Note 589 — Chapter VI

مجتهيد mujtahid, is a doctor who exerts all the faculties of his mind to find the truth in contested and undecided matters; he is supposed to possess the science of the Koran, and the traditions with their different meanings, readings, and interpretations, and to be besides skilled in the disquisition in which truth is sought by analogy and comparison. (Silvestre de Sacy, Chrestomathie arabe, pp. 169. 170. 171). This term is also used “of one who strives and contends, even to battle, in the cause of God;” and expresses further the highest dignity in the Muhammedan faith, equivalent to Bishop, or Archbishop with us.—(See the Life of Shaikh Muhammed Alí Hazin, translated by F. C. Belfour, M. A. Oxon., F.R.A.S., LL.D., p. 36.)