The Sacred Law reached out far beyond the conception of law in the West. It was originally supposed to be sufficient for the entire government of the Islamic state (of which there was believed to be but one upon the earth),[521] as well as for the minute regulation of the social, ethical, and religious life of all its members.[522] From two circumstances, however, it rapidly became inadequate as a political constitution: first, from the expansion of the original simple Islamic society into a great world-power, with interests and relationships far more complex than had been dreamed of by the founders; and, second, from the fact that the Law, believed to be of divine origin,[523] was proclaimed unchangeable by its own provisions, and hence could not, except with extreme difficulty, be adapted to new responsibilities and times. Judges and jurists labored manfully to provide elasticity by interpretation, but the task was too great to be completely successful. It became necessary, therefore, for princes to supplement the Sacred Law by decrees of their own, a course in which they could not transgress the positive commands of the Sacred Law. But even within the Law itself the jurists had allowed them considerable latitude, by classifying its provisions under different heads as of various degrees of obligation: some acts were forbidden, some were advised against, some were considered indifferent, some were recommended, and some were rigidly prescribed.[524] Princes were compelled to keep hands off all matters that were forbidden or prescribed; but in the wide intervening field there was much that they might do, and an even larger field was left open in matters that were not touched at all by the Sacred Law because they had lain outside the experience of the fathers of Islam or had developed since their time. In case of undoubted transgression of the Sacred Law, the Moslem society, led by the _Ulema_, was considered absolved from allegiance to the sovereign and justified in exercising the right of revolution.[525] The _Sheri_ was thus a written constitution for the Ottoman Empire, not subject to amendment, but capable of some slight modification by judicial and juristic decision and interpretation.[526] The sultan had no power over it except as guardian, interpreter, and executor. The popular consent which allowed him to remain in authority did not recognize in him any right to amend or abolish any part of the Sacred Law.