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THE KORAN:

COMMONLY CALLED

THE ALCORAN OF MOHAMMED;

TRANSLATED INTO ENGLISH IMMEDIATELY FROM THE ORIGINAL ARABIO

WITH

EXPLANATORY NOTES,

TAKEN FROM THE MOST APPROVED COMMENTATORS.

TO WHICH IS PREFIXED

A PRELIMINARY DISCOURSE.

BY GEORGE SALE, GENT.

Nalla falsa doctrina est, quæ non aliquid veri permisceat."-AUGUSTIN. QUEST. EVANG. 1. 2, c. 40

Fifth Edition,

WITH

A MEMOIR OF THE TRANSLATOR,

AND WITH VARIOUS READINGS AND ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES FROM SAVARY'S VERSION OF
THE KORAN.

PHILADELPHIA

J. W. MOORE, 195 CHESTNUT STREET.

1855.

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TO THE

RIGHT HON. JOHN LORD CARTERET,

ONE OF THE LORDS OF HIS MAJESTY'S MOST HONOURABLE PRIVY COUNCIL

MY LORD,

NOTWITHSTANDING the great honour and respect generally and deservedly paid to the memories of those who have founded states, or obliged a people by the institution of laws which have made them prosperous and considerable in the world, yet the legislator of the Arabs has been treated in so very different a manner by al who acknowledge not his claim to a divine mission, and by Christians especially, that were not your lordship's just discernment sufficiently known, I should think myself under a necessity of making an apology for presenting the following translation.

The remembrance of the calamities brought on so many nations by the conquests of the Arabians may possibly raise some indignation against him who formed them to empire; but this, being equally applicable to all conquerors, could not, of itself, occasion all the detestation with which the: name of Mohamined is loaded. He has given a new system of religion, which has had still greater success than the arms of his followers, and to establish this religion. made use of an imposture; and on this account it is supposed that he must of necessity have been a most abandoned villain, and his memory is become infamous. But as Mohammed gave his Arabs the best religion he could, as well as the best laws, preferable,

(iii)

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