Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1911-02-10
THE YELLED PROPHET.
A Parsonage Who Is Promising More
Trouble For EUROPE


Though direct access is impractical
Bile, a large amount of valuable in
formation has been compiled, sifted
and compared year after year from
the reports of Mohammedan travel
lers, many of whom are the confiden-
tial agents Of the Egyptian and Alge-
rian governments. When at the head
of the Soudanese Intelligence depart
ment Sir r. Wingate, now governor
general, had an eye or an ear at every
keyhole. From the details so gath
cred it is clear that the Senussiyeh
order, founded seventy years ago, and
ever since growing up silently as the
coral reef beneath the turmoil Of the
waves. Is now the most formidable in
the Islamic world. Its founder, Mo-
hammed Ben Ali es Senussi, had
fought against the French conquerors
of Algeria. 1t may be noted that at
this day Algeria and, to a less extent,
Tunis and Morocco, are stocked with
senussiyeh fraternities in direct inter-
course with the central Zawia in the
Sahara. Mohammed travelled in
Africa and Asia, making converts to
his reform of the faith. For his dig
nified bearing, learning, eloquence and
religious sincerity he Is said to have
resembled the future Mahdi of the
during his preparatory years. This
first lord Of the Dervishes must not be
confounded with his successor, the
savage Khalifa, slain in 1899, Els
Senussi. established his theocratic
court at Jaghbub, near the western
frontier Of Lower Egypt and some
hundreds Of communities in northern
and central Africa. Jaghbub, where
the venerated founder sleeps in his
splendid mausoleum, has become the
African Mecca. To the founder sue
ceeded his son Mohammed, the Yelled
Prophet inheritor of his fathers
character and great ability, organizer
Of the new Islamic order.
The Africans regarded him as the
true Mahdi (the guided Of God)-|
the Messiah-destined to purify the
faith and make it supreme in the
world The Egyptian Mahdi and the
Khalifa next sought his cooperation
against the English dogs" but in
vain. He was shocked by his ENJOYS
tidings of horrors at Kordofan and
Khartoum. The rising in the eastern
Soudan. though it lasted sixteen years,
was a chaotic terror. The Senussiyeh
movement was and is an elaborate,
most skillful and effective system.
At Jaghbub and in 1S96-1902 at the
great and beautiful oasis Of Kufra
Mohammed perfected a plan Of rapid
correspondence with the fraternities
not only in Tripoli, Egypt, Algiers,
Tunis. Morocco, the Sahara and
Wadai, but in Syria, Arabia and the
Euphrates valley. His viziers assisted
him at home. his vakeels served him
abroad. Attached to his court was
the principal seminary for the train
ing of the Senussiyeh missionaries.
7 ri, l. hn
Khorassan, Mohammed veiled his di-
vinely illumined face from the gaze Of
his myriad pilgrims. He decided
disputed succession to the sultanate of
Wadai-the objective Of the French
advance.
The senussiyeh rule sternly prohi-
bits alliance with, every concession to,
or imitation Of, Christian states; 1t
permits cooperation with the Turkish
government, but only in the interests
of the order; 1t opposes Ottoman eX-
pansion in the Mediterranean hinter-
land; it enjoins, as pious deed, the
Staying Of all trespassing unbelievers.
1t should not be forgotten that the
Turkish high commissioner, who for
years hampered Lord Cromer's work in
Egypt, tried to get in touch with the
Yelled Prophet. The second chief
of the order died in 1902. What his
successor contemplated no one knows.
But few days ago the newspapers
briefly reported that Turkish detach-
ments, pushed southwark among the
Saharian GASES, were posted on the two
principal caravan routes-which are
also the slave trade routes-between
Equatorial Africa and the Turco-Sen-
ussiyeh shore Of the Mediterranean.
Significant news-if trustworthy. The
Senussiyeh defend slavery, as did the
Dervishes before them; and the French
mean to stamp it out, as the English
are still doing in the Egyptian Soudan.
The new Islamic order has not as yet
assumed the role of military conquest.
Moral and religious reformation, with
pacific propagandism, is it's professed
purpose. But the Dervish military
despotism that overcame Gordon
sprang from a religious, pacific nu-
cleus.. So did the Sikhs, with whom
the English in India fought their hard
est battles. Considering the vast eX-
tent of the Senussiyeh field of opera
tions, the estimated strength Of the or
der-four to six million men-does not
seem extravagant. The Yelled Proph-
cts African followers import arms
from the Cyrenaic coast. If some day
they draw the sword they may shake
the east to it's foundations.-Pall Mall
Gazette.