This has been emphasised by many observers, but it will be enough here to quote the words of an eminent Christian bishop. “No one who comes in contact for the first time with Mohammedans can fail to be struck by this aspect of their faith.… Wherever one may be, in open street, in railway station, in the field, it is the most ordinary thing to see a man, without the slightest touch of Pharisaism or parade, quietly and humbly leaving whatever pursuit he may be at the moment engaged in, in order to say his prayers at the appointed hour. On a larger scale, no one who has ever seen the courtyard of the Great Mosque at Delhi on the last Friday in the fast-month (Ramazan) filled to overflowing with, perhaps, 15,000 worshippers, all wholly absorbed in prayer, and manifesting the profoundest reverence and humility in every gesture, can fail to be deeply impressed by the sight, or to get a glimpse of the power which underlies such a system; while the very regularity of the daily call to prayer, as it rings out at earliest dawn, before light commences, or amid all the noise and bustle of the business hours, or again as the evening closes in, is fraught with the same message.” (Dr. G. A. Lefroy: Mankind and the Church, pp. 287–8. (London, 1907.)) [↑]
[29] “One may notice and admire the kind of chivalrous pride which the average Mohammedan takes in his faith.” (Bishop Lefroy: Mankind and the Church, p. 289.) [↑]
[30] A. Kuenen: National Religions and Universal Religions, p. 35. (London, 1882.) [↑]
[31] e.g. The persecution, under al-Mutawakkil, by the orthodox reaction against all forms of deviation from the popular creed: in Persia and other parts of Asia about the end of the thirteenth century in revenge for the domineering and insulting behaviour of the Christians in the hour of their advancement and power under the early Mongols. (Maqrīzī (2), Tome i. Première Partie, pp. 98, 106.) Assemani (tom. iii. pars. ii. p.c.), speaking of the causes that have excited the persecution of the Christians under Muhammadan rule, says:—“Non raro persecutionis procellam excitarunt mutuae Christianorum ipsorum simultates, sacerdotum licentia, praesulum fastus, tyrannica magnatum potestas, et medicorum praesertim scribarumque de supremo in gentem suam imperio altercationes.” During the crusades the Christians of the East frequently fell under the suspicion of favouring the invasions of their co-religionists from the West, and in modern Turkey the movement for Greek Independence and the religious sympathies it excited in Christian Europe contributed to make the lot of the subject Christian races harder than it would have been, had they not been suspected of disloyalty and disaffection towards their Muhammadan ruler. De Gobineau has expressed himself very strongly on this question of the toleration of Islam: “Si l’on sépare la doctrine religieuse de la nécessité politique qui souvent a parlé et agi en son nom, il n’est pas de religion plus tolérante, on pourrait presque dire plus indifférente sur la foi des hommes que l’Islam. Cette disposition organique est si forte qu’en dehors des cas où la raison d’État mise en jeu a porté les gouvernements musulmans à se faire arme de tout pour tendre à l’unité de foi, la tolérance la plus complète a été la règle fournie par le dogme.… Qu’on ne s’arrête pas aux violences, aux cruautés commises dans une occasion ou dans une autre. Si on y regarde de près, on ne tardera pas à y découvrir des causes toutes politiques ou toutes de passion humaine et de tempérament chez le souverain ou dans les populations. Le fait religieux n’y est invoqué que comme prétexte et, en réalité, il reste en dehors.” (A. de Gobineau (1), pp. 24–5.) [↑]
[32] For a biography of him, see Ibn K͟hallikān, vol. ii. pp. 111–15. [↑]
[33] Barhebræus (2), pp. 417–18. [↑]
[34] C. d’Ohsson, vol. iv. p. 281. [↑]
[35] Tavernier (1), p. 160. [↑]
[36] Viaggio di Iosafa Barbero nella Persia. (Ramusio, vol. ii. p. 111.) [↑]