Note 37 — Chapter I · THE CHARACTER OF THE OTTOMAN STATE IN GENERAL

This was based upon a passage of the Koran, “Sedition is worse than execution” (Sura 2: 187): Hammer, Geschichte, i. 216. Professor G. F. Moore points out that in this passage (and in Sura 2: 214, which is substantially identical) the text refers to Mohammed’s war with the Meccans, or to fighting in the sacred months. The word fitnah, here translated “sedition,” has various meanings: first of all, “trial,” as gold and silver, for example, are tried by smelting; then, “successful temptation, leading or turning a man astray, error, discord, dissension, sedition, etc.” The context indicates clearly that Mohammed had in mind the leading or turning of people from the true religion as that which is “worse than killing.” The other meanings would, however, allow some accommodating jurist or theologian to make this a plausible proof-text for authorizing the killing of the sultan’s brothers, who might become seditious or furnish cause for dissension.