. The Turk and the land of Haig; or, Turkey and Armenia: descriptive, historical, and picturesque . ing the movement of the imavi, rising andbowing simultaneously with almost military precision. While at prayer, certain acts, such as looking around,striking at a fly to kill it, raising a foot from the floor,scratching more than three times in one place on thebody, laughing loud enough to be heard, must be re-frained from, as they would destroy the efficacy of thedevotions. The imaniy who performs the devotional ceremonies,preaches no sermon, but at noon of each day he readstwo chapters from th
. The Turk and the land of Haig; or, Turkey and Armenia: descriptive, historical, and picturesque . ing the movement of the imavi, rising andbowing simultaneously with almost military precision. While at prayer, certain acts, such as looking around,striking at a fly to kill it, raising a foot from the floor,scratching more than three times in one place on thebody, laughing loud enough to be heard, must be re-frained from, as they would destroy the efficacy of thedevotions. The imaniy who performs the devotional ceremonies,preaches no sermon, but at noon of each day he readstwo chapters from the Koran, and then descends tomingle with the many worshipers, placing himself ona level with the common people. On Friday, however,the holy day of the Mohammedans, the devotions areconducted wMth unusual pomp and ceremony ; the Koranis recited, prayers are said, and generally a sermonpreached. The lanofuag-e of the Mohammedans in Asia Minoris Turkish, but the Koran is written in the Meccandialect of the Arabic, an unintelligible tongue to themasses, and only understood by a few of the best edu-. 266 THE TURK AND THE LAND OF HAIG. cated. Yet their tradition teaches that merely to hearthe sacred book read has a miraculous effect, bene-ficial to soul and body; and so they are made contentwith the empty sound of meaningless words. Here let me take occasion to add a word as to theorigin and extent of the influence of the Koran. TheKoran, the groundwork of Islam, is divided into onehundred and fourteen suras, or chapters, originallywritten on bits of stone, leather, thigh bones, andall sorts of material. After the death of Mohammedthese scattered materials were collected, and, supple-mented by the Arabs retentive memory, they were puttogether regardless of time or subject, one chapterfollowing another without even chronological , while the teachings of the Koran are sufficientlyplain, yet this manifest lack of logical order renders itof all books the least intellif^ible.
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