of the populations they in some measure represent. The pilgrimage is of
course no certain guide as to the composition of the Mussulman world,
for many accidents of distance and political circumstance interfere with
calculations based on it. Still to a certain extent a proportion is
preserved between it and the populations which supply it; and in default
of better, statistics of the Haj afford us an index not without value of
the degree of religious vitality existing in the various Mussulman
countries. My figures, which for convenience I have arranged in tabular
form, are taken principally from an official record, kept for some years
past at Jeddah, of the pilgrims landed at that port, and checked as far
as European subjects are concerned by reference to the consular agents
residing there. They may therefore be relied upon as fairly accurate;
while for the land pilgrimage I trust in part my own observations, made
three years ago, in part statistics obtained at Cairo and Damascus. For
the table of population in the various lands of Islam I am obliged to go
more directly to European sources of information. As may be supposed, no
statistics on this point of any value were obtainable at Jeddah; but by
taking the figures commonly given in our handbooks, and supplementing
and correcting these by reference to such persons as I could find who
knew the countries, I have, I hope, arrived at an approximation to the
truth, near enough to give a tolerable idea to general readers of the
numerical proportions of Islam. Strict accuracy, however, I do not here
pretend to, nor would it if obtainable materially help my present
argument.

The following is my table:--


TABLE OF THE MECCA PILGRIMAGE OF 1880.