ion at the present day among those who
think at all upon the matter, that whatever change may be impending for
Islam, it will be in the direction of concentration rather than of
extension. All parties see that the day of outside conquest is at an
end, and that the utmost that Islam can look forward to politically is
the maintenance of its present positions, and as an extreme possibility
the emancipation of its lost provinces in India and North Africa from
Christian rule. There is, therefore, a conviction that the removal of
the seat of supreme authority, when made, will be towards the centre,
not to any new extremity of Islam. Constantinople, even if all Islam
were combined for its defence, is felt to be too near the infidel
frontier to be safe, and cosmopolitan city as it has become, it is by
many looked upon itself as infidel. A position further removed from
danger and more purely Mohammedan is the necessity of the day; and it
can hardly be doubted that, when the time comes, the possession of some
such vantage ground will be recognized as a first qualification with
whoever shall assume the leadership of Islam.

We have seen that Abd el Hamid dreams of Damascus or Bagdad. But others
dream of Cairo as the new seat of the Caliphate; and to the majority of
far-sighted Mussulmans it is rapidly becoming apparent that the retreat,
once begun, must be conducted further still, and that the only true
resting-place for theocracy is in Arabia, its birthplace and the
fountain head of its inspiration. There, alone in the world, all the
conditions for the independent exercise of religious sovereignty are to
be found. In Arabia there are neither Christians nor Jews nor infidels
of any sort for Islam to count with, nor is it so rich a possession that
it should ever excite the cupidity of the Western Powers. A Caliph there
need fear no admonition from Frank ambassadors in virtue of any
capitulations; he would be free to act as the Successor of the Apostle
should, and would breathe the pure air of an unadulterated Islam. A
return, therefore, to Medina or Mecca is the probable future of the
Caliphate.

The importance of Arabia has of late years been fully recognized both at
Constantinople and elsewhere. It has been the sustained policy of Abd
el Hamid at all cost and by whatsoever means to maintain his influence
there; and he knows that without it his spiritual pretensions could have
no secure foundations. Arabia, he perceives, is the m