Note A, p. 54.
Preserved Table. This record-tablet of Mohammed, may have been suggested to his mind by the two tables of stone of the Ten Commandments of Moses. A clear view of what this table is, may be obtained from the following extract from a treatise of Berkevi explaining the Mussulman dogmas, which is at the present day a text-book in the Turkish schools.
"It must be confessed, that good and evil and every thing in short happens from the predestination and foreknowledge of God,—that all which has been and will be, was decreed from eternity and is written upon the preserved table,—that nothing can happen contrary to it,—that the faith of the believer, the piety of the pious man and his good works are foreseen, willed, predestined and decreed in writing on the preserved table, are produced, accepted and loved by God;—but that the infidelity of infidels, the irreligion of the wicked and their bad actions happen indeed with the foreknowledge of God, by his will, and as an effect of his predestination inscribed upon the preserved table, and by the operation of God,—but not with his satisfaction or affection."
Note B, p. 56.
Mystics. Wherever this word is found in this treatise, it is to be understood that the original word is soofee, and sometimes the word has been allowed to stand untranslated. Soofee does not necessarily mean any one particular society of Mussulmans, but includes all persons as well as orders and congregations, who embrace mystical or transcendental modes of interpreting the Koran and who conform their life in a greater or less degree to their mystical notions. Soofee, Dervish and Fakir, are different words for various classes of oriental monks and mystics. They are found wherever there are Mussulmans, and the differences between them and other Mussulmans bear a considerable relation to the differences developed by mystics, pietists or puritans in Christian churches. They differ also much among themselves in their modes of spiritualization and in their ceremonies and practices. There is also much jealousy of each other, between the dominant orthodox clergy and doctors of religion, and the mystics, dervishes and preachers. The orthodox clergy 15
