But this is too
intricate and important a matter to be entered on at present.
The Sunites are then the body of authority and tradition, and being more
numerous than the other three sects put together in a proportion of four
and a half to one, have a good right to treat these as heretics. It must
not, however, be supposed that even the Sunites profess absolutely
homogeneous opinions. The path of Orthodox Islam is no macadamised road
such as the Catholic Church of Christendom has become, but like one of
its own Haj routes goes winding on, a labyrinth of separate tracks, some
near, some far apart, some clean out of sight of the rest. All lead, it
is true, in the same main direction, and here and there in difficult
ground where there is a mountain range to cross or where some defile
narrows they are brought together, but otherwise they follow their own
ways as the idiosyncrasy of race and disposition may dictate. There is
no common authority in the world acknowledged as superior to the rest,
neither is there any office corresponding even remotely with the
infallible Papacy.
The Mohammedan nations have for the most part each its separate school,
composed of its own Ulema and presided over by its own Grand Mufti or
Sheykh el Islam, and these are independent of all external influence.
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