Reflex Action, Instinct and Reason 269 RICARDE-SEAVER, Major F. J., Boer, Briton, and Africander in the Trans- CORRESPONDENCE:- England and Venezuela. By Lex Mr. Healy and the Incapables. By Y. 451 The Story of an Amateur Revolution. By A Johannesburg Resident THE FORTNIGHTLY REVIEW. No. CCCXLIX. NEW SERIES.-JANUARY 1, 1896. THE SULTAN AND HIS PRIESTS. THE Sultan is not unfrequently described by Europeans as the Pope" of the Muhommadan religion. Whereas he really is no more than its Khaliph or Supreme Chief, and is not in any sense an ecclesiastic. He takes no exceptionally prominent part in the performance of divine service, and wears no distinctive sacerdotal costume; and although he represents the Prophet on earth, and is his Vicar, he is not a Pontiff, properly so called; his duties being limited to watching over the interests of Islam, to rousing, when necessary, its spirit of fanaticism, and to defending it generally against its enemies. He is bound in the hour of danger to appeal through the Cheikh-ul-Islam and his countless Imâms, to the faithful at large, and command them in the name of Allah and his Prophet to rise and fight for the sacred standard. But although he is the Shadow of God on earth, and as such so venerated, that, even as late as the first part of the present century, he was approached by his Ministers and other subjects, not on bended knees only, but on all fours, he can promulgate no new dogmas, neither can he increase nor diminish in the smallest degree any detail of the Islamic ritual, which has remained unchanged since it was first established in the sixth century. The fact that the Sultan, although he is the sole earthly representative of the Prophet, possesses no priestly attribute, possibly accounts for the facility with which he can be deposed, and even murdered, without unchaining the religious passions of his subjects. It is, however, taken for granted that he cannot be dethroned or done away with without the formal and even the written authority of the Cheikh-ul-Islam. The Khaliph has certain privileges, peculiar rather to his office than to his personality. For instance, he alone can lay his hand upon the standard of the Prophet and other relics of Mahomet and his companions, which are preserved at the Old Seraglio, and he is, moreover, the only Muhommadan in whose presence women can unveil. He can enter any harem unbidden, and behold its fair inmates without let or hindrance. But it is contrary to etiquette for him to avail himself of VOL. LIX. N.S. this agreeable privilege. The Sultan can also nominate and depose the Cheikh-ul-Islam. On the other hand, his supreme authority is not so generally accepted as imagined. Many Muhommadan sects, such as the Persians, who belong to the schism of the Shiites, recognise him merely as a figurehead for Islam. I may here recall that in the early part of his reign Abd-ul-Hamid II., realising his altered circumstances, conceived the bold idea of strengthening his spiritual position, by an endeavour to rally the whole Muhommadan world, from Stamboul to the Himalayas, under his sacred sceptre, and inaugurated a movement known in modern times as Panislamism. He accordingly invited to Stamboul a host of austere and zealous Cheikhs, and assembling them at Yildiz, propounded his scheme. They were to use their utmost endeavours to revive religious fervour at home, and, moreover, they were to turn their efforts to the conversion of the Negroes in Western and Eastern Soudan and other parts of Africa, and enroll them under the banner of the Prophet and of his Vicar, the supreme Khaliph of Stamboul. The Cheikhs received the proposal with enthusiasm, but unfortunately the undertaking was not crowned with success. True, the negroes of Senegambia and the Soudan received the green-turbaned missionaries with profound respect--they were, it is said, well paid for their pains-but the Sultans of Morocco and Zanzibar proved refractory, and actually insulted the Khaliph's envoys. They absolutely refused to share their authority with Abd-ul-Hamid II., and the Panislamic movement ended in a fiasco, which cost the Turkish Government enormous sums of money and considerable loss of prestige. Before proceeding farther it may be well to examine briefly the doctrines and ritual of Islam. Nothing can be simpler than its dogmas. They can be reduced to three, evidently derived from Hebrew and Christian sources: "Say not," says the Khoran, "that there is a Trinity in God; He is one undivided, and rules alone in heaven and on earth. God has no Son, He is eternal, and His Empire is shared by no one." To this purely Deistic theory may be added a second, which concerns eternal reward and punishment. The wicked," says the Khoran, "will descend into the flames of hell, and the just shall enjoy eternal happiness." So far so good, but unfortunately Mahomet grafted on to the above doctrines certain other theories, drawn from more ancient religious systems and philosophies, and also from a superficial, possibly a hearsay, acquaintance with the Gospels, especially the Apocryphal Gospels. Among these doctrines which he resolved into dogmas are predestination, fatalism, and polygamy, a {rio which have proved fatal to the intellectual advancement of the Muhommadan world. By circumscribing his religion within the nar10w limits of the Khoran, and by declaring that book to be infallible, |
