but he has learned that there are women in the world who know more than
Sheikh Owad.

In ancient times Moslem women were occasionally taught to read the
Koran, and among the wealthier and more aristocratic classes, married
women are now sometimes taught to read, but the mass of the Moslem men
are bitterly opposed to the instruction of women. When a man decides to
have his wife taught to read, the usual plan is to hire a blind
Mohammedan Sheikh, who knows the Koran by heart. He sits at one side of
the room, and she at the other, some elderly woman, either her mother or
her mother-in-law, being present. The blind Sheikhs have remarkable
memories and sharp ears, and can detect the slightest error in
pronunciation or rendering, so they are employed in the most of the
Moslem-schools. The mass of the Mohammedans are nervously afraid of
entrusting the knowledge of reading and writing to their wives and
daughters, lest they abuse it by writing clandestine letters to improper
persons. "Teach a _girl_ to read and write!" said a Mohammedan Mufti in
Tripoli to me, "Why, she will _write letters_, sir,--yes, _actually
write letters_! the thing is not to be thought of for a moment." I
replied, "Effendum, you put your foot on the women's necks and then
blame them for not rising. Educate your girls and train them to
intelligence and virtue, and then their pens will write only what ought
to be written. Train the hand to hold a pen, without training the mind
to direct it, and only mischief can result." "_Saheah, saheah_," "very
true, very true," said he, "But how can this be done?"

It has begun to be done in Syria. From the days of Mrs. Sarah L. Smith
to the present time, Moslem girls have been taught to read and write and
sew, and there are many now learning in the various American, British
and Prussian schools. But it will be long before any true idea of the