Alpena weekly argus. [volume] (Alpena, Mich.) 1871-1893, 1882-07-26

VI course they were cut up terribly
in their flight. The success thus won
by FL Mehdi, the Teacher, may prove
OF grave Importance at this crisis in
Egyptian affairs. The whole Mussul-
man world, orthodox and heterodox,
is agitated with expectations of the
coming of the Teacher whom Moham-
med foresaw, and who, he predicted,
should be an Arab of the clan Kor-
eish and a descendant of the Proph-
cts own house. In the darkest hour
of Islam the Teacher is to appear to
reunite the Faithful, restore their do
minion and rule over the Mussulman
world as Caliph. A prophecy for
some years past has been in circula-
ton all along the southern coast of
the Mediterranean couched in these
words: "On the first Of the month of
Moharram, in the year $4,000, will
appear the FL Mehdi or Messiah. He
will be exactly forty years Of age and
of noble bearing. One arm will be
longer than the other; his fathers
name will be Muhammed, his moth
er's Fatima, and he will be hidden for
time prior to his manifestation"
The date in question is near at hand,
falling OH the 18th of next Novem-
Der, and it is not surprising, therefore,
that a large crop of Teachers should
be springing up in all parts of the
Mohammedan world. Mr.. Wilfrid
Seawen Blunt, whose book on the flu
ture of Islam has made such a SEN
sation on the other side of the Allan
tic, expressed the belief some time ago
that the next aspirant for power in
Arabia would take this title, and add
ed that If he should win the smallest
skirmish half Arabia would flock to
his standard. "Thc belief" said the
London Spectator, "is so general in
Arabia and Syria that the Turks
watch the family at Mecca from which
the Mehdi should come with all in
tentness that has already produced
tragical results and might any day
produce a massacre
Of course so clever and able a man
as the present Sultan is admitted to
be, knowing that the moral basis of
his authority would be destroyed by
the advent of such Teacher, may be
expected to be as alert and as bloody
as Herod was. In Egypt the people
have been looking to Arab Bey as
the coming man, but in Tripoli cor
respondent of the London Times tells
us that GEL Mehdi, the sarcosant head
of the Senoussia community, which
has monasteries by the hundred in
North Africa, and even in Arabia and
Syria, and is obeyed by Mohammedan
tribes of the desert whose very names
are unknown to Europeans, claims to
be the long expected Teacher and
promises to proclaim himself openly
to the world" on the day mentioned
in the prophecy. El Mehdi fulflls
the physical conditions of the predic-
ton, having, like Tarik ell Tuerto, the
of Spain, right arm reach
ing to the knee, and for the past four
years he has been hidden from all
eyes in religious retreat. Ell Mehdi
is by no means the first semi-military
semi-religious leader who has arisen in
the Mussulman world in the past few
but he has shown special po-
litical and military wisdom in raising
the standard of revolt in a remote
province where the Khedive's power
is weak and disafiection is rife. In
January of the present year the pill
grims from Yemen, while returning
from the Holy City, proclaimed the
Emir Ali ben Aidh, q descendant of
the Prophet, as Caliph, and set on foot
an instruction which was only put
down with difficulty, and in October
last there were serious riots at Mecca
between the different factions Of pill
grims. In truth, all Islam is now
volcano rapidly nearing state of act
i've eruption. No man familiar with
the facts doubts this, and the one
thing doubtful is at what point in
Asia or Africa, tomorrow, next week
or in few months from to-day, the
crater will begin to roar and the lava
IN flow