2. The Rayahs.
It is important to understand the position of the Orthodox Christians under their Turkish masters since they have been a conquered people. It is really only one special case of the treatment of any non- Mohammedan Theists under Moslem law. The fundamental idea of that law is, first of all, that Moslems should by right rule over the whole world. The Koran says: "The earth is God's and he gives it to whom he will of his servants" (S. vii. 125); and this is understood to mean that God is the supreme Lord of all men, and that he gives his servants, the True Believers, Moslems, right over all. They have never distinguished religion and politics. It is a distinction they still cannot understand. All law and right comes from God and his Prophet; and it makes no difference whether that law concern the hours of prayer or the payment of taxes. The Koran is both Bible and Code of Civil Law. The visible head of the Moslem world is the Khalifah, the Vicar of Mohammed; all authority comes from him, he can command anything, as long as he does so conformably with the Koran, and he is head of both Church and State, or rather Church and State are the same thing. Since then, like all great religions, they want to convert every one to the faith that they believe to be the only true one, they also want their Khalifah to rule temporally over all men as well. In theory, at any rate, you cannot be a real orthodox True Believer unless you obey the Khalifah in all things; he is both Pope and Emperor, and as the whole world accepts Islam, so will all independent kings and princes be replaced by his Emirs.[1] That is the ideal. As a matter of fact they have not
- ↑ They are not always consistent to this ideal. In modern times especially they have at last been forced to recognize and treat with independent sovereigns. But it is curious to see how unwillingly they have climbed down from their original attitude. The first time they recognized another State was in 1535, when Suleiman the Magnificent (1520–1566) made a treaty with Francis I of France (1515–1547). In this treaty Suleiman is the "King of kings, the Sultan of earth and sea, the shadow of God"; Francis is the "Honour of the princes of the faith of Jesus" (see De la Jonquiere, o.c. p. 236). But even now a Moslem would of course say that the ideal is for every one to accept Islam, and that involves (to an orthodox Sunni Moslem) obeying the Khalifah of the Prophet in all things.
