The outward forms of Mohammedanism are exceedingly impressive. The muezzin’s call to prayer —at dawn, at noon, in the afternoon, at sunset, and three hours later at night—floats through the air like a voice from the upper world No music of bells evokes such a sense of the Divine Majesty as his proclamation, “ God is Great, there is no God but God” However grand or however humble a mosque may be, whether frequented by the most intelligent or the most ignorant of the people, it contains nothing that tells of superstition, nothing that belittles or lowers the conception of the Most High. One can understand why, when Islam and Christianity confronted each other in the Byzantine Empire, there were emperors who, for upwards of a century, strove to banish pictures and statues from the worship of the Church.
And where is the reverence of the human soul before God expressed so utterly, as when the Moslem worshipper, washed clean, with shoes off his feet, stands, bows, kneels, prostrates himself before his Maker, in silent prayer? There is no more impressive religious service in the world than that celebrated, under the dome of S. Sophia, on “ The Night of Power,” in the season of Ramazan. Under the dim light of hundreds of small, hanging lamps, fed with oil, as in days past, ten thousand men are then gathered upon the floor of the mosque for evening worship, their hearts stirred by the associations of the sacred season. It is essentially a service of silent prayer.
A HOWLING DERVISH (“LA ILAH ILLA ’LLAH”)
The howling dervishes perform their devotions by standing in a row and repeating the confession of faith, “ La ilah ilia ’Hah,” rocking themselves backwards and forwards meantime; beginning slowly, they gradually quicken the time and work themselves into a frenzy of religious excitement.
The silence is made only the more impressive by the brief chant or vehement ejaculation that occasionally breaks the stillness, to afford pent feelings some relief. But though dumb with awe, the multitude cannot rest.
Historical Ottoman 