annual recurrence of the
Muharram fast--of the sad {85} fate of 'Ali and his sons. The Sunnis are
blamed for the work of their ancestors in the faith, whilst the Khalifs Abu
Bakr, Omar, and Osman are looked upon as usurpers. Not to them was
committed the wonderful ray of light. In the possession of that alone can
any one make good a claim to be the Imam, the Guide of the Believers. The
terrible disorders of the early days of Islam can only be understood when
we realise to some extent the passionate longing which men felt for a
spiritual head--an Imam. It was thought to be impossible that Muhammad, the
last--the seal--of the prophets should leave the Faithful without a guide,
who would be the interpreter of the will of Allah.

We here make a slight digression to show that this feeling extends beyond
the Shia'h sect, and is of some importance in its bearing upon the Eastern
Question. Apart from the superhuman claims for the Imam, what he is as a
ruler to the Shia'h, the Khalif is to the Sunni--the supreme head in Church
and State, the successor of the Prophet, the Conservator of Islam as made
known in the Quran, the Sunnat and the Ijma' of the early Mujtahidin. To
administer the laws, the administrator must have a divine sanction. Thus
when the Ottoman ruler, Selim the First, conquered Egypt, (A.D. 1516) he
sought and obtained, from an old descendant of the Baghdad Khalifs, the
transfer of the title to himself, and in this way the Sultans of Turkey
became the Khalifs of Islam. Whether Mutawakal Billal, the last titular
Khalif of the house of 'Abbas, was right or wrong in thus transferring the
title is not my purpose now to discuss. I only adduce the fact to show how
it illustrates the feeling of the need of a Pontiff--a divinely appointed
Ruler. Strictly speaking, according to Muhammadan law, the Sultans are not
Khalifs, for it is clearly laid down in the Traditions that the Khalif (or
the Imam) must be of the tribe of the Quraish, to which the Prophet himself
belonged.

Ibn-i-Umr relates that the Prophet said:--"The Khalifs shall be in the
Quraish tribe as long as there are two {86} persons in it, one to rule and
another to serve."[77] "It is a necessary condition that the Khalif should
be of the Quraish tribe."[78] Such quotations might be multiplied, and they
tend to show that it is not at all incumbent on orthodox Sunnis, other than
the Turks, to rush to the rescue of the Sultan, whilst to the Shia'hs he is
little be