I was talking to an educated Arab not so long ago about religions, and he expressed the opinion that only Mohammedans would go to heaven. I suggested that the question of after-life was not so much judged by religion as by the actions of men, and I quoted the example of a very worthy Christian we know, respected by all Arabs, and a hopeless, immoral, drinking _marabout_. “Which of the two will be recompensed, the honest and sober unbeliever, or that scoundrel who calls himself a holy man of yours?” “I can not say,” he replied, after a moment’s thought; “but probably neither of them will go to paradise.” “What?” I exclaimed. “You mean to suggest that worthy Mr. X., who has spent the whole of his life doing good, will find himself in company with your drunken _marabout_?” “I can not say,” repeated the Arab; “but if our friend believes that Jesus is the Son of God, he can not go to heaven. God is above all, and no one is like him.” “That is all very well,” I said; “but our religion says that if you don’t believe in the divinity of Jesus you will also not go to paradise; that is why I am contending that people can not be judged by their respective faiths, but by their actions.” “But your religion is wrong,” he said finally. I was on the point of continuing the argument, but the look in his eyes made me desist. This belief, to him, was conclusive evidence. And that is Islam, that is the Arab; his faith is absolute, and his opinion of other religions is quite simple—they don’t exist. “Why,” they say, “we believe in Moses and Aaron and Jacob and Elijah and Jesus; they are all great prophets who preceded ours; what more do you want?” A wall—a blank wall which no one can pierce without becoming a Mohammedan. _Et encore_. . . . The more one lives with these people the more apparent this becomes, and if in this book the impressions given differ from those which have struck others, perhaps it is because only one side of the character has been seen, the character _allowed to be seen_ by the Roumi. I know the Arabs well, I know them intimately, but I have not the remotest idea what they think of me, and I never shall have. There may be future developments of this book, with possible reversal of certain opinions, but as far as the working of the Arab brain is concerned, I know that I have penetrated as far as I ever shall. Let the reader, therefore, close this volume realizing the task which has been before the author—who, after spending over five years constantly studying these people, has arrived at this somewhat negative conclusion. THE END INDEX Abd-el-Kader (Djelali), 113, 122 Abd-el-Kader (Emir), 31, 32, 123-27, 267, 273 Abd-el-Krim, 127 Abhadites, 196 Ablutions, 75, 102, 286 _Adel_, 53 Administration, 37, 40, 48 _Agha_, 36, 49, 51, 53 Aid el Kebir, 109, 113 Aid Serrir, 109 Ain-el-Ibel, 184 Ain Mahdi, 60, 125, 262, 267, 269 Aissa, 103