The Moslem Institution of the Ottoman Empire included the educators, priests, jurisconsults, and judges of the empire, and all who were in training for such duties, besides certain allied groups, such as dervishes or monks, and emirs or descendants of the Prophet Mohammed. These men embodied and maintained the whole substance and structure of Mohammedan learning, religion, and law in the empire. They took part in the government by applying the Sacred Law as judges assisted by jurisconsults, and in these capacities they paralleled the entire structure of administration to the remotest corner of the empire.[68] In fact, their system extended to regions where direct administration was not exercised. In the Crimea, for example, the rendering of justice was in their hands, while the other functions of government were performed by a vassal state in light obedience. The situation in Arabia and in North Africa was somewhat similar, though complicated by the presence of rival systems of jurisprudence. In direct contrast to the Ruling Institution, the personnel of the Moslem Institution consisted, with hardly an exception, of men born of Moslem parents, and born and brought up free. Both these institutions, while uniquely powerful and independent within the empire, were paralleled by lesser institutions, but in different ways. The Ruling Institution was followed closely by the governments of Egypt and North Africa, and less closely by those of the tributary and vassal states; but all these were strictly subordinate, and exercised what authority they possessed only within definite territorial limits. The Moslem Institution was followed closely by the Greek and Armenian and Jewish national institutions, and to some extent by the organization of the foreign colonies. Each of these various institutions rested on a religious organization or theory, cared for the learning, religion, and law of its people, and rendered justice in matters not covered by the Ottoman administration; but all were wholly independent of the Moslem Institution, and, since they were based on personality instead of territory, they exercised jurisdictions which were territorially co-extensive with its jurisdiction and often with the jurisdictions of each other.