The Preaching of Islam: A History of the Propagation of the Muslim FaithArnold, Thomas Walker, Sir
Islamic
The Preaching of Islam: A History of the Propagation of the Muslim Faith
Arnold, Thomas Walker, Sir
Islam -- History; Islam -- Missions -- History; Islam -- Relations
What active efforts Muhammadans themselves were making to gain over the
Christians to Islam, we can hardly expect to learn from the report of
an ecclesiastical visitor. But we find mention of a district, the
inhabitants of which, from their intercourse with the Turks, had
“contracted the vices of these infidels,” and one of the chief causes
of their falling away from the Christian faith was their contracting
marriages with Turkish women. [633] There were no doubt strong
Muhammadan influences at work here, as also in the two parishes of
Biscascia and Basia, whose joint population of nearly a thousand souls
was “exposed to the obvious risk of apostatising through lack of any
pastor,” and were “much tempted in their faith, and needed to be
strengthened in it by wise and zealous pastors.” [634]
Zmaievich speaks of one of the old noble Christian families in the
neighbourhood of Antivari which was represented at that time by two
brothers; the elder of these had been “wheedled” by the prominent
Muhammadans of the place, who were closely related to him, into denying
his faith; the younger wished to study for the priesthood, in which
office “he would be of much assistance to the Christian Church through
the high esteem in which the Turks held his family; which though poor
was universally respected.” [635] This indeed is another indication of
the fact that the Muhammadans did not ill-treat the Christians, merely
as such, but only when they showed themselves to be politically
disaffected. Zmaievich, who was himself an Albanian, and took up his
residence in his diocese instead of in Venetian territory, as many of
the Archbishops of Antivari seem to have done, [636] was received with
“extraordinary honours” and with “marvellous courtesy,” not only by the
Turkish officials generally, but also by the Supreme Pasha of Albania
himself, who gave him the place of honour in his Divan, always
accompanying him to the door on his departure and receiving him there
on his arrival. [637] This “barbarian” who “showed himself more like a
generous-hearted Christian than a Turk,” gave more substantial marks of
good feeling towards the Christians by remitting—at the Archbishop’s
request—the tribute due for the ensuing year from four separate towns.
[638] If any of the Christian clergy were roughly treated by the Turks,
it seems generally to have been due to the suspicion of treasonable
correspondence with the enemies of the Turks; ecclesiastical visits to
Italy seem also to have excited—and in many cases, justly—such
suspicions. Otherwise the Christian clergy seem to have had no reason
to complain of the treatment they received from the Muslims; Zmaievich
even speaks of one parish priest being “much beloved by the principal
Turks,” [639] and doubtless there were parallels in Albania to the case
of a priest in the diocese of Trebinje in Herzegovina, who in the early
part of the eighteenth century was suspected, on account of his
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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