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. The Jews in particular are frequently reflected on in the Koran for falsifying and corrupting their copies of their law; and some instances of such pretended corruptions, both in that book and the two others, are produced by Mohammedan writers; wherein they merely follow their own prejudices, and the fabulous accounts of spurious legends. Whether they have any copy of the Pentateuch among them different from that of the Jews or not, I am not entirely satisfied, since a person who travelled into the east was told, that they had the books of Moses, though very much corrupted; but I know nobody that has ever seen them. However they certainly have and privately read a book which they call the Psalms of David, in Arabic and Persian, to which are added some prayers of Moses, Jonas, and others. This Mr. Reland supposes to be a translation from our copies (though no doubt falsified in more places than one); but M. D'Herbelot says it contains not the same Psalms which are in our Psalter, being no more than an extract from thence mixed with other very different pieces. The casiest way to reconcile these two learned gentlemen is to presume that they speak of different copies. The Mohammedans have also a Gospel in Arabic, attributed to St. Barnabas, wherein the history of Jesus Christ is related in a manner very different from what we find in the true Gospels, and correspondent to those traditions which Mohammed has followed in his Korân. Of this Gospel the Moriscoes in Africa nave a translation in Spanish; 10 and there is in the library of prince Eugene of Savoy a manuscript of some antiquity, containing an Italian translation of the same Gospel,' made, it is to be supposed, for the use of renegades. This book appears to be no original forgery of the Mohaminedans, though they have no doubt interpolated and altered it since, the better to serve their purpose; and in particular, instead of the Paraclete or Comforter, they have in this apocryphal gospel inserted the word Periclyte, that is, the famous or i lustrious, by which they pretend their prophet was foretold by name, that being the signification of Mohammed in Arabic:3 and this they say to justify that passage of the Korân, where Jesus Christ is formally asserted to have foretold his coming, under his other name of Ahmed; which is derived from the same root as Mohammed, and of the same import. From these or some other forgeries of the same stamp it is that the Mohammedans quote several passages of which there are not the least footsteps in the New Testament. But after all we must not hence infer that the Mohammedans, much less all of them, hold these copies of theirs to be the ancient and genuine Scriptures themselves. If any argue, from the corruption which they insist has happened to the Pentateuch and Gospel, that the Korân may possibly be corrupted also; they answer, that God has promised that he will take care of the latter, and preserve it from any addition or diminution; but that he left the two others to the care of men. However they confess there are some various readings in the Korân, as has been observed. Terry's voyage to the East Indies, p. 277. De Rel. Moham. p. 23. of this kind he tells us is in the library of the Reland. ubi sup. Menagian. tom. iv. p. and xvi. 7, compared with Luke, xxiv. 49. chapters. ⚫ Chap. 61. Kor. c. 15. • A copy Duke of Tuscany, Bibl. Orient. p. 924 321, &c. 2 John xiv. 16, 26. xv. 26, See Toland's Nazarenus, the first eight Reland, ubi sup. p 24, 27. Besides the books above mentioned, the Mohammedans also take notice of the writings of Daniel and several other prophets, and even make quotations thence: but these they do not believe to be divine scripture, or of any authority in matters of religion." 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 Mohammedan 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 Mohammed. All the prophe's in general the Mohammedans believe to have been free from great sias, and errors of consequence, and professors of one and the same religion, that is Islâm, notwithstanding the different laws and institutions which they observed. They allow of degrees among them, and hold some of them to be more excellent and honourable than thers. The first place they give to the revealers and establishers of new dispensations, and the next to the apostles. 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, Ismael, Nun, Joshua, &c. and introduce some of them under different names, as Enoch, Heber, and Jethro, who are called in the Korân, Edris, Hûd, and Shaib; ut several others, whose very names do not appear in Scripture (though they endeavour to find some persons there to fix them on), as Salch, Khedr, Thu'lkefl, &c. Several of their fahu. lous traditions concerning these prophets we shall occasionally merting in the notes on the Korân. ! As Mohammed acknowledged the divine authority of the Pentateuch, Psalms, and Gospel, he often appeals to the consonancy of the Korân with those writings, and to the rophecies which he pretended were the rein concerning himself, as; ro fsf his mission, and he frequently charges the Jews and Christians with sting the passages which bear witness to him.' His followers also fail not to produce several texts even from our present copies of the Old and New Testament, to support their master's cause.' The next article of faith required by the Koran is the belief of a general resurrection and a future judgment. But before we consider the M-hammedan tenets in those points, it will be proper to mention what they are taught to believe concerning the intermediate state, both of the body and of the soul, after death. When a corpse is laid in the grave, they say he is receive! by an angel, who gives him notice of the coming of the two Examiners; who are two black livid angels, of a terrible appearance, named Monker and Nakîr. These order the dead person to sit upright, and examine him concerning his faith, as to the unity of God, and the mission of Mohammed: if he answer rightly, they suffer the body to rest in peace, and it is refreshed by the air of paradise; but if not, they beat him on the temples with iron maces, till he roars out for anguish so loud, that he is heard by all from east to west, except men and genii. Then they press the earth on the Reland, ubi sup. p. 41. 4 Kor. c. 2. p. 30, &c. Thus Heber is said to have been a prophet by the Jews; (Seder. Olam. p. 2.) and Adam by Epiphanius. (Adv. Hæres. p. 6.) See also Joseph. Ant. lib. i. c. 2. 1 Kor. c. 2. pr. 6, 12, 18, c. 3, &c Some of these texts are produced by Dr. Prideaux at the end of his Life of Muharimed, and more by Marracci in Alcor. p. 26, &c. corpse, which is gnawed and stung till the resurrection by ninety-nine dragons with seven heads each: or, as others say, their sins will become venomous beasts, the grievous ones.stinging like dragons, the smaller like scorpions, and the others like serpents: circumstances which some understand in a figurative sense.3 This examination of the sepulchre is not only founded on an express tradition of Mohammed, but is also plainly hinted at, though not directly taught, in the Korân, as the commentators agree. It is therefore believed by the orthodox Mohammedans in general, who take care to have their graves made hollow, that they may sit up with more ease while they are examined by the angels; but is utterly rejected by the sect of the Motázalites, and perhaps by some others. These notions Mohamed certainly borrowed from the Jews, among whom they were very anciently received. They say that the angel of death coming and sitting on the grave, the soul immediately enters the body and raises it on its feet; that he then examines the departed person, and strikes him with a chain half of iron and half of fire; at the first blow all his limbs are loosened, at the second the bones are scattered, which are gathered together again by angels, and the third stroke reduces the body to dust and ashes, and it returns into the grave. This rack or torture they call Hibbût hakkeber, or the beating of the sepulchre, and pretend that all men in general must undergo it, except only those who die on the evening of the sabbath, or have dwelt in the land of Israel." If it be objected to the Mohammedans that the cry of the persons under such examination has been never heard; or if they be asked how those can undergo it whose bodies are burnt or devoured by beasts or birds, or otherwise consumed without burial; they answer, that it is very possible notwithstanding, since men are not able to perceive what is transacted on the other side the grave; and that it is sufficient to restore to life any part of the body which is capable of understanding the questions put by the angels. As to the soul, they hold that when it is separated from the body by the angel of death, who performs his office with ease and gentleness towards the good, and with violence towards the wicked, it enters into that state which they call al Berzakh,' or the interval between death and the resurrection. If the departed person was a believer, they say two angels meet it, who convey it to heaven, that its place there may be assigned, according to its merit and degree. For they distinguish the souls of the faithful into three classes; the first of prophets, whose souls are admitted into paradise immediately; the second of martyrs, whose spirits, according to a tradition of Mohamined, rest in the crops of green birds which eat of the fruits and drink of the river of paradise; and the third of other believers, concerning the state of whose souls before the resurrection there are various opinions. For, 1. Some say they stay near the sepulchres, with liberty however of going wherever they please; which they confirm from Mohanined's manner of saluting them at their graves, and his affirming that the dead heard those salutations as well as the living, though they could not answer. Whence perhaps proceeded the custom of visiting the tombs of relations, so common among the Mohammedans.? 2. Others Al Ghazali. Vide Poc. not. in Port. Mofis. p. 241, &c. 4 Cap. 8. and 47, &c. Hyde, in notis ad Bobov. de Buxtorf. Synag. Judaic. and The Jews say the same, in Poc. ubi sup. p. 247. imagine they are with Adam, in the lowest heaven; and also support their opinion by the authority of their prophet, who gave out that in his return from the upper heavens in his pretended night journey, he saw there the souls of those who were destined to paradise on the right hand of Adam, and of those who were condemned to hell on his left. 3. Others fancy the souls of believers remain in the well Zemzem, and those of infidels in a certain well in the province of Hadramaut, called Borbût; but this opinion is branded as heretical. 4. Others say they stay near the graves for seven days; but that whither they go afterwards is uncertain. 5. Others that they are all in the trumpet, whose sound is to raise the dead. And, 6. Others that the souls of the good dwell in the forms of white birds, under the throne of God. As to the condition of the souls of the wicked, besides the opinions that have been already mentioned, the more orthodox hold that they are offered by the angels to heaven, from whence being repulsed as stinking and filthy, they are offered to the earth, and being also refused a place there, are carried down to the seventh earth, and thrown into a dungeon, which they call Sajîn, under a green rock, or according to a tradition of Mohammed, under the devil's jaw, to be there tormented, till they are called up to be joined again to their bodies. Though some among the Mohammedans have thought that the resurrection will be merely spiritual, and no more than the returning of the soul to the place whence it first came (an opinion defended by Ebn Sina, and called by some the opinion of the philosophers'); and others, who allow man to consist of body only, that it will be merely corporeal; the received opinion is, that both body and soul will be raised, and their doctors argue strenuously for the possibility of the resurrection of the body, and dispute with great subtlety concerning the manner of it. But Mohammed has taken care to preserve one part of the body, whatever becomes of the rest, to serve for a basis of the future edifice, or rather a leaven for the mass which is to be joined to it. For he taught, that a man's body was entirely consumed by the earth, except only the bone called Ajb, which we name the os coccygis, or rump-bone; and that as it was the first formed in the human body, it will also remain uncorrupted till the last day, as a seed from whence the whole is to be renewed: and this he said will be effected by a forty days' rain which God should send, and which would cover the earth to the height of twelve cubits, and cause the bodies to sprout forth like plants. Herein also is Mohammed beholden to the Jews; who say the same things of the bone Luz,' excepting that what he attributes to a great rain will be effected according to them by a dew, impregnating the dust of the earth. The time of the resurrection the Mohammedans allow to be a perfect secret to all but God alone; the angel Gabriel himself acknowledging his ignorance in this point when Mohammed asked him about it. However they say the approach of that day may be known from certain signs which are to procede it. These signs they distinguish into two sorts, the lesser, and the greater; which I shall briefly enumerate after Dr. Pocock.2 The lesser signs are, 1. The decay of faith among men. 2. The advancing of the meanest persons to eminent dignity. 3. That a maidservant shall become the mother of her mistress (or master); by which is Poc. ubi sup. p. 248. Consonant hereto are the Jewish notions of the souls of the just being on high, under the throne of glory. Vide ibid p. 156. • Ibid p. 250. 'Al Beidawi. Vide Poc. ubi sup. p. 252. Or, as we corruptly name him Avicenna. 'Kenz al afrâr. Idem, ibid p. 255, &c. 1 Bereshit. rabbah, &c. ⚫ lidem p. 258, &c. • See Luke, xviii. 9. Vide Poc. ubi sup. p. 254. meant either that towards the end of the world men shall be much given to sensuality, or that the Mohammedans shall then take many captives. 4. Tumults and seditions. 5. A war with the Turks. 6. Great distress in the world, so that a man when he passes by another's grave shall say, Would to God I were in his place! 7. That the provinces of Irâk and Syria shall refuse to pay their tribute. And, 8. That the buildings of Medina shall reach to Ahâb, or Yahâb. The greater signs are, 1. The sun's rising in the west. Which some have imagined it originally did. 2. The appearance of the beast, which shall rise out of the earth, in the temple of Mecca, or on mount Safâ, or in the territory of Tâyef, or some other place. This beast they say is to be sixty cubits high; though others, not satisfied with so small a size, will have her reach to the clouds and to heaven, when her head only is out; and that she will appear for three days, but show only a third part of her body. They describe this monster, as to her form, to be a compound of various species; having the head of a bull, the eyes of a hog, the ears of an elephant, the horns of a stag, the neck of an ostrich, the breast of a lion, the colour of a tiger, the back of a cat, the tail of a ram, the legs of a camel, and the voice of an ass. Some say this beast is to appear three times in several places, and that she will bring with her the rod of Moses, and the seal of Solomon; and being so swift that none can overtake or escape her, will with the first strike all the believers on the face, and mark them with the word Mûmen, i.e. believer; and with the latter will mark the unbelievers on the face likewise, with the word Câfer, i. e. infidel, that every person may be known for what he really is. They add that the same beast is to demonstrate the vanity of all religions except Islâm, and to speak Arabic. All this stuff seems to be the result of a confused idea of the beast in the Revelations." 3. War with the Greeks, and the taking of Constantinople by seventy thousand of the posterity of Isaac, who shall not win that city by force of arms, but the walls shall fall down while they cry out, There is no God but God: God is most great! As they are dividing the spoil, news will come to them of the appearance of Antichrist; whereupon they shall leave all, and return back. 4. The coming of Antichrist, whom the Mohammedans call al Masîh al Dajjal, i. e. the false or lying Christ, and simply al Dajjal. He is to be one-eyed, and marked on the forehead with the letters C. F. R. signifying Câfer, or infidel. They say that the Jews give him the name of Messiah Ben David, and pretend he is to come in the last days, and to be lord both of land and sea, and that he will restore the kingdom to them. According to the traditions of Mohammed, he is to appear first between Irâk and Syria, or according to others, in the province of Khorasân; they add that he is to ride on an ass; that he will be followed by seventy thousand Jews of Ispahân, and continue on earth forty days, of which one will be equal in length to a year, another to a month, another to a week, and the rest will be common days; that he is to lay waste all places, but will not enter Mecca or Medina, which are to be guarded by angels; and that at length he will be slain by Jesus, who is to encounter him at the gate of Lud. is said that Mohammed foretold several Antichrists, to the number of about thirty; but one of greater note than the rest. It 5. The descent of Jesus on earth. They pretend that he is to descend • See Whiston's Theory of the Earth, bcok ii. p. 98, &c. Chap. 13. |