So there has sprung up in Islam, in tremendous ramifications, an _imperium in imperio_. All the brethren in all the degrees—for, just as in the monastic orders of Europe, there are active members and lay members—reverence and pay blind obedience to the Head in his inaccessible oasis in the African desert. There he works toward the end, and there can be little doubt what that end will be. Sooner or later Europe—in the first instance, England in Egypt and France in Algeria—will have to face the bursting of this storm. For this Mahdi is different from him of Khartum and the southern Sudan in that he knows how to rule and wait; for years he has gathered arms and munitions, and trained men for the great _Jihad_. When his plans are ready and his time is come, a new chapter will be opened in the history of Islam, a chapter which will cast into forgetfulness even the recent volcanic outburst in China. It will then be for the Ottoman Sultan of the time to show what he and his Khalifate are worth. He will have to decide whether he will throw in his lot with a Mahdi of the old Islam and the dream of a Muslim millennium, or boldly turn to new things and carry the Successorship and the People of Muhammad to join the civilized world. PART II Development of Jurisprudence CHAPTER I The scope of jurisprudence among Muslims; the earliest elements in it, Arab custom, Jewish law, personality of Muhammad; his attitude toward law; elements after death of Muhammad; Qur’an, Usage of the Prophet, common law of al-Madina; conception of _Sunna_ before Muhammad and after; traditions and their transmission; traditions in book form; influence of Umayyads; forgery of traditions; the _Muwatta_ of Malik ibn Anas; the _Musnad_ of Ahmad ibn Hanbal; the _musannafs_; al-Bukhari; Muslim; Ibn Maja; at-Tirmidhi; an-Nasa’i; al-Baghawi; the problem of the Muslim lawyers; their sources; Roman law; the influence of the doctrine of the _Responsa prudentium_; Opinion in Islam; the Law of Nature or Equity in Islam; _istihsan_; _istislah_; Analogy; the patriarchal period in Islam; the Umayyad period; the growth of the canon law.