3. A tabular view of all the forms of nouns systematically arranged according to their origin and formation.

4. All the particles in alphabetical order.

5. An alphabetical list of all the Aramaic, Talmudic, and modern Hebrew words explained in the lexicographical part of the Concordance, with references to the places where they are introduced. This will be so large as to form an almost complete Aramaic and Rabbinic lexicon.

6. An alphabetical list of all Hebrew proper names.

7. The Hebrew verbal roots alphabetically arranged in a tabular form, according to the relations shown to exist between them and those of the six other families of languages belonging to the ancient world.

8. A complete collection of the fragments of the Masora, with an introduction containing a full history of it, and with notes showing the points of difference between the Masora and the received biblical text.

9. A chronological table of the Hebrew Scriptures.*

Combining such great and manifold advantages, the Concordance of Dr. Fürst may be affirmed with the greatest truth to be superior in all respects to every other that has hitherto been published, Buxtorf's not excepted. The only fault of consequence that we have detected, is a certain negligence in following out the minutiæ of the plan laid down. The different forms of words do not invariably succeed each other in the order generally observed: thus, the participle, which usually precedes the future tense, is placed after it in the Pi'hel of 3 and sometimes the suffixes are made secondary to the prefixes in regulating the subdivision of the forms, which is contrary to the general practice. The books of the Bible are not always quoted in the same order, and in some instances they are even mingled together in a promiscuous mass, as for example under 3 and T. Such slight defects as these, however, cannot be considered as materially detracting from the extraordinary merit of the work. On the contrary, the talents, learning, and industry displayed by its author, with the splendid style of its typographical execution, are such as to demand the admiration of all competent judges, and do honour to the age and country in which it is produced.

*This noble monument of German Jewish erudition and diligence, was completed in the year 1840, and forms a magnificent folio of 1428 pages, exclusive of the Preface. The valuable Appendices it contains are essentially the same as were promised in the Prospectus, from which the list in the text was taken.-Ed.

ESSAY XXI.

THE HISTORICAL STATEMENTS OF THE KORAN.*

PUBLISHED IN 1832.

THE Mohammedan imposture is, in some respects, the most remarkable of all false religions. The specious simplicity of its essential doctrines, and its perfect freedom from idolatry, distinguish it for ever from the gross mythology of classical and oriental paganism. But besides these characteristics, it displays a third, more interesting still. We mean the peculiar relation which it bears to Christianity. Whether it happened from a happy accident or a sagacious policy, we think it clear that Islam owes a vast proportion of its vast success, to the fact that Mohammed built upon another man's foundation. Assuming the correctness of the common doctrine that the impostor was a brilliant genius, though a worthless libertine, and that his book is the offspring, not of insane stupidity, but of consummate artifice, there certainly is ground for admiration in the apparent union of simplicity and efficacy in the whole design. The single idea of admitting freely the divine legation of the Hebrew seers, and exhibiting himself as the topstone of the edifice, the Last Great Prophet, and the Paraclete of Christ, has certainly the aspect of a master stroke of policy. Besides conciliating multitudes of Jews and soi-disant Christians, at the very first, this circumstance has aided the imposture not a little ever since. It relieves the Moslem doctors from the dire necessity of waging war against both law and gospel. Whatever can be cited from the Greek and Hebrew Scriptures, without disparaging Mohammed, they admit as readily as any Jew or Christian. Whatever, on the contrary, is hostile to his doctrines or pretensions, or at all at variance with the statements of the Koran, is disposed of, not by an absolute rejection of the Bible, but by a resort to the convenient supposition of corruption in the text. It is not the policy

The citations in this article are chiefly in the words of Sale, with occasional departures from his phraseology, too minute to need specification. Where there is more than a verbal difference, the reader is apprized of it.

of Islam to array itself against the Jewish and the Christian dispensations, as an original and independent system; but to assume the same position in relation to the Gospel, which the Gospel seems to hold in relation to the Law-or, in other words, to make itself the grand dénouement of that grand scheme, of which the Old and New Testaments were only the preparatory stages. Indeed, if we were fully satisfied that the Rasool Alah* had any plan at all, we should be disposed to account for it in this way. He was acquainted with three forms of religion, Judaism, Christianity, and Paganism. Disgusted with the last, he was led, we may suppose, to make some inquiries into the points of difference between the Jews and Christians. This he could not do, without discover. ing their singular relation to each other-the Christians acknowledging the Scriptures of the Jews, but adding others to them, and regarding Jesus Christ as the Messiah-the Jews on the other hand rejecting the New Testament, and bitterly denying the Messiahship of Christ. This fact might very readily suggest the project of a new dispensation-a third one to the Christian, and a second to the Jew. The impostor would thus be furnished with an argument ad hominem to stop the mouths of both. To the Jews he could say, Did not Moses tell your fathers that a prophet should rise up in the latter days, greater than all before him? I am he. Do you doubt it? Here is a revelation just received from Gabriel. Do not all your sacred books predict the coming of a great deliverer, a conqueror, a king? I am he. In a few months you shall see me at the head of a thousand tribes going forth to the conquest of the world. If this was the ground really taken at first, how striking must have been the seeming confirmation of these bold pretensions, when Mohammed and his successors had in fact subjected, not Arabia only, but Greece, Persia, Syria, and Egypt.

To the objection of the Christians, that the line of prophets was long since completed, he could answer, Did not Jesus come to abrogate or modify the law, when its provisions were no longer suited to the state of things? Even so come 1, to supersede the Gospel-not to discredit, but to render it unnecessary, by a more extensive and authoritative doctrine. So far from being antichrist (as some no doubt objected) I am the very Comforter whom Jesus promised.

That such sophistry might easily have undermined the faith of renegadoes and half-pagan Christians, is certainly conceivable. Whether this was in fact the course adopted in the infancy of Islam, will admit a doubt. Be that as it may, it is certain that the impostor considered it expedient to incorporate the leading facts of sacred history into his revelation, so far as they were known to him. That his knowledge of the subject was imper

The Apostle of God. We are not aware that Mohammed ever called himself prophet.

fect, need not excite our wonder. The sources which probably supplied his information, could scarcely be expected to emit a purer stream than that which irrigates the pages of the Perspicuous Book.

Sale's Koran is a very common book, and has passed through a surprising number of editions, considering its character. The text is, however, of necessity so dull, that nobody can read it patiently for fifteen minutes, without taking refuge in the more amusing matter of the notes and preface. Were there any continuity, connexion, consistency, or unity to be discovered in it, this would be of less importance. But in such a jumble of discordant elements, it is hard to get any information by just reading on in course. Remote parts must be brought together and arranged in order to enucleate the mysteries of Islam; a task which most would look upon as vastly disproportioned to the value of the object. And yet it is important that the Koran should be better understood. It is daily growing more important, and will very soon be thought imperatively necessary. Theological students who look forward to the missionary service, are too apt to underrate one class of difficulties, while perhaps they magnify another. You will find a man hesitating whether he shall run the risk of being bastinadoed, or of dying with the plague, while he forgets that if he had a perfect security against infection and corporeal violence, he might still be disappointed and defeated in his whole design. That a man should go to convert the Moslems with an impression on his mind that they are fools or children, is not merely proof of ignorance on his part, but a melancholy omen for the cause which he espouses. It would be well, therefore, if at this time, when the Mohammedans are objects of so much attention to the friends of missions, a little preparatory study could be spent upon the Koran. It is certainly desirable that he who undertakes the instruction of a Mussulman, should know what the false opinions are which he must combat. If he expects to find the mind of his catechumen a tabula rasa on the subject of religion, he will find himself most grievously at fault. Such strength of prejudice has rarely been exhibited, as that which is the product of a thorough education in the doctrines of Mohammed, aggravated, as it must be, by the fixed belief of fatalism. No less erroneous, on the other hand, is the opinion, that the Moslem's creed is wholly false, and must be utterly destroyed before the truth can find admission. There are two questions, therefore, which the missionary should know how to answer: what are the peculiar dogmas of Mohammed's system? and what has it in common with the true religion? It ought to be considered as a great advantage, that the facts of sacred history are not wholly unknown to the Mohammedans. For though they may consider our intelligence as borrowed from their Book, it is, nevertheless, something to be able to appeal to striking facts, by way of illustration, confirmation, or induction. This might, as it were, present a vulnerable point,

when all the rest is shielded in impenetrable prejudice. A beginning might be made by a judicious use of facts which they believe as well as we, from which occasion might be taken to correct the errors of Mohammed's narrative, and eventually to demonstrate and explain important truths.

What are these facts, then? or, in other words, how large a portion of the sacred history has been wrought into the Koran, and thereby placed beyond the reach of cavil on the part of all true Moslemin?

There is but one passage in the Koran, we believe, where a connected account is given of the creation of the world, though it is frequently mentioned incidentally as God's immediate and almighty act. The passage alluded to occurs in the forty-first chapter, and is very brief. The amount of it is, that God made the universe in six days, two of which were employed upon the earth, two more upon its products, and the remaining two upon the heaven. The latter, we are told, were made of smoke, into which it is again to be resolved hereafter. This element was moulded into seven distinct heavens, each having its own office. In the lowest of the seven the great lights were placed.

In glancing at this passage, we have had occasion to observe Sale's assiduity in striving to impart coherence and significancy to his author's text-not by false or loose translation, nor by sheer interpolation, but by adding something to fill up the yawning chasms of the porous and Perspicuous Book. In a word, he makes Mohammed say in English, not what he does, but what he should have said in Arabic; a harmless artifice, so far as substance is concerned, but disingenuous, so far as it conveys too high a notion of the psuedo-prophet's merits. For example, after stating the creation of the earth, Mohammed says, he blessed it, and provided therein its food, or their food (for the words admit of either sense). What says Sale? "He blessed it and provided therein the food of the creatures designed to be the inhabitants thereof." To the last eight words there is nothing corresponding in the Arabic.

One thing more in this account of the creation may deserve our notice. "He said to the heaven and the earth, come either obediently or against your will; they answered, we come obedient to thy will." This was obviously intended as a match for that inimitable sentence, "God said, Let there be light, and light was." One can hardly help smiling at the Irish sublimity of poor Mohammed's master-piece, the alternative proposed to two nonentities, and their sagacious choice. It is but just, however, to admit, that the language may be considered as addressed to the heavens and the earth after they were created, but before they were arranged and beautified.

The Genii, we are told in the chapter of Al Hejr,† were made of subtle fire, as Sale translates it. The original words are nar

* See the chapter entitled Smoke. Sale, vol. ii., c. 41. Lond. 1801. tc. xv.