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.
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