L. miraculous privilege of an uniform and incor- CHAP. ruptible text. In the spirit of enthusiasm or vanity, the prophet rests the truth of his mission on the merit of his book, audaciously challenges both men and angels to imitate the beauties of a single page, and presumes to assert that God alone could dictate this incomparable performance. This argument is most powerfully addressed to a devout Arabian, whose mind is attuned to faith and rapture, whose ear is delighted by the music of sounds, and whose ignorance is incapable of comparing the productions of human genius. The harmony and copiousness of style will not reach, in a version, the European infidel: he will peruse with impatience the endless incoherent rhapsody of fable, and precept, and declamation, which sel. dom excites a sentiment or an idea, which sometimes crawls in the dust, and is sometimes lost in the clouds. The divine attributes exalt the fancy of the Arabian missionary; but his loftiest strains must yield to the sublime simplicity of the book of Job, composed in a remote age, in the same country and in the same language. If the composition of the Koran exceed the fa z Korau, c. 17, v. 89. In Sale, p. 235, 236. In Maracci, 410. * Yet a sect of Arabians was persuaded, that it might be equalled or surpassed by an human pen, (Pocock, Specimen, p. 221, &c.): and Maracci (the polemic is too hard for the translator) derides the rhyming affection of the most applauded passage, (tom. i, part. ii. p. 69 75.) b Colloquia (whether real or fabulous) in media Arabia atque ab Arabibus habita, (Lowth. de Poesi Hebræorum Prælect. xxxii, xxxiii, xxxiv, with his German editor Michaelis, Epimetron iv). Yet Michaelis (p. 671-673) has detected many Egyptian images, the elephantiasis. papyrus, CHAP. culties of a man, to what superior intelligence should we ascribe the Iliad of Homer or the L. Miracles Philippics of Demosthenes? In all religions, the life of the founder supplies the silence of his written revelation; the sayings of Mahomet were so many lessons of truth; his actions so many examples of virtue; and the public and private memorials were preserved by his wives and companions. At the end of two hundred years, the Sonna or oral law was fixed and consecrated by the labours of Al Bochari, who discriminated seven thousand two hundred and seventy-five genuine traditions, from a mass of three hundred thousand reports, of a more doubtful or spurious character. Each day the pious author prayed in the temple of Mecca, and performed his ablutions with the water of Zemzem; the pages were successively deposited on the pulpit, and the sepulchre of the apostle; and the work has been approved by the four orthodox sects of the Sonnites." The mission of the ancient prophets, of Moses, and of Jesus, had been confirmed by many splendid prodigies; and Mahomet was repeatedly urged, by the inhabitants of Mecca and Medina, to produce a similar evidence of his divine legation: to call down from heaven the angel or the volume of his revelation, to' papyrus, Nile, crocodile, &c. The language is ambiguously styled Al Bochari died A. H. 224. See d'Herbelot, p. 208, 416, 827; Gagnier, Not. ad Abulfed. c. 19, p. 33 L. to create a garden in the desert, or to kindle a СНАР. conflagration in the unbelieving city. As often as he is pressed by the demands of the Koreish, he involves himself in the obscure boast of vision and prophecy, appeals to the internal proofs of his doctrine, and shields himself behind the providence of God, who refuses those signs and wonders that would depreciate the merit of faith and aggravate the guilt of infidelity. But the modest or angry tone of his apologies betrays his weakness and vexation; and these passages of scandal establish, beyond suspicion, the integrity of the Koran. The votaries of Mahomet are more assured than himself of his miraculous gifts, and their confidence and credulity increase as they are farther removed from the time and place of his spiritual exploits. They believe or affirm that trees went forth to meet him; that he was saluted by stones; that water gushed from his fingers; that he fed the hungry, cured the sick, and raised the dead; that a beam groaned to him; that a camel complained to him; that a shoulder of mutton informed him of its being poisoned; and both animate and inanimate nature were equally subject to the apostle of God. His dream of a nocturnal See more remarkably, Koran, c. 2, 6, 12, 13, 17. Prideaux (Life of Mahomet, p. 18, 19) has confounded the impostor. Maracci, with a more learned apparatus, has shewn that the passages which deny his miracles are clear and positive, (Alcoran, tom. i, part ii, p. 7-12), and those which seem to assert them, are ambiguous and insufficient, (p. 12-22). See the Specimen Hist. Arabum, the text of Abulpharagius, p. 17, the notes of Pocock, p. 187-190; d'Herbelot Bibliotheque Orientale, P. 76, 77; Voyages de Chardin, tom. iv, p. 200–203. Maracci (Alcoran, tom. CHAP. journey is seriously described as a real and corL. poreal transaction. A mysterious animal, the Borack, conveyed him from the temple of Mecca to that of Jerusalem; with his companion Gabriel, he successively ascended the seven heavens, and received and repaid the salutations of the patriarchs, the prophets, and the angels, in their respective mansions. Beyond the seventh heaven, Mahomet alone was permitted to proceed; he passed the veil of unity, approached within two bow-shots of the throne, and felt a cold that pierced him to the heart, when his shoulder was touched by the hand of God. After this familiar though important conversation, he again descended to Jerusalem, remounted the Borack, returned to Mecca, and performed in the tenth part of a night the journey of many thousand years. According to another legend, the apostle confounded in a national assembly the malicious challenge of the Koreish. His resistless word split asunder the orb of the moon: the obedient planet stooped from her station in the sky, accomplished the seven revolutions round the Caaba, saluted tom. i, p. 22-64) has most laboriously collected and confuted the miracles and prophecies of Mahomet, which, according to some writers, amount to three thousand. f The nocturnal journey is circumstantially related by Abulfeda, (in Vit. Mahommed. c. 19, p. 33), who wishes to think it a vision; by Prideaux, (p. 31-40), who aggravates the absurdities; and by Gagnier, (tom. i, p. 252 343), who declares, from the zealous Al Jannabi, that to deny this journey, is to disbelieve the Koran. Yet the Koran, without naming either heaven or Jerusalem, or Mecca, has only dropt a mysterious hint; Laus illi qui transtulit servum suum ab oratorio Haram ad oratorium remotissimum, (Koran, c. 17, v. 1, in Maracci, tom. ii, p. 407; for Sale's version is more licentious). A slender basis, for the aerial structure of tradition. L Mahomet in the Arabian tongue, and suddenly CHAP. contracting her dimensions, entered at the collar, and issued forth through the sleeve, of his shirt. The vulgar are amused with the marvellous tales; but the gravest of the Mussulman doctors imitate the modesty of their master, and indulge a latitude of faith or interpretation.* They might speciously allege, that in preaching the religion, it was needless to violate the harmony, of nature; that a creed unclouded with mystery may be excused from miracles; and that the sword of Mahomet was not less potent than the rod of Moses. of Maho. prayer, The polytheist is oppressed and distracted Precepts by the variety of superstition: a thousand rites met— of Egyptian origin were interwoven with the fasting, essence of the Mosaic law: and the spirit of the alms. gospel had evaporated in the pageantry of the church. The prophet of Mecca was tempted by prejudice, or policy, or patriotism, to sanctify the rites of the Arabians, and the custom of visiting the holy stone of the Caaba. But the precepts of Mahomet himself inculcate a more sim In the prophetic style, which uses the present or past for the future, Mahomet had said,-Appropinquavit hora et scissa est luna, (Koran, e. 54, v. 1, in Maracci, tom. ii, p. 688). This figure of rhetoric has been converted into a fact, which is said to be attested by the most respectable eye-witnesses, (Marracci, tom. ii, p. 690). The festival is still celebrated by the Persians, (Chardin, tom. iv, p. 201); and the legend is tediously spun out by Gagnier, (Vie de Mahomet. tom. i, p. 183-234), on the faith, as it should seem, of the credulous Al Jannabi. Yet a Mahometan doctor has arraigned the credit of the principal witness, (apud Pocock, Specimen, p. 187); the best interpreters are content with the simple sense of the Koran, (Al Beidawi, apud Holtinger, Hist. Orient. 1. ii, p 302); and the silence of Abulfeda is worthy of a prince and a philosopher. Abulpharagius, in Specimen. Hist. Arab. 17; and his scepticism is justified in the notes of Pocock, p. 190-194, from the purest authorities |