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THE

RELIGION OF THE CRESCENT.

LECTURE I.

THE STRENGTH OF ISLAM.

§ 1. ISLAM is to-day the religion of about one hundred and fifty millions1 of our fellow-creatures.

Extent of
Islam.
Its sway extends from the Pillars of Hercules to the Caspian Sea, from the Pamir Steppes to Zanzibar, from the Balkans to Sumatra. It is the faith of Arabia, Palestine, Syria, Turkey in Europe, Asia Minor, Mesopotamia, Persia, Afghanistan, Bilochistan, of the vast regions of Turkistan and other parts of Central Asia. In India alone its professors number more than fifty-seven millions.2 It is the religion of the Malay Peninsula, and is said to be still extending in the Malay Archipelago. In Yun-nan3 and

1 The numbers are differently reckoned by different authorities, some estimating them as 173,000,000.
 2 The Indian Census of 1891 gives the Muslim population of India (including Further India) as 57,365,000.
 3 See some interesting statements on the subject in vol. i. of the Report of Conference on Christian Missions, London, 1888, pp, 15-30.