leader. It is the old title given to the political chiefs of Oman and
Zanzibar.

The word means one "who stands before," and was first used as a title for
the leader of prayer in the mosques. In Oman the religious chiefs soon
took hold of politics, and so the title has a significance now in this
part of Arabia that it never had elsewhere.

Let us get back to the penny. Its face (although being a Mohammedan coin
it really has no human _face_ because their religion forbids pictures)
bears an English as well as an Arabic inscription. The opposite side only
has the Sultan's name in Arabic. On the side that has the English words is
the legend: "Struck at Muscat in the year 1315." Yet the penny is only
three years old, for the Moslems begin to date their years from the
_Hegira_, or flight of their prophet from Mecca to Medina. This took place
in the year 622 A.D. But we must also remember that their year is several
days shorter than ours, because they have lunar months all of equal length
and only 360 days in a year.

How strange it is to read such an old date for such a recent year as 1899,
since we count time from the birth of Christ! But you must remember that
the False Prophet has had it all his own way in Arabia for thirteen
hundred years, and that the missionaries in this country are very few
indeed. Only for a very few years and in a very few places has Christ been
preached.

Now, however, even this queer little penny can bear witness to the fact
that the gospel has come to Oman. It is worth one-quarter of an anna;
there are sixteen annas in a rupee, and a rupee is worth about
thirty-three cents. Not a big value, is it? But for four of these coins