Skip to main content

Full text of "The original sources of the Qur'ân"

See other formats 


en; 

00! 


THE 

OBIGINAL  SOUKCES 

OF 

THE  QUK'AN. 


BY    THE 


KEY.  W;  ST.  CLATR  TTSDALL,  M.A.,  T).D 

Author  of  "  The  Religion  of  the  Crescent,"  "  The  Noble 

Eightfold  Path,"  "Manual  of  Muliammadan 

Objections"  Ac.,  Ac. 


Reprint  of  1905  edition. 


.«•(  IETY  FOR  PROMOTING  CHRISTIAN  KNOWLEDGE. 
LONDON:    NORTHUMBERLAND  AVENUE,  W.C.; 

43,   QUEEN  VICTORIA  STREET,   E.f.  ; 

BRIGHTON:  129  NORTH  STREKT 
NEW  YORK  :  K.  S.  GORHAM  *V<"^ 

1911 


\ 


PUBLISHED  UNDER   THE   DIRECTION   OF  THE  TRACT  COMMITTEE. 


TO 

SIR  WILLIAM   MUIR,    K.C.S.I. 

LATE  PRINCIPAL  OF  THE  UNIVERSITY  OF  EDINBURGH 

AS 
A  SLIGHT  TOKEN  OF  RESPECT  AND  ESTEEM. 


PREFACE 

THE  work  which  is  now  offered  to  the  student  of 
Comparative  Religion  is  the  result  of  many  years' 
study  of  various  Oriental  Religions  ancient  and 
modern.  Except  in  Chapter  IV,  where  I  have 
made  much  use  of  Rabbi  Abraham  Geiger's  "  Was 
hat  Mohammed  aus  dem  Judenthume  aufgenom- 
men  ?  "  I  am  not  to  any  great  extent  indebted  to 
any  others  who  have  laboured  in  the  same  field. 
Wherever  I  have  been  conscious  of  any  indebted 
ness,  I  have  fully  acknowledged  it  in  the  text 
or  notes. 

An  investigation  of  the  sources  from  which  Islam 
has  sprung  would  be  valueless,  unless  based  upon 
a  thorough  personal  study  of  the  various  ancient 
records  quoted.  This  I  can  honestly  claim  to  have 
undertaken.  All  the  translations  I  give,  from 
whatever  language,  are  my  own,  except  one  or  two 
passages  from  the  Chinese,  which  language  I  have 
not  carefully  studied.  The  translations  which  I 
have  in  every  other  case  given  are  as  literal  as 
possible,  in  some  instances  too  literal  to  be  elegant. 
But  it  seemed  to  me  necessary  to  be  exact  in  order 
to  place  the  reader  in  a  position  to  judge  for  him 
self  of  the  correctness  or  incorrectness  of  my  argu 
ments.  In  each  case  I  have  ^iven  references  to  the 


8  PREFACE. 


works  in  which  the  translated  passages  will  be 
found  in  the  original  languages. 

I  have  used  an  exact  system  of  transliteration  for 
Arabic  names  (except  in  the  case  of  the  cities  of 
Mecca  and  Medina),  but  it  is  one  which  to  Arabic 
scholars  will  need  no  explanation. 

A  shorter  work  of  mine  on  the  same   subject 
appeared  in  Persian  in   1900,  under  the  title  of 
YandbMl  Islam.   It  was  very  favourably  reviewed1 
by  that  veteran  scholar  Sir  W.  Muir,  to  whom  all 
students  of  Islam   are  so  much  indebted  for  his 
able  works  on  the  history  of  Muhammad  and  his 
successors,  and  has  since  been  translated  into  Urdu 
and  Arabic.     Sir  W.  Muir  has  also  published  an 
English  epitome  of  the  little  book.     The  present 
work  is  the  result  of  further  study,  and  has  been 
written   at   the   invitation  of  many  friends,  who 
wished  to  have  the  whole  matter  treated  from  an 
English  standpoint,  which  was  undesirable  when 
I  first  dealt  with  the  subject  in  an  Eastern  tongue 
and  therefore  from  an  Oriental  point  of  view. 

W.  S.  C.  T. 

1  In  the  Nineteenth  Century  for  December,  1900. 

Note.    The  Frontispiece  is  not  quite  the  same  vignette  as 
that  described  and  explained  in  pp.  203-5. 


TABLE  OF   CONTENTS 

PAGE 

PREFACE    7 

CHAPTER  I. 

INTRODUCTORY 

CHAPTER  II. 

INFLUENCE  OF  ANCIENT  ARABIAN  BELIEFS  AND  PRACTICES  .       29 
APPENDIX  TO  CHAPTER  II 47 

CHAPTER  III. 
INFLUENCE  OF  SABIAN  AND  JEWISH   IDEAS  AND   PRACTICES 

CHAPTER  IV. 
INFLUENCE  OF    CHRISTIANITY  AND  CHRISTIAN  APOCRYPHAL 

BOOKS    ...  '36 

CHAPTER  V. 

ZOROASTRIAN    ELEMENTS    IN  THE   QURAN    AND   TRADITIONS  OF 

ISLAM 

CHAPTER  VI. 
THE  HAH!FS  AND  THEIR  INFLUENCE  UPON  NASCENT  ISLAM. 

CONCLUSION •        •        •         •     2"° 

INDEX 2Sl 


VIGNETTE. 
THE    JUDGMENT    HALL    OF    OSIRIS,    FROM    THE    EGYPTIAN 

"  BOOK  OF  THE  DEAD  " Frontispiece. 


THE    ORIGINAL    SOURCES    OF 
THE  QUR'AN. 


CHAPTER  I. 

INTRODUCTORY. 

THERE  is  much  truth  in  the  dictum  of  the  ancient 
Greek  philosopher  Democritus  that  "  Nothing  has 
sprung  from  nothing."  Islam,  as  the  Religion  of 
Muhammad  is  called  by  its  adherents,  is  certainly 
no  exception  to  this  rule.  The  important  part 
which  that  religion  has  played  for  good  or  ill  in 
the  history  of  the  human  race  and  the  widespread 
influence  which  it  still  continues  to  exert  in  many 
Eastern  lands  render  an  investigation  of  its  origin 
of  interest  to  everyone  who,  whether  from  a  re 
ligious,  a  historical,  or  a  merely  philosophical 
standpoint,  desires  to  investigate  one  of  the  most 
important  movements  in  the  history  of  the  human 
race.  The  labours  of  such  writers  as  Sprenger  and 
Weil  in  Germany  and  of  Sir  W.  Muir  in  England 
enable  us  to  know  all  that  need  be  known  regarding 
the  life  and  character  of  Muhammad  and  the  history 
of  the  Muhammadan  world.  With  these  matters 


12  THE    ORIGINAL    SOURCES    OF    THE 

therefore  it  is  unnecessary  for  us  here  to  deal.    It  is 
also  a  matter  of  common  knowledge  that  Muham- 
madans   profess   to   derive  their  religion  directly 
from   Muhammad   himself.     They  assert   that   he 
was  the  last  and  greatest  of  the  Prophets,  and  that 
their  faith  rests  upon  the  Qur'an,  which  contains 
the  Divine  Revelation  which  he  was  commissioned 
to  deliver  to  men.     In  addition  to  this  they  attach 
great  importance  to  the  authoritative  Traditions 
(AhddUJi)  handed  down  orally  from  the  lips  of  their 
Prophet  through  a  long  series  of  his  followers,  and 
only  in  much  later  times  committed  to  writing. 
These  two,  the  Qur  an  and  the  Traditions,  taken 
together,    form   the    foundation    of   Islam.     Much 
importance  is  also  attached  to  early  commentators 
on  the  Qur'an,  and  to  the  deductions  from  it  made 
by  early  jurists  and  doctors  of  the  law.     But  in 
our  investigation  of  the  origin  of  Islamic  beliefs 
and  practices  we  are  but  little  concerned  with  these 
latter,  except  in  so  far  as  they  throw  light  on  what 
is  really  believed  by  Muslims.    Even  the  Traditions 
themselves   play  but   a  subordinate   part   in   our 
inquiry,  since  their  authority— from  the  European 
point  of  view  at  least — is  so  very  uncertain.     Dif 
ferent  sects  of  Muhammadans,  too,  accept  different 
collections  of  Traditions J :  and  even  the  collectors 

1  Those  accepted  by  the  Sunnis  are  :  (i)  The  Muwattd  of  Malik 
ibn  Ans,  (2)  the  Jdmi'us  Sahih  of  Bukhari,  (3)  the  Sahih  of 
Muslim,  (4)  the  Sunan  of  Abu  Baud  Sulaiman,  (5)  the  'jam?  of 
Tirmidhi,  and  (6)  the  Kitabu's  Sunan  of  Muhammad  ibn  Yazid 
ibn  Majah  al  Qazwini.  The  Shi'ahs,  on  the  other  hand,  accept 


INTRODUCTORY.  T3 


of  these  Traditions  themselves  confess  that   many 
of  those  which  they  record  are  of  doubtful  accuracy. 
As  the  Traditions  deal  for  the  most  part,  moreover, 
with  the  sayings  and  doings  of  Muhammad,  we 
shall  have  occasion  to  refer  to  them  only  in  cases 
in  which  they  amplify  or  explain  the  teaching  of  the 
Qur  an  on  certain  points.    The  latter  book  contains 
some  obscure  and  difficult  passages,  the  meaning  of 
which   requires   to   be  explained  by  reference  to 
Tradition.      For   example,   the    fiftieth    Surah    or 
chapter  of  the  Quran  is   entitled  "Qaf,"  and   is 
denoted  by  the  Arabic  letter  of  that  name.     It  is 
not  possible  to  be  quite  certain  what  is  meant  by 
this  until  we  consult  the  Traditions,  which  tell  us 
what  is  to  be  believed  concerning  Mount  Qaf l,  to 
which  the  name  of  the  Surah  is  held  to  contain 
a  reference.     Again,  when  in   the  Surah  entitled 

no  traditions  as  authoritative  except  those  contained  in  (i)  the 
Kdfi  of  Abu  Ja'far   Muhammad    (A.H.    329),   (2)  the   Man 
yastaMirahu'l  Faqih  of  Shaikh  'AH  (A.H.  381),  (3)  the  Tahdhlb  of 
Shaikh  Abu  Ja'far  Muhammad  (A.  H.  466),  (4)  the  Istibac 
same  author,  and  (5)  the  Nahju'l  BalAghah  of  Sayyid  Radi  (A.  H. 
406).     The  student  will  find  in  the  Introduction  to  the 
edition  of  Sir  W.  Muir's  Life  of  Mahomet  an  admirable  investiga 
tion  of  the  sources  at  our  disposal  for  information  regarding 
Muhammad's  life,  and  also  an  account  of  the  way  in  which  the 
Qur'an  assumed  its  present  form,  together  with  a  discussion  oi 
the  value  and  reliability  of  Tradition.     It  is,  therefore,  un 
necessary  to  deal  with  the  matter  here  as  fully  as  it  would 
otherwise  have  had  to  be  treated.     I  may,  however,  add  that 
what  is  said  in  the  present  chapter  is  drawn  at  first  hand  from 
the  original  authorities. 
1  Vide  pp.  119,  sqq. 


14  THE    ORIGINAL    SOURCES    OF    THE 


"  The  Night  Journey  "  (Surah  XVII.),  we  read  in 
the  first  verse  the  words,  "Praise  be  unto  Him  who 
caused  His  servant  to  journey  by  night  from  the 
Sacred  Mosque  to  the  More  Distant  Mosque,"  we 
must  naturally  refer  to  Tradition  to  understand  the 
meaning  of  the  verse.  We  thus  learn  all  that 
the  'Ulama  of  Islam  know  for  certain  regarding  the 
journey  in  question,  generally  styled  the  "Ascent" 
(al  Mi  raj]  of  Muhammad. 

In  dealing  with  the  tenets  and  religious  rites  of 
Muslims,  we  shall  make  it  our  rule  not  to  concern 
ourselves  with  any  doctrine  or  practice  which  is 
not  implicitly  or  explicitly  taught  or  enjoined  in 
the  Qur'an  itself,  or  in  those  Traditions  which  are 
universally  accepted  by  all  Muhammadan  sects, 
with  the  partial  exceptions  of  the  Xeo-Muham- 
inadans  of  India,  who  are  not  recognized  as  Muslims 
by  the  rest  of  the  Muhammadan  world. 

It  may  be  well  to  point  out  the  fact  that,  though 
a  measure  of  inspiration  is  supposed  to  belong  to 
the  genuine  and  authoritative  Traditions,  yet  their 
authority  is  very  different  from  that  of  the  Qur'an, 
to  which,  however,  they  stand  in  the  second  place. 
This  is  indicated  by  the  difference  in  the  manner 
of  speaking  of  these  different  forms  of  revelation. 
The  Quran  is  styled  "  Recited  Revelation,"  and  the 
Traditions  "Unrecited  Revelation,"  because  the 
Qur'an  and  it  alone  is  considered  to  constitute 
the  very  utterance  of  God  Himself.  Hence  the 
rule  has  been  laid  down  that  any  Tradition,  how- 


INTRODUCTORY.  15 


ever  well  authenticated  it  may  be,  that  is  clearly 
contrary  to  a  single  verse  of  the  Qur'an  must  be 
rejected.  This  rule  is  an  important  one  for  us  to 
observe  in  dealing  with  matters  of  Muhammadan 
belief.  It  renders  it  unnecessary  for  us  to  involve 
ourselves  in  the  mazes  of  the  labyrinth  of  the 
controversy  as  to  which  traditions  are  genuine, 
which  doubtful,  and  which  unreliable.  It  is 
sufficient  for  our  present  purpose  to  note  that  in 
their  written  form  Traditions  are  considerably  later 
in  date  than  the  text  of  the  gur'an. 

Regarding  the  history  of  the  latter,  accepted  as 
it  is  by  all  Muslims  everywhere,  we  have  fairly 
full  and  satisfactory  information.  Some  of  the 
Surahs  may  have  been  written  down  on  any 
materials  that  came  to  hand  by  some  of  Muham 
mad's  amanuenses,  of  which  we  are  told  he  had 
a  considerable  number,  as  soon  as  they  wen-  tir>t 
recited  by  him.  The  knowledge  of  writing  was 
not  uncommon  in  his  time  among  the  Meccans,  for 
we  are  informed  that  some  of  the  latter,  when 
taken  captive,  obtained  their  liberty  by  instructing 
certain  of  the  people  of  Medina  in  the  art.  Whether 
written  down  at  once  or  not,  they  were  instantly 
committed  to  memory,  and  were  recited  at  the 
time  of  public  worship  and  on  other  occasions 
During  Muhammad's  lifetime  frequent  reference 
was  made  to  him  when  any  doubt  arose  with 
regard  to  the  proper  wording  of  a  passage.  Tradi 
tion  mentions  certain  Surahs  or  verses  which  were 


J6  THE    ORIGINAL    SOURCES    OF    THE    QUR'AN. 

preserved  in  a  written  form  in  the  houses  of 
Muhammad's  wives  during  his  life,  and  we  are 
even  told  that  some  verses  thus  written  were  lost 
and  never  recovered.  From  time  to  time  the 
Prophet  directed  newly  revealed  verses  to  be  in 
serted  in  certain  Surahs,  which  must  therefore 
have  already  assumed  form  and  have  even  received 
the  names  which  they  still  retain.  There  seems, 
however,  to  have  been  no  fixed  order  prescribed  in 
which  these  Surahs  should  be  arranged.  Each 
formed  a  more  or  less  independent  whole.  The 
task  of  learning  the  Surahs  by  heart  was  not  only 
a  labour  of  love  to  Muhammad's  devoted  followers, 
but  it  also  became  a  source  of  dignity  and  profit, 
since  not  only  were  those  who  could  recite  the 
largest  number  of  verses  entitled  in  very  early 
times  to  assume  the  position  of  Imam  or  leader  in 
public  worship,  but  they  were  also  considered  to 
have  a  claim  to  a  larger  share  of  the  spoil  than 
were  other  Muslims. 

About  a  year  after  Muhammad's  death,  as  we 
learn  from  Bukhari,  the  Qur'an  was  first  put  to 
gether  in  a  collected  whole.  This  was  done  by 
Zaid  ibn  Thabit,  one  of  Muhammad's  friends  and 
amanuenses,  at  the  command  of  Abu  Bakr.  The 
reason  for  this  step  was  that  'Umar  bnu'l  Khattab, 
perceiving  that  many  of  the  reciters  of  the  Qur'an 
had  fallen  in  the  fatal  battle  of  Yamamah  (A.  H. 
12),  saw  reason  to  fear  lest  the  Revelation  should 
thus  in  whole  or  in  part  be  lost.  He  therefore 


INTRODUCTORY. 


strongly  urged  the  Khalifah l  to  give  orders  that 
the  scattered  Surahs  should  be  collected  together 
and  preserved  in  an  authoritative  written  form. 
Zaid  at  first  felt  great  reluctance  to  do  what  the 
Prophet  himself  had  not  thought  lit  to  do,  but  he 
at  last  yielded  to  the  command  of  the  Khalifah. 
The  story2  as  told  in  his  own  words  runs  thus: 
"Abu  Bakr  said  to  me,  'Thou  art  a  learned  young 
man :  we  do  not  distrust  thee :  and  thou  wast  wont 
to  write  out  the  Divine  Revelation  for  the  Apostle 
of  God.  Seek  out  the  Qur'an  therefore  and  collect 
it.'  If  they  had  imposed  upon  me  the  duty  of 
removing  a  mountain,  it  would  not  have  weighed 
more  heavily  upon  me  than  what  he  commanded 
me  to  do  in  the  way  of  collecting  the  Qur'an. 
Abft  Bakr  did  not  desist  from  urging  me  to  collect 
it,  until  God  enlightened  my  breast  to  perceive 
what  'Umar  and  Abu  Bakr's  own  breast  had  made 
clear  to  the  latter.  Accordingly  I  searched  out  the 
whole  of  the  Qur'an  from  leafless  palm-branches 
and  from  white  stones  and  from  the  breasts  of 
men,  until  I  found  the  conclusion  of  Suratu't 
Taubah  (Surah  IX.,  v.  129)  with  Abu  Khuzaimah 
the  Ansari.  I  found  it  not  with  anyone  else." 

From  the  phrase  "to  collet-  the  Qur'an,"  it  is 
.-vident    that   the   book  had    not  previously   been 

1  This  word  is  generally,  but  wrongly,  spelt  Caliph.  It  is 
applied  to  Muhammad's  successors,  and  means  "  Vicegerent  (of 
the  Apostle  of  God)." 

a  Mishkdtu'l  Masdbih,  pp.  185  sqq.,  from  Bukhari. 
B 


l8  THE    ORIGINAL    SOURCES    OF    THE    QUR*AN. 

formed  into  one  united  whole.  His  reverence  for 
his  master  would  naturally  prevent  Zaid  from 
either  adding  to  or  omitting  anything  from  the 
Surahs  which  were  recited  to  him  by  many  persons 
from  memory,  and  in  some  cases  found  in  writing 
upon  the  various  writing  materials  which  were 
then  in  use.  The  fact  that  certain  circumstances 
most  derogatory  to  Muhammad's  claim  to  be  a 
Divinely  commissioned  prophet  are  still  to  be  found 
in  the  Qur'aii  is  a  conclusive  proof  of  the  scru 
pulous  accuracy  with  which  Zaid  discharged  the 
task  entrusted  to  him.  Nor  would  it  have  been 
possible  at  that  time  to  have  in  any  way  tampered 
with  the  text.  Within  a  year  or  two  he  had  com 
pleted  the  work  and  had  written  down  all  the 
Surahs,  each  apparently  on  a  separate  sheet.  It 
seems  that  there  is  some  reason  to  believe  that  the 
present  arrangement  of  the  Surahs  dates  from  that 
time.  On  what  system  it  rests  it  is  hard  to  say, 
except  that  the  Sfiratu'l  Fatihah  was  placed  first 
as  a  sort  of  introduction  to  the  book,  partly  no 
doubt  because  it  was  even  then  universally  used 
as  a  prayer,  and  so  was  better  known  than  an}' 
other.  The  other  Surahs  were  arranged  on  the 
principle  of  putting  the  longest  first.  Thus  the 
shortest  come  at  the  end  of  the  book.  This  is 
almost  the  direct  converse  of  their  chronological 
order.  Tradition  enables  us  to  know  in  what  order 
and  on  what  occasion  most  of  the  Surahs,  and  in 
certain  cases  some  of  their  verses,  were  "  revealed," 


INTRODUCTORY  19 


but  in  our  present  inquiry  it  is  not  necessary  to 
deal  with  this  matter '  at  all  fully,  important  as  it 
doubtless  is  for  the  study  of  the  steady  develop 
ment  of  the  Faith,  as  it  gradually  took  shape  in 
Muhammad's  own  mind. 

Zaid  on  the  conclusion  of  his  work  handed  over 
the  manuscript,  written  doubtless  in  the  so-called 
Cufic  character,  to  Abu  Bakr.  The  latter  preserved 
it  carefully  until  his  death,  when  it  was  committed 
to  the  custody  of  'Umar,  after  whose  decease  it 
passed  into  the  charge  of  Hafsah,  his  daughter,  one 
of  Muhammad's  widows.  Copies  of  separate  Surahs 
were  afterwards  made  either  from  this  or  from  the 
original  authorities  which  Zaid  had  used. 

Errors,  or  at  least  variations,  gradually  crept 
into  the  text  of  the  Qur'an  as  it  was  recited,  and 
possibly  also  into  these  fragmentary  copies.  Abft 
Bakr  does  not  seem  to  have  caused  authoritative 
transcripts  of  the  single  manuscript  which  Zaid  had 
written  to  be  made,  and  hence  it  could  not  counter 
act  the  very  natural  tendency  to  alteration,  mostly 
or  wholly  unintentional,  to  which  the  Qur'an,  like 
every  other  work  handed  down  orally,  was  liable. 
There  were  different  dialects  of  Arabic  then  in  use, 
and  there  must  have  been  a  tendency  in  the  first 

1  The  Surahs  are  arranged  as  nearly  as  possible  in  chrono 
logical  order  in  Rodwell's  translation  of  the  Qur'an,  though 
doubtless  certain  early  Surahs  had  verses  of  later  date  inserted 
into  them  long  after  they  were  written.  See  Canon  Sell's 
"Historical  Development  of  the  Qur'an." 
B  2 


20  THE    ORIGINAL    SOURCES    OF    THE    QUR'AN. 

place  to  explain  certain  words,  and  in  the  second 
to  permit  these  dialectic  paraphrases  to  find  an 
entrance  into  the  recited  verses.  This  caused  no 
little  confusion  and  perplexity  in  the  minds  of 
pious  Muslims.  At  last  'Uthman,  when  engaged 
in  the  task  of  conquering  Armenia  and  Azarbaijan, 
was  warned  by  Hudhaifah  ibnu'l  Yaman  of  the 
danger  which  there  was  lest  the  original  should  be 
very  seriously  corrupted  in  this  way.  Bukhari1 
tells  us  that  Hudhaifah  said  to  'Uthman,  "  O  Com 
mander  of  the  Faithful,  restrain  this  people,  before 
they  differ  among  themselves  about  the  Book  as 
much  as  the  Jews  and  the  Christians  do."  The 
Khalifah  therefore  sent  to  bid  Hafsah  forward  to 
him  the  original  manuscript  to  be  copied,  promising 
to  return  it  to  her  when  this  had  been  done.  He 
then  commissioned  Zaid,  in  conjunction  with  three 
members  of  Muhammad's  own  tribe,  the  Quraish, 
to  produce  a  recension  of  the  work.  At  least  this 
is  what  his  language  seems  to  imply,  for  he  said  to 
the  three  Quraishites,  "  Whenever  ye  differ,  ye  and 
Zaid  ibn  Thabit,  in  reference  to  any  part  of  the 
Qur'an,  then  write  it  in  the  dialect  of  the  Quraish, 
for  it  was  revealed  in  their  language."  We  are 
told  that  the  new  recension  was  copied  from  the 
original  manuscript,  and  so  doubtless  it  was  for 
the  most  part.  Yet  the  words  we  have  quoted 
prove  that  certain  alterations  must  have  been 
made,  though  no  doubt  in  good  faith,  and  prin- 

1  Mishkdtu'l  Masdbih,  pp.  185,  186 


INTRODUCTORY.  21 


cipally  to  preserve  the  purity  of  the  Meccan  dialect 
of  the  book.  Another  proof  that  some  change  was 
made  is  afforded  by  the  statement  that  on  this 
occasion  Zaid  recollected  a  verse  which  was  not  in 
the  first  copy,  and  which  he  had  himself  heard 
Muhammad  recite.  He  did  not,  however,  venture 
to  insert  it  merely  on  his  own  authority,  but 
searched  until  he  found  another  man  who  could 
recite  it  from  memory.  When  this  was  done,  the 
verse  was  entered  in  Sitratu'l  Ah/ab.  Then 
"'Uthman1  returned  the  sheets  to  Hafsah,  and 
sent  to  every  region  an  exemplar  of  what  they  had 
copied  out,  and  with  reference  to  every  sheet  and 
volume  of  the  Qur'an  besides  this  he  commanded 
that  it  should  be  burned." 

This  last  proceeding  may  seem  to  us  arbitrary  2, 
but  it  has  succeeded  in  preserving  the  text  of  the 
Qur'an  from  that  day  to  this  in  practically  one  and 
the  same  form  in  all  Muhammadan  lands.  Even 
Hafsah's  copy,  the  only  one  which  in  any  important 
respect  differed  from  the  revised  edition  after  the 
execution  of  'Uthman's  command,  was  on  that 
account  burned  in  Marwan's  time.  The  very  few 
differences  of  reading  which  diligent  search  has 


Jj 


2  See  the  objections  stated  in  Al  Kindi's  Apology,  Sir  W.  Muir'a 
translation,  pp.  72-8. 


22  THE    ORIGINAL    SOURCES    OF    THE    QUR*AN. 

revealed  in  various  copies  of  the  Qur'an  now  extant 
consist  almost  wholly  in  the  position  of  the  dots 
which  distinguish  from  one  another1  the  letters 
cy,  (j  and  ,j,  and  these  letters  have  no  such  dia 
critical  marks  in  the  old  Cufic  alphabet. 

We  are  therefore  led  to  the  conclusion  that  we 
still  have  the  Qur'an  as  Muhammad  left  it,  and 
hence  we  may,  with  almost  perfect  certainty  as  to 
the  correctness  of  the  text,  proceed  to  study  the  book 
in  order  to  ascertain  what  he  taught  and  whence 
he  derived  the  various  statements  and  doctrines 
which,  contained  in  the  Qur'an  and  explained  and 
amplified  in  the  Traditions,  constitute  the  Religion 
of  Islam. 

In  discussing  the  origin  of  Islam  it  is  right  in 
the  first  place  to  consider  the  statements  on  the 
subject  which  are  made  by  the  leading  teachers 
and  Doctors  of  the  Law  among  the  Muslims,  and 
to  inquire  whether  their  opinions  on  this  point  are 
supported  by  the  assertions  of  the  Qur'an  itself. 
We  shall  then  proceed  to  investigate  the  question 
whether  it  is  possible  for  us  to  accept  these  state 
ments  as  the  correct  explanation  of  the  facts  of  the 
case. 

It  is  well  known  that  the  'Ulama  'of  Islam 
assert  and  have  always  asserted  that  the  Qur'an  is 
the  Word  of  God  Himself,  which  the  Most  High 
caused  to  be  inscribed  upon  "  the  Preserved  Tablet " 

1  A  few  examples  of  such  various  readings  occur  in  Surah  VI., 
Al  An'am,  91. 


INTRODUCTORY.  23 


in  Heaven,  long  ages  before  the  creation  of  the 
world.  Although  in  the  reign  of  the  Khalifah 
Al  Ma'mun  (A.H.  i98-2i8  =  A.D.  813-33)  and  after 
wards  there  occurred  many  fierce  disputes  between 
those  who  held  that  the  Quran  was  eternal  and 
those  who  believed  that  it  was  created,  into  which 
discussion  it  is  not  necessary  for  us  to  enter,  yet 
all  Muslims  have  always  agreed  in  holding  that 
the  book  is  not  the  composition  of  Muhammad  or 
of  any  other  human  author.  On  the  contrary,  they 
believe  that  it  is  entirely  the  work  of  God  Himself, 
and  that  Muhammad  was  merely  His  messenger 
in  this  respect,  whose  duty  it  was  to  receive  the 
Divine  book  and  communicate  it  to  men.  Tradi 
tion  tells  us  that  the  book  was  brought  down  on 
one  particular  night1  from  the  highest  to  the 
lowest  heaven  by  the  Archangel  Gabriel,  who 
afterwards  gradually  conveyed  the  verses  and 
chapters  to  the  mind  and  tongue  of  Muhammad. 
Accordingly  there  is  nothing  whatever  that  is 
human  about  the  Qur  an :  it  is  wholly  and  entirely 
of  Divine  origin. 

That  our  readers  may  perceive  that  this  is  really 
the  orthodox  Muhammadan  view  of  the  matter, 
we  here  quote  two  passages  on  the  subject  from 
the  well-known  Arabic  writer  Ibn  Khaldun. 
"Know  therefore,"  he  says2,  "that  the  Quran 

1  Called  the  "  Night  of  Power." 

j  wyil  i*li  JjJ  j^ 


24  THE    ORIGINAL    SOURCES    OF    THE    QUR'AN. 


descended  in  the  language  of  the  Arabs  and  in 
accordance  with  their  style  of  eloquence,  and  all 
of  them  understood  it  and  knew  its  various  mean 
ings  in  its  several  parts  and  in  their  relation  to 
one  another.  And  it  continued  to  descend,  section 
by  section  and  in  groups  of  verses,  in  order  to 
explain  the  doctrine  of  the  Unity  of  God  and 
religious  obligations,  according  as  circumstances 
required.  Some  of  these  verses  consist  of  articles 
of  faith,  and  some  of  them  of  commandments  for 
the  regulation  of  conduct."  In  another  passage 
the  same  writer  says,  "  All  this  l  is  a  proof  to  thee 
that,  amid  the  Divine  Books,  it  was  verily  the 
Quran  with  which  our  Prophet  (may  God's  bless 
ings  and  His  peace  be  upon  him  !)  was  inspired,  in 
the  form  of  something  recited  just  as  it  is  in  its 
words  and  in  its  sections  ;  whereas  the  Law  and 
the  Gospel  on  the  other  hand,  and  all  the  other 
Heavenly  Books,  were  revealed  to  the  Prophets  in 


Lo   l^laj   A-oUi^l  JoUbJl  J  y*  U   l^loj 
(Arabic  Text,  vol.  ii.,  p.  391.) 


I*.$\j2    8J'lJi5o 
-U-S5II    $3    AJj 

sJlll  Jl  ^c^  j»>  l^  UJ-roo,  jU  ^1  JU  j  Ui 


(Vol.  i.,  pp.  171,  172.) 


INTRODUCTORY.  25 


the  form  of  ideas  when  they  were  in  a  state  of 
ecstasy,  and  they  explained  them,  afti-r  their  return 
to  man's  ordinary  condition,  in  their  own  customary 
language :  and  therefore  there  is  nothing  miraculous 
in  them."     That  is  to  say,  the  'Ulama  of  Islam, 
while   acknowledging   that   other    prophets    came 
before  Muhammad  and  brought  Divine  messages 
to  man,  yet  hold  that  the  inspiration  of  the  Quran 
differs  not  only  in  degree  but  in  kind  from  that  to 
which  other  sacred  books,  as  for  instance  the  Law 
and  the  Gospel,  are  due.     The  writers   of   these 
books  received  certain  i'/ra»  from  God  in  some  way, 
but  the  language  which  they  afterwards  used  to 
express  these  conceptions  was  their  own.  and  can 
not  therefore  claim  any  origin  higher   than   the 
human.   Muhammad,  on  the  contrary,  heard  Gabriel 
reading   aloud   or   reciting   in   a    voice   distinctly 
audible  to  him  every  single  word  of  the  Quran, 
according  as  it  was  inscribed  on  the   "  Preserved 
Tablet"   in   heaven.      Arabic    is   held   to   be   the 
language  of  heaven  and  of  the  angels,  and  hence 
in  the  Quran  we  have  the  very  words,  as  well  as 
the   Word,  of   God    Himself.     Words,    metaphors, 
reflections,  narratives,  style,  all    are   wholly   and 
entirely  of  Divine  origin. 

There  can  be  no  doubt  that  this  view  is  in  com 
plete  accordance  with  the  statements  of  the  Quran 
itself.  The  Divine  original  is  styled  "  the  Mother 
of  the  Book  "  (Surah  XIII.,  Ar  Ra'd,  39).  Again 
and  again  in  varied  forms  are  such  assertions 


26  THE    OBIGINAL    SOURCES    OP    THE 


as  the  following  to  be  found  in  the  Qur'an  : 
•'Nay,  it  is  a  glorious  Quran  in  a  Preserved 
Tablet  "  (Surah  LXXXV.,  Al  Buruj,  21,  22).  The 
word  Quran  itself  denotes  this,  meaning  "that 
which  is  recited:'  In  another  place  we  read  that 
God  Most  High  commanded  Muhammad  to  say, 
"God  is  witness  between  me  and  you,  and  this 
Quran  was  given  me  by  inspiration  that  I  might 
warn  you  therewith  "  (Surah  VI.,  Al  Anam,  19). 
So  also  in  Surah  XCVIL,  Al  Qadr,  i,  God  is  repre 
sented  as  saying  with  reference  to  the  Quran, 
"  Verily  We  caused  it  to  descend  on  the  Night  of 
Power."  Such  quotations  might  be  almost  in 
definitely  multiplied  l. 

The  Muhammadaii  explanation  of  the  origin  of 
Islam  therefore,  based  as  it  ultimately  is  upon  the 
Qur'an,  is  that  the  sole  Source  and  Fountain-head 
of  the  Religion  of  Islam  is  God  Himself.  It  had 
accordingly  no  human  source,  and  no  single  part 
of  it  was  derived  directly  or  indirectly  from  earlier 
revelations  or  from  other  religions,  though  it  was 
revealed  to  confirm  the  Law  and  the  Gospel,  and 
claims  to  agree  with  their  original  and  uncorrupted 
teaching  (cf.  Surah  LVIL,  Al  Hadid,  26,  sqq.). 

European  readers  hardly  require  proof  that  such 
an  opinion  of  the  origin  of  Islam  in  general  and  of 
the  Qur  an  in  particular  is  untenable.  Those  who 
cannot  read  the  book  in  the  original  Arabic  are 
enabled  to  examine  its  teaching  by  consulting  the 
'  Cf.  Surahs  IV.,  84  ;  XVII,  107  j  XLVL,  7  ;  LIII,  4  ;  Ac.,  Ac. 


INTRODUCTORY.  27 


various  translations  of  the  Quran  which  have  been 
made  into  various  European  languages,  the  best- 
known  of  the  English  versions  being  those  by  Sale, 
Rodwell,  and  Palmer.  To  an  intelligent  mind  the 
assertion  which  we  are  considering  refutes  itself. 
Moreover,  the  morality  of  the  Qur'an,  its  view  of 
the  Divine  Nature,  its  anachronisms,  and  its  many 
defects  make  it  impossible  for  us  to  doubt  that  it  is 
Muhammad's  own  composition.  When  the  Surahs 
are  arranged  in  the  chronological  order  of  their 
composition  and  compared  with  the  events  in 
Muhammad's  life,  we  see  that  there  is  much  truth 
in  the  statement  that  the  passages  were— not,  as 
Muslims  say,  revealed,  but— composed  from  time  to 
time,  as  occasion  required,  to  sanction  each  new 
departure  made  by  Muhammad1.  The  Qur'an  is 
a  faithful  mirror  of  the  life  and  character  of  its 
author.  It  breathes  the  air  of  the  desert,  it  enables 
us  to  hear  the  battle-cries  of  the  Prophet's  followers 
as  they  rushed  to  the  onset,  it  reveals  the  working 
of  Muhammad's  own  mind,  and  shows  the  gradual 
declension  of  his  character  as  he  passed  from  the 
earnest  and  sincere  though  visionary  enthusiast 
into  the  conscious  impostor  and  open  sensualist. 
All  this  is  clear  to  every  unprejudiced  reader  of 
the  book. 

At  the  same  time  the  question  presents  itself, 
Whence  did  Muhammad  borrow  the  ideas,  the 
narratives,  the  precepts,  which  he  has  incorporated 

1  Vide  pp.  275  sqq. 


28  THE    ORIGINAL    SOURCES    OF    THE 


into  the  religion  which  he  founded?     Which   of 
these  were  his  own  invention,  which  of  them  were 
derived  from  earlier  systems  ?    To  what  extent  had 
he  the  means  of  learning  the   teachings  of  those 
who  professed  other  religions  than  his  own?     If 
he  borrowed  from  other  systems,  what  particular 
parts  of  the  Quran,  what  religious  rites,  what  con 
ceptions  and  narratives,  what  injunctions  can  be 
traced  to  each  such  source?      How  much  of  the 
result  is  due  to  the  character  of  Muhammad  him 
self  and  to  the  circumstances  of  his  time  ?     Such 
are  some  of  the  problems  which  it  is  our  object  in 
this  book  to  solve  as  clearly  and  as  succinctly  as 
we  may.     From  whatever  point  of  view  we  may 
regard  the  inquiry,  it  can  hardly  fail  to  be   in 
teresting.     Such  an  investigation,  if  honestly  pur 
sued,   will    enable    a    Muslim    to    appreciate    his 
ancestral  faith  at  its  real  and  proper  value.     The 
student  of  Comparative  Religion  will  learn  from 
such  an  analysis  how  one  Ethnic  Faith  arose  in 
recent  historical  times,  though,  if  he  is  wise,  he 
will  not  be  led  to  formulate  rash  conclusions  from 
a  single  instance.     The  Christian  Missionary  may 
also  find  it  important  to  follow  out  our  investiga 
tions,  in  order  to  discover  in  them  a  new  method 
of  leading  Muslim   inquirers  to  perceive  the  un 
tenable   nature  of   their   position.     Setting  aside, 
however,  all   such   considerations,  we   proceed   to 
inquire  what  the  Original  Sources  of  the  Qur'an 
really  were. 


CHAPTER  II. 

THE  INFLUENCE  OF  ANCIENT  ARABIAN  BELIEFS 
AND  PRACTICES. 

IN  order  to  be  able  to  understand  the  gradual 
development  of  Islam  in  Muhammad's  mind,  and 
to  discover  from  what  sources  he  borrowed,  it  is 
necessary  in  the  first  place  to  consider  the  religious 
opinions  and  observances  of  the  Arabs  among  whom 
he  was  born  and  bred. 

The  inhabitants  of  Arabia  were  not  all  of  one 
race.  Arabic  writers  in  general  divide  them  into 
pure  or  original  Arabs  and  those  who,  coming  from 
other  countries,  had  become  Arabicized.  Himya- 
rites  and  certain  other  tribes  present  us  with  traces 
of  affinity  with  the  ^Ethiopians,  and  the  accounts 
which  the  cuneiform  tablets  give  us  of  early  con 
quests  of  parts  of  the  country  by  the  Sumerian 
kings  of  Babylonia,  coupled  with  the  fact  that  the 
early  Egyptian  kings  for  a  time  held  sway  over 
the  Sinaitic  Peninsula  and  possibly  over  other 
districts  in  the  North  and  West,  leave  no  doubt 
that  there  were  even  in  early  times  Hamitic  and 
other  foreign  elements  in  the  population.  In  the 


3°  THE    INFLUENCE    OF    ANCIENT    ARABIAN 

days  of  the  great  Cushite  monarchies  in  Babylonia, 
not  only  must  the  people  of  Arabia  have  been  to 
some  degree  affected  by  their  civilization,  their 
trade  and  their  ideas  in  general,  but  the  influence 
of  the  religion  also  of  these  foreign  nations  must 
have  been  considerable.  Early  Arabian  inscriptions 
prove  this,  containing  as  they  do  the  names  of  such 
deities  as  Sin  (the  Moon-god)  and  'Aththar  (Ash- 
toreth,  Ishtar),  worshipped  by  the  Sumerians  in 
the  first  place  and  afterwards  by  the  Semites  of 
Babylonia,  Assyria,  Syria,  and  of  some  parts  of 
Arabia.  Yet,  though  there  was  doubtless  a  Hamitic 
element  in  the  population,  the  great  mass  of  the 
people  from  very  early  times  has  always  been 
Semitic  in  origin,  and  also  in  language,  character, 
and  religion. 

Ibn  Hisham,  Tabari,  and  other  Arabian  historians 
have  preserved  ancient  traditions  of  certain  Arab 
tribes,  particularly  those  of  the  northern  and 
western  parts  of  the  country.  These  agree  with 
the  statements  of  the  Pentateuch,  and  give  every 
reason  to  believe  that  most  of  these  tribes  could 
trace  their  descent  to  Joktan  (Ar.  Qahtan l),  or  to 
Ishmael,  or  to  Abraham's  children  by  Keturah. 
Even  those  who  had  no  real  right  to  claim  such 
lineage  did  so  in  Muhammad's  time.  The  Quraish, 
his  own  tribe,  claimed  descent  from  Abraham 
through  Ishmael.  Although  it  may  be  considered 

1  It  is  unnecessary  for  us  to  discuss  the  anachronism  involved 
in  this  identification. 


BELIEFS    AND    PRACTICES.  31 

impossible  to  prove  this,  the  very  fact  that  such 
was  the  belief  of  the  tribe  would  naturally  enlist 
a  certain  amount  of  popular  sympathy  in  Muham 
mad's  cause,  when  he  claimed  to  be  commissioned 
to  recall  his  people  to  the  "faith  of  Abraham," 
whom  they  boasted  of  as  their  ancestor. 

There  seems   good  reason   to   believe   that   the 
original  religion  of  the  children  of  Shem  was  the 
worship  of  the  One  l  God.     Although  polytheism 
had  even  in  very  early  times  found  an  entrance 
into  Arabia,  in  part  doubtless  through  the  foreign 
influences  already  referred  to,  yet  the  belief  in  the 
One  true  God  had  never  entirely  faded  away  from 
the  minds  of  the  people.     The  most  binding  agree 
ments  between  different  tribes  were  confirmed  by 
an    oath  taken  in   calling   on    the   name   of   God 
(Allah,  AUdhmnma),  and  the  expression,  "  An  enemy 
of   God,"  was  deemed  the  most  opprobrious  that 
could  be  used.     It  is  possible  that  we  may  see  in 
the  Book  of  Job  the  proof  that  even  in  that  early 
period  the  worship  of   the   Host  of  Heaven  was 
finding  an  entrance  into   the   country  (Job  xxxi. 
26-8).     Herodotus   (Book  III.,  cap.  8)   informs  us 
that    two    deities,   a    male    and    a    female,   were 
worshipped  by  the  Arabs  in  his  time,  and  these  he 
identifies   with   Dionysos   and    Ourania.      He   in 
forms  us  that  their  names  in  Arabic  were  ' 


1  This  is  not  the  place  to  enter  upon  the  proof  of  the  matter, 
but  I  hold  that  the  fact  stated  in  the  text  is  correct,  in  spite  of 
all  that  has  recently  been  written  on  the  other  side. 


32  THE    INFLUENCE    OF    ANCIENT    ARABIAN 

and  'AAiAar  respectively.  The  latter  is  very 
possibly  the  Alldtu  of  Babylonia,  and  is  certainly 
the  Al-ldt  mentioned  in  the  Qur'an1.  The  latter 
word  was  taken  to  be  the  feminine  of  Allah  (10l), 
"  God:"  Allah  itself  is  known  to  be  a  contraction 
of  Al  Ildh,  which  is  the  word  used  in  all  the 
Semitic  languages  (in  slightly  varied  forms)  for 
God,  with  the  definite  article  prefixed,  so  that 
Allah  is  the  exact  equivalent  of  the  Greek  6  0eoy. 
The  form  'A\tAdr  which  is  given  us  by  Herodotus 
is  the  uncontracted  form  of  the  feminine  of  the 
same  word2.  It  is  possible  that  the  Arabs  of 
whom  Herodotus  speaks3  provided  their  one  God 
with  a  female  consort,  after  the  manner  of  the 
Semites  of  Babylonia,  who  had  learnt  from  the 


1  Surah  LIIL,  19. 

2  In  Assyrian  Ilu  is  God,  llatu  is  "goddess."  Alldtu  is  probably 
from  the  Accadian. 

8  As  we  shall  have  to  refer  to  it  again,  it  may  oe  well  to 
quote  the  passage  at  length.  It  runs  thus  :  2e/3oi/rm  5c  'Apaftioi 
many  dvOpuircav  dpoia  ro?ai  fj.d\iara.  iroitvvrai  8%  avrds  rpoirca  rotaiSe- 
T&V  $ov\op.tv(av  TO,  mara  iroieeaOai,  d\\os  dvr)p  df^cpoTfpcav  avrtuv  fv 
careers  \idtu  6£ei  TO  fffca  TWV  xetpSiv  irapa  TOUJ  SafervXovs  TOVS 

fi  T&V  iroicvpfVQJV  rds  iriffris'  KO.I  eneira 
TOV  IfMTiov  fKarepov  KpoKvSa  d\(i<pei  r£>  ai'/nart  iv  /i€<ra> 
XiOovs    (TTTa-    rovro  Se    -noifcav    €iritca\((t   TOV   TC    Aiovvcov   Kai   TTJV 
Ovpavtrjv.    €iriTe\e<TavTos  8t  TOVTOV  raura,   6  raj  ITICTTIS 

<pi\oiai    irapeyyvq   TOV  £(tvov,   r)  Kal  TOV  dffTov,  r]v  irpos 

of  Se  (piXoi  Kal  avTol  TO?  TT'IO'TIS  oiKcucvai  0€@(ar9ai.  Aiovvarov 
o€  Of ov  fiovvov  Kal  TTJV  Ovpavirjv  -fjyfvvTai  tTvar  Kal  TWV  Tptxwv  TT)V 
KfipeaOai  <paat}  Ka6dirfp  avTov  T^V  Aiovvaov  KCKapOai'  KfipovTai 
-,  irepi£vpovvTfs  TOVS  KpoTa<povs.  ovvofjid^ovo't  8%  TOV  /uey 
Ai6vvaov,  'Opord\'  rfv  of  Ovpaviijv,  'A\i\dT  (Herod.  Lib.  III.,  8). 


BELIEFS    AND    PRACTICES.  33 

Sumerians  the  idea  that  each  deity  must  have  his 
feminine l  counterpart,  just  as  we  find  among  the 
Hindus.  On  the  other  hand,  we  are  not  justified  in 
believing  that  this  was  the  case  among  all  the 
Arabs.  Certainly  it  was  not  so  in  Muhammad's 
time,  for  neither  the  Qur'an  nor  any  of  the  remains 
of  the  most  ancient  poetry  of  the  Arabs  afford  any 
trace  of  such  a  tenet.  Allah  was  regarded  as 
standing  alone  and  unapproachable,  and  the  in 
ferior  deities  peculiar  to  the  various  tribes  were 
worshipped  as  intercessors  with  Him.  These  were 
numerous,  the  most  important  of  them  being 
Wudd,  Ya'uq,  Hubal,  Al-lat,  'Uzza,'  and  Manah. 
The  three  latter  were  goddesses,  and  the  Qur'an 
reproves 2  the  Arabs  for  styling  them  "  daughters 
of  God."  The  Arabs  of  that  time,  if  we  may  judge 
from  their  poetry,  were  not  very  religious,  but 
what  worship  they  offered  was  mostly  to  these 
inferior  deities,  though  doubtless  regarded  as 
through  them  addressed  to  Allah  Himself.  The 
latter  was  often  styled  Allah  Ta'ala'  (^l«  LU1), 
or  "  God  Most  High,"  and  this  title  of  His  was 
doubtless  very  ancient 3. 

1  Others,  e.  g.  Prof.  Sayce  (in  his  Lectures  on  the  Religions  of 
Egypt  and  Babylonia),  hold  that  this  was  an  original  Semitic 
idea. 

a  Surahs  XVI.,  59;  LIIL,  19-21,  28. 

8  The  'Opord\  of  Herodotus  has  doubtless  preserved  in  its  last 
syllable  the  word  Ta'dla\  The  first  part  of  the  word  is  of 
uncertain  derivation  :  it  may  be  a  corruption  of  Allah.  With 
Allah  Ta'dla'  cf.  the  ;i'to?fy»  of  Gen.  xiv.  18,  19,  aa. 

0 


34  THE    INFLUENCE    OF    ANCIENT    ARABIAN 

It  is  not  possible  to  suppose  that  the  recognition 
of  the  Unity  of  God  was  introduced  among  the 
Arabs  for  the  first  time  by  Muhammad.  For  the 
word  Allah,  containing  as  it  does  the  definite 
article,  is  a  proof  that  those  who  used  it  were  in 
some  degree  conscious  of  the  Divine  Unity.  Now 
Muhammad  did  not  invent  the  word,  but,  as  we 
have  said,  found  it  already  in  use  among  his 
fellow  countrymen  at  the  time  when  he  first 
claimed  to  be  a  Prophet,  a  Divinely  commissioned 
messenger.  Proof  of  this  is  not  far  to  seek. 
Muhammad's  own  father,  who  died  before  his  son's 
birth,  was  called  'Abdulldh,  "Servant  of  Allah1." 
The  Ka'bah  or  Temple  at  Mecca  seems  long  before 
Muhammad's  time  to  have  been  called  Baitulldh  or 
"  House  of  Allah."  Arabic  tradition  asserts  that  a 
shrine  for  the  worship  of  God  was  built  on  that 
very  site  by  Abraham  and  his  son  Ishmael. 
Although  we  cannot  regard  this  statement  as  in 
any  sense  historical,  yet  the  tradition  serves  at 
least  to  show  the  antiquity  of  the  worship  there 
offered,  since  its  origin  was  lost  in  fable.  The 
Ka'bah  is,  in  all  probability,  the  spot  referred  to  by 
Diodorus  Siculus2  (B.C.  60)  as  containing  a  shrine 
or  temple  which  was  very  specially  honoured  by 
all  the  Arabs.  In  the  poems  entitled  Al  Mu'allaqat, 
handed  down  to  us  from  pre-Islamic  times,  the 

1  So  also  a  nephew  of  Muhammad  was  called  '  Ubaidu'lldh. 
*  'Ifpov  ayiwrarov  iSpvrai  nnw^vov  viro  iravrotv  'Apaftcav  irfpir- 
roTfpov  (Diod.  Sic.,  Lib.  III.). 


BELIEFS    AND    PRACTICES.  35 

word  Allah  (=6  0eos)  is  of  frequent  occurrence1. 
And  Ibn  Ishaq,  the  earliest  biographer  of  Muham 
mad  of  whose  work  any  certain  remains  have  come 
down  to  us,  is  quoted  by  Ibn  Hisham  as  stating 
that  the  tribes  of  Kinanah  and  Quraish,  when 
performing  the  religious  ceremony  known  as  the 
Ihldl,  used  to  address  the  Deity  in  such  words  -  as 
these  :  "  Labbaika,  Allahumma  !  —  We  are  present 
in  Thy  service,  O  God;  we  are  present  in  Thy 
service  !  Thou  hast  no  partner,  except  the  partner 

1  For  example,  we  find  in  the  Diicdn  of  An  Nabighah  the 
following  lines  :  — 


(Poeni  I.,  11.  33,  24,  ed.  Ahhvardt.) 
And  again  :  — 
,  _0  ___       ,  „  ,          „    .,       ,,        .,,  ,       *i0z    -L-o     •*  --     o-J 

vjjjoj  U^y  all*  J3  L^H 

I     '     ^    m  t*       '0*0-       O  ---          I 

^J^  ^  Arf  p  o«Lt  Ul 

(Poem  III.,  11.  9,  10.) 
And  so  also  in  Poem  VIII.,  11.  5,  6  :— 


\j*(i  *U.  ^^^  yyjjl  ^  .tf  ^/J 

Labid  has  also  the  following  verse  :— 

L  o!T  u      T  ia»j    '       ifiT  viJT    1-  u 


2  Quoted  in  Ibn  Hisham's  StrafttV  JJasit/,   Egyptian  edition, 
Part  I.,  pp.  27,  28. 

o  a 


36  THE    INFLUENCE    OF    ANCIENT    ARABIAN 

of  Thy  dread  ;  Thou  ownest  him  and  whatsoever 
he  owneth."  Ibn  Ishaq  rightly  says  that  by  this 
address  they  declared  their  belief  in  the  unity  of 
Allah.  He  does  not  explain  what  was  meant  by 
the  phrase  "The  partner  of  Thy  dread:"  but  it 
may  be  conjectured  that  the  reference  was  to  some 
inferior  deity  belonging  to  one  or  other  of  the 
tribes  which  he  mentions.  But  in  any  case  the 
language  employed  shows  clearly  that  the  being 
referred  to  was  not  in  any  way  placed  upon 
an  equality  with  Allah.  The  religion  of  the 
ancient  Arabs  may  therefore  be  justly  compared 
with  the  Saint-worship  of  the  Greek  and  Roman 
Churches,  alike  of  Muhammad's  time  and  of  our 
own,  and  with  that  which,  in  spite  of  the  Qur'an, 
is  even  now  prevalent  among  Muslims.  But  the 
worship  offered  in  such  cases  to  saints  or  inferioi 
deities  is  not  supposed  to  constitute  a  denial  of  the 
Unity  and  supremacy  of  God,  since  the  latter  are 
adored  only  as  mediators  between  God  and  man. 
What  Ash  Shahristani  tells  us  of  the  religious 
ideas  and  practices  of  the  pre-Islamic  period  in 
Arabia  fully  confirms  this1.  He  divides  the  in- 


1  Ash  Shahristani  in      »j      -,   quoted   by  Abu'l  Fida 
(Hist.  Ante-Islamica)  :  — 


U  yiij  jyjLSfi  ^j~\  \S  jLiif 

o  i     \  ~  \  Q  **       >f*- 

j  Uj  -  n^  -  Uoj  o^S  LojJl  Ui'U 

Surah  OV  (Surah  XLV.,  23). 


BELIEFS    AND    PRACTICES.  37 

habitants  of  Arabia  into  various  sects  or  parties, 
differing  very  much  in  their  religious  opinions. 
Some  of  them,  he  says,  denied  the  existence  of  a 
Creator,  the  sending  of  prophets,  and  the  final 
judgment,  asserting  that  Nature  itself  was  the 
giver  of  life  and  that  Time  was  the  universal 
destroyer.  Others  again  believed  in  a  Creator,  but 
denied  that  He  had  ever  revealed  Himself  by 
sending  messengers  commissioned  to  declare  His 


. 

(Fleischer's  ed.,  pp.  178-81.)      See  also  on  the  same  subject 
Krehl,  Uber  die  Religion  der  vorislamischen  Araber,  pp.  4  sqq. 
b  SOrah  J  (Surah  L,  14). 


38  THE    INFLUENCE    OF    ANCIENT    ARABIAN 

will.  Others,  again,  worshipped  idols,  of  which 
each  tribe  had  its  own.  For  example,  the  tribe  of 
Kalb  worshipped  Wudd  and  Suwa',  that  of  Madhhaj 
honoured  Yaghuth,  as  did  some  of  the  Yamanites. 
The  Dhu'lkila*  in  Himyar  worshipped  Nasr,  the 
Hamdhan  tribe  adored  Ya'uq,  that  of  Thaqif  in 
Taif  served  Al-lat,  while  Al-'Uzza'  was  the  tutelary 
goddess  of  the  Banu  Kinanah  and  of  the  Quraish. 
The  tribes  of  Aus  and  Khazraj  worshipped  Manah, 
and  regarded  Hubal  as  the  chief  of  their  deities. 
His  image  was  placed  in  a  most  conspicuous  place 
on  the  roof  of  the  Ka'bah.  Other  deities  were 
Asaf  and  Naila'.  Some  of  the  tribes  had  come 
under  the  influence  of  Jewish  colonies  settled  near 
them,  and  accepted  more  or  less  of  the  teaching  of 
the  latter  people.  Others  had  become  Christians, 
while  their  neighbours  were  inclined  to  accept  that 
faith.  Others,  again,  were  under  the  influence  of 
the  Sabians,  and  used  to  practise  astrology  and 
receive  omens  taken  from  the  movements  of  the 
heavenly  bodies  as  their  guides  in  all  actions  of 
importance.  Some  worshipped  angels,  some  the 
Jinns  or  evil  spirits.  Abu  Bakr  himself,  who  after 
wards  became  the  first  Khalifah  or  "  Vicegerent  of 
the  Apostle  of  God,"  was  at  one  time  distinguished 
for  his  proficiency  in  the  art  of  interpreting 
dreams. 

A  story1  related  by  many  Arabic  writers,  includ- 

1  In  the  Mawdhibu'l  luduniyyah  the  tale  is  told  in  ieveral  forms. 
One  runs  thus  : — 


BELIEFS    AND    PRACTICES.  39 

ing  some  of  the  best-known  commentators  on  the 
Quran,  shows  how  readily  the  Arabs  in  Muhani- 

a*  *i 


dfc  -  tejfci  j  *i)  tf~ 

L 

i  Ct 


i5C. 

Another  form  of  the  story  is  given  in  the  same  book  in  these 
words  :  — 


O* 


l   J-J^io.   U^T/i  U 


This  story  is  also  related  in  much  the  same  way  by  Ibn 
Ishaq,  and  it  is  accepted  by  Ibn  Hisham,  the  amplifier  of  his 
account  of  Muhammad's  life  (Strafu'r  Rasnl,  vol.  i.  pp.  127  sqq.). 
Tabari  and  others  also  give  the  tale  as  true,  as  do  the  commen 
tators  Yahya'  and  Jalulu'ddin,  and  also  Baidawl,  in  commenting 
on  Surah  Al  Hajj  (Surah  XXII.),  v.  51,  the  verse  quoted  at  the 


40  THE    INFLUENCE    OP    ANCIENT    ARABIAN 

mad's  time  (even  those  who  were  most  bitterly 
opposed  to  him  in  Mecca,  and  who  had  forced  most 
of  his  early  disciples  to  flee  to  Abyssinia  to  save 
their  lives)  joined  with  him  in  worshipping  God 
Most   High  (Allah  Ta'ala'),  when   he   for  a  time 
seemed  to  withdraw  his  opposition  to  their  honour 
ing  their  inferior  deities  also.     He  went  one  day, 
we   are    told,  to   pray  in  the    Ka'bah,   the   great 
national  sanctuary  at  Mecca,  of  which  his  family 
had   been  at  one  time  the  guardians.     There   he 
began   to  repeat  Surah  An   Najm   (Surah  LIIL). 
When  he  had  recited  the  nineteenth  and  twentieth 
verses,  "Have  ye  not  then  seen  Al-Lat  and   Al- 
'Uzza'  and  Manah,  the  other,  the  third  ?  "  it  is  stated 
that  Satan  impelled  him  to  add  the  words,  "  These 
are  the  Exalted  Beauties,  and  verily  their  inter 
cession  may  indeed  be   hoped  for."     On  hearing 
these  words  all  the  Arabs  present  joined  him  in 
worship,  and  the  rumour  spread  everywhere  that 
they  had  all  embraced  Islam.     The  story  is  well 
authenticated  and  is  most  probably  true.     But  in 
any  case  its  very  existence  shows  that  the  opponents 
of  Muhammad  found  no  difficulty  in  accepting  his 
teaching  as  to  the  existence  and  supremacy  of  Allah, 
and  that  they  worshipped  the  inferior  deities  as 

end  of  the  above  extract.  Al  Ghazali,  Baihaqi,  and  others 
fiercely  deny  the  truth  of  their  prophet's  fall  into  approval  of 
idolatry,  even  for  a  moment.  But,  unless  the  story  be  true,  it 
is  difficult  to  account  for  its  acceptance  by  the  above  authorities ; 
and  the  verse  we  have  just  referred  to  seems  to  require  the 
story  to  explain  it. 


BELIEFS    AND    PRACTICES.  41 


intercessors  with  Him.  It  is  but  fair  to  add  that 
Muhammad  soon  withdrew  the  words  which  acknow 
ledged  the  existence  and  influence  of  these  goddesses, 
substituting  for  them  those  now  found  in  the  Surah, 
"Have  ye  male  (issue),  and  hath  He  (i.e.  God) 
female  *?  That  indeed  were  an  unfair  division.  They 
are  nought  but  names,  which  ye  and  your  fathers 
have  named  V 

Ibn  Ishaq,  Ibn  Hisham  and  Arabic  writers  in 
general  state  that  the  Arabs,  and  in  particular  those 
that  boasted  descent  from  Ishmael,  were  at  first 
worshippers  of  God  alone,  and  that,  though  after 
a  time  they  fell  away  into  idolatry  and  polytheism 
—if  the  word  may  be  applied  to  such  religious  ideas 
and  practices  as  those  which  we  have  described- 
they  nevertheless  always  remembered  that  God 
Most  High  was  superior  to  and  Ruler  over  all  the 
inferior  objects  of  their  worship. 

When  we  come  to  consider  the  influence  which 
Jewish  and  Christian  tenets  exercised  over  the 
mind  of  Muhammad,  we  shall  see  that  these  reli 
gions  no  doubt  strengthened  his  belief  in  Mono 
theism.  But  it  was  not  a  new  belief  among  the 
Arabs  of  the  time,  since,  as  we  have  seen,  they  had 
always  admitted  it,  at  least  in  theory.  Yet  the 
inferior  deities  whom  they  worshipped  were  very 
numerous,  for  it  is  said  that  there  were  no  fewer 
than  360  idols  in  the  Ka'bah,  which  had  become 

1  Surah  LIU.,  An  Najm,  ai,  aa,  23. 


42  THE    INFLUENCE    OF    ANCIENT    ARABIAN 

a  kind  of  national  Pantheon.  There  can  be  little 
doubt,  moreover,  that  these  local  and  tribal  deities 
—for  such  they  were— had  in  practice  cast  entirely 
into  the  shade  among  the  great  mass  of  the  people 
the  worship  of  "  God  Most  High." 

It  should,  however,  be  noticed  that,  rightly  or 
wrongly,  the  earliest  Arabian  historians  assert  that 
the  "association   of  partners  with  God"  was   of 
comparatively  recent  origin  in  those  parts  of  Arabia 
when   Islam   arose.     Tradition1,   said   to   rest   on 
Muhammad's  authority,  informs  us  that  idolatry 
had  been  introduced  from  Syria,  and  gives  us  the 
names  of  those  who  were  chiefly  instrumental  in 
introducing  it.     This   is  stated  to  have   occurred 
only  about  fifteen  generations  before  Muhammad. 
An  exception  to  this  must  be  made  in  the  case  of 
the  veneration  paid  to  sacred  stones.     This  was 
common    among   the   people   of   Palestine   in   the 
patriarchal  period,  and  was  doubtless  of  immemorial 
antiquity  in  Arabia.      Ibn  Ishaq  2  endeavours  to 
account  for  it  by  supposing  that  the  Meccans  used 
to  carry  with  them  on  their  journeys  pieces  of 
stone  from  the  Ka'bah,  and  paid  reverence  to  them 
because  they  came  from  the  Haram  or  Holy  Temple. 
Herodotus  3  mentions  the  use  of  seven  stones  by 
the  Arabs  when  taking  solemn  oaths.    The  honour, 
almost  amounting  to  worship,  still  paid  by  Muslim 
pilgrims  to  the  famous  meteoric  Ha  jam' I  Aswad  or 

1  Siratu'r  Rasul,  pp.  27  sqq.  -  Ibid. 

s  Herodotus  III.  8,  quoted  above,  p.  32. 


BELIEFS    AND    PRACTICES.  43 

Black  Stone,  which  is  built  into  the  wall  of  the 
Ka'bah,  is  one  of  the  many  Islamic  customs  which 
have  been  derived  from  those  of  the  Arabs  who 
lived  long  before  Muhammad's  time.  The  kiss 
which  the  pious  Muhammadan  pilgrim  bestows  on 
it  is  a  survival  of  the  old  practice,  which  was  a 
form  of  worship  in  Arabia  as  in  many  other  lands. 
Many  tales  were  told  regarding  this  stone  in  pre- 
Muhammadan  times,  and  these  are  still  firmly 
believed.  A  Tradition  relates  that  it  descended 
from  Paradise,  and  was  originally  of  a  pure  white 
colour,  but  has  become  black  through  the  sins  of 
mankind,  or,  according  to  another  account,  through 
contact  with  the  lips  of  one  ceremonially  impure. 
As  it  is  now  known  to  be  of  meteoric  origin,  part 
of  the  story  is  readily  accounted  for. 

Not  only  in  reference  to  belief  in  Allah  Ta'ala' 
and  to  reverence  for  the  Black  Stone  and  the  Ka'bah 
but  in  many  other  matters  also  Islam  has  borrowed 
from  the  Arabs  of  more  ancient  times.  It  is  not 
too  much  to  say  that  most  of  the  religious  rites 
and  ceremonies  which  now  prevail  throughout  the 
Muhammadan  world  are  identical  '  with  those  prac 
tised  in  Arabia  from  immemorial  antiquity.  For 
example,  Herodotus2  tells  us  that  in  his  time  the 
Arabs  used  to  shave  the  hair  around  their  temples 
and  cut  the  rest  close.  This  is  done  by  Muham- 

1  Regarding  the    observance  of  the  month  of  RamadAn  as 
a  time  of  "penance,"  vide  pp.  269  sqq. 
Quoted  above,  p.  32. 


44  THE    INFLUENCE    OF    ANCIENT    ARABIAN 

madans  in  some  countries  to-day1.  If  there  is 
any  difference — of  which  we  cannot  be  certain, 
since  we  do  not  know  whether  the  Greek  traveller 
ever  saw  an  Arab  bareheaded — it  lies  in  the  fact 
that  the  shaving  is  continued  from  the  forehead  to 
the  back  of  the  neck,  the  hair  being  allowed  to 
grow,  though  cut  short,  only  on  the  sides  of  the 
head.  Abu'l  Fida  2  calls  attention  to  the  number 
of  religious  observances  which  were  thus  perpetuated 
under  the  new  system.  "  The  Arabs  of  the  times 
of  ignorance  3,"  he  says,  "  used  to  do  things  which 
the  religious  law  of  Islam  has  adopted  4.  For  they 
used  not  to  wed  their  mothers  or  their  daughters, 
and  among  them  it  was  deemed  a  most  detestable 
thing  to  marry  two  sisters,  and  they  used  to  revile 
the  man  who  married  his  father's  wife,  and  to  call 
him  Daizan.  They  used,  moreover,  to  make  the 
Pilgrimage5  (ffajj)  to  the  House"  (the  Ka'bah), 
"and  visit  the  consecrated  places,  and  wear  the 
Ihram 6 "  (the  single  garment  worn  to  the  present 

1  Some  Arabs  wear  their  hair  long,  as  they  used  to  do  in 
Muhammad's  time.     There  seems  to  be  no  religious  rule  on  the 
subject,  hence  the  difference  in  Muslim  practice  in  different 
places. 

2  Hist.  Ante-Islamica,  ed.  Fleischer,  p.  180. 

3  That  is,  the  time  before  Muhammad's  mission. 

*  See  also  the  Apology  of  Al  Kindi,  Sir  W.  Muir's  translation, 
pp.  92,  93. 

5  As  is  well  known,  this  pilgrimage  to  Mecca  is  still  incumbent 
upon  every  male  Muslim  who  can  possibly  make  it. 

6  Others  say  that  the  heathen  Arabs  used  to  perform  the 
Tawwaf  (the  ceremony  of  running  round  the  Ka'bah)  naked, 
but  that  Muhammad  introduced  the  wearing  of  the  Ihrdm. 


BELIEFS    AND    PRACTICES.  45 


day  by  a  pilgrim  when  running  round  the  Ka'bah), 
-and  perform  the  Tawwdfi  and  run"  (between  the 
hills  As   Safa   and  Al  Marwa),  "and   take  then 
stand  at  all  the  Stations,  and  cast  the  stones  "  (at 
the  devil  in  the  valley  of  Mina)  ;  "and  they  were 
wont  to  intercalate   a  month  l  every  third  year." 
He  goes  on  to  mention  many  other  similar  exam 
ples  in  which  the  religion  of  Islam  has  enjoined  as 
religious  observances  ancient  Arabian  customs,  for 
instance  ceremonial  washings  after  certain  kinds  of 
defilement,  parting  the  hair,  the  ritual  observed  in 
cleansing  the  teeth,  paring  the  nails,  and  other  such 
matters.      He  informs   us  that   then  as   now  the 
punishment  for  theft  was  the  loss  of  a  hand  2,  and 
says  that  circumcision  was  practised  by  the  heathen 
Arabs,  as  it  still  is  by  all  Muslims,  though  nowhere 
enjoined  in  the  Qur  an.     This  last  statement  is  con 
firmed  by  the  author  of  the  apocryphal  epistle  of 
Barnabas  3,  who  says,  "  Every  Syrian  and  Arab  and 
all  the  priests  of  the  idols  are  circumcised." 
well   known    that    the    same    practice    prevailed 
among  the  ancient  Egyptians  also.      Ibn  Ishaq  * 

1  In  Islamic  times  this  unfortunately  went  out  of  use. 
3  As  in  the  Laws  of  Amraphel  (Hammurabi  ). 

.  .  .  tras  Supos  «ai  "Apa^  Hal  iravr«s  oi  *«/>m  rah/ 


*  Siratu'r  Rasul,  part  I.,  p.  37  :— 

/^. 

~>  J*  > 


THE    INFLUENCE    OF    ANCIENT    ARABIAN 


uses  much  the  same  language  as  Abu'l  Fida,  but 
adds  that  the  customs  which  he  mentions,  including 
that  of  the  Rial,  had  been  retained  from  Abraham's 
time.  This  is  no  doubt  true  of  circumcision  :  but 
it  can  hardly  be  said  that  Abraham  had  anything 
to  do  with  the  other  matters  referred  to,  in  spite  of 
the  Muhammadan  belief  that  he  visited  Mecca  and 
worshipped  where  the  Ka  bah  now  stands, 
^  It  is  clear,  from  all  that  has  been  said,  that  the 
first  source  of  Islam  is  to  be  found  in  the  religious 
beliefs  J  and  practices  of  the  Arabs  of  Muhammad's 
day.  From  this  heathen  source,  too,  Islam  has 

1  Muhammad  has  also  borrowed  certain  fables  current  among 
the  heathen  Arabs,  such  as  the  tales  of  'Ad  and  Thamud  and 
some  others  (Surah  VII.  ,  63-77).  Regarding  such  stories  Al 
Kmdi  well  says  to  his  opponent  :  «  And  if  thou  mentionest  the 
tale  of  'Ad  and  Thamud  and  the  Camel  and  the  Comrades  of 
the  Elephant  "  (Surahs  CV.,  and  XIV.,  9)  "and  the  like  of  these 
tales,  we  say  to  thee,  'These  are  senseless  stories  and  the 
nonsensical  fables  of  old  women  of  the  Arabs,  who  kept  reciting 
them  night  and  day'":— 


Sprenger  (quoted  in  Rodwell's  Preface,  p.  xvii)  thinks  that 
Muhammad  learnt  the  tales  of  'Ad  and  Thamud  from  the 
Hanifs  (see  chapter  vi  of  the  present  volume),  and  that  the 
latter  were  Sabians  and  held  sacred  the  "Volumes  of  Abraham  " 
mentioned  in  Surah  LXXXVIL,  19,  in  which  Apocryphal  books 
these  tales  may  have  found  place.  But  this  can  hardly  be 
considered  as  proved.  May  not  the  «  Testament  of  Abraham  " 

discovered  a  few  years  ago),  of  which  we  shall  have  to  speak 
m  chapter  iv,  be  included  among  the  Suhuf  Ibrahim? 


BELIEFS    AND    PRACTICES.  47 

derived  the  practice  of  Polygamy  and  that  of 
slavery,  both  of  which,  though  adding  nothing  to 
their  evil  effects  in  other  respects,  Muhammad 
sanctioned  for  all  time  by  his  own  adoption  of 
them. 


APPENDIX  TO  CHAPTER  II. 

IT  is  sometimes  said  in  the  East  at  the  present 
day  that  Muhammad  not  only  adopted  many  of 
the  ancient  habits  and  religious  rites  of  the  heathen 
Arabs  and  incorporated  them  into  Islam,  but  that 
he  was  also  guilty  of  plagiarism  in  borrowing 
parts  of  certain  verses  of  Irnrau'l  Qais,  an  ancient 
Arabic  poet.  These,  it  is  asserted,  may  still  be 
found  in  the  Quran.  I  have  even  heard  a  story 
to  the  effect  that  one  day  when  Fatimah,  Muham 
mad's  daughter,  was  reciting  the  verse  "  The  Hour 
has  come  near  and  the  Moon  has  split  asunder" 
(Surah  LIV.,  Al  Qamar,  i),  a  daughter  of  the 
poet  was  present  and  said  to  her,  "  That  is  a  verse 
from  one  of  my  father's  poems,  and  your  father  has 
stolen  it  and  pretended  that  he  received  it  from 
God."  This  tale  is  probably  false,  for  Imrau'l  Qais 
died  about  the  year  540  of  the  Christian  era,  while 
Muhammad  was  not  born  till  A.D.  570,  "the  year 
of  the  Elephant." 

In  a  lithographed  edition  of  the  Muallaqdt, 
which  I  obtained  in  Persia,  however,  I  found  at 
the  end  of  the  whole  volume  certain  Odes  there 
attributed  to  Imrau'l  Qais,  though  not  recognized 
as  his  in  any  other  edition  of  his  poems  which  I 
have  seen.  In  these  pieces  of  doubtful  authorship 


48  THE    INFLUENCE    OF    ANCIENT    ARABIAN 

I  found  the  verses  quoted  below1.  Though  they 
contain  some  obvious  blunders,  I  think  it  best  to 
give  them  without  correction.  The  passages  marked 
with  a  line  above  them  occur  also  in  the  Quran 

Y^TTT  ^L'A1  Qamar'  *'  *9'  3i,  46;  Surah 
XCIIL,  Adduha,  i;  Surah  XXI,  Al  Anbiya, 
96;  Surah  XXXVIL,  As  Saffat,  59),  except  that 
in  some  of  the  words  there  is  a  slight  difference, 
though  the  meaning  is  the  same.  It  is  clear 
therefore  that  there  is  some  connexion  between 
these  lines  and  the  similar  verses  of  the  Quran. 


s   *  *  L  _o        -  i^  »•          *  „  i         w  • 

!  icUl  ooli         icL  _ie  C>^  I* 


*        iJI 


»  •>"        f    t 

»JJ>. 


Cail    Jj 


BELIEFS    AND    PRACTICES.  49 

There  seems  good  reason  to  doubt  whether  Imrau'l 
Qais  is  the  author  of  the  lines  in  question.  They 
may  have  been  borrowed  from  the  Qur'an  instead 
of  having  been  inserted  therein  from  an  author 
who  lived  before  Muhammad's  time.  On  the  one 
hand  it  is  difficult  to  suppose  that  at  any  time 
after  the  establishment  of  Islam  any  one  would 
have  the  daring  to  parody  the  Qur'an  by  taking 
passages  from  it  and  applying  them  to  the  subject 
to  which  these  lines  of  poetry  refer.  On  the 
other  hand,  it  is  very  customary  even  in  com 
paratively  modern  times  to  quote  verses  of  the 
Qur'an  and  work  them  into  later  compositions  of  a 
philosophical  or  religious  character,  to  which  class, 
however,  these  Odes  do  not  belong.  It  would  be 
difficult  to  imagine  Muhammad  venturing  to  plagia 
rize  from  such  a  well-known  author  as  Imrau'l 
Qais  (even  though,  as  we  shall  see  later,  he  did  so 
from  less  known  foreign  sources)  ;  though  this  may 
be  in  part  met  by  supposing  that,  as  these  Odes 
formed  no  part  of  the  Mnallaqdt,  they  were  not  as 
generally  current  as  poems  contained  in  the  latter 
collection  were.  The  account  generally  given  of 
the  Muallaqdt  is  that,  whenever  any  one  had 
composed  an  especially  eloquent  poem,  it  was 
suspended  on  the  wall  of  the  Ka'bah,  and  that  the 
poems  in  this  celebrated  collection  owe  their  name, 
which  means  "The  Suspended  Poems,"  to  this 
custom.  Good  authorities1,  however,  deny  that 

1  Regarding  the  Muallaqdt  it  may  be  well  to  quote  the 
following  from  Abu  Ja'far  Ahmad  ibn  Isma'il  an  Nahhas  (died 
A.H.  338).  He  says:  — 


J\S 


50       THE  INFLUENCE  OF  ANCIENT  ARABIAN  BELIEFS. 

this  was  the  origin  of  the  name,  but  that  is  perhaps 
a  matter  of-  little  importance.  In  spite  of  the 
Eastern  story  which  I  have  quoted,  the  balance  of 
probability  certainly  inclines  to  the  supposition 
that  Muhammad  was  not1  guilty  of  the  daring 
plagiarism  of  which  he  has  been  accused  2. 


As-Suyuti  says  very  much  the  same,  though  he  also  refers  to 
the  story  that  the  verses  were  hung  up  in  the  Ka'bah  as  possible 
(Mudhkir,  II.,  240). 

1  This  is  the  opinion  of  Sir  C.  J.  Lyall,  than  whom  it  would 
be   difficult  to  find  any  one  better  qualified  to  speak  on  the 
subject  of  ancient  Arabic  poetry.     In  a  letter  which  he  has 
kindly  sent  me  regarding  the  authorship  of  the  lines  in  question 
attributed  to  Imrau'l  Qais,  he  expresses  his  conviction  that  they 
are  not  his,  giving  reasons  founded  principally  upon  the  style 
and  the  metre.     I  have  incorporated  some  of  his  observations 
into  this  Appendix,  and  I  owe  to  him  also  the  preceding  note. 
His  arguments  have  caused  me  to  modify  the  opinion  on  the 
subject  expressed  in  my  Persian  work,  Yandbi'u'l  Islam. 

2  The  Rev.  Dr.  Zwemer,  of  Bahrain,  however,  informs  me 
that  he  has  found  the  words  Danati  'ssd'atu  wa'nshaqqa  'Iqamaru 
(cf.  Surah  LIV.,  i,  Iqtarabati  '  'ssd'atu  wa'nshaqqa  'Iqamarii)  in  the 
last  section  of  the  last  poem  of  Imrau'l  Qais  in  an  edition 
which  he  possesses.     He  adds  :  "  A  Shaikh  taught  in  Al  A/har 
tells  me  that  this  evident  quotation  perplexes  learned  Muslims." 


CHAPTER  III. 

INFLUENCE  OF  SABIAN  AND  JEWISH  IDEAS  AND 
PRACTICES. 

WHEN  Muhammad  appeared  as  a  prophet,  al 
though  the  Arabs  had  many  religious  ideas  and 
practices  in  which  they  were  agreed,  they  possessed 
no  volume  which  could  pretend  to  contain  a  Divine 
revelation,  and  to  which  Muhammad  could  appeal 
when  he  claimed  to  be  commissioned  to  lead  them 
back  to  the  purer  faith  of  their  fathers.  Yet  in 
Arabia  there  dwelt  certain  communities  which 
possessed  what  they  regarded  as  inspired  books, 
and  it  was  natural  that  Muhammad  and  his  fol 
lowers  should  therefore  feel  no  little  interest  in 
and  respect  for  the  ideas  and  rites  of  these  different 
religious  sects.  The  title  "People  of  the  Book," 
given  more  especially  perhaps  to  the  Jews,  but  also 
to  the  Christians,  in  the  Qur'an  is  an  evidence  of 
this.  The  four  communities  who  then  possessed 
book-religions  in  Arabia  were  the  Jews,  the 
Christians,  the  Magians  or  Zoroastrians,  and  the 
Sabians.  These  are  all  mentioned  together  in 
Surah  XXII.  Al  Hajj,  17.  We  shall  see  that  each  of 
these  exercised  a  considerable  influence  over  nas 
cent  Islam,  but  that  of  the  Sabians  was  by  no 
D  2 


52  INFLUENCE    OF    SABIAN 

means  the  slightest.  Hence  we  begin  by  stating 
what  is  known  of  these  sectaries,  who  are  men 
tioned  again  in  Surah  II.,  Al  Baqarah,  59. 

Our  knowledge  of  the  Sabians  is  slight,  but 
sufficient  for  our  purpose.  An  early  Arabic  writer, 
Abu  'Isa'l  Maghribi,  is  quoted  by  Abu'l  Fida  as 
giving  the  following  account  of  them.  "The 
Syrians  are  the  most  ancient  of  nations,  and  Adam 
and  his  sons  spoke  their  language.  Their  religious 
community  is  that  of  the  Sabians,  and  they  relate 
that  they  received  their  religion  from  Seth  and 
Idris  (Enoch).  They  have  a  book  which  they 
ascribe  to  Seth,  and  they  style  it  'The  Book  of 
Seth.'  In  it  good  ethical  precepts  are  recorded, 
such  as  enjoin  truth-speaking  -and  courage  and 
giving  protection  to  the  stranger  and  such  like: 
and  evil  practices  are  mentioned  and  command 
given  to  abstain  from  them.  The  Sabians  had 
certain  religious  rites,  among  which  are  seven  fixed 
times  of  prayer)(/^<?  of  which  correspond  ^vith  those  of 
the  Muslims.  The  sixth  is  the  prayer  at  dawn,  and 
the  seventh  a  prayer,  the  time  for  which  is  at  the 
end  of  the  sixth  hour  of  the  night.  Their  prayer, 
like  that  of  Muslims,  is  one  which  requires  real 
earnestness  and  that  the  worshipper  should  not  let 
his  attention  wander  to  anything  else  when  offering 
it.  They  prayed  over  the  dead  without  either 
bowing  down  or  prostration,  and  fasted  thirty 
days ;  and  if  the  month  of  the  new  moon  were 
a  short  one,  then  they  kept  the  fast  for  twenty-nine 


IDEAS    AND    PRACTICES.  53 

days.  In  connexion  with  their  fast  they  observed 
the  festivals  of  Fitr  "  (breaking  the  fast  at  the  end 
of  the  month)  "and  Hilal"  (new  moon),  "in  such 
a  way  that  the  festival  of  Fitr  occurred  when  the 
sun  entered  Aries.  And  they  used  to  fast  from 
the  fourth  quarter  of  the  night  until  the  setting 
of  the  disk  of  the  sun.  And  they  had  festivals  at 
the  time  of  the  descending  of  the  five  planets  to 
the  mansions  of  their  dignity.  The  five  planets 
are  Saturn,  Jupiter,  Mars,  Venus,  and  Mercury. 
And  they  used  to  honour  the  House  of  Mecca" 
(the  Ka  bah)1. 

From  this  account  we  see  clearly  that  the  Mus 
lims  have  borrowed  from  this  obscure  sect  not 
a  few  of  their  religious  practices,  all  of  which  they 
believe  were  taught  them  by  Muhammad  at  the 
command  of  God  through  the  Angel  Gabriel.  For 
example,  the  Ramadan  fast  of  the  Muslims  lasts- 
a  month,  from  sunrise  to  sunset,  though  the  rule  as 
to  the  exact  moment  when  each  day  begins  and 
ends  is,  as  we  shall  see  3,  derived  from  the  Jews. 
In  Persia  and  some  other  countries  a  gun  is  fired 
at  dawn  and  sunset  to  announce  the  beginning  and 
end  of  each  day's  fast  during  the  holy  month.  The 
Fitr  feast  at  the  end  of  the  month  is  still  celebrated 
by  the  Muhammadans.  They  have,  as  is  well 
known,  five  stated  times  of  prayer  each  day,  but 
they  have  also  two  other  times  each  day  at  which 

1  Abu'l  Fida,^4«  Tawdrikhu'l  Qadimah  (Hist.  Ante-IsJamica),  p.  148. 
a  Vide  also  p.  269.  s  Vide  pp.  127,  128. 


54  INFLUENCE    OF    SABIAN 

prayer  is  optional,  thus  having  exactly  the  same 
number  as  the  Sabians  had.  Bowing  down  (raku) 
and  prostration  (sitjufl)  are  enjoined  in  Muham- 
madan  worship,  but  not  during  the  prayers  offered 
at  burials.  Finally  we  have  seen  that  the  Muslims 
still  most  highly  honour  the  Kcibah.  Of  course  it 
is  possible  that  all  these  practices  were  common  to 
the  Quraish  tribe  as  well  as  to  the  Sabians.  Some 
of  them  certainly  were ;  but,  if  all  had  been,  it 
would  be  difficult  to  account  for  the  observations 
made  by  the  Arabic  writer  whom  we  have  quoted. 
The  supposition  that  many  of  these  religious 
customs  were  borrowed  by  Muhammad  from  the 
Sabians,  and  that  their  religion  in  general  (owing 
perhaps  in  a  measure  to  its  supposed  antiquity) 
had  great  influence  on  Islam  at  its  foundation  is 
confirmed  by  the  fact  that,  when  the  Banti  Jadhi- 
mah  of  Taif  and  Mecca  announced  to  Khalid  their 
conversion  to  Muhammadanism,  they  did  so  by 
crying  out,  "  We  have  become  Sabians." 

The  Sabians  are  supposed  to  have  been  a  semi- 
Christian  sect.  Others  have  identified  them  with 
the  Mandaeane,  whose  religion  represents  a  strange 
medley  of  Gnosticism  and  ancient  Babylonian 
heathenism,  but  has  nevertheless  borrowed  certain 
elements  from  Magism,  Judaism,  and  Christianity, 
though  largely  anti-Christian  as  a  system.  The 
Mandaeans  derive  their  name  from  Manda,  the 
most  important  of  the  Emanations  or  Aeons  in 
whom  they  believe.  He  is  said  in  their  sacred 


IDEAS    AND    PRACTICES.  55 


book,  the  Sidrd  EabM,  to  have  manifested  himself 
in  a  series  of  incarnations,  the  first  three  of  which 
were  Abel,  Seth,  and  Enoch,  and  the  last  John  the 
Baptist.  The  latter  conferred  baptism  on  Jesus 
the  Messiah,  who  finally  returned  to  the  Kingdom 
of  Light  after  a  seeming  crucifixion.  This  latter 
idea  is  repeated  in  the  Quran  (Surah  IV.,  An  Nisa, 
156),  and  will  require  notice  later1. 

Our  very  limited  knowledge  of  the  Sabians  and 
the  doubt  whether  the  Mandaeans  can  be  identified 
with  them  renders  it  impossible  to  say  whether 
their  influence  on  Islam  has  or  has  not  been  still 
more  important  and  extensive2. 

We  now  turn  to  the  Jews,  from  whom  Muham 
mad   borrowed   so   very  much   that    his    religion 
almost  be  described  as  a  heretical  form  of 


1  Vide  pp.  182  sqq. 

a  The  Ebionites,  too,  seem  to  have  had  an  influence  c 
religion  of  Islam  when  gradually  taking  shape  in  Muhammad', 
mind,  which  seems  at  the  time  to  have  been  singularly  receptive 
and  credulous.     «  Epiphanius  (Haer.  x)  describes  the  notions 
of  the  Ebionites  of  Nabathaea,  Moabitis,  and  Basanitis  wit] 
regard   to   Adam   and   Jesus,  almost    in    the   very   words 
Surah  III  ,  52.     He  tells  us  that   they  observed  circumcision, 
were  opposed  to  celibacy,   forbade  turning  to   the   sunrise   but 
enjoined  Jerusalem  as   their  Qiblah  (as   did   Muhammad   during 
twelve  years),  that  they  prescribed  (as  did  the  Sabians)  washings, 
very  similar  to  those  enjoined  in  the  Qur'an,  and  allowed  oaths 
(by  certain  natural  objects,  as  clouds,  signs  of  the  Zodiac,  ofl,  the 
winds,  &c.)  which  also  we  find  adopted  therein.    These  points 
of  contact    with    Islam,    knowing    as    we    do    Muhammad  s 
eclecticism,  can  hardly  be  accidental"  (Rodwell,  Koran,  Pref., 
p.  xviii). 


INFLUENCE    OF    JEWISH 


later  Judaism.     In   Muhammad's  time  the  Jews 
were  not  only  very  numerous  but  also  very  power 
ful  in  various  parts  of  Arabia.     No  doubt  many  of 
them  had  settled  in  that  country  at  different  times, 
when  fleeing  from  the  various  conquerors—  Nebu 
chadnezzar,  the  successors  of  Alexander  the  Great, 
Pompey,   Titus,   Hadrian,   and    others—  who   had 
overrun    and    desolated    Palestine.       They    were 
especially    numerous    in    the     neighbourhood    of 
Medina,  which  city  they  at  one  time  held  by  the 
sword.     In   Muhammad's   time    the    three    large 
Jewish  tribes  called  Banu  Qurair/7/ah,  Banti  Nadhir, 
and  Banft  Qainuqa',  settled  in  the  neighbourhood 
of  Medina,  were  so  powerful  that  Muhammad,  not 
long  after  his  arrival  there  in  A.D.  622,  made  an 
offensive  and  defensive  alliance  with  them.     Other 
Jewish  settlements  were  to  be  found  in  the  neigh 
bourhood  of  Khaibar  and  the  Wadi  u'l  Qura'  and 
on  the  shores  of  the  Gulf  of  'Aqabah.     The  fact 
that  the  Jews  possessed  inspired  books  and  were 
undoubtedly  descended  from  Abraham,  whom  the 
Quraish  and  other  tribes  claimed  as  their  ancestor 
also,  gave  the  Israelites  great  weight  and  influence. 
Native  legends  would  naturally  therefore  undergo 
a  process  of  assimilation  with  the  history  and  tra 
ditions  of  the  Jews.   "  By  l  a  summary  adjustment, 
the   story  of   Palestine   became   the  story  of  the 
Hijaz.    The  precincts  of  the  Ka'bah  were  hallowed 
as  the  scene  of   Hagar's  distress,  and  the  sacred 

1  Sir  W.  Muir,  Life  of  Mahomet,  srd  ed.,  Introd.,  pp.  xcii.xciii. 


IDEAS    AND    PRACTICES.  57 

well  Zamzam  as  the  source  of  her  relief.  The 
pilgrims  hastened  to  and  fro  between  Safa  and 
Marwa  in  memory  of  her  hurried  steps  in  search  of 
water.  It  was  Abraham  and  Ishmael  who  built  the 
temple,  imbedded  in  it  the  Black  Stone,  and  esta 
blished  for  all  Arabia  the  pilgrimage  to  'Arafat. 
In  imitation  of  him  it  was  that  stones  were  flung 
by  the  pilgrims  as  if  at  Satan,  and  sacrifices  offered 
at  Mina  in  remembrance  of  the  vicarious  sacrifice 
by  Abraham.  And  so,  although  the  indigenous 
rites  may  have  been  little,  if  at  all,  altered  by  the 
adoption  of  Israelitish  legends,  they  came  to  be 
received  in  a  totally  different  light,  and  to  be  con 
nected  in  Arab  imagination  with  something  of  the 
sanctity  of  Abraham  the  Friend  of  God l.  ...  It 
was  upon  this  common  ground  Muhammad  took  his 
stand,  and  proclaimed  to  his  people  a  new  and 
a  spiritual  system,  in  accents  to  which  the  whole 
Peninsula  could  respond.  The  rites  of  the  Ka'bah 
were  retained,  but,  stripped  of  all  idolatrous  ten 
dency,  they  still  hang,  a  strange  unmeaning 
shroud,  around  the  living  theism  of  Islam. 

"  Familiarity  with  the  Abrahamic  races  also  in 
troduced  the  doctrine  of  the  immortality  of  the 
soul,  and  the  resurrection  from  the  dead;  but 
these  were  held  with  many  fantastic  ideas  of 
Arabian  growth.  Revenge  pictured  the  murdered 
soul  as  a  bird  chirping  for  retribution  against  the 
murderer;  and  a  camel  was  sometimes  left  to 

1  Surah  IV.,  An  Nisa,  124. 


58  INFLUENCE    OF    JEWISH 

starve  at  the  grave  of  his  master,  that  he  might  be 
ready  at  the  resurrection  again  to  carry  him. 
A  vast  variety  of  Biblical  language  was  also  in 
common  use,  or  at  least  sufficiently  in  use  to  be 
commonly  understood.  Faith,  Repentance,  Heaven 
and  Hell,  the  Devil  and  his  Angels,  the  heavenly 
Angels,  Gabriel  the  Messenger  of  God,  are  speci 
mens  acquired  from  some  Jewish  source,  either 
current  or  ready  for  adoption.  Similarly  familiar 
were  the  stories  of  the  Fall  of  Man,  the  Flood,  the 
destruction  of  the  Cities  of  the  Plain,  &c. — so  that 
there  was  an  extensive  substratum  of  crude  ideas 
bordering  upon  the  spiritual,  ready  to  the  hand  of 
Muhammad." 

Early  Arabian  writers  inform  us  that  when 
Muhammad  appeared  the  Jews  were  expecting  the 
advent  of  the  Messiah,  and  used  frequently  to 
threaten  their  enemies  with  the  vengeance  which 
the  coming  Prophet  would  take  upon  them.  This 
no  doubt  had  its  influence  in  leading  some  among 
the  Arabs,  especially  the  Banft  Khazraj  of  Medina 
(as  Ibn  Ishaq  says),  to  accept  Muhammad  as  the 
Prophet  whose  advent  was  predicted. 

Muhammad  declared  that  he  was  Divinely  com 
missioned  not  to  found  a  new  religion  but  to  recall 
men  to  the  "  Faith  of  Abraham."  It  was  natural 
for  him,  therefore,  to  endeavour  to  gain  the  Jews 
over  to  his  side.  This  he  attempted  to  do  at 
Medina,  and  for  some  time  it  seemed  as  if  he  had 
a  fair  prospect  of  success.  One  step  which  he  took 


IDEAS    AND    PRACTICES.  59 

at  this  time  shows  very  clearly  this  purpose.     He 
adopted  Jerusalem  as  the  QMah  of  his  Faith— that 
is  to  say,  he  directed  his  followers  to  imitate  the 
Jewish  practice   by  turning  their   faces  towards 
Jerusalem  when  praying.     At  a  later  period,  when 
he  had  broken  with  the  Jews  and  found  it  more 
useful  to  conciliate  the  Arabs,  he  adopted  Mecca1 
as  the  Qiblah,  and  this  it  has  ever  since  continued 
to  be  amongst  Muslims.    But  soon  after  his  arrival 
in  Medina,   observing  the   Jews   engaged   in   the 
observances  of  the  Day  of  Atonement,  he  enjoined 
upon    his    own   followers   the    same    observance, 
adopting  even  the  same  name  (in  Arabic  'Ashurd)  by 
which  it  was  known  among  the  Jews 2.    The  sacri 
fices  offered  on  this  occasion  were  doubtless  intended 
to  supersede  those  which  the  heathen  Arabs  used  to 
offer  in  the  Valley  of  Mina  during  the  pilgrimage 
to  Mecca.   It  was  not  until  April,  A.  D.  624,  after  his 
quarrel  with  the  Jews,  that  Muhammad  instituted 
the  'fdufWuhd,  which  festival  is  supposed  to  com 
memorate*  Abraham's   sacrifice   of  Mmael  (as  the 
Muslims  assert).     Even  thus  we  perceive  the  in 
fluence  of  Judaism  on  Islam.     This  festival  is  still 
observed   by  the  Muslims.     Muhammad  initiated 
the  Jewish  practice  in  offering  two3  sacrifices  on 

1  In  Nov.,  A.D.  623  :  Surah  II.,  Al  Baqarah,  136-40. 
'  •  When  at  a  later  period  the  month  of  Ramadan  was  appointed 
instead  as  a  month  of  fasting,  Muhammad  did  not  forbid  the 
observance  of  the  'Ashurd  on  the  tenth  day  of  JfiiAorrom  (cf.  Lev. 
xxiii.  27). 

3  Sir  W.  Muir,  op.  cit.,  p.  188. 


60  INFLUENCE    OF    JEWISH 

the  day  of  the  *ld,  inasmuch  as  he  slew  two  kids, 
one  for  his  people  and  the  other  for  himself,  though 
he  reversed  the  Jewish  order  in  accordance  with 
which  the  High  Priest  on  the  Day  of  Atonement 
offers  first  for l  himself  and  then  for  the  nation  at 
large.     In  these  matters  we  see  Jewish  influence 
at  work  both  in  Muhammad's  adoption  of  their 
rites  when  he  wished  to  gain  the  Jews,  and  in  his 
altering  them  when  no  longer  hoping  to  do  so.     In 
the  latter  case  he  generally  reverted  more  or  less 
to  the  customs  of  the   heathen   Arabs.  .  On   the 
Muhammadan  theory  of  the  Divine  authority  of 
the  Qur'an,  this  phenomenon  is  absolutely  inex 
plicable.     It  is  to  the  period  shortly  before,  and 
especially  to  that  which  immediately  followed,  the 
Hijrah,  according  to  Tradition  (in  this  respect  no 
doubt  reliable),  that  most  of  those  verses  of  the 
Quran  belong,  in  which  it   is  asserted  that  the 
Qur'an   is   in   accord2   with   the   teaching  of  the 
Prophets  of  Israel,  and  that  this  constitutes  a  de 
cisive  proof  that  it  is  from   God.     At  that  time 
Muhammad  introduced  into  the  Surahs  which  he 
delivered  a  particularly  large  measure  of  Jewish 
legends,  as  the  perusal  of  the  later  Meccan  and  earlier 
Medinan  Surahs  will  show.  He  soon,  however,  found 
that  the  Jews  were  not  prepared  to  believe  in  him, 
though  it  might  suit  their  purpose  to  pretend  for 

1  Lev.  xvi  ;  Heb.  vii.  27. 

2  Cf.  e.g.  Surah  XXIX.,  Al  'Ankabut,  45  :  Surah  II.,  Al  Ba- 
qarah,  130;  &c. 


IDEAS    AND    PRACTICES.  6l 

a  time  to  be  favourably  impressed  and  likely  to 
admit  his  claim.     A  rupture  was  bound  to  come 
sooner  or  later,  since  no  true  Israelite  could  really 
believe  that  either  the  Messiah  (which  Muhammad 
did  not  claim  to  be,  for  he  accepted  that  as  the  title 
of  Jesus)  or  any  other  great  Prophet  was  predicted 
as  about  to  arise  from  among  the  descendants  of 
Ishmael.    We  know  how  the  quarrel  did  come,  an( 
how,  finding  persuasion  useless,  Muhammad  finally 
turned  upon  the  Jews  with  the  irresistible  logic  of 
the  sword,  and  either  slaughtered  them  or  expelled 
them  from  the  country.     But  before  that  time  he 
had  borrowed  very  extensively  from  them, 
if  we  do  not  grant,  with  some  writers,  that  the 
doctrine  of  the  Unity   of   God   was    derived   by 
Islam  from  Jewish  teaching,  there  can  be  no  doubt 
that  Muhammad's   maintenance  of   that  doctrine 
received  great  support  from  what  he  learnt  from 
the  Israelites.      We   proceed   to   show  that   very 
much    of    the    Quran    is   directly   derived    from 
Jewish  books,  not  so  much  from  the  Old  Testament 
Scriptures   as  from  the  Talmud  and  other  post 
Biblical   writings.      Although    the  Arabian  Jews 
doubtless   possessed   copies   of  their  Holy  Books, 
they  were  not  distinguished  for  learning,  and  then, 
as  now  for  the  most  part,  they  practically  gave 
oreater  heed  to  their  Rabbinical  traditions  than  to 
the  Word  of  God.     It  is  not  surprising  therefore 
to  find  little  real  knowledge  of  the  Old  Testament 
in  the  Quran,  though,  as  we  shall  see,  it  contains 


INFLUENCE    OF    JEWISH 


a  great  deal  of  Jewish  legend.  It  is  impossible  to 
quote  all  the  passages  that  prove  this,  but  we  shall 
now  adduce  a  few  out  of  many  \ 

1.  The  Story  of  Cain  and  Abel. 
The  Qur'an  does  not  mention  the  names  of  these 
two  sons  of  Adam,"  though  commentators  call 
them^Qabil  and  Habil.     But  we  find  in  Surah  V., 
Al  Maidah,  30-35,  the  following  account  of  them.  " 
"Recite  unto  them  truly  the  narrative  of  Adam's 
two  sons,  when  they  both  offered  sacrifice :  then  it 
was  accepted  from  one  of  them,  and  from  the  other 
it   was   not  accepted.     [The   latter]  said,  *  Verily 
I  shall   assuredly   slay   thee.'     [The   other]  said, 
Truly  God  accepteth  from  the  pious.     Verily  if 
thou  stretch  forth  thine  hand  upon  me  to  slay  me, 
I  shall  not  stretch  forth  mine  hand  upon  thee  to 
slay   thee :    indeed   I  fear  God,  the  Lord  of  the 
worlds.     I  indeed  choose  rather  that  thou  shouldst 
bear  my  sin  and  thine  own  sin,  then  shalt  thou  be 
of  the  companions  of   the   Fire,  and  that  is  the 
recompense  of  the  unjust/    Then  his  soul  permitted 
to  him  [Cain]  the  murder  of  his  brother :  accord 
ingly  he  slew  him  :  thus  he  became  one  of  the  lost. 
Then  God  sent  a  raven,  which  scratcheth  in  the 
ground,  that  it  might  show  him  how  to  hide  his 
brother's   corpse.     He   said,  <Ah !    woe  unto  me! 

1  Most  of  the  instances  here  cited  are  taken  from  Rabbi 
Abraham  Geiger's  book  Was  hat  Mohammed  aus  dem  Judenthume 
atfgenotnmen? 


IDEAS    AND    PRACTICES.  63 


cannot  I  be  as  this  raven  and  hide  my  brother's 
corpse  ?  '  Then  did  he  become  one  of  the  penitent. 
On  that  account  have  We  written  for  the  Children 
of  Israel  that  whoso  slayeth  a  soul,  except  for 
a  life  or  for  evildoing  in  the  land,  then  truly  shall 
it  be  as  though  he  had  slain  all  men  ;  and  whoso 
saveth  it  alive,  then  truly  it  shall  be  as  though  he 
had  saved  all  men  alive." 

A  conversation,  or  rather  argument,  between 
Cain  and  Abel  is  mentioned  in  Jewish  legend  both 
in  the  Targum  of  Jonathan1  and  in  the  Targum 
of  Jerusalem.  Cain,  we  are  told,  said,  "There  is 
no  punishment  for  sin,  nor  is  there  any  reward 
for  good  conduct."  In  reply  to  this,  Abel  asserted 
that  good  was  rewarded  by  God  and  evil  punished. 
Angered  at  this,  Cain  took  up  a  stone  and  with 
it  smote  his  brother  and  slew  him.  The  resem 
blance  between  this  narrative  and  that  given  in 
the  beginning  of  the  foregoing  quotation  from  the 
Qur'an  is  not  striking.  But  the  source  of  the  rest 
of  the  Qur'anic  account  of  the  murder  is  the  legend 
related  in  the  Pirqey  Rabbi  Eli'ezer,  chapter  xxi, 
which  may  be  thus  rendered: — 

"Adam  and  his  helpmeet  were  sitting  weeping 
and  lamenting  over  him  (Abel),  and  they  did  not 
know  what  to  do  with  Abel,  for  they  were  not 
acquainted  with  burial.  A  raven,  one  of  whose 
companions  had  died,  came.  He  took  him  and 
dug  in  the  earth  and  buried  him  before  their  eyes. 

1  On  Gen.  iv.  8. 


INFLUENCE    OF    JEWISH 


Adam  said,  '  I  shall  do  as  this  raven.3  Immediately  " 
(lit.  out  of  hand)  «  he  took  Abel's  corpse  and  dug  in 
the  earth  and  buried  it." 

When  we  compare  the  Jewish  legend  with  the 
one  given  in  the  Qur'an,  we  see   that  the   only 
difference  is  that  in  the  former  the  raven  taught 
Adam  how  to  bury  the  body,  whereas  in  the  Qur  an 
it  is  Cain  who  is  said  to  have  been  thus  taught. 
It  is  clear  also  that  the  passage  in  the  Qur'an  is 
not  a  literal  translation  from  one  or  more  Jewish 
books,  but  is  rather,  as  we  might  expect,  a  free 
reproduction  of  the  story  as  told  to  Muhammad 
by  some   of  his   Jewish   friends,  of   whom  early 
Arabian  accounts  mention  the  names1  of  several. 
This  explains  the  mistake  that  the  Qur  an  makes 
in   attributing   the  burial   to  Cain  instead  of  to 
Adam.       We     shall     notice     similar    phenomena 
throughout    the   whole    series   of    these   excerpts. 
It  is  hardly  probable  that  these  slight  divergences 
were  purposely  made  by  Muhammad,  though  it  is 
quite   possible    that    the   Jews    who    related    the 
legends  to  him  had  learnt  them  orally  themselves, 
and  that  they  and  not  the  Arabian  prophet  made 
the  mistake.     That  is  a  matter  of  small  moment. 
What  is  certain  is  that  we  can  here,  and  in  very 
many   other    instances,   trace   the   account  which 
Muhammad  gives  to  earlier  Jewish  written  sources. 
^What  is  recorded  in  the  thirty-fifth  verse  of  the 
Surah  quoted  above  seems  to  have  no  immediate 

1  Vide  pp.  133-5. 


IDEAS    AND    PRACTICES.    •  65 


relation  to  the  preceding  part  of  the  passage. 
A  link  is  evidently  missing.  If,  however,  we  turn 
to  Mishnah  Sanhedrin  (chapter  iv.  §  5),  we  find  the 
whole  matter  fully  stated,  so  that  the  connexion 
which  exists  between  the  verse  above  mentioned 
and  the  narrative  of  the  murder  of  Abel  becomes 
clear.  For  the  Jewish  commentator,  in  commenting 
on  the  words  which  the  Pentateuch  tells  us  God 
spoke  to  Cain,  "What1  hast  thou  done?  The 
voice  of  thy  brother's  blood  crieth  unto  me  from 
the  ground," — in  which  passage  the  word  blood  is 
in  the  plural  in  Hebrew  because  it  denotes  blood 
shed  by  violence,— writes  thus :  "  Concerning  Cain 
who  slew  his  brother,  we  have  found  that  it  is 
said  concerning  him,  'The  voice  of  thy  brother's 
bloods  crieth.'  He  saith  not,  *  Thy  brother's  blood ' 
but '  Thy  brother's  bloods,' — his  blood  and  the  blood 
of  his  descendants.  On  this  account  was  Adam 
created  alone,  to  teach  thee  that  everyone  who 
destroyeth  one  soul  out  of  Israel,  the  Scripture 
reckoneth  it  unto  him  as  if  he  had  destroyed  the 
whole  world;  and  everyone  who  preserveth  alive 
one  soul  out  of  Israel,  the  Scripture  reckoneth  it 
unto  him  as  if  he  had  preserved  alive  the  whole 
world."  We  are  not  concerned  with  the  correct 
ness  or  otherwise  of  this  fanciful  exposition  of  the 
sacred  text,  but  it  is  of  importance  to  notice  that 
the  thirty-fifth  verse  of  Surah  Al  Maidah  is  an 
almost  literal  translation  of  part  of  this  extract. 
1  Gen.  iv.  10. 


66  INFLUENCE    OP    JEWISH 

The  former  part  of  the  passage  as  it  stands  in  the 
Mishnah  is  omitted  in  the  Qur  an,  possibly  because 
it  was  not  fully  understood  by  Muhammad  or  his 
informant.  But  when  it  is  supplied,  the  connexion 
between  verse  thirty-five  and  the  preceding  verses 
becomes  clear  V 

2.  Story  of  Abraham's  deliverance  from  the  fire 
which  Nimrod  made  to  destroy  him. 

This  narrative  is  not  found  detailed  in  one  con 
secutive  passage  of  the  Quran,  but  it  is  related 
in  a  fragmentary  manner  in  a  number  of  different 
Surahs2.  Hence  Muhammadans  have  found  it 
useful  to  collect  these  passages  and  to  form  them 
into  a  consecutive  whole  by  supplying  connecting 
passages  in  the  way  that  we  find  it  done  in  such 
books  as  the  'Ardisu'l  Majdlis  or  the  Qisasu'l  Anliya. 
Such  connecting  links  are  supplied  from  the  Tradi 
tions  of  Muhammad.  When  we  compare  the  narra 
tive  thus  current  among  and  accepted  by  all 
Muslims  with  the  account  of  the  same  legendary 

1  The  Jewish  narrative  quoted  above  from  the  Pirqey  Eabbl 
Eli'ezer  contains  the  expression  miyyddh  ("  out  of  hand")  for 
"  immediately."     This  expression  (in  Arabic  ±>.  £»c)  occurs  also 
in  the  Arabic  in  Surah  IX.,  At  Taubah,  29,  "until  they  give  the 
tribute  out  of  hand,"  where  it  has  puzzled  commentators. 

2  In  Surahs  Al  Baqarah  (II.,.  260),  Al  An'am  (VI.,  74-84), 
Al  Anbiya  (XXI.,  52-72),  Maryam  (XIX.,  42-50),  Ash  Shu'ara 
(XXVL,    69-79),    Al    'Ankabut    (XXIX.,    15,    16),    As    Saffat 
(XXXVII.,  81-95),  Az  Zukhruf  (XLIIL,  25-7),  Al  Mumtahinah 
(LX.,  4),  &c. 


IDEAS    AND    PRACTICES.  67 

occurrence  which  is  contained  in  the  Midrash 
Rabba  of  the  Jews,  it  becomes  clear  that  the 
latter  is  the  source  of  the  Muhammadan  account. 
That  the  reader  may  perceive  this,  we  translate 
first  the  story  as  related  by  Muhammadan  writers, 
and  then  turn  to  the  shorter  and  simpler  narra 
tive  of  Jewish  traditionists.  Passages  from  the 
Qur'an  which  are  incorporated  into  the  Arabic 
account  are  here  put  in  italics.  We  begin  with 
an  extract  from  Abu'l  Fida:— 

"Azar,  Abraham's  father,"  he  says1,  "used  to 
make  idols,  and  he  used  to  give  them  to  Abraham 
that  he  might  sell  them.  Abraham,  however,  used 
to  say,  'Who  will  buy  what  will  injure  him  and 
will  not  benefit  him?'  Afterwards,  when  God 
Most  High  commanded  Abraham  to  summon  his 
people  to  Monotheism,  he  invited  his  father ;  how 
ever,  he  refused.  And  he  invited  his  people. 
Accordingly,  when  the  matter  got  abroad  con 
cerning  him  and  reached  Nimrod,  son  of  Gush, 
who  was  king  of  that  country,  .  .  .  Nimrod  accord 
ingly  took  Abraham,  the  Friend  [of  God],  and 
threw  him  into  a  great  fire.  Then  the  fire  became 
cool  and  safe  unto  him,  and  Abraham  came  forth 
from  the  fire  after  some  days.  Then  certain  men 
of  his  people  believed  on  him." 

This  is  the  shortest  Arabic  account  we  have. 
We  proceed  to  translate  the  most  important  part 

1  Historia  Ante-Islamica  (ed.  Fleischer,  Leipzig,  1831).  Abul1 
Fida  was  born  A.  H.  672. 

E  3 


68 


INFLUENCE    OF    JEWISH 


of  the  narrative  given  in  the  *Ar&Ml  Majdlis. 
There  we  read  that  Abraham  was  brought  up  in 
a  cave  without  any  knowledge  of  the  true  God. 
One  night  he  came  forth  and  beheld  the  glory  of 
the  stars,  and  was  so  impressed  that  he  resolved  to 
acknowledge  them  as  his  gods.  The  account  then 
proceeds  as  follows,  incorporating  as  many  as 
possible  of  the  passages  of  the  Qur  an  which  deal 
with  the  subject  :— 

"  When  therefore  the  night  overshadowed  him  he  saw 
a  star.  He  said,  '  This  is  my  Lord:  Then  when  it  set, 
he  said,  '  I  love  not  those  that  set.'  Then  when  he  saw 
the  moon  rising,  he  said,  '  This  is  my  Lord.'  And  when 
it  set,  he  said,  «  Verily,  if  my  Lord  guide  me  not  I  shall 
assuredly  be  of  the  people  who  go  astray!  Then  when 
he  saw  the  sun  rising,  he  said,  '  This  is  my  Lord,  this  is 
greater,'  for  he  saw  that  its  light  was  grander. 
When  therefore  it  set,  he  said,  '  0  my  people  /  verily 
I  am  guiltless  of  the  polytheism  ivhich  you  hold,  verily 
I  turn  my  face  to  Him  who  hath  formed  the  heavens  and 
the  earth,  as  a  ffamf1,  and  I  am  not  one  of  the  poly- 
theists  V  They  say  his  father  used  to  make  idols. 
When,  therefore,  he  associated  Abraham  with  him 
self,  he  began  to  make  the  idols  and  to  give  them 
over  to  Abraham  to  sell.  Abraham  (Peace  be  upon 
him !)  therefore  goes  off  with  them  and  cries  aloud, 
'  Who  will  buy  what  injures  and  does  not  benefit  ?  ' 

1  This  term  will  be  explained  in  Chapter  vi. 

2  The  italicized  passages   are   from   Surah  VI.,    Al   An'am, 
76-9. 


IDEAS    AND    PRACTICES.  69 

Hence  no  one  purchases  from  him.  When  there 
fore  they  proved  unsaleable  to  him,  he  took  them 
to  a  river.  Then  he  smote  them  on  the  head  and 
said  to  them,  '  Drink,  my  bad  bargain  ! '  in  mockery 
of  his  people  and  of  their  false  religion  and  ignor 
ance,  to  such  an  extent  that  his  reviling  and 
mocking  them  became  notorious  among  his  people 
and  the  inhabitants  of  his  town.  Therefore  his 
people  disputed  with  him  in  regard  to  his  religion. 
Then  he  said  to  them,  '  Do  ye  dispute  with  me  about 

God  ?  and  He  hath  guided  me,'  &c And  that  was 

Our  reasoning  ichich  We  brought  to  Abraham  against 
his  people:  We  raise  (many)  steps  whomsoever  We  will; 
verily  thy  Lord  is  all-wise  and  all-knowing  *.  So  that 
he  vanquished  and  overcame  ^them.  Then  verily 
Abraham  invited  his  father  Azar  to  embrace  his 
religion.  Accordingly  he  said,  '  0  my  father,  why 
dost  thou  worship  that  which  heareth  not  nor  seeth  nor 
doth  profit  thee  at  all!'2'  &c.  Then  his  father 
refused  assent  to  that  to  which  Abraham  invited 
him.  Thereupon  verily  Abraham  proclaimed  aloud 
to  his  people  his  abjuration  of  their  worship,  and 
declared  his  own  religion.  He  said  therefore, 
4  Have  ye  then  seen  that  which  ye  worship,  ye  and  your 
fathers  the  ancients  ?  for  verily  they  are  hostile  to  me, 
except  the  Lord  of  the  worlds  V  They  said,  '  Whom 
then  dost  thou  worship  ? '  He  said, '  The  Lord  of 

J  Surah  VI.,  Al  An'^in,  80-3. 

8  Surah  XIX.,  Maryam,  43. 

3  Surah  XXVI.,  Ash  Shu'ara,  75-?. 


7°  INFLUENCE    OF    JEWISH 

the  worlds/     They  said,  'Thou  meanest  Nimrod.' 
Then  said  he, '  No !  Him  who  has  created  me,  and 
who    therefore    guideth    me,'    &c.      That    matter 
accordingly  was   spread   abroad    until  it   reached 
the  tyrant  Nimrod.     Then  he  called  him  and  said 
to  him, « 0  Abraham,  hast  thou  seen  thy  God,  who 
hath  sent  thee,  and  lo  whose  worship  thou  dost 
invite  men,  and  whose  power  thou  recordest  and 
on  account  thereof  dost  magnify  Him  above  all 
other?     What  is  He?'     Abraham  said,  ( My  Lord 
is  He  who  preserveth  alive  and  causeth  to  die.3    Nimrod 
said,  'I preserve  alive  and  cause  to  die.'     Abraham 
.said,  'How  dost  thou  preserve  alive  and  cause  to 
die  ? '     He  said,  '  I  take  two  men  to  whom  death 
is  due  in  my  jurisdiction,  then  I  slay  one  of  them, 
thus  I  have  caused  him  to  die ;  next  I  pardon  the 
other  and  let  him  go,  thus  I  have  preserved  him 
alive.'     Accordingly  Abraham  said  unto  him  there 
upon,  '  Verily  God  bringeth  the  sun  from  the  East,  do 
thou  there/ore  bring  it  from  the  West1!     Thereupon 
Nimrod  was  confounded  and  gave  him  no  answer." 
The  story  goes  on  to  inform  us  that  the  custom 
of  the  tribe  to  which  Abraham  belonged  was  to 
hold  a  great  festival  once  every  year,  during  which 
everyone  for  a  time  went  out  of  the  city.     (This 
may  contain  a  confused  reference  to  the  Jewish 
Feast  of  Tabernacles,  for  the  forte  of  the  Quran 
is  undoubtedly  the  number  of  its  anachronisms, 
and  Muhammadan  tales  regarding  the  patriarchs 

Surah  II.,  Al  Baqarah,  a6 


IDEAS    AND    PRACTICES.  7 1 

and  prophets  are  in  general  distinguished  by  the 
same    characteristic.)      Before    leaving    the    city, 
we  are  told,  the  citizens  "Jhad  made   some  food 
ready.      Accordingly   th  io  not /ed   &    before    the 
gods,  and  said,  'When  L     ^  be  time  for  us  to 
return,  we  shall  return,  a^a  the  gods  will  have 
blessed  our  food,  and  we  shall  eat.'     When  there 
fore  Abraham1  beheld  the  idols  and  the  food  which 
was  before  them,  he  said  unto  them  in  mockery, 
'  Will  ye  not  eat  / '     And  when  they  did  not  answer 
him,  he  said,  '  What  is  the  matter  with  you  ?  will  ye 
not  speak  ? '     Then  he  turned  upon  them,  striking  a  blow 
with  his  right  hand 2,  and  he  began  to  dash  them  in 
pieces  with  an  axe  which  he  held  in  his  hand, 
until  there  remained  none  but  the  biggest   idol, 
on  the  neck  of  which  he  hung  the  axe.     Then  he 
went   out.      Such   then   is   the   statement  of   the 
Honoured  and  Glorified  One :  '  So  he  broke  them  in 
pieces,  except  the  largest  of  them,  that  perchance  they 
might  come  back  to  it '  (and  find  what  it  had  done  3). 
When  therefore  the  people  came  from  their  festival 
to  the  house  of  their  gods,  and  saw  them  in  that 
condition,  they  said,  '  Who  hath  done  this  to  our  gods  / 
verily  he  is  one  of  the  unjust:     They  said,  '  We  heard 
a  youth  who  is  called  Abraham  make  mention  of  them. 
It  is  he,  we  think,  that  hath  done  this.'     Then  that 

1  He  had  remained  at  home  on  the  plea  of  being  ill,  Surah 
XXXVII.,  As  Saffat,  87. 
a  Ibid.  vv.  89-91. 
3  Surah  XXI.,  Al  Anbiya,  59  ;  and  Jalalain's  Commentary. 


72  INFLUENCE    OF    JEWISH 

matter  reached  Nimrod  the  tyrant  and  the  nobles 
of  his  people.     They  said  therefore,  <  Bring  1dm  then 
to  the  eyes  of  men,  that  ^ejchance  they  may  bear  witness 
against  him  that  Spread  hat  hath  done  this.     And 
they  disliked  to   ai     T]  him  without  proof. 
When  therefore  they  had  brought  him  forward, 
they  said  unto  him,  '  Hast  thou  done  this  unto  our 
gods,  0  Abraham  ? '    Abraham  said,  '  On  the  contrary, 
this  the  biggest  of  them  did  it :  he  was  angry  at  your 
worshipping  these  little  idols  along  with  him,  since 
he  is  bigger  than  them,  therefore  he  dashed  them 
in  pieces.     Do  ye  then  inquire  of  them,  if  they  can 
speak!     The  prophet— may  God  bless  and  preserve 
him!— hath  said,  'Abraham  told  only  three  lies, 
all  of  them  on  behalf  of  God  Most  High :  when  he 
said,  "lam  sick;'  and  when  he  said,  "On  the  contrary, 
this  the  biggest  of  them  did  it"  and  when  to  the  king 
who  purposed  to  take  Sarah,  he  said,  "S/te  is  my 
sister!" 

"  When  therefore  Abraham  said  this  unto  them, 
they  returned  to  themselves ;  then  they  said,  '  Verily  ye 
are  the  unjust  persons.  Here  is  this  man  of  whom 
you  are  inquiring,  and  these  your  gods  are  present 
to  whom  he  has  done  what  he  has  done ;  therefore 
inquire  of  them.'  And  that  was  what  Abraham 
had  said,  'Do  ye  then  inquire  of  them,  if  they  can 
speak!  Therefore  his  people  said,  '  We  do  not  find 
it  otherwise  than  as  he  hath  said/  and  it  was  said, 
'  Verily  ye  are  the  unjust  persons l,  since  ye  worship 
1  Surah  XXI.,  60-5. 


IDEAS    AND    PRACTICES.  73 


the  small  images  along  with  this  big  one.'  Then 
they  were  turned  upside  down  in  their  astonishment 
at  this  matter  of  his,  and  they  knew  that  (the 
idols)  do  not  speak  and  do  not  take  by  violence. 
Therefore  they  said,  '  Truly  thou  knowest  that  these 
do  not  speak:  When  therefore  the  argument  which 
Abraham  had  brought  against  them  had  confuted 
them,  he  said  to  them,  '  Do  ye  then  worship  instead  of 
God  that  which  doth  not  profit  you  at  all  and  doth  not 
harm  you  ?  Shame  on  you  and  on  that  which  ye  worship 
instead  of  God  !  Do  ye  not  then  understand  ? '  When 
therefore  this  argument  overcame  them  and  they 
could  not  answer  it,  they  said,  '  Burn  ye 1  him  and  aid 
your  gods,  if  ye  are  active  men'  'Abdu'llah  ibn  "Umar 
has  said  that  the  person  who  urged  them  to  burn 
Abraham  in  the  fire  was  a  Kurd.  Shu'aibu'l  Jabai 
says  that  his  name  was  Dainun,  and  accordingly 
God  Most  High  caused  the  earth  to  split  open  for 
him,  and  he  was  swallowed 2  up  therein  until  the 
Resurrection  Day.  Accordingly  when  Nimrod  and 
his  people  assembled  to  burn  Abraham,  they  shut 
him  up  in  a  house  and  erected  for  him  an  edifice 
like  a  sheepfold.  This  is  the  statement  of  God  : 
They  said,  ' Build  an  edifice  for  him,  then  hurl  him  into 
the  flames  V  Then  they  collected  for  him  some  of 
the  hardest  wood  and  different  kinds  of  fuel." 


1  Ibid.  vv.  66-8. 

a  Doubtless  a  reminiscence  of  the  fate  of  Korah,  Numb.  xvi. 

3  Surah  XXXVII.,  95. 


74  INFLUENCE    OP    JEWISH 

The  writer  whom  we  are  quoting  goes  on  to 
relate  how  Abraham  was  cast  into  the  fire  but  came 
forth  safe  and  well.  He  concludes  his  narrative 
thus :  "And  it  is  recorded  in  Tradition  that  Abraham 
was  preserved  through  saying, '  God  is  sufficient  for 
me  Y  and  '  He  is  an  excellent  Guardian  V  God  said, 
'  Ofiret  become  cool  and  safe  unto  Abraham  V" 

We  now  proceed  to  compare  with  this  narrative 
that  which  is  contained  in  the  Midrash  Kabba  of 
the  Jews.  There  the  tale  runs  thus  4  : — 

"  Terah  was  a  maker  of  idols.  Once  he  went 
out  somewhere,  and  seated  Abraham  as  salesman 
in  place  of  himself.  A  person  would  come,  wishing 
to  purchase,  and  Abraham  would  say  to  him,  '  How 
old  art  thou  ? '  and  he  (the  other)  would  say  to  him, 
'  Fifty '  or  '  Sixty  years.'  And  he  (Abraham)  would 
say  unto  him,  '  Woe  to  that  man  who  is  sixty  years 
of  age,  and  wisheth  to  worship  a  thing  a  few  days 
old ! '  And  he  (the  other)  would  become  ashamed 
and  would  go  his  way.  Once  a  woman  came, 
carrying  in  her  hand  a  plate  of  wheaten  flour.  She 
said  to  him, '  Here!  set  this  before  them/  He  arose, 
took  a  staff  in  his  hand,  and  broke  them  all  in 
pieces ;  then  he  gave  the  staff  into  the  hand  of  the 
one  that  was  biggest  among  them.  When  his  father 
came,  he  said  to  him,  <  Who  has  done  this  unto 
them?'  He  (Abraham)  said  to  him,  '  What  is 

1  Surah  XXXIX.,  39. 

3  Surah  III.,  167.  •  Surah  XXI.,  69. 

*  Midrash  Rabba,  Chapter  xvii,  in  explanation  of  Gen.  xv.  7. 


IDEAS    AND    PRACTICES.  75 


hidden  from  thee  ?  A  woman  came,  bringing  with 
her  a  plate  of  wheaten  Hour,  and  said  to  me, "  Here  ! 
set  this  before  them."  I  set  it  before  them.  This 
one  said,  "I  shall  eat  first,"  and  that  one  said,  "I  shall 
eat  first."  This  one,  which  is  the  biggest  among 
them,  arose,  took  a  staff,  and  broke  them.'  He  (the 
father)  said  to  him,  *  Why  dost  thou  tell  me  a 
fable  ?  Do  these  understand  ? '  He  (Abraham)  said 
to  him,  'And  do  not  thine  ears  hear  what  thy  lip 
speaketh  ? '  He  (Terah)  seized  him  and  delivered 
him  over  to  Nimrod.  He  (Nimrod)  said  to  him, 
'  Let  us  worship  the  fire.'  Abraham  said  unto  him, 
*  And  let  us  worship  the  waters  which  extinguish 
the  fire.'  Nimrod  said  to  him,  '  Let  us  worship  the 
waters.'  He  (Abraham)  said  to  him, '  If  so,  let  us 
worship  the  cloud  which  brings  the  waters.'  He 
(Nimrod)  said  to  him, '  Let  us  worship  the  cloud.' 
He  (Abraham)  said  to  him, '  If  so,  let  us  worship 
the  wind  that  drives  away  the  cloud.'  He  (Nimrod) 
said  unto  him,  '  Let  us  worship  the  wind.'  He 
(Abraham)  said  to  him,  '  And  let  us  worship  man 
who  resisteth  the  wind.'  '  If  thou  bandiest  words 
with  me,  lo  !  I  worship  naught  but  the  fire  ;  lo ! 
I  cast  thee  into  the  midst  of  it,  and  let  the  God 
whom  thou  worshippest  come  and  deliver  thee  from 
it.'  Abraham  went  down  into  the  furnace  of  fire 
and  was  delivered." 

It  is  perfectly  clear  that  the  Muhammadan  fable 
is  directly  borrowed  from  the  Jewish,  though  ex 
panded  by  the  addition  of  particulars  due  to  Muhain- 


INFLUENCE    OF    JEWISH 


triad's  vivid  and  poetical  imagination.  But  here 
again  we  see  that  Muhammad  does  not  reproduce 
an  account  which  he  had  read,  but  a  story  which 
he  had  heard  related  orally  by  the  Jews.  The  hold 
which  the  narrative  took  upon  his  mind  is  clear 
not  only  from  his  having  expanded  the  tale,  but 
also  from  the  large  number  of  times  that  he  recurs 
to  it  in  different  parts  of  the  Qur'an.  That  the 
tale  was  well  known  in  its  main  outline  in  his  time 
is  evident  from  the  fact  that  Muhammad  has  no 
where  thought  it  necessary  to  narrate  the  story  at 
full  length.  His  words  in  the  Qur'an  show  that 
he  believed  it  to  be  perfectly  well  known  to  and 
accepted  by  all  his  followers.  It  was  probably 
current  in  Arabia  long  before  his  time,  as  so  many 
other  tales  about  Abraham  were.  Our  object  in 
quoting  the  story  as  it  is  contained  in  the  Midrash 
Rabba  is  not  to  prove  that  Muhammad  plagia 
rized  from  that  work  in  this  matter,  but  to  show 
that  the  story  in  its  main  details  was  current 
among  the  Jews  at  an  earlier  time  still,  and  that 
either  this  or  some  similar  form  of  the  fable  must 
have  been  the  source  from  which  the  Arabs  derived 
their  knowledge  of  it.  It  is  hardly  likely  that 
Muhammad  omitted  to  verify  the  tale  by  consult 
ing  his  Jewish  friends,  who  would  tell  him  that  it 
was  contained  in  certain  of  their  books,  and  thus 
confirm  his  faith  in  its  truth. 

We  notice,  however,  that  in  the  Qur'an  the  name 
of  Abraham's  father  is  stated  to  have  been  Azar  and 


IDEAS    AND    PRACTICES.  77 


not  Terah,  as  in  Genesis.  But  Eastern  Jews  some 
times  call  him  Zarak,  from  which  the  Arabic  form 
may  have  been  corrupted.  Or,  again,  Muhammad 
may  have  learnt  the  name  in  Syria,  whence  Euse- 
bius  probably  derived  the  form  of  the  name,  'A0ap, 
which  he  uses.  Modern  Persian  Muhammadans 
often  write  the  name  ^j>T,  pronouncing  it,  however, 
just  as  it  is  pronounced  in  Arabic,  though  the 
original  Persian  pronunciation  was  Adhar,  nearly 
the  same  as  the  form  used  by  Eusebius.  This  word 
in  Persian  meant  "  fire,"  and  was  the  title  of  the 
angel  who  was  supposed  to  preside  over  that  ele 
ment,  one  of  the  good  creatures  of  6rmazd.  There 
may  in  fact  have  been  some  attempt  made  to  win 
reverence  for  Abraham  among  the  Magians  by 
identifying  his  father  with  this  good  Genius  (tzad) 
of  Fire.  However  this  may  be,  we  are  able  to 
trace  the  origin  of  the  legend  of  Abraham's  being 
cast  into  the  fire  to  a  simple  blunder  made  by 
certain  Jewish  commentators,  as  will  be  pointed  out 
in  due  course. 

Before  doing  so,  however,  it  may  be  well  to  indi 
cate  the  line  of  argument  commonly  used  by 
Muslims  in  refutation  of  the  statement  that  the 
detection  of  the  source  of  this  and  other  similar 
legends  in  the  Qur'an  effectually  disposes  of  its 
claim  to  be  a  Divine  revelation.  They  urge  in 
reply  that  such  facts  as  those  we  have  adduced 
form  a  clear  proof  of  the  truth  of  their  religion, 
"  For,"  they  say,  "  although  Muhammad  did  not 


78  INFLUENCE    OF    JEWISH 

borrow  this  narrative  from  the  Jews,  but  on  the 
contrary  received  it  by  inspiration  through  the 
angel  Gabriel,  yet,  since  the  Jews,  who  are  Abra 
ham's  descendants,  have  accepted  this  narrative  on 
the  authority  of  their  own  traditions,  it  must  be 
confessed  that  their  testimony  forms  a  strong  con 
firmation  of  the  teaching  of  the  Qur'an  on  the 
subject 1." 

In  reply  it  is  sufficient  to  state  that  only  ignor 
ant  Jews  now  place  any  reliance  upon  such  fables, 
since  they  do  not  rest  upon  anything  worthy  of  the 
name  of  tradition.  The  only  reliable  traditions  of 
the  Jews  which  relate  to  the  time  of  Abraham  are 
to  be  found  in  the  Pentateuch,  and  it  is  hardly 
necessary  to  say  that  this  childish  tale  is  not  found 
there.  On  the  contrary,  it  is  evident  from  Genesis 
that  Nimrod  lived  many  generations  before  Abra 
ham's  time.  It  is  true  that  Nimrod  is  not  men 
tioned  by  name  in  the  Qur'an,  but  his  name  occurs, 
as  we  have  seen,  in  this  tale  about  Abraham's 
being  cast  into  the  fire  both  in  Muhammadan  tradi 
tion  and  in  their  commentaries  on  the  Qur'an,  as 
well  as  in  the  Jewish  narrative  in  the  Midrash 
Rabba.  The  anachronism  here  is  as  great  as  if 
some  ignorant  person  were  to  state  that  Alexander 
the  Great  had  cast  the  Turkish  Sultan  'Uthman 
into  the  fire,  not  knowing  what  a  long  period  had 
elapsed  between  Alexander  and  'Uthman,  and  being 

1  This  argument  is  used  in  the  Mizanu'l  Mawazin  in  refutation 
of  certain  statements  in  the  Mizanu'l  Haqq. 


IDEAS    AND    PRACTICES.  79 


unaware  that  'Uthman  had  never  experienced  such 
an  adventure! 

Moreover,  the  whole  story  of  Abraham's  being 
delivered  from  the  fire  is  founded  upon  an  ignorant 
blunder  made  by  an  ancient  Jewish  commentator. 
To  explain  this  we  must  refer  to  the  Targum  of 
Jonathan  ben  Uzziel.  This  writer  found  Ur  of  the 
Chaldee*  mentioned  as  the  place1  where  Abraham 
dwelt  when  God  first  called  him  to  leave  home  and 
country  and  to  remove  into  the  land  of  Canaan. 
Now  this  city  is  the  place  that  is  at  the  present 
time  known  by  the  name  of  Muqayyar.  The  word 
ur  or  uru  in  ancient  Babylonian  meant  a  city.  It 
occurs  again  in  the  name  Jerusalem  (still  in  Arabic 
called  ftruthaUm))  "  the  city  of  the  God  of  Peace." 
But  Jonathan  had  no  knowledge  of  Babylonian, 
and  he  imagined  that  &r  must  have  a  meaning 
similar  to  that  of  the  Hebrew  word  6r,  "light," 
which  in  Aramaic  means  "  Fire."  Hence  he  rendered 
Gen.  xv.  7  thus,  "I  am  the  LORD,  who  brought 
thee  out  of  tie  furnace  off  re  of  the  Chaldees !  "  So 
also  in  his  comment  on  Gen.  xi.  28,  he  writes  thus : 
"  When  Nimrod  cast  Abraham  into  the  furnace  of 
fire  because  he  would  not  worship  his  idols,  it  came 
to  pass  that  the  fire  was  not  given  permission  to 
injure  him."  We  see  that  the  whole  story  rose  from 
a  wrong  explanation  of  a  single  word,  and  has  no 
foundation  in  fact.  Whether  Jonathan  was  the 
first  person  to  make  the  mistake  is  very  doubtful ; 

1  Cf.  Gen.  xi.  28,  xv.  7,  &c. 


8o  INFLUENCE    OP    JEWISH 

he  may,  very  probably,  have  accepted  the  idea  from 
others.  In  any  case  the  result  is  the  same.  The 
story  puts  us  in  mind  of  Cinderella's  glass  slipper. 
Doubtless  it  was  originally  "  un  soulier  de  vair"  not 
"  un  soulier  de  verre"  the  latter  substance  not  being 
so  very  suitable  for  making  slippers  ! 

It  is  not  to  be  wondered  at  that  Jonathan  ben 
Uzziel  should  make  such  a  mistake  as  we  have 
pointed  out.  But  it  is  indeed  strange  that  one 
claiming  Divine  inspiration  should  have  accepted 
the  fable  based  upon  such  a  blunder  as  literally 
true,  should  in  many  different  places  introduce 
portions  of  the  tale  into  a  book  which  he  professed 
to  have  received  from  God  Himself  through  Gabriel, 
and  should  have  taught  his  followers  to  believe  it, 
and  to  consider  that  the  agreement  between  the 
Qur'an  and  the  Jewish  Scriptures  (in  which  he 
erroneously  supposed  that  the  tale  was  to  be  found) 
in  this  and  similar  matters  was  a  proof  that  iie  was 
Divinely  commissioned  as  a  prophet. 

3.  Story  of  the  Queen  of  Shela's  visit  to  Solomon. 

Regarding  the  origin  of  this  tale  as  narrated  in 
the  Qur'an  there  cannot  be  the  slightest  doubt.  It 
is  taken  with  only  very  slight  alterations  from  the 
Second  Targum  on  Esther,  which  is  printed  in  the 
Miqra6th  Geddloth.  Muhammad  no  doubt  believed 
it  to  form  part  of  the  Jewish  Scriptures,  and  its 
absurdities  were  so  much  to  his  taste  and  that  of 


IDEAS    AND    PRACTICES.  8l 

the  Arabs  that  he  introduced  it  into  the  Qur'an 
(Surah  XXVII.,  An  Naml,  v.  17  and  vv.  20-45), 
where  it  is  related  in  the  following  manner  :— 

"And  his  hosts  (composed)  of  j inns  and  men  and 
birds  were  gathered  together  unto  Solomon.  .  .  . 
And  he  reviewed  the  birds :  then  he  said,  '  What 
(hath  happened)  to  me  that  I  do  not  see  the  hoopoe 
(huclhud)'*  Or  is  it  among  the  absentees'?  Truly 
I  shall  punish  it  with  severe  punishment.  Either 
I  shall  slaughter  it  assuredly,  or  it  shall  surely 
bring  me  clear  proof  V  Accordingly  it  delayed  not 
long.  Then  it  said  :  '  I  am  aware  of  what  thou  art 
not  aware  of,  and  I  have  come  to  thee  from  Sheba 2 
with  sure  information.  Verily  I  found  a  woman 
who  reigneth  over  them  and  who  is  brought  some 
of  everything,  and  she  hath  a  great  throne.  And 
I  found  her  and  her  people  worshipping  the  Sun 
instead  of  God,  and  Satan  hath  made  their  deeds 
attractive  unto  them,  and  hath  turned  them  aside 
from  the  way,  therefore  they  are  not  guided  aright 
so  that  they  should  worship  God,  who  bringeth 
forth  what  is  concealed  in  the  heavens  and  the 
earth,  and  knoweth  what  ye  hide  and  what  ye 
reveal.  God !  there  is  no  god  but  He,  the  Lord  of 
the  Great  Throne.'  He  said, '  We  shall  see  whether 
thou  hast  spoken  truly  or  art  among  the  liars.  Go 
thou  with  this  my  epistle,  and  cast  it  down  to 

1  That  it  had  a  good  excuse  for  absence. 

a  The  Arabic  form  is  Sabd,  since  the  Hebrew  sh  often  oecomes 
s  in  Arabic 


82  INFLUENCE    OF    JEWISH 

them ;  then  turn  thou  away  from  them :  then  see 
what  (answer)  they  will  return.' 

"  (The  queen)  said,  '  0  nobles,  verily  to  me  hath 
a  gracious  epistle  been  cast  down  :  verily  it  is  from 
Solomon:  verily  it  is  "In  the  name  of  God  the 
Merciful,  the  Compassionate  !  Rise  not  up  against 
me,  but  come  unto  me  submissively  V  She  said, 
'  0  nobles,  instruct  ye  me  in  my  matter  :  I  do  not 
decide  a  matter  until  ye  bear  witness.'  They  said, 
'We  are  men  of  strength  and  of  mighty  courage, 
and  command  (belongeth)  unto  thee :  therefore  see 
thou  what  thou  wilt  command.'  She  said,  '  Verily 
when  kings  enter  a  city,  they  destroy  it  and  make 
humble  the  most  honoured  of  its  people,  even  so  do 
they.  And  verily  I  do  send  unto  them  a  gift  and 
see  with  what  (answer)  the  messengers  return,' 

"  Accordingly  when  (the  messenger)  came  to 
Solomon,  (the  king)  said, '  Do  ye  increase  my  goods  ? 
since  what  God  hath  brought  me  is  better  than 
what  He  hath  brought  you.  Nay,  ye  boast  of  your 
gift.  Return  thou  to  them :  for  indeed  we  shall 
come  to  them  with  hosts  which  they  cannot  resist, 
and  we  shall  expel  them  from  it  (the  country) 
humbled,  and  they  shall  be  small.'  He  said, 
'  O  nobles,  which  of  you  will  bring  me  her  throne, 
before  they  come  to  me  submissively  1V  An  'Ifrit 
of  the  jinns  said,  I  shall  bring  it  to  thee  before  thou 
risest  up  from  thy  place,  and  verily  I  am  indeed 
able  to  do  it  (and  am)  faithful/  He  who  had 

1  Or  "As  Muslims." 


IDEAS    AND    PRACTICES.  83 

knowledge  from  the  Book  said,  '  I  shall  bring  it  to 
thee  before  thy  glance  shall  return l  to  thee.' 
When,  therefore,  (Solomon)  saw  it  placed  beside 
him,  he  said, '  This  is  from  my  Lord's  favour,  that 
he  may  prove  me,  whether  I  be  grateful  or  un 
grateful.  And  he  who  is  grateful  is  grateful  indeed 
for  himself,  and  he  who  is  ungrateful,  verily  my 
Lord  is  rich  and  gracious/ 

"  He  said,  '  Alter  her  throne  for  her !  we  shall 
see  whether  she  is  rightly  guided  or  is  among  those 
who  are  not  guided  aright.'  Accordingly,  when 
she  came,  it  was  said,  '  Is  this  thy  throne  1 '  She 
said,  '  It  is  as  if  it  were.'  '  And  we  were  brought 
knowledge  before  she  was,  and  became  Muslims: 
And  that  which  she  used  to  worship  instead  of  God 
hath  led  her  astray  :  verily  she  is  of  an  unbelieving 
people.'  It  was  said  to  her,  'Enter  the  palace.' 
When  therefore  she  saw  it,  she  accounted  it  an 
abyss,  and  she  uncovered  her  legs.  He  said  '  Verily 
it  is  a  palace  paved  with  glass.'  She  said, '  0  my 
Lord,  verily  I  have  wronged  my  soul,  and  I  resign 2 
myself  along  with  Solomon  to  God,  the  Lord  of  the 
worlds.'" 

This  narrative  omits  some  details  that  are  men 
tioned  in  the  Targum  and  differs  from  the  latter 
in  a  few  points.  The  Targum  states  that  the 
throne3  belonged  to  Solomon,  and  that  twenty- 

1  i.  e.  In  the  twinkling  of  an  eye. 
8  Or,  "  Become  a  Muslim." 

»  Vide  i  Kings  x.  18  &qq.,  and  a  Chron.  ix.  17  sqq. 
F  2 


84  INFLUENCE    OF    JEWISH 

four  eagles,  stationed  above  the  throne,  cast  their 
shadow  upon  the  king's  head  as  he  sat  thereon. 
Whenever  Solomon  desired  to  go  anywhere,  these 
eagles  would  transport  him  and  his  throne  thither. 
Hence  we  see  that  the  Targum  represents  the 
eagles  as  the  bearers  of  the  throne,  whereas  the 
Qur'an  states  that  an  'Ifrit  did  Solomon  such  a 
service  once  only,  and  then  when  the  throne  was 
empty.  But  with  regard  to  the  Queen  of  Sheba 
and  the  letter  which  the  king  sent  her  by  means 
of  the  bird,  there  exists  a  marvellous  resemblance 
between  the  two  books,  except  that  the  Targum 
calls  the  hoopoe  a  "cock  of  the  desert"  which  is 
much  the  same  thing.  We  here  give  a  translation 
of  this  passage  of  the  Targum  for  the  sake  of 
comparison  with  the  Arabic  account. 

"  Again,  when  King  Solomon's  heart  was  merry 
with  his  wine,  he  commanded  to  bring  the  beasts 
of  the  field  and  the  fowls  of  the  air  and  the 
creeping  things  of  the  earth  and  the  jinns  and 
the  spirits  and  the  night-goblins  to  dance  before 
him,  in  order  to  show  his  greatness  to  all  the 
kings  who  were  prostrating  themselves  before  him. 
And  the  king's  scribes  summoned  them  by  their 
names,  and  they  all  assembled  and  came  unto  him, 
except  the  prisoners  and  except  the  captives  and 
except  the  man  who  took  charge  of  them.  At  that 
hour  the  cock  of  the  desert  was  enjoying  himself 
among  the  birds  and  was  not  found.  And  the 
king  commanded  concerning  him  that  they  should 


IDEAS    AND    PRACTICES.  85 

bring  him  by  force,  and  wished  to  destroy  him. 
The  cock  of  the  desert  returned  to  King  Solomon's 
presence  and  said  to  him,  '  Hearken,  my  lord  the 
king  of  the  earth,  incline  thine  ear  and  hear  my 
words.     Is  it  not  three  months  ago  that   I  took 
counsel  in  my  heart  and  formed  a  firm  resolution 
with  myself  that  I  would  not  eat,  and  would  not 
drink   water,  before  I  had  seen  the  whole  world 
and  flown  about  in  it  ?    And  I  said,  Which  province 
or   kingdom  is  there  that  is  not  obedient  to  my 
lord  the  king?     I  beheld  and  saw  a  fortified  city, 
the  name  of  which  is  Qitor,  in  an   eastern   land. 
The  dust  is   heavy   with  gold,  and  silver  is  like 
dung  in  the  streets,  and  trees  have  been  planted 
there   from  the  beginning;  and  from  the  Garden 
of   Eden   do   they  drink  water.     There  are  there 
great   multitudes   with   garlands   on  their   heads. 
From  there  are  plants  from  the  Garden  of  Eden, 
because  it  is  near   unto   it.     They  know  how   to 
shoot  with  the  bow,  but  cannot  be  slain  with  the 
bow.     One   woman   rules   over  them  all,  and  her 
name  is  the   Queen  of  Sheba.     Now  if  it  please 
thee,  my  lord  the  king,  this  person1  will  gird  up 
my  loins,  and  I  shall  rise  up  and  go  to  the  fortress 
of  Qitor,  to  the  city  of  Sheba  ;  I  shall  "bind  their 
kings 'with  chains  and  their  nobles  with  links  of 
iron,"  and  shall  bring  them  unto  my  lord  the  King.' 
And  the  saying  was  pleasing  before  the  king,  and 
the  king's  scribes  were  called,  and  they  wrote  a  letter 

1  That  is,  "I  shall, "&c. 


86  INFLUENCE    OF    JEWISH 

and  fastened  the  letter  to  the  wing  of  the  cock 
of  the  desert.  And  he  arose  and  went  up  high 
into  the  sky  and  bound  on  his  tiara  and  grew 
strong,  and  flew  among  the  birds.  And  they  flew 
after  him.  And  they  went  to  the  fortress  of  Qitor, 
to  the  city  of  Sheba.  And  it  came  to  pass  at  morning 
time  that  the  Queen  of  Sheba  went  forth  by  the 
sea  to  worship.  And  the  birds  darkened  the  sun  ; 
and  she  laid  her  hand  upon  her  garments  and 
rent  them,  and  she  became  surprised  and  troubled. 
And  when  she  was  troubled,  the  cock  of  the  desert 
came  down  to  her,  and  she  saw,  and  lo !  a  letter 
was  fastened  to  his  wing.  She  opened  and  read 
it.  And  this  was  what  was  written  in  it : — '  From 
me,  King  Solomon.  Peace  be  to  thee,  peace  be 
to  thy  nobles !  Forasmuch  as  thou  knowest  that 
the  Holy  One,  blessed  be  He !  has  made  me  King 
over  the  beasts  of  the  field,  and  over  the  fowls 
of  the  air,  and  over  jinns  and  over  spirits  and 
over  night-goblins,  and  all  the  kings  of  the  East 
and  the  West  and  the  South  and  the  North  come 
and  inquire  about  my  health  (peace) :  now,  if  thou 
art  willing  and  dost  come  and  inquire  after  my 
health,  well :  I  shall  make  thee  greater  than  all 
the  kings  that  bow  down  before  me.  And  if  thou 
art  not  willing  and  dost  not  come  nor  inquire 
after  my  health,  I  shall  send  against  thee  kings 
and  legions  and  horsemen.  And  if  thou  sayest, 
'  What  kings  and  legions  and  horsemen  has  King 
Solomon  ?  ' — the  beasts  of  the  field  are  kings  and 


IDEAS    AND    PRACTICES. 

legions  and  horsemen.     And  if  thou  sayest,    What 
horsemen  V— the  fowls  of   the   air  are  horsemen, 
my  armies  are  spirits  and  jinns,   and  the  night- 
goblins  are  legions  that  shall  strangle  you  in  your 
beds  within  your  houses :  the  beasts  of   the  field 
shall   slay  you   in  the  field ;  the  birds  of  the  air 
shall  eat  your  flesh  from  oft*  you/     And  when  the 
Queen  of  Sheba   heard   the   words   of  the  letter, 
again  a  second  time  she  laid  her  hand  upon  her 
garments  and  rent  them.     She  sent  and  called  the 
elders  and  nobles,  and  said  to  them,  '  Do  ye  not 
know  what  King  Solomon  has  sent  to  me  V  They 
answered  and  said,  '  We  do  not  know  King  Solomon, 
nor    do  we  make  any    account  of   his  kingdom.' 
But  she  was  not  contented,  nor  did   she  hearken 
unto  their  words,  but  she  sent  and  called  all  the 
ships  of  the  sea  .and  loaded  them  with   offerings 
and  jewels  and  precious   stones.      And   she    sent 
unto  him  six  thousand  boys  and  girls,  and  all  of 
them  were  born  in  the  same  (one)  year,  and  all  of 
them  were  born  in  one  month,  and  all  of  them 
were  born  in  one  day,  and  all  of  them  were  born  in 
one  hour,  and  all  of  them  were  of  the  same  stature, 
and  all  of  them  were  of  the  same  figure,  and  all 
of  them  were  clad  in  purple  garments.     And  she 
wrote  a  letter  and  sent  it   to  King   Solomon   by 
their  hands.     '  From  the  fortress  of  Qitor  to  the 
land    of    Israel    is    seven    years'   journey.      Now 
through  thy  prayers  and  through  thy  petitions, 
which  I  entreat  of  thee,  I  shall  come  to  thee  at 


INFLUENCE    OF    JEWISH 

the  end  of  three  years.'     And  it  came  to  pass  at 
the  end  of  three  years  that  the  Queen  of  Sheba 
came  to  King  Solomon.     And  when  King  Solomon 
heard  that  the  Queen  of  Sheba  had  come,  he  sent 
unto  her  Benaiah  the  son  of  Jehoiada,  who  was 
like  the   dawn  that   rises   at    morning-time,   and 
resembled  the  Star  of  Splendour  (= Venus)  which 
shines  and  stands  firm  among  the  stars,  and  was 
similar  to  the  lily  which   stands   by   the   water 
courses.      And   when   the   Queen    of    Sheba   saw 
Benaiah,  son  of  Jehoiada,  she  alighted  from  the 
chariot.     Benaiah,  son  of  Jehoiada,  answered  and 
said  to  her,  'Why  hast  thou  alighted  from  thy 
chariot  ? '  She  answered  and  said  to  him,  '  Art  not 
thou  King  Solomon  V   He  answered  and  said  to 
her,  *  I  am  not  King  Solomon,  but  one  of  his  ser 
vants  who  stand  before  him/     And  forthwith  she 
turned  her  face  behind  her  and  uttered  a  parable  to 
the  nobles,  '  If  the  lion  has  not  appeared  to  you,  ye 
have  seen  his  offspring,  and  if  ye  have  not  seen 
King  Solomon  ye  have  seen  the  beauty  of  a  man 
who   stands   before   him.'     And   Benaiah,  son   of 
Jehoiada,  brought  her  before  the  king.     And  when 
the  king  heard  that  she  had  come  to  him,  he  arose 
and  went  and  sat  in  a  crystal  house.     And  when 
the  Queen  of  Sheba  saw  that  the  king  sat  in  a 
crystal  house,  she  considered  in  her  heart  and  said 
that  the  king  sat  in  water,  and  she  gathered  up  her 
garment  that  she  might  cross  over,  and  he  saw 
that  she  had  hair  on  her  legs.     The  king  answered 


IDEAS    AND    PRACTICES.  89 


and  said  unto  her,  <  Thy  beauty  is  the  beauty  of 
women,  and  thy  hair  is  the  hair  of  a  man  ;  and 
hair  is  beautiful  for  a  man,  but  for  a  woman  it  is 
disgraceful.'  The  Queen  of  Sheba  answered  and 
said  to  him,  '  My  lord  the  king,  I  shall  utter  to  thee 
three  parables,  which  if  thou  explain  to  me,  I  shall 
know  that  thou  art  a  wise  man,  and  if  not.  thou 
art  as  the  rest  of  men.'  (Solomon  solved  all  three 
problems.)  And  she  said,  '  Blessed  be  the  Lord 
thy  God  who  delighted  in  thee  to  seat  thee  upon 
the  throne  of  the  kingdom  to  do  judgment  and 
justice.'  And  she  gave  unto  the  king  good  gold 
and  silver.  .  .  .  And  the  king  gave  her  all  that  she 
desired." 

In  this  Jewish  narrative  we  see  that  there  is 
mention  made  of  certain  puzzles  which  the  Queen 
of  Sheba  desired  Solomon  to  solve  for  her. 
Although  this  matter  is  not  mentioned  in  the 
Qur'an,  yet  it  is  all  recorded  in  the  Traditions. 
And  since  what  the  Qur  an  says  with  regard  to  the 
Queen's  mistaking  the  crystal  pavement  for  a  deep 
pool  of  water  is  not  quite  so  full  an  account  of  the 
incident  as  that  given  in  the  Targum,  certain 
Muhammadan  writers  have  filled  up  the  details 
exactly.  For  instance,  in  the  'Araisu'l  Majalis 
(p.  438)  we  read :  "  She  uncovered  her  legs  that 
she  might  wade  through  it,  unto  Solomon.  Then 
Solomon  beheld  her,  and  lo  !  she  was  the  fairest  of 
women  as  to  leg  and  foot,  except  that  she  was 
hairy-legged.  When  therefore  Solomon  saw  that, 


9°  INFLUENCE    OP    JEWISH 

he  cried  out  to  prevent  her,  and  he  called  aloud 
to  her,  '  Verily  it  is  a  palace  paved  with  glass.' " 

The  mention  of  the  crystal  pavement  may  be 
due  to  a  confused  recollection  of  the  "  molten  sea  " 
in  the  Temple  at  Jerusalem  (i  Kings  vii.  23). 
All  the  other  marvels  seem  to  be  purely  Jewish 
fancies.  The  Jewish  account  is  so  evidently 
fabulous  that  it  is  surprising  that  Muhammad  so 
evidently  believed  it  to  be  strictly  true.  But  some 
of  the  incidents  mentioned  can  be  somewhat  more 
fully  explained  than  others.  For  instance,  the 
idea  (widely  prevalent  in  the  East  to  the  present 
day)  that  Solomon  ruled  over  various  kinds  of  evil 
spirits  was  derived  from  the  Jews  from  a  misunder 
standing  l  of  the  Hebrew  words  ntaBM  rw  in 
Eccles.  ii.  8.  These  words  probably  mean  "  a  lady 
and  ladies."  But  the  commentators  seem  to  have 
misunderstood  the  terms,  which  occur  nowhere 
else  in  the  Bible,  and  to  have  explained  them  as 
denoting  certain  demons  (fern,  of  &*}&).  Hence  he 
is  spoken  of  in  both  the  Jewish  legend  and  in  the 
Qur'an  as  having  armies  composed  of  various  kinds 
of  spirits.  The  story  of  the  Merchant  and  the 
Jinni  in  the  Arabian  Nights  is  another  instance  of 
the  same  belief.  It  is  strange  to  find  the  Prophet 
Muhammad  emulating  the  writer  of  that  wonderful 
book  as  a  story-teller,  even  though  the  source  of 

1  Or  rather  perhaps  from  the  Persian  story  of  Jamshid,  which 
seemed  to  suit  Solomon  because  of  the  misunderstanding 
referred  to  in  the  text.  Vide  pp.  249,  250. 


IDEAS    AND    PRACTICES. 


the  Quranic  tale  is  known,  In  credulity,  however, 
Muhammad  undoubtedly  eclipsed  his  rival,  for  the 
latter  cannot  be  supposed  to  have  believed  his  own 
wondrous  tales,  nor  does  he  profess  to  have  received 
them  from  above. 

The  historical  basis  for  the  whole  tale  is  afforded 
by  the  record  given  in  i  Kings  x.  i-io  (and 
repeated  in  2  Chron.  ix.  1-9),  which  tells  us 
nothing  whatever  marvellous  about  Solomon,  no 
thing  about  Jinns  and  'Ifrits  and  crystal  palaces,  but 
is  a  simple  narrative  of  a  visit  paid  to  Solomon  by 
the  Queen  of  Sheba,  a  well-known  part  of  Arabia. 

"And  when  the  Queen  of  Sheba  heard  of  the 
fame  of  Solomon  concerning  the  name  of  the  Lord, 
she  came  to  prove  him  with  hard  questions.  And 
she  came  to  Jerusalem  with  a  very  great  train, 
with  camels  that  bare  spices  and  very  much  gold 
and  precious  stones:  and  when  she  was  come  to 
Solomon,  she  communed  with  him  of  all  that  was 
in  her  heart.  And  Solomon  told  her  all  her 
questions:  there  was  not  anything  hid  from  the 
king  which  he  told  her  not.  And  when  the  queen 
of  Sheba  had  seen  all  the  wisdom  of  Solomon,  and 
the  house  that  he  had  built,  and  the  meat  of  his 
table,  and  the  sitting  of  his  servants,  and  the 
attendance  of  his  ministers,  and  their  apparel,  and 
his  cupbearers,  and  his  ascent  by  which  he  went  up 
unto  the  house  of  the  Lord;  there  was  no  more 
spirit  in  her.  And  she  said  to  the  king,  *  It  was  a 
true  report  that  I  heard  in  my  own  land  of  thy 


92  INFLUENCE    OP    JEWISH 

acts,  and  of  thy  wisdom.  Howbeit,  I  believed  not 
the  words,  until  I  came,  and  mine  eyes  had  seen  it : 
and,  behold,  the  half  was  not  told  me :  thy  wisdom 
and  prosperity  exceedeth  the  fame  which  I  heard. 
Happy  are  thy  men,  happy  are  these  thy  servants, 
which  stand  continually  before  thee,  and  that 
hear  thy  wisdom.  Blessed  be  the  Lord  thy  God, 
which  delighted  in  thee,  to  set  thee  on  the  throne 
of  Israel:  because  the  Lord  loved  Israel  for  ever, 
therefore  made  He  thee  king  to  do  judgment  and 
justice/  And  she  gave  the  king  an  hundred  and 
twenty  talents  of  gold,  and  of  spices  very  great 
store,  and  precious  stones:  there  came  no  more 
such  abundance  of  spices  as  those  which  the  queen 
of  Sheba  gave  to  King  Solomon." 

Although  many  others  of  the  narratives  that 
are  contained  in  the  Qur'an  have  been  borrowed 
from  Jewish  fables,  yet  here  it  is  not  necessary  to 
quote  them  all  at  length.  In  every  case  Muham 
mad  seems  to  have  been  ignorant  of  the  true 
history  of  the  Prophets  as  related  in  the  Canonical 
Books  of  the  Old  Testament.  This  was  doubtless 
due  to  the  fact  that  the  Jews  of  Arabia  were  not 
learned  men,  and  that  they  were  better  acquainted 
with  the  fables  of  the  Talmud  than  with  the  Bible. 
Before  we  proceed  to  more  important  matters, 
however,  we  must  deal  with  the  story  of  Harut 
and  Marut,  the  two  angels  that  sinned  in  Babylon. 
This  legend  is  of  much  interest,  as  we  can  trace  it 


IDEAS    AND    PRACTICES.  93 


in  the  first  instance  to  the  Jews,  and  can  then 
show  that  it  is  of  composite  origin.  We  first  quote 
it  as  it  is  narrated  in  the  Quran  and  the  Traditions, 
and  shall  then  refer  to  the  Jewish  and  other 
legends  from  which  it  was  derived 

4.     Story  of  Hdrut  and  Mdrut. 

In  the  Qur'an  (Surah  II.,  Al  Baqarah,  96)  it  is 
thus  written :  — 

"Solomon  did  not  disbelieve,  but  the  Devils 
disbelieved.  And  they  teach  men  sorcery  and 
what  had  been  sent  down  unto  the  two  angels  in 
Babel,  Harut  and  Marut.  And  they  teach  not 
anyone  until  they  both  say,  'Verily  we  are 
Rebellion,  therefore  do  not  thou  disbelieve." 

In  the  'Ardifit'l  Majdlia  we  find  the  following 
story,  told  on  the  authority  of  Tradition,  in  ex 
planation  of  this  verse.  «  The  Commentators  say 
that,  when  the  angels  saw  the  vile  deeds  of  the 
sons  of  men  that  ascended  up  to  heaven  in  the 
time  of  the  Prophet  Idris,  they  rebuked  them  for 
that  and  repudiated  them  and  said,  'These  are 
those  whom  Thou  hast  made  Vicegerents  upon 
earth  and  whom  Thou  hast  chosen,  yet  they  offend 
against  Thee.'  Therefore  God  Most  High  said, 
'If  I  had  sent  you  down  to  the  Earth  and  had 
instilled  into  you  what  I  have  instilled  into  them, 
ye  would  have  done  as  they  have  done.'  They 
said,  '  God  forbid !  O  our  Lord,  it  were  unfitting 
for  us  to  offend  against  Thee/  God  Most  High 


94  INFLUENCE    OF    JEWISH 

said,  'Choose  ye  out  two  angels  of  the  best  of 
you :  I  shall  send  them  both  down  to  the  Earth.' 
Accordingly  they  chose  Harut  and  Marut,  who 
were  among  the  best  and  most  devout  of  the 
angels.  Al  Kalbi  says,  '  God  Most  High  said, 
"  Choose  ye  out  three  of  you ; "  so  they  chose  'Azz, 
who  is  Harut,  and  'Azabi,  who  is  Marut,  and 
'Azrail.  And  indeed  he  changed  the  names  of 
those  two  when  they  became  involved  in  guilt,  as 
God  changed  the  name  of  Iblis,  for  his  name  was 
'Azazil.  Then  God  Most  High  instilled  into  them 
the  desire  which  He  had  instilled  into  the  sons  of 
men,  and  sent  them  down  to  the  Earth ;  and  He 
commanded  them  to  judge  justly  between  men, 
and  He  prohibited  them  from  polytheism  and 
from  unjustly  slaying  and  from  unchastity  and 
from  drinking  wine.  As  for  'Azrail,  when  desire 
fell  into  his  heart,  verily  he  asked  pardon  of  his 
Lord  and  begged  that  He  would  take  him  up  to 
heaven.  Therefore  He  pardoned  him  and  took 
him  up.  And  he  worshipped  for  forty  years; 
then  he  raised  his  head ;  and  after  that  he  did  not 
cease  to  hang  down  his  head  through  feeling  shame 
before  God  Most  High.  But  as  for  the  other  two, 
verily  they  remained  as  they  were.  They  used  to 
judge  among  men  during  the  day,  and  when  it  was 
evening  they  repeated  the  Great  Name  of  God 
Most  High  and  ascended  up  to  heaven.  Qatadah 
says  that  a  month  had  not  passed  ere  they  fell  into 
temptation,  and  that  because  one  day  Zuhrah,  who 


IDEAS    AND    PRACTICES.  95 


was  one  of  the  most  beautiful  of  women,  brought 
a  law-suit   to   them.     €Ali   says   she   was   of  the 
people  of  Fars  and  was  queen  in  her  own  country. 
When  therefore  they  saw  her,  she  captivated  the 
hearts  of  both  of  them.     Hence  they  asked  her  for 
herself.     She  refused  and  went  away.     Then  on 
the  next  day  she  returned,  and  they  did  as  before. 
She   said,  'No,  unless   ye   both   worship  what   I 
worship  and  pray  to  this  idol  and  commit  murder 
and   drink   wine.'     They  both   said,   'We   cannot 
possibly  do  these  things,  for  God  has  prohibited  us 
from  doing  them.'     Accordingly  she  went  away. 
Then  on  the  third  day  she  returned,  and  with  her 
a  cup  of  wine,  and  she  showed  herself  favourable 
unto  them.     Accordingly  they  asked  her  for  herself. 
Then  she  refused  and  proposed  to  them  what  she 
had  said  the  previous  day.    Then  they  said,  'To 
worship  any  but  God  is  a  fearful  thing,  and  to 
murder  is  a  fearful  thing,  and  the  easiest  of  the 
three  is  to  drink  wine.'     Accordingly  they  drank 
the  wine:   then  they  became  intoxicated  and  fell 
upon  the  woman.  ...  A  man  saw  them,  and  they 
slew  him.     Kalbi  bin  Anas  says  that  they  wor 
shipped  the  idol.     Then  God  transformed  Zuhrah 
into  a  star.     'Ali  and  Sadi  and  Kalbi  say  that  she 
said, '  Ye  will  not  obtain  me  until  ye  teach  me  that 
by  means  of  which  ye  ascend  to  heaven.'     There 
fore    they   said,   'We    ascend    by   means    of    the 
greatest  name  of  God.'     Then  she  said,  'Ye  will 
not  therefore  obtain  me  until  ye  teach  it  to  me/ 


96  INFLUENCE    OF    JEWISH 

One  of  them  said  to  his  companion,  'Teach  it  to 
her/  He  said,  <  Verily  I  fear  God.'  Then  said  the 
other,  '  Where  then  is  the  mercy  of  God  Most 
High  ? '  Then  they  taught  it  to  her.  Accordingly 
she  uttered  it  and  ascended  to  heaven,  and  God 
Most  High  transformed  her  into  a  star." 

Zuhrah  is  the  Arabic  name  of  the  planet  Venus. 
The  number  of  authorities  quoted  for  the  various 
forms  of  this  story  is  a  sufficient  proof  how  generally 
it  is  accepted  among  Muslims  as  having  been 
handed  down  by  Tradition  from  the  lips  of  their 
Prophet.  There  are  several  points  in  the  tale 
which  would  of  themselves  indicate  its  Jewish 
origin,  even  had  we  no  further  proof.  One  of 
these  is  the  idea  that  any  one  who  knows  the 
special  name  of  God— the  "Incommunicable  Name" 
as  the  Jews  call  it — can  thereby  do  great  things. 
It  is  well  known,  for  example,  that  certain  Jewish 
writers  of  olden  times  explained  our  Lord's 
miracles  by  asserting  that  He  performed  them  by 
pronouncing  this  Name,  the  Tetragrammaton.  Again, 
the  angel  'Azrail  bears  not  an  Arabic  but  a  Hebrew 
name. 

But  we  have  more  direct  proof  than  this  of  the 
Jewish  origin  of  the  tale.  It  is  contained  in  the 
Midrash  Yalkut,  chapter  xliv,  in  these  words : — 

"His  disciples  asked  Rab  Joseph,  'What  is 
'Azael  ? '  He  said  to  them,  '  When  the  generation 
(that  lived  at  the  time)  of  the  Flood  arose  and 
offered  up  vain  worship  (i.  e.  worship  to  idols),  the 


IDEAS    AND    PRACTICES.  97 

Holy  One,  Blessed  be  He!  was  wroth.  At  once 
there  arose  two  angels,  Shemhazai  and  'Azael,  and 
said  in  His  presence,  "  O  Lord  of  the  World !  did 
we  not  say  in  Thy  presence,  when  thou  didst  create 
Thy  world,  *  What  is  man  that  Thou  art  mindful 
of  him  ? ' "  (Ps.  viii.  4).  He  said  to  them,  "  And 
as  for  the  world,  what  will  become  of  it  1 "  They 
said  to  Him,  "  O  Lord  of  the  World,  we  shall  rule 
over  it."  He  said  to  them,  "It  is  manifest  and 
known  unto  Me  that,  if  ye  were  dominant  in  the 
Earth,  evil  desire  would  reign  in  you,  and  ye 
would  be  more  stubborn  than  the  sons  of  men." 
They  said  to  Him,  "Give  us  permission,  and  we 
shall  dwell  with  the  creatures,  and  Thou  shalt  see 
how  we  shall  sanctify  Thy  name."  He  said  to 
them,  "  Go  down  and  dwell  with  them."  At  once 
Shemhazai  saw  a  damsel,  whose  name  was  Esther. 
He  fixed  his  eyes  upon  her :  he  said,  "  Be  com 
plaisant  to  me."  She  said  to  him,  "I  shall  not 
hearken  unto  thee  until  thou  teach  me  the  peculiar 
Name  [of  God],  by  means  of  which  thou  ascendest 
to  the  sky  at  the  hour  that  thou  repeatest  it."  He 
taught  it  to  her.  Then  she  repeated  it:  then  too 
she  ascended  to  the  sky  and  was  not  humbled. 
The  Holy  One,  Blessed  be  He!  said,  "Since  she 
hath  separated  herself  from  transgression,  go  ye 
and  place  her  among  the  seven  staiis,  that  ye  may 
be  pure  with  regard  to  her  for  ever."  And  she 
was  placed  in  the  Pleiades.  They  instantly  de 
graded  themselves  with  the  daughters  of  men,  who 
G 


98  INFLUENCE    OF    JEWISH 

were  beautiful,  and  they  could  not  satisfy  their 
desire.  They  arose  and  took  wives  and  begat 
sons,  Hiwwa  and  Hia.  And  'Azael  was  master  of 
varieties  of  ornaments  and  kinds  of  adornments  of 
women,  which  render  men  prone  to  the  thought 
of  transgression.' " 

To  what  is  said  in  this  last  sentence  we  shall 
recur  again  later  \  It  should  be  noticed  that  the 
*Azdel  of  the  Midrash  is  the  *AzrdU  of  the  Muham- 
madan  legend. 

It  is  impossible  for  any  one  to  compare  the 
Muhammadan  with  the  Jewish  legend  without 
perceiving  that  the  former  is  derived  from  the 
latter,  not  exactly  word  for  word,  but  as  it  was 
related  orally.  There  are,  however,  some  interest 
ing  points  in  the  Muhammadan  form  of  the  fable 
which  require  attention  before  we  investigate  the 
question,  "Where  did  the  Jews  themselves  learn 
the  story  ?  " 

One  of  these  points  is  the  origin  of  the  names 
Harftt  and  Marut.  These  angels  are  said  to  have 
had  other  names  originally,  being  called  'Azz  and 
'Azabi  respectively,  and  the  latter  names  are 
formed  from  roots  common  to  the  Hebrew  and  the 
Arabic  languages.  In  the  Midrash  Yalkut,  how 
ever,  the  angels  that  sinned  are  called  Shemhazai 
and  'Azael,  whereas  the  Arabic  legend  says  that 
'Azrail,  though  he  did  come  down,  accompanied 
Harut  and  Marut  as  a  third  member  of  the  party, 

1  Vide  pp,  107,  108. 


IDEAS    AND    PRACTICES.  99 


and  afterwards  returned  to  heaven  without  com 
mitting  actual  sin.  He  is  now  regarded  by 
Muslims  as  the  Angel  of  Death,  a  part  played  by 
Sammael  among  the  Jews.  The  Arabic  legend 
says  that  the  names  Harut  and  Marut  were  not 
given  to  these  two  angels  until  after  they  had 
sinned.  The  meaning  underlying  this  becomes 
clear  when  we  discover  that  the  names  are  those 
of  two  ancient  Armenian  deities,  worshipped  by 
the  Armenians  before  their  conversion  to  Christi 
anity  in  the  third  and  fourth  centuries  of  the 
Christian  era.  In  Armenian  they  were  termed 
Horot  arid  M6r6t,  and  a  modern  Armenian  writer 
mentions  the  part  which  they  were  supposed  to 
play  in  the  ancient  mythology  of  his  country  in 
these  words : — 

"Among  the  assistants  of  the  goddess  Spanaaramit 
were  undoubtedly  Horot  and  Morot,  demigods  of 
Mount  Masis  (Ararat),  and  Amenabegh,  and  per 
haps  other  deities  also  which  are  still  unknown  to 
us.  They  were  the  special  promoters  of  the  pro 
ductiveness  and  profitableness  of  the  earth  V 

The  Armenian  Spandaramit  is  the  Avestic  Spenta 
Armaiti,  the  female  archangel  who  presides  over 
the  earth  and  is  the  guardian  of  virtuous  women. 
Horot  and  Morot  appear  in  the  A  vesta  as  Haurvat 
(or  Haurvatat)  and  Ameretat,  "  abundance "  and 
"immortality."  They  are  the  fifth  and  sixth  of 
the  Ainshaspands  (Amesha-spentas,  "bountiful  im- 

Halouadsner,  yt.  i.  p.  127. 
G  2 


100  INFLUENCE    OF    JEWISH 

mortals  "),  who  are  the  chief  assistants  and  minis 
ters  of  Ahuro  Mazdao  (Ormazd),  the  creator  of  all 
good  things.     In  the  Avesta,  Haurvatat  and  Ame- 
retat  are  inseparable  companions,  as  are  H6r6t  and 
M6rot  in  Armenian  mythology.     The  latter  pre 
sides  over  the  whole  vegetable  kingdom.     In  later 
Persian  the  names  were  gradually  corrupted  into 
Khurdad  and  Murdad,  and  these  two  good  genii 
gave  their  names  to  the  third  and  fifth  months  of 
the  year.     The  words  are  of  purely  Aryan  origin 
and   occur  under  their  proper  form  in   Sanskrit 
(sarvatd  and  amrita—the  former  occurring  in  the 
form  sarvatdti  in  the  Rig  Veda),  though  they  have 
not    become    mythological   beings.      The    Aryan 
legend   represented   these   demigods  as  givers   of 
fertility  to  the  earth,  personified  as  Spenta  Armaiti, 
and   as   presiding    over   all    kinds   of  fruitfulness. 
They  were  holy  beings,  and  their  descent  to  the 
earth  was   in   accordance   with   the  command  of 
Ormazd,   as    in   the    Muhammadan   legend.      But 
originally  the  execution  of  their  mission  was  not 
associated  with  any  thought  of   sin.     Borrowing 
their  names  from  the  ancient  mythology  of  Ar 
menia   and  Persia,  Muhammad  confounded  them 
(or  his  informants  did)  with  the  two  sinful  angels 
of  Jewish   mythology.     As   we  shall  see  in  due 
time1,  he  derived  not  a  little   information   from 
Persian  as  well  as  from  Jewish  sources,  and  there 
was  sufficient  resemblance  between  the  two  origin- 

1  Chapter  v. 


IDEAS    AND    PRACTICES.  IOI 

ally  quite  independent  myths  to  lead  him  to  con 
sider  them  one  and  the  same.  Hence  the  strange 
phenomenon  of  the  appearance  of  two  Aryan 
genii  as  the  chief  actors  in  a  scene  borrowed  from 
the  Talmud  in  its  main  features. 

The  girl  called  in  the  Jewish  story  Esther  is  the 
goddess  Ishtar  of  ancient  Babylonia,  worshipped 
in  Palestine  and  Syria  under  the  name  of  'Ashto- 
reth.  She  was  the  goddess  of  love  and  of  sinful 
passion,  and  was  identified  by  the  Greeks  and 
Romans  with  Aphrodite  and  Venus  respectively. 
As  she  was  also  identified  with  the  planet  Venus, 
called  Zuhrah  by  the  Arabs,  it  is  easy  to  perceive 
that  the  difference  of  names  in  the  Jewish  and  the 
Arabian  tales  is  not  a  matter  of  moment,  the 
mythological  person  referred  to  being  in  reality 
one  and  the  same. 

It  is  well  known  what  an  important  part  Ishtar 
played  in  the  mythology  of  the  Babylonians  and 
Assyrians.  One  of  the  tales  of  her  many  amours 
must  be  translated  here,  as  it  explains,  in  part, 
the  origin  of  the  story  of  the  angels'  sin,  and  also 
shows  why  Zuhrah  or  Esther  is  said  to  have  been 
enabled  to  ascend,  and  did  ascend,  to  heaven. 

In  the  Babylonian  myth  we  are  told  that  Ishtar 
fell  in  love  with  a  hero  called  Gilgamesh,  who 
repelled  her  advances: 

"Gilgamesh  put  on  his  crown.  And  for  (the 
purpose  of  attracting)  the  favour  of  Gilgamesh  to 
wards  herself,  the  majesty  of  the  goddess  Ishtar 


I°2  INFLUENCE    OF    JEWISH 

(said  to  him),  'Kiss  me,  Gilgamesh:  and  would 
that  thou  wert  my  bridegroom !  Give  me  thy 
fruit  as  a  gift.  And  would  that  thou  were  my 
husband,  and  would  that  I  were  thy  wife !  Then 
(shouldest  thou)  drive  forth  in  a  chariot  of 
lapis  lazuli  and  gold,  the  wheels  of  which  are  of 
gold,  and  both  its  shafts  are  of  diamond.  Then 
wouldst  thou  every  day  yoke  the  great  mules. 
Enter  into  our  house  with  perfume  of  cedarwood1.' " 
But  when  Gilgamesh  refused  to  receive  her  as  his 
wife  and  taunted  her  by  mentioning  some  of  the 
many  husbands  she  had  had,  who  had  come  to 

a  bad  end,  then,  as  the  tale  goes  on  to  tell  us : 

"  The  goddess  Ishtar  became  angry,  and  went 
up  to  the  heavens,  and  the  goddess  Ishtar  (came) 
before  the  face  of  the  god  Anu."  Anu  was  the 
Heaven  and  the  god  of  Heaven  of  the  oldest  Baby 
lonian  mythology,  and  Ishtar  was  his  daughter. 
Here  we  see  her  ascent  to  heaven  mentioned,  just 
as  in  the  Muhammadan  legend.  In  the  latter  she 
tempts  the  angels  to  sin,  just  as  in  the  Babylonian 
tale  she  tempted  Gilgamesh. 

In  Sanskrit  literature  also  we  find  a  very  re 
markable  parallel  to  the  story  that  is  related  in  the 
Qur'an  and  the  Traditions.  This  is  the  episode  of 
Sunda  and  Upasunda  2  in  the  Mahabharata,  There 

1  Translated  from  the  original,  which  is  printed  and  incor 
rectly  translated  in  Trans.  Soc.  BiU.  Archaeology,  vol.  II.,  pt.  j., 
pp.  104,  105,  115. 

3  Rundopasunflopdkhydnam. 


IDEAS    AND    PRACTICES. 


we  are  told  that  once  upon  a  time  two  brothers 
Sunda  and   Upasunda   practised   such   austerities 
that  they  acquired  much  merit  for  themselves—  so 
much  in  fact  that  they  ultimately  obtained  sove 
reignty  over  both  earth  and   heaven.     Then  the 
god  Brahma  began  to  fear  lest  he  should  in  this 
way  lose  all  his  dominions.     In  order  to  prevent 
this   he  decided  to  destroy  his  two  rivals.     The 
method  which  he  adopted  was  to  tempt  them  by 
sending   them    one   of   the   maidens   of   Paradise, 
called  Huris  by  the  Muhammadans  and  Apsarasas 
by  the  'ancient  Hindus.     He   therefore  created  a 
most  lovely  Apsaras  named  Tilottama,  whom  he 
sent  as  a  gift  to  the  brothers.     On  beholding  her, 
Sunda  seized  her  right  hand  and  Upasunda  her 
left,  each  desiring  to  have  her  as  his  wife.    Jealousy 
caused   hatred  and  enmity  to   spring   up    in   thr 
hearts  of  the  brothers,  and  the  result  was   that 
they  slew  each  other.     Tilottama  then  returned  to 
Brahma,  who,  delighted  at  her  having  thus  enabled 
him  to  rid  himself  of  both  his  rivals,  blessed  her 
and  said,  "In  all  the  world  that  the  sun  shines 
upon  thou  shalt  circle  around,  and  no  one  shall  be 
able    to    gaze    directly    at  thee,    because   of   the 
brilliancy  of  thy  adornment  and  the  excellence  of 
thy  beauty." 

In  this  fable  we  find  mention  of  the  nymph  s 
ascent  to  the  sky,  though  the  Hindu  story  agrees 
with  the  Babylonian  and  differs  from  the  Muham- 
madan  one  in  representing  her  as  having  from  the 


I04  INFLUENCE    OF    JEWISH 

first  had  some  connexion  with  the  upper  regions, 
for  the  Apsarasas  dwell  in  the  sky,  though  often 
visiting  the  earth,  and  Ishtar  was  a  goddess.  The 
two  brothers  in  the  Hindu  tale  were  at  first  on  the 
earth,  though  they  ultimately  gained  authority 
over  heaven.  In  this  at  first  sight  they  differ  from 
the  angels  who  came  down  from  heaven,  according 
to  the  Jewish  and  the  Muhammadan  fables.  But 
the  difference  is  slight  even  in  this  matter,  since 
the  Hindu  myth  represents  the  brothers  as  de 
scended  from  a  goddess,  Diti  by  name,  who  was 
also  mother  of  the  Maruts  or  storm-gods.  The 
resemblance  between  these  various  legends  is  there 
fore  very  striking. 

We  can  hardly,  however,  suppose  that  the  dif 
ferent  forms  of  the  story  current  among  all  these 
different  nations  were  all  derived  from  one  and  the 
same  origin.  The  Jews,  doubtless,  borrowed  the 
tale,  in  part  at  least,  especially  the  name  of  Ishtar 
or  Esther  and  certain  other  details,  from  the  Baby 
lonians,  who  had  learnt  it  from  the  still  more 
ancient  Accadians.  Forgetting  its  heathen  source, 
the  Talmud  admitted  the  tale,  and  on  the  authority 
of  the  Jews  it  was  received  into  the  Qur  an  and  the 
Traditions  of  the  Muslims. 

If  we  further  inquire  how  it  was  that  the 
Jews  accepted  the  legend,  the  answer  is  that 
they  did  so  through  mistaking  the  meaning  of 
one  Hebrew  word  in  the  Book  of  Genesis.  The 
word  NepMlim,  which  occurs  in  the  passage  Gen. 


IDEAS    AND    PRACTICES.  105 

vi.  i  -4,  was  supposed  to  be  derived  from  the  verb 
ndphal,  "to  fall."  Hence  Jonathan  ben  'Uzziel  in 
his  Targum  took  it  to  mean  "  fallen  angels,"  and 
doubtless  in  doing  so  he  was  adopting  the  then 
current  etymology  of  the  word.  In  order  to 
account  for  the  etymology  the  story  was  in  part 
invented,  in  part  (as  we  have  seen)  borrowed  from 
Babylonian  mythology  by  the  ignorant  Jews,  much 
in  the  same  way  that,  as  we  have  previously 
pointed  out,  a  false  etymology  of  tfr  gave  rise  to 
the  story  of  Abraham's  deliverance  from  "  the 
furnace  of  fire  of  the  Chaldees."  Hence  Jonathan 
in  his  comment  on  Gen.  vi.  4  explains  NVpMlim 
by  saying,  "  Shemhazai  and  'Uzziel :  they  fell  from 
Heaven  and  were  on  the  earth  in  those  days." 
The  myth  in  the  Midrash  Yalkut  already  quoted 
arose  from  this  blunder. 

Yet,  even  accepting  the  supposed  derivation  of 
Nephilim  from  the  verb  meaning  "  to  fall,"  it  was 
not  necessary  to  explain  the  origin  of  the  name  in 
such  a  way.  The  Targum  of  Onkelos  acts  much 
more  wisely  by  understanding  the  NSphilim  to 
have  been  so  called  because  they  were  men  who 
used  to  fall  violently  on  the  helpless  and  oppress 
them.  Hence  this  Targum  translates  the  word  by. 
one  which  means  "  violent  men  "  or  oppressors *. 

1  It  is  interesting  to  note  that  the  Samaritan  Targum  to  tne 
Pentateuch  (published  by  Dr.  Adolf  Briill,  Frankfurt,  1875) 
practically  gives  the  same  explanation.  It  paraphrases  "  sons 
of  God"  by  "sons  of  the  governors."  The  original  runs  thus 


106  INFLUENCE    OF    JEWISH 


Others  have  in  more  recent  times  denied  the  deri 
vation  of  the  word  from  ndphal,  "to  fall,"  pre 
ferring  to  connect  it  with  the  Arabic  word  nabil 
(  J*4),  which  means  "  noble  "  and  also  "  skilled  in 
archery."  After  all,  like  many  proper  names  in 
the  early  chapters  of  Genesis,  the  word  may  prove 
to  be  of  Sumerian  origin,  unconnected  with  any 
root  in  the  Semitic  languages. 

As  the  more  ignorant  of  the  Jews  were  lovers 
of  the  marvellous,  the  story  of  the  sin  of  the 
fallen  angels  grew  ever  more  and  more  strange  and 
wonderful.  At  first  only  two  angels  are  spoken 
of  as  having  fallen,  and  this  was  an  exaggera 
tion  of  the  Babylonian  tale  of  Ishtar's  tempting 
Gilgamesh  alone.  But  in  later  times  their  number 
in  the  tales  current  among  the  Jews  grew  greater, 
until  at  last  in  the  apocryphal  Book  of  Enoch  it 
is  said  that  the  angels  who  fell  from  heaven 
amounted  to  200,  and  that  they  all  descended  in 
order  to  sin  with  women.  The  following  extract 
from  that  book  is  important  as  narrating  the 
legend  in  a  fuller  form  than  those  which  we  have 
previously  quoted.  It  also  gives  a  statement 
which  agrees  with  one  made  at  the  conclusion  of 
the  Jewish  legend  in  the  Midmsh  Yalkut  and 
also  in  the  Qur'an,  in  a  passage  which  we  shall 
soon  have  to  consider. 


(Gen.  vi.  2,  4)  :  ...  >I;N  p>r^  ^n  -rcbN  nwa  rv  rrycbti  na 

brn  p  -inn  r\w  ji;«  rrnva  nn«a  nn 
a;  a1??  pi  nnaa  p:s  pn'7 


IDEAS    AND    PRACTICES.  1 07 

"  And  it  came  to  pass,  wherever  the  children  of 
men  were  multiplied,  in  those  days  daughters  fair 
and  beautiful  were  born.  And  the  angels,  sons  of 
heaven,  beheld  them  and  longed  for  them:  and 
they  said  to  one  another,  *  Come,  let  us  choose  out 
for  ourselves  wives  from  men,  and  we  shall  beget 
children  for  ourselves.'  And  Semiazas,  who  was 
their  chief,  said  to  them,  '  I  fear  that  ye  will  refuse 
to  do  this  deed,  and  I  alone  shall  be  guilty  of  a 
great  sin.'  Therefore  they  all  answered  him, '  Let 
us  all  swear  an  oath,  and  let  us  all  bind  one  another 
under  a  curse  not  to  give  up  this  intention  until 
we  accomplish  it  and  do  this  deed.'  Then  they 
all  swore  together,  and  therewith  bound  one 
another  under  a  curse."  After  giving  the  names 
of  the  chiefs  of  the  rebel  angels,  the  story  proceeds 
thus,  "And  they  took  to  themselves  wives:  they 
chose  out  wives  for  themselves  each  of  them,  .  .  . 
and  they  taught  them  poisons  and  incantations  and 
root-gathering,  and  they  showed  unto  them  the 
herbs.  .  .  .  Azael  taught  men  to  make  swords  and 
weapons  and  shields  and  breast-plates,  the  teach 
ings  of  angels,  and  he  showed  them  metals  and  the 
method  of  working  them,  and  bracelets  and  orna 
ments  and  paints  and  collyrium  and  all  sorts  of 
precious  stones  and  dyes1." 

1  Greek  fragments  of  the  Book  of  Enoch,  capp.  vi-viii,  ed. 
Dr.  Swete,  who  also  gives  the  same  passages  from  Syncellus. 
In  the  Persian  YandlA'u'l  Islam  I  quoted  and  translated  the 
.dEthiopic  text,  as  the  Greek  had  not  then  been  recovered,  or  at 
least  published. 


io8 


INFLUENCE    OF    JEWISH 


This  account  of  the  origin  of  feminine  ornaments 
is  the  same  that  we  have  found  in  the  Midrash 
(see  above,  p.  98).  It  enables  us  to  understand  the 
meaning  and  to  recognize  the  source  of  the  follow 
ing  passage  from  the  Qur  an,  in  which,  speaking  of 
Harut  and  Marut,  Muhammad  says  that  men 
"  learnt 1  from  them  that  by  which  they  separate 
a  man  from  his  wife."  He  adds,  "  And  they  used 
not  to  injure  any  one  except  by  God's  permission, 
and  they  teach  what  injureth  them  and  doth  not 
profit  them." 

It  is  hardly  necessary  to  produce  any  further 
proof  that  the  story  of  Harut  and  Marut  is 
borrowed  from  a  Jewish  source,  at  least  in  all 
essential  particulars,  though  in  the  names  of  these 
angels  we  perceive  traces  of  Armenian  and  perhaps 
Persian  influence.  We  have  also  seen  that  the 
Jews  derived  their  form  of  the  legend  from  Baby 
lonia,  and  that  their  acceptance  of  it  was  in  large 
measure  due  to  a  misunderstanding  about  the  mean 
ing  of  a  Hebrew  word  in  Genesis. 

It  may  be  urged  that  some  Christians  under 
stand  Gen.  vi.  1-4,  in  much  the  same  sense  as  the 
Jews  did  or  still  do,  and  that  possibly  this  view  is 
correct.  But  even  granting  all  this,  it  is  evident 
from  what  a  corrupt  source  Muhammad  borrowed 
the  narrative,  which,  in  the  form  in  which  the 
Quran  and  the  Traditions  relate  it, cannot  possibly 
be  correct. 

1  Surah  II.,  Al  Baqarah,  verse  96,  fin. 


IDEAS    AND    PRACTICES. 


5.     Other  Instances. 

We  cannot  mention  with  the  same  fulness  of 
detail  all  the  other  points  in  which  the  Qur'an  has 
borrowed  from  Jewish  legends.  An  examination 
of  what  is  related  in  the  Qur'an  in  reference  to 
Joseph,  David,  and  Saul  (Tdlut),  for  example,  will 
show  how  far  these  accounts  differ  from  what  the 
Bible  tells  us  about  these  persons.  In  most,  if  not 
in  every  instance,  the  reason  of  the  divergence  from 
the  Biblical  account  is  found  in  the  fact  that 
Muhammad  followed  the  Jewish  legends  current 
in  his  time,  instead  of  the  true  history  of  these 
men  as  given  in  the  sacred  text.  Occasionally  he 
has  misunderstood  the  legends,  or  has  amplified 
them  from  imagination  or  from  other  sources. 
But  the  legends  already  given  at  some  length  will 
serve  as  examples  of  all  other  similar  ones. 

We  now  proceed  to  deal  with  other  instances  in 
which  the  Qur'an's  indebtedness  to  Jewish  legends 
is  obvious. 

In  Surah  VII.,  Al  A'raf,  170,  we  read,  "And 
when  We  raised  up  the  mountain  above  them  as  if 
it  were  a  covering,  and  they  fancied  that  it  was 
falling  upon  them,  [We  said],  'Take  ye  with  forti 
tude  what  We  have  brought  you,  and  remember  ye 
what  is  in  it  ;  perchance  ye  may  be  pious.'  "  Jala- 
lain  and  other  Muhammadan  commentators  explain 
this  verse  by  informing  us  that  God  raised  up  the 
mountain  (Sinai1*  from  its  foundation  and  held  it 


INFLUENCE    OF    JEWISH 


over  the  heads  of  the  children  of  Israel  in  the 
wilderness,  threatening  to  let  it  fall  on  them  and 
crush  them  if  they  did  not  accept  the  command 
ments  contained  in  the  Law  of  Moses.  These  they 
had  previously  refused  to  obey,  because  of  their 
severity.  But  on  hearing  this  threat  the  Israelites 
received  the  law.  God  then  uttered  the  rest  of  the 
speech  contained  in  the  verse  quoted  above.  The 
same  legend  is  referred  to  in  Surah  II.,  Al  Baqarah, 
60,  87. 

Its  origin  is  found  in  the  Jewish  tractate  "Aboddh 
Zdrdh  (cap.  ii.  §  2),  where  we  are  told  that  on  that 
occasion  (so  God  is  represented  as  saying  to  the 
Israelites),  "I  covered  you  over  with  the 
mountain  like  a  lid."  So  also  in  Sabbath  (fol.  88,  i) 
we  read,  "These  words  teach  us  that  the  Holy 
One,  blessed  be  He,  inverted  the  mountain  above 
them  like  a  pot,  and  said  unto  them,  '  If  ye  re 
ceive  the  law,  well :  but  if  not,  there  shall  your 
grave  be/" 

Perhaps  it  is  hardly  necessary  to  say  that  there 
is  nothing  like  this  fable  to  be  found  in  the  Penta 
teuch.  It  has  originated  in  the  mistake  of  a  Jewish 
commentator,  who  has  misunderstood  the  words  of 
the  Bible.  In  Exod.  xxxii.  19  we  are  informed  that 
when  Moses  descended  the  mountain  with  the  two 
tables  of  stone  in  his  hands,  he  saw  that  the 
Israelites  were  worshipping  the  golden  calf  which 
they  had  made.  Angry  at  the  shameful  sight,  he 
threw  down  the  stone  tablets  from  his  hands  and 


LIDEAS    AND    PRACTICES.  Ill 

broke  them  "beneath  the  mount."  Chapter  xix.  17 
tells  us  that  while  God  was  giving  Moses  the  Law, 
the  people  stood  "  at  the  nether  part  of  (or  beneath) 
the  mountain."  In  each  case  the  phrase  means  "  at 
the  foot  of  the  mountain."  But  the  wonder-loving 
and  credulous  Jews  of  later  times  chose  to  misunder 
stand  the  phrase,  and  the  legend  of  the  elevation  of 
the  mountain  was  invented  to  explain  the  words 
11  beneath  the  mount."  The  tale  of  the  holding  up 
of  the  mountain  above  men's  heads  is,  however, 
marvellously  similar  to  a  Hindu  legend,  related  in 
the  Sanskrit  Sastras.  It  is  said  that  Krishna,  wish 
ing  to  protect  the  people  of  Gokula,  his  native  city, 
from  a  severe  rain-storm,  dragged  up  from  its  stony 
base  a  mountain  named  Govardhana,  which  is  styled 
the  biggest  of  all  mountains,  and  for  the  space  of 
seven  days  and  nights  suspended  it  on  the  tips  of 
his  fingers  over  their  heads  like  an  umbrella !  We 
cannot  suppose  that  the  Jews  borrowed  this  story 
from  the  Hindus,  but  it  is  evident  that  Muhammad 
derived  the  tale  referred  to  in  the  Qur'an  from 
Jewish  sources,  while  the  Jews  were  led  to  accept 
or  invent  the  story  through  taking  literally  }  and 
in  an  unnatural  sense  the  Hebrew  phrase  "beneath 
the  mount." 

This  is  not,  however,  the  only  wonderful  story 
which  the  Qur'an  relates  concerning  what  took 

1  That  we  may  understand  this  better,  we  have  only  to 
consider  the  amount  of  error  introduced  into  the  Christian 
Church  by  a  similar  explanation  of  "  This  is  My  body." 


112  INFLUENCE    OP    JEWISH 

place  during  the  sojourn  of  the  Israelites  in  the 
wilderness.  Not  less  strange  is  what  we  are  told 
about  the  calf  which  they  made  to  worship  during 
Moses'  absence.  In  Surah  XX  \  Ta  Ha,  we  are  told 
that  when  Moses  returned  and  reproached  them  for 
this,  they  said,  "  We  were  made  to  bear  loads  of  the 
ornaments  of  the  people,  and  we  threw  them  [into  the 
fire]  :  and  the  Samaritan  likewise  cast  in.  Then  he 
brought  out  unto  them  a  calf  in  body,  which  could 
low."  Jalalain's  note  says  that  the  calf  was  made 
of  flesh  and  blood,  and  that  it  had  the  power  of 
lowing  because  life  was  given  it  through  a  handful 
of  dust  from  the  print  left  by  the  hoof  of  the  Angel 
Gabriels  steed,  which  "the  Samaritan"  had  collected 
and  put  into  its  mouth,  according  to  v.  96  of  the 
same  Surah. 

This  legend  also  comes  from  the  Jews,  as  is 
evident  from  the  following  extract  which  we  trans 
late  from  Pirqey  Rabbi  Eliezer,  §  45,  "And  this 
calf  came  out  lowing,  and  the  Israelites  saw  it. 
Rabbi  Yehiidah  says  that  Sammael  was  hidden  in 
its  interior,  and  was  lowing  in  order  that  he  might 
deceive  Israel."  The  idea  that  the  calf  was  able  to 
low  must  come  from  the  supposition  that,  though 
made  of  gold  (Exod.  xxxii.  4),  it  was  alive,  since  it 
"came  out"  (v.  24)  of  the  fire.  Here,  again,  we 
see  that  the  use  of  a  figurative  expression,  when 
taken  literally,  led  to  the  growth  of  a  myth  to 
explain  it.  The  Muhammadan  commentator  in 

1  v.  90 ;  cf.  Surah  VIT.,  147. 


IDEAS    AND    PRACTICES.  113 

explaining  the  words  "  a  calf  in  body  "  in  the  Qur'an 
as  signifying  that  it  had  "  flesh  and  blood "  has 
only  gone  a  step  further,  and  he  does  this  to  explain 
how  it  was  that  the  animal  could  low.  Muhammad 
seems  to  have  understood  most  of  the  Jewish  legend 
correctly,  but  the  word  Sammael  puzzled  him.  Not 
understanding  that  this  is  the  Jewish  name  of  the 
Angel  of  Death,  and  perhaps  misled  as  to  the  pro 
nunciation,  he  mistook  the  word  for  the  somewhat 
similar  "  Samiri,"  which  means  "  Samaritan."  Of 
course  he  made  this  mistake  because  he  knew  that 
the  Jews  were  enemies  of  the  Samaritans,  and  he 
fancied  that  they  attributed  the  making  of  the  calf 
to  one  of  the  latter.  He  was  doubtless  confirmed 
in  this  belief  by  some  indistinct  recollection  of 
having  heard  that  Jeroboam,  king  of  what  was 
afterwards  called  Samaria,  had  "made  Israel  to 
sin"  by  leading  them  to  worship  the  calves  which 
he  made  and  placed  in  Dan  and  Beth-el  (i  Kings 
xii.  28,  29).  But  since  the  city  of  Samaria  was 
not  built,  or  at  least  called  by  that  name,  until 
several  hundred  years  after  Moses'  death,  the  ana 
chronism  is  at  least  amusing,  and  would  be  startling 
in  any  other  book  than  the  Qur'an,  in  which  far 
more  stupendous  ones  frequently  occur. 

Here,  as  in  very  many  other  instances,  Muham 
mad's  ignorance  of  the  Bible  and  acquaintance  with 
Jewish  legends  instead  is  very  striking.  It  is 
hardly  necessary  to  point  out  that  in  the  Bible  the 
maker  of  the  golden  calf  is  Aaron,  and  that  we 
H 


114  INFLUENCE    OF    JEWISH 

read  nothing  of  either  Sammael  or  of  "the 
Samaritan." 

Again,  in  Surah  II.,  Al  Baqarah,  52,  53,  we  are 
told  that  the  Israelites  said,  "O  Moses,  we  shall 
never  believe  thee  until  we  see  God  clearly ! "  and 
that  while  they  were  gazing  at  the  manifestation 
of  God's  presence  a  thunderbolt  struck  them  and 
they  died ;  but  after  their  death  God  raised  them 
to  life  again.  This  fable  also  is  borrowed  from  the 
Jews,  for  in  Tract  SanJiedrin,  §  5,  we  are  told 
that  they  died  on  hearing  the  Divine  voice  (in  the 
thunder),  but  that  the  Law  itself  made  intercession 
for  them  and  they  were  restored  to  life.  If  it  is 
necessary  to  seek  for  any  foundation  for  such  a 
fable,  it  may  perhaps  be  found  in  the  words  of  the 
Hebrews  in  Exod.  xx.  1 9  (cf .  Deut.  v.  35),  "  Let 
not  God  speak  with  us,  lest  we  die." 

All  Muslims  believe  that  the  Qur'an  was  written 
on  the  "  Preserved  Tablet "  long  before  the  creation 
of  the  world.  This  belief  of  theirs  is  in  accordance 
with  what  is  said  in  Surah  LXXXV.,  Al  JBuruj, 
21,  22,  "  Nay,  but  it  is  a  Glorious  Qur'an  in  a  Pre 
served  Tablet."  Strangely  enough,  they  do  not 
believe  that  the  Psalms  are  of  the  same  antiquity, 
although  in  Surah  XXL,  Al  Anbiya,  105,  God  is 
represented  as  saying, "  And  indeed  We  have  already 
written  in  the  Psalms  .  .  .  that,  as  for  the  earth.  My 
righteous  servants  shall  inherit  it."  The  reference 
here  is  to  Ps.  xxxvii.  n,  29,  "  The  just  shall  inherit 
the  earth."  This  is  the  only  text  in  the  Old  Testa- 


IDEAS    AND    PRACTICES.  1 15 

ment  which  is  actually  quoted  in  the  Qur'an,  though 
there  are  some  131  passages  in  the  Qur'an  in  which 
the  Law,  the  Psalms,  and  the  Gospel  are  named, 
always  with  respect,  and  it  is  frequently  asserted 
of  them  that  they  were  "  sent  down  "  by  God  to  His 
prophets  and  apostles.  To  most  men  it  would  seem 
evident  that  a  book  cannot  be  quoted  and  referred 
to  as  an  authority  until  after  it  has  been  composed, 
and  that  therefore  the  books  of  the  Bible  must 
have  been  in  existence  before  the  Qur'an.  Of  course 
we  know  from  history  that  this  is  the  case.  But 
we  do  not  find  that  any  consideration  of  this  kind 
weighs  at  all  with  Muslims,  who  still  cling  to  their 
assertion  that  the  Qur'an  was,  long  ages  before 
Muhammad's  time,  written  upon  the  "Preserved 
Tablet."  We  therefore  proceed  to  inquire  what 
their  received  Traditions  tell  us  in  explanation  of 
this  phrase,  and  we  find  the  answer  in  such  accounts 
as  that  given  in  the  Qisasu'l  Anblyd  (pp.  3,  4). 
In  giving  an  account  of  the  way  in  which  God 
created  all  things,  that  work  says,  "Beneath  the 
Throne  (or  Highest  Heaven)  He  created  a  Pearl, 
and  from  that  Pearl  He  created  the  Preserved 
Tablet :  its  height  was  700  years'  journey  and  its 
breadth  300  years'  journey.  Around  it  was  all 
adorned  with  rubies  through  the  power  of  God 
Most  High.  Then  came  to  the  Pen  the  command, 
'  Write  thou  My  knowledge  in  My  creation,  and  that 
which  is  existent  unto  the  day  of  the  Resurrection.' 
First  it  wrote  on  the  Preserved  Tablet  'In  the 
IT  a 


Il6  INFLUENCE    OF    JEWISH 

Name  of  God  the  Merciful,  the  Gracious.  I  am 
God,  there  is  no  God  but  Me.  Whoso  hath  sub 
mitted  to  My  decree  and  is  patient  under  the  ill 
I  assign  him  and  is  thankful  for  My  favours,  I 
have  written  him  (i.  e.  his  name)  and  raised  him 
with  the  truthful  ones ;  and  whoso  hath  not  been 
pleased  with  My  decree  and  hath  not  been  patient 
under  the  ill  I  assign  him  and  hath  not  been 
thankful  for  My  favours,  then  let  him  seek  another 
Lord  than  Me,  and  let  him  go  forth  from  beneath l 
My  heavens.'  Accordingly  the  Pen  wrote  down 
God's  knowledge  in  God  Most  High's  creation  of 
everything  that  He  had  wished  unto  the  Resurrec 
tion  Day,  the  extent  that  the  leaf  of  a  tree  moveth 
or  descendeth  or  ascendeth,  and  it  wrote  every  such 
thing  by  the  power  of  God  Most  High." 

The  idea  of  the  Preserved  Tablet  is  borrowed 
from  the  Jews.  In  the  Book  of  Deuteronomy  (x. 
1-5)  we  are  told  that  when  Moses  had,  at  God's 
command,  hewn  out  two  tablets  of  stone  similar 
to  the  ones  that  he  had  broken,  God  wrote  upon 
them  the  Ten  Commandments,  and  commanded 
Moses  to  preserve  them  in  an  ark  of  shittim-  or 
acacia-wood.  The  Hebrew  word  for  tablet  here 
used  is  identical  with  the  Arabic.  From  i  Kings 
viii.  9,  and  Heb.  ix.  3,  4,  we  learn  that  these 
two  tablets  were  preserved  in  the  Ark  of  the  Cove 
nant  which  Moses  had  made  in  accordance  with 
God's  command.  This  is  the  account  from  which 

1  Cf.  Jer.  x.  ir. 


IDEAS    AND    PRACTICES. 


the  narrative  of  a  Preserved  Tablet  inscribed  with 

God's  commandments  and  by  His  power  gradually 

arose  among  the  Jews  and  afterwards  among  the 

Muhammadans.     From    the    language    of    Surah 

LXXXV.,  21,  22,  translated  above,  it  is  clear  that 

in  Muhammad's  mind  there  existed  not  only  one 

but  at  least  two  "  Preserved  Tablets,"  for  the  Arabic 

is  "a  Preserved  Tablet,"  not  "  the  Preserved  Tablet," 

as    Muhammadans    at   the    present   day   seem    to 

understand  it.   There  must  therefore  be  a  reference 

to  the  two  stone  tablets  which  Moses  prepared  and 

preserved  in  the  Ark  of  the  Covenant.     As  these 

were   kept   in   the   Tabernacle  which   symbolized 

God's  presence  with  His  people,  it  was  natural  to 

speak   of  them   as   preserved   in   God's   presence. 

Hence  the  origin  of  the  fancy  that  the  Preserved 

Tablets   were   kept   in    heaven,   and    it   was    not 

difficult  to  deduce  their  antiquity  from  that  belief. 

But  why  does  Muhammad  assert  that  the  Quran 

was   written    "upon    a   Preserved    Tablet'"?      To 

answer  this  question  we  must  again  consult  the 

Jews  and  learn  what  they,  in  Muhammad's  time 

and  previously,  thought  to  have  been  written  upon 

the  two  Tablets,  which  were  preserved  in  the  Ark 

of  the  Covenant.   In  spite  of  the  fact  that  Deutero 

nomy  clearly  states  that  only  the  Ten  Command 

ments  were  written  upon  these  Tablets,  yet  after 

a  time  the  belief  arose  that  all  the  books  of  the 

Old  Testament  and  also  the  whole  of  the  Talmud 

were  either  inscribed  upon  them  or  at  least  given 


Il8  INFLUENCE    OF    JEWISH 

along  with  them.  When  Muhammad  heard  this 
assertion  made  by  the  Jews  regarding  their  Sacred 
Books,  it  was  natural  for  him  to  assert  that  his 
Revelation  too  was  written  upon  one  or  the  other 
of  these  Preserved  Tablets.  Otherwise  he  thought 
he  could  hardly  claim  for  it  a  degree  of  authority 
equal  to  that  of  the  Old  Testament.  It  is  probable 
that  the  Muslims,  not  understanding  to  what  the 
words  "a  Preserved  Tablet"  referred,  gradually 
invented  the  whole  of  the  marvellous  story  about 
it  which  we  have  quoted  above. 

To  ascertain  what  the  Jews  thought  about  the 
contents  of  the  Tablets,  we  must  consult  Tract 
Kerakhtith  (fol.  5,  col.  i).  There  we  read:  "Rabbi 
Simeon  ben  Laqish  saith,  'What  is  that  which  is 
written,  "  And  I  shall  give  thee  the  tablets  of  stone, 
and  the  Law,  and  the  commandment  which  I  have 
written,  that  thou  mayest  teach  them"?  (Ex. 
xxiv.  12).  The  Tablets—  these  are  the  Ten  Com 
mandments  ;  the  Law,  that  which  is  read ;  and 
the  Commandment,  this  is  the  Mishnah: — which  I  have 
written,  these  are  the  Prophets  and  the  Hagiographa : 
that  thou  mayest  teach  them,  this  denotes  the  Gemara, 
This  teaches  that  all  of  them  were  given  to  Moses 
from  Sinai.' " 

Every  learned  Jew  of  the  present  time  acknow 
ledges  that  we  should  reject  this  absurd  explanation 
of  the  above-quoted  verse,  because  he  knows  that 
the  Mishnah  was  compiled  about  the  year  230  of 
the  Christian  era,  the  Jerusalem  Gemara  about  430, 


IDEAS    AND    PRACTICES.  1 19 


and  the  Babylonian  Gemara  about  A.D.  530.  But 
the  Muslims,  not  knowing  this,  seem  to  have 
tacitly  accepted  such  assertions  as  true,  and  applied 
them  to  their  own  Qur'an  also. 

To  complete  the  proof  that  the  legend  about  the 
Preserved  Tablet  upon  which  the  Qur'an  is  said  to 
have  been  written  is  derived  from  a  Jewish  source, 
it  remains  only  to  state  that  in  the  Pirqey  Ahoth, 
cap.  v.  §  6,  it  is  said  that  the  two  Tablets  of  the 
Law  were  created,  along  with  nine  other  things,  at 
the  time  of  the  creation  of  the  world,  and  at  sunset 
before  the  first  Sabbath  began. 

It  is  well  known  that  the  fabulous  Mount  Qaf 
plays  an  important  part  in  Muhammadan  legend. 
Surah  L.  is  called  Qaf  and  begins  with  this  letter. 
Hence  its  name  is  supposed  to  refer  to  the  name 
of  the  mountain  in  question.  The  commentator 
'Abbasi  accepts  this  explanation,  and  quotes  a 
tradition  handed  down  through  Ibn  'Abbas  in 
support  of  it.  Ibn  'Abbas  says,  "  Qaf  is  a  green 
mountain  surrounding  the  earth,  and  the  green 
ness  of  the  sky  is  from  it:  by  it  God  swears'." 
So  in  the  'Ardisul  Majdlis2  it  is  more  fully  ex 
plained  in  these  words,  "God  Most  High  created 
a  great  mountain  of  green  emerald.  The  greenness 
of  the  sky  is  on  account  of  it.  It  is  called  Mount 

1  Jalalain's  note  on  the  passage  says  :  "  God  knows  best  what 
He  meant  by  Q6f." 
3  pp.  7,  8. 


120  INFLUENCE    OF    JEWISH 

Qaf,  and  it  girds  it  all  "  (the  whole  earth),  "  and  it 
is  that  by  which  God  swears,  for  He  said,  '  Qaf l. 
By  the  Glorious  Qur'an.' "  In  the  Qisasu  V  Anbi?/a 
it  is  narrated  that  one  day  'Abdu'llah  ibn  Salam 
inquired  of  Muhammad  which  was  the  highest 
mountain-peak  on  the  earth.  Muhammad  said, 
"Mount  Qaf."  In  answer  to  the  further  inquiry 
of  what  this  mountain  is  composed,  Muhammad 
replied,  "Of  green  emerald,  and  the  greenness  of 
the  sky  is  on  account  of  that."  The  inquirer, 
having  expressed  his  belief  that  the  "Prophet  of 
God  "  in  this  matter  spoke  truly,  then  said,  "  What 
is  #ie  height  of  Mount  Qaf  ?  "  Muhammad  replied, 
"It  is  500  years'  journey  in  height."  'Abdu'llah 
asked,  "  How  far  is  it  around  it  ?  "  "  It  is  2,000 
years'  journey."  We  need  not  enter  into  all  the 
other  circumstances  told  us  in  connexion  with  this 
wonderful  range  of  mountains  of  which  Muslim 
legends  are  so  full. 

If  we  inquire  as  to  the  origin  of  the  myth  of  the 
existence  of  such  a  range  of  mountains,  the  answer 
is  supplied  by  a  reference  to  Hagigdh  xi.  §  i. 
There,  in  explanation  of  the  somewhat  rare  Hebrew 
word  "  Tohu "  in  Gen.  i.  2,  it  is  thus  written : 
"  Tohu  is  the  green  line  which  surrounds  the  whole, 
entire  world,  and  from  which  darkness  proceeds." 
The  Hebrew  word  which  we  here  render  line  is 
Qdv.  Muhammad  and  his  disciples,  hearing  this 
Hebrew  word  Qdv  and  not  knowing  that  it  meant 
1  Surah  L.,  i. 


IDEAS    AND    PRACTICES.  121 

"  line,"  thought  that  without  doubt  that  which  was 
thus  said  to  surround  the  whole  world,  and  from 
which  darkness  came  forth,  must  be  a  great  chain 
of  mountains  named  Qdv  or  Qdf.  It  is  hardly 
necessary  to  say  that  geographers  have  explored 
the  whole  world  without — as  yet — discovering 
the  range  of  mountains1  described  in  Muhammadan 
tradition ! 

We  must  indicate  a  few  of  the  many  other  ideas 
which  are  also  clearly  of  Jewish  origin  that  have 
found  an  entrance  into  the  Qur'an  and  the 
Traditions. 

In  Surah  XVII.,  Al  Asra',  46  *,  mention  is  made 
of  seven  heavens,  and  in  Surah  XV.,  Al  Hajr,  44, 
the  seven  doors  of  hell  are  spoken  of.  Both  these 
statements  are  derived  from  Jewish  tradition.  The 
former  is  found  in  the  Hayfyd/f,  cap.  ix.  §  2,  the 
latter  in  Zo/tar,  cap.  ii.  p.  150.  It  is  remarkable 
that  the  Hindus  hold  that  beneath  the  surface  of 
the  earth  there  are  seven  lower  stages,  so  to  speak, 
and  above  it  seven  higher  story s,  all  of  which  rest 
upon  one  of  the  heads  of  an  enormous  serpent 
named  Sesha,  who  possesses  a  thousand  heads. 
The  seven  heavens  doubtless  are,  or  at  least  were, 
identical  with  the  orbits  of  the  sun,  moon,  and  the 
planets  Mercury,  Venus,  Mars,  Jupiter  and  Saturn, 
which  in  Muhammad's  time  were  supposed  to 

1  Cf.  Avestic  Mt.  Berez  (Kanga's  Avestic  Did.,  s.  v.). 

8  So  also  in  Surah  LXVII.,  3,  and  Surah  LXXVIIL,  la. 


122  INFLUENCE    OF    JEWISH 

revolve  round  the  earth.  According  to  Muharn- 
madan  tradition,  the  earth  with  its  seven1  storys 
rests  between  the  horns  of  a  Bull  named  Kajutah, 
who  has  4,000  horns,  each  of  which  is  500  years' 
journey  from  every  other.  He  has  as  many  eyes, 
noses,  ears,  mouths  and  tongues  as  he  has  horns. 
His  feet  stand  upon  a  fish,  which  swims  in  water 
forty  years'  journey  deep.  Another  authority  holds 
that  the  earth  in  the  first  place  rests  upon  the  head 
of  an  angel  and  that  the  feet  of  this  angel  are 
placed  upon  an  immense  rock  of  ruby,  which  is 
supported  by  the  Bull.  This  idea  of  the  connexion 
between  the  Earth  and  a  Bull  is  probably  of  Aryan 
origin2.  The  legend  which  represents  the  Earth 
as  consisting  of  seven  storys  is  possibly  due  to 
the  desire  to  represent  it  as  resembling  the  sky  in 
this  respect.  It  may,  however,  have  originated 
from  a  misunderstanding  of  the  Persian  statement, 
found  in  the  Avesta,  that  the  Earth  consists  of 
seven  Karshvares  or  great  regions,  now  spoken  of 
as  the  "seven  climes."  Thus  in  Yesht,  xix.  §  31, 
Yima  Khshae'ta  or  Jamshid  is  said  to  have  reigned 
"  over  the  seven-regioned  earth."  These  again  cor 
respond  with  the  dvipas  of  Hindu  geography.  It 
was  a  mistake,  however,  to  fancy  that  these  were 

1  Vide  'Araisu  11  Majalis,  pp.  5-9. 

2  In  Sanskrit  go   (ox,    cow)   is  used   of  the   Earth  in   the 
Mahabharata,  Kamayana,  &c.    The  same  word  in  the  Avesta 
(goo,  also  gao-speftta,  "the  holy  cow")  is  used  similarly.     Of. 
Qovs  and  yata,  717 :  Goth,  gam  (Kuh,  cow),  and  Germ.  Qau,  in  all 
of  which  the  same  connexion  of  ideas  may  be  traced. 


IDEAS    AND    PRACTICES.  123 


situated  one  below  another,  except  in  so  far  as  the 
first  of  the  seven  KarsJimres  was  a  high  mountain 
plateau  and  the  others  stood  at  lower  levels. 

In  Surah  XI.,  Hud,  9,  in  reference  to  God's 
throne  it  is  said  that,  before  the  creation  of  the 
heavens  and  the  earth1,  "His  Throne  was  above 
the  water,"  in  the  air l.  So  also,  in  commenting  on 
Gen.  i.  a,  the  Jewish  commentator  Rashi,  em 
bodying  a  well-known  Jewish  tradition,  writes 
thus :  "  The  Throne  of  Glory  stood  in  the  air  and 
brooded  over  the  waters." 

Muhammadan  writers  tell  us  that  the  Angel 
Malik,  who  is  named  in  Surah  XLIIL,  A/  Zukhruf, 
77,  is  the  chief  of  the  nineteen  (Surah  LXXIV.,  30) 
angels  appointed  to  preside  over  hell.  So  also  the 
Jews  often  write  of  a  "  Prince  of  Hell."  But  the 
Muslims  have  borrowed  Malik's  name  from  Molech 
(Molek),  one  of  the  deities  mentioned  in  the  Bible 
as  formerly  worshipped  by  the  Canaanites,  who 
burnt  human  beings  alive  in  his  honour.  The  word 
in  Hebrew  as  in  Arabic  is  a  present  participle  and 
means  "  ruler." 

In  Surah  VII.,  Al  A'raf,  44,  we  are  told  that 
between  heaven  and  hell  there  is  a  partition  called 
by  the  same  name  as  this  Surah,  which  in  fact 
received  its  title  from  the  mention  of  Al  A'raf  in 
it.  "  And  between  them  both  there  is  a  veil,  and 

1  Jalalaiu,  'Abbasu,  &c. 


124  INFLUENCE    OF    JEWISH 

upon  Al  A'raf  there  are  men."  This  idea  is  derived 
from  the  Midrash  on  Eccles.  vii.  14,  where  we  are 
informed  that,  when  asked  "What  space  is  there 
between  them  ?  "  (heaven  and  hell),  Rabbi  Yohanan 
said,  "A  wall":  Rabbi  Akhah  said,  "A  span." 
"And  the  Rabbans  say  that  they  are  both  near 
one  another,  so  that  rays  of  light  pass  from  this 
to  that."  The  idea  is  probably  taken  from  the 
A  vesta,  where  this  division  between  heaven  and 
hell  is  mentioned  under  the  name  MiswdntigdtuS 
(Fargand  XIX).  It  was  the  place  "assigned  to 
the  souls  of  those  whose  deeds  of  virtue  and  vice 
balance  each1  other."  In  Pahlavi  it  was  called 
Miswat-gds.  The  Zoroastrians  held  that  the  space 
between  heaven  and  hell  is  the  same  as  between 
light  and  darkness.  The  idea  of  a  special  place 
reserved  for  those  whose  good  deeds  equal  their 
evil  ones  has  passed  into  other  religions  also. 

In  Surah  XV.,  Al  Hajr,  18,  it  is  said  concerning 
Satan  that  he  and  the  other  fallen  angels  endeavour 
to  "steal  a  hearing"  by  listening  to  God's  com 
mands  given  to  the  angels  in  heaven.  The  same 
idea  is  again  repeated  in  Surah  XXXVII.,  As  Saffat, 
8,  and  in  Surah  LXVIL,  Al  Mulk,  5.  This  belief- 
comes  from  the  Jews,  for  in  Jfagig&h,  cap.  vi.  §  i, 
it  is  said  that  the  demons  "listen  from  behind 
a  curtain,"  in  order  to  obtain  a  knowledge  of 
future  events.  The  Qur'an  represents  the  shooting 

1  Kanga's  Avestic  Dictionary,  s.  v.,  p.  408. 


IDEAS    AND    PRACTICES.  125 


stars  as  hurled  at  them  by  the  angels,  in  order  to 
drive  them  away. 

In  Surah  L.,  Qaf,  29,  in  speaking  of  the  Day  of 
Judgment,  God  is  represented  as  saying :  "  A  day 
when  we  shall  say  to  Hell,  '  Art  thou  filled  ? '  and 
it  shall  say,  'Is  there  more?"  This  is  the  echo 
of  what  we  read  in  the  dthioth  of  Rabbi  'Aqiba 
viii.,  §  i,  "The  Prince  of  Hell  saith  on  a  day  and 
a  day  (/.  e.  day  by  day),  '  Give  me  food  unto  reple 
tion.'"  This  Jewish  work  refers  to  Isa.  v.  14  in 
proof  of  the  truth  of  the  assertion. 

In  Surah  XI.,  Hud,  42,  and  again  in  Surah  XXIII., 
Al  Mu'minun,  27,  we  are  told  that  in  the  time  of 
Noah  "the  furnace  boiled  over."  This  doubtless 
refers  to  the  Jewish  opinion  (Rash  Hashshdndh 
xvi.,  §  2,  and  Sanhednn  cviii.)  that  "The  genera 
tion  of  the  Flood  was  punished  with  boiling- 
water."  The  whole  of  the  statement  in  the  Qur'an 
as  to  the  way  in  which  the  unbelievers  mocked 
Noah  is  taken  from  this  chapter  of  Tract  San- 
hedrin  and  from  other  Jewish  commentators. 
Probably  in  ignorance  of  this  the  commentary 
of  Jalalain  on  Surah  XI.,  42,  says  that  it  was 
"  a  baker's  oven  "  that  "  boiled  over,"  and  that  this 
was  a  sign  to  Noah  that  the  Flood  was  at  hand. 

If  any  further  proof  were  needed  of  the  great 
extent  of  the  influence  which  Jewish  tradition  has 
exerted  upon  Islam  it  would  be  supplied  by  the 


126  INFLUENCE    OF    JEWISH 


very  noteworthy  fact  that,  although  the  Muslims 
boast  of  the  style  of  the  Qur'an  and  the  purity 
of  its  Arabic  as  a  miracle  and  as  an  evidence  of 
the  Divine  origin  of  the  book,  yet  there  are  to  be 
found  in  it  certain  words  which  are  not  properly 
Arabic  at  all,  but  are  borrowed  from  the  Aramaic 
or  the  Hebrew.  Among  these  may  be  mentioned  : 


^jls.     Some  of  these  are 
derived  from  roots  common  to  all  three  languages, 
but  they  are  not  formed  in  accordance  with  the 
rules  of   Arabic   Grammar,  whereas   they   are   of 
fi-equent  occurrence  in  Hebrew  and  Aramaic  and 
properly  belong  to   those   languages.      The   word 
(^»j^i,  "  Paradise,"  is  taken  from  late  Hebrew,  but 
has  come  from  old  Persian,  and  belongs  to  that 
language  and  to  Sanskrit.      It   is   as   foreign  to 
Arabic  as  the  same  word  IlapaSeio-os  is  to  Greek. 
Muhammadan  commentators  have  often  found  it 
impossible   to   give   the    exact    meaning   of    such 
words,  through  their  ignorance  of  the  languages 
from  which  Muhammad  borrowed  them.      When 
we  know  their  meaning  in  this  way,  we  find  that 
it  suits  the  context.     For  example,  it  is  a  common 
mistake  to  imagine  that  iL^XU  (malakut)  denotes 
the  nature  or  the  abode  of  the  angels,  since  it  is 
not  derived  from  dll*  (malak)  "an  angel,"  but  is 
the   Arabic    way   of    writing  the    Hebrew    ritopp 
(malkiit/t),  "  kingdom." 


IDEAS    AND    PRACTICES.  127 

Not  less  noteworthy  is  the  influence  which  the 
Jewish  form  of  worship  has  had  upon  that 
of  the  Muhammadans.  It  would  be  a  mistake 
doubtless  to  suppose  that  the  Muhammadans 
borrowed  from  the  Jews  their  practice  of  wor 
shipping  with  covered  heads,  that  of  separating 
the  men  from  the  women  in  the  mosque  (when 
the  latter  are  allowed  to  take  part  in  public  worship 
at  all),  and  of  removing  their  shoes.  All  these 
were  probably  the  customs  of  the  Arabs  as  well 
as  of  other  Semitic  nations  from  the  earliest  times. 
It  is  much  more  probable  that  the  ceremonial 
ablutions  of  the  Muslims  were  imitated  from  those 
of  the  Jews,  though  here  there  is  room  for  doubt. 
The  practice  of  worshipping  towards  Jerusalem 
was,  as  we  have  seen,  for  a  short  time  adopted 
by  the  Muhammadans  in  imitation  of  the  Jews, 
though  ultimately  Mecca  was  substituted  as  the 
Qillah.  We  have  also  learnt J  that  the  observance 
of  a  fast-month  was  derived  not  from  the  Jews 
but  from  the  Sabians.  Yet  in  connexion  with  that 
fast  there  is  a  rule  enjoined  which  is  undoubtedly 
of  Jewish  origin.  In  Surah  II.,  Al  Baqarah,  183, 
where  a  command  is  given  in  reference  to  the 
permission  to  feast  at  night  during  that  month, 
the  Qur'an  says:  "Eat  ye  and  drink  until  the 
white  thread  is  distinguishable  to  you  from  the 
black  thread  by  the  dawn :  then  make  your  fasting 
perfect  till  night/'  The  meaning  of  the  mention 
1  pp.  5a>  53- 


128  INFLUENCE    OF    JEWISH 

of  the  colour  of  the  threads  is  that  the  Muslims 
were  commanded  to  fast  from  dawn  till  dark. 
When  the  question  arose  at  what  precise  moment 
the  day  began,  it  was  necessary  to  lay  down  a  rule 
on  the  subject,  as  is  done  in  this  verse.  The  rule 
is  taken  from  that  of  the  Jews  on  the  same  subject, 
for  in  Mishndh  Berakhoth  (i.,  §  3)  the  day  is  said  to 
begin  at  the  moment  "  at  which  one  can  distinguish 
between  a  blue  thread  and  a  white  one." 

In  every  country  Avhere  Muslims  are  to  be 
found,  they  are  directed,  whenever  any  one  of  the 
five  fixed  times  for  prayer  comes  round,  to  offer 
the  stated  prayers  in  the  spot  where  they  happen 
to  be  at  the  time,  whether  in  the  house,  the  mosque, 
or  the  street.  Many  of  them  do  so,  especially  in 
public  places.  This  practice  seems  at  the  present 
day  to  be  peculiar  to  them.  But  if  we  inquire 
what  its  origin  was,  we  must  again  turn  to  the 
Jews.  Those  of  them  who  lived  in  Arabia  in 
Muhammad's  time  were  the  spiritual  and,  in  a 
measure,  the  actual  descendants  of  those  Pharisees 
who  are  described  in  the  Gospels  as  making  void 
the  word  of  God  through  their  excessive  reverence 
for  their  traditions1.  In  our  Lord's  time  these 
Pharisees  are  reproved  for  loving  "to  stand  and 
pray  in  the  synagogues  and  in  the  corners  of  the 
streets2,"  in  order  to  gain  from  men  full  credit 
for  their  devotion.  The  resemblance  between  the 
practice  of  the  Pharisees  of  old  and  that  of  the 

1  Matt.  xv.  6  ;  Mk.  vii.  13,  bo.  2  Matt.  vi.  5. 


IDEAS    AND    PRACTICES.  12Q 


Muslims  of  to-day  is  so  striking  that  some  of 
the  opponents  of  Christianity  among  the  latter 
have  alleged  this  as  a  proof  that  the  Gospels  are 
now  interpolated,  since  they  assert  that  the  verses 
above  referred  to  are  such  an  exact  description 
of  Muhammadan  methods  of  worship  that  they 
must  have  been  written  by  some  Christian  who 
had  seen  the  Muslims  at  their  devotions  and 
wished  to  condemn  them !  Nor  was  it  unnatural 
for  Muhammad  and  his  followers  to  take  the  Jews 
for  their  models  in  this  matter.  They  knew  that 
the  latter  were  descendants  of  Abraham  and  were 
the  "  People  of  the  Book."  Hence,  attaching  undue 
importance  as  they  did  to  outward  forms  in  worship, 
it  was  not  strange  that  they  should  think  that  the 
Jewish  method  of  adoration  must  be  the  right  one. 
Muhammad,  of  course,  told  his  followers  that  he 
had  been  taught  by  Gabriel  how  to  worship,  and 
to  the  present  day  they  imitate  him  in  every 
prostration. 

We  shall  mention  only  one  other  point  out  of 
many  in  which  Jewish  practices  have  very  clearly 
influenced  Islam.  In  Surah  IV.,  An  Nisa,  3,  Mu 
hammad  laid  down  a  rule  restricting  for  the 
future  the  number  of  wives,  which  each  of  his 
followers  might  have  at  any  one  time,  to  four  at 
most.  Commentators  tell  us  that  previously  several 
of  them  had  many  more  legal  wives  than  this. 
The  rule  did  not  apply  to  Muhammad  himself,  as 

I 


130  INFLUENCE    OF    JEWISH 

we  learn  from  Surah  XXXIII.,  Al  Ahzab,  49,  since 
he  was  granted  as  a  special  privilege  the  right  to 
marry  as  many  as  he  pleased.  The  words  of  the 
restricting  rule  are :  "  And  if  ye  fear  that  ye  will 
not  act  justly  towards  orphans,  then  marry  of 
wives  what  seemeth  good  to  you,  by  twos  or 
threes  or  fours."  This  has  ever  since  been  explained 
by  commentators  as  forbidding  Muslims  to  have 
more  than  four  legal  wives  at  a  time,  though  they 
enjoy  almost  unlimited  freedom  in  the  matter  of 
divorcing  any  or  all  of  them,  and  marrying  others 
to  make  up  the  permitted  number. 

When  we  inquire  the  source  from  which  Muham 
mad  borrowed  this  rule,  and  why  he  chose  four 
as  the  highest  permissible  number  of  legal  wives 
for  a  Muhammadan  to  have  at  one  time,  we  again 
find  the  answer  in  Jewish  regulations  on  the 
subject,  one  of  which  runs  thus:  "A  man  may 
marry  many  wives,  for  Kabba  saith  it  is  lawful 
to  do  so,  if  he  can  provide  for  them.  Nevertheless 
the  wise  men  have  given  good  advice,  that  a  man 
should  not  marry  more  than  four  wives  V 

In  reply  to  the  argument  contained  in  this 
chapter  and  in  those  which  follow,  the  Muham- 
madans  have  but  one  answer,  besides  the  mere 
assertion  that  the  Qur'an  is  not  Muhammad's 


1  Arbah  Turim,  Ev.  Hasaer,  i.  For  this  reference  I  am 
indebted  to  a  note,  p.  451,  in  Rod-well's  Koran,  where  it  is 
added  ••  See  also  Yad  Hachazakah  Hilchoth  Ishuth,  14,  3." 


IDEAS    AND    PRACTICES. 


composition  but  that  of  God  Himself.  They  tell 
us  that  Muhammad  was  ignorant  of  both  reading 
and  writing,  and  that  hence  he  could  not  possibly 
have  studied  the  Hebrew,  Aramaic,  and  other  books 
from  which  we  have  shown  that  he  really  drew, 
directly  or  indirectly,  much  of  what  now  appears 
in  the  Qur'an.  "  An  unlettered  man,"  they  say, 
"  could  not  possibly  have  consulted  such  a  mass  of 
literature,  much  of  it  in  languages  which  he  did  not 
know,  and  which  are  known  to  but  a  few  students 
at  the  present  time." 

This  argument  rests  on  two  assumptions :  first, 
that  Muhammad  could  neither  read  nor  write  :  and 
second,  that  only  by  reading  could  he  learn  the 
traditions  and  fables  accepted  by  Jews,  Christians, 
Zoroastrians  and  others  in  his  time.  Both  of 
these  are  destitute  of  proof.  An  attempt  is  made  to 
substantiate  the  former  by  referring  to  Surah  VII., 
Al  A'raf,  156,  where  Muhammad  is  called  AH, 
uabiyyu'l  Ummi,  which  words  the  Muslims  render 
"  The  Unlettered  Prophet."  Rabbi  Abraham  Geiger, 
however,  has  clearly  shown  that  the  word  rendered 
unlettered  in  this  verse  really  means  "  Gentile,'1  as 
opposed  to  Jewish.  This  is  confirmed  by  the  fact 
that  in  Surah  III.,.A1  'Imran,  19,  the  prophet  is  com 
manded  to  speak  "  to  the  Ummun  and  to  the  people 
of  the  Book,"  in  which  verse  we  see  that  the  Arabs 
in  general  are  thus  designated  "  Gentiles."  More 
over,  in  Surah  XXIX.,  Al  'Ankabut,  27,  and  in 
Surah  XLV.,  Al  Jathiyyah,  15,  it  is  clearly  stated 

i  a 


132  INFLUENCE    OF    JEWISH 

that  the  prophetic  office  was  bestowed  on  the 
family  of  Isaac  and  Jacob,  not  on  that  of  Ishmael. 
Hence  Muhammad  distinguishes  himself  as  "  the 
Gentile  Prophet/'  differing  in  that  respect  from  the 
rest,  who  were,  generally  speaking,  from  Isaac's 
descendants.  There  is  absolutely  no  proof  that 
Muhammad  was  ignorant  of  reading  and  writing, 
though  we  are  not  compelled,  as  some  have  fancied, 
to  infer  that  the  polished  style  of  the  Qur'an  is  a 
proof  that  he  wrote  out  much  of  it  carefully,  and 
thus  elaborated  the  different  Surahs  before  learning 
them  off  by  heart  and  reciting  them  to  his  amanu 
enses.  This  latter  might  have  been  done  without 
ability  to  write1. 

But  even  if,  for  the  sake  of  argument,  we  admit 
that  reading  and  writing  were  arts  unknown  to 
Muhammad,  that  admission  does  not  in  the  slightest 
degree  invalidate  the  proof  that  he  borrowed  exten 
sively  from  Jewish  and  other  sources.  Even  if  he 

1  But  we  are  not  destitute  of  traditions,  whatever  value  we 
may  attach  to  them,  which  assert  that  Muhammad  could  write, 
and  therefore  read.  Bukhari  and  Muslim  quote  traditions  to 
the  effect  that  when  the  Treaty  of  Hudaibah  was  being  signed, 
Muhammad  took  the  pen  from  'Ali  and  struck  out  the  words  in 
which  the  latter  had  designated  him  "  Apostle  of  God,"  substi 
tuting  in  his  own  handwriting  the  words  "  Son  of  'Abdu'llah." 
Again,  tradition  tells  us  that,  when  he  was  dying,  Muhammad 
called  for  pen  and  ink  to  write  directions  intended  to  prevent 
his  followers  from  disputing  about  hie  successor;  but  his 
strength  failed  him.  This  latter  tradition  rests  upon  the 
authority  of  Ibn  'Abbas,  and  is  reported  by  Bukhari  and 
Muslim.  It  is  well  known  as  forming  a  subject  of  controversy 
between  Sunnis  and  Shi'ahs. 


IDEAS    AND    PRACTICES.  133 

could  read  Arabic,  it  is  hardly  likely  that  he  was  a 
student  of  Aramaic,  Hebrew,  and  other  languages. 
The  parallels  which  we  have  drawn  between  certain 
passages  in  the  Qur'an  and  those  resembling  them 
in  various  Jewish  writings  are  close  enough  to 
show  the  ultimate  source  of  much  of  the  Qur'an. 
But  in  no  single  case  are  the  verses  of  the  Qur'an 
translated  from  any  such  source.  The  many  errors 
that  occur  in  the  Qur'an  show  that  Muhammad 
received  his  information  orally,  and  probably  from 
men  who  had  no  great  amount  of  book-learning 
themselves.  This  obviates  the  second  assumption 
of  the  Muslims.  It  was  doubtless  for  many  obvious 
reasons  impossible  for  Muhammad  to  consult  a 
large  number  of  Aramaic,  Zoroastrian,  and  Greek 
books  ;  but  it  was  by  no  means  impossible  for  him 
to  learn  from  Jewish l,  Persian,  and  Christian 
friends  and  disciples  the  tales,  fables,  and  traditions 
which  were  then  current.  His  enemies  brought 
against  him  in  his  own  time  the  charge  of  having 
been  assisted  by  such  persons  in  the  composition  of 
the  Qur'an,  as  we  learn  both  from  the  Qur'an  itself 
and  from  the  admissions  of  Ibn  Hisham  and  of  the 
commentators.  Among  others  thus  mentioned  as 
helping  in  the  composition  of  the  book  is  the  Jew 
spoken  of  in  Stirah  XLVL,  Al  Ahqaf,  9,  as  a 
"witness"  to  the  agreement  between  the  Qur'an 

1  In  fact,  in  Surah  X.,  Yumis,  94,  Muhammad  is  bidden  to 
ask  the  People  of  the  Book  for  information  to  clear  up  his 
doubts. 


134  INFLUENCE    OF    JEWISH 

and    the  Jewish   Scriptures.      The    commentators 
'Abbasi  and  Jalalain  in  their  notes  on  this  passage 
tell  us  that  this  was  'Abdu'llah  ibn  Salam,  who,  if 
we  may  believe  the  Raudatu'l  Ahbab,  was  a  Jewish 
priest  or  Rabbi  before  he  became  a  Muslim.     In 
Sarah  XXV.,  Al   Furqan,  5,  6,  we  are  told   that 
Muhammad's   enemies  said,  "  Others  have   helped 
him  with  it,"  and  stated  that  he  had  merely  written 
down  certain  "  Tales  of  the  Ancients,"  which  were 
dictated  to  him  by  his  accomplices  morning  and 
evening.      'Abbasi    states    that   the   persons   thus 
referred  to  were  Jabr,  a  Christian  slave,  Yasar  (also 
called  Abu  Fuqaihah),  and  a  certain  Abu  Takbihah, 
a  Greek.     In  Surah  XVI,  An  Nahl,  105,  in  answer 
to  the  accusation,  "  Surely  a  human  being  teacheth 
him,"  Muhammad  offers  the  inadequate  reply  that 
the  language  of  the  man  who  is  hinted  at   was 
foreign,  whereas  the  Quran  itself  was  composed  in 
plain    Arabic.     This  answer  does  not  attempt  to 
refute  the  obvious  meaning  of  the  charge,  which 
was  that  (not  the  style  of  the  language  used  but) 
the   stories    told   in    the    Quran   had    thus   been 
imparted    to    Muhammad.      'Abbasi   says   that   a 
Christian    named    Cain    was    referred    to,    while 
Jalalain's  Commentary  again  mentions  Jabr  and 
Yasar.     Others  suggest   Salman,   the   well-known 
Persian    disciple    of    Muhammad,    others    Suhaib, 
others  a  monk  named  Addas.     We  may  also  note 
the   fact   that   'Uthman  and  especially   Waraqah, 
cousins  of  Khadijah,  Muhammad's  first  wife,  were 


IDEAS    AND    PRACTICES.  135 

acquainted  with  the  Christianity  l  and  the  Judaism 
of  the  time,  and  that  these  men  exercised  no  slight 
influence  over  Muhammad  during  his  early  years 
as  a  prophet,  and  perhaps  before.  Zaid,  his  adopted 
son,  was  a  Syrian,  according  to  Ibn  Hisham,  and 
must  therefore  have  at  first  professed  Christianity. 
We  shall  see  that  other  persons  were  among  Muham 
mad's  friends,  from  whom  he  might  easily  have 
obtained  information  regarding  the  Jewish,  Chris 
tian,  and  Zoroastrian  faiths.  The  passages  borrowed 
from  such  sources  are,  however,  so  disguised  in 
form  that  it  is  quite  possible  that  those  from  whom 
Muhammad  made  his  inquiries  may  not  have 
recognized  the  imposture,  but  may  have  really 
fancied  that  these  passages  were  revealed,  as  they 
professed  to  be,  to  confirm  the  truth  of  their 
respective  creeds,  at  least  so  far.  If  so,  Muhammad 
adroitly  employed  the  information  he  obtained  from 
these  men  in  such  a  manner  as  to  deceive 
them,  though  he  could  not  deceive  his  enemies. 
Hence,  despairing  of  silencing  the  latter,  he  finally 
turned  upon  them  with  the  sword. 

In  the  next  chapter  we  proceed  to  inquire  what, 
if  any,  influence  Christianity,  orthodox  or  un 
orthodox,  exercised  upon  nascent  Islam  and  the 
composition  of  the  Qur'an. 

1  See  the  quotation  from  Ibn  Ishaq,  pp.  264.  265  below. 


CHAPTER  TV. 

THE  INFLUENCE  OF  CHEISTIANITY  AND  CHRISTIAN 
APOCRYPHAL  BOOKS. 

WHEN  Muhammad  arose,  Christianity  had  not 
obtained  any  very  considerable  hold  upon  the 
Arabs.  "  After  five  centuries  of  Christian  evan 
gelization,  we  can  point  to  but  a  sprinkling  here 
and  there  of  Christian  converts :  the  Banu  Harith 
of  Najran,  the  Banu  Hanifah  of  Yamamah,  some 
of  the  Banu  Tai  at  Taimah,  and  hardly  any  more1." 
In  his  youth,  we  are  told,  Muhammad  heard  the 
preaching  of  Quss,  the  Bishop  of  Najran,  and  he 
met  many  monks  and  saw  much  of  professing 
Christians  when  he  visited  Syria  as  a  trader  before 
his  assumption  of  the  prophetic  office.  But  what 
he  saw  and  heard  of  the  Church  had  little  effect 
upon  him  for  good.  Nor  need  we  wonder  at  this. 
"  What  Muhammad  and  his  Khalifahs  found  in  all 
directions  whither  their  scimitars  cut  a  path  for 
them,"  says  Isaac  Taylor2,  speaking  of  a  some 
what  later  period  in  words  which  nevertheless 
describe  Muhammad's  early  experience  also,  "was 

1  Sir  W.  Muir,  Life  of  Mahomet,  3rd  ed.,  p.  Ixxxiv. 

2  Ancient  Christianity,  vol.  i.  p.  266. 


CHRISTIAN    APOCRYPHAL    BOOKS.  137 

a  superstition  so  abject,  an  idolatry  so  gross  and 
shameless,  church  doctrines  so  arrogant,  church 
practices  so  dissolute  and  so  puerile,  that  the  strong- 
minded  Arabians  felt  themselves  inspired  anew  as 
God's  messengers  to  reprove  the  errors  of  the  world, 
and  authorized  as  God's  avengers  to  punish  apostate 
Christendom."  The  Greek  monk  who  wrote  the 
History  of  the  Martyrdom  of  Athanasiu*  the  Persian, 
speaking  of  the  sufferings  inflicted  on  the  people 
of  Palestine  when  it  was  for  a  brief  space  in 
the  hands  of  the  Persians  in  Muhammad's  time, 
draws  a  fearful  picture  ]  of  the  wickedness  of  the 
professing  Christians  there,  and  does  not  hesitate 
to  say  that  it  was  for  this  reason  that  God  gave 
them  over  to  the  cruelty  of  their  Zoroastrian 
persecutors.  In  the  Book  of  Revelation  (ix.  20,  21) 
the  prevalence  of  idol- worship  and  other  sins  such 
as  those  described  by  this  monk  is  given  as  the 
reason  why  the  Muhammadan  power  was  to  be  per 
mitted  to  oppress  the  Eastern  Church.  Speaking  of 
the  same  time  Mosheim  says,  "  During 2  this  century 
true  religion  lay  buried  under  a  senseless  mass  of 
superstitions,  and  was  unable  to  raise  her  head. 
The  earlier  Christians  had  worshipped  only  God 
and  His  Son  ;  but  those  called  Christians  in  this 
century  worshipped  the  wood  of  a  cross,  the  images 

1  IlontiXcas   «at    iro\vTpoir<vs    rrjv   dfjiapriav    xflP0~1Pa<P'n(*av"rf*   KOI 
a'Jiuiaiv  //«v  uvOpcuirivois  rr]V  yfjv  (poivi£avTCs,  tropvticus  8%  Kal  poixeiais 
Kal  ra?j  aXXcu?  avaptOrfTOis  Trovrjpiats  .   .   .  TT)J>  upy^v  TOV  Qeov  Ka9' 
tavrwv  €/c«au(TavT«j,  KT\.    Ada  Martyrii  S.  Athanasii  Persae,  p.  2. 

2  Cent.  VIT,  pt.  ir.  cap.  iii.  §  i,  ed.  Reid. 


138          THE    INFLUENCE    OF    CHRISTIANITY    AND 

of  holy  men,  and  bones  of  dubious  origin.  The 
early  Christians  placed  heaven  and  hell  before  the 
view  of  men ;  these  latter  talked  only  of  a  certain 
fire  prepared  to  purge  away  the  imperfections  of 
the  soul.  The  former  taught  that  Christ  had  made 
expiation  for  the  sins  of  men  by  His  death  and 
blood  ;  the  latter  seemed  to  inculcate  that  the  gates 
of  heaven  would  be  closed  against  none  who  should 
enrich  the  clergy  or  the  Church  with  their  donations. 
The  former  were  studious  to  maintain  a  holy  simpli 
city  and  to  follow  a  pure  and  chaste  piety ;  the 
latter  placed  the  substance  of  religion  in  external 
rites  and  bodily  exercises."  The  picture  of 
Christianity  which  the  Qur'an  presents  to  us 
shows  us  what  conception  of  it  Muhammad  had 
formed  from  his  own  limited  experience.  His 
knowledge  of  the  Faith  was  at  least  powerfully 
affected  by  the  teaching  of  the  so-called  "orthodox  " 
party,  who  styled  Mary  "  the  Mother  of  God,"  and, 
by  the  abuse  of  a  term  so  easily  misunderstood, 
opened  the  way  for  the  worship  of  a  Jewish 
maiden  in  place  of  God  Most  High.  The  effect  of 
this  misconception  is  clearly  pointed  out  by  Ibn 
Ishaq.  In  telling  the  story  of  the  embassy  sent 
by  the  Christians  of  Najran,  who,  he  says,  belonged 
to  "the  Emperor's  faith,"  to  Muhammad  at  Medina 
in  A.  D.  632,  he  tells  us  of  the  ambassadors  that 
"  Like  l  all  the  Christians,  they  said,  '  Jesus  is  God, 
the  Son  of  God,  and  the  third  of  three.'  .  .  .  They 

1  Quoted  in  Dr.  Koelle's  Mohammed  and  Mohammedanism,  p.  136. 


CHRISTIAN    APOCRYPHAL    BOOKS.  139 

proved  further  that  He  is  the  third  of  three,  namely 
God,  Christ,  and  Mary."  Of  course  this  is  not  a 
true  account  of  the  language  used,  but  that  it 
represents  correctly  what  Muhammad  understood  to 
be  the  doctrine  held  by  these  Christians  is  clear 
from  the  following  verses  of  the  Qur'an  :  "  Verily 
now  they  have  blasphemed  who  say,  *  God  is  a  third 
of  three  "'  (Surah  V.,  Al  Maidah,  77) :  "  And  when 
God  shall  say, '  0  Jesus,  Son  of  Mary,  hast  Thou  said 
unto  men,  Take  Me  and  My  Mother  as  two  Gods, 
beside  God?:"  (Surah  V.,  116).  We  can>hardly 
wonder  then  th^t  Muhammad  rejected  the 
Christianity  thus  presented  to  his  notice.  "  Had 
he  witnessed  a  purer  exhibition  of  its  rites  and 
doctrines,  and  seen  more  of  its  reforming  and 
regenerating  influences,  we  cannot  doubt  that,  in 
the  sincerity  of  his  early  search  after  truth,  he 
might  readily  have  embraced  and  faithfully  adhered 
to  the  faith  of  Jesus.  Lamentable  indeed  is  the 
reflection  that  so  small  a  portion  of  the  fair  form 
of  Christianity  was  disclosed  by  the  ecclesiastics 
and  monks  of  Syria,  and  that  little  how  altered  and 
distorted !  Instead  of  the  simple  majesty  of  the 
Gospel — as  a  revelation  of  God  reconciling  man 
kind  to  Himself  through  His  Son — the  sacred 
dogma  of  the  Trinity  was  forced  upon  the  traveller  * 
with  the  misleading  and  offensive  zeal  of  Eutychian 
and  Jacobite  partisanship,  and  the  worship  of 

1  Sir  W.  Muir.  Life  of  Mahomet,  3rd  ed.,  pp.  20,  ai.     He  is  here 
speaking  of  Muhammad's  visit  to  Syria. 


140          THE    INFLUENCE    OF    CHRISTIANITY    AND 

Mary  exhibited  in  so  gross  a  form  as  to  leave  the 
impression  upon  the  mind  of  Muhammad  that  she 
was  held  to  be  a  goddess,  if  not  the  third  Person 
and  consort  of  the  Deity.  It  must  surely  have 
been  by  such  blasphemous  extravagances  that 
Muhammad  was  repelled  from  the  true  doctrine  of 
Jesus  as  the  Son  of  God,  and  led  to  regard  Him  only 
as  '  Jesus,  son  of  Mary,'  the  sole  title  by  which  He 
is  spoken  of  in  the  Qur'an." 

We  must  not  therefore  forget  that  Muhammad 
was  never  brought  into  contact  with  pure  Gospel 
Christianity ;  and  it  is  largely  to  the  false  forms 
which  the  faith  had  then  almost  universally  as 
sumed  that  the  rise  of  Islam  is  really  due,  since 
repulsion  from  these  prevented  Muhammad  from 
ever  really  seeking  to  discover  the  truth  contained 
in  the  Gospel,  and  thus  impelled  him  to  found 
a  new  and  anti-Christian  religion. 

There  seems  to  be  no  satisfactory  proof  that  an 
Arabic  version  of  the  New  Testament  existed  in 
Muhammad's  time.  Even  in  the  "  Orthodox " 
Church  the  Gospel  was  neglected  in  favour  of 
legends  of  Saints,  which  appealed  more  to  the 
popular  taste  for  the  marvellous.  Arabia  was 
a  refuge  for  not  a  few  heretics  of  different  sects ; 
and  it  is  clear  from  the  Qur'an  (as  we  shall  see) 
that,  whether  in  written  form  or  not,  many  of  the 
mythical  stories  whicli  are  contained  in  the  apo 
cryphal  Gospels  and  other  similar  works,  together 
with  certain  heretical  views  on  various  subjects, 


CHRISTIAN    APOCRYPHAL    BOOKS.  14! 


must  have  reached  Muhammad  and  have  been 
accepted  by  him  as  true.  That  he  should  have 
believed  these  to  form  part  of  the  Gospel,  the  name 
of  which  is  so  often  mentioned  in  the  Qur'an,  is 
somewhat  surprising:  and  the  fact  proves  that 
none  of  his  converts  were  earnest  and  well-taught 
Christians,  and  also  that  he  must  have  felt  far  less 
interest  in  Christianity  than  he  did  in  Talmudic 
Judaism.  Those  passages  of  the  Qur'an  which  deal 
at  all  fully  with  what  Muhammad  supposed  to  be 
the  doctrines  of  Christianity  date  "  from  a  period 
when  his  system  was  already,  in  great  part, 
matured ;  and  they  were  founded  on  information 
meagre,  fabulous  and  crude.  .  .  .  We  do  not  find 
a  single  ceremony  or  doctrine  of  Islam  in  any 
degree  moulded,  or  even  tinged,  by  the  peculiar 
tenets  of  Christianity ;  while,  on  the  contrary, 
Judaism  has  given  its  colour  to  the  whole  system, 
and  lent  to  it  the  shape  and  type,  if  not  the  actual 
substance,  of  many  ordinances  V 

Yet  at  the  same  time  Muhammad  desired  to  win 
over  Christians  as  well  as  Jews  to  his  faith.  If 
they  were  far  less  numerous  and  powerful  in 
Arabia  than  were  the  Jews,  yet  the  established 
religion  of  the  great  Byzantine  Empire  must  have 
possessed  some  importance  in  Muhammad's  eyes, 
especially  because,  unless  the  Arabian  Christians 
could  be  won  over,  political  complications  might 
arise.  To  what  extent  this  latter  feeling  may  have 

1  Life  of  Mahomet,  pp,  143,  144, 


142          THE    INFLUENCE    OF    CHRISTIANITY    AND 


influenced  Muhammad,  it  is  impossible  to  say.  At 
any  rate,  he  appealed  to  the  Gospel  as  a  proof  of 
his  Divine  Mission,  even  going  so  far  as  to  state 
that  Christ  had  prophesied  of  his  coming l.  He 
speaks  of  Christ  as  "the  Word  of  God2/'  but  denies 
His  Divinity  and  His  crucifixion,  and  shows  a  com 
plete  ignorance  of  the  true  doctrines  of  the  Gospel. 
Yet  in  numerous  passages  he  speaks  of  the  latter 
with  respect  as  a  book  of  Divine  authority,  saying 
that  it  "  descended  on  Jesus "  out  of  heaven,  and 
that  the  Qur'an  itself  came  to  confirm  and  preserve 
it  (Surah  V.,  Al  Maidah,  53).  He  records  the 
virgin  birth  of  Christ  and  mentions  some  of  His 
miracles,  but  even  here  the  legendary  tone  pre 
dominates  ;  and  Muhammad  seems  to  have  learnt 
what  little  he  knew  of  our  Lord  and  His  Apostles 
from  very  unreliable  hearsay.  We  shall  see  that 
the  agreement  in  detail  between  what  the  Quran 
relates  on  these  subjects  and  what  may  be  found 
in  apocryphal  and  heretical  literature  is  very  re 
markable.  Here  again  Muhammad  seems  to  have 
had  a  wonderful  talent  for  rejecting  the  true  and 

1  Surah  LXL,  As  Saff,  6  :  "  And  when  Jesus,  the  Son  of 
Mary,  said,  <  O  children  of  Israel,  verily  I  am  an  Apostle  of 
God  unto  you,  confirming  what  was  before  Me  of  the  Law,  and 
bringing  good  news  of  an  Apostle  who  shall  come  after  Me  : 
his  name  is  Ahmad.' "  Ahmad  is  the  same  name  as  Muhammad. 
The  latter  must  have  heard  of  the  prophecy  in  John  xvi.  7,  &c., 
and  his  informant  must,  purposely  or  ignorantly,  have  mistaken 
vapaitXrjTos  for  7T€/>t«A.t»Tos,  which  latter  word  does  not  occur  in 
the  New  Testament. 

3  Surah  111.,  40,  and  IV.,  169. 


CHRISTIAN    APOCRYPHAL    BOOKS.  143 


accepting  the  false,  just  as  in  the  case  of  the  Jewish 
traditions  referred  to  in  the  preceding  chapter. 

We  proceed  to  prove  this  by  referring  to  some 
of  the  fables  dealing  with  Christian  subjects  con 
tained  in  the  Qur'an.  indicating  the  sources  from 
which  they  appear  to  have  been  derived. 

1.    Legend  of  the  Companions  of  the  Cave. 

The  tirst  with  which  we  shall  deal  is  the  legend 
of  the  Companions  of  the  Cave,  which  is  thus  related 
in  Surah  XVIII.,  Al  Kahf,  8-25  :— 

"Hast  thou  considered  that  the  Companions  of 
the  Cave  and  of  Ar  Raqim  l  were  among  our  signs, 
a  marvel?  When  the  youths  betook  themselves 
to  the  cave  they  said,  '  Our  Lord,  bring  us  mercy 
from  Thyself  and  from  our  matter  prepare  for  us 
guidance.'  Accordingly  we  smote  upon  their  ears 
in  the  cave  a  number  of  years.  Afterwards  \Ve 
aroused  them  that  we  might  know  which  of  the 
two  parties  2  had  reckoned  unto  what  [time]  they 
had  remained — an  age.  We  shall  relate  to  thee  the 
account  of  them  with  truth :  Verily  they  were 
youths  who  believed  in  their  Lord,  and  we  in 
creased  guidance  unto  them.  And  we  girt  up  their 
hearts  when  they  stood  up  :  then  said  they,  '  Our 
Lord  is  Lord  of  the  heavens  and  of  the  earth,  we 
shall  never  call  any  beside  Him  God,  then  had  we 
uttered  a  boundless  lie.  These  our  people  have 

1  The  district  where  the  Cave  was  situated. 
3  Believers  and  unbelievers. 


144  'J'HE    INFLUENCE    OF    CHRISTIANITY    AND 


taken  gods  beside  Him,  unless  they  bring   clear 
authority  for  them :  who  then  is  more  unjust  than 
he   who   hath   devised  a   lie  against  God?     And 
when   ye  have   withdrawn  from   them   and  from 
what  they  worship  beside  God,  then  betake  your 
selves   to  the  cave:    thus  your  Lord  will   unfold 
unto  you  of  His  mercy  and  will  prepare  for  you 
advantage  out  of  your  matter/     And  thou  seest 
the  sun  when  it  riseth  recede  from  their  cave  to 
wards  the  right  hand,  and  when  it  setteth  turn1  aside 
from  them  towards  the  left  hand,  and  they  were 
in  an  interstice  of  it  ? :  that  is  one  of  God's  signs. 
Whomsoever  then  God  guideth,  he  is  guided,  and 
for  him  whom   He  misguideth  thou   shalt   never 
find  a  patron,  a  guide.     And  thou  wouldst  reckon 
them  awake,  though  they  are  asleep ;  and  We  turn 
them  over  towards  the  right  hand  and  towards  the 
left  hand.     And  their  dog  stretcheth  out  his  fore- 
paws  on  the  threshold ;    and  if  thou  hadst  come 
upon  them  thou  wouldst  indeed  have  turned  from 
them  in  night,  and  thou  wouldst  have  been  tilled 
with  dread  of  them.    And  therefore  did  We  arouse 
them   that   they   might    inquire   of   one    another. 
A  speaker  from  among  them  said,  '  How  long  have 
ye   remained?'     They   said,  'We  have   remained 
a  day,  or  portion   of  a  day.'     They  said,  'Your 
Lord  knowest  well  how  long  ye  have  remained. 
Send  therefore  one  of  you  with  this  your  coin  into 
the  city,  then  let  him  see  which  man  of  it  has  the 

1  So  as  not  to  touch  them.  2  That  is,  of  the  cave, 


CHRISTIAN    APOCRYPHAL    BOOKS.  145 

purest  food,  and  let  him  bring  you  provision  from 
him,  and  let  him  be  kind,  and  let  him  not  inform 
anyone  concerning  you.     Verily,  if  they  discover 
you,  they  will  stone  you  or  bring  you  back  into 
their  community,  and  then  for  ever  ye  shall  never 
prosper.'     And  thus  we  made  it  known  concerning 
them,  that  men  might  know  that  God's  promise  is 
true,  and  that  as  to  the  Hour  1  there  is  no  doubt 
about  it.     When  they  argued   among  themselves 
about  their  matter,  then  they  said,  « Build  a  build 
ing  over  them :    their  Lord  knoweth  well   about 
them.'     Those  who  prevailed  in  their  matter  said, 
'  We  shall  surely  erect  a  mosque  over  them.'    They 
will  say,  '  They  were  three:   the  fourth  of  them 
was  their   dog : '   and  they  will  say,  '  There  were 
five ;  the  sixth  of  them  was  their  dog : '  a  conjec 
ture  concerning  the  mystery :    and  they  will  say, 
'  They  were  seven ;  the  eighth  of  them  was  their 
dog.'     Say  thou 2,  '  My  Lord  is  well  aware  of  their 
number:  none  but  a  few  know  about  them.' 
And  they  remained  in  their  cave  three  hundred 
years,  and  they  added  nine.     Say  thou 2,  '  God  is 
well  aware  how  long  they  remained :  to  Him  be- 
longeth  the  mystery  of  the   heavens  and   of  the 
earth.' " 

To  understand  this  rather  hesitating  account  we 
must  remember  that,  as  the  commentators  inform 
us,  some  of  the  heathen  3  Arabs  of  Mecca  had  chal- 

1  t.  e.  the  Judgment  Day.  2  Muhammad. 

3  Others  say  Jews,  but  this  is  less  likely. 


146  THE    INFLUENCE    OF    CHRISTIANITY    AND 

lenged  Muhammad  to  tell  them  the  story  of  the 
Companions  of  the  Cave,  if  he  could,  in  order  to 
test  his  claim  to  inspiration.  The  story  was  evi 
dently  therefore  current  among  them  in  some  form, 
perhaps  in  more  than  one.  There  was  a  dispute 
concerning  the  number  of  persons  who  went  into 
the  cave,  and  various  opinions  were  stated  on  the 
subject.  Muhammad,  as  is  evident  from  verses  11 
and  23  which  we  have  omitted,  promised  to  give 
them  an  answer  on  the  morrow,  purposing  ap 
parently  to  inquire  of  some  one  about  the  matter. 
He  evidently  failed  to  obtain  certain  information, 
hence  he  left  the  question  of  the  number  of  the 
youths  unsettled,  and  his  attempt  to  get  out  of  the 
difficulty  is  not  very  successful.  Nor  does  he  tell 
the  place  where  or  the  time  when  the  event  is  said 
to  have  occurred.  He  ventures,  however,  to  assert 
positively  just  one  fact, — that  the  time  spent  in  the 
cave  was  309  years.  Unfortunately,  as  we  shall 
see,  even  in  this  he  was  wrong.  He  has  no  doubt, 
however,  that  the  event  recorded  in  the  story 
really  occurred.  From  the  whole  style  of  the  pas 
sage  we  perceive  that  Muhammad  had  no  written 
document  and  no  reliable  informant  at  hand  who 
could  give  him  exact  particulars  of  the  affair. 
None  the  less  we  possess  more  than  one  form  of 
the  legend,  written  before  Muhammad's  time  :  and 
it  is  clear  that  to  an  oral  form  of  the  story  he  was 
indebted  for  the  particulars  given  in  the  Qur'an, 
and  not  to  Divine  revelation,  as  he  claimed  to  be. 


CHRISTIAN    APOCRYPHAL    BOOKS.  147 

The  Syriac  writer,  Jacob  of  Sarug,  in  a  homily 
published  in  the  Ada  Sanctorum,  gives  the  myth 
at  some  length.  He  died  A.D.  521.  Other  early 
Syriac  forms  of  the  story  are  known1.  Most 
accounts  say  that  there  were  "Seven  Sleepers," 
hence  the  name  by  which  the  tale  is  generally 
known  in  Europe,  but  one  Syriac  MS.  of  the  sixth 
century  2  in  the  British  Museum  says  they  num 
bered  eight.  Muhammadan  commentators  3  on  the 
Qur'an  relate  traditions,  some  of  which  say  that 
they  were  seven,  others  asserting  that  they  num 
bered  eight,  a  point  which  Muhammad  practically 
in  the  Qur'an  acknowledged  his  inability  to  decide. 
As  far  as  we  know,  the  first  European  writer  to 
relate  the  legend  was  Gregory  of  Tours  4.  He  tells 
us  that  in  the  reign  of  the  Emperor  Decius  (A.D. 
249-51)  seven  noble  young  Christians  of  Ephesus 
fled  from  persecution  and  took  refuge  in  a  cave 
not  far  from  the  city.  After  a  time,  however,  their 
enemies  discovered  where  they  were  and  blocked 
up  the  entrance  to  the  cave,  leaving  them  to  die  of 
hunger.  When  Theodosius  II  was  on  the  throne, 
196  years  later,  a  herdsman  found  and  opened 
the  cave.  The  Seven  Sleepers  then  awoke  from 
the  slumber  in  which  they  had  remained  during  the 
whole  time,  and  (as  the  Qur'an  says  also)  sent  one 

1  Vide   Bar  Hebraeus,  Chron.  Ecc.,   I.    142  sqq.  ;  Assemani, 
Bibl.  Orient.  I.  335,  sqq. 
1  Cat.  Syr.  MSS.,  p.  1090. 
3  Vide  Jalalain  and  'Abbasi  in  loco. 
*  De  Gloria  Martyrum,  cap.  95. 

K  2 


148  THE    INFLUENCE    OP    CHRISTIANITY    AND 

of  the  party  to  the  city  to  purchase  provisions. 
He  found  Christianity  everywhere  triumphant,  to 
his  boundless  surprise.  At  a  shop  where  he 
bought  some  food,  he  produced  a  coin  of  Decius 
to  pay  for  it.  Accused  of  having  discovered  a 
hidden  treasure,  he  told  the  story  of  himself  and 
his  companions.  When  he  led  the  way  to  the  cave, 
the  appearance  of  his  companions,  still  young  and 
radiant  with  a  celestial  brightness,  proved  the 
truth  of  his  story.  The  Emperor  soon  heard  of  it, 
and  went  in  person  to  the  cave,  where  the 
awakened  sleepers  told  him  that  God  had  pre 
served  them  in  order  to  prove  to  him  the  truth  of 
the  immortality  of  the  soul.  Having  delivered 
their  message,  they  expired. 

It  is  quite  unnecessary  to  comment  on  the  ex 
ceeding  silliness  of  the  tale  as  told  in  the  Qur'an, 
though  in  this  respect  Muhammad  cannot  be 
deserving  of  more  blame  for  accepting  it  as  true 
than  the  ignorant  Christians,  by  whom  it  was  so 
widely  spread  and  in  all  probability  invented.  It 
is  quite  possible  that  the  story  was  originally 
intended  to  be  an  allegory,  or  more  probably  a  reli 
gious  romance,  framed  with  the  intention  of  show 
ing  with  what  wonderful  rapidity  the  Christian 
faith  had  spread,  through  the  courage  and  faith 
fulness  even  unto  death  of  so  many  of  its  pro 
fessors.  Be  this  as  it  may,  it  is  undoubtedly  the 
case  that  long  before  Muhammad's  day  the  legend 
had  obtained  credence  in  many  parts  of  the  East, 


CHRISTIAN    APOCRYPHAL    BOOKS.  149 

and  even  apparently  in  Mecca  it  was  believed  in 
his  time.  Muhammad's  fault  lay  in  pretending 
that  he  had  received  it  as  a  Divine  revelation, 
whereas  it  is  as  little  worthy  of  credence  as  the 
tale  of  St.  George  and  the  Dragon  (also  probably 
an  allegory),  or  Cinderella  and  the  Glass  Slipper, 
or  the  Batrachomyomachia  among  the  Greeks,  or 
the  tales  of  Rustam's  marvellous  exploits  among 
the  Persians  *. 

2.     Story  of  the  Virgin  Mary. 

The  history  of  Mary,  as  related  in  the  Quran 
and  the  Traditions  of  the  Prophet,  is  taken  almost 
entirely  from  the  apocryphal  Gospels  and  works 

1  There  can  be  little  doubt  that  we  may  trace  the  origin  of 
the  Syriac  tale  of  "The  Seven  Sleepers"  to  a  classical  Greek 
source.  It  is  evidently  borrowed  from  the  tale  of  Epimenides' 
long  sleep,  as  related  by  Diogenes  Laertius  in  the  following 
words : — Ovr6s  rrort  ircfjupOtis  irapd  rov  irarpos  (is  dypov  inl 
•npoftarov,  rfjs  68ov  tcard  (jKffrjuPpiav  (KK\tva$,  vir'  dvrpw  TIVI 
KaT(Koifj.-fidrj  (irrct,  KO.I  TTfVTrjKOVTa  (Tij.  8ia.va.ards  8«  p(rd  ravra, 
(£r)T(i  r6  irpoftarov,  vopifav  tit1  6\lyov  KtHoififjaOat.  us  81  oi>x  (vpiffKt, 
irapcytvcTo  (Is  rbv  dyptiv,  KOI  utTtotefvaafjifva.  iravra  itaraXa^ujv  KOI 
•nap  fT<py  TT)V  KT7}(riv,  ird\iv  fytv  fls  darv  8iairopov/ji«vos'  Kqtcei  8^  (is 
rr)v  (avTov  clyiwv  oiKiav,  ir«/«€TUX6  rots  irwOavofjifVois,  ris  eir}'  teas  rov 
v«arepov  d8(\<p(jv  evp&v,  r6re  tfSr)  ytpovra  6vra,  iraaav  ffjia9«  nap1 
(Ktivov  rf)v  a\.j]Q(ia.v.  .  .  .  teal  iitav(\e<av  tir'  o1nov,  per  ov  no\v 
H(Tr}\\a£tv,  us  (prjei  $\tyuv  \v  r$  irepl  paKpoQiuv,  0iovs  irrj  (irrd  Kat 
irfvrrjKovra  nal  (Kar6v  ws  8i  KprJTd  \iyovvi,  (vbs  Seovra  rpianoffia- 
&s  8e  Sfvotpdvrjs  6  KoXfKp&vios  dmjKOtvai  <prj<ri,  Ttrrapa  irpds  TOIS 
irfVTrjKovra  KCU  €fcar6v  (Diog.  Laertii,  DC  Vitis  Philosophorum,  lib.  I, 
cap.  x.  2,  4).  The  tale  has  obtained  a  new  lease  of  life  in  the 
New  World  under  the  form  of  Rip  Van  Winkle's  somewhat 
similar  adventure. 


150  THE    INFLUENCE    OF    CHRISTIANITY    AND 

of  that  character.  Muhammad  has,  however,  in 
troduced  into  it  another  element  of  error,  the 
source  of  which  we  must  trace  before  entering 
upon  the  narrative  itself. 

In  Surah  XIX.,  Maryam,  28,  29,  we  are  told  that 
when  Mary  came  to  her  people  after  the  birth 
of  our  Lord,  they  said  to  her,  "O  Mary,  truly 
thou  hast  done  a  strange  thing.  0  sister  of  Aaron, 
thy  father  was  not  a  man  of  wickedness,  and  thy 
mother  was  not  rebellious."  From  these  words  it 
is  evident  that,  in  Muhammad's  opinion,  Mary  was 
identical  with  Miriam,  the  sister  of  Moses  and 
Aaron  l !  This  is  made  still  more  clear  by  Surah 
LVI.,  At  Tahrim,  12,  where  Mary  is  styled  "the 
daughter  of  'Imran,"  the  latter  being  the  Arabic 
form  of  Amram,  who  in  the  Pentateuch  is  called 
the  father  of  "  Aaron  and  Moses  and  Miriam  their 
sinter"  (Num.  xxvi.  59).  The  title  "sister  of 
Aaron  "  is  given  to  Miriam  in  Exod.  xv.  20,  and  it 
must  be  from  this  passage  that  Muhammad  bor 
rowed  the  expression.  The  reason  of  the  mistake 
which  identifies  the  Mother  of  our  Saviour  with 
a  woman  who  lived  about  one  thousand  five  hun 
dred  and  seventy  years  before  His  birth  is  evi 
dently  the  fact  that  in  Arabic  both  names,  Mary 
and  Miriam,  are  one  and  the  same  in  form,  Maryam. 

1  In  the  SaMh  of  Muslim  (Kitdbu'l  Addb}  we  are  told  that  the 
Christians  of  Najran  pointed  this  blunder  out  to  Al  Mughairah. 
He  consulted  Muhammad  about  it,  but  could  get  no  satisfactory 


CHRISTIAN    APOCRYPHAL    BOOKS.  15! 

The  chronological  difficulty  of  the  identification 
does  not  seem  to  have  occurred  to  Muhammad.  It 
puts  us  in  mind  of  the  tale  in  the  Shahnameh, 
where  Firdausi  tells  us  that,  when  the  hero  Faridun 
had  defeated  Dahhak  (in  Persian  pronounced 
Zahhak),  he  found  in  the  tyrant's  castle  two  sisters 
of  Jamshid,  who  were  kept  in  confinement  there. 
Faridun  was,  we  are  told,  smitten  with  their 
charms.  This  is  an  instance l  of  "  bonus  dormitat 
Homerus  "  on  some  one's  part,  for  from  other  parts 
of  the  poem  we  learn  that  these  fair  damsels  had 
remained  in  Dahhak's  custody  from  the  beginning 
of  the  latter 's  reign,  nearly  one  thousand  years 
before !  Muhammad's  error,  however,  is  chrono 
logically  far  more  serious  even  than  this,  which 
may  be  permissible  in  a  romance  but  not  in  a 
"Revelation."  Muhammadan  commentators  have 
in  vain  attempted  to  disprove  this  charge  of 
historical  inaccuracy. 

If  it  be  necessary  to  adduce  any  other  explana 
tion  of  Muhammad's  blunder,  it  has  been  suggested  2 
that  it  may  be  found  in  the  Jewish  tradition  which 
asserts  regarding  Miriam  that  "The  Angel  of  Death 
did  not  exercise  dominion  over  her,  but  on  the 
contrary  she  died  with  a  (Divine)  kiss,  and  worms 
and  insects  did  not  exercise  dominion  over  her." 

1  But  Firdausi  is  following  the  A  vesta  here  in  telling  us  that 
Faridun  (Avestic  Thraetaona)  married  these  women,  Arnavaz 
and  Shahrnaz  (in  Avestic  Arena vachi  and  Savanhavachi) ; 
Yeshts,  v.  34  ;  ix.  14 ;  xv.  24. 

8  R.  Abraham  Geiger,  Was  hat  Mohammed,  p.  173. 


152  THE    INFLUENCE    OF    CHRISTIANITY    AND 

But,  even  so,  the  Jews  never  ventured  to  assert  that 
Miriam  remained  alive  until  the  time  of  Christ, 
nor  to  identify  her  with  the  Virgin  Mary. 
^  Let  us  now  see  what  the  Quran  and  the  Tradi 
tions  relate  regarding  the  latter. 

In  Surah  III,  il  'Imran,  31,  32,  we  read  :— 
"When  Imran's  wife  said,  'My  Lord,  verily  I 
have  dedicated  to  Thee  what  is  in  my  womb,  as 
consecrated:  receive  it  therefore  from  me:  verily 
Thou  art  the  Hearer,  the  Knower.'  When  there 
fore  she  bore  her,  she  said,  'My  Lord,  verily  I  have 
borne  her,  a  female  '—and  God  was  well  aware  of 
what  she  had  borne,  and  the  male  is  not  as  the 
female—'  and  verily  I  have  named  her  Mary,  and 
verily  I  commit  her  and  her  seed  unto  Thee  from 
Satan  the  stoned.'  Accordingly  her  Lord  received 
her  with  fair  acceptance,  and  He  made  her  grow 
with  fair  growth,  and  Zacharias  reared  her.  When 
ever  Zacharias  entered  the  shrine  unto  her,  he 
found  food  near  her.  He  said,  '  O  Mary,  whence 
is  this  to  thee  ? '  She  said,  '  It  is  from  God  :  verily 
God  feedeth  whomsoever  He  willeth,  without  a 
reckoning.' " 

In  addition  to  and  explanation  of  this  narrative, 
Baidawi  and  other  commentators  and  tradition- 
ists  inform  us  of  the  following  particulars. 
'Imran's  wife  was  barren  and  advanced  in  age. 
One  day,  on  seeing  a  bird  giving  food  to  its  young 
ones,  she  longed  for  offspring,  and  entreated  that 
God  would  bestow  on  her  a  child.  She  said,  "0  my 


CHRISTIAN    APOCRYPHAL    BOOKS.  153 

God,  if  Thou  givest  me  a  child,  whether  it  be  a  son 
or  a  daughter,  I  shall  offer  it  as  a  gift  in  Thy 
presence  in  the  Temple  at  Jerusalem."  God  heard 
and  answered  her  prayer,  and  she  conceived  and 
bore  a  daughter,  Mary.  Jalalu'ddin  tells  us  that 
the  name  of  Mary's  mother  was  Hanna.  When 
she  brought  Mary  to  the  Temple  and  handed  her 
over  to  the  priests,  they  accepted  the  offering  and 
appointed  Zacharias  to  guard  the  child.  He  placed 
her  in  a  room,  and  permitted  no  one  but  himself l 
to  enter  it;  but  an  angel  supplied  her  with  her 
daily  food. 

Returning  to  the  Qur'an  (Surah  III.,  37-42),  we 
learn  that,  when  Mary  was  older,  "  The  angels  said, 
'  O  Mary,  verily  God  hath  chosen  thee  and  purified 
thee,  and  He  hath  chosen  thee  above  the  women  of 
the  worlds.  O  Mary,  be  devout  to  thy  Lord,  and 
worship,  and  bow  with  those  that  bow.'  That  is 
part  of  the  announcement  of  the  invisible;  we 
reveal  it  to  thee  - ;  and  thou 2  wast  not  with  them 
when  they  threw  their  reeds  (to  see)  which  of 
them  should  rear  Mary :  and  thou 2  wast  not  with 
them  when  they  disagreed.  When  the  angels  said, 
'  O  Mary,  verily  God  giveth  thee  good  tidings  of 
a  Word  from  Himself,  whose  name  is  the  Messiah, 
Jesus  Son  of  Mary,  illustrious  in  the  world  and  in 
the  hereafter,  and  from  among  those  who  draw 

1  A  reference  to  the  Law  which  prohibited  any  but  the  High 
Priest  from  entering  the  Holy  of  Holies. 
'  i.e.  Muhammad. 


154  THE    INFLUENCE    OF    CHRISTIANITY    AND 


near  (to  God) :  and  He  shall  speak  to  men  in  the 
cradle  and  when  grown  up,  and  He  is  of  the  Just 
ones/  she  said,  'My  Lord,  whence  shall  I  have 
a  child,  since  no  human  being  hath  touched  me  ? ' 
He  said,  'Thus  God  createth  what  He  willeth: 
when  He  hath  decreed  a  matter,  then  indeed  He 
saith  to  it,  Be ! — therefore  it  exists/  " 

In  reference  to  what  is  said  in  these  verses  about 
"  casting  reeds "  or  pens,  Baidawi  and  Jalalu'ddin 
state  that  Zacharias  and  twenty-six  other  priests 
were  rivals  to  one  another  in  their  desire  to  be 
Mary's  guardian.  They  therefore  went  to  the 
bank  of  the  Jordan  and  threw  their  reeds  into 
the  water;  but  all  the  reeds  sank  except  that  of 
Zacharias,  and  on  this  account  the  latter  was 
appointed  her  guardian. 

Turning  to  Surah  XIX.,  Maryam,  16-35,  we 
find  there  the  following  narrative  of  the  birth  of 
Christ : 

"And  in  the  Book 1  do  thou  2  mention  Mary,  when 
she  retired  from  her  family  to  an  Eastern  place. 
Then  apart  from  them  she  assumed  a  veil.  Then 
We  sent  unto  her  Our  Spirit3:  accordingly  he 
showed  himself  to  her  as  a  well-formed  human 
being.  She  said,  'Verily  I  take  refuge  in  the 
Merciful  One  from  thee,  if  thou  art  God-fearing/ 
He  said, '  Truly  I  am  a  messenger  of  thy  Lord  that 

1  i.  e.  the  Qur'an  (commentators).        J  t.  e.  Muhammad. 
8  The  angel  Gabriel,  who  is  hence  called  the  Holy  Spirit"  by 
Muslims. 


CHRISTIAN    APOCRYPHAL    BOOKS.  155 

I  should  give  to  thee  a  pure  man-child.'  She  said, 
'  Whence  shall  I  have  a  man-child,  since  no  human 
being  hath  touched  me,  and  I  am  not  rebellious l  ?  ' 
He  said,  '  Thus  hath  thy  Lord  said,  It  is  easy  for 
Me,  and  let  Us  make  Him  a  sign  unto  men  and  a 
mercy  from  us,  and  it  is  a  thing  decided/  Accordingly 
she  conceived  Him 2 :  then  she  retired  with  him  to  a 
distant  place.  Then  labour-pains  brought  her  to  the 
trunk  of  the  palm-tree  3.  She  said, '  O  would  that  I 
had  died  ere  this  and  had  become  forgotten,  for 
gotten  ! '  Thereupon  he  4  called  aloud  to  her  from 
beneath  her:  'Grieve  thou  not;  thy  Lord  hath 
made  a  brook  beneath  thee.  And  do  thou  shake 
towards  thyself  the  trunk  of  the  palm-tree:  it 
shall  let  fall  upon  thee  freshly-gathered  dates.  Eat 
therefore  and  drink  and  brighten  thy  eye 5 ;  then, 
if  thou  seest  any  human  being,  then  say,  Verily 
I  have  vowed  unto  my  Lord  a  fast,  therefore  I  shall 
surely  not  speak  to  any  man  to-day.'  Accordingly 
she  brought  Him6  to  her  people,  carrying  Him. 
They  said,  '  O  Mary,  truly  thou  hast  done  a  vile 
thing.  O  sister  of  Aaron,  thy  father  was  not  a  man 
of  wickedness,  and  thy  mother  was  not  rebellious  V 
Then  she  made  a  sign  unto  Him6.  They  said, 

1  Or,  unchaste.  a  Jesus. 

8  Note  the  definite  article. 

4  Commentators  are  doubtful  whether  this  is  Jesus  or  Gabriel. 

5  That  is,  "Rejoice."     The  birth  of  a  boy  is  still  said  to  be 
a  "brightening  of  the  eyes"  in  the  East,  and  congratulations 
are  expressed  by  the  formula  in  the  text. 

8  The  Child.  '  Or,  unchaste. 


156  THE    INFLUENCE    OF    CHRISTIANITY    AND 

1  How  shall  we  speak  to  one  who  is  a  child  in  the 
cradle?'  He1  said,  'Verily  I  am  God's  servant: 
He  hath  brought  Me  the  Book  2  and  hath  made  Me 
a  Prophet.  And  He  hath  made  Me  blessed  where- 
ever  I  am,  and  hath  prescribed  for  Me  prayer  and 
alms,  as  long  as  I  live,  and  to  be  well-behaved  to  My 
mother,  and  He  hath  not  made  Me  violent,  wretched. 
And  peace  upon  Me  the  day  I  was  born,  and  the 
day  I  shall  die,  and  the  day  I  shall  be  raised  up 
alive.'  That  is  Jesus,  Son  of  Mary;  a  statement 
of  the  truth,  concerning  which  they  doubt." 

We  can  trace  every  single  matter  here  mentioned 
to  some  apocryphal  source,  as  will  be  evident  from 
the  passages  which  we  now  proceed  to  adduce. 

In  the  Protevangelium  of  James  the  Less3,  in 
reference  to  Mary's  birth,  we  read : 

"  And  having  gazed  fixedly  into  the  sky  Anna  4 
saw  a  nest  of  sparrows  in  the  bay-tree,  and  she 
made  lamentation  in  herself,  saying,  '  Woe  is  me ! 
woe  is  me!  who  hath  begotten  me?  ...  Woe  is 
me !  to  what  am  I  likened  ?  I  am  not  likened  to 
the  birds  of  the  air,  for  even  the  birds  of  the  air 
are  productive  in  thy  sight,  O  Lord/ .  .  .  And  lo ! 
an  angel  of  the  Lord  stood  by,  saying  unto  her, 
'  Anna !  Anna  !  the  Lord  God  hath  hearkened  unto 
thy  petition;  thou  shalt  conceive  and  shalt  bear, 

1  Jesus.  2  The  Gospel. 

3  Protevangelium  lacobi  Minoris,  capp.  3,  4,  5. 

4  So  in  Muhammadan  Tradition,  as  we  have  seen,  Mary's 
mother  is  named  Hanna. 


CHRISTIAN    APOCRYPHAL    BOOKS.  157 

and  thy  seed  shall  be  spoken  of  in  all  the  world.' 
But  Anna  said,  '  As  the  Lord  my  God  liveth,  if  I 
bear  either  male  or  female,  I  shall  offer  it  as  a  gift 
unto  the  Lord  my  God,  and  it  shall  continue  to  do 
Him  service  all  the  days  of  its  life.' .  .  .  But  her 
months  were  fulfilled,  and  in  the  ninth  month 
Anna  brought  forth.  .  .  .  And  she  gave  breast  to 
the  child  and  called  her  Mary." 

The  tale  then  proceeds  to  tell  how,  when  the 
child  was  old  enough  to  leave  her  mother,  she  was 
taken  to  the  Temple  at  Jerusalem  by  Anna,  accord 
ing  to  her  vow.  It  then  continues : — 

"  The l  priest  accepted  her  and  kissed  and  blessed 
her  and  said, '  The  Lord  God  hath  magnified  thy 
name  amid  all  the  generations  of  the  earth  :  upon 
thee  at  the  end  of  the  days  shall  the  Lord  God 
manifest  the  redemption  of  the  Children  of  Israel.' 
.  .  .  But  Mary  was  like  a  dove  reared  in  the  Lord's 
shrine  (h  r$  raw  Kvpi'ou),  and  she  was  wont  to 
receive  food  from  an  angel's  hand.  But  when  she 
became  twelve  years  of  age,  there  was  held  a 
council  of  the  priests,  who  said,  'Lo!  Mary  hath 
become  twelve  years  old  in  the  shrine  of  the  Lord, 
what  therefore  are  we  to  do  with  her  ? ' .  .  .  And 
lo!  an  angel  of  the  Lord  stood  by  him,  saying, 
'Zacharias!  Zaeharias !  go  forth  and  call  together 
the  widowers  of  the  people,  and  let  them  bring 
each  a  rod,  and  to  whomsoever  the  Lord  God  shall 
show  a  sign,  his  wife  shall  she  be.'  And  the  heralds 

1  Op.  cit.j  capp.  7.  8,  9,  it. 


158         THE    INFLUENCE    OF    CHRISTIANITY    AND 

went  forth  throughout  all  the  coast  of  Judaea,  and 
the  trumpet  of  the  Lord  sounded,  and  they  all  ran. 
But  Joseph,  casting  away  his  adze,  himself  ran  also 
into  the  synagogue :  and  having  been  assembled 
they  went  away  unto  the  priest.  And  the  priest 
took  the  rods  of  all,  and  went  into  the  Temple  and 
prayed.  But  having  ended  his  prayer  he  caine 
forth  and  gave  to  each  one  his  rod,  and  there  was 
no  sign  in  them.  But  Joseph  received  the  last  rod. 
And  lo !  a  dove  came  forth  from  the  rod  and  flew 
up  upon  Joseph's  head.  And  the  priest  said  unto 
him,  '  Thou  hast  obtained  by  lot  to  receive  the 
virgin  of  the  Lord:  receive  her  unto  thyself  to 
guard.' .  .  .  And  Joseph,  being  affrighted,  received 
her  to  guard.  .  .  .  But  Mary,  having  taken  a 
pitcher,  went  out  to  fill  it  with  water.  And  lo! 
a  voice,  saying,  '  Hail,  O  highly  favoured !  the 
Lord  is  with  thee :  blessed  art  thou  among  women.' 
And  she  looked  around  to  right  and  left  [to  see] 
whence  this  voice  came.  And  having  become 
alarmed  she  departed  unto  her  house ;  and  having 
set  down  the  pitcher  .  .  .  she  sat  down  upon  the 
seat.  .  .  .  And  lo !  an  angel  of  the  Lord  stood  by, 
saying  unto  her,  '  Fear  not,  Mary,  for  thou  hast 
found  favour  in  God's  sight,  and  thou  shalt  con 
ceive  from  His  Word  (e/c  \6yov  avrov).'  But  Mary 
having  heard  considered  in  herself,  saying,  '  Shall 
I  conceive  according  as  every  woman  beareth  ? ' 
And  the  angel  saith  unto  her,  'Not  thus,  Mary; 
for  the  power  of  the  Highest  shall  overshadow 


CHRISTIAN     APOCRYPHAL    BOOKS.  159 


thee,  therefore  also  the  holy  thing  that  is  to  be 
born  shall  be  called  Son  of  the  Highest :  and  thou 
shalt  call  His  name  Jesus." 

The  legend  of  Mary's  being  brought  up  in  the 
Temple  is  found  in  many  other  apocryphal  works 
besides  the  one  we  have  here  quoted.  For  example, 
in  the  Coptic  "  History  of  the  Virgin  T  "  we  read:— 

"She  was  nourished  in  the  Temple  like  the 
doves,  and  food  was  brought  to  her  from  the 
heavens  by  the  angels  of  God.  And  she  was  wont 
to  do  service  in  the  Temple;  the  angels  of  God 
used  to  minister  unto  her.  But  they  used  often  to 
bring  her  fruits  also  from  the  Tree  of  Life,  that 
she  might  eat  of  them  with  joy."  And  in  another 
Coptic  work  entitled  the  "  Story  of  the  Decease  of 
Joseph2"  the  following  passage  occurs :— " Mary 
used  to  dwell  in  the  Temple  and  worship  there 
with  holiness,  and  she  grew  up  until  she  became 
twelve  years  old.  In  her  parents'  house  she  abode 
three  years,  and  in  the  Temple  of  the  Lord  nine 
years  more.  Then  the  priests,  when  they  perceived 
that  that  virgin  lived  chastely  and  dwelt  in  the 
fear  of  the  Lord,  spake  to  one  another,  saying,  'Let 
us  seek  out  a  good  man  and  betroth  her  unto  him 
until  the  time  of  the  marriage-feast.  .  .  .  And  they 
forthwith  summoned  the  tribe  of  Judah  and  chose 
out  from  it  twelve  men  according  to  the  names  of 


Coptic  Apocryphal  Oospels,  p.  15:  Frag.  ii.  A:  lines  xo-ia. 
Op.cit.,  capp.  3,  4,  p.  I32- 


160         THE    INFLUENCE    OF    CHRISTIANITY    AND 


the  twelve  tribes  of  Israel.     The  lot  fell  upon  that 
good  old  man,  Joseph." 

Returning  now  to  the  Protevangelium,  we  are 
told  that,  when  the  fact  became  known  that  Mary 
had  conceived,  Joseph  and  she  were  brought  before 
the  priests  for  judgment.  The  story  then  goes 
on:— 

"And  J  the  priest  said,  'Mary,  why  hast  thou 
done  this  and  hast  humbled  thy  soul  ?  Thou  hast 
forgotten  the  Lord  thy  God,  thou  who  wast  brought 
up  in  the  Holy  of  Holies  and  didst  receive  food  at 
an  angel's  hand,  and  didst  hear  the  hymns  . . .  Why 
hast  thou  done  this?'  But  she  wept  bitterly, 
saying,  '  As  the  Lord  God  liveth,  I  am  pure  in  His 
sight,  and  I  know  not  a  man.' " 

Afterwards  we  are  informed  that  Joseph  and 
Mary  went  from  Nazareth  to  Bethlehem.  Failing 
to  find  room  in  the  caravansarai  at  the  latter  place, 
they  went  to  abide  in  a  cave,  and  there  the  Lord 
Jesus  was  born.  The  words  of  the  original,  omit 
ting  as  usual  everything  not  connected  with  our 
present  purpose,  may  be  thus  translated : — 

"  And2  he  found  a  cave  and  led  her  in  ...  But3  I, 


1  Protevangelium  lacobi  Minoris,  cap.  15. 

2  Op.  cit.,  cap.  1 8. 

3  The  scene  here  described  is  not  mentioned  in  the  Qur'an 
itself,    nor  do  Muhammadan  traditions  clearly  record   it  in 
reference  to  the  birth  of  Christ.     It  is  upon  this  description 
that  Milton  dwells  in  his  Ode  "On  the  Morning  of  Christ's 
Nativity": 


CHRISTIAN    APOCRYPHAL    BOOKS.  l6l 


Joseph,  .  . .  looked  up  into  the  heaven  and  saw  the 
vault  of  the  heaven  stationary l  and  the  birds  of  the 
air  trembling.  And  I  looked  upon  the  earth,  and 
saw  a  dish  laid  out  and  workmen  seated  (di/aKet/xe- 
vovs),  and  their  hands  were  in  the  dish,  and  those 
who  were  raising  [the  food  to  their  lips]  did  not 
raise  it,  and  those  who  were  putting  it  into  their 
mouths  did  not  put  it  in,  but  the  faces  of  them  all 
were  looking  upwards.  And  I  saw  sheep  being 
driven,  and  the  sheep  stood  still ;  but  the  shepherd 

"  No  war,  or  battle's  sound 
Was  heard  the  world  around  : 

The  idle  spear  and  shield  were  high  up  hung, 
The  hooked  chariot  stood 
Unstained  with  hostile  blood, 

The  trumpet  spake  not  to  the  armed  throng. 

But  peaceful  was  the  night 
Wherein  the  Prince  of  Light 

His  reign  of  peace  upon  the  earth  began : 


While  birds  of  calm  sit  brooding  on  the  charmed  wave. 
The  stars,  with  deep  amaze, 
Stand  fixed  in  steadfast  gaze.  ..." 

But  something  of  the  same  thing  has  left  its  trace  upon  later 
Muhammadan  legend,  only  in  reference  to  Muhammad's  birth. 
Thus  in  the  EaudatiCl  Aftbdb,  Fatimah,  daughter  of  'Abdu'llah,  is 
reported  as  having  said  :  "  I  was  with  Aminah  "  (Muhammad's 
mother)  "when  the  symptoms  of  her  approaching  confinement 
set  in  :  and,  on  looking  up  to  heaven,  I  saw  the  stars  to  such 
an  extent  incline  towards  the  earth  that  I  thought  they  must 
fall  down."  Or,  according  to  another  account,  "  The  stars  were 
so  near  the  earth  that  I  thought  they  would  fall  upon  my  head." 
(Quoted  by  Dr.  Koelle,  Mohammed  and  Mohammedanism,  p.  257.) 
1  Cf.  Plautus,  Amphitruo,  Act  L,  Sc.  i.,  vv.  115-20. 
L 


162  THE    INFLUENCE    OF    CHRISTIANITY    AND 


raised  [his  crook]  to  smite  them,  and  his  hand 
remained  aloft.  And  I  looked  to  the  torrent  and 
saw  kids,  and  their  mouths  were  applied  to  the 
water  and  not  drinking,  and  all  things  astounded." 

The  incident  of  Mary  and  the  palm-tree  as 
related  above  (Surah  XIX,  Maryam,  23-6)  is 
apparently  taken  from  the  apocryphal  work  en 
titled  "  History  of  the  Nativity  of  Mary  and  the 
Infancy  of  the  Saviour,"  although,  as  we  shall  see. 
we  can  trace  both  accounts  to  a  probably  more 
ancient  source.  In  the  book  to  which  we  have 
just  referred,  the  event  is  connected  with  the  Flight 
into  Egypt.  The  tale  records  how  the  Holy  Family 
started  on  the  journey  and  for  two  days  travelled 
on  quietly.  It  then  continues  :— 

"  But l  on  the  third  day  after  he  had  set  out,  it 
came  to  pass  that  Mary  became  exhausted  in  the 
desert  through  the  excessive  heat  of  the  sun. 
When  therefore  she  saw  a  tree,  she  said  unto 
Joseph,  'Let  us  rest  a  little  while  under  the  shadow 
of  this  tree.'  And  Joseph  hasted  and  brought  her 
to  that  palm-tree,  and  took  her  down  off  her  beast. 
When  Mary  sat  down,  she  looked  up  to  the  top  of 
the  palm-tree,  and  seeing  it  full  of  fruit  said  to 
Joseph,  '  I  desire,  if  it  be  possible,  to  take  of  the 
fruit  of  this  palm-tree.'  And  Joseph  said  unto  her, 
'  I  marvel  that  thou  speakest  thus,  since  thou  seest 
how  high  the  branches  of  this  palm-tree  are.  But 

1  Hist.  Nativitat.  Mariae,  cap.  ao. 


CHRISTIAN    APOCRYPHAL    BOOKS.  163 

I  am  extremely  anxious  about  water,  for  it  has 
uow  been  exhausted  in  our  skin-bottles,  and  we 
have  nowhere  whence  we  can  till  them  and  quench 
our  thirst.'  Then  the  Child  Je.sus,  who  with  a 
joyful  countenance  lay  in  His  mother  the  Virgin 
Mary's  bosom,  said  to  the  palm-tree,  '  O  tree,  lower 
thy  branches  and  refresh  My  mother  with  thy 
fruit.'  Instantly  the  palm-tree  at  this  word  bowed 
its  head  to  the  sole  of  Mary's  feet:  and  they  all 
plucked  the  fruit  which  it  bore,  and  were  refreshed. 
And  afterwards,  when  all  its  fruit  had  been 
plucked,  the  tree  still  remained  bent,  since  it  was 
waiting  to  rise  up  at  the  command  of  Him,  by 
whose  command  it  had  bowed  down.  Then  Jesus 
said  unto  it,  'O  palm-tree,  arise  and  be  of  good 
cheer,  and  be  thou  a  companion  of  My  trees  that 
are  in  My  Father's  Paradise.  But  with  thy  roots 
open  the  spring  that  is  hidden  in  the  ground,  and 
let  water  flow  forth  from  that  spring  to  quench 
our  thirst.'  And  the  palm-tree  instantly  stood 
erect,  and  streams  of  very  clear,  cool,  and  very 
sweet  water  began  to  come  forth  from  amid  its 
roots.  And  when  they  beheld  those  streams  of 
water,  they  rejoiced  with  exceeding  great  joy ;  and 
they  with  all  their  quadrupeds  and  attendants 
were  satisfied  and  thanked  God." 

Instead   of   connecting   the   palm-tree   and   the 

stream    that    flowed    from    beneath    it    with   the 

account  of  the  Flight  into  Egypt,  the  Qur'an,  as 

we  have  seen,  connects  them  very  closely  with  the 

L  2 


164  THE    INFLUENCE    OF    CHRISTIANITY    AND 

birth  of  Christ,  representing  Him  as  having  been 
born  at  the  foot  of  the  tree,  and  at  that  moment 
(according  to  one  explanation)  directing  the  tree  to 
let  its  fruit  fall  for  Mary  to  eat,  and  telling  her  of 
the  flowing  streamlet.  From  its  accordance  with 
this  apocryphal  Gospel  in  this  respect,  it  is  evident 
that  this  explanation  of  the  words  of  the  Qur'an  is 
more  likely  to  be  correct  than  the  gloss  which 
attributes  the  speech  to  Gabriel. 

But  we  have  now  to  inquire  from  what  source 
the  Qur'an  borrowed  the  idea  that  Christ  was 
born  at  the  foot  of  a  tree:  and  also  what  is  the 
origin  of  the  legend  that  the  tree  bowed  down  to 
let  the  mother  and  Child  eat  of  its  fruit.  It  is 
hardly  necessary  to  say  that  for  neither  the  one 
statement  nor  the  other  is  there  the  very  slightest 
foundation  in  the  Canonical  Gospels. 

The  source  of  both  incidents  is  found  in  the 
books  of  the  Buddhist  Pali  Canon,  which,  as  we 
are  informed  in  the  Mahd-  Vamso,  was  reduced  to 
writing  in  the  reign  of  King  Vattagamani  of 
Ceylon,  probably  about  80  B.  c.  at  latest 1.  But  it 
is  very  possible  that  very  considerable  parts  of 
these  Pali  books  were  composed  several  hundred 
years  earlier.  The  legends  contained  in  them 
were,  in  later  but  still  very  early  times,  widely 
spread,  not  only  in  India  and  Ceylon  but  also  in 
Central  Asia,  China,  Tibet,  and  other  lands.  Bud 
dhist  missionaries  are  mentioned  in  Yesht  XIII.,  16, 

1  Vide  The  Noble  Eightfold  Path,  pp.  69,  70. 


CHRISTIAN    APOCRYPHAL    BOOKS.  165 

as  having  appeared  in  Persia  as  early  as  the  second 
century  before  Christ.  The  influence  which  Buddh 
ism  exercised  on  thought  throughout  Western,  as 
well  as  Central,  Eastern  and  Southern,  Asia  was 
immense.  Manichaism,  Gnosticism  and  other  here 
sies  were  largely  due  to  this,  as  was  the  rise  of 
Monasticism ].  Several  passages  in  the  apocry 
phal  Gospels  show  that  ideas  of  Buddhist  origin 
had  gained  access  to  the  minds  of  the  writers  of 
these  spurious  works,  though  doubtless  these  men 
were  quite  unaware  of  the  real  source  of  their 
inspiration.  It  was  easy  for  Muhammad  therefore 
to  be  misled  in  the  same  way ;  and  we  can  point 
to  the  very  passages  in  the  Pali  books  which 
represent  the  earliest  known  form  of  the  legends 
about  the  tree. 

One  of  these  occurs  in  the  Niddnakathd  Jdtakam 
(cap.  i.,  pp.  50-3).  There  we  are  told  that  when 
Maya,  who  was  to  be  the  mother  of  Gotamo 
Buddha,  was  with  child  and  knew  that  her  time 
was  at  hand,  she  obtained  her  husband  Suddho- 
dano's  permission  to  return  to  her  father's  house  to 
be  delivered,  according  to  the  custom  of  the 
country.  On  the  journey  she  and  her  handmaidens 
entered  a  beautiful  forest,  and  Princess  Maya 
greatly  admired  the  abundant  flowers  which  she 
saw  on  some  of  the  trees.  In  the  words  of  the 
passage  to  which  we  refer,  the  account  of  what 
then  took  place  runs  thus : — 

1  Op.  cit.,  pp.  196  sqq. 


166  THE    INFLUENCE    OF    CHRISTIANITY    AND 

"  She 1,  having  gone  to  the  foot  of  a  well-omened 
Sdl-iree,  became  desirous  of  grasping  a  branch  of  the 
Sal-tree.  The  Sal-tree  branch,  having  bent  down 
like  the  end  of  a  stick  well  softened  with  steam, 
came  within  the  reach  of  the  princess's  hand.  She, 

having  stretched  out  her  hand,  seized  the  branch 

Childbirth  came  upon  her  just  as  she  stood,  grasp 
ing  the  branch  of  the  Sal-tree." 

The  differences  between  this  and  the  account  of 
Christ's  birth  as  related  in  the  passage  in  the 
Qur'an  which  we  have  quoted  above  are  but  slight. 
Muhammad  mentions  a  palm-tree,  the  best-known 
of  all  trees  to  an  Arab,  in  place  of  the  species  of 
flowering  tree  mentioned  in  the  Buddhist  book, 
since  the  Sal-tree  of  India  does  not  grow  in  Arabia. 
Doubtless  the  legend  had  changed  in  this  way  in 
its  transmission,  as  is  generally  the  case  in  similar 
tales.  The  Indian  legend  intimates  that  the  exer 
tion  made  by  Buddha's  mother  in  reaching  after 
the  flowers  growing  on  the  branch  above  her  head 
brought  on  the  child's  birth  unexpectedly.  The 
Qur'an  seems  to  give  no  such  good  reason  at  all  for 
the  birth  occurring  below  the  palm-tree.  But  the 
stories  are  evidently  one  and  the  same.  We  notice 
here,  as  in  the  Qur'an,  that  the  tree  bent  down  its 


1  "  Sa  mangalasalamulam  gantva  salasakhayam  ganhitukama 
ahosi.  Salasakha  suseditavettagam  viya  onamitva  deviya  hattha- 
patham  upaganchi.  Sa  hattham  pasaretva  sakham  aggahesi. . . . 
Salasakham  gahetva  titthamanaya  eva  c'  assa  gabbhavutthanam 

ahosi." 


CHRISTIAN    APOCRYPHAL    BOOKS.  167 

branches  to  let  Maya  pluck  the  flowers,— or,  as  the 
Quran  has  it,  let  its  ripe  dates  fall  upon  Mary. 

The  other  account  of  this  latter  incident,— that 
given  in  the  apocryphal  Gospel,— is  connected 
with  the  Flight  into  Egypt,  when  our  Lord  was 
an  infant.  This  is  parallel  with  what  we  read  in 
the  Cariya-Pitakam  (cap.  i.,  poem  ix.l  There  we 
are  informed  that  in  a  former  birth  Buddha  was  a 
prince  called  Vessantaro.  Having  offended  his 
people,  he  was  banished  from  his  kingdom,  along 
with  his  wife  and  two  little  children.  As  they 
wandered  towards  the  distant  mountains,  where 
they  wished  to  tind  an  asylum,  the  children 
became  hungry.  Then,  the  Buddhist  narrative 
tells  us : — 

"  If l  the  children  see  fruit-bearing  trees  on  the 
mountain-side,  the  children  weep  for  their  fruit, 
Having  seen  the  children  weeping,  the  great,  lofty 

1  Verses  34,  35  :— 

"Yadi  passanti  pavane  darika  phalite  dume, 
tesam  phalanam  hetumhi  uparodanti  darika. 
Rodante  darike  disva  ubbidha  vipula  duma, 
Sayam  ev'  onamitvana  upagacchanti  darike." 
The  story  of  Buddha's  birth  under  a  tree  is  also  found  in  the 
Romantic  History  of  Buddha,  translated  by  Beal  from  the  Chinese 
Sanskrit  (p.  43),  and  also  in  the  Phu-yau-king  (ibid.,  p.  347). 

The  fancy  that  Mary  was  brought  up  in  the  Temple  is,  of 
course,  along  with  the  name  of  her  mother  Anna  (Hannah), 
derived  from  the  account  of  Samuel's  dedication  by  his  mother 
Hannah.  But  it  is  an  evidence  of  great  ignorance  to  imagine 
the  same  thing  possible  in  the  case  of  a  girl,  and  still  more  so 
to  say,  as  the  apocryphal  books  do,  that  Mary  was  brought  up 
in  the  Holy  of  Holies  1 


1 68  THE    INFLUENCE    OF    CHRISTIANITY    AND 

trees,    having    even    of  themselves   bowed   down, 
approach  the  children." 

It  is  clear  that  both  the  Qur'an  and  the  author 
of  the  apocryphal  "History  of  the  Nativity  of 
Mary"  have  unconsciously  borrowed  from  Buddhist 
sources  these  particular  incidents.  This  fact  of 
course  disproves  the  truth  of  the  narrative. 

Were  proof  required  to  show  that,  even  as  late  as 
Muhammad's  time,  Buddhist  legends  were  prevalent 
in  Western  Asia  and  were  accepted  as  Christian 
history,  it  would  be  afforded  by  the  existence  of 
the  tale  of  "  Barlaam  and  Josaphat."  This  legend 
was  written  in  Greek  in  the  sixth  century  of  the 
Christian  era,  as  some  hold,  though  it  is  more 
generally  attributed  to  Johannes  Damascenus,  who 
flourished  at  the  court  of  the  Khalifah  Al  Mansur 
(A.D.  753-74).  Josaphat,  the  Christian  prince  of 
the  book,  is  undoubtedly  Buddha  himself,  and  his 
name  is  a  corruption  of  Bodhimttva,  one  of 
Buddha's  many  titles.  The  main  source  of  the 
tale  is  the  Sanskrit  legendary  story  of  Buddha 
known  as  the  Lalita  Vistara.  Yet  Josaphat  is  a 
saint  in  both  the  Greek  and  the  Roman  Churches, 
in  the  former  of  which  August  2,6  is  sacred  to 
him,  in  the  latter  November  27. 

3.     Story  of  the  Childhood  of  Jesus. 
In  what  has  been  already  related  we  have  learnt 
something  of   what  the   Qur'an   teaches    on   this 
subject.     But  we  must  now  deal  with  the  matter 
more  at  length. 


CHRISTIAN    APOCRYPHAL    BOOKS.  169 

In  Surah  III,  Al  'Imran,  41,  43>  we  are  in~ 
formed  that  before  Christ's  birth  the  Angel  said 
of  Him:— "And  He  shall  speak  to  men  in  the 
cradle"  .  .  .  And  in  Surah  XIX.,  Maryam,  29-31, 
as  we  have  already  seen,  we  are  informed  that, 
when  the  Virgin  Mary's  people  reproached  her, 
she  made  a  sign  towards  the  Child,  implying  that 
they  should  ask  Him  of  His  origin.  They  said  in 
surprise,  "How  shall  we  talk  with  one  who  is  a 
child  in  the  cradle  ?  "  Then  the  Child  Jesus  spoke 
to  them,  saying,  "  Verily  I  am  God's  Servant :  He 
hath  brought  Me  the  Book  and  made  Me  a 
Prophet." 

The  origin  of  this  legend  is  not  far  to  seek.  We 
have  already  seen  that  one  of  the  apocryphal 
Gospels  represents  Christ,  when  on  His  journey 
to  Egypt  in  His  infancy,  as  addressing  the  palm- 
tree  and  bidding  it  bow  down  and  permit  His 
Mother  to  pluck  its  fruit.  But  probably  the  source 
from  which  Muhammad  borrowed  the  incident  is 
the  JnjUu  't  Tvfuliyyak,  better  known  as  the  Arabic 
Gospel  of  the  Infancy.  In  the  first  chapter  of  that 
work  we  read : — 

"  We  have  found  it  recorded  in  the  book  of 
Josephus  the  Chief  Priest,  who  was  in  the  time 
of  Christ  (and  men  say  that  he  was  Caiaphas), 
that  this  man  said  that  Jesus  spake  when  He  was 
in  the  cradle,  and  said  to  Mary  His  Mother,  'Verily 
I  am  Jesus,  the  Son  of  God,  the  Word  which  thou 
hast  borne,  according  as  the  angel  Gabriel  gave 


1 70  THE    INFLUENCE    OF    CHRISTIANITY    AND 

thee  the  good  news ;  and  My  Father  hath  sent  Me 
for  the  salvation  of  the  world.' " 

Of  course  Muhammad  could  not  represent  Christ 
as  using  the  words  which  this  apocryphal  Gospel 
attributes  to  Him,  for  in  the  Qur'an  the  Divine 
Sonship  of  Christ  is  everywhere  denied.  There 
fore,  while  believing  and  stating  that  Jesus  spoke 
when  an  infant  in  the  cradle,  Muhammad  in  his 
account  has  put  into  His  mouth  words  which  seemed 
to  him  more  suitable  and  more  consonant  with 
Islam.  Otherwise  the  story  is  the  same. 

The  style  of  the  Arabic  of  this  apocryphal 
Gospel,  however,  is  so  bad  that  it  is  hardly  possible 
to  believe  that  it  dates  from  Muhammad's  time. 
As,  however,  Arabic  has  never  been  supposed  to 
be  the  language  in  which  the  work  was  composed, 
this  is  a  matter  of  little  or  no  consequence.  From 
a  study  of  the  book  there  seems  little  room  for 
doubt  that  it  has  been  translated  into  Arabic  from 
the  Coptic,  in  which  language  it  may  have  been 
composed.  This  explains  in  what  way  Muhammad 
most  probably  became  acquainted  with  the  legend. 
For  it  is  a  well-known  fact  that  the  Christian 
governor  of  Egypt  sent  him  a  present  of  two 
Coptic  girls,  one  of  whom,  "Mary  the  Copt," 
became  one  of  his  favourite  concubines.  This  girl, 
though  not  well  acquainted  with  the  Gospel,  must 
doubtless  have  known  so  popular  a  legend  as  that 
contained  in  the  "  Gospel  of  the  Infancy  "  at  that 
time  was.  Muhammad  probably  learnt  the  tale 


CHRISTIAN    APOCRYPHAL    BOOKS.  1 71 

from  her,  and,  fancying  it  to  be  contained  in  the 
Gospels  universally  accepted  by  Christians  as  of 
Divine  authority,  he  on  that  account  incorporated 
it  into  the  Quran.     Of  course  it  is  possible  that  he 
had   others   besides   Mary   who   told    him   Coptic 
legends,  but,  whoever  his  informant  or  informants 
may  have  been,  it  is  clear  that  the  source  of  the 
story  of  the  miracle  is  the  one  we  have  mentioned. 
Now  the  Arabic  "  Gospel  of  the  Infancy  "  is  one 
of  a  number  of  apocryphal  works  of  late  or  of 
uncertain  date,  which  were  never  by  any  Christian 
sect  regarded  as  inspired.      Others   of   the   same 
class  which  have  left  their  mark  upon  the  Quran 
are   the   "Gospel    of    Thomas   the   Israelite,"   the 
"  Protevangelium  of  James,"  the  "  Gospel  of  Nico- 
demus"  (otherwise  called  the  "  Gesta  Pilati"),  and 
the  "  Narrative  of  Joseph  of  Arimathaea."   Muham 
mad,  as  has  been  already  observed,  seems  to  have 
had    a    peculiar    gift    for    discovering    unreliable 
sources  of  information,  for  he  never  appears   to 
quote  one  which  is  merely  of  doubtful  authority. 
These  books  and  others  like  them,  though  very 
popular  among  ignorant  Christians  then  and  even 
in   later  times,  can  hardly  be  said   to  have  been 
intended  to  impose  on  any  one,  they  are  so  mani 
festly  religious  romances.    They  dealt  with  matters 
concerning  which  much  curiosity  was  very  naturally 
felt,  and  were  therefore  welcomed  by  men  who  did 
not  care  to  inquire  whether  what  they  read  was 
true  or  false.    They  were  quite  contented  to  believe 


172          THE    INFLUENCE    OF    CHRISTIANITY    AND 


that  these  stories  were  old  traditions   and  dealt 
with  subjects  on  which  the  canonical  books  gave 
little  or  no  information.     No  doubt  some  persons 
gave  credit  to  these  legends,  but  no  man  of  any 
learning  can  be  mentioned  who  did  so  in  the  case 
of  any  one  of  the  books  we  have  named.     They 
were  not  even  deemed  of  sufficient  importance  to 
be   included    among   the   Antilegomena.      Some   of 
them  may  have  been  reconstructed  on  the  basis 
of  earlier  works  that  have  perished,  though  with 
the   addition   of   many   fabulous    elements.      But 
whether  this  be  so  or  not,  they  are  sometimes  found 
to  incorporate  legends  of  considerable  antiquity,  if 
of  no  authority.     We  have  seen  instances  in  which 
certain  stories  can  be  traced  to  very  ancient  Bud 
dhist  fables.     The  tale  of  Jesus  speaking  to  men 
when   He   was   still    an   infant   in   the   cradle   is 
another    example   of    somewhat    the    same   kind, 
though  it  cannot  be  traced  back  to  the  Pali  Canon. 
The  same  tale   is  told   of   Buddha   in  the  Lalita 
Vistara,    in     the     Buddha-Carita  1f    and    in    other 
Sanskrit  works.     In  the  "  Romantic  Legend  2*"  we 
are  gravely  informed  that,  as  soon  as  he  was  born, 
Buddha  "forthwith   walked  seven  steps   towards 
each  quarter  of  the  horizon;  and,  as  he  walked,  at 
each  step  there  sprang  from  the  earth  beneath  his 
feet  a  lotus  flower;  and,  as  he  looked  steadfastly 
in  each  direction,  his  mouth  uttered  these  words, 

1  Book  I.  §  34,  ed.  Cowell. 

2  Beal,  Rom.  Legend,  p.  44. 


CHRISTIAN    APOCRYPHAL    BOOKS.  1 73 


.  .  .  '  In  all  the  world  I  am  the  very  chief.' "  In 
another1  Chinese  Sanskrit  work  the  same  story 
is  told,  with  this  difference  that  Buddha's  words 
are  there  said  to  have  been,  "  This  birth  is  in  the 
condition  of  a  Buddha:  after  this  I  have  done 
with  renewed  birth:  now  only  am  I  born  this 
once,/0;4  the  purpose  of  saving  all  the  world"  It  will 
be  noticed  that,  making  allowance  for  the  difference 
between  the  non-theistic  Buddhist  system  and  the 
Christian  one,  this  last  quotation  bears  a  consider 
able  resemblance  to  the  words  attributed  to  the 
infant  Christ  in  our  quotation  from  the  Arabic 
"Gospel  of  the  Infancy":  in  fact  the  concluding 
words  of  the  latter  are  almost  a  verbal  translation 
of  the  former  2. 

The  supposed  fact  that  our  Lord  spoke  in  His 

1  Bcal's  version  of  the  Fo-sho-hing-tsan-king  (pp.  3,  4). 

2  In   the  Zamyad   Yesht  of  the   Zoroastrians  a  somewhat 
similar  account  of  speaking  at  birth  is  mentioned  in  connexion 
with  the  monster  Snavidhka,  who  when  still  very  young  said : 
*  I  am  still  an  infant,  and  I  am  not  yet  grown  up  :  if  I  ever 
do  grow  up  I  shall  make  the  earth  a  wheel,  I  shall  make  the 
heavens  a  chariot  :  I  shall  bring  down  the  Good  Spirit  from 
the  bright  Garo-nmanem "  [the  highest  heaven,  the  abode  of 
Ahuro   Mazdao,    corresponding   to   the   Muhammadan   'Arsh]  : 
"  I  shall  cause  the  Evil  Spirit  to  rush  up  from  miserable  hell. 
They  will  bear  my  chariot,  both  the  Good  Spirit  and  the  Evil 
Spirit,  unless  the  manly-hearted   Keresaspa   slay  me."    The 
mention  of  the  "wheel"  and  the  "chariot"  in  this  passage 
distinctly  indicates  Buddhist  influence  in  Persia,  and  reminds 
us  of  how  Buddha  was  said  to  have  a  turned  the  wheel  of  the 
Law,"  implying  his  claim  to  universal  dominion.     Hence  the 
idea  of  the  infant  speaking  at  birth  also  is  seen  to  be  not  an 
original  Zoroastrian  but  a  Buddhist  legend. 


I?4  THE    INFLUENCE    OF    CHRISTIANITY    AND 


cradle  is  also  asserted  in  the  following  passage 
from  Surah  V.,  Al  Maidah,  109,  no,  together  with 
other  matters  which  we  shall  now  consider.  For 
convenience'  sake  we  quote  both  verses  in  full  :— 

"When  God  said,  '0  Jesus,  Son  of  Mary,  re 
member  My  favour  towards  Thee  and  towards  Thy 
mother,  when  I  strengthened  Thee  with  the  Holy 
Spirit;  Thou  dost  speak  unto  men  in  the  cradle 
and  as  an  adult:  and  when  I  taught  Thee  the 
Book  and  wisdom  and  the  Law  and  the  Gospel; 
and  when  Thou  dost  create  from  clay  as  it  were 
the  figure  of  a  bird  by  My  permission,  then  Thou 
dost  breathe  into  it,  thereupon  it  becometh  a  bird 
by  My  permission;  and  Thou  dost  cleanse  the 
blind  and  the  leper  by  My  permission ;  and  when 
Thou  dost  bring  forth  the  dead  by  My  permission ; 
and  when  I  restrained  the  Children  of  Israel  from 
Thee,  when  Thou  didst  come  to  them  with  the 
evident  signs:  therefore  those  of  them  who  dis 
believed  said,  This  is  nothing  except  evident 
magic.' " 

What  is  here  related  of  our  Lord's  miracles  of 
healing  the  blind,  cleansing  the  leper  and  raising 
the  dead,  may  be  derived  indirectly  from  the  four 
canonical  Gospels,  though  similar  events  are  not 
excluded — as  they  could  not  well  be — from  the 
apocryphal  Gospels.  But  the  point  of  importance 
for  our  present  purpose  is  what  is  said  about  His 
creating  a  bird  out  of  clay  and  giving  it  life.  This 
incident  is  derived  from  the  apocryphal  "Gospel 


.CHRISTIAN    APOCRYPHAL    BOOKS.  175 


of  Thomas  the  Israelite,"  in  the  second  chapter  of 
which  we  read : — 

"  This  child,  Jesus,  having  become  five  years  old, 
was  playing  at  the  crossing  of  a  brook,  and  He 
had  collected  together  into  pools  the  running 
waters  and  was  making  them  clean  forthwith, 
and  with  a  single  word  did  He  command  them. 
And  having  made  some  clay  fine,  He  formed  out 
of  it  twelve  sparrows.  And  it  was  the  Sabbath 
when  He  did  these  things.  There  were,  however, 
many  other  children  also  playing  with  Him.  But 
a  certain  Jew,  having  seen  what  Jesus  was  doing, 
that  He  was  playing  on  the  Sabbath  day,  went 
away  immediately  and  told  His  father  Joseph, 
'  Lo !  thy  child  is  at  the  brook,  and  having  taken 
clay  He  hath  formed  twelve  little  birds  out  of  it, 
and  He  hath  profaned  the  Sabbath/  And  Joseph, 
having  come  to  the  spot  and  having  seen,  cried 
out  to  Him,  saying,  'Why  dost  Thou  on  the 
Sabbath  do  these  things  which  it  is  not  lawful 
to  do1?'  But  Jesus,  having  clapped  His  hands 
together,  cried  out  to  the  sparrows  and  said  to 
them,  'Go!'  And  the  sparrows,  having  taken 
flight,  departed  twittering.  But  the  Jews,  having 
seen  this,  were  astounded ;  and  having  gone  away 
they  related  to  their  chief  men  what  they  saw 
that  Jesus  did." 

It  is  worthy  of  note  that  the  whole  of  this  fable 
occurs  twice  over  in  the  Arabic  "Gospel  of  the 
Infancy,"  in  chapter  xxxvi,  and  again  in  another 


176  THE    INFLUENCE    OF    CHRISTIANITY    AND 


form  in  chapter  xlvi.  The  reason  of  this  is  that 
the  latter  part  of  the  book  is  taken  from  the 
"  Gospel  of  Thomas  the  Israelite." 

We  notice  here  again  that,  while  the  legend 
is  evidently  the  same  as  that  briefly  referred  to 
in  the  Qur'an,  yet  the  difference  is  sufficient  to 
prove  that  Muhammad  was  reproducing  a  shortened 
form  of  it  from  memory,  and  was  not  consulting 
any  written  document.  Hence  he  mentions  only 
one  bird  instead  of  twelve,  and  speaks  of  life  being 
given  to  it  by  the  breath  of  Jesus  and  not  by  a 
command  of  His.  The  brief  reference  made  to 
the  tale  in  the  Qur'an  shows  that  the  story  had 
obtained  wide  currency  and  was  generally  believed 
at  the  time.  This  again  proves  how  little  know 
ledge  of  the  New  Testament  there  then  was  in 
Medina;  for  not  only  are  no  such  accounts  of 
miracles  performed  by  our  Saviour  in  His  child 
hood  recorded  in  the  canonical  Gospels,  but  John 
ii.  ii  shows  that  none  were  wrought  until  after 
His  Baptism  at  the  age  of  about  thirty. 

4.  Story  of  the  Table. 

This  supposed  miracle  of  Christ  is  related  in 
Surah  V.,  Al  Maidah,  112-15,  and  gives  its  name1 
to  that  Surah.  Translated  as  literally  as  possible, 
the  tale  runs  thus : — 

"When  the   Apostles2  said,  '0  Jesus,  Son  of 

1  Maidah  means  a  table  provided  with  food. 

3  The  word  used  here  ((j)\j*-)  i»  always  applied  to  the 


CHRISTIAN    APOCRYPHAL    BOOKS.  177 


Mary,  can  Thy  Lord  cause  a  Table  to  descend  upon 
us  from  the  heaven  ? '  He  said,  "  Fear  ye  God,  if 
ye  be  believers.'  They  said,  '  We  desire  to  eat 
from  it  and  that  our  hearts  be  confirmed,  and  that 
we  may  know  that  Thou  hast  told  us  truth  and 
may  be  witnesses  unto  it  V  Jesus,  Son  of  Mary, 
said,  'O  God,  our  Lord,  cause  a  table  to  descend 
unto  us  from  the  heaven  which  shall  be  a  festival 2 
unto  us,  to  the  first  of  us  and  to  the  last  of  us 2, 
and  a  sign  from  Thee,  and  feed  Thou  us:  and 
Thou  art  the  best  of  feeders.'  God  said,  '  Verily 
I  cause  it  to  descend  unto  you  :  but  whosoever 
among  you  thereafter  shall  disbelieve,  I  shall 
assuredly  punish  him  with  a  punishment  where 
with  I  shall  not  punish  any  other  creature.'" 

Unless  there  be  some  ^Ethiopian  legend  on  the 
subject  which  the  early  Muslim  refugees  had 
brought  back  with  them  from  that  country,  we 
must  trace  this  myth  to  a  misunderstanding  of 
certain  passages  in  the  New  Testament.  If  there 
be  some  such  legend  found  elsewhere,  which  we 
have  not  traced,  it  must  have  had  the  same  ultimate 
source.  One  of  the  New  Testament  passages  which 
doubtless  helped  to  give  rise  to  it  is  the  verse 

Apostles  of  Christ  exclusively.  It  is  an  ^Ethiopic  word.  Does 
this  show  any  connexion  between  the  fable  and  some  legend 
current  in  Ethiopia,  whither  Muhammad's  first  converts  fled 
for  refuge  ? 

1  To  the  Table. 

2  These  expressions  show  that  there  is  a  reference  to  the 
institution  of  the  Lord's  Supper. 

M 


178  THE    INFLUENCE    OF    CHRISTIANITY    AND 


(Luke  xx.  30)  in  which  our  Lord  says  to  His 
disciples,  "  That  ye  may  eat  and  drink  at  My  Talk 
in  My  kingdom."  Muhammad  doubtless  knew 
that  the  Christians  celebrated  the  Lord's  Supper, 
in  accordance  with  Matt.  xxvi.  20-9;  Mark  xiv. 
17-25;  Luke  xxii.  14-30;  John  xiii-  ^S0'  and 
i  Cor.  xi.  20-34.  But  what  doubtless  led  to  the 
idea  that  the  Table  descended  from  Heaven  was 
the  passage  in  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles  (x.  9-16), 
in  which  we  read  the  following  account  of  Peter's 
vision : — 

"  Peter  went  up  upon  the  housetop  to  pray,  about 
the  sixth  hour :  and  he  became  hungry,  and  desired 
to  eat\  but  while  they  made  ready,  he  fell  into 
a  trance ;  and  he  beholdeth  the  heaven  opened,  and 
a  certain  vessel  descending,  as  it  were  a  great  sheety  let 
down  by  four  corners  upon  the  earth-,  wherein  were 
all  manner  of  fourfooted  beasts  and  creeping  things 
of  the  earth  and  fowls  of  the  heaven.  And  there 
came  a  voice  to  him, '  Rise,  Peter;  kill  and  eat'  But 
Peter  said,  '  Not  so,  Lord ;  for  I  have  never  eaten 
anything  that  is  common  or  unclean.'  And  a  voice 
came  unto  him  again  the  second  time, '  What  God 
hath  cleansed,  make  not  thou  common.'  And  this 
was  done  thrice:  and  straightway  the  vessel  was 
received  up  into  heaven." 

The  concluding  words  of  the  passage  which  we 
have  quoted  from  Surah  Al  Maidah  are  an  addi 
tional  proof  that  Muhammad  was  thinking  of  the 
Lord's  Supper,  for  they  seem  to  be  a  faint  echo  of 


CHRISTIAN    APOCRYPHAL    BOOKS.  179 

St.  Paul's  warning  against  unworthily  partaking 
of  that  sacrament  (i  Cor.  xi.  27-9). 

The  whole  passage  is  an  additional  proof  of  how 
very  little  knowledge  of  the  New  Testament 
Muhammad  had.  No  one  who  had  read  the  book 
or  heard  it  read  could  have  confounded  Peter's 
vision  with  the  institution  of  the  Lord's  Supper, 
or  transformed  that  vision  into  the  descent  of 
a  table  of  provisions  from  heaven  in  our  Lord's 
lifetime.  The  passage  is  an  interesting  illustration 
of  the  way  in  which  legends  grow. 

5.   Muhammad's  Misconception  of  the  Doctrine  of  the 
Trinity, 

In  the  early  part  of  the  present  chapter  we  have 
briefly  referred  to  this  subject,  but  it  must  be 
again  noticed  here  to  make  our  treatment  of  the 
influence  of  "  Christian  "  ideas  and  practices  upon 
Islam  somewhat  more  complete.  The  conception 
which  Muhammad  formed  of  the  Christian  doctrine 
of  the  Trinity  in  Unity  is  about  as  accurate  as  that 
which  the  last  few  paragraphs  show  that  he  enter 
tained  with  reference  to  the  institution  of  the 
Lord's  Supper.  This  is  evident  from  the  following 
passages : — 

Surah  V.,  Al  Maidah,  116:  "And  when  God 
said,  '  O  Jesus,  Son  of  Mary,  hast  Thou  said  unto 
men,  Take  Me  and  My  Mother  as  two  gods  besides 
God?'" 

Surah  IV.,  An  Nisa,  169:  "0  People  of  the  Book, 
M  2 


l8o  THE    INFLUENCE    OP    CHRISTIANITY    AND 

be  not  extravagant  in  your  religion,  and  do  not 
say  concerning  God  other  than  the  truth.  Truly 
the  Messiah,  Jesus,  Son  of  Mary,  is  the  Apostle  of 
God  and  His  Word  which  He  cast  into  Mary,  and 
a  Spirit  from  Him.  Therefore  believe  ye  in  God 
and  His  apostle,  and  say  not '  Three/  Cease !  it  is 
well  for  you !  Truly  God  is  One  God.  Far  be  it 
from  Him  that  He  should  have  a  Son.  To  Him 
belongs  whatever  is  in  the  Heavens  and  whatever 
is  in  the  Earth:  and  it  sufficeth  with  God  as  a 
guardian." 

Surah  V.,  Al  Maidah,  77:  'They  have  indeed 
blasphemed  who  have  said,  '  Verily  God  is  the 
Third  of  Three';  and  there  is  no  God  but  one 
God;  and  if  they  cease  not  from  what  they  say, 
there  shall  surely  touch  those  of  them  who  have 
blasphemed  a  severe  punishment." 

These  verses  are  explained  by  the  commentators 
Jalalu'ddin  and  Yahya'  as  being  the  answer  to 
the  statement  which  Muhammad  heard  certain 
Christians  make  that  there  are  three  Gods,  that  is 
to  say  God  the  Father,  Mary,  and  Jesus.  It  is  per 
fectly  plain  from  these  verses  that  Muhammad  really 
did  believe  that  the  Christian  doctrine  inculcated 
belief  in  three  separate  Divine  Persons,  Jesus  and 
Mary  being  two  of  them.  But  our  third  quotation 
implies  that  Muhammad — probably  from  what  he 
had  seen  of  "  Christian  "  worship — thought  that  the 
order  was  Jesus,  Mary,  God,  or  Mary,  Jesus,  God. 
No  reasonable  man  will  wonder  at  the  indignation 


CHRISTIAN    APOCRYPHAL    BOOKS.  l8l 

with  which  Muhammad  in  God's  name  abjures 
such  blasphemy.  We  must  all  feel  regret  that  the 
idolatrous  worship  offered  to  Mary  led  Muhammad 
to  believe  that  people  who  called  her  "  Queen  of 
Heaven "  and  "  Mother  of  God "  really  attributed 
to  her  Divine  attributes.  He  rightly  perceived 
that  God  was  practically  dethroned  in  her  favour. 
Had  he  been  taught  that  the  doctrine  of  the  Unity 
of  God  is  the  very  foundation  of  the  Christian 
faith  (Deut.  vi.  4;  Mark  xii.  29),  he  might  have 
become  a  Christian  reformer.  He  can  never  have 
heard  the  true  explanation  of  the  Doctrine  of  the 
Trinity  in  Unity,  otherwise  he  would  have  learnt 
that  Christian  theologians  spoke  of  the  Father  not 
as  "the  Third  of  Three"  but  as  the  rirjyr) l  rrjs 
@eoVr?ros,  the  very  "  Fount  of  Deity." 

It  should  be  noticed,  however,  that,  though  the 
undue  exaltation  of  the  Virgin  Mary,  which  led 
Muhammad  astray  as  to  the  true  doctrine  of  the 
Bible,  is  contrary  to  the  Christian  faith,  yet  such 
false  ideas  and  practices  are  distinctly  encouraged 
by  the  teaching  of  many  of  the  later  apocryphal 
Gospels,  particularly  by  those  which  formed  the 
ultimate  sources  of  Muhammad's  knowledge  of 
Christianity.  We  mention  this  to  prevent  the 
possibility  of  any  Muhammadan  reader  supposing 
that  he  can  find  a  way  out  of  his  difficulty  by 
endeavouring  to  prove  that  such  books  as  "The 

1  Cf.  Athanasius,  Contra  Arianos,  iv.  i, 
nal  ov 


182  THE    INFLUENCE    OF    CHRISTIANITY    AND 

Nativity  of  Mary,"  "  The  Protevangelium  of  James 
the  Less,"  and  the  Arabic  "  Gospel  of  the  Infancy  " 
are  more  authentic  monuments  of  the  early 
Christian  faith  as  taught  by  Christ  than  are  the 
canonical  books  of  the  New  Testament!  Ex 
perience  of  the  Muhammadan  controversy  renders 
the  warning  permissible. 

6.    Denial  of  the  Crucifixion  of  Christ. 

It  is  well  known  that  all  Muhammadans  have 
from  the  earliest  times  denied  that  Christ  died  on 
the  Cross.  In  this  they  are  supported  by  the 
Qur'an,  which,  in  Surah  IV.,  An  Nisa,  156,  repre 
sents  the  Jews  as  saying,  "  Verily  we  have  slain 
the  Messiah,  Jesus,  son  of  Mary,  the  Apostle  of 
God."  Muhammad  then  in  reply  to  them  says, 
"  And  they  slew  Him  not,  and  they  crucified  Him 
not,  but  He  was  represented  unto  them  [by 
another]  .  .  .  And  they  slew  Him  not  really,  but 
on  the  contrary  God  exalted  Him  unto  Himself." 

Muhammad's  denial  of  the  death  of  Christ  on 
the  Cross  cannot  be  traced  even  to  such  untrust 
worthy  authority  as  his  favourite  apocryphal 
Gospels.  It  is  needless  to  say  that  he  contradicts 
both  the  Old  Testament  Prophets  and  the  New 
Testament  Apostles,  though  doubtless  merely 
through  ignorance.  It  seemed  to  him  to  be 
derogatory  to  the  dignity  of  Christ  to  have  been 
crucified  and  put  to  death  by  His  enemies;  and 
Muhammad  was  all  the  more  convinced  of  this 


CHRISTIAN    APOCRYPHAL    BOOKS. 


when  he  found  his  own  enemies,  the  Jews,  exulting 
at  having  slain  Jesus.     Hence  he  gladly  adopted 
the  assertion  of   certain   heresiarchs,  with  whose 
views  in  other  respects  he  had  little  in  common. 
Several   of   these    had,   long   before   Muhammad's 
time,    denied     the     actual     suffering     of    Christ. 
Irenaeus  tells  us  with  reference  to  the  teaching 
of  the  Gnostic   heretic   Basilides,  who   nourished 
about   A.  D.   120,   that,   in   speaking  of   Jesus,  he 
taught  his  deluded  followers  "  That  l  He  had  not 
suffered  ;  and  that  a  certain  Simon  of  Gyrene  had 
been  compelled  to  carry  His  cross  for  Him;   and 
that  this  man  was  crucified  through  ignorance  and 
error,  having  been  changed  in  form  by  Him,  so 
that  it  should  be  thought  that  he  was  Jesus  Him 
self."     This  language  coincides  very  closely  with 
that  of  the  Quran  in  this  matter.    Yet  Muhammad 
would  have  repudiated  the  principle  upon  which 
this  view,  according  to  Irenaeus,  was  based:  for 
Basilides  held  that  Jesus  was  identical  with  vovs 
or  Mind,  the  first  2  emanation  from  the  unknown 
God,  and  that  He  could  not  suffer  because  He  had 
no  real  human  body.     This  is  absolutely  opposed 

1  "  Neque  passum  eum  ;  et  Simonem  quendam  Cyrenaeum 
angariatum  portasse  crucem  eius  pro  eo  ;  et  hunc  secundum 
ignorantiam  et  errorem  crucifixum,  transfiguratum  ab  eo,  uti 
putaretur  ipse  esse  lesus." 

3  For  our  present  purpose  it  is  unnecessary  to  refer  to  the 
difference  between  Irenaeus'  account  and  that  given  by  Hip- 
polytus  in  his  Philosophumena.  Much  as  the  two  reports  differ 
in  certain  respects,  they  agree  sufficiently  in  showing  the 
general  fact  of  Basilides'  Gnostic  views  in  tho^e  matters. 


184  THE    INFLUENCE    OF    CHRISTIANITY    AND 

to  the  Qur'an,  which  asserts  that  Jesus,  though 
a  Prophet  and  Apostle,  was  a  merely  human 
person,  possessed  of  a  human  body,  born  of  a 
human  mother,  and  destined  to  die  at  some  time 
or  other.  We  see  therefore  that  Muhammad 
opposed  the  principle  from  which  Basilides 
deduced  a  certain  result,  and  yet  accepted  that 
result  and  recorded  it  in  the  Qur'an.  This  is  such 
an  utterly  illogical  proceeding  that  it  cannot  be 
attributed  to  anything  but  a  very  natural 
ignorance. 

But  this  view  regarding  Christ's  dying  only  in 
appearance  and  not  in  reality  was  not  confined  to 
Basilides.  Photius  (820-91  circa)  in  his  Bibliotheca 
(Cod.  114)  mentions  the  fact  that  in  an  apocryphal 
book  called  the  "  Travels *  of  the  Apostles  "  it  was 
asserted  "  that  Christ  had  not  been  crucified,  but 
another  in  His  stead."  Manes  or  Mani,  the  cele 
brated  false  prophet  who  at  one  time  obtained 
so  much  influence  in  Persia,  in  a  similar  way 
held  that  "  The 2  prince  of  darkness  therefore  was 

1  UfpioSoi  'AiroffT6\wv  (quoted  by  Rod  well,  Koran,  p.  471,  note) : 
teal  TOV  Xpiffrov  /XT)  ffravpw6r)vai,  d\\'  erfpov  dvr'  avrov. 

3  Manes,  Ep.  Fund.,  ap.  Evodhim  :  "Priiiceps  itaque  tene- 
brarum  cruci  est  affixus,  idemque  coronam  spineam  portavit." 
It  is  unnecessary  here  to  appeal  to  the  statement  in  the 
"Gospel  of  Barnabas"  that  Judas  was  crucified  instead  of 
Christ,  as  that  work  was  written  long  after  Muhammad's  time. 
The  various  and  somewhat  contradictory  Traditions  of  the 
Muslims  regarding  the  question  whether  Christ  died  or  not ; 
if  so,  how  long  He  remained  dead,  and  who  was  crucified  in 
His  place,  will  be  found  .treated  of  in  my  Religion  of  the  Crescent, 
Appendix  A. 


CHRISTIAN    APOCRYPHAL    BOOKS.  185 

fastened  to  the  cross,  and  the  same  person  bore 
the  crown  of  thorns."  It  cannot  be  said  that 
Muhammad  denies  Christ's  death  on  good  authority, 
or  that  in  doing  so  he  is  in  good  company. 

Yet  in  several  places  in  the  Qur'an  mention  is 
made  of  the  fact  that  Jesus  was  to  die,  like  the 
rest  of  mankind.  For  example,  in  Surah  III., 
Al  'Imran,  48,  it  is  written : — 

"When  God  said,  'O  Jesus,  verily  it  is  I  that 
cause  Thee  to  expire  and  that  exalt  Thee  unto 
Myself  and  purify  Thee  from  those  that  have 
disbelieved.' " 

So  also  in  Surah  XIX.,  Maryam,  34,  Jesus  in  the 
cradle  is  represented  as  saying : — 

"And  peace  upon  Me  the  day  I  was  born  and 
the  day  I  shall  die  and  the  day  I  shall  be  raised 
up  alive." 

Commentators  are  not  perfectly  agreed  as  to  the 
exact  meaning  of  these  passages.  Some  hold  that, 
when  the  Jews  wished  to  crucify  Christ,  they 
seized  and  imprisoned  Him  and  His  Apostles  on 
the  evening  preceding  the  Paschal  feast,  intending 
to  slay  Him  the  next  morning.  But  in  the  night 
God  sent  Him  the  message,  "Thou  must  through 
Me  undergo  death,  but  immediately  afterwards 
Thou  shalt  be  taken  up  to  Me  and  freed  from 
the  power  of  the  unbelievers."  Accordingly  Jesus 
expired  and  remained  dead  for  three  hours.  Others 
mention  a  longer  period.  Finally,  however,  Gabriel 
appeared  and  carried  Him  off  through  the  window 


l86  THE    INFLUENCE    OF    CHRISTIANITY    AND 


and  up  to  heaven,  without  this  being  perceived  by 
anyone.  An  unbelieving  Jewish  spy  was  mistaken 
for  Him  and  crucified  in  His  stead1.  But  the 
more  common,  in  fact  the  all  but  universal  opinion 
of  Muslims  at  the  present  day,  is  that  which  is 
supported  by  the  Traditions  contained  in  such 
works  as  the  Qisasu'l  Anbiyd2  and  the  ^ArdMt 
Tijdn*.  In  these  books  we  are  told  that,  when 
the  Jews  were  besieging  the  house  in  which  Jesus 
and  His  Apostles  were,  Gabriel  took  Jesus  away 
through  the  roof  or  a  window  and  carried  Him  off 
alive  to  the  fourth  heaven.  Shuyugh,  "  King  of 
the  Jews,"  or  a  friend  of  his  called  Faltianus, 
entering  the  house  to  slay  Jesus,  was  mistaken 
for  Him  and  put  to  death.  But  nevertheless  Jesus 
must  die,  and  will  return  to  earth  to  do  so,  and 
that  is  what  is  implied  by  Surahs  III.,  48 ; 
XIX.,  34 ;  and  also  by  Surah  IV.,  157,  if  this 
latter  passage  ("  And  there  shall  not  be  one  of  the 
People  of  the  Book  who  shall  not  believe  in  Him 
before  His  death  ")  refers  to  Christ's  death,  as  many 
think.  For  "when  Dajjal4  the  Accursed  comes 
forth5  and  misleads  and  makes  infidels  of  people, 
and  the  Imam  Mahdi  with  a  number  of  Muslims 
shall  be  in  Jerusalem,  then  Jesus  shall  come  forth 
and  wage  war  with  Dajjal,  and  shall  slay  him, 

1  Weil,  Biblische  Legenden  der  Muselmanner,  pp.  296  sqq. 

2  Op.  cit.t  pp.  274,  275.  3  Op.  cit,  pp.  549,  550. 

4  This  is  the  title  of  Antichrist. 

5  Qi$a*u'l  Anbiyd,  p.  275  ;  cf.  'Ardisu't  Tijdn,  p.  554. 


CHRISTIAN    APOCRYPHAL    BOOKS.  187 


and  shall  invite  His  own  followers  to  accept  the 
Muhammadan  religion.  Jesus  will  be  of  the 
Muhammadan  faith,  and  He  will  give  quarter  to 
every  one  who  believes  in  Islam,  but  He  will  slay 
every  one  who  does  not  believe  in  Islam.  From  the 
East  even  unto  the  West  shall  He  subdue  the  whole 
world  and  make  its  people  Musalmans,  and  He 
shall  set  forth  the  validity  of  the  Muhammadan 
religion  to  such  a  degree  that  in  the  whole  world 
there  shall  not  remain  a  single  Infidel,  and  the 
world  shall  be  fully  civilized  and  richly  blessed. 
And  He  shall  perfect  justice,  so  that  the  wolf  and 
the  elk  shall  drink  water  together,  and  He  shall 
be  wroth  with  the  evildoers.  Then,  having  in  this 
way  for  forty  years  improved  the  world,  He  too 
shall  taste  the  bitterness  of  death  and  shall  leave 
the  world.  Then  the  Musalmans  shall  bury  Him 
near  the  chamber  of  Muhammad  the  Chosen  One." 
What  is  said  about  the  return  of  Christ  and  the 
establishment  of  His  kingdom  over  the  whole  earth 
is  evidently  in  accordance  with  and  borrowed  from 
Holy  Scripture,  especially  from  such  passages  as 
Acts  i.  ii ;  Rev.  1.7;  Isa.  xi.  i-io.  But  alas!  "  the 
trail  of  the  Serpent  is  over  it  all,"  for  it  is  asserted 
that  Christ  shall  spread,  Islam  with  the  sword  \  The 
reference  to  the  overthrow  of  Antichrist  is  evidently 
based  upon  3  Thess.  ii.  8-10,  and  similar  passages. 
But  we  must  inquire  from  what  source  Muhammad 
has  derived  the  idea  that,  after  His  second  Advent, 
Christ  is  to  diet  if  this  is  really  the  meaning  of  the 


1  88          THE    INFLUENCE    OF    CHRISTIANITY    AND 

verses  from  the  Qur'an  which  we  have  quoted,  and 
if  any  reliance  is  to  be  placed  upon  the  Traditions 
which  Baihaqi  and  others  record  as  handed  down 
from  Muhammad's  lips  to  that  effect  :  for  every 
Christian  knows  that  such  a  fancy  is  absolutely 
contrary  to  Scripture  (e.g.  Rev.  i.  17,  18). 

Here  again  certain  Apocryphal  works  come  to 
our  aid.  In  an  Arabic  book  (probably  of  Coptic 
origin)  called  "  The  Decease  of  our  holy  Father  the 
old  man  Joseph  the  Carpenter,"  we  are  told  re 
garding  Enoch  and  Elijah,  who  ascended  into 
heaven  without  dying,  that  "These  men  must 
come  to  the  world  at  the  end  of  time,  in  the  day 
of  trouble  and  fear  and  difficulty  and  oppression, 
and  must  die"  (cap.  xxxi.)1.  In  a  somewhat 
similar  Coptic  work  entitled  "  The  History  of  the 
Falling  Asleep  of  Mary  "  we  read  almost  the  same 
words,  "  But  as  for  these  others  "  (Enoch  and 
Elijah)  "it  is  necessary  for  them  also  finally  to 
taste  of  death2."  Muhammad  must  have  heard 
some  such  expression,  for  he  says  twice  over  in 
the  Qur'an  (Surah  III.,  Al  'Imram,  183,  and  Surah 
XXIX.,  Al  'Ankabut,  57),  "  Every  soul  doth  taste 
of  death."  Holding,  as  he  apparently  did,  that 
Jesus  ascended  to  heaven  alive  (Surah  III.,  48),  it 
naturally  followed,  to  his  mind,  that  Christ  also, 

),       uUjJI  JUIl  Jl  1/b  «UJ 


Coptic  Apocryphal  Gospels,  pp.  108,  109. 


CHRISTIAN    APOCRYPHAL    BOOKS.  189 

like  Enoch  and  Elijah,  would  necessarily  die  after 
his  second  Advent.  Hence  Christ's  vacant  tomb 
now  lies  ready  for  Him  at  Medina,  between  the 
graves  of  Muhammad  and  Abu  Bakr ! 

Muhammadan  Tradition  also  tells  us  that  Christ 
shall  take  a  wife  after  His  return  l.  This  is  due  to 
a  misunderstanding  of  such  passages  as  Rev.  xix. 
7-9,  where  we  read :  "  Let  us  rejoice  and  be 
exceeding  glad,  and  let  us  give  the  glory  unto  Him : 
for  the  marriage  of  the  Lamb  is  come,  and  His 
wife  hath  made  herself  ready.  And  it  was  given 
unto  her  that  she  should  array  herself  in  fine  linen, 
bright  and  pure  :  for  the  fine  linen  is  the  righteous 
acts  of  the  saints.  And  he  saith  unto  me,  Blessed 
are  they  which  are  bidden  to  the  marriage  supper 
of  the  Lamb."  Of  course  the  meaning  of  this  alle 
gorical  passage  is  fully  explained  elsewhere  (e.g. 
Rev.  xxi.  2 ;  Eph.  v.  22-32)  as  referring  to  the 
perfect  love  and  complete  union  in  spiritual  mat 
ters  which  will  then  exist  between  the  Saviour  and 
His  purified  and  redeemed  Church. 

The  statement  that  Christ  is  to  live  forty  yean 2 
on  the  earth  after  His  return  must  have  originated 
in  a  misunderstanding  of  Acts  i.  3,  where  we  learn 
that  He  remained  for  forty  days  with  His  disciples 
after  His  Resurrection  and  before  His  Ascension. 

1  'Araisu'l  Majdlls,  p.  554.  a  Qisaw'l  Anbiyd,  p.  275. 


190  THE    INFLUENCE    OF    CHRISTIANITY    AND 


7.  Christ's    supposed  prediction   of  the    coming   of 


There  are  a  considerable  number  of  passages  in 
the  Bible  which  Muhammadan  controversialists 
endeavour  to  prove  to  be  prophecies  of  Muham 
mad.  But  we  have  here  to  deal  with  only  one 
small  series  of  verses,  since  only  in  one  place  in 
the  Qur'an  do  we  find  a  clear  assertion  that  Christ 
told  His  disciples  to  look  for  Muhammad's  appear 
ance  ;  and  it  is  to  certain  verses  in  St.  John's 
Gospel  that  he  evidently  refers.  In  Surah  LXL, 
As  Saff,  6,  Muhammad  writes  thus:  — 

"And  when  Jesus,  Son  of  Mary,  said,  <O  Children 
of  Israel,  verily  I  am  the  Apostle  of  God  unto  you, 
confirming  what  was  before  Me  of  the  Law,  and 
proclaiming  good  tidings  of  an  Apostle  who  shall 
come  after  Me  :  his  name  is  Ahmad.' " 

The  reference  here  is  to  the  coming  of  the  Para 
clete  or  "  Comforter  "  spoken  of  in  John  xiv.  1 6, 
36  ;  xv.  26  ;  xvi.  7.  We  have  already 1  pointed  out 
that  Muhammad  was  misled  by  some  ignorant  but 
zealous  proselyte  or  other  disciple,  who  confounded 
the  word  UapaK\r]To^  used  in  these  verses  with 
another  Greek  word  TrepiKAuro's,  which  might,  with 
out  a  very  great  stretch  of  the  imagination,  be  inter 
preted  by  the  Arabic  word  Ahmad,  "  the  greatly 
praised,"  only,  unfortunately  for  Muhammad,  Trept- 
KAVTO'S  is  not  the  word  used,  and  by  no  possible  effort 

1  p.  142,  note  i. 


CHRISTIAN    APOCRYPHAL    BOOKS. 


can  the  term  employed  by  our  Lord  be  translated 
Ahmad.  "  A  little  knowledge,"  even  of  Greek,  may 
be  "a  dangerous  thing;"  and  certainly  the  proverb 
was  never  better  illustrated  than  in  the  Qur'an. 
Of  course  everyone  who  reads  the  passages  in 
St.  John's  Gospel  at  all  carefully  will  perceive 
that  they  contain  no  prophecy  of  any  coming 
Prophet,  and  cannot  possibly  be  made  to  suit  any 
mere  human  being.  Moreover,  every  Christian 
knows  how  the  promise  was  fulfilled  (Acts  ii.  i-n). 
It  is  quite  a  mistake,  on  the  other  hand,  to  fancy 
that  Muhammad  claimed  to  be  the  Holy  Spirit, 
whom  the  Muslims  confound  with  Gabriel. 

Before  leaving  this  subject  it  may  be  as  well  to 
remind  the  reader  that  Muhammad  was  not  the 
first  to  appeal  to  these  verses  as  a  prophecy  of 
himself.  It  is  well  known  that  Mani  l  or  Manes, 
renowned  in  Persian  fable  as  a  wonderful  painter, 
made  the  same  claim  to  be  the  "  person  "  referred 
to  by  Christ.  Only  Mani  distinctly  claimed  to  be 
the  "Paraclete,"  probably  (like  Muhammad)  in 
order  to  win  over  ill-informed  Christians  to  his 
side.  This  is  remarkable,  for  he  rejected  the  his 
torical  Jesus  and  invented  another  for  himself, 
who  neither  suffered  nor  died  (Jesus  impafsibili*).  A 
third  point  in  which  he  resembled  Muhammad  was 
his  claim  to  be  the  last  and  greatest  of  the  pro- 

1  Manichaism  had  taken  refuge  in  Arabia  long  before  Mu 
hammad's  time  (Beausobre,  Histoire  du  Manicheisme,  Pt.  i, 
ch.  iv.). 


192  THE    INFLUENCE    OF    CHRISTIANITY    AND 

phets,  "the  Ambassador  of  Light,"  which  he 
identified  with  the  Deity.  He  was  less  fortunate 
than  Muhammad,  however,  since  he  was  impaled 
by  the  command  of  Bahram  I,  of  Persia,  about 
376  A.D.  \  Finally,  he  produced  a  book,  called 
Artang2  by  Oriental  writers,  which  he  said  had 
been  sent  down  to  him  from  heaven  and  con 
tained  the  final  revelation  to  men.  His  denial  of 
Christ's  sufferings  originated  in  his  acceptance  of 
the  Gnostic  idea  of  the  essential  evil  of  all  matter, 
and  this  made  him  deny  that  the  true  Jesus  had 
a  human  body.  In  this  respect  he  followed  Basi- 
lides  more  logically  than  did  Muhammad,  as  we 
have  already  seen. 

8.  Creation  of  Adam,  and  his  being  worshipped  by  the 
Angels. 

In  Surah  III.,  i.1  Imran,  52,  we  read : — 

"  Verily  the  likeness  of  Jesus,  according  to  God,  is 

as  the  likeness  of  Adam ; "  and  of  the  latter  it  is 

then  added :  "  He  created  him  out  of  earth ;  then  He 

said  to  him, '  Be ' ;  therefore  he  comes  into  being  3." 

With  regard  to  the  creation  of  Adam  out  of  the 

1  Most  of  our  information  about  Mani  himself  comes  from 
Al  Fihrist,  though  it  is  difficult  to  say  on  what  authorities  the 
author  of  that  work  relied.     Man!  was  born  probably  in  A.D. 
216.      Patristic    writers    give    much    information    about    his 
teaching. 

2  Perhaps  meaning  "  The  Noble  Tome,"  from  Arta  (Av.  ereta) 
+  aftga,  limb,  portion. 

3  See  note  2  to  p.  55  above. 


CHRISTIAN    APOCRYPHAL    BOOKS.  193 


soil,  Tradition  tells  us  that  when  God  Most  High 
wished  to  create  him,  He  sent  one  after  another  of 
the  Archangels  to  take  and  bring  Him  a  handful 
of  earth.  The  Earth,  knowing  that  many  of 
Adam's  descendants  would  be  condemned  to  hell 
fire,  adjured  each  of  these  messengers  not  to  take 
away  any  portion  of  her  substance.  Hence  they 
all  except  the  last,  'Azrail,  returned  empty-handed. 
'  Azrail,  however,  took  a  handful  of  earth  in  spite 
of  this  adjuration,  some  say  from  the  spot  upon 
which  the  Ka  bah  was  •  afterwards  built,  others 
from  the  whole  surface  of  the  earth.  He  brought 
it  to  God l,  saying,  "  0  God,  Thou  knowest :  lo  ! 
I  have  brought  it."  Abu'l  Fida,  on  the  authority 
of  Kamil  ibn  Athir,  says,  "The  Prophet  of  God 
said,  '  Verily  God  Most  High  created  Adam  from 
a  handful  which  He  took  from  the  whole  of  the 
Earth,  .  .  .  and  truly  he  was  called  Adam  because 
he  was  created  from  the  surface  (adim)  of  the 
Earth.'  " 

This  Tradition  is  interesting  because  it  affords 
another  instance  of  how  much  Islam  is  indebted  to 
heretical  ideas.  The  whole  fable  is  borrowed  from 
Marcion,  as  we  learn  from  a  quotation  from  one 
of  the  latter's  writings  which  is  given  in  Ezniq 
the  Armenian's  work  entitled  The  Refutation  of 
Heresies.  In  speaking  of  this  heresiarch  of  the 
second  century,  Ezniq  quotes 2  the  following  passage 
as  containing  some  of  his  peculiar  views,  "And 

1  Qifcifu'l  Anbiyd,  p.  n.  »  Book  IV. 

N 


194          THE    INFLUENCE    OF    CHRISTIANITY    AND 

when  the  God  of  the  Law  saw  that  this  world  was 
beautiful,  He  resolved  to  make  Man  out  of  it.  And 
having  descended  unto  the  Earth,  unto  Matter  (v\rf), 
He  saith,  'Give  Me  of  thy  clay  and  I  shall  give 
spirit  from  Myself.'  .  .  .  When  Matter  had  given 
Him  of  her  earth,  He  created  him  (Adam),  and 
breathed  spirit  into  him.  .  .  .  And  on  this  account 
he  was  named  Adam,  because  he  was  made  out  of 
clay." 

To  understand  this  quotation  we  must  remember 
that  Marcion  held  the  old  Persian  dualism  to  a 
great  extent,  believing  that  there  are  two  First 
Causes,  one  perfectly  good  and  the  other  perfectly 
evil.  The  Demiurgos  or  Creator  of  this  lower 
world,  who  is  here  spoken  of  as  the  God  of  the 
Law  because  he  gave  the  Law  of  Moses  to  the 
Jews,  is  just,  but  neither  perfectly  good  nor  per 
fectly  evil,  yet  he  is  perpetually  at  war  with  the 
Evil  Principle.  He  is  therefore  rather  an  arch 
angel  than  a  God,  and  in  the  Muhammadan  legend 
appears  as  such.  According  to  Marcion's  view, 
the  Demiurgos  originally  dwelt  in  the  second 
heaven  and  was  not  at  first  aware  of  the  existence 
of  the  Supreme  Principle  of  Good,  whom  Marcion 
called  the  Unknown  God.  When  he  learnt  His 
existence,  the  Demiurgos  became  hostile  to  Him,  and 
began  to  try  to  prevent  men  from  knowing  God,  lest 
they  should  transfer  their  worship  to  Him.  There 
fore  the  Supreme  God  sent  Jesus  Christ  into  the 
world  to  destroy  the  power  of  the  God  of  the 


CHRISTIAN    APOCRYPHAL    BOOKS.  195 

Law  and  that  of  the  Evil  Principle,  and  to  lead 
men  to  a  knowledge  of  the  True  God.  Jesus  was 
attacked  by  both  these  beings,  but  they  could  not 
hurt  Him,  as  he  had  only  the  appearance  of  a  body, 
so  that  He  might  be  visible  to  men,  not  a  real 
body.  Here  again  we  find  the  Docetic  principle 
which,  though  so  contrary  to  Muhammad's  general 
teaching,  yet  underlies  the  denial  of  the  crucifixion 
of  Christ. 

Much  of  what  Marcion  said  about  the  Demiurgos 
agrees  with  the  Muhammadan  legend  about  'Azazil, 
who  became  an  inhabitant  of  the  second  heaven 
(and,  according  to  some  Traditions,  of  all  the 
heavens)  before  he  was  cast  out  and  received  the 
names  of  Iblis  (Ata^oAos)  and  Sluiitan  (Satan). 
But  both  Marcion's  and  Muhammad's  statements 
on  this  point  are  so  evidently  borrowed  from  Zoro- 
astrian  legends  that  we  must  reserve  them  for 
treatment  in  our  next  chapter1. 

It  is  worthy  of  note  that  to  the  Demiurgos  the 
titles  of  "  Lord  of  the  Worlds,"  "  Creator  of  the 
Creatures,"  and  "  Prince  of  this  World,"  were 
given  by  Marcion  and  his  followers.  The  first  two 
of  these  titles  properly  belong  to  God,  and  are  used 
for  Him  by  both  Jews  and  Muslims.  The  third  is 
borrowed  from  John  xiv.  30,  where  it  is  given  to 
Satan.  Through  an  unfortunate  mistake,  Muham- 
madans  understand  this  verse  as  a  prophecy  re- 


242, 


196  THE    INFLUENCE    OF    CHRISTIANITY    AND 

garding  Muhammad,  and  apply  this  title  to  their 
Prophet  in  consequence ! 

In  connexion  with  the  creation  of  Adam,  the 
Qur'an  repeatedly  asserts  that  God  commanded  the 
angels  to  worship  him.  Among  other  verses  to 
this  effect  we  may  adduce  the  following : — 

Surah  II.,  Al  Baqarah,  32,  "  And  when  We  said 
to  the  angels,  '  Worship  Adam,'  then  they  worship 
ped  him,  except  Iblis." 

Surahs  XVII.,  Al  Asra',  63 ;  XVIII,  Al  Kahf, 
48;  and  XX.,  Ta  Ha,  115,  contain  the  same  state 
ment  in  almost  the  same  words. 

This  idea  can  hardly  be  derived  from  the  Tal 
mud,  in  which,  though  we  are  told  that  the  angels 
showed  Adam  undue  respect,  yet  it  is  distinctly 
stated  that  they  did  wrong.  It  is  doubtless  bor 
rowed  from  a  misapprehension  of  Heb.  i.  6 :  "And 
again,  when  He  bringeth  in  the  first-begotten  into 
the  world,  He  saith,  'And  let  all  the  angels  of  God 
worship  Him.'"  Muhammad  seems  to  have  been 
greatly  struck  with  this  verse,  and,  since  he  (as 
usual)  misunderstood  it  by  fancying  that  "the 
first-begotten  l "  meant  not  Christ  but  Adam,  he 
repeatedly  introduced  its  equivalent  into  the 
Qur'an.  This  may  have  been  done  as  an  argument 
against  worship  being  offered  to  Christ,  for  in 
a  verse  already  quoted  (Surah  III.,  52)  he  tells  us 

1  Probably  Muhammad  confounded  the  '  first-begotten  "  of  this 
passage  with  the  term  "  first-created "  repeatedly  applied  to 
Adam  in  the  "Testament  of  Abraham  "  :  vide  below,  p.  208, 


CHRISTIAN    APOCRYPHAL    BOOKS.  197 

that  in  God's  sight  Jesus  was  just  as  Adam,  doubt 
less  in  having  no  human  father  (as  'Abbasi  and 
Jalalain  explain  it),  but  that  He  was  not  to  be 
accounted  Divine  on  that  account. 

9.  All  must  go  clown  into  Hell. 

This  strange  idea  is  thus  expressed  in  Svlrah 
XIX.,  Maryam,  69-73  : — 

"  Therefore,  by  thy  Lord !  We  shall  surely 
assemble  them  and  the  devils,  then  We  shall  surely 
make  them  present,  kneeling,  around  Hell.  Then 
shall  We  take  out  from  each  sect  whoso  of  them  is 
most  violent  in  rebellion  against  the  Merciful  One. 
Then  indeed  We  are  best  aware  concerning  those 
who  shall  be  first  in  it  in  burning:  and  there  is 
none  of  you  but  goeth  down  into  it.  It  has  become 
concerning  thy  Lord  a  fixed  decision." 

This  passage  has  caused  much  unhappiness  to 
pious  Muslims,  even  though  they  hope  that  the  fire 
of  hell  will  not  injure  them.  Commentators  have 
striven  manfully  to  explain  away  the  obvious 
meaning  of  the  words  by  saying  (though  they  are 
by  no  means  agreed  in  this  opinion)  that  what  is 
meant  is  merely  that  all  men,  even  true  Muslims, 
must  come  near  to  hell  fire,  and  that  they  do  this 
when  they  pass  over  the  Bridge1  As  Sirat  on  the 
Judgment  Day.  If  this  explanation  be  accepted, 
the  passage  should  be  dealt  with  in  Chapter  v, 

1  pp.  351,  sqq. 


198  THE    INFLUENCE    OF    CHRISTIANITY    AND 

when  we  are  considering  Zoroastrian  influence  on 
the  origin  of  Islam.  But  it  is  more  probable  from 
the  language  of  the  verses  we  have  quoted  that 
here  Muhammad  expresses  his  belief  in  Purgatory. 
If  so,  he  must  have  learnt  this  from  the  Christians 
of  his  day.  Attempts  have  been  made  to  deduce 
this  doctrine  from  Mark  ix.  49  and  i  Cor.  iii.  13. 
It  is  possible,  of  course,  that  Muhammad  had  heard 
these  verses  read,  and  that  he  misunderstood  them 
in  this  sense ;  but  it  is  far  more  likely  that  he 
borrowed  the  error  ready  made.  The  "  Testament 
of  Abraham  "  tells  us  that  each  man's  work  is  tried 
by  fire,  and  that,  if  the  fire  burns  up  any  man's 
work,  he  is  carried  off  to  the  place  of  torture  by 
the  angel  who  presides  over  fire.  As,  however,  the 
meaning  of  this  isolated  passage  in  the  Qur'an  is 
somewhat  uncertain,  we  need  not  inquire  further 
into  the  origin  of  the  doctrine  of  Purgatory. 


10.  The  "Balance? 

Mention  is  made  of  the  Balance  (in  which  good 
deeds  and  bad  are  to  be  weighed  at  the  Last  Day) 
in  several  places  in  the  Qur'an,  the  chief  of  which 
are: — 

Sftrah  VII.,  Al  A'raf,  7,  8:  "And  the  weighing  on 
that  day  shall  be  trutli :  therefore  he  whose  scales 
are  heavy — those  are  accordingly  the  prosperous ; 
and  he  whose  scales  are  light — those  are  accord 
ingly  those  who  shall  have  lost  their  own  souls." 


CHRISTIAN    APOCRYPHAL    BOOKS. 


Surah  XXI.,  Al  Anbiya,  48  :  «  And  We  shall  set 
the  just  scales  for  the  Day  of  the  Resurrection, 
therefore  a  soul  shall  not  be  wronged  in  anything  ; 
and  if  it  were  the  weight  of  a  grain  of  mustard 
We  should  bring  it  ;  and  it  sufficeth  with  Us  as 
accountants." 

Surah  XLIL,  Ash  ShiW,  16:  "It  is  God  who 
hath  sent  down  the  Book  with  truth,  and  the 
Balance." 

Surah  CL,  Al  Qari'ah,  5,  6  :  <;  Therefore  as  for 
him  whose  scales  are  heavy,  he  shall  consequently 
be  in  a  happy  life;  and  as  for  him  whose  scales 
are  light,  his  mother  (i.e.  abode)  shall  be  lowest 
hell." 

Commentators,  on  the  authority  of  Tradition, 
explain  these  verses  by  informing  us  that  on  the 
Resurrection  Day  God  will  erect  between  Heaven 
and  Earth  a  Balance  having  a  tongue  and  two 
scales  or  pans.  This  will  be  reserved  exclusively 
for  the  task  of  weighing  men's  good  deeds  and 
their  bad  ones,  or  the  records  in  which  these  are 
set  down.  True  believers  will  see  that  the  scale 
into  which  their  good  deeds  are  cast  will  out 
weigh  the  other,  which  contains  their  evil  deeds  : 
while  the  scale  containing  the  good  deeds  of  un 
believers  will  be  light,  being  outweighed  by  their 
evil  ones.  Not  the  very  slightest  good  act  of  the 
believer  will  be  left  out  of  the  account,  nor  will 
anything  be  added  to  his  sins.  Those  whose  good 
deeds  preponderate  will  enter  Paradise,  but  those 


200  THE    INFLUENCE    OP    CHRISTIANITY    AND 

whose  good  actions  are  outbalanced  by  their  evil 
ones  will  be  cast  into  Hell  fire. 

It  has  been  pointed  out  that  the  idea  of  weighing 
men's  actions  occurs  in  the  Talmud,  e.g.  in  R6sh 
Hashshanah,  cap.  17.  It  may  there  be  derived 
from  Daniel  v.  27.  But  in  this  case  the  balance 
spoken  of  is  a  metaphorical  one,  and  the  "  weigh 
ing  "  of  Belshazzar  does  not  take  place  on  the 
Resurrection  Day,  or  even  after  his  death,  but 
while  he  is  still  alive.  We  must  look  elsewhere 
for  the  origin  of  the  Muhammadan  conception, 
and  we  find  it  once  more  in  an  apocryphal  book, 
the  "  Testament  of  Abraham  V  This  work  seems 
to  have  been  originally  written  in  Egypt.  It  was 
known  to  Origen,  and  was  probably  composed 
either  in  the  second  century  of  our  era,  or  not 
later  than  the  third,  by  a  Jewish  convert  to 
Christianity.  It  exists  in  two  Greek  recensions 
and  also  in  an  Arabic  version.  The  resemblance 
between  certain  passages  in  this  book  and  certain 
verses  of  the  Qur'an  and  also  later  Muhammadan 
Tradition  is  too  great  to  be  merely  fortuitous2. 
This  is  especially  observable  in  what  is  told  us 
in  the  "  Testament  of  Abraham "  in  reference  to 
the  "  Balance." 

It  is  there  stated  that  when  the  Angel  of  Death 
came  by  God's  command  to  take  away  Abraham's 

1  Published  in  Texts  and  Studies,  vol.  ii,  no.  2. 
8  See  examples   in  The  Religion  of  the  Crescent,  Appendix  C, 
pp.  242  sqq. 


CHRISTIAN    APOCRYPHAL    BOOKS.  2OI 

spirit,  the  patriarch  made  request  that  before 
dying  he  should  be  permitted  to  behold  the 
marvels  of  heaven  and  earth.  Permission  being 
granted,  he  ascended  to  the  sky  under  the  leader 
ship  of  the  angel,  and  saw  all  things  that  were  to 
be  seen.  When  he  reached  the  second  heaven,  he 
there  perceived  the  Balance  in  which  an  angel 
weighs  men's  deeds,  as  the  following  passage 
explains : — 

"  In  l  the  midst  of  the  two  gates  stood  a  throne, 
. . .  and  on  it  sat  a  marvellous  man  . . .  and  before  him 
stood  a  table  like  unto  crystal,  all  of  gold  and  fine 
linen.  And  on  the  table  lay  a  book,  its  thickness 
was  six  cubits  and  its  breadth  ten  cubits.  And  to 
the  right  and  left  of  it  (the  table)  there  stood  two 2 
angels,  holding  paper  and  ink  and  a  pen.  And  in 
front  of  the  table  was  seated  a  light-bearing  angel, 
holding  a  Balance  in  his  hand ;  and  to  the  left  sat 
a  fiery  angel,  altogether  merciless  and  stern,  holding 
in  his  hand  a  trumpet,  in  which  he  kept  an  all- 
consuming  fire,  the  test  of  sinners.  And  the 
marvellous  man  who  was  seated  on  the  throne 
was  himself  judging  and  proving  the  souls,  but 
the  two  angels  who  were  on  the  right  and  on  the 
left  were  registering:'  the  one  on  the  right  was 
registering  the  righteous  acts,  but  the  one  on  the 

1  "Testament  of  Abraham,"  Recension  A,  cap.  xii,  p.  91  : 
cf.  pp.   92,   93.    113,    114,    capp.   xiii,    xiv,  and   Recension   B, 
cap.  vii. 

2  Cf.  Surah  L.,  16,  17,  20, 


202  THE    INFLUENCE    OF    CHRISTIANITY    AND 


left  the  sins.  And  the  one  in  front  of  the  table, 
the  one  who  held  the  Balance,  was  weighing  the 
souls;  and  the  fiery  angel  who  held  the  fire  was 
testing  the  souls.  And  Abraham  asked  Michael, 
the  general-in-chief,  'What  are  these  things  that 
we  are  beholding  ? '  And  the  general-in-chief  said, 
c  What  thou  seest,  holy  Abraham,  is  the  judgment 
and  retribution.' " 

The  narrative  goes  on  to  state  that  Abraham 
saw  that  every  soul  whose  good  and  bad  deeds  were 
equal  was  reckoned  neither  among  the  saved  nor 
among  the  lost,  but  took  his  stand  in  a  place 
between  the  two.  This  latter  matter  completely 
agrees  with  Muhammadan  belief,  which  is  said  to 
rest  upon  Surah  VII.,  Al  A'raf,  44 :  "  And  between 
them  both  "  (heaven  and  hell)  "  is  a  veil,  and  upon 
the  A'raf  are  men,"  and  is  also  based  upon 
Tradition. 

It  seems  impossible  to  doubt  that  Muhammad 
was  indebted,  directly  or  indirectly,  for  his  teach 
ing  about  the  Balance  to  this  apocryphal  work, 
or  to  the  same  idea  prevalent  orally  at  the  time 
and  ultimately  derived  from  Egypt.  The  proba 
bility  is  that  he  learnt  it  from  Mary,  his  Coptic 
concubine.  The  conception  of  such  a  Balance  for 
weighing  men's  deeds,  good  and  bad,  is  a  very 
ancient  one  in  Egypt.  We  find  it  in  the  "Judg 
ment  Scene"  of  the  Book  of  the  Dead,  so  many 
copies  of  which  have  been  found  in  ancient 
Egyptian  tombs.  Kegarding  this  work  Dr.  Budge 


CHRISTIAN    APOCRYPHAL    BOOKS.  203 

says,  "It1  is  quite  certain  that  the  Book  of  the 
Dead,  in  a  connected  form,  is  as  old  as  Egyptian 
civilization,  and  that  its  sources  belong  to  pre 
historic  times  to  which  it  is  impossible  to  assign 
a  date.  We  first  touch  solid  ground  in  the  history 
of  the  Book  of  tlie  Dead  in  the  period  of  the  early 
dynasties,  and,  if  we  accept  one  tradition  which 
was  current  in  Egypt  as  early  as  B.C.  2,500,  we  are 
right  in  believing  that  certain  parts  of  it  are,  in 
their  present  form,  as  old  as  the  time  of  the  First 
Dynasty."  Regarding  its  authorship  he  says, 
"  From  2  time  immemorial  the  god  Thoth,  who  was 
both  the  Divine  Intelligence  which  at  creation 
uttered  the  words  that  were  carried  into  effect  by 
Ptah  and  Khnemu,  and  the  Scribe  of  the  Gods,  was 
associated  with  the  production  of  the  Book  of  the 
Dead."  The  object  of  burying  a  copy  of  this  Book 
along  with  the  mummy  was  that  the  dead  man 
might  receive  instruction  from  it  and  learn  how 
to  avoid  the  various  dangers  he  would  encounter 
in  the  next  world.  We  learn  from  it  a  great  deal 
of  the  religious  ideas  of  the  Egyptians.  The 
vignette  which  represents  the  Judgment  of  the 
soul,  which  probably  (as  in  the  "Testament  of 
Abraham  ")  took  place  soon  after  death,  varies  in 
different  copies,  though  they  all  preserve  the  same 
general  outline.  A  form  which  is  often  found3 
shows  us  two  gods,  Horus  and  Anubis,  engaged  in 

1  The  Book  of  the  Dead,  vol.  iii,  p.  xlvii.         2  Op.  cit.,  p.  Ixxv. 
8  Vide  Note,  p.  8  above. 


204  THE    INFLUENCE    OF    CHRISTIANITY    AND 

weighing  a  man's  heart  in  one  scale  of  the  Balance 
against  the  image  of  Maat,  the  goddess  of  Truth 
and   Right,  which   is  placed   in   the   other  scale. 
Another     god,    Thoth— in     Egyptian     Tehdti—\s 
writing  down  the  dead  man's  account  on  a  scroll. 
Over  the  Balance  is  written:    "The  Osiris  lives 
justified.     In  its  place  the  Balance  is  level  in  the 
midst  of   the    Divine   Judgment-Hall.      He   says, 
'  As  for  his  heart,  let  his  heart  enter  into  its  place 
in  Osiris  so  and  so  the  Justified.'     May  Thoth,  the 
great  god  in  the  city  of  Heseret,  lord  of  the  city 
Hermopolis,  lord  of  the  words  of  Thoth,  say  this." 
The  bestowal  of  the  name  of  Osiris  on  the  dead 
man  as  well  as  his  own  name  (for  the  insertion  of 
which  a  place  is  left  vacant)  signifies  that,  being 
justified  in  the  judgment,  he  has  become  identified 
with   the   god  Osiris,   the   supreme   deity  of   the 
ancient  Egyptians,  and  is  therefore  safe  from  the 
assaults  of  the  evil  powers. 

In  front  of  the  figure  of  the  divine  scribe  Thoth 
stands  a  terrible  animal,  something  like  a  bitch. 
This  was  supposed  to  devour  the  wicked.  Over  its 
head  is  written,  "  Conqueror  of  enemies  by  swallow 
ing  them,  lady  of  Hades,  hound  of  Hades."  Near 
this  animal  there  stands  an  altar  full  of  offerings, 
placed  in  front  of  the  entrance  to  the  inner  shrine. 
Within  the  shrine,  seated  on  a  throne,  is  Osiris 
himself,  the  "  Good  Being,"  holding  in  one  hand 
a  sceptre  and  in  the  other  a  scourge.  He  sits^  as 
judge,  prepared  to  deal  with  the  dead  man's  spirit 


CHRISTIAN    APOCRYPHAL    BOOKS.  205 


according  to  what  Thoth  may  write  in  the  roll 
regarding  the  result  of  weighing  his  heart  in  the 
Balance.  In  front  of  Osiris  is  an  inscription  con 
taining  some  of  his  titles.  It  may  be  read  thus: 
"Osiris,  the  Good  Being,  God,  Lord  of  Life,  the 
great  God,  Lord  of  futurity,  Chief  of  Paradise  and 
Hell,  in  Hades,  the  great  God,  Lord  of  the  city  of 
Abt,  king  of  past  eternity,  God."  Beneath  his 
throne  the  words  "  Life  and  Health "  are  written 
several  times. 

It  is  evident  from  a  comparison  of  this  picture 
with  what  we  have  read  in  the  "Testament  of 
Abraham  "  and  in  the  Qur'an  that  the  "  Balance  " 
mentioned  in  the  Qur'an  and  the  Traditions  of 
Muhammad  is  ultimately  derived  from  the  ancient 
Egyptian  mythology,  through  the  medium  of 
Coptic  Christian  ideas1  which  are  mentioned  in  the 
"  Testament  of  Abraham,"  having  been  handed 
down  orally  during  generation  after  generation  in 
Egypt,  the  land  of  their  birth. 

1  In  Zoroastrian  mythology  also  the  Balance  appears  in 
a  manner  very  similar  to  its  use  in  Egyptian.  Rashnu,  one  of 
the  three  judges  of  the  dead  (cf.  the  Greek  story  of  the  same 
duty  assigned  to  Minos,  Rhadamanthus  and  Aeacus,  In  Plato's 
Gorgias,  cap.  Ixxix)  holds  a  Balance,  and  in  it  men's  good  deeds 
and  bad  are  weighed  after  their  death.  The  other  judges  are 
Mithra  and  Sraosha,  the  Mihr  and  Sardsh  of  later  Persian 
legends.  In  the  Middle  Ages  in  Europe  Michael  was  supposed 
to  hold  tho  Balance. 


206  THE    INFLUENCE     OF    CHRISTIANITY    AND 


11.    Adam's  joy  and  grief  in  Heaven. 

In  Surah  XVII.,  Al  Asra',  i,  we  read  a  brief 
account  of  Muhammad's  mythical  journey  to 
heaven,  which  occupies  a  very  extensive  place  in 
Muhammadan  Tradition.  The  words  of  this  verse 
may  be  rendered  thus : — 

"Praise  be  to  Him  who  caused  His  servant  to 
journey  by  night  from  the  Sacred  Mosque 1  to  the 
Farther  Mosque 2,  whose  enclosure  We  have  blessed, 
that  We  might  show  him  of  Our  signs." 

Regarding  this  Mirdj  of  Muhammad,  as  it  is 
called,  we  shall  have  to  treat  at  some  length  in 
the  next  chapter3.  Here  we  refer  to  it  in  order 
to  introduce  a  Tradition  concerning  one  part  of 
Muhammad's  experience  on  that  famous  journey. 
In  the  MisMdtul  MasaWi  we  are  told  of  a  scene 
which  he  saw  on  entering  the  lowest  of  the  seven 
Heavens : — 

"  Then  4  when  He  opened  to  us  the  lowest  heaven, 
lo!  a  man  seated:  at  his  right  hand  were  black 
figures  and  at  his  left  hand  were  black  figures. 
When  he  glanced  towards  his  right  he  laughed, 
and  when  he  glanced  towards  his  left  he  wept.  .  . 
I  said  to  Gabriel, '  Who  is  this.'  He  said,  '  This  is 
Adam,  and  these  black  figures  on  his  right  hand 
and  on  his  left  hand  are  the  souls  of  his 

1  The  Ka  bah  at  Mecca.  a  The  Temple  at  Jerusalem  J 

8  Pp.  ai8  sqq.  *  Op.  ctf.,  p.  521. 


CHRISTIAN    APOCRYPHAL    BOOKS.  207 

children;  and  those  of  them  that  are  on  the 
right  are  to  be  the  people  of  Paradise,  and  the 
black  figures  which  are  on  his  left  are  to  be  the 
people  of  the  Fire.  Therefore  when  he  looked 
towards  his  right  he  laughed,  and  when  he  looked 
towards  his  left  side  he  wept.'" 

This  Tradition  also  may  be  traced  back  to  the 
apocryphal  "  Testament  of  Abraham,"  as  the 
following  extract  proves:— 

"  Michael J  turned  the  chariot  and  carried 
Abraham  towards  the  East,  at  the  first  gate  of 
Heaven.  And  Abraham  saw  two  ways;  the  one 
way  strait  and  narrow  and  the  other  broad  and 
wide ;  and  there  he  saw  two  gates,  one  gate  broad, 
corresponding  to  the  broad  way,  and  one  gate 
strait,  corresponding  to  the  strait  way.  And 
outside  of  the  two  gates  there  I  saw  a  man  seated 
upon  a  throne  covered  with  gold :  and  the  appear 
ance  of  that  person  was  terrible,  like  unto  the 
Lord.  And  I  saw  many  souls  being  driven  by 
angels  and  being  led  through  the  broad  gate ;  and 
I  saw  other  souls,  a  few,  and  they  were  being 
borne  by  angels  through  the  strait  gate.  And 
when  the  marvellous  man  who  was  seated  on  the 
golden  throne  saw  few  entering  through  the  strait 
gate  but  many  entering  through  the  broad  gate, 
immediately  that  marvellous  man  seized  the  hair 
of  his  head  and  the  sides  of  his  beard  and  hurled 
himself  from  the  throne  to  the  ground,  weeping 

1  "Testament  of  Abraham,"  Recension  A,  cap.  xi. 


208  THE    INFLUENCE    OF    CHRISTIANITY    AND 

and  wailing.  And  when  he  saw  many  souls 
entering  through  the  strait  gate,  then  he  would 
rise  up  from  the  ground  and  seat  himself  upon 
his  throne  in  great  gladness,  rejoicing  and  exulting. 
Abraham  asked  the  general-in-chief "  (the  arch 
angel  Michael),  " '  My  lord,  the  general-in-chief,  who 
is  this  altogether  marvellous  man  who  is  adorned 
with  such  splendour,  and  who  at  one  time  weeps 
and  wails,  but  at  another  rejoices  and  exults  V 
The  bodiless  one  said,  '  This  is  Adam,  the  first 
created  person,  who  is  in  such  glory,  and  he 
beholds  the  world,  since  all  were  (born)  from  him  : 
and  when  he  sees  many  souls  entering  through 
the  strait  gate,  then  he  rises  and  sits  down  upon 
his  throne,  rejoicing  and  exulting  in  gladness, 
because  this  strait  gate  is  that  of  the  just,  which 
leadeth  unto  life,  and  those  who  enter  through  it 
go  into  Paradise :  and  on  this  account  does  Adam 
the  first-created  rejoice,  because  he  perceives  souls 
being  saved.  And  when  he  sees  many  souls  enter 
ing  through  the  broad  gate,  then  he  rends  the 
hair  of  his  head  and  hurls  himself  to  the  ground, 
weeping  and  wailing  bitterly.  For  the  broad  gate 
is  that  of  sinners,  which  leads  unto  destruction  and 
unto  eternal  punishment.' " 

12.  Borrowings  from  the  New  Testament. 

Finally    it    may    be    asked,    Has    Muhammad 
borrowed  nothing  from  the  New  Testament  itself, 


CHRISTIAN    APOCRYPHAL    BOOKS.  209 

since  he  has  derived  such  a  considerable  amount 
of  his  teaching  from  apocryphal  Christian  sources  ? 
In  answer  to  this  we  are  obliged  to  admit  that 
he  borrowed  very  little  indeed  from  the  New  Testa 
ment.     From  it  he  may  be  said  indirectly  to  have 
learnt  that  Jesus  was  born  without  a  human  father, 
that  He  had  a  Divine  commission,  wrought  miracles, 
had  a  number  of  Apostles,  and  ascended  to  heaven! 
Muhammad  denied  the  Deity,  the  atoning  death 
(and  consequently  the  Resurrection)  of  Christ,  and 
taught    a   great   deal   that   was   contrary   to   the 
leading   doctrines   of   the   Gospel,    being  desirous 
of  himself  supplanting  Christ  and  prevailing  on 
men  to  admit  his  own  claim  to  be  the  last  and 
greatest  of  the  Messengers  of  God.     We  have  seen 
that  in   the  Qur'an   and   the  Traditions  we   find 
distorted  references  to  certain  passages  of  the  New 
Testament,  as  for  instance  in  what  is  said  about 
the  descent  of  the  Table,  and  the  supposed  pro 
phecy  of  Muhammad's  coming.     But  there  is  only 
one  passage  in  the  Qur  an  which  may  be  said  to 
contain  a  direct  quotation  from  the  Gospels.     This 
is   found  in  Surah  VII.,  Al  A'raf,  38,  where  we 
read : — 

"Verily  they  who  have  accused  Our  signs  of 
falsehood  .  .  .,  unto  them  the  gates  of  heaven  shall 
not  be  opened,  nor  shall  they  enter  Paradise  until 
the  camel  entereth  in  at  the  eye  of  the  needier  This 
is  almost  a  literal  quotation  from  Luke  xviii.  35  : 
"It  is  easier  for  a  camel  to  enter  in  through  a 

o 


210  THE    INFLUENCE    OF    CHRISTIANITY    AND 


needle's  eye,  than  for  a  rich  man  to  enter  into 
the  kingdom  of  God."  Very  similar  words  occur 
also  in  Matt.  xix.  254,  and  Mark  x.  25. 

In  the  Traditions,  moreover,  there  is  one  striking 
instance  of  a  quotation  from  the  Epistles,  and  it  is 
a  favourite  with  many  thoughtful  Muslims,  who 
have   not   the   slightest   idea  that  it  comes  from 
the   Bible.     Abu   Hurairah  is  reported1  to   have 
attributed  to  Muhammad  the  statement  that  God 
Most   High   had   said:    I   have  prepared   for   My 
righteous  servants  what  eye  hath  not  seen  nor  ear 
heard,  nor  hath  it  occurred  to  the  heart  of  a  human 
leing."     It  will  be   readily  recognized   that  these 
words  are  a  quotation  from  i  Cor.  ii.  9.     Whether 
Abft  Hurairah,  surnamed  the  Liar,  has  spoken  the 
truth   in    asserting    that    he    heard   this   passage 
quoted  by  Muhammad  may  well  be  doubted.     Yet 
the  passage  in  Surah  LXXV.,  22,  23,  "Faces  in 
that  day  shall  be  brightened,  gazing  at  their  Lord," 
which  refers  to  the  Beatific  Vision2,  and  is  a  remi 
niscence  of  i  John  iii.  2,  and  i  Cor.  xiii.  12,  lends 
some  support  to  his  statement. 

From  a  careful  examination  of  the  whole  subject 
dealt  with  in  this  chapter  we  therefore  conclude 
that  the  influence  of  true  and  genuine  Christian 
teaching  upon  the  Quran  and  upon  Islam  in 
general  has  been  very  slight  indeed,  while  on  the 

1  Mishkdtu'l  MasdUh,  p.  487- 

'  On  the  Muhammadan  idea  of  this,  vide  The  Religion  of  0 
Crescent,  pp.  116,  118. 


CHRISTIAN    APOCRYPHAL    BOOKS.  211 

other  hand  apocryphal  traditions  and  in  certain 
respects  heretical  doctrines  have  a  claim  to  be 
considered  as  forming  one  of  the  original  sources 
of  the  Muhammadan  faitli l. 

1  In  his  Muhammadanische  Studien  (vol.  II,  pp.  382  sqq.)  Pro 
fessor  Goldziher  has  an  interesting  account  of  the  way  in  which 
in  later  times  "Traditions"  were  borrowed  from  Christian 
sources.  But  this  lies  beyond  our  present  inquiry. 


0  2 


CHAPTER  V. 

ZOROASTRIAN   ELEMENTS   IN  THE   QlJR'AN   AND 

TRADITIONS  OF  ISL&M. 

THE    political    influence    which    the    Persians 
exercised  over  certain  parts  of  the  Arabian  Penin 
sula  and  the  neighbouring  countries  in  and  before 
Muhammad's  time  was  very  considerable,  as  we 
learn    from    Arabian    and    Greek    writers    alike. 
Abu'l  Fida.  for  example,  informs   us  that,  early 
in    the    seventh    century   of    the   Christian    era, 
Khusrau    (or,   as   the   Arabs    called    him,    Kisra') 
Anushiravan,  the  great  Persian  conqueror,  invaded 
the    kingdom    of    Hirah    on   the    banks    of    the 
Euphrates,  dethroned  the  king  Harith,  and  placed 
upon  the  throne  in  his  stead  a  creature  of  his  own, 
named  Mundhir  Mai's  Sama.     Not  long  afterwards 
Anushiravan   sent   an    army   into   Yaman,   under 
a  general  called  Vahraz,  to  expel  the  Abyssinians 
who  had  taken  possession  of  the  country,  and  to 
restore   the   Yamanite   prince   Abu's  Saif   to   the 
throne  of  his  ancestors  \     But  the  Persian  force 
remained  in  the  country,  and  its  general  ultimately 
himself  ascended  the  throne  and  handed  it  down 
to  his  descendants2.     Abu'l   Fida   tells  us3   that 

>  Abu'l  Fida,  cap.  ii.  *  Siratu'r  Rasul,  pp.  24.  25. 

»  Ut  supra:    ^  ijjfa   5U  fcurf,   &  j*   JT  ^  ^ 


ZOROASTBIAN     ELEMENTS    IN    THE    QUR'AN         213 

the  princes  of  the  family  of  Mundhir  who  suc 
ceeded  him  in  Hirah,  and  ruled  also  over  the 
Arabian  'Iraq,  were  merely  governors  under  the 
kings  of  Persia.  He  says  with  reference*  to  Yaman 
that  four  Abyssinian  rulers  and  eight  Persian 
princes  held  sway  there  before  it  acknowledged 
Muhammad's  1  sovereignty.  But  even  earlier  than 
Muhammad's  time  there  was  much  intercourse 
between  the  North-  West  and  West  of  Arabia  and 
the  Persian  dominions.  We  are  informed  that 
Naufal  and  Muttalab  (who  were  the  brothers  of 
Muhammad's  great-grandfather),  when  they  were 
the  leading  chiefs  of  the  Quraish,  made  a  treaty 
with  the  Persians,  by  which  the  merchants  of 
Mecca  were  permitted  to  trade  with  'Iraq  and 
Fars  (the  ancient  Persis).  In  the  year  606,  or 
about  that  time,  a  party  of  merchants  headed  by 
Abu  Sufyan  reached  the  Persian  capital  and  were 
received  into  the  king's  presence  2. 

When  Muhammad  laid  claim  to  the  prophetic 
office  in  613  A.D.,  the  Persians  had  overrun  and 
held  possession  for  a  time  of  Syria,  Palestine,  and 
Asia  Minor.  At  the  time  of  the  Hijrah  in  A.D.  622, 
the  Emperor  Heraclius  had  begun  to  retrieve  the 
fortunes  of  the  Byzantine  Empire,  and  not  long 
after  the  Persians  were  obliged  to  sue  for  peace. 


^     .j 

2  Sir  W.  Muir,  Life  of  Mahomet,  pp.  xcvii  and  31,  32. 


214         ZOROASTRIAN     ELEMENTS    IN    THE    QURAN 

In  consequence  of  this,  Badzan,  the  Persian 
governor  of  Yaman,  deprived  of  the  hope  of 
support  from  home,  was  obliged  to  submit  to 
Muhammad  and  agree  to  pay  tribute  (A.  D.  628). 
Within  a  few  years  of  the  Prophet's  death  the 
armies  of  Islam  had  overrun  Persia  and  converted 
the  great  mass  of  its  people  by  the  sword. 

Whenever  two  nations,  the  one  highly  advanced 
in  civilization  and  the  other  in  a  state  of  com 
parative  ignorance,  are  brought  into  close  inter 
course  with  one  another,  the  former  always 
exercises  a  very  considerable  influence  over  the 
other.  All  history  teaches  us  this  lesson.  Now 
in  Muhammad's  time  the  Arabs  were  in  a  very 
unenlightened  condition ;  in  fact  their  own  writers 
speak  of  pre-Islamic  ages  as  "The  Times  of 
Ignorance."  The  Persians,  on  the  other  hand,  as 
we  learn  from  the  Avesta,  from  the  cuneiform 
inscriptions  of  Darius  and  Xerxes,  from  the  still 
existing  ruins  of  Persepolis,  and  from  the  evidence 
of  Greek  writers,  had  from  at  least  very  early 
times  been  highly  civilized.  It  was  but  natural 
therefore  that  intercourse  with  them  should  leave 
its  impress  upon  the  Arabs.  From  Arabian  his 
torians  and  from  the  statements  of  the  Qur'an  and 
its  commentators  it  is  evident  that  the  romantic 
legends  and  the  poetry  of  the  Persians  had  in 
Muhammad's  time  obtained  a  very  considerable 
degree  of  popularity  among  the  Arabs.  So  widely 
were  some  of  these  tales  known  among  the 


AND    TRADITIONS    OF    ISLAM.  215 


Quraish  that  Muhammad  was  accused  by  his 
enemies  of  having  borrowed  or  imitated  them  in 
the  Qur'an.  Ibn  Hisham,  for  instance,  says  that 
one  day  when  Muhammad  "had  gathered  an 
assembly,  then  he  summoned  them  to  God  Most 
High  and  read  the  Qur'an  there,  and  warned  them 
what  would  befall  the  nations  that  remained 
destitute  of  faith.  Then  Nadr  bin  Al  Harith,  who 
had  followed  him  into  his  assembly,  rose  up  and 
told  them  about  Rustam  the  strong  and  about 
Isfandiyar  and  the  kings  of  Persia.  Then  he  said, 
'By  God!  Muhammad  is  not  a  better  story-teller 
than  I  am,  and  his  discourse  is  nothing  but  the 
Tales  of  the  Ancients.  He  has  composed  them 
just  as  I  have  composed  them.'  On  his  account 
therefore  did  God  send  down  the  verse:  'And1 
they  have  said,  Tales  of  the  Ancients  hath  he 
written  down,  and  they  are  recited  to  him  morning 
and  evening.  Say  thou,  He  who  knoweth  what  is 
secret  in  the  heavens  and  the  earth  hath  sent  it 
down :  verily  He  is  forgiving,  merciful.'  And  on 
his  account  this  also  came  down:  'When2  our 
verses  are  recited  to  him,  he  hath  said,  Tales  of 
the  Ancients ! '  And  this  also  descended  for  his 
benefit :  '  Woe  3  unto  every  sinful  liar  that  heareth 
God's  verses  read  to  him ;  then  he  persisteth  in 
being  proud,  as  if  he  did  not  hear  them !  There- 


1  Surah  XXV.,  Al  Furqan,  6,  7. 

2  Surah  LXVIII.,  15.          3  Surah  XLV.,  6,  7. 


21 6          ZOfcOASTRIAN    ELEMENTS    IN    THE    QUR*AN 


fore  give  him  good  news  of  a  sore  punish 
ment1/" 

Muhammad's  answer  to  the  charge  thus  brought 
against  him  cannot  have  been  altogether  satis 
factory  to  his  audience,  nor  can  we  deem  it 
sufficient  to  deter  us  from  inquiring  whether  an 
examination  of  certain  passages  of  the  Qur'an  does 
not  bear  out  the  assertion  thus  made  by  his  early 
opponents. 

The  stories  of  "  Rustam  and  Isfandiyar  and  the 
Kings  of  Persia  "  which  were  referred  to  by  Nadr 
are  doubtless  among  those  which,  some  generations 
later,  Firdausi,  the  most  celebrated  of  the  epic 
poets  of  Persia,  learnt  from  the  collection  which 
he  tells  us  a  Persian  villager  had  made,  and 
which  Firdausi  has  left  us  in  poetic  form  in  the 


t*fl     ICJJ     USM,    jjLj    »J*   4)1    J*    4)1    Jj-J,    yJL    1  jl    ^    j^    ^ 

u  Cs^syu^  Jydi  M  ^  jus  ii  Ji 

*l5 


J\5  lubT  Ja-  U1 


,j  ^i,.  L*       »,JLc    ij 


AND    TRADITIONS    OF    ISLAM.  217 


Skdhndmek.  Doubtless  all  these  tales  are  very 
ancient  in  some  form,  but  we  need  not  depend 
upon  the  S/idhndmeh  for  those  which  we  shall 
have  to  quote  or  refer  to ;  and  this  is  well,  because 
the  authority  of  a  work,  which,  in  its  present 
poetical  form,  is  later  than  Muhammad's  time, 
might  not  be  deemed  sufficient.  Fortunately  in 
the  Avesta  and  other  books  of  the  Parsis  or 
Zoroastrians  we  have  information  which  cannot 
be  called  in  question  on  the  ground  of  antiquity, 
and  it  is  to  these  we  shall  appeal. 

It  may  be  safely  concluded  that,  since  the  tales 
of  the  kings  of  Persia  were  of  interest  to  the 
Arabs  and  they  had  heard  of  Rustam  and 
Isfandiyar,  they  are  unlikely  to  have  been  quite 
ignorant  of  the  story  of  Jamshid.  Nor  is  it 
probable  that  the  Persian  fables  regarding  the 
ascension  to  heaven  of  Arta  Viral  and  of  Zoroaster 
before  him,  their  descriptions  of  Paradise  and  the 
Bridge  of  Chinvat  and  the  tree  Hvapah,  the 
legend  of  Ahriman's  coming  up  out  of  primaeval 
darkness,  and  many  other  such  marvellous  tales, 
had  remained  entirely  unknown  to  the  Arabs.  If 
they  were  known,  it  was  natural  that  Muhammad 
should  have  made  some  use  of  them,  as  he  did 
of  Christian  and  Jewish  legends.  We  must  there 
fore  inquire  whether  such  fancies  have  left  any 
trace  upon  the  Qur'an  and  the  Traditions  current 
among  the  Muslims.  We  shall  see  that  not  only 
is  this  the  case,  but  that  in  some  instances  these 


2l8         ZOROASTRIAN    ELEMENTS    IN    THE 


Persian  tales  are  so  indubitably  of  Aryan  and  not 
of  Semitic  origin  that  they  are  found  in  slightly 
modified  forms  in  India  also.  In  fact  some  of 
them  were,  so  to  speak,  part  of  the  religious  and 
intellectual  heritage  of  both  nations;  and  when 
the  Persians  and  the  Hindus  separated  from  one 
another,  and,  leaving  their  ancient  common  home 
—the  Airyanem  Vaejd1 — near  Herat,  migrated  to 
Persia  and  India  respectively,  were  carried  away 
in  the  minds  of  both  peoples.  Others  of  these 
ideas  may  very  possibly  have  originated  in  Persia 
somewhat  later,  and  have  spread  to  India  in  process 
of  time.  We  shall  see  that  they  had  certainly 
reached  Muhammad's  ears,  and  they  have  not 
been  without  influence  upon  the  Qur'an  and  the 
Traditions,  which  claim  to  have  been  handed  down 
by  his  devoted  followers,  relating  what  they  assert 
that  they  heard  from  his  lips. 

1.  The  Night  Journey. 

The  first  matter  with  which  we  shall  here  deal 
is  the   celebrated  account  of   Muhammad's  Night 
Journey.     This  is  thus  referred  to  in  a  verse  which 
we  have  already 2  quoted  (Surah  XVII.,  Al  Asra'— 
also  called  Surah  Bani  Israil'— i):— 

"  Praise  be  to  Him  who  caused  His  servant  to 
journey  by  night  from  the  Sacred  Mosque  to  the 
Farther  Mosque,  whose  enclosure  We  have  blessed, 
that  We  might  show  him  of  Our  signs." 

1  Vendiddd,  L,  i,  a,  &c.  '2  pp.  206,  207. 


AND    TRADITIONS    OF    ISLAM.  219 


It  is  well  known  that  commentators  on  the 
Qur'an  are  by  no  means  agreed  with  regard  to 
this  verse,  some  thinking  that  Muhammad  merely 
dreamt  that  he  made  the  journey  mentioned  in  it, 
others  taking  it  in  a  literal  sense  and  adding 
many  details  from  Tradition,  and  others  again 
explaining  it  in  a  mystical  or  figurative  sense. 
Ibn  Ishaq,  for  example,  informs  us,  giving  his 
traditional  authority,  that  Muhammad's  favourite 
wife  'Ayishah  used  to  say,  "The  body  of  the 
Apostle  of  God  did  not  disappear,  but  God  took 
his  spirit  on  the  journey  by  night."  Another 
Tradition  reports  that  Muhammad  himself  said, 
"  My *  eye  was  sleeping  and  my  heart  was  awake." 
The  celebrated  mystical  commentator  Muhiyyu'd 
Din  accepted  the  whole  account  only  in  a  meta 
phorical  sense2.  As,  however,  we  are  not  con- 


1  SirahCr  Rasiil,  p.  139. 

2  For  the  benefit  of  the  curious  in  such  matters  we  subjoin 
his  account,  given  in  his  comment  on  the  verse  above  quoted : — 


y^     ^jS.    S-Apl     (J\ 
l  *li»  J  jUSolj  *j5*^\   Jla. 


UJJI  i 


220         ZOROASTRIAN    ELEMENTS    IN    THE 


cerned  seriously  to  discuss  the  question  of  the 
actual  occurrence  of  this  "Night  Journey,"  we 
need  not  deal  further  with  this  view.  It  is  certain 
that  the  great  mass  of  Muhammadan  commen 
tators  and  Traditionalists  believe  that  Muhammad 
actually  went  from  Mecca  to  Jerusalem  and  also 
visited  the  heavens,  and  they  give  long  accounts, 
of  deep  and  abiding  interest  to  Muslims,  regarding 
what  he  did  and  what  he  saw.  It  is  with  this 
Tradition  that  we  have  to  deal,  and  we  shall  see 
that  it  is  easy  to  trace  the  origin  of  its  main 
features  to  earlier  legends,  and  especially  to 
Zoroastrian  sources.  This  is  true,  whether  we 
believe  with  the  vast  mass  of  Muhammadans  that 
Muhammad  himself  gave  such  an  account  of  his 
Mi  raj  as  the  ones  we  now  proceed  to  translate, 
or  infer  that  the  whole  legend  is  the  production 
of  somewhat  later  times1.  We  quote  Ibn  Ishaq's 


jJU  ^  j*>  ill 

^s*a5    jj\ 


elb  ij^l  uylXJI  ^50  u 

u<*  J1  ^  **  ^  JX 

kldl   ^j   UJI    Ai^^  l^Jl  A^a.   ^  Ujli*   t^U 

"U^? 

Against  this  latter  hypothesis,  however,  must  be  considered 


AND    TRADITIONS    OF    ISLAM.  221 


account  first,  because  it  is  the  earliest  that  has 
reached  us.  It  is  given  by  Ibn  Hisham,  his 
editor  and  continuator,  in  the  following  manner. 
Muhammad,  we  are  informed,  asserted  that  Gabriel 
came  and  awoke  him  twice  to  go  on  the  "  Night 
Journey,"  but  he  fell  asleep  again.  Then  he 
continues : — 

"  Accordingly  he  (Gabriel)  came  to  me  the  third 
time :  then  he  touched  me  with  his  foot,  and  I  sat 
up.  He  seized  me  by  my  arm,  and  I  stood  up 
with  him.  He  then  went  forth  to  the  door  of  the 
Mosque :  and  lo !  a  white  animal,  (in  appearance) 
between  a  mule  and  an  ass ;  on  its  flanks  were  two 
wings,  with  which  it  rules  both  its  hind  feet :  its 
fore-foot  it  sets  down  at  the  limit  of  its  glance. 
He  mounted  me  upon  it,  then  he  went  forth  with 
me,  (in  such  a  way  that)  he  does  not  precede  me 
and  I  do  not  precede  him.  .  .  .  When  I  approached 
it  (the  animal)  to  mount  it,  it  reared.  Accordingly 
Gabriel  placed  his  hand  upon  its  mane:  then  he 
said,  '  0  Buraq,  art  thou  not  ashamed  of  what  thou 

the  fact  that  in  Surah  LIII.,  An  Najm,  13-18,  Muhammad 
clearly  asserts  that  he  saw  the  Sidratu'l  MuntaM',  which  stands 
in  the  highest  heaven.  These  verses  must  refer  to  this  Mi'rdj, 
and  may  be  thus  rendered  :— 

"And  indeed  he  (Muhammad)  saw  him  (Gabriel)  another 

time 

At  the  Sidratu'l  Muntahd', 
Near  it  is  the  Paradise  of  the  Habitation, 
When  what  covered  the  Lotus- tree  covered  it : 
The  gaze  (of  Muhammnd)  glanced  not  aside  nor  wandered. 
Indeed  he  saw  some  of  the  great  signs  of  his  Lord." 


222          ZOROASTRIAN    ELEMENTS    IN    THE 


art  doing?  (I  swear)  by  God,  O  Buraq,  there 
never  mounted  thee  before  Muhammad  a  servant 
of  God  more  honoured  with  God  than  he  is.' 
Accordingly  (Buraq)  became  so  much  ashamed 
that  he  poured  forth  sweat.  Then  he  stood  still 
till  I  mounted  him."  "  Al  Hasan  in  his  Tradition 
has  said,  'The  Apostle  of  God  went,  and  Gabriel 
went  with  him,  until  he  reached  the  Holy  House 
(Jerusalem)  with  him.  There  he  found  Abraham 
and  Moses  and  Jesus  amid  a  band  of  the  prophets. 
Accordingly  the  Apostle  of  God  acted  as  their 
leader  (Imam)  in  worship,  and  prayed  with  them. 
Thereupon  (Gabriel)  brought  two  vessels,  in  one 
of  which  there  was  wine  and  in  the  other  milk. 
Accordingly  the  Apostle  of  God  took  the  vessel  of 
milk  and  drank  of  it,  and  left  the  vessel  of  wine. 
Therefore  Gabriel  said  to  him,  'Thou  hast  been 
guided  to  Nature  and  thy  people  have  been  guided 
to  Nature,  O  Muhammad,  and  wine  is  forbidden 
you.'  Then  the  Apostle  of  God  departed,  and 
when  it  was  morning  he  went  to  the  Quraish 
and  gave  them  this  information.  Then  said  very 
many  people,  '  By  God !  this  matter  is  clear :  by 
God!  a  caravan  takes  a  month  from  Mecca  to 
Syria,  and  a  month  in  returning,  and  does  that 
fellow  Muhammad  go  in  one  night  and  come  back 
to  Mecca l  ? ' " 

According  to  this  narrative,  Muhammad  went 

1  Siratu'r  Rasul,  pp.  138,  139. 


AND    TRADITIONS    OF    ISLAM.  223 

only  from  Mecca  to  Jerusalem  and  back  in  one 
night.  Later  traditions  amplify  the  journey  con 
siderably,  all,  however,  professing  to  give  the 
account  which  the  reciter  declared  came  from 
Muhammad  himself.  In  the  Miahkatul  Masdlih 
the  following  story  is  given,  with  the  usual  string 
of  names  of  those  through  whom  the  tradition 
was  handed  down  : — 

"  The  Prophet T  of  God  related,  .  .  .  While  I  was 
asleep,  .  .  .  lo !  a  comer  came  to  me :  then  he 
opened  what  is  between  this  and  this  .  .  .,  and 
he  took  out  my  heart.  Then  I  was  brought  a 
golden  cup  full  of  faith.  My  heart  was  washed, 
then  it  was  replaced,  then  I  came  to  myself.  .  .  . 
Then  I  was  brought  an  animal  smaller  than  a 
mule  and  taller  than  a  donkey,  and  white :  it  is 
called  Buraq,  and  places  its  front  feet  at  the  far 
end  of  its  range  of  sight.  Then  I  was  set  upon  it, 
and  Gabriel  carried  me  off  until  I  came  to  the 
lowest  heaven.  He  demanded  admittance.  It 
was  said,  '  Who  is  that  ? '  He  said,  '  Gabriel.'  It 
was  said,  '  And  who  is  with  thee  ? '  He  said, 
'Muhammad.'  It  was  said,  'And  was  he  sent 
for?'  He  said,  'Yes.'  It  was  said,  'Welcome  to 
him,  and  very  good  is  his  coming.'  Then  one 
opened.  Accordingly,  when  I  entered,  lo!  Adam 
was  there.  Gabriel  said,  '  This  is  thy  father 
Adam,  therefore  salute  him.'  Accordingly  I  saluted 

1  Mishkdt,  pp.  518-20. 


224         ZOROASTRIAN    ELEMENTS    IN    THE 


him,  and  he  returned  the  salute.  Then  he  said, 
'  Welcome  to  the  good  son  and  the  good  prophet.'  " 
The  story  goes  on  with  wearisome  repetition  of 
much  the  same  account,  telling  us  how  Gabriel 
took  Muhammad  from  heaven  to  heaven,  being 
asked  the  same  questions  at  each  door,  and 
answering  them  in  precisely  the  same  way.  In 
the  second  heaven  Muhammad  was  introduced  to 
John  the  Baptist  and  Jesus,  in  the  third  to  Joseph, 
in  the  fourth  to  Iclris,  in  the  fifth  to  Aaron,  in  the 
sixth  to  Moses.  The  latter  wept,  and  when  asked 
why,  replied  that  the  cause  of  his  tears  was  the 
knowledge  that  more  of  Muhammad's  followers 
than  of  his  own  people  would  enter  Paradise.  In 
the  seventh  heaven  Muhammad  met  Abraham,  and 
the  usual  greeting  took  place.  "  Afterwards  I  was 
carried  aloft  to  the  Sidratul  Muntaha' 1,  and  lo !  its 
fruits  were  like  the  pots  of  a  potter,  and  lo! 
its  leaves  were  like  the  ears  of  an  elephant.  He 
said, '  This  is  the  Lotus  of  the  Boundary.'  Then  lo ! 
four  rivers,  two  interior  rivers  and  two  exterior 
rivers.  I  said,  '  What  are  these  two,  O  Gabriel  ? ' 
He  said,  'The  two  interior  ones  are  two  rivers  in 
Paradise,  but  the  two  exterior  ones  are  the  Nile 
and  the  Euphrates.'  " 

The  passage  goes  on   to   mention   many  other 
particulars    of    the    journey,    among    others    the 

1  "The   Lotus   of  the   Boundary,"   so  called   because   even 
Oabriel  must  not  pass  it. 


AND    TRADITIONS    OF    ISLAM.  225 

incident  of  Adam's  weeping,  which  we  have1 
already  spoken  of ;  but  it  is  unnecessary  to  mention 
them  all. 

In  the  popular  works2  from  which  the  great 
mass  of  modern  Muslims  obtain  their  knowledge 
of  their  prophet's  life,  the  account  of  the  Mi  raj 
is  far  more  full  of  marvels.  When  he  had  reached 
the  Lotus  of  the  Boundary,  beyond  which  Gabriel 
dared  not  advance  with  him,  the  angel  Israfil  took 
charge  of  Muhammad  and  led  him  to  his  own 
realm,  whence  the  prophet  advanced  to  the  very 
Throne  of  God,  being  bidden  by  God's  own  Voice 
not  to  remove  his  sandals,  since  their  touch :i 
would  honour  even  the  court  of  God.  After  a 
few  more  details,  which  to  ordinary  minds  seem 
both  puerile  and  blasphemous,  we  are  told  that 
Muhammad  entered  behind  the  veil4,  and  that 
God  said  to  him,  "Peace  be  upon  thee,  and  the 
mercy  of  God,  and  His  blessing,  O  Prophet." 
In  these  later  narratives  of  the  Miraj  we  find 
mythology  unrestrained  by  any  regard  for  reason 
or  truth. 

We  must  now  inquire  what  was  the  source  from 
which  the  idea  of  this  night  journey  of  Muhammad 
was  derived.  It  is  very  possible  that  the  legend 

1  pp.  206  sqq. 

a  Such  as  the  Qisasu'l  Anbiyd,  the  'Ardisu't  Tijdn,  the  Raudatu'l 
Ahbdb,  &c. 

3  Qimm'l  Anbiyd,  pp.  337,  338. 

*  Perhaps  an  invention  to  make  him  bear  comparison  with 
our  Lord  :  cf.  Heb.  vi.  19,  20. 

P 


226        ZOROASTBIAN    ELEMENTS    IN    THE    QURAN 

as  first  of  all  related  by  Muhammad  himself  was 
based  upon  a  dream,  and  it  does  not  seem  to  have 
contained  any  account  of  an  ascension,  if  we  con 
sider  Surah  LIIL,  13-18,  to  be  of  later  date.  But 
we  have  to  deal  with  the  narrative  contained  in 
the  Traditions,  and  these  enter  into  very  precise 
details  regarding  the  Mi1  raj  or  "  ascent."  We 
shall  see  that  there  is  good  reason  to  believe  that 
the  legend  in  this  form  was  invented  in  order  to 
show  that,  in  this  respect  as  well  as  in  all  others, 
Muhammad  was  more  highly  privileged  than  any 
other  prophet.  The  story  may  have  incorporated 
elements  from  many  quarters,  but  it  seems  to  have 
been  in  the  main  based  upon  the  account  of  the 
ascension  of  Arta  Viraf  contained  in  a  Pahlavi 
book  called  "  The  Book  l  of  Arta  Viraf,"  which  was 
composed  in  the  days  of  Ardashir  Babagan,  King 
of  Persia,  some  400  years  before  Muhammad's 
Hijrah,  if  we  may  believe  Zoroastrian  accounts. 

In  that  work  we  are  informed  that,  finding  that 
the  Zoroastrian  faith  had  to  a  great  extent  lost  its 
hold  upon  the  minds  of  the  people  of  the  Persian 
Empire,  the  Magian  priests  determined  to  support 
by  fresh  proofs  the  restoration  of  the  faith  which 
the  zeal  of  Ardashir  had  undertaken  to  carry  out. 
Therefore  they  selected  a  young  priest  of  saintly 
life,  and  prepared  him  by  various  ceremonial  puri 
fications  for  an  ascent  into  the  heavens,  in  order 
that  he  might  see  what  was  there  and  bring  back 

1  Arid  VirdfNdmak. 


AND    TRADITIONS    OP    ISLAM.  227 


word  whether  it  agreed  or  not  with  the  accounts 
contained  in  their  religious  books.  It  is  related 
that,  when  this  young  Arta  Viraf  was  in  a  trance, 
his  spirit  ascended  into  the  heavens  under  the 
guidance  of  an  archangel  named  Sarosh,  and  passed 
from  one  storey  to  another,  gradually  ascending 
until  he  reached  the  presence  of  Ormazd  1  himself! 
When  Arta  Viraf  had  thus  beheld  everything  in 
the  heavens  and  seen  the  happy  state  of  their 
inhabitants,  6rmazd  commanded  him  to  return  to 
the  earth  as  His  messenger  and  to  tell  the  Zoroas- 
trians  what  he  had  seen.  All  his  visions  are  fully 
related  in  the  book  which  bears  his  name.  It  is 
unnecessary  to  quote  it  at  length,  but  a  few  quota 
tions  will  serve  to  show  how  evidently  it  served 
as  a  model  for  the  Muhammadan  legend  of  the 
ascent  of  Muhammad. 

In  the  Arid  Vimf  Namak  (cap.  vii,  §§  j-4)  we 
read  :  "And  I  take  the  first  step  forward  unto  the 

Storey  of  the  Stars,  in  IMmat And  I  see  the 

souls  of  those  holy  ones,  from  whom  light  spreads 
out  like  a  bright  star.  And  there  is  a  throne  and 
a  seat,  very  bright  and  lofty  and  exalted.  Then 
I  inquired  of  holy  Sarosh  and  the  angel  Adhar, 
'  What  place  is  this,  and  who  are  these  persons  ? ' " 
In  explanation  of  this  passage  it  should  be 
mentioned  that  the  «  Storey  of  the  Stars  "  is  the 
first  or  lowest  "  court "  of  the  Zoroastrian  Paradise. 

1  drmazd  is  the  later  form  of  the  Aveatic  Ahura  Mazdao,  the 
Good  God 


p  a 


228         ZOROASTRIAN     ELEMENTS    IN    THE    QUR'AN 

Adhar  is  the  angel  who  presides  over  fire.  Sarosh 
is  the  angel  of  obedience,  and  is  one  of  the  "  Eternal 
Holy  Ones"  (Amesha-spentas,  later  Amshdspands)  or 
archangels  of  the  Zoroastrian  faith.  He  guides 
Arta  Viraf  through  the  different  heavens,  just  as 
Gabriel  does  Muhammad. 

The  narrative  goes  on  to  relate  how  Arta  Viraf 
reached  the  Storey  of  the  Moon,  or  the  second,  and 
then  the  Storey  of  the  Sun,  which  is  the  third  of 
the  celestial  mansions.  In  the  same  way  he  was 
led  on  and  on  through  every  one  of  the  heavens, 
until  he  was  introduced  into  Ormazd's  presence, 
and  had  the  interview  which  is  detailed  in  cap.  xi 
in  these  words : — 

"  And  finally  up  rose  from  his  throne  overlaid 
with  gold  the  archangel  Bahman :  and  he  took 
my  hand  and  brought  me  to  Humat  and  Hukht 
and  Hurast1,  amid  Ormazd  and  the  archangels 
and  the  other  holy  ones  and  the  Essence  of 
Zoroaster  the  pure-minded  .  .  .  and  the  other  faith 
ful  ones  and  chiefs  of  the  faith,  than  whom  I  have 
never  seen  anything  brighter  and  better.  And 
Bahman  [said],  '  This  is  Ormazd/  And  I  wished 
to  offer  a  salutation  before  Him.  And  he  said  to 
me,  '  Salutation  to  thee,  O  Arta  Viraf !  Welcome  ! 
Thou  hast  come  from  that  perishable  world  to  this 

1  Three  courts  of  Paradise,  called  in  the  Avesta  Humata 
("good  thought  "),  Hukhta  ("good  word  ")  and  Hvarsta  ("good 
deed  ").  They  correspond  to  the  Star  Court  (Storey  of  the 
Stars),  Moon  Court,  and  Sun  Court  respectively. 


AND    TRADITIONS    OP    ISLAM.  22Q 


undefiled  bright  place.'  And  he  commanded  holy 
Sarosh  and  the  angel  Adhar,  '  Carry  off  Arta  Viraf 
and  show  him  the  throne  and  the  reward  of  the 
holy  ones  and  also  the  punishment  of  the  wicked.' 
And  finally  holy  Sar6sh  and  the  angel  Adhar  took 
my  hand,  and  I  was  carried  forward  by  them  from 
place  to  place ;  and  I  have  seen  those  archangels, 
and  I  have  seen  the  other  angels." 

We  are  then  told  at  considerable  length  how 
Arta  Viraf  visited  Paradise  and  hell,  and  what  he 
saw  in  each.  After  his  visit  to  hell  the  tale  goes 
on: — 

"  At l  last  holy  Sarosh  and  the  angel  Adhar  took 
my  hand  and  brought  me  forth  from  that  dark, 
dreadful  and  terrible  place,  and  they  bore  me  to 
that  place  of  brightness  and  the  assembly  of 
Ormazd  and  the  archangels.  Then  I  wished  to 
offer  a  salutation  before  Ormazd.  And  He  was 
kind.  He  said,  '  O  faithful  servant,  holy  Arta 
Viraf,  apostle  of  the  worshippers  of  Ormazd,  go 
thou  to  the  material  world,  speak  with  truth  to 
the  creatures,  according  as  thou  hast  seen  and 
known,  since  I,  who  am  6nnazd,  am  here.  Who 
soever  speaks  rightly  and  truly,  I  hear  and  know. 
Speak  thou  to  the  wise  ones.'  And  when  Ormazd 
spake  thus,  I  remained  astounded,  for  I  saw  a  light 
and  did  not  see  a  body,  and  I  heard  a  voice,  and 
I  knew  that  '  this  is  6rmazd.' " 

It  is  unnecessary  to  point  out  how  great  is  the 
1  Cap.  ci. 


230         ZOROASTRIAN    ELEMENTS    IN    THE    QUR*AN 


resemblance  between  all  this  and  the  Muhammadan 
legend  of  Muhammad's  Mi  raj. 

In  the  Zardusht-Namah,  a  work  which  was 
probably  composed  in  the  thirteenth  century  of 
the  Christian  era,  there  is  related  a  legend  that 
Zoroaster  himself,  centuries  earlier  than  Arta  Viraf, 
•ascended  up  to  heaven,  and  afterwards  obtained 
permission  to  visit  hell  also.  There  we  are  told  he 
saw  Ahriman,  who  closely  corresponds  with  the 
Iblis  of  the  Qur  an. 

Nor  are  such  legends  confined  to  the  Persian 
portion  of  the  Aryan  world.  In  Sanskrit  also  we 
have  similar  tales,  among  which  may  be  mentioned 
the  Indralokagamanam,  or  (i  Journey  to  the  World  of 
Indra,"  the  god  of  the  atmosphere.  There  we  are 
told  that  the  hero  Arjuna  made  a  journey  through 
the  heavens,  where  he  saw  Indra's  heavenly  palace, 
named  Vaivanti,  which  stands  in  the  garden  called 
Nandanam.  The  Hindu  books  tell  us  that  ever- 
flowing  streams  water  the  fresh,  green  plants 
that  grow  in  that  beautiful  place,  and  in  its  midst 
there  stands  a  tree  called  Pakshajati,  bearing  a 
fruit  styled  Amrita  or  Immortality,  the  afjijBpoo-ia  of 
Greek  poets,  of  which  whoever  eats  never  dies. 
Beautiful  flowers  of  varied  hues  adorn  that  tree; 
and  whoever  rests  under  its  shade  is  granted  the 
fulfilment  of  whatever  desire  he  may  conceive  in 
his  heart. 

The  Zoroastrians  have  also  an  account  of  the 
existence  of  a  marvellous  tree,  called  Hvdpa  in  the 


AND    TRADITIONS    OF    ISLAM.  23! 


Avesta  and  Humaya,  in  Pahlavi,  the  meaning  in 
each  case  being  "  possessed  of  good  water,"  "  well 
watered."  In  the  VencUddd  it  is  described  in  these 

W0rds : "  In l  purity  do  the  waters  flow  from  the 

sea  of  Puitika  into  the  sea  of  Vourukasha,  to  the 
tree  Hvapa :  there  grow  all  plants  and  of  all  kinds." 
Hvapa  and  Pakshajati  are  identical  with  the  Tuba' 
or  tree  of  "  goodness "  of  the  Muhammadan  para 
dise,  which  is  too  well  known  to  need  description 
here. 

It  must,  however,  be  noted  that  very  similar 
legends  are  found  in  certain  Christian  apocryphal 
works  also,  especially  in  the  "  Visio  Pauli  "  and  the 
"  Testament  of  Abraham,"  to  the  latter  of  which  we 
have  already  had  to  refer  more  than  once.  In  the 
" Visio  Pauli"  we  are  told  that  Paul  ascended  to 
the  heavens  and  beheld  the  four  rivers  of  Paradise : 
and  Abraham  also  viewed  the  wonders  of  the 
heavens  in  his  legendary  "  Testament,"  each  return 
ing  to  earth  to  relate  what  he  had  seen,  just  as 
Arta  Viral  and  Muhammad  are  said  to  have  done. 
Of  Abraham  it  is  said:  "And2  the  archangel 
Michael  descended  and  took  Abraham  up  upon 
a  cherubic  chariot,  and  he  raised  him  aloft  into  the 
ether  of  the  sky,  and  brought  him  and  sixty  angels 
upon  the  cloud ;  and  Abraham  was  travelling  over 
the  whole  inhabited  earth  upon  a  conveyance." 

This  "cherubic  chariot"  assumes  another  form 

1  Vendidadj  cap.  v. 

a  "Testament  of  Abraham,"  Rec.  A.,  cap.  x. 


232          ZOROASTRIAN    ELEMENTS    IN    THE 


in  the  Muhammadan  legend,  for  Muhammad  rides 
upon  an  animal  called  Burdq,  riding  being  more 
in  accordance  with  Arabian  ideas  than  driving. 
The  word  JBur&q  is  probably  derived  from  the 
Hebrew  bdrdq,  "  lightning,"  which  in  Arabic  is  larq, 
though  a  Pahlavi  derivation  is  also  possible. 

Before  passing  on  to  consider  other  points,  it 
should  be  noticed  that  the  Book  of  Enoch  contains 
a  long  account  of  the  wonders  of  earth,  hell  and 
sky  which  Enoch  saw  in  his  l  vision  (opda-ei).  This 
apocryphal  work  no  doubt  had  its  influence  on 
the  legends  contained  in  the  "  Visio  Pauli  "  and  the 
'•'  Testament  of  Abraham  "  and  thus  upon  the  Mu 
hammadan  fable  ;  but  we  can  hardly  suppose  that 
the  Arid  Yiraf  Namak  was  affected,  except  per 
haps  indirectly,  by  these  works.  However,  that  is 
a  question  which  does  not  affect  our  present 
inquiry. 

Now  regarding  the  Tree  of  Life  in  the  Garden 
of  Eden  the  Jews  have  many  marvellous  2  legends, 
which  may  have  been  borrowed  from  the  Accadian 
tales  about  the  "  Sacred  Tree  of  Eritu,"  mentioned 
in  some  of  the  earliest  inscriptions  found  at  Nippur 

1  Liber  Henoch,  capp.  xiv,  xv,  sqq. 

2  In  the  Targum  of  Jonathan,  for  example,  we  are  told  that 
the  Tree  of  Life  was  500  years'  journey  in  height!    The  Muslims 
confound  this  with  the  Tree  of  the  Knowledge  of  Good  and 
Evil,  which  they  take  to  have  been  the  wheat  plant.     Of  it  we 
are  told  that  it  presented  itself  before  Adam  to  tempt  him  to 
eat  of  it.     Adam  rose  to  his  full  height,  "500  years'  journey  "  to 
avoid  it,  but  the   plant  grew  and  kept  on  a  level  with  his 
mouth  (Qisatu'l  Anbiyd,  p.  17). 


AND    TRADITIONS    OF    ISLAM.  233 

by  Dr.  Hilprecht.  Into  these  we  need  not  now 
enter  at  any  length,  merely  observing  how  great 
a  contrast  there  is  between  all  such  legends  and 
the  simple  narrative  of  fact  contained  in  Genesis. 
The  Jewish  legends  have  affected  the  Muhammadan 
account  of  the  heavenly  Paradise,  because  the 
Muslim  belief  is  that  the  Garden  of  Eden  was 
situated  in  heaven.  They  therefore  transfer  to  the 
heavenly  Paradise  much  that  the  Jews  have  related 
about  the  earthly.  In  this  respect  they  may  have 
been  led  into  error  by  the  Christian  apocryphal 
books,  for  the  description  of  the  four  rivers,  &c., 
given  in  the  "  Visio  Pauli  "  (cap.  xlv)  evidently 
springs  from  the  same  strange  fancy.  It  is  hardly 
necessary  to  say  that  these  apocryphal  books  were 
never  accepted  by  any  section  of  the  Christian 
Church  as  of  any  weight  or  authority,  though 
some  of  them  had  at  one  time  a  considerable  degree 
of  popularity  with  the  ignorant  multitude.  Some 
of  them  have  long  been  known,  others  have  only 
recently  been  recovered  after  having  been  lost  for 
centuries.  Whether  the  Muhammadans  derived 
their  account  of  the  tree  Tuba'  from  the  Zoroas- 
trians  or  from  Jewish  fables,  or  whether  both  the 
latter  (being  of  common  origin)  have  not  had  some 
influence  on  the  story,  we  need  not  inquire.  The 
four  rivers  that  Muhammad  saw  are  those  of  the 
"Visio  Pauli,"  and  these  latter  are  identical  with 
the  rivers  of  Eden,  owing  to  the  error  which  we 
have  noticed  above. 


234         ZOROASTRIAN    ELEMENTS    IN    THE    QURAN 

It  may  be  asked  whether  the  biblical  account  of 
the  ascension  of  Enoch,  Elijah,  our  Lord,  and  the 
"  catching l  up  to  the  third  heaven  "  of  the  person 
whom  some  have  supposed  to  be  St.  Paul,  have  not 
been  the  original  sources  of  all  the  fables  which  we 
have  met  with2.  It  is  somewhat  difficult  and 
quite  unnecessary  to  suppose  this  with  reference  to 
the  Persian  and  Indian  tales  to  which  we  have 
referred,  though  it  may  be  true  of  the  others. 

1  2  Cor.  xii.  2-4. 

2  A  Muhammadan  might  add,  "If  we  reject  the  account  of 
Muhammad's  ascension,  how  can  we  accept  those  of  Enoch, 
Elijah,  and  Christ  ? "    The  answer  is  not  far  to  seek.     The 
historical  evidence  for  Christ's  ascension  is  unquestionable,  and 
we  accept  the  other  accounts  upon  His  authority.     Moreover,  to 
urge  that  there  can  be  no  genuine  coins  because  there  are 
known  to  be  some  spurious  ones  in  circulation  is  not  very 
logical.     There  would  be  no  spurious  ones  if  there  had  not  heen 
genuine  coins,  upon  the  model  of  which  the  latter  have  been 
made.      Hence  the  very  existence  of  so  many  legends  of  as 
censions  should  lead  us  a  priori  to  infer  that  these  must  be 
based  upon  some  one  or  more  true  accounts  of  such  occurrences. 
Moreover,  as  the  true  coin  may  be  known  from  the  false  by 
its   ring,    so    a  comparison   between    the   biblical    narratives 
(Gen.  v.  24  ;  2  Kings  ii.  11,  12  ;  Acts  i.  9-11)  and  those  others 
which  we  have  been  dealing  with  will  suffice  to  show  what  an 
immense  difference  exists  between  them.    For  instance,  St.  Paul 
tells  us  of  some  one  who  (whether  in  the  body  or  not  he  did 
not  know)  was  "  caught  up  to  the  third  heaven,  and  heard  un 
speakable  words,  which  it  is  not  lawful  for  a  man  to  utter." 
But  the  apocryphal  "  Visio  Pauli "  states  that  Paul  was  the 
person  referred  to,  and  puts  in  his  mouth  a  long  account  of 
what  he  saw  and  heard  there.     The  difference  is  much  the 
same  as  that  which  exists  between  the  testimony  of  a  sober 
historian  and  the  wonderful  tales  contained  in  the  Arabian 
Nights. 


AND    TRADITIONS    OF    ISLAM.  235 

But  if  it  be  so,  we  find  that  the  Muslim  legend  of 
Muhammad's  ascent,  like  so  many  other  legends1 
about  Muhammad,  has  been  invented,  on  the  model 
of  other  accounts  like  that  contained  in  the  Aria 
Tiraf  Ndmak,  with  the  object  of  making  it  appear 
that  he  was  in  certain  respects  similar,  though 
superior,  to  Christ  and  the  other  prophets  who 
preceded  him. 

2.  The  Muhammad  an  Paradise  with  iff  Hurls. 

With  these  we  may  couple  the  Ghilman,  the 
Jinn*,  the  Angel  of  Death,  and  the  Dharr&tul 
Kdindt. 

As  examples  of  the  descriptions  which  the 
Qur'an  gives  of  Paradise,  we  may  quote  the 
following  passages2:— 

Surah  LV.,  Ar  Rahman,  46  sqq. :  "And  for 
him  who  feareth  the  tribunal  of  his  Lord  there  are 
two  gardens,  dowered  with  branches.  In  each  of 
them  two  fountains  flow.  In  each  of  them  there 
are  of  every  fruit  two  kinds.  They  recline  upon 
couches  of  which  the  inner  lining  is  of  brocade : 
and  the  fruit  of  the  two  gardens  hangs  low.  In 
them  are  [maidens]  restraining  their  glances,  whom 
neither  man  nor  demon  hath  approached  before 
them.  They  are  as  it  were  rubies  and  pearls.  Is 
the  recompense  for  kindness  other  than  kindness  ? 

1  Dr  Koelle,  MoJiammed  and  Mohammedanism,  pp.  246  sqq. 
9  Similar  passages  may  be  found  in  Surahs  II.,  IV.,  XIII., 
XXXVI.,  XXXVII.,  XLVIL,  LXXXIII.,  &c. 


236         ZOROASTRJAN    ELEMENTS    IN    THE 


And  besides  these  two  there  are  two  [other] 
gardens,  dark  green.  In  each  of  them  are  two 
fountains,  flowing  abundantly.  In  each  of  them 
are  fruits  and  palms  and  pomegranates.  In  each 
are  [maidens]  good,  beauteous,  Hurts  enclosed  in 
pavilions,  whom  neither  man  nor  demon  hath 
approached  before  them.  [The  Just]  recline  on 
green  pillows  and  beautiful  carpets." 

Again,  in  Surah  LVL,  Al  Waqi'ah,  u  sqq.,  we 
find  a  similar  account  of  the  delights  reserved  in 
Paradise  for  the  "  Companions  of  the  Right  Hand," 
— that  is,  the  saved — on  the  Resurrection  Day : — 
"  These  are  those  who  are  brought  nigh,  in  gardens 
of  delight  .  .  .  upon  bejewelled  couches,  reclining 
upon  them,  facing  one  another.  Upon  them  wait 
immortal  youths"  (the  Ghilmari),  "with  goblets  and 
beakers  and  a  cup  from  a  spring  [of  wine] 1.  They 
do  not  suffer  headache  from  it,  nor  do  they  become 
intoxicated.  And  with  fruit  of  whatever  kind 
they  choose,  and  birds'  flesh  of  whatever  sort  they 
desire.  And  there  are  large-eyed  Huris  like  hidden 
pearls,  a  recompense  for  what  they  used  to  do. 
They  do  not  hear  in  it  any  vain  discourse,  nor  any 
charge  of  crime,  only  the  word  '  Peace,  Peace/  And 
the  Companions  of  the  Right  Hand — what  of  the 
Companions  of  the  Right  Hand  ?  In  a  thornless 
Lotus-tree  and  a  flower-bedecked  Acacia  and 
widespread  shade  and  streaming  water,  and  with 

1  Wine  is  shown  to  be  meant  from  the  context.  Rivers  of 
wine  are  spoken  of  in  Surah  XLVII.,  16. 


AND    TRADITIONS    OF    ISLAM.  237 


abundant  fruit  not  cut  off  and  not  forbidden,  and 
in  raised  couches.  Verily  We  have  produced 
them"  (these  damsels)  "by  a  [peculiar]  creation. 
Therefore  have  We  made  them  virgins,  beloved,  of 
an  equal  age  [with  their  •  spouses]  for  the  Com 
panions  of  the  Right  Hand1." 

We  shall  see  that  much  of  this  description  is 
derived  from  Persian  and  Hindu  ideas  of  Paradise, 
though  most  of  the  more  unpleasant  details  and 
conceptions  are  doubtless  the  offspring  of  Muham 
mad's  own  sensual  nature. 

The  idea  of  the  JIuris  is  derived  from  the 
ancient  Persian  legends  about  the  Pairakas,  called 
by  the  modern  people  of  Iran  Paris.  These  the 
Zoroastrians  describe  as  female  spirits  living  in  the 
air  and  closely  connected  with  the  stars  and  light. 
So  beautiful  are  they  that  they  captivate  men's 
hearts.  The  word  Hur,  by  which  these  damsels  of 
Paradise  are  spoken  of  in  the  Quran,  is  generally 
supposed  to  be  of  Arabic  derivation,  and  to  mean 
'•black-eyed."  This  is  quite  possible.  But  it  is 
perhaps  more  probably  a  Persian  word,  derived 
from  the  word  which  in  Avestic  is  hvare,  in  Pahlavi 
Mr,  and  in  modern  Persian  khur,  originally  denot 
ing  "light,"  "brightness,"  "sunshine,"  and  finally 
"the  sun."  When  the  Arabs  borrowed  the  con 
ception  of  these  bright  and  "  sunny  "  maidens  from 

1  Much  more  graphic  pictures  of  Paradise  and  its  pleasures 
are  given  in  the  Traditions.  Vide  the  Sahth  of  Bukhari  and 
the  Mishkdtul  Mafdbih  on  the  subject, 


238          ZOROASTRIAN    ELEMENTS    IN    THE    QUR'AN 

the  Persians,  they  also  perhaps  borrowed  the  word 
which  best  described  them.  It  was  natural  for  the 
Arabs  to  find  a  meaning  in  their  own  language  for 
the  word,  just  as  in  a  similar  way  asparagus  has 
become  "sparrow-grass,"  renegade  "runagate,"  the 
girasole  a  "  Jerusalem  "  artichoke,  or  in  Greek  the 
Arabic  word  wadi,  having  become  Hellenized  under 
the  form  oWis,  was  supposed  to  come  from  cww, — 
doubtless  on  the  lucus  a  non  lucendo  principle. 
Firdaus  itself,  one  of  the  words  in  the  Quran  for 
"  Paradise,"  is  a  Persian  word ;  and  several  words 
from  that 1  language  occur  in  the  passages  which 
we  have  translated  above.  It  is  not,  however,  of 
any  real  importance  to  ascertain  the  derivation  of 
the  word  Hur.  The  beings  whom  the  word  is 
intended  to  express  are  of  distinctly  Aryan  origin, 
as  are  the  Ghilmdn.  The  Hindus  believe  in  the 
existence  of  both,  calling  the  Huris  in  Sanskrit 
Apsarasas,  and  the  Ghilman  Gandharvas.  They 
were  supposed  to  dwell  principally  in  the  sky, 
though  often  visiting  the  earth. 

Muslim  historians  relate  many  tales  which  show 
how  much  the  prospect  of  receiving  a  welcome 
from  the  Huris  in  Paradise  cheered  many  an 
ardent  young  Muhammadan  warrior  to  rush  boldly 
to  his  death  in  battle.  This  belief  is  very  similar 
to  the  ancient  Aryan  idea  as  to  the  reward  of 
those  who  died  on  the  field  with  all  their  wounds 

1  See  Al  Kindi's  Apology  :  Sir  W.  Muir's  translation,  pp.  79,  80, 
and  notes. 


AND    TRADITIONS    OF    ISLAM.  239 

in  front.  For  Manu  says  in  his  DkarmaSaxtra : 
l<  Earth-lords 1  contending  in  battles,  mutually 
desirous  of  killing  one  another,  not  averting 
their  faces,  thereafter  through  their  prowess  go 
to  heaven."  So  also  in  the  Nalopakhyanam  we  find 
Indra  saying  to  the  hero  Nala :  "  Just 2  guardians 
of  the  earth  (i.e.  kings),  warriors  who  have 
abandoned  (all  hope  of)  life,  who  in  due  time  by 
means  of  a  weapon  go  to  destruction  without 
averting  their  faces — theirs  is  this  imperishable 
world" — the  heaven  of  Indra.  Nor  were  such 
ideas  confined  to  India,  for  our  own  northern 
ancestors  used  in  heathen  days  to  believe  that  the 
heavenly  Valkyries,  or  "Selectors  of  the  Slain," 
would  visit 3  the  field  of  battle  and  bear  thence  to 
the  heaven  of  Odhin,  to  Valhalla,  the  "  Hall  of  the 
Slain,"  the  spirits  of  brave  warriors  who  fell  in  the 
strife. 

The  Jinns  are  a  kind  of  evil  and  malicious  spirits 
which  have  great  power  and  are  a  source  of  terror 
in  many  parts  of  the  Muslim  world.  We  have 
already  seen 4  that  they  are  said  to  have  been 
subject  to  Solomon,  and  they  are  not  unfrequently 

1  "  Ahaveshumitho  'nyo  'nyam  jighamsanto  mahikshita/i 
Yudhyamanaft  paramgaktyasvargam  yantyaparanmukhaft." 
— Dharmasdstra,  bk.  vii,  si.  89. 
a  "  Dharmajnaft  prithivipalas  tyaktajivitayodhinaft 

Sastrena  nidhanam  kale  ye  gacchantyaparanmukha/i 
Ayam  loko  'kshayas  tesham." — Nalopdkhydnam  ii.  17, 18. 

3  Cf.  the   Armenian    Aralezk'h    (Ezniq   Goghbatsi,    '  Eghds 
Aghandots,'  bk.  i.,  pp.  94,  95;. 

4  pp.  8!  sqq. 


240         ZOROASTRIAN    ELEMENTS    IN    THE    QUR*AN 

mentioned  in  the  Qur  an 1,  where  we  are  told  that 
they  were  made  of  fire 2,  as  were  the  angels  and  the 
demons.  The  word  itself  seems  to  be  Persian,  for 
the  singular  Jinni  is  the  Avestic  Jaini 3,  a  wicked 
(female)  spirit. 

In  examining  the  question  of  the  origin  of  the 
Muhammadan  legend  regarding  the  "  Balance,"  we 
saw  that  it  is  stated  in  the  Traditions  that  in 
his  Mi" raj  Muhammad  saw  Adam  weeping  in 
heaven  when  he  looked  at4  the  "Black  Figures" 
(al  aswidah)  on  his  left  hand,  but  rejoicing  when 
his  glance  rested  on  those  which  stood  at  his  right. 

These  black  figures  were  the  spirits  of  his 
descendants  as  yet  unborn.  They  are  generally 
termed  "The  Existent  Atoms"  (adh  dharrdtul 
kainaC).  They  differ  from  the  beings  mentioned  in  - 
the  "  Testament  of  Abraham "  (from  which  the 
main  features  of  that  portion  of  the  tale  are 
borrowed)  in  the  fact  that,  in  the  latter  book, 
Abraham  sees  the  spirits  of  his  descendants  who 
had  died,  while  in  the  Muhammadan  tradition  he 
sees  those  of  men  not  yet  born,  in  the  form  of 
"Existent  Atoms."  The  name  by  which  these 
beings  are  known  in  Muhammadan  religious  works 

1  Surahs  VI.,  100,  128  ;  XV.,  27  j  XXVI.,  212  ;  XLL,  24,  29,  &c. 

3  Surahs  XV.,  27  ;  LV.,  14. 

3  Yasna,  X.,  §  4  :  a,  53.  If  the  word  were  Arabic  and  from 
the  root  ^,  it  would  be  not  jtnnt  butjanm  (like  qalil  from  T$). 
Nor  is  it  derived  from  jcmnat,  Paradise,  for  then  it  would  be 
jannl.  Moreover,  the  Jinns  have  no  connexion  with  Paradise, 
and  are  not  allowed  to  enter  it.  *  pp.  307,  208. 


AND    TRADITIONS    OF    ISLAM.  24! 

is  undoubtedly  a  purely  Arabic  one.  But  the  idea 
seems  to  have  been  derived  from  the  Zoroastrians, 
among  whom  these  beings  were  called  fravasku  * 
in  Avestic  and  feruhars  in  Pahlavi.  Some  have 
fancied  that  possibly  the  Persians  adopted  this 
idea  from  the  ancient  Egyptians,  but  this  hardly 
seems  probable.  Whether  it  be  so  or  not,  the 
Muslims  are  indebted  for  their  belief  in  the  pre- 
existence  of  men's  spirits  to  the  Zoroastrians. 

The  Muslims  speak  of  the  Angel  of  Death  very 
much  as  the  Jews  do,  though  the  latter  say  that 
his  name  is  Sammael,  while  the  former  call  him 
'Azrail.  But  this  latter  name  is  not  Arabic  but 
Hebrew,  once  more  showing  the  extent  of  the 
influence  exercised  by  the  Jews  upon  nascent 
Islam.  As  this  angel's  name  is  not  mentioned  in 
the  Bible,  it  is  evident  that  what  the  Jews  and 
the  Muslims  say  about  him  must  be  borrowed 
from  some  other  source.  This  is  probably  Persian, 
for  the  A  vesta  tells  us  of  an  angel  called  Asto- 
i-Uhotus  or  VUhatm,  "the  divider,"  whose  duty 
it  is  to  separate  body  and  spirit.  If  a  man  fell 
into  fire  or  water  and  was  burnt  to  death  or 
drowned,  the  Zoroastrians  held  that  his  death 
could  not  be  due  to  the  fire  or  to  the  water for 

1  The  Fravashis  are  both  spiritual  prototypes  and  guardian 
angels,  protecting  Ormazd's  creatures.  Every  such  being, 
whether  born  or  unborn,  has  a  fravashi,  as  have  even  Ormazd, 
the  Arnshaspands  and  the  Izads.  The  "Grandson  of  the 
Waters."  the  genius  who  presides  over  fertility  and  fecundity, 
brings  the  fravashis  to  their  bodies  in  Yesht  VIII.,  34. 


242         ZOROASTRIAN    ELEMENTS    IN    THE    QUR  AN 


these  "elements"  were  supposed  to  be  good  .and 
not  injurious  to  man.  It  was  the  work  of  the 
Angel  of  Death,  Vidhatus1. 

3.  The  Ascent  of'Azdzttfrom  Hell. 

'Azazil,  according  to  the  Muslim  tradition,  was 
the  original  name  of  Satan  or  Iblis.  The  name  is 
Hebrew  and  occurs  in  the  original  text  of  Leviticus 
(xvi.  8,  10,  26).  But  the  tale  of  his  origin  is  not  at 
all  Jewish  but  almost  if  not  quite  Zoroastrian,  as 
a  comparison  between  the  Muslim  and  the  Zoroas 
trian  legends  proves. 

In  the  Qisasu'l  Anbiyd  (p.  9),  we  read:  "God 
Most  High  created  'Azazil.  'Azazil  worshipped 
God  Most  High  for  a  thousand  years  in  Sijjin  2. 
Then  he  came  up  to  the  earth.  On  each  storey 3 
he  worshipped  God  Most  High  for  a  thousand 
years  until  he  came  up  upon  the  surface,"  the 
highest  story,  on  which  men  dwell.  God  then 
gave  him  a  pair  of  wings  made  of  emerald,  with 
which  he  mounted  up  to  the  first  heaven.  There 
he  worshipped  for  a  thousand  years,  and  thus  was 
enabled  to  reach  the  second  heaven,  and  so  on, 
worshipping  for  a  thousand  years  at  each  stage 

1  Vendiddd,  cap.  v,  lines  25  to  35. 

2  Or  the  "  Dungeon."     This  is  the  name  of  the  seventh  or 
lowest  story  in  hell,  and  of  the  book  kept  there,  in  which  the 
demons  write  the  evil  deeds  of  apostates  and  infidels  (Surah 
LXXXIIL,  7-10). 

*  As  has  been  already  said,  the  earth,  like  hell  and  heaven, 
consists  of  seven  stories. 


AND    TRADITIONS    OF    ISLAM. 


243 


of  his  ascent,  and  receiving  from  the  angelic 
inhabitants  of  each  heaven  a  special  name.  In 
the  fifth  heaven  he  was  for  the  first  time— according 
to  this  form  of  the  legend— called  'Azazil.  He 
thus  ascended  to  the  sixth  and  the  seventh  heaven, 
and  then  had  performed  so  much  adoration  that 
he  had  not  left  in  earth  or  heaven  a  single  spot 
as  large  as  the  palm  of  a  man's  hand  on  which  lie 
had  not  prostrated  himself  in  worship.  Afterwards 
we  are  told  that  for  the  sin  of  refusing  to  worship 
Adam  he  was  cast  out  of  Paradise  \  The  "Ardim'l 
Majdlis2  tells  us  that,  being  then  called  Iblfs,  he 
remained  for  three  thousand  years  at  the  gate  of 
Paradise  in  the  hope  of  being  able  to  inflict  some 
injury  on  Adam  and  Eve,  since  his  heart  was  full 
of  envy  and  ill-will  towards  them. 

Now  let  us  see  what  account  the  Zoroastrians 
give  of  what  is  evidently  the  same  matter  in  the 
Mndahishnih,  a  Pahlavi  work  the  name  of  which 
means  "Creation."  It  must  be  noted  that  in 
Pahlavi  the  Evil  Spirit  is  called  Ahriman,  which 
is  derived  from  AM  Mainyu*  ("the  destroying 
mind"),  the  name  by  which  he  is  known  in  the 
Avesta. 

In  the  first  and  second  chapters  of  the  Bund  a- 
huhnih  we  read : — 

"Ahriman  was  and  is   in  darkness   and  after- 

1  <?t>asu'J  AnUyd,  p.  13  :  see  above,  p.  195. 
1  'Ar&wfl  Majdlis,  p.  43. 


2 


244          ZOROASTRIAN    ELEMENTS    IN    THE    QUR'AN 


knowledge  1  and  the  desire  of  inflicting  injury,  and 
in  the  abyss.  .  .  .  And  that  injuriousness  and  that 
darkness  too  are  a  place  which  they  call  the  dark 
region.  Ormazd  in  his  omniscience  knew  that 
Ahriman  existed,  because  he  "—that  is,  Ahriman— 
"  excites  himself  and  intermingles  himself  with  the 
desire  of  envy  even  unto  the  end.  .  .  .  They" 
(6rmazd  and  Ahriman)  "  were  for  three  thousand 
years  in  spirit,  that  is,  they  were  without  change 
and  motion.  .  .  .  The  injurious  spirit,  on  account 
of  his  after-knowledge,  was  not  aware  of  the 
existence  of  Ormazd.  At  last  he  rises  from  that 
abyss,  and  he  came  to  the  bright  place ;  and,  since 
he  saw  that  brightness  of  6rmazd,  .  .  .  because 
of  his  injurious  desire  and  his  envious  disposition 
he  became  busied  in  destroying." 

We  necessarily  find  a  certain  difference  in  form 
between  the  legend  as  it  arose  among  the  dualistic 
Zoroastrians  and  the  aspect  it  assumed  among  the 
Monotheistic  Muslims.  Hence  in  the  former  the 
Evil  Principle  is  not  a  creature  of  6rmazd,  and 
does  not  at  first  know  of  His  existence,  whereas 
in  the  latter  he  is,  of  course,  one  of  the  creatures 
of  God.  In  the  Muhammadan  legend  he  gradually 
ascends  higher  and  higher  by  his  piety,  while  in 
the  Zoroastrian  account  piety  can  have  nothing 

1  That  is,  Ahriman  does  not  know  the  future  but  only  the 
past.  His  after-knowledge  is  the  ImwOeia  of  the  Greeks  (Pro- 
inetheus  contrasted  with  Epimetheus),  and  Ormazd  ultimately 
vanquishes  him  because  the  latter  alone  has  foreknowledge. 


AND    TRADITIONS    OF    ISLAM.  245 

to  do  with  the  matter.  But  in  both  cases  the  Evil 
Spirit  at  first  dwells  in  darkness  and  ignorance 
and  comes  up  to  the  light,  and  in  both  cases  he 
sets  himself  to  work  to  destroy  God's  creatures 
through  envy  and  ill-will.  The  twelve  thousand 
years  during  which,  according  to  Zoroastrian  ideas, 
the  contest  between  good  and  evil  goes  on  is  divided 
into  four  periods  of  three  thousand  years  each. 
A  reference  to  this  is  probably  to  be  found  in  the 
three  thousand  years  during  which,  as  we  have  seen, 
'Azazil  (Iblis)  lies  in  wait  for  Adam's  destruction. 

Before  leaving  this  subject  it  may  be  of  interest 
to  point  out  that  the  Peacock  has  some  connexion 
with  the  Evil  Spirit  both  in  the  Muhammadan 
and  in  the  Zoroastrian  legend.  In  the  Qimwl 
Anbiyd  we  are  told  that  when  Iblis  was  seated  in 
ambush  before  the  gate  of  Paradise,  watching  for 
an  opportunity  to  enter  and  tempt  Adam  and  Eve 
to  sin,  the  Peacock  was  sitting  on  the  wall,  on  top 
of  one  of  the  battlements,  and  saw  him  most  piously 
engaged  in  repeating  the  loftiest  names  of  God 
Most  High.  Struck  with  admiration  for  so  much 
piety,  the  Peacock  inquired  who  this  ardent  devotee 
might  be.  Iblis  replied,  "  I  am  one  of  the  angels 
of  God ;  may  He  be  honoured  and  glorified ! " 
When  asked  why  he  sat  there,  he  replied,  "I  am 
looking  at  Paradise,  and  I  wish  to  enter  it."  The 
Peacock  was  acting  as  watchman,  so  he  replied, 
"I  have  no  orders  to  admit  any  one  to  Paradise 
while  Adam  is  in  it."  But  Iblis  bribed  him  to 


246          ZOROASTRIAN    ELEMENTS    IN    THE    QUR 

grant  him  admission  by  promising  to  teach  him 
a  prayer,  the  repetition  of  which  would  keep  him 
from  ever  growing  old,  from  rebelling  against  God, 
and  from  ever  being  driven  forth  from  Paradise. 
On  this  the  Peacock  flew  down  from  the  battle 
ment  and  told  the  Serpent  what  he  had  heard. 
This  led  to  the  fall  of  Eve  and  afterwards  of 
Adam.  When,  therefore,  God  Most  High  cast 
Adam,  Eve,  the  Tempter  and  the  Serpent  down 
from  Paradise  to  the  earth,  he  hurled  down  the 
Peacock1  with  them. 

It  is  noteworthy  that  the  Zoroastrians  also 
believed  in  a  connexion  between  Ahriman  and 
the  Peacock.  The  Armenian  writer  Ezniq,  whom 
we  have  already  quoted  in  a  different  connexion, 
informs  us  of  the  Zoroastrians  of  his  day  that 
"They2  say  that  Ahriman  said,  'It  is  not  that 
I  cannot  make  anything  good,  but  I  will  not/ 
And,  in  order  to  prove  what  he  said,  he  made  the 
Peacock." 

If  the  Peacock  in  the  Zoroastrian  legend  is 
a  creature  of  Ahriman,  we  are  not  surprised  at 
its  helping  Iblis  in  the  Muhammadan  one,  and 
being  expelled  from  Paradise  along  with  him. 

4.  Legend  of  the  "  Light  of  Muhammad" 

Though  not  mentioned  in  the  Qur'an,  the  story 
of  the  Light  of  Muhammad,  which  shone  on  his 

1  Qi$a$u'l  Aribiyd,  pp.  1 6,  17. 

2  Refutation  of  Heresies,  Book  ii. 


AND    TRADITIONS    OF    ISLAM.  247 

forehead  and  was  his  pre-existent  essence,  so  to 
speak,  occupies  a  very  important  place  in  the 
Traditions.  Whole  pages  are  filled  with  such 
traditions  in  such  books  as  the  Raudatul  Ahbdb. 
There  we  read  that  "When  Adam  was  created, 
God  placed  that  light  upon  his  forehead,  and  said, 
'  0  Adam,  this  light  which  I  have  placed  upon  thy 
forehead  is  the  light  of  the  noblest  and  best  son 
[of  thine],  and  it  is  the  light  of  the  chief  of  the 
prophets  who  shall  be  sent.' "  Then  the  narrative 
goes  on  to  say  that  the  light  passed  on  from  Adam 
to  Seth,  and  from  Seth  to  the  noblest  of  his 
descendants  in  each  generation,  until  in  due  course 
it  reached  'Abdu'llah  ibn  Al  Muttalab.  From  him 
it  passed  to  Aminah  when  she  conceived  Muham 
mad  1.  It  may  be  that  Muhammadans  have  intended 
in  their  account  of  this  light  of  Muhammad  to 
exalt  their  master  so  as  to  match  what  is  said  of 

1  Another  tradition  mentions  the  following  facts  which  are 
of  interest  as  showing  the  importance  of  this  light.  Muhammad 
said,  "God  Most  High  divided  that  light  "  (before  the  creation 
of  the  world,  for  "The  first  thing  that  he  created  was  my  Light," 
Qi?asu'l  Anbiyd,  p.  a,  vide  also  p.  282)  "  into  four  sections,  and  He 
created  the  Throne  "  (or  Highest  Heaven,  Al  'Arsh)  "out  of  one 
section,  and  from  one  section  He  created  the  Pen,  and  from 
one  section  He  created  Paradise,  and  from  one  section  He 
created  the  Believers.  He  again  divided  these  four  sections 
into  four  other  parts.  Out  of  the  first,  the  choicest  and  most 
honourable,  He  created  me,  who  am  the  Apostle,  and  from  the 
second  part  He  created  Reason  and  placed  it  in  the  Believers' 
head,  and  out  of  the  third  part  He  created  modesty  and  placed 
it  in  Believers'  eyes,  and  out  of  the  fourth  part  He  created 
Desire,  and  placed  it  in  Believers'  hearts."  (Qiq «.«<7  Anliyd,  p.  a.) 


248          ZOROASTBIAN    ELEMENTS    IN    THE    QURAN 


Christ  in  John  i.  4,  5  (cf.  xii.  41),  and  that  there 
is  a  confusion  in  their  minds  between  the  first  of 
these  passages  and  Gen.  i.  3.  At  the  same  time  it 
will  be  seen  from  the  passages  which  we  now 
proceed  to  quote  that  the  details,  though  with 
marvellous  exaggeration  and  invention,  are,  in 
their  main  outline,  borrowed  from  Zoroastrian 
legend. 

In  the  Pahlavl  Mwmkhirad,  which  was  composed 
in  the  days  of  the  early  Sasanian  kings  of  Persia, 
we  read  that  6rmazd  created  this  world  and  all 
His  creatures,  and  the  archangels,  and  the  Heavenly 
Reason,  out  of  His  own  special  light,  with  the 
praise  of  Zarvan  i  Akarana  or  "Endless  Time." 
But  in  a  work  far  more  ancient  than  this  the  fable 
of  the  light  is  found  existent  in  Persia.  In  the 
Avesta  it  is  mentioned  in  connexion  with  the  great 
Yima  Khshaeta  or  Yima  "  the  Brilliant,"  who  from 
its  possession  derived  his  name,  afterwards  cor 
rupted  into  the  modern  Persian  Jamshid.  He  is 
identical  with  the  Sanskrit  Yama,  who  in  the 
Rig  Veda  is  spoken  of  as  the  first  of  men,  as  in 
vain  tempted  to  sin  by  his  twin  sister  Yami,  and 
as  after  death  ruling  the  shades  of  the  dead. 
Yima,  in  Persian  tradition  on  the  other  hand,  is 
the  founder  of  Persian  civilization.  His  father's 
name,  Vivanhvat 1,  is  the  same  as  the  Vivasvat  of 
the  Indian  legend,  who  is  the  Sun,  and  is  father 

1  In  Persian  legend,  Vivanhvat  is  the  fifth  in  descent  from 
Gaya  Maretan,  the  first  man  (Yasna,  IX.,  4). 


TRADITIONS    OF    ISLAM.  249 


of  Yama.  On  Yima's  brow  shone  the  Kavaem 
Hvareno  or  "  Royal  Brightness,"  an  emanation  front 
the  Divine  glory,  until  through  sin  he  lost  it.  Of 
this  the  following  description  is  given  in  the1 
Avesta  :— 

"  The  mighty  Royal  Brightness  for  a  long  time 
adhered  to  Jamshid,  master  of  the  good  herd,  while 
he  reigned  on  the  seven-climed  earth,  over  divs  and 
men,  magicians  and  Paris,  evil  spirits  and  sooth 
sayers  and  wizards.  .  .  .  Then,  when  he  conceived 
in  mind  that  false  and  worthless  word,  the  visible 
brightness  departed  from  him  in  the  form  of 
a  bird.  .  .  .  He  who  is  Jamshid,  master  of  the 
good  herd,  Jain,  no  longer  seeing  that  brightness, 
became  sorrowful ;  and  he,  having  become  troubled, 
engaged  in  working  hostility  upon  earth.  The 
first  time  that  brightness  departed,  that  brightness 
[departed]  from  Jamshid,  that  brightness  departed 
from  Jam,  son  of  Vivanhvat,  like-  a  fluttering 
bird.  .  .  .  Mithra  took  that  brightness.  When  the 
second  time  that  brightness  departed  from  Jam 
shid,  that  brightness  (departed)  from  Jam,  son  of 
Vivanhvat,  it  went  away  like  a  fluttering  bird : 
Faridun,  offspring  of  the  Athwiyani  tribe,  the 
brave  tribe,  took  that  brightness,  since  he  was  the 
most  victorious  man  among  victorious  men.  .  .  . 
When  the  third  time  that  brightness  departed 
from  Jamshid,  that  brightness  departed  from  Jam, 

1   Yesht,  XIX.,  31-38. 

3  Literally,  "  in  the  form  of." 


250          ZOROASTRIAN    ELEMENTS    IN    THE    QUR'AN 


son  of  Vivanhvat,  like  a  fluttering  bird:  Kere- 
saspa  the  manly  took  that  brightness,  since  he  was 
the  mightiest  among  mighty  men." 

Here  we  see  that,  just  as  in  the  Muhammadan 
legend,  the  light  passes  on  from  generation  to 
generation,  to  the  most  worthy  man  in  each.  It 
was  natural  for  the  offspring  of  the  Sun  to  possess 
this  light  in  the  first  place,  and  its  transmission 
marked  the  handing  down  of  the  sovereignty* 
There  seems  no  special  suitability  in  the  legend 
that  it  was  handed  down  from  Adam  to  Muham 
mad,  unless  to  magnify  the  prophet  in  the  same 
way  in  which  the  ancient  legend  glorified  these 
various  old  Persian  heroes. 

Moreover,  we  notice  that  Jamshid  ruled  "over 
cUvs  and  men,  magicians  and  Paris,  evil  spirits 
and  soothsayers  and  wizards,"  just  as  the  Jewish 
and  Muhammadan  legends  spoken  of  in  an  earlier 
chapter  l  represent  Solomon  as  doing.  Doubtless 
the  Jews  borrowed  this  story  from  the  Zoroas- 
trians  and  passed  it  on  to  the  Muslims,  as  we  have 
said  in  Chapter  III. 

What  the  Muslim  Tradition  says  of  the  dividing 
up  of  the  "Light  of  Muhammad,"  when  first 
created,  into  various  parts,  out  of  which  other 
things  were  made,  is  very  similar  to  the  story  con 
cerning  Zoroaster  in  the  old  Persian  book  entitled 
Dasdtw  i  Asmdnt  whence  it  was  very  possibly 

1  pp.  81,  84,  and  90,  note. 


AND    TRADITIONS    OF    ISLAM.  25 1 


derived,  especially  as  the  same  idea  is  found  also  in 
older  Zoroastrian  writings,  as  in  the  Minnkhirad 
quoted  above. 

5.  The  Bridge  of  the  Lead. 

This  is  called  in  the  Muhammadan  Traditions 
As-Sirat  or  "  The  Way."  There  are  many  details 
given  about  this  marvellous  bridge,  which  is  said 
to  be  finer  than  a  hair  and  sharper  than  a  sword. 
It  stretches  right  over  the  abyss  of  hell,  and  is 
the  only  way  of  passing  from  earth  to  heaven  on 
the  Judgment  Day.  All  will  be  commanded  to 
cross  it.  The  pious  Muslim  will  do  so  without 
difficulty,  guided  by  the  angels ;  but  the  unbe 
liever,  unable  to  cross,  will  fall  headlong  into 
hell  fire. 

Though  the  word  Sirdt  is  used  in  the  Qur'an  in 
the  metaphorical  sense  of  a  way,  as  in  the  phrase 
A?  Sirdtul  Mustaqim  (-"  the  Right  Way,"  Surah  I., 
Al  Fatihah,  et  passim),  yet  it  is  not  properly  an 
Arabic  word  at  all.  Its  derivation  shows  the 
origin  of  the  legend  about  the  bridge  of  that  name. 
The  word  comes  from  no  Arabic  or  indeed  Semitic 
root,  but  is  the  Persian  C/tinvat  in  Arabic  letters, 
since  the  Arabic  language,  not  having  any  character 
to  represent  the  sound  ch  (as  in  church),  replaces  it 
by  the  letter  ^  (#),  the  first  letter  in  Sirdt.  Chinvat 
in  Persian  means  a  collector,  one  that  sums  up  or 
assembles  (cf.  Sanskrit  Vf3)  or  takes  account. 
Hence  it  is  only  by  contraction  that  the  Arabic 


252          ZOROASTRIAN    ELEMENTS    IN    THE 

Sirdt  gets  its  meaning,  for  the  A  vesta  speaks,  not 
of,  Chinvat l  but  of  Chinvato-peretus,  "  The  bridge  of 
him  that  reckons  up  "  good  deeds  and  bad.  This 
bridge  extends  from  Mount  Alburz  to  the  Chakat 
Daitih,  reaching  over  hell.  Each  man's  spirit,  as 
soon  as  certain  funeral  ceremonies  have  been  per 
formed,  reaches  the  bridge  and  has  to  cross  it  in 
order  to  enter  Paradise.  When  he  has  crossed  the 
bridge,  he  is  judged  by  Mithra,  Rashnu,  and 
Sraosha  in  accordance  with  the  account  of  his 
deeds,  good  and  bad2.  Only  if  his  good  deeds 
exceed  his  evil  ones  can  the  gate  of  Paradise  be 
opened  to  admit  him.  If  his  deeds  are  prepon- 
deratingly  evil,  he  is  cast  into  hell :  but  if  the 
good  are  equal  to  the  bad,  the  spirit  of  the  dead 
has  to  await3  the  last  judgment  (vfalditi),  which 
will  take  place  at  the  close  of  the  final  struggle 
between  Orrnazd  and  Ahriman. 

To  show  the  origin  not  only  of  the  word  Sirdt 
but  of  the  Muhammadan  doctrine  on  the  subject,  it 
is  sufficient  to  translate  the  following  short  pas 
sage  from  the  Pahlavi  book  called  the  Dinkart:— 
"I  flee4  from  much  sin,  and  I  keep  pure  my  con 
duct  by  keeping  pure  the  six  powers  of  life — act 
and  speech  and  thought  and  intellect  and  mind 

1  Later,  however,  the  contraction  is  found  in  the  Zoroastrian 
books. 

2  See  note  p.  205  above. 

3  In  a  place  called  Misvdno  Gdtul  (Vendiddd,  XIX.,  36  ;  Yesht, 
I.,  i  ;  Sirozd,  L,  30  ;  II.,  30).     Vide  above,  pp.  123,  124,  202. 

*  Dinkart,  pt.  II.,  cap.  LXXXL,  §§  5  and  6. 


AND    TRADITIONS    OF    ISLAM.  253 

and  understanding — by  thy  desire,  0  mighty 
Causer  of  good  deeds.  In  justice  do  I  perform  it, 
that  worship  of  thine,  in  good  thought  and  speech 
and  deed,  in  order  that  I  may  remain  in  the  bright 
way,  that  I  may  not  arrive  at  the  severe  punish 
ment  of  hell,  but  may  cross  over  Chinvat  and  may 
attain  to  that  blessed  abode  which  is  full  of  per 
fume,  wholly  pleasant,  always  brilliant."  In  the 
A  vesta  also  we  find  many  references  to  the  same 
belief,  among  others  the  passage  in  which  it  is  said 
of  good  men  and  women :  "  Whom  l  too  I  shall 
lead  through  the  prayer  of  such  as  you :  with  all 
blessings  shall  I  guide  them  to  the  bridge  of 
Chinvat." 

A  further  proof  of  the  Aryan  origin  of  this 
belief  is  found  in  the  fact  that  the  ancient  Scandi 
navian  mythology  contains  mention  of  Bifrgst, 
generally  styled  "the  bridge  of  the  gods,"  by 
which  they  cross  over  from  their  abode  in  Asgardh 
(in  heaven)  to  the  earth.  It  is  the  rainbow.  This 
at  once  explains  the  natural  basis  upon  which  the 
legend  of  the  bridge  is  founded,  and  shows  how 
ancient  it  is,  as  the  Scandinavians  brought  the 
idea  with  them  to  Europe.  It  must  therefore  have 
been  common  to  them  and  the  Persians  in  very 
ancient  times.  In  Greece  the  rainbow  becomes 
the  messenger  of  the  gods  (Iris)  in  the  Iliad,  but 
the  idea  of  a  bridge  connecting  heaven  and  earth 
seems  to  have  been  lost. 

1  Yasna,  XLVI.,  10. 


254          ZOROASTRIAN    ELEMENTS    IN    THE 


6.  Other  Persian  Ideas  Borrowed. 

There  are,  no  doubt,  many  other  matters  in 
which  Persian  ideas  have  influenced  Islam,  but 
what  has  been  said  is  sufficient  for  our  purpose. 
We  must  not  conclude  this  part  of  our  inquiry, 
however,  without  a  reference  to  two  other  points 
of  some  little  importance. 

One  of  these  is  the  Muslim  belief  that  every 
prophet  before  his  death  gave  notice  of  the 
coming  of  his  successor.  This  idea  finds  no  sup 
port  in  the  Bible,  where  we  find  prophecies  of  the 
coming  of  the  Messiah,  but  nothing  to  give  rise  to 
the  Muhammadan  theory.  It  is  probably  borrowed 
from  a  Zoroastrian  work  called  the  Dasdtir  i  As- 
mdni.  This  work  claims  to  be  of  very  great  antiquity, 
and  (owing  doubtless  to  the  difficulty  of  making 
any  sense  out  of  the  original1  text)  is  believed 
by  many  of  the  modern  Parsis  to  be  "  composed  in 
the  language  of  heaven " !  An  interlinear  trans 
lation  into  the  old  Dari  dialect  of  Persian,  how 
ever,  accompanies  the  text,  which  is  said  to  have 
been  discovered  in  Persia  early  in  the  last  century, 

1  The  original  text  (as  published  in  Bombay)  is  written  in 
Arabic  (Persian)  characters.  By  retranslating  the  Dari  in  a 
few  passages  into  Pahlavi  and  then  writing  the  latter  in  Arabic 
characters,  I  think  I  have  proved  that  the  difficulty  in  under 
standing  the  original  text  consists  in  the  fact  that  the  transcriber 
into  the  Arabic  character  did  not  know  Pahlavi,  and  confounded 
with  one  another  the  very  difficult  combinations  of  letters  in 
that  confused  current  script. 


AND    TRADITIONS    OF    ISL&M.  255 


and  was  edited  by  Mulla  Firuz  of  Bombay.  It 
consists  of  fifteen  tractates  which  are  supposed  to 
have  been  revealed  to  fifteen  successive  prophets, 
the  first  of  whom  is  styled  Mahabad  and  the  last 
Sasan,  from  whom  probably  the  Sasanian  dynasty 
may  be  supposed  to  trace  their  descent.  The  Dari 
translation  is  said  to  date  from  the  time  of 
Khusrau  Parviz  (A.D.  590-5),  so  that  the  original 
must  be  of  some  antiquity l.  Near  the  conclusion 
of  each  tractate  but  the  last  there  is  what  purports 
to  be  a  prophecy  of  the  coming  of  the  next  pro 
phet  in  succession.  The  object  of  this  is  very 
evident.  Many  Parsis  reject  the  book,  but  the 
idea  seems  to  have  pleased  the  Muslims  so  much 
that  it  has  found  an  entrance  into  their  ordinary 
belief. 

Secondly,  it  is  worthy  of  note  that  the  second 
verse  of  every  one  of  these  tractates  runs  thus : 
"  In  the  name  of  God,  the  Giver,  the  Forgiver,  the 
Merciful,  the  Just."  It  is  evident  that  these  words 
are  closely  related  to  those  which  form  the  intro 
duction  to  every  Surah  of  the  Qur'an  except  the 
ninth :  "  In  the  Name  of  God,  the  Compassionate, 
the  Merciful."  Probably  the  Qur'an  has  borrowed 
from  the  Zoroastrian  book  and  not  conversely :  for 
the  Buwlahishnih  has  the  similar  clause,  "In  the 
Name  of  6rmazd  the  Creator." 

1  It  is  mentioned  by  the  authors  of  the  Dabistdn  i  Mafdhib  and 
of  the  Burhdn  i  Qa/t",  so  it  must  have  been  lost  since  their  day. 
We  have  mentioned  its  recovery. 


256          ZOROASTRIAN    ELEMENTS    IN    THE    QUR5AN 

Others  think  that  the  clause  in  the  Qur'an  is  of 
Jewish  origin.  Tradition  says  that  one  of  the 
ffanifs,  whom  we  shall  deal  with  in  our  next 
chapter,  Ummiyyah,  a  poet  belonging  to  Taif, 
taught  this  formula  jfco  the  Quraish1,  having  learnt 
it  from  his  intercourse  with  Jews  and  Christians 
during  his  journeys  in  Syria  and  elsewhere  as 
a  merchant.  If  Muhammad  heard  it  in  this  way 
and  adopted  it,  he  doubtless  altered  it  somewhat, 
as  he  always  did  whatever  he  borrowed.  But  it 
is  more  probably  of  Zoroastrian  origin  than  of 
Jewish,  and  Ummiyyah  might  have  learnt  it  from 
the  Persians  whom  he  met  on  his  mercantile 
expeditions. 


We  have  seen  how  extensive  Persian  influence 
was  in  Arabia  in  Muhammad's  time,  and  there  is 
therefore  no  a  priori  difficulty  in  accepting  the  con 
clusion  which  must  be  drawn  from  all  the  coinci 
dences  mentioned  in  the  present  chapter — that 
Zoroastrian  ideas  and  legends  are  one  of  the 
sources  from  which  Islam  has  derived  very  much 
of  what  is  contained  in  certain  parts  of  the  Qur'an 
and  the  Traditions.  Tradition  itself  proves  the 
possibility  of  this,  for  the  Raudatul  AhMb  tells  us 
that  it  was  Muhammad's  habit  to  speak2  a  few 

1  Kitoibu'l  Aghdni,  16  (quoted  by  Rodwell,  Koran,  p.  i). 

2  In  the  Sunan  of  Ibn  Majah  a  tradition  is  found  on  the 
authority  of  Abu  Hurairah,  who  says  that  Muhammad  said  to 
him  in  Persian,  Shikamat  dard?    His  knowledge  of  the  language 


AND    TRADITIONS    OF    ISLAM.  257 

words  in  their  own  language  to  people  that  came 
to  him  from  different  nations,  and  that,  since  on 
one  or  two  occasions  he  spoke  Persian  to  such 
visitors,  a  few  Persian  words  in  this  way  found  an 
entrance  into  the  Arabic  language.  Of  course 
there  is  a  good  deal  of  the  legendary  in  this  state 
ment,  but  it  is  important  in  its  way  because  it 
clearly  testifies  to  the  fact  that  Muhammad  had  at 
least  some  slight  acquaintance  with  Persian,  if 
with  no  other  foreign  tongue.  Again,  among  other 
Persian  converts,  the  Siratur  Easul  of  Ibn  Ishaq 
and  Ibn  Hisham  informs  us  that  there  was  one 
called  Salman,  who  must  have  been  a  man  of  some 
education  and  ability,  since  it  was  by  his  advice 
and  in  accordance  with  his  military  experience  that 
Muhammad,  when  the  Quraish  and  their  allies 
were  besieging  Medina  in  February,  A.D.  627,  de 
fended  the  city  with  the  celebrated  ditch1,  a 
method  of  fortification  which  the  Arabs  are  said 
not  to  have  previously  used.  By  Salman's  advice 
Muhammad  is  also  said  to  have  used  a  catapult  at 
the  time  of  his  campaign  against  Taif  (A.D.  630). 
Some  say  that  Salman,  though  always  known  as 
"  the  Persian,"  was  originally  a  Christian 2  carried 

failed  to  supply  the  verb  mikunad,  which  is  required  to  complete 
the  sense. 

1  The  Persian  word  Kandak  (now  Kandah)  has  been  adopted 
into  Arabic,  and  occurs  in  the  Sirat  in  the  form  Khandaq. 

3  Other  accounts  say  he  was  first  a  Zoroastrian,  being  a 
Persian  by  birth  ;  he  then  became  a  Christian  and  went  to 
Syria,  from  which  country  he  was  brought  to  Arabia. 

tt 


258         ZOROASTRIAN    ELEMENTS    IN    THE    QUR*AN 

away  captive  from  Mesopotamia.  This  may  or 
may  not  be  true,  though  the  appellation  which  he 
received  does  not  support  it.  If  it  is  untrue,  he 
was  very  probably  the  person  whom  Muhammad's 
enemies  are  said  to  have  accused  the  Prophet  of 
using  as  his  assistant  in  the  composition  of  certain 
parts  of  the  Qur  an  ;  for  in  Surah  XVI.,  An  Nahl, 
105,  we  read:  "Truly  we  know  that  they  say, 
'  Verily  a  human  being  teacheth  him.'  The  tongue 
of  him  at  whom  they  aim  is  Persian  l,  and  this 
[book]  is  Arabic,  clear."  If  Salman  was  not  a 
native  of  Persia,  then  the  language  of  the  verse 
suffices  to  prove  that  there  was  some  Persian  in 
Muhammad's  company  who  was  believed  to  "teach" 
him  a  certain  portion  of  what  he  was  then  inserting 
in  the  Qur'an.  We  see  then  that  Persian  fables 
were  well  enough  known 2  in  Arabia  to  be  recog 
nized  by  some  at  least  of  the  Arabs  when  incor 
porated  into  the  supposed  Divine  Revelation.  Nor 
was  Muhammad  able  to  give  a  satisfactory  answer 
to  the  charge,  for  no  one  supposed  that  the 
foreigner  was  teaching  him  to  improve  his  Arabic 
style.  The  charge  affected  the  matter  and  not  the 
language  of  the  Qur'an.  Moreover,  as  we  have 
proved  that  Muhammad  borrowed  legends  from 
the  heathen  Arabs  and  from  the  Jews,  there  is  no 
reason  why  he  should  not  be  ready  and  willing  to 

1  The  word  'Ajami  properly  means  Persian,  though  capable  of 
being  applied  to  other  foreigners. 
8  Vide  pp.  215,  ai6.  217. 


AND    TRADITIONS    OF    ISLAM.  259 


adopt  others  from  Zoroastrian  sources.  In  fact  the 
instances  which  we  have  produced  in  this  chapter 
prove  conclusively  that  he  did  so,  and  that  these 
Persian  legends,  many  of  which  have  been  shown 
to  be  common  to  the  Persians  with  other  branches 
of  the  Aryan  family  of  nations,  form  another  of 
the  original  sources  of  Islam. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

THE  HANIFS  AND  THEIR  INFLUENCE  UPON 
NASCENT  ISLAM.     CONCLUSION. 

MUHAMMAD  was  by  no  means  the  first  of  his 
nation  who  became  convinced  of  the  folly  and 
worthlessness  of  the  popular  religion  of  the  Arabs 
of  the  time,  and  desired  to  effect  a  reform.  Some 
years  before  his  appearance  as  a  Prophet,  as  we 
learn  from  his  earliest  extant  biographers,  a 
number  of  men  arose  in  Medina,  Taif,  and  Mecca, 
and  perhaps  in  other  places1,  who  rejected  the 
idol-worship  and  polytheism  of  the  people  at  large 
and  endeavoured  to  find  the  true  religion.  Whether 
the  first  impulse  came  from  the  Jews,  as  is  very 
probable,  or  from  some  other  quarter,  the  men  of 
whom  we  speak  determined  to  restore  the  worship 
of  God  Most  High  (Allah  Ta'ala)  to  its  proper 
place  by  abolishing,  not  only  the  cult  of  the  inferior 
deities  who  had  almost  entirely  supplanted  Him, 
but  also  many  of  the  most  immoral  of  the  prac 
tices  then  prevalent,  opposed  as  they  were  to  the 
human  conscience  and  to  humanity  itself.  Whether 

1  Besides  the  authorities  mentioned  further  on,  see  an  in 
teresting  story  about  Abu  Dharr,  related  by  Muslim  in  his 
Kitdbu'l  Fattdil. 


THE    HANIFS.  261 


through  the  survival  of  a  tradition  that  Abraham, 
whom  they  claimed  as  their  ancestor,  had  known 
and  worshipped  the  One  True  God,  or  through  the 
statement  of  the  Jews  to  that  effect,  these  reformers 
asserted  that  they  were  seeking  for  the  "  Religion 
of  Abraham."  It  may  have  been  Jewish  exclusive- 
ness  which  prevented  them  from  accepting  the 
faith  of  these  latter  in  the  form  which  it  had  then 
assumed,  and  joining  the  synagogue.  Or,  on  the 
other  hand,  national  and  family  pride  may  have 
rendered  them  unwilling  to  accept  the  religion 
of  foreign  settlers  in  their  country.  It  is  also 
possible  that  some  of  these  reformers  may  have 
been  able  to  perceive  that  the  Jewish  religion  of 
the  time  was  by  no  means  free  from  gross  super 
stitions  ;  and  the  fact  that  the  Christians  accused 
the  Jews  of  having  rejected  and  slain  their 
Messiah,  and  pointed  to  their  fallen  condition  as 
a  proof  of  God's  wrath  against  them,  would  also 
have  some  influence  in  preventing  these  more  en 
lightened  Arabs  from  accepting  Talmudic  Judaism. 
Whatever  the  cause  may  have  been,  the  fact  is 
that  the  reformers  came  forth  in  the  first  instance 
as  inquirers  and  not  as  Jewish  or  Christian  pro 
selytes.  The  chief  of  them  who  are  known  to  us 
by  name  are  Abft  Amir  at  Medina,  Ummiyyah  ibn 
Zalt  at  Taif,  and  at  Mecca  Waraqah,  'Ubaidu'llah, 
'Uthman  and  Zaid  ibn  *Amr.  Others1  doubtless 

1  History  mentions  twelve  of  Muhammad's  '  Companions ' 
who  at  first  were  IFanifs. 


262  THE    HANIF3    AND    THEIR    INFLUENCE 

more  or  less  sympathized  with  these  men,  though 
they  commanded  no  very  extensive  following. 

As  these  reformers  have  left  us  no  written 
record  of  their  beliefs,  except  one  poem  which  we 
shall  have  to  consider  in  due  course,  it  may  be 
of  importance  to  state  what  authority  we  have 
for  the  statements  which  we  shall  make  regard 
ing  them.  Our  chief  and  practically  our  only 
authority l  is  the  earliest  biographer  of  Muhammad 
whose  work  has  come  down  to  us,  Ibn  Hisham. 
The  first  writer  known  to  us  by  name  who  com 
posed  an  account  of  Muhammad's  life  was  Zuhri, 
who  died  in  the  year  124  of  the  Hijrah.  His 
information  was  drawn  from  what  was  handed 
down  orally  by  those  who  had  personally  known 
Muhammad,  and  especially  by  'Urwah,  one  of 
'Ayi  shah's  kindred.  In  many  respects,  doubtless, 
errors  and  exaggerations  may,  during  the  course 
of  years,  have  crept  into  such  Traditions ;  yet  if 
Zuhrt's  book  were  now  extant  it  would  be  of  very 
great  value  indeed.  But  unfortunately  it  has  not 
been  preserved,  unless  indeed  (as  is  very  probable) 
Ibn  Ishaq,  one  of  Zuhri's  disciples,  who  died 
A.  H.  151,  made  use  of  it  in  the  composition  of 
his  own  work  on  Muhammad's  life.  Doubtless, 
however,  Ibn  Ishaq  added  much  information  which 
he  had  collected  from  other  traditional  sources,  true 
or  false.  But  even  Ibn  Ishaq's  book  has  not  come 

1  Sprenger,  however,  quotes  others  which  he  thinks  worthy 
of  credence. 


UPON    NASCENT    ISLAM.  263 

down  to  us  in  a  complete  and  independent  form, 
though  much  of  it  is  preserved  in  the  numerous 
quotations  made  from  it  by  Ibn  Hishaui  (died 
A. H.  213)  in  his  Siratu'r  Rasul  or  "Biography  of 
the  Apostle,"  the  most  ancient  which  we  possess 
of  a  large  number  of  works  which  bear  the  same 
title.  This  book  is  of  great  value  in  all  matters 
connected  with  Muhammad  and  his  times,  for  it  is 
evidently  far  less  legendary  and  fabulous  than  all 
other  works  on  the  subject. 

What  Ibn  Ishaq  and  Ibn  Hisham  tell  us  about 
the  Arabian  reformers  in  particular  is  worthy  of 
the  more  credit  on  this  account,  because  they  had 
no  interest  in  praising  them  or  in  exaggerating 
the  resemblance  between  their  teaching  and  that  of 
Muhammad.  It  does  not  seem  to  have  occurred 
to  these  writers  that  any  use  could  be  made  of 
their  statements  by  adversaries,  and  hence  they 
seem  to  have  told  the  truth  as  far  as  they  knew 
it.  It  is  quite  possible  that  the  resemblance  be 
tween  their  doctrine's  and  those  which  Muhammad 
promulgated  may  have  been  greater  than  the  in 
formation  at  our  disposal  enables  us  to  show,  but 
it  can  hardly  have  been  less,  for  the  reason  we 
have  stated.  We  may  therefore  safely  rely  upon 
Ibn  Hisham's  account  as  containing  at  least  a 
minimum  of  what  they  taught,  and  compare  it 
with  the  Qur'an. 

In  order  to   enable   our   readers   to  judge   for 
themselves,   we    here    give   a   translation  of  Ibn 


264  THE    HANIFS    AND    THEIR    INFLUENCE 

Hisham's  narrative,  which,  it  will  be  noticed,  is  for 
the  most  part  founded  upon  the  earlier  account 
given  by  Ibn  Ishaq. 

"Ibn  Ishaq  says:  And1  the  Quraish  assembled 
one  day,  at  a  festival  which  they  had,  unto  one 
of  their  idols  which  they  used  to  magnify,  and 
to  which  they  used  to  offer  sacrifice,  and  near 
which  they  were  wont  to  remain,  and  around  which 
they  were  wont  to  circle.  And  that  was  a  fes 
tival  which  they  kept  one  day  in  every  year. 
Therefore  four  men  secretly  kept  apart  from  them. 
Then  said  they  one  to  another,  '  Be  ye  true  to  one 
another,  and  let  one  of  you  keep  another's  secret.' 
They  said,  '  Very  good.'  They  were  Waraqah  ibn 
Asad  2  .  .  .  and  'Ubaidu'llah  ibn  Jahsh  2  .  .  .,  whose 
mother  was  Umaimah,  daughter  of  'Abdu'l  Muttalab, 
and  'Uthman  ibnu'l  Huwairith  2  .  .  .,  and  Zaid  ibn 
'Amr  2  . .  .  They  accordingly  said  one  to  another, 
'  By  God,  ye  know  that  your  nation  is  based  upon 
nothing:  truly  they  have  erred  from  the  religion 
of  their  father  Abraham.  What  is  a  stone  3  that 
we  should  circle  round  it  ?  It  hears  not,  nor  sees, 
nor  injures,  nor  benefits.  O  people,  seek  for  your 
selves  [a  faith] ;  for  verily,  by  God,  ye  are  based 
upon  nothing.'  Accordingly  they  went  into  dif 
ferent  lands  that  they  might  seek  Jpanvfiam,  the 

1  Siratu'r  Rastil,  vol.  i,  pp.  76,  77. 

2  Here  I  omit  the  genealogies,  which  are  given  for  many 
generations  back. 

3  Referring  to  the  celebrated  HajcmCl  Aswad. 


UPON    NASCENT   ISLAM.  265 

Religion  of  Abraham.  Waraqah  ibn  Naufal  there 
fore  became  absorbed  in  Christianity,  and  he 
inquired  after  the  Books  among  those  who  pro 
fessed  it,  until  he  acquired  some  knowledge  from 
the  People  of  the  Book.  But  'Ubaidu'llah  ibn 
Jahsh  remained  in  the  state  of  uncertainty  in 
which  he  was  until  he  became  a  Muslim.  He 
then  migrated  with  the  Muslims  to  Abyssinia,  and 
with  him  his  wife  Umm  Habibah,  daughter  of 
Abu  Sufyan,  being  a  Muslim.  When  therefore  he 
arrived  there,  he  became  a  Christian  and  abandoned 
Islam,  so  that  he  perished  there  a  Christian.  Ibn 
Ishaq  says:  Accordingly  Muhammad  ibn  Ja'far 
ibn  Zubair  has  related  to  me,  saying :  'Ubaidu'llah 
ibn  Jahsh,  when  he  became  a  Christian,  used  to 
dispute  with  the  Companions  of  the  Apostle  of 
God  who  were  there  in  Abyssinia,  and  he  used  to 
say,  '  We  see  clearly  and  you  are  blinking,'  that 
is,  'We  are  clear-sighted  and  you  are  seeking  to 
see  and  do  not  yet  see/  and  that  because  a  whelp 
blinks  when  it  strives  to  open  its  eyes  to  see. 
The  word  he  used  means  to  have  one's  eyes  open. 
Ibn  Ishaq  says :  The  Apostle  of  God  succeeded  him 
as  husband  of  Umm  Habibah,  daughter  of  Abu 
Sufyan  ibn  Harb.  Ibn  Ishaq  says :  Muhammad 
ibn  *Ali  ibn  Husain  has  informed  me  that  the 
Apostle  of  God  sent  'Amr  ibn  Ummiyah  ad  Damri 
to  the  Negus  for  her:  therefore  the  Negus  be 
trothed  her  to  him.  Accordingly  he  married  him 
to  her.  And  he  fixed  as  her  dowry  from  the 


266  THE    HANIFS    AND    THEIR    INFLUENCE 

Apostle  of  God  four  hundred  dinars.  .  . .  Ibn  Ishaq 
says :  But  'Uthman  ibn  Huwairith  went  to  Caesar, 
Emperor  of  Byzantium :  then  he  became  a  Christian, 
and  his  abiding  with  him  prospered.  .  .  Ibn  Ishaq 
says:  But  as  for  Zaid  ibn  lAmr  ibn  Nufail,  he 
remained,  and  did  not  enter  into  Judaism  or  into 
Christianity :  and  he  abandoned  the  religion  of 
his  people ;  therefore  he  kept  aloof  from  the  idols 
and  from  carrion  and  from  blood  and  from  the 
sacrifices  which  were  offered  unto  the  idols,  and  he 
forbade  the  slaughter  of  infant  girls,  and  he  said, 
'  I  serve  the  Lord  of  Abraham  ' ;  and  he  reproved 
his  nation  for  the  faults  in  which  they  persisted. 
Ibn  Ishaq  says:  Hisham  ibn  'Urwah  has  related 
to  me  on  the  authority  of  his  father,  on  the 
authority  of  his  mother  Asma,  daughter  of  Abft 
Bakr,  that  she  said,  '  Truly  I  saw  Zaid  ibn  ' Amr 
ibn  Nufail  as  a  very  old  man  leaning  his  back 
against  the  Ka'bah  and  saying,  'O  tribe  of  the 
Quraish,  by  Him  in  whose  hand  is  the  soul  of 
Zaid  ibn  'Amr,  not  one  of  you  has  attained  unto 
the  Religion  of  Abraham  except  myself.'  Then 
he  would  say,  '  O  God,  if  I  knew  which  manner  is 
most  pleasing  to  Thee,  I  should  worship  Thee  in 
it ;  but  I  know  it  not.'  Then  he  used  to  worship 
at  his  ease1.  Ibn  Ishaq  says:  And  it  is  related 
that  his  son,  Su'aid  ibn  Zaid  ibn  'Amr  ibn  Nufail, 
and  'Urnar  bnu'l  Khattab,  who  was  his  cousin 

1  Or,  He  used  to  prostrate  himself  on  the  palms  of  his  hands. 


UPON    NASCENT    ISLAM.  267 

said  to  the  Apostle  of  God, '  Pray  for  forgiveness 
on  behalf  of  Zaid  ibn  'Amr.'  He  said,  'Yes,  for 
verily  he  shall  be  raised  'up  by  himself  as  a 
religious  sect.'  Zaid  ibn  'Amr  ibn  Nufail  spoke 
thus  in  reference  to  his  abandoning  the  religion 
of  his  people  and  what  happened  to  him  from 
them  in  consequence : 

"  One  Lord  or  a  thousand  Lords 

Shall  I  worship?    Are  things  then  partitioned  out? 

I  have  abandoned  Allat  and  'Uzza'  altogether: 

Thus  doeth  the  hardy,  the  patient  man. 

Therefore  I  worship  neither  'Uzza'  nor  her  two  daughters, 

Nor  do  I  resort  unto  the  two  idols  of  the  Banu  'Amr. 

Nor  do  I  worship  Ghanam,  though  he  was  a  Lord  to  us 

At  the  time  when  my  intellect  wandered. 

I  marvelled  :   both   during  the  nights    are   there  marvellous 

things 

And  during  the  days,  which  he  that  seeth  clearly  understandeth. 
For  God  hath  often  destroyed  men, 
Whose  condition  was  immorality. 
And  others  hath  he  preserved  by  proving  a  nation  : 
Therefore  doth  He  rear  up  from  them  the  little  child. 
And  among  us  a  man  stumbleth  :  one  day  he  recovereth, 
As  the  branch  that  drinketh  rain  is  refreshed. 
But  I  serve  as  my  Lord  the  Merciful  One, 
That  the  forgiving  Lord  may  forgive  my  sin. 
Preserve  ye  therefore  the  fear  of  God,  your  Lord 
When  ye  preserve  it  not,  it  shall  not  perish. 
Thou  shalt  see  the  pure  :  gardens  are  their  abode : 
And  for  the  unbelievers  is  Hell-fire  blazing  : 
And  in  life  is  disgrace,  and  that  they  should  die  : 
That  with  which  their  breasts  shall  be  oppressed  shall  they 
meet1." 


268  THE    HAN1FS    AND    THEIR    INFLUENCE 

Throughout  this  whole  account  we  notice  that 
Ibn  Hisham  is  scrupulously  careful  to  give  us  the 
very  words  which  his  predecessor  Ibn  Ishaq  had 
used  in  his  narrative.  We  have  therefore  some 
thing  definite  to  go  upon  in  considering  the  history 
and  beliefs  of  these  reformers,  and  especially  of 
Zaid,  whose  touching  story  and  whose  noble  verses 
show  what  an  influence  for  good  he  might  have 
exercised  upon  Muhammad.  We  shall  see  reason 
to  believe  that  he  did  exercise1  a  certain  amount 
of  influence,  and  we  may  well  wish  it  had  had 
more  effect  upon  Muhammad's  life  and  character. 

Ibn   Hisham,   again   on   Ibn  Ishaq's   authority 


. 

•* 

tf\-*> 

JaJJl 


UjJaiso' 


S  U  y5b 

Siratu'r  Rasul,  vol.  i,  p.  77. 

1  Imam  Abu'l  Farah  in  his  Kitdbu'l  Aghdni  (pt.  in,  p.  15!  tells 
us  that  Muhammad  had  met  and  conversed  with  Zaid  i'un  'Amr 
before  the  former  received  inspiration. 


UPON    NASCENT    ISLAM.  269 

informs  us  that  Al  Khattab,  who  was  Zaid's  uncle, 
reproved  the  latter  for  abandoning  the  religion  of 
his  people,  and  persecuted  him  to  such  an  extent 
that  he  was  unable  to  live  in  Mecca  any  longer. 
He  seems  to  have  travelled  in  other  parts  of  the 
country,  but  at  last  took  up  his  residence  in  a  cave 
on  Mount  Hira1.  There  he  lived  to  a  great  age, 
and  when  he  died  he  was  buried  at  the  foot  of  the 
mountain.  His  death  is  said  to  have  occurred  only 
five  years  before  Muhammad  first  put  forth,  in  A.D. 
612,  his  claim  to  the  prophetic  office.  Now  Ibn  Ishaq 
tells  us  that  it  was  the  custom  of  the  Quraish  "  in 
the  Days  of  Ignorance  "  to  leave  the  city  and  spend 
a  month  upon  Mount  Hira  —  the  month  of  Ramadan, 
as  he  implies  —  every  year  in  the  practice  of  penance 
(tafiannutk)2.  It  is  clear  that  it  was  in  consequence 
of  this  custom  that  Muhammad  afterwards  selected 
the  whole  of  that  particular  month  to  be  observed 
by  his  followers  for  ever  as  a  time  of  abstinence. 
As  it  fell  in  summer  in  his  time,  this  retreat  may 
have  been  a  welcome  change  to  the  wealthier 
members  of  the  community,  who  were  thus  enabled 
to  leave  for  a  time  the  hot  and  close  streets  of  an 

1  Siratur  Rasul,  vol.  i,  p.  79. 


J\*  .  .  .  j,+A\  C^Lsdlj  2*UUi  j  ^,5  v.  C^SNJ  U*  elk 
i-*t»aJl  c>I»J1  v/J*  J 

(Op.  ctfc,  vol.  i,  yp.  80,  81.) 


270  THE    HANIFS    AND    THEIR    INFLUENCE 


unhealthy  Eastern  city  for  the  pure  air  of  the  open 
country.  We  have  no  reason  to  suppose  that 
asceticism  played  any  considerable  part  in  their 
life  at  that  period.  Muhammad,  we  are  expressly 
told,  used  to  observe  this  custom  of  spending  the 
month  of  Ramadan  every  year  at  Mount  Hira: 
and  he  was  actually  living  in  the  very  cave  once 
inhabited  by  Zaid,  when,  as  he  believed,  the  first 
revelation  carne  to  him  through  the  Angel  Gabriel. 
It  is  an  error  to  see  in  this  any  special  "  retirement 
from  the  world  "  on  the  part  of  Muhammad  on  that 
occasion,  since  we  are  told  that  his  wife  Khadijah 
was  with  him,  and  he  was  only  following  the 
custom  *  of  his  tribe. 

It  is  evident  that,  during  this  yearly  visit  to 
Mount  Hira,  Muhammad  had  every  opportunity  of 
conversing  with  Zaid.  Muhammad's  reverence  for 
the  man  is  clearly  shown  by  Tradition.  We  have 
already  seen  that  he  afterwards  acknowledged  that 
Zaid  might  be  prayed  for  after  his  death  :  and  this 
is  the  more  noteworthy  because  Baidawi,  in  his 
commentary  upon  Surah  IX.,  At  Taubah,  114,  states 
that  Muhammad  was  forbidden  to  pray  for  the 
salvation  of  his  own  mother  Aminah,  to  whom  he 
was  tenderly  attached,  and  who  had  died  in  his  early 
youth.  Moreover,  Al  Waqidi  states  that  Muham 
mad  "  gave  Zaid  the  salutation  of  Peace,  an  honour 
vouchsafed  only  to  Muslims,  that  he  invoked  God's 
grace  on  him  and  affirmed,  '  I  have  seen  Him  in 

1  Vide  the  preceding  note,  which  is  of  great  importance. 


UPON    NASCENT    ISLAM.  271 


Paradise  :  he  is  drawing  a  train  after  him.'  Spren- 
ger  . . .  says, '  Muhammad  openly  acknowledged  Zaid 
as  his  precursor,  and  every  word  known  as  Zaid's 
we  find  again  in  the  Qur'anV"  For  instance,  in 
Surah  III.,  Al  'Imran,  19,  Muhammad  is  bidden  to 
say  to  the  common  people,  "  Have  ye  become  Mus 
lims  ?  "  or  "  Have  ye  surrendered  to  God  ?  "  These 
words  are  said  by  Ibn  Ishaq  -  to  have  been  ad 
dressed  to  the  people  by  Zaid  in  the  first  place. 
Everyone  of  the  main  principles  which  we  have 
found  mentioned  as  inculcated  by  Zaid  is  dwelt 
upon  in  the  Qur'an  also.  Among  these  may  be 
instanced :  (i)  the  prohibition  of  killing  infant 
daughters  by  burying  them  alive,  according  to  the 
cruel  custom  of  the  Arabs  of  the  time;  (2)  the 
acknowledgment  of  the  Unity  of  God;  (3)  the 
rejection  of  idolatry  and  the  worship  of  Al-Lat, 
Al-cUzza'  and  the  other  deities  of  the  people;  (4) 
the  promise  of  future  happiness  in  Paradise  or  the 
"  Garden " ;  (5)  the  warning  of  the  punishment 
reserved  in  hell  for  the  wicked ;  (6)  the  denuncia 
tion  of  God's  wrath  upon  the  "  Unbelievers  " ;  and 
(7)  the  application  of  the  titles  Ar  Rahman  (the 
Merciful),  Ar  Rabb  (the  Lord),  and  Al  Ghafur  (the 
Forgiving)  to  God.  Moreover,  Zaid  and  all  the 
other  reformers  (Hani/s)  claimed  to  be  searching 
for  the  "Religion  of  Abraham."  Besides  all  this, 

1  Koelle,-  Mfthammcd  and  Mohammedanism,  p.  53. 
J  Quoted  by  Sprenger,  Life  of  Muhammad,  p.  42. 


272  THE    HANIFS    AND    THEIR    INFLUENCE 

the  Qur'an  repeatedly  l,  though  indirectly 2,  speaks 
of  Abraham  as  a  Hanif,  the  chosen  title  of  Zaid  and 
his  friends. 

The  root  from  which  this  word  Hanif  is  derived 
means  in  Hebrew  "  to  conceal,  to  pretend,  to  lie,  to 
be  a  hypocrite,"  and  in  Syriac  its  meanings  are 
similar.  In  Arabic  it  seems  to  have  first  denoted 
"limping,"  or  ''walking  unevenly,"  but  came  to 
signify  impiety  in  abandoning  the  worship  of  the 
popular  deities.  In  this  sense  it  was  doubtless  at 
first  applied  to  the  reformers  as  a  reproach.  But 
since,  as  Ibii  Hisham  tells  us  3,  in  the  pronunciation 
of  the  Quraish  the  word  denoting  "  penance  "  and 
"  purity  "  was  confounded  with  the  term  denoting 
"  Hanifism,"  it  is  probable  that  the  Hauifi  gladly 
adopted  the  name  as  expressing  their  abjuration  of 
idolatry  with  all  its  abominations.  It  is  none  the 
less  remarkable,  however,  that  Muhammad  should 
have  ventured  to  apply  the  term  to  Abraham,  and 
to  invite  men  to  become  Hanifs  by  returning  to 
the  "Religion  of  Abraham,"  which  he  identified 
with  Islam  as  proclaimed  by  himself.  In  fact,  by 
this  use  of  the  word,  Muhammad  in  the  clearest 
possible  manner  declared  his  adhesion  to  the  doc 
trines  of  the  reformers.  When  in  addition  to  this 
we  find  him  adopting  their  teaching  and  incor- 

1  e.  g.,  Surahs  III.,  89  ;  IV.,  124  ;  VI.,  162. 

8  Arabic  scholars  will  see  in  what  the  indirectness  consists. 
Perhaps  there  is  no  real  reason  to  say  'indirectly,'  the  language 
is  so  nearly  direct. 

3  Above,  p.  269,  note  a. 


UPON     NASCENT    ISLAM.        CONCLUSION.  273 


porating  it  into  the  Qur'an,  we  cannot  hesitate  to 
recognize  the  dogmas  of  the  Hanifs  as  forming  one 
of  the  main  Sources  of  Islam. 

That  the  Hanifs  should  have  exercised  such  an 
influence  upon  nascent  Islam  was  very  natural  for 
family  reasons  also.  All  the  four  leading  re 
formers  at  Mecca  were  related  to  Muhammad, 
being  descended  from  a  common  ancestor  Liwa'. 
Moreover,  'Ubaidu'llah  was  a  son  of  a  maternal 
aunt  of  Muhammad,  and  the  latter  married  this 
reformer's  widow,  as  we  have  already  seen.  Two 
others,  Waraqah  and  'Uthman,  were  cousins  of  his 
first  wife  Khadijah,  as  we  learn  from  the  genea 
logies  given  by  Ibn  Hisliam l. 


One  objection  may  possibly  occur  to  the  reader 
who  has  patiently  followed  us  so  far  in  our  investi 
gations  into  the  origin  of  Islam.  He  may  perhaps 
say,  "  All  this  is  very  similar  to  the  play  of  Hamlet 
with  the  part  of  the  Prince  of  Denmark  left  out. 
You  have  shown  that  the  whole  of  Islam  has  been 
borrowed  from  previously  existent  systems,  and 
have  therefore  left  nothing  which  can  properly  be 
attributed  to  Muhammad  himself.  Is  it  not  strange 
to  find  Muhammadanism  without  a  Muhammad  ? ' 
The  answer  to  this  objection  is  not  far  to  seek. 
The  creed  of  Islam,  to-day  as  in  the  past,  shows 
what  a  very  important  part  Muhammad  plays  in 


r  Kasul,  pp.  63,  76,  &c. 
8 


274  CONCLUSION. 


the  religious  system  of  Muslims,  for  it  consists,  as 
Gibbon  has  well  said,  of  an  eternal  truth  and 
a  necessary  fiction :  "  There  is  no  God  but  God : 
Muhammad  is  the  Apostle  of  God."  It  is  not  too 
much  to  say  that  in  the  minds  of  his  followers 
Muhammad  holds  as  important  a  place  as  Jesus 
Christ  does  in  those  of  Christians.  The  influence 
of  his  example  for  good  or  ill  affects  the  whole 
Muhammadan  world  in  even  the  smallest  matters, 
and  few  men  have  played  a  more  momentous  part 
in  the  religious,  moral,  and  political  history  of  the 
human  race  than  the  founder  of  Islam. 

It  was  naturally  impossible  that,  occupying  the 
position  which  he  claimed  for  himself,  Muhammad 
should  not  have  left  upon  the  religion  which  he 
founded  the  distinct  impress  of  his  own  person 
ality.  A  builder  collects  his  materials  from  many 
different  quarters,  yet  their  method  and  arrange 
ment  reveal  his  skill.  The  plan  of  the  architect  is 
manifested  in  the  edifice  which  has  been  erected  as 
its  embodiment.  Just  in  the  same  way,  though  we 
have  seen  that  Muhammad  borrowed  ideas,  legends, 
and  religious  rites  from  many  different  quarters, 
the  religion  of  Islam  has  assumed  a  form  of  its 
own,  which  differs  in  certain  respects  from  any 
other  faith  with  which  it  may  be  compared.  The 
beauty  of  the  literary  style  of  many  parts  of  the 
Qur'an  has  been  universally  admired,  and  it  evi 
dences  the  eloquence  of  its  author  in  no  doubtful 
manner.  Its  want  of  arrangement  and  harmony  of 


CONCLUSION.  275 


design  may  not  be  due  to  him,  but  the  work  as 
a  whole  mirrors  forth  the  limitations  of  Muham 
mad's  intellect,  the  very  slight  amount  of  real 
knowledge  and  learning  that  he  possessed,  his  un 
limited  credulity  and  want  of  all  critical  faculty, 
and  the  moral  defects  of  his  character.  When 
studied  in  the  chronological  order  of  its  composi 
tion,  the  Qur'an  shows  traces  of  a  gradual  change 
of  policy  which  corresponds  with  the  alteration  in 
Muhammad's  own  position  and  prospects  in  tem 
poral  matters.  Certain  parts  of  it  are,  even  by 
Muhammadan  commentators,  explained  by  refer 
ence  to  important  events  in  his  life,  to  which 
the  "revelation"  of  these  particular  verses  was 
directly  due.  To  demonstrate  this  it  will  be  suffi 
cient  to  inquire  firstly  into  Muhammad's  attitude 
in  reference  to  the  use  of  the  sword  in  the  spread 
of  Islam,  and  secondly  into  but  one  incident  in  his 
matrimonial  relations. 

It  is  well  known  that,  before  he  left  Mecca  and 
took  refuge  in  Medina  in  A.D.  622,  Muhammad 
had  no  temporal  power.  His  followers  in  Mecca 
itself  amounted  to  only  a  few  score  !,  and  there 
fore  had  on  two  occasions — in  615  and  again 
in  6 1 6— to  seek  safety  in  flight  to  Abyssinia. 
Accordingly,  in  those  verses  and  Surahs  which 
were  composed  before  the  Hijrah,  no  mention 

1  The  total  number  of  those  who  went  to  Abyssinia  on  the 
occasion  of  the  second  migration  was  101,  of  whom  83  were 
men.     (Sir  W.  Muir's  Life  of  Malwniet,  p.  84.) 
S  2 


276  CONCLUSION. 


whatever  is  made  of  the  duty  of  taking  up  arms 
for  the  spread  of  the  faith,  or  even  in  self-defence. 
But  after  the  Hijrah,  when  many  of  the  people  of 
Medina  had  become  his  "  Helpers/'  he  in  the  first 
place  gave  permission  to  his  "  Companions "  to 
fight  for  the  protection  of  their  own  lives.  Ibn 
Hisham l  observes  that  this  permission  was  for  the 
first  time  given  in  these  verses :  "  It  is  permitted 
to  those  who  fight  because  they  are  treated  wrong 
fully  .  .  .  those  who  have  been  expelled  from 
their  dwellings  unjustly,  merely  because  they  say, 
'  Our  Lord  is  God ' "  (Surah  XXII.,  Al  Hajj,  40, 41). 
After  a  time,  when  victory  had  attended  Muham 
mad's  arms  on  several  plundering  expeditions 
directed  against  the  caravans  belonging  to  the 
Quraish,  this  permission  was  turned  into  a  com 
mand.  Accordingly  we  read  in  Surah  II,  Al 
Baqarah,  31 2,  214 :  "  War  is  fated  for  you,  although 
it  is  hateful  to  you.  .  .  .  They  ask  thee  concerning 
the  month  in  which  war  is  prohibited.  Say  thou : 
'  War  in  it  is  a  serious  matter,  and  so  is  hindering 
from  the  way  of  God,  and  unbelief  in  Him  and  in 
the  Sacred  Mosque;  and  the  expulsion  of  His 
people  from  it  is  more  serious  in  God's  sight,  and 
rebellion  is  worse  than  slaughter.'"  This  means 
that  the  Muslims  were  bidden  to  fight,  even  during 
the  time  when  war  was  forbidden  by  the  unwritten 
law  of  the  Arabs,  and  not  permit  their  enemies  to 

1  Siratu'r  Kami,  vol.  i,  p.  164,  on  the  authority  of  'Urwah  and 
others. 


CONCLUSION.  277 


hinder  them  from  having  access  to  the  Ka'bah. 
Thirdly,  when,  in  the  sixth  year  of  the  Hijrah,  the 
Muslims  had  overcome  the  Banil  Qurai^//ah  and 
certain  other  Jewish  tribes,  the  command  to  engage 
in  the  Holy  War,  or  JiMd,  became  still  sterner ;  for 
in  Surah  V.,  Al  Maidah,  37,  it  is  written :  "  Verily 
the  punishment  of  those  who  fight  against  God 
and  His  Apostle  and  strive  to  do  evil  in  the  land 
is  that  they  be  slain,  or  be  crucified,  or  have  their 
hands  and  their  feet  cut  off  on  opposite  sides,  or  be 
expelled  from  the  land :  that  is  a  punishment  for 
them  in  the  world,  and  for  them  in  the  next  life  is 
reserved  great  torment."  It  may  be  observed  that 
the  Commentators  explain  that  this  decree  refers 
to  the  treatment  to  be  inflicted  on  idolaters,  not  on 
Jews  and  Christians.  But  the  conduct  which  Mus 
lims  should  observe  towards  the  "  People  of  the 
Book "  was  prescribed  some  years  later,  shortly 
before  Muhammad's  death,  in  the  eleventh  year  of 
the  Hijrah.  Then  the  fourth  stage  is  reached  in 
Surah  IX.,  At  Taubah,  5  and  29— probably  the 
latest  in  date  of  all  the  Surahs  of  the  Quran  — 
where  it  is  commanded  that,  after  the  conclusion  of 
the  four  Sacred  Months  of  that  year,  the  Muslims 
should  recommence  the  war.  The  command  in 
these  verses  runs  thus:  "Accordingly  when  the 
Sacred  Months  are  past,  then  slay  the  Polytheists 
wherever  ye  find  them,  and  take  them  and  besiege 
them  and  lay  wait  for  them  with  every  ambus 
cade.  If  therefore  they  repent  and  raise  the 


278  CONCLUSION. 


prayers  and  bring  the  alms1,  then  free  them  on 
their  way:  verily  God  is  forgiving,  merciful.  .  .  . 
Fight  with  those  of  them  who  have  been  brought 
the  Book,  who  believe  not  in  God  nor  in  the  Last 
Day,  and  who  forbid  not  what  God  and  His  Apostle 
have  forbidden,  and  who  hold  not  the  true  religion, 
until  they  give  the  tribute2  out  of  hand  and  be 
humbled."  Thus  the  law  of  God  as  revealed  in  the 
Qur'an  was  modified  in  proportion  to  the  success  of 
Muhammad's  arms.  To  account  for  this  it  was  laid 
down  as  a  rule  that  certain  verses  were  superseded 
and  annulled  by  others  revealed  later,  according  to 
what  is  said  in  Surah  II.,  Al  Baqarah,  100  :  "As  for 
what  We  abrogate  of  a  verse  or  cause  thee  to 
forget  it,  We  bring  a  better  than  it  or  one  like  it : 
knowest  thou  not  that  God  is  able  to  do  every 
thing1?"  From  that  time  to  this,  however,  Mu- 
hammadan  jurists  have  not  been  able  to  decide 
which  verses  have  been  annulled  and  which  others 
have  taken  their  place,  though  some  225  are 
supposed  to  have  been  thus  abrogated. 

We  might  in  the  same  way  trace  the  change  in 
Muhammad's  attitude  towards  Jews  and  Christians 
from  the  beginning  of  his  career,  when  he  hoped 
to  win  them  over  to  his  side,  to  the  time  when, 
finding  himself  disappointed  in  this  expectation,  he 
resolved  to  turn  upon  them  with  the  sword.  But 

•  That  is,  the  alms  prescribed  for  Muslims  to  give:  i.e.  become 
Muslims. 

'J  Tho  jizyah-tax,  imposed  on  Jews  and  Christians. 


CONCLUSION.  279 


we  learn  the  same  lesson  from  all  such  investiga 
tions,  and  that  is  how  completely  Muhammad 
adapted  his  pretended  revelations  to  what  he 
believed  to  be  the  need  of  the  moment. 

The  same  thing  is  true  with  regard  to  what  we 
read  in  Surah  Al  Ahzab  regarding  the  circum 
stances  attending  his  marriage  with  Zainab,  whom 
his  adopted  son  Zaid  divorced  for  his  sake.  The 
subject  is  too  unsavoury  for  us  to  deal  with  at  any 
length,  but  a  reference  to  what  the  Qur'an  itself 
(Surah  XXXIII.,  37)  says  about  the  matter,  coupled 
with  the  explanations  afforded  by  the  Commentators 
and  the  Traditions,  will  prove  that  Muhammad's 
own  character  and  disposition  have  left  their  mark 
upon  the  moral  law  of  Islam  and  upon  the  Qur'an 
itself.  The  licence  given  to  him,  and  to  him  alone, 
in  the  Qur'an  to  marry1  more  than  the  legal 
number  of  four  wives  at  a  time  allowed  to  each 
Muslim  is  an  additional  proof  to  the  same  effect, 
and  it  is  explained  by  a  very  unpleasant  Tradition 
which  contains  a  saying  of  'Ayishah  in  reference  to 
his  idiosyncrasies. 

All  this  being  considered,  it  is  clear  that,  although 
Muhammad  borrowed  religious  practices,  beliefs, 
and  legends  from  various  different  sources,  yet  he 
combined  them  in  some  measure  into  one  more  or 
less  consistent  whole,  thus  producing  the  religion  of 
Islam.  Some  parts  of  this  are  good,  and  Islam 
contains  certain  great  truths,  borrowed  from  other 

»  Surah  XXXIII.,  Al  Ahzab,  49. 


280  CONCLUSION. 


systems  of  religion,  which  in  a  measure  account 
for  its  continued  existence  in  the  world.  But  it 
certainly  does  not  contain  a  single  new  or  lofty 
religious  conception,  and  its  general  tone  is  all  too 
faithful  a  reflexion  of  the  carnal  and  sensual 
nature  of  its  founder.  To  use  an  Oriental  simile 
is  not  perhaps  inappropriate  in  speaking  of  such 
a  thoroughly  local  and  Oriental  religion  as  Mu- 
hammadanism.  Islam  therefore  may  aptly  be 
compared  with  : 

"That  bituminous  lake  where  Sodom  flamed," 

which,  receiving  into  its  bosom  the  waters  of  many 
streams  that,  thus  united,  assume  the  shape  and 
form  of  its  basin,  turns  them  all  into  one  great 
widespread  Sea  of  Death,  from  whose  shores  rise 
pestilential  exhalations  destructive  to  all  life  within 
reach  of  their  malign  influence.  Such  is  Islam. 
Originating  from  many  different  sources  and  re 
ceiving  into  it  certain  elements  of  truth,  it  has 
assumed  its  form  from  the  character  and  disposition 
of  Muhammad ;  and  thus  the  good  in  it  serves  only 
to  recommend  and  preserve  the  evil  which  renders 
it  a  false  and  delusive  faith,  a  curse  to  men  and  not 
a  blessing — one  that  has  turned  into  deserts  many 
of  the  fairest  regions  of  the  earth,  that  has,  even 
in  our  own  days,  deluged  many  a  land  with 
innocent  blood,  and  has  smitten  with  a  moral, 
intellectual,  and  spiritual  blight  every  nation  of 
men  which  lies  under  its  iron  yoke  and  groans 
beneath  its  pitiless  sway. 


INDEX 


[The  numbers  refer  to  the  pages.] 


Aaron,  113,  J5o,  155. 

'Abbasi,  119,  123,  134,147,197. 

Abel,  62-5. 

'Abdu'llah  ibn  Salarn,  134. 

'AbOdiih  Zarah,  no. 

Abraham,   30,    34,  46,  57,   200, 

20T,  202,  207,    208,    222,   231, 

240,  261,  273. 

—  in  the  Fire,  66-80,  105. 

—  "Religion  of/'  31,  58,  261, 
264,  265,  271. 

—  "  Testament    of,"    46,    196, 
198,    200-2,    203,    205,    207, 
23r»  232,  240. 

Abraham  Geiger,  Rabbi,  7,  62, 

131,151- 

Abu  Bakr,  17,  38. 

Abu  Hurairah,  210,  256. 

Abu  'lsa'1  Maghribi,  52. 

Abu'l  FidA,  44,  45,  46,  52,  67, 
193.  212,  213. 

Aba  Takbihah,  134. 

Adam,  52,  62-4,  192-7,  206-8, 
223,  225,  232,  240,  243,  245, 

A  246,  247,  250. 

Adhar,  77,  227,  228,  229. 

Ethiopia,  177. 

Ahadlth,  12,  15  (vide  Tradi 
tions). 

—  Sunnl  collections,  la,  n. 

—  Shi'ah  collections,  13,  n. 
Ahmad,  142,  190,  191. 
Ahriman,   217,   230,    243,   244, 

246,  252. 

Ahur6  Mazdao  (ride  Ormazd). 
Al  Kindl,  21,46,  238. 
AAtAdr,  32. 
Allah  Ta'alu',   33,  40,  42,  245, 

260. 
Allat,  32,  33,  267,  271. 


Al  Mu'allaqat,  34,  47,  49. 
Al  A'raf,  123,  124,  202. 
Al  Waqidi,  270. 
Aminah,  161,  247,  270. 
Amrita,  230. 

Amshaspands,  99,  228,  241. 
Anachronisms,  70,  78. 
Angel  of  Death,  200,  235,  241, 

242  (vide  Samma£l,  'Azrfiil). 
Angels  worship  Adam,  196. 
Anna,  156,  157,  167. 
Afird  MainyuS  (vide  Ahriman"). 
Antichrist,  1 86,  187  (vide  Daj- 

jal). 

Anushiravan,  212. 
Apocryphal    Gospels,    136-211, 

140,  142,  149,  156,  159,  162, 

164,  165,  167,  168,  169,  170, 

174,  181,  231,  233. 
Apostles,  142. 
Apsarasas,  103,  104.  238. 
Arabian   Beliefs  and  Practices, 

29>  30,  3J>  32,  33,  35.  3<5,  40, 

4i,  42,   43,   44.  46,  57,  58, 

127. 

Arabian  Christians,  141. 

Arabian  Nights,  234. 

Arabic  Gospel  of  the    Infancy, 

169,  170,  171,  173,  175,  182. 
Arabs,  29,  30,  140,  145. 
'Araisu'l  Majalis,    66,   68,    89, 

93,  119,  122,  189,  243. 
'Araisu't  Tljan,  186,  225. 
Aralezk'h,  239. 
Aramaic  Words  in  the  Qur'an, 

126. 

Artang,  192. 
Arta  Viraf,   217,    226-30,  231, 

232,  235. 
Avesta,  99,   122,  124,  151,  214, 


282 


INDEX 


217,  231,  241,  243,   248,  249, 

253- 

Ash  Shahristani,  36,  37,  38. 
As  Sirat,  197,  251-3. 
Ast6vidh6tuS,  241. 
Athanasius,  St.,  181. 
Athanasius  the  Persian,  History 

of  the  Martyrdom  of,  137. 
77. 

aSl,  96,  97,  98,  107. 
Azar,  67,  69,  76. 
'Azazil,  94,  195,  242-6. 
'Azrail,  94,96,98,  193,  241. 

Babylonian      Mythology,     102, 

103,  105. 
Bahman,  228. 
Baidawl,  152,  154,  270. 
Baihaql,  1 88. 

Balance,  the,  198-205,  240. 
Bar  Hebraeus,  147. 
Barlaam  and  Josaphat,  168. 
Barnabas,  Epistle  of  Pseudo-,  45. 

—  Gospel  of  Pseudo-,  184. 
Basilides,  183,  184,  193. 
Berakh6th,  118,  128. 
Berez,  Mt.,  121. 
Bifrgst,  253. 

Bird  of  clay,  life  given  to,  174, 

J75- 

"  Book  of  the  Dead,"  202,  203. 
Bridge,    the,    197,    217,   251-3 

(vide  As  Sirat). 
Buddha,  165, 166, 167,  168,  172, 

173- 

—  "Komantic  History  of,"  167. 
Buddha-carita,  172. 
Buddhist  Legends,  164-8,  173. 

—  missionaries,  164,  165. 
Budge,  Dr.,  202,  203. 
Bukhari,   12,    16,   17,   20,    132, 

237- 

Bundahishnih,  243,  255. 
Buraq,  221,  222,  223,  232. 
Byzantine  Empire,  141. 

Cain  and  Abel,  story  of,  62-6. 
Cariya  Pitakam,  167. 


Childhood  of  Christ,  168-76. 
Chinvat,  217,  251,  252,  253  (vide 

As  Sirat). 
Christ,*  139,  142,  153,  163,  180, 

192,  194,  195,  222,  248,  274. 

—  His  Birth,  142, 153, 155, 159, 
1 60-8,  1 80,  209. 

—  His  Divinity  and  Crucifixion 
denied,    55,    142,    170,    180, 
182-9,  192,  195,  197. 

—  His  Miracles,  174,  175,  176, 
209. 

—  His  Second  Advent,  187,  189  • 
and  future  Death,    185,  186, 
187,  189. 

—  His  Speaking  in  the  Cradle, 
154,  156,  163,  169,  170,  172, 
173,  185. 

Christians,  38,  51, 136, 137,  140, 

141,  148,  171. 
Cinderella,  80,  149. 
Companions  of  the  Cave,  143-9. 
Coptic  Apocryphal  Gospels,  159, 

160,  170,  188. 
Cradle,  Christ  speaking  in,  154, 

156,   163,  169,  170,  172,  173, 

185. 
Crucifixion  (vide  Christ). 

Dajjal,  1 86  (vide  Antichrist). 
Dasatir  i  Asmani,  250,  254,  255. 
Day  of  Atonement,  59,  60. 

—  Judgment,    197  (vide  Judg 
ment). 

"Decease   of  Joseph   the  Car 
penter,"  1 88. 
Demiurgos,  the,  194,  195. 
DharmaSastra,  Manu's,  239. 
Dharratu'l  Kainat,  235,  240. 
Dlnkart,  252,  253. 
Diodorus  Siculus,  34. 
Diogenes  Laertius,  149. 
Docetism,  195. 

Ebionites,  55. 
Eden,  85,  233. 
Elijah,  1 88,  189,  234. 
Enoch,  188,  189,  234. 


INDEX 


283 


Enoch,  Book  of,  106,  107,  232. 
Epiphanius,  55. 
Eritu,  Tree  of,  232. 
Esther,  97,  101,  104. 
Ezuiq,  193,  246. 
Ezniq  Goghbatsi,  239. 

Fables,  Christian,  143-211. 
—  Hindu,  102-4,  121,  230. 

—  Jewish     (vide    Jewish    Le 
gends). 

—  Persian,  215,  216,  217,  245, 
*       258,   259    (vide  Zoroaatrians, 

Ac.). 

Farldun,  151,  249. 

Fasting,  52,  53,   127  (vide  Ra 
madan). 

Feruhars,  241. 

Firdausl,  151,  216. 

Flood,  125. 

Fravwhis,  241. 


Gabriel,  23,  58,  78,  80,  112, 
i'9>  *54,  155,  169,  185,  186, 

191,  3O6,  221,  222,    223,    224, 
225,  270. 

\Gandharvas,  238. 
Hiarden  of  Eden,  85,  233'.-" 

Gardens  (Paradise},  267,  271. 

Gemara,  1 1 8,  119. 

GestaPilati,  171. 

Ghilman,  235,  236,  238. 

Gilgamgsh,  101,  102,  106. 

Gnosticism,  183,  192,  193,  194, 

195- 

Gocl,  Unity  of,  34,  36  (ride  Al 
lah  Ta'ala'). 

Golden  Calf,  112,  113. 

Goldziher,  Prof.,  21 1. 

Gospels,  115,140,  142,  156,159, 
171,  209. 

—  Apocryphal,    140,   142,   149, 
J56>  J59>  162,  164,  165,  167, 
168,  169,  170,  174,  181,  231, 
233  (riile  History). 

Gospel  of  Barnabas,  184. 

—  Nicodemns,  171. 

—  Thomas,  171,  175,  176. 


Gospel  of  the  Infancy,  169,  170, 

171.  J73,  175,  182. 
Gregory  of  Tours,  147,  148. 

Habil,  62. 

Hagigah,  120,  121,  124. 
Hajaru'l   As  wad,    42,    43,    57, 
'  264. 

Hanif,  Hantfs,  68,  256,  260-73. 
Hanna, '153,  156,  167. 
Harftt  and  Marut,  92-108,98, 

99,  1 08. 

Heavens,  seven,  122. 
Hell,  hells,  197,  200,  229,  230, 

242,  267,  271. 
Heraclius,  213. 
Herodotus,  31,  32,  42,  43. 
Hilprecht,  Dr.,  233. 
Hindu  ideas,  102-4,  121-230. 
Hira,  Mt.,  265,  270. 
"  History  of  the  Falling  Asleep 

of  Mary,"  1 88. 
"History    of    the    Nativity    ot 

Mary,"  162,  168,   182. 
"History  of  the  Virgin,"  159,160. 
Hoopoe,  81,  84. 
H6r6t  and  M6r6t,  99 
Huris,  103,  235-9. 
Hvapa,  217,  230,  23T;; — 

Iblis,    94,    230,    242,   243,   245, 

246. 
Ibn    Hishain,    30,  35,  41,   133, 

135,  2I5,    221,   222,    257,   262, 

263,  264-73,  276. 

Ibn  Ishaq,   35,  41,  42,  45,  46, 
58,  135,   138,  139,  219,  221, 

222,    257,   262,   264-73. 

Ibn  Khaldun,  23,  24. 

Ibn  Majah,  256. 

Llris  93. 

Idfl'd  Duha,  59. 

'Imran  (Amratu),  150,  152. 

Imrau'l  Qais,  47-50. 

Indralokagamanam,  230. 

Injilu't  Tufaiiyyah  (ri<lf  Arabic 

Gospel  of  the  Infancy). 
Inspiration  of  the  Bible,  24,  25. 


284 


INDEX 


Inspiration  of  the  Qnr'an,  12, 14, 
22,  23,  24,  25,  26. 

Traditions,  14. 

Irenaeus,  183. 
Isfandiyar,  215,  216,  217. 
Ishtar,  101,  102,  104,  106. 
IsUm,  Foundations  of,  la. 
Israfil,  225. 

Jabr,  134. 

Jacob  of  Sarug,  147. 

Jalalain,  109,  112, 119,  123, 125, 

134,  147,  197. 
Jalalu'ddin,  153,  154,  180. 
Jamshid,  90,  122,  151,  217,  248, 

249.  250. 
Jerusalem,  59,  79,  127,  157,186, 

200,  220,  222,   223. 

Jesus  (ride  Christ). 

Jews,  38, 51, 55-130, 92,145, 250. 

Jewish  Legends,  63, 64,  78,  84-9, 

109,113,125,133,233,250. 
Jihad,  277,  278. 
Jinns,  38,  8 1,  84,  86,  87,  90,  91, 

235>  239>  24<>- 

Johannes  Damascenus,  168. 
Jonathan,  79,  80,  105. 
Joseph,  158,  159,  160,  162,  175. 
Judaism,  141. 
Judas,  184. 
Judgment    (Frontispiece),    197, 

205,  252. 

Ka'bah,  34,  38,  41,  42,  43,  46, 

49,  54,  57>  J93>  266. 
Kajutah,  122. 
Kavaem  Hvareno,  249. 
Keresaspa,  173,  250. 
Khadijah,  134. 
Khurdad,  loo. 
Kitabu'l  Aghant,  256,  268. 
Koelle,  Dr.,  138,  161,  235,  371. 
Korah,  73. 
Krishna,  1 1. 

Lalita  Vistara,  168,  172. 

Lauh  i  Mahftiz  (vide  Preserved 

Tablet). 


Light  of  Muhammad,  246-51. 
Lord's  Supper,  the,  1 77, 1 78, 1 79. 
Lyall,  Sir  C.  J.,  50. 

Magians,  51,  77    (vide  Zoroas- 

trians). 

Mahabharata,  102,  122. 
Mahdl,  1 86. 
Malik,  123. 
Manda,  54. 
Mandaeans,  54. 
Mane's  (Manl),  184,  191,  192. 
Manichaism,  165,  191. 
Marcion,  193,  194,  195. 
Marut  (vide  Harut). 
Maruts,  104. 

Mary  the  Copt,  170,  171,  202 
Mary,  the  Virgin,  138, 139, 140, 

149-68,  169,  179,  180,  181. 

her  Birth,  157,  162. 

Maya,  165,  167. 

Mecca,  149,  206,  220,  222,  223, 

260,  269,  275. 

Medina,  176,  260,  275,  276. 
Messiah,  153. 

Michael,  202,  205,  207,  208,  231. 
Midr^sh,  124. 

Midrash  Rabba,  67,  74,  76,  78. 
-  Yalkut,  96, 98, 105,  106, 108. 
Minos,  205. 
Mlnukhirad,  248,  251. 
Mi'raj  (vide  Night  Journey). 
Miriam,  150,  151,  152. 
Mishkat,  206,  210,  223,  237. 
Mishnah,  118. 

—  Sanhedrin,  65,  66. 

—  Berakh6th,  118,  128. 
Mithra,  205,  249,  252. 
Mizanu'l  Mawazin,  78. 
Molech,  123. 

Morot,  99. 

Moses,  112,  113,  114,  150,  222. 
Mosheim,  137,  138. 
Mu'allaqat  (vide  Al  Mu'allaqat). 
Muhammad,  12,  40,  56,  58,  59, 

9°>  91*   "3,    !39,  i46>   M9» 
181,  182,  206,  212,  213,  215, 

221,   222,    223,    225,    258,    260, 


INDEX 


2?°,.  372»    273,    274-80,    et 
passim. 
Muhammad,  his  birth,  i6r. 

—  his  coming  foretold,  190. 
-Life  of,  13,  56,  58,  139,  140, 

141  (vide  Ibn  Hisham,  Ibn 
Ishaq,  Koelle,  Muir,  Slra- 
tu'r  R&sul,  Sprenger,  Zuhrl). 
-  his  ignorance,  131-5,  139, 
J42,  150,  151*  '65,  179,  181, 
182,  184,  190,  196,  256,  275. 

—  his  talent,  142,  171. 
Muhiyyu'ddln,  219. 

Muir,  Sir  W.,  8,  136,  139,  140, 

213,  238. 
Murdad,  100. 
Muslim  (the  Traditionist),  150, 

260. 
Muslim  view  of  origin  of  Qur'an, 

22-6. 

—  Prayers,  53,  128,  129 

Nalopak'hyanam,  239. 

"  Narrative  of  Joseph  of  Arima- 

thaea,"  171. 

Neo-Muhammadans,  14. 
Nephllim,  104,  105. 
New   Testament,    influence    of, 

208-11. 

—  quotations  from,  209,  210. 
Nidanakatha  Jutakam,  165,  166. 
Night  Journey,  the,  14,  206, 

218-35,  240. 
Niinrod,  66,  67,  70,  75,  78,  79. 

Ormazd,  77,  100,  173,  227,  228, 
229,  241,  244,  248,  252,  255. 
'OpoTd\,  31. 
Othioth,  125. 

Pairakas  (vide  Paris). 

Palm-tree,  155, 162, 163,166,169. 

Paradise,  199,  207,  208,  209,  221, 
224,  227,  228,  229,  231,  233, 
235~9>  243.  245,  246,  247,  271. 

T\a.paK\T]Tos,  142,  190,  191. 

Paris,  237,  250. 

Peacock,  245,  246. 


People  of  the  Book,  5 1, 129,  131, 

X33»  '79,  186,  265. 
Ufpioboi  'A.irovT6\ouv,  184. 
Persian  influence,  126,  194,  212- 

59- 

Photius,j84. 
Pirqgy   Aboth,  119. 
—  Kabbl  Eli'ezer,  63,  66,  ua. 
Plato,  205. 
Plautus,  161 

Prayers,  Muslim,  53,  128,  129. 
"  Preserved  Tablet,"  the,  22,  25, 

114,  115,  116,  117,  118,  119. 
Protevangelium,  156,  160,  171, 

182. 

Psalms,  114. 
Purgatory,  198. 


Qabtl,  62. 

Qaf,  Mt.,  13,  119,  120,  121. 
Qiblah,  55,  59,  127. 
Qisasul   Anbiya,  66,   115,   120, 
1 86,  193,  225,  232,  242,  245, 

246,  247. 
Qitor,  85,  86,  87. 
Queen  of  Sheba,  80-92. 
Quraish,  20,  30,  54,56,  222,  256, 

264,  266,  269,  272. 
Qur'an,  Anachronisms  in,  27. 

—  Compilation   of,   17,   18,    20, 
27,  275. 

—  Correctness  of  text  of,  22. 

—  Dialect  of,  22. 

—  English  Versions  of,  27. 

—  Hafsah's  copy  of,  19,  20,  21. 

—  History  of,  15-22. 

-  Inspiration  of,  12,  14,  22,  23, 
24,  25,  26. 

-  Various  Readings  in,  21,  22. 

Ramadan,  53,  269,  270. 

Rashi,  123. 

Kaudatu'l  Ahbab,  134,  16 1,  225, 

247,  256. 

"Refutation  of  Heresies,"  193, 
194,  246. 
Religion     of    the    Crescent," 

184,   2OO,  2IO. 


286 


INDEX 


'Resurrection,  199,  200. 
Rig  Veda,  248. 
Rip  Van  Winkle,  149. 
Rodwell,    19,    27,  46,  55,  130, 

184,  256. 

"  Romantic  Legend,"  172. 
R6sh  Hashshanah,  125,  200. 
Rustam,  149,  215,  216,  217. 

Sabbath,  no. 

Sabians,  38,  46,  51-5,  127. 

Sal-tree,  166. 

Salman,  134,  257,  258. 

Samaritan,  the,  112,  114. 

—  Targuin,  the,  105,  106. 
Samiri,  113. 

Sammael,  99, 112,  113,  114,  241. 
Sanhedrin,  114,  125. 
Sarosh,  227,  228,  229. 
Sastras,  in. 
Satan,  124,  195,  242  (vide  Iblis, 

'Azazil). 
Sell,  Canon,  19. 
Semiazas,  107. 
.  Seth,  Book  of,  52. 
Seven  Earths,  121,  122,  242. 

—  Heavens,  121,  122,  242. 

—  Sleepers,  147,  148,  149. 
Shahnjimeh,  151,  217. 
Sheba,  Queen  of,  80-92. 
Shemljazai,  97,  98,  105,  107. 
Shuyugh,  1 86. 

Sidra  Rabba,  55. 

Sidratu'l   Muntaha',    221,    224, 

225. 

Simon  of  Gyrene,  183. 
Sinai,  109,  no. 
Siratu'r  Rasul,  30,  35,  41,  42, 

45>46>  58,133,135,138,139. 

212,  215,  2l6,  219,  221,  222, 
257>  263,  264-7,  269,  273, 
276. 

Solomon,  81-92,  239,  250. 
Spandaraim't,  99. 
Spefita  Armaiti,  99,  100. 
Sprenger,  n,  46,  262,  271. 
Sunda,  102,  103. 
Sftrahs,  16,  18. 


Surahs,  chronological  order  of, 
18,  19,  n. 

Table,  the,  176-9,  209. 

"  Tales   of  the  Ancients,"  134, 

215. 
Talmud,  61,  92,  101,  104,  117, 

196,  200. 
Targuin,  63. 

—  of  Jonathan,  79,  105,  232 

—  on  Esther,  Second,  80,  83-9. 

—  of  Onkelos,  105. 

—  Samaritan,  105,  106. 
Temple  of  Jerusalem,  157,  158, 

159,  167. 

Terah,  74,  75,  77. 

Testament  of  Abraham,  46,  196, 
198,  200-2,  203,  205,  207, 
231,  232,  240. 

Tetragrammaton,  the,  96. 

Tilottama,  103. 

"Times  of  Ignorance,"  214,  269. 

Traditions,  23,  43,  46,  60,  121, 
184,  193,  199,  206,  210,  211, 
219,  220,  226,  237,  270,  279. 

"  Travels  of  the  Apostles/'  184. 

Tree  of  Life,  232,  233. 

Trinity,  Muhaimnadan  miscon 
ceptions  of,  138,  139,  140, 
179,  180,  181. 

Tuba'  (the  tree),  231,  233. 

Two  Ways,  the,  207,  208. 

'Ulama,  14,  22,  25. 

Unity  of  God,  34,  36,  61,  180, 

271. 

Upasunda,  102,  103. 
Ur  of  the  Chaldees,  79,  105. 
'Uthman,   134,    261,   264,    266, 

273. 
Uzziel  (vide  Shemhazai). 

Valkyries,  239. 

Vendldad,  218,  231,  242,  252. 

Vessantaro,  167. 

Vidhatus,  241,  242. 

Visio  Pauli,  231,  232,  233,  234. 


INDEX 


287 


Waraqah,  134, 361,  264, 265, 273. 

"  Was  hat  Mohammed  aus  dein 

Judenthume  aufgenommen  ?  " 

Weil,  n,  1 86. 

Wine,  222,  236. 

Wives,  number  of,  129,  130,  279. 

Yahya',  1 80. 

Vania,  248,  249. 

Yaman,  212,  213,  214. 

Yanabi'u'l  Islam,  8,  50,  107. 

Yasar,  134. 

Yasna,  240,  248,  253. 

Yeshts,  122,  151,  164,  173,  241, 

249,  252. 
Yima  Khshae'ta,  248  (vide  Jam- 

shld). 


Zacharias,  152,  153,  157. 

Zaid,  135,  279. 

Zaid,  the  Hanlf,  261,  264,  266, 

267,  268,  269,  270,  271. 
Zaid  ibn  Thabit,  16,  18. 
Zainab,  279. 
Zarah,  77. 

Zardusht-nameh,  230. 
Zarvan,  248. 
Zohar,  121. 

Zoroaster,  217,  228,  230,  250. 
Zoroastrian  influence,  212-59. 
Zoroastrians,  51,  124,  195,  198, 

205,  217,  230,  237,  241,  244, 

246,  250. 

Zuhrah,  94,  95,  96,  IOI. 
Zuhrt,  262. 
Zwemer,  Dr.,  50. 


Oxford  :  Horace  Hart,  Printer  to  the  University 


BY  THE  SAME  AUTHOR. 


A  Manual  of  the  leading  Muhammadan 
Objections  to  Christianity.  Second 
Edition,  revised.  Small  post  8vo,  cloth 
boards.  2s.  6d. 

The  Religion  of  the  Crescent ;  or,  Islam 
—  its  Strength,  its  Weakness,  its 
Origin,  its  Influence.  Third  Edition, 
revised.  Small  post  8vo,  cloth  boards.  4s. 


SOCIETY  FOR  PROMOTING  CHRISTIAN  KNOWLEDGE. 
LONDON :  NORTHUMBERLAND  AVENUE,  W.C. 


PLEASE  DO  NOT  REMOVE 
CARDS  OR  SLIPS  FROM  THIS  POCKET 

UNIVERSITY  OF  TORONTO  LIBRARY