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[Illustration:

CHAMBERS'S JOURNAL

OF

POPULAR

LITERATURE, SCIENCE, AND ART.

Fourth Series

CONDUCTED BY WILLIAM AND ROBERT CHAMBERS.

NO. 718.      SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 29, 1877.      PRICE 1½_d._]




THE GREEN FLAG OF THE PROPHET.


Since the commencement of the war between Russia and Turkey, the world
has several times been startled by the announcement that the 'Flag of
the Prophet' was about to be unfurled in the streets of Stamboul. Such
an event, if it should happen (which may heaven avert), would proclaim
a crusade in which all true Mussulmans would be bound to take an active
part, and to fight against Christianity in every part of the world.
They may be in India, Arabia, Egypt, or wherever else their scattered
race has found a home; the raising of the green standard is a call
which none may disobey without, as the Koran lays it down, sacrificing
all his hopes of Paradise.

This fearful appeal to all the worst passions of the Eastern races
hangs like a menace over the Mohammedan world; and if the word was
once uttered and the dread flag unfurled, there is no telling to what
sanguinary excesses it might lead an enthusiastic and half-savage
people. It may be of interest to our readers if, under these
circumstances, we endeavour to make them acquainted with the origin
and history of a banner which has not seen the light of day since the
Empress Catharine of Russia attempted to reinstate Christianity in the
City of the Sultans, and which once unfurled, would set a whole world
ablaze.

There have been many flags or signals used by various nations at
different crises in their history to incite the peoples to battle on
behalf of religions, dynasties, and ideas; but none has attained to the
fearful notoriety which appertains to the terrible Flag of the Prophet,
which is really a banner of blood, for it dispels the idea of mercy
from the minds and hearts of its followers, and gives no quarter to
man, woman, or child.

The Red Cross banner of the Christian Crusaders was an emblem of
chivalry, mercy, gentleness, and love; but under its folds many a dark
deed and many a shameless act were committed; and it was understood
by the members of the Mohammedan faith to mean nothing less than the
utter extermination of their race. This feeling, with its consequent
hatred of Christianity, shews itself even at this advanced period in
the world's history, by the recent refusal of the Turkish government to
allow its ambulance corps and hospitals to bear the red cross of the
Geneva Convention (a sign which is entirely neutral, and is designed to
protect its wearers while they are engaged on their errands of mercy
to the sick and wounded of both sides), adopting instead thereof their
own emblem of the crescent. Thus we see these rival emblems once more
waving over the field of battle, though, happily, to mitigate rather
than increase the horrors of war.

In France the 'oriflamme' or golden sun upon a field of crimson
signified 'no quarter;' but this celebrated Flag of the Prophet means
infinitely more than this. It is a summons to an anti-Christian
crusade, a challenge of every believer in the Prophet to arms; a
war-signal in fact, which, like the Fiery Cross of Scotland, would
flash its dread command through the domain of Islam. In the interests
of humanity, however, we may hope that the 'Commander of the Faithful'
will never utter the dreadful word; for then indeed would the whole
soul and strength of Christendom turn against the enemy of all
civilised laws, human and divine.

The Prophet himself predicted that one day when his followers should
number a hundred millions--which they do now, with twenty millions
more added to it--his flag should fly against the advancing power of
the northern races; and the Koran or Mohammedan Bible says that when
its silken folds are flung forth 'the earth will shake, the mountains
melt into dust, the seas blaze up in fire, and the children's hair grow
white with anguish.' This language is of course metaphorical; but it is
easy to conceive, by the light of very recent history, that some such
catastrophe might take place, as the displaying of this terrible symbol
would raise a frenzy of fanaticism in the breasts of the Mohammedan
race all over the globe.

The origin of the insignia is a curious one. Mohammed gazing out upon
a vast prospect of fields, said: 'Nature is green, and green shall be
my emblem, for it is everlasting and universal.' In course of time,
however, it lost that innocent significance; and amid his visions,
the great dreamer saw the Green Flag floating as a sign that all true
believers should take up their arms and march against the Infidel;
in fact the green turban was the sacred head-dress of the pilgrim or
perfected Islamite who had gone to Mecca; and hence the sanctity of
this formidable standard.

When once unfurled, it summons all Islam by an adjuration from the
Koran that the sword is the solitary emblem and instrument of faith,
independence, and patriotism; that armies, not priests, make converts;
and that sharpened steel is the 'true key to heaven or hell.' Upon
that fearful ensign are inserted the words which are supposed to have
been written at Mecca itself--namely, 'All who draw it [the sword]
will be rewarded with temporal advantages; every drop shed of their
blood, every peril and hardship endured by them, will be registered on
high as more meritorious than either fasting or praying. If they fall
in battle, their sins will be at once blotted out, and they will be
transported to Paradise, there to revel in eternal pleasures in the
arms of black-eyed houris. But for the first heaven are reserved those
of the Faithful who die within sight of the Green Flag of the Prophet.'
Then follow the terrible and all-significant words, the fearful war-cry
against God and man: 'Then may no man give or expect mercy!'

This is the outburst of barbarism with which the world is threatened in
this year of grace 1877; and the reader cannot do otherwise than mark
the cunning nature of the portentous words inscribed on the Prophet's
banner. What would not most men do, civilised or savage, for 'temporal
advantages?' While to the Eastern peoples fasting and praying are
looked upon as of so meritorious a nature, that to find something else
which, in the eyes of Allah, would be deemed of greater value still,
would be a desideratum which none would fail to grasp, by any means
whatever, if it came within their reach. But Mohammed's wonderful
knowledge of human nature, and more especially of Eastern human nature,
is shewn in his picture of Paradise as prepared for the Faithful who
fall in battle; while his declaration that the highest heaven in this
so-called Paradise will be reserved for those who die within sight of
the Green Flag, is a masterpiece of devilish policy unequalled in the
annals of mankind.

It scarcely needed the fearful words which follow to add emphasis
to this dreadful appeal to the passions of a semi-barbarous race.
Another motto on this sacred flag is not without significance at the
present time: 'The gates of Paradise are under the shade of swords;'
and this alone would, if the flag were unfurled in the holy mosque of
Constantinople, give to the Turk a moral power over his subordinates
the effect of which it would be vain to calculate. Civilised though he
partially is, he still firmly believes in the old doctrine of _kismet_
or fatality, and in angels fighting on his behalf; not less implicitly
than did his ancestors at the battle of Beder, where this formidable
green standard was first unfurled. 'There,' says the historian, 'they
elevated the standard, which Mohammed from his height in heaven
blessed.'

Thus arose the great tradition of this sacred war-emblem, which it is a
Turkish boast was never yet captured in battle, though it was once in
extreme peril in a fight between hill and plain; when Mohammed himself
had it snatched out of his hands. Ali, his kinsman, however, thrust
himself in front of a hundred spears, and won the victory with the
immaculate flag flying over his head.

It is scarcely to be wondered at that a race so superstitious as the
Turks should attach an almost miraculous value to such a symbol of
their past history and their present power. It is a spell wherever
their race or religion flourishes, and its invocation in the serious
form now menaced cannot be regarded without anxiety. The day of
the military apostles of Mohammed may be past, it is true; but the
tradition survives; and the unfurling of this flag might be the spark
which would set fire to the latent enthusiasm of the Mohammedan race
and involve the world in a religious war.

We have referred to the great French banner, the oriflamme; and it was
that which led the French Crusaders through the Holy Land and headed
the royal armies of France in the campaigns of the sixteenth century,
while it also divided the Blue from the White in the Burgundian civil
wars; but this Flag of the Prophet to-day exercises a magical influence
over one hundred and twenty millions of the human race, scattered about
in Arabia, Syria, Asia Minor, Persia, and Egypt, over the Nile and the
Ganges, and from Jerusalem to the Red Sea.

The desire of Mohammed, however, was, that while all pilgrims whose
task had been duly fulfilled should wear the green turban, no sovereign
in his succession should unfurl the Green Flag of the Faith unless
Islam were in imminent peril. The unfurling of the banner would be
performed with great religious ceremony, and in the presence of the
Commander of the Faithful, who is himself supposed to carry it at the
head of his army; while a fearful curse would be called down upon the
head of every Mohammedan who, capable of bearing arms, failed to rally
round it.

The standard itself is not a very handsome one, and is surpassed both
in value and appearance by many of the banners which belong to the
various benefit societies and other mutual associations of men in this
country. It is of green silk, with a large crescent on the top of the
staff, from which is suspended a long plume of horse-hair (said to have
been the tail of the Prophet's favourite Arab steed), while the broad
folds of the flag exhibit the crescent and the quotations from the
Koran already mentioned.

The state colour of one of our regiments of the Guards is a much
prettier and more expensive standard than the great banner of Islam;
but (to such small things is man's enthusiasm attached) if the latter
was the veriest 'rag' in existence, nothing could mar the beauty which
the prestige of more than a thousand years has given to it in the eyes
of a Mussulman.

The Flag of the Prophet is kept in the mosque of St Sophia at
Constantinople, and is in the custody of the Sheik-ul-Islam, or
Mohammedan chief-priest, where all well-wishers of humanity may
sincerely trust it will ever remain.




FROM DAWN TO SUNSET.


PART II.


CHAPTER THE SEVENTH.

Deborah and Mistress Dinnage were walking in the old garden, in the
moon