them in the same place; after which the pilgrimage is looked on as completed." *

But the sacrificial rites practised during the pilgrimaget, are performed according to rules specifically laid down in another chapter of the Koran, in which sacrifice is most circumstantially treated, as a fundamental rite of Islamism: "And whoso maketh valuable offerings unto God; verily they proceed from the piety of men's hearts. Ye receive various advantages from the cattle designed for sacrifices, until a determined time for slaying them; then the place of sacrificing them is at the ancient house. Unto the professors of every religion have we appointed certain rites, that they may commemorate the name of God on slaying the brute cattle which he hath provided for them. — The camels slain for sacrifice have we appointed for you as symbols of your obedience unto God: ye also receive other advantages from them. Wherefore commemorate the name of God over them, when ye slay them, standing on their feet, disposed in right order; and when they are fallen down dead, eat of them: and give to eat thereof, both unto him who is content with what is given him, without asking, and unto him who asketh.

* Prelim. Disc. p. 160.

† In the Mahometan ritual, indeed, sacrifice may be considered as a branch of the rite of pilgrimage; and may be included under that rite. Its practice would seem to belong chiefly to the celebrations at Mecca.

Thus have we given you dominion over them, that ye might return us thanks. Their flesh is not accepted of God, neither their blood; but your piety is accepted of him." *4

From its primitive establishment by the immediate authority of Mahomet, as a fundamental rite of Islamism, the institution of a priestly sacrifice can be historically traced in its ritual celebrations, through every succeeding age. Under the caliphate, indeed, a sacerdotal office, answering to the office of high priest among the Jews, and to that of the Pope in the Latin Church, formed the grand hereditary and incommunicable distinction, appropriated to the legi timate successors of Mahomet.

After the manner of the law of Moses, a great national sacrifice was celebrated annually by the Saracens; in which, according to the custom of the ante-Mahometan Arabians, sanctioned, as we have just seen, by direct precept of the Koran, a camel was the appointed victim, and the caliph himself acted as the officiating high priest. The ceremonial observed at this solemnity has been described, not merely by Mahometan authorities, but by the impartial experience of a Jewish traveller, Benjamin of Tudela; who records in his Itinerary, this annual sacrifice of the Saracens, * Sale's Koran, vol. ii. p. 171, 172.

as witnessed by him at Bosra, in the twelfth century; and (a circumstance peculiarly deserving of notice), in so doing, specifically recognizes its affinity to the great Jewish sacrifice of the

passover.

The account of Benjamin may be left to answer for itself: "The caliph having ascended a wooden throne, recited to the congregation certain passages from the Koran; when the elders of the Ishmaelites, rising from their places, offer up prayers for him, in which they commemorate his supreme majesty and piety; and these petitions concluded, all the congregation, with one accord, chaunt Amen. Afterward the caliph pronounces a benediction on them all; and, a camel being brought to him, he slays it; AND THIS IS THEIR PASSOVER. The officiator then distributes portions of the flesh to the chief persons in the assembly, who eagerly snatch it from him, in order that they may taste and refresh their souls with any, the least, portion of the VICTIM, slaughtered by the hand of THEIR HOLY KING. The solemnity thus ended, the caliph withdraws from the mosque." * 5

This Mahometan celebration, which so forcibly reminded a Jew of his high priest, and his passover, presents to the contemplation of the

Benjam. Itin. ap. Hotting. Hist. Orient. p. 288, 289.

Romanists, a resemblance at least equally close and striking to another priest, and another offering, the pope, and the sacrifice of the mass. None assuredly, save the blinded and bigotted votary of Papal superstition, can read the description, and yet refuse to own the correspondence which it exhibits between the rival antichrists of the East and West; seated on their respective thrones, immolating their several victims; pronouncing each, his solemn benediction; and arrogating to themselves at once an infallible sanctity, and an absolute supremacy over the bodies and the souls of men! *

Now, as, during the existence of the Saracenic empire, Mahometanism thus possessed a priesthood in the persons of the caliphs, and a sacrifice in the annual oblation offered by their hands; so, in its Turkish branch, it retains the office of the caliph, in the persons of the Ottoman Sultans, who claim to be the legitimate successors of Mahomet, and heads of their religion; and the office of the priesthood, in the sacerdotal order of the Tusmans, or Muftis, whose dignity has been marked out, by Busbequius, in the following terms: "The Mufti is the Turkish high

Grasserus has only done justice to this parallel, when he styles the Caliph of Mecca, "Verus Muhammedanorum Papa, Mahometisque - Plaga Regia, p. 151.

successor.

priest; and holds the same place among the Turks, with that which the Roman pontiff holds in the Latin church.”* 6

Such is the marked agreement which Mahometanism maintains with the Jewish and Christian churches, in this highly important branch of the ritual parallel. And it is of a creed thus constituted, that an historian who makes lofty pretensions to fidelity with regard to his facts, has not scrupled to pronounce, "the Mahometan religion is destitute of priesthood or sacrifice."

The traditional law of Judaism placed almsgiving on a par with sacrifice; or rather, indeed, accounted the due performance of this legal service preferable to all sacrifices.† This singular comparison, of a moral duty, with a religious rite, was perfectly consonant with the Rabbinical notion of alms-giving; which, according to the doctrine of the Rabbins, bore far more the character of a ritual observance, than of a moral obligation. To the punctual periodic discharge of this service, they ascribed the virtue both of delivering the Israelite from hell, and of purchasing for him an entrance into

* Busbeq. Epist. i. ap. Hotting. Hist. Orient. p. 284.; conf. pp. 297

-299.

+ See Sale, Prelim. Disc. p. 148.; conf. Mill, p. 440.