hundred and ninety-three strong, that a mosque has lately been built for their CANDIA, CYPRUS, AND The established religion of these and the other islands belonging to the Turks, is mahometanism. There are also numbers of christians. who profess the tenets of the greek church.§ * Zimmermann, p. 294. + Charles the fifth made the knights of this religious and military order a present of Malta in 1630, which their posterity enjoyed till the French captured the island, and seized all their possessions. Brydone's Tour through Sicily and Malta, vol. ii. p. 327. § Broughton's Historical Library, vol. ii. p, 327. TH A General Uiew OF THE ASIATIC RELIGIONS. HOUGH christianity was planted in this part of the globe with wonderful rapidity by the apostles and primitive fathers, it suffered an almost total eclipse by the conquests of the Saracens, and afterwards of the Turks. The principal religions at present, are the mahometan and pagan. The mahometans are divided into the sects of Hali and Omar. Both own Mahomet for their lawgiver, and the korân for their rule of faith and life. Jews are to be found every where in Asia.* In Siberia, and the Turkish dominions, there are a considerable number of greek christians. Roman Catholic missionaries have attempted to propagate their doctrines in the most distant regions. All the people of the east, except the mahometans, be lieve all religions in themselves indifferent. They fear the establishment of another religion no otherwise than as a change of government. Among the Japanese, where there are many sects, and where the state has had for so long a time an ecclesiastical superior, they never dispute on religion. It is the same with the people of Siam. The Kalmucks make it a point to tolerate every species of religion. At Calicut it is a maxim of state that every religion is good.† The Hindoos think a diversity of worship is agreeable to the God of the universe, and therefore refuse to admit or make converts. Heaven, they say, has many gates, and every one may enter at which he pleases.§ Such are the general outlines of the Asiatic religions.. * Guthrie, p. 637. Montesquieu's Spirit of Laws, vol. ii. p. 216. Priestley's Lectures on History, p. 439. Middleton's Geography, vol. i. p. 146 TURKEY IN ASIA; Containing part of Arabia, Syria, Palestine, Natolia, Mesopotamia, Turcomania, and Georgia.* THE mahometan is the established religion of these countries. Palestine, ever dear and sacred to christians, as the scene on which the Son of God lived and died; and Syria, celebrated for its wealth, and rich productions, were numbered among the first conquests of the caliphs.† Beside mahometans and jews, many christians of different sects inhabit Syria; viz. Greeks, Latins, Armenians, Melchites, Maronites, and Jacobites. The mahometans and christians in Syria, treat each other as infidels; and by their reciprocal aversion keep alive a sort of perpetual war. The inhabitants of Bassora consist of Mahometans, Jews, Jacobites, Nestorians, Catholics, and Caldean Christians, or Christians of St. John, who are pretty numerous. Many christians inhabit Mesopotamia, who have an archbishop subject to the patriarch of Antioch.§ The Curds are a numerous body dispersed over Lower Asia. They are reputed mahometans, but they never trouble themselves about religious rites and opinions. Several of them, distinguished by the name of Yazdea, worship Satan, the genius, who is the enemy of God. This notion, especially prevalent in Diarbec, and the frontiers of Persia, is a relic of the ancient system of the good and evil principle, which, varying according to the spirit of the Persian, Jewish, Christian, and Mahometan doc trines, has continually pre Georgia has lately put itself under the protection of Russia. A caliph was the supreme ecclesiastical dignity of the Saracens. The caliphs bear the same relation to Mahomet that the popes pretend they do to Jesus Christ, or St. Peter. It is at this day one of the grand signior's titles, as successor to Mahomet; and of the sophi of Persia, as successor to Ali. One of the chief functions of the caliph, as chief priest of mussulmanism, was to make the public prayers every Friday in the chief mosque, and to deliver a sermon, The caliph was also obliged to lead the pilgrims to Mecca in person, and to march at the head of the armies of his empire, The succession of caliphs continued from the death of Mahomet till the 655th year of the hegira, when the city of Bagdat was taken by the Tartars. After the destruction of the caliphate, the mahometan princes appointed a particular officer, who sustained the sacred authority of caliph. In Turkey he goes under the denomination of mufti, and in Persia under that of sadne, See Encyclopædia, vol. iv. p. 43. Volney's Travels in 1795, vol. i. p. 232. vailed in those countries." Jerusalem has among its inhabitants about twenty thousand jews. The religion of the mahometans is similar to that of Turkey in Europe. Jerusalem, Alexandria, and Antioch, are patriarchates, as well as Constantinople; and their heads are indulged, according as they pay for their privilege, with a civil, as well as an ecclesiastical authority over their votaries. The same may be said of the Nestorian and Armenian patriarchs; and every great city that can pay for the privilege has its archbishop or bishop.t RUSSIAN, CHINESE, MOGULIAN, AND THE religion of this country partakes of the Mahometan, the Hindoo, the Greek, and even of the Popish. Some of them worship little rude images, dressed up in rags. Each has a deity, with whom they make very free, when matters do not go according to their own mind. The inhabitants of Thibet, a large tract of Tartary, worship the grand lama. Another religion, which is very prevalent among the Tartars, is that of schamanism. The professors of this religious sect believe in one supreme God, the creator of all things. They believe that he loves his creation, and all his creatures; that he knows every thing, and is all powerful; but that he pays no attention to the particular actions of men, being too great for them to be able to offend him, or to Volney's Travels, vol. i. p. 232. do any thing which can be meritorious in his sight. They are all firmly persuaded of a future existence. They also maintain that the supreme Being has divided the government of the world, and the destiny of men, among a great number of subaltern divinities, under his command and control; but who, nevertheless, generally act according to their own fancies: and therefore mankind cannot dispensè with using all the means in their power for obtaining their favour. They likewise sup pose that, for the most part, these inferior deities abominate and punish premeditated villany, fraud, and cruelty. A band of Tartars in Siberia have in every hut a wooden idol, termed, in their language, Shetan, to which they address their prayers for plenty of game in hunting, promising † Guthrie, p. 642. Ibid, p. 596. to give it, if successful, a new able part of the religion of the coat or bonnet.* The Altagan Tartars, we are informed, represent the Deity as an old man with a long beard, and dressed in the uniform of an officer of dragoons; for their imaginations can conceive nothing more magnificent than a party-coloured coat. They think he keeps a brilliant court, and maintains a great number of horses, that when he goes forth on horseback, the noise of his coursers, and those of his retinue, cause thunder; and that lightning is produced by the sparks which fly from the collision of the horses' shoes with the pavement of heaven. They also believe in the existence of inferior deities, both good and bad.† It is said that a consider Tartars consists in the management of their whiskers; and that they waged a long and bloody war with the Persians, declaring them infidels merely because they would not give their whiskers the orthodox cut.‡ It is said that there are a tribe of mahometan Tartars of Kasan, very different from the other barbarous provinces. These mussulmans take a distinguished care of the education of their children. They habituate their youth to labour, and to sobriety: they are taught to read and write, and are instructed in the Arabic tongue, and in the principles of their religion. Even the smallest village has its chapel, its school, its priest, and schoolmaster.§ KAMTSCHATKA. THE inhabitants of this peninsula acknowledge many malevolent deities, having lit tle or no notion of the good deity. They believe the air, the water, the mountains, and the woods, to be inhabited by malevolent spirits, whom they fear and worship. The method which the empress of Russia takes to convert her pagan subjects in Kamtschatka, is to exempt from taxes for ten years such as profess the christian religion. The pagan Kamtschadales believe the immortality of the soul.¶ *Kaims's Sketches, vol. iv. p. 176. History of Russia, vol. iii. Goldsmith's Animated Nature, vol. ii. p. 96. Account of Russia, 8vo. 1783, vol. ii p. 23. The Russians have been so successful in converting the Kamtschadales to christianity, that there remains at present but few pagans among them. See Apthorp on Prophecy, vol ii. Kaims's Sketches, vol. iv. pp. 142-275. |