§41. THE HOME, AND THE ANTECEDENTS OF ISLAM. 155
Nevertheless the power of Islam, like its symbol, the moon, is disappearing before the suii of Christianity which is rising once more over the Eastern horizon. Nearly one-third of its follow ers are under Christian (mostly English) rule. It is essentially a poUtlco- religious system, and Turkey is its stronghold. The Sultan has long been a " sick man," and owes his life to the for bearance and jealousy of the Christian powers. Sooner or later he will be driven out of Europe, to Brusa or Mecca. The colos sal empire of Russia is the hereditary enemy of Turkey, and would have destroyed her in the wars of 1854 and 1877, if Cath olic France and Protestant England had not come to her aid. In the meantime the silent influences of European civilization and Christian missions are undermining the foundations of Tur key, and preparing the way for a religious, moral and social regeneration and transformation of the East. " God's mills grind slowly, but surely and wonderfully fine." A thousand years before Him are as one day, and one day may do the work of a thousand years.
§ 41. The Home, and the Antecedents of Islam.
On the Aborigines of Arabia and its religious condition before Islam, compare the preliminary discourse of SALE, Sect. 1 and 2; Mum, Vol. I. cli. 2d; SPHEXGER, I. 13-Q2, and STOBART, cli. 1.
The fatherland of Islam is Arabia, a peninsula between the Red Sea, the Indian Ocean and the- Persian Gulf. It is covered with sandy deserts, barren hills, rock-bound coasts, fertile wadies, and rich pastures. It is inhabited by nomadic tribes and traders who claim descent from five patriarchal stocks, Gush, Shcm, Ishmael, Keturah, and Esau. It was divided by the ancients into Arabia Deserta, Arabia Petrrca (the Sinai district with Pctra as the capital), and Arabia Felix (El-Yemen, i. e. the land on the right hand, or of the South). Most of its rivers are swelled by periodical rains and then lose themselves in the sandy plains ; few reach the ocean ; none of them is navigable. It is a land of grim deserts and strips of green verdure, of drought and barren-
156 FOURTH PERIOD. A.D. 590 TO 1049.
ness, violent rains, clear skies, tropical heat, date palms, aromatic herbs, coffee, balsam, myrrh, frankincense, and dhurra (which takes the place of grain). Its chief animals are the camel, " the ship of the desert," an excellent breed of horses, sheep, and goats. The desert, like the ocean, is not without its grandeur. It cre ates the impression of infinitude, it fosters silence and meditation on God and eternity. Man is there alone with God. The Ara bian desert gave birth to some of the sublimest compositions, the ode of liberty by Miriam, the ninetieth Psalm by Moses, the book of Job, which Carlyle calls " the grandest poem written by the pen of man."
The Arabs love a roaming life, are simple and temperate, cour teous, respectful, hospitable, imaginative, fond of poetry and eloquence, careless of human life, revengeful, sensual, and fanatic-* al. Arabia, protected by its deserts, was never properly con quered by a foreign nation.
The religious capital of Islam, and the birthplace of its founder — its Jerusalem and Rome — is MECCA (or Mekka), one of the oldest cities of Arabia. It is situated sixty-five miles East of Jiddah on the Red Sea, two hundred and forty-five miles South of Medina, in a narrow and sterile valley and shut in by bare hills. It numbered in its days of prosperity over one hundred thousand inhabitants, now only about forty-five thousand. It stands under the immediate control of the Sultan. The streets are broad, but unpaved, dusty in summer, muddy in winter. The houses are built of brick or stone, three or four stories high ; the rooms better furnished than is usual in the East. They are a chief source of revenue by being let to the pilgrims. There is scarcely a garden or cultivated field in and around Mecca, and only here and there a thorny acacia and stunted brushwood relieves the eye. The city derives all its fruit — watermelons, dates, cucumbers, limes, grapes, apricots, figs, almonds — from Taif and Wady Fatima, which during the pilgrimage season send more than one hundred camels daily to the capital. The inhabitants are indolent, though avaricious, and make their living