Preaching of Islam 00 Arno

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THE
PREACHING OF ISLAM
A History of the Propagation of the
Muslim Faith
BY
T. W. ARNOLD M.A. CLE.

PROFESSOR OK ARABIC, UNIVERSITY OF LONDON, UNIVERSITY COLLEGE
SECOND EDITION
REFISED AND ENLARGED
LONDON
CONSTABLE & COMPANY Ltd.
1913
/ 0 :3 o 4- 9
(!)P
• AT
ni3
TO
SIR THEODORE MORISON, K.C.I.E.

TO WHOM THE FIRST EDITION OWES ITS EXISTE^XE
THIS SECOND EDITION IS DEDICATED
IN TOKEN OF LONG FRIENDSHIP

PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION
It is with considerable diffidence that I pubHsh these
pages; the subject with which they deal is so vast, and I
have had to prosecute it under circumstances so disad-
vantageous, that I can hope but for small measure of
success. When I may be better equipped for the task,
and after further study has enabled me to fill up the gaps ^
left in the present work, I hope to make it a more worthy
contribution to this neglected department of Muhammadan
history; and to this end I shall be deeply grateful for the
criticisms and corrections of any scholars who may deign
to notice the book. To such I would say in the words of
St. Augustine : " Qui haec legens dicit, intelligo quidem quid
dictum sit, sed non vere dictum est ; asserat ut placet sen-
tentiam suam, et redarguat meam, si potest. Quod si cum
caritate et veritate fecerit, mihique etiam (si in hac vita
maneo) cognoscendum facere curaverit, uberrimum fructum
laboris huius mei cepero." ^
As I can neither claim to be an authority nor a specialist
on any of the periods of history dealt with in this book, and
as many of the events referred to therein have become matter
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 than that of defect. I have myself
suffered so much inconvenience and wasted so much time
in hunting up references to books indicated in some obscure
or unintelligible manner, that I would desire to spare others
a similar annoyance ; and while to the general reader I
may appear guilty of pedantry, I may perchance save trouble
to some scholar who wishes to test the accuracy of a state-
ment 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 Transhteration
Committee of the Tenth International Congress of Oriental-
ists, held at Geneva in 1894, with the exception that the
last letter of the article is assimilated to the so-called solar
^ E.g. The
numerous spreadsaints.
Muslim of Islam in Sicily and the missionary labours of the
* De Trinitate, i. 5. (Migne, tom. xlii, p. 823.)
vii
viii PREFACE
letters. In the case of geographical names this scheme

has not been so rigidly applied — in many instances because
I could not discover the original Arabic form of the word,
in others (e. g. Mecca, Medina), because usage has almost
created for them a prescriptive title.
Though this work is confessedly, as explained in the
Introduction, a record of missionary efforts and not a history
of persecutions, 1 I have endeavoured to be strictly impartial
and to conform to the ideal laid down by the Christian
historian ^ who chronicled the successes of the Ottomans
and the fall of Constantinople : ovre Trpog x'^P^'^ ^^"^^ irpoq
(f)66vov, aXX' ovde Trpog filoog rj koI irpog evvoiav ovyypdipeiv
Xp€d)v iozi xdv ov'y'ypd(f>ovra, aXX,' loropiag fiovov %a/ji)^ /cat rov
firj Xrjdrjg ^vdqj irapadodfjvai, rjv 6 xP^vog olde yevvdv, rrjv
ioxopiav.
I desire to thank Her Excellency the Princess Barberini ;
His Excellency the Prince Chigi; the Most Rev. Dr. Paul
Goethals, Archbishop of Calcutta; the Right 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 liberal
use they have allowed me of their respective libraries.
I am under an especial debt of gratitude to James
Kennedy, Esq., late of the Bengal Civil Service, who has
never ceased to take a kindly interest in my book, though
it has almost exemplified the Horatian precept, Nonum
prematur in annum; to his profound scholarship and wide
reading I have been indebted for much information that
would otherwise have remained unknown to me, nor do I
owe less to the stimulus of his enthusiastic love of learning
and his helpful sympathy. I am also under a debt of
gratitude to the kindness of Conte Ugo Balzani, but for
whose assistance certain parts of my work would have been
impossible to me. To the late Professor Robertson Smith
I am indebted for valuable suggestions as to the lines of
study on which the history of the North African Church
and the condition of the Christians under Muslim rule,
should be worked out ; the profound regret which all Semitic
scholars feel at his loss is to me intensified by the thought
that this is the only acknowledgment I am able to make
of his generous help and encouragement.
^ Accordingly the reader will find no account of the recent history of
Armenia or Crete, or indeed of any part of the empire of the Turks during
the present century — a period singularly barren of missionary enterprise
on their part.
* Phrantzes, p. 5.
PREFACE ix
I desire also to acknowledge my obligations to Sir

Sayyid Ahmad Khan Bahadur, K.C.S.I., LL.D. ; to my
learned friend and colleague, Shamsu-1 'Ulama' Mawlawi
Muhammad Shibll Nu'manl, who has assisted me most
generously out of the abundance of his knowledge of early
Muhammadan history; and to my former pupil, Mawlawi
Bahadur 'All, M.A.
Lastly, and above all, must I thank my dear wife, but
for whom this work would never have emerged out of a
chaos of incoherent materials, and whose sympathy and
approval are the best reward of my labours.
Ah'garh, iSgd*
PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION
The first edition of this book having been out of print
for several years and frequent inquiries having been made
for copies, this new edition has been prepared and an effort
has been made to revise the work in the hght of the fresh
materials that have accumulated during the last sixteen
years; but I can make no claim to have made myself
acquainted with the whole of the vast literature on the
subject, in upwards of ten different languages, which has
been published during this interval. The growing interest
in Islam and the various branches of study connected with
it, may be estimated from the fact that since 1906 five
periodicals have made their appearance devoted to investi-
gations cognate to the subject-matter of the present work,
viz. Revue du Monde Musulman, publiee par La Mission
Scientifique du Maroc (Paris, 1906- ) ; Der Islam, Zeit-
schrift fiir Geschichte und Kultur des islamischen Orients
(Strassburg, 1910- ) ; The Moslem World, a quarterly
review of current events, literature, and thought among
Mohammedans, and the progress of Christian Missions
in Moslem lands (London, 1911- ) ; Mir Islama (St.
Petersburg, 191 2- ) ; and Die Welt des Islams, Zeitschrift
der deutschen Gesellschaft fiir Islamkunde (Berlin, 1913- ).
The Christian missionary societies are also now devoting
increased attention to the subject of Muslim missionary
activity and accordingly it takes up a proportionately larger
place in their publications than before.
This second edition would have been completed several
years ago but for the illiberal policy which closes the Reading
Room of the British Museum at 7 o'clock and has thus
made it practically inaccessible to me except on Saturdays.^
I therefore desire to express my grateful thanks to those
friends who have facilitated my labours by the loan of
books from the Libraries of the University of Leiden and
the University of Utrecht (through the kind offices of
^ The student of the literature of Science or of the Fine Arts finds the
libraries at South Kensington open till lo o'clock on three evenings every
week, but the one library in this country that aims at any completeness
is available only to such students as are at leisure during the day-time.
xi
xii PREFACE
Professor Wensinck), and the ficole des Langues Orientales

Vivantes, Paris; — to Mr. J. A. Oldham, editor of The Inter-
national Review of Missions, I am indebted for the loan
of volumes of the Allgemeine Missions-Zeitschrift, a set
of which I have been unable to find in London ; my thanks
are specially due to Dr. F. W. Thomas, who has allowed me
to study for lengthy periods (along with other books from
the India Office Library) the monumental Annali dell'
Islam by Leone Caetani, Principe di Teano, — a work of
inestimable value for the early history of Islam, but unfor-
tunately placed out of the reach of the average scholar by
reason of its great cost.
I am also much indebted for several valuable indications
to those scholars who reviewed the book when it first
appeared, — above all, to Professor Goldziher, whose sym-
pathetic interest in this work has encouraged me to
continue it.
London., igij.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER I.
INTRODUCTION.
p.
A missionary religion defined. Islam a missionary religion; its

extent. violence
forbids The Qur'an enjoinsin preaching
and force and persuasion,
the conversion and
of unbelievers.
The present work a history of missions, not of persecutions
CHAPTER II.
STUDY OF THE LIFE OF MUHAMMAD CONSIDERED AS A
PREACHER OF ISLAM.
Muhammad the type of the Muslim missionary. Account of his

early efforts at propagating Islam, and of the conversions made
in Mecca before the Hijrah. Persecution of the converts, and
migration to Medina. Condition of the Muslims in Medina :
^beginning of the national life of Islam. Islam offered (a) to the
Arabs, {^) to the whole world. Islam declared in the Qur'an to
be a universal religion, — as being the primitive faith delivered
^to Abraham. Muhammad as the founder of a political organisa-
tion. The spread of Islam and the efforts made to convert the
Arabs after the Hijrah. The ideals of Islam and those of
^Pre-Islamic Arabia contrasted
CHAPTER III.
THE SPREAD OF ISLAM AMONG THE CHRISTIAN NATIONS OF
WESTERN ASIA.
The Arab conquests and expansion of the Arab race after the death
of Muhammad. Conversion of Christian Bedouins. Causes of
the early successes of the Muslims. Toleration extended to
those who remained Christian. — The settled population of the
towns : failure of Heraclius's attempt to reconcile the contend-
ing Christian sects. The Arab conquest of Syria and Palestine :
their toleration : the Ordinance of 'Umar : jizyah paid in return
for protection and in lieu of military service. Condition of
the Christians under Muslim rule : they occupy high posts,
build new churches : revival in the Nestorian Church. Causes
of their conversion to Islam : revolt against Byzantine ecclesi-
asticism : influence of rationalistic thought : imposing character
of Muslim civilisation. Persecutions suffered by the Christians.
Proselytising efforts. Details of conversion to Islam. — Account
of conversions from among the Crusaders. — The Armenian
and Georgian Churches ........ 45
xiii
xiv CONTENTS
CHAPTER IV.
THE SPREAD OF ISLAM AMONG THE CHRISTIAN NATIONS OF
AFRICA.
PACK
Egypt : conquered by the Arabs, who are welcomed by the Copts
as their dehverers from Byzantine rule. Condition of the
Copts under the Muslims. Corruption and negligence of the
clergy lead to conversions to Islam. — Nubia : relations with
Muhammadan powers : gradual decay of the Christian faith.
— Abyssinia : the Arabs on the sea-board : missionary efforts
in the fourteenth century : invasion of Ahmad Grafi : con-
versions to Islam : progress of Islam in recent years. —
Northern Africa : extent of Christianity in North Africa in the
seventh century : the Christians are said to have been forcibly
converted : reasons for thinking that this statement is not true :
toleration enjoyed by the Christians : gradual disappearance of
the Christian Church 102
CHAPTER V.
THE SPREAD OF ISLAM AMONG THE CHRISTIANS OF SPAIN.
Christianity in Spain before the Muslim conquest : miserable con-

dition of the Jews and the slaves. Early converts to Islam.
Corruption of the clergy. Toleration of the Arabs, and influence
of their civilisation on the Christians, who study Arabic and
adopt Arab dress and manners. Causes of conversion to Islam.
The voluntary martyrs of Cordova. Extent of the conversions 131
CHAPTER VI.
THE SPREAD OF ISLAM AMONG THE CHRISTIAN NATIONS IN
EUROPE UNDER THE TURKS.
Relations of the Turks to their Christian subjects during the first

two centuries of their rule : toleration extended to the Greek
Church by Muhammad II : the benefits of Ottoman rule : its
disadvantages, the tribute-children, the capitation-tax, tyranny
of individuals. Forced conversion rare. Proselytising efforts
made by the Turks. Circumstances that favoured the spread of
Islam: degraded condition of the Greek Church: failure of the
attempt to Protestantise the Greek Church : oppression of the
Greek clergy : moral superiority of the Ottomans : imposing
character of their conquests. Conversion of Christian slaves. —
Islam in Albania, conquest of the country, independent character
of its people, gradual decay of the Christian faith, and its
causes ;— in Servia, alliance of the Servians with the Turks,
conversions mainly from among the nobles except in Old
Servia ;— in Montenegro ;— in Bosnia, the Bogomiles, points of
similarity between the Bogomilian heresy and the Muslim creed,
conversion to Islam ;— in Crete, conversion in the ninth century,
oppression of the Venetian rule, conquered by the Turks, con-
versions to Islam 145
CONTENTS XV
CHAPTER VII.
THE SPREAD OF ISLAM IN PERSIA AND CENTRAL ASIA.
PAGH
Religious condition of Persia at the time of the Arab conquest.

Islam welcomed by many sections of the population. Points
of similarity between the older faiths and Islam. Toleration.
Conversions to Islam. The Isma'ilians and their missionary
system. Islam in Central Asia and Afghanistan . . . 206
CHAPTER VIII.
THE SPREAD OF ISLAM AMONG THE MONGOLS AND TATARS.
Account of the Mongol conquests. Buddhism, Christianity and

Islam in rivalry for the allegiance of the Mongols. Their
original religion, Shamanism, described. Spread of Buddhism,
of Christianity, and of Islam respectively among the Mongols.
Difficulties that stood in the way of Islam. Cruel treatment of
the Muslims by some Mongol rulers. Early converts to Islam.
Baraka Khan, the first Mongol prince converted. Conversion
of the Ilkhans. Conversion of the Chagjiatay Mongols.
History of Islam under the Golden Horde : Uzbek Khan :
failure of attempts to convert the Russians. Spread of Islam
in modern times in the Russian Empire. The conversion
of the Tatars of Siberia 218
CHAPTER IX.
THE SPREAD OF ISLAM IN INDIA. '^

Distribution of the Muhammadan population. Part taken by the
Muhammadan rulers in the propagation of Islam : conversion
of Rajputs and others. — The work of the Muslim missionaries
in India ; traditions of early missionary efforts in South India,
forced conversions under Haydar 'AH and Tipu Sultan, the
Mappilas :— in the Maldive Islands :— in the Deccan, early
Arab settlements, labours of individual missionaries :— in Sind,
the rule of the Arabs, their toleration, account of individual ' '
missionaries, conversion of the Khojahs and Bohras :— in
Bengal, the Muhammadan rule in this province, extensive con-
versions ofthe lower castes, religious revival in recent times.
— Particular account of the labours of Muslim missionaries in
other parts of India. Propagationist movements of modern
times. Circumstances facilitating the progress of Islam : the
oppressiveness of the Hindu caste system, worship of Muslim
saints, etc. — Spread of Islam in Kashmir and Tibet . . , 254
CHAPTER X.
THE SPREAD OF ISLAM IN CHINA.
Early notices of Islam in China. Intercourse of the Chinese with

the Arabs. Legendary account of the first introduction of
Islam into China. Muslims under the T'ang dynasty : influence
of the Mongol conquest ; Islam under the Ming dynasty.
Relations of the Chinese Muslims to the Chinese Government.
Their efforts to spread their religion 294
xvi CONTENTS
CHAPTER XI.
THE SPREAD OF ISLAM IN AFRICA.
PAGE
The Arabs in Northern Africa: conversion of the Berbers : the
mission of 'Abd Allah b. Yasln. Introduction of Islam into
the Sudan : rise of Muhammadan kingdoms : account of
missionary movements, Danfodio, 'Uthman al-Amlr Ghanl, the
Qadiriyyah, the Tijaniyyah, and the Saniisiyyah. Spread of
Islam on the West Coast : Ashanti : Dahomey. Spread of
Islam on the East Coast : early Muslim settlements : recent
expansion in German East Africa : the Galla : the Somali.
Islam in Cape Coast Colony. Account of the Muslim mission-
aries in Africa and their methods of winning converts . « 312
CHAPTER XII.
THE SPREAD OF ISLAM IN THE MALAY ARCHIPELAGO.
Early intercourse between the Malay Archipelago and Arabia and

India. Methods of missionary work. History of Islam in
Sumatra ; in the Malay Peninsula ; in Java ; in the Moluccas ;
in Borneo; in Celebes; in the Philippine and the Sulu Islands;
among the Papuans. The Muslim missionaries : traders : hajis 363
CHAPTER XIII.
CONCLUSION.
Absence of missionary organisation in Islam : zeal on the part ot

individuals. Who are the Muslim missionaries ? Causes that
^have contributed to their success : the simplicity of the Muslim
creed : the rationalism and ritualism of Islam. Islam not spread
iby the sword. The toleration of Muhammadan governments.
Circumstances contributing to the progress of Islam in ancient
and in modern times 408
APPENDIX I.
Letter of al-Hashiml inviting al-Kindl to embrace Islam . . 428
APPENDIX II.
Controversial literature between Muslims and the followers of other

faiths 436
APPENDIX III.
Muslim missionary societies 438
Titles of Works cited by Abbreviated References . . 440

Index 457
THE PREACHING OF ISLAM
CHAPTER I.
INTRODUCTION.
Ever since Professor Max Miiller delivered his lecture in

Westminster Abbey, on the day of intercession for missions,
in December, 1873, it has been a hterary commonplace,
that the six great religions of the world may be divided into
missionary and non-missionary; under the latter head
fall Judaism, Brahmanism and Zoroastrianism, and under
the former Buddhism, Christianity and Islam ; and he well
defined what the term, — a missionary religion, — should be
taken to mean, viz. one " in which the spreading of the
truth and the conversion of unbehevers are raised to the
rank of a sacred duty by the founder or his immediate
successors. ... It is the spirit of truth in the hearts of
believers which cannot rest, unless it manifests itself in
thought, word and deed, which is not satisfied till it has
carried its message 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 rehgion that has
inspired the Muhammadans to carry with them the message
of Islam to the people of every land into which they pene-
trate, and that justly claims for their rehgion a place among
those we term missionary. It is the history of the birth
of this missionary zeal, its inspiring forces and the modes
of its activity that forms the subject of the following pages.
The 200 millions of Muhammadans scattered over the
1 A note on Mr. Lyall's article : " Missionary Religions." Fortnightly
Review, July, 1874.
B
2 THE PREACHING OF ISLAM
world at the present day are evidences of its workings

through the length of thirteen centuries.
The doctrines of this faith were first proclaimed to the
people of Arabia in the seventh century, by a prophet under
whose banner their scattered tribes became a nation ; and
filled with the pulsations of this new national life, and with
a fervour and enthusiasm that imparted an almost invincible
strength to their armies, they poured forth over three
continents to conquer and subdue. Syria, Palestine,
Egypt, North Africa and Persia were the first to fall before
them, and pressing westward to Spain and eastward beyond
the Indus, the followers of the Prophet found themselves,
one hundred years after his death, masters of an ehipire
greater than that of Rome at the zenith of its power.
Although in after years this great empire was split up
and the political power of Islam diminished, still its
spiritual conquests went on uninterruptedly. When the
Mongol hordes sacked Baghdad (a.d. 1258) and drowned in
blood the faded glory of the 'Abbasid dynasty, — when the
Muslims were expelled from Cordova by Ferdinand of Leon
and Castile (a.d. 1236), and Granada, the last stronghold
of Islam in Spain, paid tribute to the Christian king, — Islam
had just gained a footing in the island of Sumatra and was
just about to commence its triumphant progress through
the islands of the Malay Archipelago. _IrLthe hours of its
political degradation, Islam has achieved some of its most
brilliant spiritual conquests : on two great historical occa-
sions, infidel barbarians have set their feet on the necks
of the followers of the Prophet, — the Saljiiq Turks in the
eleventh and the Mongols in the thirteenth century, — and
in each case the conquerors have accepted the religion of
the conquered. Unaided also by the temporal power,
Muslim missionaries have carried their faith into Central
Africa, China and the East India Islands.
At the present day the faith of Islam extends from Morocco
to Zanzibar, from Sierra Leone to Siberia and China, from
Bosnia to New Guinea. Outside the limits of strictly
Muhammadan countries and of lands, such as China and
Russia, that contain a large Muhammadan population,
there are some few small communities of the followers of
INTRODUCTION 3
the Prophet, which bear witness to the faith of Islam in
the midst of unbehevers. Such are the Pohsh-speaking
Mushms of Tatar origin in Lithuania, that inliabit the
districts of Kovno, Vilno and Grodno ; ^ the Dutch-speaking
Mushms of Cape Colony; and the Indian coohes that have
carried the faith of Islam with them to the West India
Islands and to British and Dutch Guiana. In recent
years, too, Islam has found adherents in England, in North
America, Australia and Japan.
The spread of this faith over so vast a portion of the globe
is due to various causes, social, political and religious :
but among these, one of the most powerful factors at work
in the production of this stupendous result, has been the
unremitted labours of Muslim missionaries, who, with the
Prophet himself as their great ensample, have spent them-
selves for the conversion of unbelievers.
The duty of missionary work is no after-thought in the
history of Islam, but was enjoined on believers from the
beginning, as may be judged from the following passages
in the Qur'an, — which are here quoted in chronological
order according to the date of their being delivered.
" Summon thou to the way of thy Lord with wisdom

and with kindly warning : dispute with them in the
kindest manner, (xvi. 126.)
" They who have inherited the Book after them (i.e. the
Jews and Christians), are in perplexity of doubt
concerning it.
" For this cause summon thou (them to the faith), and
walk uprightly therein as thou hast been bidden,
and follow not their desires : and say : In whatsoever
Books God hath sent down do I believe : I am com-
manded to decide justly between you : God is your
Lord and our Lord : we have our works and you have
your works : between us and you let there be no
strife : God will make us all one : and to Him shall
we return." (xlii. 13-14.)
Similar injunctions are found also in the Medinite Siirahs,
^ Reclus, vol. V. p. 433; Gasztowtt, p. 320 sqq.
delivered at a time when Muhammad was at the head of
a large army and at the height of his power.
" Say to those who have been given the Book and to the
ignorant, Do you accept Islam ? Then, if they
accept Islam, are they guided aright : but if they
turn away, then thy duty is only preaching; and
God's eye is on His servants, (iii. 19.)
" Thus God clearly showeth you His signs that perchance
ye may be guided ;
" And that there may be from among you a people who
invite to the Good, and enjoin the Just, and forbid
the Wrong; and these are they with whom it shall
be well. (iii. 99-100.)
" To every people have We appointed observances which
they observe. Therefore let them not dispute the
matter with thee, but summon them to thy Lord :
Verily thou art guided aright :
" But if they debate with thee, then say : God best
knoweth what ye do ! " (xxii. 66-67.)
The following passages are taken from what is generally
supposed to be the last Surah that was delivered.
" If any one of those who join gods with God ask an
asylum of thee, grant him an asylum in order that
he may hear the word of God ; then let him reach his
place of safety." (ix. 6.)
With regard to the unbelievers who had broken their
plighted word, who " sell the signs of God for a mean price
and turn others aside from His way," and " respect not
with a believer either ties of blood or good faith," ... it
is said :—
" Yet if they turn to God and observe prayer and give
alms, then are they your brothers in the faith : and
We make clear the signs for men of knowledge."
(ix. II.)
Thus from its very inception Islam has been a missionary
rehgion, both in theory and in practice, for the life of
Muhammad exemplifies the same teaching, and the Prophet
INTRODUCTION 5
himself stands at the head of a long series of Muslim

missionaries who have won an entrance for their faith into
the hearts of unbehevers. Moreover it is not in the cruelties
of the persecutor or the fury of the fanatic that we should
look for the evidences of the missionary spirit of Islam,
any more than in the exploits of that mythical personage,
the Muslim warrior with sword in one hand and Qur'an
in the other, ^ — but in the quiet, unobtrusive labours of the
preacher and the trader who have carried their faith into
every quarter of the globe. Such peaceful methods of
preaching and persuasion were not adopted, as some would
have us believe, only when political circumstances made
force and violence impossible or impolitic, but were most
strictly :—enjoined in numerous passages of the Qur'an, as
follows
" And endure what they say with patience, and depart
from them with a decorous departure.
" And let Me alone with the gainsayers, rich in the
pleasures (of this life) ; and bear thou with them yet
a little while. (Ixxiii. lo-ii.)
" (My) sole (work) is preaching from God and His message.
(Ixxii. 24.)
" Tell those who have beheved to pardon those who hope
not for the days of God in which He purposeth to
recompense men according to their deserts, (xlv. 13.)
" 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 from
Him, declared anything unlawful.' Thus acted
they who were before them. Yet is the duty of the
apostles other than plain-spoken preaching ? (xvi.
37-)
^ This misinterpretation of the MusHm wars of conquest has arisen from
the assumption that wars waged for the extension of Mushm domination
over the lands of the unbehevers implied that the aim in view was their
conversion. Goldziher has well pointed out this distinction in his Vor-
lesungen fiber den Islam : " Was Muhammed zunachst in seinem arabischen
Umkreise getan, das hinterlasst er als Testament fur die Zukunft seiner
Gemeinde : Bekampfung der Unglaubigen, die Ausbreitung nicht so sehr
des Glaubens als seiner Machtsphare, die die Machtsphare AUahs ist. Es
ist dabei den Kampfern des I slams zunachst nicht so sehr um Bekehrung
als um Unterwerfung der Unglaubigen zu tun," (p. 25.)
" Then if they turn their backs, still thy office is only
plain-spoken preaching, (xvi. 84.)
" Dispute ye not, unless in kindliest sort, with the people
of the Book; save with such of them as have dealt
wrongfully (with you) : and say ye, ' We believe in
what has been sent down to us and hath been sent
down to you. Our God and your God is one, and
to Him are we self-surrendered.' (xxix. 45.)
" But if they turn aside from thee, yet We have not
sent thee to be guardian over them. 'Tis thine but
to preach, (xlii. 47.)
" But if thy Lord had pleased, verily all who are in the
world would have beheved together. Wilt thou
'^ then compel men to become believers ? (x. 99.)
" And we have not sent thee otherwise than to mankind
— .^ at large, to announce and to warn." (xxxiv. 27.)
Such precepts are not confined to the Meccan Surahs, but
are found in abundance also in those delivered at Medina,
as follows :—
" Let there be no compulsion in religion, (ii. 257.)

" Obey God and obey the apostle; but if ye turn away,
yet is our apostle only charged with plain-spoken
preaching. (Ixiv. 12.)
" Obey God and obey the apostle : but if ye turn back,
still the burden of his duty is on him only, and the
burden of your duty rests on you. And if ye obey
him, ye shall have guidance : but plain preaching is
all that devolves upon the apostle, (xxiv. 53.)
" Say : O men ! I am only your plain-spoken (open)
Warner, (xxii. 48.)
" Verily We have sent thee to be a witness and a herald
of good and a warner,
" That ye may believe on God and on His apostle; and
may assist Him and honour Him, and praise Him
morning and evening, (xlviii. 8-9.)
" Thou wilt not cease to discover the treacherous ones
among them, except a few of them. But forgive
them and pass it over. Verily, God loveth those
who act generously." (v. 16.)
INTRODUCTION 7
It is the object of the following pages to show how this
ideal was realised in history and how these principles of
missionary activity were put into practice b}^ the exponents
of Islam. And at the outset the reader should clearly
understand that this work is not intended to be a history
of Muhammadan persecutions but of Muhammadan missions
— it does not aim at chronicling the instances of forced
conversions which may be found scattered up and down
the pages of Muhammadan histories. European writers
have taken such care to accentuate these, that there is no
fear of their being forgotten, and they do not strictly come
within the province of a history of missions. In a history
of Christian missions we should naturally expect to hear
more of the labours of St. Liudger and St. Willehad among
the pagan Saxons than of the baptisms that Charlemagne
forced them to undergo at the point of the sword. ^ The
true missionaries of Denmark were St. Ansgar and his
successors rather than King Cnut, who forcibly rooted
out paganism from his dominions. ^ Abbot Gottfried and
Bishop Christian, though less successful in converting the
pagan Prussians, were more truly representative of Christian
missionary work than the Brethren of the Sword and other
Crusaders who brought their labours to completion by means
of fire and sword. The knights of the " Ordo fratrum
militiae Christi " forced Christianity on the people of Livonia,
but it is not to these militant propagandists but to the monks
Meinhard and Theodoric that we should point as being the
true missionaries of the Christian faith in this country.
The violent means sometimes employed by the Jesuit
missionaries ^ cannot derogate from the honour due to
St. Francis Xavier and other preachers of the same order.
Nor is Valentyn any the less the apostle of Amboyna be-
cause in 1699 ^^ order was promulgated to the Rajas of this
^ Seeet Enhardi
caedes Fuldensis
varia bella afflicti, Annales, a.d. 777.effecti,
tandem christiani " Saxones post multas
Francorum dicioni
subduntur." G. H. Pertz : Monumenta Germanic Historica, vol. i.p. 349.
(See also pp. 156, 159.)
* " Turn zelo propagandas fidei succensus, barbara regna iusto certamine
aggressus, devictas subditasque nationes christianse legi subiugavit."
(Breviarium Romanum. lun. 19.)
^ Mathurin Veyssiere de la Croze : Histoire du Christianisme des Indes,
PP- 529-531- (The Hague, 1724.)
island that they should have ready a certain number

of pagans to be baptised, when the pastor came on his
rounds.^
In the history of the Christian church missionary activity
is seen to be intermittent, and an age of apostolic fervour
may be succeeded by a period of apathy and indifference,
or persecution and forced conversion may take the place of
the preaching of the Word ; so likewise does the propaganda
of Islam in various epochs of Muhammadan history ebb
and flow. But since the zeal of proselytising is a distinct
feature of either faith, its missionary history may fittingly
be singled out as a separate branch of study, not as ex-
cluding other manifestations of the religious life but as
concentrating attention on an aspect of it that has special
characteristics of its own. Thus the annals of propaganda
and persecution may be studied apart from one another,
whether in the history of the Christian or the Muslim
church, though in both they may be at times commingled.
For just as the Christian faith has not always been propa-
gated by the methods adopted in Viken (the southern
part of Norway) by King Olaf Trygvesson, who either
slew those who refused to accept Christianity, or cut off
their hands or feet, or drove them into banishment, and
in this manner spread the Christian faith throughout the
whole of Viken, 2 — and just as the advice of St. Louis has
not been made a principle of Christian missionary work, —
" When a layman hears the Christian law ill spoken of,
he should not defend that law save with his sword, which
he should thrust into the infidel's belly, as far as it will
go," ^ — so there have been Muslim missionaries who have
not been guided in their propagandist methods by the
savage utterance of Marwan, the last of the 'Umayyad
caliphs : " Whosoever among the people of Egypt does not
enter into my religion and pray as I pray and follow my
tenets, I will slay and crucify him." ^ Nor are al-Mutawak-
1 Revue de I'Histoire des Religions, vol. xi. p. 89.
* Konrad Maurer : Die Bekehrung des norwegischen Stammes zum
Christenthume, vol. i. p. 284. (Miinchen, 1855.)
* Jean, Sire dc Joinvillc : HLstoire de Saint Louis, ed. N. de Wailly,
p- 30. .{§ 53)-
* Severus, p. 191 Ql 21-2?).
INTRODUCTION 9
kil, al-Hakim and Tipu Sultan to be looked upon as typical

missionaries of Islam to the exclusion of such preachers as
Mawlana
Din ChishtlIbrahim, in India the
and apostle of Java,
countless others Khwajah
who won Mu'in al-
converts
to the Muslim faith by peaceful means alone.
But though a clear distinction can be drawn between
conversion as the result of persecution and a peaceful propa-
ganda by means of methods of persuasion, it is not so easy
to ascertain the motives :.that have induced the convert to
change his faith, or_ to discover whether the missionary
has been wholly animated by a love of souls and by the
high ideal set forth in the first paragraph of this chapter.
Both in Christianity and Islam there have been at all times
earnest souls to whom their religion has been the supreme
reality of their lives, and this absorbing interest in matters
of the spirit has found expression in that zeal for the
communication of cherished truths and for the domination
of doctrines and systems they have deemed perfect, which
constitutes the vivifying force of missionary movements, —
and there have likewise been those without the pale,
who have responded to their appeal and have embraced
the new faith with a like fervour. But, on the other hand,
Islam — like Christianity — has reckoned among its adherents
many persons to whom ecclesiastical institutions have been
merely instruments of a political policy or forms of social
organisation, to be accepted either as disagreeable neces-
sities or as convenient solutions of problems that they do
not care to think out for themselves ; such persons may ^
likewise be found among the converts of either faith. Thus
both Christianity and Islam have added to the number of
their followers by methods and under conditions — social,
political and economic — which have no connection with
such a thirst for souls as animates the true missionary.
Moreover, the annals of missionary enterprise frequently
record the admission of converts without any attempt to
analyse the motives that have led them to change their
faith, and especially for the history of Muslim missions
there is a remarkable poverty of material in this respect,
since Muslim literature is singularly poor in those records
of conversions that occupy such a large place in the literature
of the Christian church. Accordingly, in the following

sketch of the missionary activity of Islam, it has not always
been possible to discover whether political, social, economic
or purely religious motives have determined conversion,
though occasional reference can be made to the operation
of one or the other influence.
CHAPTER II.
STUDY OF THE LIFE OF MUHAMMAD CONSIDERED AS A

PREACHER OF ISLAM.
It is not proposed in this chapter to add another to the

akeady numerous biographies of Muhammad, but rather
to make a study of his hfe 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. The life of the
founder of Islam and the inaugurator of its propaganda
may naturally be expected to exhibit to us the true character
of the missionary activity of this rehgion. If the life of the
Prophet serves as the standard of conduct for the ordinary
believer, it must do the same for the Muslim missionary.
From the pattern, therefore, we may hope to learn something
of the spirit that would animate those who sought to copy
it, and of the methods they might be expected to adopt.
For the missionary spirit of Islam is no after-thought in its
history; it interpenetrates the rehgion from its very com-
mencement, and in the following sketch it is desired to show
how this is so, how Muhammad the Prophet is the tj^pe 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 manhood, or to consider him in the light
either of a statesman or a general : it is as the preacher
alone that he, will demand our attention.
When, after long internal conflict and disquietude,
Muhammad was at length convinced of his divine mission,
his earliest efforts were directed towards persuading his
own family of the truth of the new doctrine. The unity
of God, the abomination of idolatry, the duty laid upon
man of submission to the will of his Creator, — these were
the simple truths to which he claimed their allegiance.
II
The first convert was his faithful and loving wife, Ivhadijah.
— she who fifteen years before had offered her hand in
marriage to the poor kinsman that had so successfully
traded with her merchandise as a hired agent, — with the
words, " I love thee, my cousin, for thy kinship with me,
for the respect with which thy people regard thee, for thy
honesty, for the beauty of thy character and for the truth-
fulness ofthy speech." ^ She had lifted him out of poverty,
and enabled him to five up to the social position to which
he was entitled by right of birth ; but this was as nothing to
the fidelity and loving devotion with which she shared his
mental anxieties, and helped him with tenderest sympathy
and encouragement in the hour of his despondency.
Up to her death in a.d. 619 (after a wedded life of five
and twent}^ years) she was always ready with sympathy,
consolation and encouragement whenever he suffered from
the persecution of his enemies or was tortured by doubts
and misgivings. " So Hiadljah believed," says the bio-
grapher of the Prophet, " and attested the truth of that
which came to him from God and aided him in his under-
taking. Thus was the Lord minded to lighten the burden
of His Prophet ; for whenever he heard anything that
grieved him touching his rejection by the people, he would
return to her and God would comfort him through her,
for she reassured him and hghtened his burden and de-
clared her trust in him and made it easy for him to bear
the scorn of men." ^
Among the earliest believers were his adopted children
Zayd and 'AH, and his bosom friend Abu Bakr, of whom
Muhammad would often say in after years, " I never
"^ invited any to the faith who displayed not hesitation,
perplexity and vacillation — excepting only Abii Bakr;
who when I told him of Islam tarried not, neither was
perplexed." He was a wealthy merchant, much respected
by his fellow citizens 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 Muslim slaves who were persecuted by their masters
on account of their adherence to the teaching of Muhammad,
1 Ito Jshaq, p. 130, * Id. p. 155.
STUDY OF THE LIFE OF MUHAMMAD 13
Through his influence, to a great extent, five of the earHest

converts were added to the number of behevers, Sa'd b.
Abi Waqqas, the future conqueror of the Persians; al-
Zubayr b. al-'Awwam, a relative both of the Prophet and
his wife; Talhah, famous as a warrior in after days; a
wealthy merchant 'Abd al-Rahman b. 'Awf, and 'Uthman,
the third Hialifah. The last was early exposed to persecu-
;
tion his uncle seized and bound him, saying, " Dost thou
prefer a new religion to that of thy fathers ? I swear I will
not loose thee until thou givest up this new faith thou art
following after." To which 'Uthman rephed, " By the
Lord, I will never abandon it ! " Whereupon his uncle,
seeing the firmness of his attachment to his faith, released
him.
With other additions, particularly from among slaves
and poor persons, the Prophet succeeded in collecting round
him a little band of followers during the first three years
of his mission. Encouraged by the success of these private
efforts, Muhammad determined on more active measures
and began to preach in public. He called his kinsmen
together and invited them to embrace the new faith.
" No Arab," he urged, " has offered to his nation more
precious advantages than those I bring you. I offer you
happiness in this world and in the life to come. Who
among you will aid me in this task ? " All were silent.
Only 'AH, with boyish enthusiasm, cried out, " Prophet of
God, I will aid thee." At this the company broke up with
derisive laughter.
Undeterred by the ill-success of this preaching, he
repeatedly appealed to them on other occasions, but his
message and his warnings received from them nothing but
scoffing and contempt.
More than once the Quraysh tried to induce his uncle
Abii Talib, as head of the clan of the Banii Hashim, to
which Muhammad belonged, to restrain him from making
such attacks upon their ancestral faith, or otherwise they
threatened to resort to more violent measures. Abu
Talib accordingly appealed to his nephew not to bring
disaster on himself and his family. The Prophet replied :
" Were the sun to come down on my right hand and the
moon on my left, and the choice were offered me of abandon-

ing my mission until God himself should reveal it, or
perishing in the achievement of it, I would not abandon it."
Abii Talib was moved and exclaimed, " Go and say whatever
thou wilt : by God ! I will never give thee up unto thy
enemies."
The Quraysh viewed the progress of the new religion
with increasing dissatisfaction and hatred. They adopted
all possible means, threats and promises, insults and offers
of worldly honour and aggrandisement to induce Muhammad
to abandon the part he had taken up. The violent abuse
with which he was assailed is said to have been the indirect
cause of drawing to his side one important convert in the
person of his uncle, Hamzah, whose chivalrous soul was so
stung to sudden sympathy by a tale of insult inflicted on
and patiently borne by his nephew, that he changed at
once from a bitter enemy into a staunch adherent. His
was not the only instance of sympathy for the sufferings
of the Muslims being aroused at the sight of the persecu-
tions they had to endure, and many, no doubt, secretly
favoured the new religion who did not declare themselves
until the day of its triumph.
The hostility of the Quraysh to the new faith increased
in bitterness as they watched the increase in the numbers
of its adherents. They realised that the triumph of the
new teaching meant the destruction of the national religion
and the national worship, and a loss of wealth and power
to the guardians of the sacred Ka'bah. Muhammad him-
self was safe under the protection of Abut Talib and the
Banu Hashim, who, though they had no sympathy for the
doctrines their kinsman taught, yet with the strong clan-
feeling peculiar to the Arabs, secured him from any attempt
upon his life, though he was still exposed to continual
insult and annoyance. But the poor who had no protector,
and the slaves, had to endure the crudest persecution,
and were imprisoned and tortured in order to induce them
to recant. It was at this time that Abii Bakr purchased
the freedom of Bilal,i an African slave, who was called by
^ He is famous throughout the Muhammadan world as the first
mu'adlidhin.
Muhammad " the first-fruits of Abyssinia." He had been

cruelly tortured by being exposed, day after day, to the
scorching rays of the sun, stretched out on his back, with
an enormous stone on his stomach; here he was told he
would have to stay until either he died or renounced
Muhammad and worshipped idols, to which he would reply
only, " There is but one God, there is but one God." Two
persons died under the tortures they had to undergo.
The constancy of a few gave way under the trial, but perse-
cution served only to re-kindle the zeal of others. 'Abd Allah
b. Mas'ud made bold to recite a passage of the Qur'an
within the precincts of the Ka'bah itself, — an act of daring
that none of the followers of Muhammad had ventured upon
before. The assembled Quraysh attacked him and smote
him on the face, but it was some time before they com-
pelled him to desist. He returned to his companions,
prepared to bear witness to his faith in a similar manner
on the next day, but they dissuaded him, saying, " This
is enough for thee, since thou hast made them hsten to
what they hated to hear."
The virulence of the opposition of the Quraysh is probably
the reason why in the fourth year of his mission Muhammad
took up his residence in the house of al-Arqam, one of the
early converts. It was in a central situation, much fre-
quented by pilgrims and strangers, and here peaceably
and without interruption he was able to preach the doctrines
of Islam to all enquirers that came to him. Muhammad's
stay in this house marks an important epoch in the propa-
gation of Islam in Mecca, and many Muslims dated their
conversion from the days when the Prophet preached in
the house of al-Arqam. .
As Muhammad was unable to relieve his persecuted
followers, he advised them to take refuge in Abyssinia,
and in the fifth year of his mission (a.d. 615), eleven men and
four women crossed over to Abyssinia, where they received
a kind welcome from the Christian king of the country.
Among them was a certain Mus'ab b. 'Umayr whose
history is interesting as of one who had to endure that
most bitter trial of the new convert — the hatred of those
he loves and who once loved him. He had been led to
i6 THE PREACHING OF ISLAM
embrace Islam through the teaching he had hstened to in the

house of al-Arqam, but he was afraid to let the fact of his
conversion become known, because his tribe and 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
effecting his escape to Abyssinia.
The hatred of the Quraysh is said to have pursued the
fugitives even to Abyssinia, and an embassy was sent to
demand their extradition from the king of that country.
But when he heard their story from the Muslims, he
refused to withdraw from them his protection. In
answer to his enquiries as to their religion, they said :
" O King, we were plunged in the darkness of ignorance,
worshipping idols, and eating carrion ; we practised abomina-
tions, severed the ties of kinship and maltreated our
neighbours ; the strong among us devoured the weak ; and
so we remained until God sent us an apostle, from among
ourselves, whose lineage we knew as well as his truth, his
trustworthiness and the purity of his life. He called upon
us to worship the One God and abandon the stones and
idols that our fathers had worshipped in His stead. He
bade us be truthful in speech, faithful to our promises,
compassionate and kind to our parents and neighbours,
and to desist from crime and bloodshed. He forbade to
do evil, to lie, to rob the orphan or defame women. He
enjoined on us the worship of God alone, with prayer,
almsgiving and fasting. And we believed in him and
followed the teachings that he brought us from God. But
our countr}TTien rose up against us and persecuted us to
make us renounce our faith, and^return to the worship of
idols and the abominations of our forhienlife. So when they
cruelly entreated us, reducing us to bitter "Straits and came
between us and the practice of our religion, we took refuge
in your country; putting our trust in your justice, we hope
that you will deliver us from the oppression of our enemies."
Their prayer was heard and the embassy of the Quraysh re-
turned discomfited.^ Meanwhile, in Mecca, a fresh attempt
^ Ibn Ishaq, p. 219-220. Tabari makes no mention of this mission and
Caetani (i. p. 278) accordingly suggests that it is a later invention.
was made to induce the Prophet to abandon his work of
preaching by promises of wealth and honour, but in vain.
While the result of the embassy to Abyssinia was being
looked for in Mecca with the greatest expectancy, there
occurred the conversion of a man, who before had been
one of the most bitter enemies of Muhammad, and had
opposed him with the utmost persistence and fanaticism —
a man whom the Muslims had every reason then to look
on as their most terrible and virulent enemy, though after-
wards he shines as one of the noblest figures in the early
history of Islam, viz. 'Umar b. al-Hhattab. One day, in
a fit of rage against the Prophet, he set out, sword in hand,
to slay him. On the way, one of his relatives met him
and asked him where he was going. " I am looking for
Muhammad," he answered, " to kill the renegade who has
brought discord among the Quraysh, called them fools,
reviled their religion and defamed their gods." " Why
dost thou not rather punish those of thy own family, and
set them right ? " " And who are these of my own family ? "
answered 'Umar. " Thy brother-in-law Sa'id and thy sister
Fatimah, who have become Muslims and followers of Muham-
mad." 'Umar at once rushed off to the house of his sister,
and found her with her husband and Hiabbab, another
of the followers of Muhammad, who was teaching them to
recite a chapter of the Qur'an. 'Umar burst into the room :
" What was that sound I heard ? " "It was nothing,"
they replied. " Nay, but I heard you, and I have learned
that you have become followers of Muhammad." Where-
upon he rushed upon Sa'id and struck him. Fatimah
threw herself between them, to protect her husband, crying,
" Yes, we are Muslims ; we beheve in God and His Prophet :
slay us if you will." In the struggle his sister was wounded,
and when 'Umar saw the blood on her face, he was softened
and asked to see the paper they had been reading : after
some hesitation she handed it to him. It contained the 20th
Surah of the Qur'an. When 'Umar read it, he exclaimed,
" How beautiful, how sublime it is ! " As he read on,
conviction suddenly overpowered him and he cried, " Lead
me to Muhammad that I may tell him of my conversion." ^
^ Ibn Ishaq, pp. 225-6.
The conversion of 'Umar is a turning-point in the history

of Islam : the Miishms were now able to take up a bolder
attitude. Muhammad left the house of al-Arqam and the
believers publicly performed their devotions together
round the Ka'bah. The situation might thus be expected
to give the aristocracy of Mecca just cause for apprehension.
For they had no longer to deal with a band of oppressed
and despised outcasts, struggling for a weak and miserable
existence. It was rather a powerful faction, adding daily
to its strength by the accession of influential citizens and
endangering the stability of the existing government by
an alliance with a powerful foreign prince.
The Quraysh resolved accordingly to make a determined
effort to check the further growth of the new movement
in their cit}^ They put the Banii Hashim, who through
ties of kindred protected the Prophet, under a ban, in
accordance with which the Quraysh agreed that they would
not marry their women, nor give their own in marriage to
them; they would sell nothing to them, nor buy aught
from them — that dealings with them of every kind should
cease. For three years the Banii Hashim are said to have
been confined to one quarter of the city, except during the
sacred months, in which all war ceased throughout Arabia
and a truce was made in order that pilgrims might visit
the sacred Ka'bah, the centre of the national religion.
Muhammad used to take advantage of such times of
pilgrimage to preach to the various tribes that flocked to
Mecca and the adjacent fairs. But with no success, for
his uncle Abu Lahab used to dog his footsteps, crying with
a loud voice, "He is an impostor who wants to draw you
away from the faith of your fathers to the false doctrines
that he brings, wherefore separate yourselves from him
and hear him not." They would taunt him with the words :
" Thine own people and kindred should know thee best : \
wherefore do they not believe and follow thee ? " But at
length the privations endured by Muhammad and his
kinsmen enlisted the sympathy of a numerous section of
the Quraysh and the ban was withdrawn.
In the same 3'ear the loss of Khadljah. the faithful wife
who for twenty-five years had been his counsellor and
support, plunged Muhammad into the utmost grief and
despondency; and a Httle later the death of Abu Talib
deprived him of his constant and most powerful protector
and exposed him afresh to insult and contumely.
Scorned and rejected by his own townsmen, to whom he
had delivered his message with so Httle success for ten years,
he resolved to see if there were not others who might be
more ready to hsten, among whom the seeds of faith might
find a more receptive and fruitful soil. With this hope he
set out for Ta'if, a city about seventy miles from Mecca.
Before an assembly of the chief men of the city, he ex-
pounded his doctrine of the unity of God and of the mission
he had received as the Prophet of God to proclaim this
faith ; at the same time he besought their protection against
his persecutors in Mecca. The disproportion between his
high claims (which moreover were unintelligible to the
heathen people of Ta'if) and his helpless condition only
excited their ridicule and scorn, and pitilessly stoning him
with stones they drove him from their city.
On his return from Ta'if the prospects of the success of
Muhammad seemed more hopeless than ever, and the
agony of his soul gave itself utterance in the words that he
puts into the mouth of Noah : " O my Lord, verily I have
cried to my people night and day ; and my cry only makes
them flee from me the more. And verily, so oft as I cry
to them, that Thou mayest forgive them, they thrust their
fingers into their ears and wrap themselves in their garments,
and persist (in their error), and are disdainfully disdainful."
(Ixxi. 5-6.)
It was the Prophet's habit at the time of the annual pilgrim-
age to visit the encampments of the various Arab tribes
and discourse with them upon rehgion. By some his words
were treated with indifference, by others rejected with
scorn. But consolation came to him from an unexpected
quarter. He met a little group of six or seven persons
whom he recognised as coming from Medina, or, as it was
then called, Yathrib. " Of what tribe are you ? " said he,
addressing them. " We are of the Hiazraj," they answered.
" Friends of the Jews ? " " Yes." " Then will you not
sit down awhile, that I may talk with you ? " " Assuredly,"
replied they. Then they sat down with him, and he pro-
claimed unto them the true God and preached Islam and
recited to them the Qur'an. Now so it was, in that God
wrought wonderfully for Islam that there were found in
their country Jews, who possessed scriptures and wisdom,
while they themselves were heathen and idolaters. Now
the Jews ofttimes suffered violence at their hands, and
when strife was between them had ever said to them,
" Soon will a Prophet arise and his time is at hand; him
will we follow, and with him slay you with the slaughter
of 'Ad and of Iram." When now the apostle of God was
speaking with these men and calling on them to believe in
God, they said one to another : " Know surely that this
is the Prophet, of whom the Jews have warned us; come
let us now make haste and be the first to join him." So
they embraced Islam, and said to him, " Our countrymen
have long been engaged in a most bitter and deadty feud
with one another; but now perhaps God will unite them
together through thee and thy teaching. Therefore we
will preach to them and make known to them this religion,
that we have received from thee." So, full of faith, they
returned to their own country.^
Such is the traditional account of this event which was
the turning-point of Muhammad's mission. He had now
met with a people whose antecedents had in some way
prepared their minds for 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
whom some national disaster, possibly the persecution
under Hadrian, had driven from their own country, when
a party of wandering emigrants, the two Arab clans of
Khazraj and Aws, arrived at Yathrib and were admitted
to a share in the territory. As their numbers increased
they encroached more and more 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.
Some of the Arabs had embraced the Jewish religion, and
many of the former masters of the city still dwelt there in
^ Ibn Ishaq, pp. 2S6-7.
the service of their conquerors, so that it contained in

Muhammad's time a considerable Jewish population. The
people of Yathrib were thus familiar with the idea of a
Messiah who was to come, and were consequently more
capable of understanding the claim of Muhammad to be
accepted as the Prophet of God, than were the idolatrous
Meccans to whom such an idea was entirely foreign and
especiall}'- distasteful to the Quraysh, whose supremacy
over the other tribes and whose worldly prosperity arose
from the fact that they were the hereditary guardians of
the national collection of idols kept in the sacred enclosure
of the Ka'bah.
Further, the city of Yathrib was distracted by incessant
civil discord through a long-standing feud between the
Banii Khazraj and the Banii Aws. The citizens lived in
uncertainty and suspense, and anything hkely to bind the
conflicting parties together by a tie of common interest
could not but prove a boon to the city. Just as the mediaeval
repubhcs of Northern Italy chose a stranger to hold the
chief post in their cities in order to maintain some balance
of power between the rival factions, and prevent, if possible,
the civil strife which was so ruinous to commerce and the
general welfare, so the Yathribites would not look upon
the arrival of a stranger with suspicion, even though he
was likely to usurp or gain permission to assume the vacant
authority.
On the contrary, one of the reasons for the warm welcome
which Muhammad received in Medina would seem to be
that the adoption of Islam appeared to the more thoughtful
of its citizens to be a remedy for the disorders from which
their society was suffering, by its orderly disciphne of life
and its bringing the unruly passions of men under the
discipline of laws enunciated by an authority superior to
individual caprice.^
These facts go far to explain how eight years after the
Hijrah Muhammad could, at the head of 10,000 followers,
enter the city in which he had laboured for ten years with
so meagre a result.
But this is anticipating. Muhammad had proposed to
1 Caetani, vol. i. pp. 334-5.
accompany his new converts, the Kliazrajites. to Yathrib

himself, but they dissuaded him therefrom, until a reconcili-
ation could be effected with the Banu Aws. " Let us, we
pray thee, return unto our people, if haply the Lord will
create peace amongst us ; and we will come back again
unto thee. Let the season of pilgrimage in the following
year be the appointed time." So they returned to their
homes, and invited their people to the faith; and many
believed, so that there remained hardly a family in which
mention was not made of the Prophet.
When the time of pilgrimage again came round, a deputa-
tion from Yathrib, ten men of the Banu Hiazraj, and two
of the Banii Aws, met him at the appointed spot and
pledged him their word to obey his teaching. This, the
first pledge of 'Aqabah, so called from the secret spot at
which the}^ met, ran as follows :— " We will not worship
any but the one God; we will not steal, neither will we
commit adultery or kill our children ; we v>dll abstain from
calumny and slander; we will obey the Prophet in every
thing that is right." These twelve men now returned to
Yathrib as missionaries of Islam, and so well prepared was
the ground, and with such zeal did they prosecute their
mission, that the new faith spread rapidly from house to
house and from tribe to tribe.
They were accompanied on their return by Mus'ab b.
'Umayr; though, according to another account he was sent
by the Prophet upon a written requisition from Yathrib.
This young man had been one of the earliest converts, and
had lately returned from Abyssinia ; thus he had had much
experience, and severe training in the school of persecution
had not only sobered his zeal but taught him how to meet
persecution and deal with those who were ready to condemn
Islam without waiting to learn the true contents of its
teaching; accordingly Muhammad could with the greatest
confidence entrust him with the difficult task of directing
and instructing the new converts, cherishing the seeds of
religious zeal and devotion that had already been sown and
bringing them to fruition. Mus'ab took up his abode in
the house of As'ad b. Zurarah, and gathered the converts
together for prayer and the reading of the Qur'an, sometimes
here and sometimes in a house belonging to the Banu

Zafar, which was situated in a quarter of the town occupied
jointly by this family and that of 'Abd al-Ashhal.
The heads of the latter family at that time were Sa'd
b. Mu'adh and Usayd b. Hudayr. One day it happened
that Mus'ab was sitting together with As'ad in this house
of the Banii Zafar, engaged in instructing some new con-
verts, when Sa'd b. Mu'adh, having come to know of
their whereabouts, said to Usayd b. Hudayr : " Drive out
these fellows who have come into our houses to make fools
of the weaklings among us ; I wôuld spare thee the trouble
did not the tie of kinship between me and As'ad prevent
my doing him any harm " (for he himself was the cousin
of As'ad). Hereupon Usayd took his spear and, bursting
in upon As'ad and Mus'ab, " What are you doing ? " he
cried, " leading weak-minded folk astray ? If you value
your lives, begone hence." " Sit down and listen," Mus'ab
answered quietly, " if thou art pleased with what thou
hearest, accept it; if not, then leave it." Usayd stuck his
spear in the ground and sat down to listen, while Mus'ab
expounded to him the fundamental doctrines of Islam and
read several passages of the Qur'an. After a time Usayd,
enraptured, cried, " What must I do to enter this rehgion ? "
" Purify thyself with water," answered Mus'ab, " and
confess that there is no god but God and that Muhammad
is the apostle of God." Usayd at once complied and
repeated the profession of faith, adding, " After me you
have still another man to convince " (referring to Sa'd
b. Mu'adh). " If he is persuaded, his example will bring
after all hiswords
him these will send him to you forthwith."
people. he Ileft
With them, and soon after came
Sa'd b. Mu'adh himself, hot with anger against As'ad for
the patronage he had extended to the missionaries of Islam.
Mus'ab begged him not to condemn the new faith unheard,
so Sa'd agreed to listen and soon the words of Mus'ab touched
him and brought conviction to his heart, and he embraced
the faith and became a Mushm. He went back to his
people burning with zeal and said to them, " Sons of 'Abd
al-Ashhal, say, what am I to you ? " " Thou art our lord,"
they answered, " thou art the wisest and most illustrious
among us." " Then I swear," replied Sa'd, " nevermore

to speak to any of you until you believe in God and
Muhammad, His apostle." And from that day, all the
descendants of 'Abd al-Ashhal embraced Islam. ^
With such zeal and earnestness was the preaching of the
faith pushed forward that within a year there was not a
family among the Arabs of Medina that had not given some
of its members to swell the number of the faithful, with
the exception of one branch of the Banii Aws, which held
aloof under the influence of Abii Qays b. al-Aslat, the
poet.
The following year, when the time of the annual pilgrimage
again came round, a band of converts, amounting to
seventy-three in number, accompanied their heathen
fellow-countrymen from Yathrib to Mecca. They were
commissioned to invite Muhammad to take refuge in Yathrib
from the fury of his enemies, and had come to swear
allegiance to him as their prophet and their leader. All
the early converts who had before met the Prophet on the
two preceding pilgrimages, returned to Mecca on this
important occasion, and Mus'ab their teacher accompanied
them. Immediately on his arrival he hurried to the
prophet, and told him of the success that had attended his
mission. It is said that his mother, hearing of his arrival,
sent a message to him, saying : " Ah, disobedient son, wilt
thou enter a city in which thy mother dwelleth, and not
first visit her ! " " Nay, verily," he replied, " I will never
visit the house of any one before the Prophet of God."
So, after he had greeted and conferred with Muhammad,
he went to his mother, 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." " Art
thou then well satisfied with the miserable way thou hast
fared in the land of Abyssinia and now again at Yathrib ? "
Now he perceived that she was meditating his imprisonment,
and exclaimed, " What ! wilt thou force a man from his
religion ? If ye seek to confine me, I will assuredly slay
the first person that layeth hands upon me." His mother
said, " Then depart from my presence," and she began to
1 Ibn Ishaq, p. 291 sq.
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 and
messenger." But she rephed, " By the sparkling stars !
I will never make a fool of myself by entering into thy
religion. I wash my hands of thee and thy concerns, and
cleave steadfastly unto mine own faith."
In order not to excite suspicion and incur the hostihty
of the Quraysh, 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 he was still an idolater, had
been admitted into the secret. 'Abbas opened the solemn
conclave, b}^ recommending his nephew as a scion of one
of the noblest famihes of his clan, which had hitherto
afforded the Prophet protection, although rejecting his
teachings; but now that he wished to take refuge among
the people of Yathrib, they should bethink themselves well
before undertaking such a charge, and resolve not to go
back from their promise, if once they undertook the risk.
Then Bara b. Ma'riir, one of the Banii Hiazraj, protesting
that they were firm in their resolve to protect the Prophet
of God, besought him to declare fully what he wished of
them.
Muhammad began b}^ reciting to thom some portions of
the Qur'an, and exhorted them to be true to the faith they
had professed in the one God and the Prophet, His apostle ;
he then asked them to defend him and his companions
from all assailants just as they would their own wives and
children. Then Bara b. Ma'rur, taking his hand, cried out,
" Yea, by Him who sent thee as His Prophet, and through
thee revealed unto us His truth, we will protect thee as we
would our own bodies, and we swear allegiance to thee as
our leader. We are the sons of battle and men of mail,
which we have inherited as worthy sons of worthy fore-
fathers." So they all in turn, taking his hand in theirs,
swore allegiance to him.
As soon as the Quraysh gained intelligence of these secret
proceedings, the persecution broke out afresh against the
Musl'ms, and Muhammad advised them to flee out of the
city. " Depart unto Yathrib ; for the Lord hath verily
given you brethren in that city, and a home in which ye
may find refuge." So quieth", by twos and threes they
escaped to Yathrib, where the\^ were heartily welcomed,
their co-religionists in that cit}' vying with one another
for the honour of entertaining them, and supphing them
with such things as they had need of. Within two months
nearly all the Muslims except those who were seized and
imprisoned and those who could not escape from captivity
had left Mecca, to the number of about 159. There is a
stor}' told of one of these i\Iuslims, by name Suhayb, whom
Muhammad called " the first-fruits of Greece " (he had
been a Greek slave, and being set free by his master had
amassed considerable wealth by successful trading) ; when
he was about to emigrate the Meccans said to him, " Thou
earnest 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 only,
but with all thy property. By the Lord, that shall not be ; "
and he said, " If I relinquish my property, will ye leave mie
free to depart ? " And they agreed thereto; so he parted
with all his goods. And when that was told unto Muham-
mad, he said, " Verily, Suhaj'b hath made a profitable
bargain."
Muhammad delayed his own departure (with the intention,
no doubt, of withdrawing attention from his faithful
followers) until a determined plot against his life warned
him that further dela}' might be fatal, and he made his
escape by means of a stratagem.
His first care after his arrival in Yathrib, or Medina as
it was called from this period — Madinah al-Nabi, the city
of the Prophet — was to build a mosque, to serve both as
a place of prayer and of general assembl}^ for his followers,
who had hitherto met for that purpose in the dwelling-place
of one of their number. The worshippers at first used to
turn their faces in the direction of Jerusalem — an arrange-
ment most probably adopted with the hope of gaining over
the Jews. In many other ways, by constant appeals to
their own sacred Scriptures, by according them perfect
freedom of worship and political equality, Muhammad
endeavoured to conciliate the Jews, but they met his
advances with scorn and derision. \\Tien all hopes of
amalgamation proved fruitless and it became clear that
the Jews would not accept him as their Prophet, Muhammad
bade his followers turn their faces in prayer towards the
Ka'bah in Mecca, (ii. 144.) 1
This change of direction during prayer has a deeper
significance than might at first sight appear. It was really
the beginning of the National Life of Islam : it established
the Ka'bah at Mecea as a rehgious centre for all the Muslim
people, just as from time immemorial it had been a place
of pilgrimage for all the tribes of Arabia. Of similar
importance was the incorporation of the ancient Arab
custom of pilgrimage to Mecca into the circle of the rehgious
ordinances of Islam, a duty that was to be performed by
every ]\Iuslim at least once in his hfetime.
There are man}' passages in the Qur'an that appeal to
this germ of national feeling and urge the people of Arabia
to reahse the privilege that had been granted them of a
divine revelation in their own language and by the lips of
one of their o\mi country-men.
" Verily We have made it an Arabic Qur'an that ye may
haply understand, (xliii. 2-3.)
" And thus We have revealed to thee an Arabic Qur'an,
that thou ma3'est warn the mother of cities and those
around it. (xlii. 5.)
" And if We had made it a Qur'an in a foreign tongue,
they had surely said, ' Unless its verses be clearly
explained (we will not receive it).' (xh. 44.)
" And veril}- We have set before men in this Qur'an every
kind of parable that haply they be monished :
" An Arabic Qur'an, free from tortuous (wording), that
haply the}- ma}- fear (God), (xxxix. 28-29.)
" Verily from the Lord of all creatures hath this (book)
come do-sA-n, ... in the clear Arabic tongue, (xxvi.
192, 195.)
1
" And We have only made it (i.e. the Qur'an) easy, in
The appointment of the fast of Ramadan (Qur'an ii. 179-84), is doubt-
less another sign of the breaking with the Jews, the fast on the Day of
Atonement being thus abohshed.
thine own tongue, in order that thou mayest announce

glad tidings thereby to the God-fearing, and that
thou mayest warn the contentious thereby." (xix.
97-)
But the message of Islam was not for Arabia only; the
whole world was to share in it.^ As there was but one
God, so there was to be but one religion into which all men
were to be invited. This claim to be universal, to hold
sway over all men and all nations, found a practical illus-
tration in the letters which Muhammad is said to have
sent in the year a.d. 688 (a.h. 6) to the great potentates
of that time. An invitation to embrace Islam was sent
_-> in this year to the Emperor Heraclius, the king of Persia,
the governor of Yaman, the governor of Egypt and the
king of Abyssinia. The letter to Heraclius is said to have
been as follows :— " In the name of God, the Merciful, the
Compassionate, Muhammad, who is the servant of God and
His apostle, to Hiraql the Qaysar of Riim. Peace be on
whoever has gone on the straight road. After this I say.
Verily I call you to Islam. Embrace Islam, and God will
reward you twofold. If you turn away from the offer of
Islam, then on you be the sins of your people. O people
of the Book, come towards a creed which is fit both for us
and for you. It is this — to worship none but God, and not
to associate anything with God, and not to call others God.
Therefore, 0 ye people of the Book, if ye refuse, beware.
We are Muslims and our religion is Islam." However
absurd this summons may have seemed to those who then
received it, succeeding years showed that it was dictated
by no empty enthusiasm. ^ These letters only gave a more
open and widespread expression to the claim to the universal
acceptance which is repeatedly made for Islam in the
Qur'an.
1 " Aber Gottes Botschaft ist nicht auf die Araber beschrankt. Sein
Wille gilt fiir alle Creatur, es heischt unbedingten Gehorsam von aller
Menschheit, und dass Muhammcd als sein Bote denselben Gehorsam zu
heischen berechtigt und verpflichtet sei, scheint von Anfang an cin inte-
grirender Bestandtheil seines Gedankensystem gewesen zu sein." (Sachau,
pp. 293-4.) Goldziher (Vorlesungen fiber den Islam, p. 25 sqq.) and Noldeke
(WZKM, vol. xxi. pp. 307-8) express a similar opinion.
* On the doubtful authenticity of these letters, see Caetani, vol. i.
p. 725 sqq.
" Of a truth it (i.e. the Qur'an) is no other than an ad-

monition to all created beings, and after a time shall
ye surely know its message, (xxxviii. 87-88.)
" This (book) is no other than an admonition and a clear
Qur'an, to warn whoever liveth; and that against
the unbelievers sentence may be justly given,
(xxxvi. 69-70.)
" We have not sent thee save as a mercy to all created
beings, (xxi. 107.)
" Blessed is He who hath sent down al-Furqan upon
His servant, that he may be a warner unto all created
beings, (xxv. i.)
" And We have not sent thee otherwise than to mankind
at large, to announce and to warn, (xxxiv. 27.)
" He it is who hath sent His apostle with guidance and
the religion of truth, that He may make it victorious
over every other religion, though the polytheists are
averse to it." (Ixi. 9.)
In the hour of his deepest despair, when the people of
Mecca persistently turned a deaf ear to the words of their
prophet (xvi, 23, 114, etc.), when the converts he had made
were tortured until they recanted (xvi. 108), and others were
forced to flee from the country to escape the rage of their
persecutors (xvi. 43, iii) — then was dehvered the promise,
" One day we will raise up a witness out of every nation."
(xvi. 86.)i
This claim upon the acceptance of all mankind which the
Prophet makes in these passages is further prophetically
indicated in the words " first-fruits of Abyssinia," used by
Muhammad in reference to Bilal, and " first-fruits of Greece,"
to Suhayb ; Salman, the first Persian convert, was a Christian
slave in Medina, who embraced the new faith in the first
^ It seems strange that in the face of these passages, some have denied
that Islam was originally intended by its founder to be a universal religion.
Thus Sir William Muir says, " That the heritage of Islam is the world, was
an afterthought. The idea, spite of much prophetic tradition, had been
conceived but dimly, if at all, by Mahomet himself. His world was Arabia,
and for it the new dispensation was ordained. From first to last the
summons was to Arabs and to none other. . . . The seed of a universal
creed had indeed been sown ; but that it ever germinated was due to cir-
cumstance rather than design." (The Cahphate, pp. 43-4.) Caetani is
the latest exponent of this view. (AnnaH dell' Islam, vol. v. pp. 323 -4.)
year of the Hijrah. Thus long before any career oi con-

quest was so much as dreamed of, the Prophet had clearly
shown that Islam was not to be confined to the Arab race.
The following account of the sending out of missionaries
to preach Islam to all nations, points to the same claim to
be a universal religion : " The Apostle of God said to his
companions, ' Come to me all of you early in the morning.'
After the morning prayer he spent some time in praising
and supplicating God, as was his wont ; then he turned to
them and sent forth some in one direction and others in
another, and said : ' Be faithful to God in your dealings
with His servants (i.e. with men), for whosoever is entrusted
with any matter that concerns mankind and is not faithful
in his service of them, to him God shuts the gate of Paradise :
go forth and be not like the messengers of Jesus, the son of
Mary, for they went only to those that lived near and
neglected those that dwelt in far countries.' Then each of
these messengers came to speak the language of the people
to whom he was sent. When this was told to the Prophet
he said, ' This is the greatest of the duties that they owe to
God with respect to His servants.' " ^
The proof of the universality of Islam, of its claim on
the acceptance of all men, lay in the fact that it was the
religion divinely appointed for the whole human race and
was now revealed to them anew through Muhammad, " the
seal of the prophets " (xxxiii. 40), as it had been to former
generations by other prophets.
" Men were of one religion only : then they disagreed one
with another and had not a decree (of respite) previ-
ously gone forth from thy Lord, judgment would
surely have been given between them in the matter
wherein they disagree, (x. 20.)
" I am no apostle of new doctrines, (xlvi. 8.)
" Mankind was but one people : then God raised up
prophets to announce glad tidings and to warn : and
He sent down with them the Book with the Truth,
that it might decide the disputes of men : and none
disagreed save those to whom the book had been
at ^least
Ibn Sa'd,
of the§ early
10. This story may
realisation indeed
of the be apocryphal,
missionary characterbutof isIslam.
significant
given, after the clear tokens had reached them,
through mutual jealousy. And God guided those
who believed into the truth concerning which they
had disagreed, by His will; and God guideth whom
He pleaseth into the straight path. (ii. 209.)
" And We revealed to thee, ' follow the religion of
Abraham, the sound in faith, for he was not of those
who join gods with God.' (xvi. 124.)
" Say : As for me, my Lord hath guided me into a straight
path : a true faith, the religion of Abraham, the
sound in faith; for he was not of those who join gods
with God. (vi. 162.)
" Say : Na}^ the religion of Abraham, the sound in faith
and not one of those who join gods with God (is our
religion), (ii. 129.)
" Say : God speaketh truth. Follow therefore the religion
of Abraham, he being a Hanif and not one of those
who join other gods with God.
" Verily the first temple that was set up for men was that
which is in Bakka, blessed and a guidance for all
created beings, (iii. 89, 90.)
" And 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. 124.)
" He hath elected you, and hath not laid on you any
hardship in religion, the faith of your father Abraham.
He hath named 3ôu the Muslims." (xx. 'j'])
But to return to Muhammad in Medina. In order properly
to appreciate his position after the Flight, it is important to
remember the peculiar character of Arab society at that
time, as far at least as this part of the peninsula was con-
cerned. There was an entire absence of any organised
administrative or judicial system such as in modern times
we connect with the idea of a government. Each tribe
or clan formed a separate and absolutely independent body,
and this independence extended itself also to the individual
members of the tribe, each of whom recognised the authority,
or leadership of his chief only as being the exponent of
a public opinion which he himself happened to share ; but
he was quite at liberty to refuse his conformity to the
(even) unanimous resolve of his fellow clansmen. Further,
there was no regular transmission of the office of chieftain ;
but he was generally chosen as being the oldest member
of the richest and most powerful family of the clan, and as
being personally most qualified to command respect. If
such a tribe became too numerous, it would split up into
several divisions, each of which continued to enjoy a separate
and independent existence, uniting only on some extra-
ordinary occasion for common self-defence or some more
than usually important warlike expedition. We can thus
understand how Muhammad could establish himself in
Medina at the head of a large and increasing body of ad-
herents who looked up to him as their head and leader and
acknowledged no other authority, — without exciting any
feeling of insecurity, or any fear of encroachment on recog-
nised authority, such as would have arisen in a city of ancient
Greece or any similarly organised community. Muhammad
thus exercised temporal authority over his people just as
any other independent chief might have done, the only
difference being that in the case of the Muslims a religious
bond took the place of family and blood ties.
Islam thus became what, in theory at least, it has always
remained — a political as well as a religious system.
" It was Muhammad's desire to found a new religion, and
in this he succeeded; but at the same time he founded a
political system of an entirely new and peculiar character.
At first his only wish was to convert his fellow-countrymen
to the behef in the One God — Allah; but along with this
he brought about the overthrow of the old system of govern-
ment in his native city, and in place of the tribal aristocracy
under which the conduct of public affairs was shared in
common by the ruling families, he substituted an absolute
theocratic monarchy, with himself at the head as vicar
of God upon earth.
" Even before his death almost all Arabia had submitted
to him ; Arabia that had never before obeyed one prince,
suddenly exhibits a pohtical unity and swears allegiance
to the will of an absolute ruler. Out of the numerous
tribes, big and small, of a hundred different kinds that
were incessantly at feud with one another, Muhammad's

word created a nation. The idea of a common rehgion
under one common head bound the different tribes together
into one poHtical organism which developed its peculiar
characteristics with surprising rapidity. Now only one
great idea could have produced this result, viz. the principle
of national life in heathen Arabia. The clan-system was
thus for the first time, if not entirely crushed — (that would
have been impossible) — yet made subordinate to the feeling
of rehgious unity. The great work succeeded, and when
Muhammad died there prevailed over by far the greater
part of Arabia a peace of God such as the Arab tribes, with
their love of plunder and revenge, had never known;
it was the religion of Islam that had brought about this
reconciliation." ^
Even in the case of death, the claims of relationship were
set aside and the bond-brother inherited all the property
of his deceased companion. But after the battle of Badr,
when such an artificial bond was no longer needed to unite
his followers, it was abolished ; such an arrangement was
only necessary so long as the number of the Muslims was
still small and the corporate life of Islam a novelty; more-
over Muhammad had lived in Medina for a very short
space of time before the rapid increase in the number of
his adherents made so communistic a sociarLsystem almost
impracticable. - ,
It was only to be expected that the growth of an inde-
pendent political body composed of refugees from Mecca,
located in a hostile city, should eventually lead to an out-
break of hostilities jând, as is well known, every biography
of Muhammad is largely taken up with the account of a
long series of petty encounters and bloody battles between
his followers and the Quraysh of Mecca, ending in his
triumphal entry into that city in a.d. 630, and of his hostile
relations with numerous other tribes, up to the time of his
death, a.d. 633.
To give any account of these campaigns is beyond the
scope of the present work, but it is important to show that
Muhammad, when he found himself at the head of a band
^ A. von Kremer (3), pp. 309, 310.
D
of armed followers, was not transformed at once, as some
would have us believe, from a peaceful preacher into a
fanatic, sword in hand, forcing his religion on whomsoever
he could. 1
It has been frequently asserted by European writers
that from the date of Muhammad's migration to Medina,
and from the altered circumstances of his life there, the
Prophet appears in an entirely new character. He is no
longer the preacher, the warner, the apostle of God to men,
whom he would persuade of the truth of the religion re-
vealed 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 opinions.
But it is false to suppose that Muhammad in Medina
laid aside his rble of preacher and missionary of Islam, or
that when he had a large army at his command, he ceased
to invite unbelievers to accept the faith. Ibn Sa'd gives
a number of letters written by the Prophet from Medina
to chiefs and other members of different Arabian tribes,
in addition to those addressed to potentates living beyond
the limits of Arabia, inviting them to embrace Islam ; and
in the following pages will be found instances of his having
sent missionaries to preach the faith to the unconverted
members of their tribes, whose very ill-success in some cases
is a sign of the genuinely missionary character of their
efforts and the absence of an appeal to force. A typical
example of such an unsuccessful mission is that sent to
preach Islam to the Banii 'Amir b. Sa'sa'ah in the year
A.H. 4. The chief of this tribe, Abii Bara 'Amir, visited
Muhammad in Medina, listened to his teaching, but de-
clined to become a convert ; he seemed, however, to be
favourably disposed towards the new faith and asked the
Prophet to send some of his followers to Najd to preach
to the people of that country. The Prophet sent a party
of forty Muslims, most of them young men of Medina, who
were skilled in reciting the Qur'an, and had been accustomed
to meet together at night for study and prayer. But in
1 This would seem to be acknowledged even by Muir, when speaking of
the massacre of the Banii Qurayzah (a.h. 6) : " The ostensible grounds
upon which Mahomet proceeded were purely political, for as yet he did
not profess to force men to join Islam, or to punish them for not embracing
it." (Muir (2), vol. iii. p. 2S2.)
spite of the safe conduct given them by Abu Bara 'Amir,

they were treacherously murdered and three only of the
party escaped with their lives. ^
The successes of the Muslim arms, however, attracted
every day members of various tribes, particularly those in
the vicinity of Medina, to swell the ranks of the followers
of the Prophet ; and " the courteous treatment which the
deputations of these various clans experienced from the
Prophet, his ready attention to their grievances, the wisdom
with which he composed their disputes, and the politic
assignments of territory by which he rewarded an early
declaration in favour of Islam, made his name to be popular
and spread his fame as a great and generous prince through-
out the Peninsula." ^
It not unfrequently happened that one member of a tribe
would come to the Prophet in Medina and return home as
a missionary of Islam to convert his brethren ; we have
the following account of such a conversion in the year 5 (a.h.).
The Banii Sa'd b. Bakr sent one of their number, by
name Dimam b. Tha'labah as their envoy to the Prophet.
He came and made his camel kneel down at the gate of the
mosque and tied up its fore-leg. Then he went into the
mosque, where the Prophet was sitting with his companions.
He went up close to them and said, " Which among you
is the son of 'Abd al-Muttalib ? " "I am," rephed the
Prophet. " Art thou Muhammad ? " " Yes," was the
answer. " Then, if thou wilt not take it amiss, I would
fain ask thee some weighty questions." " Nay, ask what
thou wilt," answered the Prophet. " I adjure thee by
Allah, thy God and the God of those who were before thee
and of those who are to come after thee, hath Allah sent
thee as a prophet unto us ? " Muhammad answered, " Yea,
by Allah." He continued, " I adjure thee by Allah, thy
God and the God of those who were before thee and of those
who are to come after thee, hath He commanded thee to
^ Ibn Ishaq, p. 648 sq.
^ Muir (2), vol. iv. pp. 107-8. See also Caetani, vol. i. p. 663. " Assai
piu Iche tutte le prediche del Profeta, assai piii che tutta la bonta delle
dottrine islamiche, siffatti vantaggi militari contribuirono al aumentare
il numero dei seguaci. La rapidita della diffusione dell' Islam divenne
in special modo sensibile per il contegno et per lo spirito di tolleranza, di
liberta, e di opportunismo, che diresse il Profeta nei suoi rapporti con i
convertiti."
bid us worship Him alone, and to associate naught else
with Him and to abandon these idols that our fathers
worshipped ? " Muhammad answered, " Yea, by Allah."
Then he questioned the Prophet concerning all the ordi-
nances of Islam, one after another, prayer and fasting,
pilgrimage, etc., solemnly adjuring him as before. At the
end he said, " Then I bear witness that there is no God
save Allah and I bear witness that Muhammad is the
Prophet of Allah, and I will observe these ordinances and
shun what thou hast forbidden, adding nothing thereto,
and taking nothing away." Then he turned away and
loosened his camel and returned unto his own people, and
when he had gathered them together, the first words he
spoke unto them were : " Vile things are Lat and 'Uzza."
They cried out, " Hold ! Dimam, take heed of leprosy or
madness ! " " Fie on you ! " he replied. " By Allah !
they can neither work you weal nor woe, for Allah has sent
a Prophet and revealed to him a book, whereby he delivers
you from your evil plight ; I bear witness that there is no
God save Allah alone and that Muhammad is His servant
and His Prophet ; and I have brought you tidings of what
he enjoins and what he forbids." The story goes on that
ere nightfall there was not a man or woman in the camp
who had not accepted Islam. ^
Another such missionary was 'Amr b. Murrah, belonging
to the tribe of the Banii Juhaynah, who dwelt between Medina
and the Red Sea. The date of his conversion was prior
to the Flight, in the same year (a.h. 5), and he thus describes
it : " We had an idol that we worshipped, and I was the
guardian of its shrine. When I heard of the Prophet,
I broke it in pieces and set off to Muhammad, where I
accepted Islam and bore witness to the truth, and believed
on what Muhammad declared to be allowed and forbidden.
And to this my verses refer : ' I bear witness that God is
Truth and that I am the first to abandon the gods of stones,
and I have girded up my loins to make my way to you over
rough ways and smooth, to join myself to him who in himself
and for his ancestry is the noblest of men, the apostle of
^ Ibn Ishaq, p. 943-4. (This story rests on somewhat doubtful authority,
cf. Caetani, vol. i. p. bio.)
the Lord whose throne is above the clouds.' " He was sent
by Muhammad to preach Islam to his tribe, and his efforts
were crowned with such success that there was only one man
who refused to listen to his exhortations. ^
When the truce of Hudaybiyyah (a.h. 6) made friendly
relations with the people of Mecca possible, many persons
of that city, who had had the opportunity of listening to
the teaching of Muhammad in the early days of his mission,
and among them some men of great influence, came out to
Medina, to embrace the faith of Islam.
The continual warfare carried on with the people of Mecca
had hitherto kept the tribes to the south of that city almost
entirely outside the influence of the new religion. But
this truce now made communications with southern Arabia
possible, and a small band from the tribe of the Banu Daws
came from the mountains that form the northern boundary
of Yaman, and joined themselves to the Prophet in Medina.
Even before the appearance of Muhammad, there were
some members of this tribe who had had glimmerings of
a higher religion than the idolatry prevailing around them,
and argued that the world must have had a creator, though
they knew not who he was; and when Muhammad came
forward as the apostle of this creator, one of these men, by
name
creatorTufayl
was. b. 'Amr, came to Mecca to learn who the
Though warned by the Quraysh of the dangerous influence
that Muhammad might exercise over him if he entered into
conversation with him, he followed the Prophet to his
house one day, after watching him at prayer by the Ka'bah.
Muhammad expt)unded to him the doctrines of Islam, and
Tufayl left Mecca full of zeal for the new faith. On his
return home he succeeded in converting his father and his
wife, but found his fellow-tribesmen unwilling to abandon
their old idolatrous worship. Disheartened at the ill-
success of his mission, he returned to the Prophet and be-
sought him to call down the curse of God on the Banu
Daws; but Muhammad encouraged him to persevere in
his efforts, saying, " Return to thy people and summon
them to the faith, but deal gently with them." At the
Ibn Sa'd, § 118.
same time he prayed, " Oh God ! guide the Banii Daws in

the right way." The success of Tufayl's propaganda was
such that in the 3êar a.h. 7 he came to Medina with between
seventy and eighty famihes of his tribesmen who had been
won over to the faith of Islam, and after the triumphal
entry of Muhammad into Mecca, Tufayl set fire to the
block of wood that had hitherto been venerated as the idol
of the tribe. ^
In A.H. 7, fifteen more tribes submitted to the Prophet,
and after the surrender of Mecca in a.h. 8, the ascendancy
of Islam was assured, and those Arabs who had held aloof,
saying, " Let Muhammad and his fellow-tribesmen fight it
out; if he is victorious, then is he a genuine prophet," ^
now hastened to give in their allegiance to the new religion.
Among those who came in after the fall of Mecca were
some of the most bitter persecutors of Muhammad in the
earlier days of his mission, to whom his noble forbearance
and forgiveness now gave a place in the brotherhood of
Islam. The following year witnessed the martyrdom of
'Urwah b. Mas'iid, one of the chiefs of the people of Ta'if,
which city the Muslims had unsuccessfully attempted to
capture. He had been absent at that time in Yaman, and
returned from his journey shortly after the raising of the
siege. He had met the Prophet two years before at
Hudaybiyyah, 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 fellow-countr3nTien, and in spite of the efforts of Mu-
hammad to dissuade him from so dangerous an undertaking,
he returned to his native city, publicly declared that he had
renounced idolatry, and called upon the people to follow
his example. While he was preaching, he was mortally
wounded by an arrow, and died giving thanks to God for
having granted him the glory of martyrdom. A more
successful missionary effort was made by another follower
of the Prophet in Yaman — probably a year later — of which
we have the following graphic account : " The apostle of
God wrote to al-Harith and Masruh, and Nu'aym b.
'Abd al-Kulal of Himyar : ' Peace be upon you so long as
1 ibn Isl;iacj, pp. 252-4. * Caetani, vol. ii. t. i. p. 341.
ye believe on God and His apostle. God is one God, there
is no partner with Him. He sent Moses with his signs,
and created Jesus with his words. The Jews sa3^ " Ezra
is the Son of God," and the Christians say, " God is one
of three, and Jesus is the Son of God." ' He sent the letter
by 'Ayyash b. Abi Rabi'ah al-MaldiziimT, and said :
* When you reach their city, go not in by night, but wait
until the morning; then carefully perform your ablutions,
and pray with two prostrations, and ask God to bless you
with success and a friendly reception, and to keep jôu safe
from harm. Then take my letter in your right hand, and
deliver it with your right hand into their right hands, and
they will receive it. And recite to them, " The unbelievers
among the people of the Book and the polytheists did not
waver," etc. (Siirah 98), to the end of the Surah; when you
have finished, say, " Muhammad has believed, and I am the
first to beheve." And you will be able to meet every
objection they bring against you, and every glittering book
that they recite to you will lose its light. And when they
speak in a foreign tongue, say, " Translate it," and say to
them, " God is sufficient for me ; I believe in the Book sent
down by Him, and I am commanded to do justice among
you ; God is our Lord and your Lord ; to us belong our works,
and to you belong your works ; there is no strife between
us and you; God will unite us, and unto Him we must
return." If they now accept Islam, then ask them for
their three rods, before which they gather together to pray,
one rod of tamarisk that is spotted white and yellow, and
one knotted like a cane, and one black like ebony. Bring
the rods out and burn them in the market-place.' So I
set out," tells 'Ayyash, " to do as the Apostle of God had
bid me. When I arrived, I found that all the people had
decked themselves out for a festival : I walked on to see
them, and came at last to three enormous curtains hung in
front of three doorways. I lifted the curtain and entered the
middle door, and found people collected in the courtyard of
the building. I introduced myself to them as the messenger
of the Apostle of God, and did as he had bidden me ; and they
gave heed to my words, and it fell out as he had said." ^
* Ibn Sa'd, § 56,
In A.H. 9 a deputation of thirteen men from the Banu
Kilab, a branch of the Banii 'Amir b. Sa'sa'ah, came to
the Prophet and informed him that one of his followers,
Dahhak b. Sufyan, had come to them, reciting the Qur'an
and teaching the doctrines of Islam, and that his preaching
had won over their tribe to the new faith. ^ Another
branch of the same tribe, the Banu Ru'as b. Kilab, was
converted by one of its members, named 'Amr b, Malik,
who had been to Medina and accepted Islam, and then
returned to his fellow tribes and persuaded them to follow
his example. 2
In the same ^êar a less successful attempt was made by
a new convert, Wathilah b. al-Asqa', to induce his clan
to accept the faith that he himself had embraced after an
interview with the Prophet. His father scornfully cast
him off, saying, " By God ! I will never speak a word to
you again," and none were found willing to believe the
doctrines he preached with the exception of his sister, who
provided him with the means of returning to the Prophet at
Medina.^ This ninth year of the Hijrah has been called the
year of the deputations, because of the enormous number
of Arab tribes and cities that now sent delegates to the
Prophet, to give in their submission. The introduction
into Arab society of a new principle of social union in the
brotherhood of Islam had already begun to weaken the bind-
ing force of the old tribal ideal, which erected 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 the most fundamental laws of Arab life,
and its frequent occurrence had acted as a powerful solvent
on tribal organisation and had left it weak in the face of
a national life so enthusiastic and firmly-knit as that of
the Muslims had become. The Arab tribes were thus
impelled to give in their submission to the Prophet, not
merely as the head of the strongest military force in Arabia,
but as the exponent of a theory of social life that was making
all others weak and ineffective.^ Muhammad had succeeded
in introducing into the anarchical society of his time a
» Jbn Sa'd, § 85. * Id. § 86. » Id. § 91.
* See Sprenger, vol. iii. pp. 360-1,
sentiment of national unity, a consciousness of rights and
duties towards one another such as the Arabs had not felt
before. 1 In this way, Islam was uniting together clans that
hitherto had been continually at feud with one another, and
as this great confederac}' grew, it more and more attracted
to itself the weaker among the tribes of Arabia. In the
accounts of the conversion of the Arab tribes, there is
continual mention of the promise of security against their
enemies, made to them by the Prophet on the occasion
of their submission. " Woe is me for Muhammad ! " was
the cry of one of the Arab tribes on the news of the death
of the Prophet. " So long as he was alive, I lived in peace
and in safety from my enemies; " and the cry must have
found an echo far and wide throughout Arabia.
How superficial was the adherence of numbers of the
Arab tribes to the faith ôf Islam may be judged from
the widespread apostasy that followed immediately on the
death of the Prophet. Their acceptance of Islam would
seem to have been often dictated more by considerations
of political expediency, and was more frequently a bargain
struck under pressure of violence than the outcome of any
enthusiasm or spiritual awakening. They allowed them-
selves to be swept into the stream of what had now become
a great national movement, and we miss the fervent zeal
of the early converts in the cool, calculating attitude of
those who came in after the fall of Mecca, But even from
among these must have come many to swell the ranks of
the true believers animated with a genuine zeal for the
faith, and ready, as we have seen, to give their lives in the
effort to preach it to their brethren.
" These men were the true moral heirs of the Prophet,
the future apostles of Islam, the faithful trustees of all that
Muhammad had revealed unto the men of God. Into these
men, through their constant contact with the Prophet and
their devotion to him, there had really entered a new mode
of thought and feeling, loftier and more civihsed than any
they had known before; they had really changed for the
better from every point of view, and later on as statesmen
and generals, in the most difficult moments of the war of
* Caetaui, vol. ii. p. 433.
conquest they gave magnificent and undeniable proof that

the ideas and the doctrines of Muhammad had been seed
cast on fruitful soil, and had produced a body of men of
the very highest worth. They were the depositaries of the
sacred text of the Qur'an, which they alone knew by heart ;
they were the jealous guardians of the memory of every
word and bidding of the Prophet, the trustees of the moral
heritage of Muhammad. These men formed the venerable
stock of Islam from whom one day was to spring the noble
band of the first jurists, theologians and traditionists of
Muslim society." ^
But for such men as these, so vast a movement could not
have held together, much less have recovered the shock
given it by the death of the founder. For it must not be
forgotten how distinctly Islam was a new movement in
heathen Arabia, and how diametrically opposed were the
ideals of the two societies. ^ For the introduction of Islam
into Arab society did not imply merely the sweeping away
of a few barbarous and inhuman practices, but a complete
reversal of the pre-existing ideals of life.
Herein we have the most conclusive proof of the essentially
missionary character of the teaching of Muhammad, who
thus comes forward as the exponent of a new scheme of faith
and practice. Whatever may have been the conditions
favourable to the formation of a new political organisation,
Muhammad certainly did not find the society of his day
prepared to receive his rehgious teaching and waiting only
for the voice that would express in speech the inarticulate
yearnings of their hearts. But it is just this spirit of
exnectancy that is wanting among the Arabs — those at
leL^L of the Central Arabia towards whom Muhammad's
efforts were at first directed. They were by no means
ready to receive the preaching of a new teacher, least of all
one who came with the (to them unintelligible) title of
apostle of God,
Again, the equahty in Islam of all believers and the
common bro.'aerhood of all Muslims, which suffered no
^ Caetani, vol. ii. p. 429.
* This has been nowhere more fully and excellently brought out than in
the scholarly work of Prof. Ignaz Goldziher (Muhammedanische Studien,
vol. i.), from which I have derived the following considerations.
distinctions between Arab and non-Arab, between free and
slave, to exist among the faithful, was an idea that ran
directly counter to the proud clan-feeling of the Arab, who
grounded his claims to personal consideration on the fame
of his ancestors, and in the strength of the same carried
on the endless blood-feuds in which his soul dehghted.
Indeed, the fundamental principles in the teaching of
Muhammad were a protest against much that the Arabs
had hitherto most highly valued, and the newlj^-converted
Muslim was taught to consider as virtues, qualities which
hitherto he had looked down upon with contempt.
To the heathen Arab, friendship and hostility were as a
loan which he sought to repay with interest, and he prided
himself on returning evil for evil, and looked down on any
who acted otherwise as a weak nidering.
He is the perfect man who late and early plotteth still
To do a kindness to his friends and work his foes some ill.
To such men the Prophet said, " Recompense evil with

that which is better " (xxiii. 98) ; as they desired the forgive-
ness of God, they were to pass over and pardon offences
(xxiv. 22), and a Paradise, vast as the heavens and the
earth, was prepared for those who mastered their anger
and forgave others, (iii. 128.)
The ver}^ institution of prayer was jeered at by the Arabs
to whom Muhammad first delivered his message, and one
of the hardest parts of his task was to induce in them that
pious attitude of mind towards the Creator, which Islam
inculcates equally with Judaism and Christianity, but which
was practically unknown to the heathen Arabs. This
self-sufficiency and this lack of the religious spirit, joined
with their intense pride of race, little fitted them to receive
the teachings of one who maintained that " The most
worthy of honour in the sight of God is he that feareth
Him most " (xlix. 13). No more could they brook the
restrictions that Islam sought to lay upon the licence of
their lives ; wine, women, and song, were among the things
most dear to the Arab's heart in the days of the ignorance,
and the Prophet was stern and severe in his injunctions
respecting each of them.
Thus, from the very beginning, Islam bears the stamp of
a missionary rehgion that seeks to win the hearts of men,
to convert them and persuade them to enter the brotherhood
of the faithful; and as it was in the beginning, so has it
continued to be up to the present day, as will be the object
of the following pages to show.
CHAPTER III.
THE SPREAD OF ISLAM AMONG THE CHRISTIAN

NATIONS OF WESTERN ASIA.
After the death of Muhammad, the army he had intended

for Syria was despatched thither by Abu Bakr, in spite of
the protestations made by certain Mushms in view of the
then disturbed state of Arabia. He silenced their expostu-
lations with the words : "I will not revoke any order given
by the Prophet. Medina may become the prey of wild
beasts, but the army must carry out the wishes of Muham-
mad." This was the first of that wonderful series of
campaigns in which the Arabs overran Syria, Persia and
Northern Africa — overturning the ancient kingdom of
Persia and despoiling 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 expansion of the Muslim faith that
followed the Arab conquests, it is of importance to discover
what were the circumstances that made such an expansion
possible.
A great historian ^ has well put the problem that meets
us here, in the following words : " Was it genuine religious
enthusiasm, the new strength of a faith now for the first
time blossoming forth in all its purity, that gave the victory
in every battle to the arms of the Arabs and in so incredibly
short a time founded the greatest empire the world had
ever seen ? But evidence is wanting to prove that this
was the case. The number was far too small of those who
had given their allegiance to the Prophet and his teaching
with a free and heartfelt conviction, while on the other
hand all the greater was the number of those who had been
^ DoUinger, pp. 5-6.
45
brought into the ranks of the Muhammadans only through
pressure from without or by the hope of worldly gain.
Wialid, ' that sword of the swords of God,' exhibited in a
very striking manner that mixture of force and persuasion
whereby he and many of the Quraysh had been converted,
when he said that God had seized them by the hearts and
by the hair and compelled them to follow the Prophet.
The proud feeling too of a common nationality had much
influence — a feeling which was more alive among the Arabs
of that time than (perhaps) among any other people, and
which alone determined many thousands to give the prefer-
ence to their countryman and his religion before foreign
teachers. Still more powerful was the attraction offered by
the sure prospect of gaining booty in abundance, in fighting
for the new religion and of exchanging their bare, stony
deserts, which offered them only a miserable subsistence,
for the fruitful and luxuriant countries of Persia, Syria and
These stupendous conquests which laid the foundations

Egypt."
of the Arab empire, were certainly not the outcome of a
holy war, waged for the propagation of Islam, but they
were followed by such a vast defection from the Christian
faith that this result has often been supposed to have been
their aim. Thus the sword came to be looked upon by
Christian historians as the instrument of Muslim propa-
ganda, and in the light of the success attributed to it the
evidences of the genuine missionary activity of Islam were
obscured. But the spirit which animated the invading hosts
of Arabs who poured over the confines of the Byzantine and
Persian empires, was no prosel37tising zeal for the conversion
of souls. On the contrary, religious interests appear to
have entered but little into the consciousness of the pro-
tagonists ofthe Arab armies. ^ This expansion of the Arab
race is more rightly envisaged as the migration of a vigorous
and energetic people driven by hunger and want, to leave
their inhospitable deserts and overrun the richer lands
of their more fortunate neighbours. ^ Still the unifying
^ Cactani, Studi di Storia Orientale, I, p. 365 sqq. (Milano, 191 1.)
* This interpretation of the Arab conquests as the last of the great Semitic
migrations has been worked out in a masterly manner by Caetani, vol. ii.
pp. 831-61.
SPREAD OF ISLAM IN WESTERN ASIA 47
principle of the movement was the theocracy estabhshed in
Medina, and the organisation of the new state proceeded
from the devoted companions of Muhammad, the faithful
depositaries of his teaching, whose moral weight and en-
thusiasm kept Islam ahve as the official religion, despite the
indifference of those Arabs who gave to it a mere nominal
adherence.! It is not, therefore, in the annals of the conquer-
ing armies that we must look for the reasons which lead to
the so rapid spread of the Mushm faith, but rather in the
conditions prevailing among the conquered peoples.
The national character of this ethnic movement of migra-
tion naturally attracted to the invading Arab hosts the
outlying representatives of the Arab race through whom
the path of the conquering armies lay. Accordingly it
is not surprising to find that many of the Christian
Bedouins were swept into the rushing tide of this great
movement and that Arab tribes, who for centuries had
professed the Christian religion, now abandoned it to em-
brace the Muslim faith. Among these was the tribe of
the Banii Ghassan, who held sway over the desert east of
Palestine and southern Syria, of whom it was said that they
were " Lords in the days of the ignorance and stars in
Islam." 2 After the battle of Qadisiyyah (a.h. 14) in which
the Persian army under Rustam had been utterly discomfited,
many Christians belonging to the Bedouin tribes on both
sides of the Euphrates came to the Mushm general and
said : " The tribes that at the first embraced Islam were
wiser than we. Now that Rustam hath been slain, we will
accept the new belief." ^ Similarly, after the conquest of
northern Syria, most of the Bedouin tribes, after hesitating
a httle, joined themselves to the followers of the Prophet.*
That force was not the determining factor in these
conversions may be judged from the amicable relations
that existed between the Christian and the Mushm Arabs.
Muhammad himself had entered into treaty with several
^ Caetani, vol. ii. p. 455; vol. v. p. 521. (" In Madlnah si formo un
considerevole nucleo religioso, composto d'elementi eterogenei, ma forse
in maggioranza madinesi, i quali presero I'lslam molto sul serio e cercarono
sinceramente di osservare la nuova dottrina, per la convinzione che, cosi
agendo facevan bene, ed in devoto omaggio alia volonta del Profeta.")
" Mas'udi, tome
* Caetani, vol. iii.iv.p.p.814
238.
(§ 323).
^ Muir's Caliphate, pp. 12 1-2.
Christian tribes, promising them his protection and guaran-

teeing them the free exercise of their rehgion and to their
clergy undisturbed enjoyment of their old rights and author-
ity. ^ A similar bond of friendship united his followers with
their fellow-countrymen of the older faith, many of whom
voluntarily came forward to assist the Muslims in their
military expeditions in the same spirit of loyalty to the new
government as had caused them to hold aloof from the great
apostasy that raised the standard of revolt throughout
Arabia immediately after the death of the Prophet. ^ It
has been suggested that the Christian Arabs who guarded
the frontier of the Byzantine empire bordering on the
desert threw in their lot with the invading Muslim army,
when Heraclius refused any longer to pay them their accus-
tomed subsidy for mihtary service as wardens of the
marches. 3
In the battle of the Bridge (a.h. 13) when a disastrous
defeat was imminent and the panic-stricken Arabs were
hemmed in between the Euphrates and the Persian host,
a Christian chief of the Banii Tayy sprang forward like
another Spurius Lartius to the side of an Arab Horatius, to
assist Muthannah the Muslim general in defending the bridge
of boats which could alone afford the means of an orderly
retreat. When fresh levies were raised to retrieve this
disgrace, among the reinforcements that came pouring in
from every direction was a Christian tribe of the Banu
Namir, who dwelt within the limits of the Byzantine empire,
and in the ensuing battle of Buwayb (a.h. 13), just before
the final charge of the Arabs that turned the fortune of
battle in their favour, Muthannah rode up to the Christian
chief and said : "Ye are of one blood with us ; come now,
and as I charge, charge ye with me." The Persians fell
back before their furious onslaught, and another great
victory was added to the glorious roll of Mushm triumphs.
One of the most gallant exploits of the day was performed
by a youth belonging to another Christian tribe of the
desert, who with his companions, a company of Bedouin
horse-dealers, had come up just as the Arab army was being
^ Caetani, vol. ii. pp. 260, 299, 351.
* Id. pp. 792-3; vol. iii. p. 253 (§ 8). ^ jj. pp. 1112-15.
drawn up in battle array. They threw themselves into the
fight on the side of their compatriots ; and while the conflict
was raging 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 plaudits of the
Mushm fine, crying as he passed in triumph : " I am of the
Banii Ta^îhb. I am he that hath slain the chief." ^
The tribe to which this young man boasted that he be-
longed was one of those that elected to remain Christian,
while other tribes of Mesopotamia, such as the Banii
Namir and the Banii Quda'ah, became Mushm. The
Banii Taghlib had sent an embassy to the Prophet as
early as the year a.h. 9. The heathen members of the
deputation embraced Islam and he made a treaty with the
Christians according to which they were to retain their old
faith but were not to baptise their children. A condition
so entirely at variance with the usual tolerant attitude of
Muhammad towards the Christian Arabs, who were allowed
to choose between conversion to Islam and the payment
of jizyah and never compelled to abandon their faith, has
given rise to the conjecture that this condition was sug-
gested by the Christian families of the Banii Ta^hb them-
selves, out of motives of economy.- The long survival of
Christianity in this tribe shows that this condition was
certainly not observed. The caliph 'Umar forbade any
pressure to be put upon them, when they showed them-
selves unwilling to abandon their old faith and ordered
that they should be left undisturbed in the practice of
it, but that they were not to oppose the conversion of
any member of their tribe to Islam nor baptise the
children of such as became Muslims.^ They were called
upon to pay the jizyah * or tax imposed on the non-
Muslim subjects, but they felt it to be humiliating to
their pride to pay a tax that was levied in return for
^ Muir : Caliphate, pp. 90-4.
* Caetani, vol. ii. p. 299. Wellhausen, iv. p. 15O {n. 5).
' Tabari, Prima Series, p. 24S2.
* For an exhaustive study ot the jizyah, with a masterly array and
critical examination of all tlie available historical materials, see Caetani,
vol. V. p. 319 sqq. ; for Egypt during the first century of Mushm rule, see
Bell, p. 107 sqq., and Becker, Beitrage zur Geschichte Aegyptens unter
dem Islam, p. bi sqq.
E
protection of life and property, and petitioned the caliph

to be allowed to make the same kind of contribution as the
Muslims did. So in lieu of the jizyah they paid a double
Sadaqah or alms/ — which was a poor tax levied on the
fields and cattle, etc., of the Muslims. ^ It especially irked
the Muslims that any of the Arabs should remain true to the
Christian faith. The majority of the Banii Tanujdi had
become Muslim in the year A.H. 12, when with other Christian
Arab tribes they submitted to Kialid b. al-Walid,^ but some
of them appear to have remained true to their old faith for
nearly a century and a half, since the caliph al-Mahdi (a.h.
158-169) is said to have seen a number of them who dwelt
in the neighbourhood of Aleppo, and learning that they
were Christians, in anger ordered them to accept Islam —
which they did to the number of 5000, and one of them
suffered martyrdom rather than apostatise.^ But for the
most part, details are lacking for any history of the dis-
ap earance ofChristianity from among the Christian Arab
tribes of Northern Arabia; they seem to have become
absorbed in the surrounding Muslim community by an
almost insensible process of "peaceful penetration"; had
attempts been made to convert them by force when they
first came under Muhammadan rule, it would not have been
possible for Christians to have survived among them up to
the times of the 'Abbasid caliphs.^
The people of Hirah had likewise resisted all the efforts
made by IQiahd to induce them to accept the Muslim faith.
This cit}' was one of the most illustrious in the annals of
Arabia, and to the mind of the impetuous hero of Islam it
seemed that an appeal to their Arab blood would be enough
to induce them to enrol themselves with the followers of
the Prophet of Arabia. When the besieged citizens sent an
embassy to the Mushm general to arrange the terms of the
capitulation of their city, Khalid asked them, " Who are
^ Caetani (vol. iv. p. 227) believes that this story is the invention of a
later epoch, to explain the fiscal anomaly of a Christian tribe being treated
as if it were Muslim.
* The few meagre notices of tlus tribe in the works of Arabic historians
have been admirably summarised by Lammens : Le Chantre des Omiades.
(J. A., ix. ser., tome iv. pp. 97-9, 438-59.) See also Caetani, vol. iv.
p. 227 sqq. ^ Caetani, vol. ii. p. 1180.
* Barhebraeus (3), pp. 134-5. * Caetani, vol. ii. p. 828.
you ? are you Arabs or Persians ? " Then 'Adi, the spokes-
man of the deputation, rephed, " Nay, we are pure-blooded
Arabs, while others among us are naturalised Arabs."
Kh. " 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." Hi. " You speak
truly. Now choose you one of these three things : either
(i) accept our faith, then your rights and obhgations will
be the same as ours, whether you choose to go into another
country or stay in your own land; or (2) pay jizyah; or
(3) war and battle. Verily, by God ! I have come to you
with a people who are more desirous of death than you are
of hfe." 'A. " Nay, we will pay you jizyah." M- " IH-
luck to you ! Unbelief is a pathless desert and foolish is
the Arab who, when two guides meet him wandering therein
— the one an Arab and the other not — leaves the first and
accepts the guidance of the foreigner." ^
Due provision was made for the instruction of the new
converts, for while whole tribes were being converted to the
faith with such rapidity, it was necessary to take pre-
cautions against errors, both in respect of creed and ritual,
such as might naturally be feared in the case of ill-instructed
converts. Accordingly we find that the caliph 'Umar
appointed teachers in every country, whose duty it was to
instruct the people in the teachings of the Qur'an and the
observances of their new faith. The magistrates were also
ordered to see that all, whether old or young, were regular
in their attendance at public prayer, especially on Fridays
and in the month of Ramadan. The importance attached
to this work of instructing the new converts may be judged
from the fact that in the city of Kiifah it was no less a
personage than the state treasurer who was entrusted with
this task. 2
From the examples given above of the toleration extended
towards the Christian Arabs by the victorious Mushms of
the first century^ of the Hijrah and continued by succeeding
generations, we may surely infer that those Christian tribes
that did embrace Islam, did so of their own choice and free
^ Tabari, i. p. 2041.
■^ Mas'udi, tome iv. p. 256.
will.i The Christian Arabs of the present day, dwelhng in

the midst of a Muhammadan population, are a hving testi-
mony of this toleration; Layard speaks of having come
across an encampment of Christian Arabs at al-Karak, to
the east of the Dead Sea, who differed in no wa}^ either in
dress or in manners, from the Muslim Arabs. ^ Burckhardt
was told by the monks of Mount Sinai that in the last
century there still remained several families of Christian
Bedouins who 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.^
Many of the Arabs of the renowned tribe of the Banii
Gbassan, Arabs of the purest blood, who embraced Christi-
anity towards the end of the fourth century, still retain the
Christian faith, and since their submission to the Church of
Rome, about two centuries ago, employ the Arabic language
in their religious services.'*
If we turn from the Bedouins to consider the attitude of
the settled inhabitants of the towns and the non-Arab
population towards the new religion, we do not find that
the Arab conquest was so rapidly followed by conversions
to Islam. The Christians of the great cities of the eastern
provinces of the Byzantine empire seem for the most part
to have remained faithful to their ancestral creed, to which
indeed they still in large numbers cling.
In order that we may fully appreciate their condition
under the Mushm rule, and estimate the influences that led
to occasional conversions, it will be well briefl}/ to sketch
their situation under the Christian rule of the Byzantine
empire which fell back before the Arab arms.
A hundred years before, Justinian had succeeded in
giving some show of unity to the Roman Empire, but after
^ " Gli Arabi nei primi anni non perseguitarono invece alcuno per ragioni
di fede, non si diedero pena alcuna per convertire chicchessia, sicche sotto
rislam, dopo le prime conquiste, i cristiani Semiti goderno d'una toUeranza
religiosa
vol. V. p. quale 4.) non si era mai vista da varie generazioni." (Caetani,
* Sir Henry Layard : Early Adventures in Persia, Susiana and Baby-
lonia, vol. i. p. 100. (London, 1887) ; R. Hartmann : Die Herrschaft von
al-Karak. (Der Islam, vol. ii. p. 137.)
* Burckhardt (2), p. 564.
* W. G. Palgrave: EssaysonEasternQuestions, pp. 206-8. (London, 1872.)
his death it rapidly fell asunder, and at this time there was
an entire want of common national feeling between the
provinces and the seat of government. Heraclius had made
some partially successful efforts to attach Syria again to the
central government, but unfortunately the general methods
of reconciliation which he adopted had served only to in-
crease dissension instead of allaying it. Rehgious passions
were the only existing substitute for national feeling, and he
tried, by propounding an exposition of faith, that was
intended to serve as an eirenicon, to stop all further disputes
between the contending factions and unite the heretics to
the Orthodox Church and to the central government. The
Council of Chalcedon (451) had maintained that Christ was
" to be acknowledged in two natures, without confusion,
change, division, or separation ; the difference of the natures
being in nowise taken away 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 of Christ, who was said to be a composite
person, having all attributes divine and human, but the
substance bearing these attributes was no longer a duality,
but a composite unity. The controversy between the
orthodox party and the Monophysites, who flourished
particularly in Egypt and Syria and in countries outside
the Byzantine empire, had been hotly contested for nearly
two centuries, when Heraclius sought to effect a reconcilia-
tion by means of the doctrine of Monotheletism : while
conceding the duality of the natures, it secured unity of the
person in the actual life of Christ, by the rejection of two
series of activities in this one person; the one Christ and
Son of God effectuates that which is human and that which
is divine by one divine human agency, i. e. there is only
one will in the Incarnate Word.^
But Heraclius shared the fate of so many would-be
^ I. A. Dorner : A System of Christian Doctrine, vol. iii. pp. 215-16.
(London, 1885.) J. C. Robertson: History of the Christian Church, vol.
ii. p. 226. (iôndon, 1S75.)
peace-makers : for not onl}^ did the controversy blaze up

again all the more fiercely, but he himself was stigmatised
as a heretic and drew upoa himself the wrath of both parties.
Indeed, so bitter was the feeling he aroused that there is
strong reason to believe that even a majorit}^ of the orthodox
subjects of the Roman Empire, in the provinces that were
conquered during this emperor's reign, were the well-wishers
of the Arabs ; they regarded the emperor with aversion as a
heretic, and were afraid that he might commence a perse-
cution inorder to force upon them his Monotheletic opinions.^
They therefore readily — and even eagerly — received the new
masters who promised them religious toleration, and were
willing to compromise their religious position and their
national independence if only they could free themselves
from the immediately impending danger.
Michael the Elder, Jacobite Patriarch of Antioch, writing
in the latter half of the twelfth century, could approve the
decision of his co-religionists and see the finger of God in
the Arab conquests even after the Eastern churches had
had experience of five centuries of Muhammadan rule.
After recounting the persecutions of Heraclius, he writes :
" This is why the God of vengeance, who alone is all-
powerful, and changes the empire of mortals as He will,
giving it to whomsoever He will, and uplifting the humble
■— beholding the wickedness of the Romans who, throughout
their dominions, cruelly plundered our churches and our
monasteries and condemned us without pity — brought from
the region of the south the sons of Ishmael, to deliver us
through them from the hands of the Romans. And, if in
truth, we have suffered some loss, because the catholic
churches, that had been taken away from us and given
to the Chalcedonians, remained in their possession; for
when the cities submitted to the Arabs, they assigned to
each denomination the churches which they found it to be
in possession of (and at that time the great church of Emessa
* That such fears were not wholly Rroundlesn may be judged from the
emperor's intolerant behaviour towards man}' of the Monophysite party
in his progress through Syria after the defeat of the Persians in 627. (See
Michael the Elder, vol. ii. p. 412, and Caetani, vol. ii. p. 1049.)
For the outrages committed by the Byzantine soldiers on their co-
religionists inthe reign of Constans II (642-668), see Michael the Elder,
vol. ii, p. 443.
and that of Harran had been taken away from us) ; never-
theless itwas no shght advantage for us to be dehvered from
the cruelty of the Romans, their wickedness, their wrath
and cruel zeal against us, and to find ourselves at peace." ^
When the Muslim army reached the valley of the Jordan
and Abu 'Ubaydah pitched his camp at Fihl, the Christian
inhabitants of the country wrote to the Arabs, saying : " O
Mushms, we prefer you to the Byzantines, though they are
of our own faith, because you keep better faith with us and are
more merciful to us and refrain from doing us injustice and
your rule over us is better than theirs, for they have robbed
us of our goods and our homes." 2 The people of Emessa
closed the gates of their city against the army of Heraclius
and told the Mushms that they preferred their government
and justice to the injustice and oppression of the Greeks. ^
Such was the state of feeling in Syria during the campaign
of 633-639 in which the Arabs gradually drove the Roman
army out of the province. And when Damascus, in 637,
set the example of making terms with the Arabs, and thus
secured immunity from plunder and other favourable con-
ditions, the rest of the cities of Syria were not slow to follow.
Emessa, Arethusa, Hieropolis and other towns entered into
treaties whereby they became tributar}' to the Arabs. Even
the patriarch of Jerusalem surrendered the city on similar
terms. The fear of religious compulsion on the part of the
heretical emperor made the promise of Muslim toleration
appear more attractive than the connection with the Roman
Empire and a Christian government, and after the first terrors
caused b}^ the passage of an invading army, there succeeded
a profound revulsion of feeling in favour of the Arab
conquerors.*
^ Michael the Elder, vol. ii. pp. 412-13. Barhebraeus, about a century
later, wrote in a similar strain. (Chronicon Ecclesiasticum, ed. J. B.
Abbeloos et Lamy, p. 474.)
2 Azdl, p. 97. 3 Baladhuri, p. 137.
* Caetani, vol. iii. p. 813; vol. v. p. 394. (" Gli abitanti accettarono
con non celato favore il mutamento di governo, appena ebbero compreso
che gli Arabi avrebbero rispettato i loro diritti individuali, ed avrebbero
lasciata completa liberta di coscienza in materia religiosa. In Siria, citta
ed interi distretti si affrettarono a trattare con gli Arabi anche prima della
rotta finale dei Greci. Nel Sawad si lasciarono passivamente sopraffare
accettando il nuovo dominio senza pattuire condizioni di sorta ; e probabile
che anche in Siria questo fosse il caso p^r molte regioni remote dalle grandi
vie di comunicazioni.")
For the provinces of the Byzantine empire that were
rapidly acquired by the prowess of the MusHms found them-
selves in the enjoyment of a toleration such as, on account
of their Monophysite and Nestorian opinions, had been
unknown to them for many centuries. They were allowed
the free and undisturbed exercise of their religion with some
few restrictions imposed for the sake of preventing any
friction between the adherents of the rival religions, or
arousing any fanaticism by the ostentatious exhibition of
religious symbols that were so offensive to Muslim feeling. ^
The extent of this toleration — so striking in the history of
the seventh century — may be judged from the terms granted
to the conquered cities, in which protection of life and
property and toleration of religious belief were given in
return for submission and the pajmient of jizyah.^
The exact details of these agreements cannot easily be
disentangled from the accretions with which they have
become overlaid, but whether verbally authentic or not,
they are significant as representing the historic tradition
accepted by the Muslim historians of the second century of
the Hijrah — a tradition that could hardly have become
established had there been extant evidence to the contrary.
As an example of such an agreement, the conditions ^ may
be quoted that are stated to have been drawn up when
Jerusalem submitted to the caliph 'Umar b. al-KIiattab :
" In the name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate !
This is the security which 'Umar, the servant of God, the
commander of the faithful, grants to the people of Êlia.
He grants to all, whether sick or sound, security for their
lives, their possessions, their churches and their crosses, and
for all that concerns their religion. Their churches shall not
be changed into dwelling places, nor destroyed, neither shall
they nor their appurtenances be in any wa}^ diminished, nor
the crosses of the inhabitants nor aught of their possessions,
nor shall any constraint be put upon them in the matter of
their faith, nor shall any one of them be harmed." ^
^ Gottheil has brought together a valuable collection of documentary
evidence as to the condition of the protected peoples under Muslim rule
in his " Dhimmis and Moslems in Egypt."
2 Baladhuri, pp. 74 (ad fin.), 116, 121 [med.).
^ For a discussion of this document, see Caetani, vol. iii. p. 952 sqq.
* Tatari, i. p. 2405.
Tribute was imposed upon them of five dinars for the
rich, four for the middle class and three for the poor. In
company with the Patriarch, 'Umar visited the holy places,
and it is said while they were in the Church of the Resur-
rection, asit was the appointed hour of prayer, the Patriarch
bade the caliph offer his prayers there, but he thoughtfully
refused, saying that if he were to do so, his followers might
afterwards claim it as a place of Muslim worship.
It is in harmony with the same spirit of kindly considera-
tion for his subjects of another faith, that 'Umar is recorded
to have ordered an allowance of money and food to be made
to some Christian lepers, apparently out of the public funds. ^
Even in his last testament, in which he enjoins on his suc-
cessor the duties of his high office, he remembers the dhimmis
(or protected persons of other faiths) : " I commend to his
care the dhimmis, who enjoy the protection of God and of
the Prophet ; let him see to it that the covenant with them is
kept, and that no greater burdens than the}^ can bear are
laid upon them." "
A later generation attributed to 'Umar a number of
restrictive regulations which hampered the Christians in
the free exercise of their religion, but De Goeje ^ and Caetani ^
have proved without doubt that they are the invention of
a later age ; as, however, Muslim theologians of less tolerant
periods accepted these ordinances as genuine, they are ot
importance for forming a judgment as to the condition of
the Christian Churches under Muslim rule. This so-called
ordinance of 'Umar runs as follows :— " In the name of
God, the Merciful, the Compassionate ! This is a writing
to 'Umar b. al-Khattab from the Christians of such
and such a city. When you marched against us, we
asked of you protection for ourselves, our posterity, our
possessions and our co-religionists ; and we made this
stipulation with you, that we will not erect in our city or
the suburbs any new monastery, church, cell or hermitage ; ^
^ Baladhuri. p. 129. ^ Ibn S'ad, III, i. p. 246.

* M6moire sur la conquSte de la Syrie, p. 143 sq.
* Annali dell' Islam, vol. iii. p. 957.
* Some authorities on Muhammadan law held that this rule did not
extend to villages and hamlets, in which the construction of churches was
not to be prevented. (Hidayah, vol. ii. p. 219.)
that we will not repair any of such buildings that may fall
into ruins, or renew those that may be situated in the Muslim
quarters of the town; that we will not refuse the Muslims
entry into our churches either by night or by day ; that we
will open the gates wide to passengers and travellers ; that
we will receive any Muslim traveller into our houses and give
him food and lodging for three nights ; that we will not
harbour any spy in our churches or houses, or conceal any
enemy of the Muslims ; that we will not teach our children
the Qur'an ; ^ that we will not make a show of the Christian
religion nor invite any one to embrace it ; that we will not
prevent any of our kinsmen from embracing Islam, if they
so desire. That we will honour the Muslims and rise up
in our assemblies when they wish to take their seats ; that
we will not imitate them in our dress, either in the cap,
turban, sandals, or parting of the hair; that we will not
make use of their expressions of speech,^ nor adopt their
surnames ; that we will not ride on saddles, or gird on swords,
or take to ourselves arms or wear them, or engrave Arabic
inscriptions on our rings ; that we will not sell wine ; that
we will shave the front of our heads ; that we will keep 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 or display our crosses or our sacred
books in the streets of the Muslims, or in their market-
places^; that we will strike the bells * in our churches lightly ;
that we will not recite our services in a loud voice when a
Muslim is present, that we will not carry palm-branches or
our images in procession in the streets, that at the burial
of our dead we will not chant loudly or carry lighted candles
^ " The 'Ulama' are divided in opinion on the question of the teaching
of the Qur'an : the sect of Mahk forbids it : that of Abu Hanifah allows it ;
and Shafi'i has two opinions on the subject : on the one hand, he counten-
ances the study of it, as indicating a leaning towards Islam ; and on the
other hand, he forbids it, because he fears that the unbeliever who studies
the Qur'an being still impure may read it solely with the object of turning
it to ridicule, since he is the enemy of God and the Prophet who wrote the
book; now as these two statements are contradictory, Shafi'i has no
formally stated opinion on this matter." (Belin, p. 508.)
to "one
Suchanother.
as the forms of greeting, etc., that are only to be used by Muslims
3 Abii Yiisuf (p. 82) says that Christians were to be allowed to go in
procession once a year with crosses, but not with banners; outside the
citv, not inside where the mosques were.
* The naqus, lit. an oblong piece of wood, struck with a rod.
in the streets of the Mushms or their market-places; that

we will not take any slaves that have already been in the
possession of Muslims, nor spy into their houses ; and that
we will not strike any Muslim. All this we promise to
observe, on behalf of ourselves and our co-religionists, and
receive protection from you in exchange ; and if we violate
any of the conditions of this agreement, then we forfeit
your protection and you are at liberty to treat us as enemies
and rebels." ^
The earliest mention of this document is made by Ibn
Hazm, who died in the middle of the fifth century of the
Hi] rah; its provisions represent the more intolerant practice
of a later age, and indeed were regulations that were put
into force with no sort of regularity, some outburst of
fanaticism being generally needed for any appeal to be
made for their application. There is abundant evidence to
show that the Christians in the early dsLjs of the Muham-
madan conquest had little to complain of in the way of
religious disabihties. It is true that adherence to their
ancient faith rendered them obnoxious to the payment of
jiz3âh — a word which originally denoted tribute of any
kind paid by the non-Muslim subjects of the Arab empire,
but came later on to be used for the capitation-tax as the
fiscal system of the new rulers became fixed ; - but this
jizyah was too moderate to constitute a burden, seeing that
it released them from the compulsory military service
that was incumbent on their Muslim fellow-subjects.
Conversion to Islam was certainly attended by a certain
pecuniary advantage, but his former rehgion could have
had but little hold on a convert who abandoned it merely
to gain exemption from the jizyah; and now, instead of
jizyah, the convert had to pay the legal alms, zakat, annuall}^
levied on most kinds of movable and immovable property.^
1 Gottheil, pp. 3S2-4, where references are given to the various versions
of this document.
2 There is evidence to show that the Arab conquerors left unchanged
the fiscal system that they found prevailing in the lands they conquered
from the Byzantines, and that the explanation of jizyah as a capitation-tax
is an invention of later jurists, ignorant of the true condition of affairs in
the early days of Islam. (Caetani, vol. iv. p. 6io (§ 231) ; vol. v. p. 449.)
H.Lammens: Ziad ibn Ablhi. (Ri vista degU Studi Oricntali, vol.iv.p. 215.)
3 Goldziher, vol. i. pp. 50-7, 427-30. Caetani, vol. v. p. 311 sqq.
6o THE PREACHING OF ISLAM
The pecuniary temptation to escape the incidence of taxation

by means of conversion was considerably lessened when
financial considerations compelled the Arab government,
towards the end of the first century, to insist on the new
converts continuing to pay jizj'ah even after they had been
received into the community of the faithful. ^ On the other
hand it must be remembered that the non-Muslim sections
of the population always ran the risk of becoming the victims
of fiscal oppression when the state was in need of revenue.
The rates of jizyah levied by the early conquerors were
not uniform, 2 and the great Muslim doctors, Abii Hanifah
and Malik, are not in agreement on some of the less im-
portant details ; ^ the following facts taken from the Kitab
al-Kiaraj, drawn up by Abu Yiisuf at the request of Harun
al-Rashid (a.d. 786-809) may be taken as generally repre-
sentative ofMuhammadan procedure under the 'Abbasid
Caliphate. The rich were to pay forty-eight dirhams * a
year, the middle classes twenty-four, while from the poor,
i. e. the field-labourers and artisans, only twelve dirhams
were taken. This tax could be paid in kind if desired;
cattle, merchandise, household effects, even needles were
to be accepted in lieu of specie, but not pigs, wine, or dead
animals. The tax was to be levied only on able-bodied
males, and not on women or children. ^ The poor who were
dependent for their livelihood on alms and the aged poor
who were incapable of work were also specially excepted,
as also the blind, the lame, the incurables and the insane,
unless they happened to be men of wealth ; this same con-
dition applied to priests and monks, who were exempt if
dependent on the alms of the rich, but had to pay if they
were well-to-do and lived in comfort. The collectors of
the jizyah were particularly instructed to show lenienc}^
and refrain from all harsh treatment or the infliction of
corporal punishment, in case of non-payment. ^
This tax was not imposed on the Christians, as some
would have us think, as a penalty for their refusal to accept
the Muslim faith, but was paid by them in common with the
1 Caetani, vol. v. pp. 424 (§ 752), 432. ^ Baladhuri, pp. 124-5.

» A. von Krcmer (i), vol. i. pp. 60, 436. •» A dirham is about fivepencc.
* Bell, pp. XXV, 173. 6 Abu Yusuf, pp. 69-71.
SPREAD OF ISLAM IN WESTERN ASIA 6i
other dhimmis or non-Muslim subjects of the state whose

religion precluded them from serving in the army, in return
for the protection secured for them by the arms of the
Musalmans. When the people of Hirah contributed the
sum agreed upon, they expressl}- mentioned that they paid
this jizyah on condition that " the Mushms and their leader
protect us from those who would oppress us, whether they
be Muslims or others." ^ Again, in the treaty made by
Hialid with some towns in the neighbourhood of Hirah,
he writes : " If we protect you, then jizyah is due to us ; but
if we do not, then it is not due." ^ How clearly this con-
dition was recognised by the Muhammadans may be judged
from the following incident in the reign of the Caliph 'Umar.
The Emperor Heraclius had raised an enormous army with
which to drive back the invading forces of the Muslims,
who had in consequence to concentrate all their energies
on the impending encounter. The Arab general, Abu
'Ubaydah, accordingly wrote to the governors of the con-
quered cities of Syria, ordering them to pay back all the
jizyah that had been collected from the cities, and wrote
to the people, saying, " We give you back the money that
we took from you, as we have received news that a strong
force is advancing against us. The agreement between u
was that we should 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
old terms of our agreement." In accordance with this
order, enormous sums were paid back out of the state
treasury, and the Christians called down blessings on the
heads of the Muslims, saying, " May God give you rule over
us again and make you victorious over the Romans; had
it been they, they would not have given us back anything,
but would have taken all that remained with us." ^
As stated above, the jizyah was levied on the able-bodied
males, in lieu of the military service they would have been
called upon to perform had they been Musalmans ; and it
is very noticeable that when any Christian people served
in the Muslim army, they were exempted from the payment
^ Tabari, Prima Series, p. 2055. * Id. p. 2050.
* Abu Yusuf, p. 81.
62 THE PREACHlNCx OF ISLAM
of this tax. Such was the case with the tribe of al-Jura-
jimah, a Christian tribe in the neighbourhood of Antioch,
who made peace with the Mushms, promising to be their
alhes and fight on their side in battle, on condition that
they should not be called upon to pay jizyah and should
receive their proper share of the booty.^ When the Arab
conquests were pushed to the north of Persia in a.h. 22, a
similar agreement was made with a frontier tribe, which
was exempted from the payment of jizyah in consideration
of military service.-
We find similar instances of the remission of jizyah in
the case of Christians who served in the army or navy under
the Turkish rule. For example, the inhabitants of Megaris,
a community of Albanian Christians, were exempted from
the payment of this tax on condition that they furnished a
body of armed men to guard the passes over Mounts Cithseron
and Geranea, which lead to the Isthmus of Corinth; the
Christians who served as pioneers of the advance-guard of
the Turkish army, repairing the roads and bridges, were
likewise exempt from tribute and received grants of land
quit of all taxation ; ^ and the Christian inhabitants of Hydra
paid no direct taxes to the Sultan, but furnished instead a
contingent of 250 able-bodied seamen to the Turkish fleet,
who were supported out of the local treasury.*
The Southern Rumanians, the so-called Armatoli,^ who
constituted so important an element of strength in the
Turkish army during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries,
and the Mirdites, a tribe of Albanian Catholics who occupied
the mountains to the north of Scutari, were exempt from
taxation on condition of supplying an armed contingent in
time of war.^ In the same spirit, in consideration of the
services they rendered to the state, the capitation-tax was
not imposed upon the Greek Christians who looked after
the aqueducts that supplied Constantinople with drinking
water,' nor on those who had charge of the powder-magazine
in that city.*^ On the other hand, when the Egyptian
^ Baladhurl. p. 159. 2 Xabari, Prima Series, p. 2665.
' Marsigli, vol. i. p. 86 (he calls them" Musellim").
* Finlay, vol. vi. pp. 30, 33. ^ Lazgr, p. 56.
* De la Jonquiere, p. 14. '' Thomas Smith, p. 324.
** Dorostamus, p. 326.
peasants, although Mushm in faith, were made exempt from

mihtary service, a tax was imposed upon them as on the
Christians, in heu thereof. ^
Living under this security of hfe and property and such
toleration of religious thought, the Christian community —
especially in the towns — enjo^-ed a flourishing prosperity
in the early da3's of the Caliphate.
Mu'awiyah (661-680) employed Christians very largely
in his service, and other members of the reigning house
followed his example.- Christians frequentl}^ held high posts
at court, e. g. a Christian Arab, al-A]dital, was court poet,
and the father of St. John of Damascus, counsellor to the
caliph 'Abd al-Malik (685-705). In the service of the
caliph al-Mu'tasim (833-842), there were two brothers,
Christians, who stood very high in the confidence of the
Commander of the Faithful : the one, named Salmiiyah,
seems to have occupied somewhat the position of a
modern secretary of state, and no royal documents were
vahd until countersigned by him, while his brother,
Ibrahim, was entrusted with the care of the privy seal,
and was set over the Bayt al-Mal or Public Treasury,
an office that, from the nature of the funds and their dis-
posal, might have been expected to have been put into the
hands of a Muslim; so great was the caliph's personal
affection for this Ibrahim, that he visited him in his sickness,
and was overwhelmed with grief at his death, and on the
day of the funeral ordered the body to be brought to the
palace and the Christian rites performed there with great
solemnity.^
'Abd al-Malik appointed a certain Athanasius, a Christian
scholar of Edessa, tutor to his brother, 'Abd al-'Aziz.
Athanasius accompanied his pupil, when he was appointed
governor of Egypt, and there amassed great wealth ; he is
said to have possessed 4000 slaves, villages, houses, gardens,
and gold and silver " hke stones "; his sons took a dinar
from each of the soldiers when they received their pay, and
as there were 30,000 troops then in Egypt, some idea may
be formed of the wealth that Athanasius accumulated during
1 De la Jonquiere, p. 265. 2 Lammens, p. 13.
' Ibn Abi Usaybi'ah, vol. i. p. 164.
the twenty-one years that he spent in that country. ^ At

the close of the eighth century, a certain Abii Nuh al-Anbari
was secretary to Abii Miisa b. Mus'ab, governor of Mosul,
and used his powerful influence for the benefit of his Christian
co-religionists. 2
In the reign of al-Mu'tadid (892-902), the governor of
Anbar, 'Umar b. Yiisuf, was a Christian, and the caliph ap-
proved of the appointment on the ground that if a Christian
were found to be competent, a post might well be given to
him, as there were better reasons for trusting a Christian
than either a Jew, a Muslim or a Zoroastrian.' Al-Muwaffaq,
who was virtual ruler of the empire during the reign of his
brother al-Mu'tamid (870-892), entrusted the administra-
tion of the army to a Christian named Israel, and his son,
al-Mu'tadid, had as one of his secretaries another Christian,
Malik b. al-Walid. In a later reign, that of al-Muqtadir
(908-932), a Christian was again in charge of the war office.*
Nasr b. Harun, the Prime Minister of 'Adud al-Dawlah
(949-982), of the Buwayhid dynasty of Persia, who ruled
over Southern Persia and 'Iraq, was a Christian.^ For a
long time, the government offices, especially in the depart-
ment of finance, were filled with Christians and Persians ; "
to a much later date was such the case in Egypt, where
at times the Christians almost entirely monopolised such
posts. '^ Particularly as physicians, the Christians fre-
quently amassed great wealth and were much honoured in
the houses of the great. Gabriel, the personal physician
of the caliph Hariin al-Rashid, was a Nestorian Christian
and derived a yearly income of 800,000 dirhams from his
private property, in addition to an emolument of 280,000
dirhams a year in return for his attendance on the caliph;
the second physician, also a Christian, received 22,000
dirhams a year.^ In trade and commerce, the Christians
also attained considerable affluence : indeed it was fre-
quently their wealth that excited against them the jealous
^ Michael the Elder, vol. ii. p. 475.
* Mari b. Sulayman, p. 71 (1. 16). Abu Nuh al-Anbari wrote a refutation
of the Qur'an and other theological works (Wright, p. 191 n. 3).
^ Mari b. Sulayman, p. 84. * Hilal al-Sabi, p. 95.
•' Ibn al-Athir, vol. ix. p. 16.
* Von Kremer (i), vol. i. pp. 167-8. Lammens, p. 11.
' Renaudot, pp. 430, 540. ^ Von Kremer (i), vol. ii. pp. 180-1.
cupidity of the mob — a feeling that fanatics took advantage

of, to persecute and oppress them. Further, the non-
Mushm communities enjoyed an almost complete autonomy,
for the government placed in their hands the independent
management of their internal affairs, and their religious
leaders exercised judicial functions in cases that concerned
their co-religionists only.^ Their churches and monasteries
were, for the most part, not interfered with, except in the
large cities, where some of them were turned into mosques —
a measure that could hardly be objected to in view of the
enormous increase in the Muslim and corresponding decrease
in the Christian population.
Recent historical criticism has demonstrated the im-
pos ibility ofthe legend that when Damascus was taken
b}' the Arabs, the churches were equall}^ divided between the
Christians and the conquerors, on the plea that while one
Muslim general made his way into the city by the eastern
gate at the point of the sword, another at the western gate
received the submission of the governor of the city; a
similar scrutiny of historical documents as well as of the
topography of the building has shown that the great cathe-
dral of St. John could never have been used in the manner
described by some Arabic historians as a common place of
worship for both Christians and Muslims. ^ But the very
fact that these historians should have believed that such an
arrangement continued for nearly eighty years, testifies to
the early recognition of the liberty granted to the Christians
of practising the observances of their rehgion.
The opinion of the Muhammadan legists is very diverse
on this question, from the more liberal HanafI doctrine,
which declares that, though it is unlawful to construct
churches and synagogues in Muhammadan territory, those
already existing can be repaired if they have been destroyed
or have fallen into decay, while in villages and hamlets,
where the tokens of Islam do not appear, new churches and
synagogues may be built — to the intolerant Hanbalite view
that they may neither be erected nor be restored when
damaged or ruined. Some legists held that the privileges
varied according to treaty rights : in towns taken by force,
^ Von Kremer (i), vol. i. p. 183. * Caetani, vol. iii. pp. 350 sq., 387 sqq.
F
no new houses of prayer might be erected by d]iimmis. but

if a special treaty had been made, the building of new
churches and s3/nagogues was allowed.^ But like so many
of the lucubrations of Muhammadan legists, these prescrip-
tions bore but little relation to actual facts. ^ Schoolmen
might agree that the dhimmis could build no houses
of prayer in a city of Muslim foundation, but the
civil authority permitted the Copts to erect churches
in the new capital of Cairo, ^ In other cities also the
Christians were allowed to erect new churches and
monasteries. The very fact that 'Umar II (717-720), at
the close of the first century of the Hijrah, should have
ordered the destruction of all recently constructed churches,'*
and that rather more than a century later, the fanatical
al-Mutawakkil (847-861) should have had to repeat the
same order, shows how little the prohibition of the building
of new churches was put into force. '^ We have numerous
instances recorded, both by Christian and Muhammadan
historians, of the building of new churches : e. g. in the reign
of 'Abd al-Malik (685-705), a wealthy Christian of Edessa,
named Athanasius, erected in his native city a fine church
dedicated to the Mother of God, and a Baptistery in honour
of the picture of Christ that was reputed to have been sent
to King Abgar; he also built a number of churches and
monasteries in various parts of Egypt, among them two
magnificent churches in Fustat.^ Some Christian chamber-
lains in the service of 'Abd al-'Aziz b. Marwan (brother of
'Abd al-Malik), the governor of Egypt, obtained permission
to build a church in Halwan, which was dedicated to St.
John,' though this town was a Muslim creation. In a.d. 711
a Jacobite church was built at Antioch by order of the caliph
al-Walid (705-715).^ In the first year of the reign of Yazld
^ Gottheil, pp. 360-1 . Goldziher : Zur Literatur des Ichtilaf al-
madahib, ZDMG., vol. 38, pp. 673-4.
^ On this theoretical character of much of Muslim legal literature, see
Snouck Hurgonje : Mohammedanisches Recht in Theorie und Wirklichkeit.
» Gottheil, p. 363.
* Gottheil, pp. 358-9, however, doubts whether there is evidence for
attributing this intolerance to 'Umar II.
^ Journal Asiatique, IV'"= serie, tome xviii. (1851), pp. 433, 450. Jabari,
III, p. 1419.
* Michael the Elder, vol. ii. p. 476. Renaudot, p. 189.
' Eutychius, II, p. 41 init. Severus (p. 139) says " two churches."
* Von Kremer (i), vol. ii. p. 175.
II (a.d. 720), Mar Elias, the Jacobite Patriarch of Antioch,
made a solemn entry into Antioch, accompanied by his
clergy and monks, to consecrate a new church which he
had caused to be built ; and in the following year he conse-
crated another church in the village of Sarmada, in the dis-
trict of Antioch, and the only opposition he met with was
from the rival Christian sect that accepted the Council of
Chalcedon.i In the following reign, Khalid al-QasrI, who was
governor of Arabian and Persian 'Iraq from 724 to 738, built
a church for his mother, who was a Christian, to worship in.^
In 759 the building of a church at Nisibis was completed, on
which the Nestorian bishop, Cyprian, had expended a sum
of 56,000 dinars.^ From the same century dates the church
of Abii Sir jah in the ancient Roman fortress in old Cairo.*
In the reign of al-Mahdl (775-785) a church was erected in
Baghdad for the use of the Christian prisoners that had
been taken captive during the numerous campaigns against
the Byzantine empire. ^ Another church was built in the
same city, in the reign of Hariin al-Rashid (786-809), by
the people of Samalu, who had submitted to the caliph
and received protection from him ; ® during the same reign
Sergius, the Nestorian Metropolitan of Basrah, received
permission to build a church in that city,' though it was a
Muslim foundation, having been created by the caliph
'Umar in the year 638, and a magnificent church was erected
in Babylon in which were enshrined the bodies of the
prophets Daniel and Ezechiel.^ When al-Ma'miin (813-
833) was in Egypt he gave permission to two of his chamber-
lains to erect a church on al-Muqattam, a hill near Cairo;
and by the same caliph's leave, a wealthy Christian, named
Bukam, built several fine churches at Biirah in Egypt. ^
The Nestorian Patriarch, Timotheus, who died a.d. 820,
erected a church at Takrit and a monastery at Bagdad. i"
In the tenth century, the beautiful Coptic church of Abu
^ Michael the Elder, vol. ii. pp. 490, 491.

- Ibn Khallikan, vol. i. p. 485. s Elias of Nisibis, p. 128.
* A. J. Butler : The Ancient Coptic Churches of Egypt, vol. i. p. iSi.
(Oxford, 1884.) 5 Yaqut, vol. ii. p. 662.
« Yaqut, vol. ii. p. 670. ^ Mari b. Sulayman, p. 73.
* Ishok of Romgla, p. 266. « Eutychius, II, p. 58.
^^ Von Kremer (i), vol. ii. pp. 175-6.
Sayfayn was built in Fustat.^ A new church was built at

Jiddah in the reign of al-Zahir, the seventh Fatimid caliph
of Egypt (1020-1035).^ New churches and monasteries
were also built in the reign of the 'Abbasid, al-Mustadi
(1170-1180).^ In 1187 a church was built at Fustat and
dedicated to Our Lady the Pure Virgin.^
Indeed, so far from the development of the Christian
Church being hampered by the establishment of Muham-
madan rule, the history of the Nestorians exhibits a re-
markable outburst of religious life and energy from the
time of their becoming subject to the Mushms.^ Alternately
petted and persecuted by the Persian kings, in whose
dominions by far the majority of the members of this sect
were found, it had passed a rather precarious existence and
had been subjected to harsh treatment, when war between
Persia and Byzantium exposed it to the suspicion of sympa-
thising with the Christian enemy. But, under the rule of
the caliphs, the security they enjoyed at home enabled
them to vigorously push forward their missionary enter-
prises abroad. Missionaries were sent into China and
India, both of which were raised to the dignity of metro-
politan sees in the eighth century; about the same period
they gained a footing in Egypt, and later spread the Christian
faith right across Asia, and by the eleventh century had
gained many converts from among the Tatars. ^
If the other Christian sects failed to exhibit the same
vigorous life, it was not the fault of the Muhammadans.
All were tolerated alike by the supreme government, and
furthermore were prevented from persecuting one another,'
In the fifth century, Barsauma, a Nestorian bishop, had per-
suaded the Persian king to set on foot a fierce persecution
^ Butler : Ancient Coptic Churches of Egypt, vol. i. p. 76.

2 Renaudot, p. 399. ' Ishok of Romgla, p. 333. * Abu Salih, p. 92,
° A Dominican monk from Florence, by name Ricoldus de Monte Crucis,
who visited the East about the close of the thirteenth and the beginning
of the fourteenth century, speaks of the toleration the Nestorians had
enjoyed under Muhammadan rule right up to his time : " Et ego inveni
per antiquas historias et autenticas aput Saracenos, quod ipsi Nestorini
amici fuerunt Machometi et confederati cum eo, et quod ipse Machometus
mandauit suis posteris, quod Nestorinos maxime conseruarent. Quod
usque hodie diligentcr obseruant ipsi Sarraceni." (Laurent, p. 128.)
* J. Labourt : De Timotheo I, Nestorianorum Patriarcha, p. 37 sqq.
(Paris, 1904.) 7 E. von Dobschiitz, p. 390-1.
of the Orthodox Church, by representing Nestorius as a
friend of the Persians and his doctrines as approximating
to their own ; as many as 7800 of the Orthodox clergy, with
an enormous number of la3'men, are said to have been
butchered during this persecution. ^ Another persecution
was instituted against the Orthodox by Khusrau II, after
the invasion of Persia by Herachus, at the instigation of a
Jacobite, who persuaded the King that the Orthodox would
always be favourably inclined towards the Byzantines. ^
But the principles of Mushm toleration forbade such acts of
injustice as these : on the contrary, it seems to have been
their endeavour to deal fairly by all their Christian subjects :
e. g. after the conquest of Egypt, the Jacobites took ad-
vantage of the expulsion of the Byzantine authorities to
rob the Orthodox of their churches, but later they were
restored by the Muhammadans to their rightful owners when
these had made good their claim to possess them.^
In view of the toleration thus extended to their Christian
subjects in the early period of the Muslim rule, the common
hypothesis of the sword as the factor of conversion seems
hardly satisfactory, and we are compelled to seek for other
motives than that of persecution. But unfortunately very
few details are forthcoming and we are obliged to have
recourse to conjecture.'* In an age so prolific of theological
speculation, there may well have been some thinkers whose
trend of thought had prepared them for the acceptance
of the Muhammadan position. Such were those Shahrighan
or landed proprietors in Persia in the eighth century, who
were nominally Christians, but maintained that Christ was
an ordinary man and that he was as one of the Prophets. ^
They appear at times to have given a good deal of trouble
^ Michael the Elder, vol. ii. p. 439-40.
2 Makin, p. 12. J. Labourt : Le Christianisme sous la dynastie sassanide,
p. 139 sq. (Paris, 1904.)
^ Renaudot, p. 169.
* Von Kremer well remarks : " Wir verdanken dem unermiidlichen
Sammelfleiss der arabischen Chronisten unsere Kenntniss der politischen
und militarischen Geschichte jener Zeiten, welche so genau ist als dies nur
immer auf eine Entfernung von zwolf Jahrhunderten der Fall sein kann ;
allein gerade die innere Geschichte jener denkwiirdigen Epoche, die Ges-
chichte des Kampfes einer neuen, rohen Religion gegen die alten hoch-
gebildeten, zum Thcile iiberbildeten Ciilte ist kaum in ihren allg-^meinsten
Umrissen bekannt." (Von Kremer (2), pp. 1-2.)
» Thomas of Marga, vol. ii. p. 309 sq.
to the Nestorian clergy, who were at great pains to draw
them into the paths of orthodoxy ; i but their theological
position was more closely akin to Islam than to Christian
doctrine, and they probably went to swell the ranks of the
converts after the Arab conquest of the Persian empire.
Many Christian theologians ^ have supposed that the
debased condition — moral and spiritual— of the Eastern
Church of that period must have alienated the hearts of
many and driven them to seek a healthier spiritual atmo-
sphere in the faith of Islam which had come to them in all
the vigour of new-born zeal.^ For example, Dean Milman •*
asks, " What was the state of the Christian world in the
provinces exposed to the first invasion of Mohammedanism ?
Sect opposed to sect, clergy wrangling with clergy upon the
most abstruse and metaphysical points of doctrine. The
orthodox, the Nestorians, the Eutychians, the Jacobites
were persecuting each other with unexhausted animosity;
and it is not judging too severely the evils of religious con-
troversy to suppose that many would rejoice in the degra-
dation of their adversaries under the yoke of the unbeliever,
rather than make common cause with them in defence of the
common Christianity, In how many must this incessant
disputation have shaken the foundations of their faith !
It had been wonderful if thousands had not, in their weari-
ness and perplexit}^ sought refuge from these interminable
and implacable controversies in the simple, intelligible truth
of the Divine Unity, though purchased by the acknow-
ledgment of the prophetic mission of Mohammed."
Similarly, Caetani sees in the spread of Islam, among
the Christians of the Eastern Churches, a revulsion of
feeling from the dogmatic subtleties introduced into Chris-
tian theology by the Hellenistic spirit. " For the East,
with its love of clear and simple concepts, Hellenic culture
was, from the religious point of view, a misfortune, because
^ Thomas of Marga, vol. ii. pp. 310, 324 sq.
- Cf. in addition to the passages quoted below, M'Clintoch & Strong's
Cyclopaedia, sub art. Mohammedanism, vol. vi. p. 420. James Freeman
Clarke : Ten Great Religions, Part ii. p. 75. (London, 1883.)
^ Thus the Emperor Hcraclius is represented by the Muhammadan
historian as saying, " Their religion is a new religion which gives them new
zeal." (Tabarl, p. 2103.)
* History of Latin Christianity, vol. ii. pp. 216-17.
it changed the subHme and simple teachings of Christ into

a creed bristhng with incomprehensible dogmas, full of
doubts and uncertainties; these ended with producing a
feeling of deep dismay and shook the very foundations of
rehgious belief ; so that when at last there appeared, coming
out suddenly from the desert, the news of the new revela-
tion, this bastard oriental Christianity, torn asunder by
internal discords, wavering in its fundamental dogmas,
dismayed by such incertitudes, could no longer resist the
temptations of a new faith, which swept away at one single
stroke all miserable doubts, and offered, along with simple,
clear and undisputed doctrines, great material advantages
also. The East then abandoned Christ and threw itself into
the arms of the Prophet of Arabia." ^
Again, Canon Taylor 2 says : " It is easy to understand
why this reformed Judaism spread so swiftly over Africa
and Asia. The African and Syrian doctors had substituted
abstruse metaphysical dogmas for the religion of Christ :
they tried to combat the hcentiousness of the age by setting
forth the celestial merit of celibacy and the angehc excellence
of virginity — seclusion from the world was the road of
holiness, dirt was the characteristic of monkish sanctity —
the people were practically polytheists, worshipping a crowd
of martyrs, saints and angels; the upper classes were
effeminate and corrupt, the middle classes oppressed by
taxation,^ the slaves without hope for the present or the
future. As with the besom of God, Islam swept away this
mass of corruption and superstition. It was a revolt against
empty theological polemics; it was a masculine protest
against the exaltation of cehbacy as a crown of piety. It
brought out the fundamental dogmas of religion — the unity
and greatness of God, that He is merciful and righteous,
that He claims obedience to His will, resignation and faith.
It proclaimed the responsibility of man, a future life, a day
of judgment, and stern retribution to fall upon the wicked ;
and enforced the duties of prayer, almsgiving, fasting and
^ Caetani, vol. ii. pp. 1045-6.
^ A paper read before the Church Congress at Wolverhampton, October
7th, 1887.
3 For the oppressive fiscal system under the Byzantine empire,, see
Gfrorcr : Byzantinische Geschichten, vol. ii, pp, 337-9^ 389-9?< ^50-
benevolence. It thrust aside the artificial virtues, the
religious frauds and follies, the perverted moral sentiments,
and the verbal subtleties of theological disputants. It
replaced monkishness by manliness. It gave hope to the
slave, brotherhood to mankind, and recognition to the
fundamental facts of human nature."
Islam has, moreover, been represented as a reaction
against that Byzantine ecclesiasticism,^ which looked upon
the emperor and his court as a copy of the Divine Majesty
on high, and the emperor himself as not only the supreme
earthly ruler of Christendom, but as High-priest also.^
Under Justinian this S3'stem had been hardened into a
despotism that pressed like an iron weight upon clergy and
laity alike. In 532 the widespread dissatisfaction in Con-
stantinople with both church and state, burst out into a
revolt against the government of Justinian, which was only
suppressed after a massacre of 35,000 persons. The Greens,
as the part}^ of the malcontents was termed, had made open
and violent protest in the circus against the oppression of
the
worldemperor,
and is crying
no moreout,
to "beJustice
found.hasBut
vanished
we willfrom the
become
Jews, or rather we will return again to Grecian paganism." ^
The lapse of a century had removed none of the grounds
for the dissatisfaction that here found such violent expres-
sion, but the heavy hand of the Byzantine government
prevented the renewal of such an outbreak as that of 532
and compelled the malcontents to dissemble, though in
560 some secret heathens were detected in Constantinople
and punished."* On the borders of the empire, however,
at a distance from the capital, such malcontents were safer,
and the persecuted heretics, and others dissatisfied with the
^ " Der Islam war ein Riickstoss gegen den Missbrauch, welchen Justinian
mit der Menschheit, besonders aber mit der christlichen Religion trieb,
deren oberstes geistliches und weltliches Haupt er zu sein behauptete.
Dass der Araber Mahomed, welcher 571 der christlichen Zeitrechnung,
sechs Jahre nach dem Tode Justinians, das Licht der Welt erblickte, mit
seiner Lehre unerhortes Gliick machte, verdankte er grossentheils dem
Abscheu, welchen die im Umkreise des byzantinischen Reiches angeses-
senen Volker, wie die benachbarten Nationen, iiber die von dem Basileus
vol. ii. p. 437.)Greuel empfanden." (Gfrorer : Byzantinische Geschichten,
begangenen
2 Id. vol. ii. pp. 296-306, 337. 9 Id. vol. ii. pp. 442-4.
♦ Id, vol. ii. p. 445.
Byzantine state-church, took refuge in the East, and here

the Mushm armies would be welcomed by the spiritual
children of those who a hundred years before had desired to
exchange the Christian rehgion for another faith.
Further, the general adoption of the Arabic language
throughout the empire of the cahphate, especiall}^ in the
towns and the great centres of population, and the gradual
assimilation in manners and customs that in the course of
about two centuries caused the numerous conquered races to
be largely merged in the national life of the ruling race, had
no doubt a counterpart in the religious and intellectual life of
many members of the protected religions. The rationalistic
movement that so powerfully influenced Muslim theology
from the second to the fifth centur}^ of the Hijrah may very
possibly have influenced Christian thinkers, and turned
them from a religion, the prevailing tone of whose theology
seems at this time to have been Credo quia impossihile. A
Muhammadan writer of the fourth century of the Hijrah
has preserved for us a conversation with a Coptic Christian
which may safely be taken as characteristic of the general
mental attitude of the rest of the Eastern Churches at this
period :—
" My proof for the truth of Christianity is, that I find
its teachings contradictory and mutually destructive, for
they are repugnant to reason and revolting to the intellect,
on account of their inconsistency and mutual contrariety.
No reflection can strengthen them, no discussion can prove
them ; and however thoughtfully we may investigate them,
neither the intellect nor the senses can provide us with any
argument in support of them. Notwithstanding this, I
have seen that many nations and mighty kings of learning
and sound judgment, have given in their allegiance to the
Christian faith; so I conclude that if these have accepted
it in spite of all the contradictions referred to, it is because
the proofs they have received, in the form of signs and
miracles, have compelled them to submit to it." ^
On the other hand, it should be remembered that those
who passed over from Christianity to Islam, under the
influence of the rationalistic tendencies of the age, would
1 Mas'udi, vol. ii. p. 387.
find in the Mu'tazilite presentment of Muslim theology, very

much that was common to the two faiths, so that as far as
the articles of belief and the intellectual attitude towards
many theological questions were concerned, the transition
was not so violent as might be supposed. To say nothing
of the numerous fundamental doctrines, that will at once
suggest themselves to those even who have only a slight
knowledge of the teachings of the Prophet, there were many
other common points of view, that were the direct conse-
quences of the close relationships between the Christian and
Muhammadan theologians in Damascus under the Umay3'ad
caliphs as also in later times ; for it has been maintained
that there is clear evidence of the influence of the Byzantine
theologians on the development of the systematic treatment
of Muhammadan dogmatics. The very form and arrange-
ment of the oldest rule of faith in the Arabic language
suggest a comparison with similar treatises of St. John of
Damascus and other Christian fathers.^ The oldest Arab
Sufiism, the trend of which was purely towards the ascetic
life (as distinguished from the later pantheistic Siifiism)
originated largely under the influence of Christian thought. ^
Such influence is especially traceable in the doctrines of some
of the Mu'tazilite sects, ^ who busied themselves with specu-
lations on the attributes of the divine nature quite in the
manner of the Byzantine theologians : the Qadariyyah or
libertarians of Islam probably borrowed their doctrine of
the freedom of the will directly from Christianity, while the
Murji'ah in their denial of the doctrine of eternal punish-
ment were in thorough agreement with the teaching of the
Eastern Church on this subject as against the generally
received opinion of orthodox Muslims.* On the other hand,
the influence of the more orthodox doctors of Islam in the
conversion of unbelievers is attested by the tradition that
twenty thousand Christians, Jews and Magians became
Muslims when the great Imam Ibn Hanbal died.^ A cele-
1 Von Kremer (2), p. 8. - Id. p. 54 and (3), p. 32. Nicholson, p. 231.
^ Among the Mu'tazilite philosophers, Muhammad b. al-Huzayl, the
teacher of al-Ma'mun, is said to have converted more than three thousand
persons to Islam. (Ahmad b. Yahya b. al-Murtada, p. 26, 1. 7.)
^ Von Kremer (2), pp. 3, 7-8. C. H. Becker : Christliche Polemik und
islamische Dogmenbildung (Zeitschrift fiir Assyriologie, xxvi. 1912),
^ Ibn Khallikan. vol. i. p. 45.
brated doctor of the same sect, Abu'l-Faraj b. al-Jawzi

(a.d. 1115-1201), the most learned man of his time, a popular
preacher and most prolific writer, is said to have boasted
that just the same number of persons accepted the faith of
Islam at his hands. ^
Further, the vast and unparalleled success of the Muslim
arms shook the faith of the Christian peoples that came
under their rule and saw in these conquests the hand of
God. 2 Worldly prosperity they associated with the divine
favour and the God of battle (they thought) would surely
give the victory only into the hands of his favoured servants.
Thus the very success of the Muhammadans seemed to argue
the truth of their religion.
The Islamic ideal of the brotherhood of all believers was
a powerful attraction towards this creed, and though the
Arab pride of birth strove to refuse for several generations
the privileges of the ruling race to the new converts, still
as " clients " of the various Arab tribes to which at first
they used to be affiliated, they received a recognised position
in the community, and by the close of the first century of
the Hijrah they had vindicated for this ideal its true place
in Muslim theology and at least a theoretical recognition in
the state. ^
But the condition of the Christians did not always continue
to be so tolerable as under the earlier caliphs. In the
interests of the true believers, vexatious conditions were
sometimes imposed upon the non-Muslim population (or
dhimmis) . with the object of securing for the faith-
ful superior social advantages. Unsuccessful attempts
were made by several caliphs to exclude them from the
public offices. Decrees to this effect were passed by al-
Mansiir (754-775), al-Mutawakkil (847-861), al-Muqtadir
(908-932), and in Egypt by al-Amir (1101-1130), one of
the Fatimid caliphs, and by the Mamliik Sultans in the
^ Wustenfeld, p. 103.
2 Michael
vittorie sui the Elder,
Greci vol. Persian!
e sui ii. pp. 412-13. Caetani, erano
non solamente vol. v.ilp.trionfo
508. (" Le
della
razza araba sulle popolazioni dellc provincie conquistate, ma nella mente
orientale che vede in tutto la mano di Dio, costituivano un trionfo del
principio islamico su quelle cristiano e mazdeista, ma sovrattutto sui
cristiano.")
3 Goldziher, vol. i. chaps. 3 and 4.
fourteenth century.^ But the very fact that these decrees

excluding the dhimmis from government posts were so often
renewed, is a sign of the want of any continuity or per-
sistency in putting such intolerant measures into practice.
In fact they may generally be traced either to popular in-
dignation excited by the harsh and insolent behaviour of
Christian officials, ^ or to outbursts of fanaticism which
forced upon the government acts of oppression that were
contrary to the general spirit of Muslim rule and were
consequently allowed to lapse as soon as possible.
The beginning of a harsher treatment of the native
Christian population dates from the reign of Harun al-Rashid
(786-809) who ordered them to wear a distinctive dress and
give up the government posts they held to Muslims,
The first of these orders shows how little one at least of
the ordinances ascribed to 'Umar was observed, and these
decrees were the outcome, not so much of any purely re-
ligious feeling, as of the political circumstances of the time.
The Christians under Muhammadan rule have often had
to suffer for the bad faith kept by foreign Christian powers
in their relations with Muhammadan princes, and on this
occasion it was the treachery of the Byzantine Emperor,
Nicephorus, that caused the Christian name to stink in the
nostrils of Hariin.^ Many of the persecutions of Christians
in Muslim countries can be traced either to distrust of their
loyalty, excited by the intrigues and interference of Christian
foreigners and the enemies of Islam, or to the bad feeling
stirred up by the treacherous or brutal behaviour of the
latter towards the Musalmans. Religious fanaticism is,
however, responsible for many of such persecutions, as in
the reign of the Caliph al-Mutawakkil (847-861), under
whom severe measures of oppression were taken against
the Christians. This prince took advantage of the strong
Orthodox reaction that had set in in Muhammadan theology
against the rationalistic and freethinking tendencies that
^ The last of these was prompted by the discovery of an attempt on the

part of the Christians to burn the city of Cairo. (De Guigncs, vol. iv. pp.
204-5.) Gottheil, p. 359, Journal Asiatique, IV"»^ serie, tome xviii. (1851),
pp. 454, 455. 463, 484, 491.
- Assemani, torn. iii. pars. 2, p. c. Renaudot, pp. 432, 603, 607.
' Muir ; The Caliphate, p. 475.
SPREAD OF ISLAM IN WESTERN ASIA y^
had had free play under former rulers, — and came forward
as the champion of the extreme orthodox party, to which
the mass of the people as contrasted with the higher classes
belonged,! a.nd which was eager to exact vengeance for the
persecutions it had itself suffered in the two preceding
reigns ; ^ he sought to curry their favour by persecuting
the Mu'tazilites, forbidding all further discussions on the
Qur'an and declaring the doctrine that it was created, to
be heretical ; he had the followers of 'AH imprisoned and
beaten, pulled down the tomb of Husayn at Karbala' and
forbade pilgrimages to be made to the site. The Christians
shared in the sufferings of the other heretics; for al-
Mutawakkil put rigorously into force the rules that had
been passed in former reigns prescribing a distinction in
the dress of dhimmis and Muslims, ordered that the Christians
should no longer be employed in the public offices, doubled
the capitation-tax, forbade them to have Mushm slaves or
use the same baths as the Muslims, and harassed them with
several other restrictions.
It is noteworthy that the historians of the Nestorian
Church — which had to suffer most from this persecution —
describe it as something new and individual to al-Muta-
wakkil, and as ceasing with his death. ^ One of his
successors, al-Muqtadir (a.d. 908-932), renewed these regu-
lations, which the lapse of half a century had apparently
caused to fall into disuse.
Other outbursts of fanaticism led to the destruction of
churches and synagogues,^ and the terror of such persecution
led to the defection of man}/ from the Christian Church.^
But such oppression was contrary to the tolerant spirit of
Islam, and to the teaching traditionally ascribed to the
Prophet ; ^ and the fanatical party tried in vain to enforce
1 Von Kremer (3), p. 246. ^ Muir (i), pp. 508, 516-17.
* Mari b. Sulayman, p. 79 sq. Saliba b. Yuhanna, p. 71.
* Gottheil, p. 364 sqq. * Mari b. Sulayman, p. 114 (U. 14-16).
^ This tradition appears in several forms, e.g." Whoever wrongs one with
whom a compact has been made (i. e. a dhimmi) and lays on him a burden
beyond his strength, I will be his accuser." (Baladhuri, p. 162, tin.)
(Yahya b. Adam, p. 54 (fin), adds the words, " till the day of judgment.")
" Whoever does violence to a dhimmi who has paid his jizyah and evidenced
his submission — his enemy am I." (U.sd al-Ghaba, quoted by Goldziher,
in the Jewish Encyclopaedia, vol. vi. p. 655.) The Christian historian
al-Makin (p. 11) gives, " Whoever torments the dhimmis. torments me."
the persistent execution of these oppressive measures for
the humihation of the non-Mushm population. " The
' ulama ' (i. e. the learned, the clergy) consider this state of
things ; they weep and groan in silence, while the princes
who had the power of putting down these criminal abuses
only shut their eyes to them." ^ The rules that a fanatical
priesthood may la}' down for the repression of unbelievers
cannot always be taken as a criterion of the practice of civil
governments : it is failure to realise this fact that has
rendered possible the highly-coloured pictures of the suffer-
ings of the Christians under Muhammadan rule, drawn by
writers who have assumed that the prescriptions of certain
Muslim theologians represented an invariable practice. Such
outbursts of persecution seem in some cases to have been
excited by the alleged abuse of their position by those
Christians who held high posts in the service of the govern-
ment ;they aroused considerable hostility of feeling towards
themselves by their oppression of the Mushms, it being said
that they took advantage of their high position to plunder
and annoy the faithful, treating them with great harshness
and rudeness and despoiling them of their lands and money.
Such complaints were laid before the caliphs al-Mansiir
(754-775), al-Mahdi (775-785)- al-Ma'mun (813-833), al-
Mutawakkil (847-861), al-Muqtadir (908-932), and many
of their successors. ^ They also incurred the odium of many
Muhammadans by acting as the spies of the 'Abbasid dynasty
and hunting down the adherents of the displaced Umayyad
family.^ 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 cannot justly be described as religious
persecution.
In proportion as the lot of the conquered peoples became
harder to bear, the more irresistible was the temptation to
free themselves from their miseries, by the words, " There
is no god but God : Muhammad is the Apostle of God."
1 Journal Asiatique, IV""i; seric, tome xix. p. 109. (Paris, 1852.) See
also R. Gottheil : A Fetwa on the appointment of Dhimmis to office.
(Zeitschrift fiir Assyriologie, vol. xxvi. p. 203 sqq.)
* Belin, pp. 435-40, 442, 44S, 456, 459-61, 479-80.
» Id. p. 435. n. 2. * Id. p. 478.
When the state was in need of money — as was increasingly

the case — the subject races were more and more burdened
with taxes, so that the condition of the non-Mushms was
constantly growing more unendurable, and conversions to
Islam increased in the same proportion. The dreary record
of scandals, with which the pages of the Christian historians
of this later period are filled, would suggest that the
Christian Churches had failed to develop a moral fibre strong
enough to endure the stress of adverse conditions, and
when persecution came, the reason for the defection that
followed might — as the historian of the Nestorian Church
suggests 1— be sought for in the prevailing negligence in
the performance of religious duties and the evil life of the
clergy.
Further causes that contributed to the decrease of the
Christian population may be found in the fact that the
children of the numerous Christian captive women who
were carried off to the harems of the Muslims had to be
brought up in the religion of their fathers, and in the fre-
quent temptation that was offered to the Christian slave
by an indulgent master, of purchasing his freedom at the
price of conversion to Islam. But of any organised attempt
to force the acceptance of Islam on the non-Muslim popu-
lation, or of any systematic persecution intended to stamp
out the Christian religion, we hear nothing. Had the
caliphs chosen to adopt either course of action, the}^ might
have swept awa}^ Christianity as easily as Ferdinand and
Isabella drove Islam out of Spain, or Louis XIV made
Protestantism penal in France, or the Jews were kept out
of England for 350 years. The Eastern Churches in Asia
were entirely cut off from communion with the rest of
Christendom, throughout which no one would have been
found to lift a finger on their behalf, as heretical com-
munions. So that the very survival of these Churches
to the present day is a strong proof of the generally
^ Mari b. Sulayman (p. 115, 11. 1-2) offers this explanation of the defec-
tions that followed the persecution towards the close of the tenth century.
?— ^'3 vOv^î"> ' ^^ cr'^'J' Ji^ "^3 J-«»' 0^3 J^:*^ ^Âi. ^,,^1^
^Jki^t O^J^ ?i.*-3lj -»jj^l jj A-i;X)l Ojf^
tolerant attitude of the Muhammadan governments towards
them.^
Of the ancient Churches in Western Asia at the time of
the Muhammadan conquest, there still survive about 150,000
Nestorians,2 a.nd their number would have been larger but
for the proselytising efforts of other Christian Churches;
the Chaldees who have submitted to the Church of Rome
number 70,000, in 1898 the Nestorian Bishop Mar Jonan,
with several of the clergy and 15,000 Nestorians were re-
ceived into the Orthodox Russian Church ; and numbers of
Nestorians have also become Protestants. ^ The Jacobite
Patriarch of Antioch exercises jurisdiction over about
80,000 members of this ancient Church, while 25,000 families
of Uniat Jacobites obey the Syrian Catholic Patriarch.*
Belonging to the Greek Orthodox Church, there are 28,836
famihes under the Patriarch of Antioch and more than
15,000 persons under the Patriarch of Jerusalem,^ while
the Melchites or Greek-Catholics number about 130,000."
The Maronite Church, which has been in union with the
Roman Catholic Church since the year 1182, has a following
of 300,000.'
The marvel is that these isolated and scattered com-
munities should have survived so long, exposed as they
have been to the ravages of war, pestilence and famine,^
living in a country that was for centuries a continual battle-
field, overrun by Turks, Mongols and Crusaders,' it being
^ The Caliph of Egypt, al-Hakim (a.d. 996-1020), did in fact order all
the Jews and Christians to leave Egypt and emigrate into the Byzantine
territory, but yielded to their entreaties to revoke his orders. (Maqrizi (i),
p. 91.) It would have been quite possible, however, for him to have
enforced its execution as it would have been for the ferocious Salim I
(151 2-1520), who with the design of putting an end to all religious differ-
ences in his dominions caused 40,000 Shi'ahs to be massacred, to have com-
pleted this politic scheme by the extermination of the Christians also.
But in allowing himself to be dissuaded from this design, he most certainly
acted in accordance with the general policy adopted by Muhammadan
rulers towards their Christian subjects. (Finlay, vol. v. pp. 29-30.)
^ Silbernagl, p. 268. ' Id. p. 354. * Id. pp. 307, 360.
6 Id. p. 25-6. B Id. p. 335. ' Id. p. 384.
** See A. von Kremer (i), vol. ii. pp. 490-2.
* The sack of Constantinople by the Crusaders in 1204 may be taken
as a type of the treatment that the Eastern Christians met with at the
hands of the Latins. Barhebraeus complains that the monastery of Harran
was sacked and plundered by Count Goscelin, Lord of Emessa, in 1184, ju.st
as though he had been a Saracen or a Turk. (Barhebraeus (i), vol. ii,
pp. 506-8.)
SPREAD OF ISLAM IN WESTERN ASIA 8i
further remembered that they were forbidden by the

Muhammadan law to make good this decay of their numbers
by proselytising efforts — if indeed they had cared to do so,
for they seem (with the exception of the Nestorians) even
before the Muhammadan conquest, to have lost that mission-
ary spirit, without which, as history abundantly shows, no
healthy hfe is possible in a Christian Church. It has also
been suggested that the monastic ideal of continence so wide-
spread inthe East, and the Christian practice of monogamy,
together with the sense of insecurity and their servile con-
dition, may have acted as checks on the growth of the
Christian population.^
Of the details of conversion to Islam we have hardly any
information. At the time of the first occupation of their
country by the Arabs, the Christians appear to have gone
over to Islam in very large numbers. Some idea of the
extent of these early conversions in 'Iraq for example may
be formed from the fact that the income from taxation in
the reign of 'Umar was from loo to 120 million dirhams,
while in the reign of 'Abd al-Malik, about fifty years later,
it had sunk to forty milhons : while this fall in the revenue
is largely attributable to the devastation caused by wars
and insurrections, still it was chiefly due to the fact that
large numbers of the population had become Muhammadan
and consequently could no longer be called upon to pay the
capitation-tax. 2
This same period witnesses the conversion of large numbers
of the Christians of Hiurasan, as we learn from a letter of
a contemporary ecclesiastic, the Nestorian Patriarch Isho'-
yabh III, addressed to Simeon, the Metropohtan of Rev-
Ardashlr and Primate of Persia. We possess so very few
Christian documents of the first century of the Hijrah,
and this letter bears such striking testimony to the peaceful
character of the spread of the new faith, and has moreover
been so little noticed by modern historians — that it may well
be quoted here at length. " Where are thy sons, O father
bereft of sons ? Where is that great people of Merv, who
though they beheld neither sword, nor fire or tortures, capti-
^ H. H. Milnian, vol. ii. p. 218.
* A. von Kremer (i), vol. i. p. 172.
vated only by love for a moiety of their goods, have turned

aside, like fools, from the true path and rushed headlong
into the pit of faithlessness — into everlasting destruction,
and have utterly been brought to nought, while two priests
only (priests at least in name), have, like brands snatched
from the burning, escaped the devouring flames of infidelity.
Alas, alas ! Out of so many thousands who bore the name
of Christians, not even one single victim was consecrated
unto God by the shedding of his blood for the true faith.
Where, too, are the sanctuaries of Kirman and all Persia ?
it is not the coming of Satan or the mandates of the kings
of the earth or the orders of governors of provinces that have
laid them waste and in ruins— but the feeble breath of one
contemptible little demon, who was not deemed worthy of
the honour of demons by those demons who sent him on his
errand, nor was endowed by Satan the seducer with the
power of diabolical deceit, that he might display it in your
land ; but merely by the nod of his command he has thrown
down all the churches of your Persia. . . . And the Arabs,
to whom God at this time has given the empire of the world,
behold, they are among you, as ye know well : and yet
they attack not the Christian 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 your people of Merv aban-
doned their faith for the sake of these Arabs ? and that, too,
when the Arabs, as the people of Merv themselves declare,
have not compelled them to leave their own religion but
suffered them to keep it safe and undefiled if they gave up
only a moiety of their goods. But forsaking the faith which
brings eternal salvation, they clung to a moiety of the goods
of this fleeting world : that faith which whole nations have
purchased and even to this day do purchase by the shedding
of their blood and gain thereby the inheritance of eternal
life, your people of Merv were \villing to barter for a moiety
of their goods — and even less." ^ The reign of the caliph
'Umar II (a.d. 717-720) particularly was marked with very
extensive conversions : he organised a zealous missionary
movement and offered every kind of inducement to the
^ Assemani, torn. iii. Pars Prima, pp. 130-1.
conquered peoples to accept Islam, even making them

grants of money ; on one occasion he is said to have given
a Christian military officer the sum of 1000 dinars to induce
him to accept Islam. 1 He instructed the governors of the
provinces to invite the dhimmis to the Muslim faith, and
al-Jarrah b. 'Abd Allah, governor of Khurasan, is said to
have converted about 4000 persons. ^ He is even said to
have written a letter to the Byzantine Emperor, Leo III,
urging on him the acceptance of the faith of Islam. ^ He
abrogated the decree passed in a.d. 700 for the purpose
of arresting the impoverishment of the treasury, according
to which the convert to Islam was not released from the
capitation-tax, but was compelled to continue to pay it as
before ; even though the dhimmi apostatised the very day
before his yearly payment of the jizyah was due or while
his contribution was actually being weighed in the scales,
it was to be remitted to the new convert.* He no longer
exacted the kharaj from the Muhammadan owners of landed
property, and imposed upon them the far lighter burden of
a tithe. These measures, though financially most ruinous,
were eminently successful in the way the pious-minded caliph
desired they should be, and enormous numbers hastened to
enrol themselves among the Muslims.^
It must not, however, be supposed that such worldly
considerations were the onh- influences at work in the
conversion of the Christians to Islam. The controversial
works of St. John of Damascus, of the same century, give
us glimpses of the zealous Muslim striving to undermine by
his arguments the foundations of the Christian faith. The
very dialogue form into which these treatises are thrown, and
the frequent repetition of such phrases as " If the Saracen
asks you," — " If the Saracen says . . . then tell him "...
— give them an air of vraisemhlance and make them appear
as if they were intended to provide the Christians with ready
answers to the numerous objections which their Muslim
neighbours brought against the Christian creed. ^ That
the aggressive attitude of the Muhammadan disputant is
1 Ibn Sa'd, Tabaqat, vol. v. p. 258. 2 jj. p. 285.
^ Mahbub al-ManbijI, p. 358 (11. 2-3).
* Ibn Sa'd, Tabaqat, vol. v. p. 262. ^ August Miiller, vol. i. p. 440.
* Migne : Patr. Gr., torn. 96, pp. 1336-40.
§4 THE PREACHING OF ISLAM
most prominently brought forward in these dialogues is
only what might be expected, it being no part of this great
theologian's purpose to enshrine in his writings an apology
for Islam. His pupil, Bishop Theodore Abu Qurrah, also
wrote several controversial dialogues ^ with Muhammadans,
in which the disputants range over all the points of dispute
between the two faiths, the Muslim as before being the first
to take up the cudgels, and enabling us to form some slight
idea of the activity with which the cause of Islam was prose-
cuted at this period. " The thoughts of the Agarenes," says
the bishop, " and all their zeal, are directed towards the
denial of the divinity of God the Word, and they strain every
effort to this end." ^ The Nestorian Patriarch, Timotheus, •
used to hold discussions on religious matters in the presence
of the caliphs, al-Hadi and Hariin al-Rashid, and embodied
them in a work that is now lost.^ Timotheus had secured
his election to the patriarchate in the face of the active
opposition of many of the most powerful ecclesiastics of his
own Church; among these was Joseph, the metropolitan of
Merv, who intrigued against him with the caliph, al-Mahdl
(775-785), but was persuaded by the caliph to accept Islam
and was rewarded for his apostasy with rich presents and
an official appointment in Basrah.*
These details from the first two centuries of the Hijrah
are meagre in the extreme and rather suggest the existence
of proselytising efforts than furnish definite facts. The
earliest document of a distinctly missionary character which
has come down to us, would seem to date from the reign of
al-Ma'miin (813-833), and takes the form of a letter ^ written
by a cousin of the caliph to a Christian Arab of noble birth
and of considerable distinction at the court, and held in
high esteem by al-Ma'mun himself. In this letter he begs
his friend to embrace Islam, in terms of affectionate appeal
and in language that strikingly illustrates the tolerant
attitude of the Muslims towards the Christian Church at
this period. This letter occupies an almost unique place
in the early history of the propagation of Islam, and has
1 Migne : Patr. Gr., torn. 97, pp. 1528-9, 1548-61.
- Id. p. 1557. ' 'Amr b. Mattai, p. 65. * Id. p. 72.
* Risalah 'Abd Allah b. Isma'il al-Hashimi ila 'Abd al-Masih b. Ishaq
al-Kindi, pp. 1-37. (London, 1885.)
on this account been given in full in an appendix.^ In the

same work we have a report of a speech made by the caliph
at an assembly of his nobles, in which he speaks in tones of
the strongest contempt of those who had become Muham-
madans merely out of worldly and selfish motives, and
compares them to the Hypocrites who while pretending to
be friends of the Prophet, in secret plotted against his life.
But just as the Prophet returned good for evil, so the caliph
resolves to treat these persons with courtesy and forbearance
until God should decide between them.^ The record of this
complaint on the part of the caliph is interesting as indi-
cating that disinterested and genuine conviction was
expected and looked for in the new convert to Islam, and
that the discovery of self-seeking and unworthy motives
drew upon him the severest censure.
Al-Ma'mun himself was very zealous in his efforts to
spread the faith of Islam, and sent invitations to unbe-
lievers even in the most distant parts of his dominions,
such as Transoxania and Far|ânah.^ At the same time
he did not abuse his royal power, by attempting to force
his own faith upon others : when a certain YazdanbaWit,
a leader of the Manichaean sect, came on a visit to Baghdad *
and held a disputation with the Muslim theologians, in which
he was utterly silenced, the caliph tried to induce him to
embrace Islam. But Yazdanbakht refused, saying, " Com-
mander of the faithful, your advice is heard and your words
have been listened to ; but you are one of those who do not
force men to abandon their religion." So far from resenting
the ill-success of his efforts, the caliph furnished him with
a bodyguard, that he might not be exposed to insult from
the fanatical populace.^
^ Appendix I. For an account of Muslim controversial literature, see
Appendix II.
^ Kindl, pp. 111-13. ^ Ealadhuri. pp. 430.
* It is very probable that the occasion of this visit of Yazdanbakht to
Baghdad was the summoning of a great assembly of the leaders of all the
religious
that the bodies
enemiesof oftheIslam
period, by al-Ma'mun,
declared when itsit success
that it owed had cometo to
thehissword
ears
and not to the power of argument : in this meeting, the Muslim doctors
defended their religion against this imputation, and the unbelievers arc
said to have acknowledged that the Muslims had satisfactorily proved
their point. (Ahmad b. Yahya b. al-Murtada : Al-munyah wa'1-amal fl
sharh kitab al-milal wa'1-nihal. British Museum, Or. 3937, fol. 53 (b),
11. 9-1 1.) ' Kitab al-Fihrist, vol. i. p. 338.
Some scanty references are made by Christian historians

to cases of ecclesiastical dignitaries who became Muham-
madans, e. g, George, Bishop of Bahrayn, about the middle
of the ninth century, having been deposed from his office
for some ecclesiastical offence, exchanged the Christian
faith for that of Islam, ^ and the conversion of a brother
of Gabriel, metropolitan of Ears about the middle of the
tenth century, only receives mention because the fact of
his having become a Muslim was alleged as disqualifying
Gabriel for election to the patriarchate of the Nestorian
church. 2
In the early part of the same century, Theodore, the
Nestorian Bishop of Beth Garmai, became a Muslim, and
there is no mention of any force or compulsion by the ecclesi-
astical historian ^ who records the fact, as there undoubtedly
would have been, had such existed. Some years later
(between a.d. 962 and 979), Philoxenos, a Jacobite Bishop
of Adharbayjan. also became a Muslim,'* and in the following
century, in 1016, Ignatius,^ the Jacobite Metropolitan of
Takrit, who had held this office for twenty-five years, set
out for Baghdad and embraced Islam in the presence of the
caliph al-Qadir, taking the name of Abu Muslim.^ It
would be exceedingly interesting if an Apologia pro Vita
Sua had survived to reveal to us the religious development
that took place in the mind of either of these converts.
The Christian chronicler hints at immorality in the last
three cases, but such an accusation uncorroborated by any
further evidence is open to suspicion,' much as it would be
1 Barhebraeus (i), vol. iii. p. 194.
* Mari b. Sulaynian, p. loi (11. 3-4).
^ Barhebraeus (i), vol. iii. p. 230. * Id., (i), vol. iii. p. 248.
^ All the Jacobite Patriarchs assumed the name of Ignatius; before his
consecration he was called Mark bar QiqI.
•^ Barhebraeus (i), vol. iii. pp. 288-90. Elias of Nisibis, pp. 153-4. He
returned to the Christian faith, however, before his death, which took
place about twenty years later. Two similar cases are recorded in the
annals of the Jacobite Patriarchs of Antioch in the sixteenth century : of
these one, named Joshua, became a Muhammadan in 1517, but afterwards
recanting fled to Cyprus (at that time in the hands of the Venetians),
where prostrate at the door of a church in penitential humility he suffered
all who went in or out to tread over his body ; the other, Ni'mat Allah
(flor. 1560), having abjured Christianity for Islam, sought absolution of
Pope Gregory XIII in Rome. (Barhebraeus (i), vol. ii. pp. 847-8.)
' In fact Elias of Nisibis, the contemporary chronicler of the conversion
of the Jacobite Patriarch, makes no mention of .such a failing, nor does
Mari b. Sulayman (pp. 1 15-16), the historian of the rival Nestorian Church.
if brought forward by a Roman Catholic when recording
the conversion of a priest of his own communion to the
Protestant faith. It is doubtless owing to their exalted
position in the Church that the conversion of these prominent
ecclesiastics of two hostile Christian sects has been handed
down to us, while that of more obscure individuals has not
been recorded. As Barhebraeus brings his ecclesiastical
chronicle nearer to his own time, he gives fuller details of the
career of such converts, e. g. in recording the public lapse
of some of the Jacobite bishops, in the middle of the twelfth
century he makes particular mention of Aaron, bishop of a
town in Khurasan, as having become a Muhammadan after
having been convicted of some moral fault ; repenting of
this change, he wished to regain his episcopal status, and
when this was refused him, went to Constantinople and
abjured the Monophysite doctrines of the Jacobite Church;
then apparently dissatisfied with the reception he received
in Constantinople, he returned to the Jacobite Patriarch,
but a second time went over to Islam " without any reason " ;
then repenting again, he finally ended his days among the
Maronites of Mount Lebanon.^ A contemporary of Bar-
hebraeus, in the middle of the thirteenth century — Daniel,
Bishop of Khabur — who is said to have been proficient in
secular learning, sought to be appointed to the diocese of
Aleppo, but disappointed in this ambition, he abandoned
the Christian faith and to the grief and shame of all Christian
people " became a Muslim ; but God (praise be to His
grace !) soon consoled his afflicted people and took away the
shame from the redeemed, the redeemed of the Lord ; for a
few months later that unhappy wretch died miserably in a
caravanserai ; his name perished, he was taken away out of
our midst, and no man knoweth his abiding place." ^
But that these conversions were not merely isolated
instances we have the valuable evidence of Jacques de Vitry,
Bishop of Acre (1216-1225), who thus speaks of the Eastern
Church from his experience of it in the Holy Land :—
though he accuses him of plundering the sacred vessels and ornaments of
the churches. As Wright (Syriac lliterature, p. 192) says of Joseph of
Merv, " We need not believe all the evil that Barhebrseus tells us of this
unhappy man."
i Barhebrseus (i), vol, ii, p. 518. 2 Id. vol. ii, p. 712 sq.
" Weakened and lamentably ensnared, nay rather grievously

wounded, by the lying persuasions of the false prophet and
by the allurements of carnal pleasure, she hath sunk down,
and she that was brought up in scarlet, hath embraced
So far the ^ Christian Churches that have been described as

dunghills."
coming within the sphere of Muhammadan influence, have
been the Orthodox Eastern Church and the heretical com-
munions that had sprung out of it. But with the close of
the eleventh century a fresh element was added to the
Christian population of Syria and Palestine, in the large
bodies of Crusaders of the Latin rite who settled in the
kingdom of Jerusalem and the other states founded by the
Crusaders, which maintained a precarious existence for
nearly two centuries. During this period, occasional con-
versions to Islam were made from among these foreign
immigrants. In the first Crusade, for example, a body of
Germans and Lombards under the command of a certain
knight, named Rainaud, had separated themselves from
the main body and were besieged in a castle by the Saljiiq
Sultan, Arslan ; on pretence of making a sortie, Rainaud and
his personal followers abandoned their unfortunate com-
panions and went over to the Turks, among whom they
embraced Islam. ^
The history of the ill-fated second Crusade presents us
with a very remarkable incident of a similar character. The
story, as told by Odo of Deuil, a monk of St. Denis, who,
in the capacity of private chaplain to Louis VII, accompanied
him on this Crusade and wrote a graphic account of it, runs as
follows. While endeavouring to make their way overland
through Asia Minor to Jerusalem the Crusaders sustained a
disastrous defeat at the hands of the Turks in the mountain-
passes of Phrygia (a.d. 1148), and with difficulty reached
the seaport town of Attaha. Here, all who could afford
to satisfy the exorbitant demands of the Greek merchants,
took ship for Antioch ; while the sick and wounded and the
mass of the pilgrims were left behind at the mercy of their
treacherous allies, the Greeks, who received five hundred
^ Historia Orientalis, C. 15 (p. 45).
2 Pe Guignes, tome ii. (Seconde Partie), p. 15.
marks from Louis, on condition that they provided an
escort for the pilgrims and took care of the sick until they
were strong enough to be sent on after the others. But no
sooner had the army left, than the Greeks informed the
Turks of the helpless condition of the pilgrims, and quietly
looked on while famine, disease and the arrows of the enemy
carried havoc and destruction through the camp of these
unfortunates. Driven to desperation, a party of three or
four thousand attempted to escape, but were surrounded
and cut to pieces by the Turks, who now pressed on to the
camp to follow up their victory. The situation of the
survivors would have been utterly hopeless, had not the
sight of their misery melted the hearts of the Muhammadans
to pit3^ They tended the sick and relieved the poor and
starving with open-handed liberality. Some even bought
up the French money which the Greeks had got out of the
pilgrims by force or cunning, and lavishly distributed it
among the needy. So great was the contrast between the
kind treatment the pilgrims received from the unbelievers
and the cruelty of their fellow-Christians, the Greeks, who
imposed forced labour upon them, beat them and robbed
them of what little they had left, that many of them volun-
tarily embraced the faith of their deliverers. As the old
chronicler says : " Avoiding their co-religionists 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 Turks when
they retired. Oh, kindness more cruel than all treachery !
They gave them bread but robbed them of their faith, though
it is certain that contented with the services they performed,
they compelled no one among them to renounce his
religion." ^
The increasing intercourse between Christians and Muslims,
the growing appreciation on the part of the Crusaders
of the virtues of their opponents, which so strikingly dis-
^ Odo de Diogilo. (De Ludovici vii. Itinere. Migne, Patr. Lat., torn,
cxcv. p. 1243.) " Vitantes igitur sibi crudeles socios fidei, inter infideles
sibi compatientes ibant securi, et sicut audivimus plusquam tria millia
iuvenum sunt illis recedentibus sociati. O pietas omni proditione crude-
lior I Dantes panem fidem toUebant, quamvis certum sit quia, contenti
servitio, ncmincm negare cogebant."
tinguishes the later from the earHer chroniclers of the
Crusades,^ the numerous imitations of Oriental manners
and ways of life by the Franks settled in the Holy Land,
did not fail to exercise a corresponding influence on religious
opinions. One of the most remarkable features of this
influence is the tolerant attitude of many of the Christian
Knights towards the faith of Islam — an attitude of mind
that was most vehemently denounced by the Church. When
Usama b. Munqidh, a Syrian Amir of the twelfth century,
visited Jerusalem, during a period of truce, the Knights
Templar, who had occupied the Masjid al-Aqsa, assigned to
him a small chapel adjoining it, for him to say his prayers in,
and they strongly resented the interference with the devo-
tions of their guest on the part of a newly-arrived Crusader,
who took this new departure in the direction of religious
freedom in very bad part.- It would indeed have been
strange if religious questions had not formed a topic of dis-
cussion on the many occasions when the Crusaders and the
Muslims met together on a friendly footing, during the
frequent truces, especially when it was religion itself that
had brought the Crusaders into the Holy Land and set them
upon these constant wars. When even Christian theo-
logians were led by their personal intercourse with the
Muslims to form a juster estimate of their religion, and
contact with new modes of thought was unsettling the
minds of men and giving rise to a swarm of heresies, it is
not surprising that many should have been drawn into the
pale of Islam. ^ The renegades in the twelfth century were
in sufficient numbers to be noticed in the statute books of
the Crusaders, the so-called Assises of Jerusalem, according
to which, in certain cases, their bail was not accepted.*
It would be interesting to discover who were the Muslims
who busied themselves in winning these converts to Islam,
but they seem to have left no record of their labours. We
know, however, that they had at their head the great Saladin
himself, who is described by his biographer as setting before
^ Guizot : Histoire de la civilisation en Europe, p. 234. (Paris, 1882.)
2 Usama b. Munqidh, p. 99.
^ Prutz, pp. 266-7.
•* Assises de la Cour des Bourgeois. (Recueil des historiens des Croisades,
Assises de Jerusalem, tome ii, p. 325.)
his Christian guest the beauties of Islam and urging him to
embrace it.^
The heroic hfe and character of Saladin seems to
have exercised an especial fascination on the minds of the
Christians of his time ; some even of the Christian knights
were so strongly attracted towards him that they aban-
doned the Christian faith and their own people and joined
themselves to the Muslims ; such was the case, for example,
with a certain English Templar, named Robert of St. Albans,
who in A.D. 1185 gave up Christianity for Islam and after-
wards married a grand-daughter of Saladin. ^ Two years
later, Saladin invaded Palestine and utterly defeated the
Christian army in the battle of Hittin, Guy, king of Jeru-
salem, being among the prisoners. On the eve of the
battle, six of his knights, " possessed with a devilish spirit,"
deserted the king and escaped into the camp of Saladin,
where of their own accord they became Saracens. ^ At the
same time Saladin seems to have had an understanding with
Raymund III, Count of Tripoli, according to which he was
to induce his followers to abandon the Christian faith and
go over to the Muslims ; but the sudden death of the Count
effectually put a stop to the execution of this scheme.*
The fall of Jerusalem and the successes of Saladin in the
Holy Land stirred up Europe to undertake the third Crusade,
the chief incident of which was the siege of Acre (A.D.1189-
1191). The fearful sufferings that the Christian army was
exposed to, from famine and disease, drove many of them
to desert and seek relief from the cravings of hunger in the
Muslim camp. Of these deserters, many made their way
back again after some time to the army of the Crusaders ;
on the other hand, many elected to throw in their lot with
the Muslims ; some, taking service under their former
enemies, still remained true to the Christian faith and (we
are told) were well pleased with their new masters, while
others embracing Islam became good Mushms.^ The con-
version ofthese deserters is recorded also by the chronicler
who accompanied Richard I upon this Crusade :— " Some
^ Baha al-Din, p. 25. 2 Roger Hoveden, vol. ii. p. 307.
^ Benedict of Peterborough, vol. ii. pp. 11-12.
* Id., vol. ii. pp. 20-1. Roger Hoveden, vol. ii. pp. 316, 322.
* Abu Shamah, p. 150.
of our men (whose fate cannot be told or heard without
grievous sorrow) yielding to the severity of the sore famine,
in achieving the salvation of the body, incurred the damna-
tion of their souls. For after the greater part of the affliction
was past, they deserted and fled to the Turks : nor did they
hesitate to become renegades ; in order that they might
prolong their temporal life a little space, they purchased
eternal death with horrid blasphemies. O baleful traffick-
ing ! O shameful deed beyond all punishment ! 0 foolish
man likened unto the foolish beasts, while he flees from the
death that must inevitably come soon, he shuns not the
death unending." ^
From this time onwards references to renegades are not
infrequently to be met with in the writings of those who
travelled to the Holy Land and other countries of the East.
The terms of the oath which was proposed to St. Louis by
his Muhammadan captors when he was called upon to
promise to pay the ransom imposed upon him (a.d. 1250),
were suggested by certain whilom priests who had become
Muslims ; ^ and while this business of pa5ang the ransom
was still being carried on, another renegade, a Frenchman,
born at Provins, came to bring a present to the king : he
had accompanied King John of Jerusalem on his expedition
against Damietta in 1219 and had remained in Egypt,
married a Muhammadan wife and become a great lord in
that country.^ The danger of the pilgrims to the Holy
Land becoming converts to Islam was so clearly recognised
at this time that in a " Remembrance," written about 1266
by Amaury de la Roche, the master of the Knights Templar
in France, he requests the Pope and the legates of France
and Sicily to prevent the poor and the aged and those in-
capable of bearing arms from crossing the sea to Palestine,
for such persons either got killed or were taken prisoners by
the Saracens or turned renegades.* Ludolf de Suchem, who
travelled in the Holy Land from 1336 to 1341, speaks of
three renegades he found at Hebron; they had come
from the diocese of Minden and had been in the service of a
^ Itinerarium Peregrinorum et Gesta Regis Richardi, p. 131. (Chronicles
and Memorials of the reign of Richard I. Edited by William Stubbs.)
(London, 1864.) ^ Joinville, p. 238.
2 Id. p. 2G2. * Mas Latrie (i), vol. ii. p. 72.
Westphalian knight, who was held in high honour by the
Soldan and other Muhammadan princes. ^
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
about 25,000 renegades in the city of Cairo towards the close
of the fifteenth century,^ and there must have been many
also to be found in the cities of the Holy Land after the dis-
ap earance ofthe Latin princedoms of the East. But the
Muhammadan historians of this period seem to have been
too busily engaged in recording the exploits of princes and
the vicissitudes of dynasties, to turn their attention to
religious changes in the lives of obscure individuals ; and
(as far as I have been able to discover) they as little notice
the conversions of Christians to Islam as of those of their own
co-religionists to Christianity. Consequently, we have to
depend for our knowledge of both of these classes of events
on Christian writers, 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 the renegades in the worst light possible.
The possibility of any Christian becoming converted to
Islam from honest conviction, probably never entered into
the head of any of these writers, and even had such an idea
occurred to them they would hardly have ventured to expose
themselves to the thunders of ecclesiastical censure by
giving open expression to it.
As an example of the rare instances of such a conversion
being recorded, the account may here be cited which Fiirer
von Haimendorf, who was in Cairo in 1565, gives of the
conversion of a German scholar who had studied in the
University of Leipzig. " Sed dum nos hanc moram Cairi
nectimus, accidit ut Justus quidam Stevenius Germanus
Hamelensis qui in iisdem aedibus nobiscum habitaverat, fide
Christianorum abnegata Turcarum religioni se initiandum
atque circumcidendum obtulerit. Vir erat doctus, qui diu
se Witebergae ac Lipsiae studiis operam dedisse saepe nobis
^ Ludolf de Suchem, p. 71.

* Lionardo Frescobaldi, quoted in the preface of Defremery and
Sanguiiietti's edition of Ibn Batutah, vol. i. p. xl.
narrabat : verum de hoc facto interrogatus, peculiarem
nunc sibi Spiritum adesse ajebat, sine cujus instinctu nihil
vel facere sibi, vel cogitare fas esset ; quae hominis apostasia
nimium quantum animos nostros commovit, et ad fugam
quasi excitavit. Eodem quoque die Judaeus quidam, qui
paucis diebus ante rehgionem Mahumetanam amplexus
fuerat, triumphah pompa per urbem circumducebatur ; quod
idem cum Stevenio isto futurum esse, Janissarii quidam nobis
affirmabant." ^
From the historical sources quoted above, we have as
little information respecting the number of these converts
as of the prosel3'tising efforts made to induce them to change
their faith. A motive frequently assigned for going over
to Islam is the desire to escape the death penalty by means
of apostasy. European travellers make frequent mention
of such cases. A late example of such an account may be
selected, for the picturesqueness of its language, from the
report of a Jesuit, who was in Cairo in 1627; he saw a Copt
who, having allowed himself to be carried away " partly
by passion and partly by the violence of an indiscreet zeal,
had killed his brother with his own hand, in detestation of
his having in a dastardly manner left Jesus Christ to embrace
Mahometanism, in order to deliver himself from the vexation
of the Turks. The poor man was at once seized in the heat
of his crime, and he boldly confessed that the renegade,
unworthy of being his brother, could only wipe out so black
a spot by his blood. He was urged to abandon his faith in
order to save his life," but he declared that he was resolved
to die a Christian ; the cruel torments, however, inflicted on
him by the executioners, weakened his resolution and he
yielded at the last moment. " This disaster changed him
in a moment from a confessor into a renegade, from a martyr
into an apostate, from a saint into one of the damned, and
from an angel into a veritable devil. He made the pro-
fession offaith or rather of perfidy, after the manner of the
Mahometans ... he was set at liberty, the liberty not of
the sons of God, but of the sons of perdition." Later on,
the reproaches of his conscience caused him again to recant
* Christophori Fiireri ab Haimendorf Itinerarium iEgypti, p. 42.
(Norimbcrgae, 1620.)
and he was put to death by the Muhammadans for his
apostasy. 1
The monk Burchard,^ writing about 1283, a few years
before the Crusaders were driven out of their last strong-
holds and the Latin power in the East came utterly to an
end — represents the Christian population as largel}^ out-
numbering the Muslims throughout the whole of the Muham-
madan world, the latter (except in Egypt and Arabia)
forming not more than three or four per cent, of the whole
population. This language is undoubtedly exaggerated
and the good monk was certainly rash in assuming that
what he observed in the cities of the Crusaders and of the
kingdom of Little Armenia held good in other parts of the
East. But his words may be certainly taken to indicate
that during the period of the Crusades there had been no
widespread conversion to Islam, and that when the Muham-
madans resumed their sovereignty over the Holy Land,
they extended the same toleration to the Christians as
before, suffering them to " purchase peace and quiet " by
the payment of the jizyah. The presumption is that the
conversions that took place were of individual Christians,
who were persuaded in their own minds before they took the
final step. Instances have already been given of Christians
who took service under Muhammadan masters, in the full
enjoyment of their own faith, and the Assises of Jerusalem
made a distinction between " those who have denied God
^ Le Voyage en Ethiopie entrepris par le Pere Aymard Guerin. (Rabbath,
pp. 17-18-)
* " Notandum autem in rei veritate, licet quidam contrarium senciant,
qui ea volunt asserere, que non viderunt, quod oriens totus ultra mare
Yndiam et Ethiopiam nomen Christi coniitetur et predicat, pretcr solos
Sarracenos et quosdam Turcomannos, qui in Cappadocia sedem habent, ita
quod pro certo assero, sicut per memet ipsum vidi et ab aliis, quibus notum
erat, audivi, quod semper in omni loco et regno preterquam in Egypto
et Arabia, ubi plurimum habitant Sarraceni et alii Machometum sequentes,
pro uno Sarraceno triginta vel amplius invenies Christianos. Verum
tamen, quod Christiani omnes transmarini natione sunt orientales, qui
licet sint Christiani, quia tamen usum armorum non habent multum, cum
impugnantur a Sarracenis, Tartaris, vel aliis quibuscumque, subiciuntur
eis et tributis pacem et quietem emunt, et Sarraceni sive alii, qui eis domi-
nantur, balivos suos et exactores in terris illis ponunt. Et inde contigit,
quod regnum illud dicitur esse Sarracenorum, cum tamen in rei veritate
sunt omnes Christiani preter ipsos balivos et exactores et aliquos de familia
ipsorum, sicut oculis meis vidi in Cilicia et Armenia minori, que est subdita
dominio p.Tartarorum."
Sanctae, go.) (Burchardi de Monte Sion Dcscriptio Terra;
and follow another law " and " all those who have done
armed service to the Saracens and other miscreants against
the Christians for more than a year and a day." ^
The native Christians certainly preferred the rule of the
Muhammadans to that of the Crusaders, ^ and when Jeru-
salem fell finally and for ever into the hands of the Muslims
(a.d. 1244), the Christian population of Palestine seems to
have welcomed the new masters and to have submitted
quietly and contentedly to their rule.^
This same sense of security of religious life under Muslim
rule led many of the Christians of Asia Minor, also, about
the same time, to welcome the advent of the Saljuq Turks
as their deliverers from the hated Byzantine government,
not only on account of its oppressive system of taxation,
but also of the persecuting spirit of the Greek Church, which
had with such cruelty crushed the heresies of the Paulicians
and the Iconoclasts. In the reign of Michael VIII (1261-
1282), the Turks were often invited to take possession of the
smaller towns in the interior of Asia Minor by the inhabi-
tants, that they might escape from the tyranny of the
empire ; and both rich and poor often emigrated into Turkish
dominions.^
Some account still remains to be given of two other
Christian Churches of Western Asia, viz. the Armenian
and the Georgian. Of the former it may be said that of
all the Eastern Churches that have come under Muham-
madan rule, the Armenian Church has probably given fewer
of its members (in proportion to the size of the community)
to swell the ranks of Islam, than any other. So in spite
of the interest that attaches to the story of the struggle of
1 Recueil des historiens des Croisades. (Assises de Jerusalem, tome i.
p. 325.) - Prutz, pp. 146-7, 150.
* The prelates of the Holy Land wrote as follows, in 1244, concerning
the invasion of the Khwarizmians, whom Sultan Ayyub had called in to
assist him in driving out the Crusaders :— " Per totam terram usque ad
partes Nazareth et Saphet libere nullo resistente discurrunt, occupantes
eandem, et inter se quasi propriam dividentes, per villas et cazalia Christia-
norum legates et bajulos praeficiunt, suscipientes a rusticis redditus et
tributa, quae Christianis praestare solebant, qui jam Christianis hostes
effect! et rebelles dictis Corosminis universaliter adhaeserunt." (Matthei
Parisiensis Chronica Majora, ed. H. R. Luard, vol. iv. p. 343.) (London,
1872-83.)
* Finlay, vol. iii. pp. 358-9. J. H. Krause: Die Byzantiner des Mittelalters,
p. 276. (Halle, 1869.)
this brave nation against overwhelming odds and of the

fidehty with which it has clung to the Christian faith —
through centuries of warfare and oppression, persecution
and exile — it does not come within the scope of the present
volume to do more than briefly indicate its connection with
the history of the Muhammadans. The Armenian kingdom
survived the shock of the Arab conquest, and in the ninth
century rose to be a state of some importance and flourished
during the decay of the caliphate of Bagdad, but in the
eleventh century was overthrown by the Saljiiq Turks. A
band of fugitives founded the kingdom of Lesser Armenia,
but this too disappeared in the fourteenth century. The
national life of the Armenian people still survived in spite
of the loss of their independence, and, as was the case in
Greece under the Turks, their religion and the national
church served as the rallying point of their eager, undying
patriotism. Though a certain number, under the pressure
of cruel persecution, have embraced Islam, yet the bulk
of the race has remained true to its ancient faith. As
Ta vernier ^ rather unsympathetically remarks, " There may
be some few Armenians, that embrace Mahometanism for
worldly interest, but they are generally the most obstinate
persons in the world, and most firm to their superstitious
principles."
The Georgian Church (founded in the early part of the
fourth century) was an offshoot from the Greek Church,
with which she has always remained in communion, although
from the middle of the sixth century the Patriarch or
Katholikos of the Georgian Church declared himself inde-
pendent. Torn asunder b}- internal discords and exposed to
the successive attacks of Greeks, Persians, Arabs, Turks and
Mongols, the history of this heroic warrior people is one
of almost uninterrupted warfare against foreign foes and of
fiercely contested feuds between native chiefs : the reigns
of one or two powerful monarchs who secured for their
subjects brief intervals of peace, serving only to bring out
in more striking contrast the normally unsettled state of
the country. The fierce independent spirit of the Georgians
that could not brook a foreign rule has often exasperated well-
^ Tavernier (i), p. 174.
H
nigh to madness the fury of their Muhammadan neighbours,
when they failed to impose upon them either their civil
authority or their religion. It is this circumstance — that a
change of faith implied loss of political independence — which
explains in a great measure the fact that the Georgian
Church inscribes the names of so many martyrs in her
calendar, while the annals of the Greek Church during the
same period have no such honoured roll to show.
It was not until after Georgia had been overrun b}- the
devastating armies of the Mongols, leaving ruined churches
and monasteries and pyramids of human heads to mark the
progress of their destroying hosts, and consequently the
spiritual wants of the people had remained long unprovided
for, owing to the decline in the numbers and learning of the
clergy — that Christianity began to lose ground.^ Even
among those who still remained Christian, some added to
the sufferings of the clergy by plundering the property of
the Church and appropriating to their own use the revenues
of churches and monasteries, and thus hastened the decay of
the Christian faith. ^
In 1400 the invasion of Timiir added a crowning horror to
the sufferings of Georgia, and though for a brief period the
rule of Alexander I (1414-1442) delivered the country from
the foreign yoke and drove out all the Muhammadans —
after his death it was again broken up into a number of petty
princedoms, from which the Turks and the Persians wrested
the last shreds of independence. But the Muhammadans
always found Georgia to be a turbulent and rebellious
possession, ever ready to break out into open revolt at the
slightest opportunity. Both Turks and Persians sought
to secure the allegiance of these troublesome subjects by
means of conversion to Islam. After the fall of Con-
stantinople and the increase of Turkish power in Asia
Minor, the inhabitants of Akhaltsikhe and other districts
to the west of it became Muhammadans.^ In 1579 two
Georgian princes — brothers — came on an embassy to Con-
stantinople with a large retinue of about two hundred
^ Joselian, p. 125. All the Abkhazes, Djikhethes, Ossetes, Kabardes
and Kisthethes fell away from the Christian faith about this time.
- Id. p. 127. * Id. p. 143.
persons : here the younger brother together with his attend-

ants became a Musalman, in the hope (it was said) of thereby
supplanting his elder brother. ^ At a rather later date, the
conquests of the Turks brought some of the districts in the
very centre of Georgia into their power, the inhabitants of
which embraced the creed of the conquerors.'^ From this
period Samtzkhe, the most western portion of Georgia,
recognised the suzerainty of Turkey : its rulers and people
were allowed to continue undisturbed in the Christian faith,
but from 1625 the ruling d3masty became Muhammadan
and many of the chiefs and the aristocracy followed their
example.
Christianity retained its hold upon the peasants much
longer, but when the clergy of Samtzkhe refused allegiance
to the Katholikos of Karthli, there ceased to be regular
provision made for supplying the spiritual needs of the
people : the nobles, even before their conversion, had taken
to plundering the estates of the Church, and after becoming
Musalmans they naturally ceased to assist it with their
offerings, and the churches and monasteries falling into
decay were replaced by mosques.^
The rest of Georgia had submitted to Persia, and when
Tavernier visited this part of the countr3^ about the middle
of the seventeenth century, he found it divided into two
kingdoms, which were provinces of the Persian empire, and
were governed by native Georgian princes who had to turn
Muhammadan before being advanced to this dignity.^ One
of the first of such princes was the Tsarevitch Constantine,
son of King Alexander II of Kakheth, who had been brought
up at the Persian court and had there embraced Islam, at
the beginning of the seventeenth century. ^ The first
Muhammadan king of Karthli, the Tsarevitch Rustam (1634-
1658), had also been brought up in Persia, and he and his
successors to the end of the century were all Muhammadans.^
Tavernier describes the Georgians as being very ignorant
in matters of religion and the clergy as unlettered and
vicious ; some of the heads of the Church actually sold the
^ David Chytragus, p. 49. - Joselian, p. 157.
' Brosset, 11^ partie, pe livraison, pp. 227-35. Description geographique
dc la Georgie par le Tsarevitch Wakhoucht, p. 79. (St. Petersburg, 1842.)
* The Six Voyages, p. 123. ^ Josehan, p. 149. « Id. pp. i6o-i.
Christian boys and girls as slaves to the Turks and Persians.^

From this period there seems to have been a widespread
apostasy, especially among the higher classes and those
who sought to win the favour of the Persian court. ^ In
1701 the occupant of the throne of Georgia, Wakhtang VI,
was a Christian : for the first seven years of his reign he was
a prisoner in Ispahan, where great efforts were made to
induce him to become a Muhammadan ; when he declared
that he preferred to lose his throne rather than purchase it
at the price of apostasy, it is said that his younger brother,
although he was the Patriarch of Georgia, offered to abandon
Christianity and embrace Islam, if the crown were bestowed
upon him, but though invested by the Persians with the
royal power, the Georgians refused to accept him as their
ruler, and drove him out of the kingdom.^
Towards the close of the eighteenth century, the king of
Georgia placed his people under the protection of the
Russian crown. Hitherto their intense patriotic feeling
had helped to keep the Christian faith alive among them so
long as their foreign invaders had been Musalmans, but now
that the foreign power that sought to rob them of their
independence was Christian, this same feeling operated in
some of the districts north of the Caucasus to the advantage
of Islam. In Daghistan a certain Darvlsh Mansiir en-
deavoured to unite the different tribes of the Caucasus to
oppose the Russians ; preaching the faith of Islam he
succeeded in converting the princes and nobles of Ubichistan
and Daghistan, who have remained faithful to Islam ever
since; many of the Circassians, too, were converted b}^ his
preaching, and preferred exile to submitting to the Russian
rule.* But in 1791 he was taken prisoner, and in 1800
Georgia was formally incorporated in the Russian empire.
Darvlsh Mansur was not alone in his efforts to convert
the Circassians. When the treaty of Kiichak-Qainarji in
1774 had recognised the independence of the Crimea and
^ Tavernicr (i), pp. 124, 126. He estimates the number of Muham-
madans at about twelve thousand. (Id. p. 123.)
* Brosset, II« partie, P" hvraison, pp. 85, 181.
^ Documens originaux sur les relations diplomatiques de la Georgie
avec la France vers la fin du regne de Louis XIV, recueillis par M. Brosset
jeune. (J. A. 2""= serie, tome ix. (1832), pp. 197, 451.)
* Mackenzie, p. 7. Garnett, p. 194.
SPREAD OF ISLAM IN WESTERN ASIA loi
opened the Black Sea to Russian vessels, the Turkish govern-

ment became alarmed at the prospect of a further movement
of Russian domination along the eastern coast of the Black
Sea and resolved to make an attempt to stir the Circassians
to resistance. A Turkish officer, named Farah 'All, was
sent in 1782 to establish a military colony at Anapa, near
the outlet of the sea of Azov, and to enter into relations with
the Circassian tribes. Farah 'All's first care was to seek the
hand of a daughter of one of the Circassian beys, offering rich
presents of arms, horses, etc., to her father; the marriage
was celebrated with great pomp and ceremony, and Farah
'All encouraged his soldiers to follow his example, by promis-
ing to defray the expenses of their nuptials. The result was
that a number of Circassian women joined the little colony
and accepted the religion of their husbands, and with the
zeal of new converts won over to Islam their fathers and
brothers. An active movement of proselytism began, and
the Circassians who came in contact with the Turkish colons-
appear readily to have abandoned their pagan beliefs for the
religion of the Qur'an, the mollas were kept busy in in-
structing the new Muslims, and help had to be sought from
Constantinople to deal with the increasing number of con-
versions.^ But the work of Farah 'AH was short-lived ; he
died in 1785 and his tomb was reverenced as that of a saint,
but his work perished with him. Anapa passed into the
hands of the Russians in 1812, and when the resistance
of the Circassians was finally overcome in 1864, more than
half a million Circassian Muhammadans migrated into
Turkish territory.
Under Russian law conversions to any faith other than
that of the Orthodox Church were illegal, and the further
progress of Islam was stayed until the promulgation of the
edict of toleration in 1905. One of the results of this in
the Caucasus was a large accession to Islam from among the
Abkhazes, who had long been nominal converts to Christi-
anity, but now became Muhammadans in such numbers
that the Orthodox clergy became alarmed and founded a
special society for the distribution of religious tracts among
them, in the hope of combating Muhammadan influences. ^
^ Barbier de Meynard, p. 45 sqq. ^ R. du M. M., VII, p. 320 (1909).
CHAPTER IV.
THE SPREAD OF ISLAM AMONG THE CHRISTIAN NATIONS

OF AFRICA.
Islam was first introduced into Africa by the Arab army

that invaded Egypt under the command of 'Amr b. al-*As
in A.D. 640. Three years later the withdrawal of the By-
zantine troops abandoned the vast Christian population
into the hands of the Muslim conquerors. The rapid suc-
cess of the Arab invaders was largely due to the welcome
they received from the native Christians, who hated the
Byzantine rule not only for its oppressive administration,
but also — and chiefly — on account of the bitterness of
theological rancour. The Jacobites, who formed the
majority of the Christian population, had been very roughly
handled by the Orthodox adherents of the court and sub-
jected to indignities that have not been forgotten by their
children even to the present day.^ Some were tortured
and then thrown into the sea ; many followed their Patriarch
into exile to escape from the hands of their persecutors,
while a large number disguised their real opinions under
a pretended acceptance of the Council of Chalcedon.^ To
these Copts, as the Jacobite Christians of Egypt are called,
the Muhammadan conquest brought a freedom of religious
life such as they had not enjoyed for a century. On pajmient
of the tribute, 'Amr left them in undisturbed possession of
their churches and guaranteed to them autonomy in all
ecclesiastical matters, thus delivering them from the con-
tinual interference that had been so grievous a burden under
1 Amelineau, p. 3; Caetani, vol. iv. p. 81 sq. Justinian is said to have
had 200,000 Copts put to death in the city of Alexandria, and the persecu-
tions of his successors drove many to take refuge in the desert. (Wansleben :
The Present State of Egypt, p. 11.) (London, 1678.)
2 Renaudot, p. 161. Severus, p. 106.
SPREAD OF ISLAM IN CHRISTIAN AFRICA 103
the previous rule ; he laid his hands on none of the property

of the churches and committed no act of spoHation or pillage.^
In the early days of the Muhammadan rule then, the con-
dition of the Copts seems to have been fairly tolerable, ^
and there is no evidence of their widespread apostasy to
Islam being due to persecution or unjust pressure on the
part of their new rulers. Even before the conquest was
complete, while the capital, Alexandria, still held out, many
of them went over to Islam, ^ and a few years later the
example these had set was followed by many others.* In
the reign of 'Uthman (a.d. 643-655), the revenue derived
from Egypt amounted to twelve milhons; a few years
later, in the reign of Mu'awiyah (661-679), it had fallen to
five milhons owing to the enormous number of conversions :
under 'Umar II (717-720) it fell still lower, so that the
governor of Egypt ^ proposed that in future the converts
should not be exempted from the payment of the capitation-
tax, but this the pious caliph refused to allow, saying that
God had sent Muhammad to call men to a knowledge of
the truth and not to be a collector of taxes.^
But later rulers recognised that for fiscal reasons such a
policy was ruinous to the state, and insisted on the converts
continuing to pay taxes as before; there was, however,
no continuity in such a poHcy, and individual governors
acted in an arbitrary and irregular manner.' When Hafs b.
al-Walid, who was governor of Egypt in a.d. 744, promised
that all those who became Muslims would be exempted
^ John, Jacobite bishop of Nikiu (second half of seventh century), p. 5S4.
Caetani, vol. iv. pp. 515-16.
* Bell, p. xxxvii. But the exactions and hardships that, according to
Maqrizi, the Copts had to endure about seventy years after the conquest
hardly allow us to extend this period so far as Von Ranke does : " Von
Aegypten weiss man durch die bestimmtesten Zeugnisse, dass sich die
Einwohner in den nachsten Jahrhunderten unter der arabischen Herrschaft
in eincm ertraglichen Zustand befunden haben." (Weltgeschichte, vol. v.
p. 153, 4th ed.) ,* John of Nikiu, p. 560.
* Id. p. 585. " Or beaucoup des Egyptiens, qui etaient de faux Chretiens,
renierent la sainte religion orthodoxe et le bapteme qui donne la vie, em-
brasserent la religion des Musulmans, les ennemis de Dieu, et accept^rent
la detestable doctrine de ce monstre, c'est-^-dire de Mahomet ; ils parta-
gerent I'egarem.ent de ces idolatres et prirent les armes contre les Chretiens."
* Qurra b. Sharik (governor of Egypt from 709 to 714), or his predecessor,
appears to have insisted on the converts continuing to pay jizyah. (Becker
Papyri Schott-Reinhardt, p. 18.)
« Ibn Sa'd, Tabaqat, vol. v. p. 283.
■ Caetani^ vo). iv, p. 618; vol. v. pp. 384-5.
from the payment of jizyah, as many as 24,000 Christians
are reported to have accepted Islam. ^ A similar proclama-
tion is said to have been made by al-Saffah, the first of the
'Abbasid caliphs, soon after his accession in a.d. 750, for
" he wrote to the whole of his dominions saying that ever}^
one who embraced his religion and prayed according to
his fashion, should be quit of the jizyah, and many, both
rich and poor, denied the faith of Christ by reason of the
magnitude of the taxation and the burdens imposed upon
them." ^ In fact many of the Christians of Egypt seem to
have abandoned Christianity 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 population
of the valle}^ of the Nile was Christian, but the sufferings of
the martyrs in the persecution of Diocletian, the stories of
the miracles they performed, the national feeling excited
by the sense of their opposition to the dictates of the
foreign government,^ the assurance that a paradise of
delights was opened to the martyr who died under the hands
of his tormentors, — all these things stirred up an enthusiasm
that resulted in an incredibl}^ rapid spread of the Christian
faith. " Instead of being converted by preaching, as the
other countries of the East were, Egypt embraced Christi-
anity in a fit of wild enthusiasm, without any preaching, or
instruction being given, with hardly any knowledge of the
new religion beyond the name of Jesus, the Messiah, who
bestowed a life of eternal happiness on all who confessed
Him." 4
In the seventh century Christianity had probably ver}'
little hold on a great mass of the people of Egypt. The
theological catchwords that their leaders made use of,
to stir up in them feelings of hatred and opposition to the
Byzantine government, could have been intelligible to a
very few, and the rapid spread of Islam in the early days
of the Arab occupation was probably due less to definite
efforts to attract than to the inability of such a Christianity
to retain. The theological basis for the existence of the
* Severus, pp. 172-3. * Id. pp. 205-6.
' " Sans aucun doute il y eut dans la multiplicite des martyrs une sorte
de resistance natjonale cgntre les p;ouverneurs etrangers." (Amelinegu,
p. 58,) i Ameljneau, pp. 57-8,
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 the most abstruse and metaphysical
character, and many doubtless turned in utter perplexity
and weariness from the interminable controversies that
raged around them, to a faith that was summed up in the
simple, intelligible truth of the Unity of God and the mission
of His Prophet, Muhammad. Even within the Coptic
Church itself at a later period, we find evidence of a move-
ment which, if not distinctly Muslim, was at least closely
allied thereto, and in the absence of any separate ecclesi-
astical organisation in which it might find expression,
probably contributed to the increase of the converts to
Islam. In the beginning of the twelfth century, there was
in the monastery of St. Anthon}^ (near Itflh on the Nile),
a monk named Baliitus, " learned in the doctrines of the
Christian religion and the duties of the monastic life, and
skilled in the rules of the canon-law. But Satan caught
him in one of his nets ; for he began to hold opinions at
variance with those taught by the Three Hundred and
Eighteen (of Nicaea) ; and he corrupted the minds of many
of those who had no knowledge or instruction in the Orthodox
faith. He announced with his impure mouth, in his wicked
discourses, that Christ our Lord — to Whom be glory — was
like one of the prophets. He associated with the lowest
among the followers of his religion, clothed as he was in the
monastic habit. When he was questioned as to his religion
and his creed, he professed himself a believer in the Unity
of God. His doctrines prevailed during a period which
ended in the year 839 of the Righteous Martyrs (a.d. 1123) ;
then he died, and his memory was cut off for ever." ^
Further, a theory of the Christian life that found its
highest expression in asceticism of the grossest type ^ could
offer little attraction, in the face of the more human morality
of Islam. 3 On account of the large numbers of Copts that
^ Abu Salih, pp 163-4. ^ Amelineau, pp. 53-4, 69-70.
^ Abu Salih gives an account of some monks who embraced the faith
of the Prophet, and these are probably representative of a larger number
of whom the historian has left no record, as lacking the peculiar circum-
stances ofloss to the monastery or of recantation that made such instances
of interest to him (pp. 128, 142).
io6 THE PREACHING OF ISLAM
from time to time have become Muhammadans, they have

come to be considered by the followers of the Prophet as
much more inclined to the faith of Islam than any other
Christian sect, and though they have had to endure the
most severe oppression and persecution on many occasions,
yet the Copts that have been thus driven to abandon their
faith are said to have been few in comparison with those
who have changed their religion voluntarily,^ and even in
the nineteenth century, when Egypt was said to be the most
tolerant of all Muhammadan countries, there were yearly con-
versions ofthe Copts to the Muslim faith. ^ Still, persecution
and oppression have undoubtedly played a very large part
in the reduction of the numbers of the Copts, and the story
of the sufferings of the Jacobite Church of Egypt, — perse-
cuted alike by their fellow Christians ^ and by the followers
of the dominant faith, is a very sad one, and many abandoned
the religion of their fathers in order to escape from burden-
some taxes and unendurable indignities. 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 Copts
themselves. Their long struggle against the civil and
theological despotism of Byzantium seems to have welded
the zealots into a national party that could as little brook
the foreign rule of the Arabs as, before, that of the Greeks.
The rising of the Copts against their new masters in 646,
when they drove the Arabs for a time out of Alexandria
and opened the gates of the city to the Byzantine troops
(who, however, treated the unfortunate Copts as enemies,
^ Lane, pp. 546, 549.
2 Liittke (i), vol. i. pp. 30, 35. Dr. Andrew Watson writes : " No year
has passed during my residence of forty-four years in the Nile valley
without my hearing of several instances of defection. The causes are,
chiefly, the hope of worldly gain of various kinds, severe and continued
persecution, exposure to the cruelty and rapacity of Moslem neighbours,
and personal indignities as well as political disabilities of various kinds."
(Islam in Egypt : Mohammedan World, p. 24.)
* Severus, pp. 122, 126, 143. One of the very first occasions on which
they had to complain of excessive taxation was when Menas, the Christian
prefect of Lower Egypt, extorted from the city of Alexandria 32,057
pieces of gold, instead of 22,000 which 'Amr had fixed as the amount to be
levied. (John of Nikiu, p. 585.) Renaudot (p. 168) says that after the
restoration of the Orthodox hierarchy, about seventy years after the
Muhammadan conquest, the Copts suffered as much at its hands us a,t tht^
hg^nds of the ]\Iuha5m,ma,da,ns themselves.
not having yet forgotten the welcome they had before given
to the Muhammadan invaders), was the first of a long
series of risings and insurrections/ — excited frequently
by excessive taxation, — which exposed them to terrible
reprisals, and caused the lot of the Jacobite Christians of
Egypt to be harder to bear than that of any other Christian
sect in this or other countries under Muhammadan rule.
But the history of these events belongs rather to a history of
Muhammadan persecution and intolerance than to the scope
of the present work. It must not, however, be supposed
that the condition of the Copts was invariably that of a
persecuted sect ; on the contrary there were times when they
rose to positions of great affluence and importance in the
state. They filled the posts of secretaries and scribes in
the government offices, ^ farmed the taxes, ^ and in some cases
amassed enormous wealth.* The annals of their Church
furnish us with many instances of ecclesiastics who were
held in high favour and consideration by the reigning princes
of the country, under the rule of many of whom the Christians
enjoyed the utmost tranquillity.^ To such a period of
the peace of the Church belongs an incident that led to the
absorption of many Christians into the body of the faithful.
During the reign of Salah al-Din (Saladin) (1169-1193) over
Egypt, the condition of the Christians was ver}'' happy under
the auspices of this tolerant ruler ; the taxes that had been
imposed upon them were lightened and several swept away
altogether ; they crowded into the public offices as secretaries,
accountants and registrars ; and for nearly a century under
the successors of Saladin, they enjoyed the same toleration
and favour, and had nothing to complain of except the cor-
ruption and degeneracy of their own clergy. Simony had
become terribly rife among them ; the priesthood was sold
to ignorant and vicious persons, while postulants for the
sacred office who were unable to pay the sums demanded
for ordination, were repulsed with scorn, in spite of their
^ Maqrizi mentions five other risings of the Copts that had to be crushed
by force of arms, within the first century of the Arab domination. (Maqrizi
(2), pp. 76-82.)
- Renaudot, pp. 1S9, 37.J, 430, 540. ^ jj p (3q^_
* Id. pp. 432, 607. Nasir-i-Khusrau : Safar-namah, ed. Schefer, pp. 155-6.
* Renaudot, pp. 212. 225, 314, 374. 540.
io8 THE PREACHING OF ISLAM
being worthy and fit persons. The consequence was that

the spiritual and moral training of the people was utterly
neglected and there was a lamentable decay of the Christian
life.i So corrupt had the Church become that when, on
the death of John, the seventy-fourth Patriarch of the
Jacobites, in 1216, a successor was to be elected, the con-
tending parties who pushed the claims of rival candidates,
kept up a fierce and irreconcilable dispute for nearly twenty
years, and all this time cared less for the grievous scandal
and the harmful consequences of their shameless quarrels
than for the maintenance of their dogged and obstinately
factious spirit. On more than one occasion the reigning
sultan tried to make peace between the contending parties,
refused the enormous bribes of three, five, and even ten
thousand gold pieces that were offered in order to induce
him to secure the election of one of the candidates by the
pressure of official influence, and even offered to remit the
fee that it was customary for a newly-elected Patriarch to
pay, if only they would put aside their disputes and come
to some agreement, — but all to no purpose. Meanwhile
many episcopal sees fell vacant and there was no one to take
the place of the bishops and priests that died in this interval ;
in the monastery of St. Macarius alone there were only four
priests left as compared with over eighty under the last
Patriarch.- So utterly neglected were the Christians of
the western dioceses, that they all became Muslims.^ To
this bald statement of the historian of the Coptic Church,
we unfortunately have no information to add, of the positive
efforts made by the Musalmans to bring these Christians over
to their faith. That such there were, there can be very
little doubt, especially as we know that the Christians held
public disputations and engaged in written controversies
on the respective merits of the rival creeds.* That these
1 Renaudot, p. 388. 2 i^j. pp. 567, 571, 574-5.
^ Wansleben, p. 30. Wansleben mentions another instance (under
different circumstances) of the decay of the Coptic Church, in the island of
Cyprus, which was formerly under the jurisdiction of the Coptic Patriarch :
here they were so persecuted by the Orthodox clergy, who enjoyed the
protection of the Byzantine emperors, that the Patriarch could not induce
priests to go there, and consequently all the Copts on the island either
accepted Islam or the Council of Chalcedon, and their churches were all
shut up. (Id. p. 31.) * Renaudot, p. 377.
SPREAD OF ISLAM IN CHRISTIAN AFRICA log
conversions were not due to persecution, we know from

direct historical evidence that during this vacancy of the
patriarchate, the Christians had full and complete freedom
of public worship, were allowed to restore their churches and
even to build new ones, were freed from the restrictions that
forbade them to ride on horses or mules, and were tried
in law-courts of their own, while the monks were exempted
from the payment of tribute and granted certain privileges.^
How far this incident is a typical case of conversion to
Islam among the Copts it is difficult to say; a parallel
case of neglect is mentioned by two Capuchin missionaries
who travelled up the Nile to Luxor in the seventeenth
century, where they found that the Copts of Luxor had no
priest, and some of them had not gone to confession or
communion for fifty years. '^ Under such circumstances
the decay of their numbers can readily be understood.
A similar neglect probably contributed to the decay of
the Nubian Church which recognised the primacy of the
Jacobite Patriarch of Alexandria, as do the Abyssinians
to the present day. The Nubians had been converted to
Christianity about the middle of the sixth century, and
retained their independence when Egypt was conquered by
the Arabs; a treaty was made according to which the
Nubians were to send every year three hundred and sixty
slaves, with forty more for the governor of Egypt, while
the Arabs were to furnish them with corn, oil and raiment.^
In the reign of al-Mu'tasim (833-842), ambassadors were
sent by the caliph renewing this treaty, and the king of
Nubia visited the capital, where he was received with great
magnificence and dismissed with costly presents.* In the
twelfth century they were still all Christian,^ and retained
their old independence in spite of the frequent expeditions
sent against them from Egypt. « In 1275 the nephew of
the then king of Nubia obtained from the sultan of Egypt
a body of troops to assist him in his revolt against his uncle,
^ Renaudot, p. 575.
- Relation du voyage du Sayd on de la Thebayde fait en 1668, par les
PP. Protais et Charles-Frangois d'Orleans, Capuchins Missionaires, p. 3.
(Thevenot, vol. ii.) ' Caetani, vol. iv. p. 520.
« Ishok, of Romgla, pp. 272-3. ^ Idrisi, p. 32.
* Maqrizi (2), tome i. 2"" partie, p. 131.
no THE PREACHING OF ISLAM
whom he by their help succeeded in deposing ; in return for

this assistance he had to cede the two northernmost provinces
of Nubia to the sultan, and as the inhabitants elected to
retain their Christian faith, an annual tribute of one dinar
for each male was imposed upon them.^ But this Muham-
madan overlordship was temporary onl}^ and the Nubians
of the ceded provinces soon reasserted their independence. ^
But settlements of Arabs had been established in Nubia
for several centuries earlier and the Arabs on the Blue Nile
had so increased in number and wealth in the tenth century
that they were able to ask permission to build a mosque in
Soba,^ the capital of the Christian kingdom."^ In the thir-
teenth and especially from the beginning of the fourteenth
century there began a general process of interpenetration
through the migration into Nubia of Arabs, especially of
the Juhaynah tribe, who intermarried with the women of
the land and gradually succeeded in breaking up the power
of the Nubian princes.^ In the latter half of the fourteenth
century Ibn Batiitah ^ tells us that the Nubians were still
Christians, though the king of their chief city, Dongola,'
had embraced Islam in the reign of Nasir (probably Nasir
b. Qulaun, one of the Mamluk sultans of Egypt, who died
A.D. 1340) ; the repeated expeditions of the Muslims so
late as the fifteenth century had not succeeded in pushing
their conquests south of the first cataract, near which was
their last fortified place, ^ while Christianity seems to have
extended as far up the Nile as Sennaar.
The Christian Nubian kingdom appears to have come to
an end partly through internal dissensions and partly
^ Maqrizi, pp. 12S-30. ^ Burckhardt (i), p. 494.

^ About twelve miles above the modern Khartum.
* Artin, pp. 62, 144.
^ Becker, Geschichte des ostlichcn Siidan, p. 160.
* Vol. iv. p. 396.
' Slatin Pasha records a tradition current among the Danagla Arabs
that this town was founded by their ancestor, Dangal, who called it after
his own name. (This however is impossible, inasmuch as Dongola was
in existence in ancient Egyptian times, and is mentioned on the monuments.
See Vivien de Saint-Martin, vol. ii. p. 85.) According to their tradition,
this Dangal, though a slave, rose to be ruler of Nubia, but paid tribute to
Bahnesa, the Coptic bishop of the entire district lying between the present
Sarras and Debba. (Fire and Sword in the Sudan, p. 13.) (London, 1896.)
* Ibn Salim al-Aswani, quoted by Maqrizi : Kitab al-Khitat, vol. i.
p. 190. (Cairo, A.H. 1270.)
SPREAD OF ISLAM IN CHRISTIAN AFRICA in
through the attacks of Arab and Negro tribes on its borders,

and finally by the establishment of the powerful Fiinj
empire in the fifteenth century. ^
But it is probable that the progress of Islam in the country
was all this time being promoted by the Muhammadan
merchants and others that frequented it. MaqrizI (writing
in the early part of the fifteenth century) quotes one of those
missionary anecdotes which occur so rarely in the works of
Arabic authors; it is told by Ibn Sallm al-Aswani, and is
of interest as giving us a living picture of the Muslim propa-
gandist at work. Though the convert referred to is neither
a Christian nor a Nubian, still the story shows that there
was such a thing as conversion to Islam in Nubia in the
fifteenth century. Ibn Salim says that he once met a man
at the court of the Nubian chief of Muqurrah, who told him
that he came from a city that lay three months' journey
from the Nile. When asked about his religion, he replied,
" My Creator and thy Creator is God ; the Creator of
the universe and of all men is One, and his dwelling-place
is in Heaven." When there was a dearth of rain, or when
pestilence attacked them or their cattle, his fellow-country-
men would climb up a high mountain and there pray to God,
who accepted their prayers and supplied their needs before
even they came down again. When he acknowledged that
God had never sent them a prophet, Ibn Salim recounted
to him the story of the prophets Moses and Jesus and
Muhammad, and how by the help of God they had been
enabled to perform many miracles. And he answered,
" The truth must indeed have been with them, when they
did these things; and if they performed these deeds, I
believe in them." ^
Very slowl}/ and gradually the Nubians seem to have
drifted from Christianity into Muhammadanism.^ The
spiritual life of their Church had sunk to the lowest ebb,
and as no movement of reform sprang up in their midst,
and as they had lost touch with the Christian Churches
beyond their borders, it was only natural that they should
seek for an expression of their spiritual aspirations in the
^ Budge, vol. ii. p. igg. Artin, p. 144.
• Maqrizi : Kitab al-Miitat, vol. i. p. 193. ^ Mode, vol. i. pp. 417-18.
religion of Islam, whose followers had so long borne witness

to its living power among them, and had already won over
some of their countrymen to the acceptance of it. A Portu-
guese priest, who travelled in Abyssinia from 1520-1527,
has preserved for us a picture of the Nubians in this state
of transition ; he says that they were neither Christians, Jews
nor Muhammadans, but had come to be without faith and
without laws; but still " they lived with the desire of being
Christians." Through the fault of their clergy they had
sunk into the grossest ignorance, and now there were no
bishops or priests left among them ; accordingly they sent
an embassy of six men to the king of Abyssinia, praying
him to send priests and monks to instruct them, but this the
king refused to do without the permission of the Patriarch of
Alexandria, and as this could not be obtained, the unfortunate
ambassadors returned unsuccessful to their own country.^
The same writer was informed by a Christian who had
travelled in Nubia, that he had found 150 churches there,
in each of which were still to be seen the figures of the cruci-
fied Christ, of the Virgin Mary, and other saints painted
on the walls. In all the fortresses, also, that were scattered
throughout the country, there were churches. ^ Before the
close of the following century, Christianity had entirely
disappeared from Nubia " for want of pastors," but the
closed churches were to be found still standing throughout
the whole country.^ The Nubians had yielded to the powerful
Muhammadan influences that surrounded them, to which
the proselytising efforts of the Muslims who had travelled
in Nubia for centuries past no doubt contributed a great deal ;
on the north were Egypt and the Arab tribes that had made
their way up the Nile and extended their authority along
the banks of that river ; * on the south, the Muhammadan
state of the Belloos, separating them from Abyssinia.
^ Lord Stanley of Alderley in his translation of Alvarez' Narrative from
the original Portuguese, gives the answer of the king as follows : " He said
to them that he had his Abima from the country of the Moors, that is to
say from the Patriarch of Alexandria ; . . . . how then could he give^
priests and friars since another gave them " (p. 352). (London, 1881.)
^ Viaggio nella Ethiopia al Prete lanni fatto par Don Francesco Alvarez
Portughese (1520-1527). (Ramusio, tom. i. pp. 200, 250.)
' Wansleben, p. 30. For descriptions of the ruins that still remain,
see Budge, vol. ii. p. 299 sqq., and G. S. Nileham, Churches in Lower
Nubia. (Philadelphia, 1910.) * Burckhardt (i), p. 133.
SPREAD OF ISLAM IN CHRISTIAN AFRICA ii^,o
These Belloos, in the early part of the sixteenth century,

were, in spite of their Mushm faith, tributaries of the Christian
king of Abyssinia ; ^ and — if they may be identified with
the Bahyyiin, who, together with their neighbours, the
Bajah (the inhabitants of the so-called island of Meroe), are
spoken of by Idrlsl, in the twelfth century, as being Jacobite
Christians, 2 — it is probable that they had only a few \êars
before been 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
1499-1530 from the south up to the borders of Nubia and
Abyssinia and founded the powerful state of Sennaar.
When the army of Ahmad Grafi invaded Abyssinia and
made its way right through the country from south to north,
it effected a junction about 1534 with the army of the sultan
of Maseggia or Mazaga, a province under Muhammadan
rule but tributary to Abyssinia, lying between that country
and Sennaar ; in the army of this sultan there were 15,000
Nubian soldiers who, from the account given of them, appear
to have been Musalmans.^ Fragmentary and insufficient
as these data of the conversion of the Nubians are, we may
certainly conclude from all we know of the independent
character of this people and the tenacity with which they
clung to the Christian faith, so long as it was a living force
among them, that their change of religion was a gradual one,
extending through several centuries.
Let us now pass to the history of Islam among the Abys-
sinians, who had received Christianity two centuries before
the Nubians, and like them belonged to the Jacobite Church.
The tide of Arab emigration does not seem to have set
across the Red Sea, the western shores of which formed part
of the Abyssinian kingdom, until many centuries after
Arabia had accepted the faith of the prophet. Up to the
tenth century only a 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 ahenated some of the coast-lands from the Abys-
sinian kingdom. In 1300 a missionary, named Abii 'Abd
Allah Muhammad, made his way into Abyssinia, calling
^ Alvarez, p. 250. * idnsl, p. 32. =» 'Arabfaqih, p. 323.
on the people to embrace Islam, and in the following year,

having collected around him 200,000 men, he attacked
the ruler of Amhara in several engagements. ^ King Saifa
Ar'ad (1342-1370) took energetic measures against the
Muhammadans in his kingdom, putting to death or driving
into exile all those who refused to embrace Christianity.^
At the close of the same century the disturbed state
of the country, owing to the civil wars that distracted
it, made it possible for the various Arab settlements
along the coast to make themselves masters of the
entire seaboard and drive the Abyssinians into the in-
terior, and the king, Ba'eda Maryam (1468-1478), is said to
have spent the greater part of his reign in fighting against
the Muhammadans on the eastern border of his kingdom.^
In the early part of the sixteenth century, while the
powerful Muhammadan kingdom of Adal, between Abyssinia
and the southern extremity of the Red Sea, and some others
were bitterly hostile to the Christian power, there were
others again that formed peaceful tributaries of " Prester
John " ; e. g. in Massowah there were Arabs who kept the
flocks of the Abyssinian seigniors, wandering about in
bands of thirty or forty with their wives and children, each
band having its Christian " captain." * Some Musalmans
are also mentioned as being in the service of the king and
being entrusted by him with important posts ; ^ while some
of these remained faithful to Islam, others embraced the
prevailing religion of the country. What was implied in
the fact of these Muhammadan communities being tribu-
taries of the king of Abyssinia, it is difficult to determine.
The Musalmans of Hadya had along with other tribute to
give up every year to the king a maiden who had to become
a Christian ; this custom was in accordance with an ancient
treaty, which the king of Abyssinia has always made them
observe, " because he was the stronger " ; besides this, they
were forbidden to carry arms or put on war-apparel, and,
if they rode, their horses were not to be saddled ; " these
orders," they said, " we have always obeyed, so that the
1 Maqrizi (2), tome ii. 2""" partie, p. 183.
2 Basset, p. 240. ' Id., p. 247.
* Alvarez. (Kamusio, torn. i. pp. 218, 242, 249.)
^ 'Arabfaqih, pp. 83, 191.
king may not put us to death and destroy our mosques.

When the king sends his people to fetch the maiden and the
tribute, we put her on a bed, wash her and cover her with
a cloth, and recite the prayers for the dead over her
and give her up to the people of the king; and thus did
our fathers and our grandfathers before us." ^
These Muhammadan tributaries were chiefly to be found
in the low-lying countries that formed the northern boundary
of Abj^ssinia, from the Red Sea westward to Sennaar,^ and
on the south and the south-east of the kingdom.^ What
influence these Muhammadans had on the Christian popula-
tions with which they were intermingled, and whether they
made converts to Islam as in the present century, is matter
only of conjecture. Certain it is, however, that when the
independent Muhammadan ruler of Adal, Ahmad Gran — him-
self said to have been the son of a Christian priest of Aijjo,
who had left his own country and adopted Islam in that of
the Adals * — invaded Ab3^ssinia from 1528 to 1543, many
Abyssinian chiefs with their followers joined his victorious
army and became Musalmans, and though the Christian
populations of some districts preferred to pay jizyah,^
others embraced the religion of the conqueror.*' But the
contemporary Muslim historian himself tells us that in some
cases this conversion was the result of fear, and that suspicions
were entertained of the genuineness of the allegiance of the
new converts.'^ But such apparently was not universally
the case, and the widespread character of the conversions
in several districts give the impression of a popular move-
ment. The Christian chiefs who went over to Islam made
use of their personal influence in inducing their troops to
follow their example. They were, as we are told, in some
cases very ignorant of their own religion,^ and thus the change
of faith was a less difficult matter. Particularly instrumental
in conversions of this kind were those Muhammadan chiefs
who had previously entered the service of the king of
Abyssinia, and those renegades who took the opportunity
of the invasion of the country by a conquering Musalman
^ 'Arabfaqih, p. 275-6. ^ Id. pp. 319, 324. ' Id. pp. 28, 129, 275.
* Plowden, p. 36. * 'Arabfaqih, pp. 321, 335, 343.
" Id. passim. '' Id. pp. 175, 195, 248. « j^ p jyg.
ii6 THE PREACHING OF ISLAM
army to throw off their allegiance at once to Christianity

and the Christian king and declare themselves Muhammadans
once more.i
One of these in 1531 wrote the following letter to Ahmad
Gran :— " I was formerly a Muslim and the son of a Muslim,
was taken prisoner by the polytheists and made a Christian
by force ; but in my heart I have always clung to the true
faith and now I seek the protection of God and of His Prophet
and of thee. If thou wilt accept my repentance and punish
me not for what I have done, I will return in penitence to
God ; and I will devise means whereby the troops of the king,
that are with me, may join thee and become Mushms; " —
and in fact the greater part of his army elected to follow
their general; including the women and children their
numbers are said to have amounted to 20,000 souls. ^
But with the help of the Portuguese, the Abyssinians
succeeded in shaking off the yoke of their Muhammadan
conquerors and Ahmad Gran himself was slain in 1543.
Islam had, however, gained a footing in the country, which
the troublous condition of affairs during the remainder of
the sixteenth and the following century enabled it to retain,
the rival Christian Churches being too busily engaged in
contending with one another, to devote much attention
to their common enemy. For the successful proselytising
of the Jesuits and other Roman Catholic missionaries and
the active interference of the Portuguese in all civil and
political matters, excited violent opposition in the mass of
the Abyssinian Christians ;— indeed so bitter was this feeling
that some of the chiefs openly declared that they would
rather submit to a Muhammadan ruler than continue their
alliance with the Portuguese ; ^ — and the semi-religious,
semi-patriotic movement set on foot thereby, rapidly
assumed such vast proportions as to lead (about 1632) to
the expulsion of the Portuguese and the exclusion of all
foreign Christians from the country. The condition of
Abyssinia then speedily became one of terrible confusion
and anarchy, of which some tribes of the Galla race took
1 'Arabfaqih, pp. 34-5, 120-1, 182-3, 244, 327.
- 'Arabfaqih, pp. 181-2, 186.
^ lobi Ludolfi ad suam Historiam iEthiopicam Commcntarius, p. 474.
Frankfurt a. M., 1691.)
advantage, to thrust their way right into the very centre of
the country, where their settlements remain to the present
day.
The progress achieved by Islam during this period may be
estimated from the testimony of a traveller of the seven-
teenth century, who tells us that in his time the adherents
of this faith were scattered throughout the whole of Abyssinia
and formed a third of the entire population. ^ During the
following century the faith of the Prophet seems steadily
to have increased by means of the conversion of isolated indi-
viduals here and there. The absence of any strong central
government in the country favoured the rise of petty inde-
pendent chieftains, many of whom had strong Muhammadan
sympathies, though (in accordance with a fundamental law
of the state) all the Abyssinian princes had to belong to
the Christian faith ; the Muhammadans, too, aspiring to
the dignity of the Abyssinian aristocracy, abjured the faith
in which they had been born and pretended conversion to
Christianity in order to get themselves enrolled in the order
of the nobles, and as governors of Christian provinces made
use of all their influence towards the spread of Islam. ^ One
of the chief reasons of the success of this faith seems to have
been the moral superiority of the Mushms as compared with
that of the Christian population of Abyssinia. Riippell
says that he frequently noticed in the course of his travels
in Abyssinia that when a post had to be filled which required
that a thoroughly honest and trustworthy person should
be 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 sons taught to read and write, whereas Christian children
were only educated when they were intended for the priest-
hood.^ This moral superiority of the Muhammadans of
1 Histoire de la Haute Ethiopie, par le R. P. Manoel d'Almeida, p. 7.
(Thevenot, vol. ii.)
^ Massaja, vol. ii. pp. 205-6. " Ognuno comprende che movente di
queste conversioni essendo la sete di regnare, nel fatto non si riducevano
che ad una formalita esterna, restando poi i nuovi convertiti veri mussul-
mani nei cuori e nei costumi. E percio accadeva che, elevati alia digniti
di Ras, si circondavano di mussulmani, dando ad essi la maggior parte
degli impieghi e colmandoli di titoli, ricchezze e favori : e cosi I'Abissinia
cristiana invasa e popolata da questa pessima razza, passo COlI' andar del
tempo sotto il giogo dell' islamismo." (Id, p. 206.)
* Riippell, vol. i. pp. 32S, 366.
I
ii8 THE PREACHING OF ISLAM
Abyssinia over the Christian population goes far to explain

the continuous though slow progress made by Islam during
the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries ; the degradation
and apathy of the Abyssinian clergy and the interminable
feuds of the Abyssinian chiefs, have left Muhammadan
influences free to work undisturbed. Mr. Plowden, who
was Enghsh consul in Abyssinia from 1844 to i860, speaking
of the Habab, three Tigre tribes dwelhng between 16° and
17° 30' lat., to the north-west of Massowah, says that
they have become Muhammadan " within the last 100
years, and all, save the latest generation, bear Christian
names. They have changed their faith, through the con-
stant influence of the Muhammadans with whom they
trade, and through the gradual and now entire abandon-
ment of the country by the Abyssinian chiefs, too much
occupied in ceaseless wars with their neighbours." ^ They
have a tradition that one of their chiefs named Jawej
rejected Christianity for Islam, in the belief that the latter
faith brought good luck and long life ; he then said to his
priest, " Break in pieces the Tabot " ; ^ the priest answered,
" I dare not break in pieces the Tabot of Mary " ; so Jawej
seized the Tabot with his own hands and cut it in pieces with
an axe ; the Christian priests then adopted Islam, and all
their descendants are shaykhs of the tribe to the present day.^
Other sections of the population of the northern districts
of the country were similarly converted to Islam during
the same period, because the priests had abandoned these
districts and the churches had been suffered to fall into
ruins, — apparently entirely through neglect, as the Muham-
madans here are said to have been by no means fanatical
nor to have borne any particular enmity to Christianity.^
Similar testimony to the progress of Islam in the early
part of the nineteenth century is given by other travellers,^
who found numbers of Christians to be continually passing
over to that faith. The Muhammadans were especially
favoured by Ras 'All, one of the vice-regents of Abyssinia
and practically master of the country before the accession
1 Plowden, p. 15. - Tabot, the ark of the covenant.

■- Littmann, pp. 69-70. '' Plowden, pp. S-9.
* Beke, pp. 51-2, Isenberg, p. 36.
of King Theodore in 1853. Though himself a 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 Abyssinia
embraced the faith of the Prophet. ^ Such deep roots had
this faith now struck in Abyssinia that its followers had
in their hands all the commerce as well as all the petty trade
of the country, enjoyed vast possessions, were masters of
large towns and central markets, and had a firm hold upon
the mass of the people. Indeed, a Christian missionary
who lived for thirty-five years in this country, rated the
success and the zeal of the Muslim propagandists so high
as to say that were another Ahmad Gran to arise and unfurl
the banner of the Prophet, the whole of Abyssinia would
become Muhammadan.^ Embroilments with the Egyptian
government (with which Abyssinia was at war from 1875
to 1882) brought about a revulsion of feeling against Muham-
madanism : hatred of the foreign Muslim foe reacted upon
their co-religionists within the border. In 1878, King John
summoned a Convocation of the Abyssinian clergy, who
proclaimed him supreme arbiter in matters of faith and
ordained that there should be but one religion throughout
the whole kingdom. Christians of all sects other than the
Jacobite were given two years in which to become reconciled
to the national Church ; the Muhammadans were to submit
within three, and the heathen within five, years. A few
days later the king promulgated an edict that showed how
little worth was the three years' grace allowed to the Muham-
madans for
; not only did he order them to build Christian
churches wherever they were needed and to pay tithes to
the priests resident in their respective districts, but also
gave three months' notice to all Muhammadan officials
to either receive baptism or resign their posts. Such
compulsory conversion (consisting as it did merely of the rite
of baptism and the payment of tithes) was naturally of the
most ineffectual character, and while outwardly conforming,
the Muslims in secret protested their loyalty to their old
faith. Massaja saw some such go straight from the church
' Reclus, vol. X. p. 247. Massaja, vol. xi. p. 125.
- Massaja, vol. xi. p. 124,
in which they had been baptised to the mosque, in order

to have this enforced baptism wiped off by some holy man
of their own faith. ^ These mass conversions were rendered
the more ineffectual by being confined to the men, for as
the royal edict had made no mention of the women they
were in no way molested, — a circumstance that probably
proved to be of considerable significance in the future
history of Islam in Abyssinia, as Massaja bears striking
testimony to the important part the Muhammadan women
have played in the diffusion of their faith in this country. ^
By 1880 King John is said to have compelled about 50,000
Muhammadans to be baptised, as well as 20,000 members
of one of the pagan tribes and half a million of Gallas,^
but as their conversion went no further than baptism and
the payment of tithes, it is not surprising to learn that the
only result of these violent measures was to increase the
hatred and hostihty of both the Muslim and the heathen
Abyssinians towards the Christian faith.'* The king of the
petty state of Kafa (which had almost always acknow-
ledged the supremacy of Abyssinia), — Sawo-Teheno, — took
advantage of the embarrassment of King John, who was
threatened at once by the Italians and the followers of
the Mahdl, to assert his independence, and became a Musal-
man, in order to do so more effectively. He successfully
resisted all attacks until 1897, when his state was recon-
quered and he himself taken prisoner by the Emperor
Menelik, the former king of Shoa, who had established his
authority over the whole of Abyssinia after the death of
King John in 1889. Christianity was re-established as
the state religion throughout Kafa and Christian worship
renewed in the churches, which had been left uninjured,
being either shut up or turned into mosques.^ But these
violent measures taken in the interests of the Christian
faith have failed to arrest the growing power of Islam
during the nineteenth century. Whole tribes that were
once Christian and still bear Christian names, such as
Takles (" Plant of Jesus "), Hebtes (" Gift of Jesus ")
1 Massaja, vol. xi. pp. 77-8. - Id. pp.124, 125.
' Oppel, p. 307. Reclus, tome x. p. 247.
* Massaja, vol. xi. pp. 79, Si. * Mode, vol. ii. p. 449.
and Temaryam (" Gift of Mary "), have become Muslim.

The two Mansa' tribes which were entirely Christian about
the middle of the nineteenth century had become Muslim,
for the most part, at the beginning of the twentieth century ;
the propagandist efforts of the Muslims who converted them
appear to have been facilitated through the ignorance of
the Christian clergy. A similar Muhammadanising process
has been going on for some time among other tribes also.^
We must return now to the history of Africa in the seventh
century, when the Arabs were pushing their conquests from
East to West along the north coast. The comparatively
easy conquest of Egypt, where so many of the inhabitants
assisted the Arabs in bringing the Byzantine rule to an
end, found no parallel in the bloody campaigns and the
long-continued resistance that here barred their further
progress, and half a century elapsed before the Arabs
succeeded in making themselves complete masters of the
north coast from Egypt to the Atlantic Ocean. It was not
till 698 that the fall of Carthage brought the Roman rule
in Africa to an end for ever, and the subjugation of the
Berbers made the Arabs supreme in the country.
The details of these campaigns it is no part of our purpose
to consider, but rather to attempt to discover in what way
Islam was spread among the Christian population. Un-
fortunately the materials available for such a purpose are
lamentably sparse and insufficient. What became of that
great African Church that had given such saints and theo-
logians to Christendom ? The Church of Tertulhan, St.
Cyprian and St. Augustine, which had emerged victorious
out of so many persecutions, and had so stoutly championed
the cause of Christian orthodoxy, seems to have faded away
like a mist.
In the absence of definite information, it has been usual
to ascribe the disappearance of the Christian population to
fanatical persecutions and forced conversions on the part
of the Muslim conquerors. But there are many considera-
tions that militate against such a rough and ready settle-
ment of this question. First of all, there is the absence
1 Littmann, pp. 68-70. K. Cederquist : Islam and Christianity in
Abyssinia, p. 154 (The Moslem World, vol. ii.).
of definite evidence in support of such an assertion.

Massacres, devastation and all the other accompaniments
of a bloody and long-protracted war, there were in horrible
abundance, but of actual religious persecution we have
httle mention, and the survival of the native Christian Church
for more than eight centuries after the Arab conquest is a
testimony to the toleration that alone could have rendered
such a survival possible.
The causes that brought about the decay of Christianity
in North Africa must be sought for elsewhere than in the
bigotry of Muhammadan rulers. But before attempting
to enumerate these, it will be well to realise how very small
must have been the number of the Christian population
at the end of the seventh century — a circumstance that
renders its continued existence under Muhammadan rule
still more significant of the absence of forced conversion,
and leaves such a hypothesis much less plausibility than
would have been the case had the Arabs found a large and
flourishing Christian Church there when they commenced
their conquest of northern Africa.
The Roman provinces of Africa, to which the Christian
population was confined, never extended far southwards;
the Sahara forms a barrier in this direction, so that the
breadth of the coast seldom exceeds 80 or 100 miles. ^
Though there were as many as 500 bishoprics just before
the Vandal conquest, this number can serve as no criterion
of the number of the faithful, owing to the practice observed
in the African Church of appointing bishops to the most
inconsiderable towns and very frequently to the most obscure
villages, 2 and it is doubtful whether Christianity ever spread
far inland among the Berber tribes.^ When the power of
the Roman Empire declined in the fifth century, different
tribes of this great race, known to the Romans under the
names of Moors, Numidians, Libyans, etc., swarmed up
from the south to ravage and destroy the wealthy cities
of the coast. These invaders were certainly heathen. The
Libyans, whose devastations are so pathetically bewailed
^ Gibbon, vol. i. p. i6i. * Id. vol. ii. p. 212.

* C. O. Castiglioni : Recherchea sur les Berberes atlantiques, pp. 96-7.
(Milan, 1S26.)
by Synesius of Cyrene, pillaged and burnt the churches
and carried off the sacred vessels for their own idolatrous
rites/ and this province of Cyrenaica never recovered from
their devastations, and Christianity was probably almost
extinct here at the time of the Muslim invasion. The
Moorish chieftain in the district of Tripolis, who was at
war with the Vandal king Thorismund (496-524), but
respected the churches and clergy of the orthodox, who had
been ill-treated by the Vandals, declared his heathenism
when he said, " I do not know who the God of the Christians
is, but if he is so powerful as he is represented, he will take
vengeance on those who insult him, and succour those who
do him honour." - There is some probability that the
nomads of Mauritania also were very largely heathen.
But whatever may have been the extent of the Christian
Church, it received a blow from the Vandal persecutions
from which it never recovered. For nearly a century the
Arian Vandals persecuted the orthodox with relentless
fury; sent their bishops into exile, forbade the public
exercise of their religion and cruelly tortured those who
refused to conform to the religion of their conquerors.^
When in 534, Behsarius crushed the power of the Vandals
and restored North Africa to the Roman Empire, only
217 bishops met in the Synod of Carthage* to resume the
direction of the Christian Church. After the fierce and
long-continued persecution to which they had been subjected
the number of the faithful must have been very much
reduced, and during the century that elapsed before the
coming of the Muhammadans, the inroads of the barbarian
Moors, who shut the Romans up in the cities and other
centres of population, and kept the mountains, the desert
and the open country for themselves,^ the prevalent disorder
and ill-government, and above all the desolating plagues
that signahsed the latter half of the sixth century, all com-
bined to carry on the work of destruction. Five millions
of Africans are said to have been consumed by the wars
and governm.ent of the Emperor Justinian. The wealthier
^ Synesii Catastasis. (Migne : Patr. Gr., torn. Ixvi. p. 1569.)

^ Neander {2), p. 320. '■^ Gibbon, vol. iv. pp. 331-3.
* Id. vol. V. p. 115. ^ Tijani, p. 201. Gibbon, vol, v. p. 122.
citizens abandoned a country whose commerce and agricul-

ture, once so flourishing, had been irretrievably ruined.
" Such was the desolation of Africa, that iqâny parts a
stranger might wander whole days without n^jêting the face
either of a friend or an enemy. The nation of the Vandals
had disappeared; they once amounted to an hundred and
sixty thousand warriors, without including the children,
the women, or the slaves. Their numbers were infinitely
surpassed by the number of Moorish families extirpated
in a relentless war ; the same destruction was retaliated on
the Romans and their allies, who perished by the climate,
their mutual quarrels, and the rage of the barbarians." ^
In 646, the year before the victorious Arabs advanced
from Egypt to the subjugation of the western province,
the African Church that had championed so often the purity
of Christian doctrine, was stirred to its depths by the struggle
against Monotheletism ; but when the bishops of the four
ecclesiastical provinces in the archbishopric of Carthage,
viz. Mauritania, Numidia, Byzacena and Africa Proconsu-
laris, 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
represent the last-mentioned province, and forty-two for
Byzacena. The numbers from the other two dioceses
are not given, but the Christian population had undoubtedly
suffered much more in these than in the two other dioceses
which were nearer to the seat of government. ^ It is ex-
ceedingly unlikely that any of the bishops were absent on
an occasion that excited so much feeling, when zeal for
Christian doctrine and political animosity to the Byzantine
court both combined in stimulating this movement, and
when Africa took the most prominent part in stirring up
the opposition that led to the convening of the great Lateran
Council of 648. This diminution in the number of the
African bishops certainly points to a vast decrease in the
Christian population, and in consideration of the numerous
causes contributing to a decay of the population, too great
^ Gibbon, vol. v. p. 214.
^ Neander (i), vol. v. pp. 254-5. J. E. T. Wiltsch : Hand-book of the
geography and statistics of the Church, vol. i. pp. 433-4. (London, 1859.)
J. Bournichon : L'Invasion musulmane en Afrique, pp. 32-3. (Tours, i8go.)
stress even must not be laid upon the number of these,
because an episcopal see may continue to be filled long
after the diocese has sunk into insignificance.
From the (Hîderations enumerated above, it may cer-
tainly be inferiigd that the Christian population at the time
of the Muhammadan invasion was by no means a large one.
During the fifty years that elapsed before the Arabs assured
their victory, the Christian population was still further
reduced by the devastations of this long conflict. The city
of Tripolis, after sustaining a siege of six months, was sacked,
and of the inhabitants part were put to the sword and the
rest carried off captive into Egypt and Arabia. ^ Another
city, bordering on the Numidian desert, was defended by a
Roman count with a large garrison which bravely endured
a blockade of a whole year; when at last it was taken by
storm, all the males were put to the sword and the women
and children carried off captive. ^ The number of such
captives is said to have amounted to several hundreds of
thousands.^ Many of the Christians took refuge in flight,'*
some into Italy and Spain, ^ and it would almost seem that
others even wandered as far as Germany, judging from a
letter addressed to the diocese of St. Boniface by Pope
Gregory 11.^ In fact, many of the great Roman cities were
quite depopulated, and remained uninhabited for a long
time or were even left to fall to ruins entirely,' while in several
cases the conquerors chose entirely new sites for their chief
towns. ^
As to the scattered remnants of the once flourishing
Christian Church that still remained in Africa at the end
^ Leo Africanus. (Ramusio, torn. i. p. 70, D.)
* " Deusen, una citta anticliissima edificata da Romani dove confina il
regno di Buggia col diserto di Numidia." (Id. p. 75, F.)
' Pavy, vol. i. p. iv.
* " Tous ceux qui ne se convertirent pas a I'islamisme, ou qui (conservant
leur foi) ne voulurent pas s'obliger a payer la capitation, durent prendre
la fuite devant les armees musulmanes." (Tijani, p. 201.)
* Leo Africanus. (Ramusio, torn. i. p. 7.)
* " Afros passim ad ecclesiasticos ordines (procedentes) praetendentes
nulla ratione suscipiat (Bonifacius), quia aliqui eorum Manichaei, aliqui
rebaptizati
Ixxxix, sa;pius sunt probati." Epist. iv. (Migne : Patr. Lat., tom.
p. 502.)
' Leo Africanus. (Ramusio, pp. 65, 66, 68, 6g, 76.)
* Qayrwan or Cairoan, founded a.h. 50; Fez, founded a.h. 185; al-Mah-
diyyah, founded a.h. 303; Masilah, founded a.h. 315; Marocco, founded
A.H. 424. (Abu-1 Fida, tome ii. pp. 198, 186, 200, 191, 187.)
of the seventh century, it can hardly be supposed that

persecution is responsible for their final disappearance, in
the face of the fact that traces of a native Christian com-
munity were to be found even so late as the sixteenth century.
Idrls, the founder of the dynasty in Morocco that bore his
name, is indeed said to have compelled by force Christians
and Jews to embrace Islam in the year a.d. 789, when he
had just begun to carve out a kingdom for himself with the
sword, ^ but, as far as I have been able to discover, this
incident is without parallel in the history of the native Church
of North Africa. 2
The very slowness of its decay is a testimony to the
toleration it must have received. About 300 years after
the Muhammadan conquest there were still nearly forty
bishoprics left,'' and when in 1053 Pope Leo IX laments
that only five bishops could be found to represent the once
flourishing African Church,* the cause is most probabl}' to
be sought for in the terrible bloodshed and destruction
wrought by the Arab hordes that had poured into the
country a few years before and filled it with incessant conflict
1 Ibn Abi Zar', p. i6.
* A doubtful case of forced conversion is attributed to 'Abd al-Mu'min,
who conquered Tunis in 1159. See De Mas Latrie (2), pp. 77-8. " Deux
auteurs arabes, Ibn-al-Athir, contemporain, mais vivant a. Damas au milieu
de I'exaltation religieuse que provoquaient les victoires de Saladin, I'autre
El-Tidjani, visitant I'Afrique orientale au quatorzieme siecle, ont ecrit
que le sultan, maitre de Tunis, ioT(â. les Chretiens et les juifs etablis dans
cette ville a embrasser Tislamisme, et que les refractaires furent impi-
toyablement massacres. Nous doutons de la realite de toutes ces mesures.
Si I'arret fatal fut prononce dans I'emportement du triomphe et pour
satisfaire quelques exigences momentanees, il dut etre elude ou revoque,
tant il etait contraire au principe de la liberte religieuse respecte j usque-la
par tous les princes maugrebins. Ce qu'il y a de certain, c'est que les
Chretiens et les juifs ne tarderent pas a reparaitre a Tunis et qu'on voit
les Chretiens avant la fin du regne d'Abd-el-Moumen etablis a Tunis et y
jouissant comme par le passe de la liberte, de leurs etablissements, de leur
commerce
dans sa marche, et de dit
leurun religion . . . . maugrebin,
ancien auteur ' Accompagne ainsi par
il traversa Dieu meme
victorieusement
les terres du Zab et de ITfrikiah, conqucrant le pays et les villes, accordant
I'aman a ceux qui le demandaient et tuant les recalcitrants.' Ces derniers
mots conlirment notre sentiment sur sa politique a I'egard des Chretiens
qui accepterent I'arret fatal de la destince."
^ De Mas Latrie (2), pp. 27-8.
* S. Leonis IX. Papai Epist. Ixxxiii. (Migne : Patr. Lat., tom. cxliii.
p. 728.) This letter deals with a quarrel for precedence between the bishops
of Gummi and Carthage, and it is quite possible that the disordered con-
dition of Africa at the time may have kept the African bishops ignorant
of the condition of other sees besides their own and those immediately
adjacent, and that accordingly the information supplied to the Pope repre-
sented the number of the bishops as being smaller than it really was.
and anarchy. 1 In 1076, the African Church could not pro-

vide the three bishops necessary for the consecration of an
aspirant to the dignity of the episcopate, in accordance with
the demands of canon law, and it was necessary for Pope
Gregory VII to consecrate two bishops to act as coadjutors
of the Archbishop of Carthage ; but the numbers of the
faithful were still so large as to demand the creation of fresh
bishops to lighten the burden of the work, which was too
heavy for these three bishops to perform unaided. ^ In the
course of the next two centuries, the Christian Church
declined still further, and in 1246 the bishop of Morocco
was the sole spiritual leader of the remnant of the native
Church.^ Up to the same period traces of the survival of
Christianity were still to be found among the Kabils of
Algeria ; "* these tribes had received some slight instruction
in the tenets of Islam at an early period, but the new faith
had taken very little hold upon them, and as years went
by they lost even what little knowledge they had at first
possessed, so much so that they even forgot the Muslim
formula of prayer. Shut up in their mountain fastnesses
and jealous of their independence, they successfully resisted
the introduction of the Arab element into their midst, and
thus the difficulties in the wa}^ of their conversion were very
considerable. Some unsuccessful attempts to start a mission
among them had been made by the inmates of a monastery
belonging to the Qadiriyyah order, Saqiyah al-hamra', but
the honour of winning an entrance among them for the Muslim
faith was reserved for a number of Andalusian Moors who
were driven out of Spain after the taking of Granada in 1492.
They had taken refuge in this monastery and were recog-
nised by the shaykh to be eminently fitted for the arduous
task that had previously so completely baffled the efforts
of his disciples. Before dismissing them on this pious
errand, he thus addressed them : " It is a duty incumbent
^ A. Miiller, vol. ii. pp. 628-9.
2 S. Gregorii VII. Epistolaxix. (Liber tertius). (Migne : Patr. Lat., torn,
cxlviii. p. 449.)
^ De Mas Latrie, p. 226. A number of Spanish Christians, whose
ancestors had been deported to Morocco in 11 22, were to be found there as
late as 1386, when they were allowed to return to Seville through the good
offices of the then sultan of Morocco. (Whishaw, pp. 31-4.)
* C. Trumelet : Les Saintes de I'lslam, p. xxxiii. (Paris, 1881.)
upon us to bear the torch of Islam into these regions that

have lost their inheritance in the blessings of religion; for
these unhappy Kabils are wholly unprovided with schools,
and have no shaykh to teach their children the laws of
morality and the virtues of Islam ; so they live like the
brute beasts, without God or religion. To do away with
this unhappy state of things, I have determined to appeal
to your religious zeal and enlightenment. Let not these
mountaineers wallow any longer in their pitiable ignorance
of the grand truths of our religion ; go and breathe upon
the dying fire of their faith and re-illumine its smouldering
embers ; purge them of whatever errors may still cling to
them from their former belief in Christianity; make them
understand that in the religion of our lord Muhammad —
may God have compassion upon him — dirt is not, as in
the Christian religion, looked upon as acceptable in the
eyes of God.^ I will not disguise from you the fact that your
task is beset with difficulties, but your irresistible zeal and
the ardour of your faith will enable you, by the grace of God,
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, and may
God be with you and uphold you."
The missionaries started off in parties of five or six at a
time in various directions ; they went in rags, staff in hand,
and choosing out the wildest and least frequented parts
of the mountains, established hermitages in caves and
clefts of the rocks. Their austerities and prolonged devo-
tions soon excited the curiosity of the Kabils, who after
a short time began to enter into friendly relations with
them. Little by little the missionaries gained the influence
they desired through their knowledge of medicine, of the
mechanical arts, and other advantages of civilisation, and
each hermitage became a centre of MusHm teaching.
1 Compare the articles published by a Junta held at Madrid in 1566,

for the reformation of the Moriscoes ; one of which runs as follows : " That
neither themselves, their women, nor any other persons should be permitted
to wash or bathe themselves either at home or elsewhere; and that all
their ii.bathing
vol. p. 256.)houses should be pulled down and demolished." (J. Morgan,
Students, attracted by the learning of the new-comers,
gathered round them and in time became missionaries
of Islam to their fellow-countrymen, until their faith spread
throughout all the country of the Kabils and the villages
of the Algerian Sahara. ^
The above incident is no doubt illustrative of the manner
in which Islam was introduced among such other sections
of the independent tribes of the interior as had received
any Christian teaching, but whose knowledge of this faith
had dwindled down to the observance of a few superstitious
rites ; 2 for, cut off as they were from the rest of the Christian
world and unprovided with spiritual teachers, they could
have had little in the way of positive religious belief to
oppose to the teachings of the Mushm missionaries.
There is little more to add to these sparse records of the
decay of the North African Church. A Muhammadan
traveller,^ who visited al-Jarid, the southern district of
Tunis, in the early part of the fourteenth century, tells us
that the Christian churches, although in ruins, were still
standing in his day, not having been destroyed by the Arab
conquerors, who had contented themselves with building
a mosque in front of each of these churches. Ibn Kialdiin
(writing towards the close of the fourteenth century),
speaks of some villages in the province of Qastiliyyah,^
with a Christian population whose ancestors had Hved
there since the time of the Arab conquest. ^ At the end
of the following century there was still to be found in the
city of Tunis a small community of native Christians,
hving together in one of the suburbs, quite distinct from
that in which the foreign Christian merchants resided ; far
from being oppressed or persecuted, they were employed
as the bodyguard of the Sultan.^ These were doubtless
^ C. Trumelet : Les Saints de I'lslam, pp. xxviii-xxxvi.
2 Leo Africanus says that at the end of the fifteenth century all the moun-
taineers ofAlgeria and of Buggia, though Muhammadans, painted black
crosses on their cheeks and palms of the hand (Ramusio, i. p. 6i) ; similarly
the Banu Mzab to the present day still keep up some religious observances
corresponding to excommunication and confession (Oppel, p. 299), and some
nomad tribes of the Sahara observe the practice of a kind of baptism and
use the cross as a decoration for their stuffs and weapons. (De Mas Latrie
(2), p. 8.)
I Tijani, p. 203. * The modern Touzer, in Tunis.
Ta'rildi al-duwal al-islamiyyah bi'l maghrib, I. p. 146. (ed. De Slane.
Alger, 1847.) 6 Leo Africanus. (Ramusio, torn. i. p. 67.)
K
the same persons as were congratulated on their persever-

ance in the Christian faith by Charles V after the capture
of Tunis in 1535.^
This is the last we hear of the native Christian Church
in North Africa. The very fact of its so long survival
would militate against any supposition of forced conversion,
even if we had not abundant evidence of the tolerant spirit
of the Arab rulers of the various North African kingdoms,
who employed Christian soldiers, ^ granted by frequent
treaties the free exercise of their religion to Christian
merchants and settlers,^ and to whom Popes ^ recommended
the care of the native Christian population, while exhorting
the latter to serve their Muhammadan rulers faithfull}^^
1 Pavy, vol. i. p. vii.
2 De Mas Latrie (2), pp. 61-2, 266-7. L. del Marmol-Caravajal: De
I'Afrique, tome ii. p. 54. (Paris, 1667.)
3 De Mas Latrie (2), p. 192.
* e.g. Innocent III, Gregory VII, Gregory IX and Innocent IV.
^ De Mas Latrie (2), p. 273.
CHAPTER V.
THE SPREAD OF ISLAM AMONG THE CHRISTIANS OF

SPAIN.
In 711 the victorious Arabs introduced Islam into Spain :

in 1502 an edict of Ferdinand and Isabella forbade the
exercise of the Muhammadan religion throughout the
kingdom. During the centuries that elapsed between these
two dates, Muslim Spain had wTitten one of the brightest
pages in the history of mediaeval Europe. Her influence
had passed through Provence into the other countries of
Europe, bringing into birth a new poetry and a new culture,
and it was from her that Christian scholars received what
of Greek philosophy and science they had to stimulate
their mental activity up to the time of the Renaissance.
But these triumphs of the civilised life — art and poetry,
science and philosophy — we must pass over here and fix
our attention on the religious condition of Spain under the
Muslim rule.
When the Muhammadans first brought their religion into
Spain they found Catholic Christianity firmly established
after its conquest over Arianism. The sixth Council of
Toledo had enacted that all kings were to swear that they
would not suffer the exercise of any other religion but the
Catholic, and would vigorously enforce the law against all
dissentients, while a subsequent law forbade any one under
pain of confiscation of his property and perpetual imprison-
ment, 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 Hol}^ Sacraments.
The clergy had gained for their order a preponderating
influence in the affairs of the state ; ^ the bishops and chief
* Baudissin, p. 22.
131
ecclesiastics sat in the national councils, which met to
settle the most important business of the realm, ratified
the election of the king and claimed the right to depose
him if he refused to abide by their decrees. The Christian
clergy took advantage of their power to persecute the Jews,
who formed a very large community in Spain; edicts of
a brutally severe character were passed against such as
refused to be baptised ;i and they consequently hailed the
invading Arabs as their deliverers from such cruel oppres-
sion, they garrisoned the captured cities on behalf of the
conqueror and opened the gates of towns that were being
besieged. 2
The Muhammadans received as warm a welcome from the
slaves, whose condition under the Gothic rule was a very
miserable one, and whose knowledge of Christianity was
too superficial to have any weight when compared with the
liberty and numerous advantages they gained, by throwing
in their lot with the Muslims.
These down-trodden slaves were the first converts to
Islam in Spain. The remnants of the heathen population
of which we find mention as late as a.d. 693,^ probably
followed their example. Many of the Christian nobles, also,
whether from genuine conviction or from other motives,
embraced the new creed.* Many converts were won, too,
from the lower and middle classes, who may well have
embraced Islam, not merely outwardly, but from genuine
conviction, turning to it from a religion whose ministers
had left them ill-instructed and uncared for, and busied
with worldly ambitions had plundered and oppressed their
flocks. 5 Having once become Muslims, these Spanish
converts showed themselves zealous adherents of their
adopted faith, and they and their children joined themselves
to the Puritan party of the rigid Muhammadan theologians
as against the careless and luxurious life of the Arab
aristocracy.^
At the time of the Muhammadan conquest the old Gothic
virtues are said by Christian historians to have declined
^ Helfferich, p. 68. 2 Makkari, vol. i. pp. 280-2.

* Baudissin, p. 7. * Dozy {2), tome ii. pp. 45-6.
' A. Miiller, vol. ii, p. 463. * Dozy {2), tome ii. pp. 44-6.
SPREAD OF ISLAM IN SPAIN 133
and given place to effeminacy and corruption, so that the

Muhammadan rule appeared to them to be a punishment
sent from God on those who had gone astray into the paths
of vice ; ^ but such a statement is too frequent a common-
place of the ecclesiastical historian to be accepted in the
absence of contemporary evidence. ^
But certainly as time went on, matters do not seem to
have mended themselves ; and when Christian bishops took
part in the revels of the Muhammadan court, when episcopal
sees were put up to auction and persons suspected to be
atheists appointed as shepherds of the faithful, and these
in their turn bestowed the office of the priesthood on low
and unworthy persons,^ we may well suppose that it was
not only in the province of Elvira "* that Christians turned
from a religion, the corrupt lives of whose ministers had
brought it into discredit,^ and sought a more congenial
atmosphere for the moral and spiritual life in the pale of
Islam.
Had ecclesiastical writers cared to chronicle them, Spain
would doubtless be found to offer instances of many a
man leaving the Christian Church like Bodo, a deacon at
the French court in the reign of Louis the Pious, who in
A.D. 838 became a Jew, in order that (as he said), forsaking
his sinful life, he might " abide steadfast in the law of the
Lord." 6
^ So St. Boniface (a.d. 745, Epist. Ixii.). " Sicut aliis gentibus Hispaniae
et Provinciae et Burgundionum populis contigit, qua; sic a Deo recedentes
fornicatae sunt, donee index omnipotens talium criminum ultrices poenas
per ignorantiam legis Dei et per Saracenos venire et saevire permisit."
(Migne:
cuius (i. e.Patr.
gentisLat., torn. Ixxxix.
Saracenicae) ditionep. nostro
761.) compellente
Eulogius : lib. i. § 30.
facinore "In
sceptrum
Hispaniae translatum est." (Migne : Patr. Lat., torn. cxv. p. 761.) Similarly
Alvar (2), § 18. " Et probare nostro vitio inlatum intentabo flagellum.
Nostra haec, fratres, nostra desidia peperit mala, nostra impuritas, nostra
levitas, nostra morum obsccenitas . . . unde tradidit nos Dominus qui
iustitiam diligit, et cuius vultus aequitatem decernit, ipsi bestiae con-
rodendos " (pp. 531-2).
2 Dozy (3), tome i. pp. 15-20. Whishaw, pp. 38, 44.
3 Samson, pp. 377-8, 381.
* Dozy (2), tome ii. p. 210.
* Bishop Egila, who was sent to Southern Spain by Pope Hadrian I,
towards the end of the eighth century, on a mission to counteract the
growing influence of Muslim thought, denounces the Spanish priests who
lived in concubinage with married women. (Helfferich, p. 83.)
* Alvari Cordubensis, Epist. xix. " Ob meritum asternae retributionis
devovi me sedulum in lege Domini consistere." (Migne: Patr. Lat., torn,
cxxi. p. 512.)
It is very possible, too, that the lingering remains of the
old Gothic Arianism — of which, indeed, there had been
some slight revival in the Spanish Church just before the
Arab conquest ^— may have predisposed men's minds to
accept the new faith whose Christology was in such close
agreement with Arian doctrine, ^ and a later age may have
witnessed parallels to that change of faith which is the
earliest recorded instance of conversion to Islam in western
Europe and occurred before the Arab invasion of Spain —
namely the conversion of a Greek named Theodisclus, who
succeeded St. Isidore (ob. a.d. 636) as Archbishop of
Seville ; he was accused of heresy, for maintaining that
Jesus was not one God in unity with the Father and the
Holy Spirit, but was rather Son of God by adoption ; he
was accordingly condemned by an ecclesiastical synod,
deprived of his archbishopric and degraded from the priest-
hood. Whereupon he went over to the Arabs and embraced
Islam among them.^
Of forced conversion or anything like persecution in the
early days of the Arab conquest, we hear nothing. Indeed,
it was probably in a great measure their tolerant attitude
towards the Christian religion that facilitated their rapid
acquisition of the country. The only complaint that the
Christians could bring against their new rulers for treating
them differently to their non-Christian subjects, was that
they had to pay the usual capitation-tax of forty-eight
dirhams for the rich, twenty-four for the middle classes,
and twelve for those who made their living by manual
labour : this, as being in lieu of military service, was levied
only on the able-bodied males, for women, children, monks,
the halt, and the blind, and the sick, mendicants and slaves
were exempted therefrom ; * it must moreover have appeared
1 Helfferich, pp. 79-80.
* " Bedenkt man nun, wie wichtig gerade die alttestamentliche Idee des
lYophetenthums in der Christologie des germanischen Arianismus nachklang
und auch nach der Annahme des katholischen Dogmas in dem religiosen
Bewusstsein der Westgothen haften blieb, so wird man es sehr erklarlich
finden, dass unmittelbar nach dem Einfall der Araber die verwandten
Vorstellnngen des Mohammedanismus unter den geknechteten Christen
aiiftauchten." (Helfferich, p. 82.)
' Lucpe Diaconi Tudensis Chronicon Mundi. (Andreas Schottus :
Hi=pani;c lUustratae, tom. iv. p. 53.) (Francofurti, 1603-8.)
* Dozy (2), tome ii. p. 41. Whishaw, p. 17.
the less oppressive as being collected by the Christian

officials themselves. 1
Except in the case of offences against the Muslim religious
law, the Christians were tried by their own judges and in
accordance with their own laws.^ They were left undis-
turbed in the exercise of their religion ; ^ the sacrifice of
the mass was offered, with the swinging of censers, the ringing
of the bell, and all the other solemnities of the Catholic
ritual; the psalms were chanted in the choir, sermons
preached to the people, and the festivals of the Church
observed in the usual manner. They do not appear to
have been condemned, like their co-religionists in Syria
and Egypt, to wear a distinctive dress as sign of their
humiliation, and in the ninth century at least, the Christian
laity wore the same kind of costume as the Arabs.'* They
were at one time even allowed to build new churches. ^
We read also of the founding ^ of several fresh monasteries
in addition to the numerous convents both for monks and
nuns that flourished undisturbed by the Muhammadan rulers.
The monks could appear publicly in the woollen robes of
their order and the priest had no need to conceal the mark
of his sacred office,'^ nor at the same time did their religious
profession prevent the Christians from being entrusted with
high offices at court, ^ or serving in the Muslim armies.^
1 Dozy (2), tome ii. p. 39. - JJaudisyin, pp. ii-ij, 196.
3 Eulogius : Mem. Sanct., lib. i. § 30, " inter ipsos sine molestia lldei
degimus " (p. 761). Id., ib., lib. i. § 18, " Quos nulla praesidialis violentia
fidem suam nejâre compulit, nee a cult'i sanctae pi?equc religionis amovit
(P- 751)- John of Gorz (who visited Spain about the middle of the tenth
century) § 124, " (Christiani), qui in regno eius libere divinis suisque rebus
utebantur."
A Spanish bishop thus described the condition of the Christians to John
of Gorz. " Peccatis ad hasc devoluti sumus, ut paganorum subiaceainus
ditioni. Resistere potestati verbo proliibemur apostoli. Tantum hoc
unum relictum est solatii, quod in tantê calamitatis malo legibus nos pro-
priis uti non prohibent ; qui quos diligentes Christianitatis viderint observa-
tores, colunt et amplectuntur, simul ipsorum convictu delectantur. Pro
tempore igitur hoc videmur tenere consilii, ut quia religionis nulla infertur
iactura, cetera eis obsequamur, iussisque eorum in quantum fidem non
impediunt obtemperemus " § 122 (p. 302).
* Baudissin, pp. 16-17.
* Eulogius, ob. S59 (Mem. Sanct. lib. iii. c 3) speaks of churches recenlly
erected (ecclesias nuper structas). The chronicle falsely ascribed to
Luitprand records the erection of a church at Cordova in 895 (p. 11 13).
* Eulogius : Mem. Sanct., lib. iii. c. 11 (p. 812).
' Baudissin, p. 16.
^ Id. p. 21, and John of Gorz, § 128 (p. 306).
' Whishaw, pp. 272, 301.
Certainly those Christians who could reconcile themselves
to the loss of pohtical power had little to complain of, and
it is very noticeable that during the whole of the eighth
century we hear of only one attempt at revolt on their
part, namely at Beja, and in this they appear to have
followed the lead of an Arab chief. ^ Those who migrated
into French territory in order that they might live under a
Christian rule, certainly fared no better than the co-religion-
ists they had left behind. In 812 Charlemagne interfered
to protect the exiles who had followed him on his retreat
from Spain from the exactions of the imperial officers.
Three years later Louis the Pious had to issue another
edict on their behalf, in spite of which they had soon again
to complain against the nobles who robbed them of the
lands that had been assigned to them. But the evil was
only checked for a little time to break out afresh, and all
the edicts passed on their behalf did not avail to make the
lot of these unfortunate exiles more tolerable, and in the
Cagots (i.e. canes Gothi), a despised and ill-treated class of
later times, we probably meet again the Spanish colony
that fled away from Muslim rule to throw themselves upon
the mercy of their Christian co-religionists. 2
The toleration of the Muhammadan government towards
its Christian subjects in Spain and the freedom of inter-
course between the adherents of the two religions brought
about a certain amount of assimilation in the two com-
munities. Inter-marriages became frequent ; ^ Isidore of
Beja, who fiercely inveighs against the Muslim conquerors,
records the marriage of 'Abd al-'Aziz, the son of Miisa, with
the widow of King Roderic, without a word of blame.*
Many of the Christians adopted Arab names, and in outward
observances imitated to some extent their Muhammadan
neighbours, e.g. many were circumcised,^ and in matters
1 Dozy (2), tome ii. p. 42. 2 Baudissin, pp. 96-7.
^ See the letter of Pope Hadrian I to the Spanish bishops : " Porro diversa
capitula quee ex ilUs audivimus partibus, id est, quod multi dicentes se
catholicos esse, communem vitam gerentes cum ludaeis et non baptizatis
paganis, tam in escis quamque in potu et in diversis erroribus nihil pollui
se inquiunt : et illud quod inhibitum est, ut nulh liceat iugum ducere cum
infidelibus, ipsi enim fiUas suas cum alio benedicent, et sic populo gentih
tradentur." (Migne : Patr. Lat., tome xcviii. p. 385.)
* Isidori Pacensis Chronicon, § 42 (p. 1266).
5 Alvar : Indie. Lum., § 35 (p. 53). John of Gorz, § 123 (p. 303).
of food and drink followed the practice of the " unbaptized

pagans." ^
The very term Muzarabes (i. e. must'aribin or Arabicised)
apphed to the Spanish Christians hving under Arab rule,
is significant of the tendencies that were at work. The
study of Arabic very rapidly began to displace that of Latin
throughout the country, ^ so that the language of Christian
theology came gradually to be neglected and forgotten.
Even some of the higher clergy rendered themselves
ridiculous by their ignorance of correct Latinity.^ It could
hardly be expected that the laity would exhibit more
zeal in such a matter than the clergy, and in 854 a Spanish
writer brings the following complaint against his Christian
fellow-countrymen :— " While we are investigating their
(i. e. the Muslim) sacred ordinances and meeting together
to study the sects of their philosophers — or rather philo-
braggers — not for the purpose of refuting their errors, but
for the exquisite charm and for the eloquence and beauty
of their language — neglecting the reading of the Scriptures,
we are but setting up as an idol the number of the beast.
(Apoc. xiii. 18.) Where nowadays can we find any learned
layman who, absorbed in the study of the Holy Scriptures,
cares to look at the works of any of the Latin Fathers ?
Who is there with any zeal for the writings of the Evangelists,
or the Prophets, or Apostles ? Our Christian young men,
with their elegant airs and fluent speech, are showy in their
dress and carriage, and are famed for the learning of the
gentiles ; intoxicated with Arab eloquence they greedily
handle, eagerly devour and zealously discuss the books of
the Chaldeans (i.e. Muhammadans) , and make them known
by praising them with every flourish of rhetoric, knowing
nothing of the beauty of the Church's literature, and looking
down with contempt on the streams of the Church that flow
forth from Paradise ; alas ! the Christians are so ignorant
1 Letter of Hadrian I, p. 385. John of Gorz, § 123 (p. 303).
^ Some Arabic verses of a Christian poet of the eleventh century are still
extant, which exhibit considerable skill in handling the language and
metre. (Von Schack, II. 95.)
3 Abbot Samson gives us specimens of the bad Latin written by some
of the ecclesiastics of his time, e.g. " Cum contempti essemus simplicitas
Christiana," but his correction is hardly much better, " contenti essemus
simplicitati Christianas " (pp. 404, 406).
of their own law, the Latins pay so httle attention to their
own language, that in the whole Christian flock there is
hardly one man in a thousand who can write a letter to
inquire after a friend's health intelligibly, while you may
find a countless rabble of all kinds of them who can learnedly
roll out the grandiloquent periods of the Chaldean tongue.
They can even make poems, every line ending with the
same letter, which display high flights of beauty and more
skill in handling metre than the gentiles themselves possess. "^
In fact the knowledge of Latin so much declined in one
part of Spain that it was found necessary to translate the
ancient Canons of the Spanish Church and the Bible into
Arabic for the use of the Christians. ^
While the brilliant literature of the Arabs exercised such a
fascination and was so zealously studied, those who desired
an education in Christian literature had little more than
the materials that had been employed in the training of the
barbaric Goths, and could with difficulty find teachers to
induct them even into this low level of culture. As time
went on this want of Christian education increased more
and more. In 1125 the Muzarabes wrote to King Alfonso
of Aragon : " We and our fathers have up to this time been
brought up among the gentiles, and having been baptised,
freely observe the Christian ordinances ; but we have never
had it in our power to be fully instructed in our divine
religion ; for, subject as we are to the infidels who have
long oppressed us, we have never ventured to ask for teachers
from Rome or France ; and they have never come to us
of their own accord on account of the barbarity of the
heathen
From whom we obey."
such close ^
intercourse with the Muslims and so
diligent a study of their literature — when we find even so
bigoted an opponent of Islam as Alvar* acknowledging that
the Qur'an was composed in such eloquent and beautiful
language that even Christians could not help reading and
1 Alvar : Indie. Lum., § 35 (pp. 554-6)-

^ Von Schack, vol. ii. p. 96. ' Ordcric Vitalis, p. 928.
* Alvar : Ind. Lum., § 29. " Compositionem verborum, et preces omnium
eius membi-orum quotidie pro eo eleganti facundia, et venusto confectas
cloquio, nos hodie per eorum vokimina et oculis legimus ct plerumquc
miramur." (Migne : Patr. Lat., tome cxxi. p. 546.)
admiring it — we should naturally expect to find signs of a

religious influence : and such indeed is the case. Elipandus,
bishop of Toledo (ob. 810), an exponent of the heresy of
Adoptionism — according to which the Man Christ Jesus
was Son of God by adoption and not by nature — is expressly
said to have arrived at these heretical views through his
frequent and close intercourse with the Muhammadans.i
This new doctrine appears to have spread quickly over a
great part of Spain, while it was successfully propagated in
Septimania, which was under French protection, by Felix,
bishop of Urgel in Catalonia. ^ Felix was brought before
a council, presided over by Charlemagne, and made to abjure
his error, but on his return to Spain he relapsed into his
old heresy, doubtless (as was suggested by Pope Leo III
at the time) owing to his intercourse with the pagans
(meaning thereby the Muhammadans) who held similar
views. 3 When prominent churchmen were so profoundly
influenced by their contact with Muhammadans, we may
judge that the influence of Islam upon the Christians of Spain
was very considerable, indeed in a.d. 936 a council was held
at Toledo to consider the best means of preventing this inter-
course from contaminating the purity of the Christian faith.*
It may readily be understood how these influences of
Islamic thought and practice — added to definite efforts at
conversion ^ — would lead to much more than a mere approxi-
mation and would ver}^ speedily swell the number of the
converts to Islam so that their descendants, the so-called
Muwallads — a term denoting those not of Arab blood — soon
formed a large and important party in the state, indeed
the majority of the population of the country, "^ and as early
1 Enhueber, § 26, p. 353. ^ Helfferich, p. 88.
3 " Postmodum transgressus legem Dei, fugiens ad paganos consentaneos,
pcriuralus effectus est." Frobenii dissertatio de haeresi Elipandi et Felicis,
§ xxiv. (Migne : Patr. Lat., tome ci. p. 313.)
* Pseudo-Luitprandi Chronicon, § 341 (p. 11 15). " Basilius Toletanum
concilium contrahit ; quo providetur, ne Christiani detrimentum accipere.nt
convictu Saracenorum."
* There is little record of such, but they seem referred to in the following
sentences of Eulogius (Liber Apologeticus Martyrum, § 20), on Muham-
mad : " Cuius quidem erroris insaniam, praedicationis deliramenta, et
impi?e novitatis praecepta quisquis catholicorum cognoscere cupit, evidentius
ab eiusdem sectae cultoribus perscrutando advertet. Quoniam sacrum se
quidpiam tenere et credere autumantes, non modo privatis, sed apertis
vocibus vatis sui dogmata praedicant." (Migne : Patr. Lat., tome cxv.
p. 862.) * Dozy (2), tome ii. p. 53.
as the beginning of the ninth century we read of attempts
made by them to shake off the Arab rule, and on several
occasions later they come forward actively as a national
party of Spanish Muslims.
We have little or no details of the history of the conversion
of these New-Muslims. Instances appeared to have oc-
curred right up to the last days of Muslim rule, for when
the army of Ferdinand and Isabella captured Malaga in
1487, it is recorded that all the renegade Christians found
in the city were tortured to death with sharp-pointed
reeds, and in the capitulation that secured the submission
of Purchena two years later, an express promise was made
that renegades would not be forced to return to Christianity. ^
Some few apostatised to escape the payment of some
penalty inflicted by the law-courts. ^ But the majority of
the converts were no doubt won over by the imposing
influence of the faith of Islam itself, presented to them as
it was with all the glamour of a brilliant civilisation, 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 Arabs there was free scope for the exhibition
of manly prowess and the knightly virtues — a career closed
to the conquered Spaniards that remained true to the
Christian faith. Again, the learning and literature of the
Christians must have appeared very poor and meagre when
compared with that of the Muslims, the study of which
may well by itself have served as an incentive to the adop-
tion of their religion. Besides, to the devout mind Islam in
Spain could offer the attractions of a pious and zealous
Puritan party with the orthodox Muslim theologians at
its head, which at times had a preponderating influence in
the state and struggled earnestly towards a reformation of
faith and morals.
Taking into consideration the ardent religious feeling that
animated the mass of the Spanish Muslims and the provoca-
tion that the Christians gave to the Muhammadan govern-
ment through their treacherous intrigues with their co-
religionists over the border, the history of Spain under
Muhammadan rule is singularly free from persecution.
^ Lea, The Moriscos, pp. 17, 18. ^ Samson, p. 379.
With the exception of three or four cases of genuine martyr-

dom, the only approach to anything Hke persecution during
the whole period of the Arab rule is to be found in the severe
measures adopted by the Muhammadan government to
repress the madness for voluntary martyrdom that broke
out in Cordova in the ninth century. At this time a fanatical
party came into existence among the Christians in this part
of Spain (for apparently the Christian Church in the rest
of the country had no sympathy with the movement),
which set itself openly and unprovokedly to insult the
religion of the Muslims and blaspheme their Prophet, with
the deliberate intention of incurring the penalty of death by
such misguided assertion of their Christian bigotry.
This strange passion for self-immolation displayed itself
mainly among priests, monks and nuns between the years
850 and 860. It would seem that brooding, in the silence
of their cloisters, over the decline of Christian influence and
the decay of religious zeal, they went forth to win the
martyr's crown — of which the toleration of their infidel
rulers was robbing them — by means of fierce attacks on
Islam and 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
Qadi had expounded to him the doctrines of the Prophet,
he burst out with the words : "He hath lied unto you
(may the curse of God consume him !), who, full of wicked-
ness, hath led so many men into perdition, and doomed them
with himself to the pit of hell. Filled with Satan and practis-
ing Satanic 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 not, being endowed
with understanding, deliver yourselves from such dangers ?
Why do ye not, renouncing the ulcer of his pestilential
doctrines, seek the eternal salvation of the Gospel of the
faith of Christ ? " ^ On another occasion two Christians
forced their way into a mosque and there reviled the Muham-
madan religion, which, they declared, would very speedily
bring upon its followers the destruction of hell-fire. ^ Though
^ Eulogius : Mem. Sanct. Pref., § 2. (Migne, torn. cxv. p. 737.)
* Id. c. xiii. (p. 794).
the number of such fanatics was not considerable,^ the

Muhammadan government grew alarmed, fearing that such
contempt for their authority and disregard of their laws
against blasphemy, argued a widespread disaffection and
a possible general insurrection, for in fact, in 853 Muham-
mad Ihad to send an army against the Christians at Toledo,
who, incited by Eulogius, the chief apologist of the martyrs,
had risen in revolt on the news of the sufferings of their
co-religionists. 2 He is said to have ordered a general
massacre of the Christians, but when it was pointed out
that no men of any intelligence or rank among the Christians
had taken part in such doings^ (for Alvar himself complains
that the majority of the Christian priests condemned the
martyrs ^), the king contented himself with putting into
force the existing laws against blasphemy with the utmost
rigour. The moderate party in the Church seconded the
efforts of the government ; the bishops anathematised the
fanatics, and an ecclesiastical council that was held in 852
to discuss the matter agreed upon methods of repression ^
that eventually quashed the movement. One or two
isolated cases of martyrdom are recorded later — the last
in 983, after which there was none as long as the Arab rule
lasted in Spain.*'
But under the Berber dynasty of the Almoravids at the
1 The number of the martyrs is said not to have exceeded forty. (W. H.
Prescott : History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella, vol. i. p. 342, n.)
(London 1846.) 2 Dozy (2), tome ii. pp. 161-2.
^ Eulogius: Mem. Sanct. I, iii. c. vii. (p. 805). "Pro eo quod nullus
sapiens, nemo urbanus, nuUusque procerum Christianorum huiusce modi
rem perpetrasset, idcirco non debere universes perimere asserebant, quos
non prasit personalis dux ad prsehum."
* Alvar : Ind. Lum., § 14. " Nonne ipsi qui videbantur columnae, qui
putabantur Ecclesiae petrae, qui credebantur electi, nullo cogente, nemine
provocante, iudicem adierunt, et in praesentia Cynicorum, imo Epicureorum,
Dei martyres infamaverunt ? Nonne pastores Christi, doctores Ecclesiae,
episcopi, abbates, presbyteri, proceres et magnati, haereticos eos esse publice
clamaverunt ? et publica professione sine desquisitione, absque interroga-
tione, quae nee imminente mortis sententia erant dicenda, spontanea
voluntate, et libero mentis arbitrio, protulerunt ? " (Migne : torn. cxxi.
P- 529.)
^ Alvar : Indie. Lum., § 15. " Quid obtendendum est de illis quos
ecclesiastice interdiximus, et a quibus ne aliquando ad martyrii surgerent
palmam iuramentum extorsimus ? quibus errores gentilium infringere
vetuimus, et maledictum ne maledictionibus impeterent ? Evangelio et
cruce educta vi iurare improbiter fecimus, imo feraliter et belluino terrore
coegimus, minantes inaudita supplicia, et monstruosa promittentes trunca-
tionum membrorum varia et horrenda dictu audituve flagella ? " (Migne :
torn. cxxi. p. 530.) ® Baudissin, p. 199.
beginning of the twelfth century, there was an outburst of

fanaticism on tlie part of the theological zealots of Islam
in which the Christians had to suffer along with the Jews
and the liberal section of the Muhammadan population —
the philosophers, the poets and the men of letters. But
such incidents are exceptions to the generally tolerant
character of the Muhammadan rulers of Spain towards their
Christian subjects.
One of the Spanish Muhammadans who was driven out
of his native country in the last expulsion of the Moriscoes
in 1610, while protesting against the persecutions of the
Inquisition, makes the following vindication of the tolera-
tion of his co-religionists : " Did our victorious ancestors
ever once attempt to extirpate Christianity out of Spain,
when it was in their power ? Did they not suffer your fore-
fathers to enjoy the free use of their rites at the same time
that they wore their chains ? Is not the absolute injunction
of our Prophet, that whatever nation is conquered by
Musalman steel, should, upon the payment of a moderate
annual tribute, be permitted to persevere in their own
pristine persuasion, how absurd soever, or to embrace what
other belief they themselves best approved of ? If there
may have been some examples of forced conversions, they
are so rare as scarce to deserve mentioning, and only
attempted by men who had not the fear of God, and the
Prophet, before their eyes, and who, in so doing, have
acted directly and diametrically contrary to the holy precepts
and ordinances of Islam which cannot, without sacrilege,
be violated by any who would be held worthy of the honour-
able epithet of Musulman. . . . You can never produce,
among us, any bloodthirsty, formal tribunal, on account of
different persuasions in points of faith, that anywise ap-
proaches your execrable Inquisition. Our arms, it is true,
are ever open to receive all who are disposed to embrace
our rehgion ; but we are not allowed by our sacred Qur'an
to tyrannise over consciences. Our proselytes have all
imaginable encouragement, and have no sooner professed
God's Unity and His Apostle's mission but they become one
of us, without reserve; taking to wife our daughters, and
being employed in posts of trust, honour and profit; we
contenting ourselves with only obliging them to wear our
habit, and to seem true believers in outward appearance,
without ever offering to examine their consciences, provided
they do not openly revile or profane our religion : if they
do that, we indeed punish them as they deserve ; since their
conversion was voluntarily, and was not by compulsion." ^
This very spirit of toleration was made one of the main
articles in an account of the " Apostacies and Treasons of the
Moriscoes," drawn up by the Archbishop of Valencia in 1602
when recommending their expulsion to Philip III, as follows :
" That they commended nothing so much as that hberty of
conscience, in all matters of religion, which the Turks, and
all other Muhammadans, suffer their subjects to enjoy." ^
What deep roots Islam had struck in the hearts of the
Spanish people may be judged from the fact that when the
last remnant of the Moriscoes was expelled from Spain in
1610, these unfortunate people still clung to the faith of
their fathers, although for more than a century they had
been forced to outwardly conform to the Christian religion,
and in spite of the emigrations that had taken place since
the fall of Granada, nearly 500,000 are said to have been
expelled at that time.^ Whole towns and villages were
deserted and the houses fell into ruins, there being no one
to rebuild them.^ These Moriscoes were probably all
descendants of the original inhabitants of the country,
with little or no admixture of Arab blood ; the reasons that
may be adduced in support of this statement are too lengthy
to be given here; one point only in the evidence may be
mentioned, derived from a letter written in 131 1, in which
it is stated that of the 200,000 Muhammadans then living
in the city of Granada, not more than 500 were of Arab
descent, all the rest being descendants of converted
Spaniards.^ Finally, it is of interest to note that even up to
the last days of its power in Spain, Islam won converts to the
faith, for the historian, when writing of events that occurred
in the year 1499, seven years after the fall of Granada,
draws attention to the fact that among the Moors were a few
Christians who had lately embraced the faith of the Prophet.®
1 Morgan, vol. ii. pp. 297-8, 345. ^ Id. p. 310.
^ Lea, The Moriscos, p. 259. * Morgan, vol. ii. p. 337.
6 Id. p. 289. « Stirling-Maxwell, vol. i. p. 115.
CHAPTER VI.
THE SPREAD OF ISLAM AMONG THE CHRISTIAN NATIONS

IN EUROPE UNDER THE TURKS.
We first hear of the Ottoman Turks at the commence-

ment of the thirteenth century, when fleeing before the
Mongols, to the number of about 50,000, they came to the
help of the Sultan of Iconium, and in return for their services
both against the Mongols and the Greeks, had assigned to
them a district in the north-west of Asia Minor. This was
the nucleus of the future Ottoman empire, which, increasing
at first by the absorption of the petty states into which the
Saljiiq Turks had split up, afterwards crossed over into
Europe, annexing kingdom after kingdom, until its victori-
ous growth received a check before the gates of Vienna in
1683.1
From the earliest days of the extension of their kingdom
in Asia Minor, the Ottomans exercised authority over
Christian subjects, but it was not until the ancient capital
of the Eastern empire fell into their hands in 1453 that the
relations between the Muslim Government and the Christian
Church were definitely established on a fixed basis. One of
the first steps taken by Muhammad II, after the capture of
Constantinople and the re-establishment of order in that
"■ This is no place to give a history of these territorial acquisitions, which
may be briefly summed up thus. In 1353 the Ottoman Turks first passed
over into Europe and a few years later Adrianople was made their European
capital. Under Bayazld (i 389-1402), their dominions stretched from the
^gaean to the Danube, embracing all Bulgaria, Macedonia, Thessaly and
Thrace, with the exception of Chalkidike and the district just round Con
stantinople. Murad II (1421-1451) occupied Chalkidike and pushed his
conquests to the Adriatic. Muhammad II (1451-1481) by the overthrow
of Constantinople, Albania, Bosnia and Servia, became master of the whole
South-Eastern peninsula, with the exception of the parts of the coast held
by Venice and Montenegro. Sulayman II (i 520-1 566) added Hungary and
made the ^gaean an Ottoman sea. In the seventeenth century Crete was
won and Podolia ceded by Poland.
L 145
city, was to secure the allegiance of the Christians, by
proclaiming himself the protector of the Greek Church,
Persecution of the Christians was strictly forbidden ; a
decree was granted to the newly elected patriarch which
I
secured to him and his successors and the bishops under
him, the enjoyment of the old privileges, revenues and
exemptions enjoyed under the former rule. Gennadios,
the first patriarch after the Turkish conquest, received from
the hands of the Sultan himself the pastoral staff, which
was the sign of his office, together with a purse of a thousand
golden ducats and a horse with gorgeous trappings, on which
he was privileged to ride with his train through the city.^
But not only was the head of the Church treated with all the
respect he had been accustomed to receive from the Christian
emperors, but further he was invested with extensive civil
power. The patriarch's court sat to decide all cases between
Greek and Greek : it could impose fines, imprison offenders
in a prison provided for its own special use, and in some cases
even condemn to capital punishment : while the ministers
and officials of the government were directed to enforce its
judgments. The complete control of spiritual and ecclesi-
astical matters (in which the Turkish government, unlike
the civil power of the Byzantine empire, never interfered),
was left entirely in his hands and those of the grand Synod
which he could summon whenever he pleased; and hereby
he could decide all matters of faith and dogma without fear
of interference on the part of the state. As a recognised
officer of the imperial government, he could do much for
the alleviation of the oppressed, by bringing the acts of
unjust governors to the notice of the Sultan. The Greek
bishops in the provinces in their turn were treated with
great consideration and were entrusted with so much
jurisdiction in civil affairs, that up to modern times they
have acted in their dioceses almost as if they were Ottoman
prefects over the orthodox population, thus taking the place
of the old Christian aristocracy which had been exterminated
by the conquerors, and we find that the higher clergy were
generally more active as Turkish agents than as Greek
priests, and the}^ always taught their people that the Sultan
^ Phrantzes, pp. 305-6.
SPREAD OF ISLAM IN EUROPE 147
possessed a divine sanction, as the protector of the Orthodox
Church. A charter was subsequently pubhshed, securing
to the orthodox the use of such churches as had not been
confiscated to form mosques, and authorising them to
celebrate their religious rites publicly according to their
national usages. ^
Consequently, though the Greeks were numerically
superior to the Turks in all the European provinces of the
empire, the religious toleration thus granted them, and the
protection of life and property they enjoyed, soon reconciled
them to the change of masters and led them to prefer the
domination of the Sultan to that of any Christian power.
Indeed, in many parts of the country, the Ottoman con-
querors were welcomed by the Greeks as their deliverers
from the rapacious and tyrannous rule of the Franks and
the Venetians who had so long disputed with Byzantium
for the possession of the Peloponnesos and some of the
adjacent parts of Greece; by introducing into Greece the
feudal sj^stem, these had reduced the people to the miserable
condition of serfs, and as aliens in speech, race and creed,
were hated by their subjects, 2 to whom a change of rulers,
since it could not make their condition worse, would offer
a possible chance of improving it, and though their deliverers
were likewise aliens, yet the infidel Turk was infinitely to
be preferred to the heretical Catholics. ^ The Greeks who
lived under the immediate government of the Byzantine
court, were equally unlikely to be averse to a change of
rulers. The degradation and tyranny that characterised
^ Finlay, vol. iii. p. 522. Pitzipios, seconde partie, p. 75. M. d'Ohsson,

vol. iii. p. 52-4. Arminjon, vol. i. p. 16.
* A traveller who visited Cyprus in 1508 draws the following picture of
the tyranny of the Venetians in their foreign possessions : " All the in-
habitants of Cyprus are slaves to the Venetians, being obliged to pay to
the state a third part of all their increase or income, whether the product
of their ground or corn, wine, oil, or of their cattle, or any other thing.
Besides, every man of them is bound to work for the state two days of the
week wherever they shall please to appoint him : and if any shall fail, by
reason of some other business of their own, or for indisposition of body,
then they are made to pay a fine for as many days as they are absent from
their work : and which is more, there is yearly some tax or other imposed
on them, with which the poor common people are so flead and pillaged
that they hardly have wherewithal to keep soul and body together." (The
Travels of Martin Baumgarten, p. 373.) See also the passages quoted by
Hackett, History of the Orthodox Church of Cyprus, p. 183.
^ Finlay, vol. iii. p. 502.
the dynasty of the Palaeologi are frightful to contemplate.

" A corrupt aristocracy, a tyrannical and innumerable
clergy, the oppression of perverted law, the exactions of a
despicable government, and still more, its monopolies, its
fiscality, its armies of tax and custom collectors, left the
degraded people neither rights nor institutions, neither
chance of amelioration nor hope of redress." ^ Lest such
a judgment appear dictated by a spirit of party bias, a
contemporary authority may be appealed to in support of
its correctness. The Russian annalists who speak of the
fall of Constantinople bring a similar indictment against its
government. " Without the fear of the law an empire is
hke a steed without reins. Constantine and his ancestors
allowed their grandees to oppress the people ; there was no
more justice in their law courts ; no more courage in their
hearts; the judges amassed treasures from the tears and
blood of the innocent ; the Greek soldiers were proud only
of the magnificence of their dress ; the citizens did not blush
at being traitors; the soldiers were not ashamed to fly.
At length the Lord poured out His thunder on these un-
worthy rulers, and raised up Muhammad, whose warriors
delight in battle, and whose judges do not betray their
trust." 2 This last item of praise ^ may sound strange in
the ears of a generation that has constantly been called upon
to protest against Turkish injustice; but it is clearly and
abundantly borne out by the testimony of contemporary
historians. The Byzantine historian who has handed down
to us the story of the capture of Constantinople tells us how
even the impetuous Bayazld was liberal and generous to
his Christian subjects, and made himself extremely popular
among them by admitting them freely to his society.*
Murad II distinguished himself by his attention to the
administration of justice and by his reforms of the abuses
^ Urquhart, quoted by Clark : Races of European Turkey, p. 82.
* Karamsin, vol. v. p. 437.
3 Martia Crusius writes in the same spirit : " Et mirum est, inter bar-
baros, in tanta tantag urbis coUuvie, nuUas caedes audiri, vim iniustam non
ferri, ius cuivis did. Ideo Constantinopolin Sultanus, Refugium totius
orbis scribit : quod omnes miseri, ibi tutissime latent : quodque omnibus
(tarn infimis quam summis : tarn Christianis quam infidelibus) iustitia
administretur." (Turcograecia, p. 487.) (Basileae, 1584.)
* Phrantzes, p. 81.
prevalent under the Greek emperors, and punished without
mercy those of his officials who oppressed any of his subjects.^
For at least a century after the fall of Constantinople a
series of able rulers secured, by a firm and vigorous admini-
stration, peace and order throughout their dominions, and
an admirable civil and judicial organisation, if it did not
provide an absolutely impartial justice for Muslims and
Christians alike, yet caused the Greeks 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 they paid were a trifling burden
compared with the endless feudal obligations of the Franks
and the countless extortions of the Byzantines. The
Turkish dominions were certainly better governed and more
prosperous than most parts of Christian Europe, and the
mass of the Christian population engaged in the cultivation
of the soil enjoyed a larger measure of private liberty and of
the fruits of their labour, under the government of the
Sultan than their contemporaries did under that of many
Christian monarchs.^ A great impulse, too, was given to
the commerical activity of the country, for the early Sultans
were always ready to foster trade and commerce among their
subjects, and many of the great cities entered upon an era
of prosperity when the Turkish conquest had delivered them
from the paralysing fiscal oppression of the Byzantine
empire, one of the first of them being Nicaea, which capitu-
lated to Urkhan in 1330 under the most favourable terms
after a long-protracted siege. ^ Like the ancient Romans,
the Ottomans were great makers of roads and bridges, and
thereby facilitated trade throughout their empire; and
foreign states were compelled to admit the Greek merchants
into ports from which they had been excluded in the time of
the Byzantine emperors, but now sailing under the Ottoman
^ Phrantzes, p. 92.
* Finlay, vol. v. pp. 5, 123. Adeney, p. 311. Gerlach, writing in the
year 1577, says : " Wo Christen oder Juden in den Orten wohnen, da es
Kadi Oder Richter und Subbassi oder Vogte hat, dass die gemcinen Tiircken
nicht ihres Gefallens mit ihnen umbgehen dorffen, sind sie viel heber unter
den Tiircken, dann unter den Christen. Wann sie Jahrlich ihren Tribut
geben, sind sie hernach frey. Aber in der Christenheit ist das gantze Jahr
des Gebens kein Ende." (Tage-Buch, p. 413.)
3 Hertzberg, pp. 467, 646, 650.
flag, they assumed the dress and manners of Turks, and thus
secured from the nations of Western Europe the respect and
consideration which the CathoHcs had hitherto always
refused to the members of the Greek Church. ^
There is, however, one notable exception to this general
good treatment and toleration, viz. the tribute of Christian
children, who were forcibly taken from their parents at an
early age and enrolled in the famous corps of Janissaries.
Instituted by Urkhan in 1330, it formed for centuries the
mainstay of the despotic power of the Turkish Sultans, and
was kept alive by a regular contribution exacted every four
years, 2 when the officers of the Sultan visited the districts
on which the tax was imposed, and made a selection from
among the children about the age of seven. The Muham-
madan legists attempted to apologise for this inhuman
tribute by representing these children as the fifth of the
spoil which the Qur'an assigns to the sovereign,^ and they
prescribed that the injunction against forcible conversion *
should be observed with regard to them also, although the
tender age at which they were placed under the instruction
of Muslim teachers must have made it practically of none
effect.^ Christian Europe has always expressed its horror
at such a barbarous tax, and travellers in the Turkish
dominions have painted touching pictures of desolated
homes and of parents weeping for the children torn from
their arms. But when the corps was first instituted, its
numbers were rapidly swelled by voluntary accessions from
among the Christians themselves,^ and the circumstances
under which this tribute was first imposed may go far to
explain the apathy which the Greeks themselves appear to
^ Finlay, vol. v. pp. 156-7.
* This interval was, however, not a fixed one ; at first, the levy took
place every seven or five years, but later at more frequent intervals accord-
ing to the exigencies of the state. (Menzel, p. 52.) Metrophanes Krito-
poulos, writing in 1625, states that the collectors came to the cities every
seventh year and that each city had to contribute three or four, or at least
two boys (p. 205).
* Qur'an, viii. 42. * Id. x. 99. 100.
* " On ne for9ait cependant pas les jeunes Chretiens a changer de foi.
Les principes du gouvernement s'y opposaient aussi bien que les preceptes
du Cour'ann ; et si des officiers, mus par leur fanatisme, usaient quelquefois
de contrainte, leur conduite a cet egard pouvait bien etre toleree ; mais elle
n'etait jamais autorisee par les chefs." (M, d'Ohsson, tome iii. pp. 397-8.)
* Hertzberg, p. ^72,
have exhibited. The whole country had been laid waste by
war, and families were often in danger of perishing with
hunger ; the children who were thus adopted were in many
cases orphans, who would otherwise have been left to perish ;
further, the custom so widely prevalent at that time of
selling Christians as slaves may have made this tax appear
less appalling than might have been expected. This custom
has, moreover, been maintained to have been only a con-
tinuation of a similar usage that was in force under the
Byzantine emperors. ^ It has even been said that there was
seldom any necessity of an appeal to force on the part of the
officers who collected the appointed number of children,
but rather that the parents were often eager to have their
children enrolled in a service that secured for them in many
cases a brilliant career, and under any circumstances a
well-cared-for and comfortable existence, since these little
captives were brought up and educated as if they were the
Sultan's own children. ^ This institution appears in a less
barbarous light if it be true that the parents could often
redeem their children by a money payment.^ Metrophanes
Kritopoulos, who was Patriarch of Constantinople and
afterwards of Alexandria, writing in 1625, mentions various
devices adopted by the Christians for escaping from the
burden of this tax, e. g. they purchased Muhammadan boys
and represented them to be Christians, or they bribed the
collectors to take Christian boys who were of low birth or
had been badly brought up or such as " deserved hanging."^
^ " Sed hoc tristissimum est, quod, ut olim Christiani imperatores, ex
singulis oppidis, certum numerum liberorum, in quibus egregia indoles prae
caeteris elucebat, delegerunt : quos ad publica officia militiae togatae et
bellicffi in Aula educari curarunt : ita Turci, occupato Graecorum imperio,
idem ius eripiendi patribus familias liberos ingeniis eximiis praeditos,
usurpant." (David Chytraeus, pp. 12-14.)
2 Creasy, p. 99. M. d'Ohsson, tome iii. p. 397. Menzel, p. 53. Thomas
Smith, speaking of such parents, says : " Others, to the great shame and
dishonour of the Religion, Christians only in name, part with them freely
and readily enough, not only because they are rid of the trouble and charge
of them, but in hopes they may, when they are grown up, get some con-
siderable command in the government." (An Account of the Greek Church,
p. 12. London, 1680.) In the reign of Murad I, Christian troops were
employed in collecting this tribute of Christian children. (Finlay, vol. v.
P- 45-)
' " Verum tamen hos (liberos) pecunia redimere a conquisitoribus saepe
parentibus licet." (David Chytraeus, p. 13.) De la Guilletiere mentions
it in 1669 as one of the privileges of the Athenians. (An Account of a Late
Voyage to Athens, p. 272. London, 1676.) * Confessio, p. 205.
Thomas Smith, among others, speaks of the possibiHty of

buying off the children, so impressed : " Some of their
parents, out of natural pity and out of a true sense of
religion, that they may not be thus robbed of their
children, who hereby lie under a necessity of renouncing
their Christianity, compound for them at the rate of fifty
or a hundred dollars, as they are able, or as they can
work upon the covetousness of the Turks more or less." ^
The Christians of certain cities, such as Constantinople,
and of towns and islands that had made this stipulation at
the time of their submission to the Turks, or had pur-
chased this privilege, were exempted from the operation of
this cruel tax.^ These extenuating circumstances at the
outset, and the ease with which men acquiesce in any
established usage — though serving in no way as an excuse
for so inhuman an institution — may help us to understand
what a traveller in the seventeenth century calls the " un-
accountable indifference " ^ with which the Greeks seem
to have fallen in with this demand of the new government,
which so materially improved their condition.
Further, the Christian subjects of the Turkish empire had
to pay the capitation-tax, in return for protection and in
lieu of military service. The rates fixed by the Ottoman law
were 2|, 5 and 10 piastres a head for every full-grown male,
according to his income,* women and the clergy being
exempt. 5 In the nineteenth century the rates were 15, 30
and 60 piastres, according to income.^ Christian writers
of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries generally
speak of this tax as being a ducat a head,' but it
^ An Account of the Greek Church, p. 12. (London, 1680.)

* Menzel, p. 52. Thomas Smith : De Moribus ac Institutis Turcarum,
p. 81. (Oxonii, 1672.) 3 Hill, p. 174.
* Joseph von Hammer (2), vol. ii. p. 151. Hans Schiltberger, who was
captured by the Turks in 1396 and returned home to Munich after thirty-
two years' captivity, states that the tax the Christians had to pay did not
amount to more than two pfennig a month. (Reisebuch, p. 92.)
^ Soli Sacerdotes, quasi in honorem sacri illius, quo funguntur, Deo ita
ordinante, ministerii hoc factum sit, una cum fccminis, ab hoc tribute pen-
dendo immunes habentur. (De Graecae Hodierno Statu Epistola, authore
Thoma Smitho, p. 12.) (Trajecti ad Rhenum, 1698.)
* Silbernagl, p. 60.
' Martin Crusius, p. 487; Sansovino, p. 67; Georgieviz, p. 98-9;
Scheffler, § 56 ; Hertzberg, p. 648 ; De la Jonquiere, p. 267. A work
published in London in 1595, entitled " The Estate of Christians living
is also variously described as amounting to 3, 5 or 5|
crowns or dollars. ^ The fluctuating exchange value of
the Turkish coinage in the seventeenth century is the
probable explanation of the latter variations. To estimate
with any exactitude how far this tax was a burden
to those who had to pay it, would require a lengthened
disquisition on the purchasing value of money at that
period and a comparison with other items of expenditure. ^
But by itself it could hardly have formed a valid excuse for
a change of faith, as Tournefort points out, when writing
in 1700 of the conversion of the Candiots : "It must be
confessed, these Wretches sell their Souls a Pennyworth :
all they get in exchange for their Religion, is a Vest, and the
Privilege of being exempt from the Capitation-Tax, which is
not above five Crowns a year." ^ Scheffler also, who is
anxious to represent the condition of the Christians under
Turkish rule in as black colours as possible, admits that the
one ducat a head was a trifling matter, and has to lay stress
on the extraordinary taxes, war contributions, etc., that
they were called upon to pay.'* The land taxes were the
under the subjection of the Turke," states the capitation-tax for male
children to have been eight shillings (p. 2). Michel Baudin says one sequin
a head for every male. (Histoire du Serrail, p. 7. Paris, 1662.)
^ Georgirenes, p. 9; Tournefort, vol. i. p. gi ; Tavernier (3), p. 11.
^ In a work published by Joseph Georgirenes, Archbishop of Samos, in
1678, during a visit to London, he gives us an account of the income of his
own see, the details of which are not likely to have been considered ex-
tortionate, asthey were here set down for the benefit of Enghsh readers :
in comparing the sums here mentioned, it should be borne in mind that he
speaks of the capitation-tax as being three crowns or dollars (pp. 8-9).
" At his (i.e. the Archbishop's) first coming, the Papas or Parish Priest of
the Church of his Residence presents him fifteen or twenty dollers, they of
the other Churches according to their Abilities. The first year of his
coming, every Parish Priest pays him four dollers, and the following year
two. Every Layman pays him forty-eight aspers " — (In the commercial
treaty with England, concluded in the year 1675, the value of the dollar
was fixed at eighty aspers (Finlay, v. 28) )— " and the following years twenty-
four. The Samians pay one Doller for a Licence ; all Strangers two ; but
he that comes after first marriage for a Licence for a second or third, pays
three or four " (pp. 33-4). =* Tournefort, vol. i. p. 91.
* Scheffler, § 56. " Was aber auch den Ducaten anbelangt, so werdet
ihr mit demselben in eurem Sinn ebener massen greulich betrogen. Denn
es ist zwar wahr, dass der Tiirckische Kayser ordentlich nicht mehr nimt
als vom Haupt einen Ducaten : aber wo bleiben die ZoUe und ausseror-
dentliche Anlagen ? nehmen dann seine Konigliche Verweser und Haupt-
leute nichts ? muss man zu Kriegen nichts ausser ordentlich geben ? . . .
Was aber die ausser ordentUche Anlagen betrifft; die steigen und fallen
nach den bosen Zeiten, und miissen von den Tiirckischen Unterthanen so
wohl gegeben werden als bey uns."
same both for Christians and Musalmans/ for the old dis-
tinction between lands on which tithe was paid by the
Muhammadan proprietor, and those on which Idiaraj was
paid by the non-Muhammadan proprietor, was not recognised
by the Ottomans. ^ Whatever sufferings the Christians had
to endure proceeded from the tyranny of individuals, who
took advantage of their official position to extort money
from those under their jurisdiction. Such acts of oppression
were not only contrary to the Muhammadan law, but were
rare before the central government had grown weak and
suffered the corruption and injustice of local authorities to
go unpunished.^ There is a very marked difference between
the accounts we have of the condition of the Christians
during the first two centuries of the Turkish rule in Europe
and those of a later date, when the period of decadence had
fully set in. But it is noticeable that in those very times
in which the condition of the Christians had been most
intolerable there is least record of conversion to Islam. In
the eighteenth century, when the condition of the Christians
was worse than at any other period, we find hardly any
mention of conversions at all, and the Turks themselves are
represented as utterly indifferent to the progress of their
religion and considerably infected with scepticism and
unbelief.* A further proof that their sufferings have been
due to misgovernment rather than to religious persecution
is the fact that Muslims and Christians suffered alike.^
1 Finlay, vol. v. pp. 24-5. H. von Moltke : Brief iiber Zustande und
Begebenheiten in der Tiirkei aus den Jahren 1835 bis 1839, pp. 274, 354.
(5th ed., Berlin, 1S91.) 2 Hammer (2), vol. i. p. 346.
^ " The hard lot of the Christian subjects of the Sultan has at all times
arisen from the fact that the central authority at Constantinople has but
little real authority throughout the Empire of Turkey. It is the petty
tyranny of the village officials, sharpened by personal hatred, which has
instigated those acts of atrocity to which, both in former times, and still
more at the present day, the Christians in Turkey are subjected. In the
days of a nation's greatness justice and even magnanimity towards a
subject race are possible; these, however, are rarely found to exist in the
time of a nation's decay." (Rev. W. Denton : Servia and the Servians,
p. 15.' London, 1862.) Gerlach, pp. 49, 52.
* Businello, pp. 43-4.
^ " The central government of the Sultan has generally treated its
Mussulman subjects with as much cruelty and injustice as the conquered
Christians. The sufferings of the Greeks were caused by the insolence and
oppression of the ruling class and the corruption that reigned in the Otho-
man
In hisadministration,
private affairs, rather
a Greekthanhadby a the directchance
better exercise of the Sultan's
of obtaining justicepower.
from
The Christians would, however, naturally be more exposed

to extortion and ill-treatment owing to the difficulties that
lay in the way of obtaining redress at law, and some of the
poorest may thus have sought a relief from their sufferings
in a change of faith.
But if we except the tribute of the children, to which the
conquered Greeks seem to have submitted with so little show
of resistance, and which owed its abolition, not to any revolt
or insurrection against its continuance, but to the increase
of the Turkish population and of the number of the renegades
who were constantly entering the Sultan's service,^ — the
treatment of their Christian subjects by the Ottoman
emperors — at least for two centuries after their conquest
of Greece — exhibits a toleration such as was at that time
quite unknown in the rest of Europe. The Calvinists of
Hungary and Transylvania, and the Unitarians of the latter
country, long preferred to submit to the Turks rather than
fall into the hands of the fanatical house of Hapsburg ; ^
his bishop and the elders of his district than a Turk from the cadi or the
voivode." (Finlay, vol. vi. pp. 4-5.)
" It would be a mistake to suppose that the Christians are the only part
of the population that is oppressed and miserable. Turkish misgovernment
is uniform, and falls with a heavy hand upon all alike. In some parts of
the kingdom the poverty of the Mussulmans may be actually worse than
the poverty of the Christians, and it is their condition which most excites
the pity of the traveller." (Wilham Forsyth : The Slavonic Provinces
South of the Danube, pp. 157-8. London, 1876.)
" All this oppression and misery (i.e. in the north of Asia Minor) falls upon
the Mohammedan population equally with the Christian." (James
Bryce : Transcaucasia and Ararat, p. 381.)
" L'Europe s'imagine que les Chretiens seuls sont soumis, en Turquie, a
I'arbitraire, aux souSrances, aux avihssements de toute nature, qui naissent
de I'oppression ; il n'en est rien ! Les musulmans, precisement parce que
nulle puissance etrangere ne s'interesse a eux, sont peut-etre plus indigne-
ment spohes, plus courbes sous le joug que ceux qui meconnaissent le pro-
phete." (De la Jonquiere, p. 507.)
" To judge
Christians are from
not inwhat we condition
a worse have already observed,
in Asia Minor the
than lowest orderclass
the same of
of Turks ; and if the Christians of European Turkey have some advantages
arising from the effects of the superiority of their numbers over the Turks,
those of Asia have the satisfaction of seeing that the Turks are as much
oppressed by the men in power as they are themselves ; and they have to
deal with a race of Mussulmans generally milder, more religious, and better
principled than those of Europe." (W. M. Leake : Journal of a Tour in
Asia Minor, p. 7. London, 1824.)
Cf. also Laurence Oliphant : The Land of Gilead, pp. 320—3, 446.
(London, 1880.)
^ It was in the sixteenth century that the tribute of children fell into
desuetude, and the last recorded example of its exaction was in the year
1676. ^ De la Jonquiere, p. 333. Scheffler, § 45-6. Gasztowtt, p. 51.
and the Protestants of Silesia looked with longing eyes

towards Turkey, and would gladly have purchased religious
freedom at the price of submission to the Muslim rule.^ It
was to Turkey that the persecuted Spanish Jews fled for
refuge in enormous numbers at the end of the fifteenth
century, 2 and the Cossacks who belonged to the sect of the
Old Believers and were persecuted by the Russian State
Church, found in the dominions of the Sultan the toleration
which their Christian brethren denied them.^ Well might
Macarius, Patriarch of Antioch in the seventeenth century,
congratulate himself when he saw the fearful atrocities that
the Catholic Poles inflicted on the Russians of the Orthodox
Eastern Church : " We all wept much over the thousands
of martyrs who were killed 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. O you infidels ! O you monsters of impurity ! O
you hearts of stone ! What had the nuns and women done ?
What the girls and boys and infant children, that you should
murder them ? . , . And why do I pronounce them (the
Poles) accursed ? Because they have shown themselves
more debased and wicked than the corrupt worshippers of
idols, by their cruel treatment of Christians, thinking to
abolish the very name of Orthodox. God perpetuate the
empire of the Turks for ever and ever ! For they take their
^ " Denn ich hore mit grosser Verwunderung und Bestiirtzung, dass
nicht allein unter den gemeinen Povel Reden im Schwange gehn, es sey
unter dem Turcken auch gut wohnen : wann man einen Ducaten von
Haupt gebe, so ware man frey ; Item er liesse die Religion frey ; man wiirde
die Kirchen wieder bekommen ; und was vergleichen : sondern dass auch
andre, die es wol besser verstehen sollten, sich dessen erfreuen, und iiber
ihr eigen Ungliick frolocken ! welches nicht allein Halssbriichige, sondern
auch Gottlose Vermessenheiten seynd, die aus keinem andrem Grunde, als
aus dem Geist der Ketzerey, der zum Auffruhr und gantzlicher Ausreitung
des Christenthumbs geneigt ist, herkommen." (Scheffler, § 48.)
^ Hertzberg, p. 650.
' De la Jonquiere, p. 34. A similar contrast was made in 1605 by
Richard Staper, an English merchant who had been in Turkey as early as
1578 : " And notwithstanding that the Turks in general be a most wicked
people, walking in the works of darkness . . . yet notwithstanding do they
permit all Christians, both Greeks and Latins, to live in their religion and
freely to use to their conscience, allowing them churches for their divine
service, both in Constantinople and very many other places, whereas to the
contrary by proof
are not only forced ofto twelve
observeyears'
their residence in Spain I but
popish ceremonies, can intruly affirm,
danger we
of life
and goods " (M. Epstein : The Early History of the Levant Company,
p. 57. London, 1908.)
impost, and enter into no account of religion, be their subjects

Christians or Nazarenes, Jews or Samarians : whereas these
accursed Poles were not content with taxes and tithes from
the brethren of Christ, though wilhng to serve them; but
they subjected them to the authority of the enemies of
Christ, the tyrannical Jews, who did not even permit them
to build churches, nor leave them any priests that knew the
mysteries of their faith." ^ Even in Italy there were men
who turned longing eyes towards the Turks in the hope that
as their subjects they might enjoy the freedom and the
toleration they despaired of enjoying under a Christian
government. 2 It would seem, then, that Islam was not
spread by force in the dominion of the Sultan of Turkey,
and though the want of even-handed justice and the
oppression of unscrupulous officials in the days of the
empire's decline, may have driven some Christians to attempt
to better their condition by a change of faith, such cases
were rare in the first two centuries of the Turkish rule in
Europe, to which period the mass of conversions belong.
It would have been wonderful indeed if the ardour of pro-
selytising that animated the Ottomans at this time had
never carried them beyond the bounds of toleration estab-
lished by their own laws. Yet it has been said by one who
was a captive among them for twenty-two years that the
Turks " compelled no one to renounce his faith." ^ Similar
testimony is borne by others : an Enghsh gentleman who
visited Turkey in the early part of the seventeenth century,
tells us that " There is seldom any compulsion of conscience,
and then not by death, where no criminal offence gives
^ Macarius, vol. i. pp. 183, 165. Cf. the memorial presented by Polish
refugees from Russia to the Sublime Porte, in 1853. (Gasztowtt, p. 217.)
* " Alii
quum speciem sibiconsequuturos
sub Christiano quandam confixerunt stultam
se desperent, libertatis
ideo vel Turcam . mallent
. . quod :
quasi is benignior sit in largienda libertate hac, quam Christianus." (loannis
Ludovici Vivis De Conditione Vitae Christianorum sub Turca, pp. 220, 225.)
(Basileae, 1538.) " Quidam obganniunt, liberam esse sub Turca fidem."
(Othonis Brunfelsii ad Principes et Christianos omnes Oratio, p. 133.)
(Basileaj, 1538.) Ubertus Folieta, a noble of Genoa, writing about 1577, says,
" Saepe mecum quaesivi . . . qua re fiat, ut tot de nostris hominibus ad illos
continenter transfugiant, Christianaque religione eiurata Mahumetanae
sectag nomina dent." (De Causis Magnitudinis Turcarum Imperii, col. 1209.)
(Thesaurus Antiquitatum et Historiarum Italiae, cura Joannis Georgii
Graevii, torn. i. Lugduni Batavorum, 1725.)
3 Turchicae Spurcitiae Suggillatio, fol. xv.i. (a).
occasion." ^ Writing about thirty years later (in 1663),

the author ^ of a Tiircken-Schrifft says : " Meanwhile he
(i.e. the Turk) wins (converts) by craft more than by force,
and snatches away Christ by fraud out of the hearts of men.
For the Turk, it is true, at the present time compels no
country by violence to apostatise ; but he uses other means
whereby imperceptibly he roots out Christianity. . . . What
then has become of the Christians ? They are not expelled
from the country, neither are they forced to embrace the
Turkish faith : then they must of themselves have been
converted into Turks."
' The Turks considered that the greatest kindness they could
show a man was to bring him into the salvation of the faith
of Islam, ^ and to this end they left no method of persuasion
untried ; a Dutch traveller of the sixteenth century, tells
us that while he was admiring the great mosque of Santa
Sophia, some Turks even tried to work upon his religious
feelings through his aesthetic sense, saying to him, " If you
become a Musalman, you will be able to come here every
day of your life." About a century later, an English
traveller ^ had a similar experience : " Sometimes, out of
an excess of zeal, they will ask a Christian civilly enough, as
I have been asked myself in the Portico of Sancta Sophia,
why will you not turn Musalman, and be as one of us ? "
The public rejoicings that hailed the accession of a new
convert to the faith, testify to the ardent love for souls which
made these men such zealous proselytisers. The new
Muslim was set upon a horse and led in triumph through
the streets of the city. If he was known to be genuinely
honest in his change of faith and had voluntarily entered
the pale of Islam, or if he was a person of good position, he
was received with high honour and some provision made for
his support.^ There was certainly abundant evidence for
saying that " The Turks are preposterously zealous in pray-
ing for the conversion, or perversion rather, of Christians
to their irreligious religion : they pray heartily, and every
day in their Temples, that Christians may imbrace the
1 Blount, vol. i. p. 548. 2 Scheffler, §§ 51, 53.
^ Dousa, p. 38. Busbecq, p. 190. * Thomas Smith, p. 32.
' Thomas Smith, p. 42. Blount, vol. i. p. 548. Georgieviz, p. 20.
Schiltberger, pp. 83-4. Baudier, pp. 149, 313.
Alcoran, and become their Proselytes, in effecting of which
they leave no means unassaied by fear and flattery, by
punishments and rewards." ^
These zealous efforts for winning converts were rendered
the 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 civil despotism
of the Byzantine empire, had arisen an ecclesiastical
despotism which had crushed all energy of intellectual life
under the weight of a dogmatism that interdicted all dis-
cussion in matters of morals and religion. The only thing
that disturbed this lethargy was the fierce controversial
war waged against the Latin Church with all the bitterness
of theological polemics and race hatred. The religion of the
people had degenerated into a scrupulous observance of
outward forms, and the intense fervour of their devotion
found an outlet in the worship of the Virgin and the saints,
of pictures and relics. There were many who turned from
a Church whose spiritual life had sunk so low, and weary of
interminable discussions on such subtle points of doctrine
as the Double Procession of the Holy Spirit, and such
trivialities 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 ^ of large
numbers of persons being converted, not only from among
the simple folk, but also learned men of every class, rank and
condition ; of how the Turks made a better provision for
those monks and priests who embraced the Muslim creed, in
order that their example might lead others to be converted.
While Adrianople was still the Turkish capital (e. g. before
^ Alexander Ross, p. ix. Baudier, p. 317. Cf. also Rycaut, vol. i. p. 276.
" On croit meriter beaucoup que de faire un Proselyte, il n'y a personne
assez riche pour avoir un esclave qui n'en veiiilleunjeune, quisoit capable de
recevoir sans peine toutes sortes d'impressions, et qu'il puisse appeller son
converti, Smith
Thomas afin de relates
meriter how
I'honneur d'avoir
the old man augmente
who showedle nombre des tomb
him the fideles."
of
Urkhan at Brusa " ingenti cum fervore, oculis ad Caelum elevatis, Deum
precatus est ut nos ad fidem Musulmannicam suo tempore tandem con-
vertere dignaretur : Hoc nimirum est summum erga nos aflectus testi-
monium, qui ex isto falso et imperitissimo zelo solet profiuere." (Epistolae
duae, quarum altera De Moribus ac Institutis Turcarum agit, p. 20.)
(Oxonii, 1672.)
^ By an anonymous writer who was a captive in Turkey from 1436 to
1458. Turchicae Spurcitiae Suggillatio, fol. xvii. (a).
i6o THE PREACHING OF ISLAM
1453) the court was thronged with renegades, and they are
said to have formed the majority of the magnates there. ^
Byzantine princes and others often passed over to the side
of the Muhammadans, and received a ready welcome among
them : one of the earhest of such cases dates from 1140
when a nephew of the emperor John Comnenes embraced
Islam and married a daughter of Mas'ud, the Sultan of
Iconium,^ After the fall of Constantinople, the upper
classes of Christian society showed much more readiness to
embrace Islam than the mass of the Greeks ; among the
converts we meet with several bearing the name of the late
imperial family of the Palaeologi, and the learned George
Amiroutzes of Trebizond abandoned Christianity in his
declining years, and the names of many other such individuals
have found a record.^ The new religion only demanded
assent to its simple creed, " There is no god but God :
Muhammad is the apostle of God " ; as the above-mentioned
writer * says, " The whole difficulty lies in this profession of
faith. For if only a man can persuade himself that he is a
worshipper of the One God, the poison of his error easily
infects him under the guise of rehgion. This is the rock of
offence on which many have struck and fallen into the snare
that has brought perdition on their souls. This is the
mill-stone that hung about the necks of many has plunged
them into the pit of despair. For when these fools hear the
Turks execrate idolatry and express their horror of every
image and picture as though it were the fire of hell, and so
continually profess and preach the worship of One God,
there no longer remains any room for suspicion in their
minds."
The faith of Islam would now be the natural refuge for
^ Turchicae Spuicitiae Suggillatio, fol. xi. (b). Lionardo of Scio, Arch-

bishop of Mitylene, who was present at the taking of Constantinople, speaks
of the large number of renegades in the besieging army : " Chi circondo
la citt^, e chi insegno a' turchi I'ordine, se non i pessimi christiani ? lo
son testimonio, che i Greci, ch' i Latini, che i Tedeschi, che gli Ungari, e die
ogni altra generation di christiani, mescolati co' turchi impararono I'opere
e la fede loro, i quali domenticatisi della fede Christiana, espugnavano la
citt^. O empij che rinegasti Christo. O settatori di antichristo, dannati
alle pene infernali, questo e hora il vostro tempo." (Sansovino, p. 258.)
* J. H. Krause : Die Byzantiner des Mittelalters, pp. 385-6. (Halle, 1869.)
^ Hertzberg, p. 616. Finlay, vol. v. p. 118.
* Turchicce Spurcitiae Suggillatio, fol. xix. (a).
SPREAD OF ISLAM IN EUROPE i6i
those members of the Eastern Church who felt such yearnings

after a purer and simpler form of doctrine as had given rise
to the Paulician heresy so fiercely suppressed a few centuries
before. This movement had been very largely a protest
against the superstitions of the Orthodox Church, against
the worship of images, rehcs and saints, and an effort after
simphcity of faith and the devout life. As some adherents
of this heresy were to be found in Bulgaria even so late as the
seventeenth century,^ the Muhammadan conquerors doubt-
less 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 any such Protestant
Churches as arose in the West, such dissentient spirits would
doubtless find a more congenial atmosphere in the rehgion
of Islam. There is every reason to think that such was the
result of the unsuccessful attempt to Protestantise the
Greek Church in the beginning of the seventeenth century.
The guiding spirit of this movement was Cyril Lucaris, five
times Patriarch of Constantinople, from 1621 to 1638; as a
young man he had visited the Universities of Wittenberg
and Geneva, for the purpose of studying theology in the
seats of Protestant learning, and on his return he kept up a
correspondence with doctors of the reformed faith in Geneva,
Holland and England. But neither the doctrines of the
Church of England nor of the Lutherans attracted his
sympathies so warmly as the teachings of John Calvin,^
which he strove to introduce into the Greek Church; his
efforts in this direction were warmly supported by the
Calvinists of Geneva, who sent a learned young theologian,
named Leger, to assist the work by translating into Greek
the writings of Calvinist theologians.^ Cyril also found
warm friends in the Protestant embassies at Constantinople,
the Dutch and English ambassadors especially assisting him
liberally with funds; the Jesuits, on the other hand, sup-
ported by the Catholic ambassadors, tried in every way to
thwart this attempt to Calvinise the Greek Church, and
actively seconded the intrigues of the party of opposition
among the Greek clergy, who finally compassed the death
1 Rycaut, vol. i. pp. 710-11. Bizzi, fol. 49 (b).
* Pichler, pp. 164, 172. ^ Id. p. 143.
M
of the Patriarch. In 1629 Cyril pubhshed a Confession of

Faith, the main object of which seems to have been to present
the doctrines of the Orthodox Church in their opposition to
Roman Cathohcism in such a way as to imply a necessary
accord with Protestant teaching. ^ From Calvin he borrows
the doctrines of Predestination and salvation by faith alone,
he denies the infalhbility of the Church, rejects the authority
of the Church in the interpretation of Holy Scripture, and
condemns the adoration of pictures : in his account of the
will and in many other questions, he inclines rather to Cal-
vinism than to the teachings of the Orthodox Church. ^
The promulgation of this Confession of Faith as representing
the teaching of the whole Church of which he was the spiritual
head, excited violent opposition among the mass of the
Greek clergy, and a few weeks after Cyril's death a synod
was held to condemn his opinions and pronounce him to be
Anathema; in 1642 a second synod was held at Constanti-
nople for the same purpose, which after refuting each article
of Cyril's Confession in detail, as the first had done, thus
fulminated its curse upon him and his followers :— " With
one consent and in unqualified terms, we condemn this whole
Confession as full of heresies and utterly opposed to our
orthodoxy, and likewise declare that its compiler has nothing
in common with our faith, but in calumnious fashion has
falsely charged his own Calvinism on us. All those who read
and keep it as true and blameless, and defend it by written
word or speech, we thrust out of the community of the faith-
ful as followers and partakers of his heresy and corrupters
of the Christian Church, and command that whatever be
their rank and station, they be treated as heathen and
publicans. Let them be laid under an anathema for ever
and cut off from the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost
in this life and in the life to come, accursed, excommunicated,
be lost after death, and be partakers of everlasting punish-
ment." 2 In 1672 a third synod met at Jerusalem to re-
pudiate the heretical articles of this Confession of Faith and
vindicate the orthodoxy of the Greek Church against those
1 Pichler, p. 148. It is doubtful, however, whether Cyril was really the

author of tliis document bearing his name. (Kyriakos, p. 100.)
* Id. pp. 183-9. 3 Id. p. 226.
who represented her as infected with Calvinism. The
attempt to Protestantise the Greek Church thus completely
failed to achieve success : the doctrines of Calvin were
diametrically opposed to her teachings, and indeed incul-
cated many articles of faith that were more in harmony with
the tenets of Muslim theologians than with those of the
Orthodox Church, and which moreover she had often at-
tacked in her controversies with her Muhammadan adver-
saries. It is this approximation to Islamic thought which
gives this movement towards Calvinism a place in a history
of the spread of Islam : a man who inveighed against the
adoration of pictures, decried the authority and the very
institution of the priesthood, maintained the doctrines of
absolute Predestination, denied freedom to the human will
and was in sympathy with the stern spirit of Calvinism that
had more in common with the Old than the New Testament
— would certainly find a more congenial atmosphere in
Islam than in the Greek Church of the seventeenth century,
and there can be little doubt that among the numerous
converts of Islam during that century were to be found men
who had been alienated from the Church of their fathers
through their leanings towards Calvinism. ^ We have no
definite information as to the number of the followers of
Cyril Lucaris and the extent of Calvinistic influences in the
Greek Church ; the clergy, jealous of the reputation of their
Church, whose orthodoxy and immunity from heresy were
so boastfully vindicated by her children, and had thus been
impugned through the suspicion of Calvinism, wished to
represent the heretical patriarch as standing alone in his
opinions. 2 But a following he undoubtedly had : his
Confession of Faith had received the sanction of a synod
composed of his followers ; ^ those who sympathised with
his heresies were anathematised both by the second synod
of Constantinople (1642) and by the synod of Jerusalem
(1672) * — surely a meaningless repetition, had no such
persons existed ; moreover the names of some few of these
^ As regards the Christian captives the Protestants certainly had the
reputation among the Turks of showing a greater incUnation towards
conversion than the Catholics. (Gmelin, p. 21.)
- Pichler, pp. 211, 227. ^ jj. pp. 181^ 228.
* Id. pp. 222, 226.
have come down to us : Sophronius, Metropolitan of Athens,
was a warm supporter of the Reformation ; ^ a monk named
Nicodemus Metaras, who had brought a printing-press from
London and issued heretical treatises therefrom, was re-
warded with a metropolitan see by Cyril in return for his
services ; ^ the philosopher Corydaleus, a friend of Cyril,
opened a Calvinistic school in Constantinople, and another
Greek, Gerganos, published a Catechism so as to introduce
the teachings of Calvin among his fellow-countrymen ; ^
and Neophytus II, who was made Patriarch in 1636, while
Cyril was in exile in the island of Rhodes, was his disciple
and adopted son ; he recalled his master from banishment
and resigned the patriarchal chair in his favour.* In a
letter to the University of Geneva (dated July, 1636), Cyril
writes that Leger had gained a large number of converts to
Calvinism by his writings and preaching ; ^ in another letter
addressed to Leger, he describes how he had made his in-
fluence felt in Candia.^ His successor ' in the patriarchal
chair was banished to Carthage and there strangled by the
adherents of Lucaris in 1639.^ The Calvinists are said
to have entertained hopes of Parthenius I (the successor
of Cyril II), but his untimely end (whether by poison
or banishment is uncertain) disappointed their expecta-
tions.^ Parthenius II, who was Patriarch of Constan-
tinople from 1644 to 1646, was at heart a thorough
Calvinist, and though he did not venture openly to teach
the doctrines of Calvin, still his known sympathy with
them caused him to be deposed, sent into exile and
strangled. 10 Thus the influence of Calvinism was un-
doubtedly more widespread than the enemies of Cyril
Lucaris were willing to admit, and as stated above, those
who refused to bow to the anathemas of the synods that
condemned their leader, had certainly more in common with
their Muhammadan neighbours than with the Orthodox
clergy who cast them out of their midst. There is no actual
evidence, it is true, of Calvinistic influences in Turkey
1 Pichler, p. 173. " Id. pp. 128, 132, 143.
' Id. p. 143. * Le Quien, torn. i. col. 334.
^ Pichler, p. 172. ® Hefele, vol. i. p. 473.
^ Cyril II of Berrhcea. * Le Quien, torn. i. col. 335.
• Id. torn. i. col. 336. ^^ Id. torn. i. col. 337.
facilitating conversion to Islam/ but in the absence of any

other explanation it certainly seems a very plausible con-
jecture that such were among the factors that so enormously
increased the number of the Greek renegades towards the
middle of the seventeenth century — a period during which
the number of renegades from among the middle and lower
orders of society is said to have been more considerable than
at any other time.^ Frequent mention is made of cases of
apostasy from among the clergy, and even among the
highest dignitaries of the Church, such as a former Metro-
politan of Rhodes. 3 In 1676 it is said that in Corinth some
Christian people went over every day to " the Turkish
abomination," and that three priests had become Musal-
mans the year before ; * in 1679 is recorded the death of a
renegade monk.^ On the occasion of the circumcision of
Mustafa, son of Muhammad IV, in 1675, there were at
least two hundred proselytes made during the thirteen days
of public rejoicing,^ and numerous other instances may be
found in writings of this period. A contemporary writer
(1663) has well described the mental attitude of such con-
verts. "When you mix with the Turks in the ordinary
intercourse of life and see that they pray and sing even the
Psalms of David; that they give alms and do other good
works ; that they think highly of Christ, hold the Bible in
great honour, and the like ; that, besides, any ass may become
parish priest who plies the Bassa with presents, and he will
^ However, in an earlier attempt made by the Protestant theologians of
Tubingen (1573-77) to introduce the doctrines of the Reformed Church into
the Eastern Church, the Vaivode Quarquar of Samtskheth in Georgia
embraced the Confession of Augsburg, but in 1580 became a MusHm.
(Joselian, p. 140.)
^ Scheffler, §§ 53-6. Finlay, vol. v. pp. 11 8-1 9.
^ Hammer (i), vol. vi. p. 94. * Spon, vol. ii. p. 57.
^ Hammer (i), vol. vi. p. 364.
* Early Voyages and Travels in the Levant, edited by J. Theodore Bent,
p. 210. (London, 1893.) Similarly, Michel Baudier concludes his descrip-
tion of the festivities in Constantinople on the occasion of the circumcision
of Muhammad III in the latter part of the sixteenth century, with an
account of the conversion of a large number of Christians. " During the
spectacles of this solemnity, the wretched Grecians ran by troupes in this
place to make themselves Mahometans ; Some abandoned Christianitie
to avoid the oppression of the Turkes, others for the hope of private
profit. . . . The number of these cast-awayes was found to be above foure
thousand soules." (The History of the Serrail, and of the Court of the
Grand Seigneur Emperour of the Turkes, pp. 93-4. (London, 1635.)
Histoire generale du Serrail, et de la Cour du Grand Seigneur, Empereur
des Turcs, pp. 89-90. (Paris, 1631.))
not urge Christianity on you very much ; so you will come

to think that they are good people and will very probably
be saved ; and so you will come to believe that you too may
be saved, if you likewise become Turks. Herewith will the
Holy Trinity and the crucified Son of God, with many other
mysteries of the faith, which seem quite absurd to the un-
enlightened reason, easily pass out of your thoughts, and
imperceptibly Christianity will quite die out in you, and you
will think that it is all the same whether you be Christians
or Turks," ^
Thomas Smith, who was in Constantinople in 1669,
speaks of the number of Christian converts about this
period, but assigns baser motives. " 'Tis sad to consider
the great number of wretched people, who turn Turks ; some
out of meer desperation ; being not able to support the
burthen of slavery, and to avoid the revilings and insultings
of the Infidels ; some out of a wanton light humour, to put
themselves into a condition of domineering and insulting
over others . . . some to avoid the penalties and inflictions
due to their heinous crimes, and to enjoy the brutish liberties,
that Mahomet consecrated by his own example, and recom-
mended to his followers. These are the great and tempting
arguments and motives of their apostasy, meer considera-
tions of ease, pleasure and prosperity, or else of vanity and
guilt ; for it cannot be presumed, that any through conviction
of mind should be wrought upon to embrace the dotages and
impostures of Turcisme." ^ Records of conversions after
this period are rare, but Motraye gives an account of several
renegades, who became Muhammadans in Constantinople
in 1703 ; among them was a French priest and some other
French Catholics, and some priests from SmjTua.^
Another feature in the condition of the Greek Church that
contributed to the decay of its numbers, was the corruption
and degradation of its pastors, particularly the higher clergy.
The sees of bishops and archbishops were put up to auction
to the highest bidders, and the purchasers sought to recoup
1 Scheffler, § 55.
'^ Thomas Smith: An Account of the Greek Church, pp. 15-16.
(London, 1680.)
* A. de la Motraye : Voyages en Europe, Asie et Afrique, vol. i. pp. 306,
308. (La Haye, 1727.)
themselves by exacting levies of all kinds from their flocks ;
they burdened the unfortunate Christians with taxes
ordinary and extraordinary, made them purchase all the
sacraments at exorbitant rates, baptism, confession, holy
communion, indulgences, and the right of Christian burial.
Some of the clergy even formed an unholy alhance with the
Janissaries, and several bishops had their names and those
of their households inscribed on the list of one of their Ortas
or regiments, the better to secure an immunity for their
excesses and escape the punishment of their crimes under
the protection of this corporation which the weakness of the
Ottoman rulers had allowed to assume such a powerful
position in the state. ^ The evidence of contemporary eye-
witnesses to the oppressive behaviour of the Greek clergy
presents a terrible picture of the sufferings of the Christians.
Tournefort in 1700, after describing the election of a new
Patriarch, says : " We need not at all doubt but the new
Patriarch makes the best of his time. Tyranny succeeds
to Simony : the first thing he does is to signify the Sultan's
order to all the Archbishops and Bishops of his clergy : his
greatest study is to know exactly the revenues of each
Prelate; he imposes a tax upon them, and enjoins them
very strictly by a second letter to send the sum demanded,
otherwise their dioceses are adjudg'd to the highest bidder.
The Prelates being used to this trade, never spare their
Suffragans ; these latter torment the Papas : the Papas
flea the Parishioners and hardly sprinkle the least drop of
Holy Water, but what they are paid for beforehand.
If afterwards the Patriarch has occasion for money, he
farms out the gathering of it to the highest bidder among
the Turks : he that gives most for it, goes into Greece to
cite the Prelates. Usually for twenty thousand crowns
that the clergy is tax'd at, the Turk extorts two and twenty ;
so that he has the two thousand crowns for his pains,
besides having his charges borne in every diocese. In
virtue of the agreement he has made with the Patriarch, he
deprives and interdicts from all ecclesiastical functions,
those prelates who refuse to pay their tax." ^ The Christian
^ Pitzipios, Seconde Partie, pp. 83-7. Pichler, p. 29.
* Tournefort, vol. i. p. 107. Spon uses much the same language, vol. i. p. 56.
clergy are even said to have carried off the children of the
parishioners and sold them as slaves, to get money for their
simoniacal designs. ^
The extortions practised in the seventeenth have found
their counterpart in the nineteenth century, and the suffer-
ings of the Christians of the Greek Church in Bosnia, before
the Austrian occupation, exactly illustrate the words of
Tournefort. The Metropolitan of Serajevo used to wring as
much as £10,000 a year from his miserable flock — a sum
exactly double the salary of the Turkish Governor himself —
and to raise this enormous sum the unfortunate parishioners
were squeezed in every possible way, and the Turkish
authorities had orders to assist the clergy in levying their
exactions ; and whole Christian villages suffered the fate
of sacked cities, for refusing, or often being unable, to
comply with the exorbitant demands of Christian Prelates. ^
Such unbearable oppression on the part of the spiritual
leaders who should protect the Christian population, has
often stirred it up to open revolt, whenever a favourable
opportunity has offered itself.^ It is not surprising then to
learn that many of the Christians went over to Islam, to
deliver themselves from such tyranny.*
Ecclesiastical oppression of a rather different character
is said to have been responsible for the conversion of the
ancestors of a small community of about 4000 Southern
Rumanians, at Noanta in the Meglen district of the vilayet
of Salonika; they have a tradition that in the eighteenth
century the Patriarch of Constantinople persuaded the
reigning Sultan that only the Christians who spoke Greek
could be loyal subjects of the Turkish empire ; the Sultan
^ Gaultier de LesKe, p. 137.
' A.of J.OldEvans,
parts Serbia p.the267.
idea Similarly
we found Mackenzie and Irby
associated with say :was"Inthat
a bishop, mostof
a person who carried off what few paras the Turks had left " (p. 258). A
similar account of the clergy of the Greek Church is given by a writer in the
Revue des Deux Mondes (tome 97, p. 336), who narrates the following story :
" Au d^but de ce siecle, a Tirnova, un certain pope du nom de Joachim,
adore de ses ouailles, deteste de son eveque, re9ut I'ordre, un jour, de faire
la corvee du fumier dans I'ecurie episcopale. II se rebiffa : aussitot la
valetaille I'assaillit a coups de fourche. Mais notre homme etait vigoureux :
il se debattit, et, laissant sa tunique en gage, s'en fut tout chaud chez le
cadi. Le soleil n'etait pas couche qu'il devenait bon Musulman."
' Pitzipios, Seconde Partie, p. 87.
* Id. Seconde Partie, p. 87. Pichler, p. 29.
thereupon forbade the Christians to speak anything but
Greek, on pain of having their tongues cut out ; when the
news of this reached Noanta, a part of the population fled
into the woods and founded fresh villages, but those who
were left behind went over to Islam, with their bishop
at their head, in order thereby to retain their mother-
tongue.i
Though the mass of the parish clergy were innocent of the
charges brought against their superiors, ^ still they were very
ignorant and illiterate. At the end of the seventeenth
century, there were said to be hardly twelve persons in the
whole Turkish dominions thoroughly skilled in the knowledge
of the ancient Greek language ; it was considered a great
merit in the clergy to be able to read, while they were quite
ignorant of the meaning of the words of their service-books.'
While there was so much in the Christian society of the
time to repel, there was much in the character and life of
the Turks to attract, and the superiority of the early Otto-
mans as compared with the degradation of the guides and
teachers of the Christian Church would naturally impress
devout minds that revolted from the selfish ambition,
simony and corruption of the Greek ecclesiastics. Christian
writers constantly praise these Turks for the earnestness and
intensity of their religious life ; their zeal in the performance
of the observances prescribed by their faith ; the outward
decency and modesty displayed in their apparel and mode
of living ; the absence of ostentatious display and the sim-
plicity of life observable even in the great and powerful.*
The annalist of the embassy from the Emperor Leopold I
to the Ottoman Porte in 1665-1666, especially eulogises the
devoutness and regularity of the Turks in prayer, and he
even goes so far as to say, " Nous devons dire a la confusion
des Chretiens, que les Turcs temoignent beaucoup plus de
soin et de zele a I'exercice de leur Religion : que les Cretiens
n'en font paroitre a la pratique de la leur. . . . Mais ce qui
passe tout ce que nous experimentons de devot entre les
Chretiens : c'est que pendant le tems de la priere, vous ne
^ Lazar, p. 223. - Finlay, vol. iv. pp. 153-4.
' Tournefort, vol. i. p. 104. Cf. Pichler, pp. 29, 31. Spon, vol. i. p. 44.
* Turchicae Spurcitiae Suggillatio, fol. xiii. (b) ; fol. xv. (b) ; fol. xvii. (b) ;
fol. XX. (a). Veniero, pp. 32, 36. Busbecq, p. 174.
voyez pas une personne distraite de ses yeux : vous n'en

voyez pas une qui ne soit attachee a I'objet de sa priere :
et pas une qui n'ait toute la reverence exterieure pour son
Createur, qu'on pent exiger de la Creature." ^
Even the behaviour of the soldiery receives its meed of
praise. During the march of an army the inhabitants of
the country, we are told by the secretary to the Embass}/
sent by Charles II to the Sultan, had no complaints to make
of being plundered or of their women being maltreated.
All the taverns along the line of march were shut up and
sealed two or three days before the arrival of the army, and
no wine was allowed to be sold to the soldiers under pain of
death. 2
Many a tribute of praise is given to the virtues of the
Turks even by Christian writers who bore them no love ;
one such who had a very poor opinion of their religion,^
speaks of them as follows :— " Even in the dirt of the Alcoran
you shall find some jewels of Christian Virtues ; and indeed
if Christians will but dihgently read and observe the Laws
and Histories of the Mahometans, they may blush to see
how zealous they are in the works of devotion, piety, and
charity, how devout, cleanly, and reverend in their Mosques,
how obedient to their Priest, that even the great Turk
himself will attempt nothing without consulting his Mufti ;
how careful are they to observe their hours of prayer five
times a day wherever they are, or however employed ? how
constantly do they observe their Fasts from morning till
night a whole month together; how loving and charitable
the Muslemans are to each other, and how careful of strangers
may be seen by their Hospitals, both for the Poor and for
Travellers; if we observe their Justice, Temperance, and
other moral Vertues, we may truly blush at our own cold-
ness, both in devotion and charity, at our injustice, intem-
perance, and oppression ; doubtless these Men will rise up
in judgment against us; and surely their devotion, piety,
^ Gaultier de Leslie, pp. i8o, 182.
^ Rycaut, vol. i. p. 689. See also Georgieviz, pp. 53-4, and Menavino,
P- 73-
(a ^Brat
Alexander Ross, asp.the
as deformed ix. Parent,
; he calls
andtheas Qur'an a " gallimaufry
full of Heresies, of Errors
as his scald head
was of scurf)," — " a hodg podge made up of these four Ingredients. i. Of
Contradictions. 2. Of Blasphemy. 3. Of ridiculous Fables. 4. Of Lyes."
and works of mercy are main causes of the growth of

Mahometism."
The same conclusion is drawn by a modern historian, ^
who writes :— " We find that many Greeks of high talent
and moral character were so sensible of the superiority of
the Mohammedans, that even when they escaped being
drafted into the Sultan's household as tribute-children, they
voluntarily embraced the faith of Mahomet. The moral
superiority of Othoman society must be allowed to have had
as much 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 Turkish
power in Europe and the successive curtailment of its
territorial possessions, and is accustomed to hearing it
spoken of as the " sick man," destined to a speedy dissolu-
tion, must find it difficult to realise the feelings which the
Ottoman empire inspired in the early days of its rise in
Europe. The rapid and widespread success of the Turkish
arms filled men's minds with terror and amazement. One
Christian kingdom after another fell into their hands :
Bulgaria, Servia, Bosnia, and Hungary 3delded up their
independence as Christian states. The proud Republic of
Venice saw one possession after another wrested from it,
until the Lion of St. Mark held sway on the shores of the
Adriatic alone. Even the safety of the Eternal City itself
was menaced by the capture of Otranto. Christian hterature
of the latter half of the fifteenth and of the sixteenth
centuries is full of direful forebodings of the fate that
threatened Christian Europe unless the victorious progress
of the Turk was arrested ; he is represented as a scourge in
the hand of God for the punishment of the sins and back-
sHdings of His people, ^ or on the other hand as the unloosed
power of the Devil working for the destruction of Christianity
under the hj^pocritical guise of religion. But — what is
most important to notice here — some men began to ask
themselves, "Is it possible that God would allow the
Muhammadans to increase in such countless numbers with-
out good reason ? Is it conceivable that so many thousands
1 Finlay, vol. v. p. 29. * Schiltberger, p. 96.
are to be damned like one man ? How can such multitudes
be opposed to the true faith ? since truth is stronger than
error and is more loved and desired by all men, it is not
possible for so many men to be fighting against it. How
could they prevail against truth, since God always helps and
upholds the truth ? How could their rehgion so marvel-
lously increase, if built upon the rotten foundation of error? "^
Such thoughts, we are told, appealed strongly to the Christian
peoples that lived under the Turkish rule, and with especial
force to the unhappy Christian captives who watched the
years drag wearily on without hope of release or respite from
their misery. Can we be surprised when we find such a
one asking himself ? " Surely if God were pleased with the
faith to which you have clung, He would not have thus
abandoned you, but would have helped you to gain your
freedom and return to it again. But as He has closed every
avenue of freedom to you, perchance it is His pleasure that
you should leave it and join this sect and be saved therein." ^
The 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 to many a hapless Christian captive with over-
whelming persistency, until at last he broke away from the
ties of his old faith and embraced Islam. Many who would
have been ready to die as martyrs for the Christian religion
if the mythical choice between the Qur'an and the sword had
been offered them, felt more and more strongly, after long
years of captivity, the influence of Muhammadan thought
and practice, and humanity won converts where violence
would have failed.^ For though the lot of many of the
Christian captives was a very pitiable one, others who held
positions in the households of private individuals, were often
no worse off than domestic servants in the rest of Europe.
1 Turchicae Spurcitiae Suggillatio, fol. xii. (b), xiii. (a).
^ Id. fol. xxvii. (a).
' " Dum
interius fidemcorpora exterius
auferendo fovendo
animas sub pietatis
sua diabolica astutiaspecie non intendit.
occidere occidit :
Huius rei testimonium innumerabilis multitude fidelium esse potest.
Quorum multi promptissimi essent pro fide Christi et suarum animarum
salute in fide Christi mori : quos tamen conservando a morte corporali : et
ductos in captivitatem per successum temporis suo infectos veneno fidem
Christi turpiter negare facit." Turchicae Spurctiae Suggillatio, fol. i. ; cf.
fol. vi. (a).
As organised by the Muhammadan Law, slavery was robbed
of many of its harshest features, nor in Turkey at least does
it seem to have been accompanied by such barbarities and
atrocities as in the pirate states of Northern Africa. The
slaves, like other citizens, had their rights, and it is even said
that a slave might summon his master before the Qadi for
ill usage, and that if he alleged that their tempers were so
opposite, that it was impossible for them to agree, the
Qadi could oblige his master to sell him.^ The condition
of the Christian captives naturally varied with circum-
stances and their own capabilities of adapting themselves
to a life of hardship ; the aged, the priests and monks, and
those of noble birth suffered most, while the physician and
the handicraftsman received more considerate treatment
from their masters, as being servants that best repaid the
money spent upon them.^ The galley-slaves naturally
suffered most of all, indeed the kindest treatment could
have but little relieved the hardships incident to such an
occupation. 2 Further, the lot of the slaves who were state
property was more pitiable than that of those who had been
purchased by private individuals.* As a rule they were
allowed the free exercise of their religion; in the state-
prisons at Constantinople, they had their own priests and
chapels, and the clergy were allowed to administer the con-
solations ofreligion to the galley-slaves,^ The number of
the Christian slaves who embraced Islam was enormous;
some few cases have been recorded of their being threatened
^ Menavino, p. 96. John Harris : Navigantium atque Itinerantium
Bibliotheca, vol. ii. p. 819. (London, 1764.)
^ " Dieses muss man den Tiirken nachsagen, dass sic die Diener und
Sclaven, durch deren Fleiss und Bemiihung sie sich einen Nutzen schaffen
konnen, sehr wol und oft besser, als die Christian die ihrige, halten . . . und
wann ein Knecht in einer Kunst erfahren ist, gehet ihm nichts anders als
die Freyheit ab, ausser welche er alles andere hat, was ein freyer Mensch
sich nur wiinschen kan." (G. C. von den Driesch, p. 132.)
^ Sir Wilham Stirling-Maxwell says of these : " The poor wretches who
tugged at the oar on board a Turkish ship of war lived a Ufe neither more
nor less miserable than the galley-slaves under the sign of the Cross. Hard
work, hard fare, and hard knocks were the lot of both. Ashore, a Turkish
or Algerine prison was, perhaps, more noisome in its filth and darkness than
a prison at Naples or Barcelona ; but at sea, if there were degrees of misery,
the Christian in Turkish chains probably had the advantage; for in the
Sultan's vessels the oar-gang was often the property of the captain, and
the owner's natural tenderness for his own was sometimes supposed to
interfere with the discharge of his duty." (Vol. i. pp. 102-3.)
* GmeUn, p. 16. s Id, p, 23.
and ill-treated for the very purpose of inducing them to

recant, but as a rule the masters seldom forced them to
renounce their faith, ^ and put the greatest pressure upon
them during the first years of their captivity, after which
they let them alone to follow their own faith. ^ The majority
of the converted slaves therefore changed their religion of
their own free choice; and when the Christian embassies
were never sure from day to day that some of their fellow-
countrymen that had accompanied them to Constantinople
as domestic servants, might not turn Turk,^ it can easily
be understood that slaves who had lost all hope of return
to their native country, and found little in their surroundings
to strengthen and continue the teachings of their earlier
years, would yield to the influences that beset them and
would feel few restraints to hinder them from entering a new
society and a new religion. An English traveller * of the
seventeenth century has said of them : " Few ever return
to their native country; and fewer have the courage and
constancy of retaining the Christian Faith, in which they
were educated; their education being but mean, and their
knowledge but slight in the principles and grounds of it ;
whereof some are frightened into Turcism by their impatience
^ John Harris ; Navigantium atque Itinerantium Bibliotheca, vol. ii. p. 8io,
2 " Die ersten Jahre sind fiir solche ungliickliche Leute am besch-
wehrlichsten, absonderlich wenn sic noch jung, weil die Tiirken selbige
entweder mit Schmeicheln, oder, wann dieses nichts verfangen will, mit
der Scharfe zu ihren Giauben zu bringen suchen ; wann aber dieser Sturm
iiberwunden, wird man finden, dass die Gefangenschaft nirgend ertraglicher
als bey den Tiirken seye." (G. C. von den Driesch, p. 132.) Moreover
Georgieviz says that those who persevered in the Christian faith were set
free after a certain fixed period. " Si in Christiana fide perseveraverint,
statuitur certum tempus serviendi, quo elapso liberi fiunt . . . Verum
illis qui nostram religionem abiurarunt, nee certum tempus est serviendi,
ned ullum ius in patriam redeundi, spes libertatis solummodo pendet a
domini arbitrio " (p. 87). Similarly Menavino, p. 65. Cantacuzenos gives
this period as seven years :— " Grata e la compagnia che essi fanno a gli
schiavi loro, percioche Maumetto gli ha fra I'altre cose comandato che egli
non si possa tener in servitii uno schiavo piu che sette anni, et percio nessuno
o raro e colui che a tal comandamento voglia contrafare " (p. 128).
' " Fromme Christen, die nach der Tiirkei oder in andere muhame-
danische Lander kamen, hatten Anlass genug zur Trauer iiber die Hiiufigkeit
des Abfalls ihrer Glaubensgenossen, und besonders die Schriften der Ordens-
geistlichen sind voU von solchen Klagen. Bei den Sclaven konnte sich
immer noch ein Gefiihl des Mitleids dem der Missbilligung beimischen, aber
oft genug musste man die bittersten Erfahrungen auch an freien Landsleuten
machen. Die christhchen Gesandten waren keinen Tag sicher, ob ihnen
nicht Leute von ihrem Gefolge davon liefen, und man that gut daran, den
Tag nicht vor dem Abend zu loben." (Gmelin, p. 22.) Cf. Von den
Driesch, p. 161. * Thomas Smith, pp. 144-5.
and too deep resentments of the hardships of the servitude ;
others are enticed by the blandishments and flatteries of
pleasure the Mahometan Law allows, and the allurements
they have of making their condition better and more easy
by a change of their Religion ; having no hope left of being
redeemed, they renounce their Saviour and their Christianity,
and soon forget their original country, and are no longer
looked upon as strangers, but pass for natives."
Much of course depended upon the individual character
of the different Christian slaves themselves. The anony-
mous writer, so often quoted above, whose long captivity
made him so competent to speak on their condition, divides
them into three classes :— first, those who passed their days
in all simplicity, not caring to trouble themselves to learn
anything about the rehgion of their masters; for them it
was enough to know that the Turks were infidels, and so,
as far as their captive condition and their yoke of slavery
allowed, they avoided having anything to do with them
and their religious worship, fearing lest they should be led
astray by their errors, and striving to observe the Christian
faith as far as their knowledge and power went. The second
class consisted of those whose curiosity led them to study
and investigate the doings of the Turks : if, by the help of
God, they had time enough to dive into their secrets, and
understanding enough for the investigation of them and
light of reason to find the interpretation thereof, they not
only came out of the trial unscathed, but had their own
faith strengthened. The third class includes those who,
examining the Muslim religion without due caution, fail to
dive into its depths and find the interpretation of it and so
are deceived; believing the errors of the Turks to be the
truth, they lose their own faith and embrace the false
religion of the Muslims, hereby not only compassing their
own destruction, but setting a bad example to others : of
such men the number is infinite. ^
Conversion to Islam did not, as some writers have affirmed,
release the slave from his captivity and make him a free man, 2
^ Turchicae Spurcitiae Suggillatio, fol. xxxv. (a).
* M. d'Ohsson,
Menavino, p. 95. vol. iii. p. 133. Georgieviz, p. 87 (quoted above).
for emancipation was solely at the discretion of the
master; who indeed often promised to set any slave free,
without the payment of ransom, if only he would embrace
Islam ; ^ but, on the other hand, would also freely emancipate
the Christian slave, even though he had persevered in his
religion, provided he had proved himself a faithful servant,
and would make provision for his old age.^
There were many others who, like the Christian slaves,
separated from early surroundings and associations, found
themselves cut loose from old ties and thrown into the midst
of a society animated by social and religious ideals of an
entirely novel character. The crowds of Christian work-
men that came wandering from the conquered countries
in the iifteenth century to Adrianople and other Turkish
cities in search of employment, were easily persuaded to
settle there and adopt the faith of Islam. ^ Similarly the
Christian families that Muhammad II transported from
conquered provinces in Europe into Asia Minor,* may well
have become merged into the mass of the Muslim population
by almost imperceptible degrees, as was the case with the
Armenians carried away into Persia by Shah 'Abbas I
(1587-1629), most of whom appear to have passed over to
Islam in the second generation.^
During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries there
would seem to have been a decay of the missionary spirit
among the Turks, but the latter years of the reign of Sultan
*Abd al-Hamid witnessed a renewed interest in Muslim
propaganda, and Turkish newspapers began to record
instances of conversion. Among the most noteworthy of
such converts were some eighteen amirs of the princely
family of Shihab in Mount Lebanon, which had been
Christian for about a century; they are said to claim
descent from the Quraysh, and the Turks made every effort
to bring them back to the fold of Islam ; those who became
^ Von den Driesch, p. 250.
* Id. p. 131-2.
^ Turchicae Spurcitiae Suggillatio, fol. xi.
* Hertzberg, p. 621.
^ " The old People dying, the young ones generally turn Mahumetans :
so that now (1655) you can hardly meet with two Christian Armenians in all
those fair Plains, which their fathers were sent to manure." Tavernier
(i), p. 16.
Muslims were appointed to lucrative posts in the Turkish

civil service.^
In the following pages it is proposed to give a more
detailed and particular account of the spread of Islam among
the Christian populations of Albania, Servia, Bosnia and
Crete, as the history of each of these countries after its con-
quest by the Ottomans presents some special features of
interest in the history of the propagation of Islam.
The Albanians, with the exception of some settlements in
Greece, 2 inhabit the mountainous country that stretches
along the east shore of the Adriatic from Montenegro to the
Gulf of Arta. They form one of the oldest and purest-
blooded races in Europe and are said to belong to the
Pelasgic branch of the Aryan stock.
Their country was first invaded by the Turks in 1387, but
the Turkish forces soon had to withdraw, and the authority
of the Sultan was recognised for the first time in 1423,
For a short period Albania regained its independence under
George Kastriota, who is better known under his Muhamma-
dan name of Scanderbeg or Sikandarbeg. Recent investi-
gations have estabhshed the falsity of the romantic
fictions that had gathered round the story of his early
days — how that as a boy he had been surrendered as a
hostage to the Turks, had been brought up among them as a
Muslim and had won the special favour of the Sultan. The
truth is, that the days of his youth were passed in his native
mountains and his warfare with the Turks began with the
victory gained over them in 1444; for more than twenty
years he maintained a vigorous and successful resistance to
their invading forces, but after his death in 1467, the Turks
began again to take possession of Albania. Kriiya, the
capital of the Kastriot dynasty, fell into their hands eleven
years later, and from this date there appears to have been
no organised resistance of the whole country, though revolts
were frequent and the subjection of the country was never
complete. Some of the sea-port towns held out much
longer; Durazzo was captured in 1501, while Antivari, the
northernmost point of the sea-coast of Albania, did not
1 H. H. Jessup : Fifty-three Years in Syria, vol. ii. p. 658. (New York, 1910.)
^ For a list of these, see Finlay, vol. vi. pp. 28-g.
N
surrender until 1571. The terms of capitulation were that
the city should retain its old laws and magistrature, that
there should be free and public exercise of the Christian
religion, that the churches and chapels should remain
uninjured and might be rebuilt if they fell into decay; that
the citizens should retain all their movable and immovable
property and should not be burdened by any additional
taxation.
The Albanians under Turkish rule appear always to have
maintained a kind of semi-autonomy, and the several tribes
and clans remained as essentially independent as they were
before the conquest. Though vassals of the Sultans, they
would not brook the interference of Turkish officials in their
internal administration, and there is reason to beheve that
the Turkish Government has never been able to appoint or
confirm any provincial governor who was not a native of
Albania, and had not already established his influence by
his arms, policy or connections. ^ Their racial pride is
intense, and to the present day, the Albanian, if asked what
he is, will call himself a Skipetar,- before saying whether
he is a Christian or a Muhammadan — a very remarkable
instance of national feeling obliterating the fierce distinction
between these two religions that so forcibly obtrudes itself
in the rest of the Ottoman empire. The Christian and
Muhammadan Albanians alike, just as they speak the same
language, so do they cherish the same traditions, and
observe the same manners and customs ; and pride in their
common nationality has been too strong a bond to allow
differences of religious belief to split the nation into separate
communities on this basis. ^ Side by side they served in the
^ Leake, p. 250.
* The name by which the Albanians always call themselves, lit. rock-
dwellers.
' One of themselves, an Albanian Christian, speaking of the enmity
existing between the Christians and Muhammadans of Bulgaria, says :
" Aber fiir Albanien liegen die Dachen ganz anders. Die Muselmanner
sind Albanesen, wie die Christen ; sie sprechen dieselbe Sprache, sie haben
dieselben Sitten. sie folgen denselben Gebrauchen, sie haben dieselben
Traditionen ; sie und die Christen haben sich niemals gehasst, zwischen
ihnen herrscht keine Jahrhunderte alte Feindschaft. Der Unterschied der
Religion war niemals ein zu einer systematischen Trennung treibendes
Motiv ; Muselmanner und Christen haben stets, mit wenigen Ausnahmen,
auf gleichem Fusse gelebt, sich der gleichen Rechte erfreuend, dieselben
Pflichten erfiillend." (Wassa Effendi : Albanien und die Albanesen, p. 59.)
(Berlin, 1879.)
irregular troops, which soon after the Turkish conquest

became the main dependence of the government in all its
internal administration, and both classes found the same
ready employment in the service of the local pashas, being
accounted the bravest soldiers in the empire. Christian
Albanians served in the Ottoman army in the Crimean War,^
and though they have perhaps been a little more quiet and
agricultural than their Muslim fellow-countrymen, still the
difference has been small : they have always retained their
arms and military habits, have always displayed the same
fierce, proud, untameable spirit, and been animated with the
same intense national feeling as their brethren who had
embraced the creed of the Prophet, ^
The consideration of these facts is of importance in tracing
the spread of Islam in Albania, for it appears to have been
propagated very gradually by the people of the country
themselves, and not under pressure of foreign influences.
The details that we possess of this movement are very
meagre, as the history of Albania from the close of the
fifteenth century to the rise of 'AH Pasha three hundred
years later, is almost a blank; what knowledge we have,
therefore, of the slow but continuous accession of converts
to Islam during this period, is derived from the ecclesiastical
chronicles of the various dioceses,^ and the reports sent in
from time to time to the Pope and the Congregatio de
Propaganda Fide.* But it goes without saying that the
very nature of these sources gives the information derived
from them the stamp of imperfection — especially in the
matter of the motives assigned for conversion. For an
ecclesiastic of those times to have even entertained the
possibility of a conversion to Islam from genuine conviction
— much less have openly expressed such an opinion in
writing to his superiors — is well-nigh inconceivable.
^ Finlay, vol. v. p. 46.
^ Clark, pp. 175-7. The Mirdites, who are very fanatical Roman
Catholics (in the diocese of Alessio), will not suffer a Muhammadan to hve
in their mountains, and no member of their tribe has ever abjured his faith ;
were any Mirdite to attempt to do so, he would certainly be put to death,
unless he succeeded in making good his escape from Albania. (Hecquard :
Histoire de la Haute Albanie, p. 224.)
3 Published in Farlati's Illyricum Sacrum.
* Alessandro Comuleo, 1593. Bizzi, 1610. Marco Crisio, 1651. Fra
Bonaventura di S. Antonio, 1652. Zmaievich, 1703.
i8o THE PREACHING OF ISLAM
During the sixteenth century, Islam appears to have made

but httle progress, though the tide of conversion had already
set in. In 1610 the Christian population exceeded the
Muhammadan in the proportion of ten to one,i and as most
of the villages were inhabited by Christians, with a very
small admixture of Muhammadans,^ the conversions appear
to have been more frequent in the large towns. In Antivari,
for example, while many Christians elected to emigrate into
the neighbouring Christian countries, the majority of those
who remained, both high-born and low, went over gradually
to the Muslim faith, so that the Christian population grew
less and less day by day.^ As the number of accessions to
Islam increased, churches were converted into mosques —
a measure which, though contrary to the terms of the
capitulation, seems justified by the change in the religion
of the people.* In 1610 two collegiate churches only re-
mained in the hands of the Latin Christians, but these
appear to have sufficed for the needs of the community ; ^
what this amounted to can only roughly be guessed from the
words of Marco Bizzi : " There are about 600 houses inhabited
indiscriminately by Muhammadans and Christians — both
Latin and Schismatics (i.e. of the Orthodox Greek Church) :
the number of the Muhammadans is a httle in excess of
the Christians, and that of the Latins in excess of the
Schismatics."
In the accounts we have of the social relations between
the Christians and the Mushms, and in the absence of any
sharp line of demarcation between the two communities,
we find some clue to the manner in which Muhammadan
influences gradually gained converts from among the
Christian population in proportion as the vigour and the
spiritual hfe of the Church dechned.
1 Bizzi, fol. 60, b. " Bizzi, fol. 35, a. ^ Farlati, vol. vii. pp. 104, 107.
* It is also complained that the Archbishop's palace was appropriated
by the Muhammadans, but it had been left unoccupied for eight years, as
Archbishop Ambrosius (flor. 1579-1598) had found it prudent to go into
exile, having attacked Islam " with more fervour than caution, inveighing
against Muhammad and damning his Satanic doctrines." (Farlati, vol.
vii. p. 107.)
* Bizzi, fol. 9. where he says, " E comunicai quella mattina quasi tutta
la Christianity latina." From a comparison with statistics given by
Zmaievich (fol. 227) I would hazard the conjecture that the Latin Christian
community at this time amounted to rather over a thousand souls.
SPREAD OF ISLAM IN EUROPE i8i
It had become very common for Christian parents to

give their daughters in marriage to Muhammadans, and for
Christian women to make no objection to such unions. ^
The male children born of these mixed marriages were
brought up as Musalmans, but the girls were allowed to
follow the religion of their mother. ^ Such permission was
rendered practically ineffective by the action of the Christian
ecclesiastics, who ordered the mothers to be excluded from
the churches and from participation in the sacraments ; ^
and consequently (though the parish priests often dis-
regarded the commands of their superiors) many of these
women embraced the faith of their husbands. But even
then they kept up a superstitious observance of the rite of
baptism, which was supposed to be a sovereign specific
against leprosy, witches and wolves,* and Christian priests
were found ready to pander to this superstition for any
Muhammadan woman who wished to have her children
baptised. 5 This good feeling between the members of the
two religions ^ is similarly illustrated by the attendance of
Muhammadans at the festivals of Christian saints ; e. g.
Marco Bizzi says that on the feast-day of St. Elias (for whom
the Albanians appear to have had a special devotion) there
were as many Muhammadans present in the church as
Christians.' Even to the present day we are told that
Albanian Muhammadans revere the Virgin Mary and the
Christian saints, and make pilgrimages to their shrines,
^ Bizzi, fol. 27, b; 38, b.
2 Veniero, fol. 34. This was also the custom in some villages of Albania
as late as the beginning of the nineteenth century ; see W. M. Leake : Travels
in Northern Greece,
Mahometans vol. toi. Greek
are married p. 49. women,
(London,
the 1835) : "In
sons are some asvillages,
educated Turks,
and the daughters as Christians; and pork and mutton are eaten at the
same table."
' Bizzi, fol. 38, b. Farlati, tom. vii. p. 158.
* Bizzi, fol. 10, b. Veniero, fol. 34.
* Shortly after Marco Bizzi's arrival at Antivari a Muhammadan lady
of high rank wished to have her child baptised by the Archbishop himself,
who tells us that she complained bitterly to one of the leading Christians of
the city that " io non mi fossi degnato di far a lei questo piacere, il qual
quotidianamente vien fatto dai miei preti a richiesta di qualsivoglia plebeo "
(fol. 10, b).
* For modern instances of the harmonious relations subsisting between
the followers of the two faiths living together in the same village, see
Hyacinthe Hecquard : Histoire et description de la Haute Albanie (pp.
153, 162, 200). (Paris, 1858.)
' Bizzi, fol. 38, a.
while Christians on the other hand resort to the tombs of
MusHm saints for the cure of ailments or in fulfilment of
vows.^ In the town of Calevacci, where there were sixty
Christian and ten Muhammadan households, the followers
of the Prophet contributed towards the support of the parish
priest, as the majority of them had Christian wives. ^ Under
such circumstances it is hardly surprising to learn that many
openly professed Islam, while satisfying their consciences
by saying that they professed Christianity in their hearts.^
Marco Bizzi has three explanations to offer for such a lapse —
the attraction of worldly advantage, the desire to avoid the
payment of tribute, and the want of a sufficiently large
number of intelligent clergy to supply the spiritual needs of
the country.* Conversions are frequently ascribed to the
pressure of the burden of taxation imposed upon the Chris-
tians, and whole villages are said to have apostatised to
avoid payment of the tribute. As no details are given, it
is impossible to judge whether there was really sufficient
ground for the complaint, or whether this was not the
apology for their conduct alleged by the renegades in order
to make some kind of excuse to their former co-rehgionists —
or indeed an exaggeration on the part of ecclesiastics to
whom a genuine conversion to Islam on rational grounds
seemed an absolute impossibility. A century later (in 1703)
the capitation-tax was six reals a head for each male and
this (with the exception of a tax, termed sciataraccio, of
three reals a year) was the only burden imposed on the
Christians exclusively.^ Men must have had very little
attachment to their religion to abandon it merely in order to
be quit of so slight a penalty, and with no other motive ;
and the very existence of so large a body of Christians in
Albania at the present time shows that the burden could not
have been so heavy as to force them into apostasy without
any other alternative.
If only we had something more than vague general com-
able toplaints against the " how
determine Turkish
far tyranny,"
this could wehave
should
hadbe such
bettera
^ Garnett, p. 267. ^ Bizzi, fol. 36, b.

^ Id. fol. 38, b. ; 37, a. * Bizzi, fol. 38, b; 61, a; 37, a; 33, b.
^ Zmaievich, fol. 5. The Venetian real in the eighteenth century was
equal to a Turkish piastre. (Businello, p. 94.)
preponderating influence as is ascribed to it : but the evid-

ence alleged seems hardly to warrant such a conclusion. The
vicious practice followed by the Ottoman Court of selling
posts in the provinces to the highest bidder and the uncer-
tainty of the tenure of such posts, often resulted in the
occupants trying to amass as large a fortune as possible by
extortions of every kind. But such burdens are said to
have weighed as heavily on Muhammadans as Christians. ^
Though certainly an avaricious and unjust official may have
found it easier to oppress the Christians than the Muslims,
especially when the former were convicted of treasonable
correspondence with the Venetians and other Christian
states and were suspected of a wish to revolt.
However this may have been, there can be little doubt
of the influence exerted by the zealous activity and vigorous
life of Islam in the face of the apathetic and ignorant
Christian clergy. If Islam in Albania had many such
exponents as the Mulla, whose sincerity, courtesy and
friendliness are praised by Marco Bizzi, with whom he used
to discuss religious questions, it may well have made its
way. 2 The majority of the Christian clergy appear to have
been wholly unlettered : most of them, though they could
read a little, did not know how to write, and were so ignorant
of the duties of their sacred calling that they could not even
repeat the formula of absolution by heart. ^ Though they had
to recite the mass and other services in Latin, there were
very few who could understand any of it, as they were
ignorant of any language but their mother tongue, and they
had only a vague, traditionary knowledge of the truths of
their rehgion.* Marco Bizzi considered the inadequate
episcopate of the country responsible for these evils, as for
the small numbers of the clergy, and their ignorance of
their sacred calling, and for the large number of Christians
who grew old and even died without being confirmed, and
apostatised almost everywhere ; ^ and unless this were
1 Bizzi, fol. 12-13. Zmaievich, fol. 5. ' Bizzi, fol. lo-ii.
3 Id. fol. 31, b. _ * Id. fol. 60. b.
^ Id. fol. 33, b. " Qui deriva il puoco numero de Sacerdoti in quelle
parti e la puoca
Christiani, loro intelligenza
che invecchiano, in quel
et anco mestiero;
morono il Sacramento
senza il gran numero della
de'
Confermatione et apostatano della fade quasi per tutto."
remedied he prophesied a rapid decay of Christianity in the
country.! Several priests were also accused of keeping
concubines, and of drunkenness. ^
It may here be observed that the Albanian priests were
not the repositories of the national aspirations and ideals,
as were the clergy of the Orthodox Church in other provinces
of the Turkish empire, who in spite of their ignorance kept
alive among their people that devotion to the Christian
faith which formed the nucleus of the national life of the
Greeks.^ On the contrary, the Albanians cherished a
national feeling that was quite apart from rehgious belief,
and with regard to the Turks, considered, in true feudal
spirit, that as they were the masters of the country they
ought to be obeyed whatever commands they gave.*
There is a curious story of conversion which is said to
have taken place owing to a want of amicable relations
between a Christian priest and his people, as follows :
" Many years since, when all the country was Christian,
there stood in the city of Scutari a beautiful image of the
Virgin Mary, to whose shrine thousands flocked every year
from all parts of the country to offer their gifts, perform
their devotions, and be healed of their infirmities. For
some cause or other, however, it fell out that there was
dissension between the priest and the people, and one day
the latter came to the church in great crowds, declaring
that unless the priest yielded to them they would then and
there abjure the faith of Christ and embrace in its stead that
of Muhammad. The priest, whether right or wrong, still
remaining firm, his congregation tore the rosaries and crosses
from their necks, trampled them under their feet, and going
to the nearest mosque, were received by the Mollah into the
fold of the True Behevers." ^
Through the neghgence and apathy of the Christian clergy
1 " Se r Albania non ricevera qualche maggior agiuto in meno di anni
andera a male quasi tutta quella Christianita per il puoco numero dei
Vescovi e dei Sacerdoti di qualche intelligenza." (Id. fol. 6i, a.)
2 Id. fol. 36, a. Id. fol. 64. b.
3 Finlay, vol. v. pp. 153-4. Clark, p. 290.
* " E quel miseri hanno fermata la conscientia in creder di non peccar
per simil coniuntioni (i.e. the giving of Christian girls in marriage to
Muhammadans) per esser i turchi signori del paese, e che pero non si possa,
ne devea far altro che obbedirU quando comandano qualsivoglia cosa."
iBizzi, fol. 38, b.) * Garnett, p. 268,
many abuses and irregularities had been allowed to creep
into the Christian society; in one of which, namely the
practice of contracting marriages without the sanction of
the Church or any religious ceremony, we find an approxi-
mation to the Muhammadan law, which makes marriage
a civil contract. In order to remedy this evil, the husband
and wife were to be excluded from the Church, until they
had conformed to the ecclesiastical law and gone through
the service in the regular manner. ^
In the course of the seventeenth century, the social
conditions and other factors, indicated above, bore fruit
abundantly, and the numbers of the Christian population
began rapidly to decline. In the brief space of thirty years,
between 1620 and 1650, about 300,000 Albanians are said
to have gone over to Islam. ^ In 1624 there were only
2000 Catholics in the whole diocese of Antivari, and in
the city itself only one church; at the close of the
century, even this church was no longer used for Christian
worship, as there were only two families of Roman
Catholics left.^ In the whole country generally, the
majority of the Christian community in 1651 was com-
posed of women, as the male population had apostatised in
such large numbers to Islam. ^ Matters were still worse at
the close of the century, the Catholics being then fewer in
number than the Muhammadans, the proportions being
about I to 1^,5 whereas less than a hundred years before,
they had outnumbered the Muhammadans in the proportion
of 10 to I ; ^ in the Archbishopric of Durazzo the Christian
population had decreased by about half in twenty years,'
in another town (in the diocese of Kroia) the entire popula-
tion passed from Christianity to Islam in the course of thirty
years. ^ In spite of the frequent protests and regulations
made by their ecclesiastical superiors, the parish priests
continued to countenance the open profession of Islam along
with a secret adherence to Christianity, on the part of many
male members of their flocks, by administering to them the
Blessed Sacrament ; the result of which was that the children
1 Bizzi, fol. 38, b; 63, a. ^ Kyriakos, p. 12.
^ Farlati, torn. vii. pp. 124, iî, * Marco Crisio, p. 202.
* Zmaievich, fol. 227. « Bizzi, fol. 60, b.
^ Zmaievich, fol, 137. b Zmaievich, fol. 157.
of such persons, being brought up as Muhammadans, were

for ever lost to the Christian Church. ^ Similarly, Christian
parents still gave their daughters in marriage to Muhamma-
dans, the parish priests countenancing such unions by
administering the sacrament to such women, ^ in spite of the
fulminations of the higher clergy against such indulgence. ^
Such action on the part of the lower clergy can hardly,
however, be taken as indicating any great zeal on behalf of
the spiritual welfare of their flocks, in the face of the accusa-
tions brought against them; the majority of them are
accused of being scandalous livers, who very seldom went to
confession and held drunken revels in their parsonages on
festival days ; they sold the property of the Church, fre-
quently absented themselves from their parishes, and when
censured, succeeded in getting off by putting themselves
under the protection of the Turks.* The Reformed
Franciscans and the Observants who had been sent to
minister to the spiritual wants of the people did nothing
but quarrel and go to law with one another; much to the
scandal of the laity and the neglect of the mission. ^ In the
middle of the seventeenth century five out of the twelve
Albanian sees were vacant ; the diocese of Pullati had not
been visited by a bishop for thirty years, and there were
only two priests to 6348 souls.® In some parishes in the
interior of the country, there had been no priests for more
than forty years ; and this was in no way due to the oppres-
sion of the " Turkish tyrant," for when at last four Fran-
ciscan missionaries were sent, they reported that they could
go through the country and exercise their sacred ofhce
without any hindrance whatever.' The bishop of 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-liver : this man had 12,400 souls under his
charge, and, says the ecclesiastical visitor, " through the
absence of the bishop there is danger of his losing his own
1 Zmaievich, fol. ii, 159. 2 Zmaievich, fol. 13.
' Bizzi, fol. 38, b. Farlati, vol. vii. p. 158.
* Zmaievich, fol. 13-14.
' Informatione circa la missione d'Albania, fol. 196.
* Crisio, fol. 204. ' Fra Bonaventura, fol. 201
soul and compassing the destruction of the souls under him
and of the property of the Church." ^ The bishop of Scutari
was looked upon as a tyrant by his clergy and people, and
only succeeded in keeping his post through the aid of the
Turks ; ^ and Zmaievich complains of the bishops generally
that they burdened the parishes in their diocese with forced
contributions.^ It appears that Christian ecclesiastics were
authorised by the Sultan to levy contributions on their
flocks. Thus the Archbishop of Antivari (1599-1607) was
allowed to " exact and receive " two aspers from each
Christian family, twelve for every first marriage (and double
the amount for a second, and quadruple for a third marriage) ,
and one gold piece from each parish annually, and it seems
to have been possible to obtain the assistance of the Turkish
authorities in levying these contributions.*
Throughout the whole of Albania there was not a single
Christian school,^ and the priests were profoundly ignorant :
some were sent to study in Italy, but Marco Crisio condemns
this practice, as such priests were in danger of finding life
in Italy so pleasant that they refused to return to their
native country. With a priesthood so ignorant and so
careless of their sacred duties, it is not surprising to learn
that the common people had no knowledge even of the rudi-
ments of their faith, and that numerous abuses and corrup-
tions sprang up among them, which " wrought the utmost
desolation to this vineyard of the Lord." ^ Many Christians
lived in open concubinage for years, still, however, being
admitted to the sacraments,' while others had a plurality
of wives.® In this latter practice we notice an assimilation
between the habits of the two communities — the Christian
and the Muslim — which is further illustrated by the ad-
mission of Muhammadans as sponsors at the baptism of
Christian children, while the old superstitious custom of
baptising Muhammadan children was still sanctioned by
the priests. 9
1 Marco Crisio, fol. 202, 205. 2 i{j_ fQj^ 205.
^ Zmaievich, fol. 13.
* Farlati, torn. vii. p. 109. Bizzi, fol. 19, b.
^ Marco Crisio, fol. 205. ^ Zmaievich, fol. 11.
' Id. fol. 32. 8 Crisio, fol. 204.
^ Zmaievich, fol. 11. Farlati, vol. vii. p. 151.
Such being the state of the Christian Church in Albania in

the latter half of the seventeenth century, some very trifling
incentive would have been enough to bring about a wide-
spread apostasy; and the punishment inflicted on the re-
bellious Catholics in the latter half of the century was a
determining factor more than sufficient to consummate the
tendencies that had been drawing them towards Islam and
to cause large numbers of them to fall away from the Christian
Church. The rebellious movement referred to seems to have
been instigated by George, the thirty-ninth Archbishop of
Antivari (1635-1644), who through the bishops of Durazzo,
Scodra and Alessio tried to induce the leaders of the Christian
community to conspire against the Turkish rule and hand
over the country to the neighbouring Christian power, the
Republic of Venice. As in his time Venice was at peace with
the Turks a fitting opportunity for the hatching of this plot
did not occur, but in 1645 war broke out between Turkey
and the Republic, and the Venetians made an unsuccessful
attempt to capture the city of Antivari, which before the
Turkish conquest had been in their possession for more than
three centuries (1262-1571). The Albanian Catholics who
had sided with the enemy and secretly given them assistance
were severely punished and deprived of their privileges,
while the Greek Christians (who had everything to fear in
the event of the restoration of the Venetian rule and had
remained faithful to the Turkish government) were liberally
rewarded and were lauded as the saviours of their country.
Many of the Catholics either became Muhammadans or
joined the Greek Church. The latter fact is very significant
as showing that there was no persecution of the Christians
as such, nor any attempt to force the acceptance of Islam
upon them. The Catholics who became Muhammadans
did so to avoid the odium of their position after the failure
of their plot, and could have gained the same end and have
at the same time retained their Christian faith by joining
the Greek Church, which was not only officially recognised
by the Turkish government but in high favour in Antivari
at this time : so that those who neglected to do so, could
have had very little attachment to the Christian rehgion.
The same remark holds good of the numerous conversions
to Islam in the succeeding years : Zmaievich attributes
them in some cases to the desire to avoid the payment of
tribute, but, from what has been said above, it is very
unhkely that this was the sole determining motive.
In 1649 a still more widespread insurrection broke out,
an Archbishop of Antivari, Joseph Maria Bonaldo (1646-
1654), being again the main instigator of the movement;
and the leading citizens of Antivari, Scodra and other towns
conspired to throw open their gates to the army of the
Venetian Repubhc. But this plot also failed and the in-
surrection was forcibly crushed by the Turkish troops, aided
by the dissensions that arose among the Christians them-
selves. Many Albanians whose influence was feared were
transported from their own country into the interior of the
Turkish dominions ; a body of 3000 men crossed the border
into Venetian territory ; those who remained were overawed
by the erection of fortresses and the marching of troops
through the disaffected districts, while heavy fines were
imposed upon the malcontents. ^
Unfortunately the Christian writers who complain of the
" unjust tributes and vexations " with which the Turks
oppressed the Albanians, so that they apostatised to Islam,^
make use only of general expressions, and give us no details
to enable us to judge whether or not such complaints were
justified by the facts. Zmaievich prefaces his account of
the apostasy of 2000 persons with an enumeration of
the taxes and other burdens the Christians had to bear, but
all these, he says, were common also to the Muhammadans,
with the exception of the capitation-tax of six reals a year
for each male, and another tax, termed sciataraccio, of three
reals a year.^ He concludes with the words : " The nation,
wounded by these taxes in its weakest part, namely, worldly
interest, to the consideration of which it has a singular
leaning either by nature or by necessity, has given just cause
for lamenting the deplorable loss of about 2000 souls who
apostatised from the true faith so as not to be subject to
the tribute." ^ There is nothing in his report to show that
^ Farlati, vol. vii. pp. 126-32. Zmaievich, fol. 4-5, fol. 20.
* " Plerique, ut se iniquis tributis et vexationibus eximerent, paullatim
a Christiana reHgione deficere coeperunt." (Farlati, torn. vii. p. 311.)
^ Zmaievich fol. 5. * Id. fol. 5.
the taxes the Cathohcs had to pay constituted so intolerable
a burden as to force them to renounce their creed, and though
he attributes many conversions to Islam to the desire of
escaping the tribute, he says expressly that these apostasies
from the Christian faith are mainly to be ascribed to the
extreme ignorance of the clergy/ in great measure also to
their practice of admitting to the sacraments those who
openly professed Islam while in secret adhering to the
Christian faith : ^ in another place he says, speaking of the
clergy who were not fit to be parish priests and their practice
of administering the sacraments to apostates and secret
Christians : " These are precisely the two causes from which
have come all the losses that the Christian Church has
sustained in Albania." ^ There is very httle doubt that the
widespread apostasy at this time was the result of a long
series of influences similar to those mentioned in the preceding
pages, and that the dehverance from the payment of the
tribute was the last link in the chain.
What active efforts Muhammadans themselves were
making to gain over the Christians to Islam, we can hardly
expect to learn from the report of an ecclesiastical visitor.
But we find mention of a district, the inhabitants of which,
from their intercourse with the Turks, had " contracted
the vices of these infidels," and one of the chief causes of
their falling away from the Christian faith was their con-
tracting marriages with Turkish women.* There were no
doubt strong Muhammadan influences at work here, as also
in the two parishes of Biscascia and Basia, whose joint
population of nearly a thousand souls was " exposed to the
obvious risk of apostatising through lack of any pastor,"
and were " much tempted in their faith, and needed to be
strengthened in it by wise and zealous pastors." ^
Zmaievich speaks of one of the old noble Christian families
in the neighbourhood of Antivari which was represented at
that time by two brothers; the elder of these had been
" wheedled " by the prominent Muhammadans of the
place, who were closely related to him, into denying his
1 Zmaievich, fol. 15, 197. ^ Id. fol. 11.
» Id. fol. 137. * Id. fol. 149.
Id. fol. 143-4.
faith; the younger wished to study for the priesthood, in
which office " he would be of much assistance to the Christian
Church through the high esteem in which the Turks held his
family; which though poor was universally respected," ^
This indeed is another indication of the fact that the Muham-
madans did not ill-treat the Christians, merely as such, but
only when they showed themselves to be politically dis-
affected. Zmaievich, who was himself an Albanian, and
took up his residence in his diocese instead of in Venetian
territory, as many of the Archbishops of Antivari seem to
have done, 2 was received with " extraordinary honours "
and with " marvellous courtesy," not only by the Turkish
officials generally, but also by the Supreme Pasha of Albania
himself, who gave him the place of honour in his Divan,
always accompanying him to the door on his departure and
receiving him there on his arrival.^ This " barbarian "
who " showed himself more like a generous-hearted Christian
than a Turk," gave more substantial marks of good feeling
towards the Christians by remitting — at the Archbishop's
request — the tribute due for the ensuing year from four
separate towns.* If any of the Christian clergy were
roughly treated by the Turks, it seems generally to have
been due to the suspicion of treasonable correspondence
with the enemies of the Turks ; ecclesiastical visits
to Italy seem also to have excited — and in many
cases, justly — such suspicions. Otherwise the Christian
clergy seem to have had no reason to complain of the
treatment they received from the Muslims; Zmaievich
even speaks of one parish priest being " much beloved by
the principal Turks," ^ and doubtless there were parallels
in Albania to the case of a priest in the diocese of Trebinje
in Herzegovina, who in the early part of the eighteenth
century was suspected, on account of his familiar intercourse
with Muhammadans, of having formed an intention to
embrace Islam, and was accordingly sent by his bishop to
Rome under safe custody.^
No subsequent period of Albanian history appears to
^ Zmaievich, fol. 22. ^ Farlati, torn. vii. p. 141.

^ Zmaievich, fol. 7, 17. * Id. fol. 9.
* Id. fol. 141. * Farlati, vol. vi. p. 317.
have witnessed such widespread apostasy as the seventeenth
century, but there have been occasional accessions to Islam
up to more recent times. In Southern Albania, the country
of the Tosks, the preponderance of the Muhammadan
population placed the Christians at a disadvantage, and a
story is told of the Karamurtads, inhabitants of thirty-six
villages near Pogoniani, that up to the close of the eighteenth
century they were Christians, but finding themselves unable
to repel the continual attacks of the neighbouring Muham-
madan population of Leskoviki, they met in a church and
prayed that the saints might work some miracle on their
behalf; they swore to fast till Easter in expectation of the
divine assistance ; but Easter came and no miracle was
wrought, so the whole population embraced Islam; soon
afterwards they obtained the arms they required and
massacred their old enemies in Leskoviki and took
possession of their lands. i Community of faith in
Albania is never allowed to stand in the way of a tribal
feud. Even up to the nineteenth century Albanian tribes
and villages have changed their religion for very trivial
reasons; part of one Christian tribe is said to have turned
Muhammadan because their priest, who served several
villages and visited them first, insisted on saying mass at
an unreasonably early hour.^
At the present day the Muhammadans in Albania are said
to number about 1,000,000 and the Christians 480,000, but
the accuracy of these figures is not certain. The Mirdites
are entirely Christian ; they submitted to the Sultan on
condition that no Muslim would be allowed to settle in their
territory, but adherents of both the rival creeds are found in
almost all the other tribes. Central Albania is said to be
almost entirely Muhammadan, and the followers of Islam
form about sixty per cent, of the population of Northern
Albania; the Christian population attains its largest pro-
portion in Southern Albania, especially in the districts
bordering upon Greece.
The kingdom of Servia first paid tribute to the Ottomans
in 1375 and lost its independence after the disastrous defeat
of Kossovo (1389), where both the king of Servia and the
^ Eliot, p. 401. * Id. p. 392.
Turkish sultan were left dead upon the field. The successors
of the two sovereigns entered into a friendly compact, the
young Servian prince, Stephen, acknowledged the suzerainty
of Turkey, gave his sister in marriage to the new sultan,
Bayazid, and formed with him a league of brotherhood. At
the battle of Nikopolis (1394), which gave to the Turks
assured possession of the whole Balkan peninsula, except
the district surrounding Constantinople, the Servian con-
tingent turned the wavering fortune of the battle and gave
the victory to the Turks. On the field of Angora (1402),
when the Turkish power was annihilated and Bayazid
himself taken prisoner by Timiir, Stephen was present with
his Servian troops and fought bravely for his brother-in-law,
and instead of taking this opportunity of securing his inde-
pendence, remained faithful to his engagement, and stood
by the sons of Bayazid until they recovered their father's
throne. Under the successor of Stephen, George Brankovich,
Servia enjoyed a semi-independence, but when in 1438 he
raised the standard of revolt, his country was again overrun
by the Turks. Then for a time Servia had to acknowledge
the suzerainty of Hungary, but the defeat of John Hunyady
at Varna in 1444 brought her once more under tribute, and
in 1459 she finally became a Turkish province.
It is not impossible that the Servians who had embraced
Islam after the battle of Kossovo had knowledge of the fate
of the little Muslim community that had been rooted out of
Hungary about a century before, and therefore preferred
the domination of the Turks to that of the Hungarians.
Yaqiit gives the following account of his meeting, about the
year 1228, with some members of this group of followers of
the Prophet in mediaeval Europe, who had owed their
conversion to Muslims who had settled among them. " In
the city of Aleppo, I met a large number of persons called
Bashkirs, with reddish hair and reddish faces. They were
studying law according to the school of Abii Hanifah (may
God be well pleased with him !) I asked one of them who
seemed to be an intelligent fellow for information concern-
ing their country and their condition. He told me, ' Our
country is situated on the other side of Constantinople, in a
kingdom of a people of the Franks called the Hungarians.
o
194 'THE PREACHING OV ISLAM
We are Muslims, subjects of their king, and live on the border
of his territory, occupying about thirty villages, which are
almost like small towns. But the king of the Hungarians
does not allow us to build walls round any of them, lest we
should revolt against him. We are situated in the midst of
Christian countries, having the land of the Slavs on the north,
on the south, that of the Pope, i. e. Rome (now the Pope
is the head of the Franks, the vicar of the Messiah in their
eyes, like the commander of the faithful in the eyes of the
Muslims ; his authority extends over all matters connected
with religion among the whole of them) ; on the west,
Andalusia ; on the east, the land of the Greeks, Constanti-
nople and its provinces.' He added, ' Our language is the
language of the Franks, we dress after their fashion, we
serve with them in the army, and we join them in attacking
all their enemies, because they only go to war with the
enemies of Islam.' I then asked him how it was they had
adopted Islam in spite of their dwelling in the midst of the
unbelievers. He answered, ' I have heard several of our
forefathers say that a long time ago seven Muslims came
from Bulgaria and settled among us. In kindly fashion
they pointed out to us our errors and directed us into the
right way, the faith of Islam. Then God guided us and
(praise be to God !) we all became Muslims and God opened
our hearts to the faith. We have come to this country to
study law; when we return to our own land, the people
will do us honour and put us in charge of their religious
affairs.' " ^ Islam kept its ground among the Bashkirs of
Hungary until 1340, when King Charles Robert compelled
all his subjects that were not yet Christians to embrace the
Christian faith or quit the country.^
The Servian Muslims may, therefore, well have been
pleased to escape from the rule of Hungary, like their
Christian fellow-countrymen, for when these were given
the choice between the Roman Catholic rule of Hungary and
the Muslim rule of the Turks, the devotion of the Servians
to the Greek Church led them to prefer the tolerance of
the Muhammadans to the uncompromising proselytising
^ Yaqut, vol. i. p. 469 sq.
* Geographie d'Aboulfeda, traduite par M. Reinaud, tome ii. pp 294-5.
spirit of the Latins. An old legend thus represents their
feelings at this time :— The Turks and the Hungarians were
at war ; George Brankovich sought out John Hunyady and
asked him, " If you are victorious, what will you do ? "
" Establish the Roman Catholic faith," was the answer.
Then he sought out the sultan and asked him, " If you come
out victorious, what will you do with our religion ? " " By
the side of every mosque shall stand a church, and every
man shall be free to pray in whichever he chooses." ^ The
treachery of some Servian priests forced the garrison of
Belgrade to capitulate to the Turks ; ^ similarly the Servians
of Semendria, on the Danube, welcomed the Turkish troops
who in 1600 delivered them from the rule of their Catholic
neighbours.^
The spread of Islam among the Servians began imme-
diately after the battle of Kossovo, when a large part of the
old feudal nobility, such as still remained alive and did not
take refuge in neighbouring Christian countries, went over
voluntarily to the faith of the Prophet, in order to keep their
old privileges undisturbed.* In these converted nobles the
sultans found the most zealous propagandists of the new
faith. ^ But the majority of the Servian people clung
firmly to their old religion through all their troubles and
sufferings, and only in Stara Serbia or Old Servia,® which
now forms the north-eastern portion of modern Albania,
has there been any very considerable number of conversions.
Even here the spread of Muhammadanism proceeded very
slowly until the seventeenth century, when the Austrians
induced the Servians to rise in revolt and, after the ill-success
of this rising, the then Patriarch, Arsenius III Tsernoievich,
in i6go emigrated with 40,000 Servian families across the
border into Hungary; another exodus in 1739 of 15,000
families under the leadership of Arsenius IV Jovanovich,
well nigh denuded this part of the country of its original
Servian population.'
^ Enrique Dupuy de Lome : Los Esclavos y Turquia, pp. 17-18.
(Madrid, 1877.)
- De la Jonquiere, p. 215. ^ Id. p. 290.
^ Kanitz, p. 37. s j^j pp 37-8.
® A map of this country is given by Mackenzie and Irby (p. 243) : it
contains Prizren, the old Servian capital, Ipek, the seat of the Servian
Patriarch, and the battle-tield of Kossovo. ' Kanitz, p. 37.
Albanian colonists from the south pressed into the country
vacated by the fugitives : these Albanians at the time of
their arrival were Roman Catholics for the most part, but
after they settled in Old Servia they gradually adopted
Islam and at the present time the remnant of Roman
Catholic Albanians is but small, though from time to time
it is recruited by fresh arrivals from the mountains : the
new-comers, however, usually follow the example of their
predecessors, and after a while become Muhammadans.^
After this Albanian immigration, Islam began to spread
more rapidly among the remnant of the Servian population.
The Servian clergy were very ignorant and unlettered,
they could only manage with diihculty to read their service-
books and hardly any had learned to write; they neither
preached to the people nor taught them the catechism,
consequently in whole villages scarcel}^ a man could be
found who knew the Lord's Prayer or how many command-
ments there were ; even the priests themselves were quite
as ignorant.^ After the insurrection of i68g, the Patriarch
of Ipek, the ecclesiastical capital of Servia, was appointed
by the Porte, but in 1737, as the result of another rebellion,
the Servian Patriarchate was entirely suppressed and the
Servian Church made dependent upon the Greek Patriarch
of Constantinople. The churches were filled with Greek
bishops, who made common cause with the Turkish Beys
and Pashas in bleeding the unfortunate Christians : their
national language was proscribed and the Old Slavonic
service-books, etc., were collected and sent off to Con-
stantinople.^ With such a clergy it is not surprising that
the Christian faith should decline : e. g. in the commune of
Gora (in the district of Prizren), which had begun to become
Muhammadanised soon after the great exodus of 1690, the
Servians that still clung to the Christian faith, appealed
again and again to the Greek bishop of Prizren to send them
priests, 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
buildings fell into decay.^ In the neighbouring district
1 Mackenzie and Irby, pp. 250-1. - Farlati, vol. vii. pp. 127-8.
•> Mackenzie and Irby, pp. 374-5. Kanitz, p. 39. ^ Id. pp. 39-40.
of Opolje, similarly, the present Muslim population of

9500 souls is probably for the most part descended from the
original Slav inhabitants of the place. ^ At the beginning
of the seventeenth century, Bizzi found in the city of
Jagnevo, 120 Roman Catholic households, 200 Greek and
180 Muhammadan; ^ less than a hundred years later, every
house in the city was looked upon as Muhammadan, as the
head of each family professed this faith and the women
only, with some of the children, were Christian.^ About
the middle of the eighteenth century, the village of Ljurs
was entirely Catholic ; in 1863 there were 90 Muslim and
23 Christian families, but at the present day this village,
together with the surrounding villages, has wholly given
up Christianity.^ Until recently some lingering survivals
of their old Christian faith, such as the burning of 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 Servian
empire, the wild highlands of Montenegro afforded a refuge
to those Servians who would not submit to the Turks but
were determined to maintain their independence. It is not
the place here to relate the history of the heroic struggles
of this brave people against overwhelming odds, how
through centuries of continual warfare, under the rule of
their prince-bishops, ^ they have kept alive a free Christian
state when all their brethren of the same race had been
compelled to submit to Muhammadan rule. While the
very basis of their separate existence as a nation was their
firm adherence to the Christian faith it could hardly have
been expected that Islam would have made its way among
them, but in the seventeenth century many Montenegrins
in the frontier districts became Muhammadans and took
service with the neighbouring Pashas. But in 1703, Daniel
Petrovich, the then reigning bishop, called the tribes to-
gether and told them that the only hope for their country
and their faith lay in the destruction of the Muhammadans
living among them. Accordingly, on Christmas Eve, all
1 Kanitz, p. 38. - Bizzi, fol. 48, b.

•* Zmaievich, fol. 182. "* Kanitz, p. 38.
* Montenegro was ruled by bishops from 1516 to 1852.
the converted Montenegrins who would not forswear Islam
and embrace Christianity were massacred in cold blood. ^
To pass now to Bosnia :— in this country the religious and
social conditions of the people, before the Turkish conquest,
merit especial attention. The majority of the population
belonged to a heretical Christian sect, called Bogomiles,
who from the thirteenth century had been exposed to the
persecution of the Roman Catholics and against whom
Popes had on several occasions preached a Crusade. ^ In
1325, Pope John XXII wrote thus to the king of Bosnia :
" To our beloved son and nobleman, Stephen, Prince of
Bosnia, — knowing that thou art a faithful son of the Church,
we therefore charge thee to exterminate the heretics in thy
dominion, and to render aid and assistance to Fabian, our
Inquisitor, forasmuch as a large multitude of heretics from
many and divers parts collected hath flowed together into
the principality of Bosnia, trusting there to sow their
obscene errors and dwell there in safety. These men, imbued
with the cunning of the Old Fiend, and armed with the venom
of their falseness, corrupt the minds of Catholics by outward
show of simplicity and the sham assumption of the name of
Christians ; their speech crawleth like a crab, and they creep
in with humilit}^ but in secret they kill, and are wolves in
sheep's clothing, covering their bestial fury as a means to
deceive the simple sheep of Christ. ' ' In the fifteenth century,
the sufferings of the Bogomiles became so intolerable that
they appealed to the Turks to deliver them from their
unhappy condition, for the king of Bosnia and the priests
were pushing the persecution of the Bogomiles to an extreme
which perhaps it had never reached before ; as many as forty
thousand of them fled from Bosnia and took refuge in neigh-
bouring countries ; others who did not succeed in making
their escape, were sent in chains to Rome. But even these
violent measures did little to diminish the strength of the
Bogomiles in Bosnia, as in 1462 we are told that heresy was
as powerful as ever in this country'. The following year,
when Bosnia was invaded by Muhammad II, the Cathohc
* E. L. Clark, pp. 362-3.

* Honnrius III in 1221, Gregory IX in 1238, Innocent IV in 1246.
Benedict XU in 1337. The Inquisition was established in 1291.
king found himself deserted by his subjects : the keys of the

principal fortress, the royal city of Bobovatz, were handed
over to the Turks by the Bogomile governor; the other
fortresses and towns hastened to follow this example, and
within a week seventy cities passed into the hands of the
Sultan, and Muhammad II added Bosnia to the number of
his numerous conquests. ^
From this time forth we hear but little of the Bogomiles ;
they seem to have willingly embraced Islam in large numbers
immediately after the Turkish conquest, and the rest seem
to have gradually followed later, while the Bosnian Roman
CathoHcs emigrated into the neighbouring territories of
Hungary and Austria. It has been supposed by some 2
that a large proportion of the Bogomiles, at least in the
earHer period of the conquest, embraced Islam with the
intention of returning to their faith when a favourable
opportunity presented itself ; as, being constantly persecuted
they may have learnt to deny their faith for the time being ;
but that, when this favourable opportunity never arrived,
this intention must have gradually been lost sight of and
at length have been entirely forgotten by their descendants.
Such a supposition is, however, a pure conjecture and has no
direct evidence to support it. We may rather find the reason
for the willingness of the Bogomiles to allow themselves to
be merged in the general mass of the Musalman believers,
in the numerous points of likeness between their peculiar
behefs and the tenets of Islam. They rejected the worship
of the Virgin Mary, the institution of Baptism and every
form of priesthood.^ They abominated the cross as a religi-
ous symbol, and considered it idolatry to bow down before
religious pictures and the images and relics of the saints.
Their houses of prayer were very simple and unadorned, in
contrast to the gaudily decorated Roman Catholic churches,
and they shared the Muhammadan dishke of bells, which
they styled " the devil's trumpets." They beheved that
^ Asboth, pp. 42-95. Evans, pp. xxxvi-xlii.
2 Asboth, pp. 96-7.
3 " They revile the ceremonies of the church and all church dignitaries,
and they call orthodox priests blind Pharisees, and bay at them as dogs at
horses. As to the Lord's Supper, they assert that it is not kept according
to God's commandment, and that it is not the body of God, but ordinary
breSid." (Kosmas, quoted by Evans, pp. xxx-xxxi.)
Christ was not himself crucified but that some phantom was
substituted in his place : in this respect agreeing partially
with the teaching of the Qur'an.^ Their condemnation of
wine and the general austerity of their mode of life and the
stern severity of their outward demeanour would serve as
further links to bind them to Islam,^ for it was said of them :
" You will see heretics quiet and peaceful as lambs without,
silent, and wan with hypocritical fasting, who do not speak
much nor laugh loud, who let their beard grow, and leave
their person incompt." ^ They prayed five times a day and
five times a night, repeating the Lord's Prayer with frequent
kneehngs,* and would thus find it very little change to join
in the services of the mosque. I have brought together
here the many points of likeness to the teachings of Islam,
which we find in this Bogomilian heresy, but there were, of
course, some doctrines of a distinctly Christian character
which an orthodox Muslim could not hold ; still, with so much
in common, it can easily be understood how the Bogomiles
may gradually have been persuaded to give up those doctrines
that were repugnant to the MusHm faith. Their Manichaean
dualism was equally irreconcilable with Muslim theology,
but Islam has always shown itself tolerant of such theological
speculations provided that they did not issue in a schism
and that a general assent and consent were given to the main
principles of its theory and practice.
The Turks, as was their usual custom, offered every
advantage to induce the Bosnians to accept their creed.
All who embraced Islam were allowed to retain their lands
and possessions, and their fiefs were exempt from all taxa-
tion,^ and it is probable that many rightful heirs of ancient
houses who had been dispossessed for heretical opinions by
the Catholic faction among the nobiHty, now embraced the
opportunity of regaining their old position by submission
to the dominant creed. The Bosnian Muhammadans
^ Siirah iv. 156.
2 Cf. the admiration of the Turks for Charles XII of Sweden. " Son
opiniatrete k s'abstenir du vin, et sa regularite k assister deux fois par jour
aux pri^res pubhques, leur fesaient dire : C'est un vrai musulman."
(CT:uvres de Voltaire, tome 23, p. 200.) (Paris, 1785.)
2 Kosmas, quoted by Evans, p. xxxi.
* Asboth, p. 36. Wetzer und Welte, vol. ii. p. 975.
? Olivier, pp. ij-J.S.
retained their nationality and still for the most part bear
Serb names and speak only their national tongue ; ^ at the
same time they have always evinced a lively zeal for their
new faith, and by their military prowess, their devotion to
Islam and the powerful influence they exercised, the Bosnian
nobility rapidly rose into high favour in Constantinople and
many were entrusted with important offices of state, e.g.
between the years 1544 and 161 1 nine statesmen of Bosnian
origin filled the post of Grand Vizier.
The latest territorial acquisition of the Ottoman conquests
was the island of Crete, which in 1669 was wrested from the
hands of the Venetian Republic by the capture of the city
of Candia after a long and desperate siege of nearly three
years, which closed a struggle of twenty-five years between
these rival powers for the possession of the island.
This was not the first time that Crete had come under
Muslim rule. Early in the ninth century the island was
suddenly seized by a band of Saracen adventurers from
Spain, and it remained in their power for nearly a century
and a half (a.d. 825-961). ^ During this period well nigh
the whole population of the island had become Muslim, and
the churches had either fallen into ruins or been turned into
mosques ; but when the authority of the Byzantine empire
was once re-established here, the people were converted
again to their ancient faith through the skilful preaching
of an Armenian monk, and the Christian religion became the
only one professed on the island.^ In the beginning of the
thirteenth century, the Venetians purchased the island from
Boniface, Duke of Montserrat, to whose lot it had fallen after
the partition of the Byzantine empire, and they ruled it with
a heavy hand, apparently looking upon it only in the light
of a purchase that was to be exploited for the benefit of the
home government and its colonists. Their administration
was so oppressive and tyrannical as to excite several revolts,
which were crushed with pitiless severity ; on one of these
occasions whole cantons in the provinces of Sfakia and Lassiti
were depopulated, and it was forbidden under pain of death
to sow any corn there, so that these districts remained barren
1 Olivier, p. 113. * Amari, vol. i. p. 163; vol. ii. p. 260.
^ Comaro, vol. i. pp. 205-8.
and uncultivated for nearly a century.^ The terrific cruelty

with which the Venetian senate suppressed the last of these
attempts at the beginning of the sixteenth century added a
crowning horror to the miserable condition of the unhappy
Cretans, How terrible was their lot at this time we learn
from the reports of the commissioners sent by the Venetian
senate in the latter part of the same century, in order to
inquire into the condition of the islanders. The peasants
were said to be crushed down by the cruelest 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 go on working for as long as his lord required
his services at the nominal rate of a penny a day ; his vine-
yards were mulcted in a full third of their produce, but fraud
and force combined generally succeeded in appropriating
as much 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 induce the
Venetian senate to alleviate the unhappy condition of
the Cretans and put a stop to the cruelty and tyranny
of the nobles : it preferred to listen to the advice of Era
Paolo Sarpi who in 1615 thus addressed the Republic on the
subject of its Greek colonies : " If the gentlemen of these
Colonies do tyrannize over the villages of their dominion,
the best way is not to seem to see it, that there may be no
kindness between them and their subjects." ^
It is not surprising to learn from the same sources that the
Cretans longed for a change of rulers, and that " they would
not much stick at submitting to the Turk, having the
example of all the rest of their nation before their eyes."
Indeed, many at this time fled into Turkey to escape the
intolerable burden of taxation, following in the footsteps of
countless others, who from time to time had taken refuge
^ Perrot, p. 151.
- Pashley, vol. i. p. 30; vol. ii. pp. 284, 291-2,
3 Id, vol. ii. p. 298,
there. 1 Large numbers of them also emigrated to Egypt,

where many embraced Islam. ^ Especially galling to the
Cretans were the exactions of the Latin clergy who appro-
priated the endowments that belonged of right to the Greek
ecclesiastics, and did everything they could to insult the
Christians of the Greek rite, who constituted nine-tenths
of the population of the island.^ The Turks, on the other
hand, conciliated their good-will 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 the Turkish general, and told
him that if he desired to gain the good-will of the Cretan
people, and bring detestation upon the name of Venice, it
was necessary for him to bear in mind that the staunchest
of the links which keep civilised society from falling asunder
is religion. It would be needful for him to act in a way
different from the line followed by the Venetians. These
did their utmost to root out the Greek faith and establish
that of Rome in its place, with which interest they had made
an injunction that there should be no Greek bishops in the
island. By thus removing these venerated and authoritative
shepherds, they thought the more easily to gain control over
the scattered flocks. This prohibition had caused such
distress in the minds of the Cretans that they were ready
to welcome with joy and obedience any sovereignty that
would lend its will to the re-institution of this order in their
hierarchy — an order so essential for the proper exercise of
their divine worship. He added, that it would be a further
means of conciliating the people if they were assured that
they would not only be confirmed in the old privileges of their
religion, but that new privileges would be granted them.
These arguments seemed to Cusseim so plausible that he
wrote at once to Constantinople with a statement of them.
Here they were approved, and the Greek Patriarch was
bidden to institute an archbishop who should be metropole
of the Province of Candia. Under the metropolitan seven
other bishops were also to be nominated." *
1 Pashley, vol. ii. p. 285.
- Id. vol. i. p. 319. ^ Perrot, p. 151.
* Charles Edwardes : Letters from Crete, pp. 90-2. (London, 1887.)
The Turkish conquest seems to have been very rapidly

followed by the conversion of large numbers of the Cretans
to Islam. It is not improbable that the same patriotism
as made them cling to their old faith under the foreign
domination of the Venetians who kept them at arm's length
and regarded any attempt at assimilation as an unpardonable
indignity,! and always tried to impress on their subjects a
sense of their inferiority — may have led them to accept the
religion of their new masters, which at once raised them from
the position of subjects to that of equals and gave them a
share in the political life and government of their country.
Whatever may have been the causes of the widespread
conversion of the Cretans, it seems almost incredible that
violence should have changed the religion of a people who
had for centuries before clung firmly to their old faith despite
the persecution of a hostile and a foreign creed. Whatever
may have been the means by which the ranks of Islam were
filled, thirty years after the conquest we are told that the
majority of the Muslims were renegades or the children of
renegades, 2 and in little more than a century half the popula-
tion of Crete had become Muhammadan. From one end
of the island to the other, not only in the towns but also in
the villages, in the inland districts and in the very heart of
the mountains, were (and are still) found Cretan Muslims
who in figure, habits and speech are thoroughly Greek.
There never has been, and to the present day there is not,
any other language spoken on the island of Crete except
Greek ; even the few Turks to be found here had to adopt
the language of the country and all the firmans of the Porte
and decrees of the Pashas were read and published in Greek. ^
The bitter feelings between the Christians and Muhammadans
of Crete that have made the historj^ of this island during the
nineteenth century so sad a one, was by no means so virulent
before the outbreak of the Greek revolution, in days when
the Cretan Muslims were very generally in the habit of taking
as their wives Christian maidens, the children of their Chris-
tian friends.^ The social communication between the two
communities was further signified by their common dress,
* Pashlcy, vol. ii. pp. 151-2. - Td. vol. i. p. g.
"* Perrot, p. 159. •* Pashley, vol. i. pp. 10, 195.
as the Cretans of both creeds dressed so much ahke that the
distinction was often not even recognised by residents of
long standing or by Greeks of the neighbouring islands. 1
Recent political events have brought about a considerable
diminution in the Muhammadan population of Crete. In
1881 the number of Muhammadans in the island was 73,234 ;
in 1909, in consequence of continual emigrations, it had been
reduced to 33, 496. ^
1 T. A. B. Spratt : Travels and Researches in Crete, vol. i. p. 47.
(London, 1865.)
- R. du M. M. vii. p. 99.
CHAPTER VII.
THE SPREAD OF ISLAM IN PERSIA AND CENTRAL ASIA.
In order to follow the course of the spread of Islam west-

ward into Central Asia, we must retrace our steps to the
period of the first Arab conquests. By the middle of the
seventh century, the great dynasty of the Sasanids had
fallen, and the vast empire of Persia that for four centuries
had withstood the might of Rome and Byzantium, now be-
came 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 of the
Sasanid dynasty had been marked by terrible anarchy, and
the sympathies of the people had been further alienated
from their rulers on account of the support they gave to
the persecuting policy of the state religion of Zoroastrianism.
The Zoroastrian priests had acquired an enormous influence
in the state ; they were well-nigh all-powerful in the councils
of the king and arrogated to themselves a very large share
in the civil administration. They took advantage of their
position to persecute all those religious bodies— (and they
were many) — that dissented from them. Besides the
numerous adherents of older forms of the Persian rehgion,
there were Christians, Jews, Sabaeans and numerous sects
in which the speculations of Gnostics, Manichaeans and
Buddhists found expression. In all of these, persecution
had stirred up feelings of bitter hatred against the established
religion and the dynasty that supported its oppressions,
and so caused the Arab conquest to appear in the light of
a deliverance. 1 The followers of all these varied forms of
faith could breathe again under a rule that granted them
religious freedom and exemption from military service, on
^ Caetani, vol. ii. pp. 910-11. A. de Gobineau (i), pp. 55-6.
206
SPREAD OF ISLAM IN PERSIA 207
payment of a light tribute. For the MusHm law granted
toleration and the right of paying jizyah not only to the
Christians and Jews, but to Zoroastrians and Sabaeans, to
worshippers of idols, of fire and of stone.^ It was said that
the Prophet himself had distinctly given directions that the
Zoroastrians were to be treated exactly like " the people of
the book," i. e. the Jews and Christians, and that jizyah
might also be taken from them in return for protection, ^
— a tradition that probably arose in the second century of
the Hijrah, when apostolic sanction was sought for the
toleration that had been extended to all the followers of
the various faiths that Arabs had found in the countries
they had conquered, whether such non-Muslims came under
the category Ahl al-Kitab or not.^
To the distracted Christian Church in Persia the change of
government brought relief from the oppression of the
Sasanid kings, who had fomented the bitter struggles of
Jacobites and Nestorians and added to the confusion of
warring sects. Some reference has already * been made to
earlier persecutions, and even during the expiring agony of
the Sasanid dynasty, Khusrau II, exasperated at the defeat
he had suffered at the hands of the Christian emperor,
Heraclius, ordered a fresh persecution of the Christians within
his dominions, a persecution from which all the various
Christian sects ahke had to suffer. These terrible conditions
may well have prepared men's minds for that revulsion of
feeling that facilitates a change of faith. " Side by side
with the political chaos in the state was the moral confusion
that filled the minds of the Christians ; distracted by such an
accumulation of disasters and by the moral agony wrought
by the furious conflict of so many warring doctrines among
them, they tended towards that pecuHar frame of mind in
which a new doctrine finds it easy to take root, making a
clean sweep of such a bewildering babel and striving to
reconstruct faith and society on a new basis. In other words
the people of Persia, and especially the Semitic races, were
just in the very mental condition calculated to make them
^ Abu Yusuf : Kitab al-Kharaj . p. 73.

* Id. p. 74 and Baladhuri. pp. 71 (fin.), 79, 80.
' Caetani, vol. v. pp. 361 (§ 611 n. i), 394-5, 457. * pp. 68-g.
2o8 THE PREACHING OF ISLAM
welcome the Islamic revolution and urge them on to enthu-

siastically embrace the new and rugged creed, which with
its complete and virile simplicity swept away at one stroke
all those dark mists, opened the soul to new, alluring and
tangible hopes, and promised immediate release from a
miserable state of servitude." ^
But the Muslim creed was most eagerly welcomed by the
townsfolk, the industrial classes and the artisans, whose
occupations made them impure according to the Zoroastrian
creed, because in the pursuance of their trade or occupations
they defiled 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
them at once free men, and equal in a brotherhood of faith. ^
Nor were the conversions from Zoroastrianism itself less
striking : the fabric of the National Church had fallen with
a crash in the general ruin of the dynasty that had before
upheld it; having no other centre round which to rally,
the followers of this creed would find the transition to Islam
a simple and easy one, owing to the numerous points of
similarity in the old creed and the new. For the Persian
could find in the Qur'an many of the fundamental doctrines
of his old faith, though in a rather different form : he would
meet again Ahuramazda and Ahriman under the names of
Allah and Iblis; the creation of the world in six periods;
the angels and the demons; the story of the primitive
innocence of man; the resurrection of the body and the
doctrine of heaven and hell.^ Even in the details of daily
worship there were similarities to be found and the followers
of Zoroaster when they adopted Islam were enjoined by
their new faith to pray five times a day just as they had
been by the Avesta.* Those tribes in the north of Persia
that had stubbornly resisted the ecclesiastical organisation
of the state religion, on the ground that each man was a
priest in his own household and had no need of any other,
and beheving in a supreme being and the immortality of the
soul, taught that a man should love his neighbour, conquer
his passions, and strive patiently after a better hfe — such
1 Caetani, vol. ii. p. 910. = A de Gobineau (2), pp. 306-10.
' Dozy (i), p. 157. * Haneberg, p. 5.
men could have needed very little persuasion to induce them
to accept the faith of the Prophet. ^ Islam had still more
points of contact with some of the heretical sects of Persia,
that had come under the influence of Christianity.
In addition to the causes above enumerated of the rapid
spread of Islam in Persia, it should be remembered that the
political and national sympathies of the conquered race were
also enlisted on behalf of the new religion through the
marriage of Husayn, the son of 'Ali with Shahbanu, one
of the daughters of Yazdagird, the last monarch of the
Sasanid dynasty. In the descendants of Shahbanu and
Husayn the Persians saw the heirs of their ancient kings
and the inheritors of their national traditions, and in this
patriotic feeling may be found the explanation of the intense
devotion of the Persians to the 'Alid faction and the first
beginnings of Shi'ism as a separate sect.^
That this widespread conversion was not due to force or
violence is evidenced by the toleration extended to those
who still clung to their ancient faith. Even to the present
day there are some small communities of fire-worshippers
to be found in certain districts of Persia, and though these
have in later years often had to suffer persecution,^ their
ancestors in the early centuries of the Hi jrah enjoyed a
remarkable degree of toleration, their fire-temples were
respected, and we even read of a Muhammadan general (in
the reign of al-Mu'tasim, a.d. 833-842), who ordered an
imam and a mu'adhdhin to be flogged because they had
destroyed a fire-temple in Sughd and built a mosque in its
place. ^ In the tenth century, three centuries after the
conquest of the country, fire-temples were to be found in
'Iraq, Fars, Kirman, Sijistan, IChurasan. Jibal, Adharbayjan
and Arran, i. e. in almost every province of Persia.^ In Fars
^ Dozy (i), p. igi. A. de Gobineau (i), p. 55.
* Les croyances Mazdeennes dans la religion Chiite, par Ahmed-Bey
Agaeff. (Transactions of the Ninth International Congress of Orientalists,
vol. ii. pp. 509-11. London, 1893.) For other points of contact, see
Goldziher : Islamisme et Parsisme. (Revue de I'Histoire des Rehgions,
xliii. p. I. sqq.)
' Dosabhai Framji Karaka : History of the Parsis, vol. i. pp. 56-9,
C2-7. (London, 1884.) Nicolas de Khanikoff says that there were 12,000
farnilies of fire- worshippers in Kirmiin at the end of the i8th century.
(Memoire sur la partie meridionale de I'Asie centrale, p. 193. Paris, 1861.)
* Chwolsohn,
P vol. i. p. 287. * Mas'iJdi, vol. iv. p. 86.
itself there were hardly any cities or districts in which fire-

temples and Magians were not to be found. ^ Al-Sharastani
also (writing as late as the twelfth century), makes mention
of a fire-temple at Isfiniya, in the neighbourhood of Baghdad
itself.2
In the face of such facts, it is surely impossible to attribute
the decay of Zoroastrianism entirely to violent conversions
made by the Mushm conquerors. The number of Persians
who embraced Islam in the early days of the Arab rule was
probably very large from the various reasons given above,
but the late survival of their ancient faith and the occasional
record of conversions in the course of successive centuries,
render it probable that the acceptance of Islam was both
peaceful and voluntary. About the close of the eighth
century, Saman, a noble of Balkh. having received assistance
from Asad b. 'Abd- Allah, the governor of Khurasan,
renounced Zoroastrianism, embraced Islam and named his
son Asad after his protector : it is from this convert that
dynasty of the Samanids (a.d. 874-999) took its name.
About the beginning of the ninth century, Karim b.
Shahriyar was the first king of the Qabusiyyah dynasty who
became a Musalman, and in 8y;^ a large number of fire-
worshippers were converted to Islam in Daylam through the
influence of Nasir al-Haqq Abii Muhammad. In the follow-
ing century, about a.d. 912, Hasan b. 'All, of the 'Ahd
dynasty on the southern shore of the Caspian Sea, who is
said to have been a man of learning and intelligence and
well acquainted with the religious opinions of different
sects, invited the inhabitants of Tabaristan and Daylam,
who were partly idolaters and partly Magians, to accept
Islam ; many of them responded to his call, while others
persisted in their former state of unbehef.^ In the year
A.H. 394 (a.d. 1003-1004), a famous poet, Abu'l Hasan
Mihyar, a native of Daylam, who had been a fire-worshipper,
was converted to Islam by a still more famous poet, the
Sharif al-Rida, who was his master in the poetic art.*
It was probably about the same period that the grand-
1 Istakhri. pp. loo, ii8. Ibn Hawqal, pp. 189-190.
^ Kitab ai-inilal wa'1-nihal, edited by Cureton, part i. p. 198.
* Mas'udi, vol. viii. p. 279; vol. ix. pp. 4-5.
••Ibn Khallikan, vol. iii. p. 517.
father of the great geographer, Ibn Hiurdadbih, was con-

verted through the influence of one of the Barmecides, ^
whose ancestor had been hkewise a Magian and high priest
of the great Fire Temple of Nawbahar at BalHi.
Scanty as these notices of conversion are, they appear to
have been voluntary, and the Zoroastrians would seem to
have enjoyed on the whole toleration for the exercise of
their rehgion up to the close of the 'Abbasid period. With
the Mongol invasion a darker period in their history begins,
and the miseries which the Persian Muslims themselves
suffered seems to have generated in them a spirit of fanatical
intolerance which exposed the Zoroastrians at times to
cruel sufferings. 2
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 enter into a history of this sect or of the theological
position taken up by its followers, or of the social and
political factors that lent it strength, but it demands atten-
tion here on account of the marvellous missionary organisa-
tion whereby it was propagated. The founder of this
organisation — which rivals that of the Jesuits for the keen
insight into human nature it displays and the consummate
skill with which the doctrines of the sect were accommodated
to varying capacities and prejudices — was a certain 'Abd
Allah b. Maymiin, who early in the ninth century infused
new life into the Isma'ilians. He sent out his missionaries
in all directions under various guises, very frequently as
siifis but also as merchants and traders and the like ; they
were instructed to be all things to all men and to win over
different classes of men to allegiance to the grandmaster of
their sect, by speaking to each man, as it were, in his own
language, and accommodating their teaching to the varying
capacities and opinions of their hearers. They captivated
the ignorant multitude by the performance of marvels that
were taken for miracles and by mysterious utterances that
excited their curiosity. To the devout they appeared as
^ Kitab al-Fihrist, ed. Fliigel, p. 149 (1. 2).
^ For a comprehensive sketch of their condition under Muslim rule, see
D. Menant : Les Zoroastriens de Perse. (R. du M. M. iii. pp. 193 sqq.,
p. 421 sqq.)
models of virtue and religious zeal; to the mystics they

revealed the hidden meaning of popular teachings and
initiated them into various grades of occultism according
to their capacity. Taking advantage of the eager looking-
forward to a deliverer that was common to so many faiths
of the time, they declared to the Musalmans the approaching
advent of the Imam Mahdl, to the Jews that of the Messiah,
and to the Christians that of the Comforter, but taught that
the aspirations of each could alone be realised in the coming
of 'AH as the great deliverer. With the Shi'ah, the Isma-
'ilian missionary was to put himself forward as the zealous
partisan of all the Shi'ah doctrine, was to dwell upon the
cruelty and injustice of the Sunnis towards 'Ali and his
sons, and liberally abuse the Sunni Kialifahs ; having thus
prepared the way, he was to insinuate, as the necessary
completion of the Shi'ah system of faith, the more esoteric
doctrines of the Isma'ihan sect. In dealing with the Jew,
he was to speak with contempt of both Christians and
Muslims and agree with his intended convert in still looking
forward to a promised Messiah, but gradually lead him to
believe that this promised Messiah could be none other than
'All, the great Messiah of the Isma'ilian system. If he
sought to win over the Christian, he was to dwell upon the
obstinacy of the Jews and the ignorance of the Muslims, to
profess reverence for the chief articles of the Christian creed,
but gently hint that they were symbolic and pointed to a
deeper meaning, to which the Isma'ihan system alone could
supply the key ; he was also cautiously to suggest that the
Christians had somewhat misinterpreted the doctrine of the
Paraclete and that it was in 'Ali that the true Paraclete
was to be found. Similarly the Isma'ilian missionaries who
made their way into India endeavoured to make their
doctrines acceptable to the Hindus, by representing 'Ali
as the promised tenth Avatar of Visnu who was to come
from the West, i. e. (they averred) from Alamiit. They
also wrote a Mahdi Purana and composed hymns in imita-
tion of those of the Vamacarins or left-hand Saktas, whose
mysticism already predisposed their minds to the acceptance
of the esoteric doctrines of the Isma'ihans.^
^ Khoja Vrittant,
missionaries in India, pp. 141-8. ix. For a further account of
see chap. Isma'ilian
SPREAD OF ISLAM IN CENTRAL ASIA 213
By such means as these an enormous number of persons
of different faiths were united together to push forward an
enterprise, the real aim of which was known to very few.
The aspirations of 'Abd Allah b, Maymun seem to have
been entirely political, but as the means he adopted were
religious and the one common bond — if any — that bound
his followers together was the devout expectation of the
coming of the Imam Mahdl, the missionary activity con-
nected with the history of this sect deserves this brief
mention in these pages. ^
The history of the spread of Islam in the countries of
Central Asia to the north of Persia presents little in the way
of missionary activity. When Qutaybah b. Muslim went
to Samarqand, he found many idols there, whose worshippers
maintained that any man who dared outrage them would
perish; the Mushm conqueror, undeterred by such super-
stitious fears, set fire to the idols ; whereupon a number of
persons embraced Islam. ^ There is, however, but scanty
record of such conversions in the early history of the
Muslim advance into Central Asia; moreover the people
of this country seem often to have pretended to embrace
Islam for a time and then to have thrown off the mask
and renounced their allegiance to the caliph as soon as
the conquering armies were withdrawn,^ and it was not
until Qutaybah had forcibly occupied BuWiara for the
fourth time that he succeeded in compelling the inhabitants
to conform to the faith of their conquerors.
In Bukhara and Samarqand the opposition to the new
faith was so violent and obstinate that none but those who
had embraced Islam were allowed to carry arms, and for
many years the Muslims dared not appear unarmed in the
mosques or other public places, while spies had to be set to
keep a watch on the new converts. The conquerors made
various efforts to gain proselytes, and even tried to encourage
attendance at the Friday prayers in the mosques by rewards
of money, and allowed the Qur'an to be recited in Persian
instead of in Arabic, in order that it might be intelhgible to
all.4
1 Le Bon Silvestre De Sacy : Expose de la Religion des Druzes, tome i.
pp. Ixvii-lxxvi, cxlviii-clxii. ^ Baladhuri, p. 421.
* Narshaldil, p. 46, * Id. p. 47.
The progress of Islam in Transoxania was certainly very
slow : some of the inhabitants accepted the invitation of
'Umar II (a.d. 717-720) to embrace Islam, ^ and large
numbers were converted through the preaching of a certain
Abii Sayda who commenced this mission in Samarqand in
the reign of Hisham (724-743), ^ but it was not until the
reign of Al-Mu'tasim (a.d. 833-842) that Islam was generally
adopted there, ^ one of the reason probably being the more
intimate relations established at this time with the then
capital of the Muhammadan world, Baghdad, through the
enormous numbers of Turks that had flocked in thousands
to join the army of the caliph.* Islam having thus gained a
footing among the Turkish tribes seems to have made but
slow progress until the middle of the tenth century, when
the conversion of some of their chieftains to Islam, like that
of Clovis and other barbarian kings of Northern Europe to
Christianity, led their clansmen to follow their example in
a body.
Pious legends have grown up to supply the lack of sober
historical record of such conversions. The city of Kliiva
reveres as its national saint a Muslim wrestler — Pahlavan —
who was in the service of a heathen king of Ktiwarizm. The
king of India, hearing of the fame of this Pahlavan, sent
his own court wrestler with a challenge to the king of
Hiwarizm. A day was fixed for the trial of strength and
the nobles and people of Khiva were summoned to view the
spectacle ; the vanquished man was to have his head cut
off. On the day before, the saintly Pahlavan was praying
in the mosque when he overheard the prayer of an old
woman : " O God, suffer not my son to be beaten by this
invincible Pahlavan, for I have no other child." Touched
with compassion for the mother, Pahlavan lets the Indian
wrestler win the day; the enraged king orders his head to
be cut off, but at that very moment the horse on which the
king is sitting, bolts, carrying his master straight towards
a dangerous precipice. Pahlavan springs forward, catches
the horse and rescues the king from a horrible death. In
gratitude the king embraces the true faith, and the saintly
^ Baladhnri. p. 426. ^ Tabari, ii. pp. 1507 sqq.
* Baladhuri, p. 431. * August Miiller, vol. i. p. 520.
wrestler, full of joy, goes away into the desert and becomes
a hermit. 1
A strange legend is told of the conversion of Satiiq Bughra
Mian, the founder of the Muhammadan dynasty of the Ilik-
Hians of Kashgar, about the middle of the tenth century. A
prince of the Samanid house, Hiwajah Abu'1-Nasr SamanT, a
man of great piety and humility of character, finding no scope
for the exercise of his talent for administration, resolved to
become a merchant, with the purpose of spreading the true
faith in the lands of the unbelievers. Instead of trying to
acquire a fortune by his commercial enterprises, he devoted
all his gains to the furtherance of his proselytising efforts.
One night the Prophet appeared to him in a dream, saying :
" Arise, and go into Turkistan where the prince Satiiq
Bughra Hian only awaits your coming to be converted to
Islam." The young prince had in a similar manner been
warned in a vision to expect the arrival of an instructor in
the faith, and when some days later he met Abu'1-Nasr
Samani he was prepared to accept his teaching and become
a Musalman. This legend would appear to have been based
on the historic fact that Islam made its way from the
Samanid kingdom into the neighbouring country of Turkis-
tan, and the example of the ruler seems to have been followed
by his subjects, for in A.D. 960 as many as 200,000 tents
of the Turks, i. e. probably the greater part of the Turkish
population of Bughra Hian's kingdom, professed the faith of
Islam. 2 Legend credits him with miraculous powers in his
wars against the heathen, when a devouring flame would
issue from his mouth and the sword that he brandished
would become forty feet long. By the time he had reached
the age of ninety-six, the terror of his sword is said to have
converted the unbelievers from the banks of the Oxus in the
south to Quraquram in the north, and just before his death
he is said to have led his victorious army into China, and
spread Islam as far as Turfan.^ This picturesque account of
^ Cahun, p. 150.
^ Ibn al-Athir, vol. viii. p. 396 (11. ig-20.) Grenard, pp. 7 sq., 42-3.
2 Grenard, pp. 9-10. " D'une guerre d'ambition [la tradition] fait une
guerre sainte, elle attribue a Satok Boghra Khan une conquete qui a ete
accomplie reellement par son douzieme successeur; par une confusion
absurde, elle donne le nom de ce dernier k I'oncle infid^le de Satok. Non
contente de reduire deux personnages en un seul, elle prete au meme prince
2i6 THE PREACHING OF ISLAM
a dynastic struggle with the Buddhist kingdom of Khotan

credits the hero with a measure of success which was not
really achieved until the fourteenth century. How limited
the success of Satiiq Bughra Hian really was, may be judged
from the fact that when his successors among the Ilik-Khans
sought in 1026 to contract matrimonial alliances with
princesses of the house of Mahmiid of Ghazna, Mahmiid
replied that he was a Musalman, while they were unbelievers,
and that it was not the custom to give the sisters and
daughters of Musalmans in marriage to unbelievers, but
that, if they would embrace Islam, the matter would be
considered.^ A few years later, in 1041-1042, a number of
Turks who were still heathen and living in Tibetan territory
sought permission from Arslan Hian b. Qadr Khan to
settle in his dominions, having heard of the justice and
mildness of his rule ; when they arrived in the neighbour-
hood of Balasaghiin ^ he sent a message to them urging them
to accept Islam ; but they refused, and as he found them to
be peaceable and obedient subjects, he left them alone.
There is no record of their conversion, which probabh'
ensued in course of time ; but they can hardly be identified
with the group of ten thousand tents of infidel Turks who
embraced Islam in the following year, as these latter are
expressly stated to have harried and plundered the Musal-
mans before their conversion.^ The invasion of the Qara
Hiitay into Turkistan * dealt a severe blow to the power of
Islam, and as late as the thirteenth century the reports
of European travellers show that there were still important
groups of Buddhists, Manichaeans and Christians in these
parts. ^
Of supreme importance to Islam was the conversion of
the Saljuq Turks, but no record of their conversion remains
beyond the statement that in a.d. 956 Saljuq migrated from
Turkistan with his clan to the province of Bukhara, where
he and his people enthusiastically embraced Islam. ^ This
une marche sur Tourfan, c'est-a-dire contre les Ouigour, qui est en effet
I'oeuvre d'un troisieme." (Id. p. 50.) ^ Raverty, p. 905.
" This was the capital of the Kians of Turkistan during the tenth and
eleventh centuries, but the exact site is uncertain.
* Narshakhi, pp. 234-5. * Raverty, pp. 925-7.
* Grenard, p. 76, e Raverty, p. 117.
was the origin of the famous Saljiiq Turks, whose wars and
conquests revived the fading glory of the Muhammadan
arms and united into one empire the Mushm kingdoms of
Western Asia.
When at the close of the twelfth century, the Saljuq
empire had lost all power except in Asia Minor, and when
Muhammad Ghurl was extending his empire from Khurasan
eastward across the north of India, there was a great revival
of the Muslim faith among the Afâns and their country
was overrun by Arab preachers and converts from India,
who set about the task of proselytising with remarkable
energy and boldness. ^ The traditions of the Afghans
represent Islam as having been peaceably introduced
among them. They say that in the first century of the
Hijrah they occupied the Ghur country to the east of
Herat, and that Khalid b. Walid came to them there
with the tidings of Islam and invited them to join the
standard of the Prophet ; he returned to Muhammad
accompanied by a deputation of six or seven representa-
tive men of the Afghan people, with their followers, and
these, when they went back to their own country, set
to work to convert their fellow-tribesmen. ^ This tradition
is, however, devoid of any historical foundation, and the
earliest authentic record of conversion to Islam from among
the Afghans seems to be that of a king of Kabul in the reign
of al-Ma'miin.^ His successors, however, seem to have
relapsed to Buddhism, for when Ya'qiab b. Layth, the
founder of the Saffarid dynasty, extended his conquests as
far as Kabul in 871, he found the ruler of the land to be
an " idolater," and Kabul now became really Muhammadan
for the first time, the Afghans probably being quite willing
to take service in the army of so redoubtable a conqueror
as Ya'qiib b. Layth,* but it was not until after the conquests
of Sabaktigin and Mahmud of Ghazna that Islam became
established throughout Afghanistan.
Of the further history of Islam in Persia and Central Asia
some details will be found in the following chapter.
1 Bellew, p. 96. - Id. pp. 15-16.
' Baladhuri, p. 402. * August Miiller, vol. ii, p. 29.
CHAPTER VIII.
THE SPREAD OF ISLAM AMONG THE MONGOLS

AND TATARS.
There is no event in the history of Islam that for terror

and desolation can be compared to the Mongol conquest.
Like an avalanche, the hosts of Chingiz Hian swept over
the centres of Muslim culture and civilisation, leaving
behind them bare deserts and shapeless ruins where before
had stood the palaces of stately cities, girt about with gardens
and fruitful corn-land. When the Mongol army had marched
out of the city of Herat, a miserable remnant of fort}^ persons
crept out of their hiding-places and gazed horror-stricken
on the ruins of their beautiful city — all that were left out
of a population of over 100,000. In Buldiara, so famed for
its men of piety and learning, the Mongols stabled their
horses in the sacred precincts of the mosques and tore up
the Qur'ans to serve as litter; those of the inhabitants who
were not butchered were carried away into captivity and
their city reduced to ashes. Such too was the fate of
Samarqand, Balldi and many another city of Central Asia,
which had been the glories of Islamic civilisation and the
dwelling-places of holy men and the seats of sound learning
— such too the fate of Baghdad that for centuries had been
the capital of the 'Abbasid dynasty.
Well might the Muhammadan historian shudder to relate
such horrors ; when Ibn al-AthIr comes to describe the in-
roads of the Mongols into the countries of Islam, " for many
years," he tells us, " I shrank from giving a recital of these
events on account of their magnitude and my abhorrence.
Even now I come reluctant to the task, for who would deem
it a light thing to sing the death-song of Islam and of the
Muslims, or find it easy to tell this tale ? O that my
218
SPREAD OF ISLAM AMONG THE MONGOLS 219
mother had not given me birth ! ' Oh, would that I had
died ere this, and been a thing forgotten, forgotten quite ! ' ^
Many friends have urged me and still I stood irresolute;
but I saw that it was of no profit to forego the task and so
I thus resume. I shall have to describe events so terrible
and calamities so stupendous that neither day nor night
have ever brought forth the like; they fell on all nations,
but on the Muslims more than all ; and were one to say that
since God created Adam the world has not seen the like,
he would but tell the truth, for history has nothing to relate
that at all approaches it. Among the greatest calamities
in history is the slaughter that Nebuchadnezzar wrought
among the children of Israel and his destruction of the
Temple ; but what is Jerusalem in comparison to the
countries that these accursed ones laid waste, every town
of which was far greater than Jerusalem, and what were
the children of Israel in comparison to those they slew, since
the inhabitants of one of the cities they destroyed were
greater in numbers than all the children of Israel ? Let
us hope that the world may never see the like again." ^
But Islam was to rise again from the ashes of its former
grandeur and through its preachers win over these savage
conquerors to the acceptance of the faith. This was a
task for the missionary energies of Islam that was rendered
more difficult from the fact that there were two powerful
competitors in the field. The spectacle of Buddhism,
Christianity and Islam emulously striving to win the
allegiance of the fierce conquerors that had set their feet
on the necks of adherents of these great missionary rehgions,
is one that is without parallel in the history of the world.
Before entering on a recital of this struggle, it will be
well in order to the comprehension of what is to follow
briefly to glance at the partition of the Mongol empire
after the death of Chingiz Mian, when it was split up into
four sections and divided among his sons. His third son,
Ogotay, succeeded his father as Kiaqan and received as
his share the eastern portion of the empire, in which Qiibllay
afterwards included the whole of China. Chaghatay the
second son took the middle kingdom. Batii, the son of
1 Qur'an, xix. 23. ^ Ibn al-AtJiir, vol. xii. pp. 233-4.
his first-born Juji, ruled the western portion as Kian of

the Golden Horde ; Tuliiy the fourth son took Persia, to
which Hiilagu, who founded the dynasty of the Illdians.
added a great part of Asia Minor.
The primitive religion of the Mongols was Shamanism,
which while recognising a supreme God, offered no prayers
to Him, but worshipped a number of inferior divinities,
especially the evil spirits whose powers for harm had to be
deprecated by means of sacrifices, and the souls of ancestors
who were considered to exercise an influence on the lives
of their descendants. To propitiate these powers of the
heaven and of the lower world, recourse was had to the
Shamans, wizards or medicine-men, who were credited with
possessing mysterious influence over the elements and the
spirits of the departed. Their religion was not one that
was calculated to withstand long the efforts of a prosely-
tising faith, possessed of a systematic theology capable
of satisfying the demands of the reason and an organised
body of religious teachers, when once the Mongols had been
brought into contact with civilised races, had responded
to their civilising influences and begun to pass out of their
nomadic barbarism. It so happened that the civilised
races with which the conquest of the Mongols brought them
in contact comprised large numbers of Buddhists, Christians
and Muhammadans, and the adherents of these three great
missionary faiths entered into rivalry with one another for
the conversion of their conquerors. When not carried away
by the furious madness for destruction and insult that
usually characterised their campaigns,the Shamanist Mongols
showed themselves remarkably tolerant of other religions,
whose priests were exempted from taxation and allowed
perfect freedom of worship. Buddhist priests held con-
troversies with the Shamans in the presence of Chinglz
Hian ; and at the courts of Mangij Mian and Qiabilay the
Buddhist and Christian priests and the Muslim Imams alike
enjoyed the patronage of the Mongol prince.^ In the
reign of the latter monarch the Mongols in China began
to yield to the powerful influences of the surrounding
Buddhism, and by the beginning of the fourteenth century
1 William of Rubruck, pp. 182, 191. C. d'Ohsson, tome ii. p. 488.
the Buddhist faith seems to have gained a complete ascend-

ancy over them.i It was the Lamas of Tibet who showed
themselves most zealous in this work of conversion, and
the people of Mongoha to the present day cling to the same
faith, as do the Kalmuks who migrated to Russia in the
seventeenth century.
Although Buddhism made itself finally supreme in the
eastern part of the empire, at first the influence of the
Christian Church was by no means inconsiderable and great
hopes were entertained of the conversion of the Mongols.
The Nestorian missionaries in the seventh century had
carried the knowledge of the Christian faith from west to
east across Asia as far as the north of China, and scattered
communities were still to be found in the thirteenth century.
The famous Prester John, around whose name cluster so
many legends of the Middle Ages, is supposed to have been
the chief of the Karaits, a Christian Tartar tribe living to
the south of Lake Baikal. When this tribe was conquered
by Chinglz Hian, he married one of the daughters of the
then chief of the tribe, while his son Ogotay took a wife
from the same family. Ogotay's son, Kuyiik, although he
did not himself become a Christian, showed great favour
towards this faith, to which his chief minister and one of
his secretaries belonged. The Nestorian priests were held
in high favour at his court and he received an embassy
from Pope Innocent IV. ^ The Christian powers both of
the East and the West looked to the Mongols to assist them
in their wars against the Musalmans. It was Hayton,
the Christian King of Armenia, who was mainly instru-
mental in persuading Mangii Hian to despatch the expedi-
tion that sacked Baghdad under the leadership of Hulagu,^
the influence of whose Christian wife led him to show much
favour to the Christians, and especially to the Nestorians.
Many of the Mongols who occupied the countries of Armenia
and Georgia were converted by the Christians of these
countries and received baptism.* The marvellous tales
of the greatness and magnificence of Prester John, that
fired the imagination of mediaeval Europe, had given rise
1 De Guigncs, tome iii. pp. 200, 203. - Id. vol. iii. p. 115.
3 Id. p. 125. Cahun, p. 391. * Klaproth, p. 204.
to a belief that the Mongols were Christians — a behef which

was further strengthened by the false reports that reached
Europe of the conversion of various Mongol princes and
their zeal for the Christian cause. It was under this delusion
that St. Louis sent an ambassador, William of Rubruck,
to exhort the great Khaqan to persevere in his supposed
efforts for the spread of the Christian faith. But these
reports were soon discovered to be without any foundation
in fact, though Wilham of Rubruck found that the Christian
religion was freely tolerated at the court of Mangu Hian,
and the adhesion of some few Mongols to this faith made
the Christian priests hopeful of still further conquests.
But so long as Latins, Greeks, Nestorians and Armenians
carried their theological differences into the ver}/ midst
of the Mongol camp, there was very little hope of much
progress being made, and it is probably this very want of
union among the preachers of Christianity that caused their
efforts to meet with so little success among the Mongols ;
so that while they were fighting among one another.
Buddhism and Islam were gaining a firm footing for them-
selves. The haughty pretensions of the Roman Pontiff
soon caused the proud conquerors of half the world to
withdraw from his emissaries what little favour they might
at first have been inclined to show, and many other circum-
stances 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
take much advantage of their opportunities. Of the
Nestorians in China, William of Rubruck ^ says that they
were very ignorant and could not even understand their
service books, which were written in Syriac. He accuses
them of drunkenness, polygamy and covetousness, and
makes an unfavourable comparison between their lives
and those of the Buddhist priests. Their bishop paid
them very rare visits — sometimes only once in fifty years :
* C. d'Ohsson, tome ii. pp. 22G-7. Cahun, p. 40S sq.
* Of this writer Yule says, " He gives an unfavourable account of
the literature and morals of their clergy, wliich deserves more weight than
such statements regarding those looked upon as schismatics generally do ;
for the narrative of Rubruquis gives one the impression of being written
by a thoroughly honest and intelligent person." (Cathaj^ and the Way
Thither, vol. i. p. xcviii.)
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 traffic of the sacred rites of their
Church and concerned themselves more with money-making
than with the propagation of the faith. ^
In the western parts of the Mongol empire, where the
Christians looked to the newl3^-risen power to help them in
their wars with the Musalmans and to secure for them
the possession of the Holy Land, the alliance between the
Christians and the llkhans of Persia was short-lived, as
the victories of Baybars, the Mamliik Sultan of Egypt
(1 260-1 277) and his alliance with Baraka Hian, gave the
ilkhans quite enough to do to look after their own interests.
The excesses that the Christians of Damascus and other
cities committed during the brief period in which they
enjoyed the favour of this Mongol dynasty of Persia, did
much to discredit the Christian name in Western Asia.^
In the course of the struggle, the adherents of either
faith were at times guilty of much brutality. One example
may be taken from the middle of the thirteenth century
as told by al-Juzjani, who claims to have heard the
story, while in Delhi, from the lips of a certain Sayyid
Ashraf al-Dln who had come there from Samarqand,
"The eminent Sayyid thus related, that one of the Chris-
tians of Samarqand attained unto the felicity of Islam,
and the Musalmans of Samarqand, who are staunch in
their faith, paid him great honour and reverence, and
conferred great benefits upon him. Unexpectedly, one of
the haughty Mongol infidels of China, who possessed power
and influence, and the inclinations of which accursed one
were towards the Christian faith, arrived at Samarqand.
The Christians of that city repaired to that Mongol, and
complained saying : ' The Musalmans are enjoining our
children to turn away from the Christian faith and from
serving Jesus — on whom be peace — and calling upon them
to follow the religion of Mustafa ^ — on whom be peace —
and, in case that gate becomes unclosed, the whole of our
dependents will turn away from the Christian faith. By
^ William of Rubruck, pp. 158-9.
^ Maqrizi (2), tome i. i'"= partie, pp. 98, 106.
^ The Chosen One — Muhammad.
thy power and authority devise a settlement of our case.'

The Mongol commanded that the youth, who had turned
Musalman, should be produced, and they tried with blandish-
ment and kindness, and money and wealth to induce the
newly-converted Musalman to recant, but he refused to
recant, and put not off from his heart and spirit that
garment of freshness — the Muslim faith. The Mongol
ruler then turned over a leaf in his temper, and began
to speak of severe punishment ; and every punishment,
which it was in his power to inflict, or his severity to
devise, he inflicted upon the youth, who, from his great
zeal for the faith of Islam, did not recant, and did not in
any way cast away from his hand the sweet draught of
religion through the blow of infidel perverseness. As the
youth continued firm in the true faith, and paid no heed
to the promises and threats of that depraved company,
the accursed Mongol commanded that they should bring
the youth to public punishment ; and he departed from the
world in the felicity of religion — may God reward and
requite him !— and the Musalman community in Samar-
qand were overcome with despondency and consternation
in consequence. A petition was got up, and was attested
with the testimony of the chief men and credible persons
of the Musalman religion dwelling at Samarqand, and we
proceeded with that petition to the camp of Baraka Khan,
and presented to him an account of the proceedings and
disposition of the Christians of that city. Zeal for the
Muslim religion was manifested in the mind of that monarch
of exemplary faith, and the defence of the truth became
predominant in his disposition. After some days, he showed
honour to this Sayyid, appointed a body of Turks and
confidential persons among the chief Musalmans, and
commanded that they should slaughter the Christian com-
pany who had committed that dire oppression, and despatch
them to hell. When that mandate had been obtained, it
was preserved until that wretched sect had assembled in
the church, then they seized them all together, and de-
spatched the whole of them to hell, and reduced the church
again to bricks." ^
^ Juzjani, pp. 44S-50. Raverty, pp. 12S8-90.
For Islam to enter into competition with such powerful
rivals as Buddhism and Christianity were at the outset
of the period of Mongol rule, must have appeared a well-
nigh hopeless undertaking. For the MusHms had suffered
more from the storm of the Mongol invasions than the
others. Those cities that had hitherto been the rallying
points of spiritual organisation and learning for Islam in
Asia, had been for the most part laid in ashes : the theologians
and pious doctors of the faith, either slain or carried away
into captivity,! Among the Mongol rulers — usually so
tolerant towards all religions — there were some who ex-
hibited varying degrees of hatred towards the Muslim faith.
Chingiz Hian ordered all those who killed animals in the
Muhammadan fashion to be put to death, and this ordinance
was revived by Qubilay, who by offering rewards to informers
set on foot a sharp persecution that lasted for seven years,
as many poor persons took advantage of this ready means
of gaining wealth, and slaves accused their masters in order
to gain their freedom. ^ During the reign of Kuyuk (1246-
1248), who left the conduct of affairs entirely to his two
Christian ministers and whose court was filled with Christian
monks, the Muhammadans were made to suffer great
severities.^
A contemporary historian, al-Juzjani, gives the following
account of the kind of treatment to which a Muhammadan
theologian might be exposed at the court of Kuyiik.
" Trustworthy persons have related that Kuyiik was
constantly being incited by the Buddhist priests to acts
of oppression towards the Musalmans and the persecution
of the faithful. There was an Imam in that country, one
of the men of learning among the Muslims . . . named
Niir-al-Din, al-Kiwarazmi. A number of Christian laymen
and priests and a band of idol-worshipping Buddhist priests
made a request to Kuyiik, asking him to summon that
\ So notoriously brutal was the treatment they received that even the
Chinese showmen in their exhibitions of shadow figures exultingly brought
forward the figure of an old man with a white beard dragged by the neck
at the tail of a horse, as showing how the Mongol horsemen behaved towards
the Musalmans. (Howorth, vol. i. p. 159.)
"■ Raverty, p. 1146. Howorth, vol. i. pp. 112, 273. This edict was only
withdrawn when it was found that it prevented Muhammadan merchants
from visiting the court and that trade suffered in consequence.
* Howorth, vol. i. p. 165.
Q
Imam of the Musalmans that they might hold a controversy

with him and get him to prove the superiority of the faith
of Muhammad and his prophetic mission — otherwise, he
should be put to death. The Hian agreed, the Imam
was sent for, and a discussion ensued upon the claim of
Muhammad to be a prophet and the manner of his life as
compared with that of other prophets. At length, as the
arguments of those accursed ones were weak and devoid
of the force of truth, they withdrew their hand from con-
tradiction and drew the mark of oppression and outrage
on the pages of the business and asked Kuyuk Hian to
tell the Imam to perform two genuflexions in prayer,
according to the rites and ordinances of the Muhammadan
law, in order that his unbecoming movements in the perform-
ance of this act of worship might become manifest to them
and to the Hi an." Kuyiik gave the order accordingly,
and the Imam and another Musalman who was with him
performed the ritual of the prayer according to the pre-
scribed forms. " When the godly Imam and the other
Musalman who was with him, had placed their foreheads
on the ground in the act of prostration, some infidels whom
Kuyiik had summoned, greatly annoyed them and knocked
their heads with force upon the ground, and committed
other abominable acts against them. But that godly
Imam endured all this oppression and annoyance and
performed all the required forms and ceremonies of the
prayer and in no way curtailed it. When he had repeated
the salutation, he lifted up his face towards heaven and
observed the form of ' Invoke your Lord with humiHty
and in secret,' and having asked permission to depart, he
returned unto his own house." ^
Arghun (1284-1291) the fourth Illdian persecuted the
Musalmans and took away from them all posts in the
departments of justice and finance, and forbade them to
appear at his court. ^
In spite of all difficulties, however, the Mongols and the
savage tribes that followed in their wake^ were at length
^ Juzjani, pp. 404-5. Raverty, p. 1160 sqq.
* De Guignes, vol. iii. p. 265.
' In the thirteenth century, three-fourths of the Mongol hosts were
Turks. (Cahun, p. 279.)
brought to submit to the faith of those MusHm peoples
whom they had crushed beneath their feet. Unfortunately
history sheds little light on the progress of this missionary
movement and only a few details relating to the conversion
of the more prominent converts have been preserved to us.
Scattered up and down throughout the length and breadth
of the Mongol empire, there must have been many of the
followers of the Prophet who laboured successfully and
unknown, to win unbelievers to the faith. In the reign
of Ogotay (1229-1241), we read of a certain Buddhist
governor of Persia, named Kurguz, who in his later years
abjured Buddhism and became a Musalman.^ In the
reign of Timur Hian (1323-1328), Ananda, a grandson of
Qubilay and viceroy of Kan-Su, was a zealous Musalman
and had converted a great many persons in Tangut and
won over a large number of the troops under his command
to the same faith. He was summoned to court and efforts
were made to induce him to conform to Buddhism, and on
his refusing to abandon his faith he was cast into prison.
But he was shortly after set at liberty, for fear of an in-
surrection among the inhabitants of Tangut, who were
much attached to him.^
The author of the MuntaWiab al-Tawarildi asserts that
Ananda built four mosques in Hianbaligh (the modern
Peking), which provided accommodation for 1,000,000
men at the time of the Friday prayer; but no credence
can be given to this or to his other statements regarding
the spread of Islam in China, in view of the fact that he
represents Ananda to have been the successor of Timiir
Khan on the imperial throne and gives an entirely fictitious
account of his descendants, several of whom are represented
as having professed Islam, though none of the five had any
existence except in the imagination of the writer.^
The first Mongol ruling prince who professed Islam was
Baraka Khan, who was chief of the Golden Horde from
1256 to 1267.^ According to Abu'l-Ghazi he was converted
^ C. d'Ohsson, vol. iii. p. 121.
* Rashid al-Din, pp. 600-2. ^ Blochet, pp. 74-7.
* It is of interest to note that Najm al-Din Mukhtar al-Zahidi in 1260
compiled for Baraka Wian a treatise which gave the proofs of the divine
mission of the Prophet, a refutation of those who denied it, and an account
after he had come to the throne. He is said one day to

have fallen in with a caravan coming from Bukhara, and
taking two of the merchants aside, to have questioned them
on the doctrines of Islam, and they expounded to him their
faith so persuasively that he became converted in all sin-
cerity. He first revealed his change of faith to his youngest
brother, whom he induced to follow his example, and then
made open profession of his new belief. ^ But, according
to al-J(izjam, Baraka Khan was brought up as a Musalman
from infancy, and, as soon as he was old enough to learn,
was taught the Qur'an by one of the 'Ulama of the city of
Khujand.2 The same author (who compiled his history
during the lifetime of Baraka Hian), states that the whole
of his army was Musalman. " Trustworthy persons have
also related that, throughout his whole army, it is the
etiquette for every horseman to have a prayer-carpet with
him, so that, when the time for prayer arrives, they may
occupy themselves in their devotions. Not a person in
his whole army takes any intoxicating drink whatever;
and great 'Ulama, consisting of commentators, traditionists,
jurists, and disputants, are in his society. He has a great
number of religious books, and most of his receptions and
debates are with 'Ulama. In his place of audience debates
on ecclesiastical law constantly take place; and, in his
faith, as a Musalman, he is exceedingly strict and orthodox."^
Baraka Khan entered into a close alliance with the Mamliik
Sultan of Egypt, Rukn al-Din Baybars. The initiative
came from the latter, who had given a hospitable reception
to a body of troops, two hundred in number, belonging to
the Golden Horde; these men, observing the growing
enmity between their Hian and Hulagii, the conqueror of
Bagdad, in whose army they were serving, took flight into
Syria, whence they were honourably conducted to Cairo
to the court of Baybars, who persuaded them to embrace
Islam.* Baybars himself was at war with Hiilagii, whom
he had recently defeated and driven out of Syria. He sent
of the controversies between Christians and Mushms. (Steinschneider,
pp. 63-4.) ^ Abu'l-Ghazi. tome ii. p. 181.
* Juzjanl, p. 447. Raverty, pp. 1283-4.
^ Juzjani, p. 447. Raverty, pp. 1285-6.
* Maqrizi (2), tome i. pp. 180-1, 187.
two of the Mongol fugitives, with some other envoys, to

bear a letter to Baraka Khan. On their return these
envoys reported that each princess and amir at the court
of Baraka Khan had an imam and a mu'adhdhin. and the
children were taught the Qur'an in the schools. ^ These
friendly relations between Baybars and Baraka Khan
brought many of the Mongols of the Golden Horde
into Egypt, where they were prevailed upon to become
Musalmans.2
In Persia, where Hiilagii founded the dynasty of the
Ilkhans. the progress of Islam among the Mongols was
much slower. In order to strengthen himself against the
attacks of Baraka j^sn and the Sultan of Egypt, Hiilagii
accepted the alliance of the Christian powers of the East,
such as the king of Armenia and the Crusaders. His
favourite wife was a Christian and favourably disposed the
mind of her husband towards her co-religionists, and his
son Abaqa Kian married the daughter of the Emperor of
Constantinople. Though Abaqa Hian 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 their alhance against the
Muhammadans; to the same end also, an embassy of
sixteen Mongols was sent to the Council of Lyons in 1274,
where the spokesman of this embassy embraced Christianity
and was baptised with some of his companions. Great
hopes were entertained of the conversion of Abaqa, but
they proved fruitless. His brother Takiidar,^ who suc-
ceeded him, was the first of the IlWians who embraced
Islam. He had been brought up as a Christian, for (as a
contemporary Christian writer * tells us), " he was baptised
when young and called by the name of Nicholas. But
when he was grown up, through his intercourse with Saracens
of whom he was very fond, he became a base Saracen,
and, renouncing the Christian faith, wished to be called
Muhammad Hian, and strove with all his might that the
^ Maqrizi (2), tome i. p. 215. * Id. p. 222.

' Wassaf calls him Nikudar before, and Ahmad after, his conversion.
* Hayton. (Ramusio, tome ii. p. 60, c.)
Tartars should be converted to the faith and sect of Muham-
mad, and when they proved obstinate, not daring to force
them, he brought about their conversion by giving them
honours and favours and gifts, so that in his time many
Tartars were converted to the faith of the Saracens." This
prince sent the news of his conversion to the Sultan of
Egypt in the following letter :— " By the power of God
Almighty, the mandate of Ahmad to the Sultan of Eg3^pt.
God Almighty (praised be His name !) by His grace preventing
us and by the light of His guidance, hath guided us in our
early youth and vigour into the true path of the know-
ledge of His deity and the confession of His unity, to bear
witness that Muhammad (on whom rest the highest bless-
ings !)is the Prophet of God, and to reverence His saints
and His pious servants. ' Whom God shall please to guide,
that man's breast will He open to Islam.' ^ We ceased
not to incline our heart to the promotion of the faith and
the improvement of the condition of Islam and the Muslims,
up to the time when the succession to the empire came to
us from our illustrious father and brother, and God spread
over us the glory of His grace and kindness, so that in the
abundance of His favours our hopes were realised, and He
revealed to us the bride of the kingdom, and she was brought
forth to us a noble spouse. A Qiiriltay or general assembly
was convened, wherein our brothers, our sons, great nobles,
generals of the army and captains of the forces, met to
hold council ; and they were all agreed on carrying out the
order of our elder brother, viz. to summon here a vast
levy of our troops whose numbers would make the earth,
despite its vastness, appear too narrow, whose fury and
fierce onset would fill the hearts of men with fear, being
animated with a courage before which the mountain peaks
bow down, and a firm purpose that makes the hardest
rocks grow soft. We reflected on this their resolution
which expressed the wish of all, and we concluded that it
ran counter to the aim we had in view — to promote the
common weal, i. e. to strengthen the ordinance of Islam ;
never, as far as lies in our power, to issue any order that will
not tend to prevent bloodshed, remove the ills of men,
1 Qur'an, vi. 125.
and cause the breeze of peace and prosperity to blow on

all lands, and the kings of other countries to rest upon
the couch of affection and benevolence, whereby the com-
mands of God will be honoured and mercy be shown to
the people of God. Herein, God inspired us to quench
this fire and put an end to these terrible calamities, and
make known to those who advanced this proposal (of a
levy) what it is that God has put into our hearts to do,
namely, to employ all possible means for the healing of all
the sickness of the world, and putting off what should only
be appealed to as the last remedy. For we desire not to
hasten to appeal to arms, until we have first declared the
right path, and will permit it only after setting forth the
truth and establishing it with proofs. Our resolve to carry
out whatever appears to us good and advantageous has
been strengthened by the counsels of the Shayldi al-Islam,
the model of divines, who has given us much assistance in
religious matters. We have appointed our chief justice,
Qutb al-Din and the Atabak, Baha al-Din, both trustworthy
persons of this flourishing kingdom, to make known to you
our course of action and bear witness to our good intentions
for the common weal of the Mushms ; and to make it known
that God has enlightened us, and that Islam annuls all
that has gone before it, and that God Almighty has put
it into our hearts to follow the truth and those who practice
it. ... If some convincing proof be required, let men
observe our actions. By the grace of God, we have raised
aloft the standards of the faith, and borne witness to it in
all our orders and our practice, so that the ordinances of
the law of Muhammad may be brought to the fore and
firmly established in accordance with the principles of
justice laid down by Ahmad. Whereby we have filled the
hearts of the people with joy, have granted free pardon
to all offenders, and shown them indulgences, saying, ' May
God pardon the past ! ' We have reformed all matters
concerning the pious endowments of Mushms given for
mosques, colleges, charitable institutions, and the rebuilding
of caravanserais ; we have restored their incomes to those
to whom they were due according to the terms laid down
by the donors. . . . We have ordered the pilgrims to be
treated with respect, provision to be made for their caravans
and for securing their safety on the pilgrim routes ; we have
given perfect freedom to merchants, travelhng from one
country to another, that they may go wherever they please ;
and we have strictly prohibited our soldiers and police
from interfering with them in their comings or goings.'
He seeks the alhance of the Sultan of Egypt " so that these
countries and cities may again be populated, these terrible
calamities be put down, the sword be returned to the
scabbard ; that all peoples may dwell in peace and quietness,
and the necks of the Mushms be freed from the ills of
humiliation and disgrace." ^
To the student of the history of the Mongols it is a relief
to pass from the recital of nameless horrors and continual
bloodshed to a document emanating from a Mongol prince
and giving expression to such humane and benevolent
sentiments, which sound strange indeed coming from such
lips.
This conversion of their chief and the persecutions that
he inflicted on the Christians gave great offence to the
Mongols, who, although not Christians themselves, had been
long accustomed to intercourse with the Christians, and
they denounced their chief to Qiibilay Hian as one who
had abandoned the footsteps of his forefathers. A revolt
broke out against him, headed by his nephew Arghun, who
compassed his death and succeeded him on the throne.
During his brief reign (1284-1291), the Christians were
once more restored to favour, while the Musalmans had to
suffer persecution in their turn, were dismissed from their
posts and driven away from the court. ^
The successors of Takudar were all heathen, until, in
1295, Ghazan, the seventh and greatest of the Illdians,
became a Musalman and made Islam the ruling religion
of Persia. During the last three reigns the Christians had
entertained great hopes of the conversion of the ruling family
of Persia, who had shown them such distinguished favour
and entrusted them with so many important offices of
state. His immediate predecessor, the insurgent Baydii
Hian, who occupied the throne for a few months only in
^ Was§af, pp. 231-4. 2 De Guignes, vol. iii. pp. 263-5.
1295, carried his predilection for Christianity so far as to

try to put a stop to the spread of Islam among the Mongols,
and accordingly forbade any one to preach the doctrines
of this faith among them.^
Qiazan himself before his conversion had been brought
up as a Buddhist and had erected several Buddhist temples
in Khurasan, 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 appears to have been naturally
of a religious turn of mind, for he studied the creeds of the
different religions of his time, and used to hold discussions
with the learned doctors of each faith. ^ Rashid al-Din,
his learned minister and the historian of his reign, maintained
the genuineness of his conversion to Islam, the religious
observances of which he zealously kept throughout his
whole reign, though his contemporaries (and later writers
have often re-echoed the imputation) represented him as
having only yielded to the solicitations of some Amirs and
Shayldis.* " Besides, what interested motive," asks his
apologist, " could have led so powerful a sovereign to change
his faith : much less, a prince whose pagan ancestors had
conquered the world ? " His conversion, however, certainly
won over to his side the hearts of the Persians, when he
was contending with Baydii for the throne, and the Muham-
madan Mongols in the army of his rival deserted to support
the cause of their co-religionist. These were the very
considerations that were urged upon Qiazan by Nawruz, a
Muhammadan Amir who had espoused his cause and who
hailed him as the prince who, according to a prophecy,
was to appear about this time to protect the faith of Islam
and restore it to its former splendour : if he embraced Islam,
he could become the ruler of Persia : the Musalmans,
delivered from the grievous yoke of the Pagan Mongols,
would espouse his cause, and God, recognising in him the
saviour of the true faith from utter destruction, would bless
his arms with victory.^ After hesitating a little, Ghazan
^ C. d'Ohsson, tome iv. pp. 141-2. ^ Id. ib. p. 148.

' Id. ib. p. 365. * Id. ib. pp. 148, 354. Cahun, p. 434.
" C. d'Ohsson, toms iv. pp. 128, 132.
made a public profession of the faith, and his officers and
soldiers followed his example : he distributed alms to men
of piety and learning and visited the mosques and tombs
of the saints and in every way showed himself an exemplary
Muslim ruler. His brother, Uljaytii, who succeeded him
in 1304, under the name of Muhammad Khudabandah.
had been brought up as a Christian in the faith of his mother
and had been baptised under the name of Nicholas, but
after his mother's death, while he was still a young man,
he became a convert to Islam through the persuasions of
his wife.i Ibn Batiitah says that his example exercised
a great influence on the Mongols. ^ From this time forward
Islam became the paramount faith in the kingdom of the
Ilkhans.
The details that we possess of the progress of Islam in
the Middle Kingdom, which fell to the lot of Chaghatay and
his descendants, are still more meagre. Several of the
princes of this line had a Muhammadan minister in their
service, but they showed themselves unsympathetic to the
faith of Islam. Chaghatay harassed his Muhammadan
subjects by regulations that restricted their ritual observ-
ances in respect of the killing of animals for food and of
ceremonial washings. Al-Jiizjani sa3^s that he was the
bitterest enemy of the Muslims among all the Mongol
rulers and did not wish any one to utter the word Musalman
before him except with evil purpose.^ Orghana. the wife
of his grandson and successor, Qara-Hiilagii, brought up
^ Hammer-Purgstall : Geschichte der Ilchanen, vol. ii. p. 182. It is
not improbable that the captive Muslim women took a considerable part
in the conversion of the Mongols to Islam. Women appear to have occu-
pied an honoured position among the Mongols, and many instances might
be given of their having taken a prominent part in political affairs, just
as already several cases have been mentioned of the influence they exercised
on their husbands in religious matters. William of Rubruck tells us
how he found the influence of a Muslim wife an obstacle in the way
of his proselytising labours : " On the day of Pentecost a certain Saracen
came to us, and while in conversation with us, we began expounding the
faith, and when he heard of the blessings of God to man in the incar-
nation, the resurrection of the dead, the last judgment, and the washing
away of sins in baptism, he said he wished to be baptised ; but while we
were making ready to baptise him, he suddenly jumped on his horse
saying he had to go home to consult with his wife. And the next day
talking with us he said he could not possibly venture to receive baptism,
for then he could not drink cosmos" (mare's milk). (Rubruck, pp. 90-1.)
* Ibn Batiitah, vol. ii. p. 57.
' Juzjani, pp. 381, 397. Raverty, pp. 11 10, 1 145-6.
her son as a Musalman, and under the name of Mubarak
Shah he came forward in 1264 as one of the claimants of
the disputed succession to the Chaghatay Hianate ; but he
was soon driven from the throne by his cousin Buraq Khan,
and appears to have exercised no influence on behalf of
his faith, indeed judging from their names it would not
appear that any of his own children even adopted the
religion of their father.^ Buraq Hian is said to have " had
the blessedness of receiving the light of the faith " a few
days before his death in 1270, and to have taken the name
of Sultan Ghiyath al-Din,^ but he was buried according
to the ancient funeral rites of the Mongols, and not as a
Musalman, and those who had been converted during his
reign relapsed into their former heathenism. It was not
until the next century that the conversion of Tarmashirin
Hian, about 1326, caused Islam to be at all generally
adopted by the Chaâtay Mongols, who when they followed
the example of their chief this time remained true to their
new faith. But even now the ascendancy of Islam was not
assured, for Biizun who was Khan in the next decade — ■
the chronology is uncertain — drove Tarmashirin from his
throne, and persecuted the Muslims,^ and it was not until
some years later that we hear of the first Musalman king
of Kashgar, which the break-up of the Chaâtay dynasty
had erected into a separate kingdom. This prince, Tiiqluq
Timiir Khan (1347-1363), is said to have owed his conversion
to a holy man from BuWiara, by name Shaykh Jamal
al-DTn. This Shaykh. in company with a number of travel-
lers, had unwittingly trespassed on the game-preserves of
the prince, who ordered them to be bound hand and foot
and brought before him. In reply to his angry question,
how they had dared interfere with his hunting, the Shaykh
pleaded that they were strangers and were quite unaware
that they were trespassing on forbidden ground. Learning
that they were Persians, the prince said that a dog was
worth more than a Persian. " Yes," replied the ShayMi,
" if we had not the true faith, we should indeed be worse
than the dogs." Struck with his reply, the Hian ordered
^ Rashid al-Din, pp. 173-4, ^^^- * Abu'l-Ghazi. tome ii. p. 159.
' Ibn Batutah, tome iii. p. 47.
this bold Persian to be brought before him on his return
from hunting, and taking him aside asked him to explain
what he meant by these words and what was " faith." The
ShayMi then set before him the doctrines of Islam with
such fervour and zeal that the heart of the Khan that
before had been hard as a stone was melted like wax, and
so terrible a picture did the holy man draw of the state of
unbelief, that the prince was convinced of the blindness of
his own errors, but said, " Were I now to make profession
of the faith of Islam, I should not be able to lead my subjects
into the true path. But bear with me a httle; and when
I have entered into the possession of the kingdom of my
forefathers, come to me again." For the empire of Chaâ-
tay had by this time been broken up into a number of petty
princedoms, and it was many years before Tiiqluq Timiir
succeeded in uniting under his sway the whole empire as
before. Meanwhile ShayMi Jamal al-Din had returned to
his home, where he fell dangerously ill : when at the point
of death, he said to his son Rashid al-DIn, " Tiiqluq Timiir
will one day become a great monarch; fail not to go and
salute him in my name and fearlessly remind him of the
promise he made me." Some years later, when Tiiqluq
Timiir had re-won the empire of his fathers, Rashid al-DIn
made his way to the camp of the Hian to fulfil the last
wishes of his father, but in spite of all his efforts he could
not gain an audience of the Sian. At length he devised
the following expedient : one day in the early morning, he
began to chant the call to prayers, close to the Khan's
tent. Enraged at having his slumbers disturbed in this
way, the prince ordered him to be brought into his presence,
whereupon Rashid al-DIn delivered his father's message.
Tiiqluq Hian was not unmindful of his promise, and said :
" Ever since I ascended the throne I have had it on my mind
that I made that promise, but the person to whom I gave
the pledge never came. Now you are welcome," He then
repeated the profession of faith and became a Muslim.
" On that morn the sun of bounty rose out of the east of
divine favour and effaced the dark night of unbelief. . . .
They then decided that for the propagation of Islam they
should interview the princes one by one, and it should be
well for those who accepted the faith, but those who refused
should be slain as heathens and idolaters." The first to
be examined was a noble named Amir TiJlik. The Khan
asked him, " Will you embrace Islam ? " Amir Tiilik
burst into tears and said : " Three years ago I was converted
by some holy men at Kashgar and became a Musalman,
but from fear of you I did not openly declare it." Then
Tuqluq Hian rose up and embraced him, and the three
sat down again together. In this manner they examined
the princes one by one, and they all accepted Islam, with
the exception of one named Jaras, who suggested a trial
of strength between the Shaykh and his servant, an infidel
who was above the ordinary stature of man and so strong
that he could lift a two-year-old camel. The Shayldi
accepted the challenge, saying : " If I do not throw him,
I will not require you to become a Musalman. If it is
God's wish that the Mongols become honoured with the
blessed state of Islam, He will doubtless give me sufficient
power
who hadto become
overcomeMusalmans
this man."
with Tuqluq Hian toand
him tried those
dissuade
the holy man, but he persisted in his purpose. " A large
crowd assembled, the infidel was brought in, and he and the
Shaykh advanced towards one another. The infidel, proud
of his own strength, advanced with a conceited air. The
Shaykh looked very small and weak beside him. When
they came to blows, the Shaykh struck the infidel full in the
chest, and he fell senseless. After a little he came to again,
and having raised himself, fell again at the feet of the
Shaykh. crying out and uttering words of belief. The people
raised loud shouts of applause, and on that day 160,000
persons cut off the hair of their heads and became Musal-
mans. The Hian was circumcised, and the lights of Islam
dispelled
became thetheestablished
shades of faith
unbelief." From that
in the settled time under
countries Islam
the rule of the descendants of Chaghatay.^ But many

of the nomad Mongols appear to have remained outside
the pale of Islam up to the early part of the fifteenth
century, judging from the violent methods adopted for
their conversion by Muhammad Iân, who was Iîan of
^ Abu' 1-Ghazi. tome ii. pp. 166-8. Muhammad Haydar, pp. 13-15.
MuiJialistan ^ about 1416. " Muhammad Hian was a wealthy

prince and a good Musalman. He persisted in following the
road of justice and equity, and was so unremitting in his
exertions, that during his blessed reign most of the tribes of
the Mongols became Musalmans, It is well known what
severe measures he had recourse to, in bringing the Mongols
to be believers in Islam. If, for instance, a Mongol did not
wear a turban, a horseshoe nail was driven into his head :
and treatment of this kind was common. May God
recompense him with good." ^
Even such drastic measures were ineffectual in bringing
about a general acceptance of Islam, for as late as at the
close of the following century,^ a dervish named Ishaq Wall
found scope for his proselytising activities in Kashgar,
Yarkand and Khotan, where he spent twelve years in
spreading the faith ; * he also worked among the Kirghiz
and Kazaks, from among whom he made 180 converts
and destroyed eighteen temples of idols. ^
In the preceding pages some attempt has been made to
indicate some of the steps by which the Muslims won over
to their faith the savage hordes who had destroyed their
centres of culture. By slow degrees, Islam thus began to
emerge out of the ruins of its former ascendancy and take
its place again as a dominant faith, after more than a
century of depression. In the course of the struggle between
the followers of rival creeds for the adherence of the Mongols,
considerations of political expediency undoubtedly operated
in favour of the Muslim party, and the intrigues of Western
Christendom caused the Christians to become suspect, as
agents of a foreign power; but at the beginning such of
the Mongols as were Nestorians could put forward a better
claim to be the national party and could attack the Musal-
mans as adherents of a foreign faith. Ahmad Takiidar
1 When the power of the Chagjiatay Hians declined, a portion of the

eastern division of their realm became practically independent under the
name of Muâlistan, a pastoral country suited to the habits of nomad
herdsmen, in what is now known as Chinese Turkistan.
* Muhammad Haydar, pp. 57-8.
» In the reign of 'Abd al-Karim, who was Hian of Kashgar from a.h.
983 to 1003 (a.d. 1575-1594)-
* Martin Hartmann : Der Islamische Orient, vol. i. p. 203. (Berlin, 1899.)
' Id. p. 202.
was denounced by Arghun as a traitor to the law of his
fathers, in that he had followed the way of the Arabs which
none of his ancestors had known. ^ The insurrection that
caused Tarmashh-In to be driven into exile, gained strength
from the complaint that this monarch had disregarded
the Yassaq or ancient code of Mongol institutes.^ But
though the issue of the struggle long remained doubtful,
Islam gradually gained ground in the lands of which it
had been dispossessed. The means whereby this success
was achieved are obscure, and the scanty details set forth
above leave much of the tale untold, but enough has been
recorded to indicate some of the proselytising agencies that
led to individual conversions. Ananda drank in Islam with
his foster-mother's milk ; ^ and the remnant of the faithful,
especially the older families of Muhammadan Turks, exer-
cised an almost insensible influence on the Mongols who
settled down in their midst. But of special importance
among the proselytising agencies at work was the influence
of the pir and his spiritual disciples. In the midst of the
profound discouragement which filled the Musalmans after
the flood of the Mongol conquest had poured over them,
their first refuge was in mysticism, and the pir, or spiritual
guide, and religious orders — such as the Naqshbandi,
which in the fourteenth century entered on a new period
of its development — breathed new life into the Muslim
community and inspired it with fresh fervour. " In the
hands of the pir and his monks, the Musalman in Asia
came to be an agent, at first passive and unconscious, later
on the adherent of a party — the party of the national
faith, in opposition to the rule of the Mongols, which was
at once foreign, barbaric and secular." *
Let us now return to the history of Islam in the Golden
Horde. The chief camping ground of this section of the
Mongols was the grassy plain watered by the Volga, on the
bank of which they founded their capital city Serai, whither
the Russian princes sent their tribute to the Idian. The
conversion of Baraka Khan, of which mention has been
made above, and the close intercourse with Egypt that
* Assemani, tome iii. pars. ii. p. cxvi. ' Ibn Batutah, vol. iii. p. 40.
* Rashid al-Din, p. 600, 1. i. * Cahun, p. 410.
subsequently sprang up, contributed considerably to the
progress of Islam, and his example seems to have been
gradually followed by those of the aristocracy and leaders
of the Golden Horde that were of Mongol descent. But
many tribes of the Golden Horde appear to have resented
the introduction of Islam into their midst, and when the
conversion of Baraka Mian was openly proclaimed, they
sent to offer the crown, of which they considered him now
unworthy, to his rival Hiilagii. Indeed, so strong was this
opposition, that it seems to have largely contributed to
the formation of the Nogais as a separate tribe. They took
their name from Nogay, who was the chief commander
of the Mongol forces under Baraka Hian. When the
other princes of the Golden Horde became Musalmans,
Nogay remained a Shamanist and thus became a rallying
point for those who refused to abandon the old religion of
the Mongols. His daughter, however, who was married
to a Shamanist, became converted to Islam some time after
her marriage and had to endure the ill-treatment and
contempt of her husband in consequence. ^
To Uzbek Mian, who was leader of the Golden Horde
from 1313 to 1340, and who distinguished himself by his
proselytising zeal, it was said, " Content yourself with our
obedience, what matters our religion to you ? Why should
we abandon the faith of Chingiz Mian for that of the Arabs ? "
But in spite of the strong opposition to his efforts, Uzbek
Mian succeeded in winning many converts to the faith
of which he was so ardent a follower and which owed to
his efforts its firm establishment in the country under his
sway.^ A further sign of his influence is found in the
tribes of the Uzbeks of Central Asia, who take their name
from him and were probably converted during his reign.
He is said to have formed the design of spreading the faith
of Islam throughout the whole of Russia,^ but here
he met with no success. Indeed, though the Mongols
were paramount in Russia for two centuries, they
appear to have exercised very little influence on the
people of that country, and least of all in the matter of
1 Howorth, vol ii. p. 1015. ^ Abu-1 GJiazi, tome ii. p. 184.
* De Guignes, vol. iii. p. 351.
religion. It is noticeable, moreover, that in spite of his
zeal for the spread of his own faith, Uzbek Iân was very
tolerant towards his Christian subjects, who were left
undisturbed in the exercise of their religion and even allowed
to pursue their missionary labours in his territory. One of
the most remarkable documents of Muhammadan toleration
is the charter that Uzbek Hian granted to the Metropolitan
Peter in 1313 :— " By the will and power, the greatness
and mercy of the most High ! Uzbek to all our princes,
great and small, etc., etc. Let no man insult the metro-
politan church of which Peter is the head, or his servants
or his churchmen ; let no man seize their property, goods
or people, let no man meddle with the affairs of the metro-
politan church, since they are divine. Whoever shall
meddle therein and transgress our edict, will be guilty
before God and feel His wrath and be punished by us with
death. Let the metropolitan dwell in the path of safety
and rejoice, with a just and upright heart let him (or his
deputy) decide and regulate all ecclesiastical matters. We
solemnly declare that neither we nor our children nor the
princes of our realm nor the governors of our provinces
will in any way interfere with the affairs of the church and
the metropolitan, or in their towns, districts, villages,
chases and fisheries, their hives, lands, meadows, forests,
towns and places under their bailiffs, 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
him pray to God for us, our children and our nation. Who-
ever, shall lay hands on anything that is sacred, shall be held
guilty, he shall incur the wrath of God and the penalty
of death, that others may be dismayed at his fate. When
the tribute or other dues, such as custom duties, plough-
tax, tolls or relays are levied, or when we wish to raise
troops among our subjects, let nothing be exacted from
the cathedral churches under the metropolitan Peter, or
from any of his clergy : . . . whatever may be exacted
from the clergy, shall be returned threefold. . . Their laws,
their churches, their monasteries and chapels shall be re-
spected; whoever condemns or blames this religion, shall
R
not be allowed to excuse himself under any pretext, but
shall be punished with death. The brothers and sons of
priests and deacons, living at the same table and in the
same house, shall enjoy the same privileges." ^
That these were no empty words and that the toleration here
promised became a reality, may be judged from a letter sent
to the Khan by Pope John XXII in 1318, in which he thanks
the Muslim prince for the favour he showed to his Christian
subjects and the kind treatment they received at his hands. ^
The successors of Uzbek Khan do not appear to have been
animated by the same zeal for the spread of Islam as he
had shown, and could not be expected to succeed where he
failed. So long as the Russians paid 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 had efforts been
made to turn them from the faith of their fathers ; for
Christianity had been the national religion of the Russian
people for well-nigh three centuries before the Mongols
established themselves in Russian territory.
Another race many years before had tried to win the
Russians to Islam but had likewise failed, viz. the Muslim
Bulgarians who were found in the tenth century on the
banks of the Volga, and who probably owed their con-
version to the Muslim merchants, trading in furs and
other commodities of the North ; their conversion must
have taken place some time before a.d. 921, when the
caliph al-Muqtadir sent an envoy to confirm them in the
faith and instruct them in the tenets and ordinances of
Islam. ^
These Bulgarians attempted the conversion of Vladimir,
the then sovereign of Russia, who (the Russian chronicler
tells us) had found it necessary to choose some religion better
than his pagan creed, but they failed to overcome his objec-
tions to the rite of circumcision and to the prohibition of
^ Karamzin, vol. iv. pp. 391-4.

* Hammer-Purgstall : Geschichte der Goldenen Horde in Kiptschak,
p. 290.
' De Baschkiris quae memoriae prodita sunt ab Ibn-Foszlano et Jakuto,
interprete C. N. Fraehnio. (Memoires de rAcademie Imperiale des Sciences
de St. Petersbourg, tome viii. p. 626. 1822.)
wine, the use of which, he declared, the Russians could never
give up, as it was the very joy of their life. Equally un-
successful were the Jews who came from the country of
the Khazars on the Caspian Sea and had won over the
king of that people to the Mosaic faith. ^ After listening
to their arguments, Vladimir asked them where their
country was. " Jerusalem," they replied, " but God in
His anger has scattered us over the whole world." " Then
you are cursed of God," cried the king, " and yet want to
teach others : begone ! we have no wish, like you, to be
without a country." The most favourable impression was
made by a Greek priest who, after a brief criticism of the
other religions, set forth the whole scheme of Christian
teaching beginning with the creation of the world and the
story of the fall of man and ending with the seven oecumenical
councils accepted by the Greek Church ; then he showed the
prince a picture of the Last Judgment with the righteous
entering paradise and the wicked being thrust down into
hell, and promised him the heritage of heaven, if he would
be baptised. But Vladimir was unwilling to make a
rash choice of a substitute for his pagan religion, so
he called his boyards together and having told them
of the accounts he had received of the various religions,
asked them for their advice. " Prince," they replied,
" every man praises his own religion, and if you would
make choice of the best, send wise men into the different
countries to discover which of all the nations honours
God in the manner most worthy of Him." So the prince
chose out for this purpose ten men who were eminent
for their wisdom. These ambassadors found among the
Bulgarians mean-looking places of worship, gloomy prayers
and solemn faces ; among the German Catholics religious
ceremonies that lacked both grandeur and magnificence.
At length they reached Constantinople : " Let them see
the glory of our God," said the Emperor. So they were
taken to the church of Santa Sophia, where the Patriarch,
clad in his pontifical robes, was celebrating mass. The
magnificence of the building, the rich vestments of the
priests, the ornaments of the altars, the sweet odour of
^ Abu 'Ubayd al-Bakri, pp. 470-1.
the incense, the reverent silence of the people, and the
mysterious solemnity of the ceremonial filled the savage
Russians with wonder and amazement. It seemed to them
that this church must be the dwelling of the Most High,
and that He manifested His glory therein to mortals. On
their return to Kief, the ambassadors gave the prince an
account of their mission ; they spoke with contempt of the
religion of the Prophet and had little to say for the Roman
Catholic faith, but were enthusiastic in their eulogies of the
Greek Church. " Every man," they said, " who has put
his lips to a sweet draught, henceforth abhors anything
bitter; wherefore we having come to the knowledge of the
faith of the Greek Church desire none other." Vladimir
once more consulted his boyards, who said unto him, " Had
not the Greek faith been best of all, Olga, your grandmother,
the wisest of mortals, would never have embraced it."
Whereupon Vladimir hesitated no longer and in a.d. 988
declared himself a Christian. On the day after his baptism
he threw down the idols his forefathers had worshipped, and
issued an edict that all the Russians, masters and slaves,
rich and poor, should submit to be baptised into the
Christian faith. ^
Thus Christianity became the national religion of the
Russian people, and after the Mongol conquest, the dis-
tinctive national characteristics of Russians and Tatars
that have kept the two races apart to the present day,
the bitter hatred of the Tatar yoke, the devotion of the
Russians to their own faith and the want of religious zeal
on the part of the Tatars, kept the conquered race from
adopting the religion of the conqueror. Especially has
the prohibition of spirituous liquors by the laws of Islam
been supposed to have stood in the way of the adoption of
this religion by the Russian people.
It would appear that not until after the promulgation
of the edict of religious toleration in 1905 throughout the
Russian empire and the active Muslim propaganda that
followed it, were cases observed of Russians being converted
to Islam, and those that have occurred are ascribed to the
strong attraction of the material help offered by the Tatars
^ Karamsin, tome i. pp. 259-71.
SPREAD OF ISLAM AMONG THE TATARS 245
to such converts and the influence of the moral strength

of the MusHms themselves.^
Not that the Tatars in Russia had been altogether in-
operative in promoting the spread of Islam during the
preceding centuries. The distinctly Hellenic type of face
that is to be found among the so-called Tatars of the Crimea
has led to the conjecture that these Muhammadans have
absorbed into their community the Greek and Italian
populations that they found settled on the Crimean penin-
sula, and that we find among them the Muhammadanised
descendants of the indigenous inhabitants, and of the
Genoese colonists. ^ A traveller of the seventeenth century
tells us that the Tatars of the Crimea tried to induce their
slaves to become Muhammadans, and won over many of
them to this faith by promising them their liberty if they
would be persuaded.^ Conversions to Islam from among
the Tatars of the Crimea are also reported after the
proclamation of religious liberty in 1905.*
A brief reference may here be made to the Tatars in
Lithuania, where small groups of them have been settled
since the early part of the fifteenth century ; these Muslim
immigrants, dwelling in the midst of a Christian population,
have preserved their old faith, but (probably for political
reasons) do not appear to have attempted to proselytise.
But they have been in the habit of marrying Lithuanian
and Polish women, whose children were always brought up
as Muslims, whereas no Muhammadan girl was permitted
to marry a Christian. The grand dukes of Lithuania in
the fifteenth century encouraged the marriage of Christian
women with their Tatar troops, on whom they bestowed
grants of land and other privileges. ^
One of the most curious incidents in the missionary
history of Islam is the conversion of the Kirghiz of Central
Asia by Tatar mullas, who preached Islam among them
in the eighteenth century, as emissaries of the Russian
government. The Kirghiz began to come under Russian rule
^ Bobrovnikoff, p. 13.
2 Reclus, tome v. p. 831. R. du M. M., tome iii. pp. 76, 78.
3 Relation des Tartares, par Jean de Luca, p. 17. (Thevenot, tome i.)
* Islam and Missions, p. 257.
5 Gasztowtt, pp. 321-3, R. du M. M., xi, {1910), pp. 287 sqq,
about 1731, and for 120 years all diplomatic correspondence
was carried on with them in the Tatar language under
the delusion that they were ethnographically the same
as the Tatars of the Volga. Another misunderstanding on
the part of the Russian government was that the Kirghiz
were Musalmans, whereas in the eighteenth century they
were nearly all Shamanists, as a large number of them were
still up to the middle of the nineteenth century. At
the time of the annexation of their country to the Russian
empire only a few of their Hians and Sultans had any
knowledge of the faith of Islam — and that very con-
fused and vague. Not a single mosque was to be
found throughout the whole of the Kirghiz Steppes,
or a single religious teacher of the faith of the Prophet,
and the Kirghiz owed their conversion to Islam to
the fact that the Russians, taking them for Muhammadans,
insisted on treating them as such. Large sums of money
were given for the building of mosques, and mullas
were sent to open schools and instruct the young in the
tenets of the Muslim faith : the Kirghiz scholars were to
receive every day a small sum to support themselves on,
and the fathers were to be induced to send their children
to the schools by presents and other means of persuasion.
An incontrovertible proof that the Musalman propaganda
made its way into the Kirghiz Steppes from the side of
Russia, is the circumstance that it was especially those
Kirghiz who were more contiguous to Europe that first
became Musalmans, and the old Shamanism lingered up
to the nineteenth century among those who wandered
in the neighbourhood of Khiva, BuMiara and Khokand,
though these for centuries had been Muhammadan
countries.!
This is probably the only instance of a Christian govern-
ment co-operating in the promulgation of Islam, and is
the more remarkable inasmuch as the Russian government
of this period was attempting to force Christianity on its
Muslim subjects in Europe, in continuation of the efforts
1 The Russian Policy regarding Central Asia. An historical sketch.
By Prof. V. Grigorief. (Eugene Schuyler : Turkistan, vol. ii. pp. 405-6.
5th ed. London, 1876) ; Franz von Schwarz ; Turkestan, p. 58. (Freiburg,
1910.)
made in the sixteenth century soon after the conquest of
the Khanate of Kazan.
At the beginning of the nineteenth century many of
the Kirghiz dwelhng in the vast plains stretching south-
wards from the district of Tobolsk towards Turkistan were
still heathen, and the Russian government was approached
for permission for a Christian mission to be established
among them. But this request was not granted, on the
ground that " these people were as yet too wild and savage
to be accessible to the Gospel. But soon after other mission-
aries, not depending on the good-will of any government,
and having more zeal and understanding, occupied this
field and won the whole of the Kirghis tribe to the faith of
Islam." 1
After the conquest of Kazan by the Russians in the
sixteenth century, the occupation of the former Tatar
Khanate was followed up by an official Christian missionary
movement, and a number of the heathen population of
the Khanate were baptised, the labours of the clergy being
actively seconded by the police and the civil authorities,
but as the Russian priests did not understand the language
of their converts and soon neglected them, it had to be
admitted that the new converts " shamelessly retain many
horrid Tartar customs, and neither hold nor know the
Christian faith." When spiritual exhortations failed, the
government ordered its officials to " pacify, imprison, put
in irons, and thereby unteach and frighten from the
Tartar faith those who, though baptised, do not obey the
admonitions of the Metropolitan."
In the eighteenth century the Russian government made
fresh efforts to convert the heathen tribes and the relapsed
Tatars, and held out many inducements to them to become
baptised. Catherine II in 1778 ordered that all the new
converts should sign a written promise to the effect that
" they would completely forsake their infidel errors, and,
avoiding all intercourse with unbelievers, would hold firmly
and unwaveringly the Christian faith and its dogmas."
But in spite of all, these so-called " baptised Tartars " were
Christians only in name, and soon began to try to escape
^ Islam and Missions, pp. 251-2, 255.
from the propagandist efforts of the Orthodox Church and
abandoned Christianity for Islam, their so-called conversion
merely serving as a stepping-stone to their entrance into
the faith of the Prophet.
They may, indeed, have been inscribed in the official
registers as Christians, but they resolutely stood out against
any efforts that were made to Christianise them. In a
semi-official article, published in 1872, the writer says :
" It is a fact worthy of attention that a long series of evident
apostasies coincides with the beginning of measures to
confirm the converts in the Christian faith. There must be,
therefore, some collateral cause producing those cases of
apostasy precisely at the moment when the contrary might
be expected." The fact seems to be that these Tatars
having all the time remained Muhammadan at heart,
resisted the active measures taken to make their nominal
profession of Christianity in any way a reality.^ But in
the latter part of the nineteenth century efforts were made to
Christianise these heathen and Muslim tribes by means of
schools established in their midst. In this way it was hoped
to win the younger generation, since otherwise it seemed
impossible to gain an entrance for Christianity among the
Tatars, for, as a Russian professor said, " The citizens of
Kazan are hard to win, but we get some little folk from the
villages on the steppe, and train them in the fear of God.
Once they are with us they can never turn back." 2 For
the Russian criminal code used to contain severe enactments
against those who fell away from the Orthodox Church, ^
and sentenced any person convicted of converting a Christian
to Islam to the loss of all civil rights and to imprisonment
with hard labour for a term varying from eight to ten years.
In spite, however, of the edicts of the government, Muslim
propagandism succeeded in winning over whole villages
^ D. Mackenzie Wallace : Russia, vol. i. pp. 242-4. (London, 1877,
4th ed.) R. du M. M., vol. ix. (1909), p. 249. Bobrovnikoff, p. 5 sqq.
* W. Hepworth Dixon : Free Russia, vol. ii. p. 284. (London, 1870.)
* E. g. " En 1883, des paysans Tatars du village d'Apozof etaient pour-
suivis, devant le tribunal de Kazan, pour avoir abandonne I'orthodoxie.
Les accuses declaraient avoir toujours ete musalmans; sept d'entre eux
n'en furent pas moins condamnes, comme apostats, aux travaux forces. . . .
Beaucoup de ces relaps ont ete deportes en Siberie." Anatole Leroy-
Beaulieu : L'Empire des Tsars et les Russes, tome iii. p. 645. (Paris,
1889-93.) f f^ \
to the faith of Islam, especially among the tribes of north-

eastern Russia.^
The town of Kazan is the chief centre of this missionary
activity ; a large number of Muslim publications are printed
here every year, and mullas go forth from the University
to convert the pagans in the villages and bring back to
Islam the Tatars who have allowed themselves to be bap-
tised. The increasing number of these Christian Tatars,
who have gone to swell the ranks of Islam, has alarmed the
clergy of the Orthodox Church, but their efforts have failed
to check the success of the mullas. ^ Especially since the
edict of toleration in 1905, mass conversions have been
reported, e. g. in 1909, ninety-one families in the village of
Atomva are said to have become Muhammadan,^ and as
many as 53,000 persons between 1906 and 1910.* This
propaganda is said to owe much of its success to the higher
moral level of life in Muslim society, as well as to the stronger
feeling of solidarity that prevails in it ; ^ moreover, the
methods adopted by the Russian clergy, supported by the
government, to make the so-called Christian Tatars more
orthodox, have caused the Christian faith to become un-
popular among them. ^ On the other hand, the propaganda
of Islam is very zealously carried forward ; " every simple,
untaught Moslem is a missionary of his religion, and the
poor, dark, untaught heathen or half-heathen tribes cannot
resist their force. In many villages of baptised aborigines
the men go away for the winter to work as tailors in Moslem
villages. There they are converted to Islam, and they
return to their villages as fanatics bringing with them
Moslem ideas with which to influence their homes." '
The tribes that have chiefly come under the influence of
this missionary movement are the Votiaks, the greater part
of whom are baptised Christians, but many became Muslims
in the eighteenth and the beginning of the nineteenth
centuries ; and the influence of Islam is continually growing
both among those that are Christian and among the small
1 D. Mackenzie Wallace : Russia, vol. i. p. 245.
* Palmieri, pp. 85-6. R. du M. M., i. (1907), pp. 162 sq.
' R. du M. M., ix. (1909), p. 294.
* Id. X. (1910), p. 413, Id. i, (1907), p. ?73- ' Id. ix. p. 252.
* Id. p. 249. ^ Bobrovnikgff, p. 12.
remnant that is still heathen. The Cheremiss, like the
Votiaks, are a Finnish tribe, about a quarter of whom are
still heathen, but many have already embraced Islam and
it is probable that most of them will soon adopt the same
religion. The movement of the Cheremiss towards Islam
made itself manifest in the nineteenth century and though
many of them were nominally Christian, whole villages
of them became Muhammadan despite the laws forbidding
conversion except to the Orthodox Church. ^ They became
Muhammadan through their immediate contact with the
Bashkirs and Tatars, whose family and social customs were
very similar to their own. The process sometimes began
with intermarriages with Muhammadans — e. g. in one village
a Cheremiss family intermarried with some Bashkirs and
adopted their faith; the converts being persecuted as
" circumcised dogs " in their own village, moved away and
founded a new settlement some miles off, some wealthy
Bashkirs helping them with money; but as they were
officially registered as heathen, they could not get per-
mission for the building of a mosque, so a few Bashkir
families in the neighbourhood moved into the new settle-
ment, in order to make up the number requisite for obtaining
the necessary official permission. ^ A similar process has
several times occurred in other villages in which Muham-
madans have come to settle and have intermarried with
Cheremiss.^ In other cases there has been a definite
missionary movement — e. g. in the beginning of the nine-
teenth century the village of Karakul was inhabited by
Christian Cheremiss, but shortly after the middle of the
century some famihes were converted to Islam by a Chere-
miss who had become a mulla ; on his death he was succeeded
by a Bashkir from another village. Later on, the converts
moved away to Tatar and Bashkir villages, their place
being taken by Tatars, until the whole village became
practically Tatar, few of the younger generation retaining
any knowledge of the Cheremiss language, and intermarriages
taking place only with Tatars.* Apart from this prosely-
tising activity, there has been a very distinct spread of
* Reclus, tome v. pp. 746, 748. * Eruslanov, pp. 3, 6.
' Id. pp. 7-8. * Id. pp. 5-6.
Tatar influence in speech and manners among the Cheremiss.

The Tatar language has spread among them, bringing with
it the moral and religious ideas of Islam; the adoption
of the Tatar dress is held to be a sign of superior culture,
and if a Cheremiss does not dress hke a Tatar he runs the
risk of being laughed at by the first Tatar he meets or by
his fellow Cheremiss; all this cultural movement tends to
the ultimate adoption of the Tatar religion. ^ After their
conversion, the Cheremiss are said to be very zealous in
the propagation of their new faith and receive the assistance
of wealthy Tatars ; ^ on the other hand, the Russians despise
the Cheremiss as an inferior race and apply opprobrious
epithets even to those among them who are Christians. ^
About one-fourth of the Cheremiss are still heathen, but
Mushm influences are so powerful among them that it is
probable that in course of time they will for the most part
become Muhammadans.^ The Chuvash, who number about
1,000,000, have nearly all been baptised; there are about
20,000 of them that are still heathen but these are gradually
being absorbed by Islam, while some of the Christian
Chuvash have become Muhammadans and the rest are
coming under Muslim influences. The extent of their zeal
for their converts may be judged from the instance of a
Christian Chuvash village, the priest of which had spent
several years in collecting the 300 roubles necessary for
the repair of the church; eight Chuvash families became
Muhammadan and in the course of a few months 2000
roubles were collected for the building of a mosque. ^ Such
ready activity is characteristic of the Muslim propaganda
now being carried among the aboriginal tribes. Each
family that accepts Islam receives help either in money or
in kind: a house is built for one; a field, cattle, etc., are
purchased for another; when several families in a village
are converted, a mosque is built for them and a school
estabhshed for their children.^
Of the spread of Islam among the Tatars of Siberia, we
have a few particulars. It was not until the latter half of
1 Eruslanov, pp. 9, 13. ^ Id. pp. 17. 20, 36.

3 Id. pp. 38-9. * Bobrovnikoff, p. 22.
6 Id. pp. 21-2, 31. ^ Id. p. 13. Islam and Missions, p. 257,
the sixteenth century that it gained a footing in this country,

but even before this period Muhammadan missionaries had
from time to time made their way into Siberia with the hope
of winning the heathen population over to the acceptance
of their faith, but the majority of them met with a martyr's
death. When Siberia came under Muhammadan rule, in
the reign of Kiichum Hian, the graves of seven of these
missionaries were discovered by an aged Shayldi who came
from BuMiara to search them out, being anxious that some
memorial should be kept of the devotion of these martyrs
to the faith : he was able to give the names of this number,
and up to the last century their memory was still revered
by the Tatars of Siberia. ^ When Kiichum Hian (who was
descended from Jiiji Hian, the eldest son of Chinglz Hian)
became Hian of Siberia (about the year 1570), either by
right of conquest or (according to another account) at the
invitation of the people whose Mian had died without issue,^
he made every effort for the conversion of his subjects, and
sent to BuMiara asking for missionaries to assist him in this
pious undertaking. One of the missionaries who was sent
from BuMiara has left us an account of how he set out with
a companion to the capital of Kiichum Hian, on the bank
of the Irtish. Here, after two years, his companion died,
and, for some reasons that the writer does not mention, he
went back again ; but soon afterwards returned to the scene
of his labours, bringing with him another coadjutor, when
Kiichum Khan had appealed for help once more to BuMiara.^
Missionaries also came to Siberia from Kazan. But the
advancing tide of Russian conquest soon brought the
proselytising efforts of Kiichum Hian to an end before much
had been accomphshed, especially as many of the tribes
under his rule offered a strong opposition to all attempts
made to convert them.
But though interrupted by the Russian conquest, the
progress of Islam was by no means stopped. Mullas from
BuMiara and other cities of Central Asia and merchants
from Kazan were continually active as missionaries of Islam
in Siberia. In 1745 an entrance was first effected among
^ G. F. Miiller : Sammlung Rugsjscher Geschichte, vol. vii. p. 191.
' Id. vol. vii, pp. 183-4, 3 Radloff, vol i. p. 147,
the Baraba Tatars (between the Irtish and the Ob), and
though at the beginning of the nineteenth century many were
still heathen, they have now all become Musalmans.^ The
conversion of the Kirghiz has already been spoken of above :
the history of most of the other Mushm tribes of Siberia
is very obscure, but their conversion is probably of a recent
date. Among the instruments of Muhammadan propaganda
at the present time, it is interesting to note the large place
taken by the folk-songs of the Kirghiz, in which, interwoven
with tale and legend, the main truths of Islam make their
way into the hearts of the common people. ^
1 Jadrinzew, p. 138. Radloff, vol. i. p. 241.
* Radloff, vol. i. pp. 472, 497.
CHAPTER IX.
THE SPREAD OF ISLAM 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 the spread of Islam in India, considered apart
from the military successes and administrative achievements
of its adherents. Indeed, to many, such a task must appear
impossible. For India has often been picked out as a typical
instance of a country in which Islam owes its existence and
continuance in existence to the settlement in it of foreign,
conquering Muhammadan races, who have transmitted their
faith to their descendants, and only succeeded in spreading
it beyond their own circle by means of persecution and
forced conversions. Thus the missionary spirit of Islam is
supposed to show itself in its true light in the brutal massacres
of Brahmans by Mahmud of Ghazna. in the persecutions
of Aurangzeb, the forcible circumcisions effected by Haydar
'All, Tipu Sultan and the like.
But among the sixty-six millions of Indian Musalmans
there are vast numbers of converts or descendants of con-
verts, in whose conversion force played no part and the
only influences at work were the teaching and persuasion
of peaceful missionaries. This class of converts forms a
very distinct group by itself which can be distinguished
from that of the forcibly converted and the other hetero-
geneous elements of which Muslim India is made up. The
entire community may be roughly divided into those of
foreign race who brought their254faith into the country along
with them, and those who have been converted from one
of the previous religions of the country under various induce-
THE SPREAD OF ISLAM IN INDIA 255
merits and at many different periods of history. The foreign
settlement consists of three main bodies : first, and numeri-
cally the most important, are the immigrants from across
the north-west frontier, who are found chiefly in Sind and
the Pan jab; next come the descendants of the court and
armies of the various Muhammadan dynasties, mainly in
Upper India and to a much smaller extent in the Deccan ;
lastly, all along the west coast are settlements probably of
Arab descent, whose original founders came to India by-?
sea.i But the number of families of foreign origin that
actually settled in India is nowhere great except in the jj
Panjab and its neighbourhood. More than half the Muslim
population of India has indeed assumed appellations of
distinctly foreign races, such as Shaykh. Beg, Khan, and even
Sayyid, but the greater portion of them are local converts or
descendants of converts, who have taken the title of the
person of highest rank amongst those by whom they were
converted or have affiliated themselves to the aristocracy
of Islam on even less plausible grounds. ^ Of this latter
section of the community — the converted natives of the
country — part no doubt owed their change of religion to
force and oflicial pressure, but by far the majority of them
entered the pale of Islam of their own free will. The history
of the pix)seTytising movements and the social influences that
brought about their conversion has hitherto received very
little attention, and most of the commonly 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 little mention of
the religious life of the time finds a place, unless it has
taken the form of fanaticism or intolerance. From the
biographies of the Muslim saints, however, and from local
traditions, something may be learned of the missionary work
that was carried on quite independently of the political life
of the country. But before dealing with these it is pro-
posed to give an account of the official propagation of Islam
and of the part played by the Muhammadan rulers in the
spread of their faith.
^ Census of India, 1891. General Report by J. A. Baines, p. 167.
(London, 1893.) 2 i^^ pp ^26, 207.
From the fifteenth year after the death of the Prophet,
when an Arab expedition was sent into Sind, up to the
eighteenth century, a series of Muhammadan invaders, some
founders of great empires, others mere adventurers, poured
into India from the north-west. While some came only to
plunder and retired laden with spoils, others remained to
found kingdoms that have had a lasting influence to the
present day. But of none of these do we learn that they
were accompanied by any missionaries or preachers. 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 of
Mahmiid of Qiazn^ and Timiir. The latter, after his
capture of DehH, writes as follows in his autobiography :—
" I had been at Dehh fifteen days, which time I passed in
pleasure and enjoyment, holding royal Courts and giving
great feasts. I then reflected that I had come to Hindustan
to war against infidels, and my enterprise had been so blessed
that wherever I had gone I had been victorious. I had
triumphed over my adversaries, I had put to death some
lacs of infidels and idolaters, and I had stained my proselyt-
ing sword with the blood of the enemies of the faith. Now
this crowning victory had been won, and I felt that I ought
not to indulge in ease, but rather to exert myself in warring
against the infidels of Hindustan." ^ Though he speaks
much of his " proselyting sword," it seems, however, to have
served no other purpose than that of sending infidels to hell.
j Most of the Mushm invaders seem to have acted in a very
I similar way ; in the name of Allah, idols were thrown down,
1 their priests put to the sword, and their temples destroyed ;
\while mosques were often erected in their place. It is true
that the offer of Islam was generally made to the unbelieving
"Hindus before any attack was made upon them.^ Fear
occasionally dictated a timely acceptance of such offers and
led to conversions which, in the earher days of the Muham-
madan invasion at least, were generally short-lived and
ceased to be effective after the retreat of the invader. An
^ Elliot, vol. ii. p. 448.
^ Muîammad b. Qasim invited the Hindu princes to embrace Islam,
and the invaders who followed him were probably equally observant of
the reUgious law. (Elhot, vol, i. pp. 175, 207.)
illustration in point is furnished by the story of Hardatta,
a ra'is of Bulandshahr, whose submission to Mahmiid of
Ghazna is thus related in the history of that conqueror's
campaigns written by his secretary. " At length (about
A.D. 1019) he (i. e. Mahmiid) arrived at the fort of Barba/
in the country of Hardat, who was one of the ra'is, that is
" kings," in the Hindi language. When Hardat heard of
this invasion by the protected warriors of God, who advanced
like the waves of the sea, with the angels around them on
all sides, he became greatly agitated, his steps trembled, and
he feared for his life, which was forfeited under the law of
God. So he reflected that his safety would best be secured
by conforming to the religion of Islam, since God's sword
was drawn from the scabbard, and the whip of punishment
was uplifted. He came forth, therefore, with ten thousand
men, who all proclaimed their anxiety for conversion and
their rejection of idols." ^
These new converts probably took the earliest opportunity
of apostatising presented to them by the retreat of the
conqueror — a kind of action which we find the early Muham-
madan historians of India continually complaining of. For
when Qutb al-Din Ibak attacked Baran in 1193, he was
stoutly opposed by Chandrasen, the then Raja, who was a
lineal descendant of Hardatta and whose very name betrays
his Hindu faith : nor do we hear of there being any
Musalmans remaining under his rule.^
But these conquerors would appear to have had very little
of that " love for souls " which animates the true missionary
and which has achieved such great conquests for Islam.
The Hiiljis (1290-1320), the Tugjilaqs (1320-1412), and the
Lodis (1451-1526) were generally too busily engaged in
fighting to pay much regard to the interests of rehgion, or
else thought more of the exaction of tribute than of the
work of conversion.* Not that they were entirely lacking
1 Or Baran, the old name of Bulandshahr. ^ Elliot, vol. ii. pp. 42-3.
' Gazetteer of the N.W.P., vol. iii. part ii. p. 85.
* " The military adventurers, who founded dynasties in Northern India
and carved out kingdoms in the Dekhan, cared little for things spiritual ;
most of them had indeed no time for proselytism, being continually engaged
in conquest or in civil war. They were usually rough Tartars or Mogbals;
themselves ill-grounded in the faith of Mahomed, and untouched by the
true Semitic enthusiasm which inspired the first Arab standard bearers of
S
in religious zeal : e. g. the Ghakkars, a barbarous people in
the mountainous districts of the North of the Panjab, who
gave the early invaders much trouble, are said to have been
converted through the influence of Muhammad Ghori at the
end of the twelfth century. Their chieftain had been taken
prisoner by the Muhammadan monarch, who induced him
to become a Musalman, and then confirming him in his title
of chief of this tribe, sent him back to convert his followers,
many of whom having little religion of their own were easily
prevailed upon to embrace Islam. ^ According to Ibn
Batiitah, the Khiljis offered some encouragement to con-
version by making it a custom to have the new convert
presented to the sultan, who clad him in a robe of honour
and gave him a collar and bracelets of gold, of a value
proportionate to his rank.^ But the monarchs of the earlier
Muhammadan dynasties as a rule evinced very little prosely-
tising zeal, and it would be hard to find a parallel in their
history to the following passage from the autobiography of
Firiiz Shah Tug^laq (1351-1388) : " I encouraged my infidel
subjects to embrace the rehgion of the Prophet, and I
proclaimed that every one who repeated the creed and
became a Musalman should be exempt from the jizyah, or
poll tax. Information of this came to the ears of the people
at large and great numbers of Hindus presented themselves,
and were admitted to the honour of Islam. Thus they came
forward day by day from every quarter, and, adopting the
faith, were exonerated from the jizyah, and were favoured
with presents and honours." ^
As the Muhammadan power became consohdated, and
particularly under the Mughal dynasty, the rehgious influ-
ences of Islam naturally became more permanent and per-
sistent. These influences are certainly apparent in the Hindu
Islam. The empire which they set up was purely military, and it was
kept in that state by the half success of their conquests and the comparative
failure of their spiritual invasion. They were strong enough to prevent
anything like religious amalgamation among the Hindus, and to check the
gathering of tribes into nations; but so far were they from converting
India, that among the Mahommedans themselves their own faith never
acquired an entire and exclusive monopoly of the high offices of adminis-
tration." (Sir Alfred C. Lyall : Asiatic Studies, p. 289.) (London, 1882.)
^ Firishtah, vol. i. p. 184.
* Ibn Batiitah, tome iii. p. 197. . ' Elliot, vol. iii. p. 386.
theistic movements that arose in the fifteenth and sixteenth
centuries, and Bishop Lefroy has conjectured that the
positive character of Mushm teaching attracted minds that
were dissatisfied with the vagueness and subjectivity of a
Pantheistic system of thought. " When Mohammedanism,
with its strong grasp of the reahty of the Divine existence
and, as flowing from this, of the absolutely fixed and objec-
tive character of truth, came into conflict with the haziness
of Pantheistic thought and the subjectivity of its belief, it
necessarily followed, not only that it triumphed in the
struggle, but also that it came as a veritable tonic to the
life and thought of Upper India, quickening into a fresh
and more vigorous life many minds which never accepted for ^
themselves its intellectual sway." ^
A powerful incentive to conversion was offered, when
adherence to an idolatrous system stood in the way of
advancement at the Muhammadan courts; and though a
spirit of tolerance, which reached its culmination under the
eclectic Akbar, was very often shown towards Hinduism, and
respected even, for the most part, the state endowments of
that religion -^ and though the dread of unpopularity and the
desire of conciliation dictated a policy of non-interference
and deprecated such deeds of violence and such outbursts of
fanaticism as had characterised the earlier period of invasion
and triumph, still such motives of self-interest gained many
converts from Hinduism to the Muhammadan faith. Many^
Rajputs became converts in this way, and their descendants \
are to this day to be found among the landed aristocracy, j
The most important perhaps among these is the Musalman
branch of the great Bachgoti clan, the head of which is the
premier Muhammadan noble of Oudh. According to one
tradition, their ancestor Tilok Chand was taken prisoner by
the Emperor Babar, and to regain his liberty adopted the
faith of Islam ; ^ but another legend places his conversion in
the reign of Humayiin, This prince having heard of the
marvellous beauty of Tilok Chand's wife, had her carried
off while she was at a fair. No sooner, however, was she
^ Mankind and the Church, p. 286. (London, 1907.)
* Sir Richard Temple : India in 1880, p. 164. (London, i88i.) Punjab
States Gazetteers, vol. xxxvi a, Bahawalpur, p. 183.
3 Manual of Titles for Oudh, p. 78. (Allahabad, 1889.)
brought to him than his conscience smote him and he sent

for her husband. Tilok Chand had despaired of ever seeing
her again, and in gratitude he and his wife embraced the
faith " which taught such generous purity." ^ These con-
verted Rajputs are very zealous in the practice of their
rehgion, yet often betray their Hindu origin in a very striking
manner. In the district of Bulandshahr, for example, a
large Musalman family, which is known as the Lalkhani
Pathans, still (with some exceptions) retains its old Hindu
titles and family customs of marriage, while Hindu branches
of the same clan still exist side by side with it.^ In the
Mirzapur district, the Gaharwar Rajputs, who are now
Muslim, still retain in all domestic matters Hindu laws
and customs and prefix a Hindu honorific title to their
Muhammadan names. ^
Official pressure is said never to have been more persist-
ently brought to bear upon the Hindus than in the reign of
Aurangzeb. In the eastern districts of the Panjab, there
are many cases in which the ancestor of the Musalman
branch of the village community is said to have changed his
religion in the reign of this zealot, " in order to save the land
of the village." In Gurgaon, near Dehli, there is a Hindu
family of Banyas who still bear the title of Shaykh (which
is commonly adopted by converted Hindus), because one of
the members of the family, whose line is now extinct, became
a convert in order to save the family property from confisca-
Ltion.^ Many Rajput landowners, in the Cawnpore district,
were compelled to embrace Islam for the same reason.^ In
^ Gazetteer of the Province of Oudh, vol. i. p. 466.
^ Gazetteer of the N.W.P., vol. iii. part ii. p. 46.
' Gazetteer of the N.W.P., vol. xiv. part ii. p. 119. In the Cawnpore
district, the Musalman branch of the Dikhit family observes Muhammadan
customs at births, marriages, and deaths, and, though they cannot, as a
rule, recite the prayers (namaz), they perform the orthodox obeisances
(sijdah). But at the same time they worship Chachak Devi to avert
small-pox, and keep up their friendly intercourse with their old caste
brethren, the Thakurs, in domestic occurrences, and are generally called
by common Hindu names. (Gazetteer of the N.W.P., vol. vi. p. 64.)
* Ibbetson, p. 163.
^ Gazetteer of the N.W.P., vol. vi. p. 64. Compare also id. vol. xiv.
part iii. p. 47. " Muhammadan cultivators are not numerous; they are
usually Nau-Muslims. Most of them assign the date of their conversion
to the reign of Aurangzeb, and represent it as the result sometimes of
persecution and sometimes as made to enable them to retain their rights
when unable to pay revenue."
other cases the ancestor is said to have been carried as a
prisoner or hostage to Dehh, and there forcibly circumcised
and converted. 1 It should be noted that the only authority
for these forced conversions is family or local tradition, and
no mention of such (as far as I have been able to discover)
is made in the historical accounts of Aurangzeb's reign. ^ It
is established without doubt that forced conversions have
been made by Muhammadan rulers, and it seems probable
that Aurangzeb's well-known zeal on behalf of his faith has
caused many famihes of Northern India (the history of whose
conversion has been forgotten) to attribute their change of
faith to this, the most easily assignable cause. Similarly in
the Deccan, Aurangzeb shares with Haydar 'All and Tipii
Sultan (these being the best known of modern Muhammadan
rulers) the reputation of having forcibly converted sundry
famihes and sections of the population, whose conversion
undoubtedly dates from a much earher period, from which
no historical record of the circumstances of the case has come
down.^
Tipii Sultan is probably the Muhammadan monarch who
most systematically engaged in the work of forcible conver-
sion. In 1788 he issued the following proclamation to the
people of Malabar : " From the period of the conquest until
this day, during twenty-four years, you have been a turbu-
lent and refractory people, and in the wars waged during
your rainy season, you have caused numbers of our warriors
to taste the draught of martyrdom. Be it so. What is past
is past. Hereafter you must proceed in an opposite manner,
dwell quietly and pay your dues like good subjects ; and since
it is the practice with you for one woman to associate with
ten men, and you leave your mothers and sisters uncon-
strained intheir obscene practices, and are thence all born
in adultery, and are more shameless in your connections
than the beasts of the field, I hereby require you to forsake
these sinful practices and to be like the rest of mankind;
^ Ibbetson, p. 163.
* Indeed Firishtah distinctly says : " Zealous for the faith of Mahommed,
he rewarded proselytes with a liberal hand, though he did not choose to
persecute
History of those of different
Hindostan, persuasions
translated from thein Persian,
matters by
of Alexander
rehgion." Dow,
(The
vol. iii. p. 361.) (London, 1812.)
» The Bombay Gazetteer, vol. xxii. p. 222; vol. xxiii. p. 282.
and if you are disobedient to these commands, I have made

repeated vows to honour the whole of you with Islam and
to march all the chief persons to the seat of Government."
This proclamation stirred up a general revolt in Malabar,
and early in 1789 Tipii Sultan prepared to enforce his
proclamation with an army of more than twenty thousand
men, and issued general orders that " every being in the
district without distinction should be honoured with Islam,
that the houses of such as fled to avoid that honour should
be burned, that they should be traced to their lurking places,
and that all means of truth and falsehood, force or fraud
should be employed to effect their universal conversion."
Thousands of Hindus were accordingl}/ circumcised and made
to eat beef; but by the end of 1790 the British army had
destroyed the last remnant of Tipii Sultan's power in
Malabar, and this monarch himself perished early in 1799
at the capture of Seringapatam. Most of the Brahmans
and Nayars who had been forcibly converted, subsequently
disowned their new religion. ^
How little was effected towards the spread of Islam by
violence on the part of the Muhammadan rulers may be
judged from the fact that even in the centres of the Muham-
madan power, such as Dehli and Agra, the Muhammadans
in modern times in the former district hardly exceeded
one-tenth, and in the latter they did not form one-fourth of
the population. 2 A remarkable example of the worthless-
ness of forced conversion is exhibited in the case of Bodh
Mai, Raja of MajhauH, in the district of Gorakhpur ; he was
arrested by Akbar in default of revenue, carried to Dehli,
and there converted to Islam, receiving the name of Muham-
mad Salim. But on his return his wife refused to let him
into the ancestral castle, and, as apparently she had the
sympathy of his subjects on her side, she governed his
territories during the minority of his son Bhawani Mai, so
that the Hindu succession remained undisturbed.^ Until
recently there were some strange survivals of a similarly
futile false conversion, noticeable in certain customs of a
^ Innes, pp. 72-3, 190.
* Sir W. W. Hunter : The Religions of India. {The Times, February
25th, 1888.)
3 Gazetteer of the N.W.P., vol. vi. p. 518.
Hindu sect called the Bishnois, the principal tenet of whose

faith is the renunciation of all Hindu deities, except Visnu.
They used recently to bury their dead, instead of burning
them, to adopt Oiulam Muhammad and other Muhammadan
names, and use the Muslim form of salutation. They ex-
plained their adoption of these Muhammadan customs by
saying that having once slain a Qadi, who had interfered
with their rite of widow-burning, they had compounded for
the offence by embracing Islam. They have now, however,
renounced these practices in favour of Hindu customs. ^
But though some Muhammadan rulers may have been
more successful in forcing an acceptance of Islam on certain
of their Hindu subjects than in the last-mentioned cases,
and whatever truth there may be in the assertion 2 that
"it is impossible even to approach the religious side of the 7
Mahomedan position in India without surveying first its
political aspect," we undoubtedly find that Islam has gained
its greatest and most lasting missionary triumphs in times ,
and places in which its pohtical power has been weakest,
as in Southern India and Eastern Bengal. Of such mis-
sionary movements 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 to Bengal, and finally noticing some missionaries
whose work lay outside the above geographical limits. Of
several of the missionaries to be referred to, little is recorded
beyond their names and the sphere of their labours ; accord-
ingly, in view of the general dearth of such missionary annals,
any available details have been given at length.
The first advent of Islam in South India dates as far back
as the eighth century, when a band of refugees, to whom
the Mappillas trace their descent, came from 'Iraq and
settled in the country.^ The trade in spices, ivory, gems,
etc., between India and Europe, which for many hundred
years was conducted by the Arabs and Persians, caused a
continual stream of Muhammadan influence to flow in upon
the west coast of Southern India. From this constant influx
1 Gazetteer of the N.W.P., vol. v. part i. pp. 302-3.
* Sir Alfred C. Lyall : Asiatic Studies, p. 236.
' A tomb in the cemetery of Pantalayini KoUam bears an inscription
with the date a.h. 166. (Innes, p. 436.)
of foreigners there resulted a mixed population, half Hindu
and half Arab or Persian, in the trading centres along the
coast. Very friendly relations appear to have existed be-
tween these Muslim traders and the Hindu rulers, who
extended to them their protection and patronage in con-
sideration of the increased commercial activity and con-
sequent prosperity of the country, that resulted from their
presence in it,^ and no obstacles were placed in the way of
proselytising, the native converts receiving the same con-
sideration and respect as the foreign merchants, even though
before their conversion they had belonged to the lowest
grades of society.^
The traditionary account of the introduction of Islam into
Malabar, as given by a Muhammadan historian of the
sixteenth century, represents the first missionaries to have
been a party of pilgrims on their way to visit the foot-print
of Adam in Ceylon ; on their arrival at Cranganore the Raja
sent for them and the leader of the party, Shaykh Sharaf
b. Mahk, who was accompanied by his brother, Malik b.
Dinar, and his nephew, Malik b, Habib, took the oppor-
tunity of expounding to him the faith of Islam and the
mission of Muhammad, " and God caused the truth of the
Prophet's teaching to enter into the king's heart and he
beheved therein; and his heart became filled with love for
the Prophet and he bade the Shaykh and companions come
back to him again on their return from their pilgrimage to
Adam's foot-print." ^ On the return of the pilgrims from
Ceylon, the king secretly departed with them in a ship bound
for the coast of Arabia, leaving his kingdom in the hand
of viceroys. Here he remained for some time, and was
just about to return to his own country, with the intention
of erecting mosques there and spreading the faith of Islam,
when he fell sick and died. On his death-bed he solemnly
enjoined on his companions not to abandon their proposed
missionary journey to Malabar, and to assist them in their
labours, he gave them letters of recommendation to his
viceroys, at the same time bidding them conceal the fact
of his death. Armed with these letters, Sharaf b. Malik
^ Zayn al-Din, pp. 34-5. ^ Id. p. 36 (init.).
' Id. p. 21.
and his companions sailed for Cranganore, where the king's

letter secured for them a kindly welcome and a grant of
land, on which they built a mosque. Mahk b. Dinar decided
to settle there, but Mahk b. Habib set out on a missionary
tour with the object of building mosques throughout Malabar.
" So Malik b. Habib set out for Quilon with his worldly
goods and his wife and some of his children, and he built
a mosque there ; then leaving his wife there, he went on to
Hill Marawi,! where he built a mosque " ; and so the narrative
continues, giving a list of seven other places at which the
missionary erected mosques, finally returning to Cranganore.
Later on, he visited all these places again to pray in the
mosque at each of them, and came back " praising and
giving thanks to God for the manifestation of the faith of
Islam in a land filled with unbehevers." ^
In spite of the circumstantial character of this narrative,
there is no evidence of its historicity. Popular behef puts
the date of the events recorded as far back as the hfetime
of the Prophet ; with a mild scepticism Zayn al-Din thought
that they could not have been earher than the third century
of the Hi] rah; ^ but there is no more authority for the one
date than for the other, or for the common Mappilla tradition
of the existence of the tomb of a Hindu king at Zafar, on the
coast of Arabia, bearing the inscription, " 'Abd al-Rahman
al-Samirl, arrived a.h. 212, died a.h. 216 "; * and the mosque
at Madayi, said to have been founded by Mahk b. Dinar,
bears an inscription commemorating its erection in a. D. 1124.^
But the legend certainly bears witness to the peaceful
character of the proselytising influences that were at work
on the Malabar coast for centuries. The agents in this work
were chiefly Arab merchants, but Ibn Batiitah makes
mention of several professed theologians from Arabia and
elsewhere, whom he met in various towns on the Malabar
coast.^ The Zamorin of Cahcut, who was one of the chief
patrons of Arab trade, is said to have encouraged conversion
to Islam, in order to man the Arab ships on which he depended
for his aggrandisement, and to have ordered that in every
1 The modern Madayi. " Zayn al-Din, pp. 23-4.

^ Id. p. 25. * Innes, p. 41.
5 Id. p. 398. * Ibn Batutah, tome iv. pp. 82, 88, etc.
family of fishermen in his dominion one or more of the male
members should be brought up as Muhammadans.i At the
beginning of the sixteenth century the Mappillas were esti-
mated tohave formed one-fifth of the population of Malabar,
spoke the same language as the Hindus, and were only
distinguished from them by their long beards and pecuhar
head-dress. But for the arrival of the Portuguese, the
whole of this coast would have become Muhammadan,
because of the frequent conversions that took place and
the powerful influence exercised by the Mushm merchants
from other parts of India, such as Gujarat and the Deccan,
and from Arabia and Persia. ^
But there would appear to be no record of the individuals
who took part in the propaganda, except in the case of the
historian 'Abd al-Razzaq, who has himself left an account
of his unsuccessful mission to the court of the Zamorin of
Calicut. He was sent on this mission in the year 1441 by
the Timiirid Shah Ruldi Bahadur, in response to an appeal
made by an ambassador who had been sent by the Zamorin
of Calicut to this monarch. The ambassador was himself a
Musalman and represented to the Sultan how excellent and
meritorious an action it would be to send a special envoy
to the Zamorin, " to invite him to accept Islam in accordance
with the injunction ' Summon thou to the ways of thy
Lord with wisdom and with kindly warning,' ^ and open the
bolt of darkness and error that locked his benighted heart,
and let the splendour of the light of the faith and the bright-
ness of the sun of knowledge shine into the window of his
soul." 'Abd al-Razzaq was chosen for this task and after
* Innes, p. 190.
* Oboardo Barbosa, p. 310.
Similarly it has been conjectured that but for the arrival of the Portu-
guese, Ceylon might have become a Muhammadan kingdom. For before
the Portuguese armaments appeared in the Indian seas, the Arab merchants
were undisputed masters of the trade of this island (where indeed they had
formed commercial establishments centuries before the birth of the Prophet),
and were to be found in every sea-port and city, while the facilities for
commerce attracted large numbers of fresh arrivals from their settlements
in Malabar. Here as elsewhere the Mushm traders intermarried with the
natives of the country and spread their rehgion along the coast. But no
very active proselytising movement would seem to have been carried on,
or else the Singhalese showed themselves unwilling to embrace Islam, as
the Muhammadans of Ceylon at the present day appear mostly to be of
Arab descent. (Sir James Emerson Tennent: Ceylon, vol. i. pp. 631-3.)
(5th ed., London, i860.) 3 Qur'an, xvi. 126.
an adventurous journey reached Calicut, but appears to

have met with a cold reception, and after remaining there for
about six months abandoned his original purposes and made
his way back to Khurasan, which he reached after an
absence of three years. ^
Another community of Musalmans in Southern India, the
Ravuttans,^ ascribe their conversion to the preaching of
missionaries whose tombs are held in veneration by them
to the present day. The most famous of these was Sayyid
Nathar Shah ^ (a.d. 969-1039) who after many wanderings
in Arabia, Persia and Northern India, settled down in
Trichinopoly, where he spent the remaining years of his
life in prayer and works of charity, and converted a large
number of Hindus to the faith of Islam; his tomb is much
resorted to as a place of pilgrimage and the Muhammadans
re-named Trichinopoly Nathamagar, after the name of their
saint.* Sayyid Ibrahim Shahid (said to have been born
about the middle of the twelfth century), whose tomb is
at Ervadi, was a militant hero who led an expedition into
the Pandyan kingdom, occupied the country for about
twelve years, but was at length slain ; his son's life was,
however, spared in consideration of the beneficent rule of
his father, and a grant of land given to him, which his
descendants enjoy to the present day. The latest of these
saints, Shah al-Hamid (1532-1600), was born at Manikpur
in Northern India, and spent most of his life in visiting the
holy shrines of Islam and in missionary tours chiefly
throughout Southern India; he finally settled in Nagore,
where the descendants of his adopted son are still in charge
of his tomb.^
Another group of Muhammadans in Southern India, the
Dudekulas, who live by cotton cleaning (as their name
denotes) and by weaving coarse fabrics, attribute their
conversion to Baba Fakhr al-Din, whose tomb they revere
^ 'Abd al-Razzaq : Matla' al-sa'dayn, fol. 173.
^ They are found chiefly in the Tamil-speaking districts of Madura,
Tinnevelly, Coimbatore, North Arcot and the Nilgiris.
3 The Imperial Gazetteer of India (vol. xxiv. p. 47) spells his name Nadir
Shah ; Qadir Husayn Khan calls him Nathad Vali.
* Madras District Gazetteers. Trichinopoly, vol. i. p. 338. (Madras,
1907.) Qadir Husayn Hian : South Indian Musalmans, p. 36. (Madras, 1910.)
* Qadir ûsayn Khan, pp. 36-8.
at Penukonda. Legend says that he was originally a king

of Sistan, who abdicated his throne in favour of his brother
and became a religious mendicant. After making the
pilgrimage to Mecca and Medina, he was bidden by the
Prophet in a dream to go to India ; here he met Nathar Shah,
of Trichinopoly, and became his disciple and was sent by him
in company with 200 religious mendicants on a proselytising
mission. The legend goes on to say that they finally settled
at Penukonda in the vicinity of a Hindu temple, where their
presence was unwelcome to the Raja of the place, but
instead of appealing to force he applied several tests to
discover whether the Muhammadan saint or his own priest
was the better qualified by sanctity to possess the temple.
As a final test, he had them both tied up in sacks filled
with lime and thrown into tanks. The Hindu priest never
re-appeared, but Baba Fakhr al-DIn asserted the superiority
of his faith by being miraculously transported to a hill
outside the town. The Raja hereupon became a Musalman,
and his example was followed by a large number of the
inhabitants of the neighbourhood, and the temple was
turned into a mosque.^
The history of Islam in Southern India by no means
always continued to be of so peaceful a character, but it
does not appear that the forcible conversions of the Hindus
and others to Islam which were perpetrated when the
Muhammadan power became paramount under Haydar
'All (1767-1782) and TIpu Sultan (1782-1799), can be
paralleled in the earlier history of this part of India.
However this may be, there is no reason to doubt that
constant conversions by peaceful methods were made to
Islam from among the lower castes, ^ as is the case at the
present day when accessions to Islam from time to time occur
from among the Tiyans, who are said to form one of the
most progressive communities in India, the Mukkuvans or
fisherman caste, as well as from the Cherumans or agricul-
tural labourers, and other serf castes, to whom Islam brings
deliverance from the disabilities attaching to the outcasts
1 Qadir Husayn Hian, op. cit. pp. 39-42. Madras District Gazetteers.
Anantapur, vol. i. pp. 193-4. (Madras, 1905.)
2 Zayn al-Din, pp. 33 (1. 4), 36 (1. i).
of the Hindu social system ; occasionally, also, converts are
drawn from among the Nayars and the native Christians.
In Ponnani, the residence of the spiritual head of the
majority of the Muhammadans of Malabar, there is an
association entitled Minnat al-Islam Sabha, where converts
are instructed in the tenets of their new faith and material
assistance rendered to those under instruction ; the average
number of converts received in this institution in the course
of the first three years of the twentieth century, was 750.-^
So numerous have these conversions from Hinduism been,
that the tendency of the Muhammadans of the west as well
as the east coast of Southern India has been to reversion to
the Hindu or aboriginal type, and, except in the case of some
of the nobler families, they now in great part present all the
characteristics of an aboriginal people, with very little of the
original foreign blood in them.^ In the western coast dis-
tricts the tyranny of caste intolerance is peculiarly oppres-
sive to
; give but one instance, in Travancore certain of the
lower castes may not come nearer than seventy-four paces
to a Brahman, and have to make a grunting noise as they
pass along the road, in order to give warning of their ap-
proach. Similar instances might be abundantly multiplied.
What wonder, then, that the Musalman population is fast
increasing through conversion from these lower castes, who
thereby free themselves from such degrading oppression, and
raise themselves and their descendants in the social scale ?
In fact the Mappilas on the west coast are said to be
increasing so considerably through accessions from the
lower classes of Hindus, as to render it possible that in a
few years the whole of the lower races of the west coast may
become Muhammadans,^
It was most probably from Malabar that Islam crossed
over to the Laccadive and Maldive Islands, the population
of which is now entirely Muslim. The inhabitants of these
islands owed their conversion to the Arab and Persian
merchants, who established themselves in the country,
^ Innes, p. 190. Census of India, 1911. Vol. xii. Part. I. p. 54.
* Report on the Census of the Madras Presidency, 1 871, by W. R. Cornish,
pp. 71, 72, 109. (Madras, 1874.)
^ Report of the Second Decennial Missionary Conference held at Calcutta
1882-3 (pp. 228, 233, 248). (Calcutta, 1883.)
intermarrying with the natives, and thus smoothing the way

for the work of active proselytism. The date of the con-
version of the first Muhammadan Sultan of the Maldive
Islands, Ahmad Shaniirazah,^ has been conjectured to have
occurred about a.d. 1200, but it is very possible that the
Muhammadan merchants had introduced their religion into
the island as much as three centuries before, and the process
of conversion must undoubtedly have been a gradual one.'^
No details, however, have come down to us.
At Male, the seat of government, is found the tomb of
Shaykh Yusuf Shams al-Din, a native of Tabriz, in Persia,
who is said to have been a successful missionary of Islam in
these islands. His tomb is still held in great veneration,
and always kept in good repair, 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 until their death. ^
The introduction of Islam into the neighbouring Laccadive
Islands is attributed to an Arab preacher, known to the
islanders by the name of Mumba Mulyaka ; his tomb is still
shown at Androth and as the present qadi of that place
claims to be twenty-sixth in descent from him, he probably
reached these islands some time in the twelfth century.*
The Deccan also was the scene of the successful labours of
many Muslim missionaries. It has already been pointed out
that from very early times Arab traders had visited the
towns on the west coast ; in the tenth century we are told
that the Arabs were settled in large numbers in the towns
of the Konkan, having intermarried with the women of the
country and living under their own laws and religion.^
Under the Muhammadan dynasties of the Bahmanid (1347-
1490) and Bijapiir (1489-1686) kings, a fresh impulse was
given to Arab immigration, and with the trader and the
soldier of fortune came the missionaries seeking to make
^ Ibn Batutah, tome iv. p. 128. Ibn Batutah resided in the Maldive
Islands during the years 1343-4 ^^'^ married " the daughter of a Vizier
who was grandson of the Sultan Da'ud, who was a grandson of the Sultan
Ahmad
A.D. 1200 Shanurazah " (tome iv. p. 154) ; from this statement the date
has been conjectured.
2 H. C. P. Bell : The Maldive Islands, pp. 23-5, 57-8, 71. (Colombo, 1883.)
' Memoir on the Inhabitants of the Maldive Islands. By J. A. Young
and W. Christopher. (Transactions of the Bombay Geographical Society
from 1836 to 1838, p. 74. Bombay, 1844.)
* Innes, pp. 485, 492. » Mas'udi, tome ii. pp. 85-6.
spiritual conquests in the cause of Islam, and win over the
unbelieving people of the country by their preaching and
example, for of forcible conversions we have no record under
the early Deccan dynasties, whose rule was characterised by
a striking toleration. ^
One of these Arab preachers, PIr Mahabir Khamdayat,
came as a missionary to the Deccan as early as a.d. 1304,
and among the cultivating classes of Bijapur are to be found
descendants of the Jains who were converted by him.^
About the close of the same century a celebrated saint of
Gulbarga, Sayyid Muhammad Gisiidaraz,^ converted a
number of Hindus of the Poona district, and twenty years
later his labours were crowned with a like success in Belgaum."*
At Dahanu still reside the descendants of a relative of one
of the greatest saints of Islam, Sayyid 'Abd al-Qadir Jllani
of Baghdad ; he came to Western India about the fifteenth
century, and after making many converts in the Konkan,
died and was buried at Dahanu.^ In the district of Dharwar,
there are large numbers of weavers whose ancestors were
converted by Hashim Pir GujaratI, the religious teacher of
the BIjapiir king, Ibrahim 'Adil Shah II, about the close of
the sixteenth century. These men still regard the saint
with special reverence and pay great respect to his descen-
dants.^ The descendants of another saint. Shah Muham-
mad Sadiq Sarmast Husayni, are still found in Nasik; he
is said to have been the most successful of Muhammadan
missionaries ; having come from Medina in 1568, he travelled
over the greater part of Western India and finally settled
at Nasik — in which district another very successful Muslim
missionary, Miwajah Khunmir Husayni, had begun to
labour about fifty years before.' Two other Arab mis-
sionaries may be mentioned, the scene of whose proselytising
efforts was laid in the district of Belgaum, namely Sayyid
Muhammad b. Sayyid 'All and Sayyid 'Umar 'Aydriis
Basheban.^
^ The Bombay Gazetteer, vol. x. p 132; vol. xvi. p. 75.

^ Id. vol. xxiii. p. 282.
* Sometimes called Sayyid Makhdum Gisudaraz.
* The Bombay Gazetteer, vol. xviii. p. 501 ; vol. xxi. pp. 218, 223.
* Id. vol. xiii. part i. p. 231. * Id. vol. xxii. p. 242.
' Id. vol. xvi. pp. 75-6. 8 Id. vol. xxi. p. 203.
Another missionary movement may be said roughly to
centre round the city of Multan.^ This in the early days
of the Arab conquest was one of the outposts of Islam,
when Muhammad b. Qasim had established Muhammadan
supremacy over Sind (a.d. 714). During the three centuries
of Arab rule there were naturally many accessions to the
faith of the conquerors. Several Sindian princes responded
to the invitation of the Caliph 'Umar b. 'Abd al-'Aziz to
embrace Islam. ^ The people of Sawandari — who submitted
to Muhammad b. Qasim and had peace granted to them on
the condition that they would entertain the Musalmans and
furnish guides — are spoken of by al-Baladhuri (writing about
a hundred years later) as professing Islam in his time;
and the despatches of the conqueror frequently refer to the
conversion of the unbelievers.
That these conversions were in the main voluntary, may
be judged from the toleration that the Arabs, after the first
violence of their onslaught, showed towards their idolatrous
subjects. The people of Brahmanabad, for example, whose
city had been taken by storm, were allowed to repair their
temple, which was a means of livelihood to the Brahmans,
and nobody was to be forbidden or prevented from following
his own religion,^ and generally, where submission was made,
quarter was readily given, and the people were permitted
the exercise of their own creeds and laws.
During the troubles that befell the caliphate in the latter
half of the ninth century, Sind, neglected by the central
government, came to be divided among several petty
princes, the most powerful of whom were the Amirs of
Multan and Mansura. Such disunion naturally weakened
the political power of the Musalmans, which had in fact
begun to decline earlier in the century. For in the reign
of al-Mu'tasim (a.d. 833-842), the Indians of Sindan*
declared themselves independent, but they spared the
mosque, in which the Musalmans were allowed to perform
their devotions undisturbed. ^ The Muhammadans of Multan
1 At the time of the Arab conquest the dominions of the Hindu ruler of
Sind extended as far north as this city, which is now no longer included in
this province. ^ Baladhuri, p. 441 (fin.) ^ Elliot, vol. i. pp. 185-6.
* Probably the Sindan in Abrasa, the southern district of Cutch.
^ Baladhuri, p. 446.
succeeded in maintaining their political independence, and
kept themselves from being conquered by the neighbouring
Hindu princes, by threatening, if attacked, to destroy an
idol which was held in great veneration by the Hindus and
was visited by pilgrims from the most distant parts. '^ But
in the hour of its political decay, Islam was still achieving
missionary successes. Al-Baladhuri ^ tells the following story
of the conversion of a king of 'Usayfan, a country between
Kashmir and Multan and Kabul. The people of this
country worshipped an idol for which they had built a
temple. The son of the king fell sick, and he desired the
priests of the temple to pray to the idol for the recovery of
his son. They retired for a short time, and then returned
saying : " We have prayed and our supplications have been
accepted." But no long time passed before the youth died.
Then the king attacked the temple, destroyed and broke in
pieces the idol, and slew the priests. He afterwards invited
a party of Muhammadan traders, who made known to him
the unity of God; whereupon he believed in the unity and
became a Muslim. A similar missionary influence was
doubtless exercised by the numerous communities of
Muslim merchants who carried their religion with them into
the infidel cities of Hindustan. Arab geographers of the
tenth and twelfth centuries mention the names of many
such cities, both on the coast and inland, where the Musal-
mans built their mosques, and were safe under the protection
of the native princes, who even granted them the privilege
of living under their own laws.^ The Arab merchants at this
time formed the medium of commercial communication
between Sind and the neighbouring countries of India and
the outside world. They brought the produce of China and
Ceylon to the sea-ports of Sind and from there conveyed
them by way of Multan to Turkistan and Khurasan.^
It would be strange if these traders, scattered about in
the cities of the unbelievers, failed to exhibit the same
proselytising zeal as we find in the Muhammadan trader
elsewhere. To the influence of such trading communities
^ Istakhrl. pp. 173-4. ^ Baladhuri. p. 446.
t Istakhri. loc. cit. Ibn Hawqal, p. 230 sq. Idrisi (Geographic
d'Edrisi, traduite par P. A. Jaubert, vol. i. p. 175 sqq.).
* Mas'udi,
T vol. i. p. 207.
was most probably due the conversion of the Sammas, who
ruled over Sind from a.d. 1351 to 1521. While the reign of
Nanda b. Babiniyyah of this dynasty is specially mentioned
as one of such " peace and security, that never was this
prince called upon to ride forth to battle, and never did
a foe take the field against him," ^ it is at the same time
described as being " remarkable for its justice and an
increase of Islam." This increase could thus only have
been brought about by peaceful missionary methods. One
of the most famous of these missionaries was the celebrated
saint, Sayyid Yiisuf al-Din, a descendant of 'Abd al-Qadir
Jilanl, who was bidden in a dream to leave Ba|^dad for
India and convert its inhabitants to Islam. He came to
Sind in 1422 and after labouring there for ten years, he
succeeded in winning over to Islam 700 families of the
Lohana caste, who followed the example of two of their
number, by name Sundarji and Hansraj ; these men em-
braced Islam, after seeing some miracles performed by the
saint, and on their conversion received the names of Adamji
and Taj Muhammad respectively. Under the leadership of
the grandson of the former, these people afterwards migrated
to Cutch, where their numbers were increased by converts
from among the Cutch Lohanas.^
Sind was also the scene of the labours of PIr Sadr
al-Din, an Isma'ili missionary, who was head of the
Khojah sect about the year 1430. In accordance with
the principles of accommodation practised by this sect,
he took a Hindu name and made certain concessions to
the religious beliefs of the Hindus whose conversion he
sought to achieve, and introduced among them a book
entitled Dasavatar in which 'AH was made out to be the
tenth Avatar or incarnation of Visnu ; this book has been
from the beginning the accepted scripture of the Khojah
sect, and it is always read by the bedside of the dying and
periodically at many festivals; it assumes the nine incar-
nations ofVisnu to be true as far as they go, but to fall short
of the perfect truth, and supplements this imperfect Vaisnav
system by the cardinal doctrine of the Isma'Ilians, the incar-
nation and coming manifestation of 'AH. Further, he made
1 Elliot, vol. i. p. 273. 2 Bombay Gazetteer, vol. i. p. 93.
out Brahma to be Muhammad, Visnu to be 'Ali and Adam

Siva. The first of Pir Sadr al-DIn's converts were won in
the villages and towns of Upper Sind : he preached also in
Cutch and from these parts the doctrines of this sect spread
southwards through Gujarat to Bombay; and at the present
day Khojah communities are to be found in almost all the
large trading towns of Western India and on the seaboard
of the Indian Ocean. ^
Pir Sadr al-Din was not however the first of the Isma'Ilian
missionaries who came into India. He was preceded by
'Abd Allah, a missionary sent from Yaman about 1067 ;
he is said to have been a man of great learning, and is
credited with the performance of many miracles, whereby
he convinced a large number of Hindus of the truth
of his religion.^ The second Isma'Ili missionary, Nur
al-DIn, generally known by the Hindu name he adopted,
NiJr Satagar, was sent into India from Alamut, the
stronghold of the Grand Master of the Isma'ilis, and
reached Gujarat in the reign of the Hindu king, Siddha Raj
(a.d. 1094-1143).^ He adopted a Hindu name but told the
Muhammadans that his real name was Sayyid Sa'adat ; he
is said to have converted the Kanbis, Kharwas and Koris,
low castes of Gujarat.*
As Niir Satagar is revered as the first missionary of the
Khojahs, so is 'Abd Allah believed by some to have been
the founder of the sect of the Bohras, a large and important
community of Shl'ahs, mainly of Hindu origin, who are
found in considerable numbers in the chief commercial
centres of the Bombay Presidency. But others ascribe
the honour of being the first Bohra missionary to Mulla
'All, of whose proselytising methods the following account
is given by a Shi' ah historian : "As the people of
Gujarat in those days were infidels and accepted as
their religious leader an old man whose teaching they
^ Khoja Vrttant, p. 208. Sir Bartle Frere : The Khojas : the Disciples
of the Old Man of the Mountain. Macmillan's Magazine, vol. xxxiv.
PP- 431. 433-4- (London, 1876.)
^ Bombay Gazetteer, vol. ix. part ii. p. 26.
* K. B. FazaluUah LutfuUah conjectures that Nur Satagar came to
India rather later, in the reign of Bhima II (a.d. i 179-1242.) (Bombay-
Gazetteer, vol. ix. part ii. p. 38.)
* Khoja Vrttant, p. 154-8.
blindly followed, MuUa 'Ali saw no alternative but to go

to the old man and ask to become his disciple, intending
to set before him such convincing arguments that he would
become a Musalman, and afterwards to attempt the con-
version of others. He accordingly spent some years in the
service of the old man, and having learned the language of
the people of the country, read their books and acquired a
knowledge of their sciences. Step by step he unfolded to
the enlightened mind of the old man the truth of the faith
of Islam and persuaded him to become a Musalman. After
his conversion, some of his disciples followed the old man's
example. Finally, the chief minister of the king of that
country became aware of the old man's conversion to
Islam, and going to see him submitted to his spiritual guid-
ance and likewise became a Musalman. For a long time,
the old man, the minister and the rest of the converts to
Islam, kept the fact of their conversion concealed and through
fear of the king always took care to prevent it coming to his
knowledge ; but at length the king received a report of the
minister's having adopted Islam and began to make inquiries.
One day, without giving previous notice, he went to the
minister's house and found him bowing his head in prayer
and was vexed with him. The minister recognised the
purpose of the king's visit, and realised that his displeasure
had been excited by suspicions aroused by his prayer, with
its bowing and prostrations ; but the guidance of God and
divine grace befitting the occasion, he said that he was
making these movements because he was watching a serpent
in the corner of the room. When the king turned towards
the corner of the room, by divine providence he saw a snake
there, and accepted the minister's excuse and his mind
was cleared of all suspicions. In the end the king also
secretly became a Musalman, but for reasons of state con-
cealed his change of mind; when however, the hour of his
death drew near, he gave orders that his body was not to
be burnt, as is the custom of the infidels. Subsequently
to his decease, when Sultan Zafar, one of the trusty nobles
of Sultan Firiiz Shah, king of Dehli, conquered Gujarat, some
of the Sunni nobles who accompanied him used arguments
to make the people join the Sunni sect of the Muslim faith ;
so some of the Bohras are Sunnis, but the greater part remain
true to their original faith." ^
Several small groups of Musalmans in Cutch and Gujarat
trace their conversion to Imam Shah of Pirana," who was
actively engaged in missionary work during the latter half
of the fifteenth century. He is said to have converted a
large body of Hindu cultivators, by bringing about a faU of
rain after two seasons of scarcity. On another occasion
meeting a band of Hindu pilgrims passing through Pirana
on their way to Benares, he offered to take them there ; they
agreed and in a moment were in the holy city, where they
bathed in the Ganges and paid their vows ; they then awoke
to find themselves still in Pirana and adopted the faith of
the saint who could perform such a miracle. He died in
1512 and his tomb in Pirana is still an object of pilgrimage
for Hindus as well as for Muhammadans.^
Many of the Cutch Musalmans that are of Hindu descent
reverence as their spiritual leader Dawal Shah Pir, whose
real name was Malik 'Abd al-LatIf,* the son of one of the
nobles of Mahmiid BIgarah (1459-1511), the famous monarch
of the Muhammadan dynasty of Gujarat, to whose reign
popular tradition assigns the date of the conversion of many
Hindus. 5
It is in Bengal, however, that the Muhammadan mission-
aries in India have achieved their greatest success, as far as
numbers are concerned. A Muhammadan kingdom was first
founded here at the end of the twelfth century by Muham-
mad Balditiyar Khilji, who conquered Bihar and Bengal
and made Gaur the capital of the latter province. The long
continuance of the Muhammadan rule would naturally assist
the spread of Islam, and though the Hindu rule was restored
for ten years under the tolerant Raja Kans, whose rule is
said to have been popular with his Muhammadan subjects,^
his son, Jatmall, renounced the Hindu religion and became
a Musalman. After his father's death in 1414 he called
1 Nur Allah al-Shushtari : Majalis al-Mu'minln, fol. 65. (India Office
MS. No. 1400.) * A town ten miles south-west of Ahmadabad.
' Bombay Gazetteer, vol. ix. part ii. pp. 66, 76.
* Bombay Gazetteer, vol. v. p. 89.
^ Id. vol. ii. p. 378 ; vol. iii. pp. 36-7.
* So Firishtah, but see H. Blochmann : Contributions to the Geography
and History of Bengal. (J. A. S. B., vol. xlii. No. i, pp. 264-6. 1873.)
together all the officers of the state and announced his inten-
tion of embracing Islam, and proclaimed that if the chiefs
would not permit him to ascend the throne, he was ready
to give it up to his brother; whereupon they declared that
they would accept him as their king, whatever religion he
might adopt. Accordingly, several learned men of the
Muslim faith were summoned to witness the Raja renounce
the Hindu religion and publicly profess his acceptance of
Islam : he took the name of Jalal al-Din Muhammad Shah,
and according to tradition numerous conversions were made
during his reign. ^ Many of these were however due to force,
for his reign is signalised as being the only one in which any
wholesale persecution of the subject Hindus is recorded,
during the five centuries and a half of Muhammadan rule
in Eastern Bengal. ^
Conversions, however, often took place at other times
under pressure from the Muhammadan government. The
Rajas of Kharagpur were originally Hindus, and became
Muhammadans because, having been defeated by one of
Akbar's generals, they were only allowed to retain the
family estates on the condition that they embraced Islam.
The Hindu ancestor of the family of Asad 'All Khan, in
Chittagong, was deprived of his caste by being forced to
smell beef and had perforce to become a Muhammadan, and
several other instances of the same kind might be quoted.^
Murshid Oull Hian (son of a converted Brahman), who was
made governor of Bengal by the Emperor Aurangzeb at the
beginning of the eighteenth century, enforced a law that
any official or landord, who failed to pay the revenue that
was due or was unable to make good the loss, should with
his wife and children be compelled to become Muhammadans.
Further, it was the common law that any Hindu who forfeited
his caste by a breach of regulations could only be reinstated
by the Muhammadan government ; if the government refused
to interfere, the outcast had no means of regaining his
position in the social system of the Hindus, and would
probably find no resource but to become a Musalman.*
^ J. H. Ravenshaw : Gaur : its ruins and inscriptions, p. 99. (London
1878.) Firishtah, vol. iv. p. 337. ^ Wise, p. 29.
3 Census of India, 1901, vol. vi. part i. p. 170. ■• Id. p. 30.
The Afgjian adventurers who settled in this province also
appear to have been active in the work of proselytising, for
besides the children that they had by Hindu women, they
used to purchase a number of boys in times of scarcity, and
educate them in the tenets of Islam. ^ But it is not in the
ancient centres of the Muhammadan government that the
Musalmans of Bengal are found in large numbers, but in
the country districts, in districts where there are no traces
of settlers from the West, and in places where low-caste
Hindus and outcasts most abound. ^ The similarity of man-
ners between these low-caste Hindus and the followers of
the Prophet, and the caste distinctions which they still
retain, as well as their physical likeness, all bear the same
testimony and identify the Bengal Musalmans with the
aboriginal tribes of the country. Here Islam met with na "^
consolidated religious system to bar its progress, as in the
north-west of India, where the Muhammadan invaders found
Brahmanism full of fresh life and vigour after its triumphant \
struggle with Buddhism ; where, in spite of persecutions, its
influence was an inspiring force in the opposition offered by
the Hindus, and retained its hold on them in the hour of
their deepest distress and degradation. But in Bengal the
Muslim missionaries were welcomed with open arms by the
aborigines and the low castes on the very outskirts of
Hinduism, despised and condemned by their proud Aryan
rulers. " To these poor people, fishermen, hunters, pirates,
and low-caste tillers of the soil, Islam came as a revelation
from on high. It was the creed of the ruling race, its
missionaries were men of zeal who brought the Gospel of the
unity of God and the equality of men in its sight to a de-
spised and neglected population. The initiatory rite rendered
relapse impossible, and made the proselyte and his posterity
true believers for ever. In this way Islam settled down on
the richest alluvial province of India, the province which
was capable of supporting the most rapid and densest
increase of population. Compulsory conversions are occa-
sionally recorded. But it was not to force that Islam owed
^ Charles Stewart : The History of Bengal, p. 176. (London, 181 3.) H.
Blochmann : Contributions to the Geography and History of Bengal,
(J. A. S. B., vol. xlii. No. i, p. 220. 1873.)
' The Indian Evangelical Review, p. 278. (January 1883.)
its permanent success in Lower Bengal. It appealed to the

people, and it derived the great mass of its converts from
the poor. It brought in a higher conception of God, and
a nobler idea of the brotherhood of man. It offered 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 organisation." ^
The existence in Bengal of definite missionary efforts is
said to be attested by certain legends of the zeal of private
individuals on behalf of their religion, and the graves of
some of these missionaries are still honoured, and are
annually visited by hundreds of pilgrims.^ One of the
earliest of these was Shaykh Jalal al-DIn TabrizT, who
died in a.d. 1244. He was a pupil of the great saint,
Shihab al-Din Suhrawardi. In the course of his mis-
sionary journeys he visited Bengal, where a shrine to
which is attached a rich endowment was erected in his
honour, the real site of his tomb being unknown. Many
miracles are ascribed to him ; among others, that he
converted a Hindu milkman to Islam by a single look.^
In the nineteenth century there was a remarkable revival
of the Muhammadan religion in Bengal, and several sects
that owe their origin to the influence of the Wahhabi
reformation, have sent their missionaries through the
province purging out the remnants of Hindu superstitions,
awakening rehgious zeal and spreading the faith among
unbelievers.^
Some account stiU remains to be given of Muslim mission-
aries who have laboured in parts of India other than those
mentioned above. One of the earliest of these is Shaykh
Isma'il, one of the most famous of the Sayyids of Bukhara,
distinguished alike for his secular and religious learning;
he is said to have been the first Muslim missionary who
preached the faith of Islam in the city of Lahore, whither
he came in the year a.d. 1005. Crowds flocked to listen to
his sermons, and the number of his converts swelled rapidly
day by day, and it is said that no unbeliever ever came
^ Sir W. W. Hunter : The Religions of India. {The Times, February 25,

1888.) See also Wise, p. 32. 2 wise, p. 37.
3 Blochmann, op. cit. p. 260. < Wise, pp. 48-55,
into personal contact with him without being converted to

the faith of Islam. ^
The conversion of the inhabitants of the western plains of
the Pan jab is said to have been effected through the preach-
ing of Baha al-Haqq of Multan ^ and Baba Farid al-Din of
Pakpattan, who flourished about the end of the thirteenth
and beginning of the fourteenth centuries. ^ A biographer
of the latter saint gives a Hst of sixteen tribes who were
won over to Islam through his preaching, but unfortunatel}'
details of this work of conversion.'*
One of usthewith
provides mostno famous of the Muslim saints of India
and a pioneer of Islam in Rajputana was Hiwajah Mu'in
al-Din Chishtl, who died in Ajmir in A.D. 1234. He was a
native of Sajistan to the east of Persia, and is said to have
received his call to preach Islam to the unbelievers in India
while on a pilgrimage to Medina. Here the Prophet appeared
to him in a dream and thus addressed him : " The Almighty
has entrusted the country of India to thee. Go thither and
settle in Ajmir. By God's help, the faith of Islam shall,
through thy piety and that of thy followers, be spread in
that land." He obeyed the call and made his way to Ajmir
which was then under Hindu rule and idolatry prevailed
throughout the land. Among the first of his converts here
was a Yogi, who was the spiritual preceptor of the Raja
himself : gradually he gathered around him a large body of
disciples whom his teachings had won from the ranks of
infidehty, and his fame as a rehgious leader became very
widespread and attracted to Ajmir great numbers of Hindus
whom he persuaded to embrace Islam. ^ On his way to
Ajmir he is said to have converted as many as 700 persons
in the city of Dehli.
Of immense importance in the history of Islam in India
was the arrival in that country of Sayyid Jalal al-Din, who
is said to have been born at BuWiara in 1199. He settled
in Uch, now in the Bahawalpur territory, in 1244, and
converted numbers of persons in the neighbourhood to
1 Ghulam Sar\var : Khazinat al-Asfiya, vol. ii. p. 230.
" Otherwise known as Shaykh Baha al-Din Zakariyya.
' Ibbetson, p. 163.
* A§âr 'All : Jawahir-i-Faridi (a.h, 1033). p. 395. (Lahore, 1884.)
6 Elliot, vol, ii. p. 548.
Islam; he died in 1291, and his descendants, many of whom

are also revered as saints, have remained as guardians of
his shrine up to the present day and form the centre of a
widespread rehgious influence. His grandson, Sayyid
Ahmad Kabir, known as MaWidiim-i-Jahaniyan, is credited
with having effected the conversion of several tribes in the
Punjab. 1 About a mile to the east of Uch is situated the
shrine of Hasan Kabir al-Dln, son of Sayyid Sadr al-Din,
who was a contemporary of Jalal-al-Din; both father and
son are said to have made many converts, and such was
the influence attributed to Hasan Kabir al-Dln that it was
said as soon as his glance fell upon any Hindu, the latter
would accept Islam. ^
Rather later in the same century, a native of Persian
'Iraq, by name Abu 'All Qalandar, came into India and
took up his residence at Panipat, where he died at the ripe
age of 100, in a.d. 1324. The Mushm Rajputs of this city,
numbering about 300 males, are descended from a certain
Amir Singh who was converted by this saint. His tomb
is still held in honour and is visited by many pilgrims.
Another such was ShayMi Jalal al-Din, a Persian who
came into India about the latter half of the fourteenth
century and settled down at Silhat, in Lower Assam, in
order to convert the people of these parts to Islam. He
achieved a great reputation as a holy man, and his proselyt-
ising labours were crowned with eminent success.^
In more recent years there have been abundant witnesses
for Islam seeking to spread this faith in India — and with
very considerable success ; the second half of the nineteenth
century especially witnessed a great revival of missionary
activity, the number of annual conversions being variously
estimated at ten, fifty, one hundred and six hundred
thousand.* But it is difficult to obtain accurate information
on account of the peculiarly individualistic character of
Muslim missionary work and the absence of any central
1 Punjab States Gazetteers, vol. xxxvi A. Bahawalpur State. (Lahore,
1908), p. 160 sqq. The names of some of the tribes who ascribe their
conversion to Makhdum-i-Jahaniyan are given on p. 162.
2 Id. p. 171. 3 Ibn Batutah, tome iv. p. 217. Yule, p. 515.
* The Indian EvangeUcal Review, vol. xvi, pp. 52-3. (Calcutta, 1889-90.)
The Contemporary Review, February 1889, p. 170. The Spectator,
October 15, 1887, p. 1382.
organisation or of anything in the way of missionary reports,

and the success that attends the labours of MusHm preachers
is sometimes much exaggerated, e. g. in the Panjab a certain
Haji Muhammad is said to have converted as many as
200,000 Hindus, 1 and a mawlavl in Bangalore boasted that
in five years he had made as many as 1000 converts in this
city and its suburbs. But that there are Muslim missionaries
engaged in active and successful propagandist labours is
undoubted, and the following examples are typical of the
period referred to.
Mawlavl Baqa Husayn Hian, an itinerant preacher, in
the course of several years converted 228 persons, residents
of Bombay, Cawnpore, Ajmir, and other cities. Mawlavi
Hasan 'All converted twenty-five persons, twelve in Poona,
the rest in Haydarabad and other parts of India. ^ In the
district of Khandesh, in the Bombay Presidency, the preach-
ing of the Qadi of Nasirabad, Sayyid Safdar 'Ali, won over
to Islam a large body of artisans, who follow the trade of
1 Garcin de Tassy : La Langue et la Litterature Hindoustanies de 1850 a

1869, p. 343. (Paris, 1874.)
^ Mawlavi Hasan 'Ali furnished me with these figures some years before
his death in 1896. In an obituary notice published in " The Moslem
Chronicle" (April 4, 1896), the following quaint account is given of his
life : "In private and school hfe, he was marked as a very intelligent lad
and made considerable progress in his scholastic career within a short time.
He passed Entrance at a very early age and received scholarship with which
he went up to the First Art, but shortly after his innate anxiety to seek
truth prompted him to go abroad the world, and abandoning his studies he
mixed with persons of different persuasions, Fakirs, Pandits, and Christians,
entered churches, and roamed over wilderness and forests and cities with
nothing to help him on except his sincere hopes and absolute reliance on
the mercy of the Great Lord ; for one year he wandered in various regions
of religion until in 1874 he accepted the post of a headmaster in a Patna
school. ... As he was born to become a missionary of the Moslem faith,
he felt an imperceptible craving to quit his post, from which he used to get
Rs. 100 per mensem. He tendered his resignation, much to the reluctance
of his friends, and maintained himself for some time by pubhshing a monthly
journal,
then went' Noorul Islam.'where
to Calcutta, He gave several lectures
he delivered on Islam
his lecture at Patna,which
in EngUsh, and
produced such effect on the audience that several European clergymen
vouchsafed the truth of Islam, and a notable gentleman, Babu Bepin
Chandra Pal, was about to become Musalman. He was invited by the
people at Dacca, where his preachings and lectures left his name imbedded
in the hearts of the citizens. His various books and pamphlets and
successive lectures in Urdu and in English in the different cities and towns
in India gave him a historic name in the world. Some one hundred men
become Musalmans on hearing his lectures and reading his books." His
missionary zeal manifested itself up to the last hour of his life, when he was
overheard to say, " Abjure your religion and become a Musalman." On
being questioned, he said he was talking to a Christian.
armourers or blacksmiths. ^ A number of persons of the

same trade, who form a small community of about 200
souls in the district of Nasik, were converted in a curious
way about 1870. The Presbyterian missionaries of Nasik
had for a long time been trying to convert them from
Hinduism, and they were in a state of hesitation as to
whether or not to embrace Christianity when a Muhammadan
faqir from Bombay, who was well acquainted with their
habits of thought, expounded to them the doctrines of Islam
and succeeded in winning them over to that faith. 2
In Patiala, Mawlavi 'Ubayd Allah, a converted Brahman
of great learning, proved himself to be a zealous preacher of
Islam, and in spite of the obstacles that were at first thro^vn
in his way by his relatives, achieved so great a success that
his converts almost filled an entire ward of the city. He
wrote controversial works, which have passed through
several editions, directed against the Christian and Hindu
rehgions. In one of these books he thus speaks of his own
conversion : " I, Muhammad 'Ubayd Allah, the son of
Munshi Kota Mai, resident of Payal, in the Patiala State,
declare that this poor man in his childhood and during the
lifetime of his father was held in the bondage of idol- worship,
but the mercy of God caught me by the hand and drew me
towards Islam, i. e. I came to know the excellence of Islam
and the deficiencies of Hinduism, and I accepted Islam heart
and soul and counted myself one of the servants of the
Prophet of God (peace be upon him !). At that time intelli-
gence, which is the gift of God, suggested to me that it was
mere folly and laziness to blindly follow the customs of one's
forefathers and be misled by them and not make researches
into matters of religion and faith, whereon depend our eternal
bliss or misery. With these thoughts I began to study the
current faiths and investigated each of them impartially.
I thoroughly explored the Hindu rehgion and conversed
with learned Pandits, gained a thorough knowledge of the
Christian faith, read the books of Islam and conversed with
learned men. In all of them I found errors and fallaci<^s,
with the exception of Islam, the excellence of which became
1 Bombay Gazetteer, vol. xii. p. 126.
» Id. vol. xvi. p. 81.
clearly manifest to me ; its leader, Muhammad the Prophet,

possesses such moral excellences that no tongue can describe
them, and he alone who knows the beliefs and the liturgy,
and the moral teachings and practice of this faith, can fully
realise them. Praise be to God ! So excellent is this
religion that everything in it leads the soul to God. In
short, by the grace of God, the distinction between truth
and falsehood became as clear to me as night and day, dark-
ness and light. But although my heart had long been
enlightened by the brightness of Islam and my mouth
fragrant with the profession of faith, yet my evil passions
and Satan had bound me with the fetters of the luxury and
ease of this fleeting world, and I was in evil case because of
the outward observances of idolatry. At length, the grace
of God thus admonished me : ' How long wilt thou keep this
priceless pearl hidden within the shell and this refreshing
perfume shut up in the casket ? thou shouldest wear this
pearl about thy neck and profit by this perfume.' Moreover
the learned have declared that to conceal one's faith in
Islam and retain the dress and habits of infidels brings a
man to Hell. So (God be praised !) on the 'Id al-Fitr 1264
the sun of my conversion emerged from its screen of clouds,
and I performed my devotions in public with my Muslim
brethren." ^
Many Muhammadan preachers have adopted the methods
of Christian missionaries, such as street preaching, tract
distribution, and other agencies. In many of the large
cities of India, Muslim preachers may be found daily
expounding the teachings of Islam in some principal
thoroughfare. In Bangalore this practice is very general,
and one of these preachers, who was the imam of the mosque
about the year 1890, was so popular that he was even some-
times invited to preach by Hindus : he preached in the
market-place, and in the course of seven or eight years
gained forty-two converts. In Bombay a Muhammadan
missionary preaches almost daily near the chief market of
the city, and in Calcutta there are several preaching-stations
that are kept constantly supphed. Among the converts are
occasionally to be found some Europeans, mostly persons in
^ Tuhfat al-Hind, p. 3. (Dehli, a.h. 1309.)
indigent circumstances; the mass, however, are Hindus. *

Some of the numerous Anjumans that have of recent years
sprung up in the chief centres of Musalman hfe in India,
include among their objects the sending of missionaries to
preach in the bazars ; such are the Anjuman Himayat-i-Islam
of Lahore, and the Anjuman Hami Islam of Ajmlr. These
particular Anjumans appoint paid agents, but much of
the work of preaching in the bazaars is performed by
persons who are engaged in some trade or business during
the working hours of the day and devote their leisure time
in the evenings to this pious work.
Much of the missionary zeal of the Indian Musalmans is
directed towards counteracting the anti-Islamic tendencies
of the instruction given by Christian missionaries and
the preachers of the Arya Samaj, and the efforts made
are thus defensive rather than directly proselytising.
Some preachers too turn their attention rather to the
strengthening of the foundation already laid, and en-
deavour to rid their ignorant co-religionists of their Hindu
superstitions, and instil in them a purer form of faith, such
efforts being in many cases the continuation of earlier mis-
sionary activity. The work of conversion has indeed been
often very imperfect. Of many, nominally Muslims, it may
be said that they are half Hindus : they observe caste
rules, they join in Hindu festivals and practise numerous
idolatrous ceremonies. In certain districts also, e. g. in
Mewat and Gurgaon, large numbers of Muhammadans may
be found who know nothing of their religion but its name ;
they have no mosques, nor do they observe the hours of
prayer. This is especially the case among the Muhammadans
of the villages or in parts of the country where they are
isolated from the mass of believers; but in the towns the
presence of learned religious men tends, in great measure,
to counteract the influence of former superstitions, and makes
for a purer and more intelligent form of religious life. In
recent years, however, there has been, speaking generally,
a movement noticeable among the Indian Muslims towards
^ The Indian Evangelical Review, 1884, p. 128. Garciu de Tassy : La
Langue et la Litterature Hindoustanies de 1850 k 1869, p. 485. (Paris, 1874.)
Garcin de Tassy : La Langue et la Litterature Hindoustanies en 1871, p. 12.
(Paris, 1872.)
a religious life more strictly in accordance with the laws
of Islam. The influence of the Christian mission schools has
also been very great in stimulating among some Muhamma-
dans of the younger generation a study of their own religion
and in bringing about a consequent awakening of religious
zeal. Indeed, the spread of education generally, has led
to a more intelligent grasp of religious principles and to an
increase of religious teachers in outlying and hitherto
neglected districts. This missionary movement of reform
(from whatever cause it may originate), may be observed
in very different parts of India. In the eastern districts
of the Panjab, for example, after the Mutiny, a great religious
revival took place. Preachers travelled far and wide through
the country, calling upon believers to abandon their idolatrous
practices and expounding the true tenets of the faith. Now,
in consequence, most villages, in which Muhammadans own
any considerable portion, have a mosque, while the grosser
and more open idolatries are being discontinued, ^ In
Rajputana also, the Hindu tribes who have been from time
to time converted to Islam in the rural districts, are now
becoming more orthodox and regular in their religious
observances, and are abandoning the ancient customs which
hitherto they had observed in common with their idolatrous
neighbours. The Merats, for example, now follow the
orthodox Muhammadan form of marriage instead of the
Hindu ritual they formerly observed, and have abjured
the flesh of the wild boar,^ A similar revival in Bengal has
already been spoken of above.
Such movements and the efforts of individual missionaries
are, however, quite inadequate to explain the rapid increase
of the Muhammadans of India, and one is naturally led to
inquire what are the causes other than the normal increase
of population, 3 which add so enormously to their numbers.
The answer is to be found in the social conditions of life
among Hindus. The insults and contempt heaped upon
the lower castes of Hindus by their co-religionists, and the
impassable obstacles placed in the way of any member of
^ Ibbetson, p. 184.
* The Rajputana Gazetteer, vol. i. p. 90; vol. ii. p. 47. (Calcutta, 1879.)
3 On these as they affect the Muhammadans, see the Census of India,
1901. Vol. vi. p. 172.
these castes desiring to better his condition, show up in

striking contrast the benefits of a rehgious system which
has no outcasts, and gives free scope for the indulgence of
any ambition. In Bengal, for example, the weavers of
cotton piece-goods, who are looked upon as vile by their
Hindu co-religionists, embrace Islam in large numbers to
escape from the low position to which they are otherwise
degraded. 1 A very remarkable instance of a similar kind
occurs in the history of the north-eastern part of the same
province. Here in the year 1550 the aboriginal 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 Hinduism, ^ the mass of
the people finding themselves despised as outcasts, became
Muhammadans .^
The escape that Islam offers to Hindus from the oppression
of the higher castes was strikingly illustrated in Tinnevelli
at the close of the nineteenth century. A very low caste,
the Shanars, had in recent years become prosperous and
many of them had built fine houses ; they asserted that they
had the right to worship in temples, from which they had
hitherto been excluded. A riot ensued, in the course of which
the Shanars suffered badly at the hands of Hindus of a higher
caste, and they took refuge in the pale of Islam. Six hundred
Shanars in one village became Muslims in one day, and their
example was quickly followed in other places.*
Similar instances might be given from other parts of
India. A Hindu who has in any way lost caste and been
in consequence repudiated by his relations and by the
society of which he has been accustomed to move, would
naturally be attracted towards a religion that receives all
without distinction, and offers to him a grade of society
equal in the social scale to that from which he has been
banished. Such a change of religion might well be accom-
panied with sincere conviction, but men also who might
be profoundly indifferent to the number or names of the
1 E. T. Dalton, p. 324.
" For an account of such Hinduising of the aboriginal tribes see Sir
Alfred Lyall : Asiatic Studies, pp. 102-4. * E. T. Dalton, p. 89.
* The Missionary Review of the World, N. S. vol. xiii, pp. 72-3. (New
York, 1900.)
deities they were called upon to worship, would feel very

keenly the social ostracism entailed by their loss of caste, and
become Muhammadan without any religious feelings at all.
The influence of the study of Muhammadan literature also,
and the habitual contact with Muhammadan society, must
often make itself insensibly felt. Among the Rajput princes
of the nineteenth century in Rajputana and Bundelkhand,
such tendencies towards Islamism were to be observed,^
tendencies which, had the Mu|âl empire lasted, would
probably have led to their ultimate conversion. They not
only respected Muhammadan saints, but had Muhammadan
tutors for their sons; they also had their food killed in
accordance with the regulations laid down by the Muham-
madan law, and joined in the Muhammadan festivals dressed
as faqirs, and praying like true behevers. On the other
hand, it has been conjectured that the present position of
affairs, under a government perfectly impartial in matters
religious, is much more likely to promote conversions among
the Hindus generally than was the case under the rule of the
Muhammadan kingdoms, when Hinduism gained union and
strength from the constant struggle with an aggressive
enemy.2 Hindus, too, often flock in large numbers to the
tombs of MusHm saints on the day appointed to commemorate
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 will in such a case (and examples are not
infrequent) embrace Islam. ^
1 Sir Alfred Lyall (Asiatic Studies, p. 29) speaks of the perceptible
proclivity towards the faith of Islam occasionally exhibited by some of
the Hindu chiefs.
* Gazetteer of the Province of Oudh, vol. i. p. xix.
' To give one instance only : in Ghatampur, in the district of Cawnpore,
one branch of a large family is Muslim in obedience to the vow of their
ancestor, Ghatam Deo Bais, who while praying for a son at the shrine of a
Muhammadan saint, Madar Shah, promised that if his prayer were granted,
half his descendants should be brought up as MusUms. (Gazetteer of the
N.W.P. vol. vi. pp. 64, 238.)
The worship of Muhammadan saints is so common among certain low-
caste Hindus that in the Census of 1891, in the North-Western Provinces
and Oudh alone, 2,333,643 Hindus (or 5' 78 per cent, of the total Hindu
population of these provinces) returned themselves as worshippers of
Muhammadan saints. (Census of India, 1891, vol. xvi. part i. pp. 217, 244).
(Allahabad, 1894.)
U
Love for a Muhammadan woman is occasionally the
cause of the conversion of a Hindu, since the marriage of a
Muslim woman to an unbeliever is absolutely forbidden by
the Muslim law. Hindu children, if adopted by wealthy
Musalmans, would be brought up in the rehgion of their
new parents ; and a Hindu wife, married to a follower of the
Prophet, would be likely to adopt the faith of her husband. ^
As the contrary process can rarely take place, the number
of Muhammadans is bound to increase in proportion to that
of the Hindus. Hindus, who for some reason or other have
been driven out of their caste; the poor who have become
the recipients of Muhammadan charity, or women and
children who have been protected when their parents have
died or deserted them — (such cases would naturally be
frequent in times of famine) — form a continuous though
small stream of additions from the Hindus. ^ There are
often local circumstances favourable to the growth of Islam ;
for example, it has been pointed out ^ that in the villages of
the Terai, in which the number of Hindus and Muhammadans
happen to be equally balanced, any increase in the pre-
dominance ofthe Muhammadans is invariably followed by
disputes about the killing of cows and other practices offensive
to Hindu feeling. The Hindus gradually move away from
the village, leaving behind of their creed only the Chamar
ploughman in the service of the Muhammadan peasants.
These latter eventually adopt the religion of their masters,
not from any conviction of its truth, but from the incon-
venience their isolation entails.
Some striking instances of conversions from the lower
castes of Hindus are also found in the agricultural districts
of ,Oudh. Although the Muhammadans of this province
form only one-tenth of the whole population, still the small
groups of Muhammadan cultivators form " scattered centres
of revolt against the degrading oppression to which their
religion hopelessly consigns these lower castes." * The
advantages Islam holds out to such classes as the Koris
^ Instances of such causes of conversion are given in the Census of India,
1901. Vol. vi. Bengal, part, i. Appendix II.
* Report on the Census of the N.W.P. and Oudh, 1881, by Edward White,
p. 62. (Allahabad, 1882.)
* Id. p. 63. * Gazetteer of the Province of Oudh, vol. i. p. xix.
and Chamars, who stand at the lowest level of Hindu society,
and the deliverance which conversion to Islam brings them,
may be best understood from the following passage descrip-
tive of their social condition as Hindus. ^ " The lowest depth
of misery and degradation is reached by the Korls and
Chamars, the weavers and leather-cutters to the rest. Many
of these in the northern districts are actually bond-slaves,
having hardly ever the spirit to avail themselves of the
remedy offered by our courts, and descend with their children
from generation to generation as the value of an old purchase.
They hold the plough for the Brahman or Chhattri master,
whose pride of caste forbids him to touch it, and live with
the pigs, less unclean than themselves, in separate quarters
apart from the rest of the village. Always on the verge of
starvation, their lean, black, and ill-formed figures, their
stupid faces, and their repulsively filthy habits reflect the
wretched destiny which condemns them to be lower than
the beast among their fellow-men, and yet that they are far
from incapable of improvement is proved by the active and
useful stable servants drawn from among them, who receive
good pay and live well under European masters. A change
of religion is the 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
real strength of Islam in India, and enables it to win so many
converts from Hinduism.
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 Tibet. Of all
the provinces and states of India (with the exception of Sind)
Kashmir contains the largest number of Muhammadans
(namely 70 per cent.) in proportion to the whole population ;
but unfortunately historical facts that should explain the
existence in this state of so many Musalmans, almost entirely
of Hindu or Tibetan origin, are very scanty. But all the
evidence leads us to attribute it on the whole to a long-
continued missionary movement inaugurated and carried
out mainly by faqirs and dervishes, among whom were
Isma'ilian preachers sent from Alamut.^
1 Gazetteer of the Province of Oudh, vol. i. pp. xxiii-xxiv.
* Khoja Vrttant, p. 141.
It is difficult to say when this Islamising influence first
made itself felt in the country. The first Muhammadan
king of Kashmir, Sadr al-Din,i is said to have owed his
conversion to a certain Darwesh Bulbul Shah in the early
part of the fourteenth century. This saint was the only
religious teacher who could satisfy his craving for religious
truth when, dissatisfied with his own Hindu faith, he looked
for a more acceptable form of doctrine. Towards the end
of the same century (in 1388) the progress of Islam was most
materially furthered by the advent of Sayyid 'Ali HamadanI,
a fugitive from his native city of Hamadan in Persia, where
he had incurred the wrath of Timiir. He was accompanied
by 700 Sayyids, who established hermitages all over the
country and by their influence appear to have assured the
acceptance of the new religion. Their advent appears,
however, to have also stirred up considerable fanaticism, as
Sultan Sikandar (1393-1417) acquired the name of Butshikan
from his destruction of Hindu idols and temples, and his
prime minister, a converted Hindu, set on foot a fierce per-
secution ofthe adherents of his old faith, but on his death
toleration was again made the rule of the kingdom.^
Towards the close of the fifteenth century, a missionary,
by name Mir Shams al-Din, belonging to a Shf ah sect, came
from 'Iraq, and, with the aid of his disciples, won over a
large number of converts in Kashmir.
When under Akbar, Kashmir became a province of the
Mughal empire, the Muhammadan influence was naturally
strengthened and many men of learning came into the
country. In the reign of Aurangzeb, the Rajput Raja of
Kishtwar was converted by the miracles of a certain Sayyid
Shah Farid al-Din and his conversion seems to have been
followed by that of the majority of his subjects, and along
the route which the Mughal emperors took on their pro-
gresses into Kashmir we still find Rajas who are the descen-
dants of Muhammadanised Rajputs.^
To the north and north-east of Kashmir, the provinces
of Baltistan and Ladakh are inhabited by a mixed Tibetan
^ Or Shams al-Din, according to another account, see Muhammad
Haydar, p. 433 (n. 2). * Firishtah, vol. iv. pp. 464, 469.
3 F. Drew : The Jummoo and Kashmir Territories, pp. 58, 155.
1875-) (London,
race, among whom Islam has been firmly estabhshed for

several centuries, but the date and manner of its introduction
is unknown. The Muhammadans of Baltistan tell of four
brothers who came from Khurasan and brought about a
revival of the faith, but appear to have no tradition regarding
the earhest propagandists. ^ Up to the middle of the
nineteenth century Islam appeared to be making progress,
but this tendency was counteracted by the encouragement
which Maharaja Ranbir Singh gave to the followers of
the Buddhist faith. In Ladakh there are a number of
half-castes, called Arghons,^ born of Tibetan mothers and
Muhammadan fathers, traders who have come to Leh and
persuaded the Tibetan women they marry to accept Islam.
These Arghons are all Musalmans and, like their fathers,
marry Tibetan wives ; they are said to be increasing in num-
bers more rapidly than the pure Tibetan stock.^ Islam has
also been carried into Tibet Proper by Kashmiri merchants.
Settlements of such merchants are to be found in all the
chief cities of Tibet ; they marry Tibetan wives, who often
adopt the religion of their husbands ; and there are now said
to be as many as 2000 Muhammadan famihes in Lhasa.*
Islam has made its way into Tibet also from Yunnan, ^ and
at Su-ching, on the border of the Sze-chwan province and
Tibet, converts are being won from among the Tibetan
inhabitants.^ Muhammadan influences are also said to have
come from Persia ' and from Turkestan.^
1 Drew, op. cit. p. 359.
^ On this word see Yule's Marco Polo, vol. i. p. 290.
3 Ahmad Shah : Four years in Tibet, pp. 45, 74. (Benares, 1906.)
* Broomhall, p. 206. Tu Wen-siu, the leader of the Panthay rebellion
from 1856 to 1873, who for sixteen years was practically Sultan of half
the province of Yunnan, issued a proclamation in Lhasa itself, at the outset
of his revolt, in order to gain Muhammadan recruits. (Id. p. 132.)
5 Mission d'Ollone, pp. 207, 226, 233. * Broomhall, p. 206.
' A. Bastian : Die Geschichte der Indochinesen, p. 159. (Leipzig, 1866.)
* R. du M. M., tome i, p. 275. (1907.)
CHAPTER X.
THE SPREAD OF ISLAM IN CHINA.
Tradition ascribes to Muhammad the saying, " Seek for

knowledge, even unto China." ^ Though there is no histori-
cal evidence for these words having ever been uttered by the
Prophet, it is not impossible that the name of this country
may have been known to him, for commercial relations
between Arabia and China had been established long before
his birth. It was through Arabia, in great measure, that
Syria and the ports of the Levant received the produce of
the East. In the sixth century, there was a considerable
trade between China and Arabia by way of Ceylon, and at
the beginning of the seventh century the commerce between
China, Persia and Arabia was still further extended, the town
of Siraf on the Persian Gulf being the chief emporium for
the Chinese traders. It was at this period, at the commence-
ment of the T'ang dynasty (618-907) that mention is first
made of the Arabs in the Chinese Annals ; ^ they note the
rise of the Muslim power in Medina and briefly describe the
religious observances of the new faith.
The Annals of Kwangtung thus record the coming of the
first Muslims into China :— " At the beginning of the T'ang
dynasty there came to Canton a large number of strangers,
from the kingdoms of Annam, Cambodia, Medina and several
other countries. These strangers worshipped heaven (i. e.
God) and had neither statue, idol nor image in their temples.
The kingdom of Medina is close to that of India, and it is in
this kingdom that the religion of these strangers, which is
different to that of Buddha, originated. They do not eat
294
pork or drink wine, and they regard as unclean the flesh of
any animal not killed by themselves. They are nowadays
^ Kanz al-'Ummal, vol. v. p. 202. * Bretschneider (2), p. 6.
THE SPREAD OF ISLAM IN CHINA 295
called Hui Hui.^ . . . Having asked and obtained from the

emperor permission to reside in Canton, they built magnifi-
cent houses of a style different to that of our country. They
were very rich and obeyed a chief chosen by themselves." ^
Though direct historical evidence is lacking,^ it is most
probable that Islam was first introduced into China by-
merchants who followed the old-established sea route. But
the earliest record we can trust refers to diplomatic relations
carried on by land, through Persia. When Yazdagird, the
last Sasanid king of Persia, had perished, his son, Firiiz,
appealed to China for help against the Arab invaders ; * but
the emperor replied that Persia was too far distant for him
to send the required troops. But he is said to have de-
spatched an ambassador to the Arab court to plead the cause
of the fugitive prince — probably also with instructions to
ascertain the extent and power of the new kingdom that had
arisen in the West, and the caliph 'Uthman is said to have sent
one of the Arab generals to accompany the Chinese ambassa-
dor on his return in 651, and this first Muslim envoy was
honourably received by the emperor. In the reign of Walid
(705-715), the famous Arab general, Qutaybah b. Muslim,
having been appointed governor of Hiurasan, crossed the
Oxus and began a series of successful campaigns, in which
he successively subjugated BuMiara, Samarqand and other
cities, and carried his conquests up to the eastern frontier
of the Chinese empire. In 713 he sent envoys to the em-
peror, who (according to Arab accounts) dismissed them with
valuable presents. A few years later, the Chinese Annals
make mention of an ambassador, named Sulayman, who
came from the caliph Hisham in 726 to the Emperor Hsuan
Tsung. These diplomatic relations between the Arab and
the Chinese empires assumed a new importance at the close
of this emperor's reign, when, driven from his throne by a
^ On the origin of this name, see Deveria, p. 311; Mission d'Ollone,
p. 420 sqq. * De Thiersant, vol. i. pp. 19-20.
' D'Ollone gives the following warning as to the uncertainty of our
knowledge of Islam in China :— " Or rien n'est moins connu que I'lslam
chinois. On ne salt exactement ni comment il s'est propage dans I'Empire,
ni combien d'adeptes il a reunis, ni si sa doctrine est pure, ni quelle est son
organisation, ni s'il possede des relations avec le reste du monde musulman."
(Mission d'Ollone, p. i.) The references to China in Arabic and Persian
writers have been collected by Schefer, " Notice sur les relations des
peuples musulmans avec les Chinois." * Chavannes, p. 172.
usurper, he abdicated in favour of his son, Su Tsung (a.d.

756). The latter sought the help of the 'Abbasid caliph,
al-Mansiir, who responded to this appeal by sending a body
of Arab troops, and with their assistance the emperor
succeeded in recovering his two capitals, Si-ngan-fu and
Ho-nan-fu, from the rebels. At the end of the war, these
Arab troops did not return to their own country, but married
and settled in China. Various reasons are assigned for this
action on their part ; one account represents them as having
returned to their native land but, being refused permission
to remain on the ground that they had been so long in a
land where pork was eaten, they went back again to China ;
according to another account they were prepared to embark
for Arabia, at Canton, when they were taunted with having
eaten pork during their campaign, and in consequence they
refused to return home and run the risk of similar taunts
from their own people ; when the governor of Canton tried
to compel them, they joined with the Arab and Persian
merchants, their co-religionists, and pillaged the principal
commercial houses in the city; the governor saved himself
by taking refuge on the city wall, and was only able to return
after he had obtained from the emperor permission for these
Arab troops to remain in the country; houses and lands
were assigned to them in different cities, where they settled
down and intermarried with the women of the country.^
The Chinese Muhammadans have a legend that their faith
was first preached in China by a maternal uncle of the
Prophet, and his reputed tomb at Canton is highly venerated
by them. But there is not the slightest historical base for
this legend, and it appears to be of late growth. ^ It
doubtless arose from a desire to connect the history of the
faith in their own land as closely as possible with apostolic
times — a fruitful source of legends in countries far removed
from the centres of Muslim history.^ But of the existence
of Muslims in China, especially of merchants in the port
1 De Thiersant, vol, i. pp. 70-1.
* This legend has been exhaustively discussed by Broomhall : Islam in
China, cap. iv, vii.
* Thus the people of Khotan claim that Islam was first brought to their
land
Rhins,byt. Ja'far, a and
iii. p. 2), cousin
the ofChams
the Prophet (Grenard
of Cambodia : Mission
ascribe Dutreuil de
their conversion to
one of the fathers-in-law of Muhammad. (R. du M. M., vol. ii. p. 138.)
towns, during the T'ang dynasty there is clear evidence.

The Chinese annahst of this period (a.d. 713-742) says that
" the barbarians of the West came into the Middle Kingdom
in crowds, Hke a deluge, from a distance of at least 1000
leagues and from more than 100 kingdoms, bringing as
tribute their sacred books, which were received and de-
posited in the hall set apart for translations of sacred and
canonical books, in the imperial palace : from this period
the religious doctrines of these different countries were thus
diffused and openly practised in the empire of T'ang." ^
An Arab geographer, writing about the year 851, describes
these settlements and the mosques which these merchants
were allowed to build for their religious exercises ; ^ he states
that he knew of no Chinaman having embraced Islam, but
as he makes the same remark of the people of India, it may
be that he was as ill-informed in the one case as the other.'
But there is certainly no distinct evidence of any prosely-
tising activity on the part of the Muslims in China, and
indeed very little information about them at all until the
period of Mongol conquests, in the thirteenth century.
These conquests resulted in a vast immigration of Musalmans
of various nationalities, Arabs, Persians, Turks and others
into the Chinese empire.* Some came as merchants,
artisans, soldiers or colonists, others were brought in as
prisoners of war. A large number of them settled perma-
nently in the country and developed into a populous and
flourishing community, which gradually lost its original
racial peculiarities through intermarriage with Chinese
women. Several Muhammadans occupied high posts under
the Mongol rulers, e. g. 'Abd al-Rahman, who in 1244 was
appointed head of the Imperial finances and allowed to farm
the taxes imposed upon China,^ and 'Umar Shams al-Din,
commonly known as Sayyid A jail, a native of BuWiara, to
^ De Thiersant, vol. i. p. 153.

* Reinaud : Relation des Voyages faits par les Arabes et les Persans dans
rinde et a la Chine, i. pp. 13, 64. (Paris, 1845.) 3 Id. p. 58.
* That there was some migration westward also of Chinese into the
conquered countries of Islam, where they would come within the sphere
of its religious influence, we learn from the diary of a Chinese monk who
travelled through Central Asia to Persia in the years 1221-4; speaking of
Samarqand, he says, " Chinese workmen are living everywhere." (Bret-
schneider (i), vol. i. p. 78.) ^ Howorth, vol. i. p. 161.
whom Qubilay Hian, on his accession in 1259, entrusted
the management of the Imperial finances; he was subse-
quently governor of Yunnan, after this province had been
conquered and added to the Chinese empire. ^ Sayyid A jail
died in 1270, leaving behind him a reputation as an en-
lightened and upright administrator; he built Confucian
temples as well as mosques in Yunnan city.^
The descendants of Sayyid A jail played a great part in the
establishing of Islam in China; it was his grandson who in
1335 obtained from the emperor the recognition of Islam as
the " True and Pure Religion " — a name which it has kept
to the present day, — and another descendant of Sayyid A jail
was authorised by the emperor in 1420 to build mosques in
the capitals, Si-ngan-fu and Nan-kin.^
The Chinese historians of the reign of Qiibllay Hian make
it a ground of complaint against this monarch that he did not
employ Chinese officials in place of the immigrant Turks and
Persians.* The exalted position occupied by Sayyid Ajall
and the facilities of communication between China and the
West established by Mongol conquest, attracted a number
of such persons into the north of China, and it was probably
as a result of these immigrations that those scattered
Muhammadan communities began to be formed, which have
grown to large proportions in most of the provinces of China.
Marco Polo, who enjoyed the favour of Qiibilay Hian and
lived in China from 1275 to 1292, notes the presence of
Muhammadans in various parts of Yunnan,^ At the be-
ginning of the fourteenth century, all the inhabitants of
Talifu, the capital of Yunnan, are said by a contemporary
historian to have been Musalmans; ^ and Ibn Batutah, who
visited several coast towns in China towards the middle of
the fourteenth century, speaks of the hearty welcome he
received from his co-religionists,'^ and reports that " In every
town there is a special quarter for the Muslims, inhabited
solely by them, where they have their mosques; they are
honoured and respected by the Chinese." ^
^ For Chinese biographies of Sayyid Ajall, see R. du M. M., viii. p. 344,
sqq. and xi. p. 3 sqq. ; Mission d'Ollone, p. 25 sqq. ^ Broomhall, p. 127,
^ Mission d'Ollone, pp. 435-6. * Howorth, vol. i. p. 257.
^ Marco Polo, vol. i. pp. 219, 274; vol. ii. p. 66.
* Rashid al-Din (Yule's Cathay, p. 9).
' Vol. iv. pp. 270, 283. * Id. p. 258.
Up to this period the Muhammadans appear to have been
looked upon as a foreign community in China, but after the
expulsion of the Mongol dynasty in the latter part of the
fourteenth century they received no fresh addition to their
numbers from abroad, in consequence of the policy of
isolation which the Chinese government now adopted ; and
being thus cut off from communication with their co-
religionists inother countries, they tended, in most parts of
the empire, gradually to become merged into the mass of the
native population, through their marriages with Chinese
women and their adoption of Chinese habits and manners.
The founder of the new Ming dynasty, the emperor Hung-
wu, extended to them many privileges, and their flourishing
condition during the period that this dynasty lasted (1368-
1644) is shown by the large number of mosques erected.
The emperors of this dynasty cultivated friendly relations
with the Muhammadan princes on their western frontier,
and there was a frequent interchange of embassies between
them and the Timiirid princes. One of these is of interest
in the missionary history of Islam, inasmuch as Shah Rukh
Bahadur in 141 2 took advantage of the arrival of a Chinese
embassy at his court in Samarqand, to include in his answer
an invitation to the emperor to embrace Islam. He sent
with his envoy, who accompanied the Chinese ambassadors
on their return, two letters, the first of which, written in
Arabic, was to the following effect :— " In the name of God,
the Merciful, the Compassionate. There is no god save God :
Muhammad is the Apostle of God. The Apostle of God,
Muhammad (peace be on him !) said : ' There shall not cease
to be in my church a people abiding in the commandments
of God ; whosoever fails to help them or opposes them, shall
never prosper, until the commandment of the Lord cometh.'
When the Most High God purposed to create Adam and his
race, he said ' I was a hidden treasure, but it was my pleasure
to become known ; I therefore created man that I might be
known ' ; It is manifest from hence that the divine purpose
(great is His power and exalted is His word !) in the creation
of man was to make Himself known and uplift the banners of
right guidance and faith. Wherefore He sent His Apostle
with guidance and the religion of truth that it might prevail
over all other faiths, though the polytheists turn away from
it, that he might make known the laws and the ordinances
and the observances of what is lawful and unlawful, and He
gave him the holy Qur'an miraculously that thereby he
might put to silence the unbelievers and stop their mouths
when they discussed and disputed with him, and by His
perfect grace and His all-pervading guidance He has caused
it to remain even unto the day of judgment. By His power
He hath established in all ages and times and in all parts of
the world, in east and west, and in China, a mighty monarch,
lord of great armies and authority, to administer justice and
mercy and spread the wings of peace and security over the
heads of men; to enjoin upon them righteousness and warn
them against evil and disobedience and lift up among them
the banners of the noble religion ; and he drives away idola-
try and infidelity from among them through belief in the
unity of God. The Most High God thus disposeth our hearts
by His past mercies and His ensuing grace to strive for the
stablishing of the laws of pure religion and the continuance
of the ordinances of the shining path. He also bids us ad-
minister justice to our subjects in all suits and cases in
accordance with the religion of the Prophet and the ordin-
ances of the Chosen One, and build mosques and colleges and
monasteries and hermitages and places of worship, that the
teaching of the sciences and the schools of learning may not
cease nor the memorials and injunctions of religion be swept
away. Seeing that the continuance of worldly prosperity
and dominion, and the permanence of authority and rule
depend upon the assistance given to truth and righteousness
and the extirpation of the evils caused by idolatry and un-
belief from the earth, in the expectation of blessing and
reward, we, therefore, hope that your Majesty and the
nobles of your realm will agree with us in these matters and
join us in strengthening the foundations of the estabhshed
law." The other letter, written in Persian, makes a more
direct appeal, without the rhetorical embellishments of the
Arabic :— " The Most High God, having in the depth of
His wisdom and the perfection of His power created Adam
(peace be upon him !), made some of his sons prophets and
apostles and sent them among men to summon them to the
truth. To certain of these prophets, such as Abraham, Moses,

David and Muhammad (peace be upon them !) He gave a
book and taught a law, and He bade the people of their time
follow the law and the religion of each of them. All these
apostles invited men to faith in the unity and to the worship
of God and forbade the adoration of the sun, moon and stars,
of kings and idols ; and though each one of these apostles
had a separate law, yet they were all agreed in the doctrine
of the unity of the Most High God. At length, when the
apostolic and prophetic office devolved on the Apostle
Muhammad Mustafa (the peace and blessing of God be upon
him !) all other systems of law were abrogated. He was the
apostle and the prophet of the latter age, and it behoves
the whole world — lords and kings and ministers, rich and
poor, small and great, — to observe his law and forsake all
past creeds and laws. This is the true and perfect faith and
is called Islam. Some years ago, Chingiz Hian took up
arms and sent his sons into various countries and king-
doms— Juji Hian to the confines of Saray, Qrim and
Dasht Qafchaq, where some monarchs, such as Uzbek
Hian, Chani Hian and Urus Hian, became Musalmans and
observed the law of Muhammad (peace be upon him !).
Hiilagii Hian was set over Khurasan. 'Iraq and the neigh-
bouring countries, and some of his sons who succeeded
him received into their hearts the light of the law of
Muhammad (peace be upon him !), and in like manner
became Musalmans, and honoured with the blessedness
of Islam passed into the other world, such as the truthful
king, Ghazan. and Uljaytu Sultan and the fortunate king,
Abii Sa'Id Bahadur, until my honoured father. Amir Timiir
Giirgan, succeeded to the throne. He too observed the law
of Muhammad (peace be upon him !) in all the countries under
his rule, and throughout his reign the followers of the faith
of Islam enjoyed complete prosperity. Now that by the
goodness and favour of God this Kingdom of Khurasan.
'Iraq, Ma-wara'-al-nahr, etc., has passed into my hands, the
administration is carried on throughout the whole kingdom
in accordance with the pure law of the Prophet ; righteous-
ness is enjoined and wrong forbidden, and the Yarghij
and the institutes of Chingiz Khan have been abolished.
Since, then, it is sure and certain that salvation and
dehverance in the day of judgment, and sovereignty and
fehcity in the present world, depend upon true faith and
Islam, and the favour of the Most High God, it is incumbent
upon us to treat our subjects with justice and equity. I
hope that by the bounty and benevolence of God you too
will observe the law of Muhammad, the Apostle of God
(peace be upon him !) and strengthen the religion of Islam,
so that you may exchange the transitory sovereignty of
this world for the sovereignty of the world to come." ^
It is not improbable that these letters gave rise to the
later legend of one of the Chinese emperors having become a
convert to Islam. ^ This legend is referred to, among others,
by a Muhammadan merchant, Sayyid 'Ali Akbar, who spent
some years in Peking at the end of the fifteenth and the
beginning of the sixteenth century; he speaks of the large
number of Musalmans who had settled in China; in the
city of Kenjanfu there were as many as 30,000 Muslim
families ; they paid no taxes and enjoyed the favour of the
emperor, who gave them grants of land; they enjoyed com-
plete toleration for the exercise of their religion, which was
favourably viewed by the Chinese, and conversions were
freely permitted ; in the capital itself there were four great
mosques and about ninety more in other provinces of the
empire, — all erected at the cost of the emperor.^
Up to the establishment of the Manchu dynasty in 1644
there is no record of any Muhammadan uprising, and the
followers of Islam appear to have been entirely content with
the religious liberty they enjoyed; but difficulties arose soon
after the advent of the new ruling power, and an insurrection
in the province of Kansu in 1648 was the first occasion on
which any Muhammadans rose in arms against the Chinese
government, though it was not until the nineteenth century
that any such revolt entailed very disastrous consequences,
or seriously interrupted the amicable relations that had
subsisted from the beginning between the Chinese Muslims
^ 'Abd al-Razzaq al-Samarqandi : Matla' al-sa'dayn, foil. 60-1.

(Blochet, pp. 249-52.)
/ Zenker, pp. 798-9. Melanges Orientaux, p. 65. (Publications de
I'Ecole des Langues Orientales Vivantes, Ser. ii. t. 9.) (Paris, 1883.)
' Schefer, pp. 29-30. Zenker, p. 796.
and their rulers. The official view of the Chinese Govern-

ment of these relations is set forth in an edict published
by the emperor Yung Chen in 1731 :— " In every province
of the empire, for many centuries past, have been
found a large number of Muhammadans who form part
of the people whom I regard as my own children just as
I do my other subjects. I make no distinction between
them and those who do not belong to their religion.
I have received from certain officials secret complaints
against the Muhammadans on the ground that their religion
differs from that of the other Chinese, that they do not speak
the same language, and wear a different dress to the rest of
the people. They are accused of disobedience, haughtiness,
and rebellious feelings, and I have been asked to employ
severe measures against them. After examining these com-
plaints and accusations, I have discovered that there is no
foundation for them. In fact, the religion followed by the
Musalmans is that of their ancestors; it is true their lan-
guage is not the same as that of the rest of the Chinese,
but what a multitude of different dialects there are in China.
As to their temples, dress and manner of writing, which
differ from those of the other Chinese — these are matters
of absolutely no importance. These are mere matters of
custom. They bear as good a character as my other sub-
jects, and there is nothing to show that they intend to rebel.
It is my wish, therefore, that they should be left in the free
exercise of their religion, whose object is to teach men the
observance of a moral life, and the fulfilment of social and
civil duties. This religion respects the fundamental basis of
Government, and what more can be asked for ? If then the
Muhammadans continue to conduct themselves as good and
loyal subjects, my favour will be extended towards them just
as much as towards my other children. From among them
have come many civil and military officers, who have risen
to the very highest ranks. This is the best proof that they
have adopted our habits and customs, and have learned to
conform themselves to the precepts of our sacred books.
They pass their examinations in literature just like every one
else, and perform the sacrifices enjoined by law. In a word,
they are true members of the great Chinese family and
endeavour always to fulfil their religious, civil and political
duties. When the magistrates have a civil case brought
before them, they should not concern themselves with the
religion of the litigants. There is but one single law for all
my subjects. Those who do good shall be rewarded, and
those who do evil shall be punished." ^
About thirty years later, his successor, the Emperor K'ien
Lung, showed distinguished marks of his favour towards the
Muhammadans by ennobling two Turk! Begs who had
materially helped in suppressing a revolt in the north-west
and Kashgar, and building palaces for them in Peking ; he also
erected a mosque for the use of the Turki Begs who visited
the Imperial court and for the prisoners of war who had been
brought to the capital from Kashgar. Among these prisoners
was a beautiful girl who became a favourite concubine of
the emperor, and it is stated that for love of her he built
this mosque immediately opposite his own palace and erected
a pavilion within the palace grounds, from which the concu-
bine could watch her fellow-countrymen at prayer and could
join in their devotions. This mosque was built in the years
1763-1764 and contains an inscription in four languages, the
Chinese text of which was written by the emperor himself. ^
After crushing the revolt in Zungaria, this same emperor
K'ien Lung, in 1770 transported thither from other parts of
China ten thousand military colonists, who were followed by
their families and other persons, to re-people the country,
and they are all said to have embraced the religion of
the surrounding Muhammadan population.^ Whether such
mass conversions occurred in other parts of the empire also,
we have no means of telling, but the existence of a consider-
able Muhammadan population in every province of China
can hardly be explained merely by reference to foreign immi-
gration and the natural growth of population,^ though the
numbers are larger in those provinces in which foreign
1 De Thiersant, tome i. pp. 154-6.
* Broomhall, p. 92 sqq. Deveria : Musulmans et Manichêns chinois.
(J. A. 9™« Ser., tome x. p. 447 sqq.)
' De Thiersant, tome i. pp. 163-4.
* The Muhammadans are said to be more prolific than the ordinary
Chinese, and the Chinese census, which counts according to families,
estimates six for a Muhammadan family and five for the ordinary Chinese.
(Broomhall, pp. 197, 203.)
Muhammadans have settled. ^ It is unlikely that the

Muhammadans in China during the many centuries of their
residence in this country, in the enjoyment of religious free-
dom and the liberal patronage of several of the emperors,
should have been entirely devoid of that proselytising zeal
which modern observers have noted in their descendants at
the present day.^ To such direct proselytising efforts must
have been due the conversion of Chinese Jews to Islam;
their establishment in this country dates from an early
period, they held employments under the Government and
were in possession of large estates ; but by the close of the
seventeenth century a great part of them had been converted
to Islam. ^ Such propaganda must have been quite quiet
and unobtrusive, and indeed more public methods might
have excited suspicions on the part of the Government, as
is shown by an interesting report which was sent to the
Emperor K'ien Lung in 1783 by a governor of the province
of Khwang-Se. It runs as follows : "I have the honour
respectfully to inform your Majesty that an adventurer
named Han-Fo-Yun, of the province of Khwang-Se, has
been arrested on a charge of vagrancy. This adventurer
when interrogated as to his occupation, confessed that for
the last ten years he had been travelling through the different
provinces of the Empire in order to obtain information about
his religion. In one of his boxes were found thirty books,
some of which had been written by himself, while others
were in a language that no one here understands. These
books praise in an extravagant and ridiculous manner a
Western king, called Muhammad. The above-mentioned
Han-Fo-Yun, when put to the torture, at last confessed that
the real object of his journey was to propagate the false
religion taught in these books, and that he remained in the
province of Shen-Si for a longer time than anywhere else.
I have examined these books myself. Some are certainly
written in a foreign language ; for I have not been able to
understand them : the others that are written in Chinese
^ Broomhall, in chap. xii. of his Islam in China, gives the total as between
five and ten millions. D'OUone puts it as low as four millions (p. 430).
* Vide infra, pp. 309-310.
' Clark Abel: Narrative of a journey in the interior of China, p. 361.
(London, 1818.)
X
are very bad, I may add, even ridiculous on account of the
exaggerated praise given in them to persons who certainly
do not deserve it, because I have never even heard of
them. Perhaps the above-mentioned Han-Fo-Yun is a rebel
from Kan-Su. His conduct is certainly suspicious, for what
was he going to do in the provinces through which he has
been traveUing for the last ten years ? I intend to make a
serious inquiry into the matter. Meanwhile, I would request
your Majesty to order the stereotyped plates, that are in
the possession of his family, to be burnt, and the engravers
to be arrested, as well as the authors of the books, which I
have sent to your Majesty desiring to know your pleasure in
the matter." i
This report bears testimony to the activity of at least one
Muhammadan missionary in the eighteenth century, and
the growth of Islam, which the Jesuit missionaries ^ noted in
the eighteenth century, was probably not so little connected
with direct proselytism as some of them supposed. Du Halde,
in one of the few passages he devotes to the Muhammadans
in his great work,^ attributes the increase in their numbers
largely to their habit of purchasing children in times of
famine. " The Mahometans have been settled for more
than six hundred years in various provinces, where they live
quite quietly, because they do not make any great efforts to
spread their doctrines and gain proselytes, and because in
former times they only increased in numbers by the alliances
and marriages they contracted. But for several years past
they have continued to make very considerable progress by
means of their wealth. They buy up heathen children every-
where ;and the parents, being often unable to provide them
with food, have no scruples in selling them. During a
famine that devastated the Province of Chantong, they
bought more than 10,000 of them. They marry them, and
either purchase or build for them separate quarters in a
town, or even whole villages; gradually in several places
^ De Thiersant, tome ii. pp. 361-3.

^ One missionary, writing from Peking in 1721, says, " Le secte des
Mahometans s'etend de plus en plus." (Lettres edifiantes et curieuses.
tome xix. p. 140.)
3 J. B. du Halde : Description geographique, historique, chronologique,
politique et physique de I'Empire de la Chine, tome iii. p. 64. (Paris, 1735-)
they gain such influence that they do not let any one hve
among them who does not go to the mosque. By such
means they have multiphed exceedingly during the last
century, ' '
Similarly, in the famine that devastated the province of
Kwangtung in 1790, as many as ten thousand children are
said to have been purchased by the Muhammadans from
parents who, too poor to support them, were willing to part
with them to save them from starvation ; these were all
brought up in the faith of Islam. ^ A Chinese Musalman,
from Yunnan, named Sayyid Sulayman, who visited Cairo
in 1894 and was there interviewed by the representative of
an Arabic journal, ^ declared that the number of accessions
to Islam gained in this way every year was beyond counting.
Similar testimony is given by M. d'Ollone, who reports that
this practice of buying children in times of famine prevails
among the Muhammadans throughout the whole of China
to the present day; in the same way, they purchased the
children of Christian parents who were massacred by the
Boxers in 1900, and brought them up as Musalmans.^
The Muhammadans in China tend to live together in
separate villages and towns or to form separate Muhammadan
quarters in the towns, where they will not allow any person
to dwell among them who does not go to the mosque.*
Though they thus in some measure hold themselves apart,
they are careful to avoid the open exhibition of any specially
distinguishing features of the religious observances of their
faith, which may offend their neighbours, and they have
been careful to make concessions to the prejudices of their
Chinese fellow-countrymen. In their ordinary life they are
completely in touch with the customs and habits that prevail
around them ; they wear the pigtail and the ordinary dress
of the Chinese, and put on a turban, as a rule, only in the
mosque. To avoid offending against a superstitious pre-
judice on the part of the Chinese, they also refrain from
building tall minarets, wherever they build them at all.*^
But for the most part, their mosques conform to the Chinese
^ Anderson, p. 151. Grosier, tome iv. p. 507.
^ Thamarat al-Funun, 17th Shawwal, p. 3. (Bayrut, a.h. 131 i.)
* Mission d'Ollone, p. 279. R. du M.M., tome ix. pp. 577, 578.
* Broomhall, p. 226. Grosier, tome iv. p. 508. * Vasil'ev, p. 15.
type of architecture, often with nothing to distinguish them

from an ordinary temple or dwelHng.^ Every mosque is
obhged by law to have a tablet to the emperor, with the
inscription on it, " The emperor, the immortal, may he
live for ever," and the Muhammadans prostrate themselves
before it in accordance with the regular Chinese custom,
though with various expedients to satisfy their consciences
and avoid the imputation of idolatry. ^ Even in Chinese
Tartary, where the special privilege is allowed to the Musal-
man soldiers, of remaining unmixed, and of forming a
separate body, the higher Muhammadan officials wear
the dress prescribed to their rank, long moustaches and the
pigtail, and on hohdays they perform the usual homage
demanded from officials, to a portrait of the emperor, by
touching the ground three times with their forehead. ^
Similarly all Muhammadan mandarins and other officials
in other provinces perform the rites prescribed to their
official position, in the temples of Confucius on festival days ;
in fact every precaution is taken by the Muslims to prevent
their faith from appearing to be in opposition to the state
religion, and hereby they have succeeded in avoiding the
odium with which the adherents of foreign religions, such
as Judaism and Christianity are regarded. They even
represent their rehgion to their Chinese fellow-countrymen
as being in agreement with the teachings of Confucius, with
only this difference, that they follow the traditions of their
ancestors with regard to marriages, funerals, the prohibition
of pork, wine, tobacco, and games of chance, and the washing
of the hands before meals.* Similarly the writings of the
Chinese Muhammadans treat the works of Confucius and
other Chinese classics with great respect, and where possible,
point out the harmony between the teachings contained
therein and the doctrines of Islam. ^
The Chinese government, in its turn, has always given to
its Muhammadan subjects (except when in revolt) the same
privileges and advantages as are enjoyed by the rest of the
population. No office of state is closed to them; and as
1 Broomhall, p. 237. * Id. pp. 186, 228.
3 Arminius Vamb^ry : Travels in Central Asia, p. 404. (London, 1864.)
* Yasil'ev, p. 16. * De Thiersant, tome ii. pp. 367, 372.
governors of provinces, generals, magistrates and ministers
of state they enjoy the confidence and respect both of the
rulers and the people. Not only do Muhammadan names
appear in the Chinese annals as those of famous officers of
state, whether military or civil, but they have also dis-
tinguished themselves in the mechanical arts and in sciences
such as mathematics and astronomy.^
The Chinese Muhammadans are also said to be keen men
of business and successful traders ; they monopolise the beef
trade and carry on other trades with great success. ^ They
are thus in touch with every section of the national life and
have every opportunity for carrying on a propaganda, but
the few Christian missionaries who have concerned them-
selves with this matter are of opinion that they are not
animated with any particular proselytising zeal.^ Still, many
recent converts are to be met with, and the fact that a large
number of Chinese Muslims can cite the name of the particu-
lar ancestor who first embraced Islam points to a continuous
process of conversion.* Apparently the Muslims are not
allowed to preach their faith in the streets, as Protestant
missionaries do,^ but (as we have seen above) ^ they do not
fail to make use of such opportunities as present themselves
for adding to the number of their sect. One of their religious
text-books, " A Guide to the Rites of the True Religion "
(published in Canton in 1668), commends the work of prose-
lytising and makes reference to such as may have recently
become converts from among the heathen.' The funda-
mental doctrines of Islam are taught to the new converts
by means of metrical primers,^ and to the influence of the
religious books of the Chinese Muslims, Sayyid Sulayman
attributes many of the conversions made in recent years. ^
The Muslim seminary at Hochow in Kansu is said to train
theological students who return to their several provinces,
at the completion of their studies, to promulgate their faith
there, ^° and in upwards of ten provinces centres are said to
^ De Thiersant, tome i. p. 247. Thamarat al-Funun, 28th Sha'ban, p. 3.

2 Broomhall, p. 224. ' Du Halde, loc. cit. Broomhall, p. 282,
* Mission d'Ollone, pp. 210, 431, ^ Broomhall, pp. 274, 282,
® p. 307. ' Broomhall, pp. 231-2.
* W. J. Smith, p. 175. Mission d'Ollone, p. 407 sqq.
* Thamarat al-Funiin, loc. cit. ^^ Broomhall, p. 240.
have been started where mullas are to be trained for Muslim
propaganda. 1 Mihtary officers convert many of the soldiers
serving under them, to Islam, and Muslim mandarins take
advantage of the authority they enjoy, to win converts,
but as they are frequently transferred from one place to
another, they are not able to exercise so much influence as
Muslim military officers. ^ Conversions may also occasion-
ally occur, which are not the result of a direct propagandist
appeal, e. g. a Turkish traveller who visited Peking in 1895
reported that he found thirty mosques there, among them
one that had originally been a temple; this had been the
family temple of a wealthy Chinaman, whose hfe had been
saved during the Boxer insurrection by the Mufti Wa-
Ahonad ('Abd al-Rahman) ; as a token of his gratitude, he
embraced the faith of his deliverer. ^
Turkish and other Muslim missionaries have in recent
years been visiting China and endeavouring to stir up among
the Chinese Muslims a more thorough knowledge of their
faith and to awaken their zeal, but their efforts seem so far
to have borne but little fruit.*
In 1867 a Russian writer,^ in a remarkable work on Islam
in China, expressed the opinion that it was destined to
become the national faith of the Chinese empire and thereby
entirely change the political conditions of the Eastern world.
Nearly half a century has elapsed since this note of alarm
was sounded, but nothing has occurred since to verify these
prognostications. On the contrary, it would appear that
Islam has been losing rather than gaining ground during the
last century, since the wholesale massacres that accompanied
the suppression of the Panthay risings in Yunnan from 1855
to 1873 and the Tungan rebellion in Shen-si and Kan-su in
1864-1877 and 1895-1896, reduced the Muhammadan popula-
tion by milhons.^ The establishment of the new Repubhc has
given to the Chinese Muslims a freedom of activity unknown
under any preceding government, but it is too early yet to
discover how far they are likely to avail themselves of the
1 The Missionary Review of the World, vol. xxv. p. 786 (1912).
2 Mission d'Ollone, p. 431. ^ R. du M. M., iii. p. 124 (1907).
* Broomhall, pp. 242, 286, 292 sqq. ^ Vasil'ev, pp. 3, 5, 14, 17.
« For a longer list ol Muhammadan insurrections, see Mission d'Ollone,
P- 436.
opportunities offered by the altered conditions of life. The
proselytism that still goes on, restricted as its sphere may be,
indicates a still cherished hope of expansion. Though four
centuries have elapsed since a Muslim traveller ^ in China
could discuss the possibility of the conversion of the emperor
being followed by that of his subjects, it was still possible for
a Chinese Muslim of the present generation to state that his
co-religionists in that country looked forward with confidence
to the day when Islam would be triumphant throughout
the length and breadth of the Chinese empire. ^
^ SayyidIslam,
embraces 'Ali Akbar : Hiitay
his subjects mustNamah, p. 83.
inevitably " If the
become emperor
Muslims too, ofbecause
China
they all worship him to such an extent that they accept whatever he says,
and when that light coming from the West grows in strength, the un-
believers of the East will come flocking into Islam without showing any
contention, because they are free from all fanaticism in matters of religion."
2 Thamarat al-Funun, 26th Shawwal, p. 3. (a.h. 131 i.)
CHAPTER XL
THE SPREAD OF ISLAM IN AFRICA.
The history of Islam in Africa, covering as it does a period

of well-nigh thirteen centuries and embracing two-thirds of
this vast continent, with its numerous and diverse tribes
and races, presents especial difficulties in the way of system-
atic treatment, as it is impossible to give a simultaneous
account in chronological order of the spread of this faith in
all the different parts of the continent. Its relations to the
Christian Churches of Egypt and the rest of North Africa,
of Nubia and Abyssinia have already been dealt with in a
former chapter; in the present chapter it is proposed to
trace its progress first among the heathen population of
North Africa, then throughout the Sudan and along the
West coast, and lastly along the East coast and in Cape
Colony.^
The information we possess of the spread of Islam among
the heathen population of North Africa is hardly less meagre
than the few facts recorded above regarding the disappear-
ance of the Christian Church. The Berbers offered a
vigorous resistance to the progress of the Arab arms, and
force seems to have had more influence than persuasion in
their conversion. Whenever opportunity presented itself,
they rebelled against the religion as well as the rule of their
conquerors, and Arab historians declare that they apostasised
as many as twelve times. ^ In the annals of the long struggle
a few scanty references to conversions are to be found.
These would appear sometimes to have been prompted
by the recognition of the fact that further resistance to the
^ An excellent map of the extent of Islam in Africa is to be found in
" The International Review of Missions," vol. i. p. 652.
* Fournel, vol. i. p. 271.
THE SPREAD OF ISLAM IN AFRICA 313
Arab arms was useless. When in 703 the Berbers made their
last stand against the invaders, their intrepid leader and
prophetess, al-Kahinah,^ foreseeing that the fortune of battle
was to turn against them, sent her sons into the camp of the
Muslim general with instructions that they were to embrace
Islam and make common cause with the enemy ; she herself
elected to fall fighting with her countrymen in the great
battle that crushed the political power of the Berbers and
gave Northern Africa into the hands of the Arabs. Peace
was made on condition that the Berbers would furnish 12,000
combatants to the ranks of the Arab troops, and of these
men two army-corps were formed, each of which was placed
under the command of one of the sons of al-Kahinah.^
By this device of enlisting the Berbers in their armies, the
Arab generals hoped to win them to their own religion by
the hope of booty.
The army of seven thousand Berbers that sailed from
Africa in 711 under the command of Tariq (himself a Berber)
to the conquest of Spain, was composed of recent converts
to Islam, and their conversion is expressly said to have been
sincere : learned Arabs and theologians were appointed,
" to read and explain to them the sacred words of the
Qur'an, and instruct them in all and every one of the duties
enjoined by their new religion." ^ Musa, the great con-
queror of Africa, showed his zeal for the progress of Islam
by devoting the large sums of money granted him by the
cahph 'Abd al-Malik to the purchase of such captives as
gave promise of showing themselves worthy children of the
faith : "for whenever after a victory there was a number of
slaves put up for sale, he used to buy all those whom he
thought would willingly embrace Islam, who were of noble
origin, and who looked, besides, as if they were active young
men. To these he first proposed the embracing of Islam,
and if, after cleansing their understanding and making them
fit to receive its sublime truths, they were converted to the
best of religions, and their conversion was a sincere one,
he then would, by way of putting their abilities to trial,
employ them. If they evinced good disposition and talents
^ i. e. the diviner or priestess ; her real name is unknown.
"^ Fournel, vol, ;. p. 22^, * Makkari, vol. ;. p, 2^3.
he would instantly grant them liberty, 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 would send them back to the
common depot of captives belonging to the army, to be
again disposed of according to the general custom of drawing
out the spoil by arrows." ^
How superficial the conversion of the Berbers was may be
judged from the fact that when the pious 'Umar b. 'Abd
al-'Aziz in A.H. lOO (a.d. 718) appointed Isma'il b. 'Abd
Allah governor of North Africa, ten learned theologians were
sent with him to instruct the Muslim Berbers in the ordin-
ances of their faith, since up to that time they do not seem to
have recognised that their new religion forbade to them in-
dulgence inwine. The new governor is said to have shown
great zeal in inviting the Berbers to accept Islam, but the
statement that his efforts were crowned with such success
that not a single Berber remained unconverted is certainly
not correct. 2 For the conversion of the Berbers was un-
doubtedly the work of several centuries ; even to the present
day they retain many of their primitive institutions which
are in opposition to Muslim law.^ Islam took no firm root
among them until it assumed the form of a national move-
ment and became connected with the establishment of
native dynasties, under which many Berbers came within
the pale of Islam who before had looked upon the acceptance
of this faith as a sign of loss of political independence. Of
these various changes of political condition it is not the
place to speak here, but in a history of Muslim propaganda
the rise of the Almoravids deserves special mention as a
great national movement that attracted a great many of the
Berber tribes to join the Muslim community. In the early
part of the eleventh century, Yahyg. b. Ibrahim, a chief
of the Sanhaja, one of the Berber tribes of the Sahara, on
his return from a pilgrimage to Mecca, sought in the religious
centres of Northern Africa for a learned and pious teacher,
who should accompany him as a missionary of Islam to his
^ Makkari, vol. i. p. Ixv. ^ Fournel, vol. i. p. 270.
' For these and the heretical movements that reveal survivals of the
earlier Berber faith, see Goldziher, Materialen zur Kenntniss der Almo-
h^denbewegung in Nordafrika (Z D M G, vol. xU, p. 37 sqq.),
benighted and ignorant tribesmen : at first he found it
difficult to find a man wilhng to leave his scholarly retreat
and brave the dangers of the Sahara, but at length he met in
'Abd Allah b. Yasin the fit person, bold enough to under-
take so difficult a mission, pious and austere in his life, and
learned in theology, law and other sciences. So far back
as the ninth century the preachers of Islam had made their
way among the Berbers of the Sahara and established
among them the religion of the Prophet, but this faith had
found very little acceptance there, and 'Abd Allah b. Yasin
found even the professed Muslims to be very lax in their
religious observances and given up to all kinds of vicious
practices. He ardently threw himself into the task of
converting them to the right path and instructing them in
the duties of religion; but the sternness with which he
rebuked their vices and sought to reform their conduct,
alienated their sympathies from him, and the ill-success of
his mission almost drove him to abandon this stiff-necked
people and devote his efforts to the conversion of the Sudan.
Being persuaded, however, not to desert the work he had
once undertaken, 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 unceasingly to devotional exercises. The
more devout-minded among the Berbers, stung to repentance
by the thought of the wickedness that had driven their holy
teacher from their midst, came humbly to his island to
implore his forgiveness and receive his instructions in the
saving truths of religion. Thus day by day there gathered
around him an increasing band of disciples, especially from
among the Lamtiina, a branch of the Sanhaja clan, whose
numbers swelled at length to about a thousand. 'Abd
Allah b. Yasin then recognised that the time had come for
launching out upon a wider sphere of action, and he called
upon his followers to show their gratitude to God for the
revelation he had vouchsafed them, by communicating the
knowledge
teach them ofthe
it to
lawothers : " and
of God Go tothreaten
your fellow-tribesmen,
them with His
chastisement. If they repent, amend their ways and accept
the truth, leave thein jn peace ; if they refuse and persist
in their errors and evil lives, invoke the aid of God against
them, and let us make war upon them until God decide
between us." Hereupon each man went to his own tribe
and began to exhort them to repent and believe, but without
success : equally unsuccessful were the efforts of 'Abd
Allah b. Yasln himself, who left his monastery in the hope
of finding the Berber chiefs more willing now to listen to his
preaching. At length in 1042 he put himself at the head
of his followers, to whom he had given the name of al-
Murabitin (the so-called Almoravids) — a name derived
from the same root as the ribat ^ or monastery on his island
in the Senegal, — and attacked the neighbouring tribes and
forced the acceptance of Islam upon them. The success
that attended his warlike expeditions appeared to the tribes
of the Sahara a more persuasive argument than all his
preaching, and they very soon came forward voluntarily to
embrace a faith that secured such brilliant successes to
the arms of its adherents. 'Abd Allah b. Yasin died in
1059, but the movement he had initiated lived after him
and many heathen tribes of Berbers came to swell the
numbers of their Muslim fellow-countrymen, embracing
their religion at the same time as the cause they championed,
and poured out of the Sahara over North Africa and later
on made themselves masters of Spain also.^
It is not improbable that the other great national move-
ment that originated among the Berber tribes, viz. the rise
of the Almohads at the beginning of the twelfth century,
may have attracted into the Mushm community some
of the tribes that had up to that time still stood aloof.
Their founder, Ibn Tumart, popularised the sternly
Unitarian tenets of this sect by means of works in the Berber
language which expounded from his own point of view
the fundamental doctrines of Islam, and he made a still
further concession to the nationalist spirit of the Berbers
by ordering the call to prayer to be made in their own
language.^
Some of the Berber tribes, however, remained heathen up
1 On this word, see Doutte, Notes sur I'lslam maghribin. (Revue de
I'histoire des religions, torn. xli. p. 24-6.)
"^ Ibn abi Zar', pp. 168-73. A. Miiller, vol. ii. pp. 611-13,
3 Ibn abi Zar', p. 250, Goldziher, op. laud., p. 71,
to the close of the fifteenth century/ but the general tendency

was naturally towards an absorption of these smaller
communities into the larger.
The sixteenth century witnessed the birth of a movement
of active proselytising in the Maghrib, which has been traced
to the reaction excited by the successes of the Christian
powers in Spain and North Africa. This gave an immense
impulse to the institution of the " marabouts," ^ and large
numbers of them set out from the monastic settlements in
the south of Morocco to carry a peaceful missionary campaign
throughout the Maghrib, renewing the faith of the lukewarm
adherents of Islam and converting their heathen neighbours.^
To this proselytising movement the Muslim refugees from
Spain contributed their part, as has been shown above
(p. 127), coming to the aid of the Shurafa' or descendants of
Idris b. 'Abd Allah, who had fled to Morocco to escape the
wrath of Harun al-Rashld.*
From the Sahara the knowledge of Islam first spread
among the Negroes of the Sudan. The early history of
this movement is wrapped in obscurity, but there seems
little doubt that it was the Berbers who first introduced
Islam into the lands watered by the Senegal and the Niger ;
here they came in contact with pagan kingdoms, some of
them (e. g. Ghana and Songhay) of great antiquity.^ The
two Berber tribes, the Lamtiina and the Jadala, belonging
to the Sanhaja clan, especially distinguished themselves
by their religious zeal in the work of conversion,^ and
through their agency the Almoravid movement reacted on
the pagan tribes of the Sudan. The reign of Yusuf b.
Tashfin, the founder of Morocco (a.d. 1062) and the second
amir of the Almoravid dynasty, was very fruitful in con-
versions, and many Negroes under his rule came to know of
the doctrines of Muhammad.' In 1076 the Berbers who
^ Leo Africanus. (Ramusio, torn. i. p. ii.) ^ hj\j^-
3 Doutte, xl. p. 354; xli. pp. 26-7. * Depont et Coppolani, p. 127 sq.
^ It is not the place here to deal with the rise and political history of the
various kingdoms of the Western Sudan; this has been done most fully
for the English reader by Lady Lugard in her work entitled, " A Tropical
Dependency. An Outline of the Ancient History of the Western Sudan,
with an Account of the Modern Settlement of Northern Nigeria." (London,
1905.) See also H. F. Helmolt : The World's History, vol. iii. chap. ix.
(London, 1903.) • Blau, p. 322.
' Leo Africanus. (Ramusio, torn. i. pp. 7, 77.)
had been spreading Islam in the kingdom of Ghana for
some time, drove out the reigning dynasty, which was
probably Fulbe, and this ancient kingdom became through-
out Muhammadan; at the beginning of the thirteenth
century it lost its independence and was conquered by the
Mandingos.^
Of the introduction of Islam into the ancient kingdom of
Songhay, which is said to have been in existence as early as
A.D. 700, we have only the record that the first Muhammadan
king was named Za-kassi, the fifteenth monarch of the Za
dynasty; his conversion took place in the year a.h. 400
(a.d. 1009-1010), and in the Songhay language he was
styled Muslim-dam, which implied that he had adopted
Islam of his own free will and not by compulsion, but
there is no mention of the influences to which he owed his
conversion.^
In the same century there were founded on the Upper
Niger two cities, destined in succeeding centuries to exercise
an immense influence on the development of Islam in the
Western Sudan, — Jenne,^ founded in a.h. 435 (a.d. 1043-
1044),* and destined to become an important trading centre,
and Timbuktu, the great emporium for the caravan trade with
the north, founded about the year a.d. iioo. The king of
Jenne, Kunburu, became a Muslim towards the end of the
sixth century of the Hijrah (i. e. about A.D, 1200) and his
example was followed by the inhabitants of the city ; when
he had made up his mind to embrace Islam, he is said to
have collected together all the 'ulama' in his kingdom, to
the number of 4200 — (however exaggerated this number
may be, the story would seem to imply that Islam had
already made considerable progress in his dominions) — and
publicly in their presence declared himself a Muslim and
exhorted them to pray for the prosperity of his city; he
then had his palace pulled down and built a great mosque ^
in its place.® Timbuktu, on the other hand, was a Muham-
1 Meyer, p. gi- ^ Ta'rikh al-Sudan, p. 3.
^ Jinni or Dienne.
* So three
about Meyer centuries
following earlier.
Earth ; the Ta'riUi al-Sudan (p. 12) places the date
* Felix Dubois gives a plan and reconstruction of this mosque, which
was destroyed by order of Shaykhu Ahmadu about 1830, in " Tombouctou
la Mysterieuse," chap. ix. « Ta'rildi al-Sudan, pp. 12-13.
madan city from the beginning; " never did the worship of
idols defile it, never did any man prostrate himself on its
soil except in prayer to God the Merciful." ^ In later years
it became influential as a seat of Muhammadan learning and
piety, and students and divines flocked there in large
numbers, attracted by the encouragement and patronage
they received. Ibn Batiitah, who travelled through this
country in the middle of the fourteenth century, praises the
Negroes for their zeal in the performance of their devotions
and in the study of the Qur'an : unless one went very early
to the mosque on Friday, he tells us, it was impossible to
find a place, so crowded was the attendance.^ In his time,
the most powerful state of the Western Sudan was that of
Melle or Malli, which had risen to importance about a century
before, after the conquest of Ghana by the Mandingos, one
of the finest races of Africa : Leo Africanus ^ calls them the
most civilised, the most intellectual and most respected of
all the Negroes, and modern travellers praise them for their
industry, cleverness and trustworthiness.* These Mandingos
have been among the most active missionaries of Islam,
which has been spread by them among the neighbouring
peoples.^
According to the Kano Chronicle it was the Mandingos
who brought the knowledge of Islam to the Hausa people;
the date is uncertain,^ as are most dates connected with
the history of the Hausa states, because the Fulbe, who
conquered them at the beginning of the nineteenth century,
destroyed most of their historical records. But the import-
ance of the adoption of Islam by the Hausas cannot be
exaggerated; they are an energetic and intelligent people,
and their remarkable aptitude for trade has won for them
^ Ta'rikh al-Sudan, p. 21. 2 j^j^ Batutah, tome iv. pp. 421-2.
^ Ramusio, torn. i. p. 78.
* Winwood Reade describes them as " a tall, handsome, light-coloured
race, Moslems in religion, possessing horses and large herds of cattle, but
also cultivating cotton, ground-nuts, and various kinds of corn. I was
much pleased with their kind and hospitable manners, the grave and
decorous aspect of their women, the cleanliness and silence of their villages."
(W. Winwood Reade : African Sketchbook, vol. i. p. 303.)
5 Waitz, II« Theil, pp. 18-19.
* Palmer (p. 59) places its introduction into Kano between a.d. 1349
and 1385, another Hausa chronicle makes the reign of the first Muhammadan
king of Zozo begin about 1456. (Journal of the African Society, vol. ix.
p. 161.)
an immense influence among the various peoples with whom
they have come in contact ; their language has become the
language of commerce for the Western Sudan, and wherever
the Hausa traders go — and they are found from the coast
of Guinea to Cairo — they carry the faith of Islam with them.
References to their missionary activity will be found in the
following pages. But of their own adoption of the faith,
as well as of the rise of the seven Hausa states and their
dependencies,^ historical evidence is almost entirely wanting ;2
one of the missionaries of Islam to Kano and Katsena would
certainly seem to have been a learned and pious teacher from
Tlemsen, Muhammad b. 'Abd al - Karim b. Muhammad
al-Majill, who flourished about the year 1500 ; ^ possibly
they were affected by the great wave of Muhammadan
influence which moved southward from Egypt in the
twelfth century."* The merchants of Kordofan and in the
Eastern Sudan generally, boast that they are descended
from Arabs who made their way thither after the fall of the
Fatimid cahphate of Egypt in 1171. But there were
probably still earlier instances of Muslim influence coming
into Central Africa from the north-east. It was from Egypt
that Islam spread into Kanem, a kingdom on the N. and
N.E. of Lake Chad, which shortly after the adoption of Islam
rose to be a state of considerable importance and extended
its sway over the tribes of the Eastern Sudan to the borders
of Egypt and Nubia ; the first Muhammadan king of Kanem
is said to have reigned either towards the close of the eleventh
or in the first half of the twelfth century.^ But the details
we possess of the spread of Islam from the north-east are
even more scanty than those already given for the history
of the states of the Western Sudan. The mere dates of the
1 For the various enumerations of these, see Meyer, p. 27.

* As in other parts of the Mushm world, tradition places the first intro-
duction of Islam in the lifetime of the founder and gives the name of al-
Fazazi, a reputed companion of the Prophet, as the apostle of the Hausa
people. (J. Lippert : Sudanica. MSOS, iii. part 3, p. 204. (Berlin, 1900.)
^ Mischlich and Lippert, pp. 138-9.
* Meyer, loc. cit. Artin Pasha (p. 62) puts the beginning of this infiltra-
tion of Muslim Arabs as early as the eighth century.
^ Becker, Geschichte des ostlichen Sudan, p. 162-3. Blau, p. 322.
Oppel, p. 289. At the close of the fourteenth century 'Umar b. Idris
moved his capital to the west of Lake Chad in the territory of Bornu, by
which name the kingdom of Kanem became henceforth known.
conversion of kings and the establishment of Muhammadan

dynasties tell us very little ; but one fact stands out clearly
from this meagre record, namely the extreme slowness of
the process. The survival of considerable groups of fetish-
worshippers in the midst of territories which for centuries
were under Muhammadan rule, would seem to indicate that
the influence of Islam was long confined to the towns and
only by degrees made its way among the pagan population,
if indeed it did not meet with such stubborn resistance as
has kept the Bambara pagan, though (dwelling between the
Upper Senegal and the Upper Niger) they have been hemmed
in by a Muhammadan population for centuries.
An unsuccessful attempt to convert the Bambara was
made by a marabout, named 'Umaru Kaba, early in the
twentieth century. This man had founded a new religious
confraternity, connected with the Qadiriyyah, and having
failed to attract his co-religionists to it, he turned his
attention to the pagan Bambara, and endeavoured to con-
vert them to Islam and enrol them in his order. He seemed
to be on the road to success and had already converted a
pagan village in the province of Sansanding, when the chief
of the province drove the missionary across the frontier
and ordered the newly-converted Bambara to return to
their old religious observances. ^
Where intermarriages with such races as Arabs and
Berbers have been frequent, a steady process of infiltration
has gone on, and this, added to the propagandist activities
of those races — Fulbe, Hausa and Mandingo — who have
distinguished themselves for their zeal on behalf of their
religion, would have contributed to the more rapid growth
of a Muhammadan population, had it not been for the
internecine wars that caused one Muhammadan state to
work the destruction of another. Melle rose on the ruins
of Ghana in the thirteenth century, to be crushed at the
beginning of the sixteenth by Songhay, which in its turn
was desolated by the Moors a century later. As these
Muhammadan empires declined, with the wholesale mas-
sacres characteristic of warfare in the Sudan, fetishism
regained much of the ground it had lost; and as in the
^ Maurice Delafosse, p. 87.
Y
Christian, so in the Muhammadan world, there have been
periods when missionary zeal has sunk to a low ebb, and
Muhammadans in some parts of the Sudan have been content
to leave the paganism that surrounded them untouched by
any proselytising efforts.
In the fourteenth century the Tun jar Arabs, emigrating
south from Tunis, made their way through Bornu and Wadai
to Darfur ; others came in later from the east ; ^ one of
their number named Ahmad met with a kind reception from
the heathen king of Darfur, who took a fancy to him, made
him director of his household and consulted him on all
occasions. His experience of more civilised methods of
government enabled him to introduce a number of reforms
both into the economy of the king's household and the
government of the state. By judicious management, he is
said to have brought the unruly chieftains into subjection,
and by portioning out the land among the poorer inhabitants
to have put an end to the constant internal raids, thereby
introducing a feeling of security and contentment before
unknown. The king having no male heir gave Ahmad his
daughter in marriage and appointed him his successor, —
a choice that was ratified by the acclamation of the people,
and the Muhammadan dynasty thus instituted has con-
tinued down to the present century. The civilising influences
exercised by this chief and his descendants were doubtless
accompanied by some work of proselytism, but these Arab
immigrants seem to have done very little for the spread
of their religion among their heathen neighbours. Darfur
only definitely became Muhammadan through the efforts
of one of its kings named Sulayman who began to reign in
1596,2 and it was not until the sixteenth century that Islam
gained a footing in the other kingdoms lying between
Kordofan and Lake Chad, such as Wadai and Baghirmi.
The first Muhammadan king of Baghirmi was Sultan 'Abd
Allah, who reigned from 1568 to 1608, but the chief centre
of Muhammadan influence at this time was the kingdom
of Wadai, which was founded by 'Abd al-KarIm about A.D.
1612, and it was not until the latter part of the eighteenth
^ Becker : Geschichte des ostlichen Sudan, pp. 161-2.
* R. C. Slatin Pasha : Fire and Sword in the Sudan, pp. 38, 40-2.
(London, 1896.)
century that the mass of the people of Baghirmi were

converted to Islam. ^
But the history of the Muhammadan propaganda in
Africa during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries is
very slight and wholly insignificant when compared with the
remarkable revival of missionary activity during the present
century. Some powerful influence was needed to arouse
the dormant energies of the African Muslims, whose con-
dition during the eighteenth century seems to have been
almost one of religious indifference. Their spiritual awaken-
ing owed itself to the influence of the Wahhabi reformation
at the close of the eighteenth century ; whence it comes that
in modern times we meet with some accounts of proselytis-
ing movements among the Negroes that are not quite so
forbiddingly meagre as those just recounted, but present
us with ample details of the rise and progress of several
important missionary enterprises.
Towards the end of the eighteenth century, a remarkable
man, Shayldi 'Uthman Danfodio,^ arose from among the
Fulbe ^ as a religious reformer and warrior-missionary.
From the Sudan he made the pilgrimage to Mecca, whence
he returned full of zeal and enthusiasm for the reformation
and propagation of Islam. Influenced by the doctrines of
the Wahhabis, who were growing powerful at the time of
his visit to Mecca, he denounced the practice of prayers for
the dead and the honour paid to departed saints, and depre-
cated the excessive veneration of Muhammad himself; at
the same time he attacked the two prevailing sins of the
Sudan, drunkenness and immorality.
Up to that time the Fulbe had consisted of a number of
small scattered clans living a pastoral life ; they had earlj^'
embraced Islam, and hitherto had contented themselves
with forming colonies of shepherds and planters in different
parts of the Sudan. The accounts we have of them in the
early part of the eighteenth century, represent them to be
a peaceful and industrious people ; one ■* who visited their
1 Westermann, p. 628.
2 Oppel, p. 292. Meyer, pp. 36-7. Westermann, pp. 629-30.
^ Fulbe (sing. Pul) is the name by which these people call themselves;
upwards of a hundred variants are applied to them by their neighbours,
the commonest of which are Fulah and Fulani. (Meyer, p. 28.)
* Francis Moore, pp. 75-7.
settlements on the Gambia in 173 1 speaks of them thus :
" In every kingdom and country on each side of the river
are people of a tawny colour, called Pholeys (i.e. Fulbe),
who resemble the Arabs, whose language most of them
speak; for it is taught in their schools, and the Koran,
which is also their law, is in that language. They are more
generally learned in the Arabic, than the people of Europe
are in Latin ; for they can most of them speak it ; though
they have a vulgar tongue called Pholey. They live in
hordes or clans, build towns, and are not subject to any of
the kings of the country, tho' they live in their territories ;
for if they are used ill in one nation they break up their
towns and remove to another. They have chiefs of their
own, who rule with such moderation, that every act of
government seems rather an act of the people than of one
man. This form of government is easily administered,
because the people are of a good and quiet disposition, and
so well instructed in what is just and right, that a man who
does ill is the abomination of all. . . . They are very
industrious and frugal, and raise much more corn and cotton
than they consume, which they sell at reasonable rates, and
are so remarkable for their hospitality that the natives
esteem it a blessing to have a Pholey town in their neigh-
bourhood; besides, their behaviour has gained them such
reputation that it is esteemed infamous for any one to treat
them in an inhospitable manner. Though their humanity
extends to all, they are doubly kind to people of their own
race ; and if they know of any of their body being made a
slave, all the Pholeys will unite to redeem him. As they have
plenty of 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
them abuse one another ; yet this mildness does not proceed
from want of courage, for they are as brave as any people
of Africa, and are very expert in the use of their arms, which
are the assagay, short cutlasses, bows and arrows and even
guns upon occasion. . . . They are strict Mahometans;
and scarcely any of them will drink brandy, or anything
stronger than water."
Danfodio united into one powerful organisation these
separate communities, scattered throughout the various

Hausa states. The first outbreak occurred in the year 1802,
in the still pagan kingdom of Gober, which had gained
ascendancy over the northernmost of the Hausa states;
the attempt of the king of Gober to check the growing power
of the Fulbe in his dominions caused Danfodio to raise the
standard of revolt ; he soon found himself at the head of a
powerful army, which attacked not only the pagan tribes,
forcing upon them the faith of the Prophet, but also the
Muhammadan Hausa states. These fell one after another
and the whole of Hausaland came under the rule of Danfodio
before his death in 1816. His grave in Sokoto is still an
object of reverence to large numbers of pilgrims. He divided
his kingdom among his two sons, who still further extended
the boundary of Fulbe rule; Adamaua, founded in 1837 on
the ruins of several pagan kingdoms, marks the limit of
their conquests to the south-east ; and the city of Ilorin, in
the Yoruba country, founded in the lifetime of Danfodio,
was the bulwark of the Pul empire to the south-west. With
varying fortunes the dominant power remained throughout
the nineteenth century in the hands of the Fulbe, who showed
themselves cruel and fanatical propagandists of Islam, until
British administration was established in Nigeria in 1900.
The introduction of law and order into Southern Nigeria
has favoured the propaganda of Islam as in other parts of
Africa that have come under European rule. The Hausa
Muslims, some of whom belong to the Tijaniyyah order,
have been able to move freely about the country and to
penetrate among pagan tribes which had hitherto kept all
Muhammadan influences rigidly at bay. In the Yoruba
country particularly Islam is said to be rapidly gaining
ground. There is a legend of an unsuccessful attempt made
by a Muslim missionary as early as the eleventh or twelfth
century; he was a Hausa who came to Ife, the rehgious
capital of the pagan Yoruba country, and used to call the
people together and read them passages from the Qur'an ;
he could only speak the Yoruba language imperfectly, and
with a foreign accent he would repeat to his listeners, " Let
us worship Allah : He created the mountain. He created the
lowland, He created everything, He created us." He did
this from time to time without succeeding in winning a

single convert, and died a few months after his arrival in
Ife. After his death his Qur'an was found hanging on a
peg in the wall of his room, and it came to be worshipped as
a fetish. 1 Where this early apostle of the faith failed, his
modern co-rehgionists have achieved a remarkable success.
During the period of anarchy before the British occupation,
the Muslims were for the most part congregated in large,
walled towns, but under the new conditions of security
they are able to reside permanently in villages, and near
the scenes of their agricultural labours, and Muhammadan
influences have thus become more widely extended over the
country. As in German East Africa, the presence of
Muhammadans among the native troops has been found to
be favourable to the extension of their faith, and the pagan
recruits often adopt Islam in order to escape ridicule and
gain in self-respect. 2 In the Ijebu country also, in Southern
Nigeria, a quite recent propagandist movement has been
observed ; Islam was only introduced into this part of the
country in 1893, and in 1908 there was one town with
twenty, and another with twelve mosques.^ This rapid
spread of the Muslim faith is particularly noticeable along
the banks of the river Niger in Southern Nigeria ; a Christian
missionary reports : " When I came out in 1898 there were
few Mohammedans to be seen below Iddah.* Now they
are everywhere, excepting below Abo, and at the present
rate of progress there will scarcely be a heathen village on
the river-banks by 1910." ^
There has thus been much missionary work done for
Islam in this part of Africa by men who have never taken
up the sword to further their end, — the conversion of the
heathen. Such have been the members of some of the great
Muhammadan religious orders, which form such a prominent
feature of the rehgious life of Northern Africa. Their efforts
have achieved great results during the nineteenth century,
^ R. E. Dennett : Nigerian Studies, pp. 12, 75. (London, 1910.)

- Islam and Missions, pp. 71-3. The Moslem World, pp. 296-7, 351.
•' Church Missionary Review (igo8), p. 640.
* A
Nigeria.town on the Niger, just south of the northern boundary of Southern
* Church Missionary Society Intelligencer (1902), p. 353.
and though doubtless much of their work has never been
recorded, still we have accounts of some of the movements
initiated by them.
Of these one of the earliest owed its inception to
Si Ahmad b. Idrls.i who enjoyed a wide reputation as
a religious teacher in Mecca from 1797 to 1833, and
was the spiritual chief of the Khadriyyah ; before his
death in 1835 he sent one of his disciples, by name
Muhammad 'Uthman al-AmIr Ghani. on a proselytising
expedition into Africa. Crossing the Red Sea to Kossayr,
he made his way inland to the Nile ; here, among a Muslim
population, his efforts were mainly confined to enrolling
members of the order to which he belonged, but in his
journey up the river he did not meet with much success
until he reached Aswan ; from this point up to Dongola, his
journey became quite a triumphant progress ; the Nubians
hastened to join his order, and the royal pomp with which
he was surrounded produced an impressive effect on this
people, and at the same time the fame of his miracles
attracted to him large numbers of followers. At Dongola
Muhammad 'Uthman left the valley of the Nile to go to
Kordofan, where he made a long stay, and it was here
that his missionary work among unbelievers began. Many
tribes in this country and about Sennaar were still pagan,
and among these the preaching of Muhammad 'Uthman
achieved a very remarkable success, and he sought to make
his influence permanent by contracting several marriages,
the issue of which, after his death in 1853, carried on the
work of the order he founded — called after his name the
Amlrghaniyyah.^
A few years before this missionary tour of Muhammad
'Uthman, the troops of Muhammad 'AH, the founder of the
present dynasty of Egypt, had begun to extend their
conquests into 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 would
assist in the pacification of the country, to carry on a
propaganda in this newly-acquired territory, where they
laboured with so much success, that the recent insurrection
^ Rinn, pp. 403-4. * Le Chatelier (i), pp. 231-3.
in the Sudan under the Mahdi has been attributed to the
rehgious fervour their preaching excited. ^
In the West of Africa two orders have been especially
instrumental in the spread of Islam, the Qadiriyyah and
the Tijaniyyah. The former, the most widespread of the
rehgious orders of Islam, was founded in the twelfth century
by 'Abd al-Qadir al-Jilanl, said to be the most popular and
most universally revered of all the saints of Islam, ^ — and
was introduced into Western Africa in the fifteenth century,
by emigrants from Tuat, one of the oases in the western
half of the Sahara; they made Walata the first centre of
their organisation, but later on their descendants were driven
away from this town, and took refuge in Timbuktu, further
to the east. In the beginning of the nineteenth century
the great spiritual revival that was so profoundly influencing
the Muhammadan world, stirred up the Qadiriyyah of the
Sahara and the Western Sudan to renewed life and energy,
and before long, learned theologians or small colonies of
persons afhhated to the order were to be found scattered
throughout the Western Sudan from the Senegal to the
mouth of the Niger. The chief centres of their missionary
organisation are in Kanka, Timbo (Futah-Jallon) and
Musardu (in the Mandingo country). ^ These initiates
formed centres of Islamic influence in the midst of a
pagan population, among whom they received a welcome
as pubhc scribes, legists, writers of amulets, and school-
masters : gradually they would acquire influence over
their new surroundings, and isolated cases of conversion
would soon grow into a httle band of converts, the most
promising of whom would often be sent to complete their
studies at the chief centres of the order, or even to the schools
of Kairwan or Tripoh, or to the universities of Fez and
al-Azhar in Cairo.* Here they might remain for several
years, until they had perfected their theological studies, and
would then return to their native place, fully equipped for
the work of spreading the faith among their fellow-country-
men. In this way a leaven has been introduced into the
midst of fetish- worshippers and idolaters, which has gradually
1 Le Chatelier {2), pp. 89-91. 2 Rinn, p. 175.
^ Bonet-Maury, p. 239. ■* Id. p. 230.
spread the faith of Islam surely and steadily, though by
almost imperceptible degrees. Up to the middle of the
nineteenth century most of the schools in the Sudan were
founded and conducted by teachers trained under the
auspices of the Qadiriyyah and their organisation provided
for a regular and continuous system of propaganda among
the heathen tribes. The missionary work of this order
has been entirely of a peaceful character, and has relied
wholly on personal example and precept, on the influence
of the teacher over his pupils, and on the spread of educa-
tion. ^ In this way the Qadiriyyah missionaries of the Sudan
have shown themselves true to the principles of their
founder and the universal tradition of their order. For the
guiding principles that governed the life of 'Abd al-Qadir
were love of his neighbour and toleration : though kings
and men of wealth showered their gifts upon him, his
boundless charity kept him always poor, and in none of his
books or precepts are to be found any expressions of ill-wiU
or enmity towards the Christians ; whenever he spoke of
the people of the Book, it was only to express his sorrow for
their religious errors, and to pray that God might enlighten
them. This tolerant attitude he bequeathed as a legacy
to his disciples, and it has been a striking characteristic of
his followers in all ages, 2
The Tijaniyyah, belonging to an order founded in Algiers
towards the end of the eighteenth century, have, since their
establishment in the Sudan about the middle of the nine-
teenth century, pursued the same missionary methods as the
Qadiriyyah, and their numerous schools have contributed
largely to the propagation of the faith; but, unlike the
former, they have not refrained from appealing to the sword
to assist in the furtherance of their scheme of conversion,
and, unfortunately for a true estimate of the missionary
work of Islam in Western Africa, the fame of their Jihads
or religious wars has thrown into the shade the successes of
the peaceful propagandist, though the labours of the latter
have been more effectual towards the spread of Islam than
the creation of petty, short-lived dynasties. The records
of campaigns, especially when they have interfered with the
^ Le Chatelier (2), pp. 100-9. * Rinn, p. 174.
commercial projects or schemes of conquest of the white
men, have naturally attracted the attention of Europeans
more than the unobtrusive labours of the Muhammadan
preacher and schoolmaster. But the history of such move-
ments possesses this importance, that — as has often hap-
pened in the case of Christian missions also — conquest has
opened out new fields for missionary activity, and forcibly
impressed on the minds of the faithful the existence of
large tracts of country whose inhabitants still remained
unconverted.
The first of these militant propagandist movements on the
part of the members of the Tijaniyyah order owes its
inception to al-Hajj 'Umar, who had been initiated into this
order by a leader of the sect whose acquaintance he made in
Mecca. He was born in 1797, near Podor on the Lower Senegal,
and appears to have been a man of considerable endowments
and personal influence, and of a commanding presence. He
was the son of a marabout and received a careful religious
education ; he was already famed for his learning and piety
when he set out on the pilgrimage to Mecca in 1827. He
did not return to his own country until 1833, when he com-
menced an active propaganda of the teaching of the Tija-
niyyah order, fiercely attacking his co-religionists for their
ignorance and their lukewarmness, especially the adepts of
the Qadiriyyah order, whose toleration particularly excited
his wrath. He traversed the Central Sudan, winning many
adherents and receiving honour as a new prophet, until
about 1841 he reached Futah-Jallon, where he armed his
followers and commenced a series of proselytising expeditions
against those tribes that still remained pagan about the
Upper Niger and the Senegal. It was in one of these expedi-
tions that he met his death in 1865. His son, Ahmadu
Shaykhu. succeeded in holding together the various provinces
of his father's kingdom for a few years only ; internal con-
flicts and the advance of the French broke up the Tija-
niyyah empire, and their territories passed under the rule
of France.^
Some mention has already been made of the introduction
of Islam into this part of Africa. The seed planted here
^ Oppel, pp. 292-3. Blyden, p. lo. Le Chatelier (3), p. 167 sqq.
by 'Abd Allah b. Yasln and his companions, was fructified

by continual contact with Muhammadan merchants and
teachers, and with the Arabs of the oasis of al-Hawd and
others, A traveller of the fifteenth century tells how the
Arabs strove to teach the Negro chiefs the law of Muhammad,
pointing out how shameful a thing it was for them, being
chiefs, to live without any of God's laws, and to do as the
base folk did who lived without any law at all. From which
it would appear that these early missionaries took advantage
of the imposing character of the Muslim religion and con-
stitution toimpress the minds of these uncivilised savages.^
We have ampler details of a more recent movement of the
same kind, which had been set on foot in the south of Sene-
gambia by a Mandingo, named Samudu, commonly known
by the name Samory, a pagan soldier of fortune born about
1846, who became a Muhammadan early in the course of his
career and founded an empire, south of Senegambia, in the
country watered by the upper basin of the Niger and its
tributaries. An Arabic account of the career of Samory,
written by a native chronicler, gives us some interesting
details of his achievements. It begins as follows : " This
is an account of the Jihad of the Imam Ahmadu Samudu, a
Mandingo. . . . God conferred upon him His help con-
tinually after he began the work of visiting the idolatrous
pagans, who dwell between the sea and the country of
Wasulu, 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 Imam Samudu was a town
named Fulindiyah. Following the Book and the Law
and the Traditions, he sent messengers to the king at
that town, Sindidu by name, inviting him to submit to
his government, abandon the worship of idols and worship
one God, the Exalted, the True, whose service is profit-
able to His people in this world and in the next ; but
they refused to submit. Then he 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 hundred men, brave and
1 Delle Navigationi di Messer Alvise da Ca da Mosto. (a.d. 1454.)
Ramusio, tome i. p. loi.
valiant, for the Jihad, and he fought against the town, and
the Lord helped him against them and gave him the victory
over them, and he pursued them with his horses until they
submitted. Nor will they return to their idolatry, for now
all their children are in schools being taught the Qur'an,
and a knowledge of religion and civilisation. Praise be to
God for this," ^ It is not possible here to trace the
course of his conquests, which were marked by whole-
sale massacres and devastation. ^ He reached the height
of his power about 1881, shortly after which he came
in conflict with the French, who took him prisoner in
1898 after a series of harassing campaigns. He died
in 1900. Though the effect of his conquests was the
destruction of large numbers of pagans who were massacred
by his ruthless armies, while others were terrified into
a nominal acceptance of Islam, he does not appear
to have put before him the same distinctly religious
aim as al-Hajj 'Umar did.^ He left to the Qadiriyyah
marabouts the task of propaganda, and they with their
accustomed traditions of toleration are said to have done
much to mitigate the savagery of his proceedings.* They
opened schools in the conquered towns, established there
the organisation of their order, and both instructed the new
converts and sought to win fresh ones.
With regard to these mihtant movements of Muham-
madan propagandism, it is important to notice that it is
not the military successes and territorial conquests that have
most contributed to the progress of Islam in these parts;
for it has been pointed out that, outside the limits of those
fragments of the empire of al-Hajj 'Umar that have defini-
tively remained in the hands of his successors, the forced
conversions that he made have quickly been forgotten, and
in spite of the momentary grandeur of his successes and
the enthusiasm of his armies, very few traces remain of
this armed propaganda. ^ The real importance of these
1 Blyden, pp. 357-60.
^ This has been set forth in detail by Le Chateher (3), p. 225 sqq.
^ Le Chateher (3), p. 237. " Samory n'intervint pas directement dans
la question religieuse." L. G. Binger arrived at the same conclusion, as
the result of personal acquaintance with Samory. (Le Peril de I'lslam,
p. 20.) (Paris, 1906.) * Le Chatelier (3), pp. 238-40.
* Le Chateher (2), p. 112. R. du M. M., vol. xii. p. 22.
movements in the missionary history of Islam in Western
Africa is the rehgious enthusiasm they stirred up, which
exhibited itself in a widespread missionary activity of a
purely peaceful character among the heathen populations.
These Jihads, rightly looked upon, are but incidents in the
modern Islamic revival and are by no means characteristic
of the forces and activities that have been really operative
in the promulgation of Islam in Africa : indeed, unless
followed up by distinctly missionary efforts they would
have proved almost wholly ineffectual in the creation of a
true Muslim community. In fact, the devastating wars and
cruel violence of conquerors such as al-Hajj 'Umar and
Samory and especially the emissaries of the Tijaniyyah have
caused the faith of Islam to be bitterly hated by the pagan
tribes of the Sudan in the countries watered by the Senegal
and the Niger. Hostility to the Muslim faith has almost
assumed with them the form of a national movement, but
still this Muhammadan propaganda has spread the faith of
the Prophet in many parts of Guinea and Senegambia, to
which the Fulbe ^ and merchants from the Hausa country
in their frequent trading expeditions have brought the
knowledge of their religion, and have succeeded during
the last and the present century in winning large numbers
of converts. Especially noteworthy is the activity of
those Qadiriyyah preachers and Muslim traders who have
won fresh converts to their faith since the French occupation
has brought peace to the country ; this peaceful penetration
has been facilitated in the French Sudan, as in other parts
of Africa that have recently come under the sway of Euro-
pean powers, by the consideration shown by French officials
to the educated classes, who are of course all Muham-
madans, and by the open contempt with which the
degraded habits and superstitions of the pagan fetish-
worshippers are regarded. ^
But the proselytising work of the order that is now to be
described has never in any way been connected with violence
or war and has employed in the service of religion only the
1 " The Fulanis are all fervent Mohammedans. Wherever there are
Fulanis there will be found a mosque." (Haywood, p. 200.)
2 Le ChateUer (3), pp. 231, 273, 303. Westermann, pp. 632-3.
arts of peace and persuasion. In 1837 a religious society
was founded by an Algerian jurisconsult, named Sidi
Muhammad b. 'All al-Saniisi, with the object of reforming
Islam and spreading the faith; before his death in 1859,
he had succeeded in establishing, by the sheer force of his
genius and without the shedding of blood, a theocratic state,
to which his followers render devoted allegiance and the
limits of which are every day being extended by his suc-
cessors.^ The members of this sect are bound by rigid rules
to carry out to the full the precepts of the Qur'an in accord-
ance with the most strictly monotheistic principles, whereby
worship is to be given to God alone, and prayers to saints
and pilgrimages to their tombs are absolutely interdicted.
They must abstain from coffee and tobacco, avoid all inter-
course with Jews or Christians, contribute a certain portion
of their income to the funds of the society, if they do not
give themselves up entirely to its service, and devote all
their energies to the advancement of Islam, resisting at the
same time any concessions to European influences. This
sect is spread over the whole of North Africa, having religious
houses scattered about the country from Egypt to Morocco,
and far into the interior, in the oases of the Sahara and the
Sudan. The centre of its organisation was in the oasis of
Jagâbub ^ in the Libyan desert between Egypt and Tripoli,
where every year hundreds of missionaries were trained and
sent out as preachers of Islam to all parts of northern
Africa. It is to the religious house in this village that all
the branch establishments (said to be 121 in number)
looked for counsel and instruction in all matters concern-
ing the management and extension of this vast theocracy,
which embraced in a marvellous organisation thousands
of persons of numerous races and nations, otherwise
separated from one another by vast differences of geographi-
cal situation and worldly interests. For the success that
has been achieved by the zealous and energetic emissaries
^ Muhammad b. 'Uthman al Hasha'ishi, p. 84 sqq.
* In 1895 Sidi al-Mahdi, the son and successor of Sidi Muhammad al-
Sanvisi, migrated to Kufra, as being more central than Jaghabub (Muham-
to the madregion
b. 'Uthman al-Hasha'ishi,
of Borku pp.where
and Tibesti, 111-15), but inlater
he died wentThefurther
1902. south
head of the
order in 1908 was Sidi Ahmad, a relative of the founder. (J. C. E. Falls :
Drei Jahre in der Libyschen Wiiste, p. 274.) (Freiburg, 191 1.)
of this association is enormous; convents of the order are
to be found not only all over the north of Africa from Egypt
to Morocco, throughout the Sudan, in Senegambia and
Somaliland, but members of the order are to be found also
in Arabia, Mesopotamia and the islands of the Malay Archi-
pelago.^ Though primarily a movement of reform in the
midst of Islam itself, the Saniisiyyah sect is also actively
proselytising, and several African tribes that were previously
pagan or merely nominally Muslim, have since the advent
of the emissaries of this sect in their midst, become zealous
adherents of the faith of the Prophet. Thus, for example,
the SaniJsi missionaries laboured to convert that portion
of the Baele (a tribe inhabiting the hill country of Ennedi,
E. of Borku) which was still heathen, and communicated
their own religious zeal to such other sections of the tribe
as had only a very superficial knowledge of Islam, and were
Muhammadan only in name ; ^ the Tedas of Tu or Tibesti,
in the Sahara, S. of Fezzan, who were likewise Muham-
madans only in name when the Saniisiyyah came among
them, also bear witness to the success of their efforts.^
The missionaries of this sect also carry on an active propa-
ganda in the Galla country and fresh workers are sent
thither every year from Harar, where the Saniisiyyah are
very strong and include among their numbers all the chiefs
in the court of the Amir almost without exception.* In the
furtherance of their proselytising efforts these missionaries
open schools, form settlements in the oases of the desert,
and — noticeably in the case of the Wadai — they have gained
large accessions to their numbers by the purchase of slaves,
who have been educated at Jaghabiib and when deemed
sufficiently well instructed in the tenets of the sect, enfranch-
ised and then sent back to their native country to convert
their brethren,^ It would appear, however, that the in-
fluence ofthis order is now on the decline.^
1 Riedel (i), pp. 7, 59, 162.
* G. Nachtigal : Sahara und Sudan, vol. ii. p. 175. (Berlin, 1879-81.)
* Duveyrier, p. 45. * Paulitschke, p. 214.
^ H. Duveyrier : La Confrerie musulmane de Sidi Mohammed Ben 'All
Es-Senousi, passim. (Paris, 1886.) Louis Rinn : Marabouts et Khouans,
pp. 481-513. N. Slousch : Les Senoussiya en Tripolitaine. (R. duM. M.,
vol. i. p. 169 sqq.). For a bibliography of the Sanusiyyah movement, see
Der Islam, iii. pp. 141-2, 312.
* R. du M. M., vol. i. p. 181 ; vol. viii. pp. 64-5.
Slight as these records are of the missionary labours of the
Muslims among the pagan tribes of the Sudan, they are of
importance in view of the general dearth of information
regarding the spread of Islam in this part of Africa. But
while documentary evidence is wanting, the Muhammadan
communities dwelling in the midst of fetish-worshippers
and idolaters, as representatives of a higher faith and civilisa-
tion, are a living testimony to the proselytising labours
of the Muhammadan missionaries, and (especially on the
south-western borderland of Islamic influence) present a
striking contrast to the pagan tribes demoralised by the
European gin traffic. This contrast has been well indicated
by a modern traveller,^ in speaking of the degraded con-
dition of the tribes of the Lower Niger : "In steaming up
the river (i. e. the Niger), I saw little in the first 200 miles
to alter my views, for there luxuriated in congenial union
fetishism, cannibalism and the gin trade. But as I left
behind me the low-lying coast region, and found myself
near the southern boundary of what is called the Central
Sudan, I observed an ever-increasing improvement in the
appearance of the character of the native; cannibalism
disappeared, fetishism followed in its wake, the gin trade
largely disappeared, while on the other hand, clothes
became more voluminous and decent, cleanliness the rule,
while their outward more dignified bearing still further
betokened a moral regeneration. Everything indicated a
leavening of some higher element, an element that was
clearly taking a deep hold on the negro nature and making
him a new man. That element you will perhaps be
surprised to learn is Mahommedanism. On passing Lokoja
at the confluence of the Benue with the Niger, I left behind
me the missionary outposts of Islam, and entering the
Central Sudan, I found myself in a comparatively well-
governed empire, teeming with a busy populace of keen
traders, expert manufacturers of cloth, brass work and
leather; a people, in fact, who have made enormous
advances towards civilisation."
In order to form a just estimate of the missionary activity
of Islam in Nigritia, it must be borne in mind that, while on
^ Joseph Thomson (2), p. 185.
the coast and along the southern boundary of the sphere
of Islamic influence, the Muhammadan missionary is the
pioneer of his religion, there is still left behind him a vast
field for Muslim propaganda in the inland countries that
stretch away to the north and the east, though it is long
since Islam took firm root in this soil. Some sections of the
Funj, the predominant Negro race of Sennaar, are partly
Muhammadan and partly heathen, and Muhammadan
merchants from Nubia are attempting the conversion of
the latter.^
The pagan tribe of the Jukun,^ whose once powerful
kingdom disappeared before the victorious development of
the Fulbe, has withstood the advancing influence of Muham-
madanism, though the foreign minister of their king has
always been a Muslim and colonies of Hausas and other
Muhammadans have settled among them ; but these Muslim
settlers do not succeed in making any converts from among
the Jukun, whose traditions of their past greatness make
them cling to the national faith whose spiritual headship is
vested in their king.^
It would be easy also to enumerate many sections of the
population of the Sudan and Senegambia, that still retain
their heathen habits and beliefs, or cover these only with
a slight veneer of Muhammadan observance even though
they have been (in most cases) surrounded for centuries by
the followers of the Prophet. The Konnohs, an offshoot of
the great tribe of the Mandingos, are still largely pagan,
and it is only in recent years that Islam has been making
progress among them.* Consequently, the remarkable zeal
for missionary work that has displayed itself among the
Muhammadans of these parts during the present century,
has not far to go in order to find abundant scope for its
activity. Hence the importance, in the missionary history
of Islam in this continent, of the movements of reform in
the Muslim rehgion itself and the revivals of religious life,
to which attention has been drawn above.
The West Coast is another field for Muhammadan mis-
^ Oppel, p. 303. * In the Muri Province of Northern Nigeria.

* Journal of the African Society, vol. vii. pp. 379-81.
* Haywood, p. 33.
Z
sionary enterprise where Islam finds itself confronted
with a vast population still unconverted, in spite of the
progress it has made on the Guinea Coast, in Sierra
Leone and Liberia, in which last there are more Muham-
madans than heathen. One of the earliest notices of
Muslim missionary activity in the neighbourhood of
Sierra Leone is to be found in a petition for the dis-
solution of the Sierra Leone Company, ordered to be
printed by the House of Commons, on the 25th May,
1802. " Not more than seventy years ago, a small num-
ber of Mahomedans established themselves in a country
about forty miles to the northward of Sierra Leone, called
from them the Mandingo Country. As is the practice
of the professors of that religion they formed schools, in
which the Arabic language and the doctrines of Mahomet
were taught, and the customs of Mahomedans, particularly
that of not selling any of their own rehgion as slaves, were
adopted. Laws founded on the Koran were introduced.
Those practices which chiefly contribute to depopulate the
coast were eradicated, and in spite of many intestine con-
vulsions, a great comparative degree of civilisation, union
and security were introduced. Population, in consequence,
rapidly increased and the whole power of that part of the
country in which they are settled has gradually fallen into
their hands. Those who have been taught in their schools
are succeeding to wealth and power in the neighbouring
countries, and carry with them a considerable portion of their
religion and laws. Other chiefs are adopting the name
assumed by these Mahomedans, on account of the respect
which attends it ; and the religion of Islam seems likely to
diffuse itself peaceably over the whole district in which the
colony is situated, carrying with it those advantages which
seem ever to have attended its victory over Negro super-
stition." 1 In the Mendi country, about one hundred miles
south of Sierra Leone, Islam appears to have found an
entrance only in the present century, but to be now making
steady progress. " The propagandism is not conducted by
any special order of priests set apart for the purpose, but
^ Claude George : The Rise of British West Africa, pp. 120-1. (London,
1902.)
every Musalman is an active missionary. Some half a dozen
of them, more or less, meeting in a town, where they intend
to reside for any length of time, soon run up a mosque and
begin work. They first approach the chief of the town and
obtain his consent to their intended act, and perhaps his
promise to become an adherent. They teach him their
prayers in Arabic, or as much as he can, or cares to, commit
to memory. They put him through the forms and cere-
monies used in praying, forbid him the use of alcoholic
beverages — a restriction as often observed as not — and lo !
the man is a convert." ^ On the Guinea Coast, Muslim
influences are spread chiefly by Hausa traders who are to be
found in all the commercial towns on this coast ; whenever
they form a settlement, they at once build a mosque and
by their devout behaviour, and their superior culture, they
impress the heathen inhabitants; whole tribes of fetish-
worshippers pass over to Islam as the result of their imita-
tion of what they recognise to be a higher civilisation than
their own, without any particular efforts being necessary for
persuading them.^
In Ashanti there was a nucleus of a Muhammadan popula-
tion to be found as early as 1750 and the missionaries of
Islam have laboured there ever since with slow but sure
success,^ as they find a ready welcome in the country and
have gained for themselves considerable influence at the
court ; by means of their schools they get a hold on the
minds of the younger generation, and there are said to be
significant signs that Islam will become the predominant
religion in Ashanti, as already many of the chiefs have
adopted it.^ In Dahomey and the Gold Coast, Islam is daily
making fresh progress, and even when the heathen chieftains
do not themselves embrace it, they very frequently allow
themselves to come under the influence of its missionaries,
who know how to take advantage of this ascendancy in their
labours among the common people.^ Dahomey and Ashanti
are the most important kingdoms in this part of the
^ Islam and Missions, pp. 73-4.
* Lippert : Uber die Bedeutung der Haussanation fiir unsere Togo- und
Kamerunkolonie, p. 200. MSOS, Band x. {1907), Abteilung III.
» Waltz ; II" Theil, p. 250.
* C. S. Salmon, p. 891. * Pierre Bouche, p. 256,
continent that are still subject to pagan rulers, and their
conversion is said to be a question of a short time only.^
In Lagos there are well-nigh 10,000 Muslims, and all the
trading stations of the West Coast include in their popula-
tions numbers of Musalmans belonging to the superior Negro
tribes, such as the Fulbe, the Mandingos and the Hausa.
When these men come down to the cities of the coast, as
they do in considerable numbers, either as traders or to
serve as troops in the armies of the European powers, they
cannot fail to impress by their bold and independent bearing
the Negro of the coast-land; he sees that the believers in
the Qur'an are everywhere respected by European governors,
officials and merchants ; they are not so far removed from
him in race, appearance, dress or manners as to make
admission into their brotherhood impossible to him, and to
him too is offered a share in their privileges on condition
of conversion to their faith. ^ As soon as the pagan Negro,
however obscure or degraded, shows himself willing to accept
the teachings of the Prophet, he is at once admitted as an
equal into their society, and admission into the brotherhood
of Islam is not a privilege grudgingly granted, but one freely
offered by zealous and eager proselytisers. For, from the
mouth of the Senegal to Lagos, over two thousand miles,
there is said to be hardly any town of importance on the
seaboard in which there is not at least one mosque, with
active propagandists of Islam, often working side by side
with the teachers of Christianity,^
We must now turn to the history of the spread of
Islam on the other side of the continent of Africa, the
inhabitants of which were in closer proximity to the
land where this faith had its birth. The facts recorded
respecting the early settlements of the Arabs on the
East Coast are very meagre ; according to an Arabic
chronicle which the Portuguese found in Kiloa * when
that town was sacked by Don Francisco d'Alme'ida in 1505,
the first settlers were a body of Arabs who were driven into
exile because they followed the heretical teachings of a
1 Blyden, p. 357. * C. S. Salmon, p. 887.

* Blyden, p. 202. Westermann, pp. 633-4.
* Situated on an island about 2" S. of Zanzibar.
certain Zayd,^ a descendant of the Prophet, after whom they

were called Emozaydij (probably Suj^jj i«t or people of
Zayd). The Zayd here referred to is probably Zayd b. 'AH,
a grandson of Husayn and so great-grandson of 'Ali, the
nephew of Muhammad : in the reign of the caliph Hisham
he claimed to be the Imam Mahdi and stirred up a revolt
among the Shi'ah faction, but was defeated and put to death
in A.H. 122 (a.d. 740).^
They seem to have lived in considerable dread of the
original pagan inhabitants of the country, but succeeded
gradually in extending their settlements along the coast,
until the arrival of another band of fugitives who came from
the Arabian side of the Persian Gulf, not far from the island
of Bahrayn. These came in three ships under the leadership
of seven brothers, in order to escape from the persecution
of the king of Lasah,^ a city hard by the dwelling-place of
their tribe. The first town they built was Magadaxo,*
which afterwards rose to such power as to assume lordship
over all the Arabs of the coast. But the original settlers,
the Emozaydij, belonging as they did to a different Muham-
madan sect, being Shi'ahs, while the new-comers were Sunnis,
were unwilling to submit to the authority of the rulers of
Magadaxo, and retired into the interior, where they became
merged into the native population, intermarrying with
them and adopting their manners and customs.^
Magadaxo was founded about the middle of the tenth
century and remained the most powerful city on this coast
for more than seventy years, when the arrival of another
expedition from the Persian Gulf led to the estabhshment
of a rival settlement further south. The leader of this
expedition was named 'Ali, one of the seven sons of a
certain Sultan Hasan of Shiraz : because his mother was
an Abyssinian, he was looked down upon with contempt
by his brothers, whose cruel treatment of him after the
death of their father, determined him to leave his native
^ " Hum Mouro chamado Zaide, que foi neto de Hocem filho de Ale o
sobrinho de Mahamed." (De Barros, Dec. i. Liv. viii. cap. iv. p. 211.)
* Ibn Khaldun. vol. iii. pp. 98-100.
3 Possibly a mistake for al-Hasa. See Ibn Batiitah, tome ii. pp. 247-8,
* Or (to give it its Arabic name) Maqdishu.
5 J. de Barros : Dec. i. Liv, viii. cap. iv. pp. 211-12,
land and seek a home elsewhere. Accordingly, with his
wife and children and a small body of followers, he set sail
from the island of Ormuz, and avoiding Magadaxo, whose
inhabitants belonged to a different sect, 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 free from
the interference of his predecessors further north. ^
In this way a number of Arab towns sprang up along the
east coast from the Gulf of Aden to the Tropic of Capricorn,
on the fringe of what was called by the mediaeval Arab
geographers the country of the Zanj. Whatever efforts
may have been made by the Muhammadan settlers to
convert the Zanj, no record of them seems to have survived.
There is a curious story preserved in an old collection of
travels written probably in the early part of the tenth
century, which represents Islam as having been introduced
among one of these tribes by the king of it himself. An
Arab trading vessel was driven out of its course by a tempest
in the year a.d. 922 and carried to the country of the man-
eating Zanj, where the crew expected certain death. On the
contrary, the king of the place received them kindly and
entertained them hospitably for several months, while they
disposed of their merchandise on advantageous terms ; but
the merchants repaid his kindness with foul treachery, by
seizing him and his attendants when they came on board
to bid them farewell, and then carrying them off as slaves to
Omam. Some years later the same merchants were driven
by a storm to the same port, where they were recognised
by the natives who surrounded them in their canoes ; giving
themselves up for lost this time, they repeated for one
another the prayers for the dead. They were taken before
the king, whom they discovered to their surprise and con-
fusion to be the same they had so shamefully treated some
years before. Instead, however, of taking vengeance upon
them for their treacherous conduct, he spared their lives
and allowed them to sell their goods, but rejected with scorn
the rich presents they offered. Before they left, one of the
^ De Barros, id. pp. 224-5. See also Justus Strandes : Die Portugiesen-
zeit von Deutsch- und Englisch-Ostafrika, p. 81 sqq. (Berlin, 1899.)
party ventured to ask the king to tell the story of his escape.
He described how he had been taken as a slave to Basrah
and thence to Bagdad, where he was converted to Islam
and instructed in the faith; escaping from his master, he
joined a caravan of pilgrims going to Mecca, and after
performing the prescribed rites, reached Cairo and made his
way up the Nile in the direction of his own country, which
he reached at length after encountering many dangers and
having been more than once enslaved. Restored once again
to his kingdom, he taught his people the faith of Islam;
" and now I rejoice in that God hath given to me and to my
people the knowledge of Islam and the true faith; to no
other in the land of the Zanj hath this grace been vouch-
safed; and it is because you have been the cause of my
conversion, that I pardon you. Tell the Muslims that they
may come to our country, and that we — Muslims hke
themselves — will treat them as brothers." ^
From the same source we learn that even at this early
period, this coast-land was frequented by large numbers of
Arab traders, yet in spite of centuries of intercourse with
the followers of Islam, the original inhabitants of this coast
(with the exception of the Somalis) have been remarkably
httle influenced by this religion. Even before the Portu-
guese conquests of the sixteenth century, what few con-
versions had been made, seem to have been wholly confined
to the sea-border, and even after the decline of Portuguese
influence in this part of the world, and the restoration of
Arab rule under the Sayyids of Omam, hardly any efforts
were made until the twentieth century to spread the know-
ledge of Islam among the tribes of the interior, with the
exception of the Galla and Somali. As a modern traveller
has said : " During the three expeditions which I conducted
in East Central Africa I saw nothing to suggest Moham-
medanism as a civilising power. Whatever Hving force
might be in the rehgion remained latent. The Arabs, or
their descendants, in these parts were not propagandists.
There were no missionaries to preach Islam, and the natives
of Muscat were content that their slaves should conform, to
1 Kitab 'aja'ib al-Hind ou Livre des Merveilles de I'lnde, public par

P. A. van der Lith. pp. 51-60. (Leiden, 1883.)
344 TH£ PREACHING OF ISLAM
a certain extent, to the forms of the reHgion. They left
the East African tribes, who indeed, in their gross darkness,
were evidently content to remain in happy ignorance. Their
inaptitude for civilisation was strikingly shown in the strange
fact that five hundred years of contact with semi-civilised
people had left them without the faintest reflection of the
higher traits which characterised their neighbours — not a
single good seed during all these years had struck root and
flourished." ^ Given up wholly to the pursuits of com-
merce or to slave-hunting, the Arabs in Eastern Africa ex-
hibited alukewarmness in promoting the interests of their
faith, which is in striking contrast to the missionary zeal
displayed by their co-religionists in other parts of Africa.
A notable exception is the propagandist activity of the
Arab traders who were admitted into Uganda in the first
half of the nineteenth century; they probably recognised
that the sturdy independence of the Baganda made slave-
raiding among them impossible, so they sought to gain their
confidence by winning them over to their own faith. Many
of the Baganda became Muhammadans during the reign of
King Mutesa, but Stanley's visit to this monarch in 1875
led to the introduction of Christian missions in the following
year, and the power of the Muhammadans in the state
declined with the rapid increase in the numbers of the
Christian converts and the estabhshment of a British
Protectorate. 2 But a number of Muhammadans still hold
important positions in Uganda, and it is stated that there
is a possibihty of the Eastern Province becoming Muslim,
In the rich tributary country of Busoga, to the north of
Uganda, a large number of those in authority were said,
in 1906, to be Muhammadans.^ But with this exception
Islam in East Equatorial Africa was up to the latter part
of the nineteenth century confined to the coast-lands and
the immediately adjoining country. The explanation would
appear to be that it was not to the interests of the
1 Mohammedanism in Central Africa, by Joseph Thomson, p. 877.
^ Roscoe, p. 229 sq.
3 Zwemer, p. 236. Gairdner (p. 26) gives the number of Muhammadans
as 200,000 out of a population of four millions, but he does not state from
what source he derives these figures. Roscoe (p. 6) gives the total popula-
tion of Uganda as about one million only,
slave-dealers to spread Islam among the heathen tribes from

among whom they obtained their unhappy victims ; for, once
converted to Islam, the native tribes would enter into the
brotherhood of the faith and could not be raided and carried
off as slaves.^
The suppression of the slave-trade, with the extension of
European rule over East Equatorial Africa, was followed
by a remarkable expansion of Muslim missionary activity;
peace and order were established in the interior, railways
and high roads were made, and the peaceful Muslim trader
could now make his way into districts hitherto closed to
him. The administration selected its officials from among
the more cultivated Muhammadan section of the popula-
tion; thousands of posts were created by the govern-
ment of German East Africa and given to Muhammadan
officials, whose influence was used to bring over whole
villages to Islam. ^ The teachers of the state schools were
likewise Muhammadans, and as early as the last decades of
the nineteenth century Swahili schoolmasters were observed
to be carrying on a lively and successful mission work among
the people of Bondei and the Wadigo (who dwell a little
inland from the coast) in German East Africa.^ But it was
in the beginning of the twentieth century, especially after
the suppression of the insurrection of 1905 in German East
Africa, that the activity of this new missionary movement
became strikingly noticeable in the interior.* This move-
ment of expansion has especially followed the railroads
and the great trade routes, and has spread right across
German East Africa to its western boundary on Lake
Tanganyika, northward from Usambara to the Kilimanjaro
district, and southward to Lake Nyasa.^ The workers in
this propaganda are merchants, especially Swahilis from the
coast, soldiers and government officials.^ The acceptance
of Islam is looked upon as a sign of an elevation to a higher
civilisation and social status, and the ridicule with which
the pagans are regarded by the Muhammadans is said often
1 Richter, pp. 146-7, 154. Merensky, p. 156. Klamroth, p. 4.
^ R. du M. M., vol. ix. (1909), p. 322.
' Oscar Baumann : Usambara und seine Nachbargebiete, pp. 141, 153.
(Berlin, 1891.) * Becker, Islam in Deutsch-Ostafrika, p. jo,
6 Id. p. 13 sqq. Klamrpth, pp, 14-28. « Id. p. 53,
to be a determining factor in their conversion. ^ An instance

of the operation of this feeHng may be taken from West
Usambara, which was said in 1891 to be still closed to Islam ;
the feeling of both chiefs and people was hostile to the
Muhammadans, who were hated and feared as slave-dealers ;
but when the days of the slave-trade were over and an
ordered administration was established, the first native
officials appointed were almost entirely Muhammadans ;
they impressed upon the chiefs and other notables who came
in touch with them that it was the correct thing for those
who moved in official circles to be Muhammadans, and
thereby achieved the conversion of some of the greater
chiefs, who afterwards exercised a similar influence on chiefs
of an inferior degree. ^ There seems to be little evidence of
the activity of professional missionaries or of any of the
religious orders, but there are not wanting evidences of
systematic efforts, such as those of a Muslim teacher, who
is reported to have regularly visited a district in the Kili-
manjaro country every week for five months, preaching the
faith of Islam ; his ministrations were welcomed by the
people, whom he entertained with feasts of rice, etc.^ In
this zealous propaganda it is noticeable that the preachers of
Islam do not confine their attention to pagans only, but seek
also to win converts from among the native Christians.*
Islam made its way into Nyasaland also from the East
Coast, having been introduced by the slave-raiding Arabs
and their allies the Yaos, whose ancestors came from near
the East Coast where they had long since accepted Islam.
It is said that an Arab is now seldom seen in Nyasaland, but
the Yaos constitute one of the most powerful native tribes
in Nyasaland, and look upon Islam as their national faith.
Though there appears to be no organised propaganda, Islam
has spread very rapidly during the first decade of the
twentieth century, and that among some of the most
intelligent tribes in the country.^
Islam has achieved a similar success among the Galla and
the Somali. Mention has already been made of the Galla
^ Klamroth, pp. 21, 25, 54. ^ Id. pp. 23-4.
^ Id. p. 26. * Id. p. 67.
* Becker: Islam in Deutsch-Ostafrika, p. 14. The Moslem World,
vol. ii. p. 3 sqq.
settlements in Abyssinia ; these immigrants, who are divided

into seven principal clans, with the generic name of WoUo-
Galla, were probably all heathen at the time of their incur-
sion into the country,^ and a large part of them remain
so to the present day. After settling in Abyssinia they
soon became naturalised there, and in many instances
adopted the language, manners and customs of the original
inhabitants of the country.^
The story of their conversion is obscure : while some of
them are said to have been forcibly baptised into the
Christian faith, the absence of any political power in the
hands of the Muhammadans precludes the possibiUty of
any converts to Islam having been made in a similar fashion.
In the eighteenth century, those in the south were said to
be mostly Muhammadans, those to the east and west chiefly
pagans.^ More recent information points to a further
increase in the number of the followers of the Prophet, and
in 1867 Munzinger prophesied that in a short time all the
Galla tribes would be Muhammadan,* and as they were said
to be " very fanatical," we may presume that they were by
no means half-hearted or lukewarm in their adherence to
this religion.^
The Galla freedman whom Doughty met at Khaybar
certainly exhibited a remarkable degree of zeal for his own
faith. He had been carried off from his home when a
child and sold as a slave in Jiddah ; when Doughty asked
him whether no anger was left in his heart against those
who had stolen him and sold his life to servitude in the ends
of the earth, " Yet one thing," he answered, " has recom-
pensed me, — that I remained not in ignorance with the
heathen !— Oh, the wonderful providence of Ullah ! whereby
1 A contemporary Ethiopic account of these tribes, — Geschichte der
Galla. Bericht eines abessinischen Monches iiber die Invasion der Galla
in sechzehnten Jahrhundert. Text und Ubersetzung hrsg. von A. W.
Schleichler (Berlin, 1893), — seems certainly to represent them as heathen,
though no detailed account is given of their rehgion. Reclus (tome x.
p. 330), however, supposes them to have been Muhammadan at the time of
their invasion.
2 Henry Salt : A Voyage to Abyssinia, p. 299. (London. 1814.)
* James Bruce : Travels to discover the source of the Nile, 2nd ed. vol, iii,
p. 243. (Edinburgh, 1805.)
* Munzinger, p. 408.
5 I. L. Krapf : Reisen in Ost- Africa, ausgefiihrt in den Jahren 1837-55,
vol. i. p. 106. (Kornthal, 1858.)
I am come to this country of the Apostle, and to the know-

ledge of the religion ! " ^ " Oh ! what sweetness is there
in believing ! Trust me, dear comrade, it is a thing above
that which any heart may speak ; and would God thou wert
come to this (heavenly) knowledge ; but the Lord will surely
have a care of thee, that thou shouldst not perish without
the religion. Ay, how good a thing it were to see thee a
Moslem, and become one with us ; but I know that the time
is in God's hand : the Lord's will be done." ^
Among the Galla tribes of the true Galla country, the
population is partly Muhammadan (some tribes having
been converted about 1500) ^ and partly heathen, with
the exception of those tribes immediately bordering on
Abyssinia who in the latter part of the nineteenth
century were forced by the king of that country to
accept Christianity.* Among the mountains, the Muham-
madans are in a minority, but on the plains the
missionaries of Islam have met with striking success, and
their teaching found a rapidly increasing acceptance
during the last century. Antonio Cecchi, who visited the
petty kingdom of Limmu in 1878, gives an account of
the conversion of Abba Baghibo,^ the father of the then
reigning chieftain, by Muhammadans who for some years
had been pushing their proselytising efforts in this country
in the guise of traders. His example was followed by the
chiefs of the neighbouring Galla kingdoms and by the
officers of their courts ; part of the common people also were
won over to the new faith, and it continued to make progress
among them, but the greater part cling firmly to their
ancient cult.® These traders received a ready welcome at
the courts of the Galla chiefs, inasmuch as they found them
a market for the commercial products of the country and
imported objects of foreign manufacture in exchange. As
they made their journeys to the coast once a year only, or
1 Arabia Deserta, vol. ii. p. 168. ^ Id., vol. ii. p. 109.
^ Morie, vol. ii. p. 248.
* Reclus, tome. x. p. 309. Basset, pp. 270-1.
■' When the Roman Catholics opened a mission among the Gallas in
1846, Abba Baghibo said to them : " Had you come thirty years ago, not
only I, but all my countrymen might have embraced your religion; but
now it is impossible." (Massaja, vol. iv. p. 103.)
* Da Zeila alle frontiere del Caffa, vol, ii, p. 160. (Rome, 1886-7.)
Massaja, vol, iv. p. 103 ; vol, yi. p. 10,
even once in two years, and lived all the rest of the time in
the Galla country, they had plenty of opportunities, which
they knew well how to avail themselves of, for the work of
propagating Islam, and wherever they set their foot they
were sure in a short space of time to gain a large number of
proselytes > Islam here came in conflict with Christian
missionaries from Europe, whose efforts, though winning for
Christianity a few converts, have been crowned with very
little success, 2 — even the converts of Cardinal Massaja (after
he was expelled from these parts) either embraced Islam or
ended by believing neither in Christ nor in Allah,^ — whereas
the Muslim missionaries achieved a continuous success, and
pushed their way far to the south, and crossed the Wabi
river.* The majority of the Galla tribes dwelling in the
west of the Galla country were still heathen towards the end
of the nineteenth century, but among the most westerly of
them, viz. the Lega,^ the old nature worship appeared to
be on the decline and the growing influence of the Muslim
missionaries made it probable that within a few years the
Lega would all have entered into the pale of Islam.®
The North-East Africa of the present day presents indeed
the spectacle of a remarkably energetic and zealous mission-
ary activity on the part of the Muhammadans. Several
hundreds of missionaries come from Arabia every year, and
they have been even more successful in their labours among
the Somali than among the Galla.' The close proximity of
the Somali country to Arabia must have caused it very
early to have been the scene of Muhammadan missionary
labours, but of these unfortunately little record seems to
have survived. The people of Zayla' were said by Ibn
Hawqal ^ in the second half the ninth century to be
Christians, but in the first half of the fourteenth century
^ Massaja, vol. iv. p. 102.
^ Speaking of the failure of Christian missions, Cecchi says : " di cio si
deve ricercare la causa nello espandersi che fece quaggiu in questi ultimi
anni 1' islamismo, portato da centinaja di preti emercanti musulmani, cui
non facevano difetto i mezzi, 1' astuziae la plena conoscenza della lingua."
(Op. cit. vol. ii. p. 342.)
3 Id., p. 343.
* Reclus, tome xiii. p. 834.
^ The Lega are found in long. 9° to 9° 30' and lat. E. 34* 35' to 35°.
' Reclus, tome x. p. 350.
' Paulitschke, pp. 330-1. * Ibn Hawqal, p. 41.
Abu'1-Fida speaks of them as being Musalmans.^ The

new faith was probably brought across the sea by Arab
merchants or refugees. The Somahs of the north have
a tradition of a certain Arab of noble birth who, com-
pelled to flee his own country, crossed the sea to Adel,
where he preached the faith of Islam among their fore-
fathers,^ In the fifteenth century a band of forty-four
Arabs came as missionaries from Hadramawt, landing
at Berberah on the Red Sea, and thence dispersed
over the Somali country to preach Islam. One of them,
Shayldi Ibrahim Abu Zarbay, made his way to the city of
Harar about a.d. 1430, and gained many converts there, and
his tomb is still honoured in that city. A hill near Berberah
is still called the Mount of Saints in memory of these
missionaries, who are said to have sat there in solemn
conclave before scattering far and wide to the work of
conversion.^ Islam gradually became predominant through-
out the whole of North-East Africa, but the growing power
of the Emperor Menelik and his occupation of Harar in 1886
resulted in a certain number of conversions to Christianity.*
In order to complete this survey of Islam in Africa, it
remains only to draw attention to the fact that this religion
has also made its entrance into the extreme south of this
continent, viz. in Cape Colony. These Muhammadans of
the Cape are descendants of Malays, who were brought here
by the Dutch ^ either in the seventeenth or eighteenth
century; ^ they speak a corrupt form of the Boer dialect,
with a considerable admixture of Arabic, and some English
and Malay words. A curious little book published in this
^ Abu'l-Fida, tome ii. i^^ partie, pp. 231-2.
2 Documents sur I'histoire, la geographie et le commerce de I'Afrique
Orientale, recueillis par M. Guillain. Deuxifeme partie, tome i. p. 399-
(Paris, 1856.)
* R. F. Burton : First Footprints in East Africa, pp. 76, 404. (London,
1856.)
* R. du M. M., vi. p. 288. (1908.)
^ The Cape of Good Hope was in the possession of the Dutch from 1652
to 1795; restored to them after the Peace of Amiens in 1802, it was re-
occupied by the British as soon as war broke out again.
* Among these was Shaykh Yusuf, a reUgious teacher of great influence
in Java and the last champion of the independence of Bantam; in 1694
he was removed by the Dutch to Cape Colony as a prisoner of state, together
with his family and numerous attendants ; his tomb is still regarded as a
holy place. (G. M. Theal : History and Ethnography of Africa south of
the Zambesi, vol. ii. p. 263.) (London, 1909.)
dialect and written in Arabic characters was published in
Constantinople in 1877 by the Turkish minister of education,
to serve as a handbook of the principles of the Muslim
faith. ^ The thoroughly Dutch names that some of them
bear, and the type of face observable in many of them, point
to the probability that they have at some time received into
their community some persons of Dutch birth, or at least
that they have in their veins a considerable admixture of
Dutch blood. They have also gained some converts from
among the Hottentots. Very little notice has been taken
of them by European travellers,^ or even by their
co-religionists until recently. In 1819 Colebrooke had
drawn attention to the growth of Islam in some interesting
notes he wrote on the Cape Colony : " Mohammedanism
is said to be gaining ground among the slaves and free
people of colour at the Cape; that is to say, more
converts among negroes and blacks of every description
are made from Paganism to the Musleman, than to the
Christian religion, notwithstanding the zealous exertions
of pious missionaries. One cause of this perversion is
asserted to be a marked disinclination of slave owners to
allow their slaves to be baptized ; arising from some erron-
eous notions or over-charged apprehensions of the rights
which a baptized slave acquires. Slaves are certainly
impressed with the idea that such a disinclination subsists,
and it is not an unfrequent answer of a slave, when asked
his motives for turning Musleman, that * some religion he
must have, and he is not allowed to turn Christian.' Pre-
judices in this respect are wearing away; and less dis-
couragement isnow given to the conversion of slaves than
heretofore. Masters, it is affirmed, begin to find that their
slaves serve not the worse for instruction received in religious
duties. Missionaries who devote themselves especially to
the religious instruction of slaves (and there is one in each
of the principal towns) have increasing congregations, and
hope that their labours are not unfruitful. But the
^ M. J. de Goeje : Mohammedaansche Propaganda, pp. 2, 6. (Overge-
drukt uit de Nederlandsche Spectator, No. 51, 1881.)
^ Attention was drawn to them in 181 4 by a Mr. Campbell. See William
Adams : The Modern Voyager and Traveller, vol. i. p. 93. (London,
1834-)
Musleman priest, with less exertion, has a greater flock." i

During the last fifty years the Muhammadans in Cape
Colony have been visited by some zealous co-religionists
from other countries, and more attention is now paid by
them to education, and a deeper religious life has been
stirred up among them, and theyare said to carry on a zealous
propaganda, especially among the coloured people at the
Cape and to achieve a certain success. ^ This proselytising
movement is especially strong in the western part of Cape
Colony. It is said that there is a movement on foot for the
founding of a college at Claremont, in the vicinity of Cape
Town, which shall become a centre for the propagation of
Islam. One of the methods at present employed is the
adoption of neglected or abandoned children, who are
brought up in the Muslim faith.^ Every year some of them
make the pilgrimage to Mecca, where a special Shayldi has
been appointed to look after them.* The Indian coolies
that come to work in the diamond fields of South Africa are
also said to be propagandists of Islam. ^
On account of its isolated position, 220 to 540 miles from
the mainland, the island of Madagascar calls for separate
mention. The only tribe that has adopted Islam is that of
the Antaimorona, occupying a part of the south-east coast ;
they undoubtedly owed their conversion to missionaries
from Arabia, but the date at which this change of faith took
place is entirely unknown; tradition would carry it back
to the very days of Muhammad himself, but it is not until
the sixteenth century that we get, in the works of Itahan
and Portuguese geographers, authentic mention of Muham-
madans on the island.^
From the historical sketch given above it may be seen
that peaceful methods have largely characterised the Muham-
madan missionary movement in Africa, and though Islam
1 SirT.E.Colebrooke: TheLifeof H.T.Colebrooke,p.335. (London, 1873.)
- F. Coillard : Au Cap de Bonne Esperance. (Journal des missions
evangeliques, avril 1899, p. 265.)
' Kumm, p. 233. * C. Snouck Hurgronje (3), vol. ii. pp. 296-7.
* Jacques tome
Chretienne, Bonzon : Les Missionaires de I'lslam en Afrique. (Revue
xiii. p. 295.) (Paris, 1893.)
® G. Ferrand, Les Musulmans ^ Madagascar, pp. 19, 50 sqq., 138. (Paris,
1891.) Id. Les Migrations musulmanes et juives a Madagascar. (Revue
de I'Histoire des Religions, vol. lii. p. 381 sqq.)
has often taken the sword as an instrument to further its
spiritual conquests, such an appeal to violence and bloodshed
has in most cases been preceded by the peaceful efforts of
the missionary, and the preacher has followed the conqueror
to complete the imperfect work of conversion. It is true
that the success of Islam has been very largely facilitated
in many parts of Africa by the worldly successes of Muham-
madan adventurers, and the erection of Muhammadan states
on the ruins of pagan kingdoms, and fire and bloodshed have
often marked the course of a Jihad, projected for the exter-
mination ofthe infidel. The words of the young Arab from
Bornu whom Captain Burton ^ met in the palace of the King
of Abeokuta doubtless express the aspirations of many an
African Muhammadan : " Give those guns and powder to
us, and we will soon Islamise these dogs " : and they find
an echo in the message that Mungo Park ^ gives us as having
been sent by the Muslim King of Futah Toro to his pagan
neighbour : " With this knife Abdulkader will condescend
to shave the head of Damel, if Damel will embrace the
Mahommedan faith ; and with this other knife Abdulkader
will cut the throat of Damel, if Damel refuses to embrace it ;
take your choice."
But much as Islam may have owed to the martial prowess
of such fanatics as these, there is the overwhelming testimony
of travellers and others to the peaceful missionary preaching,
and quiet and persistent labours of the Muslim propagandist,
which have done more for the rapid spread of Islam in
modern Africa than any violent measures : by the latter its
opponents may indeed have been exterminated, but by the
former chiefly, have its converts been made, and the work of
conversion may still be observed in progress in many regions
of the coast and the interior.^ Wherever Islam has made
its way, there is the Muhammadan missionary to be found
bearing witness to its doctrines, — the trader, be he Arab,
Pul or Mandingo, who combines proselytism with the sale of
his merchandise, and whose very profession brings him into
close and immediate contact with those he would convert,
1 Richard F. Burton (i), vol. i. p. 256.
2 Travels in the Interior of Africa, chap. xxv. ad fin.
^ D. J. East, pp. 118-20. W. Winwood Reade, vol. i. p. 312. Blyden,
pp. 13, 202.
A A
and disarms any possible suspicion of sinister motives;
such a man when he enters a pagan village soon attracts
attention by his frequent ablutions and regularly recurring
times of prayer and prostration, in which he appears to be
conversing with some invisible being, and by his very
assumption of intellectual and moral superiority, commands
the respect and confidence of the heathen people, to whom
at the same time he shows himself ready and willing to
communicate his high privileges and knowledge; — the haji
or pilgrim who has returned from Mecca full of enthusiasm
for the spread of the faith, to which he devotes his whole
energies, wandering about from place to place, supported
by the alms of the faithful who bear witness to the truth
in the midst of their pagan neighbours ;— the student who,
in consequence of his knowledge of Islamic theology and
law, receives honour as a man of learning : sometimes, too,
he practises medicine, or at least he is in great requisition as
a writer of charms, texts from the Qur'an, which are sewn
up in pieces of leather or cloth and tied on the arms, or
round the neck, and which he can turn to account as a means
of adding to the number of his converts : for instance, when
childless women or those who have lost their children in
infancy, apply for these charms, as a condition of success the
obligation is always imposed upon them of bringing up their
future children as Muhammadans.^ These religious teachers,
or marabouts, or aliifas as they are variously termed, are
held in the highest estimation. In some tribes of Western
Africa every village contains a lodge for their reception, and
they are treated with the utmost deference and respect :
in Darfur they hold the highest rank after those who fill the
offices of government : among the Mandingos they rank still
higher, and receive honour next to the king, the subordinate
chiefs being regarded as their inferiors in point of dignity :
in those states in which the Qur'an is made the rule of
government in all civil matters, their services are in great
demand, in order to interpret its meaning. So sacred are
the persons of these teachers esteemed, that they pass
without molestation through the countries of chiefs, not
^ Bishop Crowther on Islam in Western Africa. (Church Missionary
InteUigencer, p. 254, April 1888.)
only hostile to each other, but engaged in actual warfare.

Such deference is not only paid to them in Muhammadan
countries, but also in the pagan villages in which they
establish their schools, where the people respect them as the
instructors of their children, and look upon them as the
medium between themselves and Heaven, either for securing
a supply of their necessities, or for warding off or removing
calamities. 1 Many of these teachers have studied in the
mosques of Qayrwan, Fas, Tripoli ^ and other centres of
Muslim learning; but especially in the mosque of al-Azhar
in Cairo. Students flock to it from all parts of the Muslim
world, and among them is often to be found a contingent
from Negro Africa, — students from Darfur, Wadai and
Bornu, and some who even make their way on foot from
the far distant West Coast ; when they have finished their
courses of study in Muslim theology and jurisprudence,
there are many of them who become missionaries among
the heathen population of their native land. Schools are
established by these missionaries in the towns they visit,
which are frequented by the pagan as well as the Muslim
children. They are taught to read the Qur'an, and in-
structed inthe doctrines and ceremonies of Islam. Having
thus gained a footing, the Muhammadan missionary, by his
superior knowledge and attainments, is not slow to obtain
great influence over the people among whom he has come to
live. In this he is aided by the fact that his habits and
manner of life are similar in many respects to their own, nor
is he looked upon with suspicion, inasmuch as the trader
has already prepared the way for him ; and by intermarriage
with the natives, being thus received into their social system,
his influence becomes firmly rooted and permanent, and
so in the most natural manner he gradually causes the
knowledge of Islam to spread among them.
His propagandist efforts are further facilitated by the fact
that the deism which forms the background of the religious
consciousness of many fetish-worshippers may pass by an
easy transition into the theism of Islam, together with some
^ D. J. East, pp. 1 12-13. Blyden, p. 202.

2 It is said that over a thousand missionaries of Islam leave Tripoli every
year to work in the Sudan. (Paulitschke, p. 331.)
other aspects of their theology, while their general out-

look upon life and several of their religious institutions are
capable of taking on a Muslim colouring and of being trans-
ferred to the new system of faith without undergoing much
modification. 1
The arrival of the Muhammadan in a pagan country is
also the beginning of the opening up of a more extensive
trade, and of communication with great Muhammadan
trading centres such as Jenne, Segu or Kano, and a share
in the advantages of this material civilisation is offered,
together with the religion of the Prophet. Thus " among the
uncivilised negro tribes the missionary may be always sure
of a ready audience : he can not only give them many
truths regarding God and man which make their way to the
heart and elevate the intellect, but he can at once com-
municate the Shibboleth of admission to a social and political
communion, which is a passport for protection and assistance
from the Atlantic to the Wall of China. Wherever a Moslem
house can be found there the negro convert who can repeat
the dozen syllables of his creed, is sure of shelter, sustenance
and advice, and in his own country he finds himself at once
a member of an influential, if not of a dominant caste. This
seems the real secret of the success of the Moslem mission-
aries in West Africa. It is great and rapid as regards
numbers, for the simple reason that the Moslem missionary,
from the very first profession of the convert's belief, acts
practically on those principles regarding the equality and
brotherhood of all believers before God, which Islam shares
with Christianity ; and he does this, as a general rule, more
speedily and decidedly than the Christian missionary, who
generally feels bound to require good evidence of a converted
heart before he gives the right hand of Christian fellowship,
and who has always to contend with race prejudices not
likely to die out in a single generation where the white
Christian has for generations been known as master, and
the black heathen as slave." ^
It is important, too, to note that neither his colour nor
^ For a detailed examination of these points of contact, see Forget,
p. 28 sqq. Merensky, p. 155.
* Sir Bartle Frere (i), pp. 18-19.
his race in any way prejudice the Negro in the eyes of his
new co-rehgionists. The progress of Islam in Negritia has
no doubt been materially advanced by this absence of any
feeling of repulsion towards the Negro — indeed Islam seems
never to have treated the Negro as an inferior, as has been
unhappily too often the case in Christendom. ^
This consideration goes partly to explain the success of
Muslim as contrasted with Christian missions among the
Negro peoples. It has frequently been pointed out that the
Negro convert to Christianity is apt to feel that his European
co-religionists belong to a stratum of civilisation alien
to his own habits of life, whereas he feels himself to
be more at home in a Muslim society. This has been well
stated by a modern observer, in the following passage :—
" Islam, despite its shortcomings, does not, from the
Nigerian point of view, demand race suicide of the Nigerian
as an accompaniment of conversion. It does not stipulate
revolutionary changes in social life, impossible at the present
stage of Nigerian development ; nor does it undermine
family or communal authority. Between the converter and
converted there is no abyss. Both are equal, not in theory,
but in practice, before God. Both are African ; sons of the
soil. The doctrine of the brotherhood of man is carried out
in practice. Conversion does not mean for the converted
^ E. W. Blyden, pp. 18-24. E. AUegret, p. 200. Westermann, pp. 644-5.

In a very interesting, but now forgotten, debate before the Anthro-
pological Society of London, on the Efforts of Missionaries among Savages,
a case was mentioned of a Christian missionary in Africa who married a
negress : the feeling against him in consequence was so strong that he had
to leave the colony. The Muslim missionary labours under no such dis-
advantage. (Journal of the Anthropological Society of London, vol. iii.
1S65.)
The contrast between the way in which Christianity and Islam present
themselves to the African is well brought out by one who is himself a Negro,
in the following passage :— " Tandis que les missions renvoient a une
epoque indefinie I'etabhssement du pastorat indigene, les pretres musulmans
penetrent dans I'interieur de I'Afrique, trouvent un acces facile chez les
paiens et les convertissent k I'islam. De sorte qu'aujourd'hui les negres
regardent I'islam comme la religion des noirs, et le christianisme comme la
religion des blancs. Le christianisme, pensent-ils, appelle le negre au
salut, mais lui assigne une place tellement basse que, decourage, il se dit :
' Je n'ai ni part ni portion dans cette affaire.' L'islam appelle le negre au
salut et lui dit : ' II ne depend que de toi pour arriver aussi haut que
possible.' Alors, le negre enthousiasme se livre corps et ame au service
de cette religion." L'islam et le christianisme en Afrique d'apres un
Africain. (Journal des Missions Evangiliques. 63= annee, p. 207.)
(Paris, 1888.)
a break with his interests, his family, his social life, his
respect for the authority of his natural rulers. . . . No one
can fail to be impressed with the carriage, the dignity of the
Nigerian — indeed of the West African — Mohammedan ; the
whole bearing of the man suggests a consciousness of citizen-
ship, a pride of race which seems to say : ' We are different,
thou and I, but we are men.' The spread of Islam in
Southern Nigeria which we are witnessing to-day is mainly
social in its action. It brings to those with whom it comes
in contact a higher status, a loftier conception of man's
place in the universe around him, release from the thraldom
of a thousand superstitious fears." ^
According to Muhammadan tradition Moses was a black
man, as may be seen from the following passages in the
Qur'an. " Now draw thy hand close to thy side : it shall
come forth white, but unhurt :— another sign ! " (xx. 23).
" Then drew he forth his hand, and lo ! it was white to the
beholders. The nobles of Pharaoh's people said : ' Verily
this is an expert enchanter' " (vii. 105—6). The following
story also, handed down to us from the golden period of the
'Abbasid dynasty, is interesting as evidence of Muham-
madan feeling with regard to the Negro. Ibrahim, a brother
of Hariin al-Rashid and the son of a negress, had pro-
claimed himself Caliph at Bagdad, but was defeated and
forgiven by al-Ma'mun, who was then reigning (a.d. 819).
He thus describes his interview with the Caliph :— " Al-
Ma'miin said to me on my going to see him after having
obtained pardon : ' Is it thou who art the Negro khalifah ? '
to which I replied :— ' Commander of the faithful ! I am
he whom thou hast deigned to pardon ; and it has been said
by the slave of Banu'l-Hashas :— " When men extol their
worth, the slave of the family of Hashas can supply, by his
verses, the defect of birth and fortune." Though I be a
slave, my soul, through its noble nature, is free ; though my
body be dark, my mind is fair.' To this al-Ma'miin
replied : ' Uncle ! a jest of mine has put you in a serious
mood.' He then repeated these verses : ' Blackness of
skin cannot degrade an ingenious mind, or lessen the
1 E. D. Morel : Nigeria, its people and its problems, pp. 216-17.
(London, 191 1.)
worth of the scholar and the wit. Let darkness claim the
colour of your body : I claim as mine your fair and
candid soul.' " ^
Thus, the converted Negro at once takes an equal place
in the brotherhood of believers, neither his colour nor his
race nor any associations of the past standing in the way.
It is doubtless the ready admission they receive, that makes
the pagan Negroes willing to enter into a religious society
whose higher civilisation demands that they should give up
many of their old barbarous habits and customs ; at the
same time the very fact that the acceptance of Islam does
imply an advance in civilisation 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 which it
seeks to sweep away have little chance of making a length-
ened resistance. What the civilisation of Muslim Africa
imples to the Negro convert, is admirably expressed in the
following words : " The worst evils which, there is reason
to believe, prevailed at one time over the whole of Africa,
and which are still to be found in many parts of it, and
those, too, not far from the Gold Coast and from our own
settlements — cannibalism and human sacrifice and the
burial of living infants — disappear at once and for ever.
Natives who have hitherto lived in a state of nakedness, or
nearly so, begin to dress, and that neatly; natives who have
never washed before begin to wash, and that frequently;
for ablutions are commanded in the Sacred Law, and it is
an ordinance which does not involve too severe a strain on
their natural instincts. The tribal organisation tends to
give place to something which has a wider basis. In other
words, tribes coalesce into nations, and, with the increase
of energy and intelligence, nations into empires. Many
such instances could be adduced from the history of the
Soudan and the adjoining countries during the last hundred
years. If the warlike spirit is thus stimulated, the centres
from which war springs are fewer in number and further
apart. War is better organised, and is under some form of
1 Jbn Hiallikan, vol. i. p. i8,
restraint ; quarrels are not picked for nothing ; there is less
indiscriminate plundering and greater security for property
and life. Elementary schools/ like those described by
Mungo Park a century ago, spring up, and even if they only
teach their scholars to recite the Koran, they are worth
something in themselves, and may be a step to much more.
The well-built and neatly-kept mosque, with its call to
prayer repeated five times a day, its Mecca-pointing niche,
its Imam and its weekly service, becomes the centre of the
village, instead of the ghastly fetish or Juju house. The
worship of one God, omnipotent, omnipresent, omniscient,
and compassionate, is an immeasurable advance upon
anything which the native has been taught to worship before.
The Arabic language, in which the Mussulman scriptures
are always written, is a language of extraordinary copious-
ness and beauty; once learned it becomes a lingua franca
to the tribes of half the continent, and serves as an introduc-
tion to literature, or rather, it is a literature in itself. It
substitutes moreover, a written code of law for the arbitrary
caprice of a chieftain — a change which is, in itself, an
immense advance in civilisation. Manufactures and com-
merce spring up, not the dumb trading or the elementary
bartering of raw products which we know from Herodotus
to have existed from the earliest times in Africa, nor the
cowrie shells, or gunpowder, or tobacco, or rum, which still
serve as a chief medium of exchange all along the coast, but
manufactures involving considerable skill, and a commerce
^ " Extracts from the Koran form the earliest reading lessons of children,
and the commentaries and other works founded upon it furnish the principal
subjects of the advanced studies. Schools of different grades have existed
for centuries in various interior negro countries, and under the provision
of law, in which even the poor are educated at the public expense, and in
which the deserving are carried on many years through long courses of
regular instruction.
language, Nor ofisArabic
or to the works the system ' always
writers. confined
A number to the
of native Arabic
languages
have been reduced to writing, books have been translated from the Arabic
and original works have been written in them. Schools also have been kept
in which native languages are taught." Condition and Character of Negroes
in Africa. By Theodore Dwight. (Methodist Quarterly Review, January
1869.)
Dr. Blyden (pp. 206-7) mentions the following books as read by Muslims
in Western Africa : Maqamat of Hariri, portions of Aristotle and Plato
translated into Arabic, an Arabic version of Hippocrates, and the Arabic
New Testament and Psalms issued by the American Bible Society. For the
literature of the Mushms in East Africa, see Becker : Islam in Deutsch
Ostafrika, p. 18 sqq.
which is elaborately organised; and under their influence,

and that of the more settled government which Islam brings
in its train, there have arisen those great cities of Negro-
land whose very existence, when first they were described
by European travellers, could not but be half discredited.
I am far from saying that the religion is the sole cause of
all this comparative prosperity. I only say it is consistent
with it, and it encourages it. Climatic conditions and various
other influences co-operate towards the result ; but what
has Pagan Africa, even where the conditions are very
similar, to compare with it ? As regards the individual, it
is admitted on all hands that Islam gives to its new Negro
converts an energy, a dignity, a self-reliance, and a self-
respect which is all too rarely found in their Pagan or their
Christian fellow-countrymen." ^
The words above quoted were written before the partition
of the greater part of Africa among the governments of
Christian Europe — England, France and Germany — but
the imposing character of Muslim civilisation has not ceased
to impress the Negro mind, or to operate as one of the
influences favourable to the conversion of the African
fetish- worshippers. Brought suddenly into contact with
European culture, these have received an impulse to advance
in the path of civilisation, but being unable to bridge over
the gulf that separates them from their foreign rulers, they
find in Islam a culture corresponding to their needs and
capable of understanding their requirements and aspira-
tions.^ So far, therefore, from the extension of European
domination tending to hamper the activities of Muhammadan
propagandists, it has to a very remarkable degree con-
tributed towards the progress of Islam. The bringing of
peace to countries formerly harassed by wars of extermina-
tion or the raids of slave-hunters, the establishment of
ordered methods of government and administration, and
the increased facilities of communication by the making
of roads and the building of railways, have given a great
stimulus to trade and have enabled that active propagandist,
^ Mohammedanism in Africa, by R. Bosworth Smith. (The Nineteenth

Century, December 1887, pp. 798-800.)
2 Le ChateHer, (3), p. 348.
the Muslim trader, to extend his influence in districts
previously untrodden, and traverse familiar ground with
greater security. Further, the suppression of the slave-
trade has removed one of the great obstacles to the spread
of Islam in pagan Africa, because it was to the interest of the
Arab and other Muhammadan slave-dealers not to narrow
the field of their operations by admitting their possible
victims into the brotherhood of Islam. ^ Converts are now
won from pagan tribes which in the days of the slave-trade
were untouched by missionary effort. To this result the
European governments have contributed by employing
Muhammadans to fill the subordinate posts in the civil
administration (since among the Muhammadans alone were
educated persons to be found) and distributing them
throughout pagan districts, by emplo^dng Muhammadan
teachers in the Government schools, and by recruiting their
armies from among Muhammadan tribes; they have thus
added to the prestige of Islam in the eyes of the pagan
Africans — a circumstance that the Muslims have not been
slow to make use of, to the advantage of their own faith. ^
So little truth is there in the statement that Islam makes
progress only by force of arms,^ that on the contrary the
partition of Africa among the European powers, who have
wrested the sword from the hands of the Muslim chiefs
now under their control, has initiated a propaganda which
seems likely to succeed where centuries of Muhammadan
domination have failed.
^ Forget,
stand p. 95. der
ihr Vorteil, Merensky,
Gewinn, p.den
156.
die ("Unterdriickung
Den VertreternderdesEingebornen
Islam aber
bringt, hoher als die Aiisbreitung ihres Glaubens. Hatte man die Volker
Afrikas durch die Macht geistiger Waffen unter giatigem Entgegenkommen
zu Mohammedanern gemacht, so waren sie Glaubensgenossen, gleichberech-
tige Briider, die man nicht mehr berauben, zu_ Sklaven macfien, oder als
Sklaven nur Arbeit ausnutzen konnte.")
^ Westermann, p. 643. L. de Contenson, p. 244. Kumm, p. 122.
' Thus Merensky, discussing the failure of Islam to dominate the whole
of Africa after centuries of occupation says :— " Wir sehen die Ursache fiir
diese merkwiirdige Erscheinung in den Beziehungen, in denen bei den
Mohammedanern die aussere Gewalt zum Islam und zur Ausbreitung des
Islam steht. Beides steht und fallt miteinander, dringt miteinander vor
und geht miteinander auch wieder zuriick." (p. 156.)
CHAPTER XII.
THE SPREAD OF ISLAM IN THE MALAY ARCHIPELAGO.
The history of the Malay Archipelago during the last

600 years furnishes us with one of the most interesting
chapters in the story of the spread of Islam by missionary
efforts. During the whole of this period we find evidences
of a continuous activity on the part of the Muhammadan
missionaries, in one or other at least of the East India
islands. In every instance, in the beginning, their work
had to be carried on without any patronage or assistance
from the rulers of the country, but solely by the force of
persuasion, and in many cases in the face of severe opposi-
tion, especially on the part of the Spaniards. But in spite
of all difficulties, 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 or insufficient.
It is impossible to fix the precise date of the first intro-
duction of Islam into the Malay Archipelago. It may have
been carried thither by the Arab traders in the early
centuries of the Hi jrah, long before we have any historical
notices of such influences being at work. This supposition
is rendered the more probable by the knowledge we have
of the extensive commerce with the East carried on by the
Arabs from very early times. In the second century B.C.
the trade with Ceylon was wholly in their hands. At the
beginning of the seventh century of the Christian era, the
trade with China, through Ceylon, received a great impulse,
so that in the middle of the eighth century Arab traders
were to be found in great numbers in Canton ; while from
the tenth to the fifteenth century, until the arrival of the
Portuguese, they were undisputed masters of the trade with
363
the East.i We may therefore conjecture with tolerable

certainty that they must have established their commercial
settlements on some of the islands of the Malay Archipelago,
as they did elsewhere, at a very early period : though no
mention is made of these islands in the works of the Arab
geographers earlier than the ninth century, ^ yet in the
Chinese annals, under the date a.d. 674, an account is given
of an Arab chief, who from later notices is conjectured to
have been the head of an Arab settlement on the west
coast of Sumatra.^
Missionaries must also, however, have come to the Malay
Archipelago from the south of India, judging from certain
peculiarities of Muhammadan theology adopted by the
islanders. Most of the Musalmans of the Archipelago
belong to the Shafi'iyyah sect, which is at the present day
predominant on the Coromandel and Malabar coasts, as
was the case also about the middle of the fourteenth
century when Ibn Batiitah visited these parts.* So when
we consider that the Muhammadans of the neighbouring
countries belong to the Hanafiyyah sect, we can only explain
the prevalence of Shafi'iyyah teachings by assuming them to
have been brought thither from the Malabar coast, the
ports of which were frequented by merchants from Java,
as well as from China, Yaman and Persia.^ From India,
too, or from Persia, must have come the Shl'ism, of which
traces are still found in Java and Sumatra. From Ibn
Batiitah we learn that the Muhammadan Sultan of Samudra
had entered into friendly relations with the court of Dehli,
and among the learned doctors of the law whom this devout
prince especially favoured, there were two of Persian
origin, the one coming from Shiraz and the other from
Ispahan.^ But long before this time merchants from the
Deccan, through whose hands passed the trade between
the Musalman states of India and the Malay Archipelago,
had established themselves in large numbers in the trading
1 Niemann, p. 337.
* Reinaud : Geographic d'Aboulfeda, tome i. p. cccxxxix.
' Groeneveldt, pp. 14, 15.
* Ibn Batiitah, tome iv. pp. 66, 80.
® Veth (3), vol. i. p. 231. Ibn Batiitah, tome iv. p. 89.
« Ibn Batiitah, tome iv. pp. 230, 234.
ISLAM IN THE MALAY ARCHIPELAGO 365
ports of these islands, where they sowed the seed of the new
rehgion.i
It is to the proselytising efforts of these Arab and Indian
merchants that the native Muhammadan population, which
we find already in the earliest historical notices of Islam in
these parts, owes its existence. Settling in the centres of
commerce, they intermarried with the people of the land,
and these heathen wives and the slaves of their households
thus formed the nucleus of a Muslim community which its
members made every effort in their power to increase.
The following description of the methods adopted by these
merchant missionaries in the Philippine Islands, gives a
picture of what was no doubt the practice of many preced-
ing generations of Muhammadan traders :— " The better to
introduce their religion into the country, the Muhammadans
adopted the language and many of the customs of the
natives, married their women, purchased slaves in order to
increase their personal importance, and succeeded finally
in incorporating themselves among the chiefs who held
the foremost rank in the state. Since they worked together
with greater ability and harmony than the natives, they
gradually increased their power more and more, as having
numbers of slaves in their possession, they formed a kind
of confederacy among themselves and established a sort of
monarchy, which they made hereditary in one family.
Though such a confederacy gave them great power, yet
they felt the necessity of keeping on friendly terms with
the old aristocracy, and of ensuring their freedom to those
classes whose support they could not afford to dispense
with." 2 It must have been in some such way as this
that the different Muhammadan settlements in the Malay
Archipelago laid a firm political and social basis for their
proselytising efforts. They did not come as conquerors,
like the Spanish in the sixteenth century, or use the sword
as an instrument of conversion; nor did they arrogate to
themselves the privileges of a superior and dominant race
so as to degrade and oppress the original inhabitants, but
coming simply in the guise of traders they employed all
1 Snouck Hurgronje (i), pp. 8-9.
^ Padre Gainza, quoted by C. Semper, p. 67.
their superior intelligence and civilisation in the service of
their religion, rather than as a means towards their personal
aggrandisement and the amassing of wealth. ^ With this
general statement of the subsidiary means adopted by them,
let us follow in detail their proselytising efforts through
the various islands in turn.
Tradition represents Islam as having been introduced into
Sumatra from Arabia. But there is no sound historical
basis for such a belief, and all the evidence seems to point
to India as the source from which the people of Sumatra
derived their knowledge of the new faith. Active com-
mercial relations had existed for centuries between India
and the Malay Archipelago, and the first missionaries to
Sumatra were probably Indian traders. ^ There is, however,
no historical record of their labours, and the Malav chronicles
ascribe the honour of being the first missionary to Atjeh,
in the north-west of Sumatra, to an Arab named 'Abd
Allah 'Arif, who is said to have visited the island about
the middle of the twelfth century; one of his disciples,
Burhan al-Din, is said to have carried the knowledge of
the faith down the west coast as far as Priaman.^ Un-
trustworthy as this record is, it may yet possibly indicate
the existence of some proselytising activity about this
period ; for the Malay chronicle of Atjeh gives 1205 as
the date of the accession of Jiihan Shah, the traditionary
founder of the Muhammadan dynasty. He is said to have
been a stranger from the West,^ and to have come to these
shores to preach the faith of the Prophet ; he made many
proselytes, married a wife from among the people of the
country, and was hailed by them as their king, under the
half-Sanskrit, half- Arabic title of Sri Paduka Sultan. For
some time the new faith would in all probability have been
confined to the ports at which Muhammadan merchants
touched, and its progress inland would be slower, as here
^ Crawfurd (2), vol. ii. p. 265.
" Snouck Hurgronje : L' Arabic et les Indes Neerlandaises. (Revue de
I'Histoire des Religions, vol. Ivii. p. 69 sqq.)
^ De Hollander, vol. i. p. 581. Veth (i), p. 60.
* This vague reference would fit either Arabia, Persia or India; but if
such a person as Juhan Shah ever existed, he probably came from the
Coromandel or Malabar coast. (Chronique du Royaume d'Atcheh, traduite
du Malay par Ed. Dulaurier, p. 7.)
it would come up against the strong Hindu influences that

had their centre in the kingdom of Menangkabau.
Marco Polo, who spent five months on the north coast
of Sumatra in 1292, speaks of all the inhabitants being
idolaters, except in the petty kingdom of Parlak on the north-
east corner of the island, where, too, only the townspeople
were Muhammadans, for " this kingdom, you must know, is
so much frequented by the Saracen merchants that they have
converted the natives to the Law of Mahommet," but the
hill-people were all idolaters and cannibals.^ Further, one
of the Malay chronicles says that it was Sultan 'All Mugjiayat
Shah, who reigned over Atjeh from 1507 to 1522, who first
set the example of embracing Islam, in which he was
followed by his subjects. ^ But it is not improbable that
the honour of being the first Muslim ruler of the state has
been here attributed as an added glory to the monarch who
founded the greatness of Atjeh and began to extend its
sway over the neighbouring country, and that he rather
effected a revival of, or imparted a fresh impulse to, the
religious life of his subjects than gave to them their first
knowledge of the faith of the Prophet. For Islam had
certainly set firm foot in Sumatra long before his time.
According to the traditionary account of the city of
Samudra, the Sharif of Mecca sent a mission to convert the
people of Sumatra. The leader of the party was a certain
ShayMi Isma'il : the first place on the island at which they
touched, after leaving Malabar, was Pasuri (probably
situated a httle way down the west coast), the people of
which were persuaded by their preaching to embrace
Islam. They then proceeded northward to Lambri and
then coasted round to the other side of the island and sailed
as far down the east coast as Aru, nearl}^ opposite Malacca,
and in both of these places their efforts were crowned with
a like success. At Aru they made inquiries for Samudra,
a city on the north coast of the island, which seems to have
been the special object of their mission, and found that they
had passed it. Accordingly they retraced their course to
Parlak, where Marco Polo had found a Muhammadan
community a few years before, and having gained fresh
1 Marco Polo, vol. ii. p. 284. 2 Veth (i), p. 61.
converts here also, they went on to Samudra. This city
and the kingdom of the same name had lately been founded
by a certain Mara Silu, who was persuaded by Shaykh Isma'il
to embrace Islam, and took the name of al-Malik al-Salih.
He married the daughter of the king of Parlak, by whom he
had two sons, and in order to have a principality to leave :
to each, he founded the Muhammadan city and kingdom
of Pasei, also on the north coast. ^
The king, al-Malik al-âhir, whom Ibn Batiitah found
reigning in Samudra when he visited the island in 1345, was
probably the elder of these two sons. This prince displayed
all the state of Muhammadan royalty, and his dominions
extended for many days' journey along the coast ; he was
a zealous and orthodox Muslim, fond of holding discussions
with jurisconsults and theologians, and his court was
frequented by poets and men of learning. Ibn Batutah
gives us the names of two jurisconsults who had come thither
from Persia and also of a noble who had gone on an embassy
to Dehli on behalf of the king — which shows that Sumatra
was already in touch with several parts of the Muhammadan
world. Al-Malik al-iâhir was also a great general, and made
war on the heathen of the surrounding country until they
submitted to his rule and paid tribute. ^
Islam had undoubtedly by this time made great progress
in Sumatra, and after having established itself along the
coast, began to make its way inland. The mission of
Shaykh Isma'il and his party had borne fruit abundantly,
for a Chinese traveller who visited the island in 1413, speaks
of Lambri as having a population of 1000 families, all of
whom were MusHms " and very good people," while the
king and people of the kingdom of Aru were all of the same
faith. ^ It was either about the close of the same century
or in the fifteenth century, that the religion of the Prophet
found adherents in the great kingdom of Menangkabau,
whose territory at one time extended from one shore to
another, and over a great part of the island, north and south
of the equator.* Though its power had by this time much
^ Yule's Marco Polo, vol. ii. pp. 294, 303.
* Ibn Batutah, tome iv. pp. 230-6. ' Groeneveldt, p. 94.
* At the height of its power, it stretched from 2° N. to 2° S. on the west
coast, and from 1° N. to 2° S. on the east coast, but in the sixteenth century
it had lost its control over the east coast. (De Hollander, vol. i. p. 3.)
declined, still as an ancient stronghold of Hinduism it

presented great obstacles in the way of the progress of the
new religion. Despite this fact, Islam eventually took
firmer root among the subjects of this kingdom than among
the majority of the inhabitants of the interior of the island.^
It is very remarkable that this, the most central people of
the island, should have been more thoroughly converted
than the inhabitants of so many other districts that were
more accessible to foreign influences. To the present day
the inhabitants of the Batak country are still, for the
most part, heathen ; but Islam has gained a footing among
them, e. g. some living on the borders of Atjeh have been
converted, by their Muhammadan neighbours, 2 others
dwelling in the mountains of the Rau country on the
equator have likewise become Musalmans ; ^ on the east
coast also conversions of Bataks, who come much in contact
with Malays, are not uncommon.^
The fanatical Padris (p. 372) made strenuous efforts, in
vain, to force Islam upon the Bataks at the point of the
sword, lapng waste their country and putting many to
death; but these violent methods did not win converts.
When, however, the Dutch Government suppressed the
Padri rising and annexed the southern part of the Batak
country, Islam began to spread by peaceful means, chiefly
through the zealous efforts of the native subordinate
officials of the new regime, who were all Muhammadan
Malays,^ but also through the influence of the traders who
wandered through the country, whose proselytising activity
was followed up by the hajis and other recognised teachers
of the faith. It is a remarkable fact that the Bataks,
who for centuries had offered a pertinacious resistance to
the entrance of Islam into their midst, though they were
hemmed in between two fanatical Muhammadan populations,
the Achinese on the north and the Malays on the south,
have in recent years responded with enthusiasm to the
1 Marsden, p. 343. ^ J. H. Moor. (Appendix, p. i.)
' Marsden, p. 355.
* Godsdienstige verschijnselen en toestanden in Oost-Indie. (Uit de
Koloniale Verslagen van 1886 en 1887.) Med. Ned. Zendelinggen, vol.
xxxii. pp. 175-6. (1888.) In 1909, out of a total of 500,000 Bataks,
300,000 were still pagan, but 125,000 were Muslim and 80,000 Christian.
(R. du M. M., vol. viii. p. 183.)
* J. Warneck : Die Religion der Batak, p. 122. (Leipzig, 1909.)
B B
peaceful efforts made for their conversion. An explanation

would appear to be found in the breaking down of their
exclusive national characteristics through the Dutch occupa-
tion and the conquest opening up their country to foreign
influences, which implied the commencement of a new era
in their cultural development, as well as in the skilful
procedure of the exponents of the new faith, who knew how
to accommodate their teachings to the existing beliefs of
the Bataks and their deep-rooted superstitions. ^ A con-
siderable impulse seems to have been given to Mushm
propaganda by the establishment of Christian missions
among the Bataks in 1897, and they appear even to have
paved the way for its success. Two Batak villages, the
entire population of which had been baptised, are said to
have gone over in a body to Islam shortly afterwards.'-
In Central Sumatra there is still a large heathen popula-
tion, though the majority of the inhabitants are MusHms;
but these latter are very ignorant of their rehgion, with
the exception of a few hajis and religious teachers : even
among the people of Korintji, who are for the most part
zealous adherents of the faith, there are certain sections
of the population who still worship the gods of their pagan
ancestors.^ Efforts are, however, being made towards a
religious revival, and the Muslim missionaries are making
fresh conquests from among the heathen, especially along
the west coast. ^ In the district of Sipirok a rehgious
teacher attached to the mosque in the town of the same
name, in a quarter of a century, converted the whole
population of this district to Islam, with the exception of the
Christians who were to be found there, mostly descendants
of former slaves, ^ and a later missionary movement in the
first decade of the twentieth century succeeded in winning
over to Islam many of the Christians of this district, even
1 G. R. Simon : Die Propaganda des Halbmondes. Ein Beitrag zur

Skizzierung des Islam unter den Batakken, pp. 425, 429-430. (Allgemeine
Missions-Zeitschrift, vol. xxvii. 1900.)
2 R. du M. M., vol. viii. (1909), p. 183.
3 A. L. van Hassalt, pp. 55, 68.
* Med. Ned. Zendelinggen, id. p. 173. (Koloniaal Verslag van 191 r,
p. 26; 1912, p. 17.)
5 Uit het Koloniaal Verslag van 1889. (Med. Ned. Zendelinggen,
vol. xxxiv. p. 168.) (1890.)
some living in the centre of the sphere of influence of the
Christian mission.^
Islam is traditionally represented to have been introduced
into Palembang about 1440 by Raden Rahmat, of whose
propagandist activity an account will be given below
(p. 381). But Hindu influences appear to have been
firmly rooted here, and the progress of the new faith was
slow. Even up to the nineteenth century the Mushms of
Palembang were said to know little of their religion except
the external observances of it, with the exception of the
inhabitants of the capital who come into daily contact with
Arabs ; ^ but in the first decade of the twentieth century
there would appear to have been a revival of the religious
life and a growing propaganda, as the Colonial Reports of
the Dutch Government draw attention to the continual
spread of Islam among the heathen population of various
districts of Palembang. ^
It was from Java that Islam was first brought into the
Lampong districts which form the southern extremity of
Sumatra, by a chieftain of these districts, named Minak
Kamala Bumi. About the end of the fifteenth century
he crossed over the Strait of Sunda to the kingdom of
Bantam on the west coast of Java, which had accepted the
teachings of the Muslim missionaries a few years before the
date of his visit ; here he, too, embraced Islam, and after
making the pilgrimage to Mecca, spread the knowledge of
his newly adopted faith among his fellow-countrymen.^
This religion has made considerable progress among the
Lampongs, and most of the villages have mosques in them,
but the old superstitions still linger on in parts of the
interior.^
In the early part of the nineteenth century a religious
revival was set on foot in Sumatra, which was not without
its influence in promoting the further propagation of Islam.
In 1803 three Sumatran hajis returned from Mecca to their
native country : during their stay in the holy city they had
^ Koloniaal Verslag van 1910, p. 30.
^ De Hollander, vol. i. p. 703.
* Koloniaal Verslag van 1904, p. 80 ; 1905, p. 46 ; 1909, p, 47 ; 1910, p. 33 ;
1911, p. 29; 1912, p. 21.
* Canne, p. 510. Marsden, p. 301.
been profoundly influenced by the Wahhabi movement for
the reformation of Islam, and were now eager to introduce
the same reforms among their fellow-countrymen and to
stir up in them a purer and more zealous rehgious life.
Accordingly they began to preach the strict monotheism
of the Wahhabi sect, forbade prayers to saints, drinking and
gambling and all other practices contrary to the law of the
Qur'an. They made a number of prosel^^tes both from
among their co-religionists and the heathen population.
They later declared a Jihad against the Bataks, and in the
hands of unscrupulous and ambitious men the movement
lost its original character and degenerated into a savage and
bloody war of conquest. In 1821 these so-called Padris
came into conflict with the Dutch Government and it was
not until 1838 that their last stronghold was taken and
their power broken.^
All the civihsed Malays of the Malay Peninsula trace their
origin to migrations from Sumatra, especially from Menang-
kabau, the famous kingdom mentioned above, which is
said at one time to have been the most powerful on the
island ; some of the chiefs of the interior states of the southern
part of the Mala}^ Peninsula still receive their investiture
from this place. At what period these colonies from the
heart of Sumatra settled in the interior of the Peninsula,
is matter of conjecture, but Singapore and the southern
extremity of the Peninsula seem to have received a colony
in the middle of the twelfth century, by the descendants
of which Malacca was founded about a century later. ^
From its advantageous situation, in the highway of eastern
commerce it soon became a large and flourishing city, and
there is little doubt but that Islam was introduced by the
Muhammadan merchants who settled here.^ The Malay
chronicle of Malacca assigns the conversion of this kingdom
to the reign of a certain Sultan Muhammad Shah who came
to the throne in 1276. He is said to have been reigning
1 Niemann, pp. 356-9. ^ J. H. Moor, p. 255.

^ " Depois que estes de induzidos por os Mouros Parseos, e Guzarates
(que alii vieram residir por causa do commercio) , de Gentios os converteram
a secta de Mahamed. Da qual conversao por alii concorrerem varias
nagoes, come90u
(De Barros, laurar
Dec. ii. estacap.inferna
Liv. vi. peste pela virzinhan9a de Malaca."
i. p. 15.)
some years before a ship commanded by Sidi 'Abd al-'Aziz

came to Malacca from Jiddah, and the king was persuaded
by the new-comers to change his faith and to give up his
Malay name for one containing the name of the Prophet. ^
But the general character of this document makes its
trustworthiness exceedingly doubtful, ^ in spite of the
likelihood that the date of so important an event would
have been exactly noted (as was done in many parts of the
Archipelago) by a people who, proud of the event, would
look upon it as opening a new epoch in their history. A
Portuguese historian gives a much later date, namely 1384,
in which year, he says, a Qadi came from Arabia and having
converted the king, gave him the name of Muhammad
after the Prophet, adding Shah to it.^
In the annals of Queda, one of the northernmost of the
states of the Malay Peninsula, we have a curious account
of the introduction of Islam into this kingdom, about
A.D. 1501,* which (divested of certain miraculous incidents)
is as follows : A learned Arab, by name Shaykh 'Abd Allah,
having come to Queda, visited the Raja and inquired what
was the rehgion 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 from God to
Muhammad, and has superseded all other religions, leaving
them in the possession of the devil ? " "I pray you then,
if this be true," said the Raja, " to instruct and enlighten
us in this new faith." In a transport of holy fervour at
this request, ShayWi 'Abd Allah embraced the Raja and
then instructed him in the creed. Persuaded by his teach-
ing, the Raja sent for all his jars of spirits (to which he was
much addicted), and with his own hands emptied them on
the ground. After this he had all the idols of the palace
brought out ; the idols of gold, and silver, and clay, and
1 Aristide Marre : Malaka. Histoire des rois malays de Malaka. Traduit

et extrait du Livre des Annales malayses, intitule en arabe Selalet al
Selatyn, p. 8. (Paris, 1874.)
* Crawfurd (i), pp. 241-2. ' De Barros, Dec. iv. Liv. ii. cap. i.
* Barbosa, writing in 15 16, speaks of the numerous Muhammadan
merchants that frequented the port of Queda. (Ramusio, torn. i. p. 317.)
wood were all heaped up in his presence, and were all
broken and cut to pieces by Shaykh 'Abd Allah with his
sword and with an axe, and the fragments consumed in
the fire. The Shaykh asked the Raja to assemble all his
women of the fort and palace. When they had all come
into the presence of the Raja and the Shaykh. they were
initiated into the doctrines of Islam. The ShayMi was mild
and courteous in his demeanour, persuasive and soft in his
language, so that he gained the hearts of the inmates of the
palace. The Raja soon after sent for his four aged ministers,
who, on entering the hall, were surprised at seeing a Shaykh
seated near the Raja. The Raja explained to them the
object of the Shaykh's coming; whereupon the four chiefs
expressed their readiness to follow the example of his high-
ness, saying, " We hope that Shaykh 'Abd Allah will instruct
us also." The latter hearing these words, embraced the
four ministers 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 them all the idols that they
were wont to worship and the idols that had been handed
down by the men of former days. The request was
comphed with and all the idols kept by the people
were at that very time brought down and there destroyed
and burnt to dust ; no one was sorry at this demolition
of their false gods, all were glad to enter the pale of Islam.
Shaykh 'Abd Allah after this said to the four ministers,
" What is the name of your prince ? " They rephed, " His
name is Pra Ong Mahawangsa." " Let us change it for
one in the language of Islam," said the Shaykh. After
some consultation, the name of the Raja was changed at
his request to Sultan Muzlaf al-Shah, because, the Shaykh
averred, it is a celebrated name and is found in the Qur'an.^
The Raja now built mosques wherever the population
was considerable, and directed that to each there should be
attached forty-four of the inhabitants at least as a settled
congregation, for a smaller number would have been few for
the duties of religion. So mosques were erected and great
1 'J'he form \^j^ does not actually occur in the Qur'an ; reference is
probably made to some such passage as xxvi. 90 : ^^^âI^XJ A-^J 1 OsaJjI^
" And paradise shall be brought near the pious."
drums were attached to them to be beaten to call the people
to prayer on Fridays. ShayWi 'Abd Allah continued for
some time to instruct the people in the religion of Islam;
they flocked to him from all the coasts and districts of
Queda and its vicinity, and were initiated by him into its
forms and ceremonies.
The news of the conversion of the inhabitants of Queda
by Shaykh 'Abd Allah reached Atjeh, and the Sultan of
that country and a certain Shaykh Nur al-Din, an Arab
missionary, who had come from Mecca, sent some books
and a letter, which ran as follows :— " This letter is from
the Sultan of Atjeh and Niir al-Dln to our brother the
Sultan of Queda and Shaykh 'Abd Allah of Yaman, now in
Queda. We have sent two religious books, in order that
the faith of Islam may be firmly established and the people
fully instructed in their duties and in the rites of the faith."
A letter was sent in reply by the Raja and Shaykh 'Abd
Allah, thanking the donors. So Shaykh 'Abd Allah re-
doubled his efforts, and erected additional small mosques in
all the different villages for general convenience, and in-
structed the people in all the rules and observances of the
faith. The Raja and his wife were constantly with the
Shaykh. learning to read the Qur'an. The royal pair searched
also for some maiden of the lineage of the Rajas of the
country, to be the Shaykh's wife. But no one could be
found who was willing to give his daughter thus in marriage
because the holy man was about to return to Baghdad.
and only waited until he had sufficiently instructed some
person to supply his place. Now at this time the Sultan
had three sons. Raja Mu'azzam Shah, Raja Muhammad
Shah, and Raja Sulayman Shah. These names had been
borrowed from the Qur'an by Shaykh 'Abd Allah and
bestowed upon the princes, whom he exhorted to be
patient and slow to anger in their intercourse with their
slaves and the lower orders, and to regard with pity all
the servants of God, and the poor and needy. ^
It must not be supposed that the labours of Shaykh 'Abd
Allah were crowned with complete success, for we learn
1 A translation of the Keddah Annals, by Lieut. -Col. James Low, vol. in.
PP- 474-7-
from the annals of Atjeh that a Sultan of this country who
conquered Queda in 1649, ^^^ himself to " more firmly
establish the faith and destroy the houses of the Liar " or
temples of idols. ^ Thus a century and a half elapsed before
idolatry was completely rooted out.
We possess no other details of the history of the conversion
of the Malays of the Peninsula, but in many places the graves
of the Arab missionaries who first preached the faith to
them are honoured by these people. ^ Their long intercourse
with the Arabs and the Muslims of the east coast of India
has made them very rigid observers of their religious duties,
and they have the reputation of being the most exemplary
Muhammadans of the Archipelago ; at the same time their
constant contact with the Hindus, Buddhists, Christians
and pagans of their own country has made them liberal
and tolerant. They are very strict in the keeping of the
fast of Ramadan and in performing the pilgrimage to Mecca.
The religious interests of the people are always considered
at the same time as their temporal welfare ; and when a
village is found to contain more than forty houses and is
considered to be of a size that necessitates its organisation
and the appointment of the regular village officers, a public
preacher is always included among the number and a mosque
is formally built and instituted.^
In the north, where the Malay states border on Siam,
Islam has exercised considerable influence on the Siamese
Buddhists ; those who have here been converted are called
Samsams and speak a language that is a mixed jargon of
the languages of the two people.* Converts are also made
from among the wild tribes of the Peninsula.^
The history of the spread of Islam in Indo-China is
obscure ; Arab and Persian merchants probably introduced
their religion into the sea-port towns from the tenth
century onwards, but its most important expansion was
due to the immigrations of Malays which began at the close
of the fourteenth century.^
1 A translation of the Keddah Annals, by Lieut. -Col. James Low, vol. iii.
p. 480.
2 Newbold, vol. i. p. 252. ' McNair, pp. 226-9.
* J. H. Moor, p. 242. ® Newbold, vol. ii. pp. 106, 396.
^ R. du M. M., tome ii (1907), pp. 137-8.
ISLAM IN THE MALAY ARCHIPELAGO Z77
We must now go back several centuries in order to follow
out the history of the conversion of Java. The preaching
and promulgation of the doctrines of Islam in this island
were undoubtedly for a long time entirely the result of the
labours of individual merchants or of the leaders of small
colonies, for in Java there was no central Muhammadan
power to throw in its influence on the side of the new
religion or enforce the acceptance of it by warlike means.
On the contrary, the Muslim missionaries came in contact
with a Hindu civilisation, that had thrust its roots deep
into the life of the country and had raised the Javanese
to a high level of culture and progress — expressing itself
moreover in institutions and laws radically different to
those of Arabia. Even up to the present day, the Mu-
hammadan law has failed to establish itself absolutely,
even where the authority of Islam is generally predominant,
and there is still a constant struggle between the adherents
of the old Malayan usages and the Hajis, who having made
the pilgrimage to Mecca, return enthusiastic for a strict
observance of Muslim Law. Consequently the work of
conversion must have proceeded very slowly, and we can
say with tolerable certainty that while part of the history
of this proselytising movement may be disentangled from
legends and traditions, much of it must remain wholly
unknown to us. In the Malay Chronicle, which purports
to give us an account of the first preachers of the faith,
what was undoubtedly the work of many generations and
must have been carried on through many centuries, is
compressed within the compass of a few years; and, as
frequently happens in popular histories, a few well-known
names gain the fame and credit that belongs of right to the
patient labours of their unknown predecessors.^ Further,
the quiet, unobtrusive labours of many of these missionaries
would not be likely to attract the notice of the chronicler,
whose attention would naturally be fixed rather on the
doings of kings and princes, and of those who came in close
relationship to them. But failing such larger knowledge,
we must fain be content with the facts that have been,
handed down to us.
^ Snouck Hurgronje (i), p. 9.
In the following pages, therefore, it is proposed to give
a brief sketch of the establishment of the Muhammadan
religion in this island, as presented in the native chronicle,
which, though full of contradictions and fables, has un-
doubtedly ahistorical foundation, as is attested by the
inscriptions on the tombs of the chief personages mentioned
and the remains of ancient cities, etc. The following
account therefore may, in the want of any other authorities,
be accepted as substantially correct, with the caution above
mentioned against ascribing too much efficacy to the
proselytising efforts of individuals.
The first attempt to introduce Islam into Java was made
by a native of the island about the close of the twelfth
century. The first king 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, leaving the kingdom to his younger
brother, who succeeded to the throne in the year 1190 with
the title of Prabu Munding Sari. In the course of his
wanderings, the elder brother fell in with some Arab
merchants, and was by them converted to Islam, taking the
name of Haji Purwa.
On his return to his native country, he tried with the help
of an Arab missionary to convert his brother and the royal
family to his new faith ; but, his efforts proving unsuccessful,
he fled into the jungle for fear of the king and his unbelieving
subjects, and we hear no more of him.^
In the latter half of the fourteenth century, a missionary
movement, which was attended with greater success, was
instituted by a certain Mawlana Malik Ibrahim, who landed
on the east coast of Java with some of his co-religionists,
and established himself near the town of Gresik, opposite
the island of Madura. He is said to have traced his descent
to Zayn al-'Abidm, a great-grandson of the Prophet, and
to have been cousin of the Raja of Chermen.^ Here he
occupied himself successfully in the work of conversion, and
speedily gathered a small band of believers around him.
^ Veth (3), vol. i. p. 215. Raffles (ed. of 1830), vol. ii. pp. 103, 104, 183.
* The situation of Chermen is not certain. Veth (3), vol. i. p. 230,
conjectures that it may have been in India, but Rouflaer (p. 113") gives
good reasons for placing it in Sumatra.
Later on, he was joined by his cousin, the Raja of Chermen,
who came in the hope of converting the Raja of the Hindu
Kingdom of Majapahit, and of forming an alhance with him
by offering his daughter in marriage. On his arrival he
sent his son, Sadiq Muhammad, to Majapahit to arrange an
interview, while he busied himself in the building of a
mosque and the conversion of the inhabitants. A meeting
of the two princes took place accordingly, but before the
favourable impression then produced could be followed up,
a sickness broke out among the people of the Raja of Cher-
men, which carried off his daughter, three of his nephews
who had accompanied him, and a great part of his retinue ;
whereupon he himself returned to his own kingdom. These
misfortunes prejudiced the mind of the Raja of Majapahit
against the new faith, which he said should have better
protected its votaries : and the mission accordingly failed.
Mawlana Ibrahim, however, remained behind, in charge of
the tombs 1 of his kinsfolk and co-religionists, and himself
died twenty-one years later, in 1419, and was buried at
Gresik, where his tomb is still venerated as that of the first
apostle of Islam to Java.
A Chinese Musalman, who accompanied the envoy of the
Emperor of China to Java in the capacity of interpreter,
six years before the death of Mawlana Ibrahim, i. e. in 1413,
mentions the presence of his co-religionists in this island in
his " General Account of the Shores of the Ocean," where
he says, " In this country there are three kinds of people.
First the Muhammadans, who have come from the west,
and have established themselves here ; their dress and food
is clean and proper; second, the Chinese who have run
away and settled here ; what they eat and use is also very
fine, and many of them have adopted the Muhammadan
religion and observe its precepts. The third kind are the
natives, who are very ugly and uncouth, they go about
with uncombed heads and naked feet, and believe devoutly
in devils, theirs being one of the countries called devil-
countries in Buddhist books." ^
1 A description of the present condition of these tombs, on one of which
traces of an inscription in Arabic characters are still visible, is given by
J. F. G. Brumund, p. 185.
^ Groeneveldt, pp. vii. 49-50.
We now approach the period in which the rule of the

Muhammadans became predominant in the island, after
their religion had been introduced into it for nearly a
century ; and here it will be necessary to enter a httle more
closely into the details of the history in order to show that
this was not the result of any fanatical movement stirred
up by the Arabs, but rather of a revolution carried out by
the natives of the country themselves,^ who (though they
naturally gained strength from the bond of a common
faith) were stirred up to unite in order to wrest the supreme
power from the hands of their heathen fellow-countrymen,
not by the preaching of a religious war, but through the
exhortations of an ambitious aspirant to the throne who
had a wrong to avenge. ^
The poHtical condition of the island may be described as
follows :— The central and eastern provinces of the island,
which were the most wealthy and populous and the furthest
advanced in civilisation, were under the sway of the Hindu
kingdom of Majapahit. Further west were Cheribon and
several other petty, independent princedoms ; while the rest
of the island, including all the districts at its western
extremity, was subject to the King of Pajajaran.
The King of Majapahit had married a daughter of the
prince of Champa, a small state in Cambodia, east of the
Gulf of Siam.3 She being jealous of a favourite concubine
of the King, he sent this concubine away to his son Arya
Damar, governor of Palembang in Sumatra, where she gave
birth to a son, Raden Patah, who was brought up as one
of the governor's own children. This child (as we shall see)
was destined in after years to work a terrible vengeance
for the cruel treatment of his mother. Another daughter
of the prince of Champa had married an Arab who had
come to Champa to preach the faith of Islam.* From this
union was born Raden Rahmat, who was carefully brought
up by his father in the Muhammadan religion and is still
^ Kern, p. 21.
* Veth (3), vol. i. pp. 233-42. Raffles, vol. ii. pp. 113-33.
' Rouffaer, however, places this Champa, not in Cambodia, but on the
north coast of Atjeh and identifies it with the modern Djeumpa. (Encyclo-
paedie van N.-L, vol. iv. p. 206.)
* Remains of minarets and Muhammadan tombs are still to be found
in Champa, (Bastian, vol. i. pp. 498-9.)
venerated by the Javanese as the chief apostle of Islam to

their country.^
When he reached the age of twenty, his parents sent him
with letters and presents to his uncle, the King of Majapahit.
On his way, he stayed for two months at Palembang, as
the guest of Arya Damar, whom he almost persuaded to
become a Musalman, only he dared not openly profess Islam
for fear of the people who were strongly attached to
their ancient superstitions. Continuing his journey Raden
Rahmat came to Gresik, where an Arab missionary, Shaykh
Mawlana Jumada '1-Kubra, hailed him as the promised
Apostle of Islam to East Java, and foretold that the fall
of paganism was at hand, and that his labours would
be crowned by the conversion of many to the faith.
At Majapahit he was very kindly received by the King
and the princess of Chamba. Although the King was
unwilling himself to become a convert to Islam, yet he con-
ceived such an attachment and respect for Raden Rahmat,
that he made him governor over 3000 families at Ampel,
on the east coast, a little south of Gresik, allowed him the
free exercise of his religion and gave him permission to
make converts. Here after some time he gained over most
of those placed under him, to Islam.
Ampel was now the chief seat of Islam in Java, and the
fame of the ruler who was so zealously working for the
propagation of his religion, spread far and wide. Hereupon
^ This genealogical table will make clear these relationships, as well as

others referred to later in the text :—
King of Champa.
a daughter a daughter = an Arab missionary

named
A concubine = Angka Wijaya = Darawati
king of Majapahit ]
I
Arya Damar
I Raden Rahmat.
Raden Husayn
a daughter = Raden
Paku
Raden Patah = a daughter
a certain Mawlana Ishaq came to Ampel to assist him in
the work of conversion, and was assigned the task of spread-
ing the faith in the kingdom of Balambangan, in the
extreme eastern extremity of the island. Here he cured the
daughter of the King, who was grievously sick, and the
grateful father gave her to him in marriage. She ardently
embraced the faith of Islam and her father allowed himself
to receive instruction in the same, but when the Mawlana
urged him to openly profess it, as he had promised to do,
if his daughter were cured, he drove him from his kingdom,
and gave orders that the child that was soon to be born of
his daughter, should be killed. But the mother secretly
sent the infant away to Gresik to a rich Muhammadan
widow ^ who brought him up with aU a mother's care and
educated him until he was twelve years old, when she en-
trusted him to Raden Rahmat. He, after learning the
history of the child, gave him the name of Raden Paku, and
in course of time gave him also his daughter in marriage.
Raden Paku afterwards built a mosque 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 Raden Rahmat, the King of Majapahit made him
governor of Ampel and Gresik. ^ Meanwhile several missions
were instituted from Gresik. Two sons of Raden Rahmat
established themselves at different parts of the north-east
coast and made themselves famous by their religious zeal
and the conversion of many of the inhabitants of those parts.
Raden Rahmat also sent a missionary, by name Shaykh
Ivhalifah Husayn, across to the neighbouring island of
Madura, where he built a mosque and won over many to
the faith.
We must now return to Arya Damar, the governor of
Palembang. (See p. 380.) He appears to have brought
up his children in the religion which he himself feared openly
to profess, and he now sent Raden Patah, when he had
reached the age of twenty, together with his foster-brother,
Raden Husayn, who was two years younger, to Java, where
^ The memory of this woman is held in great honour by the Javanese,

and many come to pray by her grave. See Brumund, p. 186.
2 Veth (3), vol. i. pp. 235-6.
they landed at Gresik. Raden Patah, aware of his extrac-

tion and enraged at the cruel treatment his mother
had received, refused to accompany his foster-brother to
Majapahit, but stayed with Raden Rahmat at Ampel while
Raden Husayn went on to the capital, where he was well
received and placed in charge of a district and afterwards
made general of the army.
Meanwhile Raden Patah married a granddaughter of
Raden Rahmat, and formed an establishment in a place
of great natural strength called Bintara, in the centre of
a marshy country, to the west of Gresik. As soon as the
King of Majapahit heard of this new settlement, he sent
Raden Husayn to persuade his brother to come to the
capital and pay homage. This Raden Husayn prevailed
upon him to do, and he went to the court, where his likeness
to the king was at once recognised, and where he was kindly
received and formally appointed governor of Bintara.
Still burning for revenge and bent on the destruction of his
father's kingdom, he returned to Ampel, where he revealed
his plans to Raden Rahmat. The latter endeavoured to
moderate his anger, reminding him that he had never re-
ceived anything but kindness at the hands of the king of
Majapahit, his father, and that while the prince was so
]ust and so beloved, his religion forbade him to make war
upon or in any way to injure him. However, unpersuaded
by these exhortations (as the sequel shows), Raden Patah
returned to Bintara, which was now daily increasing in
importance and population, while great numbers of people
in the surrounding country were being converted to Islam.
He had formed a plan of building a great mosque, but
shortly after the work had been commenced, 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 looked upon as their
leader. Among them were the two sons of Raden Rahmat
mentioned above (p. 382), Raden Paku of Giri, and five
others. A few days afterwards Raden Rahmat breathed
his last, and the only remaining obstacle to Raden Patah's
revengeful schemes was thus removed. The eight chiefs
accompanied him back to Bintara, where they assisted in
the completion of the mosque/ and bound themselves by
a solemn oath to assist him in his attempt against Majapahit.
All the Muhammadan princes joined this confederacy, with
the exception of Raden Husayn, who with all his followers
remained true to his master, and refused to throw in his
lot with his rebellious co-rehgionists.
A lengthy campaign followed, into the details of which we
need not enter, but in 1478,2 after a desperate battle which
lasted seven days, Majapahit fell and the Hindu supremac}^
in eastern Java was replaced by a Muhammadan power.
A short time after, Raden Husayn was besieged with his
followers in a fortified place, compelled to surrender and
brought to Ampel, where he was kindly received by his
brother. A large number of those who remained faithful
to the old Hindu religion fled in 1481 to the island of Bali,
where the worship of Siva is still the prevailing religion. ^
Others seem to have formed small kingdoms, under the
leadership of princes of the house of Majapahit, which re-
mained heathen for some time after the fall of the great
Hindu capital.
Even under Muslim chiefs the population of central
Java long remained heathen, and the progress of Islam
southward from the early centres of missionary effort on
the north coast was the work of centuries ; even to the
present day the influence of their old Hindu faith is strikingly
* This mosque is still standing and is looked upon by the Javanese as
one of the most sacred objects in their island.
^ There seems little doubt that this date is too early. A study of the
Portuguese authorities points to the conclusion that Majapahit did not
fall until forty years later. (Rouffaer, p. 144.)
^ The people of the Bali to the present day have resisted the most
zealous efforts of the Muhammadans to induce them to accept the faith
of Islam, though from time to time conversions have been made and a
small native Muhammadan community has been formed, numbering
about 3000 souls out of a population of over 862,000. The favour-
able situation of the island for purposes of trade has always attracted a
number of foreigners to its shores, who have in many cases taken up
a permanent residence in the island. While some of these settlers have
always held themselves aloof from the natives of the country, others have
formed matrimonial alliances with them and have consequently become
merged into the mass of the population. It is owing to the efforts of
the latter that Islam has made this very slow but sure progress, and the
Muhammadans of Bali are said to form an energetic and flourishing com-
munity, full of zeal for the promotion of their faith, which at least impresses
their pagan neighbours, though not successful in persuading them to
deny their favourite food of swine's flesh for the sake of the worship of
Allah. (Liefrinck, pp. 241-3.)
manifest in the religious notions of the MusHm population

of central Java. One remarkable evidence of the deep
roots that Hinduism had struck in this part of the island
is the fact that it was not until 1768 that the authority of
the Hindu law-books, particularly the code of Manu, gave
way before a code of laws more in accordance with the
spirit of Muslim legislation.^
Islam was introduced into the eastern parts of the island
some years later, probably in the beginning of the following
century, through the missionary activity of Shayjdi Nur
al-Din Ibrahim of Cheribon. He won for himself a great
reputation by curing a woman afflicted with leprosy, with
the result that thousands came to him to be instructed in
the tenets of the new faith. At first the neighbouring chiefs
tried to set themselves against the movement, but finding
that their opposition was of no avail, they suffered them-
selves to be carried along with the tide and many of them
became converts to Islam. ^ ShayMi Niir al-Din Ibrahim
of Cheribon sent his son, Mawlana Hasan al-Din, to preach
the faith of Islam in Bantam, the most westerly province
of the island, and a dependency of the heathen kingdom of
Pajajaran. Here his efforts were attended with considerable
success, among the converts being a body of ascetics, 800
in number. It is especially mentioned in the annals of this
part of the country that the young prince won over those
whom he converted to Islam, solely by the gentle means
of persuasion, and not by the sword. ^ He afterwards went
with his father on a pilgrimage to Mecca, and on his return
extended his power over the neighbouring coast of Sumatra,
without ever having to draw the sword, and winning
converts to the faith by peaceful methods alone.*
But the progress of Islam in the west of Java seems to
have been much slower than in the east; a long struggle
ensued between the worshippers of Siva and the followers
of the Prophet, and it was probably not until the middle
of the sixteenth century that the Hindu kingdom of
Pajajaran, which at one period of the history of Java seems
^ Encyclopaedie van N.-I., vol. ii. p. 523.

- Veth (3), vol. i. pp. 245, 284.
* Raffles, vol. ii. p. 316. * Veth (3), vol. 1. pp. 285-6.
CC
to have exercised suzerainty over the princedoms in the
western part of the island, came to an end/ while other
smaller heathen communities survived to a much later
period, 2— some even to the present day. The history of
one of these — the so-called Baduwis — is of especial interest ;
they are the descendants of the adherents of the old rehgion,
who after the fall of Pajajaran fled into the woods and the
recesses of the mountains, where they might uninterruptedly
carry out the observances of their ancestral faith. In later
times, when they submitted to the rule of the Musalman
Sultan of Bantam, they were allowed to continue in the
exercise of their religion, on condition that no increase
should be allowed in the numbers of those who professed
this idolatrous faith ; ^ and strange to say, they still observe
this custom, although the Dutch rule has been so long
established in Java and sets them free from the necessity
of obedience to this ancient agreement. They strictly
limit their number to forty households, and when the
community increases beyond this limit, one family or more
has to leave this inner circle and settle among the Mu-
hammadan population in one of the surrounding villages.*
But, though the work of conversion in the west of Java
proceeded more slowly than in the other parts of the island,
yet, owing largely to the fact that Hinduism had not taken
such deep root among the people here as in the centre of
the island, the victory of Islam over the heathen worship
which it supplanted was more complete than in the districts
which came more immediately under the rule of the Rajas
of Majapahit. The Muhammadan law is here a hving
force and the civilisation brought into the country from
Arabia has interwoven itself with the government and the
life of the people; and it has been remarked that at the
present day the Muhammadans of the west of Java, who
stud}^ their religion at all or have performed the pilgrim-
age to Mecca, form as a rule the most intelligent and
prosperous part of the population.^
1 Veth (3), vol. i. pp. 305, 318-9.
- A traveller in Java in 1596 mentions two or three heathen kingdoms
with a large heathen popalacion. (Niemann, p. 342.)
' Raffles, vol. ii. pp. 132-3. * Metzger, p. 279.
* L. W. C. van den Berg (i), pp. 35-6. C. Poensen, pp. 3-8.
We have already seen that large sections of the Javanese

remained heathen for centuries after the establishment of
Muhammadan kingdoms in the island; at the present day
the whole population of Java, with some trifling exceptions,
is Muhammadan, and though many superstitions and
customs have survived among them from the days of
their pagan ancestors, still the tendency is continually in
the direction of the guidance of thought and conduct in
accordance with the teaching of Islam. This long work of
conversion has proceeded peacefully and gradually, and the
growth of Muslim states in this island belongs rather to
its political than to its religious history, since the progress
of the religion has been achieved by the work rather of
missionaries than of princes.
While the Musalmans of Java were plotting against the
Hindu Government and taking the rule of the country into
their own hands by force, a revolution of a wholly peaceful
character was being carried on in other parts of the Archi-
pelago through the preaching of the Muslim missionaries
who were slowly but surely achieving success in their
proselytising efforts. Let us first turn our attention to
the history of this propagandist movement in the Molucca
islands.
The trade in cloves must have brought the Moluccas into
contact with the islanders of the western half of the Archi-
pelago from very early times, and the converted Javanese
and other Malays who came into these islands to trade,
spread their faith among the inhabitants of the coast. ^
The companions of Magellan brought back a curious story
of the way in which these men introduced their religious
doctrines among the Muluccans. " The kings of these
islands ^ a few years before the arrival of the Spaniards
^ De Barros, Dec. iii. Liv. v. Cap. v. pp. 579-80. Argensola, p. 11 B.
" At this period, the Moluccas were for the most part under the rule of
four princes, viz. those of Ternate, Tidor, Gilolo and Batjan. The first
was by far the most powerful : his territory extended over Ternate and
the neighbouring small islands, a portion of Halemahera, a considerable
part of Celebes, Amboina and the Banda islands. The Sultan of Tidor
ruled over Tidor and some small neighbouring islands, a portion of Halema-
hera, the islands lying between it and New Guinea, together with the
west coast of the latter and a part of Ceram. The territory of the Sultan
of Gilolo seems to have been confined to the central part of Halemahera
and to a part of the north coast of Ceram; while the Sultan of Batjan
ruled chiefly over the Batjan and Obi groups. (De Hollander, vol. i. p. 5.)
began to believe in the immortality of the soul, induced by
no other argument but that they had seen a very beautiful
little 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 them that this little bird
was born in paradise, and that paradise is the place where
rest the souls of those that are dead. And for this reason
these seignors joined the sect of Mahomet, because it
promises many marvellous things of this place of the souls." ^
Islam seems first to have begun to make progress here
in the fifteenth century. A heathen king of Tidor yielded
to the persuasions of an Arab, named Shaykh Mansur, and
embraced Islam together with many of his subjects. The
heathen name of the king, Tjireli Lijatu, was changed to
that of Jamal al-Din, while his eldest son was called Mansiir
after their Arab teacher. ^ It was the latter prince who
entertained the Spanish expedition that reached Tidor in
1521, shortly after the ill-fated death of Magellan. Piga-
fetta, the historian of this expedition, calls him Raia
Sultan Mauzor, and says that he was more than fifty-five
years old, and that not fifty years had passed since the
Muhammadans came to live in these islands.^
Islam seems to have gained a footing on the neighbouring
island of Ternate a little earlier. The Portuguese, who came
to this island the same year as the Spaniards reached Tidor,
were informed by the inhabitants that it had been intro-
duced alittle more than eighty years. ^
According to the Portuguese account ^ also the Sultan of
Ternate was the first of the Muluccan chieftains who became
a Mushm. The legend of the introduction of Islam into
this island tells how a merchant, named Datu Mulla Husayn,
excited the curiosity of the people by reading the Qur'an
aloud in their presence ; they tried to imitate the characters
written in the book, but could not read them, so they asked
the merchant how it was that he could read them, while
1 Massimiliano Transilvano. (Ramusio, torn. i. p. 351 D.)
- P. J. B. C. Robide van der Aa, p. 18.
^ Pigafetta, tome i. pp. 365, 368.
* " Segundo a conta que elles dam, ao tempo que os nossos descubriram
aquellas Ilhas, haveria pouco mais de oitenta annos, que nellas tinha
entradaesta paste." (J.deBarros: Da Asia, Dec. iii. Liv. v. Cap. v. p. 580.)
* De Barros, id. ib.
they could not; he rephed that they must first believe in

God and His Apostle; whereupon they expressed their
willingness to accept his teaching, and became converted
to the faith. 1 The Sultan of Ternate, who occupied the
foremost place among the independent rulers in these
islands, is said to have made a journey to Gresik, in Java,
in order to embrace the Muhammadan faith there, in 1495.^
He was assisted in his propagandist efforts by a certain
Pati Putah, who had made the journey from Hitu in Amboina
to Java in order to learn the doctrines of the new faith, and
on his return spread the knowledge of Islam among the
people of Amboina.^ Islam, however, seems at first to
have made but slow progress, and to have met with
considerable opposition from those islanders who clung
zealously to their old superstitions and mythology, so
that the old idolatry continued for some time crudely
mixed up with the teachings of the Qur'an, and keep-
ing the minds of the people in a perpetual state of
incertitude.* The Portuguese conquest also made the
progress of Islam slower than it would otherwise have
been. They drove out the Qadi, whom they found
instructing the people in the doctrines of Muhammad,
and spread Christianity among the heathen population
with some considerable, though short-lived success.^ For
when the Muluccans took advantage of the attention
of the Portuguese being occupied with their own domestic
troubles, in the latter half of the sixteenth century, to
try to shake off their power, they instituted a fierce
persecution against the Christians, many of whom suffered
martyrdom, and others recanted, so that Christianity
lost all the ground it had gained,'^ and from this time
onwards, the opposition to the political domination of the
Christians secured a readier welcome for the Muslim teachers
who came in increasing numbers from the west.^ The Dutch
1 Simon, p. 13. ^ Bokemeyer, p. 39. ^ Simon, p. 13.
« Argensola, pp. 3-4. « Id. p. 15 B. « Id. pp. 97, 98.
and 158,
pp. 155escuela
' Id. tienen calls Ternate
wherelas heapostasias; " este receptaculo de setas,
donde todas y particularmente los torpes
sequazes de Mahoma. Y desde el anno de mil y quinientos y ochenta y
cinco, en que los Holandeses tentaron aquellos mares, hasta este tiempo
no han cessado de traer sectarios, y capitanes pyratas. Estos llevan las
riquezas de Assia, y en su lugar dexan aquella falsa dotrina, con que hazen
infrutuosa la conversion de tantas almas,"
completed the destruction of Christianity in the Moluccas
by driving out the Spanish and Portuguese from these
islands in the seventeenth century, whereupon the Jesuit
fathers carried off the few remaining Christians of Ternate
with them to the Philippines. ^
From these islands Islam spread into the rest of the
Moluccas ; though for some time the conversions were con-
fined to the inhabitants of the coast. ^ Most of the converts
came from among 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 times were drawn from among the
latter also.^ Even so early as 1521, there was a Muham-
madan king of Gilolo, a kingdom on the western side of the
northern limb of the island of Halemahera.* In modern
times the existence of certain regulations, devised for the
benefit of the state-religion, has facilitated to some extent
the progress of the Muhammadan religion among the Alfurs
of the mainland, e.g. if any one of them is discovered to have
had illicit intercourse with a Muhammadan girl, he must
marry her and become a Muslim ; any of the Alfur women
who marry Muhammadans must embrace the faith of their
husbands ; offences against the law may be atoned for by
conversion to Islam ; and in filling up any vacancy that may
happen to occur among the chiefs, less regard is paid to the
lawful claims of a candidate than to his readiness to become
a Musalman.^
Similarly, Islam in Borneo is mostly confined to the coast,
although it had gained a footing in the island as early as the
beginning of the sixteenth century. About this time, it
was adopted by the people of Banjarmasin, a kingdom on
the southern side, which had been tributary to the Hindu
kingdom of Majapahit, until its overthrow in 1478 ; ^ they
owed their conversion to one of the Muhammadan states
that rose on the ruins of the latter.' The story is that the
1 Their descendants are still to be found in the province of Cavite in the
island of Luzon. (Crawfurd (i), p. 85.)
" W. F. Andriessen, p. 222. ' T. Forrest, p. 68.
' Pigafetta. (Ramusio, vol. i. p. 366.)
* Campen, p. 346. Koloniaal Verslag van 1910, p. 56; igir, p. 52.
" Dulaurier, p. 528.
' Damak, on the north coast of Java, opposite the south of Borneo.
people of Banjarmasin asked for assistance towards the

suppression of a revolt, and that it was given on condition
that they adopted the new religion ; whereupon a number
of Muhammadans came over from Java, suppressed the revolt
and effected the work of conversion.^ On the north-west
coast, the Spaniards found a Muhammadan king at Brunai,
when they reached this place in 1521.2 A little later, 1550,
it was introduced into the kingdom of Sukadana,^ in the
western part of the island, by Arabs coming from Palembang
in Sumatra.* The reigning king refused to abandon the
faith of his fathers, but during the forty years that elapsed
before his death (in 1590), the new religion appears to
have made considerable progress. His successor became a
Musalman and married the daughter of a prince of a neigh-
bouring island, in which apparently Islam had been long
estabhshed;5 during his reign, a traveller,^ who visited the
island in 1600, speaks of Muhammadanism as being a
common rehgion along the coast. The inhabitants of the
interior, however, he tells us, were all idolaters — as indeed
they remain for the most part to the present day. The
progress of Islam in the kingdom of Sukadana seems
now to have drawn the attention of the centre of the Muham-
madan world to this distant spot, and in the reign of the next
prince, a certain ShayMi Shams al-DIn came from Mecca
bringing with him a present of a copy of the Qur'an and a
large hyacinth ring, together with a letter in which this
defender of the faith received the honourable title of Sultan
Muhammad Safi al-Din.'
In the latter part of the eighteenth century one of the in-
land tribes, called the Idaans, dwelling in the interior of north
Borneo, is said to have looked upon the Muhammadans of
1 Hageman, pp. 236-9.
2 Pigafetta. (Rami;sio, torn. i. pp. 363-4-)
3 This kingdom had been founded by a colony from the Hindu kingdom
of Majapahit (De Hollander, vol. ii. p. 67), and would naturally have come
under Muslim influence after the conversion of the Javanese.
* Dozy (i), p. 385.
^ Veth (2), vol. i. p. 193.
« Ohvier de Noort. (Histoire generale des voyages, vol. xiv. p. 225.)
(The Hague, 1756.)
' i.e. Pure in Religion; he died about 1677; his father does not seem
to have taken a Muhammadan name, at least he is only known by his
heathen name of Panembahan Giri-Kusuma. (Netscher, pp. 14-15-)
the coast with very great respect, as having a rehgion which
they themselves had not yet got.^ Dahymple, who obtained
his information on the Idaans of Borneo during his visit to
Suhi from 1761 to 1764, tells us that they " entertain a just
regret of their own ignorance, and a mean idea of themselves
on that account ; for, when they come into the houses, or
vessels, of the Mahometans, they pay them the utmost
veneration, as superior intelligences, who know their
Creator; they will not sit down where the Mahometans
sleep, nor will they put their fingers into the same chunam,
or betel box, but receive a portion with the utmost humility,
and in every instance denote, with the most abject attitudes
and gesture, the veneration they entertain for a God un-
known, in the respect they pay to those who have a know-
ledge of Him." 2 These people appear since that time to
have embraced the Muhammadan faith, ^ one of the numerous
instances of the powerful impression that Islam produces
upon tribes that are low down in the scale of civilisation.
From time to time other accessions have been gained in the
persons of the numerous colonists, Arabs, Bugis and Malays,
as well as Chinese (who have had settlements here since the
seventh century),^ and of the slaves introduced into the
island from different countries ; so that at the present day
the Muhammadans of Borneo are a very mixed race.^ Many
of these foreigners were still heathen when they first came
to Borneo, and of a higher civilisation than the Dyaks whom
they conquered or drove into the interior, where they mostly
still remain heathen, except in the western part of the island,
in which from time to time small tribes of Dyaks embrace
Islam.^ When the pagan Dyaks change their faith, it is
more commonly the case that they yield to the persuasions
of the Muhammadan rather than to those of the Christian
missionary, or, having first embraced Christianity they then
pass over to Islam, and the Muhammadans are making
zealous efforts to win converts both from among the heathen
and the Christian Dyaks.'
In the island of Celebes we find a similar slow growth of
'^ Thomas Forrest, p. 371. - Essay towards an account of Sulu, p. 557.
^ B. Panciera, p. 161. * J. Hageman, p. 224.
* Veth (2), vol. i. p. 179. ^ De Hollander, vol. ii. p. 61.
" Coolsma, p. 556. Koloniaal Verslag van 191 1, pp. 38, 41 ; 1912, p. 30.
the Muhammadan religion, taking its rise among the people

of the coast and slowly making its way into the interior.
Only the more civilised portion of the inhabitants has, how-
ever, adopted Islam ; this is mainly divided into two tribes,
the Macassars and the Bugis, who inhabit the south-west
peninsula, the latter, however, also forming a large proportion
of the coast population on the other peninsulas. The interior
of the island, except in the south-west peninsula where
nearly all the inhabitants are Muhammadan, is still heathen
and is populated chiefly by the Alfurs, a race low in the scale
of civilisation, who also form the majority of the inhabitants
of the north, the east and the south-east peninsulas ; at the
extremity of the first of these peninsulas, in Minahassa,
they have in large numbers been converted to Christianity ;
the Muhammadans did not make their way hither until after
the Portuguese had gained a firm footing in this part of
the island, and the Alfurs whom they converted to Roman
Catholicism were turned into Protestants by the Dutch,
whose missionaries have laboured in Minahassa with very
considerable success. But Islam is slowly making its way
among the heathen tribes of Alfurs in different parts of the
island, both in the districts directly administered by the
Dutch Government, and those under the rule of native
chief s.i
When the Portuguese first visited the island about 1540,
they found only a few Muhammadan strangers in Gowa, the
capital of the Macassar kingdom, the natives being still
unconverted, and it was not until the beginning of the seven-
teenth century that Islam began to be generally adopted
among them. The history of the movement is especially
interesting, as we have here one of the few cases in which
Christianity and Islam have been competing for the allegiance
of heathen people. One of the incidents in this contest is
thus admirably told by an old compiler : " The discovery
of so considerable a country was looked upon by the Portu-
guese as a Matter of Great Consequence, and Measures were
taken to secure the Affections of those whom it was not found
easy to conquer ; but, on the other hand, capable of being
obliged, or rendered useful, as their allies, by good usage.
1 Med. Ned. Zendelinggen, vol. xxxii. p. 177; vol. xxxiv. p. 170.
The People were much braver, and withal had much better
Sense than most of the Indians ; and therefore, after a little
Conversation with the Europeans, they began, in general,
to discern that there was no Sense or Meaning in their own
Religion ; and the few of them who had been made Christians
by the care of Don Antonio Galvano (Governor of the Moluc-
cas), were not so thoroughly instructed themselves as to be
able to teach them a new Faith. The whole People, in
general, however, disclaimed their old Superstitions, and
became Deists at once; but, not satisfied with this, they
determined to send, at the same time, to Malacca and to
Achin.i to desire from the one, Christian Priests ; and from
the other, Doctors of the Mohammedan Law; resolving to
embrace the Religion of those Teachers who came first among
them. The Portugeze have hitherto been esteemed zealous
enough for their Religion ; but it seems that Don Ruis Perera,
who was then Governor of Malacca, was a little deficient
in his Concern for the Faith, since he made a great and very
unnecessary delay in sending the Priests that were desired.
On the other hand, the Queen of Achin being a furious
Mohammedan no sooner received an Account of this Disposi-
tion in the people of the Island of Celebes than she immedi-
ately dispatched a vessel full of Doctors of the Law, who in
a short time, established their Religion effectually among the
Inhabitants. Some time after came the Christian Priests,
and inveighed bitterly against the Law of Mohammed but
to no Purpose ; the People of Celebes had made their Choice,
and there was no Possibility of bringing them to alter it.
One of the Kings of the Island, indeed, who had before
embraced Christianity, persisted in the Faith, 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." ^
This event is said to have occurred in the year 1603.'^
1 i. e. Atjeh.
- A Compleat History of the Rise and Progress of the Portugeze Empire
in the East Indies. Collected chiefly from their own Writers. John
Harris : Navigantium atque Itinerantium Bibliotheca, vol. i. p. 682.
(London, 1764.)
^ Crawfurd (i), p. 91. The Encyclopaedie van N.-I. (vol. i. p. 216)
gives 1606 as the date.
The frequent references to it in contemporary literature
make it impossible to doubt the genuineness of the story. ^
In the little principality of Tallo, to the north of Gowa, with
which it has always been confederated, is still to be seen the
tomb of one of the most famous missionaries to the Macassars,
by name Hiatib Tungal. The prince of this state, after his
conversion proved himself a most zealous champion of the
new faith, and it was through his influence that it was
generally adopted by all the tribes speaking the Macassar
language. The sequel of the movement is not of so peaceful
a character. The Macassars were carried away by their
zeal for their newly adopted faith, to make an attempt to
force it on their neighbours the Bugis. The king of Gowa
made an offer to the king of Boni to consider him in all
respects as an equal if he would worship the one true God.
The latter consulted his people on the matter, who said,
" We have not yet fought, we have not yet been conquered."
They tried the issue of a battle and were defeated. The king
accordingly became a Muhammadan and began on his own
account to attempt by force to impose his own belief on his
subjects and on the smaller states, his neighbours. Strange
to say, the people applied for help to the king of Macassar,
who sent ambassadors to demand from the king of Boni an
answer to the following questions, — Whether the king, in
his persecution, was instigated by a particular revelation
from the Prophet ?— or whether he paid obedience to some
ancient custom ?— or followed his own personal pleasure ?
If for the first reason, the king of Gowa requested informa-
tion ;if for the second, he would lend his cordial co-opera-
tion ;if for the third, the king of Boni must desist, for those
whom he presumed to oppress were the friends of Gowa.
The king of Boni made no reply and the Macassars having
marched a great army into the country defeated him in
three successive battles, forced him to fly the country, and
reduced Boni into a province. After thirty years of sub-
^ Fernandez Navarette, a Spanish priest, who went to the Philippine

Islands in 1646. (Collection of Voyages and Travels, p. 236. London, 1752.)
Tavernier, who visited Macassar in 1648. (Travels in India, p. 193.)
(London, 1678.)
Itinerarium Orientale R. P. F. PhiUppi a SSma. Trinitate Carmelitae
Discalceati ab ipso conscriptum, p. 267. (Lugduni, 1649.)
jection, the people of Boni, with the assistance of the Dutch,
revolted against the Macassars, and assumed the headship
of the tribes of Celebes, in the place of their former masters. ^
The propagation of Islam certainly seems to have been
gradual and slow among the Bugis,^ but when they had once
adopted the new religion, it seems to have stirred them up
to action, as it did the Arabs (though this newly-awakened
energy in either case turned in rather different directions), —
and to have made them what they are now, at once the
bravest men and the most enterprising merchants and
navigators of the Archipelago.^ In their trading vessels
they make their way to all parts of the Archipelago, from
the coast of New Guinea to Singapore, and their numerous
settlements, in the establishment of which the Bugis have
particularly distinguished themselves, have introduced
Islam into many a heathen island : e.g. one of their colonies
is to be found in a state that extends over a considerable
part of the south coast of Flores, where, intermingling with
the native population, which formerly consisted partl}^ of
Roman Catholics, they have succeeded in converting all the
inhabitants of this state to Islam. ^
In their native island of Celebes also the Bugis have
combined proselytising efforts with their commercial enter-
prises, and in the little kingdom of Bolaang-Mongondou in
the northern peninsula^ they have succeeded, in the course
of the present century, in winning over to Islam a Christian
population whose conversion dates from the end of the
seventeenth century. The first Christian king of Bolaang-
Mongondou was Jacobus Manopo (1689-1709), in whose
reign Christianity spread rapidly, through the influence of
^ Crawfurd, vol. ii. pp. 385-9.
on 2 behalf
" No extraordinary exertion An
of the new religion. seems for a longof time
abhorrence to have and
innovation beena made
moat
pertinacious and religious adherence to ancient custom, distinguish the
people of Celebes beyond all the other tribes of the Eastern isles ; and
these would, at first, prove the most serious obstacles to the dissemination
of Mahometanism. It was this, probably, which deferred the adoption of
the new religion for so long a period, and till it had recommended itself by
wearing the garb of antiquity." (Crawfurd (2), vol. ii. p. 387.)
* Crawfurd (i), p. 75. De Hollander, vol. ii. p. 212.
* Id. vol. ii. p. 666. Riedel (2), p. 67.
* To the east of Minahassa, between long. 124° 45' and 123° 20', with a
population that has been variously estimated at 35,000 and 50,000. (De
Hollander, vol. ii. p. 247.)
the Dutch East India Company and the preaching of the

Dutch clergy. 1 His successors were all Christian until 1844,
when the reigning Raja, Jacobus Manuel Manopo, embraced
Islam. His conversion was the crown of a series of prosely-
tising efforts that had been in progress since the beginning
of the century, for it was about this time that the zealous
efforts of some Muhammadan traders — Bugis and others —
won over some converts to Islam in one of the coast towns
of the southern kingdom, Mongondou ; from this same town
two trader missionaries, Hakim Bagus and Imam Tuweko
by name, set out to spread their faith throughout the rest
of this kingdom. They made a beginning with the conver-
sion of some slaves and native women whom they married,
and these little by little persuaded their friends and relatives
to embrace the new faith. From Mongondou Islam spread
into the northern kingdom Bolaang; here, in 1830, 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 them in their missionary labours, soon achieved a
wide-spread success. The Christians, whose knowledge of
the doctrines of their religion was very slight and whose
faith was weak, were ill prepared with the weapons of con-
troversy to meet the attacks of the rival creed ; despised
by the Dutch Government, neglected and well-nigh aban-
doned by the authorities of the Church, they began to look
on these foreigners, some of whom married and settled
among them, as their friends. As the work of conversion
progressed, the visits of these Bugis and Arabs, — at first
rare, — became more frequent, and their influence in the
country very greatly increased, so much so that about 1832
an Arab married a daughter of the king, Cornelius Manopo,
who was himself a Christian ; many of the chiefs, and some
of the most powerful among them, about the same time,
abandoned Christianity and embraced Islam. In this way
Islam had gained a firm footing in his kingdom before Raja
Jacobus Manuel Manopo became a Muslim in 1844; this
prince had made repeated applications to the Dutch authori-
ties at Manado to appoint a successor to the Christian
^ Vv'ilken (i), pp. 42-4.
schoolmaster, Jacobus Bastiaan, — whose death had been

a great loss to the Christian community — but to no purpose,
and learning from the resident at Manado that the Dutch
Government was quite indifferent as to whether the people
of his state were Christians or Muhammadans, so long as they
were loyal, openly declared himself a Musalman and tried
every means to bring his subjects over to the same faith.
An Arab missionary took advantage of the occurrence of a
terrible earthquake in the following year, to prophecy the
destruction of Bolaang-Mongondou, unless the people
speedily became converted to Islam. Many in their terror
hastened to follow this advice, and the Raja and his nobles
lent their support to the missionaries and Arab merchants,
whose methods of dealing with the dilatory were not always
of the gentlest. Nearly half the population, however, still
remains heathen, but the progress of Islam among them,
though slow, is continuous and sure.^
The neighbouring island of Sambawa likewise probably
received its knowledge of this faith from Celebes, through
the preaching of missionaries from Macassar between 1540
and 1550. All the more civilised inhabitants are true
believers and are said to be stricter in the performance of
their religious duties than any of the neighbouring Muham-
madan peoples. This is largely due to a revivalist movement
set on foot by a certain Hajl 'Ali after the disastrous eruption
of Mount Tambora in 1815, the fearful suffering that ensued
thereon being made use of to stir up the people to a more
strict observance of the precepts of their religion and the
leading of a more devout life.^ At the present time Islam
still continues to win over fresh converts in this island.^
The Sasaks of the neighbouring island of Lombok also
owed their conversion to the preaching of the Bugis, who
form a large colony here, having either crossed over the
strait from Sambawa or come directly from Celebes : at
any rate the conversion appears to have taken place in a
peaceable manner.^ The population of Lombok falls into
two distinct divisions, the Sasaks and the Balinese ;
^ Wilken (2), pp. 276-9. Koloniaal Verslag van 1910, p. 52 ; 191 1, p. 47.
^ Zollinger (2), pp. 126, 169.
* Med. Ned. Zendelinggen, xxxii. p. 177; xxxiv. p. 170.
* Zollinger (i), p. 527.
the first of these, consisting of the Muhammadan Sasaks,
the original inhabitants of the island, far outnumbers
the second, but about the middle of the eighteenth
century they came under the rule of the Balinese
and soon found their island overrun by swarms of the
Hindu neighbours.^ The rule of the Balinese was very
oppressive, and they made efforts — though with little
success — to bring their Muslim subjects over to Hinduism;
the Sasaks tried in vain to shake off the yoke of their oppres-
sors, and more than once appealed to the Dutch Government,
before the expedition of 1894 brought peace to the island and
established an orderly administration under Dutch rule.
The new government brought with it a large number of
native Muhammadan officials, who throw in their influence
on the side of their own faith, and it is thus expected that
one of the results of the Dutch conquest of Lombok will be
to give a great impetus to Islam in this island. ^
In the Philippine Islands we find a struggle between
Christianity and Islatn for the allegiance of the inhabitants,
somewhat similar in character to that in Celebes, but more
stern and enduring, entangling the Spaniards and the
Mushms in a fierce and bloody conflict, even up to the
nineteenth century. It is uncertain when Islam first
reached these islands.^ The traditionary annals of Min-
danao represent Islam as having been introduced from
Johore, in the Malay Peninsula, by a certain Sharif
Kabungsuwan, who settled with a number of followers
in the island and married there. He is said to have
refused to land until the men who came to meet him
on his arrival promised to embrace Islam, and these
early records give the impression that the landing of
Kabungsuwan and the conversion of the people of Mindanao
at first proceeded quite peacefully; but after he had estab-
^ De Hollander (in 1882) gave the numbers as 20,000 Balinese and 380,000
Sasaks. (Vol. i. p. 489.)
2 Encyclopaedie van N.-I. vol. ii. pp. 432-4, 524.
W. Cool : With the Dutch in the East. An outline of the military-
operations in Lombok, 1894. (London, 1897.)
' Captain Thomas Forrest, writing in 1775, says that Arabs came to the
island of Mindanao 300 years before and that the tomb of the first Arab, a
Sharif from Mecca, was still shown — " a rude heap of coral rock stones"
(pp. 201, 313).
lished his power, he began to conquer the neighbouring

chiefs and tribes, and they accepted his rehgion in submitting
to his authority. 1 The Spaniards who discovered them in
1521, found the population of the northern islands to be
rude and simple pagans, while Mindanao and the Sulu
Islands were occupied by more civilised Muhammadan
tribes. 2 The latter up to the close of the nineteenth
century successfully resisted for the most part all the
efforts of the Christians towards conquest and conversion,
so that the Spanish missionaries despaired of ever effecting
their conversion. ^ The success of Islam as compared
with Christianity has been due in a great measure to
the different form under which these two faiths were
presented to the natives. The adoption of the latter
implied the loss of all political freedom and national inde-
pendence, and hence came to be regarded as a badge of
slavery. The methods adopted by the Spaniards for the
propagation of their religion were calculated to make it
unpopular from the beginning; their violence and intoler-
ance were in strong contrast to the conciliatory behaviour of
the Muhammadan missionaries, 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
condemned the 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 in-
temperance and above all their avarice and rapacity brought
their religion into odium; while its propagation was in-
tended to serve as an instrument of their political advance-
ment.* It is not difficult therefore to understand the
opposition offered by the natives to the introduction of
Christianity, which indeed only became the rehgion of the
^ N. N. Saleeby : Studies in Moro History, Law and Religion, pp. 24-5,

53-5. (Manila, 1905.)
* Relatione di Ivan Gaetan del discoprimento dell' Isole Molucche.
(Ramusio, torn. i. p. 375 E.)
^ " Se muestran tan obstinados A la gracia de Dios y tan aferrados k sus
creencias, que es casi moralmente imposible su conversion al cristianismo."
(Cartas de los PP. de la Compania de Jesus de la Missi6n de Filipinas,
1879, quoted by Montero y Vidal, torn. i. p. 21.)
* Crawfurd (2), vol. ii. pp. 274-280.
people in those parts in which the inhabitants were weak
enough, or the island small enough, to enable the Spaniards
to effect a total subjugation; the native Christians after
their conversion had to be forced to perform their rehgious
duties through fear of punishment, and were treated exactly
like school-children.^ Up to the time of the American occu-
pation of the Philippine Islands the independent Muhamma-
dan kingdom of Mindanao was a refuge for those who wished
to escape from the hated Christian government ; ^ the island
of Sulu, also, though nominally a Spanish possession since
1878, formed another centre of Muhammadan opposition to
Christianity, Spanish-knowing renegades even being found
here.^
We have no certain historical evidence as to how long the
inhabitants of the Sulu Islands had been Muhammadan,
before the arrival of the Spaniards. The annals of Sulu
give the name of Sharif Karim al-Maldidiim as the first
missionary of Islam in these islands. He is said to have
been an Arab who went to Malacca about the middle of
the fourteenth century and converted Sultan ]\Iuhammad
Shah and the people of Malacca to Islam. Continuing
his journey eastward, he reached Sulu about the year
1380 and settled in Bwansa,^ the old capital of Sulu,
where the people built a mosque for him and many of the
chiefs accepted his teachings. He is said to have visited
almost every island of the Archipelago and to have made
converts in many places ; his grave is said to be on the island
of Sibutu.^ The next missionary is said to have been Abii
Bakr, who is also stated to have been an Arab, and to have
commenced his missionary labours in Malacca and to have
ont1 "lis
receu,sont peulessoigneux
et il de satisfaire par
y faut contraindre au devoir du Christianisme
la crainte qu'ils
du chastiment, et
gouverner comme des enfans a I'escole." Relation des Isles Philippines,
Faite par un Religieux, p. 7. (Thevenot, vol. i.)
- " A Mindanao, les Tagal de I'Est, fuyant le joug abhorre de leurs
maitres catholiques, se groupent chaque jour davantage autour des chefs
des dynasties nationales. Plus de 360,000 sectateurs du coran y reconnais-
sent un sultan independant. Aux jesuites chasses de Tile, aux represent-
ants du culte officiel, se substituent comme maitres rehgieux et educateurs
de la population, les missionnaires musulmans de la Chine et de I'lnde, qui
renovent ainsi la propagande, commencee par les invasions arabes." (A. le
ChateUer (2), p. 45.) ^ Montero y Vidai, vol. i. p. 86.
* Situated three miles west of Jolo, the present capital.
* N. M. Saleeby : The History of Sulu, pp. 150, 158-9. (Manila, 1908.)
D D
made his way to Palembang and Brunei, and reached Sulu
about 1450; he built mosques and carried on a successful
propaganda. The Muslim king of Bwansa, Raja Baginda,
gave him his daughter in marriage, and appointed him his
heir, and Abii Bakr is credited with having organised the
government and legislation of Sulu on orthodox Muslim
lines as far as local custom would allow.^ Though so long
converted, the people of Sulu are far from being rigid
Muhammadans, indeed, the influence of the numerous
Christian slaves that they carried off from the Philippines
in their predatory excursions used to be so great that it
was even asserted^ that " they would long ere this have
become professed Christians but from the prescience that
such a change, by investing a predominating influence in
the priesthood, would inevitably undermine their own
authority, and pave the way to the transfer of their do-
minions to the Spanish yoke, an occurrence which fatal
experience has too forcibly instructed all the surrounding
nations that unwarily embrace the Christian persuasion."
Further, the aggressive behaviour of the Spanish priests who
established a mission in Sulu created in the mind of the
people a violent antipathy to the foreign religion. ^
Since the American occupation of the Philippines, the
influence of Islam has been considerably restricted, and is
now confined to the island of Palawan, the south coast of
Mindanao and the archipelago of Sulu.^ But it is said to
be seeking to extend its propaganda among the northern
islands, and to have made a beginning of missionary activity
even in Manila. Certain conditions are said to favour its
success, especially the fact that the Filipinos are prejudiced
against Christianity on account of the abuses that led them
to take up arms against the Spanish friars. ^
As has been already mentioned, Islam has been most
favourably received by the more civilised races of the
Malay Archipelago, and has taken but little root among the
lower races. Such are the Papuans of New Guinea, and the
islands to the north-west of it, viz. Waigyu, Misool, Waigama
^ N. M. Saleeby : The History of Sulu, pp. 150, 162-3.
" J. H. Moor. (Appendix, p. 37.) » Dalrymple, p. 549.
* R. du M. M., vii. pp. 1 15-16. (1909.)
* The Missionary Review of the World, N.S., vol. xiv. p. 877. (New
York, 1901.)
and Salawatti. These islands, together with the peninsula

of Onin, on the north-west of New Guinea, were in the
sixteenth century subject to the Sultan of Batjan,^ one of
the kings of the Moluccas, Through the influence of the
Muhammadan rulers of Batjan, the Papuan chiefs of these
islands adopted Islam, ^ and though the mass of the people
in the interior have remained heathen up to the present
day, the inhabitants of the coast are Muhammadans largely
no doubt owing to the influence of settlers from the Moluccas.^
In New Guinea itself, very few of the Papuans seem to have
become Muhammadans. Islam was introduced into the west
coast (probably in the peninsula of Onin) by Muhammadan
merchants, who propagated their religion among the inhabit-
ants, as early as 1606.* But it appears to have made very
little progress during the centuries that have elapsed since
then,^ and the Papuans have shown as much reluctance to
become Muhammadans as to accept the teachings of the
Christian missionaries, who have laboured among them
without much success since 1855. The Muhammadans
of the neighbouring islands have been accused of holding
the Papuans in too great contempt to make efforts to
spread Islam among them.^ The name of one missionary,
^ The first prince of Batjan who became a Muhammadan was a certain
Zayn
to the al-'Abidin,
Moluccas. who was reigning in 1521 when the Portuguese first came
^ Robide van der Aa, pp. 350, 352-3.
^ Id. p. 147 (Misool), " De strandbewoners zijn alien Mahomedanen. . . .
De bergbewoners zijn heidenen." Id. p. 53 (Salawatti), " Een klein deel
der bevolking van het eiland belijdt de leer van Mahamed. Het grootste
deel bestaat echter uit Papoesche heidenen, einige tot het Mahomedaansche
geloof zijn overgegangen, althans den schijn daarvan aannemen." Id. p. 290
(Waigyu).
Some of the Papuans of the island of Gebi, between Waigyu and
Halemahera, have been converted by the Muhammadan settlers from the
Moluccas. (Crawfurd (i), p. 143.)
* Robide van der Aa, p. 352.
^ Captain Forrest, however, in 1775, tells us that " Many of the Papuas
turn Musselmen." (Voyage to New Guinea, p. 68.)
* Robide van der Aa, p. 71. " De Papoe is te woest van aard, om
behoefte aan godsdienst te gevoelen. Evenmin als de Christelijke leer tot
nog toe ingang bij hem heeft kunnen vinden, zou de Mahomedaansche
godsdienst slagen, wanneer daartoe bij deze volkstammen poging gedaan
werd. Voorzoover mij is gebleken op vijf reizen naar dit land, hebben noch
Tidoreezen, noch Cerammers of anderen ooit ernstige pogingen gedaan,
om de leer van Mahomed hier in te voeren. . . . Slechts zeer weinige hoof-
den, zooals de Radja Ampat van Waigeoe, Salawatti, Misool en Waigama,
mogen als belijders van die leer aangemerkt worden ; zij en eenige hunner
bloedverwanten vervullen sommige geloofsvormen, doordien zij meermalen
te Tidor geweest zijn en daar niet gaarne als gewone Papoes beschouwd
however, is found, a certain Imam Dikir (? Dhikr),
who came from one of the islands on the south-east
of Ceram about 1856 and introduced Islam into the little
island of Adi, south of the peninsula of Onin; after ful-
filling his mission he returned to his own home, resisting
the importunities of the inhabitants to settle among them.^
Muhammadan traders from Ceram and Goram are reported
to have made a number of converts from among the heathen
during the first decade of the twentieth century. ^ Similar
efforts are being made to convert the Papuans of the neigh-
bouring Kei Islands. In the middle of the nineteenth
century there were said to be hardly any Muhammadans on
these islands, with the exception of the descendants of
immigrants from the Banda Islands; some time before,
missionaries from Ceram had succeeded in making some
converts, but the precepts of the Qur'an were very little
observed, both forbidden meats and intoxicating hquors
being indulged in. The women, however, were said to be
stricter in their adherence to their faith than the men, so
that when their husbands wished to indulge in swine's flesh,
they had to do so in secret, their wives not allowing it to be
brought into the house.^ But in 1887 it was noted that
there had been a revival of religious life among the Kei
islanders, and the number of Muhammadans was daily
increasing. Arab merchants from Madura, Java, and Bali
proved themselves zealous propagandists of Islam and left
no means untried to win converts, sometimes enforcing their
arguments by threats and violence, and at other times by
bribes : as a rule new converts were said to get 200 florins'
worth of presents, while chiefs received as much as a thousand
florins.* At the close of the nineteenth century about 8000
of the Kei islanders were said to be Muhammadan out of a
total population of 23, 000. ^
The above sketch of the spread of Islam from west to east
through the Malay Archipelago comprises but a small part
worden. Onder de eigenlijke bevolking is nooit gepoogd, den Islam
intevoeren, misschien wel uit eerbied voor dien godsdienst, die te verheven
is voor de Papoes." i Robide van der Aa, p. 319.
^ Koloniaal Verslag van 1906, p. 70; 1911, p. 52.
^ Thejournalofthe Indian Archipelago, vol.vii. pp. 64,71. (Singapore, 1853.)
* G. W. W. C. Baron von Hoevell, p. 120. Krieger, p. 436.
* Encyclopaedie van N.-I., vol. ii. p. 210.
of the history of the missionary work of Islam in these
islands. Many of the facts of this history are wholly un-
recorded, and what can be gleaned from native chronicles
and the works of European travellers, officials and mission-
aries isnecessarily fragmentary and incomplete. But there
is evidence enough to show the existence of peaceful mission-
ary efforts to spread the faith of Islam during the last six
hundred years : sometimes indeed the sword has been drawn
in support of the cause of religion, but preaching and per-
suasion rather than force and violence have been the main
characteristics of this missionary movement. The mar-
vellous success that has been achieved has been largely the
work of traders, who won their way to the hearts of the
natives, by learning their language, adopting their manners
and customs, and began quietly and gradually to spread
the knowledge of their religion by first converting the native
women they married and the persons associated with them
in their business relations. Instead of holding themselves
apart in proud isolation, they gradually melted into the mass
of the population, employing all their superiority of intelli-
gence and civilisation for the work of conversion and making
such skilful compromises in the doctrines and practices of
their faith as were needed to recommend it to the people
they wished to attract.^ In fact, as Buckle said of them,
" The Mahometan missionaries are very judicious." "
Beside the traders, there have been numbers of what may
be called 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 life among their
fellow-countrymen, and in purging away the lingering
remains of heathen habits and beliefs. The number of those
who make the pilgrimage to Mecca from all parts of the
Archipelago is constantly on the increase, and there is in
consequence a proportionate growth of Muhammadan in-
fluence and Muhammadan thought. Up to the middle of
the nineteenth century the Dutch Government tried to put
obstacles in the way of the pilgrims and passed an order that
^ Crawfurd (2), pp. 275, 307.
- Buckle's Miscellaneous and Posthumous Works, edited by Helen
Taylor, vol. i. p. 594- ((Lpadon, 1872.)
no one should be allowed to make the pilgrimage to the holy

city without a passport, for which he had to pay no florins ;
and any one who evaded this order was on his return com-
pelled to pay a fine of double that amount. ^ Accordingly
it is not surprising to find that in 1852 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.
The average number of pilgrims during the last decade of
the nineteenth century was 7000 — during the first decade
of the twentieth, 7300 ; ^ but the numbers vary considerably
from year to year, the largest recorded number from the
Dutch Indies being 14,234 in 1910.^
Such an increase is no doubt largely due to the increased
facilities of communication between Mecca and the Malay
Archipelago, but, as a Christian missionary has observed,
this by no means " diminishes the importance of the fact,
especially as the Hadjis, whose numbers have grown so
rapidly, have by no means lost in quality what they gained
in quantity; on the contrary, there are now amongst them
many more thoroughly acquainted with the doctrines of
Islam, and wholly imbued with Moslem fanaticism and
hatred against the unbelievers, than there formerly were." ^
The reports of the Dutch Government and of Christian
missionaries bear unanimous testimony to the influence and
the proselytising zeal of these pilgrims who return to their
homes as at once reformers and missionaries.^ Beside the
pilgrims who content themselves with merely visiting the
sacred places and performing the due ceremonies, and those
who make a longer stay in order to complete their theological
studies, there is a large colony of Malays in Mecca at the
present time, who have taken up their residence permanently
in the sacred city. These are in constant communication
with their fellow-countrymen in their native land, and their
efforts have been largely effectual in purging Muhammadan-
ism in the Malay Archipelago from the contamination of
^ Neimann, pp. 406-7.
^ C. Snouck Hurgronje: De hadji-politiek der Indische Regeering, p. 12.
(Overdruk uit Onze Eeuw, 1909.)
^ Id. : Notes sur le mouvement du p^lerinage de la Mecque aux Indes
Neerlandaises. (R. du M. M., vol. xv. pp. 409, 412.)
* Report of
Niemann, p. 407. Centenary Conference on Protestant Missions, vol. i. p. 21,
* Med. Ned. Zendelinggen, vols, xxxii., xxxiv. passim.
heathen customs and modes of thought that have survived
from an earHer period. A large number of rehgious books
is also printed in Mecca in the various languages spoken
by the Malay Muhammadans and carried to all parts of the
Archipelago. Indeed Mecca has been well said to have more
influence on the religious life of these islands than on Turkey,
India or Bukhara.^
As might be anticipated from a consideration of these
facts, there has been of recent years a very great awakening
of missionary activity in the Malay Archipelago, and the
returned pilgrims, whether as merchants or religious teachers,
become preachers of Islam wherever they come in contact
with a heathen population. The religious orders moreover
have extended their organisation to the Malay Archipelago, ^
even the youngest of them — the Saniisiyyah — finding ad-
herents in the most distant islands,^ one of the signs of its
influence being the adoption of the name Saniisi by many
Malays, when in Mecca they change their native for Arabic
names. ^
The Dutch Government has been accused by Christian
missionaries of favouring the spread of Islam ; however this
may have been, it is certain that the work of the Muslim
missionaries is facilitated by the fact that Malay, which is
spoken by hardly any but Muhammadans, has been adopted
as the official language of the Dutch Government, except in
Java; and as the Dutch civil servants are everywhere
attended by a crowd of Muhammadan subordinate officials,
political agents, clerks, interpreters and traders, they carry
Islam with them into every place they visit. All persons that
have to do business with the Government are obliged to learn
the Malay language, and they seldom learn it without at
the same time becoming Musalmans. In this way the most
influential people embrace Islam, and the rest soon follow
their example. '^ Thus Islam is at the present time rapidly
driving out heathenism from the Malay Archipelago.
1 Snouck Hurgronje (3), vol. ii. pp. xv. 339-393. Encyclopaedie van
N.-L, vol. ii. pp. 576-9.
* e. g. the Qadiriyyah, Naqshbandiyyah and Sammaniyyah. (C. Snouck
Hurgronje (2), p. 186.) Id. (3) vol. ii. p. 372, etc.
3 J. G. F. Riedel (i), pp. 7, 59, 162.
* Snouck Hurgronje (3), vol. ii. p. 323.
* Hauri, p. 313. Encyclopaedie van N.-I., vol. ii. p. 524.
CHAPTER XIII.
CONCLUSION.
To the modern Christian world, missionary work impUes

missionary societies, paid agents, subscriptions, reports and
journals ; and missionary enterprise without a regularly
constituted and continuous organisation seems a misnomer.
The ecclesiastical constitution of the Christian Church has,
from the very beginning of its history, made provision for
the propagation of Christian teaching among unbelievers;
its missionaries have been in most cases, regularly ordained
priests or monks ; the monastic orders (from the Benedictines
downwards) and the missionary societies of more modern
times have devoted themselves with special and concen-
trated attention to the furthering of a department of
Christian work that, from the first, has been recognised to
be one of the prime duties of the Church. But in Islam
the absence of any kind of priesthood or any ecclesiastical
organisation whatever has caused the missionary energy of
the Muslims to exhibit itself in forms very different to those
that appear in the history of Christian missions : there are
no missionary societies, ^ no specially trained agents, very
little continuity of effort. The only exception appears to
be found in the religious orders of Islam, whose organisation
resembles to some extent that of the monastic orders of
Christendom. But even here the absence of the priestly
ideal, of any theory of the separateness of the religious
teacher from the common body of believers or of the necessity
of a special consecration and authorisation for the perform-
ance of religious functions, makes the fundamental difference
in the two systems stand out as clearly as elsewhere.
1 Organisations based on the model of Christian missionary societies
do not begin to make their appearance until the twentieth century; some
account of these is given in Appendix III.
408
MUSLIM MISSIONARIES 409
Whatever disadvantages may be entailed by this want
of a priestly class, specially set apart for the work of pro-
pagating the faith, are compensated for by the consequent
feeling of responsibility resting on the individual believer.
There being no intermediary between the Muslim and his
God, the responsibility of his personal salvation rests upon
himself alone : consequently he becomes as a rule much
more strict and careful in the performance of his religious
duties, he takes more trouble to learn the doctrines and
observances of his faith, and thus becoming deeply impressed
with the importance of them to himself, is more likely to
become an exponent of the missionary character of his
creed in the presence of the unbeliever. The would-be
proselytiser has not to refer his convert to some authorised
religious teacher of his creed who may formally receive
the neophyte into the body of the Church, nor need he
dread ecclesiastical censure for committing the sin of
Korah. Accordingly, however great an exaggeration it
may be to say, as has been said so often, ^ that every
Muhammadan is a missionary, still it is true that every
Muhammadan may be one, and few truly devout Muslims,
living in daily contact with unbelievers, neglect the precept
of their Prophet : " Summon them to the way of thy Lord
with wisdom and with kindly warning." - 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 annals of the propagation
of the Muslim faith contain the record of men and women
of all ranks of society, from the sovereign ^ to the peasant,
and of all trades and professions, who have laboured for
the spread of their faith, — the Muslim trader, unlike his
Christian brother, showing himself especially active in such
work. In a list of Indian missionaries published in the
^ "A tout musulman, quelque mondain qu'il soit, le proselytisme
semble etre en quelque sorte inne." (Snouck Hurgronje, Revue de
I'Histoire des Religions, vol. Ivii. p. 66.) " Der Muslim ist von Natur
Missionar . . . Er treibt Mission auf eigne Faust und Kosten." (Mun-
zinger, p. 411.) Snouck Hurgronje (i), p. 8; Liittke (2), p. 30; Julius
Richter, p. 152; Mereusky, p. 154.
^ Qur'an, xvi. 126.
' See the interesting letter addressed by Mawla'i Isma'il, Sharif of
Morocco, in 1698 to King James II, inviting him to embrace Islam. (Revue
de I'Histoire des Religions, vol. xlvii. p. 174 sqq.)
journal of a religious and philanthropic society of Lahore ^

we find the names of schoolmasters, Government clerks in
the Canal and Opium Departments, traders (including a
dealer in camel-carts), an editor of a newspaper, a book-
binder and a workman in a printing establishment. These
men devote the hours of leisure left them after the comple-
tion of the day's labour, to the preaching of their religion
in the streets and bazaars of Indian cities, seeking to win
converts both from among Christians and Hindus, whose
religious beliefs they controvert and attack.
It is interesting to note that the propagation of Islam has
not been the work of men only, but that Muslim women have
also taken their part in this pious task. Several of the
Mongol princes owed their conversion to the influence of
a Muslim wife, and the same was probably the case with
many of the pagan Turks when they had carried their raids
into Muhammadan countries. The Saniisiyyah missionaries
who came to work among the Tubii, to the north of Lake
Chad, opened schools for girls, and took advantage of
the powerful influence exercised by the women among
these tribes (as among their neighbours, the Berbers), in
their efforts to win them over to Islam. ^ In German
East Africa, the pagan natives who leave their homes for
six months or more, to work on the railways or plantations,
are converted by the Muhammadan women with whom they
contract temporary alliances; these women refuse to have
anything to do with an uncircumcised kafir, and to escape
the disgrace attaching to such an appellation, their husbands
become circumcised and thus receive an entry into Muslim
society.^ The progress of Islam in Abyssinia during the first
half of the last century has been said to be in large measure
due to the efforts of Muhammadan women, especially the
wives of Christian princes, who had to pretend a conversion
to Christianity on the occasion of their marriage, but brought
up their children in the tenets of Islam and worked in every
possible way for the advancement of that faith.* On
the western frontier of Abyssinia, there is a pagan tribe
1 Anjuman yimayat-i-Islam ka mahwari risalah, pp. 5-13- (Lahore

October 1889.) ^ Duveyrier. p. 17.
3 Klamroth, p. 12, * Massaja, vol. xi. pp. 124-5.
MUSLIM MISSIONARIES 411
called the Boruns; some of these men who had enlisted
in a negro regiment, under the Anglo-Egyptian government
of the Sudan, were converted to Islam by the wives of the
black soldiers while the battalion was returning to Khartum. ^
The Tatar women of Kazan are said to be especially
zealous as propagandists of Islam. ^ The professed devotee,
because she happens to be a woman, is not thereby debarred
from taking her place with the male saint in the company
of the preachers of the faith. The legend of the holy
women, descended from 'AH, who are said to have flown
through the air from Karbala' to Lahore, and there by the
influence of their devout lives of prayer and fasting to have
won the first converts from Hinduism to Islam, ^ could
hardly have originated if the influence of such holy women
were a thing quite unknown. One of the most venerated
tombs in Cairo is that of Nafisah, the great-granddaughter
of Hasan (the martyred son of 'All), whose theological
learning excited the admiration even of her great contem-
porary, Imam al-Shafi'i, and whose piety and austerities
raised her to the dignity of a saint : it is related of her that
when she settled in Egypt, she happened to have as her
neighbours a family of dhimmis whose daughter was so
grievously afflicted that she could not move her limbs but
had to lie on her back all day. The parents of the poor
girl had to go one day to the market and asked their pious
Muslim neighbour to look after their daughter during
their absence. Nafisah, filled with love and pity, undertook
this work of mercy; and when the parents of the sick girl
were gone, she lifted up her soul in prayer to God on behalf
of the helpless invalid. Scarcely was her prayer ended than
the sick girl regained the use of her limbs and was able to
go to meet her parents on their return. Filled with grati-
tude, the whole family became converts to the religion of
their benefactor.*
Even the Muslim prisoner will on occasion embrace the
opportunity of preaching his faith to his captors or to his
fellow-prisoners. The first introduction of Islam into
1 Artin, p. iig. 2 jj ju M. M., ix. (1909). p. 252,

^ Ghulam Sarwar : Khazinat al-Asfiya, vol. ii. p. 407-8.
* Goldziher, vol. ii. pp. 303-4.
Eastern Europe was the work of a Muslim jurisconsult who
was taken prisoner, probably in one of the wars between
the Byzantine empire and its Muhammadan neighbours,
and was brought to the country of the Pechenegs ^ in the
beginning of the eleventh century. He set before many of
them the teachings of Islam and they embraced the faith
with sincerity, so that it began to be spread among this
people. But the other Pechenegs who had not accepted
the Muslim religion, took umbrage at the conduct of their
fellow-countrymen and finally came to blows with them.
The Muslims, who numbered about twelve thousand, success-
fully withstood the attack of the unbelievers, though they
were more than double their number, and the remnant of the
defeated party embraced the religion of the victors. Before
the close of the eleventh century the whole nation had
become Muhammadan and had among them men learned
in Muslim theology and jurisprudence. ^ In the reign of
the Emperor Jahanglr (1605-1628) there was a certain
Sunni theologian, named Shaykh Ahmad Mujaddid, who
especially distinguished himself by the energy with which
he controverted the doctrines of the Shi'ahs : the latter,
being at this time in favour at court, succeeded in having
him imprisoned on some frivolous charge; during the two
years that he was kept in prison he converted to Islam
several hundred idolaters who were his companions in the
same prison.^ In more recent times, an Indian mawlavi,
who had been sentenced to transportation for life to the
Andaman Islands by the British Government, because he
had taken an active part in the WahhabI conspiracy of
1864, converted many of the convicts before his death.
In Central Africa, an Arab chief condemned to death by
the Belgians, spent his last hours in trying to convert to
Islam the Christian missionary who had been sent to bring
him the consolations of religion.*
Such being the missionary zeal of the Muslims, that they
^ The Pechenegs at that time occupied the country between the lower
Danube and the Don, to which they had migrated from the banks of the
Ural at the end of the ninth century. (Karamsin, vol. i. pp. 180-1.)
2 Abu 'Ubayd al-Bakri (died 1094), pp. 467-8.
^ Ghulam Sarwar : Khazinat al-Asfiya, vol. i. p. 613.
* D. Crawford ; Thinking Black, p. 202. (London, 1913.)
CAUSES OF THEIR SUCCESS 413
are ready to speak in season and out of season, — as Doughty,

with fine insight, says, " Their talk is continually (without
hypocrisy) of religion, which is of genial devout remembrance
to them," ^ — let us now consider some of the causes that
have contributed to their success.
Foremost among these is the simplicity ^ of the Muslim
creed, There is no god but God; Muhammad is the
Apostle of God. Assent to these two simple doctrines is all
that is demanded of the convert, and the whole history of
Muslim dogmatics fails to present any attempt on the part
of ecclesiastical assemblies to force on the mass of believers
any symbol couched in more elaborate and complex terms.
This simple creed demands no great trial of faith, arouses
as a rule no particular intellectual difficulties and is within
the compass of the meanest intelligence. Unencumbered
with theological subtleties, it may be expounded by any,
even the most unversed in theological expression. The
first half of it enunciates a doctrine that is almost universally
accepted by men as a necessary postulate, while the second
half is based on a theory of man's relationship to God that
is almost equally wide-spread, viz. that at intervals in the
world's history God grants some revelation of Himself to
men through the mouthpiece of inspired prophets. This,
the rationalistic character of the Muslim creed, and the
advantage it reaps therefrom in its missionary efforts, have
nowhere been more admirably brought out than in the
following sentences of Professor Montet :—
" Islam is a religion that is essentially rationalistic in the
widest sense of this term considered etymologically and
historically. The definition of rationalism as a system that
bases religious beliefs on principles furnished by the reason,
applies 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, — brought forward his reform as a
^ Doughty, vol. ii. p. 39.
- This was emphasised by Marracci in the seventeenth century. " Si
ethnicus mysteria humani inteilectus captum excedentia, vel natural!
conditioni et imbecillitati difficilUma, si non impossibilia, cum Alcoranica
doctrina comparaverit, statim ab iiis refugiet, et ad ilia obviis ulnis
accurret." (Alcorani textus . . . translatus, p. 9. Patavii, 1698.)
revelation : but this kind of revelation is only one form of
exposition and his religion has all the marks of a collection of
doctrines founded on the data of reason. To believers, the
Muhammadan creed is summed up in belief in the unity of
God 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, the minimum of religious
belief, statements that to the religious man rest on the firm
basis of reason, sum up the whole doctrinal teaching of the
Qur'an. The simplicity and the clearness of this teaching
are certainly among the most obvious forces at work in the
religion and the missionary activity of Islam. It cannot
be denied that many doctrines and systems of theology and
also many superstitions, from the worship of saints to the
use of rosaries and amulets, have become grafted on to the
main trunk of the Muslim creed. But in spite of the rich
development, in every sense of the term, of the teachings
of the Prophet, the Qur'an has invariably kept its place as
the fundamental starting-point, and the dogma of the unity
of God has always been proclaimed therein with a grandeur,
a majesty, an invariable purity and with a note of sure
conviction, which it is hard to find surpassed outside the
pale of Islam. This fidelity to the fundamental dogma of
the religion, the elemental simplicity of the formula in
which it is enunciated, the proof that it gains from the
fervid conviction of the missionaries who propagate it, are
so many causes to explain the success of Muhammadan
missionary efforts. A creed so precise, so stripped of all
theological complexities and consequently so accessible to
the ordinary understanding, might be expected to possess
and does indeed possess a marvellous power of winning its
way into the consciences of men." ^
Bishop Lefroy considers that the " secret of the extra-
ordinary power for conquest and advance which Islam has
in its best ages evinced " is to be found in its recognition of
the Existence of God rather than the Unity of God. " Not
so much that God is one as that God IS — that His existence
is the ultimate fact of the universe — that His will is supreme
^ Edouard Montet : La propaganda chretienne et ses adversaires
musulmans, pp. 17-18. (Paris, 1890.)
CAUSES OF THEIR SUCCESS 415
— His sovereignty absolute — His power limitless . . . the

conviction that, amidst all the chaos and confusion and
disorders of the world which so fearfully obscure it, there
is nevertheless, an ultimate Will, resistless, supreme, and
that man is called to be a minister of that Will, to promul-
gate it,to compel — if necessary by very simple and elemen-
tary means indeed — obedience to that Will — this it was
which welded the Mohammedan hosts into so invincible
an engine of conquest, which inspired them with a spirit
of military subordination and discipline, as well as with a
contempt of death, such as has probably never been sur-
passed in any system — this it is which, so far as it is still
in any true sense operative amongst Mohammadans, gives
at once that backbone of character, that firmness of deter-
mination and strength of will, and also that uncomplaining
patience and submission in the presence of the bitterest
misfortune, which characterise and adorn the best adherents
of the creed." ^
When the convert has accepted and learned this simple
creed, he has then to be instructed in the five practical
duties of his religion : (i) recital of the creed, (2) observance
of the five appointed times of prayer, (3) payment of the
legal alms, (4) fasting during the month of Ramadan,
and (5) the pilgrimage to Mecca.
The observance of this last duty has often been objected
to as a strange survival of idolatry in the midst of the
monotheism of the Prophet's teaching, but it must be borne
in mind that to him it connected itself with Abraham, whose
religion it was his mission to restore. ^ But above all — and
herein is its supreme importance in the missionary history
of Islam — it ordains a yearly gathering of believers, of all
nations and languages, brought together from all parts of
the world, to pray in that sacred place towards which their
faces are set in every hour of private worship in their distant
homes. No fetch of religious genius could have conceived
a better expedient for impressing on the minds of the faithful
a sense of their common life and of their brotherhood in the
bonds of faith. Here, in a supreme act of common worship,
^ Mankind and the Church, p. 283-4. (London, 1907.)
* Qur'an, ii. 118-26.
the Negro of the west coast of Africa meets the Chinaman
from the distant east; the courtly and poHshed Ottoman
recognises his brother Mushm in the wild islander from the
farthest end of the Malayan Sea. At the same time through-
out the whole Muhammadan world the hearts of believers
are lifted up in sympathy with their more fortunate brethren
gathered together in the sacred city, as in their own homes
they celebrate the festival of 'Id al-Adha or (as it is called
in Turkey and Egypt) the feast of Bayram. Their visit to
the sacred city has been to many Muslims the experience
that has stirred them up to " strive in the path of God,"
and in the preceding pages constant reference has been made
to the active part taken by the hajis in missionary work.
Besides the institution of the pilgrimage, the payment
of the legal alms is another duty that continually reminds
the Muslim that " the faithful are brothers " ^ — a religious
theory that is very strikingly realised in Muhammadan
society and seldom fails to express itself in acts of kindness
towards the new convert. Whatever be his race, colour
or antecedents he is received into the brotherhood of
believers and takes his place as an equal among equals.
It is not, however, true, as some European writers have
maintained, that if an unbeliever is the slave of a Muslim
his conversion to Islam procures for him his manumission,
for, according to Muhammadan law, the conversion of a
slave does not affect the prior state of bondage;^ and the
condition of the Muslim slave has varied much according
to the character of his master. But freedom is in many
instances the reward of conversion, and devout minds have
even recognised in enslavement God's guidance to the true
faith, as the negroes from the Upper Nile countries, whom
Doughty met in Arabia. " In those Africans there is no
resentment that they have been made slaves . . . even
though cruel men-stealers rent them from their parentage.
The patrons who paid their price have adopted them into
their households, the males are circumcised and — that
which enfranchises their souls, even in the long passion of
^ Qur'an, xlix. lo.

- W. H. Macnaghten : Principles and Precedents of Moohummudan Law,
p. 312. (Madras, 1882.)
CONCLUSION 417
home-sickness — God has visited them in their mishap ; they

can say ' it was His grace,' since they be thereby entered
into the saving rehgion. This, therefore, they think is the
better country, where they are the Lord's free men, a
land of more civil life, the soil of the two Sanctuaries,
the land of Mohammed :— for such they do give God thanks
that their bodies were sometime sold into slavery ! " ^
Very effective also, both in winning and retaining, is the
ordinance of the daily prayers five times a day. Montes-
quieu 2has well said, " Une religion chargee de beaucoup de
pratiques attache plus a elle qu'une autre qui Test moins;
on tient beaucoup aux choses dont on est continuelle-
ment occupe." The religion of the Muslim is continually
present with him and in the daily prayer manifests itself
in a solemn and impressive ritual, which cannot leave
either the worshipper or the spectator unaffected. Sa'id
b. Hasan, an Alexandrian Jew, who embraced Islam
in the year 1298, speaks of the sight of the Friday
prayer in a mosque as a determining factor in his own
conversion. During a severe illness he had had a vision
in which a voice bade him declare himself a Muslim. " And
when I entered the mosque " (he goes on) " and saw the
Muslims standing in rows like angels, I heard a voice speaking
within me, ' This is the community whose coming was
announced by the prophets (on whom be blessings and
peace !) ' ; and when the preacher came forth clad in his
black robe, a deep feeling of awe fell upon me . . . and when
he closed his sermon with the words, ' Verily God enjoineth
justice and kindness and the giving of gifts to kinsfolk, and
He forbiddeth wickedness and wrong and oppression. He
warneth you; haply ye will be mindful.' ^ And when the
prayer began, I was mightily uplifted, for the rows of
the Muslims appeared to me like rows of angels, to whose
prostrations and genuflections God Almighty was revealing
Himself, and I heard a voice within me saying, ' If God
spake twice unto the people of Israel throughout the ages,
verily He speaketh unto this community in every time of
^ Arabia Deserta, vol. i. pp. 554-5.

- De I'Esprit des Lois, livre xxv. chap. 2.
* Qur., chap. xvi. v. 92.
E E
prayer/ and I was convinced in my mind that I had been
created to be a Mushm," ^
If Renan could say, " Je ne suis jamais entre dans une
mosquee sans une vive emotion, le dirai-je ? sans un certain
regret de n'etre pas musulman," ^ it can be readily understood
how the sight of the Muslim trader at prayer, his frequent
prostrations, his absorbed and silent worship of the Unseen,
would impress the heathen African, endued with that strong
sense of the mysterious such as generally accompanies a low
stage of civilisation. Curiosity would naturally prompt
inquiry, and the knowledge of Islam thus imparted might
sometimes win over a convert who might have turned aside
had it been offered unsought, as a free gift. Of the fast
during the month of Ramadan, it need only be said that it
is a piece of standing evidence against the theory that Islam
is a religious system that attracts by pandering to the self-
indulgence of men. As Carlyle has said, " His religion is
not an easy one : with rigorous fasts, lavations, strict complex
formulas, prayers five times a day, and abstinence from
wine, it did not succeed by being an easy rehgion."
Bound up with these and other ritual observances, but
not encumbered or obscured by them, the articles of the
Mushm creed are incessantly finding outward manifestation
in the life of the believer, and thus, becoming inextricably
interwoven with the routine of his daily life, make the
individual Musalman an exponent and teacher of his creed
1 Goldziher, Sa'id b. Hasan d'Alexandrie. (Revue des Etudes Juives,

tome XXX. pp. 17-18.) (Paris, 1895).
* Ernest Renan : L'Islamisme et la Science, p. 19. (Paris, 1883.)
This has been emphasised by many observers, but it will be enough
here toin quote
comes contacttheforwords of an
the first timeeminent Christian bishop.
with Mohammedans " No
can fail to beonestruck
who
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.))
CONCLUSION 419
far more than is the case with the adherents of most other
rehgions.i Couched in such short and simple language, his
creed makes but little demand upon the intellect, 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 he
has fulfiled all the precepts of the Law. In this union of
rationalism and ritualism, we may find, to a great extent,
the secret of the power that Islam has exercised over the
minds of men. " If you would win the great masses give
them the truth in rounded form, neat and clear, in visible
and tangible guise." ^
Many other circumstances might be adduced that have
contributed towards the missionary success of Islam — cir-
cumstances peculiar to particular times and countries.
Among these may be mentioned the advantage that Mu-
hammadan missionary work derives from the fact of its
being so largely in the hands of traders, especially in Africa
and other uncivilised countries where the people are naturally
suspicious of the foreigner. For, in the case of the trader,
his well-known and harmless avocation secures to him an
immunity from any such feelings of suspicion, while his
knowledge of men and manners, his commercial savoir-faire,
gain for him a ready reception, and remove that feeling of
constraint which might naturally arise in the presence of
the stranger. He labours under no such disadvantages as
hamper the professed missionary, who is liable to be sus-
pected of some sinister motive, not only by people whose
range of experience and mental horizon are limited and to
whom the idea of any man enduring the perils of a long
journey and laying aside every mundane occupation for
the sole purpose of gaining proselytes, is inexplicable, but
also by more civilised men of the world who are very prone
to doubt the sincerity of the paid missionary agent.
The circumstances are very different when Islam has not
to appear as a suppliant in a foreign country, but stands
forth proudly as the religion of the ruling race. In the
^ " 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.)
* A. Kuenen : National ReUgions and Universal Religions, p. 35. (London,
1882.)
preceding pages it has been shown that the theory of the

Mushm faith enjoins toleration and freedom of rehgious hfe
for all those followers of other faiths who pay tribute in
return for protection, and though the pages of Muhammadan
history are stained with the blood of many cruel persecu-
tions, still, on the whole, unbehevers have enjoyed under
Muhammadan rule a measure of toleration, the hke of which
is not to be found in Europe until quite modern times.
Forcible conversion was forbidden, in accordance with the
precepts of the Qur'an :— " Let there be no compulsion in
religion " (ii. 257). " Wilt thou compel men to become
believers ? No soul can believe but by the permission of
God " (x. 99, 100). The very existence of so many Christian
sects and communities in countries that have been for
centuries under Muhammadan rule is an abiding testimony
to the toleration they have enjoyed, and shows that the
persecutions they have from time to time been called upon
to endure at the hands of bigots and fanatics, have been
excited by some special and local circumstances rather than
inspired by a settled principle of intolerance. ^
^ 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. (Maqrizi (2), Tome i.
Premiere 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 scriba-
rumque 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-rehgionists 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 Ton separe la doctrine religieuse de la necessite
politique qui souvent a parle et agi en son nom, il n'est pas de religion
plus tolerante, on pourrait presque dire plus indifferente sur la foi des
hommes que I'lslam. , Cette disposition organique est si forte qu'en dehors
des cas oii la raison d'Etat mise en jeu a porte les gouvernements musulmans
k se faire arme de tout pour tendre a I'unite de foi, la tolerance la plus
complete a eteaux
aux violences, la regie fournie
cruautes par ledans
commises dogme. . . . Qu'on
une occasion ne s'arrete
ou dans pas
une autre.
Si on y regarde de pres, on ne tardera pas k y decouvrir des causes toutes
politiques ou toutes de passion humaine et de temperament chez le souverain
ou dans les populations. Le fait rehgieux n'y est invoque que comme
pretexteet, en realite, il reste en dehors." (A. de Gobineau (i), pp. 24-5.)
CONCLUSION 421
At such times of persecution, the pressure of circumstances

has driven many unbehevers to become — outwardly at least
— Muhammadans, and many instances might be given of
individuals who, on particular occasions, have been harassed
into submission to the religion of the Qur'an. But such
oppression is wholly without the sanction of Muhammadan
law, either rehgious or civil. The passages in the Qur'an
that forbid forced conversion and enjoin preaching as the
sole legitimate method of spreading the faith have already
been quoted above (Introduction, pp. 5-6), and the same
doctrine is upheld by the decisions of the Muhammadan
doctors. When Moses Maimonides, who under the fanatical
rule of the Almohads had feigned conversion to Islam, fled
to Egypt and there openly declared himself to be a Jew, a
Muslim jurisconsult from Spain denounced him for his
apostasy and demanded that the extreme penalty of the
law should be inflicted on him for this offence ; but the case
was quashed by al-Qadi al-Fadil, 'Abd al-Rahim b. 'AH/
one of the most famous of Muslim judges, and the prime
minister of the great Saladin, who authoritatively declared
that a man who had been converted to Islam by force could
not be rightly considered to be a Mushm.^ In the same
spirit, when Ghazan (1295-1304) discovered that the Buddhist
monks who had become Muhammadans at the beginning of
his reign (when their temples had been destroyed) only
made a pretence of being converted, he granted permission
to all those who so wished to return to Tibet, where among
their Buddhist fellow-countrymen they would be free once
more to follow their own faith. ^ Tavernier tells us a similar
story of some Jews of Ispahan who were so grievously
persecuted by the governor " that either by force or cunning
he caused them to turn Mahometans; but the king (Shah
'Abbas II) (1642-1667), understanding that only power and
fear had constrained them to turn, suffer'd them to resume
their own rehgion and to hve in quiet." * A story of a much
earher traveller ^ in Persia, in 1478, shows how even in those
turbulent times a Muhammadan governor set himself to
1 For a biography of him, see Ibn MialUkan, vol. ii. pp. 111-15.
* Barhebraeus (2), pp. 417-18.
3 C. d'Ohsson, vol. iv. p. 281. ■• Tavernier (i), p. 160.
6 Viaggio di losafa Barbero nella Persia. (Ramusio, vol. ii. p. iii.)
severely crush an outburst of fanaticism of the same char-

acter. Arich Armenian merchant of the city of Tabriz was
sitting in his shop one day when a Haji.i with a reputation
for sanctity, coming up to him importuned him to become
a Musalman and abandon his Christian faith; when the
merchant expressed his intention of remaining steadfast
in his rehgion and offered the fellow alms with the hope of
getting rid of him, he replied that what he wanted was not
his alms but his conversion ; and at length, enraged at the
persistent refusal of the merchant, suddenly snatched a
sword out of the hand of a bystander and struck the mer-
chant a mortal blow on the head and then ran away. When
the Governor of the city heard the news, he was very angry
and ordered the murderer to be pursued and captured ; the
culprit having been brought into his presence, the governor
stabbed him to death with his own hand and ordered
his body to be cast forth to be devoured by dogs, saying :
" What ! is this the way in which the religion of Muhammad
spreads ? " At nightfall, the common people took up the
body and buried it, whereupon the Governor, enraged at this
contempt of his order, gave up the place for three or four
hours to be sacked by his soldiers and afterwards imposed
a fine as a further penalty; also he called the son of the
merchant to him and comforted him and caressed him with
good and kindly words. Even the mad al-Hakim (996-
1020), whose persecutions caused many Jews and Christians
to abandon their own faith and become Musalmans, after-
wards allowed these unwilling converts to return again to
their own religion and rebuild their ruined places of worship. ^
Neglected as the Eastern Christians have been by their
Christian brethren in the West, unarmed for the most part
and utterly defenceless, it would have been easy for any
of the powerful rulers of Islam to have utterly rooted out
^ If indeed by Azi is meant Haji.
" Makin, p. 260. Similarly, about a century before, al-Muqtadir (a.d.
908-932) gave orders for the rebuilding of some churches at Ramlah in
Palestine which had been destroyed by Muhammadans during a riot, the
cause of which is not recorded. (Eutychius, ii. p. 82.) Abu Salih makes
mention of the rebuilding of a great many churches and monasteries in Egypt
which had either been destroyed in time of war (e. g. during the invasion
of the Ghuzz and thCjKurds in 1164) (pp. 91, 96, 112, 120), been wrecked
by fanatics (pp. 85-6, 182, and Maqrizi quoted in the Appendix pp. 327-8),
or fallen into decay (pp.^5, 87, 103-4).
CONCLUSION 423
their Christian subjects or banished them from their domin-

ions, as the Spaniards did the Moors, or the Enghsh the
Jews for nearly four centuries. It would have been perfectly
possible for Sallm I (in 1514) or Ibrahim (in 1646) to have
put into execution the barbarous notion they conceived of
exterminating their Christian subjects, just as the former
had massacred 40,000 Shi'ahs with the aim of establishing
uniformity of religious belief among his Muhammadan
subjects. The muftis who turned the minds of their masters
from such a cruel purpose, did so as the exponents of Muslim
law and Muslim tolerance.^
Still, though the principle that found so much favour in
Germany in the seventeenth century 2— Cuius regio eius
religio, — was never adopted by any Muhammadan potentate,
it is obvious that the fact of Islam being the state religion
could not fail to have had some influence in increasing the
number of its adherents. Persons on whom their religious
faith sat lightly would be readily influenced by considerations
of worldly advantage, and ambition and self-interest would
take the place of more laudable motives for conversion.
St. Augustine made a similar complaint in the fifth century,
that many entered the Christian Church merely because
they hoped to gain some temporal advantage thereby :
" Quam multi non quaerunt lesum, nisi ut illis faciat bene
secundum tempus ! Alius negotium habet, quaerit inter-
cessionem clericorum; alius premitur a potentiore, fugit ad
ecclesiam ; alius pro se vult interveniri apud eum apud quem
parum valet : ille sic, ille sic; impletur quotidie talibus
ecclesia." ^
Moreover, to the barbarous and uncivilised tribes that saw
the glory and majesty of the empire of the Arabs in the
heyday of its power, Islam must have appeared as imposing
and have exercised as powerful a fascination as the Christian
faith when presented to the Barbarians of Northern Europe,
when " They found Christianity in the Empire — Christianity
refined and complex, imperious and pompous — Christianity
1 A. de la Jonquiere, pp. 203, 213, 312.

^ E. Charveriat : Histoire de la Guerre de Trente Ans, tome ii. pp. 615,
625. (Paris, 1878.)
3 In loannis Evangelium Tractatus, xxv. § 10,
enthroned by the side of kings, and sometimes paramount
above them." ^
Added to this must often have been the slow, persistent
influence of daily contact with Mushm life and thought,
such as led even a Nestorian writer of the twelfth century
to add words of blessing to the mention of the name of the
Prophet and the early cahphs.ând to pray for the mercy of
God on the cahph 'Umar b. 'Abd al-'Aziz.^ In modern
times Christian missionaries complain that the system of
public instruction in Egypt under the British occupation,
according to which " Christian boys are often compelled to
sit and listen to the Koran and Din (rehgious teaching) being
taught to their Moslem companions when there is no room
where they can be separated," ^ tends to give the Muhamma-
dans a preponderating influence over their Christian fellow-
students. One of the most active of the followers of the
late Mufti Muhammad 'Abduh was originally a Coptic
medical student, who had been won over to Islam through
the influence of the religious instruction he had heard given
in school hours. ^
But the recital of such motives as little accounts for all
cases of conversion in the one religion as in the other, and
they should not make us lose sight of other factors in the
missionary life of Islam, whose influence has been of a more
distinctly religious character. Foremost among these is
the influence of the devout lives of the followers of Islam.
Strange as it may appear to a generation accustomed to
look upon Islam as a cloak for all kinds of vice, it is never-
theless true that in earlier times many Christians who have
come into contact with a living Muslim society have been
profoundly impressed by the virtues exhibited therein ; if
these could so strike the traveller and the stranger, they
would no doubt have some influence of attraction on the
1 C.Merivale : The Conversion of the Northern Nations, p. I02. (London,

1866.)
^ Mari b. Sulayman, p. 62 (11. 4, 6, 13). The learned Maronite, Yusuf
Sim'an al-Sim'ani, in the eighteenth century, thus expressed his horror at
such a concession to Mushm sentiment: " Mahometi eiusque sectariorum
laudes persequitur, et quod sine horrore dici nequit, illius pseudo-
prophetae nomen es adiuncto praeconio memorat, quo Mahometani
Solent, nimirumÂ*sL,"i I 4.JLc." (Assemani, tom. iii, pars. i. p. 585.)
' Marl b. Sulayman, p. 65 (1. 16).
* Methods of Mission "Work among Moslems, p. 62. * Id. pp. 61-4.
CONCLUSION 425
unbeliever who came in daily contact with them. Ricoldus

de Monte Crucis, a Dominican missionary who visited the
East at the close of the thirteenth century, thus breaks out
in praise of the Muslims among whom he had laboured :
" Obstupuimus, quomodo in lege tante perfidie poterant
opera tante perfectionis inveniri. Referemus igitur hie
breviter opera perfectionis Sarracenorum. . . . Quis enim
non obstupescat, si dihgenter consideret, quanta in ipsis
Sarracenis solhcitudo ad studium, devocio in oratione,
misericordia ad pauperes, reverencia ad nomen Dei et
prophetas et loca sancta, gra vitas in moribus, affabilitas
ad extraneos, concordia et amor ad suos ? " ^ William
Petit of Newburgh in similar manner, towards the end
of the twelfth century, praised the sobriety of the Saracens
as the outcome of the teaching of their Prophet and as
inspiring them with a sense of moral superiority over the
Christians : " Gulosos vero atque ebriosos, orbi terrarum
graves abominatus, sobrietatem docuit, ciborum delicias
sugillavit, vini usum, praeterquam paucis certisque diebus
solemnibus, interdixit [Macometus]. Inde est, quod cum
Sarraceni in fiuxu libidinum de sui, ut dictum est, seduc-
toris indulgentia probentur esse spurcissimi ; nostris, proh
dolor ! in frugahtate superiores esse videntur, nobisque,
proh pudor ! comessationum et ebrietatum sordes impro-
perant. Denique malleus Christiani nominis Saladinus
ante annos aliquot, cum nostrorum mores explorans, audisset
quod pluribus in prandio fercuhs uterentur, dixisse fertur,
' tales Terra Sancta indignos esse,' Unde constat, quod
luxus nostrorum conspectus Agarenos, de frugahtate glori-
antes, contra nos incitet animetque tanquam dicentes ;
' Deus dereliquit crapulatos istos, persequamur et compre-
hendamus, quia non est qui eripiat.' " ^
The hterature of the Crusades is rich in such appreciations
of Muslim virtues, while the Ottoman Turks in the early days
of their rule in Europe received many a tribute of praise from
Christian Hps, as has already been shown in a former chapter.
At the present day there are two chief factors (beyond
such of the above-mentioned as still hold good) that make for
^ Laurent, p. 131.
^ Historia Rerum Anglicarum Willelmi Parvi de Newburgh, ed. Hans
Claude Hamilton, vol. ii. p. 158. (London, 1856.)
missionary activity in the Muslim world. The first of these
is the revival of religious life which dates from the WahhabI
reformation at the end of the eighteenth century ; though this
new departure has long lost all political significance outside
the confines of Najd, as a religious revival its influence is felt
throughout Africa, India and the Malay Archipelago even
to the present day, and has given birth to numerous move-
ments which take rank among the most powerful influences
in the Islamic world. In the preceding pages it has already
been shown how closely connected many of the modern
Muslim missions are with this wide-spread revival : the
fervid zeal it has stirred up, the new life it has infused into
existing religious institutions, the impetus it has given to
theological study and to the organisation of devotional
exercises, have all served to awake and keep alive the innate
proselytising spirit of Islam.
Side by side with this reform movement, is another of an
entirely different character — for, to mention one point of
difference only, while the former is strongly opposed to
European civilisation, the latter is rather in sympathy with
modern thought and offers a presentment of Islam in accord-
ance therewith, — viz. the Pan-Islamic movement, which
seeks to bind all the nations of the Muslim world in a common
bond of sympathy. Though in no way so significant as the
other, still this trend of thought gives a powerful stimulus
to missionary labours ; the effort to realise in actual life the
Muslim ideal of the brotherhood of all believers reacts on
collateral ideals of the faith, and the sense of a vast unity
and of a common life running through the nations inspirits
the hearts of the faithful and makes them bold to speak in
the presence of the unbelievers.
What further influence these two movements will have on
the missionary life of Islam, the future only can show. But
their very activity at the present day is a proof that Islam
is not dead. The spiritual energy of Islam is not, as has
been so often maintained, commensurate with its political
power.i On the contrary, the loss of pohtical power and
^ Frederick Denison Maurice was giving expression to one of the most
commonly received opinions regarding this faith when he said, " It has
been [proved that Mahometanism can only thrive while it is aiming at
conquest." (The Religions of the World, p. 28.) (Cambridge, 1852.)
CONCLUSION 427
worldly prosperity has served to bring to the front the finer

spiritual qualities which are the truest incentives to mission-
ary work. Islam has learned the uses of adversity, and so
far from a decline in worldly prosperity being a presage of
the decay of this faith, it is significant that those very
Mushm countries that have been longest under Christian
rule show themselves most active in the work of proselytising.
The Indian and Malay Muhammadans display a zeal and
enthusiasm for the spread of the faith, which one looks for
in vain in Turkey or Morocco.
APPENDIX I.
LETTER OF AL-HASHIMl INVITING AL-KINDI TO EMBRACE

ISLAM.
The following is the text of al-Hashimi's letter inviting

al-Kindi to embrace Islam :— " In the name of God,
the Merciful, the Compassionate. I have begun this letter
with the salutation of peace and blessing after the
fashion of m}^ lord and the lord of the prophets,
Muhammad, the Apostle of God (may the peace and mercy
of God be upon him !). For those trustworthy, righteous
and truthful persons who have handed down to us the
traditions of our Prophet (peace be upon him !) have
related this tradition concerning him that such was his habit
and that whenever he began to converse with men he would
commence with the salutation of peace and blessing and
made no distinction of dhimmis and ilhterate, between
Mushms and polytheists, saying ' I am sent to be kind and
considerate to all men and not to deal roughly or harshly
with them,' and quoting the words of God, ' Verily God
is kind and merciful to believers.' Likewise I have ob-
served that those of our lOialifahs that I have met, followed
the footsteps of their Prophet in courtesy, nobility, gracious-
ness and beneficence, and made no distinctions in this
matter and preferred none before another. So I have
followed this excellent way and have begun my letter with
the salutation of peace and blessing, that I be blamed of
none who sees my letter.
" I have been guided therein by my affection towards you
because my lord and prophet, Muhammad (may the peace
and mercy of God be upon him !) used to say that love of
kinsmen is true piety and religion. So I have written this
to you in obedience to the Apostle of God (may the peace
428
APPENDIX I 429
and mercy of God be upon him !), feeling bound to show

gratitude for the services you have done us, and because of
the love and affection and inclination that you show to-
wards us, and because of the favour of my lord and cousin
the Commander of the Faithful (may God assist him !)
towards you and his trust in you and his praise of you. So
in all sincerity desiring for you what I desire for myself, my
family and my parents, I will set forth the rehgion that we
hold, and that God has approved of for us and for all creatures
and for which He has promised a good reward in the end
and safety from pimishment when unto Him we shall return.
... So I have sought to gain for you what I would gain
for myself ; and seeing your high moral hfe, vast learning,
nobility of character, your virtuous behaviour, lofty qualities
and your extensive influence over your co-religionists, I
have had compassion on you lest you should continue in
your present faith. Therefore I have determined to set
before you what the favour of God has revealed to us and to
expound unto you our faith with good and gentle speech,
following the commandment of God, ' Dispute not with the
people of the book except in the best way.' (xxix. 45.) So
I will discuss with you only in words well-chosen, good and
mild ; perchance you may be aroused and return to the true
path and incline unto the words of the Most High God which
He has sent down to the last of the Prophets and lord of the
children of Adam, our Prophet Muhammad (the peace and
blessing of God be upon him !). I have not despaired of
success, but had hope of it for you from God who showeth
the right path to whomsoever He willeth, and I have prayed
that He may make me an instrument to this end. God in
His perfect book says ' Verily the religion before God is
Islam ' (iii. 17), and again, confirmin g His first saying,
' And whoso desireth any other religion than Islam, it shall
by no means therefore be accepted from him, and in the next
world he shall be among the lost ' (iii. 79), and again He
confirms it decisively, when He says, ' O behevers, fear God
as He deserveth to be feared ; and die not without having
become Muslims.' (iii. 97.)
"And you know— (May God deliver you from the ignorance
of unbehef and open your heart to the hght of faith !)—
430 APPENDIX I
that I am one over whom many years have passed and I
have sounded the depths of other faiths and weighed them
and studied many of their books especially your books."
[Here he enumerates the chief books of the Old and New
Testaments, and explains how he has studied the various
Christian sects.] " I have met with many monks, famous
for their austerities and vast knowledge, have visited many
churches and monasteries, and have attended their prayers.
... I have observed their extraordinary diligence, their
kneeling and prostrations and touching the ground with their
cheeks and beating it with their foreheads and humble
bearing throughout their prayers, especially on Sunday and
Friday nights, and on their festivals when they keep watch
all night standing on their feet praising and glorifying God
and confessing Him, and when they spend the whole day
standing in prayer, continually repeating the name of the
Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, and in the days of their re-
treats which they call Holy Week when they stand barefooted
in sackcloth and ashes, with much weeping and shedding of
tears continually, and wailing with strange cries. I have
seen also their sacrifices, with what cleanliness they keep the
bread for it, and the long prayers they recite with great
humility when they elevate it over the altar in the well-
known church at Jerusalem with those cups full of wine,
and I have observed also the meditations of the monks in
their cells during their six fasts, — i. e. the four greater and
the two less, etc. On all such occasions I have been present
and observant of the people. Also I have visited their
Metropolitans and Bishops, renowned for their learning and
their devotion to the Christian faith and extreme austerity
in the world, and have discussed with them impartially,
seeking for the truth, laying aside all contentiousness,
ostentation of learning and imperiousness in altercation and
bitterness and pride of race. I have given them opportunity
to maintain their arguments and speak out their minds with-
out interruption or browbeating, as is done by the vulgar
and ilhterate and foolish persons among our co-religionists
who have no principle to work up to or reasons on which to
rest, or rehgious feehng or good manners to restrain them
from rudeness ; their speech is but browbeating and proud
APPENDIX I 431
altercation and they have no knowledge or arguments except

taking advantage of the rule of the government. When-
ever Ihave held discussions with them and asked them to
speak freely as their reason, their creed and their conclusion
prompted, they have spoken openly and without deception
of any kind, and their inward feelings have been laid bare
to me as plainly as their outward appearance. So I have
written at such length to you (may God show you the better
way !) after long consideration and profound inquiry and
investigation, so that none may suspect that I am ignorant
of the things whereof I write and that all into whose hands
this letter may come, may know that I have an accurate
knowledge of the Christian faith.
"So, now (may God shower His blesshigs upon you !) with
this knowledge of your rehgion and so long-standing an
affection (for you), I invite you to accept the religion that
God has chosen for me and I for myself, assuring you
entrance into Paradise and deliverance from Hell. And
it is this, — You shall worship the one God, the only God,
the Eternal, He begetteth not, neither is He begotten,
who hath no consort and no son, and there is none like unto
Him. This is the attribute wherewith God has denominated
Himself, for none of His creatures could know Him better
than He Himself. I have invited you to the worship of this
the One God, whose attribute is such, and in this my letter
I have added nothing to that wherewith He has denominated
Himself (high and exalted be His name above what they
associate with Him !). This is the religion of your father
and our father, Abraham (may the blessings of God rest upon
him !), for he was a Hanif and Muslim.
" Then I invite you (may God have you in His keeping !) to
bear witness and acknowledge the prophetic mission of my
lord and the lord of the sons of Adam, and the chosen one of
the God of all worlds and the seal of the prophets, Muhammad
. . . sent by God with glad tidings and warnings to all man-
kind. He
' it is who hath sent His Apostle with the guid-
ance and a rehgion of the truth, that He may make it victori-
ous over every other rehgion, albeit they who assign partners
to God be averse from it.' (ix. 33.) So he invited all men
from the East and from the West, from land and sea, from
432 APPENDIX I
mountain and from plain, with compassion and pity and

good words, with kindly manners and gentleness. Then all
these people accepted his invitation, bearing witness that he
is the apostle of God, the Creator of the worlds, to those who
are willing to give heed to admonition. All gave willing
assent when they beheld the truth and faithfulness of his
words, and sincerity of his purpose, and the clear argument
and plain proof that he brought, namely the book that was
sent down to him from God, the like of which cannot be
produced by men or Jinns. ' Say : Assuredly if mankind
and the Jinns should conspire to produce the like of this
Qur'an, they could not produce its hke, though the one
should help the other.' (xvii. 91.) And this is sufficient
proof of his mission. So he invited men to the worship of
the One God, the only God, the Self-sufficing, and they
entered into his religion and accepted his authority without
being forced and without unwilhngness, but rather humbly
acknowledging him and soliciting the light of his guidance,
and in his name becoming victorious over those who denied
his divine mission and rejected his message and scornfully
entreated him. So God set them up in the cities and sub-
jected to them the necks of the nations of men, except those
who hearkened to them and accepted their religion and bore
witness to their faith, whereby their blood, their property
and their honour were safe and they were exempt from
humbly paying jizyah." [He then enumerates the various
ordinances of Islam, such as the five daily prayers, the fast
of Ramadan, Jihad ; expounds the doctrine of the resurrec-
tion of the dead and the last judgment, and recounts the
joys of Paradise and the pains of Hell.] " So I have ad-
monished you : if you believe in this faith and accept
whatever is read to you from the revealed Word of God,
then you will profit from my admonition and my writing to
you. But if you refuse and continue in your unbelief and
error and contend against the truth, I shall have my reward,
having fulfilled the commandment. And the truth will
judge you." [He then enumerates various religious duties
and privileges of the Muslim, and concludes.] " So now in
this my letter I have read to you the words of the great and
high God, which are the words of the Truth, whose promises
APPENDIX I 433
cannot fail and in whose words there is no deceit. Then give
up your unbehef and error, of which God disapproves and
which calls for punishment, and speak no more of Father,
Son, and Holy Ghost, these words that you yourself admit
to be so confusing : and give up the worship of the cross
which brings loss and no profit, for I wish you to turn away
from it, since your learning and nobility of soul are degraded
thereby. For the great and high God says : ' Verily, God
will not forgive the union of other gods with Himself; but
other than this will He forgive to whom He pleaseth. And
whoso uniteth gods with God, hath devised a great wicked-
ness.' (iv. 51.) And again : ' Surely now are they infidels
who say, " 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 from Paradise, and their abode the Fire ; and
for the wicked 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 refrain not from what they say, a grievous
chastisement shall assuredly befall such of them as believe
not. Will they not, therefore, turn unto God, and ask pardon
of Him ? since God is Forgiving, Merciful ! The Messiah,
Son of Mary, is but an Apostle ; other Apostles have flourished
before him; and his mother was a just person; they both
ate food.' (v. 76-9.) Then leave this path of error and
this long and stubborn chnging to your rehgion and those
burdensome and wearisome fasts which are a constant
trouble to you and are of no use or profit and produce
nothing but weariness of body and torment of soul. Em-
brace this faith and take this, the right and easy path, the
true faith, the ample law and the way that God has chosen
for His favoured ones and to which He has invited the people
of all religions, that He may show His kindness and favour
to them by guiding them into the true path by means of
His guidance, and fill up the measure of His goodness unto
men.
" So I have advised you and paid the debt of friendship and
sincere love, for I have desired to take you to myself, that
you and I may be of the same opinion and the same faith,
for I have found my Lord saying in his perfect Book :
FF
434 APPENDIX I
' Verily the unbelievers 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. But
they verily who beheve and do the things that are right —
these of all creatures are the best. Their recompense with
their Lord shall be gardens of Eden, 'neath which the rivers
flow, in which they shall abide for evermore. God is well
pleased with them, and they with Him. This, for him who
feareth his Lord.' (xcviii. 5-8.) ' Ye are the best folk
that hath been raised up for mankind. Ye enjoin what is
just, and ye forbid what is evil, and ye beheve in God :
and if the people of the book had believed, it had surely been
better for them. BeHevers there are among them, but most
of them are disobedient.' (iii. 106.) So I have had com-
passion upon you lest you might be among the people of
Hell who are the worst of all creatures, and I have hoped
that by the grace of God you may become one of the true
believers with whom God is well pleased and they with Him,
and they are the best of all creatures, and I have hoped that
you will join yourself to that rehgion which is the best of the
rehgions raised up for men. But if you refuse and persist
in your obstinacy, contentiousness and ignorance, your
infidehty and error, and if you reject my words and refuse
the sincere advice I have offered you (without looking for
any thanks or reward) — then write whatever you wish
to say about your religion, all that you hold to be true and
estabhshed by strong proof, without any fear or appre-
hension, without curtailment of your proofs or concealment
of your behefs; for I purpose only to listen patiently to
your arguments and to yield to and acknowledge all that
is convincing therein, submitting willingly without refusing
or rejecting or fear, in order that I may compare your
account and mine. You are free to set forth your case;
bring forward no plea that fear prevented you from making
your arguments complete and that you had to put a bridle
on your tongue, so that you could not freely express your
arguments. So now you are free to bring forward all your
arguments, that you may not accuse me of pride, injustice
or partiality : for that is far from me.
" Therefore bring forward all the arguments you wish and
APPENDIX I 435
say whatever you please and speak your mind freely. Now
that you are safe and free to say whatever you please,
appoint some arbitrator who will impartially judge between
us and lean only towards the truth and be free from the
empery of passion : and that arbitrator shall be Reason,
whereby God makes us responsible for our own rewards and
punishments. Herein I have dealt justly with you and have
given you full security and am ready to accept whatever
decision Reason may give for me or against me. For ' there
is no compulsion in religion ' (ii. 257) and I have only
invited you to accept our faith willingly and of your own
accord and have pointed out the hideousness of your present
belief. Peace be with you and the mercy and blessings of
God ! "
There can be very little doubt but that this document has
come down to us in an imperfect condition and has suffered
mutilation at the hands of Christian copyists : the almost
entire absence of any refutation of such distinctively Chris-
tian doctrines as that of the Blessed Trinity, and the refer-
ences to such attacks to be found in al-Kindi's reply, cer-
tainly indicate the excision of such passages as might have
given offence to Christian readers. ^
1 Similarly, the Spanish editor of the controversial letters that passed
between Alvar and " the transgressor " (a Christian convert to Judaism),
adds the following note after Epist. xv. : " Quatuordecim in hac pagina
ita abrasae sunt liniae, ut nee verbum unum legi possit. Folium subse-
quens exsecuit possessor codicis, ne transgressoris deliramenta legeren-
tur." (Migne, Patr. Lat., tom. cxxi. p. 483.)
APPENDIX 11.
CONTROVERSIAL LITERATURE BETWEEN MUSLIMS AND

THE FOLLOWERS OF OTHER FAITHS.
Although Islam has had no organised system of propa-

ganda, no tract societies or similar agencies of missionary
work, there has been no lack of reasoned presentments of
the faith to unbelievers, particularly to Christians and Jews.
Of these it is not proposed to give a detailed account here,
but it is of importance to draw attention to their existence
if only to remove the wide-spread misconception that mass
conversion is the prevailing characteristic of the spread of
Islam and that individual conviction has formed no part of
the propagandist schemes of the Muslim missionary. The
beginnings of Muhammadan controversy against unbelievers
are to be found in the Qur'an itself, but from the ninth
century of the Christian era begins a long series of syste-
matic treatises of Muhammadan Apologetics, which has
been actively continued to the present day. The number
of such works directed against the Christian faith has been
far more numerous than the Christian refutations of Islam,
and some of the ablest of Muslim thinkers have employed
their pens in their composition, e. g. Abu Yusuf b. Ishaq
al-Kindl (a.d. 813-873), al-Mas'Mi (ob. a.d. 958), Ibn Hazm
(a.d. 994-1064), al-Qiazali (ob. a.d. iiii), etc. It is inter-
esting also to note that several renegades have written
apologies for their change of faith and in defence of the
Muslim creed, e. g. Ibn Jazlah in the eleventh century,
YiJLSuf al-Lubnani and ShayMi Ziyadah b. Yahya in the
thirteenth, 'Abd Allah b. 'Abd Allah in the fifteenth,
Darwesh 'Ali in the sixteenth, Ahmad b. 'Abd Allah, an
Englishman born at Cambridge, in the seventeenth century,
etc. These latter were all Christians before their conver-
436
APPENDIX II 437
sion, but Jewish renegades also, though fewer in number,
have been among the apologists of Islam. In India, besides
many Muhammadan books written against the Christian
religion, there is an enormous number of controversial works
against Hinduism : as to whether the Muhammadans have
been equally active in other heathen countries, I have no
information.
The reader will find a vast store of information on Muslim
controversial literature in the following writings : Moritz
Steinschneider : Polemische und apologetische Litteratur in
arabischer Sprache, zwischen Muslimen, Christen und Juden.
(Leipzig, 1877) ; Ignaz Goldziher : Uber Muhammedanische
Polemik gegen Ahl al-kitab (Z.D.M.G., vol. 32, p. 341 ff.
1878) ; Martin Schreiner : Zur Geschichte der Polemik
zwischen Juden und Muhammedanern (Z.D.M.G., vol. 42,
p. 591 ff. 1888) ; W. A. Shedd : Islam and the Oriental
Churches, pp. 252-3 ; Carl Giiterbock : Der Islam in Lichte
der byzantinischen Polemik. (Berlin, 1912.)
APPENDIX III.
MUSLIM MISSIONARY SOCIETIES.
The formation of societies for carrying on a propaganda

in an organised and systematic manner is a recent develop-
ment in the missionary history of Islam — as indeed it is
comparatively recent in the history of Christian missions.
Such Muslim missionary societies would appear to have been
formed in conscious imitation of similar organisations in
the Christian world, and are not in themselves the most
characteristic expressions of the missionary spirit in Islam.
In the Western world there is very little to note. No attempt
seems to have been made to form such a society before the
latter half of the nineteenth century, and the earliest efforts
were attended with little success. When H. M. Stanley in
1875 urged in the English Press the sending of a Christian
mission to King Mutesa of Uganda, the wide-spread attention
paid to his appeal led to the formation of a missionary
society in Constantinople for the propagation of Islam in
that country, but no Muhammadan missionaries were ever
sent to Uganda, and the outbreak of the Russo-Turkish
war in 1878 diverted the attention of the Turks from any
such enterprise. 1 A similar failure to establish organised
missionary effort was manifested when the Anglo-Egyptian
Government of the Sudan marked out zones of influence for
various Christian missionary societies in districts the natives
of which were heathen ; some Muslims of Cairo claimed that
a part of the territory should be allotted to the followers of
Islam; whereupon the Government replied that all they
had to do was to send the missionaries and the same facilities
would be afforded to them as to the Christian missionaries ;
but the necessary organisation was lacking and the matter
was allowed to drop.^ In 1910 Shaykh Rashid, the editor of
al-Mandr, founded a missionary society in Cairo, the object
of which is to establish a college (entitled Day al-dawah
1 Richter, pp. 164-5. * Artin, p. 35.
438
APPENDIX III 439
wa'l-irshdd) for the training of missionaries and apologists

for Islam, who are to be sent primarily into heathen and
Christian lands, but also into those Muhammadan countries
in which attempts are being made to induce the Muhamma-
dans to abandon their faith. ^
But it is in India that there has been the greatest expan-
sion of such organisations. One of the best organised of
these is probably the Anjuman Himayat-i-Islam of Lahore,
but propagandist work forms only a small part of the wide
field of its activities and it cannot therefore be described as
a missionary society pure and simple. The original purpose
for which the Anjuman Hami Islam of Ajmer was founded
was to answer the objections urged against Islam by the
members of the Arya Samaj, but it included among its
objects the preaching of Islam and the providing of food
and clothing to new converts. ^ The Anjuman Wa'j^-i-Islam,
as its name denotes, concentrated its efforts on the preaching
of Islam, and, while Mawlavi Baqa Husayn Hian (p. 283)
was its Secretary, published lists of the converts gained — as
did also the Anjuman-i-Islam and the Anjuman Tabllgh-i-
Islam (which aimed at the conversion of the Hindu untouch-
ables) established in Haydarabad (Deccan), but it does not
appear that either of these societies continues to exist. ^
Among the societies that have been established in the
twentieth century are the Madrasa Ilahiyyat at Cawnpore,
for the training of missionaries and the publication of tracts
in defence of Islam and in refutation of attacks made upon
it; and the Anjuman Ishaat wa Ta'llm-i-lslam at Batalah
in the Panjab, with similar objects. But the largest of
these organisations is the Anjuman Hidayat al-Islam of
Dehli, to which as many as twenty-four other societies,* in
various parts of India, are affiliated; this Anjuman sends out
missionaries to preach the doctrines of Islam and to hold
controversies with non-Muslims, and publishes controversial
literature, especially in refutation of the attacks made by
the members of the Arya Samaj.
^ The Moslem World, vol. i. p. 441.
R. du M. M., vol. XV. p. 374; vol. xviii. pp. 216, 224.
^ Rajputana Herald, April 17, 1889.
^ Mohammedan World of To-day, p. 183.
* A list of these is given on p. 19 of the Annual Report for the year
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i
INDEX.
Aaron, Jacobite Bishop, 87 Ahl al-Kitab, 207
Abaqa Kian. 229 Ahmad, Tun jar Arab in Darfur, 322
Ahmad b. Idris, 327
'Abd al-'Aziz b. Marwan, governor
of Egypt, 63, 66 Ahmad Graii, 113, 115-116
'Abd al-Karim, founder of the Ahmad Mujaddid, 412
kingdom of Wadai, 322 Ahmad Shanurazah, first Muham-
'Abd al-MaUk, caUph, 63, 66, 81, madan king of the Maldive
313 Islands, 270
'Abd al-Masih b. Ishaq al-Kindi, Ahmad Takudar. See Takudar
84-5, 428 Ahmadu Shaykhu. 330
'Abd al-Qadir al-Jilani, 271, 274, Akbar, 259, 262, 292
328, 329 AWital, court poet, 63
'Abd al-Rahim b. 'Ali, on forcible Albanians,
Alfurs, 390, 62,393 177-92
conversion to Islam, 421
'Abd al-Rahman, head of the 'All b. Abi TaUb, 12, 13
Imperial finances in China, 297 'All Muâyat Shah, king of Atjeh,
'Abd al-Rahman al-Samiri, reputed 367
Hindu king, 265 Almohad dynasty, 316, 421
'Abd Allah, first Muslim king of Almoravid dynasty, 142-3, 314,
Baghirmi, 322 316, 317
Alvar, 138, 142
'Abd Allah b. Isma'il al-Hashimi, Amboina, 389
letter to al-Kindi, 84-5, 428-35
'Abd Allah b. Mas'ud, 15 Amir^âniyyah order, 327
'Abd Allah b. Maymun, 211, 213 Amiroutzes,
239 George, 160
'Abd Allah b. Yasin, 331 Ampel, in Java, 381, 383, 384
Abkhazes, loi Ananda, viceroy of Kan-su, 227,
Abii Bakr, caliph, 12, 45
Abu'l-Faraj b. al-Ja\vzi, 75 Anjumans in India, 286, 439
Abu'l-Hasan Mihyar, converted, Antivari, 177, 180, 187, 188, 189,
210 191
Abu Nuh al"Anbari, Christian Arab conquest of Byzantine empire,
secretary, 64 54-6 ; of Egypt, 102 ; of North
Abu Tahb, 13-14, 15, 19 Africa, 121, 125-16, 312-13; of
Abyssinia, Bilal, the first-fruits of, Persia, 47-8
15. 29 Arab conquests, not missionary,
Abyssinia, flight to, 15-16
Abyssinia, Islam in, 1 13-21, 410 Arab society in the time of Muham-
Achin. See Atjeh 45-7 mad, 31-2, 42-3
Adal, Muhammadan Kingdom, 114, Arab traders, as proselytisers, 353
115
sq. See also Merchants
Adamaua, 325 Arab tribes, conversion of, 32-3, 35-
Ad , iland, 404 ,
ic uage tion
Adoptionism, in Spain, 139 Arab lang adop of, a
Adrianople, 159 possible aid to the spread of
Afghans, conversion to Islam, 217; Islam, 73, 137-9
in Bengal, 279 Arabs, Christian, converted to
Africa, Church of North, 12 1-7, Islam, 47-50
129-30; Islam in, 102-30, 312- Arabs, in Africa: — Abyssinia, 114;
62 ; Partition of, facilitates East Coast, 340-3 ; Nubia, no,
41
112; Somaliland, 350; Sudan,
spread of Islam, 333, 340, 345-6,
361-2 320,321,322,331 ; Uganda, 344 ;—
457
INDEX
458
in China, 294-6, 297, 363 ; in Bengal,
Berberah,277-80,
350 288
India, 255, 256, 263-6, 269-273;
in Indo-China, 376; in Malay Berbers, Christianity among, 122;
Archipelago, 364-5, 366, 371, Islam among, 312-16; in the
Sudan, 317, 321
373. 376. 378. 388, 391, 397-8,
401, 404; in Malay Peninsula, Bilal, 14-15, 29
373 Bintara, in Java, 383
Arghons, 293 Bishnois, Hindu sect, 263
Arghun. fourth jlkhan. 232, 239; Bizzi, Marco, in Albania, 180-3
persecutes Muhammadans, 226 Bodh Mai, Raja of Majhauli, 262
Arianism, in Spain, 134 Bogomiles, 198-200
Armatoli, 62 Bohra sect, 275-7
Armenians, Bolaang-Mongondou, in Celebes,
Arslan Khan viii. n.'^, 96-7,
b. Qadr Khan. 176,
216 229
Aru, in Sumatra, 367, 368 Borneuo,, 390-2
Arya Damar, 380, 381, 382 Born n 320 «.*, 322, 355
Ashanti, 339 Boru tribe, 411
Assam, 282 a9,6n-a
Bosanhi3m ad,198-201
a 816b8,
Athanasius, of Edessa, builds Br 272
churches, 63, 66 Brunai, in Borneo, 391
aries,
Atjeh, 366, 367, 369, 375, 376, 394 Buckle, on Muslim mission
Aurangzeb, 254, 260, 292
Azhar, mosque of al-, 328, 355 Buddhism
405 in conflict with Islam,
220, 225, 227
Baduwis, in Java, 386 Buddhists, converted to Islam, 227,
114
Ba'eda Maryam, king of Abyssinia, 233. 293. 376, 421
Bugis, in Borneo, 392 ; in Celebes,
Baele tribe, 335
Baganda, Islam among the, 344 393, 395-6, 397; in Lombok,
am, a wealth y hristian, uilds
Baghirmi, 322-3 Bukchurches, 67 C b
Bakhtiyar Khilji. 277
Balambangan, kingdom in Java, Bukhara, conquered by Arabs, 213;
j i u n, sacked by the Mongols, 218;
a
Bala3s82
g
216 398
Saljuqs accept Islam here, 216
Bali, island, 384, 404 Bulandshahr, 257, 260
s e , k,
Balineyun, in Lombo 398-9 Bulgarians, 242-3
Baliy n, 113 Buraq Khan. 235
t a
Baltias ra, 292-3 Byzantine government, 53-5, 72-3 ;
Bamb re, 321 in Africa, 104, 106, 124; in
o
Bangal masin,285 Greece, 147-8.
om ,
Banjar kingd in Borneo
Calvinism and Islam, 155, 162-3
Ban39 m,
ta0- 1 in Java, 385, 386 Cambodia,
Canton, 296296 n.^
Banu Ghassan, 47, 52
Banu Namir, 48, 49 Cape Colony, 3, 350-2
Banu Ta^libi. , 49-50 Capitation-tax in Albania, 182,
Banu Tanukl 50 189; in Turkey, 152-4. See
adan
Baptism of Muhamm children,
181, 187. Catherine II, 247
Jizyah
Baraba Tatars, 253 Celebes, 404
Ceram, 392-8
Baraka Iîan, 223, 224, 227-g, 239,
240 Ceylon, Islam234in, 266 «.®
Chaghatay.
Bashkirs, in Hungary, 193-4; iî
Russia, 250 Chalcedon, Council of, 53, 102
Bataks, 369-70, 372 Champa, 380
Bayazid, Sultan of Turkey, 193
Baybars, Mamluk Sultan of Egypt, Chams, 296 n.^7, 136, 139
Charlemagne,
223, 228, 229 Cheribon, 380, 385
Baydu Khan, 232-3 Cherimiss, 250-1
Chermen, 378
Belgaum, 271
Belloos, 1 12-13 Cherumans, 268
INDEX 459
China, Islam in, 227, 294-311 Conversion, forced, to Islam, ab-
Chinese, in Borneo, 392 ; in Java, sence of, vindicated by con-
379; in Mindanao, 401 «.* temporary evidence, 81-2, 157-8,
Chingiz Khan. 218, 220, 225, 301 173-4
Chittagong, 278 Conversion, forced, to Islam, con-
Christian Arabs, converted to demned, 5-6, 85 «.*, 158, 421-3
Islam, 47-50 ; in alliance with Conversion, forced, to Islam, in
Muslim Arabs, 47-9, 62 ; in Albania, 182, 190; in India, 254,
modern times, 52 ; persecuted, 260-2, 268, 278; in Kashmir,
stia
n ed
gy onvert a, o slam, 292; in Morocco, 126; in Mugha-
Chri 50 c;ler c i n i t I listan, 238; in Tunis, i26«.*;
s
84,yp8t6,-7 ;in Abys in, 1145;; in in Turkey, 150, 166, 174
Eg y, 92 in Spa 13 in Conversion of Muslims to Chris-
e
T1u69rk n 159, 165, 166, 168sin«.g", tianity, in Crete, 201
stia s
ensie as predisp
o
Copts, 102-9
Chri e rhseiro m , Crete, viii. n.^, 201-5
to co n v to Is l a 10 5 , 134, Crimea, Islam in the, 245
200
161, 199- Crusaders,
Cutch, 275, 88-92 277
Christian officials employed by
Muhammadan governments, 62- Cyprus, Copts in, accept Islam,
4; in Egypt, 107; in Spain, 135 108 n.^; under Venetian rule,
Christian soldiers in Muhammadan
service, during the Crusades, 91,
96; in North Africa, 129-30; Daghistan,
147 w.* 271100
in Spain, 135; in Turkey, 62, Dahanu,
Dahomey, 339
151 n.^, 179; exempted from the Damascus, 55, 65
payment of capitation-tax, 61-2
Christianity, forced conversion to. Danagla Arabs, no n.'
See Conversion, forced Daniel, Bishop of Khabur, 87
Christians converted to Islam, in Darfur, 322, 354, 355
Borneo, 392 ; in Celebes, 396-8 ; Dasavatar, sacred book of the
in India, 269 ; in Sumatra, 370. Khojahs, 274
See also Christian clergy Daylam, 210
Christians prefer Muslim to Chris- Deccan, merchants from the, in the
tian rule, 155-7; iri Byzantine Malay Archipelago, 364
empire, under
Greece 54-6, 96, Prankish 147-8; and in Dhimmis, 57-61, 66, 75-6, 77 «.*,
83, 207. See also Christians
Venetian rule, 147; in Hungary, under Muslim Rule, Zoroastrians
155; in Spain, 132; in Servia, Dongola, no, 327
194-5; in Transylvania, 155 Dought}',
Christians under Muslim rule, con- Dudekulas, quoted,
267 347, 413, 416-17
dition of, 49-50. 52, 54-69. 75- Dutch, in the Malay Archipelago,
84, 95-100. 103-4, 106-9, 121-2, 369. 372, 397-8, 405-7
Colony
125-7, 129-44, 146-60, 178- Dutch-speaking Muslims. See Cape
84, 189, 194-7. 203-5, 207, 422.
See also Dhimmis Dyaks, 392
Churches built in Muhammadan
countries, 57 «.*, 65-8, 109, Egypt, Christians under Muslim
135. 422 251 w.* rule, 102-4, 106-9; churches
Chuvash, built, 66-7, 109, 422 n.^
Circassians, loo-i Egypt, Jacobite Christians of.
Constantine, Tsarevitch of Kakheth, See Copts
becomes Muslim, 99
Controversies between Christians Felix, Bishop of Urgel, 139
and Muslims, 83-5, 108, 226, Fire-temples, in Persia, 209-11
227 «.*, 436-7 Firuz
Flores,Shah
396 Tughlaq. 258
Conversion, forced, to Christianity,
in Abyssinia, 114, 116, 119-20; Fulbe, condition in eighteenth
in Amboina, 7-8 ; in Europe, century, 323-4 ; in nineteenth
7—8, 194 ; in the Galla country, century, 325 ; destroy Hausa
348 ; in the Philippine Islands, 401 records, 319; missionary activity.
INDEX
460
333, 353-4; on West Coast of Hausas, 319-20, 321, 325; as
Africa, 340 proselytisers,
229 320, 333, 339; on
Funj, empire of the, iii, 113, 337 West Coast of Africa, 340
Futah-Jallon, 328, 330 Haydar 'All, 254, 261, 268
Hay ton, king of Armenia, 221,
Gabriel, Christian physician of Heraclius, 28, 48, 53-4, 70 n.^, 207
Harun al-Rashid, 64 Hinduism and Islam, in India,
Gabriel, Metropolitan of Fars, 86 Hirah,
254-9150 ; in Java, 384-6
Gallas, 348-9; in Abyssinia, 1 16-17,
347 Hisham, caliph, 295
Galley-slaves, 173 Hottentots, 351
Gennadios, Patriarch of Constan- Hui Hui, 295
tinople, 146 HQlagu, 221, 228, 229, 240
George, Bishop of Bahrayn, 86 Hungary, Calvinists of, 155;
Georgians, 97-100, 165 n.^ Muslims in, 160 n.^, 193-4
Gerganos, 164 Hunyady, John, 193, 195
German East Africa, 345-6, 410
Ghazan, 232—4, 421 Ibn Hanbal, 74
Gilolo, 390 Ibn Khurdadbih. 211
Giri, 382 Ibn Tumart, 316
Gold Coast, 339
Golden Horde, 220, 227, 239 Ibrahim, Christian, in charge of
Gowa, in Celebes, 393, 395 Bayt al-Mal, 63
Ibrahim I, Sultan of Turkey, 423
Graii. See Ahmad Gran
J
Idaans, tribe in Borneo, 391-2
Greece,
26, 29 the first-fruits of, Suhayb, Ijebu country. South Nigeria, 326
Greek Christians exempted from Ilik-Khans. dynasty, 215, 216
payment of capitation-tax, 62 Ilorin, 325
Ilkhan dynasty, 223, 226, 229-34
Greek Church, attempt to Calvinise
the, 161-4; under Byzantine rule India, 212, 254-91, 439; Islam
in fifteenth century, 159; under introduced into Malay Archi-
Turkish rule in seventeenth cen- pelago from, 364
tury, 167, 169; in Bosnia, 168; Indo-China, Islam in, 376
in Crete, under Venetian rule, Intolerance condemned, 209. See
203 ; in Servia, 196 also Forced conversion, to Islam,
condemned
Greeks, in the Crimea, 245 ; under 81
Turkish rule, 145-55, 160 Isho'-yabh III, Nestorian Patriarch,
Gresik, 378, 379, 381, 382, 389
Grodno, Muslims in, 3 Islam, brotherhood of, 42-3, 75,
Guinea Coast, 338-9 340. 356, 357. 416
Gujarat, spread of Islam in, 275-7 Islam, causes of spread of, 413-26;
Gulbarga, 271 in Africa, 353-8, 362 ; in Albania,
182, 184, 190; in Arabia, 35, 41;
in Bosnia, 200 ; in Egypt, 94,
Hadi, cahph, 84 105-6, 108-9; in India, 279,
Hafs b. al-Walid, governor of 287-91 ; in the Malay Archi-
Egypt, and the Christians, 103-4 pelago, 365, 400, 405, 407; in
Haji Purwa, 378 Spain, 132; in Turkey, 157-8,
Hajis, and missionary activity, 416 ; 160, 166, 172-5; under the
in Africa, 330, 354; in the Malay Umayyads and 'Abbasids, 70-5,
Archipelago, 405-6; in Java,
377; in Sambawa, 398; in Islam, a missionary religion, i, 11,
Sumatra, 369, 370, 371 29, 42-4, 409
Islam, ritualism of, 417-19
JJajj 'Umar.
Hakim, 8, 422330, 332, 333 Islam, an.ûniversal religion, 28-30
Halemahera, 390 79
Harar, 335, 350 Isma'il
North b.Africa,
'Abd 314
Allah, governor of
Hardatta, 257
Isma'ilian missionaries, 211-13;
Harun al-Rashid, 64, 84 ; oppresses in India, 212, 274-6; in Kashmir,
the Christians, 76; permits erec- 291
tion of churches, 67 Israel, Christian official, 64
I
INDEX
Jacobite Church, in Abyssinia, 113- Kashgar, Islam in, 215, 235, 238
21; in Egypt, 69, 102-9; in Kashmir,
Kastriota, 291-2
Nubia, 109-13; in Persia, 69, 67 George, 177
81-2, 207; recent statistics, 80 Katsena, 320
Jacobus Manopo, first Christian Kazaks, 238
king of Bolaang-Mongondou, Kazan,
Kei 247-9,404
Islands, 252, 411 461
396
Jacobus Manuel Manopo, first Khadijah. 12, 18
MusHm king of Bolaang-Mon- Khalid al-Qasri, erects a church,
gondou, 397
Jagâbub, 334, 335 WiaUd b. al-Walid. 46; at Hirah,
Jains converted to Islam, 271 50-1 ing,; 217Afghan legend concern-
Jalal al-Din Muhammad Shah, king Ehuraj, 83
of Bengal, 278 Khazars. 243
Jamal al-Din, first Muslim king of
Tidor, 388 Wiiljis, Islam under the, 257-8
James II, king of England, invited Khiva, 214, 246
to embrace Islam, 409 n.^ Khojah sect, 274-5
Janissaries, corps of, 150-1, 167 Khokand, 246
Jarrah b.'Abd Allah, governor of Khotan, 216, 238, 296 n.^
Khurasan. 83 Wiurasan, conversion of Christians
Jatmall, becomes a Muhammadan,
of, 81-2
K'ien Lung, emperor of China, 304,
277-8
Java, 364, 377-87 305
Jawej, Abyssinian chief, 118 Kdoa, 340, 342
Jenne, 318 Kindi.
Jerusalem, 59, 90 al-KindiSee 'Abd al-Masih b. Ishaq
Jews, attempt the conversion of the Kirghiz, 238, 245-7, 253
Russians, 243 ; forced to become Kocch tribe, converted to Islam,
Muslims, 421; in China, 305; in 288
Medina, 20, 26 ; in Spain, welcome Kordofan, 320, 327
Arabs, 132; Spanish, take refuge Kovno, Mushms in, 3
in Turkey, 156 Kritopoulos, Metrophanes, on tri-
Jihad, in Africa, 329, 331-3. 353 ; in n.^, 151bute of Christian children, 150
Sumatra, 372
Jizyah, tribute paid by non-Muslim Kuchum Hhan, 252
subjects, 59-62, 103-4, 115, 207, Kufra, 334 n.^
432 ; paid also by newly-con- Kurguz, Buddhist governor of
verted Muslims, 60, 83, 103 «.^; Persia, becomes Muslim, 227
— exemption granted to, Banu Kuyuk Khan, treatment of Chris-
Taghlib. 49 ; newly-converted tians, 221, 225; of Muham-
Mushms, 103-4, 258 ; Christian madans, 225-6
troops in Muslim service, 61-2 ;—
rates, 60 ; in Jerusalem, 57 ; in Laccadive Islands, 270
Nubia, no; in Spain, 134. See Ladakh, 292-3
also Capitation-tax Lagos, 340
John, king of Abyssinia, 119, 120 Lambri, in Sumatra, 368
Joseph, Metropolitan of Merv, 84, Lampong districts, 371
86 W.7 Lamtuna clan, 315, 317
Joshua, Jacobite Patriarch, 86 «.'' Lefroy, Bishop, on causes of spread
Jukun tribe, 337 of Islam, 414-15 ; on Islam in
Justinian, 52, 72, 102 India, 259; on Muslim public
Justus Stevenius, 93 n.'^, 123
Lhasa, Muhammadans
prayer,
Liberia, 338418 «.* in, 293
Kabils, of Algeria, 127-9
Kabul, 217 Lithuania, Islam in, 3, 245
Kanem, 320 Lohanas, conversion of, 274
Lombok, 398
Kano, 319 «.*, 320
Kan-su, 302, 306, 309, 310 Louis VII. See St. Louis
Karamurtads, in Albania, 192 Lucaris, Cyril, Patriarch of Con-
Karim b. Shahriyar, 210 stantinople,61
1 -4
INDEX
462
Macarius, Patriarch of Antioch, 156 Merv, conversion of Christians of,
Macassar, kingdom in Celebes, 393,
81-2
Metaras, Nicodemus,
Minahassa, 393 164
Madagascar,
395-6 352
Madayi, 265 Mindanao, 399-401
Madura, 382, 404 Ming dynasty, 299
Magellan, 387, 388 Minnat al-Islam Sabha, 269
Mahdi, caliph, 50, 67, 78 Mirdites, 62, 179 n.*, 192
Mahdi Purana, 212 Misool, island, 402, 403 n.'
Mahmud of Ghazna, 254, 256, 257 Missionaries, Muslim :—
Maimonides, Moses, 421 'Abd Allah, al-Yamani, 275
Majapahit, 379, 380-4, 390, 391 «.* 'Abd Allah, Shaykh, 373-5
Malabar, 261-9, 364, 366 n.* •Abd Allah 'Arif, 366
Malacca, 372, 401 'Abd Allah b. Yasin, 315
Malay Archipelago, 363-72, 377- 'Abd al-Razzaq, 266-7
407 Abii113-14
'Abd Allah Muhammad
Malay Peninsula, 372-6
Malays, in Cape Colony, 350 Abu 'All Qalandar, 282
Maldive Islands, 270 Abu Bakr, 401
Malik al-Zahir, king of Samudra, Abu Sayda, 214
64 Abu'l-Faraj b. al-jawzl, 75
Malik
368 b. al-Walid, Christian official, Abu'1-Nasr Samani, 215
'Amr b. Mahk, 40
Ma'miin, caliph, reign of, 78, 84, 85, 'Amr b. Murrah, 36-7
217; permits erection of churches 'Ayyash b. Abi Rabi'ah, 39
67 ; interview with his uncle, Baha al-Din Zakariyya, 281
Ibrahim, 358 Baha al-Haqq, 281
Mandingos, 319, 331, 354; as Baqa Husayn Khan. 283, 439
Muslim missionaries, 319, 321, Bulbul Shah, 292
353 ; on West Coast of Africa, Burhan al-Din, 366
338, 340; still pagan, 337 Dahhak b. Sufyan, 40
Mangu Khan. 222
Manila, 402 Danfodio.
fodio See 'Utiiman Dan-
Mansur, caliph, 75, 296 Darvish Mansur, 100
Mappillas, 263-4 Datu Mulla Husayn, 388-9
Marabouts, 317, 354 Dawal Shah Pir, 277
Mark bar Qiqi, Jacobite Metro- Dimam b. Tha'labah. 35-6
politan, 86 FaWir al-Din, 267-8
Marriages of Christian women to Farah 'All, loi
Muhammadans, 136 M.^ 181, 186 Farid al-Din, 281
Martyrs, Muslim, 14-15, 38, 224 Haji
HakimMuhammad,
Bagus, 397 283
Marvvan, caliph, quoted, 8
Mecca, Arabs from, in the Malay Hasan al-Din, 385
Archipelago, 367, 375. 391 ; pil- Hasan 'Ali, 283
grimage to, 415-16; religious Hasan b. 'Ali, 210
centre of the Muslim world, 27. Hasan Kabir al-Din, 282
See also Hajis. Hashim Pir Gujarati, 271
Ibn Hanbal, 74
Medina, 19-26, 31-2, 34-5
Melle, 319, 321 Ibrahim Abii Zarbay, 350
Imam Dikir, 404
Menangkabau, kingdom of, 368-9,
Imam Shah, 277
Menelik, emperor of Abyssmia, Imam Tuweko, 397
372
120, 350 Ishaq, 382
Merats, 287 Ishaq Wall, 238
Merchants, Muslim, as missionaries,
Isma'il, ShayUi, 367-8
409, 419; among the Mongols, Jalal al-Din Tabrizi, 280
228; in Africa, 118, 320, 333,
Jamal al-Din, 235-6
337. 339. 348, 353. 362; in Jumada '1-Kubra, 381
India, 264, 273 ; in the Malay Khalifah Husayn, Shaykh, 382
Khatib Tungal, 395
Archipelago, 365, 377, 387-8,
396, 403, 404; in Siberia, 252 Khunmir Husayni, 271
INDEX 463
Missionaries, Muslim {continued): — Merchants, Prisoners, Women,
Mahabir Khamdayat, 271 as missionaries
Malik 'Abd al-Latif, 277 Missionary activity, Muslim, char-
Malik b. Dinar, 264-5 acter of, 408-9 ; enjoined in the
Malik b. Habib, 264-5 Qur'an,
Malik Ibrahim, 378-9 political 3-4, 409; 2,in 144,
weakness, times225,
of
Mansiir, Shaykh. 388 239. 397. 400
Minak Kamala Bumi, 371 Missionary efforts, unsuccessful
Muhammad b. 'Abd al-Karim b. Muslim, in Arabia, 34-5, 40; in
Muhammad al-Majili, 320 Africa, 325-6 ; in India, 266-7 '•
Muhammad b. al-Huzayl, 74. w.' in Java, 378 ; among the Mongols,
Muhammad 'Ubayd Allah, 284-5 240; among the Papuans, 403;
Muhammad 'Uttiman al-Amir among the Russians, 242-3
Ghani. 327 Missionary religion, defined, i
Mu'in al-Din Chishti, 281 Missionary Societies, Muslim, 438-9
Mulia 'All, 275-6 Moluccas, 387-90
Mumba Mulyaya, 270 Mongols, conquests, 218-19, 225;
Mus'ab b. 'Umayr, 15-16, 22-5 converted to Christianity, 221;
Nasir al-Haqq Abii Muhammad, converted to Islam, 227-30,
210 232-7, in China, 297 sq., in
Nur al-Din, 275 Georgia, 97-8 ; persecute the
Nur al-Din Ibrahim, 385 Muhammadans, 225-6, 234;
Nur Satagar, 275 primitive religion, 220 ; relations
Pati Putah, 389 with Christian princes, 222, 229.
Rashid al-Din, 236-7 See also Tatars
Sadr al-Din, 274-5 Monotheletism, 53, 124
Sayyid Ahmad Kabir, 282 Montenegro, 197-8
Sayyid 'Ali Hamadani, 292 Moral superiority of Muslims, in
Abyssinia, 117; in Spain, 133;
Sayyid Isma'il, 280 in Turkey, 171
Sayyid Jalal al-Din, 2S1-2
Sayyid Muhammad b. Sayyid Moriscoes, 143-4
'All, 271 Morocco, Christians in, 126, 127 «.'
Sayyid Muhammad Gisiidaraz, Moses Maimonides, 421
271 Mu'awiyah, employed Christians,
Sayyid Nathar Shah, 267, 268 63 ;103
of, revenue of Egypt in reign
Sayyid Sadr al-Din, 282 Mubarak Shah, 235
Sayyid Safdar 'Ali, 283 Mughalistan. 238
Sayyid Shah Farid al-Din, 292
Sayyid 'Umar 'Aydrus Basheban, Muhammad, 11-43, 47~8
271 Muhammad II, Sultan of Turkey,
Sayyid Yiisuf al-DLn, 274 145-6, 176; in Bosnia, 198-9
Shah al-Hamid, 267 Muhammad b. al-Huzayl, 74 n.^
Shah Muhammad Sadiq Sarmast Muhammad b. 'Ali al-Saniisi, 334
Husayni, 271 Muhammad b. Qasim, 256 n.^, 272
Shams al-Din, Mir, 292 Muhammad Khan. Khan of Mugh-
Sharaf b. Malik, 264 alistan, 237-8
Sharif Kabungsuvvan, 399 224
Muhammad Khudabandah, 234
Sharif Karim al-Makhdiim. 401 Muhammad Shah, Sultan of
Sidi 'Abd al-'Aziz, 373 Malacca, 372-3, 401
Tufayl b. 'Amr, 37-8 Muhammadan martyrs, 14-15, 38,
'Umaru Kaba, 321
'Urwah b. Mas'ud, 38 Muhammadan officials and soldiers
'Utfiman Danfodio, 323-5 of Christian governments, as
Wathilah b. al-Asqa', 40 propagandists of Islam, in Africa,
Yiisuf Shams al-Din, 270 326, 333, 345-6, 362; in 407
the
Missionaries, Muslim, from Bagh- Malay Archipelago, 369, 399,
dad, in India, 271, 274; from Muhammadans observe Christian
Bukhara, in India, 280, 281, rites, in Albania, 181, 187
among the Mongols, 228, 235-6, Muhammadans under Christian rule
in Siberia, 252 ; from Persia, in in Abyssinia, 114, 115, 117-21,
India, 270, 280-2, 292. See also 410; Cape Colony, 350-2;
464 INDEX
Crete, 201; Egypt, 424, 438-9; proselytising zeal, 158, 159 «.i;
German East Africa, 326, 345-6, taxation, 149-54; toleration,
361-2, 410; Hungary, 193-4; 155-8, 194-5
India, 280, 282-91, 439; Lagos, Padris, in Sumatra, 369, 372
340 ; Lithuania, 245 ; Malay
Archipelago, 369-70, 371-2, 387, Pahlavan, saint of Khiva, 214
393. 397-8, 399. 400-2, 405-7; Pajajaran, kingdom in Java, 378,
Montenegro, 197-8; Nigeria, 325,
326; Nubia, no; Russian em- Palembang, 371, 381, 391
pire, 100, loi, 247-51, 252-3, Panjab, 6 280-3, 286-7
5-
411; Spain, 140, 143-4 Papu38ans, 402-4
Mukkuvans, 268 Parlak, kingdom in Sumatra, 367-S
Multan, 272, 273 Paulician heresy, 96, 161
Pechenegs, 412
Muqtadir, caliph, 75, 77, 422 n."^ Penukonda, 268
Murad II, Sultan of Turkey, 148-9 Persecution forbidden in the
Murshid Quli Kian, 278
Mustadi, caliph, 68
Qur'an, 5-6
Mu'tadid, caliph, 64 Persecution of Christians by Mus-
Mu'tasim, caliph, reign of, 209, 214,
272; employs Christian officials, Tanukh. lims,50; 75-9, 420 w.i ; 183, Banu
in Albania, 189;
63
109; sends ambassadors to Nubia, in Armenia, 97 ; in Egypt, 106-7 ;
in Georgia, 9S-100; in North
Mutawakkil, caliph, fanatical meas- Africa, 126 ; in Persia, 232 ; in.
ures, 8, 75, 76-7, 420 w.^; orders Samarqand, 224 ; in Spain, 142-3 ;
recently constructed churches to in Turkey, 150, 154
be destroyed, 66 Persecution of Christians by their
Mu'tazihtes, 74-5, 77 co-religionists, in Bosnia, 168;
Mutesa, king of Uganda, 438 in Crete, 203 ; in Cyprus, 108 w.*;
Muwallads, in Spain, 139 in Egypt, 136;69, in102,Hungary,
106 w.*; 155;
in
Muzarabes, 137, 138 France,
in Persia, 68-9; in Russia, 156;
Nafisah, 411 in Servia, 196; in Transylvania,
Najm al-Din MuMitar al-Zahidi, 155 ; in Turkey, 167
Persecution of Muslims, by the
227 n.^ 209
Mongols,
Russians, 225-6,
247 234; by the
Naqshbandiyyah
Nasik, 271, 284 order, 239, 407 n.'^
Nasr b. Hariin, Christian official, 64 Persia, heretical movements in the
Nestorian Church, under Muslim Christian Church in, 69-70, 206,
rule, 68, 77, 80, 81-2, 86
Nestorians among the Mongols, Per229 spread of Islam in, 207-11,
sia, sq.
221-2
New Guinea, 402-3 Persian convert, first, 29
Ni'mat Allah, Jacobite Patriarch, Persians, in China, 297, 298 ; in
Indo-China, 376; in Sumatra, 364
86 w.* Christians
Noanta, of, become Peter, Metropolitan of Russiaa
Muslims, 168-9 Church, 241-2
Nogais, 240 Philippine Islands, 390, 399-402
Nubia, 109-13, 337 Philoxenos, Jacobite Bishop, 86
Nubians join Amirâniyyah order, 239 277
Pilgrims
Pirana, to Mecca. See Hajis
327
Niir al-Din, al-Khwarazmi. mal- Pirs, as missionaries, in India, 271,
treated at court of Kuyiik, 225-6 274-5, 277; under the Mongols,
Nyasaland, 346
Poles, Catholic under Russian rule,.
156 ,
Onin, peninsula of New Guinea, 403
Orgâna, wife of Qara-Hialagia, Polish-speaking Muslims, 3
Ponnani, 269
234-5
Ottoman Turks, administration, Pope Gregory II, 125
146-9; conquests, 145, 171, 177, Pope Gregory VII, 127, 130 m.
192-3,198-9, 201 ; moral qualities, Pope Gregory IX, 130 «.*
169-71, 172; oppression, 154-5; Pope Hadrian I, 133 «.^ 136 w.'
INDEX
465
Pope Innocent III, 130 n.* Sa'id b. Hasan, on Muslim public
Pope Innocent IV, 130 w. *, 19S «.*, prayer,
221
Saifa Ar'ad,417-8 king of Abyssinia, 114
Pope John XXII, 198, 242 St. Augustine, on motives of con-
Pope Leo III, 139 version to Christianity, 423
Pope Leo IX, 126 St. John of Damascus, 83
Portuguese, in Abyssinia, 116; on St. Louis, crusade of, 88, 92 ; em-
East Coast of Africa, 340, 343 ; in bassy to the Mongol Khaqan. 222 ;
India, 266; in the Malay Archi- receives Mongol embassy, 229 ; on
pelago, 388, 389, 390, 393, 394 the treatment of infidels, 8
Prayer, Muslim public, impressive- Saints, Muslim, worshipped by
ness of, 417-19 Hindus, 289 n.^
Prisoners, Muslim, as Missionaries, Saladin, and the Crusaders, 90-1,
425 ; Christians in Egypt, under
Pul.411-12
See Fulbe rule of, 107, 421
Salawatti, island, 403
Salim I, Sultan of Turkey, 423
Qadir, caliph, 86 Saljiiq Turks, 88, 96, 216
Qadiriyyah order, 127, 328-9, 330, Salman, the first Persian convert, 29
*2-^
332.
Qast yah, 407
iliy333. Christians in, 129
Salmuyah, Christian, in service of
Quar quar , Vaiv ode of Samstkheth, the caliph
Saman becomes al-Mu'tasim,
Muslim, 21063
becomes a Muslim, 165 n.^ Samarqand, Chinese embassy in,
Qubilay Khan. 220, 225, 232, 298
299 ; Chinese workmen in, 297 «.* ;
Queda, 373-5 introduction of Islam, 213, 214;
Qutaybah b. Muslim, 213, 295 under the Mongols, 223-4
Sambawa, 398
Raden Husayn, 382-4 Samory, 331,
Samsams, 376 332 «.«, 333
Raden Paku, 382-3
Raden Patah, 380, 382-3 Samudra, 364, 367, 368
Raden Rahmat, 380-3 Samudu, 331-2
Rainaud, 88 Sanusiyyah order, in Africa, 334-
Rajputs, converted to Islam, 259, 5, 410 ; in the Malay Archipelago,
2bo, 281 ; Muhammadan in- 407
fluences among, 289 Sasaks, in Lombok, 398-9
Ras 'AH, vice-regent of Abyssinia, Sasanid dynasty. Christian Church,
1 1 8-1 9 under, 68-9, 206-7
Rationalism in Islam, 73-4 Satuq Bughra Khan. 215-16
Ravuttans, 267 Sawo-Teheno, king of Kafa, be-
Raymund III, Count of Tripoli, 91 comes aMuhammadan, 120
Religious orders, influence of the, Sayyid 'All Akbar, Muhammadan
239, 326-35, 408 merchant in Peking, 302, 311 n.'^
Ricoldus de Monte Crucis, on the
Sayyid Ajall, 297-8
virtues of the Saracens, 425 Sayyid Ashraf al-Din, 223-4
Robert of St. Albans, 91 Sayyid Sulayman, Chinese Muslim,
Rubruck, William of, embassy to
Mongol Khaqan, 222 Scanderbeg,
307. 309, 311 177
Rumanians, Southern, 62, 168-9 Sciataraccio, tax, 182, 189
Russia, Mongols in, 239 sqq. See Scutari, 184
also Tatars Senegal, 315, 330, 333
Russian rule, Muslims under, loi, Sennaar, no, 113, 337
246-53 Servia, 192-7
Russians under Muslim rule, 240-4 Shafi'iyyahpelago, sect, in Malay Archi-
Rustam, first Muhammadan king 364
of Karthli, 99 Shah RuMi Bahadur, 266, 299
Shamanism, 220, 240, 246
Sa'd b. Abi Waqqas, 13 Shanars, become Muslims, 289
Sa'd b. Mu'adh. conversion of, 23-4 Sharif al-Rida, 210
Sadr al-Din, first Muhammadan Shaykh Jalal al-Din Tabriz!, 282
king of Kashmir, 292 ShayMi Yiisuf, 350 n.^
Saffah, caliph, 104 Shi'ahs, in Africa, 341 ; in India,
INDEX
466
274-6; in Kashmir, 292; in Java Tijaniyyah order, 325, 32S-30,
and Sumatra, 364 ; in Persia, 200, ok u,nd, -60
211, in Turkey, 423 Til bukutCsh,a 2-5199, n ,
Timmothe 31S storia 32S rch
Shihab family, in Mount Lebaaon,
i e a t ria
176-7 T 67. 84 X P
Siam, Islam in, 376
Siberia. 251-3 Timur, 256, 292
Sierra Leone, 33S TinnevelU, 2SS
Silhat, 2S2 Tipu Sultan, S, 254, 261-2, 26S
Sind, 272-5 Tiyans, 26S enjoined upon Mushms,
Sindan, 272 Toleration
Slavery, under the Muslims, 416- 5-6, 77 n.«, 33"
3420
17; under the Turks, 172—6 Toleration towards the Christians in
Slave-trade, suppression of, facili- EgA-pt, 102-3; i^ Khurasan. 82;
tates spread of Islam, 345-6 in S'orth Africa, 130; in Russia,
Slave-traders, not propagandists of 241-2; in Spain, 135, 143-4; in
Islam, 343-4 Syria and Palestine, 56-7, 95 ;
Soba, mosque built in, no in Turkey, 146-7, 156-7, 178-9,
Sokoto, 325 155
191 in Southern Albania, 192
Somalis, 349-50 Tosks
Songhay kingdom, 31S, 321 Traders, MusUm. See ilerchants
164
S Dphronius, MetropoUtan of Athens, Tribute of Christian children, 150-2,
Spain, Islam in, 131-44 Trichinopoly, 267, 268

Tubii, 410
Spaniards, in the Malaj- Archipelago,
3S7, 3SS, 390, 400-1, 402 Tunis, 129—30
Spanish Muslims, missionan," ac- Tuqluq Timur jân, king of Kash-
tivity of, 127 gar, 235-7
Sudan, 317-37, 353-^2 Turkistan. 215, 216
Suhayb,
26, 29 the first-fruits of Greece, Turks, converted to Islam, 214-16 ;
in China, 297, 29S, 304, 310; in
Sukadana, kingdom in Borneo, 391 the
Sidu Islands, 401-2 alsoMongol armies,Turks,
Ottoman 226 7?.^. See
Saljuq
Sumatra, 364, 366—72 Turks
Sur\-ivals of Christian usages
among Muhammadans, 129 n.^, Uch,
Uganda,2S1 344
iSi, 1S7, 197
Swahiiis, as propagandists of Islam, LljaN-tu, 234
345 'Umar b. 'Abd al-'Aziz, and Egypt,
Sword of Islam, 5, S, 46, 65 ?j.*, 103; and North Africa, 314;
256, 405 and Sind, 272 ; and Transoxania,
Tabaristan, 210 214 ; orders recently-constructed
churches to be destroyed, 66 ;
Ta'if, 19, 3S prayed for by Christian historian,
Takudar, first Mushm Jlldian. 229- 424 ; revenue of Eg^-pt, in reign
32, 238-9 of, 103 ; zeal for Islam. 82-3
Tallo, in Celebes, 395 'Umar b. al-Khattab, and the Banu
T'ang dj-nasrv", 294, 297 TagfaUb. 49 ; conversion of, 1 7 ;
Tarmashirin Khan. 235, 239 ordinance of, 57— 8, 76; and the
Tartars. See Tatars propagation of Islam, 51, Si,
Tatars, in Lithuania, 3, 245 ; in 82-3; submission of Jerusalem,
Russia, 244-5, 247-51; in
Siberia, 251-3 56-7 b. Yusuf, Christian governor
'Umar
of Anbar, 64
Temate, 3SS-90
Theodisclus, Archbishop of Seville, 'Umar Shams al-Din. See Sayyid
adopts Islam, 134
Theodore Abu Ourrah, 84 L'rkhan, 149. 150
Ajall
Theodore, Nestorian Bishop, 86 Usama b. Munqidh, 90
L'sambara,
Tibesti, 335 346
Tibet, 293 'Usayfan,
L'sayd 273
b. Hudayr, conversion of, 23
Tidor, 388
INDEX 467
'Uthman, conversion, 13; relations Women, Mushm, as missionaries,

with China, 295 ; revenue of 120, 234 w.^ 410-11
_ Egjrpt, in reign of, 103
Uzbek Khan. 240-2 Ya'qiib
Yarkand,b. 238
Layth, 217
Uzbeks, 240
Yathrib. See Medina
Venetians, in Albania, 188-9; in YazdanbaMlt, 85
Crete, 201-3; ^^ ^^^ Levant, 147 Yazid
Yoruba II,country,
caliph, 66-7
325
Vilno, MusUms in, 3
Vladimir, 242-4 Yung Chen, edict of, 303
Votiaks, 249 Yunnan, 293, 298
Wadai, 322, 335, 355 Zamorin of Cahcut, 265—6

Wahhabi reformation, influence of, Zanj, Islam342among the, 342-3
Zanzibar,
426 ; in Africa, 323 ; in Bengal,
280; in Sumatra, 372 Zayla', 349
Waigama, island, 402 Zayn al-'Abidin, first Muhammadan
Waigyu, island, 402 king of Batjan, 403 n.^
Wakhtang VI, king of Georgia, 100 Zmaievich, in Albania, 185-91.
Walid, caliph, 66 Zoroastrians, 206-11
Richard Clay & Sons, Limited,
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3 5002 00120 1685

Arnold, Thomas Walker
The preaching of Islam : a history of th
BP 50 . A7 1913
Arnold, Thomas Walker, 1864

1930.
The preaching of Isla m

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LIBRARY OF

T. W. ARNOLD M.A. CLE.

SIR THEODORE MORISON, K.C.I.E.

THIS SECOND EDITION IS DEDICATED

IN TOKEN OF LONG FRIENDSHIP

letters. In the case of geographical names this scheme

I desire also to acknowledge my obligations to Sir

Professor Wensinck), and the ficole des Langues Orientales

A missionary religion defined. Islam a missionary religion; its

Muhammad the type of the Muslim missionary. Account of his

Christianity in Spain before the Muslim conquest : miserable con-

Relations of the Turks to their Christian subjects during the first

Religious condition of Persia at the time of the Arab conquest.

Account of the Mongol conquests. Buddhism, Christianity and

THE SPREAD OF ISLAM IN INDIA. '^

Early notices of Islam in China. Intercourse of the Chinese with

Early intercourse between the Malay Archipelago and Arabia and

Absence of missionary organisation in Islam : zeal on the part ot

Letter of al-Hashiml inviting al-Kindl to embrace Islam . . 428

Controversial literature between Muslims and the followers of other

Titles of Works cited by Abbreviated References . . 440

Ever since Professor Max Miiller delivered his lecture in

world at the present day are evidences of its workings

" Summon thou to the way of thy Lord with wisdom

himself stands at the head of a long series of Muslim

" Let there be no compulsion in religion, (ii. 257.)

island that they should have ready a certain number

kil, al-Hakim and Tipu Sultan to be looked upon as typical

of the Christian church. Accordingly, in the following

STUDY OF THE LIFE OF MUHAMMAD CONSIDERED AS A

It is not proposed in this chapter to add another to the

Through his influence, to a great extent, five of the earHest

moon on my left, and the choice were offered me of abandon-

Muhammad " the first-fruits of Abyssinia." He had been

embrace Islam through the teaching he had hstened to in the

The conversion of 'Umar is a turning-point in the history

the service of their conquerors, so that it contained in

accompany his new converts, the Kliazrajites. to Yathrib

here and sometimes in a house belonging to the Banu

among us." " Then I swear," replied Sa'd, " nevermore

weep. Mus'ab was moved, and said, " Oh, my mother !

thine own tongue, in order that thou mayest announce

" Of a truth it (i.e. the Qur'an) is no other than an ad-

year of the Hijrah. Thus long before any career oi con-

were incessantly at feud with one another, Muhammad's

spite of the safe conduct given them by Abu Bara 'Amir,

same time he prayed, " Oh God ! guide the Banii Daws in

conquest they gave magnificent and undeniable proof that

To such men the Prophet said, " Recompense evil with

THE SPREAD OF ISLAM AMONG THE CHRISTIAN

After the death of Muhammad, the army he had intended

These stupendous conquests which laid the foundations

Christian tribes, promising them his protection and guaran-

protection of life and property, and petitioned the caliph

will.i The Christian Arabs of the present day, dwelhng in

peace-makers : for not onl}^ did the controversy blaze up

^ Baladhuri. p. 129. ^ Ibn S'ad, III, i. p. 246.

in the streets of the Mushms or their market-places; that

The pecuniary temptation to escape the incidence of taxation

1 Caetani, vol. v. pp. 424 (§ 752), 432. ^ Baladhuri, pp. 124-5.