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, as I think, be doubted by any who have mingled much in the
last few years with the Mussulman populations of Western Asia. There it
is easily discernible that great changes are impending, changes perhaps
analogous to those which Christendom underwent four hundred years ago,
and that a new departure is urgently demanded of England if she would
maintain even for a few years her position as the guide and arbiter of
Asiatic progress.

It was not altogether without t