te and can be quite
attractive, but it breaks up many a Moslem home when carried to excess
in the harem, as it frequently is in civilised circles, while the
younger men vie with each other in the more flagrant extravagances of
occidental garb: prayers and ablutions do not harmonise with
well-creased trousers and stylish boots any more than a veil does with a
divided skirt. The native Press is always attacking the above abuses,
but they are firmly rooted. All three undermine the pan-Islamic
structure by causing cleavage in public opinion. European dress has
already been mentioned as widening the gap between civilised and
uncivilised Moslems, but it also tends to disintegrate cultured Moslem
communities, for the older men are apt to regard it with suspicion or
downright condemnation. I once asked an eminent and learned Moslem
whether he thought modern European dress impeded regular observance of
prayers and ablutions. He replied, "Perhaps so, but those Moslems who
wear such clothes indicate by so doing that the observances of Islam
have little hold upon them."

All these defects, however, are mere cracks in the inner walls of the
pan-Islamic structure and can be repaired from within, but the Turkish
Government, which represented the Caliphate, and should have considered
the integrity of Islam as a sacred trust, has managed to split the outer
wall and divide the house against itself, just as the unity of
Christendom (such as it was) has been rent asunder by one of its most
prominent exponents. Pan-Islam has received the more serious damage
because the wreckers still hold the Caliphate and the prestige attached
thereto; it is for Moslems (and Moslems only) to decide what action to
take; but in any case, the breach is a serious one and has been much
widened by the action of Turkish troops at the Holy Places. They
actually shelled the Caaba at Mecca (luckily without doing material
damage), and their action in storing high explosives close to the
Prophet's tomb at Medina may have saved them bombardment, but has
certainly not improved their reputation as Moslems. Even before the War
I often heard Yamen Arabs talking of "Turks and Moslems"--a distinctly
damning discrimination--and the situation has not been improved by
Ottoman slackness in religious observances and their inconsistent
national movement.

At the same time, their rule in Arabia will be awkward to replace at
first. I described the Turks in the final chapter of a b