But here the _Mufti_ Jemali intervened decisively. He had readily given a _fetva_ authorizing the extermination of the heretics as in accordance with the Sacred Law, and he was later to sanction the Persian and the Egyptian wars. In this case, Selim, it is said, deceived him by a hypothetical question into giving a response which might be interpreted to authorize the forcible conversion of the Christians. After the order was issued, however, Jemali, awakened to the situation, put the Greek Patriarch in possession of a sufficient defence by showing him that the Sacred Law provided that Christians who had accepted Mohammedan rule and agreed to pay _kharâj_ and _jizyeh_ (land tribute and poll-tax) were, aside from certain regulations, to be left unmolested in the exercise of their religion. This provision the Patriarch, as instructed by the _Mufti_, claimed to be an irrevocable and eternal compact; therefore, he urged, since Selim’s intention was contrary to it, his purpose was unlawful and must be abandoned. The argument prevailed, and the Christians were not disturbed as to their faith. It may be remarked that Selim’s idea was an excellent one from the point of view of statesmanship, and would, in the end, have resulted in a great advantage to the Moslem Institution. As pointed out in the first chapter, the Christian churches in the Ottoman Empire constituted a group of organizations that were parallel and rival to the Moslem Institution; hence their removal would have left it a free field. Whether its unopposed action would, in the long run, have been an advantage to the empire and to the world is a matter for speculation which would be out of place here; but as a state the Ottoman Empire would have been notably unified by the clearing away of these institutions. They were old, strong, and of a tenacious vitality; in them centered the hopes and aspirations of the subject Christians; while they persisted, complete amalgamation of the population was impossible; they were to keep alive a sentiment of nationality and separatism that three centuries later was to break off great sections from the empire. It seems clear, then, that, had Selim been able to carry out his purpose, the history of the Levant since his time would have been very different from what it has been. But the _Mufti_, as guardian of the Sacred Law, was right. The position of the Christian subjects rested on a firm constitutional foundation.[671] The Prophet Mohammed himself, nine centuries before Selim, had made the religious and social unity of the Ottoman Empire forever impossible. He had also made political unity impossible at that time; for in the sixteenth century political, apart from religious, unity was not understood in either the East or the West. Only in the twentieth century was Turkey to arrive at a new hope of political unity through an attempt to remove religious differences from a position of great influence upon the state.