The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1901-01-08

imical to himself, and therefore to God,
He certainly hoped at one time for thelI
support, and was even inclined to make
of Jerusalem the keblah, or sacred
point, to which his followers should re-
turn in prayer. He mixed Jewish le-
gends with his own 'revelationes," and
to this hour the only history Of the
world in which Mahometans place any
faith is a variant upon the history in
the Old Testament. The Khalifs occas-
ionally raised Jews to great posts of
confidence, and in Spain under the Arab
or Moorish dynasties they were allowed
to claim a position almost of equality.
They were sometimes mobiles, so far as
there can be mobiles under Mussulman
dynasty, they filled the professions, and
it is still doubtful whether most of the
high civilization of Grenada and Sc
vile might not be fairly ascribed to
Jewish intelligence and freedom from
scruples in investigation. Even now,
though the Turks will tolerate no equal
near him, and though the Jew, who is
essentially Arab, is as far divided i'm
blood from the Turk, who is essentially
Mongol, as the European is, the Jew
sometimes obtains in Turkey very re-
markable position. He is said to rule
| in Salonca, for instance, in way
which would not be tolerated in the case
| of any Christian sect, and to use his
curious, underlined influence with the
| offic1als-Which does not wholly depend
| on bribery greatly to his own CONNER
cial advantage.
The Mussulman feeling, in fact, to-
w nd Tho q PC IN resemble r1OE6-
ly that of European man toward a
kinsman who Is regarded as nauvais
sujet to be avoided and kept down, or,
| If, necessary to be given up to the au-
thorities, but, nevertheless, to be reluc-
family acknowledged to be kinsman.
The feeling toward him may be as bit
ter as in any continental country, but 1t
is differentiated by the fact that the
contempt is not complete. A curious in
stance of this has just come to our
knowledge Of all men, even upon sub
jects which intensely interest them. 1t
is a proclamation issued by Abdurra-
ham Khan, the present Ameer of At
ganhistan in 1882, addressed to his en-
tire people, and, we believe, posted up
in Herat. In this singular paper the
Ameer treated the identity of the At
CHAN tribes and the children of Israel
as fact known and admitted, narrates
the history Of the latter up to the Cap
tivity with fair accuracy and then with
one superb jump accounts for their
presence in Afghanistan by an emigra-
ton from Arabia to "Ghour," where, by
the mercy Of Allah, they were convert
ed to the true faith In 1t the Amer
speaks of ''the Covenant of God made
with your ancestors and holds his peo-
pie because of that covenant and their
common ancestry bound to abstain
from their incessant, and to him most
annoying, internal quarrels. 1t Is sim
ply because such proclamation could
have been issued to any people who de-
spised the lineage attributed to them,
and we may, we think, assume 1t to be
a fact that Afghans, whether or no they
fully believe in their legendary descent
from the children of Israel, are proud
rather than otherwise of the legend.
There is nothing, therefore, inherently
antipathetic between the Jews and the
Mussulmans, and we are driven to re-
fleet az we have often been driven be-
fore, whether the author Of Daniel De-
may llO& IIdFI pEtI bGllCI iii-
spired than some Of her critics, whether
that is. the Jew may not some day turn
out to be the necessary link between the |
west and the East. 1t is rather an i'm
portant question, for west and east are
being driven together as by supernatur- |
al machinery and being to feel their !
to understand each other as an |
political and social impede
ment. The Jews as race understand |
both, and though they probably dislike
both, have the gravest Of all reasons,
still there is a sympathy of dislike as
well as of love, and it often gives keen
insight. After all, the Book of Job Is
the one poem in the world the
inner meaning and beauty Of which is
as patent to Asiatics as to Europeans.
We can personally testify that Asiatics
every word of Bunyans
Holy War" and Bunyan was penetrat-
I'd through and through with thoughts
which he derived from Hebrews.
We rather wonder, all the more be-
cause, of course, of course, we shay
or know, how much there is in the Az
CHAN legend of their descent from the
Patrlarchs. II seems probable that they
simply imagined 1t, as the Romans, and
after them the English Of Millions time
imagined their descent from Trojans,
the fancy in all cases being born Of a
wish for relation to a people celebrat-
ed in the literature they most admired.
A good many Of us think ourselves of
Norman descent on equally fanciful
grounds. Descent through the main
stock of Israel Is most improbable if
only because the race, once annealed by
The Babylonian captivity, has shown an
for wholesale conversion to
any creed hardly to be paralleled in his
DRY. The sword has failed, as well as
he scimitar, to make them either Chris
ians or Mussulmans. The Ten Tribes
we're never lost as a body, but became
Is many Jews believe, the ancestors of
he Jews who wandered into Eastern
Europe and produced the modern Ash