10 AUGUST 1907, Page 25

Our Moslem Sisters. Edited by Annie Van Sommer and Samuel

M. Zwemer. (Fleming H. Revell Company. 3s. 6d. net.)—" The Renaissance of Islam means the renaissance of humanity," said a champion of the faith whose sincerity we have no desire to question. That incalculable good would be done if Islam could be raised to its best ideals no one would deny. Meanwhile there are obstacles of the most serious kind to be overcome, and the chief of these is the condition of woman under Islam. There is divorce, for instance. Christian countries are not without the scandal. But what is to be said of a country where the lowest estimate of the marriages that end in this way is fifty per cent., and the highest ninety-five ? This is affirmed of Egypt. Even the highest estimate seems to be below the mark if we are to believe the statement of a native Bible woman who had worked among Mohammedans for fourteen years. "How many men or women of twenty-five are living with their original partners ? " "If you mean," she replied, "that neither has been divorced or married any one else, perhaps one in two thousand." The obser- vations and experience of men and women who have worked in Morocco, Tunis, tho Central Soudan, Arabia, Turkey, and Persia are given. It is to be noted that the more a country is touched by European influence, the more the lot of the women is im- proved.