The negro races will not only be Mohammedanised; they will
also be Arabised; and a community of language and of custom will thus
preserve for Soudan its connection with Mecca, and so with the general
life of Islam. The losses, then, to Islam in Africa will be rather
apparent than real, and may even in the end prove a source of new
strength.
Nor must we lose sight of the possibility of a French defeat I believe
that at no time during the past forty years has the military position of
"our allies" been in a graver peril in their colony than now, or the
resources of their antagonists greater. It is a weakness of the French
system in Africa that it has made no attempt to assimilate the native
population; and it is the strength of that population, in as far as it
is Arab, that it does assimilate French thought to its own advantage. It
is far from certain whether the conquest of Algiers may not some day
have for its effect the renewal of Mohammedan political vitality in all
the Barbary Coast.
A more absolute and immediate loss must be anticipated in Europe and
Western Asia. There it is pretty certain that in a very few years
Ottoman rule will have ceased, and the Turkish-speaking lands composing
the Empire been absorbed by one or other of the powerful neighbours who
have so long coveted their possession.
Pages:
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
184
185