§ 1. ISLAM is to-day the religion of about one hundred
and fifty millions1 of our fellow-creatures.
Its sway extends
from the Pillars of Hercules to the Caspian Sea, from the Pamir Steppes to
Zanzibar, from the Balkans to Sumatra. It is the faith of Arabia, Palestine,
Syria, Turkey in Europe, Asia Minor, Mesopotamia, Persia, Afghanistan,
Bilochistan, of the vast regions of Turkistan and other parts of Central
Asia. In India alone its professors number more than fifty-seven millions.2
It is the religion of the Malay Peninsula, and is said to be still extending
in the Malay Archipelago. In Yun-nan3 and
