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    lations of the rival parties may , perhaps , be considered &s ; accounting , with some probability for their -relenting from their ancient aspeMty . The comparative indifference which has been often observed to be not at

    all uncommon among the more enlightened of the Moslem nations , to the observance in their full rigour of the formal observances and distinctions of their fathers , has doubtless contributed to the spread of some small portion at least of charity , between

    rival sects ; and if such feelings once exist to any extent , the periodic pilgrimages , where the various nations of the earth , professing in the main the same faith , meet to perform together the most sacred offices of their religion , must have a great tendency to increase their influence . " It is here , " says

    Ali Bey , " that the grand spectacle of the pilgrimage of Mussulmen must be seen ; an innumerable crowd of men from ali nations , and of all colours , coming from , the extremities of the earth , through a thousand dangers , and encountering fatigues of every description to adore together the same God , the God of nature . The native

    of Circassia presents his hand in a friendly manner to the ^ Ethiopian or the negro of Guinea ; the Indian and the Persian embrace the inhabitant of Barbary and Morocco ; all looking upon each other as brothers , as

    individuals Of the same family , united by the bands of religion , and the greater part speaking or understanding more or less the same language , the language of Arabia . No ! there is not

    any religion that presents to the senses a spectacle more simple , affecting and majestic 1 Philosophers of the earth , permit me , Ali Bey , to defend my religion , as you defend spiritual things from those which are material , the

    plenum against a vacuum , and the necessary existence of the creation 1 Here is no intermediary between man and the Divinity ; ali are equal before their Creator ! All are intimately persuaded that their works alone reconcile

    them to , or separate them from , the Supreme Being , without any foreign hand being able to change the order of immutable justice ! What a curb to sin ! What an encouragement to virtue ! But what a misfortune that , with so many advantages , we ; should not be better tHah the ' Calviofetp \" While the Mahometan doctors , how-

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    ever , : wererdebating points , whichean only equal in their importance , ^ at least in their eyes , those HwMoh agitated their Christian predecessors , when Isl&m first arose , in * at * > 6 bsctire corner to call them to graver considerations ;

    while the contending Kierits of the orthodox rituals , ithe Hanifi , Shaffi , Hanbali and Maleki , were yet imisettled , and the mystery of th < e 99 epithets of the Deity yet unravelled ; while the respective admirers of the 260 canonical Mufessirs vied in their admiration

    of their respective commentaries on the Koran , and the 235 disputed Articles of the Creed could still hardly be said , after the labour of ages , to be plain to the brightest capacity ; while it was not yet even certain that the Prophet ' s steed Borak had a peacock ' s

    tail and a woman ' s face ;—a sect arose , whose history and peculiar opinions have in fact given rise to these observations , and who , of course , excited the full weight of indignation and deadly hatred of the court and church , as opposers of the corruptions of the faith and the ceremonials which had

    taken place of the spirit of their religion , and impugners of the authority under which the successors of the Commander of the Faithful claimed to lord it over the consciences and properties of those whom fate had subjected to Jheir tyranny . I allude to the sect of the Wahhabites , of whose

    history I can here merely give an outline ; " but whose principles of religious reform cannot but excite our interest , from their general rationality and simplicity , and from the circumstance of

    their taking their rise in , and owing their subsequent support to , the same spot and the same class of persons , among whom the faith of Mahomet originally arose .

    The arid province of Nedjed , the centre of Arabia , was not only the cradle of Islamism , but the country where , in after ages , its doctrines remained most exempt . from adulteration . ; Its roving tribes had no intercourse with strangers , and were too far removed from all foreicm influence itti icinvjvcru . iium au luicig u iuumv

    .--to receive the infection of new and heretical doctrines- The text of the Prophet was their only rule , the desert their onl y temple , and the Schaik or leader of each tribe its only Imam . They transmitted the Koran to their posterity , as they had received it from their ancestors , in all its primitive ^ pu-. . . ' . . L » - *

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    350 The Nonconfyfmist ' . No . XVIIf ,

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), June 2, 1820, page 350, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2489/page/26/