194 FOUETH PERIOD. A. D. 590-1049.
I will add a brief description of the ascetic exercises of the "Dancing" and "Howling" Dervishes which I witnessed in their convents at Constantinople and Cairo in 1877.
The Dancing or Turning Dervishes in Pera, thirteen in num ber, some looking ignorant and stupid, others devout and in tensely fanatical, went first through prayers and prostrations, then threw off their outer garments, and in white flowing gowns, with high hats of stiff woolen stuff, they began to dance to the sound of strange music, whirling gracefully and skilfully on their toes, ring within ring, without touching each other or moving out of their circle, performing, in four different acts, from forty to fifty turnings in one minute, their arms stretched out or raised to heaven, their eyes half shut, their mind apparently lost in a sort of Nirwana or pantheistic absorption in Allah. A few hours afterward I witnessed the rare spectacle of one of these very Dervishes reeling to and fro in a state of intoxication on the street and the lower bridge of the Golden Horn.
The Howling Dervishes in Scutari present a still more extra ordinary sight, and a higher degree of ascetic exertion, but des titute of all grace and beauty. The performance took place in a small, plain, square room, and lasted nearly two hours. As the monks came in, they kissed the hand of their leader and repeated with him long prayers from the Koran. One recited with melo dious voice an Arabic song in praise of Mohammed. Then, standing in a row, bowing, and raising their heads, they con tinued to howl the fundamental dogma of Mohammedanism, La ilaha iW Allah, for nearly an hour. Some were utterly exhausted and wet with perspiration. The exercises I saw in Cairo were less protracted, but more dramatic, as the Dervishes had long hair and stood in a circle, swinging their bodies backward and forward in constant succession, and nearly touching the ground with their flowing hair. In astounding feats of asceticism the Moslems are fully- equal to the ancient Christian anchorites and the fakirs of India.
I 47. CHRISTIAN POLEMICS AGAINST MOHAMMEDANISM. 195
§ 47. Christian Polemics against Mohammedanism. Note on
Mormonism.
See the modern Lit. in | 38, p. 143.
For a list of earlier works against Mohammedanism, see J. ALB. FABRI- Cius: Delectus argumcntorum et syllabus scriptorum, qui veritatem Christ, adv. Atheos, . . . Judccos ct Muhammcdanos . . . asseruerunt. Hamb., 1725, pp. 119 sqq., 735 sqq. J. G. WALCH : Bibliotheca Theolog. Selecta (Jenre, 1757), Tom. I. 611 sqq. Appendix to Pm- DEAUX'S Life of Mahomet.
THEOD. BIBLIANDER, edited at Basle, in 1543, and again in 1550, with the Latin version of the Koran, a collection of the more important works against Mohammed under the title : Machumctis Saracenorum principis ej usque succcssorum vita?, doctrinoR, ac ipse Alcoran., 1 vol. fol.
RiciiAiiDUS (about 1300): Confutatio Alcorani, first publ. in Paris, 1511.
Jon. DE TuiiRECHEMATA : Tractcitus contra principales errores perfidi Mahomet is ct Tur co-rum. Rom., 1606.
LUD. MARACCIUS (MARACCI) : Prodromus ad refutationem Alcorani ; in quo, per IV. prcecipuas verm religionis notas, mahumetance sectce falsitas osfcnditur, christiance religionis veritas comprobatur. Rom. (typis Congreg. de Propaganda Fide), 1691. 4 vols., small Oct.; also Pref. to his Alcorani te.iius universus, Petav., 1698, 2 vols. fol.
HADR. R ELAND : De Rcligione Mohammedica. Utrecht, 1705 ; 2nd ed. 1717; French transl., Hague, 1721.
AV. GASS: Gcnnadius und Pletho. Breslau, 1844, Part I., pp. 106-181. (Die Bestreitung des Islam im Mittelalter.}
The argument of Mohammedanism against other religions was the sword. Christian Europe replied with the sword in the crusades, but failed. Greek and Latin divines refuted the false prophet with superior learning, but without rising to a higher providential view, and without any perceptible effect. Christian polemics against Mohammed and the Koran began in the eighth century, and continued with interruptions to the sixteenth and seventeenth.
John of Damascus, who lived among the Saracens (about A. D. 750), headed the line of champions of the cross against the crescent. He was followed, in the Greek Church, by Theodor of Abukara, who debated a good deal with Mohammedans in Mesopotamia, by Samonas, bishop of Gaza, Bartholomew of Edessa, John Kautakuzenus (or rather a monk Meletius, for-