Chapter L: Description Of Arabia And Its Inhabitants.—Part III

Arabia was free: the adjacent kingdoms were shaken by the storms
of conquest and tyranny, and the persecuted sects fled to the
happy land where they might profess what they thought, and
practise what they professed. The religions of the Sabians and
Magians, of the Jews and Christians, were disseminated from the
Persian Gulf to the Red Sea. In a remote period of antiquity,
Sabianism was diffused over Asia by the science of the Chaldaeans
55 and the arms of the Assyrians. From the observations of two
thousand years, the priests and astronomers of Babylon 56 deduced
the eternal laws of nature and providence. They adored the seven
gods or angels, who directed the course of the seven planets, and
shed their irresistible influence on the earth. The attributes of
the seven planets, with the twelve signs of the zodiac, and the
twenty-four constellations of the northern and southern
hemisphere, were represented by images and talismans; the seven
days of the week were dedicated to their respective deities; the
Sabians prayed thrice each day; and the temple of the moon at
Haran was the term of their pilgrimage. 57 But the flexible
genius of their faith was always ready either to teach or to
learn: in the tradition of the creation, the deluge, and the
patriarchs, they held a singular agreement with their Jewish
captives; they appealed to the secret books of Adam, Seth, and
Enoch; and a slight infusion of the gospel has transformed the
last remnant of the Polytheists into the Christians of St. John,
in the territory of Bassora. 58 The altars of Babylon were
overturned by the Magians; but the injuries of the Sabians were
revenged by the sword of Alexander; Persia groaned above five
hundred years under a foreign yoke; and the purest disciples of
Zoroaster escaped from the contagion of idolatry, and breathed
with their adversaries the freedom of the desert. 59 Seven
hundred years before the death of Mahomet, the Jews were settled
in Arabia; and a far greater multitude was expelled from the Holy
Land in the wars of Titus and Hadrian. The industrious exiles
aspired to liberty and power: they erected synagogues in the
cities, and castles in the wilderness, and their Gentile converts
were confounded with the children of Israel, whom they resembled
in the outward mark of circumcision. The Christian missionaries
were still more active and successful: the Catholics asserted
their universal reign; the sects whom they oppressed,
successively retired beyond the limits of the Roman empire; the
Marcionites and Manichaeans dispersed their fantastic opinions
and apocryphal gospels; the churches of Yemen, and the princes of
Hira and Gassan, were instructed in a purer creed by the Jacobite
and Nestorian bishops. 60 The liberty of choice was presented to
the tribes: each Arab was free to elect or to compose his private
religion: and the rude superstition of his house was mingled with
the sublime theology of saints and philosophers. A fundamental
article of faith was inculcated by the consent of the learned
strangers; the existence of one supreme God who is exalted above
the powers of heaven and earth, but who has often revealed
himself to mankind by the ministry of his angels and prophets,
and whose grace or justice has interrupted, by seasonable
miracles, the order of nature. The most rational of the Arabs
acknowledged his power, though they neglected his worship; 61 and
it was habit rather than conviction that still attached them to
the relics of idolatry. The Jews and Christians were the people
of the Book; the Bible was already translated into the Arabic
language, 62 and the volume of the Old Testament was accepted by
the concord of these implacable enemies. In the story of the
Hebrew patriarchs, the Arabs were pleased to discover the fathers
of their nation. They applauded the birth and promises of Ismael;
revered the faith and virtue of Abraham; traced his pedigree and
their own to the creation of the first man, and imbibed, with
equal credulity, the prodigies of the holy text, and the dreams
and traditions of the Jewish rabbis.

55 (return) [ Diodorus Siculus (tom. i. l. ii. p. 142-145) has
cast on their religion the curious but superficial glance of a
Greek. Their astronomy would be far more valuable: they had
looked through the telescope of reason, since they could doubt
whether the sun were in the number of the planets or of the fixed
stars.]

56 (return) [ Simplicius, (who quotes Porphyry,) de Coelo, l. ii.
com. xlvi p. 123, lin. 18, apud Marsham, Canon. Chron. p. 474,
who doubts the fact, because it is adverse to his systems. The
earliest date of the Chaldaean observations is the year 2234
before Christ. After the conquest of Babylon by Alexander, they
were communicated at the request of Aristotle, to the astronomer
Hipparchus. What a moment in the annals of science!]

57 (return) [ Pocock, (Specimen, p. 138-146,) Hottinger, (Hist.
Orient. p. 162-203,) Hyde, (de Religione Vet. Persarum, p. 124,
128, &c.,) D’Herbelot, (Sabi, p. 725, 726,) and Sale,
(Preliminary Discourse, p. 14, 15,) rather excite than gratify
our curiosity; and the last of these writers confounds Sabianism
with the primitive religion of the Arabs.]

58 (return) [ D’Anville (l’Euphrate et le Tigre, p. 130-137) will
fix the position of these ambiguous Christians; Assemannus
(Bibliot. Oriental. tom. iv. p. 607-614) may explain their
tenets. But it is a slippery task to ascertain the creed of an
ignorant people afraid and ashamed to disclose their secret
traditions. * Note: The Codex Nasiraeus, their sacred book, has
been published by Norberg whose researches contain almost all
that is known of this singular people. But their origin is almost
as obscure as ever: if ancient, their creed has been so corrupted
with mysticism and Mahometanism, that its native lineaments are
very indistinct.—M.]

59 (return) [ The Magi were fixed in the province of Bhrein,
(Gagnier, Vie de Mahomet, tom. iii. p. 114,) and mingled with the
old Arabians, (Pocock, Specimen, p. 146-150.)]

60 (return) [ The state of the Jews and Christians in Arabia is
described by Pocock from Sharestani, &c., (Specimen, p. 60, 134,
&c.,) Hottinger, (Hist. Orient. p. 212-238,) D’Herbelot,
(Bibliot. Orient. p. 474-476,) Basnage, (Hist. des Juifs, tom.
vii. p. 185, tom. viii. p. 280,) and Sale, (Preliminary
Discourse, p. 22, &c., 33, &c.)]

61 (return) [ In their offerings, it was a maxim to defraud God
for the profit of the idol, not a more potent, but a more
irritable, patron, (Pocock, Specimen, p. 108, 109.)]

62 (return) [ Our versions now extant, whether Jewish or
Christian, appear more recent than the Koran; but the existence
of a prior translation may be fairly inferred,—1. From the
perpetual practice of the synagogue of expounding the Hebrew
lesson by a paraphrase in the vulgar tongue of the country; 2.
From the analogy of the Armenian, Persian, Aethiopic versions,
expressly quoted by the fathers of the fifth century, who assert
that the Scriptures were translated into all the Barbaric
languages, (Walton, Prolegomena ad Biblia Polyglot, p. 34, 93-97.
Simon, Hist. Critique du V. et du N. Testament, tom. i. p. 180,
181, 282-286, 293, 305, 306, tom. iv. p. 206.)]

The base and plebeian origin of Mahomet is an unskilful calumny
of the Christians, 63 who exalt instead of degrading the merit of
their adversary. His descent from Ismael was a national privilege
or fable; but if the first steps of the pedigree 64 are dark and
doubtful, he could produce many generations of pure and genuine
nobility: he sprung from the tribe of Koreish and the family of
Hashem, the most illustrious of the Arabs, the princes of Mecca,
and the hereditary guardians of the Caaba. The grandfather of
Mahomet was Abdol Motalleb, the son of Hashem, a wealthy and
generous citizen, who relieved the distress of famine with the
supplies of commerce. Mecca, which had been fed by the liberality
of the father, was saved by the courage of the son. The kingdom
of Yemen was subject to the Christian princes of Abyssinia; their
vassal Abrahah was provoked by an insult to avenge the honor of
the cross; and the holy city was invested by a train of elephants
and an army of Africans. A treaty was proposed; and, in the first
audience, the grandfather of Mahomet demanded the restitution of
his cattle. “And why,” said Abrahah, “do you not rather implore
my clemency in favor of your temple, which I have threatened to
destroy?” “Because,” replied the intrepid chief, “the cattle is
my own; the Caaba belongs to the gods, and they will defend their
house from injury and sacrilege.” The want of provisions, or the
valor of the Koreish, compelled the Abyssinians to a disgraceful
retreat: their discomfiture has been adorned with a miraculous
flight of birds, who showered down stones on the heads of the
infidels; and the deliverance was long commemorated by the aera
of the elephant. 65 The glory of Abdol Motalleb was crowned with
domestic happiness; his life was prolonged to the age of one
hundred and ten years; and he became the father of six daughters
and thirteen sons. His best beloved Abdallah was the most
beautiful and modest of the Arabian youth; and in the first
night, when he consummated his marriage with Amina, 651 of the
noble race of the Zahrites, two hundred virgins are said to have
expired of jealousy and despair. Mahomet, or more properly
Mohammed, the only son of Abdallah and Amina, was born at Mecca,
four years after the death of Justinian, and two months after the
defeat of the Abyssinians, 66 whose victory would have introduced
into the Caaba the religion of the Christians. In his early
infancy, he was deprived of his father, his mother, and his
grandfather; his uncles were strong and numerous; and, in the
division of the inheritance, the orphan’s share was reduced to
five camels and an Aethiopian maid-servant. At home and abroad,
in peace and war, Abu Taleb, the most respectable of his uncles,
was the guide and guardian of his youth; in his twenty-fifth
year, he entered into the service of Cadijah, a rich and noble
widow of Mecca, who soon rewarded his fidelity with the gift of
her hand and fortune. The marriage contract, in the simple style
of antiquity, recites the mutual love of Mahomet and Cadijah;
describes him as the most accomplished of the tribe of Koreish;
and stipulates a dowry of twelve ounces of gold and twenty
camels, which was supplied by the liberality of his uncle. 67 By
this alliance, the son of Abdallah was restored to the station of
his ancestors; and the judicious matron was content with his
domestic virtues, till, in the fortieth year of his age, 68 he
assumed the title of a prophet, and proclaimed the religion of
the Koran.

63 (return) [ In eo conveniunt omnes, ut plebeio vilique genere
ortum, &c, (Hottinger, Hist. Orient. p. 136.) Yet Theophanes, the
most ancient of the Greeks, and the father of many a lie,
confesses that Mahomet was of the race of Ismael, (Chronograph.
p. 277.)]

64 (return) [ Abulfeda (in Vit. Mohammed. c. 1, 2) and Gagnier
(Vie de Mahomet, p. 25-97) describe the popular and approved
genealogy of the prophet. At Mecca, I would not dispute its
authenticity: at Lausanne, I will venture to observe, 1. That
from Ismael to Mahomet, a period of 2500 years, they reckon
thirty, instead of seventy five, generations: 2. That the modern
Bedoweens are ignorant of their history, and careless of their
pedigree, (Voyage de D’Arvieux p. 100, 103.) * Note: The most
orthodox Mahometans only reckon back the ancestry of the prophet
for twenty generations, to Adnan. Weil, Mohammed der Prophet, p.
1.—M. 1845.]

65 (return) [ The seed of this history, or fable, is contained in
the cvth chapter of the Koran; and Gagnier (in Praefat. ad Vit.
Moham. p. 18, &c.) has translated the historical narrative of
Abulfeda, which may be illustrated from D’Herbelot (Bibliot.
Orientale, p. 12) and Pocock, (Specimen, p. 64.) Prideaux (Life
of Mahomet, p. 48) calls it a lie of the coinage of Mahomet; but
Sale, (Koran, p. 501-503,) who is half a Mussulman, attacks the
inconsistent faith of the Doctor for believing the miracles of
the Delphic Apollo. Maracci (Alcoran, tom. i. part ii. p. 14,
tom. ii. p. 823) ascribes the miracle to the devil, and extorts
from the Mahometans the confession, that God would not have
defended against the Christians the idols of the Caaba. * Note:
Dr. Weil says that the small-pox broke out in the army of
Abrahah, but he does not give his authority, p. 10.—M. 1845.]

651 (return) [ Amina, or Emina, was of Jewish birth. V. Hammer,
Geschichte der Assass. p. 10.—M.]

66 (return) [ The safest aeras of Abulfeda, (in Vit. c. i. p. 2,)
of Alexander, or the Greeks, 882, of Bocht Naser, or Nabonassar,
1316, equally lead us to the year 569. The old Arabian calendar
is too dark and uncertain to support the Benedictines, (Art. de
Verifer les Dates, p. 15,) who, from the day of the month and
week, deduce a new mode of calculation, and remove the birth of
Mahomet to the year of Christ 570, the 10th of November. Yet this
date would agree with the year 882 of the Greeks, which is
assigned by Elmacin (Hist. Saracen. p. 5) and Abulpharagius,
(Dynast. p. 101, and Errata, Pocock’s version.) While we refine
our chronology, it is possible that the illiterate prophet was
ignorant of his own age. * Note: The date of the birth of Mahomet
is not yet fixed with precision. It is only known from Oriental
authors that he was born on a Monday, the 10th Reby 1st, the
third month of the Mahometan year; the year 40 or 42 of Chosroes
Nushirvan, king of Persia; the year 881 of the Seleucidan aera;
the year 1316 of the aera of Nabonassar. This leaves the point
undecided between the years 569, 570, 571, of J. C. See the
Memoir of M. Silv. de Sacy, on divers events in the history of
the Arabs before Mahomet, Mem. Acad. des Loscript. vol. xlvii. p.
527, 531. St. Martin, vol. xi. p. 59.—M. ——Dr. Weil decides on
A.D. 571. Mahomet died in 632, aged 63; but the Arabs reckoned
his life by lunar years, which reduces his life nearly to 61 (p.
21.)—M. 1845]

67 (return) [ I copy the honorable testimony of Abu Taleb to his
family and nephew. Laus Dei, qui nos a stirpe Abrahami et semine
Ismaelis constituit, et nobis regionem sacram dedit, et nos
judices hominibus statuit. Porro Mohammed filius Abdollahi
nepotis mei (nepos meus) quo cum ex aequo librabitur e
Koraishidis quispiam cui non praeponderaturus est, bonitate et
excellentia, et intellectu et gloria, et acumine etsi opum inops
fuerit, (et certe opes umbra transiens sunt et depositum quod
reddi debet,) desiderio Chadijae filiae Chowailedi tenetur, et
illa vicissim ipsius, quicquid autem dotis vice petieritis, ego
in me suscipiam, (Pocock, Specimen, e septima parte libri Ebn
Hamduni.)]

68 (return) [ The private life of Mahomet, from his birth to his
mission, is preserved by Abulfeda, (in Vit. c. 3-7,) and the
Arabian writers of genuine or apocryphal note, who are alleged by
Hottinger, (Hist. Orient. p. 204-211) Maracci, (tom. i. p.
10-14,) and Gagnier, (Vie de Mahomet, tom. i. p. 97-134.)]

According to the tradition of his companions, Mahomet 69 was
distinguished by the beauty of his person, an outward gift which
is seldom despised, except by those to whom it has been refused.
Before he spoke, the orator engaged on his side the affections of
a public or private audience. They applauded his commanding
presence, his majestic aspect, his piercing eye, his gracious
smile, his flowing beard, his countenance that painted every
sensation of the soul, and his gestures that enforced each
expression of the tongue. In the familiar offices of life he
scrupulously adhered to the grave and ceremonious politeness of
his country: his respectful attention to the rich and powerful
was dignified by his condescension and affability to the poorest
citizens of Mecca: the frankness of his manner concealed the
artifice of his views; and the habits of courtesy were imputed to
personal friendship or universal benevolence. His memory was
capacious and retentive; his wit easy and social; his imagination
sublime; his judgment clear, rapid, and decisive. He possessed
the courage both of thought and action; and, although his designs
might gradually expand with his success, the first idea which he
entertained of his divine mission bears the stamp of an original
and superior genius. The son of Abdallah was educated in the
bosom of the noblest race, in the use of the purest dialect of
Arabia; and the fluency of his speech was corrected and enhanced
by the practice of discreet and seasonable silence. With these
powers of eloquence, Mahomet was an illiterate Barbarian: his
youth had never been instructed in the arts of reading and
writing; 70 the common ignorance exempted him from shame or
reproach, but he was reduced to a narrow circle of existence, and
deprived of those faithful mirrors, which reflect to our mind the
minds of sages and heroes. Yet the book of nature and of man was
open to his view; and some fancy has been indulged in the
political and philosophical observations which are ascribed to
the Arabian traveller. 71 He compares the nations and the regions
of the earth; discovers the weakness of the Persian and Roman
monarchies; beholds, with pity and indignation, the degeneracy of
the times; and resolves to unite under one God and one king the
invincible spirit and primitive virtues of the Arabs. Our more
accurate inquiry will suggest, that, instead of visiting the
courts, the camps, the temples, of the East, the two journeys of
Mahomet into Syria were confined to the fairs of Bostra and
Damascus; that he was only thirteen years of age when he
accompanied the caravan of his uncle; and that his duty compelled
him to return as soon as he had disposed of the merchandise of
Cadijah. In these hasty and superficial excursions, the eye of
genius might discern some objects invisible to his grosser
companions; some seeds of knowledge might be cast upon a fruitful
soil; but his ignorance of the Syriac language must have checked
his curiosity; and I cannot perceive, in the life or writings of
Mahomet, that his prospect was far extended beyond the limits of
the Arabian world. From every region of that solitary world, the
pilgrims of Mecca were annually assembled, by the calls of
devotion and commerce: in the free concourse of multitudes, a
simple citizen, in his native tongue, might study the political
state and character of the tribes, the theory and practice of the
Jews and Christians. Some useful strangers might be tempted, or
forced, to implore the rights of hospitality; and the enemies of
Mahomet have named the Jew, the Persian, and the Syrian monk,
whom they accuse of lending their secret aid to the composition
of the Koran. 72 Conversation enriches the understanding, but
solitude is the school of genius; and the uniformity of a work
denotes the hand of a single artist. From his earliest youth
Mahomet was addicted to religious contemplation; each year,
during the month of Ramadan, he withdrew from the world, and from
the arms of Cadijah: in the cave of Hera, three miles from Mecca,
73 he consulted the spirit of fraud or enthusiasm, whose abode is
not in the heavens, but in the mind of the prophet. The faith
which, under the name of Islam, he preached to his family and
nation, is compounded of an eternal truth, and a necessary
fiction, That there is only one God, and that Mahomet is the
apostle of God.

69 (return) [ Abulfeda, in Vit. c. lxv. lxvi. Gagnier, Vie de
Mahomet, tom. iii. p. 272-289. The best traditions of the person
and conversation of the prophet are derived from Ayesha, Ali, and
Abu Horaira, (Gagnier, tom. ii. p. 267. Ockley’s Hist. of the
Saracens, vol. ii. p. 149,) surnamed the Father of a Cat, who
died in the year 59 of the Hegira. * Note: Compare, likewise, the
new Life of Mahomet (Mohammed der prophet) by Dr. Weil,
(Stuttgart, 1843.) Dr. Weil has a new tradition, that Mahomet was
at one time a shepherd. This assimilation to the life of Moses,
instead of giving probability to the story, as Dr. Weil suggests,
makes it more suspicious. Note, p. 34.—M. 1845.]

70 (return) [ Those who believe that Mahomet could read or write
are incapable of reading what is written with another pen, in the
Suras, or chapters of the Koran, vii. xxix. xcvi. These texts,
and the tradition of the Sonna, are admitted, without doubt, by
Abulfeda, (in Vit. vii.,) Gagnier, (Not. ad Abulfed. p. 15,)
Pocock, (Specimen, p. 151,) Reland, (de Religione Mohammedica, p.
236,) and Sale, (Preliminary Discourse, p. 42.) Mr. White, almost
alone, denies the ignorance, to accuse the imposture, of the
prophet. His arguments are far from satisfactory. Two short
trading journeys to the fairs of Syria were surely not sufficient
to infuse a science so rare among the citizens of Mecca: it was
not in the cool, deliberate act of treaty, that Mahomet would
have dropped the mask; nor can any conclusion be drawn from the
words of disease and delirium. The lettered youth, before he
aspired to the prophetic character, must have often exercised, in
private life, the arts of reading and writing; and his first
converts, of his own family, would have been the first to detect
and upbraid his scandalous hypocrisy, (White’s Sermons, p. 203,
204, Notes, p. xxxvi.—xxxviii.) * Note: (Academ. des Inscript. I.
p. 295) has observed that the text of the seveth Sura implies
that Mahomet could read, the tradition alone denies it, and,
according to Dr. Weil, (p. 46,) there is another reading of the
tradition, that “he could not read well.” Dr. Weil is not quite
so successful in explaining away Sura xxix. It means, he thinks
that he had not read any books, from which he could have
borrowed.—M. 1845.]

71 (return) [ The count de Boulainvilliers (Vie de Mahomet, p.
202-228) leads his Arabian pupil, like the Telemachus of Fenelon,
or the Cyrus of Ramsay. His journey to the court of Persia is
probably a fiction nor can I trace the origin of his exclamation,
“Les Grecs sont pour tant des hommes.” The two Syrian journeys
are expressed by almost all the Arabian writers, both Mahometans
and Christians, (Gagnier Abulfed. p. 10.)]

72 (return) [ I am not at leisure to pursue the fables or
conjectures which name the strangers accused or suspected by the
infidels of Mecca, (Koran, c. 16, p. 223, c. 35, p. 297, with
Sale’s Remarks. Prideaux’s Life of Mahomet, p. 22-27. Gagnier,
Not. ad Abulfed. p. 11, 74. Maracci, tom. ii. p. 400.) Even
Prideaux has observed, that the transaction must have been
secret, and that the scene lay in the heart of Arabia.]

73 (return) [ Abulfeda in Vit. c. 7, p. 15. Gagnier, tom. i. p.
133, 135. The situation of Mount Hera is remarked by Abulfeda
(Geograph. Arab p. 4.) Yet Mahomet had never read of the cave of
Egeria, ubi nocturnae Numa constituebat amicae, of the Idaean
Mount, where Minos conversed with Jove, &c.]

It is the boast of the Jewish apologists, that while the learned
nations of antiquity were deluded by the fables of polytheism,
their simple ancestors of Palestine preserved the knowledge and
worship of the true God. The moral attributes of Jehovah may not
easily be reconciled with the standard of human virtue: his
metaphysical qualities are darkly expressed; but each page of the
Pentateuch and the Prophets is an evidence of his power: the
unity of his name is inscribed on the first table of the law; and
his sanctuary was never defiled by any visible image of the
invisible essence. After the ruin of the temple, the faith of the
Hebrew exiles was purified, fixed, and enlightened, by the
spiritual devotion of the synagogue; and the authority of Mahomet
will not justify his perpetual reproach, that the Jews of Mecca
or Medina adored Ezra as the son of God. 74 But the children of
Israel had ceased to be a people; and the religions of the world
were guilty, at least in the eyes of the prophet, of giving sons,
or daughters, or companions, to the supreme God. In the rude
idolatry of the Arabs, the crime is manifest and audacious: the
Sabians are poorly excused by the preeminence of the first
planet, or intelligence, in their celestial hierarchy; and in the
Magian system the conflict of the two principles betrays the
imperfection of the conqueror. The Christians of the seventh
century had insensibly relapsed into a semblance of Paganism:
their public and private vows were addressed to the relics and
images that disgraced the temples of the East: the throne of the
Almighty was darkened by a cloud of martyrs, and saints, and
angels, the objects of popular veneration; and the Collyridian
heretics, who flourished in the fruitful soil of Arabia, invested
the Virgin Mary with the name and honors of a goddess. 75 The
mysteries of the Trinity and Incarnation appear to contradict the
principle of the divine unity. In their obvious sense, they
introduce three equal deities, and transform the man Jesus into
the substance of the Son of God: 76 an orthodox commentary will
satisfy only a believing mind: intemperate curiosity and zeal had
torn the veil of the sanctuary; and each of the Oriental sects
was eager to confess that all, except themselves, deserved the
reproach of idolatry and polytheism. The creed of Mahomet is free
from suspicion or ambiguity; and the Koran is a glorious
testimony to the unity of God. The prophet of Mecca rejected the
worship of idols and men, of stars and planets, on the rational
principle that whatever rises must set, that whatever is born
must die, that whatever is corruptible must decay and perish. 77
In the Author of the universe, his rational enthusiasm confessed
and adored an infinite and eternal being, without form or place,
without issue or similitude, present to our most secret thoughts,
existing by the necessity of his own nature, and deriving from
himself all moral and intellectual perfection. These sublime
truths, thus announced in the language of the prophet, 78 are
firmly held by his disciples, and defined with metaphysical
precision by the interpreters of the Koran. A philosophic theist
might subscribe the popular creed of the Mahometans; 79 a creed
too sublime, perhaps, for our present faculties. What object
remains for the fancy, or even the understanding, when we have
abstracted from the unknown substance all ideas of time and
space, of motion and matter, of sensation and reflection? The
first principle of reason and revolution was confirmed by the
voice of Mahomet: his proselytes, from India to Morocco, are
distinguished by the name of Unitarians; and the danger of
idolatry has been prevented by the interdiction of images. The
doctrine of eternal decrees and absolute predestination is
strictly embraced by the Mahometans; and they struggle, with the
common difficulties, how to reconcile the prescience of God with
the freedom and responsibility of man; how to explain the
permission of evil under the reign of infinite power and infinite
goodness.

74 (return) [ Koran, c. 9, p. 153. Al Beidawi, and the other
commentators quoted by Sale, adhere to the charge; but I do not
understand that it is colored by the most obscure or absurd
tradition of the Talmud.]

75 (return) [ Hottinger, Hist. Orient. p. 225-228. The
Collyridian heresy was carried from Thrace to Arabia by some
women, and the name was borrowed from the cake, which they
offered to the goddess. This example, that of Beryllus bishop of
Bostra, (Euseb. Hist. Eccles. l. vi. c. 33,) and several others,
may excuse the reproach, Arabia haerese haersewn ferax.]

76 (return) [ The three gods in the Koran (c. 4, p. 81, c. 5, p.
92) are obviously directed against our Catholic mystery: but the
Arabic commentators understand them of the Father, the Son, and
the Virgin Mary, an heretical Trinity, maintained, as it is said,
by some Barbarians at the Council of Nice, (Eutych. Annal. tom.
i. p. 440.) But the existence of the Marianites is denied by the
candid Beausobre, (Hist. de Manicheisme, tom. i. p. 532;) and he
derives the mistake from the word Roxah, the Holy Ghost, which in
some Oriental tongues is of the feminine gender, and is
figuratively styled the mother of Christ in the Gospel of the
Nazarenes.]

77 (return) [ This train of thought is philosophically
exemplified in the character of Abraham, who opposed in Chaldaea
the first introduction of idolatry, (Koran, c. 6, p. 106.
D’Herbelot, Bibliot. Orient. p. 13.)]

78 (return) [ See the Koran, particularly the second, (p. 30,)
the fifty-seventh, (p. 437,) the fifty-eighth (p. 441) chapters,
which proclaim the omnipotence of the Creator.]

79 (return) [ The most orthodox creeds are translated by Pocock,
(Specimen, p. 274, 284-292,) Ockley, (Hist. of the Saracens, vol.
ii. p. lxxxii.—xcv.,) Reland, (de Religion. Moham. l. i. p.
7-13,) and Chardin, (Voyages en Perse, tom. iv. p. 4-28.) The
great truth, that God is without similitude, is foolishly
criticized by Maracci, (Alcoran, tom. i. part iii. p. 87-94,)
because he made man after his own image.]

The God of nature has written his existence on all his works, and
his law in the heart of man. To restore the knowledge of the one,
and the practice of the other, has been the real or pretended aim
of the prophets of every age: the liberality of Mahomet allowed
to his predecessors the same credit which he claimed for himself;
and the chain of inspiration was prolonged from the fall of Adam
to the promulgation of the Koran. 80 During that period, some
rays of prophetic light had been imparted to one hundred and
twenty-four thousand of the elect, discriminated by their
respective measure of virtue and grace; three hundred and
thirteen apostles were sent with a special commission to recall
their country from idolatry and vice; one hundred and four
volumes have been dictated by the Holy Spirit; and six
legislators of transcendent brightness have announced to mankind
the six successive revelations of various rites, but of one
immutable religion. The authority and station of Adam, Noah,
Abraham, Moses, Christ, and Mahomet, rise in just gradation above
each other; but whosoever hates or rejects any one of the
prophets is numbered with the infidels. The writings of the
patriarchs were extant only in the apocryphal copies of the
Greeks and Syrians: 81 the conduct of Adam had not entitled him
to the gratitude or respect of his children; the seven precepts
of Noah were observed by an inferior and imperfect class of the
proselytes of the synagogue; 82 and the memory of Abraham was
obscurely revered by the Sabians in his native land of Chaldaea:
of the myriads of prophets, Moses and Christ alone lived and
reigned; and the remnant of the inspired writings was comprised
in the books of the Old and the New Testament. The miraculous
story of Moses is consecrated and embellished in the Koran; 83
and the captive Jews enjoy the secret revenge of imposing their
own belief on the nations whose recent creeds they deride. For
the author of Christianity, the Mahometans are taught by the
prophet to entertain a high and mysterious reverence. 84 “Verily,
Christ Jesus, the son of Mary, is the apostle of God, and his
word, which he conveyed unto Mary, and a Spirit proceeding from
him; honorable in this world, and in the world to come, and one
of those who approach near to the presence of God.” 85 The
wonders of the genuine and apocryphal gospels 86 are profusely
heaped on his head; and the Latin church has not disdained to
borrow from the Koran the immaculate conception 87 of his virgin
mother. Yet Jesus was a mere mortal; and, at the day of judgment,
his testimony will serve to condemn both the Jews, who reject him
as a prophet, and the Christians, who adore him as the Son of
God. The malice of his enemies aspersed his reputation, and
conspired against his life; but their intention only was guilty;
a phantom or a criminal was substituted on the cross; and the
innocent saint was translated to the seventh heaven. 88 During
six hundred years the gospel was the way of truth and salvation;
but the Christians insensibly forgot both the laws and example of
their founder; and Mahomet was instructed by the Gnostics to
accuse the church, as well as the synagogue, of corrupting the
integrity of the sacred text. 89 The piety of Moses and of Christ
rejoiced in the assurance of a future prophet, more illustrious
than themselves: the evangelical promise of the Paraclete, or
Holy Ghost, was prefigured in the name, and accomplished in the
person, of Mahomet, 90 the greatest and the last of the apostles
of God.

80 (return) [ Reland, de Relig. Moham. l. i. p. 17-47. Sale’s
Preliminary Discourse, p. 73-76. Voyage de Chardin, tom. iv. p.
28-37, and 37-47, for the Persian addition, “Ali is the vicar of
God!” Yet the precise number of the prophets is not an article of
faith.]

81 (return) [ For the apocryphal books of Adam, see Fabricius,
Codex Pseudepigraphus V. T. p. 27-29; of Seth, p. 154-157; of
Enoch, p. 160-219. But the book of Enoch is consecrated, in some
measure, by the quotation of the apostle St. Jude; and a long
legendary fragment is alleged by Syncellus and Scaliger. * Note:
The whole book has since been recovered in the Ethiopic
language,—and has been edited and translated by Archbishop
Lawrence, Oxford, 1881—M.]

82 (return) [ The seven precepts of Noah are explained by
Marsham, (Canon Chronicus, p. 154-180,) who adopts, on this
occasion, the learning and credulity of Selden.]

83 (return) [ The articles of Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, &c., in
the Bibliotheque of D’Herbelot, are gayly bedecked with the
fanciful legends of the Mahometans, who have built on the
groundwork of Scripture and the Talmud.]

84 (return) [ Koran, c. 7, p. 128, &c., c. 10, p. 173, &c.
D’Herbelot, p. 647, &c.]

85 (return) [ Koran, c. 3, p. 40, c. 4. p. 80. D’Herbelot, p.
399, &c.]

86 (return) [ See the Gospel of St. Thomas, or of the Infancy, in
the Codex Apocryphus N. T. of Fabricius, who collects the various
testimonies concerning it, (p. 128-158.) It was published in
Greek by Cotelier, and in Arabic by Sike, who thinks our present
copy more recent than Mahomet. Yet his quotations agree with the
original about the speech of Christ in his cradle, his living
birds of clay, &c. (Sike, c. i. p. 168, 169, c. 36, p. 198, 199,
c. 46, p. 206. Cotelier, c. 2, p. 160, 161.)]

87 (return) [ It is darkly hinted in the Koran, (c. 3, p. 39,)
and more clearly explained by the tradition of the Sonnites,
(Sale’s Note, and Maracci, tom. ii. p. 112.) In the xiith
century, the immaculate conception was condemned by St. Bernard
as a presumptuous novelty, (Fra Paolo, Istoria del Concilio di
Trento, l. ii.)]

88 (return) [ See the Koran, c. 3, v. 53, and c. 4, v. 156, of
Maracci’s edition. Deus est praestantissimus dolose agentium (an
odd praise)... nec crucifixerunt eum, sed objecta est eis
similitudo; an expression that may suit with the system of the
Docetes; but the commentators believe (Maracci, tom. ii. p.
113-115, 173. Sale, p. 42, 43, 79) that another man, a friend or
an enemy, was crucified in the likeness of Jesus; a fable which
they had read in the Gospel of St. Barnabus, and which had been
started as early as the time of Irenaeus, by some Ebionite
heretics, (Beausobre, Hist. du Manicheisme, tom. ii. p. 25,
Mosheim. de Reb. Christ. p. 353.)]

89 (return) [ This charge is obscurely urged in the Koran, (c. 3,
p. 45;) but neither Mahomet, nor his followers, are sufficiently
versed in languages and criticism to give any weight or color to
their suspicions. Yet the Arians and Nestorians could relate some
stories, and the illiterate prophet might listen to the bold
assertions of the Manichaeans. See Beausobre, tom. i. p.
291-305.]

90 (return) [ Among the prophecies of the Old and New Testament,
which are perverted by the fraud or ignorance of the Mussulmans,
they apply to the prophet the promise of the Paraclete, or
Comforter, which had been already usurped by the Montanists and
Manichaeans, (Beausobre, Hist. Critique du Manicheisme, tom. i.
p. 263, &c.;) and the easy change of letters affords the
etymology of the name of Mohammed, (Maracci, tom. i. part i. p.
15-28.)]