mph of
moral mysticism over the dogmatic rigidity of Islam, the fact that the
present Sultan Muhammad V. was girded with the sword of Osman by the
head of the Mevlevi dervishes, a sect founded by the great mystic
teacher Jalaluddin Rumi of Iconium. Forty-three years ago a Persian
Orientalist Mirza Kasim Beg wrote in the _Journal Asiatique_:--

"_L'unique voie qui dans l'Islam puisse conduire a la reforme
c'est la doctrine du mysticisme._"

II.--EARLIER PHASES

The period during which the asceticism practised by the earlier Sufis
passed into the dreamy pantheism which characterises the later Sufism
is the end of the third century after Muhammad. This introduced a new
element into Islam which for centuries exercised a powerful influence on
national culture, and is still partially operative at present. The
conception of God and of the relation of the finite and human with the
infinite and divine from this time onward formed the chief subject of
inquiry and meditation.

The man who was destined to be the first to give those ideas, which had
hitherto been foreign to Arabian Sufism, definite expression was a poor
workman, a cotton-carder, bearing the name of Hellaj. He was an Arabised
Persian, born in Persia, but educated in Irak, where he enjoyed the
privilege of being instructed by Junaid. The story of his life as handed
down by Shiah or Sunni writers has been much exaggerated. It is clear,
however, that he had a great number of disciples who revered him as
their spiritual guide and ascribed to him almost supernatural powers.
His ever-growing popularity much scandalised the orthodox mullahs, who
moved the authorities to proceed against him, and were successful in
procuring his execution 922 A.D. Before his death he was subjected to
terrible tortures, which he bore with wonderful composure.

The reason of his condemnation was declared to be that he regarded
himself as an incarnation of the Godhead. His disciples honoured him as
a saint after his death. They ascribed to him the famous saying, "I am
the Truth" (_i.e._ God), which they took in a pantheistic sense. He is
said to have taught the doctrine of the incarnation of the Godhead in a
man and to have uttered the exclamation:

Praise to the Most High Who has revealed His humanity and
concealed the overpowering splendour of His Deity. Whoso purifies
himself by abstinence and purges himself from every trace of
fleshiness, unto him the Spirit of God