It is difficult to gain accurate information as to Abd el Hamid's
character and religious opinions, but I believe it may be safely
asserted that he represents in these latter the extremest Hanefite
views. In youth he was, for a prince, a serious man, showing a taste for
learning, especially for geography and history; and though not an _alem_
he has some knowledge of his religion. It may therefore be taken for
granted that he is sincere in his belief of his own spiritual
position--it is easy to be sincere where one's interest lies in
believing; and I have it from one who saw him at the time that on the
day soon after his accession, when, according to the custom already
mentioned, he received the sword at the mosque of Ayub, he astonished
his courtiers with the sudden change in his demeanour. All the afternoon
of that day he talked to them of his spiritual rank in language which
for centuries had not been heard in the precincts of the Seraglio. It is
certain, too, that his first act, when delivered from the pressure of
the Russian invasion, was to organize afresh the propagandism already
begun, and to send out new missionaries to India and the Barbary States
to preach the doctrine of his own Caliphal authority to the Moslems _in
partibus infidelium_.
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