MOHAMMEDANISM, MAHOMET ANISM, or MUHAMMADANISM, the religion founded by MOHAMMED (q. During the Caliphates of his immediate successors Abu-bekr (632-634) and Omar (634-646), the Arabs, or Saracens, con quered Syria. Persia, and Egypt, and established the new faith. Othman re• signed next (644-655). Then the Arabs elected Ali, Mohammed's son-in-law. Ali was assassinated in 661, Hassan and Hosein, his sons, soon after perishing In 710 Tarik landed in Spain, the straits where he had passed and the adjacent rock being ever afterward called GI. BRALTAR (q. v.). In 732 Charles Marte (=the Hammer) defeated the Arab Ab derrahman at Poitiers, saving western Europe. The Saracen capitals had been successively at Medina, at Cafa, at Da mascus, and at Bagdad. About the mid dle of the 8th century. the Saracen em pire in the East began to be broken down by the Turks, then a savage Tartar tribe, who afterward embraced Mohammedan ism, and in 1453 took Constantinople, terminating the Greek or Eastern em• p're. Since the 16th century their power
has been less dreaded. Their faith is called Islam (=surrender of the will to God). Five duties are incumbent on the faithful Mohammedan: A confession of faith that there is but one God, and that Mohammed is his prophet, prayer, fast ing, almsgiving, and a pilgrimage to Mecca. Friday is their Sabbath and day of special worship. In Turkey, Syria, Palestine, Arabia, Persia, Asia Minor, Afghanistan, Baluchistan, Turkestan, In dia, and Malay Peninsula it is estimated that 57,000,000 adhere to the faith. In China 25,000,000, and throughout the world 175,000,000. There are a few scattered followers in the United States.