Mullah

“ For all that time I have been the butt of every man, woman, and child who owed allegiance to the Mullah, and whenever his adherents met with a reverse, I have gone in terror of my life. I have been threatened, beaten, starved, until life has become at times such a misery that, but for the fact that at the worst it is dear to every man, and that our religion forbids it, I would have thrown myself into the river yonder and ended my wretched existence. Rescue me from my captors. ”

“ But however great the anger of the Mullah might be on hearing of defeat, I know the rascal too well to imagine for a moment that he would allow a rash and hasty impulse to prompt him to seek revenge at once by slaying your father, for to do so would be to ruin his hopes of a hostage in case he himself were captured. He is a cunning, long-headed fellow, otherwise he would never have attained to his present position of prominence. ”

“ Our father, the Mullah, has with his great wisdom discovered a ruse, cunningly planned by the enemy. He finds that they have not fled beyond the river, but in this direction. He commands, therefore, that you set a careful watch, and bring the captives to him by dawn. If you are not successful, he himself will come out in the daylight and lead you. ”

“ Birth, betrothal, marriage, sickness, death—all require his presence, and as often as not the Afghan thinks that if he has called in a Mullah to a sick relation there is no further necessity of calling in a doctor. Thus the Mullah becomes an integral part of Afghan life, and as he naturally feels that the advance of mission work and of education must mean the steady diminishing of his influence, he leaves no stone unturned to withstand the teaching of missionaries and to prejudice the minds of the people against them. ”

“ Mullahs sometimes use the power and influence they possess to rouse the tribes to concerted warfare against the infidels, as they tell them that the English are; and often a prelude to one of the little frontier wars has been some ardent Mullah going up and down on the frontier, like Peter the Hermit, rousing the tribes to come down and fight. Often they lay claim to magical powers whereby those who submit themselves to their incantations become invulnerable, so that they are able to stand up before the bullets of the English troops unscathed. ”

“ Then a shout rang out in the air.
"Silence!" bellowed the Mullah, who had again taken his post upon the top of his hut. "Let every man remain quiet, so that we may hear what is said."
"Our father is right," shouted the man again. "He is a wise leader, indeed, for here are sure signs of the dogs who have disturbed us. ”

“ The Mullah is a great knave. He should not be allowed to (lit. let it not be that he might) excite the people and troops of Ningrahar. Precaution is necessary, so that the Army of the Sublime Government may not raise commotion and tumult in the neighbourhood, and the Mullah excite the people and be the source of disturbances.
“As regards the remaining portion of the undemarcated boundary of that district, your Excellency states that Jarobi is possibly within Afghan limits. ”

“ As I told you, he has never lost his spirit, and, careless whether he lives or dies, has never permitted any one of his guards to ill-treat him. Once, even, when I happened to meet him in the street when carrying a message for the Mullah, he stopped to converse with me, at which the warrior who was keeping watch upon him called him an infidel and a dog, and prodded him with his spear to induce him to move on. Your father was upon him in an instant, and tearing the spear from his hand, snapped the shaft across his knee, and belaboured the man till he bellowed. ”

“ MULLAH (Arabic maula, a term which originally expresses the legal bond connecting a former owner with his manumitted slave, both patron and client being called maula, and thus suggests the idea of patronage) , in Mahommedan countries, a learned man, a teacher, a doctor of the law, In India the term is applied to the man who reads the Koran, and also to a Mussulman schoolmaster. In countries like Afghanistan the mullahs exert an influence over the populace which sometimes rivals that of the amir himself, and they have been responsible for many disturbances in Kabul. ”

“ Falling by ones and twos, and very often in groups of five and more, the adherents of the Mullah pressed on with a courage which was truly wonderful, and which was, no doubt, due in part to their leader's promises that no harm should befall them.
"Then, too, these Eastern people have a childish belief in fate. To them Allah's will is everything, and if it is decreed that they shall die, they will meet death boldly. ”

“ But the faqirs have such a hold over the people at large, and in many ways are so useful to the propagation of Islam, that the Mullah find it more politic to overlook their heresies and use them in the promotion of religious zeal and fanaticism. ”

“ Then I watched for an hour as the people walked to and fro, and happening to see two women who were busily engaged in crushing corn for their bread, I crept into the house behind them, and sat in the doorway listening to their conversation. From what they said I gathered that the Mullah can collect as many as sixty thousand men to march behind his banner, but that the greater portion are at present living peaceful lives in their own particular portion of the country. However, as soon as the British troops advance, the call to arms will be sounded, and all will hasten to join the Mullah. ”

“ Mullah (turning to the people) : “It is evident that I shall have to teach him everything from the beginning.”
To me: “It is in the spring that the devil makes up his fires, and piles on the firewood. Therefore the fires get very hot in the summer, and cool down later on. That is why the summer sun is so hot.”
Needless to say, the explanations of the Mullah appeared to the audience as rational and lucid as mine were far-fetched and incomprehensible, and they had no doubt as to which of the disputants had won the day. ”

“ For the Mad Mullah they had no blame whatsoever; for the English they had the bitterest blame, the deepest hatred and the uttermost contempt. Who blames the lion for seeking and slaying his prey? Who defends the unspeakable creature that throws its friends and children to the lion—in payment of its debts and in cancellation of its obligations to those friends and children? In discussing the raid on their way to market with Moussa Isa, they mentioned the name of the Mad Mullah with respect and fear. ”

“ Then the Mullah will raise his voice and remind them of other days when the sons of the prophet drove the infidel from the plains of India, and ruled at Delhi, as wide an Empire as the Kafir holds to-day: when the true religion strode proudly through the earth and scorned to lie hidden and neglected among the hills: when mighty princes ruled in Bagdad, and all men knew that there was one God, and Mahomet was His prophet. ”

“ The Mullah's deeds—Supply and transport—Arrival of No. 2 Unit, R.A.F., at Berbera—Details and arrangements—Mullah miracles—Aeroplane scouting—Friendlies—R.A.F. reports—Post-bag bombing—To Medishe—The Mullah's birds—A Mullah victim—Tali and the last of the Mullah.
In 1919 British Somaliland was roughly divided—politically—into two separate territories, the East and the West. The former dominated by one saturnine personality, the Mad Mullah, who rarely (of late years never) intruded into the more peaceful, if more subtle, situation of the West. ”

“ A few moments later the native slouched across to the opposite dwelling, the one in which the Mullah lived, and after looking about him and conversing for a short while with a second sentry who marched at the front, sat down deliberately against the wall, and folding his arms, gave himself up unrestrainedly to sleep.
"They have most likely arranged to keep watch for one another," thought Jim. "This fellow will have a couple or more hours' rest, and then will have to relieve his comrade. ”

“ You are unmanned by this incident and your imagination. What if the traitor is in the Mullah's village? Is it likely that he suspects that we are close at hand? No! I tell you he is chuckling at the thought that we are with our friends, and that the followers of the Mullah are about to attack us. Pull yourself together, Ali, and be a man! Or, if you cannot, leave me to carry out the rescue alone, for I declare that I will not retire. To-night I shall go down to that hut and endeavour to rescue the prisoner. If it is impossible, I shall wait for another opportunity ”

“ But you are brave men, and there are your enemies, the infidel dogs, who have had the insolence to come hither. By Allah! I swear to you that no harm shall befall you, and I call upon you once more to join me, and then to rush with all your fury upon the mine."
For a short space of time it was clear that his followers hesitated, but on the Mullah's repeating his assurances, they began to descend one by one, and then came sliding and running down in a body. Very soon they were collected together in the centre of the ravine, and at a shout from their leader they advanced towards the mine. ”

“ I have also ordered that his whereabouts should be found out and a report made. Please God, the said Mullah’s mischief will be stopped, if he be within the limits of my territory; but if this mischievous man move about in tracts which have not been divided yet between the British and Afghan Governments, the British officials should instruct the Maliks of such tracts to make arrangements about the said mischievous man. This man does not pass a single night at one place. He is in motion like mercury: during night he is at one place, and during day at another. ”

“ I know every inch of the spot, and to-morrow, when the Mullah goes upon the roof of his dwelling to pray before the eyes of all his followers, he will catch sight of us, and capture will be our reward. ”

“ It had made several thousand men follow him and believe in him, but it had once given Yasmini a chance to fool him and defeat him, and now it gave King his chance. He let the mullah think himself obeyed implicitly.
He became the busiest man in all the “Hills.” While the mullah glowered over the camp from the cave mouth or fulminated from the Quran or fought with other mullahs with words for weapons and abuse for argument, he bandaged and lanced and poulticed and physicked until his head swam with weariness.
The sick swarmed so around him that he had to have a body-guard to keep them at bay ”

“ For one thing, knowledge has been almost limited to the priestly class, and in a village where the Mullahs are almost the only men who can lay claim to anything more than the most rudimentary learning it is only natural that they should have the people of the village entirely in their own control. Then, the Afghan is a Muhammadan to the backbone, and prides himself on his religious zeal, so that the Mullah becomes to him the embodiment of what is most national and sacred. ”

“ The mullah stops in front of a squat building which blends curiously Chinese and Persian architecture. The outside walls are covered with Arabic characters. For always does the language of Arabia follow the faith of Arabia. The mullah preaches in Arabic, the muezzin calls to prayer in Arabic, and the faithful chant the litanies in Arabic. But they do not understand a word of what they are saying. They have learned their prayers by heart, parrot-like. Their religion is that of hot, burning Mecca but their soul is the eternal soul of Pekin ”

“ The more fanatical of these Mullahs do not hesitate to incite their pupils to acts of religious fanaticism, or ghaza, as it is called. The ghazi is a man who has taken an oath to kill some non-Muhammadan, preferably a European, as representing the ruling race; but, failing that, a Hindu or a Sikh is a lawful object of his fanaticism. The Mullah instils into him the idea that if in so doing he loses his own life, he goes at once to Paradise, and enjoys the special delights of the houris and the gardens which are set apart for religious martyrs. ”

“ The lad speaks the truth, and we deserve to be reproved," was the smiling answer. "There is a time for everything, and at the present moment we have to think of our lives, and of the comrades whom we hope to join. But I will return here one of these days, when the Mullah has had his licking; and then how I shall enjoy exploring every inch of this place! But forward! What is the next move, Jim?" ”

“ Only then, and when they are about to meet with enemies, will you see them roused to any energy. They will shout to one another, and discuss the question till a quarrel seems imminent. But their anger will quickly subside, and soon, when the Mullah has shaken the sleep from his eyes, and climbs aloft beneath the flagstaff, they will all turn and salaam to him, as becomes the followers of such a holy man. Then each will produce his strip of carpet, and, turning to the east, will follow the movements of their leader as he kneels and prays to Allah. ”

“ Shaking with terror, the master went to the side, and answered that there were five besides himself on the vessel, and that she came from Aden.
"Where for, and what cargo?" was the next question.
"For the coast, with arms for the Mullah."
"Then we are friends," came the answer. "The Mullah is our master also, and we sail the sea in his ship. All whom we capture we send to him to swell his forces, while the loot we keep for ourselves. Do you know of any trader about to leave the shores on the farther side?" ”