а

At our first step we plunge at once into | It is not the irregularity of carelessness, but the awfulness of the general question. Wich of irrepressible emotion. Sometimes, in the the exception of prayers, a few of which only earnestness of his enthusiasm and the exu. occur, the Korann is written throughout in berance of his fancy, the prophet hurries by the person of the Almighty. Remonstrances his resting place, and expatiates with more . and instructions, promises and threats, bless than Pindaric license beyond it ; sometimes ings and curses, are all represented as pro- two or three words, or even a single one of ceeding directly from him. And though sounding utterance and tremendous signifi. sometimes the current of enthusiasm and in- cation, is made to respond to and balance a dignation seems to lose sight of its sacred whole sentence. In either case the reader's source, the connection is constantly recalled mind sympathises with the expression more at the end of the period. Though a good than the sound, and lost in the rush of feel. deal of what may be strictly termed poetry ing or stunned by the concentration of it, occurs in the early chapters, the bulk of the hardly perceives the inequality of the metre. work is prose which rhymes. To preserve After this description it can scarcely be ex. the concluding cadence, a few words of simi. pected that any versified specimen will be lar import and construction are constantly offered to the English reader. The attempt made use of, and it is this continual recur- would be attended with inconceivable la. rence of almost identical phrases after sen. bour and very

dubious success.

Such occatences of prose, which renders translation sional extracts, however, in prose, as will such a difficult task. Without the license suffice to give an idea of the general siyle of poetry and without the plainness of prose, and feeling, we shall be obliged to present it is impossible to preserve its effect without him with as the article proceeds. sacrificing its identity. Were any one bound The Korann it is generally known was in translating Homer, or Hesiod, to render produced and published in detached passages strictly all the complimentary and terminat- of from 2 to 100 lines, as occasion required. ing epithets that have such a fine effect in the Whenever a new argument or a new taunt original, his version would be nearly as un. was to be answered, or a new rule establishentertaining as Sale's translation of the Ko. ed, it was said to be revealed by some new rann. Yet in this there would be less diffi. verses. These, according to Mahomet's dicully, because in them every part of every rections, were either written separately as Jine has all the freedom and fancy of poetry. an independent chapter, or placed under It would seem, however, that the sentences some former one, to some or other passage have a rude species of rhythm independent of of which he might consider them pertinent.

a the terminating cadence ; but one which is in making these arrangements, however, he unattainable to a European ear.

Our ca- does not seem to have been guided by any thedral chants, in which verses of very dif. very perfect knowledge of what was contain: ferent length are all adapted to the same me. ed in former chapters, or by any very prelody, will enable us to understand how this cise rules in commencing a new one. Hence

two important peculiarities :-1. The chapIf the reader* will turn to Mrs. Harris's ters are of every imaginable length, from 2 petition in Swift, and his rhyming letter to and 3 lines to 1200 and 1500. 2. Every Dr. Sheridan, he will find something that may variety of subject, under every variety of give him an idea of the construction of the date, is thrown together, without

any

visible Arabic text, though none at all of its effect. connection, and the same sentences are re.

peated several times in the same chapter, and * To save him trouble we subjoin a few lines innumerable times in different ones, with of each :

some very trifling difference of expression. “To their Excellencies the Lords Justices of Ire. This it is which astonishes and disgusts the

land, the humble Petition of Frances Harris, reader, who has not means, or who has not pa“Who must starve and die a maid if it miscarries, “Humbly sheweth, that I went to warm myself in tience, to discover the occasion on which the

Lady Betty's chamber because it was cold, separate passages were produced, and watch “And I bad in my purse seven pounds four shillings the workings of feeling and the changes of dis

and sixpence (besides farthings) in silver and position, for which they are often so remarkagold,” &c.

ble. This too it is which renders it impossible " It is impossible to know by your letter whether the wine is to be bottled to.morrow or no.

to make any thorough digest of the work, ei" If it be or be not, why did not you, in plain Eng. ther in subject or date, without dislocating and lish, tell us so ?

readjusting with inconceivable labour almost “Truly I don't know who's bound to be sending for every passage it contains.

Another re. corks to stop your bottles with a vengeance. “Make a page of your own age, and send your man

markable circumstance—the similarity, al. Alexander to buy corks, for Saunders has gone most identity, of many chapters in style and already above ten jaunts.”

matter, can only be explained by a reference

may be.

to the prophet's most singular distinction—, exhorting him to prepare himself for his i. e. his ignorance. No one that wrote what sacred office, and the words with which he he composed, and read what he wrote, would imagined himself addressed by the same have so often reiterated a single idea with heavenly messenger, when he hid himself such very slight difference of expression. from the terror of his awful presence in the But Mahomet, who could do neither, hardly lap of his wife Khadijeh. That Mahomet ever recalled a previous composition without was, at this period, frequently visited by making some slight difference in the words ; mental perturbations of this sort, was the and this was sufficient, from the assumption early belief of the Eastern Christians, whose of the Prophet and the zeal of his followers, vicinity to the scene of his life and labours to render it a fresh revelation, which it would entitles their testimony to some respect; and have been impiety not to record. It is more whose inventions, if taxed at all, would hard. than probable this tendency was encouraged ly have been satisfied with this innocent and rather than checked by the wily enthusiast. ambiguous fabrication. By his followers, “Quin etiam voluminibus ipsis,” says Pliny, for obvious reasons, the assertion is not sup. “ auctoritatem quandam et pulchritudinem ported; but borne out as it is by internal adjicit magnitudo.” And if this is the case evidence, an impartial inquirer will hail with with ordinary writings, it must be still more joy this early clue to the morbid enthusiasm so with such as aspire to be called sacred. which, he will soon find, is the only motive, The speedily increasing bulk of the Korann short of actual inspiration, that can explain no doubt excited the wonder of his enemies, the conduct of Mahomet and the triumph of and quickened the devotion of his friends. his faith. No traces of this emotion, how. It is not impossible that some of these “alter ever, are to be found in any late chapter; idems" may have been produced by the and the question of his sincerity in ascribing casual omissions and variations incident to the whole Korann to God, may there. repetition. The original passages we know fore be agitated by some, independently of were written down from the Prophet's mouth, anything he might have believed with regard and then, after being promulgated among to these early passages. But here we must his followers, were deposited in a chest ; but observe that the superstitious, the almost many must have been lost or misplaced, oth- idolatrous reverence with which the work is erwise Abubecre, in the year after Mahomet's regarded by Mahommedans, has only a very death, would never, with all the original in slender foundation in the text. Besides the his possession, have compiled the Korann as general assertion that it proceeds from God, he did, by collecting all the copies of every and the casual mention at the end of chapter passage that was extant, and recovering 85 of the preserved table, in which it is much that was missing, from the memories inscribed, nothing can be found to justify the of the most ancient believers. Any altera. mysticism in which it has since been in. tions proceeding from this source, however, volved. If the reader will consult the end of must have been very slight, as they must chapter 42, and the beginning of chapter 58, have been involuntary.

he will see not only that this inconsistency In arranging the chapters on this occasion, may be easily reconciled, but that Mahomet the Moslims, in their own thorough acquaint- makes concessions which leave no inconsistance with every part of the whole and every ency at all

. The Moslem commentators circumstance connected with its production, reading these passages by the light of their seem not to have considered it at all neces. darling prejudices, pervert them into a more sary to place the early ones before the late ; limited sense than they strictly bear : from chance appears to have directed the disposi- their interpretations, Maraccius was too il.

The latter chapters, containing the liberal, and Sale too scrupulous to depart; bulk of all the regulations relative to internal and it is therefore necessary to render them polity, were the first sought for, the first afresh. completed, and the first placed. Some, however, of an earlier date, being more readily

“ By the star when it falls! Your counobtained, intervened among the others; and his own impulse : what is it but inspiration

tryman is not mistaken, neither speaks he by the bulk of the chapters, which contained he is favoured with? The Almighty has nothing particularly remarkable, naturally taught it him: he has suggested to his sertook their order according to what occasion. vant what he hath suggested; his imaginaed most solicitude to the compilers, viz. their tion has not deceived him in what he saw: length.

wherefore then do you doubt him in what he With the opening verses of the 73d and sees? He hath verily beheld another de. the 74th chapters, the Korann may be pro- the abode of paradise. Where the cedar

scent-near the cedar of partition hard by is perly said to commence. We have there shades that which it shades—his eye shrunk the Angel Gabriel's address to the Prophet, I not nor wandered-he hath verily seen

rann:

of pre

mighty things of the signs of his Lord.”— which forms the first Chapter of the Ko.

"Chap. liii.

"It is not possible for man that the Lord should speak to him except by inspiration, or from behind a veil ; or he would send a

“ Glory to God the Lord of worlds—the messenger to suggest to him by his permis: the last day.

merciful—the compassionate—the Judge of sion that which he pleases. Thus it is that we have suggested to thee in spirit (or by treat-Guide us in the right way.

“ Thee do we serve and thee do we enspirit) of what we ordain. Thou knewest

· The not what was scripture nor what religion; to—not of those thou art incensed against,

way of those thou hast been gracious but we rendered it a light to thee, that we

nor of those who go astray.” might direct by it whom we please of our servants, for verily thou directest in the righteous path."-Chap. xlii.

No other composition belonging to this

period seems to be extant, nor therefore to From these words two things are evident; have existed :— facit indignatio versus. In first, that Mahomet nowise asserts a super- pious calmness or the mere agitation of susnatural appearance to attend every revela- pense, there was nothing to call forth the tion: on the contrary, he thinks it sufficient prophet's powers; to borrow his own ex. to appeal to a single and a long past one; pressive simile, it is during the storm that the probably one of the identical illusions from thunder rolls and the lightning flashes. The which we have just seen him suffering, in Korann required the conflict of passion to order to give authority to all he said. Se- give it birth. condly, that he acknowledges that inspiration In the fourth year he publicly asserted his is carried on, not by visible means, but by divine mission; but here the power an internal and invisible process. This is judice was reinforced by the pride of family, still more clear from a rather ludicrous the interest of office, and the insolence of passage in the 75th chapter, where he is age. He addressed the sacred guardians of desired not to be too hasty in pronouncing a sacred city, and he was received with the words of the Korann, before the inter- astonishment and contempt.

We should nal suggestion of it was completed. Still, if expect to find in the Korann some amicable he was convinced that the mental process of and mild invitation with which the men of composition was one of revelation, he was Mecca were now accosted; but Mahomet's not insincere in asserting the Korann to be communications with them, as long as they revealed; and if, in the zeal of instilling would listen with decency, appear to have what he firmly believed himself, he repre- been verbal. In one of these conferences sented (though we have no proof that he did he was importunately applied to by a blind represent) the presence by which he ima- beggar, for instruction in the way of God: gined himself guided, as more sensibly mani. vexed at the untimely interruption, the profest than he felt it to be, he only practised phet frowned and turned away in anger: for one of those conscientious exaggerations to this he is severely reprehended in the 60th which none are so prone as the most viru- chapter, and this humble follower was ever lent among his opponents.

afterwards distinguished with the

the most The prophet was forty years old when he respectful treatment. With the exception of felt himself thus awfully called to the arduous this passage and the few lines which com. task of changing the long established religion pose the 105th and 106th chapters, no words of millions. The affection of his wife Khadi. are to be found applicable to the period in jeh—ihe childish enthusiasm of his cousin which he may be supposed to have regarded Aly—and the ignorant devotion of his ser. his adversaries with the hope of an enthu. vant Zeid—may perhaps be considered as siast and the pity of a relative. This inter. natural and easy conquests. But the conval, however, was but short ; he must have version of his friend 'Abubecre, a man of been prepared for incredulity, but he could mature age, and high character, can only not brook contempt. Mortified with the ill be explained by the instability and real success he met, and stung with the contumely emptiness of the religion he deserted. By he received, he seems to have suffered dark his influence ten of the most respectable moments of diffidence and doubt, when the inhabitants of Mecca were prevailed on 10 warmth of his soul was chilled and its light listen to the prophet; and an attention that extinguished, and when all the sacred hopes was probably at first only prompted by cu. which had listed him above his kind appeared riosity and politeness at last became sealed to leave him below it. One of these mental by conviction. To these fourteen the sacred struggles is beautifully depicted in the 93d secret was for three years confined, and it is chapter; the 94th is also on the same subto the lofty devotion of their earlier meetings ject; indeed consolatory passages are of that we must ascribe the beautiful prayer frequent occurrence all through the Meccan chapters. The 93d being written in more applicable to the case, we should venture to regular metre than is generally to be met place the chapters from 51 to 56, from 82 with, we have been tempted to present the to 92, together with the 77th, 99th, and following feeble version of it:

100th, next in the order of composition.

They are of all the most vivid in conception, “ No! by the morning's splendour-No! by and the most finished in style; and Mahomet the frown of night

in other chapters rejects with indignation the Thy omnipotent defender will not desert the right.

name of poet, to which none but these would Tho' present sorrows rend thee, the future seem to entitle him. Devoid of any attempts brings their balm ;

to reason with his adversaries, they seem High destinies attend thee, be thankful and adapted only to the early period of his selfbe calm.

taught ministry. Their constant theme is By him hast thou been cherished, an orphan the truth of the Korann—the powers, the

in thy youth, An infidel thou’dst perished had he not taught and the fate of the obedient and disobedient

mercy of God--the terrors of the last daythee truth. His bounteous hand has freed thee from after it. These topics indeed prevail in poverty and scorn,

every chapter of the whole, but they were Then do thou relieve the needy, do thou the afterwards mingled with others, which we thoughtless warn."

shall soon have occasion to notice.

The truth of the Korann is generally These expressions, however, were but mo. affirmed on the strength of the Almighty's mentary—Mahomet had staked too much on oath. "By all that produces—by all that his pretensions to suffer his own conviction bears—by all that moves—and hy all that to be shaken. In chapters 68, 111, 101, distributes, what is promised to thee is verily 102, 104, 108, and the continuation of 74, true—this faith comes from heaven,” (chap. we find him maintaining his sacred charac. 51.) In the profuse fertility of his imagina. ter to its utmost height—sometimes con. tion the writer sometimes crowds poetic soling his animosity with mysterious hints of images of the highest order into these prefuture and inevitable retribution, and some liminary asseverations. The classical or the times relieving his passion in the terrific sacred reader will perhaps be glad to com. outpourings of a prophet's curse. In chapter i pare the horses of Mahomet with those of 74 his anger adopts a strain of personal ridi. Homer or of Job. “By the horses running cule, which the striking singularity of man. wild and snorting—kindling the earth with ner can hardly redeem from the character the sparks they elicit-vying with each other of salire.

in the freshness of morning—obscuring its “ Yes—he considered and he plotted

splendour with the dust they raise—and curse him how he plotted. Aye, curse him rushing into the midst of it themselves.'' how he plotted--then he looked, then he (chap. 100.) His descriptions of the last frowned, and looked grave—then he turned day are seldom below the Scriptures from away in his pride and said, what is this buta which they are borrowed. charm that is repeated, what is this but the

Cap. 99.—When the earth shall tremble speech of a man?”

violently and shake off her burdens, men

shall say what has come to it? Then shall The classical reader will readily recall she declare her tidings, for that the Lord the comic scenes which occur in the Greek hath communicated them to her.” tragedies, and wonder to find how natural in Cap. 81.—“When the sun shall waver, the the simplicity of early composition is the stars be obscured, and the mountains be movunion of the grotesque irith the impassioned. ed. When the camel shall forget her young, It is important to observe what at this and the beasts shall run together-when the

sea shall boil-when souls shall be united early period was the devotional discipline when the heavens shall be taken away-Hel! which Mahomet imposed on his followers be kindled and Paradise brought near.” himself, and some may be surprised to learn Cap. 14.--" On that day the eyes of men that it was marked with the blindest zeal of shall gaze fearfully, dejected, cowering; not fanaticism. From chapter 73 we find that an eye shall wink; their hearts shall be a

blank." the prophet and his scanty train of believers were in the habit of devotirg half the night

The Paradise of Mahornet is familiar to to prayer and religious meditation ; and a every one's imagination, but the inquisitive permission is there given to relax somewhat reader will find the most comprehensive re. of this unnatural austerity, from which it ap- presentation of it in chapters 32 and 37. pears their health and spirits had begun to The passages relating to the inferno are suffer.

those which do the leasi credit to the feelings * On the strength of the only conjectures if not the abilities of Mahomet. The utter

helplessness of man amidst the wreck of dence, and the modern inquirer makes it a worlds, the consternation of the soul when serious objection to the truth of his mission, standing in the sensible presence of an infi- that he incessantly threatened what was nev. nite Creator, are topics on which no man er sufficiently accomplished. should presume to insult another. With a This, though his principal argument, is not minuteness that is offensive and an avidity his only one. The Coreysh had asked, how that is shocking, he dwells on every refine the orphan son of Abdallah, whom for forty ment of torture that human fancy can depict. years they had known only to disregard, The absorbing terror, the excruciating mis should suddenly become the bearer of heave ery, the vain repentance, the prayers, the en's commands to them? With equal skill struggles, the shrieks of the damned, it seems and effect he wrests his antagonists' weapon to have been his delight rather than his hor- from their hands and uses it against them. ror, to contemplate. With a repulsive in. selves. “If,” replies he, “I have lived so consistency he even makes it one of the oc- long an unpretending citizen, wherefore cupations if not amusements of the blessed, should I pretend now ? and if I have been to scrutinize the scene of torment and ob- hitherto undistinguished, where have I at serve their former acquaintance in the midst once acquired the energies I now display ?" of it. That his ostensible object in framing The Korann, by a parity of reason, is assim. these fictions was to rescue his countrymen ilated to the books of former prophets, which from the reality will not relieve him in the the Arabs enumerate to an extravagant opinion of the metaphysician, from the re- amount; but his favourite and most frequent proach of those darker touches, which fancy, argument is its inimitability. In the height of unassisted by passion, could never have pro- his confidence he extends the challenge to duced. His real defence must be sought in the invisible powers of genii and demons; the exasperations to which he was hourly ex- and the weary student wonders to find the posed, and the natural vindictiveness which whole truth of the mission staked, and stak. belonged to him as an Arab. It will be seen ed successfully, on the impossibility of equal. when the time comes for observing it, that ling a single passage. How far this vaunt malignity was not among his failings; or- is borne out by the actual merits of the work a far greater praise—that if it had been, it it is difficult to say, as no native critic can was not indulged.

be an unprejudiced one. The fact that nothFrom these artless effusions of fancy and ing equal was produced seems staggering; of feeling we pass to others more calculated and yet we learn from the book itself that to persuade. Chapters 7, 15, 14, 10, 20, its decriers always asserted it to be nowise 21, 19 and 27, may be taken as fair and suf- beyond the standard of human invention ; it ficient specimens of the bulk of the Korann. is easily conceivable that pride or listless. From their vicinity to the Jews and the ness may have restrained them from the con. strict connection which had formerly subsist. test, even if no diffidence in their own pow. ed between the two people, the Arabs had ers would else have induced them to decline derived much traditional knowledge, and it. Among other of their objections we find much fanciful superstition. The stories of from chap. 25, that they accused Mahomet the ancient patriarchs were familiar to their of being assisted in its composition by some imaginations; and they perceived or thought one, who, we learn from the answer, was a they perceived in various catastrophes that foreigner. Maraccius, Prideaux, and other had formerly befallen the most flourishing of polemical decriers have seized 'hold of this their own tribes, similar instances of divine circumstance to deprive him of the honour guidance and divine punishment. From the of originality, forgetting that no foreigner obstinate incredulity with which all recorded could supply more than the matter, and that messages of God to man had been received, the merit of the Korann lies in ils style and Mahomet must have drawn his earliest sup- spirit. Had their attention been as great as port under the staggering opposition which their virulence, they might have drawn from he met with, and he naturally used the con- the Korann itself more satisfactory evidence sideration to produce in others the same con on this point than can possibly be afforded viction it had afforded to him. With fond by the casual allegation of his adversaries. pertinacity he every where recounts the mis. It is thronged with imitations of Scripture sions of every prophet from Noah to Jesus, from Genesis to the Revelations ; and Ma. and the punishment of those by whom they homet being totally illiterate himself, must were rejected. Identifying his own situa. have learned these original passages from tion with that of the sacred warners, he others. He was in the habit, it appears,

of sought to drive his despisers into identifying listening to two Christian youths, shopkeeptheirs with that of the vainly-warned. His ers of Mecca, who used to read the Bible imagination here got the better of his pru-laloud, while sitting in the streets. This