APPENDIX.
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NOTES.
Page 58: (1). In this passage, Mohammed compares those who believed not on him, to a man who wants to kindle a fire, but as soon as it burns up, and the flames give a light, shuts his eyes, lest he should see. As if he had said, “You, O Arabians, have long desired a prophet of your own nation, and now I am sent unto you, and have plainly proved my mission by the excellence of my doctrine and revelation, you resist conviction, and refuse to believe in me; therefore shall God leave you in your ignorance.”
Page 59: (1). Here he compares the unbelieving Arabs to people caught in a violent storm. To perceive the beauty of this comparison, it must be observed, that the Mohammedan doctors say, this tempest is a type or image of the Korân itself: the thunder signifying the threats therein contained; the lightning, the promises; and the darkness, the mysteries. The terror of the threats makes them stop their ears, unwilling to hear truths so disagreeable; when the promises are read to them, they attend with pleasure; but when anything mysterious or difficult of belief occurs, they stand stock still, and will not submit to be directed.
(2). Concerning the creation of Adam, here intimated, the Mohammedans have several peculiar traditions. They say the angels, Gabriel, Michael, and Israfil, were sent by God, one after another, to fetch for that purpose seven handfuls of earth from different depths, and of different colors (whence some account for the various complexion of mankind); but the earth being apprehensive of the consequence, and desiring them to represent her fear to God that the creature he designed to form would rebel against him, and draw down his curse upon her, they returned without performing God’s command; whereupon he sent Azraïl on the same errand, who executed his commission without remorse, for which reason God appointed that angel to separate the souls from the bodies, being therefore called the angel of death. The earth he had taken was carried into Arabia, to a place between Mecca and Tayef, where, being first kneaded by the angels, it was afterward fashioned by God himself into a human form, and left to dry for the space of forty days, or, as others say, as many years, the angels in the meantime often visiting it, and Eblis (then one of the angels who are nearest to God’s presence, afterward the devil) among the rest; but he, not contented with looking
on it, kicked it with his foot till it rung and knowing God designed that creature to be his superior, took a secret resolution never to acknowledge him as such. After this, God animated the figure of clay and endued it with an intelligent soul, and when he had placed him in paradise, formed Eve out of his left side.
Page 60: (1). This story Mohammed borrowed from the Jewish traditions, which say that the angels having spoken of man with some contempt when God consulted them about his creation, God made answer that the man was wiser than they; and to convince them of it, he brought all kinds of animals to them, and asked them their names; which they not being able to tell, he put the same question to the man, who named them one after another; and being asked his own name and God’s name, he answered very justly, and gave God the name of Jehovah. The angels’ adoring of Adam is also mentioned in the Talmud.
(2). The Mohammedans say that when they were cast down from paradise, Adam fell on the isle of Ceylon or Serendib, and Eve near Joddah (the port of Mecca) in Arabia; and that after a separation of 200 years, Adam was, on his repentance, conducted by the angel Gabriel to a mountain near Mecca, where he found and knew his wife, the mountain being thence named Arafat; and that he afterward retired with her to Ceylon, where they continued to propagate their species. It may not be improper here to mention another tradition concerning the gigantic stature of our first parents. Their prophet, they say, affirmed Adam to have been as tall as a high palm-tree; but this would be too much in proportion, if that were really the print of his foot, which is pretended to be such, on the top of a mountain in the isle of Ceylon, thence named Pico de Adam, and by the Arab writers Rahûn, being somewhat above two spans long (though others say it is 70 cubits long, and that when Adam set one foot here, he had the other in the sea); and too little, if Eve were so enormous a size, as is said, when her head lay on one hill near Mecca, her knees rested on two others in the plain, about two musket-shots asunder.
Page 61: (1). The commentators say this was a stone which Moses brought from Mount Sinai, and the same that fled away with his garments which he laid upon it one day while he washed; they add that Moses ran after the stone naked, till he found himself, ere he was aware, in the midst of the people, who, on this accident, were convinced of the falsehood of a report which had been raised of their prophet, that he was bursten, or, as others write, an hermaphrodite. They describe it to be a square piece of white marble, shaped like a man’s head; wherein they differ not much from the accounts of European travelers, who say this rock stands among several lesser ones, about one hundred paces from Mount Horeb, and appears to have been loosened from the neighboring mountains, having no coherence with the others; that it is a huge mass of red granite, almost round on one side, and flat on the other,
twelve feet high and as many thick, but broader than it is high, and about fifty feet in circumference.
Page 62: (1). The story to which this passage refers, is as follows: In the days of David some Israelites dwelt at Ailah, or Elath, on the Red Sea, where on the night of the Sabbath the fish used to come in great numbers to the shore, and stay there all the Sabbath, to tempt them; but the night following they returned into the sea again. At length some of the inhabitants, neglecting God’s command, catched fish on the Sabbath, and dressed and ate them; and afterward cut canals from the sea, for the fish to enter, with sluices, which they shut on the Sabbath, to prevent their return to the sea. The other part of the inhabitants, who strictly observed the Sabbath, used both persuasion and force to stop this impiety, but to no purpose, the offenders growing only more and more obstinate; whereupon David cursed the Sabbath-breakers, and God transformed them into apes. It is said that one going to see a friend of his that was among them, found him in the shape of an ape, moving his eyes about wildly; and asking him whether he was not such a one, the ape made a sign with his head that it was he; whereupon the friend said to him, “Did I not advise you to desist?” at which the ape wept. They add that these unhappy people remained three days in this condition, and were afterward destroyed by a wind which swept them all into the sea.
(2). The occasion of this sacrifice is thus related. A certain man at his death left his son, then a child, a cow-calf, which wandered in the desert till he came to age; at which time his mother told him the heifer was his, and bid him fetch her, and sell her for three pieces of gold. When the young man came to the market with his heifer, an angel in the shape of a man accosted him, and bid him six pieces of gold for her; but he would not take the money till he had asked his mother’s consent; which when he had obtained, he returned to the market-place, and met the angel, who now offered him twice as much for the heifer, provided he would say nothing of it to his mother; but the young man refusing, went and acquainted her with the additional offer. The woman perceiving it was an angel, bid her son go back and ask him what must be done with the heifer; whereupon the angel told the young man that in a little time the children of Israel would buy that heifer of him at any price. And soon after it happened that an Israelite, named Hammiel, was killed by a relation of his, who, to prevent discovery, conveyed the body to a place considerably distant from that where the fact was committed. The friends of the slain man accused some other persons of the murder before Moses; but they denying the fact, and there being no evidence to convict them, God commanded a cow, of such and such particular marks, to be killed; but there being no other which answered the description except the orphan’s heifer, they were obliged to buy her for as much gold as her hide would hold; according to some, for her full weight in gold, and as others
say, for ten times as much. This heifer they sacrificed, and the dead body being, by divine direction, struck with a part of it, revived, and standing up, named the person who had killed him; after which it immediately fell down dead again. The whole story seems to be borrowed from the red heifer, which was ordered by the Jewish law to be burnt, and the ashes kept for purifying those who happened to touch a dead corpse; and from the heifer directed to be slain for the expiation of an uncertain murder. See Deut. xxi. 1-9.
Page 69: (1). At first, Mohammed and his followers observed no particular rite in turning their faces toward any certain place, or quarter of the world, when they prayed; it being declared to be perfectly indifferent. Afterward, when the prophet fled to Medina, he directed them to turn toward the temple of Jerusalem (probably to ingratiate himself with the Jews), which continued to be their Keblah for six or seven months; but either finding the Jews too intractable, or despairing otherwise to gain the pagan Arabs, who could not forget their respect to the temple of Mecca, he ordered that prayers for the future should be toward the last. This change was made in the second year of the Hejra, and occasioned many to fall from him, taking offense at his inconstancy.
Page 70: (1). Safâ and Merwâ are two mountains near Mecca, whereon were anciently two idols, to which the pagan Arabs used to pay a superstitious veneration. Jallalo’ddin says this passage was revealed because the followers of Mohammed made a scruple of going round these mountains, as the idolaters did. But the true reason of his allowing this relic of ancient superstition seems to be the difficulty he found in preventing it. Abul Kâsem Hebato’llah thinks these last words are abrogated by those other, Who will reject the religion of Abraham, except he who hath infatuated his soul? So that he will have the meaning to be quite contrary to the letter, as if it had been, it shall be no crime in him if he do not compass them. However, the expositors are all against him, and the ceremony of running between these two hills is still observed at the pilgrimage.
Page 73: (1). Some of the Arabs had a superstitious custom after they had been at Mecca (in pilgrimage, as it seems), on their return home, not to enter their house by the old door, but to make a hole through the back part for a passage, which practice is here reprehended.
Page 74: (1). In Arabic, al Masher al harâm. It is a mountain in the farther part of Mozdalifa, where it is said Mohammed stood praying and praising God, till his face became extremely shining. Bobovious calls it Farkh, but the true name seems to be Kazah; the variation being occasioned only by the different pointing of the Arabic letters.
Page 80: (1). These were some of the children of Israel, who abandoned their dwellings because of a pestilence, or, as others
say, to avoid serving in a religious war; but, as they fled, God struck them all dead in a certain valley. About eight days or more after, when their bodies were corrupted, the prophet Ezekiel, the son of Buzi, happening to pass that way, at the sight of their bones wept; whereupon God said to him, Call to them, O Ezekiel, and I will restore them to life. And accordingly on the prophet’s call they all arose, and lived several years after; but they retained the color and stench of dead corpses as long as they lived, and the clothes they wore changed as black as pitch, which qualities they transmitted to their posterity. As to the number of these Israelites the commentators are not agreed; they who reckon least say they were 3,000, and they who reckon most, 70,000. This story seems to have been taken from Ezekiel’s vision of the resurrection of dry bones.
(2). This ark, says Jallalo’ddin, contained the images of the prophets, and was sent down from heaven to Adam, and at length came to the Israelites, who put great confidence therein, and continually carried it in the front of their army, till it was taken by the Amalekites. But on this occasion the angels brought it back, in the sight of all the people, and placed it at the feet of Talût; who was thereupon unanimously acknowledged for their king. This relation seems to have arisen from some imperfect tradition of the taking and sending back the ark by the Philistines.
Page 81: (1). This throne, in Arabic called Corsi, is by the Mohammedans supposed to be God’s tribunal, or seat of justice; being placed under that other called al Arsh, which they say is his imperial throne. The Corsi allegorically signifies the divine providence, which sustains and governs the heaven and the earth, and is infinitely above human comprehension.
Page 82: (1). The person here meant was Ozair or Ezra, who riding on an ass by the ruins of Jerusalem after it had been destroyed by the Chaldeans, doubted in his mind by what means God could raise the city and its inhabitants again; whereupon God caused him to die, and he remained in that condition one hundred years; at the end of which God restored him to life, and he found a basket of figs and a cruse of wine he had with him not in the least spoiled or corrupted; but his ass was dead, the bones only remaining, and these, while the prophet looked on, were raised and clothed with flesh, becoming an ass again, which being inspired with life, began immediately to bray.
(2). These birds, according to the commentators, were an eagle (a dove, say others), a peacock, a raven and a cock, which Abraham cut to pieces, and mingled their flesh and feathers together, or, as some tell us, pounded all in a mortar, and dividing the mass into four parts, laid them on so many mountains, but kept the heads, which he had preserved whole, in his hand. Then he called them each by their name, and immediately one part flew to the other, till they all recovered their first shape, and then came to be joined to their respective heads.
Page 87: (1). The sign or miracle here meant, was the victory gained by Mohammed in the second year of the Hejra, over the idolatrous Meccans, headed by Abu Sofiân, in the valley of Bedr, which is situate near the sea, between Mecca and Medina. Mohammed’s forces consisted of no more than three hundred and nineteen men, but the enemy’s army of near a thousand, notwithstanding which odds he put them to flight, having killed seventy of the principal Koreish, and taken as many prisoners, with the loss of only fourteen of his own men. This was the first victory obtained by the prophet, and though it may seem no very considerable action, yet it was of great advantage to him, and the foundation of all his future power and success. For which reason it is famous in the Arabian history, and more than once vaunted in the Korân, as an effect of the divine assistance. The miracle, it is said, consisted in three things: 1. Mohammed, by the direction of the angel Gabriel, took a handful of gravel and threw it toward the enemy in the attack, saying, May their faces be confounded; whereupon they immediately turned their backs and fled. But though the prophet seemingly threw the gravel himself, yet it is told in the Korân, that it was not he, but God, who threw it, that is to say, by the ministry of his angel. 2. The Mohammedan troops seemed to the infidels to be twice as many in number as themselves, which greatly discouraged them. 3. God sent down to their assistance first a thousand and afterward three thousand angels, led by Gabriel, mounted on his horse Haizûm; and, according to the Korân, these celestial auxiliaries really did all the execution, though Mohammed’s men imagined themselves did it, and fought stoutly at the same time.
Page 88: (1). This expression alludes to a tradition, that Abraham, when the devil tempted him to disobey God in not sacrificing his son, drove the fiend away by throwing stones at him; in memory of which, the Mohammedans, at the pilgrimage of Mecca, throw a certain number of stones at the devil, with certain ceremonies, in the valley of Mina. It is not improbable that the pretended immaculate conception of the Virgin Mary is intimated in this passage; for according to a tradition of Mohammed, every person that comes into the world is touched at his birth by the devil, and therefore cries out: Mary and her son only excepted, between whom and the evil spirit God placed a veil, so that his touch did not reach them. And for this reason, they say, neither of them were guilty of any sin, like the rest of the children of Adam: which peculiar grace they obtained by virtue of this recommendation of them by Hannah to God’s protection.
Page 89: (1). Besides an instance of this given in the Korân itself, which I shall not here anticipate, a Mohammedan writer, (of no very great credit, indeed) tells two stories, one of Jesus’ speaking while in his mother’s womb, to reprove her cousin Joseph for his unjust suspicions of her; and another of his giving an answer to the same person soon after he was born. For Joseph
being sent by Zacharias to seek Mary (who had gone out of the city by night to conceal her delivery) and having found her began to expostulate with her, but she made no reply; whereupon the child spoke these words: Rejoice, O Joseph, and be of good cheer; for God hath brought me forth from the darkness of the womb, to the light of the world; and I shall go to the children of Israel, and invite them to the obedience of God. These seem all to have been taken from some fabulous traditions of the eastern Christians, one of which is preserved to us in the spurious gospel of the Infancy of Christ; where we read that Jesus spoke while yet in the cradle, and said to his mother, Verily I am Jesus the Son of God, the word which thou hast brought forth, as the angel Gabriel did declare unto thee; and my father hath sent me to save the world.
Page 90: (1). Jallalo’ddin mentions three persons whom Christ restored to life, and who lived several years after, and had children, viz., Lazarus, the widow’s son, and the publican’s (I suppose he means the ruler of the synagogue’s) daughter. He adds that he also raised Shem the son of Noah, who, as another writes thinking he had been called to judgment, came out of his grave with his head half gray, whereas men did not grow gray in his days; after which he immediately died again.
(2). This stratagem of God’s was the taking of Jesus up into heaven, and stamping his likeness on another person, who was apprehended and crucified in his stead. For it is the constant doctrine of the Mohammedans that it was not Jesus himself who underwent that ignominious death, but somebody else in his shape and resemblance. The person crucified some will have to be a spy that was sent to entrap him; others, that it was one Titian, who by the direction of Judas entered in at a window of the house where Jesus was, to kill him; and others that it was Judas himself, who agreed with the rulers of the Jews to betray him for thirty pieces of silver, and led those who were sent to take him. They add, that Jesus after his crucifixion in effigy, was sent down again to the earth, to comfort his mother and disciples and acquaint them how the Jews were deceived; and was then taken up a second time into heaven. It is supposed by several that this story was an original invention of Mohammed’s; but they are certainly mistaken; for several sectaries held the same opinion, long before his time. The Basilidians, in the very beginning of Christianity, denied that Christ himself suffered, but that Simon the Cyrenean was crucified in his place. The Corinthians before them, and the Carpocratians next (to name no more of those who affirmed Jesus to have been a mere man), did believe the same thing; that it was not himself, but one of his followers very like him that was crucified. Photius tells us, that he read a book entitled, “The Journeys of the Apostles,” relating the acts of Peter, John, Andrew, Thomas and Paul; and among other things contained therein, this was one, that Christ, was not crucified, but another in his stead, and that therefore
he laughed at his crucifiers, or those who thought they had crucified him. I have in another place mentioned an apocryphal gospel of Barnabas, a forgery originally of some nominal Christians, but interpolated since by Mohammedans; which gives this part of the history of Jesus with circumstances too curious to be omitted. It is therein related, that the moment the Jews were going to apprehend Jesus in the garden, he was snatched up into the third heaven by the ministry of four angels, Gabriel, Michael, Raphael and Uriel; that he will not die till the end of the world, and that it was Judas who was crucified in his stead; God having permitted that traitor to appear so like his master, in the eyes of the Jews, that they took and delivered him to Pilate. That this resembling was so great, that it deceived the Virgin Mary and the Apostles themselves; but that Jesus Christ afterward obtained leave of God to go and comfort them. That Barnabas having then asked him, why the divine goodness had suffered the mother and disciples of so holy a prophet to believe even for one moment that he had died in so ignominious a manner? Jesus returned the following answer. “O Barnabas, believe me that every sin, how small soever, is punished by God with great torment, because God is offended with sin. My mother therefore and faithful disciples, having loved me with a mixture of earthly love, the just God has been pleased to punish this love with their present grief, that they might not be punished for it hereafter in the flames of hell. And as for me, though I have myself been blameless in the world, yet other men having called me God and the Son of God; therefore God, that I might not be mocked by the devils at the day of judgment, has been pleased that in this world I should be mocked by men with the death of Judas, making everybody believe that I died upon the cross. And hence it is that this mocking is still to continue the coming of Mohammed, the messenger of God; who, coming into the world, will undeceive every one who shall believe in the law of God from this mistake.”
Page 93: (1). Literally, Hold fast by the cord of God. That is, Secure yourselves by adhering to Islâm, which is here metaphorically expressed by a cord, because it is as sure a means of saving those who profess it from perishing hereafter, as holding by a rope is to prevent one’s falling into a well, or other like place. It is said that Mohammed used for the same reason to call the Korân, Habl Allah al matîn, i.e., the sure cord of God.
Page 96: (1). It is related of Hasan the son of Ali, that a slave having once thrown a dish on him boiling hot, as he sat at table, and fearing his master’s resentment, fell immediately on his knees, and repeated these words, Paradise is for those who bridle their anger: Hasan answered, I am not angry. The slave proceeded, and for those who forgive men. I forgive you, said Hasan. The slave, however, finished the verse, adding, for God loveth the beneficent. Since it is so replied Hasan, I give you your liberty, and four hundred pieces of silver. A noble instance of moderation and generosity.
Page 97: (1). Mohammed, the more effectually to still the murmurs of his party on their defeat, represents to them that the time of every man’s death is decreed and predetermined by God, and that those who fell in the battle could not have avoided their fate had they stayed at home; whereas they had now obtained the glorious advantage of dying martyrs for the faith. Of the Mohammedan doctrine of absolute predestination I have spoken in another place.
Page 104: (1). It was customary among the pagan Arabs, when a man died, for one of his relations to claim a right to his widow, which he asserted by throwing his garment over her; and then he either married her himself, if he thought fit, on assigning her the same dower that her former husband had done, or kept her dower and married her to another, or else refused to let her marry unless she redeemed herself by quitting what she might claim of her husband’s goods. This unjust custom is abolished by this passage.
Page 106: (1). These sins al Beidâwi, from a tradition of Mohammed, reckons to be seven (equaling in number the sins called deadly by Christians), that is to say, idolatry, murder, falsely accusing modest women of adultery, wasting the substance of orphans, taking of usury, desertion in a religious expedition, and disobedience to parents. But Ebn Abbâs says they amount to near seven hundred; and others suppose that idolatry only, of different kinds, in worshiping idols or any creature, either in opposition to or jointly with the true God, is here intended; that sin being generally esteemed by Mohammedans, and in a few lines after declared by the Korân itself, to be the only one which God will not pardon.
(2). That is, they shall be blessed according to their deserts; and ought therefore, instead of displeasing God by envying of others, to endeavor to merit his favor by good works and to apply to him by prayer.
Page 108: (1). That is, before the tribunals of infidels. This passage was occasioned by the following remarkable accident. A certain Jew having a dispute with a wicked Mohammedan, the latter appealed to the judgment of Caab Ebn al Ashraf, a principal Jew, and the former to Mohammed. But at length they agreed to refer the matter to the prophet singly, who, giving it in favor of the Jew, the Mohammedan refused to acquiesce in his sentence, but would needs have it re-heard by Omar, afterward Khalif. When they came to him, the Jew told him that Mohammed had already decided the affair in his favor, but that the other would not submit to his determination; and the Mohammedan confessing this to be true, Omar bid them stay a little, and fetching his sword, struck off the obstinate Moslem’s head, saying aloud, This is the reward of him who refuseth to submit to the judgment of God and his apostles. And from this action Omar had the surname of al Farûk, which alludes both to his separating that
knave’s head from his body, and to his distinguishing between truth and falsehood. The name of Taghût, therefore, in this place, seems to be given to Caab Ebn al Ashraf.
Page 113: (1). Tima Ebn Obeirak, of the sons of Dhafar, one of Mohammed’s companions, stole a coat of mail from his neighbor, Kitâda Ebn al Nomân, in a bag of meal, and hid it at a Jew’s named Zeid Ebn al Samîn; Tima, being suspected, the coat of mail was demanded of him, but he denying he knew anything of it, they followed the track of the meal, which had run out through a hole in the bag, to the Jew’s house, and there seized it, accusing him of the theft; but he producing witnesses of his own religion that he had it of Tima, the sons of Dhafar came to Mohammed and desired him to defend his companion’s reputation, and condemn the Jew; which he having some thoughts of doing, this passage was revealed, reprehending him for his rash intention, and commanding him to judge not according to his own prejudice and opinion, but according to the merit of the case.
Page 114: (1). That is, the promises of God are not to be gained by acting after your own fancies, nor yet after the fancies of the Jews or Christians, but by obeying the commands of God. This passage, they say, was revealed on a dispute which arose between those of the three religions, each preferring his own, and condemning the others. Some, however, suppose the persons here spoken to in the second person were not the Mohammedans, but the idolaters.
Page 115: (1). Therefore the Mohammadans usually call that patriarch, as the scripture also does, Khalîl Allah, the Friend of God, and simply al Khalîl; and they tell the following story: That Abraham in a time of dearth sent to a friend of his in Egypt for a supply of corn; but the friend denied him, saying in his excuse, that though there was a famine in their country also, yet had it been for Abraham’s own family, he would have sent what he desired, but he knew he wanted it only to entertain his guests and give away to the poor, according to his usual hospitality. The servants whom Abraham had sent on this message, being ashamed to return empty, to conceal the matter from their neighbors, filled their sacks with fine white sand, which in the East pretty much resembles meal. Abraham being informed by his servants, on their return of their ill success, the concern he was under threw him into a sleep; and in the meantime Sarah, knowing nothing of what had happened, opening one of the sacks, found good flour in it, and immediately set out about making of bread. Abraham awaking and smelling the new bread, asked her whence she had flour? Why, says she, from your friend in Egypt. Nay, replied the Patriarch, it must have come from no other than my friend God Almighty.
Page 116: (1). These were the Jews, who first believed in Moses, and afterward fell into idolatry by worshiping the golden calf; and though they repented of that, yet in after ages
rejected the prophets who were sent to them, and particularly Jesus, the son of Mary, and now filled up the measure of their unbelief by rejecting of Mohammed.
Page 117: (1). Some, referring the relative his, to the first antecedent, take the meaning to be, that no Jew or Christian shall die before he believes in Jesus: for they say, that when one of either of those religions is ready to breathe his last, and sees the angel of death before him, he shall then believe in that prophet as he ought, though his faith will not then be of any avail. According to a tradition of Hejâj, when a Jew is expiring, the angels will strike him on the back and face, and say to him, O thou enemy of God, Jesus was sent as a prophet unto thee, and thou didst not believe on him; to which he will answer, I now believe him to be the servant of God; and to a dying Christian they will say, Jesus was sent as a prophet unto thee, and thou hast imagined him to be God, or the son of God; whereupon he will believe him to be the servant of God only, and his apostle. Others, taking the above-mentioned relative to refer to Jesus, suppose the intent of the passage to be, that all Jews and Christians in general shall have a right faith in that prophet before his death, that is, when he descends from heaven and returns into the world, where he is to kill anti-Christ, and to establish the Mohammedan religion, and a most perfect tranquility and security on earth.
Page 123: (1). The occasion of their making this offering is thus related, according to the common tradition in the East. Each of them being born with a twin sister, when they were grown up, Adam, by God’s direction, ordered Cain to marry Abel’s twin sister, and that Abel should marry Cain’s (for it being the common opinion that marriages ought not to be had in the nearest degrees of consanguinity, since they must necessarily marry their sisters, it seemed reasonable to suppose they ought to take those of the remoter degree), but this Cain refusing to agree to, because his own sister was the handsomest, Adam ordered them to make their offerings to God, thereby referring the dispute to his determination. The commentators say Cain’s offering was a sheaf of the very worst of his corn, but Abel’s a fat lamb, of the best of his flock.
(2). i.e., His dead corpse. For Cain, having committed this fratricide, became exceedingly troubled in his mind, and carried the dead body about on his shoulders for a considerable time, not knowing where to conceal it, till it stank horridly; and then God taught him to bury it by the example of a raven, who having killed another raven in his presence, dug a pit with his claws and beak, and buried him therein. For this circumstance of the raven Mohammed was beholden to the Jews, who tell the same story, except only that they make the raven to appear to Adam, and that he thereupon buried his son.
Page 126: (1). This is one of those accidents which, it is pretended, were foretold by the Korân long before they came to pass.
For in the latter days of Mohammed, and after his death, considerable numbers of the Arabs quitted his religion, and returned to Paganism, Judaism, or Christianity. Al Beidâwi reckons them up in the following order. 1. Three companies of Banu Modlaj, seduced by Dhu’lhamâr al Aswad al Ansi, who set up for a prophet in Yaman, and grew very powerful there. 2. Banu Honeifa, who followed the famous false prophet Moseilama. 3. Banu Asad, who acknowledged Toleiha Ebn Khowailed, another Banu Asad, who acknowledged Toleiha Ebn Khowailed, another pretender to divine revelation, for their prophet. All these fell off in Mohammed’s lifetime. The following, except only the last, apostatized in the reign of Abu Becr. 4. Certain of the tribe of Fezârah, headed by Oyeyma Ebn Hosein. 5. Some of the tribe of Ghatfân, whose leader was Korrah Ebn Salma. 6. Banu Soleim, who followed al Fajâah Ebn Ad Yalîl. 7. Banu Yarbu, whose captain was Malec Ebn Noweirah Ebn Kais. 8. Part of the tribe of Tamîn, the proselytes of Sajâj the daughter of al Mondhar, who gave herself out for a prophetess. 9. The tribe of Kendah, led by al Asháth Ebn Kais. 10. Banu Becr Ebn al Wayel, in the province of Bahrein, headed by al Hotam Ebn Zeid. 11. Some of the tribe of Ghassân, who with their prince Jabalah Ebn al Ayham, renounced Mohammedism in the time of Omar, and returned to their former profession of Christianity. But as to the persons who fulfilled the other part of this prophecy, by supplying the loss of so many renegades, the commentators are not agreed. Some will have them to be the inhabitants of Yaman, and others the Persians; the authority of Mohammed himself being vouched for both opinions. Others, however, suppose them to be 2,000 of the tribe of al Nakhá (who dwelt in Yaman), 5,000 of those of Kendah and Bajîlah, and 3,000 of unknown descent, who were present at the famous battle of Kadesia, fought in the Khalîfat of Omar, and which put an end to the Persian empire.
(2). That is, he is become niggardly and close-fisted. These were the words of Phineas Ebn Azûra (another indecent expression of whom, almost to the same purpose, is mentioned elsewhere) when the Jews were much impoverished by a dearth, which the commentators will have to be a judgment on them for their rejecting of Mohammed; and the other Jews who heard him, instead of reproving him, expressed their approbation of what he had said.
Page 129: (1). The persons directly intended in this passage were, either Ashama, king of Ethiopia, and several bishops and priests, who, being assembled for that purpose, heard Jaafar Ebn Abi Taleb, who fled to that country in the first flight, read the 29th and 30th, and afterward the 18th and 19th chapters of the Korân; on hearing of which the king and the rest of the company burst into tears, and confessed what was delivered therein to be conformable to truth; that prince himself, in particular, becoming a proselyte to Mohammedism, or else, thirty, or as others say, seventy persons, sent ambassadors to Mohammed by the same king of Ethiopia, to whom the prophet himself read the 36th
chapter, entitled Y.S. Whereupon they began to weep, saying, How like is this to that which was revealed unto Jesus! and immediately professed themselves Moslems.
Page 130: (1). These were the names given by the pagan Arabs to certain camels or sheep which were turned loose to feed, and exempted from common services, in some particular cases; having their ears slit, or some other mark, that they might be known; and this they did in honor of their gods. Which superstitions are here declared to be no ordinances of God, but the inventions of foolish men.
Page 132: (1). This miracle is thus related by the commentators. Jesus having, at the request of his followers, asked it of God, a red table immediately descended, in their sight, between two clouds, and was set before them; whereupon he rose up, and having made the ablution, prayed, and then took off the cloth which covered the table, saying, In the name of God, the best provider of food. What the provisions were with which this table was furnished is a matter wherein the expositors are not agreed. One will have them to be nine cakes of bread and nine fishes; another bread and flesh; another, all sorts of food, except flesh; another all sorts of food, except bread and flesh; another, all except bread and fish; another, one fish, which had the taste of all manner of food; and another, fruits of paradise; but the most received tradition is that when the table was uncovered, there appeared a fish ready dressed, without scales or prickly fins, dropping with fat, having salt placed at its head and vinegar at its tail, and round it all sorts of herbs, except leeks, and five loaves of bread, on one of which there were olives, on the second honey, on the third butter, on the fourth cheese, and on the fifth dried flesh. They add that Jesus, at the request of the apostles, showed them another miracle, by restoring the fish to life, and causing its scales and fins to return to it, at which the standers-by being affrighted, he caused it to become as it was before; that 1,300 men and women, all afflicted with bodily infirmities or poverty, ate of these provisions, and were satisfied, the fish remaining whole as it was at first; that then the table flew up to Heaven in the sight of all; and every one who had partaken of this food were delivered from their infirmities and misfortunes; and that it continued to descend for forty days together at dinner-time, and stood on the ground till the sun declined, and was then taken up into the clouds. Some of the Mohammedan writers are of opinion that this table did not really descend, but that it was only a parable; but most think the words of the Korân are plain to the contrary. A further tradition is, that several men were changed into swine for disbelieving this miracle, and attributing it to magic art; or, as others pretend, for stealing some of the victuals from off it. Several other fabulous circumstances are also told, which are scarce worth transcribing.
(2). Some say the table descended on a Sunday, which was the
reason of the Christians observing that day as sacred. Others pretend this day is still kept among them as a very great festival; and it seems as if the story had its rise from an imperfect notion of Christ’s last supper and the institution of the Eucharist.
Page 135: (1). When an infidel comes forth from his grave, says Jallalo’ddin, his works shall be represented to him under the ugliest form that ever he beheld, having a most deformed countenance, a filthy smell, and a disagreeable voice; so that he shall cry out, God defend me from thee, what art thou? I never saw anything more detestable! To which the figure will answer, Why dost thou wonder at my ugliness? I am thy evil works; thou didst ride upon me while thou wast in the world; but now will I ride upon thee, and thou shalt carry me. and immediately it shall get upon him; and whatever he shall meet shall terrify him, and say, Hail, thou enemy of God, thou art he who was meant by (these words of the Korân), and they shall carry their burdens, etc.
Page 136 (1). That is, in the preserved table, wherein God’s decrees are written, and all things which come to pass in this world, as well the most minute as the more momentous, are exactly registered.
(2). For, according to the Mohammedan belief, the irrational animals will also be restored to life at the resurrection, that they may be brought to judgment, and have vengeance taken on them for the injuries they did one another while in this world.
Page 139: (1). This is the name which the Mohammedans give to Abraham’s father, named in scripture Terah. However, some of their writers pretend that Azer was the son of Terah, and D’Herbelot says that the Arabs always distinguish them in their genealogies as different persons; but that, because Abraham was the son of Terah according to Moses, it is therefore supposed (by European writers) that Terah is the same with the Azer of the Arabs. How true this observation may be in relation to some authors, I cannot say, but I am sure it cannot be true of all; for several Arab and Turkish writers expressly make Azer and Terah the same person. Azer, in ancient times, was the name of the planet Mars, and the month of March was so called by the most ancient Persians; for the word originally signifying fire (as it still does,) it was therefore given by them and the Chaldeans to that planet, which partaking, as was supposed, of a fiery nature, was acknowledged by the Chaldeans and Assyrians as a god or planetary deity, whom in old times they worshiped under the form of a pillar; whence Azer became a name among the nobility, who esteemed it honorable to be denominated from their gods, and is found in the composition of several Babylonish names. For these reasons a learned author supposes Azer to have been the heathen name of Terah, and that the other was given him on his conversion. Al Beidâwi confirms this conjecture, saying that Azer was the name of the idol which he worshiped. It may be observed that Abraham’s father is also called Zarah in the Talmud and Athar by Eusebius.
(2). Since Abraham’s parents were idolaters, it seems to be a necessary consequence that himself was one also in his younger years; the scripture not obscurely intimates as much, and the Jews themselves acknowledge it. At what age he came to the knowledge of the true God and left idolatry, opinions are various. Some Jewish writers tell us he was then but three years old, and the Mohammedans likewise suppose him very young, and that he asked his father and mother several shrewd questions when a child. Others, however, allow him to have been a middle-aged man at that time. Maimonides, in particular, and R. Abraham Zacuth think him to have been forty years old, which age is also mentioned in the Korân. But the general opinion of the Mohammedans is that he was about fifteen or sixteen. As the religion wherein Abraham was educated was the Sabian, which consisted chiefly in the worship of the heavenly bodies, he is introduced examining their nature and properties, to see whether they had a right to the worship which was paid them or not; and the first which he observed was the planet Venus, or, as others will have it, Jupiter. This method of Abraham’s attaining to the knowledge of the supreme Creator of all things, is conformable to what Josephus writes, viz.: That he drew his notions from the changes which he had observed in the earth and the sea, and in the sun and the moon, and the rest of the celestial bodies; concluding that they were subject to the command of a superior power, to whom alone all honor and thanks are due. The story itself is certainly taken from the Talmud. Some of the commentators, however, suppose this reasoning of Abraham with himself was not the first means of his conversion, but that he used it only by way of argument to convince the idolaters among whom he then lived.
Page 144: (1). The commentators tell us that this alleviation of the pains of the damned will be when they shall be taken out of the fire to drink the boiling water, or to suffer the extreme cold, called al Zamharîr, which is to be one part of their punishment; but others think the respite which God will grant to some before they are thrown into hell, is here intended. According to the exposition of Ebn Abbas, these words may be rendered, Unless him whom God shall please to deliver thence.
(2). Either by that inhuman custom, which prevailed among those of Kendah and some other tribes, of burying their daughters alive, so soon as they were born, if they apprehended they could not maintain them; or else be offering them to their idols, at the instigation of those who had the custody of their temples.
Page 147: (1). Al Beidâwi, from a tradition of Mohammed, says that ten signs will precede the last day, viz., the smoke, the beast of the earth, an eclipse in the east, another in the west, and a third in the peninsula of Arabia, the appearance of anti-Christ, the sun’s rising in the west, the eruption of Gog and Magog, the descent of Jesus on earth, and fire which shall break forth from Aden.
Page 149: (1). The Mohammedan gospel of Barnabas tells us that the sentence which God pronounced on the serpent for introducing the devil into paradise was, that he should not only be turned out of paradise, but that he should have his legs cut off by the angel Michael, with the sword of God; and that the devil himself, since he had rendered our first parents unclean, was condemned to eat the excrements of them and all their posterity; which two last circumstances I do not remember to have read elsewhere. The words of the manuscript are these: Y llamó [Dios] a la serpiente, y a Michael, aquel que tiene la espada de Dios, y le dixo; Aquesta sierpe es acelerada, echala la primera del parayso, y cortale las piernas, y si quisiere caminar, arrastrara la vida por tierra. Y llamó a (?) Satanas, el qual vino riendo, y dixole; Porque tu reprobo has engañado a aquestos, y los has hecho immundos? Yo quiero que toda immundicia suya, y de todos sus hijos, en saliendo de sus cuerpos entre por tu boca, porque ex verdad ellos haran penitencia, y tu quedaras harto de immundicia.
Page 151: (1). Al Arâf is the name of the wall or partition which, as Mohammed taught, will separate paradise from hell. But as to the persons who are to be placed thereon the commentators differ, as has been elsewhere observed.
Page 153: (1). Noah the son of Lamech, according to the Mohammedan writers, was one of the six principal prophets, though he had no written revelations delivered to him, and the first who appeared after his great-grandfather Edrîs or Enoch. They also say he was by trade a carpenter, which they infer from his building the ark, and that the year of his mission was the fiftieth, or, as others say, the fortieth of his age. That Noah was a preacher of righteousness unto the wicked antediluvians is testified by scripture. The eastern Christians say that when God ordered Noah to build the ark, he also directed him to make an instrument of wood, such as they make use of at this day in the east, instead of bells, to call the people to church, and named in Arabic Nâkûs, and in modern Greek Semandra; on which he was to strike three times every day, not only to call together the workmen that were building the ark, but to give him an opportunity of daily admonishing his people of the impending danger of the Deluge, which would certainly destroy them if they did not repent. Some Mohammedan authors pretend Noah was sent to convert Zohâk, one of the Persian kings of the first race, who refused to hearken to him; and that he afterward preached God’s unity publicly.
(2). That is, those who believed on him, and entered into that vessel with him. Though there be a tradition among the Mohammedans, said to have been received from the prophet himself, and conformable to the scripture, that eight persons, and no more, were saved in the ark, yet some of them report the number variously. One says they were but six, another ten, another twelve, another seventy-eight, and another four-score, half men and half
women, and that one of them was the elder Jorham, the preserver, as some pretend, of the Arabian language.
(3). Ad was an ancient and potent tribe of Arabs, and zealous idolaters. They chiefly worshiped four deities, Sâkia, Hâfedha, Râzeka and Sâlema; the first, as they imagined, supplying them with rain, the second preserving them from all dangers abroad, the third providing food for their sustenance, and the fourth restoring them to health when afflicted with sickness, according to the signification of the several names.
Page 154: (1). The dreadful destruction of the Adites we have mentioned in another place, and shall only add here some further circumstances of that calamity, and which differs a little from what is there said; for the Arab writers acknowledge many inconsistencies in the histories of these ancient tribes. The tribe of Ad having been for their incredulity previously chastised with a three years’ drought, sent Kail Ebn Ithar and Morthed Ebn Saad, with seventy other principal men, to the temple of Mecca to obtain rain. Mecca was then in the hands of the tribe of Amalek whose prince was Moâwiyah Ebn Becr; and he, being without the city when the ambassadors arrived, entertained them there for a month in so hospitable a manner that they had forgotten the business they came about had not the king reminded them of it, not as from himself, lest they should think he wanted to be rid of them, but by some verses which he put into the mouth of a singing woman. At which, being roused from their lethargy, Morthed told them the only way they had to obtain what they wanted would be to repent and obey their prophet; but this displeasing the rest, they desired Moâwiyah to imprison him, lest he should go with them; which being done, Kail with the rest entering Mecca, begged of God that he would send rain to the people of Ad. Whereupon three clouds appeared, a white one, a red one, and a black one; and a voice from Heaven ordered Kail to choose which he would. Kail failed not to make choice of the last, thinking it to be laden with the most rain; but when this cloud came over them, it proved to be fraught with the divine vengeance, and a tempest broke forth from it which destroyed them all.
(2). The Thamûdites, insisting on a miracle, proposed to Sâleh that he should go with them to their festival, and that they should call on their gods, and he is on his, promising to follow that deity which should answer. But after they had called on their idols a long time to no purpose, Jonda Ebn Amru, their prince, pointed to a rock standing by itself, and bade Sâleh cause a she-camel big with young to come forth from it, solemnly engaging that, if he did, he would believe, and his people promised the same. Whereupon Sâleh asked it of God, and presently the rock, after several throes as if in labor, was delivered of a she-camel answering the description of Jonda, which immediately brough (?) forth a young one, ready weaned, and, as some say, as big
as herself. Jonda seeing this miracle, believed on the prophet, and some few with him; but the greater part of the Thamûdites remained, notwithstanding, incredulous. Of this camel the commentators tell several very absurd stories, as that, when she went to drink, she never raised her head from the well or river till she had drunk up all the water in it, and then she offered herself to be milked, the people drawing from her as much milk as they pleased; and some say that she went about the town crying aloud, If any wants milk let him come forth.
Page 156: (1). This was the common title or name of the kings of Egypt (signifying king in the Coptic tongue), as Ptolemy was in after times; and as Cæsar was that of the Roman emperors, and Khosrû that of the kings of Persia. But which of the kings of Egypt this Pharaoh of Moses was, is uncertain. Not to mention the opinions of the European writers, those of the East generally suppose him to have been al Walîd, who, according to some, was an Arab of the tribe of Ad, or, according to others, the son of Masáb (?) the son of Riyân, the son of Walîd, the Amalekite. There are historians, however, who suppose Kabûs, the brother and predecessor of al Walîd, was the prince we are speaking of; and pretended he lived six hundred and twenty years, and reigned four hundred. Which is more reasonable, at least, than the opinion of those who imagine it was his father Masáb, or grand-father Riyân. Abulfeda says that Masáb being one hundred and seventy years old, and having no child, while he kept the herds saw a cow calve, and heard her say, at the same time, O Masáb, be not grieved, for thou shalt have a wicked son, who will be at length cast into hell. And he accordingly had this Walîd, who afterward coming to be king of Egypt, proved an impious tyrant.
(2). The Arab writers tell enormous fables of this serpent or dragon. For they say that he was hairy, and of so prodigious a size, that when he opened his mouth, his jaws were fourscore cubits asunder, and when he laid his lower jaws on the ground, his upper reached to the top of the palace; that Pharaoh seeing this monster make toward him, fled from it, and was so terribly frightened that he befouled himself; and that the whole assembly also betaking themselves to their heels, no less than twenty-five thousand of them lost their lives in the press. They add that Pharaoh upon this adjured Moses by God who had sent him, to take away the serpent, and promised he would believe on him, and let the Israelites go; but when Moses had done what he requested, he relapsed, and grew as hardened as before.
(3). There is a tradition that Moses was a very swarthy man; and that when he put his hand into his bosom, and drew it out again, it became extremely white and splendid, surpassing the brightness of the sun. Marracci says we do not read in scripture that Moses showed this sign before Pharaoh. It is true, the scripture does not expressly say so, but it seems to be no more than a necessary inference from that passage where God tells
Moses that if they will not hearken to the first sign, they will believe the latter sign, and if they will not believe these two signs, then directs him to turn the water into blood.
Page 157: (1). It seems probable that all the magicians were not converted by this miracle, for some writers introduce Sadûr and Ghadûr only, acknowledging Moses’ miracle to be wrought by the power of God. These two, they say, were brothers, and the sons of a famous magician, then dead; but on their being sent for to court on this occasion, their mother persuaded them to go to their father’s tomb to ask his advice. Being come to the tomb, the father answered their call; and when they had acquainted him with the affair, he told them that they should inform themselves whether the rod of which they spoke became a serpent while its masters slept, or only when they were awake; for, said he, enchantments have no effect while the enchanter is asleep, and therefore if it be otherwise in this case, you may be assured that they act by a divine power. These two magicians then, arriving at the capital of Egypt, on inquiry found, to their great astonishment, that when Moses and Aaron went to rest, their rod became a serpent, and guarded them while they slept. And this was the first step toward their conversion.
Page 158: (1). This inundation, they say, was occasioned by unusual rains, which continued eight days together, and the overflowing of the Nile; and not only covered their lands, but came into their houses, and rose as high as their backs and necks; but the children of Israel had no rain in their quarters. As there is no mention of any such miraculous inundation in the Mosaic writings, some have imagined this plague to have been either a pestilence, or the small-pox, or some other epidemical distemper. For the word tufân, which is used in this place, and is generally rendered a deluge, may also signify any other universal destruction or mortality.
Page 159: (1). These tables, according to some, were seven in number, and according to others ten. Nor are the commentators agreed whether they were cut out of a kind of lote-tree in paradise called al Sedra, or whether they were chrysolites, emeralds, rubies or common stone. But they say that they were each ten or twelve cubits long; for they suppose that not only the ten commandments but the whole law was written thereon; and some add that the letters were cut quite through the tables, so that they might be read on both sides–which is a fable of the Jews.
Page 162: (1). This was done in the plain of Dahia in India, or as others imagine, in a valley near Mecca. The commentators tell us that God stroked Adam’s back, and extracted from his loins his whole posterity, which should come into the world until the resurrection, one generation after another; that these men were actually assembled all together in the shape of small ants, which were endued with understanding; and that after they had, in the presence of angels, confessed their dependence on God,
they were again caused to return into the loins of their great ancestor. From this fiction it appears that the doctrine of pre-existence is not unknown to the Mohammedans; there is some little conformity between it and the modern theory of generation ex animalculis in semine marium.
Page 163: (1). For the explaining of this whole passage, the commentators tell the following story:
“They say, that when Eve was big with her first child, the devil came to her and asked her whether she knew what she carried within her, and which way she should be delivered of it, suggesting that possibly it might be a beast. She, being unable to give an answer to this question, went in a fright to Adam, and acquainted him with the matter, who, not knowing what to think of it, grew sad and pensive. Whereupon the devil appeared to her again (or, as others say, to Adam), and pretended that he by his prayers would obtain of God that she might be safely delivered of a son in Adam’s likeness, provided they would promise to name him Abda’lhareth, or the servant of al Hareth (which was the devil’s name among the angels), instead of Abd’allah, or the servant of God, as Adam had designed. This proposal was agreed to, and accordingly, when the child was born, they gave it the name, upon which it immediately died.” And with this Adam and Eve are here taxed, as an act of idolatry. The story looks like a rabbinical fiction, and seems to have no other foundation than Cain’s being called by Moses Obed adâmah, that is, a tiller of the ground, which might be translated into Arabic by Abd’alhareth. But al Beidâwi, thinking it unlikely that a prophet (as Adam is, by the Mohammedans, supposed to have been) should be guilty of such an action, imagines the Korân in this place means Kosai, one of Mohammed’s ancestors, and his wife, who begged issue of God, and having four sons granted them, called their names Abd Menâf, Abd Shams, Abd’al Uzza, and Abd’al Dâr, after the names of the four principal idols of the Koreish. And the following words also he supposes to relate to their idolatrous posterity.
Page 165: (1). It is related that the spot where Mohammed’s little army lay was a dry and deep sand, into which their feet sank as they walked, the enemy having the command of water; and that having fallen asleep, the greater part of them were disturbed with dreams, wherein the devil suggested to them that they could never expect God’s assistance in the battle, since they were cut off from the water, and besides suffering the inconvenience of thirst, must be obliged to pray without washing, though they imagined themselves to be the favorites of God, and that they had his apostle among them. But in the night rain fell so plentifully that it formed a little brook, and not only supplied them with water for all their uses, but made the sand between them and the infidel army firm enough to bear them; whereupon the diabolical suggestions ceased.
Page 166: (1). This is the punishment expressly assigned the
enemies of the Mohammedan religion; though the Moslems did not inflict it on the prisoners they took at Bedr, for which they are reprehended in this chapter.
Page 173: (1). This grievous charge against the Jews the commentators endeavor to support by telling us that it is meant of some ancient heterodox Jews, or else of some Jews of Medina; who said so for no other reason than for that the law being utterly lost and forgotten during the Babylonish captivity, Ezra, having been raised to life after he had been dead one hundred years, dictated the whole anew to the scribes, out of his own memory; at which they greatly marveled, and declared that he could not have done it unless he were the son of God. Al Beidâwi, adds that the imputation must be true, because this verse was read to the Jews, and they did not contradict it; which they were ready enough to do in other instances. That Ezra did thus restore not only the Pentateuch, but also the other books of the Old Testament, by divine revelation, was the opinion of several of the Christian fathers, who are quoted by Dr. Prideaux, and of some other writers; which they seem to have first borrowed from a passage in that very ancient apocryphal book, called (in our English Bible) the second book of Esdras. Dr. Prideaux tells us that herein the fathers attributed more to Ezra than the Jews themselves, who suppose that he only collected and set forth a correct edition of the scriptures, which he labored much in, and went a great way in the perfecting of it. It is not improbable, however, that the fiction came originally from the Jews, though they be now of another opinion, and I cannot fix it upon them by any direct proof. For, not to insist on the testimony of the Mohammedans (which yet I cannot but think of some little weight in a point of this nature), it is allowed by the most sagacious critics that the second book of Ezra was written by a Christian indeed, but yet one who had been bred a Jew, and was intimately acquainted with the fables of the Rabbins; and the story itself is perfectly in the taste and way of thinking of those men.
Page 185: (1). For so old was Mohammed before he took upon him to be a prophet; during which time his fellow-citizens well knew that he had not applied himself to learning of any sort, nor frequented learned men, nor had ever exercised himself in composing verses or orations whereby he might acquire the art of rhetoric, or elegance of speech. A flagrant proof, says al Beidâwi, that this book could be taught him by none but God.
(2). That is to say, the true religion, or Islâm, which was generally professed, as some say, till Abel was murdered, or, as others, till the days of Noah. Some suppose the first ages after the Flood are here intended: others, the state of religion in Arabia, from the time of Abraham to that of Amru Ebn Lohai, the great introducer of idolatry into that country.
Page 190: (1). So Jallalo’ddin expounds the original word Kebla, which properly signifies that place or quarter toward
which one prays. Wherefore al Zamakhshari supposes that the Israelites are here ordered to dispose their oratories in such a manner that, when they prayed, their faces might be turned toward Mecca; which he imagines was the Kebla of Moses, as it is that of the Mohammedans. The former commentator adds that Pharaoh had forbidden the Israelites to pray to God; for which reason they were obliged to perform that duty privately in their houses.
(2). These words, it is said, Pharaoh repeated often in his extremity, that he might be heard. But his repentance came too late; for Gabriel soon stopped his mouth with mud, lest he should obtain mercy; reproaching him at the same time in the words which follow.
(3). Some of the children of Israel doubting whether Pharaoh was really drowned. Gabriel, by God’s command, caused his naked corpse to swim to shore, that they might see it. The word here translated body, signifying also a coat of mail, some imagine the meaning to be, that his corpse floated armed with his coat of mail, which they tell us was of gold, by which they knew that it was he.
Page 191: (1). viz., The inhabitants of Ninive, which stood on or near the place where al Mawsel now stands. This people having corrupted themselves with idolatry, Jonas the son of Mattai (or Amittai, which the Mohammedans suppose to be the name of his mother), an Israelite of the tribe of Benjamin, was sent by God to preach to and reclaim them. When he first began to exhort them to repentance, instead of harkening to him, they used him very ill, so that he was obliged to leave the city; threatening them, at his departure, that they should be destroyed within three days, or, as others say, within forty. But when the time drew near, and they saw the Heavens over-cast with a black cloud, which shot forth fire, and filled the air with smoke, and hung directly over their city, they were in a terrible consternation, and getting into the fields with their families and cattle, they put on sack-cloth, and humbled themselves before God, calling aloud for pardon, and sincerely repenting of their past wickedness. Whereupon God was pleased to forgive them, and the storm blew over.
Page 192: (1). For the Mohammedans suppose this throne, and the waters whereon it stands, which waters they imagine are supported by a spirit or wind, were, with some other things, created before the heavens and earth. This fancy they borrowed from the Jews, who also say that the throne of glory then stood in the air, and was borne on the face of the waters, by the breath of God’s mouth.
Page 195: (1). Or, as the original literally signifies, boiled over; which is consonant to what the Rabbins say, that the waters of the Deluge were boiling hot. This oven was, as some say, at Cûfa, in a spot whereon a mosque now stands; or, as others rather
think, in a certain place in India, or else at Ain warda in Mesopotamia; and its exundation was the sign by which Noah knew the flood was coming. Some pretend that it was the same oven which Eve made use of to bake her bread in, being of a form different from those we use, having the mouth in the upper part, and that it descended from patriarch to patriarch, till it came to Noah. It is remarkable that Mohammed, in all probability, borrowed this circumstance from the Persian Magi, who also fancied that the first waters of the Deluge gushed out of the oven of a certain old woman named Zala Cûfa. But the word tannûr, which is here translated oven, also signifying the superficies of the earth, or a place whence waters spring forth, or where they are collected, some suppose it means no more in this passage than the spot or fissure whence the first eruption of waters brake forth.
(2). Or, as the words may also be rendered, and some commentators think they ought, two pair, that is, two males and two females of each species; wherein they partly agree with divers Jewish and Christian writers, who from the Hebrew expression, seven and seven and two and two, the male and his female, suppose there went into the ark fourteen pair of every clean, and two pair of every unclean species. There is a tradition that God gathered together unto Noah all sorts of beasts, birds and other animals (it being indeed difficult to conceive how he should come by them all without some supernatural assistance), and that as he laid hold on them, his right hand constantly fell on the male, and his left on the female.
(3). This was an unbelieving son of Noah, named Canaan, or Yam; though others say he was not the son of Noah, but his grandson by his son Ham, or his wife’s son by another husband; nay, some pretend he was related to him no farther than by having been educated and brought up in his house. The best commentators add, that Noah’s wife, named Wâïla, who was n infidel, was also comprehended in this exception, and perished with her son.
(4). That is, omit no opportunity of getting on board. According to a different reading, the latter words may be rendered, Who shall cause it to move forward, and to stop, as there shall be occasion. The commentators tell us that the ark moved forward, or stood still, as Noah would have it, on his pronouncing only the words, In the name of God. It is to be observed that the more judicious commentators make the dimensions of the ark to be the same with those assigned by Moses: Notwithstanding, others have enlarged them most extravagantly, as some Christian writers have also done. They likewise tell us that Noah was two years in building the ark, which was framed of Indian plane-tree, that it was divided into three stories, of which the lower was designed for the beasts, the middle one for the men and women, and the upper for the birds; and that the men were separated from the women by the body of Adam, which Noah had
taken into the ark. This last is a tradition of the eastern Christians, some of whom pretend that the matrimonial duty was superseded and suspended during the time Noah and his family were in the ark; though Ham has been accused of not observing continency on that occasion, his wife, it seems, bringing forth Caanan in the very ark.
Page 196: (1). This mountain is one of those which divide Armenia, on the south, from Mesopotamia, and that part of Assyria which is inhabited by the Curds, from whom the mountains took the name of Cardu, or Gardu, by the Greeks turned into Gordyæi, and other names. Mount al Jûdi (which name seems to be a corruption, though it be constantly so written by the Arabs, for Jordi, or Giordi) is also called Thamanin, probably from a town at the foot of it, so named from the number of persons saved in the ark, the word thamanin signifying eighty, and overlooks the country of Diyâr Rabîah, near the cities of Mawsel, Forda, and Jazîrat Ebn Omar, which last place one affirms to be but four miles from the place of the ark, and says that a Mohammedan temple was built there with the remains of that vessel, by the Khalif Omar Ebn Abd’alaziz, whom he by mistake calls Omar Ebn al Khattâb. The tradition which affirms the ark to have rested on these mountains, must have been very ancient, since it is the tradition of the Chaldeans themselves; the Chaldee paraphrasts consent to their opinion, which obtained very much formerly, especially among the eastern Christians. To confirm it, we are told that the remainders of the ark were to be seen on the Gordyæan mountains: Berosus and Abydenus both declare there was such a report in their time; the first observing that several of the inhabitants thereabouts scraped the pitch off the planks as a rarity, and carried it about them for an amulet: and the latter saying that they used the wood of the vessel against many diseases with wonderful success. The relics of the ark were also to be seen here in the time of Epiphanius, if we may believe him; and we are told the emperor Heraclius went from the town of Thamanin up to the mountain al Jûdi, and saw the place of the ark. There was also formerly a famous monastery, called the monastery of the ark, upon some of these mountains, where the Nestorians used to celebrate a feast day on the spot where they supposed the ark rested; but in the year of Christ 776, that monastery was destroyed by lightning, with the church, and a numerous congregation in it. Since which time it seems the credit of this tradition hath declined, and given place to another, which obtains at present, and according to which the ark rested on Mount Masis, in Armenia, called by the Turks Aghir dagh, or the heavy or great mountain, and situate about twelve leagues south-east of Erivan.
(2). The Mohammedans say that Noah went into the ark on the tenth of Rajeb, and came out of it the tenth of al Moharram, which therefore became a fast. So that the whole time of Noah’s being in the ark, according to them, was six months.
Page 198: (1). These were the angels who were sent to acquaint Abraham with the promise of Isaac, and to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah. Some of the commentators pretend they were twelve, or nine, or ten in number; but others, agreeably to scripture, say they were but three, viz., Gabriel, Michael and Israfîl.
(2). This seems to be the true sense of the passage; but according to a different reading of the vowel, some interpret it, Except thy wife; the meaning being that Lot is here commanded to take his family with him Except his wife. Wherefore the commentators cannot agree whether Lot’s wife went forth with him or not; some denying it, and pretending that she was left behind and perished in the common destruction; and others affirming it, and saying that when she heard the noise of the storm and over-throw of the cities, she turned back lamenting their fate, and was immediately struck down and killed by one of the stones mentioned a little lower. A punishment she justly merited for her infidelity and disobedience to her husband.
Page 200: (1). This is not to be strictly understood as if either the punishment of the damned should have an end, or the heavens and the earth should endure forever; the expression being only used by way of image or comparison, which need not agree in every point with the thing signified. Some, however, think the future heavens and earth, into which the present shall be changed, are here meant.
Page 203: (1). This well, say some, was a certain well near Jerusalem, or not far from the river Jordan; but others call it the well of Egypt or Midian. The commentators tell us that, when the sons of Jacob had gotten Joseph with them in the field, they began to abuse and to beat him so unmercifully, that they had killed him, had not Judah, on his crying out for help, insisted on the promise they had made not to kill him, but to cast him into the well. Whereupon they let him down a little way; but, as he held by the sides of the well, they bound him, and took off his inner garment, designing to stain it with blood, to deceive their father. Joseph begged hard to have his garment returned him, but to no purpose, his brothers telling him, with a sneer, that the eleven stars and the sun and the moon might clothe him and keep him company. When they had let him down half-way, they let him fall thence to the bottom, and, there being water in the well (though the scripture says the contrary), he was obliged to get upon a stone, on which, as he stood weeping, the angel Gabriel came to him with the revelation mentioned immediately.
(2). His name was Kitfîr, or Itfîr (a corruption of Potiphar); and he was a man of great consideration, being superintendent of the royal treasury. The commentators say that Joseph came into his service at seventeen, and lived with him thirteen years; and that he was made prime minister in the thirty-third year of his age, and died at a hundred and twenty. They who suppose Joseph was twice sold differ as to the price the Egyptian paid for
him; some saying it was twenty dinârs of gold, a pair of shoes, and two white garments; and others, that it was a large quantity of silver or gold.
Page 204: (1). Through extreme surprise at the wonderful beauty of Joseph; which surprise Zoleikha fore-seeing, put knives into their hands, on purpose that this accident might happen. Some writers have observed, on occasion of this passage, that it is customary in the east for lovers to testify the violence of their passion by cutting themselves, as a sign that they would spend their blood in the service of the person beloved; which is true enough, but I do not find that any of the commentators suppose these Egyptian ladies had any such design.
Page 205: (1). Notwithstanding what some ancient authors write to the contrary, it often rains in winter in the lower Egypt, and even snow has been observed to fall at Alexandria, contrary to the express assertion of Seneca. In the upper Egypt, indeed, toward the cataracts of Nile, it rains very seldom. Some, however, suppose that the rains here mentioned are intended of those which should fall in Ethiopia, and occasion the swelling of the Nile, the great cause of the fertility of Egypt; or else of those which should fall in the neighboring countries, which were also afflicted with famine during the same time.
Page 206: (1). The commentators say that Joseph being taken out of prison, after he had washed and changed his clothes, was introduced to the king, whom he saluted in the Hebrew tongue, and on the king’s asking what language that was, he answered that it was the language of his fathers. This prince, they say, understood no less than seventy languages, in every one of which he discoursed with Joseph, who answered him in the same; at which the king greatly marveling, desired him to relate his dream, which he did, describing the most minute circumstances: whereupon the king placed Joseph by him on his throne, and made him his Wazîr, or chief minister. Some say that his master Kitfîr dying about this time, he not only succeeded him in his place, but, by the king’s command, married the widow, his late mistress, whom he found to be a virgin, and who bare him Ephraim and Manasses. So that according to this tradition, she was the same woman who is called Asenath by Moses. This supposed marriage, which authorized their amours, probably encouraged the Mohammedan divines to make use of the loves of Joseph and Zoleikha, as an allegorical emblem of the spiritual love between the Creator and the creature, God and the soul; just as the Christians apply the Song of Solomon to the same mystical purpose.
Page 208: (1). The occasion of this suspicion, it is said, was, that Joseph having been brought up by his father’s sister, she became so fond of him that, when he grew up, and Jacob designed to take him from her, she contrived the following stratagem to keep him: Having a girdle which had once belonged to Abraham, she girt it about the child, and then, pretending she had lost it,
caused strict search to be made for it; and it being at length found on Joseph, he was adjudged, according to the law of the family, to be delivered to her as her property. Some, however, say that Joseph actually stole an idol of gold, which belonged to his mother’s father, and destroyed it; a story probably taken from Rachel’s stealing the images of Laban: and others tell us that he once stole a goat, or a hen, to give to a poor man.
Page 209: (1). viz., His father and Leah, his mother’s sister, whom he looked on as his mother after Rachel’s death. Al Beidâwi tells us that Joseph sent carriages and provisions for his father and his family; and that he and the king of Egypt went forth to meet them. He adds that the number of the children of Israel who entered Egypt with him was seventy-two; and that when they were led out thence by Moses, they were increased to six hundred thousand five hundred and seventy men and upwards, besides the old people and children.
Page 211: (1). The collar here mentioned is an engine something like a pillory, but light enough for the criminal to walk about with. Besides the hole to fix it on the neck, there is another for one of the hands, which is thereby fastened to the neck. And in this manner the Mohammedans suppose the reprobates will appear at the day of judgment. Some understand this passage figuratively, of the infidels being bound in the chains of error and obstinacy.
Page 212: (1). This passage was revealed on the following occasion: Amer Ebn al Tofail and Arbad Ebn Rabîah, the brother of Labîd, went to Mohammed with an intent to kill him; and Amer began to dispute with him concerning the chief points of his doctrine, while Arbad, taking a compass, went behind him to dispatch him with his sword; but the prophet, perceiving his design, implored God’s protection; whereupon Arbad was immediately struck dead by thunder, and Amer was struck with a pestilential boil, of which he died in a short time, in a miserable condition. Jallalo’ddin, however, tells another story saying that Mohammed, having sent one to invite a certain man to embrace his religion, the person put this question to the missionary, Who is this apostle, and what is God? Is he of gold, or of silver, or of brass? Upon which a thunderbolt struck off his skull, and killed him.
Page 214: (1). These are miracles which the Koreish required of Mohammed; demanding that he would, by the power of his Korân, either remove the mountains from about Mecca, that they might have delicious gardens in their room, or that he would oblige the wind to transport them, with their merchandise, to Syria (according to which tradition, the words here translated, or the earth cleaved in sunder, should be rendered, or the earth be traveled over in an instant); or else raise to life Kosai Ebn Kelâb, and others of their ancestors, to bear witness to him; whereupon this passage was revealed.
Page 215: (1). Literally, the mother of the book; by which is meant the preserved table, from which all the written revelations which have been from time to time published to mankind, according to the several dispensations, are transcripts.
Page 218: (1). What is particularly intended in this passage by the good word, and the evil word, the expositors differ. But the first seems to mean the profession of God’s unity; the inviting others to the true religion, or the Korân itself; and the latter, the acknowledging a plurality of gods, the seducing of others to idolatry, or the obstinate opposition of God’s prophets.
Page 219: (1). i.e., Ismael and his posterity. The Mohammedans say, that Hagar, his mother, belonged to Sarah, who gave her to Abraham; and that, on her bearing him this son, Sarah became so jealous of her, that she prevailed on her husband to turn them both out of doors; whereupon he sent them to the territory of Mecca, where God caused the fountain of Zemzem to spring forth for their relief, in consideration of which the Jorhamites, who were the masters of the country, permitted them to settle among them.
(2). Abraham put up this petition to God before he knew that his parents were the enemies of God. Some suppose his mother was a true believer, and therefore read it in the singular, and my father. Others fancy that by his parents the patriarch here means Adam and Eve.
(3). This the Mohammedans suppose will come to pass at the last day; the earth becoming white and even, or, as some will have it, of silver; and the heavens of gold.
Page 220: (1). For the Mohammedans imagine that the devils endeavor to ascend to the constellations, to pry into the actions and overhear the discourse of the inhabitants of Heaven, and to tempt them. They also pretend that these evil spirits had the liberty of entering any of the heavens till the birth of Jesus, when they were excluded three of them; but that on the birth of Mohammed they were forbidden the other four.
Page 225: (1). The Mohammedans suppose that the earth, when first created, was smooth and equal, and thereby liable to a circular motion as well as the celestial orbs; and that the angels asking, who could be able to stand on so tottering a frame, God fixed it the next morning by throwing the mountains on it.
(2). Some understand this passage figuratively, of God’s disappointing their wicked designs; but others suppose the words literally relate to the tower which Nimrod (whom the Mohammedans will have to be the son of Caanan, the son of Ham, and so the nephew of Cush, and not his son) built in Babel, and carried to an immense height (five thousand cubits, say some), foolishly purposing thereby to ascend to Heaven and wage war with the inhabitants of that place; but God frustrated his attempt, utterly overthrowing the tower by a violent wind and earthquake.
Page 229: (1). The same being not only good food, but a useful remedy in several distempers, particularly those occasioned by phlegm. There is a story, that a man came once to Mohammed, and told him that his brother was afflicted with a violent pain in his belly: upon which the prophet bade him give him some honey. The fellow took his advice; but soon after coming again, told him that the medicine had done his brother no manner of service: Mohammed answered, Go and give him more honey, for God speaks truth, and thy brother’s belly lies. And the dose being repeated, the man, by God’s mercy, was immediately cured.
Page 230: (1). This verse, which was the occasion of the conversion of Othmân Ebn Matûn, the commentators say, containeth the whole which it is a man’s duty either to perform or to avoid; and is alone a sufficient demonstration of what is said in the foregoing verse. Under the three things here commanded, they understand the belief of God’s unity, without inclining to atheism, on the one hand, or polytheism, on the other; obedience to the commands of God; and charity toward those in distress. And under the three things forbidden, they comprehend all corrupt and carnal affections; all false doctrines and heretical opinions; and all injustice toward man.
Page 232: (1). This was a great objection made by the Meccans to the authority of the Korân; for when Mohammed insisted, as a proof of its divine original, that it was impossible a man so utterly unacquainted with learning as himself could compose such a book, they replied, that he had one or more assistants in the forgery; but as to the particular person or persons suspected of this confederacy, the traditions differ. one says it was Jabar, a Greek, servant to Amer Ebn al Hadrami, who could read and write well; another, that they were Jabar and Yesâr, two slaves who followed the trade of sword-cutters at Mecca, and used to read the pentateuch and gospel, and had often Mohammed for their auditor, when he passed that way. Another tells us, it was one Aïsh, or Yâïsh, a domestic of al Haweiteb Ebn Abd al Uzza, who was a man of some learning, and had embraced Mohammedism. Another supposes it was one Kais, a Christian, whose house Mohammed frequented; another, that it was Addâs, a servant of Otba Ebn Rabîa; and another, that it was Salmân the Persian. According to some Christian writers, Abdallah Ebn Salâm, the Jew who was so intimate with Mohammed (named by one, according to the Hebrew dialect, Abdias Ben Salon and by another, Abdala Celen), was assisting to him in the compiling his pretended revelations. This Jew Dr. Prideaux confounds with Salmân the Persian, who was a very different man, as a late author has observed before me; wherefore, and for that we may have occasion to speak of Salmân hereafter, it may be proper to add a brief extract of his story as told by himself. He was of a good family of Ispahan, and, in his younger years, left the religion of his country to embrace Christianity; and traveling into Syria,
was advised by a certain monk of Amuria to go into Arabia, where a prophet was expected to arise about that time, who should establish the religion of Abraham; and whom he should know among other things, by the seal of prophecy between his shoulders. Salmân performed the journey, and meeting with Mohammed at Koba, where he rested in his flight to Medina, soon found him to be the person he sought, and professed Islâm. The general opinion of the Christians, however, is, that the chief help Mohammed had in the contriving his Korân, was from a Nestorian monk named Sergius, supposed to be the same person with the monk Boheira, with whom Mohammed in his younger years had some conference, at Bosra, a city of Syria Damascena, where that monk resided. To confirm which supposition, a passage has been produced from an Arab writer, who says that Boheira’s name in the books of the Christians, is Sergius; but this is only a conjecture; and another tells us, his true name was Saïd, or Felix, and his surname Boheira. But be that as it will, if Boheira and Sergius were the same man, I find not the least intimation in the Mohammedan writers that he ever quitted his monastery to go into Arabia (as is supposed by the Christians); and his acquaintance with Mohammed at Bosra was too early to favor the surmise of his assisting him in the Korân, which was composed long after; though Mohammed might, from his discourse, gain some knowledge of Christianity and of the scriptures, which might be of use to him therein. From the answer given in this passage of the Korân to the objection of the infidels, viz., that the person suspected by them to have a hand in the Korân spoke a foreign language, and therefore could not, with any face of probability, be supposed to assist in a composition written in the Arabic tongue, and with so great elegance, it is plain this person was no Arabian. The word Ajami, which is here used, signifies any foreign or barbarous language in general; but the Arabs applying it more particularly to the Persian, it has been thence concluded by some that Salmân was the person; however, if it be true that he came not to Mohammed till after the Hejra, either he could not be the man here intended, or else this verse must have been revealed at Medina, contrary to the common opinion.
(2). These words were added for the sake of Ammâr Ebn Yâser, and some others, who being taken and tortured by the Koreish, renounced their faith out of fear, though their hearts agreed not with their mouths. It seems Ammâr wanted the constancy of his father and mother, Yâser, and Sommeya, who underwent the like trial at the same time with their son, and resolutely refusing to recant, were both put to death, the infidels tying Sommeya between two camels, and striking a lance through her privy parts. When news was brought to Mohammed, that Ammâr had denied the faith, he said, it could not be, for that Ammâr was full of faith from the crown of his head to the soul of his foot, faith being mixed and incorporated with his very flesh and blood; and when Ammâr himself came weeping to the prophet, he wiped
his eyes, saying, What fault was it of thine, if they forced thee? But though it be here said, that those who apostatize in appearance only, to avoid death or torments, may hope for pardon from God, yet it is unanimously agreed by the Mohammedan doctors, to be much more meritorious and pleasing in the sight of God, courageously and nobly to persist in the true faith, and rather to suffer death itself than renounce it, even in words. Nor did the Mohammedan religion want its martyrs, in the strict sense of the word; of which I will here give two instances, besides the above-mentioned. One is that of Khobaib Ebn Ada, who being perfidiously sold to the Koreish, was by them put to death in a cruel manner, by mutilation, and cutting off his flesh piece-meal; and being asked, in the midst of his tortures, whether he did not wish Mohammed was in his place, answered I would not wish to be with my family, my substance, and my children, on condition that Mohammed was only to be pricked with a thorn. The other is that of a man who was put to death by Moseilama, on the following occasion. That false prophet having taken two of Mohammed’s followers, asked one of them, what he said of Mohammed? the man answered, That he was the apostle of God: And what sayest thou of me? added Moseilama; to which he replied, Thou also art the apostle of God; whereupon he was immediately dismissed in safety. But the other, having returned the same answer to the former question, refused to give any to the last, though required to do it three several times, but pretended to be deaf, and was therefore slain. It is related that Mohammed, when the story of these two men was told him, said, The first of them threw himself on God’s mercy; but the latter professed the truth; and he shall find his account in it.
Page 233: (1). These were the Jews; who being ordered by Moses to set apart Friday (the day now observed by the Mohammedans) for the exercise of divine worship, refused it, and chose the sabbath-day, because on that day God rested from his works of creation; for which reason they were commanded to keep the day they had chosen in the strictest manner.
Page 234: (1). Their first transgression was their rejecting the decisions of the law, their putting Isaiah to death, and their imprisoning of Jeremiah: and the second, was their slaying of Zachariah, and John the Baptist, and their imagining the death of Jesus.
(2). Some imagine the army meant in this place was that of Bakhtnasr; but others say the Persians conquered the Jews this second time, by the arms of Gudarz (by whom they seem to intend Antiochus Epiphanes), one of the successors of Alexander at Babylon. It is related that the general in this expedition, entering the temple, saw blood bubbling up on the great altar, and ask- (?) the reason of it, the Jews told him it was the blood of a sacrifice which had not been accepted of God; to which he replied, that they had not told him the truth, and ordered a thousand of them
to be slain on the altar; but the blood not ceasing, he told them that if they would not confess the truth, he would not spare one of them; whereupon they acknowledged it was the blood of John; and the general said, Thus hath your Lord taken vengeance on you; and then cried out, O John, my Lord and thy Lord knoweth what hath befallen thy people for thy sake; wherefore let thy blood stop, by God’s permission, lest I leave not one of them alive; upon which the blood immediately stopped.
(3). Or inconsiderate, not weighing the consequence of what he asks. It is said that the person here meant is Adam, who, when the breath of life was breathed into his nostrils, and had reached so far as his navel, though the lower part of his body was, as yet, but a piece of clay, must needs try to rise up, and got an ugly fall by the bargain. But others pretend the passage was revealed on the following occasion. Mohammed committed a certain captive to the charge of his wife, Sawda bint Zamaa (?), who, moved with compassion at the man’s groans, unbound him, and let him escape: upon which the prophet, in the first motions of his anger, wished her hand might fall off; but immediately composing himself, said aloud, O God, I am but a man: therefore turn my curse into a blessing.
Page 235: (1). Literally, the bird, which is here used to signify a man’s fortune or success; the Arabs, as well as the Greeks and Romans, taking omens from the flight of birds, which they supposed to portend good luck, if they flew from the left to the right, but if from the right to the left, the contrary; the like judgment they also made when certain beasts passed before them.
Page 236: (1). Prodigality, and squandering away one’s substance in folly or luxury, being a very great sin. The Arabs were particularly guilty of extravagance in killing camels, and distributing them by lot, merely out of vanity and ostentation; which they are forbidden by this passage, and commanded to bestow what they could spare on their poor relations, and other indigent people.
Page 239: (1). These are generally supposed to have been the tribe of Thakîf, the inhabitants of al Tâyef, who insisted on Mohammed’s granting them several very extraordinary privileges, as the terms of their submission to him; for they demanded that they might be free from the legal contribution of alms, and from observing the appointed times of prayer; that they might be allowed to keep their idol Allât for a certain time, and that their territory might be declared a place of security and not be violated, like that of Mecca, etc. And they added, that if the other Arabs asked him the reason of these concessions, he should say, that God had commanded him so to do. According to which explication it is plain this verse must have been revealed long after the Hejra.
Page 241: (1). These were, the changing his rod into a serpent, the making his hand white and shining, the producing locusts,
lice, frogs and blood, the dividing of the Red Sea, the bringing water out of the rock, and the shaking of Mount Sinai over the children of Israel. In lieu of the three last some reckon the inundation of the Nile, the blasting of the corn, and scarcity of the fruits of the earth. These words, however, are interpreted by others, not of nine miracles, but of nine commandments, which Moses gave his people, and were thus numbered up by Mohammed himself to a Jew, who asked him the question, viz., That they should not be guilty of idolatry, nor steal, nor commit adultery or murder, nor practice sorcery or usury, nor accuse an innocent man to take away his life, or a modest woman of whoredom, nor desert the army; to which he added the observing of the sabbath, as a tenth commandment, but which peculiarly regarded the Jews: upon which answer, it is said, the Jew kissed the prophet’s hands and feet.
Page 242: (1). These were certain Christian youths, of a good family in Ephesus, who, to avoid the persecution of the Emperor Decius, by the Arab writers called Decianus, hid themselves in a cave, where they slept for a great number of years. This apocryphal story (for Baronius treats it as no better, and Father Marracci acknowledges it to be partly false, or at least doubtful, though he calls Hottinger a monster of impiety, and the off-scum of heretics, for terming it a fable), was borrowed by Mohammed from the Christian traditions, but has been embellished by him and his followers with several additional circumstances. What is meant by al Rakîn the commentators cannot agree. Some will have it to be the name of the mountain, or the valley, wherein the cave was; some say it was the name of their dog; and others (who seem to come nearest the true signification) that it was a brass plate, or stone table, placed near the mouth of the cave, on which the names of the young men were written. There are some, however, who take the companions of al Rakîn to be different from the seven sleepers; for they say the former were three men who were driven by ill weather into a cave for shelter, and were shut in there by the falling down of a vast stone, which stopped the cave’s mouth, but on their begging God’s mercy, and their relating each of them a meritorious action which they hoped might entitle them to it, were miraculously delivered by the rock’s rending in sunder to give them passage.
Page 243: (1). This dog had followed them as they passed by him when they fled to the cave, and they drove him away; whereupon God caused him to speak, and he said, I love those who are dear unto God; go to sleep therefore, and I will guard you. But some say, it was a dog belonging to a shepherd who followed them, and that the dog followed the shepherd; which opinion is supported by reading, as some do, câlebohom, their dog’s master instead of calbohom, their dog. Jallalo’ddin adds, that the dog behaved as his masters did, in turning himself, in sleeping, and in waking. The Mohammedans have a great respect
for this dog, and allow him a place in paradise with some other favorite brutes; and they have a sort of proverb which they use in speaking of a covetous person, that he would not throw a bone to the dog of the seven sleepers; nay, it is said that they have the superstition to write his name, which they suppose to be Katmîr (though some, as is observed above, think he was called al Rakîm), on their letters which go far, or which pass the sea, as a protection, or kind of talisman, to preserve them from miscarriage.
Page 244: (1). Jallalo’ddin supposes the whole space was three hundred solar years, and that the odd nine are added to reduce them to lunar years. Some think these words are introduced as spoken by the Christians, who differed among themselves about the time; one saying it was three hundred years, and another, three hundred and nine years. The interval between the reign of Decius, and that of Theodosius the younger, in whose time the sleepers are said to have awaked, will not allow them to have slept quite two hundred years; though Mohammed is somewhat excusable, since the number assigned by Simeon Metaphrastes is three hundred and seventy-two years.
Page 245: (1). Though these seem to be general characters only, designed to represent the different end of the wicked, and of the good; yet it is supposed, by some, that two particular persons are here meant. One says they were two Israelites and brothers, who had a considerable sum left them by their father, which they divided between them; and that one of them, being an unbeliever, bought large fields and possessions with his portion, while the other, who was a true believer, disposed of his to pious uses; but that in the end, the former was ruined, and the latter prospered. Another thinks they were two men of the tribe of Makhzûm; the one named al Aswad Ebn Abd’al Ashadd, an infidel; and the other Abu Salma Ebn Abd’allah, the husband of Omm Salma (whom the prophet married after his death), and a true believer.
Page 247: (1). The original word properly signifies the space of eighty years and upward. To explain this long passage the commentators tell the following story: They say that Moses once preaching to the people, they admired his knowledge and eloquence so much, that they asked him whether he knew any man in the world who was wiser than himself; to which he answered in the negative: whereupon God, in a revelation, having reprehended him for his vanity (though some pretend that Moses asked God the question of his own accord), acquainted him that his servant al Khedr was more knowing than he; and, at Moses’ request told him he might find that person at a certain rock, where the two seas met; directing him to take a fish with him in a basket, and that where he missed the fish, that was the place. Accordingly Moses set out, with his servant Joshua, in search of al Khedr; which expedition is here described.
Page 248: (1). Or, the two-horned. The generality of the
commentators suppose the person here meant to be Alexander the Great, or, as they call him, Iscander al Rûmi, king of Persia and Greece; but there are very different opinions as to the reason of this surname. Some think it was given him because he was king of the East and of the West, or because he had made expeditions to both those extreme parts of the earth; or else because he had two horns on his diadem, or two curls of hair, like horns, on his forehead; or, which is most probable, by reason of his great valor. Several modern writers rather suppose the surname was occasioned by his being represented in his coins and statues with horns, as the son of Jupiter Ammon; or else by his being compared by the prophet Daniel to a he-goat; though he is there represented with but one horn. There are some good writers, however, who believe the prince intended in this passage of the Korân was not Alexander the Grecian, but another great conqueror, who bore the same name and surname, and was much more ancient than he, being contemporary with Abraham, and one of the kings of Persia of the first race; or, as others suppose, a king of Yaman, named Asaab Ebn al Râyesh. They all agree he was a true believer, but whether he was a prophet or no, is a disputed point.
Page 249: (1). The commentators say the wall was built in this manner. They dug till they found water, and having laid the foundation of stone and melted brass, they built the super-structure of large pieces of iron, between which they laid wood and coals, till they equaled the height of the mountains; and then setting fire to the combustibles, by the help of large bellows, they made the iron red hot, and over it poured melted brass, which filling up the vacancies between the pieces of iron, rendered the whole work as firm as a rock. Some tell us that the whole was built of stones joined by clamps of iron, on which they poured melted brass to fasten them.
Page 251: (1). The palm to which she fled, that she might lean on it in her travail, was a withered trunk, without any head or verdure, and this happened in the winter season; notwithstanding which it miraculously supplied her with fruits for her refreshment; as is mentioned immediately. It has been observed, that the Mohammedan account of the delivery of the Virgin Mary very much resembles that of Latona, as described by the poets, not only in this circumstance of their laying hold on a palm-tree (though some say Latona embraced an olive-tree, or an olive and a palm, or else two laurels), but also in that of their infants speaking; which Apollo is fabled to have done in the womb.
Page 252: (1). These words are variously expounded; some taking them to express admiration at the quickness of those senses in the wicked, at the day of judgment, when they shall plainly perceive the torments prepared for them, though they have been deaf and blind in this life; and others supposing the words contain a threat to the unbelievers, of what they shall then hear and
see; or else a command to Mohammed to lay before them the terrors of that day.
Page 253: (1). These are generally supposed to have been the words of the angel Gabriel, in answer to Mohammed’s complaint for his long delay of fifteen, or, according to another tradition, of forty days, before he brought him instructions what solution he should give to the questions which had been asked him concerning the sleepers, Dhu’lkarnein, and the spirit. Others, however, are of the opinion that they are the words which the godly will use at their entrance into paradise; and that their meaning is, We take up our abode here at the command and through the mercy of God alone, who ruleth all things, past, future, and present; and who is not forgetful of the works of his servants.
Page 254: (1). For the true believers must also pass by or through hell, but the fire will be damped and the flames abated, so as not to hurt them, though it will lay hold on the others. Some, however, suppose that the words intend no more than the passage over the narrow bridge, which is laid over hell.
Page 255: (1). That is, except he who shall be a subject properly disposed to receive that favor, by having possessed Islâm. Or, the words may also be translated, according to another exposition, They shall not obtain the intercession of any, except the intercession of him, etc. Or else, None shall be able to make intercession for others, except he who shall have received a covenant (or permission) from God; i.e., who shall be qualified for that office by faith and good works, according to God’s promise, or shall have special leave given him by God for that purpose.
Page 256: (1). For Moses had an impediment in his speech, which was occasioned by the following accident. Pharaoh one day carrying him in his arms, when a child, he suddenly laid hold of his bear, and plucked it in a very rough manner, which put Pharaoh into such a passion, that he ordered him to be put to death; but Asia, his wife, representing to him that he was but a child, who could not distinguish between a burning coal and a ruby, he ordered the experiment to be made; and a live coal and a ruby being set before Moses, he took the coal and put it into his mouth, and burned his tongue; and thereupon he was pardoned. This is a Jewish story a little altered.
Page 257: (1). The commentators say, that his mother accordingly made an ark of the papyrus, and pitched it, and put in some cotton; and having laid the child therein, committed it to the river, a branch of which went into Pharaoh’s garden; that the stream carried the ark thither into a fish-pond, at the head of which Pharaoh was then sitting, with his wife Asia, the daughter of Mozahem; and that the king, having commanded it to be taken up and opened, and finding in it a beautiful child, took a fancy to it, and ordered it to be brought up. Some writers mention a miraculous preservation of Moses before he was put into the ark; and tell us, that his mother having hid him from Pharaoh’s offi-
cers in an oven, his sister, in her mother’s absence, kindled a large fire in the oven to heat it, not knowing the child was there, but that he was afterward taken out unhurt.
Page 260: (1). Lest they infect thee with a burning fever; for that was the consequence of any man’s touching him, and the same happened to the persons he touched; for which reason he was obliged to avoid all communication with others, and was also shunned by them, wandering in the desert like a wild beast. Hence, it is concluded that a tribe of Samaritan Jews said to inhabit a certain isle in the Red Sea, are the descendants of our al Sâmeri; because it is their peculiar mark of distinction, at this day, to use the same words, viz., La mesâs, i.e., Touch me not, to those they meet. It is not improbable that this story may owe its rise to the known hatred borne by the Samaritans to the Jews, and their superstitiously avoiding to have any commerce with them, or any other strangers.
(2). For this, with the Arabs, is one mark of an enemy, or a person they abominate; to say a man has a black liver (though I think we express our aversion by the term white-livered), reddish whiskers and gray eyes, being a periphrasis for a foe, and particularly a Greek, which nation were the most inveterate enemies of the Arabs, and have usually hair and eyes of those colors. The original word, however, signifies also those who are squint-eyed, or even blind of a suffusion.
Page 266: (1). Abraham took his opportunity to do this while the Chaldeans were abroad in the fields, celebrating a great festival; and some say he hid himself in the temple; and when he had accomplished his design, that he might the more evidently convince them of their folly in worshiping them, he hung the axe, with which he had hewn and broken down the images, on the neck of the chief idol, named by some writers, Baal; as if he had been the author of all the mischief. For this story, which, though it be false, is not ill invented, Mohammed stands indebted to the Jews; who tell it with a little variation; for they say Abraham performed this exploit in his father’s shop, during his absence; that Terah, on his return, demanding the occasion of the disorder, his son told me that the idols had quarreled and fallen together by the ears about an offering of fine flour, which had been brought them by an old woman; and that the father, finding he could not insist on the impossibility of what Abraham pretended, without confessing the impotence of his gods, fell into a violent passion and carried him to Nimrod that he might be exemplarily punished for his insolence.
Page 267: (1). The commentators relate that, by Nimrod’s order, a large space was enclosed at Cûtha, and filled with a vast quantity of wood, which being set on fire burned so fiercely, that none dared to venture near it; then they bound Abraham, and putting him into an engine (which some suppose to have been of the devil’s invention), shot him into the midst of the fire; from
which he was preserved by the angel Gabriel who was sent to his assistance; the fire burning only the cords with which he was bound. They add that the fire having miraculously lost its heat, in respect to Abraham, became an odoriferous air, and that the pile changed to a pleasant meadow; though it raged so furiously otherwise, that, according to some writers, about two thousand of the idolaters were consumed by it. This story seems to have had no other foundation than that passage of Moses, where God is said to have brought Abraham out of Ur, of the Chaldees, misunderstood; which words the Jews, the most trifling interpreters of scripture, and some moderns who have followed them, have translated, out of the fire of the Chaldees; taking the word Ur, not for the proper name of a city, as it really is, but for an appellative, signifying fire. However, it is a fable of some antiquity, and credited, not only by the Jews, but by several of the eastern Christians; the twenty-fifth of the second Canûn, or January, being set apart in the Syrian calendar, for the commemoration of Abraham’s being cast into the fire. The Jews also mention some other persecutions which Abraham underwent on account of his religion, particularly a ten years’ imprisonment; some saying he was imprisoned by Nimrod; and others, by his father Terah.
(2). Some tell us, that Nimrod, on seeing this miraculous deliverance from his palace, cried out, that he would make an offering to the God of Abraham; and that he accordingly sacrificed four thousand kine. But, if he ever relented, he soon relapsed into his former infidelity; for he built a tower that he might ascend to heaven to see Abraham’s God; which being over-thrown, still persisting in his design, he would be carried to heaven in a chest borne by four monstrous birds; but after wandering for some time through the air he fell down on a mountain with such force, that he made it shake, whereto (as some fancy) a passage in the Korân alludes, which may be translated, although their contrivances be such as to make the mountains tremble. Nimrod, disappointed in his design of making war with God, turned his arms against Abraham, who, being a great prince, raised forces to defend himself; but God, dividing Nimrod’s subjects, and confounding their language, deprived him of the greater part of his people, and plagued those who adhered to him by swarms of gnats, which destroyed almost all of them; and one of those gnats having entered into the nostril, or ear, of Nimrod, penetrated to one of the membranes of his brain, where, growing bigger every day, gave him such intolerable pain, that he was obliged to cause his head to be beaten with a mallet, in order to procure some ease, which torture he suffered four hundred years; God being willing to punish, by one of the smallest of his creatures, him who insolently boasted himself to be lord of all. A Syrian calendar places the death of Nimrod, as if the time were well known, on the eighth of Thamûz, or July.
Page 268: (1). The Mohammedan writers tell us, that Job was
of the race of Esau, and was blessed with a numerous family, and abundant riches; but that God proved him, by taking away all that he had, even his children, who were killed by the fall of a house; notwithstanding which he continued to serve God, and to return him thanks, as usual; that he was then struck with a filthy disease, his body being full of worms, and so offensive, that as he lay on the dung-hill none could bear to come near him, that his wife, however (whom some call Rahmat the daughter of Ephraim the son of Joseph, and others Makhir the daughter of Manasses), attended him with great patience, supporting him with what she earned by her labor; but that the devil appeared to her one day, after having reminded her of her past prosperity, promised her that if she would worship him, he would restore all they had lost; whereupon she asked her husband’s consent, who was so angry at the proposal, that he swore, if he recovered, to give his wife a hundred stripes; that Job having pronounced the prayer recorded in this passage, God sent Gabriel, who taking him by the hand raised him up; and at the same time a fountain sprang up at his feet, of which having drank, the worms fell off his body, and washing therein he recovered his former health and beauty; that God then restored all to him double; his wife also becoming young and handsome again, and bearing him twenty-six sons; and that Job, to satisfy his oath, was directed by God to strike her one blow with a palm-branch having a hundred leaves. Some, to express the great riches which were bestowed on Job after his sufferings, say he had two threshing-floors, one for wheat, and the other for barley, and that God sent two clouds which rained gold on the one, and silver on the other, till they ran over. The traditions differ as to the continuance of Job’s calamities; one will have it to be eighteen years, another thirteen, another three, and another exactly seven years, seven months and seven hours.
Page 269: (1). Whose office it is to write down the action of every man’s life, which, at his death, he rolls up, as completed. Some pretend one of Mohammed’s scribes is here meant; and others take the word Sijil, or, as it is also written, Sijjill, for an appellative, signifying a book or written scroll; and accordingly render the passage, as a written scroll is rolled up.
Page 272: (1). i.e., The Caaba; which the Mohammedans pretend was the first edifice built and appointed for the worship of God. The going round this chapel is a principal ceremony of the pilgrimage, and is often repeated; but the last time of their doing it, when they take their farewell of the temple, seems to be more particularly meant in this place.
Page 277: (1). Literally, seven paths; by which the heavens are meant, because, according to some expositors they are the paths of the angels and of the celestial bodies; though the original word also signifies things which are folded or placed like stories one above another, as the Mohammedans suppose the heavens to be.
Page 281: (1). The original word barzakh, here translated bar, primarily signifies any partition, or interstice, which divides one thing from another; but is used by the Arabs not always in the same, and sometimes in an obscure sense. They seem generally to express by it what the Greeks did by the word Hades; one while using it for the place of the dead, another while for the time of their continuance in that state, another while for the state itself. It is defined by their critics to be the interval or space between this world and the next, or between death and the resurrection; every person who dies being said to enter into al barzakh; or, as the Greek expresses it, (?). One lexicographer tells us that in the Korân it denotes the grave; but the commentators on this passage expound it a bar, or invincible obstacle, cutting off all possibility of return into the world, after death. See chapter 25, where the word again occurs. Some interpreters understand the words we have rendered behind them, to mean before them (it being one of those words, of which there are several in the Arabic tongue, that have direct contrary significations), considering al Barzakh as a future space, and lying before, and not behind them.
Page 282: (1). For the understanding of this passage, it is necessary to relate the following story:
Mohammed having undertaken an expedition against the tribe of Mostalak, in the sixth year of the Hejra, took his wife Ayesha with him, to accompany him. In their return, when they were not far from Medina, the army removing by night, Ayesha, on the road, alighted from her camel, and stepped aside on a private occasion; but, on her return, perceiving she had dropped her necklace, which was of onyxes of Dhafâr, she went back to look for it; and in the meantime her attendants, taking it for granted, that she was got into her pavillion (or little tent surrounded with curtains, wherein women are carried in the east) set it again on the camel, and led it away. When she came back to the road, and saw her camel was gone, she sat down there, expecting that when she was missed some would be sent back to fetch her; and in a little time she fell asleep. Early in the morning, Safwân Ebn al Moattel, who had stayed behind to rest himself, coming by, and perceiving somebody asleep, went to see who it was and knew her to be Ayesha; upon which he waked her, by twice pronouncing with a low voice these words, We are God’s, and unto him must we return. Then Ayesha immediately covered herself with her veil; and Safwân set her on his own camel, and led her after the army, which they over-took by noon, as they were resting. This accident had like to have ruined Ayesha, whose reputation was publicly called in question, as if she had been guilty of adultery with Safwân; and Mohammed himself knew not what to think, when he reflected on the circumstances of the affair, which were improved by some malicious people very much to Ayesha’s dishonor; and notwithstanding his wife’s protestations of her innocence, he could not get rid of his perplexity, nor stop the
mouths of the censorious, till about a month after, when this passage was revealed, declaring the accusation to be unjust.
Page 284: (1). To enter suddenly or abruptly into any man’s house or apartment, is reckoned a great incivility in the east; because a person may possibly be surprised in an indecent action or posture, or may have something discovered which he would conceal. It is said, that a man came to Mohammed, and wanted to know whether he must ask leave to go in to his sister; which being answered in the affirmative, he told the prophet that his sister had nobody else to attend upon her, and it would be troublesome to ask leave every time he went in to her. What, replied Mohammed, wouldest thou see her naked?
Page 291: (1). The commentators are at a loss where to place al Rass. According to one opinion it was the name of a well (as the word signifies) near Midian, about which some idolaters having fixed their habitations, the prophet Shoaib was sent to preach to them; but they not believing on him, the well fell in, and they and their houses were all swallowed up. Another supposes it to have been in a town in Yamâma, where a remnant of the Thamûdites settled, to whom a prophet was also sent; but they slaying him, were utterly destroyed. Another thinks it was a well near Antioch, where Habîb al Najjâr (whose tomb is still to be seen there, beige frequently visited by Mohammedans) was martyred. And a fourth takes al Rass to be a well in Hadramaut, by which dwelt some idolatrous Thamûdites, whose prophet was Handha, or Khantala (for I find the name written both ways) Ebn Safwân. These people were first annoyed by certain monstrous birds, called Anka, which lodged in the mountain above them, and used to snatch away their children, when they wanted other prey; but this calamity was so far from humbling them, that on their prophet’s calling down a judgment upon them, they killed him, and were all destroyed.
Page 301: (1). The Arab historians tell us that Solomon, having finished the temple of Jerusalem, went in pilgrimage to Mecca, where, having stayed as long as he pleased, he proceeded toward Yaman; and leaving Mecca in the morning, he arrived by noon at Sanaa, and being extremely delighted with the country, rested there; but wanting water to make the ablution, he looked among the birds for the lap-wing, called by the Arabs al Hudbud, whose business it was to find it; for it is pretended she was sagacious or sharp-sighted enough to discover water underground, which the devils used to draw, after she had marked the place by digging with her bill; they add, that this bird was then taking a tour in the air, whence, seeing one of her companions alighting, she descended also, and having had a description given her by the other of the city of Saba, whence she was just arrived, they both went together to take a view of the place, and returned soon after Solomon had made the inquiry which occasioned what follows. It may be proper to mention her what the eastern writers fable of the manner of Solomon’s traveling. They say that he had a
carpet of green silk, on which his throne was placed, being of a prodigious length and breadth, and sufficient for all his forces to stand on, the men placing themselves on his right hand, and the spirits on his left; and that when all were in order, the wind, at his command, took up the carpet, and transported it, with all that were upon it, wherever he pleased; the army of birds at the same time flying over their heads, and forming a kind of canopy, to shade them from the sun.
(2). Which the commentators say was made of gold and silver, and crowned with precious stones. But they differ as to the size of it; one making it four-score cubits long, forty broad, and thirty high; while some say it was four-score, and others thirty cubits every way.
Page 302: (1). Bearing the presents, which they say were five hundred young slaves of each sex, all habited in the same manner, five hundred bricks of gold, a crown enriched with precious stones, besides a large quantity of musk, amber, and other things of value. Some add that Balkîs, to try whether Solomon was a prophet or no, dressed the boys like girls, and the girls like boys, and sent him in a casket, a pearl not drilled, and an onyx drilled with a crooked hole; and that Solomon distinguished the boys from the girls by the different manner of their taking water, and ordered one worm to bore the pearl, and another to pass a thread through the onyx. They also tell us that Solomon, having notice of this embassy, by means of the lapwing, even before they set out, ordered a large square to be enclosed with a wall built of gold and silver bricks, wherein he ranged his forces and attendants to receive them.
Page 308: (1). viz., The longest terms of ten years. The Mohammedans say, after the Jews, that Moses received from Shoaib the rod of the prophets (which was a branch of a myrtle of paradise, and had descended to him from Adam) to keep off the wild beasts from his sheep; and that this was the rod with which he performed all those wonders in Egypt.
Page 309: (1). It is said that Haman, having prepared bricks and other materials, employed no less than fifty thousand men, besides laborers, in the building; which they carried to so immense a height that the workmen could no longer stand on it, that Pharaoh, ascending this tower, threw a javelin toward heaven, which fell back again stained with blood, whereupon he impiously boasted that he had killed the God of Moses; but at sunset God sent the angel Gabriel, who, with one stroke of his wing, demolished the tower, a part whereof, falling on the king’s army, destroyed a million of men.
Page 313: (1). The commentators say, Karûn was the son of Yeshar (or Izhar), the uncle of Moses, and, consequently, make him the same with the Korah of the scriptures. This person is represented by them as the most beautiful of the Israelites, and so far surpassing them all in opulency that the riches of Karûn
have become a proverb. The Mohammedans are indebted to the Jews for this last circumstance, to which they have added several other fables; for they tell us that he built a large palace over-laid with gold, the doors whereof were of massy gold; that he became so insolent because of his immense riches, as to raise a sedition against Moses, though some pretend the occasion of his rebellion to have been his unwillingness to give alms, as Moses had commanded; that one day, when that prophet was preaching to the people, and, among other laws which he published, declared that adulterers should be stoned, Karûn asked him what if he should be found guilty of the same crime? To which Moses answered, that in such case he would suffer the same punishment; and thereupon Karûn produced a harlot, whom he had hired to swear that Moses had lain with her, and charged him publicly with it; but on Moses adjuring the woman to speak the truth, her resolution failed her, and she confessed that she was suborned by Karûn to accuse him wrongfully; that then God directed Moses, who had complained to him of this usage, to command the earth what he pleased, and it should obey him; whereupon he said, O earth swallow them up! and that immediately the earth opened under Karûn and his confederates, and swallowed them up, with his palace and all his riches. There goes a tradition, that as Karûn sank gradually into the ground, first to his knees, then to his waist, then to his neck, he cried out four several times, O Moses, have mercy on me! but that Moses continued to say, O earth, swallow them up, till at last he wholly disappeared; upon which God said to Moses, Thou hast no mercy on Karûn, though he asked pardon of thee four times; but I would have had compassion on him if he had asked pardon of me but once.
Page 315: (1). This is true, if the whole life of Noah be reckoned; and accordingly Abulfeda says he was sent to preach in his two hundred and fiftieth year, and that he lived in all nine hundred and fifty; but the text seeming to speak of those years only which he spent in preaching to the wicked antediluvians, the commentators suppose him to have lived much longer. Some say the whole length of his life was a thousand and fifty years; that his mission happened in the fortieth year of his age, and that he lived after the Flood sixty years; and others give different numbers; one, in particular, pretending that Noah lived near sixteen hundred years. This circumstance, says al Beidâwi, was mentioned to encourage Mohammed, and to assure him that God, who supported Noah so many years against the opposition and plots of the antediluvian infidels, would not fail to defend him against all attempts of the idolatrous Meccans and their partisans.
Page 323: (1). The Arab writers say, that Lokmân was the son of Baûra who was the son or grandson of a sister or aunt of Job; and that he lived several centuries, and to the time of David, with whom he was conversant in Palestine. According to the description they give of his person, he must have been deformed enough; for they say he was of a black complexion (whence some call him an Ethiopian),
with thick lips and splay feet; but in return he received from God wisdom and eloquence in a great degree, which some pretend were given him in a vision, on his making choice of wisdom preferably to the gift of prophecy, either of which were offered him. The generality of the Mohammedans, therefore, hold him to have been no prophet, but only a wise man. As to his condition, they say he was a slave, but obtained his liberty on the following occasion: His master having one day given him a bitter melon to eat, he paid him such exact obedience as to eat it all; at which his master being surprised, asked him how he could eat so nauseous a fruit? To which he replied, it was no wonder that he should for once accept a bitter fruit from the same hand from which he had received so many favors. The commentators mention several quick repartees of Lokmân, which, together with the circumstances above mentioned, agree so well with what Maximus Planudes has written of Esop, that from thence, and from the fables attributed to Lokmân by the orientals, the latter has been generally thought to have been no other than the Esop of the Greeks. However, that be (for I think the matter will bear a dispute), I am of the opinion that Planudes borrowed great part of his life of Esop from the traditions he met with in the east concerning Lokân, concluding them to have been the same person, because they were both slaves, and supposed to be the writers of those fables which go under their respective names, and bear a great resemblance to one another; for it has long since been observed by learned men that the greater part of that monk’s performance is an absurd romance, and supported by no evidence of the ancient writers.
Page 328: (1). This passage was revealed to abolish two customs among the old Arabs. The first was their manner of divorcing their wives, when they had no mind to let them go out of their house, or to marry again; and this the husband did by saying to the woman, Thou art henceforward to me as the back of my mother; after which words pronounced he abstained from her bed, and regarded her in all respects as his mother, and she became related to all his kindred in the same degree as if she had been really so. The other custom was the holding their adopted sons to be as as nearly related to them as their natural sons, so that the same impediments of marriage arose from that supposed relation, in the prohibited degrees, as it would have done in the case of a genuine son. The latter Mohammed had a peculiar reason to abolish–viz., his marrying the divorced wife of his freedman Zeid, who was also his adopted son, of which more will be said by-and-bye. By the declaration which introduces this passage, that God has not given a man two hearts, is meant, that a man cannot have the same affection for supposed parents and adopted children, as for those who are really so. They tell us the Arabs used to say, of a prudent and acute person, that he had two hearts; whence one Abu Mamer (?), or, as others write, Jemîl Ebn Asad al Fihri, was surnamed Dhu’lkalbein, or the man with two hearts.
(2). On the enemies’ approach, Mohammed, by the advice of Salmân, the Persian, ordered a deep ditch or entrenchment to be dug round Medina, for the security of the city, and went out to defend it with three thousand men. Both sides remained in their camps near a month, without any other acts of hostility than shooting of arrows and slinging of stones; till, in a winter’s night, God sent a piercing cold east wind, which benumbed the limbs of the confederates, blew the dust in their faces, extinguished their fires, over-turned their tents, and put their horses in disorder, the angels at the same time crying, Allah acbar! round about their camp; whereupon Toleiha Ebn Khowailed, the Asadite, said aloud, Mohammed is going to attack you with enchantments, wherefore provide for your safety by flight; and accordingly the Koreish first, and afterward the Ghatfânites, broke up the siege, and returned home; which retreat was also not a little owing to the dissensions among the confederate forces, the raising and fomenting whereof the Mohammedans also ascribe to God. It is related that when Mohammed heard that his enemies were retired, he said, I have obtained success by means of the east wind; and Ad perished by the west wind.
Page 330: (1). These were the Jews of the tribe of Koreidha, who, though they were in league with Mohammed, had, at the incessant persuasion of Caab Ebn Asad, a principal man among them, perfidiously gone over to his enemies in this war of the ditch, and were severely punished for it. For the next morning, after the confederate forces had decamped, Mohammed and his men returned to Medina, and, laying down their arms, began to refresh themselves after their fatigue; upon which Gabriel came to the prophet and asked him whether he had suffered his people to lay down their arms, when the angels had not laid down theirs; and ordering him to go immediately against the Koradhites, assuring him that himself would lead the way. Mohammed, in obedience to the divine command, having caused public proclamation to be made that every one should pray that afternoon for success against the son of Koreidha, set forward upon the expedition without loss of time; and being arrived at the fortress of the Koradhites, besieged them for twenty-five days, at the end of which those people, being in great terror and distress, capitulated, and at length, not daring to trust to Mohammed’s mercy, surrendered at the discretion of Saad Ebn Moadh, hoping that he, being the prince of the tribe of Aws, their old friends and confederates would have some regard for them. But they were deceived: for Saad, being greatly incensed at their breach of faith, had begged of God that he might not die of the wound he had received at the ditch till he saw vengeance taken on the Koradhites, and therefore adjudged that the men should be put to the sword, the women and children made slaves, and their goods be divided among the Moslems, which sentence Mohammed had no sooner heard than he cried, out, That Saad had pronounced the sentence of God and the same was accordingly executed, the number of men who
were slain amounting to six hundred, or, as others say, to seven hundred, or very near, among whom were Hoyai Ebn Akhtab, a great enemy of Mohammed’s, and Caab Ebn Asad, who had been the chief occasion of the revolt of their tribe; and soon after Saad, who had given judgment against them, died, his wound, which had been skinned over, opening again.
Page 334: (1). By faith is here understood entire obedience to the law of God, which is represented to be of so high concern (no less than eternal happiness or misery depending on the observance or neglect thereof), and so difficult in the performance, that if God should propose the same on the conditions annexed, to the vaster parts of the creation, and they had understanding to comprehend the offer, they would decline it, and not dare to take on them a duty, the failing wherein must be attended with so terrible a consequence; and yet man is said to have undertaken it, notwithstanding his weakness and the infirmites of his nature. Some imagine this proposal is not hypothetical, but was actually made to the heavens, earth and mountains, which at their first creation were endued with reason, and that God told them he had made a law, and had created paradise for the recompense of such as were obedient to it, and hell for the punishment of the disobedient; to which they answered they were content to be obliged to perform the services for which they were created, but would not undertake to fulfill the divine law on those conditions, and therefore desired neither reward nor punishment; they add that when Adam was created, the same offer was made to him, and he accepted it. The commentators have other explications of this passage, which it would be too prolix to transcribe.
Page 335: (1). Some suppose these were images of the angels and prophets, and that the making of them was not then forbidden; or else that they were not such images as were forbidden by the law. Some say these spirits made him two lions, which were placed at the foot of his throne, and two eagles, which were set above it; and that when he mounted it the lions stretched out their paws, and when he sat down the eagles shaded him with their wings.
(2). The commentators, to explain this passage, tell us that David, having laid the foundations of the temple of Jerusalem, which was to be in lieu of the tabernacle of Moses, when he died, left it to be finished by his son Solomon, who employed the genii in the work; that Solomon, before the edifice was quite completed, perceiving his end drew nigh, begged of God that his death might be concealed from the genii till they had entirely finished it; that God therefore, so ordered it, that Solomon died as he stood at his prayers, leaning on his staff, which supported the body in that posture a full year; and the genii, supposing him to be alive, continued their work during that term, at the expiration whereof the temple being perfectly completed, a worm, which had gotten into the staff, ate it through, and the corpse fell to the
ground and discovered the king’s death. Possibly this fable of the temple’s being built by genii, and not by men, might take its rise from what is mentioned in scripture, that the house was built of stone made ready before it was brought thither; so that there was neither hammer, nor axe, nor any tool of iron heard in the house while it was building; the Rabbins indeed, tell us of a worm, which might assist the workmen, its virtue being such as to cause the rocks and stones to fly in sunder. Whether the worm which gnawed Solomon’s staff were of the same breed with this other, I know not; but the story has perfectly the air of a Jewish invention.
Page 343: (1). To explain this passage, the commentators tell the following story:
The people of Antioch being idolaters, Jesus sent two of his disciples thither to preach to them; and when they drew near the city they found Habîb, surnamed al Najjâr, or the carpenter, feeding sheep, and acqainted (?) him with their errand; whereupon he asked them what proof they had of their veracity, and they told him they could cure the sick, and the blind, and the lepers; and to demonstrate the truth of what they said, they laid their hands on a child of his who was sick, and immediately restored him to health. Habîb was convinced by this miracle, and believed; after which they went into the city and preached the worship of one true God, curing a great number of people of several infirmities; but at length, the affair coming to the prince’s ear, he ordered them to be imprisoned for endeavoring to seduce the people. When Jesus heard of this, he sent another of his disciples, generally supposed to have been Simon Peter, who, coming to Antioch, and appearing as a zealous idolater, soon insinuated himself into the favor of the inhabitants and of their prince, and at length took an opportunity to desire the prince would order the two persons who, as he was informed, had been put in prison, for broaching new opinions, to be brought before him to be examined; and accordingly they were brought; when Peter, having previously warned them to take no notice that they knew him, asked them who sent them, to which they answered, God, who had created all things, and had no companion. He then required some convincing proof of their mission, upon which they restored a blind person to his sight and performed some other miracles, with which Peter seemed not to be satisfied, for that, according to some, he did the very same miracles himself, but declared that, if their God could enable them to raise the dead, he would believe them; which condition the two apostles accepting, a lad was brought who had been dead seven days, and at their prayers he was raised to life; and thereupon Peter acknowledged himself convinced, and ran and demolished the idols, a great many of the people following him, and embracing the true faith; but those who believed not were destroyed by the cry of the angel Gabriel.
Page 347: (1). The usual way of striking fire in the east is by
rubbing together two pieces of wood, one of which is commonly of the tree called Markh, and the other of that called Afâr; and it will succeed even though the wood be green and wet.
Page 349: (1). Some suppose that the entertainment mentioned will be the welcome given the damned before they enter that place; and others, that they will be suffered to come out of hell from time to time, to drink their scalding liquor.
Page 354: (1). Some say that Solomon brought these horses, being a thousand in number, from Damascus and Nisibis, which cities he had taken; others say that they were left him by his father, who took them from the Amalekites; while others, who prefer the marvelous, pretend that they came up out of the sea, and had wings. However, Solomon, having one day a mind to view these horses, ordered them to be brought before him, and was so taken up with them that he spent the remainder of the day, till after sunset, in looking on them; by which means he neglected the prayer, which ought to have been said at that time, till it was too late; but when he perceived his omission, he was so greatly concerned at it, that ordering the horses to be brought back, he killed them all as an offering to God, except only a hundred of the best of them. But God made him ample amends for the loss of these horses, by giving him dominion over the winds.
(2). The most received exposition of this passage is taken from the following Talmudic fable:
Solomon, having taken Sidon, and slain the king of that city, brought away his daughter Jerâda, who became his favorite; and because she ceased not to lament her father’s loss, he ordered the devils to make an image of him for her consolation; which being done, and placed in her chamber, she and her maids worshiped it morning and evening, according to their custom. At length Solomon being informed of this idolatry, which was practiced under his roof, by his vizir Asâf, he broke the image, and having chastised the woman, went out into the desert, where he wept and made supplication to God; who did not think fit, however, to let his negligence pass without some correction. It was Solomon’s custom, while he eased or washed himself, to entrust his signet, on which his kingdom depended, with a concubine of his named Amîna; one day, therefore, when she had the ring in her custody, a devil, named Sakhar, came to her in the shape of Solomon, and received the ring from her; by virtue of which he became possessed of the kingdom, and sat on the throne in the shape which he had borrowed, making what alterations in the law he pleased. Solomon, in the meantime, being changed in his outward appearance, and known to none of his subjects, was obliged to wander about, and beg alms for his subsistence; till at length, after the space of forty days, which was the time the image had been worshiped in his house, the devil flew away, and threw the signet into the sea; the signet was immediately swallowed by a fish, which being taken and given to Solomon, he found
the ring in its belly, and having by this means recovered the kingdom took Sakhar, and tying a great stone to his neck, threw him into the lake of Tiberias.
Page 361: (1). These, some say, will be the angels Gabriel, Michael, and Israfil, and the angel of death, who yet will afterward all die, at the command of God; it being the constant opinion of the Mohammedan doctors, that every soul, both of men and of animals, which live either on land or in the sea, and of the angels also, must necessarily taste of death; others suppose those who will be exempted are the angels who bear the throne of God, or the black-eyed damsels, and other inhabitants of paradise. The space between these two blasts of the trumpet will be forty days, according to Yahya and others; there are some, however, who suppose it will be as many years.
Page 369: (1). Al Zamakhshari says this smoke proceeded from the waters under the throne of God (which throne was one of the things created before the heavens and the earth), and rose above the water; that the water being dried up, the earth was formed out of it, and the heavens out of the smoke which had mounted aloft.
Page 380: (1). For some time before the resurrection Jesus is to descend on earth, according to the Mohammedans, near Damascus, or, as some say, near a rock in the holy land named Afik, with a lance in his hand, wherewith he is to kill anti Christ, whom he will encounter at Ludd, or Lydda, a small town not far from Joppa. They add that he will arrive at Jerusalem at the time of morning prayer, that he shall perform his devotions after the Mohammedan institution, and officiate instead of the Imâm, who shall give place to him; that he will break down the cross, and destroy the churches of the Christians, of whom he will make a general slaughter, excepting only such as shall profess Islâm, etc.
Page 382: (1). For annually on this night, as the Mohammedans are taught, all the events of the ensuing year, with respect to life and death, and the other affairs of this world, are disposed and settled. Some, however, suppose that these words refer only to that particular night on which the Korân, wherein are completely contained the divine determinations in respect to religion and morality, was sent down; and, according to this exposition, the passage may be rendered, The night whereon every determined or adjudged matter was sent down.
(2). The commentators differ in their expositions of this passage. Some think it spoke of a smoke which seemed to fill the air during the famine which was inflicted on the Meccans in Mohammed’s time, and was so thick that, though they could hear, yet they could not see one another. But, according to a tradition of Ali, the smoke here meant is that which is to be one of the previous signs of the day of judgment, and will fill the whole space from east to west, and last for forty days. This smoke,
they say, will intoxicate the infidels, and issue at their nose, ears and posteriors, but will very little inconvenience the true believers.
Page 400: (1). That is, from a place whence every creature may equally hear the call. This place, it is supposed, will be the mountain of the temple of Jerusalem, which some fancy to be nigher heaven than any other part of the earth; whence Israfil will sound the trumpet, and Gabriel will make the following proclamation: O ye rotten bones, and torn flesh, and dispersed hairs, God commandeth you to be gathered together to judgment.
Page 414: (1). The meaning of this obscure passage is, if ye shall not be obliged to give an account of your actions at the last day, as by your denying the resurrection ye seem to believe, cause the soul of the dying person to return into his body; for ye may as easily do that as avoid the general judgment.
Page 427: (1). That is, Friday, which being more peculiarly set apart by Mohammed for the public worship of God, is therefore called Yawn al jomá, i.e., the day of the assembly or congregation; whereas before it was called al Arûba. The first time this day was particularly observed, as some say, was on the prophet’s arrival at Medina, into which city he made his first entry on a Friday; but others tell us that Caab Ebn Lowa, one of Mohammed’s ancestors, gave the day its present name, because on that day the people used to be assembled before him. One reason given for the observation on Friday, preferably to any other day of the week, is because on that day God finished the creation.
(2). By returning to your commerce and worldly occupations, if ye think fit; for the Mohammedans do not hold themselves obliged to observe the day of their public assembly with the same strictness as the Christians and Jews do their respective Sabbaths; or particularly to abstain from work, after they have performed their devotions. Some, however, from a tradition of their prophet, are of opinion that works of charity, and religious exercises, which may draw down the blessing of God, are recommended in this passage.
Page 437: (1). The original word al Hâkkat is one of the names or epithets of the day of judgment. As the root from which it is derived signifies not only to be or come to pass of necessity, but also to verify; some rather think that day to be so called because it will verify and show the truth of what men doubt of in this life, viz., the resurrection of the dead, their being brought to account, and the consequent rewards and punishments.
Page 438: (1). This is supposed to be the space which would be required for their ascent from the lowest part of creation to the throne of God, if it were to be measured; or the time which it would take a man up to perform that journey, and this is not contradictory to what is said elsewhere (if it be to be interpreted of the ascent of the angels), that the length of the day whereon they ascend is one thousand years; because that is meant only of
their ascent from earth to the lower heaven, including also the time of their descent. But the commentators generally taking the day spoken of in both these passages to be the day of judgment, have recourse to several expedients to reconcile them, some of which we have mentioned in another place; and as both passages seem to contradict what the Mohammedan doctors teach, that God will judge all creatures in the space of half a day, they suppose those large numbers of years are designed to express the time of the previous attendance of those who are to be judged; or else to the space wherein God will judge the unbelieving nations, of which they say there will be fifty, the trial of each nation taking up one thousand years, though that of the true believers will be over in the short space above mentioned.
Page 447: (1). Some take these words to be spoken of Adam, whose body, according to Mohammedan tradition, was at first a figure of clay, and was left forty years to dry before God breathed life into it, others understand them of man in general and of the time he lies in the womb.
Page 451: (1). These are the angel of death and his assistants, who will take the souls of the wicked in a rough and cruel manner from the inmost part of their bodies, as a man drags up a thing from the bottom of the sea; but will take the souls of the good in a gentle and easy manner from their lips, as when a man draws a bucket of water at one pull. There are several other interpretations of this whole passage, some expounding all the five parts of the oath of the stars, others of the souls of men, others of the souls of warriors in particular, and others of war-horses; a detail of which, I apprehend, would rather tire than please.
Page 455: (1). Is the name of the general register, wherein the actions of all the wicked, both men and genii, are distinctly entered. Sejn signifies a prison; and this book, as some think, derives it name from thence, because it will occasion those whose deeds are there recorded to be imprisoned in hell. Sejjin, or Sajin, is also the name of the dungeon beneath the seventh earth, the residence of Eblis and his host, where, it is supposed by some, that this book is kept, and where the souls of the wicked will be detained till the resurrection. If the latter explication be admitted, the words, And what shall make thee to understand what Sejjin is? should be enclosed within a parenthesis.
Page 456: (1). The word is a plural, and signifies high places. Some say it is the general register wherein the actions of the righteous, whether angels, men, or genii, are distinctly recorded. Others will have it to be a place in the seventh heaven, under the throne of God, where this book is kept, and where the souls of the just, as many think, will remain till the last day. If we prefer the latter opinion, the words, And what shall make thee to understand what Illiyyûn is? should likewise be enclosed in a parenthesis.
Page 457: (1). Literally, the lords of the pit. These were the ministers of the persecution raised by Dhu Nowâs, king of Yaman, who was of the Jewish religion, against the inhabitants of Najrân; for they having embraced Christianity (at that time the true religion, by the confession of Mohammed himself), the bigoted tyrant commanded all those who would not renounce their faith to be cast into a pit, or trench, filled with fire, and there burnt to ashes. Others, however, tell the story with different circumstances.
Page 460: (1). Or pillars. Some imagine these words are used to express the great size and strength of the old Adites; and then they should be translated, who were of enormous stature. But the more exact commentators take the passage to relate to the sumptuous palace and delightful gardens built and made by Sheddâd the son of Ad. For they say Ad left two sons, Sheddâd and Sheddîd, who reigned jointly after his decease, and extended their power over the greater part of the world; but Sheddîd dying, his brother became sole monarch; who, having heard of the celestial paradise, made a garden in imitation thereof, in the deserts of Aden, and called it Irem, after the name of his great-grandfather; when it was finished he set out, with a great attendance, to take a view of it; but when they were come within a day’s journey of the place, they were all destroyed by a terrible noise from heaven. Al Beidâwi adds that one Abdallah Ebn Kelâbah (whom, after D’herbelot, I have elsewhere named Colabah) accidentally hit on this wonderful place, as he was seeking a camel.
Page 465: (1). The word al Kadr signifies power and honor or dignity, and also the divine decree; and the night is so named either from its excellence above all other nights in the year, or because, as the Mohammedans believe, the divine decrees for the ensuing year are annually on this night fixed and settled, or taken from the preserved table by God’s throne, and given to the angels to be executed. On this night Mohammed received his first revelations; when the Korân, say the commentators, was sent down from the aforesaid table, entire and in one volume, to the lowest heaven, from whence Gabriel revealed it to Mohammed by parcels, as occasion required. The Moslem doctors are not agreed where to fix the night of al Kadr; the greater part are of opinion that it is one of the ten last nights of Ramadân, and, as is commonly believed, the seventh of those nights, reckoning backward; by which means it will fall between the 23rd and 24th days of that month.
Page 469: (1). This chapter relates to the following piece of history, which is famous among the Arabs; Abraha Ebn al Sabâh, surnamed al Ashram, i.e., the Slit-nosed, king or viceroy of Yaman, who was an Ethiopian, and of the Christian religion, having built a magnificent church at Sanaa with a design to draw the Arabs to go in pilgrimage thither, instead of visiting the temple of Mecca, the Koreish, observing the devotion and concourse of the pilgrims at the Caaba began considerably to diminish, sent
one Nofail, as he is named by some of the tribe of Kenânah, who getting into the aforesaid church by night, defiled the altar and walls thereof with his excrements. At this profanation Abraha being highly incensed, vowed the destruction of the Caaba, and accordingly set out against Mecca at the head of a considerable army, wherein were several elephants, which he had obtained of the king of Ethiopia, their numbers being, as some say, thirteen, though others mention but one. The Meccans, at the approach of so considerable a host, retired to the neighboring mountains, being unable to defend their city or temple; but God himself undertook the protection of both. For when Abraha drew near to Mecca, and would have entered it, the elephant on which he rode, which was a very large one, and named Mahmûd, refused to advance any nigher to the town, but knelt down whenever they endeavored to force him that way, though he would rise and march briskly enough if they turned him toward any other quarter; and while matters were in this posture, on a sudden a large flock of birds, like swallows, came flying from the sea coast, every one of which carried three stones, one in each foot, and one in its bill; and these stones they threw down upon the heads of Abraha’s men, certainly killing every one they struck. Then God sent a flood, which swept the dead bodies, and some of those who had not been struck by the stones, into the sea; the rest fled toward Yaman, but perished by the way; none of them reaching Sanaa, except only Abraha himself, who died soon after his arrival there, being struck with a sort of plague or putrefaction, so that his body opened, and his limbs rotted off by piecemeal. It is said that one of Abraha’s army, named Abu Yacsûm, escaped over the Red Sea into Ethiopia, and going directly to the king, told him the tragical story; and upon that prince’s asking him what sort of birds they were that had occasioned such a destruction, the man pointed to one of them, which had followed him all the way, and was at that time hovering directly over his head, when immediately the bird let fall the stone, and struck him dead at the king’s feet. This remarkable defeat of Abraha happened the very year Mohammed was born, and as this chapter was revealed before the Hejra, and within fifty-four years, at least, after it came to pass, when several persons who could have detected the lie, had Mohammed forged this story out of his own head, were alive, it seems as if there was really something extraordinary in the matter, which might, by adding some circumstances, have been worked up into a miracle to his hands. Marracci judges the whole to be either a fable, or else a feat of some evil spirits, of which he gives a parallel instance, as he thinks, in the strange defeat of Brennus, when he was marching to attack the temple of Apollo at Delphi. Dr. Prideaux directly charges Mohammed with coining this miracle, notwithstanding he might have been so easily disproved, and supposes, without any foundation, that this chapter might not have been published till Othman’s edition of the Korân, which was many years after, when all might be
dead who could remember anything of the above-mentioned war. But Mohammed had no occasion to coin such a miracle himself, to gain the temple of Mecca any greater veneration; the Meccans were but too superstitiously fond of it, and obliged him, against his inclinations and original design, to make it the chief place of his new invented worship. I cannot, however, but observe Dr. Prideaux’s partiality on this occasion, compared with the favorable reception he gives to the story of the miraculous overthrow of Brennus and his army, which he concludes in the following words: “Thus was God pleased in a very extraordinary manner to execute his vengeance upon those sacrilegious wretches for the sake of religion in general, how false and idolatrous soever that particular religion was, for which that temple at Delphos was erected.” If it be answered, that the Gauls believed the religion, to the devotions of which that temple was consecrated, to be true (though that be not certain), and therefore it was an impiety in them to offer violence to it, whereas Abraha acknowledged not the holiness of the Caaba, or the worship there practiced; I reply, that the doctor, on occasion of Cambyses being killed by a wound he accidentally received in the same part of the body where he had before mortally wounded the Apis, or bull worshiped by the Egyptians, whose religion and worship that prince most certainly believed to be false and superstitious, makes the same reflection: “The Egyptians,” says he, “reckoned this as an especial judgment from heaven upon him for that fact, and perchance they were not much out in it; for it seldom happening in an affront given to any mode of worship, how erroneous soever it may be, but that religion is in general wounded hereby, there are many instances in history, wherein God hath very signally punished the profanations of religion in the worst of times, and under the worst modes of heathen idolatry.”
INDEX
.
Abraham demolishes the idols of the Chaldeans, 266; preaches to his people, 314; his
religion commended, 68, 69, 93, 147; disputes with Nimrod, 82; escapes the fire
into which he was thrown by Nimrod’s order, 267; his praying for his father, 182,
423; desires to be convinced of the resurrection, 82; his sacrifice of birds, 83;
entertains the angels, 198, 401; receives the promise of Isaac, 198; called the friend
of God, 115; his sacrifice of his son, 350; praises God for Ismael and Isaac, 219;
commanded, together with Ismael, to build and cleanse the Caaba, 68; prays to
God to raise up a prophet of their seed, and for the plenty and security of Mecca,
68; bequeaths the religion of Islâm to his children, 68.
Ad, a potent tribe of Arabs, destroyed for their infidelity, 153, 277, 298, 369, 388, 382,
461. Vide Hûd.
Adam, worshiped by the angels, 60, 148, 221, 246, 355; his fall, 60, 149; repents and
prays, 60.
Adoption creates no matrimonial impediment, 328.
Adulterers, Mohammed’s sentence against them, 88.
Adultery, its punishment, 88, 105; what evidence required to convict a woman of it, 104.
Adversaries, the dispute of two terminated by David, 355.
Ahmed, the name under which Mohammed was foretold by Christ, 425.
Al Ahkâf, the habitation of the Adites, 387.
Aila, or Elath, the Sabbath-breakers there changed into apes, 62, 161.
Alexander, vide Dhu’lkarnein.
Allât, an idol of the Koreish, 115, 405.
Alms recommended, 60, 66, 76, 144, 178.
Amena, Mohammed’s mother; he is not permitted to pray for her, 182.
Amru Ebn Lohai, the great introducer of idolatry among the Arabs, 144.
Angels, their original, 148, 355; worship Adam, vide Adam; of different forms and orders,
339; not the objects of worship, 276; nor ought to be hated, 65; the number of them
which support God’s throne, 437; are deputed to take an account of men’s actions,
399; some of them appointed to take the souls of men, 451; to preside over hell,
and to keep guard against the devils, 445; assist the Moslems at Bedr, 86, 168;
believed by
the Arabs to be daughters of God, 114, 228; appear to Abraham and Lot, 198,
199, 401.
Animals, created of water, 286.
Ansârs, or helpers, three of them excommunicated for refusing to attend Mohammed to
Tabûc, 182.
Ants, the valley of, 301; their queen’s speech to them on the approach of Solomon’s army,
301.
Apostles were not believed who wrought miracles, 99; those before Mohammed accused
likewise of imposture, 100, 134; of Christ, 90; two of them sent to preach at Antioch,
343.
Apparel, what kind ought to be worn by those who approach the divine presence, 150.
Arabians, their acuteness, 147; in burying their daughters alive, 144, 454; their superstitions
in relation to eating, 144, 287; and in relation to cattle, 114, 130; quit their new religion
in great numbers on Mohammed’s death, 124.
Arabs of the Desert more obstinate, 180.
Arafat, Mount, the procession thereto, 74.
Arrows for divination forbidden, 129.
Al As Ebn Wayel, an enemy of Mohammed’s, 223, 255.
Ashama, king of Ethiopia, prayed for after his death by Mohammed, 101.
Asia, the wife of Pharaoh, one of the four perfect women, 432.
Astrology, hinted at, 101.
Al Aswad Ebn Abd Yaghuth, al Aswad Ebn al Motalleb, two of Mohammed’s enemies,
223.
Backbiting, vide Slander.
Bahira, 130.
Balkîs, queen of Saba, visits Solomon, and her reception, 302; her legs hairy, 302; marries
Solomon, 302.
Becca, the same with mecca, 93.
Bedr, Mohammed’s victory there, etc., 86, 95.
Bees, made use of as a similitude, 228.
Believers; the sincere ones, described, 276; their reward, 108; their sentence, 151.
Benjamin, son of Jacob, etc., 206.
Blessed, their future happiness described, 345, 381.
Blood forbidden, 71.
Boheira, the monk, 231.
Bribery to pervert justice forbidden, 73.
Burden, every soul to bear its own, 340.
Al Caaba, appointed for a place of worship, 272; built and cleansed by Abraham and
Ismael, 67.
Cafûr, a fountain in paradise, 447.
Cain and Abel, their sacrifices, 123; Cain kills his brother, 123; instructed by a raven to bury
him, ib.
Caleb, vide Joshua.
Calf, the golden, of what and by whom made, 61; animated, ib.; worshiped by the
Israelites, ib.
Calumny forbidden, 116.
Camels, an instance of God’s wisdom, 460; appointed for sacrifice, 448.
Canaan, an unbelieving son of Noah, 196; caravans of purveyors sent out by the Koreish,
469.
Carrion forbidden to be eaten, 71.
Cattle, their use, 145, 368; superstitions of the old Arabs concerning them, 145.
Al Cawthar, a river in paradise, 470.
Charity recommended, 106, 447.
Chastity commended, 120.
Children, to inherit their parents’ substance, 78, 102.
Christ, vide Jesus.
Christians declared infidels, 121; and enemies of the Moslems, ib. Vide Jews.
Collars to be worn by the unbelievers in life to come, 211.
Commerce from God, 277.
Companions of God, what, 144.
Congealed blood, the matter of which man is created, 464.
Contracts to be performed, 119.
Cow ordered to be sacrificed by the Israelites, 62.
Creation, some account of it, 369.
Crimes to be punished with death, 235.
David kills Goliah, 81, 234; his extraordinary devotion, 353; the birds and mountains sing
praises with him, 335; makes breastplates, 81; his repentance for taking the wife of
Uriah, 353; his and Solomon’s judgment, 267.
Days appointed to commemorate God, 272.
Dead body raised to life by a part of the sacrificed Cow, 62.
Debtors to be mercifully dealt with, 84.
Devil, vide Eblis and Satan; the occasion of his fall, 60, 148.
Devils included under the name Genii, 143; the patrons of unbelievers, 99, 149, 299; their
plot to defame Solomon, 63, were permitted to enter all the seven heavens till the
birth of Christ, 221.
Dhu’lkarnein, builds a wall to prevent the incursions of Gog and Magog, 249.
Dhu’lkefl, the prophet, opinions concerning him, 268; saves a hundred Israelites from
slaughter, 355.
Dhu’lnûn, vide Jonas.
Dhu Nowâs, king of Yaman, a Jew, persecutes the Christians, 457.
Disputes to be carried on with mildness, 316.
Ditch, War of the, 328.
Divorce, laws concerning it, 78, 102, 331, 429.
Dogs, etc., allowed to be trained up for hunting, 120.
Drink of the damned, 138.
Earth, its creation, 369; is kept steady by the mountains, 225, 323.
Earthquake, a sign of the approach of the last day, 466.
Eblis refuses to worship Adam at God’s command, and why, 61. (?) 148, 221, 238, 246;
his sentence, ib.; occasions the fall of Adam, ib.
Eden, the meaning of the word in Arabic, 178.
Edris, supposed to be the same with Enoch, 253.
Education makes a man an infidel, 322.
Elephant, War of the, 469.
Elias, vide al Khedr.
Elisha, the prophet, 139.
Enoch, vide Edris.
Entering into houses and apartments abruptly forbidden, 284, 287.
Envy forbidden, 106.
Esop, vide Lokmân.
Eucharist, seems to have occasioned a fable in the Korân, 132.
Eve, vide Adam.
Evidence, vide Witness.
Evil, vide Good.
Exhortation to the worship of God, 362; to a good life, 200.
Faith must accompany good works, 193; the reward of those who fight for it, 165, 171, 174,
234, 391, 424; apostates from it to be put to death, 235.
Famine ceases at Mohammed’s intercession, 280.
Fast of Ramadân instituted, 73.
Fidelity recommended, 171.
Fishing allowed during the pilgrimage, 130.
Flood, vide Noah.
Food, what kinds are forbidden, 71, 119, 142, 145, 232, 287.
Forgiveness, to whom it belongs, 330.
Fornication forbidden, 103, 105; its punishment, 103, 105, 282.
Fountain of molten brass flows for Solomon, 335.
Fountain of paradise, 447, 448, 456.
Friendship with unbelievers forbidden, 125.
Fruits of the earth, their production an instance of God’s power, 141.
Fugitives for the sake of religion shall be provided for and rewarded, 112, 275.
Gabriel revealed the Korân to Mohammed, 65; assists the Moslems at Bedr, 86; appears
twice to Mohammed in his proper form, 405; appears to the Virgin Mary, and
causes her to conceive, 251; the dust of his horse’s feet animate the golden calf,
260; generally appeared to Mohammed in a human form, 134.
Gaming forbidden, 76, 129.
Garden, story of the, 435.
Genii, some of them converted on hearing the Korân, 441.
God, proofs of his existence, 319; his omnipresence asserted, 419; his omnipotence, 80,
414; his power and providence conspicu-
ous in his works, 71, 192, 384, 449; his omniscience asserted, 112, 334, 372;
knoweth the secrets of men’s hearts, 305; and of futurity, 442; his goodness set
forth, 75, 183, 224, 406, 409; in sending the scriptures and prophets, 75, 143; the
author of all good, 229; his word, laws, and sentence unalterable, 142, 320, 399; his
mercy set forth, 96, 292, 310, 375, 405; the only giver of victory, 96, 319; his
promise to the righteous, 323; who acceptable to him, 173; ruleth the heart of man,
166; his tribunal, 80; his throne, 192; ought not to be frequently sworn by, 77; hath
no issue, 67, 188, 280; nor similitude, 323, 356; rested not the seventh day through
weariness, 400; his worship recommended, ib.; his fear recommended, 186.
Gog and Magog, 249, 268.
Goliah, vide Jalût.
Good and evil both from God, 110.
Gospel, vide Jesus.
Greeks overcome the Persians, 318.
Haman, Pharaoh’s chief minister, 306, 309.
Hami, 130.
Haretha (Banu), reproached by Mohammed for flying in battle, 329.
Harût and Marût, two angels, their story and punishment, 65.
Heathens, justice not to be observed with regard to them according to the Jews, 91.
Heavens, guarded by angels, 441; and earth manifest God’s wisdom, 263; will fall at the
last day, 275.
Al Hejr, the habitation of the Thamudites, 220.
Hell torments described, 271, 413, 449; the portion of unbelievers, 94, 193; prepared for
those who choose the pomp of this life, 193; and hoard up money, 174.
Honein, the battle of, 173.
Honey, an excellent medicine, 229.
Hospitality recommended, 106.
Al Hotama, the name of an apartment in hell, 469.
Hûd, the prophet, his story, 153.
Hunting and fowling forbidden during the pilgrimage, 119, 129.
Husband, his superiority over the wife, 78; his duty to her, 78, etc.; difference between
them to be reconciled by friends, 106, 115. See Divorce, Wives, Marriages, etc.
Hypocrites described, 427, etc.; their sentence, 177.
Idolaters compared to brutes, 291; to a spider, 316; not to be prayed for while such, 182;
their sentence, 150.
Idolatry, the heinousness thereof, 76; unpardonable, if not repented of, 107.
Idols, their insignificancy, 71, 275, 336; will appear as witnesses against their worshipers,
186; worshiped by the antediluvians, 440.
Immodesty condemned, 284.
Immunity declared to the idolaters for four months, 171.
Imposture charged on all the prophets, 278.
Imrân, father of the Virgin Mary, 86.
Infidels, how they will appear at the last day, 135; will drink boiling water, 138; would have
believed, had the Korân been revealed to some great man, 377; if not convinced
by the Korân, will not be convinced by miracles, 142; have some notion of a future
state, 304; their blasphemy, 352; to be made war upon, 73; those who die such not
to be prayed for, 179; forbidden to approach Mecca, 173.
Inheritances, laws relating thereto, 103, 118.
Injury, to forgive the same is meritorious, 375.
Intercalation of a month forbidden, 174.
Irem, the city of Ad, 460.
Iron, its usefulness, 414; some utensils of that metal brought by Adam down from paradise,
ib.
Isaac promised, 198; his birth, ib.
Islâm, the only true religion, 92; the only religion till the death of Abel, 185.
Ismael, vide Abraham.
Israelites, their males slain by Pharaoh, 61; pass the Red Sea, 158; God’s goodness to
them, ib., 385; miraculously fed in the wilderness, 161; lust for the herbs of Egypt,
62; worship the golden calf, 61, 159; their punishment, 61; change the word put into
their mouth at Jericho, 62, 161; commanded to sacrifice a red cow, 62, etc.; demand
to see God, and their punishment, 117; refuse to enter the Holy Land, and their
punishment, 122; their transgression, 234; desire a king, 80; cursed by David and
Jesus, 128. Vide Jews.
Jacob bequeaths the religion of Islâm to his children, 68; grows blind by weeping for the
loss of Joseph, 208; recovers his sight by means of Joseph’s garment, and goes
into Egypt, 209.
Jahl (Abu), a great enemy of Mohammed, 271.
Jalût, or Goliah, slain by David, 81.
Jesus promised to Mary, 89; his miraculous birth, 89; compared to Adam, 90; speaks in his
mother’s womb, 105; and in his cradle, ib.; the apostle of the Jews, ib.; causes a
table with provisions to descend from heaven, 132; his miracles deemed sorcery,
132; rejected by the Jews, 90; sends two of his disciples to Antioch, who work
miracles, 343; a curse denounced against those who believe not on him, 90; the
Jews lay a plot for his life, but are disappointed, 90; not really crucified, ib., 117;
whether he died or not, 90; not God nor equal to God, 122, 173; but an apostle
only, 81, 380; the Word of God, 89; various opinions concerning him, 251.
Jethro, vide Shoaib.
Jews, vide Israelites; particularly applied to, 60, 66; plot against
Jesus, 90; their unbelief, 64; covetous of life, 64; reproved for warring against one
another, 64; proof required by them of a prophet’s mission, 100; their punishments
at different times for neglect of their religion, 126; metamorphosed into apes and
swine for their infidelity, 62, 126, 132; pretend their punishment in hell shall be short,
64, 88; their law confirmed by Jesus and the Korân, 125; their laws concerning food,
145; dispute with the Mohammedans concerning God’s favor, 271; Mohammed
refuses to decide a controversy between them, 125; league with the Koreish against
Mohammed, 108; demand that Mohammed cause a book to descend from heaven,
117; controversy between a Jew and a Mohammedan, 108.
Jews and Christians accused of condemning one another, 66; and of corrupting the
scriptures, 91; guilty of two extremes as to their opinion of Christ, 118; none of them
shall die before he believes in Christ, 117; their different behavior to the Moslems,
128; to be protected on payment of tribute, 173.
Job, his story, 268, 354.
John, the son of Zacharias, his character, 89; his murder revenged on the Jews by
Nebuchadnezzar, 234; the miracle of his blood, ib.
Jonâda first practices the intercalation of a month among the Arabs, 174.
Jonas, his story, 191, 352, 436; called Dhu’lnûn, 268.
Joseph, his story, 202.
Joshua and Caleb sent as spies into the land of Canaan, 122.
Journey, Mohammed’s to heaven, 234.
Judgment (day of), the Mohammedan tradition concerning it, 88; described, 289, 426, 428,
437, 454; the signs of its approach, 392; called the Hour, 135; unknown to any
besides God, 163; will come suddenly, ib.; and inevitably, 187.
Al Judi, the mountain whereon Noah’s ark rested, 195.
Just and unjust, the difference between them, 375.
Al Kadr, the name of the night on which the Korân came down from heaven, 465.
Kârûn (or Corah), his story and fearful end, 312.
Kebla, indifferent, 66, changed from Jerusalem to Mecca, 68, 69; (?)
Khawla bint Thalâba, her case occasions a passage of the Korân, 417.
Al Khedr, the prophet, his adventures with Moses, 247.
Korân could not be composed by any besides God, 187; men and genii defied to
produce a chapter like it, ib., 240; no forgery, 437; sent down by God himself, 142;
its excellency, 312; consonant to scripture, 193, 310; no revelation more evident,
163; contains all things necessary, 136, 230; all differences to be decided by it, 105;
its contents partly literal and partly figurative, 86; traduced by the unbelievers, 288;
as a piece of sorcery, 183, as a poetical composition, 346; as a pack of fables, 225;
the sentence of those who believe not in it, 385;
when revealed, 384; not liable to corruption, 192; ought not to be touched by the
unclean, 414.
Koreish (the tribe of), their nobility, 469; demand miracles of him, 214; threaten him for
abusing their gods, 359; propound three questions to him, 240; some of them
attempt to kill him, but are struck blind, 343; lose seventy of their principal men at
Bedr, 86, 168; persecute Mohammed’s followers, 224; and several diseases, 223;
their manner of praying, 167.
Lapwing gives Solomon an account of the city of Saba, 301; carries a letter from him to the
queen, ib.; her sagacity in finding water, ib.
Last day, vide Judgment.
Law given to Moses, 61; confirmed by Jesus, 89; and the Korân, 60.
Laws relating to inheritances, 102, 118; legacies, 72, 139; to divorce, vide Divorce; to
murder, vide Murder, etc.
Leith (Banu) thought it unlawful to eat alone, 287.
Lokmân, his history, 323; whether the same with Esop, 323.
Lot, his story, 154, 198; his wife’s infidelity, 432.
Lote-tree in heaven, 405.
Lots forbidden, 76, 128.
Madian, a city of Hejâz, 154; its inhabitants destroyed, 299.
Magog, vide Gog.
Malec, the principal angel who has the charge of hell, 381.
Man, his wonderful formation, 358; created various ways, 270; shall be rewarded according
to his deserts, 106; ought to be thankful for the good things of this life, 346; his
ingratitude to God, 321; his presumption in undertaking to fulfill the laws of God, 363;
why destroyed, 202.
Manna given to the Israelites, 62.
Marriage, laws relating thereto, 103; Mohammed’s privileges as to marriage, 332, etc.; apt
to distract a man from his duty, 428.
Martyrs, not dead but living, 70; the sufferings of two Mohammedans, 232.
Marût, vide Harût.
Mary, the Virgin, her story, 251; free from original sin, 88, miraculously fed, ib.; calumniated
by the Jews, 117; a woman of veracity, 128.
Al Mashér al Harâm, 74.
Masúd (Ebn), a tradition of his in relation to Pharaoh, 366.
Maturity of age, 102.
Measure ought to be just, 154, 455.
Mecca, the security and plenty of that city, 93. See Caaba.
Meccans, their idolatry and superstitions condemned, 144, 318; imagined their idols
interceded for them with God, 183; reproached for their ingratitude, 218; threatened
with destruction, 368.
Medina, its inhabitants reproved for declining the expedition of Tabûc, 182.
Menât, an idol of the Meccans, 404.
Merwa, vide Safâ.
Midian, vide Madian.
Milk, its production wonderful, 228.
Mina, the valley of, 75.
Miracles required of Mohammed, 445.
Months, sacred, to be observed, 74, 119, 130.
Moon split in sunder, 407.
Mohammed promised to Adam, 60; foretold by Christ, 425; expected by Jews and
Christians, 465; his journey to heaven, 234; sent as a mercy to all creatures, 269; the
illiterate prophet, 160; excuses his inability to work miracles, 142, 212; accused of
injustice in dividing the spoils, 98, 176; flies to Medina, 175; foretells the battle of
the ditch, 330; the fear of his men at that battle, ib.; his generosity, 396; makes a
truce with the Koreish for ten years, ib.; expostulates with his followers on their
unwillingness to go on the expedition to Tabûc, 175; reproves the hypocritical
Moslems, 109; his mercy to the disobedient, 98; his wives demand a better
allowance, on which he offers them a divorce, 330; they choose to stay with him, and
he lays down some rules for their behavior, ib.; his privileges in that and some other
respects, 332; his divorced wives or widows not to marry again, 332; not allowed to
pray for reprobate idolaters, 181; enjoined to admonish his people, 404; his near
relation to the believers, 328; challenges his opponents to produce a chapter like the
Korân, 59; desires nothing for his pains in preaching, 292; acknowledges himself a
sinner, 392; commanded to pray by night, 443; prophesies the defeat of the
Persians by the Romans, 318; reprehends his companions’ impatience, 314;
speaks by revelation, 404; his dream at Bedr, 168; his dream at Medina, 396; his
doctrine compared with that of the other prophets, 387; is terrified at the approach of
Gabriel, 444; is reprehended for his neglect of a poor blind man, 458.
Mohammedans believe in all the scriptures and prophets without distinction, 68; forbidden
to hold friendship with infidels, 95, 125; the hypocritical threatened, 182; the
lukewarm deceive their own souls, 393; the sincere, their reward, 311, their
description, 396.
Moses, his story, 156, 256, 293; his miraculous preservation in his infancy, 256; kills an
Egyptian, and flies into Midian, 307; is entertained by Shoaib, 308; sees the fire in
the bush, 300; is sent to Pharaoh, and receives the power of working miracles, 241;
his transactions in Egypt, 156, 190; brings water form the rock, 63; treats with God,
and receives the tables of the law from him, 62; breaks the tables, and is wroth with
Aaron on account of the golden calf, 160; threatens the people, ib.; part of his law
rehearsed, 147; his and Aaron’s relics in the ark, 80.
Moslems, vide Mohammedans.
Murder, laws concerning it, 72, 111.
Night, part of it to be spent in prayer, 443.
Nimrod disputes with Abraham, 82.
Noah, his story, 153, 194, 296; his prayer, 408; his wife’s infideliity, 432.
Oath, an inconsiderate one, how to be expiated, 129; an extraordinary one, 460.
Oaths, cautions concerning them, 77; not to be violated, 231.
Offerings to God recommended, 272; a large one made by Mohammed, ib.
Og, fables concerning him, 122.
Olive-trees grow at Mount Sinai, 277.
Opprobrious language forbidden, 397.
Orphans not to be injured, 103, 463; a curse on those who defraud them, 77; to be
instructed in religion, 103.
Ostrich’s egg, a fine woman’s skin compared to it, 348.
Ozair, vide Ezra.
Parables, 82, 218, 228, 245.
Paradise described, 214, 391, 410; its fruits, 59; the portion of the distressed, 76.
Pardon will be granted to the penitent, 171.
Parents to be honored, 236, 389; make their children infidels, 320.
Patience recommended, 103, 366.
Patriarchs before Moses neither Jews nor Christians, 69.
Pen with which God’s decrees are written, 435.
Penitent, their reward, 181.
Pentateuch, vide Law.
Persecutors, their sentence, 457.
Pharaoh, his story, 156, 190, 306; the common title of the kings of Egypt, 156; a
punishment used by him, 328; his presumption, 380.
Pico de Adam, vide Serendib.
Pilgrimage to Mecca commanded, 74; directions concerning it, 74, 93, 272.
Pledges to be given where no contract in writing, 84.
Poets censured, 303.
Pomp of this life of no value, 311.
Polygamy, vide Marriage.
Prayer commanded and enforced, 60, 66; directions concerning it, 101, 112, 121; not to be
entered on by him who is drunk, 107; before reading the Korân, 318; for the
penitent, 361.
Predestination, 97, 236.
Pride, abominable in the sight of God, 236.
Prodigality, a crime, 236.
Prophets, their enemy will have God for his, 65; rejected and persecuted before
Mohammed, 135, 184. Vide Sinai.
Prosperity or adversity no mark of God’s favor or disfavor, 460.
Punishments and blessings of the next life, 152; the manner, 174.
Quails given the Israelites, 62.
Quarrels between the true believers to be composed, 397; to be avoided on the
pilgrimage, 74.
Raïna, a word used by the Jews to Mohammed by way of derision, 66.
Al Rakim, what, 242.
Ramadân (the month) appointed for a fast, 73.
Ransom of captives disapproved, 170.
Religion, no violence to be used in it, 81; what is the right, 466; fighting for it commanded
and encouraged, 74, 97, 109, 166, 172; divided into various sects, 279; harmony
therein recommended, 94.
Repentance necessary to salvation, 104; a death-bed one ineffectual, ib.
Resurrection asserted, 236, 399; described, 281; the signs of its approach, 446; its time
known to God alone, 326.
Retaliation (the law of), 71.
Revenge allowed, 274.
Riches will not gain a man admission into paradise, 337; employ a man’s whole life, 468.
Righteous, their reward, 184.
Righteousness, wherein it consists, 71.
Rites appointed in every religion, 275.
Rock, whence Moses produced water, 62.
Saba, queen of, vide Balkîs.
Saba, the wickedness of his posterity, and their punishment, 335.
Sabbath, the transgression thereof punished, 161.
Safa and Merwâ, mountains of, two monuments of God, 70.
Saïba, 130.
Sâleh, the prophet, his story, 154, 297, etc. Vide Thamûd.
Salsabil, a fountain in paradise, 448 (?)
Salutation, mutual, recommended, 111.
Sarah, wife of Abraham, her laughing, 198.
Satan, his punishment for seducing our first parents, 148; believed to assist the Koreish,
168.
Sects and their leaders shall quarrel at the resurrection, 71.
Separation, the day of, a name of the day of judgment, 383.
Seventy Israelites demand to see God; are killed by lightning, and restored to life at the
prayer of Moses, 61.
Shoaib, the prophet, his story, 154, 199.
Al Sijil, the angel who takes an account of men’s actions, 269.
Sinai, Mount, lifted over the Israelites, 62, 65.
Slaves, how to be treated, 284; women not to be compelled to prostitute themselves,
284.
Slander forbidden, 397; the punishment of those who slander the prophets, 178, 468.
Sleepers, the seven, their story, 242.
Smoke, which will precede the day of judgment, 382.
Sodom and Gomorrah destroyed, 198.
Sodomy, 104.
Solomon succeeds David, 300; has power over the winds, 267; his and David’s judgment,
267; what passed between him and the queen of Saba, 301; a trick of the devil’s to
blast his character, 65; cleared by the mouth of Mohammed, ib.; orders several of
his horses to be killed, because they had diverted him from his prayers, 354; his
death concealed for a year, and in what manner, 335.
Soul, the origin of it, 240.
Spoils, laws concerning their division, 168.
Striking, an epithet of the last day, 467.
Supererogation, 238.
Sura, or chapter of the Korân, 177.
Sun and moon, not to be worshiped, 371; are subject to God and the use of man, 152.
Swearer, a common, not to be obeyed, 435.
Swine’s flesh. Vide Food.
Table caused to descend form heaven by Jesus, 132; of God’s decrees, 136.
Tables of the law, 159.
Talût, vide Saul.
Tasnîm, a fountain in paradise, 456.
Temple of Mecca, vide Caaba; of Jerusalem, built by genii, 335.
Thamûd, the tribe of, their story and destruction, 154, 273, 370. Vide Saleh.
Theft, its punishment, 124.
Throne of God, 81; will be borne by eight angels on the day of judgment, 437.
Thunder celebrates the praise of God, 212.
Time computed by the sun and moon, 141.
Tobba, the people of, destroyed, 383.
Towa, the valley where Moses saw the burning bush, 452.
Trinity, the belief thereof forbidden, 118, 128.
True believers, who are such, 276.
Trumpet will sound at the last day, 305, 361.
Unbelievers described, 338; their sentence, 70, 108, 359.
Unity of God asserted, 471.
Unrighteousness punished, 186.
Usury forbidden, 84, 321.
Al Uzza, an idol of the Meccans, 405.
Variety of languages and complexions hard to be accounted for, 319.
Victory of the Greeks over the Persians foretold by Mohammed, 319.
Visitation of the Caaba, 74.
War against infidels, commanded and recommended, 110, 391.
Wasîla, 130.
Water produced from the rock by Moses, 62.
Weight to be just, 155, 455.
Whoredom, laws concerning it, 104, 282.
Wicked, their sentence, 189, 220, 450. See Unbelievers.
Widows to be provided for, 79; laws relating to them, 79.
Wife ought to be used justly, 115; may be chastised, 79; the number of wives allowed by
the Korân, 102; their duty to their husbands, 78. See Adultery, Divorce and
Marriage.
Winds, their use, 321; subject to Solomon, 267, 354.
Wine forbidden, 76, 129.
Wills, laws relating to them, 130.
Witnesses, laws relating to them, 115, 130; necessary in bargains, and to secure debts,
84.
Women ought to be respected, 102; and to have a part of their relations’ inheritance, 103;
not to be inherited against their will, 104; to be subject to the men, 106; unclean
while they have their courses, 76; some directions for their conduct, 284, 397; the
punishment of those who falsely accuse them of incontinence, 282; those who come
over from the enemy, how to be dealt with, 424.
Works of an infidel, will appear to him at the last day, 135.
Zacharias, praying for a son, is promised John, 89, 250; educates the Virgin Mary, 89.
Al Zakkûm, the tree of hell, 238, 349.
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