‘But that we have got,’ rejoined Fakredeen.
‘But have they got it?’
‘We can give it to them.’
‘I am not so sure of that. It seems to me that we are going to establish a theocratic equality by the aid of the feudal system.’
‘That is to say, their present system,’ replied Fakredeen. ‘Islamism was propagated by men who were previously idolaters, and our principle may be established by those whose practice at the present time is directly opposed to it.’
‘I still cling to my first idea of making the movement from the desert,’ said Tancred: ‘the Arabians are entirely unsophisticated; they are now as they were in the time of Mahomet, of Moses, of Abraham: a sublime devotion is natural to them, and equality, properly developed, is in fact the patriarchal principle.’
‘But these are Arabians,’ said Fakredeen; ‘I am an Arabian; there is not a mookatadgi, whatever his present creed, who does not come from Yemen, or the Hedjaz, or the Nejid.’
‘That is a great qualification,’ said Tancred, musingly.
‘And, see what men these are!’ continued Fakredeen, with great animation. ‘Lebanon can send forth more than fifty thousand well-armed, and yet let enough stay at home to guard the mulberry trees and the women. Then you can keep them for nothing; a Bedouin is not more temperate than a Druse, if he pleases: he will get through a campaign on olives and cheese; they do not require even tents; they bivouac in a sheepskin.’
‘And yet,’ said Tancred, ‘though they have maintained themselves, they have done nothing; now, the Arabs have always succeeded.’