Chapter XV: “Jesus the Prophet, whom the faithful call Ruh’Allah.”

It has been told me for a fact that when the exiled Khedive Ismaìl Pasha (known to London street-boys of the period as old Ishmel Parker) was at Naples, one of the officers in attendance on him challenged an Italian in a _café_ for having dared to insult a Prophet of his (the Egyptian’s) religion. The man had been blaspheming, it appeared, as only a Neapolitan or a Tuscan knows how to blaspheme, heaping foul epithets on the name of his Saviour and the Blessed Virgin. A duel, my informant assures me, actually took place on these grounds.

CHAPTER XIX.—“The House of Islâm and the House of War.” All the territory successively annexed to the rising of the Ottoman Empire was classed either as forming part of the “dar ul Islâm,” the house of Islâm, or as belonging to the “dar ul harb,” or the house of war, according as it was inhabited by Mohammedans or by Christians. In the latter case the new subjects of the Sultàn were called “rayahs,” and they were personally assessed to ransom their lives, which were forfeited by defeat, and as an equivalent for military service from which they were exempted, or rather, which they did not enjoy the privilege of rendering. This capitation-tax received the name of “haratsh,” and its payment entitled each Christian to keep his head on his shoulders for the space of one year. (Skene: _An adol, or the Last Home of the Faithful_.)