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viz., the first of Spain, the first and second of Egypt, and the first Ottoman. Were lawyers, especially canonists, or diplomatists, ever at a loss to bend their rules to facts, or facts to their rules, whenever the incentive was sufficiently strong? And again, is not a possession of 360 years, of itself, sufficiently valid to satisfy the bulk of mankind, even even legal civil servants of India? The councils that legitimized these four new Caliphs no doubt found precedents or reasons for their decisions. Unfortunately, we know not the details of their deliberations, and can only surmise the leading points in each case.

The pamphlet assists us: "When two Imams (read Caliphs) have been appointed in different cities,... the office belongs to the person first appointed "; and again, “Those who happen to be present in the city of the Imam have no preferential right to appoint his successor, though they may usually do so, as having the first intelligence of his death," resignation, or deposition. This is precisely what happened. There were two Caliphs chosen in the first of these four instances (as there had been nearly a hundred years earlier in the case of Ali and Mu'awiya), onein Babylonia, the other in Spain. Each party held its Caliph alone to be the true one. The schism thence resulting exists to this day, between Morocco and Constantinople, the respective successors de facto, if not de jure. In the second and third instances, the election was made by those who convinced themselves they had found the right candidate; for the office had been long vacant. the fourth, those who arranged the resignation, and the designation of the successor also, confirmed the successor by their virtual election of him, they being necessarily the first to know of the vacancy, forced or voluntary.

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As this last nomination, or election, or both, was exercised in favour of a Prince confessedly a stranger in blood to the tribe of Quraysh, we cannot suppose

that a body of astute aud grave canonists would not support their decision by a legal argument. It need not be a perfect one, it is true; for force was there to back it. But it must at least have been plausible, admissible by a law abiding party. This supposition the pamphlet appears to reject. We will therefore attempt to show, in conclusion, and as laymen, that a valid, or at least a most admissible, argument was ready to their hands. They may have had better than what we here suggest.

The pamphlet says, p. 11, 1. 10,-" it is required that he (the Caliph elect) shall, by lineage, be of the Arab tribe of Koreish (read: Quraysh). For this there is express authority in a saying of the prophet himself."

But, in a book printed at Calcutta in A.D. 1862, under the superintendence of two civil servants of India, and entitled, "A Dictionary of the Technical Terms used in the Sciences of the Musalmans "(sic) p. 92, 1, 12, we read: " and here there are other qualifications mentioned, respecting which there are dissidences; the first is, that he (the Caliph elect) shall be a Qurayshite. This qualification is held to be a necessary condition by the doctors of the sects Asha'ira and Juba'iyya; but is rejected by those of the Khawarij and some of the Mu'tazila."

All these four sects being schismatics, are not likely to have been those on whose opinion the council of Cairo based its decision to acknowledge Sultan Selim as Caliph. Its members were all strictly orthodox, of necessity; though probably of two, three, or even all four sects. They must have had a better, an ad-. missible reason; and we incline to infer it to be this:. viz.,―There is no "saying of the Prophet himself" to support the condition. This inference we endeavour to substantiate as follows ;

In the Arabic text of a book printed at Gottingen,

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in 1859, and named, in its German title-page, “Das Leben Mohammed's," being a narrative of the pedigree, birth, acts, and sayings of the Prophet, as reported by his disciples, we read, at p. 1010, 1. 2, "Had it not been for a remark made by Umar (Omar) at his death, the (body of) Muslims would have entertained no doubt but that the Prophet had designated Abu-Bakr as his successor; but he (Umar) said at his death,- If I appoint a successor, I will appoint one who is more worthy than I; and if I leave them (the people) to themselves, one more worthy than I left them to themselves also;' so that the people understood that the Prophet designated no successor." In this passage there is no mention of the tribe of Quraysh.

In p. 1011, 1. 4, after an account of how the Prophet's uncle, Abbas, ancestor of the Abbaside Caliphs, having met his nephew Ali (Muhammad's cousin and son-in-law, afterwards fourth Caliph), and told him that he had prognosticated death that morning in the Prophet's features, we read that he said to Ali,"Come then with me to the Prophet; and if this office (of Caliph) is to be in our family (of Hashim, of the tribe of Quraysh) we will know it; and if it be (assigned) to some other than us, we will command him to bequeath the people to us." But Ali said to him," Verily, by God, I will not do it; by God, if he have refused it to us, no one will give it to us after him." Here "us" implies Quraysh, certainly; but Ali rejected the proposal.

In p. 1013 begins the chapter in which is related the actual election of the first Caliph, Abu-Bakr, immediately after the Prophet's death, thus,-"When the Prophet of God was taken away, a party of the "Auxiliaries" gathered together round Sa'd, son of Ubada, in a certain shed of the Banu-Sa'ida family, while Ali withdrew to the house of Fatima, with Zubayr and Talha; the remainder of the " Emigrants"

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(from Makka) gathering together around Abu-Bakr. Then a certain man came to Abu-Bakr and Umar, saying, The Auxiliaries have gathered together around Sa'd, son of Ubada, in the shed of the BanuSa'ida. If you have ought to say about the command of the people, then do you join them before matters become serious.' The (corpse of the) Prophet was not yet disposed of; so his people locked the door on him. Then said Umar to Abu-Bakr,- Come thou with us to those our brethren the Auxiliaries, that we may see what they are about.'"

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Another tradition takes up the story thus: " When Umar was at Makka for the last pilgrimage he performed, a certain man came to him and said: By God, were Umar dead, I would swear fealty to Soand-So; for the fealty sworn to Abu-Bakr was done on a sudden, and is at an end.' This made Umar angry, and he said: If God so will, verily I will stand up among the people after evening service, and I will warn them of those who desire to take the command out of their hands wrongfully.' Then he to whom this was said answered. O Commander of the Believers, do it not; for the pilgrimage hath brought together the refuse and rabble of the people; and they will outnumber those about thee when thou standest up. I fear, shouldst thou rise and speak, they will be scared away from thee through it; they will not comprehend it, and they will not apply it in its right meaning. Delay thou, then, until thou return to Madina, the city of the prophetic observances; there thou wilt be among men of knowledge, the noblest of the people; thou wilt say at Madina, gravely, that which thou hast just spoken about. The men of knowledge will comprehend thy words, and will apply them properly,' Umar replied, I will do so on the first occasion at Madina.' He soon afterwards returned to Madina; and on the first Friday, after noon, Umar mounted the pulpit of the Prophet's mosque,

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and in his sermon, giving firstly due praise unto God, proceeded thus: I have to speak unto you this day some words that have been providentially laid upon me to say; and I know not but that they may be my dying exhortation. Whoever, then, shall understand them, and comprehend their import, let him push them to their remotest consequences; and whosoever fears that he will not comprehend my meaning, it will not be lawful for him to gainsay me when I declare that a certain individual has said,-" Were Umar dead, I would swear fealty to So-and-So." Let him not therefore put any one off his guard by saying that the fealty sworn to Abu-Bakr was done on a sudden, and has come to an end; that it really was so, save that God warded off its evil consequences; for there is not among you one, unto whom men's necks do bow, to be likened unto Abu-Bakr. Whosoever, then, shall swear fealty to any man without consultation among the Muslims, it is not a (true) swearing of fealty, neither for him, nor for the man to whom he does so, through lack of consideration that they may both be put to death. Verily there was one who brought us word, when God took his Prophet to Himself, that the Auxiliaries had assumed an attitude of opposition, and had gathered together with their chiefs in the shed of the BanuSa'ida. Ali, Zubayr, and others, too, deserted us; but the Emigrants collected around Abu-Bakr, to whom I said,-"Come with us to those our brethren of the Auxiliaries." So we went. And when we entered the shed, we saw a man enveloped in his cloak. It was Sa'd, son of Ubada; and I was told that he was in pain. When we were seated, their orator arose, gave glory unto God, and then said, "We are the Auxiliaries of God and the soldiers of Islam; ye, O Emigrants, are a handful of men amongst us, and yet a section of you has erected itself into a party, in the wish to put on us one side and take wrongful