INTRODUCTION. (continued 3)

In the soorahs of the Medina period these faults reach their climax. We read a singularly varied collection of criminal laws, social regulations, orders for battle, harangues to the Jews, first conciliatory, then denunciatory, and exhortations to spread the faith, and such-like heterogeneous matters. Happily the Jewish stories disappear in the latest soorahs, but their place is filled by scarcely more palatable materials. The chapters of this period are interesting chiefly as containing the laws which have guided every Muslim state, regulated every Muslim society, and directed in their smallest acts every Mohammadan man and woman in all parts of the world from the Prophet’s time till now. The Medina part of the Ḳur-án is the most important part for Islám, considered as a scheme of ritual and a system of manners; the earliest Mekka revelations are those which contain what is highest in a great religion and what was purest in a great man.

The word Ḳur-án means the crying, reciting, reading, and is applied not only to the whole book, but to any chapter or section of it. The Ḳur-án is also called El-Furḳán, ‘the Distinguisher,’ and El-Muṣḥaf, ‘the Volume,’ and El-Kitáb, ‘the Book,’ and Edh-Dhikr, ‘the Admonition.’ The Ḳur-án contains, in its ordinary form, 114 chapters (soorahs), 6616 verses (áyát, literally ‘signs’ or ‘wonders’), 77,934 words, and 323,671 letters, according to the estimates of laborious Muslim divines, which differ, however, in a slight manner in consequence of the various divisions of verses. After the first chapter, which is a short prayer (the Fátiḥah), the soorahs gradually decrease in length from 289 verses in the second to from three to six in the ten concluding chapters. Each chapter is headed by a title, taken from same prominent word in it (as the ‘Chapter of the Striking,’ ‘of the Cow,’ &c.); beneath which is noted whether it was promulgated (according to tradition) at Mekka or Medina, and the number of its verses. Then follow the words:—‘In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful;’ after which the chapter begins. To twenty-nine chapters are prefixed certain letters (e.g., ch. ii. on p. 4), or a single letter, which have never been successfully interpreted. The Muslims believe them to conceal profound mysteries. In Soorah 55 a refrain is found, and traces of a like imitation in Soorahs 54 and 17. It is probable that the Ḳur-án was originally chanted in somewhat the same manner as it is in the present day.

The Ḳur-án is also divided in thirty sections, and these are again subdivided; and from this division rather than from chapter and verse do the Muslims generally quote.

‘The Muslims absolutely deny that the Ḳur-án was composed by their Prophet himself, or by any other for him; it being their general and orthodox belief that it is of divine original; nay, that it is eternal and uncreated, remaining, as some express it, in the very essence of God; that the first transcript has been from everlasting by God’s throne, written on a tablet of vast size, called the Preserved Tablet, in which are also recorded the divine decrees, past and future; that a copy from this tablet, in one volume on paper, was, by the ministry of the angel Gabriel, sent down to the lowest heaven, in the month of Ramaḍán, on the Night of Power;24 whence Gabriel revealed it to Moḥammad by parcels, some at Mekka, and some at Medina, at different times during the space of twenty-three years, as the exigency of affairs required; giving him, however, the consolation to show him the whole (which they tell us was bound in silk, and adorned with gold and precious stones of Paradise) once a year; but in the last year of his life he had the favour to see it twice. They say that few chapters were delivered entire, the most part being revealed piecemeal, and written down from time to time by the Prophet’s amanuensis, in such or such a part of such or such a chapter, till they were completed, according to the directions of the angel. The first parcel that was revealed is generally agreed to have been the first five verses of the ninety-sixth chapter. After the new revealed passages had been from the Prophet’s mouth taken down in writing by his scribe, they were published to his followers, several of whom took copies for their private use; but the far greater number got them by heart. The originals, when returned, were put promiscuously into a chest, without regard to any order of time, for which reason it is uncertain when many passages were revealed.

‘The Ḳur-án being the Muslims’ rule of faith and practice, it is no wonder its expositors and commentators are so very numerous; and it may not be amiss to take notice of the rules they observe in expounding it.

‘One of the most learned commentators distinguishes the contents of the Ḳur-án into allegorical and literal. The former comprehends the more obscure, parabolical, and enigmatical passages, and such as are repealed or abrogated; the latter, those which are plain, perspicuous, liable to no doubt, and in full force.

‘To explain these severally in a right manner, it is necessary, from tradition and study, to know the time when each passage was revealed, its circumstances, state, and history, and the reasons or particular emergencies for the sake of which it was revealed. Or, more explicitly, whether the passage was revealed at Mekka or at Medina; whether it be abrogated, or does itself abrogate any other passage; whether it be anticipated in order of time or postponed; whether it be distinct from the context or depend thereon; whether it be particular or general; and lastly, whether it be implicit by intention, or explicit in words.

‘By what has been said, the reader may easily believe that this book is held by the Muslims in the greatest reverence and esteem. The more strict among them dare not touch it without being first washed or legally purified; which lest they should do by inadvertence, they sometimes write these words of the book itself on the cover or label, “None shall touch it but they who are purified.” They read it with great care and respect, never holding it below their girdles. They swear by it, consult it in their weighty occasions, carry it with them to war, inscribe sentences from it on their banners, sometimes adorn it with gold and precious stones, and knowingly suffer it not to be in the possession of any person of a different persuasion. It is the foundation of their education; and the children in the schools are taught to chant it, and commit the whole of it to memory.

BOOKS,

In reading a large number of works bearing upon the subjects of this Introduction, I have remarked a curious freedom of quotation in most of the writers. I find the same sentence, or at least the same thought, repeated in several books without any reference to the author who first put it forth. Each writer seems to have studied his predecessors with such minuteness that he can quote their very words, but he does not appear to remember whence the words came. When a thought has once been perfectly expressed, it were a ridiculous vanity to seek to frame it in different words, and so far it is undoubtedly wise to make use of the best of what has preceded us; nevertheless, it is well to acknowledge our debt. Yet thoughts, and even phrases, impress themselves on the memory till one unconsciously comes to appropriate them as his own; and this, I doubt not, is the cause of much of the plagiarism I have noticed. It is extremely probable that I have been guilty of the same sin. I have crowded my pages with marks of quotation, sometimes with foot references, sometimes without (for the student of the subject will know where to look for them), but it is quite likely that I have often unconsciously used another’s phrase or metaphor without rendering thanks. So I now append a list of the principal European books I have used, and beg once and for all to record my indebtedness to their writers. The original Arabic authorities will dispense with my acknowledgments, and the catalogue of them would not assist the English reader who wishes to proceed further in the study of the subject, for whom this list may prove useful.

Burckhardt, J. L. Notes on the Bedouins and Wahábys. 2 vols. 1831.

Deutsch, Emanuel. Literary Remains. 1874.

Dozy, R. Essai sur l´Histoire de l´Islamisme, trad. par V. Chauvin. 1879.

Fresnel, F. Lettres sur l´Histoire des Arabes avant l´Islamisme. 1836-38.

Hughes, Rev. T. P. Notes on Muhammadanism. 2d ed. 1877.

Kremer, A. von. Geschichte der herrschenden Ideen des Isláms. 1868.

—— Culturgeschichte des Orients unter den Chalifen. 2 vols. 1876, 1877.

Lane, E. W. The Modern Egyptians. 5th ed. 1 vol. 1860.

—— The Thousand and One Nights (notes). 2d ed. 3 vols. 1859, 1860.

—— Selections from the Kur-án. 1st ed. 1843.

—— Arabic-English Lexicon, Preface, &c. 1863.

Lyall, C. J. Translations from the Hamâseh and the Aghânî; The Mo´allaqah of Zuheyr. (Journal As. Soc. of Bengal, 1878.)

Muir, Sir W. The Life of Mahomet. 4 vols. New edition.25 1867.

Nöldeke, Th. Geschichte des Qorâns. 1860.

—— Beiträge zur Kenntniss der Poesie der alten Araber. 1864.

Palgrave, W. Gifford. Central and Eastern Arabia. 6th ed. 1871.

Perceval, A.-P. Caussin de. Essai sur l´Histoire des Arabes avant l´Islamisme. 3 vols. 1847, 1848.

Poole, R. Stuart. Pagan and Muslim Arabs. (Fortnightly Review, October 15, 1865.)

Rodwell, J. M. El-Korân. 2d ed. 1876.

Sale, G. The Koran. 1836.

Sédillot, L.-A. Histoire Générale des Arabes. 2d ed. 2 vols. 1877.

Smith, R. Bosworth. Mohammed and Mohammedanism. 2d ed. 1876.

Sprenger, A. Das Leben und die Lehre des Mohammad. 2d ed. 3 vols. 1869.

St. Hilaire, T.-Barthélemy. Mahomet et le Coran. 2d ed. 1865.

Tiele, C. P. Outlines of the History of Religion, translated by J. E. Carpenter. (Trübner’s Philosophical Library. Vol. vii. 1877.)

Weil, G. Das Leben Mohammed’s nach Ibn Ishak bearbeitet von Ibn Hischam. 2 vols. 1864.

SELECTIONS FROM THE ḲUR-ÁN.