The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1912-08-14
M0HAETAIEDAN WORLD
 OBSERVES THE
 FAST OF RAMADAN.

Throughout that part of the world where Allah is God and Mohamme6 His prophet, the observance will be- gin to-day of the great Moslem fast of Ramadan. The fast continues thir- ty days. to the twelfth of September, inclusive. which period according to our calendar covers the month of Remadan, the ninth of the. Moslem year. of the Prophet 1880. Mohammed the founder Of faith which is now growing more rapidly than Christian ity and whose fanatical leaders are now threatening a. holy war; on the -.infidels," received his first inspira- ton and revelation from Allah in the month of Ramadan, and every true selisVer is therefore enjoined by the tenets of his faith to keep a. strict fast throughout it's entire course from sunrise to sunset. When Old Sol goes down the Moslem Ramadan s1id'' is lifted, as the Koran permits its followers to satisfy 'the most neces- Earys wants's during the night hours. In later years this permission has been interpreted to include a profuse indulgence in all sorts of pleasures except, of course, that the alleged pleasures of the cup are always taboo to the disciple of the true faith The Moslem Ranadan corresponds, in its main provisions, to the Christian Len ten season. and is. observed about as strictly. according to the piety of the Individual. For the extremely relig- fous follower of the Prophet, Rama dan is a real fast, and the nightly in dulgence Is confined to partaking of barely enough simple food to sustain < Hfes The more worldly Moslems make a more liberal and looser inter pretation of their Sacred, Word,'' and eat what they please and as much as they can hold after the shadows of night have fallen and hidden their ffA 4ct4$ 0f oh
 Until recent years the observance of Ramadan could not begin until the new moon appeared and it's presence was officially attested by the Grand Cadi. Now that the telegraph has penetrated even the wild interiors of ize the commencement of the fast, and it begins on time even though the sky is overcast and the new mon hid den behind clouds. Two years ago the Grand Cadi refused to announce the fast because the moon had not rising had come and had been attest ed to by telegrams from places where the orb of night was visible. ''These telegrams" Quoth the Grand Cadf may be but the devices of the devil, and I do not trust them. What my eyes have seen, that will believe. but as for telegrams-a curse upon them.'' The more enlightened officials of the government argued with the Grand Cadi, for it was important that Ramadan begin and end according to schedule, and at last convinced the man of piety that the telegraph was a purely human agency and had no connection with the devil and his works. Last year the Grand Cadi had been advised in advance by as- tronomers as to the hour and minute the fast would begin, and his faith in a fr1xT bod eff profound that he signed a s-hodjes di- recting that the citadel guns be fired Rt the time set, which corresponded exactly with the time the moon was nrst seen by trustworthy witnesses.
 After Ramadan comes the month of EchaEall. beginning Sept 13, and which ushers in the feast of Bairam, huring which festival the pious Mos lems make up'' for such abstinence they have imposed upon themselves In Ramadan-a custom not unlike the Christian observance of Easter fol- lowing the penance of Lent