Page:Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje - The Holy War, Made in Germany (1915).djvu/37

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
24
The Holy War

formerly knew nothing, or hardly anything, about each other's existence. The approximately 230,000,000 of Mohammedans living under non-Moslim rule mostly do not possess sufficient historical remembrance to understand that the change in administration has been an improvement for them. They see the political past of Islâm only through the veil of legend, and when the present gives occasion for grievances and objections—and where are these lacking?—they are rather prone to believe that all their complaints would be cured, if only the Commander of the Faithful could take their interests in hand. Of the maladministration under which the real subjects of the Sultan of Turkey are labouring, they hear little and experience nothing. And the Sultan, who has been the worst in this respect, until in 1909 he was deposed and exiled by his subjects, has