ABSTRACT
Mohammedanism was introduced into Central Asia by the Arabs, who, after conquering Persia, penetrated into Bokhara and Fergana in the first decade of the eighth century. It effectually drove out before it Buddhism and all other forms of religion, and is now professed by all the Turkish races west of Kashgar, and by some farther east in Siberia and China. The Turks are responsible for importing it into Eastern Europe, and its diffusion in India, if not its first introduction, was largely the work of the Mughals. It is, as is well known, a religion which, perhaps more than any other, affects conduct as well as belief ; it forces into its own peculiar mould every department of human life, and modifies profoundly the character of the nations which adopt it. It therefore merits some attention from a social and political point of view.
