Of the Mohammedan procedure, we mention oidy the peculiarity as regards witnesses. In civil suits the tes- timony of two men, or of one man and two women, or of one man in conjunction with the plaintiff, is required. In affairs of tutelage, as testament, divorce, guardian- ship, and the like, tlie testimony of two men only is ac- ceiited. In affairs whicli concern only women, as, for instance, birth, female infirmities, nurses, the testimony of four women is necessary. In crimes of sodomy and pederasty and adultery, four mak witnesses are re- {[uired; in other crimes, as tlicft. partaking of forbidden food and drink, apostasy from the faith, the testimony of tv.o men is sufficient. Non - ^Moslems, or Jloslcras known as hardened sinners, are not admitted as wit- nesses.
MOHAMMEDANISM
41'
(5) War on Infidels. — The Koran abounds in contra- dictions respecting the right and duty of the faithful to make war on infidels ; for Jlohamraed, while he was the weaker party, showed himself very tolerant, and com- manded to convert only by the power of the word ; but later, when he became more potent, he issued severer ordinances against those who would not submit to his faith. His successors, therefore, have established the following doctrines, and declared null and void the pas- sages of the Koran adverse to them. Every major Mos- lem fit for military service is in duty bound to partici- pate in holy wars against infidels who will not submit to the dominion of Moslems, and against the faithful who refuse obedience to the legitimate prince, or adhere to dogmas contrary to the faith. In a war against Mos- lemite rebels or heretics it is not allowed to kill prison- ers of war, nor to attack the wounded or pillage prop- erty. As for infidel prisoners of war, who do not adopt the Islam before their capture, women and children are made slaves ; men can, according to the pleasure of the prince or political exigency, either be killed, ransomed, or exchanged for Moslem prisoners; or even, as cir- cumstances may dictate, be released or be made slaves. Children of infidels will be educated as Moslems, if their father or mother have been converted to Islam, if they have been captured without parents, or if they are found on Islamitic territory. We omit the direction for the distribution of booty and conquered lands, as we have already alluded to the treatment to be accorded to Jews and Christians. We only remark that, in accordance with the letter of the Koran, as well as the principles of the early imams, war against non-Mohammedans is de- clared permanent ; if it is carried on against pagans, to extinction ; against Christians, to subjection ; and that, therefore, in earlier times, when the Islamitic powers de- cided to discontinue hostilities, they simply concluded a truce. In the precepts of this kind, the Moslems come to realize that their sacred scripture contains laws and or- dinances not applicable and practicable for all times and circimistances, nor to all countries and people ; for the most orthodox idemas cannot think of urging the sul- tan to declare war against Russia or Austria, or to for- bid Europeans living in Constantinople to ride on horseback or dwell in palaces surpassing in height the houses of the INIoslems. Again, in spite of Koran and Sunnah, the idolaters and fire-worshippers were no more exterminated than the Christians were humbled and made to pay capitation tax. Many fire-worshippers in Persia retained not only their lives, but preserved in several places also their pyres. It even occurred that the M(jhammedan government corrected ecclesiastics because they wished to transform temples of the Gue- bers into mosques. The strict execution of the relig- ious precept would have compelled them to massacre all, since their character is very tenacious — a proceeding which would prove of great injury to the Islamitic state, and apparentlj' be regarded as too cruel even for execu- tion by bloodthirsty Arabs. The government was not unmerciful against those who remained true to their faith, but it knew no bounds against those converted to the Islam who, abhorring it in their heart, conspired se- cretly against the Islam and the State, and tried to un- dermine the first by old Parsee doctrines and philo- sophic speculation, and the latter by the revival of Per- sian nationality.
(fi) Slave Laws. — According to the fundamental doc- trines of Islam, only captives of war made in an infidel country are slaves ; in all Moslem countries, however, negroes and Abyssinian slaves also are kept in bondage by ruse or force. If slaves of an infidel become converts to Islam, the master is obliged to sell them to a Moslem for a price customary in the count^^^ The Koran enun- ciates distinctly their equality with the freemen before God ; and a tradition worthy of credit says : " He who manumits a faithful slave is delivered from the torments of hell." Female slaves, by whom their master has be- gotten children, at his death obtain their libertv, pro- VI.— D D
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vided one of the children is alive ; the children are bom free, and even over the mother the master has a re- stricted control ; he is not permitted to sell or marry her to another. There are in the Koran still other precepts favorable to the slaves.