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example of sacrificing during his pilgrimages to Mecca. To this may be added that every animal slaughtered for use, may be considered an immolation, being killed "in the name of the most merciful" God." Most of the religious rites connected with the Hadj, the pilgrim garment, the shaving of the head, the throwing of stones at Djumrah, the circumambulation of the Kaaba, the kissing of the black stone, the sacrifices, and almost every other item too tedious to enumerate, were borrowed from the pre-Islamite religion of the Arabs.

Circumcision, though a part of the ritual of Islamism upon which no small stress is laid, is not so much as once mentioned in the Koran: if it be essential to Islamism, then the Koran is deficient, and if deficient cannot be a divine revelation; Baptism for instance is considered essential to Christianity, as the initiatory rite of admission, but if it were nowhere mentioned in the Bible, the Mohammedan might fairly object, that Baptism was not what we believed it to be; or that the Bible omitting to ordain a rite of such great importance was imperfect, and therefore not a true Revelation. If the rite of Circumcision was intended only as a sign of distinction from other religious communities, then it will appear singular that Mohammed should have chosen that already in

8 His successors, the Saracen Kaliphs annually immolated a camel in their capacity as High-priest of the faithful. The Jewish traveller Benjamin of Tuleda witnessed the ceremony at Bossura in the 12th century.

9 In Abyssinia therefore, Christians abstain from meat slaught ered by the Mohammedans, and these refuse, what has been killed by Christians in the name of the Holy Trinity.

use among the Jews, and one, which existed also among the Pagan Arabs! In emitting to notice its existence, we infer that Mohammed possibly disapproved of the rite, or did not consider it of a religious import, or, that he passed it over as the selfunderstood and natural mode of initiating into the religion of Abraham: the latter assumption seems at variance with the fact that Mohammed admitted his first converts by the rite of baptism, corresponding to the baptism of Jewish proselytes. Among the forty kinds of ablutions, given by Reland, one is the baptism of Kaffers on their becoming Moslemin: we here discover one of those singular vacillations which so frequently appear in Mohammed's mind and practice, and find the national custom eventually restored to its primitive character as a religious ordinance, one moreover to which his countrymen were already reconciled. Circumcision is not administered by the Mohammedans in the thirteenth year as among the ancient Arabs, but generally as soon as the candidate can say the confession of the Moslem creed: "There is no God, but God, and Mohammed is his prophet," or whenever a convenient time occurs between the ages of six and sixteen. These few remarks on the history and leading dogmas of the Koran may suffice for the present; other doctrines will be brought forward in later chapters of this work; in the two following, it will be our object to notice those portions of the Koran which were more particularly borrowed from Judaism and Christianity.

CHAPTER V.

WHAT, MOHAMMED BORROWED FROM JUDAISM.

"I am a prophet also as thou art; and an angel spake unto me by the word of the Lord, but he lied unto him." 1 Kings XIII. 18.

1. The Koran frequently assumes a polemical bearing towards the Jews and the Jewish religion, and Arab writers frankly admit that Mohammed now and then made alterations in his plan to diminish, as far as possible, the analogy which his creed bore to that of the Jews. 10 The Jews are styled the enemies of Moslemin because they killed the Prophets, are bigotted, proud and self-conceited, consider Ezra to be the Son of God, believe Paradise to be created only for themselves, trust to the intercession of their pious ancestors and corrupt their sacred Scriptures. 11 Hence the Koran is not scrupulous in opposing Judaism in its laws of divorce, 12 in abolishing certain laws concerning particular kinds of meat, 13 and in the laws of retaliation. Yet in spite of this opposition, Mo

from necessity “ كراهة الموافقة النفى التشبيه باليهود 10

to abolish the analogy with the Jews." Pocock. not. miscell. cap. IX. pag. 369.

11 Sur. V. 85. II. 58. V. 74. 21. II. 88. LXII. 6. IX. 30. II. 128. 135. II. 73.

12 Sur. II. 229. 230. with Deut. XXIV. 1.

13 Sur. IV. 158. III. 44. 86. IV. 158. V. 89. 90. V. 4. VI. 146. XVI. 116. VI. 47. cfr. Leo. XI. 3, VII. 27. III. 9.

14 Sur. V. 94. with Exod. XXI. 23–25. M. admits of expiation by money, only where the offended parties agree; but the Rabbis, whom he calls "unjust" extend it to all cases: y Dy Nud

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hammed borrowed so largely from Judaism, that his creed could not exist without it. This gross plagiarism has long been universally acknowledged, but few have taken the trouble to point out in what it consists.

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We have already noticed the frequent collisions between Mohammed and the Jews, who were at that time numerous and powerful, dreading them both in argument and on the battle-field, the shrewd Arab prophet found it expedient to conciliate their deeprooted prejudices on various occasions 16 and also to advise his followers to deal gently with them.17 There was cause therefore, why Mohammed should desire to adopt as much of Judaism as he possibly could without sacrificing any of the distinctive doctrines of Islamism; he had every opportunity of becoming acquainted with Jewish divinity and practises: 18 but that this knowledge was neither very correct nor profound is abundantly shown in the Koran! 19 His igno

15 Much may be gleaned from Eisenmenger, Pococke, Sale, Maraccio, Wahl, Hottinger and others, but pre-eminent still remains the Prize-essay of a Jewish Rabbi, Abraham Geiger, in answer to the question put by the University at Bonn: "Inquiratur in fontes Alcorani seu legis Mohammedicae eos, qui ex Judaeismo derivandi sunt." We shall follow in this chapter the published translation: "Was hat Mohammed aus dem Judenthume aufgenommen?" Bonn 1833.

16 Sur. II. 38. XVI, 119. XXVII. 78. XXXII. 25. XLV. 15. II. 136.

ولا تجادلوا أهل الكتان الا بالتي .45 Sur XXX 17

18 His intercourse with Jews on his travels, with Abdallah, Waraka and Habib Ebn Malek are well known.

19 His order of enumerating the prophets: Job, Jonas, Aaron, Solomon, David, Sur. IV. 161. Still more ridiculous: Sur. VI. 84. 85. 86: David, Solomon, Job, Joseph, Moses, Aaron, Zacharias, John, Jesus, Elijah, Jonas, Lot!

rance of Jewish history is proved for instance by his solemnly declaring that before John the Baptist, no one bore that name at any time, 20 To return to our subject, it was perfectly consistent with Mohammed's avowed principles to adopt freely from Judaism, since he professed to reveal nothing but what was in harmony with all that had come down before him. At other times he plainly styles it a "repetition:" "God sent down the most beautiful news, a repetition similar to other Scriptures:"21 with this distinction however, that he desired to be considered the "seal of the prophets," whose book was so "clear and perspicuous" that no occasion could arise to make any other prophet necessary after him. 22

The contemporaries of Mohammed not only recognised in some of his prophetic communications a reproduction of what had previously been considered divine revelation, but suspected that he was assisted by a certain man, or men of Jewish or Christian be

20 John,,, wars, in the name of which we

XIX. 8.

Mohammed لم نجعل له من قبل سميا . . .read Sur

however knew nothing of 1 Chron. III. 15. 24. V. 36. 36. 2 King XXV. 23. Ezra VIII. 12. Jer. XL. 8. 1 Macc. II. 1. 2. It arose evidently from misunderstanding Lu. I. 61.

مصدق

21 The peculiar charm of the Koran was, that it was pero : in accordance with what they already possessed. Sur. II.

89. XLVI. 11. and Sur. XXXIX. 24. add:

كتابا متشابها مثانی

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خاتم نبیین : M. is said to be the seal of the prophets 22

Sur. XXXIII. 4. and his book,; so clear as not to be doubted or liable to be disputed.

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