Page:Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje - The Holy War, Made in Germany (1915).djvu/49

 36 are further given help by the Sultan in Stambul, who in matters of religion is the Supreme Lord of all Mohammedans," and far from adding the necessary correction, he calls this official nonsense "interesting." Grothe's assertion that at the outset of the present war the "jihâd of Germany" had been the subject of debates and prayers in the mosques of Turkey is perhaps a poetical phrase, for, even if we translate jihâd about correctly as "holy war," still our "holy war," as now every belligerent calls his own struggle, is by no means rendered by the Arabic-Mohammedan jihâd. When old-fashioned pious Mohammedans refer to this war in their prayer, the prayer will sound about as follows: "We thank Thee, Allah, for having divided the legions of the Devil against themselves and because Thy almightiness forces some of them to support the defenders of Islâm with