Tunis then specially boasted her independence of the Porte, and all but the Hanefite rulers of the sea-coast towns of Africa would have scouted the idea of fighting for the Turk.  Now the Malekites themselves, the puritans of Kerwan, are moving at Abd el Hamid’s nod.  He would seem, too, to be stirring with some success in Egypt, and Indian Mussulmans are praying for him publicly in their mosques.  Everywhere the reactionary party is standing to its arms, and is beginning to recognize a leader in this supple Armenian Khalifeh, who is defying Europe, and seems willing, if necessary, to lead them one day on a Jehad.

With all this, however, it must not be supposed that Orthodox Islam is by any means yet won back to Constantinople.  Turkey, I have shown, and the Hanefite school, are far from being the whole of the Mohammedan world; and side by side with the fanatical obduracy of the Ottoman State party and the still fiercer puritanism of the Melkites there exists an intelligent and hopeful party favourable to religious reform.  Shafite Egypt is its stronghold, but it is powerful too in Arabia and further East.  With it a first article of faith is that the House of Othman has been and is the curse of Islam, and that its end is at hand.

In spite of Abd el Hamid’s pious appeals to the Sheriat they look upon him as one who troubleth Islam.  He is the representative of the party most bitterly opposed to all of good.  They know that as long as there is an Ottoman Caliph, whether his name be Abd el Aziz or Abd el Hamid, moral progress is impossible, that the ijtahad cannot be re-opened, and that no such reformation of doctrine and practice can be attempted as would alone enable their faith to cope with modern infidelity.  They see moreover that, notwithstanding his affected legality, Abd el Hamid’s rule is neither juster nor more in accordance with the Mussulman law than that of his predecessors.  The same vices of administration are found in it, and the same recklessness for his Mussulman subjects’ welfare.  Of all the lands of Islam his own are probably those where Abd el Hamid has now the most scanty following.  Constantinople is after all his weak point, for the Young Turkish school is far from dead, the vicissitudes of life and death follow each other closely on the Bosphorus, and the liberal party can better afford than the reactionary to wait.  The death or fall of Abd el Hamid, whenever it may happen, would immediately decide a movement counter to the Ottoman Caliphate.

FOOTNOTES: 

[10] I do not vouch for the entire accuracy of these dates.  Turkish historians place Selim’s death in 926 A.H., which should correspond with our 1520.  It would seem doubtful too whether Selim himself took any higher title with regard to the Holy Places than Khadam el Harameyn, Servant of the two shrines, though his successors are certainly called Hami.  It was not till five years after Selim’s death that Mecca acknowledged the Ottoman Caliphate.