PREFACE

From the standpoint of both religion and culture, Animism The belief that natural objects, places, and creatures possess a distinct spiritual essence. has been described as “the taproot that sinks deepest into human experience and continues its cellular and fibrous structure into the tree trunk of modern conviction.” All the great world religions show traces of animism in their foundations, and none but Christianity (and even that not completely) has uprooted the overgrowth of superstition. In this book, our purpose is to show how Islam sprang up from pagan soil and retained many old Arabian beliefs despite its vigorous monotheism The belief that there is only one God.. Wherever Islam original: "Mohammedanism" went, it either introduced old superstitions or adopted new ones.

The result has been that as a background to the whole ritual, and even within the creed of popular Islam, Animism has triumphed. The religion of the common people from Tangier to Tehran is mixed with hundreds of superstitions, many of which have lost their original significance but still bind the mind and heart with a constant fear of demons, with witchcraft and sorcery, and the call to worship created things. Just as popular Hinduism differs completely original: "in toto" from the religion of the Vedas The oldest and most sacred scriptures of Hinduism., popular Islam is altogether different from the religion as recorded in its sacred Book [the Quran].

Our purpose in the chapters that follow is to show how this "miry clay" of animism mingles with the "iron" of Semitic theism in the feet of the great image with the head of gold that rests on Asia and Africa This is a reference to the biblical Book of Daniel (Chapter 2), which describes a massive statue made of various metals and clay, representing world empires.. We believe the rapid spread of Islam in Africa and Malaysia original: "Malayia" is largely due to its animistic character. The primitive religions had points of contact with Islam that were mutually attractive. Islam stooped to conquer them, but it fell in the process of stooping. The reformation of