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THROUGH THE CAUCASUS TO THE VOLGA
126
serious rising in 1824 and 1825. The apostles conse
crated and blessed by Mullah-Mohammed were
called murids, that is, disciples, from the Arabic
word murid = "one that seeks" (that is, to find
the way). With burning zeal they preached the
doctrine, and the battle-cry was: "War against
the unbelievers ! death to the Russians !" What
appealed to the people, too, was that Muridism
preached the absolute equality of all mankind;
according to the Koran none could be subject to
another. Muridism, moreover, preached a recon
ciliation between Sunnites and Shiites, who were
all children of God.
Many places were seething, and the movement
was a serious danger for the Russians ; their efforts
to stifle it did but add fuel to the fire. The cry was :
Shame and disgrace on you so long as your temples
are profaned by the red-haired Muscovites. Of a
truth it were better that ye pulled down your
temples so as to bury them that mock God under
the ruins. Every stone wherewith ye crush the head
of an unbeliever becomes a monument to the
glory of Allah. And Mullah-Mohammed spoke to
the leaders of the people: "Death or victory! On
the one side Paradise beckons, on the other freedom.
What, then, are wc waiting for? Fight, and you are
free, die and you are blessed. Hatred and the sword !
Let the bodies of your slam foes be the steps up
which ye climb to the joys of Paradise ; for thus does
the Prophet speak : ’He that slays an unbeliever, his
nåme shal] be praised ; but he that falls in the fight
for the faith, his glory shall be great indeed.’ "
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