriosity . To the‘

devout they appeared as models of virtue andreligious zeal to the mystics they revealed the hidden meaningof popular teachings and in i tiated them into various grad es ofo ccu ltismaccording to their capacity. Tak ing advantage of theeager look ing- forward to a deliverer that was common to somany faiths of the time, they declared to the Musalmans theapproaching advent of the ImamMahdi

,to the Jews that of the

Messiah, and to the Christians that of the Comforter, but taught

that the aspirations of each cou ld alone be realised in the comingof ‘A l i as the great del iverer . With the Shi

‘ah

,the Isma‘ilian

missionary was to put himself forward as the zealous partisan ofall the Shi‘ah doctrine

,was to dwell upon the cruelty and injustice

o f the Sunnis towards ‘A li and his son s,and l iberally abuse the

Sunni Q alifahs having thus prepared the way, he was toinsinuate

,as the necessary completion of the Shi‘ah systemof

faith,the more esoteric doctrines of the Isma‘ilian sect. In

d eal ing“with the Jew,

he was to speak with contempt of both


Christians and Muslims and agree with his intended convert instil l look ing forward to a promised Messiah , but gradually leadhimto believe that this promised Messiah cou ld be none otherthan ‘Al i , the great Messiah of the Isma‘il ian system. If hesought to win over the Christ ian, he was to dwell upon the

obstinacy of the Jews and the ignorance of the Musl ims,to

profess reverence for the chief articles of the Christian creed,but:

gently h in t that they were symbolic and pointed to a deepermean ing, to which the Isma‘ilian systemalone cou ld supply thek ey;he was also cautiously to suggest that the Christians hadsomewhatmisinterpreted the doctrine of the Paraclete and that itwas in ‘A li that the true Paraclete was to be found. Similarlythe Isma‘il ian missionaries who made their way into Indiaendeavoured to mak e their doctrines acceptable to the Hindus

,

by representing‘A li as the promised tenth Avatar of Visnu who .

was to come from the West , i.e . (they averred) fromAlamut .They also wrote a Mahdi Purana and composed hymns inimitation of those of the Vamacarins or left- hand Sak tas

,whose

mysticismalready predisposed their minds to the acceptance ofthe esoteric doctrines of the Isma‘il ians ?By such means as these an enormous number of persons of

different faiths were un ited together to push forward an enterprise

,the real aim of which was k nown to very few . The

aspirations of ‘Abdu- llah ibn Maymi‘

In seemto have been entirelypolitical

,but as themeans he adopted were religious and the one

common bond—if any - that bound his followers together was thedevou t expectation of the coming of the ImamMahd i

, the

missionary activity connected with the history of this sectdeserves this briefmention in these pages ?The history of the spread of Islamin the countries of CentralAsia to the north of Persia presents l ittle in the way ofmissionaryactivity . When Ibn - Qutaybah went to Samarqand, he foundmany idols there , whose worshippers maintained that any manwho dared outrage themwould at once fall down dead ;theMuslimconqueror

,undeterred by such superstitious fears

,set fire

to the idols ;whereupon the idolaters embraced Islam.

3 There

1 Khoja Vrittant, pp. 141 -8 . Fora further account of Isma‘il ianmissionariesin India, see chap . ix .

2 Le Bon Si lvestre D e Sacy : Exposé de la Rel igion ( les Druzes, tome i .p . lxvn- lxxvi . cxlvi i i- clxi i .3 A l Balidhuri, p . 42 1 .


relations established at this time with the then capital of theMuhammadan world

,Baghdad, through the enormous numbers

of Turk s that flock ed in thousands fromthese parts to join thearmy of the cal iph ? Islamhaving thus gained a footing amongthe Turk ish tribes seems to have made but slow progress unti lthemiddle of the tenth century

,when the conversion of some of

their Chieftains to Islam,l ik e that of Clovi s and other barbarian

k ings of Northern Europe to Christian ity, led their clansmen tofollow their example in a body. Thus the founder of the dynastyo f the Ilak Khans of Turk istan ,who for a time united under theirrule the Turk ish tribes fromthe Caspian Sea to the borders ofChina

,became a Muslim together with two thousand famil ies

of his tribe,to whom he gave the name of Turk omans to

d i stingu ish themfromthe Turk s that still remained unconverted ?Among the Turk ish Chieftains that took part in the wars ofthis dynasty was a certain Saljt

‘

iq who , in 9 5 6 A .D .,migrated from

the Kirghiz steppes with all his clan to the province of BuQ ara,where he and his people enthusiastically embraced Islam. Thiswas the origin of the famous Saljfiq Turk s , whose wars . and

conquests revived the fading glory of the Muhammadan arms andunited into one empire the Muslimk ingdoms of Western Asia.

When at the close of the twelfth century,the Saljfiq Empire

had lost all power except in Asia Minor,and when Muhammad

(i hori was extending his empire from _Kh urasan eastward acrossthe north of India

,there was a great revival of the Muslimfaith

among the Afghans and their country was overrun by Arabpreachers and converts fromIndia

,who set abou t the task of

proselytising with remark able energy and boldness .3Of the further history of Islamin Persia and Central Asia some

details will be found in the following chapter .

A ugust Muller, vol: i . p. 5 20.

2 Hammer vo l. i . p. 7.

3 Bel lew, p. 96 .

CHAPTER VIII .

THE SPREA D on ISLA M A MONG THE MONGOLS A ND TA RTA RS.

THERE i s no event in the history of Islamthat for terror anddesolation can be compared to the Mongol conquest . Lik e an

avalanche,the hosts of Jingi s Q an

'

swept over the centres ofMuslimculture and civil isation

,leaving behind thembare deserts

and shapeless ru ins where before had stood the palaces of statelyc ities

, girt abou t with gardens and fru itful corn- land . When theMongol army had marched out of the c ity of Herat , a miserableremnant of forty persons crept out of their hiding- places and

gazed horror - strick en on the ruins of their beautiful city—all thatwere left out of a popu lation of over In Bufi ara

,so

famed for itsmen of piety and learning, the Mongols stabled theirhorses in the sacred precincts of, the mosques and tore up theQur’ans to serve as l itter those of the inhabitants who were notbutchered were carried away into cap tivi ty and their city reducedto ashes. Such too was the fate of Samarqand

,Balk h,

andmanyanother city of Central Asia

,which had been the glories of Islamic

c ivilisation and the dwelling- places of holymen and the seats ofsound learn ing— such too the fate of Baghdad that for centurieshad been the capital of the ‘Abbasid dynasty.

Wellmight the Muhammadan historian shudder to relate suchhorrors when Ibnu - l A thir comes to describe the inroads of theMongols into the countries of Islam,

“ for many years,

”he tellsus

,

“ I shrank fromgiving a rec ital of these events on account oftheirmagn itude andmyabhorrence . Even now I come reluctantto the task , for who wou ld deemi t a light thing to sing the deathsong of Islamand of the Musalmans, or find it easy to tell thistale ? O thatmymother had no t given me birth ! ‘ Oh

,would

that I had died ere this,and been a thing forgotten, forgotten


qu ite ’1 Many friends have urgedme and still I stood irresolutebut I saw that it was of no profit to forego the task and so I thusresume . I shall have to describe events so terrible and calamitiesso stupendous that neither day nor night have ever brought forththe lik e they fell on all nations

,but on the Muslims more than

all and were one to say that since God created Adamthe worldhas no t seen the li k e

,he would but tell the truth

,for history has

nothing to relate that at all approaches i t . A morrg the greatestcalamities in history is the slaughter that Nebuchadnez zarwroughtamong the children of Israel and his destruction of the Templebut .what is Jerusalemin comparison to the countries that theseaccursed ones laid waste , every town of which was far greaterthan Jerusalem,

and what were the children of Israel in comparison to those they slew , since the inhabitants of one of thecities they destroyed were greater in numbers than all the childrenof Israel ? Let us hope that the world may never see the lik eagain.

”2 But Islamwas to rise again fromthe ashes of its formergrandeur and through its preachers win over these savage con

querors to the acceptance Of the faith . This was a task for themissionary energies of Islam that was rendered more d ifficultfrom the fact that there were two powerfu l competitors in the

field . The spectacle of Buddhism,Christianity and Islamemu

lously striving to win the allegiance of the fierce conquerors that

had set their feet on the neck s of adherents of these greatmissionary religions , is one that i s without parallel in the history of

the world .

Before entering on a reci tal of this struggle , i t will be well inorder to the comprehension of what is to follow briefly to glanceat the partition of the Mongol empire after the death of Jingis

Q an,when i t was split up into four sections and divided among

his sons . His third son,Ogo tay, succeeded his father as fi aqaan

and received as his share the eastern portion of the empire , inwhich Kubhilay Khan afterwards included the whole of China.

Jagatay the second son took the middle k ingdom. Bath,the

son of his first-born Jfiji, ruled the western portion as Khan ofthe Golden Horde Tul i

’

Iy the fourth 5 011 took Persia,to which

Halagfi, who founded the dynasty of the Ilk hans, added a greatpart ofAsiaMinor.

Q ur’fm, xix . 2 3 .

2 Ibnu- l A thir : Tarik hu- l Kamil , vo l. xii . p. 147-8 .


Although Buddhismmade itself finally supreme in the easternpart of the empire , at first the influence of the Christian Churchwas by no means inconsiderable and great hopes were entertainedo f the conversion of the Mongols . The Nestorian missionaries inthe seventh century had carried the k nowledge of the Christianfaith fromwest to east across Asia as far as the north of China,and scattered communities ere Still to be found in the thirteenthcentury. The famous Frazer John , around whose name clusterso many legends of the Middle Ages , i s supposed to have beenthe chief of the Kara

‘

its,a Christian Tartar tribe living to the

sou th of Lak e Baik al. When this tribe was conquered by Jingi s

Khan, he married one of the daughters of the then chief of thetribe

,while his son Ogo tay took a wife fromthe same family.

Ogo tay’s son

,Kuyuk Khan , although he did not himself become

a Christian,showed great favour towards this fai th , to which his

Chiefminister and one of his secretaries belonged . The Nestorian

p riests were held in high favour at his court and he received an

embassy fromPope Innocent IV ? The Christian powers both ofthe East and the West look ed to the Mongols to assist themin

their wars against the Musalmans. It was Heythoum,the Christ ian King of Armenia,who wasmainly instrumental in persuadingMangi

‘

I Khan to despatch the expedition that sack ed Baghdadunder the leadership of Halagn? the influence of whose Christianwife led himto Showmuch favour to the Christians

,and especi

ally to the Nestorians. Many of the Mongols who occupied thecountries of Armen ia and Georgia were converted by the Christ ians of these countries and received baptism? The marvelloustales of the greatness andmagnificence of Prester John , that firedthe imagination of mediaeval Europe , had given rise to a beliefthat the Mongols were Christians—a belief which was furtherstrengthened by the false reports that reached Europe of theconversion of various Mongol Khans and their zeal for the Christ ian cause . ’

It was under this delusion that St . Lou is sent anambassador

,Williamof Rubrouck

,to exhort the great Khan to

persevere in his supposed efforts for the spread of the Christianfaith . But these reports were soon d iscovered to be without anyfoundation in fact,\though Williamof Rubrouck found that the

vo l . i i i . p. 1 1 5 .

p . 12 5 .

BUDDHISM AND CHRISTIANITYAMONG MONGOLS . 1 89

Christian religion was freely tolerated at the court of Mangt‘

r

Khan , and the adhesion of some few Mongols to this faith madethe Christian priests hopefu l of still further conquests . But so

long as Latins,Greek s

,Nestorians and Armen ians carried their

theological differences into the verymidst of the Mongol camp ,there was very little hope of much progress being made, andit i s probably this very Wan t of un ion among the preachers of

Christian ity that caused their efforts tomeet with so little successamong the Mongols so that while they were fighting among one

another,Buddhismand Islamwere gain ing a firm footing for

themselves . The haughty pretensions of the Roman Pontiff sooncaused the proud conquerors of half the world to withdraw fromhis emissaries what l ittle favour they might at first have beeninclined to Show

,and many other circumstances contributed to.

the failure of the Roman mission ?

As for the Nestorians,who had been first in the field

,they

appear to have been too degraded and apathetic to tak e muchadvantage of their opportun ities . Of the Nestorians in China,Will iamof Rubrouck 2 says that they were very ignorant andcould no t even understand their service book s

,which were written

in Syriac . He accuses them of drunk enness, polygamy and

covetousness,and mak es an unfavourable comparison between

their lives and those of the Buddhist priests . Their bishop paidthemvery rare visits— sometimes .only once in fifty years : on

such occasions he would ordain all the male children,even the;

babies in their cradles . The priests were eaten up with Simony,

made a traflic of the sacred rites of their church and concernedthemselvesmore with money-mak ing than with the propagationof the faith .

3

In the western parts of the Mongol empire ,where the Christians.

look ed to the newly - risen power to help themin their wars withthe Musalmans and to secure for themthe possession of the HolyLand

,the alliance between the Christians and the IlQ ans of Persia

was short- l ived,as the victories of Baybars, the Mamlfi k Sultan'

o

’

of'

1 C . d’Ohsson , tome 11. pp. 2 2 6 -7.

2 Of this writer Col . Yule says, He gives an unfavourable account of thel iterature and morals of their c lergy, which deserves more weight than such

statements regarding those loo k ed upon as schismatics generally do ;for thenarrative of Rubruquis gives one the impression of beingwritten by a thoroughlyhonest and intell igent person.

”Cathay and the way thither, vol . i . p . xcvi i i .

3 Guillaume de Rubrouck , pp . 128 -

9 .


Egypt ( 1 2 60- 1 277) and his all iance with Barak a Khan , gave the

I lhhans qu ite enough to do to look after their own interests .

The excesses that the Christians of Damascus and other citiesc ommitted during the brief period

‘

in which they enjoyed the

favour of this Mongol dynasty of Persia, didmuch to discredit theC hristian name in Western Asia ?For Islamto enter into competition

.

with such powerful rivals:as Buddhism and Christianity were at that time

,must have

appeared a well - n igh hopeless undertak ing. For the Muslimshad snflered more fromthe stormof the Mongol invasions thant he others . Those cities that had hitherto been the rallyingp oints of spiritual organisation and learn ing for Islamin Asia

,

had been for the most part laid in ashes : the theologians and“pious doctors of the faith

,either slain or carried away into cap

t ivity? Among the Mongol rulers—usually so tolerant towards

'

all religions— there were some who exhibited varying degrees ofhatred towards the Muslimfaith . Jingi s Khan ordered all those‘

who k illed an imals in the Muhammadan fashion to be put todeath

,and this ordinance was revived by KhubilayKhan , who by

o ffering rewards to informers set on foot a sharp persecution thatlasted for seven years , asmany poor persons took advantage oft his ready means of gain ing wealth , and slaves accused theirmasters

,in order to gain their freedom.

3 During the reign ofKuyuk

_K_ l:1an ( 1 246 who left the conduct of affairs entirelyto his two Christian min isters and whose court was filled withChristian mon k s

,the Muhammadans were made to suffer great

severities .4 A rghfin ( 1 2 84- 1 2 9 1 ) the fourth Il_k_ han persecutedthe Musalmans and took away fromthemall posts in the departments of justice and finance

,and fordade themto appear at his

«court ?

In spite of all difficulties . however , the Mongols and the savage

1 Maqriz i tome i . Premiere Partie, pp . 98 , 106 .

2 So notoriously brutal was the treatment they received that even the Chineses howmen in their exhibitions of shadow figures exultingly brought fo rward thefigure of an o ldman w ith a white beard dragged by the neck at the tai l o fa horse,

.as show ing how the Mongo l horsemen behaved towards the Musalmans.

(Howorth, vo l . i . p .

3 Howorth, vo l . i . pp . 1 12 , 273 . This edict was only withdrawn when it wasfound that it prevented Muhammadanmerchants fromvisiting the court and thattrade suffered in consequence.

Howorth, vo l . i . p . 165 .

5 De Guignes, vol. iii. p . 265


men , observing the growing enmity between their Khan and

Hfilagn, the conqueror of Baghdad , in whose army they wereserving, took fl ight into Syria, whence they were honourablyconducted to Cairo to the court of Baybars, who persuaded themto embrace Islam? Baybars himself was at war with Hfilagfi ,whomhe had recently defeated and driven out of Syria. He

sent two of the Mongol fugit ives, with some other envoys , tobear a letter to Barak a ILhan . On their return these envoysreported that each princess and amir at the court of Barak a Q an

had an imamand a mu’adhdhin and the children were taughtthe Qur

'

an in the schools ? While on their way the envoys ofBaybarsmet an embassy that had been sent to Egypt by Barak aEgan? to bear the news of the conversion of himself and hissubjects to Islam. These friendly relations between Baybars

and Barak aKhan brought many of the Mongols of the GoldenHorde into Egypt , where they were prevailed upon to becomeMusalmans.

4

In Persia,where Hfilagfi founded the dynasty of the Ilkhans,

the progress of Islamamong the Mongols was much slower. In

order to strengthen himself against the attack s of Barak a Q an and

the Sultan of Egypt ,Halaga accepted the all iance of the Christianpowers of the East

,such as the k ing of Armeniaand the Cru saders .

His favourite wife was a Christian and favourably disposed themind of her husband towards her co - religion ists, and his sonAbagaK_ hanmarried the daughter of the Emperor of ConstantinOple. Though Abaga _

K_han did not himself become a Christian

,

his court was filled with Christian priests,and he sent envoys to

several of the princes of Europe— St. Louis of France,King

Charles of Sicily and King James of Aragon— to solicit theiralliance against the Muhammadans ;to the same end also

,an

embassy of sixteen Mongols was sent to the Council of Lyons in1 274,where the spok esman of this embassy embraced Christian ityand was baptised with some of his compan ions. Great hopeswere entertained of the conversion of Abaga, but they provedfru itless. His brother To k I

‘

Idar,

5 who succeeded him,was the first

of the Ilhhans who embracediIslam. He had been brought up as

1 Maqriz i tome i . pp . 180- 1, 187.

Id. p . 2 1 53 Id . p . Id . p . 2 22 .

5 Wassaf cal ls himN Ik Gdarbefore, and A hmad after, his conversion.

CONVERSION OF TOKI'

IDA R . 193

a Christian,for (as a contemporary Christian writer 1 tells us),

“ he was baptised when young and called by the name ofNicholas. But when he was grown up, through his intercoursewith Saracens

,of whomhe was very fond

,he became a

'

baseS aracen

,and

,renounc ing the Christian faith , wished to be cal led

Muhammad Khan , and strove with all hismight that the Tartarsshou ld be converted to the faith and sect of Muhammad, andwhen they proved obstinate , not daring to force them,

he broughtabout their conversion by giving themhonours and favours andgifts, so

’ that in‘ his time many Tartars were converted to the faith-of the Saracens .” This prince sent the news of his conversion tothe Sultan of Egypt

'

in the following letter By the power ofGod Almighty, the mandate of. Ahmad to the Su ltan of Egypt.God Almighty (praised be His name !) by His grace preventingus and by the light of His guidance , hath gu ided us in our earlyyou th and vigour into § the true path of the k nowledge of Hisdeity and the confession of His un ity

,to bear witness that

Muhammad (on whomrest the highest blessings is the Prophetof God

,and to reverence His saints and His pious servan ts .

WhomGod shall please to gu ide , thatman’s breast will He opento Islam.

’2 We ceased not to incline our heart to the promotiono f the faith and the improvement of the condition of Islamand

the Muslims,up to the time when the succession to the empire

came to us fromour illustrious father and brother, and Godspread over us the glory of His grace and k indness, so that in the

.abundance of His favours our hopes were real ised,and He

revealed to us the bride of the . k ingdom,and she was brought

forth to us a noble spouse. A'

Kfiriltai or general assembly wasc onvened

,wherein ourgbrothers, our sons , great nobles, general s

o f the army and captains of the forces,met to hold council and

they were all agreed on carrying out the order‘

of - our elderb rother

,viz . to summon here a vast levy of our troops whose

numbers would mak e the earth,despite its vastness, appear too

narrow,whose fury and fierce onset wou ld fi ll the hearts ofmen

w ith fear,being animated with a courage before which the

.mountain‘ peak s bow down,and a firm‘

purpose that mak es the_hardest rock s grow soft . We reflected on this their resolutionwhich expressed the wish of all

,and we concluded that it ran

1 Heythoum(Ramusio. Tom. 11.p. 60, c.)2 Qur’an, vi 12 5 .


counter to the aimwe had in view— to promote the commonweal

,i.e . to strengthen the ordinance of Islam;never, as far as

lies in our power,to issue any order that wil l not tend to prevent

bloodshed,remove the i lls of'men , and cause the breeze of peace

and prosperity to blow on al l lands,and the k ings of other

countries to rest upon the couch of affection and benevolence,whereby the commands of God will be honoured and mercy beshown to the peop le of God . Herein

,God inspired us to quench

this fire and put an end to these terrible calamities,and mak e

k nown to those who advanced this prOposal (of a levy) what it isthat God has put into our hearts to do

,namely

,to emp loy all

possible means for the heal ing of all the sick ness of the world ,and putting off what shou ld only be appealed to as the lastremedy. For we desire not to hasten to appeal to arms

,until we

have first declared the right path , and will permit i t only aftersett ing forth the truth and establishing i t with proofs . Our

'

resolve to carry out whatever appears to usgood and advantageoushas been strengthened by the counsels of the Shayhhu - l Islam

,

the model of d ivines,who has given us much assistance in

rel igiousmatters . We have appointed our chief justice , Q utbu - d

Din,

and the Atabak , Bahau -d D in,both trustworthy persons of

this flourishing k ingdom,to mak e k nown to you our course of

action and bear witness to our good intentions for the commonweal of the Muslims ;and to mak e it k nown that God has:enl ightened us

,and that Islamannu ls all that has gone before it,.

and that God Almighty has put i t into our hearts to follow the

truth and those who practice it. If some convincing proof berequ ired , letmen observe our actions . By the grace of God , wehave raised aloft the standards of the faith , and borne witness toit in all our orders and our practice

,so that the ordinances of the

law of Muhammad might be brought to the fore and firmlyestabl ished in accordan ce with the principles of justice laid downby Ahmad. Whereby we have filled the hearts of the peoplewith joy

,have granted free pardon to all oflenders

,and shown

themindulgences , saying ‘May God pardon the past We havereformed allmatters concern ing the pious endowments of Muslimsgiven for mosques , colleges , charitable institutions

,and the

rebuilding of caravanserais : we have restored their incomes tothose to whomthey were due according to the terms laid downby the donors . .

‘We have °ordered the pilgrims to be treated


ccordingly forbade anyone to preach the doctrines of this faithamong them?(fl iazan himself before his conversion had been brought up as aBuddhist and had erected several Buddhist temples in K_ _

hurasan,and took great pleasure in the company of the priests of this faith ,who had come into Persia in large numbers since the establishment of the Mongol supremacy over that country ? He appearsto have been naturally of a religious turn ofmind, for he studiedthe creeds of the different religions of his time , and used to holdd iscussions with the learned doctors of each faith .

3 Rashidu -d

Din,his learnedminister and the historian of his reign ,was there

fore probably correct inmaintaining the genu ineness of his conversion to Islam

,the religious Observances of which he zealously

k ept throughout his whole reign,though his contemporaries (andlater writers have often re- echoed the imputation) represented himas having only yielded to the solicitations of some Amirs andShayhhs.

4 “Besides,what interestedmotive

,

”ask s his apologist ,

could have led so powerful a sovereign to change his faith muchless

,a prince whose pagan ancestors had conquered the world ?

His conversion however certainly won over to his side the heartso f the Persians

,when he was contending with Baydfi for the

throne,and the Muhammadan Mongols in the army of his rival

d eserted to support the cause of their co - religionist . These werethe very considerations that were urged upon Qhazan by Nfirfi z , aMuhammadan Amir who had espoused his cause and who hai ledhimas the prince who

,according to a prophecy

,was to appear

about this time to protect the faith of Islamand restore it to itsformer splendour if he embraced Islam, he could become theruler of Persia the Musalmans

,delivered fromthe grievous yok e

o f the Pagan Mongols, would espouse his cause , and God recogn ising in himthe saviour of the true faith fromu tter destructionwould bless his arms with victory.

15 After hesitating a l ittle,

Ghazanmade a public profession of the faith,and his officers and

soldiers followed his example : he distributed alms tomen ofpietyand learning and visited themosques and tombs of the saints andin every way showed himself an exemplary Muslimruler. Hisbrother who succeeded him in 1 304, under the name of

1 C . d’Ohsson. tome iv. pp. 141 - 2 . Id. ih. p. 148 .

3 Id. ih. p. 365 .“1 Id. ib. pp. 148 , 3 54

Id. ih. pp. 128, 132 .

ISLAM IN THE MIDDLE KINGDOM . 1 97

Muhammad Khudabandah , had been brought up as a Christian inthe faith of his mother and had been baptised under the name ofNicholas

,but after hismother’s death while he was still a young

man,he became a convert to Islamthrough the persuasions of his

wife ? Ibn Batfitah says that his example exercised a great influence on the Mongols ? Fromthis time forward Islambecamethe paramount faith in the k ingdomof the IlhhansfiThe ' details

‘

that we possess of the progress of Islamin‘

the

Middle Kingdomthat fell to the lot ofJagatayand his descendants ,are sti ll more meagre . The first of this l ine who had the

blessedness of receiving the light of the faith was Buraq Khan

(a great grandson of Jagatay) , who embraced Islamtwo yearsafterhis accession to the throne and took the name ofGhiyasu - d Din

(1 2 66 But at first the success of Islamwas short- lived,

'

for

after the death of this prince,those who had been converted

during his reign relapsed into their former heathenism;and itwas not unti l the next century that the conversion ofTarmashirinKhan (1 3 2 2 - 1 3 30) caused Islam to be at all generally adopted bythe Jagatay Mongols, who when they followed the example of

their chief this time'

remained true to their new faith . But evennow the ascendancy of Islamwas no t assured

,for his successor

persecuted the Muslims,4and it was not unti l some years later that

we hear of the first Musalman k ing of Kashgar, which the breakup Of the Jagatay dynasty had erected into a separate k ingdom.

This prince,TfiqluqTimfirKhan (1 347 is said to have owed

his conversion to a holyman fromBufl ara,by name ShayQ

1 Hammer-Purgstall : Geschichte der Ilchanen, vol. 11. p . 182 .

It is no t improbable that , the captive Musl imwomen too k a considerab lepart in the conversion of the Mongols to Islam. Women appear to have occup iedan honoured position among the Mongo ls and many instancesmight be given oftheir having tak en a prominent part in po l itical affairs, just as already severalcases have beenmentioned of the influence they exerc ised on their husbands inreligiousmatters. Will iamof Rubrouck tells us how he found the influence of aMuslimwife an obstacle in the way of his proselytising labours On the day o f

Pentecost, a Saracen came to talk with us and we expounded to himour faith.

A fter hearing of the benefits that accrued to men fromfaith in the Incarnation,the resurrection of the dead, the last judgment, and abso lution from sin bybaptism, he said that he wished to be baptised, but when we were getting readyto administer

-

to himthe sacrament of baptism, he suddenly leapt on his horsesaying that he would go home to consult his wife. The next morning1 he cameback , saying that for nothing in the world would he dare accept baptism, as he

would no longer be al lowed to drink mare’s mi lk .

”(Gui llaume cle Rubrouck ,

Ibn Batfitah, vol . 11 . p . 57.3 A bii - l tome i i. p. 1 5 9 .

4'

Ibn Hatatah. tome i i i . p . 47.


Jamalu -d Din. This Shaykh in company with a number of travellers had unwittingly trespassed on the game - preserves of the prince,who ordered themto be bound hand and foot and brought beforehim. In reply to his angry question , how they had dared interferewith his hunting, the Shayfi pleaded that they were strangersand were qu ite unaware that they were trespassing on forbidden

ground . Learn ing that they were Persians, the prince said thata dog was worth more than a Persian .

“Yes,

”replied theShayk h, if we had no t the true faith

,we shou ld indeed be worse

than the dogs.” Struck with his reply

,the Khan ordered this

bold Persian to be brought before himon his return fromhunting,and tak ing himaside ask ed himto explain what hemeant bythese words and what was ‘ faith .

’ The Shayk h then set beforehimthe glorious doctrines of Islamwith such fervour and zealthat the heart of the Khan that before had been hard as a stonewas melted lik e wax

,and so terrible a picture did the holyman

draw of the state of unbelief,that the prince was convinced of the

blindness of his own errors,but said

,

“Were I now tomak e profession of the faith of Islam

,I shou ld not be able to leadmy

subjects into the true path . But bear withme a l ittle and whenI have entered into the possession of the k ingdomofmy forefathers

,come tome again.

” For the empire of Jagatay had bythis t ime been brok en up into a number of petty princedoms

,and

it was many years before a luq Timar succeeded in unitingunder his sway the whole empire as before . Meanwhile Shayk hJamalu- d D in had returned to his home

,where he fell dangerously

i ll when at the point of death,he said to his son Rashidu -d Din

,

“T1'

1qluq Timfir will one day become a great monarch;fail not togo and salute himin my name and fearlessly remind himof thepromise he made me .

”4

Some years later,when Tfiqluq Timiir

had re -won the empire of his fathers,Rashidu - d Dinmade his way

to the camp of the Khan to fulfi l the last wishes of his father, butin spite of all his efl

'

orts he could no t gain an audience of the

Khan . At length he devised the following expedient one day in

the earlymorning, he began to chant the call to prayers , close tothe K_

han’s tent. Enraged at having his slumbers disturbed inthis way, the prince ordered himto be brought into his presence,whereupon Rashidu - d Din delivered his father’smessage . Tfiqluq

Khan was no t unmindful of his promise,and repeating the pro

fession of faith,declared himself a Muslim

,and afterwards used


have formed the design of spreading .the faith of Islamthroughoutthe whole of Russia

,l but here he met with no success . Indeed

though the Mongols were paramoun t in Russia for two centuries,they appear to have exercised very little influence on the people

of that country, and l east of all in the matter of religion . It isnoticeablemoreover that in spite of his zeal for the spread of hisown fai th

,Uzbeg Lhan was very tolerant t owards his Christian

subjects,who were left undisturbed in the exercise of their

religion and even allowed to pursue their missionary labours inhis territory . One of themost remark able documents ofMuhammadan toleration is the charter that Uzbeg Khan granted to theMetropol itan Peter in 1 3 1 3 By the will and power

,the great

ness andmercy of the.most High 1 Uzbeg to all our princes, great

and small,etc.

,etc. L et no man insu lt themetropolitan church

of which Peter is the head,or his servan ts or his churchmen ;

let no man seize their property, goods or people , let no man

meddle with the“ affairs of themetropolitan church,since they are

divine; Whoever shallmeddle therein and transgress our edict ,will be guilty before God and feel His wrath and be pun ished byus with death . Let themetropolitan dwell in the path of safetyand rejoice

,with a just and upright heart let him(or his deputy)

‘

decide and regulate all ecclesiastical matters . We solemn lydeclare that neither we nor our children nor the princes of ourrealmnor the governors of our provinces will in anyway interferewith the affairs of the church and the metropolitan

,or in their

towns,d istricts

,villages , chases and fisheries

,their hives

,lands

,

meadows,forests

,town s and places under their bail iffs

,their

vineyards,mills

,winter quarters for cattle

,or any of the

properties and goods of the church . Let the mind of the

metropolitan be always, at peace and free from trouble,with

uprightness of heart let himpray to God for us, our childrenand our nation . Whoever shal l lay hands on anything that issacred

,shall be held gu i lty, he shall incur the wrath ofGod and

the penalty of death,that others may be dismayed at his fate .

When the tribute or other dues,such as customduties

,plough

tax, toll s or relays are levied , or when we wish to raise troopsamong our subjects

,let nothing be exacted fromthe cathedral

churches under themetropolitan Peter, or fromany of his clergy

1 De Guignes, vo l. i i i. p. 3 5 1 .

UZBEG KHA N . 201

whatevermaybe exacted fromthe clergy, shall be returnedthreefold. Their laws

,their churches

,their monasteries.

and chapels shall be respected ;whoever condemns or blames:this rel igion, shall not be allowed to excuse himself under anypretext

,but shall be punished with death . The brothers and

sons of priests and deacons,l iving at the same table and in the

same house,shall enjoy the same privileges .”1

That these were no empty words and that the toleration herepromised became a reality

,may be judged froma letter sent to the

Q an by Pope John XXII. in 1 3 1 8 , in which he thank s the Muslimprince for the favour he showed to his Christian subjects and thek ind treatment they received at his hands .2 The successors ofDzbegKhan do no t appear to have been an imated by the samezeal for the spread of Islamas he had shown

,and could

'

not be

expected to succeed where he failed. So long as the Russianspaid their taxes

,they were left free to worship according to their

own desires,and the Christian religion had become too closely

intertwined with the life of the people to be disturbed , even hadefforts beenmade to turn themfromthe fai th of their fathers ;for Christianity had been the national rel igion of the Russianpeople for well n igh three centuries before the Mongols settleddown on the bank s of the Volga.

Another racemany years before had tried to win the Russiansto Islambut had l ik ewise failed

,viz . the MuslimBulgarians who

were found in the tenth century on the bank s of the Volga, andwho probably owed their conversion‘ to the Muslimmerchants

,

trading in furs and other commodities of the North —some timebefore A .D . 92 1 , when the Caliph Al Muqtadir sent an envoy to

confirmthemin the fai th and instruct themin the tenets andordinances of Islam?

These Bulgarians attempted the conversion of Vladimir, thethen sovereign of Russia, who, (the Russian chronicler tells us)had found ‘ i t necessary to choose some religion better than hispagan creed

,but they failed to overcome his objections to the

rite of circumcision and to the prohibition of wine,the use of

which , he declared , the Russians could never give up, as it was

1 Karamzin, vol . iv. pp . 39 1-4.

2 Hammer-Purgstal l : Geschichte derGo ldenen Horde in Kiptschak , p. 290.

3 De Baschk iris quae memoriae prodita sunt ab Ibn-Fosz lano et Jak uto ,interprete C . N . Fraehnio . (Mémo ires de l’A cadémie impériale des Sciences deSt. Pétersbourg, tome vii i . p . 626)


the very joy of their l ife. Equally unsuccessful were the J ewswho came fromthe country of the Q az ars on the Caspian Sea

and who had won over the k ing’

of that people to the Mosaicfai th ? After listen ing to their arguments, Vladimir ask ed themwhere their country was.

“Jerusalem,

”they repl ied,

“ but Godin His anger has scattered us over the whole world.

” “Then

you are cursed of God ,”cried the k ing, “and yet want to teach

o thers : begone ! we have no wish,l i k e you, to be without

-

a

country.

”Themost favourable impression wasmade by a Greekp riest who after a brief criticismof the other religions , set forththe whole scheme of Christian teaching beginn ing with thec reation of the world and the story of the fall of man and endingw ith the seven oecumenical councils accepted by the Greek

church ;then he showed the prince a picture of the Last

Judgment with the righteous entering paradi se and the wick edbeing thrust down into hell , and promised him the heritage ofheaven

,if he would be baptised.

But Vladimir was unwilling tomak e a rash choice of a substi

tute for his pagan religion , so he called his boyards together andhaving told themof the accounts he had received of the variousreligions, ask ed themfor their advice. “ Prince

,

”they replied,

“ everyman praises his own religion , and if you would mak echoice of the best

,send wisemen into the different countries to

d iscover which of all the nations honours God in the mannermost worthy of Him.

” SO the prince chose out for this purposetenmen who were eminent for their wisdom. These ambassadorsfound among the Bulgarians mean look ing places of worship ,gloomy prayers and solemn faces among the German Cathol icsreligiou s ceremonies that lack ed both grandeur andmagnificence .At length they reached Constantinople

“Let themsee theglory of our God ,

”said the emperor. So they were tak en to thechurch of Santa Sophia, where the Patriarch, clad in his pontificalrobes

,was celebratingmass . The magnificence of the bu ilding,

the rich vestments of the priests,the ornaments of the al tars

,the

sweet odour of the incense,the reverent silence of the people

,and

the mysterious solemnity of the ceremonial fi ll ed the savageRussians with wonder and amazement . It seemed to themthatthis church must be the dwelling of the Most High , and that He

1 A bt'

i‘Ubaydu

- l Bak rf, pp . 470- 1 .

204 THE PREACHING OF ISLA M .

The Finns of the Volga have also been among the convertsthat the Tartars have won over to Islam, e.g. while many of theTchei'emiss are nominally Christians and are becoming Russiani sed

,whole villages of themhave on the other hand embraced

Islam. The Tchuvash ,who l ivemore to the south and belong tothe same family, have l ik ewise become Muhammadans , asprobablythe whole of the Finnish population of this part of the countrywould have done ere now if the Christian and Musl imreligionswere allowed equal rights by the Russian government ?One of themost curious incidents in the missionary history ofIslamis the '

conversion of the Kirghiz of Central Asia by Tartarmullas

,who preached Islam among themin the eighteenth

century,as emissaries of the '

Russian government . The Kirghizbegan to become Russian subjects about 173 1 , and for 1 20 years alldiplomatic correspondence was carried on with themin the Tartarlanguage under the delusion that they were ethnographical ly thesame as the Tartars of the Volga. Another misunderstandingon the part of the Russian government was that the Kirghizwere Musalmans

,whereas in the last century they were nearly

all Shaman ists,as a large number of themare still to the present

day. At the time of the annexation of their country to the

Russian empire only a few of their K_hans and Sultans had any

k nowledge of the faith of Islam—and that very confused and

vague. Not a single mosque was to be found throughout thewhole of the Kirghiz Steppes, or a single religiou s teacher of thefaith of the Prophet

,and the Kirghiz owed their conversion to

Islamto the fact that the Russians, tak ing themfor Muhammadams

,insisted on treat ing themas such . Large sums ofmoney

were given for the building of mosques , and mullas were sent toopen schools and in e young in the tenets of the Muslimfai th the Kirghiz s to receive every day a small sumto supp he fathers were to be induced tosend Is by presents and othermeans ofpersuasion. A n incdntrovertible proof that the Musalman propagandamade its way into the Kirghiz Steppes fromthe side ofRussia

,i s the circumstance that it is especially those Kirghiz who

are more contiguous lto Europe that have become Musalmans,

while the further east -we go , the weak er we find their faith to be ,and even to the present day the o ld Shamanismlingers among

1 Reclus, tome v. pp. 746 , 748 .

CONVERSION OF .THE KIRGHIZ '

TO ISLAM . 205

those who wander in the neghbourhood of Khiva, Bulgiara and

Kho k and, though these for centuries have been Muhammadancountries ? This is probably the - only instance of a ,

Christian

government cO- operating in the p romulgation of Islam, and isthemore remark able inasmuch as the Russian government of thisperiod was attempting to force Christian ity on its Muslimsubjectsin Europe

,in continuation o f the efforts made in the sixteenth

century soon after the conquest of the Khanate of Kazan . Thelabours of the clergy were actively seconded by the po l ice and thecivil authorities

,but though a certain number of Tartars were

baptised,it had to be admitted that the new converts “ shame

lessly retain many horrid Tartar customs,and neither hold nor

k now the Christian fai th .

”When spiritual exhortations failed,the Government ordered its Officials to pacify

,imprison

, put in

irons,and thereby unteach and frighten fromthe Tartar faith

those who,though baptised , do no t obey the admon it ions of the

Metropolitan.

” These more violent methods proving equallyineffectual

,Catherine II. in 1778 ordered that all the new converts

should sign a written promise to the effect that “ they wouldcompletely forsak e their infidel errors

,and

,avoiding all inter

course with unbelievers,would hold firmly and unwaveringly the

Christian faith and its dogmas.” But in spite of all,these so

cal led baptised Tartars are even to the present day as far frombeing Christians as they were in the sixteenth century. Theymay, indeed, be inscribed in the

'

oflicial registers as Christians ,but they resolutely stand out against any eflorts that may bemade to Christianise them. In a semi - Official article

,published

in 1 872 , the writer says“ It is a fact worthy of attention that a

long series of evident apostacies coinc ides with the beginn ing ofmeasures to confirmthe converts in the Christian faith . Theremust he

,therefore

,some collateral cause producing those cases of

apostacy prec isely at the moment when the contrary might beexpected.

” The fact seems to be that these .Tartars having all

the time remained Muhammadan at heart,have resisted the

activemeasures tak en tomak e their nominal profession of Christ ianity in any way a real ity ? The Russian government of the

1 The Russian Po l icy regarding Central A sia. A 11 historical sk etch.- By

Professor V. Grigorief. (Eugene Schuyler : Turk istan, vol. ii. pp. 405( 5 th ed. London,

Mack enzie Wal lace : Russia, vol. 1. pp. 242 -244. (London, 1877,

4t e


present day is st il l attempting the conversion of its Tartar subjectsbymeans of the schools it has established in theirmidst. In thisway i t hopes to win the younger generation , since otherwi se itseems impossible to gain an entrance for Christianity among theTartars

,for

,as aRussian professor has said

,

“The citizens ofKazanare hard to win

,but we get some l ittle folk fromthe villages on

the steppe,and train themin the fear of God . Once they are

with us they can never turn back .

”1 For the criminal codecontains severe enactments against those who fall away fromtheOrthodox church

,2 and sentences any person convicted of con

verting a Christian to Islamto the loss of all civil rights and toimprisonment with hard labour for a termvarying fromeight to tenyears. In spite

,however

,of the edicts of the government ,Muslim

propagandismsucceeds in winn ing over whole villages to thefaith lof Islam

,especially among the tribes of north - eastern

Russia ?

Of the spread of Islamamong the Tartars of Siberia, we havea few particulars. It was no t until the latter half of the sixteenthcentury that it gained a footing in this country , but even beforethis perio d Muhammadan missionaries had from time to timemade their way into Siberia with the hope of winn ing theheathen population over to the acceptance of their faith , but themajority of fi themmet with a martyr’s death . When Siberiacame under 1Muhammadan rule

,in the reign of KuchumKh an ,

the graves of Seven of these missionaries were discovered by an

aged Shayk h t xcame fromBughara to search themout, being

anxious that some \.mem0rial should be k ept of the devotion of

e was.

able to give the names of thisnumber

,and up ntury theirmemory was still revered

by the Tartars When KfichumKhan (who was.

descended from the eldest son of JingisKh an) becameK_han of Siberia year either by right of conquestor (according to count) at the invitation of the people

p . 2 84. (London,

rthodoxie. Les accuses.

ux n’en furent pasmo ins.

Beaucoup de ces relapsL’Empire -des Tsars et .

vii. p . 19 1 .

CHAPTER IX .

THE SPREA D OF ISLA M IN INDIA .

THE Muhammadan invasions of India and the foundation and

growth of the Muhammadan power in that country,have found

many historians , both among contemporary and later writers .But hitherto no one has attempted to write a history of thespread of Islamin India

,considered apart from'the military

successes and administrative achievements of its adherents .Indeed

,tomany

,such a task must appear impossible . For India

has often been pick ed out as a typical instance of a country inwhich Islamowes its existence and continuance in existence : tothe settlement in i t of foreign, conquering Muhammadan races

,

who have transmitted their faith to their descendants,and only

succeeded in spreading i t beyond their own circle bymeans ofpersecution and forced conversions . Thu s the missionary spiritof Islami s supposed to show itself in i ts true light in the brutalmassacres of Brahmans byMahmfid ofGhazna, in the persecutionsof Aurangzeb , the forcible circumci sions effected by Haydar ‘A li,Tipt

’

I Sultan and the lik e .

But among the fifty- sevenmill ions of Indian Musalmans thereare vast numbers of converts or descendants of converts , in whoseconversion force played no part and the only influences at workwere the teaching

'

and persuasion {of peacefulmissionaries . Thisclass of converts forms a very d istinct group by itself which can

be distinguished from that of the forcibly converted and theother heterogeneous elements of which MuslimIndia ismade up .

The entire commun ity may be roughly d ivided into those offoreign race who brought their faith into the country alongwith them

,and those who have been converted fromone of the

previous religions of the country under various inducements andat many different periods of history. The foreign settlement

THE MUHAMMADAN POPULATION OF INDIA. 209

consists of three main bodies : first,and numerically the most

important,are the immigrants fromacross the north -west frontier

,

who are found chiefly in Sind and the Panjab ;next come thedescendants of the court and armies of the various Muhammadandynasties

,mainly in Upper India and to a much smaller extent

in the Deccan ;lastly, all along the west coast are settlementsprobably of Arab descent

,whose original founders came to India

by sea ? But the number of families of foreign origin thatactually settled in India is nowhere great except in the Panjaband its neighbou rhood. More than half the Musl impopulationof India has indeed assumed appellations of d istinctly foreign

races,such as Shayg ,

Beg, Khan, and even Sayyid , but the

greater portion of themare local converts or descendants ofconverts

,who have tak en the title of the person of highest rank

amongst _those by whomthey were converted or have afl‘iliated

themselves to the aristocracy of Islam on even less plausible

grounds? Of the other section of the commun ity- { he convertednatives of the country—part no doubt owed their change of

religion to force and official pressure , but by far themajority ofthem entered the pale of Islamof their own free -will . Thehistory of the proselytisingmovements and social influences thatbrought about their conversion has hitherto received very littleattent ion

,and most of the common ly accessible histories of the

Muhammadans in India,whether written by European or by

native authors,are mere chronicles of .wars

,campaigns and the

achievements of princes,in which littlemention of the religious

life of the time finds a place,un less it has tak en the formof

fanaticismor intolerance. Fromthe biographies of the Muslimsaints

,however

,and from local tradit ions

,something may be

l earned of the missionary work that was carried on qu ite inde

p endently of the political life of the country. But before dealingw ith these i t is proposed to '

give an account of the official pro

pagation of Islamand of the part played by the Muhammadanrulers in the spread of their faith .

Fromthe fifteenth '

year after the death of the Prophet,when

an Arab expedition was sent into Sind,up to the eighteenth

c entury, a series of Muhammadan invaders , some founders of

8

1 C

)ensus of India, 189 1 . General Report by J . A . Baines, p . 167. (London,

1 93 .

Id. pp . 12 6, 207.


great empires, others mere adventurers , poured into India fromthe north -west . While some came only to plunder and retiredladen with spoils, others remained to found k ingdoms that havehad a lasting influence to the present day. But of none of thesedo we learn that they were accompanied by any missionaries orpreachers . Not that they were indifferent to their religion. To

many of them,their invasion of India appeared in the light of a

holy war. Such was evidently the thought in the minds ofMahmfid ofG'r_ haznaand Timfir. The latter

,after his capture of

Dehli,writes as follows in his autobiography I had been at

Dehli fifteen days,which time I passed in pleasure and enj oy

ment , holding royal Courts and giving great feasts . I thenreflected that I had come to Hindustan to war against infidels,andmy enterprise had been so blessed that wherever I had goneI had been victorious . I had triumphed overmy adversaries

,I

had put to death some lacs of infidels and idolaters,and I had

stained my proselyting sword with the blood of the enemies ofthe faith . Now this crown ing victory had been won

,and I felt

that I ought not to indulge in ease , but rather to exertmyself inwarring against the infidels of Hindustan .

”1 Though he speak smuch of his “ proselyting sword ,

”i t seems however to haveserved no other purpose than that of sending infidels to hell.Most of the Musliminvaders seemto have acted in a very similarway in the name of Allah

,idols were thrown down

,their p riests

put to the sword , and their temples destroyed ;whilemosqueswere often erected in their place.

'

It i s true that the offer o f'

Islamwas generallymade to the unbelieving Hindus before anyattack wasmade upon them? Fear occasionally dictated a timelyacceptance of such Offers and led to conversions which

,in the

earl ier days of the Muhammadan invasion at least, were generallyshort - l ived and ceased to be effective after the retreat of theinvader. A n illustration in point is furnished by the story ofHardatta

,a ra’is of Bulandshahr

,whose submission to Mahmad

of (fl iazna i s thus related in the history of that conqueror’s cam

1 El l iot, vo l. 11. p . 448 .

2 The princes o f Ind ia were invited to embrace Islambefore the first centuryof the H ijrah had exp ired , by the Cal iph

‘Umar ibn ‘A bdi - l ‘ A z iz . (Ell iot ,vo l. i . p . Muhammad Qasimmade a simi lar offerwhen he invaded Sind(Id., p . 175 , 207, where a letter is said to have been sent fromthe Cal iph to theChief of Kanaujb and the invaders who fo llowed himwere probably equallyobservant of the rel igious law.


a barbarous people in the mountainous districts of the North ofthe Panjab

,who gave the early invaders much trouble , are said

to have been converted through the influence of MuhammadGhori at the end of the twelfth century. Their Chieftain had beentak en prisoner by the Muhammadanmonarch

, who induced himto become a Musalman, and then confirming himin his title ofchief of this tribe

,sent himback to convert his followers

,many

o f whomhaving l ittle religion of their own were easily prevailedupon to embrace Islam? According to Ibn Batfitah , the KhaljisOffered some encouragement to conversion bymak ing it a customto have the new convert presented to the sultan

,who clad him

in arobe of honour and gave hima collar and bracelets of gold ,o f a value proportionate to his rank ? But the monarchs of theearlier Muhammadan dynasties as a rule evinced very l ittle

p roselytising zeal , and i t would be hard to find a paral lel in theirhistory to the following passage fromthe autobiography of FirnzShah Tughlaq ( 1 3 5 1 - 88)

“ I encouragedmy infidel subjects toembrace the religion of the Prophet, and I proclaimed that everyo ne who repeated the creed and became a Musalman should beexempt fromthe jizyah , or poll tax. Information of this came to theears of the people at large and great numbers ofHindus presentedthemselves

,and were admitted to the honour of Islam. Thus

they came forward day by day fromevery quarter, and, adoptingthe faith

,were exonerated fromthe j izyah, and were favoured

with presents and honours.”3As the Muhammadan power became consolidated

,and par

t icularly under the Mughal dynasty, the religious influences ofIslamnaturally became more permanent and persistent. Apowerfu l incentive to conversion was offered , when adherence toan idolatrous systemstood in the way of advancement at theMuhammadan courts ;and though a spirit of tolerance

,which

reached its culmination under the eclectic Ak bar, was very oftenshown towards Hinduism

,and respected even

,for the most part

,

the state’endowments of that rel igion 4;and though the dread ofunpopularity and the desire of conci liation dictated a policy ofn on- interference and deprecated such deeds of violence and such

1 Firishtah, vol . i. p . 184.

2 Ibn Batfitah. Tome i i i . p. 197.2 Ell iot, vol . i i i. p . 386.

4 Sir R ichard Temple : India in 1880, p. 164. (London, Even grantsO f land fromMuhammadan princes to H indu temples, though very rare, are not

unk nown. Yule’s Marco Po lo, vo l. i i . p . 3 10.

ISLAM UNDER THE MUGLHA L EMPERORS . 2 1 3

outbursts of fanatici sm as characterised the earlier period of

invasion and triumph,still such motives of self- interest gained

many converts fromHinduismto the Muhammadan faith . ManyRajputs became converts in this way, and their descendants areto this day to be found among the landed aristocracy. Themost important perhaps among these is the Musalman branch ofthe great Bachgo ti clan

,the head of which is the premier

Muhammadan nob le of Oudh . According to one tradition , theirancestor Tilok Chand was tak en prisoner by the Emperor Babarand to regain his l iberty adopted the faith of Islam1;but anotherlegend places his conversion in the reign of Humayii n . Thisprince having heard of themarvellous beauty of Tilok Chaud’swife

,had her carried off while she was at a fair . No so oner

,

however,was she brought to himthan his conscience smote him

and he sent for her husband . Tilok Chand had despaired ofeverseeing her again, and in gratitude he and his wife embraced thefaith “which taught such generous purity.

”2 These convertedRajputs are very zealous in the practice of their religion ,yet oftenbetray their Hindu origin in a very strik ing ! manner. In the

district of Bu landshahr,for example

,a large Musalman family

,

which is k nown as the Lal_khani Pathans , still (with some excep

tions) retains its o ld Hindu titles and fami ly customs of marriage,while Hindu branches of the same clan still exist side by side withit ? In the Mirzapur district, the Gaharwar Rajputs, who are nowMuslim

,stil l retain in all domestic matters Hindu laws and

customs and prefix a Hindu honorific title to their Muhammadannames .‘Oflicial pressure is said never to have been more persistentlybrought to bear upon the Hindus than in the reign of Aurangzeb .

In the eastern districts of the Panjab , there aremany cases in whichthe ancestor of the Musalman branch of the village community

1 Manual ofTitles for Oudh, p . 78 . (A llahabad,2 Gaz etteer of the Province of Oudh, vol . i . p . 466 .

3 Gaz etteer of the N vol. iii. part i i . p 46 .

‘1 Gazetteer o f the vo l . xiv. part 11. p . 1 19 . In the Cawnpore district,the Musalman branch of the D ik hit fami ly observes Muhammadan customs at

b irths, marriages. and deaths, and, though they cannot, as a rule, recite the

prayers (namaz). they performthe orthodox obeisances (sijdah). But at the

same time they worship Chachak Devi to avert smal l -pox, and k eep up theirfriendly intercourse with their o ld caste brethren , the Thak urs, in domestico ccurrences, and

:

are generally called by commonH indu names. (Gazetteerof thevol. vi. p .


i s said to have changed his religion in the reign of this zealot ,“ in order to save the land of the village .

” In Gurgaon , nearDehli

,there is a Hindu family of Banyas who still bear the title

o f Shayk h (which is commonly adopted by converted Hindus) ,because one of the members of the family, whose line is nowextinct

,became a convert in order to save the family property

fromconfiscation ? Many Rajput landowners,in the Cawnpore

d istrict,were compelled to embrace Islamfor the same reason ?

In other cases the ancestor is said to have been carried as a

prisoner or hostage to Dehli, and there forcibly circumcised and

converted ? It should be noted that the only authority for theseforced conversions is family or local tradition

,and no mention of

such (as far as I have been able to discover) is made in thehistorical accounts of A urangz eb

’s reign .

‘ It is established without doubt that forced conversions have been made by Muhamm‘

adan rulers,and i t seems probable that A urangz eb’s well - k nown

z eal on behalf of his faith has caused many families .o f NorthernIndia (the history of whose conversion has been forgotten) toattribute their change of faith to this , the most easily assignablecause . Similarly in the Deccan

,Aurangzeb shares with Haydar

‘A li and Tipii Su ltan ( these being the best k nown of modernMuhammadan rulers) the reputation of having forcibly con

verted sundry famil ies and sections of the population,whose con

version undoubtedly dates fromamuch earlier period,fromwhich

no historical record of the c ircumstances of the case has comedo

'

wn.

‘ In an interesting collection of A urangz eb’s orders and

despatches,as yet unpublished

,

‘ we find himlaying down whatmay be termed the supreme law of tolerat ion -for the ruler ofpeople of another faith . A n attempt had been made to induce

1 Ibbetson, p . 163 .

2 Gazetteer ofthe N vo l. vi. p. 64. Compare also id. vol . xiv. part i i i . p.47.“ Muhammadan cultivators are not numerous; they are usually Nau

Musl ims. Most of themassign the date of their conversion to the reign of

A urangzeb, and represent it as the result sometimes ofpersecution and sometimes

as made to enable themto retain their rights when una le to payrevenue.

2 Ibbetson, ib.

‘1 Indeed Firishtah distinctly says : “ Zealous for the faith of Mahommed, herewarded proselytes w ith a l iberal hand, though he did not choose to rsecute

those o f different persuasions in matters o f religion. (The H istory ofe

Hindost8

an,;ranslated fromthe Persian, by A lexander Dow, vol . i i i. p. (London,I ( 2 .

5 The Bombay Gaze tteer, vo l. xxu. p . 2 22 vol . xxii i p . 282 .

Formy k nowledge o f this MS. I amindebted to the k indness of ‘A bdu- s

SalimKhan Sahib, in whose possession it is.


ing them, to adopt (ihulamMuhammad and other Muhammadannames

,and use the Muslimformof salutation. They explained

their adoption of these Muhammadan customs by saying thathaving once slain a Qadi, who had interfered with their riteof widow - burn ing, they had compounded for the offence byembracing Islam. They have now, however, renounced thesepractices in favour of Hindu customs .1But though some Muhammadan rulers may have beenmoresuccessful in forcing an acceptance of Islamon certain of theirHindu subjects than in the last -mentioned cases

,and whatever

truth theremay be in the assertion 2 that it is impossible even toapproach the religious side of the Mahomedan position in Indiawithout surveying first its political aspect ,

”we undoubtedly findthat Islamhas gained its greatest and most lasting missionarytriumphs in times and places in which its pol itical power has beenweak est, as in Southern India and Eastern Bengal . Of suchmissionarymovements it is now proposed to essay some account

,

commencing with Southern India and the Deccan,then after

reviewing the history of Sind , Cutch and Gujarat, passing toBengal, and finally noticing some mi ssionaries whose work layoutside the above geographical l imits . Of several of themission !

aries to be referred to , l ittle is recorded beyond their names andthe sphere of their labours ;accordingly, in view of the generaldearth of suchmissionary annal s, any available details have been

given at length .

The first advent of Islamin Sou th India dates as far back as

the eighth cen tury, when a band of refugees , to whom the

Mappila trace their descent,came from‘Iraq and settled in the

country. The trade in spices,ivory

, gems, etc . , between Indiaand Europe, which formany hundred years was conducted by theArabs and Persians

,caused a continual streamof Muhammadan

influence to flow in -

upon the west coast of Southern India.

Fromthis constant influx of foreigners there resulted a mixedpopulation

,half Hindu and half Arab or Persian

,in the trading

centres along the coast . Very friendly relations appear to haveexisted between these Musl imtraders and the Hindu ru lers whoextended to themtheir protection and patronage in considerationof the increased commercial activity and consequent prosperity of

Gazetteer of the vol . v. part i. pp. 302 - 3 .

2 Sir A lfred C . Lyall A siatic Studies, p . 2 36 .

ISLAM IN SOUTH INDIA. 2 17

the country,that resulted from their presence in it.1 No

obstacles also appear to have been put in the way of the

work of proselytism,2 which was carried on with great zeal and

activityThere is a traditionary account of the propagandist labours of

a small band ofmissionaries as early as the second century of theHijrah . A certain Shayfi ,

Sharif Ibn Mal ik,accompan ied by

his brother Mal ik Ibn Dinar and his nephew Mal ik Ibn Habiband some other companions

,arrived at the city of Cranganore on

their way tomak e a pilgrimage to Adam’s Peak in Ceylon . The

k ing'

of Malabar hearing of their arrival sent for them,and

received themwith great k indness . “The ShayQ ,encouraged

by the k ing’s condescension

,related to himthe history of our

prophet Muhammad (upon whommay the divine favour andblessing for ever rest explain ing also to themonarch the tenetsof Islam whilst

,for a confirmation of their truth , he narrated to

himthemiracle of the d ivision of the moon . Now, conviction

of the Prophet’s divine missmn,under the blessing of Almighty

God,having followed this relat ion , the heart of the k ing became

See Tohfut-ul -Mujahideen, translated by M . J . Rowlandson. (London ,Merchants fromvarious parts frequented those ports. The consequence

was, that new c ities sprangup . N ow in all these the population became muchincreased, and the numberof buildings enlarged, bymeans of the trade carried on

by the Mahomedans, towards whomthe Chieftains of those p laces abstained fromall oppression ;and, notw ithstanding that

'

these rulers and their troops were all

pagans, they paidmuch regard to their prejudices and customs, and avo ided anyact of aggression on the Mahomedans, except on some extraord inary provocation;this amicable footing being the more remark able fromthe c ircumstance ’

of theMahomedans not forming a tenth part of the population.

”(pp . 70 “ I

would have it understood that the Mahomedans of Malabar formerly l ived ingreat comfort and tranqui l ity , in consequence of their abstaining fromexercisingany Oppression towards the people of the country as well as fromthe consideration which they invariably evinced for the ancient usages o f the population ofMalabar, and fromthe unrestricted intercourse of k indness which they preservedw ith them.

”(p .

“ The Mahomedans ofMalabar, havingno emir amongstthempossessed of suffic ient power and authority to govern them, are consequentlyunder the rule o f the pagan Chieftains, who faithfully guard their interests anddecide between them, besides granting to them advantageous privi leges; andshould anyMahomedan subject himself to the punishment of fine by them, not

withstanding his del inquency, or any other provocation, their treatment to thefaithful, as a body, continues k ind and respectful , because to themthey owe the

increase of towns in their country, these having sprung up from the residence ofthe faithful amongst them.

"

(p .

2 The Nairs do notmo lest their countrymen who have abjured ido latry andcome over to the Mahomedan religion, nor endeavour to intimidate thembythreats, but treat themwith the same consideration and respect that they evincetowards all other Mahomedans, al though the persons who have thus apostacisedbe of the lowest grade.

”(id. p .


.warmed with a holy affection towards Muhammad (on whombep eace and

,in consequence of this his conversion ,

he withmuchearnestness enjoined the Shayk h , after the completion of hisp ilgrimage to Adam’s foot- step , to return with his compan ions toCranganore, as i t was his desire hereafter to un ite himself tothem but

,in communicating, he forbade the Shayk h to divulge

this his secret intention to any of the inhabitants of Malabar.”1

On the return of the pilgrims fromCeylon , the k ing secretlydeparted with them in a ship bound for the coast of Arabia,leaving his k ingdomin the hands of viceroys. Here he remainedfor some time

,and was just about to return to his own country,

with the purpose of erecting mosques and propagating thereligion of Islam,

when he fell sick and died . On his death - bedhe solemnly enjoined his compan ions no t to abandon their pro

posed missionary enterprise in Malabar, and, to assist themin

their labours,he gave themletters of recommendation to his

viceroys .Armed with these

,they returned to Cranganore and presented

the k ing’s letter to his V iceroy at that place. “ A nd this chief

having informed himself of the nature of the instructions conveyed in thismandate, assigned to the bearers of it certain landsand gardens, as therein directed and upon these being settledthey erected amosque

,Mal ik Ibn Dinar resolving to fix himself

there for l ife ;but his nephew , Mali k Ibn Habib , after a timequ itted this place for the purpose of buildingmosques throughoutMalabar. A nd with this design he proceeded first to Quilon

,

carryingwith himthither all his worldly substance , and also hiswife and some of his children . A nd after erecting a mosque inthat town and settling his wife there , he himself j ourneyed on toHubaee Murawee, and fromthence to Bangore, Mangalore, andKanjercote, at all which places he built mosques ;after aecomp lishing return ed to Hubaee Murawee

,where he stayed

for three A nd fromthis town he went to Zaraftan, andDurmuft h

,and Shaleeat in all of these towns

also raisingmosques remaining five months at the last place, andfromthence retur ing to his uncle Mal ik Ibn Dinar at Cranganore . Here

,howe er

,he stayed but ‘

a short period,soon again

setting out for the,mosques that he had erected at the above

1 il'

ohfut-ul -Mujahideen, pp. 49 - 50.


petrated when the Muhammadan power became paramountunder Haydar

‘A li (1767- 1782) and Tipu Sultan (1782 can

be paralleled in the earlier history of this part of India. Howeverthismaybe, there is no reason to doubt that constant conversion sby peaceful methods were made to Islamfromamong the lowercastes ,1 as i s the case at the present day. So numerous havethese conversions fromHinduism been

,that the tendency of

the Muhammadans of the west as well as the east coast ofSouthern India has been to reversion to the Hindu or aboriginaltype , and, except in the case of some of the nobler families , theynow in great part presen t all the characteristics of an aboriginalpeople , with very little of the original foreign blood in them.

2

In the western coast districts the tyranny of caste intolerance is

pecul iarly oppressive ;to give but one instance, in Travancorecertain of the lower castes may not come nearer than seventyfour paces to a Brahmin

,and have to mak e a grunting noise as

they pass along the road, in order to give warn ing of their approach.

3 Similar instances might be abundantly mu lt iplied .

What wonder then that the Musalman population i s fast increasing through conversion fromthese lower castes, who therebyfree themselves fromsuch degrading oppression ,

'

and raise themselves and their descendants in the social scale.In fact the Mappila on the west coast are said to be increasingso considerably through accessions from the lower classes ofHindus , as to render it possible that in a few years the whole of

the lower races of the west coastmay become Muhammadans “It was most probably fromMalabar that Islamcrossed over tothe Laccadive and Maldive Islands

,the population of which is

now entirely Muslim. The inhabitants of these islands owedtheir conversion to the Arab and Persianmerchants

,who estab

lished themselves in the country,intermarrying with the natives ,

and thus smoothing the way for the work of active proselytism.

The date of the conversion of the first Muhammadan Sultan,

See the passage quoted above fromthe Tohfut-ul -Mujahideen (p . In

another passage (p . 69) reference ismade to outcasts tak ing refuge within the paleof Islam.

2 Report on the Census of the Madras Presidency, 1871 , by W. R . Cornish(pp 71 , 72 , (Madras,

Caste : its supposed origin its history;its effects (p . (Madras,4 Report o f the second D ecennial M issionary Conference held at Calcutta

1882 -3 (pp. 2 28 , 2 3 3 , (Calcutta,

SPREAD OF ISLAM'

IN THE DECCAN . 2 2 1

Ahmad Shant‘

iraz ah,1 has been conjectured to have occurred about

1 200 A .D.

,but it is very possible that the Muhammadanmerchants

had introduced their religion into the island as much as threecenturies before , and the process of conversionmust undoubtedlyhave been a gradual one.

2 N0 details,however

,have come down

to us.

At Male,the seat of Government

,is found the tomb of Shayg

Yusuf Shamsu -d Din,a native of Tabriz

,in Persia

,who is said to

have been a successfulmissionary of Islamin these islands. Histomb is still held in great venerat ion , and always k ept in goodrepair

,and in the same part of the island are buried some of his

countrymen who came in search of him,and remained in the

Maldives unti l their death .3

The Deccan also was the scene of the successfu l labours of

many Muslimmissionaries . It has already been pointed out thatfromvery early times Arab traders had visited the towns on thewest coast;in the tenth century we are told that the Arabs weresettled in large numbers in the towns of the Konk an , havingintermarried with the women of the coun try and

'

living undertheir own laws and religion .

‘ Under the Muhammadan dynastiesof the Bahman id (1 347- 1490) and Bijapur (148 9 - 1 686) k ings, afresh impu lse was given to Arab immigration , and with thetrader and the soldier of fortune came the missionaries seek ingto mak e spiritual conquests m the cause of Islam

,and win

over the unbelieving people of the country by their preachingand example

,for of forc ible conversions we have noErecord under

the early Deccan dynasties,whose rule was characterised by a

strik ing toleration .

’

One of these Arab preachers,Pir Mahabir Khandayat, came

as a missionary to the Deccan as early as 1 304A .D .,and among

the cultivating classes of Bijapur are to be found descendants of

Ibn Batfitah. Tome iv. p. 1 28 .

Ibn Batfitah resided in the Mald ive Islands during the years 1 343-4and

married “the daughter of a Vizier who was grandson of the Sultan Dawud, who

was a grandson of the Sultan A hmad Shaniiraz ah”(Tome iv. p. fromthis statement the date A .D . 1 200 has been conjectured.

2 H . C . P. Bel l : The Maldive Islands, pp . 2 3 - 5 , 57- 8

, 71 . (Co lombo ,3 Memo ir on the Inhab itants of the Maldive Islands. By J. A . Young and

W . Christopher. (Transactions o f the Bombay Geographical Societv from1 836

to 1838, p . 74, Bombay,4 Mas ‘t

'

ldi. Tome i i . pp. 85 -6.

5 The Bombay Gazetteer, vol. x. p . 13 2 vo l. xvi. p. 75 .


the Jains who were converted by him.l About the close of the

same century a celebrated saint of Gulbarga, Sayyid HusaynGaysudaraz ,$2 converted a number of Hindus of the Poona district

,

and twenty years later his labours were crowned with a l ik esuccess in Belgaum.

3 At Dahanu still reside the descendants ofthe saint Shayk h Babt

‘

i ahib , a relative of one of the greatestsaints of Islam

,Sayyid ‘Abdu - l Qadir Jilani of Baghdad he came

to Western India abou t 400 years ago , and after mak ing manyconverts in the Konk an

,died and was buried at Dahanu .

‘ In the

district of Dharwar,there are large numbers of weavers whose

ancestors were converted by Hi shamPir Gujarati, the religiousteacher of the Bijapur k ing, Ibrahim‘A dil Shah about theclose of the sixteenth century. These men sti ll regard the saintwith special reverence and pay great respect to his descendants .

‘

The descendants of another saint,Shah Muhammad Sadiq

Sarmast Husayni, are sti ll found in Nasik ;he is said to havebeen themost successfu l of Muhammadan missionaries ;havingcome fromMedina in 1 5 68 , he travelled over the greater part ofWestern India and finally settled at Nasik — in which districtanother very successfu l Musl immissionary, K_ hwajah KhunmirHusayni, had begun to labour abou t fifty years before .“ Twoother Arab missionaries may be mentioned , the scene of whoseproselytising efforts was laid in the d istrict of Belgaum,

namelySayyid Muhammad Ibn Sayyid ‘A li and Sayyid ‘Umar IdrusBasheban .

’

Another missionarymovement may be said roughly to centreround the city of Multan .

8 This in the early days of the Arabconquest was one of the ou tposts of Islam,

when MuhammadQasim had established Muhammadan supremacy over Sind(A .D . During the three centuries of Arab ru le there werenaturally many accessions to the faith of the conquerors .Several Sindian princes responded to the invitation of the Caliph‘Umar ibn ‘Abdi - l ‘Aziz to embrace Islam.

’ The people o f

i The Bombay Gazetteer, vol. xxi i i. p. 2 82 .

2 Sometimes called Sayyid Mak hdiimGaysudaraz .

3 The Bombay Gazetteer, vol. xvi i i . p. 501 vol. xxi . pp . 2 18 , 2 2 3 .

Id. vo l. xiii. p . 2 3 1 .

5 Id . vo l . xxii. p . 242 .

5 Id. vol. xvi. pp . 75 -6 .

7 Id. vo l . xxi . p . 203 .

A t the t ime of the A rab conquest the dominions of the H indu ruler of S indextended as far north as this c ity, which is now no longer included in thisrovmce.p9 When the Cal iph Sulaymz

‘m, son of 'A bdu- l Mal ik , d ied, he was succeeded


a country between Kashmir and Multan and Kabu l . The peopleof this country worshipped an idol for which they had bu ilt a

temple. The son of the k ing fell sick , and he desired the priestsof the temple to pray to the idol for the recovery of his son .

They retired for a short time , and then returned saying, “Wehave prayed and our supplications have been accepted .

” But no

long t ime passed before the youth died. Then the k ing attack edthe temple

,destroyed and brok e in pieces the idol

,and slew the

priests . He afterwards invited a party of Muhammadan traderswho made k nown to him the unity of God ;whereupon hebelieved in the unity and became aMuslim. A similarmissionaryinfluence was doubtless exercised by the numerous communitieso fMuslimmerchants who carried their religion with themintothe infidel cities of Hindustan . . Arab geographers of the tenthand twelfth centuries mention the names of many such cities

,

both on the coast and inland,where the Musalmans bu ilt their

mosques,and were safe under the protection of the native princes

,

who even granted themthe privi lege of living under their own

laws.1 The Arab merchants at this time formed themediumofc ommercial communication between Sind and the neighbouringcountries of India and the outside world. They brought the

p roduce of China and Ceylon to the sea- ports of Sind and fromthere conveyed them by way of Multan to Turk istan and

Khurésin fl

It would be strange if these traders, scattered about in thec ities of the unbelievers

,failed to exhibit the same proselytising

z eal as we find in the Muhammadan trader elsewhere . To theinfluence of such trading communit ies wasmost probably due thec onversion of the Sammas

,who ruled over Sind from 1 3 5 1 to

1 5 2 1 A .D. While the reign of JimNanda bin Babiniyah of thisdynasty is speciallymentioned as one of such “ peace and security

,

that never was this prince called upon to ride forth to battle,and

never did a foe tak e the field against him,

”3 i t is at the sametime described as being

“ remark able for its justice and an increaseof Islam.

”This increase cou ld thus only have been broughtabout by peaceful missionarymethods. One of the most famousof thesemissionaries was the celebrated saint

,Sayyid Yusufu-d

1 Ell iot, vol . i. pp. 27, 38 , 88 , 457.2 Id . vo l . i . p. 2 1 .

3 Id. vol . i . p. 273 .

ISLAM IN SIND . 2 2 5

din who came to Sind in 142 2 ;after labouring there for tenyears

,he succeeded in winning over to Islam700 families of the

Lohana caste,who followed the example of two of their number

,

by name Sundarji and Hansraj thesemen embraced Islam,after

seeing some miracles performed by the saint , and on their conversion received the names of Adamji and Taj Muhammadrespectively. Under the leadership of the grandson of theformer

,these people afterwards migrated to Cutch , where their

numbers were increased by converts from among the CutchLohanas.

l Sind was also the scene of the labours of Pir Sadru - d

D in,a missionary of the Isma‘ilian sect

,whose doctrines he

in troduced into India abou t 400 years ago . In accordance withthe principles of accommodation practised by this sect , he tooka Hindu name and made certain concessions to the religiousbeliefs of the Hindus whose conversion he sought to achieve andintroduced among them a book entitled Dasavatar in which‘A li was made out to be the tenth Avatar or incarnation ofVish u ;this book has been from the beginn ing the acceptedscripture of the Khojah sec t and i t is always read by the bedsideof the dying, and periodically at many festivals it assumes then ine incarnations of Visnu to be true as far as they go , but tofall short of the perfect truth

,and supp lements this imperfect

Vaisnav system by the cardinal doctrine of the Isma‘ilians,the

incarnat ion and comingmanifestatip n of ‘A li. Further hemadeout Brahma to be Muhammad , V ignu to be ‘A li and AdamSiva.

The first of Pir Sadru - d Din’s converts were won in the villagesand towns of Upper Sind he preached also in Cutch and fromthese parts the doctrines of this sect spread southwards throughGujarat to Bombay and at the present day Khojah commun itiesare to be found in almost all the large trading towns of WesternIndia and on the seaboard of the Indian Ocean .

Pir Sadru -d D in was no t however the first of the Isma‘ i lianmissionaries that came into India. Some centuries before

,a

preacher of this sect k nown by the name of N t'

ir Satagar, had

been sent into India fromAlamut,the stronghold of the Grand

Master of the Isma‘ilians,and reached Gujarat in the reign of the

Bombay Gazetteer, vol . v. p. 93 .

2 KhojaVrttant, p. 208 .

Sir Bartle Frere : The Khojas the D isci ples of the Old Man o f the Mountain.

Macmi llan’s Magazine, vo l. xxxiv. pp. 43 1 , 433-4. (London,


Hindu k ing, Siddha Raj (1094-1 143 He adopted a Hindu

name but told the Muhammadans that his real name was SayyidSa‘adat he is said to have converted the Kanbis, Kharwas and

Koris,low castes of Gujarat .1

Many of the Cutch Musalmans that are of Hindu descent reverence as their sp iritual leader Dawal Shah Pir, whose real namewas Malik ‘Abdu - l Latif,“athe son of one of the nobles ofMahmfidB igarrah

'

( 145 9 the famous monarch of the Muhammadandynasty of Gujarat

,to whose reign popular tradit ion assigns the

date of the conversion of many Hindus .3To the efforts of the same monarch has been ascribed ‘ theconversion of the Borahs

,a large and important trading com

munity of Shi‘ahs,of Hindu origin , who are found in consider

able numbers in the chief commercial centres of the BombayPresidency

,bu t as various earlier dates have also been assigned ,

such as the beginn ing of the fourteenth century’and even the

eleventh century,when the early Shi‘ah preachers are said to

have been treated with great k indness by the Hindu k ings ofA nhilvada in Northern Gujarat

,

6 it i s probable that their conversion was the work of several generations . A Shi

‘ah historian 7

has left us the following account of the labours of a missionarynamed Mulla ‘A li

,among these people , abou t the beginning of

the fourteenth century .

“As the inhabitants of Gujarat werepagans , and were gu ided by an aged priest , a recreant , in whomthey had a great confidence , and whose disciples they were , themissionary judged i t expedient , first to offer himself as a pupil tothe priest

,and after convinc ing himby irrefragable proofs , and

mak ing himparticipate in the declaration of fai th , then to undertak e the conversion of others . He accordingly passed some yearsin attendance on that priest

,learnt his language , studied his

sciences,and became conversant with his book s . By degrees he

Opened the articles'

of the faith to the enlightened priest , andpersuaded him to become a Musalman . Some of his peop lechanged their religion in concert with their o ld instructor. The

KhojaVrttant, p . 1 5 8 .

2 The Bombay Gazetteer, vo l . v . p . 89 .

3 Id. vo l. i i . p . 378 ;vol . i i i . pp . 36 -7.

4 Id. vol . vu . p . 70.

5 H . T . Co lebroo k e : M iscellaneous Essays, vol . i i i. p . 202 . (London,6 The Bombay Gazetteer, vo l . xi i i . p . 2 39 .

7 NGru- llah o f Shustar in his Majalisu- l mu’minin. (Colebroo k e’s Essays, id.

pp. 204


in India have achieved their greatest success , as faras numbers areconcerned. A Muhammadan k ingdomwas first founded here at

the end of the twelfth century by Muhammad Bak htiyar Khalji,who conquered Bihar and Bengal and made Gaur the capital ofthe latter province . The long continuance of the Muhammadanru le wou ld naturally assist the spread of Islam

,and though the

Hindu rule was restored for ten years under the toleran t Raja

Kans,whose rule is said to have been popu lar with his Muham

madan subjects,1 his son

, Jatmall , renounced the Hindu religionand became a Musalman .

After his father’s death in 1414 he called together all theofficers of the state and announced his intention of embracingIslam

,and proclaimed that if the chiefs would no t permi t himto

ascend the throne,he was ready to give i t up to h is brother ;

whereupon they declared that they wou ld accept him as theirk ing, whatever religion he might adopt . Accordingly, severallearnedmen of the Muslimfaith were summoned to witness theRaja renounce the Hindu religion and publicly profess his acceptance of Islam: he took the name of Jalalu - d Din MuhammadShah , and according to tradition numerous conversions weremade during his reign .

2 Many of these were however due to force ,for his reign i s signalised as being the on ly one in which any

wholesale persecution of the subject Hindus is recorded , duringthe five centuries and a half of Muhammadan rule in EasternBengal.3 . The Afghan adventurers who settled in this provincealso appear to have been active in the work of proselytising, forbesides the children that they had by Hindu women , they u sedto purchase a number of boys in t imes of scarcity

,and educate

themin the tenets of Islam.

4 But it is not in the ancient centresof the Muhammadan government that the Musalmans of Bengalare found in large numbers

,but in the country districts , in

districts where there areno t races of settlers fromthe West , andin places where low - caste Hindus and outcasts most abound ?

So Firishtah, but see H . B lochmann : Contributions to the Geography and

H istory of Bengal. (J . A . S . B . vol . xli i . N O . 1, pp. 264- 6)2 J . H . Ravenshaw : Gaur : its ruins and inscriptions, p . 99 . (London, 1878

Firishtah, vo l. iv. p . 337.

3 Wise, p . 2 9 .

Charles Stewart : The H istory of Bengal , p. 176 . (London,

H . Blochmann : Contributions to the Geography and H istory of Bengal.(J . A . S. B vo l . xli i. N o . 1 , p . 2 20)

The Ind ian Evangel ical Review, p . 278 . January, 1883 . Cf. also A n Intro

SPREAD OF ISLAM IN BENGAL. 2 2 9

The similarity of manners between these low- caste Hindus and

the followers of the Prophet,and the caste distinctions which

they still retain, as well as their physical l ik eness , all bear thesame testimony and identify the Bengal Musalmans with theaboriginal

- tribes of the country. Here Islammet with no con

solidated religious system to bar i ts progress , as in the Northwest of India

,where the Muhammadan invaders found Brahman

ismfull of fresh life and vigour after its triumphant struggle withBuddhism;where in spite of persecu tions, its influence was aninspiring force in the opposition offered by the Hindus , and

retained its hold on themin the hour of their deepest distressand degradation . But in Bengal the Muslimmissionaries werewelcomed with open arms by the aborigines and the low casteson the very ou tsk irts of Hindu ism

,despised and condemned by

their proud Aryan ru lers . “ To these poor people,fishermen

,

hunters,pirates

,and low - caste tillers of the soil

,Islam came as a

revelation fromon high . It was the creed of the ru l ing race, itsmissionaries were men of zeal who brought the Gospel of theunity of God and the equal ity of men in its sight to a desp isedand neglected popu lation . The in itiatory rite rendered relapseimpossible

,and made the proselyte and his posterity true

believers for ever. In this way Islamsettled down on the richestalluvial province of India

,the province which was capable of

supporting the most rapid and .densest increase of population .

Compulsory conversions are occasionally recorded . But it wasno t to force that Islamowed its permanent success in LowerBengal . It appealed to the people , and it derived the greatmassof its converts fromthe poor . It brought in a higher conceptionof God

,and a nobler idea of the brotherhood of man . It offered

duction to the study of H induism, by Guru Proshad Sen. (The Calcutta Review ,

October, 1890, pp. 2 3 3

1“ Of the 19 mill ions of Mahomedans in Bengal

notmore than 2 belong to what is k nown in Bengal as the Bhadralog class.

The remainder are agriculturists, day labourers, and petty artisans, tai lors and

domestic servants. These were original ly H indus of the Jal A chal c lass, whowere converted to Mahomedanism. A s a class they are the most prosperoustenantry in India, and their condition instead of deteriorating as that of

Mahomedans throughout Ind ia is ordinari ly supposed to be, is dai ly improving.

They were never anything more than agriculturists, and at no period of theirhistory either Government servants, Government so ldiers, or zemindars,much lessconquerors oi India, or even fo llowers of the Mahomedan conquerors. They areborn of the country, speak the Bengal i language, write the Bengal i character,dress lik e Bengal is, eat almost the same food as Bengal is, and , except as to

matters of rel igion, resemb le in all respects any o ther Bengal i ryot.”


to the teeming low. castes of Bengal , who had sat for ages abject

on the outermost pale of the Hindu community,a free entrance

into a new social organ isation .

”1The existence in Bengal of :defin itemissionary efforts 15 said tobe attested by certain legends of the zeal of private individuals

on behalf of their religion ,2 and the graves of some of t hese

missionaries are st ill honoured , and are annual ly v isited byhundreds of p ilgrims} but detai led accoun ts of their proselytisinglabours appear to be wan ting.

In the present century there has been a remark able revival ofthe Muhammadan religion in Bengal , and several sects thatowe their origin to the influence of the Wahhabi reformation ,

have sent their missionaries through the province purging out

the remnants of Hindu superst itions,awak en ing religious zeal and

spreading the fai th among unbelievers .‘

To thei r efforts, combined with certain social and physical conditions that favour amore rapid increase in the Musalman as

compared with the Hindu population ,is to be attributed the .

marvellously rapid growth in the numbers, of the followers of theProphet in recent years.

5

Some account still remains to be given of Muslimm1ss1onar1eswho have laboured in parts of India other than those mentionedabove . One of the earliest of these is Shayk h Isma‘il , one of themost famous of the Sayyids of Buk hara, distingu ished al ik e forhis secu lar and religiou s learn ing;he is said to have been thefirst Muslimmissionary who preached the faith of Islam in thecity of Lahore

,whither he came in the year '

1005 A .D . Crowdsflock ed to listen to his sermons

,and the number of his converts

1 SirW. W . Hunter : The Rel igions of India. (Tlze Timer, February 2 5 th,See also Wise, p . 32 .

2 James Vaughan The Trident, the Crescent and the Cross, p . 1 68 . (London,1876 )Wise- p 37

4 Id pp. 48 -ss5 It IS statistically proved that since 1872 out of every persons Islam

has gained 100 persons in N orthern Bengal , 262 in Eastern Bengal , and 1 10 in

Western Bengal , —ou an average 1 57 in the who le of Bengal proper. The

Musalman increase is real and large. If it were to continue , the faith of Muhammad would be universal in Bengal proper in six and a half centuries, whi lstEastern Bengal would reach the same condition in about fourhundred years.N ineteen years ago in Bengal proper H indus numbered nearly half amill ion morethan Musalmans did , and in the space o f less than two decades, the Musalmanshave not only overtak en the H indus , but have surpassed themby ami ll ion and a

half.” Census of India, 189 1, vol . i i i . The Lower Provinces of Bengal and theirFeudatories, by C . J . O

’D onnell , pp . 146 , 147. (Calcutta, 1893 .


converted by this saint . His tomb is st i ll held in honour and isvisited bymany pilgrims .Another such was Shayl_ 1h Jalalu - d Din

,a Persian who came

into India about the latter half of the fourteenth century andsettled down at Silhat, in Lower Assam,

in order to convert thepeople of these parts to Islam. He achieved a great reputationas a holyman

,and his proselytising labours were crowned with

eminent success .lSimilarly at the present day there are abundant witnesses forIslamseek ing to spread this faith in India— and with very considerable success

,the number of annual conversions beingvariously

estimated at ten,fifty

,one hundred and six hundred thousand.

2

But the pecul iarly individualist ic character of Muslimmissionarywork

,and the absence of any central organ isation or of anything

in the way of missionary reports render it exceedingly difficu ltto obtain information . But that there are Muslimmissionariesengaged in active and successfu l propagandist labours , i s un

doubted . In the Panjab a certain Haji Muhammad is said tohave converted Hindus .3 During the last five years amawlawi in Bangalore boasts that he has made as many as 1000converts in this city and i ts suburbs . However suspicious thesestatements may appear

,yet the very fact of their being made ,

points to the existence of very active efforts of a truemissionarycharacter. The following detai ls of such work have been gleanedfromreliable sources— in some cases frominformation furn ishedby the individuals referred to , themselves. In Patiala

,Mawlawi

‘Ubaydu- llah

,a converted Brahman of great learning, has proved

himself a zealous preacher of Islam,and in spite of the obstacles

that were at first thrown in his way by his relatives, has achievedso great a success that his converts almost fill an entire ward ofthe city. He has written some controversial work s , which havepassed through several editions , directed against the Christianand Hindu religions. In one of these book s he has thus spok enof his own conversion I

,Muhammad ‘Ubaydu

- llah,the son

of Munshi KotaMal,resident ofPayal

,in the Patiala State

,declare

Ibn Batiitah. Tome iv. p . 2 17. Yule p. 5 1 5 .3 The Indian Evangel ical Review,

vo l . xvi. pp. 5 2 -3 . (Calcutta, 1889The Contemporary Review, February, 1889 , p . 170. The Spectator, October 1 5 th,1887, p . 1382 .

3 Garcin de Tassy La langue et la l ittérature Hindoustanies de 1850 2 1869 ,

p. 343. (Paris,

MUSLIM MISSIONARIES IN INDIA . 2 3 3

that this poor man in his childhood and during the l ifetime ofhis father was held in the bondage of idol worship , but the mercyofGod caughtme by the hand and drewme towards Islam,

i.e . I

came to k now the excellence of Islamand the deformit ies ofHinduism

,and I accepted Islamheart and soul

,and counted

myself one of the servants of the Prophet of God (peace be uponhim At that time intelligence which is the gift of God sug

gested to me that it wasmere folly and laziness to blindly followthe customs of one’s forefathers and be misled by themand no t

mak e researches intomatters of religion and faith ,whereon dependour eternal bliss or misery. With these thoughts I began tostudy the current faiths and investigated each of themimpartially.

I thoroughly explored the Hindu religion and conversed withlearned Pandits , gained a thorough k nowledge of the Christianfaith

,read the book s of Islamand conversed with learnedmen .

In all of themI found errors and fallacies,with the exception of

Islam, the excellence of which became clearlyman ifest to me ;its leader

,Muhammad the Prophet , possesses such moral ex

cellences that no tongue can describe them,and he alone who

k nows the beliefs and the liturgy, and the moral teachings andpractice of this faith

,can fu lly realise them. Praise be to God !

So excellent is this religion that everything in i t leads the soul toGod . In short

,by the grace of God , the distinction between

truth and falsehood became as.

clear to me as n ight and day,dark ness and light . But al though my heart had long beenen lightened by the brightness of Islamandmymouthmade cleanby the profession of faith

,yet my evi l passions and Satan had

bound me with the fetters of the luxury and ease of this fleetingworld

,and I was in evil case because of the outward Observances

of idolatry . At length , the grace ofGod thus admon ished meHow long wilt thou k eep this priceless pearl hidden within theshel l and this refreshing perfume shu t up in the cask et ? thoushou ldest wear this pearl abou t thy neck and profit by this

perfume .

’ Moreover the learned have declared that to concealone’s faith in Islam and retain the dress and habits of infidelsbrings a man to Hell . So (God be praised !) on the ‘Idu - l Fltr1 2 64the sun ofmy conversion emerged fromi ts screen of clouds ,and I performed my devotions in public with my Muslimbrethren .

”1

Tuhfatu- l H ind , p . 3 . (Dehl i , A .H .


Mawlawi BaqaHusayn fl an,an itinerant '

preacher, has in thecourse of several years converted 2 2 8 persons

,residen ts of Bombay

,

Cawnpore,A jmir, and other cities . Mawlawi Hasan ‘A li has

converted twen ty - five person s,twelve in Poona

,the rest in

Hyderabad and other parts of India.

1 In the district of Khandesh,

in the Bombay Presidency,the preaching of the Qadi of Nasira

bad,Sayyid Safdar ‘A li

,has lately won over to Islama large body

of artisan s,who follow the trade of armourers or black smi ths.2

A number of persons of the same trade,who forma small com

munity of abou t 200'

sou ls in the district of Nasik,were converted

in a curious way abou t twenty - five years ago . The Presbyterianmissionaries of Nasik had for a long time been trying to convertthemfromHinduism

,and they were in a state of hesitation as to

whether or not to embrace Christian ity,when a Muhammadan

faqir fromBombay,who was well acquainted with their habits of

thought , expounded to themthe doctrines of Islamand succeededin winn ing themover to that faith .

3

Many Muhammadan preachers have adopted the methods ofChristianmissionaries

,such as street preaching, tract distribution ,

1 Mawlawi Hasan‘A li furnished me with these figures some years before his

death in 1 896 . In an ob ituary notice pub l ished in The MoslemChronic le”

(A pri l 4, the fo l lowing quaint account is given of his life :“ In private

and schoo l l ife, he was mark ed as a very intel l igent lad and made considerab leprogress in his scholastic careerw ithin a short time. He passed Entrance at a.

very early age and rece ived scho larship w ith which he went up to the First A rt,but shortly afterhis innate anxiety to seek truth promp ted himto go abroad theworld and abandoning his studies hemixed with persons of d ifferent persuasions,Fak irs, Pandits, and Christians, entered churches

,and roamed over w i lderness

and forests and c ities w ith no thing to help himon ex cept his sincere hopes and

abso lute rel iance on themercy o f theGreat Lord for one year he wandered invarious regions o f religion unti l in 1874he accepted the post of a headmaster ina Patna schoo l. A s he was born to become a missionary o f the Moslemfaith, he felt an imperceptible craving to quit his post, fromwhich he used to get

Rs. 100 permensem. He tendered his resignation, much to the reluctance of his

friends, andmaintained himself fo r some time by publishing a monthly journal ,N oorul Islam.

’He gave several lectures on Islamat Patna, and then went to

Calcutta, where he del ivered his- lecture in Engl ish, which produced such effect on

the aud ience that several European c lergymen vouchsafed the truth of Islam, and

a no table gentleman,Babu Bepin Chandra Pal , was about to become Musulman.

He was invited by the people at Dacca, where his preachings and lectures left hisname imbedded in the hearts o f the c itizens. H is various boo k s and pamphletsand successive lectures in Urdu and in Engl ish in the d ifferent ci ties and towns inIndia gave hima historic name in the world Some one hundred men becameMusalmans on hearing his lectures and reading his book s.

” Hismissionary zealmanifested itself up to the last hour of his l ife , when he was overheard to say,A bjure your rel igio n and become a Musalman.

”On being questioned, he said

he was talk ing to a Christian.

The Bombay Gazetteer, vol . x11. p. 1 26 .

3 Id . vo l. xvi. p . 8 1 .


who k now nothing of their religion but its name they have nomosques

,nor do they observe the hours of prayer. This is

especially the case among the Muhammadans of the villages or inparts of the country where t hey are isolated from the mass ofbelievers but in the towns the presence of learned religiousmentends

,in great measure , to counteract the influence of former

superstitions,and mak es for a purer and more intelligent formof

religious life . In recent years,however

,there has been

,speak ing

generally, a movement noticeable among the Indian Muslimstowards a religious lifemore strictly in accordance with the lawsof Islam. The influence of the Christianmission schools has alsobeen very great in stimu lating among some Muhammadans ofthe younger generation a study of their own religion and in

bringing about a consequen t awak en ingof religious zeal . Indeed ,the spread of education generally, has led to a more intelligentgrasp of religious principles and to an increase of religiousteachers in outlying and hitherto neglected districts . Thismissionary movement of reform (fromwhatever cause it mayoriginate),may be observed in very differen t parts of India. In

the Eastern districts of the Panjab , for examp le , after themutiny,a great religious revival took place . Preachers travelled far andwide through the country

,calling upon believers to abandon

their idolatrous practices and expounding the true tenets of thefaith . Now , in consequence

,most villages , in which Muham

madans own any considerable portion ,have a mosque

,while the

grosser and more open idolatries are being d iscontinued.1 In

Rajpu tana also,the Hindu tribes who have been fromtime to

time converted to Islamin the rural districts,are now becoming

more orthodox and regular in their religious Observances , and are

abandon ing the ancient customs which hitherto they had observedin common with their idolatrous neighbours . ‘The Merats , forexample

,now follow the orthodox Muhammadan formofmarriage

instead of the Hindu ritual they formerly observed,and have

abjured the flesh of the wild boar .2 A similar revival in Bengalhas already been spok en of above.Suchmovements and the efforts of individual missionaries are

,

however,quite inadequate to explain the rapid increase of the

Muhammadans of India,and one i s naturally led to inquire what

1 Ibbetson, p . 164.

2 The RajputamGazetteer, vo l. i . p. 90 vo l. 11. p. 47. (Calcutta,

CAUSES OF THE SPREAD OF ISLAM . 2 37

are the causes other than the normal increase of population ,

which add so enormously to their numbers. The answer is to befound in the soc ial conditions of life among Hindus . The insu ltsand contempt heaped upon the lower castes of Hindus by their

co - religionists , and the impassable obstacles placed in the way ofanymember of these castes desiring to better his condit ion ,

showup in strik ing contrast the benefits of a religious systemwhichhas no outcasts, and gives free , scope for the indulgence of anyambition . In Bengal , for example , the weavers of cotton piecegoods , who are look ed upon as vi le by their Hindu co - religion ists ,embrace Islamin large numbers to escape fromthe low positionto which they are otherwise degraded.

1 A very remark ableinstance of a similar k ind occurs in the history of the northeastern part of the same province . Here in the year 1 5 50 theaboriginal tribe of the Kocch established a dynasty under their

great leader, Haju in the reign of his grandson ,when the higher

classes in the state were received into the pale of Hindu ism,2 the

mass of the people finding themselves despised as outcasts,became

Muhammadans .3 Similar instancesmight be given fromall partsof India. A Hindu who has in anyway lost caste and been in

consequence repudiated by his relations,and by the society in

which he has been accustomed to move,would naturally be

attracted towards a religion that receives all without distinction ,

and offers to hima grade of society equal in the social scale tothat fromwhich he has been bani shed. Such a change of religionmight well be accompanied with sincere conviction ,

butmen alsowho might be profoundly indifferen t to the number or names ofthe deities they were called upon to worship

,would feel very

k eenly the social ostracism entailed by their loss of caste,and

become Muhammadan without any religious feelings at all. Theinfluence of the study of Muhammadan l iterature also

,and the

habitual contact with Muhammadan society,must often mak e

itself insensibly felt. Among the Rajput princes of .the present

day in Rajputana and Bundelk hand,such tendencies towards

Islamismmay be observed ,4 tendencies which , had the Mughal1 E. T. Dalton, p . 324.

2 Foran account of such H induising of the aboriginal tribes see Sir A lfredLyal l : A siatic Studies, pp . 102 -4.

3 E. T. D alton, p . 89 .

4 Sir A lfred Lyall (A siatic Studies, p . 2 9) speak s of the perceptible proc

iliyi

gytowards the faith of Islamoccasionally exhibited by some of the Hindu

c 1e 3 .

2 3 8 THE PREACHING OF ISLA M .

empire lasted,would probably have led to their ultimate con

version . They no t on ly respect Muhammadan saints,but have

Muhammadan tutors for their sons ;they also have their foodk i lled in accordance with the regulations laid down by theMuhammadan law

,and join in Muhammadan festivals dressed as

faqirs,and praying l ik e true believers . On the other hand

,it

has been conjectured that the present position of affairs,under a

government perfectly impartial inmatters religious, ismuchmorelik ely to promote conversions among the Hindus generally thanwas the case under the rule of the Muhammadan k ingdoms ,whenHinduismgained union and strength fromthe constant strugglewith an aggressive enemy.

l Hindus,too

,often flock in large

numbers to the tombs of Muslimsaints on the day appointed tocommemorate them

,and a childless father

,with the feeling that

prompts a polytheist to leave no God unaddressed,will present

his petition to the God of the Muhammadans,and if children are

born to him,apparently in answer to this prayer

,the whole family

would in such a case (and examples are no t infrequent) embraceIslam.

2

Love for a Muhammadan woman is occasionally the cause ofthe conversion of a Hindu

,since themarriage of aMuslimwoman

to an unbeliever is absolutely forbidden by the Muslim,

law .

Hindu children,if adopted by wealthy Musalmans, would be

brought up in the religion of their new parents and a Hinduwife

,married to a follower of the Prophet

,wou ld be lik ely to

adopt the faith of her hu sband . As the contrary process cannot

tak e place , the number of Muhammadans is bound to increase inproportion to that of the Hindus . Hindus , who for some reasonor other have been driven out of their caste the poor who havebecome the recipients of Muhammadan charity

,or women and

children who have beenprotected when their parents have died

Gazetteer of the Province of Oudh, vol i . p . xix .

2 To give .one instance only : in Ghatampur, in the d istrict of Cawnpore, one

branch of a large family is Musl imin obedience to the vow of their ancestor,

ChatamDeo Bais, who whi le praying for a son at the shrine o f a Muhammadan saint, Madar Shah, promised that if his prayer were granted , half hisdescendar

étt;should be brought up as Musl ims. (Gazetteer of the N .W.P. vo l . vi.

. 64, 2 3ppThe worship of Muhammadan saints is so common among certain low- caste

H indus that in the Census o f 189 1 , in the N orth-Western Provinces and Oudh

alone, H indus (or per cent. of the total H indu population of these

provinces) returned themselves -as worshippers o f Muhammadan saints. Census

of India, 1 89 1 , vo l . xvi. part i . pp. 2 17, 244. (A l lahabad ,

240 THE PREACHING or ISLAM .

figures , their stupid faces, and their repulsively fil thy hab itsreflect the wretched destiny which condemns themto be lowerthan the beast among their fellow-men

,and yet that they are far

fromincapable of improvement is proved by the active and usefulstable servants drawn fromamong them,

who receive good payand l ive well under European masters. A change of religion i sthe only means of escape open to them

,and they have little

reason to be faithful to their present creed .

”

It is this absence of class prejudices which constitutes the realstrength of Islamin India, and enables it to win so many convertsfromHinduism.

To complete this survey of Islam in India,some account still

remains to be given of the spread of this faith in Kashmir and

thence beyond the borders of India into Thibet . Of all theprovinces and states of India (with the except ion of Sind) Kashmircontains the largest number of Muhammadans (namely 70 percent .) in proportion to the whole population ,

but unfortunatelyhistorical facts that should explain the existence in this state ofsomany Musalmans

,almost entirely of Hindu or Thibetan origin ,

are very scanty . But all the evidence leads us to attribute i t onthe whole to a long- continuedmissionarymovemen t inauguratedand carried out mainly by faqirs and dervishes

,among whom

were Isma‘ilian preachers sent fromA lamt‘It .

1

It is difficult to saywhen this Islamising influence first madei tself felt in the country . The first Muhammadan k ing ofKashmir

, Sadru - d D in,is said to have owed his conversion to a

certain Darwesh Bulbu l Shah in the early part of the fourteenthcentury. This saint was the only religious teacher who cou ldsatisfy his craving for religious truth , when dissatisfied with his

own Hindu faith he look ed for amore acceptable formof doctrine .Towards the end of the same century (in I 3 88) the progress ofIslamwasmostmaterially furthered by the advent of Sayyid ‘Al iHamadani

,a fugit ive fromhis native c ity of Hamadan in Persia,

where he had incurred the wrath of T imar. He was accompaniedby 700 Sayyids , who establ ished hermitages all over the country

and by their influence appear to have assured the acceptance ofthe new religion . Their advent appears , however, to have alsostirred up considerable fanaticism,

as Sultan Sik andar (1 393 - 1417)

KhojaVrttant, p . 141 .

ISLAM IN KASHMIR. 241

acquired the name of Butshik an fromhis destruction of Hinduidols and temples , and his prime min ister, a converted Hindu ,

set on foot a fierce persecution of the adherents of his old faith,

but on his death toleration was again made the rule of thek ingdom.

1 Towards the close of the fifteenth century,a mis

sionary, by name Mir Shamsu - d Din, belonging to a Shi‘ah sect

,

came .from‘Iraq,and

,with the aid of his disciples

,won over a

large number of converts in Kashmir.When under Ak bar

,Kashmir became aprovince of the Mughal

Empire,the Muhammadan influence was naturally strengthened

andmanymen of learning cariie into the country . In the reignof Aurangzeb , the Rajput Raja of Kishtwar was converted by themiracles of a certain Sayyid Shah FarIdu dDin and his conversionseems to have been followed by that of themaj orityof his subj ects;and along the route

"

which the Mughal Emperors took on theirprogresses into Kashmir we

'

still find Rajaswho are the deseen‘

dants ofMuhammadanised Rajputs .2To the north of Kashmir

,in Sk ardu or Little Thibet

,there has

been a Muhammadan population for over three centuries, ”but

the traditions regarding the first introduction of this faith hereare very confl icting. To the north east

,Islam Is encroaching

upon Buddhism,and has been carried by the Kashmirimerchants

into Thibet Proper itself. In all the chief cities,settlements of

Kashmiri merchants are to be found ;in Lhasa they numberabout a thousand ;theymarry Thibetan wives who often adoptthe religion of their husbands , but active efforts at conversioncannot be made fromfear of the authorities .‘ Islammoreoverhas made its way

'

into Thibet fromYunnan in China and fromPersia.

“

1 Firishtah, vol . iv. pp . 464, 469 .

8

2 1

i). Drew . The Jummoo and Kashmir T erritories, pp . 5 8 , 1 5 5 . (London,

1 75J . D . Cunningham: A H istory of the S ik hs, p . 17. (London, 1 85 3

4 These facts were communicated tome bya Thibetan Lama fromLhasa.

5 A . Bastian : Die Geschichte der Indochinesen, p . 1 5 9. (Leipz ig,

CHAPTER X .

THE SPREA D OF ISLA M IN CHINA .

IT is remark able how little attent ion until very recently has been

paid to Islam in China. This neglect is all the more strik ingwhen we consider how long the fact of its existence in thiscountry has been k nown to the West and how early it was noted

by European travellers . So far back as the thirteenth century ,Marco Polo speak s of the Muhammadans he met with whiletravelling in China. In the province of Carajan (i.e . Yunnan),he says the people are of sundry k inds

,for there are no t only

Saracens and Idolaters,but also a few Nestorian Christ ians .”l

Again, speak ing of a c ity called Sinju (the modern Sin ingfu), hesays “The population i s composed of Idolaters and worshippersofMahomet

,but there are some Christians .”2

The Jesu i t missionaries and others of the latter part of theseventeenth and the beginning of the eighteenth century no t

infrequently mak e mention of the Muhammadans in China,but

appear to have tak en l ittle care to inquire into their history orto obtain information regarding their numbers and position in

the country : indeed at this time the Chinese Musl ims seemtohave attracted very little interest in Europe .3

Even among the general mass of the Muhammadans themselves

,very little is k nown of their Chinese cc - religion ists , beyond

the account given of them by Ibn Batutah, who visited Chinaabout themiddle of the fourteenth century. He speak s of thehearty welcome he received as being a new - comer from the

Yule's Marco Po lo , vol . 11. p . 39 .

2 Id. vol. i . p . 241 .

3 A Co llection o f Voyages and Travels, vol. 11. pp . 76 , 79 . (London,A Co llection of Voyages and Travels, vo l . i . pp . 17, 76 . (London,J . B . du Halde : Descrip tion géographique, histonque, chrono logique, po l itiqueet physique de l

’Empire de la Chine. Tome i . p. 1 33 . (Paris,


the natives of the country,and we -may therefore well inqu ire

whether the progress it is mak ing will ever st0p .

’ “ Again, ifIslamsome day succeeds in estab lishing its political supremacyover China

,and then claims the allegiance of the

'

mass of the’

population to its faith,will i t meet with a refusal ? We think

no t,for

'

such a change will seem infin itely easier to' the Chinese

than the '

change of costume which took place on the accession

of the reign ing dynasty .

”1 One is naturally led to inqu irewhatauthority there is for such startlingconclusions and the fullestaccount of the facts on . which . they are based is to be found in

thework ’.ofM . P . Dabry de Thiersant

,late Consu l General and

Chargé d’A ffaires in China

,.who has written an exhaust ive

accoun t of the Chinese Musalmans,based on their own historical

and liturgical l iterature , on imperial decrees relating to them,

on.private inqu iries fromlearnedmen , and other sources .N0 book has everbeen published in which the subject of Islam

in China has been treated with such fulness of detai l and sucha weal th of information, and it i s fromthis work , except whereother au thorities are expressly referred to

,that the facts con

tained in the present chapter have been drawn .

Themain features of M . de Thiersant’s volumes have recentlyreceived a very remark able confirmation froma Chinese Musalman himself

,named Sayyid Sulayman

,a native of Yunnan and

son of a Chinese governor . With his'

brother he visited Turk eyand other parts of the Muhammadan world

,and in Cairo in 1 894

he was ‘interviewed by the representative of an Arabic j ournal ,who has published the conversations that ensued on theseoccasions .3

From this brief sk etch of the authorities for the history ofIslamin China

,let us now turn to the facts of this history them

selves. Islamcame into China fromtwo directions , by sea fromthe Sou th and by land fromthe North -west. It i s in the Northwest , ih the provinces of Kan - suh and Shen - si

,

‘ that by far'

the

majority—both numerical ly and proportionately—of the Mu

1 Vasi l’ev, pp. 3 , 5 , 14, 17.

2: Le Mahométisme en Chine . (Paris, 1878 .

3 Thamaratu- l Funun (Bayrut, 13th Sha‘ban—26th Shawwal . A .H. 13 1 1 ,

Kan suh contains 000 Musalmans, who in this province are, relativelyto the other Chinese, In the proportion of six to five or four, whi le in Shen si

there are (De Thiersant.'

I ome I. pp . 40-41 .

ISLAM IN THE" NORTH -WEST; 245

hammadan popu lat ion i s' to be found. Thesei,two provinces

between them contain almost three fourths of the twentymillions of ’

Musalmans scattered throughout the ChineseEmpire .1Muslimmissionaries first made their way into this part of theChinese Empire , through Central Asia, in consequence o f the

friendly relations that were established"

in the e'

arlyd ays of t he:

Caliphate between the . Emperorof China and the new power: in.

the West,which from'

A rabia was so f

rapidly'

extending

'

~its

domin ion over the neighbouring k ingdoms . Arabia had beenk nown to the Chinese as early as the second century of theChristian era

,but the first occasion mentioned of diplomatic

relations being established between them is after'

the death ofYazdagird , the last k ing of Persia,

'

when his son Firuz appealedto the Emperor of China .to help himagainst his enemies . TheEmperor replied that Persia was too far distant for himto sendan army, but that he would speak on his behalf to the cal iph‘Uthrnan . The caliph ga

'

ve a favourable recep tion to the imperialambassador . and on his return he was accompan ied by one . of

the Arab generals , who was received by the Emperor in'

6 5 1

with simi lar courtesy. In the reign of Walid (705 thefamous Ar’ab general , Q u taybah

“

ibn Muslim,having been

appointed governor of K_ hurasan ,crossed the Oxus and began

"

a

series of most successful campaign s, in which he successivelycaptured Bu k hara, Samarqand and other cities

,and converted

the Surrounding country to Islam. Then with his victoriousarmy he marched eastward towards the frontier of China and

sent envoys to the Emperor, who (according to Arab historians)dismissed themwith a large sum ofmoney in tok en of homageto the

'

Caliph . A few years later , the Chinese annals mak emention of more than one ambassador who came bringing

1 This 15 M . de Thiersant’s estimate, calculated frominformation furnished him

by Chinese officials. A more recent authority gives the number as“

probablythirtymi llions.

”(A sia, by A . H . Keane, edited by Sir R ichard Temple, p 578 .

London, 188 2 . Sayyid Sulayman says that these estimates are out of date ow ingto the yearly Increase in the numbers of the Muhammadan population, which hedeclares to amount to seventy mi ll ions, no t including the peop le of Kashgar.

(Thamaratu- l Funun, 26th Ramadan, p. A s an instance o f the ignorance

respecting the Muhammadans of C hina, it may be noticed that Mr. Wilfrid S.

Blunt (p . 8) puts the number at fifteen mill ions, D r. Jessup (p . 5 ) as low as four,

and the A rchimandrite Palladius between three and fourmi ll ions. (Z . .D M .G .

vol. xxi. p . 502 .


presen ts fromthe Caliph Hisham(724 Another embassywas sent to the Emperor Sutsung by the Caliph A I Mansfir in

757 A .D .,at a time when trade was being largely developed in

the East , and from this time onwards such embassies are fre

quently mentioned. The friendly relations thus established

between the two powers and the stimulus given to trademusthave largely facilitated the missionary activity of those mostzealous propagandists of Islam,

the Musalman traders,many of

whomcame into China fromBuk _ _hara

,Transoxania and Arabia.

The Chinese annalist of this period (71 3 -742 A .D .) says that“ the

barbarians of the West came in crowds,l ik e a deluge , froma

distance of more than 3000 miles and frommore than 100

k ingdoms, bringing as tribu te their sacred book s,which were

received and deposited in the hall set apart for translationsof sacred or canonical book s

,in the imperial palace ;fromthis

period the religious doctrines of these different countries werethus diffused and open ly practised in the empire .”The firstmosque in theNorth of China was built in the year

742 A .D .

,in the capital city of the province of Shen - si , and a

mandarin was appointed to look after the affairs of the Muslimcommunity. The Archimandrite Palladins speak s of an inscribedtablet that was discovered at Singan - fu (where also the famousNestorian tablet was dug up ), bearing the same date (742 A .D .)and referring to

'

the introduction of Islaminto China,but i t

assigns an impossible date to th is event , namely, the reign of theSui emperor , Kai- huang (A .D . 5 8 1 The evidence of thistablet is

,however

,conclusive as to the early period at which

Islamreached this country .

1

The details of the spread of the new religion are verymeagre .

It appears to havemade its way Into the province of Kan - suh,

which at that t ime formed part of the Empire of the Hoey - hu

(whose original home lay between the rivers Irtish and Ork hon),about the middle of the eighth century . How far the religion

had spread among them,when about the middle of the tenth

century,their Khan ,

Satoc,was converted to Islam

,i t is impossible

to say. This princemade war on all unbelievers and endeavouredto force all his subjects to become Musalmans. His example wasfollowed by his successors who forbade the exerc ise of all other

1 Bretschneider vo l . i . p . 266 ;vo l . 11. p . 305 .


several Muhammadans also occupying high posts under theMongol Q aqaans such were

‘Abdu - rRahman , who in 1 244was

appointed head of the Imperial finances and allowed to farmthetaxes imposed upon ClIina 1 ;and Sayyid Ajal , a native of

Buk_ hara, to whomKhubilay Khan, on

,his accession in 1 2 5 9 ,

entrusted the management of the Imperial finances he died in1 270, leaving a high repu tation for honesty, and was succeededby another Muhammadan named Ahmad , who on the otherhand left behind hima reputation the very reverse of that of hispredecessor. The Chinese historians who praise the reign ofKhubilayKhanmak e it a cause of complaint against thismonarchthat he did not employ Chinese oflicials instead of these Turk sand Persians ? This same potentate established at Pek ing an

imperial college for the Hoey -hu that had embraced Islam,a

further proof of the increasing importance of the Musalmans InChina. At the beginn ing of the fourteenth century

,all the

inhabitants of Yunnan are said,by a contemporary authority

,

to have been Musalmans.

3

Up to this period the Muhammadans seemed to have beenlook ed upon as a foreign commun ity in China, but after the expulsion of the Mongol dynasty in the latter part of the samecentury

,being cut off fromcommunication with their co - r

'

eligionists in other countries , and being anxiou s no t to excite againstthemselves the suspicions of the new dynasty

,they instituted the

practice (which they have continued to the present day) , ofavoiding the open exhibition of any specially distinguish ingfeatures of religious faith and practice, and tried to merge themselves as much as possible in the common mass of the Chinesepeople . By this time Islamhad been firmly established in theNorth of China and slowly but surely now began to extend thesphere of its influence by means of cautious and unobtrusive

missionary efforts. The history of this movemen t is buried inobscurity

,but the Muhammadan communities of the present day

are a l iving testimony to its eflicacy. Throughou t all the chieftowns of Southern Mongolia the followers of the Prophet are tobe found in considerable numbers in

.

the midst of a populationmainly Buddhist . In the capital city of Pek ing i tself there are

1 Howorth, 1 0l . i . p . 16 1. 3 Id . vol. i. p. 2 57.3 Rashidu- d D in. (Yule

’s Cathay, p .

ISLAM IN THE NORTH A ND NORTH -WEST . 249

Muhammadan famil ies and thirteen mosques , the mullasof which come not from' the West

,but fromLin tsin -

‘

chow,On

the Imperial canal sou th east of Pek ing, which Is one of themostimportant centres of Muhammadan influence In the North east

of China 1

It is interesting to note that the Muslimcommun ity ‘

addedconsiderably to its numbers through , the accession of Chinese

Jews, whose establishment in this country dates from a svery

early period they held employments under the Governmentand were in -

‘

possession of'

large'

estates, but _

by the close of theSeventeenth century agreat part of them'

had been converted toIslam?

-The eighteenth century was signal ised by a revival ofmissionary activity on the part

'

of «theMusl ims and an increase in the

number of conversions.

3 One of the S timu lating influences thatcontributed to this resultmay be found in the Chinese conquestsin ‘Central Asia and the extension of the empire towards the

followed by the establishment o f commerc ialrelations with ‘ the Muhammadan ‘

c ities of the -Tian Shan regionand the Khanates of Western 2 Turk istan ,

‘ thus “ bringing theNorth west of China Once again under . the direct influence ofthe Muslimouter world .

4

But in addition to this stream of Muhammadan influenceentering China fromthe North-west , we find another distinctstreampouring in by sea fromthe South . Though this latter

movement is “

numerically no t so important, yet it is of considerable historical interest.

. Commercial "

relations by sea ~ had been established betweenArabia and China long before the birth of Muhammad . It wasthrough Arabia, in agreat measure, that Syria and the ports o fthe

'

Levant received the produce of the East . In the sixthcentury

,there

‘

was a considerable trade . between China and

A rabia by way'

of Ceylon,and at the beginn ing of the seventh

31 Vasi l'ev, pp . 8- 9 .

Clark IA bei : Narrative of a Journey in the interior of Chinah p. 36 1 .

(London,3 Lettres édifiantes et curieuses. Tome xix. p . 140. A missionary writing

fromPek ing in 172 1 says, Le secte des Mahométans s etend de p lus en p lus.

See also l’A bbé Grosier. Tome W . p . 507.

88De1

)n etri

,us C. Boulger : H istory of China, vol. 11. pp. 5 29 30. (Lendon ,

1 1 -4.


century the commerce between China,Persia and Arabia was

sti ll further extended,the town of Siraf on the Persian Gulf

being the chief emporium for the Chinese traders . It is at thisperiod

,at the commencement of the Thang dynasty (6 1 8

thatmention is first made of the Arabs in the Chinese annals .1The Chinese chron iclers speak of the arrival in Canton of “ a

great number of strangers from the k ingdomof Annam,Cam

bodge , Medina and several other countries .” That these menwere certainly Arabs and also Muslims may be determined fromthe details given of their habits and religious Observances“ These strangers worshipped the heaven (i.e . God), and had

neither statue , idol nor image in their temples . The k ingdomof

Medina is c lose to that of India in this k ingdomoriginated thereligion of these strangers , which is different to that of Buddha.

They do not eat pork or drink wine and they regard as uncleanthe flesh of any an imal not k illed by themselves. They are

nowadays called Hoey - hoey ?_

They had a temple called the

temple of the Blessed Memory (i.e. the mosque bu ilt by Wahabibn A bi Kabshah referred to below) , which was built at the com 1

mencement of the Thang dynasty. At the side of the temp le isa large round tower, 1 60 feet h igh , called Kang- ta (the undecoratedtower). These strangers went every day to this temple toperformtheir ceremon ies . After having ask ed and obtained theEmperor’s permission to reside in Canton

,they bu il t magn ificen t

houses,of a different style to that of our country . They were

very rich and obeyed a chief chosen by themselves .”3It is impossible to tell with certainty (and the Chinese Muhammadans themselves can only offer conjectures on thematter), whowas the leader of this colony in Canton . In their traditionalaccounts his name is variously given as Sarta

,Sa- k a-

pa, (thisname is important

,as pointing to the fact that he was a Sahabi,

or companion of the Prophet), or Wang- k a- z e

,but in each case

he is stated to have been amaternal uncle of Muhammad .4 M .

1 Bretschneider p. 6 .

2 This is the name by which the Chinese Musulmans cal l themselves. It

signifies at once return and submission,”i.e. return to God by the straightpath and submission to the w i ll of the A lmighty.3 D e Thiersant. Tome i . pp . 19 - 20.

Husayn ibn Muhammad al D iyarbak ri (vol. i . p. 184, Cairo , A .H . 12 83 )says that Aminah, themother o f the Prophet, had neither brothers nor sisters, butthat the Bant' 1 Zuhrah cal led themselves the uncles ofMuhammad, because Aminahwas o f their tribe.


to the ramparts, and cou ld only return after obtain ing fromthe Emperor permission for themto remain in China. Houses

and lands were assign ed to themin different cit ies , andmarryingwith the women of the

"

country they formed a nucleus of theMuhammadan popu lation

,spread nowadays throughou t the whole

Celestial Empire . The only other importan t accession to theirnumbers that they have since received fromoutside , consists inthe immigrations that took p lace at the time of the Mongol conquests under Jingis K_

han and his successors,of which mention

has already been made . It was probably at this time that thosescattered Muhammadan commun ities began to be formed , whichhave grown to

'

such large proportions in so many provinces ofChina, where , very often

,whole villages are to be met with

,

inhabited solely by Musalmans. The gradual and constant in

crease that has brought about this resu lt does no t seem in any

way to have received any foreign assistance since the fall of theMongol dynasty for, fromthat period , the Chinese governmentadopted that policy of k eeping strangers at arm’s length , which ithas only abandoned within recen t years . Isolated thus, theMuhammadan settlers became gradually merged into the massof the native population

,by their marriage with Chinese women

and the adoption of Chinese habits andmanners . So long as thetrade with Arabia caused the commercial interests of the Chineseto be bound up with

.

a foreign Muhammadan power, and a

friendly al liance with the Caliph served as a safeguard against the

common enemy, the Thibetans , so long were the Chinese Musalmans assured fromany harsh treatment or persecution . But

even when this protection was withdrawn,we find them stil l

enjoying the u tmost freedomand toleration at the hands of theChinese government . This is due in large measure to thesk ilfu l compromises and the carefu l concessions which theMuhammadans have ‘

always made to the prejudices of theirfellow- countrymen . In their ordinary life they are comp letelyin touch with the customs and habits prevalent around them;they wear the pigtail and the ordinary dress of the Chinese , and

put on a turban as a rule,only in themosque . To avoid offend

ing against a superstitious prejudice on the part of the Chinese ,they also refrain frombuilding tall m1narets.

1 Even in Chinese

1 Vasi l’ev, p . 1 5 .

THE CHINESE MUSLIMS . 25 3

Tartary,where the special privilege is allowed to the Musalman

soldiers,of ' remain ing unmixed

,and of forming a separate body ,

the higher, Muhammadan oflicials wear the dress prescribed to

their rank , :long'

mou staches ‘

and thepigtai l , and on holidays theyperformthe usiIal homage 2 demanded fromo ffi cials

, to a- poi

rt’

raitof the 'Emperor, by touching the ground three times with theirforehead .

1 Similarly all Muhammadan mandarins and otheroflicials in other provinces perform the rites prescribed to

'

their

official position ,in the temples of Confuc ius on festival days in

fact every precau tion is tak en by the ~Muslims to preven t theirfaith fromappearing to be in opposition to the state religion , andhereby they have succeeded in avoiding the odiumw ith whichthe adheren ts of foreign religions , such as Judaism and

“

Chris

tianity are regarded . They even represent their religion to theifChinese fellow - countrymen as being in agreement with the teachings of Confucius , with on ly this difference , that they follow thetraditions of their ancestors with regard to marriages, funerals,the prohibition of pork , wine , tobacco , and games of chance , andthe washing of the hands beforemeals ? Similarly the writingsof the Chinese Muhammadans treat the work s “of Confuc ius andother Chinese classics with great respect , and where possible

,

point out the harmony between the teachings contained thereinand the doctrines of Islam.

3

The Chinese government , in i ts turn , has always given to i tsMuhammadan subjects (except when in revolt) the same priv

‘ ileges and advantages as are enjoyed by the rest of the pOpulation . No office of state is c losed to them;and as governors of

provinces, generals , magistrates and min isters o f state they enjoythe confidence and respect both of the ru lers and the peop le .

Not only do Muhammadan names appear in the Chinese annalsas those of famous officers of state

,whether mil itary or c ivil

,but

they have also distingu ished themselves in the mechan ical artsand in . sciences such as mathematics and astronomy ? Thefavour shown to the Muhammadans of China by the imperialgovernment has more than '

once sti rred up a sp irit of envy and

detraction in some of the Chinese mandarins,and the following

1 A rminius Vambéry : Travels in Central A sia, p . 404. 1 (London,2 Vasi l’ev, p . 16 .

3 De Thiersant. Tome ii. pp . 367, 372 .

4 Id. Tome i . p . 247.

Thamaratu-l Funfin. (2 8th Sha‘ban, p.


decree of the year 173 1 , cal led forth by such an accusation againstthe Muhammadans of the province of Shen - si

,deserves quotation

as exhibiting very clearly the spirit in which the ChineseEmperors have regarded their Muhammadan subjects

In every province of the empire,formany centuries past have

been found a large number of Muhammadans who formpart ofthe people whomI regard asmy own children just as I do myother subjects . Imak e no distinction between themand thosewho do not belong to their religion . I have received fromcertain oflicials secret complaints against the Muhammadans on theground that their religion differs fromthat of the other Chinese ,that they do not speak the same language , and wear a differentdress to the rest of the people . They are accused of disobedience ,haughtiness , and rebellious feelings , and I have been ask ed toemploy severe measures against them. After examining thesecomplaints and accusations , I have di scovered that there is nofoundation for them. In fact

,the religion followed by theMusalmans

i s that of their ancestors it i s true their language is no tthe same as that of the rest of the Chinese

,but what a mult i

tude of difl'

erent dialects there are in China. As to theirtemples

,dress andmanner of writing, which d iffer from those of

the other Chinese— these are matters of absolutely no importance .

These aremere matters of custom. They bear as good a character asmy other subjects , and there is nothing to show that theyintend to rebel . It is my wish , therefore , that they should beleft in the free exercise of their religion , whose object is to teach

men the observance of amoral life , and the fulfilment of socialand c ivil duties . This religion respects the fundamental basis ofGovernment

,and what more can be ask ed for ? If then the

Muhammadans continue to conduct themselves as good and loyalsubjects

,my favour will be extended towards themjust as much

as towards my other children . Fromamong themhave comemany c ivil and military officers

,who have risen to the very

highest rank s. This is the best proof that they have adopted ourhabits and customs

,and have learned to conform themselves to

the precepts of our sacred book s . They pass their examinationsin literature just l ik e every one else

,and performthe sacrifices

enjoined by law . In a word,they are true members of the great

Chinese family and endeavour always to fulfil their religious ,c ivil and political duties . When themagistrates have a c ivil case

2 5 6 T HE PREACHING OF I SLAM.

when interrogated as to his occupation,confessed that for the

last ten yearshe had been travelling through’ the diffeient pro

vinces of the Empire '

in o rder to'

obtain‘

information “about his

religion . In one of his boxeswere- found thirty'

book s,some iof

which had been written by himself, while o thers were in a

language that no .one here understands . These book s praISe In

an extravagant'

and rid iculous manner aWestern k ing, calledMuhammad . The above -mentioned Han -Fo -Yun

,when put to

the torture,at last confessed that the

'

real object of his journeywas to propagate the false

'

religion taught in these book s, andthat he remained in '

the province of Shen -Si for a longer t imethan anywhere else . I have examined these book smyself. Someare certainly written in a fore ign language ;for I have not

been able to understand them: the others that are written in

Chinese are very bad , I may add,even ridiculous On account

of the exaggerated praise given in them to persons who

certainly do no t deserve it because I have never even heard of

them.

“ Perhaps the above -mentioned Han-Fo -Yun i s a rebel fromKan - Su . His conduct is certainly suspicious , for what was he

going to do in the provinces through which he has been travellingfor the last ten years I intend to mak e a ' serious inquiry intothematter . Meanwhile , I would request your Majesty to orderthe stereotyped p lates, that are in the possession of his fami ly, tobe burnt

,and the engravers to be arrested , as well as the au thors

of the book s,which I have sent to your Majesty desiring to k now

your pleasure in thematter.”1It is true that this missionary was released and the Governor

censured by the Emperor, but the incident'

is suffi cient to'

showthe dangers of any active and open propagandism. Accordinglythough a certain number of unbelievers ‘ fromamong the Chineseembrace Islamevery year, their conversion is the result of thequ iet

,unobtrusive persuasions of private individuals . For

'

a

similar reason,conversions on a large scale have seldomoccurred

in modern times,though an instance fromthe last centurymay

bementioned,when

,after the revolt was crushed in Zungaria, in

1770, ten thousand mili tary colon ists with their families followedby many others were transplanted thither fromother parts

,of

1 De Thiersant. Torrie 11. pp. 36 1 -3 .

METHODS OF SPREADING ISLAM IN CHINA. 2 57

China to repeople the country, and they all embraced the religionof the surroundingMuhammadan popu lation .

1

In the towns,the Muhammadans tend little by little to form

separate Muhammadan quarters,and finally do no t allow any

person to dwell among themwho does no t go to the mosque ?Islamhas also gained ground in China because of the promptitudewith which the Muhammadans have repeop led provinces devastated by the various scourges so famil iar to China. In times offamine they purchase children frompoorparents

,bring themup

in the faith of Islam,and when they are ful l -grown provide them

with wives and houses,often forming whole villages of these new

converts . In the famine that d evastated the province of Kwangtung in 1790, as many as ten thousand children are said to havebeen purchased in this wayfromparents who , too poor to supportthem

,were compelled by necessity to part with their starving

little ones .3 Sayyid Sulayman says that the number of accessionsto Islamgained in this way every year is beyond counting.

4

Every effort 13 made to k eep faith alive among the new converts ,even the humblest being taught, bymeans of metrical primers ,the fundamental doctrines of Islam.

5 To the influence of thereligious . book s of the Chinese Muslims

,Sayyid Sulayman

attributes many of the conversion s that aremade at the presen tday.

6 Thus,though they have no organ ised systemof religiou s

propaganda, yet the zealous spirit of proselytisrn with which theChinese Musalmans are animated

,secures for thema constan t

successIOn of new converts , and they confidently look forward tothe day when Islamwill be triumphant throughou t the lengthand breadth of the Chinese Empire .7

1 D e Thiersant. Tome i . pp. 163 4.

2 L’A bbé Grosier : De la Chine, ou description générale de cet empire.

Tome iv. p. 508. (Paris,3 A nderson, p . 1 5 1 . L

’A bbé Grosier : D e la Chine. Tome w . p. 507.

4 Thamaratu l Funun. ( 17th Shawwal , p. 3 .

5 W. J . Smith , p . 175 .

6 Thamaratu- l Funiin, id .

7 De Thiersant . Tome 1. p . 39 .

Thamaratu- l Funun. (26th Shawwal, p. 3 .

CHAPTER XI.

THE SPREA D OF ISLA M IN A FRICA .

THE history of Islamin Africa,covering as it does a period of

well - nigh thirteen cen turies and embracing two - thirds of th isvast continent

,with its numerous and diverse tribes and races

,

presents especial difficu lt ies in the way of systematic treatment ,as it is impossible to give a simu ltaneous account in chronologicalOrder of the spread of this faith in all the different parts of thecontinent . Its relations to the Christian churches of Egypt andthe rest of North Africa

,of Nubia and Abyssin ia have already

been dealt with in a former chapter ;in the present chapter ,it i s proposed to trace its progress first among the heathenpopulation of North Africa

,then throughout the Sudan and

along the West coast , and lastly along the East coast and inCape Colony.

The information we possess of the spread of Islamamong theheathen population of North Africa i s hardly less meagre thanthe few facts recorded above regarding the disappearance of theChristian church . It seems however that Islammade rapidprogress among the Berbers , whose national characteristics andhabits of life exhibited so close an affin ity to those of their con

querors. When in 703 the Berbersmade their last stand againstthe Arab army

,their great queen and prophetess

,Kab ina

,fore

seeing that the fortune of battle was to turn against them,sent

her sons into the camp of the Muslimgeneral with instruction sthat they were to embrace Islamand mak e common cause withthe enemy ;she herself elected to fall fighting at the head ofher countrymen in the great battle that crushed the politicalpower of the Berbers

,at the Springs of Kahina.

1 After the loss

1 A . Muller, vol. 1. p . 42 1 .

THE BERBERS . 2 5 9

of their political independence,they accepted a religion that by

its simplicity would naturally have recommended itself somuchto them

, and to which their prophetess had pointed thembywhat was virtually a submission on her part to the new faith .

The army of twelve thousand Berbers that sai led fromAfricain 71 1 under the command of Tariq (himself a Berber) to theconquest of Spain

,was comp osed of recent converts to Islam

,

and their conversion is expressly said to have been sincerelearned Arabs and theologians were appointed

,

“ to read and

explain to themthe sacred words of the Qur’an,and instruct

themin all and every one of the duties enjoined by their newreligion .

”1 Mfisa, the great conqueror of Africa, showed his z‘

ealfor the progress of Islam,

"

by devoting the large sums ofmoneygranted himby the Caliph ‘Abdu - l Mal ik to the purchase of suchcaptives as gave promise of showing themselves worthy childrenof the faith : “ for whenever after a victory there was a numberof slaves put up for sale , he used to buy all those whomhethought would willingly embrace Islam,

who werefof noble origin ,and who look ed

,besides

,as if they were active young men .

To these he first proposed the embrac ing of Islam,and if

,after

cleansing their understanding and mak ing themfit to receiveits sublime truths

,they were converted to the best of religions ,

and their conversion was a sincere one,he then would

,by way

of pu tting their abilities to trial,employ them. If they evinced

good disposition and talents he wou ld instantly grant theml iberty

,appoint them to high commands in his army, and

promote them according to their merits ;if, on the contrary ,they showed no aptitude for their appointments

,he wou ld send

themback to the common depOt of captives belonging to thearmy

,to be again disposed of according to the general customof

drawing out the spoil by arrows”? In the cal iphate of‘Umar

II.,the then governor of Africa Isma‘il ibn ‘Abdu - llah is said to

have won over the Berbers to Islamby his mild and just ad

min istration,though the statement that in his t ime not a single

Berber remained unconverted,is hardly credible .3 For the

conversion of the Berbers was undoubtedly the work of ' severalcentu ries though the detai ls of the spread of Islamamong them

1 A l Mak k ari, vo l . i . pz,2751321 1 5 3

2 Id. p . lxv.

c i vo 1. p. 3 .

S 2


are unrecorded,sti ll several circumstances may be ment ioned

which had a probable influence on their acceptance of this faith .

The Berbers were in constant revolt against their Arab con

querors, and the Shi‘ah missionaries who paved the way for the

establishment of the Fatimid dynasty in the beginning of thetenth century found a ready welcome among them,

‘

and it is no t

improbable that the enthusiasmwith which several of the Berbertribes supported thismovement of revol t may have brought intothe pale of Islammany who before had look ed upon the acceptance of this faith as a Sign of loss of political independence .

About the middle of the eleven th century , a stillmo re popularmovement attracted a great many of the Berber tribes to jointhe Muslim community . In the early part of this century, a

Chieftain of the Lamtfina, one of the Berber tribes of theSahara

,on his return froma

, pilgrimage to Mecca, sought in thereligious centres of Northern Africa for a learned and piousteacher

,who shou ld accompany himas a missionary of Islam

to his ben ighted and ignorant tribesmen : at first he found itdifficult to find a man willing to leave his scholarly retreat andbrave the dangers of the Sahara, but at length he met in

‘Abdu

llah ibn Yass in the fi t person,bold enough to undertak e so

difficult a mission, p ious and

'

austere in his life , and learned in

theology, law and other sciences. So far back as the n inthcentury the preachers of Islamhad made their way among theBerbers of the Sahara and established among themthe religionof the Prophet

,but this faith had found very little acceptance

there,and ‘Abdu - llah ibn Yass in found even the professed

Muslims to be very lax in their religious Observances and given

up to all k inds of vicious '

practices. He ardently threw himselfinto the task of converting themto the right path and instructing themin the duties of religion but the sternness with whichhe rebuk ed their vices and sought to reform their conduct ,al ienated

'

their'

sympathies fromhim,and the ill - success of his

mission almost drove him to abandon this stiff- neck ed peop leand devote his efforts to the conversion of the Sudan . Beingpersuaded however no t to desert the work he had once undertak en

,he retired with such disciples as his preaching had

gathered around him,to an island in the River Senegal , where

they founded a monastery and gave themselves up unceasinglyto devotional exercises . The more devout -minded among the


attracted into the Muslimcommun ity some of the tribes thathad up to that time still stood aloof. Their founder, A bii ‘Abdillah Muhammad - ibn T1

‘

1mart,popularised the sternly Un itarian

tenets of this sect bymeans of a work in the Berber languageentitled Tawhid or the Unity (of God), which expounded fromhis own point of view the fundamental doctrines of Islam.

1 Someof the Berber tribes however remained heathen up to the closeof the fifteenth century? but the general tendency was natural lytowards an absorption of these smaller commun ities into thelarger.Fromthe Sahara the k nowledge of Islam first spread amongthe Negroes of the Sudan . The early history of thismovementis wrapped in obscurity : it was probably about the eleventhcentury that some Arab tribes— or if not of pure Arab descent ,with some admixture of Arab blood in their veins—came andsettled among them. But even before then, individual Berberpreachers and Arab merchants had not been without influenceamong the Negroes. The reign of Yusq bn Tashtin

,the founder

of Morocco (1062 A .D .) and the second Amir of the Almoravidedynasty

,was very fruitfu l in conversions andmany Negroes under

his rule came to k now of the doctrines of Muhammad .

3 TwoBerber tribes

,the Lamtuna and the Jodala, whose habitat

bordered on and partly extended into the Sudan,especially

distinguished themselves by their religious zeal in the work of

conversion .

4 Fromthe records we possess of the progress of thefaith among the negroes it is clear that Islamwas brought fromthe north first to the tribes of the west and fromthemspreadtowards the east. One of the earliest conversions of which wehave any record is that of Sa-Ka- ssi

,the fifteenth k ing of the

dynasty of Sa in Sonrhay (S E. of Timbuk tu), wh o was convertedto Islamabout 400 A .H . (1009 - 10 A .D.) and was the first Muhammadan k ing of Sonrhay. From this period the states on theUpper Niger formed a bulwark of the faith and attained to whatfor those times was a high level of civilisation and culture . ‘

Timbuk tu,which was founded in 1077, became especially

1Sal ih ibn ‘A bdi llah Hahm, p. 2 50.

2 Leo A fricanus. (Ramusio . Tom. 1. p .

3 Id. pp. 7, 77.

M4 Chronik der Sultane von Bornu, bearbeitetx

von Otto Blau, p . 3 2 2 . (Z .D .M . .Gvo l . vi.1’Oppel , p. 288 .

ISLAM IN THE SUDAN . 2 63

influential as a seat of Muhammadan learn ing and piety, and

students and d ivines flock ed there in large numbers attracted bythe encoui'agcment and patronage they received . Ibn Batutah ,

who travelled through this coun try in themiddle of the fourteenthcentury

,praises the Negroes for their zeal in the performance of

their devotions and in the study of the Qur’an un less one wentvery early to themosque on Friday

,he tells us

,it was impossible

to find a place,so crowded was the attendance .

1 In his time ,themost powerful state of the Western Sudan was that of Melleor Malli

,which had been founded a century before by the Man

dingos , one of the finest races of Africa : Leo Africanu s 2 callsthemthemost civilised

,themost intellectual andmost respected

of all the Negroes , and modern travellers praise themfor theirindustry

,c leverness and trustworthiness .3 These Mandingos

have been among the most active missionaries of Islam,which

has been spread by themamong the neighbouring peoples .Islammade its way further west about the middle of theeleventh century

,when the reign ing Su ltan of Bornu (on the

E . coast of Lak e Chad) became a Muhammadan under the nameofHami ibnu - l Jalil ? TO the same period belongs the conversionof Kanem

,a k ingdomon the N . and N .E. of Lak e Chad

,which

shortly after the adoption of Islamrose to be a state of considerable importance , and whose sway extended over all the tribes ofthe Eastern Sudan to the borders ‘

of Egypt and Nubia. Havingthus reached the very centre of Africa

,the religion

‘

soon began tospread in all directions

,and i t i s very probable that here two

d istinct streams of missionary enterprise met , the one comingfromthe West and the other fromthe North - east . Themerchan tsof Kordofan and in the Eastern Sudan generally, boast that theyare descended fromArabs

,who made their way thither after the

fall of the Fatimid Caliphate ofEgypt in the twelfth century . In

the fourteenth century the Tungur Arabs, emigrating S . fromTunis

,made their way through Bornu and Wadai to Darfur :

1 Ibn Batutah. Tome iv. pp. 42 1 - 2 .

2 Ramusio . Tom. i . p . 78 .

3 Winwood Reade describes themas a tall , handsome, l ight- co loured race,

Moslems in rel igion, possessinghorses and large herds of cattle, butalso cultivatingcotton, ground -nuts, and various k inds of com. I wasmuch p leased with theirk ind and hospitablemanners, the grave and decorous aspect of their women, thec leanl iness and si lence o f their vi llages.

” ‘N . Winwood Reade A frican Sk etchboo k , vo l . i . p . 303 .

4Waitz, 11er. Theil , pp . 18 - 19 .

3 Otto Blau, p . 32 2 .


one of their number named Ahmad met with a k ind receptionfromthe heathen k ing of Darfur , who took a fancy to him

,made

himdirector'

of his household and consulted himon all occasions .His experience ofmore civil ised methods of government enabledhimto introduce a number of reforms both into the economy ofthe k ing

’s household and the government of the state . Byjudicious management , he is said to have brought the unrulyChieftains into subjection ,

and by portion ing out the land amongthe poorer inhabitants to have put an end to the constant internalraidings, thereby introducing a feeling of security and contentment before unk nown. The k ing having no male heir gaveAhmad his daughter in marriage and appointed himhis suc

cessor,—4a choice that was ratified by the acclamat ion of the

peop le , and the Muhammadan dynasty thus instituted has con

tinned down to the present.

century . The civilising influencesexercised by this chief and his descendants were doubtlessaccompan ied by some work of proselytism

,but these Arab

immigrants seemto have done very little for the spread oftheir religion among their heathen neighbours . Darfur onlydefin itely became Muhammadan '

through the efforts of one of itsk ings named Sulayman who began to reign in and i t wasno t unti l the sixteenth or seventeenth century that Islamgained afooting in the other k ingdoms lying between Kordofan and Lak eChad

,such asWadai and Bagirmi . The chief centre of Muham

madan influence at this time was the k ingdomof Wadai, whichwas founded by ‘Abdu- l Karimabout 1 6 1 2 A .D . In the samecentury Katsena and Kano ? in the Hausa country came underMuhammadan rul e

,and i t i s probable that Islamhad gained

adherents throughout the whole of the Sudan before the centurydrew to a close .3

But the history of the Muhammadan propaganda in Africaduring the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries is very slight andwholly insignificant when compared with the remark able revival

8

1

6

1

)C . Slatin Pasha : Fire and Sword in the Sudan, pp . 3 8 , 40 2 . (London,

1 92 Kano is said to have been founded in themiddle of the tenth century twenty

five o f its k ings were heathen, but the next was a Muhammadan;underhis siximmediate successors, Kano was again under heathen rule, but thenceforward al l

its k ings have been Muhammadans. (C . H . Robinson : Hansaland, p .

(London,Oppel. pp 2 90 4.


subject to any of the k ings of the country , tho’ they live in

their territories for if they are used il l in one nation they breakup their towns and remove to another. They have chiefs oftheir own

,who ru le with such moderation

,that every act of

government seems rather an act of the peop le than of one man .

This form of government is easily admin istered,because the

people are of a good and qu iet disposition,and so well instructed

in what i s just and right , that aman who does ill is the abomination of all They are very industrious and frugal , and raise

muchmore corn and cotton than they consume,which they sell at

reasonable rates,and are so remark able for their ho spital ity that

the natives esteemi t a blessing to have a Pho ley town in theirneighbourhood besides , their behaviour has gained themsuchreputation that i t is esteemed infamous for any one to treatthem in an inhospitable manner. Though their human ityextends to all

,they are doubly k ind to people of their own

race and if they k now of any of their body being made a slave,

all the Pho leys will uni te to redeemhim. As they have plentyof food they never suffer any of their own people to want but

support the old,the blind

,and the lame

,equally with the others .

They are seldom angry, and I never heard themabuse one

another yet thismildness does not proceed fromwant of courage ,for they are as brave as any people of Africa, and are very expertin the use of their arms , which are the assagay, short cutlasses

,

bows and arrows and even guns upon occasion They arestrict Mahometans and scarcely any of themwill drink brandy ,or anything stronger than water .

”

Danfodio united these scattered clans into one powerful

k ingdom,and inspiring themwith the religious zeal, which to

this day places themamong the most active of Muhammadanmissionaries

,led themagainst the heathen tribes of the Hausa

country . At the same time he sent letters to the k ings ofTimbu k tu

,Bornu , etc. , commanding themto reformtheir l ives

and those of their subjects,or he would chastise themin the

name of God . The conquering Fulahs spread southwards andwestwards

,laying waste whole tracts of country, and compelling

all the tribes they conquered to embrace the faith of the Prophet .The petty communities thus brok en up and subdued were un itedunder one political organ isation ;in this way So k oto was builtand made the capital of a Muhammadan k ingdom,

and later (in

DA NFODIO . 2 67

1 837) A damana was founded on the ruins of several pagan

k ingdoms. In the Yoruba country, Danfodio destroyed the chieftown Oyo

,and founded near i ts site a new city, called Ilorin ,with

wide streets,mark et squares , and numerous mosques . The con

quering Fulahs made their way westward nearly to the ocean,

and at the present day four powerfu l Muhammadan k ingdoms inSenegambia and the Sudan attest themissionary zeal of ‘UthmanDanfodio .

Danfodio made of his peOple‘

a nation of conquerors,and what

ismore to the present purpose,stirred up in themsuch zeal for

the cause of their faith that they are among the most activepropagandists of Islamin Africa

,and their superior civil isation

and education mak e thememinently fitted for this work . The

p rogress of their religion has been furthered less by their conqueststhan by the peaceful missionary activity with which they havefollowed themup .

But there has been much missionary work done for Islamin

this part of Africa bymen who have never tak en up the sword tofurther their end

,—the conversion of the heathen . Such have

been the members of some of the great Muhammadan religiousorders

,which formsuch a prominent feature of the religious life

of Northern Africa. Their efforts have achieved great resultsduring the present century, and though doubtlessmuch of theirwork has never been recorded

,stil l we have accounts of some of

themovements initiated by them.

Of these one of the earliest in the present century owed itsinception to Si Ahmad ibn Idris 1 who enj oyed a wide reputationas a religious teacher in Mecca from1797 to 1 833 , and was thesp iritual chief of the K_

hadriyah before his death in 1 83 5 he sentone of his d isciples, by name Muhammad ‘Uthmanu - l Amir (

_

fflmni,on a proselytising expedition into Africa. Crossing the RedSea to Kossayr, hemade his way inland to the Nile here, amonga Muslimpopulation , his efforts weremainly confined to enrollingmembers of the order to which he belonged, but in his journeyup the river he did no tmeet with much success until he reachedAswan fromthis point up to Dongola, his journey became qu itea triumphant progress ;the Nubians hastened to join his order,and the royal pomp with which he was surrounded produced an

R inn, pp 403


impressive effect on this people,and at the same time the fame

of hismiracles attracted to himlarge numbers offollowers . AtDongola Muhammad ‘Uthman left the valley of the Nile to go toKordofan

,where hemade a long stay, and i t was here that his

missionary work among unbel ievers began. Many tribes in thiscountry and abou t Sennaar were still pagan , and among these thepreaching of Muhammad ‘Uthman achieved a very remark ablesuccess

,and he sought tomak e his influence permanent by con

tracting severalmarriages , the issue of which , after his death in1 8 5 3 , carried on the work of the order he founded— called afterhis name the A mirghaniyah .

1

A few years before this missionary tour of Muhammad‘Uthman

,the tr00ps of Muhammad ‘A li

,the founder of the

present dynasty of Egypt , had begun to extend their conquestsinto the Eastern Sudan

,and the emissaries of the various

religious orders in Egypt were encouraged by the Egyptian

government , in the hope that their labours wou ld assist in the

pacification of the country,to carry on a propaganda in this

newly - acqu ired territory,where they laboured with so much

success , that the recent insurrection in the Sudan under theMahdi has been attributed to the religious fervour their preachingexcited .

2

In the West of Africa two orders have been especially instrumental in the spread of Islam, ,

the Qadriyah and the Tijaniyah .

The former,themost widespread of the religious orders of Islam,

was founded in the twelfth century by ‘Abdu - l Qadiri - l J i lan i , saidto be themost popular and most universally revered of all thesaints of Islam

,3 - and was introduced into Western Africa in the

fifteenth century,by emigrants fromTuat , one of the oases in

the western half of the Sahara;they made Walata the firstcentre of their organisation , but later on their descendants weredriven away fromthis town

,and took refuge in Timbuk tu ,

furtherto the east . In the beginn ing of the present century the greatspiritual revival that was so profoundly influencing the Muhammadan world

,stirred up the Qadriyah of the Sahara and the

Western Sudan to renewed l ife and energy, and before long,learned theologians or smal l colon ies of persons afli liated to the

Le Chatel ier pp. 2 31- 3 .

2 Id . pp 89 - 9 1 .

Kinn, p . 175 .


towards the end of the last century, have , since their establishment in the Sudan about the middle of the present cen tury,pursued the same missionarymethods as the Qadriyah, and theirnumerous schools have contributed largely to the propagation ofthe faith but

,unl ik e the former

,they have no t refrained from

appeal ing to the sword to assist in the furtherance of their schemeof conversion

,and

,unfortunately for a true estimate of the

missionary work of Islamin Western Africa,the fame of thei r

Jibads or religious wars has thrown into the shade the successesof the peaceful propagandist , though the labours of the latterhave beenmore effectual towards the spread of Islamthan thecreation of petty, short - lived dynasties. The records of campaigns, especially when they have interfered with the Commercialprojects or schemes of conquest of the white men

,have naturally

attracted the attention of Europeans more than the unobtrusivelabours of the Muhammadan preacher and schoolmaster . But

the history of suchmovements p ossesses this importance , thatas has often happened in the case of Christian mission s alsoconquest has opened out new fields for missionary activity

,and

forcibly impressed on the minds of the faithful the existence oflarge tracts of country whose inhabitants sti ll remained uncon

verted.

The first of these mil itant propagandistmovements on the partof the members of the Tijaniyah order owes its inception to‘Umaru -l Haj i

,who had been in itiated in to this order by a

leader of the sect whose acquaintance he made in Mecca. Hewas a nat ive of Futah Toro

,and appears to have been aman of

considerable endowmen ts and personal influence,and of a com

manding presence . He was educated by a missionary fromArabia

,with whomhe spent several years in the study of Arabic .

On his return in the year 1 8 54 or 1 8 5 5 , from the Holy City, towhich he had made the pilgrimage three times , he armed hisslaves

, gathered together an army of men,and commenced

a series of proselytising expeditions against those tribes that stillremained pagan about the Upper Niger and Senegal .Some mention has already been made of the introduction ofIslaminto this part of Africa. The seed planted here by ‘Abdullah ibn Yass in and his companions

,was fructified by continual

contact with Muhammadanmerchants and teachers,and with the

Arabs of the oasis of Al Hodh and others . A traveller of the

‘UMARU -L 111111. 271

fifteenth century tells how the Arabs strove to teach the Negro

chiefs the law of Muhammad , poin ting out how shamefu l a thingi t was for them

,being chiefs , to l ive withou t any of God

’s laws ,and to do as the base folk did who l ived withou t any \ law at all .

Fromwhich it would appear that these early missionaries tookadvantage of the imposing character of the Muslimreligion and

constitution to impress the minds of these uncivilised savages .1

But in spite of centuries of contact with Muhammadan influences ,‘Umaru- l Haji in the n ineteenth century found that large massesof his fellow - countrymen still clung to the idolatry and superstitions of their heathen forefathers. He first attack ed theMandingos of Bambuk , then turned towards the Upper Senegaland ban ished pagan ismfromSegu , where the Bambara were stil lheathen

,and reformed several Muslimstates that had become

imbued with heathen ish ideas . He finally established himself inSegu and Moassina

,where he subdued the Bambara and con

verted themto Islam,for the most part by violen t means . He

was k illed about 1 86 5 , leaving his sons to ru le over the whole ofthe country

.

between the Upper Senegal and the Niger, which hehad brought under his sway.

2

‘Umaru - l Haji has had several successors in this method ofextending the sphere of Muhammadan influence

,—members of

his own family or disciples , —who have imitated the leader oftheir order in stirring up the Tijaniyah to Jihad . But our infor

mation respecting their petty wars is verymeagre and insuflicient ,for in their hands the empire of ‘Umaru - l Haji has been split upinto a number of insign ificant and petty states. We have amplerdetails of amore recen t movement of the same k ind , that hasbeen set on foot in the south of Senegambia by a Mandingo,named Samudu ,

who at the head of a large body of zealousMuhammadans has succeeded in subdu ing several warlik e and

powerful pagan tribes . In 1 884 he captured Falaba, the capitalof the Soo lima country

,2 50miles east of Sierra Leone, after an

obstinate siege of several months : for fifty years the peop le ofFalaba had successfu lly resisted the attack s of the Fu lah Muhammadams

,who had attempted by yearly expeditions to reduce

them. A n Arabic account of the career of Samudu , written by

1 D el le Navigationi diMesser A lvise daCa da Mosto . (A .D . Ramusio .

Tome i . p. 101 .

2 Oppel , p . 292 - 3 . Blyden, p . 10.


a native chronicler, gives us some interesting details of his

achievements . It begins as follows This is an account of the

Jihad of the ImamAhmadu Samudu , a Mandingo. God con

ferred upon himHis help continually after he began the work (ifvisiting the idolatrous pagans , who dwell between the sea and thecountry of Wasu lu

,with a view of inviting

‘

them to follow the

religion of God . which is Islam.

Know all ye who read this— that the first’

effort of the ImamSamudu was a town named Fulindiyah . Following

' the Book

and the Law and the Traditions,he sentmesssengers to the k ing

at that town , Sindidu by name,invi ting himto submit to his

government , abandon‘ the worship of idols and worship one God,

the Exalted,the True

,whose service is profitable to His people

in this world and in the next but they refused to submit . Thenhe imposed a tribute upon them

,as the Qur’an commands on

this subject ;but .they persisted'

in their blindness and deafness .The Imam then collected a small force of about five hundredmen

,brave and val iant

,for the Jihad , and he fought against the

town,and the Lord helped himagainst themand gave himthe

victory over them,and he pursued themwith his horses until

they submitted. Nor will they return to their idolatry,for now

all their children are in sch0015 1 being taught the Qur’an

,and

“

a

k nowledge of religion and civilisation . Praise be to God forthis .”

In a similar way he has brought several pagan states underthe influence of Muhammadan schools and teachers and

administers themin accordance with the law of the Qur’an . In

every town that falls into his power,either by capture or by its

voluntary submission,he establishes amosque and schools

,which

are served by duly qualified persons . Though he is at the headof a large army, he trustsmore to the Qur’an and the educativeinfluence of schools

_than to the sword , and he is said to have theart

,as a rule

,withou t bloodshed

,ofmak ing' his message accept

able to the pagans whomhe summons to the faith .

l

With regard to these mi litant movements of Muhammadanpropagandism,

it is important to notice that it is no t themilitarysuccesses and territorial conquests that have most contributed tothe progress of Islamin these parts for i t has been pointed ou t

Blyden, pp. 3 57-60.


income to the funds of the society,if they do no t give themselves

up ent irely to its service , and devote all their energies to theadvancement of Islam

,resisting at the same time any concessions

to European influences . This sect is spread over the whole ofNorth A frica

,. having religious houses scattered about the

country fromEgypt to Morocco , and far into the interior, in theoases of the Sahara and the Sudan . The centre of its organisation

is in the oasis of Jaghbub in the Libyan desert between Egyptand Tripoli

,where every year hundreds of missionaries are

trained and sent out as preachers of Islamto all parts of northernAfrica. It is to the religiou s house in this village that all thebranch establishments (which are said to be 1 2 1 in number) lookfor counsel and instruction in all matters that concern themanagement and extension of this vast theocracy, which embracesin amarvellous organisation thousands of persons of numerousraces and nat ions

,otherwise separated fromone another by vast

differences of geographical situation and worldly interests .'

Forthe success that has been achieved by the zealous and energeticemissaries of this association is enormous convents of the orderare to be found no t on ly all over the north of Africa fromEgyptto Morocco

,throughout the Sudan , in Senegambia and Somal i

land,but members of the order are to be found also in Arabia,

Mesopotamiaand the islands of the Malay Archipelago.

l Thoughprimarily a movement of reformin the midst of Islamitself

,

the Sanusiyah sect is also actively proselytising, and several Africantribes that were previously pagan or merely nominally Muslim

,

have since the advent of the emissaries of this sect in theirmidst,

become zealous adherents of the faith of the Prophet. Thus ,for example

,the Sanusi missionaries are labour ing to convert

that portion of the Baele (a tribe inhabiting the hill country ofEnnedi

,E . of Bork u) which is still heathen, and are communi

cating their own religious zeal to such other sections of the tribe

as had only a very superfic ial k nowledge of Is lam,and were

Muhammadan only‘

in name 2 ;the Tedas of ,

Tu or Tibesti,in

the Sahara,S . of Fezzan

,who were l ik ewise Muhammadans

only in name when the Sanusiyah came among them, also bearwitness to the success of their efforts.3 The missionaries of this

R iedel pp. 7, 5 9 , 162 .

2 G . Nachtigal : Sahara und Sudan, vol. 11. p. 175 . (Berlin, 18793 Duveyrier, p. 45 .

THE SANUSIYAH . 275

sect also carry on an active propaganda in the Galla country andfresh work ers are sent thither every year fromHarar, where theSanusiyah are very strong and include among their numbers allthe chiefs in the court of the Amir almost without exception .

1

In the furtherance of their proselytising efforts thesemissionariesopen schools, formsettlements in the oases of the desert , andnoticeably in the case of the Wadai— they have gained largeaccessions to their numbers . by the purchase of slaves , who have

been educated at Jaghbub and when deemed sufliciently wellinstructed in the tenets of the sect

,enfranchised and then sent

back to their native country to convert their brethren .

Slight as these records are of the missionary labours of theMuslims among the pagan tribes of the Sudan , they are of importance in view of the general dearth of information regardingthe spread of Islamin this part of Africa. But while documentary evidence is wanting, the Muhammadan commun i ties dwellingint hemidst of fetish -worshippers and idolaters

,as representatives

of ~a,higher faith and c ivi l isation

,are a living testimony to the

proselytising labours of the Muhammadan missionaries,and

(especially on the south -western borderland of Islamic influence)present a strik ing contrast to the pagan tribes demoralised bythe European gin traffic . This contrast has been well indicatedby amodern traveller,3 in speak ing of the degraded condition ofthe tribes of the Lower " Niger :

“ In steaming up the river (i.e .

the Niger), I saw l ittle in the'

first 200miles to altermy views,

for there luxuriated in congen ial un ion fetishism,cann ibal ism

and the gin trade . But as I left b ehindme the low - lying coastregion, and foundmyself near the southern boundary of what iscalled the Central Sudan

,I observed an ever- increasing improve

ment in the appearance of the character of the native cannibalismdisappeared

,fetishism followed in its wak e , the gin trade

largely disappeared , while on the other hand,clothes became

more voluminous_

and decent,clean l iness the rule , while their

ou tward more dign ified bearing' still further betok ened a moral

regeneration . Everything indicated a leaven ing of some higherelement

,an element that was clearly tak ing a deep hold on the

1 Paulitschk e, p . 2 14.

2 H . Du_

veyrier : La con'rérie musulmane de S idi Mohammed Ben ’

A li EsSenofisi. assim. (Paris,Louis R1nn Marabouts et Khouans, pp . 48 1 - 5 13 .3 Joseph Thomson p . 18 5 .


negro nature and mak ing hima new man . That element youWi ll perhaps ‘ be surprised to learn is Mahom‘medanism.

On'

p'

assing Lok oja at the confluence of the Benuewith3 the

Niger, I left behind me the missionary outposts of Islam, and

entering the Central Sudan , I found myself in a comparativelywell governed empire , teeming with a busy populace of k een

traders,expertmanufacturers of cloth , brass work and leather;a

people,in fact , who have made enormous advances towards

civil isation .

“ In order to forma'

just estimate of the missionary activityof Islamin Nigritia,

’

it must be ' borne'

in mind t hat;while on

the coast and along the southern boundary of . the sphere of

I slamic influence , the Muhammadan missionary is the pioneer ofhis religion , there is

'

still left behind hima vast field for'Muslimp ropaganda in the inland countries that stretch away to the

no rth and the east, though it is long since Islamtook firmroot inthis soil . Some sections of the Funj , the predominant Negro raceo f Sennaar, are partly Muhammadan and

' partly heathen,-

‘

and

Muhammadan merchants fromNubia are attempting‘

the‘

con

version of the latter } It wou ld be easy also to enumeratemanySections of the population of the Sudan and Senegambia, thatstill retain their heathen habits and beliefs

,or cover these only

with a slight veneer of Muhammadan Observances even thoughthey have been (in most cases) surrounded for centuries by thefollowers of the Prophet . Consequently, the remark able zeal fo 1missionary work that has d isplayed itself among the Muhammadansof these parts dirring the present 'century, hasno t far togo in order to find abundant scope for its activi ty . Hence theimportance, in - themissionary history of Islamin thiscontinent

,

of themovements of reformin the Muslimreligion itself and therevivals

'

of religious l ife , to.

which attention has been drawnn

above

The West Coast is another field forMuhammadan missionaryenterprise wherein Islamfinds itself confronted with a‘

vast'

popu.

lation still unconverted , in spite of the progress i t hasmadeonthe Guinea Coast , in Sierra Leone and Liberia

,in which last

there aremore Muhammadans than heathen .

’ ‘

In Ashanti ' therewas a nucleus of a Muhammadan popu lation to be found as early

'

as 1 75o'and themissionaries of Islamhave laboured there ever

Oppel , p 303


Authorities are no t agreed as to what are the exact geographicallimits to be assigned to the sphere of Islamin Africa;1 speak ingroughly, lat . 10

° N .may be tak en as the southern boundary ofMuslimAfrica

,although some tribes to the north of this l ine still

remain heathen .

2 As already pointed out this southern l imi t hasbeen long overpassed on the West Coast

,as also on the Lower

Niger, but, with the exceptions to be afterwards noted , CentralAfrica has been very little touched by Musl iminfluences . Notbut what there are many Muhammadans to be found in CentralAfrica

,particularly the settlements of the Arab traders that have

made their way inland fromZanzibar ;but these appear to beanimated by little or no missionary zeal

,and have no t founded

states similar to those in the Sudan,organised and governed in

accordance with the law of the Qur’an. Further east , indeed, thecoast- land has been under Muhammadan influence since thesecond century of the Hij rah

,but Eastern Africa (with the

exception of the country of the Galla and Somal i) has contributedvery little to themissionary history of Islam.

The facts recorded respecting the early settlements of theArabs on the East Coast are verymeagre according to an Arabic

chron icle which the Portuguese found in Kiloa3 when that town

was sack ed by Don Franci sco d’A lmeida in 1 505 , the first settlerswere a body of Arabs who were driven into exile because theyfollowed the heretical teachings of a certain Zayd

,

4a descendant

of the Prophet,after whomthey were called Emo zaydij (probably

iii or peop le of Zayd) . The Zayd here referred to is

probably Zayd ibn ‘Al i,a grandson ofHusayn and so greatigrand

son of ‘A li,

.the nephew of Muhammad : in the reign of theCal iph Hishamhe claimed to be the ImamMahdi and stirred upa revolt among the Shi‘ah faction, but was defeated and put todeath in A .H . 1 2 2 (A .D .

They seemto have lived in considerable dread of the originalpagan inhabitants of the country, but succeeded gradually in

For the l ine in the map , indicating the Southern l imit of Muhammadaninfluence, I am indebted to Dr. Osmr Baumann, who is well k nown for hisexplorations in German East A frica.

Oppel , pp. 2 94-7.

3 S ituated on an island about 2° S . of Zanzibar.Hum ouro chamado Zaide, ue foi neto de Hocemfilho de A le 0 sobrinho

de Mahamed.

"Da Barros, D ec . i .

c

Liv. vi i i. cap . iv. p . 2 1 1 .

Ibn Khaldun, vo l. i i i . pp. 98- 100.

THE EAST COAST OF AFRICA . 279 .

extending their settlements along the coast , until the arrival ofanother band of fugitives who came fromthe Arabian side of thePersian Gu lf

,not far fromthe island of Bahrayn . These came in

three ships under the leadership of seven brothers , in order toescape fromthe persecution of the k ing of Lasah ,1 a city hard bythe dwelling- place of their tribe . The first town they bu ilt was

Magadaxo ,$2 which afterwards rose to such power as to assume

lordship over all the Arabs of the coast . But the original settlers,the Emo z aydij, belonging as they did to a different Muhammadansect

,being Shi

‘ahs

,while the new- comers were Sunnis

,were un

willing to submit to the authority of the rulers ofMagadaxo , and

retired into the interior,where they became merged into the

native population,intermarrying with themand adopting their

manners and customs .3Magadaxo was founded about the middle of the tenth century

and remained themost powerful c ity on this coast for more thanseventy years

,when the arrival of another expedition from the

Persian Gulf led to the establishment of a rival settlement furthersouth . The leader of this expedition was named ‘A li

,one of the

seven sons of a certain Su ltanHasan of Shiraz because hismotherwas an Abyssinian

,he was . look ed down upon with contemp t by

his brothers,whose cruel treatment of himafter the death of

their father,determined himto leave his native land and seek a

home elsewhere . Accord ingly with his wife and children and a

small body of followers,he set sail fromthe island of Ormuz, and

avoiding Magadaxo , whose inhabitan ts belonged to a differen tsect

,and having heard that gold was to be found on the Zanzibar

coast,he pushed on to the south and founded the city of Kiloa,

where he could maintain a position of independence and be freefromthe interference of his predecessors further north .

4

In this way a number of Arab towns sprang up along the eastcoast fromthe Gulf of Aden to the Tropic of Capricorn, on thefringe of what was called by themediaeval Arab geographers thecountry of the Zanj. Whatever efforts may have been made bythe Muhammadan settlers to convert the Zanj, no record of themseems to have survived. There is a curious story preserved in an

Possibly amistak e for A l Hasa. See Ibn Batutah. Tome ii. pp. 247-8 .

2 Or (to give it its A rab ic name) Maqdishu.

3 J . de Barros. D ec. i . Liv. vi i i . cap . iv. pp. 2 1 1 - 3 12 .4 D e Barros, id. pp. 2 24- 5 .


old collection of travels written probably in the early part of thetenth century

,which represents Islamas having been introduced

among one of these tribes by the k ing of it himself. A n Arabtrading vessel was driven out of its Course by a tempest in the year92 2 A .D . and carried to the country of the man eating Zanj , where

'

the crew expected certain death . On the contrary , the k ing of

the place received themk indly and entertained themhospitably.

for several months,while they disposed of their merchandise on

advantageous terms but themerchants repaid his k indnesswithfoul treachery

,by seizing himand his attendants when they came

on board to bid themfarewell,and then carrying themoff as

slaves to Oman . Some years later the same merchants weredriven;bya stormto the same port , where they were

.

recogni sed

by the natives who surrounded themin their canoes ;givingthemselves up for lost this t ime , they repeated for one anotherthe prayers for the dead . They were tak en before the k ing,whomthey discovered to their surprise and confusion to be thesame they had so shamefully treated some years before . Instead ,however, of tak ing vengeance upon them for their treacherousconduct

,he spared their l ives and allowed themto sell their

goods, but rejected with scorn the rich presents they offered .

Before they left,one of the party ventured to ask the k ing to tell

the story of his escape . He described'

how he had been tak en as

a slave to Basrah and thence to Baghdad ,where he was convertedto Islamand instructed in the faith

,escaping fromhis master,

he joined a caravan of p ilgrims going to Mecca, and after performing the prescribed rites , reached Cairo and made his way up

the Nile in the d i rection of his own country,which he reached

at length after encounteringmany dangers and having beenmorethan once enslaved. Restored once again to his k ingdom, hetaught his people the faith of Islam “

and now I rejoice.

in thatGod hath given tome and tomy people the k nowledge of Islam

“

and the true fai th tono other in the land of the Zanj hath this

grace been v ouchsafed ;and i t is because you have been thecause of my conversion, that I pardon you. Tell the Musl imsthat theymay come to our country, and that we—Muslims lik ethemselves—will treat themas brothers.”1

Kitabu ‘aja

’ibi l H ind ou Livre des Mervei lles de l'Inde, publ ié par P.A . van

der Lith. pp. 5 1 60. (Le iden, 1883 .


similarly insensible to religious influences , the Arabs fromZanzibar have succeeded in gain ing some converts to Islam.

Islamhas beenmore successful among the Gallaand the Somal i .Mention has already been made of the Galla . settlements inAbyssin ia : these immigrants, who are . divided into seven principal clans, with the generic name of Wollo -Galla

,were probably

all heathen at the time of their incursion into the country,1 and

themajority of themremain so to the present day. After settlingin Abyssinia they soon became naturalised there

,and in many

instances adopted the language , manners and customs of theoriginal inhabitants of the country.

2

The story of their conversion i s obscure : while some of themare said to have been forc ibly baptised into the Christian faith

,

the absence of any political power in the hands of the Muhammadans precludes the possibility of any converts to Islamhavingbeen made in a similar fashion . In the last century

,those in the

south were said to be mostly Muhammadans, those to the eastand west chiefly pagans .3 More recent information points to afurther increase in the number of the followers of the Prophet ,and as they are said to be very fanatical

,

”wemay presume that

they are by no means half- hearted or lu k ewarmin their adherence to this religion .

4 Among the Galla tribes of the true Gallacountry

,the population is partly Muhammadan and partly

heathen,with the exception of those tribes immediately border

ing on Abyssin ia, who have been recently forced by the late k ingof that country to accept Christian ity.

5 Among themountains ,the Muhammadans are in a minority

,but on the plains the

missionaries of Islamhave met with strik ing success , and theirteaching has found a rapidly increasing acceptance during thepresen t century. Antonio Cecchi , who visited the petty k ingdom

1 A contemporary Ethiopic account of these tribes,—Geschichte der Gal la.

Bericht e ines abessinischenflMonches tiber die Invasion der Galla in sechzehntenJahrhundert. Text und Uhersetz ung hrsg, von. A . W. Schleichler—(Berlin,189 3)—seems certainly to represent themas heathen, though no detai led accountis given of their rel igion. Reclus (Tome x. p. 330) however supposes themto

have been Muhammadan at the time o f their invasion.

2 Henry Salt A Voyage to A byssinia, p . 2 99 . (London,3 James Bruce : Travels to discover the source of the N ile, z ud ed. vo l. iii.

p . 243 . (Edinburgh,I.L

.Krapf : Reisen in Ost- A frica, ausgefiihrt 1n den Jahren y o ] . i ,

p . 106 . (Kornthal .5 Reclus. Tome x . p. 309 .

THE GALLA . 2 83

of Limmu in 1 878 , gives an account of the conversion of Abba

Baghibo,l the father of the reign ing Chieftain , by Muhammadans

who for some years had been pushing their proselytising effortsin this country in the guise of traders . His examplewas followedby the chiefs of the neighbouring Gal la k ingdoms and by theoflicers of their courts ;part of the common people have

'

also

been won over to the new faith , and it is stillmak ingprogressamong them,

but the greater part cling firmly to their ancientcult.2 These traders received a ready welcome at the courts ofthe Galla chiefs , inasmuch as they found themamark et for thecommercial products of the country and imported objects offoreign manufacture in exchange . As theymade their j ourneysto the coast once a year only

,or' even once in two years

,and

l ived all the rest of the time in the Galla country,they had plenty

of Opportun ities,which they k new well how to avail themselves

of,for the work of propagating Islam,

and wherever they set theirfoot they were sure in a short space of time to gain a large numberof proselytes .3 Islamhas here come in conflict with Christianmissionaries from Europe , whose efforts , though winning forChristianity a few converts , have been crowned with very littlesuccess

,

4—even the converts of Cardinal Massaja (after he wasexpelled fromthese parts) either embraced Islamor ended bybelieving neither in Christ nor in Allah

,5—whereas the Musl im

missionaries have achieved a continuous success,and have now

pushed their way far to the south , and have lately crossed theWabi river .6 The majority of the Galla tribes dwelling in thewest of the Galla country are still heathen

,but among themost

westerly of them,viz . the Lega,7 the o ld nature worship appears

to be on the decline and the growing influence of the Muslimmissionaries mak es it probable that within a few years the Lega

1 When the Roman Catho l ics Opened a mission among the Gallas in 1846 ,A bba Baghibo said to them Had you come thirty years ago , not only I, butallmy countrymenmight have embraced your religion but now it is impossible .

”(Massaja, vol . iv. p . 102 Da Zei la al le frontiere del Caffa, vol . 11. p . 160. (Rome;1886Massaja, vo l. iv. p . 103 ;vol. vi. p. 10.

3 Massaja, vol . iv. p . 102 .

4 Speak ing of the fai lure of Christian missions. Cecchi says : “ di cib si devericercare la causa nello espandersi che fece quaggiii in questi ultimi anni l’islamismo ,partato da centinaj

’

a di preti e mercanti ‘musulmani, cui non facevano difetto imezzi , l

’

astuz ia e la p iena conoscenza della l ingua. (Op . cit. vol . i i. p.

Id. p. 343 .6 Reclus. Tome xii i . p . 834.

7 The Lega are found in long. 9°to 9

°

30’and lat. E. 34

°

3 5’to


wil l, all have entered into the pale of Islam.

1 The North -EastAfrica of the present day presents indeed the spectacle of aremark ably energetic and zealous missionary activity on the partof the Muhammadans. Several hundreds of missionaries comefromArabia every year , and they have been evenmore successfulin their labours among the Somali than among the Galla.

$2.The

close proximity of the Somal i country,to Arabiamust . have caused

it very early to, have been the scene of Muhammadan missionarylabours

,but of these unfortunately l ittle . record seems to have

survived. The Somal is of the north have a tradition of a certainArab of noble birth who

,compelled to flee his own

'

country,

crossed the sea to Adel , where he preached - the faith of Islamamong their forefathers.3 In .the fifteenth century a band o f

forty -four A rabs came as miss ionaries fromHadramawt, landingat Berberah on the Red ‘

Sea,and thence dispersed over the

Somal i country to preach Islam. . One of them,Shaykh Ibrahim

A bfiZ arbay,made his way to the city of Harar about 1430 A .D.,

and gained many converts there , and his tomb is still honouredin that city. A hill near Berberah is sti ll called the Mount ofSaints in,memory of thesemiss ionaries , who are said to have satthere in solemn conclave before scattering far and wide to thework ofc onversion fi

In order to complete this survey of Islamin Africa,i t remains

only to draw attention to the fact that this religion has alsomadeits entrance into the extreme south of this continent , viz . in CapeCoast Colony. These Muhammadans of the Cape are descendantsofMalays

,who were brought here by the Dutch

5 either in theseventeenth or eighteenth century they speak a corrupt formofthe Boer dialect

,with a considerable admixture of Arabic

,and

some English and Malay words . A curious little book publishedin this dialect and written in Arabic characters was published inConstantinople in 1 877by the Turk ish minister of education , toserve as a handbook of the principles of the Muslimfaith .

6 The

Reclus. Tome x. p . 3 50.

9 Paulitschk e, pp. 330- 1 .3 Documents sur l'liistoire, la géogra hie et le commerce de l

’A frique Orientale,

recuei ll is parM. Gui llain Deuxieme Bartie. Tome i . p.

(Paris,

R. F. Burton F irst Footprints in East A frica, pp. 76 , 404. London,

5 The Cape of Good Hope was in the ssession of the Dutch from16 5 2 to

1795 restored to themafter the Peace 0 Amiens in 1802 , it was te- occupied bythe British as soon as warbrok e out again

5 M. . de Goeje : Mohammedaansche Propaganda. pp. 2 , 6 . (Overgedruk tuit de ederlandsche Spectator, N o . 5 1 . 0


neighbour :“With this k nife Abdulk ader will condescend to

shave the head ofDamel , if Damel will embrace the Mahommedanfaith and with this other k n ife Abdulk ader will cut the throatof Damel

,if Damel refuses to embrace it tak e your choice .”

Butmuch as Islammay have owed to the martial prowess ofsuch fanatics as these , there is the overwhelming testimony oftravellers and others to the peaceful missionary preaching, andquiet and persistent labours of the Muslimpropagandist , whichhave donemore for the rap id spread of Islamin modern Africathan any violent measures : by the latter its opponents mayindeed have been exterminated

,but by the former chiefly

,have

its converts beenmade , and the work of conversionmay still beobserved in progress in many regions of the coast and theinterior .1 Wherever Islam has made it way, there is theMuhammadan missionary to be found bearing witness to itsdoctrines

,—the trader

,be he Arab

,Fulah or Mandingo , who

combines proselytismwith the sale of hismerchandise , and whosevery profession brings himinto close and immediate contact withthose he wou ld convert , and disarms any possible suspicion ofsinistermotives such aman when he enters apagan vi llage soon

attracts attention by his frequent ablutions and regularly re

curring times of prayer and prostration ,in which he appears to

be conversing with some invisible being, and by his very assumption of intellectual andmoral superiority , commands the respectand confidence of the heathen people, to whomat the same timehe shows himself ready and will ing to commun icate his highprivileges and k nowledge — the haji or pilgrimwho has returnedfromMecca ful l of enthusiasm for the spread of the faith

,to

which he devotes his whole energies, wandering about fromplaceto place

,supported by the alms of the faithful that bear witness

to the truth in the midst of their pagan neighbours — thestudent who has pursued his studies at the mosque of Al Azharin Cairo

,and in consequence of his k nowledge of Islamic theology

and law, receives honour as aman of learning : sometimes,too

,

he practisesmedicine,or at least he is in great requisition as a

writer of charms,texts fromthe Qur’an

,which are sewn up in

pieces of leather or cloth and tied on the arms,or round the

D . J . East, pp . 1 18 - 120. W. Winwood Reade, vo l. i . p. 3 12 .

B lyden, pp. 13 , 202 .

MUSLIM MISSIONARIES IN AFRICA . 2 87

neck,and which he can turn to account as ameans of adding to

the number of his converts for instance, when childless womenor those who have lost their children in infancy

,apply for these

charms, as a condition of success the obligation is always imposedupon them of bringing up their fu ture children as Muham~

madans.1 These religious teachers , or marabuts, or alfifas as theyare variously termed, are held in the highest estimation. In

some tribes of Western Africa every village contains a lodge fortheir reception , and they are treated with the u tmost deferenceand respect : in Darfur they hold the highest rank after thosewho fill the oflices

' of government : among the Mandingos theyrank still higher, and receive honour next to the k ing, the subordinate chiefs being regarded as their inferiors in point of dign ityin those states in which the Qur’an i s made the ru le of government in all civil matters

,their services are in great demand , in

order to interpret its mean ing. So sacred are the persons ofthese teachers esteemed

,that they pass withou t molestation

through the countries of chiefs , no t on ly hostile to each other,but engaged in actual warfare . Such deference is no t only paidto themin Muhammadan countries

,but also in the pagan villages

in which they establish their schools,where the people respect

themas the instructors of their children,and look upon themas

themediumbetween themselves and Heaven,either for securing

a supply of thei r necessities,or for warding off or removing

calamit ies.52 Many of these teachers have studied in themosquesof Q ayrwan , Fas, Tripolis

3 and other centres of Muslimlearn ingbut if Islammay be said to possess amissionary college , it is themosque of Al Azhar that best deserves this name . Studentsflock to it fromall parts of the Musl imworld , and among themi s always to be found a contingent fromNegro Africa,— studentsfromDarfur

,Wadai and Bornu , and some who evenmak e their

way on foot fromthe far distant West Coast ;when they havefinished their courses of study in Musl imtheology and jurisprudence

,there are many of themwho become missionaries

Bishop Crowther on Islamin Western A frica. (Church M issionary Intelligencer. p . 2 54, A pril,3 D . J .East, pp. 1 12 - 1 3.Blyden, p . 202 .

3 It is said that over a thousandmissionaries of Islamleave Tripo l is every yearto work in the Sudan. (Paulitschk e, p .


among the heathen population of their native land . The numberof students at this college shows a constant increase . .When Dr .

Dhmnger 1 visited Cairo about 1 83 8 their number was so low as

500, but since then there has been"

a . gradual rise , and . in

1 884 . there were as many as students on the rolls .2

Schools are established by these missionaries in the towns theyvisit

,which are frequented

“

by the pagan as well as the Muslimchildren . They are taught to read the Qur

’an

,and instructed in

the doctrines and ceremon ies of Islam. Having thus gained a

footing, the Muhammadanmissionary,by his superior k nowledge

and attainments,i s no t slow to obtain great influence over the

people among whomhe has come to live . In this he is aided bythe fact that his habits and manner of life are similar in manyrespects to their own,

nor i s’

he look ed“

upon with susp1c1on, ln

asmuch as the trader has already prepared the wayEfot him ,and

by intermarriage with ,the natives, being thu

‘

s received into .theirsocial system,

his influence becomes firmly rooted and permanent ,and so in the -most natural manner he gradually causes thek nowledge of Islamto spread among them; The arrival .of theMuhammadan in a pagan country i s . also the beginning of theopen ing up of amore extensive trade , and of communication withgreat Muhammadan trading centres such as Segu and «Kano

,.and

a share in the advantages of this material civilisation . is offered ,together with the religion of the Prophet . Thus

“among the

unc ivilised negro tribes themissionarymay be always sure of a

ready audience he can no t only give themmany truths regarding God andman whichmak e their way to the heart and: elevatethe intellect

,but he can at once communicate the Shibboleth . of

admission to a social and political commun ion ,which is apassport

for protection and assistance from- the Atlantic ,to the , Wall,of

China. Wherever aMoslem'

house can be found , there ,the

'

negro

convert who can repeat the dozen syllables of his creed , is sure _

o f

shelter,sustenance and advice , and 1 in his own country he finds

himself at once amember ofran influential, if no t of a dominantcaste . This seems the real secret of the success of the Moslemmissionaries in West Africa. It is great and rapid as regardsnumbers

,for the simple reason that the Moslem'missionary, from

-Mohammed’s Religion, p . 144.

A nnales de l ‘Extréme Orient et de l’A frique, p . 341 .


the Negro . Ibrah im,a brother of Barunu - r Rash id and the

son of a negress , had proclaimed himself Cal iph at Baghdad, butwas defeated and forgiven by Al Ma

’mun, who was then reign ing

(8 1 9 He thus describes his interview with the Caliph

A l Ma’mfin said to me on mygoing to see himafter having

Obtained pardon ‘ Is i t thou who art the Negro Khalifah P towhich I replied Commander of the faithful I amhe whomthou hast deigned to pardon and i t has been said by the slaveof Banfi - l Hashas When men extol their worth

,the slave of

the family of Hashas can supply, by his verses , the defect of birthand fortune .” Though I be a slave,my soul , through its noblenature

,is free thoughmy body be dark ,mymind is fair.’

To this Al Ma’mun replied : “ Uncle ! a j est of mine has putyou in a seriousmood .

” He then spo k e these verses“Black ness of sk in cannot degrade an ingeniousmind , or lessenthe worth of the scholar and the wit . Let dark ness claim thecolour of your body I claimasmine your fair and candid soul .”1So that the converted Negro at once tak es an equal place inthe brotherhood of believers

,neither his colour nor his race nor

any associations of the past standing in the way. It is doubtlessthe ready admi ssion they receive , that mak es the pagan Negroeswilling to enter into a religious society whose higher c ivilisat iondemands that they should give up many of their Old barbaroushabits and customs ;at the same time the very fact that the

acceptance of Islamdoes imply an advance in c ivilisation and is

a very distinct step in the intellectual ,moral and material progress of a Negro tribe , helps very largely to explain the success

Of this faith . The forces arrayed on its side are so powerful and

ascendant,that the barbarism,

ignorance and superstition whichit see k s to sweep away have little chance ofmak ing a lengthenedresistance . What the civil isation of MuslimAfrica implies tothe Negro convert , i s admirably expressed in the followingwords : The worst evils which , there is reason to believe , pre

vailed at one time over the whole of Africa, and which are stillto be found in many parts of it , and those , too , not far fromtheGold Coast and from our own settlements— cannibalism and

human sacrifice and the burial of l iving infants— disappear at

once and for ever . Natives who have hitherto l ived in a state

1 Ibn Khallik zin, vo l . 1. p . 18 .

ISLAM AND THE NEGROES . 2 9 1

of nak edness , or nearly so,begin to dress , and that neat ly;

natives who have never washed before begin to wash , l and thatfrequently ;for ablut ions are commanded in the Sacred Law

,

and it is an ordinance which does no t involve toq severe a s train

on theirnatural instincts; The tribal organisation tends to giveplace to something which has a wider basis . In other words

,

tribes coalesce ' into nations,and

,with the increase of energy and

intelligence, nations into emp ires . Many such instances cou ldbe adduced fromthe history of the Soudan and the

,adjoining

countries during the last hundred years . If the warlik e spiritis thus stimu lated

,the centres fromwhich war springs -are fewer

in number and further apart . War i sunder some form of restraint ;quarrels are not pick ed for

nothing;there is less indiscriminate plundering and g-

reater

security for property and l ife . Elementary schools ,1 l ik e ithosedescribed by Mungo Park a century ago , . spring up , and even ifthey only teach their scholars to recite the Koran , they are worthsomething in themselves, and may be a

_ step to much more .

The well - built and neatly - k ep t mosque , with its call to prayerrepeated five t imes a day, its Mecca-

pointing n iche,its Imam

and its week ly service,becomes the centre of the village , instead

of the ghastly fetish or Juju house . The worship of one God ,omn ipotent , omn ipresent , omn iscient , and compassionate, is animmeasurable advance upon anything which the native has been

1,In every Mohammedan town there is a publ ic schoo l and a publ ic library .

The publ ic library consists chiefly of d ifferent cop ies of the Koran, some o f thembeautiful spec imens o f cal igraphy. They have also Very frequently the A rab icversion of the Pentateuch, which they cal l ToratMousa the Psalms of David, elZabour Dawidi and even the Gospe l o f Jesus, c l Indjil Isa. They also preservepubl ic registers and records.

” W. Winwood Reade Savage A frica, p . 5 80.

Extracts fromthe Koran formthe earliest reading lessons of chi ldren, and thecommentaries and o ther work s founded upon it furnish the principal .subjec,

ts_of

the advanced stud ies. Schoo ls of different grades have existed for centuries invarious interior negro countries, and under the provision of law, in which even thepo or are educated at the pub l ic expense , and in which the deservingare carried on

many years through long courses of regular instruction. N o r is the systemalwaysconfined to the A rabic language, or to the work s o f A rabic writers. A numberof native languages have been reduced to writing, boo k s have been translatedfrom the A rabic, and original work s have been written in them. Schoo ls alsohave been k ept in which native languages are taught. Condition and Character

o f N egroes in A frica. By Theodore Dwight. (Method ist Quarterly Review,

January ,D r. Blyden (p . 206 -7) mentions the fo llowing book s as read by Musl ims inWestern A frica : Maqamat of Hariri, portions of A risto tle and Plato translatedinto A rab ic, an A rab ic version o f H ippo crates, and the A rabic N ew Testamentand Psalms issued by the A me1ican Bible Society.

U 2

2 9 2 THE PREACHING OF ISLAM.

taught to worship before . The Arabic language , in which theMussulman scriptures are always written

,i s a language of extra

ordinary copiousness and beauty ;once learned it becomes a

linguafmma to the tribes of half the continent, and serves as an .

introduction to literature , or rather , i t is a l iterature in i tself.

It substitutesmoreover, a written code of law for the arbitrary

caprice of a Chieftain— a change which is , in itself, an immenseadvance in civil isation . Manufactures and commerce spring up ,

no t the dumb trading or the elementary barteringof raw productswhich we k now fromHerodotus to have existed fromthe earliesttimes in Africa, nor the cowrie shells

,or gunpowder, or tobacco ,

or rum,which still serve as a chief mediumof exchange all along

the coast,but manufactures involving considerable sk ill , and a

commerce which is elaborately organ ised ;and under their influence

,and that of the more settled government which Islam

brings in its train, there have arisen those great ci ties of Negroland whose very existence

,when first they were described by

European travellers,could no t but be half discredited .

I amfar fromsaying that the religion is the sole cause of allthis comparative prosperity . I only say it i s consistent with it ,and it encourages it. Climatic conditions and various otherinfluences co - operate towards the resu lt ;but what has PaganAfrica

,even where the conditions are very simi lar

,to compare

with it ?“ A s regards the individual, i t is admitted on all hands thatIslamgives to its new Negro converts an energy , a dign ity, aself- reliance

,and a self- respect which is all too rarely found in

their Pagan or their Christian fellow -countrymen .

”1

1 Mohammedanism in A frica, by R. Bosworth Smith. (The N ineteenthCentury, December 1887, pp. 798

CHAPTER XII .

THE SPREA D OF ISLA M IN THE MA LA Y A RCH IPELA GO .

THE history of the Malay Archipelago during the last 600 yearsfurn ishes us with one Of the most interesting chapters in thestory of the spread of Islam by missionary efforts . During thewhole of this period we find evidences of a continuous activity onthe part of the Muhammadan missionaries

,in one or other at

least of the East India islands . In every instance,in the begin

n ing, their work had to be carried on withou t any patronage orassistance fromthe rulers of the country

,but solely by the force

Of persuasion,and inmany cases in the face of severe Opposition ,

especial ly on the part of the Span iards . But in spite of all difficu lties

,and with varying success , they have prosecuted their

efforts with untiring energy, perfecting {their work (more especially in the present day) wherever it has been partial orinsufficient.It is impossible to fix the precise date of the first introductionof Islaminto the Malay Archipelago . It was doubtless carriedthither by the Arab traders in the early centuries of t he Hijrah

,

long before we have any historical notices of such influencesbeing at work . This supposition is rendered the more probableby the k nowledge we have of the extensive commerce with theEast carried on by the Arabs fromvery early times . In thesecond century B .C . the trade with Ceylon was wholly in theirhands . At the beginn ing of the seventh century Of the Christianera

,the trade with China

,through Ceylon , received a great

impu lse,so that in themiddle of the eighth century Arab traders

were to be found in great numbers in Canton while fromthetenth to the fifteenth century

,until the arrival of the Portuguese ,

they were undisputedmasters Of the trade with the East .1 We1 N iemann , p . 337


may therefore conjecture with tolerable certainty that theymusthave established their commercial settlements on some of theislands of the Malay Archipelago , as they did elsewhere , at a veryearly period though no mention i smade of these islands in thework s of the Arab geographers earlier than the n inth century,1

yet in the Chinese annals,under the date 674A .D . an account is

given of an Arab chief, who fromlater notices is conjectured tohave been the head of an Arab settlement on the west coast ofSumatra.

2

Missionaries must also,however

,have come to the Malay

Archipelago fromthe south of India, judging fromcertain pecu

liarities of Muhammadan theology adopted by the islanders .Most of the Musalmans of the Archipelago belong to theShafi‘iyah sect , which is at the present day predominant on theCoromandel and Malabar coasts

,as was the case also abou t the

middle of the fourteenth century when Ibn Batt'

itah visited theseparts .3 So when we consider that the Muhammadans of theneighbouring countries belong to

'

the Hanafiyah sect , we can onlyexplain the prevalence of Shafi‘iyah teachings by assuming themto have been brought thither fromthe Malabar coast

,the ports

of which were frequented by merchants fromJ ava, as well asfrom China

,Yaman and Persia:1 From India

,too

,or from

Persia,must have come the Shi‘ism,

of which traces are stillfound in Java and Sumatra. FromIbn Batfitah we learn thatthe Muhammadan Sultan of Samudra had entered into friendlyrelations with the court of Dehli

,and among the learned doctors

of the law whom this devou t prince especially favoured,there

were two Of Persian origin , the one coming fromShiraz and theother fromIspahan .

5 But long before this time merchants fromthe Deccan

,through whose hands passed the trade between the

Mussalrnan states of India and the Malay Archipelago , had established themselves in large numbers in the trading ports of theseislands

,where they sowed the seed of the new religion .

6

It is to the proselytising efforts of these Arab and Indian

1 Reinaud : Géographie d’A boul féda. Tome i . p . cccxxxix .

2 Groeneveldt, pp. 14, 1 5 .

3 Ibn Batfitah. Tome iv. pp . 66, 80.

4 Veth vo l. i i . p. 18 5 .

Ibn Batiitah. Tome iv. p. 89 .

5 Ibn Batiitah. Tome iv. pp . 2 30, 2 34.

Snouck Hurgronje pp . 8 - 9 .

THE PREACHING OF ISLAM .

The nearest point of the Malay Archipelago to Arabia, whereconsequently we should expect to find the first signs of Muhammadan influence

,i s the north coast of Sumatra. According to

the Malay chron icles,Islamwas first introduced into A tjih, on the

extreme north -west promontory of the island,about themiddle o f

the twelfth century,by an Arab missionary named Shaylgh

‘Abdu - llah ‘A rif so successfu l was the propaganda he instituted

that by 1 177 the preaching of one of his disciples,Burhanu - d D in

,

had carried the k nowledge of the faith down the west coast as

far south as Priaman . There were doubtless many otherlabourers in the same field

,of whomno record has come down to

us but the name of one Johan (PJahan) Shah , has been handeddown as the traditionary founder of the Muhammadan dynasty ofA tjih : he is said to have been a stranger from the West , whocame to these shores to preach the fai th Of the PrOphet : herehe made many proselytes

,married a wife fromamong the inha

bitants of the country andwas hailed by themas their k ing, underthe half- Sansk rit

,half-Arabic title of Sri Paduk a Sultan .

1

It seems very possible that the success of this mission was

short - l ived and that the work was no t continued,s ince Marco

Polo,who spent five months on the north coast of Sumatra in

1 2 92 , speak s of all the inhabitants being idolaters, except in the

petty k ingdomof Parlak on the north - east corner of the island,

where,too

,on ly the townspeople were Muhammadans

,for this

k ingdom, you must k now , is so much frequented by the Saracenmerchants that they have converted the natives to the Law ofMahomet

,

”but the hill - peop le were all idolaters and cann ibals.

Further,o ne of the Malay chronicles says that it was Sul tan

‘A li Mughayyat Shah who reigned over A tjih from1 507 to 1 5 2 2 ,who first set the example of embracing Islam,

in which he wasfollowed by his subjects.3 But it i s no t improbable that thehonour of being the first Musl imruler of the state

,has

b

beenhere attr ibuted as an added glory to the monarch who foundedthe greatness of A tjih and began to extend i ts sway over theneighbouring country

,and that he rather effected a revival of

,

or imparted a fresh impulse to , the religious l ife of his subjectsthan gave to themtheir first k nowledge of the faith of the

1 D e Hollander, vo l. i . p . 5 8 1 . Veth p . 60.

5 Yule’s Marcc Po lo , vo l. ii. p . 2 27. Veth p . 6 1 .

SUMATRA . 2 97

Prophet. For Islamhad certainly set firmfoot in Sumatra longbefore his time.In the beginn ing of the fourteenth century, the Sharif ofMecca sent a mission to convert the people of Sumatra. The

leader of the party was a certain Shayk_ _h Isma‘il : the first

p lace on the island at which they touched , after leavingMalabar,was Pasuri (probably situated a l ittle way down the west coast),the people of which were persuaded by their preaching toembrace Islam. They then proceeded northward to Lambri andthen coasted round to the other side of the island and sailedas far down the east coast as A ru

,nearly Opposite Malacca

,and

in both of these places their efforts were crowned with a

l ik e success . At A ru they made inqu iries for Samudra,a

city on the north coast of the island which seems to have beenthe special object of theirmission ,

and found that they had passedi t . Accordingly they retraced their course to Parlak

,where

Marco Polo had found a Muhammadan commun ity a few

years before,and having gained fresh converts here also

,they

wen t on to Samudra. This city and the k ingdomof the samename had lately been founded by a certain Mara Silu

,who was

persuaded by Shayk_ _h Isma‘il to embrace Islam

,and took the

name of Mal ik u -

s Sal ih. He married the daughter of the k ing ofParlak

,by whomhe had two sons

,and in order to have a princi

pality to leave to each , he founded the Muhammadan city andk ingdomof Pasei , also on the merth coast .1 When Ibn Batfi tahvisited the island in 1 345 , he found the elder of these sons ,Mal ik u - z Zahir , reign ing at Samudra. This prince displayed all

the state of Muhammadan royalty,and his domin ions extended

for many days’ journey along the coast ;he was a zealou s andorthodox Muslim

,fond of holding d iscussions with jurisconsults

and theologians , and his court was frequented by poets andmenof learn ing. Ibn Batfitah gives us the names of two jurisconsultswho had come thither fromPersia and also of a noble who had

gone on an embassy to Delhi on behalf of the k ing— which showsthat Sumatra was already in touch with several parts of theMuhammadan world . Mal ik u -

z Zahir was also a great general ,andmade war on the heathen of the surrounding country unti lthey submitted to his rule and paid tributef’:

1 Yule’s MarcoPo lo , vo l . 11. pp . 2 37, 245 .

3 Ibn Batfitah. Tome iv. pp . 2 30- 6 .


Islamhad undoubtedly by this t ime made great progress inSumatra and after having established itself along the coast, beganto mak e its way inland. The mission of Shayk

_ h Isma‘ i l and hisparty had borne fruit abundantly, for a Chinese traveller whovisited the ? island in 141 3 , speak s of Lambri as having a popula

tion of 1000 famil ies,all of whomwere Muslims and very good

people ,”while the k ing and people Of the k ingdomof A ru were

all of the same fai th .

1 It was either about the c lose of the samecentury or in the fifteenth century

,that the religion of the

Prophet found adherents in the great k ingdomof Menangk abau ,whose territory at one time extended fromone shore to another

,

and over a great part of the island , N . and S . of theequator .2 Though its power had by this time much declined,still as an ancient stronghold of Hindu ism,

i t presented greatobstacles in the way of the progress of the new religion .

Desp ite this fact, Islameventually took firmer root among thesubjects of this k ingdomthan among the majority of the inhabitants of the interior of the island .

3 It is very remark able thatthis themost central peop le of the island should have been morethoroughly converted than the inhabitants of so many otherdistricts that weremore accessible to foreign influences . To thepresent day, the inhabitants of the Batta country are still heathen ,with some few exceptions

,e .g.

,some living on the borders of

A tjih have been converted, by their Muhammadan neighbours,‘

others dwelling in the mountains of the Rau country on theequator have lik ewise become Musalmans 5 on the east coast alsoconversions of Battas who come much in contact with Malays

,

are no t uncommon .

6 In Central Sumatra there is still a largeheathen population , though the majority Of the inhabitants areMusl ims ;but even these latter are very ignorant of their reli

gion, with the exception of a few haj i s and religious teacherseven among the peOplejofKorintji who are for themost part zealousadherents of the faith

,there are certain sections of the popula

1 Groeneveldt, p . 94.

2 A t the height of its power, it stretched from2°N . to 2

°S. on the west coast.

11d from1°N . to 2

°S. on the east coast, but in the sixteenth century it had lost

115 contro l over the east coast. (De Ho llander, vo l. 1. p .

3 Marsden, p. 343 .

4 J . H . Moor. ( A ppendix , p .

5 Marsden, p . 3 5 5 .

Godsdienstige verschnnselen en toestanden in Oost- Ind1e . (Uit de k o lonialeversl en van 1886 en Med. N ed. Zendelinggen, vo l. xxxi i . pp.

( 18885


Qur’an. They made a number of proselytes both fromamongtheir co - religion ists and the heathen popu lation , They laterdeclared a Jihad against the Battas, and in the hands of unscrupulou s and ambitious men the movement lost its original characterand degenerated into a savage and bloody war of conquest . In

1 82 1 these so - called Padris came into confl ict with the DutchGovernment and it was no t until 1 83 8 that their last strongholdwas tak en and their power brok en .

1

All the civil ised Malays of the Malay Peninsula trace theirorigin tomigrations fromSumatra, especially fromMenangk abau ,the famous k ingdommentioned above

,which is said at one time

to have been themost powerfu l 011 the island some of the chiefsof the interior states of the southern part Of the Malay Peninsulastill receive their investiture fromthis place . At what periodthese colon ies fromthe heart of Sumatra settled in the interiorOf the Pen insula

,ismatter of conj ecture

,but Singapore and the

southern extremity of the Pen insula seem to have received a

colony in themiddle Of the twelfth century,by the descendants

of which Malacca was founded about a century later.2 Fromitsadvantageou s situation in the highway of eastern commerce itsoon became a large and flourishing city

,and there is li ttle doubt

but that Islamwas introduced by the Muhammadan merchantswho settled here .

3 The Malay Chron icle of Malacca assigns theconversion of this k ingdom to the reign of a certain SultanMuhammad Shah who came to the throne in 1 276 . But the

general character Of this document mak es its trustworthiness exceedingly doubtful} in spi te of the lik elihood that the date of soimportant an event would have been exactly noted (as was donein many parts of the Archipelago) by a people who , proud of theevent

,would look upon i t as Open ing a new epoch in their

history. A Portuguese historian gives amuch later date, namely1388 , in which year, he says , a Qadi came fromArabia and havingconverted the k ing, gave himthe name of Muhammad after theProphet

,adding Shah to it.

s

In the annals of Queda,one of the northernmost of the states

1

s

N iemann . pp. 3 5 6 9 . J . H . Moor, p . 2 5 5 .

Estes de induzidos por05 MourosParseos , eGuz arates, (que all i vieramresidirpor causa do commerc io , ) de Gentios os converterama secta de Mahamed . Da

qual conversao por alli concorreremvarias nacoes, comeeou lavrar esta infernapeste pela virz inhanqa de Malaca.

”(De Barros. Dec. ii. Liv. vi. Cap . i . p .

4 Crawfurd pp. 241 2 .

5 De Barros, Dec. iv. Liv. i i . Cap . 1 .

MALAY PENINSULA . 301

of the Malay Pen insula,we have a curious account of the intro

duction of Islam into this k ingdom,about A .D . which

(divested of certainmiraculous incidents) is as follows A learnedArab

,by name Shayk

_

h ‘Abdu- llah,having come to Queda

,vis ited

the Raja and inqu ired what was the religion of the country .

“My religion , replied the Raja,“and that of all my subjects is

that which has been handed down to us by the people of Old .

We all worship idols .” “ Then has your highness never heard

of Islam,and of the Qur’an which descended fromGod to

Muhammad , and has superseded all other religions , leaving themin the possession of the devil ?” “ I pray you then, if this betrue

,

”said the Raja,

“ to instruct and enlighten us in this newfaith .

” In a transport of holy fervour at this request,Shayk

_

h‘Abdu - llah embraced the Raja and then instructed himin thecreed . Persuaded by his teaching, the Raja sent for all his jarsof spirits (to which he was much addicted), and with his ownhands emptied themon the ground . After this he had all theidols of the palace brought out the idols of gold , and silver, andclay

,and wood were all heaped up in his presence , and were all

brok en and cut to p ieces by Shayk_ I_1‘Abdu - llah with his sword

and with an axe,and the fragments consumed in the fire .

The Shayk h ask ed the Raja to assemble all his women of thefort and palace . When they all had come into the presence OftheRaja and

_the Shayk_ h , they were initiated into the doctrines ofIslam. The Shayk

_ h was mild and courteous in his demeanour,

persuasive and soft in his language , so that he gained the heartsof the inmates of the palace.The Raja soon after sent for his four aged ministers , who , onentering thehall , were surprised at seeing a Shayk

_h

,seated near

the Raja. The Raja explained to themthe object of the Shayk ’s

coming;whereupon the four chiefs expressed their readiness tofollow the example of his highness, saying, We hope that Shayk h‘Abdu - llah will instruct us also .

” The latter hearing these words,embraced the fourmin isters and said that he hoped that

,to prove

their sincerity,they would send for all the people to come to the

audience hall,bringing with themall the idols that they were

wont to worship and the idols that had been handed down by the

1 Barbosa, writing in 1 5 16 , speak s of the numerous Muhammadanmerchantsthat f1equented the port 01 Q ueda. (Ramusio . Tom. 1. p


men of former days. The request was complied with and all theidols k ept by the people were at that very time brought downand there destroyed and burn t to dust no one was sorry at thisdemolition of their false gods, all were glad to enter the pale ofIslam.

Shayk h‘Abdu - llah after this said to the fourministers

,What

is the name of your p rince ?” They replied, “His name i sPra Ong Mahawangsa.

” “ Let us change it for one in the

language of Islam,said the Shaylgh. After some consultation

,

the '

name of the Raja was changed at his request to Su ltanMuz lafu - l Shah

,because, the Shayk h, averred , it is a celebrate d

name and is found in the Q ur’an .

1

The Raja now bu il t mosques wherever the population was

considerable,and directed that to each there should be attached

forty four of the inhabitants at l east as a settled congregation , fora less number would have been few for the duties of religion . So

mosques were erected and great drums were attached to themtobe beaten to call the people to prayer on Fridays . Shaygh

‘Abdullah continued for

,

some time to instruct the people in thereligion of Islam,

they flock ed to himfromall the coasts anddistricts of Queda and its vicin ity, and were in it iated by himintoi ts forms and ceremon i es .The news of the conversion of the inhabitants of Queda byShayk h ‘Abdu - llah reached A tjih, and the Sultan of that country

and a certain Shayl_rh Naru - d D in,an Arab mi ssionary

,who had

come fromMecca, sent some book s and a letter,which ran as

follows — “ This letter is fromthe Sultan of A tjih and Nuru- d

Din to our brother the Sultan of Queda and Shayk h ‘Abdu - llah

of Yaman ,now in Queda. We have sent two religious book s , in

order that the faith of Islammay be firmly established and thepeop le fully instructed in their du ties and in the rites of thefaith .

” A letter was sent in rep ly by the 'Raja and Shayk h‘Abdu - llah

,thank ing the donors. So Shayk h ‘Abdu - llah re

doubled his efforts , and erected additional small mosques in all

the d ifferent villages for general convenience , and instructed thepeople in all the rules and Observances Of the faith .

1 The formJ ) . do es no t actual ly occur in the Q ur’i n;reference 15 probably

“ 1 0 1 6 .zmade to some such passage as xxvi . 90 : mei I,

“ A nd paradis

shall be brought near the pious.

”


preacher is always included among the number and a mosque isformally bu ilt and instituted .

1

In the North where the Malaystates border on Siam,Islamhas

exercised considerable influence on the Siamese Buddhists thosewho have here been converted are called Samsams and speak a

language that is a mixed jargon of the languages of the twopeople .

2 Converts are alsomade fromamong the wild tribes ofthe Peninsula.

3

We must now go back several centuries in order to followout the history of the conversion of Java. The preaching and

promulgation Of the doctrines of Islam in this i sland wereundoubtedly for a long time entirely the result of the laboursof individual merchants or of the leaders Of smal l colon ies

,for

in Java there was no central Muhammadan power to throwin its influence 011 the side of the new religion or enforce theaccep tance of it by warlik emeans . On the contrary

,the Muslim

missionaries came in contact with a Hindu civil isation,that had

thrust its roots deep into the l ife of the country and had raisedthe Javanese to a high level of culture and progress— expressingitselfmoreover in institutions and laws radically different to thoseOfArabia. Even up to the present day, the Muhammadan law

has failed to establish itself absolutely, even where the authorityof Islamis generally predominant , and there is still a constantstruggle between the adherents of the old Malayan usages andthe Hajis, who having made the p ilgrimage to Mecca, returnenthusiastic for a strict observance of Muslim Law . Cousequently the work of conversion must have proceeded veryslowly

,and we can say with tolerable certainty that while part

of the history of this proselytisingmovementmay be disentangledfrom legends and traditions, much of it must remain whollyunk nown to us. In the Malay Chron icle which purports to give

us an account of the first preachers of the faith,what was

undoubtedly the work Ofmany generations and must have beencarried on through many centuries , is compressed within thecompass of a few years ;and, as frequently happens in popularhistories

,a few well - k nown names gain the fame and credit

that belongs of right to.

the patient labours of their unk nownpredecessors .4 Further, the quiet , . unobtrusive labours of many

1 McNair. pp . 2 26 -9 .3 J . H . Moor, p . 242 .

3 N ewbo ld. vol. ii . pp . 106, 396 . Snouck Hurgronje p. 9 .

JAVA. 305

of these missionaries would no t be lik ely to attract the noticeof the chron icler

,whose attention wou ld naturally be fixed rather

on the doings Of k ings and princes , and of those who came inc lose relationship to them. But failing such larger k nowledge ,wemust fain be content with the facts that have been handeddown to us.

In the following pages , therefore , i t is proposed to give a briefsk etch of the establishmen t of the Muhammadan religion in thisisland

,as presented in the native chron icle

,which

,though full of

contradiction s and fables,has undoubtedly a historical foundation ,

as is attested by the inscriptions on the tombs of the chiefpersonagesmen tioned and the remains of ancient c ities

,etc . The

following account therefore may, in the want of any otherauthorities

,be accepted as substantially correct , with the caution

above mentioned against ascribing too much eflicacy to theproselytising efforts of individuals .The first attempt to' introduce Islaminto Java wasmade by a

native of the island about the close of the twelfth century . The

first k ing of Pajajaran , a state in the western part of the island ,left two sons of these

,the elder chose to follow the profession of

a merchant and undertook a trading expedition to India, leavingthe k ingdomto his younger brother,who succeeded to the thronein the year 1 1 90 with the title of Prabu Munding Sari . In thecourse of his wanderings, the elder brother fell in with some Arabmerchants

,and was by themconverted to Islam,

tak ingthe nameOfHaji Purwa.

On his return to his native country, he tried with the help ofanArabmissionary to convert his brother and the royal family to hisnew faith‘

;but , his efforts proving unsuccessful,he fled into the

jungle for fear Of the k ing and his unbelieving subjects, and wehear no more of him.

1

In'

the latter half of the fourteenth century,amissionarymove

ment,which was attended with greater success, was instituted by

a certain MawlanaMalik Ibrah im,who landed on the east coast of

Java with some of his co - religion ists, and established himself nearthe town of Gresik

,opposite the island of Madura. He is said to

have traced his descent to Zaynu - l ‘ A bidin , a great -grandson of

1 Veth (31. vol. i i . p . 143 .

Raffles (ed . of vo l . 11. pp . 103 , 104, 183 .


the Prophet,and to have been cousin of the Raja of Chermen.

1

Here he occupied himself successfu lly in the work of conversion,

and speedily gathered a small band of believers around him.

Later on,he was joined by his cousin

,the Raja of Chermen

,who

came in the hope of converting the Raja of the Hindu Kingdomof Majapahit , and of forming an all iance with himby Offering hisdaughter in marriage . On his arrival he sent his son to Majapahitto arrange an in terview ,

while he busied himself in the bu ildingofamosque and the conversion of the inhabitants . A meeting ofthe two princes took place accordingly, but before the favourableimpression then produced cou ld be followed up , a sick ness brok eout among the people of the Raja of Chermen, which carried off

his daughter , three of his nephews who had accompanied him,

and a great part of his retinue whereupon he himself returnedto his own k ingdom. Thesemisfortunes prejudiced the mind ofthe Raja OfMajapahit against the new faith , which he said shouldhave better protected its votariesrand the mission accordinglyfailed. Mawlana Ibrahimhowever remained behind

,in charge of

the tombs 2 of his k insfolk and co - religionists, and himself diedtwenty- one years later

,in 141 9 , and was buried at Gresik , where

his tomb is still venerated as that of the first apostle of IslamtoJava.

A Chinese Musalman,who accompanied the envoy of the

Emperor of China to Java in the capacity of interpreter, six yearsbefore the death of Mawlana Ibrahim

,i.e . in 141 3 ,mentions the

presence of his co - religion ists in this island in his GeneralAccount of the Shores Of the Ocean

,

”where he says,

“ In thiscountry there are three k inds of people . First the Muhammadans

,

who have come from the west , and have established themselveshere their dress and food is clean and proper second

,the

Chinese who have run away and settled here what they eat anduse is also very fine , andmany of themhave adopted the Muhammadan religion and observe its precepts. The third k ind are thenatives

,who are very ugly and uncouth

,they go about with nu

combed heads and nak ed feet,and bel ieve devoutly in devils

,

1 The situation of Chermen is not k nown. Veth 3) vo l. 11. p. 184, conjecturesthat itmayhave been in India.

2 A description of the present condition of these tombs, on one of whichtraces of an inscription in A rabic characters are stil l visible, is given by

J . F. G Brumund, p . 185 .


ated by the Javanese as the chief apostle Of Islamto thei rcountry.

1

When he reached the age of twenty, his parents sent himwithletters and presents to his uncle , the King of Majapahit . On his

way, he stayed for two months at Palembang, as the guest ofDamar

,whomhe almost persuaded to become a Musalman

,on ly

he dared no t openly profess it for fear of the peop le who were

SO strongly attached to their ancient superstitions. Continu inghis j ourney Raden Rahmat came to Gresik

,where an Arab

missionary, Shayk hMawlana Jamada- l Kubra,hailed himas the

promised Apostle of Islamto East Java, and foretold that the fallof pagan ismwas at hand , and that his labours would be crowned bythe conversion ofmany to the faith . At Majapahit he was very

k indly received by the King and the princess of Champa.

Although the King was unwilling himself to become a convert toIslam

,yet he conceived such an attachment and respect for

Raden Rahmat,that hemade himgovernor over 3000 families atAmpel

,on the east coast , a l ittle south of Gresik , allowed him

the free exercise Of his religion and gave himpermission tomak econverts . Here after some time he gained overmost of thoseplaced under him

,to Islam.

Ampel was now the chief seat of Islamin Java, and the fameof the ruler who was so zealously work ing for the propagation ofhis religion ,

spread far and wide . Hereupon a certain Mawlana

Ishaq came to Ampel to assist himin the work of conversion ,and was assigned the task of spreading the faith in the k ingdom

1 This genealogical table wi l lmak e clear these relationships, as well as othersreferred to later in the text

KING OF CHA MPA .

la daughter a daughter A rabmissionary.

namedA concubine= A ngk aWijaya, =Darawati

King ofMajapahit.

A ria Damar.Raden Rahmat.

Raden Husayn.

a daughter Raden

Pak u.

Raden atah a daughter.

JAVA. 309

of Balambangan , in the extreme eastern extremity .Of the island.

Here he cured the daughter of the King, who was grievously sick ,and the gratefu l father gave her to him in marriage . Sheardently embraced the faith of Islamand her father allowed himself to receive instruction in the same

,but when the Mawlana

urged himto openly profess it , as he had promised to do , if hisdaughter were cured , he drove himfromhis k ingdom,

and gaveorders that the child that was soon to be born of his daughter,should be k illed . But the mother secretly sent the infan t awayto Gresik to a rich Muhammadan widow 1 who brought . himup

with all amother’s care and educated himuntil he was twelveyears Old

,when she entrusted himto Raden Rahmat . He

,after

learning the history of the child , gave himthe name of RadenPak u

,and in course of time gave him al so his daughter in

marriage . Raden Pak u afterwards bu ilt amosque at Giri,to the

south -west of Gresik,where he converted thousands to the faith

his influence became so great , that after the death of RadenRahmat , the King

'

of Majapahit made himgovernor of Ampeland Gresik .

2 Meanwhile several missions were instituted fromGresik . Two sons of Raden Rahmat established themse lves atdifferent parts of the north - east coast and made themselvesfamous by their religious zeal and the conversion of many of theinhabitants of those parts . Raden Rahmat also sent amissionary,by name Shayli i Khalifah Husayn ,

across to'

the neighbou ringisland of Madura

,where he bu ilt a mosque and won overmany

to the faith .

In the Western provinces,the work of conversion was being

carried on by Shaykh N firu - d Din Ibrahim,who after many

wanderings in the Archipelago , at length in 141 2 settled in

Cheribon . Here he gained a great reputation by the cure of awoman affl icted with leprosy

,and thousands came to himto be

instructed in the tenets of the new religion . At first theneighbouring chiefs tried to set themselves against themovement ,but finding that their Opposition was of no avail , they suffered

themselves to be carried along with the tide andmany of thembecame converts to the faith.

Wemust return now to Aria Damar,the governor of Palem

1 The memory of this woman is held in great honour by the Javanese, andmany come to pray byhergrave. See Brumund, p. 186 .

2 Veth vo l. i i. pp. 188 - 190.

3 10 THE PREACHING OE ISLAM .

bang. (See p . He appears to have brought up his children

in the religion which he himself feared openly to profess , and henow sent Raden Patah,when he had reached the age of twenty ,together with his foster brother, Raden Husayn , who was twoyears younger, to Java, where they landed at Gresik . Raden

Patah, aware of his extraction and enraged at the cruel treatment

hismother had received,refused to accompany his foster brother

to Majapahit , but stayed with Raden Rahmat at Ampel whileRaden Husayn went on to the capital ,where he was well received

and placed in charge of a d istrict and afterwardsmade general ofthe army.

Meanwhile Raden Patah married a granddaughter of RadenRahmat

,and formed an establishment in a place of great natural

strength called Bintara,in the centre of amarshy country

,to the

west of Gresik . As soon as the King of Majapahit heard of thisnew settlement

,he sen t Raden Husayn to his brother with

orders to destroy it un less its founder would come to the capitaland pay homage . This RadenHusayn prevailed upon himto do ,and he wen t to the court

,where his lik eness to the k ing was at

once recogn i sed , and where he was k indly received and formal lyappointed governor of Bintara. Stil l burn ing for revenge andbent on the destruction of his father’s k ingdom,

he returned toAmpel where he revealed his plans to Raden Rahmat . Thelatter endeavoured to moderate his anger, reminding himthat hehad never received anything but k indness at the hands of thek ing of Majapahit

,his father

,and that while the prince was so

just and so beloved,his religion forbade himto mak e war upon

or in anyway to injure him. However,unpersuaded by these

exhortations (as the sequel shows), Raden Patah returned toBintara

,which was now dai ly increasing in importance and

population,while great numbers of people in the surrounding

country were being converted to Islam. He had formed a planof building a greatmosque , but shortly after the work had beencommenced

,news arrived of the severe illness of Raden Rahmat .

He hastened to Ampel,where he found the chief missionaries

of Islam, gathered round the bed of him they look ed upon

as their leader. Among themwere the two sons of RadenRahmat mentioned above (p . Raden Pak u of Giri

,and five

others . A few days afterwards Raden Rahmat breathed his last,

and the only remaining obstacle to Raden Fatah’s revengeful


over those whom he converted to Islam, solely by the gentle

means of persuasion , and no t by the sword.

1 He afterwards

went with his father on a pilgrimage to Mecca, and on his return

assisted Raden Patah in his attack o n Majapahit .

B ut the p rogress of Islamin the West of Java seems to havebeen much slower than in the East ;a long struggle ensuedbetween the worshippers of Siva and the followers of theProphet , and i t was no t probably until the middle of the next

century that the Hindu k ingdomof Pajajaran ,which in one period

of the history of Java seems to have exercised suzerainty overthe princedoms in the western part of the island, came to an end

,2

while other smaller heathen commun ities survived to a muchlater period

,

3— some even to the present day. The history ofone of these- the so - cal led Baduwis— is of especial interest theyare the descendants of the adherents of the old religion ,

whoafter the fall of Pajajaran fled into the woods and the recesses ofthemountains

,Where theymight uninterruptedly carry out the

Observances of their ancestral faith . In later times when theysubmitted to the rule of the Musalman Su ltan of Banten

,they

were allowed to continue in the exerc ise of their religion ,on

condition that no increase should be allowed in the numbers ofthose who professed this idolatrous faith 4;and strange to say,they stil l observe this customalthough the Dutch rule has beenso long established in Java, and sets themfree fromthe necessityof obedience to this anc ient agreement. They strictly limit theirnumber to forty households , and when the commun ity increasesbeyond this limit

,one fami ly or more has to leave this inner

circle and settle among the Muhammadan population in one ofthe surrounding villages .

6

But, t hough the work of conversion in the West of Java pro

ceeded more slowly than in the other parts of the island,yet

,

owing largely to the fact that Hinduismhad not tak en such deeproot among the people here , as in the centre of the island , thevictory of Islamover the heathen worship which it supplantedwas more complete than in the districts which came more immediately under the rule of the Rajas of Majapahit . The

Raffles, vo l . 11. p. 3 16 .

2 Veth vol. 11. pp. 2 5 7, 270.

3 A traveller in Java in 1 5 96mentions two or three heathen k ingdoms with a

large heathen population. N iemann, p. 342 .

Raffles, vo l. i i . p . 1 32-

3 .

5 Metzger, p. 279 .

JAVA. 3 13

Muhammadan law is here a l iving force and the c ivil isationbrought into the country fromArabia has interwoven itself withthe government and the l ife of the people ;and i t has beenremark ed that at the present day, the Muhammadans of WestJava, who study their religion at all or have performed thepilgrimage to Mecca, formas a rule the most intelligent and

prosperous part of the popu lation .

1

We have already seen that large sect ions of the Javanese t e

mained heathen for centuries after the establishment ofMuhammadan k ingdoms in the island ;at the present day the wholepopulation of Java, with some trifl ing exceptions , is whollyMuhammadan

,and thoughmany superstitions and customs have

survived among themfromthe days of their pagan ancestors,still

the tendency is continual ly in the direction of the gu idance ofthought and conduct in accordance with the teaching of Islam.

This long work of conversion has proceeded peacefully and gradu

ally,and the growth of Muslimstates in this island belongs rather

to its political than to its religiou s history , since the progress ofthe rel igion has been achieved by the work rather ofmissionariesthan of princes .While the Musalmans of Java were plotting against the HinduGovernment and tak ing the rule of the country into their own

hands by .force,

-a revolution of a wholly peacefu l character wasbeing carried on in other parts of the Archipelago through thepreaching of the Musl immissionaries who were slowly but surelyachieving success in their proselytising efforts . Let us first turnour attention to the history of this propagandistmovement in theMolucca islands .The trade in clovesmust have brought the Moluccas into con M

tact with the islanders of the western half of the Archipelagofromvery early times, and the converted Javanese and otherMalays who came into these islands to trade

,spread their faith

among the inhabitants of the coast .2 The compan ions ofMagellanbrought back a curious story of the way in which thesemen introduced their religious doctrines among the Muluccans.

“Thek ings of these islands

3 a few years before the arrival of the

1 L. W . C. van den Berg pp. 3 5 6 . C. Poensen, pp. 3 - 8 .

2 De Barros, Dec. i i i . Liv. v. Cap. v. pp. 5 79 -

5 80. A rgenso la, p . 1 1 B.

3 A t this period, the Mo luccas were for the most part under the rule of fourprinces, viz . those of Ternate, Tidor, Gilo lo and Batjan. The first was by far


Span iards began to believe in the immortali ty of the soul , ihduced by no other argumen t but that they had seen a very beaut iful l ittle bird

,that never settled on the earth nor on anything

that was of the earth , and the Mahometans, who traded as

merchants in those islands,told themthat this l ittle bird was born

in paradise,and that paradise is the place where rest the souls of

those that are dead . A nd for this reason these seignors joinedthe sect of Mahomet

,becau se it promisesmany marvellous things

of this place of the souls .”1

Islamseems first to have begun to mak e progress here in thefifteenth century . A heathen k ing of Tidor yielded to the persuasions of an Arab

,named Shayk h Mansur, and embraced Islam

together withmany of his subjects . The heathen name of thek ing, Tjireli Lijatu , was changed to that of Jamalu -d Din

,While

his eldest son was called Mansfirafter their Arab teacher.2 It wasthe latter prince who entertained the Span ish expedition thatreached Tidor in 1 5 2 1 , shortly after the ill - fated death ofMagellan .

Pigafetta, the historian of this expedition , calls himRaia SultanMauz or

,and says that he was more than fifty

- five years old,and

that no t fifty years had passed since the Muhammadans came tolive in these islands .3

Islamseems to have gained a footing on the neighbouringisland of Ternate a l ittle earlier . The Portuguese who came tothis island the same year as the Span iards reached Tidor

,were in .

formed by the inhabitants that it had been introduced a littlemorethan eighty years .

4

According to the Portuguese account 5 also the Sultan ofTernate was the first of the Muluccan Chieftains who became a

the most powerful : his territory extended over Ternate and the neighbouringsmal l islands, a portion o f Halemahera, a considerab le part of Celebes, A mboynaand the Banda islands. The Sultan o f Tidor ruled over Tidor and some smallneighbouring islands, a portion of Halemahera, the islands lying between it andN ew Guinea, together w ith the west coast o f the latter and a part o f Ceram.

The territory of the Sultan o f Gilo lo seems to have been confined to the centralpart o fHalemahera and to a part o f the north coast of Ceram whi le the Sul tanof

1Bat

jan

suled chiefly over the Batjan and Obi groups. (De Ho llander,

vo i. 5 .

Mfssimiliano Transi lvano . (Ramusio . Torn. i . p . 3 5 1 D . )2 P. J . B . C . Robidé van der A a. p . 18 .

3 Pigafetta. Tome i . pp. 36 5 , 368 .

“ Segundo a conta que elles dam, ao tempo que os nossos descubriramaquellas l lhas, haveria pouco mais de o itenta annos, que nellas tinha entrada estapeste.

”J . de Barros : Da A sia, D ecada i i i. Liv. v . Cap . v. p . 5 80.

5 De Barros, id. ih.

3 1 6 THE PREACHING OF ISLA M .

the Malays,who compose the whole population of the smaller

islands,but inhabit the coast - lands only of the larger ones , the

interior being inhabited by Alfurs . But converts in later timeswere drawn fromamong the latter also .

l Even so early as 1 5 2 1 ,there was a Muhammadan k ing of Gilolo, a k ingdomon thewestern side of the northern l imb of the island of Hal emahera.

2

Inmodern times the existence of certain regulations , devised forthe benefit of the state - religion , has facilitated to some extent theprogress of the Muhammadan religion among the Alfurs of themainland

,e .g. if any one of themis discovered to have had illicit

intercourse with aMuhammadan girl, hemust marry her and become a Muslim any of the Alfur women who marry Muhammadansmust embrace the faith of their husbands offences againstthe lawmay be atoned for by conversion to Islam and in fillingup any vacancy thatmay happen to occur among the chiefs

,less

regard i s paid to the lawful claims of a candidate than to hisreadiness to become a Musalman .

3

Similarly,Islam in Borneo is mostly confined to the coast

,

although it had gained a footing in the island as early as the be

ginning of the sixteenth century . Abou t this time,i t was adopted

by the people of Banjarmasin, a k ingdomon the southern side,

which had been tributary to the Hindu k ingdomof Majapahit ,until its overthrow in 1478

4;they owed their conversion to one

of the Muhammadan states that rose on the ruins of the latter .5

The story is that the people of Banjarmasin ask ed for assistancetowards the suppression of a revolt, and that it was given on con

dition that they adopted the new religion whereupon a numberof Muhammadans came over fromJava, suppressed the revolt andeffected the work of conversion .

6 On the N W . coast,the

Spaniards found a Muhammadan k ing at Brunai , when theyreached this place in A little later

,1 5 50, it was introduced

into the k ingdomof Su k k adana,8 in the'

western part of the island ,by Arabs coming fromPalembang in Sumatra.

9 The reigning

T. Forrest, p . 68 .

2 Pigafetta. (Ramusio , vo l. i . p .

3 Campen, p . 346 .

4 Dulaurier, p . 5 2 8 .

5 Damak , on the north coast of Java, opposite the south of Borneo .

6 Hageman, pp. 2 36-

9 .

7 Pigafetta. (Ramusio . Tom. i . pp. 3633 This k ingdomhad been founded by a co lony fromthe H indu k ingdomof

Majapahit (De Ho l lander, vo l. i i . p . and would naturally have come under

Musl iminfluence after the conversion of the Javanese.

D o zy ( l ). p . 386.

BORNEO . 3 17

k ing refused to abandon the faith of his fathers , but during theforty years that elapsed before his death (in the new religionappears to havemade considerable progress . His successor becamea Musalman andmarried the daughter of a prince of a neighbour

ing island, in which apparently Islamhad been long established 1;during his reign , a traveller,

2 who visited the island in 1 600,speak s

of Muhammadan ismas being a common religion along the coast .The inhabitants of the interior , however, he tells us, were all

idolaters— as indeed they remain for themost part to the presentday.

The progress of Islamin the k ingdomof Suk k adana seems nowto have drawn the attention of the centre of the Muhammadanworld to this distant spot

,and in the reign of the next prince, a

certain Shayg Shamsu - d D in came fromMecca bringingwith hima present of a copy of the Qur’an and a

' large hyacinth ring,together with a letter in which this defender of the faith receivedthe honourable title of Sultan Muhammad Safiyu-d Din .

3

In the latter part of the eighteenth century one of the inlandtribes

,called the Idaans

,dwelling in the interior of N . Borneo

,

is said to have look ed upon the Muhammadans of the coast withvery great respect , as having a ' religion which they themselveshad no t yet go t .

4* Dalrymple , who obtained - his information on

the Idaans of Borneo during his visi t to Su lu from176 1 to 1764,tells us that they entertain a just regret of their own ignorance ,and amean idea of themselves on that account for

,when they

come into the houses , or vessels , of the Mahometans,they pay

themthe utmost veneration,as superior intelligences , who k now

their Creator they will not sit down where the Mahometanssleep

,nor will they put their fingers into the same chunam,

orbetel box

,but receive a portion with the u tmost humility

,and

in every instance denote , with the most abject attitudes and

gesture , the veneration they entertain for a God unk nown,in

the respect they pay to those who have a k nowledge ofHim.

”5These people appear since that time to have embraced the

1 Veth vo l . i . p. 19 32 Ol ivier de N oort (H istoire générale des voyages, vo l . xiv. p . (The

Hague. 175 63 i .e. Purity of Religion;he d ied about 1677 his father does not seemto have

tak en a Muhammadan name , at least he 15 only k nown by his heathen name of

Panembahan Giri Kusuma. (Netscher, pp . 14- 1 5 .

4 Thomas Forrest, p . 371 . Essay towards an account of Sulu, p . 5 5 7.


Muhammadan f aith,l one of the numerous instances of the

powerful impression that Islam produces upon tribes that are

low down in the scale of civil isation . Fromtime to time otheraccessions have been gained in the persons of the numerouscolonists

,Arabs

,Bugis and Malays , as well as Chinese (who have

had settlements here since the seventh century),2 and of the slavesintroduced into the island from different countries ;so that at

the present day the Muhammadans of Borneo are a verymixedrace .3 Many of these foreigners were stil l heathen when theyfirst came to Borneo, and of a higher civilisation than the Dyak swhom they conquered or drove into the interior

,where they

mostly still remain heathen , except in the western part of theisland

,in which fromtime to time small tribes of Dyak s embrace

Islam.

4

In the island of .Celebes we find a s imilar slow growth of theMuhammadan religion , tak ing its rise among the people of thecoast and slowly mak ing its way into the interior . Only themore civilised portion of the inhabitants has however adoptedIslam this ismainly d ivided into two tribes , the Macassars andtheBugis , who inhabit the south -western pen insula

,the latter

however also forming a large proportion of the coast population

on the other '

pen insulas . The interior of the island , except inthe south -western pen insula ‘where nearly all the inhabitants areMuhammadan ,

is still heathen and is populated chiefly by theAlfurs

,a race low in the scale of civil isation

,who also formthe

majority of the inhabitants of the N .,E . and SE . peninsulas ;

at the extremity of the first of these peninsulas,in Minahassa

,

they have in large numbers been converted to Christianity ;the Muhammadans did no t mak e their way hither unti l afterthe Portuguese had gained a firm footing in this part of theisland

,and the Alfurs that they converted to Roman Catho

licism were turned into Protestants by the Dutch,whose

missionaries have laboured in Minahassa with very considerablesuccess . But Islamis slowlymak ing its way among the heathentribes ofAlfurs in different parts of the island

,both in the districts

directly administered by the Dutch Government and those underthe rule of native chiefs fi

B. Panciera, p. 16 1 .

3 J . Hageman , p. 2 24.

3 Veth vol . i . p . 179 . D e Ho llander, vo l i i . p . 6 1 .

5 Med. N ed. Zendelinggen, vol. xxxh . p . 177;vo l. xxxiv. p. 170.


against the Law of Mohammed but to no Purpose the Peopleof Celebes had made their Choice

,and there was no Possibil ity

of bringing them to alter it . One of the Kings of the Island ,indeed

,who had before embraced Christianity

, persisted in theFaith

,and most of his Subjects were converted to it ;but still ,

the Bulk of the People of Celebes continued Mohammedans,and

are so to this Day, and the greatest Zealots for their Religion of

any in the Indies .”1

This event is said to have occurred in the year Thefrequent references to it in contemporary l iterature mak e it impossible to doubt the genu ineness of the story .

3 In the littleprincipal ity of Tallo

,to the north of Goa

,with which it has

always been confederated,is still to be seen the tomb of one of

themost famous missionaries to the Macassars,by name K_

hatibTungal . The prince of this state , after his conversion provedhimself a most zealous champion of the new faith

,and i t was

through his influence that it was generally adopted - by all thetribes speak ing the Macassar language . The sequel of themovement is no t of so peaceful a character . The Macassars werecarried away by their zeal for their newly - adopted faith , to mak ean attempt to force it on their neighbours the Bugis . The k ingofGoamade an offer to the k ing of Bon i to consider himin all

respects as an equal if he would worship the one true God . Thelatter consu lted his peop le on the matter, who said , “We haveno t yet fought , we have no t yet been conquered .

” They triedthe issue of a battle and were defeated. The k ing accordinglybecame aMuhammadan and began on his own account to attemptby force to impose his own belief on his subjects and on thesmaller states , his neighbours . Strange to say, the people appliedfor help to the k ingof Macassar

,who sent ambassadors to demand

fromthe k ing of Bon i an answer to the following questions ,Whether the k ing, in his persecution , was instigated by a par

1 A Compleat H istory o f the R ise and Progress of the Portugez e Empire in theEast Indies. Co l lected chiefly fromtheir own Writers. John Harris : Navigantiumatque ItinerantiumBibl io theca. (London, Vo l. i . p . 682 .

“

1 Crawfurd p . 9 1 .

3 Fernandez N avarette, a Spanish priest, who went to the Phi l ipp ine Islandsin 1646 . (Co l lection ofVoyages and Travels, p . 2 36. London,Tavernier, who visited Macassar in 1648 . (Travels in India, p . (London ,

16 8 .

ItirierariumOrientale R . P . F . Phili pi a SSma. Trinitate CarmelitaeD iscalceati ah ipso conscriptum, p . 267. .ugduni,

CELEBES . 3 2 1

ticular revelation from the Prophet —or whether he paidobedience to some ancient custom -or foll owed his own personalpleasure ? If. for the first reason

,the k ing of Goa requested

informat ion ;if for the second , - he wou ld lend his . cordial co

operation ;if for the third , the . k ing .of Bon i must desist,for

those whomhe presumed to oppress were the friends ofGoa.

The k ing o f Bon i made. no reply and the Macassars havingmarched a great 'army into the coun try defeated himin threesuccessive battles

,forced himto fly the country

,and reduced

Bon i into a province . After thirty.years of subjection,the peop le

of Boni,with the assistance .of the Dutch

,revolted against the

Macassars,and assumed the - headship of the tribes of Celebes

,in

the p lace of their former masters .l The propagation of Islamcertainly seems to have been gradual and slow among the Bugis ,2but when they had once adopted ' the new religion ,

it seems tohave stirred themup to action

,as itd id the Arabs

, (though thisnewly-awak ened energy in either . case turned in rather differentdirect ions

,)— and to havemade themwhat they are now,at once

thebravestmen and themost enterprisingmerchants and navigatorsof the Archipelago .

3 In their trading vessels theymak e their wayto all parts of the Archipelago , fromthe coast of New Gu inea toSingapore , and their numerous settlements , in the establishmentof which the Bugis have particularly distinguished themselves ,have in troduced Islaminto many a heathen island : e .g. one oftheir colon ies is to be found in a state that extends over a con

siderable part of the south coast of Flores,where

,intermingling

with the native 1 population ,that formerly consisted partly of

Roman Catholics,they have succeeded in converting all the

inhabitants of this state to Islam.

4

In their native island of Celebes also the Bugis have combinedproselytising eflorts with their commercial enterprises

,and in the

1 Crawfurd, .vol. i i . pp . 38 5

- 9 .

2 N o extraord inary exertion seems for a long time to have been made on

behalf of the new religion. A n abhorrence o f innovation and amost pertinaciousand rel igious adherence to ancient custom, d istinguish the people o f Celebesbeyond all the other tribes of the Eastern isles and these would, at first, provethe most serious obstacles to the dissemination of Mahometanism. It was this ,probably, which deferred the adoption o f the new religion for so long a period ,

and ti ll it had recommended itself bywearing the garb of anttquity.

”Crawfurd

vo l. ii. p. 387.

3 Crawfurd p. 75 . De Ho l lander, vol. 11. p . 2 12 .

4 D e Ho llander, vol . 11. p. 666 . Riedel p . 67.


li ttle k ingdomof Bolaang-Mongondou in the northern peninsula 1

they have succeeded,in the course of the present century

,in

winning over to Islama Christian popu lation whose conversiondates fromthe end of the seventeenth century . The first Christiank ing of Bolaang-Mongondou was Jacobus Man0po ( 1 68 9in whose reign Christian ity spread rapidly, through the influenceof the Dutch East India Company and the preaching of the Dutchc lergy.

!1 His successors were all Christian unti l 1 844, when thereigning Raja

, Jacobus Manuel Manopo, embraced Islam.

'

Hisconversion was the crown of a series of proselytising efforts thathad been in progress since the beginning of the century, for i twas about this time that the zealous efforts of some Muhammadantraders— Bugis and others—won over some converts to Islaminone of the coast towns of the southern k ingdom,

Mongondoufromthis same town two trader missionaries

, Hak imBagus andImamTuwék o by name

,set out to spread their faith throughout

the rest of this k ingdom. They made a beginning with theconversion of some slaves and native women whomtheymarried ,and these little by little persuaded their friends and relatives toembrace the new faith . FromMongondou Islamspread into thenorthern k ingdomBolaang here

,in 1 830, the whole population

was either Christian or heathen,with the exception of two or

three Muhammadan settlers but the zealous preachers of Islam,

the Bugis , and the Arabs who assisted themin their missionarylabours

,soon achieved a wide - spread success . The Christians

,

whose k nowledge of the doctrines of their religion was veryslight and whose faith was weak

,were ill prepared with the

weapons of controversy to meet the attack s of the rival creed ;despised by the Dutch Government

,neglected and well n igh

abandoned by the authorities of the church , they began to look

on these foreigners, some of whommarried and settled amongthem

,as their friends. As the work of conversion progressed,

the visits of these Bugis and Arabs,— at first rare,— becamemore

frequent,and their influence in the country very greatly increased ,

so much so that abou t 1 83 2 an Arab married a daughter of the

k ing, Cornelis Man0po , who was himself a Christian : many of

1 To the east ofMinahassa, between long. 124°

45'and 123

°with a po u

lation that has been variously estimated at and (De Ho llan er,

vo l . i i . p .

Wil k en pp. 42 -4.

ID


large colony here , having either crossed over the strait fromSambawa or come directly fromCelebes : at any rate the con

version appears to have tak en place in a peaceablemanner .lIn the Philipp ine Islands we find

.

a struggle between Christianity and Islamfor the allegiance of the inhabitants , somewhatsimilar in character to that in

,Celebes

,but more stern and

enduring, entangling the Span iards and the Musl ims in a fierceand bloody confl ict , even up to the present day. It is uncertain

when Islamwas first introduced into these islands,2 but the

Spaniards who discovered themin 1 5 2 1 , found the popu lation ofthe northern islands to be rude and simple pagans , whileMindanao and the Su lu Islands were occup ied bymore civil isedMuhammadan tribes .3 The latter have to this day successfullyresisted for the most part all the efforts of the Christians towardsconquest and conversion

,so that the Spanish missionaries despair

of ever effecting their conversion .

‘ The success of Islamas compared with Christian i ty has been due in a great measure to thedifferent formunder which these two faiths were presented to thenatives . The adoption of the latter implied the loss of all

political freedomand national independence,and hence came to

be regarded as a badge of slavery. Themethods adopted by theSpan iards for the propagation of their religion were calculated tomak e it unpopular fromthe beginn ing;their violence and in

tolerance were in strong contrast to the conciliatory behaviour ofthe Muhammadan mi ssionaries

,who learned the language of

the people , adopted their customs , intermarried with them,and,

melting into the mass of the people , neither arrogated to themselves the exclusive rights of a privileged race nor condemnedthe natives to the level of a degraded caste . The Spaniards

,on

the other hand,were ignorant of the , language , habits and

manners of the natives ;their intemperance and above all theiravarice and rapacity brought their religion into odium while its

1 Zo l l inger p. 5 27.

9 Captain Thomas Forrest, writing in 1775 . says that A rabs came to the islando fM indanao 300 years before and that the tomb of the first A rab , a Sharif fromMecca. was stil l shown a rude heap of coral roc k stones,”pp. 20 1 , 3 13 .

3 Relatione d i Ivan Gaetan del d iscoprimento del l’Iso le Mo lucche . (Ramusio .

Tom. i . p . 375 E.)“ Se muestran tan obs'inado s a la gracia de D ios y tan aferrados a sus

creencias, que es casi moralmente imposible su conversion al cristiamsmo .

”

Cartas de los PP. de la Compania de Jesus de la M ission de Filipinas, 1879 .quoted byMontero y Vidal. Tom. 1. p. 2 1.

PHILIPPINE;A ND SULU ISLANDS . 3 2 5

propagation was intended to serve as an instrument of theirpolitical advancement .1 It is not diffi cult therefore to understandthe opposition offe

‘ red by,the natives to the introduction

“ofChristian ity

,which indeed onlygbecame the religion of the

'

peoplein those parts in zwhich the inhabitants were weak enough , or theisland . small enough , to enable the Spaniards to effect a totalsubjugation the native Christians

,after their conversion had to

be forced to performtheir religious duties t hrough fear of punishment

,and were treated exactly lik e school - children .

2 To this day,the independent Muhammadan k ingdomof Mindanao is a refugefor. those who wish,

to . escape fromthe hated Christian .government 3 ;the island of Sulu , also , though nominally a Spanishpossession since 1 878 , forms another centre of Muhammadanopposition to Christianity, Spanish - k nowing renegades even beingfound here 4

.We have no certain historical evidence as to how long the SU

inhabitants of the S ulu Islands had been Muhammadan,before

the arrival of the S pan iards . They have a tradition that a

merchan t named Sayyid f-A li, who came f romMecca,converted

one half of the islanders, the other half sti ll. remaining heathenhe was elected su ltan and reigned seven years . His fame was sowide - spread that his tomb became a place of pilgrimage . Duringthe reign of his great -grandson , another missionary arrived fromMecca

,and succeeded in converting almost the whole of such

part of the population as still remained heathen .

5 Though solong converted

,the people of

.Sulu are far frombeing rigid

Muhammadans, indeed, the influence o f the numerous Christianslaves that they carry off fromthe Philippines in their predatoryexcursions is so great , that it has even been asserted 6 that “ they

1 Crawfurd vol . 11. pp . 274- 280.

2 Ils sont peu so igneux de satisfaire au devo ir du Christianisme qu’ils out

recen, et il les y faut contraindre par la crainte du chastiment, et gouverner commedes enfans al’esco le.

”Relation des Isles Phi l ipp ines, Faite parun Rel igieux, p . 7.

(Theveno t , vo l .3 A Mindanao , les Tagal de l

’Est, fuyant le joug .abhorré de leurs maitres

catho l iques, se groupent chaque jour davantage . autour des chefs des dynastiesnationales. Plus de sectateurs du .coran y reconnaissent un sultan indépendant. A ux j ésuites chassés de l

'

i le, aux représentants du culte ofliciel, se sub

stitueut commemai tres rel igieux et e'

ducateurs de la. population, les missionnairesmusulmans de la Chine et de l ’Inde ,’ qui rénovent ainsi la propagande, commencéepar les invasions A rabes.

”A .

,le Chatel ier p . 45 .

4 Montero y Vidal, vol . i . p . 86.

5 J . H‘

. Moor. (A ppendix, pp . 326 Id. p . 37.

Si


wou ld long ere this have become professed Christians but fromthe prescience

,that such a change , by investing a predominating

influence in the priesthood,wou ld inevitably undermine their

own authority,and pave the way to the transfer of their dominions

to the Span ish yok e,an occurrence which fatal experience has

too forcibly inst ructed all the surrounding nations that unwarilyembrace the Christian persuasion .

” Further,the aggressive

behaviour of the Span ish priests who established a mission in

Su lu has created in themind of the people a violent antipathy tothe foreign religion .

1

As has been alreadymentioned,Islamhas beenmost favourably

received by the more civil ised races of the Malay Archipelago ,and has tak en but l ittle root among the lower races. Such are

the Papuans of New Gu inea, and the islands to the N .W . of it ,viz . Waigyu, Misool , Waigama and Salawatti. These islands ,together with

“

the 'peninsula of On in,on the N .W. of New

Gu inea, were in the sixteenth century subject to the Sultan ofBatjan

,2 one of the k ings of the Moluccas . Through the influence

of the Muhammadan rulers of Batjan,the Papuan chiefs of these

islands adopted Islam,3 and though themass of the people in the

interior have remained heathen up to the present day, theinhabitants of the coast are Muhammadans largely

'

no doubtowing to the influence of settlers fromthe Moluccas .‘ In NewGu inea itself, very few of the Papuans seem to have becomeMuhammadans. Islam was introduced into the West coast

(probably in the pen insula of On in) by Muhammadanmerchants,

who propagated their religion among the inhab itants, as early asBut i t appears to have made very l ittle progress during

1 Dalrymple, p. 549 .

_

2 The first prince of Batjanwho became a Muhammadanwas a certain Zaynul ‘A bidin, who was reigning in 1 5 2 1 when the Portuguese first came to theMo luccas.

3 Robidé van der A a. pp. 3 50, 3 5 2 -

3 .

4 Id. p . 147 (M isool ) , D e strandbewoners an allen Mahomedanen.

bergbewoners z ijn heidch en .

Id . p.

53 (Salawatti), Een k lein deel der bevolk ing van het ei land belijdt de

leer van ahamed. Het grootste deel bestaat echter uit Papoesche heidenene inige to t het Mahomedaansche geloof z ijn overgegangen, althans den schijndaarvan aannemen.

”Id . p . 2 90 (Waigeoe) .Some of the Papuans of the island o fGebi , between Waigyu and Halemahera.

ha

)ve been converted by the Muhammadan settlers fromthe Mo luccas. Crawfuid

I .P I435 Robide van der A a. p . 3 5 2 .


untried to win converts,sometimes enforc ing their arguments by

threats and violence,and at other times by bribes as a rule new

converts are said to get 200 florins’worth of presents, While chiefs

receive asmuch as a thousand florins.

1

The above sk etch of the spread of Islamfromwest to eastthrough the Malay Archipelago comprises but a small part ofthe history of the missionary work of Islamin these islands.

Many of the facts of this history are wholly unrecorded, and whatcan be gleaned fromnative chron icles and the work s of European

travellers,offi cials and missionaries is necessarily fragmentary

and incomplete . But there is evidence enough to show theexistence of peacefulmissionary efforts to spread the faith of Islamduring the last six hundred years : sometimes indeed the swordhas been drawn in support of the cause of religion , but preachingand persuasion rather than force and violence have been themaincharacterist ics of this missionary movement. The marvelloussuccess that has been achieved has been largely the work oftraders

,who won their way to the hearts of the natives, by learn

ing their language , adopting their manners and customs, and

began quIetly and gradually to spread the- k nowledge of their

religion by first converting the native women theymarried and

the persons associated with themin their business relations.

Instead of holding themselves apart in proud isolation , they

gradually melted into the mass of the population , - employingall their superiority of intelligence and c ivil isation for the work ofconversion andmak ing such sk ilful compromises in the doctrinesand practices of their faith as were needed to recommend it to thepeople they wished to attract ? In fact

,as Buck le said of them,

The Mahometanmissionaries are very judicious.”3Beside the traders

,there have been “

numbers of what may becalled professional missionaries— theologians,preachers , jurisconsults and pilgrims . The latter have

,in recent years , been

especially active in the work of proselytising, in stirring up a

more vigorous and consistent religious l ife among their fellowcountrymen, and in purging away the lingering remains of heathenhab its and beliefs . The number of Malays who mak e the pil

1 G. W. W. C . Baron von Hoevell , p . 120.

9 Crawfurd pp . 275 . 307.3 Buck le’s Miscel laneous and Posthumous Work s, edi ted by Helen Taylor,

vo l . 1. p . 5 94. (London,

THE MUSLIM PROPAGANDISTS . 3 2 9

grimage to Me cca fromall parts of the Archipelago ,is yearly onthe increase

,and there is in 'consequence a proportionate growth

of Muhammadan , influence and Muhammadan thought . Up tothe -middle of the present century the Dutch Government triedto put obstacles in the way of the pilgrims and passed an orderthat no one should be allowed to mak e the pilgrimage to the holyc ity without a passport , ,

for which he had to pay 1 10 florins and

any one who evaded this o rder was on his return compelled topay a fine of double that amount .1 Accordingly it is not surprisingto find that in . 1 8 5 2 the number of pilgrims was so low as seventy,but in the same year this order was rescinded , and since then ,there has

, been a steady increase— at a ratemoreover that could

not possibly have been anticipated. For example,the number of

pilgrims that went fromJava alone , in the single year 1 874, waslarger than the whole sumof the pilgrims fromall the Dutchpossessions in the Archipelago during the six years ending 1 8 5 9 ,when the order, referred to above , had on ly recently beenabolished? .These numbers

,moreover

,Show no tendency to

decrease,asmay be seen fromthe following figures in 1 874 the

number of pilgrims fromJava was in 1 886 it had risen toshowing an increase of 40 per cent . within twelve years .

Fromother islands the rat io of increase has been even higher , e .g.

in the case of Borneo and Celebes,of 66 per cent ., and from

Sumatra of 83 per cent . , in the same number of years . Suchan increase is no doubt largely d ue to the increased facilities of

commun ication between Mecca and the Malay Archipelago , but ,as a Christian missionary has observed, this by . no mean s“ diminishes the importance of the fact

,especially as the Hadj is

,

whose numbers have -

grown . so rapidly, have by no means lostin qual ity what they gained in quantity on the contrary

,there

are now amongst themmanymore thoroughly acquainted withthe doctrines of Islam,

andWholly imbued with Moslemfanaticismand hatred against the unbelievers

,than there formerly were .”3

The reports of the Dutch Government and of Christian missionaries bear unan imous testimony to the influence and the

1 N iemann,pp . 406 -7.2 N amely fromJava alone in 1874as opposed t o during 18 54- 9

fromall the D utch islands.3 Report of Centenary Conference on Pro testant Missions, vo l . 1. p . 2 1 .

N iemann, p . 407.

3 30 THE PREACHING or ISLAM.

proselytising zeal of these pilgrims who return to their homes asat once reformers and missionaries.1 Beside the pilgrims whocontent themselves with merely visiting the sacred places and

performing the due ceremon ies , and those who mak e a longerstay in order to complete their theological studies, there is a largecolony of Malays in Mecca at the present time

,who have tak en

up their residence permanently in the sacred c ity. These are in

constant communication with their fellow - countrymen in theirnative land

,and their efforts have been largely effectual in purging

Muhammadanismin the Malay Archipelago fromthe contamination of heathen customs andmodes of thought that have survivedfroman earlier period . A large number of religious book s is alsoprinted in Mecca in the various languages spok en by the MalayMuhammadans and carried to all parts of the Archipelago . IndeedMecca has been well said to have more influence on the religiousl ife of these islands than on Turk ey

,India or Buk hara?

This recent growth of religious zeal has further resulted in a

rapid increase in the number of Muhammadan schools,which

constitute powerful adjuncts to the proselytising efforts of theMuhammadan missionaries. In 1 882 there were in Javaof such schools

,in which students received instruction in

the faith and practice of Islam but the three following yearsbrought abou t an increase of not less than 3 3 per cent. , for in1 88 5 there were schools with asmany as students 3

In certain cases the fame of some particular teacher attracts toone place an unusually large number of students, one school beingmentioned where the lectures of a learned Arab were attended atone time by asmany as 1 50 students.4As might be anticipated froma consideration of these facts

,

there has been of recent years a verygreat awak ening ofmissionaryactivity in the Malay Archipelago , and the returned pilgrims ,whether merchants or religious teachers , become preachersof Islam ver they come in contact with aheathen population .

The reli orders moreover have extended their organisationto the Malay Archipelago ,

15 even the youngest of them— the

1 Med. Ned. Zendeling en, vo ls. xxxu. xxxiv. passim.

2 Snouck Hurgronje vol . i i . pp. xv., 339-

393 .

3 Report o f Cent nary Conference on Pro testant M issions, vo l. 1. p . 2 1 .‘1 L. W. C . van d en Berg, pp. 2 2 , 27.

e .g. the Q adari ah, Naqshibandiyah and Sammziniyah (C. Snouck Hur

gronje (2 ), pp. (Id . (3) vol . i i . p. 372 , etc

CHAPTER X III .

CONCLUSION .

To themodern Christian world ,missionary work impliesmissionary societies , paid agents , subscriptions , reports

‘

and journals and

missionary enterprise withou t a regu larly constituted and con

tinuous organ isat ion seems a -misnomer. The ecclesiastical constitution of the Chri st ian church has, fromt he very beginn ing of itshistory

,made provision for the propagation of Christian t eaching

among unbelievers ;its missionaries have been in most cases,

regularly- ordained priests or monk s;the monastic orders (fromthe Benedictines downwards) and the missionary societies ofmoremodern times have devoted themselves with special and concen

trated attention to the furthering of a department of Christianwork that

,fromthe first

,has been recognised to be one of the

prime duties of the church . But in Islam the absence of anyk ind of priesthood or any ecclesiastical organ isation whatever hascaused themissionary energy of the Muslims to exhibit itself informs very different to those that appear in the history of Christianmissions : there are no missionary societies, no special ly trainedagents , very little continu ity of eflort . The on ly exception

appears to be found in the religious orders of Islam, whose organ isation resembles to some extent that of the monastic orders ofChristendom. But even here the absence of the priestly ideal, of

any theory of the separateness of the religious teacher fromthecommon body of believers or of the necessity of a special consecration and authorisation for the performance of religiousfunctions ,mak es the fundamental difference in the two systemsstand out as c learly as elsewhere .Whatever disadvantages may be entailed by this want of apriestly class , specially set apart for the work of propagating thefaith

,are compensated for by the consequent feeling of responsi

MUSLIM MISSIONARIES . 3 3 3

bility resting on the individual believer. There being no intermed iary . between the.Muslimand hiS 'GOd

,the re sponsibil ity of

h is personal salvation rests up'

onh imself alone con sequently hebecomes as a rulemuchmore strict and careful in the performance of his religious

“

dut ies,he tak esmore trouble to learn the

doctrines and obser-vances of his faith,and thus becoming deeply

impressed with the importance of themto himself, is more lik elyto become an exponent of the ml ssmnary charac ter of his creedin the presence of the unbeliever; The wou ld - be proselytiser has

net to refer his convert to some authorised religious :teacher ofhis creed whomay formally receive the neophyte in to the body ofthe church , nor need be dread ecclesiastical censure for committing the sin of Korah . Accordingly , however great an

exaggeration i tmay be to say, as has been said' so often

,1 that

every Muhammadan i s a missionary,still it is true that every

Muhammadanmay be one,and few tru ly devou t Muslims , l iving

in daily contact with unbelievers,neglect the precep t of their

Prophet Summon themto the: wayof thy Lord with wisdomand with k indly warn ing.

”2 Thus it is that,side by side with the

professional propagandists,— the religious teachers who have devoted all their time and energies to missionary work , —the annalsof the propagation of the Muslimfaith contain the record ofmenand women of all rank s of society from the sovereign to . thepeasant

,and of all trades and profession s

,who have laboured for

'

the spread of their fai th,

- the Muslimtrader, unlik e his Christianbrother

,showing himself especially active in such wor k . In a

l ist of Indianmi ssionaries published in the journal of a religiou sand philanthropic society of Lahore 3 we find the names of schoolmasters

,Government clerk s in the Canal and Opium Depart

ments , traders including a dealer in camel - carts,an editor of a

newspaper,a book binder and a workman in a printing establish

ment . Thesemen devote the hours of leisure left themafter thecompletion of the day’s labour

,to the preaching of their religion

in the streets and b azaars of Indian cities,seek ing to win converts

both fromamong Christians'

and Hindus,whose religious beliefs

they controvert and attack .

1 Snouck Hurgronje p . 8 . Luttk e p . 30.

Q ur’an

“

, xvi. 126 .

3 A njuman Himayat-i-Islamk amahwari risalah (Lahore ) (October,PP0 5 13


It is interesting to note that the propagation of Islamhas

no t been the work of men on ly, but that Musl imwomen havealso tak en their part in this pious task . Several of the Mongolprinces owed their conversion to the influence of a Muslimwife ,and the same was probably the case with many of the paganTurk s when they had carried their raids into Muhammadancountries . The Sant

‘

isiyahmissionaries that came to work amongthe Tam the north of Lak e Chad

,have Opened schools for

girls, and have tak en advantage of the powerful influence exer

cised by the women among these tribes (as among their neighbours

,the Berbers), in their efforts to win themover to Islam.

1

The progress of Islamin Abyssinia during the first half of thiscentury has been said to be in largemeasure due to the efforts ofMuhammadan women

,especially the wives of Christian princes

,

who had to pretend a conversion to Christian ity on the occasionof theirmarriage , but brought up their children in the tenets ofIslamand work ed

’

in every possible way for the advancement ofthat faith ? In modern China, a woman of Kashgar who hadbeen tak en prisoner and brought into the haremof the emperor ,is said to have almost induced him to embrace Islam,

but theweighty considerations of state set forth by his ministersdissuaded himfromopenly adopting this faith and he contentedhimself with showing great favour to his Muhammadan subjects ,k eepingmany of themabout his person and bu ilding a mosquefor them in his palace .3 The professed devotee

,because she

happens to be a woman ,i s not thereby debarred fromtak ing her

place with themale saint in the company of the preachers of thefaith . The legend of the holy women , descended from‘A li

,who

are said to have flown through theiair fromKarbala’to Lahore andthere by the influence of their devout lives of prayer and fastingto have won the first converts fromHinduism to Islam

,4could

hardly have originated if the influence of such holy women were athing qu ite unk nown. One of themost venerated tombs in Cairoi s that of Nafisah

,the great-granddaughter of Hasan (the

martyred son of ‘A li), whose theological learn ing excited the

1 Duveyrier, p . 17.2 Massaja, vo l . x i . pp. 1 24- 5 .

3 Sayyid Sulayman calls himJifan and says that he was the grandfather of the

present emperor Hienfung 1850- 6 1 ) is probably the emperor referred to .

Thamari tu- l Funt‘

in. 17th, Shawwal , 13 1 1 . (Bayri'

it,

Q hulamSarwar g az inatu- l A sfiya, vo l. i i . p. 407- 8 .


the reign’

of the Emperor Jahangir ( 1 605 - 1 62 8) there was a certain 'Sunni theologian, named Shayk

_h;Ahmad Mujaddid, who

especially distinguished himself by the energy with which hecontroverted the doctrines of ' the Shi‘ahs : the latter

,being at

this time in favour at court , succeeded in having himimprisonedon some frivolous charge

'

during the two'years that he was

k ept in prison he converted to Islamseveral hundred idolaterswho were his companions in" the same prison .

l In more recentt imes

,an Indian mawlawi

,w ho had been sentenced to trans

portation for life 1 to- the Andaman Islands by the British

Government because he had'

tak en an active part in the Wahhabiconsp iracy of 1 864, converted many of the convicts before hisdeath .

Such being the missionary zeal of the Muslimthat he is readyto speak in season and out .of season

,let us now consider some of

the cau ses that have contributed to :his success .Foremost among these is the simplicity of the Muslimcreed

,

There is no God but .God,and Muhammad is the Prophet of

God. Assent to these two simple doctrines is all that is demanded o f the convert

,and the whole h istory of Muslimdogmatics

fails to presen t anyattempt on the part of ecclesiastical assembliesto force on the

'

mass of believers any symbol couched in moreelaborate and complex terms. Thi s simple creed demands no

great trial of faith , arouses as a ru le no particular intellectual

difficulties and i s within the compass of themeanest intelligence .

Unencumbered with theological subtleties , it may be expoundedby any, even the most unversed in theological expression . Thefirst hal f of it enunciates a doctrine that is almost un iversallyaccepted bymen as a necessary postu late

,while the second half

i s based on a theory ofman’s relationship to God that is almo stequally wide - spread

,viz . that at intervals in the world’s history

God grants some revelation of Himself tomen through themouth

and instructing themin the tenets of this rel igion,made converts of themall . A n

A rab geographer who happened tomeet a party o f these Bashk irs that had cometo study the Muhammadan law in A leppo (about 1 2 20 learned fromtheirl ips this tradition o f their conversion. and has recorded several interesting detai lsregarding this l ittle co n pany o f the faithful iso lated in the midst o f the countriesof the unbel ievers. Islamk ept its ground among the Bashk irs o f Hungary unti l1 340, when King Charles Robert compelled all his subjects that were not yet

Chri stians to embrace the Christian faith or quit the country.

' Géographie d’A boulféda, traduite parM . Reinaud . Tome 11. pp. 294- 5 .

1 Q hulémSarwar : Khaz inatu- l A sfiya, vo l. 1. p. 6 13 .

RATIONALISM OF ISLAM . 3 37

p iece of insp ired prophets . This , the rationalistic character ofthe Muslim creed

,and the advantage it reaps therefromin

i ts missionary efforts,have nowhere been more admirably

brought out than in the following sentences of ProfessorMontet

“ Islamis a religion that is essentially rational is tic in the widestsense of this term considered etymologically and historically .

The definition of rationalismas a system that bases religiou sbeliefs on p rinciples furn ished by the reason , app lies to it exactly .

It is true that Muhammad,who was an enthusiast and possessed

too the ardour of faith and the fire of conviction,that precious

quality he transmitted to so many of his disciples ,— broughtforward his reformas a revelation but this k ind of revelation isOnly one formof exposition and his religion has al l the mark s ofa bundle of doctrines founded on the data of reason . To believers

,

the Muhammadan creed is summed up in belief in the un ity ofGod and in the mission of His Prophet

,and to ourselves who

coldly analyse his doctrines,to belief in God and a future life ;

these two dogmas , theminimumof religious belief, statementsthat to the religiou sman rest on the firmbasis of reason ,

sumup

the whole doctrinal teaching of the Qur’an . The simplic ity and

the clearness of this teaching are certainly among the mostobviou s forces at work in the religion and themissionary activityof Islam. It cannot be den ied that many doctrines and systemsof theology and also many superstitions, from the worship ofsaints to the use of rosaries and amu lets

,have become grafted on

to themain trunk of the Muslimcreed . But in spite of the richdevelopment

,in every sense of the term

,of the teachings of the

Prophet,the Qur’an has invariably k ep t its place as the funda

mental starting-

point , and the dogma of the un ity of God hasalways been proclaimed therein with a grandeur , a majesty, aninvariable purity and with a note of sure conviction ,

which it ishard to find surpassed outside the pale of Islam. This fidelity tothe fundamental dogma of the religion , the elemental simplicityof the formu la in which it is enunciated

,the proof that it gains

fromthe fervid conviction of the missionaries who propagate it ,are so many causes to explain the success of Muhammadanmissionary efforts . A creed so precise

,so stripped of all theo

logical comp lexities and consequently so accessible to the ordinaryunderstanding, might be expected to possess and does indeed

Z


possess amarvellous power of winning i ts way into the consciencesofmen .

”1When the convert has accepted and learned this simple creed

,

he has then to be instructed in the five practical duties of hisreligion : (1 ) recital of the creed,

“

(2 ) observance of the fiveappointed times of prayer, (3) payment of the legal alms, (4)fasting during the month of Ramadan , and (5 ) the pilgrimage toMecca.

The observance of this last duty has often been objected to as astrange survival of idolatry in themidst of themonotheismof theProphet’s teaching, but itmust be borne inmind that to himitconnected itself with Abraham

,whose religion it was his mission

to restore ? But above all— and herein is its supreme importancein themissionary history of Islam— it ordains a yearly gatheringof believers

,of all nations and languages, brought together from

all parts of the world,to pray in that sacred p lace towards

which their faces are set in every hour of private worshipin their d istant homes . No fetch of religious genius cou ldhave conceived a better expedient for impressing on theminds of the faithful a sense of their common l ife and of theirbrotherhood in the bonds of faith . Here

,in a supreme act of

common worship the Negro of the West coast of Africa meetsthe Chinaman fromthe d istant East ;the courtly and polishedOttoman recognises his brother Muslimin the wild islander fromthe farthest end of the Malayan Sea. At the same time throughoutthe whole Muhammadan world the hearts of believers are l iftedup In sympathy with their more fortunate brethren gatheredtogether in the sacred c i ty, as in their own homes they celebratethe fest ival of Idu - l Adha or (as it i s called in Turk ey and Egypt)the feast of Bayram. Their visi t to the sacred city has been tomany Musl ims the experience that has stirred themup to

‘ strivein the path ofGod

,

’and in the preceding pages constant r

'

eferencehas beenmade to the active part tak en by the haj is inmissionarywork .

Besides the institution of the pilgrimage , the payment of thelegal alms is another du ty that continually reminds the Muslimthat the faithful are brothers 8

-a religious theory that is very

1 Edouard Montet : La propagande chrétienne et ses adversaires musulmans, .

pp. 17- 18 . (Paris,2 Qur’an, i i . 1 18 - 126 . Qur’an

,xlix . 10.


the believer,and thus becoming inextricably interwoven with the

routine of his daily life,mak e the individual Musalman an expo

nent and teacher of his creed far more than i s the case with theadherents ofmost other religions . Couched in such short andsimple language , his creed mak es but l ittle demand upon theintellect

,and the definiteness, positiveness , and minuteness of the

ritual leave the believer in no doubt as to what he has to do,and

these duties performed, he has the satisfaction of feeling that hehas fulfilled all the precepts of the Law . In this un ion . of

rational ism and ritualism,we may find

,to a great extent , the

secret of the power that Islam has exercised over the mindsof men .

“ If you wou ld win the great masses give them thetruth in rounded form

,neat and clear

,in visible and tangible

gui se .”1

Many other circumstances might be adduced that have con

t ributed towards the missionary success of Islam— circumstancespecu liar to particular times and countries . Among thesemay bementioned the advantage that Muhammadan missionary workderives fromthe fact of its being so largely in the hands of traders ,especially in Africa and other unc ivil ised countries where the

people are naturally suspicious of the foreigner . For, in the caseof the trader

,his well - k nown and harmless avocation secures to

himan immunity fromany such feelings of suspicion , while hisk nowledge ofmen andmanners

,his commercial savoir - faire

, gainfor hima ready reception

,and remove that feeling of constraint

whichmight naturally arise in the presence of the stranger. Helabours under no such disadvantages as hamper the p rofessedmissionary

,who is l iable to be suspected of some sinistermotive ,

no t on ly by people whose range of experience and mentalhorizon are l imited and to whomthe idea of anyman enduringthe perils of a long journey and laying aside every mundaneoccupation for the sole purpose of gain ing p roselytes, isinexplicable

,but also by more civil ised men of the world

who are very prone to doubt the sincerity of the paid missionaryagent .The circumstances are very d ifferen t when Islamhas no t to

appear as a supplian t in a foreign country, but stands forthproudly as the religion of the rul ing race . In the preceding

1 A . Kuenen : National Rel igions and Universal Religions, p . 35 . (London,

TOLERATION OF ISLAM . 341

pages it has been shown that the theory of the Muslim faithenjoins toleration and freedom of religious life for all thosefollowers of other faiths that pay tribute in return for protection ,and though the pages of Muhammadan history are stained withthe blood of many cruel persecutions , still , on the whole

,um

believers have enjoyed under Muhammadan ru le a measu re oftoleration

,the lik e of which is no t to be found in Europe until

qu itemodern times .Forcible conversion was forbidden

,in accordance with the pre

cepts of the Qu r’an Let there be no compu lsion in religion

”

(i i .“Wilt thou compel men to become believers N0 sou l

can believe but by the permission of God”. (x . 9 9 , Thevery existence of so many Christian sects and commun ities incoun tries that have been for centuries under Muhammadan ruleis an abiding testimonyto the toleration they have enjoyed , andshows that the persecutions they have from time to time beencalled upon to endure at the hands of bigots and fanatics , havebeen excited by some special and local circumstances rather thaninspired by a settled princip le of intolerance .

1

1e.g. The persecution, under A l M utawak k il , by the orthodox reaction against

all forms of deviation fromthe popular creed in Persia and o ther parts of A siaabout the end o f the thirteenth century in revenge for the domineeringand insultingbehaviour of the Christians in the hour o f their advancement and power under theearly Mongo ls. (Magriz i Tome i . Premiere Partie, pp . 98 , A s

semani (Tom. i i i . Pars. p . speak ing of the causes that have excited the

persecution o f the Christians underMuhammadan rule, says N on raro p erse

cutionis procellamexcitaruntmutuae Christianorumipsorumsimultates, sacerdo

turn licentia, praesulum fastus, tyrannica magnatum potestas, et medicorumpraesertim scribarumque de supremo in gentemsuam imperio altercationes.

”

D uring the crusades the Christians of the East frequently fel l under the susp ic iono f favouring the invasions of their co - religionists from the West, and in modernTurk ey themovement for Greek Independence and the religious sympathies itexcited in Christian Europe contributed to mak e the lo t of the subject Christ ianraces harder than it would have been,

bad they not been suspected of disloyaltyand disaffection towards the irMuhammadan ruler. D e Gobineau has expressedhimself very strongly on this question of the to leration o f Islam Si l

’on sépare

la do ctrine rel igieuse de la nécessité pol itique qui souvent a parlé et agi en son

nom,il n

’est pas de rel igion p lus to lérante , on pourrait presque d ire p lus indif

ferente sur la foi des hommes que l’Islam. Cette disposition organique est si

forte qu’en dehors des cas oh la raison d’

Etat mise en jeu a porté les gouvemementsmusulmans ase faire arme de tout pour tendre a l

’unitede foi, la to lerance

la p lus complete a 616 la regle fournie par le dogme . Qu ’

on ne s’arréte pas

aux vio lences, aux cruautés commises dans une o ccasion ou dans une autre . Si

on y regarde de pres, on ne tardera pas a y découvrir des causes toutes po l itiquesou toutes de passion humaine et de tempérament chez le souverain ou dans les

populations. Le fait rel igieux n’

y est invoqué que comme prétexte et, en réalité ,il reste en dehors.

”

A . de Gob ineau pp . 24- 5 .


At such times of persecution , the pressure of c ircumstances hasdriven many unbelievers to become— ou twardly at least— Muhammadams

,andmany instancesmight be given of individuals who ,

on particu lar occasions,have been harassed into submission to the

religion of the Qur’an . B ut such Oppression is wholly without the

sanction of Muhammadan law,either religious or civi l . The

passages in the Qur’an that forbid forced conversion and enjoin

preaching as the sole legitimate method of spreading the faithhave already been quoted above (Introduction , pp . 5 and thesame doctrine is upheld by the decisions of the Muhammadandoctors . When Moses Maimon ides

,who under the fanatical ru le

of the Almohades,had feigned conversion to Islam

,fled to Egypt

and there open ly declared himself to be a Jew ,a Muslimjuris

con su lt fromSpain denounced himfor his apostasy and demandedthat the extreme penalty of the law shou ld be infl icted on himfor this offence ;but the case was quashed by Al Qadi- l Fadil ,1

one of themost famou s of Muslimjudges , and the prime min isterof the great Saladin , who au thoritatively declared that aman whohad been converted to Islamby force cou ld not be rightly con

sidered to be a Mu slim? In the same sp irit , when Ghazan( 1 2 9 5 - 1 304) discovered that the Buddhistmonk s that had becomeMuhammadans at the beginn ing of his reign , (when their templeshad been destroyed ,) on lymade a pretence of being converted

,he

granted permission to all those who so wished to return toThibet

,where among their Buddhist fellowcountrymen they

wou ld be free once more to follow their own faith ? Tavern iert ells us a similar story of some Jews of Ispahan who were so

grievously persecuted by the governor“ that either by force or

c unn ing he caused them to turn Mahometans but the k ing(Shah

‘Abbas II .) ( 1 642 - 1 667) understanding that only power andfear had constrained themto turn suffer

’d them to resume their

own religion and to live in A story of amuch earliert raveller 5 in Persia

,in 1478 , shows how even in those turbulent

t imes aMuhammadan governor set himself to severely crush an

outburst of fanaticismof the same character. A rich Armenian

1 i.e . the talented qadi, the title bywhich A b t'

i‘A li ‘A bdu-rRahim( 1 13 5 - 1200)

is commonly k nown for his b iography, see Ibn fi allik an , vo l. i i . pp. 1 1 1 - 1 1 5 .

2 A bfi - l Faraj p . 45 5 .

3 C . d’Ohsson, vol . iv. p . 2 8 1 .

‘1 Tavernier p . 160.

5 Viaggio di Iosafa Barbaro nella Persia. ( Ramusio , vol . 11. p .


minating their Christian subjects , just as the former hadmassacredShi‘ahs with the aimof establishing uniformity of religious

belief among his Muhammadan subjects . Themuftis who turnedtheminds of theirmasters from such a cruel purpose , did so as

the exponents of Muslimlaw and Muslimtolerance .1Still

,though the principle that found somuch favour in Ger

many in the seventeenth cen tury 2 - Cu ius regio eius religio ,was never adopted by anyMuhammadan potentate , i t is obviousthat the fact of Islambeing the state religion cou ld no t fail tohave some influence in increasing the number of . i ts adherents .Persons on whom their religious faith sat lightly wou ld beread ily influenced by considerations of worldly advantage , andambition and self- interest wou ld tak e the place of more laudablemotives for conversion . St . Augustine made a simi lar comp laintin the fifth century

,that many entered the Christian church

merely because they hoped to gain some temporal advantagethereby : Quammu lti non quaerunt Iesum,

nisi u t illis faciatbene secundum tempus ! Alius negotiumhabet , quaerit intercessionem clericorum alius premitur a po tentiore , fugit ad

ecclesiam;alius pro se vu lt interveniri apud eumapud quemparum valet : ille sic

,ille sic ;impletur quotidie talibus ec

olesia.

”3Moreover to the barbarous and uncivil ised tribes that saw the

glory andmaj esty of the emp ire of the Arabs in the heyday ofits power

,Islammust have appeared as imposing and have

exercised as powerfu l a fascination as the Christian faith whenpresented to the Barbarians of Northern Europe

,when “ They

found Christian ity in the Empire— Christian ity refined and

complex,imperious and pompous— Christian ity enthroned by

the side of k ings , and sometimes paramount above them.

”'1

But the recital of such motives as little accounts for all casesof conversion

,in the one religion as in the other

,and they

should no tmak e us lose sight of other factors in themissionaryl ife of Islam

,whose influence has been of a more distinctly

religious character. Foremo st among these is the influence ofthe devout lives of the followers of Islam. Strange as itmay1 A . de la Jonquiere, pp . 203 . 2 1 3 , 3 12 .

2 E. Charvériat : H isto ire de la Guerre de Trente A ns. Tome 11. pp. 6 1 5 , 62 5 .

(Paris,3 In Ioannis Evangel iumTractatus, xxv. 10.

4 C . Merivale : The Conversion o f the N orthernNations, p . 102 . (London ,

PROSELYTISING INFLUENCES. 345

appear to a generation accustomed to look upon Islamas a cloak

for all k inds of vice,i t i s nevertheless true that in earlier times

many Christians who have come into contact with a l ivingMuslim society have been profoundly impressed by the virtuesexhibited therein ;if these could so strik e the traveller and thestranger , they wou ld no doubt have some influence of attractionon the unbeliever who came in daily contact with them. Rico ldus

de Monte Cruc is , a Domin ican missionary who visited the East

at the close of the thirteenth century,thus break s out in praise

of the Muslims among whomhe had laboured : Obstupuimus,quomodo in lege tante perfidie po terant Opera tante perfectionis

inveniri. Referemus igitur hic breviter opera perfectionis Sarracenorum. Qu is en imnon obstupescat , si diligenter consideret ,quanta in ipsis Sarracenis so llicitudo ad studium

,devo cio in

oratione,misericordia ad pauperes, reverencia ad nomen Dei et

prophetas et loca sancta, gravitas in moribus, affabilitas ad

extraneo s,concordia et amor ad suos ? ”1 This note of praise

and admiration finds many an echo in the work s of Christiantravellers and others ;Sir John Mandev ile e .g. bears testimonythat “ the Saraz ines ben gode and feythfulle . For thei k epenentirely the Comaundement of the Holy Book A lk aron ,

that Godsente hem be his Messager Machomet ;to the whiche , as theiseyne seynt Gabrielle the A ungel often tyme tolde the wille ofGod .

”2 The literature of the Crusades is rich in such appreci

ations of Muslimvirtues,while the Ottoman Turk s in the early

days of their ru le in Europe received many a tribu te of p raisefrom Christian lips

,as has already been shown in a former

chapter .At the present day there are two chief factors (beyond such ofthe above -men tioned as still hold good) that mak e formissionaryactivity in the Muslimworld . The first of these is the revivalof religious l ife which dates fromthe Wahhabi reformation at

the end of the last century : though this new departure haslong lost all political sign ificance outside the confines of Najd

,

as a religious revival i ts influence is felt throughout Africa, Indiaand the Malay Archipelago even to the present day, and has

given birth to numerous movements which tak e rank amongthe most powerful influences in the Islamic world. In the precedingpages it has already been shown how closely connected

1 Laurent, p . 1 3 1 . Mandevile , p . 139 .


many of themodern Muslimmissions are with this wide - spreadrevival : the fervid zeal i t has stirred up , the new life it hasinfused into existing religious insti tutions , the impetus i t hasgiven to theological study and to the organ isation of devotional

exercises,have all served to awak e and k eep alive the innate

proselytising sp irit of Islam.

Side by side with this reformmovemen t,is another of an

e ntirely different character,— for

,to mention one point of differ

ence on ly,while the former is strongly opposed to European

c ivil isation,the latter is rather in sympathy withmodern thought

and offers a presentment of Islamin accordance therewith,— viz .

the Pan - Islamic movement,which seek s to bind all the nations

of the Muslimworld in a common bond of sympathy around theSultan of Turk ey as Khalifah and Spiritual head of the faithfu l .Though in no way so sign ificant as the other , still this trend ofthought gives a powerful stimulus to missionary labours ;theeffort to realise in actual l ife the Musl imideal of the brotherhoodo f all believers reacts on collateral ideals of the faith

,and the

sense of a vast un ity and of a Common l ife runn ing through thenation s insp irits the hearts of the faithfu l and mak es themboldto speak in the presence of the unbelievers .What further influence these two movements will have on themissionary life of Islam

,the future on ly can show . But their

very activity at the presen t day i s a proof that Islamis no t dead .

The spiritual energy of Islam i s no t, as has been so often maintained

,commensurate with its political power ? On the contrary

,

the loss of political power and worldly p rosperity has served tobring to the front the finer sp iritual qualities which are the truestincentives to missionary work . Islamhas learned the u se s ofadversity, and so far froma decl ine in worldly prosperity beinga presage of the decay of this faith , i t i s significant that thosevery Muslimcountries that have been longest under Christianrule show themselves most active in the work of proselytising.

The Indian and Malay Muhammadans display a zeal and enthu

siasmfor the spread of the faith,which one look s for in vain in

Tu rk ey or Morocco .

1 Frederick D enison Maurice was giving expression to one of the most commouly received opinions regarding this faith when he said, It has been proved

that Mahometanism can only thrive whi le it is aiming at conquest.” (TheRel igions of the World, p . (Cambridge,


in any k ind of affair, even the churning of bu tter or the eating of

food,— in the 4th form ajhada, also to swearing, and (in the

case of things) to their becoming much and spreading : the 8thform

,ijtahada, denotes

‘ to tak e pains to forma right judgment ,’and the noun of action from the same form

,ij tihad

,

‘a lawyer’s

exerting the facu lties of the mind to the utmost,for the purpose

of forming an op in ion in a case of law,respecting a doubtful and

difficult point .’ Themeaning of the noun of action ,j ihad is the

u sing, or exerting, one’s u tmost power, efforts , endeavour, or

ability,in con tendn with an object of disapprobation ,

”and i t is

obvious fromthe above account of the variousmean ings ofdifferentforms that the root assumes

,that primarily the word bears no

reference to war or fighting,much less to fighting against umbelievers or forcible conversion of them

,but derives its particu lar

application fromthe context only.

In the following pages it is proposed to give all the passages inwhich j ihad or any other derivatives fromthe same root , occurarranging the passages in chronological order .A nd

,had We p leased , We had certainly raised up a warmer in.

every c i ty,

Give no t way then to the unbelievers,but by means of this

(Q ur’an) strive against themwith amighty strife (jahid hum

jihadan k abiran) . (xxv. 5 3

(The reference is here c learly to preaching, as these verses wererevealed in Mecca

,and to translate j ihad ‘ warfare ’ is as absurd

as it is illegitimate .)A nd they swear by God with theirmost strenuous (jabda) oath .

(xvi 40Whoso after he hath believed in God den ieth Him,

if he wereforced to it and if his heart remain steadfast in the faith

,

(shall be gu iltless)Then to those who after their trials fled their country and strove

(jahadu) and endured with patience,verily thy Lord will

afterwards be forgiving, gracious . (xvi. 108 ,(Verse 108 is said to refer to the tortures infl icted on some ofthe converts

,and verse 1 1 1 to the fl ight into Abyssin ia thej ihad

of these person s therefore was the great exertions and toils theyhad tomak e through persecu tion and exile .)A nd whosoever striveth (jahada), striveth (yujahidu) for his ownself on ly verily God is independent of all creatures .(xxix .

Moreover We have enjoined on man to show k indness to paren tsbut i f they strive (jabada) with thee in order that thou jointhat with Me of which thou hast no k nowledge , then obeythemnot . (xxix.

A nd those who have striven, (have exerted themselves , jabada) for

us,in our path will We surely gu ide for verily God is with

those who do righteous deeds. (xxix .

APPENDIX I . 349

But if they (i.e . thy paren ts) strive (jahada) to mak e thee jointhat with Me of which thou hast no k nowledge , obey themnot. (xxxi .

They swore by God with their most strenuou s (jahda) oath .

(xxxv.

A nd they have sworn by God with their most strenuous (jabda)oath . (vi.

But t hey who believe,and who fly their coun try

,and strive

(exert themselves , jabada) in the way of God ,may hope forGod’smercy

,and God is gracious and mercifu l . ( ii .

Verily,they who believe and have fled their coun try and have

striven (jahadu) with their propertyand their person s in theway of God , and they who have given shelter to and havehelped (the Prophet) , shall be near of k in the one to theother .

But as for those who have bel ieved and have fled their countryand have striven (jabada) in the way ofGod , and have givenshelter to and have helped (the Prophet) , these are the truebelievers ;Mercy is their due and a noble provision . (viii .73 1 75

A nd they who have since believed and have fled their coun try andhave striven (exerted themselves jahada) together with you ,

- these are of you . (vi ii . 76 .

Verily those who have turned back after the gu idance hath beenmade plain to them— Satan hath begu iled them.

Think these men of d iseased hearts , that God will not bring out

theirmalice to lightA nd we will surely test you, until we k now those who have striven

(mujahidina) and those who have been patien t among youand we will test the reports of you .

Verily they who believe no t,and turn others fromtheway of God ,

and separate themselves from the Apostle after that theguidance hath been clearly shown them

,shall in no way

injure God but their work s shall He bring to nought .(mm27, 3 1 . 3 3 -4

Do ye thin k that ye cou ld enter Paradl se Withou t God’s tak ingk nowledge of those among you who have striven (exertedyourselves jahadu) and have been patient ? (iii . 1 3 6.

Believe in God and His apostle,and strive (exert yourselves

tujahiduna) In the way ofGod with your property and yourpersons.

Those believers who sit at home free fromtrouble and those whostrive (exert themselvesmujahidfina) in the way ofGod withtheir property and their persons , are no t . equal . God hasassigned to those who strive (exert themselves mujahidina)with their property and their persons a ran k above thosewho sit at home . Goodly p romises hath Godmade to allbut God hath assigned to those who strive (exert themselves


mujahidina) a rich recompense above those who sit at home(iv 97

A nd they swore by God with thei r most strenuous (jabda) oath(xxiv.

O believers bow down and prostrate yourselves and worshipyour Lord

,and work righteousness . Haply ye shall fare

wellA nd strive in the Lord (exert yourselves jahidt

‘

t in God), as itbehoveth you to do for

'

Him. He hath electedyou ,and hath

no t laid on you any hardship in religion , the faith of yourfather Abraham. (xxii . 76

0 Prophet,strive (jahid) with the unbelievers and hypocrites, and

be severe towards them. (lxvi . 9;ix .

(As Muhammad n ever fought with the munafiqina or hypocrites

,we cannot translate jahid as mak ing war

’: the feeling

that gu ided his conduct towards them is rather indicated inxxx ii i . 47 Obey not the infidels and hypocrites and tak e no

heed of their evil entreating, and put thy trust in God , for God i sa sufficient guardian accordingly the verse is tak en to meanexert thyself in preaching to , and remonstrating with , the un

believers and hypocrites, and be strict towards them,—i.e . be no t

smooth with themor be beguiled by 1

O ye who believe tak e no t My foe and your foe for friends yeshow themk indness

,although they believe no t that truth

which hath come to you they drive forth the Apostle andyourselves because ye believe in God your Lord . If ye havecome out striving (jihadan) in My path and froma desire toplease Me and (yet) show themk indness in private

,then I

well k now what ye conceal,and what ye d iscover . A nd

whoso of you doth this hath verily therefore gone astray fromthe right way. (111.

The true believers are those only who believe in God and Hisapostle and afterwards doubt not and who strive (iahada)with their property and their persons on the path ofGod .

These are the sincere . (xlix.

Think ye that ye shall be forsak en , and that God doth no t yetk now those among you who strive (exert themselves jabada)and tak e none for their intimate friends besides God and Hisapostle and the faithful ? (ix .

Do ye place the giving drink to the p ilgrims , and the visitation ofthe sacred temple , On the same level with himwho believethon God and the last day, and striveth (fahada) in the path ofGod They are not equal before God and God guideth notthe unjust .

They who have believed and fled their country,and striven

( jabada) with their property and their persons on the path of

1 Chiragh‘A lr, p. 186 .


will then raise up a people whomHe loveth , and who loveHim

,lowly towards the faithful

, grievous to the unbelieversthey will strive (exert themselves yujahidt

'ma) in the path 01

God and will no t fear the blame of the blamer . (v .

It is due to the Muhammadan legists and commen tators thatjihad came to be interpreted as a religious war waged againstunbelievers

,whomight be attack ed even though they were no t

the aggressors but such a doctrine is wholly unauthorised by theQ ur

’an and can on ly be extracted therefromby quoting isolated

portions of different verses, considered apart from the contextand the Special circumstances under which they were deliveredand to which alone they were held to refer

,being in no way

intended as positive injunctions for future observance or religious

p recepts for coming generations. But though some Muhammadanlegists have maintained the rightfulness of unprovok ed war

against unbelievers , none (as far as I amaware) have ventured tojustify compu lsory conversion but have always vindicated for theconquered the right of retain ing their own faith on payment ofjizyah .

APPENDIX II.

LETTER OF A L HasHIMi INV ITING A L K INDi To EMBRA CE ISLA M .

THE following is the text of Al Hashimi’s letter inviting Al Kindito embrace Islam

“ In the name of God,the Merciful

,the Compassionate

,I have

begun this letter with the salu tation of peace and blessing afterthe fashion of my lord and the lord of the prophets , Muhammad ,themessenger ofGod (may the peace and mercy ofGod be uponhiml) . For those trustworthy

,righteous and truthful persons

who have handed down to us the tradition s of ourProphet (peacebe upon him!) have related this tradition concern ing him thatsuch was his habit and that whenever he began to converse withmen he would commence with the salutation of peace and blessingand made no distinction of dhimmis and ill iterate

,between

Muslims and Idolaters (mushriq), saying “ I am sent to be k indand considerate to all men and no t to deal roughly or harshlywith them

,

”and quoting the words of God , Verily God is k ind

and merciful to believers.” Lik ewise I have observed that thoseof ourK_

halifahs that I havemet,followed the footsteps of their

Prophet in courtesy,nobility

, graciousness and beneficence , andmade no distinctions in this matter and preferred none beforeanother . So I have followed this excellent way and have begunmy letter with the salutation of peace and blessing, that I beblamed of none who seesmy letter .I have been guided therein by my affection towards youbecause my lord and prophet, Muhammad (may the peace andmercy of God be upon him1) used to say that love of k insmen i strue p iety and religion . So I have written this to you in obedience to themessenger ofGod (may the peace andmercy of Godbe upon himl), feeling bound to show gratitude for the servicesyou have done us, and because of the love and affection and incli

nation that you show towards us, and because of the favour ofmylord and cousin the Commander of the Faithful (mayGod assisthim towards you and his trust in you and his praise of you .

So in all sincerity desiring for you what I desire for myself,myfamily and my parents, I will set forth the religion that we hold ,and that God has approved of for us and for all creatures and fo rwhich He has promised a good reward in the end and safety from

A 3.


pun ishment when unto Himwe shall return . So I have soughtto gain for you what I wou ld gain for myself;and seeing yourhighmoral l ife , vast learn ing, nobility of character, your virtuousbehaviou r

,lofty qualities and your extensive influence over your

co - religion ists , I have had compassion on you lest you shouldcontinue in your present faith . Therefore I have determined toset before you what the favour of God has revealed to us and toexpound unto you our faith with good and gentle speech , followingthe commandment of God

,

“ Dispute no t with the men of thebook except in the best way. (xxix. So I will discuss with

you only in words well - chosen , good and mild ;perchance youmay be aroused and return to the true path and incl ine unto thewords of the Most High God which He has sent down to the lastof the Prophets and lord of the children of Adam,

our ProphetMuhammad (the peace a nd blessing of God be upon himl) . Ihave not despaired of success , but had hOpe of i t for you fromGod who showeth the right path to whomsoever He willeth , andI have prayed that He maymak e me an instrument to this end .

God in His perfect book says Verily the religion before God isJ slam”(iii . and again , confirming His first saying,

“ A nd

whoso desireth any other religion than Islam,it shall by no means

therefore be accepted fromhim,and in the next world he shall

be among the lost”(iii . and again He confirms it dec isively,when He says , O believers , fear God as He deserveth to befeared and die no t without having become Muslims (i ii.A nd you k now— (MayGod deliver you fromthe ignorance of

unbelief and open your heart to the light of faith —that I amone over whommany years have passed and I have sounded thedepths of other faiths and weighed themand studied many oftheir book s especially your book s; (Here he enumerates thechief book s of the Old and New Testaments

,and explains how he

has studied the various Christian sects .) I havemet withmanymonk s

,famous for their austerities and vast k nowledge , have

visitedmany churches and monasteries,and have attended their

prayers . I have observed their extraordinary diligence , theirk neeling and prostrations and touching the ground with theircheek s and beating it with their foreheads and humble bearingthroughou t their prayers , especially on Sunday and Fridaynights , and on their festivals when they k eep watch al l nightstanding on their feet praising and glorifying God and con

fessing Him,and when they spend the whole day standing in

p rayer, continually repeating the name of the Father,Son ,

and Holy Ghost,and in the days of their retreats which they

call Holy Week when they stand barefooted in sack cloth and

ashes,with much weeping and shedding of tears continually,

and wailing with'

strange cries. I have seen also their sacrifices,

with what cleanl iness they k eep the bread for it,and the long

prayers they recite with great humility when they elevate i t over


sent by God with glad tidings and warnings to all mank ind .

“He it is who hath sent His Apostle with the guidance and a

religion of the truth , that He maymak e it victorious over everyother religion ,

albeit they who assign partners to God be aversefromit.” (ix . So he invited allmen fromthe East and fromthe West

,fromland and sea

,frommountain and fromplain , with

compassion and pity and good words , with k indlymanners andgentleness . Then all these peop le accepted his invitation ,

bearingwitness that he is the apostle of God , the Creator of the worlds,to those who are willing to give heed to admonition . All gavewilling assent when they beheld the truth and fai thfulness of hiswords

,and sincerity of his purpose

,and the clear argument and

plain proof that he brought , namely the book that was sent downto himfromGod , the lik e of which cannot be p roduced bymenor Jinns . Say Assuredly if man k ind and the Jinns shouldconsp ire to produce the lik e of this Qur

’an

,they could no t produce

its lik e,though the one should help the other. (xvi i . A nd

this i s suflicient proof of his mission . So he invited men to theworship of the One God

,the on ly God

,the Self- suflicing, and

they entered into his religion and accepted his au thority withoutbeing forced and withou t unwillingness , but rather humblyack nowledging himand soliciting the light of his gu idance , andin his name becomingv ictorious over those who den ied his divinemission and rej ected his message and scornfully entreated him.

So God set themup in the c ities and subjected to themthe neck sof the nations of men

,excep t those who heark ened to themand

accepted their religion and bore witness to their faith,whereby

their blood , their property and their honour were safe and theywere exempt fromhumbly paying j izyah .

” He then enumeratesthe various ord inances ofIslam

,such as the five daily prayers , the

fast of Ramadan , Jihad expounds the doctrine of the resurrectionof the dead and the last judgment , and recounts the joys ofParadise and the pains of Hell . So I have admon ished you i f

you believe in this faith and accept whatever i s read to you fromthe revealed Word of God

,then you will profit frommy admo

nition andmy writing to you . But if you refuse and continue inyour unbelief and error and contend against the truth , I shal lhave my reward, having fulfilled the commandment . A nd thetruth will judge you .

” He then enumerates various religiousduties and p rivileges of the Musl im

,and concludes . So now in

thismy letter I have read to you the words of the great and highGod

,which are the words of the Truth , whose promises cannot

fai l and in whose words there is 110 deceit . Then give up yourunbelief and error , of which God disapproves and which cal ls forpunishment, and speak no more of Father

,Son and Holy Ghost

,

these words that you yourself admit to be so confusing and giveup the worship of the cross which brings loss and no profit , for Iwish you to turn away from it

,since your learning and nobility

APPENDIX 11. 3 5 7

of soul are degraded thereby . For the great and high God saysVerily

,God will not forgive the un ion of other gods with Him

self but other than this will He forgive to whomHe pleaseth .

A nd whoso uniteth gods with God, hath devised a great wick edness .” (iv. A nd again

“ Surely now are they infidels whosay,

“God is the Messiah,Son of Mary for the Messiah said

“ O children of Israel ! worship God,my Lord and your Lord .

Verily,those who join other gods with God, God doth exclude

fromParadise,and their abode the Fire and for the wick ed no

helpers ! They surely are infidels who say,“God is a third of

three”: for there is no God but one God ;and if they refrainno t fromwhat they say, a grievous chastisement shall assu redlybefall such of themas believe no t . Will they no t

,therefore

,

turn unto God,and ask pardon of Him since God 15 Forgiving,

Merc ifu l ! The Messiah,Son of Mary

,15 but an Apostle , other

Apostles have flourished before him and his mother was a justperson ;they both ate food .

”(v . 76 Then leave this path

of error and this long and stubborn c linging to your religion and

those burdensome and wearisome fasts which are a constanttrouble to you and are of no use or profit and produce nothingbut weariness of body and torment of soul . Embrace this fai thand tak e this

,the right and easy path , the true faith , the amp le

law and the way that God has chosen for His favoured ones andto which He has invited the people of all religions , that He mayShow His k indness and favou r to themby gu iding theminto thetrue path bymeans of His gu idance , and fill up the measure ofHis goodness unto men .

So I have advised you and paid the debt of friendship and

sincere love,for I have desired to tak e you to myself, that you

and Imight be of the same op in ion and the same fai th,for I have

found my Lord saying in his perfect Book :“Verily the um

believers among the people of the Book and among the polytheists

,shall go into the fire of Hell to abide therein for ever.

Of all creatures they are the worst . Bu t they verily who believeand do the things that are right - " these of all creatures are thebest . Their recompense with their Lord shall be gardens ofEden

,

’neath which the rivers flow

,in which they shall abide

for evermore . God is well pleased with them, and they withHim. This

,for himwho feareth his Lord .

”(xcviii . 5

“Yeare the best fol k that hath been raised up for man k ind . Yeenjoin what is just

,and ye forbid what is evil , and ye believe in

God : and if the peop le of the book had believed,i t had surely

been better for them. Believers there are among them,bu t most

of themare d isobedient .” (ii i . So I have had compassionupon you lest you might be among the people of Hell who arethe worst of all creatures

,and I have hoped that by the grace of

God you may become one of the true believers with whomGodis well pleased and they with Him,

and they are the best of all


creatures,and I have hoped that you will j oin yourself to that

religion which is the best of the religions raised up for men .

But if you refuse and persist in your obstinacy, contentiousnessand ignorance , your infidelity and error

,and if you reject my

words and refu se the sincere advice I have offered you (withou tlook ing for any thank s or reward ,)— then wri te whatever youwish to say abou t your religion ,

all that you hold to be true andestablished by strong proof, withou t any fear or apprehension ,

withou t curtailment ofyour proofs or concealment of your beliefsfor I purpose on ly to listen patiently to your arguments and toy ield to and ack nowledge all that is convinc ing therein ,

submittingwillingly withou t refusing or rejecting or fear , in order that Imay compare your account and mine . You are free to set forthyou r case ;bring forward no plea that fear prevented you frommak ing your arguments complete and that you had to put a

bridle on your tongue , so that you could no t freely express yourarguments . So now you are free to bring forward all yourarguments , that you may no t accuse me of pride

,injust ice or

partiality for that i s far fromme .

Therefore bring forward all the argumen ts you wish and saywhatever you p lease and speak yourmind freely . Now that youare safe and free to say whatever you please , appoint somearbitrator who will impartially judge between us and lean on lytowards the tru th and be free from the empery of passion and

that arbi trator shall be Reason ,wherebyGodmak es us responsiblefor our own rewards and punishments . Herein I have deal t justlywith you and have given you ful l securi ty and amready to acceptwhatever decision Reason may give forme or againstme . For“ there is no compu lsion in religion

”(ii . 2 57) and I have only

invi ted you to accept our faith willingly and of your own accordand have pointed out the hideousness of your p resent belief.Peace be with you and themercy and blessings ofGodThere can be very l ittle doubt bu t that this documen t has

come down to us in an imperfect condition and has sufferedmutilation at the hands of Christian copyists the almost entireabsence of any refutation of such d istinctively Christian doctrines ,as that of the Blessed Trin ity

,and the references to such attack s

to be found in Al Kind i’s rep ly, certain ly indicate the excisionof such passages as might have given offence to Christianreaders ?

1 Similarly, the Spanish editor of the controversial letters that passed betweenA lvar and the transgressor (a Christian convert to Judaism), adds the fo llowing no te after Ep ist. xv. Q uatuordecimin hac pagina ita abrasae sunt liniae,ut nec verbumunumlegi po sit . Fo liumsubsequens exsecuit possessor codicis, netransgressoris deliramenta legerentur.

”(Migne, Patr. Lat. Tom. cxxi . p .


The reader will find xa vast store of information on Muslimcontroversial l iterature in the following writings : Moritz Steinschneider Polemische und apologetische Literatur in arabischerSprache

,zwischen Muslimen

,Christen und Juden . (Leipzig,

Ignatius Go ldz iher : Ueber Muhammedanische Polemikgegen Ahl al - k itab . Vol . 3 2 , p . 341 ff. MartinSchreiner : Zur Geschichte der Polemik zwischen Juden und

Muhammedanern . Vol . 42 , p . 5 9 1 ff.

APPENDIX IV.

CONVERTS TO ISLA M THA T HA VE NOT COME UNDER DIRECTMISSIONA RY INFLUENCES.

A NY account of the spread of Islamwou ld be incomplete withou tsome mention of those persons who have embraced this faithwithou t ever having been brought under any proselytisinginfluences and withou t even (in some cases) having come intopersonal contact with Musalmans at all before their conversion

,

but have enrolled themselves among the followers of the Prophetafter study of some of the documents of Muslim theology . Thenumber of such persons is probably by no means inconsiderable ,but the records we possess of these conversions are very scanty .

In the following pages the narratives of some of these convertshave been given at length , as possessing an individual interestqu ite apart fromany connection with the general history of thespread of Islam.

Probably one of the earliest of such conversions is that of aGreek named Theodisclus

,who succeeded St . Isidore (who died

A .D . 63 6) as Archbishop of Seville he was accused of heresy,for

maintain ing that Jesus was no t one-God in un ity with the Fatherand the Holy Sp irit but was rather son of God by adoption hewas accordingly condemned by an ecclesiastical synod , deprivedof his archbishopric and degraded from the priesthood . Whereupon he wen t over to the Arabs and embraced Islamamongthem?

Whether or no t the k nowledge of Islam that came intoEurope fromSpain or later through the constan t commun icationwith Muhammadan countries in the time of the Crusades

,

attracted any persons in Christian Eu rope to the fai th of theProphet , or whether any of the adherents of themany hereticalsects of the Middle Ages sought to find greater freedom ofthought in the pale of Islam,

I have been unable to determine .

Of the subjects of the Byzantine Emp ire or the Crusaders whocame under the immediate influence of Muhammadan thoughtand society

,it is no t the place to speak here , and some accoun t

1 Lucae D iaconi Tudensis Chronicon Mundi . (A ndreas Schottus : HispaniaeIllustratae. Tom. iv. p . (Francofurti, 1603


has already been given in preceding pages of the converts wonfromthese sources.One of themost remark able and circumstan tial accounts of a

conversion of this k ind is found in a controversial work entitled“ The book of the present of the scholar to refute the people ofthe cross”—which contains an attack upon Christian ity and a

defence of the Muslim faith. This book was written in 1420A .D . by a Christian priest who after his conversion to Islam tookthe name of ‘Abdu - llah ibn ‘Abdi - llah : in the preface he givesan autobiographical sk etch of his life , fromwhich we learn thathe was bo rn in Majorca

,of well - to - do parents ;that from his

childhood he was destined for the priesthood at the age of sixhe was set to study the Gospels and learned the greater part byheart ;then after studying grammar and logic , was sent to theUn iversity of Lerida in Catalon ia

,where after going through a

course of physics and astronomy for some time , he devoted himself exclusively for four years to the s tudy of theo logy. FromLerida he wen t to the famous Un iversity of Bologna, which wasat that time at the zen i th of its fame and popu larity .

“ I lived

(he tells us) in the house of an aged priest who was highlyrespected

,named Nico las Martil ? This priest occup ied a very

high position in Bologna on account o f his learn ing. his p iety andhis ascetic l ife

,in respect of which he was unsurpassed by any of

the Christians of his time . D ifficu lt points of theology werecon tinually being submitted to himfor solution

,fromall parts ,

by k ings and others , who also sent himlarge presen ts . Withthis priest I studied the principles and ordinances of the Christianfaith I served himfor a long time , attendingon himcontinually ,so that at length hemade me the most intimate of his intimatefriends. As I continued to serve himdevotedly

,he went so far

as to entrust me with the k eys of his house and of his storerooms . In this way I spent ten years in the service of this

priest and in study . N ow one day it happened that the priestfell ill and was unable to go to the lecture hall . The studentswho attended his lectures

,while waiting for himto come

,began

to discuss various learned top ics, and in the course of their discussions there happened to come up the words that God spok eby themou th of His prophet , Jesus : “ There shall come afterme a prophet whose name is the Paraclete .” A n an imated discussion followed lasting for some time , but in the end they brok eup withou t having settled the difficulty.

When I retu rned to the house of our professor,he ask ed me ,

What was the subject of your disputation to - day, during myabsence ? I told himhow we had been unable to come to an

agreement on the question of the name of the Paraclete ;that

1 Professor Guidi has suggested to me that the Italian formof this name was

very probably Martel lo.


But,Sir

,the wise man chooses for himself that only which

he has recogn ised to be the best : then when you maintain thesuperiority of Islam

,what hinders you fromembracing it

My son,

”(he replied) God has revealed to me the truth of

what I have just told you with regard to the superiority of thereligion of Islamand the greatness of the Prophet of Islam,

onlyinmy o ld age . Now I amburdened with years and my body isweak . I do not mean that this can serve as an excuse on thecontrary

,the argument of God is strong againstme . IfGod had

gu ided me to this path when I was your age , I would have givenup everything and embraced the true religion . But love of theworld is the source of all sin. You k now what a high position Ihold among the Christians and the respect and consideration theyshowme . Now

,if they were once to perceive how things really

stood andmy tendency towards Islam,they would all un ite to

slay me at once . But let us suppose that I succeeded in escap ingthemand in mak ingmy way safely to the Musl ims

,this is what

wou ld happen I should say to them,

“ I amcome to live amongyou , as a Muslim

,

”and they wou ld answer

,In entering into the

true faith, you have done good to yourself but you have conferred

no benefit on us. For by entering into the religion of Islamyouhave escaped the chastisement of God.

” Then I should remainamong them,

an o ldman of seventy years, poor, ignorant of their

language and doomed to die of hunger, while they wou ld k nownothing of the high position I had held . Well

,than k s be to

God,I have remained fai thfu l to the religion of Jesus and the

revelation he brought , God bemy witnessThen

,Sir

,

”(said I)

“ you r advice to me is to go to the countryof the Muslims and embrace thei r religion

“Yes,

”(he rep lied)

“ if you are wise and seek salvation,mak e

haste to do so,for thereby you will gain this world and the next .

Now up to the p resen t no one k nows anything of this matter ofours and do you bemost careful to k eep i t secret , for if it shou ldget abroad ever so little , you would at once be put to death and Icou ld do nothing for you . It wou ld be of 110 avail foryou to throwthe blame on me

,for while what 1 said against you would be

bel ieved,110 one would believe what you said against me . If

then you say a word of this matter

,I am innocent of your

lood .

“

,

MayGod preserveme ,”I cried,

“ fromthe very thought ofitHaving promised himwhat he wished , I go t ready for my

journey and bade himfarewell he blessedme and gaveme fiftydinars for the expenses ofmy jo urney .

I set out for the ci ty of Majorca,my birthplace , where I

stayed sixmonths ;then sai led to the island of Sici ly , where Iwaited fivemonths for a ship to set sai l for the country of theMuslims . A ship going to Tun is having arrived

,I went 011

APPENDIX IV. 365

board we left Sic ily in the even ing twilight and cast anchor inthe harbour of Tunis atmid- day.

When I disembark ed at the custom-house,some of the Chris

tian soldiers heard ofme and took me to their houses somemerchants too residing in Tun is accompan ied them. I passed fourmonths with themenjoying themost liberal hospital ity .

At the end of this time,I made inquiries among themas to

whether there was anyone in the Sultan’s court who cou ldspeak the language of the Christians . The Su ltan at that timewas his late Majesty

,A br

‘

t - l ‘Abbas Ahmad . They informed methat at the court there was a learned man named Yfisuf

,the

Physician,one of the chief servants of the Su ltan ,

whose physicianand favourite he was.

This information gave me great pleasure and having inqu iredwhere he lived I was shown the way to his house. When I camebefore him

,I explained to himmy situation and told himthatmy

desire to embrace Islamwas the reason of my coming. Thephysician was exceedingly glad to hear this news ,more especiallyas this happy event was to tak e p lace through his intervention .

So he moun ted his horse and took me W ith himto the palace, andgoing in , told the Sultan my story and begged himto giveme anaudience . This request

'

being granted, I was admitted into thepresence of the Su ltan .

He first ask edme my age , to which I replied that I was thirtyfive . Then he inqu ired what studies I

'

had,pursued and I told

him.

You are welcome,

”(he said)

“ become a Muslim,and the

blessing of the High God be upon you .

I said to the interpreter, the physician above mentioned,Tell our Lord

,the Su ltan

,that no man ever abandons his

religion without many persons crying out against him and

calumniating him I beg you to gran tme the favour of summoning the Christian merchants and the Christian soldiers and

of mak ing inqu iries fromthem regarding me , so that you mayhear what they have to say of me ;after that I will embraceIslam.

”The Su ltan replied through the interpreter

“ Your request isthe same as ‘Abdu - llah ibn Salammade of the Prophet when heembraced Islam.

” Then he sent for the Christian soldiers andsome of the merchants and put me into a roomclose to the p lacewhere he sat ;and ask ed them

,

“What is your opin ion of the

priest who recen tly came,by such and such a ship They

answered,He is aman of great learn ing in our religion , and our

men of learning have no t met with any one of greater eminencein learn ing and piety than he is .

”What wou ld you say of him,

ask ed the Su ltan,if he were

to become a Muslim?God forbid ! they cried

,he will never do that.”

3 66 THE PREACHING or ISLAM .

When he had heard the op inion of the Christians , the Su ltansent forme . Then

,at that very time and in the presence of the

Christians,I repeated the pro fession of faith . The Christians

made the Sign of the cross 011 their faces and said,

“ It is on ly thedesire of getting.married (for among us priests do no tmarry) thathas driven himto this act

,

”and they left the palace in great

distress .”1After his conversion he received an allowance of fou r dinars a

day fromthe Su ltan , Abr‘

i - l ‘Abbas Ahmad ( 1 370- 1 3 94) and was

shortly afterwards p laced in charge of the custom- house . Histomb is still shown at Tun is

,where it is an object of pecu liar

veneration ?

It has already been Shown that during the Reformation period ,the Protestants of Hungary and other places preferred the ru le ofthe Turk s to that of the Catholics

,and cases occurred of Protes

tants who fled in to Turk ish territory to find there the freedomofreligiou s worship and Op in ions which was den ied them in

Christian Europe . The common points of doctrine in the teachings of some of these sects and in the Muslimcreed

,were somany

,

and the points of d ifference so few ,that it is no t surprising to learn

that in the sixteenth century “no t a few Soc in ians passed over to

Muhammadan ism.

”3A S to the numerous Christian renegades, belonging to various

nations of Europe,whose names occur in Turk ish history

,often

occupying high and responsible posts , there seems very little iiiformation to be gained regard ing their religious life , beyond thefact that they were once Christians and afterwards became Musalmans whether there were any among themwho left their nativecountry solely froma desire to embrace Islamand join a Muhammadan commun ity

,I have been unable to discover. As for the

numerou s renegades who wen t to swell the numbers of theBarbary corsairs

,there is probably no t a single instance to be

found in which religious conviction had anything to do with theirapostasy, for such a lawless life of bloodshed and p iracy cou ld offerno attractions except to the escaped convicts , deserters and

scoundrels of all k inds who made their way to the North coast ofAfrica fromthe sixteenth to the eighteenth century .

‘1 Towards thec lose of the eighteenth century , when the influence of freethink ingl iterature— especially in France— had weak ened in many mindstheir o ld belief in the doctrines of the Christian faith

,and some

1 Kitabu tuhfati- l arib fi -rraddi ‘alaahl i -ssalib, pp. 5- 8 (A .H . 1290) et typ.)

Le present de l’homme lettré pour refuter les partisans de la Cro ix , par ‘A bd

A llah ibn ‘A bd- A llz’

ih, le D rogman , Traduit par M. N . (Revue de

l’Histo ire des Rel igions. Tome xi i . ( 188 5 ) pp . 752 Id . pp . 69 , 80-8 1 .

3 J . H . Ho ttinger, H istoria Oriental is, p . 363 . (Zurich,4 The A dventures o fThomas Pellow, edited byDr. Robert Brown, pp. 1 2 - 13 ,

32 -3 . (London,


statement of Muslimdoctrine emanating fromso authoritative a

source,and evidently intended to create as favourable an impres

sion as possible on theminds of Christians it is therefore significant in themissionary history of Islamand i s accordingly givenhere at length Dear Sir , The letter by which you ask to bereceived into the heart of the Musalman religion has been receivedand has caused us l ively satisfaction . The reflections which youmak e on this occasion appear to us worthy of the highest praise .

At the same time we ought to call your attention to the factthat your conversion to Islamis no t subordinated to our consen t ,for Islamdoes no t admi t of any intermediary , l ik e the clergy,between God and His servants . Our duty consists on ly in teaching the people religious truths . Consequently, conversion toIslam demands no religious formality and depends upon theau thorisation of no one . It i s suffi cien t to believe and to proclaimone’s belief.In fact , Islamhas for its base , faith . in the un ity of God and in

themission of his dearest servant Muhammad (mayGod coverhimwith blessings and grant himsalvation) i.e . to accept conscientiously this fai th and to avow it in words

,as expressed by

the phrase : “There is only one God and Muhammad is Hisprophet .” He who mak es this profession of fai th becomes aMusalman

,withou t having need of the consen t or approbation

of any one . If,as you promise in your letter, you mak e this

profession of faith,that is to say, you declare that there is on ly

one God and that Muhammad is His prophet , you become a

Musalman without having need of our acceptance;and we , forour part

,felicitate you with pride and j oy for having been touched

by divine grace , and we shall testify in this world and the otherthat you are our brother . Believers are all brothers .Such is a summary definition of faith . Let us enter now uponsome developments of it . Man, who is superior to the otheranimals by his intelligence , was created out of nothing to adorehis Creator. This adoration .may be summed up in two wordsto honour the commands of God and to sympathise with hiscreatures. This double adoration exists in all religions . As to itspractice— religions differ as to their ru les , forms , times, iplaces, thegreater ;or less number of their rites , etc . But the human in

telligence does no t suffice to assure us of the manner of prayingwhich ismost worthy of the divine glory so God in His mercy,in according to certain human beings the gift of prophecy, insending to them,

by angels, inspiration ,writings and book s, and

in so revealing the true religion , has overwhelmed his servantswith blessings .

(The letter then goes on to speak of the Qur’an

,the Prophets ,

the Last Judgment , and other articles of belief;next, of thepractical duties of prayer

,almsgiving, etc .)

A sinner who repents and in person ask s God’s forgiveness

APPENDIX‘

IV 3 69

obtains pardon . Only the rights of his neighbour are an exception to this rule for the servan t of God who cannot obtainjustice in this world , reclaims his rights at the Day of Judgment ,andGod

,who is just

,will then compel the oppressor tomak e resti

tution to the Oppressed . Even themartyrs are no exception tothis rule . To avoid this responsibili ty the onlymeans is to get aqu ittance fromyour neighbour whomyou have wronged . In all

cases,however

,there is no need of the intercession of a spiritual

director.All this no doubt seems strange to people accustomed to a

sacerdotal régime . When a Christian child is born ,to mak e

part of society he must be baptized by a priest when he growsup he needs a priest to marry him if he wou ld pray hemust goto a church and find a priest ;to obtain forgiveness for his sin shemust confess to a priest and hemust have a priest to buryhim.

In the Musalman religion , where there is no clergy , suchobligations have no p lace . The infant is born a Musalman , and

his father,or the chief of the family

, gives hima name . Whenthey wish to contract a marriage , the man and the woman ortheir agen tsmak e the contract in presence of two witnesses thecontracting parties are the only ones interested and others cannotintervene or tak e part .A Musalman prays all alone in any place which su its his

convenience , and to merit the remission of his sins he goesdirectly to God . He does not confess themto others

,nor ought

he to do so . A t his death the Musalman inhabitants of the townare obliged to put himin a coflin and bury him. A nyMusalmancan do this the presence of a religious chief is not necessary .

In aword,in all religious acts there is no intermediary between

God and His servants . It is necessary to learn the will of God ,revealed by the Prophet , and to act in conformity with it .Only the accomp l ishment of certain religious ceremon ies , such

as the prayers on Friday and at Bairam,is subordinated to the

will of the Caliph,since the arrangement of ceremonies for Islam

i s one of his sacred attributes . Obedience to his orders is one ofthemost important religious duties. As to our mission

,it con

sists in administering, in his name , the religious affairs which hedeigns to confide to us.

One of the things to which every Musalman ought to be veryattentive is righteousness in character vices , such as pride ,presumption

,egotismand obstinacy

,do not become a Musalman .

To revere the great and to compassionate the insign ificant are

precepts of Islam.

1 1

A few years before the date of the above letter an Engl ishsolicitor

,Mr. WilliamHenry Qu illiamby name

,had embraced

1 The Independent, New York , Feb . 9 th, 1888 .


Islamafter an independent study of the Qur’an and various work s

on Muhammadanism. His attention had first been drawn to thisfaith

,while on a visit to Morocco in 1 884, where he was espe

cially struck by the apparent sincerity of the followers of Islamand the absence of drun k enness and other vices that so forciblyobtrude themselves in the great cities of England . He instituteda Muslimmission in the c ity of Liverpool , where after five years’labour he gained abou t thirty converts . More vigorous and

activemethods of propaganda were then adopted,public lectures

were delivered, pamphlets circu lated , a magazine published and

the doctrines of Islamvindicated by open - air preachers . Ten

years after Mr . Quilliam’s conversion,the number of the English

converts had risen to 1 37. This missionary movement has

attracted considerable attention in the Muhammadan world,

especially in India,where every incident connected with the

religious life of the English converts is chronicled in the Muhammadan newspapers . In 1 89 1 Mr. Qu illiamwas invited by theSu ltan of Turk ey to visit himin Constantinople , and three yearslater he was commissioned to be the bearer of a decoration fromthe Sultan to a Muslimmerchant who had erected a mosque inLagos on the West Coast of Africa.

In America another convert named Muhammad AlexanderRussell Webb

,who had been led to embrace Islam through

private and independent study,started a mission in the year

Brought up as a Presbyterian,be early abandoned Chris

tianity, and became amaterialist afterwards becoming interestedin the study of Oriental religions , he was particu larly attractedtowards Islam

,and entered into correspondence with a gentleman

of Bombay,named Badru - d D in ‘Abdu - llah Kur. At this time Mr .

Webb was American Consu l at Manilla, where he was visited(after this correspondence had been carried on for nearly twoyears) by a wealthymerchant of Jiddah , Haji ‘Abdu - llah ‘Arab

,

who guaranteed the payment of a large sumof money towardsthe establishment of a Muslimmission in America. After visiting India and lecturing in some of the chief c it ies with largeMuhammadan popu lations

,Mr . Webb proceeded to N ew York

,

where he opened amission and advocated the cause of Islamin a

period ical entitled ‘ The MoslemWorld .

’2

These twomovements in England and in America are amongthemost recent expressions ofmissionary activity in Islam theyare particularly noticeable as presenting certain features of

1 This was not the first attempt to preach Islam in A merica, as in 1875 a

Methodist preacher, named N orman, who had gone to Constantinople as a

Chr1stianmissionary, embraced Islamthere and began to preach it in America.

( (S

‘

xa

ge

in de Tassy, La langue et litte

'

rature hindoustanies en 1875 , p . 9 2 . (Paris,1 72 Islam;a lecture by Muhammad A lexander Russel l Webb, publ ished byBadruddin A bdul la Kur. (Bombay,

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'

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A miroutz es, George , 138 .

A njuman Himayat- i- Islam, 23 5 , 333 .

A nt ivari, 1 5 5 , 1 5 9 , 16 1 , 162 . 163 , 165 .

A rab society in the time ofMuhammad,2 6 , 39

-41 .A rabs in A frica, 87- 8 , 9 1 , 97, 103 ,

106 -7, 1 1 1 , 2 5 8 - 260, 2 62 , 263 , 271 ,2 8 1 , 286 .

A rabs in China, 246 , 247, 2 50- 1 .

A rabs in the Malay A rchipelago , 293 -4,2 96. 300. 302 . 303 , 305 . 307. 308 ,3 141 3 16 ) 3 187 3 27°

A ria Damar, 307- 8 , 309 .

A rianism, 105 , 1 14.

A rmenia, 82 -

3 , 1 5 1 - 2 , 188 , 189 .

A shanti , 276 -7.

A ssam, 2 32 .

A tjih, 2 96 , 302 -

3 , 3 19 .

A urangzeb , 208 , 2 13 - 1 5 .

CA PECOA ST COLONY, 2 845 .

Cap itation- tax, see Tax.

Celebes, 3 18 - 3 23 , 329 .

Ceram, 3 27.

Ceylon, 2 19 ,n 2

.

Chalcedon, Counci l of, 48 , 87.Cheribon, 307, 309 , 3 1 1 .

China: 247 1897 241 9 306 2

32n

334Chinese in the Malay A rch1pelag0, 298 ,306 , 3 18 .

Christian A rabs converted to Islam, 44.Clergy converted to Islam,

74. 86. 89 . 90. 98. 137.142 .

Offic ials and so ldiers in Mu

hammadah service, 57- 8 ,8 2 , 9 1 , 1 5 3 -4.

Christians preferringMuslimto Christian rule, 49 , 56 , 82 , 127, 134. 13 5 .166 -7, 170.

Bambuk , 271 .

Banjarmasin, 3 16 .

Banten, 3 1 1 , 3 12 .

BanuGhassan, 44, 47.

Banii Taghlib, 45 .

Barak a 15 115 11 , 19 1 - 2 , 199 .

Bashk irs, 3 36 .

Bengal , 2 27-230.

Berbers, 2 58 -262 .

Bilal, 1 1 , 24.

Bogomi les, 169 - 172 .

Bo laa'ng-Mongondou, 32 2- 3 .

Borahs, 2 26 -7.

Borneo , 3 16 - 18 , 329 .

Bornu, 2 63 , 266 , 2 87.

Bosnia,144, 169 - 172 .

Brunai , 3 16 .

Buddhists converted to Islam, 19 1 , 241,2471 304°

Bugis, 3 18 , 32 1 - 2 , 323 .

Bug ara, 183 , 184, 185 , 19 1, 205 ,2307 245 7 2467 330°

Bulgarians, 201 - 2 .

INDEX .

Christians serving in the Musl imarmyexempted fromthe payment of capitation - tax, 5 6 -7

Churches bui lt in Muhammadancountries, 5 2 , 5 8 -9 , 1 1 5 , 343

n 2.

C ircassians, 86 .

Controversies between Christians and

Musl ims, 72 , 9 3 , 19 1 11 3, 3 5 9

- 60.

Conversion, forced, absence of, vindicated by contemporaries, 71 , 13 5 - 6 ,149 .

Conversion, forced, condemned, 5 - 6,

74n:

to Christianity inA byssinia, 102 .

to Christianity inEurope , 6 -7,

3 36 '

to Christ1an1ty ln

the MalayA rchipelago ,7,23

to Islamin India ,

2 10, 2 1 3to Islamin N orthA frica, 107.

ofMongo ls to Christianity,

ofMuslims to Christianity,

Copts, 87-

93 .

Crete . 1 3 1- 2 , 141 , 172 -6 .

Crusaders, 75 - 80.

Cutch, 2 2 5 -6 .

D A HOMEY, 277.

Damascus , 5 0-

5 1 , 64.

Danfodio , Shayk_ h,

‘Uthman, 26 5 -7.

Darfur, 2 6 3 -4, 287.B aylam, 180.

D eccan, 2 2 1- 2 .

D ongo la, 94, 2 67, 268.

Dyak s, 3 18 .

EGYPT , churches bui lt in. 5 8 -9 , 93 .

Jacob ite Christians of see

Copts.EnglishMusl ims, 3 , 3 5 9 , 369 -70.

FA LA BA , 271 .

Finns, 204.

Firuz Shah Tughlaq, 2 12 .

Flores, 3 2 1 .

Fulahs, 2 6 5 -7, 271 , 273 , 277, 286.

Funj , 276 .

Futah Toro , 270, 2 85 .

3 85

GA LLA S, 99 - 100, 102 , 275 , 282 -3 .

Gennadios, 1 26 .

Georgia , 83 - 6 , 142 .

Gerganos;141 .Q azan , 19 5

-6 , 342 .

Go ld Coast, 277Go lden Horde, 1 86 , 19 1 , 199 - 201 .

Gragne, A hmad, 98 - 9 , 101 .

Greece, 5 6 -7, 1 27, 142 .

the first- fruits of, 2 1 .

Greek s in the Crimea, 203 .

Gresik , 305 - 6 , 308 , 309 , 3 10, 3 1 5 .

Guinea Coast, 276.

Gujarat, 2 26—7.

HA JIS, 270, 2 86 , 3 13 ! 338 '

Halemahera, 3 16 .

Harar, 275 .

Hausa, 2 64, 273 , 277.

H eracl ius, 2 3 , 48 -

9 .

Heythoum,k ing of A rmenia, 188 .

H indus converted to Islam in India,208 9 , 2 1 1 - 241 .

H indus converted to Islam in the

Malay A rchipelago , 304- 3 12 .

H oey -hu, 246 -7.

Hungary, 1 34, 137n 2

, 166 , 336.

Hunyady, John, 1 66 -7.

ILKHA Ns, 189 - 190, 192 -7.

Ilorin, 2 67.

India, 1 82 , 208 - 241 , 2 94, 2 97.Intermarriages between Christians andMusl ims, 160, 197, 334.

Islam, amissionary rel igion, 1 , 39 -41 ,

333a universal rel igion, 2 3 - 5 .

the brotherhood of, 27- 8 , 38 ,

40 6 5 - 6 . 2 89 - 290, 338 -9Isma‘il ians

, 18 1 -2 , 2 2 5 -6.

JA COBITE Church in A byssinia, see

A byssinia.

Jacobite Church in Egypt : see Copts.in Nubia . see Nub ia.

Patriarch,letterofJesujab III .

71 2 .

Patriarchs,converted to Islam,

74

Jaghbfib , 274- 5 .

Janissaries, 1 2 9 - 13 1 , 133 , 143 .

Java. 2 91 301 3 11 327, 3 29 .

Jerusalem, 5 1 , 77.

Jews, Chinese, 249 .

Spanish, 1 13 , 134.

3 86 INDEX .

J ihad. 270. 271 -3. 2 85 - 6, 300, 3473 5 2 °

J izyah, see Tax.

Justinian, 48, 6 3 , 105 .

KA B ILS, 109 , 1 10.

Kanem, 263 .

Kano,2 64, 2 88 .

Kashgar, 197.Kashmir, 240- 1.

Katsena, 2 64.

Kei Islands, 3 27- 8 .

Khadriyah, 2 67.

Khalid , 42 -3 , 46 , 5 5 , 183.

Q az ars, 202 .

Khojahs, 2 2 5 .

Khul

é

ilay Elan, 186, 1 87, 190,24

Hhurasan, 70-71 , 180, 184, 245 .Kiloa

, 278 , 279 .

Kirghiz , 2045 .

Kordofan, 2 63 , 268.

KuchumQ an, 206 -7.

LA CCA DIVE Islands, 2 20-22 1 .

Lagos, 277, 370.

Leger, 1 39 , 141 .Liberia, 269 , 276 .

Lithuania, Musl ims in, 3 .

Lombo k , 3 2 3.Louis V II. , 75 - 6 , 79 , 188 , 192 .

Lucaris, Cyri l, 139 - 141.

M A CA RIUS , 1 34- 5 .

Macassar, 3 19 - 3 2 1 .Madura, 309, 327.Maimonides, Moses, 342 .

Majapahit, 306 -3 12 , 3 16 .

Malacca, 300.

Malay A rchipelago , 274.

Malay Peninsula, 300-

304.Maldive Islands

, 2 20- 1 .

Mandingos, 2 63 , 271 , 277, 286 , 2 87.

Mappi la, 2 16, 2 19 , 2 20.

Mecca, 2 2 , 2 65 , 270, 297, 299 , 302 ,

303. 3 12. 3 17. 32 5 . 3 2 9 - 30, 3 38

Merchants, Musl im, as m1ss1onar1es,101 , 19 1 , 201 , 207, 2 17, 2 2 1 , 2 24,246 , 262 . 270. 277, 2 83 . 2 86 , 294- 5 .

300: 3041 3 13 » 32 1 1 3 2 5 7 326 :327» 3 33 , 840

Metaras, N 1codemus, 141 .M inahassa, 3 18 .

Missionaries, Musl im‘A bdu- llah ibn Yassin, 260- 1 , 270.

A bu ‘A bd i - llah Muhammad, 97.

A bii ‘A li Qalandar, 23 1 .

l Faraj Ibnu- l Jawz i, 65A bu Sayda, 183 .

A hmad Mujaddid, 3 36 .

A hmadu Samudu, 271 - 2 .

A l Ma’mun , 73 -4.

‘A mr ibn Murrah, 345 .

‘A yyfish, 37BabaFaridu-d Din

,2 3 1 .

Bahau- I Haqq , 2 3 1 .

Darwesh Bulbul Shah, 240.

Darwesh Mansur, 86 .

Dimamibn Tha‘ labah, 34.

Firitz Shah Tughlaq , 2 12 .

Haji Muhammad , 2 32 .

Hak imBagus, 32 2 .

Hasan ibn ‘A li, 1 80.

H ishamPirGujarati,2 2 2 .

Ibnu- l Hudhayl , 6 5 n.

IbrahimA bi1 Zarbay, 284.

ImamD ik ir, 327.

ImamTuwék o , 3 2 2 .

Jalalu-d Din,2 3 2 .

KhalifahHusayn, 309El atib Tungal , 3 20.

K_h

,wajah KhunmirHusayni, 2 2 2 .

Q wajah Mu‘inu -d Din Chisti, 2 3 1 .

Mal ik ‘A bdu- l Latif, 2 26 .

Malik ibn D inar, 2 17- 19 .

Mal ik ibn Habib, 2 17- 19 .

MawlanaHasanu d D in, 3 1 1 .Mawlana Ishaq, 308 .

Mawlana Jamada l Kubra, 308 .

MawlanaMal ik Ibrahim, 305 - 6 .

Maw lawi Baqa Husayn Khan, 2 34.

MawlawiHasan‘A li, 234.

Mawlawi ‘Ubaydu llah, 2 32 3 .

Mir Shamsu d Din, 241 .

Muhammad, 9 - 2 5 , 2 8 , 33 -9 .

Muhammad Q hori, 2 12 .

Muhammad ibn Sayyid ‘A li, 2 2 2 .

Muhammad ‘Uthmanu- l A mirQ hani,2 67-8 .

Mulla ‘A li, 2 26 .

Mus‘ab ibn ‘Umayr, 1 2 , 18 - 19 , 20.

N i siru- l I‘

laqq A bu Muhammad,180.

N fir Satagar, 2 25 - 6 .

Nuru -d D in, 302 .

N itru -d D in Ibrahim, 309 . 3 1 1 .

PirMahabir Khandayat, 2 2 1 -2 .

PirSadru-d D in, 2 2 5 .

Safdar ‘A li, 2 34.

Salahu-d Din, 78 .

Sayyid ‘A 11. 32 5 .

SayyidHusayn Gaysudare'

i z , 2 22 .

Sayyid Sa‘adat, 2 2 5 -6 .

Sayyid Shah Faridu-d D in, 241 .Sayyid Yusufu-d Din, 2 24-5 .

3 88

Shamanism,187.

Shi‘ahs, 179 , 18 1 , 2 60, 2 94.

Si A hmad ibn Idris, 267.S iam, 304.

S iberia, 206 - 7.

S ierra Leone, 276.

S i lesia, 134.

S ind , 2 2 2 - 2 2 5 .

S lavery under the Musl ims, 148 - 1 5 1 ,338. 3 39

n

Socmians converted to Islam, 366 .

Sok o to , 2 66 .

Somal iland , 274, 2 84.

Sonrhay, 2 62 .

Sophronius, Metropo l itan of A thens,141 .

Spain, 109 , 1 12 - 1 24.

Spaniards in the Malay A rchipelago ,2 9 5 , 3 14,

Sudan , 2 62 - 276 , 278 , 2 89- 292 .

Suhayb , 2 1 , 24.

Suk k adana, 3 16 -7.

Sulu Islands, 3 24-6 .

Sumatra, 307-8 , 3 16 , 329 .

TA B A RISTA N , 180.

Tartars,203 -7.

Tax, capitation, paid by non-Mus

l ims) 45 7 8 1 ,”5 , 1 57)163 -4, 177- 8 , 2 1 2 .

Christians in mil itary service cx

empt frompayment of, 5 6 - 7.

imposed on Mus

l ims when ex

empt frommi l itary service

, 5 7.

Tcheremiss, 204.

Tchuvash. 204.

Tedas, 274.

Ternate, 3 14- 1 5 .

Theodisclus, 36 1 .

Thibet , 241 .

Tibesti , 274.

Tidor, 3 14.

Tijaniyah, 2 69 -273 .

T imbuk tu, 262 -3 , 266, 2 68 .

Timur, 2 10.

To k udar,

INDEX .

UIGURS , 247.

‘Umar ibn ‘A bdi -I ‘A ziz, 5 8 , 72 , 88 ,2 2 2 , 2 5 9 .

‘Umar ibnu‘ l Q attabs 13 7 39 1 45 1 46 75 1 - 2 , 70.

the ordinanceof, 5 2 - 3 .

‘

_

Umaru - l Haji, 270- 3 .

UzbegKhan , 1 99 - 201.

VENE’

I‘

IA N S , 127, 162 , 172 -4.

Vladimir, 201 - 3 .

ZA N ZIBA R, 278 , 2 82 .

Zoroastrians, 177- 180.

GILBERT A ND RIVINGTON , 1 111111 5 11, 3 1 . jouu’s HOUSE, CLERKENWELL , B .C.

To leration enjo ined in the Q ur’i n, etc.

,

67.

Of Musl ims ack now ledgedby Christians, 71 , 1 2 3 -4,

41n

towards the Christian A rabs,44, 45 , 47

towards the Christians Of

Egyptr 9 3 °

N orth A frica, 1 1 1 .

Russia, 200- 1 .

Spain , 1 1 5 - 16 .

Syria and Palestine, 50- 1 ,

8 1 .

Turk ey,

126 -7, 134- 5 ,

Traders, Musl im see Merchants.

Transoxania, 73 , 183 , 246 .

Transylvania, 134.

Tripo l is, 2 87.

Turk istan,184, 243 , 247, 249 .

Turk s, Saljt'

iq , 75 , 82 , 184.

Ottoman , 12 5 - 1 36 , 142 , 1451 5 3 7 1 5 77 1634 76

see Uigurs.

WA D A I , 264, 275 , 2 87.Wahhabi reformation , influence of,2 30. 265 . 2 99 , 345 - 6

Waigama, 3 26 .

Waigyu, 3 26 .

\Valata, 2 68 .

Williamof Rubrouck , 188 - 9 .

Women , Musl im,as missionaries, 102,

I 971

YUN N A N ,242 , 248 , 2 5 5 .

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