Mohammed and Mohammedanism: lectures delivered at the Royal institution of Great Britain in February and March, 1874.

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Preface

The substance of these Lectures was written early in 1872 : they were originally intended only for a select audience of friends at Harrow, but on the suggestion of some of those who heard them they were afterward considerably enlarged, and were delivered before the Royal Institution of Great Britain in the months of February and March, 1874.

They are an attempt, however imperfect, within a narrow compass, but, it is hoped, from a somewhat comprehensive and independent point of view, to render justice to what was great in Mohammed's character, and to what has been good in Mohammed's influence on the world. To original Oriental research they lay no claim, nor indeed to much originality at all — perhaps the subject hardly now admits of it; but, thanks

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to the numerous translations of the Koran into European languages, and to the great works of Oriental scholars, such as Caussin de Perceval, Sprenger, Muir, and Deutsch, the materials for forming an impartial judgment of the Prophet of Arabia are within the reach of any earnest student of the Science of Religion, and of all who care, as those who have ever studied Mohammed's character must care, for the deeper problems of the human soul.

The value of the estimate formed of the influence of Mohammedanism on the world at large must, of course, depend upon such a modicum of general historical knowledge, and such catholic sympathies, as the writer has been able, amid other pressing duties, to bring to his work. The only qualification he would venture to claim for himself in the matter is that of a sympathetic interest in his subject, and of a conscientious desire first to divest himself of all preconceived ideas, and then by a careful study of the Koran itself, and afterward of its best expounders, to arrive as nearly as may be at the truth. How vast is the interval between his

PREFA CE. j x wishes and his performance the author knows full well, and any one who has ever been fairly fascinated with a great subject will know also; for he will have felt that to have the will is not always to have the power, and that the framing of an ideal implies the consciousness of failure to attain to it.

A Christian w 7 ho retains that paramount allegiance to Christianity which is his birthright, and yet attempts, without favor and without prejudice, to portray another religion, is inevitably exposed to misconstruction. In the study of his subject he will have been struck sometimes by the extraordinary resemblance between his own creed and another, sometimes by the sharpness of the contrast ; and, in order to avoid those misrepresentations, w^hich are, unfortunately, never so common as where they ought to be unknown — in the discussion of religious questions — he will be tempted, in filling in the portrait, to project his own personal predilections on the canvas, and to bring the differences into full relief, while he leaves the resemblances in shadow. And yet a comparison between two

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systems, if it is to have any fruitful results, if its object is to unite rather than divide, if, in short, it is to be of the spirit of the Founder of Christianity, must, in matters of religion above all, be based on what is common to both. There is, in the human race, in spite of their manifold diversities, a good deal of human nature ; enough, at all events, to entitle us to assume that the Founders of any two religious systems which have had a great and continued hold upon a large part of mankind must have had many points of contact. Accordingly, in comparing, as he has done to some extent, the founder of Islam with the Founder of Christianity — a comparison which, if it were not expressed, would always be implied — the author of these Lectures has thought it right mainly to dwell on that aspect of the character of Christ, which, being admitted by Mussulmans as well as Christians, by foes as well as friends, may jDossibly serve as a basis, if not for an ultimate agreement, at all events for an agreement to differ from one another upon terms of greater sympathy and forbearance, of understanding and of respect.

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That Islam will ever give way to Christianity in the East, however much we may desire it, and whatever good would result to the world, it is difficult to believe; but it is certain that Mohammedans may learn much from Christians and yet remain Mohammedans, and that Christians have something at least to learn from Mohammedans, which will make them not less but more Christian than they were before. If we would conquer Nature, we must first obey her; and the Fourth Lecture is an attempt to show, from a full recognition of the facts of Nature underlying both religions — of the points of difference as well as of resemblance — that Mohammedanism, if it can never become actually one with Christianity, may yet, by a process of mutual approximation and mutual understanding, prove its best ally. In other words, the author believes that their is a unity above and beyond that unity of Christendom which, properly understood, all earnest Christians so much desire: a unity which rests upon the belief that " the children of one Father may worship him under different names ;" that they may x ii PREFACE.

be influenced by one spirit, even though they know it not ; that they may all have one hope, even if they have not one faith.

Harrow, April 15, 1873.

I have to return my best thanks to my friend Mr. Arthur Watson, for a careful revision of my manuscript, and for several valuable suggestions.

It may be serviceable to English readers to mention the more accessible works upon the subject, to the writers of which I desire here to express my general obligations, over and above the acknowledgment, in the text, wherever I am conscious of them, of special debts. I am the more anxious to do this fully here, as, while I am quite aware that I could not have written on this subject at all without making their labors the basis of mine, I have yet in the exercise of my own judgment often been obliged to criticise their reasonings and their conclusions. I can only hope that even where I have ventured to express a somewhat vehement dissent from my authorities, they will kindly credit me with something at least of the verecunde dissentio which becomes a learner, and of the zeal for truth, or for his idea of it, which becomes a writer, however diffident of himself, on a great subject.

"The Koran," translated by Sale, with an elaborate Introduction and full Notes drawn from the Arabic Commentators (1734).

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"The Koran," translated by Savary (1782), also with instructive explanatory Notes.

"The Koran," translated by Rodwell (1861): the Suras arranged, as far as possible, chronologically.

Gagnier's "Vie de Mahomet " (1732) ; drawn chiefly from Abul Eeda and the Sonna.

Gibbon's "Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire;" Chapters L., LI., LII. (1788). A most masterly and complete picture.

Weil's " Mohamed der Prophet " (1845). Able and to the point.

Caussin de Perceval's "Essai sur l'Histoire des Arabes,"etc. (1847), gives particularly full information upon the obscure subject of early Arabian history, and is written from an absolutely neutral point of view.

Sprenger's "Life of Mohammad," Allahabad, 1851; and his greater work, 'Das Leben und die Lehre des Mohamad' (1851-1861), the most exhaustive, original, and learned of all, but by no means the most impartial: he is often, as I shall point out on one or two occasions in the notes, flagrantly unfair to Mohammed.

Sir William Muir's "Life of Mahomet" (1858-1861). Learned and comprehensive, able and fair ; though its scientific value is somewhat impaired by theological assumptions as to the nature of inspiration, and by the introduction of a personal Ahriman, which, while it is self-contradictory in its supposed operation, seems to me only to create new difficulties, instead of solving old ones.

"The Talmud," an article in the Quarterly Review (October, 1867); "Islam," an article in the Quarterly Review (October, 1869): both full of most recondite Eastern learning. Had the lamented author lived to finish the work he shadowed forth in the last of these, he would probably

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have drawn a juster and more vivid picture of Islam as a whole than has ever yet been given to the world.

For less elaborate works :

Ockley's "History of the Saracens from 632-705." Picturesque; dealing largely in romance (1708-1718).

Hallam's " Middle Ages," Chapter VI. (1818) ; Milman's "Latin Christianity," Book IV., Chapters I. and II. (1857) ; both good samples of the high merits of each as an historian.

Carlyle's " Hero as Prophet " (1846). Most stimulating.

Washington Irving's "Life of Mahomet " (1 819). The work of a novelist, but strangely divested of all romance.

Lecture by Dean Stanley in his " Eastern Church " (1862). Has the peculiar charm of all the author's writings. Catholic in its sympathies, and suggestive, as well from his treatment of the subject as from the place the author assigns to it on the borders of, if not within, the Eastern Church itself.

Barthelemy St. Hilaire's " Mahomet et le Koran " (1865), a comprehensive and very useful review of most of what has been written on the subject.

On the general subject of Comparative Religion :

" Religions of the World, " by E. D. Maurice (1846). Perhaps of all his writings the one which best shows us the character and mind of the man.

"Etudes d'Histoire Religieuse," by Renan (1858). Ingenious and fascinating, but not always, nor indeed often, convincing.

"Les Religions et les Philosophies dans l'Asie Centrale,"by Gobineau (1866), gives the best account extant of Babyism in Persia.

" Chips from a German Workshop" (1868), and "Introduction to the Science of Religion " (1873), by Max Muller. Unfortunately the author

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XV says very little about Mohammedanism, but from him I have derived some very valuable suggestions as to the general treatment of the subject. Perhaps it is well that the extraordinary learning and genius of Mr. Max Miiller should be given mainly to subjects which are less within the reach of ordinary European students than is Islam, but it is impossible not to wish that he may some day give the world a " Chip " or two on the Religion of Mohammed.

For books which throw light on the specialties of Mohammedanism in different countries :

Al-Makkari's " History of the Mohammedan Dynasties in Spain" (Eng. Trans.).

Sir John Malcolm's "History of Persia" (1815;.

Conde's " History of the Dominion of the Arabs in Spain " (1820-21).

Crawford's "Indian Archipelago " (1820).

Colonel Briggs's "Rise of the Mohammedan Power in India," translated from the Persian of Ferishta (1829).

Sir Stamford Raffles's " History of Java " (2d edition), (1830).

Burckhardt's " Travels in Arabia " (1829).

Caille's "Travels through Central Africa to Timbuctoo" (1830).

Burckhardt's "Notes on the Bedouins and Wah-Habees" (1831).

Lane's " Modern Egyptians " (1836).

Burton's "Pilgrimage to Mecca and Medina" (1856).

Barth's " Travels in Central Africa " (1857).

Waitz's " Anthropologic der Naturvolker " (Leipsig, 1860).

Lane's "Notes to his Translation of the Thousand and One Nights" (new edition, edited by E. S. Poole, 1865).

Elphinstone's "History of India" (3d edition), (1866).

Palgrave's ' < Arabia " (1867).

"Our Indian Mussulmans," by W. W. Hunter (1871).

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Burton's " Zanzibar " (1872).

Shaw's "High Tartary, Yarkand, and Kashgar " (1871).

Palgrave's " Essays on Eastern Subjects " (1872).

"Report of the General Missionary Conference at Allahabad " (1873).

Three articles in periodical literature, besides " Islam " mentioned above, are of very high merit, and have furnished me, in enlarging my work, with some matter for reflection or criticism :

" Mahomet," National Review (July, 1858).

"The Great Arabian," National Review (October, 1861).

" Mahomet," British Quarterly Review (January, 1872).

Among other works which I regret I have not been able to consult may be mentioned :

Freeman's "Lectures on the History and Conquests of the Saracens" (1856).

"Essays on the Life of Mohammed and subjects subsidiary thereto," by Syed Ahmed Khan Bahador (1870).

"A Critical Examination of the Life and Teachings of Mohammed," by Syed Ameer AH Moulla (1873).

The last two books I had not heard of when I wrote the substance of these Lectures ; and in enlarging my work, I have purposely abstained from consulting them, as I have been given to understand that from a Mohammedan point of view they advocate something of the spirit and arrive at some of the results which it had been my object to

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urge from the Christian stand-point. I would not, of course, venture to compare my own imperfect work, derived as it is in the main from the study of books in the European languages, and from reflection upon the materials they supply, with works drawn, as I presume, directly from the fountain-head. But if the starting-points be different, and the routes entirely independent of each other, and yet there turns out to be a similarity in the results arrived at, possibly each may feel greater confidence that there is something of value in his conclusions.

Contents

LECTURE I.

Introductory.

Comparative Religion. — Historical Religions of the World Moral in their Origin, not Theological. — Judaism; Buddhism; Christianity. — Religion in Greece ; Question of Originality of Mohammedanism. — Two Views of Religion. — Obscurity of all Origins, above all of Religion. — Dim Knowledge of Founders of Other Religions ; Full Knowledge of Mohammed. — Bible and Koran Contrasted. — Difficult in Other Creeds to Distinguish the Foundation from the Superstructure ; Possible in Islam. — Problems Connected with Mohammed's Character. — Survey of the Saracen Conquests, and of what Mohammedanism Overthrew. — Its Position now — is it Losing or Gaining Ground? — China; East Indian Archipelago ; Africa — Extraordinary Success of its Missionaries there now. — Its Progress in the African Continent Traced Historically. — What it has Done for Africa, and what Christians have Done. — Its Probable Future in Africa. — Armenia and Koordistan — Revival there. — India; Few, if any, Converts to Christianity. — Causes ordinarily Suggested for its Success Reviewed. — National and Religious Prejudices Stand in Way of a Fair Judgment. — Principles which must Guide Investigation. — Do Religions Differ in Kind? — Sacred Books and their Influence. — Missionary Work ; its Limits and Legitimate Objects. — Can the World be Christianized ? Page 25