of all true learning because it recognizes that, when the reason is enlightened and the conscience freed, Muhammad can no longer in any true sense be held in reverence or maintain his proud claim to be the Seal of the Prophets, the Messenger of GOD.

§ 4. Slavery has existed in the Eastern world from the most remote antiquity. Arabia

Slavery.

is no exception to this rule. Muhammad did not introduce the evil, nay, he seems to have done something to mitigate it. He directed the Muslims to be kind to their slaves, to feed and clothe them properly, and praised those who on certain occasions manumitted them. All

Sanctioned by Muhammad.

this we gladly acknowledge. But nevertheless he distinctly sanctioned slavery and regarded it as an institution which would continue¹ to exist among his followers. No word in the Qur'an, not a sentence in any genuine Tradition, has ever seemed to his devoted followers to embody anything like a principle which would in the long run lead them to abolish slavery as inconsistent with the will of GOD. In this we see one of the

Contrast with Spirit of Christianity.

immense differences between the spirit of Muhammadanism and that of Christianity. Even as early as the reign of Justinian, the doctrine of the brotherhood of mankind and the universal Fatherhood of GOD had so influenced the stern conservatism of Roman law that in the Institutes slavery is defined to be

something "contrary to nature."¹ But as yet no Muhammadan legislator has shown the very slightest inclination to follow such an example. Nor is this

Concubinage.

to be marvelled at when we remember that Muhammad himself had both male and female slaves. Servile concubinage he also sanctioned not only by precept but by example.² Let the slave-trade as it is to-day in Africa, the history of the Mamluks, and the fearful traffic in Circassian and Georgian girls, witness how thoroughly slavery in some of its worst forms³ accords with the Religion of Islam. The effect of all this on the whole life of each Muslim nation, whether considered from a moral or a political aspect,

Circassian Girls.

is indescribably evil. One result has been to render it necessary to exclude women from attending the public services in the mosques, as they used to be permitted to do in Muhammad's own days. Arabian women even before his time excelled in poetry and must have had an opportunity of acquiring some learning. Now, however, even the religious instruction given to Muslim women is limited in extent, and—unless