The Future of Islam | Page 2

the premature appearance of an
Anti-Caliph in Egypt or Arabia, however legitimate a candidate he
might be by birth for the office, would divide the Mohammedan world
into two hostile camps, and so bring scandal and injury on the general
cause. In the meantime, however, liberal thought will have a fair field
for its development, and can hardly fail to extend its influence

wherever the Arabic language is spoken, and among all those races
which look on the Azhar as the centre of their intellectual life. This is a
notable achievement, and one which patience may turn, perhaps in a
very few years, to a more general triumph. There can be little doubt
now that the death of Abd el Hamid, or his fall from Empire, will be
the signal for the return of the Caliphate to Cairo, and a formal renewal
there by the Arabian mind of its lost religious leadership.
To Mohammedans the author owes more than a word of apology. A
stranger and a sojourner among them, he has ventured on an exposition
of their domestic griefs, and has occasionally touched the ark of their
religion with what will seem to them a profane hand; but his motive has
been throughout a pure one, and he trusts that they will pardon him in
virtue of the sympathy with them which must be apparent in every line
that he has written. He has predicted for them great political
misfortunes in the immediate future, because he believes that these are
a necessary step in the process of their spiritual development; but he
has a supreme confidence in Islam, not only as a spiritual, but as a
temporal system the heritage and gift of the Arabian race, and capable
of satisfying their most civilized wants; and he believes in the hour of
their political resurgence. In the meantime he is convinced that he
serves their interests best by speaking what he holds to be the truth
regarding their situation. Their day of empire has all but passed away,
but there remains to them a day of social independence better than
empire. Enlightened, reformed and united in sympathy, Mussulmans
need not fear political destruction in their original homes, Arabia,
Egypt, and North Africa; and these must suffice them as a Dar el Islam
till better days shall come. If the author can do anything to help them to
preserve that independence they may count upon him freely within the
limits of his strength, and he trusts to prove to them yet his sincerity in
some worthier way than by the publication of these first essays.
CAIRO, _January 15th, 1882_.

CONTENTS. PAGE

CHAPTER I.
CENSUS OF THE MOHAMMEDAN WORLD. THE HAJ 1
CHAPTER II.
THE MODERN QUESTION OF THE CALIPHATE 48
CHAPTER III.
THE TRUE METROPOLIS--MECCA 90
CHAPTER IV.
A MOHAMMEDAN REFORMATION 132
CHAPTER V.
ENGLAND'S INTEREST IN ISLAM 174

THE FUTURE OF ISLAM.
CHAPTER I.
CENSUS OF THE MOHAMMEDAN WORLD.
THE HAJ.
In the lull, which we hope is soon to break the storm of party strife in
England, it may not perhaps be impossible to direct public attention to
the rapid growth of questions which for the last few years have been
agitating the religious mind of Asia, and which are certain before long
to present themselves as a very serious perplexity to British statesmen;
questions, moreover, which if not dealt with by them betimes, it will
later be found out of their power to deal with at all, though a vigorous
policy at the present moment might yet solve them to this country's

very great advantage.
The revival which is taking place in the Mohammedan world is indeed
worthy of every Englishman's attention, and it is difficult to believe that
it has not received anxious consideration at the hands of those whose
official responsibility lies chiefly in the direction of Asia; but I am not
aware that it has hitherto been placed in its true light before the English
public, or that a quite definite policy regarding it may be counted on as
existing in the counsels of the present Cabinet. Indeed, as regards the
Cabinet, the reverse may very well be the case. We know how
suspicious English politicians are of policies which may be denounced
by their enemies as speculative; and it is quite possible that the very
magnitude of the problem to be solved in considering the future of
Islam may have caused it to be put aside there as one "outside the
sphere of practical politics." The phrase is a convenient one, and is
much used by those in power amongst us who would evade the labour
or the responsibility of great decisions. Yet that such a problem exists
in a new and very serious form I do not hesitate to affirm, nor will my
proposition,