Note 238 — Chapter XII

See vol. III. p. 18, note 2. Monachism was not only disapproved but positively prohibited by the Muhammedan religion, the first founders of which, chiefs of warlike tribes, were by necessity, profession, and habit, continually engaged in military expeditions. But to the Asiatic, in general, so natural is ascetism, seclusion, and contemplation, that Muhammed, in order to restrain a propensity which he felt and now and then showed himself, declared that, for monachism, the pilgrimage to Mecca was substituted by divine order. Even during the prophet’s life, the love of monastic and anachoretic professions gained ascendancy among Muselmans, and easily united with Súfism.