Childhood in the Moslem world

Front matter

Sfl(T)l)EL (D. ZTJEfflER

Class ^

Book

Preface

MOHAMMED was, without doubt, one of the greatest religious leaders that the world has ever seen. He was a genius and a poet, a reformer and a great warrior. But Mohammed could never have said, "Suffer little children to come unto me and forbid them not, for of such is the kingdom of Heaven. ' ' His book, his life, his ideals, are not those of Him who placed a little child in the midst and gave the world of childhood an eternal inheritance of blessedness by His own Incarnation.

The present wide and increasing interest in child welfare is due to Christianity, and makes the presentation of the facts here given in regard to Moslem childhood, timely. When the whole world has become one neighbourhood, no individual or race can live to itself.

This is not a book for children, but about children. It could not be a book for them if it dealt faithfully and fearlessly with the real conditions as observed by eye-witnesses in many lands. Every paragraph could have been corroborated by references to authorities and the use of footnotes ; but these have been omitted in order not to

8 PREFACE

litter the pages of the text or weary the reader's patience. A list of correspondents and a bibliography are given at the end of the volume. To all these missionary workers and writers I owe hearty thanks. The illustrations given are intended to set forth vividly the wide extent, the environment, the physical, intellectual and social conditions of Moslem childhood, in order that what we have seen with our eyes and heard with our ears, may enter the heart of the reader also.

S. M. Zwemer.

Caieo.

Contents

PAGE

The conquest of Constantinople — The challenge of St. Sophia — The Moslem problem a unity — Its childhood a proof — Statistics of childhood — Their numbers in Africa, India, Algeria — The areas covered — The meuzzin's call from the Pacific to the Atlantic — Many areas and languages — National responsibility: America, England — The urgency of the task.

II

Islam born in the desert — Margoliouth's theory of the heat belt — The imprint of the desert on Islam — The nomad environment and its types of civilization: Baluchistan — A typical village on the Nile — The bazaar at Algiers — The lot of womanhood in the city and among the nomads — Persian village life — Constantinople — Islam among pagan races — In China — In Java — The Moslem type of civilization — Degradation of womanhood — Child marriage — Ignorance of medicine — Fatalism — A cry of pain — A new environment.

Ill

BIRTH, INFANCY, AND PHYSICAL CONDITIONS . 69

The right of the child to be well born — The effect of heredity — Contagious diseases — Mortality of infants : in Egypt, Turkey, India, Syria, Morocco — An incident from Arabia — Bedouin children — The children of Kashgar — The leper boy — Moosa's baby — Inferiority of girls — Legitimacy — Ceremonies observed at birth : in China, Egypt, India — Aqiqah — Circumcision — Early marriage and its results — Ignorance of medicine — Magic in Turkey — Medicine in Arabia — Algerian superstitions — Child labour in Arabia; in Persia. 9

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IV Page

Al-Ghazali — General neglect — Illiteracy in India — Superstition — Belief in jinn — Use of charms and amulets — West Africa; Senegal; Kashmir; Kordofan

— Buduh — The religious attitude of Islam — Grovelling superstitions in Morocco; India — The Zar in Egypt — The teacher of the mosque school — His reputation; his character — The education of a boy — The method — Higher education — Children's books — A chapter on prayer — Sex education gone mad — Two fish stories — Adam's vineyard — The story of the heifer

— Moses and the fish — Jesus at school — Neglect of Bedouin children — " Give me God's due ! "

Based on Moslem ethics — The Moslem idea of God and of Mohammed — De Boer's testimony — The contrast to Christianity in literature — The " Arabian Nights " and Al Hariri — Koran teaching on children — Literature on etiquette — Moslem saints not saintly — The surroundings of the zenana — Degrading conversation — Results in Arabia, Sumatra, West Africa — Untruthfulness — Koran teaching on the subject — How moral actions are divided — The ceremonial law — The ten commandments — Low ideals — A tainted atmosphere — The heart of a Moslem girl — A brighter side of the picture — Attempt to introduce Christian ethics.

VI

THE RELIGION OF A MOSLEM CHILD .... 199 Education without religion unknown — The effect of memorizing the Moslem creed — Allah — Angels and demons — Memorizing the Koran — A Moslem primer

— The story of Nuh — Teaching regarding Jesus — Other Bible stories — The Day of Judgment — Hell not for Moslem children — Confession — Prayer — Ablution

— A primer on prayer — The place of the mosque — Result of this religious training — S. Khuda Bukhsh — The Moslem fast — Almsgiving — Pilgrimage — Saint worship and Marabouts in Algeria — The death of a child — The bier — The funeral — Mourning the dead.

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