The Howling Dervishes in Scutari present a still more extraordinary sight, and a higher
degree of ascetic exertion, but destitute of all grace and beauty. The performance took place in a
small, plain, square room, and lasted nearly two hours. As the monks came in, they kissed the hand
of their leader and repeated with him long prayers from the Koran. One recited with melodious
voice an Arabic song in praise of Mohammed. Then, standing in a row, bowing, and raising their
heads, they continued to howl the fundamental dogma of Mohammedanism, Lâ ilâha ill’ Allâh for
nearly an hour. Some were utterly exhausted and wet with perspiration. The exercises I saw in
Cairo were less protracted, but more dramatic, as the Dervishes had long hair and stood in a circle,
swinging their bodies backward and forward in constant succession, and nearly touching the ground
with their flowing hair. In astounding feats of asceticism the Moslems are fully equal to the ancient
Christian anchorites and the fakirs of India.
§ 47. Christian Polemics against Mohammedanism. Note on Mormonism.
See the modern Lit. in § 38.
For a list of earlier works against Mohammedanism, see J. Alb. Fabricius: Delectus argumentorum
et syllabus scriptorum, qui veritatem Christ. Adv. Atheos, ... Judaeos et Muhammedanos ...
asseruerunt. Hamb., 1725, pp. 119 sqq., 735 sqq. J. G. Walch: Bibliotheca Theolog. Selecta
(Jenae, 1757), Tom. I. 611 sqq. Appendix to Prideaux’s Life of Mahomet.
Theod. Bibliander, edited at Basle, in 1543, and again in 1550, with the Latin version of the Koran,
a collection of the more important works against Mohammed under the title: Machumetis
Saracenorum principis ejusque successorum vitae, doctrinae, ac ipse Alcoran., I vol. fol.
Richardus (about 1300): Confutatio Alcorani, first publ. in Paris, 1511.
Joh. de Turrecremata: Tractatus contra principales errores perfidi Mahometis et Turcorum. Rom.,
1606.
Lud. Maraccius (Maracci): Prodromus ad refutationem Alcorani; in quo, per IV. praecipuas verae
religionis notas, mahumetanae sectae falsitas ostenditur, christianae religionis veritas
comprobatur. Rom. (typis Congreg. de Propaganda Fide), 1691. 4 vols., small oct.; also Pref.
to his Alcorani textus universus, Petav., 1698, 2 vols. fol.
Hadr. Reland: De Religione Mohammedica. Utrecht, 1705; 2nd ed. 1717; French transl., Hague,
1721.
W. Gass: Gennadius und Pletho. Breslau, 1844, Part I., pp. 106–181. (Die Bestreitung des Islâm
im Mittelalter.)
The argument of Mohammedanism against other religions was the sword. Christian Europe
replied with the sword in the crusades, but failed. Greek and Latin divines refuted the false prophet
with superior learning, but without rising to a higher providential view, and without any perceptible
effect. Christian polemics against Mohammed and the Koran began in the eighth century, and
continued with interruptions to the sixteenth and seventeenth.
John of Damascus, who lived among the Saracens (about a.d. 750), headed the line of
champions of the cross against the crescent. He was followed, in the Greek Church, by Theodor of
Abukara, who debated a good deal with Mohammedans in Mesopotamia, by Samonas, bishop of
Gaza, Bartholomew of Edessa, John Kantakuzenus (or rather a monk Meletius, formerly a
Mohammedan, who justified his conversion, with the aid of the emperor, in four apologies and four