Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1882-09-21
AN EXPECTED MESSIAH.

The -idceHt of the L0nD-frOmtSeo He"ee"-
eroT Islam. Hourly anticipated by 4rd-
HAN uobammedans-Ih Significance Of
the War in Egypt-EI Mehedi, the PTolh-
ct OF the SOUdan.
A Constantinople correspondent OF the
New York Sus, says: If again call your
attention to the future of Islam, it is be-
cause the Egyptian conflict is mainly in
teresting as being the prelude to the great
drama which must shortly unfold In the
East. The ultimate effects of the military
operations now in progress in that country
and the diplomatic negotiations OF which
Constantinople has been the center, are all
tending to precipitate a catastrophe, the
nature of which seems scarcely TO have
been sufficiently understood by the Euro
'psan powers. When we hear members of
The British government making sanguine
predictions that the Egyptian question
will be settled by three months campaign,
and find conference still sitting in Con-
stantinople which has been convoked
for the purpose of restoring the status quo
ante, we have sufficient evidence that
neither the British statesmen in England
nor the European diplomats on the Bos-
porus have the least idea of the nature of
the task they have undertaken. If they
correctly understood the situation, the
former would abstain from vaticination
which events must falsify, and the mem
bers of the latter would recommend their
governments to dissolve an assemblage
whose protracted labors would only have
the effect of rendering more utterly impos-
sible the recurrence of that status quo
which it is their supposed function to
restore. ... ..t3.l p,
The only effect of continued military
and diplomatic pressure upon Egypt and
Turkey is to intensity the resistance which
Islam is determined to oppose TO European
aggression, from whatever quarter it pro-
ceeds. If Turkey yields to Europe, if
Egypt yields to England, the
problem will be in no meas.
ure solved. The effect of the conquest of
Egypt by England will merely be to ex-
tend the theater of war to African and
Asiatic Arabia. The effect of the sub
mission of the sultan to the will of Europe
will merely be the transfer of the caliphat
from the Turk to the Arab. and more de-
termined resistance to the Giaour under a
new spiritual head, and under conditions
more difficult to grapple with.
Hitherto Islam has been represented to
tendon has had little to do with Semitic
Islam. With the exception of the French,
no European nation has been brought po-
itically into intimate relations with the
Arabs, who have been regarded us wild no
MAIDS, incapable of united action, desti-
tute of any strong national sentiment, ig
norant, savage and fanatical, but not dan
gerous as force, because lacking head
or a country in the patriotic sense.
But recent events, both in Arabia
and North Africa, have induced those
who have been watching them to modify
their old impressions upon these subjects.
1t is becoming daily more and more ap-
parent that the Arabs are capable of real
patriotic feeling, quite apart from relig-
ious sentiment; and unmistakable evidence
has been forced upon the French authOri
ties in Algiers, by repeated massacres of
an isolated character, and other circum
stances, that combination has been
formed among them which extends from
Morocco to Cairo. The recent events in
Tuhis especially have had the effect of
rousing patriotic enthusiasm which has
esulted more than once in concerted ac-
ton, affording proof of the determination
at which the tribes of the desert have ar
rived, to make last and decided stand
against the inroads of Christendom,
which they are convinced, if not resisted,
will lead to their final determination. It
was to a very great extent the sending of
letters written in blood by the surviving
sheiks Of the Chiaia tribe to all the great
clans in the regency of Tunis, Immediately
after the regrettable occurrences of the
30th of March. 1881, when the French in
Algeria came into collision with the krou-
mfrs on the Tunisian frontier, which pro-
voked the general rising which shortly
afterward took place.
In considering the question of the capa-
bility of the Arab tribes to participate in a
a general and concentrated movement, an
important element in the discussion is al
most invariably omitted. / refer to the
growing power of the Khouan, or semi-re-1
ligious, semi-political fraternities, which
seem destined to cover the whole of north
Africa with web of Moslsm Freemasonry.
At the head of these associations are the
Sonoussia, the avowed opponents of the
French mission of civilization. This pow
srful brotherhood has sprung into exist
ence during the last thirty years, but it
now threatens to overshadow if not absorb
six other older but less militant corpora
tions. These various orders differ chiefly
III lOIIH, Due bucy are Ill OSt0uSlDly OdSou
on the pure tenets of Islam as expounded
in the Koran. Each confraternity claims,
to have had its origin in dream of its
founder,who is supposed to have received a
revelation from the prophet as to the
farik, or most acceptable way of salvation
Each order has a supreme director, or
khalifa, who transmits his orders to his
subordinates. The seat of the order in
any particular locality is called zaouia
which seems at once to be a chapel,
school, place of refuge, a hospital, a
library, and political debating club. The
brethren are charged with the task of pre-
serving a complete record of contem-
poraneous events. The most celebrated
and important of all these zaouias was
that founded by Senoussi about thirty
years ago at Djarbub, an oasis about
twenty-five days journey inland from Ben
ghazi, and not very far, therefore, from
the western frontier of Upper Egypt. He
then established no less than three hun
dred of these convent sanctuaries in every
considerable place between Morocco and
Mecca, and appointed muhaddemin or
Wears in every part of Islam.