tter than a heretic. Certainly they would never look upon him as
an Imam, which personage is to them in the place of a Khalif. In countries
not under Turkish rule, the Khutbah, or prayer for the ruler, said on
Fridays in the mosques, is said for the "ruler of the age," or for the
Amir, or whatever happens to be the title of the head of the State. Of late
years it has become more common in India to say it for the Sultan. This is
not, strictly speaking, according to Muhammadan law, which declares that
the Khutbah can only be said with the permission of the ruler, and as in
India that ruler is the British Government, the prayers should be said for
the Queen. Evidently the law never contemplated large bodies of Musalmans
residing anywhere but where the influence of the Khalif extended.

In thus casting doubt on the legality of the claim made by Turkish Sultans
to the Khalifate of Islam, I do not deny that the Law of Islam requires
that there should be a Khalif. Unfortunately for Islam, there is nothing in
its history parallel to the conflict of Pope and Emperor, of Church and
State. "The action and re-action of these powerful and partially
independent forces, their resistance to each other, and their ministry to
each other, have been of incalculable value to the higher activity and life
of Christendom." In Islam the Khalif is both Pope and Emperor. Ibn Khaldoun
states that the difference between the Khalif and any other ruler is that
the former rules according to divine, the latter according to human law.
The Prophet in transmitting his sacred authority to the Khalifs, his
successors, conveyed to {87} them absolute powers. Khalifs can be
assassinated, murdered, banished, but so long as they reign anything like
constitutional liberty is impossible. It is a fatal mistake in European
politics and an evil for Turkey to recognize the Sultan as the Khalif of
Islam, for, if he be such, Turkey can never take any step forward to
newness of political life.[79]

This, however, is a digression from the subject of this chapter.

There has been from the earliest ages of Islam a movement which exists to
this day. It is a kind of mysticism, known as Sufiism. It has been
especially prevalent among the Persians. It is a re-action from the burden
of a rigid law, and a wearisome ritual. It has now existed for a thousand
years, and if it has the element of progress in it, if it is the salt of
Islam some fruit should now be seen. But what is Suf