Page:Collier's New Encyclopedia v. 09.djvu/211

LEFT SUNNITES 169 SUNSTROKE African students, who found Medina the most convenient school, and in Spain by his Berber pupil Y^ya 'bn Yahya. The third orthodox imam was Ash-Shafii of the Koraish tribe, and descended from the Prophet's grandfather, Abdul-Mut- talib. He was born, it is said, on the day of Abu Hanifa's death. He taught in Cairo, and there he died in 820. He was an eclectic, but leaned more to the tra- ditionary precedents of his teacher Malik than to the deductive method of Abu Hanifa. His system prevailed in Egypt, and was not uncommon E. It still flour- ishes in the Asiatic islands. The use of reason and Greek philos- ophy had by this time wrought such lax- ity in faith and in public and private con- duct that rigid puritanism was a natural concomitant. Its exponent was Ibn Han- bal, the fourth orthodox imam, who died in 855 in his native city Bagdad, beyond w^hich his system never had much power. He was a pupil of Ash-Shafii, whose lec- tures, however, he would never allow his own pupils to attend. Tradition and Sunna had now immensely increased, and by these alone the Hanbalites were guided. They are now almost extinct. The bulk of tradition had now made edit- ing indispensable, and those huge masses of it began to appear under which the Muslim mind has been crushed to death. Abu Hanifa had used onlj' 18 traditions, Malik 300. Ibn Hanbal used 30,000. These were mainly collected by his friends and pupils. One of these, the excellent Abu Daiid Suleiman, traveling in many Muslim lands, collected 500,000, which he sifted down to 4,800. But of the six accepted collections the standard one was made by Al Bukharl, a friend and pupil of Ibn Main. He taught in Bagdad, and like the best Muslim theo- logians was a Persian. He died in 870. Of the 600,000 traditions heard by him he admitted only 7,275, whereof the half are probably genuine. An edition by Krehl appeared at Leyden in 1862-1872, in three volumes. The collection by his Muslim pupil is better arranged, and is more used. The sources of tradition were Ayesha, the first four caliphs, and the six companions of the Prophet, of whom Abu Horaira, a manifest liar, was more prolific than any other. Through one of these channels to Mohammed the isndd or pedigree of every tradition had to be traceable. The matter is called Hadith, events, tradition, and is much more entertaining than the Koran. Be- sides the legal and religious utterances of Mohammed, which are generally in one or two sentences, it embodies endless non- sense about his life and miracles. What- ever in the Hadith can be imitated or obeyed is Sunna, method ; compulsory for guidance if connected with religion. Its object is to make needless all appeals to reason and conscience. In legislation it is much less used than formerly; but, like the Koran, it is infallible and unal' terable, and its only independent ex- pounders are the four orthodox imams. Legislation merely means a declaration by the Sheikh-ul-Islam and his council of ulema or doctors that this or that agrees with the Koran or tradition. Re- formation of law or religion from within is impossible. SUNSTROKE (otherwise called Heat- stroke, Heat Apoplexy, Heat As- phyxia, Coup de Soliel), a very fatal affection of the nervous system, which is very common in India and tropical countries, and also in more favored regions in extremely hot weather. The symptoms of the disease are liable to be greatly modified in different cases. Two contrasted forms are recognized. In the cardiac the heart is chiefly affected, and the symptoms are weakness, faintness, dimness of sight, giddiness, etc. Death may take place either suddenly or more gradually from failure of the circulation. If recovery occur it is complete. This form is said to occur only from, direct ex- posure to the sun's rays. In the cerebro- spinal form, the commoner of the two, the symptoms usually come on more gradually; nausea and giddiness may be present at first; but the most striking feature of the disease is either wild de- lirium or coma, with a pungently hot skin and extremely high temperature — 106° F. or upward. Even those who re- cover from this form of the disease are apt to suffer for a long period, or it may be permanently, from severe headache, epilepsy, enfeebled mental power, or other nervous disorders. Intermediate varieties are also met with, forming links between these two extremes. The predisposing causes of sunstroke are (1) an unusually elevated degree of temperature; (2) heavy or vinduly tight clothing, particularly if it interfere with the free expansion of the chest; (3) a contaminated atmosphere from over- crowding; (4) all debilitating causes, such as prolonged marches, previous disease, intemperate habits, etc. Death sometimes occurs so suddenly that there is little opportunity for treatment, but the general indications in these cases are the cold douche, from a height of three or four feet, keeping the surface wet and exposed to a current of air, the exclusion of light as far as possible, and the free employment of stimulants. In less rap- idly fatal cases the outer clothing should be removed, and the douche applied, as before, over the head and along the spine.