SnmUEL m. ZUE(T)ER vv<- ^'C> I ;lc |- s Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2007 with funding from IVIicrosoft Corporation http://www.archive.org/details/childhoodinmosleOOzwemrich CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD By A. E. and S. M. Zwemer Zigzag Journeys in the Camel Coun- try. Arabia in Picture and Story. Illus- trated, izmo, cloth, net ^i.oo. " Dr. and Mrs. Zwemer are charming guides, for they know the customs and the history, they see the most interesting places and people, and are full of cheery, good humor, and Christian common sense. We commend the book highly for interest and information." — Missionary Review of World. Topsy-Turvy Land. Arabia Pictured for Children. Illustrated, 1 2mo, cloth, net .75. " A book of pictures and stories for big children and small grown-up folk, for all who love Sinbad the Sailor and his strange country. This strange country is Arabia, where judged by our way of looking at things, manners, customs and everything else looks topsy-turvy." — Boston Globe. By S. M. Zwemer, F. R. G. S. Fourth Edition Revised Arabia : The Cradle of Islam. Studies in the Geography, People and Politics of the Peninsula ; with an account of Islam and Missionary Work. With Maps and nu- merous illustrations from Drawings and Photographs. 8vo, cloth, net $2.00. " It comes at once into the vacant place of an up- to date authority upon • the neglected peninsula.' The comprehensive scope of the volume covers a wide range of interest, scientific and commercial, historical and literary, sociological, religious." — Outlook. A BRIDE FROM ALGERIA CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD By SAMUEL M. ZWEMER, F.R.G.S. Author of *' Arabia: The Cradle of Islam," "The Moslem Christ," "Zigzag Journeys in the Camel Country," "Topsy-Turvy Land," etc., etc. ILLUSTRATED New York Chicago Toronto Fleming H. Revell Company LOKDON AKD EdIXBUROH oyzif Copyright, 191 5, by FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY New York : 158 Fifth Avenue Chicago : 125 N. Wabash Ave. Toronto : 25 Richmond St., W. London : 21 Paternoster Square Edinburgh : 100 Princes Street DEDICATED TO THE WORLD'S SUNDAY SCHOOL ASSOCIATION AND TO ALL WHO LABOUR FOR THE UPLIFT OF MOSLEM CHILDHOOD PREFACE MOHAMMED was, without doubt, one of the greatest religious leaders that the world has ever seen. He was a genius and a poet, a reformer and a great warrior. But Mohammed could never have said, ** Suffer little children to come unto me and forbid them not, for of such is the kingdom of Heaven. ' * His book, his life, his ideals, are not those of Him who placed a little child in the midst and gave the world of childhood an eternal inheritance of blessedness by His own Incarnation. The present wide and increasing interest in child welfare is due to Christianity, and makes the presentation of the facts here given in regard to Moslem childhood, timely. When the whole world has become one neighbourhood, no individ- ual or race can live to itself. This is not a book for children, but about chil- dren. It could not be a book for them if it dealt faithfully and fearlessly with the real conditions as observed by eye-witnesses in many lands. Every paragraph could have been corroborated by references to authorities and the use of foot- notes ; but these have been omitted in order not to 7 8 PREFACE litter the pages of the text or weary the reader's patience. A list of correspondents and a bibliog- raphy are given at the end of the volume. To all these missionary workers and writers I owe hearty thanks. The illustrations given are in- tended to set forth vividly the wide extent, the environment, the physical, intellectual and social conditions of Moslem childhood, in order that what we have seen with our eyes and heard with our ears, may enter the heart of the reader also. S. M. ZWEMER. Caibo. CONTENTS I PAGE A WORLD OF MOSLEM CHILDHOOD 19 The conquest of Constantinople — The challenge of St. Sophia — The Moslem problem a unity — Its childhood a proof — Statistics of childhood — Their numbers in Africa, India, Algeria — The areas covered — The meuzzin's call from the Pacific to the Atlantic — Many areas and languages — National responsibility: Amer- ica, England — The urgency of the task. II ENVIRONMENT 41 Islam born in the desert — Margoliouth's theory of the heat belt — The imprint of the desert on Islam — The nomad environment and its types of civilization: Balu- chistan--^ A typical village on the Nile — The bazaar at Algiers — The lot of womanhood in the city and among the nomads — Persian village life — Constantinople — Islam among pagan races — In China — In Java — The Moslem type of civilization — Degradation of woman- hood — Child marriage — Ignorance of medicine — Fatalism — A cry of pain — A new environment. Ill BIRTH, INFANCY, AND PHYSICAL CONDITIONS . The right of the child to be well born — The effect of heredity — Contagious diseases — Mortality of infants : in Egypt, Turkey, India, Syria, Morocco — An incident from Arabia — Bedouin children — The children of Kashgar — The leper boy — Moosa's baby — Inferiority of girls — Legitimacy — Ceremonies observed at birth : in China, Egypt, India — Aqiqah — Circumcision — Early marriage and its results — Ignorance of medicine — Magic in Turkey — Medicine in Arabia — Algerian superstitions — Child labour in Arabia ; in Persia. 9 10 CONTENTS IV PAOB THE MIND OF A MOSLEM CHILD 115 Al-Ghazali — General neglect — Illiteracy in India — Superstition — Belief in jinn — Use of charms and amulets — West Africa; Senegal; Kashmir; Kordofan — Buduh — The religious attitude of Islam — Grovel- ling superstitions in Morocco; India — The Zar in Egypt — The teacher of the mosque school — His repu- tation; his character — The education of a boy — The method — Higher education — Children's books — A chapter on prayer — Sex education gone mad — Two fish stories — Adam's vineyard — The story of the heifer — Moses and the fish — Jesus at school — Neglect of Bedouin children — " Give me God's due ! '* MORAL TRAINING AND NEGLECT 159 Based on Moslem ethics — The Moslem idea of God and of Mohammed — De Boer's testimony — The contrast to Christianity in literature — The " Arabian Nights " and Al Hariri — Koran teaching on children — Literature on etiquette — Moslem saints not saintly — The surround- ings of the zenana — Degrading conversation — Results in Arabia, Sumatra, West Africa — Untruthfulness — Koran teaching on the subject — How moral actions are divided — The ceremonial law — The ten command- ments — Low ideals ■ — A tainted atmosphere — The heart of a Moslem girl — A brighter side of the picture — Attempt to introduce Christian ethics. VI THE RELIGION OF A MOSLEM CHILD .... 199 Education without religion unknown — The effect of memorizing the Moslem creed — Allah — Angels and demons — Memorizing the Koran — A Moslem primer — The story of Nuh — Teaching regarding Jesus — Other Bible stories — The Day of Judgment — Hell not for Moslem children — Confession — Prayer — Ablution — A primer on prayer — The place of the mosque — Result of this religious training — S. Khuda Bukhsh — The Moslem fast — Almsgiving — Pilgrimage — Saint worship and Marabouts in Algeria — The death of a child — The bier — The funeral — Mourning the dead. CONTENTS 11 VII PAGB THE IMPACT OF THE WEST AND CHRISTIAN MIS- SIONS 239 The Tiflis coat of arms — The advent of the railway and Western civilization — Arabia an example — Trip- oli — Persia — Modernist movements — Dress — Koran, translations — Increasing desire for education, even of girls — The Dutch East Indies — India — Constanti- nople — Lack of moral training — Christian mission- aries as pioneers of education — In Egypt — In Persia — In Turkey — Mission School at Port Said — Tangier — Muscat — The slave trade — Medical missions — Christian literature — The Bible — Need of books for children — The fight for character — A little witness — God's plan for Moslem childhood — Our opportunity and duty. Like a cradle rocking, rocking, Silent, peaceful, to and fro. Like a mother's sweet looks dropping On the little face below, Hangs the green earth, swinging, swinging^ Jarless, noiseless, safe and slow; Falls the light of God's face bending Down and watching us below. great heart of God! whose loving Cannot hindered be nor crossed; Will not weary, will not even In our death itself be lost — Love divine! of such great loving. Only mothers know the cost — Cost of love, which all love passing, Gave a Son to save the lost. — ^Helen M. Jackson. ILLUSTRATIONS PACING PAOfa A Bride from Algeria .... Title Young Girl and Baby of the Messeria Tribe, Kordofan 24 A Little Tartar Girl, Representative of Moslem Childhood in Russia . . . . .28 The Daughter of the Nawab of Hyderabad, India . 34 Egyptian Peasant Woman and Child ... 42 Children from East Arabia .... 44 Desert Joys of Bedouin Childhood ... 46 Four Little Sisters from Bengal .... 52 A Beggar Boy from Algiers .... 54 Persian Seyyids with Their Boys ... 58 Moslem Children from Cape Town ... 62 Group of Village Women and Children, Egypt . 70 Egyptian Mothers with Their Babies ... 72 Children from Mecca ...... 74 Young Moslem Girl from Equatorial Africa, with Talisman and Beads ..... 82 Fellah Girl from an Egyptian Village, with Native Drum 86 Group of Children of the Beshari Tribe, Anglo- Egyptian Sudan ...... 90 Moslem Women and Children from French Equa- torial Africa ....... 94 Little Children, Boys and Girls, at Tangerang Ban- tam, Java, Weaving Hats .... 108 13 14 ILLUSTRATIONS FACING PAGE The Price of a Turkish Rug : Moslem Girls in Tur- key at the Loom ...... 110 A Moslem Day School ..... 116 Another Algerian Type ..... 120 Egyptian Child with Its Father, Showing Amulets and Charms 124 Tunisian Children 132 A Lad from Tunis ...... 138 A Moslem Brother and Sister from Bokhara . . 142 A Group of Moslem Boys and Girls from Muscat, Arabia: The Royal Family .... 152 The Younger Half of a Mohammedan Family, Honan, China ...... 166 Persian Childhood 172 The Present Shah of Persia and the Son of a Nobleman 178 A Family Group at Biskra, North Africa . . 186 Moslem Boys from Garoet, Java: Players of the Musical Instrument Made of Bamboo, Called the Anklong 192 The Cry of the Drowning : An Appeal for Educa- tion Made by Moslems to Their Own People in Syria 202 A Page from a Moslem Child's Primer . . 203 Picture of Noah's Ark, and of the Sacrifice of Ishmael by Abraham, According to Moslem Artists 204 Moslem Girls in Java, Dressed for a National The- atrical Performance ..... 216 ILLUSTRATIONS Moslem Dervish Preaching to a Group of Village Boys and Girls in Algeria A Girl from Tunis .... A Young Educated Javanese Girls' Mission School, Mogador, Morocco ) School for Moslem Girls at Port Said . j Young Moslem Girl from Abyssinia Good-bye 16 PACING PAGE 226 234 242 254 258 268 NOTE "We express grateful acknowledgment for photographs supplied for our illustrations, to Miss I. Lilias Trotter, Algiers; Mr. J. Angus Gillan, the Sudan; Miss Jenny von Mayer, Russia; Rev. G. J. Pennings, Arabia; Miss Williams, Bengal; Miss G. Y. HoUiday, Tabriz; Rev. James Cantine, D.D., Arabia; Miss MacNale, Morocco; Rev. J. P. McNaughton, Turkey ; Mrs. J. R. van Andel, Java ; Mr. Frank B. Rairden, Cairo ; Mr. G. Garabedian, Cape Town; Dr. J. A. Menzies, Honan, China; Rev. G. E. Brown, Hyderabad; Rev. Charles Ogilvie, Peking; and to the photographers G. Lekegian & Co., Cairo, and other artists. I A WORLD OF MOSLEM CHILDHOOD "One generation, one entire generation of all the world of children understood as they should be, loved as they ask to be, and so developed as they might be, would more than begin the millennium." — Frances Hodgson Burnett. " Every time one thinks of the little children of the world and then of our little children here at home his heart must suffer for their sufferings, over the emptiness and the vanity and the hatreds, and the poverty of their life; and he must think also of that holy Child Jesus, the Father's little Son, who came down to make these little children and their lives as rich and fragrant and full of joy as the lives of our children here at home." — Robert E. Speer. " For I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my command- ments." — Ex. XX: 5. A WOELD OF MOSLEM CHILDHOOD WHEN the Turks conquered Constantino- ple, May 29, 1453, the defenceless Chris- tian inhabitants fled in crowds to the Christian Church, Aya Sophia, in the belief, we are told, that as soon as the enemy had reached the pillar of Constantine the Great, an angel would appear in the heavens and scatter the victors. But there was no supernatural deliver- ance. The Turks came, the refugees were made prisoners, and the temple of Constantius and Justinian was consecrated to Islam. Sultan Murad III. had a crescent measuring a hundred and fifty feet in diameter put in place of the cross, and gilded at great expense, so that now from afar, even from distant Olympia, Moslems may see the symbol of their faith glittering in the sun. Clear as the dome and minarets of St. Sophia and equally challenging, the Moslem problem stands before the world of Christendom. In Europe Islam has been an intruder, in Asia a usurper, and in Africa a rival of Christianity. Its 19 20 CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD three great capitals dominate three continents. Mecca has been the heart of the Moslem world for many centuries, and is to-day the pilgrim centre for one-seventh of the human race. From Sierra Leone to Canton, and from Tobolsk to Singapore, the faithful spread their prayer carpets, build their houses, and bury their dead toward Mecca. Constantinople faces two continents and two great civilizations, and still remains the city of the Caliphate, although of a tottering empire. Cairo is the capital of Egypt, the metropolis of all Africa, and the literary centre of the Moslem world. There is no speech nor language in Islam where the voice of the Cairo press is not heard. Their line is gone out through all the earth and their words to the end of the world. The unity of the Moslem problem, however, is not political or intellectual merely. Islam pre- sents a solidarity of organization, methods, and spirit unparalleled and unapproached by any other organized world force against the Christian Church. It is inter-continental, inter-national, and inter-racial, and yet distinct and well defined in the midst of nations and races and religious forces. This unity knows no geographical lines nor racial barriers. It is distinguished by intel- lectual ideals, and by social and religious ties, characterized by their elasticity and tenacity, and by their prominence and power. When we speak A WORLD OF MOSLEM CHILDHOOD 21 of Islam, therefore, we face an intellectual, a so- cial, and a moral problem of which all the factors can be coordinated and related among different races and in many lands. The conditions, as well as the difficulties, are largely similar. The line of approach has been proved to be almost identical, and the methods of successful work the same from Morocco to Peking. A careful study of all the facts collected in the chapters that follow will show clearly that the unity of the Moslem world is specially evident in the condition of its childhood. One-eighth of all the children in the world live under the shadow of the crescent in the lands of Islam. It has been remarked by Alonzo Bunker that the attractive- ness of childhood among all races ** sometimes appears to be accentuated among less intelligent peoples ; so that, before the fogs of sin and igno- rance have blurred the image of God in which they were created, they show a strength and brightness more marked than in their more favoured brothers and sisters in enlightened lands. This fact has not received due attention in ethnological studies." The faces of Moslem children from many lands that illustrate the chapters of this book are a proof of this statement. They portray the best and not the worst; the bright, not the dark side of Islam. The hope of the Moslem world is in its childhood, and when one looks into 20 CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD three great capitals dominate three continents. Mecca has been the heart of the Moslem world for many centuries, and is to-day the pilgrim centre for one-seventh of the human race. From Sierra Leone to Canton, and from Tobolsk to Singapore, the faithful spread their prayer carpets, build their houses, and bury their dead toward Mecca. Constantinople faces two continents and two great civilizations, and still remains the city of the Caliphate, although of a tottering empire. Cairo is the capital of Egypt, the metropolis of all Africa, and the literary centre of the Moslem world. There is no speech nor language in Islam where the voice of the Cairo press is not heard. Their line is gone out through all the earth and their words to the end of the world. The unity of the Moslem problem, however, is not political or intellectual merely. Islam pre- sents a solidarity of organization, methods, and spirit unparalleled and unapproached by any other organized world force against the Christian Church. It is inter-continental, inter-national, and inter-racial, and yet distinct and well defined in the midst of nations and races and religious forces. This unity knows no geographical lines nor racial barriers. It is distinguished by intel- lectual ideals, and by social and religious ties, characterized by their elasticity and tenacity, and by their prominence and power. When we speak A WORLD OF MOSLEM CHILDHOOD 21 of Islam, therefore, we face an intellectual, a so- cial, and a moral problem of which all the factors can be coordinated and related among different races and in many lands. The conditions, as well as the difficulties, are largely similar. The line of approach has been proved to be almost identical, and the methods of successful work the same from Morocco to Peking. A careful study of all the facts collected in the chapters that follow will show clearly that the unity of the Moslem world is specially evident in the condition of its childhood. One-eighth of all the children in the world live under the shadow of the crescent in the lands of Islam. It has been remarked by Alonzo Bunker that the attractive- ness of childhood among all races ** sometimes appears to be accentuated among less intelligent peoples ; so that, before the fogs of sin and igno- rance have blurred the image of God in which they were created, they show a strength and brightness more marked than in their more favoured brothers and sisters in enlightened lands. This fact has not received due attention in ethnological studies.'' The faces of Moslem children from many lands that illustrate the chapters of this book are a proof of this statement. They portray the best and not the worst; the bright, not the dark side of Islam. The hope of the Moslem world is in its childhood, and when one looks into 9.% CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD the bright faces of these smiling infants, or mis- chievous, happy boys and girls, one remembers that of these too it may be said, ' * Trailing clouds of glory do they come. ' ' But from their earliest years they enter nevertheless into the inheritance of Islam. No religion, as we shall see, pays such early attention to the religious training of the child, and so little attention to its moral education as does Islam. To all of these children the ideal of character is Mohammed; he is their hope for sal- vation, and God's will for them is revealed in the Koran. Of their attitude toward Mohammed in every part of the Moslem world, one may almost hear them say: **Our Lord Mohammed — " Through him the first fond prayers are said Our lips of childhood frame; The last low whispers of our dead Are burdened with his name. " O Lord and Master of us all, Whate'er our name or sign, We own thy sway, we hear thy call, We test our lives by thine! " The total population of this world which tests its life by the life of Mohammed and follows his teaching is estimated at 201,000,000. Of these 42,000,000 live in Africa, 2,300,000 in Europe, and A WORLD OF MOSLEM CHILDHOOD 23 nearly all the rest in Asia and Malaysia/ In the table which follows we present a statistical survey of the number and distribution of Moslem children, basing our estimates upon government reports and the most recent and conservative statistics. According to the *^ Encyclopedia Britannica" the number of children in the world under fifteen in every thousand of the population is four hun- dred. As this estimate is based on European statistics, the percentage is less than that which obtains in Eastern lands where families are gen- erally larger and early marriage prevails. Ac- cording to the last census of the United States, the children under fifteen years of age are nearly thirty-three per cent of the total population; and although Moslem childhood does not last so long as childhood in "Western lands, since the burdens and responsibilities of motherhood and father- hood are early thrust upon them, we have never- theless taken forty per cent as a minimum esti- mate. This gives a total population of Moslem children of over 80,000,000, divided as follows : A^^^^rf. Moslem Children In countries under British rule or protection 9,120,000 In French colonies and possessions . 6,000,000 Eemainder of Africa 1,600,000 ^ For details of Moslem world population see " A New Statistical Survey " in The Moslem World, Vol. IV, pp. 146-167. M CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD ^ • . Moslem Children India and dependencies, with Fed- erated Malay States 27,000,000 Dutch East Indies 14,120,000 Philippine Islands 121,000 French possessions 80,000 Eussia (in Asia and Europe) 8,000,000 Turkish Empire and Arabia 6,000,000 Afghanistan 2,000,000 China 3,400,000 Persia 1,800,000 Siam 120,000 Europe 900,000 North and South America 70,000 80,331,000 It is difficult to realize what this means in a statistical table, for, as Carlyle remarks, *^ Masses indeed, and yet singular to say, if thou follow them into their garrets and hutches, the masses consist of units, every unit of whom has his own heart and sorrows!'' The line of Moslem chil- dren if they stood together, holding hands, would stretch exactly twice around the globe's circum- ference of 40,000,000 metres. The Moslem chil- dren of India alone, marching with hands on each other's shoulders, would, reach in one un- broken procession fifteen times the distance from New York to Chicago ; or if we count the Moslem children in India and in Persia together, we have nearly 29,000,000 children under fifteen years of YOUNG GIRL AND BABY OF THE MESSERIA TRIBE, KORDOFAN On the border-marches of Islam. Notice the amulet worn by the older child, her jewelry, and the curious braiding of her hair. A WORLD OF MOSLEM CHILDHOOD 25 age. According to the census of 1910 the whole family of childhood in the United States was only a little larger, namely 29,499,136. The problem of child welfare in this section of the Moslem world alone, therefore, is equally large statis- tically as it is for the United States. Yet in the latter case we have a Christian environment, free, compulsory education, and large expenditures for the betterment of childhood. In the case of India, we know that 96% per cent of Moslem adults are illiterate, and that no provision is made for the masses of its Moslem childhood for either intel- lectual or moral training. One-third of all the babies born in Africa wear Moslem charms or talismans around their necks, like the young girl and baby of the Messeria tribe, Kordofan, in our picture. And in many cases this is their only clothing! In Kashmir alone there are more Moslem children than the total population of the great city of Liverpool; while the number of Moslem children found in China is a million more than the entire popula- tion of Chicago. The world of childhood repre- sented in this volume would fill seventeen cities as large as London, and yet even here the com- parisons seem inadequate to impress one with the need and the opportunity of these little ones for whom Christ died. In the case of Algeria we have fuller statistics carefully collated by mis- S6 CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD sionary workers. In that one Moslem country- there are 710,488 native boys and girls between the ages of five and fourteen, and 331,287 baby boys under five years of age. If God should call us out, as He did Abraham, to tell the stars, we would have to count all of those visible to the naked eye in the whole starry vault one hundred times over to reach the number of Moslem boys in Algeria alone. He Who healeth the broken in heart and bindeth up their wounds, WTio telleth the number of the stars and calleth them all by their names, knows the name also of every Moslem child in Algeria and throughout the world. He not only knows them by name because He is their Father, but He loves them. His own word assures us, ** Whosoever shall receive one such little child in My name receiveth Me.'^ What the term ** Moslem childhood'' includes be- comes evident also when we consider areas as well as populations. All of North Africa and nearly all of Central and Western Asia are dominated by Islam. Between the nearer and farther East, north of India and south of the Siberian steppes, stretches the region known as Central Asia, the roof of the world, where three great empires, India, Eussia, and China, meet. Here three great religions have struggled for the mastery, and one after the other held supreme for centuries; and although Buddhism and Christianity still A WORLD OF MOSLEM CHILDHOOD 27 count a few adherents, Islam has swept the field and, except for Tibet, the whole is under its sway. The nomads only profess this religion nominally, but the settlers, especially those in Bokhara, may be counted amon^ the most fanatical Moslems in the world. The social life, literature, architecture, art, etiquette, and everyday speech of all Central Asia bear the trademark of Islam. An ordinary pocket compass goes by the name of ** Mecca- pointer,'' and 1,500 Chinese Moslem pilgrims go by the Karakoram Pass, the highest in the world, to Mecca every year. Persia, that **fallen empire slumbering in the sun, forgotten by the busy West, remote from its ways and its works, unthreaded by its railways, known but as a name, ' ' has a world all its own of Moslem child- hood, for Moslems here belong to the Shiah sect, which in some respects is more exclusive than any other. Afghanistan is socially and morally one of the darkest places of the earth, full of the habitations of cruelty. It is an unoccupied mis- sion field. Ninety per cent of the people are illiterate, womanhood is degraded, and the whole population is Moslem. Baluchistan to the south is also wholly Moslem, and yet the Moslem popu- lation of Arabia, Persia, Turkey, Afghanistan, and Baluchistan together does not equal that of a single island in the Malay Archipelago, Java, which has 29,627,557 Mohammedans, of whom 28 CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD forty per cent are children. Sumatra, too, has its share of Moslem childhood, as have the Federated Malay States with their great seaport Singapore. Islam has made inroads upon the population of Burma and Ceylon and Madagascar. In Africa it is pushing its conquests southward and west- ward in the basins of the Congo and the Niger. Islam stretches from the Pacific to the Atlantic. Before the dawn paints the sky red, the Moslem boys among the Moros in the Philippine Islands hear the muezzin's call to prayer. An hour later it is taken up on the minarets of Java. Still an hour later it is heard in the Moslem quarter of Calcutta. Sixty minutes later the cry, *^God is great and Mohammed is God's apostle,'' is heard in Bombay with its teeming Moslem population, and along all this meridian through Afghanistan and Central Asia. Another hour goes by, and from the oldest mosques of Samarkand and Bokhara the same call to prayer rings out. It is now high noon in the Philippines, but the cry rings in Mecca six hours later, — the same words that were heard for the first time thirteen cen- turies earlier. Again an hour passes, and the muezzin calls at Cairo ; another hour, and his voice is heard at Tripoli; again an hour, and he calls to prayer at Algiers, and finally the same cry, '* Mohammed is God's Apostle," rings out over the Atlantic at Freetown and Sierra Leone. So A LITTLE TARTAR GIRL Representative of Moslem childhood in Russia. The total Moslem population of Russia is 20,000,000. A WORLD OF MOSLEM CHILDHOOD 29 it is that, in a sense which the poet never intended, we may say of Islam also : "As o'er each continent and island The dawn leads on another day. The voice of prayer is never silent, Nor dies the strain of praise away." But it is the praise of Mohammed and not prayer in the name of Christ. There are points still farther west and east than those mentioned, which must also be included in the world of Moslem childhood. A considerable number of Moslems live at Perth, Australia, where they have built a beautiful mosque; at Jamaica, West Indies, where they are winning negro Christians to their faith; at Cape Town and in Brazil; in Georgetown, Guiana, and some other points in South America. These groups, however, are numerically unimportant. The world of Moslem childhood is polyglot. Mohammed the prophet spoke Arabic and called it the language of the angels. He could neither read nor write, but dictated the Koran text in this language. The call to prayer, as well as the prayers offered, must be in Arabic throughout the whole world of Islam. Yet to three-fourths of those who believe Mohammed's message, Arabic is a language not understood of the people. The Arabic religious vocabulary has forced its way 30 CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD into many other tongues spoken by Moham- medans, and its alphabet has been adopted or adapted in many parts of Asia and Africa. The Koran has been translated into Persian, Urdu, Turkish, Javanese, Bengali, and two or three other languages, but these translations are ex- pensive, rare, and not commonly used. The chief literary languages of Islam next to Arabic are Persian, Turkish, Urdu, Bengali, Chinese, and Eussian. In these there exists a considerable religious literature. The chief Moslem languages in Africa next to Arabic are Kisuaheli, Hausa, Berber, and Kabyle. In India we must add to this list of polyglots, among many others, Pun- jabi, Gujerati, Kashmiri, Baluchi, and Pushtu; while for Asia Minor and Europe, in addition to Turkish, there are Kurdish, Albanian, and a num- ber of Turkish dialects. The Bible has been translated, or a portion of the New Testament at least, into all these lan- guages of the Moslem world ; yet it is well to em- phasize at the outset the fact that these Moslem lands, and therefore this world of Moslem child- hood, has been greatly neglected, and in some cases utterly omitted from the programme of world- wide missions. How full of pathos are the words of Miss Von Mayer, who writes from Samarkand : ''I shall gather information as to numbers, edu- cation, and mortality of children here, but I can- A WORLD OF MOSLEM CHILDHOOD 31 not contribute to your report anything as to the religious work done, for not a single one of the one and a half million Moslem children in this field, at any time or anywhere, comes into con- tact with Christianity." What she says of Bokhara and EJiiva is true also of Chinese Tur- kestan, of the nomad tribes in the deserts of Gobi and Mongolia, of all Afghan children, of those in Central and Western Arabia, the extreme south of Persia, and most of Baluchistan. And to this the unoccupied areas of Moslem popula- tion in Africa — most of Morocco, the southern half of Algeria, Tripoli, the Atlas Riff country, the uncounted thousands of the Sahara districts, the millions of Nigeria and the Sudan, and the thousands in British, French, and Italian Somali- land — and we face a problem of unreached and utterly neglected childhood which we must lay upon our hearts as it rests upon the heart of God. The total number of children in these wholly unoccupied areas is not less than 40,000,- 000, untouched by any Christian influences. Aside from all missionary claims upon the churches of Christendom, no one can deny that there exists a great and grave national responsi- bility toward this world of childhood, on the part of European Governments which have been made morally responsible, through colonial expansion or conquest, for the childhood in these areas. 32 CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD This white man's burden of responsibility for the social, intellectual — ^we will not say religious — condition of those who are under European Gov- ernments cannot be shifted. And no believer in God can doubt that there is a divine purpose in thus entrusting the material, moral, and spiritual interests of these millions to those who call them- selves Christians. Before the breaking out of the great European war and the changes which will doubtless take place after it as regards colonial rule in Africa, the total number of Mohammedans under British rule or protection was 90,478,111. Of these, in round numbers 22,000,000 live in Africa and 68,000,000 in Asia. Great Britain practically holds the balance of power political in the Moslem world. Next in order of importance is Holland, with not less than 35,000,000 Moslems in her colonies. Russia has 20,000,000 Moslem subjects and France 15,000,000 in Africa and 232,000 in Asia. Germany and Italy each counted about the same number of Moslems in their African pro- tectorates, the former 1,480,000 and the latter 1,365,000. Portugal, Belgium, and Spain also have a Moslem population in their African pos- sessions, but only in the case of Portugal does the total exceed a quarter of a million. The United States of America faces its largest mis- sionary problem in the Moros of the Philippine A WORLD OF MOSLEM CHILDHOOD 33 Islands group. These number 277,547, and are all Moslems. This is the largest single unit of un- evangelized people within the bounds of the United States Government. Socially, intellectu- ally, morally, and spiritually these people are the most needy of all, and therefore have the greatest claim upon the nation which boasts that all men are created equal and should have equal privi- leges. Savage and fierce as the Moros may be, they are physically and mentally superior to the surrounding pagans who inhabit the hills and the interior of Mindanao. Islam has here undoubt- edly raised the standard of civilization. With Mohammedanism came art and knowledge and communication with the outside world. Never- theless, as William H. Taft remarked when Gov- ernor of the Philippines: **They do not under- stand republican government. They welcome a despotism, and they will never understand popu- lar government until they have been converted to Christianity," In the case of all these possessions and colonies it is evident that the problem of secular educa- tion for Moslem childhood rests first of all upon the government. Illiteracy, as we shall see later, is well-nigh universal among Moslems, and it is not impossible, even with a government that pro- fesses strict religious neutrality, to afford such education, mental and moral, as shall be an uplift 34 CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD to these backward races. Great Britain, France, Germany, and the Netherlands have done much for the economic development of their colonies, and so have removed many hindrances to real progress. They have also given Moslems special induce- ments to accept Western education. Above all, with a few notable exceptions, they have granted liberty for missionary effort. On the other hand, Great Britain in East Africa and in Nigeria seems to aim at conserving Islam wherever it finds that faith, and although not actively and officially pro- Moslem, it yet furthers the spread of this religion in pagan districts. Dr. St. Clair Tisdall writes: ^*At present the government * appears to put obstacles in the way of all concerned in seeking to evangelize the people of British East Africa.' So much has this been the case that not long since the various missions sent a special deputation to urge that the government should at least be neu- tral, and no longer use its influence to keep the chiefs and others from Christian teaching, nor show a tendency to encourage Islam as more suit- able for the people than Christianity. The gov- ernment has gone out of its way to build, open, and support schools for Arabs, Suahelis, and others, in which no Christian teaching may be given. There are some reasons for hoping, how- ever, that this foolish and unworthy policy will be modified, if not abandoned.'' THE DAUGHTER OF THE NAWAB OP HYDERABAD, INDIA Type of the educated and wealthy Moslems in this great province. The total population of Hyderabad is 13,374,676, and the Moslem population 1,380,990. A WORLD OF MOSLEM CHILDHOOD 35 The same writer, basing his testimony on reli- able sources, says in regard to Nigeria: **Our local government identifies itself with Islam against Christianity, and actually adopts an attitude toward Christian missions which the Is- lamic Government of Persia itself no longer ven- tures to take up. The missionaries are actually afraid to inform the English public of the worst details of the way in which their work is restricted and the Mohammedan religion recognized as pa- tronized by the government and treated as if it were the established religion of this English Pro- tectorate, lest worse oppression should follow. But in the Times, some two years ago, an English- man in high position was permitted to urge that no religious instruction except Mohammedan should be allowed in the government schools, nor did that journal allow a reply to appear. Hence the Koran is now taught by Moslem teachers in all government schools in Mohammedan districts, and Islamic law is now being introduced and administered in pagan tribes in Northern Nigeria. This 4s worse than a crime; it is a blunder.' " Whatever governments do for the welfare of childhood must be done now. One generation of children trained in the best of our Western civili- zation, and above all, led to a personal knowledge of Him Who is the Saviour of all men and the 36 CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD Friend of little children, would lead these back- ward races toward progress and enlightenment. The urgency of this claim is evident when we remember how short is the period of Moslem childhood, and how early the responsibilities of manhood and womanhood are forced upon them. Mrs. Stanley Emerich, of Mardin, in writing con- cerning the shepherd Kurds gives a conversation between them which typically sets forth the brev- ity of Mohammedan childhood : ** *His grandmother looks for a wife for him,' our informant went on. * * * What ! ' I gasped. * But he can 't be more than nine years old.' *' *He is eleven, — and in two years he will marry. He will have children, and beat his wife, and care for his sheep, and some day die. ' Tomas outlined the tragic life impassively. *He's only a Kurd. What are Kurds ? ' he asked, dismissing the small Sheikh Musa with a wave of his hand. *They are nothing,' he answered himself." At the age of eleven or twelve, and sometimes even earlier, the girls commence to be secluded and veiled. Boys in Egypt and Turkey are often married at fifteen and sixteen. In comparison with the majority of children in Western lands we might almost say that these children have no childhood at all. Of the Moslems in the Punjab we are told by Miss Dora Wliitely: **The baby girls A WORLD OF MOSLEM CHILDHOOD 37 are engaged, often to men of middle age or more, and are actually married when under twelve years of age, but sometimes remain in their father's house for another year or two. A girl's earliest recollection must be that of hearing her parents talking about the * arrangement' which they have made for her." And a missionary in Egypt writes: **We recall hearing one Moslem girl tell that she only knew her father by seeing him through a lattice window from the second story as he passed along the street below, her mother pointing him out to her. The girls are robbed of the happy, care-free life of girlhood, and are thrust, all unprepared, from childhood into the burdens and responsibilities of motherhood." In the chapters that follow, the environment in which these children live, the physical conditions and neglect that are their lot, the mental and moral training they receive through Islam, and which is the privilege of only a few, are laid be- fore the reader. If any part of the Moslem mis- sionary problem can appeal to the heart of Chris- tians, it surely is this great world of child- hood. "The great world's heart is aching, aching fiercely in the night, And God alone can heal it, and God alone give light; And the men to bear that message, and to speak the living word, Are you and I, my brothers, and the millions that have heard. 38 CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD " Can we close our eyes to duty ? Can we fold our hands at ease, While the gates of night stand open to the pathways of the seas? Can we shut up our Compassions? Can we leave our prayer unsaid Till the lands which sin has blasted have been quickened from the dead?" II ENVIRONMENT " If the desert is the garden of Allah, it is also the abode of devils who resent the intrusion of man and annoy him with sandstorms, scorching south winds, show him mirages of lakes and cool trees when he is almost driven mad by the heat, frighten his camels at night, or trick him into following wrong roads. "The desert has left an impression on my soul which nothing will ever efface. I entered it frivolously, like a fool who rushes in where angels and, I believe, even devils fear to tread. I left it as one stunned, crushed by the deadly majesty I had seen too closely. " The desert is the garden of Allah, not of the bountiful God WTio is worshipped with harmonious chants of love in the soft incense-laden atmosphere of a cathedral, but the Jehovah of Israel, a consuming fire, on Whom no man can look and live." — ^Hans Vischeb — "Across the Sahara." " A certain degree of similarity in human character and an even greater similarity of language prevails over an immense area, where races of most various origin have all been assimilated more or less by the one which occupies the healthy crown of the land, the Arabian of Nejd."— D. G. Hogabth— " The Nearer East." n ENVIRONMENT ISLAM was born in the desert. The land which is the cradle of this great world religion is one of the most unfertile and inaccessible regions, with an area of over a million square miles. Arabia has no rivers and not a single one of its small mountain streams, some of which are perennial, ever reaches the seacoast. Vast sandy deserts or mountain ranges, barren with deso- lation in its most frightful form, cover a large part of this area. North of Medina a wilderness of lava-stones, with many extinct crater-heads, stretches for many miles, a black, gloomy, barren region. The sandy tracts of the so-called Arabian deserts, which stretch from Mecca eastward and northward, are termed by the Arabs themselves nefud (drained, exhausted, spent), the name given on most maps. The general physical features of this ** desert'' are those of a plain clothed with stunted, aromatic shrubs of many varieties, but their value as pasture is very unequal, some being excellent for camels and sheep, others absolutely worthless. 41 42 CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD Some nefuds abound in grasses and flowering plants after the early rains, and then the desert ** blossoms like the rose/' Others are without rain and barren all the year; they are covered with long stretches of drift-sand, carried about by the wind and tossed in billows on the weather side of the rocks and bushes. Palgrave asserts that some of the nefud sands are 600 feet deep. They prevail in the vast unexplored region south of Nejd and north of Hadramaut, including the so-called *^ Great Arabian Desert.'' Absolute sterility is the dominant feature here, whereas the northern nefuds are the pasture lands for thousands of horses and sheep. The great wadys of Arabia are also a charac- teristic feature, celebrated since the days of Job. These wadys, often full to the brim in winter and black by reason of frost, but entirely dried up during the heat of summer, would never be sus- pected of giving nourishment to even a blade of grass when seen in the dry season. It was in such an environment that Mohammed was born and brought up. The desert was his school and his place of vision, and his religion has borrowed much from this early environment and first extended throughout the desert lands and plateaus of Central Asia and North Africa. Pro- fessor Margoliouth observes that in the main — ** Islam is a religion of the Heat Belt, the part ^ .,^ „ .«l. '' Jm "^4 J '^ f ^4 ^,'^ 'IBh .»■> -'^^^^^^^^^^^^^B ^^HM^^^%|^ '^ jj^Bi 1 * mM EGYPTIAN PEASANT WOMAN AND CHILD ENVIRONMENT 43 of the earth's surface which lies between thirty degrees north latitude and thirty degrees south latitude, with a mean temperature of sixty-eight degrees F. ^During the past five hundred years/ says Mr. AUeyne Ireland, Hhe people of this belt have added nothing whatever to human advance- ment. Those natives of the tropics and sub-tropics who have not been under direct European influ- ence have not during that time made a single contribution of the first importance to art, litera- ture, science, manufacture, or invention ; they have not produced an engineer, or a chemist, or a biol- ogist, or a historian, or a painter, or a musician of the first rank.' Islam, however, has extended somewhat to the north of this belt, which includes the whole of Africa, Arabia, the Malay Peninsula, and the Malay Archipelago; probably forty-one or forty-two degrees marks its limit of extension northwards. And so far as Islam has produced literary monuments of the sort which Mr. Ireland describes, their authors belong almost exclusively to those eleven or twelve degrees." When one considers the present extent of Islam, and how it dominates intellectually, so- cially, and morally the lives of millions, moulding everything according to its pattern and produc- ing an inward unity, even where outward circum- stance and condition are utterly dissimilar, it seems as if a sirocco blast has carried the effect U CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD of the desert everywhere. The mystery and the mastery of this religion obtrude on every hand. The Moslem world appears at times like the Sahara Desert does to the traveller, ^*an enor- mous waste of splendour and glory, of richness and desolation. Grand in its cruelty, pitiless in beauty, it fascinates, appals, enchains without trying, superbly indifferent whether or not we care, enriching or annihilating with equal aloof- ness." Islam bears on it the imprint of the desert: fierce, defiant, appalling, silent, a land of decep- tions and mirages, of glaring light and dark shadow and cruel desolation. When Mohammed described God as Light upon Lights {Sural En Nur), or when he pictured the fires of the bottom- less pit with scorching, burning winds and fuel of lava-stones, he spoke as a son of the desert. John C. Van Dyke, describing the desert, calls it **a gaunt land of splintered peaks, torn valleys, and hot skies. And at every step there is the suggestion of the fierce, the defiant, the defensive. Everything within its borders seems fighting to maintain itself against destroying forces. There is a war of elements and a struggle for existence going on here that for ferocity is unparalleled elsewhere in nature. ' ' And such was the environ- ment in which Mohammed received his revela- tion. The Moslems' conception of God, their be- CHILDREN FROM EAST ARABIA The son and nephew of Abdul Aziz bin Saood, the ruler of Nejd. ENVIRONMENT 45 lief in jinn, their fast of Ramadhan, the fierce- ness of their fanaticism, and the graciousness of their hospitality, all bear traces of nomad life. ** There is the determination of the starving in all desert life; the first law of the desert is the law of endurance and abstinence/' Speaking of the endurance of heat and cold and fatigue among the nomads who inhabit the salt desert of Lop in Central Asia, Ellsworth Huntington writes : * * Such intensity is often supposed to be a result of Mohammedan fanaticism and fatalism. More probably it is the result of life in the desert. There none succeed except those who, though often lazy and dilatory, are capable at times of becom- ing almost monomaniacs, fanatics, animated by the will to do some deed in spite of heaven or hell." The Moslem children who live in Persia, Af- ghanistan, Arabia, Northern India, Tibet, Chi- nese Turkestan, and Asiatic Russia, as well as those of Tripoli, Tunis, and the great Sahara region, are born and brought up in this nomad environment. *^The people,'' as Huntington remarks, **are varied, the fierce Afghan being as different from the sycophant Persian, as is the truculent Mongol from the mild chanto of Chinese Turkestan. Yet in spite of all this, not only the physical features of the country, but the habits 46 CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD and character of its inhabitants, possess a dis- tinct unity; for all alike bear the impress of an arid climate;" and, we may add, the impress of an arid religion — Islam. Two main types of civilization are found in these countries: the nomad life of a scattered and sparse population; and intensive agriculture in irrigated oases, which have become centres of population and where we find small cities. Our illustrations of the Bedouin children in Arabia, and of the naked lads sporting in the sand, are typical. The description given by Rev. A. D. Dixey of conditions in Baluchistan applies equally to Arabia and Southern Persia : **The vast majority of these people are nomadic in their habit, wandering from plain to mountain or vice versa, according to the season of the year. During the winter their goat's-hair tents or grass huts are to be seen everywhere where water exists. Their wealth consists in land, camels, goats, sheep, donkeys, horses, and occasionally a few oxen. During the seasons of their migration it is an interesting sight to see the Bolan Pass. The whole pass is filled with one continual procession of Brahuis, their families, their flocks and herds. Here may be seen a loaded camel with a woman and one or two children seated on top, while sev- eral fowls, tied with pieces of string to different loads, are flapping their wings and endeavouring ENVIRONMENT 47 to find some secure foothold. Then perhaps there may be a donkey with a load of eight or nine kids or lambs, whose heads protrude from the saddle- bags which hang on either side ; while around are men, women, children of all ages leading camels, driving flocks, running after donkeys that wander from the path. Their possessions are of the sim- plest description. A blanket made of goat's hair, supported by three bent sticks, forms their tent ; a pile of quilts serves for their bedding ; these, with a few native rugs on which to sit or entertain a guest, several cooking-pots, a mill to grind corn, a sword and perhaps a gun and one or two little things, include all their worldly goods." Under such circumstances one can well under- stand that the vast majority of the women and children are illiterate, that ignorance and super- stition prevail, and that physically only the fittest can endure hardship and survive. In no part of the world does the newborn child meet less preparation for its reception than among the Bedouin. A goat's-hair tent offers no luxuries, and the mother is so burdened with cares that she has little time to spend on her offspring. Cyril Crossland gives a picture of the daily life of the women of the Red Sea coast. It is the same weary round and common task of the nomad women everywhere: ** Besides cooking and the care of children and 48 CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD animals the women have certain manufactures. The palm-leaf matting for the outer covering of the tents and houses is bought ready made, but the inner coarse blanket material is woven at home from the hair of the owner's goats, which is col- lected and spun into coarse thread as it becomes available. The spinning is entirely by hand, the thread being merely wound on a dangling stick which is kept spinning by hand. When a dozen or so large balls of this grey-black and brown thread have accumulated, a rough weaving frame of three sticks is pegged out on the sand, and weaving goes on for some days. ' ' What is true of the nomad population is true of the masses in the villages and cities as far as regards home comforts. Most of the village dwellings are only lighted by holes in the wall, bedsteads and cooking utensils constituting nearly all the furniture. A typical village along the Nile or the Tigris, in the midst of palm groves and green fields, is very picturesque on a photo- graph, but on nearer approach it does not have much of the atmosphere of home. Untidiness, squalor, and vermin are everywhere. Privacy is impossible. The children huddle together, when the weather is cold, in the dismal interiors, or else sit on the bare ground listlessly, while flies swarm over their faces ; or they may be seen busily engaged collecting cow and camel dung in ENVIRONMENT 49 baskets, which they take home to be made into flat cakes and stuck along the house walls or upon the roof to dry for winter fuel. The environment of Moslem childhood bears the same stamp of degradation even in lands that are more highly favoured. A newspaper corre- spondent, after three months' sojourn in Algiers, says that this land is in parts as beautiful as a garden of Eden, but everywhere shows tokens of the blight of Islam. ** A few days ago we walked through the Kasbah in Algiers. The Kasbah is that part of the city where the Arabs live. It was an experience to make one's heart sad. The Kasbah has been called a human rabbit-warren. The streets are so narrow that, in many places, one might stand in the middle and touch the walls on either side. Here the natives live and work and trade. Food- stuffs — the very sight of which was nauseating — were on sale in alleys, where the smells proclaimed the deadly pollution of the atmosphere. Dark pas- sages, narrow stairways, and doors in unex- pected places suggested a labyrinth as intricate, dangerous, and mysterious as the Catacombs. The people who haunted these abodes, mostly shrouded in white, were silent and sad as though they might be corpses wandering from their tombs." Word for word this description would apply 50 CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD to life in Baghdad or Yarkand, Moslem Delhi or Kerman. One distinction stands out clearly between the town dwellers of the heat belt and the nomads in this connection — ^namely, the greater seclusion of women in the former case. Ellsworth Hunt- ington draws the contrast so clearly that we take the liberty of quoting two paragraphs on the sub- ject from his book **The Pulse of Asia'': ** Mohammedanism, as every one knows, incul- cates the seclusion of woman, and makes of her nothing but a stupid drudge to do man's work, or a light plaything for his pleasure. Wherever peo- ple of Moslem faith gather in towns and cities, as I have seen them in Turkey, India, Persia, Asiatic Russia, and Chinese Turkestan, his ideal prevails. In the crowded villages and cities women can do their work behind high mud walls, and can be confined to certain unseen rooms when male guests visit the house. The support of the family does not depend upon them, and their activities are almost wholly dependent on the will of their husbands. It is but rarely necessary that they should leave the house, and when they do, there is usually no work to be done and it is easy to keep their faces covered. Even the peasant women, who must work in the fields, keep aloof, and come in contact with men but little. Only the very poor, or those who are confessedly im- ENVIRONMENT 51 moral, go about in public with uncovered faces. The evil effect of all this has been often described, and needs no comment. ' ' He then goes on to show how the case is wholly different among nomads, and that the contrast of woman's position among nomadic Mohammedan populations is due not to racial differences but to the liberties of the nomad social system from be- fore the days of Islam: **The house of a nomad must of necessity be small, and cannot contain two rooms, save under the most exceptional circumstances. A visitor must enter the room where the women are at work, or else the women must work outside ; and there, of course, they cannot be prevented from being seen by men other than those of their families. Then, again, at the time of migrations there are no shelters left standing, and the women cannot possibly be kept concealed. . . . The nomad woman must work in semi-publicity, and cannot be bothered with a troublesome veil. Her free- dom from seclusion does much, both morally and mentally, to elevate her above her less fortunate sisters of the villages." A picture of Persian village life was given by a girl of twelve, bom and brought up in such en- vironment. She was asked by a missionary, **How old are you?'* ** Forty, who knows T' **Can you readT' With a laugh she replied, 52 CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD ** Girls can't read.'' And when the same ques- tion was asked of a woman who stood by, she said : * ^ This is our life : to beat the clothes on the rocks in the river ; to mould cakes of manure ; to carry heavy loads; to spin, sew, weave, bake, make cheese; bear children; grow old and tooth- less ; and for all this we get only blows and abuse, and live in constant fear of divorce. Have we time to read?" The present decay of the Moslem world is at- tributed by many to the rule of the Turks; but Islam has had other rulers and the results have been sadly similar. The Arabs, the Persians, and the Mongols introduced epochs of civilization in Egypt, Morocco, and Spain. They achieved great things in architecture and literature. In this respect the Turks have done little or nothing, but the result of the Mongolian civilization in India, that of the Arabs in Egypt and Morocco, and of the Persians in their own land, have been equally unsatisfactory socially. Dr. Richter, in sum- ming up the causes of decay in Islam, puts the chief emphasis on the moral deterioration due to polygamy and low ideals of home life. He says : '* Sound family life is impossible. The children grow up in the poisonous atmosphere of intrigue, fleshly lust, bad language, and shameless licen- tiousness. They are polluted from youth up." CO a> CO c ^4 ENVIRONMENT 53 Nor is it fair to attribute all these social condi- tions and this backward civilization to the influ- ence of climate and the heat belt. Although there is much truth in what Professor Margoliouth has stated, the fact remains that Islam has extended far to the north and south of the heat belt, and has, outside of this area, a population of no less than 66,000,000. Yet in the vales of Kashmir, a paradise of natural beauty, in European Turkey, in the fertile stretches of Bengal and the Punjab, and in China, the social and moral environment of Moslem children is not greatly different. The contrast between the Moslem and the Christian quarters of Constantinople is evident, as a Mo- hammedan pointed out to Dr. Dwight. Looking down on the great metropolis, he said: **The greatness and the beauty of this city makes us all proud. But when one looks upon it from this height one sees a strange contrast be- tween its different quarters. Here, extending far away to the city wall, and there, and there, and there, are great masses of dark-coloured, ragged- looking wooden houses. Surrounded by the dark masses, and especially beyond the Golden Horn, in Pera and Galata, are smaller groups of large, well-kept, and trim light-coloured houses, often of stone or brick. The contrast makes me as a Mohammedan both puzzled and pained, for the dingy ragged masses of houses mark the Moham- 64 CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD medan quarters of the city, but the bright-looking groups are the houses of the Christians. Why do my people seem less capable than these others?'' Concerning the effect of Islam in elevating the pagan races of Africa and thus improving the environment of childhood, there is conflicting testimony. As far as the externals of civilization are concerned, there is not the least doubt that Islam lifts the pagan races somewhat higher, but whether this is true of their moral and social life is a disputed point. The testimony is well summed up by Captain Orr of Northern Nigeria : '^Even if it be true that Islam lays a dead hand on a people who have reached a certain standard of civilization, it is impossible to deny its quicken- ing influence on African races in a backward state of evolution. Amongst the pagan tribes of North- ern Nigeria it is making its converts every day, sweeping away drunkenness, cannibalism, and fetishism; mosques and markets spring into ex- istence, and the pagan loses his exclusiveness, and learns to mingle with his fellow-men. To the negro Islam is not sterile or lifeless. The dead hand is not for him. **Not that the spread of Islam among pagan tribes is wholly beneficial. Its appeal to his sen- sual nature is not without its effect. The very civilization which Islam brings, teaches its vices as well as its virtues. But when the balance is A BEGGAR BOY FROM ALGIERS At a barred window. Who will unbar the gates of his soul? ENVIRONMENT 55 struck between Islamism and paganism, there can be but little doubt which of the scales weighs the heavier. * ' Dr. Frederick Starr, professor of Anthropol- ogy in Chicago University, however, who has travelled in several West African countries, testi- fies to the fact that he never saw a Mohammedan town that was better than a pagan town, and that the apparent superiority of certain tribes who have embraced Islam is due to racial qualities rather than to the religion adopted. And his testimony is corroborated by that of the Lieuten- ant-Governor of French Dahomey, who stated that ** Islam has not introduced any new industry, nor contributed to the development of natural resources" in that part of Africa. Whatever economic advantages the advent of Islam may bring, and however great the contrast between the civilization of Baluchistan and Turkey or China and Morocco or Kashmir and Arabia, the social life of Islam, its intellectual backwardness, and its moral corruption are so much alike that we can only conclude that these conditions obtain not in spite of, but because of the religion of the people. The law of cause and effect has operated for over a thousand years under every possible natural and political en- vironment, among Semites, negroes, Mongolians, Aryans, and Slavs; yet the results are similar, 56 CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD and are an unanswerable indictment of the in- adequacy of the religion of Mohammed. In China, for example, there is no doubt that the Moslem women occupy a better place than their sisters in lands where Islam is supreme. Here they are not veiled nor isolated by the harem life. There is a greater interest in the education of girls, and separate mosques for women exist. Yet even here, we are told, the line of demarcation between Moslem and non-Moslem is as great as between Chinese and foreigners ; and one who has spent years in China, especially among the Mohammedans, writes that she has no hesitation in saying that the social and moral con- dition of Moslem women is *4nfinitely sadder than that of the heathen Chinese women. ' ' ^ That socially and ethically Islam is not an ad- vance on Confucianism is generally admitted. Martin Hartmann, at the conclusion of his article on ** China '^ in the ** Encyclopedia of Islam," ex- presses the hope that this religion will not continue to spread, for *4t is not a religion compatible with civilization, and is emphatically the bitter enemy of culture." Java affords another instance where national custom has modified Moslem teaching. The moral and material position of women among the * " Mohammedan Women of China." By Mrs. Soderstrom. {Chinese Recorder, February, 1913.) ENVIRONMENT 57 Malays has always been a high one, because the matriarehate, with all its consequences, has been at its foundation. Although Islam permits polyg- amy, the Javanese therefore leave the practice to the wealthy and eminent. Seclusion is also un- known. **In spite of Islam,'' says Cabaton, *^the Javanese woman goes abroad unveiled, shares the interests of her husband, has her place at festivals, and speaks freely at home. Both hus- band and wife, moreover, so continually work side by side that this community of labour strengthens the position of the Javanese woman, although this does not equal that of her European sisters." Polygamy in Java may be rare among Moslems, but divorce and the exchange of wives are fear- fully common. One of our correspondents re- marks that even here *Hhe fatalism taught by Islam places the woman in a servile relationship. She is considered a creature of no particular value." The condition of women under Islam is every- where the same in respect to the institution of marriage, and in consequence, as regards her so- cial position. There is no hope of effectually remedying the home life in the world of Islam save by the elevation of its motherhood. Moslems themselves admit this evil in their system. H. H. the Aga Khan, spoke of this as the greatest bar- rier to progress because *Hhe seclusion of women 58 CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD results in keeping half of the community in ig- norance and degradation;" and Mansur Fahmy, an educated Egyptian, has shown, in a recent critical study ^ on the condition of women, that her position under Islam has gradually deterio- rated. He proves this from Mohammedan litera- ture and from the Koran itself. In Arabia, before Islam, her status was higher, and the veil did not exist before the time of the Prophet. The successive stages in what the author calls the degradation of womanhood are traced in the his- tory of the caliphs and of the later dynasties. He also gives an excellent summary of the low posi- tion of woman in Moslem law, owing to polygamy and divorce. Her incapacity is emphasized by the fact that both as a witness and in the inheritance of property her sex is counted against her. And because this is all based upon the Koran and the official teaching of Islam, it has had its effect in every land and among all nations. The Moslem type of civilization can be recognized everywhere in the place assigned womanhood, and by the re- sults of such social teaching upon childhood. So true is this that when one reads a standard book on the manners and customs of modern Egyp- tians, like that of Lane, he has in reality a pic- ture of Moslem home life not only in Egypt, but * " La Condition de la Femme dans la Tradition et I'fivolution de rislamisme." Paris, 1913, HHI^HHHIBlHHIiHI^BB'^ UK ^p ^^^^^H ENVIRONMENT 59 in Morocco, North India, and Central Asia. The outstanding features and fundamental lines in the picture are the same; the only difference is that of local colour and in matters that are sec- ondary. When Edward Westermarck, there- fore, wrote his great work on the *^ Marriage Ceremonies in Morocco,^' he practically gave a history of Moslem marriage throughout the world, citing parallel cases among Moslems in other lands. The testimony of missionaries from Northern Nigeria is that the degradation of womanhood followed the introduction of Islam, and that she has a distinctly lower place in the Mohammedan community than she occupies among pagans. Gottfried Simon gives the same testimony in re- gard to Malaysia, stating that **the position of Moslem women is lower than that of her heathen sisters. Divorce and polygamy are rare in heathen districts ; in purely Mohammedan districts, on the other hand, divorce is the order of the day. Mo- hammedan family life is often below the level of that of the heathen. . . . Disorderly conduct among the young people marks the arrival of Islam in the country. '^ A threefold burden rests, as an inheritance of ill, upon childhood throughout the Moslem world, namely, the evil effects of child marriage, super- stitious medical practices, and fatalism in the care 60 CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD of infants. One may trace the effect of these customs and beliefs, all based on Islam, in the physical and moral condition of Moslem child- hood, and find it the same, whether in Persia or the Philippines, Manchuria or Morocco, Bulgaria or Bokhara, Cape Town or Calcutta. Heredity and environment have here produced similar effects. In a symposium on Islam from a medical standpoint, physicians from Kashmir, Mombasa, Baluchistan, Palestine, Arabia, Morocco, Ni- geria, and Turkey were united in their testimony that ignorance, fatalism, and superstition darken the lives of Moslem women and children, blunt- ing the child's finer feelings and handicapping him at the outset by insanitary conditions, dirt, and neglect. In the treatment of women before and after childbirth there is often actual cruelty, with its consequent results on the life of the child. Child marriage is specially spoken of ; not the marriage of children one to another, but the mar- riage of little girls to men many years their seniors. * ' The saddest cases, ' ' writes Dr. Brig- stocke of Palestine, **are those of little girls who ought to be enjoying games and school life, seriously injured, if not maimed for life, as a re- sult of this horrible practice.'' (For sad details on this part of the subject, see The Moslem World, Vol. Ill, pp. 367-385.) We must remember in this connection that Mos- ENVIRONMENT 61 lem practice in regard to childbirth and marriage is based upon Mohammed's example and Table Talk on the subject. This is found both in the Koran and in the Traditions. Mohammed's knowledge of medicine and hygiene, not to speak of embryology, was largely due to one of his friends, El Harith bin Kalida, who might be called Mohammed's Luke. The ideas promul- gated in the Koran have been fixed forever be- cause it is a divine revelation. This is especially true of those passages which contain his unscien- tific statements concerning conception, birth, weaning, etc. The last is postponed, according to Mohammed's revelation, for two years (Surah 2:233)! We find curious instances of errors in anatomy, such as the connection between the heart and the windpipe (Surah 56:82), and the compo- sition of milk and blood (Surah 16 : 68). Both the practice of astrology and the using of charms for the evil eye found their foundation in the Koran, and superstitious efficacy is ascribed to honey as a panacea (Surah 16:71). Although the legisla- tion as regards clothing, sleep, the bath, and food are generally hygienic, and we can specially recommend the prohibition of alcohol, the fatal- istic teaching of Islam as regards epidemics is well known. Dr. Opitz ^ shows that the whole Moslem system, as based upon the practice and ^ Dr. Karl Opitz. " Die Medizin im Koran." Stuttgart, 1906. 6a CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD teaching of the Prophet, is utterly opposed to eugenics, and that the position assigned to womanhood has had its terrible effects upon Mo- hammedan peoples everywhere. Fatalism has much to do with the enormous death rate of children in Moslem lands during epidemics of contagious diseases. There is no segregation ; no attempt to prevent children with a light attack of smallpox from mingling freely with healthy children. ** Those whom God in- tends to live will live; those whom He means to die will die. What difference does it makeT' It is true that civilization and modern education have modified these conditions among the en- lightened class, but they form only a small per- centage of the masses ; and as regards the moral welfare of a child brought up in such an environ- ment as we have sketched, it is also true, as Cap- tain Wyman Bury has pointed out, that *Hhe curse is double-edged and cuts both ways: Islam degenerates under civilized conditions, and civili- zation becomes slack and inert in conjunction with Islam, within the four corners of which all Mos- lem art and science and literature has to keep.^' Generally speaking, the immoral atmosphere and the environment in which Moslem children are born and brought up, is one that makes pure child- hood well-nigh impossible. Missionaries and others who have lived long in Moslem lands feel MOSLEM CHILDREN FROM CAPE TOWN 1. Soldier's child given to Mohammedans. 2. A little girl of English and Greek parents, being brought up as a Mohammedan. 3. Child of native Christian mother, turned Moslem and now married to an Indian Mohammedan. 4. Two children whose mother became a Mohammedan. ENVIRONMENT 63 this environment as a real thing, although it may- be indefinable, and have a desire to escape its in- fluence ; or at least to remove their children from it at as early an age as possible/ There have even been instances of adult Europeans who have been drawn down in the vortex of a Moslem en- vironment to their own destruction; and the present methods of Moslem propagandism in Cape Town, where children, both white and coloured, are taken over by the Mohammedans and early given in marriage to the believers, bind them irrevocably to Islam.^ What can be sadder than this lot for a Christian child! One word more should be added at the close of this chapter in regard to the heritage of girlhood as a result of Islam. Because of early marriage she has no real childhood ; she looks forward with fear and dread to marriage with a man whom she may never have seen ; she is early trained in all those ways of deceit which are the protection of the weak and helpless against strength and au- thority, and jealousy is one of her ruling passions. Unwelcome at birth, always considered inferior to her brothers and father and husband, and sur- rounded by so much in this religion that means * " The Influence of a Mohammedan Environment on the Mis- sionary." W. A. Shedd in The Moslem World, Vol. III. =* " The Moslem Menace in South Africa." Missionary Review of the World, October, 1914. See also the recent novel on this topic, "The Lure of Islam." By C. Prowse, London, 1914. 64. CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD degradation and humiliation, who can blame her if she is not happy! One of the leading Moslem papers in Cairo, El Mueyyard (August 15, 1911), contained an article by a Moslem writer on the conditions of home life in Egypt, and appealing for reform. He spoke of rescuing one of these child wives who was dying on account of cruel treatment. As we read the sad story, let us re- member that it was told for Moslem ears by Mos- lem lips. Her story was as follows : **Some years ago my father married me to a much-married, much-divorced man, who was sel- dom satisfied with a woman for more than a year. If a girl had ever been allowed to choose for her- self, then I would have made a better choice than that. However, I had to obey, so I was taken to this man, who gave me the best possible reception at first; in fact, his reception to me was like the smile of a lion over its prey, and I lived in daily fear of separation just as any murderer fears his day of penalty. **I was scarcely over my confinement when I heard that he had married some one else, so my position in the house was that of utter loneliness. I had no friends but my tiny babe, although after the first shock I submitted to it as my decreed destiny. I carried my babe to my father's house and found him sick unto death, so I was left com- pletely alone. I begged every one I knew to write ENVIRONMENT 65 to that man to ask for bread for his own babe, or else to release me that I might find some one more merciful, but he was too miserly for the first, and professed himself shocked at the latter. For a few years I worked day and night at the poison- ous sewing to get barely enough to keep me alive. Then I fell ill, and everything I possessed, even in the way of clothing, went for my medicine. The worst of all was when I wrote to the father of my child, begging for food. I waited and waited, lying here counting up all his sins and crimes, until one day when I was looking at my child's face and getting from it a little com- fort, that brutal tyrant rushed upon me and snatched the child out of my arms. There was no one near to hear my cries, and I spent those nights in utter despair, for I had been afflicted in hus- band, father, and child, finding no one to stretch out a helping hand nor even a pitying eye to me. More than twenty wretched nights passed and I lay ill, dreaming that I saw my little babe being beaten by its cruel father at home and I here unable to rescue it. And now I feel the darkness of death is creeping over my sight, and I am de- parting from this world, without seeing my baby for a single glance to carry with me in my jour- ney to the other world. ' ' Under such conditions as have been described in this chapter these millions of children live — and 66 CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD die. Our task is not to save a few of them from their fate. It is much larger; namely, to create a new environment, to purify the social atmos- phere, and to conquer and destroy in Christ's name the forces, sanctified by religion, that are causing these little souls to perish. "The night lies dark upon the earth, and we have light; So many have to grope their way, and we have sight; One path is theirs and ours, of sin and care; But we are borne along, and they their burden bear. Footsore, heart-weary, faint they on the way. Mute in their sorrows, while we kneel and pray. Glad are they of a stone on which to rest. While we are pillowed on the Father's breast." Ill BIRTH, INFANCY, AND PHYSICAL CONDITIONS " Each for himself, we live our lives apart, Heirs of an age that turns us all to stone; Yet ever Nature, thrust from out the heart. Comes back to claim her own. " Still we have something left of that fair seed God gave for birthright; still the sound of tears Hurts us, and children in their helpless need Still call to listening ears," — Owen Seaman — From " In a Good Cause." " Can we then wonder that the child's entrance into life should be accompanied by those plaintive cries so well described by the Latin poet Lucretius ( ' De Natura Rerum,' V : 223 ) : 'A child at its birth, like a mariner cast ashore by the angry waves, lies prostrate on the earth, naked, speechless, destitute of all the aids of existence, from the moment when it reaches the shores of light, torn from its mother's bosom by the efforts of nature; and it fills the place it has entered with dismal wailings. And such distress is but natural! There lies before him to traverse a life afflicted with bitter woes.' "— Peeez — " The First Three Years of Childhood." m BIRTH, INFANCY, AND PHYSICAL CONDITIONS FEOM the days of Plato, the right of the child to be well-born has been a subject of discussion, for the sake of the general wel- fare of society. The father of the modern science of eugenics, Francis Galton, wrote his classical work on the subject, ^^ Hereditary Genius,'' in 1869, and defined eugenics as ''the study of agen- cies, under social control, which may improve or impair the racial qualities of future generations, either physical or mental.'' How far environ- ment and heredity affect the individual is a ques- tion yet unsettled. No one denies, however, the immense influence of both upon infancy and child- hood. Charles Darwin, for example, wrote: ** If we do not prevent the reckless, vicious, and other- wise inferior members of society from increasing at a quicker rate than the better class of men, the nation will retrograde, as has occurred too often in the history of the world. ' ' If heredity and en- vironment have such a determining influence in civilized lands, we will not be surprised to learn 68 70 CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD that Moslem childhood is handicapped by the en- vironment and the conditions that obtain through long heredity in the home life and social sphere already described. The testimony from every part of the mission field is a sad commentary on this subject. A missionary writes from Constantine, Algeria: ** Physically the natives of Algeria are, with few exceptions, tainted with syphilis. This betrays itself physically in diseases of the skin and blood ; morally, in a want of energy and determination.'* Others in the same country confirm this testi- mony. Scrofula and consumption are hereditary among the poorer classes in Tripoli, yet because the weaklings all die in babyhood, the children that survive are physically strong. One who has spent a long time at Casablanca, Morocco, says: ** Immorality and frequency of divorce, and the total lack of hygiene combined with superstitious practices, have sapped the brains and constitu- tions of quite eighty per cent of the children.'' A physician writing from the same part of the world says that at birth Moslem children compare favourably with European children, but at eight or nine months they become weakly, through hereditary disease or lack of care. The children in Chinese Turkestan, we are told, sujffer much from hereditary venereal diseases. ** Goitre, which affects children physically and intellectu- \ PM^^ 1 1 1 n^^sl^^vwi^^^^^^^HH^^^^Ib 1 ■j HV '* m^ ^Hl_^ ^^Ey^l^^^^^s I^H^Bbhi m 1 i 1 1 1 §^ § ^ ry > u ^ W <: .S Iz; ?r> ^ 1 o ^ ^ "o w ao r*? CO ^ § ^ 0) J3 bO 05 S O ^ o CQ PHYSICAL CONDITIONS 71 ally, is terribly prevalent in Yarkand. Smallpox is very virulent, thousands of children dying from it every year. All efforts to uplift child life are completely counterbalanced by bad influences in their homes, where immorality and gambling poison the atmosphere. ' ' To understand the conditions of Moslem child- hood, therefore, it is first of all necessary to realize the frightful mortality among infants. Statistics collected on this subject, both from gov- ernment returns and the careful investigations of travellers and medical missionaries, would be well-nigh incredible were not they mutually cor- roborative from every field under investigation. Even allowing for possible over-estimate, we find that the infant mortality in Moslem lands is placed at from fifty to eighty per cent. To begin with Egypt: The statistical returns for the Department of Public Health, 1913, show that over one-half of the children horn, die before they are five years of age. Out of a total of 75,967 births, 2,981 were still-born, 20,586 died before the end of the first year, and 9,210 before the end of the second year. There has been severe criti- cism of the Egyptian Government in regard to infant mortality, but a writer in the Egyptian Gazette (March 8, 1913) shows that a large part of the evil is due to the treatment of the child after birth. He does not deal with the causes that pre- 72 CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD cede birth, and which are also patent to all those who know the cruelties of Egyptian home life : ** There is no danger to the infant at the time of birth. It arrives all right, inheriting its par- ents' healthy constitution. It thrives quite well as long as it is on the breast milk. Illness sets in when other nutriment is given, or at the weaning stage. Then anything to appease the wailings of the hungry infant, in order that the lazy and ig- norant mother may get off duty and sleep — sugar cane, cucumber, anything indeed that is handy and quiets the child for the moment. Stomach de- rangement naturally ensues, followed speedily by diarrhoea, developing often into dysentery. Of nursing, the Arab woman knows nothing. The suf- ferer is allowed to wallow on a damp mud floor, with no sign of flannel to protect the abdomen from chill. When the mother's milk fails, cow or rather buffalo milk, which is much too strong, is substituted, given out of unclean vessels, often sour, and filthy from germs. Under these condi- tions disease is rapid and death quickly follows. Thousands of healthily born children are sacri- ficed to the ignorance and laziness of the Arab mother. ' ' The statistics given concerning infant mortal- ity in other lands are equally indicative of the fatal environment which the Moslem child enters at birth. In Palestine it is a common thing for a PHYSICAL CONDITIONS 73 man to say he has had twenty-four children, of whom only three or four are living. A writer, speaking of infant mortality in Marsovan, says: **The children die like flies. The weaklings all perish; only the hardy have a chance to survive." A physician from Persia writes: *^ There are more childhood diseases here than in any place of which I know. It is estimated that the mortality is eighty-five per cent. Another estimate states that only one child out of ten reaches the age of twenty, though this may be rather an extreme opinion." The mortality of children is specially large in the great cities of the Moslem world, Cairo, Constantinople, Bombay, Calcutta, and others. In Indian cities the death rate among Moslem children is higher than among other classes. The Health Officer of Calcutta in a re- cent report says : ** Attention has already been drawn to the heavy incidence of tuberculosis among females. As the females, particularly in an Oriental city, where a large portion of them are purdahnashin, are more constantly subjected to the influence of their environment, the heavy incidence of tubercle among those residing in insanitary and congested areas indicates very clearly the powerful influence of these conditions on the prevalence of tubercu- losis. Reference has already been made to the fact that the zenana, or female apartments, are 74 CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD usually shut in and hidden away at the back of the house, and hence are particularly ill venti- lated. Muhammadans suffered more severely than Hindus during 1912, the difference being most marked among the females, owing to the stricter observance of the purdah system among the poorer classes. Of every thousand children bom among Muhammadans 306 die, among Hindus 248, and only 138 among non- Asiatics. One in ten of the infants born die in their first week, and these deaths are largely due to preventable causes, de- bility and prematurity, owing to early marriage, and tetanus owing to neglect or improper methods of treatment. In other words, thirty-three per cent of the deaths among infants under one month are preventable. Such a state of affairs ought not to be tolerated in any civilized commu- nity. **As their entrance into the world is celebrated by eating good things, ' ' Miss Henrietta Manasseh of Brumana, Syria, writes, **so food forms a very large part of the indulgence afforded to children as they grow up. All sorts of indi- gestible things are given to babies. To strong children this seems to do no special harm, but with the delicate there are often disastrous re- sults, attributed naturally to evil spirits. Many a model mother would shudder at the sight of a child of two years munching a raw cucumber or 1^ O "iJ ^5 <1h PHYSICAL CONDITIONS 75 green apple or apricot or a baby in arms busily chewing brown bread." In Morocco, according to Budgett Meakin, little children suffer from ^*f ailing sickness" and in- fant mortality is exceedingly high. He states that he has seen *' youngsters hardly able to toddle, naked from the waist down, sitting about in pud- dles on a cold tiled pavement of a rich man's courtyard." The testimony of John G. Wishard, M.D., who spent twenty years in Persia, is that lack of knowledge of ordinary rules of health ac- counts for the large death roll among children. '*I have seen children less than six months old bathed in pools at the side of the road when the thermometer was below the freezing point. In- fanticide is not very common because of the love of the Persians for children, but it does happen not infrequently when the baby is a girl." Mrs. C. S. G. Mylrea reports the following in- cident from Kuweit, Arabia : **The daughter-in-law's baby was not well. He had fever and a sore tongue. His mouth, face, and gown were covered with crimson paint, some- thing they are very fond of using for sores. I \ asked if she wanted medicine for him. She said, \ *If you can give me something for the sore tongue, 1 all right.' But I saw that they intended using \ their own remedies, and I heard a day or two j later that they had cauterized Jthe sore place with i 76 CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD a piece of iron heated red hot. As one goes in and out of the houses one wonders if these people will ever be willing to admit that their way is not a success. '*One afternoon while calling at a Seyyid's house (a direct descendant of Mohammed) I no- ticed that the grandmother of the family, a Sey- yid, was seated in the courtyard on a sort of plat- form above us all. I soon found out why. After a little while a woman with sore eyes came in. The Seyyid was most cordial and told her to come and sit on the platform with her. Then she put her hands on the woman's head and repeated por- tions from the Koran for about ten minutes. When she had finished the woman got up at once and went away. A little later in came a woman with a baby with fever. She was invited to sit on the platform, and the old Seyyid put her hand on the baby and repeated more verses from the Koran, blowing on the child every few seconds. '^ And here is an illustration of Islam's darker side, from Palestine: *'I want to try and describe something which took place here in Tyre,'' says Miss J. A. Lord. **I am afraid that it will horrify you even as it horrified me. And do you know that I think I could fill a whole Chamber of Horrors if I had the chance. **Well! it was a very hot day; the common PHYSICAL CONDITIONS 77 which lies on the sea front of the house was a dried-up, parched, sunburnt waste. A message was brought to me that some women were digging holes on rubbish heaps on this common, not far away from one of the gates of the compound. *And what are the holes for?' I said. *To put four poor little babies in, and these mites are all sick, and each baby will be placed up to its neck in the hole.' And just as I was trying to under- stand about this, another message was brought. *Yes, they have put the poor babies in.' Can you bear to imagine this? Four poor little heads — all crying, all frightened, buried in a rubbish heap! You say, please tell us what does this terrible thing mean? This is a superstitious rite or cere- mony which can only take place on Friday at noon. The completion of the rite is that a loose basket is placed over the head of each of the poor babies, and as the noon cry is called from the mosque, the old woman who conducts this cere- mony will strike the top of each bask^^ and calls out, *0 Satan, come and take back your children, and give us our children. Send the same Jinneiah who took our healthy children and brought us these sickly ones ; do not unto us this harm. ' This is repeated over each child. Evidently the idea is that his Satanic majesty on Friday will conde- scend to listen to this performance at noon; that he is in a good temper when he hears the call 78 CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD from the mosque, — * There is no god but one God, and Mohammed is the Apostle of God/ ** However, as soon as I heard of this I sent out a message to the women that if these babies were not at once taken up out of their holes, I would come out and take them out myself. The poor mites were taken out in double-quick time, for when I went out to follow up my message a few minutes later, there was no sign of women or babies, — only four sad holes! You will not be much surprised to hear that a few days later two of these babies died.'' Mission hospitals in Moslem lands are a start- ling revelation of the heartlessness and incredible ignorance of many Moslem mothers. One has only to visit these hospitals for women and chil- dren and hear the stories they relate as common- place, to understand the high death rate. If the infant mortality of a people is a barometer of its social progress, then Islam ranks low as a religion of power. Doughty, the Arabian traveller, tells of a Bedouin couple whose child of six years, ** naked as a worm, lay cowering from the cold in his mother's arms; and he had been thus naked all the winter, at an altitude (here) of four thousand feet. It is a wonder they may outlive such evil days. A man came in who was clothed as I never saw another nomad, for he had upon him ^ home- PHYSICAL CONDITIONS 79 spun mantle of tent cloth; but the wind blew through his heavy carpet garment. I found a piece of calico for the poor mother, to make her child a little coat.'' Yet the Bedouin children at least have some compensation in pure air and God's sunlight. It is the children of the towns that suffer the most from lack of them. Who can remain indifferent to the cry of the outcast chil- dren of Kashgar, Chinese Turkestan, typical of similar needs and sorrows elsewhere? ** These homeless and deserted children live in the burial- ground, outside the city ; near the dead they find that refuge which the living deny them. . . . Almost naked, covered with only a few old rags, barefooted and bareheaded, they are exposed to the cold which makes them freeze, their hunger becomes insupportable, sleep comes, and with it the angel of death whose kiss releases them from all the misery of earth-life." {Missionary Re- view of the World, July, 1910.) A missionary on the borders of Afghanistan tells the story of a poor leper boy, which illus- trates at once the dreadful suffering of such Mos- lem childhood, and at the same time their ignorant opposition to the Gospel. **The poor leper boy has again been talking to me. He said, 'God took my father and mother and left me like this. I do not know what purpose my life can have. I have such relatives as will 80 CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD receive me if I have anything to give them, but will drive me from them if I have not, and say, ''May God kill you!" — I shall die some day. I shall be found amongst the dung and filth one day, and no one will ask any questions. During the night I sleep in this piece of cloth, a dirty piece of rag, and the dew falls and I find myself covered with wet clothes. Last year the Tahsildar bought me a padded quilt for two rupees, but as I was sleeping in somebody's house it was stolen from me.' ''What a melancholy look shone from the large sunken eyes ! His cheek-bones could be fairly well traced through the skin, and his aquiline nose made him appear more wan than perhaps he was. The foot which was the cause of his wasting away was a horrible sight; an indescribable mass of corruption, it had oozed and oozed and crusted over and over until it appeared like a shapeless clod of cracked mud with a great horny nail stick- ing through where the big toe was. As he stood, a watery fluid constantly oozed, and although he assured me that it did not pain, yet he shifted it incessantly in a restless way, as though conscious of it as a burden. He refuses to have it cut off. This poor lad has heard the Gospel frequently, but doggedly sets his face against it as though he had been definitely warned. ' ' How many little Moslem children in Baghdad and Busrah are born only to die, as was little Hussein, of whom Mrs. Worrall, M.D., tells us: "He is only one year and a half old, but already he has spinal curvature. Poor child, he does not get proper nourishment, and the surroundings at PHYSICAL CONDITIONS 81 home are not conducive to good health. The living-room is low and dark, with scarcely any ventilation. The court is a very unsanitary place, in which four different families do their cooking, and empty the wash water down a central hole in the middle of the brick-paved court. This sometimes overflows, so that a pool of stagnant water stands in the middle of the court. Who knows how many millions of malaria-bearing mosquitoes breed there, and in the general cess- pool just off the hallway ! * ' When we deal with statistics we must not for- get that we also deal with units and not only with the masses. Every unit has its own heart and sorrows, the sorrows of motherhood bereaved and of childhood neglected or abandoned. Des- perate tides of a whole world's anguish cannot be measured in figures. ^^Moosa's baby girl was very sick,'' writes Miss Uline of Bitlis, Eastern Turkey. * ^ He told me about her as we came down from our mountain camp one bright October morning. . . . When we reached the city I told him I would come to see the child as soon as pos- sible. His attitude toward a baby girl was extraordinary. In the Orient no native cares much whether girls live or not, and when there is a large family of girls the father considers him- self greatly afflicted and wonders what sin he has committed to be so punished. 82 CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD * * That day was a very busy one, and I was not able to go to Moosa's house until after sunset. A ragged child came running out of an alley with the news that the little girl had just died. We walked up a few stone steps into a narrow court, and there, outside the one-roomed house, some women were throwing water over the little body. The child was as white as any American baby and just as pretty. She smiled so sweetly I could hardly believe she was dead. I longed to lay her out properly and put a dainty white dress on her, but such a thing would have been unheard of here and too sudden a departure from custom to have attempted it. Instead, the body was rolled up tightly in coarse cloth, tied to a narrow board, and covered with a dark shawl. **As Mazzes (her name) was a little Kurdish baby, a Mohammedan Mullah was called. He stood by her body, which has been placed on the ground, stretched out his arms over her, and chanted a few prayers to Allah, whose will it had been to cause the child's death. **A11 the women went into the house when the Mullah came, but I stayed outside with Moosa and the other men. Then I went in to see the little wife, a mere child of fifteen or sixteen, who had been married eight years. Among the Kurds infants are often betrothed and children are mar- YOUNG MOSLEM GIRL PROM EQUATORIAL AFRICA Wearing talisman and beads. The scars are tribal marks. PHYSICAL CONDITIONS 83 ried. After sitting on the floor a few minutes, I went out into the court again. ^ ' Not twenty minutes had passed since the child died, but everything was over, and they were ready to bury her. The Mullah picked up the little corpse and carried it a short distance. Moosa, his father, a kind old Kurd, and I fol- lowed. The child was being taken to the ceme- tery, or rather, the hill of bones and tumble-down stones they call a cemetery in Turkey. In a few minutes we reached a little market where we met three men with spades. They walked ahead of our little procession. The Mullah handed the little dead baby to Moosa, and he carried her, his own child, the remainder of the way. It was dark, and the lights from the city made the dreary spot where they were to dig the grave seem darker in contrast.'* . . . If children are the pride and joy of the Western home, they are even more essential according to the ideals of the East. The Koran speaks of them as the true wealth of believers, and as in the olden days of Abra- ham, Isaac, and Jacob children, but especially sons, are counted the greatest gift of Allah, a rich blessing longed for and welcomed by all classes everywhere. The childless Arab is often reproached, and is a sad and disappointed man. The childless wife has before her the constant fear 84 CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD of divorce to add to all the other pangs and sor- rows of Moslem wifehood. In Syria the warmest wish ever expressed by one friend to another is, **May God send you seven sons;'' and in a home where there is a son one says, ^^May the time of your son's joy soon come," meaning his wedding- day. Daughters are not held in such honour, and the birth of a girl is nowhere welcomed as is that of her brother. ^^Al-entha^ the female (mild to labour and bringing forth the pastoral riches), is, of all animals, the better," say the Arabians, **save only in mankind." (Doughty, p. 238.) The more Moslem a country is, the greater is the degradation of womanhood and the inferiority of the female sex. Frank A. Martin, who spent eight years in Afghanistan, writes in his book, * ^ Under the Absolute Amir": ^^In the case of a girl, the birth is passed over in silence, for women are of small account in Afghanistan, and sometimes the father will not go near the mother for several days when a daughter is born, in order to show his displeasure and mark his resentment for the woman not better acting up to his desires and wishes. **When one of the Amir's wives is expected to give birth to a child, preparations are made for the firing of guns and fireworks, and the feasting of all and sundry, in case it is a boy that comes into the world; but if it turns out to be a girl. PHYSICAL CONDITIONS 85 nothing in the way of rejoicing happens, and the mother is left to weep alone in the disappoint- ment of her hopes ; for all women desire and pray for a man child, because then the father will visit her, and she is made much of, and everybody else fusses over and congratulates her, so that she enjoys a small triumph.'' The Koran itself assigns this inferior position to _girls. in its teaching regarding inheritance, marriage, divorce, etc., although Mohammed ap- pears to have disapproved of the practice of the pagan Arabs who buried their infant daughters alive. (Surah 16:5-9.) **When the birth of a daughter is announced to any one of them dark shadows settle in his face and he is sad. He hideth him from the people because of the ill tidings. Shall he keep it with disgrace, or bury it in the dust I Are not their judgments wrong?" Nevertheless the whole attitude toward girls, in all Moslem lands, still follows the old prejur dice. In another place the Koran teaches (Surah 4:12) : **With regard to your children, God has commanded you to give the sons the portion of two daughters.'' Great cries of joy, we are told, announce the birth of a boy in Morocco, and sometimes so as not to interfere with the feasting, the sex of a girl is concealed until the day comes for naming her ; as otherwise chore would not be the same cause for festivities. 86 CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD A single word is necessary regarding Moslem teaching on legitimacy. According to the Koran a child born six months from the date of marriage has a claim to legitimacy. The general consensus of Moslem doctors points to ten months as the longest period of pregnancy recognized by any court of justice. In this they follow the old Eoman law. According to Sunni law, an invalid marriage does not affect the legitimacy of chil- dren born from it. In this connection it is inter- esting to note the rights of children according to Moslem law. These are mentioned in books of jurisprudence under the heading of Hidhana, or the care of infant children. In case of separation by divorce between parents, the child belongs to the mother, but the father is responsible for its maintenance. There is no compulsion on the mother, as she may not be able to take charge of the infant. After the mother the order of the right of maintenance is the mother's grandmother; then the father's grandmother; the sister; the mother's aunt, etc. Full blood is preferred to half, and maternal to paternal relations. The term of Hidhana lasts in the case of a male child till he is able to shift for himself, that is, eat, drink, etc. Then the child passes to the care of the father or other paternal relations. One authority says that with respect to a boy this care ceases at the end of seven years, FELLAH GIRL FROM AN EGYPTLVN VILLAGE, WITH NATIVE DRUM USED AT WEDDINGS AND FESTIVITIES PHYSICAL CONDITIONS 87 but in the case of a girl it lasts until puberty. It is recorded from Mohammed that the care of a female child devolves upon the father as soon as she begins to feel the carnal appetite, as she then requires superintendence over her conduct. (Hamilton's ^^Hedaya,'' 1:388.) All these regulations regarding the legal status of a child are based upon the practice of Moham- med and his companions in the early days of Islam. In regard to marriage the same book of law tells us that an infant has the right to require her guardian to marry her to any person, being her equal, for whom she has a liking, and he must comply. In the chapter on the maintenance of wives, Moslem law lays down that if a man's wife be still a child he is not legally required to main- tain her, but can give back her dower and dismiss her again. (P. 394.) In connection with birth and earliest infancy there are many curious customs observed among Mohammedans, which, although they differ in different lands, are most of them based upon Moslem tradition, n.nd many of them are univer- sally practised. In no part of the world does the newborn child meet less preparation for its recep- tion than among the Bedouin. A land bare of many blessings, general poverty, and the law of the survival of the fittest, has made the desert mother stern of heart. In the open desert under 88 CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD the shade of an acacia tree or behind a camel, the Arab baby first sees the daylight. As soon as it is born the mother herself rubs and cleans the child with sand, places it in her handkerchief and carries it home. She suckles the child for a short period, and at the age of four months it already drinks profusely of camel's milk. A name is given to the infant immediately; generally from some trifling incident connected with its birth, or from some object which attracts the mother's k) fancy. Moslem names such as Hassan, Ali, or ^ Fatimah, are extremely uncommon among the (^ true Bedouins, although Mohammed is sometimes '^V^.-given. Beside his own peculiar name every Bedouin boy is called by the name of his father and tribe. And what is more remarkable, boys are often called after their sisters, e.g., Akhu Noorah, ^ the brother of Noorah. Girls' names are taken from the constellations, birds, or desert animals " V like Gazelle. Mrs. Edwin E. Calverley, of C Kuweit, Arabia, writes: *^ Bedouin parents de- ^! light in calling their children by queer names. A ^. favourite name for girls is * Little Rag,' and 'Little Dog' is a frequent one among boys. If a mother thinks her family sufficiently large, she does not hesitate to name the last child * Enough' or even *Too Much.' The town Arabs tease the Bedouins about their funny names, but these chil- dren of the desert only smile good-naturedly and PHYSICAL CONDITIONS 89 reply, 'We are Bo Bedou,' of which the Amer- icanism would be, *We are Hay-seeds, and you must not expect too much of us. ' " In China, according to Marshall Broomhall, **a Koranic name, King-ming, has to be given to a child within seven days of its birth, upon which occasion a feast has to be made. [Still-born chil- dren are not to be named.] The rich are ex- pected to kill a sheep, two if the child is a male, and the poor are to be fed with the meat. In selecting the name the father has to hold the child with its face turned toward Mecca and repeat a prayer in each ear of the child. Then taking the Koran he turns over any seven pages, and from the seventh word of the seventh line of the seventh page gives the name. At seven years of age the child is taught to worship and is circum- cised. ' ' In Egypt when the child is to be named, three candles_are taken and called by the chosen names. They are then lighted simultaneously, and the one burning longest is the name given to the child. One the seventh day, if the child is a boy — girls are not worth the trouble — ^he will be placed in a sieve with several grains of wheat, barley, etc. The mixture is then shaken while the midwife says: *' Everything is shaken that it may benefit, and I am shaking you that you may learn to be good when you are chascised,'' 90 CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD Among the Moslems of India, who follow the traditions of their sect, **at the birth of a child, after he has been properly washed with water and bound in swaddling clothes, he is carried by the midwife to the assembly of male rela- tives and friends, who have met for the occasion, when the chief Maulawi, or some person present, recites the Asan, or summons to prayer, in the infant's right ear, and the Iquamah, which is the Asan with the addition of the words *We are standing up for prayers,' in the left ear; a custom which is founded on the example of the Prophet, who is related to have done so at the birth of his grandson Hasan. The Maulawi then chews a little date fruit and in- serts it into the infant's mouth, a custom also founded upon the example of Mohammed. [^'Mishkat," Book XVIII, chap, iv, 1.] This ceremony being over, alms are distributed, and fatihahs are recited for the health and prosperity of the child. According to the traditions, the amount of silver given in alms should be of the same weight as the hair on the infant's head — the child's hair being shaved for this purpose." (Hughes, *^ Dictionary of Islam," p. 50.) This ceremony of shaving the head of the in- fant child and offering a sacrifice is based on the practice of Mohammed himself and the custom was probably current in Arabia long before his GROUP OF CHILDREN OF THE BESHARI TRIBE, ANGLO- EGYPTIAN SUDAN A tribe still largely pagan, but Islam is making inroads everywhere. PHYSICAL CONDITIONS 91 day. It is called the Aqiqah. Two sheep are sac- rificed for a boy and one for a girl, and it is inter- esting to note that, on the testimony of Ayesha, no bone of this sacrifice is to be broken. I have often called the attention of Moslem parents who observe this ceremony to the redemption of the first-born as related in the Book of Exodus, and the fulfilment of this type in Jesus Christ on the Cross, of Whom no bone was broken. This dedi- cation ceremony, or something equivalent to it, is found in all Moslem lands. From its very birth the Moslem child is a Moslem. The naming of the child, according to orthodox tradition, takes place on the seventh day. The child is named either after some Moslem saint or prophet, especially Mohammed, Hassan, or Hussein; after one of the attributes of God, with the prefix Abd (slave or servant of) ; and more rarely because of circumstances suggested by the auspicious hour, the planet, or the sign of the zodiac. In India, Madagascar, and the East In- dies many other customs are observed which are not purely Moslem, but have been adopted from other religions. In India, for example. Miss Martin of Calcutta tells us that in the fifth month they '* observe the ceremony of Khir Khitai, or feeding the child with milk, rice, and sugar cooked together. The stuff is taken from the plate with an old rupee, and a little put into the child's 92 CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD mouth. After the ceremony the old rupee is worn as a charm by the child." Another practice is called Namak Chassi. *^ After five months and two days the child gets a little solid food called Palao (rice, flesh of fowl, and clarified butter called ghee cooked together). The sisters or cousins of the child put a grain or two in its mouth, and a drop or two of water ; after this the child gets solid food every day.'' For the cruel customs /observed among Moslem women in Madagascar, the reader is referred to Gabriel Far rand's book on the subject, ^^Musulmans a Madagascar," Vol. II, pp. 20-22 (Paris, 1891). The religious ceremony which follows that of Aqiqah in the life of a Moslem child is circum- cision. Although this practice is nowhere re- ferred to in the Koran, it is universal among all Moslems, and is based upon the teaching and practice of the Prophet. It is recommended to be performed upon a boy between the ages of seven and twelve, but it is lawful to circumcise a child seven days after his birth. The process is not always antiseptic, by any means, and evil results are frequently in evidence, not to speak of the suffering caused to the child. It is, how- ever, the grand event of a boy's childhood, and is his feast day, in every part of the Moslem world. The description of the rite as performed in PHYSICAL CONDITIONS 93 Morocco corresponds closely to the practice in Egypt and other Moslem lands. ** Previous to the performance of the rite, the parents of the lad, if not in indigent circum- stances, generally cause him to be paraded through several streets of the town, dressed in the richest and most gaudy articles of clothing obtainable, with a stiff handkerchief bound like a hat round his head; mounted on a handsomely caparisoned horse, often borrowed for the occa- sion. **The horse is led, and on each side of it walk men bearing silk handkerchiefs, with which they continually flap away the flies from the child's face. The procession is headed by native mu- sicians keeping up an incessant din of ear- splitting music. Behind walk the family and friends of the boy. Two boys are sometimes paraded together, and sometimes two are placed on one horse. The procession is frequently ac- companied by flags, the object of this display being to attract the eye and divert it from the child, so great is the fear of the *evil eye.' The operation is performed with scissors, either at home or at some shrine of repute." (^*The Moors," p. 243.) In Cairo the family send out gilt-edged printed invitation cards to the ceremony. I have two in my possession, and curiously both of them give 94. CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD the Christian date as well as the Moslem date for the feast, and certain verses of poetry expressing their wishes for this auspicious occasion. In the cities of the Moslem world the rite is performed in accordance with the religious law, at a tender age, but in the country and among the Bedouin tribes it is often postponed until the twelfth or thirteenth year. In India this ceremony is per- formed at the age of seven or nine, an odd number of years generally being chosen. The boy is dressed as a bridegroom and there is great re- joicing. A similar feast is given to girls at that age. The girl is dressed as a bride, friends are invited, and the ears and nose of the child are bored. The higher the rank, the fewer the holes in the ears. Doubtless this ceremony in India is connected with a practice which prevails in many parts of the Moslem world, especially Egypt, Abyssinia, and Arabia. We refer to the abomi- nable custom of female circumcision or mutilation. It is inevitably a moral shock and crisis brought prematurely into the innocence of girlhood. Grave results have been observed in school chil- dren, both mentally and morally. Mohammed the prophet is reported to have said: ** Circum- cision is compulsory for males and an honourable act for females." For the origin and character of this practice see Moslem tradition, or Nie- buhr's *^ Travels in Arabia" (Vol. II, pp. 250- PHYSICAL CONDITIONS 95 251) and Klein, ^^The Religion of Islam'' (p. 131). In Egypt it is considered a great disgrace for a Moslem girl not to be circumcised, and the custom is also said to be prevalent among the Coptic Christian population. It is impossible to speak of some of the prac- tices still existing in Moslem lands, which add darker shades to the picture of childhood. Dr. C. Snouck Hurgronje mentions some of the hor- rible details in the sale of female slaves, espe- cially young girls, and the mutilation of male slaves for the markets. Eunuchs are still plenti- ful in many Moslem lands, and, curiously enough, are specially imported to act as guards for the mosques. On this whole subject see especially the book by Dr. A. Zambaco Pasha, **Les Eunuques d'Aujourd'hui et Ceux de Jadis," Paris, 1911. He says that there are over two thousand eunuchs in Constantinople, many of them still little boys. In North Africa they are still manufactured for the Moslem market. Moslem childhood does not last long. The whole system of Islam as it concerns family life and the treatment of women and children, is vile and revolting; and where in certain parts of the world civilization has crowded out these semi- barbarous customs and elevated womanhood, it has been in defiance of the religious teaching of the Prophet himself. According to Moslem law 96 CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD the child has no period of adolescence. Boys and girls leap from infancy into manhood and woman- hood, and the limit of the age of childhood is fixed wholly by physical laws. There is no thought of the immaturity of the mind. At the first signs of puberty childhood legally ceases. El Ghazzali, than whom there is no higher authority in Islam even to-day, gives these stages in the life of childhood. **The Moslem boy shall have the Aqiqah performed on the seventh day. When he reaches six, he is old enough to be punished; when he reaches nine he is to sleep by himself, and when he becomes thirteen he is to be driven with blows to prayer, if he refuses. At sixteen years his father shall cause him to marry. ' ' And then parental responsibility ceases. In another tradition Mohammed is reported to have said, **Your sons are the perfume of your life for seven years; then for seven years they are your serv- ants ; after that they will turn into your enemies or your friends forever.'* Abu Hanifa asserts that both boys and girls are adults at the age of fifteen. The earliest period of puberty with re- spect to a boy is said to be twelve, and with respect to a girl nine years. According to Moslem law the child himself must make the declaration and be credited. After this they become subject to all the laws affecting adults, and must observe aU the ordinances of the Moslem faith (**E1 PHYSICAL CONDITIONS 97 Hadayah," Hamilton's translation, Vol. Ill, p. 483). We cannot be surprised that the period of adolescence, of happy childhood, of a life without the responsibility of marriage and parenthood, is made so brief in Moslem lands when we consider on what Moslem practices are based. Child mar- riage is a great evil, but it is based upon the high- est authority in the Moslem world, namely, the practice of the Prophet himself. We read : * * The Prophet (on whom be prayers and peace) married Ayesha when she was six years old, and cohabited with her when she was nine; and she then re- mained his wife for nine years." (Sahih ul Bokhari, VII: 21.) What chance is there for the physical development of girlhood or boyhood thus cruelly handicapped ! As a child the Moslem girl has before her only a few short years in which she is able to learn at home or in school, and the effort to improve these short years is often fruit- less, because just as she shows any signs of bud- ding womanhood she must lay aside her books and **be hidden,'' as they say in Arabic. Her educa- tion stops just at the point when her mind is be- ginning to develop. She is thrust back into seclusion when she has made her first venture into the world of life and thought about her, and the seclusion of Moslem girls, we must bear in mind, has its effect physically as well as mentally 98 CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD and morally. Child marriage is a defiance of the laws of Nature, and its evils are multiform and deplorable. As Dr. Dennis states: **It is physi- cally injurious, morally deleterious, mentally weakening; destructive of family dignity; pro- ductive of enfeebled offspring ; provokes the curse of poverty, and tends to rapid over-population.'^ (** Christian Missions and Social Progress," VoL I, p. 119.) Of late voices have been raised in pro- test against the custom of early marriage by Moslems themselves, especially in India and Tur- key. We learn that the Department of Public Health of the Ottoman Empire has just decided that hereafter the marriageable age for residents in European and Asiatic Turkey shall be eighteen years for boys and fourteen years for girls; while in the warmer regions of Arabia and Syria, the limit is two years younger in each case. As the Sheri'ah, or sacred law, fixes the limit for girls at nine years, this new rule is a great advance in the right direction. But in all Moslem lands early marriage is still the rule and its postponement to maturity the exception.^ ^ Dr. T. L. Pennell states that " the fine physique and good health of the hill Afghans and nomadic tribes is largely due to the fact that their girls do not marry till full grown, not usually till over twenty, and till then they lead healthy, vigorous, out- door lives." It is the nomad life not yet dominated by Moslem custom which permits the physical development of girlhood im- possible to Moslem girls of the towns. PHYSICAL CONDITIONS 99 Not many months ago a would-be reformer in Alexandria stirred the whole of intelligent Egypt by requesting the government to raise the mar- riageable age of girls from twelve to sixteen. A Bill was actually drafted to this effect, when the inevitable fetwa of the Ulama made it clear that this was going against the law of Islam, and that those who supported it would be enemies to Islam. The reform was dropped like a hot cinder. In Persia girls are often married when they are mere children. Dr. Wishard writes : ** Every doctor in Persia who has had much experience could tell most dreadful and harrow- ing stories of the suffering these early marriages have caused. I have seen children brought to the hospital the very mention of whose husband's names would cause outbursts of shrieks, lest they might be compelled to return to them. It is need- less for me to state here that this early mar- riage on the part of girls means a weakened race. Many of these children are married, often at the age of twelve, to men old enough to be their grandfathers, and this means a large num- ber of widows.'' The Javanese also marry early, when the daughter is, say, twelve or fourteen and the boy about sixteen years old. Among the Afghans a girl, as soon as she reaches nubile age, is, for all practical purposes, put up for auction sale to the highest bidder. Her father discourses on her 100 CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD merits as a beauty or as a housekeeper in the public meeting-places, and invites offers from those who are in want of a wife. Even the more wealthy and more respectable Afghans are not above this system of thus lauding the human wares which they have for sale. **The betrothal of girls who are not yet born is frequent, and a promise of a girl thus made is considered par- ticularly binding. It is also usual for an award of compensation for blood to be paid in the shape of girls, some of whom are living whilst others are not yet born.'' (A. D. Dixey, ^ * Baluchistan, ' ' Church Missionary Review, December, 1908). A medical missionary in India tells of a girl who came *^ suffering from granular eyelids, a terrible trouble, which is common here. She is a girl in years, but a divorced woman, divorced be- fore her baby boy was born. Now he is the light of her eyes ; yet the father will be able to claim him when he is three years old. This is Mohammedan law, I am told." And the tragedy of this home life, so prevalent in all Moslem lands, is not re- vealed only to the medical missionary. Educated Moslems themselves are beginning to see it. S. Khuda Bukhsh, an educated Moslem from India, writes in his Essays: ** Children brought up in this poisonous atmosphere can hardly be expected to be a credit to their society or a glory to their country. We cannot gather grapes from PHYSICAL CONDITIONS 101 thorns nor figs from thistles. Let us, then, first and foremost, purify and sanctify our home and hearth.'^ Kasim Amin Bey in his book on **The New Woman,'' and Mansur Fahmy in his recent volume on ^^La Femme,'' have clearly shown the results of the degradation of Moslem womanhood upon the children of the Moslem world. The protests of Moslem reformers are gener- ally concerned, however, not with the rights of children, but with the rights of women. The awakened conscience among educated Moslems in this respect is due largely to Western education and to the higher ideals of home life taught and exhibited by Christian missions. We must not forget, however, that this reform movement even where it has gained the largest following, as, for example, in India, only touches a small percent- age of the Moslem population. It has been esti- mated that the total number of Mohammedans with Western education does not exceed one mil- lion, which would be less than one-half per cent. Of their efforts at reform we shall learn later in this book. A true idea of Moslem childhood as it concerns the masses to-day can, therefore, only be gained when we remember that everywhere ignorance and superstition brood over the home life in lands like Afghanistan, Turkestan, Persia, and the vil- lages of India and Egypt ; and the result is sadly ioa CHILDHOOD' iK'THE MOSLEM WORLD evident in the physical life of the child. The lack of all medical knowledge in the home and the medical treatment given when a native hakim or doctor is called in, are both the cause of need- less and unintentional cruelty to children. In this matter again there is a wonderful similarity of cause and effect in all Moslem lands. The Tuh en-Nehawi or the Table Talk of Mohammed on medical subjects, has been carefully collected and is circulated everywhere, either in books of tradition or in manuals for the home. Whatever he taught is considered the quintessence of wis- dom and the final word in medicine. Mohammed himself was superstitious and the Koran contains revelations about witchcraft and sorcery.^ It is hardly an exaggeration to say that the belief in magic has a greater hold upon the masses than the faith of Islam itself. This is especially true on the border-marches of Islam in Malaysia and Africa. Millions of Moslems are the slaves of ignorance and superstition, and Moslem children everywhere are bedecked with talismans and amulets to ward off evil. The following are used as amulets in Arabia: a small Koran suspended from the shoulder; a chapter written on paper and folded in a leather case ; some of the names of God or their numerical values ; the names of the * Especially Surahs 113 and 114; see the commentaries and Moslem books on magic. PHYSICAL CONDITIONS 103 Prophet and his companions ; green stones with- out inscriptions ; beads, old coins, animal teeth, or holy earth from Mecca or Kerbela in small bags. Amulets are not only worn by the Arabs them^ selves and by children to protect them from the evil eye, but they are put on camels, donkeys, horses, fishing-boats, and sometimes over the doors of their dwellings. In Hejaz if a child is very ill the mother takes seven flat loaves of bread and puts them under its pillow; in the morning the loaves are given to the dogs, — and the child is not always cured. Rings are worn against the influence of evil spirits; incense or evil-smelling compounds are burned in the sick-room to drive away the devil; mystic symbols are written on the walls for a similar purpose. Love-philtres are everywhere used and in demand; and name- less absurdities are committed to insure success- ful childbirth. The child witch, called Um-el- subyan, is feared by all mothers; narcotics are freely used to quiet unruly infants, and naturally mortality is very large. In Persia opium is used to an alarming extent in the nursery, with all its evil consequences upon the child. In Turkey, we are told by Miss Isabel M. Blake of Aintab (Life and Light, November, 1914) : * * In some localities babies when born are smeared with oil and laid in the sun; in others they are rubbed with salt until the tender flesh is nearly 104 CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD raw. The poor, ignorant village woman hangs amulets or blue beads upon her baby, as the peasant does upon horse, donkey, or camel, ^to keep off the evil eye.' Then, though he is scarcely a year old, she feeds him with unripe grapes and wonders why he sickens and dies. The flies gather on the sticky face and cling around the eyes of the baby lying, with arms and legs tightly bound, in its cradle and the mother wonders why his eyes are sore." Dr. Hamilton of the same station was once called to see an infant. Entering the courtyard she found that the mother had heated a hairpin red hot and was applying it to the poor child's joints. On the doctor's indignant protest, she looked up wonderingly and said, ** Why, we all do that in our village ! It's to make the baby strong." In Arabia this practice of cautery (kei) is uni- versal as a favourite cure for all sorts of dis- eases. This is based upon a saying of Moham- med that the ^4ast medicine (namely, the most powerful) is cautery." Little children often have brand marks all over their bodies (which become festering sores), placed there with the intention of curing them of fevers, rheumatism, and other ills of childhood. Another favourite remedy in Arabia and Persia is kJielal, or perforating the skin surface with a red-hot iron and then passing a thread through the hole to facilitate suppura- PHYSICAL CONDITIONS 105 tion. Scarcely one Arab in a hundred who has not some kei marks on his body. Where kei fails they have recourse to words written on paper either from the Koran or, by law of contraries, words of evil sinister import. These the patient ** takes" either by swallowing them, paper and all, or by drinking the ink-water in which the writing is washed off. Their pharmacopoeia is not large, but quite remarkable. In addition to such simple herbs of the desert as the women collect and dry, they use in grave emergencies that which is haram (forbidden) and unclean. Patients have come to me for a small piece of swine's flesh (which they suppose all Christians eat) to cure one in desperate straits. Doughty tells how among the Bedouins they give the sick to eat of the carrion-eagle, and even seethe the asses' dung for a potion. The science of medicine in the towns is not much in advance of that of the desert — more book-talk but even less natural intelli- gence. A disease to be at all respectable must be connected with one of the four temperaments or ** humours of Hippocrates." Medicines are hot and cold, wet and dry; and the same fourfold classification distinguishes all ailments. Most of the diseases of childhood, however, are' supposed to be caused by demons or the evil eye. Mothers live in perpetual terror on account of this superstition. From Algiers we learn that \ 106 CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD when a child is born the people believe a little demon is brought into the world at the same time, whose birth takes place in the cupboard or the wall. If the child is prettier than the demon, the latter gets jealous and causes convulsions. The woman then goes round the court, and standing still in one corner, converses with the demon, be- seeching it to leave her little one in peace. The demon specially feared for the children is called Xaha. In order to pacify it all sorts of things are done, of which the following are instances: A black hen is kept in the room. Immediately the baby is born it is driven far away from the house, and woe to him who picks it up, for the demon enters him instead of the child ; or a dog is kept in the room, who shares all the mother has to eat. The demon then enters her puppies; or the child is sold; the purchaser comes to see it; it is told its mother has come, and they all act as if this were true. Whooping-cough is caused by certain demons which tickle the lungs. Our Algerian correspond- ent goes on to say: ** There are all sorts of remedies for this, such as giving the child snails and honey, or taking it to the gas works. This last would seem quite medical, but it is not so in reality, for they believe the fumes will drive the demon away. Then in cases where the cough is at its worst, they stretch PHYSICAL CONDITIONS 107 the child out flat and prepare an instrument with which to cut its throat. Having pre- tended to do this they hold it up three times as an offering to the demon, thinking that he will then be satisfied and leave the child alone.*' Some of the practices are ridiculous rather than cruel. When a child is backward in learning to walk, eggs are smashed on its little feet, or figs and sugar are placed on its knees. When the baby- snores in Algeria a cat is placed in a sack, and the sleeping infant is hit with it until the snores enter the cat instead! Mohammedan mothers believe that jealousy is a disease and should be so treated. All kinds of curious practices are in vogue to drive out this demon of jealousy, which the foreseen arrival of a little brother or sister produces in the child. In Algiers this malady is treated as follows: An egg is boiled in quicklime, the shell taken off, and it is given to the child to eat ; or the child is put on the doorstep, two eggs are placed in its lap, which other children take away, thus causing the jealousy to enter them; or the child is given **Peau des tombes'* to drink (i.e., the water which is poured on the graves of the Marabouts), whilst the mother says some words to the effect that the heart of the little one may become as cold as the dead body of the Marabout. The jealousy of one woman for another's baby is thought to cast 108 CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD a spell whicli necessitates the following ceremony : A fire is lighted upon the ordinary family pedes- tal, salt sprinkled upon the flames, and the in- fant swung round seven times in the fumes, to the accompaniment of appropriate incantations. The ceremony is varied in the case of adults, the pedestal being swung round the individual. In Egypt the evil eye is a special danger to children, who must be protected by many strange practices. Before a child is seven days old the midwife will place near its head a loaf of bread, a lump of salt, and a sharp knife. The explana- tion is that devils fear the knife, and recognizing salt and bread as blessings of God, will conclude that the child is also a blessing and therefore go away. Of the effect of Moslem education and moral training — or the utter lack of moral training — even upon the physique of the child, we will speak later. The reader has already had a glimpse of the environment in which the child grows up. One thing, however, remains to be noticed, namely, the evil of child labour. The Moslem world as a whole is not one of factories and workshops, where the conditions of Western civilization* have brought in the curse of child labour with its de- plorable consequences, but there is no anti-child- labour law or sentiment in any part of the Mos- lem world. The children of the poor are made to ■■^ J :■'.'. '-.:.'". PHYSICAL CONDITIONS 109 work from their earliest years, and many Moslem families are supported by the wages of children/ The statistics of illiteracy show how few chil- dren there are who have opportunity for educa- tion. Nor have they time for play. One of the missionaries in India made a plea that to the chil- dren of that country might be brought the gift of childhood. **They are all little old men and women,'' she said; and Mrs. Napier Malcolm, in speaking of Persian children, makes the same ob- servation. One of our illustrations shows how in Java mere babies are employed in weaving hats for the trade. The room where they work seems clean and airy, but what of the child's mind and soul in daily contact with elders and strangers whose conversation is Moslem? When childhood has to assume such responsi- bility, not only of hard labour, but often of help- ing support the family, and when children are associated with their elders at the same task, it is good for neither their bodies nor their souls. Mrs. Worrall, M.D., thus describes a visit to the date-packers at Busrah : ** Under all the porticos were men and women, ^ In the year 1900, eighteen per cent of the children under sixteen years of age in the United States were working for wages. The new census of 1910 shows a small decrease in the percentage of child labour. In Europe, of course, the situation is worse, but in all Christian lands there are laws against child labour, and school privileges are open to most, if not all children. It is not so in the Dar-ul-Islam. 110 CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD boys and girls, seated on clean mats, selecting the best dates from boxes into which they had been loosely thrown. These they laid one by one in regular rows. One quick-fingered girl was able to pack seven boxes a day, although she was not at all well. Another, an old woman, could finish one and a half. Each was to receive two cents a box for the packing, so none could grow rich at the work, although what they received no doubt meant a great deal to them. While we were watching the packing, the hammals (men who carry the dates from the boats to the pack- ers) brought a special kind of date. On perceiv- ing this, a large number of packers ran to fill their boxes with this sort, which is easier to pack, but the heavy stick applied on the back of a few dispersed them quickly to their work.'' In regard to child labour in Syria, Miss Manas- seh writes : ' * Girls as young as nine or ten often go to the silk-spinning factories, where they work sometimes thirteen to fourteen hours out of the twenty-four, for sixpence or eightpence a day. They frequently become ill from the bad air of the factory, the smell of the cocoons mingled with the steam being peculiarly nauseous. One can always tell when a girl has been in the factory for any length of time by her pale cheeks and listless expression. ' ' We close this chapter with a vivid picture of the THE PRICE OF A TURKISH RUG Moslem girls in Turkey at the loom. PHYSICAL CONDITIONS 111 horrors of child labour in the factories of Kirman, Persia. The picture in the text shows how costly rugs can be made which are not the price of blood, but a symbol of the ministry and human helpful- ness. In our illustration we see Moslem orphan girls, after the Balkan wars, weaving carpet under the care of the missionaries in Turkey. They look well-fed, healthy, and happy. Such child labour is not a curse, but Mrs. Malcolm tells a different story. *^The factories of Kirman are filled with chil- dren from four years old upward, underfed, over- worked, living a loveless, joyless, hopeless life. The factories are built without windows lest the children's attention should be distracted, and the bad air, want of food, and the constantly keeping in one position produce rickets and deformity in nearly all. Of thirty-eight children examined in one factory, thirty-six were deformed. **One of the governors of Kirman forbade the employment of children under twelve in the fac- tories, but the order did not last beyond his gov- ernorship. The same governor gave the order, still in force, which forbids the employment of children before dawn or after sunset, thus re- ducing their working hours to an average of twelve hours a day. A recent governor added to this an order limiting the Friday work to about two and a half hours, *from sunrise to full sun- 112 CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD shine,' so now the children share in part the gen- eral Friday holiday of Mohammedanism. **The factory owners are glad to get the chil- dren, for they say children work better than grown-up people at carpet-making, and of course they expect less wages. But how can the parents allow their children to live this cruel life! You will find the answer in the Persian saying that *of every three persons in Kirman, four smoke opium.' . . . Over and over again comes the ter- rible story, the father and mother smoke opium; the little deformed child toils through the long days to earn the money that buys it." IV THE MIND OF A MOSLEM CHILD " Do you remember the time when you were twelve ? To many that is the most important moment of life; a time of angelic purity. The mind is no longer dormant; it is able to see and understand; it sees that God is good, and that to serve Him is to reign with Him. Yes, at that age, men believe in heaven; they are alive to the beauty of heavenly things; they still know how to kneel down." — Henri Perbeyve — " Discours sur I'Histoire de France." "But there is another side to education in the East, for us a picturesque side, although picturesque with ignorance and cor- ruption. The kuttabs may be said to be the basis of the educa- tional system, yet the teachers in them are a by^;^'ord every- where for sloth, immorality, greed, and ignorance. The scholar Islam has always respected; but upon the schoolmaster it has always looked down, as feeble of wit& and low of conduct." — D. B. Macdonau) — "Aspects of Islam." IV THE MIND OF A MOSLEM CHILD THE Moslem idea of the innocence of child- hood is expressed by them when they say that the mind of children is like a clean tablet, equally open to any sort of inscription. It is not generally known that Moslems deny orig- inal sin in any sense of the word. Sin, accord- ing to most Moslem authorities, is not an inher- itance, but a conscious act committed against known law by one who has attained years of dis- cretion. Therefore sins of ignorance are not con- sidered matters of guilt. In al-Ghazali's great work, **The Revival of the Sciences of Religion'' (Vol. Ill, p. 53), there is a special section on the method for the education of boys and the im- provement of their moral character. Nothing is said in regard to girls. It is generally considered inadvisable by all old Moslem authors to teach girls how to read and write, and the omission in al-Ghazali is therefore significant. He begins his chapter as follows : **It is most important to know how to bring up a boy, for the boy is a trust in the hands of his 115 116 CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD father, and his pure heart is a precious jewel like a tablet without inscription. It is therefore ready to receive whatever is engraved upon it, and turns to whatever direction it is inclined. If he learns to do good and is taught it, he grows up accordingly, and is happy in this world and the next; and his parents and teachers will have the reward for their action. But if he learns evil and grows up in neglect like the dumb cattle, he will turn away from the truth and perish, and his sin will be on the neck of his guardian. Allah has said, O ye who believe, guard yourselves and your family from the fire ; and even as the father would guard his son from the fire of this world, by how much the more should he guard him from the fire of the world to come 1 He will guard him from it by chastising him and educating him and teaching him the best virtues. To this end he will only give his boy to be nursed by a good, pious woman who eats the proper food, for the milk from forbidden food has no blessing in it.'' He then goes on to show that the education of a child consists in teaching him table manners, the avoidance of unclean food, gluttony, and impolite- ness. He advises parents to dress their children simply and not in costly clothing. To quote once more: ** After teaching him these things it is wise to send him to a school where he shall learn the THE MIND OF A MOSLEM CHILD 117 Koran and the pious traditions, and the tales of the righteous and their lives, in order that a love of the pious may be imprinted in his heart; and he should be kept from reading erotic poetry and prevented from mixing with those people of edu- cation who think that this sort of reading is profitable and elevating, because, on the contrary, it produces in the hearts of children the seeds of corruption. Whenever the boy shows a good character or an act which is praiseworthy, he must be honoured for it and rewarded, so that he will be happy; and this should especially be done in the presence of others. If, on the con- trary, he should act otherwise once and again, it is necessary to take no notice of it, nor to lay bare his fault, as though you imagine no one would dare to do such a thing, especially if the boy himself conceals it, and has determined to hide it; for exposing would only make him more bold in the future. If he should repeat the fault, he can be punished in secret. ' ' Such is the strange ethical teaching — a min- gling of good and bad advice — on the part of one who has always been considered as the pillar of orthodoxy and the great authority on Moslem morals. Al-Ghazali contains many things that are worthy of note. Among others, he speaks of the tablet of the child's mind in this fashion: **Good teaching is like the carving on the rock, 118 CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD not easily effaced ;'* and again, ** Mohammed the prophet said, Every one that is born is born with a natural capacity for the true religion. His parents turn him into a Jew, or a Christian, or a Zoroastrian. " All these counsels of perfection, however, have not been widely accepted. Mohammedan chil- dren the world over are neglected utterly, both as regards moral and intellectual training. Most of them have had no opportunity whatever. The il- literacy of Moslem lands, — even those lands which have had the religion of the Prophet as their own for thirteen centuries — is as surprising as it is appalling. One would think that a religion which makes so much of its sacred Book, and which at one time was the mistress of science and litera- ture, would, in its onward sweep, have enlight- ened the nations and raised the standard of literacy. Facts, however, are stubborn things. Careful investigations show that from eighty-five to ninety per cent of all the Moslems in Africa are unable to read or write, and the conditions in Asia are not much better. In India 8,700,000 Moslems are of school-going age, but only 1,550,- 000 are found in schools; and some of these schools are classified in the returns on education as **bad or indifferent." The total number of illiterates among the Mohammedans of India, in- cluding Burma (according to the Census of THE MIND OF A MOSLEM CHILD 119 1900), was 59,674,499, or over ninety-six per cent of the total Mohammedan population. The Mos- lems of India are considered a backward class. From South India we hear therefore that by gov- ernment order all Moslem children are admitted into government and private schools at one-half the regular fees for others. In Kashmir they have made so little progress in education that all the higher posts are filled with Hindus. The figures of the last census (1911) show the con- trast : ^*0f every 1,000 adults, 61 Hindus and 8 Mo- hammedans are literate. Of every 100 boys of school-going age, 14 Hindus and 2 Mohammedans attend school. As yet no Kashmiri-born Moham- medan has secured the B.A. degree.'' A missionary from Kashmir reports that only five per cent of the population can read, and that during eighteen years' residence in the country, he met only five or six women who could read an ordinary book. The illiteracy of childhood is undoubtedly due in a large measure to the utter illiteracy of Mo- hammedan womanhood. In Egypt, according to the last census, only three women out of a thou- sand can read, and as these statistics include the Coptic population, the illiteracy of Moslem womanhood is still greater than this appalling statement would indicate. The Census Return 120 CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD goes on to say: **The Copts have a very much higher proportion of literates than the Moslems; male literates per thousand being 2.5 more numerous, and female literates per thousand eight times more numerous.'' According to the same census, the total number of Moslem children between ten and fourteen years of age was 1,098,372, and of this number only 64,191 boys and 3,005 girls were able to read. If such are the facts in regard to India and Egypt, both of which countries have had ex- ceptional contact for a considerable period with the West, and have always been considered among the foremost Moslem countries of Asia and Africa, what shall we say of less favoured lands such as Morocco, Tripoli, and Afghanistan? Il- literacy here among women and girls is almost universal, and the school system — such as it is — most primitive. With illiteracy and ignorance goes their twin sister superstition. The Moslem child every- where and in all circumstances is born into a world of superstition. This is true of the child of the Amir of Afghanistan as well as of the slave child in the Sudan ; of those in China as well as of those in Morocco. A world of spiritual beings, angels, jinn, demons, and devils, is all about him, to be feared and propitiated, or to be welcomed and honoured. The Mohammedan doctrine of ANOTHER ALGERIAN TYPE THE MIND OF A MOSLEM CHILD 121 angels and devils is not a theoretical one, as it has so largely become in our Western world, but is intensely practical, dominant, and potent. Every grotesque and gruesome detail of Koranic teaching has its powerful effect on the mind of the little child. The veil that hides this spirit world is almost transparent even in the daytime. The unexpected may always happen, and spirit with spirit may meet on the least provocation. But when night falls or fear overcomes or pun- ishment threatens, then the veil is wholly rent asunder, and the poor little child stands in dread of nameless shapes and forms and terrors. Islam teaches that angels are very numerous, and in addition to Gabriel, Michael, and Israfil, who will sound the last trumpet, Israil is the angel of death who carries away the souls of little children as well as of older people. There are two recording angels for each child, who sit on his right and left shoulder and record all the good and ill. Mohammed therefore enjoined his peo- ple not to spit in front or on the right, but over the left shoulder, as on that side stands the re- cording angel of evil. Munkar and Nakir are two black angels, terrible of aspect, with blue eyes, who question those buried in the grave and beat with harsh blows those whose replies are not satisfactory. There are a host of guardian angels whose names are written on amulets; eight spe- 12a CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD cial angels carry the throne of Allah, and nine- teen have charge of the fires of hell. The forty- sixth and seventy-second chapters of the Koran tell something about the jinn, spirits created of fire and of diverse shapes, which marry and carry on good or ill until they too are taken away by death. The stories of these jinn in the ** Arabian Nights" deceive no child of the Western world, but Moslems believe in them, and know from the Koran itself not only that they exist but that the prophet Solomon sealed some of them up in brass bottles. They listened to Mohammed's preaching and were converted to Islam. They frequent wells, ruined houses, baths, and love the dark. Their chief abode is in the mountains of Kaf which sur- round the world. One of the first prayers a Mos- lem child is taught is a prayer for delivery from the power of these evil spirits. These jinn are of three kinds, according to Mo- hammed: those which fly in the air, those which resemble snakes, and others are like men. Mo- hammed, we are told in Moslem books of theology, once said, **A wicked genius came suddenly upon me last night desiring to disturb me in prayer, so I strangled him and wished to tie him to one of the columns of the mosque ! ' ' Another tradi- tion relates: **We went out on the pilgrimage, and when we THE MIND OF A MOSLEM CHILD US reached al-'Arj, we saw a snake quivering, which not long afterwards died. One of the men among us took out for it a piece of cloth in which he wrapped it up, and then digging a hole buried it in the ground. We then proceeded to Mecca and went to the sacred mosque, where a man came to us and said, * Which of you is the person that was kind to 'Amr bin JabirT Upon which we replied, ^We do not know him.' He then asked, ^ Which of you is the person that was kind to the jannf and they replied, ^This one here,' upon which he said to him, *May God repay you good on our account! As to him (the serpent that was buried), he was the last of the nine genii who had heard the Koran from the lips of the Prophet.' " (Hayat ul-Hayawan.) Equally grotesque and terrifying to the mind of a child is the Moslem doctrine of devils. Satan, called IhliSj was expelled from Paradise because he refused to prostrate before Adam when God commanded it. (Surah 7:10-17.) He became so angry that a splinter of fire flew off from him, out of which God created his wife. His demonic progeny is as numerous as it is terrible. ** Among them are Lakis; Walhan, who is the presiding devil over ablution and prayer; al-Haffaf, who is the presiding devil over deserts and the causer of bitterness (or sorrow), on which ac- count he has obtained his sobriquet Ahu-murrah; 1^4. CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD Zalambur, who presides over markets and causes to look beautiful (in the eyes of men) the talking of nonsense, a false oath, and the praise of mer- chandise; and Bathr, who presides over misfor- tunes and causes to appear beautiful (in the eyes of men) the scratching of faces, the slapping of cheeks, and the picking of pockets." ' Against this world of iniquity, these spirits that walk and work in darkness, the Moslem mother tries to protect her infant, as well as herself, by the use of charms, talismans, and amulets. From every part of the Moslem world the testimony comes of the universality of this practice, its degrading character, and of crafty priests and leaders who batten upon the superstitious fear of the people. All sorts of things are used as amulets, and their use is justified by the saying of Mohammed himself (Mishkat 21:1) : *^ There is no wrong in using charms and spells so long as you do not associate anything with God." The most common things used as amulets are a small Koran sus- pended in a silver case; words from the Koran written on paper and carried in a leather recepta- cle ; the names of Allah or their numerical value ; the names of Mohammed and his companions; precious stones with or without inscriptions; beads; old coins; clay images; the teeth of wild animals ; holy earth from Mecca or Kerbela in the A CHILD WITH ITS PxVTHER A type of the Egyptian Fellaheen. The total population of Egypt is 11,287,359; of these 95 per cent, are Moslem. Notice the number of amulets on the little fellow's neck. THE MIND OF A MOSLEM CHILD 125 shape of tiny bricks, or in small bags. "When the Kaaba covering at Mecca is taken down each year and renewed, the old cloth is cut up into small pieces and sold for charms. In Sierra Leone, West Africa, we are told that the first step used by Moslem missionaries in gaining an influence over the people is by making and selling cabalistic charms, fetish-like amulets, and magical remedies, which generally consist of Arabic formulas taken from the Koran. Some are written upon pieces of paper, to be fastened to the walls of houses, or sewn in small leather encasements to be worn on different parts of the body. Among the Mohammedan Hausas familiar spirits are supposed to be associated with the life of each individual. These evil spirits are called hori. In his book, **The Ban of the Bori," Major Tremearne shows how completely the lives of the Hausas, from birth to death, are under the dom- inance of their beliefs in these spirits. The dif- ferent classes of demons are described in detail in this most interesting book, in which the author also passes under review the family relationships and every-day pursuits of the Hausa communities with which he is dealing, and shows the practical influence of these magical beliefs. Similar con- ditions prevail in other parts of Africa also. Mr. P. Marty, writing in the Revue du Monde Musulman concerning the amulets used in Sene- 126 CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD gal (June, 1914), shows how the Islamization of animistic amulets is one of the main processes by which the Moslem religion penetrates and spreads among tribes in that part of Africa. The volumes of this important magazine contain a whole series of articles on the use of amulets and Moslem superstitions connected with the same, among the Moros of the Philippine Islands, the Persians, the Javanese, the Battaks of Sumatra, and Moslems everywhere. Especially noteworthy is the article by Antoine Cabaton in Vol. VIII, pp. 370-397, which opens up a whole world of supersti- tion. * * In Kashmir, ' ' we are told by Mr. Walter, **both men and women are covered with charms of every description and for every conceivable end, sold to them by the industrious mullahs, whose chief business it is to deal in them. I used to watch one of them going on his weekly rounds among the boatmen of my own and neighbouring boats, always finding the trade good, and appear- ing to be quite the most prosperous personage on the horizon.'' Many of the portraits of Moslem children from all lands here given, illustrate this custom. The girl from Kordof an, for example, has little cloth- ing except her talisman, the Tartar child wears hers, and so do the children from Morocco and Persia, while the little Egyptian boy has enough amulets to make a high priest's breastplate. THE MIND OF A MOSLEM CHILD 127 According to the principles of Islam only verses from the Koran should be used, but the door of superstition once being set ajar by Mohammed himself, as we know from the story of his life, it is now wide open. The chapters from the Koran which are most often selected for use as amulets and put in small cases are Surahs 1, 6, 18, 36, 44, 55, 67, and 78. There are ^ve verses in the Koran called the verses of protection, Ayat-el-Hifdh, which are most powerful to defend from evil. They read as follows: **The preservation of heaven and earth is no burden unto Him*'; **God is the best protector''; **They guard him by the command of God''; ^*We guard him from every stoned devil"; **A protection from every rebel- lious devil." These verses are written with great care and with a special kind of ink by those who deal with amulets, and are sold for a good price. The ink used for writing amulets is saffron water, rose water, orange water, the juice of onions, water from the sacred well of Zemzem, and some- times even human blood! It is very important that the one who writes the amulet be a holy man in the Moslem sense of that word. We are told in Arabic books on the subject (and these books are printed by the thousands), e.g.: ^*The diet of the one who prepares charms de- 128 CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD pends on the kind of names of God which he intends to write or recite. If they are the terrible attributes of Allah, then he must refrain from the use of meat, fish, eggs, honey, and musk. If they are His amiable attributes, he must abstain from butter, curds, vinegar, salt, and amber- gris.'' One of the most common talismans in use throughout the world of Islam is the one called Buduh. It consists of a magic square, in which the numbers add up to fifteen in every direction, expressed by the letters of the Arabic alphabet. 4 9 2 3 5 7 8 1 6 -> y ^ •» J t 1 J Each letter stands for the number as in- dicated. This square is supposed to have been revealed to al-Ghazali, and is now known by his name. It has become the foundation and starting-point for a whole science of talismanic symbols. Some of the Moslem authorities say that Adam invented the square. It is called Buduh because these let- ters are the corner letters and' the key to the com- bination. To the popular mind this word Buduh has become a sort of guardian angel, invoking both good and bad fortune. The square is used THE MIND OF A MOSLEM CHILD 129 against stomach pains, to render one's self in- visible, to protect from the evil eye, and to open locks, but the most common use is to insure the safe arrival of letters and packages. There is a whole science of amulets, exorcism, and Moslem witchcraft. One of the learned men of Bahrein, Arabia, some years ago gave me the standard work on the subject, which has run to many editions. It is by Abu-Abbas al-Buni, and is entitled *^Shems-ul-Muarif.*' There are many traces of Christian influence in the later development of Mohammedanism, and the use of the cross as a symbol to ward off evil is one of them. In Egypt some Moslem children wear silver crosses which have a rough image of our Saviour on one side and a verse from the Koran on the other, to drive off the devil! Among the Shiah Moslems the most common amulet is called Nadi-Ali. It consists generally of a lead or silver plate with little bells at the bottom, inscribed with these words : " Cry aloud to Ali ; he is the possessor of wonders. From him you will find help from trouble. He takes away very quickly all grief and anxiety By the mission of Mohammed and his own sanctity." There are innumerable cases where such amu- lets are used for the cure of disease. The native doctors firmly believe that when every other 130 CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD remedy fails, the Book of Allah, if properly ad- ministered, internally or externally, will drive away pain and cure the patient. We must not think that this belief in the power of talismans and amulets is a thing of the past. From one end of the Moslem world to the other, there is still unquestioning faith in the power of such religious magic. Professor MacDonald in his recent book, ''The Religious Attitude and Life in Islam,'' says: ''Scattered among the educated classes, it is true, you will meet a good deal of absolute Vol- tairean unbelief, but even these individuals are liable to set back at any time. The shell that separates the Oriental from the unseen is still very thin, and the charms or amulet of the ma- gician may easily break it. The world of the 'Arabian Nights' is still his world, and these stories for him are not tales from wonderland, but are, rather, to be compared to our stories of the wonders and possibilities of science, such as M. Jules Verne used to write and which we now owe toMr. H.G.Wells." Among the most grovelling superstitions are those prevalent on the border-marches of Islam, among the half -pagan tribes in West and Central Africa. It seems almost incredible that among the Wolofs and other tribes the favourite amulet worn against the evil eye, disease, and death is THE MIND OF A MOSLEM CHILD 131 the prepuce removed at circumcision.^ But older Moslem lands are equally superstitious. Dr. Robert Kerr, who spent twenty-five years in Mo- rocco, devotes an entire chapter in his book to the subject. Belief in the evil eye prevails every- where. * * The Moors write charms, couplets from the Koran, etc., and place them over the doorways and in the rooms as a safeguard. The Black Art is practised as a science and is divided into three or four branches, each of which has its learned professors." More than half of the ills which afflict the children, they believe are caused by the evil eye. Doughty, in his ** Arabian Travels,*' gives many instances of similar superstitions. This one is typical. **A young mother, yet a slender girl, brought her wretched babe, and bade me spit upon the child's sore eyes; this ancient Semitic opinion and custom I afterwards found wherever I went in Arabia. (Meteyr nomads in el-Kasim have brought me bread and salt, that I should spit in it for their sick friends.) Her gossips followed to make this request with her, and when I blamed their superstition they answered simply that * such was the custom here from time out of mind.' ^ " Chez les Ouolofs, le prepuce a comme araulette une valeur remarquable mais toute k fait specialisee a I'int^ress^. Aussitot I'op^ration de la circoncision achevee, le prepuce est enferm6 sanglant dans un pan du boubou que porte I'enfant. Ce boubou est soigneusement conserve." {Revue du Monde Musulman, June, 1914; p. 333.) 132 CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD Also the Arabians will spit upon a lock which cannot easily be opened." Concerning the many superstitions prevalent among the Moslems of India, the reader must con- sult Herklot's ^'Qanoon-e-Islam'' (London, 1832). This curious volume was prepared by a native of the Deccan, and contains a full and exact ac- count of the various rites and ceremonies con- nected with Moslem life from the moment of birth until the hour of death. Many of the practices described are doubtless related to Hinduism or Animism, but nevertheless they have become the daily environment of Moslem childhood and per- sist even today in spite of the progress of educa- tion. The author tells how the science of exorcism is practised upon children, and how demons of illness are cast out. In some cases they make a small wax doll, fasten one extremity of a hair to the cro^vn of its head and the other to the bottom of a cork, fill the bottle with smoke, put the doll into it and cork it up. The operator, **the moment the demoniac falls on the ground, pulls out a hair or two as above stated, and con- trives to insert them into the bottle ; and holding it up to public view, he exclaims, * Behold ! I have cast the devil out of the demoniac and confined him in this bottle. There he is, standing in the middle of it, longing to come out. Now, if you give me so much money, well and good; if not, TUNISIAN CHILDREN The small boy has a native drum and the larger girl has amulets tied to her head-dress. THE MIND OP A MOSLEM CHILD 133 I will let him loose again. ' Those foolish people, on beholding the doll in the bottle, actually believe it to be the devil himself, and out of fear give him any sum of money he asks, and get it buried or burnt. ' ' The casting out of demons is also prac- tised in Egypt, and so common is this ceremony of the Zar that children imitate it in their play.^ **The demon in one of the family is a Chris- tian," says Miss Thompson of Cairo, *^and the possessed woman wears a silver cross and a crucifix to keep him happy. If she were to take these off she would suffer. She also wears a silver medallion with bells on it and silver rings on each finger, one having a cross on it. Her child danced with the drums. A curious thing was that this woman spent a few months in a mission school years ago, and she promised to send her daughter to be educated by us in the same building. * * The performance began when the patient was seated on the floor, by the sheikha drumming vigorously and chanting over her head. One elderly relative, who was standing, began to sway back and forth and was followed by the patient and others. After a period of rest, during which some smoked, the woman was told to rise, and the sheikha held her head, then each hand, the hem of her dress, and each foot over the incense which had been burned before the food on the tray. ^ On the Zar, see The Moslem World, Vol. Ill, pp. 275-290. 134 CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD Ten or fifteen others had the incense treatment in the same way. This was after the sheikha had called on all the mashayikh, or demons, and had repeated the Fatiha about five times, during which the drums played and all the company chanted ; at a given signal on the drums, each one covered her face with a white veil. The patient rose and began swaying and contorting her body as she went slowly around the table, followed by others. When a performer was too vigorous, an onlooker would take a little flour or salt and sprinkle it over her head, following her around the circle to prevent her falling. In the midst of all the din . . . the patient at last sank down panting, and the sheikha took a large mouthful from a bottle of rosewater, and spattered it with force over each performer. ' ' When we remember that such beliefs and prac- tices as we have described above are prevalent everywhere, and that the women especially are under this iron bondage, we can imagine the effect upon the growing mind of a child. The teacher of the mosque school himself believes most of these superstitions, and as Professor MacDonald re- marks, these men who are set apart for the train- ing of children **are everywhere a byword for sloth, immorality, greed, and ignorance." Gold- ziher, — than whom there is no higher authority, — tells us that in Arabic literature their position is THE MIND OF A MOSLEM CHILD 135 on a level with weavers, blood-letters, and other despised trades. Teachers were universally spoken of as a stupid and brainless class, and the prevailing attitude toward them was always one of extreme disrespect. The phrase **more stupid than a schoolmaster '* has passed into a proverb. The Traditions speak not only of the ignorance of teachers but of their moral shortcomings. Mo- hammed is reported to have said, ** Their money is forbidden property, their livelihood is unjust gain, their speech hypocrisy. * ' The scandals con- nected with boys' schools from the earliest times have given rise to special regulations designed to obviate suspicion, such as, for example, that no pupil was to receive private instruction at the home of his teacher, but within the sight of the people. The teacher is described as **one who brandishes the whip and takes reward for teach- ing the Book of God.'' The shackles of ignorance remain on the mind of the child even after the boy has absorbed a certain amount of so-called book learning. Edu- cation does not give freedom. The Koran remains the Procrustean bed of the human intellect. Everything bends to its authority, as we shall see when we consider their method of schooling. The education of a boy, says tradition, is to begin at the age of four years, four months, and four days. On that auspicious day he is taught 136 CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD to repeat the Bismillah, or opening chapter of the Koran. Soon after the child, if of well-to-do par- ents, is sent to a day school and tanght the al- phabet. The school is most probably a corner of a merchant's shop, or an alcove in a mosque without any furniture save mats and rahils (small folding book-stands, resembling a tiny saw- buck). The schoolmaster sits on the floor in the midst of the lads, who all drone out their lessons at the same time ; there is no attempt at grading the pupils nor is there order in the schoolroom. The master's trained ear can, however, distin- guish a mispronounced vowel or detect a word omitted from Allah's book, though a score of voices make a confusion of tongues like Babel. One lad is still at his alphabet; another has gone as far as Ahjad, or the numerical value of the letters; a third is spelling out the first Surah; while yet others are reading from the middle of the Koran at the top of their voices. In Arabia and other lands untouched by mod- ern Western educational reform, the earliest and only text-book is the Koran or portions of it cheaply lithographed on second-class paper. Of course there are no pictures in the Moslem primers, for tradition states that Mohammed cursed all who would paint or draw men and animals. Consequently, their work is held to be unlawful. There is neither prayer nor singing THE MIND OF A MOSLEM CHILD 137 when the school opens; all orthodox praying is at daybreak when boys are fast asleep, and as for singing, Mohammed said, ** Singing or hearing songs causeth hypocrisy to grow in the heart even as the rain causeth corn to grow in the field.'' (MishkatXXII:9:3.) To the American schoolboy, a Mohammedan school and a Mohammedan school-book would ap- pear the dullest things on earth. Yet the Arab boys seem to enjoy school, for there is continual distraction, and, especially if the schoolmaster is a shop-keeper, plenty of time for idling. While a customer bargains or the water-carrier passes, or the coffee-shop keeper pours out the teacher's daily beverage, naturally all eyes turn away from their books. The mixed procession of Oriental street life passes before the schoolroom (which is nearly always open to the street), like a con- tinuous panorama — horses, camels, drivers, don- keys, veiled women, pastry-sellers, pashas, sol- diers, beggars, and Bedouins. It is no wonder that all learning becomes a matter of rote and that the best memory receives the prize. Right here we stumble upon the supreme fault in their theory of education. The memory is trained to the utmost, while the reasoning powers are left entirely undeveloped. A Moslem lad is not supposed to know what the words and sen- tences mean which he must recite every day; to 138 CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD ask a question regarding the thought of the Koran would only result in a rebuke or something more painful. Even grammar, logic, history, and the- ology are taught by rote in the higher Moham- medan schools. Since orthodoxy cannot allow a place for private judgment in the professor's chair there remains no reason why pupils should think for themselves. Thousands of Moslem lads who know the whole Koran by heart, cannot ex- plain the meaning of the first chapter in every- day language. Tens of thousands can read the Koran at random, in the Moslem sense of read- ing, who cannot read an Arabic newspaper intel- ligently. The alpha and omega of knowledge is the one hundred and fourteen chapters of Allah's revelation. What need is there for other text- books? Writing is taught by means of a wooden slate, or copy-books made by the teachers. In the moun- tain villages of Oman one may still see the chil- dren writing on the bleached shoulder-blades of camels in the same fashion as the verses of the Koran were taken down from the Prophet's lips before the Hejira. Slates and pencils are prac- tically unknown in most Moslem schools. Even in Al Azhar University at Cairo the children copy their Koran lessons on tin slates made from the empty cases of the Standard Oil Company. The youngest child begins with a reed pen and native A LAD FROM TUNIS THE MIND OF A MOSLEM CHILD 139 ink to write on such material. Calligraphy is not only a science, but the chief fine art in that part of the world which abhors painting, statuary, and music. To write a beautiful Arabic hand is the height of youthful, scholarly ambition. It is dif- ficult even to cut the reed nib aright, although some schoolboys become adepts in this use of the penknife. The ink is generally made by the teacher. It is rich, black, and thick, and is made from lampblack, vinegar, red ochre, yellow arsenic, and camphor in mysterious proportions. A famous recipe for ink is a family treasure. When a boy has finished the reading of the whole of the Koran for the first time and has learned the rudiments of writing, he graduates from the primary school. On this occasion he has a rare holiday. Dressed in fine clothes, per- haps mounted on horseback, he visits the neigh- bours, receives gifts and sweetmeats, and brings a handsome present to his tutor. If he does not intend to become a doctor of divinity or of herbs, this is the end of his schooldays and the lad is put to learning a trade or helping his parents. All the maxims that relate to the training and instruction of the youth refer, of course, only to boys. The education of girls was not anticipated. Woman's sphere was marriage and the home, as soon as she passed out of the portals of child- hood. The Prophet's sajring is frequently quoted 140 CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD in regard to girls : **Do not let them frequent the roofs, do not teach them the art of writing ; teach them spinning and the chapter of the Koran called En Nur/' Goldziher adds, after quoting this para- graph, **It is surely preposterous to regard this surah as suitable for the training of young girls, containing, as it does, revelations which refer to women of known or suspected immoral life." It is a current saying that a woman who is taught to write is like a serpent which is given poison to drink. For a liberal education the boy is sent to one of the higher schools in the centres of Moslem learning, such as Cairo, Baghdad, or Damascus. Students of medicine obtain a smattering of the natural sciences and then read Hippocrates and Avicena under their teachers. There is no dis- secting and no practical experiments are carried on. Of course, none of the text-books have illus- trations. Students of divinity pursue the follow- ing branches of study: Grammatical inflection, syntax, logic, arithmetic, algebra, rhetoric, juris- prudence, scholastic theology, commentaries on the Koran, exegesis, and finally tradition with commentaries thereon. Next to the Koran itself, and because of it, the Arabic language is the most important centre of the group of sciences: lexi- cology, accidence, derivation, syntax, eloquence, prosody, rhyme, calligraphy, versification, and THE MIND OF A MOSLEM CHILD 141 prose composition, — all these require separate study from special treatises; the result in this case is a proud master grammarian who has no doubt that Arabic is the language of the angels and the only speech of God. The whole theory of Moslem education is so thoroughly bound up with Islam and its require- ments that even the government schools of Egypt and Moslem schools in India have not been able to throw oif the yoke of bondage to tradition. In consequence, the primers and reading books for primary classes contain much that a child ought not to know concerning the Moslem ritual of puri- fication, etc. A primer used in the Khedivial schools of Cairo, for example, has the following contents: After an invocation upon God, the al- phabet is given; the vowel system follows with simple combinations and words. Then come the names of the parts of the body, the five senses, and six stories or fables. The book concludes with a summary of the pillars of the Moslem religion and the practice of jurisprudence, utterly unsuited to the infant mind; e.g., **It is necessary for man to believe that his Creator has twenty attributes. These are existence, eternity, ever- lastingness, infinity, power, will, knowledge, life, hearing, sight, speech, etc. Concerning the apos- tles, he must believe that they are immaculate of both greater and lesser sins, even as the angels." 142 CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD This brief theological lesson is followed by a genealogy of the prophet Mohammed both on his father's and mother's side, a list of his children, and then this child's primer of thirty-two pages closes with a list of the ninety-nine beautiful names of God and two prayers. Another child's book which is widely in use is called **The Happiness of Beginners in the Sci- ence of Religion." It was printed at Cairo in 1330 A.H. by Sheikh Mohammed Amin el Kurdi. In the preface we are told that it is specially suitable for young girls and boys, yet this little book could not possibly be translated verbatim into English without breaking the law against im- moral publications. The first part of the book also treats of Moslem theology, but includes a chapter on purification which is utterly unfit for the mind of any child, giving, as it does, all the disgusting details of the Moslem ritual for mar- ried folk, as well as a special section on menstrua- tion and childbirth. In the section on prayer little children read as follows: **God has com- manded His people to observe five regular prayers, and the guardian or the parent of the child is responsible that they observe these times of prayer faithfully; and they must teach them its ritual before they are seven years of age, and punish them with blows if they do not pray when they have reached the age of ten. Those who A MOSLEM BROTHER AND SISTER PROM BOKHARA This Russian province has a Mosh'm population of 1,250,000. THE MIND OF A MOSLEM CHILD 143 neglect their prayers shall be severely punished unless they repent, and if they continue to neglect them shall be considered infidels and be slain like the rest of those who have become reprobates.' Nor shall prayer be said over them after death, nor shall they receive Moslem burial." The Moslems of India, even those who have received a Western education, cling to the same ideals. In *^The Muslim Guide,'' by Haji Riaz- ud-Din Ahmed, late tutor to the grandson of the Begum of Bhopal, and printed at Lahore (third edition), we read these words in the chapter on Prayer : **To perform prayer it is necessary to make wuzoo (ablution). There are four essentia! things in wuzoo: (1) to wash the face from the hairs at the forehead down to the chin; (2) to wash both the hands up to the elbows; (3) to make masah with water at the fourth part of the head; (4) to wash both the feet up to the ankles. If any of these parts are left unwashed, even to the breadth of a hair, the wuzoo will not be complete. The Prophet (peace be upon him) has taught ad- ditional purification. . . . ** There are three essential things in ghusal (washing): (1) Taking water into the mouth; (2) purifying the nostrils; (3) throwing water once over the whole body. But the Prophet has further ordered that, after removing the unclean- 144 CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD lines s existing on the body, wuzoo should be per- formed. Ghusal becomes necessary for both men and women on cohabitation, as well as in other circumstances to be looked for in religious books treating specially of the subjects of ghusal. A man without wuzoo is not to touch the Koran, but he is allowed to read it by heart ; but a man requir- ing ghusal should neither touch the Koran nor read it by heart. He is not even allowed to enter the mosque, neither to move round the Kaaba in Mecca." The result of this sort of religious training, where sex education has gone mad, is evident on every hand. Immoral ideas lie dormant in the minds of even mere infants, and the language which they learn to use is deplorable. According to the testimony of Dr. Hoskins, Moslem methods of education are entirely antiquated and show everywhere the intolerant spirit of Islam. ** Mos- lem children, ' ' he writes, * * are dirty, diseased, un- trained, knowing altogether too much for their years of things veiled in Christian lands. They are inferior to even the most ignorant Christians ; the boys given to nameless vices, therefore un- clean and stunted intellectually. Moslem parents are kind to their children, but they also teach them to swear and curse in fun. A little later they curse in earnest, and then ignorant parents resort to great cruelty. These are the general THE MIND OF A MOSLEM CHILD 145 conditions. On the other hand, there are good families where parental discipline is of the highest order, though the relations of parents and chil- dren have never anything of comradeship." There is no light literature specially prepared for children. The chief books current in Moslem lands which are accessible to children, and which are the basis of folklore and fireside gossip, out- side the Koran, are the following: Eth-Thalabi, **Kusus al Anbiya,*' which contains stories of all the prophets and apostles, many of them based on tradition, most of them puerile, and nearly all of them indecent in their references to marriage and home life; **The [unexpurgated] Arabian Nights," or stories selected from them; Ad- Damiri^s *^ Zoological Lexicon," widely current in all Moslem lands: a sort of encyclopedia of things in heaven above, on the earth beneath, and in the waters under the earth. One has only to turn the pages of this book in its English trans- lation to see how unsuitable are Moslem stories for the education of a child. It is hard to select samples, but I will give three by way of illustra- tion. Most of the stories in this book are un- translatable. Here are two fish stories: *^A1-Kazwini relates in Aja'ih al-mahhlukat, on the authority of 'Abd-ar-Rahman bin Harun al- Magrabi, who said, *I went on a voyage in the sea of Morocco and arrived at a place called al- 146 CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD Bartun. We had with us a Sicilian boy, who had with him a fishing-hook; he threw it into the sea and fished up with it a fish about a span in length. We looked at it and found written on the back of its right ear, There is no deity but God; on the back of its neck, Muhammad ; and on the back of its left ear, the apostle of God.' '' **The Imam Ahmad relates in az-Zuhd, on the authority of Nawf-al-Bakali, who said, * A believer and an unbeliever once set out for fishing; the unbeliever used to cast his net and take the name of his deity (idol), upon which the net used to be filled with fish, whilst the believer used to throw his net and take the name of God, but could not succeed in getting anything. They did that until sunset, when the believer caught a fish, which he took in his hand, upon which it became agitated and fell into the water, so that the believer re- turned without anything, whilst the unbeliever returned with his boat full. The guardian angel of the believer thereupon became dejected and said, **0 Lord, Thy believing servant, who asks in Thy name, has returned without anything, whilst Thy unbelieving servant has returned with his boat full." God said to the guardian angel of the believer, **Come,'' and then showed him the dwelling-place of the believer in Paradise, saying, **What has befallen this my believing servant will not harm him, when he comes to THE MIND OF A MOSLEM CHILD 147 possess this/' He then showed him the dweUing- place of the unbeliever in hell-fire, saying, ** Would anything he has found in the world stand in good stead for himT' The angel replied, **No, by God, OLord!'' ' '' Here is a better story, which at least teaches the evils of drink. **It is related that, when Adam planted the vine-creeper, Iblis came there and slaughtered over it a peacock, and the creeper drank its blood. When its leaves came forth, he slaughtered over it an ape, and the creeper drank its blood. When its fruit came out, he slaughtered over it a lion, and the creeper drank its blood. When its fruit was fully ripe, he slaughtered over it a pig, and the creeper drank its blood. On this account the descriptive qualities of these four animals seize a drinker of wine in this way : when he first drinks it and it creeps into his limbs, his colour becomes red, and he appears handsome as a peacock does ; when the commencement of intoxication sets in, he plays, claps his hands, and dances as an ape does; when the intoxication becomes strong, the leonine quality comes upon him, and he sports and behaves in an annoying manner towards his companions and talks, incoherently, useless non- sense; he is then affected with torpor in the manner that a pig is affected with it, seeks sleep, and the strings of his strength become loose." 148 CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD Our last story might be called a Bible Story for Moslem boys and girls. It is based on the second chapter of the Koran, and tells the story of the heifer there mentioned. **It is related that it happened that there was a certain pious man among the Beni-Isra'il, who had an infant son possessing a heifer. He took it to a thicket and said, * God, I leave this heifer in Thy charge for my son until he grows up.' The man then died, and the heifer grew up into a middle-aged cow in the thicket, but she used to run away from everybody that saw her. When the boy also grew up and was dutiful to his mother, he used to divide the night into three portions, one of which he devoted to prayer, an- other to sleep, and the third to watching at the head of his mother. In the morning he used to go out, collect wood, and bring it on his back to the market for sale; a third of the proceeds of it he used to spend in alms, another third in feeding himself, and the remaining third he used to give to his mother. *^One day his mother told him, 'Your father has left for you the legacy of a heifer in the charge of God, in such and such a thicket. Go forth, therefore, and pray to the God of Abraham, Ishmael, Isaac, and Jacob to return her to you. The sign by which she is to be recognized is that directly you see her, you would imagine sun's THE MIND OF A MOSLEM CHILD 149 rays to be proceeding from her skin. ' The heifer was named on account of its beauty and yellow- colour al-Mudhahhahah (the gilt one). The youth then went to the thicket and saw her grazing, upon which he shouted out to her, *I conjure thee by the God of Abraham, Ishmael, Isaac, and Jacob to come to me.' The heifer thereupon turned to- wards him and, running, stood before him. He then seized her by her neck and was about to lead her, when she spoke by the order of God, * you youth, who are so dutiful to your mother, ride me, in which case it would be easier for yourself. ' The youth, however, replied, ^My mother has not or- dered me to do that, but she told me, * ^ Seize her by the neck.'' ' The heifer thereupon said, *By the God of the Beni-Isra'il, had you mounted me, you could never have had me in your power; but go on, for even if you order a mountain to root itself out and go with you, it would do it, on ac- count of your dutif ulness to your mother. ' **The youth then went with her to his mother, who said, ^You are poor and have no property, and it is difficult for you to collect wood in the day and to watch at night ; go forth therefore and sell the cow.' He asked her, *For how much shall I sell her?' She replied, *For three dinars, but not without consulting me first.' The price of a cow at that time was three dinars. The youth went with the cow to the market, and God 150 CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD sent to him an angel in order to show His crea- tures His power and to try the youth's dutiful- ness to his mother : ' Verily, God is knowing and aware/ The angel asked him, ^For how much will you sell this cowT and he replied, *For three dinars, but I make the condition with you of my mother being pleased with the bargain.' The angel said, ^I shall give you six dinars, if you do not consult your mother.' The youth re- plied, * Even if you give me the weight of the cow in, gold, I shall not take it without my mother's consent.' He then returned to his mother and informed her of the price, upon which she said to him, ^Eeturn and sell her for six dinars, but dependent on my consent.' He therefore went again to the market, and the angel came again and asked him, 'Have you consulted your mother?' The youth replied, 'She has ordered me not to reduce the price to anything less than six dinars, but that, too, on the condition of con- sulting her. ' The angel then said to him, ' I shall give you twelve dinars, provided you do not con- sult your mother. ' ''The youth, however, refused, and returning to his mother informed her of it. She said, ' The person who comes to you is an angel in the guise of a human being to try you ; if he comes to you again, ask him, "Do you order us to sell this cow or notr' ' The youth did as he was told, and THE MIND OF A MOSLEM CHILD 151 the angel replied, 'Go to your mother and tell her, ^ ' Keep this cow, for Moses will buy her from you, on account of the murdered man out of the Beni-Isra*il, and do not sell her for less than her skin full of dinars.'' ' They therefore kept back the cow, and God decreed for the Beni-Isra'il to kill that very cow, in compensation to the youth for his dutifulness to his mother and out of His kindness and mercy (which happened in this way) : The Beni-Isra'il kept constantly asking for a description of the cow, until this very cow was described to them/' And lest the reader should think that these stories are not truly representative, here is one from the Koran itself — also, alas! a fish story. **And remember when Moses said unto his servant Joshua, the son of Nun, I will not cease to go forward, until I come to the place where the two seas meet; or I will travel for a long space of time. But when they were arrived at the meeting of the two seas, they forgot their fish which they had taken with them. Moses said unto his servant, Bring us our dinner, for now are we fatigued with this our journey. His servant answered. Dost thou know what has be- fallen me ? When we took up our lodgings at the rock, verily I forgot the fish; and none made me to forget it, except Satan that I should not remind thee of it. And the fish took its way in the sea, 152 CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD in a wonderful manner. Moses said, This is what we sought after. And they both went back, re- turning by the way they came.'' And the remainder of this curious story is not more intelligible, as recorded in the chapter of the Koran called The Cave — 59-64. A very curious side-light is thrown upon the Moslem idea of education, as well as on their utter ignorance of New Testament history, in what they say concerning the education of our Saviour Jesus, the Son of Mary. *^When Jesus was born and He was a day old, it was as though He was a month old ; and when He was nine months old, His mother took Him by the hand and led Him to the school and placed Him between the hands of the teacher; and the teacher said to Him, 'Say, Bismillah er-rahman er-rahim. ' Then Jesus said it. The teacher said, 'Say Ahjad/ (The first word in a mnemonic series containing the Arabic alphabet, following the ancient or numerical order, and used as numerals by the Arabs until superseded by later notation. Each word in the series is here inter- preted fancifully with a play on the Arabic root.) Then Jesus (upon whom be peace) lifted up His head and said to him, *Do you know what ahjad means?' Then the teacher lifted up his rod to strike Him, and Jesus said, *0 teacher! do not strike me if you kngw; if you do not know, ask THE MIND OF A MOSLEM CHILD 153 me, so that I can explain it to you.' Then the teacher said, * Explain it to me.' And Jesus said, ^Alif means that there is no god but God; the ha stands for the glory of God ; the jim for the maj- esty of God ; and the dal for the religion of God. Hawwaz: Ha stands for hell, and the waw stands for woe to the people of the fire, and the za stands for their groanings in hell. Hatta signifies that their sins can never be forgiven. Kalman sig- nifies the Word of God Uncreated and Unchange- able. Safas signifies measure for measure and part for part. Karshat signifies that God will collect them at the time of the resurrection. Then the teacher said to His mother, *0 Woman, take Thy child, for He knows everything and does not need a teacher. ' ' ' The cruel use of the rod is universal in the vil- lage school from Morocco to Afghanistan. Mar- tin writes that under the Absolute Amir there is no ** sparing the rod and spoiling the child, and when the master wishes to punish one of them, the small offender is held on his back, with his legs up in the air, and receives so many cuts on the soles of his feet, and while the punishment lasts he howls piteously. Sometimes in passing a school I have stopped, thinking a child was surely being murdered, until I saw the reason why the boy was howling." In Kashmir, where the vast majority of the 154 CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD population is Mohammedan, we are told that not a dozen men know Arabic thoroughly. They re- cite the Koran like parrots, and yet here also the Koran is taught by mullahs to boys from four years old and upward, who understand nothing of its meaning and only learn it by rote. Throughout the whole of India, Persia, Turkey, and other non- Arabic-speaking lands, the Arabic Koran is still considered the chief text-book of religion and children are taught its chapters with- out any particular attempt at translation or inter- pretation. Away from the centres of population and among the nomad tribes of the Sahara Des- ert, the Egyptian Sudan, Arabia, Southern Persia, and Central Asia, there is no book learning, but children are trained from birth in the hard school of nomad life, fatigue, and danger. Burckhardt says of Arabia: **I have seen parties of naked boys playing at noonday upon the burning sand in the middle of summer, running till they had fatigued them- selves, and when they returned to their fathers' tents they were scolded for not continuing the exercise. Instead of teaching the boy civil man- ners, the father desires him to beat and pelt the strangers who come to the tent ; to steal or secrete some trifling article belonging to them. The more saucy and impudent children are the more they are praised, since this is taken as an indication THE MIND OF A MOSLEM CHILD 155 of future enterprise and warlike disposition." The children of the desert have no book save the Book of Nature. Yet we may believe that this magnificent picture book is never more diligently- studied than by those little dark eyes which watch the sheep at pasture or count the stars in the blue abyss from their perch on a lofty camePs saddle in the midnight journeyings. When the nomad lad grows up, and begins to swear by the few straggling hairs on his chin, he cannot read a letter, but he knows men and he knows the desert. The talk heard at night around the sheikh's tent or the acacia-brush fire- side is much like the wisdom of the book of Job. A philosophy of submission to the world as it is ; a deification of stoicism or patience; a profound trust that all will end well at last. Sad to say, even the little nomads, with their ignorance of all religion, share in the fanatical antagonism of their elders toward the Christian religion and Christians. One of their games, in Nejd, is to draw a cross on the desert and then defile it ; they learn that all outside the pale of Mohammed's creed are kafirs, and to please Allah are glad to throw stones at any wayfaring Nasrani. Little do the Bedouins and still less do their children, however, know of the religion of Islam. The Koran is not a book for children's minds, and of such is not the kingdom of Mohammed. 156 CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD When we consider the present condition of this world of childhood, its utter ignorance, supersti- tion, illiteracy, this horror of a great darkness hanging over Moslem hearts and homes, there rises before us the picture, familiar to all who have seen the East, of the debtor or the beggar climbing to the top of the minaret to ask for alms. How well I remember hearing such a cry of need from the crumbling minarets on the island of Bahrein: **Ya mal Allah! Ya hak Allah!'' — **Give me God's own! Give me God's due ! " If Moslem childhood could voice its own need, such would be its cry. " In shadow of a crumbling mosque he stands. An aged mendicant with want outworn, Eyes from their sunken sockets ruthless torn, For crimes in lawless youth — for so demands The cruel Moslem code. With trembling hands Outheld for aid, he only lives to mourn Till kindly death beyond the earthly bourn Shall carry him at last and loose his bands. To motley crowds that careless come and go He murmurs, * Give me what belongs to God.' That cry proclaims the debt that Christians owe His country where Mohammed's legions trod. And with the sword their creed unholy spread, Robbing her children of the Living Bread." MORAL TRAINING AND NEGLECT "Verily, a lie is justifiable in three cases: to women, in war, and to patch up a quarrel between friends." — Mohammed. " The moral sense, in its objective form, is still very incomplete in little children, even between the ages of two and four. They have, however, a very advanced idea of what is allowed and what forbidden, of what they must or may, and what they must not do, as regards their physical and moral habits. Moral law is for them embodied in their parents, in the mother especially, even during their absence." — Bernard Perez in " The First Three Years of Childhood." "Man is the absolute master and woman the slave. She is the object of his sensual pleasures, a toy, as it were, with which he plays, whenever and however he pleases. Knowledge is his, ignorance is hers. The firmament and the light are his, darkness and the dungeon are hers. His is to command, hers is to blindly obey. His is everything that is, and she is an insignificant part of that everything." — ^Kasim Bey Amin of Cairo, in his book "The New Woman." MORAL TRAINING AND NEGLECT SUCH moral training as is given to the child of Mohammedan parents is necessarily- based on their own ideas and ideals of ethics. If Christian ethics is conditioned by our faith in the teachings of the New Testament and the ideals of the character of Jesus Christ, to an equal degree Moslem ethics is based upon the Koran and the moral character of Mohammed. In this again we see the unity of Islam. How- ever different the environment, the stage of prog- ress, or the degree of civilization, all Moham- medans everywhere believe that ideal virtue is to be found through imitation of Mohammed, that the moral law is recorded in the precepts of the Koran, and that the highest good for the individ- ual and for the community consists in what Islam offers for this life and the life to come. In considering the moral training of a child, therefore, we must first study the moral concepts of this religion which, in the words of Dr. Robert E. Speer, *4s held by many who have to live under its shadow to be the most degraded reli- 159 160 CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD gion, morally, in the world. Missionaries from India will tell you that the actual moral condi- tions to be found among Mohammedans every- where are more terrible than those to be found even among the pantheistic Hindus themselves. ' ' And Adolph Wutke, in his '^System of Ethics,'* speaks of Islam as an ** attempt of heathenism to maintain itself erect under an outward monothe- istic form." The Moslem's idea of God and of His moral attributes differs widely from that of the Chris- tian. His conception of sin is different, and the division of sins into great and little, as well as the fact that there is no clear distinction between the ceremonial and the moral law, have an evil tendency in the sphere of ethics. All sins except great ones are easily forgiven, because God is merciful and clement. Dr. George F. Herrick, after fifty years' experience in Turkey, says: **The Moslem's apprehension of the moral at- tributes of God differs widely from that of the Christian. Paternal love has no place in his view of God. According to Islam, mercy and justice have no relation one to the other. Sin is not guilt, but weakness, and is forgiven through pity to the formally penitent. Religion and life are strangers one to the other." But this must not surprise us in the history of Moslem morals. A stream cannot rise higher MORAL TRAINING AND NEGLECT 161 than its source. A tower cannot be broader than its foundation. The measure of the moral stature of Mohammed is the source and foundation of all moral ideals in Islam. His conduct is the standard of character. Every detail of his life is attributed to divine permission or command, and so what appear to us as faults in his character are interpreted as special privileges or signs of superiority. Moslem boys and girls are taught to believe that God favoured their prophet above all creatures, and his name is never uttered by them or by their parents without the addition of these words, *^ Mohammed, upon him be prayers and peace. ' ' Poems in praise of the Prophet are read at festivals, sung by travelling dervishes, and printed in books of devotion. Here is an example of those current in China, and is sup- posed to have been written by the first emperor of the Ming Dynasty. It is less extravagant than many similar poems of Arabic literature. "In the beginnings of the heavens and the earth The records of Heaven recorded the name Of the great Preacher and Prophet, Who was born on the western boundaries, To receive and transmit the heavenly classic. Which consists of thirty sections and records For the enlightenment and instruction of all flesh. Millions own him as Prince and Teacher. Of all Prophets he is the chief, Assisting the heavens in their rotation. Protecting and shielding the reigning sovereign. 162 CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD Observing five times for prayer each day, Beseeching for the national peace, Retaining the true Lord in the heart. Considering the poor with increasing care, Extending help in times of calamity, Even penetrating to the dark abyss. Lifting up the dead therein, Saving from the curse of sin, Causing benevolence to cover the earth again, His doctrine now and ever had fame. Subduing the depraved who turn to the Lord, Whose religion is known as the Pure and True, iWhile Muhammad is its most honoured Prophet." (James Hudson in the National Review, Shanghai, September 12, 1914.) It is not necessary to enter into the details of Mohammed's life and character. These are suf- ficiently revealed not only in the standard biog- raphies by Western scholars, but in the earliest sources of Islam itself, — the Koran and Tradition. The picture is anything but attractive. Bos- worth Smith, who has perhaps written the most able apology for the life of Mohammed, and who certainly cannot be accused of any bias, wrote: **The religion of Christ contains whole fields of morality and whole realms of thought which are all but outside the religion of Mohammed. It opens humility, purity of heart, forgiveness of injuries, sacrifice of self, to man's moral nature; it gives scope for toleration, development, bound- less progress to his mind; its motive power is stronger, even as a friend is better than a king, MORAL TRAINING AND NEGLECT 163 and love higher than obedience. Its realized ideals in the various paths of human greatness have been more commanding, more many-sided, more holy, as Averroes is below Newton, Harun below Alfred, and Ali below St. Paul. * ' T. J. De Boer shows that, although the Koran urges faith and good intentions, ** unpremedi- tated lapses from virtue are leniently judged. In short, Allah makes it no onerous task for His faithful to serve Him.'' Some have stated, and not without reason, that early Islam was abso- lutely destitute of ethical spirit, although Gold- ziher refuted this. The fact, however, remains that the mass of the people paid less attention to Koran precepts than to the actual life lived by Mohammed in his Medina period, **when his love was given mainly to women, and the objects of his hate and greed were the unbeliever and his possessions.'' Those who have carefully investi- gated Moslem ethics agree that the great bulk of its moral precepts bear an external and a commercial character. The believer has an ac- count with Allah of debits and credits, rather than a record of sins committed and forgiven. It is because of these low ideals that Islam has never developed strong moral natures. The fight \ for character, the attainment of high ideals, the crucifixion of self, — all this is absent to a degree which is almost inconceivable. As the Koran 164f CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD itself states, *^God desires to make things easy for men/' The tendency of Islam is to develop a flabby moral nature, and this tendency is the inheritance of Moslem childhood. How different is the heritage of Christian childhood as voiced by the poet. We cannot even imagine a Moslem child expressing its gratitude in such terms, not even such children as boast of their direct de- scent from the holy Prophet ! "I thank Thee for a holy ancestry; I bless Thee for a godly parentage; For seeds of truth and light and purity, Sown in this heart from childhood's earliest age. ** For word and church and watchful ministry, The beacon and the tutor and the guide; For the parental hand and lip and eye, That kept me from the snares on every side. " I thank the love that kept my heart from sin. Even when my heart was far from God and truth. That gave me, for a lifetime's heritage. The purities of unpolluted youth." A startling revelation of the contrast between Moslem and Christian ideals in ethics can also be gained from a comparative study of popular lit- erature, the ** Arabian Nights," for example, a mediaeval picture of Moslem life and morals, in contrast with the mediaeval romance of the ** Knights of the Eound Table.'' Both books pre- sent unconsciously a picture of ideas and ideals MORAL TRAINING AND NEGLECT 165 in ethics. Womanhood in the one case is sus- pected, dishonoured, untrustworthy, and chiefly celebrated for her lower passions; in the other case, her purity and strength of character stand out as examples of moral greatness. The same contrast can be seen between Shake- speare and Al Hariri. The one, the poet of conscience, ever preaches the truth that the wages of sin is death and the reward of right- eousness, life. In the ^^Makamat" of Al Hariri, as Stanley Lane-Poole says, we see *'a Bohemian of brilliant parts and absolutely no conscience, who constantly extracts alms from assemblies of people in various cities by preaching eloquent discourses of the highest piety and morality, and then goes off with his spoils to indulge secretly in triumphant and unhallowed revels.'' Yet this collection of poems is the greatest literary treasure of the Arabs, next to the Koran. T. J. De Boer remarks: **When we examine the representation of the manners given in the * Thousand and One Nights,' we see little indication of rigorous conformity to the law or of any profound and vital morality. We generally find ourselves in a society whose basis is largely sordid gain and whose life re- volves around wine, women, and song. The peo- ple know the moral code by heart, they indulge in pious meditations, but only by way of rhetorical 166 CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD embellishment. . . . We find a society, in fact, that fostered the virtues of worldly wisdom, polite intercourse, tolerance, and at the same time prac- tised all the old and prevalent vices in more re- fined forms.'' The Koran gives very little on the teaching and training of childhood. Its references sur- prise one by their meagre content and low esti- mate of the child, but later writers have found in the Prophet's life those ideals for childhood and education concerning which the Koran is so strangely silent. It would not be an exaggera- tion to say that the Book of Proverbs contains vastly more and vastly higher ideals, both in regard to ethics and education, than does the whole literature of Islam. The entire teaching of the Koran on childhood is given in less than a dozen passages and may be summed up as follows. There is strong disapproval of the horrible practice of putting to death newborn girls, prevalent in the days before Mohammed. ** Los- ers are they who kill their children foolishly, without knowledge. ' ' ( Surah 6 : 137-140. ) This matter is again referred to in Surah 6 : 151 and Surah 17:31. **Slay not your children for fear of poverty. We will provide for them." ** Be- ware to slay them. It is a great sin." The Prophet goes into detail concerning the suckling and weaning of infants. (Surah 2 : 232.) MORAL TRAINING AND NEGLECT 167 *^ Mothers must suckle their children for two whole years/' / Children are a blessing of God, as is property ., / and wealth. It is curious, however, to notice that m every passage wealth is mentioned before chil- dren. * ^ Know that your wealth and your children are but a temptation, and thank God with whom is mighty hire.'' (Surah 8:28; 17:65; 34:35, 39.) All of these passages teach that wealth and children will not deliver the believer in the day of judgment. ** Neither your kindred nor your children shall profit you upon the resurrection day. It will separate you." (Surah 60:3.) Children are not only a blessing, but a snare and a temptation. ^*0 ye believers, let not your prop- erty nor your children divert you from the re- membrance of God." (Surah 63 : 9.) And again, * * ye people, verily among your wives and your children are foes of yours. So beware of them. Your property and your children are but a trial. ' ' (Surah 64:14.) **0 ye folk, fear your God and dread the day when the father shall not atone for his son, nor shall the son atone for its par- ent." (Surah 31: 32.) There are one or two references to the birth of children (Surah 22:5), and in the division of the inheritance Mohammed teaches that the boy shall receive the portion of two girls. (Surah 4: 10.) All this, however, contains nothing in re- 168 CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD gard to the duties of the child, nor its privileges. Two verses remain. In Surah 24 : 31 and 32, we are told that mothers need not veil themselves before their own children ^^who do not note wom- en's nakedness''; and finally in the same Surah, verse 59, we read: *^When your children reach puberty, let them ask leave as those before them asked leave." The context shows that this last passage only signifies that children must not enter the harim without first asking permission! The one passage which gives a true message for children to honour their parents occurs in the chapter of the Night Journey, and reads: **Thy Lord has decreed . . . kindness to one's parents, whether one or both of them reach old age with thee; and say not to them, *Fie!' and do not grumble at them, but speak to them a generous speech. And lower to them the wing of humility out of compassion, and say, *0 Lord! have compassion on them as they brought me up when I was little.' Your Lord knows best what is in your souls if ye be righteous, and verily. He is forgiving unto those who come back penitent. And give thy kinsman his due and the poor and the son of the road; and waste not wastefuUy, for the wasteful were ever the devil's brothers; and the devil is ever ungrateful to his Lord." The Koran, of course, inculcates general moral MORAL TRAINING AND NEGLECT 169 duties, according to the standards of Mohammed, praises the upright, threatens unbelievers, en- joins the care of orphans, obedience to parents, alms to the poor, and kindness to the oppressed. But in all this teaching there is scarcely any refer- ence to childhood, and as we have already seen, according to Moslem ethics, the child is not held responsible for its moral acts until it has reached the age of puberty. Outside of the Koran a rather large literature exists on Adah, or politeness, etiquette, morals, which is sometimes within the reach of children; but it is difficult for parent or child to say where etiquette ends and morals begin. Certain vir\ tues, such as patience, humility, gentleness, re-| finement of speech, and care of the sick, are com-j mended, and the opposite vices held up to con-t tempt ; but there is always the tendency to narrow the circle of philanthropy to Moslems. These mediaeval admonitions on morals and behaviour are copied out in school or quoted as proverbs, but are generally considered as counsels of per- fection. Not even the saints in the Moslem cal- endar attained to these virtues in any large measure, therefore what hope is there for ordi- nary mortals! ** Those who recount the history of Islam, '* writes Margoliouth, '*have to lay aside all ordinary canons of morality, else the pic- ture would have no lights; they could not write 170 CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD at all if they let themselves be shocked by perfidy or bloodthirstiness, by cruelty or lust. Yet both the Koran and the Tradition forbid the first three, and assign some limits to the fourth.'' And beside this discrepancy between theory and practice, the theory itself is not accessible to the vast majority who are sunk in ignorance and su- perstition, and have never heard the names of these Moslem writers. The theory exists, we must acknowledge, and those who wish to examine it more carefully will find it fully described by Pro- fessor MacDonald in a paper on the Moral Edu- cation of the Young among Moslems {Interna- tional Journal of Ethics, Vol. XV, p. 286). Within a stone's throw of Al Azhar University, however, and of the Paternoster Row of Cairo, where these books are printed, the condition of Moslem childhood is a sad commentary on the inefiiciency of such moral training. The first sen- tence a child learns to speak in Egypt is often a phrase of impoliteness and insult. The mouths of little children are full of cursing and bitter- ness, and the way of peace they have not known. No amount of moral maxims can counteract the terrible effect of an immoral environment. Mos- lem children come into the world handicapped. The curse of Islam, through its polygamy, con- cubinage, and freedom of divorce, already rests upon them. All correspondents and missionaries, MORAL TRAINING AND NEGLECT 171 without exception, speak of these conditions, and say it is hardly conceivable that a child can grow up pure-minded in such an atmosphere. Dr. Pen- nell testifies that in Afghanistan the boys of even the highest families suffer permanent moral in- jury by being brought up in the voluptuous and effeminate surroundings of the zenana. Mr. Cooksey of Tunis says: **Foul language, lying, treachery, and intrigue is their common life. Small boys curse and strike their mothers, who glory in this manliness, and immorality, includ- ing sodomy, is very rife among the adolescent." From earliest childhood Moslem children nearly everywhere are familiar with degrading conversa- tion, and this precocity of evil is doubtless due in many lands to scanty clothing and improper housing of children. Rev. Mr. Jessup writes from Persia: ^^In well-to-do houses the boys and girls are separated when little children, and are rele- gated to the men's and women's apartments re- spectively, where, in the company of their elders, they are exposed to coarse and impure language and degrading suggestions. ... On the other hand, the children seem bright and happy and loved. Though at times cruelly treated, they are more often harmed through ignorance than ill will.'' Rev. John Van Ess, for many years a mis- sionary in Turkish Arabia, writes: ''AH Moslem 172 CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD boys learn elaborate and artistic profanity at home, a profanity which consigns the offender and all his ancestors and posterity to refined de- grees of punishment. And worst of all, is that they freely invoke Allah as witness and upholder of the imprecations. It is a mixture of religion and profanity, all learned at home, and the up- rooting of the nature and habit takes long and patient and loving effort.'' Burton, the Arabian traveller, tells of the lack of moral education in Medina and Mecca; how parents abuse their children almost as soon as they can speak, in order to excite their rage and test their dispositions. The children reply with coarse language, and lisp blasphemies from in- fancy. **One urchin, scarcely three years old, told me, because I objected to his perching upon my wounded foot, that his father had a sword at home with which he would cut my throat from ear to ear, suiting the action to the word. By a few taunts I made the little wretch furious with rage; he shook his infant fist at me, and then opening his enormous black eyes to their utmost stretch, he looked at me, and licked his knee with portentous meaning. ... '*Then a serious and majestic boy about six years old, with an inkstand in his belt, in token of his receiving a literary education, seized my 2 « O c3 W ^- SI 3 I i S oJ «*^ o ;^ I MORAL TRAINING AND NEGLECT 173 pipe and began to smoke it with huge puffs. I ventured laughingly to institute a comparison be- tween the length of his person and the pipe-stick, when he threw it upon the ground, and stared at f me fixedly with flaming eyes and features dis- | torted by anger. " If it is true, as all teachers of ethics admit, that the moral development of a child or his immoral tendencies are due most of all to the influence of the parents, especially the mother, how sad is the lot of the Moslem child! A correspondent from Nablous, Palestine, speaks of this neglect, or un- trained motherhood, and says : * * It is no wonder the children have foul minds and fouler tongues. It is not shame for a Moslem mother to engage in the most filthy and polluting conversation be- fore her young children, and when she has taught them to curse their own father, she praises them for their cleverness. '* Judged by Christian standards, the condition of Moslem children nearly everywhere is nocent rather than innocent, and ever tends to degrada- tion. What we call home life is strangely absent. Where there is love between the parents and the children there is still unhappiness, for, as Dr. Cantine of Arabia remarks, * * Moslem children are unhappy not because of lack of love, but from lack of knowledge of what is best for them and lack 174 CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD of wisdom on the part of their parents in using what little knowledge they have. ' ' This testimony- is corroborated by a Swedish missionary in Chinese Turkestan, who writes : ' * The parents, al- though they have an intense love for their chil- dren, have no idea whatever of bringing them up, judged by our Christian standards. They run perfectly wild, no attention is paid to cleanliness ; they learn all the evil things they see and hear in their homes and in the streets, and are ap- plauded as being clever when they use bad words. It is really a wonder that they are so amenable to teaching and rules when they come under our influence. ' ' The results of this training of childhood can best be studied in lands where Islam has had un- disputed possession for centuries, where the law of cause and effect has operated for generations, under different natural and political environ- ments and even different races, but where the re- sults are so sadly similar that they form a terrible and unanswerable indictment against Islam in its relation to childhood. In its native Arabian soil, for example, the tree planted by the Prophet has grown with wild freedom and brought forth fruit after its kind. In Morocco and Afghanistan, Islam has never been hindered in its development by other dominant religions. Wliat we see in these lands, therefore, is the fruit of the tree. MORAL TRAINING AND NEGLECT 175 Doughty tells us that the nomad boys despise their mother *s voice, and as far as moral training goes, they receive none in the early days of childhood. *^I have known an ill-natured child to lay a stick to the back of his good cherishing mother; and asked why she suffered this, she answered, sighing, * My child is a kafir, ' that is, of a heathen- ish, froward nature. Some asking if our children too were peevish, when they heard from me the old dreadful severity of Moses' law, they ex- claimed, *But many is the ill-natured lad among us that, and he be strong enough, will beat his own father. ' . . . There are devout Bedouins full, in that religious life of the desert, of natural religion, who may somewhiles reprove them; but the child is never checked for any lying, although the Arabians say Hhe lie is shameful.' Their lie is an easy stratagem and one's most ready de- fence to mislead his enemy. Nature we see to be herself most full of all guile, and this lying mouth is indulged by the Arabian religion." It is sometimes asserted by apologists for Islam that its progress among the heathen tribes in Africa is a stepping-stone to Christianity. Alas, all the testimony is on the other side. **The adoption of the faith of Islam by the pagan peo- ple of Africa," said the Bishop of Mombasa, *4s in no sense whatever a stepping-stone towards or a preparation for Christianity, but exactly the 176 CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD reverse." (The Moslem World, Vol. I, p. 365.) In his book, *^The Progress and Arrest of Islam in Sumatra," Gottfried Simon deals with this whole question and says things that may ap- pear severe to those who have only investigated the subject superficially, but which are confirmed by all students of Islam who live in Moslem lands and are not mere armchair critics. **A glance at the Mohammedan world, ' ' he says, * * shows that the level of morality is actually lowest in the old Mohammedan countries. . . . Islam does not raise the moral ideal of animistic peoples. . . . Just be- cause the Bataks, for instance, are so ignorant about the Prophet's life, the morality of the Mo- hammedan Batak and his married life is on a higher plane than that of other Mohammedan countries. ' ' And again, in regard to the influence of the Mecca pilgrimage upon the morals of heathenism, he says : * * It introduces him to a re- finement of vice of which he was hitherto ig- norant. . . . The captains of pilgrim boats carry not only cholera germs to the ends of the earth; they have also shiploads of agents of immorality for the heathen world already immoral to the core. And this immorality, like everything that comes from Mecca, has the Divine sanction, for- bidden as such vices may be by the letter of the law." Similar testimony is given from other lands, MORAL TRAINING AND NEGLECT 177 especially West Africa. ' ' Islam, ' ' says Rev. R. P. Dougherty, * ^ does not subvert heathenism in West Africa, but uses it as a foundation for its own religious structure. The African need not drop any of the distinctive habits and customs of his animistic cult in order to become a Moslem. Polygamy, witchcraft, slavery, and even cannibal- ism, may be indulged in as before. In reality, the negro puts on the gown of Islam not to get rid of his evil practices, nor even to hide them, but rather to dignify them, if possible.'' One of the fundamental evils of heathenism, its childhood as well as manhood, is u ntruthfulne ss. Where the home life is full of the spirit of deceit, all moral health and stability are destroyed. Yet Islam in its moral results, not to speak of its moral teaching, does not rise above, nay, scarcely as high as, the other non- Christian religions in this respect. We do not mean to insinuate, as some writers have, that Moslems are to be classed with Cretans and that their word is utterly unre- liable, but to point out that the widespread habit of lying and the low ideas of truth prevalent in Moslem lands, and therefore imitated by children, are due to the teaching of Islam itself and its effect upon those that profess it. Whether Mo- hammed should be called the False Prophet par eminence may be an open question with many, but when we read Moslem theology, study Moham- 178 CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD medan literature, and live among Moslem peo- ples, there is no doubt whatever that truth- speaking seems to have become a lost art. It is true that the Koran again and again classes liars with unbelievers and infidels, and says that their fate will be eternal fire. But when we ask in what a lie really consists, we discover that Islam is able to condemn liars as a class and yet allows untruthfulness. The Koran, for ex- ample, says concerning oaths : ' * God will not pun- ish for an inconsiderate error in your oath, but He will punish you for that which your hearts have assented to." (Surah 2:225.) Tradition interprets this verse by saying, ** Whoever swears to a thing and says In sha Allah (if it please God) commits no sin.'' On the whole question of the nature of an oath, Moslem jurists follow rabbinic teaching. If a man swear by the knowledge of God, it does not constitute an oath. Abu Hanifa goes so far as to allege that if a man swear by the truth of God, this does not constitute an oath, and in this opinion other jurists coincide. To swear on the Koran is one of the most solemn methods of securing veracity, and yet it is a well-known practice in some Moslem lands for the one who takes this oath to place between his thumb and the Holy Book the bristle of a hog, and by a species of casuistry the oath in this case is null and void. Oaths on every occasion, not only in o o ^ « u 3 w P. Oh X! fe a O o OS q t. M a ts w Oh bo s W ^ W °* H s MORAL TRAINING AND NEGLECT 179 the name of God, but of the Prophet, his word, his life, etc., are therefore exceedingly common. Turning from the Koran and its teaching to that of Moslem theology, we find in Ghazali, the greatest of all their theologians and the most au- thoritative, the following paragraphs on the ques- tion, "When lies are justifiable. {Ihya ul-'Ulum, Vol. Ill, p. 96.) *^Know that a lie is not liar am (wrong) in itself, but only because of the evil conclusions to which it leads the hearer, making him believe something that is not really the case. Ignorance sometimes is an advantage, and if a lie causes this kind of ignorance it may be allowed. It is sometimes a duty to lie. Maimun ibn Muhran said, *A lie is sometimes better than truth ; for instance, if you see a man seeking for another in order to kill him, what do you reply to the question as to where he is ? Even though you know where he is, do you not say, I have not seen him? Of course you will reply thus, for such a lie is lawful. We say that the end justifies the means.' *^If lying and truth both lead to a good result, you must tell the truth, for a lie is forbidden in this case. If a lie is the only way to reach a good result, it is allowable (hillal). A lie is lawful when it is the only path to duty. For example, if a Moslem flees from an unjust one and you are asked about him, you are obliged to lie in order 180 CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD to save him. If the outcome of war, reconcilia- tion between two separated friends, or the safety of an oppressed person depends on a lie, then a lie is allowed. In all cases we must be careful not to lie when there is no necessity for it, lest it be haram (wrong). If a wicked person asks a man about his wealth, he has to deny having any ; and so if a sultan asks a man about a crime he has committed, he has to deny it and say, ^ I have not stolen,' when he did steal; ^nor done any vice,' which he has done. The Prophet said, *He who has done a shameful deed must conceal it, for revealing one disgrace is another disgrace.' A person must deny the sins of others as well. Making peace between wives is a duty, even by pretending to each of them that she is loved the most, and by making promises to please her. **We must lie when truth leads to unpleasant results, but tell the truth when it leads to good results. Lying for one 's pleasure, or for increase of wealth, or for fame, is forbidden. One wife must not lie to her husband to tease another wife. Lying is allowed. in persuading children to go to school; also false promises and false threats." This kind of teaching is found in the standard work on religion, by one who is considered, even today, a defender of the faith of Islam. One cannot, marvel at the result. ** According to the testimony of a Persian nobleman, MORAL TRAINING AND NEGLECT 181 * Lying is rotting this country. Persians tell lies before they can speak.' The land is said to be a hotbed of lies and intrigues. To be called a liar in Persia is considered a very mild insult. Curzon, in his book on Persia, remarks, *I am convinced that the true son of Iran would sooner lie than tell the truth, and that he feels twinges of desperate remorse when upon occasions he has thoughtlessly strayed into veracity.' " (** Chris- tian Missions and Social Progress," p. 101.) ** Truthfulness, ' ' says Budgett Meakin, **is not a quality which need be sought for in Morocco, for the Moors have no conception of what we under- stand by that term. The strongest asseverations have to be employed in daily intercourse, and few expect to be believed without an oath." The use of the oath, however, in Moslem lands is only an indication of the universality of distrust and untruthfulness. Little children constantly use the name of God or of the Prophet in affirming the most commonplace statements; in fact Wallah and Aiwa, the two affirmatives so well known wherever Arabic is spoken, are both of them oaths by the name of God, and they signify no more on the lips of children than our English aye or yes. Similar testimony as regards untruthfulness among young and old comes from all lands. ** Is- lam, ' ' says Simon, * * does not denounce the funda- mental evil of heathenism, namely untruthful- 182 CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD ness, but actually fosters it. ... A Mohammedan teacher in Poboendjoran in Celebes told the Mo- hammedan children who wished to attend a Chris- tian school : * If you go to that school, you will be hewn in half from your head to your feet when you die. The one half which knows how to recite the Koran will go to heaven ; the other which has gone to school will go to hell!* *' An English woman who spent eight years in Turkish Arabia, says, **You get so tired of always hearing lies that you begin to feel it is no use to question peo- ple at all. It is a sad fact, too, that the natives do not trust or believe each other. A brother will cheat a brother, or a son his father." One reason for this low standard is undoubt- edly the fact that in the creed of Islam precept and practice are not supposed to go together, ex- cept in the case of the ritual. In this even chil- dren are taught to be most punctilious, as we shall see when we consider the religious practices — sprayer, fasting, and so forth. In the children's primer published in Cairo, from which I have al- ready quoted, many pages are devoted to the ritual of washing and the order of prostrations in prayer. There is not a single paragraph on obedience, purity, or truthfulness. In this primer the child is taught that moral actions are divided into five classes. This follows the teaching of all Moslem law books. First, fard (necessary) : a MORAL TRAINING AND NEGLECT 183 duty the omission of which is punished, the doing rewarded. Secondly, mandub (recommended) : the doing is rewarded, but the omission is not punished. Thirdly, muhah (permitted) : legally indifferent. Fourthly, makruh (disliked) : disap- proved by the law, but not under penalty. Fifthly, haram (forbidden) : an action punishable by law. With all these loopholes for compromise between that which is morally right and morally wrong, the youthful offender can find a way of escape as easily as his elders. What must be the effect upon the morals of a child as keen to observe as all children are, when they see the utter contra- diction between precept and practice ? As a Moor in Fez said to a traveller: ^*Do you want to know what our religion is? We purify ourselves with water while we contemplate adultery; we go to the mosque to pray, and as we do so we think how best to cheat our neighbors; we give alms at the door, and go back to our shops to rob ; we read our Korans and go out to commit unmen- tionable sins ; we fast and go on pilgrimages, yet we lie and kill.'' The ceremoniaUaw in Islam has taken the first place in their hearts and minds. It is a much greater offence to pray with unwashed hands than to tell a lie, and impurity of speech is nothing compared with that impurity of lips which fol- lows the eating of pork. In the Moslem traditions 184 CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD the greatest emphasis is laid upon the outward observance of the law, and but seldom is there reference to inward purity of heart and holiness. Henry Otis Dwight in his story of present-day conditions, **A Muslim Sir Galahad, '^ gives an interesting instance. The Kurdish Moslems had gathered for sunset prayer, and several small boys from nine to ten years of age in the crowd had joined the prayer line to learn the postures and formulas. When prayer was over two of them were squabbling as to which had received the most merit. ** Ismail said, *I did two rounds, and then I lost my count.' ** *I did three,' said Jemil with all the pride of youthful virtue. ** *No, you didn't,' said Ismail. *In the round when you bowed you said, **God is most great," instead of ^* Praise God the great One." Besides, your back wasn't straight when you said it. You ought to have begun again and done it over ; that round doesn't count.' ** *Your back was all humped up when you bowed,' retorted Jemil angrily. *That doesn't count either.' " This incident is typical. How often I have heard Arabian children dispute concerning the details of the ritual, as if they were professors of Moslem law and Jurisprudence, meanwhile ut- MORAL TRAINING AND NEGLECT 185 terly ignorant of the real significance of prayer and too proud and self-righteous to have con- sciousness of sin or the need of a Saviour. The Decalogue as interpreted by Jesus Christ in the Sermon on the Mount appeals to the moral sense of even little children, and when they learn the Beatitudes they have before them the highest ideals of conduct, but, alas, many of the command- ments of the Koran would have to be abrogated to give the Sermon on the Mount a place in Mos- lem ethics. Instead of being persecuted for righteousness' sake, the saints in the Moslem calendar have per- secuted others. Instead of swearing neither by heaven nor by earth, Moslem children read in the Koran that God Himself or Mohammed swore by everything that is created in heaven above or in the earth beneath. Instead of turning the other cheek, the Koran tells them to take an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. (Surah 5:48.) We could thus compare every one of the Command- ments in the Decalogue and see how Islam has taken a step backward in the interpretation of the moral law. According to a curious tradition uni- versally accepted, Mohammed was confused both as to the number and the character of the Com- mandments given to Moses : **A Jew came to the Prophet and asked him about the nine (sic) wonders which appeared by 186 CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD the hand of Moses. The Prophet said, 'Do not associate anything with God, do not steal, do not commit adultery, do not kill, do not take an in- nocent before the king to be killed, do not practise magic, do not take interest, do not accuse an in- nocent woman of adultery, do not run away in battle, and especially for you, Jews, not to work on the Sabbath/' The reverent use of the name of God is omitted from this revised version of the Commandments, and not only the daily life of the Moslem, but his religious books, are full of the vain use of God's name and of needless oaths. Of the lax interpretation given by Islam in its book and by its Prophet to the seventh command- ment it is unnecessary to speak here. The exist- ence of polygamy, divorce, and slavery, three evils so closely intertwined, and the consequent degraded position of womanhood, are sufficient comment. The tenth commandment would have no place in the ethics of Islam, as the principle is laid down that sin consists only in the outward act and not in the inward inclination. It is no wonder that in the earliest **Life of Mohammed '' published in Europe (Prideaux, **La Vie de Mahomet,'' Amsterdam, 1699), the author has a vignette representing the Prophet of Arabia trampling upon the two Tables of the Law and the Cross, while with the crescent in the one MORAL TRAINING AND NEGLECT 187 hand and the sword in the other, he is leading an army into battle. Eaymund Lull, the first mis- sionary to Mohammedans, in his able preaching and with his thorough knowledge of Moslem ethics, used to show how the seven cardinal vir- tues were absent in Islam and the seven deadly sins glossed over. A careful study of the life of Mohammed and of his principles of conduct as shown in the Koran, will corroborate rather than contradict the opinions thus vigorously expressed. And after all, the moral teaching of a child does not depend half so much on precept as on ex- ample; not that which is forbidden, but that which is inculcated will mould the character of childhood. Islam lacks the highest ideals. How many of what St. Paul calls the fruits of the Spirit — love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentle- ness, goodness, faith, meekness, self-control, are found in the character of Mohammed, or 'Ali, or Fatima, or Ayesha? ^* Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God," and it is the pure in heart who are able to show the vision of God to others, and to give to childhood moral ideals that shall abide for them throughout life. The Moslem child from its earliest years is brought up in an environment where lips and hearts and imaginations are impure ; where the conversation and the literature are besmirched with that which a young boy or a young girl ought never to know. 188 CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD Sex education in Islam has gone mad. As the Eev. W. H. T. Gairdner remarked in this con- nection: **The incessant sounding of the sexual note in the Koran, the Traditions, the canon law, and in the poetry, literature, theology, and entire system of Islam, tends to make impossible the highest individual, family, or social life, and de- feats the very ends it appears to have had in view." Islam may have all the credit it deserves for its lofty teaching as regards monotheism, for its hatred of idolatry, for its earnestness in the out- ward observance of religious ceremonies, for its fanatic devotion and love of conquest, but Islam can never have a high place in the realm of ethics. Here it can never share honours with Christianity nor presume to be her handmaid in the regenera- tion of the individual. It has left its ethical stamp upon every land where it has been dominant, and its record is that of the earth, earthy. In regard to ethics Mohammed has been not only the prophet but the prophecy of Islam. This tainted atmosphere has its effect upon childhood, not only morally but even physically. Beauty and innocence go together in childhood. Many of the bright and beautiful faces shown in the illustrations that accompany the text are bright and beautiful because they are still free from the blight of this religion. Mrs. Hume- MORAL TRAINING AND NEGLECT 189 Griffith writes that the children of Mosul *4ose a great deal of their beauty when five or six years old. Perhaps it is because their souls at that age become tainted with knowledge of evil, and this knowledge is reflected on their faces. It is heartrending to see pretty little children listening open-mouthed to some horrible tale of sin and wickedness told by a member of the harim. It is true there is beauty behind the veil, but, alas! it is beauty tainted with the blackness of sin. How can lives be beautiful when the souls within are dead? — as dead as sin and sorrow can make them. Boys and girls grow up amidst sur- roundings which soon soil their souls; the *inno- cency of childhood,' so dear to the hearts of Eng- lish parents, is unknown in a Moslem harim/' The heart of a Moslem girl instead of being fuU of truth and righteousness and purity, of high and noble ideals for girlhood and budding woman- hood, very early experiences much that is degrad- ing and polluting. Her heart becomes, through this very process of neglect and immoral train- ing, ** deceitful above all things and desperately wicked.'' A Swedish missionary in Egypt tells of a child who was married at the age of twelve and taken by her husband to his village, where cruelty and ill-treatment were her fate. When her first-born boy died she was divorced and sent back to her father. He, being unable to support 190 CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD her, drove a good bargain and married his child, not yet sixteen years old, to another man. '* When I met her," writes this lady, **what a strange mixture there was in her heart. She was mature, sharp, intelligent, and old in all that concerns evil, but a child perfectly undeveloped and igno- rant in everything relating to purity, truth, and nobility. She had no such conceptions. Her soul had been robbed of all that makes life worth liv- ing." Wliat a life story can be read in the face of the little bride from Algeria shown in our frontispiece! To those who have lived among them, who have loved them, have fathomed the depths of their loneliness and friendlessness, to those who have looked even for a little while into the horror of this great darkness — the darkness of Moslem girlhood and womanhood, their cry of pain is never again absent. One who spent forty years of her life among them wrote that at a Communion service she attended in America, when the question was asked, * * Has any one been omitted in the distribution of the bread T' she seemed to see millions of women rising through- out the Moslem world, for whom the Body was also broken and the Blood shed, but who had not heard of His love nor experienced His peace. " Sudden, before my inward, open vision, Millions of faces crowded up to view. Sad eyes that said, * For us is no provision; Give us your Saviour, too ! ' MORAL TRAINING AND NEGLECT 191 " Sorrowful women's faces, hungry, yearning, Wild with despair, or dark with sin and dread. Worn with long weeping for the unreturning, Hopeless, uneomforted. t( ( Give us,' they cry. ' Your cup of consolation Never to our outstretching hands is passed; We long for the Desire of every nation, And oh, we die so fast ! ' " There is, however, a brighter side to the pic- ture. Educated Moslems, dissatisfied with the ethics of Islam as taught by the old-school Mos- lems and based on the Traditions, are beginning to advocate higher morality, the emancipation of womanhood, and the education of childhood. No stronger testimony concerning the failure of Mos- lem ethics was ever given than by these leaders of the new Islam in their advocacy of higher standards based upon Christianity. When they cannot find these ideals in the Koran, they borrow them from the New Testament. 'Ata Husain Bey of Cairo has recently written a series of pamphlets on the relation of Islam to modern civilization. In them he pays high tribute to the ethics of Chris- tianity, and although he considers Jesus (Tsa) only as a prophet, he says : **But the most remarkable thing which our Lord 'Isa commanded was universal love. He did not cease to preach it and proclaim it, so that He even said the whole law and the prophets are fulfilled in love, and His teaching concerning love 192 CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD was so strong that He commanded men to love even their enemies and those that harmed them, and this surely is a principle of life higher than all other principles, for everything is established on love, and in love and through love everything revives, and by means of love universal benev- olence is completed, for man's love to his brother gives him happiness hereafter and in this world. . . . All this the well-balanced mind accepts and approves of, but the question arises, Is it possible for a man to love his enemies and do good to those that hate him?'' One can see from this that the ideals of Christ startle the Moslem mind and awaken incredulity. In a primer on Moslem ethics, also published in Cairo (1909) for the use of schools, by Abdur Eahman Ismail, and which has reached the seventh edition, we may see the pathetic attempt to readjust Moslem ethics to Christian standards in every way possible. The author says: **I will begin my little book by the famous passage in the Koran which sums up the ideal education for a boy, namely, the command of Loqman to his son. ' ' Moslems are not agreed as to who Loqman was, some considering him an inspired prophet, others a nephew of Abraham, and still others, probably more correctly, identifying him with the Greek -^sop. The passage reads as follows : *'And when Loqman said to his son while ad- MORAL TRAINING AND NEGLECT 193 monishing him, *0 my boy! associate none with God, for, verily, such association is a mighty wrong.' . . . **For we have commended his parents to man; his mother bore him with weakness upon weak- ness; and his weaning is in two years. . . . *Be thankful to me and to thy parents; for unto me shall your journey be. But if they strive with thee that thou shouldst associate with me that which thou hast no knowledge of, then obey them not. But associate with them in the world with kindness, and follow the way of him who turns repentant unto me; then unto me is your return, and I will inform you of that which ye have done ! ** *0 my son! verily, if there were the weight of a grain of mustard seed and it were (hidden) in the rock, or in the heaven, or in the earth, God would bring it (to light). Verily, God is subtle, well beware ! ** *0 my son! be steadfast in prayer, and bid what is reasonable and forbid what is wrong; be patient of what befalls thee, verily, that is one of the determined affairs. ** *And twist not thy cheek proudly, nor walk in the land haughtily ; verily, God loves not every arrogant boaster: but be moderate in thy walk, and lower thy voice ; verily, the most disagreeable of voices is the voice of asses!' " This introduction the author considers the 194 CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD summary and acme of divine teaching for a boy I He follows it, however, by several chapters, the titles of which, in the absence of any Koran basis for the teaching, indicate the desire for a higher moral standard: Obedience to parents; Love for teachers; Love for one's relatives and friends; Patriotism, Philanthropism, Kindness to animals, Faithfulness, Modesty, Truth, The Fear of God, Diligence. In the chapter on Truthfulness the story is told of the lad who cried, **Wolf ! Wolf !*' when there was no wolf, and the moral is applied : It is dangerous to tell lies even in sport. Most of the quotations in this primer of ethics are taken not from the Koran but from Moslem tradition, and the author has evidently had considerable difficulty to find a tradition, however obscure, to serve as texts for his homilies. In the chapter on the Fear of God we read: **Do not forget what Mohammed said: *The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.' '' The chapter on Mod- esty contains no reference to sexual purity, and only deals with the modesty of humility towards superiors. The fact is, that educated Moslems today look outside of their own literature for ethical stand- ards. One of the leading Nationalist papers, Es Shaah, printed Smiles' book on *' Character" as a f euilleton in its daily edition. The Moslem press of India is doing its best to whitewash the char- MORAL TRAINING AND NEGLECT 195 acter of their Prophet, and to reform the ethics of Islam on Christian lines. In this, however, they only follow in the footsteps of the converts from Christianity to Islam two centuries after the Hegira. They also were dissatisfied with the ideals of the desert Arabs and therefore, as Pro- fessor Goldziher has pointed out,^ drew a picture of Mohammed that should not be inferior to that of Christ, by attributing Gospel miracles and Gospel sayings, even including portions of the Sermon on the Mount and the Lord's Prayer, to their Prophet. One tradition tells that Mohammed, when tor- tured and beaten by his people, only wiped the blood from his face and said, * ' God, forgive them, for they know not what they do. ' ' The commen- tators say that he imitated Noah by using these words ! Elsewhere it is related that the Prophet said: **If any one suffers, or if his brother suf- fers, he should say : * Our Lord God, Which art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name; Thy kingdom [here, apparently, the words **come; Thy will be done," are left out] is in heaven and on earth; as Thy mercy is in heaven, so show Thy mercy on earth; forgive us our debts and our sins. Thou art the Lord of the good ; send down mercy from Thy mercy and healing from Thy healing ^ " Hadith and the New Testament." A Chapter from Muham- medanische Studien, pp. 48. London: S. P. C. K. 196 CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD on this pain, that it may be healed.' '' One might give other instances, but these are sufficient. All these attempts, however, ended in failure as regards practical results. The twigs from the tree of life, however skilfully and deceitfully en- grafted on the wild olive of the desert, never bore fruit. The struggle between the old ethics of the Koran and the new ethics based on Christianity is inevitable. S. Khuda Bukhsh sums up the situation very well when he speaks for his co- religionists, the educated classes, throughout the Moslem world: **It would be the merest affectation to contend that religious and social systems, bequeathed to us thirteen hundred years ago, should now be adapted in their entirety without the slightest change or alteration. This is exactly the battle- field on which for the last fifty years a relentless war has been waged in India between the party of light and hope, and the party which is wedded to the old order of things." VI THE RELIGION OF A MOSLEM CHILD "We address ourselves in a slight and inefficient manner to our work, when, without discrimination, without acquaintance with those systems which hold souls in bondage, which hinder them from coming to the light of life, we have but one method with them all — one language in which to describe them all — one common charge of belonging to the devil upon which to arraign them all; instead of recognizing that each province of the dark kingdom of error is different from every other; instead of seeing that it is not a lie which can ever make anything strong, that it is certainly not their lie which has made them strong, and enabled them to stand their ground so long, and some of them, saddest of all! to win ground for a while from Christendom itself; but the truth which that lie caricatures and perverts." — Aechbishop Trench in " Hulsean Lectures," 1845. "Although Mohammed had many noble qualities and was prophetically gifted with the inspiration of monotheism, his moral character broke down under the stress of temptation. Is it not pathetic that such a vast number of the human race are looking to him as the sole interpreter of God and as their guide for life and death?" — Stephen van Rensselaer Teowbbh)qe. VI THE RELIGION OF A MOSLEM CHILD WE have seen that the strength of Moslem education is on its religious rather than on its ethical side. Education without religion is an anomaly among Moslems. To them the fear of Allah is the beginning of education as well as of wisdom. The essentials of the Mos- lem faith are fixed in children's minds while they are still young. Religious zeal is stirred by teach- ing the supremacy of Islam. In this way a pride of caste is developed, and the effect on the child's mind is great beyond calculation. Dr. Jessup of Tabriz remarks that from the child's very birth ^Hhe whole life of the people is religious. Islam is recognized in everything, in the bazaars, and in conversation, and children grow up in an atmosphere permeated by religion." Once a Moslem always a Moslem is their expectation, and they follow the Jesuit dictum in their method, **Give me a child for the first seven years of his life, and you can have him afterward." There is no doubt an advantage in this early memorizing of the fundamentals of the faith, this incessant repetition of their brief creed. On the 199 200 CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD other hand, it is true that it develops not thought- ful faith, but a narrow, intolerant, unthinking fanaticism. Professor McNaughton of Smyrna testifies that Moslem religious education does not produce moral character, and that this is not their intention. Religion is rather * * one of the customs of the country which must be observed. It is a conspicuous fact that a very large number of Moslem young men, when they leave the higher schools, are agnostics if not wholly irreligious, showing how little the early teaching of the Koran and liturgy has affected their characters.'^ And Mr. Purdon of Tunis adds that in his experience **the Moslem system stupefies rather than culti- vates the brain and renders it irresponsive to any effort that seeks to lead it to appreciate the spirit of any text." Lane in his *^ Modern Egyptians'' thus sums up the result in that country: **Thel Moslem child receives lessons of religious pride and learns to hate the Christians and all other sects but their own, as thoroughly as does the Muslim of advanced age." We must, however, acknowledge that these early impressions, produced partly by imitation and partly by the memorizing of religious phrases from the Koran, have a lasting effect. The ques- tion of the Bible in the public school has never been raised in the world of Islam. The only pub- lic school that Islam has ever known has been the THE RELIGION OF A MOSLEM CHILD 201 school of one book for children, namely, the Koran. Like the Apostles' Creed, the Ten Command- ments, or the Lord's Prayer in Christendom, the fundamentals of Moslem belief and practice are the same from Morocco to the Philippines and from Constantinople to Cape Town. An intelli- gent child in Cairo, Samarkand, Tabriz, Baghdad, and Calcutta would give the same answer to the question. What do you believe, and what are the pillars of religion? He would say: ^*I must be- lieve in God, in His angels. His books. His prophets, in a future life, and in predestination of good and evil; and I must, when I grow up, bear witness to the faith, rise to prayer, give alms, fast in the month of fasting, and go on pilgrimage if I can afford it. ' ' What the Moslem conception of God is we know from their literature, and how their conception differs from the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Palgrave and others have indicated. He is a God of power, a tremendous autocrat, the pantheism of force. Moslems love to define Him and His attributes negatively rather than posi- tively. To the mind of a child God must appear like an Almighty, Oriental despot. He is merciful and compassionate to those that obey Him and His Prophet, but He is also the proud, the terrible, the avenger who creates hell and fills it with in- CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD fidels. The Koran does not reveal Him as a God of little children. Islam is a religion for adult men and not for women and children, as the poet Alfred Austin wrote at Constantinople : " Now vesper brings the sunset hour, And where crusading knight once trod. Muezzin from his minaret tower Proclaiips, * There is no God but God.* "Male God who shares His godhead with No virgin mother's sacred tear. But finds on earth congenial kith In weddings of the sword and spear. "Male God who on male lust bestows The ruddy lip, the rounded limb. And promises at battle's close Houris — not saint or seraphim." Yet the consciousness of this God, of His pres- ence and of His power, is deeply impressed upon the mind of a child. Not the thought that God is One, but that God is must be considered the great contribution of Islam religiously. Moslem children may be godless in their conduct, but no Moslem child is godless in his thought. Of the belief in angels, spirits, and demons we have already spoken. The world of jinn is very close to the life of the Moslem child. For pro- tection against the evils of this spirit world noth- ing is so efficacious as the Book of God. Whether its contents be used as an amulet or as a prayer, it is a remedy for every ill and the guide to truth and safety. u/vr bb y u;^ ^1^- ^, THE CRT OP THE DROWNINQ An Appeal for Education made by the Moslems to their own people in Syria. > ^m^ ^>» tf .^x ^ ^ • • •^ X^> >»•> •> -^^^ ••t ^ tjf ••^ ^m^i^^%A. A PAGE PROM A MOSLEM CHILD'S PRIMER THE RELIGION OF A MOSLEM CHILD 203 Islam is a book religion, and the little child is no less fanatical in its devotion to the Book of God, called the Noble Koran, than its elders. All Moslems hold most strongly the fact of a revela- tion, and this is undoubtedly a great advance on many other non- Christian religions. They put the highest value possible on the Word of God as revealed to men. With jealous care the Koran has been guarded, and the book itself has been reverenced with almost superstitious awe. The Moslem child soon learns that this book must never be thrown idly on the ground, nor even placed underneath any other volume on the table or the shelf. It occupies the highest place of honour even in the humblest dwelling, and is gen- erally covered with a green leather or green silk case to protect it from dust and from ritual im- purity. And it is very common, as Bishop Lef roy tells us in regard to India, *^for the whole book to be learnt off by heart in Arabic and that by boys of twelve and thirteen years old who do not understand a word of its meaning! Imagine an English boy being asked to learn by heart — merely by sound and without any understanding — the Old Testament in Hebrew! I am not of course con- cerned now with the fearfully mechanical and in- tellectually injurious character of this exercise — its inevitable effect in stunting the higher powers of the mind and subordinating everything else to 204 CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD a gigantic effort of the memory. This we can all understand. But at least the tribute to the dig- nity of God's Word stands out clear, and might well shame many of us.'' When we consider the contents of the Koran, however, this true tribute to their zeal loses some of its value. It is a zeal not according to knowl- edge. Less than one-fourth of all Moslem chil- dren have Arabic as their mother tongue. To the rest the Koran means nothing, and to those few boys and girls who are able to read the Koran at all intelligently, its contents offer very little that appeals to the child religiously, or can be grasped by their minds and hearts. The illustration, page 203, is from a Moslem primer for children, and these two chapters of the Koran, as well as other short chapters, are to be learned by heart. The language is so obscure that few adults can under- stand its meaning. Here follows the translation: The Backbiter. **In the name of the merciful and compassionate God. Woe to every slanderous backbiter, who collects wealth and counts it. He thinks that his wealth can immortalize him. Not so ! he shall be hurled into El Hutamah. And what shall make thee understand what El Hutamah is I — the fire of God kindled ; which rises above the hearts. Verily, it is an archway over them on long-drawn columns." PICTURE OF NOAH S ARK This was published as a large wall chromo in colours and ex- tensively sold in Cairo. It represents Noah, with the Prophet's veil, and his sons. The artist had difficulty in finding room for all the animals even with the peacock perched on the mast and the serpent with his head through the porthole. L '~^^l ^^'^jflflii^Hli^l^SI 1^ J! r%« f '^r JMB \ ^ L ^Ka r sf I^^^MF ■ ^*i»^ ^'* jsi«*^^ ^^^m-.^m^^md^ PICTURE OF THE SACRIFICE OF ISHMAEL BY ABRAHAM AND HIS RESCUE Moslems believe that it was not Isaac who was to be offered, and that an angel brought the ram from the thicket. In com- memoration of this event a great Moslem feast is held every year, and sacrifices are made not only at Mecca but in every part of the Moslem world. THE RELIGION OF A MOSLEM CHILD 205 The Elephant. **In the name of the merciful and compassionate God. Hast thou not seen what thy Lord did with the fellows of the elephant? Did He not make their stratagem lead them astray, and send down on them birds in flocks, to throw down on them stones of baked clay, and make them like blades of herbage eaten downr' The most interesting portions of the Koran and of the Traditions are the stories of the Old Testa- ment prophets, of Jesus, and of Mohammed. These would naturally appeal to a child, but they are told so disconnectedly, without order or se- quence, and are so fearfully muddled, that the net result does not impress us. A Moslem boy, for example, able to read, would find the following account of Noah and the ark, sometimes illus- trated by crude pictures, like the one we repro- duce in the text. This picture is printed in col- ours at Cairo, and sold on the streets. The story of Noah as given in Moslem books is as follows : **By God's command Nuh had first of all to plant the trees necessary for the building of the ark, and he planted plane-trees. During the forty years that these were growing no children were born on earth. Being asked what form the ark was to assume, God answered that the upper part a06 CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD and the back were to be like that of a cock and the hull also to be like the body of a bird, and that it was to have three stories. The dimensions are variously given; according to the * possessors of a scripture' it was eighty (sic) ells long, fifty broad, and thirty high; according to other state- ments the dimensions were six hundred and sixty, three hundred and thirty, and thirty-three ells. The ark was nailed in the ordinary way, and cov- ered with pitch internally and externally; God caused a spring of pitch to well forth for this special purpose. — On one occasion the disciples of Jesus asked their Master to raise a man from the dead who would tell them what the ark was like. Jesus raised up Sam, the son of Nuh, from a piece of earth, and he told them that the ark was 1,200 ells long, 600 broad, and had three stories, one for quadrupeds, one for birds, and the third for human beings. When the accumulation of excrement became a nuisance, Nuh seized the tail of an elephant and from it was produced a pair of swine which devoured the excrement ; the mice became a plague, so he struck the lion on the forehead and a pair of cats came forth from its nose and destroyed the mice." This story of course is the traditional account enlarged from the statements found in the Koran. It is more important for us to ask what the THE RELIGION OF A MOSLEM CHILD 207 Moslem boy or girl believes in regard to our Saviour Jesus Christ. He is often referred to in the Koran, receives high titles, and is considered one of the greater prophets, sinless in life and exalted to high station in heaven. Yet we must add that there is hardly an important fact con- cerning the life of our Saviour, His person and His work, which is not passed over, perverted, or contradicted by the Koran ; especially is this true in regard to His Sonship, His deity, and His atoning death. Moslem children are very ready, when they meet Christians, to repeat some of these Koran verses which have for centuries been the proof texts against Christians for the truth of Islam. **The Messiah, the son of Mary, is only a prophet. Prophets before him have passed away, and his mother was a confessor ; they both used to eat food." Or, in another place: **God could not take to Himself any son. The likeness of Jesus with God is as the likeness of Adam. He created him from the earth ; then He said * Be ! ' and he was." And in another text: **The Chris- tians say that the Messiah is the son of God! Such are the sayings in their mouths ! They re- semble the saying of the unbelievers of old. God curse them ! How they lie ! They take their doc- tors and their monks and the Messiah, the son of Mary, for Lords rather than God." Although the Koran emphatically denies the 208 CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD death of Jesus on the cross, yet in some of the Moslem traditions there is an account which in some respects resembles that of the Gospels. The following is taken from one of the most celebrated books on the subject : *'And they spat upon Him and put thorns upon Him; and they erected the wood to crucify Him upon it. And when they came to crucify Him upon the tree, the earth was darkened, and God sent angels, and they descended between them and between Jesus; and they cast the likeness df Jesus upon him who had betrayed Him, and his name was Judas. And they crucified him in His stead, and they thought that they crucified Jesus. Then God made Jesus to die for three hours, and then raised Him up to heaven; and this is the meaning of the Koran verse, * Verily, I will cause Thee to die, and raise Thee unto Me, arid purify Thee above those who dis- believe.' '' Yet none of these stories are in any way pre- pared and adapted for the mind of the child. There are no religious books for children, no re- ligious songs for children, no prayers specially prepared for children anywhere in the Moslem worfd. All that Islam has done is to select por- tions of the ritual or scraps from the books of theology, and compel the children to learn them by heart without understanding them. THE RELIGION OF A MOSLEM CHILD W9 " I think, when I read that sweet story of old, When Jesus was here among men, How He call'd little children as lambs to His fold, I wish they had been with Him then. I wish that His hands had been placed on their heads. That His arm had been thrown around them, And that they might have seen His kind look when He said, * Let the little ones come unto Me.' " It is the women of the household who first teach the child unwritten fragments of sacred history, distorted still more in their superstitious and ignorant minds. It is they, for example, in the words of Dr. Dwight, who *' explain the cleft tail of the swallow as a reminiscence of her good deed in warning Adam of the ma- licious schemes of the serpent; for the serpent in wrath struck at the swallow and missed all but the tail which bears the wedge-shaped slash of the serpent ^s jaws to this day; they teach him never to burn the wood of the almond tree, for Aaron's rod that budded was a branch from the almond ; they teach him bits of eschatology ; how one must pray for death to come on a Friday, when all the people join in worship, since on that day the Recording Angel is too busy with the good to question the bad, thus leaving to those who need it a loophole of escape from the conse- quences of a reckless life ; they teach him to judge between the good and the bad before the last day, for an old man whose beard grows white at the SIO CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD side first is sure to be a good man, whereas a bad man's beard whitens first in the middle. *' Whatever conversation there may be with chil- dren in regard to religion, we may be sure that the Day of Judgment and a description of heaven and hell occupies a large place. These doctrines were very prominently before the mind of Mo- hammed himself. The terrors of that day of days, which he called the day of separation, the day of reckoning, or simply the Hour, are most graph- ically and terribly portrayed. A belief in the fu- ture life and in eternal rewards and punishments is fundamental to Islam. Among the best-selling books in all literary centres are those that deal with eschatology, describing with gross literalism the character of the resurrection and the physical joys of believers and the physical tortures of the damned. Parents doubtless tell their children something of all this : how the souls of the martyrs of the faith remain, after death, in the crops of green birds, which eat of the fruit and drink of the rivers of Paradise: how the dead are raised and stand up for judgment ; of the eight heavens, each exceeding the other in glory, gardens of de- light with rivers of milk and wine and honey and all kinds of fruit. But the Moslem paradise is, after all, not a place for children. Its delights, as pictured in the Koran, are for the adult. How utterly different must be the child's conception of THE RELIGION OF A MOSLEM CHILD 211 the life beyond to that of the Christian child who sings: "Around the throne of God in heaven Ten thousand children stand; Children whose sins are all forgiven, A holy, happy band." Of the hell of Islam, the name of which is so constantly on the lips even of little children, the less said the better. According to the Koran, its fuel is men and stones, its drink liquid pus, the clothes of its inhabitants burning pitch, and ser- pents and scorpions sting their victims eternally. We give Islam credit for the almost universal belief that hell is not a place for little children. Their doctrine of the child ^s irresponsibility and unaccountability until the age of puberty, nat- urally- leads them to believe that all children are saved. Most of the Moslem sects include in this hope of salvation the children of unbelievers as well. One thing is certain : that Moslem children of parents who believe were eternally predestined to Paradise. Their fatalism in this particular is a ray of hope. One of the most touching incidents in the life of Mohammed the prophet is that of the death of his little son Ibrahim, scarcely two years old. **It is with pure compassion, ' ' says Marcus Dods, in speaking of this event, ^^we are spectators of the bitter grief and uncontrollable sobbings of the strong man, and hear at last, as 2ia CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD he puts the little body back into the nurse's arms, his simple pious lamentation, * Ibrahim, Ibra- him! if it were not that the promise is faithful and the hope of resurrection sure — if it were not that this is the way to be trodden by all, and the last of us shall join the first — I would grieve for thee with a grief deeper even than this. ' ' ' We turn now to a consideration of the religious practices of Islam as far as they concern child- hood. The earliest and most general religious act of childhood is undoubtedly the repetition of the creed, or what is called ** bearing witness to God.'' As soon as the Moslem child can lisp it is taught the name of the Prophet and the testimony to God's unity. The short creed is easily learned and often repeated, especially in proud fanaticism by Moslem children in the midst of a Christian or other non-Moslem environment. In primers and books on religion this creed is amplified as follows : **I witness that there is no god but God, and I witness that Mohammed is His servant and apostle. God! pray for our Lord Mohammed and for his family, as Thou didst pray for our Lord Abraham and his family ; God ! bless our Lord Mohammed and his family, as Thou didst bless our Lord Abraham and his family, in the two worlds, for Thou art the Praiseworthy and the Glorious." It is considered a virtue for every one, even THE RELIGION OF A MOSLEM CHILD 213 children, to repeat the Moslem creed on every oc- casion. They hear it not only from the minaret five times daily, but it is used as a word of affirma- tion, and almost incessantly the name of Moham- med the prophet is on the lips of his followers, never without the addition of a prayer. Moslem parents of the old school will gravely inform their children that when God created Adam, he was made in the image of the name of Mohammed as it was written from all eternity on the throne of God, the Arabic letters forming dif- ferent members of the body ; and they will go on to say that the different postures of the daily prayer are in accordance with his other name Ahmed. As we have seen, children are supposed to be taught these postures of prayer at the age of seven, but they imitate their elders when they observe them performing the ritual, still earlier. In Afghan- istan, Frank A. Martin tells us, a beautiful custom is observed. In time of cholera, earthquake, or other calamity, parents will collect their children on the roofs of the houses, and there teach them to sing prayers in unison. **The children, being more innocent than their elders, their prayers are supposed to be more readily listened to. The 214 CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD roofs of the houses are all close together, and it is pleasant to see the groups of children standing in lines on the different roofs, and listen to them singing the prayers with their clear young voices." I have observed a similar custom in East Arabia during an eclipse of the sun, for which there are special prayers in the Moslem ritual. When children pray the ritual prayers, they are, of course, supposed to follow every detail upon which acceptable Moslem prayer depends. Prayer is always preceded by purification which consists of ablutions and washings against all legal and ceremonial impurities. The child very early is taught the religious duty of abstersion, or the cleaning of one 's self with pebbles or water ; also the partial ablution called wudhu, and the total ablution or bathing, both when it is required and how it is to be performed. Children of the desert learn how to perform ablution, in accordance with the custom of the Prophet, with sand. I have seen Bedouin children, when the call to prayer was given, dismount from the camel, devoutly slip down, and after shovelling the sand aside with their bare feet, rub some of it on their hands as all pious Moslems do, turn their little faces to- ward Mecca, and kneel in prayer. Nowhere in the Koran or even in the Traditions is there any reference to moral purity as a preparation for THE RELIGION OF A MOSLEM CHILD 215 prayer. Ghazali and other mystics pretend that the purification referred to is the inward purifi- cation of the heart ; but it is well known that all the standard works on the proprieties of prayer contain pages of most minute, obscene, and dis- gusting explanations as to what constitutes phys- ical impurity, and do not allude to purity of the soul. This teaching, and much more the punctilious- ness of their parents and their religious leaders, commonly produce a spirit of Pharisaism in the heart and mind of a child. Children look upon prayer as a religious duty, as a passport to Para- dise, as an assurance of salvation; something which, if neglected, will bring grave disaster in the world to come. Prayer to them is not a privi- lege but an obligation. It has been calculated that a Moslem who conscientiously performs his de- votions, recites the same form of prayer at least seventy times daily! The words they use, with slight changes, are the following (translation from a manual on Moslem prayer published by the Mo- hammedans at Woking, England) : '^ Glory to Thee, O Allah! and Thine is the praise, and blessed is Thy name and exalted is Thy majesty, and there is none to be served besides Thee. ... I betake me for refuge to Allah against the accursed Satan." **In the name of Allah the Beneficent, the 216 CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD Merciful. All praise is due to Allah, the Lord of the worlds, the Beneficent, the Merciful ; Master of the time of requital. Thee do we serve and Thee do we beseech for help. Guide us in the right path, the path of those upon whom Thou hast bestowed favours. Not of those upon whom wrath is brought down, nor of those who go astray. ' ' **Say: He — Allah is one, Allah is He of whom nothing is independent. He begets not, nor is He begotten ; and none is like Him. Glory to my Lord the Great.'' These words are beautiful if they are under- stood by those that use them. It must be remem- bered, however, that prayers throughout prac- tically the whole Moslem world are only said in Arabic. In a primer on prayer, called **The Muslim Guide," and published by the Society for the Propagation of Islam (Bareilly, Northwest India) in the English language, all the details that must be observed for the correct perform- ance of this duty are given. One has only to glance through this book to realize how utterly foreign the Moslem notion of prayer is to the Christian idea, — "Prayer is the simplest form of speech That infant lips can try; Prayer the subliraest strains that reach The Majesty on high. THE RELIGION OF A MOSLEM CHILD 217 " Prayer is the burden of a sigh, The falling of a tear, The upward glancing of an eye, When none but God is near." *^The Muslim Guide'' tells us: ** Every Muslim must pray five times every day, if possible in com- pany with others, and should never neglect prayer out of idleness. The Prophet said, * Whoever will perform his prayer punctually, that prayer will be a light or guidance for him; whoever is not punctual in prayer will not receive salvation.' The Prophet has ordered every Muslim to instruct his children to perform prayer at the age of seven, and to punish them for not performing the nimaz on their attaining the age of ten years. ' ' The same idea that prayer is a duty to be forced upon children rather than a privilege to be taught them, is expressed in exactly the same words in the ** Manual for Moral Education" used in the government schools of Cairo. I quote from the twelfth edition, 1911 a.d., page 24. **Q. How many prayers are necessary every day and night? **A. The prayers required from every Moslem who is of sound mind and has attained puberty, whether he be male or female, are five. Children should be commanded to pray when they are seven years old and beaten until they do, at ten." 218 CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD In lands that are still under Moslem rule, such as Afghanistan and Central Arabia, a special scourge made of a flat piece of leather or twisted thongs is used by the public censor on morals and religion for driving men to prayer. This scourge is called dirrah or saut. I have witnessed its use at Zobeir and in Hassa, Arabia. In the religious life of the Moslem child the mosque undoubtedly holds a large place. Al- though it is in no sense a children's church, and no special services are ever held for children, it is the centre of religious life and display. The mpsque is the representation of the glory of Is- lam. This is especially true, of course, in the great cities, such as Cairo, Constantinople, Bagh- dad, Samarkand, Bokhara, Delhi, Lucknow, Mecca, etc. In the history of Islam the mosque has occupied a place very similar to that of the monastery in the Middle Ages. It is at once the place of prayer and of seclusion, the school, the library, the hospital, and the university. Seated on the floors of these great mosques, where often hundreds and thousands of students receive re- ligious training, one may see side by side grey- bearded men and little children. The professors who teach occupy the places of honour on a rug of sheepskin beside some pillar, and the students are grouped around. The law of equality obtains in Islam, and the son of the pasha may be seated THE RELIGION OF A MOSLEM CHILD 219 beside a poor youth scantily dressed in coarse cotton. Few, however, are the children that ob- tain this church privilege in Islam. Even those that do often find the mosque a place of gross and immoral temptation rather than the house of God. Witness, for example, the testimony of all travellers who have visited Mecca ^ and the con- ditions that are known to obtain in the great mosques of Cairo, Kerbela, and Constantinople. Girls are not usually admitted to the mosque schools, but in villages exceptions are made, and in some parts of the Moslem world special schools for girls are conducted in rooms adjoining the mosque. Moslems themselves do not agree as to the re- sult of this kind of religious training. Justice Abdur Rahim in an address to the graduates of a Madras school, said : ** Every Mohammedan child has his ears filled with the cry of * God is great and there is no God but God,' the God who to him is the embodiment of the highest perfection ; he is taught not to begin any work or duty of the day or any undertaking of life, great or small, but in the name of *God' the kind, the merciful ; he learns to thank the Al- mighty whenever his efforts are crowned with success and to trust in Him all the more if he fails, to bend the knees of devotion every now ^C. S'nouck Hurgronje: "Mekka," Vol. II. p. 11. 220 CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD and then each day; every day he repeats and pores with loving reverence over the words of the Qur'an, whose divine eloquence has an abid- ing place in every Mohammedan's heart; he is brought up to find the keenest pleasure in the practice of the most rigid self-denial for one month in each year, and the practice of charity and kindness towards his neighbours is impressed upon him as a legal duty and a high spiritual privilege. Thus brought up a Mohammedan youth can be trusted never to swerve from his faith.'' But one of his own countrymen, Mr. S. Khuda Bukhsh, a Moslem who was graduated at Oxford, in replying to this statement, writes: **It is love rather than fear, the forgiving rather than the severe, the merciful rather than the cruel character of Divinity that we should impress upon our children. And this is exactly what we do not do. Why not teach them that prayer is accepta- ble to God and you should therefore pray ; charity pleasing unto Him and you should therefore be charitable ; fasting a divine ordinance, for the dis- cipline of the body and soul, and therefore you should fast; pilgrimage to Mekka an institution to draw you nearer unto His prophet, and there- fore you should make a pilgrimage? Would not this be more appealing to childhood, * bright as truth and frailer than a toy,' than the doctrine THE RELIGION OF A MOSLEM CHILD 221 that for disobedience the punishment is eternal, enduring hell-fire? And above all, why not teach them the supremest of all religious lessons — the lesson that no service of bended knee or of hum- bled head is of any avail if the heart is not pure and the hand not clean? **Then Mr. Abdur Rahim speaks of the un- ceasing study of the Qur'an. Yes! children are taught the Qur'an. It is almost the first book that they read. But how do they read it? It is as well that we should be disenchanted and know the truth. The land of dreams is so rich, so beau- tiful, so new, but alas ! it will not help us in grap- pling with our difficulties, in rectifying our de- fects. We will not recline in a false security nor will we solve the problem by overlooking its dif- ficulties. Yes! the Qur'an is taught, but in how many well-regulated houses do the boys know suf- ficient Arabic to understand the language of God? They read the Qur'an like parrots, without know- ing what it means. Its sweetness is wasted on the desert air. Is such study likely to have any influence over their thought and conduct ? I most distinctly hold not. I consider the years spent over the study of the Qur'an in this fashion as years utterly wasted and thrown away. I am firmly convinced that so far as a sound, substan- tial spiritual teaching is concerned the Moham- medan youth has nothing, or next to nothing." CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD The fast of Eamadhan is absolutely obligatory on every Moslem who has reached the age of puberty. Very young children, idiots, the sick, the aged, and mothers who are nursing children are exempted. This recurring period of religious fanaticism, of total abstinence from food and drink during the daytime, with the extra indul- gence in sweetmeats and other luxuries at night, doubtless leave a strong impression on the mind of the child. The fast begins at the appearance of the new moon, and children watch with eager- ness for its appearance both at the beginning and at the end of the month. For its observance there is no qualification necessary, or learning or lei- sure, save endurance, and in this virtue Moslem women and children learn to excel. For many, especially of the poorer classes, the fast is a weary burden when it falls in the long days of intense heat, and the suffering caused is very severe. Yet the great majority of Moslems undergo the suf- fering cheerfully. Multitudes feign observing it, and are examples of hypocrisy to their children. Those that are faithful store up merit which will be to their credit in the great Day of Reckoning. Miss Constance Williams tells of children in Mymensingh, Bengal, who although only seven or eight years old refuse to eat at the beginning of the fast. Great virtue is gained if little ones ob- serve the fast, their mothers say, and the children THE RELIGION OF A MOSLEM CHILD 223 proudly deny themselves as long as they can. It it quite a relief to us when, after the first few days, they give in and become natural boys and girls again. But every year they fast a little longer, until they are able to abstain from food throughout all the days of the whole long month. At night fasting gives place to feasting. Invita- tions are freely given from house to house, and considerably more money is spent in food during the month of the fast than in any other month of the year." Her description is typical of conditions every- where. During the night it is customary to in- dulge in pleasure, feasting, and dinner parties. Some of these are of a religious character, but while professional readers drone the Koran, re- freshments are passed and the children make merry with their elders. All sweetmeat sellers drive a brisk trade during this season. The bazaars are lit up during the night, even in coun- try villages, and the child learns what Mohammed meant when he said, *^God will make the fast easy and not a difficulty for you. ' ' So great is the merit of fasting during Ramadhan that boys will make a boast of the fact that they have almost reached manhood because, although only six or seven years of age, they already keep the fast. The fourth pillar of religion — the giving of 2M CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD alms — has no special relation to childhood, save that the children of the poor, the homeless, and the wayfarer receive their share of the cheerful hospitality and the alms given by rich and poor alike in accordance with the teaching of the Prophet. Hospitality is a virtue which has ex- tended from the tents of Shem to the farthest out- reach of the Moslem world, and in this grace the Moslems are in many respects an example to other races and religions. The pilgrimage to Mecca, which is considered the last of the great duties, has a twofold rela- tion to childhood. It must impress a Moslem boy in Zanzibar, or Java, or Yarkand, or Peking, to see with what gladness and honour the pilgrims from Mecca are welcomed on their return from the holy city. They wear the green turban, are the heroes of the market-place, and become very often fanatical ambassadors of the greatness and glory of Islam. Children do not generally make the pilgrimage, although in the case of the Javanese and the Indians, we are told that hun- dreds of boys, and even girls, make the long jour- ney to Mecca in the pilgrim ships. The other strong influence of this institution is to strengthen the esprit de corps, and give some- what of a world horizon to the child. Some of the Bedouin children accompany the great pil- grim caravans that cross the peninsula; others THE RELIGION OF A MOSLEM CHILD 225 watch the hajj as it starts off from Damascus, Suez, Bombay, and other centres. In Cairo the great feast day of the year is that on which the Mahmal procession starts for Mecca. When this annual ceremony takes place all juvenile Cairo is on the streets, and every Moslem boy and girl is anxious to catch a glimpse of the sacred carpet which is to cover the Kaaba at Mecca. Of the religious influence of the pilgrimage upon the children of Mecca itself, one dreads to speak ; nor is Mecca the only great pilgrim centre where all that is best and worst in the religion of Islam gravitates. Kerbela, Meshed Ali, Jeru- salem, Tanta in Egypt, and Kairwan in North Africa, also attract tens of thousands every year. The children who live in these cities have an ex- aggerated idea of the greatness and glory of Is- lam, and are distinguished for their fanatic devo- tion to their creed and their prophet. Dr. Shedd writes from Persia that the Muharram celebra- tion, one of the features of Islam among the Shiahs, takes hold of the imagination of little children who imitate the gruesome and bloody ceremonies of this Miracle Play in memory of the martyr death of Hussain on the plains of Ker- bela. Perhaps one of the greatest influences on Mos- lem childhood as regards religion is that of saint worship^ both of the living and of the dead. Dead 226 CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD saints abound everywhere. There is scarcely a village in India, in Central Asia, or in North Africa that does not have its weli or patron saint. Perhaps Allah was too far removed from our common humanity, and His very remoteness made the intercession of saints a necessary part of the Moslem religion; or it may be that this feature was introduced from Oriental Christianity. In any case, the saint's tomb is the place to which the mother goes in her need, where she vows so many candles to be burned for the health of her child, or mourns the death of her first-born. As a general rule these saints have only a local celebrity. Others are famous throughout a con- siderable district. As Professor E. Montet tells us in regard to North Africa, where they are called marabouts, ^^Some are such by right of birth ; foremost among them are the sJierifs, real or pretended descendants of Mohammed, but the special path to sainthood is by good works, sci- entific discoveries (or what passes for such), asceticism, withdrawal from the world to a re- ligious retreat, mysticism, so-called miraculous power, etc. ' ' In regard to Baluchistan, Mr. Dixey says : **The real worship among all these people con- sists in veneration for so-called saints {pirs). Near every village and by many a hillside are to be seen mud erections over which, tied to sticks, ^ s o 3 "^.2 CO eS §S.g O i-H C5 CO I-H ^^ DO CO ^ ^ H THE RELIGION OF A MOSLEM CHILD 227 are various coloured rags, indicating the tomb of a holy man, or Said, and before these tombs the tribesmen bow in prayer." It is the living saint, however, the pir, dervish, or marabout, for they go by different names, who is also respected or feared by childhood. Many of these so-called saints are madmen. They go about in tattered garments, with matted hair, and are often utterly impure morally and physically. Mr. Walter writes : * * Of mad saints there are many in Kashmir to- day. They are held in great respect by both Hindus and Mohammedans, who believe them to be in possession of the secrets of God, and hence invaluable as fortune tellers. In the villages some of them go about utterly naked, and their lan- guage is unspeakably vile. During my own resi- dence in Kashmir for the space of five months I saw only one, who was surrounded by a band of followers and leering upon the passers-by out of eyes the most evil I have ever seen." Concerning one of these dervish saints in Mo- rocco, Montet says: **He was an old man of eighty years, strong and athletic in frame, but a total idiot, and to his mental infirmity he owed his entire reputation for holiness. Among other peculiarities, he had a special predilection for a concoction prepared by kneading together bran, honey, butter, hair, and earth. Upon this strange 228 CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD mixture he fed with the liveliest pleasure. ^He is a simple creature,' said another dervish as he watched him, *but he is also a saint. He ought to be happy since he neither loves nor hates any one.' " Thousands of these mendicants wander about the Moslem world. They travel great distances. One may see a Baghdad dervish at Samarkand, or one of the pirs from the Pan jab surrounded by a crowd of urchins in Morocco. They write talismans, sell amulets, cast out demons, and ex- ercise a superstitious influence generally on ig- norant people. Our illustration shows two mara- bouts preaching jihad, or religious warfare, to the children of Algeria. The photograph was taken in Kabylia. **To the left," writes Miss Trotter, *^ stands a tall white figure, with outstretched arm — a trav- elling preacher of Islam. And sitting in front, looking up at him with eagerness, reverence, as- sent on every face, are a score of native boys. Instead of being led into the light, they are being led into the darkness, with a flicker of a will-o'- the-wisp of imitation truth to lure them on. In- stead of bread they are being given a stone — a scorpion, rather, for bitter poison lies in the mes- sage of their teacher, poison against all that we hold most dear. The mystery of the Holy In- carnation, and the story of the Precious Death of THE RELIGION OF A MOSLEM CHILD 229 the Son of God, are put before them only as heresies to be abjured and trampled on. ^^And it is no fancy picture; it is a statement of what is going on throughout the Moslem coun- tries. In the one land of Algeria there are well over half a million boys between the ages of five and fourteen — all shepherdless, all starving in soul, but for the inappreciable number in touch with the mission stations; and this is only one country ^s tally. '* The whole world of Moslem childhood is grow- ing up into manhood or womanhood under the shadow of this religion, or passing into the shadow of the grave. On the death of a Moslem child the same customs are observed throughout the whole world of Islam, in as far as they are based on that section of the Traditions which deal with the burial of the dead. When the angel of death has taken the soul of a child, tradition tells us that the assistants of the angel wrap it in a shroud, with perfume like the smell of musk. They carry it to God, Who says : ^* Write the name of my servant, Such an one, the son of Such an one, and return him to the earth to his body, which is buried; because I created him from the dust and will bring him forth again." Then the soul is returned into the body. In the case of adults, who are responsible for their conduct, the two angels of the tomb question the dead. Chil- ^0 CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD dren who die before they reach the age of puberty are not subject to this examination. Neverthe- less, the fear of these angels of the tomb must be real in the mind of any thinking child. When a person is on the point of death it is a custom to pour sugar and water down his throat, or a little Zemzem water from Mecca. This is to facili- tate the exit of the vital spark. The sooner the funeral rites are performed the better; as the Prophet said, *^The sooner a man is buried, the sooner will he reach heaven." In all Moslem countries the washing of the dead is considered a religious rite. Generally it is ob- served as follows, women being employed in the case of girls and men for boys: The body is stripped and laid on its back in the proper posi- tion toward Mecca; then water is poured over it five times, and the body is scrubbed with soapi and afterwards with camphor water. The method used resembles the ablutions of prayer for the living. Every time a pot of water is poured out the creed is repeated. The body is then covered with a simple shroud of new white cloth. In Egypt, Turkey, and the Near East generally, the male relations and friends precede the corpse, while the female mourners follow behind, usually walking, although sometimes riding. There is a tradition that no one should precede the corpse, as the angels go before. It is considered a very THE RELIGION OF A MOSLEM CHILD 231 meritorious act to help carry the bier. Coffins are not used, but a canopy covered with cloth is over the bier. All those who dwell in Moslem lands have seen these frequent funeral proces- sions sweep swiftly through the streets, the men who follow the bier, or in some cases precede it, chanting slowly and solemnly the creed: **La- ilaha-illa- *llah — Muhammadu-Rasul- Allah. ' ' Like this: i -gr ^ g> SL IE -3L or more rapidly jii7njrii7nj B mcL The funeral service is not recited in the grave- yard, as that place is considered legally impure, but in a mosque or some other place near the graveyard. The father of the child or the Lnam repeats the service, which in India is as follows : *^Some one present calls out: ^Here begin the prayers for the dead.' Then those present ar- range themselves in three, five, or seven rows op- posite the corpse, with their faces towards Mecca. The Imam stands in front of the ranks opposite the head of the corpse if it be that of a male, or 2S2 CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD the waist if it be that of a female. The whole company having taken up the Qiyam, or standing position, the Imam recites the Niyah: *I purpose to perform prayers to God for this dead person, consisting of four Takbirs/ Then placing his hands to the lobes of his ears, he says the first TaTchir: '' 'God is great!' * * Then folding his hands, the right hand placed upon the left, below the navel, he recites the Suhhan: '' 'Holiness to Thee, God, And to Thee he praise, Great is Thy Name, Great is Thy greatness. Great is Thy praise, There is no deity but Thee,' **Then follows the second Takhir: '' 'God is great!' ''Then the Du'a: *0 God, have mercy on Mo- hammed and upon his descendants, as Thou didst bestow mercy, and peace and blessing and com- passion and great kindness upon Abraham and upon his descendants. " 'Thou art praised, and Thou art great.' THE RELIGION OF A MOSLEM CHILD 233 ** ^0 God, bless Mohammed and his descendants, as Thou didst bless and didst have compassion and great kindness upon Abraham and upon his descendants/ **Then follows the third Takhir: '' 'God is great r After which the following prayer (Du'a) is re- cited : ** *0 God, forgive our living and our dead and those of us who are present, and those who are absent, and our children, and our full-grown per- sons, our men and our women. O God, those whom Thou dost keep alive amongst us, keep alive in Islam, and those whom Thou causest to die, let them die in the Faith. * **The fourth Takbir follows: '''God is great!' ** Turning the head round to the right, he says : " 'Peace and mercy he to Thee,' * * Turning the head round to the left, he says : " 'Peace and mercy he to Thee,' " With slight variations this same order is ob- served in' other Moslem lands. Among the nomads, the funerals resemble those of the town, 234. CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD only they are more simple. The body, after ablu- tion, is shrouded in any rags that are procura- ble. A hole is dug in the sand and dried weeds or stones are disposed over the body in the shallow grave to keep out jackals and help denote the spot. Doughty tells how **some of the Bedouins scrape out painfully, with a stick or their own hands in the hard burned soil of the desert, a shal- low grave. The feet of the dead are laid toward Mecca, and over the pitiful form of earth there may be a few stones to assure the human clay ; yet I have seen other graves in the desert mined by hyenas, and the winding sheets lay half above the ground. ' ' The position Doughty gives for the body must be an oversight by one who is gen- erally so accurate. The proper posture for the burial of the dead is to have them face Mecca, with the body at right angles to the meridian of the kibla. If one had the vision of the angels and the ages, we might therefore see great concentric circles, ever widening, of those who have fallen asleep, their only hope Mohammed; millions upon mil- lions with their faces toward Mecca, and more than half of them the bodies of little children. The Moslem mother who weeps over the body of her first-born, wails as one who can never be com- forted. To understand what Islam means one must visit the house of mourning. Only there do A GIRL FROM TUNIS THE RELIGION OF A MOSLEM CHILD 235 we see the utter difference between the life of him whom they honour as their prophet and their lord, and Him Who is the resurrection and the life and Who hath brought life and immortality to light in the Gospel. Miss Watling of Algiers pictures for us the weird dance for the dead, but who can portray the sorrow which this hopeless mourning represents. ** Below me, framed in the fawn-coloured walls, was a dull group of some twenty women and girls. Up and down the wild things jerked uncouthly in time to their song, beating and tearing, or pre- tending to, with their nails, their faces and bared breasts. **The outermost circle was fairly calm, almost smiling, and the tearing merely a pretence, a com- pliment, a marking time. But in the centre was a thing more beast than human. It called itself woman, but the wild eyes and mad smile above the half -naked body belied the name. On, on, she jumped, higher and higher as she led the chant, turning meanwhile to every point of the com- pass. . . . **For hours and hours the mourners continued, dropping down, exhausted, for a few seconds, only to leap up more frenzied than ever. The dark blue garments waved in the hot wind, bare limbs tossed, long plaits of coarse, ill-kempt hair flew up and down at each bound. g36 CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD ** First one relation and then another took up the cry of loving diminutives : '' ^Oh, my little brother! Oh, my little son! Oh, my little uncle! Come all of you; Oh, my little heart!' etc., till sick and sad we turned away, sorer than ever over these Christless deaths, and over the barren consolation Islam offers to stricken hearts.'' VII THE IMPACT OF THE WEST AND CHRISTIAN MISSIONS " To stand between two religions, from one of which you have not as yet emerged, and another into which you have not yet entered, is intolerable; and twilight is pleasing only to bat-like souls." — ViCTOE Hugo — " Les Mis6rables." " European civilization destroys one religion without substitut- ing another in its place. It requires to be seen whether the code of Christian morality on which European civilization is based, can be dissociated from the teaching of the Christian religion." — LoBD Cromer — "Modern Egypt." " It is a terrible thing to take away a boy's faith, even if it be a faith in a mistaken creed, and I think the man who has argued or bantered a young fellow out of his faith without bringing him to a higher faith, has incurred a great responsi- bility."—!. L. Pennell in " The Afghan Frontier." vn THE IMPACT OF THE WEST AND CHRIS- TIAN MISSIONS THE old coat of arms of Tiflis, that great Moslem centre in the Caucasus, is a staff of wood held by two hands. The cross is on the upper end, while below is the half moon. One hand holds the cross upright, and the other is endeavouring to uplift the half moon. This coat of arms, if it were reversed, would be typical of the situation in most Moslem lands. Two forces are operating on the world of childhood which has passed before us in the preceding chapters. Both are disintegrating forces, and at the same time formative. In some lands they have been active for many decades, in others more recently, and in some they have scarcely been felt. These two forces are Western civilization, with its good and evil, and Christian missions. The advent of a railway station, a flour-mill, or even a wheeled carriage, has been a red-letter day to the children of many Moslem lands. What must it have meant to the children of Medina when for the first time they saw the big iron 240 CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD monster puffing on the rails, bringing a load of pilgrims from far-off Damascus ! How the boys and girls of the Pirate Coast in Oman gazed with wonder when they saw the first smoke-ship enter their harbours ! Not less wonderful, often equally unexpected, and generally less welcome, was the coming of the missionary. The opening of the first hospital, or of a day school with blackboards, pictures, and books, the music of an organ, the scenes from the life of Christ shown by stereopti- con, — all these have stirred the dull monotony of Moslem child life in many lands and among many nations in a way which only those can realize who have themselves observed it. The Moslem world has been penetrated by travellers to its inmost recesses. Mecca and Medina, as well as Kerbela and Meshed Ali, have laid bare their secrets. ** Arabia," writes Dr. James Cantine, **is being influenced as never be- fore by the forces of commerce and trade. The Twentieth Century, with rail and steamer, is piercing and crossing the last remaining banks and bars; and soon Arabia, that great eddy in the stream of the world's progress, will find itself being carried rapidly along to the consummation of God's purpose. In northeastern Arabia the most superficial observer can easily note the growth during the last few years. The great irrigation schemes, inaugurated in the Mesopo- THE IMPACT OF THE WEST 241 tamian valley, the linking up by rail of the Persian Gulf with the Mediterranean, the Bosphorus, and the Black Sea, the decided increase in size and number of the ocean steamers making Busrah their terminus, the immense oil fields on its bor- der already being exploited by modern methods and capital — all these were but nebulous hopes a decade ago, and make us wonder what is in store for the great regions still unexplored. '* Socially the forces at work are those acting in all the world. We have here only space to note the growing tendency to approve and, without doubt, soon to use customs of distinctively Chris- tian origin. Monogamy, equality of the sexes, schools for girls, and various so-called hand- maids of Christianity, are beginning to be pressed into the service of Islam. Many of us think that it will result in a house divided against itself, but time only will tell." Since these lines were written Great Britain has occupied Busrah, and is about to make the Euphrates-Tigris valley another Egypt under some new Lord Cromer. Tripoli has seen more changes in the last five years than in the previous two hundred years. Whether we consider Italy's action brigandage on a national scale or legitimate colonial expan- sion, the fact remains that they have already established good communications, roads, tele- 242 CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD graphs, railways, motor services; they are pre- paring the people for taking a share in their own development by instituting good technical col- leges; they have improved the water supply and the drainage, and by these means and the good hospitals and medical service which they have in- troduced, they have already done much towards stamping out, or, at any rate, reducing certain diseases which have devastated the Arabs. The editor of the Mussalman, Calcutta, in speaking of the entrance of Russia and Great Brit- ain into Persia, said that the loss of Persia would be a great calamity to the Moslem world. ** Af- ghanistan would be exposed to foreign invasion, Arabia and the regions west of Persia would be similarly exposed; thus the one loss may be the forerunner of many other great losses and the cause of utter annihilation of the Islamic civiliza- tion. '* (1912.) His word is finding fulfilment even as we write these lines, and it is doubtful whether after the great European war, any Mos- lem land will retain nominal independence. In addition to this political upheaval and par- allel with it, a remarkable modernist movement has arisen and is gaining strength in Moham- medan lands all the way from Morocco to China. The introduction of Western customs, the multi- plication of machinery and other devices of West- ern civilization, the increase of educational op- A YOUNG EDUCATED JAVANESE THE IMPACT OF THE WEST portunity, and especially the rise and enormous expansion of the Moslem press, have utterly changed many old standards and developed new social and intellectual ideals. In some parts of the Moslem world the children are born into a new environment in which the best and the worst of our Western civilization are in conflict with the best and the worst of Moslem civilization. European fashions in dress are being copied, and sometimes the results are unexpected. Miss Stocking writes from Persia, for example : **It is to be regretted that many girls are abandoning the dainty white head-kerchief, so pic- turesque and universally becoming. But without this kerchief it is necessary to dress the hair more neatly, and for this reason many girls are wear- ing their hair in one braid instead of in nine or eleven tiny braids. Hair worn in one braid can be combed every day, whereas once or twice a month was considered sufficient for the old style." Moslem boys in Turkey, Algeria, and Java are gradually abandoning their national dress and adopting that of Europeans. Our photograph of the young hopeful from Batavia, with his semi- European garb and the daily paper by his side, is an illustration in point. The question of cere- monial washing before prayer is greatly compli- cated when children and grown-ups use Western 244 CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD footgear, and when watches and almanacs keep Western time, even children begin to ask what is the significance of a.d. 1915. The Arabic Koran is being translated by Mos- lems themselves into other tongues. The Mo- hammedans of India, for example, have recently published an English translation for the use of schools (Allahabad, 1911). Translations have also been made into Urdu, Turkish, Javanese, and by missionaries, into Bengali. Newspapers pub- lished at the great centres, such as Calcutta, Bom- bay, Constantinople, and Cairo, carry the news of the day into every corner of the world. More than two hundred papers and magazines were pub- lished in Persia after the proclamation of the constitution. Cairo has more daily newspapers than either London or New York, but of course many of them have a very limited circula- tion. The desire for education has become universal among all the better-class Mohammedans. Egypt as a nation is struggling with might and main to get out of the depths of illiteracy. Under the inspiration of Great Britain, and following the leadership of American mission schools, educa- tion is making rapid progress, as the following table shows. The Jcuttah referred to is the pri- mary Moslem school. We see from the statistics given that the number of boys and girls attending THE IMPACT OF THE WEST 245 government schools in Egypt increased over four hundred per cent in twenty-one years. 1890 1911 In Government kuttabs . 1,961 13,169 In institutions for training teach- ers for kuttabs 2,713 In higher primary schools 2,749 5,761 In technical schools and colleges. 393 1,644 In secondary schools 734 2,160 In professional colleges 382 1,351 Studying abroad (Egyptian Edu- cation Mission) 56 6,219 26,854 What Dr. Pennell wrote in regard to North India is true, generally speaking, of all those countries where European governments are estab- lishing a school system. ** There are four atti- tudes towards educational work; that of the peo- ple at large, who desire learning, not usually for learning's sake, but because that is the portal of government preferment and commercial success; that of the priests and religious-conservative ele- ment, who oppose it tooth and nail as subversive of the old religious ideas and priestly power ; that of the missionary, who finds therein his vantage ground for familiarizing the intelligent and in- fluential section of the people with the doctrines and ideals of the Christian religion ; and that of ^46 CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD the Government, which, indifferent alike to the motives of the missionary and the opposition of the mullahs, requires educated young men for ad- ministrative posts, and believes that education eclipses fanaticism." In Persia and Turkey there is a growing inter- est in the education of girls, and women them- selves are voicing the plea for higher education. In an article published in the Turkish daily Ikdam we read: **What has our government done for the training of our girls, I wonder? Let me call at- tention to the following figures, which I have taken from the statistics published by the Min- istry of Public Instruction concerning all the of- ficial and unofficial schools in our country. For girls there is 1 normal training school; over against this there are 32 normal training schools for boys. There is 1 high school for girls ; while for boys there are 12 lyceums, 6 Stamboul high schools, 9 seven-year high boarding schools, 2 seven-year high schools for day pupils, 9 five-year high boarding schools, and 72 five-year high day schools; in other words, 1 high school for girls as against 110 for boys. Coming to the grammar schools, there are 45 for girls and 148 for boys; of primary schools there are 216 for girls alone, 2,561 for boys alone, and 2,388 mixed. Do not these figures show that woman is regarded as a very secondary, negligible, and useless class THE IMPACT OF THE WEST 247 of humanity, for whom knowledge is not very- preferable to ignorance r' At one time the Dutch government in Java im- peded the efforts of the missionaries to enlighten and develop the native mind by education, but now Holland is endeavouring to atone for the past. Normal training schools have been opened, and so eager are the Javanese for education that, Mr. Cabaton tells us, *4n school, thanks to his precocity, the native Javanese often outstrips Eu- ropean children of his own age, and in many cases is able to maintain this superiority for years." In 1910 Dutch India had 6 normal schools, with 42 teachers and 538 pupils. The elementary schools for natives were, for Java and Madura, in 1910, 613 government schools with 126,550 pu- pils, and 549 private schools with 58,668 pupils. In the outposts in 1909, 395 government schools with 64,231 pupils, and 1,436 private schools with 83,871 pupils. Besides, there were 7 schools for sons of native chiefs with 541 pupils, and 3 trades-schools with 277 pupils. In 1910 the gov- ernment spent 5,393,417 guilders for the educa- tion of natives. Moslem educational conferences are the order of the day in India, and the problem of Moslem childhood, in its ignorance and illiteracy, is being grappled with by some of the educated leaders themselves. At such a conference, held in Delhi ^48 CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD in 1911, Her Highness the Begum of Bhopal made a strong plea for the education of Moslem girls, saying: **It is evident that those who are girls to-day will be mothers of future generations, and it is they who will have to train the whole com- munity. How sad is, therefore, the fact that their education is in such a backward condition. On behalf of my sex I fully acknowledge the efforts which have so far been made by you gentlemen in promoting the cause of female education, but at the same time I must say that those whom you wish to advance are very weak and that the goal is still far distant, and the need of help and ear- nest endeavours is most urgent. The history of our community, as well as daily experience, fully proves that it is the neglect and want of due attention of men which are responsible for the ignorance of women, which has done much more harm to men than to women.'' One of the lead- ers in the Persian Parliament said to Dr. Es- selstyn: ** There is nothing more important for the future welfare of Persia than the education of our girls. The hope of our country is their- education, and we shall never have statesmen till the mothers are educated.'' In Constantinople Moslem womanhood now has its illustrated jour- nal called the Women's World and published weekly. Recently this paper contained the fol- lowing plea for liberty and higher ideals ; THE IMPACT OF THE WEST 249 ** Everybody knows how very far from any worthy ideal of what family life ought to be our social life has been. The young bride ^s fond hopes, her bright dreams of what her future is to be, how soon and how rudely have they often been shattered. She has soon discovered how hopeless was her slavery, or, if that is better, that she was but her husband's toy, to be thrown aside as soon as the toy no longer pleases. . . . The fault is not in our stars but in ourselves, if we fail of attain- ing true happiness. Our men are seeing more clearly to-day than ever before that the welfare and success of our people in the coming years depend very greatly upon us, the mothers and the daughters of our race.'' In their new ideals of education these Moslem leaders who have received a Western training themselves are sometimes honest enough to admit that the pioneers of modern education throughout the whole Moslem world have been, not the gov- ernments, but the missionaries. At the All India Moslem Educational Conference, held at Lucknow in 1912, Major Bilgrami made a remarkable ad- dress, at the conclusion of which he said: '*I have always appreciated the labours of missionaries in the line of education in India; from the days of Carey and Marshman they have taken the lead in education and in elevating the people. And it is to be noted that their education has not been 250 CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD divorced from moral teaching. The quality of their teaching has been of a very high order and foremost throughout the world. And in this matter I would say that the Americans have led the way. One of the finest institutions for educa- tion in the world is the Syrian Protestant College at Beirut. ' ' In all these efforts, however, for primary and higher education we must not forget that educa- tion without moral training is not an unmixed blessing, and that it remains to be seen whether Christian morals on which, as Lord Cromer re- minds us, European civilization is based, can be dissociated from the teaching of the religion of Jesus Christ. The Moslem schoolboy must not only be taught his alphabet, but he must learn to play games instead of sitting idle, and to play without cheating, without jealousy, or bad feel- ing. He must learn the dignity of labour and the sin of idleness. The result of government educa- tion is the secularization of life, and as the Mos- lem world has always been religious to the core, learning and religion have gone hand in hand. To divorce them will destroy all moral stability. The following incident related of the Bannu Mission School (India) shows that education can be given without destroying faith: *^Once, at a cricket- match with a rival school, when the issue of the game was hanging in the balance, and depended THE IMPACT OF THE WEST 251 on the last man, who had just gone in, making four runs, a Muhammadan Afghan, one of the eleven, retired to a corner of the field and re- peated the Lord^s Prayer, closing with a petition for the victory of the school, and returned to find the winning run just made!*' In nearly every part of the Moslem world, es- pecially in those lands which have been consid- ered the most remote or fanatic. Christian mis- sionaries have been the pioneers of primary edu- cation, and have begun this work under terrific opposition on the part of Moslem leaders and the age-long prejudice of the people against Chris- tianity and its messengers. It is evident from all the reports which we have received that even where missionary organizations exist and are carrying on work in Moslem lands, the Moslem population (and this includes the children) are difficult of access. In Tunisia, we are told, Mos- lem children are hardly accessible at all, the par- ents being very careful to keep them away from the Christian missionary, and that French law forbids interference with the Moslem religion. From Turkey and Arabia the missionaries write that there is the greatest difficulty in getting Mos- lem children to attend Christian schools, and that the children are prevented from associating with mission workers. The intolerant spirit of Islam is a great barrier £52 CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD between the Moslem child and those who desire to help him. Kindness is frequently interpreted as arising from fear, and Moslem children, as well as their parents, are so apt to consider Chris- tians their inferiors in every way. This inaccessi- bility seems to apply especially to the girls. From India, North Africa, and Arabia we have reports that are discouraging in their unanimity. ** Girls seem to be practically inaccessible in this dis- trict.'' Among the upper classes they are shut in, and among both rich and poor early marriage is a bar to religious as well as to secular educa- tion. In Malaysia and the Malay peninsula, as well as in India and Egypt, children are more ac- cessible, and we might sum up these apparently conflicting testimonies in the statement of Dr. Young of Aden, that ** Moslem children are com- pletely accessible for ordinary intercourse, but whenever one begins to teach Christianity, a bar- rier is raised by parents or teachers and the child is removed." Nevertheless there are indications everywhere that this spirit of opposition and fanaticism is waning, and the work already ac- complished for Moslem childhood by Christian missions measures large, both as to quantity and quality, in every way. When Kipling wrote his famous lines regarding the founding of Gordon College at Khartoum, THE IMPACT OF THE WEST 253 They terribly carpet the earth with dead, and before their cannon cool They walk unarmed by twos and threes to call the living to school." he did not consider it worth while, as some one remarked, to say that Kitchener's army (which did the ** carpeting'') marched past more than a hundred mission schools from Alexandria south to the junction of the Blue and White Nile. Mis- sionaries have never strewn Egypt with the dead, but they have called more children to school than Lord Cromer did in his period of administration. In Persia higher education dates from the ar- rival of the American Presbyterian missionaries, when Urumia College was started in a cellar in 1836, and Fiske Seminary there is still the leading school for girls in the whole of Persia. The American School for Boys, Teheran, Eobert Col- lege, the Syrian Protestant College, Central Tur- key College at Aintab, Euphrates College at Harpoot, Anatolia College at Marsovan, St. Paul's Institute at Tarsus, the International Col- lege at Smyrna, and Assiut College in Egypt, have trained the leaders of the Nearer East. What Moslem childhood owes already, directly and in- directly, to these institutions can never be meas- ured by statistics, and can only be estimated in terms of dynamics. In the Boys' School in Urumia in 1908, of 77 names enrolled, 63 were Moslems. 254 CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD In an enrollment of 236 at Teheran, 130 were Mos- lems, and the proportion as well as the numbers have increased. One father who brought his black-eyed little lad in long coat and high hat to place in charge of the missionary at the school said, **He is yours. I give you his skin and flesh and retain his bones for myself.*' From two seminaries for girls, one at Beirut and the other at Sidon, 350 young women have already gone out to teach childhood in the schools of Syria, Pales- tine, and Egypt. Dr. James L. Barton in his book on Educational Missions mentions no less than thirty-six institutions of higher learning in Mos- lem lands. Each of them is exerting an uplifting influence upon an ever-widening area of Moslem childhood, and all of them were founded by mis- sionaries. It is an old saying that the hope of the future is in the children of today. This truth cannot be over-emphasized when we think of the possibil- ities, as well as of what has already been accom- plished by Christian missions. To-day we see girls and boys seated at their desks laboriously making long crooked rows of letters, but in a few years these same children will have left the school with new ideas indelibly stamped upon their minds, and new ideals upon their hearts. **In a country," writes Mrs. John Van Ess of Arabia, ** where the few schools which are to be found girls' mission school, mogador, morocco SCHOOL FOR MOSLEM GIRLS Conducted by the Swedish missionaries at Port Said. 125 Moslem girls enrolled. THE IMPACT OF THE WEST 255 are a travesty on the word education, even the most unpretentious of American schools seem to the native by contrast a marvel of efficiency, equipment, and astounding results.'' Even greater is the contrast when we consider the schools for handicraft and technical training, where Moslem children are taught domestic sci- ence, carpet-weaving, carpentry, and other useful branches. How utterly different is the environ- ment and the opportunity for the Moslem girls who are weaving carpets under missionary direc- tion in Turkey, as we see them in our picture, from that of the underfed, ill-housed, ignorant children of Kirman of whom we read in Chapter III. The bright faces of the girls in the mission school at Mogador, Morocco, are no less an evidence of the new era for Moslem womanhood than are the specimens of their work in drawing and modelling which the picture puts before us. The uplift of Moslem childhood seems to be possible everywhere, and prayer and pains accom- plish marvels. From among the lowest classes in Port Said the Swedish Mission, as a result of three years' effort, has enrolled 125 Moslem girls, and the reward of this work of faith and labour of love and patience of hope is evident at a glance, in the faces of these transformed and happy children. These great things, however, are greatly won, and not found by chance nor wafted 256 CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD on the breath of summer dream. Mr. H. P. El- son, who founded the Raymund Lull Home for Moslem boys at Tangier, Morocco, writes : **I could not begin to tell you of all the diffi- culties and obstacles in the way of missionaries working among children here in past years, nor of the heartaches, disappointments, and discour- agements which have been their portion. But I can testify that God is faithful, and we thank Him for all, even the heartaches and difficulties, for they have taught us to realize how useless are all human agencies in doing service for God and how potent and availing are the agencies of prayer and faith in Christ. *He shall prevail,' and Mo- hammedan darkness must give way before Him. ^*For nine years we have been working among children and in the face of great opposition. What has been accomplished has been through prayer; inch by inch the ground has been taken. We began by taking one boy, and now have twenty-seven in our home. The number varies between twenty-five and thirty-five. Some of our boys are now in good situations and people are beginning to see the benefit of the work. Our chief aim is to bring them to Christ." A lad from the Riff Country who was in this Home to learn the printing trade was too restless to remain long. He joined the French army THE IMPACT OF THE WEST 257 eventually and was sent to the front. Afterwards he wrote from the military hospital: ^*I have not forgotten what I learned; only the Lord Jesus can cleanse my heart from sin, I now believe in Him/' Education apart from religion is not sufficient to save the child. The only hope for the non- Christian childhood of the world, therefore, is to bring Christ to them and so lead them to Christ. Even more than the Moslem woman and her home, the little child needs the friendship of Jesus our Lord and the inspiration of His pure and holy life. Contact with this Life produces new life. Every mission station in the world of Islam can offer evidence of the transforming and transfig- uring power of the Gospel. It has proved trium- phant over the stern laws of heredity, and is able to produce a new environment and change char- acter. When Moslem children receive Him, He gives them the right to become the children of God. The most unpromising material is not hope- less. Some African boys, carried in an Arab slave dhow to Muscat, who received unexpected liberty from the British Government and unstinted love from my brother afford a good example. Dr. Robert E. Speer will tell the story for us. **Six years ago (1897) I stopped from a British India steamer at Muscat to visit Peter Zwemer, who was working there alone, the signs of fever S58 CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD plain upon his face so that any man might read, but abiding still by his work. He took us up to the house where he was living, and into the room where he said his family would be found. There, sitting on little benches around the room, were eighteen little black boys. They had been rescued from a slave ship that had been coming up the eastern coast of Arabia with these little fellows and other slaves to be sold on the date planta- tions along the Tigris and the Euphrates rivers. The British consul had gone out and seized them from the slavers, and had delivered them to Mr. Zwemer to keep until they were eighteen years of age, when they were to be given their manumis- sion papers. They sat in the plain room, dressed in their brown khaki garments with their little red fezes on their heads, just as happy as the children of a king. *They were not so,' said Mr. Zwemer, *when I got them. The eighteen of them huddled together in the middle of the floor just like rabbits, and every time I came close they huddled nearer together. They distrusted every one. For months they had known nothing but abuse ar "* cruelty, and had been shut down in the hold of the slave ship in order that they might not betray their presence.' I saw on the cheek of each child a little mark about the size of a silver half-dollar on the cheekbone, and I asked Mr. Zwemer what that curious scar was. 'Why,' YOUNG MOSLEM GIRL FROM ABYSSINIA THE IMPACT OF THE WEST 259 said he, *that is the brand of the slaver's iron. Every one of these little boys was burned that way.' I understood something, standing in the presence of those eighteen little black boys with the brand of the slaver's iron on their cheeks, of what it was that nerved Wilberf orce and Clarkson to endure ignominy and shame and social ostra- cism until at last they had stricken the shackles from the wrists of the last British slave and rein- stated him in his rights as a man." "What was done at Muscat on a small scale has been done over and over again in West and East Africa and in India on behalf of Moslem slave children in much larger numbers. But much re- mains to be done. Slavery is not yet a thing of the past in Africa nor in West Arabia. The little Moslem slave girl from Abyssinia in our illus- tration has the very brand marks on her face that I remember seeing on the faces of our slave boys at Muscat, and appeals mutely to the Friend of children, and to those who are His friends, for deliverance. Medical missions have been the great pioneer agency in all Moslem lands, and have brought the ministry of friendship with that of healing simul- taneously into the lives of hundreds of thousands of babes and children. There are today more than 100 fully equipped mission hospitals in the great centres of Moslem population all the 260 CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD way from West Africa to Malaysia. If one could visit in succession the children's wards and talk with the little Moslem patients, what a story of suffering relieved would be revealed, and what a new significance would be given to the words of Christ, **I was sick and ye visited Me." In Con- stantinople, Old Cairo, Calcutta, Teheran, Damas- cus, Beirut, Amritsar, Baghdad, Busrah, and other centres, although not so populous, such as Aden, Algiers, Muscat, Quetta, Peshawar, and Yezd, hospitals have been opened and outdoor dis- pensary relief given to suffering childhood. At Yezd, for example. Dr. H. White took up his resi- dence in April, 1898, and forthwith opened a dis- pensary. Before the close of the year he had registered 5,000 out-patients and visited 500 homes of the people. The story of medical mis- sions at Baghdad, Bahrein, or Aden in Arabia if told in detail would be more interesting than a romance. Many of these Arab patients travel in- credible distances to obtain treatment, like the cripple boy of fourteen, homeless and friendless, who begged his way to Baghdad, limping 200 miles with the aid of a crutch.^ Patients come from the distant interior prov- inces to the coast towns because they know that here kindness awaits them and the loving skill of Christian physicians. The few who come, how- *«The Persia and Turkish Missions," 1909, p. 42. (C.M.S.) THE IMPACT OF THE WEST 261 ever, only emphasize the need of the many chil- dren whose suffering is unrelieved. The preparation of Christian literature, that is, literature suited to the mind of a child, must also be noted as perhaps the greatest contribution of missions in uplifting and emancipating those who are able to read. The twenty main Moslem lan- guages have the Bible translated into them in whole or in part. This includes such important versions as the Arabic, Persian, and Turkish ; the Urdu and Bengali editions for the millions in India ; the Malay for those in the East Indies, and many other versions for the Turkish and Tartar tribes of Southwest and Central Asia, as well as those in the African languages, such as Hausa and Swaheli. The Bible in the vulgar tongue is un- doubtedly the greatest literary treasure we can put into the lap of childhood. Although ignorance and illiteracy are so uni- versal in the Moslem world, we must not lose sight of the fact that the percentage and the number of readers is increasing every year by hundreds and thousands. The army of those who go to school wins new recruits daily in every Moslem land, be- cause they themselves are awakening to the possi- bilities of education. Nearly a million new readers graduate from the Indian government schools every year. A large proportion of these are Moslems. Christian missions to-day are all 262 CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD educational to a greater or less degree. Of many- parts of the world it may be said, as in the case of Uganda, that an inquirer is called a reader. We have found the children of the mountain villages of Oman the best purchasers of Gospels and Old Testament portions, and in some of the day schools of this wholly Moslem province they are actually using the Proverbs of Solomon as a read- ing book. One of the most hopeful signs for the future is to see groups of Moslem children poring over Gospel portions which they have purchased from some wayfaring colporteur, often in out-of- the-way places. The Scriptures reach centres which are at present inaccessible to the mission- ary, and an order for an Arabic Bible has been received from Mecca. A few verses on a piece of paper, taken from Bathurst to Timbuktu by a trader, led to the order for the complete Book from which they were taken, to be brought on the next journey; and on the next, for eighteen Arabic Bibles. So the way of the Lord is prepared. Let the Scriptures be read, and the contrast between Christ and Mohammed must be apparent even to the mind of a child. Together with the Bible there are the begin- nings of children's literature. In England and America every stage from babyhood to adoles- cence is carefully considered in the book world, but in many Moslem languages nothing is yet pre- THE IMPACT OF THE WEST 263 pared that is worthy of note ; and there is a loud call to meet this need. Miss I. Lilias Trotter, in writing of this subject, remarks that the greatest hope of winning the boys for the Kingdom seems to be through the printing press and its distribu- tors. In Egypt the American Mission brings out a magazine for children in Arabic, and the Beirut Press, as well as the Nile Mission Press, has issued some translations of English stories; but few of these are specially written for Moslem readers. Here is a new world of opportunity to be conquered, — from the simplest card that would catch the eye of the waif on the street to illus- trated story books for boys and girls in their teens, or the wonders of science and the beauties of nature told in the language of childhood. **The time is short,'' says Miss Trotter; '* while we wait the present generation of boyhood will be swept past our reach, without a hand held out to it in its wild temptations and its infinite possi- bilities. Boys who went unnoticed through the Sunday Schools of long ago, some even who were their bane, have returned as inquirers, bringing their wives and their babies along with them, and are beginning to stand out, illuminated with the daybreak. ' ' The impact of Western civilization upon the whole world of Islam will compel those who are responsible for the uplift of Mohammedan child- ^64 CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD hood to prepare a pure literature. The newly- aroused intellectual life must be guided into clean channels of thought. Already we may see how educated Moslem youth is misguided and cor- rupted by the worst of European literature. As a missionary in Turkey remarked : ^ * It is deplora- ble when children born into new intellectual life through the missionary agency are left to grow up on such food as they can get from France. . . . Shall we deny to the children of our own prayers the river of the water of Life, with its trees of sweet fruit and leaves for the healing of the na- tions, and send them to the slimy waste waters of the worst continental literature to quench their thirst ? ' ' Although the work of preparing suitable literature for Moslem childhood is still in its in- fancy, much has been done by mission presses and religious literature societies, and more is being attempted year by year. Over the doors of these institutions one might well write the verses of Katharine Tynan : "I gather rich stores for the children, the children. The lowing of oxen is heard as I come; I carry the sheaves in my arms for the children, Oh, sweet on the hill- top the lights of home! " Unless the Lord build it, the house for the children ; Unless He be with me, my labour's in vain. He has thought it, and planned it, the fold for the children. Where the lambs may be folded without fear or stain. THE IMPACT OF THE WEST 265 " I fight the holy fight for the children, the children ; The sons of God glorious sit down at my board; Though the foes hem us in, shall I fear for the children. Fighting the strong fight in the name of the Lord?" And it is a fight to train the Moslem child's mind and to win its heart: a fight against heredity age-long; against environment, such as we have seen described ; and most of all, against the opposi- tion of parents and Moslem leaders who are un- willing that any of these children should be taken away from under the yoke of Islam. The fight would be hopeless if we stood alone in it, but He that is greater than all is with us. No one can snatch them out of His hand, and His hand is stretched out to draw them to Himself. Christ alone can right their wrongs, lighten their dark- ness, and dispel their ignorance. Once these little lambs hear His voice they will follow their Shep- herd: nay, they will endure persecution for His sake. The story is told of two little girls, sisters, in Algeria, the one fifteen and the other seven, who first learned to know the Friend of children at the girls' hostel of the M. E. Mission. **When Algyia, helpless, was in the Moslem home under pretext of a three days' visit, the women shouted and used threats to make her a * witness' to the false prophet, that is, acknowl- edge Mohammed. *I will follow Jesus till I die,' was the only answer. 'And,' added the little £66 CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD sister, *then she went away alone and sang **Jusqu'a la mort nous serons fideles" (Faithful we will be unto death) to encourage herself, you know/ Then they threatened to kill them with a knife if they were obdurate or attempted to es- cape. But Algyia refused. The women said, * She finds her strength in the Book. Tear it up and she will fail.^ So they tore up the New Testa- ment. * And that was the only time,' said the little sister, *that Algyia cried.' *' Such instances of the faithfulness of little chil- dren might be multiplied. The spirit of martyr- dom is not dead, as the records of girls' schools in Cairo and in India would show, but publicity in these cases often means added persecution. A better day is dawning, however, a day of liberty not only for Moslem manhood but for the home. If the evangelization of Moslem childhood is part of the plan of God — and no thoughtful Chris- tian man or woman can for a moment doubt this • — there never was a time when this task was more urgent and more possible than it is to-day. As the Koran itself says: ** Every nation has its ap- pointed time, and when that appointed time comes they cannot hold it back an hour." There is no part of the whole world field that has seen more stupendous changes, political and social, within the last two years than has Southeast Europe, North Africa, and Western Asia. Politically THE IMPACT OF THE WEST 267 Islam has lost its power throughout the whole of Africa, the whole of Europe, and is losing its grip even on Asia. Where formerly all evangelistic effort carried on directly for Moslems was inter- dicted or suppressed by the jealousy of Moslem governors and rulers, to-day Islam has lost its sword, and the very disasters which have over- taken its rulers have chastened and subdued the hearts of Moslems everywhere. The great Euro- pean war, with all its horrors, has nevertheless helped to this end. The whole of North Africa has passed under European Government. This means settled administration, modern education, and the inevitable breakdown of Moslem opposi- tion. All the conditions emphasize that this is the time of times for large effort. It was the convic- tion of a representative gathering of Egyptian missionaries recently held that : *'God is calling us to special effort on behalf of the Moslems ... by doors of opportunity which His providence has opened up, and by an era of responsiveness which has been ushered in through the manifest operations of His Holy Spirit. Today, as never before, there is manifest among Moslems an interest in Christianity and its teachings." Of what was once the Turkish Empire Dr. James I. Barton says: **We are confronted with an opportunity and a responsibility never before 268 CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD faced in the same peculiar form, and in the same degree, by any missionary society. . . . These opportunities will not indefinitely remain. They are ours to-day.'* A missionary in Morocco writes to say that ninety per cent of the Moslem children are accessible to those who make tactful efforts for their uplift and education; and simi- lar testimony comes from Persia, India, and China. This world of Moslem childhood, so numerous and dwelling in areas so vast in the occupied and unoccupied fields of the world, has passed before our vision. We have seen something of their en- vironment, of the conditions childhood faces from infancy to adolescence; how much their minds and hearts are neglected, as well as their bodies ; how much is left out of their lives that should be put in, and how much is put in that should be left out. The facts themselves are the strongest ap- peal. Yet one comes back again and again, as we gaze into the faces of these little children, show- ing such possibilities and opportunities, to those words of the Master: ** Suffer the little children to come unto Me and forbid them not, for of such is the kingdom of Heaven." The evangelization of the Moslem world in this generation may dismay even the most dauntless faith, but the evangelization of the coming genera- tion is not an impossible task to those who have I* O >' .5 m CO I en 04 THE IMPACT OF THE WEST 269 witnessed the accessibility and responsiveness of childhood. One generation of these children understood as they should be, loved as they ask to be, and approached in the spirit of Jesus Christ and with His highest gift, the Gospel, would transform the world of Islam into the king- dom of Heaven. What we do for them must be done now. We must work the works of Him that sent us while it is day, for the night cometh when no man can work. The mortality of childhood and its immortality unite to show the urgency of the task. When we think of the physical ills which they suffer, of their poor dwarfed bodies in so many cases, of child marriage, of the too brief period before adolescence and the responsibilities of manhood and womanhood, one's heart aches to help them. "O little feet! that such long years Must wander on through hopes and fears. Must ache and bleed beneath your load; I, nearer to the wayside inn Where toil shall cease and rest begin, Am weary thinking of your road! " And then comes the inspiration of the latent possibilities in Moslem childhood; of what it would mean to train them, to transform them, to have Jesus Christ transfigure their lives by His indwelling. He is sufficient for all their need, and conscious of His presence with all those who rtO CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD attempt this task, we can by faith see the day approaching when these children shall grow up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, to the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ. AUTHORITIES REFERRED TO IN THE TEXT Bakhsh, S. Khuda " Essays Indian and Islamic," London: Probsthain, 1912. Broomhall, Marshall " Islam in China/' London: Morgan and Scott, 1910. Burton, Richard " Pilgrimage to Ed Medinah and Mekka," London: 1857 and later. Cabaton, A " Java and the Dutch East Indies," London: T. Fisher Unwin, 1911. Census of Egypt, The 1900. Crossland, Cyril " Desert and Water Gardens of the Red Sea," Cambridge, 1913. Ad Damiri " Zoological Lexicon." Dennis, James S " Christian Missions and Social Progress," New York: Revell, 1897. Doughty, Charles M " Arabia Deserta," Cambridge University Press, 1888. Dwight, T. Otis "A Muslim Sir Galahad," New York: Revell, 1913. Ferrand, Gabriel " Les Musulmans k Madagascar," Paris, 1891. Gairdner, W. H. T " The Reproach of Islam," London: Y.P.M.M., 1909. Al-Ghazali " Ihya 'Ulum Id Din." Goldziher, Ignaz Article Education in Hastings' " Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics." Gold7*> '" '^mi /. " Hadith and the New Testament," London: S.P.C.K. Haji Ahmed "The Muslim Guide," Lahore, 1913. 371 ^72 CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD Al Hariri Translated by T. Chenery, London: Royal Asiatic So- ciety, 1898. Hogarth, D. G "The Nearer East," New York, 1902. Houtsma " Encyclopedia of Islam," Articles: Allah, Prayer, Ab- lution, etc. Hughes, T. P " Dictionary of Islam," Articles : Children, Aqiqah, Puberty, etc. Huntington, Ellsworth "The Pulse of Asia," New York, 1907. Islam and Missions " Lucknow Conference Report," New York: Revell, 1911. Kamal-ud-Din " Islam and Prayer," Woking, 1914. Klein, F. A "The Religion of Islam," London: Kegan Paul, 1906. Koelle, S. W " Mohammed and Mohammedan- ism," London: Longmans, 1889. Labaree, Mary Schauffler "The Child in the Midst," New York, 1914. MacDonald, D. B " Aspects of Islam," New York: Macmillan, 1911. MacDonald, D. B " Moral Education of the Young Among Moslems " {International Journal of Ethics, Vol. XV). Margoliouth, D. S " Mohammedanism," London: Williams and Nor- gate, 1913. Martin, Frank A " Under the Absolute Amir," New York: Harper, 1907. Meakin, Budgett " The Moors," London: Macmillan, 1902. Montet, E " Saint Worship in North Africa " {The Moslem World, July, 1913). Mohammedan World of To-day, The " Cairo Conference Report," New York: Revell, 1906. AUTHORITIES REFERRED TO ^73 Moslem World Quarterly, The. Vols. I-IV, London. Niebuhr, Carsten " Travels in Arabia," Edinburgh, 1792. Opitz, Karl " Die Medizin im Koran," Stuttgart, 1906. Orr, Capt. C. W. J "The Making of Northern l^i- geria," London, 1911. Report of the World's Seventh Sunday-school Convention held in Zurich, 1913. Revue du Monde Musulman. . . Vols. I-XVIII, Paris: Ernest Leroux. Richter, Julius "A History of Protestant Missions in the Near East," New York: Revell, 1910. Rodwell's and Palmer's Koran . Round Table Quarterly Review, The " Islam and the Empire," December, 1913. Saleeby, Janeeb M " Studies in Moro History, Law, and Religion," Manila, 1905. Simon, G " Progress and Arrest of Islam in Sumatra," London: Marshall Bros., 1912. Todd, M. L " Tripoli the Mysterious," London: Grant Richards, 1912. Tremeame, Major " The Ban of the Bori," London, 1914. Van Sommer, Annie " Our Moslem Sisters," New York: Revell, 1907. Vischer, Hans " Across the Sahara," London, 1910. Westermarck, Edward " Marriage Ceremonies in Mo- rocco," London, 1914. Wishard, John G " Twenty Years in Persia," New York: Revell, 1900. 274. CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD N.B. — In addition to these books I am greatly indebted to the missionary correspondents whose names are given below for in- formation on Moslem childhood, received in response to a ques- tionnaire sent on in connection with the World's Seventh Sunday- school Convention, held at Zurich, Switzerland, July 8-15, 1913. A part of this questionnaire dealt with the present condition of Moslem children in regard to their numbers, their condition in- tellectually, their education, childhood diseases, mortality, and moral conditions, judged by Christian standards. The rest of the questionnaire was concerned particularly with educational and Sunday-school work among them: Mr. H. P. Elson, Morocco Miss F. M. Banks, Morocco Miss A. E. Gordon, Morocco Rev. Percy Smith, Morocco Rev. F. F. Goodsell, Morocco Mr. C. Nairn, Morocco Mr. J. C. H. Purdon, Tunisia Mr. Evan E. Short, Tunisia Mr. Arthur V. Liley, Tunisia Mr. Joseph C. Cooksey, Tunisia Mr. W. Reid, Tripoli Rev. E. F. Frease, Algeria M. Michel L. Olives, Algeria Mr. Thomas J. P. Warren, Algeria Misses Read, Turner, and John- ston, Algeria Mr. Joseph T. C. Blackmore, Al- geria Miss I. Lilias Trotter, Algeria Mr. E. J. C. Cox, Kabylia (Al- geria) Rev. F. W. Dodds. West Africa Mr. A. Jehle, West Africa Mr. E. Funke, West Africa Rev. Raymond P. Dougherty, West Africa Rev. T. A. Lambie, Sudan Rev. Carl Nauhaus, East Africa Mr. P. Olsson, East Africa Rev. Klamroth, Bast Africa Mr. E. Minkner, Natal Rev. G. B. A. Gardener, South Africa Rev. C. Muller, South Africa Rev. John Giflfen, Egypt Mr. George Swan, Egypt Mrs. M. L. Richardson, Egypt Mr. P. Bijl, Egypt Mr. James S. Stewart, Syria President Howard S. Bliss, Syria Rev. F. E. Hoskins, Syria Miss M. L. Johnston, Syria Rev. J. P. McNaughton. Turkey Mrs. I. S. Stapleton, Turkey Rev. H. M. Irwin, Turkey Rev. G. E. White, Turkey Rev. J. E. Merrill, Turkev-in-Asia Rev. S. C. Webb, Palestine Mr. Frank T. Ellis, Palestine Mr. E. A. Thompson, Palestine Miss A. H. M. Neile, Palestine Rev. R. Sterling, Palestine Miss Blanche E. Smithies, Pales- tine Mr. Frederick Carpenter, Pales- tine Rev. F. J. Jessup, Persia Miss Mary R. S. Bird, Persia Mr. H. P. Packard, Persia Rev. W. A. Shedd, Persia Rev. James Cantine, Arabia Rev. J. C. Young, M.D., Arabia Rev. F. J. Barny, Arabia Rev. E. E. Calverley, Arabia Rev. P. V. Boyes, Turkish Arabia Mr. Harry C. York, Ceylon Prof. W. J. Johory, India Rev. E. M. Wherry, India Mr. George H. Hamler, India Miss E. J. Williams, India Rev. Robert Maxwell, India Rev. H. J. Scudder, India Mr. C. Bolwig, Manchuria Mr. H. H. Lowry, China Mr. F. Herbert Rhodes, China Mr. D. Crommelin, Java Rev. R. J. Denyes, .Tava Rev. Job. Rauws, Malaysia Rev. W. G. Shellabear, Malay Peninsula George A. Simons, M.D., Russia PRIinXD IN THE TTNITED STATES OF AMERICA Some Important Works ON Mohammedanism 7)^^MohammedanWorld^Today A Symposium edited by James L. Barton, D.D., S. M. ZwEMER, D.D. and E. M. Wherry, D.D. Illustrated, 8 vo. Cloth, $i.jo net Islam and Christianity The Irrepressible Conflict By E. M. Wherry, D.D. Cloth, $1.25 net Our Moslem Sisters A Symposium edited by Annie Van Sommer Illustrated, Cloth, $1.23 net Arabia, the Cradle of Islam By S. M. Zwemer, D.D,, F. R. G. S. Illustrated, Cloth, $2.00 Persian Life and Customs By Samuel G. Wilson, M. A. Illustrations and Ma^s, Cloth, $f.2S The Egyptian Sudan By John Kelly Giffen, D.D. Illustrated, Cloth, $1.00 net Constantinople and Its Problems By Henry O. Dwight, L.L.D. Illustrated, Cloth, $1.23 net Henry Martyn First Modern Missionary to Mohammedans By George Smith Illustrated, Cloth, $1.30 net Missions and Modern History By Robert E. Speer, M.A. 2 vols., 8 vo.., Cloth, $4.00 net FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY Publishers FOREIGN MISSIONS ROBERT E. SPEER The Cole Lectures for 1911. Some Great Leaders in the World Movement ismo, cloth, net $1.25. Mr, Speer in his characteristic inspiring way has pre- sented the key note of the lives of six of the World's great- est missionaries: Raymond Lull, the crusading spirit in mis- sions; William Carey, the problems of the pioneer; Alexander Duff, Missions and Education; George Bowen, the ascetic ideal in missions; John Lawrence, politics and missions; and Charles G. Gordon, modern missionary knight-errancy, J: M, ZWEMER, F.R.G.S., and Others Islam and Missions l2mo, cloth, net $1.50. This volume presents the papers read at the Second Conference on Missions to Moslems, recently held in Luck- now, India. The contributors are all experts of large ex- perience in such mission effort. VAN SOMMER, ANNIE, and Others Daylight in the Harem A New Era for Moslem Women. In Press. Woman's work for Woman is nowhere more needed than on the part of Christian women for their sisters of Islam. It is a most difficult field of service, but this volume by au- thors long and practically interested in this important Chris- tian ministrjr, demonstrates how effectually this work has opened and is being carried forward with promising results. ROBERTA. HUME, P.P. An Interpretation of India's Religious Hi ^nrv Introduction bv President King, LL,D. tllSIOry ofOberlin College I2mo, cloth, net $1.25. The author of this careful, though popular, study, is eminently qualified to deal with the subject of his thought- ful volume. Equipped for this purpose through long resi- dence in India and intimate study af India's religious his- tory, what he says will be accepted as the estimate and in- terpretation of an authority. MARGARET E. BURTON The Education of Women in China Illustrated, i2mo, cloth, net $1.25. The author of this scholarly study of the Chinese woma« and education is the daughter of Prof. Ernest E. Burton, of the University of Chicago The work is probably the most thorough study of an important phase of the economic development of the world's most populous country that Hai •Gpeared FOREIGN MISSIONS GEORGE F. HERRICK, P.P. Fifty Years Missionary of the American Board in Turkf Christian and Mohammedan EAk Plea for Bridging the Chasm. Illustrated, net $1.25. "Dr. Herrick has given his life to missionary work among tiie Mohainniedans. Opinions from leading missionaries to Mohammedans, in all parts of the world have been brought tOjB:ether in the book for the elucidation of essential points 9t the problem and form an immensely practical feature of the discussion." — Henry Otis Dxuight, uL.D, JAMES L. BARTON, D. D, Human Progress Through Missions i2mo, cloth, net 50c. By the Foreigfn Secretary of the American Board. The book IS a notable addition to the apologetics of Missions and will carry a message of conviction to many a reader who may not be fully persuaded of the value and necessity of Christian work in foreign lands. ALICE M, GUERNSEY A Queen Esther Round Robin Decorated Paper, in Envelope, net 25c. "It was a pretty conceit to have a disbanding miBSio* fcircle keep up their mutual connection by writing a "round robin." It IS just the thing for girls* mission bands."— S. S. Times. S. M. ZWEMER, F.R.G.S. Arabia : The Cradle of Islam Studies in the Geography, People and Politics of the Peninsula; with an account of Islam and Mis- sionary Work. New Bdiiion, Illustrated. 8yo, Cloth, net $2.00. AN STIC E ABBOTT The Stolen Bridegroom eastiJd?a™dvi« Illustrated, i2mo, cloth, net 75c. The author has vividljr portrayed some of the ways in ^!ch Christ enters the Hindu heart; Just the book to read in the auxiliary society or to bring into the reading club."— Mission Studies. Children's Missionary Series Cloth, decorated, each, net 60c. New Volumes. Children of Persia. Mrs. Napier Malcolm. Children of Borneo. Edwin H. Gomes. Each volume is written by an authority on the countries represented as well as by a writer who knows how to tell % story that will both entertain and instruct children. CONCERNING FOREIGN LANDS EDfTARD WARREN CAPEN, Ph. D. Organizing Secretary of the Hartford School of Missions Sociological Progress in Mission Lands 8vo, cloth, net $1.50. TTie material for this able sociological survey Dr. Capen gathered during a visitation of the missionary fields of the world. Dr. James Dennis says: "Dr. Capen's grasp of a very large and complex subject is adequate and well balanced." JEREMIAH ZIMMERMAN, P.P. The God Juggernaut and Hinduism in India illustrated, 8vo, cloth, net $1.50. "A careful study of the religious rites and gods of Hindu- ism, based on his observations during a 5,000 mile journey in the East, Dr. Zimmerman writes entertainingly and instruc- tively of the life of these millions of our fellow human- beings of whom we have known so little." — Syracuse Herald. RENA L. HOGG Of the American {United Presbyterian) '——^^—^—— Mission in Egypt. A Master Builder on the Nile Being the Record of the Life and Labors of John Hogg, D.D. Illustrated, 8vo, cloth, net $1.50. Dr. Samuel M. Zwemer says: "It is bound to interest people as fully as the life story of any missionary published m recent years." CARL LEROY HOJVLANP, Ph.B, Manual of Missions Introduction by Bishop W. T. Hogue, cloth, net 7Sc. "An authoritative statement of just what those interested in world-wide evangelization desire to know regarding the occu- pied and unoccupied fields of missionary enterprise. The writer knows of no other work \yhich presents so many and such varied facts regarding foreign missionary work within so small a compass." — Bishop Wilson T. Hogue. J. J. MULLOWNEY, P.P. and His Chinese Friend A Revelation of the Chinese Revolution i2mo, cloth, net 75c. _ An authentic and intimate record of the Chinese Revolu- tion. The author's data, inspired by men behind the scenes, shows how the extravagance and inefficiency of the Manchus brought about the ruin of their dynasty, and ushered in the first Republic of the East. There is, in addition, a closely- written and illuminating review of the social and political conditions which now obtain in the Flowery Kingdom. 14 DAY USE RETURN TO DESK FROM WHICH BORROWED LOAN DEPT. This book is due on the last date stamped below, or on the date to which renewed. Renewed books are subject to immediate recalL REC'D LD JULlOM-lPS REC ' .O L r^ NOV 1 7 ,9gg REC'D L !^ Hons ■66 '^^ NOV 2 5 1968 8 7 m -^ ^s^ 401:^31970 ♦ REC'D LD JUL 3 70-2PM5 6 LD 21A-60m-4,'6C (E45558l0)476B General Library University of California Berkeley :^i I U OUUOo 7o 393852 QJ^l% UNIVE.RSITY OF CAUFORNIA UBRARY V ^ -^ 7J