medan
subjects been brought under the dominion of Christian Powers, and many
of its Christian subjects set free, not only have its African
possessions become practically independent, except Tripoli, but the
house of Othman exists to-day, only because Christian Europe interfered
to defend it against its own Mohammedan subjects. The house of Mohammed
Ali would otherwise have taken its place. Again and again have the
Sultans shown their inability to defend the frontiers of Islam. Since
the advent of the present Sultan, the process of dismemberment has gone
on more rapidly than ever.

The influence of these facts upon the Mohammedan world has been very
marked. I cannot speak from personal knowledge of the people of India
and Central Asia, but from the best information that I can obtain, I
conclude that while they have lost none of their interest in Islam,
while they are still interested in the fate of their Turkish brethren,
they would not lift a finger to maintain the right of the Sultan to the
Caliphate against any claimant of the family of the Prophet. The feeling
of the Arabic-speaking Mohammedans is well known. Islam is an Arab
religion; the Prophet was an Arab; the Caliph should be an Arab. The
Ottoman Sultans are barbarian usurpers, who have taken and hold the
Caliphate by force. The Arabs have been ready for open revolt for years,
and have only waited for a leader of the house of the Prophet. Their
natural leader would be the Shereef of Mecca; and it is understood that
the Shereef who has just been deposed by the Sultan, as well as his
predecessor who was mysteriously assassinated, was on the point of
declaring himself Caliph. The new Shereef is a young man of the same
family.

So far as the Turkish, Circassian, and Slavic Mohammedans are concerned,
their interests are bound up with those of the Sultan. They do not
distinguish between the Caliphate and the Sultanat. Their ruler is the
Imam-ul-Mussilmin, their law is the Sheraat, their country is the
Dar-Islam; and when they are fighting for their Sultan they are fighting
for their faith. They know nothing of any other possible Caliph. But if
a new Caliph should appear at Mecca, and declare the Sultan a usurper
and a Kaffir, it is very doubtful whether they would stand by the
Sultan. They would not know what to do.

Another element enters just now into the question of the Caliphate, of
which so much has been written of late that it is only necessary to
mention it