[159] Müller, Die Africanische Landschafft Fetu, p. 75.
[160] Wilson, Western Africa, p. 129.
[161] Krapf, Reisen in Ost-Afrika, ii. 132.
In other Muhammedan countries besides Morocco the tombs of saints, as also the mosques, are or have been places of refuge.[162] In Persia the great number of such asylums proved so injurious to public safety, that about the middle of the nineteenth century only three mosques were left which were recognised by the government as affording protection to criminals of every description.[163] Among the Hebrews the right of asylum originally belonged to all altars,[164] but on the abolition of the local altars it was limited to certain cities of refuge.[165] According to the Old Testament manslayers could find shelter there only in the case of involuntary homicide; but this was undoubtedly a narrowing of the ancient custom. Many heathen sanctuaries of the Phœnicians and Syrians retained even in Roman times what seems to have been an unlimited right of asylum;[166] and at certain Arabian shrines the god likewise gave shelter to all fugitives without distinction, and even stray or stolen cattle that reached the holy ground could not be reclaimed by their owners.[167]
[162] Goldziher, Muhammedanische Studien, i. 237 sq. Quatremère, ‘Mémoire sur les asiles chez les Arabes,’ in Mémoires de l’Institut de France, Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres, xv. pt. ii. 313 sq.
[163] Polak, Persien, ii. 83 sqq. Brugsch, Im Lande der Sonne, p. 246.
[164] Exodus, xxi. 13 sq. Cf. Robertson Smith, Religion of the Semites, p. 148, n. 1.
[165] Numbers, xxxv. 11 sqq. Deuteronomy, iv. 41 sqq.; xix. 2 sqq.
[166] Robertson Smith, op. cit. p. 148.
[167] Ibid. p. 148 sq.