that species of Cabbala called by the Jews Notarikon, and suppose the letters to stand for as many words expressing the names and attributes of God, his works, ordinances, and decrees; and therefore these mysterious letters, as well as the verses themselves, seem in the Korân to be called signs. Others explain the intent of these letters from their nature or organ, or else from their value in numbers, according to another species of the Jewish Cabbala called Gematria; the uncertainty of which conjectures sufficiently appears from their disagreement. Thus for example, five chapters, one of which is the second, begin with these letters, A. L. M. which some imagine to stand for Allah latîf magîd; God is gracious and to be glorified; or, Ana li minni, to me and from me, viz. belongs all perfection, and proceeds all good: or else for Ana Allah âlam, I am the most wise God, taking the first letter to mark the beginning of the first word, the second the middle of the second word, and the third the last of the third word; or for Allah, Gabriel, Mohammed, the author, revealer, and preacher of the Korân. Others say, that as the letter A belongs to the lower part of the throat, the first of the organs of speech; L to the palate, the middle organ; and M to the lips, which are the last organ; so these letters signify that God is the beginning, middle, and end, or ought to be praised in the beginning, middle, and end, of all our words and actions: or, as the total value of those three letters in numbers is seventy-one, they signify that in the space of so many years, the religion preached in the Korân should be fully established. The conjecture of a learned Christian' is at least as certain as any of the former, who supposes these letters were set there by the amanuensis, for Amar li Mohammed, i. e. At the command of Mohammed, as the five letters prefixed to the nineteenth chapter seem to be there written by a Jewish scribe, for Cob Yaas, i. e. Thus he commanded.

The Koran is universally allowed to be written with the utmost elegance and purity of language, in the dialect of the tribe of Koreish, the most noble and polite of all the Arabians, but with some mixture, though very rarely, of other dialects. It is confessedly the standard of the Arabic tongue, and as the more orthodox believe, and are taught by the book itself, inimitable by any human pen (though some sectaries have been of another opinion,) and therefore insisted on as a permanent miracle, greater than that of raising the dead, and alone sufficient to convince the world of its divine original.

And to this miracle did Mohammed himself chiefly appeal for the con firmation of his mission, publicly challenging the most eloquent men ir Arabia, which was at this time stocked with thousands whose sole study and ambition it was to excel in elegance of style and composition, to produce even a single chapter that might be compared with it. I will mention but one instance out of several, to show that this book was really admired for the beauty of its composure by those who must be allowed to have been competent judges. A poem of Labîd Ebn Rabîa, one of the greatest wits in Arabia in Mohammed's time, being fixed up on the gate of

Vide Buxtorf. Lexicon Rabbin. Vide Ib. See also Schickardi Bechinat happerushim, p. 62, &c. Golius in append. ad Gram. Erp. p. 182. 2 See after. Ahmed Abd'alhalim apud Marracc. de Alc. p. 43. A noble writer therefore mistakes the question when he says, these eastern religionists leave their sacred writ the sole standard of literate performance, by extinguishing all true learning. For though they were destitute of what we call learning, yet they were far from being ignorant, or unable to compose ele. gantly in their own tongue. See L. Shaftesbury's Characteristics, vol. iii. p. 235. • Al Gazali, apud Poc. Spec. 191. See Korân c. 17, and also c. 2. p. 3. and c. 11, &c.

the temple of Mecca, an honour allowed to none but the most esteemed performances, none of the other poets durst offer any of their own in competition with it. But the second chapter of the Korân being fixed up by it soon after, Labîd himself (then an idolater) on reading the first verses only, was struck with admiration, and immediately professed the religion taught thereby, declaring that such words could proceed from an inspired person only. This Labid was afterwards of great service to Mohammed, in writing answers to the satires and invectives that were made on him and his religion by the infidels, and particularly by Amri al Kais, prince of the tribe of Asad," and author of one of those seven famous poems called al Moallakat.

The style of the Korân is generally beautiful and fluent, especially where it imitates the prophetic manner, and scripture phrases. It is concise, and often obscure, adorned with bold figures after the eastern taste, enlivened with florid and sententious expressions, and in many places, especially where the majesty and attributes of God are described, sublime and mag. nificent; of which the reader cannot but observe several instances, though he must not imagine the translation comes up to the original, notwith standing my endeavours to do it justice.

Though it be written in prose, yet the sentences generally conclude in a long continued rhyme, for the sake of which the sense is often interrupted, and unnecessary repetitions too frequently made, which appear still more ridiculous in a translation, where the ornament, such as it is, for whose sake they were made, cannot be perceived. However the Arabians are so mightily delighted with this jingling, that they employ it in their most elaborate compositions, which they also embellish with frequent passages of and allusions to the Korân, so that it is next to impossible to understand them without being well versed in this book.

It is probable the harmony of expression which the Arabians find in the Korân might contribute not a little to make them relish the doctrine there. in taught, and give an efficacy to arguments, which, had they been nakedly proposed without this rhetorical dress, might not have so easily prevailed. Very extraordinary effects are related of the power of words well chosen and artfully placed, which are no less powerful either to ravish or amaze than music itself; wherefore as much has been ascribed by the best orators to this part of rhetoric as to any other. He must have a very bad ear, who is not uncommonly moved with the very cadence of a well-turned sentence; and Mohammed seems not to have been ignorant of the enthusiastic opera. tion of rhetoric on the minds of men; for which reason he has not only employed his utmost skill in these his pretended revelations, to preserve that dignity and sublimity of style, which might seem not unworthy of the majesty of that Being, whom he gave out to be the author of them; and to imitate the prophetic manner of the Old Testament; but he has not neg lected even the other parts of oratory; wherein he succeeded so well, and so strangely captivated the minds of his audience, that several of his opponents thought it the effect of witchcraft and enchantment, as he sometimes complains.1

"The general design of the Korân," (to use the words of a very learned person), "seems to be this. To unite the professors of the three different religions then followed in the populous country of Arabia, who for the most part lived promiscuously, and wandered without guides, the far greater number being idolaters, and the rest Jews and Christians mostly of See before, p. 20,

D'Herbel. Bibl. Orient. p. 512, &c.

• See Casaubon, of Enthusiasm, chap. iv.

1

Poc. Spec. p. 80.
Korân, chap. 15, 21, &c.

erroneous and heterodox belief, in the knowledge and worship of one eternal, invisible God, by whose power all things were made, and those which are not, may be, the supreme Governor, Judge, and absolute Lord of the creation; established under the sanction of certain laws, and the outward signs of certain ceremonies, partly of ancient and partly of novel institution, and enforced by setting before them rewards and punishments, both temporal and cternal: and to bring them all to the obedience of Mohammed, as the prophet and ambassador of God, who after the repeated admonitions, promises and threats of former ages, was at last to establish and propagate God's religion on earth by force of arms, and to be acknowledged chief pontiff in spiritual matters, as well as supreme prince. in temporal."

The great doctrine then of the Korån is the unity of God; to restore which point Mohammed pretended was the chief end of his mission; it being laid down by him as a fundamental truth, that there never was nor ever can be more than one true orthodox religion. For though the particular laws or ceremonies are only temporary, and subject to alteration according to the divine direction, yet the substance of it being eternal truth, is not liable to change, but continues immutably the same. And he taught that whenever this religion became neglected, or corrupted in essentials, God had the goodness to reinform and readmonish mankind thereof, by several prophets, of whom Moses and Jesus were the most distinguished, till the appearance of Mohammed, who is their seal, no other being to be expected after him. And the more effectually to engage people to hearken to him, great part of the Korân is employed in relating examples of dreadful punishments formerly inflicted by God on those who rejected and abused his messengers; several of which stories or some circumstances of them are taken from the Old and New Testament, but many more from the apocryphal books and traditions of the Jews and Christians of those ages, set up in the Korân as truths in opposition to the scriptures, which the Jews and Christians are charged with having altered; and I am apt to believe that few or none of the relations or circumstances in the Korân were invented by Mohammed, as is generally supposed, it being easy to trace the greatest part of them much higher, as the rest might be, were more of those books extant, and it was worth while to make the inquiry.

The other part of the Korân is taken up in giving necessary laws and directions, in frequent admonitions to moral and divine virtues, and above all to the worshipping and reverencing of the only true God, and resignation to his will, among which are many excellent things intermixed, not unworthy even a Christian's perusal.

But besides these, there are a great number of passages which are occasional, and relate to particular emergencies. For whenever any thing happened which perplexed and gravelled Mohammed, and which he could not otherwise get over, he had constant recourse to a new revelation, as an infallible expedient in all nice cases; and he found the success of this method answer his expectation. It was certainly an admirable and politic contrivance of his to bring down the whole Korân at once to the lowest heaven only, and not to the earth, as a bungling prophet would have done ; for if the whole had been published at once, innumerable objections might have been made, which it would have been very hard, if not impossible, for him to solve: but as he pretended to have received it by parcels, as God saw proper that they should be published for the conversion and

Golius, in append. ad Gram. Erp. p. 176.

instruction of the people, he had a sure way to answer all emergencies, and to extricate himself with honour from any difficulty which might occur. If any objection be hence made to that eternity of the Korân, which the Mohammedans are taught to believe, they easily answer it by their doctrine of absolute predestination; according to which all the accidents for the sake of which these occasional passages were revealed were predetermined by God from all eternity.

That Mohammed was really the author and chief contriver of the Korân, is beyond dispute; though it is highly probable that he had no small assistance in his design from others, as his countrymen failed not to object to him; however they differed so much in their conjectures as to the particular persons who gave him such assistance, that they were not able, it seems, to prove the charge; Mohammed, it is to be presumed, having taken his measures too well to be discovered. Dr. Prideaux has given the most probable account of this matter, though chiefly from Christian writers, who generally inix such ridiculous fables with what they deliver, that they deserve not much credit.

However it be, the Mohammedans absolutely deny the Korân was composed by their prophet himself, or 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 table of vast bigness, called the preserved table, in which are also recorded the divine decrees past and future; that a copy from this table, in one volume on paper, was by the ministry of the angel Gabriel sent down to the lowest heaven, in the month of Ramadan, on the night of power: from whence Gabriel revealed it to Mohammed by parcels, some at Mecca 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 hi., life he had the favour to see it twice. They say that few chapters were delivered entire, the most part being revealed piece-meal, 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 direc tions 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 promis cuously into a chest, observing no order of time, for which reason it is uncertain when many passages were revealed.

When Mohammed died, he left his revelations in the same disorder I have mentioned, and not digested int: the method, such as it is, which we now find them in. This was the work of his successor Abu Beer, who considering that a great number of passages were committed to the memory of Mohammed's followers, many of whom were slain in their wars, ordered the

* Vide Korân, chap. 16. and chap. 25. See the notes on those passages. • Life • Vide Korân, c. 97, and note ibid. P

of Moham

31, &r Therefore it is a mistake of Dr. Prideaux to say it was brought him chapter by chapter. Life of Moham p. 6. The Jews also say the law was given to Moses by parcels. Vide Millium, de Mohamme dismo ante Moliam. p. 365. Not the whole chapter, as Golius says. Append. ad Gr. Erp. p. 180.

whole to be collected, not only from the palm-leaves and skins on which they had been written, and which were kept between two boards or covers, but also from the mouths of such as had gotten them by heart. And this transcript, when completed, he committed to the custody of Hafsa the daughter of Omar, one of the prophet's widows.

From this relation it is generally imagined that Abu Beer was really the compiler of the Korân; though for aught appears to the co trary Mohammed left the chapters complete as we now have them, excepting such passages as his successor might add or correct from those who had gotten them by heart; what Abu Beer did else being perhaps no more than to range the chapters in their present order, which he seems to have done without any regard to time, having generally placed the longest first.

However in the thirtieth year of the Hejra, Othmân being then Khalif, and observing the great disagreement in the copies of the Korân in the several provinces of the empire, those of Irak, for example, following the reading of Abu Musa al Ashari, and the Syrians that of Macdâd Ebn Aswad, he, by advice of the companions, ordered a great number of copies to be transcribed from that of Abu Beer, in Hafsa's care, under the inspection of Zeid Ebn Thabet, Abd'allah Ebn Zobair, Said Ebn al As, and Abd'alrahmân Ebn al Hâreth the Makhzuinite; whom he directed that wherever they disagreed about any word, they should write it in the dialect of the Koreish, in which it was at first delivered. These copies when made were dispersed in the several provinces of the empire, and the old ones burnt and suppressed. Though many things in Hafsa's copy were corrected by the above-mentioned supervisors, yet some few various readings still occur; the most material of which will be taken notice of in their proper places.

The want of vowels in the Arabic character made Mokrîs, or readers, whose peculiar study and profession it was to read the Korân with its proper vowels, absolutely necessary. But these differing in their manner of reading, occasioned still further variations in the copies of the Korân, as they are now written with the vowels; and herein consist much the greater part of the various readings throughout the book. The readers whose authority the commentators chiefly allege, in admitting these various readings, are seven in number.

There being some passages in the Korân which are contradictory, the Mohammedan doctors obviate any objection from thence, by the doctrine of abrogation; for they say, that God in the Korân commanded several things which were for good reasons afterward revoked and abrogated.

assages abrogated are distinguished into three kinds: the first, where the letter and scnse are both abrogated; the second, where the letter only is abrogated, but the sense remains; and the third where the sense is abrogated, though the letter remains.

Of the first kind were several verses, which by the tradition of Malec Ebn Ans were in the prophet's lifetime read in the chapter of repentance, but are not now extant, one of which, being all he remembered of them, was the following, "If a son of Adam had two rivers of gold, he would covet yet a third; and if he had three, he would covet yet a fourth (to be added) unto them; neither shall the belly of a son of Adam be filled, but with

Elmacin. in Vita Abu Becr. Abulfeda. Abulfeda, in Vitis Abubecr and Othmân. The characters or marks of the Arabic vowels were not ared till several years after Mohammed. Some ascribe the invention of them to Yahya r 1 Yâmer, some to Nasr Ebn Asam, surnamed l Leithi, and others to Abu'laswad al Dîli; all three of whom were doctors of Basra, and immediately succeeded the companions. See D'Herbel. Bibl. Onent. p. 87.