He finds the Hejazi, the keepers of
the holy places and privileged ciceroni of the shrines, shrewder as men
of business than devout as believers, and he returns to his home a
sadder and, the Dutch say, a wiser man. I do not affirm that the Dutch
are right; but this is the principle they act on, and they boast of its
success.
We in India, as I have said, in our grand careless way, leave all these
things to chance. India, nevertheless, still holds the first rank in the
Haj, and, all things considered, is now the most important land where
the Mohammedan faith is found. In the day of its greatness the Mogul
Empire was second to no State in Islam, and though its political power
is in abeyance, the religion itself is by no means in decay. India has
probably a closer connection at the present moment with Mecca than any
other country, and it is looked upon by many there as the Mussulman land
of the future. Indeed, it may safely be affirmed that the course of
events in India will determine more than anything else the destiny of
Mohammedanism in the immediate future of this and the next generation.
The Malays, though holding no very high position in the commonwealth of
Islam, are important from their numbers, their commercial prosperity,
and, more than all to an European observer, from the fact that so many
of them are Dutch subjects.
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