Note 10 — Chapter XXV

A singular fact connected with this custom of making a short prayer, whilst slaughtering the victim, I gathered from a note in a recent edition of “Sale’s Koran.” It appears that by a decision of those learned in the law, which is laid down in that book, animals killed by the Jews may be partaken of by Mahomedans. A representation to the Cadi of Cairo having been made, that nearly all the butchers of that city were followers of the law of Moses, they were about to be suspended from that employment, when their Chief Rabbi proved to the satisfaction of their Moslem judges, that the Koran bids Mahomedans not to refuse food which has been sanctified to the one true God, which was always done by those who professed the faith of Abraham and the law of Moses, when killing animals for food. This circumstance, and also the disrespect shown by the Whaabbees to the tomb of the Prophet, and the temple at Mecca, demonstrate to my satisfaction that education alone is required to show to the Mahomedans, the absurdity of the false hopes with which their Prophet has surrounded the worship of the only one God, and of the inapplicability of his laws to improve or humanize mankind. I could point out, if this were a proper place, proofs without end, of the liberality and extreme toleration of learned and enlightened Mahomedans, and we ought not to attribute the bigotry of ignorance, alike fierce and cruel in Christian, Mahomedan, and Jew, to their religious belief, which on examination will be found to have been originally very similar amongst all these denominations, and that the greatest differences appear to be in the several codes of social laws adopted by each.