ious principle; for he himself, as already mentioned, belonged not to the ruling party in Mecca, and his first adherents were for the most part of the lower class, so that the Meccans retorted on lum : " If God had pleased to send a prophet, he would have selected him from a more prominent family." Mohammed was frequently censured for being surrounded by slaves, freedmen, and a promiscuous crowd. It is, therefore, natural that he combated with all his might prejudices of birth and rank of every description. If, on the other hand, JIo- hammed is reported lo have said : " He who was of the nobility in paganism remains so in Islam, if he bow be- fore true wisdom ;" this sentence is probably to be placed in that time when he was inclined to all sorts of conces- sions, in order to make proselytes also among the higher classes. At any rate, he revoked it when the Meccan nobility persisted in their opposition against his doc- trine; as he retracted, for a similar reason, his opinion which represented the idols as mediators between God and man, and in a measure representatives of spirits or angels, and branded it even as a sentiment of Satan. But however decidedly Mohammed pronounced in favor of equality of all men, i. e. all the faithful, he failed in the attem|)t to abolish slavery altogether, though he mit- igated its lot in many respects. Nor was he more suc- cessful in emancipating woman, albeit he protected her against the arbitrariness of man, and granted her many rights which she had not enjoyed in Arabia before his time. While he prescribed to the faithful to take not more than four women, and allowed intercourse with female slaves only to the unmarried, he proclaimed rev- elations by which God relieved him of restrictions bind- ing upon others. He had the riglit to request every faith- ful to divorce his wife, if he desired marrying her himself. He claimed to contract for himself and others any mat- rimonial connection, without the consent of the girl or her protector. He was permitted to marry as many women as he pleased, and he indeed increased their number to thirteen, and felt not bound to treat them alike. The excessive jealousy of the legislator had the most grievous consequences for the women. It extend- ed so far that his women not only remained excluded from all intercourse with other men during his life, but were also prohibited remarrying after his death. Later, all other faithfid women were also ordered to wear a close veil, leaving only the eyes free, when going out, and even in the house not to show themselves unveiled except to their nearest relatives. Thus women who, with pagan Arabs, were the spice of public and social life, were by Mohammed's jealousy confined entirely to the home and the family circle. The fair sex, with the Bedouins as well as with the raediaival knights of the Occident objects of veneration and worship, was changed by the Islam into a subject of pity and mistrust. The place of their abode was, it is true, called Harem— i. e. sanctuary — but it was understood to be a sanctuary re- quiring veil and curtain, and finally lock and bolt and eunuchs to protect it against violation. This system of close confinement had, of course, the saddest conse- quences for the male sex. The husband found only sensual, but no cordial and mental enjoyment in his ha- rem, and fell more and mr)re into rudeness and unnatu- ral vices. Mohammed, by his own life and by his or- dinances concerning women, has impressed the charac- ter of transitoriness and liuman weakness on himself and his revelations. Here is manifest in the " reformer" himself the want of a strictly moral sentiment, and in his precepts sanctioning polygamy and seclusion of woman he lias left a legacy which prevents the profess- ors of his faith making any considerable progress in civilization, and raising themselves by a sound family life to a prosperous life of state. The Jews, on the oth- er hand, to whom the IMosaic law allows a plurality of wives, have found a rabbi from whom they liave accept- ed monogamy as a law, even in countries where polyg- ' amy is not forbidden. The :\Iosleni may soon also, like the Jew of our times, learn to make a distinctiou be- i
j tween eternal truths and laws and ordinances enacted for transient external circumstances. Tlie Moslem in general is not so firmly attached to his faith as the Jew. We observe this in those Arabs and Turks who have lived a few years in Christian countries, and have par- I ticipated in European civilization. Should the politi- j cal independence of the Moslems, which owes its exist- ence only to the mutual jealousies of the European powers, cease, their religion, as it is fomided on illusion, spread by the sword, and leaning on secular force, will not long survive it. The professors of Islam will then suffer great change. There will be some who will re- lapse into former indifferentism to religion, while others will adopt the faith of their conquerors, and probably the larger number. For a revival of the caliphate, i. e. a Jlohammedan empire ruled by a head of a supremacy at once spiritual and secular, the necessarj- elements are lacking — unity of faith and nationality. Shiites and Sunnites are still as hostile towards each other as they were a thousand years ago ; and to the old incom- patibility of the Arabian and Persian element a third one is added, semi-Mongolian — the Osmanic — consid- erably increasing the rupture. A new universal blaze of fanaticism, even if it could prevail against rified can- non and iron-plated frigates, is no more to be appre- hended. (G.W.)