evil.

[2] The Hanbali ritual is now almost entirely confined to Medina and
Kasim in Central Arabia.

[3] This was written before the events of last September, which have
given a new impulse to liberalism in Egypt, though it has taken the
direction of Mohammedan thought there out of the hands of the Khedive.

[4] The exact composition of the Azhar university is as follows. Of the
five hundred and odd sheykhs or professors, two hundred are Shafite, two
hundred Malekite, one hundred Hanefite, and five Hanbalite. Each of
these sections has a supreme sheykh, chosen by itself, whose fetwa on
questions concerning the school is decisive. There is, moreover, a
Sheykh el Islam, also elected, who decides religious questions of
general importance, and a Grand Mufti appointed by the Government who
gives fetwas on matters of law. The latter is Hanefite, the former at
the present moment Shafite, as are the bulk of the students. These
number about fifteen hundred.

[5] It is the secret of the rapid conversions in ancient days among the
poor of the Roman and Persian Empires, and it is the secret of those now
taking place among the low-caste Indians.

[6] The Mohammedan revolts in Yunan and Kashgar, repressed with great
ferocity by the Chinese, have in late years temporarily diminished the
Mohammedan census; but there seems good reason to believe that they are
making steady progress in the Empire.

[7] Compare M. Huc's account of their origin.

[8] Compare Dr. Badger's History of Oman and Sale's Koran.

[9] Lady Anne Blunt's _Pilgrimage to Nejd_. Appendix.

CHAPTER II.

THE MODERN QUESTION OF THE CALIPHATE.

About the year 1515 of our era (921 of the Hejra), Selim I., Padishah of
the Ottoman Turks and Emperor of Constantinople, finding himself the
most powerful prince of his day in Islam, and wishing still further to
consolidate his rule, conceived the idea of reviving in his own person
the extinct glories of the Caliphate. He had more than one claim to be
considered their champion by orthodox Mohammedans, for he was the
grandson of that Mahomet II. who had finally extinguished the Roman
Empire of the East, and he had himself just ended a successful campaign
against the heretical Shah of Persia, head of the Sect of Ali. His only
rivals among Sunite princes were the Sultan el Hind, or, as we call him,
the Great Mogul, the Sultan el Gharb, or Emperor of Morocco, and the
Mameluke Sultan of Egypt, then known to the wor