A History of Protestant missions in the near East

22 History of Protestant Missions in the Near East
Turkey is only a comparatively small part of the region
under Muhammadan rule. What else remains to-day of the
former realm of Islam ? There was a time when the Sudan,
the Fulbe and Hausa States of West Africa, Zanzibar and the
whole of East Africa as far as the Lakes, in fact as far as the
Upper Congo, were ruled by Muhammadan princes. To-day
the three Christian Powers of France, Britain, and Germany
have divided these territories between them. There was a
time when India from the Himalayas to Cape Cormorin was
governed by the Great Moguls in Delhi and their vassals ;
but years ago the last maharajah bowed his proud neck before
Christian Britain.
There was a time when the Muhammadans
were masters of the Mediterranean and the adjacent seas,
as well as of the Eed Sea and the Indian Ocean. To-day
Britain is mistress of these seas, and the converging points of
the trade routes which cross
their waters are under her control.
Gibraltar, Malta, Aden, Perim, Penang and Singapore
are important connecting links of the British Empire.
Of the two hundred and twenty-five millions of Muhammadans
only thirty-five millions are at present under Moslem
rule, while one hundred and sixty millions are under Christian
rule. Whereas the Sultan, the " Commander of the Faithful,"
Muhammad's Khalif, rules over about eighteen million Muhammadans,
the Christian King of England commands eighty
millions, the French Eepublic and Holland each twenty-nine
millions and the Kussian Czar fourteen millions.
It was disastrous for Islam that from the twelfth century
the Turks assumed the leadership. From one point of view
this was an advantage. Through the centuries of their world
empire the Arabs have never lost their Bedouin characteristics.
They never learned statecraft. Their history is a record of
ambitious cliques and reckless adventurers. The Turks, on
the contrary, are a people with a capacity for rule. By nature
excellent soldiers, they founded a lasting government. But
they do not take kindly to civilization. There are four
great nationalities which have played a leading part in the
internal and external history of Islam ;
the Arabs, the Per-