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Lalor, Cyclopaedia of Political Science, V.2, Entry 322, MOHAMMEDANISM: Library of Economics and Liberty |
 | | Governing after the death of Mohammed under the name of the feeble Abou-Bekr, at the moment when the work of the prophet, scarcely outlined, was on the brink of dissolution, he arrested the defection of the Arab tribes, and gave the new religion its universal character. |
 | | The distinctions which then existed among the Mussulmans were altogether moral; the degree of relationship with the prophet and religious merit were the titles which determined the order of inscription in the divani (census-list of the faithful) for the division of the fruits of conquest. |
 | | The absence of theological centralization has always left Mussulman nations a certain amount of religious liberty; and Mussulman orthodoxy not being defended by a permanent autonomous body, self-recruited and self-governed, is vulnerable. |
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