ever, if it came within their reach. But Mohammed’s wonderful knowledge of human nature, and more especially of Eastern human nature, is shown in his picture of Paradise as prepared for the Faithful who fall in battle; while his declaration that the highest heaven in this so-called Paradise will be reserved for those who die within sight of the green flag, is a masterpiece of devilish policy unequalled in the annals of mankind.
It scarcely needed the fearful words which follow to add emphasis to this dreadful appeal to the passions of a semi- barbarous race. Another motto on this sacred flag is not without significance at the present time: “The gates of Paradise are under the shade of swords;" and this alone would, if the flag were unfurled in the holy mosque of Constantinople, give to the Turk a moral power over his subordinates the effect of which it would be vain to calculate. Civilized though he partially is, he still firmly believes in the old doctrine of kismet or fatality, and in angels fighting on his behalf; not less implicitly than did his ancestors at the battle of Beder, where this formidable green standard was first unfurled. "There," says the historian, "they elevated the standard, which Mohammed from his height in heaven blessed."
Thus arose the great tradition of this sacred war-emblem, which it is a Turkish boast was never yet captured in battle, though it was once in extreme peril in a fight between hill and plain; when Mohammed himself had it snatched out of his hands. Ali, his kinsman, however, thrust himself in front of a hundred spears, and won the victory with the immaculate flag flying over his head.
It is scarcely to be wondered at that a race so superstitious as the Turks should attach an almost miraculous value to such a symbol of their past history and their present power. It is a spell wherever their race or religion flourishes, and its invocation in the serious form now menaced cannot be regarded without anxiety. The day of the military apostles of Mohammed may be past, it is true; but the tradition survives; and the unfurling of this flag might be the spark which would set fire to the latent enthusiasm of the Mohammedan race and involve the world in a religious war.
We have referred to the great French banner, the oriflamme; and it was that which led the French Crusaders through the Holy Land and headed the royal armies of France in the campaigns of the sixteenth century, while it also divided the Blue from the White in the Burgundian civil wars; but this flag of the Prophet to-day exercises a magical influence over one hundred and twenty millions of the human race, scattered about in Arabia, Syria, Asia Minor, Persia, and Egypt, over the Nile and the Ganges, and from Jerusalem to the Red Sea.
The desire of Mohammed, however, was, that while all pilgrims whose task had been duly fulfilled should wear the green turban, no sovereign in his succession should unfurl the green flag of the faith unless Islam were in imminent peril. The unfurling of the banner would be performed with great religious ceremony, and in the presence of the commander of the faithful, who is himself supposed to carry it at the head of his army; while a fearful curse would be called down upon the head of every Mohammedan who, capable of bearing arms, failed to rally round it.
The standard itself is not a very handsome one, and is surpassed both in value and appearance by many of the banners which belong to the various benefit societies and other mutual associations of men in this country. It is of green silk, with a large crescent on the top of the staff, from which is suspended a long plume of horsehair (said to have been the tail of the Prophet’s favorite Arab steed), while the broad folds of the flag exhibit the crescent and the quotations from the Koran already mentioned.
The state color of one of our regiments of the Guards is a much prettier and more expensive standard than the great banner of Islam; but (to such small things is man's enthusiasm attached) if the latter were the veriest "rag" in existence, nothing could mar the beauty which the prestige of more than a thousand years has given to it in the eyes of a Mussulman.
The flag of the Prophet is kept in the mosque of St. Sophia at Constantinople, and is in the custody of the Sheik-ul-Islam, or Mohammedan chief priest, where all well-wishers of humanity may sincerely trust it will ever remain.
