Mohammedanism in Western Africa
GEORGE SALE has prefixed to the title-page of his able translation of the Koran the following motto from St. Augustin: “Nulla falsa doctrina est, quæ non aliquid veri permisceat” Recent discussions and investigations have brought the subject of Mohammedanism prominently before the reading public, and the writings of Weil, and Noldeke, and Muir, and Sprenger, and Emanuel Deutsch have taught the world that “Mohammedanism is a thing of vitality, fraught with a thousand fruitful germs;” and have amply illustrated the principle enunciated by St. Augustin, showing that there are elements both of truth and goodness in a system which has had so widespread an influence upon mankind, embracing within the scope of its operations more than one hundred millions of the human race; that the exhibition of gems of truth, even though “suspended in a gallery of counterfeits,” has vast power over the human heart.
The object of the present paper is to inquire briefly into the condition and influence of Mohammedanism among the tribes of Western Africa. Whatever may be the intellectual inferiority of the Negro tribes (if, indeed, such inferiority exists), it is certain that many of these tribes have received the religion of Islam without its being forced upon them by the overpowering arms of victorious invaders. The quiet development and organisation of a religious community in the heart of Africa has shown that Negroes, equally with other races, are susceptible of moral and spiritual impressions, and of all the sublime possibilities of religion. The history of the progress of Islam in this country would present the same instances of real and eager mental conflict, of minds in honest transition, of careful comparison and reflection, that have been found in other communities where new aspects of truth and fresh considerations have been brought before them. And we hold that it shows a stronger and more healthy, intellectual tendency, to be induced by the persuasion and reason of a man of moral nobleness and deep personal convictions to join with him in the introduction of beneficial changes, than to be compelled to follow the lead of an irresponsible character, who forces us into measures by his superior physical might.
Different estimates are made of the beneficial effects wrought by Islam upon the moral and industrial condition of “Western Africa. Some are disposed to ignore altogether any wholesome result, and regard the Negro Moslems as possessing, as a general thing, only the external appendages of a system which they do not understand. But such a conclusion implies a very superficial acquaintance with the state of things among the people. Of course cases are found of individuals here and there, of blustering zeal and lofty pretensions—qualities which usually exist in inverse proportion to the amount of sound knowledge possessed—whose views, so far as they can be gathered, are no more than a mixture of imperfectly understood Mohammedanism and Fetichism; but all careful and candid observers agree that the influence of Islam in Central and West Africa has been, upon the whole, of a most salutary character. As an eliminatory and subversive agency, it has displaced or unsettled nothing as good as itself. If it has introduced superstitions, it has expelled superstitions far more mischievous and degrading. And it is not wonderful if, in succeeding to a debasing Heathenism, it has, in many respects, made compromises, so as occasionally to present a barren, hybrid character; but what is surprising, is that a religion quietly introduced from a foreign country, with so few of the outward agencies of civilisation, should not, in process of time, have been altogether absorbed by the superstitions and manners of barbarous Pagans. But not only has it not been absorbed—it has introduced large modifications in the views and practices even of those who have but a vague conception of its teachings.
Mungo Park, in his travels seventy years ago, everywhere remarked the contrast between the Pagan and Mohammedan tribes of interior Africa. One very important improvement noticed by him was abstinence from intoxicating drinks. “The beverage of the Pagan Negroes,” he says, “is beer and mead, of which they often drink to excess; the Mohammedan converts drink nothing but water”[1] Thus, throughout Central Africa there has been established a vast Total Abstinence Society; and such is the influence of this society that where there are Moslem inhabitants, even in Pagan towns, it is a very rare thing to see a person intoxicated. They thus present an almost impenetrable barrier to the desolating flood of ardent spirits with which traders from Europe and America inundate the coast, and of which we have recently had so truthful and sadly suggestive an account from a missionary at Gaboon.[2]
Wherever the Moslem is found on this coast, whether Jalof, Foulah, or Mandingo, he looks upon himself as a separate and distinct being from his Pagan neighbour, and immeasurably his superior in intellectual and moral respects. He regards himself as one to whom a revelation has been “sent down” from heaven. He holds constant intercourse with the “Lord of worlds,” whose servant he is. In his behalf, Omnipotence will ever interpose in times of danger. Hence he feels that he cannot indulge in the frivolities and vices which he considers as by no means incompatible with the character and professions of the Kafir or unbeliever. Nearly every day his Koran reminds him of his high privileges, as compared with others, in the following terms:--
Verily those who believe not, among those who have received the Scriptures, and among the Idolators, shall be cast into the fire of hell, to remain therein for ever. These are the worst of creatures. But they who believe and do good works, these are the best of creatures; their reward with their Lord shall be gardens of perpetual abode.[3]
Whoso taketh God and His apostle and the believers for friends, they are the party of God, and they shall be victorious.[4]
The object of the present paper is to inquire briefly into the condition and influence of Mohammedanism among the tribes of Western Africa. Whatever may be the intellectual inferiority of the Negro tribes (if, indeed, such inferiority exists), it is certain that many of these tribes have received the religion of Islam without its being forced upon them by the overpowering arms of victorious invaders. The quiet development and organisation of a religious community in the heart of Africa has shown that Negroes, equally with other races, are susceptible of moral and spiritual impressions, and of all the sublime possibilities of religion. The history of the progress of Islam in this country would present the same instances of real and eager mental conflict, of minds in honest transition, of careful comparison and reflection, that have been found in other communities where new aspects of truth and fresh considerations have been brought before them. And we hold that it shows a stronger and more healthy, intellectual tendency, to be induced by the persuasion and reason of a man of moral nobleness and deep personal convictions to join with him in the introduction of beneficial changes, than to be compelled to follow the lead of an irresponsible character, who forces us into measures by his superior physical might.
Different estimates are made of the beneficial effects wrought by Islam upon the moral and industrial condition of “Western Africa. Some are disposed to ignore altogether any wholesome result, and regard the Negro Moslems as possessing, as a general thing, only the external appendages of a system which they do not understand. But such a conclusion implies a very superficial acquaintance with the state of things among the people. Of course cases are found of individuals here and there, of blustering zeal and lofty pretensions—qualities which usually exist in inverse proportion to the amount of sound knowledge possessed—whose views, so far as they can be gathered, are no more than a mixture of imperfectly understood Mohammedanism and Fetichism; but all careful and candid observers agree that the influence of Islam in Central and West Africa has been, upon the whole, of a most salutary character. As an eliminatory and subversive agency, it has displaced or unsettled nothing as good as itself. If it has introduced superstitions, it has expelled superstitions far more mischievous and degrading. And it is not wonderful if, in succeeding to a debasing Heathenism, it has, in many respects, made compromises, so as occasionally to present a barren, hybrid character; but what is surprising, is that a religion quietly introduced from a foreign country, with so few of the outward agencies of civilisation, should not, in process of time, have been altogether absorbed by the superstitions and manners of barbarous Pagans. But not only has it not been absorbed—it has introduced large modifications in the views and practices even of those who have but a vague conception of its teachings.
Mungo Park, in his travels seventy years ago, everywhere remarked the contrast between the Pagan and Mohammedan tribes of interior Africa. One very important improvement noticed by him was abstinence from intoxicating drinks. “The beverage of the Pagan Negroes,” he says, “is beer and mead, of which they often drink to excess; the Mohammedan converts drink nothing but water”[1] Thus, throughout Central Africa there has been established a vast Total Abstinence Society; and such is the influence of this society that where there are Moslem inhabitants, even in Pagan towns, it is a very rare thing to see a person intoxicated. They thus present an almost impenetrable barrier to the desolating flood of ardent spirits with which traders from Europe and America inundate the coast, and of which we have recently had so truthful and sadly suggestive an account from a missionary at Gaboon.[2]
Wherever the Moslem is found on this coast, whether Jalof, Foulah, or Mandingo, he looks upon himself as a separate and distinct being from his Pagan neighbour, and immeasurably his superior in intellectual and moral respects. He regards himself as one to whom a revelation has been “sent down” from heaven. He holds constant intercourse with the “Lord of worlds,” whose servant he is. In his behalf, Omnipotence will ever interpose in times of danger. Hence he feels that he cannot indulge in the frivolities and vices which he considers as by no means incompatible with the character and professions of the Kafir or unbeliever. Nearly every day his Koran reminds him of his high privileges, as compared with others, in the following terms:--
Verily those who believe not, among those who have received the Scriptures, and among the Idolators, shall be cast into the fire of hell, to remain therein for ever. These are the worst of creatures. But they who believe and do good works, these are the best of creatures; their reward with their Lord shall be gardens of perpetual abode.[3]
Whoso taketh God and His apostle and the believers for friends, they are the party of God, and they shall be victorious.[4]
Footnotes:
1 Park’s Travels, chap. ii.
2 Mr. Walker, in Missionary Herald, Feb., 1870.
3 Sura, xcviii.
4 Sura, v.
1 Park’s Travels, chap. ii.
2 Mr. Walker, in Missionary Herald, Feb., 1870.
3 Sura, xcviii.
4 Sura, v.
But there are no caste distinctions among them. They do not look upon the privileges of Islam as confined by tribal barriers or limitations. On the contrary, the life of their religion is aggressiveness. They are constantly making proselytes. As early as the commencement of the present century, the elastic and expansive character of their system was sufficiently marked to attract the notice of Mr. Park. “In the Negro country,” observes that celebrated traveller, “the Mohammedan religion has made, and continues to make, considerable progress.” “The yearning of the native African,” says Professor Crummell, “for a higher religion, is illustrated by the singular fact that Mohammedanism is rapidly and peaceably spreading all through the tribes of Western Africa, even to the Christian settlements of Liberia.”[5] From Senegal to Lagos, over two thousand miles, there is scarcely an important town on the seaboard where there are not at least one mosque, and active representatives of Islam, often side by side with the Christian teachers. And as soon as a Pagan, however obscure or degraded, embraces the Moslem faith, he is at once admitted as an equal to their society. Slavery and the slave trade are laudable institutions, provided the slaves are Kafirs. The slave who embraces Islam is free, and no office is closed against him on account of servile blood.
The Pagan village possessing a Mussulman teacher is always found to be in advance of its neighbours in all the elements of civilisation. The people pay great deference to him. He instructs their children, and professes to be the medium between them and Heaven, either for securing a supply of their necessities, or for warding off or removing calamities. It must be borne in mind that people in the state of barbarism, in which the Pagan tribes are usually found, have no proper conceptions of humanity and its capacities. The man, therefore, who by unusual strength or cunning achieves something which no one had achieved before him, or of which they do not understand the process, is exalted into an extraordinary being, in close intimacy with the mysterious powers of Nature. The Mohammedan, then, who enters a Pagan village with his books, and papers, and rosaries, his frequent ablutions and regularly-recurring times of prayers and prostrations, in which he appears to be conversing with some invisible being, soon acquires a controlling influence over the people. He secures their moral confidence and respect, and they bring to him all their difficulties for solution, and all their grievances for redress.
To the African Mussulman, innocent of the intellectual and scientific progress of other portions of the world, the Koran is all-sufficient for his moral, intellectual, social and political needs. It contains his whole religion, and a great deal besides. It is to him far more than it is to the Turk or Egyptian, upon whom the light of European civilisation has fallen. It is his code of laws, and his creed, his homily, and his liturgy. He consults it for direction on every possible subject; and his Pagan neighbour, seeing such veneration paid to the book, conceives even more exaggerated notions of its character. The latter looks upon it as a great medical repository, teaching the art of healing diseases, and as a wonderful storehouse of charms and divining power, protecting from dangers and foretelling future events. And though the prognostications of his Moslem prophet are often of the nature of vaticinia post eventum, yet his faith remains unshaken in the infallibility of “Alkorona.” He therefore never fails to resort, in times of extremity, to the Mohammedan for direction, and pays him for charms against evil. These charms are nothing more than passages from the Koran, written on slips of paper and inclosed in leather cases about two or three inches square—after the manner of the Jewish phylactery—and worn about the neck or wrist. The passages usually written are the last two chapters of the Koran, known as the “Chapters of Refuge,” because they begin, “Say, I take refuge,” &c. In cases of internal complaint, one or both of these chapters are written on certain leaves, of which a strong decoction is made, and the water administered to the patient. We have seen these two chapters written inside a bowl at Alexandria for medicinal purposes.
The Moslems themselves wear constantly about their persons certain texts from the Koran, called Ayat-el-hifz, verses of protection or preservation, which are supposed to keep away every species of misfortune. The following are in most common use: “God is the best protectory and He is the most merciful of those who show mercy.”[6] “And God compasseth them behind. Verily it is a glorious Koran, written on a preserved tablet.”[7] Sometimes they have the following rhymed couplet:--
Auzu billahi min es-Shaytan arrajim, Bismi illahi arrahim.[8]
This couplet is also employed whenever they are about to read the Koran, as a protection against the suggestions of Satan, who is supposed to be ever on the alert to whisper erroneous and hurtful constructions to the devout reader.
The Koran is almost always in their hand. It seems to be their labour and their relaxation to pore over its pages. They love to read and recite it aloud for hours together. They seem to possess an enthusiastic appreciation of the rhythmical harmony in which it is written. But we cannot attribute its power over them altogether to the jingling sounds, word-plays, and refrains in which it abounds. These, it is true, please the ear and amuse the fancy, especially of the uncultivated. But there is something higher, of which these rhyming lines are the vehicle; something possessing a deeper power to rouse the imagination, mould the feelings, and generate action. Gibbon has characterised the Koran as a “tissue of incoherent rhapsodies.”[9] But the author of the Decline and Fall was, as he himself acknowledges, ignorant of the Arabic language, and therefore incompetent to pronounce an authoritative judgment. Mr. Hallam, in a more appreciative vein, speaks of it as “a book confessedly written with much elegance and purity,” containing “just and elevated notions of the Divine nature andmoral duties, the gold ore that pervades the dross.”[10] The historian of the Middle Ages, a most conscientious investigator, had probably read the book in the original—had been charmed with its sense as well as its sound. Only they who read it in the language of the Arabian author can form anything like an accurate idea of its unapproachable place as a power among unevangelised communities for moulding into the most exciting and the most expressive harmonies the feelings and imaginations. A recent able and learned critic says:--
The Koran suffers more than any other book we think of by a translation, however masterly. The grandeur of the Koran consists, its contents apart, in its diction. We cannot explain the peculiarly dignified, impressive, sonorous mixture of Semitic sound and parlance; its sesquipedalia verba, with their crowd of prefixes and affixes, each of them affirming its own position, while consciously bearing upon and influencing the central root, which they envelop like a garment of many folds, or as chosen courtiers move round the anointed person of the king.[11]
The Pagan village possessing a Mussulman teacher is always found to be in advance of its neighbours in all the elements of civilisation. The people pay great deference to him. He instructs their children, and professes to be the medium between them and Heaven, either for securing a supply of their necessities, or for warding off or removing calamities. It must be borne in mind that people in the state of barbarism, in which the Pagan tribes are usually found, have no proper conceptions of humanity and its capacities. The man, therefore, who by unusual strength or cunning achieves something which no one had achieved before him, or of which they do not understand the process, is exalted into an extraordinary being, in close intimacy with the mysterious powers of Nature. The Mohammedan, then, who enters a Pagan village with his books, and papers, and rosaries, his frequent ablutions and regularly-recurring times of prayers and prostrations, in which he appears to be conversing with some invisible being, soon acquires a controlling influence over the people. He secures their moral confidence and respect, and they bring to him all their difficulties for solution, and all their grievances for redress.
To the African Mussulman, innocent of the intellectual and scientific progress of other portions of the world, the Koran is all-sufficient for his moral, intellectual, social and political needs. It contains his whole religion, and a great deal besides. It is to him far more than it is to the Turk or Egyptian, upon whom the light of European civilisation has fallen. It is his code of laws, and his creed, his homily, and his liturgy. He consults it for direction on every possible subject; and his Pagan neighbour, seeing such veneration paid to the book, conceives even more exaggerated notions of its character. The latter looks upon it as a great medical repository, teaching the art of healing diseases, and as a wonderful storehouse of charms and divining power, protecting from dangers and foretelling future events. And though the prognostications of his Moslem prophet are often of the nature of vaticinia post eventum, yet his faith remains unshaken in the infallibility of “Alkorona.” He therefore never fails to resort, in times of extremity, to the Mohammedan for direction, and pays him for charms against evil. These charms are nothing more than passages from the Koran, written on slips of paper and inclosed in leather cases about two or three inches square—after the manner of the Jewish phylactery—and worn about the neck or wrist. The passages usually written are the last two chapters of the Koran, known as the “Chapters of Refuge,” because they begin, “Say, I take refuge,” &c. In cases of internal complaint, one or both of these chapters are written on certain leaves, of which a strong decoction is made, and the water administered to the patient. We have seen these two chapters written inside a bowl at Alexandria for medicinal purposes.
The Moslems themselves wear constantly about their persons certain texts from the Koran, called Ayat-el-hifz, verses of protection or preservation, which are supposed to keep away every species of misfortune. The following are in most common use: “God is the best protectory and He is the most merciful of those who show mercy.”[6] “And God compasseth them behind. Verily it is a glorious Koran, written on a preserved tablet.”[7] Sometimes they have the following rhymed couplet:--
Auzu billahi min es-Shaytan arrajim, Bismi illahi arrahim.[8]
This couplet is also employed whenever they are about to read the Koran, as a protection against the suggestions of Satan, who is supposed to be ever on the alert to whisper erroneous and hurtful constructions to the devout reader.
The Koran is almost always in their hand. It seems to be their labour and their relaxation to pore over its pages. They love to read and recite it aloud for hours together. They seem to possess an enthusiastic appreciation of the rhythmical harmony in which it is written. But we cannot attribute its power over them altogether to the jingling sounds, word-plays, and refrains in which it abounds. These, it is true, please the ear and amuse the fancy, especially of the uncultivated. But there is something higher, of which these rhyming lines are the vehicle; something possessing a deeper power to rouse the imagination, mould the feelings, and generate action. Gibbon has characterised the Koran as a “tissue of incoherent rhapsodies.”[9] But the author of the Decline and Fall was, as he himself acknowledges, ignorant of the Arabic language, and therefore incompetent to pronounce an authoritative judgment. Mr. Hallam, in a more appreciative vein, speaks of it as “a book confessedly written with much elegance and purity,” containing “just and elevated notions of the Divine nature andmoral duties, the gold ore that pervades the dross.”[10] The historian of the Middle Ages, a most conscientious investigator, had probably read the book in the original—had been charmed with its sense as well as its sound. Only they who read it in the language of the Arabian author can form anything like an accurate idea of its unapproachable place as a power among unevangelised communities for moulding into the most exciting and the most expressive harmonies the feelings and imaginations. A recent able and learned critic says:--
The Koran suffers more than any other book we think of by a translation, however masterly. The grandeur of the Koran consists, its contents apart, in its diction. We cannot explain the peculiarly dignified, impressive, sonorous mixture of Semitic sound and parlance; its sesquipedalia verba, with their crowd of prefixes and affixes, each of them affirming its own position, while consciously bearing upon and influencing the central root, which they envelop like a garment of many folds, or as chosen courtiers move round the anointed person of the king.[11]
Footnotes:
5 Future of Africa, p. 305.
6 Sura xii, 64.
7 Sura lxxxv, 20.
8 I take refuge in God from Satan, whom we hate, In the name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate.
9 Chap. i.
10 Middle Ages, chap. vi.
11 Emanuel Deutsch, in the Quarterly Review (London) for October, 1869.
5 Future of Africa, p. 305.
6 Sura xii, 64.
7 Sura lxxxv, 20.
8 I take refuge in God from Satan, whom we hate, In the name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate.
9 Chap. i.
10 Middle Ages, chap. vi.
11 Emanuel Deutsch, in the Quarterly Review (London) for October, 1869.
The African Moslem forms no exception among the adherents of Islam in his appreciation of the sacred book. It is studied with as much enthusiasm at Boporo, Misadu, Medina and Kankan,[12] as at Cairo, Alexandria, or Bagdad. In travelling in the interior of Liberia, we have met ulemas, or learned men, who could reproduce from memory any chapter of the Koran, with its vowels and dots, and other grammatical marks. The boys under their instruction are kept at the study of the book for years. First, they are taught the letters and vowel marks, then they are taught to read the text, without receiving any insight into its meaning. When they can read fluently, they are taught the meaning of the words, which they commit carefully to memory; after which they are instructed in what they call the “Jalaleyn,” a running commentary on the Koran. While learning the Jalaleyn, they have side studies assigned them in Arabic manuscripts, containing the mystical traditions, the acts of Mohammed, the duties of fasting, prayer, alms, corporal purification,[13] &c. Young men who intend to be enrolled among the ulemas take up history and chronology, on which they have some fragmentary manuscripts. Before a student is admitted to the ranks of the learned, he must pass an examination, usually lasting seven days, conducted by a Board consisting of imàms and ulemas. If he is successful, he is led around the town on horseback, with instrumental music and singing. The following ditty is usually sung:--
Allahumma, ya Rabbee,
Salla ala Mohammade,
Salla Allahu alayhe wa Sallama.[14]
After this, the candidate is presented with a sash or scarf, usually of fine white cloth, of native manufacture, which he is henceforth permitted to wind round his cap, with one end hanging down the back, forming the Oriental turban. This is a sort of Bachelor of Arts diploma. The men who wear turbans have read through and recited the Koran many hundred times; and you can refer to no passage which they cannot readily find in their apparently confused manuscripts of loose leaves and pages, distinguished not by numbers, but by catchwords at the bottom. Carlyle tells us that he has heard of Mohammedan doctors who have read the Koran seventy thousand times.[15] Many such animated and moving concordances to the Koran may doubtless be found in Central and West Africa.
But the Koran is not the only book they read. We have seen, in some of their libraries, extensive manuscripts in poetry and prose. One showed us at Boporo, the Makāmat of Hariri, which he read and expounded with great readiness, and seemed surprised that we had heard of it. And it is not to be doubted that some valuable Arabic manuscripts may yet be found in the heart of Africa. Dr. Barth tells us that he saw, in Central Africa, a manuscript of those portions of Aristotle and Plato which had been translated into Arabic, and that an Arabic version of Hippocrates was extremely valued. The splendid voweled edition of the New Testament and Psalms recently issued by the American Bible Society, and of which, through the kindness of friends in New York, we have been enabled to distribute a few copies among them, is highly prized.
We have collected, in our visits to Mohammedan towns, a number of interesting manuscripts, original and extracted. We will here give two or three specimens as translated by us. We should be glad if we could transfer to these pages the elegant and ornamental chirography of the original.
The first is from a talismanic paper written at Futa Jallon, copies of which are sold to the credulous as means of warding off evil from individuals and communities, to be employed especially during seasons of epidemics. It is as follows:--
In the name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate. O God, bless Mohammed and save him, the seal of the prophets and the imaam of the apostles, beloved of the Lord of worlds!
After the above is the conveying of health, and the completing of salutation and honour:
Verily, the pestilence is coming upon you, beginning with your wealth, such as your cows, and after that with yourselves; and verily if all of you provide water and bread, namely, of your men and your women, and your man-servants and your maid-servants, and all your youths, they shall not endure it. And after that write out the Chapter, ‘Opener of the Book’[16] and the ‘Verse of the Throne,’ [17] and from “God is light” to “Omniscient,” [18] and from “God created every,” the whole verse, to “Omnipotent,”[19] and the ‘Two Chapters of Refuge’; and write, “They who, when they have done foully and dealt unjustly by their own souls, shall remember God, and seek forgiveness for their sins, (and who forgives sins but God?) and shall not persevere in what they have done while they know it.”[20] And if you do this, God shall certainly turn back the punishment from you, if God will, by this supplication. . . . . Because that is the way of escape obligatory on every Moslem man and woman. This document is by a man of wealth, who travelled, travelling from Futa to Mecca on pilgrimage, and stayed three months, and departed to El-Medina, and settled there three years, and returned to Futa. Written by me, Ahmad of Futa, to-day. 0 God, bless Mohammed and save him! The end.
The next paper professes to be a history of the world. Beginning thousands of years before Adam, it gives account of the successive epochs through which the earth passed before man was created. But we omit all those
periods, which might, perhaps, be of interest to the enthusiastic geologist, and come down to the account given of the first meeting of Adam and Eve. Says our author:
When Adam first met Eve he was walking upon the sea, and he said to her, “Who art thou?” And she said, “I am the destroyer of mercies.” And Adam said, “Who art thou?” And she said, “I am the destroyer of wealth; he who finds wealth finds me, and he who does not find wealth does not find me.” And Adam said, “Who art thou?” And she said, “I am one in whom no faith is to be reposed—I am Eve” And Adam said, “I believe thee, O Eve.” And Adam took her, and she conceived, and brought forth forty twins, a male and a female at each birth, and all died except Seth, who was the father of Noah,” &c.
Allahumma, ya Rabbee,
Salla ala Mohammade,
Salla Allahu alayhe wa Sallama.[14]
After this, the candidate is presented with a sash or scarf, usually of fine white cloth, of native manufacture, which he is henceforth permitted to wind round his cap, with one end hanging down the back, forming the Oriental turban. This is a sort of Bachelor of Arts diploma. The men who wear turbans have read through and recited the Koran many hundred times; and you can refer to no passage which they cannot readily find in their apparently confused manuscripts of loose leaves and pages, distinguished not by numbers, but by catchwords at the bottom. Carlyle tells us that he has heard of Mohammedan doctors who have read the Koran seventy thousand times.[15] Many such animated and moving concordances to the Koran may doubtless be found in Central and West Africa.
But the Koran is not the only book they read. We have seen, in some of their libraries, extensive manuscripts in poetry and prose. One showed us at Boporo, the Makāmat of Hariri, which he read and expounded with great readiness, and seemed surprised that we had heard of it. And it is not to be doubted that some valuable Arabic manuscripts may yet be found in the heart of Africa. Dr. Barth tells us that he saw, in Central Africa, a manuscript of those portions of Aristotle and Plato which had been translated into Arabic, and that an Arabic version of Hippocrates was extremely valued. The splendid voweled edition of the New Testament and Psalms recently issued by the American Bible Society, and of which, through the kindness of friends in New York, we have been enabled to distribute a few copies among them, is highly prized.
We have collected, in our visits to Mohammedan towns, a number of interesting manuscripts, original and extracted. We will here give two or three specimens as translated by us. We should be glad if we could transfer to these pages the elegant and ornamental chirography of the original.
The first is from a talismanic paper written at Futa Jallon, copies of which are sold to the credulous as means of warding off evil from individuals and communities, to be employed especially during seasons of epidemics. It is as follows:--
In the name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate. O God, bless Mohammed and save him, the seal of the prophets and the imaam of the apostles, beloved of the Lord of worlds!
After the above is the conveying of health, and the completing of salutation and honour:
Verily, the pestilence is coming upon you, beginning with your wealth, such as your cows, and after that with yourselves; and verily if all of you provide water and bread, namely, of your men and your women, and your man-servants and your maid-servants, and all your youths, they shall not endure it. And after that write out the Chapter, ‘Opener of the Book’[16] and the ‘Verse of the Throne,’ [17] and from “God is light” to “Omniscient,” [18] and from “God created every,” the whole verse, to “Omnipotent,”[19] and the ‘Two Chapters of Refuge’; and write, “They who, when they have done foully and dealt unjustly by their own souls, shall remember God, and seek forgiveness for their sins, (and who forgives sins but God?) and shall not persevere in what they have done while they know it.”[20] And if you do this, God shall certainly turn back the punishment from you, if God will, by this supplication. . . . . Because that is the way of escape obligatory on every Moslem man and woman. This document is by a man of wealth, who travelled, travelling from Futa to Mecca on pilgrimage, and stayed three months, and departed to El-Medina, and settled there three years, and returned to Futa. Written by me, Ahmad of Futa, to-day. 0 God, bless Mohammed and save him! The end.
The next paper professes to be a history of the world. Beginning thousands of years before Adam, it gives account of the successive epochs through which the earth passed before man was created. But we omit all those
periods, which might, perhaps, be of interest to the enthusiastic geologist, and come down to the account given of the first meeting of Adam and Eve. Says our author:
When Adam first met Eve he was walking upon the sea, and he said to her, “Who art thou?” And she said, “I am the destroyer of mercies.” And Adam said, “Who art thou?” And she said, “I am the destroyer of wealth; he who finds wealth finds me, and he who does not find wealth does not find me.” And Adam said, “Who art thou?” And she said, “I am one in whom no faith is to be reposed—I am Eve” And Adam said, “I believe thee, O Eve.” And Adam took her, and she conceived, and brought forth forty twins, a male and a female at each birth, and all died except Seth, who was the father of Noah,” &c.
Footnotes:
12 Mohammedan towns, from seventy-five to three hundred miles east and north-east of Monrovia.
13 The student at this stage is called “Talib,” that is, one who seeks knowledge.
14 O God, my Lord, bless Mohammed! God bless him, and grant him peace!
15 Heroes and Hero Worship, p. 80.
16 ‘Fatihat el-Kitab,’ the first chapter of the Koran.
17 ‘Ayet el-Kursee,’ Sura ii, iv, 256. This verso is repeated by the pious Moslem nearly every time ho prays. It is as follows: “God I there is no God but He; the Living, the Eternal. Nor slumber seizeth Him, nor sleep; His, whatsoever is in the heavens and whatsoever is in the earth! Who is he that can intercede with Him but by His own permission? He knoweth what hath been before them, and what shall be after them; yet nought of His knowledge shall they grasp, save what He willeth. His throne reacheth over the heavens, and the earth, and the upholding of both burdeneth Him not; and He is the High, the Great.—Rodwell’s Translation.
18 Sura xxiv, 35.
19 Sura xxiv, 44.
20 Sura iii, 129. An item in a list of classes of persons who shall be blessed in this world and go to Heaven when they die.
12 Mohammedan towns, from seventy-five to three hundred miles east and north-east of Monrovia.
13 The student at this stage is called “Talib,” that is, one who seeks knowledge.
14 O God, my Lord, bless Mohammed! God bless him, and grant him peace!
15 Heroes and Hero Worship, p. 80.
16 ‘Fatihat el-Kitab,’ the first chapter of the Koran.
17 ‘Ayet el-Kursee,’ Sura ii, iv, 256. This verso is repeated by the pious Moslem nearly every time ho prays. It is as follows: “God I there is no God but He; the Living, the Eternal. Nor slumber seizeth Him, nor sleep; His, whatsoever is in the heavens and whatsoever is in the earth! Who is he that can intercede with Him but by His own permission? He knoweth what hath been before them, and what shall be after them; yet nought of His knowledge shall they grasp, save what He willeth. His throne reacheth over the heavens, and the earth, and the upholding of both burdeneth Him not; and He is the High, the Great.—Rodwell’s Translation.
18 Sura xxiv, 35.
19 Sura xxiv, 44.
20 Sura iii, 129. An item in a list of classes of persons who shall be blessed in this world and go to Heaven when they die.
The author then proceeds to trace the descendants of Noah, assigning to Shem, Ham and Japheth the countries in which it is commonly understood that they respectively settled.
The next paper is a very elaborate and accurately written manuscript, styled “The Book of Psalms which God sent down to David.” We have been puzzled to account for the origin and purpose of this paper. Whencesoever it comes, it is certain it does not come out of the Psalms of David. It contains, however, some excellent moral teachings, written not in Koranic language, but, on the whole, in very good Arabic, singularly free from those omissions and misplacements of diacritical points which are so troublesome in some Arabic writings. The arrangement of the vowels reveals a thorough acquaintance with the niceties of classical Arabic. It was copied for us from an old manuscript brought by a scribe from Kankan, but he could give no information as to its original source. The statement that it is the Psalms is probably a mere freak of the compiler or copyist, unless we suppose the existence of some Mohammedan pseudo-psalmist in the interior. Moreover, the word anzala, used in the manuscript, which we have translated “sent down,” is not the word applied in the Koran to David’s revelations. The word there used is āta, signifying to “commit,” to “give,” etc, The paper is divided into six chapters or parts. We will give, with the introductory formula and blessing, the first, fourth, and fifth parts:
In the name of God, &c. God bless our lord Mohammed, His prophet, and his family, and his wives, and his descendants, and his friends, and keep them safe.
This is the Book of Psalms, which God sent down to David. Peace upon him!
PART THE FIRST.
I wonder at him who has heard of Death, how he can rejoice.
I wonder at him who has heard of the Reckoning, how he can gather riches.
I wonder at him who has heard of the Grave, how he can laugh.
I wonder at him who grieves over the waste of his riches and does not grieve over the waste of his life.
I wonder at him who has heard of the future world and its bliss and its euduringness, how he can rest when he has never sought it.
I wonder at him who has heard of the present world and its transitoriness, how he can be secure about it when he has never fled from it.
I wonder at him who is knowing in the tongue, and ignorant in the heart.
I wonder at him who is busy with people’s faults, and forgets his own faults.
I wonder at him who knows that God considers him in all places, how he can rebel against Him. I wonder at him who has purified himself with water, and is not pure in his heart.
I wonder at him who knows that he shall die alone, and enter the grave alone, and render account alone, how he can seek reconciliation with men, when he has not sought reconciliation with his Lord.
There is no God but God, in truth; Mohammed is the Envoy of God. God bless him and save him!
PART THE FOURTH.
Son of Man! Be not of them who are long of repentance and long of hope,[21] and look for the last day without work, and say the say of the servants, and work the work of the hypocrite, and are not satisfied if I give to you, and endure not if I keep from you; who prescribe that which is approved and good, and do it not, and forbid that which is disapproved and evil, and forego it not, and love the faithful and are not of them, and hate the hypocrites and are of them— exacting and not exact.
Son of Man! There is not a new day but the earth addresses thee, and thus says she her say unto thee: Son of Man!
Thou walkest on my back, but thy return is to my belly;
Thou laugh est on my back, and then thou weepest in my belly; Thou art joyful on my back, and then thou art sorrowful in my belly; Thou sinnest on my back, and then thou sufiferest in my belly;
Thou eatest thy desire on my back, and then the worms eat thee in my belly; Son of Man!
I am the house of desolation, I am the house of isolation; I am the house of darkness, I am the house of straitness; I am the house of question, I am the house of terrors;
I am the house of serpents, I am the house of scorpions; I am the house of thirst, I am the house of hunger;
I am the house of disgrace, I am the house of fires; Then cultivate me, and burn[22] me not.
PART THE FIFTH.
Son of Man! I did not create you to get greatness by you instead of littleness, nor to get companionship by you instead of desolation, nor to borrow by you anything I wanted; nor did I create you to draw to me any profit, or to thrust from me any loss (far bo it from Him the Exalted!). But I have created you to serve mo perpetually, and thank me greatly, and praise me morning and evening.[23] And if the first of you and the last of you, and the living of you and the dead of you, and the small of you and the groat of you, and the male of you and the female of you, and the lords of you and the servants of you, and the men of you and the beasts of you, if they combine to obey mo, this will not add to my dominion the weight of a grain of dust. “Whoever does good service, does good service only for himself; and whoever is unthankful—why, God is independent of the three worlds.”[24]
Son of man!
As thou lendest, shalt thou borrow;
As thou workest, shalt thou be recompensed; As thou sowest, shalt thou reap.
The next paper is a very elaborate and accurately written manuscript, styled “The Book of Psalms which God sent down to David.” We have been puzzled to account for the origin and purpose of this paper. Whencesoever it comes, it is certain it does not come out of the Psalms of David. It contains, however, some excellent moral teachings, written not in Koranic language, but, on the whole, in very good Arabic, singularly free from those omissions and misplacements of diacritical points which are so troublesome in some Arabic writings. The arrangement of the vowels reveals a thorough acquaintance with the niceties of classical Arabic. It was copied for us from an old manuscript brought by a scribe from Kankan, but he could give no information as to its original source. The statement that it is the Psalms is probably a mere freak of the compiler or copyist, unless we suppose the existence of some Mohammedan pseudo-psalmist in the interior. Moreover, the word anzala, used in the manuscript, which we have translated “sent down,” is not the word applied in the Koran to David’s revelations. The word there used is āta, signifying to “commit,” to “give,” etc, The paper is divided into six chapters or parts. We will give, with the introductory formula and blessing, the first, fourth, and fifth parts:
In the name of God, &c. God bless our lord Mohammed, His prophet, and his family, and his wives, and his descendants, and his friends, and keep them safe.
This is the Book of Psalms, which God sent down to David. Peace upon him!
PART THE FIRST.
I wonder at him who has heard of Death, how he can rejoice.
I wonder at him who has heard of the Reckoning, how he can gather riches.
I wonder at him who has heard of the Grave, how he can laugh.
I wonder at him who grieves over the waste of his riches and does not grieve over the waste of his life.
I wonder at him who has heard of the future world and its bliss and its euduringness, how he can rest when he has never sought it.
I wonder at him who has heard of the present world and its transitoriness, how he can be secure about it when he has never fled from it.
I wonder at him who is knowing in the tongue, and ignorant in the heart.
I wonder at him who is busy with people’s faults, and forgets his own faults.
I wonder at him who knows that God considers him in all places, how he can rebel against Him. I wonder at him who has purified himself with water, and is not pure in his heart.
I wonder at him who knows that he shall die alone, and enter the grave alone, and render account alone, how he can seek reconciliation with men, when he has not sought reconciliation with his Lord.
There is no God but God, in truth; Mohammed is the Envoy of God. God bless him and save him!
PART THE FOURTH.
Son of Man! Be not of them who are long of repentance and long of hope,[21] and look for the last day without work, and say the say of the servants, and work the work of the hypocrite, and are not satisfied if I give to you, and endure not if I keep from you; who prescribe that which is approved and good, and do it not, and forbid that which is disapproved and evil, and forego it not, and love the faithful and are not of them, and hate the hypocrites and are of them— exacting and not exact.
Son of Man! There is not a new day but the earth addresses thee, and thus says she her say unto thee: Son of Man!
Thou walkest on my back, but thy return is to my belly;
Thou laugh est on my back, and then thou weepest in my belly; Thou art joyful on my back, and then thou art sorrowful in my belly; Thou sinnest on my back, and then thou sufiferest in my belly;
Thou eatest thy desire on my back, and then the worms eat thee in my belly; Son of Man!
I am the house of desolation, I am the house of isolation; I am the house of darkness, I am the house of straitness; I am the house of question, I am the house of terrors;
I am the house of serpents, I am the house of scorpions; I am the house of thirst, I am the house of hunger;
I am the house of disgrace, I am the house of fires; Then cultivate me, and burn[22] me not.
PART THE FIFTH.
Son of Man! I did not create you to get greatness by you instead of littleness, nor to get companionship by you instead of desolation, nor to borrow by you anything I wanted; nor did I create you to draw to me any profit, or to thrust from me any loss (far bo it from Him the Exalted!). But I have created you to serve mo perpetually, and thank me greatly, and praise me morning and evening.[23] And if the first of you and the last of you, and the living of you and the dead of you, and the small of you and the groat of you, and the male of you and the female of you, and the lords of you and the servants of you, and the men of you and the beasts of you, if they combine to obey mo, this will not add to my dominion the weight of a grain of dust. “Whoever does good service, does good service only for himself; and whoever is unthankful—why, God is independent of the three worlds.”[24]
Son of man!
As thou lendest, shalt thou borrow;
As thou workest, shalt thou be recompensed; As thou sowest, shalt thou reap.
Footnotes:
21 That is, waiting on Providence, without attempting to “work out one’s own salvation.”
22 This is probably a warning against the practice among the natives of denuding the earth by burning the wood when preparing to plant.
23 Compare Psalm i, 7-14.
24 Koran, xxix, 5.
21 That is, waiting on Providence, without attempting to “work out one’s own salvation.”
22 This is probably a warning against the practice among the natives of denuding the earth by burning the wood when preparing to plant.
23 Compare Psalm i, 7-14.
24 Koran, xxix, 5.
We have been surprised to notice that the manuscripts which we receive generally from Boporo, Misadu, and Kankan are much better written, and of a much more edifying character, than those we have seen from the Gambia and that region of country. Some of the latter, consisting of childish legends and superstitious details, are often curious philologically, being mixtures of Arabic and the vernacular dialect. It is said also by those who have seen Mohammedan worship conducted by the Jalofs and Foulahs about the Gambia and Senegal, and have witnessed similar exercises among the Mandingoes in the region of country east of Liberia, that the latter exhibit in their bearing and proceedings during their religious services greater intelligence, order, and regularity than the former.
During a visit of three weeks made to Boporo in the Mohammedan month of Ramadhan (December and January, 1868-69), we had an opportunity of seeing the Mandingo Moslem at home. It being the sacred month of fasting and religious devotedness, we witnessed several religious ceremonies and performances.
As in all Moslem communities, prayer is held five times a-day. When the hour for prayer approaches, a man appointed for the purpose, with a very strong and clear voice, goes to the door of the mosque and chants the adhan, or call to prayer. This man is called the Muëddin.[25] His call is especially solemn and interesting in the early hours of the morning. We often lay in bed between four and five o’clock listening for the cry of the Muëeddin. There was a simple and solemn melody in the chant at that still hour, which, after it had ceased, still lingered pleasantly on the ear, and often, despite ourselves, drew us out to the mosque. The morning adhan, as we heard it at Boporo, is as follows: Allāahu Akbar (this is said four times). Ashhadn an la îlāha ill’ Allah (twice). Ashhadu anna Mohammadu rasoolu ‘llah (twice). Heiya ala Salàh (twice). Heiya alal-feláh (twice). Salȧtu kheirn min a-naumi (twice). Allāhu Akbar (twice). La ilāha ‘ill All-ah (once).[26]
Says Mr. Deutsch:
May-be some stray reader remembers a certain thrill on waking suddenly in the middle of his first night on Eastern soil—waking, as it were, from dream into dream. For there came a voice, solitary, sweet, sonorous, floating from on high, through the moonlight stillness—the voice of the blind Muëddin, singing the “Ualh,” or first call to prayer. . . . . The sounds went and came—“Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar”—and this reader may have a vague notion of Arabic and Koranic sound, one he will never forget.[27]
At Boporo and other African towns we have visited, this call is made three times within the half-hour immediately preceding worship. Before the third call is concluded the people have generally assembled in the mosque. Then the Imàm proceeds with the exercises, consisting usually of certain short chapters from the Koran and a few prayers, interspersed with beautiful chanting of the Moslem watch-word, “La ilaha ill Allah, Mohammadu rasoolu ‘llahi”—“There is no God,” etc. We may remark, by the way, that their tunes are not set in the minor key, as is almost always the case among the Arabs. Their natures are more joyful. They exult in the diatonic scale of life, and leave their Oriental coreligionists to wail in the sad and mournful chromatics of the desert.
The Mandingoes are an exceedingly polite and hospitable people. The restraints of their religion regulate their manners and control their behaviour. Both in speech and demeanour, they appear always solicitous to be en regie — anxious to maintain the strictest propriety; and they succeed in conforming to the natural laws of etiquette, of which they seem to have an instinctive and agreeable appreciation. In their salutations they always try to exceed each other in good wishes. The salutation “Salaam aleikum”—“Peace be with you”—common in Oriental Mohammedan countries, is used by them very sparingly, and, as a general thing, only on leaving the mosque after early morning worship. The reply is, “Aleikum-e-Salaam, wa rahmatu ‘llahi wa barakatuhu”—“With you be peace, and the mercy of God and His blessing.” If “Salaam Aleikum” is addressed to them by a Kafir or Pagan they seldom reply; if by a Christian, the reply is, “Salaam ala man taba el-huda”—“Peace to him who follows the right way.”
Those who speak Arabic speak the Koranic or book Arabic, preserving the final vowels of the classical language—a practice which, in the hurry and exigencies of business life, has been long discontinued in countries where the language is vernacular; so that in Egypt and Syria the current speech is very defective, and clipped and corrupted. Mr. Palgrave informs us, however, that in North-east Arabia the “grammatical dialect” is used in ordinary conversation. “The smallest and raggedest child that toddles about the street lisps in the correctest book Arabic that ever De Sacy studied or Sibaweeyah professed.[28] So among the Arabic scholars whom one meets in the interior of Liberia. In proper names we hear Ibraheema, Aleeu, Suleimana, Abdullahi, Dauda, etc.; in worship Allahu, Akbaru, Lailaha, ill’Allahu, etc.; and it is difficult for the mere tyro in Arabic pronunciation either to understand or make himself understood unless he constantly bear in mind the final vowels in nouns, verbs, and adjectives. A recent number of the Saturday Review,[29] in a notice of General Daumas’s new work on Arabic Life and Mussulman Society, remarks, “One comfort for the learner will be, that the oft-pressed distinction between what is termed the learned and the vulgar (Arabic) tongue is a mere fiction of European growth. It has no foundation in native usage.” We fear that the theoretical comfort which the soothing reviewer attempts to administer to the learner of Arabic will be found of no practical avail when applied to the intercourse of daily life in Syria and Egypt. Only such learned natives as Mr. Bistany, of Beyroot, and Dr. Meshakah, of Damascus, speak the language so as to be understood by one versed’ only in Koranic inflections. And even they generally avoid that style as stilted, pedantic, and absurd. Says a high authority:--[30]
Les populations Arabes, en general, etant fort ignorantes, par leur misère d’abord, et ensuite par l’extreme difficulté de l’etude et de l’application de leur idiome, le langage usuel des diverses regions est soumis à bien des varietés, soit de prononciation, soit de denomination des idés et des choses.
During a visit of three weeks made to Boporo in the Mohammedan month of Ramadhan (December and January, 1868-69), we had an opportunity of seeing the Mandingo Moslem at home. It being the sacred month of fasting and religious devotedness, we witnessed several religious ceremonies and performances.
As in all Moslem communities, prayer is held five times a-day. When the hour for prayer approaches, a man appointed for the purpose, with a very strong and clear voice, goes to the door of the mosque and chants the adhan, or call to prayer. This man is called the Muëddin.[25] His call is especially solemn and interesting in the early hours of the morning. We often lay in bed between four and five o’clock listening for the cry of the Muëeddin. There was a simple and solemn melody in the chant at that still hour, which, after it had ceased, still lingered pleasantly on the ear, and often, despite ourselves, drew us out to the mosque. The morning adhan, as we heard it at Boporo, is as follows: Allāahu Akbar (this is said four times). Ashhadn an la îlāha ill’ Allah (twice). Ashhadu anna Mohammadu rasoolu ‘llah (twice). Heiya ala Salàh (twice). Heiya alal-feláh (twice). Salȧtu kheirn min a-naumi (twice). Allāhu Akbar (twice). La ilāha ‘ill All-ah (once).[26]
Says Mr. Deutsch:
May-be some stray reader remembers a certain thrill on waking suddenly in the middle of his first night on Eastern soil—waking, as it were, from dream into dream. For there came a voice, solitary, sweet, sonorous, floating from on high, through the moonlight stillness—the voice of the blind Muëddin, singing the “Ualh,” or first call to prayer. . . . . The sounds went and came—“Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar”—and this reader may have a vague notion of Arabic and Koranic sound, one he will never forget.[27]
At Boporo and other African towns we have visited, this call is made three times within the half-hour immediately preceding worship. Before the third call is concluded the people have generally assembled in the mosque. Then the Imàm proceeds with the exercises, consisting usually of certain short chapters from the Koran and a few prayers, interspersed with beautiful chanting of the Moslem watch-word, “La ilaha ill Allah, Mohammadu rasoolu ‘llahi”—“There is no God,” etc. We may remark, by the way, that their tunes are not set in the minor key, as is almost always the case among the Arabs. Their natures are more joyful. They exult in the diatonic scale of life, and leave their Oriental coreligionists to wail in the sad and mournful chromatics of the desert.
The Mandingoes are an exceedingly polite and hospitable people. The restraints of their religion regulate their manners and control their behaviour. Both in speech and demeanour, they appear always solicitous to be en regie — anxious to maintain the strictest propriety; and they succeed in conforming to the natural laws of etiquette, of which they seem to have an instinctive and agreeable appreciation. In their salutations they always try to exceed each other in good wishes. The salutation “Salaam aleikum”—“Peace be with you”—common in Oriental Mohammedan countries, is used by them very sparingly, and, as a general thing, only on leaving the mosque after early morning worship. The reply is, “Aleikum-e-Salaam, wa rahmatu ‘llahi wa barakatuhu”—“With you be peace, and the mercy of God and His blessing.” If “Salaam Aleikum” is addressed to them by a Kafir or Pagan they seldom reply; if by a Christian, the reply is, “Salaam ala man taba el-huda”—“Peace to him who follows the right way.”
Those who speak Arabic speak the Koranic or book Arabic, preserving the final vowels of the classical language—a practice which, in the hurry and exigencies of business life, has been long discontinued in countries where the language is vernacular; so that in Egypt and Syria the current speech is very defective, and clipped and corrupted. Mr. Palgrave informs us, however, that in North-east Arabia the “grammatical dialect” is used in ordinary conversation. “The smallest and raggedest child that toddles about the street lisps in the correctest book Arabic that ever De Sacy studied or Sibaweeyah professed.[28] So among the Arabic scholars whom one meets in the interior of Liberia. In proper names we hear Ibraheema, Aleeu, Suleimana, Abdullahi, Dauda, etc.; in worship Allahu, Akbaru, Lailaha, ill’Allahu, etc.; and it is difficult for the mere tyro in Arabic pronunciation either to understand or make himself understood unless he constantly bear in mind the final vowels in nouns, verbs, and adjectives. A recent number of the Saturday Review,[29] in a notice of General Daumas’s new work on Arabic Life and Mussulman Society, remarks, “One comfort for the learner will be, that the oft-pressed distinction between what is termed the learned and the vulgar (Arabic) tongue is a mere fiction of European growth. It has no foundation in native usage.” We fear that the theoretical comfort which the soothing reviewer attempts to administer to the learner of Arabic will be found of no practical avail when applied to the intercourse of daily life in Syria and Egypt. Only such learned natives as Mr. Bistany, of Beyroot, and Dr. Meshakah, of Damascus, speak the language so as to be understood by one versed’ only in Koranic inflections. And even they generally avoid that style as stilted, pedantic, and absurd. Says a high authority:--[30]
Les populations Arabes, en general, etant fort ignorantes, par leur misère d’abord, et ensuite par l’extreme difficulté de l’etude et de l’application de leur idiome, le langage usuel des diverses regions est soumis à bien des varietés, soit de prononciation, soit de denomination des idés et des choses.
Footnotes:
25 The first Moslem crier was an Ethiopian negro, Bilah by name, "a man of powerful frame and sonorous voice." He was the favourite attendant of Mohammed. Mr. Irving informs us that on the capture of Jerusalem he made the first adhan, " at the Caliph Omar's command, and summoned the true believers to prayers with a force of lungs that astonished the Jewish inhabitants."—Irving's Successors of Mahomet, p. 100.
26 The English is, “God is more great” (four times). “I testify that there is no deity but God” (twice). “I testify that Mohammed is the apostle of God” (twice). “ Come to prayer” (twice). “Come to security” (twice). “Prayer is better than sleep” (twice). “God is most great” (twice). “There is no deity but God” (once).
27 Quarterly Review, October, 1869.
28 Palgrave’s Arabia, vol. i, p. 311.
29 March 26, 1870.
30 M. Bresnier, professor of Arabic in the Normal College of Algiers, in his Cours Pratique et Theorique de Langue Arabe.
25 The first Moslem crier was an Ethiopian negro, Bilah by name, "a man of powerful frame and sonorous voice." He was the favourite attendant of Mohammed. Mr. Irving informs us that on the capture of Jerusalem he made the first adhan, " at the Caliph Omar's command, and summoned the true believers to prayers with a force of lungs that astonished the Jewish inhabitants."—Irving's Successors of Mahomet, p. 100.
26 The English is, “God is more great” (four times). “I testify that there is no deity but God” (twice). “I testify that Mohammed is the apostle of God” (twice). “ Come to prayer” (twice). “Come to security” (twice). “Prayer is better than sleep” (twice). “God is most great” (twice). “There is no deity but God” (once).
27 Quarterly Review, October, 1869.
28 Palgrave’s Arabia, vol. i, p. 311.
29 March 26, 1870.
30 M. Bresnier, professor of Arabic in the Normal College of Algiers, in his Cours Pratique et Theorique de Langue Arabe.
Among the Moslems of West Africa there are some peculiarities in the sounds of the letters. The fourth letter of the alphabet is generally pronounced like s; the seventh like the simple k; the ninth like j in jug; seen and sheen have both the sound of s. The fifteenth letter is sounded like l; the nineteenth, whose guttural sound is so difficult to Western organs, is sounded like k; the twenty-first like g hard.
The introduction of Islam into Central and West Africa has been the most important, if not the sole, preservative against the desolations of the slave trade. Mohammedanism furnished a protection to the tribes who embraced it by effectually binding them together in one strong religious fraternity, and enabling them by their united effort to baffle the attempts of powerful Pagan slave-hunters. Enjoying this comparative immunity from sudden hostile incursions, industry was stimulated among them, industry diminished their poverty; and, as they increased in worldly substance, they also increased in desire for knowledge. Gross superstition gradually disappeared from among them. Receiving a degree of culture from the study of the Arabic language, they acquired loftier views, wider tastes, and those energetic habits which so pleasingly distinguished them from their Pagan neighbours.
Large towns and cities have grown up under Mohammedan energy and industry. Dr. Barth was surprised to find such towns or cities as Kanó and Sokoto in the centre of Africa—to discover the focus of a complex and widely-ramified commerce, and a busy hive of manufacturing industry, in a region which most people had believed to be a desert. And there are towns and cities nearly as important farther west, to which Barth did not penetrate, still affording scope to extend the horizon of European knowledge and the limits of commercial enterprise. Mr. Benjamin Anderson, the enterprising Liberian traveller, who has recently visited Misadu, the capital of the Western Mandingoes, about two hundred miles east of Monrovia, describes that city as the centre of a considerable commerce, reaching as far north as Senegal and east as far as Sokoto.
The African Moslems are also great travellers. They seem to travel through the country with greater freedom and safety than any other people, on account, probably, of their superior intelligence and greater usefulness. They are continually crossing the continent to Egypt, Arabia, and Syria. We met a few weeks ago at Toto-Coreh, a town about ten miles east of Boporo, a lad who informed us that he was born at Mecca while his parents were in that city on a pilgrimage. We gave him a copy of the New Testament in Arabic, which he read with unimpeded fluency, and with the Oriental accent and pronunciation.
The general diffusion of the Arabic language [31] in this country, through Mohammedan influence, must be regarded as a preparatory circumstance of vast importance for the introduction of the Gospel. It may be--
The plan of Providence that these many barbarous nations of Africa are to be consolidated under one aggressive empire of ideas and faith, to prepare the way for evangelisation through the medium of one copious, cultivated, expressive tongue, in the place of leaving to the Church the difficult task of translating and preaching in many barbarous languages, incapable of expressing the finer forms of thought.[32]
Already some of the vernaculars have been enriched by expressions from the Arabic for the embodiment of the higher processes of thought. They have received terms regarding the religion of one God, and respecting a certain state of civilisation, such as marrying, reading, writing, and the objects having relation thereto, sections of time, and phrases of salutation and of good breeding; then the terms relating to dress, instruments, and the art of warfare, as well as architecture, commerce, &c.[33]
Mohammedanism, in this part of the world, could easily be displaced by Christian influence, if Christian organisations would enter with vigour into this field. The Rev. G.W. Gibson, Rector of Trinity Church, Monrovia, in a letter published in the Spirit of Missions for April, 1869, says:--
Whatever may have been the influence of Mohammedanism on races in other parts of the world, I think here, upon the African, results will prove it to be merely preparatory to a Christian civilisation. In this country, and almost immediately in our vicinity, it has recovered millions from Paganism, without, I think, having such a grasp upon the minds of the masses as to lead them obstinately to cling to it in preference to Christianity, with its superior advantages. The same feelings which led then to abandon their former religion for the Moslem will, no doubt, lead them still further, and induce them to embrace ours when properly presented. I express this opinion the more readily from several interviews I have had lately with prominent parties connected with some of these tribes.
We are persuaded that, with the book knowledge they already possess, and their love of letters, many of them would become ready converts of a religion which brings with it the recommendation of a higher culture and a nobler civilisation. And, once brought within the pale of Christianity, these Mohammedans would be a most effective agency for the propagation of the Gospel in remote regions, hitherto impervious to European zeal and enterprise, and the work of African regeneration would proceed with uninterrupted course and unexampled rapidity.
The introduction of Islam into Central and West Africa has been the most important, if not the sole, preservative against the desolations of the slave trade. Mohammedanism furnished a protection to the tribes who embraced it by effectually binding them together in one strong religious fraternity, and enabling them by their united effort to baffle the attempts of powerful Pagan slave-hunters. Enjoying this comparative immunity from sudden hostile incursions, industry was stimulated among them, industry diminished their poverty; and, as they increased in worldly substance, they also increased in desire for knowledge. Gross superstition gradually disappeared from among them. Receiving a degree of culture from the study of the Arabic language, they acquired loftier views, wider tastes, and those energetic habits which so pleasingly distinguished them from their Pagan neighbours.
Large towns and cities have grown up under Mohammedan energy and industry. Dr. Barth was surprised to find such towns or cities as Kanó and Sokoto in the centre of Africa—to discover the focus of a complex and widely-ramified commerce, and a busy hive of manufacturing industry, in a region which most people had believed to be a desert. And there are towns and cities nearly as important farther west, to which Barth did not penetrate, still affording scope to extend the horizon of European knowledge and the limits of commercial enterprise. Mr. Benjamin Anderson, the enterprising Liberian traveller, who has recently visited Misadu, the capital of the Western Mandingoes, about two hundred miles east of Monrovia, describes that city as the centre of a considerable commerce, reaching as far north as Senegal and east as far as Sokoto.
The African Moslems are also great travellers. They seem to travel through the country with greater freedom and safety than any other people, on account, probably, of their superior intelligence and greater usefulness. They are continually crossing the continent to Egypt, Arabia, and Syria. We met a few weeks ago at Toto-Coreh, a town about ten miles east of Boporo, a lad who informed us that he was born at Mecca while his parents were in that city on a pilgrimage. We gave him a copy of the New Testament in Arabic, which he read with unimpeded fluency, and with the Oriental accent and pronunciation.
The general diffusion of the Arabic language [31] in this country, through Mohammedan influence, must be regarded as a preparatory circumstance of vast importance for the introduction of the Gospel. It may be--
The plan of Providence that these many barbarous nations of Africa are to be consolidated under one aggressive empire of ideas and faith, to prepare the way for evangelisation through the medium of one copious, cultivated, expressive tongue, in the place of leaving to the Church the difficult task of translating and preaching in many barbarous languages, incapable of expressing the finer forms of thought.[32]
Already some of the vernaculars have been enriched by expressions from the Arabic for the embodiment of the higher processes of thought. They have received terms regarding the religion of one God, and respecting a certain state of civilisation, such as marrying, reading, writing, and the objects having relation thereto, sections of time, and phrases of salutation and of good breeding; then the terms relating to dress, instruments, and the art of warfare, as well as architecture, commerce, &c.[33]
Mohammedanism, in this part of the world, could easily be displaced by Christian influence, if Christian organisations would enter with vigour into this field. The Rev. G.W. Gibson, Rector of Trinity Church, Monrovia, in a letter published in the Spirit of Missions for April, 1869, says:--
Whatever may have been the influence of Mohammedanism on races in other parts of the world, I think here, upon the African, results will prove it to be merely preparatory to a Christian civilisation. In this country, and almost immediately in our vicinity, it has recovered millions from Paganism, without, I think, having such a grasp upon the minds of the masses as to lead them obstinately to cling to it in preference to Christianity, with its superior advantages. The same feelings which led then to abandon their former religion for the Moslem will, no doubt, lead them still further, and induce them to embrace ours when properly presented. I express this opinion the more readily from several interviews I have had lately with prominent parties connected with some of these tribes.
We are persuaded that, with the book knowledge they already possess, and their love of letters, many of them would become ready converts of a religion which brings with it the recommendation of a higher culture and a nobler civilisation. And, once brought within the pale of Christianity, these Mohammedans would be a most effective agency for the propagation of the Gospel in remote regions, hitherto impervious to European zeal and enterprise, and the work of African regeneration would proceed with uninterrupted course and unexampled rapidity.
Footnotes:
31 The natives love and revere the language. All documents of a serious character must be written in that language. Bishop Growther, of the Niger, in a letter dated October 30, 18G9, tells us of his visit to King Masaba, a distinguished Mohammedan sovereign, with whom he entered into a written agreement with reference to the establishment of a Christian mission in his capital. “I drew up his promise,” says the Bishop, “in English, which he handed over to his Maalims to be translated into Arabic,”—Christian Observer, January, 1870.
32 Prof. Post, of Syrian Protestant College, Beyrout.
33 See Barth’s Collection of Central African Vocabularies, part i, p. 29.
31 The natives love and revere the language. All documents of a serious character must be written in that language. Bishop Growther, of the Niger, in a letter dated October 30, 18G9, tells us of his visit to King Masaba, a distinguished Mohammedan sovereign, with whom he entered into a written agreement with reference to the establishment of a Christian mission in his capital. “I drew up his promise,” says the Bishop, “in English, which he handed over to his Maalims to be translated into Arabic,”—Christian Observer, January, 1870.
32 Prof. Post, of Syrian Protestant College, Beyrout.
33 See Barth’s Collection of Central African Vocabularies, part i, p. 29.
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