There is, therefore, a conviction that the removal of
the seat of supreme authority, when made, will be towards the centre,
not to any new extremity of Islam. Constantinople, even if all Islam
were combined for its defence, is felt to be too near the infidel
frontier to be safe, and cosmopolitan city as it has become, it is by
many looked upon itself as infidel. A position further removed from
danger and more purely Mohammedan is the necessity of the day; and it
can hardly be doubted that, when the time comes, the possession of some
such vantage ground will be recognized as a first qualification with
whoever shall assume the leadership of Islam.
We have seen that Abd el Hamid dreams of Damascus or Bagdad. But others
dream of Cairo as the new seat of the Caliphate; and to the majority of
far-sighted Mussulmans it is rapidly becoming apparent that the retreat,
once begun, must be conducted further still, and that the only true
resting-place for theocracy is in Arabia, its birthplace and the
fountain head of its inspiration. There, alone in the world, all the
conditions for the independent exercise of religious sovereignty are to
be found. In Arabia there are neither Christians nor Jews nor infidels
of any sort for Islam to count with, nor is it so rich a possession that
it should ever excite the cupidity of the Western Powers.
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