Chapter X: Part 10

[186] _So as to disdain receiving the truth._ (_This was revealed as respecting the envoys who came from the King of Abyssinia: the Prophet recited the Soorat Yá-Seen_ [xxxvi.], _whereupon they wept and became Muslims, and said, ‘How like is this to that which was revealed to Jesus.’_)

[187] _Not believing in Moḥammad._

[188] _With respect to the hypocrites_ the following _was revealed_.

[189] _Their chiefs._

[190] The number of the prophets which have been from time to time sent by God into the world amounts to no less than 224,000, according to one Moḥammadan tradition, or to 124,000 according to another; among whom 313 were apostles, sent with special commissions to reclaim mankind from infidelity and superstition; and six of them brought new laws or dispensations, which successively abrogated the preceding: these were Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jesus, and Moḥammad. All the prophets in general the Moḥammadans believe to have been free from great sins and errors of consequence, and professors of one and the same religion, that is, El-Islám, notwithstanding the different laws and institutions which they observed. In this great number of prophets, they not only reckon divers patriarchs and persons named in Scripture but not recorded to have been prophets (wherein the Jewish and Christian writers have sometimes led the way), as Adam, Seth, Lot, Ishmael, Nun, Joshua, &c., and introduce some of them under different names, as Enoch, Heber, and Jethro, who are called in the Ḳur-án, Idrees, Hood, and Sho´eyb; but several others whose very names do not appear in Scripture (though they endeavour to find some persons there to fix them on), as Ṣáliḥ, El-Khiḍr, Dhu-l-Kifl.

As to the Scriptures, the Moḥammadans are taught by the Ḳur-án that God, in divers ages of the world, gave revelations of His will in writing to several prophets, the whole and every word of which it is absolutely necessary for a good Muslim to believe. The number of these sacred books was, according to them, 104; of which ten were given to Adam, fifty to Seth, thirty to Idrees or Enoch, ten to Abraham; and the other four, being the Pentateuch, the Psalms, the Gospel, and the Ḳur-án, were successively delivered to Moses, David, Jesus, and Moḥammad; which last being the _seal_ of the prophets, those revelations are now closed and no more are to be expected. All these divine books, except the four last, they agree to be now entirely lost and their contents unknown; though the Sabians have several books which they attribute to some of the antediluvian prophets. And of those four, the Pentateuch, Psalms, and Gospel, they say, have undergone so many alterations and corruptions, that though there may possibly be some part of the true word of God therein, yet no credit is to be given to the present copies in the hands of the Jews and Christians.—S.

[191] ‘El-Jánn’ is here used as a name of Iblees, the father of the jinn. It also signifies the jinn themselves.

[192] According to a tradition of the Prophet, the height of Adam was equal to that of a tall palm-tree.

[193] The Moḥammadans say, that when they were cast down from Paradise [which is in the seventh heaven], Adam fell on the isle of Ceylon, or Sarandeeb, and Eve near Juddah (the port of Mekkeh) in Arabia; and that, after a separation of two hundred years, Adam was, on his repentance, conducted by the angel Gabriel to a mountain near Mekkeh, where he found and knew his wife, the mountain being thence named ´Arafát; and that he afterwards retired with her to Ceylon.—S.

[194] The prayer is inserted by the commentary from Ḳur. vii. 22.

[195] This word has various significations in the Ḳur-án; sometimes, as in this passage, it signifies _divine revelation_, or _scripture_ in general; sometimes the _verses_ of the _Ḳur-án_ in particular; and at other times, _visible miracles_. But the sense is easily distinguished by the context.—S.

[196] Called in Arabic Hábeel and Ḳábeel.

[197] The occasion of their making this offering is thus related, according to the common tradition in the East. Each of them being born with a twin-sister, when they were grown up, Adam by God’s direction ordered Cain to marry Abel’s twin-sister, and Abel to marry Cain’s; (for it being the common opinion that marriages ought not to be had in the nearest degrees of consanguinity, since they must necessarily marry their sisters, it seemed reasonable to suppose they ought to take those of the remoter degree;) but this Cain refusing to agree to, because his own sister was the handsomest, Adam ordered them to make their offerings to God, thereby referring the dispute to His determination. The commentators say Cain’s offering was a sheaf of the very worst of his corn; but Abel’s a fat lamb of the best of his flock.—S.

[198] Or, as the original literally signifies, boiled over [or boiled], which is consonant to what the Rabbins say, that the waters of the deluge were boiling hot.—This oven was, as some say, at El-Koofeh, in a spot whereon a mosque now stands; or, as others rather think, in a certain place in India, or else at ´Eyn-el-Wardeh in Mesopotamia. Some pretend that it was the same oven which Eve made use of to bake her bread in, being of a form different from those we use, having the mouth in the upper part, and that it descended from patriarch to patriarch till it came to Noah. It is remarkable that Moḥammad, in all probability, borrowed this circumstance from the Persian Magi, who also fancied that the first waters of the deluge gushed out of the oven of a certain old woman named Zala Cûfa.—But the word “tennoor,” which is here translated “oven,” also signifying “the superficies of the earth,” or “a place whence waters spring forth,” or “where they are collected,” some suppose it means no more in this passage than the spot or fissure whence the first eruption of waters broke forth.—S.

[199] It is a custom of many Muslims to pronounce these words, ‘In the name of God be its course and its mooring,’ on embarking for any voyage.—L. The commentators tell us that Noah was two years in building the ark, which was framed of Indian plane-tree; that it was divided into three stories, of which the lower was designed for the beasts, the middle one for the men and women, and the upper for the birds; and the men were separated from the women by the body of Adam, which Noah had taken into the ark. This last is a tradition of the Eastern Christians.—S.

[200] The original of this passage is considered the most sublime in the Ḳur-án.

[201] The Moḥammadans say that Noah went into the ark on the tenth of Rejeb, and came out of it on the tenth of Moḥarram; which therefore became a fast: so that the whole time of Noah’s being in the ark according to them was six months.—S. (B.)

[202] ´Ád was an ancient and potent tribe of Arabs, and zealous idolaters. They chiefly worshipped four deities, Sákiyeh, Ḥáfiḍhah, Ráziḳah, and Sálimeh; the first, as they imagined, supplying them with rain, the second preserving them from all dangers abroad, the third providing food for their sustenance, and the fourth restoring them to health when afflicted with sickness; according to the signification of the several names.—S.

[203] Generally supposed to be the same person as Heber.—S.

[204] Thamood was another tribe of the ancient Arabs who fell into idolatry. They dwelt first in the country of the ´Ádites, but their numbers increasing, they removed to the territory of Ḥejr.—S.

[205] This extraordinary camel frighting the other cattle from their pasture, a certain rich woman, named ´Oneyzeh Umm-Ghánim, having four daughters, dressed them out, and offered one Ḳudár his choice of them, if he would kill the camel. Whereupon he chose one, and with the assistance of eight other men hamstrung and killed the dam, and pursuing the young one which fled to the mountain, killed that also, and divided his flesh among them. Others tell the story somewhat differently, adding Ṣadaḳah Bint-El-Mukhtár as a joint-conspiratress with ´Oneyzeh, and pretending that the young one was not killed.’—S. (A.F., B.)

[206] Defying the vengeance with which they were threatened; because they trusted in their strong dwellings hewn in the rocks, saying that the tribe of ´Ád perished only because their houses were not built with sufficient strength.—S.

[207] Like violent and repeated claps of thunder; which some say was no other than the voice of the angel Gabriel, which rent their hearts. It is said that after they had killed the camel, Ṣáliḥ told them that on the morrow their faces should become yellow, the next day red, and the third day black; and that on the fourth God’s vengeance should light on them: and that, the first three signs happening accordingly, they sought to put him to death; but God delivered him by sending him into Palestine.—S. (A.F., B.)

[208] In the Mir-át-ez-Zemán it is stated that there are various opinions respecting the age in which this person lived: 1. That he lived in the first century after the Deluge, and was of the sons of Japheth, and was born in the land of the Greeks: so said ´Alee; 2. That he was after Thamood: so said El-Ḥasan; 3. That he was of the lineage of Esau, the son of Isaac: so said Muḳátil; 4. That he lived between the times of Moses and Jesus; 5. That he lived between Jesus and Moḥammad; and 6. That he was of the lineage of Yoonán, son [as some say] of Noah, in the days of Abraham; and this, adds the author, is the most correct.—But some suppose him to be the same with Alexander the Great.—Respecting his surname of ‘Dhu-l-Ḳarneyn,’ the most obvious signification of which is ‘the two-horned,’ the more judicious in general are of opinion that he received it because he made expeditions to the extreme parts of the east and west, and therefore that it signifies ‘Lord of the two extreme parts of the earth.’

[209] Who were clothed in the skins of wild beasts, and lived upon what the sea cast on shore.—S. (B.)

[210] The Arabs call them Yájooj and Májooj, and say they are two nations or tribes descended from Japheth the son of Noah; or, as others write, Gog are a tribe of the Turks, and Magog of those of Geelán, the Geli and Gelæ of Ptolemy and Strabo.—It is said these barbarous people made their irruptions into the neighbouring countries in the spring, and destroyed and carried off all the fruits of the earth; and some pretend they were man-eaters.—S. (B.)

[211] The Eastern authors unanimously agree that he (Ázar) was a statuary, or carver of idols; and he is represented as the first who made images of clay, pictures only having been in use before, and taught that they were to be adored as gods. However, we are told his employment was a very honourable one, and that he was a great lord and in high favour with Nimrod, whose son-in-law he was, because he made his idols for him and was excellent in his art. Some of the Rabbins say Terah was a priest and chief of the order.—S.

[212] Some tell us that Nimrod, on seeing this miraculous deliverance from his palace, cried out that he would make an offering to the God of Abraham; and that he accordingly sacrificed four thousand kine. [B.] But, if he ever relented, he soon relapsed into his former infidelity: for he built a tower that he might ascend to heaven to see Abraham’s God; which being overthrown [Ḳur. xvi. 28], still persisting in his design, he would be carried to heaven in a chest borne by four monstrous birds; but after wandering for some time through the air, he fell down on a mountain with such force that he made it shake, whereto (as some fancy) a passage in the Ḳur-án [xiv. 47] alludes, which may be translated, ‘although their contrivances be such as to make the mountains tremble.’—Nimrod, disappointed in his design of making war with God, turned his arms against Abraham, who, being a great prince, raised forces to defend himself; but God, dividing Nimrod’s subjects, and confounding their language, deprived him of the greater part of his people, and plagued those who adhered to him by swarms of gnats, which destroyed almost all of them; and one of those gnats having entered into the nostril, or ear, of Nimrod, penetrated to one of the membranes of his brain, where, growing bigger every day, it gave him such intolerable pain, that he was obliged to cause his head to be beaten with a mallet, in order to procure some ease, which torture he suffered four hundred years; God being willing to punish, by one of the smallest of His creatures, him who insolently boasted himself to be lord of all. A Syrian calendar places the death of Nimrod, as if the time were well known, on the eighth of Tamooz, or July.—S.

[213] They tell us that Gabriel thrust his wing under them and lifted them up so high that the inhabitants of the lower heaven heard the barking of the dogs and the crowing of the cocks; and then, inverting them, threw them down to the earth.—S. (B.)

[214] It is the most received opinion among the Moḥammadans that the son whom Abraham offered was Ishmael and not Isaac; Ishmael being his only son at that time: for the promise of Isaac’s birth is mentioned lower, as subsequent in time to this transaction. They also allege the testimony of their prophet, who is reported to have said, ‘I am the son of the two who were offered in sacrifice;’ meaning his great ancestor, Ishmael, and his own father ´Abd-Allah: for ´Abd-el-Muṭṭalib had made a vow that if God would permit him to find out and open the well Zemzem and should give him ten sons he would sacrifice one of them; accordingly, when he had obtained his desire in both respects, he cast lots on his sons, and the lot falling on ´Abd-Allah, he redeemed him by offering a hundred camels, which was therefore ordered to be the price of a man’s blood in the Sunneh.—S. (B., Z.)

[215] The occasion of this request of Abraham is said to have been a doubt proposed to him by the devil in human form, how it was possible for the several parts of a corpse of a man which lay on the sea-shore and had been partly devoured by the wild beasts, the birds, and the fish, to be brought together at the resurrection.—S.

[216] In the original, ‘Imám,’ which answers to the Latin _Antistes_. This title the Moḥammadans give to their priests [if such a title may be used, for want of one more correct] who begin the prayers in their mosques, and whom all the congregation follow.—S.

[217] The term ‘rek´ah’ signifies the repetition of a set form of words, chiefly from the Ḳur-án, and ejaculations of ‘God is most Great!’ etc., accompanied by particular postures; part of the words being repeated in an erect posture, part sitting, and part in other postures: an inclination of the head and body, followed by two prostrations, distinguishing each rek´ah. Each of the five daily prayers of the Muslims consist of a certain number of rek´ahs.

[218] The city of Eṭ-Ṭáïf was so called, according to Abu-l-Fida and several other Arab authors, because it, with the adjacent fields, was separated from Syria during the Deluge, and after floating round about upon the water at length rested in its present situation, where its soil has continued to produce the fruits of Syria.

[219] Namely, the Kaạbeh.

[220] In the original, ‘Muslims,’ which is the peculiar and very appropriate title of the believers in the religion taught by Moḥammad; and as he professed not to teach a religion essentially _new_, this title is given to all true believers before him.

[221] ‘El-Islam’ signifies the _resigning_ oneself to God and to His service, and is the name given by Moḥammad to that religion which, he asserted, all the prophets before him had taught, and he restored; the foundation of which was the unity of God.

[222] This well, say some, was a certain well near Jerusalem, or not far from the river Jordan; but others call it the well of Egypt, or Midian. The commentators tell us that when the sons of Jacob had gotten Joseph with them in the field, they began to abuse and to beat him so unmercifully that they had killed him had not Judah on his crying out for help insisted on the promise they had made not to kill him but to cast him into the well. Whereupon they let him down a little way; but as he held by the sides of the well, they bound him, and took off his inner garment, designing to stain it with blood to deceive their father. Joseph begged hard to have his garment returned to him, but to no purpose, his brothers telling him, with a sneer, that the eleven stars and the sun and the moon might clothe him and keep him company.—S. (B., Z.)

[223] The commentators pretend that Gabriel also clothed him in the well with a garment of silk of Paradise. For they say that when Abraham was thrown into the fire by Nimrod, he was stripped; and that Gabriel brought him this garment and put it on him; and that from Abraham it descended to Jacob, who folded it up and put it into an amulet, which he hung about Joseph’s neck, whence Gabriel drew it out.—S. (B., Z.)

[224] These races they used by way of exercise; and the commentators generally understand here that kind of race wherein they also showed their dexterity in throwing darts, which is still used in the East.—S.

[225] This Jacob had reason to suspect, because when the garment was brought to him, he observed that, though it was bloody, yet it was not torn.—S. (B.)

[226] Three days after Joseph had been thrown into it.—S.

[227] The commentators are so exact as to give us the name of this man, who as they pretend, was Málik Ibn-Doạr, of the tribe of Khuzá´ah.—S. (B.)

[228] The expositors are not agreed whether the pronoun _they_ relates to Málik and his companions, or to Joseph’s brethren. They who espouse the former opinion say that those who came to draw water concealed the manner of their coming by him from the rest of the caravan, that they might keep him to themselves; pretending that some people of the place had given him to them to sell for them in Egypt. And they who prefer the latter opinion tell us that Judah carried victuals to Joseph every day while he was in the well; but not finding him there on the fourth day, he acquainted his brothers with it: whereupon they all went to the caravan and claimed Joseph as their slave, he not daring to discover that he was their brother, lest something worse should befall him; and at length they agreed to sell him to them.—S. (B.)

[229] A corruption of Potiphar. He was a man of great consideration, being superintendent of the royal treasury.—S. (B.)

[230] That is, to Ḳiṭfeer and his friends. The occasion of Joseph’s imprisonment is said to be either that they suspected him to be guilty notwithstanding the proofs which had been given of his innocence, or else that Zeleekha desired it, feigning, to deceive her husband, that she wanted to have Joseph removed from her sight till she could conquer her passion by time; though her real design was to force him to compliance.—S.

[231] According to the explication of some who take the pronoun _him_ to relate to Joseph, this passage may be rendered, ‘But the devil caused him (_i.e._, Joseph) to forget to make his application unto his lord;’ and to beg the good offices of his fellow-prisoner for his deliverance, instead of relying on God alone, as it became a prophet, especially, to have done.—S. (B.)

[232] This prince, as the Oriental writers generally agree, was Er-Reiyán the son of El-Weleed the Amalekite, who was converted by Joseph to the worship of the true God, and died in the lifetime of that prophet. But some pretend that the Pharaoh of Joseph and of Moses were one and the same person, and that he lived (or rather reigned) four hundred years.—S. (B.)

[233] The commentators say that Joseph, being taken out of prison, after he had washed and changed his clothes, was introduced to the king, whom he saluted in the Hebrew tongue, and on the king’s asking what language that was, he answered that it was the language of his fathers. This prince, they say, understood no less than seventy languages, in every one of which he discoursed with Joseph, who answered him in the same; at which the king, greatly marvelling, desired him to relate his dream, which he did, describing the most minute circumstances: whereupon the king placed Joseph by him on his throne, and made him his Wezeer, or chief minister.—S. (B.)

[234] Namely, Ephraim and Manasses: so that according to this tradition, she was the same woman who is called Asenath by ‘Moses.’ This supposed marriage, which authorized their amours, probably encouraged the Moḥammadan divines to make use of the loves of Joseph and Zeleekha as an allegorical emblem of the spiritual love between the Creator and the creature, God and the soul; just as the Christians apply the Song of Solomon to the same mystical purpose.—S.

[235] Joseph, being made Wezeer, governed with great wisdom; for he not only caused justice to be impartially administered and encouraged the people to industry and the improvement of agriculture during the seven years of plenty, but began and perfected several works of great benefit; the natives at this day ascribing to the patriarch Joseph almost all the ancient works of public utility throughout the kingdom; as particularly the rendering the province of El-Feiyoom, from a standing pool or marsh, the most fertile and best-cultivated land in all Egypt. When the years of famine came, the effects of which were felt not only in Egypt but in Syria and the neighbouring countries, the inhabitants were obliged to apply to Joseph for corn, which he sold to them, first for their money, jewels, and ornaments, then for their cattle and lands, and at length for their persons; so that all the Egyptians in general became slaves to the king, though Joseph by his consent soon released them and returned them their substance.—S. (B.)

[236] At length Joseph asked them whom they had to vouch for their veracity; but they told him they knew no man who could vouch for them in Egypt. Then, replied he, one of you shall stay behind with me as a pledge, and the others may return home with their provision; and when ye come again, ye shall bring your younger brother with you, that I may know ye have told me the truth. Whereupon, it being in vain to dispute the matter, they cast lots who should stay behind, and the lot fell upon Simeon. When they departed, Joseph gave each of them a camel, and another for their brother.—S. (B.)

[237] The original word signifying not only money but also goods bartered or given in exchange for other merchandise, some commentators tell us that they paid for their corn, not in money, but in shoes and dressed skins.—S. (B.)

[238] The belief in the influence of the evil eye prevails among all the Muslims, even the most religious and learned; for their prophet said, ‘The eye hath a complete influence; because verily, if there were a thing to overcome fate, it most certainly would be a malignant eye.’ Hence he permitted charms (which he disallowed in almost every other case) to be employed for the purpose of counteracting its influence.

[239] It is related that Joseph, having invited his brethren to an entertainment, ordered them to be placed two and two together; by which means, Benjamin, the eleventh, was obliged to sit alone, and, bursting into tears, said, If my brother Joseph were alive, he would have sat with me. Whereupon Joseph ordered him to be seated at the same table with himself, and when the entertainment was over, dismissed the rest, ordering that they should be lodged two and two in a house, but kept Benjamin in his own apartment, where he passed the night. The next day, Joseph asked him whether he would accept of himself for his brother, in the room of him whom he had lost; to which Benjamin replied, ‘Who can find a brother comparable unto thee? Yet thou art not the son of Jacob and Rachel.’ And upon this, Joseph discovered himself to him.—S. (B.).

[240] Some, however, are of opinion that it was a drinking-cup.

[241] The occasion of this suspicion, it is said, was that Joseph having been brought up by his father’s sister, she became so fond of him, that when he grew up and Jacob designed to take him from her she contrived the following stratagem to keep him. Having a girdle which had once belonged to Abraham, she girt it about the child, and then pretending she had lost it, caused strict search to be made for it; and it being at length found on Joseph, he was adjudged, according to the above-mentioned law of the family, to be delivered to her as her property. Some, however, say that Joseph actually stole an idol of gold, which belonged to his mother’s father, and destroyed it; a story probably taken from Rachel’s stealing the images of Laban: and others tell us that he once stole a goat or a hen, to give to a poor man.—S.

[242] Miṣr is the name both of Egypt and its capital.

[243] The injury they did Benjamin was the separating him from his brother, after which they kept him in so great subjection that he durst not speak to them but with the utmost submission. Some say that these words were occasioned by a letter which Joseph’s brethren delivered to him from their father, requesting the releasement of Benjamin, and by their representing his extreme affliction at the loss of him and his brother. The commentators observe that Joseph, to excuse his brethren’s behaviour towards him, attributes it to their ignorance and the heat of youth.—S. (B.)

[244] The frontier town of Egypt towards Syria.

[245] El-Beyḍáwee tell us that Joseph sent carriages and provisions for his father and his family; and that he and the king of Egypt went forth to meet them. He adds that the number of the children of Israel who entered Egypt with him was seventy-two; and that when they were led out thence by Moses, they were increased to six hundred thousand five hundred and seventy men, and upwards, besides the old people and children.—S.

[246] A transposition is supposed to be in these words:—he seated his father and mother after they had bowed down to him, and not before.—S. (B.)

[247] But when Moses led the Israelites out of Egypt, he took up the coffin, and carried Joseph’s bones with him into Canaan, where he buried them by his ancestors.—S. (B.)

[248] The Moḥammadan writers tell us that Job was of the race of Esau, and was blessed with a numerous family and abundant riches; but that God proved him by taking away all that he had, even his children, who were killed by the fall of a house; notwithstanding which he continued to serve God and to return Him thanks as usual; that he was then struck with a filthy disease, his body being full of worms and so offensive that as he lay on the dunghill none could bear to come near him: that his wife, however (whom some call Raḥmeh the daughter of Ephraim the son of Joseph, and others Makhir the daughter of Manasses), attended him with great patience, supporting him with what she earned by her labour; but that the devil appearing to her one day, after having reminded her of her past prosperity, promised her that if she would worship him, he would restore all they had lost; whereupon she asked her husband’s consent, who was so angry at the proposal, that he swore, if he recovered, to give his wife a hundred stripes.—S. (B., J., A.F.)

[249] Some say there were two springs, one of hot water wherein he bathed, and the other of cold of which he drank.—S. (B.)

[250] His wife also becoming young and handsome again, and bearing him twenty-six sons. Some, to express the great riches which were bestowed on Job after his sufferings, say he had two threshing-floors, one for wheat and the other for barley, and that God sent two clouds, which rained gold on the one and silver on the other till they ran over.—(J.) The traditions differ as to the continuance of Job’s calamities: one will have it to be eighteen years; another, thirteen; another, three; and another, exactly seven years seven months and seven hours.—S.

[251] Or ‘a palm-branch having a hundred leaves.’—S.

[252] But see note 1 (248).

[253] The commentators generally suppose him to be the same person with the father-in-law of Moses, who is named in Scripture Reuel or Raguel, and Jethro. But Aḥmad Ibn-´Abd-El-Ḥaleem charges those who entertain this opinion with ignorance. They say (after the Jews) that he gave his son-in-law [Moses] that wonder-working rod with which he performed all those miracles in Egypt and the Desert, and also excellent advice and instructions; whence he had the surname of ‘Khaṭeeb-el-Ambiya,’ or ‘the Preacher to the Prophets.’—S.

[254] The Arabic word ‘ḍa´eef’ (weak) signifying also in the Ḥimyaritic dialect ‘blind,’ some suppose that Sho´eyb was so, and that the Midianites objected that to him as a defect which disqualified him for the prophetic office.—S.

[255] Which of the kings of Egypt this Pharaoh of Moses was is uncertain. Not to mention the opinions of the European writers, those of the East generally suppose him to have been El-Weleed, who according to some was an Arab of the tribe of ´Ád, or according to others the son of Muṣ´ab the son of Er-Reiyán the son of El-Weleed the Amalekite. There are historians, however, who suppose Ḳáboos the brother and predecessor of El-Weleed was the prince we are speaking of, and pretend he lived six hundred and twenty years and reigned four hundred. Which is more reasonable, at least, than the opinion of those who imagine it was his father Muṣ´ab or grandfather Er-Reiyán. Abu-l-Fida says the Muṣ´ab, being one hundred and seventy years old and having no child, while he kept the herds saw a cow calve, and heard her say at the same time, ‘O Muṣ´ab, be not grieved, for thou shalt have a wicked son, who will be at length cast into hell.’ And he accordingly had this Weleed, who afterwards coming to be king of Egypt proved an impious tyrant.—S. (A.F., Z.)

[256] This name is given to Pharaoh’s chief minister; from whence it is generally inferred that Moḥammad had been made Haman the favorite of Ahasuerus king of Persia, and who indisputably lived many years after Moses, to be that prophet’s contemporary.—S.

[257] It is related that the midwife appointed to attend the Hebrew women, terrified by a light which appeared between the eyes of Moses at his birth, and touched with an extraordinary affection for the child, did not discover him to the officers, so that his mother kept him in her house, and nursed him three months; after which it was impossible for her to conceal him any longer, the king then giving orders to make the searches more strictly.—S. (B.)

[258] The commentators say that his mother made an ark of the papyrus, and pitched it, and put in some cotton; and having laid the child therein, committed it to the river, a branch of which went into Pharaoh’s garden: that the stream carried the ark thither into a fishpond, at the head of which Pharaoh was then sitting with his wife Ásiyeh the daughter of Muzáḥem; and that the king, having commanded it to be taken up and opened, and finding in it a beautiful child, took a fancy to it, and ordered it to be brought up.—Some writers mention a miraculous preservation of Moses before he was put into the ark; and tell us, that his mother having hid him from Pharaoh’s officers in an oven, his sister, in her mother’s absence, kindled a large fire in the oven to heat it, not knowing the child was there; but that he was afterwards taken out unhurt.—S. (B., A.F.)

[259] Ḳur. xxvi. 17.

[260] This person, says the tradition, was an Egyptian and Pharaoh’s uncle’s son.—S.

[261] The Jews pretend he was actually imprisoned for the fact, and condemned to be beheaded; but that when he should have suffered his neck became as hard as ivory, and the sword rebounded on the executioner.—S.

[262] According to El-Beyḍáwee, Moses knew not the way, and, coming to a place where three roads met, committed himself to the guidance of God, and took the middle road, which was the right; Providence likewise so ordering it that his pursuers took the other two roads, and missed him.—S.

[263] This was Ṣafoora [also called Ṣafoorah and Ṣafooriya, or Zipporah, the elder, or as others suppose the younger, daughter of Sho´eyb, whom Moses afterwards married.—S.]

[264] The commentators say, that Moses, having obtained leave of Sho´eyb or Jethro, his father-in-law, to visit his mother, departed with his family from Midian towards Egypt; but coming to the valley of Ṭuwa, wherein Mount Sinai stands, his wife fell in labour and was delivered of a son in a very dark and snowy night: he had also lost his way, and his cattle were scattered from him, when on a sudden he saw a fire by the side of a mountain, which on his nearer approach he found burning in a green bush.—S. (B.)

[265] This was a mark of humility and respect: though some fancy there was some uncleanness in the shoes themselves, because they were made of the skin of an ass not dressed.—S. (B.)

[266] Which was at first no bigger than the rod, but afterwards swelled to a prodigious size.—S. (B.)

[267] When Moses saw the serpent move about with great nimbleness and swallow stones and trees, he was greatly terrified, and fled from it; but recovering his courage at these words of God, he had the boldness to take the serpent by the jaws.—S. (B.)

[268] Moses had an impediment in his speech, which was occasioned by the following accident. Pharaoh one day carrying him in his arms when a child, he suddenly laid hold of his beard and plucked it in a very rough manner, which put Pharaoh into such a passion that he ordered him to be put to death: but Ásiyeh his wife representing to him that he was but a child, who could not distinguish between a burning coal and a ruby, he ordered the experiment to be made; and a live coal and a ruby being set before Moses, he took the coal and put it into his mouth, and burnt his tongue: and thereupon he was pardoned.—This is a Jewish story a little altered.—S.

[269] For he was obliged to abandon his country and his friends, and to travel several days in great terror and want of necessary provisions to seek a refuge among strangers; and was afterwards forced to serve for hire to gain a livelihood.—S.

[270] Aaron being by this time come out to meet his brother, either by divine inspiration, or having notice of his design to return to Egypt.—S. (B.)

[271] The Arab writers tell enormous fables of this serpent or dragon. For they say that he was hairy and of so prodigious a size that when he opened his mouth his jaws were fourscore cubits asunder and when he laid his lower jaw on the ground his upper reached to the top of the palace [or rather, I believe, the _throne_ of Pharaoh]: that Pharaoh, seeing this monster make towards him, fled from it; and that the whole assembly also betaking themselves to their heels, no less than twenty-five thousand of them lost their lives in the press. They add that Pharaoh, upon this abjured Moses by God who had sent him to take away the serpent, and promised he would believe on Him and let the Israelites go; but when Moses had done what he requested, he relapsed and grew as hardened as before.—S. (B.)

[272] There is a tradition that Moses was a very swarthy man; and that when he put his hand into his bosom, and drew it out again, it became extremely white and splendid, surpassing the brightness of the sun.—S. (B.)

[273] They provided themselves with a great number of thick ropes and long pieces of wood, which they contrived by some means to move and make them twist themselves one over the other; and so imposed on the beholders, who at a distance took them to be true serpents. It is also said that they rubbed them over with quicksilver, which being wrought upon by the heat of the sun caused them to move.—S. (B.)

[274] The expositors add that when this serpent had swallowed up all the rods and cords he made directly towards the assembly and put them into so great a terror that they fled and a considerable number were killed in the crowd: then Moses took it up and it became a rod in his hand as before. Whereupon the magicians declared that it could be no enchantment, because in such case their rods and cords would not have disappeared.—S. (B.)

[275] Sale observes that some writers introduce only two of the enchanters as acknowledging Moses’ miracle to be wrought by the power of God. These two, they say, were brothers, and the sons of a famous magician then dead; but on their being sent for to court on this occasion, their mother persuaded them to go to their father’s tomb and ask his advice. Being come to the tomb, the father answered their call, and when they had acquainted him with the affair, he told them that they should inform themselves whether the rod of which they spoke became a serpent while its masters slept, or only when they were awake; for, said he, enchantments have no effect while the enchanter is asleep, and therefore if it be otherwise in this case, you may be assured that they act by a divine power. These two magicians then, arriving at the capital of Egypt, on inquiry found to their great astonishment that when Moses and Aaron went to rest their rod became a serpent and guarded them while they slept. And this was the first step towards their conversion.—S.

[276] Some think these converted magicians were executed accordingly: but others deny it, and say that the king was not able to put them to death; insisting on these words of the Ḳur-án [xxviii. 35], ‘Ye two, and they who follow you, shall overcome.’—S.

[277] See p. 101, l. 5, n. 1 (260).

[278] Cp. Act. Apost. v. 38, 39.

[279] ‘The people of Noah and of ´Ád and of Thamood, and those whom God destroyed after them.’ So explained in the Ḳámoos.

[280] It is said that Hámán having prepared bricks and other materials employed no less than fifty thousand men besides labourers in the building, which they carried to so immense a height that the workmen could no longer stand on it: that Pharaoh ascending this tower threw a javelin towards heaven, which fell back again stained with blood, whereupon he impiously boasted that he had killed the god of Moses; but at sunset God sent the angel Gabriel, who with one stroke of his wing demolished the tower, a part whereof falling on the king’s army destroyed a million of men.—S. (Z.)

[281] Some are of opinion that those who were sent by Pharaoh to seize the true believer, his kinsman, are the persons more particularly meant in this place: for they tell us that the said believer fled to a mountain, where they found him at prayers, guarded by the wild beasts, which ranged themselves in order about him; and that his pursuers thereupon returned in a great fright to their master, who put them to death for not performing his command.—S. (B.)

[282] Some expound these words of the previous punishment they are doomed to suffer, according to a tradition of Ibn-Mes´ood, which informs us that their souls are in the crops of black birds which are exposed to hell-fire every morning and evening until the Day of Judgment.—S. (B.)

[283] As there is no mention of any such miraculous inundation in the [so-called] Mosaic writings, some have imagined this plague to have been either a pestilence, or the smallpox, or some other epidemical distemper. (B.) For the word ‘ṭoofán,’ which is used in this place, and is generally rendered a ‘deluge,’ may also signify any other universal destruction or mortality.—S.

[284] That is, the land of Syria, of which the Eastern geographers reckon Palestine a part, and wherein the commentators say the children of Israel succeeded the kings of Egypt and the Amalekites.—S. (B.)

[285] Particularly the lofty tower [before mentioned] which Pharaoh caused to be built, that he might attack the God of Moses.—S.

[286] The word here translated ‘body’ signifying also a ‘coat of mail,’ some imagine the meaning to be that his corpse floated armed with his coat of mail, which they tell us was of gold, by which they knew it was he.—S.

[287] These people some will have to be of the tribe of Amalek, whom Moses was commanded to destroy, and others of the tribe of Lakhm. Their idols, it is said, were images of oxen, which gave the first hint to the making of the golden calf.—S. (B.)

[288] The Eastern writers say these quails were of a peculiar kind of be found nowhere else but in El-Yemen, from whence they were brought by a south wind in great numbers to the Israelites’ camp in the desert. The Arabs called these birds ‘selwa,’ which is plainly the same with the Hebrew ‘salwim,’ and say they have no bones, but are eaten whole.—S.

[289] The word here rendered ‘a great city,’ namely ‘miṣran,’ is rendered by Marracci and Sale ‘Egypt,’ and is so understood by many learned Arabs; but according to a general rule, to have this signification it should be ‘miṣra:’ in some copies of the Ḳur-án, however, it is thus written.

[290] See Sale’s note _in loc._

[291] A kind of soft stone, like dry mud.

[292] The story here alluded to, though it occurs among passages respecting Moses and his people, is said to relate to a different age and to be as follows:—In the days of David, some Israelites dwelt at Eyleh, or Elath, on the Red Sea, where, on the night of the Sabbath, the fish used to come in great numbers to the shore, and stay there all the Sabbath, to tempt them; but the night following they returned into the sea again. At length, some of the inhabitants, neglecting God’s commandment, catched fish on the Sabbath, and dressed and ate them; and afterwards cut canals from the sea, for the fish to enter, with sluices, which they shut on the Sabbath, to prevent their return to the sea. The other part of the inhabitants, who strictly observed the Sabbath, used both persuasion and force to stop this impiety, but to no purpose, the offenders growing only more and more obstinate; whereupon David cursed the Sabbath-breakers, and God transformed them into apes. It is said, that one going to see a friend of his that was among them found him in the shape of an ape moving his eyes about wildly; and asking him whether he was not such a one, the ape made a sign with his head that it was he; whereupon the friend said to him, Did not I advise you to desist? at which the ape wept. They add, that these unhappy people remained three days in this condition, and were afterwards destroyed by a wind which swept them all into the sea.—S. (A. F.)

[293] His breath before [he used the tooth-stick] had the odour of musk.—S. (B.)

[294] It is said that not only the ten commandments, but the whole law was written thereon.—S.

[295] That is, as some understand it, consisting of flesh and blood; or, as others, being a mere body or mass of metal, without a soul.—S. (B.)

[296] The person who cast this calf, the Moḥammadans say, was not Aaron but Es-Sámiree, one of the principal men among the children of Israel, some of whose descendants, it is pretended, still inhabit an island of that name in the Arabian Gulf. It was made of the rings and bracelets of gold, silver, and other materials, which the Israelites had borrowed of the Egyptians; for Aaron, who commanded in his brother’s absence, having ordered Es-Sámiree to collect those ornaments from the people, who carried on a wicked commerce with them, and to keep them together till the return of Moses, Es-Sámiree, understanding the founder’s art, put them altogether into a furnace, to melt them down into one mass, which came out in the form of a calf. One writer says, that all the Israelites adored this calf, except only twelve thousand.—S. (A. F.)

[297] After he had completed his forty days’ stay in the mount, and had received the Law.—S. (B.)

[298] Or, I knew that which they knew not—that the messenger sent to thee from God was a pure spirit, and that his footsteps gave life to whatever they touched; being no other than the angel Gabriel, mounted on the horse of life: and therefore I made use of the dust of his feet to animate the molten calf. It is said, Es-Sámiree knew the angel because he had saved and taken care of him when a child and exposed by his mother for fear of Pharaoh.—S. (B., Jelál.)

[299] The word here rendered ‘hearts’ often signifies stomachs; and if this be its meaning here, the narrative agrees with the [so-called] Mosaic account: for Moses ‘took the calf which they had made, and burnt it in the fire, and ground it to powder, and strawed it upon the water, and made the children of Israel to drink of it.’—Exod. xxxii. 20.

[300] The persons here meant are said to have been seventy men, who were made choice of by Moses, and heard the voice of God talking with him. But not being satisfied with that, they demanded to see God; whereupon they were all struck dead by lightning, and on Moses’ intercession restored to life.—S.

[301] This person is represented by the commentators as the most beautiful of the Israelites, and so far surpassing them all in opulence that the riches of Ḳároon have become a proverb.—S.

[302] Moses, as some say, having complained to God of a false accusation brought against him by Ḳároon, He directed him to command the earth what he pleased, and it should obey him; whereupon he said, ‘O earth, swallow them up;’ and immediately the earth opened under Ḳároon and his confederates, and swallowed them up, with his palace and all his riches.—There goes a tradition that as Ḳároon sank gradually into the ground, first to his knees, then to his waist, then to his neck, he cried out four several times, ‘O Moses, have mercy on me!’ but that Moses continued to say, ‘O earth, swallow them up!’ till at last he wholly disappeared: upon which God said to Moses, ‘Thou hadst no mercy on Ḳároon, though he asked pardon of thee four times; but I would have had compassion on him if he had asked pardon of me but once.’—S. (B.)

[303] Or rather, fawn-coloured; as are most of the cows of Arabia. The word in the original properly signifies yellow.

[304] The story of this young man is thus related:—A certain man at his death left his son, then a child, a cow-calf, which wandered in the desert till he came to age; at which time his mother told him the heifer was his, and bid him fetch her and sell her for three pieces of gold. When the young man came to the market with his heifer, an angel in the shape of a man accosted him and bid him six pieces of gold for her; but he would not take the money till he had asked his mother’s consent; which when he had obtained, he returned to the market-place, and met the angel, who now offered him twice as much for the heifer, provided he would say nothing of it to his mother; but the young man, refusing, went and acquainted her with the additional offer. The woman, perceiving it was an angel, bid her son go back and ask him what must be done with the heifer; whereupon the angel told the young man that in a little time the children of Israel would buy that heifer of him at any price.—S. (A.F.)

[305] The more common tradition seems to be that the man was murdered by _one_ person, the son of his brother, who desired to obtain his property (as his inheritance), or his daughter, or both. (Mir-át-ez-Zemán).

[306] Also called El-Khaḍir. This mysterious person, whom the vulgar and some others regard as a prophet, and identify with Ilyás (Elias or Elijah), and whom some confound with St. George, was, according to the more approved opinion of the learned, a just man or saint, the Wezeer and counsellor of that equally doubtful personage Dhu-l-Ḳarneyn, whose story has already been related in this volume. El-Khiḍr is said to have drunk of the Fountain of Life, by virtue of which he still lives, and will live till the day of judgment. He is also said to appear frequently to Muslims in perplexity, and to be generally clad in green garments; whence, according to some, his name.—Sale states, in a note on this passage, that the Muslims usually confound El-Khiḍr with Phineas, as well as Elias and St. George, saying that his soul passed by a metempsychosis successively through all three; and he adds, that part of these fictions they took from the Jews, some of whom also fancy Phineas was Elias.

[307] Or, as some rather think, El-Ubulleh, near El-Basrah, or else Bájarwán in Armenia.—S. (B.)

[308] They were ten brothers, five of whom were past their labour by reason of their age.—S. (B.)

[309] That is, because of the great confidence the Israelites placed in it, having won several battles by its miraculous assistance. I imagine, however, that the Arabic word ‘sekeeneh,’ which signifies ‘tranquillity’ or ‘security of mind,’ and is so understood by the commentators, may not improbably mean the ‘divine presence’ or ‘glory,’ which used to appear on the Ark, and which the Jews express by the same word ‘Shekinah.’—S.

[310] Sale observes that Yaḥyá most rationally understands hereby the divine revelations which David received from God, and not the art of making coats of mail.—The cause of his applying himself to this art is thus related in the Mir-át-ez-Zemán:—He used to go forth in disguise; and when he found any people who knew him not, he approached them and asked them respecting the conduct of David, and they praised him and prayed for him; but one day, as he was asking questions respecting himself as usual, God sent to him an angel in the form of a human being, who said, ‘An excellent man were David if he did not take from the public treasury:’—whereupon the heart of David was contracted, and he begged of God to render him independent: so He made iron soft to him, and it became in his hands as thread; and he used to sell a coat of mail for four thousand [pieces of money—whether gold or silver is not said], and with part of this he obtained food for himself, and part he gave in alms, and with part he fed his family.—Hence an excellent coat of mail is often called by the Arabs ‘Dáwoodee,’ _i.e._, ‘Davidean.’ See my translation of ‘The Thousand and One Nights,’ chap. viii. note 5.

[311] For David, they say, divided his time regularly, setting apart one day for the service of God, another day for rendering justice to his people, another day for preaching to them, and another day for his own affairs.—S. (B.)

[312] They say that he had a carpet of green silk, on which his throne was placed, being of a prodigious length and breadth, and sufficient for all his forces to stand on, the men placing themselves on his right hand, and the spirits [or jinn] on his left; and that when all were in order the wind at his command took up the carpet and transported it with all that were upon it wherever he pleased; the army of birds at the same time flying over their heads and forming a kind of canopy to shade them from the sun.—S.

[313] Whither the wind brought back Solomon’s throne in the evening, after having carried it to a distant country in the morning.—S.