The mainstay of the Mogrebbin Haj are the Moors. These have an immense
name for zeal and religious courage at Mecca, and for the great
scrupulosity with which they perform their religious duties. There is
too among the Moors a far wider level of theological education than
among most Mussulmans. I made acquaintance while at Jeddah with a young
Arab from Shinghiat in Senegal who, Bedouin as he was, was an Alem, and
one sufficiently well versed in the Sheriat to be referred to more than
once in my presence on points of religious law and literature. I
expressed my surprise at finding a Bedouin thus learned, for he was
evidently an Arab of the Arabs, but he told me his was no exceptional
position, and that most Bedouins in Southern Morocco could read the
Koran. The Moors would have a still higher position in Islam than that
already given them were it not that they are on one point at variance
with the mass of Sunites. They do not acknowledge the modern Caliphate.
Those therefore of the Sunites who have acknowledged the Ottoman claim
are at issue with the Moors. On all other points, however, the Moors are
Sunites of the Sunites.
From the Moor to the negro is but a step, though it is a step of race,
perhaps of species. The political and religious connection of Morocco
with the Soudan is a very close one, and, whatever may be the future of
the Mediterranean provinces fronting the Spanish coast, it cannot be
doubted that the Moorish form of Mohammedanism will be perpetuated in
Central Africa. It is there, indeed, that Islam has the best certainty
of expansion and the fairest field for a propagation of its creed.
Statistics, if they could be obtained, would, I am convinced, show an
immense Mohammedan progress within the last hundred years among the
negro races, nor is this to be wondered at. Islam has so much to offer
to the children of Ham that it cannot fail to win them--so much more
than any form of Christianity or European progress can give.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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