use. 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