and journey still of
three hundred miles to make before he can reach Medina, and what to some
would be worse hardship, a wearisome waiting afterwards in the unhealthy
ports of Hejaz. The Turkish official, too, has learned to dispense with
so many of the forms of his religion that he finds no difficulty in
making himself excuses here. In fact, he seldom or never now performs
the pilgrimage.

The mass of the Ottoman Haj is made up of Kurds, Syrians, Albanians,
Circassians, Lazis, and Tartars from Russia and the Khanates, of
everything rather than real Turks. Nor are those that come distinguished
greatly for their piety or learning. The school of St. Sophia at
Constantinople has lost its old reputation as a seat of religious
knowledge; and its Ulema are known to be more occupied with the pursuit
of Court patronage than with any other science. So much indeed is this
the case that serious students often prefer a residence at Bokhara, or
even in the heretical schools of Persia, as a more real road to
learning. Turkey proper boasts at the present day few theologians of
note, and still fewer independent thinkers.

The Egyptian Haj is far more flourishing. Speaking the language of
Arabia, the citizen of Cairo is more at home in the holy places than any
inhabitant of the northern towns can be. The customs of Hejaz are very
nearly his own customs, and its climate not much more severe than his.
Cairo, too, can boast a far more ancient political connection with Mecca
than Constantinople can, for as early as the twelfth century the Sultans
of Egypt were protectors of the holy places, while even since the
Ottoman conquest, the Caliph's authority in Arabia has been almost
uninterruptedly interpreted by his representative at Cairo. So lately as
1840 this was the position of things at Mecca, and it is only since the
opening of the Suez Canal that direct administration from Constantinople
has been seriously attempted. To the present day the Viceroy of Egypt
shares with the Sultan the privilege of sending a mahmal, or camel
litter, to Mecca every year with a covering for the Kaaba. Moreover the
Azhar mosque of Cairo is the great university of Arabic-speaking races,
and its Ulema have the highest reputation of any in Islam. Egyptian
influence, therefore, must be reckoned as an important element in the
forces which make up Mohammedan opinion. The late Khedive, it is true,
did much to impair this by his infidelity and his coquetteries with