Judaism with its exaggerated nationalism. It claims at once to include and supersede all that which Jesus Christ was and did and taught. It is a religion of compromise, of conservatism, and of conquest.

It is our purpose to show how strong is the pagan element in Mohammedanism, how many doctrines and practices of popular Islam find their explanation only in a survival of the animism of Ancient Arabia or were incorporated from many heathen sources in the spread of the faith; doctrines and practices which Islam was never able to eliminate or destroy. At the outset of our discussion it need not surprise us that a belief in demons and the old Arabian superstitions persisted in spite of Islam. Five times daily the Moslem muezzin calls out from the Mosque: "There is no god but Allah." The people repeat this and reiterate it far more than a hundred times during the day in their quarrels, feasts, fasts, rejoicings, and common conversation. But in my daily observations — and I have lived among them for more than twenty-five years I find they have fetishes and superstitious customs which amount to as many gods as the heathen who bow down to wood and stone.2

2 In the use of the word Animism we refer to primitive pagan practices and not to other uses of the term. William McDougall writes in his "Body and Mind" (Methuen & Co. Ltd., 36 Essex St., W. C., p. viii of Preface): "Primitive Animism seems to have grown up by extension of this notion to the explanation of all the more striking phenomena of nature. And the Animism of civilized men, which has been and is the foundation of every religious system, except the more rigid Pantheism, is historically continuous with the primitive doctrine. But, while religion, superstition, and the hope of a life beyond the grave have kept alive amongst us a variety of animistic beliefs, ranging in degree of refinement and subtlety from primitive Animism to that taught by Plato, Liebnitz, Lotze, William James, or Henri Bergson, modern science and philosophy have turned their backs upon Animism of every kind with constantly increasing decision; and the efforts of modern philosophy have been largely directed towards the ex-cogitation of a view of man and of the world which shall hold fast to the primacy and efficiency of mind or spirit, while rejecting the ani

Now we find that Islam in Arabia itself and in the older Moslem lands was not able to shake itself free from similar beliefs and practices. To understand these aright in their origin and character it is necessary first of all to know something of what we mean by Animism. Animism is the belief that a great part if not all of the inanimate kingdom of nature as well as all animated beings, are endowed with reason, intelligence and volition identical with man. Kennedy defines it as "both a religion, a system of philosophy and a system of medicine. As a religious system it denotes the worship of spirits as distinguished from that of the gods "; 3 and Warneck says: "It would seem as if Animism were the primitive form of heathenism, maintaining itself, as in China and India to this hour, amid all the refinements of civilization. The study of Greek and old German religions exhibits the same animistic features. The essence of heathenism seems to be not the denial of God, but complete estrangement from Him. The existence of God is everywhere known, and a certain veneration given Him. But He is far away, and is therefore all but ruled out of the religious life. His place is taken by demons, who are feared and worshiped."

mistic conception of human personality. My prolonged puzzling over the psycho-physical problem has inclined me to believe that these attempts cannot be successfully carried through, and that we must accept without reserve Professor Tylor's dictum that Animism 'embodies the very essence of spiritualistic, as opposed to materialistic, philosophy, and that the deepest of all schisms is that which divides Animism from Materialism."

In our treatment of Islam we do not deal with the psychology or philosophy of Animism in this sense at all. Islam as well as Christianity believes thoroughly in the existence of the soul as well as the body, and Moslem philosophy never became materialistic. The belief in life after death and in the mortality of the soul is not disputed. This book deals with the pagan interpretations of this doctrine and with superstitions connected with a belief in demons, etc., more commonly known as Animism.

3" Animism," by Rev. K. W. S. Kennedy, Westminster, 1914. 4 Warneck "Living Christ and Dying Heathenism," p. 7.

Even in Arabia the stern monotheism of the Wahabi Reformers was unable to eradicate the pagan superstitions of Islam because they are imbedded in the Koran and were not altogether rejected by Mohammed himself,-much less by his companions.

With regard to the pagan practices prevalent in early Islam, Abu'l Fida calls attention to a number of religious observances which were thus perpetuated under the new system. "The Arabs of the times of ignorance," he says, "used to do things which the religious law of Islam has adopted; for they used not to wed their mothers or their daughters, and among them it was deemed a most detestable thing to marry two sisters, and they used to revile the man who married his father's wife, and to call him Daizan. They used, moreover, to make the pilgrimage (Hajj) to the House (the Ka'aba), "and visit the consecrated places, and wear the Ihram" (the single garment worn to the present day by a pilgrim when running round the Ka'bah), "and perform the Tawwaf, and run" (between the hills As Safa and Al Marwa)" and make their stand at all the Stations and cast the stones" (at the devil in the valley of Mina); " and they were wont to intercalate a month every third year." He goes on to mention many other similar examples in which the religion of Islam has enjoined as religious observances ancient Arabian customs, for instance ceremonial washings after certain kinds of defilement, parting the hair, the ritual observed in cleansing the teeth, paring the nails, and other such matters.5'

Mohammed also borrowed certain fables current among the heathen Arabs, such as the tales of Ad and Thamud and some others (Surah VII 63-77). Regarding such stories, Al Kindi well says to his opponent: "And if thou mentionest the tale of Ad and Thamud and the Camel and the Comrades of the Elephant" (Surahs CV and XIV: 9) " and the like of

5 Cf. Tisdall, "The Sources of the Qur'an," pp. 44-45.

these tales, we say to thee, 'These are senseless stories and the nonsensical fables of old women of the Arabs, who kept reciting them night and day.'

When we read the account of pre-Islamic worship at Mecca we realize how many of the ancient customs persist in Islam. The principal idols of Arabia were the following:

Hôbal was in the form of a man and came from Syria; he was the god of rain and had a high place of honor.

Wadd was the god of the firmament. Special prayers for rain and against eclipse were taught by Mohammed.

Suwah, in the form of a woman, was said to be from antediluvian times.

Yaghuth had the shape of a lion.

Ya'ook was in the form of a horse, and was worshiped in Yemen. (Bronze images of this idol are found in ancient tombs and are still used as amulets.)

Nasr was the eagle god.

El Uzza, identified by some scholars with Venus, was worshiped at times under the form of an acacia tree (cf. Tree-worship by Moslems).

Allat was the chief idol of the tribe of Thakif at Taif who tried to compromise with Mohammed to accept Islam if he would not destroy their god for three years. The name appears to be the feminine of Allah.

Manat was a huge stone worshiped as an altar by several tribes.

Duwar was the virgin's idol and young women used to go around it in procession; hence its name.

Isaf and Naila were idols that stood near Mecca on the hills of Safa and Mirwa; the visitation of these popular shrines is now a part of the Moslem pilgrimage, i. e., they perpetuate ancient idolatrous rites.

Habhab was a large stone on which camels were slaughtered. In every Moslem land sacred-stones, sacred-trees, etc.,

abound; in most cases these were formerly shrines of pagan (in some cases, of Christian) sanctity.

“Even in the higher religions," says Warneck," and in the heathenism that exists in Christendom, we find numerous usages of animistic origin. Buddhism, Confucianism and Mohammedanism have nowhere conquered this most tenacious of all forms of religion; they have not even entered into conflict with it; it is only overcome by faith in Jesus Christ." Therefore these many superstitions can now no longer be styled anti-Mohammedan, although they conflict in many respects with the original doctrines of Islam. A religion is not born full-grown any more than a man, and if on attaining a ripe maturity it has cast off the form of its early youth past recognition, we cannot deny it its right to this transformation, as it is part and parcel of the scheme of nature.

"A custom or idea does not necessarily stand condemned according to the Moslem standard," writes Hurgronje, "even though in our minds there can be no shadow of doubt of its pagan origin. If, for example, Mohammedan teaching is able to regard some popular custom as a permissible enchantment against the devil or against jinns hostile to mankind, or as an invocation of the mediation of a prophet or saint with God, then it matters not that the existence of these malignant spirits is actually only known from pagan sources, nor does any one pause to inquire whether the saint in question is but a heathen god in a new dress, or an imaginary being whose name but serves to legitimate the existing worship of some object of popular reverence.” 6 Some writers go so far as to say that Animism lies at the root of all Moslem thinking and all Moslem theology. "The Moslem," says Gottfried Simon, "is naturally inclined to Animism; his Animism does not run counter to the ideal of his religion. Islam is the classic example of the way in which the non-Christian religions do not • "The Achenese," pp. 287-8.