Note 43 — Chapter XIII · CONCLUSION.

Added to this must often have been the slow, persistent influence of daily contact with Muslim life and thought, such as led even a Nestorian writer of the twelfth century to add words of blessing to the mention of the name of the Prophet and the early caliphs,43 and to pray for the mercy of God on the caliph ʻUmar b. ʻAbd al-ʻAzīz.44 In modern times Christian missionaries complain that the system of public instruction in Egypt under the British occupation, according to which “Christian boys are often compelled to sit and listen to the Koran and Dîn (religious teaching) being taught to their Moslem companions when there is no room where they can be separated,”45 tends to give the Muhammadans a preponderating influence over their Christian fellow-students. One of the most active of the followers of the late Muftī Muḥammad ʻAbduh was originally a Coptic medical student, who had been won over to Islam through the influence of the religious instruction he had heard given in school hours.46