They
consisted of the cloak of the Prophet borne by his soldiers as a
standard, of some hairs from his beard, and of the sword of Omar. The
vulgar believe them to be still preserved in the mosque of Ayub; and
though the Ulema no longer insist on their authenticity, they are often
referred to as an additional test of the Sultan's right.
Such, then, were the arguments of the Hanefite school, who defended
Selim's claim, and such they are with regard to his successors of the
house of Othman. By the world at large they seem to have been pretty
generally accepted, the more so as the Turkish Sultans, having only a
political end in view, were satisfied with their formal recognition by
their own subjects, and did not bring the question to an issue with
their independent neighbours. Neither the Mogul Emperors at Delhi nor
the Sheriffs of Morocco were called upon to acknowledge temporal or
spiritual supremacy in the Ottoman Sultans, nor did these affect an
every-day use of the ancient title they had assumed.
In India the head of the house of Othman was still known to Moslems as
Padishah or Sultan er Roum, the Roman Emperor, the most powerful of
Mussulman princes, but not in any special manner the head of their
religion, certainly not their sovereign.
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