The Moslem World/Volume 4/Number 2/Notes on Current Topics

NOTES ON CURRENT TOPICS


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There is a real call for spiritually minded women with university education to give themselves to Uterarj^ work in Moslem lands. Mr. Arthur T. Upson calls attention to what Moslem women can do, in reviewing a book which appeared sometime ago in Cairo. He says: —

" The Eastern woman being so much kept in the background, it is not generally known whether she is really capable or not. It is, of course, quite misleading and unfair to say that, because the ' fellah ' woman is stupid and ignorant, therefore the Moslem woman, as a whole, is incapable. One does not need to be a Pierre Loti, or even one of his admirers, to discover, after a certain amount of residence in the East, that many of our Eastern sisters have very great capacity for learning.

" Readers of M. Loti's book will have become aware of the degree of culture reached by the Turkish lady, but this is, to a large extent, within the harem, whereas there are some in other lands whose deeds require a wider sphere to display them.

" Among these is the talented daughter of the Inspector of Arabic in the Egyptian ISIinistry of Education, who has, for some years, written under a well-known nom-de -plume.

" Another one is the editor of the book which hes before us. It is a thick quarto volume of 550 pages, entitled Ad-Durr al-Manthur. It was pubhshed nineteen years ago, and seems to have been written two years before that time. It was brought out at the Government Press at Bulac, Cairo.

" The authoress, who styles herself a Syrian by birth, but an Egyptian by long residence, has given a most remarkable series of sketches of famous women. We have here something like 500 short biographies. It might have been thought she would write only of her own people. It were far more likely that she would do as many do, that is, would become so enamoured of the West as to forget the East altogether. Not so, Sayida Zainab Fawaz, the talented authoress, has treated of women in all ages and in all lands; but although she ranges from Hagar, the mother of Ishmael (the reason for whose inclusion is obvious) to Mary, Queen of Scots, and then from the Queen of Sheba to Florence Nightingale, and from A'isha, the wife of Mohammed, to Queens Elizabeth and Victoria — yet she has them all clearly classified under their initial letters.

" It would open the eyes of many students of Arabic literature to read pages 294 to 306. Another A'isha wrote a Qasida (Arabic poem), so arranged that every hne contains a different specimen of the chief rules in rhetoric."

We need in every great intellectual centre of Islam those who will study the whole question of literature in its relation to Moslem woman- hood: both what has been prepared by them and what should be prepared for them at the present time of intellectual awakening.

For nearly three decades the educated Moslems of India have used Carlyle's Essay on the Hero as Prophet to help them to " whitewash " Mohammed's character. Now when they learn by accident the other and complementary statements of Thomas Carlyle, they are straight- way offended. One of them, a student, writes to The Comrade of Calcutta: —

" It seems that the Senate of the Pan jab University does not take the trouble of going through the books that it prescribes as the courses of instruction. ' The Hero as a Poet,' by Carlyle — a chapter in ' The Selected English Essays,' by Peacock, a course for the Degree examination for 1914 and 1915, shows that the book was not read at all, at least by the Moslem members of the Senate, who must have given their consent before the book was prescribed.

" The following few lines will be sufficient to clear my point. ' Selected Enghsh Essays,' by W. Peacock. Pages 392, 393. ' He did not feel, like Mahomet, because he saw into those internal splend- ours, that he specially was the " Prophet of God ": and was he not greater than Mahomet in that? Greater, and also, if we compute strictly, as we did in Dante's case, more successful. It was intrinsically an error, that notion of Mahomet, of his supreme prophethood: and has come down to us inextricably involved in error to this day, dragging along with it such a coil of fables, impurities, intolerances, as makes it a questionable step for me here and now to say, as I have done, that Mahomet was a true speaker at all, and not rather an ambitious charlatan; perversity and simulacrum; no speaker but a Babbler! Even in Arabia, as I compute, Mahomet will have exhausted himself and become obsolete while this Shakspeare. . . for unlimited periods to come.'

" At another place. ' But as for Mahomet, I think it had been better for him not to be conscious! Alas, poor Mahomet! all that he was conscious of was a mere error; a futility and triviality — as indeed, such ever is. The truly great in him, too, was the unconscious: that he was a wild Arab lion of the desert, and did speak out with that thunder voice of his, not by words which he thought to be great, but by actions, by feelings, by a history which were great! His Koran has become a stupid piece of prolix absurdity . . . inarticulate deep.'

"It is needless to say that no Moslem can tolerate such a book. It is a pity that such books should be prescribed as contain nothing but the production of prejudice and bias.

" Through your columns. Sir, I appeal to the Panjab University authorities to withdraw this odious book from the courses of study."

Most of our readers have access to Burton, Burckhardt and other writers who have described the pilgrimage to Mecca, but we think that the following interesting account of the washing of the Kaaba will be new to many. It appeared in a series of articles on the Pil- grimage in The Egyptian Gazette, and is apparently written by one who knows Mecca thoroughly.

" On the 20th Moharrem the Kaaba is opened for the purpose of washing it, which is an operation of the greatest solemnity, performed in the presence of the Sherif, the Governor-General, and the notables of the town. The Sherif enters first and is followed by the rest of his party; and after having offered up a short prayer, two buckets of water from the Zamzam well are brought to him with which, and with small brooms, he washes the floor. When this is done he again washes it, but this time with rose water; then the floor and the walls as far as the arms can reach are anointed with essence of roses, musk and other perfumes, incense being all the time burned. When all these operations have been performed, the Sherif stands at the door of the Kaaba and throws to the immense crowds assembled outside the brooms used in washing it. The fight to obtain these brooms, which are considered by the natives as among the most precious things in the world, is be- yond description. Some of the 7nutauwifin or guides, however, sell to pilgrims brooms they soak in water which they pretend have been used in washing the Kaaba. The price of such brooms is at the lowest piastres 10. The threshold of the Kaaba is of silver and the two leaves of the door are made of sheet iron covered with gilt silver. The door, which is two metres above the ground, is reached by means of a wooden ladder overlaid with silver. The roof of the Kaaba is ornamented with precious stones presented by the different Caliphs. On the 27th of the month of Zul Kida the Kaaba is covered with white calico, which operation is called the ihrdm of the Kaaba, but in reality it is because the man in charge of it takes away this part of the Kiswa with the object of selling it."

The Bombay Guardian says: " Moulvi Shibli Noamani has come forward with another Mohammedan university scheme, which he wants to establish at Mecca. He has supplied the outlines of his scheme to the Mohammedan press. The new^ university will aim at teaching the Mohammedan youths from all parts of the world Mo- hammedan literature, but it will be conducted on modern lines. As to funds, he feels there can be no misgiving. There may be some trouble with the Turks who have never cared to educate Arabs, but the Moulvi is sanguine that these difficulties will be easily got over because when the Indian Mohammedans make up their minds to help this university, the Sultan of Turkey will not say No to the Indian Moham- medans."

The Egyptian Nationalists, deprived of free speech by the sup- pression of their journals, have not ceased to fret under what they call the yoke of British bondage. According to recent news in the Egyptiaii Gazette, they are publishing an Arabic paper in Paris and sending it into Egypt surrej^titiously. Turkey is as unwilling as is Egypt to harbour this species of Nationalist. According to the Constantinople papers. Sheikh Abdel Aziz Shawish, the notorious NationaKst agitator, will be appointed director of a religious establishment which it has been decided to create in Medina. This transfer to Arabia of Sheikh Shawish was, according to rumour, decided upon by the Union and Progress Party in order to keep him away from the Turkish capital, where his presence is increasingly inconvenient.

The Mohammedan press in Cairo and in Constantinople from time to time contains warnings to parents, advising them not to send their children to mission schools because of the danger that they will either lose all their religion or become Christians. The paper called Es SJia'ab recently contained these sentiments: " We know that the various missions of the religious fraternities are not concerned with education in the sense of progress, but are centers of propagandism, their only purpose being to turn their pupils from Islam to Christianity. There- fore we have for some time been warning parents against sending their children to these establishments. They enter them as Moslems, but having completed their education, they leave them either as total infidels or as Christians in everything but name." In an article which appeared in the Jeune Turc, Ahmed Aghaieff speaks of the instruction given in mission schools, as follows: —

" These schools have attracted up to this time quite a large number of Moslem children of both sexes. But a fairly perceptible current of adverse opinion is setting in against these schools, and this for several reasons. First of all there is the narrow fanaticism of those who direct these schools. These schools, so edifying from the Christian stand- point, are absolutely destructive from the Moslem point of view. They set themselves to the task of destroying all Moslem and national sentiment in their pupils; with this end in view, they rigorously exclude from their programmes all religious instruction for Moslem children, drive out the Turkish language and Turkish history, while forcing the children to attend Christian prayers, and compelling them to learn foreign languages and foreign history. In reality, they teach no positive result, for they merely destroy the religious convictions of their Moslem pupils without succeeding in making Christians of them. If those who stand at the head of these schools could avoid this narrow spirit, if they reahzed the necessity of respecting the language and religion of the country which shows them hospitality, they could attract a much larger number of children and render a real service as well to the countries which they represent as to the land where they hve. But they are incapable of this; and the love of country, which is from day to day becoming more developed, is in a fair way to become a serious force against the education of Moslem children in foreign religious schools. We are fully and absolutely convinced that as soon as the native private or government schools can be more or less im- proved and multiplied, the current of Moslem children to these foreign schools will cease. And Moslem public opinion peremptorily demands that such improvements be introduced, that more sustained and more rational care be devoted to the school question."

Last year Colonel Finley, of the United States army and the Gov- ernor of the Moros, visited Constantinople as representative of the Moslems of the Southern Philippine group. He has been in the Philippine Islands for eleven years, and seems to have won the confi- dence of the Moslem inhabitants. According to a correspondent in the Near East, the Moros have offered a spirited resistance at times to the occupation by the United States, but Colonel Finley, by his sympathy, firmness, and justice, has won them over to such an extent that they appointed him their representative to obtain their recognition by the Khalif at Constantinople, and gave him an enthusiastic send-off on his mission. Surely few Anglo-Saxons or Christians have had a more remarkable work entrusted to them.

The prime object of the mission was to obtain from the Khalifate the appointment of one or more Hodjas, or teachers, who should endeavour to influence the mass of the Moro people in the PhiUppines to acquire a more enlightened knowledge of their own faith in the teachings of the Prophet, to impress them with the virtues of Moham- medan tenets in order that they may Hve more consistently in the light of the best culture of Islam, and to lead them away from the abuses which have sprung up in their reUgion. Whilst this is being done, it is expected that on the other hand the people will be impressed as to the necessity of submitting to the laws and regulations of the United States Government, and stress is to be laid on the fact that the United States Government is entirely non-sectarian, having no State religion and being absolutely tolerant of all beliefs.

One would like to know whether in such matters as slavery and polygamy the United States Government has made a compromise with Islam, and in how far the policy of the American Repubhc is to follow the lines of the British in Nigeria and the Sudan in discouraging missionary work among these Moslems.

According to the Cairo daily press, the Itahan Government has decided on founding a porch (riwaak) or hostel near the Azhar Univer- sity for boarding those Moslem students of Erethrea and Tripoli who come to study at this institution. The hostel will contain 150 beds a large reference librarj^ and all the necessary accompaniments of a boarding establishment. Itahan masters will be engaged to teach the Italian language to the students at certain hours in the day. Monthly allowances are to be given to Tripolitan students at the Azhar. The object of the Italian Government, say the Mokattam, is to bring up teachers who Avill go back to Tripoli, and teach the coming generation Islamic doctrine, the Arabic tongue, and love of Italy.

The latest news of the Aligarh University is regarding the question of affiliation. A meeting was held by the Committee, but they would not agree to the power given to the Viceroy as Chancellor of the University to be vested in him as Governor-Greneral in Council. It also decided to name the University the Moslem University. The Com- mittee has decided to send a deputation to the Viceroy, as there was unanimity on the question of having a University, and has sanctioned the interest of the University Fund to be expended for the furtherance of the University scheme by increasing the staff of the College and enlarging the buildings and sending promising young members to England to be of use as Professors in the University.

While the leading progressive Moslem University proposes to send its students to England for training, the oldest Moslem University, Al Azhar, is also stirred by the wave of progress. According to the Egyptian Gazette, the Sheikh of the Azhar Mosque has ordered that all students who have been for over seventeen years receiving instruction there, must be examined at the forthcoming examination, and those who do not pass it successfully will be discharged from the University. This is the first time that any such time limit has existed. Up to now a student might remain at this historic seat of learning all his life, and no one has ever been " sent down " for failing to pass examinations.

In imitation of the organization in Old Cairo for training con- troversialists and Moslem propagandists of the faith, an association under the title of " Nazarat-ul-Ma'arif-ul-Qorania," has been started at Delhi for the training of Mohammedan missionaries intimately acquainted with their own religion and equipped with a knowledge of Enghsh and other modern languages. The organization proposes to award scholarships of Rs. 50 per mensem to graduates, who would undertake religious duty and receive their traim'ng at the institution. Those unacquainted with English will be taught English and other modern languages and receive substantial stipends. Nawab Vicar-ul- Mulk has given his wholehearted support to the Nazarat and invited public help for it. Her Highness the Begum of Bhopal has also expressed her approval of the purposes of the association and made a perpetual annual grant of Rs. 2,400.

At the summer meeting of the American Mission at Ramleh, it was recommended that a committee be appointed to seek the co-operation of all the Missions in Egypt in inviting Dr. John R. Mott, as repre- senting the Edinburgh Continuation Committee, to hold a Conference similar to those recently held in India, China, and Japan, sometime in the near future. The hope is that this Conference will lead to a closer correlation and the increased efficiency of all the agencies now working for the evangelization of Egypt and the Egyptian Sudan. The Committee is in correspondence with Dr. Mott and other missionary leaders, and has already secured the hearty co-operation of the other missions in Egypt. This preliminary notice is intended as a special call for prayer. If the proposed Conference is to produce results commensurate with the present day opportunities in Egypt, and really bind together all the Missions to a common task with a common faith and in a common hope, all preparation for the Conference must be in the spirit of intercession. Let us pray for each other and for the leaders in this enterprise; for the Committee that shall be appointed that they may prepare the programme with wisdom, and that the results of the Conference may be spiritual and abiding.

Doubtless this Conference will consider such topics as were con- sidered in Japan: The occupation of the whole field; The Egyptian Evangehcal Church; Christian Leadership in Egypt; The training of IVIissionaries; Education; Christian Literature; and the Neglected Bedouin population. May we not hope that this Conference, like those held in the Far East, will be strategic in its conceptions and plans, and will result in the launching of an evangelistic campaign which will reach out to every village of Egypt.

The second annual meeting of this Committee took place in Cairo last November. Six of the original members and five consulting members were present. The agenda and the minutes took a wide sweep of the present problems coming within the province of the Committee. Personal reports were heard from Algeria, Constantinople, SjT-ia, Egypt and Arabia; while correspondence from Baghdad, Turkestan, China and Persia brought the Committee face to face with present conditions in these widely separated lands.

It was agreed to continue this investigation of conditions in East Africa, China and Malaysia, through members of the Committee and workers in those regions.

Much interest was manifested in the plan for producing a new literature for boys and girls. Miss Trotter laid before the Committee a number of illustrated story parables done in a delightfully interesting and artistic form, some of which have already been published in Turkish. A strong sub-committee has taken this in hand.

A large part of the session was taken up in discussing plans for wider and more effective distribution of the hterature already in existence, and especially among the large numbers of pilgrims from the East and the West. This brought into notice a new phase of the work in the matter of languages. Eighteen of the Nile Mission Press Khutbas are already issued in Turkish, but it was felt that these and other literature must be translated into French for use in various provinces in the Orient. A still larger need was apparent for the same literature in Russian and inter- Asian languages and where the distri- bution would not be hampered by conditions still existing in Turkey. Various other publications large and small were agreed upon and assigned to the proper persons and sub-committees.

A number of answers to the various publications have recently appeared in Turkish and Arabic. Some of them showing evidence of earnest study and an open-mindedness to truth. The larger volumes make much use of the queries and difficulties and cavils of the pseudo-higher criticism in Christian lands concerning the Bible, and many of the more daring and less trustworthy exponents would be surprised to know how large their names and half-baked theories figure in Moslem attacks on the authority and sufficiency of the Bible. As missionaries we once rejoiced in being free from such windy polemics, but are now having them thrust upon us in foreign lands and foreign languages.

It was noted with pleasure that, with some glaring exceptions, there was a better tone in such literature, and we welcome a state of public opinion where Christian as well as Moslem can discuss the faith of the other without raising the passions of a mob such as filled the theatre at Ephesus in Paul's day (Acts xix. 24). There is a danger in Turke}^ since the abohtion of the Government censorship, that the duties of the censor may be assumed by the more fanatical element in the large cities as represented in the lower class of newspapers. We can afford to be patient with this since we are sure there is an increas- ingly larger number who are inclined to ask for " fair play " in the matter of controversy, and a still larger number who are willing to look at the good in Christianity and try to find a way of linking it with the best in Islam. F. E. Hoskins, D.D.

Beirut.

The controversy concerning the Hegira New Year's Day has not yet subsided in the Moslem press of Cairo, and complaints against the Grand Kadi's recent action in changing New Year's Day from Saturday to Sunday continue to be made. The latest complaint is one signed by the Imams and muezzins of the mosques of Cairo, and ends as follows: —

" Tlve action of the Grand Kadi has thrown us into perplexity, and we do not know which calendar to follow. We cannot see how anyone could have seen the new moon on the first of Moharram when for three days the sky was cloudy, and no moon could be seen. If the action was taken in accordance with instructions from Constantinople, then no allowance could have been made for the difference in the latitude of the two places. All our feast days and hohdays have been thrown out of reckoning, and we anxiously wait to hear what the Mehkemeh Sharia has to say about this, as well as the Press."

The Jaridah and the Sliaab of Cairo are now having a series of lively if lengthy controversial articles on the subject of the veil. The Jaridah favours the removal of the veil, while the Shaab prefers to remain conservative.

Writers in the first-mentioned journal declare that the veil is neither a Koranic nor Sunna institution, but an outgrowth of later times, and that the same may be said of the free relations between the sexes. It is true that some texts in the Koran mention the veil, but that happens only when referring to the wives of the Prophet, who were an exception to the rest of Womenkind. Moreover, legalists have always maintained that a woman's face and hands should not be covered, and that free contact between the sexes was not reprehensible. Some even have gone as far as allowing woman to dispense justice in court.

The veil, says the Jaridah, is neither a religious nor a racial institution. Observe how the fellah women go about uncovered and no adverse comment is passed on them. Why should the restriction be limited to women of the better classes? The veil grew out of men suspecting women, and out of jealousy.

The Shaab takes up the controversy and tries to prove that the veil is a divine institution. After quoting one or two Koranic texts in support of its arguments, it states that in early Islam women were obliged to cover their faces, with the exception of one eye, as was done by Obeidah. Others considered woman's hair an ornament, and ordered it to be hidden. As to mixing with the other sex, nothing could be more contrary to the mind of the Prophet, who even made it illegal for woman to attend mosques where men congregate, much less secular social gatherings.

The Almighty has forbidden woman to look at man's face as he has forbidden man to look at her face, for the Koran says "it is the eyes that lust." The Writer then quotes the following incident: "The Prophet one day had a lady visitor, when a blind man entered. "Hide your faces," called out the Prophet to his guest. The woman pleaded that the man was blind, whereupon the Prophet remarked, "He is blind, but you are not."

The Shaab concludes by saying that the above is the spirit of Islam which is contrary to the spirit of the age, that now tends to immorality and corruption. — The Egyptian Mail

According to the Malaysia Message, a remarkable movement toward Christianity is taking place at Balantak in the eastern part of central Celebes. In the struggle for the animistic tribes between Islam and Christianity, the latter is beginning to win.

" From our Batavia contemporary De Banier, we learn that a remarkable movement towards Christianity is taking place in Balantak, which hes at the Eastern extremity of Central Celebes, among people who have not yet come under the influence of Mohammedanism.

" The Dutch clergyman at Macassar, Rev. R. W. F. Kijftenbelt, to whose zeal it is mainly due that this movement is being followed up, writes as follows, on the 19th of September: I returned yesterday from a trip to Loewoek (the chief to^vn of Balantak), Kolono Dale and Kandari. At Loewoek I met ^Ir. Kelling, who had just returned from Lamala. The people there are so eager to become Christians that within fourteen days 1,800 persons have joined our congregations. (Here follows a list of fifteen places, served by five native pastors, with a total Christian community of 2,356). I cannot yet find a suitable married pastor for Lingketen, where the people have long been waiting for a teacher. I certainly need an experienced man there. Towards the end of this month I expect about nine Minahassa teachers. Two of these go to Lingketen, and one of them to Pangkang. The Mohammedans on the coast are trying to carry on their propaganda even by baptising the people. But we quietly let them go their own way. (Dr. Adriani here inserts the following explanation: Mr. Kijftenbelt, no doubt, means the purification ceremony, by which the convert is taken to the river side where religious ceremonies are performed. Here his head is first cleansed mth Hme juice, and afterwards water is poured over him for the purpose of ceremonial purification. After this he is allowed to take part in the services, even though he is not yet circumcised. Many heathen are afraid of this operation, and believe that they will die as the result of it). At Tongke, where they understand that we do not interfere with the Mohammedans, even the children of the Mohammedan Balantak people attend our school. They gladly avail themselves of the in- struction given there, and the Mohammedan chief, the Sangadji, has now given up his opposition, and is friendly towards us.

" At Binoeang (which is in quite a different district, lying in the Western part of Central Celebes, where a spontaneous movement towards Christianity h<is sprung up) four more teachers are coming to work."