CHAP, IV.]

DR. BADGER'S THEORY.

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Lecture in 1788,' entitled 'A Comparison of Mahometanism and Christianity.' And then he goes on to fortify his theory by additional arguments out of the storehouse of his own historical lore and personal knowledge. He relates, apparently with much enjoyment, the rapid progress of Mussulman conquest in 'Syria, including Palestine and Jerusalem, Egypt, Northern Africa, Spain.' 'Numerous were the proselytes from Christianity during this period;' but we do not read of any converts from Islam. The reason is obvious; wherever the Muslims went they witnessed in the then prevailing worship of the Christians a confirmation of its tenets and features as set forth in the Koran.' As with the Arab invasions, so with those of the Tartars and Ottomans during the long interval of eight centuries; large numbers of the Christians embraced the religion of the conquerors, whereas we have no record of any such defection from the ranks of Islam to Christianity. And the reason was doubtless the same; Christianity with the subjected peoples had lost its vital energy, and had been replaced by an ostentatious sensuous worship, and a ceremonial system which the Muslims could only regard as idolatrous and degrading to the most High God.'

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Such is the remarkable theory of a writer who sneeringly grants to those against whom he writes a very wide concession indeed,' namely, that they are well acquainted with the doctrines of Islam.' It seems to me that a concession at least as wide must be made. on behalf of Dr. Badger, if this letter is to be taken as an index of his acquaintance with the doctrines of Islam.' Here is a writer who volunteers to instruct the British public on the causes which conduced to the spread of Islam, and he can offer no other explanation

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of conversions to Islam and non-conversions from it than the repugnance of the Moslem and Christian alike to the Christianity of the time. Does Dr. Badger then not know that wherever Islam has wielded an independent sway it has always been death for the Mussulman to change his religion? Does he not know that the most effectual Moslem argument for converting Christians has been outrage, torture, and often the alternative of death? Let him read the Blue Books on the Syrian massacres published in 1861, and he will find that arguments of this sort proved too strong for much Christian flesh and blood in the Lebanon. In the preceding pages I have supplied sufficient evidence of the methods of persuasion by which Islam was propagated; and when Dr. Badger has had time to study more trustworthy authorities than the sparkling charlatanry which Dr. White had the dishonesty to publish as his own, he will doubtless be able to give an explanation of the spread of Mahometanism more consis tent with the facts of history and with the doctrines of Islam' than the famous Bampton Lecture in 1788.'

Dr. Badger's sneers will hardly persuade scholars that his acquaintance with the doctrines of Islam' is more extensive or accurate than Sir W. Muir's. The progress of Islam,' says the latter, begins to stand out in unenviable contrast with that of early Christianity. Converts were gained to the faith of Jesus by witnessing the constancy with which its confessors suffered death. They were gained to Islam by the spectacle of the readiness with which its adherents inflicted death. In the one case conversion often imperilled the believer's life; in the other, it was for the most part the only means of saving it.' 1

1 Life of Mahomet, p. 258, New Edition.

CHAP. IV.]

AUDI ALTERAM PARTEM.

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But Dr. Badger does not confine his criticism to the past. He has lived and travelled much in the East. He has seen Islam and Eastern Christianity face to face, and under a variety of aspects. He has scrutinised the conduct of Christian and Mussulman alike, and seen their doctrines respectively tested by practice. And here is his deliberate judgment. The Eastern Church at the present day,' he says, ' is much what 'is much what it was in the seventh century.' The Christians, 'taken as a whole, are not superior to their Turkish rulers either in morals or manners, and, with slight exceptions, scarcely any intellectual progress has been made among them.' 'Talk about persecutions! those perpetrated by the Christians far transcend those of the Muslims, and in these latter times there can be no doubt that the political intrigues of Russia were the mainspring of the Bulgarian atrocities.'

Here, then, we have a distinct issue raised by a gentleman who knows the East well, and whose knowledge gives him a special title to have an opinion on the comparative morality of the Mussulmans and Christians of the East. The Christians, he says, 'are not superior to their Turkish rulers in morals or manners,' and the persecutions perpetrated by the Christians far transcend those of the Muslims.' On the other hand, I have now lying before me a book of travels in the East written by an Englishman whose experience is as large as Dr. Badger's, while his general acquirements are certainly not less extensive; and his account of the matter is altogether different-so different, in fact, that it is only fair to place it before the reader as a counterpoise to Dr. Badger's. A few extracts will suffice as a sample of the whole book, which extends over 400 pages octavo.

"They may talk,' says the author, of the Hatticherif, that vain chapter of privileges, in London or Paris, and praise the toleration and justice which it awards to all classes of the Sultan's subjects; but beyond the immediate eye of the ambassadors this farfamed Magna Charta is no better than a mockery.' At Mardeen he saw a large number of horses, asses, mules, and even cows, laden with all manner of booty taken from the unoffending people of the neighbourhood by the Pasha's soldiers. Among the booty were several loads of human heads, and a number of prisoners, of whom some were to be impaled on the morrow.' The soldiers committed other excesses too horrible to be related. The heart sickens as it contemplates such atrocities; but such is the temper and spirit of the Ottoman Government.' At another place the author records the misdeeds of a Mussulman potentate, who used the most harsh measures to induce them. (Christians) to embrace Islamism, and was the cause of the murder of their bishop.'

At Jezeerah'a heavy gloom seemed to pervade the inhabitants. The poor Christians were afraid to open their mouths, and related to us in whispers many sad tales of Bedr Khan Beg's tyranny and oppression. The Coords, as they walked through the streets or sat in the bazaar, looked upon us with sovereign contempt, and told us by their insolent and haughty bearing that they hated us, as they did all who bore the name of Christ. Their star was yet in the ascendant, and I have no doubt that many of them were even then looking forward with satisfaction and rapture to the projected slaughter of the mountain Nestorians.'

Mohammed Pasha of Mosul was an ignorant tyrant who could not even read. On the refusal of some of

CHAP. IV.] FORCED CONVERSIONS TO ISLAM.

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the people under his jurisdiction to pay the excessive taxation, several hundreds were totally massacred, and the ears of a large number were cut off and hung up before the gates of Mosul.' It is well known that he was in the habit of sending large bribes to the Sultan's ministers, who urged in his behalf the vigour with which he had suppressed anarchy and rebellion and the general efficiency of his rule, whenever any effort was made to remove him from office. . . . . He secretly fomented disturbances among the Coords and Nestorians, and was himself the first to convey the intelligence to the Sublime Porte.’

The Yezedees are described by the author whom I am quoting as a very industrious race, clean in their habits, and quiet and orderly in their general behaviour.' They are also 'comparatively free from many of those known immoralities which pollute the lives and conduct of Mohammedans.' The Mussulman Pasha of the district, instigated thereto by fanaticism and a thirst for booty,' fell upon some of these people, 'burned their villages, carried many of them away captive, and on the mound of Koyvonjuk massacred several thousands in cold blood, who had fled thither hoping that the people of Mosul would offer them a refuge within the city walls. .. The Yezedees of that district were subjected to the most wanton oppression in order to force them to embrace Islamism. Many underwent imprisonment, stripes, and other indignities, and a few suffered death, rather than renounce their creed; but seven entire villages became the followers of the False Prophet.'

Bedr Khan Beg, already mentioned, in addition to 'a great persecution of the Jacobite Christians of Jebeldoor,' whom he forced to work without pay and under

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